iStock/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has placed the National Guard on standby in preparation for a rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, where at least 1,000 nationalists are expected to attend.



The Unite the Right rally is scheduled to take place Saturday at McIntire Park in Charlottesville, the city said on its website. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement that the event could be the "largest white supremacist gathering in a decade."



McAuliffe said in a statement that while he believes the majority of the rally's participants will express their views "safely and respectfully," he believes that some attendees may be violent.

Virginia is the birthplace of the rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly that make our country great," McAuliffe said. "...However, in advance of tomorrows rally, there have been communications from extremist groups, many of which are located outside of Virginia, who may seek to commit acts of violence against rally participants or law enforcement officials."

Below is Governor McAuliffe's statement on the planned rally in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, August 12th: pic.twitter.com/0TbGoCEP3w  Terry McAuliffe (@GovernorVA) August 11, 2017

McAuliffe urged residents who plan to attend -- whether in support or opposition of the rally -- to make alternative plans.



"Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville tomorrow are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent," he said. "As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right. But it is also the right of every American to deny those ideas more attention than they deserve."



The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing the event's organizer -- right-wing blogger Jason Kessler -- in a lawsuit filed Aug. 10 against the city of Chartlottesville and City Manager Maurice Jones. The suit claims that Kesslers first amendment and constitutional rights were violated because on Aug. 7, city officials initially tried to revoke his original event permit, and then changed the location of the event.



The city claimed that this was a result of the high number of expected attendees, and not because of public pressure to stop the rally from taking place, Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, told ABC News.



While Gastanaga said the ACLU disagrees with Kessler's speech, she criticized city officials for attempting to revoke the permit without due process.



"We think it's important the government make decisions in the sunlight," she said.



A representative for the city of Charlottesville did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for a comment in regard to the lawsuit.



The rally is expected to draw at least 1,000 participants, according to an affidavit from Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, which was provided to ABC News from the ACLU. Emancipation Park, the original event location, would have been unable to accommodate a peaceful crowd safely, Jones said in an affidavit.



"There is no doubt that Mr. Kessler has a First Amendment right to hold a demonstration and to express his views," the city manager wrote in a statement on Aug. 7. "Nor is there any doubt that we, as a city, have an obligation to protect those rights, the people who seek to exercise them, and the broader community in which they do. We have determined that we cannot do all of these things effectively if the demonstration is held in Emancipation Park."



Large crowds are also expected in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday, the city said, with high numbers of protesters demonstrating against the rally expected to be among those in attendance.



When Kessler applied for the permit on May 30, he proposed the event as a "free speech rally in support of the Lee monument," according to Jones' affidavit. The city has plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park, which was formerly known as Lee Park, according to the complaint.



"Just as the Unite the Right participants have the right to air their views, so do those who want to protest against those views," said Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer in a statement. "Democracy can be noisy, and it can be messy. But by ensuring we protect both public safety and the Constitution through the city manager's decision, I firmly believe that we will emerge from the weekend of August 12 a stronger community than ever."



ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said the organization agrees with Signer.



The white supremacist rally in Charlottesville is the latest indication that the darkest corners of society are emboldened to come forward and openly parade their bigotry on main street, said Greenblatt. We continue to stand with Charlottesville Mayor Signer and those who reject intolerance. Hate has no place in our communities."



On May 13, noted white nationalist Richard Spencer led protesters with torches in a Charlottesville rally against the planned removal of Confederate statues in the city.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Congress is in crisis, and some members of the U.S. Senate suggest fundamental changes that would forever alter the future of that esteemed body. In one dramatic proposal, Montanas own Sen. Steve Daines has proposed getting rid of the historic Senate filibuster rule, saying on July 18:

"These are archaic rules from the past that are creating, are going to create barriers for the Senate to act on behalf of the American people. It is time to blow up the filibuster. ... I was pleased to see the president tweet that out."

His proposal to make it possible to pass any legislation in the Senate on a simple majority vote would hurt Montana. It would harm America and doom any efforts to build a bipartisan consensus to solve any major national problem. We set pen to paper to articulate an opposing view.

Then, on July 25, Arizonas 30-year Sen. John McCain, a genuine American hero who was diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer just days earlier, returned to the Senate and offered a stunning and passionate view that stands in stark contrast to the views of our very junior senator. We trashed part of our draft opinion piece to make room for some excerpts from McCains remarks instead. If you agree with McCains views and feel that Montanas congressional delegation should be working for more bipartisan cooperation, not more senseless, partisan, petty dysfunction, we encourage you to let Daines know that.

McCains made these remarks to the U.S. Senate:

Our responsibilities are important, vitally important, to the continued success of our Republic. And our arcane rules and customs [which include the filibuster] are deliberately intended to require broad cooperation  The most revered members of this institution accepted the necessity of compromise in order to make incremental progress on solving Americas problems and to defend her from her adversaries."

Our deliberations today  not just our debates, but the exercise of all our responsibilities  authorizing government policies, appropriating the funds to implement them, exercising our advice and consent role  are often lively and interesting. They can be sincere and principled. But they are more partisan, more tribal more of the time than any other time I remember."

Incremental progress, compromises that each side criticizes but also accepts  isnt glamorous or exciting. It doesnt feel like a political triumph. But its usually the most we can expect from our system of government, operating in a country as diverse and quarrelsome and free as ours"

Getting rid of the filibuster would help to fundamentally change the U.S. Senate from the worlds most deliberative legislative body to a vehicle for the rapid passage of whatever radical agenda might be emerging from the passions of the political arena. That, by design of our Founding Fathers, is the role of the House of Representatives, not the Senate.

The Senate needs to be slower and more dispassionate, so that smaller states, by right of state sovereignty acknowledged by the Founders, have a stronger voice in the Senate than in the population-driven House. The filibuster also guarantees deliberativeness. Daines needs to look further back into history than his 2012 election and drop this crazy idea to get rid of the filibuster.
HA NOI  The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) has temporarily decided not to apply anti-dumping measures on rod in coils imported from Viet Nam, Indonesia and Republic of Korea.

Sixty days after beginning investigations, the ADC issued Status Report No D60REP 416, explaining why it has not made a preliminary affirmative determination (PAD).

Based on OneSteel Manufacturing Ltds application, submissions concerning publication of the dumping duty notice in response to initiation of investigation, and responses to importer and exporter questionnaires, the ADC said it was unable to determine that the goods exported to Australia have been dumped and are causing material injury to the Australian industry. So, the ADC decided not to make a PAD at this stage.

The ADC will reconsider whether to make a PAD at least once prior to the publication of the Statement of Essential Facts (SEF), required to be issued on September 25.

On June 7, the ADC initiated a probe into the alleged dumping of rod in coil imports from Indonesia,Republic of Korea and Viet Nam following an application submitted by OneSteel Manufacturing Ltd.

The period subject to investigation is April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017, while the period under damage inquiry is from January 2013 to date.

The dumping margins calculated by the plaintiff are 30.6 per cent for Viet Nam, 30.6 per cent for Indonesia, and 43.3 per cent for Korea. However, the ADCs estimated dumping margins are 20.9 per cent for Viet Nam, 29.8 per cent for Indonesia and 20.9 per cent for Korea.

The applicant claimed that because of the market situation with regard to taxes on the two main inputs, the domestic selling price for Viet Nam is not appropriate for use to determine the normal value.

The Viet Nam Competition Authority said the ADC could take temporary anti-dumping measures, but not before 60 days from the launch of the investigation.

The ADC is due to issue the SEF on September 25; all involved parties will have 20 days to respond to this document.  VNS
HCM CITY  The abolition of peoples councils, permitting casinos to be set up and allowing foreign investors to lease land for 99 years are among the main provisions of a proposed new law to govern the three special administrative-economic zones in Viet Nam.

Speaking at the 2017 M&A Forum organised on Thursday by the Viet Nam Investment Review, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said in recent years many important laws have been enacted or are being drafted.

The Special Administrative Economic Zone Law is expected to create a proper legal framework for the three zones in Van on (Quang Ninh Province), Van Phong (Khanh Hoa Province) and Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), he said.

It aims to create a new development model with breakthrough policies and mechanisms meant to improve the investment environment and make Viet Nam competitive in attracting investment.

The zones will only have an administrative committee and no peoples council, and the latters role related to legislation and inspection would be taken over by provincial authorities, he said.

To effectively operate these special zones, we should remove unnecessary and inappropriate levels of special economic zones.

The ministry has also proposed increasing the maximum land lease tenure to 99 years from the current 50-75.

The zones will be allowed to have casinos.

Dung said the zones have been established to develop certain strategic industries based on their geographic conditions.

For instance, Van Phong is the best place to develop a transit port in Viet Nam and can develop logistics while Van on has great potential in healthcare, education and biology, he said.

All three would welcome industries with high value-addition, which would be identified for investment and announced soon, he said.

The bill would be tabled in the National Assembly for approval, he said.

The house will consider their provisions related to preferential treatment for investors in terms of currency, land, manpower, tax and others.

Businesses will enjoy a tax waiver for four years, tax cuts for 30 more years, low land rents and flexible labour policies.

Van Phong covers an area of 66,000 hectares and is expected to become an international hub for marine transport, finance, tourism, medicine and education.

The three zones are expected to contribute billions of dollars to the economy from 2020, and enjoy average per capita income of $12,000-13,000 by 2030.

The ministry said building the zones had become an urgent task since in the last 25 years other models like industrial zones, processing zones, economic zones and hi-tech parks have not been sufficiently flexible.

Besides, the current models are not attractive enough for foreign investors and face shortcomings related to administrative procedures and poor human resources.

Since 1942, many countries have successfully developed special economic zones, special administrative zones, freedom cities and smart, industrial and hi-tech cities.

Viet Nams special administrative and economic zones would have positive effects on neighbouring countries too, the ministry said.  VNS
Analog television signals will be switched off in 15 cities and provinces on August 15, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said. Photo ictnews.vn

HA NOI  Analog television signals will be switched off in 15 cities and provinces on August 15, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said.

Deputy Minister Pham Hong Hai on Thursday sent an official announcement to the provincial peoples committees and telecom providers asking them to ensure residents are prepared for the change.

These localities are the northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Thai Nguyen, Nam inh and Thai Binh, as well as Ninh Binh, Bac Giang, Phu Tho and the southern provinces of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, along with Binh Thuan, ong Nai, Long An and Ben Tre, in addition to ong Thap, An Giang and Tien Giang.

Accordingly, the provincial television and broadcasting stations and departments of information and communications have been told to increase information on the digitalisation process.

It is recommended that viewers get a digital terrestrial television receiver before the analog signal is switched off.

The ministry also asked the departments of information and communications to focus on STB support for poor and nearly-poor households in the 15 cities and provinces.

According to the management board of the programme to provide public telecom services, more than 479,000 poor and nearly-poor households in the 15 localities would be provided support to install digital terrestrial television receivers. Twelve out of the 15 provinces have basically completed the installation for poor and nearly-poor households. The three remaining provinces of Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen and Quang Ninh will completed the installation before August 15.

The provinces have also been asked to inform people about the support switchboard at phone number 1900-1559 and website sohoatruyenhinh.vn.

Viet Nam is targeting a move to digital terrestrial television broadcasting from analog by 2020 in the entire country as per the roadmap on development of digitalisation of television.

By the end of last year, the country had 13 cities and provinces moving from analog to digitalisation of television.  VNS
QUANG NAM  The central province of Quang Nam plans to restore a 80ha forest as habitat for a herd of gray-shanked douc langurs living in ong Co Village, Tam My Tay Commune.

Huynh Tan uc, director of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development, said the forest area in question had been allocated for acacia  one of the most profitable woods in the central region, but this stole the endangered langurs natural habitat.

He said the langurs now live in a 5ha primary forest, and face being hunted by locals as well as poachers.

We will replant some indigenous species to provide food for the primates. A large area of forest will be restored from the commune to the riverhead of Phu Ninh, Bac Tra My and Tien Phuoc districts in the province, uc said, adding that the forest area will help connect with primary forests in neighbouring Quang Ngai Province.

The department will collaborate with local administrations and rangers to hold more patrol and protection of the langurs, and communications for local residents on the importance of the langurs, he said.

The department will survey the langurs and their habitat in order to create a safe shelter for them in a 4,000ha forest in Tam Tra Commune, Nui Thanh District, he added.

Tran Huu Vy, director of the Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet, said that the centre will help the province track the langurs and offer more measures to protect the endangered primates.

In a recent report by the provinces Forest Protection Division, a herd of about 50 gray-shanked douc langurs was found living in a 10ha forest in ong Co Village of Tam My Tay Commune over the past 10 years.

The department called for support from biologists, international organisations and wildlife protection programmes to share their experience and suggest measures to protect the langurs.

According to experts from the Frankfurt Zoological Societys Viet Nam Primate Conservation Programme, some 1,000 gray-shanked doucs have been found in forests of five provinces, including Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh inh, Kon Tum and Gia Lai.

Gia Lais National Kon Ka Kinh Park has the largest number of langurs in the country.

The gray-shanked douc langur is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list as one of the worlds 25 critically endangered primates.

Plans in ong Nai

Similarly, ong Nai Province wildlife authorities have drafted plans to protect three troops of endangered black-shanked douc langurs living on Chua Chan Mountain in Xuan Loc District.

The sub-department of Forest Ranger will submit them to the provinces Peoples Committee for approval.

The project will seek to prevent illegal hunting, raise public awareness of protecting wild animals and set up a buffer area of about 24 hectares where human presence will be restricted.

In June local forest rangers discovered the three troops with many babies and pregnant females in the area, after being informed by residents.

Ton Ha Quoc Dung, deputy head of the Forest Protection Department, said the department has worked to strengthen patrolling and control of the area to protect the animals.

The district Peoples Committee has ordered greater protection of wildlife, prevention of poaching, and education of the public in wildlife conservation, he said.

Black-shanked douc langurs are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and in Viet Nams Red Data Book.

The animal is found in Cambodia and Viet Nams provinces of Kontum, Gia Lai, ak Lak, Lam ong, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh and ong Nai.

At 840m above sea level, Chua Chan Moutain is the second highest peak in the south, and is the home of several rare animals.  VNS
CAN THO  The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho is promoting community tourism on Con Son Islet in Binh Thuy District.

The city aims to turn Con Son into a popular attraction for local and foreign tourists, Le Van Tam, deputy chairman of the Can Tho Peoples Committee, said.

Situated in the Hau River, a tributary of the Cuu Long (Mekong), the 67ha islet attracts tourists with its serene setting, fresh air, fruit orchards, floating houses, and delicious traditional southern cakes made by locals.

It is 600 metres from the river bank and takes only five minutes by boat from Co Bac boat station.

According to Phan Thi Nguyet, deputy chairwoman of the Binh Thuy District Peoples Committee, 74 households live on the islet, earning their livelihoods from farming and tourism.

Fifteen of them offer community tourism services to tourists such as catching fish in ponds, making cakes together with their hosts, visiting fruit orchards and homestay.

Tam said the city would provide all required support for the islet, with top priority being its infrastructure.

There is now only one boat to Con Son from Co Bac boat station, and the city plans to build a new boat station.

The city will upgrade roads and deploy electric vehicles for visitors to tour the islet.

It has also instructed the district to establish a management board to support locals with and instruct them in sustainable tourism. The board will be managed by the city Tourism Association.

Tam added that local households offering tourism services should work together to provide quality services to attract more and more tourists.

Le Thi Be Bay, deputy head of Binh Thuy Districts culture and information office and the person in charge of tourism services on Con Son, said: The district began community tourism on Con Son in late 2014, and it quickly became a favourite with local and foreign tourists.

She said the islet received more than 150,000 visitors in 2015, a surprisingly high figure.

Nguyet said: Community tourism has been booming in the Mekong Delta. Im worried that if we have no new services, we will gradually decline.

The citys support is necessary to turn Con Son Islet into one of the citys major tourism brands along with Cai Rang Floating Market, she added.  VNS
Tan Thi Su, Youth Entrepreneur and Leader

Viet Nam as a member of the United Nations (UN) and a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) supports the UN in embracing a people-centred approach to development. This approach recognises the essential role of public participation where the public can meaningfully contribute to Government decisions.

The UN defines a set of global community actions to ensure current and future generations benefit from increased opportunities and mitigated risks. Its agenda outlines measures for generating opportunities to improve peoples lives. Regarding young people, the agenda stresses addressing needs by deepening the youth focus of existing programmes on employment, entrepreneurship, decision-making inclusion and citizenship.

It is estimated that about 30 per cent of Vietnamese population are adolescents and youth. This figures translate into Viet Nam having entered a demographic bonus period. During this period that will last for about 30 years, there are two or more economically productive persons for every dependent person. Such a period, if well managed, is a great opportunity to drive a nations development.

The revised Constitution of Viet Nam (2013) enshrines equality between all citizens, containing provisions to protect the rights of children, adolescents and young people. It also recognises obligations of the family, the State and society to create conditions for young people to develop.

One of the most significant developments for young people in Viet Nam was the enactment of the Youth Law in 2005. The law marks a major step towards improving the lives of young people and a number of action plans were introduced to enact the law. Another major development was the Vietnamese Youth Development Strategy for 2011-20.

Despite the existence of laws and policies, the capacity of institutions to implement and monitor policies targeting young people is limited in Viet Nam. While the law and the strategy address young peoples needs in various aspects of life, in delivering policies and programmes to address the gaps remain and reflect the fragmentation in policies and interventions targeting young people.

Tan Thi Su, Youth Entrepreneur and Leader

As a young person and a youth leader, I believe that if these gaps are addressed, young people like me will be empowered to achieve our full potential to benefit the countrys sustainable development.

My ability to contribute to the community where I live exemplifies the fact that a piece of the puzzle can make a picture by inviting other pieces together. My sense of purpose  the purpose of giving back to the community, of being part of change for the better  opened the first door to my dream of setting up a community-oriented entrepreneurship helping local young people have an education and learn the skills to start an enterprise.

Starting off as a street peddler selling handicrafts to tourists, in 2007, I founded Sapa OChau, the first social enterprise in Sapa adopting community-based tourism by an Hmong person. It follows the youth-reinvestment model that allows profits to be spent on local young people. And it is thriving.

I exemplify the fact that social norms can be challenged and changed. I have proven that Hmong women in particular and ethnic minority women in general can learn, start a business and follow our dreams to help other people and contribute to development.

I used to be afraid of being vulnerable but along the way, I realised that if you knock on a door, the door will open and supports will come from the community and localities to guide your way.

Attending the International Youth Day 2017 held by the UN in Viet Nam, I got to know many other young people from different backgrounds  people with disabilities, the LGBT community, migrants, entrepreneurs.

Despite this diversity, we all embrace these common factors: we are young, we want to contribute to sustainable development and are capable of having our say in decision making.

Greater investment in human capital development including education, health care, employment, entrepreneurship and opportunities to participate in policy making for young people is needed. Young people dominate migration flows and more enter the workforce each year. Their success and well-being require targeted policies and services to allow young people to reach their full potential, enjoy fulfilling lives and securing Viet Nams capacity to sustain future generations.  VNS
HCM CITY  For the last 17 years, a special school in HCM Citys District 7 has been providing a priceless service to children of poor migrant workers struggling to eke out a living.

Every year, this school, set up under a small project called Cau Han which enrolls about 60 poor children whose parents do not have enough money to send them to school.

For two hours a day, Monday to Friday, these children, mostly from the districts Tan Thanh Tay, Tan Quy and Tan Kieng wards, are taught by retired teachers.

A small house with two classrooms and a living room serves as a makeshift school for students from first to fifth grade.

Most of the students are not good at learning, so they have to go to class from the beginning of August instead of September to revise lessons, o Ngoc Tuyet, 62, a retired teacher, told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Besides lessons following the curricula set by the Ministry of Education and Training, the students also learn about traffic safety, childrens rights, violence, abuse, HIV prevention and human trafficking.

Their parents are so busy with their work all day, because most of them are migrant workers and do not have time to take care their children, so we also have to teach them skills to protect themselves, said project manager Huynh Kim Tien.

Because their parents are always away, the children have to fend for themselves most of the time, and come to the class on their own, she said.

An old person from Vinh Long Province who earns a living by selling lottery tickets in HCM City said he takes his grandchild to the school everyday because her parents were busy working in a processing zone from 5am to 8pm.

He said his granddaughter and other kids like her, unable to enjoy a public school education because their parents were too poor, were very happy to attend the free classes.

Nguyen Thi Phuong, mother of a 9-year-old boy, said she had to teach her son at home because local schools refused to enroll him saying he was too old to join the 1st grade.

Then the local authorities introduced her to the Cau Han project, and he was very happy to take part in it, she said.

However, despite all these efforts, by the end of the academic year, many students drop out of this special school. While some stop studying, others follow their parents to wherever they find work next.

Most students here do not dream of becoming teachers or doctors, they just want to open a small shop and earn a living, teachers said.

Sometimes, we organise training courses for the parents, but it is hard to change their minds, even about hitting their children, Tuyet said.

However, the good behavior of children after joining the classes helps their parents change, at least partly.

One of the teachers said the students were very playful and active, so they have to use positive disciplinary measures instead of hitting them.

Most of the teachers here are retirees. They miss their classes and students, so they are happy to use their free time to help children here, with very small support from the project.

I want to dedicate my remaining life to be a teacher to these children, until my mind is off and the class does not need me, said a teacher named Tien.

Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa, who oversees child welfare and gender equality in the Tan Quy Ward administration, said that every year, 8 to 9 students 14-18 years old are brought from public schools to this special school to teach children about preventing sexual abuse and human trafficking.

Then, they set up a team including children, to learn self-defence skills and raise awareness of social evils, Thoa said.

The team will help poor and local children join community activities, adding to what they are taught at this (special) school, she said.  VNS
CEDAR FALLS  The Brass Tap, which began in Tampa, Fla., in 2012 and has since expanded to 22 states, has expectations of crossing the 50-unit milestone this year. Now, thanks to two local brothers, the franchise will add Iowa to its locations list.

James and Walter Burtis originally wanted to open a location in Waterloo, where they spent most of their childhoods, but instead were thrilled to claim a spot on Main Street that previously housed Cafe Due.

As the planning and renovations continue, the brothers hope to officially open the restaurant and bar by the end of October.

We think this will be a great fit for this area and its something thats unique and isnt an overdone concept, said Walter, a certified chef who will prepare the food. We are very ambitious and believe that every Brass Tap will help any community and promote their local businesses.

Once open, the Brass Tap will feature nearly 60 craft beers on tap from various Iowa breweries, which the brothers are still researching. Based on local preferences, they plan to have more than 200 bottled beer options, wines, spirits and a full liquor bar.

It will be more upscale than the traditional pub, with a menu consisting of tacos, pizza, gliders and salads. However, the regular menu also will be accompanied by a craft beer menu which pairs together different entrees and drinks for the ultimate dining experience.

Guests also will be able to hear live music or participate in karaoke and trivia games. Additionally, Walter said they hope to promote a local butcher by having a meat or coupon raffle among other giveaways and activities. A huge ambition is that we will always have something going on every weekend.

However, none of this will be possible without the renovations currently being made with the help of Levi Architecture. Together, the group is transforming the former cafe into a warm environment with a new state-of-the-art bar and waste prevention technology, coolers and tapsters.

Because each Brass Tap location is separately run, each one features a different theme and vibe. The brothers visited various other locations, such as those in Milwaukee and Tampa, to help with creating their own atmosphere.

The Brass Tap will wine and dine you if you show any interest in adding a location to their franchise. Theyre doing their research by getting you down there to see if they actually want to do business with you, James said. Our environment will include stuff for the whole family.

Alongside the built-in patio with comfortable outdoor seating and a fake fire pit, the brothers ultimate goal is, instead of walking in and seeing just a bar, families will assume it is solely a family-run restaurant.

Thats how its done in Tampa, and the Burtis brothers hope to follow the example of the original creators while simultaneously bringing something truly unique and special to their home community.

We want to help expand the Iowa market and promote its breweries, Walter said. We cannot wait to serve the Cedar Valley.
LE MARS  Founded in 1961, Lallys Eastside Restaurant is still best known for its broasted chicken, barbecue ribs and the popular Lally burger.

However, Stacey Mullally  granddaughter of the original owners  wouldnt mind if the iconic 125 Plymouth St. NE eatery also become known as a place to pick up baked goods covered in candy or doughnuts drizzled with maple and bacon.

Ive always loved to bake, she said behind a counter inside the restaurants dining room. It seems only natural for me to start making sweet things for Lallys.

Mullally has spent most of her life working in the restaurant started by her grandparents, Maria and Mike Mullally.

Over the years, many of Maria and Mikes kids have owned the business. In 2009, Staceys parents, Tom and Patty (Gotto) Mullally, took over the day-to-day operations of Lallys.

This business is as much about Toms family as it is my own, Patty (Gotto) Mullally remembered. I met my husband at Lallys when we were both kids and we had our first kiss here. Between Toms family and my family, weve had more than 80 Mullallys and Gottos working at the restaurant over the years.

That was certainly true for their daughter, who began busing tables as soon as she was legally old enough to work.

My parents gave me a terrific work ethic, Mullally said. Plus I got to learn the ins and outs of the food business from them.

Which came in handy when she moved to Texas and began working for Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S. based on revenue.

I worked for their bakery departments, Mullally explained. Every time Kroger opened a new bakery in the state of Texas, theyd transfer me to it. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to move around and I loved it.

However, a health scare required Mullally to return to her hometown of Le Mars more than three years ago.

Even though hes fine now, my dad began having some medical issues, she said.

This is when Mullally began thinking of Lallys as a third-generation family business.

My parents arent going to retire for a while, but they wanted to be able to take time off, she said. Im just offering a helping hand.

Mullally said much of Lallys menu is the same as it has always been.

We have a loyal core of customers who expect certain things, she said. They still want their chicken, ribs, and hamburger steak, and were happy to make them the old-fashioned way.

Mullally has seen a steady increase in the number of young families stopping by Lallys.

People get tired of fast food and theyre coming back to traditional, full-service restaurants, she said.

Evolving business trends have also encouraged Mullally to test market special occasion cakes, cupcakes and doughnuts.

Were basically just starting out, she said. Even if were successful, our baked goods will just be an extension to our restaurant business.

Mullally said shes simply having a blast, creating unusual sweet treats.

Currently, she is perfecting a classic candy series of cupcakes.

Weve been making cupcakes using pieces of Twin Bings and Butterfinger candies, Mullally said, noting that shes constantly searching the Internet for inspiration.

Even if the recipes dont turn out the way I want, theyre still tasty, she added.

On a busy Wednesday afternoon, Mullally greets many of Lallys lunchtime regulars by their first names.

Indeed, many of the loyal customers have been coming to Lallys before Mullally was born.

You dont see too many family-owned restaurants in business for more than 56 years, she said. Weve been very lucky.

Still Mullally has a few tricks up her sleeve.

Id love it if our baked goods will become as memorable as our broasted chicken, she said.
DES MOINES  Biofuels advocates made their voices heard Aug. 1 as they testified at an annual Environmental Protection Agency public hearing in Washington, D.C.

Speaking to reporters by teleconference before the hearing, leaders of the renewable fuels industry voiced support for the EPAs 15-billion-gallon proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) level for ethanol usage in 2018. But they said they were disappointed by the proposal for just 2.1 billion gallons of biodiesel in 2019 and by the cut in the RFS for cellulosic ethanol to only 17 million gallons.

Ethanol is important for our country, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts told reporters during the teleconference, which was hosted by Fuels America, a biofuel industry organization.

He said ethanol is a key octane enhancer  use allows fuel companies to reduce levels of carcinogens in fuel.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds was among the speakers at the hearing applauding the federal governments proposed renewable fuel volumes for 2018, but farm-state and renewable energy industry officials expressed concern that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was backpedaling on future advanced biofuel production.

Reynolds and others testified at a hearing in Washington that fuel production levels will drive demand and investment decisions critical to the industry and rural economies.

As the current ag economy experiences a downturn, Reynolds testified, sustainable and predictable renewable fuels markets are incredibly impactful to the bottom line of farmers and rural Iowa.

She and others expressed hope the EPA would adjust the numbers before issuing a final rule in November.

During the teleconference, several industry leaders said the levels set for advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol made from corn stover or other feedstocks was clearly too low. The industry could meet that level today, they said, and could easily boot up production to dramatically increase the figure if given the incentive by the government.

Its really frustrating, said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) industrial and environmental section.

He said the EPA could fast-track approval of some technologies that could be used by many ethanol production facilities. That might include use of more of the corn kernel, as is done at one Iowa ethanol plant today. He also said there is a surplus of RINs (renewable identification numbers) on the market, meaning oil companies could meet their obligations by trading or buying the RINS on the market.

Meanwhile, biodiesel producers said the 2.1 billion gallon level for 2019 is lower than the level of consumption happening right now. Since the targets are at least partially designed to promote more usage, the EPA level doesnt make sense, they said.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said the proposed 2019 biodiesel level was flatlined at 2.1 billion gallons compared with 2016 consumption of 2.9 billion gallons, while the proposal cuts cellulosic ethanol by 25 percent.

Iowa farmer and American Soybean Association vice president John Heisdorffer testified that the EPA should increase the RFS volume for biomass-based diesel to at least 2.75 billion gallons for 2019.

Our industry has always advocated for RFS volumes that are modest and achievable, and we have met or exceeded the targets each and every year that the program has been in place, Heisdorffer said in a news release.
Drilling of a series of oil wells near the Van Hook Resort boat ramp has been stayed by the federal government at the request of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

The well site, known as the Torpedo pad, is located about 800 feet from Lake Sakakawea, is recognizable by the large sound barrier wall that separates it from the popular Van Hook boat ramp.

The tribe appealed the federal permitting of the drilling site, which falls within the boundaries of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, because it violates tribal setback requirements from the lake, said Tribal Chairman Mark Fox.

The Interior Board of Land Appeals, an appellate review body of the U.S. Department of the Interior, stayed the project in response to the tribes appeal Thursday.

Fox said tribal policy is to require all oil drilling be at least a half mile away from the lake but it does grant variances. At the behest of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the tribe agreed to allow setbacks of 1,000 feet with a variance in order to match federal standards.

The federal government told us theyd like us to have the same policy, and then what happens, they turn around and grant an exception to their own policy, Fox said.

The tribe and a number of other organizations opposing the development, including the Friends of Lake Sakakawea, voiced their objections prior to the sites permitting but they fell on deaf ears, according to Fox.

Thankfully, our voices were heard this time, Fox said.

Fox also said Slawson has a history of challenging tribal jurisdiction at every turn while drilling on the reservation.

Its one thing after another and here they are doing it again, he said. So this time, were putting our foot down.

North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said Slawson, the operator drilling the well pad, will be allowed to finish drilling the current well to the point that the casing surrounding the well can be set. Eight wells have been drilled at the pad to date, most to the casing level with one down to the formation level.

Helms said the well pad is located on private land and involves private, state and federal mineral rights.

This brings together all of the jurisdictional issues we ever talk about, he said.

Fox said he discussed the issue briefly with Gov. Doug Burgum Friday during the governors visit to the reservation but Fox is unsure what steps will come next for the appeals process.

Helms also said he doesnt know what role the state may play in the appeals case but that Slawson will be filing for an extension of its leases with the state allowing it to drill as those leases will expire during the course of the stay.

So its a big old mess, he said.
IOWA CITY  A Davenport woman who left her newborn boy in a trash can at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics last year pleaded guilty Friday in Johnson County District Court to lesser charges and faces up to 12 years in prison.

Ashley Hautzenrader, 24, originally charged with attempted murder, made Alford pleas to neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, a felony, and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

An Alford plea is when a defendant doesnt admit guilt but admits the prosecution has enough evidence to likely prove the charge.

Through a series of questions by 6th Judicial District Judge Marsha Bergan, Hautzenrader admitted she knowingly created substantial risk to her infant boy by attempting to flush him down a toilet and then leaving him in a trash bin in a restroom of the John Colloton Pavilion at the hospital after giving birth to him May 8, 2016.

She also admitted to knowingly or recklessly exposing her newborn to danger or hazard or by deserting or abandoning him. She also didnt tell anyone about the infant, ask for assistance or release custody of the boy under Iowas Safe Haven law.

Bergan said she reviewed the minutes of testimony, including statements made by nurses who heard the newborn cry and found him with a heart rate in the trash bin that day.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said she will recommend prison terms at sentencing. Hautzenrader faces 10 years on the neglect charge and two years on the other charge. Hautzenrader is free to ask for a deferred sentence, Lyness added.

John Bruzek, Hautzenraders Iowa City lawyer, asked for a pre-sentencing investigation to be conducted before she made the plea, likely to see if she would be eligible for a deferred judgment. A pre-sentencing investigation contains background and other relevant information about the defendant and the crime, and also includes a sentencing recommendation from court services. The report is usually ordered by a judge after the plea.

Bergan asked that the pre-sentencing investigation be updated for sentencing. She tentatively set sentencing for Sept. 1.

A criminal complaint shows Hautzenradar told UI police she thought the baby was stillborn when she gave birth that day. She delivered the infant in a toilet about 9:24 p.m.

Hautzenrader later told police she didnt know she was pregnant, and the baby wasnt crying when she gave birth so she thought it was dead, the complaint states. She admitted to police that she attempted to flush the baby down the toilet but instead put the infant in a pillow case and another bag before placing the infant in the trash can, according to the complaint.

She then cleaned up the restroom and left. Hospital employees later found the infant alive in the trash can.

Hautzenrader was initially charged with child endangerment, but after police obtained a search warrant for her cellphone, four days after the birth, she also was charged with attempted murder.

An affidavit for a search warrant shows the cellphone contained text messages between Hautzenrader and her boyfriend about her being pregnant.

The Safe Haven law in Iowa would have allowed Hautzenrader to turn over the child to the hospital without facing criminal prosecution.
HAMPTON -- A Meservey man convicted of kidnapping and torturing a woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday.

Charles Albright, 42, was found guilty by a jury in Franklin County District Court for two felonies, first-degree kidnapping and willful injury, in July.

The first-degree kidnapping charge carries a prison sentence for an indeterminate term, not to exceed the rest of the defendant's natural life, court documents say.

The case was held in Franklin County because that's where the woman was taken to at one point and where the crime was discovered.

A 36-year-old woman, whom Albright knew, was held against her will in Meservey for 12 to 14 hours in October, court records state, and was punched, cut, shocked and bit repeatedly by a dog.

The woman suffered electrical burns, sinus damage and an eye injury that caused loss of vision, court records state. An X-ray found broken bones in her face.

Albright's defense attorney James Metcalf said during closing arguments that the man "knows he committed willful injury."

While Metcalf said Albright "lost it" and "went nuts," he argued the man didn't commit first-degree kidnapping.

Throughout the ordeal, Albrights dog bit the woman repeatedly, police said. The woman said during her testimony Albright did not sic the dog, a German shepherd, on her but he did not stop the dog from biting her.

Albright was fined $750 and sentenced to five years behind bars for the willful injury conviction.
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I have a piece in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs that just came out about U.S. policy toward Latin America. More specifically, it examines the effectiveness of soft power versus hard power.



Coincidentally, shortly after it came out Donald Trump announced that a "military option" was not off the table for Venezuela. This is Trump's "deal making," whereby he blusters to appear tough and then backs down. I suppose he believes such a statement will frighten the Venezuelan government to the bargaining table.



I am one of many who argued that doing this was a gift to Nicolas Maduro, who can use it to whip up nationalist sentiment. Chavistas who are wavering will find it harder to pull away when he talks like this.



But it was also unfortunate because Trump seems to be claiming that the Venezuela situation is somehow bilateral. It makes diplomacy more difficult, to the extent that the Trump administration cares. Allies in the region such as Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, all came out against the statement. It makes a multilateral solution even more challenging, and it was painfully difficult to begin with.



Henrique Capriles hasn't said anything, except to retweet the U.S. Defense Department's statement that it didn't know anything, and in general the opposition isn't talking. That's unfortunate. Perhaps they want to be careful about offending Trump, since they like how he keeps Venezuela in the headlines. Trump is a vain man who pays attention to those who criticize him.



Several months ago, I noted that Trump was doing little with Venezuela and that was a good thing. It is likely he will continue doing little, but there comes a point when the "walking loudly" is counter-productive.
By The Associated Press Aug. 09, 2017 | 04:57 AM | CAIRO, IL

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson says through creative approaches, rare procedures, "and by the grace of God," Cairo can be saved despite a public housing crisis.

Carson made the assertion during a visit Tuesday to the southern Illinois town where two public housing complexes are being torn down, forcing hundreds of residents to find new homes.

Carson said HUD is working hard to keep as many people in Cairo as possible who are being displaced from the two projects.

The Elmwood and McBride public housing projects were constructed in the 1940s and have fallen into extreme disrepair, because of their age and decades of neglect.

About 200 families have been forced to relocate. That's particularly difficult in the town of about 2,600 residents in a rural area and has prompted fears the once-thriving city could be endangered if hundreds of people move elsewhere.

___

Information from: Southern Illinoisan, http://www.southernillinoisan.com
Flaring on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation increased for the third month in a row, raising concern with state officials.

You see a real problem developing on Fort Berthold, said North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms during the departments monthly report on oil production data Friday.

While the capture, rather than burning off, of natural gas at well sites statewide was at 91 percent, it was only at 79 percent on trust lands and 81 percent on fee lands, Helms said.

Up until three months ago, it was matching the statewide numbers but, beginning in March or April, you started to see them fall seriously behind, he said. Its pulling the statewide average down quite a bit.

This becomes a problem as caps on statewide flaring go into effect Nov. 1, and, at the current rate, it will be bumping up against those maximums allowed.

Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Mike Fox said he has no doubt that flaring has gone up on the reservation but he also believes that previous numbers have been misleading, not taking into consideration certain wells and skewing flaring numbers to look better than the reality.

Fox said the tribe has been trying to end flaring on its lands through its policies but those have mostly gone ignored by oil companies.

We have a tribal law that companies have one year, similar to the state, to flare to give them the opportunity to connect to oil pipelines, he said. After that year, companies are supposed to pay royalties on what theyre flaring.

Helms said the tribe has been really good with its own pipeline permitting process but blames the issue on difficulty getting federal approval for construction of gas transmission pipelines. He said there are two significant gathering lines that were held up by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs approval process. After three years, one was just recently approved for a right of way this year. The other remains in the lurch.

One bright spot is a proposed new gas processing plant southeast of Watford City to be built by Arrow Field Services, according to Helms. The company gave notice of plans for a 200 million per day facility to the DMR but it still has to file for a permit from the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

The company hopes to start construction next spring, Helms said. When complete, it will take in gas from the western third of Fort Berthold.

This would really relieve stress in the Mandaree district, Helms said.

Fox said he has no doubt there are delays at the federal level and the tribe is doing its best to work through the federal rules. He suggested one way to speed up the process of development in Indian country is to give the tribe more control over its lands, creating both improvements to pipeline permitting and flaring numbers.

Fox said he thinks the state flaring mandate will help, but deference to tribal policies would have companies looking for ways to get gas to market sooner in order to avoid paying royalties on flared gas.

"We want to see the ending of waste of these very valuable resources, Fox said.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 11, 2017 | 09:13 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

Two Marshall County men were arrested Thursday on drug trafficking charges.

According to the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, detectives obtained a search warrant for a home in the 4000 block of Lakeview Church Road. During a search of the home, detectives seized over 70 bags of synthetic marijuana, digital scales, packaging materials, more than $9000 in cash and some prescription pills.

Detectives arrested Billy Doane for trafficking in synthetic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. Thomas Hines was arrested and charged with conspiracy to trafficking in synthetic drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of synthetic drugs.

Doane and Hines were taken to the Marshall County Jail. Police said the drugs found at the home have a street value of more than $3,500. They say additional charges and arrests are possible.
In June of 1981, Israel bombed a not-quite-active nuclear power plant in the suburbs of Baghdad, Iraq. This was the second time in a year that the power plant faced attack from the air: Iran struck at the end of Sept., 1980, in a mission the name of which dripped with warrior-poet self-mythologizing: Operation Scorch Sword. That mission damaged the reactor, but the technicians were able to repair the damage. The Israeli strike, on the other hand  this one code-named Operation Opera  managed to disable the facility for good, though perhaps Iraq might have resurrected the project again were it not enmeshed in the Iraq-Iran War that dominated the countrys attention throughout the 1980s.

At the time, Operation Opera drew nearly universal condemnation from the international community. The Iraqi nuclear reactor would not have been powerful enough to make materials for nuclear weapons, and the deal to provide the reactors, the fuel to power them, and much of the technical knowledge and workforce to install and operate them, had been brokered not by some infamous rogue power, but by France. Even Margaret Thatcher called the Israeli attack unjustifiable,  a grave breach of international law . The United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution condemning Israels actions, though the United States prevented any concrete punishments, save for a two-month delay in delivery of a set of F-16s.

Today, a look through the academic writing on Operation Opera reveals mostly bloodless analysis of the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the attack on curtailing Iraqs ability to develop nuclear weapons.[1] The question seems to have become less about the moral or legal question  was it defensible for Israel to launch a preemptive strike against Iraq, especially given the latters apparent compliance with international standards  and more about whether or not the strike accomplished its mission of deterring a nuclear weapons program. (On this, the findings are at best mixed: Iraqs response to having its collaborative effort with France and the International Atomic Energy Commission bombed was to begin a secret program the following year.) Perhaps this should be unsurprising; any writing about Iraq in the 1980s must be read in the shadow of the Iraq War, in which the United States carried out a much more thorough preemptive attack than Operation Opera.

My interest in Operation Opera  or more precisely, in the reactor that was its target  is the result of a peculiar line of research Ive been conducting into the history of my coven. As I have written about previously, my coven traces itself back to an English man named Deryck Alldrit and his American wife, Carrie, who lived in the St. Louis area during the late 1970s. I have been fascinated by Deryck for years, due in large part, Im sure, to his absence: he and Carrie left the United States (and their coven) behind in 1978 for the Middle East, where Deryck, a civil engineer, worked on projects in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and, yes, the nuclear reactor in Baghdad.

Deryck and Carries years in the Middle East remain one of the more ambiguous periods of their lives for me. I have, for example, never managed to find a definite record of Derycks employment during the time; my knowledge of his work on the reactor comes mostly from the tales his friends, now my elders in the tradition, tell from his old letters, mailed with United Nations postage stamps.

I have no idea what Deryck might have done on the project: it seems like a strange position for him to be in, given that the reactor was a joint Iraq-France venture and Deryck was a citizen of neither of those countries. Perhaps he consulted for the International Atomic Energy Commission in some capacity; I have not been able to verify that either way. The most my elders knew was that Deryck said he worked for a U.N. development program, but none of the U.N. subdivisions that would fit that name would seem to have had any interest in Iraqs nuclear reactor. Still, I dont doubt he was there: one of the tall tales my elders tell me is that in one of Derycks letters he said he had to get the hell out of Iraq on short notice when the Iraq-Iran War broke out in 1980. Operation Scorch Sword would take place within a week of the wars declaration.

There is an eerie poetry to some of the details of the Iraqi reactor and Derycks work on it. The name of the reactor, for instance, was Tammuz to the Iraqis, named for the month Saddam Husseins Baath party came to power, and thereby indirectly named for the Babylonian god. But the French name, and the name that most of the literature on Operation Opera has used since, is Osirak: a portmanteau of Iraq and the name of the reactor model, Osiris. The Baghdad nuclear plant held two reactors, the main Osirak model and a smaller companion reactor, its model name being Isis.

That two witches should come to the Middle East to work on reactors named for Pagan gods strikes me as an odd enough synchronicity. What unsettles me more is one of the first stories I ever heard about Deryck and Carrie, years before I began researching them in earnest, was the story of Carries grave: she died of a brain tumor while they lived in the Middle East, and was buried in a British cemetery in Baghdad. Inlaid in her tombstone on a basalt-black stone is a thin white ankh. The legend has always been that they got away with something  You couldnt put a cross or a Star of David on a grave in an Iraqi cemetery, my elders said, but nobody thought anything of an ankh  but after reading more about Osiris and Isis, Osirak and Tammuz, I wonder. Carrie died only three months before Operation Scorch Sword, when Deryck had to leave Iraq, as far as I know, for good.

Carries ankh, a symbol of life, life continuing even after life is gone, sits heavily on my mind today, when the news is awash in new rounds of nuclear terror. The United States president has threatened fire and fury like the world has never seen against North Korea, which has in turn openly suggested the possibility of a strike against Guam. To read some analyses, these are the outcomes of a reasoned process, a nuclear logic being taken to its conclusions. Perhaps, as with Operation Opera, we will someday read academic papers that scrutinize these events in terms of their operational effectiveness without questioning their moral consequences, should we be lucky to live that long.

[1] See, for example, Braut-Hegghammer, Malfrid, Revisiting Osirak, International Security, 36.1, 2011, 101-132.

* * *

The views and opinions expressed by our diverse panel of columnists and guest writers represent the many diverging perspectives held within the global Pagan, Heathen and polytheist communities, but do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wild Hunt Inc. or its management.
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A startup needs to test an idea quickly. For this, an MVP is created. MVP, Minimal Viable Product  a test version of a product or service with a minimum set of functions (up to one or two), which allows you to see the product's value for consumers and the market. MVP is created to test hypotheses and check the viability of the intended product: is it worth developing the project further, what changes should be made? The sooner a startup brings its MVP to market and tests the idea, the better. This article will look at how no-code technology can help founders achieve their business goals.

This article will try to cover everything that a founder needs to know about no-code at the initial stage of creating a startup.

What is no-code?

No-code, zero-code platform is a tool for creating websites, applications, chatbots, and other programs without the need for direct code writing by programmers. No-code is a valuable alternative to traditional development.

No-code is confused with low-code, but there is a difference in these terms. Low-code includes no-code and the ability to "finish code", add parts of code and the functionality.

A user of a no-code platform usually does not need to know layout, programming languages, or hire a team of programmers. The user of the no-code tool creates an application using a visual block constructor, which he fills with the necessary content and functions, and the no-code platform itself does the processing of requests, compiling the application and other "magic." It generates code using AI and/or contains blocks of code pre-written by programmers.

No-code allows the startup founder to create an MVP himself, entrust it to his employee with basic technical literacy and understanding of the project, or hire a no-code developer. Even in the case of hiring a no-code developer, the cost of creating an MVP will be significantly lower than with classical development with programmers. For example, you can read the interview of a startup and no-code developer on our website, who initially worked as a Product Manager and was able to master no-code for his project himself.

Benefits of no-code for a startup founder

There are the following key advantages for a startup founder in using no-code technology:

a large selection of no-code tools, platforms, and their integrations at the moment  already in 2022, there are many tools and platforms for creating an MVP, a larger project, or even a finished product on no-code, but few people still know about them, and others are far from all startups and founders use their potential;

cost  no-code development saves the money by speeding up the development process, not hiring professional programmers or no need to maintain a developer department, monitoring functions and quick bug fixes, avoiding or reducing the growth of technical debt;

speed is the main advantage over classical development  no-code allows you to build a simple application in a weekend, and a more complex one can be built in a month. In this way, you can test an MVP and even several versions of an MVP very quickly;

low entry threshold  to master a no-code platform, you often do not need technical education at all, but only an understanding of a company's business processes or product from the inside. In the case of pro-level no-code platforms, technical education is required, but you can get used to it hundreds of times faster than with any programming language. This makes no-code available to almost everyone who wants to work with technology;

ease of use  no need to write hundreds of code lines  just move the blocks and assign links between them. Work on a project can be entrusted to your employee without communicating with a team of third-party developers. You can speak "in your language" without the need to understand the "inner kitchen" of developers;

flexibility  with the help of no-code, it is easy for a startup founder to add new functionality and new features right during a project or a MVP testing without a significant increase in development costs.

Possible disadvantages of no-code for a startup founder

As often, any property can be, under certain conditions, both a disadvantage and an advantage. In no-code, many of the benefits with the wrong choice of tool can turn into disadvantages:

no-code is not always a budget solution for a project. Sometimes in a no-code development package, you get unnecessary functions and additions (on AppMaster.io you can separately connect the frontend and pay only for the backend or only for those functions that you are using); if you do not understand the needs of your project, then you can make a mistake with the choice of a no-code tool and not be able to implement the necessary functions on it, or it will be too difficult to implement them; often, no-code tools fail to ensure proper data security and contribute to data leakage (but AppMaster.io allows you to host a finished application on any server); no-code tools often do not provide the ability to upload source code or provide uploading in an inconvenient format, which makes it difficult to move to another tool or to your development. You have to choose a no-code tool "once and forever immediately" (AppMaster. io gives you the ability to download the source code. Also, we generate human-readable code and you will not have any difficulties with its transportation); most no-code tools on the market are not suitable for creating a finished product, and there are significant difficulties with scaling the project if the MVP is successful (AppMaster.io is a professional no-code platform and our capabilities allow us to implement and support the finished product and scale it in the future).

Forewarned is forearmed. Choose your no-code tool wisely and take full advantage of your choice.

Types of no-code platforms

Conventionally, all no-code tools can be divided into several types: no-code devices with a low entry threshold (you can create frontend and not very powerful backend on them), integrators that help connect applications and services, and professional no-code platforms (they strive to replace the code completely, provide the ability to create a robust backend and high bandwidth).

The basic principle of operation of your MVP and the choice of a no-code platform depend on such a conditional division into types. For example, if you make a simple application like a diary, you can limit yourself to a no-code tool with a low entry threshold and a beautiful design.

If your application has powerful potential, high bandwidth, multi-user interface, and works with large amounts of data or real-time data, it is better to choose a professional no-code platform like AppMaster.io or Direcual.

If you use several services at once, link them on integrators like Integromat and Zapier.

Adalo

An easy-to-learn designer with a relatively user-friendly interface. The free version is helpful for learning. The free version contains Adalo watermarks and does not allow you to upload your applications to GooglePlayMarket and AppStore. Beginners often choose this no-code platform to create their first applications with simple logic.

Bubble

It will take more time to learn Bubble , but the platform allows you to work with the backend, databases, business processes, and layout. There are many plugins. The free plan allows you to master the tool, and you can start developing at the middle rate. The price increase is due to the rise in the number of users.

Integromat

It is an integrator. Experts talk about it as a simple and affordable platform for linking applications and services. Scenarios can be created personally, or you can use templates. If you need to connect an application with a service not from the Integromat database, fill out the form and connect to its API via HTTP.

Zapier

This is an integrator for linking applications with each other or with other external services. You can transfer data between thousands of applications. There is a script constructor (one event starts a chain of necessary actions).

Directual

The no-code platform positions itself for creating MVP applications (Minimal Viable Product, minimum viable product) and full-fledged applications of finished products. Scenarios are the backbone of the platform. Using scripts, you can automate the backend logic of the application, create and combine workflows. The Directual catalog includes out-of-the-box connectors, HTTP requests, webhooks, database listeners, and integration with popular services.

AppMaster.io

No-code next-generation platform for creating native and web applications on a real backend. Visual drag-and-drop designer, user-friendly business process designer, one-click app publishing to AppMaster Cloud, or integration with any cloud platform. Push notifications, authorization using social networks. Networks, email, and more. Connect applications to hundreds of services or programmatically access them using APIs. The ability to upload source code and documentation in a human-readable format and transfer it to your servers. Documentation auto-generation. Modern and fast language GoLang at the core.

No-code perspectives for startups

No-code development is gradually gaining popularity around the world. There are already more than 500 no-code tools for creating websites and various types of applications.

According to the forecasts of IT world experts, no-code will develop more and more actively and capture parts of the market responsible for medicine, small online business, small business, and all niches where it is possibly necessary to optimize and automate development processes.

The mass shift of businesses and their customers online and to gadgets has increased the demand for the fast and inexpensive creation of mobile applications that would work according to a single quality standard and have a simple, understandable, user-friendly interface.

Conclusion

No-code is visual programming in the form of a constructor without directly writing code. Usually, basic knowledge in development is enough to build applications on no-code.

The logic of no-code constructors is intuitive: the application interface is assembled from blocks, icons, buttons, and text which are connected to the database. Usually, you can choose a suitable template or do everything from scratch. Speed and economy are the main advantages of no-code tools.

No-code is suitable for creating an MVP, testing an idea or new features in a product, saving time for solving standard tasks. PRO level no-code platforms can provide you with a finished product, an application.

If you don't have an account on AppMaster.io yet, join us. After registration, you will be given a free trial period for 14 days, in which all the basic functionality of the platform is available. It will allow you to learn the intricacies of working with a professional-level no-code platform and understand its potential.
Charity Lutheran offers Financial Peace University program

Do you know how your mortgage works? Is your 401k the right one? What insurances do you really need? These are just some of the questions answered in this nine-week session of the Financial Peace University program offered through Charity Lutheran Church, 120 Aspen Ave. in Bismarck.

Classes start Sept. 14 and continue from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday evenings. Lifetime membership kits will be available at the cost of $93 at the first class. Child care provided at no cost.

Register at daveramsey.com/fpu or call 701-527-6511.

UU Church speaker urges embrace of diversity

Speaker Lea Black and facilitator Jeffon Seely with Andrea Ficek Falcon as music leader will lead a service on "Embracing Diversity, Embracing Ourselves" at 10:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Church, 818 E. Divide Ave., in Bismarck.

Black, a selected speaker at TEDxBismarck which will take place on Aug. 22 at the Heritage Center, will give a preview of her talk for that event. Black is a humanitarian photographer committed to cultivating more unity and understanding in diverse and divided communities. Her photography project, Human Atlas of Bismarck, is a way for the diverse population to be seen for who they are and tell their stories.

A UU picnic will run from noon to 2 p.m.

McCabe to host concert for retiring organist

McCabe United Methodist Church plans to host a concert to honor its long-time organist Julie Schwartz, who is retiring.

A "Celebration Concert" will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the church, 1030 N. Sixth St., and will feature Schwartz on the church's newly updated Reuter pipe organ, the chancel choir and other musicians. There also will be a cupcake and coffee reception to follow.

Jenny Hallenbeck, senior pastor at McCabe, said Schwartz has served as the church's organist for 15 years.

For more information, call 701-255-1160.

Send faith briefs to kimberly.wynn@bismarcktribune.com.
FARGO  Faculty resignations and retirements at North Dakota State University are rising, and some worry it could be an early sign of more departures to come in the face of steep budget cuts.

This year 61 faculty members  including deans and department heads as well as professors and lecturers  are resigning or retiring, according to university figures. That compares to 53 resignations and retirements last year and 36 in both 2014 and 2015.

This years increase is partly from early retirement incentives NDSU offered to faculty and staff due to budget cuts, including a 17.9 percent reduction for the 2017-19 budget, which followed 6.55 percent cuts in the last biennium.

NDSU offered the early retirement incentives, accepted by 95 faculty and staff, and imposed a hiring freeze in response to the 6.55 percent cuts.

Stuart Haring, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry and president of NDSUs Faculty Senate, said the figures of faculty resignations and retirements support his anecdotal observations that more of his colleagues have been leaving.

I can tell you there have been a number of really good faculty members who have moved and gotten positions elsewhere, Haring said. He said it wasnt clear, however, whether they left because of concerns involving the budget cuts.

Even if that was the reason, I dont know if anybody would say thats the reason, Haring said. The climate and the state of higher education in North Dakota, its been perceived as not trending upward.

Beth Ingram, provost at NDSU, said turnover is inevitable at the university, but she keeps an eye on the trend and faculty concerns. Im always worried about faculty retention, she said.

North Dakotas higher education system isnt alone in facing budget cuts, she said, mentioning Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Wyoming as other states in the region dealing with austerity. There are very few universities that arent facing budget cuts, she said. Individual faculty leave for a variety of reasons.

Generational shifts

Administrators appear eager to send a signal to faculty and staff that NDSUs financial situation is not dire.

In a campus email to all employees last month, President Dean Bresciani wrote to pass along what he called a positive aspect of our financial situation, high bond ratings for the university, reflecting its sound financial standing.

We assessed NDSUs enterprise profile as very strong, characterized by stable enrollment, solid matriculation rates, and good geographic diversity, which has helped offset local demographic pressures, S&P Global Ratings wrote.

In another favorable rating, Moodys Investor Service wrote: The [rating] is further supported by NDSUs recognition as a top research institution within its 5 state region, with growing STEM  science, technology, engineering and mathematics  programming and projections for continued solid student demand due to favorable demographics in the Fargo area.

This fall, NDSU will begin preparations to hire several new faculty members in programs with increasing enrollment, including engineering, the health professions and business, Ingram said. The new hires will start in fall 2018.

That will be promising, Ingram said, calling it a modest start to bolstering faculty hiring.

Betsy Birmingham, who chairs the English Department, said she will be leaving NDSU next year to accept a deans position at a university in Canada. Her husband and fellow English professor, Kevin Brooks, also will leave, she said.

This is just the right time in our careers to do that, Birmingham said. Many of the departures Birmingham is familiar with are similar, involving promotions or opportunities for advancement at another university.

A lot of it is generational shifts, if that makes sense, she said. Birmingham, who has been at NDSU for 17 years, said she is not leaving out of disappointment.

Because of budgetary pressures, most faculty vacancies at NDSU go unfilled, which increases the workload for remaining faculty and makes resignations or retirements more conspicuous, she said.

We certainly are feeling that in terms of not necessarily being able to replace people who are leaving, Birmingham said.

Disturbing trend

Kimberly Vonnahme, a professor of animal science who researches reproductive physiology in livestock, recently left NDSU to accept a position with a company.

I know there is a budget issue, but I was given a good deal, she said. They made me an offer I couldnt refuse.

But she will remain in Fargo and will continue to conduct research at the university, she said.

I have a good working relationship with people on campus, Vonnahme added. I will still be around.

Mark Meister, a professor of communication, said he finds the increase in faculty departures troubling. Folks are deciding to go elsewhere, and were not able to replace those faculty, he said.

In the face of increased workloads, faculty will do their best to maintain the quality of instruction, Meister said. I think were doing the best we can given the resources we have, he said.

An assessment seven or nine years ago concluded NDSU was about 175 faculty members short, he said, and those numbers clearly havent developed.

Despite the efforts of dedicated faculty, Meister said, increased class sizes will negatively impact students. He added, Were stepping up and do what we can, but the trend is disturbing.

Meister has found his 20 years at NDSU rewarding  dearly love NDSU, dearly love the mission and the students  but he said he might be receptive to any offers from another university.

My personal impression  after 20 years at NDSU, Im looking, Meister said. If the phone rings with an offer, I listen more closely these days.

Other faculty members could be feeling the same, he said. Given the long lead in academic hiring, the impact of faculty concerns over funding cuts might not be evident until next May.

Theres always flux at NDSU, Meister said. The trend may increase.
Scott Aaronson in Shtetl-Optimized:

Kolmogorov was private in his personal and political life, which might have had something to do with being gay, at a time and place when that was in no way widely accepted. From what Ive readfor example, in Gessens biography of PerelmanKolmogorov seems to have been generally a model of integrity and decency. He established schools for mathematically gifted children, which became jewels of the Soviet Union; one still reads about them with awe. And at a time when Soviet mathematics was convulsed by antisemitismwith students of Jewish descent excluded from the top math programs for made-up reasons, sent instead to remote trade schoolsKolmogorov quietly protected Jewish researchers.

OK, but all this leaves a question. Kolmogorov was a leading and admired Soviet scientist all through the era of Stalins purges, the Gulag, the KGB, the murders and disappearances and forced confessions, the show trials, the rewritings of history, the allies suddenly denounced as traitors, the tragicomedy of Lysenkoism. Anyone as intelligent, individualistic, and morally sensitive as Kolmogorov would obviously have seen through the lies of his government, and been horrified by its brutality. So then why did he utter nary a word in public against what was happening?

More here.
Attn: serial weekenders, skilled daycationers and expert chillers looking for another good excuse to jet up to Lake Tahoe: If you are over 21, you may now buy pot at Incline Villageno medical marijuana card required.

That's right, as of August 5th, NuLeaf is officially Lake Tahoe's first and only recreational cannabis dispensary.



For the past year, the 2,500-square-foot, cabinesque dispensary (from the same owners as Berkeley Patients Group) has been operating comfortably amongst the redwoods, catering to MMJ cardholders. But last weekend, NuLeaf made its delayed debut to the recreational market (rec sales throughout the state of Nevada began on July 1st), with Washoe County Commissioner Kitty Jung on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The historic moment was lost on no one: Incline Village residents as well as of-age out-of-towners lined up to buy weed without a doctor's recommendation. All they needed was a valid state I.D. Yep, just like buying wine.

California cannabis connoisseurs may be in for something of a surprise: Because NuLeaf is situated on Tahoe's Nevada side, all its productsfrom flowers and pre-rolls to topicals, tinctures and transdermal patcheshave been grown and produced in Nevada. (With none of your Mendo- or Humboldt-grown standbys here, this is a time to step outside your box.) The menu also has a wide selection of extracts and edibles. Concentrate lovers can take their pick of wax, oil, shatter and vape cartridges, while those who prefer to eat their high can pick from dried fruit, cookies, caramels, tea, sodas and more.

Although it is legal here for folks over 21 to purchase cannabis products, it's still illegal to consume them in public. So, while your plans to get blazed on the lake may be well-intentioned, it will definitely be in your best interest to find an under-the-rader space to partake of your goodies. Perhaps a nice hike is in order. // NuLeaf Incline Village is open daily from 11am to 8pm and offers a 10 percent discount to seniors and vets, as well as a rewards program for members; nuleafnv.com/tahoe.
Jefferson cruises to 11AAA state title over Harrisburg in 2nd year

Head coach Vince Benedetto asks his team the same question after every game: "Can we play better?" But Saturday, "it doesn't matter because we're champions."
As livestock producers continue to deal with the results of a debilitating drought this fall, corn growers may lend a helping hand.

A new initiative from the North Dakota Corn Grower's and Stockmen's Associations will encourage corn farmers to allow ranchers to graze or bale leftover stalks after the harvest in October.

Dale Ihry, executive director, shared the idea with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., farm commodity and livestock groups and bankers gathered for a round table discussion about the drought and 2018 Farm Bill at Farm Credit Services in Mandan on Friday.

Heitkamp ended there her two-day tour of the western part of the state, which included stops at Farm Service Agency offices, a bee farm and a flax processing facility.

"What we're going through right now, both with low commodity prices and bad weather especially out here is what I call, we're stress-testing this farm bill," Heitkamp told reporters before the meeting. "When we wrote the farm bill, we had great crops and great prices. So now we're going to find out if this works."

Ihry is working with the North Dakota Stockmen's Association to craft the project, which will help livestock producers connect with corn farmers through the NDSU feed list website and the state drought hotline.

He said corn farmers will be asked to donate their stover or offer it at a reduced cost. Corn farmers may take some hit due to lost nutritional value in their soil.

"Its a nice marriage between the two entities," Julie Ellingson, executive vice president of the stockmen's association, told the Tribune by phone. "That is one more tool in the toolbox to manage through a challenging time

The idea was one of many presented at the meeting, in which association leaders shared with Heitkamp concerns about drought assistance, including difficulties grazing Conservation Reserve Program land.

Heitkamp said that, in her tour, she found that the Farm Service Agency offices, charged with administering many of the drought assistance programs, are severely understaffed. Though a "jump team" with agents from other states is coming to help, it appears there are only six extra people so far training in Fargo, she said. She added that there is also currently a hiring freeze at the agency.

"We need staffing at Farm Service Agency to make sure people get their checks quicker," she said.

She said that the "single greatest threat" in the upcoming debate over the Farm Bill is the preservation of crop insurance, which is especially important during a drought year.

"We need to show how critical it is," she said, asking bankers to also advocate for the program. "Just as the farmer can't take the risk, you can't take the risk."








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Outgoing Vice President of India and outstanding Indian educationalist Hamid Ansari has rightly said that India is fast moving toward a terrocracy as Muslims are being targeted a section of majority Hindus and there is a feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity among the Muslims in the country, asserting the "ambience of acceptance" is now under threat.

Dr. Ansari said a sense of insecurity is creeping in as a result of the dominant mood created by some and the resultant intolerance and vigilantism he shared the view of many that intolerance was growing. In hard-hitting remarks during an interview he ascribed the spate of vigilante violence, mob lynchings, beef bans and "Ghar Wapsi" campaigns to a "breakdown of Indian values" and to the "breakdown of the ability of the authorities" to enforce the law. "...and overall, the very fact that the Indianness of any citizen (is) being questioned is a disturbing thought," Ansari said.

By targeting Muslims the Constitutional guarantees for the protection of minorities are being violated by the ruling classes and judiciary has no role in protecting the Muslims from majority attacks, either.

Emotional outbursts

A feeling of unease and insecurity is creeping in among Muslims in India, , Vice President Hamid Ansari said in his parting interview to Rajya Sabha TV joining a growing number of leaders who have expressed concerns over attacks on minorities.

Professor Hamid Ansari, whose second five-year term as the Vice-President ended on August 10, made these remarks in the backdrop of incidents of "intolerance" and cow vigilantism. Stating that he had flagged the issue of "intolerance" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues, Ansari, 80, also described the questioning of citizens over their love for India as a "disturbing thought".

Ansari, who completed two terms as vice president on August 10, said that there is a breakdown of Indian values and of the abilities among authorities at different levels in different places to be able to enforce what should be normal law enforcing work. Overall, the very fact that Indianness of any citizen being questioned is a disturbing thought, he said in his parting interview to Rajya Sabha TV. Congress president Sonia Gandhi MP raised similar concerns during a speech in Parliament where she urged people to not let dark forces diminish Indias core values. Neither Ansari nor Gandhi named any party or individual in particular, but their statements can be seen to allude to the leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which the Congress party and other opposition outfits often accuse of pandering to right-wing Hindu ideologies.

On the August 10 Ansari demitted his Vice Presidential office at Hyderabad House in New Delhi that only Philosopher S Radhakrishnan had occupied as long as 10 years. The BJP government, for obvious political reasons, did not want to elevate him to be the president nor was given another term. He ruled out possibilities of Indian Muslims getting influenced by ISI and such other elements but mentioned that it would be a correct assessment to say that the Muslim community is feeling insecure.

Ansari, the only two-term vice president after S Radhakrishnan, also voice advice for Muslim community. Do not create for one self or ones fellow beings an imaginary situation which is centuries back, when things were very different. The challenges today are challenges of development, what are the requirements for development; you keep up with the times, educate yourself, and compete...

To a poser on the situation in Jammu Kashmir, Ansari said, "the problem has always primarily been a political problem. And it has to be addressed politically."

He agreed to a suggestion that politicians are ducking the problem. "That's my impression. And I m not the only one in the country...when young boys and girls come out on to the streets and throw stones day after day, week after week, month after month, it's something to worry about because they are our children, they are our citizens." "Something is obviously going wrong. What exactly, I am not the final word on it, but I think there are enough people in the country who are worried about it. Eminent people belonging to different political persuasions and their worry must be taken on board," the Vice President said.

Muslim community terrorized, alienated

In the interview, Vice President Ansari referred to incidents of lynching and 'ghar wapsi' and alleged killings of rationalists as a "breakdown of Indian values, breakdown of the ability of the authorities at different levels in different places to be able to enforce what should be normal law enforcing work and over all the very fact that Indianness of any citizen being questioned is a disturbing thought." "Yes it is a correct assessment," Ansari said agreed with the assessment that the Muslim community is apprehensive and that it was feeling insecure as a result of the kind of comments made against them. "Yes it is a correct assessment, from all I hear from different quarters, the country; I heard the same thing in Bangalore, I have heard from other parts of the country, I hear more about it in north India, there is a feeling of unease, a sense of insecurity is creeping in," he said.

Ansari was of the view that while tolerance is a good virtue, it is not a sufficient virtue. "...therefore you have to take the next step and go from tolerance to acceptance," he said. Asked whether he felt that the Muslims are "beginning to feel that they are not wanted", Ansari said, "I would not go that far, there is a sense of insecurity." Attacks on Muslims and lynching of Muslims directly say that. He said India is a plural society that has for centuries, not just seventy years, has lived in a certain "ambience of acceptance" which is now "under threat". He was of the view that the propensity to be able to assert your nationalism day-in and day-out is "unnecessary". "I am an Indian and that is it," he said.

Asked in an interview why he thought Indian values were "suddenly" breaking down, Vice-President Hamid Ansari answered: "Because we are a plural society that for centuries, not for 70 years, has lived in a certain ambience of acceptance." He said this acceptance was "under threat". "This propensity to be able to assert your nationalism day in and day out is unnecessary. I am an Indian and that is it," he told Rajya Sabha TV.

Referring to the incidents of lynching and ghar wapsi and killings of rationalists as a breakdown of Indian values, Ansari said, breakdown of the ability of the authorities at different levels in different places to be able to enforce what should be normal law enforcing work and over all the very fact that Indianness of any citizen being questioned is a disturbing thought.

On being asked if he agreed with the assessment that the Muslim community is apprehensive and that it was feeling insecure as a result of the kind of comments made against them, Ansari said, Yes it is a correct assessment, from all I hear from different quarters, the country; I heard the same thing in Bangalore, I have heard from other parts of the country, I hear more about in north India, there is a feeling of unease, a sense of insecurity is creeping in, There is a sense of insecurity, said Ansari, adding that India is a plural society that for centuries, not for seventy years, has lived in a certain ambience of acceptance which is now under threat. The Vice President viewed that the propensity to be able to assert your nationalism day in and day out is unnecessary. I am an Indian and that is it.

Regarding the issues of tolerance, he mentioned that while tolerance is a good virtue, it is not a sufficient virtue. therefore you have to take the next step and go from tolerance to acceptance, he said. At an event in Bengaluru on Sunday, Ansari said the version of nationalism that places cultural commitments at its core promotes intolerance and arrogant patriotism.

He said the issue of Triple Talaq is a social aberration and the reform, if any at all, has to come from within the community leaders of political other parties and religions need not interfere in the personal matters of Muslims. The religious requirement is crystal clear, emphatic, there are no two views about it but patriarchy, social customs has all crept into it to create a situation which is highly undesirable.

Threat to nationalism and unity

RSS-BJP duo employs the patriotism to insult Muslims as if Hindus are extra patriots. They want Hindu votes to come to power. They dont mind another division of the nation to make India a pure Hindu nation. . At an event in Bengaluru in the South, Vice President Ansari said that the "version of nationalism" that places cultural commitments at its core "promotes intolerance" and arrogant patriotism. Responding to a question on comments made by some BJP leaders related to minorities, he said he would not talk about people in politics or about political parties. "But to me, every time such a comment appeared or came to my knowledge; I mean my first reaction was that the person is ignorant and that he is prejudiced and he does not fit into the framework that India has always prided to itself on, which is to be an accommodative society," he said.

Ansari was asked a question on his lecture at the National Law School in Bengaluru earlier this month where he said rejuvenating secularisms basic principles was becoming a challenge. There is a feeling of unease, a sense of insecurity is creeping in, he told journalist Karan Thapar during the interview after being asked to reflect on his statement in Bengaluru.

Asked specifically about his speech in which he spoke about a nationalism with cultural commitments at its core being perceived as the most conservative and illiberal form of nationalism, and whether the remark was about the mood of the country in 2017, he replied: "Oh, absolutely." And he agreed he had felt a personal need to underline that this need to keep proving one's patriotism, and the intolerance it made for, was unhealthy: "Yes. And I am not the only one in the country; a great many people feel the same way." Asked if he had shared these apprehensions with the PM or the government, he replied: "Yes... But what passes between the Vice-President and the PM in the nature of things must remain in the domain of privileged information."

The outgoing vice president also ruled out the possibility of Indian Muslims being influenced by militant outfits.

Political reactions

Ansari said that he shared his apprehensions to the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers, but refused to divulge details of their interaction on the plank that what passes between the vice president and the Prime Minister in the nature of things must remain in the domain of privileged conversation. Asked in an interview on Rajya Sabha TV whether he shared his concerns with the prime minister, Ansari, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, said that he had. "Yes...yes. But what passes between the Vice President and the Prime Minister in the nature of things must remain in the domain of privileged conversation," said. He said that he has also flagged the issue with other union ministers. "Well, there is always an explanation and there is always a reason. Now it is a matter of judgment, whether you accept the explanation, you accept the reasoning and its rationale," he said when asked about the response of the government.

Anti-Muslim forces like BJP-RSS cannot digest plain criticism of Hindutva mischief and never admit that they have created a dirty sense of uneasy and insecurity of for Indian Muslims, His comments drew criticism from the BJP, with party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya questioning if Ansari was looking for political shelter after retirement. In fact, that is how the BJP and RSS add members into their fold who speak against Islam and Muslims or for a Hindutva nation, and promote them for big positions.

Professor Ansaris comments about the feeling of unease and a sense of insecurity creeping in among the Muslims in the country against the current backdrop of intolerance and vigilante violence drew criticism from the BJP, with party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya questioning if Ansari was looking for political shelter after retirement.

Ansaris successor Venkaiah Naidu, who was sworn in on Friday also criticized Ansari, seemingly responded to the comments, dismissing them as political propaganda. Some people are saying minorities are insecure... Compared to the entire world, minorities are safer and secure in India and they get their due, Naidu said.

A day after outgoing vice president Hamid Ansari said Muslims were feeling insecure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he (Ansari) will be free to pursue his core thinking once he demits office. In the Rajya Sabha, where Ansari was given a farewell on his last day in office, Modi hailed his role in the past 10 years and said Ansari had tried his best to live up to it.

Meanwhile, former union minister Venkaiah Naidu has been elected as his successor and Ansari thinks that the nature of the job of chairman of Rajya Sabha will dictate the response and there is no reason why the Opposition will not get a fair deal under Naidus chairmanship

Ansaris successor an RSS operative Venkaiah Naidu, who was sworn in on Friday, seemingly responded to the comments, dismissing them as political propaganda. Some people are saying minorities are insecure... Compared to the entire world, minorities are safer and secure in India and they get their due, Naidu said.

Ghar wapsi, anti-beef and cow worshiping for Hindu votes, lynching of Muslims in the streets by Hindutva criminals  are not propaganda!

PM Modi praised outgoing Vice-President Hamid Ansari for his track record in public service. With Ansari chairing his last session in the Rajya Sabha, Modi led the tributes as Upper House members expressed their heartfelt gratitude and congratulated the political veteran on his efficient contributions.

A day after outgoing vice president Hamid Ansari said Muslims were feeling insecure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he (Ansari) will be free to pursue his core thinking once he demits office. In his remarks in the Rajya Sabha, where Ansari was given a farewell on his last day in office, Modi hailed his role in the past 10 years and said Ansari had tried his best to live up to it.

Prime Minister Modi referred to the 100 years of public life of Ansaris forefathers and said they were aligned with the Congress and Khilafat Movement. The Khilafat Movement, launched by Muslim clergy in India to protest against the threat to Islamic Caliphate following the defeat of Turkey at the hands of Britain in World War I, was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and has been seen as among the factors which contributed to the growth of separatist consciousness among the community which led to the country's partition in 1947. In an interview to Rajya Sabha TV, Ansari struck a note of caution, warning that Muslims in the country are feeling insecure amid a sense of growing intolerance - "the ambience of acceptance" is at risk

Modi recalled Ansaris diplomatic career during which he spent many years in West Asia and his role on retirement as the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and as the Chairman of Minorities Commission. Many years of your life were spent in that circle. You stayed in that atmosphere, with that thinking and debating with those people. After retirement your engagement mostly remained the same. ...But in the last 10 years, you had a different responsibility. Every moment was spent in the ambit of Constitution and running Rajya Sabha. You tried your best to run it. Maybe there was some uneasiness within you. But from now onwards, you will not face that difficulty. You will also feel free and work, think and speak according to your core thinking.

Responding to a question on comments made by some BJP leaders related to minorities, he said he would not talk about political people or political parties. But to me, every time such a comment appeared or came to my knowledge; I mean my first reaction was that, A: the person is ignorant, B: that he is prejudiced and C: he does not fit into the framework that India has always prided to itself on, which is to be accommodative society, he said.

Replying to a question on some BJP leaders comments related to minorities, he aid he would not talk about political people or political parties. But to me, every time such a comment appeared or came to my knowledge; I mean my first reaction was that, A: the person is ignorant, B: that he is prejudiced and C: he does not fit into the framework that India has always prided to itself on, which is to be accommodative society, he said.

Ansari also described the questioning of Indianness of citizens as a disturbing thought.Asked in an interview to Karan Thapar on Rajya Sabha TV whether he shared his concerns with the prime minister, Ansari replied in the affirmative. Yesyes. But what passes between the Vice President and the Prime Minister in the nature of things must remain in the domain of privileged conversation, the ex officio chairman of Rajya Sabha said. Regarding the governments response, he said, Well, there is always an explanation and there is always a reason. Now it is a matter of judgment, whether you accept the explanation, you accept the reasoning and its rationale, he said.

Profile

Hamid Ansari was born to Mohammad Abdul Aziz Ansari and Aasiya Begum in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India on 1 April 1937 though his family belongs to Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. Ansari is the grandson of a brother of former Congress President Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, a leader of the Indian independence movement. He is the grand nephew of Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, the former President of the INC (Indian National Congress) and also the founder of Jamia Millia Islamia- now federal university.

Ansari studied at St. Edward's School, Shimla, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and Aligarh Muslim University where he completed an MA in Political Science in 1959. He started his career as Officer in the Indian Foreign Service in 1961. He was Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Indian High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He was awarded the Padma Shree in 1984. He was also Professor & Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University from May 2000 to March 2002. He is known for his role in ensuring compensation to the victims of the Gujarat riots and pushing for a complete re-look into the relief and rehabilitation for riot victims since 1984.

Ansari was the first person to be re-elected as Indian VP after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in 1957. He also presently serves as President of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Chancellor of Pondicherry University and the President of the Indian Council of World Affairs. Ansari worked as an ambassador and served as the Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University from 2000 to 2002.[2] Later he was Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities from 2006 to 2007. He was elected as the Vice-President of India on 10 August 2007 and took office on 11 August 2007. He was reelected on 7 August 2012 His second term ended in August 2017 since he decided not to run for a third term in the 2017 vice-presidential election. Upon the inauguration of Ram Nath Kovind as President of India in 2017, Ansari became the first Indian Vice-President to serve during the terms of three presidents. Longest served Indian vice president

Ansari became the chairman of India's National Commission for Minorities (NCM) on 6 March 2006. In June 2007, Ansari, in his capacity as NCM chairman, upheld the decision of St. Stephens College to earmark a small percentage of seats for Dalit Christians. He resigned as NCM chairman soon after his nomination for the post of India's Vice-President.

On 20 July 2007, Ansari was named by the UPA-Left, the ruling coalition in India, as its candidate for the post of Vice-President for the upcoming election. Ansari secured 455 votes, and won the election by a margin of 233 votes against his nearest rival Najma Heptullah of BJP who is now Governor of Manipur state. Hamid Ansari was re-elected for the second term on 7 August 2012, defeating the NDA's nominee Jaswant Singh former Finance, External Affairs and Defence minister as well as former Leader of Opposition by a margin of 252 votes. According to the Constitution of India, Ansari, as Vice-President of the Republic, also serves ex officio as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Ansari was a member of the Congress before being nominated Vice President in 2007.

Career After completing his Master's degree from the Aligarh Muslim University, Ansari worked as a lecturer in AMU for two years. He then wrote a UPSC exam and secured the 4th rank. He joined the Indian Foreign Service as a diplomat in 1961. He served the country as an IFS officer in various countries. He served as ambassador to United Arab Emirates from 1976 to 1980 and as Chief of Protocol, Government of India from 1980-1985.

Scholar

Ansari is a West Asia scholar and has written on the Palestinian issue and taken positions inconvenient to the Indian official line on Iraq and Iran. He questioned Indias vote in the International Atomic Energy Agency on Irans nuclear programme where India voted against Iran. He said that though the Indian Government claimed to have acted on "its own judgment," this was not borne out by facts Ansari feels that there is a sense of unease among Indian Muslims. He said this on the last day of his tenure as the Vice President of India, one of the highest constitutional posts in the country. [ Ansari quoted, "The language used by the Pope sounds like that of his 12th-Century counterpart who ordered the crusades... It surprises me because the Vatican has a very comprehensive relationship with the Muslim world."  15 September 2006, as Chairman of the Minorities Commission of India, on the Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy

In his illustrious career that spun over forty-five years, Mohammad Hamid Ansari has worked in various disciplines in the offices of the Government of India. He is a seasoned writer in various news dailies and other print media. He is also a Padma Shri awardee. Read on to know more about the life and accomplishments of Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

Later, he rendered his services in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from 2000 to 2002. He was also a writer in different news papers on various issues. In 2006, he was appointed the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities. He was also appointed the Chairman of the Petroleum Ministry's Advisory Committee on Oil Diplomacy for Energy Security. He also served as Chairman of the "Confidence Building Measures across Segments of Society in the State". This was group a created to focus on issues in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ansari served as a co-chairman of the India-U.K. Round Table Conference and also as a member of the National Security Advisory Board. Ansari is a permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and is also a trustee of the Bapu Sadbhavana and Shiksha Trust. On March 2007, he surrendered the charge of Vice-Chancellorship of the Aligarh Muslim University and went back to New Delhi to lead a life of retirement.

Contribution

Ansari played a vital role in distributing compensation to the Gujarat riot victims. He also backed a thorough re-look into the rehabilitation of all the riot victims since 1984. He wrote numerous articles on the west Asian crises. His article named "Alternative Approaches to West Asian Crises", (The Hindu, May 5, 2006), stressed upon the need for the progress of Iran, Iraq and Palestine. In an article named "Et EU, India," (Outlook, October 10, 2005), Ansari was sceptical about India's vote in the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's nuclear programme. He also edited the book "Twenty Years after the Islamic Revolution". He played a significant role in distributing compensation to the Gujarat riot victims. Even after his retirement from the IFS, he worked as a visiting professor at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Academy for Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Ansari's deep interest in west Asian affairs saw him taking positions that were inconvenient to the stands of Indian officials on matters concerning Iran and Iraq.

Timeline

1937 - Was born in Kolkata, India 1959 - M.A. (Political Science) from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). 1959-61 - Worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, AMU. 1961 - Joined the Indian Foreign Service, by securing 4th rank. 1976-80 - Worked as an Ambassador in United Arab Emirates (UAE). 1980-85 - Worked as the Chief of Protocol Officer, Government of India. 1984 - Was awarded the Padma Shri 1985-1989 - Worked as the High Commissioner to Australia. 1989-1990 - Worked as an Ambassador to Afghanistan. 1990-1992 - Worked as an Ambassador to Iran. 1993-1995 - Was a Permanent Representative to the UN, New York. 1995-1999 - Served as an Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. 1999-2000 - Served as a visiting professor, Centre for West Asian and African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 2000-2002 - Served as the Vice-Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 2002-2006 - Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi 2003-2005 - Served as the visiting professor, Academy for Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 2004-2006 - Was made Co-Chairman, India-U.K, Round Table Conference 2004-2006 - Member, National Security Advisory Board 2004-2005 - Was made Chairman, Advisory Committee for Oil Diplomacy, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 2006 - Chairman, Working Group on "Confidence building measures across segments of society in the State", established by the second Round Table Conference with the Prime Minister, Jammu and Kashmir issue, held at Srinagar. 2007-Present - Becomes the Vice-President of India and ex officio Chairman, Rajya Sabha

Observation

A vicious venomous air is spread across India that makes the innocent Hindus hate Muslims, kill then to appease their masters. In fact the seeds of such anti-Muslim venom were sown by the Congress and other so-called secular parties letting the RSS-VJP to target Muslims for Hindu votes.

In fact, The Congress party which keeps the saffron on top of its party flag, wanted to make the Hindutva parties to thrive in the country as the top political outfits and to control the government and rule the Indian society.
Anthony DiStefano, of Aiken, spent 29 years in state and federal government including with the Ohio General Assembly, the U.S. House of Representatives and two executive agencies of the federal government.
North Dakotas harvest will be significantly less than last years because of the ongoing drought, and though its still early, the states lead agriculturalist believes the economic impact could be worth billions of dollars.

Overall in our economy, Im going to say  at a minimum, I think we are going to have $1.12 billion of direct economic impact to our farming and ranching community, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said of the droughts impact on the grain harvest. We could be looking at a $4 billion impact on Main Street, which means tax revenue that is lost, jobs that arent being supported.

Spring wheat production in North Dakota is forecast to be 186 million bushels, down 31 percent from last year, according to numbers released Thursday, Aug. 10, by the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service. Durum wheat is expected to be down 56 percent from 2016, and winter wheat, seeing the heaviest impact, will be down 74 percent, according to the report.

Overall, yields for all crops are expected to be down from last year, according to the report.

The loss likely will be felt by the states economy and anyone doing business with farmers, said Frayne Olson, an associate professor and crop economist with North Dakota State University.

Farming income has been soft for a couple years, so farmers have been more cautious about purchasing machinery or replacing machinery, he said.

Goehring said the estimated economic impact is based on where production is now and the fact that ag commodity prices havent recovered in recent years. Its harder to pinpoint the impact on ranchers, who had to cut back on their herds.

However, he suggested the droughts effects could undercut forecasts for North Dakota tax revenue. Drops in revenue from slumping oil and ag commodity prices already have forced the state to make budget cuts.

Goehring was hesitant to say if and when budget cuts would be needed because of the droughts impact and low revenues from depressed oil prices. But if revenues continue to fall, it could mean more cuts before the next biennium.

I hate to get out in front of this too far, he said. If we are that short going into that next spring, you could see another allotment coming along, because we are required by law to have a balanced budget.

That would mean the governor would stipulate that we are short and that there would have to be more cuts made by agencies to balance the budget, he added.

Generations of work

Crops were hit hard by a lack of rain all summer, especially in western North Dakota. Virtually every part of the state was at least abnormally dry, with more than 80 percent being classified in drought categories, affecting more than 447,000 residents, the USDAs Drought Mitigation Center said in its Thursday report. Around 43 percent of the state had extreme or exceptional drought.

Farmers who have crop insurance or receive federal assistance may come out better than cattle producers, who have had to cut deeper into their herds to sell cattle and make ends meet, Olson said.

Its harder to assess the impact to ranchers, Goehring said, but the implications of the drought may be felt for years. The drought spanned the spring and summer, leaving little grass for forage. That means some ranchers either had to buy hay, move cattle out of state or sell them off.

The thing about livestock, it has a much higher multiplier on Main Street, he said. That is the ramifications down the road. We are worried about that foundation herd shrinking out on the landscape.

That means herds that took generations to build through selective breeding may have been cut, and those animals that could have produced 10 years of calves are taken out of North Dakotas economy.

There was a 17 percent increase of animals sold across the state, though some areas have sold more, said Julie Ellingson, executive vice president for the North Dakota Stockmens Association.

In Rugby, that was a 48 percent increase, she said. We saw significant increases in the marketings, and that continued through the month of July.

Its possible some cattle stayed in North Dakota, but other parts of the country that have experienced drought in previous years are restocking, she said. Ranchers from out of state likely bought cattle from North Dakota producers.

Ranchers typically sell cattle every year to replace older animals with calves, but this year ranchers may have to dig deeper into the herd to make ends meet.

The drought plays a significant role in the long-term outlook for the beef industry in terms of numbers and the genetic progress, Ellingson said. You have to get rid of animals that represent generations of hard work and genetic focus. That is a heartbreaking decision for many families.

Too early to tell

Later crops like soybeans, corn and sunflowers will depend on much-needed rain, Olson said. North Dakotas top crops are wheat, soybeans and corn.

Two of the three -- corn and soybeans -- we dont have really any information on what the yields are going to be, he said. We are in some really key biological stages for those crops. Well have to wait until we are close to harvest to get a good read on that.

The harvest in eastern North Dakota, which as of Thursday was mostly just abnormally dry, should have near-normal production, Goehring said. Farmers across the state are forecast to harvest 236 million bushels of soybeans, down 5 percent from last year, according to the USDA. Dry edible bean production likely will be up 14 percent from 2016, corn down 19 percent and sugar beets down 1 percent, the USDA said.

The crops are hit and miss, and some may be surprised by yields, he added.

When you hear guys saying they have 17-bushel wheat, now they arent proud of that by any means, but they were expecting 3- to 5-bushel wheat, he said.

In other parts of the state, farmers may be harvesting 30 percent of their usual crops, he said.

For now, farmers and ranchers are in survivalist mode. Some may come out ahead. For others, the drought may be the last straw for producers who have been weighing the decision of calling a quits, Ellingson, Goehring and Olson said.

There is going to be a ripple effect, Olson said. We dont know how large.
Detroit Iraqi Assyrians Fearful After Deportation Raids

Nora Youkhana of the CODE Legal Aid clinic in Detroit, co-counsel for the Iraqis in the case, moved to the United States at a young age with her family from Iraq, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, July 31, 2017. DETROIT (VOA) -- At the Chaldean Community Foundation in Sterling Heights, Michigan, more clients than usual are asking for assistance with their immigration cases. "We're a little overwhelmed with the number of people coming through just because people are very frightened by the [deportation raids]," foundation president Martin Manna said. Advocates say there has been an increase of 10 to 15 percent, and the foundation estimates it will help more than 20,000 people this year. The increased anxiety is a result of the detaining of 114 area Iraqis, mostly Chaldean Christians and some Shi'ite Muslims, in June. The majority of the 114 remain in detention despite the order of a Detroit judge, who ruled they could not be deported without first having their day in court. The order did nothing to calm community fears. Manna said residents are now "very concerned" that they can be deported for "any reason." "Many of these folks were on final order of removal for committing crimes in the 80s or 90s," Manna said. "They came here legally at some point, but either had a misdemeanor or a felony which put them on final order of removal." But the 114 had been under order of removal for many years, so this conservative religious minority, which mostly voted for President Donald Trump, was shocked when the raids took place. "That's why we have 2
August 11, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran  When Hamas politcal bureau member Izzat al-Rishq, heading a delegation from the movement, met with Irans supreme leaders foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, it was the first time the two men had met since 1991, when the former was still a junior member of Hamas and the latter was Irans foreign minister. The 1991 meeting gave Iran a strong ally inside the Palestinian territories and provided Hamas with steady and generous support to take its fight with Israel to another level. This was while the region was in the midst of a peace process that saw both the Palestinians and Jordanians signing separate peace accords with Israel.

Memories of the first meeting came to mind not only for the personal aspect but also because Hamas recent visit to Iran  as in 1991  is aimed at putting relations back on track. For this specific reason, members of the delegation were chosen carefully so that they represent all lines of thought in the movement.

The meeting with Velayati wasnt the only meeting the delegation held in Tehran; they also met with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, and they took part in President Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony on Aug. 5, side by side with dozens of delegations from around the world.

Among the delegation were Zaher al-Jabarin and Saleh al-Arouri, both senior commanders whom Israel regards as serious threats to its national security. On June 9, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman asked the US ambassador to the United Nations on her visit to Israel to exert pressure so that Arouri gets deported from Lebanon, where he resided after being asked along with Jabarin to leave Qatar. Both commanders are accused by Israel of being responsible for attacks inside the West Bank. For that reason, pressure was exerted previously on Turkey  Arouris station after leaving Syria  to deport him. Jabari's and Arouris appearances in Tehran shortly after the latter was pictured in Beirut with an Iranian official might be a clear message from both Hamas and Iran to Israel that its two archenemies are starting a new venture.

Al-Monitor has learned that the Hamas delegation additionally met with the commander of Irans Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, yet there is no further information on what transpired in the meeting. An Iranian political source revealed to Al-Monitor that as of now all the implications of the previous five years are gone, and Irans support for Hamas is now even beyond what it used to be prior to the Syrian crisis.

The war in Syria had dire repercussions for the relations between the two sides. According to another Hamas official, the movement tried at the beginning of the crisis to bridge the rifts between the Syrian government and the opposition but in vain, telling Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, In 2014, we had another attempt to bring together Turkey and Iran to solve the crisis in Syria. For some reasons, that time it didnt work either. The Hamas official emphasized that this visit to Tehran was not to open a new chapter, saying, Despite differences, Hamas never stopped visiting Tehran. There were always visits on different levels; yet, this time, alongside the invitation to attend the presidents inauguration, it was an opportunity to meet high-ranking officials and discuss the regional standoff.

The official hinted, There are attempts to make us accept Israel in the region as one of us, an ordinary state, via an Arab-Israeli peace conference, yet the response of the people of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque gave a clear message that this is not possible. The Israelis and the Americans arent going to give up, and they are going to add pressure. Therefore, the situation in the region prompts us to have a unified Palestinian stance in coordination with regional players who have the Palestinian cause high on their priority list to confront this project.

According to the doctrine adopted by the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Israel is an enemy and the state of Israel is an occupation force on the land of Palestine. Therefore, Iran has supported various Palestinian groups, along with Hezbollah in Lebanon, in the fight against Israel.

This visit isnt a new chapter, a second Hamas official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The new chapter was opened a while ago; we both agree that we stand on solid ground. Our [relationship] is more than 25 years old; therefore, we are not building from scratch. We both know what we need, and for that reason, nobody in Iran or in Hamas is openly discussing the details. We are more interested in results, and recently things had been clear, and developments on the ground prove that our choice is right.

Given the sectarian strife in the region, it wasnt an easy task to see Hamas getting closer to Iran against the will of its popular base. Iran too was defying a common belief among its allies and elites that trusting Hamas isnt a good choice. Maybe Iran as a nation had a wider margin than that of Hamas, thanks to the Gulf crisis and stances by officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates labeling the Palestinian group a terrorist organization.

Qatars political and financial support to Hamas was an issue the Gulf states raised to increase pressure on Qatar. The tiny Gulf state had to ask some Doha-based Hamas commanders to leave.

This dilemma made it easier for the groups leaders to go the extra mile and completely head toward normalizing ties with Iran. The election of a new Hamas leadership has also had an impact on the decision to resume the strategic alliance with Tehran. This normalization was reflected in the participation of Hamas in the inauguration ceremony and will be celebrated on higher levels by the two sides later, when Hamas new political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, makes his way out of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and then starts his first regional tour from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
August 11, 2017

Despite Israels public statements about closing down Al Jazeeras offices in Jerusalem, it appears that the execution of such a decision will require a great deal of legal work on the part of the Israeli government. The decision, if implemented, will do little to reduce the coverage by the most-watched Arab satellite TV station.

The move seems particularly odd since it would not be favorable to Israeli officials, who used to provide some kind of balance to Al Jazeeras stories, which allowed them to speak unfiltered in its reports.

In addition to its Jerusalem office, Al Jazeera has a large office in Ramallah and a major bureau in the Gaza Strip. Both of these Palestine-located offices will not be directly affected by the Israeli decision should it be approved.

While most Israelis receive Al Jazeera as part of their cable TV channels, the situation for Palestinians is different. Palestinians watch Al Jazeera through satellite dishes that are completely unregulated and unrestricted.

The Israeli decision regarding Al Jazeera has been clearly a political one that has little to do with so-called incitement.

Israel had welcomed Al Jazeera since its launch in 1996 and has benefited from its presence by providing its millions of viewers with various Israeli spokespersons as well as senior politicians. Banning the media network and revoking the press credentials of its journalists will hurt Israel more than it would hurt the Qatari-based media giant.

At a time when Israels two embassies in the Arab world  Cairo and Amman  are closed, the decision by its political leadership to punish Al Jazeera and to be seen as supportive of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt seems clearly to be counterproductive.

Walid Omary, the bureau chief of Al Jazeeras Jerusalem office, penned an opinion piece in the Israeli daily Haaretz Aug. 1, calling the Israeli action an attempt to kill the messenger and accused Israel of colluding with Arab dictators. The collusion by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu with his Arab autocratic neighbors leaves little doubt that free independent media and truth are ready to be sacrificed as collateral damage in the power politics of the region, he wrote.

Saudi Arabia and Jordan both have closed the local offices of Al Jazeera when the Gulf crisis erupted.

Opponents of Qatar  Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt  have made the closure of Al Jazeera one of their 13 conditions issued June 23 to resolve the dispute with Qatar and end their blockade on the small Gulf country.

Barbara Trionfi, the executive director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, told Al-Monitor that Israels efforts to prevent the network from broadcasting would affect the peoples right to access what has become a very important and respected source of news and information.

"If Israels representatives believe  as some have stated  that opinions disseminated by Al Jazeera amount to incitement and are therefore in violation of Israels law and international standards in this area, they should bring their claims in front of an independent court and allow the countrys justice system to address allegedly problematic content in line with Israels legal standards, Trionfi said.

In a statement issued by Al Jazeera, the Israeli incitement accusations were rebutted head on. During the press conference, the [Israeli communication] minister could not substantiate his comments by referring to a single news bulletin or situation that proved Al Jazeera had not been professional or objective during its coverage in Jerusalem, said the statement issued Aug. 7 in Doha.

Despite its public denouncements, Al Jazeera and its defenders do not appear to be fazed by the Israeli decision. For years, opponents of Al Jazeera have criticized the Gulf-based media network precisely for having an Israeli bureau.

Israels attempt to close that bureau is a win-win situation. Al Jazeera could complain that it is being barred from doing its professional work by not being able to cover the Israeli point of view, while at the same time, it would be less attacked and accused of being an Israeli appeaser and a normalizer.

Omary, the networks longest-serving bureau chief, dealt with this issue in his Haaretz opinion piece, writing, Arabs have criticized Al Jazeera of being pro-Israeli and Israelis have criticized us for being pro-Arab. We have been accused of being Islamist in the West and of being pro-West among Islamists. Governments have said were pro-rebel and rebels say that were pro-government. In fact, all weve done is the right journalistic thing  to bring all points of view to the table and let our audiences decide for themselves."

As a matter of fact, with the 21st-century technologies, a media network can continue to operate without an office or the accreditation of its staff. A reporter with a smartphone or a laptop can do almost the same TV reporting in order to continue to keep viewers up to date on what is going on in the world.

Israels attempt to muzzle the Qatari-based Al Jazeera is unlikely to affect its work or coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli situation.

Like similar previous decisions, the action against Al Jazeera appears to reflect more internal Israeli issues. This is not to mention Netanyahus erratic behavior due to his troubles with the police. The decision to shut down Al Jazeera appears to be an attempt to repair the damage of his image caused by the Al-Aqsa crisis.

As for Al Jazeeras coverage of the Palestinian conflict, this Israeli step is unlikely to make any difference to this effect.
August 11, 2017

Hamas has assessed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a military operation in the Gaza Strip to deflect public opinion from the criminal investigations against him in Israel. On Aug. 9, Israeli air force planes attacked two Hamas targets in northern Gaza in response to the firing of a rocket from Gaza that landed in an open area of the Hof Ashkelon Local Council. The attack on Hamas military posts and on the Shati refugee camp  where Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas political bureau, lives  was viewed by the movement's leadership as additional proof of their assessment that Israel is planning an escalation and preparing for a major military operation.

The heads of Hamas military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, view the airstrikes as a clear attempt to draw Hamas into a confrontation. The announcement the organization made immediately after the attacks leaves no room for doubt about how they see the situation: This is crossing a dangerous line for which Israel will bear the consequences. We will not allow Gaza to be turned into a testing field for Israeli ammunition.

Tensions between Israel and the Gaza Strip in the last week reached heights not seen since the cease-fire at the conclusion of Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Al-Monitor learned that the organizations military wing has beefed up its military forces along the length of the border with Israel. Hamas' military posts, including the two hit days ago, are now manned 24/7 due to concerns about an Israeli invasion.

Even if Hamas' evaluation of the situation is not based on verifiable sources but on circumstantial evidence alone, it shows that the group's higher-ups are well-informed about what goes on in Israel. The movements leaders receive a collection of translated news bits and commentaries from the Israeli media on a daily basis. In addition, they have access to analyses by Israel experts voicing their opinions on the politics and diplomacy behind events. Of course, Hamas is mainly interested in how events might affect the Gaza Strip.

This is not the first time that Hamas leaders have been convinced that Israel was planning a military operation to divert public opinion from domestic issues. They also thought this just before Operation Cast Lead in 2008. Some among the leadership, including Haniyeh and Mahmoud al-Zahar, argued that Israel was planning a comprehensive military operation to bolster Ehud Baraks political standing. At the time, Barak was defense minister and Labor Party chairman, and general elections were scheduled for early 2009. This line of thinking was explicitly conveyed to me by Zahar and Abed Haniyeh, son of Ismail Haniyeh.

Barak is planning a war on Gaza to cover up his screw-ups, Zahar said. In a conversation a week before Operation Cast Lead, Haniyehs son asked me in all seriousness whether the Israeli public was aware that Barak was dragging the Israeli army into a war simply to improve his standing in the polls prior to the elections. My assertion that no Israeli statesman would ever initiate a war for political considerations was met with contempt by both men. Given that military operations indeed began a week later can easily explain why this view is widespread today among the Hamas leadership.

A Palestinian journalist from Gaza speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that residents along the border with Israel in northern Gaza are saying that Hamas has been beefing up its forces since the beginning of the month, including posting lookouts to track the movement of Israeli forces. According to the journalist, Hamas military wing is only deployed in emergencies and when tensions between the sides increases. The inhabitants here know that when there is movement along the length of the border, that is a sign of imminent war, and then they prepare as well, he said.

One of the Hamas members with whom I spoke confirmed that the movements leadership is taking seriously the possibility that Netanyahu will initiate military moves. We are prepared for anything and everything, he said on condition of anonymity. This is also what we said today, that we will not sit silently by while Israel starts up with us. He added that residents and policemen had been injured in the Aug. 9 attack. He warned that the patience of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades will ultimately be worn down.

Meanwhile, the Israeli side is keeping a close watch on Hamas preparations for another confrontation. Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the head of the Israel Defense Force's Southern Command, revealed Aug. 9 that Hamas has been working on restoring the terror infrastructure destroyed in the 2014 confrontation. Zamir told Israeli journalists that Israeli intelligence efforts have continuously worked to uncover Hamas military infrastructure since Operation Protective Edge. He said, Hamas is operating in a civilian arena and under the cover of a civilian population, preparing its infrastructure for the next conflict within the civilian arena, such as civilian residences, schools and mosques. In these buildings are [military] headquarters, storerooms of weapons and rocket launchers.

Even if Hamas' concerns over a politics-driven military confrontation are baseless, it would be a mistake to ignore them. This is because the concerns themselves and resultant tensions could lead to violent conflict. Take, for example, what happened this week with the rocket shot at Israel, most likely by one of the rogue organizations in the Gaza Strip that does not obey the Hamas leadership. Hamas argued that Israel made up the rocket story to ratchet up tension in Gaza and views the Israeli response as an attempt to escalate the violence. The actual facts of the incident do not make much of a difference.

The bottom line is that when each side misreads the intentions of the other, it can draw both into a round of fighting. Hamas is convinced that Israel is gearing up for a war by the end of the summer. Anyone who wants to avert this next conflagration had best convince them that they are mistaken.
August 11, 2017

For the first time in 11 years, Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement, visited Saudi Arabia at the official invitation of the kingdom. On July 30, Sadr met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The visit is part of Sadr's efforts to keep a balance in his relations with neighboring countries in a bid to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq and strengthen his position as an Iraqi leader.

Saudi-Iraqi relations have recently witnessed a breakthrough following a period of lukewarm relations that started in the early 1990s. Senior officials of the two governments have recently exchanged visits and talked about developing relations between the two countries in various fields. But the significance of Sadr's recent visit lies in the fact that he is a religious and political leader from a prominent Hawza-affiliated family. What makes the visit even more paramount is the shift in Sadr's approach to the domestic events and regional orientations of the kingdom.

Previously, Sadr held positions that were hostile to Saudi Arabias domestic events and dealing with Shiites in the kingdom. For example, in January 2016, he issued a strongly worded response to the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia and accused the Saudi rulers of practicing systematic injustice against minorities and the oppressed. At the time, Sadr called on Shiites in Gulf states to have the courage to respond, even if through mere peaceful demonstrations.

However, Sadr's positions on these issues differed completely during his last visit, in which he decided to focus primarily on Iraqi issues. Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Obeidi said in a TV interview Aug. 2, Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr said before going: 'Unless they raise issues that are not related to Iraq, I will be sticking to Iraqi developments because otherwise this would be an interference in their domestic affairs.'

This position is a clear divergence from the religious discourse that defines the umma (nation) based on religious and sectarian affiliations and does not recognize the modern concept of the nation-state, which defines the nation based on the geographical boundaries of the state regardless of the religious or ethnic affiliations of its citizens.

Following about four decades during which Shiite clerics ruled Iran and 15 years during which Shiite religious parties ruled Iraq, Shiite clerics in Iraq are reconsidering their perception of the concept of the nation and the umma. For example, supreme religious authority Ali al-Sistani called for the establishment of a civil state in Iraq. A civil state is a secular way of governance that respects people's beliefs and religious peculiarities.

Sadr is trying to adhere to these concepts to reach a moderate position that helps ease the sectarian crises plaguing the region in general and Iraq in particular. This was reflected in the results of the visit, in which the two sides stressed the need to adopt a moderate religious and media discourse that calls for peaceful coexistence and cooperation as well as the achievement of common interests between the two countries and peoples, as per the statement issued by Sadr's office on Aug. 1 after the visit.

But Sadr's attempt to reach an understanding with Saudi Arabia has generated widespread criticism from some Shiite circles in Iraq and other countries, such as Iran and Lebanon. These critics believe that Sadrs visit is an unjustified disregard for the injustices suffered by the Shiite minority in the kingdom. These circles are against Sadr not tackling what they consider to be a negative role played by the kingdom in supporting terrorist groups that are killing Shiites in several countries in the region. In addition, these parties believe the visit is part of Saudi Arabia's campaign to isolate Iran in the region.

Saudi Arabia is trying to isolate Iran by forging ties with Shiite groups that do not believe in Iran's projects in the region. In a clear reference to this trend, Mohammed al-Sulami, the head of the Arabian Gulf Center for Iranian Studies, said July 30, We put all the Shiites under one category and said that they follow Iran. We should re-examine the Shiites again and revive the Shiite Arab authority in Najaf and Karbala, not in Qom."

I believe we have to differentiate between the original Shiite doctrine and the new extremist Khomeinist [Ruhollah Khomeini] doctrine, State Minister for Gulf Affairs Thamer al-Sabhan tweeted July 31, but he consequently deleted the tweet. According to Obeidi, Sadr's objection to the tweet while in Saudi Arabia led to its deletion.

Sadrs recent movements indicate his willingness to distance himself from Iran. Senior fellow at the Middle East Institute at the University of Singapore, Fanar Haddad, told Al-Monitor, For personal, ideological and practical reasons, Sadr would find it difficult to champion an openly Shiite-centric, pro-Iran stance. By visiting the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I think Sadr is signaling to Iran and its Iraqi allies [Sadr's competitors] that he has options.

Asked about the importance of Sadrs Arab identity, Haddad said, Sadr wants to confirm that he is Arab, but that does not mean that he is against Iran, and this trend resonates within the ranks of Sadr's popular base. And this Arab identity assertion goes in line with the Saudi policy toward the non-Iranian Shiite entities in the region.

Iran does not seem to have many options regarding Sadrs approach in his bid to distance himself from Tehran by relying on his broad popular base.
August 12, 2017

US makes clear its support for unified Iraq

No surprise for readers of Al-Monitor, including readers of this column last week, that Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani may consider stepping back from holding a referendum on Iraqi Kurdish independence previously scheduled for Sept. 25.

In a telephone call Aug. 11, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson commended Barzani on negotiations between Erbil and Baghdad on outstanding issues and asked him to postpone the referendum. Barzani responded that by doing so he would expect guarantees and alternatives for their [the Iraqi Kurds] future.

Barzani has not yet made a decision to call off the referendum as this column goes to press. Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to Barzani, said, The date is standing, Sept. 25, no change," after the call with Tillerson, according to Reuters.

Fazel Hawramy writes that while international opposition to the referendum has been overwhelming, the deadliest blow might, however, come from within. Ordinary Kurds, in particular those in Sulaimaniyah, are angry about the government's mismanagement of the economy, and many appear ready to express their dissatisfaction in their approach to the referendum.

Hawramy also reports that pressure from Iran to postpone the referendum intensified in recent weeks, including a secret visit by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force delegation to Erbil on July 30, soon after contentious meetings between Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leaders and Iranian officials in Tehran earlier in the month.

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the topics of the Iraqi Kurdish referendum and support for a unified Iraq with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on July 30. That visit, as reported by Hamdi Malik, was part of Sadr's efforts to keep a balance in his relations with neighboring countries in a bid to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq and strengthen his position as an Iraqi leader. Ibrahim Malazada reported last week on Sadrs and other Iraqi clerics opposition to the referendum.

While originally envisaged as a means to maximize leverage in negotiations with Baghdad, the referendum instead has revealed the limits of support for Iraqi Kurdish independence among the regions allies. In a recent report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Al-Monitor columnist Denise Natali summarizes the dilemma for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG): Despite an intense lobbying campaign in Washington, DC, and Europe, the KRG has failed to gain key regional and international actors official support for the referendum or Kurdish secession. Governments and institutions may affirm the Kurds right to self-determination, like all peoples of the world, and recognize the significant contributions that the Kurdish peshmerga have made to the fight against the Islamic State. Yet they remain committed to Iraqs territorial integrity and state sovereignty. Even the US Congress  where Iraqi Kurds enjoy important influence  has conditioned future military support to the Kurdish peshmerga on the KRG remaining part of the Iraqi state.

Barzani has provided inspired leadership during Iraqi Kurdistans most challenging periods. He has also been a reliable and effective ally in US efforts to combat the Islamic State and battle terrorism in the region. Washington has every interest in providing guarantees and alternatives so Barzani does not lose face with his people and the region if he agrees to the US request to postpone the referendum. But the United States has shown that it will take no steps that compromise a unified Iraq  a hard and fast position Washington shares with Brussels, Moscow and Ankara, as well as with Tehran and Damascus.

Iran-Hamas relations "back on track"

Ali Hashem reports on the visit of a senior Hamas delegation to Tehran, including their participation in Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony for his second term, as a sign that Iran-Hamas ties are on a path to normalization.

Al-Monitor has provided unmatched coverage of the warming trend in Hamas-Iran ties, which have accelerated as a result of the Saudi-led dispute with Qatar. Adnan Abu Amer wrote last month, Hamas realizes that the margin of political maneuvering has been narrowed by the polarization of the two rival axes: Qatar and its allies against Saudi Arabia and its partners. However, in the absence of other options, the movement seems compelled to resort to Iran and its allies in the region, namely Hezbollah, to survive. Even if it is faced with a new wave of criticism, Hamas would still be turning toward Hezbollah.

Hashem explains, Given the sectarian strife in the region, it wasnt an easy task to see Hamas getting closer to Iran against the will of its popular base. Iran too was defying a common belief among its allies and elites that trusting Hamas isnt a good choice. Maybe Iran as a nation had a wider margin than that of Hamas, thanks to the Gulf crisis and stances by officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates labeling the Palestinian group a terrorist organization.  This dilemma made it easier for the groups leaders to go the extra mile and completely head toward normalizing ties with Iran. The election of a new Hamas leadership has also had an impact on the decision to resume the strategic alliance with Tehran. This normalization was reflected in the participation of Hamas in the inauguration ceremony and will be celebrated on higher levels by the two sides later, when Hamas new political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, makes his way out of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and then starts his first regional tour from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Abu Amer adds this week that Hamas is also hopeful of improved ties with Russia, which has refrained from labeling it a terrorist organization. At the height of Hamas' political isolation, following the outbreak of the Gulf crisis, Washington described the movement as a terrorist organization and the EU kept it on the list of terrorist organizations, Abu Amer writes. However, today, Hamas considers its rapprochement with Russia a serious breakthrough at the international level, and might deliberately increase contact with Moscow to make sure it has its support in any political or military escalation with Israel.
Andrew Westover, a 2009 Samford University graduate, wrote a letter to Samford University's president that says his gay marriage announcement was rejected by the alumni magazine without explanation.

Backers of a group that wants to lead discussions of gay and lesbian issues on campus have started a web site where they are posting letters asking Samford University's president to reconsider his stance against allowing the group formal recognition.

They say Samford Together, a proposed student group, has followed all procedures but is being denied a chance for a hearing with the Samford board of trustees for final approval. The group received near-unanimous approval from the faculty, and the final step would be a vote by the board of trustees.

"This group needs to exist right now," said Samford graduate Brit Blalock, founder of SAFE Samford.

"Dear Dr. Westmoreland," begins one of the letters. "I am a young trans student at Samford. You might be surprised to hear this, as trans students are often even more closeted than gay and lesbian students at Samford, but there are quite a few of us."

That letter was anonymous, but 16 of the 21 letters sent to Westmoreland and posted on the web site include full names.

One of those who wrote a letter was Andrew Westover, a 2009 graduate of Samford who tried to get the quarterly alumni magazine to include his same-sex wedding announcement this year after he got married in February. The magazine routinely includes wedding announcements of alumni submitted through an online system. Westover said after he submitted his announcement, "It was deleted from the system," without an explanation.

"Despite receiving confirmation that my emails and phone messages had been received, no one, from alumni affairs to your President's Office, deemed my requests for information worthy of an official reply," Westover wrote in his letter. "Instead, my wedding announcement was silently deleted, then ignored."

Two students and two Samford employees, along with alumni, are among the first 21 letter-writers whose letters have been posted on a web site. copies of the letters have also been sent to Samford President Andrew Westmoreland, Blalock said.

"I sent him an email outlining what we're doing, basically letting him know what's going on," Blalock said.

She's had no response from Westmoreland. AL.com reached out to Westmoreland for comment on the letter-writing campaign and has not heard back.

Blalock said she expects more letters as more people learn about the campaign. "They're continuing to come in," she said.

"We really want to put some stories to these experiences for Dr. Westmoreland so he understands these are trials and tribulations that people have been experiencing for decades," Blalock said.

The Samford Together group wants to promote discussion of issues important to gay and lesbian students, she said.

"It's more of a forum for discussion," she said. "They have not positioned themselves as an advocacy group. They want to lead discussions about LBGT issues on campus."

Samford announced July that it would stop taking its annual $3 million allocation from the Alabama Baptist State Convention after criticism from Baptist leaders about the LGBT student group that wanted to form on campus.

Westmoreland announced that he would not support allowing a vote by the board of trustees, the final step in approving a student group.

"That is where it remains," Blalock said. "We disagree with that stance. We want to keep people talking and make sure the Samford community knows what's at stake. Freedom of inquiry, thought and expression is at stake."

Westmoreland said as part of the July announcement he would help promote Samford Together's stated goal of discussing issues of sexuality. There has been no further discussion of how that would happen, Blalock said.

Although Samford has been historically associated with the Alabama Baptist State Convention, Baptist students attend school there alongside people of many other religious traditions, she said.

"There are so many other religious groups on campus," Blalock said. "There are a lot of people on campus who identify as Christian and support LGBT rights."
Authorities have released the name of a man shot to death Friday in west Birmingham.

Birmingham police on Saturday identified the victim as Myron Pratt. He was 47.

West Precinct officers were dispatched about 5:25 p.m. to to a house in the 1800 block of Bessemer Road on a report of a man shot. When they arrived, they found Pratt lying on the floor with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Bryan Shelton.

Officers and medics checked the victim for any signs of life, but he was dead on the scene. Shelton said drugs were found in the home, and evidence of narcotics use.

Investigators determined some men were inside the home when an argument and physical fight started between Pratt and the unidentified suspect. During the fight, the suspect shot Pratt multiple times.

Shelton said no clear motive has yet been established. Pratt is the city's 64th homicide victim this year, and the third in six days. Of those 64, at least five have been ruled justifiable, and therefore aren't deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 97 slayings, including the 64 in Birmingham.

There were 104 homicides in the city in 2016, of which 92 were deemed criminal by authorities. In all of Jefferson County, there were 151 homicides last year, up from 144.

"We believe the victim knew his killer, which is what we see in a majority of our homicides,'' Shelton said. "Right now, a family is trying to deal with the loss of their loved one and we will work to bring them answers and hopefully some closure."

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
A man was shot dead inside a Birmingham home on Friday afternoon.

Birmingham police Sgt. Bryan Shelton said the victim, who is in his 40s or 50s, was fatally shot near the front door of the residence located in the 1800 block of Bessemer Road at 5:25 p.m. A suspect has not been arrested in this case and the motive is unknown at this time.

Officers are still at the scene interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence. Shelton said there were multiple occupants inside the home when the shooting happened, but no one else was hurt.

This is the 64th homicide to happen in Birmingham this year and the 97th in Jefferson County. The Bessemer Road shooting happened about three hours after a 17-year-old was fatally shot on the back porch of a Tarrant home. A shooter was detained for questioning, Tarrant police said.

This post will be updated when more information is released.
It's been a big week for endorsements for Sen. Luther Strange.

Just days after receiving the endorsement of President Donald Trump, Strange received the public backing of high-profile radio personality Bill "Bubba" Bussey of "Rick and Bubba," syndicated radio show. As President Trump had done, Bussey announced his endorsement via Twitter.

Many of you have asked me about the Senate race. There are several quality candidates but I'm supporting long time friend Luther Strange. pic.twitter.com/RwbRfN9Kq7  Bill Bubba Bussey (@BillBubbaBussey) August 12, 2017

FYI There is no way to get a picture w Luther that looks good. He's too tall!  Bill Bubba Bussey (@BillBubbaBussey) August 12, 2017

The Republican and Democratic primary for the Senate seat once held by now-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is Tuesday. Current polls show Strange in second place behind former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, with Huntsville Congressman Mo Brooks in third place.

Both Moore and Brooks have questioned Trump's backing of Strange, who was appointed to the seat in February by former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley. Strange had earlier indicated his office was involved in the inquiry into Bentley's misuse of office. Bentley resigned in April as part of a plea deal involving campaign finance and ethics violations.
State and local public health officials are assessing how funding cuts may affect anti-tobacco efforts in North Dakota after the elimination of a standalone state agency dedicated to such programs.

The move to repeal the North Dakota Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy, known as BreatheND, was one of the more contentious budget battles at the Capitol this year. The Republican-controlled Legislature, following recommendations from former Gov. Jack Dalrymple and his successor Doug Burgum, voted to eliminate the agency and combine tobacco-related efforts with the state Department of Health.

The Health Department is now crafting a state plan based on best practices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent plan laid out several objectives for state and local health agencies, including raising the price of cigarettes and upholding the states smoke-free law that passed in 2012.

But health officials will have less money to carry out their goals. The Health Department budget for anti-tobacco efforts in the current two-year funding cycle stands at $13.6 million, down sharply from the $22.3 million for the combined budget of BreatheND and the Health Departments tobacco programs in the biennium that ended June 30.

I think a lot of the plan is staying the same, said Krista Fremming, director of the chronic disease division at the state Health Department. We still are going to be able to work on the priorities and, I think, make good progress.

The Health Department was already responsible for NDQuits, which helps North Dakotans quit tobacco. BreatheND focused on tobacco control policies while the Health Department concentrated on cessation, Fremming said, adding that the public will see fewer television ads as a result of the budget cuts.

Meanwhile, Theresa Knox, nursing and nutrition supervisor for the Grand Forks Public Health Department, is expecting a 17 percent cut in its state tobacco prevention grant.

Were just getting our feet under us, if you will, in regards to what our strategies will be going forward, she said. Our funding is less, so we cant do as much as we could.

Melissa Markegard, tobacco prevention coordinator at Fargo Cass Public Health, doesnt expect many changes at the local level. Theyll continue to fund two full-time tobacco prevention coordinators, she said.

The reduction in tobacco-related funding in North Dakota reflects a nationwide trend. A report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said states spent $717.2 million on anti-tobacco programs in fiscal year 2008, but that fell to $491.6 million in fiscal year 2017. The report said North Dakota was one of only two states to spend at CDC-recommended levels.

But a sharp drop in state revenues prompted North Dakota policymakers to cut budgets across government and slash more than 28 percent from the states general fund this year. Some argued the Health Department and BreatheND were somewhat duplicative and combining their efforts would be more efficient.

I have confidence in the people who there that they can do a good job, said Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, who chairs the Senate Human Services Committee.

Lawmakers inserted a provision in the Health Departments budget bill requiring it to provide for an independent review of the tobacco prevention and control plan to evaluate its effectiveness at least once during the current biennium.

In fighting against its elimination, BreatheND officials cited a drop in tobacco use in the years after it was created in 2008 through an initiated measure. Cigarette smoking rates dropped between 2011 and 2015, from 21.9 percent to 18.7 percent among adults and 19.4 percent to 11.7 percent among high schoolers, according to Health Department data.

I think its likely youll see a shift or reversal in the trend youve seen over the last several years in terms of reducing those rates, said Jodi Radke, regional director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

That drop in smoking rates coincided with a sharp jump in e-cigarette use, especially among high schoolers, a trend that Fremming said will continue to have the Health Departments attention. Although she expected budget cuts to be a challenge, she said theyll force the department to be more efficient.

It forces you to really take a look and prioritize what youre doing in leaner times, Fremming said.
The practice  chhaupadi  was banned by Nepals Supreme Court in 2005 but remains prevalent in the remote west.

Last month, when 19-year-old Tulasi Shahi died of a snake bite in west Nepal, social media went abuzz because international media started covering her tragic death.

Yet a few weeks earlier, when another young woman died in similar circumstances, the news did not even come out.

Both victims had been sent to chhaupadi, an outhouse where menstruating women are banished to for five days a month.

Now finally some good news has come. On Wednesday, parliament criminalised chhaupadi.

Girls and women will be able to report to the police if they are made to sleep in those dank, dark cells.

READ MORE: Nepal criminalises isolation of menstruating women

But will they report on their fathers, mothers, husbands or in-laws?

And even if they do, will their families just pay the $29 fine and still make the women sleep in the huts?

When Tulasi died, some reporters were shocked that her parents said they would still follow the archaic custom.

This does not surprise me at all.

Worse than animals

Whenever Ive been to far west Nepal, where these customs exist, Ive often seen women treated worse than animals.

Ive met women whove travelled to India to determine the sex of their child so that female babies could be terminated.

Ive met girls as young as 14 lamenting that their education will be curtailed soon when they are married off. Ive heard them describe themselves as burdens to their families.





The menstruation huts are an expression of this larger attitude. In these areas, locals believe that tigers will attack their cattle if menstruating women are allowed to inside their house.

The gods will be angry, I was often told. So, the bleeding women are placed on the front lines  before the cattle  just to protect the cattle from predators.

But it would be wrong to criticise people in the far west alone for having these attitudes. Even in the capital, Kathmandu, when women bleed they are described as being nachhune or untouchable.

On Thursday, right after the bill was passed, a prominent banker put on his Facebook page the question of the psychological sheds that Hindu women of Kathmandu are put into.

This includes being banned from kitchens and prayer rooms, family rituals and temples. These are educated families where women are made to sit apart, so their monthly untouchability will not soil anyone.

Ive seen friends sit in corners while their food is pushed towards to them. They are told not to touch men, in case they pollute them.

One friend told me that her father-in-law wanted a separate room built in the house so that she could use it during her period.

READ MORE: Nepali teen dies from snake bite in menstruation hut

Another friend said her mother rolls the carpet away, so her feet wont pollute furnishings during menstruation.

The reason given to them  to us  is that without these precautions, the spirts will be angry. How different is this reasoning from that in the far west?

These kinds of humiliating and degrading treatments are not under the purview of the act.

It will be a year before the law comes into effect. Until September 2018, activists are hoping to change the attitudes of people towards chhaupadi and also train the police.

But there are broader attitudes towards menstruation that need to be changed, and much deeper thought about how we in Nepal perceive women and girls.
Far from home in an overcrowded Beirut camp, children trade school for work to help their families survive.

Less than half of Lebanons school-aged Syrian refugee children enrolled in school last year, and it is expected that at least 50 percent will drop out of classes by the time they are nine years old. Half of the remaining number will leave school by 10, according to the United Nations.

Transport, regardless of how low the price, is often unaffordable. Language can be a barrier, as some subjects in the Lebanese curriculum are taught in French or English, and in other cases, parents worry about bullying. Many times, girls are expected to stay home to assist with chores, while boys are expected to work and provide for their parents.

Odey, Mohammad and Saddam are just three among thousands of Syrias lost generation.

Odey

In a makeshift schoolroom inside an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, children are busy memorising their ABCs when a young boy enters to make an announcement: He is leaving classes to go to work.

I will not have time for school any more, said 12-year-old Odey, noting that he would be dropping out of the programme that was supposed to prepare him for the official Lebanese school system.

His family left Aleppo more than a year ago and found a home in Beirut for around $300 a month. Six children, along with their parents and grandmother, share a concrete cube in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp.

Dad has diabetes and needs insulin. Grandma broke her back and had a surgery. She is in very poor health. It costs a lot to take care of them, Odey said. We have to work. Every family member has to work as much as possible. I am paying for the daily expenses and my dad is saving to repay a debt.

Their rent has not been paid for almost a year. Debts are piling up, and Odeys job brings an indispensable $6 home each day.

It is not hard for children to find work in Shatila. Butchers, grocery stores and coffee shops all welcome cheap labour to carry around boxes, fill shelves and sweep floors. Odey, who works in the market, spends 12 hours each day emptying boxes and making sure that new products are properly arranged.

Although he admits that he would prefer school, he does not dwell on his future: I do not know what I want to be when I grow up. What if I die before? When I grow up, then I will decide what I want to do. There is no sadness or fear in his voice.

His mother is acutely aware of how badly the family needs the extra money. Two of my younger sons also work. They are 10 and seven, she told Al Jazeera. My husband works occasionally, when his health allows him to, but that is not enough. And I cannot work because someone needs to take care of the youngest children.

Her eyes roam the floor of the cramped room as she speaks. Life in Lebanon is extremely hard, she added. But at least [its] not as dangerous as in Syria.

Their home was destroyed by bombs and there is not much left to go back to, she said. For Odey, his familys old life is something he avoids thinking about.

Nothing makes me afraid, he said. We just need to pay the rent.

Saddam

When Saddam grows up, he wants to own a grocery store, just like the one where he has worked for the past four years  ever since his family left their home in Syria. Twelve years old, he has not spent a day of his life in a formal school.

Every day, I wake up at 8am and then I go to work, where I clear empty boxes or put products on shelves, he told Al Jazeera. I come home around 8pm. After dinner, I go to sleep and the next day is the same.

This weekly routine earns him $43; it does not even cover the familys rent.

Saddams father, who is ill, spends most of his time aimlessly roaming the streets of southern Beirut and occasionally helps clean a nearby mosque. His mother has heart problems, diabetes and hypertension. They have nine children, four of whom are married with their own family responsibilities.

The UN helps them with food, but it is never enough. The family quickly burns through its $189 monthly food card.

Saddam has to work simply because we are poor, said his mother. I am afraid about his future. I can see his childhood is far from normal, but there is nothing we can do about it. He needs to work.

A shy, introverted boy, Saddam has been changed by the war. He speaks quietly and is an easy target for bullies.

I am sad because I cannot go to school. But the boss is good; he does not make me work very hard and I do not get too tired, he said with a smile.

Still, not a day goes by that he does not wish he was back in prewar Syria.

Syria is better than Lebanon. I was born there and I felt comfortable there. I had friends. I wish we would go back, but it is impossible because of the war, he said.

Since the war began, thousands of Syrians have flooded into Shatila, which was already crowded with Palestinian refugees. The camp provides some of the cheapest accommodation options in Beirut; some of the apartments have no windows, and makeshift bathrooms often leave waste flowing out into the small and winding alleyways.

Saddams parents, brothers, sisters and cousins  11 family members altogether  live and sleep in a space of just a few square metres.

Saddam lived with his family in the countryside of Aleppo until their house was bombed. He saw people die in front of their doorstep.

Shatila is safer, he said. But I still see people fight, and sometimes blood is spilled on the streets of the camp. I do not know why people fight, but it is scary.

Mohammad

Mohammad disappears around a corner in the maze-like Shatila refugee camp, jumping over puddles and adeptly avoiding loose electricity cables.

I still go to Bukra Ahla centre, he said, referring to an informal education centre whose name translates to Tomorrow is more beautiful. The intermittent hours spent at the centre of the Soutien Belge Overseas, a Belgian non-governmental organisation, are his only taste of education: That is when I rest from work.

A shabby staircase, barely wide enough for the 12-year-old to walk up, leads to the apartment where his family lives.

The six of them share two rooms: a bedroom/living room and a kitchen/dining room. They live without a refrigerator or washing machine.

I remember Syria was beautiful, Mohammad said. I wish we could go back, but only if the war ends and everything goes back as it was. If the school is rebuilt, I would go back.

He and his family fled Syria a year ago after the local school was bombed. There was no future left for them in Aleppo.

I get very scared when I think of war. What made me scared most is the sound of fighter jets. But now I feel safe, Mohammad said.

A shy boy, Mohammad uses as few words possible to communicate. Before he speaks, he looks at his mother, his primary source of comfort and safety.

He is very afraid of the thought of going back to Syria, said his mother. He is much better now, psychologically and emotionally. He is much calmer. But the work is making him very tired.

Mohammad works in a shop that sells household products, earning $23 a week. His father is unemployed and money is scarce. With rent costing around $330 a month, the family had to ask Mohammad to start contributing.

Work is okay, he said, shrugging his shoulders in resignation. The boss sometimes gets angry and yells at me, but only when I make a mistake.

Mohammad says he does what is asked of him, but the mornings are hard; he wakes up thinking of his friends from back home, his old school, and the life he used to live.

When I grow up, I want to be a pharmacist, he said. Just like my sisters husband.

But without any formal education, Mohammads dream will be nearly impossible to achieve.
A Libyan human rights organisation has accused the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by General Khalifa Haftar and its militia supporters in Benghazi, responsible for acts that amount to crimes against humanity.

In a report calling on the international community to intervene, Human Rights Solidarity said a mass killing that claimed six lives last week was the third of its kind since Haftar took control of the city last month.

The LNA and other armed groups loyal to Haftar are operating under the mantra of Operation Dignity, which they claim is a fight against terrorism.

Libya has been engulfed in a civil war since a 2011 popular uprising ended Muammar Gaddafis 42-year rule. Rival governments, including the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), have been fighting for control over the country.

Al Jazeera spoke with Ahmed el-Gasir, a senior Libya researcher with Human Rights Solidarity, who said that Libyas culture of impunity will take years to abolish.

OPINION: How we are failing Libya

Al Jazeera: The report asserts that there is a culture of impunity in Libya. Why is that?

Ahmed el-Gasir: The culture of impunity prevalent in Libya is a result of the inability of judicial and law enforcement authorities to function in the country. Perpetrators of grave violations, such as extrajudicial killings and torture, document their crimes, videos and photos, and broadcast them without fearing accountability.

Since Gaddafis regime ended, apart from the trials of ex-regime members and associates, there were no trials carried out for any of the serious crimes committed by any party.

The inability and failure of these authorities to operate is mainly caused by the spread of weapons, the presence of hundreds of militias and political chaos in Libya, with several entities claiming legitimacy.

Al Jazeera: Why have the Libyan authorities and the various sides involved been unable to protect civilians?

Gasir: The central authority, which is the government, is weak. It does not have the power to enforce rule of law. The internationally recognised government and the unrecognised governments, all have no forces that operate under their control, which has been the case with all transitional authorities since 2011.





They rely on armed militias, who have their own allegiances and agendas, to carry out security and military tasks. On paper, the militias operate as part of the Ministry of Interior, but in reality, they follow their own chain of command.

We have to remember that even before the revolution, law enforcement agencies and various police departments were neglected by the previous regime. The security apparatus of the regime was more organised, better trained and had more resources to protect the regime. When the regime collapsed, so did the security apparatus, leaving behind a security vacuum where it was too dangerous for law enforcement units to operate.

Al Jazeera: What can the international community do to ensure the safety of civilians in Benghazi and Libya as a whole?

Gasir: To close the impunity gap, the international community  including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the European Union and the International Criminal Court (ICC)  needs to act.

UNSC Resolution 1970 from 2011 referred the case of Libya to the ICC, which has yet to officially announce opening investigations into violations of international law on the basis of a lack of resources. An official ICC investigation and the issuance of arrest warrants will send a clear message to perpetrators that they are going to be held accountable for their crimes and actions, with no impunity.

The tactics employed by Gaddafi in 2011 created certain divisions between towns or tribes, but they do not compare to what Haftar has done. by

The EU can and should help, and it is in its interest that stability in Libya is attained. The most pressing issue for the EU is illegal migration. About 90 percent of arrivals by sea in Italy depart from Libyan shores. As the Libyan crisis continues, these criminal networks will grow more sophisticated and organised.

The EU and other international actors can also help by supporting the GNA in training and developing Libyan law enforcement agencies, and by identifying and targeting individuals and entities complicit in serious violations of human rights through the implementation of sanctions.

Al Jazeera: Why do you think the internationally recognised government is struggling to enforce the rule of law?

Gasir: Partially, because the GNA does not have its own forces, it relies on militias to operate in Tripoli. It is building a new force  the Presidential Guard  but this takes time. Promoting ideals of human rights is not on the GNAs priority list, unless it appeases the international community. The Libyan authorities have not initiated a single investigation into serious offences committed after the fall of the regime.

The GNA believes it is in need of militias affiliated to the interior ministry to operate  a dangerous misconception. In fact, it is these armed groups that are in need of the GNA and its resources. Legally, the GNA is responsible for the crimes these militias commit.

Al Jazeera: What do you think Khalifa Haftar aimed to achieve when he launched Operation Dignity?

Gasir: Haftar claimed that it was aimed at fighting terrorism, but many perceived it as it is  a military coup.





The proclaimed war on terrorism is just an excuse as he attempted to gain control of Tripoli earlier in 2014, but failed when his militias in support did not show up. In that attempted coup, he announced the suspension of congress and the government, without referring to terrorism.

Al Jazeera: Do you think the tactics employed by Haftars fighters and other armed groups will create a deeper divide between the Libyan people?

Gasir: Operation Dignity has adversely affected the social fabric of Libyan society. The tactics employed by Gaddafi in 2011 created certain divisions between towns or tribes, but they do not compare to what Haftar has done.

Hate speech and incitement of violence divided not only towns or tribes, but also neighbourhoods and even families. The level of violence and disregard to the sanctity of human life and value of human dignity is unprecedented in Libyan society.

It will be a lengthy process to overcome what criminality the group managed to achieve thus far.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
The Israeli minister of communication, Ayoub Kara, made me feel ashamed. He made me feel ashamed as an Israeli, as a journalist, and as a liberal human being. Ayoub Kara wants to put Israel together with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the Emirates, declaring war on Al Jazeera.

Minister Kara is perceived in Israel as a political joke. He was nominated to his office just when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhad to give it up for legal reasons. Kara became Netanyahus puppet in the communication ministry. All this does not make his decision to declare war on Al Jazeera less important, or less meaningful. On the contrary, Minister Kara tries to follow not only his masters political attitudes, but also the Israeli national sentiment that any critical voices in Israel and from abroad should be fought.





The declaration of the governments intent to close down Al Jazeera and blocking its broadcast in Israel, might have very little practical consequences. It is not clear if the Israeli government can close Al Jazeeras bureau; if Al Jazeera employees can be prevented from working as journalists; if the governmental press office can revoke their accreditations; and if the government can prevent Israelis from watching Al Jazeera. But those are minor questions. The main issue is the Israeli intention and the Israeli policy, which has a much broader context.

It is the democratic face of the state of Israel and the attempt to curb freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Israel  the only democracy in the Middle East. This process might start with Al Jazeera but it will never stop there; it will continue with BBC and CNN and it might end with closing down Israeli media outlets the government doesnt favour. And therefore, the Al Jazeera case should worry many more Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike.

What we see are the growing cracks in the Israeli democracy, nothing less than this. It is an extremely dangerous path, in which other governments in the world have walked, which you know where it begins but not where it ends. It is the dangerous path that, for example, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is walking.

Israelis are taught to think that democracy is the rule of the majority; that the minorities have no rights; and that any criticism of Israel, from inside or outside, is nothing less than treason or anti-Semitism. by

The current government of Israel is the most nationalistic, right-wing government Israel has ever had. Mr Netanyahu has been in office for almost 10 years, but it is only in this current term that he and his colleagues have gained enough confidence to start to change the face of Israel and even its rule of law. His government has passed anti-democratic legislation against NGOs, launched a political attack on the legal system, incited against the media and the left, and declared war on any critic of Israel overseas.

It is putting the legal and political infrastructure for creating an apartheid system in Israel, attacking anyone that might become an obstacle to achieve this goal. In this framework, Israel has recently started preventing human rights activists, critics of Israel and supporters of BDS from entering Israel and the Occupied Territories. In this context, the prime minister, who is under police investigation, suspected of bribery and other crimes, is trying to incite against the left and the media in Israel.

This policy has many supporters in Israel. Israeli democracy is very fragile and is threatened by a lot of ignorance and anti-democratic perceptions. Israelis are taught to think that democracy is the rule of the majority; that the minorities have no rights; and that any criticism of Israel, from inside or outside, is nothing less than treason or anti-Semitism.

A declaration to close down the office of a media outlet with the ultimate excuse that it is supporting terror and violating the security of Israel is perceived in Israel as a patriotic and popular step. The closing down of Al Jazeera is yet another attack on Israeli Palestinians, who are the main viewers of Al Jazeera in Israel and who have been the target of a systematic campaign, led by the government and the prime minister himself. The Israeli Palestinians are the fifth column and Al Jazeera is their flag.

There are commentators who suggested that the move against Al Jazeera in Israel has to be seen in the context of the new so-called coalition of moderate Sunni states in the Middle East, led by Saudi Arabia, which Israel is trying to be part of. I do not agree with this explanation. From Tel Aviv, it looks like Karas initiative has much more to do with the fight against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS), against Haaretz, my newspaper, against the social-justice-oriented New Israel Fund and against the NGO Breaking the Silence (created by Israeli veterans)  rather than with the secret relations with Riyadh and Cairo.

If the decision of Minister Kara will not be cancelled or declared illegal by the Supreme Court, it will be clear that Israel is taking an extremely dangerous path. The Israeli journalist association already protested against the intention to close Al Jazeera down. It is now up to all Israeli democrats to tell their government: do not dare to curb free access to any source of information, whether critical of Israel or not!

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. He is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspapers editorial board.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
False alarm war crime case was used by lobbyists to try and influence US politicians into revoking law Riyadh opposed.

A US lawyer with ties to Saudi Arabia filed a false alarm lawsuit against senior Israeli and Trump administration officials, which helped the countrys lobbying efforts against legislation that allows US citizens to sue Riyadh over the September 11 attacks.

Al Jazeera has discovered that Martin McMahon, who filed the complaint in February at a district court, has connections to Saudi Arabia dating back to at least 2003.

The lawsuit alleges the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, the Trump administrations ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and the Kushner Family Foundation, the charity of Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner all committed or financed war crimes in violation of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).

JASTA is an amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) that limited foreign states immunity to lawsuits brought by US citizens in relation to support for acts of terrorism. It became law in September 2016 after a veto from then-president Obama was overridden by US Congress.

The complaint against Israeli and Trump-related officials was then used by Saudi lobbyists to show members of Congress how a key ally could be put at risk by JASTA, according to Brian McGlinchey, editor of 28pages.org.

Shaky lawsuit

McGlinchey told Al Jazeera he became aware of the suit because it was used as a talking point for anti-JASTA lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

They pointed to the complaint and said, Here are the unintended consequences,' he said, explaining the lawsuit was used as an example of a US ally put at risk of legal action.

McGlinchey noted the February lawsuit appeared to have been made on weak grounds.

When you looked at the actual complaint, the State of Israel isnt named, he said. It seemed a shaky invocation of JASTA.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia condemns passage of US 9/11 law

The amendment only applies to foreign states and related entities, not individuals, as in the lawsuit.

According to 28pages, a false alarm complaint refers to a lawsuit seemingly filed for the purpose of providing lobbyists with another piece of ammunition to argue for their specific goal.

Others called into question the text of the suit itself, which is long and rambling, according to William Dodge, a professor of law at the University of Californias Davis School of Law and member of the US Department of States Advisory Committee on International Law.

Just because you name JASTA in a complaint doesn't mean it will be seriously considered by William Dodge, University of California, Davis School of Law

Theres been a lot of litigation around foreign official immunity recently, Dodge said in an interview, naming several cases that are testing the limits of the immunity granted to officials such as a case brought against Muhammad Al Samantar, Somalias prime minister from 1988 to 1990 under Somali strongman Siad Barre.

Samantar admitted to ordering extrajudicial torture and killings, the Department of State decided he was not immune, though it wasnt an absolute ruling.

Still, None of [the litigation] is around JASTA, because JASTA doesnt affect foreign officials. None of this depends on the passage of JASTA, Dodge explained. Just because you name JASTA in a complaint doesnt mean it will be seriously considered.

Robert Tolchin, a lawyer representing an accounting firm named in McMahons lawsuit for working with the Kushner Family Foundation, which donates to Israeli settlement organisations in the occupied West Bank, is similarly confused by what he called the legal mumbo jumbo contained in the text.

According to a motion to dismiss filed by Tolchin, McMahon did not meet basic legal requirements of giving street addresses for the plaintiffs, using instead the city or country in which they live.

McMahon responded with an affidavit from Miko Peled, an anti-occupation Israeli activist and author living in the United States, which said locating an individual address in Palestine is a very difficult task because of an uncertain postal system.

Tolchin filed another response saying many of the plaintiffs listed in the suit, including Peled, live in the US, so the reasoning remained without merit. His research also found 13 plaintiffs were killed by Israeli forces.

No representatives of the estates of the deceased have been named, Tolchin wrote, and the deceased do not have standing to sue in their own name simply because a lawyer has decided to name them as plaintiffs.

Several of the living plaintiffs declined to be interviewed for this article, others did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

Al Jazeera asked Tolchin for his take on the legislation, to which he replied, Im not sure whos paying him to file these complaints, but Im sure someone is.

Saudi connections

While its not known who, if anyone, pays for the time required to file the complaints, Al Jazeera has learned that McMahon has a history of working for Saudi interests.

The lawyer worked as a lobbyist for the Dallah al-Baraka Holding Company, a Saudi conglomerate, on the issues of banking, foreign relations, and law enforcement from March 2003 to August 2006, according to lobbying disclosures.

Al-Baraka is one of the largest business holdings in the Middle East with investments in banking, healthcare, manufacturing and many other sectors. It has also been accused of providing funds to the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in a complaint filed in 2003.

The suit alleges that al-Baraka bank provided Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national and one of the founders of al-Qaeda who is accused of planning of the attacks, with financial infrastructures in Sudan beginning in 1983 and continuing for decades.

It also claims that Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who allegedly befriended two of the hijackers and provided them with monetary support after they entered the US, was assistant to the Director of Finance for Dallah Avco, an aviation holding of al-Baraka, according to an application for a PhD programme.

Another lawsuit filed against al-Baraka alleges the conglomerate gave donations to al-Haramain Foundation, a Saudi charity, that funnelled financial support to al-Qaeda, even after the events of September 11, according to a CBS News report from 2004. The US Department of the Treasury found direct ties between al-Haramain and al-Qaeda that year.

These and many other, similar suits were merged by August 1, when Saudi Arabias lawyers filed a motion to dismiss legal action against the kingdom. McMahon currently serves as the defence lawyer for Wael Jalaidan, one of the original founders of al-Qaeda, in one of these cases.

Jalaidan, a Saudi national, was named an associate of Usama bin Laden and a supporter of [al-Qaeda] in 2002 by the US Treasury and Saudi Arabia, resulting in the freezing of his assets.

As recently as June 2017, McMahon was working to release funds from Jalaidans Swiss bank accounts in order to secure payment for lawyer fees, according to emails between the lawyer and the US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control entered into public record.

McMahon did not respond to a request for comment.

Al Jazeera spoke with Timothy LaPira, associate professor of political science at James Madison University and author of numerous works on lobbying, about the use of lawsuits to influence legislators.

A lawsuit that isnt going anywhere? I havent heard of lobbyists using anything like this, LaPira said, going on to say that lobbyists depend on their credibility.

Such a lawsuit wouldnt get far with legislators, he concluded.

Insidious campaign

However, Saudi Arabia has resorted to new techniques in its lobbying campaign, according to Terry Strada, the chairperson of the 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism and widow of Tom Strada, one of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attack on the Twin Towers.

She filed a 17-page complaint with the Department of Justice in March that alleged Saudi Arabias unprecedented foreign influence campaign used insidious, deceptive foreign propaganda to try to amend or repeal JASTA.

The insidious propaganda was a Saudi campaign at the beginning of 2017 to recruit and fly US veterans to Capitol Hill to lobby against JASTA without informing them of who was paying for their travels.

The Saudi government retained the services of DC public relations firm Qorvis MSLGROUP to oversee this campaign.

Not only was the campaign misleading to the veterans, but it may have put them in legal jeopardy.

The US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires anyone who represents the interest of foreign states in a political or quasi-political capacity to disclose their relationship or face fines and possible jail time.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia seeks to end US lawsuits over 9/11 attacks

In spite of these penalties, FARA goes notoriously unenforced. Democrats introduced a bill on August 1 to strengthen enforcement of the act.

The complaint asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to conduct an immediate national security investigation to determine the scope and breadth of involvement and prosecute any criminal violations of FARA, or other federal law.

Strada told Al Jazeera she hasnt heard much regarding Saudi lobby activities since the plot behind the veterans was uncovered. I think theyre trying to distract people  Now theyre pointing the finger at Qatar.

While she hasnt heard from the Saudi lobby recently, she expects further campaigns. Strada said she knows theyve got something up their sleeve.
President Xi Jinping tells US president to avoid words and deeds that provoke Pyongyang as threat of war escalates.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged US President Donald Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions with North Korea as an escalating war of words raised global alarm.

Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Trump escalated his warnings to North Korea, saying it would truly regret taking hostile action against the US.

Chinas foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the already tense situation, exercise restraint, and seek a political settlement.





Al Jazeeras Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said the message from Xi to Trump was made clear in the short, but polite telephone call.

This was a chance for the Chinese president to show to his people that he is trying to take the lead in trying to resolve this crisis, he said.

North Korea said it would complete plans by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the US Pacific island territory of Guam, after Trump said any threats by Pyongyang would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

Brown said China wants to avoid regime change in North Korea because it fears anarchy and a refugee influx. President Xi doesnt always, I think, believe that the US understands the difficult situation it is in and he feels that the US in some ways has been arm twisting China for the past couple of weeks.

Both leaders also pressed Pyongyang to halt its own threats.

READ MORE: China  Military force wont halt North Korea threat

President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior. The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a White House statement said.

The Norths official KCNA news service in an editorial blamed Trump for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war, calling the US the heinous nuclear war fanatic.

Japanese media said Tokyo was deploying its Patriot missile defence system.





The defence ministry deployed the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima, and Kochi in western Japan, which North Korea had warned could be along its missiles flight path, public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said.

It also deployed the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, according to the reports, while the Asahi Shimbun said one Maritime Self-Defence Force Aegis destroyer was stationed in the East Sea to shoot down airborne missiles.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

US military forces stand ready to safeguard Guam after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles towards the American Pacific island territory, the White House said early Saturday.

During a call with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo, Trump reassured him the United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America, a statement said.

INFOGRAPHIC: North Korea explained in graphics

Guams government, meanwhile, issued fliers with emergency tips on what to do in case of a North Korean strike.

If an attack warning is issued, Guam residents should take cover quickly  in a concrete structure, preferably underground  and stay there until instructed otherwise, according to a fact sheet titled Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat.

Guams Office of Civil Defence began disseminating fact sheets on Friday.





Do not look at the flash or fireball  it can blind you, the missile threat prep fact sheet advises those who are caught outside. Lie flat on the ground and cover your head.

The flier also offers guidance on removing radioactive material: When possible, take a shower with lots of soap and water to help remove radioactive contamination.

But dont scratch or scrub skin and do not use conditioner in your hair because it will bind radioactive material to your hair.

On the streets of Guam, the outward appearance remained calm with the main concern being the approach of the typhoon season.

To be honest, Im more worried about the projectiles from the typhoons when we get strong winds than whatever projectiles Kim Jong-un says he will launch on Guam, Janice Furukawa, a 58-year-old mother, said as she prepared her typhoon emergency kit at her home in the western village of Piti.

Trump assured Calvo that Guam is safe. We are with you a 1,000 percent, Trump said, according to video of the call posted on Calvos Facebook page. You are safe.

Calvo responded by saying he feels safe and confident with Trumps leadership: Im glad youre holding the helm, sir.
Prime Minister Hun Sen had accused Laos of sending 30 soldiers across the border and warned of a military response.

Cambodia and Laos reached an agreement for Lao soldiers to pull back from their shared border, easing the threat of a military confrontation.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Hun Sen flew to Vientiane on Saturday to hold urgent talks with Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.

Hun Sen on Friday dispatched forces to the border and issued an ultimatum for Laos to withdraw the soldiers.

In a news conference after the meeting, the Lao leader said he had ordered the withdrawal.

Ive ordered the authorities involved to withdraw troops from that area by tomorrow morning, Thongloun said.

Thongloun said he was sorry he had not responded to an August 2 letter from Hun Sen seeking the troop pull back.

Anyway, the discussion today was frank and friendly, so that the area would not lead to forces being confrontational, he said.

Thongloun did not say whether Laos admitted to having sent troops into Cambodia, which says about 30 soldiers from Laos crossed into its province of Stung Treng in April.

Hun Sen said he had also ordered truck-mounted rocket launchers and ground troops to pull back in response to Laos agreement to withdraw.

Our biggest success is that there is no dispute that cant be solved, Hun Sen. Moments ago, I already ordered all troops that were mobilised yesterday to go back to their positions.

Laos wants Cambodia to stop clearing land along the border for road-building and allow checks by inspection panels from both countries.
BEACH -- The Golden Valley County Museum has many stories to tell when visitors pause to listen, imagine and learn.

Imagine students walking to school with a lunch pail in hand, or the neighborhood women at a quilting bee, or the men threshing oats with horses and steam tractors. Their stories are told through the multiple artifacts left behind.

Anyone who has ever attended a country school will remember the Dick and Jane primary readers, the desks with an inkwell and the pot-bellied coal stove in the corner.

Judy Ridenhower, the boards president, shares her knowledge with visitors by speaking of her 40 years in teaching at Beach.

I joined the historical society because I loved history, she said.

The museum was organized as the Golden Valley County Historical Society in 1970. The museum started with purchase of the Chevrolet garage, and accumulation of three additional buildings. By 1976 all the displays were filled and the grand opening was held.

The societys pride and joy is the 1909 Little Beaver School, but retired farmers will appreciate the grain wagon, mower and binder in the machinery building, or the Hart-Parr tractor and Case threshing machine next door.

The little school was moved in from north and east of Beach, Ridenhower said. Kathy Wilner, dubbed the School Lady documented we had 82 country schools in the county over 100 years.

Ridenhowers older siblings attended country school, but when the family moved into Sentinel Butte, she attended school there.

We have the school bell, the single and double desks, the old furnace, and all the original books, she said. In fact, when the fifth grade comes over for a field trip in the spring, we usually have our math lesson there.

Entering the main door of the museum, visitors find vintage dishes lining the display cases.

We have the heritage boxes -- that is where families purchase a box to represent their family, said Ridenhower. They draw a lot of attention during reunions and get togethers. Its what families valued.

Then we get into the main room full of clothing and a lot of quilting. We have a church corner thats quite popular because we have organs and paintings from the various churches, she added.

The military room is filled with uniforms -- newly cleaned. Theres a buggy, a 1929 firetruck and a restored herse that once was used as a chicken coop.

Another favorite room is filled with replicas of the Main Street from long ago in Beach -- the barber shop, bank, Dr. Bushs medical office, saddle shop, blacksmith shop and the Bluebird hotel.

The railroad room gives honor to the railroad and to Warren Beach, for whom the city is named.

One corner highlights fossils when the area was swampy and fish swam on top of Sentinel Butte, and the artifacts used by the Native Americans.

She likes to take guests through the museum, especially for the first time. Shell point to the cream separators and tell stories how all the separator discs needed to be washed one at a time.

She helps people go through the county newspapers in search of an obituary, or shell do it herself upon requests from out of state.

Reviewing the museum space, Ridenhower said its full.

We try to rotate some of things weve already been given, but it takes time and a plan, she said.

The museum has made tape recordings of the early settlers, which are being converted into CDs.

For those who have lost a partner, hearing them speak can be pretty emotional, she said.

Reflecting on the collection, Ridenhower said the staff is still trying to identify everything.

We need to do a better job of naming things, she said.

Tourists find the museum by the brochures that are kept at the tourist center by the interstate. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Its funded with a quarter mill from the county and by donations. Its open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Police officials say women and children among victims of incident in Faryab province, where violence is on the rise.

At least 13 civilians, including women and children, have been killed after their house was hit by mortars during a battle in northern Faryab province, according to Afghan officials.

General Dilawer Shah Dilawer, Faryabs police chief, told the Associated Press news agency on Saturday that three other civilians were wounded after two mortars hit the house on Friday evening.

Dilawer said it was not clear whether the Taliban or Afghan security forces targeted the house in Dawlat Abad district.

He said a delegation has been sent to the area to find out more about the attack.

OPINION: What should the US next move be in Afghanistan?

Confirming the incident, Naimatullah Tofan, Dawlat Abad police chief, told DPA news agency that seven members of one family, except for the father, were killed.

Faryab has witnessed an increase in violence in recent months and both sides have been accused of targeting civilians.

Taliban fighters have escalated attacks throughout the country, challenging a thinly stretched Afghan security forces to fight the ever increasing violence.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban on the Faryab incident.

In a separate development, US forces in Afghanistan have denied allegations that they killed civilians in an air raid on a vehicle in the eastern province of Nangarhar earlier this week.

Fighters had been observed loading weapons onto the mini-truck, which had been under surveillance until it was destroyed, Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for US forces, said in a statement on Saturday.

The Thursday evening attack had been conducted in the middle of an open field in Haska Mena district with no chance of civilian casualties, he said.





A number of fighters were killed in the attack, the statement said.

Sazolay Shinwari, Haska Meena districts chief, told DPA on Friday that the aerial bombardment had hit a mini-truck, killing 11 civilians, including women and children.

Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member from Nangarhar, spoke of 16 dead.

The area is under the control of Islamic State, but all those killed were civilians who were trying to leave the area, Qaderi said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, also known as ISIS.

In a statement, US forces said in the statement.This is the second false claim of civilian casualties in the same district within the last three weeks.

The number of civilian casualties from air raids in Afghanistan is growing.

According to UN figures from July, 1,662 civilians were killed and 3,581 others were wounded in the first six months of 2017.
Muhammadu Buhari says he feels ready to return home from London after three months and is awaiting doctors permission.

Nigerias president says he feels healthy enough to return home from medical leave in Britain and is awaiting his doctors permission.

Muhammadu Buhari, 74, has been undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness since early May.

The absences and lack of information have prompted numerous protests, including demands that Buhari should resign.

I am okay, Buhari said, according to a statement by the information ministry on Saturday.

READ MORE: Nigerians tell absent Buhari  Resume or resign

I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge, he said.

There has been a tremendous improvement in his health, he said.

Photos released by the presidents office show Buhari standing outdoors, smiling and wearing sunglasses while holding a large get well soon card  with a handful of officials around him  in a residential area.

Buharis extended absence  his second this year  left many in Nigeria questioning whether he was well enough to run the country.

Further treatment

Some have called for Buharis replacement, and the military has reminded its personnel to remain loyal.

Buhari has spent more time since the beginning of 2017 in Britain than in Nigeria.

He was in London from January to March for sick leave before returning to Britain in May for further treatment.

Both times, Buhari appointed his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, to act in his stead.

The health of Buhari has been a sensitive issue since the death in office in 2010 of Umaru Musa YarAdua, which led to months of political turmoil.

During the 2015 election campaign, Buhari rejected opposition claims that he was seriously ill with prostate cancer and said that they were a smear to show him as unfit for office.
UN expresses alarm as government imposes curfew and sends more soldiers to violence-hit region of Rakhine.

Myanmar is imposing new curfews and deploying more troops to Rakhine state, the government confirmed on Saturday, after the United Nations expressed alarm at reports of a military build-up in the region where authorities are accused of widespread rights abuses.

News that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine this week to boost security met criticism from UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee on Friday, who warned it was cause for major concern.

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when ethnic Rohingya fighters attacked police posts, sparking a months-long bloody military crackdown.

The army campaign sent more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The Rohingya are a stateless group, long-maligned by Myanmars Buddhist majority, and the UN believes the armys crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing  a charge the government vehemently denies.





State media said Saturday that clearance operations are being heightened in Rakhines May Yu mountain range, an area where the government says Rohingya fighters remain active.

The army used the same language to describe counterinsurgency sweeps in October.

Plans are under way to reinforce security forces and military forces by deployment of additional troops, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said, adding curfews would be imposed in necessary areas.

The goal was to prevent extremist terrorists from taking a stronghold in the May Yu mountain range, the state mouthpiece said.

The military build-up comes after a rise in violence in recent months with dozens of villagers killed and abducted by masked assassins.

READ MORE: Government dismisses claims of abuse against Rohingya

The government blames the killings on the rebel Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October.

The group has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

Rohingya communities in the remote area also continue to be raided, with security forces firing warning shots during a face-off with a mob of villagers earlier this month.

UN rights expert Lee urged authorities to carry out their security operations in line with international human rights standards.

The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State, she said in a statement.

WATCH: Thailand: Verdict for 103 who buried Rohingya in mass graves

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services.

The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations.

A government-appointed commission in the country has dismissed allegations of widespread abuses, while Myanmar is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe.
Ending a four-day journey to Lahore, Nawaz Sharif tells supporters he will change Pakistans fate despite removal.

Pakistans former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called for a change and revolution as he ended a four-day procession from Islamabad to Lahore.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters in his partys eastern stronghold on Saturday, Sharif criticised the Supreme Court for his removal, saying he would not sit at home now and would change the fate of the country.

His removal last month for concealing assets has plunged the nuclear-armed nation into political uncertainty.

On Wednesday, Sharif set off on a 370km journey in an armoured vehicle, in a display of street power against the court judgment.

Thousands came to catch a glimpse of the former leader as his convoy rolled down the Grand Trunk Road, a more than 2,000-year-old trade route which leads from Chittagong in Bangladesh across India and Pakistan to the Afghan capital Kabul.

READ MORE: Pakistans democracy reels from Nawaz Sharifs removal

Speaking at the famous Data Darbar, a well-known Sufi shrine, Sharif said that along his journey he saw that citizens had not accepted his disqualification. He asked his supporters to await his next move, without elaborating.

Citing his accomplishments, Sharif asked why a prime minister was disqualified when he was moving the country towards progress.





This country belongs to 200 million people and not the few who ousted me, disrespecting your vote.

Who are those people who have disqualified me? Are they themselves qualified? he asked the crowd, which responded with chants of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The rally in Lahore is expected to galvanise Sharifs political base in advance of what he had earlier promised was the start of a grand debate on the militarys role in the running of the country.

Sharif has a rocky history with the countrys military establishment, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 70-year history.

He served three separate stints as premier but never completed a full term in office.

Within days of his removal, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominated Shahid Khaqan Abbasi  former oil minister  as a new prime minister, with the National Assembly rubber-stamping the choice.

On Friday it was announced that Sharifs wife, Kalsoom Nawaz, would contest the vacant parliamentary seat.
Three people reported killed as police clashed with supporters of defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga.

Kisumu, Kenya  A tense calm prevailed on Saturday in this stronghold of defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga, a day after his defeat to incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was officially announced.

Running street battles between security forces and protesters unhappy with the results continued in several parts of the city of Kisumu for most of the night.

However, by sunrise clashes had whittled down to small groups of youths setting fire to tyres only to be chased away by the police.

Most shops in the city remained closed and some roads were still blocked by the leftovers of Friday nights violence  rocks and burned tyres.

READ MORE: Uhuru Kenyatta wins Kenya presidential election

The slum of Kondele was one of the worst hit. There, opposition protesters accused police of using excessive force against them, including baton beatings and the firing of live ammunition.

They were using real bullets at us ... We did not have any guns. by Zaphania Onyango, Kisumu resident

Young men gathered on street corners still angry at the election results and their treatment at the hands of the security forces.

They were even entering homes and beating people up, Zaphania Onyango Juma, 29, told Al Jazeera holding an empty bullet case.

They were using real bullets at us  We did not have any guns, he added.

They steal our votes and then they send soldiers to shoot us.

Casualties

One person was killed in Kisumu and another in Siaya.

Al Jazeera has learned that a third person, a 10-year-old child was also killed after being hit by a stray bullet in Mathare, a district in capital Nairobi.

Overall, there have been at least 24 people killed since the election on Tuesday, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The local hospital in Kisumu received five casualties, three of which had gunshot wounds, and the other two from beatings with batons.

Michael Oluoch, a 21-year-old, was shot in the thigh. It was after 9pm. We were out and they [security forces] started shooting. One bullet hit me.

Oluoch spoke to Al Jazeera while lying on a bed in the hallway of the hospital, a bloodied bandage covering the upper part of his leg.

In the next room, groaning in pain and unable to speak, was father-of-three David Okoth Maina, 34.

Maina, a water vendor, was shot in the ear and was waiting to be taken into the X-ray room.

He was inside his house when he heard loud noises outside. He went outside to see what was happening and then he was shot in the ear, his brother, Martin Otieno Maina, told Al Jazeera.

He is in a lot of pain. We waited for him to be treated.

Regional Police Commissioner, Wilson Njenga, said officers were enforcing the law and used reasonable force depending on the threat.

Police were clearing the road and not going into homesteads. Police are patrolling the roads and protecting properties and we defend where there are threat to lives, he said.

Investigations will be done to establish if it was police or hooligans that caused the death of the person  Police are using tear gas and live ammunition is the last resort, Njenga added.

They control the courts

Observers have called on opposition leaders and those with grievances to go to the courts, but Odinga supporters say that will not help.

They control the courts. We tried it last time. It is useless doing that, John Omondi, 30, told Al Jazeera.

The neighbourhood of Obunga is a short drive from Kondele. The roads there were still blocked and angry young men gathered by the roadside.

They were shooting at us. Firing tear gas and a police helicopter was flying above us most of last night, Cosmus Omondi told Al Jazeera.

While the streets were empty on Saturday, police could be seen kicking down doors and entering buildings.

Amnesty International has warned the Kenyan authorities against using excessive violence against protesters.

While the police should, of course, position their resources where violence and loss of life is likely to occur, officers deployed in the areas identified as violence hotspots must not believe they have carte-blanche to use excessive force, said Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, Amnestys East Africa researcher.
A former Afghan fighter turned mediator says Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tried to host the Taliban before the armed group set up an office in Qatar.

Abdulla Anas, a former friend of the late al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, told the Middle East Eye on Friday that he was bewildered by Saudi Arabias claim that Qatar supported terrorism by allowing the Taliban to open an office in Doha.

That initiative was first established in Saudi Arabia, Anas said.

There were also some rounds in the Emirates. So if Qatar is accused of hosting terrorists, someone hosted the same terrorists before this, he said.

READ MORE: Otaiba emails  UAE lobbied US to host Taliban office

His statements apparently contradict a mounted campaign against Qatar for its alleged support of terrorist groups.

A Saudi-led bloc, which includes UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, severed diplomatic ties with Qatar in June and imposed a land and sea blockade.

The four Arab states accused Qatar of financing terrorism, citing the 2013 opening of a Taliban embassy in Doha as an example.

Qatar has denied all allegations and said it agreed to open the mission for the Taliban as part of a broader US-led effort to facilitate peace talks in Afghanistan  not to support their ideology or the group itself.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis  All the latest updates

Anas, an Algerian who now lives in London, told Middle East Eye that he made a series of visits to Saudi Arabia between 2006 and 2008 in an effort to bring warring factions in Afghanistan to the negotiating table.

He said he met Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former head of Saudi intelligence, more than once, and helped organise the 2008 peace talks in Medina with the blessings of the late king, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Hashmat Moslih, an Al Jazeera journalist who covers Afghanistan, says the Taliban ultimately turned to Qatar because Saudi Arabia was seen as a party to the war in Afghanistan.





The Taliban had to choose a country that was neutral. And Qatar was a neutral country, he said, adding: Although Saudi Arabia wanted to host the Taliban, the Afghan government would have objected because of the Saudis close ties with the Taliban.

A series of leaked emails have recently shown that UAE diplomats also lobbied US officials so Abu Dhabi could host the Taliban office.

The New York Times reported in July that Yousef al-Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US, received an angry call from Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAEs foreign minister, complaining that the Taliban had ended up in Qatar and not the UAE, according to messages in Otaibas webmail account.

In 2011, when the emails were sent, the Obama administration was making efforts to hold peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government as it sought to remove NATO troops from the country.

Most of the troops withdrew in 2014, but peace was not achieved.

The opening of the office angered Hamid Karzai, then president of Afghanistan, by styling itself as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile.

The office has since been closed.

Otaiba has repeatedly criticised Qatar for its alleged alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and over the opening of another Doha-based office for the Palestinian group Hamas, which was also arranged with US approval.
Washington has already branded Nicolas Maduro a dictator and Trump lists military option as one of many.

US President Donald Trump has threatened military intervention in Venezuela, a surprise escalation of Washingtons response to Venezuelas political crisis that Caracas disparaged as craziness.

Venezuela has appeared to slide towards a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after a new legislative body usurped the authority of the opposition-controlled Congress.

Washington has slapped sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro and some of his allies, and branded him a dictator over his attempts to crush his countrys opposition. Venezuela has, in turn, accused America of imperialist aggression.





The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary, Trump told reporters in an impromptu question and answer session.

The comments appeared to shock Caracas, with Venezuelas Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino calling the threat an act of craziness.

The White House later said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro requested a phone call with Trump on Friday, which the White House appeared to spurn, saying in a statement that Trump would gladly speak to Venezuelas leader when democracy was restored in that country.

Venezuelan authorities have long said US officials were planning an invasion.

A former military general told Reuters news agency earlier this year that some anti-aircraft missiles had been placed along the countrys coast for precisely that eventuality.

In Washington, the Pentagon said the US military was ready to support efforts to protect US citizens and Americas national interests, but that insinuations by Caracas of a planned US invasion were baseless.

READ MORE: Trump  US locked and loaded against North Korea

Trumps suggestion of possible military action came in a week when he has repeatedly threatened a military response if North Korea threatens the United States or its allies.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticised Trumps new stance.

Congress obviously isnt authorising war in Venezuela, he said in a statement.

Nicolas Maduro is a horrible human being, but Congress doesnt vote to spill Nebraskans blood based on who the Executive lashes out at today.

The US military has not directly intervened in the region since a 1994-1995 operation that aimed to remove from Haiti a military government installed after a 1991 coup.
Charlottesville mayor says at least one dead and dozens injured in car ramming that hit counter-protesters.

At least one person was killed on Saturday and 35 injured as protests turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, as white supremacists clashed with counterdemonstrators and a car rammed into a crowd of anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstrators.

A 32-year-old female was among those killed in the car-ramming, said Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, and injuries ranged from life-threatening to minor.

She was later named on social media as Heather Heyer and a fundraising page for her family has raised nearly $20,000, at the time of publication.

A 20-year-old man was held by police on charges relating to the car incident, including second-degree murder, according to police. The FBI opened a civil rights probe.

The Charlottesville Police Department said in a statement on Saturday night that James Alex Fields Jr of Ohio also faces three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene.

The Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously on Saturday to allow the police chief to declare a curfew. No action on the move has been taken yet, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said on his Facebook page.

Earlier on Saturday, Signer confirmed on Twitter that at least one person had died in the car-ramming incident.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good willgo home.  Mike Signer (@MikeSigner) August 12, 2017

The hospital in Charlottesville reported that at least 19 people were injured.

Pepper spray, batons and makeshift weapons were used as far-right demonstrators clashed with counterprotesters throughout Saturday.

Organised by Jason Kessler, a former journalist and a member of the Proud Boys, an ultra-nationalist group, the Unite the Right rally was planned to voice opposition to the removal of a Confederate statue and has been described as one of the largest white supremacist events in recent US history.

Writing on Twitter on Saturday morning, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced a state of emergency to aid response to violence at the alt-right rally in Charlottesville.





It is the third event of its type to be held in Charlottesville, a university town of 46,000 people, throughout the last four months.

Earlier this year, the city voted to remove a statue of Robert E Lee, the foremost Confederate military leader during the US Civil War, prompting similar far-right protests in May and July.

Among those in attendance are well-known figures such as Mike Peinovich, a white supremacist podcaster who also goes by Mike Enoch, and Richard Spencer, a leading figure in the alt-right, a loosely knit group that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

The groups who sent members included the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Worker Party, the neo-Confederate League of the South and Identity Evropa, among other white supremacist and far-right movements.

Emily Gorcenski, a Charlottesville-based activist, said that far-rightist activists made threats, many promises of violence and incitement to violence before Unite the Right.

What were seeing is that they have no qualms about allying themselves with violent and hateful groups like the National Socialist Movement, the KKK and other [similar] organisations, she told Al Jazeera.

Led by local church groups, community organisers and Black Lives Matter, several counterdemonstrations have started in different locations across the city.

READ MORE: Alt-right rally  Charlottesville braces for violence

Although city officials attempted to move Unite the Right from Emancipation Park, the site of the Robert E Lee statue, to another nearby park, a federal judge reinstated the groups permit for the original venue on Friday.

The Virginia state police announced on Twitter that arrests had been made, but it did not specify how many people had been detained.

A police helicopter crashed and killed the pilot and a passenger later in the afternoon outside Charlottesville while en route to the rally, though officials did not elaborate the details.

Effort to intimidate

On Friday night, hundreds of marchers descended on the University of Virginia carrying torches and yelling slogans white lives matter and blood and soil.

Others reportedly chanted: You will not replace us.

According to anti-racist and anti-fascist activists who were present, the far-right activists encircled and attacked a group of students who were holding a counterprotest.

Michael Payne, cochair of the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, described Unite the Right as an effort to intimidate the community.

Last night, the alt-right protesters initiated the violence  The neo-Nazis surrounded them with lit torches and started macing and beating the students, he told Al Jazeera, explaining that police arrived after clashes started.

Videos and photos posted on social media also showed the far-rightists surrounding and confronting counterdemonstrators.

Massive brawl breaks out, tiki torches thrown as #UniteTheRight reaches Jefferson monument in #Charlottesville. Chemicals dispersed pic.twitter.com/NsepwZC0Te  Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) August 12, 2017

Police eventually intervened after clashes broke out and dispersed the crowd.

Payne said that local community organisations, church groups and the Black Lives Matter movement have led the charge in staging counterdemonstrations throughout the city.

After Friday nights march, Kessler took to Twitter to celebrate the large turnout, describing it as a incredible moment for white people.

Pivotal point

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump condemned the clashes in Charlottesville in a Twitter post. There is no place for this kind of violence in America, he wrote.

Far-right groups supported Trumps campaign and celebrated his electoral victory last November, seeing common cause in his efforts to limit immigration and repeal affirmative action, among other policies.

Alexander Reid Ross, author of Against the Fascist Creep, explains that the Unite the Right rally was part of an effort to shape the [far-right] movement as more serviceable populism.

What were seeing is Richard Spencer really attempting to get away from the sort of bickering that the alt-right has been involved in, he told Al Jazeera, referring to recent disputes between various factions of the far right and militia groups.

Although the Oath Keepers and similar militia groups, most of which are pro-Trump, have publicly criticised the alt-right and groups like Identity Evropa for racism, they have shown up to several far-right protests to confront counterdemonstrators in recent months.

READ MORE: What is the alt-right and what does it stand for?

They still say that there is a division that separates them, and that theyre against fascism and racism, but its clear that fascists are using these rallies to organise, Ross said.

Spencer and other Unite the Right participants lauded the large turnout for Unite the Right and Fridays march at the University of Virginia.

In a YouTube video, Spencer said: Theres nothing more beautiful than a torch-light march.

He added: This movement is growing, and were occupying space and doing it symbolically.

Unite the Right comes after months of increased clashes between far-right groups and anti-fascists.

Kim Kelly, a journalist and member of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, travelled to Charlottesville to attend Saturdays counterdemonstrations.

Were at a pivotal point in American history, and in 10 or 20 years time, when our grandchildren ask us where we were when fascism came to America, some will say that they stayed home and waited for the next election, she told Al Jazeera.

But many of us will be able to say that we were down there on the barricades, fighting back. I know where Ill be. Do you?

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_








The United States is holding Cuba responsible for investigating an apparent sonic attack that left several of its diplomats in need of medical treatment and forced them to leave Havana.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday the US mission in the Cuban capital had not been able to determine who was behind what he called health attacks that left some staff with hearing loss.

We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks on not just our diplomats but, as youve seen now, there are other cases with other diplomats involved, he said.

Tillerson added: We hold the Cubans responsible just as every host country has a responsibility for safety and security of diplomats in their country.

OPINION: Trump and his Cuban promises

His comments came two days after the US said it had expelled two Cuban diplomats after a number of American embassy workers were forced to leave Havana because of mysterious medical symptoms first reported last year.





On Thursday, Canadas government said at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also had been treated for hearing loss.

The officials told The Associated Press the hearing loss appeared to have been caused by the deliberate use of some sort of sonic device operating outside the range of audible sound.

Cubas foreign ministry said US officials had alerted it to the alleged incidents on February 17.

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement on Wednesday that Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception.

Rocky relations

Former diplomats and students of US-Cuba relations said they found it inexplicable that Cuba would have tried to harm US and Canadian diplomats, particularly in the fall of 2016 as then president Barack Obama was ending a second term marked partly by the reopening of diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island.

Thered be no logic to the Cubans trying to deliberately harm US or Canadian diplomats, William LeoGrande, an American University expert on Cuban foreign policy, told AP. Itd really be unprecedented.

READ MORE: Castro blames Trump for setback in US-Cuba relations

Relations between the US and Cuba were restored in 2015 by Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro after a half-century break.

But tensions have mounted again after the detente was partly rolled back by Obamas successor Donald Trump.

In June, Trump tightened rules for Americans travelling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm, and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.
Far-right activists to descend on Charlottesville for rally against the removal of a Confederate statue.

Virginias governor has urged people to stay away from a planned weekend rally of far-right and white supremacist groups in the university town of Charlottesville.

Charlottesville, an otherwise sleepy city of 46,000 in central Virginia, is bracing for an influx of hundreds of far-right activists  among them white supremacists and neo-Nazis from across the United States  on Saturday to protest against the planned removal of a Confederate monument.

The National Guard has been put on alert because of the risk of violence during the Unite the Right rally.

In advance of [Saturdays] rally there have been communications from extremist groups, many of which are located outside of Virginia, who may seek to commit acts of violence against rally participants or law enforcement officials, Governor Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.





In the event that such violent or unlawful conduct occurs, I have instructed state public safety officials to act quickly and decisively in order to keep the public and themselves safe.

Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent.

I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans.

Thousands of white nationalists, including supporters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) white supremacist group, and anti-fascist activists are expected to turn out in Charlottesville, the town planning to remove a statue of General Robert E Lee, who led Confederate forces during the US Civil War.

The Charlottesville event could be a potentially historic showcase of hate, bringing together more extremists in one place than we have seen in at least a decade, said Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.

Governor McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he had given security forces instructions to act quickly and decisively if violence breaks out.

READ MORE: Alt-right rally  Charlottesville braces for violence

Units of the Virginia National Guard will be placed on standby, he added.

Before the rally, David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the KKK, called on his supporters to descend on Charlottesville.

The League of the South also urged its members to be prepared for violent confrontations with anti-fascists and the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.

In a blog post on its website, the neo-Confederate organisation said the rally would affirm the right of southerners and white people to organise for their own interests just like any other group is able to do, free of persecution.

In recent months, Confederate monuments like the statue in Charlottesville have become key venues for the alt-right and other far-rightists.

In May, alt-right leader Richard Spencer led a rally of torch-wielding far-right activists at the monument, although several hundred counterprotesters outnumbered them.

On July 8, a few dozen Ku Klux Klan marchers gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove the statue of Lee. But they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counterprotestors.
Assyrian Genocide In Iraq: The Patriarch's Plea

Once again, Christians are fleeing Iraq. But this time, it's not because they are under attack from the jihadi extremists who have terrorized their communities for the past fourteen years. It's not even because of ISIS, which physically occupied the Nineveh Plain until just recently. It's because they have lost hope that they can ever trust their neighbors again. "The situation for Christians is catastrophic," the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Babylon, Archbishop Louis Sako, told me during a recent trip to northern Iraq. According to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organizations, nearly half of the 120,000 Christian refugees who fled the Nineveh Plain to the camps controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government when ISIS attacked in June 2014 have now left the country for good. "Emigration actually increased after the liberation," said Louis Markos, a town councilman from Baghdeda (also known as Qaraqosh), the regional capitol of the Assyrian homeland in the Nineveh Plain, about 20 miles southeast of Mosul. "When people went back and saw their houses ransacked, burned, or destroyed, they lost heart. They had waited for three years for their nightmare to end. It never did." While the U.S. government has earmarked more than $100 million in reconstruction funds to help restore vital infrastructure to the Christian and Yezidi areas in northern Iraq, so far local residents see only devastation. "We haven't seen a dollar of U.S. reconstruction funds," the Patriarch told me. "Nothing has come." A U.S. official involved in the funding, which Vice President Mike Pence pledged personally to the Patriarch when he visited the White House in May, told me the money has been sent to U.S. AID in Erbil and to the United Nations. "It's to be spent on restoring water and electricity in the Nineveh Plain," he said. "But if there are no people, they can't spend it. "It's a chicken and egg problem, I admit," he added. "No people, no power. No power and water, no people." The Patriarch insisted that Christians return home, despite the devastation. "If we don't rebuild, others will come to occupy our villages and towns," he said. "Already, they are putting pressure on Christians to prevent them from returning home." Checkpoints manned separately by Kurdish Democratic Party peshmerga fighters and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) militias make it difficult for families to return. "At each of these checkpoints, we often wait up to two hours," Markos told me. "Two weeks ago, I was turned back." The KDP and the PMF have established a military Line of Control, effectively dividing the Assyrian Christian and Yazidi Nineveh Plain into two separate zones. Towns that used to be just a ten minute drive from each other are now walled off from one another, requiring hours to reach crossing points manned by the warring militias. The Kurds have been hardening their side of the border, to the north, by erecting concrete barriers and blockhouses, U.S. officials told me. While Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government, both insist that the military line is just a temporary separation, Assyrian Christian leaders fear it will become permanent, leaving them hopelessly divided. Making matters worse, the Kurdish Democratic Party of KRG president Massoud Barzani has deposed prominent Assyrian Christian mayors in the Nineveh Plain in recent weeks, first in al Qosh and more recently in Tel Kaif, replacing them with Christian members of the KDP. The move was so unpopular that protestors rattled the normally congenial KRG envoy to Washington, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, at a recent event at the U.S. Institute for Peace, calling on the KDP to "get out" of the Nineveh Plain. "The Nineveh Plain is not a "disputed area," as some are claiming," the Patriarch reminded me. "The Kurds and the Shia want to occupy the areas they liberated. They have no right to this." Restoring trust among the many ethnic and religious communities of Northern Iraq will not be a simple task. The U.S. Institute of Peace has been holding workshops in the Nineveh Plain for many years in an effort to build bridges between mutually suspicious communities, some of them shut down by the KDP. "We Christians are the meat in the sandwich between the Arabs and the Kurds," the recently deposed Mayor of Tel Keif, Bassam Bello, told me six years ago during an earlier trip to the region. When ISIS seized control of the area in June 2014, it was Sunni Arabs who ate the sandwich. Today, the Christians are being nibbled at both ends by Kurdish and Shiite Arab militias. "Our goal is to make the Nineveh Plain a magnet for Reconstruction," Yohanna Yousef Towaya, a local businessman who works with the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, told me. "We are looking for private partners and NGOs to help us rebuild houses so
In the United States, it is considered scandalous when a partisan public official tries to deny a charity its tax-exempt status. But a combination of EU and UK law forces British charities to pay 1.5 billion in taxes to the government every year  something a leading charitable coalition says that Brexit could change.

A clean Brexit, the group says, could unleash the power of private philanthropy and create tens of thousands of jobs among nonprofits alone.

EU regulations do not allow its 28 member nations to exempt charities from paying the value-added tax (VAT) on items they purchase, known as zero-rates, without EU authorization. Brexit would give UK officials the flexibility to jettison those rules and usher in transformational tax reform, according to a report from the Charity Finance Group (CFG), a membership group representing more than 1,350 British charities.

Under current UK law, charities must pay input VAT  that is, taxes on some items it purchases  but are granted exemptions from charging output VAT  charging tax on most of its goods or services. The policy was meant to allow charities to offer their products to the needy at the lowest possible price.

But in practice, CFG says, this means charities cannot recoup the VAT they pay. The government also requires charities to charge output VAT on some of its activities. The total bill amounts to a transfer of approximately $1.96 billion (U.S.) from charities  and their donors  to the British government.

Even understanding these regulations requires sophistication beyond the reach of most philanthropies. Charity VAT is one of the more complicated areas of VAT, which is a great shame given that many charities are operated by unpaid volunteers who have to administer the complex rules, Bill Lewis, a consultant at Bates Wells and Braithwaite, told The Guardian. (You can see an overview of UK VAT regulations for charities here.)

The British government could provide charities with relief from certain measures immediately. But other exemptions are beyond its power as long as it is a member of the European Union.

The EU has stopped members such as Sweden from exempting nonprofits from paying VAT. In 2008, the European Commission reminded several nations that it does not provide exemption from VAT for every activity performed in the public interest, but only for those which are listed and described in great detail in its robust body of regulations.

As the British government considers paring down EU regulation in the Great Repeal Bill, CFG hopes Parliament will seize the opportunity to expand the zero-rates available to private charities. CFG writes:

[T]he government needs to convert existing charitable VAT exemptions into zero-rates or options to tax. Brexit does create an opportunity to do this, because currently the UK cannot create new zero-rates or change zero-rates without the agreement of all the other member states. As many countries in Europe do not have as large or effective a charity sector as the UK, there has been historically little appetite to do this.

But, CFG warns, not every post-Brexit scenario would make things easier for charities; some would be undesirable.

The report says the safest option is a clean Brexit, something critics call a hard Brexit. It would remove the UK from participation in every aspect of the EU  including its Single Market trading area, the Schengen Area of free movement, and the European Court of Justice. The government could use that freedom to unilaterally reduce the burden on charities.

However, a soft Brexit  staying in the Single Market without retaining EU membership  would create the worst of all worlds, CFG writes. It would require the UK to follow EU rules and regulations without having the ability to vote on them.

In Brexit negotiations now underway, the EU could demand the UK follow its VAT laws as a condition of accessing the Single Market. Brussels would be tempted to classify any move to reduce taxes, even exempting charities, as a British attempt to undermine competition, CFG writes. Only a fuller Brexit that removes regulatory overreach will benefit charities.

Reducing the governments claim on charitable contributions amount to putting an army of charity workers on the streets, tending the needs of the poor and vulnerable.

The impact of VAT reform would be transformational to the UK charity sector, CFG writes, freeing up hundreds of millions of pounds to be spent on helping advance good causes.

Charities could transfer money away from structuring activities in such a way to avoid large VAT bills and paying for advice and pay more people to serve the needy. That would create around 50,000 extra full-time jobs paying the National Living Wage and including pension contributions.

The change in policy is supported by 63 percent of those surveyed by ComRes in a poll CFG commissioned.

Exempting charities from taxation makes sense for a host of reasons.

First, burdensome compliance costs are often crippling in the private sector. In the nonprofit world, they can be lethal.

Second, the regulatory environment has caused surviving charities to develop into businesslike operations which citizens see as just another business, Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, told a Conservative Party gathering last October. Evidence from across the transatlantic sphere shows that government regulations and subsidies have the power to divert philanthropies, even faith-based charities, from their higher mission.

Third, taxing charities is a kind of wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich and powerful. Every dollar of such taxation goes from the charitys recipients to an MP. Complex regulations mean that charities must hire accountants or pay tax lawyers instead of stocking soup kitchens and food banks. As such, they are a most unwelcome market distortion.

Fourth, charging philanthropies a VAT requires those charities, in a small sense, to break faith with their donors. People give to charity to support its good aims: ending heart disease, fighting cancer, feeding the hungry, or teaching the illiterate. Taxation allows the government to convert privation donations into a revenue source for its own prerogatives, whether they emanate from Westminster or Brussels. St. John Chrysostom said, Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead. It is undeniably a better work than building a revisionist European history museum or erecting a multimillion-dollar political headquarters of dubious necessity or architectural value. Feeding the victims of the Grenfell Towers tragedy should not be subordinated to such causes.

Finally, redirecting donations from philanthropies to the government costs the underprivileged the opportunity to receive potentially life-altering help. Private charities do more to address the root causes of poverty than government programs, at far lower cost. Faith-based charities particularly carry the ability to inspire spiritual renewal and personal transformation that ends poverty-inducing behaviors and creates solid (and, one might add, tax-paying) citizens. While philanthropies lose part of their funds to current VAT policy, it is the poor, the outcast, the addicted, and the misguided who pay the price.

If Brexit eliminates barriers to charitable giving and the development of healthier intermediary institutions that directly care for the poor, it will be another example of how Brexit could enhance the life of the world.

(Photo credit: Dennis Jarvis. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
Armed attackers stormed the Sarmin office of the Syrian paramedic group that is active in opposition-controlled areas.

Armed attackers early on Saturday stormed an office of a Syrian paramedic group active in opposition-controlled areas, killing seven of its members and stealing two vehicles and other equipment in a northwestern region, the group and opposition activists said, while a suicide attack in the south of Syria killed at least 23 rebels.

The Syrian Civil Defence group, more popularly known as the White Helmets, said in a statement that the attack happened in the early hours in the town of Sarmin.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the rare attack, but it came amid tension in the area. Sarmin is in Idlib province, which witnessed clashes recently between al-Qaeda-linked fighters and members of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group that ended with al-Qaeda fighters capturing much of the region.

The al-Qaeda-linked Hayet Tahrir al Sham  also known as HTS  said over the past weeks that its members had discovered sleeper cells of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group who were planning an attack. The al-Qaeda affiliate, which was known as the Nusra Front, has fought deadly battles with ISIL over the past years.

OPINION: Syria and the case for editorial accountability

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven were killed after being shot in the head, adding that the killings were discovered when volunteers from the White Helmets arrived to start a shift and found the bodies of their colleagues.

Until now it is mostly likely a crime. It might also be an attack aimed to harm the image of the Nusra Front and to show that Idlib is not safe, said Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Observatory.

An opposition activist based in Idlib who has been providing the Associated Press with information about the province for years said the attackers used pistols equipped with silencers, adding that people living nearby did not notice anything unusual.





The activist, who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals, said ISIL sleeper cells had been discovered in Sarmin. He added that most likely members of ISIL carried out the attack to show that Idlib is not safe.

The activist said the HTS-linked Judicial Committee is investigating the case.

Sarmin used to be a stronghold of the Jund al-Aqsa armed group that clashed with al-Qaeda last year before many of its members were allowed to head to areas controlled by ISIL, whom they are fighting now.

The Syrian first responders have been known to risk their lives to save people from the civil war, now in its sixth year.

The White Helmets emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.

They have since gained international renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although they work exclusively in rebel-held areas, they insist they are non-partisan.

Their detractors, including President Bashar al-Assads government and his ally Russia, accuse them of being tools of their international donors.

Suicide attack near Jordan border

Elsewhere in Syria, a suicide attacker blew himself inside a training camp for the Army of Islam rebel group in the southern town of Naseeb, near the border with Jordan, killing more than 20 fighters.

The Observatory said on Saturday that the Friday night blast killed 23 and wounded 20, some of whom were in critical condition.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist based in the southern province of Deraa, told AP that about 80 Army of Islam members were having dinner inside a tent when the suicide attacker walked in and blew himself up.

He said 30 were killed, 20 were wounded and six are still missing.

No one claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, but ISIL has previously claimed such attacks.
War-torn country may be hit by new humanitarian disaster as depleted blood bank treats some 3,000 Yemenis a month.

Yemens blood bank has sent out an urgent appeal to anyone who will listen as war and a blockade on the capital, Sanaa, may force the centre to close within a week.

The National Blood Transfusion Centre director, Dr Adnan al-Hakimi, said the crisis emerged after French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials, MSF) informed the bank it was suspending its aid after more than two years of work.





We appeal to all humanitarian organisations in the international community and all financial donors to support the centre, as our medical supplies have nearly run out, said Hakimi.

An MSF spokeswoman said the charity had handed over its support for the blood bank to the World Health Organization.

We will only be able to work for one more week, and after that, if the humanitarian organisations dont mobilise to support the national centre, it will shut down.

The blood bank says it treats some 3,000 Yemenis a month who suffer from cancer, kidney failure, and thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes severe anaemia.

But a trifecta of war, disease, and famine has left the bank struggling to keep up with spiralling demand, with basic supplies all but impossible to secure in a country locked in by port and airport blockades.

Weve been impacted by the overall situation in Yemen, including the economic collapse, Hakimi said.

Less than half of Yemens hospitals are still up and running two years into a war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control Sanaa, and a government allied with an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

READ MORE: Thousands die due to Yemen airport closure: NRC

The countrys main international airport in Sanaa is also blockaded, with access limited to a select few UN aid flights by the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the airspace.

The war has destroyed much of Yemens infrastructure and pushed the country  long the Arab worlds poorest state  to the brink of official famine.

More than 8,300 people have died in the conflict with another 47,700 wounded and millions displaced, according to the WHO.

A cholera outbreak has also claimed the lives of some 2,000 Yemenis in less than four months.

What if it shuts down?

Amina Ali, whose young son has a condition that requires blood transfusions, makes the trip to the centre regularly for blood and platelets.

Now, she says, she fears those trips are numbered.

I order blood and platelets for my son every 10 days from the centre, she told AFP news agency.

What if it shuts down? Many children will get worse, including my son.

READ MORE: Yemen  Worlds worst cholera outbreak mapped

Like MSF, the United Nations has warned it has been forced to divert resources from one community to aid another  most recently, from food programmes to handle the escalating cholera outbreak.

The UN has said less than half of the $2.1bn pledged this year to Yemen by the international community has been disbursed.

But despite the dwindling hope, Yemenis refuse to give up on others in need.

I am here to donate blood as an act of charity and for my country, said Abdullah Farei, one of a handful of citizens who turned up at the centre to donate.

We ask God that the citizens respond to the call of the blood bank and donate blood and money.
Incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta declared winner of presidential elections, but his rival is refusing to concede defeat.

Extending a hand of friendship 

Thats the message from Kenyas newly elected incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta to his rival, after one of the most hotly contested campaigns in recent years.

But the opposition is refusing to concede defeat.

Theres been violence in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu and the capital Nairobi.

Kenya has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and its often cited as a stable democracy.

So, will tensions arising from this election put its future at risk?

Presenter: Martine Dennis

Guests:

Joseph Simekha  Presidential campaign spokesperson for opposition leader Raila Odinga

Joyce Laboso  National Assembly Deputy Speaker for the ruling Jubilee Party and newly elected governor of Bomet County

Irungu Houghton  Associate director of the Society of International Development
As China and Russia limit the use of VPNs, we examine repercussions for media freedom. Plus, police vs press in Uganda.

On The Listening Post this week: As China and Russia attempt to limit the use of VPNs, we examine the repercussions for media freedom online. Plus, police vs the press in Uganda.

The great firewall update: Clamping down on VPNs

Russia and China have both recently taken action against the use of VPNs, virtual private networks. VPNs enable internet users in one country to surf the web as if they are in another.

China has taken a selective approach to prohibiting VPN use  usually choosing to look away when people tunnelled through the great firewall that Beijing has put in place to regulate access to the internet.

Their new approach requires the support of companies like Apple, which has obeyed an order to remove VPN apps from its Chinese App store.

Russia has a more open internet than China, but it has just passed a new law targeting VPNs and other proxy servers.

In both countries, the pattern is unmistakable: the powers that be are out to limit  and, in effect, decide  what you can or cannot see and do online.

Contributors:

Eva Galperin, director of cyber security, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Sunday Yokubaitis, president, Golden Frog VPN

Ying Chan, director, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong

Malavika Jayaram, executive director, Digital Asia Hub

On our radar:

Turkish journalists both inside and outside the country bear the brunt of their governments media crackdown.

Two journalists have been murdered in the space of two days on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, in separate drive-by shootings.

Al Jazeeras future in Israel is in jeopardy after the Israeli government announced its decision to shut down the networks Jerusalem bureau.

Police vs the press in Uganda

Among the many challenges Ugandan journalists face in order to do their jobs  political intimidation, harassment and bogus charges, for instance  police brutality has become a major concern of late.

The early years of current President Yoweri Musevenis 31-year tenure saw the opening up of the countrys media.

In recent years, however, things have begun to change, with the government enacting a string of laws that have made the lives of journalists in Uganda increasingly difficult, and have had a chilling effect on reporting.

The Listening Posts Nic Muirhead reports on when journalism in Uganda crosses paths with policing.

Contributors:

Andrew Lwanga, former journalist

Robert Sempala, national coordinator, HRNJ-U

Asan Kasingye, assistant inspector general of police

Sarah Birete, Centre for Constitutional Governance










English News China injects confidence into world economy: commentary

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 12 Aout 2017



Why is the Chinese economy so strong? is a question that has been asked countless times. As British economist Martin Wolf pointed out, some people wrongly forecast the performance of Chinas economy because theyve been used to finding answers for this China riddle using the Western way of thinking.

By Chen Ling In a world beset by an economic downturn, China has remained an anchor of stability that continues to inject confidence into the global economy.



The resilience and sound fundamentals of the Chinese economy have won praise from foreign scholars, think tanks and media after China recently released its second quarter economic figures.



For eight straight quarters, the country managed to keep its economic growth between 6.7 and 6.9 percent and its industrial growth reached its best level after 2015. As the economy stabilizes and grows, China's employment performance continues to improve.



Nobel economics laureate Ronald Coase pointed out that economists should go back from what he termed blackboard economics to the real world, which means they should not lose sight of reality when drawing graphs on the blackboard.



People may have a deeper understanding about the economists concerns when they know that whats happening in China is turning whats on paper into reality. New technologies, emerging industries and innovative products, such as unmanned shops, wallpaper TVs and smart homes, are making life more convenient, delighting people with new experiences and enhancing their way of life.



These changes explain why foreigners in China cannot help but say that Once you leave China youll find yourself falling behind. The improvement in peoples lives shows Chinas economy continues to rise.



A few years ago, before Chinas Internet Plus strategy became the buzzword, many Western scholars doubted whether an industrial upgrade could inject new impetus into the countrys economy. Now, they may be more convinced that the idea has not only resuscitated old engines but fostered new drivers for economic growth.



China, once known for its cheap labor, has contributed to the world in terms of innovation, The Wall Street Journal said in a report. Innovation is now emerging as a new engine as China marches toward its second-phase miracle.



From this perspective, Chinas economic slowdown in the past could be described as a proactive adjustment under the economic transformation rather than a lack of impetus.



What also impresses the world are Chinas efforts to break hard constraints, such as eliminating backward production capacity, basing measures on local circumstances and taking targeted policies to cut excessive urban real estate inventory as well as focusing more on preventing and defusing financial risks.



The past few years also saw Chinas endeavor to push forward supply-side structural reform and absorb painful self-adjustments in a bid to solve the underlying problems in economic development. The reform managed to prevent both black swans and grey rhinos.



In addition to eradicating the sources of risks, China also developed a set of development concepts that has inspired the world. In the past, many developing countries deemed Western countries as their role models, and were keen on learning from the West. But both developing and the developed world have since been learning from the experience of the East.



Why is the Chinese economy so strong? is a question that has been asked countless times. As British economist Martin Wolf pointed out, some people wrongly forecast the performance of Chinas economy because theyve been used to finding answers for this China riddle using the Western way of thinking.



Misunderstandings about the Chinese economy result from prejudice and insufficient knowledge about the country. Some foreign scholars have recommended adopting the Chinese way of solving issues as a better way of observing China.



(Source: Peoples Daily)



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China accelerates green, low-carbon development World-class astronomical obervation base takes shape in Qinghai province China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News Chinas resolve to defend its territorial sovereignty should not be underestimated: Peoples Daily

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 12 Aout 2017



It is clear and definite that Indias crossing is illegal, the article emphasized. Since the incident occurred, China has sought to communicate with India through diplomatic channels to resolve the incident. But no country should ever underestimate the resolve of the Chinese government and people to defend China's territorial sovereignty, the commentary stressed.

Source: People's Daily It is very clear that Indian border troops crossing of the China-India boundary in the Sikkim sector into the Chinese territory is totally illegal, and China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests, the Peoples Daily said in a commentary published under the byline of Zhong Sheng on Friday.



The comments came after Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) published an official document entitled The Facts and Chinas Position Concerning the Indian Border Troops Crossing of the China-India Boundary in the Sikkim Sector into the Chinese Territory on Wednesday, allowing the international community to become better acquainted with the facts of the incident.



Indian border troops are still illegally staying in Chinese territory after they illegally crossed the border into Chinese territory on June 18.



What India did, which can be defined as an illegal act in nature, that aims at nothing but making trouble, the article pointed out.



It is universally recognized that once a boundary is established by a convention, it will come under particular protection by international law, the commentary noted, stressing that the China-India boundary in Sikkim sector is delimited by the 1890 Convention between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet.



According to the Convention, the Doklam area, which is located on the Chinese side of the boundary, is indisputably Chinese territory, the paper added.



The Convention gives a clear and precise description of the alignment of the boundary in this sector, said the article, and it delineates that the actual boundary on the ground follows the watershed and its alignment is easily identifiable.



Indias unauthorized crossing of such a delimited boundary is very reckless and rude, the paper underlined, pointing out at the same time that what the country did, which goes against the basic principles of international law and basic norms governing international relations, is intolerable for any country.



After the founding of the Peoples Republic of China and Indian independence, the governments of both countries inherited the 1890 Convention and the delimited China-India boundary in the Sikkim Sector as established by the Convention.



Each of the two sides has for a long time exercised jurisdiction over its side of the boundary delimited by the 1890 Convention without any dispute over the specific alignment of the boundary, the paper added.



This makes it fundamentally different from past frictions between the border troops of

the two sides in areas where the boundary has not been delimited boundary, the paper said.



This is also why the Chinese side repeated its demands of the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the trespassing Indian troops back to the Indian side of the boundary, it added, emphasizing that it is also prerequisite and basis for resolving the incident.



The article further refuted the excuses India has invented to justify its illegal actions since the incident broke out.



Indias so-called security concerns over Chinas road-building activities is clearly ill-founded. If a country takes security concerns as an excuse to justify its boundary-crossing and entry into other countries, it is putting world and regional peace at stake, the article pointed out.



If India insists on this kind of logic, how can it get along peacefully with its neighboring countries? it questioned.



Whats more, Indias claim that Doklam is a disputed area between China and Bhutan is against the truth and the law, the paper stressed.



The Doklam area has all along been part of China and under Chinas continuous and effective jurisdiction. There is no dispute in this regard, it underlined, adding that as a third party, India has no right to make territorial claims on Bhutan's behalf.



Indias intrusion into the Chinese territory under the pretext of Bhutan has not only violated Chinas territorial sovereignty but also challenged Bhutans sovereignty and independence, said the Peoples Daily.



The conduct is also a severe violation of the UN Charter and its behavior has formed an international delinquency.



In addition, the rhetoric that India upheld, namely that China and India have been in discussions on making the boundary in the Sikkim Sector an "early harvest" which proves the area is disputed, is a sophistry.



The article admitted that Chinese and Indian sides have been in discussion on making the boundary in the Sikkim Sector an early harvest in the settlement of the entire boundary question during the meetings between the Special Representatives on the China-India Boundary Question, but pointed out at the same time that this is mainly in view of a series of considerations.



It explained that the boundary in the Sikkim Sector has long been delimited by the 1890 Convention, which was signed between then China and Great Britain. China and India ought to sign a new boundary convention in their own names to replace the 1890 Convention.



This, however, in no way alters the nature of the boundary in the Sikkim Sector as having already been delimited and should not be used as Indias excuse for illegal trespass, the article continued.



The stability and inviolability of boundaries is a fundamental principle enshrined in international law, it further pointed out.



It is clear and definite that Indias crossing is illegal, the article emphasized. Since the incident occurred, China has sought to communicate with India through diplomatic channels to resolve the incident. But no country should ever underestimate the resolve of the Chinese government and people to defend China's territorial sovereignty, the commentary stressed.



China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests, it concluded.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China accelerates green, low-carbon development World-class astronomical obervation base takes shape in Qinghai province China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Amended final results regarding steel nails from China

The Department of Commerce is amending the final results with respect to the dumping margin assigned to SDC International Aust. PTY. Ltd.

Limited exclusion order and terminated investigation

The ITC has issued a limited exclusion order against intravascular administration sets from Yangzhou WeiDeLi Trade Co., Ltd. as well as terminated the investigation.

Reviews of carbon steel plate from India, Indonesia and Korea

The ITC is scheduling full reviews to determine whether revocation of the AD and CVD orders on cut-to-length carbon steel plate from India, Indonesia, and Korea would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury in the U.S.

No other additional items published in todays TradeTracker.
On the plains of East Africa there are deadly hazards. Lions, leopards, and man are the most dangerous. Grazing animals have evolved strategies for dealing with such: there is safety in numbers. A stray buffalo is fair game, but a herd of them can easily protect its young. There is safety in diversity, as well. It is the norm for herds to be a mix of impalas, zebras, giraffes and wildebeests. Biologists theorize that the different animals in the mix sense different things. So, collectively, the mixed herd is more sensitive to their surroundings and is able to give earlier warning of stalking predators. The individual animals in a mixed herd will be more likely to survive.

So what has this to do with human diversity? Humans coalesced into tribes in prehistoric times. Much like interspecies herds of animals, it is plausible that at some point tribes evolved human specialists. Like mixed herds, this would promote the survival of the tribe as well as the individuals within the tribe. If this is the case then individual genetic specialization is built into our DNA. This specialization is the true human diversity. We call such diversity talent. Talents may, or may not, be independent of race. But it is certainly not independent of environment, culture or history.

I believe the nature of human specialization of talents depends, to a very great extent, on the nature of the local environment. In the Kalahari region of southern Africa, the Bushmen find themselves in a very sparse and uniform environment. The resources are too dilute to support a large population at any one location. We find that the Bushmen exist in small family groups. The resources to support talent specialization are simply not there. Except for some sexual specialization, everyone has to have all the skills necessary to survive. All, therefore, are generalists in the sense that all must master the same unchanging technology. Bushman culture is ancient and stagnant.

In a more complex natural environment, with plentiful resources, tribes are much larger and we do find technical specialists. To our eyes the technology they work with may appear primitive. But that simply means that it is very old and time proven. It is still sophisticated technology. And cultural evolution appears to be much faster in the larger tribes.

But human evolution did not just take place in primordial times. Evolutionary pressures exist in civilization, as well. Early civilized societies quickly grew to be enormously complex with an explosion of creativity. Thus, there would likely have been strong evolutionary pressure for biological specialization. The wide variation of talents in both ancient and modern society is the likely result.

But wait a minute -- evolution was something that created humans a very long time ago. How can one say that recent societies are still evolving humans? Actually, there is direct evidence that human evolution is still underway and that significant changes in the human genome are still occurring. One piece of evidence is the relatively recent mutation in favor of adult lactose tolerance. It would have originated with a single person, perhaps in ancient Anatolia. Later migrations and interbreeding with distant populations caused the mutations distribution so that within a very short time, perhaps only a couple of thousand years, over 80% of the population of Europe became lactose tolerant. How do we know this? Just look at what people ate.

Mutations typically get established first in families, then in tribes. A successful mutation can remain localized within an isolated population for a very long time. But when populations start to mix a successful mutation spreads. Until the last few hundred years populations across the world tended to be relatively isolated. But now populations are mixing rapidly and mutations should be spreading equally rapidly. Some of these mutations will be successful, others will be deadly. In any case, these spreading mutations will enrich our catalog of biologically based talents.

So, diversity of talents is an evolutionary advantage which improves the survival of the community. Put simply, we may say that there is a biological reason everyone is different. Everyone is good at some things but not others. What a concept!

Some people -- indeed many people -- are blind to what is so obvious. These are people on the political Left. They say that they do believe in human evolution, but they really dont. These people dont believe in biologically determined unique individual talents -- despite the overwhelming evidence. These days they dont even recognize the existence of sex! Progressive leftists really believe that humans are born identical blank slates. Human beings are considered interchangeable parts in a mighty mechanism. This is the leftists dream of a perfect society. Lewis Mumford called this the megamachine -- a very socialist idea. (Of course, in socialism some people are more equal than others. Guess who gets to run the machine.)

The idea of interchangeable machine parts is two centuries old. It may have originated in Eli Whitneys invention of the American Factory System with its precision tools and tooling. Marx picked up the idea and it became one of the foundation stones of his pernicious theory.

Early in the twentieth century the factory system evolved further with Henry Fords invention of the assembly line. As far as Ford was concerned people were components of the factory -- his factory being a giant machine for assembling automobiles. Society followed and the educational system was soon reconfigured to churn out legions of do-as-youre-told industrial workers. (By way of contrast, in the nineteenth century a high school education produced someone with greater skills and a greater breadth of knowledge than many of todays college graduates.)

We have come a long way from the eighteenth century, with its liberal ideas of the supremacy of the individual. With our new conformist society has come a change in the language we use. For the Progressive Left diversity means group identity, behavioral uniformity and individual conformity. And that means that the least functional and the least sane dictate all thought and behavior. For classical liberal Conservatives diversity means individual differences, talents, opportunities and liberty. And, it means diversity of thought. Guess where real progress originates.

Dictionaries often give the same word different meanings, but they seldom give the same word contradictory meanings. We have now reached the point where the Left and the Right define the word diversity to have precisely opposite meanings. No wonder we talk past each other. (Google, are you listening?)

Of course, the twentieth century saw a lot of this corruption of language. Deliberate distortion of language is a key tool of the totalitarian left. Orwell recognized this early on and illustrated it in his novel 1984.

So, who is right? It is not hard to find the answer. The twentieth century was one of bloodshed and misery. Tracing the causes of that long catastrophe it is not hard to discover its roots in the idea that everyone is identical and interchangeable -- and socialist perfectible!

With the fall of the Soviet Union many thought we had put all of those twentieth century horrors behind us. But the fall did not defeat the toxic Left. They are fanatic cultists  true believers. They were silent for a while, burrowing ever deeper into our institutions until they felt strong enough to surface and attack. As others have noted, there is a civil war in our society. But it is one where, I am convinced, free humanity, not crushing Politically Correct conformity, will win. Humanity will not be long suppressed. The fall of the Soviet Union tells us that no matter how repressive a political system becomes, no matter how many suffer and die at its hands, the human spirit will ultimately prevail.
The pope's confidant, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, recently issued a scathing critique of American Catholics who support Donald Trump.

Both Evangelical and Catholic Integralists [in the U.S.] condemn traditional ecumenism and yet promote an ecumenism of conflict that unites them in the nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state. However, the most dangerous prospect for this strange ecumenism is attributable to its xenophobic and Islamophobic vision that wants walls and purifying deportations. The word "ecumenism" transforms into a paradox, into an "ecumenism of hate."

Does Spadaro ponder what he writes? What is the Vatican but a theocratic state?

Spadaro then seems to take umbrage that these conservatives  which would include American Catholics  are Islamophobic.

In an organization like the Roman Curia, we have to assume that Rev. Spadaro speaks for the opinion of the Vatican and the pope. Some troubling conclusions can be drawn.

Recently, Pope Francis sought to "embrace" gays within the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has said all transsexuals and homosexuals should be 'welcomed' and embraced by the Catholic Church. He said Jesus would never have turned away transgender people and revealed he had ministered to homosexuals as a priest, bishop and now as Pope.

We can argue all day about what the pope means by that, but with a million other moral collapses facing Western civilization, he should have been focusing on something else. More interesting is how different his tone was seven years earlier when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires.

When Argentina was on the verge of redefining marriage in 2010, then-cardinal Bergoglio blasted out with all his canons (pun intended) on full enfilade.

In the coming weeks, the Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family[.] ... At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God's law engraved in our hearts. ... Let us not be naive: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God's plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a 'move' of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

Did the pope lose his mind on the flight to Rome?

When he came to America in 2015, Pope Francis talked about the sin of global warming.

I call for a courageous and responsible effort to 'redirect our steps' and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity," he said Thursday, quoting his recent encyclical on climate change. "I am convinced that we can make a difference." Departing from his printed text, he added, "I am sure."

Did he talk about abortion? Was he as critical of the then-recent U.S. Supreme Court redefinition of marriage, as he had been when he was in Argentina? The whole speech sounded as though it had been written by Obama or Al Gore.

Granted, Pope Francis did not speak ex cathedra on that matter  so maybe he did not damage papal infallibility, but he certainly damaged papal credibility.

This present pope seems to stick his moist finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, and chooses his theology and morality accordingly. "The gay Prime Minister of Luxembourg and his husband have been welcomed to the Vatican," yet, somehow, the thought of American Catholics joining with Evangelical conservatives upsets the Vatican. And the pope is affectionate when it comes to Islam.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters)  Pope Francis said on Sunday that equating Islam with violence was wrong and called on Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism to help dispel the stereotype.

Some might say the pope has to be politic in order to avoid retaliation against Catholics still in the Mideast. Then why not keep his mouth shut? It appears that reasonably soon, Catholics won't be found there at all anyway.

We cannot blame all of this on the pope. He was chosen by the Vatican insiders who picked the guy they wanted. The Deep Curia, as it were.

The "swamp" in the Vatican is not a recent development. Historically, it has been commented on for well over a millennium, by both friend and foe alike. However, recently, the Deep Curia seems to be drinking the same poisoned Kool-Aid that the European Union's leadership, especially Angela Merkel  daughter of a Lutheran preacher, by the way  have quaffed.

The ancient Romans tried to drain the Pontine Marshes, which infested central Italy. It seems that the swamp went back to the Mons Vaticanus.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish in high school, lo those many decades ago. He writes on the Arabs of South America at http://latinarabia.com. He also just started a website about small computers at http://minireplacement.com.
Songwriters and poets have depicted their dislike of barriers. In his only cowboy song, Cole Porter in 1934 proclaimed, "Don't fence me in ... give me land, lots of land." Robert Frost told us, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." However, both would have been surprised that the issue of the building of a wall would be central and highly controversial in the 2016 presidential election, and perhaps a leading factor in the election of Donald Trump as president.

Political barriers were not unknown in the past. The remains of the Great Wall of China, 2,000 years old and thousands of miles long, is a reminder of this. Nevertheless, they were not common. At the end of World War II in 1945, only five border walls existed in the world. But a funny thing happened on the way to globalization, which logically entails the removal of barriers. The process may have removed some obstacles, but there has been in the last 20 years an increasing dimension in the construction of walls and fences.

The issue thirty years ago was symbolically illustrated in Germany. Speaking on June 12, 1987 at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, a few yards from the Berlin wall, President Ronald Reagan first said, in his only German utterance, "Es gibt nur ein Berlin" (there is only one Berlin). In fact, there were two, since the communist German Democratic Republic had in August 1961 constructed a wall that divided the city and restricted freedom of movement. In his desire to end the Cold War, Reagan then uttered his famous line calling on Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." Gorbachev, though a reformer, did not do so, but the combination of popular protest, mass pressure, and decline of the power of the Soviet Union succeeded in forcing it to be opened on November 9, 1989, and to be demolished in the next years.

What is relevant is that when the Berlin Wall fell, there were some 16 border fences around the world. Today, 65 countries have or are building walls to protect themselves for security reasons, to combat the threat of terrorism, or to prevent unwanted migrants entering the country.

Donald Trump as presidential candidate, and now as president, using strong and controversial rhetoric, has made building a wall along the 1,900-mile border with Mexico a crucial issue and a pivotal element of his policy. The rationale is to prevent illegal aliens, criminals, and drugs from entering the United States. It is not yet clear how much that wall will cost  some estimates suggest $21 billion  or who will pay for it (federal funds or reimbursement by Mexico). Whatever the answer, the insistence on border control is fundamental. Trump on January 25, 2017 signed two executive orders for the construction of a contiguous wall along the border, as well as for increasing the number of immigration enforcement officers who carry out deportations.

Interestingly, while a candidate, Trump, defending his call for a wall, often cited Israel's security barrier that was created to stop terrorism from the West Bank as if it were a model to be copied. Certainly, the Israeli barrier resulted in a dramatic decline in suicide bombers entering Israel. Now, however, Israel is facing terrorists in the Gaza Strip. It is therefore planning to build a large underground wall around Gaza and into the Mediterranean to stop the Hamas terrorists using underground tunnels as they did in the 2014 war, also called Operation Defensive Edge.

The task is urgent and essential. In the 2014 war, Israel destroyed 32 tunnels built by Hamas. That group has greatly expanded its naval commando unit, now consisting of 1,500 frogmen. Not only is Hamas still firing rockets from Gaza, one of which landed near Ashkelon, but the terrorist organization is still, contrary to international law, building tunnels underneath the schools in Gaza. The new Israeli project, a concrete wall, 40 miles long, 20 feet high, and 130 feet deep, using advanced sensor and monitoring devices to detect tunnels, together with an offshore barrier, will be built on Israeli territory, parallel to the border fence.

A wall is urgent and needs no apology. Hamas tunnels still exist, partly to use for smuggling from and to Egypt, partly as command centers and weapons storage, and partly for offensive operations against Israeli civilians. Many of these tunnels run under civilian homes in the Gaza Strip.

Similarly, no apologies are needed for the dramatic increase in walls and barriers in the 21st century. They result from security arrangements for barriers concerned with changing conditions in the world, economic inequality, wars, and above all terrorism, all of which displace people. They are needed in a world of increasing migration, with obvious effects on a country's budgets, employment, and cultural cohesion.

The U.S. and Israel are not the only advocates for barriers. It is worthwhile to indicate a few of the other 65 walls or barriers. Morocco has a 1,700-mile wall against the West Sahara called "the Berm," to protect it from Polisario rebels. In 2014, to ensure security at the Spanish Enclaves in North Africa, especially at Melilla, Morocco built a five-yard-high fence with razor wire and blades along the top.

Saudi Arabia has a 560-mile fence against Iraq. Turkey is busy. It has a 90-mile wall against Iran, is planning a barrier against Iraq, and has a 566-mile barrier to prevent ISIS invaders from Syria. Hungary has a 110-mile, 13-foot-high fence against Serbia. There is a 2,500-mile barbed wire fence between India and Pakistan. Since 1974, Cyprus is divided between ethnic Greeks in the south and Turks in the north. The city of Belfast is virtually divided with ironically termed "peace lines" separating Catholics and Protestants.

The final paradox in this story is a new phenomenon, the peaceful revolt in recent years of citizens in European countries against the influx of tourists. In 2017, this has occurred in Spain, which got 75 million visitors in 2016; in Venice, which got 20 million and suffers from large cruise ships and pollution; in Barcelona; and in Dubrovnik. The story now is "welcome stranger, but only up to a point."
No matter how hard some in the West and more accurately in Europe try to prove differently, the answer to that question is no. In Iran, Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated for his second term as president in a luxurious ceremony and in sharp contrast to mullahs claims that they are against it.

But that is not all. He invited European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and other people of this type for his inauguration - European elites and the tinpot dictators they enable. Mogherinis embarrassing selfies with some members of mullahs Majlis (parliament) created commotions and sent some unprecedented shock waves through the Iranian regime hierarchy. The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and his faction are furious because they see it as yet another step toward succumbing to the West.

Dont get it wrong, Khamenei is not against rapprochement with the West but he wants to do it on his own pace and take the final credit himself and what economic windfalls come with it; as he did with the nuclear deal with the six world powers-P5+1 group.

Where does Rouhani stand in all of this? It is simple: He wants a bigger share power and wealth for his faction, that which was formerly Akbar Hasheimi Rafsanjanis when he was around. Rafsanjani was Rouhanis mentor. Now in his absence, Rouhani tries to fill his shoes but he is no match for the current Supreme Leaders might or his powerful arm, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

What is often missing in approaching Iran -- at least in the past decade since the negotiations for reaching a deal with the regime on nuclear issue was underway -- is its human rights record. Amnesty International, in its latest report, stated: Iran vilifies human rights defenders as enemies of the state." It reveals that under Rouhanis first term human rights abuses have intensified in an unprecedented rate. Irans judicial and security bodies have waged a vicious crackdown against human rights defenders since Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013, demonizing and imprisoning activists who dare to stand up for peoples rights, Amnesty International said in its August 2 report.

Under Rouhani's first term, more than 3,000 executions had been recorded. Only last month, according to Irans main opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, 101 prisoners were hanged. NCRIs statement has some revealing facts: The majority of those executed were young, including two men, aged 24 and 27, who were hanged in public in Torbat Heydarieh; a 25-year-old woman in Babol; a 24-year-old man in Kerman, two 26-year-old men in Zahedan, a 28-year-old man in Zabol, and another 28-year-old man in Gohardasht, Karaj. Iran has more than 5,000 death-row inmates between the ages of 20 and 30.

Rouhani has simply shrugged off the responsibility of hangings on his watch by saying they were carried out according to laws and laws were handed down by the parliament.

Public hanging has been for long an instrument of intimidation of citizens in Iran. The mullahs regime has been shaken to the core with public display of anger and utter repugnance for its suppressive measures in dealing with the citizens daily demands. From merely lack of decent drinking water; to ordinary citizens who have lost their entire life savings to fake banks set up by IRGC commercial conglomerates; to frequent power outages especially in scorching heat of Southern Iranian provinces such as Khuzestan to ethnic, religious and all other minority groups that have been suppressed in mullahs regime since day one, protests have engulfed the country.

The 29th anniversary of the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988 is an ongoing nightmare for Iranian regime officials. In those fateful months, according to few eyewitness prisoners whose lives were mercilessly saved, their fellow inmates were sent to gallows merely for saying no to mullahs regime.

What first shined light on all of this was an audio tape that was leaked out by the late Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeris son in August 2016. Montazeri, the handpicked successor of Khomeini, was sacked for his public objections to mass executions in 1988. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest and died in 2009.

Rouhanis main challenger, Ebrahim Raisi, in the sham May presidential election in Iran lost because he was a member of Death Commission responsible for handing down death sentences. Iran main opposition to mullahs rule, Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) set off a massive awareness campaign in Iran at the same time with May elections. Raisi in the final days of his campaign came out after nearly three decades and fully stood by the massacre and asked to be decorated for his crimes. Ahamd Khatami an infamous Friday Prayers leader and a Khameneis confidant said: Then we see some people who on their websites switch the place of martyrs and murderers. It was a divine move by [Iranian regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini] to force the [PMOI (People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran)] out of the country. All those who acted based on these orders should be rewarded with medals however; those who on their websites have switched the place of martyrs and murderers should repent and beg for forgiveness.

Hassan Rouhani is highly unlikely to change course during his second term in office. He has been an active participant and a decision maker since the 1979 revolution. He has demonstrated his resolve for pleasing the Supreme Leader every step of the way. Rouhani quietly nags Khamenei for a bigger share of power which is often misread by some in the West as a sign of outright defiance to IRGC or the Supreme Leader. Moderation in Irans ruling mullahs has been an illusion created by those in the West who want to have a bigger share of Irans market.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson referred to lending support to forces in Iran for a peaceful transition of power from a ruthless religious dictatorship to democracy. There is no better place to start than that of holding mullahs accountable for their human rights record, something President Obama failed to address in 2009.

Reza Shafiee (@shafiee_shafiee) is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit accusing the government of falsely accusing illegal alien teens of having gang affiliations in order to more quickly deport them.

Washington Times:

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in California, opens yet another legal front against President Trump's goal of stepped-up immigration enforcement, with advocates hoping to blunt a new effort by Homeland Security to find and deport some of the Central Americans who jumped the border during the Obama era.

Immigrant-rights advocates said the government has started to fabricate broad accusations of gang membership or affiliation to justify sweeping enforcement actions, nabbing people who the advocates say deserve protection and legal status, not criminal treatment and deportation.

"We're talking about teens who were picked up for play-fighting with a friend, or for showing pride in their home country of El Salvador," said Stephen Kang, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, which is handling the case on behalf of a handful of teenage illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. during the UAC surge under President Obama.

More than 100,000 UAC, or Unaccompanied Alien Children, have surged into the U.S. over the last five years, pushed from home by a complex series of causes and enticed here by lax enforcement of immigration laws.

The Trump administration, trying to head off a new surge, announced a major enforcement action last month that resulted in the arrest of 120 Unaccompanied Alien Children, or UAC, and 73 family members who came under Mr. Obama but who have gone through court, been ordered deported, yet are ignoring those orders.

The UAC targeted for arrest had all turned 18 or had criminal histories or suspected gang ties, ICE said.

The ACLU said the government is stretching the definition of gang ties in order to draw a broader dragnet.

Lawyers singled out three juveniles who were each arrested in Suffolk County, New York, and eventually turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is pursuing deportation cases.

One case involved a 17-year-old who jumped the border in 2015, and was placed with his mother in Brentwood, New York. He was quickly expelled from high school for cutting classes, and went on to rack up several trespassing charges, the lawsuit admits.

But the lawyers say the teen, identified by initials J.G. was harassed by local police who repeatedly stopped him and finally, in April, arrested him and accused him of being in a gang and being involved in a murder. The lawsuit says the detectives cited his clothing and the people he was with as evidence.

He eventually pleaded guilty to lying about his identity.
On Friday, the day after conservative author Jeffrey Lord was fired from his on-air commentator job at CNN, it was a field day for analysts on both ends of the political spectrum. Most of the comments came from the left since leftist publications, websites, and talking heads seem to outnumber ones on the right by a ratio of at least ten to one.

In a number of published interviews, Lord was able to clarify and add more context to his tweeting "Sieg Heil!" to Media Matters president Andrew Carusone in a heated online exchange  a tweet heard 'round the world that resulted in Lord's firing by CNN, which has employed him for the past two years. On Thursday afternoon, CNN said it was letting Lord go because "Nazi salutes are indefensible." Lord explained to Vox, and to many other publications and broadcast outlets, that:

CNN had gotten the story backward  that he was mocking Nazi salutes, not embracing them. "I was saying they were fascists modeling themselves after Nazis," Lord said of Media Matters.

Media Matters has been joining forces with other radical left-wing groups to encourage advertiser boycotts of conservative shows, most recently Sean Hannity's on Fox News, in the hope that these programs will be canceled. Lord and others, mostly on the right, see these moves as dangerous attempts to curtail free speech and silence conservatives.

In combing through an avalanche of articles about Lord's firing, some interesting tidbits could be found. For example, in the Daily Beast, Lloyd Grove wrote, "Some Insiders 'Elated' as CNN Sacks Jeffrey Lord." Grove revealed that months ago, both CNN prime-time host Don Lemon and morning show co-host Chris Cuomo had already banned Lord from their programs. Lord's main platform in recent weeks was Anderson Cooper's nightly show AC360. But Cooper often used Lord as a foil, as when he said to Lord on May 19, the clip of which went viral, "If [Trump] took a dump on his desk, you would defend him."

The most vicious post-firing leftist attack on Lord that I could find was published in Slate, in an article by Justin Peters:

Jeffrey Lord is a political hack and shameless troll who spent the past two years wasting America's time on CNN as one of the world's dumbest and most slavishly pro-Trump pundits. He appeared regularly on CNN's political programming as one of Donald Trump's chief water-bearers, playing the part so well that Anderson Cooper once felt compelled to note  on air!  that Trump could defecate on his desk and Lord would defend it. Cooper's crude observation was wholly accurate: Lord's only qualifications for being on television were his readiness to applaud even Trump's most noxious moments and the fact that he already owned a suit.



Jeffrey Lord and his mother Kit at home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2016.

Lord, who lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he writes articles for the American Spectator and cares for his 98-year-old mother Kit, did not criticize his former employer, where he has worked since 2015. "I want to emphasize that I love CNN," Lord told Vox and every other publication that interviewed him. "And I have a lot of respect for Jeff Zucker and all the people there."

CNN leftist commentator Van Jones, who often sparred with Lord on CNN panels, had nothing but good things to say about his colleague in an AP story last October 1.

You don't have to agree with someone to like them and care about them and appreciate what they're trying to convey. I think Jeffrey Lord is doing a great service to the country by speaking up for people whose opinions and voices are usually not welcome in mainstream conversations. These voices need to be heard. These conversations need to be had[.] ... We get along great[.] ... Jeffrey Lord is universally beloved at CNN as a person.

Lord commented to numerous outlets that he had two jobs offers within hours of his firing. A book deal is probably also in his future. It was also reported that he took a call from White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.



Kayleigh McEnany on Hannity, Fox News Channel, August 11, 2017.

Meanwhile, another  or I should say the other  spirited defender on CNN of Donald Trump, when he was a candidate and then president, who had achieved a prominent on-air profile during the past two years, Kayleigh McEnany, left the channel one week ago to become the chief spokesperson for the Republican National Committee on television and radio. In that role, McEnany, who received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2016, appeared as a guest on Hannity on Fox News, August 11, the program guest-hosted that night by attorney, former judge, and Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about national politics, media, popular culture, and health care. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. His latest website is AltMedNews.net.
In Guam, the civil defense instructions were clear and direct:

"Do not look at the flash or fireball  It can blind you," it said. "Take cover behind anything that might offer protection." "Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material," read the guidelines of what to do if caught outside.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, where I live, the local news stations have interviewed Guamanians living here, where there is a large community, and not surprisingly, the Guamanians say they are worried. They are even planning a Roman Catholic Mass to pray for the deliverance of their island from the nuclear threat it is facing now.

Guam has taken the most specific threat, but four other U.S. places have been threatened as well: San Diego; Austin; Washington, D.C.; and the Hawaiian islands.



The U.K.'s Daily Star has made a map of the threats.

So what is it about these very specific existential threats to large parts of the U.S. that brings out the worst out in media and political activists?

The New York Times made a fool of itself Friday by, instead of focusing on Guam and its existential threat, using it as an opportunity to bring up global warming. Look at the idiocy of its headline: "North Korea Aside, Guam Faces Another Threat: Climate Change."

As if those two issues were anywhere near the same league. North Korea aside? Sorry, pal, but that's the news today. There's no putting North Korea "aside." It goes to show what the Times' real priority is: global warming, as if to relive those golden days of the Obama administration, which had rated global warming more dangerous than nuclear warfare. The bombs could be raining down on Guam or even Manhattan, and those guys would still be banging on the nonexistent drum of global warming. It's embarrassing.

Sadly, it's not very different from some of the irresponsible statements seen from the right. On my Facebook page, one of my "friends" wrote about what a fine thing it would be for San Diego to be taken out by the North Koreans. Presumably, it would mean fewer Democratic voters, ignoring the reality that the one California city under threat, San Diego, is a military city and the last red major city in the entire U.S., but never mind.

A National Rifle Association television host, one Grant Stinchfield, posted similar sentiments and was roundly scolded on Twitter. Both the Facebook friend and the NRA TV host apologized, and there was no reason not to believe them  because if they really did want all Democratic voter redoubts bombed, they would have been cheering 9/11 in New York and the Orlando spray-shooting terror attack on the gay club, both of which hit a lot of Democratic voters, which they were not. They just failed to recognize the reality of the new threat.

The Times, though, isn't apologizing. Its editors really do think global warming is major threat, as major as that of nuclear warfare, and as worthy of column inches in its finite newspaper. There is nothing like a pet cause that can be sidled into whatever the issue of the day is. Someone out there really is shutting out the real threats being faced out there  and desperately living in the past.

It's pathetic.
One of the premier four-year colleges in America is going to offer a course called "White Identity Politics." But that's only the beginning, as The College Fix describes:

Stanford University is slated to offer a class this fall called "White Identity Politics," during which students will "survey the field of whiteness studies" and discuss the "possibilities of  abolishing whiteness," according to the course description. Citing pundits who say "the 2016 Presidential election marks the rise of white identity politics in the United States," the upper-level anthropology seminar will draw "from the field of whiteness studies and from contemporary writings that push whiteness studies in new directions." Questions to be posed throughout the semester include: "Does white identity politics exist?" and "How is a concept like white identity to be understood in relation to white nationalism, white supremacy, white privilege, and whiteness?" "Students will consider the perils and possibilities of different political practices," according to the course description, "including abolishing whiteness or coming to terms with white identity." The course will be taught by instructor John Patrick Moran. Reached by e-mail, Moran declined to comment, instead directing The College Fix to Stanford communication's office. Ernest Miranda, a spokesman for Stanford, told The Fix via e-mail that "'abolishing whiteness' is a concept put forward in the 1990s by a number of white historians. Their belief was that if other white people would, like them, stop identifying politically as white, it would help end inequalities."

What noble creatures, those white historians. If only we could be as smart as them and "stop identifying politically as white," we could help end inequalities.

Except for a few Kluxers and skinheads, I've never heard anyone identify politically as "white." I've heard plenty of black activists identify as "black." Perhaps Stanford should offer a course on "Black Identity Politics."

So if there are few whites who identify politically as "white," how are we going to end inequality?

It's a load of hogswallow. If we ask questions like that, we will be told it's in our subconscious mind, bred into us from birth, and manifests itself without us realizing it.

The beauty of that construct is that it is impossible to prove. So "researchers" into whiteness generate theories based on outcomes. Black people are generally poorer than whites, so white privilege. It's easy once you get the hang of it.

Whatever parents are paying for their kids to go to Stanford, I'd demand a refund and pull them out for proposing such an idiotic and anti-intellectual course.
James Damore, the engineer fired by Google after penning a memo criticizing the company's diversity policy, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal explaining "Why I was fired by Google."

Needless to say, the reasons he gives are not a surprise.

My 10-page document set out what I considered a reasoned, well-researched, good-faith argument, but as I wrote, the viewpoint I was putting forward is generally suppressed at Google because of the company's "ideological echo chamber." My firing neatly confirms that point. How did Google, the company that hires the smartest people in the world, become so ideologically driven and intolerant of scientific debate and reasoned argument? We all have moral preferences and beliefs about how the world is and should be. Having these views challenged can be painful, so we tend to avoid people with differing values and to associate with those who share our values. This self-segregation has become much more potent in recent decades. We are more mobile and can sort ourselves into different communities; we wait longer to find and choose just the right mate; and we spend much of our time in a digital world personalized to fit our views. Google is a particularly intense echo chamber because it is in the middle of Silicon Valley and is so life-encompassing as a place to work. With free food, internal meme boards and weekly companywide meetings, Google becomes a huge part of its employees' lives. Some even live on campus. For many, including myself, working at Google is a major part of their identity, almost like a cult with its own leaders and saints, all believed to righteously uphold the sacred motto of "Don't be evil." Echo chambers maintain themselves by creating a shared spirit and keeping discussion confined within certain limits. As Noam Chomsky once observed, "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." But echo chambers also have to guard against dissent and opposition. Whether it's in our homes, online or in our workplaces, a consensus is maintained by shaming people into conformity or excommunicating them if they persist in violating taboos. Public shaming serves not only to display the virtue of those doing the shaming but also warns others that the same punishment awaits them if they don't conform.

Read the whole thing for an intelligent assessment of the entire affair.

This is a case that should be studied by social scientists. The gap in understanding between what Damore wrote and how the left chose to interpret it is astonishing. I don't think there's any doubt that few on the left bothered to read the entire ten-page Damore memo. And if they did, they saw what they wanted to see, picking and choosing the parts that transgressed against the overpowering groupthink present in Google corporate culture.

This selective interpretation allows that dominant ideology to flourish and smack down dissenters without having to address the valid points made. In truth, Damore couldn't have been unaware of this. What did he think the reaction would be to his point about there being biological differences between men and women that contribute to the lack of female engineers at the company?

Damore may be a talented engineer, but he's not a biologist. There may, indeed, be biological differences between the sexes that keep women from excelling in engineering and other sciences. But Damore isn't qualified to discuss them in a scientific context.

That said, there are definitely cultural differences in education that discourage women from taking up the sciences. That is something we can change, and encouraging young girls to study STEM subjects would bring more females into those disciplines.

To deliberately misinterpret what someone writes or says in order to maintain control over the thinking of employees is evil. Google should change its motto from "Don't be evil" to "Be evil only when it suits the narrative."
Keith Ellison declared yesterday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was "acting more responsible [sic] than" President Trump. [Update: Ellison has since stated, "That was one of those I wish I'd not said," adding, "It's tailor-made for somebody to misuse." He is not apologizing, but rather pointing out how unscrupulous his enemies are, which made the comment unwise. Sorry, but the damage is done.]

Despite appearances, Keith Ellison is not giving aid and comfort to the enemy and need not fear a predawn raid by the FBI. Even though technically we never ended the Korean "conflict," the United States never declared war on North Korea and acted under the banner of the United Nations there. But Ellison is weakening the position of the commander in chief as he faces down a nuclear armed tyrant.

In doing so, he may be damaging the Democrats' brand, of course. I suspect he and most Dems assume that whatever the president does, it will end in disaster, and then they will be able to say, "We told you so." They'd never admit to it, of course. The rest of America understands how important it is to finally end the threat of North Korea's nukes, after kicking the can down the road all these years.

Jack Heretik reports on Ellison's statement in the Free Beacon:

Speaking at the left-wing Netroots Nation conference in Atlanta, Ellison, who serves as Vice-Chair of the Democratic National Committee, spoke briefly on the latest tensions between North Korea and the United States. Ellison spoke critically of Trump's handling of the situation and called the North Korean despot more responsible than Trump. "North Korea is a serious thing. You have this guy [Trump] making bellicose threats against somebody else who has very little to lose over there," Ellison said. "Kim Jong-un, the world always thought he was not a responsible leader. Well, he's acting more responsible than this guy is."

The video clip below is less than one minute.

Betting on America losing is not a wise political strategy when you tip your hand in advance.
When the Democratic Party turned hard-left in Obama's second term, you would assume this meant courting the working class. Wrong. Democrats have not been the party of the working class for thirty years, according to Michael Barone.

Republicans have been carrying white non-college graduates for 25 to 30 years, since long before Trump came onto the political scene. Trump's achievement, with his trade and immigration proposals, was to increase the margin with those voters significantly in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by appealing to those raised in union households who had been sticking with the Democrats.

The left abandoned reliance on workers even earlier in favor of getting money and power from misapplying the civil rights laws and staging shake-downs of corporate board rooms in the name of racial, sex, and homosexual grievances. Still, Democrats continued to garner the support of organized labor, loyal to the party of FDR.

The Democrat media complex is flummoxed by Trump's success among working people  they believe their own propaganda that Republicans are the party of the rich. As I wrote after the last election, that is one big fat lie.

Education levels prove that Republicans are the party of America's middle and working class, while Democrats are the party of the extremes. People who vote Democrat haven't graduated from high school or else tend to have post-graduate degrees. The majority of high school graduates, people with some college, and people with a college degree are Republican. Education largely determines class in this country. Argue with that one. Mainstream media supports Democrat propaganda by defining rich as households that earn more than $75,000. Seventy-five thousand for a two-income household is not rich. A look at the actual voting statistics broken down by party and income shows this: Party of middle class families earning $30-74,999: According to Pew, seventeen percent more vote Republican. Party of the white working class, those with a high school degree or some college: Twenty-two percent more vote Republican. Party of the working poor: Republican. When I show these statistics to staunch Obama supporters, they are stunned and simply deny them. Democrats need to lie about the party of the rich to maintain their grip on power.

Obama boasted of his $5 "donations"  which he raised by raffling dinner with a Hollywood celebrity or, for those less star-struck, a shopping spree. It is the GOP that is largely funded by middle-class voters, with an average contribution of $50.

The very richest people in our country are mostly Democrats, as are the non-working poor. (Working poor vote Republican.) The same goes for the richest members of Congress  eight out of the top 12 are Democrats. Every recent Democrat presidential nominee has been a multimillionaire. Much was made of George Bush's wealth  how many voters knew that John Kerry was 13 times richer, at $200 million, or that the Ivy League lawyer Obama couple are millionaires?

The core constituents for the Democrats are not in working-class jobs, which explains why Democrats traded away those jobs to China and Mexico. Yes, minorities and single women in the working class vote Democrat, but they have to compete for attention with the Democrats with money and privilege  trial lawyers; unionized teachers; and the crony capitalists of Wall Street, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley. Twenty percent of Obama's top bundlers were homosexual activists.

This is not to forget the non-white millennials  the famous demographic advantage Obama talks about, in love with the statistic that the majority of Americans under five are not white.

Obama thinks Democrats should continue to write off those red voters. They don't have long to wait for the demographics of immigration to turn America's majority non-white. Obama is unfazed because he dreams about this: we already have a non-white majority among Americans under age 5. Obama foresees a permanent Democratic government, based on minority immigration rates, coupled with ginning up racial and gender divisiveness.

The working class, black and white, wants jobs, not ginned up grievances. Democrats have not cared about jobs for a long time.

Karin McQuillan is a retired Peace Corps volunteer, clinical social worker and psychotherapist, and author. She is a frequent American Thinker contributor.
A plot seems to be unfolding to appoint Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to the position of energy secretary currently held by Rick Perry. West Virginia's newly Republican governor, Jim Justice, would then appoint a Republican to fill out the term and switch one seat to the GOP. Under this scheme, the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare could pass, for instance.

Deplorable Don Surber knows the state and explains:

[R]umor has it President Trump will move Rick Perry over to Homeland Security, and then pick Manchin to run the Department of Energy. The deal apparently hinges on Governor Jim Justice appointing a Republican to replace Manchin. I would not trust Justice or Manchin with their own money. Manchin is a cap-and-trader. Justice owes the state millions in back taxes. That said, if we can cut deals with Saudi princes for the sake of the democracy, why not a couple of West Virginia Democrats?

Manchin is headed for defeat if he runs again, Don explains. Justice, untrustworthy though he may be, has an opportunity to ingratiate himself in his new party, which looksto dominate West Virginia politics for the foreseeable future.

Everybody wins. Except Democrats.
Another "surprise" leaked by U.S. intelligence points to just how much in the dark we've been kept about North Korea's nuclear capabilities.

The revelation that North Korea had miniaturized its nuclear weapons to fit atop an ICBM was a "surprise." We had been told previously that they were at least a year, perhaps two years, away from having that ability. Then we were told that some of their ICBMs were not only capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S., but also much of the rest of the country.

Now we discover that our intelligence agencies believe that the re-entry system for North Korea's warheads is sophisticated enough that it could survive the plunge to Earth and threaten the U.S.

The Diplomat:

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has assessed that North Korea's Hwasong-14/KN20 intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) test launch on July 28 failed to demonstrate successful atmospheric reentry, The Diplomat has learned. The same assessment, however, notes that North Korea's ICBM reentry vehicles would likely perform adequately if flown on a normal trajectory to continental U.S. targets. U.S. government sources with knowledge of the confidential CIA assessment released in early August note that the reentry vehicle of the Hwasong-14 ICBM launched out of Mupyong-ni on July 28 did not survive to splashdown in the Sea of Japan. The reentry vehicle likely disintegrated; the assessment cites the high lofted trajectory of the July 28 launch as the primary reason for the reentry vehicle's failure. The CIA assessment notes that based on the two observed flight tests of the Hwasong-14 to date, North Korea's reentry vehicle technology is likely sufficiently advanced to pose no performance problem should the missile be fired at a minimum energy trajectory. The assessment of the reentry vehicle is supported by analysis of data "gathered from ground, sea, and air-based sensors" by the U.S. National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), one source told The Diplomat. A ballistic missile's reentry vehicle contains its explosive payload and must withstand immense structural and temperature pressures during its descent through the earth's atmosphere to its intended target. These physical stresses are exceptionally severe in the case of ICBMs, which fly higher than shorter-range systems and reach speeds several multiples of the speed of sound during descent. According to a U.S. government source with knowledge of the latest ICBM test, the North Korean ICBM's reentry vehicle on July 28 would have encountered structural stresses in excess of those it would see during a minimum energy trajectory flight toward continental U.S. targets. The CIA assesses this to be primarily due to the exceptionally high apogee of 3,700 kilometers it reached during the flight; North Korea did this seeking to demonstrate the missile's full range capabilities within the Sea of Japan. Temperature stresses on the RV, meanwhile, would likely last longer during reentry off a minimum energy trajectory flight than they would have during the July 28 flight.

Previous to this assessment, the CIA believed that North Korean warheads did not have this capability. This complicates any U.S. effort to take out the missiles. North Korea could employ a "use them or lose them" doctrine  a launch on warning systems that means that if we don't get 100% of the missiles in a pre-emptive attack, a few are likely to get through and devastate its targets.

We had better hope Kim is bluffing about launching missiles to hit off the coast of Guam. Trump would have no choice but to respond to that direct threat in kind. Escalation after that would be a foregone conclusion.
By now, we've been exposed to a lot of intolerance from the left. We are often called "racists" just because we voted for Trump.

On the sanctuary city debate, I've been personally called a "racista" because I believe that cities should follow federal laws.

And there is "homophobe" for believing that marriage is between a man and a woman.

It's all a big intimidation technique reminiscent of anti-Castro Cubans being referred to as "CIA employees" whenever we challenged the regime's failure to hold the promised elections.

And now there is Google, the company that has put it all out there for all to see.

This is a great post on the topic by Michael Barone:

Finally, Google  not just in response to James Damore's memo, but in its whole "diversity" program  is riddled with intellectual dishonesty. It has a very successful business, which tends to attract very high-skilled employees the large majority of whom happen to be male. It feels vulnerable to complaints by feminists and hostile action by government, and so its leaders make sure not to express any doubts about the dogma that any fair system would have a gender balance and ethnic makeup identical to that of the larger society. Any hint of disbelief in the dogma would elicit torrents of abuse from the many Social Justice Warriors that Google, recruiting as it does from elite campuses, employs in large numbers. So, Google and other Silicon Valley firms spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on "diversity" programs in order to mollify them, even though these have made almost no perceptible difference in the heavily white-and-Asian-male character of its workforce.

We have been watching this train wreck coming for quite some time. In fact, most of the cars are still on the rails and have not come off yet. In other words, this is just getting started, and don't be surprised if it ends with Google changing its name or even breaking up.

For years, the peddlers of diversity have been feeling good and self-righteous by denying reality and the differences between men and women. They run organizations that mock anyone who dares to challenge the groupthink they impose on their employees.

As someone said, they are for diversity as long you agree with whatever they think. Can you say "homophobe" again?

The train is off the tracks. Google will now have to explain why it fired an employee for simply writing a memo about the workplace environment.

Back in the 1990s, I had a boss who called us into a meeting and requested that each one of us write a memo about the workplace environment. We did, and he read them. He took some of the ideas and executed some of them. He was grateful, and we welcomed his willingness to hear from us. He even gave each of us a $50 dinner certificate to go out and enjoy dinner with our spouses. He was grateful for hearing what we had to say, even if it differed with whatever he was thinking.

Apparently, such a thing does not happen at Google when you challenge their work environment. Instead, you get fired and called names for daring to challenge it.

Want to learn about intolerance? Just google Google!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The Brave New World, 1984 bizarre diversity preaching but diversity fearing Google circus continues.

Less than an hour before a Google Town Hall meeting for Google personnel on...well, you guessed it: diversity, or the consequences of firing a Google engineer whose diverse ideas deviated from the approved Google thought on diversity, boom...it was canceled.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai's memo explaining it all is below (emphasis added).

Dear Googlers, TL;DR Sorry for the late notice but we are going to cancel today's Town Hall. We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward. But our Dory questions appeared externally this afternoon, and on some websites Googlers are now being named personally. Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be "outed" publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall. In recognition of Googlers' concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion. So in the coming days we will find several forums to gather and engage with Googlers, where people can feel comfortable to speak freely. We'll share details soon. Over the past two days, I have had the chance to meet with so many people here, and I have read each of your emails carefully. The vast majority of you are very supportive of our decision. A smaller percentage of you wish we would do more. And some are worried that you cannot speak out at work freely. All of your voices and opinions matter...and I want to hear them. In the meantime, let's not forget what unites us as a company our desire to build great products for everyone that make a big difference in their lives. I have been in a few product discussions today and felt energized by the important things we are working on. We can, and will continue, to come together to do the very best for the people we serve.

The Googlers worried about the consequences of having "a frank, open discussion ... to bring us together" have a point. After all, the fired engineer was publicly dismissed after he was "outed," which ended his safety of a career for frankly and openly airing his concerns about the atmosphere at Google. And now he isn't together with Google.

For more information, you can google it. Or bing it. Or DuckDuckgGo it. Ah, diversity.
I am worried. The New York Times may be able to short-circuit Sarah Palin's lawsuit. Its response to a court order to provide testimony looks to my layman's eyes like a plausible escape via the "actual malice" requirement that the author knew or should have known that the assertion was untrue.

The New York Times Company responded to Palin's defamation lawsuit with a motion to dismiss, which is fairly routine in lawsuits. But I am not sure they expected the unusual response from U.S. District Court judge Jed S. Rakoff, who required the company to identify the editor or editors who wrote the editorial and submit them to pretrial testimony under oath next week.

The order states that the author or authors must appear when the court:

... will convene an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday, August 16 at 2:00 PM EST. At the hearing, defense counsel must produce the author(s) of the editorial, who (or each of whom, if there is more than one author) will be examined under oath by defense counsel for no more than thirty (30) minutes, to be followed by cross-examination of plaintiff's counsel of no more than forty-five (45) minutes, to be followed by no more than fifteen (15) minutes of redirect by defense counsel. The Court also may question each such witness.

In its coverage of the order, the Times fingered the recently arrived (from The Atlantic) editorial page honcho as the person it would supply for testimony:

A spokeswoman for The Times said in a statement that the news organization would provide the testimony the judge had ordered. David McCraw, deputy general counsel for The Times, said the witness would be James Bennet, The Times's editorial page editor.

This language, handling the subject with tongs, is not a direct claim that James Bennett is the author. It identifies him as the witness to be supplied.

Here is why the Times may be successful in killing the suit, if it claims he is the sole author. The issue is Palin's claim that "actual malice" can be inferred from the fact that the editorialists knew or should have known that the paper's news pages had made it clear she had no connection to the shooting of Gabby Giffords. But because Bennet is a new kid on the block on the editorial board, having been brought in 13 months before the editorial was published, the legal team can claim he cannot be reasonably held to the standard of having read the Times' coverage of the Giffords shooting, because he was working elsewhere at the time. No one could master the Times' archive in such a short time, they can quite reasonably state.

They can also plausibly claim that no one else on the editorial board saw or consulted with him on the editorial because, as boss, he probably did not need to seek review.

But keep in mind that the 45 minutes of cross-examination by the Palin team can get into lots of important (and entertaining) questions that might establish the contention that Bennet reasonable "should have been aware" that the information was false.

Who edits the editor? Does the New York Times Company authorize a person to publish editorials with no editorial review for fact-checking? What is the difference between an editorial and an op-ed? Should readers assume that an editorial is just an anonymous post of a member of the editorial board, subject to less review than an op-ed from an outsider?

Where does Bennet get his information? Does he check his facts when reviewing his own output, if he is the only one editing his own work?

Details of his work patterns, as well as Times policies on review of material that goes out in the name of the entire editorial board, are up for grabs.

Depending on what is discovered, the judge will rule on whether the matter can proceed.

Here is the Times' profile of Bennet:

James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor  @JBennet James Bennet, the editorial page editor of The New York Times, is in charge of the Opinion department. He oversees the editorial board and the Letters and Op-Ed sections. Mr. Bennet became editorial page editor in May 2016. Before this role, Mr. Bennet was the president and editor in chief of The Atlantic. Under Mr. Bennet, who was named editor in 2006, The Atlantic substantially increased its editorial reach and impact while returning to profitability for the first time in recent history. Adweek named Mr. Bennet editor of the year in 2012 and Ad Age did the same in 2009. The Atlantic was honored with the National Magazine Award four times during his tenure, including Magazine of the Year and best website, for TheAtlantic.com. Before joining The Atlantic, Mr. Bennet worked for The Times for 15 years in several roles, including Detroit bureau chief, White House correspondent and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also served as a staff writer for The Sunday Magazine. Before joining the Times, Mr. Bennet was an editor with The Washington Monthly. He and his wife have two sons.

The estimable Professor Jacobson of Legal Insurrection is my go-to source for understanding the legalities of this case. See this essay for an explanation of the motion to dismiss for background and context. See his current article on the judge's order for much more.
How many AT readers have found that they can no longer do a useful Google search on any news topic? The only hits that come up are liberal. Even the Wall Street Journal does not make it, although minor liberal papers like the Christian Science Monitor do. To find interesting commentary and reporting I trust, I have to go to my list of favorite websites and search on their pages.

Following the firing this week of a valued employee for the thoughtcrime of questioning gender quotas, Breitbart is running a series called "Rebels of Google." Whistleblower employees are exposing the purposeful censorship by Google  not only of free thought within the company, but on the internet.

Political intimidation within the company is a daily barrage of SJW postings mixed in with company business, so they cannot be deleted or ignored. Those who answer back are threatened, sent to H.R. for indoctrination and thought-policing, fired, and also blacklisted.

Here is what it is like to work at Google:

[P]osts made internally by people who are very clearly proselytizing what amounts to religious dogma (of the social justice variety), and of course no one dares contradict it, because everybody knows it's a quick trip to H.R. if you dare say anything against the antisocial order. Or sometimes you get punched. I know at least one engineer did get punched in retaliation for something he posted  I am sure he will corroborate this to you directly. Many Google engineers who could not cope with the constant hostility and the reminders that "you are not one of us" have left the company. ... I remember Kim Burchett (high-ranking manager with a lot of reports) posting about how she's "considering creating a list of people who make diversity difficult". ... commentary she posted on promotion committees, where she literally boos men and white people. ... I want to stress to you that these G+ posts, while "in principle" avoidable, are  along with mailing lists  the standard way in which people communicate to each other values, principles, and sometimes work items too. So, in order to perform your duties, you *must* be exposed to at least *some* of it. Which means in practice you cannot avoid people writing odious things about you or your political ideas, and (given the climate) you are not at liberty to reply to these people, because you'd be disciplined or fired. My understanding of California labor laws leads me to believe that has legal significance.

The Breitbart interviewer, Allum Bokhari, asked if the reports were true that Google employees in the advertising department encouraged customers to pull ads from Breitbart and The Rebel Media.

A number of friends have privately confirmed this to me. I know there are efforts to demote anything non-PC, anti-Communist and anti-Islamic terror from search results. ... If you remember the YouTube "heroes" program, as well as the wave of demonetizations and age restrictions that hit popular anti-PC YouTubers (all of whom ended up having to move to Patreon), I think that speaks for itself. Now we have the owner of the well-known JihadWatch site, complaining that his ranking in Google Search has dropped enormously. These are all facts that can be verified by any third-party, so it's not a matter of "he said she said".

Bokhari's next question was chilling:

YouTube is going to artificially promote progressive content, and manipulate search results using the "Jigsaw Redirect Method" to minimize the reach of potentially problematic videos, in addition to other new censorship techniques. For users of Google and its related services, is political censorship about to become the norm? How much of this is the result of internal pressure (from politicized employees) and how much of it is external (governments, advertisers)?

The answer?

[M]any people are leaving Google. And many of these ex-Googlers are people who were tired of having to cope with these corrupt ideologies and the people who proselytize them, support them, and punish people who disagree with them. That means Google is leaking people with integrity. Let's ask ourselves: who remains in charge, after that slow but certain evaporative cooling of beliefs? You do the math. Unless the culture changes, I am afraid the answer to your question is: only a matter of time.

Bokhari asks if Google will listen to user outrage about P.C. censorship. The whistleblower's reply:

Google is quite good at listening to both their users and their customers, with one exception: when what the users want is at odds with ideological dogmas widely held at Google. In that case, users don't count. No one does.

Read the whole thing.
Its amazing what a little change in light can do to a landscape. Blue skies can turn red, orange sand can turn purple. In this photo series, Milanese photographer Luca Tombolini shows the suns extraordinarily ability to render a landscape almost unrecognizable and soften even the most harshest and blandest of environments such as a desert.

These images were taken during the summer of 2015 in Merzouga and Ouzina in Morocco. Tombolini would roam the desert looking for a place with just the right aesthetic. When he finds one, he would set up his camera and then wait for the light to change. Tombolini says he doesnt have to wait for more than four hours.

When I m there I m already in another kind of space and time, where I got the feeling of a different and more simple rhythm, Tombolini told Wertn in an interview. Four hours on a dune can pass by incredibly fast; the only breaks in this contemplative suspension of thoughts are the technical needs of photography (keeping track of exposure, films and which lens to use) and to eat or drink something at times. Apart from this, if I think back to that moment now, I only recall a vivid and ever changing light shift on dunes as if my mind could put together his own time lapse. In that flowing, at a certain point, I know I gotta decide to take the shot. Maybe a little change in tone or angle of the sun makes me, rather unconsciously I guess, decide to photograph.

When everything is over its just about packing things, headlight on, and back with GPS to the car. And its always amazing how different the place looks and feels in darkness compared to light.
Cancel the feeding frenzy: Eric Bellquist is innocent

Having learned where he lives, works and even went to college in a voracious media feeding frenzy, it turns out that and Eric Bellquist is totally innocent. Hes been eliminated from the police inquiry two days after he was arrested on suspicion of pushing a woman into the path of bus on Londons Putney Bridge. He said he was innocent. He is.

The media that piled in on the poor sod must be gutted. Its very inconvenient that the minted City boy should be a decent bloke. Tsk! So disappointed is the Times that in its report on Mr Bellquists established innocence, it tells us all about the investment banker:

Mr Bellquist, who lives in Chelsea, had worked for Lehman Brothers, the financial services firm that filed for bankruptcy in 2008. He sits on the boards of Byron Hamburgers and Wagamama on behalf his company, Hutton Collins.

To which the obvious response is: so what?

If you know the suspects identity you can call the police anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, August 2017 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
On the days I was in Freiburg at the beginning of summer, the heat was uncomfortably intense. Waiting for the sun to go down for the temperature to decrease a few degrees, I took on the lovely streets of Freiburg before my dinner reservation. It's a beautiful city at the edge of the Black Forest that is lined with peculiar water-filled runnels called b achle all along the cobblestone streets in the old city center. A little bit of research tells me that these b achle were built in the 14th-century to provide water coming from the Dreisam River to fight fires, to feed the livestock and to help cool down the city in summer. When in Freiburg, the best thing to do is what all the locals do. Look for your space in the b achle (they can get crowded with fun-loving people), take off your shoes, sit down on the street, dip your drinks in the b achle and enjoy - the Freiburg way!



At the main square of the city, there is the imposing Freiburg Minster, the cathedral built in the 1200 in Romanesque style and finished more than a century later in Baroque architecture. Being the seat of one of Germany's oldest and top universities, Freiburg has an easygoing and youthful ambience with students milling about in the streets that are lined with shops, bars and restaurants.









My destination was Michelin starred Wolfshohle Restaurant located in one of Freiburg's prettiest corner. The restaurant's elegant wood and leather interior is accentuated with some art pieces. The young staff, all dressed in black uniforms with red sneakers gave quite an impressionable service of professionalism with a friendly overtone. My choice of restaurant went towards the quieter part of town where the dining atmosphere is more muted.The restaurant's elegant wood and leather interior is accentuated with some art pieces. The young staff, all dressed in black uniforms with red sneakers gave quite an impressionable service of professionalism with a friendly overtone.





It's exactly what Chef Patron Sascha Weiss wants to portray in his restaurant. He wants his diners to feel comfortable and relish the experience. Dressed casually in a pair of long denim cutoffs with his chef's uniform, Sascha speaks about the food and the diners being the protagonists in his restaurant and that extends to the kids who dine with their parents. Like all good chefs, he loves to create dishes with the best seasonal ingredients available to him. He doesn't limit his cooking to German cuisine or any cuisine for that matter. He creates dishes freely in his kitchen and he does have leanings towards Mediterranean cooking because he believes in light and healthy dishes.



At the wine cellar that's located at the lower level of the restaurant, it is possible to book the table for a group of 8 to 10 people to dine undisturbed. Dinner is served right at the cellar and the diners can open any wine of interest. Communicating with the staff upstairs would be through a button to call them.





The menu has very interesting entries of fish, meat and vegetarian options with selections of tasting menus between three to five courses. And the extensive wine list even makes things better because the majority are German from Baden because of its proximity to the heart of the wine region, and from the other wine regions of Germany while rest come from France, Italy and Spain. For my dinner, I opted for the 4-course meal which is left to the creativity of the chef paired with mostly wines from Baden wine region.

Starting with a demitasse of refreshingly intense gazpacho, a plate of salad was served. It's inspired by the Tuscan panzanella which was mixed with thinly-sliced scorched lemons, fresh tomatoes, thyme, olives and pickled onions. It was a delicious matrimony of fresh summer ingredients that was paired perfectly well with a glass of a French rose, Domaine de Mairan Aurora Boreale Rose 2016. It was a good beginning of a flash of Mediterranean summer!





A delectable sea bass with thinly-sliced roasted watermelon and fava beans followed suit that was paired with a glass of Fischer Holzfass Chardonnay 2013 from Baden.

Beef came next that was served on top of some mashed lovage and a roll of potato latkes which also came with some sauteed chanterelles in a demitasse. With this dish, a glass of Zalwander Lemberger 2009, another Baden wine, was served.

The last course was a delightful dessert made of blackberries. The different consistencies and shades of purple were so inviting and like the rest of the dinner, it was paired with a glass of Baden wine, Lammlin Schindler Cabernet Blanc 2016.





Weather permitting, outside seating is a very pleasant option at Wolfshohle Restaurant where, at a 360-degree angle, the view is very charming. A glass of chilled Martin Wassmer Sauvignon Blanc 2016 was a memorable way to end the dinner at the restaurant after a very entertaining conversation with Sascha. He is a chef exploding with simplicity, creativity, fun and casualness which reflect in his outstanding dishes. He wants people to come to his restaurant feeling welcome and at ease while eating his creations. A glass of chilled Martin Wassmer Sauvignon Blanc 2016 was a memorable way to end the dinner at the restaurant after a very entertaining conversation with Sascha.He wants people to come to his restaurant feeling welcome and at ease while eating his creations.





Konvikstrasse 8,

79098 Freiburg, Germany

Tel: +49 (0)761 30303

Email: info@wolfshoehle-freiburg.de

Facebook



Opening Times:

Open Tuesdays to Saturdays for lunch and dinner.

Closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.





Restaurants in Europe:




Why should it matter if the Berkshires lose two major paintings by Norman Rockwell, when there are already so many in the vicinity?

That mindless mindset seems to be driving the deplorable decision by the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, to monetize, in a series of Sothebys auctions, some 40 artworks in its collection, including Rockwells Shuffletons Barbershop and Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop.

Astonishingly (and not disclosed in the announcement), the donor to the museum of the two Rockwells was the artist himself. In response to my written queries, Van Shields, the museums executive director, told me that there were no restrictions on his gifts. We are grateful to Norman Rockwell for his gifts that will help ensure the future of this beloved community institution.

Its highly unlikely that the artist would have found that gratitude gratifying, And I doubt he ever imagined that restrictions on his gifts would be necessary.

The $50 million in anticipated proceeds from the 40 deaccessions, added to $10 million being sought through a fundraising campaign, will go to endowment (at least $40 million) and to pay down existing debt and establish reserve funds for long-term capital maintenance and to mitigate unforeseen events, according to the press release announcing the museums $60-million reinvention plan. The 40 works will be scattered among Sothebys sales of Impressionist/modern and contemporary art, 19th-century European paintings, American art, Old Master Paintings and Chinese works of art.

Heres the prize lota Rockwell described by art historian Karal Ann Marling, in her 1997 book on the artist, as a masterpiece [that] is also an exercise in making ordinary things profoundly mysterious through the manipulation of light and space:

The museums reinvention could trigger intervention from the American Alliance of Museums, to which the Berkshire Museum belongs. AAMs Code of Ethics says that deaccession proceeds must be used for acquisitions or direct care of collections. The code of the Association of Art Museum Directors (to which the Berkshire Museum does not belong) states that proceeds from sales of objects from museum collections must be used exclusively to fund acquisitions.

Founded in 1903, the art, history and science museum owns an eclectic 40,000-object collection that includes Wally the stegosaurus, an Egyptian mummy, a full-size wigwam and Calder mobiles. [UPDATE: A previous version of this post said the Calders were not being sold. But two of his 1932 mobiles are on the hit list, released 7/25.]

Heres the museums rendering of what one of the reinvented spaces may look like, with new interpretive techniques [and] cutting-edge technology and a fresh perspective that aims to extract contemporary relevance from historical artifacts. Static museum galleries will be transformed into active teaching laboratories, in the words of the reinvention press release:

We are, in an effect, the Smithsonian of the Berkshires, director Shields recently boasted to WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. Or maybe not, given his museums disregard for the Smithsonians own collection policies.

The Berkshire Museum belongs to Smithsonian Affiliations, which lends Smithsonian objects to other museums and exposes new audiences to the Smithsonians collections, educational programming, and research. According to the Smithsonian Affiliations Policy, affiliates that maintain collections must do so in a manner that is consistent with applicable law and professional ethics and do not treat their collections as assets for purposes of reporting on their financial statements. (The reason why most museums dont report collections as financial assets is that the objects are held in public trust and are not to be monetized to defray capital costs, operating expenses or debts.)

As part of our planning, the board and staff gave thorough consideration to AAMs and AAMDs guidelines and their possible response, Shields wrote in answer to my queries. In the end, we decided that our obligation was to serve the interests of our community.

Whether those interests are best served by flouting professional standards remains to be seen. The possible negative consequences, including ostracism by other museums, were mentioned in this July 15 tweet by Kevin Murphy, American art curator at another museum in the Berkshiresthe Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (which will soon be seeking a new director):

The works to be monetized have been deemed to be not essential to the museums refreshed mission, according to the Berkshire Museums press release. In a glowing editorialBerkshire Museums Ambitious Rebootthe Berkshire Eagle advanced the nonsensical notion that realistically, with the Norman Rockwell Museum mere miles away [in Stockbridge], Rockwells at a Pittsfield museum are redundant anyway.

The specious concept of the redundancy of unique works of art is one of the lamest excuses for raiding a collection to make up for the failure of museum administrators and trustees to devise and implement a sustainable financial plan.

Speaking of which, Laurie Norton Moffatt, director of the Rockwell Museum and a childhood habitue of the Berkshire Museum, yesterday posted an eloquent op-ed piece in the Berkshire Eagle that forcefully argued for a reevaluation of the decision to deaccession and directly dismissed the redundancy theory.

Moffatt wrote:

Shuffletons Barbershop is not, as has been stated, a redundant Rockwell, a footnote to the superb collection down the road at the Norman Rockwell Museum. It is, rather, a unique masterpiece and one of Rockwells very best paintings that he gifted to the Berkshire Museum and the people of Berkshire County for education and enjoyment.

A CultureGrrl reader had tipped me off that works by major Hudson River School painters were among those to be sold down the river (shades of the National Academy and the New York Public Library). Moffatts opposition op-ed confirmed it:

Although the list of art works targeted for auction has not been made public, other works that the museum plans to send to the auction block include exemplars of the Hudson River School (among them Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt).

Writing to me just 20 minutes before Moffatts piece hit the web, Shields restated his case for his museums plan:

Our collections strategy is to support our interpretive plan as an interdisciplinary museum emphasizing science and history. These works [the expendable 40] do not support that strategy, he told me, in response to my queries. That said, the museums homepage describes its areas of focus as Science, History and the Arts [emphasis added]. Shields assured me that artworks will be displayed throughout the museum in our new core exhibitions, on a basis appropriate to their conservation needs and that future acquisitions will be made of artworks that support our interpretive plan.

But the implementation of that plan runs contrary to the Berkshire Museums own collections philosophy, as described on its Collections FAQs webpage:

As museum professionals, we hold objects in the public trust. For that reason, we must think not only about the value of the object to our collection, but also about whether or not we will have the space and resources to properly protect it for future generations. [Emphases added.]

Future generations of museum donors (including artists like Rockwell) may now hesitate to entrust objects to a museum that feels free to reinvent itself by disposing of previously desired objects that it had properly protected.

I dont think anyone is fooled by the museums assertion that it no longer needs its 40 cast-offs because they are not essential to the museums refreshed mission. (Mission revision was also used to justify the widely criticized Albright-Knox disposals of 2007.) If a change of mission, not financial exigencies, were truly the motivating factor, the Berkshire Museum could have easily found other institutions in the area that would gratefully receive many (if not most) of the unwanted objects and preserve them for the public benefit.

Clearly, this purge is about raising big bucks. Even so, area museums could at least be given the right of first refusal at favorable prices. That wouldnt maximize sale proceeds, but it could mitigate the loss to the publics patrimony. That said, raising money at the expense of sister institutions is always a dicey strategy.

The soon-to-vanish Rockwells were among the approximately 40 works of art from the 16th-century to the present featured by the Berkshire Museum in Whats the Story?, the 2008 display celebrating the reopening of the museum after extensive renovation. Do those 40 works roughly correspond to the 40 that have now been targeted for disposal through Sothebys? Stay tuned.

As Moffatt mentioned, the Berkshire Museum has so far declined to disclose what its selling, aside from the Rockwells. But Shields revealed to me that we plan to publish the full list early next week.

The public has a right to know (and to mourn for) what it stands to lose. Soon we can.
At the Ystads Konstmuseum, the Carsten Dahl Experience was, indeed, an experience. After launching his career as a drummer, Dahl taught himself piano in the early 1980s and quickly developed formidable technique that was on full display with his quartet of fellow Danes.

At the beginning of his concert, the pianist reached inside the instrument to make harp-like sounds. Alto saxophonist Jesper Zeuthen played notes that seemed incidental but may have been intended as commentary on Dahls strumming. Out of the pianos insides and seated at the keyboard, Dahl indulged in fragmentation in the manner of Cecil Taylor. Zeuthen responded by emulating the Ornette Coleman school. Addressing the audience, Dahl described Zeuthen as a pioneer of free jazz. Moving on, Dahl played a short solo whose intensity and intriguing harmonies seemed more likely to have been inspired by Franz Liszt than by Taylor. Then, at considerable length, Zeuthen played free jazz with a full toneincluding vibratothat was reminiscent of the French classical saxophonist Marcel Mule. Throughout, bassist Niels Davidsen and drummer Stefan Pasborg energized the proceedings with rhythmic churn that they constantly adjusted to one another and to Dahls and Zeuthens permutations. In a piano solo that he managed to make both controlled and free, Dahl disclosed familiarity with the roots of jazz, quoting Lester Youngs Jumpin With Symphony Sid. He gave his listeners an hour and a half of uncompromising music leavened with episodes of lightheartedness.

Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown, born in Kansas City, evoked her hometown in an Ystad concert dedicated to the memory of Ella Fitzgerald. Ms. Brown has performed widely in Japan and Indonesia and been based in Europe for a dozen years. She has collaborated with leading musicians including Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans, Red Mitchell, Lee Konitz and Ed Thigpen. At the Ystads Theater, the Polish orchestra Leopoldinum Strings accompanied her, along with Polish tenor saxophonistSylwester Ostrowski and an American rhythm section of pianist Rob Bargad, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and drummer Newman Taylor Baker (To the left we see Baker with her). When she scatted, her smooth delivery, accurate intonation and assured time feeling were assets. Scatting in What Is This Thing Called Love, she was particularly evocative of Fitzgerald. She vocalized beautifully over the richness of the strings in How Deep Is The Ocean.

Cry Me a River was notable not only for Browns emotional singing but also for short, contained, solos by Ostrowski and pianist Bargad and for Ms. Browns boogaloo vocalese ending the piece. With Jon Hendricks lyric the Thelonious Monk ballad Pannonica becomes, as Ms. Brown told the audience, a song about butterflies. She scatted the tunes bridge the second time through, and in his solo Ostrowski tapped his Charlie Rouse gene. As her own skilled piano accompanist, Ms. Brown sang My Love Will Wait For You and The Nearness Of You. The concerts big moment came near the end when she sang the blues Goin To Kansas City. Enlisting the audience, she told them that they would be her jazz choir. She then led them through a call-and-response routine that permeated the theatre with good feeling.

Landgren Meets Lundgren

In two major concerts Jan Lundgren, the festivals artistic director, slid out of his management function and onto the bench of the Ystad Theatres brand new nine-foot Steinway. His duo partner was trombonist and vocalist Nils Landgren, one of contemporary Swedens most popular performers. Their concert began as Deborah Browns had ended, with the blues, played with gusto and camaraderie. In large print Inside the bell of Landgrens horn was emblazoned the name of its manufacturer; not a subtle touch, but perhaps effective if there were prospective trombone buyers in the audience. In his veiled voice, Landgren sang This Masquerade, and followed with two traditional songs, Swedish in feeling, very restrained. A fast piece whose Swedish name eluded me concluded with one of Landgrens trademarks, a big trombone whoop leaving no doubt that the song was over. Landgren began to sing The Nearness of You, had a memory lapse and asked the audience to come to his rescue. They supplied the lyric and he started over. I dont know what happened, he said. Ive sung that hundreds of times. Take two was fine.

Through a program that included the Beatles Norwegian Wood, Leonard Bernsteins Somewhere, Mancinis and Mercers Moon River and the Russian song Moscow Nights, Landgren and Lundgren performed with the virtuosity that has enabled both to rise to the top of their nations cultural circles. Lundgrens friendships included one with the poet Jacques Werup (1945-2016), who inspired the pianists composition The Poet, which he played alone. In Joe Samples Same Old Story, Same Old Song, Landgren encouraged the audience to sing the title phrase with him each time it appeared. Some did, with rollicking enthusiasm. Loud demand for an encore led Lundgren and Landgren to a slow version of the perennially popular Ack Varmeland, du skona/Varmlandsvisan, a classic of the Swedish folk tradition known in much of the world as Dear Old Stockholm. It didnt stay slow for long. As the pace picked up, Lundgren began initiating random key changes and finally threw one that Landgren could not negotiate. He had to concede that he had lost the chromatic competition and bowed out playing a series of deep trombone split tones. That amused Lundgren, Landgren and the audience and brought the concert to a hilarious close marked by wild applause and cheers.
The newly appointed censor board chief said that he hoped to carry out his responsibilities in a constructive manner.

Vidya Balan was last seen in 'Begum Jaan.'

New Delhi: Newly appointed censor board chief Prasoon Joshi Friday said that he hoped to carry out his responsibilities in a constructive manner.

The government replaced Pahlaj Nihalani, who has hogged headlines for his controversial decisions, with Joshi in a surprise announcement.

"Good intent is the best beginning. Bearing responsibility and doing my best has been my endeavour. I have believed that right and responsibilities are better served with constructive contribution," Joshi told PTI after his appointment.

"One hopes to make a positive difference with the guidance and support of respected minds," he said.

The 45-year-old award winning lyricist will serve as chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for a period of three years or until further orders, the information and broadcasting ministry said in a release.

The government also reconstituted the existing board.

The new members are Vidya Balan, Vivek Agnihotri, Gautami Tadimalla, Narendra Kohli, Naresh Chandra Lal, Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, Waman Kendre, T S Nagabharana, Ramesh Patange, Vani Tripati Tikoo, Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Mihir Bhuta.

Joshi, a two-time National award-winning lyricist, was born in Almora (Uttarakhand). He is best known for writing songs such as Maa from Taare Zameen Par, Bolo Na from Chittagong and Zinda from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 for his contributions in the field of arts, literature and advertising.

Actor Vidya Balan, one of the newly appointed members of the board said, "I hope to fulfil my responsibilities as a member to the best of my abilities."

"I look forward to this new and exciting phase where our cinema will be allowed to reflect the sensibilities, realities and complexities of the society we are living in today," she added.

Director Vivek Agnihotri told PTI from the US, "With people like Prasoon Joshi and Vidya Balan, we all are very progressive. We are not outsiders and will look at it (films) from fresh angle."
Many actors and directors have come forward to congratulate Prasoon Joshi for being the newly appointed CBFC chief.

The changes at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) are being rejoiced by the film industry. Many actors and directors have come forward to congratulate Prasoon Joshi for being the newly appointed CBFC chief. However, the expectations from Joshi are high and it remains to be seen on how well he will shape up to be in this role.

While Joshi is a wise person, CBFC is a kajal ki kothri from where no one can come out without any stains. So, lets see for how long Joshi manages to keep his spotless reputation intact, says director Avinash Das.

He adds, Prasoon is a wise and sensitive man. It is a great thing that he is an artist and a poet too. I feel that Pahlaj Nihalani didnt have much knowledge about either of the subjects. Also, Joshi is related to the ad world and hence, it is a great choice. Had they elected someone like Gajendra Chauhan again, it would have been another disaster. I also feel that the government is running out of time before the next elections which might be why this step was taken. They have just saved themselves as people were not happy. There was a growing sense of unsatisfaction. People felt that the party that is winning is lacking in wisdom.

The director feels that a progressive way ahead would be to move away from the politics of cuts. It is always better to focus on certifications than on cuts, he says.

Dia Mirza

Actress and producer, Dia Mirza also has high hopes from Joshi and holds him in high regard. She says, I think that its a good decision. I have admired the works of Mr Joshi since a long time. I have my highest regards for him and his creative talent. I strongly hope and wish that he will achieve what we have not achieved in the past few years in terms of cinema, certifications and more. Lets see what he has in store for us as an industry.

Ashwini Chaudhary, General Secretary IFTDA is also happy about the new appointment. The sacking of Nihalani is a welcome first step. We are patting our back because as filmmakers we have suffered at his indiscriminate, self-created codes of censorship for a long time. We wanted a sensitive, updated, forward-thinking replacement who understands the difference between certification and imposition of redundant opinions. Prasoon is broad-minded and we hope acche din are here for the film industry as far as censorship is concerned, he adds.
Let me at least try. If my idol Mahatma Gandhi could fight to eradicate corruption at the age of 78, why cant I try at 60?

Kamal Haasan, who has constantly been in the news for his iconoclastic views, created a furore on Thursday, when he shared the stage with DMK supporters and apparently took a potshot at Rajnikanth, who sat in the audience. So is Kamal Haasan joining politics? We find out.

You are back in the news again.

This is not what I want to do, or be. I am not here to make news. I have much larger plans, which have nothing to do with me.

You mean you are finally taking a plunge into active politics?

Did I say that? What makes you think that?

You were on the platform at a DMK event on Thursday?

I was, and I am glad I went. I was there not as a political personality but in support of DMKs newspaper, which completed 75 years. Seventy-five years in this era of instant news and overnight journalism! Wouldnt you want me to be there with you when you complete 75 years?

Tell me, when you made that jibe from the stage about how you would rather do things for self-respect than self-defence, were you aiming at Rajnikanth?

No! Why would I want to take a jibe at my friend and colleague whom Ive known and loved for 40 years?

Well, it seemed like thats exactly what you were doing.

Then it seemed wrong. I was taking an aim at all those who refuse to stand up against corruption. When you dont take a stand against corruption, you tacitly support it. And I am not talking only about the corruption in Tamil politics. I am looking at a pan-Dravidian India, freed of corruption.

How can you single-handedly free Indian politics from corruption?

Let me at least try. If my idol Mahatma Gandhi could fight to eradicate corruption at the age of 78, why cant I try at 60?

What according to you ails Indian politics?

We are not exercising our democratic rights properly. We need to stop looking for solutions in others. If we dont listen to those warnings within our heart we will destroy our hard-earned freedom.
Entertainment / Music

by Staff Reporter

BULAWAYO tonight comes alive as the city's best musicians are set to light up the stage at the Large City Hall car park during the Celebrating Local Talent Concert, which will be broadcast live on ZBCtv as from 9PM to 6AM.As part of spearheading the promotion of local content ZBCtv will show the rest of the nation the creme dela creme of the city especially those who won at the Bulawayo Arts Awards. The show will start at 2PM.Performing on the night will be Jeys Marabini, Clement Magwaza, Sandra Ndebele, Madlela Skhobokhobo, Cal Vin, Iyasa and Umkhathi who all won awards.The others who will perform on the day are Ramsy K, Sungura Masters, Kadder, Msiz Kay, Mzoe 7, Hwabaraty, Khaya Arts, Ezimnyama, Impumelelo Shining Stars, Khuliyo, Martin and Ndolwane Super Sounds, Zinja Ziyamluma, Desire Oxide and his son Methembe (Jnr Oxide). Tickets at the gate will be $4 for ordinary entry and $10 for VIP.Artistes said they were ready to give out the very best on stage and encouraged people to come in their numbers to support them."We need such platforms for our creative sector. We're glad the national broadcaster is taking the first step towards giving local talent a chance. We hope this won't end here. Next time they should invest more in marketing," said Khuliyo who's one of the performers.Afro Jazz muso Jeys Marabini said he was looking forward to fans coming in their numbers to support them."People should come and support local artistes and it's going to be a great show. I remember last week during an event at Sekusile Shopping Centre in Nkulumane, people came in their numbers to watch us perform and we expect them to do the same this time around," said Jeys Marabini.Ezimnyama dance group who are fresh from winning the Chibuku Neshamwari national title are upbeat about performing at the concert."We feel grateful to be performing at the concert. We shall be meeting with other art gurus from the city which is an honour for us. We hope such events happen annually," said their director Phibion Ncube.Cal Vin who will first take care of business at his Made in Bulawayo concert at Elite 400, said his performance at the show will be epic.The Celebrating Local Talent Concert comes nearly a year after a similar one at the White City Stadium dubbed, Legends Concert that was also broadcast live by ZBCtv.
Sources said the militants opened fire on the search party, triggering the encounter which is underway.

Heavy fire is being exchanged between the security forces and the terrorists. (Photo: File/Representational)

Srinagar: Gun fight broke out between a group of militants and the security forces in Awneera village of Jammu and Kashmirs southern Shopian district on Saturday evening.

The police sources said two to three Hibz-ul-Mujahedin militants were trapped in the area after the troops of the Armys 55 Rashtriya Rifles, the Jammu and Kashmir polices counter insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF laid siege to it.

The militants opened fire on the search party, triggering the encounter which is underway, the sources said.

On Friday night, the militants attacked the Armys 42 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters in the forest area of Kalaroos in north-western Kupwara district, injuring a soldier, the officials said. The Army quickly launched a search operation in the area but no arrests were made, the police sources said.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted in Trichal village of southern Pulwama district on Saturday after the security forces arrived there to launch a cordon-and-search operation against the militants reportedly hiding in the village.

The witnesses said on seeing the security personnel, the residents, mainly youth, came out to hurl rocks at them.

Earlier, a search operation was launched by the security forces in Noorabad village of Pulwamas Tral area but the militants hiding in there managed to escape under the cover of darkness, the sources said.

The sources said the cordon-and-search operation was launched following inputs about the presence of militants including Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, the head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, the Al-Qaidas India cell.
Kashmir and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu were shut to protest against abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution.

Kashmir and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu region were shut on Saturday to protest against alleged 'devious attempts' being made at the behest of Sangh Parivar to abrogate Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: Kashmir and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu region were shut on Saturday to protest against alleged devious attempts being made at the behest of Sangh Parivar to abrogate Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who was camping in New Delhi to garner support for continuing of constitutional privileges being enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir had on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured her that there would be no fiddling with the special status of the State. She also met Home Minister, Rajnath Singh to discussed the issue.

After her meeting with the Prime Minister, Mehbooba had said, Discussions on 35A have a negative impact on Jammu and Kashmir, it should not happen. The basis of our agenda of alliance is that status quo of Article 370 has to be maintained. None of us can go against that.

She said Jammu and Kashmir chose to be part of India in 1947 in spite of being a Muslim majority state, indicating that New Delhi must accommodate the demands of the people to retain the special status.

The idea of India has to accommodate the idea of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba said.

The Chief Minister added, Spoke to PM. The situation is normalising but people think our identity can be in danger. So the message that J&K is the crown of India should be reiterated.

However, her predecessor and opposition National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah while reacting to Mehbooba's assertions said she cannot be believed what she said after her meeting with the Prime Minister.

Abdullah tweeted, Excuse us if we no longer believe what @MehboobaMufti says after she comes out from these meetings. Can @PMOIndia explain assurances pls? (sic)

On Saturday, the NC categorically stated that it does not believe in Mehbooba's public utterances given her track record. It accused her of being hand-in-glove with the BJP and other affiliates of the RSS in concerted efforts aimed at striking down Article 35A as well as Article 370 which guarantees a special status to the State within the Indian Union.

NC general secretary and former minister, Ali Muhammad Sagar and the partys provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani in a joint statement said, Post Muftis meeting with the Prime Minister, senior BJP functionaries have made it abundantly clear that it will continue to actively seek ways and means to strike down Article 35A and there had been no change in their stand on the issue. This has yet again exposed Mehbooba Mufti and her party and their inexhaustible reservoir of lies.

BJPs spokesman Virendra Gupta had on Friday said, Time has come to bid a farewell to Article 370 and Article 35A as these have created separatist psyche in Jammu and Kashmir.

This was in contrast to a statement from the BJP State unit president Sat Sharma made earlier during the week that the coalition compulsion are stopping it from speaking on abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 now.

The coalition government with the PDP is run as per Agenda of the Alliance. It is because of coalition compulsions that the BJP is not speaking about abrogation of special status or Article 35A, Sharma had said on Tuesday.

He had added that the BJP will not speak on the petition seeking abrogation of Article 35A till SC gives its ruling.

Our party has decided not to give any view point on the Article 35A till the Supreme Court delivers its decision on the petition on its removal, he had announced.

On Saturday, shops and other businesses and educational institutions remained closed and public transport services were off the roads in Kashmir Valley and parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts of Jammu.

The Kashmir University and Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education deferred the examinations which were scheduled to be held on Saturday.

The train services in the Valley were suspended too. There was a heavy presence of police, the CRPF and other central paramilitary forces on the streets Srinagar and other cities and towns whereas the security around the sensitive installations and the camps of security forces had been strengthened further. The entire separatist leadership was earlier placed under house arrest.

The call for the one-day strike was issued by an alliance of key separatist leaders-Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik- against the Sangh Parivar-backed devious attempts to fiddle with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

These attempts are aimed at changing the demography of the State and dilute its Muslim-majority character, it alleged.

Various other like-minded political, social and religious organisations and groups besides the lawyers associations had endorsed the call.

Article 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature to define permanent residents of the State and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954 issued by the then President in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 370 of the Constitution, with the concurrence of the Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 370 guarantees a special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union.

However, a petition seeking removal of Article 35A is currently pending before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court.

An NGO, We the Citizens', believed to be an RSS think-tank, challenged 35A in the SC in 2014 on grounds that it was not added to the Constitution through amendment under Article 368 and that it was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately. In another case filed in the SC in July, two Kashmiri women argued that the State's laws, flowing from Article 35A, had disenfranchised their children.

On Tuesday, the SC sought the response of the Centre on yet another plea challenging the validity of Article 370. The petition challenged the April 11 order of the Delhi High Court rejecting a plea saying nothing survives in it as the Apex Court has already dismissed a similar prayer on the issue.
Earlier in the day, the matter was raised in the state Assembly and the members demanded action against the writer.

Ranchi: Jharkhand government on Saturday banned the sale of of a book, "The Adivasi will not dance", for allegedly hurting the dignity of Santhal tribal women.

Legal action would also be initiated against the author, Dr Hansda Souendra Sekhar, an official release said.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das directed Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma to seize all the copies of the book and initiate legal action against the author.

The action was taken after a report on the book was published in a newspaper, the release said.

Earlier in the day, the matter was raised in the state Assembly and the members demanded action against the writer.
Besides 41 RR, the camp also houses troopers of other units including 21 Jammu and Kashmir (Jak) Rifles.

The indiscriminate firing continued on the RR headquarter for at least 10 minutes. (Photo: File/PTI)

Kupwara: The Army has launched a massive manhunt with the help of reinforcement of Para commandos, soon after terrorists attacked 41 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) headquarter in the forest area of Kalaroose Kupwara district of north Kashmir on Friday night.

The indiscriminate firing continued on the RR headquarter for at least 10 minutes. The troops retaliated which resulted in a brief clash, official sources said.

Besides 41 RR, the camp also houses troopers of other units including 21 Jammu and Kashmir (Jak) Rifles.

One JaK soldier was injured in the attack, who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment.

The areas that have been cordoned include upper belt of Kalaroose forests and Kunnad, Kani Behak, Manigah, Chat forest areas of Batpora Haihama.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed in the shelling from Pakistan side in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5:30 am on Saturday.
Working on these directions, the CBI constituted a Special Investigation Team, headed by a superintendent of police, to look into the records.

New Delhi/ Guwahati: The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to probe into the extra-judicial killings by personnel of the Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur police from 2000 to 2012 in Manipur. Working on these directions, the CBI constituted a Special Investigation Team, headed by a superintendent of police, to look into the records. The agency hopes to lodge fresh FIRs and file chargesheets in the cases.

Though the apex court directions to the CBI gave a fresh lease of hope to the victims families and human rights activists, they are, however, skeptical about getting justice which has so far been denied to them.

A bench comprising Justice M.B Lokur and Justice U.U. Lalit directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July14 while hearing a PIL in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings by the security forces in the last 12 years in Manipur.

Asking the CBI to probe a clutch of recent cases (98), the bench said, Petitions should be listed positively by the second week of January, 2018, so as to ensure compliance with the courts directions for CBI investigation.

The apex court fixed December 31, 2017 as the deadline for completion of investigation and directed the investigation agency to submit a progress report within three weeks (by August 3). The SC bench also pulled up the Manipur government for not taking action in the case. It went on to ask why was it not supposed to do anything.

One of the petitioners in the case, Babloo Loitongbam, the executive director of Human Rights Alert, told this newspaper, The SC directive has come as a shot in the arm for the victims families. It is a significant development. However, it remains to be seen if the agency has submitted a preliminary report in the case. He said, Also there are certain grey areas like the ambit of the chargesheet being restricted only to those who pulled the trigger and not covering those who gave the order; these points need to be re-examined. However, the victims families have kept their fingers crossed. Yaikhom Edina, 37, said, I hope that the Manipur police personnel involved in the killing of my husband be appropriately punished. Our cries for justice should be heard at least now.

She is the general secretary of Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EJEVFA) that is a co-petitioner of the writ petition filed in the Supreme Court.

Renu Takhellambam, the president of EJEVFA, whose husband was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2007, said, I have been waiting for justice for a long time. The case being probed by the CBI under the apex courts supervision should not cross the deadline. If justice is to prevail, there should be no question of delay.

As per CBI sources, the agency would take possession of all records related to the cases. Based on scientific analysis of evidence, investigators would examine all those linked with the cases an submit the final reports pertaining of the 98 extrajudicial killings to the SC before the deadline (December 31).

Meanwhile, it is significant to learn that security forces personnel were also indicted in various investigations in the past, but could not be punished thanks to the immunity given under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

Earlier in Pathribal case in March 2000, the CBI found five Army personnel guilty of killing five civilians in a fake encounter in Jammu & Kashmir and also charge-sheeted them, but the Army objected on ground that prior sanction under AFSPA should be sought before prosecuting the Army personnel.

After failing to get a reprieve in the local court and J&K high court, the Army moved the SC in 2012 which asked the former to choose between a court martial and a criminal trial. It was later learnt that the five Armymen were exonerated from a court martial due to lack of evidence!
The 45-year-old woman Raqia Begum was a resident of upper Golat in Mendhar.

The attack which took place Thursday, injured a soldier who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment. (Photo: File)

Srinagar: A woman was killed when Pakistan violated ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5:30 am on Saturday.

"The 45-year-old woman Raqia Begum was a resident of upper Golat in Mendhar," said Mendhar Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Riyaz Tantray.

In a separate provocation last night, terrorists attacked 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) headquarter in the forest area of Kalaroose Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

The attack which took place on Friday, injured a soldier who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment.

The Army has launched a massive manhunt with the help of reinforcement of Para commandos.

The indiscriminate firing continued on the RR headquarters for at least 10 minutes. The troops retaliated which resulted in a brief clash, official sources said.

Besides 41 RR, the camp also houses troopers of other units including 21 Jammu and Kashmir (Jak) Rifles.

The areas that have been cordoned include upper belt of Kalaroose forests and Kunnad, Kani Behak, Manigah, Chat forest areas of Batpora Haihama.
SC faults Calcutta HC for acquitting the main accused, reverses findings and awards life term to accused in a rape and murder case.

The victim was raped and thereafter acid was thrown at her, and she succumbed to injuries in September 1998. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: Having stringent laws and enforcement agencies may not be sufficient unless deep-rooted gender bias is removed from the society to reduce acid attack incidents on hapless women, the Supreme Court has said.

In its judgment on Friday, a Bench of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and N.V. Ramana, in separate but concurring judgments, faulted the Calcutta high court for acquitting the main accused. It reversed the findings and awarded life sentence to accused Purnendu Kumar Patra and confirmed the acquittal of co-accused Rabin Jana. The victim was raped and thereafter acid was thrown at her, and she succumbed to injuries in September 1998.

The trial court awarded death sentence to Patra and life term to Rabin, but the high court acquitted both of them. The state of West Bengal and Suresh Chandra Jana, brother of the victim, filed the present appeals.

In his judgment, Justice Ramana said usually vitriolage or acid attack has transformed itself as a gender-based violence. Acid attacks not only cause damage to the physical appearance of its victims but also cause immense psychological trauma, thereby becoming a hurdle in their overall development. Although we have acknowledged the seriousness of the acid attack when we amended our laws in 2013, yet the number of acid attacks are on the rise. Moreover, this court has been passing various orders to restrict the availability of corrosive substance in the market, which is an effort to nip this social evil in the bud, the judge said.

Justice Ramana said the facts in this case lament a story of a helpless woman who was raped and subsequently punished for raising her voice, which ultimately led to her demise. It must be recognised that having stringent laws and enforcement agencies may not be sufficient unless deep-rooted gender bias is removed from the society. The basic requirement that a trial must be fair is crucial for any civilised criminal justice system. It is essential in a society, which recognises human rights and is based on values such as freedoms, the rule of law, democracy and openness. He said the whole purpose of the trial is to convict the guilty and at the same time protect the innocent.
PM constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur, the PMO tweeted. Report sought from UP health department.

Lucknow/New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath government on Saturday got into damage control mode and denied that the deaths of children in Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College were due to shortage of oxygen.

Blaming encephalitis  acute inflammation of the brain thats often caused by viral infection  for the tragedy, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that a magisterial inquiry has been ordered and a committee has been formed to look into the Gorakhpur incident.

Dr Rajiv Misra, the principal of BRD Medical College, was also suspended on Saturday for negligent behaviour. And the Centre has rushed minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and deputed Union health secretary to take stock of the situation.

With the UP government drawing flak from all sides, including from a BJP MP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself monitoring the developments in Gorakhpur.

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj on Saturday said, One or two deaths is different, but 30 deaths are genocide. BJP MLC Devendra Pratap Singh also wrote a letter to the chief minister, urging him to visit his constituency and take stock of the situation.

Thirty infants have died within a span of 48 hours in the state-run hospital since August 10.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh, who visited the medical college, had on Friday told PTI that according to reports from the hospitals paediatric department, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

CM Adityanath, at a hurriedly convened press conference in Lucknow on Saturday evening, said that the media was creating false propaganda as not a single death had taken place due to oxygen shortage.

Mr Adityanath claimed that the deaths were due to acute encephalitis, rampant in eastern UP. Cleanliness, he said, is the only way to combat it.

The chief minister also said that the role of the supplier who had allegedly stopped oxygen supply would be probed.

Stating that the supplier had been given an eight-year contract in 2014 by the previous government, and should not have shut off the supply in emergency services. If there was oxygen shortage, it is a heinous crime, he said.

Mr Singh said that not a single child had died due to lack of oxygen. The deaths were due to low birth weight, pneumonia, kidney failure and infection, he added.

Oxygen supply was on low pressure for two hours in the night on August 10 and 11 and not a single death took place during this period. During this period, oxygen was not shut off and ambu-bags were used for patients, he said.

UP minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon said that Rs 2 crore had been sent to the BRD hospital on August 5, but the money was given to the supplies on August 11.

Mr Singh said, Most of the patients come here in critical condition and do not survive. Some died due to infection shortage of gas was not the reason.

Soon after his suspension, the outgoing principal Dr Rajiv Misra announced his resignation and categorically denied the disruption of oxygen as being the cause of childrens death.

Mr Singh blamed hospital officials for not keeping the government informed about the emerging oxygen crisis.

The deaths occurred two days after chief minister Adityanath visited the medical college.

The chief minister visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 to take stock of the situation. Why did no one bring up the subject during the review meeting? Mr Singh huffed and puffed.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered against Pushpa Sales, the company that supplied oxygen to the BRD Medical College. A series of raids were also carried out on the offices of the company on Saturday.

Speaking to a news channel, Manish Bhandari, the owner of the company, squarely blamed the BRD hospital management for the deaths. He said that on Friday night, a part of the arrears (Rs 52 lakh) were hurriedly cleared after which oxygen supply had started from Rajasthan and would reach Gorakhpur on Saturday night. Mr Bhandari said his company was supplying liquid oxygen during the night and two other companies were also engaged in the supply of oxygen.

The hospital later gave a break-up of 60 deaths since August 7. According to the report, 34 deaths are of newborns in the NICU ward, 12 due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) cases and 14 are non-AES cases.
A section of madrasa officials in MP on Saturday took strong exception to the order, saying that it amounted to putting to test our patriotism.

Authorities of several madrasas in the state are planning to meet chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seeking appropriate action in the matter. (Representational image)

Bhopal: An order by Madhya Pradesh Madrasa Board to its affiliated schools in the state to compulsorily observe Independence Day and send pictures of activities organised on the occasion has triggered a controversy here.

A section of madrasa officials in MP on Saturday took strong exception to the order, saying that it amounted to putting to test our patriotism. Gwalior madrasa manager S. Khan said the madrasas in MP had been celebrating Independence Day and Republic Day and also, other occasions of national importance.

However, the order to madrasas to take pictures of Independence Day celebrations, including hoisting of the Tricolour, cultural programmes on the occasion and tiranga rallies in the institutions, and to send them to the board clearly manifests lack of trust in the authorities of these educational institutions, another madrasa official said.

Authorities of several madrasas in the state are planning to meet chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seeking appropriate action in the matter. Meanwhile, Opposition Congress slammed the order calling it discriminatory and unnecessary.

The order is discriminatory. Why other government-run schools in the state have not been asked to send photographs of Independence Day celebrations to the higher authorities concerned? a Congress spokesman asked.
According to officials, the initial probe showed that around `355.70 crore have been illegally transferred under various heads.

Patna: RJD chief Lalu Yadav on Saturday demanded a CBI inquiry into a fund transfer scam case worth Rs 300 crore involving a Bhagalpur-based NGO Srijan Sahyog Mahila Vikas Samiti.

Mr Yadav said the role of deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi was under scanner as the scam occurred between 2005-2010 when the NDA was in power in Bihar, and Mr Modi was the finance minister. Sushil Kumar Modis role must be investigated as he was the deputy chief minister and finance minister of the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take cognisance of the matter and order CBI probe, he said. Soon after Mr Yadav gave the statement on Saturday, Mr Modi directed all departments to physically verify accounts maintained by the district administrations across the state.

The department-wise verification of account must be ensured by district magistrates to keep a tab on irregularities in funds. So far three FIRs have been registered after a scam worth Rs 302.70 crore came to light, Mr Modi said in a statement.

On Friday, the SIT constituted by the state government to probe the fund transfer scam had arrested seven persons in connection with the case.

The special investigation team headed by inspector general, economic offences unit, Jitendra Singh Gangwar, arrested the Bhagalpur district land acquisition officer and a bank official. We have made the arrest on the basis of the pieces of evidence gathered during our probe. The matter is still under investigation, Mr Gangwar told reporters in Bhagalpur.

According to officials, the initial probe showed that around Rs 355.70 crore have been illegally transferred under various heads. The data reveals Rs 270 crore from land acquisition, Rs 70.70 crore from urban development schemes, and Rs 15 crore from the district administration were transferred into the NGO account.
July 28, 2017

There has been a lot of talk lately about the possibility of a social reconciliation to bring to a close the societal ruptures caused by the 2007 killings stemming from Hamas and Fatah's battle for control over Gaza. The idea was a focal point of Egyptian-brokered agreements concluded in June between Hamas and dismissed senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan. The reconciliation would involve compensation being paid to those injured and the families of those killed.

Dahlan spoke about his reconciliation with Hamas on July 27 from the United Arab Emirates via a video conference during a meeting of Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members and PLC members loyal to Dahlan. He said that the consultations to reach understandings between him and Hamas will return hope to the people of Gaza and alleviate some of their suffering, claiming they have already begun to bear fruit. A source close to Dahlan, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to Al-Monitor that by fruit Dahlan was referring to a social reconciliation.

A social rapprochement, should it transpire, would definitively conclude this bloody chapter of the Palestinian conflict, during which hundreds were killed June 10-15, 2007, in violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas militants. That event  which Fatah characterizes as a coup and Hamas describes as a decisive military action  has been an open wound.

Ismail Radwan, Hamas' current representative to the Social Reconciliation Committee, told Al-Monitor, Hamas sees that bereaved families have been very responsive [to the efforts] to bring about reconciliation and restore national unity. They have been a great example of forgiveness. The movement [wants] a broad national reconciliation in the upcoming period and has the desire and determination to close this dossier once and for all. The committee will embark on turning the page on the dossier related to victims compensation in the upcoming days.

The Social Reconciliation Committee was established following the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement of 2011, with all the Palestinian factions taking part. Its activities were frozen, however, due to Hamas and Fatah's ongoing estrangement. The committee, or a version of it in Gaza, was reactivated by the Hamas-Dahlan understandings.

Al-Monitor learned from sources on the Social Reconciliation Committee that the majority of bereaved families have agreed to accept compensation and end the dispute in exchange for pardoning those who took part in the killings. A pardon would involve prisoners being released, while the families of victims will accept compensation and provide a written pledge not to seek revenge against those who killed their relatives. While some have not yet responded, no more than five have rejected the settlement so far, on the grounds that justice should be served separately from any financial compensation.

The committee will distribute compensation payments in the next few weeks, in a public presentation, once the funds arrive from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is underwriting the effort. After that, it will declare the end of the dispute.

Imad Mohsen, media spokesman for the Democratic Reformist Current, Dahlan's breakaway Fatah movement active in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, In the next few weeks, the Social Reconciliation Committee will discuss the disbursement mechanism with human rights organizations, judges and tribal elders. The bereaved families, which total 700, have been very receptive. Among [those killed], we count 380 families for Fatah, 320 for Hamas and 800 injuries on both sides. A sum of $50,000 will be paid to each [deceased] victim's family, while the injured will obtain a smaller amount that is yet to be determined. The financial compensation fund now includes $50 million from the UAE.

Omar Karout, board member of Hemaya Center for Human Rights in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The social reconciliation is based on family and tribal agreements and does not go against human rights principles and fair trials. The victims fell in political and factional conflicts, not in family conflicts. As a human rights institution, we are in favor of this move, as it would turn a sad page in Palestinian history, especially in Gaza.

The Social Reconciliation Committee, which has called on the rest of the factions to join its ranks, met for the first time July 23, in Gaza, in the presence of representatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Dahlans current, al-Saiqa, the Palestinian National Initiative, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and the Popular Resistance Movement. Palestinian Authority President and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Fatah did not participate in the meeting. The committee met again July 29 to form subcommittees in the five Gaza governorates  Rafah, Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, Gaza and North Gaza  and chose as its chairman Khodr Habib of Islamic Jihad.

Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, a Fatah Central Committee member said, The Social Reconciliation Committees meeting that took place in Gaza is the product of deals serving common Hamas-Dahlan interests, and is not the product of political understandings. As a national movement, Fatah is removed from [these deals] and does not recognize them. It is unacceptable to undermine the families rights in exchange for money entering Gaza for political purposes, in light of the Palestinians need for it. The deep wounds need to be healed through the judiciary, and the PA needs to be at the heart of any settlement, rather than being excluded from it.

Mumin Bsiso, a political analyst, told Al-Monitor, It is no secret that enmity and hatred marked Hamas-Dahlan ties prior to the 2007 split. This phase was plagued by killings, bloodshed and destruction of property. Previously, Dahlan and his supporters had accused Hamas of the killings during the split. This is while Hamas accused Dahlan and his faction of initiating a military coup against its constitutional legitimacy and of forming special teams to kill Hamas cadres, paving the way for its elimination from the political scene."

He added, It would be naive to think that turning the page on the past will take place overnight, or that social reconciliation will manage to heal the wounds and close the dossier related to the bloodshed once and for all. The problem does not reside in both parties leaders and cadres, but rather in the presence of a good number of furious members of both parties. There are families of victims who refuse to forgive, demand that punishments be imposed and perceive Dahlan to be an enemy who should be faced. This makes the issue high risk and open to many possibilities.

The case of Gazas bereaved families is a thorny and outstanding issue between Hamas and Fatah. Many of the victims families run into each other on a daily basis on Gaza streets, and there is the possibility of revenge and retaliation, although no incidents have yet been recorded. Turning the page on this issue has become a pressing problem given popular pressure. If accomplished, it will have a positive impact on the rapprochement between Hamas and Dahlan. Unless all of the bereaved families agree to accept compensation, as Hamas and Dahlan wish, reconciliation is unlikely to succeed as long as Fatah is excluded. Dahlan's speech during the PLC session in Gaza before Hamas parliament members perhaps will boost the social reconciliation effort by encouraging hesitant bereaved families to agree to compensation.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Senior member of the MDC-T Chalton Hwende accused of instigating the Bulawayo violence that saw senior members of the party including Vice President Thokozani Khupe being attacked has accepted his suspesion.MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai suspended Hwende and Thabitha Khumalo over the incident."I was called by the President and he informed me of his decision to suspend me from my position as the National Deputy Treasurer General of the party. I have accepted this decision of the President and will subject myself to the internal investigations being Carried out by the Party," Hwende posted on Facebook."I arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday after a 3 months absence and I am committed to clearing my name. I do not believe in violence and look forward to helping the party identify the culprits. I will not be issuing any further statement regarding this matter so as to allow the party internal process to proceed and establish the truth. Thanks to all those who sent messages enquiring about my wellbeing I am ok and reachable on my usual Zimbabwean number."
Yogi Adityanath addressed media on Saturday on deaths of children in Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed media and urged them to give right facts and figures of the children death incident. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Addressing the media for the first time after the death of 63 children in Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur started drawing criticism from people across the country, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the deaths were not due to shortage of oxygen.

The Chief Minister also urged media to give right facts and figures in Gorakhpur hospital incident.

"Different media outlets have reported a different toll on number of deaths," Adityanath said.

He said different figures in different media are just spreading panic among people.

Yogi Adityanath expressed his grief over the loss of lives of children in the incident and extended his condolences to the bereaved families.

He said he was the one who started the fight against encephalitis.

The Chief Minister said that a committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, has been constituted to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident.

Yogi Adityanath said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his concerns over the incident and assured all possible help.

He said the health secretary govt of India, has also reached Gorakhpur.

Yogi Adityanath said he had visited Gorakhpur earlier and had held a three-hour long meeting with the officials on vector borne diseases including encephalitis.

He said during his visit to Baba Raghav Das Medical College, no one mentioned the issue of oxygen supply.

He said the investigation is underway and those responsible for the deaths will not be spared.

63 children have died over the last six days in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

The principal of the BRD medical college was suspended on Saturday.

"We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour," Ashutosh Tandon, the Health Minister and Siddharth Nath Singh, Minister for Medical Education said.

"High-level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secretary. Will wait for report, action will be taken. Till then suspending principal," Tandon added.

Raids were conducted on Saturday at a company which supplied oxygen cylinders to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

Congress demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh's resignations, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time.

While the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) termed the death of infants as an outcome of the state government's "gross criminal negligence" and demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident.

Both BSP and SP have decided to send teams to Gorakhpur.
Based on the doctor's advise, the girl's parents approached Charkop police, who registered a case of sexual assault on Thursday.

Mumbai: A man was arrested from Charkop in suburban Kandivali for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl and impregnating her, police said on Friday.

The girl is now 28-weeks pregnant, police said.

"The 22-year-old accused, an idli-seller, used to reside in the vicinity of the victim's residence in suburban Kandivali. He was arrested last night and produced in the court today, which remanded him to police custody till August 16," Shrirang Nadgauda, Assistant Commissioner of Police-Malwani division, said.

"The exact day and time of the offence could not be known so far as the girl is in a state of shock and hasn't told the police or the family members about her ordeal," he said.

The matter came to light two days back when her family took the girl to a local doctor to know the reason behind her bloated stomach. The doctor advised them to get her utra-sound test done. The test revealed that the girl was pregnant.

Based on the doctor's advise, the girl's parents approached Charkop police, who registered a case of sexual assault on Thursday.

Another police official said that although the exact time of the offence was not yet known, it is presumed that the crime was committed about seven months ago she is 28-weeks pregnant now.

Present laws, under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP), do not allow abortion after 20 weeks.

The accused was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, police said.

Further investigation is on.
A major highlight of the session was the suspension of six Cong members for highly unbecoming behaviour.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar speaks in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Productivity of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha improved during the Monsoon session, which ended on Friday as the upper house worked for 79.9 per cent of the scheduled hours, while the lower house transacted business for 77.9 per cent of its allotted hours. Overall, during the session, 17 Bills were introduced in Lok Sabha, which passed 14 Bills while nine bills were passed by the Rajya Sabha. A major highlight of the session was the suspension of six Congress members for highly unbecoming behaviour.

Briefing reporters after both the Houses were adjourned sine die, parliamentary affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that this is an achievement considering it was a short session and a considerable time was devoted to discussions on important issues and elections to the offices of President and vice-president.

The Session provided 19 sittings spread over a period of 26 days. The productivity of Lok Sabha was 77.94 per cent and that of Rajya Sabha was 79.95 per cent, Mr Kumar said.

Heated debate and verbal duels were witnessed between the Opposition and treasury benches during the session on vital issues like cow-lynching and mob-violence, agrarian crisis and the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat allegedly by BJP workers.

The minister also said a special sitting was organised to mark the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement during the session.

Mr Kumar termed the extension of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to Jammu and Kashmir as a historic achievement and said passing of related bills will lead to the economic integration of the state with the rest of the country.

However, taking a contrarian view, research body PRS Legislative Research claimed that the Lok Sabha worked for 67 per cent of the scheduled hours and the Rajya Sabha for 72 per cent, agencies reported.

Fifteen Bills were introduced during the session and nine were passed, other than that the two appropriation bills and three bills were withdrawn, the research body claimed.
The CM, along with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, met the PM at his office in Parliament House.

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid growing speculation over the merger of the two factions of the AIADMK in the state.

Mr Palaniswami, however, told reporters here that he only discussed with Mr Modi the states demand that it be exempted from the purview of the all-India medical college entrance test, Neet (National Eligibility and Entrance Test).

The CM, along with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, met the PM at his office in Parliament House. Stalled negotiations on the merger of the two AIADMK factions picked up again on Thursday after a meeting presided over by Mr Palaniswami questioned the appointment of TTV Dhinakaran as the AIADMKs deputy general secretary.

A resolution passed in the meeting said Mr Dhinakarans elevation to the post, hours before his aunt Sasikala Natarajan was taken to a jail in Bengaluru, was against party bylaws, a condition which former chief minister O. Panneerselvams faction of the party had pushed for a merger.

Mr Panneerselvam, the head of the rival faction, is also in Delhi. Both he and the CM attended Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidus oath-taking ceremony on Friday morning.

Mr Panneerselvam is also trying for an appointment with PM Modi, sources here said. Members of his faction will also meet officials of the Election Commission, and the Panneerselvam faction would present a copy of the Thursdays resolution to the EC.
Amit Shah addressed party workers at the BJP office in Malleswaram.

Bengaluru: BJP national president, Amit Shah declared his chief ministerial candidates for the 2018 Assembly elections as the state unit chief and former chief minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa on Saturday making it clear that he would stand for no dissidence from rival claimants even in the face of some unhappiness in the ranks over the role of BSYs coterie.

Arriving at the airport to a near euphoric welcome, he addressed party workers at the BJP office in Malleswaram. Mr. Shah, who is here on a three day visit to bolster party unity and build it up from the booth level, said the party hoped to gain a foothold in south India by coming to power in Karnataka in the coming assembly polls and told party workers not to rest until they had removed the corrupt Congress government in the state. My focus in Karnataka is not only on strengthening the party base, but also on removing the corrupt Congress government and installing a BJP government in its place in 2018, he said, noting that since winning the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won one election after another in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity has helped the party win many elections. In my three days here we will discuss preparations for the Assembly elections. Besides strengthening the party organisation from the booth level onwards, we will have to chalk out a plan for the coming poll, Mr. Shah said, urging the party workers to fight unitedly to bring the BJP to power in the state.

Despite the dissidence simmering in the party, BJP leaders put up a show of unity before Mr Amit Shah both at the Kempegowda International Airport and the party office with senior leaders like Ananthkumar, K.S. Eshwarappa, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and R. Ashok holding up their hands in a victory sign before party workers in a gesture of solidarity on the occasion.
Researchers place edited embryonic cells into chemical cocktail that encourages growth without destructive effects of modification.

Humans can already receive pig heart valves and pancreases, but scientists have long sought to make their entire organs, which grow to around human size, available for harvest. (Photo: Pixabay)

Washington: Scientists have successfully edited the genetic code of piglets to remove dormant viral infections, a breakthrough that could eventually pave the way for animal-to-human organ transplants.

Their work, documented in the US journal Science on Thursday, could save lives by reducing organ donor waiting lists that have risen over the years, partly thanks to better road safety.

There are some 117,000 people on the US transplant waiting list alone, according to official data, while 22 people die each day waiting for an organ.

Harvard University geneticists George Church and Luhan Yang, together with a team of Danish and Chinese collaborators, placed edited embryonic cells into a chemical cocktail that encouraged growth and overcame the destructive effect inherent in the modification process.

They then used a standard cloning technique to insert the edited DNA into egg cells that were placed into a surrogate mother.

"Before our study, there was huge scientific uncertainty about whether the pig [produced after this editing] is viable," Yang said, adding the team had now produced 37 piglets free of the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs).

"If this is correct, it's a great achievement," said virologist Joachim Denner of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, an expert in the retroviruses.

It is not clear whether PERVs would infect humans who receive pig organs, but lab studies have shown human cells can be infected by the viruses in a dish.

Humans can already receive pig heart valves and pancreases, but scientists have long sought to make their entire organs, which grow to around human size, available for harvest.

But the goal of xenotransplantation remains some way off. Researchers still need to edit pig genes to avoid triggering a human immune system reaction and prevent toxic interactions in blood.

These steps "are probably more challenging" than removing the dormant infections, said Yang.
Goldfish have two sets of proteins and mutation allows them to make ethanol outside mitochondria helping them survive harsh conditions.

A new study has revealed that goldfish produce alcohol to survive harsh winters beneath frozen lakes, which naturally makes them lose their inhibition. (Photo: Pixabay)

Ever wondered why your goldfish in the aquarium seems less inhibited than the other fish? A new study has revealed that goldfish produce alcohol to survive harsh winters beneath frozen lakes, which naturally makes them lose their inhibition.

The study goes on to add that humans would die with minutes without oxygen, yet the plucky little fish can survive months in oxygen-free water by converting lactic acid into ethanol. This stops them from poisoning themselves, and goes on to produce a little bit of alcohol, which perhaps makes them a tiny bit tipsy as well.

Research led by the University of Liverpool and Oslo found that the crucian carp produce 50 to 100 mg alcohol per millilitre in their blood.

Michale Berenbrink, an evolutionary physiologist at the University of Liverpool told MailOnline that this would put them above legal drink drive limit in most countries.

Researchers measured the blood alcohol limits of domestic goldfish in a lab and found they could also reach levels of around 50 mg per 100 ml.

Dr Berenbrink went on to add that putting an average sized goldfish into a pint glass and closing it off from the air would take more than 100 days to get the alcohol concentration of a typical lager.

Experiments by other researchers also showed that high alcohol levels make them less anxious.

The team has shown that muscles of goldfish and crucian carp contain not just one, but two sets of proteins normally used to channel carbohydrates towards their breakdown within a cell's mitochondria - a key step for energy production.

While one set of these proteins appears very similar to that in other species, the second set is strongly activated by the absence of oxygen.

This mutation allows them to make ethanol outside the mitochondria.

Researchers say this explains why goldfish are such resilient pets.
Preliminary probe reveals that another worker and one fire personnel were also rushed to a nearby hospital.

New Delhi: In yet another incident, two sanitation workers died on duty while cleaning a tank in East Delhis Aggarwal Fun City Mall near Anand Vihar on Saturday. Preliminary probe reveals that another worker and one fire personnel were also rushed to a nearby hospital.

According to the police, the two sanitation workers, who were brothers, died of suffocation while cleaning a sewage plant of the city mall. Their father, who was working with them, and a fireman, who went to rescue them, have been admitted to a city hospital after they too had suffered from suffocation.

Deputy commissioner of police Nupur Prasad said that Yusuf (50) and his sons Jahangir (24), and Izaz (22) went to clean a sewage plant at on Saturday.

The incident took place at around 1 pm. When asked about the deaths, Ms Prasad said that the two didnt have any safety equipment on. The brothers were residents of Sahibabad in Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi. They collapsed from suffocation due to toxic gases. A fireman, Mahipal, who went to rescue them, also inhaled the gas, Ms Prasad said.

Police said that though they were rushed to a hospital, Jahangir was declared brought dead and Izaz died later on. The DCP said that Yusuf and Mahipal are undergoing treatment. She added that a case has been registered though no one has been arrested so far.
The agitating students were demanding that the JU Executive Council adopt a resolution describing the government step as 'undemocratic'.

Students of Jadavpur University are firm to continue protesting until their demands are met. (Photo: PTI)

Kolkata: Jadavpur University students continued their sit-in to protest against the provisions of a bill which has been passed in the Assembly continued for the second day on Friday, with Vice-Chancellor Prof Suranjan Das expressing helplessness over the situation.

The provision in the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Bill 2017, against which the students are protesting, will enable the state government to prescribe rules and procedures for conducting students' body or union election. It was passed in the Assembly in February 2017.

The agitating students were demanding that the JU Executive Council (EC) adopt a resolution describing the government step as "undemocratic" and "unacceptable".

"We will not withdraw our agitation till the EC meeting passes such a resolution," Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU) spokesperson Somasree said.

AFSU and Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) are holding the sit-in.

The VC said that the EC members, the Deans, Pro-VC, Registrar and himself have agreed to communicate students' demands to the government in a letter where words like "widest manner" and "possible consensus" and "unacceptable" would be included.

"I am feeling upset. This is the most the EC can do within the parameters of law to communicate the student unions' reservation about the council model mooted in the bill," Das told reporters at the Aurobindo Hall of JU where he was stuck with EC members because of the of the agitation.

The students should understand that grievances should be aired in proper forum, he said adding that students in London had protested over fee hike three years ago but they agitated in a public square and not in Cambridge.

Das said he wants the students to sit for dialogue with the government.

Asked what will they do if the students did not lift the sit-in, Das said, "We will not move out. They said unless we endorse their demands fully, we will have to leave by trampling their posters and bodies. Tell me is that possible!"

To another question he said, education minister Partha Chatterjee and Governor K N Tripathi have called him up and inquired about the situation.

A FETSU member said, "the EC told us no more change in draft resolution can be effected and we will chalk out next course of action tomorrow. But the sit-in will continue."

AFSU leader Somasree said, "We hope the EC will not just forward a letter but endorse the stand of the students against the undemocratic step to supersede democratically elected students union by an appointed apolitical student council.
The decision was taken during the BMCs general body meeting earlier that day.

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Raj Purohit on Saturday sparked off a ruckus in the Legislative Assembly after he congratulated the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for making the recital of Vande Mataram mandatory in its schools. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), objecting to this, accused the BJP of politicising the issue.

Speaking in the House, Mr Purohit said, I congratulate the BMC for making reciting Vande Mataram in schools mandatory. It is a good move and I thank it. Mr Purohit is a chief whip of the BJP in the Assembly.

A heated exchange of words also took place between AIMIM MLAS and Mr Purohit on the Vidhan Bhavan porch after the session where both sides were seen sloganeering against each other. This is forceful. No one disrespects the song, but making it forceful is definitely not right. The Constitution guards our stand as it doesnt force us to recite Vande Mataram, said Mr Imtiyaz Jaleel, an AIMIM MLA.

Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar on Thursday announced that the BMC had passed a motion to make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in all civic-run schools twice a week. The decision was taken during the BMCs general body meeting earlier that day. The proposal has been sent to the BMC commissioner for his opinion.

Addressing mediapersons later, Mr Purohit said, This is the right decision. We will not compromise. It is an emotional issue and close to our heart. He also said that he would write to Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar, requesting him to make singing the national song compulsory in all central schools. Vande Mataram should be recited in every school across India, said Mr Purohit.

The same issue had triggered a political slugfest in the Assembly on July 27 in the wake of the Madras high court passing an order making reciting Vande Mataram compulsory in all schools, colleges and universities of Tamil Nadu. Mr Purohit and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, a former minister, had made a similar demand in the Maharashtra Assembly. However, AIMIM and Samajwadi Party MLAs took exception to this, saying there is no compulsion in the Constitution about reciting Vande Mataram.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

A man from Luveve Bulawayo is in trouble after he was arrested for smuggling potatoes from South Africa.Previous Dube (30) appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya charged with smuggling.It was alleged that on August 3 police officers from Luveve were tipped that Dube was offloading potatoes he smuggled from South Africa from a truck.They raided his place and on arrival they found him with 23 pockets of potatoes.They asked him to produce licence and he failed leading to his arrest.The smuggled potatoes are worth $56.54.
The 52-year-old, along with international team of 12 climbers, summited K-2's 28,251 feet or 8,610 meters on July 28 despite bad weather.

For climbers, K-2 is also considered particularly difficult, after Mount Everest (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: The first American woman to scale the world's second-highest mountain - Pakistan's dangerous K-2 summit - said on Friday that it was a "proud moment" when she hoisted the U.S. and Pakistani flags at the top of the mountain, long been considered "savage" for all climbers.

The 52-year-old Vanessa O'Brien, along with an international team of 12 climbers, summited K-2's 28,251 feet or 8,610 meters on July 28 despite bad weather.

For climbers, K-2 is also considered particularly difficult, after Mount Everest. O'Brien, who conquered Everest in 2010, said she thinks her ascent and decent at K-2 was more challenging.

July was O'Brien's third try at conquering K2, after being unsuccessful in 2015 and 2016 when an avalanche buried all of her equipment and strong winds forced her team to return to base camp.

"K-2 is a different mountain," O'Brien told The Associated Press. This time they were lucky - no brutal avalanches and they found several places to rest before ascending higher.

O'Brien also said she hoped her achievement would help promote people-to-people contacts between the two countries and expressed her team's gratitude to Pakistan for facilitating their endeavor.

Her family, O'Brien said, was against her traveling to Pakistan because of near-daily militant attacks. In 2013, gunmen killed 10 foreign mountaineers and a local guide as they were trying to scale another Pakistani mountain.

But O'Brien insisted she enjoyed her stay in Pakistan.

The expedition began when a Pakistan Air force plane took her and the team to the northern town of Skardu.

She said Pakistan provided them best protection - only after the summit was she told that one of the gear handlers who accompanied the team was in fact a Pakistan army soldier, secretly sent by the government to watch over the team's safety.
The BJP is only too happy with this development as a division in the votes will work to its advantage.

In addition to herding 44 Gujarat legislators to a resort in Bengaluru, Congress president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel made every possible effort to reach out to other MLAs in the run-up to his high-stakes Rajya Sabha election last week. Besides visiting fence-sitting legislators at their homes, Mr Patel also made it a point to ring up rebel Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela every morning to seek his support even after he walked out of the party along with six other lawmakers. Mr Vaghela repeatedly assured Mr Patel that he would vote for him, declaring dramatically, pran jaaye par vachan na jaaye. It is a different story that Mr Vaghela was quick to go back on his word, stating that he did not wish to vote for a losing candidate. Expectedly, Mr Vaghela has been expelled from the Congress. The buzz is that Mr Vaghela is going to float his own party and contest the Assembly polls in partnership with the Nationalist Congress Party whose president Sharad Pawar is apparently going to bankroll his campaign. The BJP is only too happy with this development as a division in the votes will work to its advantage. Mr Vaghela, on his part, believes that if he can win 20-25 seats, he would be in a position to play kingmaker after the elections.

The death of BJPs Lok Sabha member from Ajmer Sanwar Lal Jat, which will necessitate a bypoll, is being seen as an opportunity for the Congress to test its strength on the ground. This is especially so because the Congress consistently maintains that its ongoing campaign against the Vasundhara Raje government is proving to be a big success and that the tide is turning in its favour. In fact, it is also being said that Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, who lost to Jat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, should be fielded to send out a strong message to their rivals. Needless to say that it is Mr Pilots detractors who are making a strong case for his candidature for the bypoll. But senior Congress leaders maintain that the party cannot take such a risk as a defeat for its state unit chief would prove to be counter-productive. In any case, they point out that a bypoll is not a barometer to assess the popularity of a state government.

Besides handling their own portfolios, ministries are also being pushed to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship programmes like Swachh Bharat, GST rollout, Make in India and Skill India. Each ministry has been instructed to hold weekly meetings to monitor the implementation of these schemes. The feedback is then forwarded to the Cabinet secretariat and the Prime Ministers Office. As a result, ministries are unable to devote much time to their work as officials are busy collating material from industry representatives and civil society groups on the status of the flagship programmes. While industry representatives are quick to provide the necessary information, bureaucrats often struggle to explain how they are implementing these schemes. There have been instances when the power point presentation by officials give details of the number of broken chairs and tables they have discarded in their respective ministries. There is a classic case of a bureaucrat showing a picture of a cupboard overflowing with files, which is miraculously emptied thanks to the Swachch Bharat campaign. It is the same story with the GST rollout. Industry representatives were being pressured to give details of success stories barely 10 days after it was introduced.



Ever since textiles minister Smriti Irani was given additional charge of the information and broadcasting ministry, she has evinced considerable interest in this high-profile portfolio. She has been holding regular meetings with ministry officials and has lost no time in issuing a string of instructions. Ms Irani is also keeping a sharp eye on mediapersons who are not ideologically aligned with the BJP government. If the Delhi grapevine is to be believed, the ministry has even prepared dossiers on such journalists and is waiting for them to err so that it can pull them up. According to BJP insiders, Ms Irani is keeping up this frenetic pace in the hope that she will be moved to the IB ministry when PM Narendra Modi undertakes the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle.

The biggest loser here has been minister of state Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore whose role has gradually shrunk over the past year or so. When finance minister Arun Jaitley held additional charge of this ministry, he had delegated most of his work to Mr Rathore. This changed when the media-savvy M. Venkaiah Naidu took over this ministry and now that Ms Irani is in-charge, there is even less scope for Mr Rathore to hit the headlines.
Researchers have discovered that the group behind Mamba has resumed its attacks  targeting corporations, mainly in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

As usual, this group gains access to an organizations network and uses the psexec utility to execute the ransomware. Also, it is important to mention that for each machine in the victims network, the threat executor generates a password for the DiskCryptor utility. This password is passed via command line arguments to the ransomware dropper. There is currently no way to decrypt data that has been encrypted using DiskCryptor as the encryption algorithms are very strong.

In late November 2016, a huge attack took place against San Franciscos municipal railway. Perpetrated with ransomware called Mamba, the attack apparently took out more than 2,000 computers belonging to the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA).

Kaspersky Lab researchers have discovered that the group behind Mamba has resumed its attacks  targeting corporations, so far mainly in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

As usual, this group gains access to an organizations network and uses the psexec utility to execute the ransomware. Also, it is important to mention that for each machine in the victims network, the threat executor generates a password for the DiskCryptor utility. This password is passed via command line arguments to the ransomware dropper. There is currently no way to decrypt data that has been encrypted using DiskCryptor as the encryption algorithms are very strong.

In a nutshell, the malicious activity can be separated into two stages:

Stage 1 (Preparation)

As the trojan uses the DiskCryptor utility, the first stage deals with installing this tool on a victim machine. The malicious dropper stores DiskCryptors modules in their own resources.

Depending on OS information, the malware is able to choose between 32- or 64-bit DiskCryptor modules. The necessary modules will be dropped into the C:xampphttp folder.

After that, it launches the dropped DiskCryptor installer. When DiskCryptor is installed, the malware creates a service that has SERVICE_ALL_ACCESS and SERVICE_AUTO_START parameters. The last step of Stage 1 is to reboot the system.

Stage 2 (Encryption)

Using the DiskCryptor software, the malware sets up a new bootloader to MBR.

The bootloader contains the ransom message for the victim. After the bootloader is set, disk partitions would be encrypted using a password, previously specified as a command line argument for the dropper. When the encryption ends, the system will be rebooted, and a victim will see a ransom note on the screen. Kaspersky Lab products detect this threat with the help of the System Watcher component with the following verdict: PDM:Trojan.Win32.Generic.

Decryption

Unfortunately, there is no way to decrypt data that has been encrypted using the DiskCryptor utility because this legitimate utility uses strong encryption algorithms.

Businesses concerned about their potential vulnerability to this threat are advised to:
India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area for the last 50 days

India and China have been locked in a prolonged standoff in the area in the Sikkim sector since June 16 (Photo: Representational/PTI)

Washington: India is "behaving like a mature power" in the Doklam standoff in the Sikkim section and making China look like an adolescent throwing a tamper tantrum, a top American defence expert has said.

India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area for the last 50 days after Indian troops stopped the Chinese People's Liberation Army from building a road in the area.

Praising India's behaviour over the matter, James R Holmes, professor of strategy at the prestigious US Naval War College, said, "New Delhi has done things right thus far, neither backing away from the dispute nor replying in kind to Beijing's over-the-top rhetoric."

"It is behaving as the mature power and making China look like the adolescent throwing a temper tantrum," Holmes said.

Holmes said it was 'weird' that China wanted to keep alive a boundary dispute with its most formidable neighbour.

"If China wants to pursue an assertive maritime strategy, it needs secure borders on land so it doesn't have to worry about overland aggression from its neighbours," Holmes said.

When asked why the US has remained silent so far on this issue, he said the current administration has too much on its plate.

"It's also possible Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and his advisers don't want the United States involved in a Himalayan dispute it has little way of influencing. If the dispute escalates, chances are Washington will come out in support of New Delhi," Holmes said.
'The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued repression by the Maduro regime', said White House.

Earlier Friday Trump even said he was considering military options as a response to the escalating political and economic crisis in Venezuela. (Photo: File)

Washington: President Donald Trump will agree to speak to Venezuela's leader "as soon as democracy is restored in that country," the White House said Friday night.

President Nicolas Maduro has been under intense criticism around the world for installing a new all-powerful assembly that supersedes the Venezuelan congress and is packed with Maduro loyalists.

The White House said Maduro requested on Friday a phone call with Trump, whose administration has slapped sanctions on Maduro himself and some of his allies, and branded him a dictator over his attempts to crush his country's opposition.

Earlier Friday Trump even said he was considering military options as a response to the escalating political and economic crisis in Venezuela an oil-rich country reduced to widespread poverty and shortages of food, medicine and other basics.

The White House said that since he took office Trump has been pressing Maduro to respect his country's constitution, hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners and halt human rights violations and oppression.

"The Maduro regime has refused to heed this call, which has been echoed around the region and the world. Instead Maduro has chosen the path of dictatorship," the White House said.

"The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued repression by the Maduro regime. President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country," it added.
Putin said last month the US would have to cut 755 of its diplomatic staff in Russia a response to new sanctions.

Bedminster: The White House says President Donald Trump was not being serious when he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering a drastic reduction in the number of US diplomatic employees and saving the US significant cash.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday that Trump "was being sarcastic" when he made the remark a day earlier. Trump had said he "greatly" appreciated Putin's help cutting down the State Department's payroll. At the time, it was unclear whether he was joking.

Putin said last month the US would have to cut 755 of its diplomatic staff in Russia a response to new sanctions that seek to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 US election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with Trump warning Pyongyang.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Tokyo: Japan was on Saturday deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said.

Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US.

The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said. It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures." In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The government blames the killings on the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October.

The army used the same language to describe counter-insurgency sweeps in October.(Photo: Representational/AFP)

Yangon: Myanmar is imposing new curfews and deploying fresh troops to Rakhine state, the government confirmed Saturday, after the UN expressed alarm at reports of a military build-up in the region where authorities are accused of widespread rights abuses.

News that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine this week to boost security was met with criticism from UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee on Friday, who warned it was "cause for major concern".

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when Rohingya militants attacked police posts, sparking a months-long bloody military crackdown.

The army campaign sent more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The Rohinyga are a stateless group long maligned by Mynamar's Buddhist majority and the UN believes the army's crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing a charge the government vehemently denies.

State media said Saturday that "clearance operations are being heightened" in Rakhine's May Yu mountain range, an area where the government says Rohingya militants remain active.

The army used the same language to describe counter-insurgency sweeps in October. "Plans are underway to reinforce security forces and military forces by deployment of additional troops," the state-run Global New Light of Mynamar said, adding that curfews would be imposed in "necessary areas".

The goal was to "prevent extremist terrorists from taking a stronghold in the May Yu mountain range," the state mouthpiece said. The military build-up comes after a spike in violence in recent months, with dozens of villagers murdered and abducted by masked assassins.

The government blames the killings on the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October. The group has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

Rohingya communities in the remote area also continue to be raided, with security forces firing "warning shots" during a face-off with a mob of villagers earlier this month. UN rights expert Lee urged authorities to carry out their security operations in line with international human rights standards.

"The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State," she said in a statement.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services. The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations.

A government-appointed commission in the country has dismissed allegations of widespread abuses, while Myanmar is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe.
Muslim, nationalist protesters call for 30-metre statue of Guan Yu to be torn down.

The brightly-painted statue is of Guan Yu, a former General who is worshipped by some Chinese.

Tuban, Indonesia: Indonesia has urged officials to stand up to mob pressure after Muslim and nationalist protesters called for a 30-metre-tall statue of a Chinese deity erected in a temple complex in an East Java town to be torn down.

The brightly-painted statue of Guan Yu, a former general who is worshipped by some Chinese, was inaugurated in July in a temple complex in the fishing town of Tuban and is claimed to be Southeast Asias tallest such representation of the deity.

The statue in Tuban, about 100 km west of the city of Surabaya, has been partially covered up after the protests, provoking both praise and ridicule on social media in the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country.

If they ask for the statue to be torn down, authorities cannot bow to such pressure, Teten Masduki, chief of staff to President Joko Widodo, told reporters.

Protesters demonstrated this week outside Surabayas parliament against the statue, some wearing paramilitary-style outfits and waving placards that read Demolish It and We are not worshippers of idols.

Allowing a depiction of a foreign general was a symbol of treason to this nation, an unnamed protester said in a video of the rally on news portal Kompas.com.

Officials of the Kwan Sing Bio Temple in Tuban declined to comment, but media have quoted residents as saying the statue was good for tourism.

Indonesia is a secular state whose constitution enshrines religious freedom and diversity, but there are concerns that rising intolerance threatens its reputation for moderate Islam.

Muslims form about 85 percent of the population, but there are also substantial Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and other minorities.

Religious tension has soared this year after Islamist-led rallies saw Jakartas incumbent governor, a member of a so-called double minority who is ethnic Chinese and Christian, put on trial during city elections over Koran insult allegations.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was later jailed for two years for blasphemy, a sentence rights groups and international bodies condemned as unfair and politicised.

The protests against the statue were primarily about nationalism, said Suli Daim, a lawmaker in East Java.

What they were protesting about is that the statue did not represent their general or commander, he said, adding that a permit for the statue had also not yet been approved.

The fate of the statue, reported to have cost 2.5 billion rupiah ($190,000) to build, has sparked sparring on social media.

Praise be to God, the noisy fighting in social media succeeded in ensuring the idolatrous statue has been covered. I hope it will soon be taken down, Muhammad Syahrir, using the handle @Muhamma37029013, said on social network Twitter.
Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the EU from use in the food industry.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Brussels: A scandal involving eggs contaminated with insecticide spread to 17 EU countries, Switzerland and as far away as Hong Kong on Friday as the European Commission called for a special meeting on the growing crisis.

Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the European Union are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop "blaming and shaming" each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on August 1.

The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicentre of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem. "Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting. "We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead."

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that "this is not, let's be clear, a crisis meeting" and it is being held next month to get "distance to the events".

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.

But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

Hong Kong health minister Sophia Chan said Saturday authorities were "strengthening" inspections of eggs from Europe. As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.

Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries. On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made "errors" but denied a cover-up.

"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers.

A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the centre of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands. "I am the anonymous whistleblower," Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.

A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical. Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.

However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily. Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.

Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany. French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was "very low" given French eating habits.

The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.

Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

A MAN from Mzilikazi in Bulawayo has been slapped with 9 months effective jail term for possession of mbanje.Nkosikhona Ncube (21) pleaded guilty to mbanje possession when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya.The magistrate convicted and sentenced him to 12 months in jail. Three months of the sentence were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.The court was told that on August 5 this year police officers were on patrol in Makokoba when they saw a juvenile in possession of mbanje.The boy told them that he got the drug from Ncube. A raid at Ncube's place led to his arrest and recovery of 3 cobs and 3 sachets of dagga all worth $600.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) lead their closest rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), by a 12-to-17-point margin.

Merkel will kick off a series of rallies across the country with an hour-long speech to supporters in the western city of Dortmund. (Photo: File)

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has returned from a three-week Alpine holiday to embark Saturday on what may be the most bizarre election campaign in the country's post-war history.

After months of studiously ignoring the race for the September 24 election, Merkel will kick off a series of rallies across the country with an hour-long speech to supporters in the western city of Dortmund.

But just six weeks out from the European Union's top economic power and most populous nation going to the polls, Germans are barely taking notice of the election.

Even after 12 years in power, Merkel, frequently called the world's most powerful woman and Europe's de facto leader, looks set for a fourth term. Gone are the warnings of her political demise heard at the height of the 2015 refugee influx, when nearly 900,000 asylum seekers entered the country.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) lead their closest rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), by a 12-to-17-point margin, meaning it would take a political earthquake to shift the field at this point. "It is probably the strangest election race in the history of the Federal Republic," Heribert Prantl of the national broadsheet Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote this week. "There is no wind, never mind a wind of change."

Merkel's main challenger, SPD leader and former European Parliament spokesman Martin Schulz, has led what many commentators call a plodding campaign.

But they acknowledge that there is little mood around for renewal, as Germans look out on a turbulent world unsettled by Donald Trump and Brexit. After high-drama election campaigns in the United States, Britain and France, Germans appear relieved that their race is so low-stakes.

"The German elections are very difficult to understand from a foreign point of view because there's hardly any polarisation," political scientist Timo Lochocki of the German Marshall Fund of the US told AFP.

Meanwhile the frustrated Social Democrats are faced with an enemy who refuses to engage, with German media nicknaming the lonely Schulz the "Shadowboxer". "The SPD can't polarise the campaign alone; the CDU doesn't answer, so (the campaign) is dying," said Lochocki.

He cited three main reasons for German satisfaction with the status quo: the rude health of the economy with solid growth and low unemployment; Merkel's right-left "grand coalition" government creating broad consensus around contentious issues such as immigration and security; and a pact by mainstream parties to shun the political fringe.

The CDU has plumped for a soft-focus campaign centred on patriotism and Merkel herself. The party drew ridicule for its soporific slogan "For a Germany in which we live well and happily", and a campaign poster featuring a young female voter literally asleep in a meadow.

Schulz this month accused Merkel of eroding German democracy with her barely perceptible re-election bid. "A chancellor who does not tell voters what she intends to do is neglecting her duty and that endangers the future of the country," he warned.

Given she has been in power since 2005, making her the longest-serving leader of any major Western democracy, Merkel still enjoys a remarkable personal popularity rating of around 60 percent nearly double that of Schulz.

In a column called "Wander Woman" this week, Rene Pfister of Der Spiegel noted the fascination Germans had with the down-to-earth images of Merkel hiking in gear she has been wearing year after year that were splashed on the pages of newspapers and magazines during her holiday.

"It is among the curiosities of this election campaign that even Merkel's summer holiday led her poll numbers to climb," Pfister said, noting that Merkel's no-nonsense style mirrored Germans' own view of themselves.

The only source of suspense at this stage seems to be whether Merkel will manage to eke out her first absolute majority to govern alone, or which of three possible smaller parties she would court for a coalition.

Sueddeutsche's Prantl noted the irony that Germany's real political battle over the post-Merkel era would apparently have to wait until after the election.

"September starts the clock on a time after Angela Merkel when the fight for the future of the CDU and SPD can begin in earnest," he said.
Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

Islamabad: Pakistans former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday termed his disqualification from premiership as a joke and exuded confidence that he will be elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.

Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Sharif said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.

Should this even be called a disqualification? I will be made prime minister by the masses again tomorrow, he told a cheering crowd.

They have only removed me on paper but they have not removed me from your hearts. Is this removing me at all? Sharif asked. He asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted, he said.

May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted, the 67-year-old veteran politician said.

Sharif said the peoples vote had been trampled upon as millions of people elected a leader and a couple of people or five judges disgraced and sent him home.

He said it was for the people of Gujranwala to think that removal was just.

Sharif, who could not complete his term for a third time, also asked the gathering, Should I sit back and accept the verdict or fight the injustice?

The people responded in unison with a big No, prompting Sharif to ask them to stand by him.

If you do not want me to sit back then you would have to stand by me. Then stand by me to change the fate of this nation. Promise me that you would do what I tell you, he said.

Sharif said the time had come to change the country.

We would have to make sure that your vote is respected. It is a question of respect for vote of 20 crore people. I would not allow anyone to trample your right to elect leaders of choice, Sharif said.

He said he would announce his future plan of action and asked his supporters to wait for it.

Sharif stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court on July 28 and after staying in Murree and Islamabad, embarked on road journey to his home in Lahore in the company of thousands of his supporters.

He was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.
The judge explained how people due to their personal enmity managed to drag their rivals into blasphemy cases.

Islamabad: A court in Pakistan has asked the government to make changes in the controversial blasphemy law to stop its misuse for personal interests and fix tougher punishment for any person falsely accusing someone of the crime, which is punishable by death.

Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui issued a verdict on Friday in the case regarding elimination of blasphemous content from social media.

In the 116-page detailed judgment, Justice Siddiqui suggested that parliament make the blasphemy law tougher by fixing the same punishment for any person misusing it or falsely accusing someone of blasphemy, Dawn reported today.

The judge explained how people due to their personal enmity managed to drag their rivals into blasphemy cases endangering the life of not only the accused person but all his family members and relatives.

Under the existing law, the false accuser can only face proceedings under Section 182 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Section 182 entails the maximum punishment of six months or a fine up to Rs 1,000 only.

The judge said this is a very minor punishment for such a serious offence of accusing someone of blasphemy.

He said that due to the misuse of the law critics even demanded abolishing it. He said that it was better to stop exploitation of the law rather than abolishing it.

"Admittedly, not a single convict whether Muslim or non- Muslim has ever been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan," the judgment added.

The judge referred the matter to the legislature to amend the law for awarding the same punishment for lodging a false complaint under the blasphemy law.

Besides, the court directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to create a firewall to block unwanted and sacrilegious content in Pakistan.

The court acknowledged steps taken by the federal government to eliminate such content from the social media. It, however, directed the interior ministry and other departments concerned to vigorously take up the matter with the Facebook management.

In case, the Facebook management does not remove the indecent content and revered personalities the website may be banned completely in Pakistan, the verdict said.

Blasphemy is very sensitive issue in Pakistan and those accused of it have become an easy target for extremists

Blasphemy laws were introduced in 1980s and no government could dare change them despite allegation of misuse. However, it might be possible to amend after the verdict.
Kulsoom Nawaz will contest the seat her husband was forced to vacate last month after getting involved in the Panama scandal.

Lahore: The wife of Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will contest the parliamentary seat left vacant after her husband was deposed by the country's top court last month, a party official said Friday.

The Supreme Court sacked Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against him and his family, making him the 15th prime minister in Pakistan's 70-year history to be ousted before completing a full term.

Nomination papers for Begum Kulsoom Nawaz were submitted in the eastern city of Lahore by her son-in-law, an official from Sharif's eponymous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) told AFP.

Kulsoom, who has been married to Sharif for 46 years, has largely stayed out of politics. But when Pervez Musharraf arrested her husband in a coup in October 1999, the former first lady led the movement for him to be freed before the family were exiled to Saudi Arabia.

Within days of Sharif's ouster the PML-N nominated former oil minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as a new prime minister. He was originally seen a placeholder for Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab.

But reports this week said the party appeared to be backtracking on the succession plans announced by Sharif, saying the PML-N would likely keep Abbasi in place until next year's general elections.
by Fady Noun

Afflicted by wars, emigration and insecurity, Christian communities have now become "a small flock" amid the indifference of the international community. Patriarchs appeal to Pope Francis and the international community. Catholics and Orthodox share the same problems. The end of Christians in the East would be "a shameful stigma for the whole 21st century".

Dimane (AsiaNews)  Consciously hoping against hope and placing itself in the hands of Gods justice, the Council of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs yesterday released a final statement after its annual session (August 10-11, 2017) in Dimane (northern Lebanon), the summer residence of the Maronite Patriarch.

With some sadness, the patriarchs criticised the international community of watching the extinction due to insecurity and emigration of one Eastern Church after the other in Iraq, Syria but also Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt without reacting to the gravity of the tragedy. They warn that if this state of affairs continues, it will be a real "plan of genocide" and "an affront to humanity."

Their message coincides with the release of clear data on the decline in the number of Christians in various Middle East countries, particularly in Iraq, Syria, and the Holy Land. In the latter geographic area, divided between Israel and Occupied Territories, Christians represent only 1.2 per cent of the population. In Syria, due to the war that broke out in 2011, their number has fallen from 250,000 to 100,000, according to recent statistics. Meanwhile, the Chaldean patriarch is struggling to convince Christians from the Nineveh Plain to come back to their native land after it was taken back from Daesh.

In a "general appeal", somewhat confused because it was probably drafted by more than one person, in which hope is mixed with cries and lamentations, the patriarchs say, "It's time to launch a prophetic appeal to bear witness to the truth . . . We are invited to remain attached to our Eastern identity and to remain faithful to our mission. Taking on the care of our little flock, we Eastern patriarchs are pained by watching the human haemorrhage of Christians who abandon their native lands in the Middle East."

"The oppressors who are acting fully cognizant of what they are doing, the mindless who take advantage of our pacifism, should know that God's justice will have the last word. To our faithful we say that we now look like yeast in the dough, in the light shining in a world thirsty of the vivifying Spirit. Let us remain rooted in the land of our fathers and ancestors, hoping against every hope in a future in which, as parts of a genuine and specific heritage, we shall be understood as sources of enrichment for our societies and for the universal Church in the East and the West ".

"We must remain attached to the proclamation of the truth in charity, and proclaim boldly the legitimacy of the separation between state and religion in the constitution of our homelands, and the equality of everyone in terms of rights and duties, irrespective of religious or community affiliation. This is an essential condition to reassure the nations Christians and other small groups."

Appeal to the international community

"We call upon the United Nations and the countries directly affected by the war in Syria, Iraq and Palestine (Russia, the United States, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia) to stop the wars whose goals are now clear: destruction, killing, exile, boosting terrorist organisations, spreading the spirit of intolerance and conflict between religions and cultures. Perpetuating this situation, failure to establish a just, global and lasting peace in the region, and ensuring the return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in dignity and justice will remain as a shameful stigma for the whole 21st century".

Appeal to Pope Francis

"To Peter's successor, we say that we are ready to respond to the call for holiness, following the Saviour on the way of the Passion. But let us also remember that we represent Churches that flourished in the land of the East since the apostolic times . . . whose existence is in real danger."

"We have all participated in conferences, seminars, and meetings. We have tried to convey to the world the ugliness of the fate inflicted upon the Christian people. But we are not a nation with big borders, or one that attracts the attention of giants of finance. We are now a small peaceful flock, a small flock that does not count on anyone else but you to invite the great ones who preside over the destinies of the world, who continue to push Middle East Christians to leave, which is no doubt, a plan of genocide, a human catastrophe, even a defeat for civilisation and an affront to all humanity."

In Lebanon, schools are at risk of closure

Furthermore, the statement notes the traditional ecumenical sequence, held on the first day, with the presence of Orthodox Eastern patriarchs and a visit of the president. Obviously, Eastern Orthodox patriarchs share the same concerns and face the same challenges.

The statement also expresses the concern of Lebanons Catholic School Secretariat (which caters to 70 per cent of the school population) over the approval of the new wage grid for teachers, which will increase costs by 20 per cent. According to the Secretariat, many state-funded free schools, especially in the provinces and the countryside, will be unable to cope with higher costs and will have to close. The bishops have therefore express concern over the "hundreds" of teachers who will lose their job and ask the Lebanese government to supplement the increases that have been made.

The press release did not fail to present Lebanon as a democratic model that all Arab countries should imitate because of the principle of separation between state and religion. It finally called for the return of displaced people (Syrians and Palestinians) now in Lebanon who have become "a heavy burden and a threat to the country's political, economic and social security."

The Nuncio and the Islamic State

The nuncio to Lebanon, Mgr Gabriele Caccia, spoke on the first day to reassure the Eastern Churches that the pope and the Universal Church are attentive to them, as evidenced by the Synod of 2010 and the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in the Middle East that followed, which Benedict XVI promulgated in Lebanon in 2012.

The statement noted that the "Arab Spring" led to the so-called Islamic State, "a novelty in the history of the region. The intention was perhaps to give a more regional role to an international Muslim organisation. But its rule has been shortened, bringing the situation back to the starting point, not without internal and international tensions. 

We are starting to see an outline for a negotiated political solution to the issue, backed by the great powers, particularly Russia and United States. Let us hope that it can be lead to peace, justice and stability."

The annual meeting was attended by Catholic patriarchs: Bechara al-Rahi (Maronite), Ignace Youssef Younan III (Syriac Catholic), Joseph Absi (Greek Melchite Catholic), Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak (Catholic Coptic patriarch emeritus, president of the patriarchal council and Catholic bishops of Egypt), Louis Raphael I Sako (Chaldean), Gregory Petros XX (Armenian Catholic), and William Shomali (representing Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem).

The other religious leaders present at the ecumenical session included Patriarch John X (Greek Orthodox), Patriarch Ignace Ephrem II (Syriac Orthodox), Catholicos Aram I (Armenian Orthodox), and Rev Salim Sahyouni (president of the Evangelical Community of Syria and Lebanon).
by Shafique Khokhar

It is necessary to ensure effective political participation and representation of religious minorities. An appeal is issued on National Minorities Day. Tehreek Rwadari makes some proposals.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Rwadari Tehreek (RT) on Wednesday, National Minorities Day, issued an appeal in favour of pluralism and harmony to counter the prevalent culture of intolerance, extremism and violence.

RT wants the federal and provincial governments and all other stakeholders to meet the challenge and protect the rights and freedoms of Pakistani minorities.

In a statement, RT chairman Samson Salamat expressed great concern over the dangerous rise in discrimination and violence against religious minorities and their faith.

"Pakistani citizens who belong to minority communities are forced to accept jobs in which they are highly discriminated like garbage collection, domestic work, construction, but so far nothing has been done to put an end to this," the statement said.

The issue requires a political solution, but the corridors of power lack genuine representation from religious minorities because of their ineffective presence at all levels of Pakistans democratic system.

On Minority Day, RT released a sort of "Charter" with various proposals.

First of all, the speech of 11 August 1947 by Pakistan's founder Ali Jinnah to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan should be included in the Preamble of the Constitution of Pakistan as well as in the statutes of all institutions and schools.

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, during his first speech at the constituent assembly, said: "We are all citizens and equal citizens of one state. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State."

Second. A package of constitutional reforms should be developed in consultation with religious minorities and civil society in order to put an end to discrimination and bias, ensuring effective political participation and representation to religious minorities.

Third. An Independent Minorities Commission should be established at the federal and provincial levels through an act of Parliament and should have the powers of a tribunal in case of violations of minority rights.

Fourth. Mechanisms should be put in place for the effective implementation of the Supreme Court Judgement of 2014 on the Protection of Minorities.

Fifth. Laws that lend themselves to dubious interpretations to instigate people to violence should be reviewed because they have led to the destruction of lives and property of members of religious minorities.

Sixth. An independent commission of inquiry should be set up to assess the issue of forced conversion of women and girls from religious minorities. The Commission's findings should be made public and those involved in forced conversion should be apprehended. Moreover, a law banning forced conversion should be adopted.

Seventh. An effective de-radicalisation plan needs to be implemented. It should include a ban on hate speech, terrorist propaganda and on those who promote and finances it.
The Californian welcomes your comments and suggestions. To offer your input, please call 661-395-7649 and leave your comments in a voicemail message or send an email to soundoff@bakersfield.com. Please include your name and phone number. Phone numbers wont be published.
BizClimate Survey Highlights

The Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce released the results of its first survey of 35 businesses on the local economy, the regulations they face and what support businesses need to maintain a qualified and productive workforce.

More than half, 57 percent, said they have added jobs since Jan. 1, 2016.

All responders either see no change or better job growth in their sector this year.

Top three benefits of doing business with Kern County:

Business climate/local government policies

Proximity to customers and competitors

Climate/weather

Top three business challenges in Kern County:

Employee recruitment/retention costs

Business regulations

Health care costs

Top three changes local governments could implement to improve the business climate:

Streamline permit approval process

Provide more community college training/work force development

Improve public safety

Top three issues for the Chamber

Enhance education and workforce development

Improve the external image of Bakersfield

Transportation or public safety sales tax measures
News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Mugabe returned home last night from Iran where he joined other world leaders in witnessing Mr Hassan Rouhani's swearing in for a second term as president of the Middle Eastern country.While in Iran, Mugabe also held bilateral talks with President Rouhani, in addition to interfacing with Zimbabwean students pursuing various university studies there.Last night, he was received at Harare International Airport by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa; Minister of State for Harare Provincial Affairs Miriam Chikukwa; Defence Minister Dr Sydney Sekeramayi; Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe; Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo; service chiefs and other senior Government officials.In Monday's bilateral engagement, Presidents Mugabe and Rouhani pledged to strengthen economic cooperation, and paved the way for the Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission to try and meet this year to give impetus to existing agreements while also initiating new mutually beneficial projects.Among areas of keen interest to the State parties are energy, pharmaceuticals, science and technology, and agriculture.At that meeting, President Mugabe extended an invitation to President Rouhani to visit Zimbabwe to further boost ties, and Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said Government had no reason to think that invitation would be turned down.Minister Mumbengegwi, as well as Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba - along with other high-ranking Government officials - accompanied President Mugabe to Iran.The country's chief envoy to Tehran, Ambassador Nicholas Kitikiti, and his wife, hosted a dinner for President Mugabe and his delegation at their official residence  an occasion at which the President met Zimbabwean students based in Iran.Among the 21 undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral candidates are lecturers studying in the Middle East as part of a University of Zimbabwe staff development programme.Other students are on scholarships provided by Iran's Cultural Centre in Harare while some have private sponsorship.President Mugabe urged the students to conquer the frontier of new scientific and technological knowledge to develop their nation.The ties between Zimbabwe and Iran date back to 13th century trade in ivory and gold.Iran  variably known as Persia through history  is itself home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilisations dating back to 7000BC; while Zimbabwe can trace its history to the arrival of Bantu-speaking people some 2000 years ago.Relations were first interrupted by the arrival of the Portuguese on Africa's east coast soon and then aggressive colonial expansion by a host of European countries.Zimbabwe and Iran were to reassert their identities as sovereign nations at around the same time, both of them fending off Anglo-American domination of their peoples and territories.For Iran, the definitive moment was to come in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini removed the American-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi autocracy in the popular Islamic Revolution.In Zimbabwe, the quest for nationhood was to come months later when nationalist fighters pushed the racist British-backed Ian Douglas Smith colonial dictatorship to the negotiating table after more than a decade of war.In 1979, the late Vice-President and national hero Dr Simon Muzenda was to visit Iran to express solidarity with the Islamic Revolution, and for years now the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations, with leaders from both sides visiting each other regularly.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT has licensed telecommunications guru, Strive Masiyiwa's Kwese TV, a development which will bring competition to MultiChoice's Digital Satellite Television (DStv).Econet Wireless Zimbabwe employees had been given decoders as Kwese TV readies to launch the service in Zimbabwe.Kwese TV is changing the face of television, as it is premised on the concept of TV everywhere and anywhere.Econet Wireless Zimbabwe spokesperson, Fungai Mandivheyi was not available for comment.Lovemore Nyatsine, executive assistant to the group chief executive officer, said: "It's still premature for me to comment because there are certain procedures that are being followed. We are actually not licensed, as in that manner, certain processes need to be done.Kwese Free Sport has 13 million viewers on free-to-air satellite in Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania and Namibia.It will launch in 20 countries by year end.Kwese TV is live in Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda and Zambia.It will launch in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.Currently, DStv independent agents are struggling to facilitate payments due to the foreign currency gridlock, leaving subscribers stranded.A number of banks have removed DStv payment from their platforms except for accounts that are directly funded with United States dollars.Kwese TV is a brand of Econet Media Limited, the media arm of Econet, one of Africa's leading telecoms, media and technology groups.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

A 72-minute video presented in the Zanu-PF politburo by Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo on July 19, which is now circulating among senior party members and state security agents, portrays Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa as a callous, corrupt and power hungry individual who is systematically trying to usurp President Robert Mugabe's power.The Zimbabwe Independent has watched the explosive video - part of Moyo's defence of embattled Zanu-PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere - which fast turns into a brutal scrutiny Mnangagwa.The video opens with a cast of Mnangagwa loyalists, including leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association Chris Mutsvangwa and Victor Matemadanda as well as expelled Mashonaland Central Zanu-PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu demanding change in the Zanu-PF leadership because "the people that we entrusted with power have failed."It goes on to highlight a nine-page document called Blue Ocean, which the politburo heard was authored by Mnangagwa and his allies, providing a roadmap to seizing power from Mugabe, beginning in 2015 after the ousting of former vice-president Joice Mujuru, Mnangagwa's long-time rival for the throne. lt has many other dramatic episodes.Blue Ocean strategyThe document says Zanu-PF has three options: where the party and consequently government must go; where Mugabe wants the party to go; and the path to self-destruction and oblivion.It says Mnangagwa must seize control of the party and guide it along the first path. It also outlines strategies to weaken the G40 faction by targeting some of its stalwarts like First Lady Grace Mugabe and politburo members Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao, Ignatius Chombo and Moyo.This includes directing the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to crack down on Chombo, Moyo and Kasukuwere.State captureThe video says Mnangagwa is working systematically to undermine Mugabe by capturing party and state institutions. Among the institutions doing Mnangagwa's bidding are the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Zacc, Zimpapers and the military.The video states that Mnangagwa is using the NPA for "successionist objectives". It states that the Ministry of Justice has directed the NPA to "disclose information on high-profile cases" to the ministry, including the stage each case has reached.Letters of official complaint written by NPA officials were presented as evidence. The video also revealed that the NPA employs at least 42 military officers, who are ensuring that the NPA plays to Mnangagwa's tune. The military, the video says, is sponsoring bandits, including those who attempted to bomb the First Family's Gushungo Dairy, to show Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri - "seen as an obstacle to Mnangagwa's succession plans" - as incompetent.Zimpapers "has been taken over and continues to systematically vilify individuals identified as opponents in the Blue Ocean strategy document."Ousting KasukuwereThe video states that Mnangagwa and allies engineered protests in Mashonaland Central against political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere. The "premeditated" demonstrations were led by serving soldiers and youths expelled by the party with the aim of removing Kasukuwere, followed by a re-organisation of the party's provincial leadership before triggering an extra-ordinary congress where Mnangagwa would force a change of leadership.Military InterferenceThe military, particularly Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwenga, is neck-deep in Zanu-PF succession politics, the video says. An audio recording of a journalist from Zimpapers saying Mnangagwa's faction was virtually running the show at Zimpapers through Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba was played.Plausible deniabilityBlue Ocean says access to Mnangagwa by his acolytes should be limited, to give him plausible deniability for some of their controversial actions and statements. The video claims Mnangagwa has been using rogue party members to attack Mugabe and his wife, Grace. Despite Mnangagwa's public denunciation of these allies, among them Energy Mutodi, Godwin Gomwe, Matemadanda, Mutsvangwa and Tsenengamu, the video says the denunciations are merely a "ruse to deceive the party and the public" because the officials are "working with and for Mnangagwa."The foot soldiersThe video says Mnangagwa has "amassed a significant horde of at least 482 co-conspirators that are working from their various party and government positions to advance his bid to unconstitutionally and criminally succeed President Mugabe." The list includes politburo members as well as cabinet ministers.Zanu-PF companies lootingWhile using Zacc to plot charges against rivals, Mnangagwa's past is "riddled with cases of corruption in which he defrauded Zanu-PF companies" which he was running, the video saysPrivate terror militiaThe video says Mnangagwa is "feared and loathed" in the Midlands where a terror group "Al-Shabaab" is his faction's enforcement outfit. On the gold fields around Kwekwe, Shurugwi and Kadoma, Al-Shabaab is linked to 12 murders, mainly as a result of fights over gold mining claims.Godfrey Majonga sagaThe video also contains a dramatic charge: that Mnangagwa almost killed and succeeded in ending the career of ZBC television star Godfrey Majonga during a clash over a woman in 1987.Mnangagwa in a fit rage allegedly forced love rival Majonga to choose between sitting on a hot stove or jumping off the third floor of a building in Harare. Majonga chose to jump through the window of the flat where the confrontation happened, and landed on hard concrete.He broke his spine and suffered debilitating injuries which would confine him to a wheelchair for life.
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UPDATE: The Sheriff's Office said at 5:20 p.m. that Nigro has been found.



PREVIOUS STORY: The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is searching for a missing/endangered elderly woman.

Carol Ann Nigro, 80, was last seen at her home, located at 902 Chastain Road in Seffner, around 6 a.m. Aug. 11 by her son.

Officials said when her son returned home from work around 6:30 p.m. that night, Carol and her 2008 Chevrolet Malibu with a Florida tag number KOO4AQ were missing.

Carol suffers from Alzheimers. Officials said she has been listed missing on three prior occasions and was previously located in Brooksville.

Anyone with information is asked to call the HCSO at 813-247-8200.
Tampa police on Saturday released the names of the three people killed in a Thursday crash that was DUI related.

Meanwhile, the woman accused of causing the triple fatal crash on the Selmon Expressway made her first court appearance Saturday morning.

Amber Perera charged in Selmon Expressway fatal crash given no bond

PREVIOUS STORY: Police: 2 adults, child killed in Selmon Expressway DUI hit-and-run

Police say victims included 8-year-old



Amber Perera, 29, was given no bond in court Saturday morning for the fatal crash.

Tampa police said Perera was impaired when she lost control of her vehicle that set off a chain reaction of crashes.

The victims have been identified as: Luiz Felipak, 41, Rita Felipak, 29, and Giorgia Felipak, 8.

According to witnesses, Perera was traveling at "a high rate of speed' on the Selmon Expressway when she struck the rear of a Hyundai occupied by the two adults and child.



The Hyundai spun and entered the westbound lanes and was hit by two other vehicles before bursting in flames.

All three occupants of the Hyundai died at the scene.



Police said Perera attempted to leave the scene but was apprehended minutes later.

According to the arrest report, Perera admitted to taking powerful prescription medications that treat anxiety - Ativan and Lexapro.

She was taken to Tampa General Hospital for a blood draw. And there, police say she tried hiding vials of blood that were taken as evidence.

Perera was charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter, DUI with serious bodily injury and hit-and-run failure to remain at the scene, and tampering with evidence.

Her pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 10 a.m.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson stopped by Florida Polytechnic University on Friday to meet with students and tour the newly accredited campus.

Florida Polytechnic campus just a few years old

It broke off from USF to form own university

Sen. Nelson said state needs a school focusing on STEM



Students like Randy Lopez had the chance to show the Florida Democrat Nelson projects they're working on for the upcoming school year. Lopez has started a company called "Logentix" and developed a device that gives vehicles self-driving capabilities.

"Our device is essentially a very smart dash cam, so it attaches to your windshield and connects to existing hardware on your vehicle. It essentially augments the driver's visibility, so we're not trying to replace the driver but really make driving safer," Lopez said.

Lopez started the company as a side job but has teamed with classmates at Florida Polytechnic University to further his vision.

"Since it's a smaller campus and it's brand new, starting really innovative projects is much easier," Lopez said.

The campus is just a few years old and was conceived from a bit of controversy after breaking off from USF to become its own university. Nelson said it was money well spent. He said Florida needs a school that focuses solely on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. (STEM).

"This is how we're going to remain competitive in the global market place by being smarter, faster, more ingenious and creative than the rest of the world," Nelson said.

Because of this type of intensive education, Nelson believes these students will be on the forefront of the future.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

The gains of imports control measures put in place by Government through Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 will soon be eroded unless measures are put in place to stop smuggling of goods through designated ports of entry and exit as well as via unofficial points along the country's borders. The widespread smuggling of goods has seen an influx of goods which local companies are producing.Most of these imported products are restricted under S1 64 of 2016 which is meant to protect local producers so that they can retool and increase production. Government which is being prejudiced of millions of dollars as a result of this widespread smuggling, has warned that it will soon raid shops selling unlicensed imported products.It said the measures it has crafted to contain the widespread smuggling involve the use of information communication technology gadgets and drones in the surveillance of borders. Zimbabwe Revenue Authority chairperson Willia Bonyongwe recently said less than 10 percent of the trucks entering Zimbabwe were being secured with electronic devices and monitored real time due to reluctance among Zimra officials to enforce security measures.This is a very worrying development given the strong belief that the bulk of the goods being smuggled into the country come as transit cargo. When Zimra introduced the electronic tracking system in May this year, trucks classified as transit cargo carriers dropped by 67 percent, a confirmation that these trucks were infact smuggling goods into the country disguised as transit cargo.Government said it fears the proliferation of restricted imports could threaten gains achieved so far including the growth in capacity utilisation hence the additional measures it is putting in place to fight smuggling. Capacity utilisation rose from 34,3 percent in 2015 to about 47 percent in 2016 and this was attributed largely to the imports control measures introduced by Government.Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said Government had completed a multi-pronged strategy which will look into processes, systems and the human factor aspects aiding smuggling of goods into the country.Minister Bimha said the country's borders were so porous that there were now some undesignated points where even trucks could pass through.The minister however said what was encouraging was that Government now had a vivid narrative of how the smuggling was occurring through the designated ports of entry and exit as well as unofficial points along the country's borders. He said as part of measures to fight smuggling, Government had assigned officials openly and undercover to investigate what transpires in the underworld of unscrupulous business practices, which is costing the country millions of dollars in potential revenue.Minister Bimha said the team of investigators was drawn from an inter-ministerial taskforce made up of officials from the ministries of Home Affairs, Industry and Commerce, Mines and Mining Development, Finance and Economic Development, Zimra and the security agents. Officials at the borders, Minister Bimha said, were assisting those smuggling the goods hence the Government's decision to deploy a team of investigators.We want to commend Government for the many measures it is putting in place to fight smuggling but for this war to be won, there is a need for co-operation from all citizens. Shops should stop providing the market for smuggled goods and officials at the country's borders should stop being selfish and put the country's interests first.The fight Government is involved in is meant to assist revive industries and turnaround the economy for the good of all citizens so assisting smugglers in order to get a quick buck is being selfish. Let us all declare war against smuggling of goods in order to support local production which results in job creation.
News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT has availed $21,7 million to complete outstanding civils works at the Gwayi-Shangani Dam in Matabeleland North Province, a Cabinet Minister has said.The project which is touted as the solution to Bulawayo's perennial water problems is also expected to promote agricultural production in Matabeleland.The Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said work on the site has commenced following an injection of $5 million which is part of the availed funds for the project which is set to ease perennial water challenges in Matabeleland region.Muchinguri-Kashiri said this in Beitbridge on Thursday during the commissioning of a new water treatment plant in Beitbridge town by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko.The new Beitbridge pump was wholly funded by Government through the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).Muchinguri Kashiri said Government was also working on improving and upgrading other water and sanitation facilities countrywide."Under the Government's economic blueprint- Zim-Asset, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate is tasked to put up urban water supply and sanitation infrastructure inorder to improve water supplies and waste water disposal systems in town and cities," said Muchinguri Kashiri."I am glad to note that my team in the ministry and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) have successfully completed the Beitbridge project. Our next big stop is Gwayi Shangani dam where Government has already disbursed $21,7 million towards outstanding amounts and resumption of work."In February, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa said some of the resources that were earmarked for the Gwayi-Shangani Dam were diverted to complete the Tokwe-Mukorsi Dam in Masvingo due to the threats of floods and since the project was concluded, focus has shifted to the Matabeleland North dam.In September last year, Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko said the project was critical to Matabeleland region and the country as a whole as it would create a greenbelt and feed into Bulawayo's industrial growth.VP Mphoko said it was time to deliver on the project.As an agriculture based economy, Zimbabwe stands to benefit immensely from projects like Gwayi-Shangani, which could boost production of agro-processing industries and increase earnings from exports.
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A 56-year-old Buna woman died this week after contracting a bacterial infection so severe that it necessitated the amputation of her legs and one arm.

Jane White Cunningham died Thursday at a hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi, after a severe infection possibly brought on by eating raw oysters, her husband, David Cunningham, wrote in a Facebook post.
Western Neurological Associates in Salt Lake City closed this week after more than 40 years in business without providing notice to patients or paying staff, according to KSL TV.

A note on the shuttered clinic's door stated WNA closed "due to unfortunate circumstances."

"We know how disruptive this is and how fast it has occurred. This has been very difficult for us as well," the note read.

A WNA employee who spoke to KSL TV on the condition of anonymity said employees were left unpaid when the clinic closed. He is considering suing WNA to recoup wages.

Two of WNA's physicians will transfer to Salt Lake Regional Medical Center, according to the report.

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How CHS, Tenet, UHS, LifePoint and HCA fared in Q2

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Kaiser's operating income jumps 57% to $772M
From a former healthcare CFO sentenced to prison for fraud to New Hampshire suing an OxyContin manufacturer, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits making headlines.

1. Physician imposter sentenced to 38 years in prison

A 54-year-old man who posed as a cosmetic surgeon was sentenced Aug. 8 to 38 years and three months in prison.

2. Mother sues Portland hospital after she accidentally smothered her baby

An Oregon woman who says she accidentally suffocated her 4-day-old baby after falling asleep with him in her hospital bed has sued the hospital where she gave birth and a nurse there.

3. Former healthcare CFO sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for fraud

U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced William Canupp, former CFO of Beulaville, N.C.-based Eastpointe Human Services, to 3 1/2 years in prison for wire fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy to commit federal program fraud.

4. Martin Shkreli guilty on three counts in securities fraud case

After a trial that lasted more than a month, a jury returned guilty verdicts against Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud.

5. Patient accused of stabbing Mass. nurse not competent for trial, says judge

A 24-year-old Massachusetts man accused of stabbing a nurse 11 times at Southbridge-based Harrington Hospital was deemed unfit to stand trial.

6. US appeals court finds federal government wrongly allowed California to cut Medicaid reimbursement

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's decision and ruled the federal government illegally approved a state request to temporarily implement a 10 percent reimbursement cut for outpatient services provided to California Medicaid beneficiaries.

7. Woman sues CVS over generic drug co-pay 'clawbacks'

A California woman filed a lawsuit Aug. 7 against CVS Health Corp., for charging customers co-pays higher than the actual cost of medications.

8. New Hampshire sues OxyContin manufacturer over marketing tactics

New Hampshire filed a lawsuit against Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma for allegedly misleading marketing campaigns, which state officials believe fueled their current opioid epidemic.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Police: Man stayed in Phoenix hospital's basement, stole $36k worth of equipment

Pain clinic and owner to pay $250k to settle billing fraud case

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging Cleveland Clinic's closure of 108-year-old hospital
News / National

by Staff reporter

A 23-YEAR-OLD Bulawayo man who relieved himself in four houses that he broke into in a 12-day housebreaking spree and stole a vehicle and property worth more than $5 000, was yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison.Taurai Jirongo of Nketa suburb pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful entry and five counts of theft before magistrate Mr Joseph Mabeza.Jirongo told the court that an Inyanga gave him charms to escape detection by house owners.He said he chewed some of the umuthi and defecated just after breaking into a house to make sure the owners did not wake up no matter how much noise he made.Stunned people in the gallery listened as he explained how he would again relieve himself in a house after stealing so that his victims would not be able to trace him.Mr Mabeza convicted him of the nine counts of unlawful entry and theft and sentenced him to an effective six years after suspending three years on condition Jirongo is not within the next five years convicted of housebreaking and theft.Jirongo pleaded for a lighter sentence saying that peer pressure drove him to commit the crimes."I stole once with my friend and after that I committed the crimes alone. If you pardon me, I will never touch any one's property again," he said.Prosecuting, Mr Tinashe Dzipe said Jirongo committed the crimes between July 18 and 30 this year."On the night of July 18 in West Somerton, Jirongo stole from Mr Samora Masimpe Mwinde a 55 inch liquid crystal display (LCD) television set worth $700 and food from his kitchen. The TV was recovered on August 4 from Mr Decent Sibanda of Nketa who had bought it," he said."He stole a Samsung J5 prime cellphone, Intel cellphone and $350 from Mr Emmanuel Mureya in West Somerton on July 26.Total value stolen was $600 and $220 was recovered," Mr Dzipe said.He said the Samsung J5 Prime was found in Entumbane being used by Sethi Ngwenya."On the night of July 28 to 29, Jirongo stole a Samsung Galaxy S5, S7, Samsung Tab 4 and a Nokia C200 from Mr Mwatse in Southwold. The Nokia C200 was discovered from Mr Innocent Moyo in Mzilikazi. Total value lost was $1 862 and $665 was recovered," Mr Dzipe said."On July 29 he stole a Samsung J3 cellphone, two Sony video cameras, pair of trousers, red T-shirt, red tackies and a black T-shirt from Mr Isaac Ali in Barham Green. Jirongo then took ignition keys of a silver Honda Civic parked at Mr Ali's house and drove the car away. Total value stolen was $2 900 and $2 880 was recovered," he said."His luck ran out after the Samsung J3 Mini was recovered in Entumbane on August 3 from Mr Sipho Nkomo who had bought it and the laptop was recovered from Mr Zacks Spencer."
A 54-year-old man who posed as a cosmetic surgeon was sentenced Aug. 8 to 38 years and three months in prison, according to a press release from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Gustavo Nunez, the physician imposter, performed illegal liposuction procedures on nine women in Tucson, Ariz., between 2012 and 2014. Three of the women had to be hospitalized after receiving the procedures and one victim sustained life-threatening injuries.

Mr. Nunez was arrested in August 2013 after local hospitals treated two women for aggressive infections stemming from procedures Mr. Nunez performed. An investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration revealed Mr. Nunez had no medical training and was not a physician.

In April, Mr. Nunez pleaded guilty to 28 felony charges.

"Gustavo Nunez represents the worst type of criminal. One who preyed upon women in our communities and most certainly deserves the sentence handed to him today," said Doug Coleman, special agent in charge of DEA in Arizona.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Mother sues Portland hospital after she accidentally smothered her baby

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HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, reported America does not need to label the opioid epidemic a national emergency, during a press conference, according to Medscape.

Here are five insights:

1. Dr. Price's response veered from the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis' recommendation to declare the crisis an official national emergency on July 31.

2. The White House commission recommended President Donald Trump declare the crisis a national emergency under the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act. The commission's report found 142 Americans die daily from overdoses.

3. Dr. Price commented Mr. Trump is focused on solving the opioid crisis. However, he noted, "the resources we need or the focus we need to bring to bear on the opioid crisis can be addressed without a declaration of emergency, but all things are on the table for the President."

4. Dr. Price said previous national emergencies posses parameters like "time-limited problems or specific threats to public health," such as the Zika virus.

5. During the news conference, Dr. Price emphasized, "The President understands the magnitude of this challenge."
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In an important move, India has added more troops in the entire stretch of border with China in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. A senior government official reportedly said that this move is in connection with the Doklam stand-off and that the Caution level among troops has been raised.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar's calls for a rethinking of a customs border between Northern Ireland and Republic look to have been quashed by Westminster, according to reports.

On the issue of what will happen to the regions post-Brexit, Mr Varadkar had said a "unique solution" was needed.

And during a visit here earlier this month, he moved to dispel the suggestion that the Irish government favoured making the Irish Sea the EU/UK border.

But according to The Times, UK Government ministers are preparing to rebuff the Irish Government, and instead insist on bringing in a customs border.

The paper says that a formal position paper to be published next week by the government which will state that ministers are sticking with plans for a light touch customs border.

That could involve spot checks, as well as technology, to control the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Varadkar recently angered unionists when he said the Republic would not help the UK design an economic border for Brexiteers.

The Fine Gael leader attempted to shift the onus for designing a solution to border movement firmly onto the UK, insisting he was not going to "design a border for the Brexiteers because they're the ones who want a border".

During his first visit to Northern Ireland as Taoiseach, he warned that future trade and customs restrictions would be detrimental to both the EU and the UK as he set out his vision for a "soft" Brexit.

Leo Varadkar proposed a bilateral EU/UK customs union and raised the possibility of the UK joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) after it exited the EU.

He said he would ideally like the UK to remain within the current customs union and single market structures but, if that did not happen, he suggested his alternative was "workable".

In response, the UK Government said it was committed to a "deep and special" future partnership with the EU that included "bold and ambitious" free trade and customs agreements.
Northern Ireland's three airports have written to Damian Green, calling for the senior Cabinet Minister to expedite a major review into a tax on flights to and from here, it can be revealed.

A full review into whether scrapping the tax would benefit the economy here was included as part of the DUP's 1bn deal with Prime Minister Theresa May's Government.

In a letter seen by the Belfast Telegraph, the airports say they "fully support the ending of air passenger duty (APD) on all flights from our airports".

In the agreement between the DUP and Downing Street, it says that "a detailed consultative report will be commissioned into the impact of VAT and APD on tourism in Northern Ireland, to recommend how best to build upon the growing success of that sector".

Air passenger duty (APD) is a 13 tax on most flights out of the UK. Northern Ireland's airports want it scrapped, as it has been in the Republic.

"We stand ready to take part in the review agreed between the Government and the DUP and to put our case for the removal of this tax on both growth and jobs," a letter sent to the Minister said.

"It could be helpful if we could be advised of the timescale for the review, the scope, and who would carry it out.

"We already have a number of our existing and potential airlines ready to commit to flying from Northern Ireland should APD be removed, and we would be most obliged if this review could be initiated, completed, and the rest implemented as soon as possible."

Belfast International, Belfast City and Derry City airports have each signed the letter calling for an end to the tax.

However, a report prepared for the Executive in 2015 said there isn't a strong enough case for ending the 13 duty.

The report examined the impact cutting the duty could have, and highlighted a massive tax shortfall, outweighing any increase in additional passenger numbers.

That could mean Northern Ireland suffering a 55m reduction in its block grant from Westminster.

Air passenger duty has already been cut on long-haul flights, but still applies to the majority of flights here.

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, Belfast International Airport boss Graham Keddie said that as "the main voice for the ending of APD, we will now intensify our lobbying and, of course, play our part in a promised detailed consultative report on the impact of VAT rates within the hospitality sector and APD.

"We don't need this fudged any longer.

"All of us know how much damage is being caused to our sector and how it's holding back immense growth, investment and job creation," he said.

The DUP's deal with the Prime Minister and the Conservative Government in June also included further consultation on tourism VAT.

It also said that "one of the first tasks for the new Executive will be to work towards the devolution of corporation tax rates", including a timetable for its introduction.

Ryanair has suggested that the airline could double the number of flights from Belfast if the tax on flights was abolished.

Speaking about renewed calls to scrap APD, Belfast City Airport boss Brian Ambrose said in May that it would deliver a "step change" for the tourism industry.

He said his airport lost a Madrid route last year to Cork, and was told that the reason was the lack of APD in the Irish Republic.
Northern Ireland's pork industry has been given the green light to begin exports to China.

The approval issued by the Chinese authorities could be worth up to 10m to pork producers here, according to officials at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

The local pork sector will benefit from a UK-wide export deal with China that will bring a 200m boost to the industry and support 1,500 jobs, officials said.

Demand for UK food and drink continues to grow in the Asian powerhouse.

The total value of exports rose by a third to 438m in 2016.

In Northern Ireland, two slaughterhouses and two cold stores have now been given the go-ahead to begin exports to China.

That nation's decision on access for UK pork represents a major boost to farmers and processors here, according to DAERA's chief vet Robert Huey.

He said: "It will expand markets and secure jobs.

"By recommending approval for Northern Ireland, the Chinese authorities have recognised the rigorous standards we have in place to produce our high-quality, safe and wholesome pork.

"We place a clear emphasis on traceability at the heart of our production and processing and recognise that a joined-up, safe and efficient food supply is essential."

The Chinese decision is hugely significant, said DUP leader Arlene Foster (below).

The former First Minister added: "It is the culmination of a long process and a great deal of work by many, and in particular by David Simpson MP, Michelle McIlveen MLA and Diane Dodds MEP.

"This is an important milestone for the pork sector in Northern Ireland which ultimately ought to deliver financially for all involved.

"My hope is within the next few years this will pave the way for more access to the Chinese market for beef products in particular.

"This announcement again demonstrates how important it is to have devolved government playing its role, but also the need to have strong representation in Westminster."

Northern Ireland Office Minister Chloe Smith said the approval was "an exciting example of what the Northern Ireland agri-food sector and, indeed, export market can be - and of what we can achieve in terms of trade, jobs and new opportunities".
A grieving Dame Mary Peters has paid tribute to her late friend and confidante, David Anderson, former Household Manager at Hillsborough Castle, describing him as a man with the common touch, adored by Royalty.

Mr Anderson died on Wednesday, aged 58, after an illness during which Dame Mary travelled to visit him several times in London, where he had moved to live after his last post in Northern Ireland as manager of the exclusive Montalto House in Ballynahinch, Co Down.

He is best known, however, for his 25 years' service at Hillsborough Castle, the official residence in Northern Ireland of Her Majesty, The Queen.

As The Queen's Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, and a regular visitor to Hillsborough during Royal visits and functions associated with her sporting background, Dame Mary told how their professional relationship blossomed into a close friendship over many years.

The 1972 pentathlon gold medal winner at the Munich Olympics had known her friend was gravely ill but was still shocked and saddened to learn of his passing on the final night of her summer holiday on Wednesday.

"I had limited telephone contact while away and returned to 34 messages on my home phone from mutual friends who'd heard the sad news and wanted to talk about David.

"Many people have been paying tribute to his extraordinary contribution to the hospitality industry here and his exceptional service at Hillsborough in particular. They tell the story of a remarkable man, a consummate professional, but he was also an incredibly engaging personality.

"He was always elegantly dressed, told wonderful stories and was a great companion.

"The Royal Family adored him on their visits to Hillsborough but, for all the high powered circles in which he so effortlessly moved, he never forgot his Newtownards upbringing. He had the happy knack of making everyone he met feel special.

"Whenever I had visitors from anywhere in the world, David would say to bring them to Hillsborough and said I will give them my special tour. He made them all, individually, feel important."

He was equally engaging with Royalty, as Dame Mary remembers from a Hillsborough reception for young athletes aided by her Mary Peters Trust charity.

"Princess Anne, as our patron, had flown in as a special guest and as David led her downstairs, she seemed surprised and asked him what all the people were doing, standing outside.

"David replied that it was such a lovely day, he thought he'd hold the reception outdoors, to which Princess Anne replied: 'Bad idea, David. Wrong shoes.'

"To which David responded: 'My shoes are perfectly fine, Ma'am'."

Dame Mary recalled how much the former Movilla High School student missed home during his time in London.

"On one of my recent visits, he asked me to bring wheaten bread, Tayto crisps and a cherry cake from Knott's bakery in Newtownards."
A Dublin-born clarinettist is hoping to inspire the next generation of musicians at this year's French-themed Clandeboye Festival, where she will perform a moving piece by World War 2 prisoner of war and renowned composer Olivier Messiaen.

Jessie Grimes will take to the stage this evening to perform Messiaen's stirring Quartet for the End of Time, written in POW camp Stalag VIII-A and first performed to an audience of prisoners and guards in 1941.

Jessie said she is "delighted" to perform the piece, and to return to the County Down festival, in Bangor - which she once attended as a student - in the roles of performer and teacher.

"For me, the Quartet for the End of Time is the central point of the festival. It's a huge seminal work in classical music and one of the most profound pieces of music ever written," she told the Belfast Telegraph. "Despite being written in a POW camp after a guard had slipped Messiaen some sheets for music, it is about humanity and joy.

"It is rarely played in Northern Ireland, and it is a privilege to play in the Messiaen quartet with pianist Florent Boffard, Marc Coppey on cello and Dmitry Sitkovetsky on the violin."

Jessie, who is principal clarinet at Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra and guests with the BBC and RTE Orchestras, Royal Opera House and Camerata Ireland, is also encouraging eager students to follow in her footsteps. "As well as recitals on Monday and Tuesday, I will be judging the students' concert - I really hope that seeing me perform will inspire them to keep working," she explained.

"It has been 10 years since I was a student and I think I can speak to them on a slightly different level. Clandeboye is really important, it gives young musicians a whole other arena. Usually I give a seminar on surviving the professional world as a musician and the skills needed in today's classical music world."

She added: "Our generation need to be flexible, to be soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral musicians. On Wednesday I will be flying to Helsinki to play a show from memory, sing and act at the same time. You need to be a jack of all trades to be a 21st century musician."

www.goh.co.uk/clandeboye-festival
News / National

by Staff reporter

A 43-YEAR-OLD Mt Hampden Clinic security guard on Thursday appeared at the Harare Magistrates' Court facing a murder charge after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend on the chest with a sharp object over an undisclosed dispute.Tawaziwa Hamiti, of Atlas compound, was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate Josephine Sande, who remanded him in custody to August 24 pending further investigations.The State opposed bail, saying it feared the suspect could kill the witnesses, who saw him committing the offence and that the gravity of the matter could induce Hamiti to flee trial if released temporarily.Hamiti was advised to apply for bail at the High Court.It is the State's case that on August 8 this year and at around 3pm, Hamiti stabbed the now-deceased, who was not named in court papers, with a sharp object on the chest and neck while she was in the toilet.The State alleges the victim died on the spot and Hamiti fled the scene by jumping over a pre-cast wall, but was seen by three children leaving the crime scene.Sebastian Mutizirwa appeared for the State.
Lindsay will spend almost a month in isolation at the medical centre in Moscow

A young Co Down mum is bravely undergoing a gruelling stem cell transplant in Russia in what she believes is her last hope of enjoying some quality of life.

Lindsay Rice (35) from Warrenpoint has exhausted every treatment on the health service - including chemotherapy normally given to cancer patients - in the hope of treating the chronic condition Rapidly Evolving Severe Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.

Paralysis and temporary sight loss are just a few of the many debilitating symptoms which have left the mum-of-two unable to enjoy normal family life.

Desperate to get her help, her family launched an appeal on Facebook and Go Fund Me to raise 50,000 to send her to the National Pirogov Medical Surgical Centre in Moscow where she arrived two weeks ago to start her stem cell transplant.

The treatment alone is expected to cost up to 45,000 and, incredibly, in just 12 weeks the family has raised 32,000 towards a 50,000 target thanks to generous support from friends and the public.

Lindsay, who is married to Liam (36), a financial advisor, has two children, Jamie (17) and Olivia (8).

Liam says: "This is her last hope and she is doing it for her family and her kids and that's what she is focusing on. She just wants to be able to live a normal life and do normal things with the family."

Since starting her treatment on August 1 she has been keeping a daily dairy of her progress through a Facebook page - Lindsay's Last Hope.

While the groundbreaking treatment known as HSCT (Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant) is not a cure for MS, Lindsay's hope is that it will halt the progression of the disease and stop the frequent and severe relapses which are destroying her health.

Lindsay will spend a month in the clinic, most of it in isolation, and when she comes home she faces a long recovery period when she will have to remain isolated for up to a year due to the risk of infection.

HSCT aims to 'reset' the immune system to stop it attacking the central nervous system. It uses chemotherapy to remove the harmful immune cells and then rebuild the immune system using a type of stem cell found in the patient's bone marrow.

The haematopoietic stem cells used in the treatment can produce all the different cells in the blood, including immune cells. However, they can't regenerate permanently damaged nerves or other parts of the brain and spinal cord.

Lindsay has successfully had over two million stem cells extracted in a tough procedure which involved having a catheter inserted into her jugular vein. She has also had her head shaved this week in preparation for starting chemotherapy today.

The chemotherapy will wipe out her immune system and she will then have her stem cells transplanted back into her blood by a drip to help regrow a new, stronger immune system.

She will then have to spend 10 days in complete isolation while her new immune system builds.

Also, since arriving in Russia she has been told that her MS is now much worse than she realised and is now at the Secondary Progressive stage.

People with Secondary Progressive MS don't tend to recover completely from a relapse and can expect a general worsening of symptoms, making the treatment even more time-critical.

In a further blow, tests have picked up a potentially dangerous three-centimetre active lesion on her spine which wasn't spotted during MRI's here.

Lindsay faces a tough few weeks in her bid to halt the progression of the disease but as her husband Liam explains, the alternative is the prospect of life in a wheelchair: "Lindsay has come through a lot since her teens.

"She had Jamie quite young at 18 and her condition seemed to really deteriorate after that. She went to a lot of consultants and had many tests but it wasn't until after she had Olivia that she was finally diagnosed in 2011.

"She never knows from day to day how it will affect her. Fatigue is the number one problem and that is crippling. I would come home from work and after dinner she has to go to bed, and even sleep doesn't help it.

"It stops her from doing simple things like taking our daughter to the park or taking the dog for a walk.

"Her motability is not as good as an average person and the other big issue is the relapses.

"They have become very frequent and each relapse is worse in terms of how severe it is. During her last one in February she had to go into hospital and also had to use a walking frame.

"A common misconception is that after each relapse you go back to normal but that's not the case. It leaves its mark and any damage done is permanent. The nature of the relapses could leave her in a wheelchair."

It was after her last relapse and having exhausted all options for treatment on the Health Service that Lindsay decided she wanted to try HSCT.

Her neurologist in Belfast supported her decision and the family applied to the Russian clinic just 12 weeks ago expecting to wait up to two years before admission.

They were surprised to be offered a cancellation on August 1 leaving them facing a race against time to raise 50,000 to cover the cost of treatment and expenses.

Liam says: "We thought we would have at least 12 months and up to two years to get the money together and it has been amazing to see how people have rallied round and what they have done just from the kindness of their hearts, especially strangers.

"We've had quizzes and coffee mornings and online auctions and I recently did the Four Peaks challenge with a group of friends. Lindsay's mum and her best friend are organising a lot of events and we still have some way to go but we are amazed at how much has been raised and donated in such a short time."

Liam flew to Russia with Lindsay on July 31 and stayed with her for five days while she underwent tests to determine that she was suitable for the treatment.

It has already been a punishing two weeks for Lindsay who has come through a batch of invasive procedures including having a catheter inserted in her jugular to extract the stem cells.

Liam says: "It is an intense treatment and Lindsay is so positive and coping brilliantly. She got her hair cut short before she went and decided to have it shaved this week before the chemo starts and it falls out.

"She will have to spend 10 days in complete isolation to allow her immune system to build again and that will be tough.

"She will hopefully be home after 30 days and then when she comes home she will have a long recovery and will have to isolate herself from society for up to a year to keep her safe from infection.

"We will have to deep clean the house and we will all have to wear face masks as she can't risk even getting a cold."

Liam is back at work and trying to keep things as normal as possible at home for the couple's two children, who he said are coping well: "Jamie is 17 and approaching adulthood and understands why she is doing it and is okay, but obviously his mum is away and he has his sixth year exam results coming and he misses her.

"Olivia seems to be fine too. She understands her mum has MS, which stops her doing things with her and she knows this treatment is to help her to be a better mother.

"I've been trying as much as possible to keep her occupied with play dates and sleepovers."

The couple have been impressed by the level of care in the clinic and Lindsay has had the chance to meet and get to know other MS patients from all over the world.

Liam has nothing but admiration for her strength and the positive way she is enduring the extreme procedures she faces.

He adds: "Lindsay is the most determined person you could ever possibly meet. She has had bad days and it can be demoralising for her but she is determined to be as positive as she can be.

"It is not a cure. MS doesn't have a cure but we hope it will stop the progress of the disease. We just hope it will halt it by rebooting her immune system and hopefully stop the severe relapses."

Liam adds: "It is desperately hard and stressful for all of us and we have to put a positive spin, in the grand scheme of things it is just for a month of her life."

Follow Lindsay's journey at Facebook/Lindsay's Last Hope - HSCT in Russia

Fundraising continues as the family has only until the end of the month to reach their target. You can support this young mum in her bid to enjoy a normal quality of life by going to https://www.gofundme.com/lindsay-slasthope
A Northern Ireland youth worker has made an impassioned plea for an end to the scourge of paramilitary shootings and beatings.

Paul Smyth has shone a light on the thuggish and twisted version of justice still regularly dispensed by terror organisations.

He went into prison to speak to a 31-year-old shooting victim. His hard-hitting blog on the disturbing conversation is published below.

Official PSNI statistics show there were 28 victims of paramilitary style shootings in 2016/17, double the number recorded in the previous year.

There was also an increase in the number of casualties of paramilitary style assaults, from 58 to 66.

This is an enormous human rights abuse and its about time something was done about it, Mr Smyth said.

Ive been talking to a lot of young people who have been attacked and to a lot of youth workers who are working with the young people who are being attacked.

Most of these young people are already very broken before the paramilitaries ever get to them, and the shootings and beatings are just making life even more difficult for them.

At one club in west Belfast at least three people who were shot took their own lives within months of the shootings.

Normally the police issue statements saying the victims injuries arent life-threatening but they are usually life-changing.

A lot of people dont realise the very traumatic effects that these attacks have and that people are left dealing with the consequences for the rest of their lives.

Paul said it was heartbreaking to hear the prisoners story.

Everything he told me about his life was so depressing, but at the same time theres still a spark in him, he said.

Hes not an angel; hes in prison accused of a violent crime. But although he has lived his entire young adulthood in the peace process, he is very much a victim of the Troubles.

Mr Smyth has been involved with The Peace People for many years and ran the youth-focused charity Public Achievement.

The blog, which was posted on his website, wiseabap.com, has already sparked widespread interest, from senior ranking officers in the PSNI to ordinary people all over the world.

Mr Smyth, a youth worker for 35 years, said he is working with a professor and a priest, among others, to develop a strategic approach to dealing with the issues surrounding paramilitary-style attacks.

This is a legacy issue from the conflict; it really started in the late 70s and early 80s and its been going on ever since, he said.

After the Good Friday Agreement it looked like the numbers were dropping but theyve actually gone up again in the last couple of years.
A "political tour" of Belfast hosted by former republican and loyalist prisoners has been angrily condemned.

The Irish Tour firm is advertising the 18-per-ticket 'Conflicting Stories' walk, alongside top tourist routes.

Relatives of Troubles victims last night lashed advertising for the tour as "warped".

A shop window poster for the walk refers to it being led by "republican and loyalist ex-political prisoners" and says: "We invite you to walk the streets of the city on both sides of the peace line with the men and women who risked life and liberty and served time in prison for standing up for their beliefs."

The Irish Tour tickets company, based on Great Victoria Street, is advertising the tour on behalf of the Belfast Free Walking Tour business.

Victims' campaigner Raymond McCord - whose son Raymond jnr was murdered 20 years ago by the UVF - said: "I would never pay to go on a tour like that, and don't understand anyone who would, especially not if it was hosted by ex-terrorists. It is just profiting from misery and death.

"And let's be clear, that's what the hosts of these tours are. They are not 'political prisoners' as advertised on the posters for this tour. Political prisoners are people who go to prison because they have been fighting for democracy or their political beliefs or against a system they don't believe in.

"Those involved in the Troubles attacks are murderers and thugs. You go to jail for being a murderer and a bomber and a gunman and a thug. Not for your so-called 'political beliefs'.

"That goes for both the loyalist and republican sides. The Shankill Butchers were not political prisoners. No money should be made from these tours."

Mr McCord also called on Belfast City Council to shut down the walk.

Kenny Donaldson, a victims' campaigner who runs a tour of sites targeted by terrorists in Fermanagh, said he was disgusted by the advertising material.

"The language used to advertise this is totally skewed and is the same language terrorists use to glorify murders," he added.

The Belfast Free Walking Tour website said of the Conflicting Stories tour: "The purpose of this tour is to give the guest an insight to why young men and women would risk their lives and liberty for an ideal.

"Any statements and opinions expressed on this tour by the guides are strictly their own and Belfast Free Walking Tour does not endorse any political view, the use of violence and promotion of any political agenda.

"The guides are contracted to share their own personal story of the troubles."

Robbie Campbell, who manages the Belfast Free Walking Tours, last night said the guides on the Conflicting Stories tour were supplied by ex-prisoner organisations Coiste and EPIC.

He rejected claims that the tour in any way glorified terrorism - and invited victims' campaigners to contact him to discuss any issues they may have about it.

The Irish Tour company did not respond to Belfast Telegraph enquiries at the time of going to print last night.
Boris Johnson has said the regime of Kim Jong Un is responsible for the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme and must now "fix it".

In a series of posting on his Twitter feed, the Foreign Secretary said Britain was working with the United States and allies in the region to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it ," he said.

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

"We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."
Campaigners protesting against the killing of animals for sport have taken to the streets of London on the first day of the grouse shooting season.

Demonstrators marched through central London to Downing Street, calling for an end to badger culling and driven grouse shooting and urging the Government to keep the ban on fox hunting with hounds.

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Ahead of the protest Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, who joined crowds of people in the capital, condemned such activities as a dying business.

Those taking part carried banners stating Kill the Cull while some wore fox and badger masks.

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They chanted Save our badgers, stop the cull, Save our foxes, keep the ban and Theres no excuse for animal abuse.
Boris Johnson has said the regime of Kim Jong Un is responsible for the crisis over North Koreas nuclear programme and must now fix it.

In a series of posting on his Twitter feed, the Foreign Secretary said Britain was working with the United States and allies in the region to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington.

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Mr Johnson said the North Korean regime was to blame for current tensions and must be the ones to fix it.

He aded: The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end.

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Mr Johnsons intervention came as Chinese President Xi Jinping appealed to both sides for calm amid fears the worsening war of words between North Korea and the US could lead to a military conflict with catastrophic consequences for the region.

In a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, he urged both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

The Americans have been pressing China to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear programme amid fears that it is close to developing a missile which could hit the US mainland.

State-run China Central Television quoted Mr Xi as telling the president that the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The call followed the latest barrage of threats from Mr Trump, declaring the US military forces were locked and loaded and warning Kim he will regret it fast if he takes any action against US territories or allies.
Split of Ryan Giggs and his estranged wife Stacey was confirmed yesterday

Former Manchester United and Wales star Ryan Giggs' estranged wife Stacey has been granted a divorce.

Mrs Giggs (39) was given a decree nisi during brief proceedings in central London yesterday.

Their names appeared as Giggs SA v RJ in a short list of other couples for the "making of a decree or order" under matrimonial and civil partnership proceedings by District Judge Yvonne Gibson at the Central Family Court in High Holborn.

Giggs and Stacey Cooke married in September 2007 and have two children.

Neither party was present to hear the judge formally grant the decree.

Once a decree nisi has been granted, a divorce petitioner has to wait six weeks and a day to apply for a decree "absolute".

James Brown, a partner with Hall Brown Family Law acting for Mrs Giggs, said she was determined to finalise all outstanding aspects of her divorce with as little attention as possible for the sake of her family.

Mr Brown said: "Mrs Giggs' primary focus has always been and will continue to be the welfare of her family.

"Her only interest is in bringing these events to as swift and amicable a conclusion as possible, so that she and her family can move on.

"Divorce is a very personal process and she wishes to emphasise once more her request that her family be allowed to complete it in privacy."

The court papers made public said "the judge held that the respondent has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent". The paperwork stated that the marriage solemnised at the Lowry Hotel in Salford "has broken down irretrievably".

In Mrs Giggs' "statement in support of divorce - unreasonable behaviour", details of the behaviour were not given.

Giggs retired as a player in the summer of 2014 and subsequently worked as Manchester United's interim manager for a short spell.

He made a record 963 appearances for United over 24 seasons and won 64 Welsh international caps.
A mother and daughter were stabbed to death in Golders Green, London (PA)

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a mother and daughter were stabbed to death.

Scotland Yard said Joshua Cohen, 27, was arrested in connection with the killings of the victims, aged 33 and 66.

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A member of the public spotted the suspect in Golders Hill Park, north west London, after detectives launched a manhunt on Saturday.

Police were called to an address in Golders Green Crescent on Friday at 8.50pm after reports that two women had been seriously injured, pronouncing them dead at the scene.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Victoria Falls Municipality has applied to Government for city status.The local authority was conferred municipal status in 1999.Upon joining Victoria Falls early this year, Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube told The Chronicle that his vision was among others, to reduce the municipality's spending and transform the resort town into a world class city."Part of our priority projects is to help the town attain city status this year," he said in a recent interview.Yesterday Mr Dube told The Chronicle that the municipality had applied to Government and was waiting for the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to send a commission."We have applied and we are yet to get a response. The Ministry has to send a commission to assess if we meet requirements upon which a recommendation will be made," said Mr Dube.He said the municipality fares better than a number of local authorities in the country.Mr Dube said the resort town boasts of an efficient and reliable water supply as well as provision of serviced land for housing projects."We believe we are one of the local authorities that have complied with Government requirements for city status. This is evidenced in that we have just been voted second runner up on water supply and sewer management at the just ended Local Government Investment Conference (LOGIC 2017) hosted by the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) in Harare," said Mr Dube.Hwange Local Board was the winner in the category as the two local authorities are implementing Water and Sanitation projects funded by the Industrial Development Bank of Zimbabwe.Mr Dube said an advert flighted by the local authority on Thursday was in conformity with the application as they call on President Mugabe to exercise his powers in terms of Section 14 of the Urban Councils Act to establish Victoria Falls City.Last month Victoria Falls commissioned 1 300 serviced high and medium housing stands in a partnership with CBZ and last week launched a $4 million low density project which will see a private developer, Integrated Construction Project, servicing 205 low density and commercial stands in the BB7 project.As part of its master plan, the municipality will rehabilitate roads, install solar street lighting as well as come up with cost cutting strategies.The town's mayor, Councillor Sifiso Mpofu, last week invited industrialists to partner the local authority in developing multi-million dollar projects saying the town is embarking on a robust development drive which will help attain desired world class status.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the White Helmets

Gunmen have stormed an office belonging to a paramedic group in Syria, killing seven of its members and stealing two vehicles and other equipment.

The Syrian Civil Defence group, more commonly known as the White Helmets, said in a statement that the attack took place in the early hours of Saturday in the north western town of Sarmin.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack but it comes amid increased tension in the area.

Sarmin is in Idlib province, which recently witnessed clashes between al Qaida-linked fighters and members of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group. These resulted in al Qaida fighters capturing much of the region.

The al Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham - also known as the Levant Liberation Committee and HTS - said that during the past weeks its members had discovered Islamic State sleeper cells, who were planning attacks. The al Qaida affiliate, which was also known as Nusra Front, has fought deadly battles with Islamic State during the past years.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven members of the paramedic group were shot in the head, adding that the killings were discovered when volunteers from the Syrian Civil Defence arrived to start their shifts and found the bodies of their colleagues.

"Until now it is mostly likely a crime. It might also be an attack aimed to harm the image of Nusra Front and to show that Idlib is not safe," said Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Observatory.

An opposition activist based in Idlib said the attackers used pistols equipped with silencers.

The activist said Islamic State sleeper cells have been discovered in Sarmin. He added that it was most likely to be members of Islamic State who carried out the attack to show that Idlib is not safe.

The activist said the HTS-linked Judicial Committee is investigating the case.

Sarmin used to be a stronghold of the Jund al-Aqsa extremist group, which clashed with al Qaida last year before many of its members were allowed to head to areas controlled by Islamic State, for whom they now fight.

The Syrian paramedics have been known to risk their lives to save people from the civil war, which is now in its sixth year. The White Helmets group was nominated for last year's Nobel Peace Prize.

AP
The United States has launched a criminal probe into billions of dollars allegedly stolen from a Malaysian state fund and is asking a court to put aside lawsuits filed over the past year, in order to protect evidence, witnesses and targets of that investigation, court documents show.

The U.S. Department of Justice had filed 29 civil cases since July 2016 in a bid to seize assets purchased via U.S. financial institutions in an alleged attempt to launder money diverted from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state-owned investment fund.

Now, it is seeking to put those suits on hold, according to a court document filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and obtained by BenarNews on Friday.

The United States makes this Motion on the ground that proceeding with the case is likely to have an adverse effect on the ability of the government to conduct a related federal criminal investigation, the document said.

Details of the investigation are likely to become public due to the ability of parties in a lawsuit to request evidence from the other side, it noted.

Such disclosures could result in the destruction of evidence, flight of potential subjects and targets, or the identification and intimidation of potential witnesses, according to an FBI special agents declaration included in the court document.

The document, filed Thursday, revealed that U.S. officials had opened a criminal probe into 1MDB before they lodged the 29 related law suits.

The related criminal investigation is global in scope, because the underlying crimes were committed over several years in numerous jurisdictions, special agent Jill Enyart said.

A significant amount of the evidence and witnesses with knowledge of these violations are located in foreign jurisdictions, and will take time to pursue.

Debt-laden 1MDB is the target of money-laundering probes in at least a half-dozen countries, and has been tied to corruption allegations surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded the fund but has denied any wrong doing.

This is nothing new: Government official

On Friday, 1MDB officials in Kuala Lumpur did not issue any statements reacting to reports about the American criminal probe. Malaysian Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BenarNews.

Eric See-To, strategic communications deputy director of Barisan Nasional (National Front), the countrys ruling coalition, belittled the reports about a criminal probe.

This is nothing new as more than a year ago, there were periodic news reports that criminal charges were imminent  but until today, no criminal charges have been filed, he told the news website Free Malaysia Today.

I also note that the U.S. Justice Department had asked for an indefinite suspension of the civil suit, which is unusual as there is usually a time limit to such requests, he said. Let the courts and the individuals involved prove whether they are guilty or innocent.

Also responding to the developments Friday, Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), said that it may not be possible for the Najib government to continue with the national and international charade pretending that the 1MDB scandal does not exist.

For the personal benefit of various individuals

In its court motion this week, the Justice Department alleged that between 2009 and 2014, multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB through various means.

The document described in great detail alleged criminal conduct carried out over five years.

Between 2009 and 2011, under the pretense of investing in a joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International, a private Saudi mineral extraction company, officials of 1MDB and others arranged for the fraudulent transfer of more than $1 billion from 1MDB to a Swiss bank account held in the name of Good Star Limited, the document said.

That Good Star account was not owned by PetroSaudi or the joint venture, but by Low Taek Jho (alias Jho Low), a Malaysian who had no formal position with 1MDB, but who was involved in its creation and exercised significant control over its dealings, the document added.

Low allegedly laundered more than $400 million stolen from 1MDB through acquisition of properties in California, New York and London, and a jet plane purchased for $35 million, the papers said.

In 2012, 1MDB officials and others diverted about $1.4 billion through a wire transfer to a Swiss bank belonging to a British Virgin Islands entity called Aabar Investments PJS Limited, the documents alleged. These funds were eventually used for the personal benefit of various individuals and to purchase real estate as well as interests in three motion pictures, including Dumb and Dumber To, it added.

In 2013, several individuals diverted more than $1.26 billion out of a total of $3 billion that 1MDB had raised that year, the court papers said. Those funds were allegedly used to finance, among other things, the Park Lane Hotel in New York for $218 million, a yacht, and artworks by Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.

In 2014, 1MDB borrowed approximately $1.2 billion from a syndicate of banks led by Deutsche Bank in Singapore, of which some $850 million was misappropriated and used to buy millions of dollars worth of fine jewelry, among other assets, the court document said.

Use of the U.S. financial system was an essential feature of both the fraudulent diversion of 1MDB funds and of the subsequent movement of ill-gotten proceeds around the world, the court document said.

Ray Sherman in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
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Opinion / Columnist

"MDC Alliance line-up is a true reflection that the coalition is made up of zeroes and come 2018, the sum total will be nothing but a huge circle," reported Bulawayo24. Sadly, the reporter is spot on.I also agree with the reporter's view that MDC leaders, particularly Morgan Tsvangirai, have a penchant for making "suicidal political decisions". This is hardly surprising given that they are some of the most corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent politicians in human history."The MDC-T in its form today has been making suicidal political decisions that have contributed to its supporters beginning to doubt the pedigree of its leaders," Bulawayo24.com reporter commented."One such decision is the party's resolve not to contest by-elections after its dismal performance in the 2013 elections."However, the decision to boycott the by-elections by all MDC factions was the most logical decision the MDC leaders have ever made. Remember the decision was made in the wake of the July 2013 elections which Zanu PF had blatantly rigged. SADC leaders had warned MDC leaders not to contest the elections with no reforms in place because Zanu PF would rig the vote. David Coltart, MDC Education Minister in the GNU, acknowledge that boycotting the elections was the "obvious" decision."The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious  withdraw from the elections," explained Senator Coltart."The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."As we can see, it was greed not reason that made MDC politicians contest the July 2013 elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF would rig the vote. So, when the MDC leaders vowed not to contest future elections, starting with the by-elections, until the reforms are implemented; they were finally making the right decision.It is laughable that Jacob Ngarivhume and others who signed on to NERA were calling for electoral reforms and yet continued contesting by-elections. It never occurred to these people to ask themselves; why would Zanu PF bother implementing the reforms if the opposition will contest the elections regardless!The fact that all the MDC factions have now decided to once again contest next year's elections although not even one reforms was implemented since the last rigged elections only goes to show how powerful the forces of greed are over the forces of reason.The results and consequences of the July 2013 elections showed the futility of contesting flawed elections. Zanu PF rigged the vote and the nation has suffered the consequences of another five years of corrupt and tyrannical rule. Worse still, by participating in the elections, we forfeited the chance to have the democratic reforms implemented, as Coltart rightly pointed out.MDC leaders' failure to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU was unforgivable. Their decision to contest the flawed July 2013 elections was suicidal. Their decision to contest next year's elections knowing fully well Zanu PF will once again rig the vote and knowing the consequence of yet another rigged election is the worsening human suffering cause by the deepening economic meltdown; is nothing short of high treason!Just as Zanu PF leaders must be held to account for all the looting, vote rigging and political murders; MDC leaders must be held to account for failing to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU and then dragging the nation into one flawed election after another.
PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2017

NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against TechnipFMC plc ("TechnipFMC" or the "Company") (NYSE: FTI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, and docketed under 17-cv-02368, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired TechnipFMC securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased TechnipFMC securities between April 27, 2017, and July 24, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until October 2, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

TechnipFMC plc provides oilfield services. The Company offers subsea, surface, onshore, and offshore solutions for oil and gas projects. TechnipFMC serves customers worldwide. TechnipFMC was formed through the merger of FMC Technologies Inc. and French oil-services Technip SA.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) TechnipFMC had a material weakness in its internal control over rates used in the calculations of the foreign currency effects on certain of its engineering and construction projects; (ii) accordingly, the Company lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, TechnipFMC's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On July 24, 2017, post-market, TechnipFMC issued a press release and filed a Current Report on Form 8-K with the SEC, announcing that the Company would restate its financial statements as of March 31, 2017, as these statements could no longer be relied upon.

On this news, TechnipFMC's share price fell $0.48, or 1.71%, to close at $27.56 on July 25, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:Robert S. WilloughbyPomerantz [email protected]
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PICHER, OKLAHOMA, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, EX REL. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Defendant - Appellee, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF OTTAWA, OKLAHOMA, Defendant - Appellant. No. 16-5159 Decided: August 11, 2017

Before MATHESON, McKAY, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

In this interpleader action, the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Ottawa, Oklahoma (the County) appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment to the United States, on behalf of the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In the 1960s, the Housing Authority of the City of Picher, Oklahoma (PHA) began operating a low-income public housing project with financial assistance from HUD pursuant to a Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract (ACC). In 1983, the federal government designated a portion of Oklahoma, including the City of Picher, as the Tar Creek Superfund site due to health and environmental hazards from extensive zinc and lead mining operations. In 2004, the state of Oklahoma began relocating Picher's residents due to the health hazards and the risk of unexpected building collapse. In 2008, a tornado struck Picher and destroyed much of the housing project, rendering it uninhabitable. Picher, which was located in Ottawa County, ceased municipal operations in 2009 and began involuntary dissolution proceedings the next year.

After the tornado, the PHA obtained an insurance settlement of approximately $1.7 million and, for several years, explored whether to rebuild the project in the nearby town of Fairland. The PHA eventually sought HUD's permission to rebuild in Fairland, but HUD denied the request and directed that the project be terminated. When both HUD and the County requested the approximately $1.2 million remaining in the PHA's bank account, PHA filed an interpleader action in Oklahoma state court. HUD removed the case to federal court and moved for summary judgment, arguing that the County was not entitled to the interpled funds because it was a stranger to the ACC, which expressly prohibited the creation of any enforcement right in a third party; the County was not involved in the project; the County could not claim to be a successor to the PHA because the project no longer existed; and the interpled funds belonged to HUD under the plain terms of the ACC. The County responded that the ACC was ambiguous, the County was the successor in interest to the City of Picher, HUD waived any claim to the interpled funds by waiting almost six years to make a claim, and the County had an equitable claim to at least a portion of the interpled funds for services it supplied to the project.

Meanwhile, the district court dismissed the PHA from the action because it disclaimed any interest to the funds. After summary-judgment briefing was complete, the district court transferred the case to the United States Court of Federal Claims, reasoning that it lacked jurisdiction. The Claims Court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction and transferred the case back to Oklahoma.

After the re-transfer, the Oklahoma district court determined that it in fact had jurisdiction and granted HUD's motion for summary judgment. Applying federal law, the court first ruled that the ACC unambiguously provided that all of the funds remaining after termination of the project belonged to HUD. It based that conclusion on the confluence of numerous contractual provisions, the most pertinent of which we outline.

One contractual provision defined a General Fund: All monies and investment securities received by or held for the account of the [PHA] in connection with the development, operation and improvement of projects in accordance with an ACC with HUD shall constitute the General Fund.  Aplt. App., Vol. I at 48. Another required the PHA to deposit and invest all funds and investment securities received by or held for the account of the [PHA] in connection with the development, operation and improvement of the projects  in accordance with the terms of [a] General Depository Agreement, id., which the parties had executed separately. The ACC defined Operating receipts as all rents, revenues, income, and receipts accruing from, out of, or in connection with the ownership or operation of [the] project. Id. at 46. The ACC further required the PHA to purchase a variety of insurance coverages, including a Commercial Property [policy]  written with a blanket limit, on a replacement cost basis, and with an agreed value clause eliminating any coinsurance provision. Id. at 85. It also required the PHA to use any insurance proceeds to restore, reconstruct, and/or repair any damaged or destroyed property of a project, except with the written approval of HUD to the contrary. Id. at 5051. And perhaps most importantly to this case, the ACC provided that in the event the project was terminated, all project reserves shall become part of another project administered by the [PHA] in accordance with the terms of [the] ACC. If no other project(s) under management exists, the remaining project reserves shall be distributed as directed by HUD. Id. at 51 (emphasis added).

Here, HUD denied the PHA's request to rebuild the project in Fairland and instead terminated the project and directed that the remaining funds be returned to HUD. Hence, the district court concluded that the funds belonged to HUD. The court acknowledged that the ACC permitted the PHA to pool funds unrelated to the project or HUD in the account where it kept project funds: The [PHA] may  deposit into an account covered by the terms of the General Depository Agreement, by lump-sum transfers of funds from the depositories of other projects or enterprises of the [PHA] in which HUD has no financial interest, amounts necessary for current expenditures of items chargeable to all projects and enterprises of the [PHA]. Id. at 48 (emphasis added). But the court concluded that the insurance proceeds did not arise out of other [PHA] projects or enterprises  in which HUD had no financial interest, id., but from an insurance policy that the ACC required the PHA to maintain as part of its deal with HUD and that was paid for with federal grant money.

The court further concluded that even if the PHA had a claim to the remaining funds, the ACC unambiguously prohibited third-party claims against either the PHA or HUD: [N]othing in this ACC shall be construed as creating any right of any third party to enforce any provision of the ACC or to assert any claim against HUD or the [PHA]. Id. at 55. And to the extent the County claimed a right to the remaining funds as the successor of the dissolved City of Picher, the court pointed out a distinction between the PHA, which was a party to the ACC, and the City of Picher, which was not. The court therefore reasoned that the County remained a stranger to the ACC.

The district court addressed two other arguments the County made. It first rejected the contention that by waiting six years to make a claim on the insurance proceeds, HUD waived its claim to the interpled funds. The court reasoned that HUD did not need to make a separate claim to the funds because the ACC vested HUD with the right to request the return of any project reserves in the General Fund (i.e., the PHA's bank account subject to the General Depository Agreement) when the project was terminated. Second, the court declined the County's request for $135,912 in equitable relief for services the County claimed it had provided to the PHA between 2008 and 2013. The court concluded that the provision of services to the PHA had no relationship to the ACC and that many of the services were those the County was bound to provide as the county in which the project was located.

II. DISCUSSION

We review an order granting summary judgment de novo, applying the same standards that the district court should have applied. Fields v. City of Tulsa, 753 F.3d 1000, 1008 (10th Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). A court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). [W]e examine the record and all reasonable inferences that might be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Fields, 753 F.3d at 1009 (internal quotation marks omitted).

After fully considering the record, the parties' arguments, and the governing law, we are convinced that the district court properly granted summary judgment to HUD. We therefore affirm the district court's judgment for substantially the reasons the district court provided. We add only the following.

The County claims the district court overlooked or improperly analyzed a number of its arguments. But almost all of those arguments concern the PHA's right to the funds, not the County's. Although the County claims it stepped into the shoes' of the City (including [the] PHA) when Picher was dissolved, Aplt. Opening Br. at 21 (emphasis added), the only legal authority it cites, M. Anderson, Dissolving Cities, 121 Yale L.J. 1364 (2012), concerns succession to a dissolved city and makes no mention of a city's public housing authority. Further, as the Oklahoma Supreme Court explained in determining whether bonds issued by a housing authority were an indebtedness of the state, a housing authority is, by Oklahoma statute,  a public body corporate and politic which is how the PHA described itself in its interpleader petition, see Aplt. App., Vol. I at 13and therefore not an agency or instrumentality of a city or county. Boardman v. Okla. City Hous. Auth., 445 P.2d 412, 416 (Okla. 1968) (quoting Okla. Stat. tit. 63,  1055); accord Hon. Charles W. Van, 11 Okla. Op. Atty. Gen. 482, Okla. A.G. Opin. No. 79-303, 1980 WL 114835, at *2 (Jan. 22, 1980) (Public housing authorities created pursuant to [the Oklahoma Housing Authority Act, which includes  1055], are not instrumentalities of the city or county within which they sit and, therefore, are not subject to the Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act.). We therefore conclude that the County failed to establish that it stepped into the PHA's shoes by virtue of Picher's dissolution. Consequently, we need not address the County's contentions about the PHA's rights to the funds that it claims the district court overlooked or improperly analyzed.

III. CONCLUSION

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

Entered for the Court

FOOTNOTES

. The commercial-property insurance requirement was set out in an attachment to the ACC that was referred to in Section 13 of the ACC: The types of insurance required, or that should be purchased, and other requirements with respect to insurance coverage are listed in Part B, Attachment VII, of this ACC. Aplt. App., Vol. I at 50. The district court did not discuss this provision but based its view that the PHA was required to purchase insurance on another provision in Section 13, one requiring the PHA to procure adequate insurance to protect the [PHA] from financial loss resulting from various hazards if the [PHA] determines that exposure to certain hazards exists. Id. As the County points out, that provision did not require the PHA to purchase various hazards insurance unless it deemed it necessary to do so. However, Attachment VII clearly required the PHA to purchase commercial property insurance.

Monroe G. McKay Circuit Judge
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. MARTIN RIOS-GALICIA, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-10740 Decided: August 11, 2017

Before MARTIN, JILL PRYOR and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

Martin Rios-Galicia appeals his 24-month sentence, imposed at the low end of the advisory guideline range, which the district court imposed after he pled guilty to a single count of illegal re-entry into the United States after having been previously deported. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I.

After Rios pled guilty to a single count of illegal reentry, the probation office prepared a presentence investigation report (PSI), which noted that he had numerous prior convictions and had been deported to Mexico twice. The PSI reported that although Rios told the probation officer that he was born in the United States, a PSI in a prior illegal reentry case of his said Rios had stated that he was born in Mexico. Rios also told his probation officer that, after a previous deportation in 2011, he was kidnapped and tortured by Mexican cartel members. In addition, the PSI noted that Rios and his siblings, all of whom are United States citizens, grew up together in the United States. He also had a wife and children living in the United States. The PSI calculated Rios's total offense level as 13 and set his criminal history at a category of IV, resulting in a guidelines range of 24 to 30 months' imprisonment with a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.

At sentencing, Rios objected to the PSI insofar as it reported that he was not a United States citizen. The district court overruled the objection, noting that Rios had pled guilty and, in so doing, admitted that the government could prove that he was not a citizen, a fact to which he had offered no evidence to the contrary. The district court adopted the PSI's guidelines calculation and imposed a sentence of 24 months' imprisonment plus three years' supervised release. The district court noted that it lacked any authority to say that Rios was a United States citizen or ensure that he would not suffer harm in Mexico; all the court could do was consider Rios's illegal reentry and the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a).

The district court opted to impose a sentence at the bottom of the applicable guidelines rangea lower sentence than the 30 months Rios received for his previous illegal reentry convictionbased on his need to be with his family, but the court declined to give only supervised release given his prior criminal history and the need for punishment and deterrence.

II.

We review the reasonableness of a sentence under a deferential abuse of discretion standard, considering the totality of the circumstances and the sentencing factors set forth in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007). Under  3553(a), the district court is required to impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes of  3553(a)(2)the need to reflect the seriousness of the offense; promote respect for the law; provide just punishment; deter criminal conduct; protect the public from the defendant's future criminal conduct; and effectively provide the defendant with educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment. 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(2). The court must also consider the nature and circumstances of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; the kinds of sentences available; the applicable guideline range, the pertinent policy statements of the Sentencing Commission; the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities; and the need to provide restitution to victims. Id.  3553(a)(1), (3)-(7).

Although we do not automatically presume a within-guidelines sentence to be reasonable, ordinarily we expect it to be. United States v. Asante, 782 F.3d 639, 648 (11th Cir. 2015). That a sentence falls at the low end of the guideline range and well below the statutory maximum are two indications of reasonableness. See United States v. Cubero, 754 F.3d 888, 898 (11th Cir. 2014).

The party challenging a sentence bears the burden of proving the sentence is unreasonable. United States v. Tome, 611 F.3d 1371, 1378 (11th Cir. 2010). A district court imposes a substantively unreasonable sentence when it fails to afford consideration to relevant factors that were due significant weight, gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor, or commits a clear error of judgment in considering the proper factors. United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d 1160, 1189-90 (11th Cir. 2010) (en banc). Although generally the weight to be accorded any given  3553(a) factor is a matter committed to the sound discretion of the district court, United States v. Williams, 526 F.3d 1312, 1322 (11th Cir. 2008), a district court commits a clear error of judgment when it considers the proper factors but balances them unreasonably and imposes a sentence that does not achieve the purposes of sentencing as stated in  3553(a), Irey, 612 F.3d at 1189-90 (internal quotation marks omitted). We will vacate a sentence if we are left with the definite and firm conviction that the district court committed a clear error of judgment in weighing the  3553(a) factors by arriving at a sentence that lies outside the range of reasonable sentences dictated by the facts of the case. Id. at 1190.

III.

The district court's 24-month sentence was substantively reasonable. Rios's sentence adequately reflects the nature and circumstances of his offense as well as his personal history and characteristics. The district court considered that on the one hand, Rios had already been deported twice, his criminal history spanned several years, he did not stop engaging in criminal activity after his most recent deportation, and he should be deterred from again illegally reentering the country. On the other hand, Rios grew up and built a family in the United States, and the crimes for which he was arrested after his most recent reentry were less serious than the offenses in his criminal history. By arriving at a sentence of 24 monthsthe bottom of the applicable guidelines range and six months less than Rios received for his previous illegal reentry convictionthe district court was well within its discretion. Thus, we affirm Rios's sentence.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM:
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. FELICIA HOLTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FIRST COAST SERVICE OPTIONS, INC., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF FLORIDA, INC., Defendants-Appellees. No. 16-15289 Decided: August 11, 2017

Before TJOFLAT, WILLIAM PRYOR and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

Felicia Holton, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to First Coast Service Options and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (collectively, First Coast) on her claims of failure to provide a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C.  12101 et seq., and interference and retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), 29 U.S.C.  2601 et seq.

On appeal, Holton challenges three of the district court's rulings. First, she argues that the court erred when it determined that she could not make out a failure to accommodate claim under the ADA because she did not demonstrate that she was disabled. Second, she contends that the district court erred when it determined she could not show interference with her FMLA rights because the working arrangement she sought was not protected by the FMLA. Third, Holton insists that the district court erred in concluding that First Coast's legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for terminating her was not pretextual. After careful review, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Holton worked for First Coast processing Medicare claims. In January 2013, Holton requested and was approved for FMLA leave for a period ending in late March 2013 due to back pain stemming from a motor vehicle accident that took place several years earlier. When she returned to work on March 27, Holton gave her supervisor a letter from her chiropractor stating that for the next two weeks she should be limited to working four hours per day.

Later that day, First Coast human resources employees informed Holton that she could not return to work on a reduced schedule without a letter from a physician. Holton's chiropractor's office did not have a physician on staff, so the chiropractor's letter did not qualify. If she returned to work, she would be expected to meet the full requirements of her job. Holton inquired about other available positions, and a First Coast human resources employee told Holton that she could apply to any position on the website and the employee would assist her.

On April 1, Holton informed her supervisor that she was going to try to get a letter from a physician. The next day, however, Holton contacted the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, who told her that a chiropractor's letter should allow her to return to work. Wage and Hour Division personnel contacted First Coast, and on April 9, a First Coast attorney informed Wage and Hour Division personnel that First Coast would contact Holton and tell her she could return to work. Holton spoke with a Wage and Hour Division employee who told her that First Coast would be contacting her about returning to work. First Coast employees attempted to contact Holton via a telephone call and a letter, but Holton testified that she received no communication. The letter, which was returned as undeliverable, stated that Holton was in violation of First Coast policy by failing to report to work, needed to report to work by April 30, and would be considered to have resigned effective April 9 if she did not comply. Holton did not return to work and was terminated. Holton testified that she learned about the termination when she received a letter about continuing her healthcare benefits.

Holton filed the present case against First Coast and later amended her complaint. After engaging in discovery, First Coast moved to dismiss her suit for failure to state a claim, and the court granted the motion without prejudice. Holton then filed a second amended complaint, which alleged that Holton qualified as disabled under the ADA because she suffered back pain that substantially limited her ability to walk, bend, and sit. Holton also alleged that First Coast refused to allow her to return to work, interfering with and retaliating against her for exercising her FMLA rights. First Coast moved for summary judgment, and the district court granted its motion. Holton appeals that order.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing all evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party. Vessels v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 408 F.3d 763, 767 (11th Cir. 2005). The movant bears the burden of showing the absence of dispute as to material facts, and upon such a showing, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to establish that a genuine dispute exists. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323-24 (1986). Mere conclusory allegations and assertions will not suffice. Earley v. Champion Int'l Corp., 907 F.2d 1077, 1081 (11th Cir. 1990). There must be sufficient evidence on which the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff, and the existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the plaintiff's position is insufficient. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252 (1986).

Pro se pleadings are held to a less stringent standard than pleadings drafted by attorneys and will, therefore, be liberally construed. Tannenbaum v. United States, 148 F.3d 1262, 1263 (11th Cir. 1998). [L]iberal construction, however, is not the same thing as wholesale redrafting. Gilmore v. Hodges, 738 F.3d 266, 281 (11th Cir. 2013).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Holton Did Not Establish That She Was Disabled Under the ADA.

Holton first contends that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to First Coast on her failure to accommodate claim because she made out a prima facie case of disability discrimination under the ADA. We agree with the district court, however, that Holton failed to establish that she was disabled under the ADA. The only evidence she offered of her disability was a two-sentence letter from her chiropractor, which did not provide enough information to establish that she was disabled. We therefore affirm the district court's ruling.

The ADA prohibits discrimination by an employer against a qualified individual on the basis of a disability in any of the terms, conditions, [or] privileges of employment. 42 U.S.C.  12112(a). Such discrimination includes an employer's failure to reasonably accommodate a qualified employee's disability. Id.  12112(b)(5)(A). Absent direct evidence of discrimination, [t]he familiar burden-shifting analysis of Title VII employment discrimination actions is equally applicable to ADA claims. Hilburn v. Murata Elecs. N. Am., Inc., 181 F.3d 1220, 1226 (11th Cir. 1999). Holton therefore ha[d] the burden of proving a prima facie case of her employer's failure to accommodate her disability by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. To make out this prima facie case, Holton was required to show that: (1) she was disabled; (2) she was a qualifying individual; and (3) she was discriminated against by First Coast's failure to provide a reasonable accommodation. See Lucas v. W.W. Grainger, Inc., 257 F.3d 1249, 1255 (11th Cir. 2001).

Holton failed to show that she was disabled, so she did not make out a prima facie case of discrimination. An individual is disabled under the ADA if she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of her major life activities, she has a record of such an impairment, or she is regarded as having such an impairment. 42 U.S.C.  12102(1). Holton alleged in her second amended complaint that she qualified as disabled under the first definition because she had a back impairment that when active substantially limit[ed] one or more of [her] major life activities, including but not limited to, walking, bending and sitting. Second Am. Compl. 5 (Doc. 46). She repeated the allegation in response to First Coast's motion for summary judgment. But conclusory allegations such as these are not enough to withstand summary judgment, and Holton provided insufficient evidence to establish her disability. See Earley, 907 F.2d at 1081. The only evidence of disability to which she pointed was the letter from her chiropractor requesting a modified work schedule. The letter stated that the chiropractor was treating Holton for cervical, thoracic and lumbar back pain and that she should be limited to 4 hour work days for an [sic] duration of 2 weeks. Iselborn Letter (Doc. 53-1). Absent further evidence, this letter could not establish Holton's disability because it did not explain how Holton's back pain substantially limited any of her major life activities.

To be clear, a communication from an employee's treating physician can demonstrate that employee's disability, but Holton's letter from her chiropractor did not do so. See Mazzeo v. Color Resolutions Int'l, LLC, 746 F.3d 1264, 126869 (11th Cir. 2014). In Mazzeo, for example, we concluded that a physician's affidavit about an employee's back pain provided sufficient evidence of that employee's disability to withstand summary judgment. See id. That affidavit stat[ed] that degenerative disc disease and a herniated disc impacted [the employee]'s ability to walk, bend, sleep, and lift more than ten pounds,  that [the employee]'s pain would increase with prolonged sitting and standing.  and that the[se] limitations  were substantial and permanent. Id. (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). The affidavit also explained that the doctor had treated the employee for an extended period of time. See id. at 1268. We concluded that this affidavit was sufficient because it explained [the employee]'s medical condition, what specific pain the condition caused, and the limitations on major life activities' (as that term is broadly defined by the ADA) resulting from the condition and pain. Id. at 1269 (emphasis added). By contrast, the letter from Holton's chiropractor included nothing to link her back impairment to the limitations on her major life activities that she alleged. The district court therefore properly granted summary judgment on Holton's claims of disability discrimination.

B. Holton Did Not Demonstrate Interference with Her FMLA Rights.

Holton next argues that First Coast interfered with her exercise of her FMLA rights by refusing to allow her to return to her previous position after her leave and that the district court's contrary determination was in error. But Holton sought to return to her position on a modified basis, which is not a right protected by the FMLA, so First Coast did not interfere with her FMLA rights when it required a note from a physician about her requested accommodation. We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment to First Coast on Holton's FMLA interference claim.

The FMLA provides a cause of action to an employee whose employer denies or otherwise interferes with the employee's exercise of her FMLA rights. O'Connor v. PCA Family Health Plan, Inc., 200 F.3d 1349, 1352 (11th Cir. 2000). To establish an FMLA interference claim, an employee must show by a preponderance of the evidence that she was entitled to a benefit that was denied by her employer. Krutzig v. Pulte Home Corp., 602 F.3d 1231, 1235 (11th Cir. 2010). As relevant here, the FMLA guarantees an employee returning from FMLA leave the right to return either to the same position that she held when the leave commenced or to an equivalent position. 29 C.F.R.  825.214. Holton alleged in her complaint that First Coast interfered with Holton's exercise of this right when the company failed to reinstate Holton upon her return from leave.

But First Coast did not interfere with Holton's FMLA rights because she sought to return to her position with a modified schedule. Once again, an employee is entitled to return to the same position  or to an equivalent position with equivalent  terms and conditions of employment. Id. (emphasis added). It is undisputed here that Holton sought to return to the same position but with reduced hours. First Coast refused to allow her to return on a reduced schedule, requiring either that she return to her position full time, provide a note from a physician requesting an accommodation, or apply for another open position with reduced hours. Because First Coast offered her the opportunity to return to work on a full time basis, it did not interfere with Holton's FMLA rights. The district court thus properly granted summary judgment on Holton's FMLA interference claim.

C. Holton Did Not Show That She Was Retaliated Against for Exercising Her FMLA Rights.

Finally, Holton argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment on her claim that First Coast retaliated against her for contacting the Department of Labor seeking help with her FMLA claims. But the evidence demonstrates that First Coast terminated Holton for failing to report to work, and Holton has not demonstrated that this reason was pretextual. We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment.

In the absence of direct evidence of the employer's intent to retaliate, we apply the burden-shifting framework established by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green to claims of FMLA retaliation. See Strickland v. Water Works and Sewer Bd. of Birmingham, 239 F.3d 1199, 1207 (11th Cir. 2001). Under this framework, if a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of retaliation and the employer proffers a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for its employment decision against the plaintiff, then the plaintiff must show that the employer's proffered reason was a pretext for discrimination. E.E.O.C. v. Joe's Stone Crabs, Inc., 296 F.3d 1265, 127273 (11th Cir. 2002).

Assuming she made out a prima facie case of retaliation, Holton did not show that First Coast's nondiscriminatory reason for firing her was pretextual. Courts will not second-guess an employer's proffered reason, so long as it is one that might motivate a reasonable employer. See Nix v. WLCY Radio/Rahall Comms., 738 F.2d 1181, 1187 (11th Cir. 1984). An employee shows pretext by proving that the true reason for her employer's adverse employment action was discrimination. Brooks v. Cty. Com'n of Jefferson Cty., 446 F.3d 1160, 116263 (11th Cir. 2006). The employee must demonstrate such weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's proffered legitimate reasons that a reasonable factfinder could find them unworthy of credence. Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1538 (11th Cir. 1997). Holton failed to meet this high bar with regard to her termination.

The evidence demonstrated that Holton was terminated pursuant to First Coast policy after she failed to report to work or provide a note from a physician explaining her need for an accommodation. Holton argued that the temporal proximity between her contact with the Department of Labor on April 2, 2013 and her termination effective April 9, 2013 established pretext. Like the district court, we cannot agree in light of First Coast's explanation that it fired Holton for absenteeism. Provided that [an employer's] proffered reason is one that might motivate a reasonable employer, an employee must meet that reason head on and rebut it. Alvarez v. Royal Atl. Dev., Inc., 610 F.3d 1253, 126566 (11th Cir. 2010). Holton did not do so. We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment on her FMLA retaliation claim.

IV. CONCLUSION

Upon review of the entire record on appeal, and after consideration of the parties' briefs, we affirm.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. The district court also denied Holton's claim that she received disparate treatment under the ADA, but Holton does not reference this claim in her brief, so she has abandoned it. See Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 68081 (11th Cir. 2014) (holding issues not adequately briefed on appeal are abandoned).

. Holton also filed a motion for reconsideration, which the district court denied. Although she included the court's denial of this motion in her notice of appeal, she did not reference this issue in her brief, so she has abandoned it. See Sapuppo, 739 F.3d at 68081.

. The district court ruled in the alternative that Holton could not establish that she was discriminated against because she was responsible for the breakdown in communication about accommodating her disability. We need not consider this ruling or Holton's arguments challenging it in light of our determination that Holton did not establish that she was disabled.

. [M]ajor life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working. 42 U.S.C.  12102(2).

. Holton's complaint also alleged that Defendants was [sic] aware that I had a record of such impairment. Second Am. Coml. 5 (Doc. 46). Construing this allegation liberally, as we must with pro se filings, Holton alleged that she was disabled under each of the ADA's other two definitions of disability. But Holton only argued she was disabled under the ADA's first definition in her response to First Coast's motion for summary judgment. We therefore need not consider these alternative bases for establishing that Holton was disabled. See Stavropoulos v. Firestone, 361 F.3d 610, 616 n.6 (11th Cir. 2004) ([Plaintiff] did not present this theory to the district court when summary judgment motions were pending.  Because [plaintiff] failed to properly present her [ ] theory to the district court, we decline to consider it on appeal.), abrogated on other grounds by Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006).

. Citations to Doc. refer to the numbered entries in the district court record of the case.

. Holton also referenced an email conversation among First Coast employees about how to properly implement the chiropractor's recommendation. But this conversation, which was based entirely on the chiropractor's letter, provides no further evidence of Holton's disability than the letter itself.

. Requiring a note from a physician before providing an accommodation violates neither the FMLA nor the ADA. If an employee's serious health condition may also be a disability within the meaning of the ADA, the FMLA does not prevent the employer from following the procedures for requesting medical information under the ADA. 29 C.F.R.  825.312(h). Under ADA regulations, an employer may require that an employee undergo a medical examination that is job-related and consistent with business necessity. Id.  1630.14(c).

. 411 U.S. 792 (1973).

PER CURIAM:
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. JOSEPH MONTANO, Petitioner  Appellant, v. STATE OF TEXAS, Respondent  Appellee. No. 16-20083 Decided: August 11, 2017

Before JOLLY and ELROD, Circuit Judges, and STARRETT, District Judge. *

Joseph Montano's felony trial was terminated when the state trial judge declared a mistrial after a witness invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while testifying at trial. After Texas determined to retry him, Montano unsuccessfully sought relief in Texas court, arguing that a retrial would violate his rights under the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause. Montano then filed a habeas petition in federal district court, but the district court dismissed his habeas petition without prejudice for failure to exhaust available state remedies. Because Montano has exhausted all available state remedies in accordance with our precedent, we REVERSE the dismissal of his habeas petition and REMAND for adjudication of his Double Jeopardy claim.

I.

Joseph Montano was indicted in Harris County, Texas, for the felony offense of aggregate theft from a nonprofit. His trial began in September 2013, but never reached fruition. Instead, the state trial judge declared a mistrial after a prosecution witness incriminated himself during cross-examination and thereafter invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Texas determined to retry Montano on the same charge.

Montano sought habeas relief in state court, arguing that a retrial would violate the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause. The state habeas court denied relief, as did the court of appeals, the latter concluding that Montano had consented to a mistrial. See Ex parte Montano, 451 S.W.3d 874, 87780 (Tex. App.Houston [1st Dist.] 2014, pet ref'd). The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Montano's petition for review as well as his subsequent motion for rehearing.

Montano then filed a habeas petition in federal court under 28 U.S.C.  2241, arguing again that a retrial would violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. The federal district court determined that Montano failed to exhaust all available state remedies as is required before a federal district court may entertain a Section 2241 petition. In particular, the district court cited two provisions of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure that allows a defendant to submit a special plea of Double Jeopardy at trial. See Tex. Crim. Proc. Code arts. 45.023(a)(3), 27.05. If Montano entered the special plea and was convicted, the district court concluded, he would have the opportunity to appeal that conviction in state court and, if unsuccessful, to seek state habeas relief. The district court dismissed his Section 2241 petition without prejudice, and Montano timely appealed.

II.

We review for abuse of discretion a dismissal of a  2241 petition for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Gallegos-Hernandez v. United States, 688 F.3d 190, 194 (5th Cir. 2012); see also Fuller v. Rich, 11 F.3d 61, 62 (5th Cir. 1994) (same). Any factual issues underlying the district court's decision are reviewed for clear error and issues of law are reviewed de novo. Gallegos-Hernandez, 688 F.3d at 194; see also Jeffers v. Chandler, 253 F.3d 827, 830 (5th Cir. 2001).

III.

Montano raises two arguments on appeal. First, he contends that the federal district court was wrong to conclude that he failed to exhaust available state remedies. Second, he argues the merits of his Double Jeopardy claim.

A.

Unlike 28 U.S.C.  2254, Section 2241's text does not require exhaustion. However, it has long been settled that a Section 2241 petitioner must exhaust available state court remedies before a federal court will entertain a challenge to state detention. As we explained before,

[d]espite the absence of an exhaustion requirement in the statutory language of section 2241(c)(3), a body of case law has developed holding that although section 2241 establishes jurisdiction in the federal courts to consider pre-trial habeas corpus petitions, federal courts should abstain from the exercise of that jurisdiction if the issues raised in the petition may be resolved either by trial on the merits in the state court or by other state procedures available to the petitioner.

Dickerson v. Louisiana, 816 F.2d 220, 225 (5th Cir. 1987); see also Rourke v. Thompson, 11 F.3d 47, 49 (5th Cir. 1993). At the same time, we have recognized that [e]xceptions to the exhaustion requirement are appropriate where the available  remedies either are unavailable or wholly inappropriate to the relief sought, or where the attempt to exhaust such remedies would itself be a patently futile course of action. Fuller, 11 F.3d at 62; see also Gallegos-Hernandez, 688 F.3d at 194 (same).

The district court determined that Montano still had state remedies available to him that he was required to exhaust before utilizing Section 2241. Specifically, the district court concluded that Montano had failed to exhaust Articles 45.023 and 27.05 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which allow a defendant to enter a special plea of Double Jeopardy at trial. The district court further reasoned that [i]f Montano is retried and convicted, he will have the opportunity to appeal that conviction in state court and, if unsuccessful, to seek state habeas relief.

We disagree. In Fain v. Duff, 488 F.2d 218 (5th Cir. 1973), reh'g en banc denied, (5th Cir. Mar. 1, 1974), we confronted this precise issue. There, Florida sought to try a defendant (Fain) for rape after he had already been adjudicated delinquent for the same offense. Id. at 22021. After having raised a Double Jeopardy challenge at every level of the state judiciary and ultimately not prevailed, Fain brought a Section 2241 petition in federal district court raising the same claim, and the district court granted relief. Id. at 221.

We held that Fain satisfied Section 2241's exhaustion requirement because he had raised and received a ruling on his Double Jeopardy claim at every level of the state judiciary; there was, then, nothing more for the courts of Florida to say on [the] issue. Id. at 224. We acknowledged that a petition for habeas corpus relief could be brought after the trial in state court, and that this would leav[e] open the possibility that a finding of not guilty in state court would make resort to federal habeas corpus unnecessary. Id. (emphasis added). Despite this, we concluded that requiring a defendant to endure a second prosecution in order to fully exhaust a Double Jeopardy claim was incompatible with the nature of the Double Jeopardy Clause's protection:

Fain is not asserting merely a federal defense to a state prosecution. He is asserting a constitutional right not to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. Although double jeopardy (if shown) would certainly be a proper defense to assert at trial and in postconviction proceedings, the right consists of more than having the second conviction set aside. It consists of being protected from having to undergo the rigors and dangers of a second-illegal-trial. Double jeopardy is not a mere defense to a criminal charge; it is a right to be free from a second prosecution, not merely a second punishment for the same offense  The prohibition of the Double Jeopardy Clause is not against being twice punished, but against twice being put in jeopardy.

Id. (quoting United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 669 (1896)). So, because Fain had pressed his Double Jeopardy claim at every level of the state judiciary up to the point of enduring a second trial, we held that he had fully exhausted his state remedies, even though he could be acquitted at trial or obtain relief through post-trial state proceedings. Id.

We hold, in accordance with Fain, that Montano has satisfied Section 2241's exhaustion requirement. There is no dispute that Montano has asserted his Double Jeopardy claim before every available state judicial forum, short of undergoing a second trial. Requiring Montano to endure a second prosecution before being able to assert his claim in federal court places him in precisely the same impermissible position as the petitioner in Fain: forced to forfeit the protections of his federal right before being permitted to seek its vindication in federal court.

The district court identified several state remedies that Montano had yet to exhaust. First, it observed that [i]f Montano is retried and convicted, he will have the opportunity to appeal that conviction in state court and, if unsuccessful, to seek state habeas relief. That, however, is precisely the argument we rejected in Fain. See id. There, as here, the fact that Montano might prevail at trialor in a post-trial proceedingcannot provide relief, and is not a remedy in any meaningful sense, since the Double Jeopardy Clause protects against having to undergo the rigors and dangers of a second-illegal-trial in the first place. Id.

Second, the district court concluded that Montano could have availed himself of the special plea of Double Jeopardy provided by Texas law. See Tex. Crim. Proc. Code arts. 45.023, 27.05. Article 45.023 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides in relevant part that [a]fter the jury is impaneled  the defendant may  enter the special plea of double jeopardy as described in Article 27.05. Tex. Crim. Proc. Code art. 45.023 (emphasis added). Texas law elsewhere provides that [a]ll issues of fact presented by a special plea shall be tried by the trier of the facts on the trial on the merits. Tex. Crim. Proc. Code art. 27.07 (emphasis added).

These provisions, however, do not solve the fundamental problem identified in Fain. It is well-established that, [f]or a jury trial, jeopardy attaches when the jury is empaneled and sworn. United States v. Jones, 733 F.3d 574, 580 (5th Cir. 2013). These provisions of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure are crystal clear that a special plea of Double Jeopardy may only be entered after the jury is impaneled and that the jury will not decide the merits of the special plea until the end of trial. The special plea is therefore just as incapable of protecting Montano's Double Jeopardy right as is the potential for acquittal at trial or post-trial proceedings.

Texas relies on Dickerson v. Louisiana, 816 F.2d 220 (5th Cir. 1987) and Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, 410 U.S. 484 (1973), but to no avail. Braden held that a defendant could bring a Speedy Trial Clause claim in a Section 2241 petition prior to trial. 410 U.S. at 48993. In finding Section 2241's exhaustion requirement satisfied, the Supreme Court observed, first, that the defendant had presented his federal constitutional claim to the state courts, and second, that the defendant was not seeking to forestall a state prosecution, but to enforce the [state's] obligation to provide him with a state court forum. Id. at 491.

Importantly, Fain addressed Braden in the context of its exhaustion ruling and concluded that its holding was in harmony with Braden. See Fain, 488 F.2d at 224 (Again, this can be analogized to Braden [J]ust as in the case of speedy trial, the [Double Jeopardy] right is one which can and should be vindicated without waiting until the state decides to conduct a trial.). Fain's interpretation of Supreme Court precedent is binding under our rule of orderliness. See Barber v. Johnson, 145 F.3d 234, 237 (5th Cir. 1998) (Even if persuaded that [our prior panel opinion] is inconsistent with [an earlier Supreme Court opinion], we may not ignore the decision, for in this circuit one panel may not overrule the decision of a prior panel.).

As to Dickerson, that decision held that a defendant could not assert a Speedy Trial claim before trial in a Section 2241 petition. 816 F.2d at 22628. We distinguished Braden on the ground that the habeas petitioner in that case had not sought to derail his criminal prosecution, only to compel the state to carry out the trial in a prompt fashion. Id. at 226. By contrast, the petitioner in Dickerson sought to have the charges against him dismissed due to the asserted Speedy Trial violation. Id. Texas argues that Montano, like the petitioner in Dickerson, is seeking to derail his criminal prosecution.

This argument, however, disregards the critical differences between the rights at issue in these cases. The Speedy Trial Clause does not prohibit prosecution; it requires prompt prosecution. See U.S. Const. amend. VI (In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial ). The petitioner in Dickerson was not seeking to enforce this requirement, but sought instead to use the Speedy Trial Clause as a means of preventing prosecution from occurring at all. Dickerson, 816 F.2d at 22627. By contrast, the whole point of the Double Jeopardy Clause is to bar prosecution. Montano's Section 2241 petition seeks nothing more than to enforce this protection, just as the petitioner in Braden sought nothing more than to enforce the Speedy Trial Clause's guarantee. To ignore the differences between Double Jeopardy and Speedy Trial protections is to fundamentally misunderstand these cases.

Moreover, even if Dickerson were in conflict with Fainwhich we do not read it to beFain would control under our rule of orderliness. Jacobs v. Nat'l Drug Intelligence Ctr., 548 F.3d 375, 378 (5th Cir. 2008) (It is a well-settled Fifth Circuit rule of orderliness that one panel of our court may not overturn another panel's decision, absent an intervening change in the law, such as by a statutory amendment, or the Supreme Court, or our en banc court.).

* * * * *

The requirement that state criminal defendants exhaust available state remedies is vital to preserv[ing] the respective roles of state and federal governments and avoid[ing] unnecessary collisions between sovereign powers. Fain, 488 F.2d at 224. While exceptions to this requirement appropriately apply only in extraordinary circumstances, we do not require defendants to pursue state remedies that are wholly inappropriate to the relief sought. Fuller, 11 F.3d at 62 (quotation marks omitted); see also Gallegos-Hernandez, 688 F.3d at 194. Such is the case here. As we recognized in Fain, Section 2241's exhaustion requirement does not mandate that defendants asserting a Double Jeopardy claim subject themselves to the very harm the Double Jeopardy clause protects against before being able to assert the right in federal court.

B.

The Texas court of appeals rejected Montano's Double Jeopardy claim because it concluded that he implicitly consented to being retriedwhich is a recognized exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause's protections. See Ex parte Montano, 451 S.W.3d at 87980. Montano argues that the state trial judge sua sponte ordered a mistrial and so he did not have time to object. He also argues that declaring a mistrial was improper because the witness had already incriminated himself and should not have been permitted to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights after the fact. And Montano notes that the witness who incriminated himself has now been granted immunity by Texas, which he claims will prejudice him if he is retried. Texas, by contrast, argues that Montano implicitly consented to the mistrial. Though the federal district court did not reach Montano's Double Jeopardy claim, Montano urges us to address it in the first instance.

We decline to do so. As a court for review of errors, we do not  decide facts or make legal conclusions in the first instance, but review the actions of a trial court for claimed errors. Browning v. Kramer, 931 F.2d 340, 345 (5th Cir. 1991). In other words, a court of appeals sits as a court of review, not of first view. United States v. Vicencio, 647 F. App'x 170, 177 (4th Cir. 2016) (quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Houston, 792 F.3d 663, 669 (6th Cir. 2015) (Like the Supreme Court, we are a court of review, not first view.). Given that the district court did not reach Montano's claim, the normal course would be to remand for the district court to do so. See, e.g., Shanks v. AlliedSignal, Inc., 169 F.3d 988, 993 n.6 (5th Cir. 1999) (We decline to examine these claims, because the district court never addressed [them].).

Adhering to this approach is particularly advisable here, where the record is not sufficiently developed to adjudicate Montano's Double Jeopardy claim. It is settled that Double jeopardy may be waived by consent, United States v. Nichols, 977 F.2d 972, 974 (5th Cir. 1992), and consent can either be express or implied. United States v. Palmer, 122 F.3d 215, 218 (5th Cir. 1997). In rejecting Montano's Double Jeopardy claim, the Texas court of appeals concluded that Montano had impliedly consented to the mistrial and therefore waived his Double Jeopardy rights. See Ex parte Montano, 451 S.W.3d at 880. However, the record on appeal does not contain any of the transcripts or other materials from the trial proceedings necessary to adjudicate whether Montano provided such consent. The only record evidence as to what actually took place in the state proceeding comes in the form of the Texas court of appeals opinion, which reproduces snippets of the record in the course of its decision.

Because the district court did not address Montano's Double Jeopardy claim and because the record is not sufficiently developed to enable us to do so in the first instance, we do not address it. See, e.g., United States v. Gonzalez, 540 F. App'x 267, 268 (5th Cir. 2013) (The record is not adequately developed to enable us to review Gonzalez's IAC claim in the first instance, so we decline to address it on direct appeal.).

IV.

Accordingly, because Montano has exhausted all available state remedies in accordance with our precedent, we REVERSE the dismissal of his habeas petition and REMAND for adjudication of his Double Jeopardy claim.

FOOTNOTES

. The Double Jeopardy Clause provides that [n]o person shall be  subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb[.] U.S. Const. amend. V.

. Article 45.023 provides: (a) After the jury is impaneled, or after the defendant has waived trial by jury, the defendant may:  (3) enter the special plea of double jeopardy as described in Article 27.05.

. Article 27.05 provides:A defendant's only special plea is that he has already been prosecuted for the same or a different offense arising out of the same criminal episode that was or should have been consolidated into one trial, and that the former prosecution: (1) resulted in acquittal; (2) resulted in conviction; (3) was improperly terminated; or (4) was terminated by a final order or judgment for the defendant that has not been reversed, set aside, or vacated and that necessarily required a determination inconsistent with a fact that must be established to secure conviction in the subsequent prosecution.

. Texas also argues that Fain is distinguishable because [Montano] has other state court remedies available which would allow for further state appellate review, presumably a reference to the special plea. However, as just discussed, the special plea is not materially different than the situation addressed in Fain. Texas also relies on Davis v. Anderson, No. 4:10-cv-057, 2010 WL 2300407 (N.D. Tex. May 24, 2010), report and recommendation adopted, No. 4:10-CV-057-Y, 2010 WL 2300393 (N.D. Tex. June 7, 2010). Aside from the fact that we are not bound by Davis, the magistrate judge there found that Davis ha[d] provided no proof of his efforts to exhaust state remedies or that state court remedies are unavailable or inadequate. Id. at *2. That is simply not so in this case. Montano raised his Double Jeopardy claim to every level of the Texas judiciary and was denied relief.

. We also held that, to the extent the petitioner was seeking merely to compel the state to carry out a speedy trial, he had not exhausted all pre-trial remedies as had the petitioner in Braden. See id. at 228.

. Our decision in Brown v. Estelle, 530 F.2d 1280 (5th Cir. 1976) is distinguishable for these same reasons.

. Texas also argues that the district court was correct to dismiss Montano's petition based on the abstention doctrine recognized in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971). But whatever might follow from Younger in another context, Fain holds that a federal court may adjudicate a Double Jeopardy claim even though the possibility exists that the defendant could obtain a favorable result at or after trial. See Fain, 488 F.2d at 224.

. Montano asks us to grant him a certificate of appealability. Because Montano is correctly proceeding under 28 U.S.C.  2241, a certificate of appealability is not required. See Ojo v. I.N.S., 106 F.3d 680, 681 (5th Cir. 1997); see also Padilla v. United States, 416 F.3d 424, 425 (5th Cir. 2005).

JENNIFER WALKER ELROD, Circuit Judge:
A major search is being carried out in a woodland area in Chapelizod in South Dublin as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Trevor Deely.

Detectives say they're looking for evidence after the 22-year-old Bank of Ireland employee went missing in Dublin following a Christmas party 17 years ago .
There is considerably less space in Dublin City today as one of the biggest men on TV flew into town.

Hafor Julius Bjornsson aka The Mountain from Game of Thrones has jetted into the Capital for Dublin's Comic Con.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. City of Benkelman, Nebraska, A Political Subdivision Plaintiff - Appellant v. Baseline Engineering Corporation, A Colorado Corporation Defendant - Appellee Layne Christensen Company, a Delaware Corporation Defendant No. 16-1949 Decided: August 11, 2017

Before RILEY, BEAM, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

A rural Nebraska community seeks federal review of its multi-million dollar claims against a Colorado corporation. A United States District Court in Nebraska determined that it lacked jurisdiction over the claims and issued a final judgment ordering the parties to proceed to arbitration in Colorado. With jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

The City of Benkelman is a community of less than one thousand residents located in Dundy County, Nebraska. In 2005, the state health and human services department ordered the City to address the excessive amounts of uranium, arsenic, and other contaminants in the City's drinking water supply. The City subsequently contracted with Baseline Engineering Corporation, a Colorado organization, to assist with the permitting, design, and construction of a water treatment plant for the City. The City obtained partial funding for the project from the United States Department of Agriculture - Rural Development (USDA-RD).

The project began in July 2009 and the plant was operating by May 2012. In June 2012, however, laboratory tests of treated water samples showed that the uranium levels still did not comply with federal drinking water standards. Around five months later, the state denied final approval of the plant for failure to effectively treat the City's water supply.

The City sued Baseline in federal court in Nebraska, alleging breach of contract, negligence and professional malpractice, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. Seeking damages in excess of $5.5 million, the complaint averred that Baseline failed to properly design the treatment plant, misrepresented itself as a water engineering expert, and gave false information about how to bring the City's water supply into compliance with state and federal laws.

Baseline moved to dismiss the complaint. Citing generally Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b), Baseline argued that the district court lacked jurisdiction due to a dispute resolution provision in a contract that both parties signed on or about July 21, 2009 (the July 2009 Contract). Under the July 2009 Contract, if the parties cannot resolve a dispute through a a face-to-face meeting, the dispute must be submitted to binding arbitration  conducted at a suitable location within 15 miles of [Baseline's] then existing principal office. The arbitration shall be completed pursuant to the Uniform Arbitration Act, C.R.S.  13-22-201, et seq., and governed by the provisions of the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, before a single arbiter. The July 2009 Contract further provides that, if the parties waive arbitration or if the arbitration provision is invalidated or does not apply, venue for any court proceeding will be the District Court for Jefferson County, State of Colorado.

The City opposed Baseline's motion, arguing that the July 2009 Contract does not control because it was superseded by a second contract that the parties signed on or slightly before August 27, 2009 (the August EJCDC Agreement). The August EJCDC Agreement, comprised of thirteen pages and ten exhibits, is a standard form contract prepared by the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (the EJCDC). The City claims that, because the treatment plant was funded in part by USDA-RD, the parties were required to execute the EJCDC agreement and have it approved by USDA-RD. Indeed, in a letter dated August 28, 2009, Baseline submitted the parties' signed August EJCDC Agreement to the USDA-RD, and the Agreement was approved on October 5, 2009. Because paragraph 6.01K of the August EJCDC Agreement states that [a]ll [c]ontract [d]ocuments  shall be subject to [a]gency concurrence, the City argues that the July 2009 Contract (which was not sent to USDA-RD for approval) simply memorialized the parties' initial agreement but was later replaced as the governing document by the agency-approved August EJCDC Agreement.

The August EJCDC Agreement has its own arbitration provision, although the provision is not mandatory and is triggered only if a dispute survives the parties' good faith negotiation and mediation. In such an event the August EJCDC Agreement states that either party may seek to have the [d]ispute resolved by a court of competent jurisdiction. Alternatively, if less than $200,000 is in controversy, the dispute may be resolved by a method mutually agreed upon by the parties, including but not limited to arbitration.

In addition to conflicting arbitration and forum selection clauses, the July and August contracts contain the following terms relevant to Baseline's motion to dismiss:

(1) Incorporation by reference. Though the August EJCDC Agreement was signed around a month after the July 2009 Contract, it is twice incorporated by reference as Exhibit B to the July 2009 Contract. First, page 1 of the July 2009 Contract contains a box titled Job Description followed by an instruction to [s]ee Exhibit B hereto - for accompanying EJCDC agreement. Second, a provision on page 3 titled Entire Contract states, Exhibits A and B hereto are incorporated into this Agreement as fully set forth herein.

(2) Choice-of-law. The July 2009 Contract contains a choice-of-law provision stating that the parties' agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Colorado. Under the August EJCDC Agreement, however, the law of the state in which the Project is locatedNebraskacontrols.

(3) Merger clauses. Each contract purports to represent the entire agreement between the parties and to trump any prior or inconsistent agreements. The July 2009 Contract states:

This Agreement and the documents set forth in Exhibits A and B hereto shall supersede any other contract between [the City] and [Baseline], relating to the subject matter thereof. This is a fully integrated Contract. Any previous statements, representations, agreements, negotiations or discussions are null and void, and are fully merged herein. In case of a conflict or inconsistency between this Agreement and any other contract documents, this Agreement shall control. [Baseline] makes no promises or agreements written or oral except for the provisions herein set forth.

The August EJCDC Agreement likewise states:

This Agreement (consisting of pages 1 to 13, inclusive, together with the exhibits identified above) constitutes the entire agreement between [the City] and [Baseline] for the Project and supersedes all prior written or oral understandings.

In considering Baseline's motion to dismiss, the district court first determined that, although the motion cited only generally Rule 12(b), it should be construed as a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The court looked beyond the motion's caption to its content, which argued that the court lacks jurisdiction and that this [c]ourt's jurisdiction is limited to enforcing the valid and enforceable forum selection clause in the [c]ontract. (internal quotation marks omitted).

Next, applying Rule 12(b)(1), the court characterized the motion as a factual challenge to subject matter jurisdiction (as opposed to a facial challenge) because Baseline accompanied the motion with exhibits that offered factual information not appearing in the City's complaint. See Branson Label, Inc. v. City of Branson, 793 F.3d 910, 914-15 (8th Cir. 2015) (discussing the difference in factual and facial challenges to subject matter jurisdiction). This led the court to decide that, as the nonmoving party in a Rule 12(b)(1) factual challenge, the City (1) has the burden of proof that jurisdiction does in fact exist, and (2) is afforded no presumptive truthfulness with respect to its allegations. See Osborn v. United States, 918 F.2d 724, 730 (8th Cir. 1990) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The district court then considered which contract governs the parties' dispute. Applying state-law principles of contract interpretation, the court concluded that [t]he contracts in this case must be construed as one because they involve the same parties and same transaction, and because the July 2009 Contract expressly states that it incorporates the EJCDC Agreement into it as Exhibit B.  The court noted, however, that construing the two documents as one contract brings to light the inconsistencies between the various provisions. Citing Colorado and Nebraska law, the court concluded that (1) the inconsistent provisions render the contract ambiguous and (2) extrinsic evidence may therefore be considered in order to discern the parties' intent.

The only extrinsic evidence was presented for the first time with Baseline's reply brief supporting the motion to dismiss. The affidavit of Baseline President John McLain and attachment revealed that in June 2011two years into the projectthe parties executed three orders expanding their initial agreement to include additional engineering services (the 2011 Change Orders). Each order (1) specifically references and quotes the Additional Work clause set forth in the July 2009 Contract and (2) states that [a]ll [a]dditional [w]ork will be performed under and considered an extension of the above mentioned Agreement. The district court held that the 2011 Change Orders are extrinsic evidence indicating that the parties intended that the July 2009 Contract remain operative, controlling, and not superseded by the attached EJCDC Agreement.

Turning to the July 2009 Contract, the court looked to the provision stating: In case of a conflict or inconsistency between this Agreement and any other contract documents, this Agreement shall control. (emphasis added). Thus the court concluded that the July 2009 Contract controls' the conflicting provisions regarding applicable law and arbitration, making Colorado law applicable and requiring the parties to submit to binding arbitration in Colorado, to be conducted in the fashion described in the July 2009 Contract. The court therefore granted Baseline's Rule 12(b) motion and dismissed the City's claims against Baseline without prejudice. The court directed that the City's claims against Baseline proceed to arbitration in Colorado.

II.

We review de novo the grant of a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1). Great Rivers Habitat Alliance v. Fed. Emergency Mgmt. Agency, 615 F.3d 985, 988 (8th Cir. 2010) (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted).

A.

The City argues that the motion cannot be construed as a challenge to the district court's subject matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1). Instead, the City contends, the motion should be analyzed under either Rule 12(b)(3) as a challenge to venue, Rule 12(b)(6) as an assertion that the City's complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or Rule 56 as a motion for summary judgment.

We first consider the City's proposal to treat the motion as a motion to dismiss for improper venue under Rule 12(b)(3). According to the City, arbitration clauses are substantially similar to forum-selection clauses, and therefore a motion to dismiss based on an arbitration clause should be treated as a Rule 12(b)(3) objection to venue. The City bases its analogy on Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co., where the Supreme Court indeed described arbitration agreements as a specialized kind of forum-selection clause. 417 U.S. 506, 519 (1974).

But the City overlooks more recent Supreme Court precedent that forecloses its Rule 12(b)(3) argument. Since Scherk, the Supreme Court has expressly held that parties may not enforce forum-selection clauses through Rule 12(b)(3) motions to dismiss. Atl. Marine Constr. Co. v. U.S. Dist. Court for the W. Dist. of Tex., 134 S. Ct. 568, 577 (2013). The Court explained, Rule 12(b)(3) allow[s] dismissal only when venue is wrong or improper. Whether venue is wrong or improper depends exclusively on whether the court in which the case was brought satisfies the requirements of federal venue laws, and those provisions say nothing about a forum-selection clause. Id.; see also In re Union Elec. Co., 787 F.3d 903, 907 (8th Cir. 2015) (stating that Atlantic Marine clearly eliminated the possibility of using Rule 12(b)(3) as a means to enforce a forum-selection clause). Thus, to the extent an arbitration provision is like a forum-selection clause, the motion seeking to compel arbitration is not properly construed under Rule 12(b)(3).

We next consider the City's assertion that the district court erred by analyzing the motion under Rule 12(b)(1). We have previously upheld, on interlocutory appeal, the denial of a motion to compel arbitration styled as a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss. U.S. for Use of Lightning & Power Servs., Inc. v. Interface Constr. Corp., 553 F.3d 1150, 1152 (8th Cir. 2009). And, as Baseline points out, we have also upheld the grant of a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss based on an arbitration clause contained in a collective bargaining agreement under the Railway Labor Act, a jurisdiction-stripping statute. Thompson v. Air Transp. Int'l Ltd. Liab. Co., 664 F.3d 723, 725 (8th Cir. 2011). But we have not addressed whether an arbitration agreement aloneindependent of statutory or other binding jurisdictional limitationsdivests the federal courts of subject matter jurisdiction. We hold that it does not.

Our decision is informed by the Supreme Court's reasoning in Atlantic Marine. 134 S. Ct. at 577. The Court concluded that federal venue laws, not forum-selection clauses, govern the propriety of venue under Rule 12(b)(3). Id. The same logic applies where, as here, a party seeks to enforce an arbitration agreement under Rule 12(b)(1). Just as a forum-selection clause has no bearing on the issue of whether venue is wrong or improper, an arbitration agreement has no relevance to the question of whether a given case satisfies constitutional or statutory definitions of jurisdiction. See Auto. Mech. Local 701 v. Vanguard Car Rental, 502 F.3d 740, 743 (7th Cir. 2007) (Enforcement of a forum selection clause (including an arbitration clause) is not jurisdictional ); Minn. Supply Co. v. Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Am., Inc., 822 F. Supp. 2d 896, 904 n.10 (D. Minn. 2011) (To dismiss a federal action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the dispute is subject to a binding arbitration agreement mistakenly assumes that an arbitrable dispute, by definition, falls outside the realm of federal jurisdiction. Moreover, the fact that the parties have contractually agreed to resolve any particular dispute by arbitration says nothing about whether that dispute would satisfy federal question, diversity or any other basis of subject-matter jurisdiction.). But see Gilbert v. Donahoe, 751 F.3d 303, 306 (5th Cir. 2014) ([A] district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a case and should dismiss it pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) when the parties' dispute is subject to binding arbitration.).

We therefore hold that, contrary to Baseline's contention, the July 2009 Contract's arbitration clause does not strip the federal courts of jurisdiction. Accordingly, we agree with the City that the district court erred in construing the motion as a Rule 12(b)(1) challenge to subject matter jurisdiction.

We are thus left with two alternative classifications: Rule 12(b)(6) (failure to state a claim) and Rule 56 (summary judgment).

Baseline offers no reason why Rule 12(b)(6) does not apply. As to Rule 56, Baseline cites a case from the Eastern District of Virginia and argues that applying Rule 56 would be prejudicial because the City could claim that Baseline waived its right to compel arbitration by moving for summary judgment. See Karnette v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P., 444 F. Supp. 2d 640, 648 (E.D. Va. 2006). The issue in Karnettea non-binding district court opinionwas whether the defendant waived its right to arbitration by moving for summary judgment for the purpose of using the plaintiffs' response to reassess its chances of winning the case before deciding whether to move to compel arbitration. Id. As no such litigation tactics are at play in this case, we are unmoved by Karnette.

Upon careful review of the relevant authority, we agree with the City that Baseline's motion is properly analyzed under either Rule 12(b)(6) or Rule 56. To be sure, the motion does not sit squarely on all fours with either rule. We are nonetheless satisfied that, unlike the cases interpreting Rules 12(b)(1) or (b)(3), the legal authority does not forbid parties from using Rules 12(b)(6) or 56 to enforce an arbitration agreement. To the contrary, our sister circuits regularly employ Rules 12(b)(6) and 56 when deciding whether to compel arbitration. See Guidotti v. Legal Helpers Debt Resolution, L.L.C., 716 F.3d 764, 771 (3d Cir. 2013); Cnty. of McHenry v. Ins. Co. of the West, 438 F.3d 813, 817, 821 (7th Cir. 2006); see also Tinder v. Pinkerton Sec., 305 F.3d 728, 735 (7th Cir. 2002) (citing cases from the Second, Third, and Fifth Circuits and stating that courts that have addressed the question have analogized the  evidentiary standard a party seeking to avoid compelled arbitration must meet  to that required of a party opposing summary judgment).

We decline to press the matter by deciding between Rule 12(b)(6) and 56, because summary judgment standards apply either way. In litigating Baseline's motion both parties submitted matters outside the pleadings, which the district court considered when granting the motion. Thus, even if the motion is construed under Rule 12(b)(6), it must ultimately be treated as one for summary judgment under Rule 56. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(d) (If, on a motion under Rule 12(b)(6)  , matters outside the pleadings are presented to and not excluded by the court, the motion must be treated as one for summary judgment under Rule 56.); see also Evans v. McDonnell Aircraft Corp., 395 F.2d 359, 361 (8th Cir. 1968) (Since both parties filed affidavits and exhibits in support of their respective positions, which were not excluded by the District Court, the motion to dismiss should properly have been treated as one for summary judgment.).

B.

Had the district court analyzed Baseline's motion as one for summary judgment, we would review de novo the summary judgment analysis by deciding whether there are genuine issues of material fact and whether Baseline is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a); see also Jackson v. Riebold, 815 F.3d 1114, 1119 (8th Cir. 2016) (standard of review for summary judgment appeal is de novo). However, the district court has not addressed, nor have the parties had an opportunity to brief, whether Baseline's motion should succeed under Rule 56. Were we to adjudicate the merits of the motion, therefore, we would violate our own general rule against considering issues for the first time on appeal. See, e.g., Weitz Co. v. Lloyd's of London, 574 F.3d 885, 890 (8th Cir. 2009).

Although our rule is not absolute, we think it best in this case that summary judgment proceedingswhich are inherently fact intensive and may lead the parties to trialbe held first in the district court. See CMH Homes, Inc. v. Goodner, 729 F.3d 832, 838 (8th Cir. 2013) (indicating that the district court is better equipped to address [fact-intensive questions] in the first instance.); United States v. Smith, 665 F.3d 951, 956 (8th Cir. 2011) (suggesting that the district court [is] in a far better position to address questions of fact than the appellate court). Accordingly, we reverse the order dismissing the City's claims against Baseline and remand for consideration of Baseline's motion under summary judgment standards.

III.

For these reasons, the order of the district court is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings.

FOOTNOTES

. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b).

. The City also sued Layne Christensen Company, which the City had hired to furnish labor, equipment, and materials for the plant. Layne is not a party to this appeal.

. Baseline's motion to dismiss further asserted that, on the same day the City commenced federal litigation, Baseline filed a demand for arbitration in Colorado seeking to recover an outstanding balance that the City allegedly owed under the July 2009 Contract. The parties dispute the current status of the Colorado arbitration proceedings. According to the City, after the City objected to arbitration the arbiter stayed the matter to allow the federal district court to determine whether a binding arbitration agreement exists. By contrast, Baseline contends that the arbiter did not stay the arbitration proceedings but that, after the City objected, the arbiter declined to accept jurisdiction and directed resolution of the jurisdictional dispute to a court of competent jurisdiction. Under either view, at this time the parties are not actively involved in arbitration proceedings.

. Though the signatures on the August EJCDC Agreement are dated August 17, 2009, and August 27, 2009, page one of the Agreement states that it is effective as of July 20, 2009.

. See David Fiala, Ltd. v. Harrison, 860 N.W.2d 391, 397 (Neb. 2015); JTSChoice Enterprises, Inc. v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co., No. 11-cv03143, 2013 WL 154421, at *3-4 (D. Colo. Jan. 15, 2013).

. To the extent Baseline seeks to enforce the forum-selection clause independent of the arbitration agreement, Baseline should have invoked the forum non conveniens doctrine. See Atlantic Marine, 134 S. Ct. at 580 ([T]he appropriate way to enforce a forum-selection clause pointing to a state or foreign forum is through the doctrine of forum non conveniens.).

. Baseline filed two affidavits and two exhibits along with the motion to dismiss; the City opposed the motion by filing an opposition brief accompanied by one exhibit; and Baseline replied to the City's opposition brief with its own brief supporting the motion accompanied by one attachment, one affidavit, and one exhibit.

. We would reach the same result were we to construe the Rule 12(b) motion as a motion to compel arbitration. See Neb. Mach. Co. v. Cargotec Solutions, LLC, 762 F.3d 737, 741-42 (8th Cir. 2014) (stating that motions to compel arbitration that are accompanied by attached exhibits and affidavits should be treated under summary judgment standards).

. Since the parties' oral arguments on May 11, 2017, the Supreme Court decided Kindred Nursing Centers Limited Partnership v. Clark, 137 S. Ct. 1421 (2017). Based on language in Part IIB of that intervening opinion regarding the scope of the Federal Arbitration Acta statute that neither party invoked before this courtwe ordered supplemental briefing to allow the parties to address whether Part IIB of Kindred Nursing impacts this case. The parties submitted their supplemental briefing on July 31, 2017.After carefully reviewing the supplemental briefs, we decline to rule at this time on the relevance (if any) of Kindred Nursing to the underlying dispute. The instant appeal turns on matters of civil procedure, not substantive law. Our holding is limited to a decision that (1) Baseline's ambiguous Rule 12(b) motion should be analyzed under summary judgment standards, and (2) the district court should be the first to apply those standards. Thus, an analysis by this court of Kindred Nursing would only splinter legal issues presented in this case which are best adjudicated collectively in summary judgment proceedings in the district court.

SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.
A former U.S Vice President's says he is no longer talking to Donald Trump about environmental policy.

Al Gore is releasing a follow-up to his award-winning documentary about the impact man is having on the planet.
An Oxford University employee has been denied bail after appearing in court in San Francisco accused of murdering a 26-year-old hair stylist.

Somerville College's Andrew Warren, 56, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, are accused of killing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau in the academic's Chicago apartment.

Warren declined to fight extradition when he appeared in court on Friday in San Francisco, where he surrendered himself after eight days as a fugitive during which the suspects travelled more than 2,000 miles across the States.

The Briton's appearance came as Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi revealed there were more than 40 stab wounds inflicted to the upper body of the victim, who he said was experiencing tensions with Lathem.

"We have a lot of questions for Mr Lathem and Mr Warren and we look forward to their return to Chicago," Mr Guglielmi said.

"We have information to suggest there was tension in the relationship between Dr Lathem and the victim."

The Briton, appearing in a baggy, orange prison-issued sweatshirt and jogging bottoms, was denied bail and will be held in custody.

Judge Edward Torpoco said: "Based on the nature of the charge, the defendant is remanded and no bail is set."

Unshaven Warren timidly shuffled into the room in San Francisco's Hall of Justice while being filmed and photographed by the press.

Listening to the judge's procedural questions assisted by a hearing aid, he also quietly confirmed he is the wanted man and said he would accept a public lawyer on the basis he could not afford his own.

The judge permitted filming on the basis he had already been subject to extensive publicity as the subject of an eight-day manhunt.

After the hearing, his lawyer, Ariel Boyce-Smith, said: "Mr Warren is agreeable to being transported to Chicago, he wants the process to be started.

"I just want to remind everyone that he is presumed innocent and his agreement to go there to start the process is where we are now."

Warren and Lathem gave themselves up separately but at similar times in California on August 4.

Warren, who says online he lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, has since been suspended from his job as senior treasury assistant.

Wyndham Lathem

He had been reported missing to Thames Valley Police two days before the body was found, having left the UK on July 24.

The Chicago force said the body of Mr Cornell-Duranleau, originally from Corunna, Michigan, was found mutilated in a "very violent scene" on July 27.

Microbiologist Lathem, since sacked by Northwestern University, plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer Kenneth Wine who described him as a "gentle soul".

Neither of the suspects have been formally charged.
Update 8.24am: Donald Trump has rejected a request from the Venezuelan president to speak with him on the phone.

Previously the U.S. president admitted he wouldn't rule out military action in response to the country's political chaos.

The White House says Mr Trump will take the request as soon as "democracy is restored" in Venezuela.

Earlier: US president Donald Trump has stepped up the rhetoric against Venezuela, saying he had not ruled out military action against the crisis-hit Latin American state.

Speaking to reporters at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, Mr Trump bemoaned the country's growing humanitarian crisis and declared that all options remain on the table - including a potential military intervention.

"We have many options for Venezuela and by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option," he volunteered, adding: "A military operation and military option is certainly something that we could pursue."

Venezuela's defence minister hit back, calling Mr Trump's talk of a military intervention an act of "craziness" and "supreme extremism".

General Vladimir Padrino said: "With this extremist elite that's in charge in the US, who knows what will happen to the world?"

On Thursday, Mr Trump said he discussed Venezuela along with North Korea and Afghanistan in a security briefing with top national security aides and his vice president Mike Pence.

Mr Pence is travelling to Colombia on Sunday to begin a regional trip that is expected to include discussions on how to deal with the Venezuela's socialist president Nicolas Maduro for allegedly trampling his country's constitutional order in a power grab.

Mr Maduro has tried to deflect the pressure from Washington and on Thursday he said he wanted to meet Mr Trump, perhaps next month at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"Mr Donald Trump, here is my hand," the president told delegates at the constitutional assembly, adding that he wanted as strong a relationship with the US as he had with Russia.

But late on Friday the White House rejected the request to meet Mr Trump.

A statement by the White House press secretary said the president "will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country".

"Trump has asked that Maduro respect Venezuela's constitution, hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners, cease all human rights violations, and stop oppressing Venezuela's great people. ... Instead Maduro has chosen the path of dictatorship," the statement said.

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Mr Maduro and more than two dozen other former and current Venezuelan officials.

Reaction in Latin America has been far more subdued, reflecting long-held reluctance by much of the region to encroach on a neighbour's sovereignty and some lingering ideological affinity for the anti-imperialist revolution started by the late president Hugo Chavez.

Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro

Several attempts to punish Venezuela at the Organisation of American States have failed due to a lack of consensus.

Meanwhile Peru expelled Venezuela's ambassador as regional pressure built on Mr Maduro's government.

The Venezuelan government retaliated by ordering the head of Peru's embassy in Caracas to leave and called Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski an "enemy" of Venezuela and of Latin American unity.

Peru gave ambassador Diego Molero, a former Venezuelan defence minister, five days to leave the country.

As part of what it said was a firm commitment "to help restore Venezuela's democracy", Peru's administration also refused to accept a diplomatic protest made by Mr Maduro over Peru's hosting this week of foreign ministers from 17 regional nations who refused to recognise the new, loyalist-packed special assembly that is to rewrite the constitution.

The action by Peru, the strongest yet from a Latin American government, came as the Trump administration considered putting economic sanctions on Venezuela to punish Mr Maduro for what Washington calls his illegitimate power grab.

A few hours later, Venezuela's foreign ministry announced that it was giving Peru's top envoy in Caracas, Carlos Rossi, five days to leave the country.

Peru's president has until recently been a lonely exception among Latin American leaders in openly condemning Mr Maduro.

Mr Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investment banker who spent decades living in the US, is frequently mocked on Venezuelan state TV and was once referred to as the "empire's lapdog" by an official.

Mr Maduro's government has sent mixed signals about how much more confrontation it is willing to accept.

This week, the government-packed Supreme Court ordered the arrest of two Caracas-area mayors for protecting protesters in their districts.

And on Friday, Tarek William Saab, installed as chief prosecutor after the constitutional assembly ousted his outspoken predecessor, warned that he would reopen investigations against protesters for the use of violence and even destruction of trees used to build barricades at demonstrations.

At the same time, the constitutional assembly said on Friday it would debate a proposal to push up to October elections for governors in all of Venezuela's states.

It is a possible sign that the government is looking to negotiate a deal with the opposition, although many question if the constitutional assembly, which has a free hand to upend institutions, will even allow elections that were originally slated to take place last year will be allowed to go forward.

AP
UPDATE 12.50: Boris Johnson has said the regime of Kim Jong Un is responsible for the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme and must now "fix it".

In a series of posting on his Twitter feed, the Foreign Secretary said Britain was working with the United States and allies in the region to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it ," he said.

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

"We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."

Earlier: Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a plea for cool-headedness over escalating tensions between the US and North Korea.

In a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, he urged both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

The call came after Mr Trump unleashed a slew of fresh threats against North Korea, declaring the US military "locked and loaded" and warning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he "will regret it fast" if he takes any action against US territories or allies.

Mr Trump has pushed China to pressure North Korea to halt a nuclear weapons program that is nearing the capability of targeting the United States.

China is the North's biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone cannot compel Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programs.

State-run China Central Television quoted Mr Xi as telling Mr Trump the "relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula".

But restraint was not the word of the day on Friday as Mr Trump sent out a cascade of unscripted statements, including what appeared to be another red line - the mere utterance of threats - that would trigger a US attack against North Korea and "big, big trouble" for Kim.

North Korea's Minju Joson newspaper, meanwhile, hit back at the US in an editorial on Saturday.

"The powerful revolutionary Paektusan army of the DPRK, capable of fighting any war the US wants, is now on the standby to launch fire into its mainland, waiting for an order of final attack," it said.

DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The tough talk capped a week in which long-standing tensions between the countries risked abruptly boiling over.

New United Nations sanctions condemning the North's rapidly developing nuclear program drew fresh ire and threats from Pyongyang.

Mr Trump, responding to a report that US intelligence indicates Pyongyang can now put a nuclear warhead on its long-range missiles, vowed to rain down "fire and fury" if challenged.

The North then came out with a threat to lob four intermediate-range "Hwasong-12" missiles near Guam, a tiny US territory some 3,200 km (2,000 miles) from Pyongyang.

At the epicentre of the rhetoric, Mr Trump's New Jersey golf course, the president seemed to put Kim on notice, saying: "If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat - which by the way he has been uttering for years and his family has been uttering for years - or he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast."

Asked if the US was going to war, he said: "I think you know the answer to that."

But his comments did not appear to be backed by significant military mobilisation on either side of the Pacific, and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remained open. As a precaution, Japan deployed missile defence batteries under the path a North Korean missile might take.

Life on the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, also remained calm.

There have been no air raid drills or cars in camouflage netting as has been the case during previous crises. State-run media ensures that the population gets the North Korean side of the story, but doesn't convey any sense of international concern about the situation.

US officials say they will be going ahead with long-scheduled military exercises with South Korea. Pyongyang says it will be ready to send its missile launch plan to Kim for approval just before or as the drills begin.

Called Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, the exercises are expected to run August 21-31 and involve tens of thousands of American and South Korean troops on the ground and in the sea and air.

North Korea claims the exercises are a rehearsal for war, but Washington and Seoul say they are necessary to deter North Korean aggression.

Mr Trump began his Friday barrage with an especially fiery tweet: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"

He later retweeted a posting from US Pacific Command that showed B-1B Lancer bomber planes on Guam that "stand ready to fulfill USFK's #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so".

''Fight tonight" has long been the motto of US forces in South Korea to show they're always ready for combat on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Trump also brushed away calls for caution from other world leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel.

"I don't see a military solution and I don't think it's called for," Mrs Merkel said, calling on the UN Security Council to continue to address the crisis.

"I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer," she added.

"Let her speak for Germany," Mr Trump responded when asked about the comment. "Perhaps she is referring to Germany. She's certainly not referring to the United States, that I can tell you."

By evening, he seemed to have mellowed a bit.

"Hopefully it'll all work out," Mr Trump said. "Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump."

Speaking to Guam Governor Eddie Calvo, he promised: "You are safe. We are with you a thousand percent."

ecretary of state and UN ambassador, the president suggested diplomacy could yet prevail.

"Hopefully it'll all work out," he said. "Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump."

Mr Trump announced he planned to hold another press conference in Washington on Monday.

AP
The review would increase community confidence as it would place urban development decisions on a firm foundation.



Mike Quirk, Wanniassa



The ideal city plan would essentially have no limits if we follow an overseas model, according to at least one professional. For instance, in Ottawa apparently, "They propose minimum density targets for both housing and employment" ("Design matters", allhomes, August 6).



The sky, it would seem, is the limit.



Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

Legal addictions It appears Australia, a slave to all things US of A, including invading other people's countries, seems to be on a similar trajectory of "rampant" opioid availability and abuse ("Another drug epidemic is on the way", Sunday CT, August 6, p14).



Australia, in the 1930s, was perhaps a bit dull so, as always, eager to help (themselves to profits) drug companies came to the "rescue" with assistance in the form of a "cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down".



There's no such thing as a free lunch! The phenacetin surreptitiously did its dirty work and spawned a growing demand for renal dialysis and transplants, before it was banned in 1977.



Decades ago, the Rolling Stones sang of "Mother's Little Helper", i.e. any of the benzodiazepine family, of which Librium (1960) was the forerunner, followed (1963) by its more widely known twin, Diazepam (Valium).



Benzodiazepines were regarded as the silver bullet for "curing" anxiety states, until a smart cookie, Malcolm Lader of London's King's College, pointed out their addictive potential, even at prescribed doses, potentially spoiling drug manufacturers' spiel as to their benign nature.



These drug "epidemics" were, legal, prescription and over-the-counter induced.



Why are narcotics  opioids and their synthetic equivalents  so freely prescribed as to be "rampant"?



Is it a case of medical negligence or, surely not, unawareness of their addictive potential?



Slick advertorial marketing and doctor inducements contribute.



There's potentially abject failure to explore medical/therapeutic alternatives.



Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

Lethal byways

Last Sunday's editorial (CT, August 6) was well meaning but perhaps a little unrealistic. Accepting that in a population of 400,000 a goodly proportion would average perhaps five trips a week, it makes the given figure of around 1000 offences in three months, or perhaps 4000 offences in 12 months, look very good.



From observation, the average motorist would see very few flagrant breaches of speed limits. In 2015-16 we had 15 deaths. Most of the 15 were in a certain age group and a big proportion after the normal workday hours.



Alcohol and drugs were a common cause. All in all I think we are basically a safety conscious society in the ACT. However, there will always be a proportion who are irresponsible and drive cars that can be lethal in the wrong hands.



Howard Carew, Isaacs



A little prevention "Govt urged to spend $32m on AIDS prevention" (Canberra Times, August 7) is a great title, but the elephant in the room is where does AIDS come from? In Australia, not from primates and certainly not from those who practise monogamy.



Surely there is an easier way. Precautions, safe sex  even better: only sex between committed, exclusive sexual partners.



While only a small amount, those funds could be directed to assist the 105,000 homeless people living on the streets of Australia.



Let's get our priorities straight for a change. There's another word for prevention  it's called responsibility.



Russ Morison, Theodore

The choice is silly Further to the discussion about why women don't seem to want to take up all the advances  limited as they are  that have been made by feminism (Letters, August 8).

I have been puzzling for some time about why women who take their husband's name on marriage also want to be titled "Ms". Surely the point of taking your husband's name is to show that you are a married woman so to title yourself "Ms" is rather self-defeating. I remember when the Australian Women's Weekly, in the not-so-distant past, called all women by their husband's names in their social pages. So, Ros Packer became Mrs Kerry Packer and so on. I'm all for women having choices, but this is just silly.

Jennifer Saunders, Civic

Faustian bargain Like many Australians, I was gobsmacked when Malcolm Turnbull beat the British government over Peter Wright's book Spy Catcher. And his calls for an Australian republic. And no doubt there are many other cases signposting his march towards greatness. But any respect for this exceptional man evaporated when he became Prime Minister. His latest effort is surely going to be his downfall.
It was only last week that Australians learnt what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had told US President Donald Trump privately seven months ago: "You can count on me. I will be there again and again", which elicited the response, "I hope so, OK, thank you Malcolm".

Then this week, amid a shrill escalation of bluster between Trump and North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un  two of the world's chestier front men  the Australian Prime Minister came good, pre-emptorily declaring this country's unwavering support under the 1951 ANZUS Treaty.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made his support of the ANZUS Treaty very clear.

So as the world tumbles closer to the unthinkable, Australia faces entanglement in a situation it has no scope to influence.

Leaving aside technicalities such as that treaty's initial obligation on Australia is to consult rather than blindly sign on with troops and hardware, there are good reasons to take this particular decision slowly, and with maximum participation.
When Michael Ibrahim was travelling around Sydney, allegedly organising drug importations and handing over millions of dollars in cash, he chose to travel in style.

An eastern suburbs limousine driver has been identified as one of Mr Ibrahim's chauffeurs who ferried the 39-year-old around town in a grey BMW.

However, police allege Kingsley Conomos, 42, was more than just a taxi service, naming him as one of 22 persons of interest in a year-long investigation into a billion-dollar organised crime ring. Mr Conomos has not been charged.

Eighteen people were arrested and charged last week as police smashed two interlinked crime syndicates operating across Australia, Dubai and the Netherlands over importing more than 1.9 tonnes of MDMA, ice and cocaine, as well as cigarettes.
It has been a bit taken for granted, and was little ugly before its restoration in the 1980s, but a new exhibition aims to give the Spring Hill windmill the pride of place the Queensland State Archives think it deserves.

"It's just always been there, I think it's been taken for granted a bit," QSA archivist Rowena Loo said.

The Spring Hill windmill has had a long and varied history. Credit:Michelle Smith

Added QSA marketing manager Jenny Kidd: "For a long time it wasn't an attractive looking building either."

Now hidden by the city, Ms Loo said it would have been a landmark back in Brisbane's early days.
This Blog is a digital journal for two cute pooches, Casey (A White Color Shih Tzu Dog Mix) & Peanut (A Brown Dachshund Dog Mix) who are both two complete opposites who have nothing in common except this blog and same owners.
Police have launched a public appeal to find a missing truckie, after his vehicle was found in Ipswich on Saturday.

Peter McIntosh was expected to make a delivery in his white Mac Superliner B Double, at Boundary Road in Carole Park on Saturday.

The truck Peter McIntosh was meant to be driving was found abandoned at Carole Park on Saturday. Credit:Queensland Police Service

The vehicle was found at the delivery point in the Ipswich suburb, but there was no sign of Mr McIntosh.

He last spoke with family over the phone on Friday afternoon, but failed to turn up at a meeting with family on Saturday.
The Lucinda during a cruise on the Brisbane River. Credit:John Oxley Library The pro-Constitutionalist Griffith saw his opportunity. How the story played out The Lucinda, circa 1920s or '30s, when it was used as a coal barge. Credit:Tony Moore The Lucinda, according to Dr Thornton, was a new-model vessel for Australian waters and one of the most beautifully fitted-out shipping vessels to arrive in Brisbane.

"She was a 55-metre steel-hulled paddle wheeler. Screw propulsion was the newer and more efficient technology and would eventually become standard. Paddle wheels however allowed a vessel to have a shallower draught and thus to navigate further up coastal rivers and reduce the chance of getting stuck on the sand and mud banks found all along the Queensland coast. "Lucinda drew two metres of water. Paddle wheels also performed better than propellers with seaweed and other marine vegetation and obstacles, and could be repaired easily if damaged." "And, despite her paddle wheel propulsion, Lucinda could make a sprightly 12 knots (22km/h) at full steam." The Lucinda was an elegant vessel chosen by Griffith to impress the other states. Here is how Griffith's plan panned out, according to Dr Thornton.

"In March 1891, the first Australian Constitutional Convention was held in Sydney," he said. "Queensland premier and eminent jurist Samuel Griffith steamed south in Lucinda no doubt full of optimism about unifying the colonies and the prospects of free trade across the continent." In the last week of March 1891, Griffith, South Australian premier Charles Kingston, and New South Wales delegate Edmund Barton settled the first draft of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia aboard Lucinda away from the argy-bargy of the convention, cruising the Hawkesbury River. "Griffith was certainly the principal author, and the perhaps apocryphal story goes that he intimated to his distinguished companions he would not allow them to disembark until they agreed on a wording," he said. History shows they agreed and Australia's Constitution was passed by the British Parliament, as part of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900.

It came into effect on January 1, 1901. Griffith resigned as Queensland premier in 1893, after losing public standing by sending in the troops during the shearers strike of 1891. The end of the Lucinda But the Lucinda did not have a happy fate, even though it was there at the "birth of a nation", Dr Thornton explains. "She was sold in 1923. Her fate was to end her days as a coal barge and then for her hull to be beached in 1937 as a breakwater on Bishop Island in Moreton Bay.
Three people have been arrested by Victoria Police's bikie taskforce after raids in Melbourne and the state's north on Saturday.

Police executed search warrants about 8am on properties in Melbourne, Shepparton and Echuca.

They seized two firearms, ammunition, drugs, and weapons including knives and a baton.

Detectives say the two men and a woman arrested have links to the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.
Mock MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles stand on display at the War Memorial of Korea museum in Seoul, South Korea. Credit:Bloomberg Russia's Defence Ministry on Friday denied reports on state-controlled media that air defence units in the Russian Far East had been placed on high alert. Russia shares a short border with North Korea, near Vladivostok, a Pacific port city. Speaking at a youth forum east of Moscow, Lavrov, the foreign minister, said Moscow was "very worried" by fiery declarations in Washington and Pyongyang. "We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary," Donald Trump said Friday. Credit:AP "Talk of the need to carry out a pre-emptive strike at North Korea, Pyongyang's talk of the need to strike at Guam island at the US military base, this has been continual, and we are very worried by this," Lavrov said.

He said that Russia, which last weekend joined the United States and China in voting at the UN Security Council for severe new sanctions against Pyongyang, did not accept North Korea as a nuclear power. But he said it was up to the United States, as the more powerful country, to take the first step. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Credit:AP "I believe when it actually comes to a fight, the one that is stronger and smarter should take the first step away from the dangerous line," Lavrov said. "Together with China, Russia offered a very reasonable plan providing for the 'double freeze.' Kim Jong-un freezes any nuclear tests, any ballistic missile launches, while the US and South Korea freeze large-scale military exercises, which are constantly used by North Korea as an excuse to conduct tests." Russian experts worry that while the United States is unlikely to launch an all-out military attack on North Korea, it could make a limited strike. This, warned Vladimir I. Batyuk, of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies in Moscow, would shatter the united front that Russia, China and the United States displayed in the sanctions vote at the United Nations. New Zealand foreign minister Gerry Brownlee Credit:CAMERON BURNELL/Fairfax NZ

"If the Americans apply military force against the DPRK, they will clearly lose whatever political support Moscow and Beijing have provided so far for US policy toward North Korea," Batyuk told Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, using the initials for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the formal name of the North. Vladimir Frolov, an independent foreign policy specialist, contrasted Russia's "passive" response to the risk of nuclear war near its eastern border with the "hyperactive Russian diplomacy on Syria and Ukraine." Writing in Republic, an online Russian journal, Frolov complained that Moscow was engaged in "geopolitical outsourcing," leaving China and the United States to calm a grave danger on its own border. The approach "works for now, but is not a very good look for the Russian leadership," he said. The leaders of France, the United States' oldest ally, and Britain, the United States' closest ally, did not offer fresh comments on the tensions, but Jeremy Corbyn, the far-left leader of the opposition Labour Party in Britain, said war would be catastrophic. "The idea that anyone can contemplate using nuclear weapons at any stage against anybody is unthinkable," Corbyn, who has advocated that Britain give up its nuclear weapons, told Sky News. "There is no such thing as an isolated nuclear attack. It will kill millions on both sides of the Korean border and, of course, in neighbouring countries."

Damian Green, Britain's first secretary of state, said during a visit to Scotland that "the sensible way for people to proceed is to work through the UN process." He added, "That's what the British government has been supporting and will continue to support." Several allies of the United States, while expressing dismay about the heated language, said Washington was correct to condemn North Korea's weapons program. "The international society cannot allow North Korea to further develop its nuclear and ballistic missile program," Denmark's foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said in a statement. "This would enable North Korea to terrorise the region -- and beyond -- even more. We are obviously not going to accept that threat. It must be stopped." Samuelsen added: "What we are witnessing at the moment is an escalation of rhetoric on North Korea. One could argue about the choice of words, but it's important that North Korea accepts that the international society is putting its foot down."

New Zealand's foreign minister, Gerry Brownlee, re-emphasised the need for a strong diplomatic response, saying any pre-emptive action would be a mistake. "Committing to an aggressive response now -- while encouraging all involved to avoid escalation -- is not a position we want to take," Brownlee said, according to local reports. Tom Plant, director of proliferation and nuclear policy at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said European experts would generally agree that "a diplomatic resolution is the only feasible and sensible resolution" to the tensions. Plant said he hoped that, behind the scenes, diplomats from the two sides were meeting in private to defuse the crisis. "There are still very competent people in the State Department and in the White House capable of suggesting and conducting that course of action," Plant said, adding that he was not confident that Trump himself would pursue such a course.
Charlottesville: At least three people were killed and 35 injured after protests turned violent in the US state of Virginia, as white nationalists protesting against plans to remove the statue of a Confederate general clashed with counter-demonstrators and a car ploughed into a crowd, officials said.

A 32-year-old woman was among those killed, said Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, and injuries ranged from life-threatening to minor. The male driver of the vehicle that drove into a crowd is in custody, Mr Thomas said, and police were treating the incident as a criminal homicide investigation.

Police ordered hundreds of people out of a park, putting an end to a noon rally that hadn't even begun. Hundreds of neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klans members and other white nationalists had gathered in Emancipation Park but were met by equal numbers of counter protesters, including clergy, Black Lives Matter activists and Princeton professor Cornel West.

Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency shortly before 11am.
Bucks County schools help Give a Christmas reach local families in need

In its 64-year history, the Give-a-Christmas drive has raised $5.26 million to help thousands of families at the holiday season.
Robin Gavin and Sean Paloheimo discuss Saint San Ysidro and the Patron Saint of Farmers exhibit as a whole from an artistic and agricultural perspective.

Join us on Saturday, August 12 at 2 pm for a special tour of the NHCC Art Museums exhibition, Outstanding in His Field: San YsidroPatron Saint of Farmers. Led by two different specialists with two distinct perspectives, its sure to have you seeing the artwork in new ways! The tour will be led by Robin Gavin, Chief Curator of the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, and Sean Paloheimo, Director of Operations at Las Golondrinas, who will discuss San Ysidro and the exhibit as a whole from an artistic, agricultural, and cultural perspective.

The price of admission allows access to the entire museum, so come a little early or stay a little late to see everything!

$6 ($5 for New Mexico residents)

Special Thank You to our sponsor the Spanish Colonial Arts Society.
It was the first airline to offer a first class suite in the sky. But a decade later, poor demand has prompted to plan a reconfiguration of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
It was back in 1894 that Gustav Adolf Pfleiderer established a lumber rafting and trading business in Heilbronn, Germany. By 1920, the family-owned company of Pfleiderer's was supplying wooden sleepers to Deutsche Bahn, then known as Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German railway operator. Several innovations followed in the subsequent years, the company emerged as one of the important partners of Deutsche Bahn in supplying high-speed tracks. Meanwhile, the Mittelstand company-- a term used for a family-owned small and medium sized manufacturing firm in Germany--had expanded it footprint across the globe.
Around 3.5 lakh college students in will get tablets at a subsidised rate of Rs 1,000 each under a state government scheme launched by state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani here on Friday.
When India gained independence from Britain on August 15 1947, the majority of Anglo-Indians had either left or would leave soon after. Many within the Indian Civil Service would write of the trauma that they experienced from witnessing the violence of the years leading up to the end of British rule and the bloodbath that would follow as the lines of partition were revealed.
In a bid to contain further leaks from a group of hackers, reportedly offered to pay $250,000 to those who stole nearly 1.5TB data, including scripts of Game of Thrones (GoT) and other employee information, from the TV network.

A purported leaked email, sent to various media publications by the hackers, appeared to come from an executive, offering the 'bug bounty' of $250,000 for showing up weaknesses in the firm's system, Forbes reported late on Friday.

"You have the advantage of having surprised us. In the spirit of professional cooperation, we are asking you to extend your deadline for one week. As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire Bitcoin, or we can wire the funds as soon as you give us the account information," the email read.

The email, dated July 27, containing the 'bug bounty' offer was leaked by the hacker who goes by the name 'Little Finger' in a message promising a "second wave".

According to the report, the executive wrote that the company had not been able to acquire the amount of Bitcoin, which is nearly $6 million, the hackers had demanded.

However, HBO was yet to confirm the veracity of the email.

"This episode of the HBO hack is turning out to be a 'Game of Thorns' for HBO. As far back as July 27, HBO got into a negotiation with the hackers, it appears," said Ankush Johar, Director, BugsBounty.com, in a statement.

"There is a possibility that HBO's pre-emptive bug bounty programme may have yielded a better security posture for them, avoiding this situation altogether," he added.

Earlier this week, hackers leaked the script of Episode 5 of Game of Thrones Season 7 that was set to be aired on August 13, along with a note demanding ransom from the US-based television network.

The hacked material also contains "countless" HBO internal documents, including a month's worth of a top executive's emails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements and marketing-strategy PDFs.
In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans.
The death of about 60 children in a top hospital in Gorakhpur, allegedly due to the snapping of oxygen supply by a private company over payment arrears has come as wake-up call for Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to haul up his top brass.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh where at least 30 children died in a hospital and is in touch with central and state authorities, the PMO said today.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

District Magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said yesterday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since August 10.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official here had said that according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police (SP), 21 children died due to oxygen supply shortage.

"According to the Gorakhpur SP, 21 children died due to a shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College. Senior officers are at the spot. The exact cause is being verified by the civil administration," the official, who did not to be identified, had said.

The Uttar Pradesh government said today that those found guilty in the "tragic and painful" incident would face "stringent action".

"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.

Health Minister Singh and state Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon today visit Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.
Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday played down the heightened rhetoric by Beijing over the Dokalam standoff, stating that India was fully equipped to face any challenge.

He said the government was confident about the steps it was taking in this regard.

"We are well equipped to face any challenge whether externally or internally," Singh told reporters.

The MoS PMO was responding to a question about the recent 'threat' by China through its official media asking India to withdraw troops from the Sikkim sector.

"I think for us the more important thing is to see what we are doing. I am not here to respond to what somebody is tweeting from the opposition parties. We are confident about what we are doing," he said.

China had recently said that it had conveyed its firm stand to India that it must take "concrete actions" by immediately pulling back troops from Doklam in the Sikkim section with "no strings attached" to resolve the current standoff.

The BJP leader also said that the government was giving "befitting reply" with regard to ceasefire violations on the Indo-Pakistan border, and was dealing with terrorism in Kashmir with a "stern hand".

On the appearance of militant Zakir Musa's posters in Kashmir asking youths and students to keep away from Independence day functions, Singh said such posters have come up in the past too.

"The government will take a call on this. The more these (terrorist) leaders come up with such things, the more they expose themselves. The youths cannot be threatened by the diktats of these militants," he said.

The Union minister also hailed the "proactive" role of security forces on the borders.

"It is going to reap results sooner or later. I am sure this (proactive role of forces) will bring terrorism to its logical conclusion," he said.

Singh also emphasised that the Centre's stand on Article 35A granting special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir was clear.

"BJP's stand on Article 35A is clear. The Opposition is waiting in the wings for this coalition government (in the state) to fall. We will not oblige them," he said.

Replying to a question on Uttar Pradesh governor directing all madrasas to sing the song on Independence day, Singh said, "Vande Mataram is a symbol of India's ethos. It is, therefore, wrong to associate it with any particular religion or sect".

"We need to educate the masses on this more intensely. Vande Mataram was composed in 1870. It later become a song in tribute to martyrs, irrespective of religion. It is a poem which became an unifying force in pre-Independence and post-Independence era. How can this be a dividing force? It has been wrongly perceived".

On the recent infant deaths at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh for want of oxygen, the Union minister said, "I am sure there is a responsible government in the state. We have a CM who is extremely proactive. Whatever is required, will be done. What has happened is bad and all of us feel for it.
Rachel Dratch Just Got An Unpaid Ticket Notice For Illegally Parking In Chicago 20 Years Ago

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 10, 2017 2:55PM



Rachel Dratch / Getty Images / Photo: Brad Barket

We know Chicago has a chronic problem with budget deficits and all, but this is really going out of the way for revenue.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Rachel Dratch, who of course cut her comedic chops in Chicago, tweeted on Wednesday night that she just received a reminder of her days in the Windy Citya costly one. The comic, best known for her Debbie Downer character (which is kind of ironic in this context), said she received a notice on Wednesday for an unpaid parking ticket from the City of Chicago for a violation from nearly 20 years ago: Dec. 8, 1997, to be precise.

"Chicago does not f around," she wrote.

Chicago does not f around. I received this parking ticket in the mail today. Look at date. It's from TWENTY years ago pic.twitter.com/GhC08Oyfkq  Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch) August 10, 2017



The date and the location both dovetail with Dratch's tenure in Chicago. The ticket was cited for 150 West North Avenue, which is just a few yards east of her old training grounds, The Second City. She joined the company in 1995 and has credits with the improv school/theatre through 1998, according to her Second City bio.

So is Chicago that hard up? And slow? Could this be a postal-service issue? We left a message with a press representative for the city, and we'll update as necessary. In the meantime, watch where you park your Honda and beware the long, late arm of the law.
The Central Civil Services Conduct (CCS) rules, which prohibit criticism of the government, will now be applicable to the faculty of the IIMC, according to the media school under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Executive Council (EC) of the institute here today. Director-General K G Suresh said the proposal was adopted "unanimously".

A number of teachers, who did not wish to come on record, slammed the authority for going ahead with its plan despite their contention that imposing CCS rules would be an "assault on academic freedom".

"The EC (Executive Council) today unanimously adopted our proposal. This is to end any ambiguity or discretion in the administration of justice, and is aimed at greater transparency. It is being implemented in several universities including the Delhi University," the DG told PTI.

However, DUTA (Delhi University Teachers' Association) President Nandita Narain said DU faculty do not come under CCS conduct rules.

One of the clauses of the CCS Rules bars government servants from making any statement of fact or opinion which has the effect of an "adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action" of the Central government or a state government.

The State-run institute had set up a committee to deliberate on the issue. It recently recommended that wherever bylaws are silent, CCS rules should apply, which has now been accepted by the EC.

During the deliberations, a few faculty members had placed their objection before the committee. Three JD(U) MPs had also raised the issue with I&B Minister Smriti Irani.

Suresh, however, said the move will "empower" staff and faculty.

The committee had brushed aside the teachers' contention regarding unconditional and absolute freedom saying that it cannot be accepted as the Constitution itself provided for reasonable restrictions on the fundamental right as enumerated in Article 19.

It would be a "transparent contradiction" that teachers of journalism are not allowed to express their opinion and critique on public policy and other relevant social, political and economic issues in the media, a faculty member had said.

The 14-member EC, IIMC's highest decision-making body, comprises the I&B Secretary, two academics, three senior journalists, three faculty members among others.
Facebook and many of its apps have been blocked in China for years. To change that, Mark Zuckerberg has made a big point of meeting with Chinese politicians, reading stodgy Communist Party propaganda, studying Mandarin and  perhaps more daunting  speaking it in public.
A 40-year-old woman was killed in firing by the Pakistani army at border villages and Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday, officials said.

"The Pakistani army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 0515 hours in Poonch sector along the LoC," a defence spokesman said.

Indian Army personnel guarding the border posts retaliated strongly and effectively.

The exchange of fire stopped at 6.45 am, he said.

Around 5.20 am, mortar shells fired from across the border exploded near the house of Mohd. Shabir at Gohlad Kalran village, killing his wife Raqia Bi, a police officer said.

On August 8, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing and shelling in the Krishnagati sector of Poonch district, killing Sepoy Pawan Singh Sugra (21).

Till August 1 this year, there have been 285 instances of ceasefire violation by the Pakistani forces. In 2016, the number was significantly less at 228.
The most interesting  and the most heartening  bit about Akshay Kumars latest, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, is that its devoid of a villain. We dont need one, the film suggests at one point, for weve been letdown by our peoples insistence on sabhyata (civility) and sanskriti (culture). Its an argument that merits some attention, more so because it comes in a Kumar film, which is usually known for its nationalist fervour. Its also a rare instance of a Hindi film looking inwards, telling us that instead of holding someone else responsible for the quandary we find ourselves in, maybe we ought to look in the mirror more often. Its a pity, however, that this line of inquiry, or introspection, pops up in a film that doesnt have a lot going for it otherwise.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the principal of the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, after the death of 30 infants since Thursday, allegedly because a private supplier of oxygen to the hospital snapped supply due to payment arrears.
Environment Minister launches Gaj Yatra to mark World Elephant Day 2017

Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, launched Gaj Yatra here today, a nationwide campaign to protect elephants on the occasion of World Elephant Day. The campaign is planned to cover 12 elephant range states.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Dr. Vardhan urged the people to prepare a strategy for a more even distribution of the elephant population in all the states of the country. The Minister emphasised that an attempt must be made to bring to an end the chapter of man-animal conflict. He added that a war must be waged against poachers and hunters who harm elephants and other wildlife. Calling for proactive, innovative and out-of-the-box ideas, Dr. Vardhan said that efforts for elephant conservation must bring about a qualitative improvement by the next World Elephant Day.

Dr. Vardhan pointed to the need to broad-base the movement for conservation of elephants and to involve people from all walks of life in the conservation of elephants and other wildlife. He emphasised the immense energy and potential of children in making such movements successful, as was the case with the anti-Polio campaign. The Minister said that an effort would be made to install the models of elephants being carved out from waste material at prominent public places like Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhawan and at the Ministrys premises in Indira Paryavaran Bhawan.

The Environment Minister released the All India Census 2017 Report on elephants as also the Agreed Points of Action on Trans-Boundary Conservation of Elephants by India and Bangladesh and a document titled Right of Passage on elephant corridors in India. A compilation, Glimpses of Initiatives Taken for Elephant Conservation in India (2012-2017) based on Parliamentary Questions and Replies by ENVIS Centre, WWF-India and the Project Elephant Division, MoEF&CC, was also released. The publication covers the concerned environmental issues in the form of a compact disc, which can serve as a ready reference source for scientists, policy-makers, technocrats and others concerned with the cause of conservation and sustainable development. Later, Dr. Vardhan administered a pledge on elephant conservation to the children present on the occasion.

The Director-General Forest and Special Secretary, MoEF&CC, Shri Siddhanta Das, Director, Project Elephant, Shri R. K Shrivastav, Director, Wildlife Trust of India, Shri Vivek Menon and Prof R.

Sukumar also addressed the gathering.

During the period of the campaign, artists and craftsmen will create life-size works on the theme of elephants in places along the route of the roadshow, covering 12 states that have wild elephants, using local art and craft. Specially fabricated vehicles will be deployed to display these on pre-determined routes with campaigners. The Gaju mascot, which was released by the Ministry in 2012, will be helm the campaign. The campaign will be led by the Wildlife Trust of India.

Actor and wildlife enthusiast, Ms. Dia Mirza, participated in the walk and run event organised on the occasion along with the children.

WORLD ELEPHANT DAY: BRIEF BACKGROUND

World Elephant Day is an annual global event celebrated across the world on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of elephants. The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness about the plight of elephants and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and management of captive and wild elephants. African elephants are listed as vulnerable" and Asian elephants as endangered" in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. As per the available population estimates, there are about 400,000 African elephants and 40,000 Asian elephants.

World Elephant Day is celebrated to focus the attention of various stakeholders in supporting various conservation policies to help protect elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent illegal poaching and trade in ivory, conserving elephant habitats, providing better treatment for captive elephants and reintroducing captive elephants into sanctuaries. The elephant is part of Indias animal heritage and the Government celebrates this day to spread awareness about the conservation of the species.

Though a nation-wide population census exercise for elephants is conducted every five years, this is the first time than an all-India synchronised elephant census was carried out one year in advance, to avoid errors in estimation arising from the significant movement of elephants across different states. The field operations of the census were completed in May 2017 and data has been compiled on direct count, indirect count (dung count), waterhole and salt lick observations. Elephant distribution mapping has also been done.

World Elephant Day was conceived in 2011 by Canadian filmmakers Ms. Patricia Sims and Mr. Michael Clark of Canazwest Pictures and the Secretary- General of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, Sivaporn Dardarananda. It was officially funded, supported and launched by Ms. Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation on August 12, 2012. Since then, Ms. Sims continues to lead and direct World Elephant Day, which is now supported by over 65 wildlife organisations and many individuals in several countries across the globe.
Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said here that the new Haj policy-2018 will be unveiled this month. .

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At a review meeting on Haj 2017 and 22nd annual Haj orientation camp organised for Haj pilgrims at Haj House, Mumbai, Shri Naqvi said that from the next year, Haj will be organised according to the new Haj policy only. .

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A high-level committee constituted to frame the new Haj policy is in final stage of shaping the policy and it will be unveiled this month. Shri Naqvi said that the new Haj policy is aimed at making Haj process more transparent and smooth. Providing best facilities to Haj pilgrims is at centre of this new Haj policy. .

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Shri Naqvi said that reviving the option of sending Haj pilgrims through sea route also is one of the important part of the new Haj policy. Sending pilgrims through ships will help cut down travel expenses by nearly half as compared to airfares. It will be a revolutionary, pro-poor, pilgrim-friendly decision. The practice of ferrying Haj pilgrims between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped from 1995. .

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Shri Naqvi said that another advantage with ships available these days is they are modern and well-equipped to ferry 4,000 to 5,000 persons at a time. They can cover the 2,300-odd nautical miles one-side distance between Mumbai and Jeddah within just two-three days. Earlier, the old ships used to take 12 to 15 days to cover this distance. .

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Shri Naqvi said that a high-level meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Shipping Minister, Shri Nitin Gadkari at New Delhi on 28th August. Senior officials from Shipping Ministry and Minority Affairs Ministry will be attending the meeting. .

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Shri Naqvi said that discussion is going on with Saudi Arabia Government on reviving Haj pilgrimage through sea route also. .

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Shri Naqvi said that Ministry of Minority Affairs, in cooperation with Haj Committee of India and other concerned agencies, had completed preparations for Haj 2017 well before in time to ensure smooth Haj pilgrimage. .

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During the review meeting, Shri Naqvi discussed in detail all the issues related to Haj pilgrims with the concerned officials. Shri Naqvi said that facilities given to the Haj pilgrims and their safety is priority of the Central Government. .

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At the orientation/training camp, officials of Haj Committee of India and other concerned agencies gave various information to the Haj pilgrims. .

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Haj 2017 started with departure of Haj pilgrims from various embarkation points across the country on 24th July. Saudi Arabia has increased annual Haj quota of India by 34,005. After significant increase in Indias Haj quota by Saudi Arabia Government, a total of 1,70,025 people have been going to Haj pilgrimage this year from India out of which 1,25,025 pilgrims are going through Haj Committee of India while 45,000 people are going through Private Tour Operators from 21 embarkation points. .

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During first phase of Haj 2017, about 65,000 Haj pilgrims have gone to Saudi Arabia. In the first phase, Haj pilgrims went from embarkation points in Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Gauhati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Srinagar and Varanasi. .

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In the second phase, Haj pilgrims will go from Bangalore, Bhopal, Ranchi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Indore. The second phase will end on 26th August. .

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A former British spy chief said on Friday that of online communications was very positive for the country's national security interests despite the difficulties that it poses for security services attempting to tackle militants.
On August 8, US President used his most extreme language yet in relation to North Korea. He warned the regimes leader, Kim Jong-un, that any North Korean aggression will be met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before, if it does not stop threatening the US.
Scientists have cloned genetically modified piglets that may prove a safe source of organs for transplants into humans.

The 15 black-headed piglets, born in a lab in southwest China's Yunnan Province, do not carry the active infectious viral gene which has impeded the process of pig-to-human transplantation for more than a decade, said Chinese members of an international research team who released their findings Friday.

Pigs have porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) embedded in their genome. These viruses are able to jump from a pig cell to a human when mixed in the lab. The viruses can then be passed to fresh human cells from the infected one.

This standing block was cleared when the scientists using a gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, inactivate the PERVs.

Geneticist Luhan Yang and her colleagues at the American biotech startup eGenesis are behind the breakthrough.

Yang, co-founder and chief scientific officer of eGenesis, joined professors from several Chinese universities and one from Denmark to pen the study published on the Science journal on Friday.

With modified genes, the scientists created PERV-inactivated pig embryos and transferred them into surrogate sows to produce clones, in the same fashion as Dolly the sheep was created.

Earlier this year, 37 such clones were produced by 17 sows in Yunnan Agricultural University.

Today, 15 are still alive with ages ranging from one to four months. They appeared quite healthy, said Wei Hongjiang, a professor with Yunnan Agricultural University who is one of the lead authors of the publication.

"We now have the world's first ever PERV-inactivated pigs," Wei told Xinhua. "For the first time, we have dealt with the concern of cross-species viral transmission risks."

He said the international team will move to the next step, using gene editing to make pig organs less prone to attack by their human recipients' immune systems, which has been another standing obstacle in the research.

George Church, Harvard geneticist and another eGenesis co-founder, called the clones a milestone in xenotransplantation as the most important safety issue had been solved.

Xenotransplantation means to use animal living cells, tissues or organs in people to bridge the shortfall in available human organs.

Yang said the world has more than 2 million patients who need organ transplants. The supply is way below the demand and the gap is only expected to grow wider.

Pig organs are of similar sizes and function to humans' and are considered the most feasible for xenogeneic transplantation, she said.

In China alone, more than 300,000 patients are waiting for organ transplants but fewer than 10,000 surgeries are performed each year.

The country witnessed a surge of willing organ donors in recent years but far from enough to meet the need.

"We are working hard on the earliest possible clinical use of xenogeneic transplants to help hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for organ transplants," Wei said.

Xenotransplantation remains controversial.

The WHO says while animals are a potential source of high quality, readily available live organs, xenotransplantation carries risks, especially the spread of known or unknown diseases.

It says some very serious diseases such as AIDS and SARS have originated from animals and urges governments to take regulatory control and ensure surveillance mechanisms before allowing xenogeneic transplants to take place.
Internet giant has found itself in the middle of a spiky and growing debate over free speech after it fired an employee who sought to challenge how the company manages gender disparities and the discussion around diversity

Many have rushed to denounce James Damore, the author of a so-called anti-diversity manifesto published on an internal platform, but the sentiments he expressed before he was fired are confronting as well as infuriating.
Like a B-movie for a post-Brexit era, consumers in Britain may soon be unwillingly cast in the 2019 blockbuster, Attack of the Chlorine Chickens. If news headlines are to be believed, flocks of toxic fowl are waiting to storm Britains shores like mini featherless zombies as part of a US-UK trade deal.

But before getting into a flap about the health risks of chlorine, we should maybe pause to consider why you would bleach a chicken in the first place. It is actually primarily to mitigate the disease risks from raising nearly 9 billion chickens in overcrowded environments with low standards of animal welfare.
on Friday termed his disqualification from premiership as a "joke" and exuded confidence that he will be elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.

Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Sharif said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.

"Should this even be called a disqualification? I will be made prime minister by the masses again tomorrow," he told a cheering crowd.

"They have only removed me on paper but they have not removed me from your hearts. Is this removing me at all?" Sharif asked.

He asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

"I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted," he said.

"May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted," the 67-year-old veteran politician said.

Sharif said the people's vote had been trampled upon as millions of people elected a leader and a couple of people or five judges disgraced and sent him home.

He said it was for the people of Gujranwala to "think that removal was just".

Sharif, who could not complete his term for a third time, also asked the gathering, "Should I sit back and accept the verdict or fight the injustice?"

The people responded in unison with a big 'No', prompting Sharif to ask them to stand by him.

"If you do not want me to sit back then you would have to stand by me. Then stand by me to change the fate of this nation. Promise me that you would do what I tell you," he said.

Sharif said the time had come to change the country.

"We would have to make sure that your vote is respected. It is a question of respect for vote of 20 crore people. I would not allow anyone to trample your right to elect leaders of choice," Sharif said.

He also announced that he would announce his future plan of action and asked his supporters to wait for it.

Sharif stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court on July 28 and after staying in Murree and Islamabad, embarked on road journey to his home in Lahore in the company of thousands of his supporters.

He was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.

On Thursday, he resumed his travel from Rawalpindi and reached Jhelum in the evening and addressed an even bigger rally there.

Later, he rested at a scenic hotel on the banks of the River Jhelum.

He left Jhelum at around 12 PM and stopped in Gujarat for Friday prayers and addressed his supporters.

He has left for Gujranwala and will cross small towns of Wairabad, Gakhar Mandi etc. He is expected to halt briefly at some places to address his supporters.

According to the scheduled of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), Sharif is expected to spend the night in Gujranwala. He would leave for Lahore in the morning and is expected to reach there at 4 PM tomorrow.
A top American commander feels that India can play a role in defusing the North Korean crisis by helping the leadership in Pyongyang to understand the seriousness of the threat posed by its nuclear programme.

Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, says it is for India to decide on what kind of role it wants to play.

"I think India's voice is a loud voice, that people pay attention to. So, I think that India could help North Korea, perhaps, understand the seriousness by which the United States views that threat," Harris says.

Tensions have risen since North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

India along with the community condemned the North Korean missile tests and has been implementing the sanctions imposed against it by the US.

Early this year, India suspended its trade links with North Korea, a move which was praised by the Trump administration.
Miniso, Japan-based fast-fashion designer brand has stepped into India and announced its first store will open at the Ambience Mall.

The brand, which has established strategic relationships with nearly 60 countries, has stores in over 30 countries including the US, Canada, Australia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and South Korea.

Co-founded by Japanese designer Miyake Junya and young Chinese young entrepreneur Ye Guofu in Tokyo, with the former serving as chief designer, the brand retails products over twelve categories to target every aspect of life.

" is popular around the world, which means our design concepts have been widely accepted by consumers and what they seek can be satisfied by our designs. Our designs are derived from the most essential and realistic demands from life rather than those of extravagant and environmentally harmful. This is what we always emphasize -- 'back to nature, return to basic'," Junya said

Aditi Rao Hyadri will launch the store on August 18.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

In a statement, Macron voiced his "concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea", saying the community needed to work to get Pyongyang "resume the path of dialogue without conditions".
You might have heard of Boyan Slat, a young Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who created a system using the circulating ocean currents to clean the ocean of trash and other pollutants. His project, The Ocean Cleanup, received a lot of attention after Slat gave a TEDx Talk in 2012 about it, attracting more than $31.5 million in donations from sponsors including Salesforce.com and philanthropist Peter Thiel.
The current flare-up over North Koreas missile tests and Donald Trumps belligerent response is frightening for many, but anyone worried that Pyongyang wants to start a war is  fortunately  mistaken.
President warns the US is locked and loaded, while Kim Jong Uns regime says it could launch missiles toward US territory in the Pacific as soon as next week. Behind the scenes, however, its not clear that a major military confrontation is imminent. Trumps sharp rhetoric is belied by the business-as-usual routines of the US Defense Department, which has been on stand-by for a belligerent act from North Korea for decades.
The UN Security Council has approved new sanctions against North Korea for continuing to conduct missile tests. [File photo]

The UN Security Council has approved new sanctions against North Korea for continuing to conduct missile tests. These were unanimously adopted after China and Russia supported the move.

The unanimity thus shown is a rare international gesture towards the threat posed by the nuclear weapons and missile systems of North Korea. It is a message that Pyongyang cannot, with impunity, continue to defy the world for an indefinite period.

The sanctions aim to plug loopholes used by North Korea to generate revenues. Trade in coal, iron and some other items are now been banned. Countries have also been barred from employing cheap North Korean labor.

The sanctions with full implementation would deprive the country annually of almost U.S.$1 billion of foreign revenue, allegedly used by it to develop nuclear and missile programs. According to experts, however, the revenue loss may also seriously impact the general publics social and economic conditions.

The reaction by North Korea against the new sanctions shows they are going to hurt. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, in an aggressive statement on the sidelines of an Asian regional security conference, said his country would never barter away its nuclear and missile programs.

He also said that nuclear weapons were specifically aimed at the United States. However, any other country joining the U.S. in the war against North Korea will automatically lose its immunity from potential nuclear attack.

This is indeed a very grim warning by a country that has no qualms about threatening another nation with nuclear weapons. It is grim because this is only region that has experienced nuclear attack (Japan in 1945) and therefore knows what horrors this brings.

This makes it more urgent for the international community to find ways to address the issue of North Korea. The country is a test case for the diplomatic and strategic skills of leading international players.

So far, there have been peace talks, tough talks and offers of economic returns, but nothing has worked. Instead, North Korea has carried out nuclear and missile tests in defiance of the world. It has created more tension and bitterness.

It was believed that China could use its leverage to create an environment for talks. China has been trying to improve the situation through its diplomatic efforts but it doesnt seem to be working. The North Korean leader is not ready to listen, preferring to send tough signals through missile testing.

The latest missile test of July 28 raised anxiety to a new level because it showed a potential to hit several places in the United States. The situation is critical for Donald Trump as he came to power by promising to make America safer.

Trump would come under great pressure if he is confronted by North Korea with its missiles able to hit deep inside America.

The worrying point is that North Korea is not stopping. Reports in the Western media suggest that it is working on more sophisticated technology to develop missiles; however, it is not known as yet if it has the capability to manufacture smart strategic weapons that can easily be fitted on long range missiles.

Tempers are high, but the situation demands strategic restraint, especially on the part of United States. It should exhaust all options for peaceful resolution of the issue. Talks are the key to create an environment for trust.

It is important to tell the North Korean leader that his actions are dangerous for his country, the region and the world. He can gain a lot by opting for a path of development and cooperation instead of confrontation and provocation.

He should also know that his antics would not drive away America from the region, but would make its presence deeper, more intrusive and for longer period. A war situation would further delay the dream of uniting Korea and creating peace and prosperity.

In the prevailing atmosphere, no single nation can use its power in defusing tension. It is collective responsibility and every stakeholder should play role for peace. The focus should be talks, which should be held without any prior conditions.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
China's President on Saturday urged US President Donald Trump to exercise restraint following a dramatic exchange of threats between Washington and Pyongyang.

Xi made it clear in a phone call that he was asking both sides to scale down the rhetoric and stressed the importance of diplomacy, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"At present, relevant parties should exercise restraint and avoid words and actions that would escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula," Xi told Trump during the call.

He also said that China was willing to work with the US government to resolve the issue, Xinhua news agency reported.

"China and the US have common interests in achieving de-nuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability there," Xi said.

But North Korea continued to fuel tension, with the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun reporting that almost 3.5 million people, including students and retired soldiers, had asked to join the military to fight against the US after the regime announced a retaliation against the US on August 7 for its support of the new UNSC sanctions.

Meanwhile, Japan finished installing surface-to-air missile interceptors in the western prefectures that North Korea said would be in the flight path of any missiles launched towards Guam, where North Korea is threatening an "enveloping strike".

In South Korea, the government began the environmental survey needed to complete the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence missile system.

Trump, who is scheduled to visit China later this year, on Tuesday threatened to respond to further threats from North Korea by unleashing "fire and fury" if Pyongyang continued to threaten the US or its allies.

He made the comments after US intelligence analysts assessed that North Korea had produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead. Pyongyang also tested its first two known intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, bringing it a step closer to being able to carry out a nuclear strike on the US mainland.

Trump doubled down on his statements since then. On Friday, he said in a tweet that he had "military solutions" that were "locked and loaded" at his disposal to use against North Korea.

His comments came after Pyongyang announced a plan to bomb the US island of Guam in the Pacific with ballistic missiles. Trump also said on Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "will truly regret" if he issued an overt threat or attacks Guam or a US ally.

But he also said he wanted a peaceful solution to the problem.

The White House on Saturday said that Trump and Xi agreed that the "recent adoption of a new UNSC resolution" to tackle North Korea's continuing weapons tests was "an important and necessary step towards achieving peace and stability" in the region.

"The Presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to the de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula", the statement said.
Afghanistan's insurgent group Taliban's deputy military chief Qari Mohibulllah has surrendered to the Afghan security forces in the Northern Baghlan Province of Afghanistan.

Confirming the surrender, the security forces said that Qari Mohib surrenderd with his AK-47 assault rifle along with its five ammunition magazines to the security forces.

"Taliban's deputy military chief Qari Mohibulllah has surrendered to the security forces in Burka district," Khaama Press quoted the 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces, as saying.

The Taliban, however, has not commented on the surrender so far.

Reportedly, violence is on the rise in the Northern Province of Afghanistan, due to ongoing clashes between the security forces and the Taliban insurgents.

Earlier, at least 40 Afghan villagers have reportedly been killed by the Taliban insurgents in Mirza Olang village of northern Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has hit out at the state government over the deaths of 30 children at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur in last two days and called for strong action.

Akhilesh pointed out that strict action must be taken against the government. He also took to his Twitter page to express grief, writing, "Families of the dead were sent off with the bodies, they did not even do autopsies... extremely unfortunate".

??????? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? , ????? ??????????????? ????????? ??, 20-20 ??? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ?  Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

Meanwhile, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela confirmed the death of 30 children in the last two days and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

He said that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant for patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Rautela further said that an inquiry committee has been set up to ascertain the exact causes of the deaths and it has been asked to submit its report by tomorrow evening. Action will be taken against those responsible.

He also said that alternative arrangements had been made from neighbouring Sant Kabir Nagar district to ensure availability of liquid oxygen for the hospital. At present, there are 50 oxygen cylinders and 100 to 150 more will be reaching soon.

Yesterday, the BRD medical college recorded more than 30 children death due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours.

Chief Minister Adityanath had warned officials of strict action if any irregularity was detected in the treatment of the patients.

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"It is only practice, persuasion and preservation that enables an ordinary person to become an extraordinary man,"says Anupam Kher to a crowd of about 600 students who attended his acting workshop.

Having a Padma Bhushan, and 500 films in his repertoire, the legendary actor shared anecdotes from his 35 years spent in the film industry. From winning a gold medal on graduating from National School of Drama after three years of training there, to becoming a star by getting an opportunity to play a pivotal role in Subhash Ghai's film 'Karma', the actor gave valuable insights on his successful journey.

A non-believer of luck, Kher attributed his success to seeking, exploring and hard work.

He emphasized the importance of breathing techniques on an actor's voice, and stated yoga and meditation to be the most important elements in an actor's life as they help control the body, mind and soul.

Command over the Hindi language is also essential for an actor in the Hindi language films, plays and television, according to Kher.

The workshop was held on the inauguration of the sixth season of the 5th Veda cultural hub at Whistling Woods International (WWI) campus.

Subhash Ghai, Founder and Chairman, WWI, commenting on the occasion, said "When an actor inspires a director, then magic is created on celluloid. It then becomes imperative for the director to highlight such immense talent. Anupam Kher inspired me to write the best lines for him in Karma and Saudagar."

He acknowledged Kher as having a "wealth of knowledge about cinema and life", and also went on to enact a scene with him on how Kher got the role of Dr. Dang in his film.

Anupam Kher, during his interaction with Ghai, pointed out why artists from small towns turn out to be the finest in their field, "Most children belonging to small town grow up with imaginations, while children in cities grow with targets and calculations."

On being asked of his biggest strength, Kher quipped, "I don't take myself seriously".

Anupam Kher also answered questions of more than 80 acting students during the Q and A session at WWI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Binod Prasad Adhikari

Kathmandu [Nepal], August 12 (ANI):The foreign ministers of BIMSTEC countries have agreed to take measures to conclude a Free Trade Area, implement the Paris agreement on climate change and step up cooperation to combat terrorism.

The foreign ministers of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal on Friday expressed "great concern'" over increasing threats from climate change and agreed to combat it at local, national and regional levels.

During a two-day summit, seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations agreed to speed up the process for establishing Free Trade Area among the BIMSTEC member countries. It also agreed to sign and approve the Regional Conventions to combat International Terrorism, Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking.

"Agreements that tend to facilitate business, transport and other sectors amongst the BIMSTEC member countries will be signed, approved into regional conventions to help combat terrorism and control organised crimes," Foreign Minister of Nepal, Krishna Bahadur Mahara read out the agreements that were made in by the ministerial meeting,

Nepal is the current Chair of the regional grouping and the Foreign/ External Affairs Ministers of the member states failed to finalise the date of the fourth BIMSTEC Summit to be held in Nepal later this year.They agreed to fix it through dialogue and consensus amongst the member nations.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the grouping expressed its "strong commitment" to combat terrorism, "which remains the single most significant threat to peace and stability in our region, in all its forms and manifestations."

"Nepal has also proposed to hold the Fourth BISMSTEC Summit through consultation wth the member countries in search of due dates for all the countries to participate. The Summit will be hosted by Nepal," Foreign Minister Mahara said during briefing media.

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As the Opposition seek to mount a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the saffron party on Saturday stated that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) skipping the meeting called by Congress President Sonia Gandhi was a good decision.

Speaking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam said, "The opposition can never over rule the BJP with any meeting that they conduct. Also NCP skipping the meeting shows that Congress has no power and has lost it long back. After the Congress MLA's betraying its own party shows how strong they are?"

Hailing over BJP and its rule, another saffron party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya stated that other than no other party is capable of ruling the government than them.

"I would not like to comment much about this situation as it is their problem. But I would like to inform the opposition that; other than BJP no other party is capable of ruling the government or Centre. Conduct any meeting; nothing can hamper us in any way," he said.

The NCP skipped a meeting of Opposition parties yesterday called by Sonia Gandhi after the Congress suggested that the former had betrayed them in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat.

The reason, sources said, might be the NCP being miffed with the Congress after it expressed doubt over its integrity.

There were reports that two MLAs of the NCP in Gujarat might have voted for the BJP and not for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections.

The joint Opposition meet was called to discuss unity and chalk out a strategy against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central Government.

Meanwhile, with Ahmed Patel emerging victorious in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls, the NCP on Wednesday reminded the Congress that this triumph happened because of their help, and the grand old party must remember this in the future.

"This was indeed a nail-biting finish, his (Ahmed Patel) own MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) ditched him. Now, the Congress must remember this in future, reciprocate it and treat us like a younger brother," NCP senior leader Majeed Memon told ANI.

After the intense political developments and the Election Commission (EC) declaring votes of two Congress MLAs - Bhola Bhai Gohil and Raghav Bhai Patel - invalid, Patel was able to retain his Rajya Sabha seat.

Total 176 MLAs voted in the crucial elections, but two votes were declared invalid.

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At least 15 people lost their lives and 25 others were injured in a powerful blast targeting a military vehicle in a high-security zone near Quetta's Pishin Stop on Saturday night.

"We can now confirm that 15 people have died in the explosion today. At least 32 others are wounded," Dawn quoted Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti as saying. He added that a rescue operation was still underway.

An emergency has been declared in the city following the blast that occurred in a high-security zone near a Frontier Corps hostel.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), media wing of the army, confirmed a vehicle of security forces was targeted in the blast that killed 15 people, including seven citizens.

The ISPR revealed that an on-duty security vehicle was targeted in the blast, adding that 10 security officials were also among those injured in the attack.

"Incendiary explosive was used in the blast due to which nearby vehicles caught fire," ISPR reported.

"An attempt to mar Independence Day festivity. Our resolve won't succumb to any challenge," DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor posted on Twitter.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that it was a huge explosion that targeted a vehicle of security forces but would be premature to comment on the nature of the explosion.

The deceased include officials of the security forces and civilians, said the provincial home minister. The dead and injured were rushed to Quetta Civil Hospital.

A spokesman for the Balochistan government, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, also confirmed the death toll.

The nature of the explosion could not be immediately ascertained; however, eyewitnesses said that the explosion had occurred near a security forces vehicle.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing grief over the death of District Magistrate of Buxar Mukesh Pandey, his father-in-law Rakesh Prasad Singh has quashed media claims that a family dispute was the reason behind his suicide.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "It is a sad moment for the family now as it is a big loss too. Mukesh was a true gentleman and loving towards his family. He was very close to me as he used to share everything with me. The reasons that the media are giving are baseless and wrong. Families do have issues but making it a reason for his death is totally wrong. There are problems in every family but commercializing it is totally wrong."

Further, shedding some light on Mukesh's relation with his wife and family, Singh asserted that he looked happy and contented with life.

"My daughter started staying with me after she got pregnant and Mukesh used to come and visit her too. He had also celebrated Raksha Bandhan with all of us; he looked happy and contented with life. We didn't know what was going on with him," he said.

"The day he committed suicide he had informed the family telling us; he was staying at Leela Palace Hotel and planned to end his life at Janakpuri District Centre in west Delhi. We instantly came to action and wanted to help him out but we were too late and lost him. His suicide note is heartening; it has shocked us drastically. Mukesh has done injustice to his family especially to his wife and daughter," Singh continued.

Yesterday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed deep grief over the death of the District Magistrate and said, "Buxar DM Mukesh Pandey's death is a heart-wrenching incident. He was a great administrator. May his soul rest in peace."

Mukesh took his life by jumping in front of a train. His body was found on the railway track at a yard near the station.

According to a written note, Mukesh, a 2012-batch IAS officer, was fed up with his life and lost his belief in human existence.

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A Muslim woman has been awarded $85,000 after an officer forcibly removed her hijab, or headscarf, when she was in police custody in Long Beach, California.

Kirsty Powell was stopped by police officers with her husband in 2015 as he was driving a lowrider vehicle. She then filed a lawsuit in 2016 alleging the police department had violated her First Amendment rights and the settlement was approved this week and is to be paid by the local municipal authority.

The city of Long Beach, California, will pay $85,000 to settle a 2016 lawsuit filed by a Muslim woman after an officer forcibly removed her hijab, or headscarf, when she was in police custody.

"She cried throughout the ordeal and experienced humiliation when both her religious beliefs and personal integrity were violated," the lawsuit said.

Powell was the passenger, but was arrested after police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident. Powell's husband requested a female officer handle the arrest, according to the suit, but the arresting officers denied the request and told Powell she had to remove her hijab, CNN reported.

Powell spent the night in prison without her headscarf. It was returned when her husband posted her bond.

The lawsuit states Powell was "forced to appear in a publicly available booking photo without her religious headwear", as a result of the foregoing deprivations of the free exercise of her religion, Kirsty Powell suffered severe discomfort, humiliation, and emotional distress."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced the settlement in a press release praising Powell.

"We commend Kirsty Powell for choosing to defend her right to religious freedom and taking action."

Powell told the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she filed the suit she wanted to be the last Muslim woman who has this experience.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a new development to the Chandigarh stalking case, accused Vikas Barala, son of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Haryana unit President Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar have been sent to judicial custody till August 25.

On August 5th, Vikas was arrested on the charges of stalking and harassing an IAS officer's daughter Varnika Kundu in Chandigarh. But he was granted bail on the same day.

After massive outrage on streets and in the Parliament, the accused appeared before a Chandigarh court on Thursday.

Subhash Barala, however, rebuffed the claim of pressurising or influencing the police in the case.

Earlier, Director General of Police Chandigarh Tajender Singh Luthra had said that Haryana BJP chief's son and his friend were slapped with charges of abduction.

The notice was issued to both the accused, under 160 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the case was filed against Barala under Section 354D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 185 MV Act (rash driving).
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China on Friday called on the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to refrain from the old path of flaunting power and raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks in a press statement in response to the recent spat between the United States and the DPRK over the situation on the peninsula.

The DPRK military said in a statement Thursday that its plan to strike Guam with intermediate missiles would be ready by mid-August.

"If North Korea (DPRK) does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us... they should be very nervous," U.S. President Donald Trump warned. "Because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."

The current situation on the peninsula is complicated and sensitive, said Geng.

"China hopes that all related parties could watch their words and actions, contribute more to easing the tensions and building mutual trust, and refrain from an old path of flaunting powers and raising tensions," the spokesperson said.
United States President Donald Trump has condemned the hatred "on many sides" in response to the violent white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that "the hatred and division in the America must stop as we are all Americans first."

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," Trump said during a short statement, adding that he had been closely following terrible events unfolding in Virginia.

Mentioning that the current unfolding of events in Virginia is not linked to his presidency, Trump said, "It has been going on for a long time in our country -- not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America."

"Hate and division in the country must stop. No matter our colour, creed, religion, our political party, we are all Americans first," he said, adding that he'd like for his administration to "study" why such violence is occurring. He didn't take questions from reporters.

"What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent," noted Trump. "There are so many great things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it is very, very sad."

Trump said that he spoke to Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe and "we agreed that the hate and the division in the America must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection-- really, I say this so strongly, true affection for each other."

He further said, "Our country is doing very well in so many ways. We have record -- just absolute record employment. We have unemployment the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxconn and car companies and so many others. They're coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American worker."

Demonstrators clashed on the streets of Charlottesville on Saturday morning ahead of a white nationalist rally, with counter-protesters and right-wing nationalist groups converging on the college town in the latest chapter in the United States' debate over race and identity.

The protests were initiated by the city's government decision of removing the confederate past, including a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday said that Congress has been "demeaning" their image and if it does not make amends, then it will have to take "the way out."

The NCP's comment has come after the Sharad Pawar-led party on Friday skipped a meeting of opposition parties called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking to ANI, NCP leader Majeed Memon said they are in support of the entire opposition, but the Congress needs to make "amends."

"We had two MLAs in Ahmedabad, and had asked them to vote for the Congress, while one of them defied and voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was the second MLA who voted for Ahmed bhai," he said.

"It was the 44th vote, the final vote, which the NCP MLA gave that made Ahmed bhai win," he added.

He further said that if this is the attitude of Congress party, then they will have to face the repercussions.

"They have to make amends, otherwise we will show them the way out," he stated.

Another NCP leader Nawab Malik said, "Yesterday the Opposition party meeting was called and as protest we did not attend the meet."

"Since the beginning, we have been saying one of our MLAs is hostile, and will not cast his vote in favour of Ahmed Patel," he said.

"They are just demeaning our image and that's why as a mark of protest, the party did not attend the opposition meeting," Malik added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Saturday rebuffed claims of deputing a team of doctors at his residence for his personal benefit saying that it was to provide medical assistance to those seeking aid instead.

He further clarified that when he took over the charge, his office was not ready at the time.

"Just as I took the charge of the Bihar Health Minister, people from different parts of the state started coming to my residence seeking medical help and consultation. My office was not ready at the time nor were the officials appointed to me. So with help of health department I appointed doctors at my official residence to provide medical assistance to those people. It was not for my personal benefit," Pandey told ANI.

He hit back at Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav for his remark on the poor health condition in Bihar and said that the situation in the state was terrible when his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav was in power.

"I know what the condition of Bihar was before I became the health minister. Lalu Yadav's elder son destroyed the department during his regime and even medicines were not available. Can Lalu Yadav give answer to all these questions," he said.

Earlier, the former Health Minister of Bihar Tej Pratap Yadav drew flak for deputing a medical team of three government doctors and two male nurses at his official residence in Patna for over a week claiming that a family member had fever.

A medical team from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) was deployed at Lalu Yadav's residence from May 31 to June 8.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital has claimed lives of two more children today.

The shortage of oxygen led to the encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

As per the locals, though the hospital is supposed to provide free medical assistance, neither there is proper medical facility available nor are the patients provided free medicines.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for an emergency meet later in the day over the alarming turn of events.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and has further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this reports, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

"There haven't been any deaths due to lack of oxygen supply. And 'only' seven children have died today. Today three deaths happened in Neonatal ICU, two due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and two due to Non-AES," UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tondon said.

"The District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The report will be out in 24 hours," he added.

He further said that the arrangement of oxygen cylinders was duly made and a strict action will be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday assured quick action will be taken against those involved in the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital, following which over 30 infants lost their lives.

"People responsible for this will not be spared. Quick action will be taken against the ones responsible for this, as it is a very serious issue," Siddharth Nath said after meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here.

He further said that even the Chief Minister visited the hospital recently but the hospital authority didn't even inform about any such things as being reported.

"The Chief Minister himself went there in August 9, none of the doctors or the administration informed him about any such issue of alleged lack of supply of oxygen," he said.

Siddharth Nath even hit out on the opposition for harping on this issue and said that they should not politicise over the death of the children.

"I will only say that this is a very crucial issue. It's the work of the opposition to question the ruling party. But they should not politicise over the death of the children. This is not a correct time," he said.

State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon reiterated the same and said action will be taken after detailed probe on the matter.

"The Chief Minister has given us proper instruction on this issue. We will leave for Gorakhpur soon and after details analysis of the situation will take further decision on the same," Tandon said.

Earlier in the day, the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital claimed lives of three more children.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

As per the locals, though the hospital is supposed to provide free medical assistance, neither there is proper medical facility available nor are the patients provided free medicines.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and has further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this reports, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

"There haven't been any deaths due to lack of oxygen supply. And 'only' seven children have died today. Today three deaths happened in Neonatal ICU, two due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and two due to Non-AES," UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tondon said.

"The District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The report will be out in 24 hours," he added.

He further said that the arrangement of oxygen cylinders was duly made and a strict action will be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lashing out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the tragedy, in which over 30 children died due to alleged lack of oxygen, the Congress on Saturday stated that the former needs to pull his socks and ask his officials to take strict action on the irregularities in the treatment of the patients.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Meem Afzal said " is Adityanath's constituency; he should always keep a keen eye on all the issues that happen in the city. 30 children dying in 24 hours came as a shock to us but till now no action or measures have been taken up by the state government. Adityanath has always given hopes to his people but now is the time he needs to prove it. He should ask his officials to take strict action on the irregularity in the treatment of the patients".

Echoing similar views, another grand old party leader Dwijendra Tripathi stated that action should be taken on it as it is a serious issue.

"This is a shocking incident that took place. Action should be taken on it as it is a serious issue. Parents losing their kids what worst can happen to them-this grief will never leave them. This is the time the state government should stand up for its citizen and prove them that we all are one," he said.

Yesterday, the BRD medical college recorded more than 30 children death due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela confirmed the death of 30 children in the last two days and seven deaths in the last 24 hours. He said that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant for patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Rautela further added that, an inquiry committee has been set up to ascertain the exact causes of the deaths and it has been asked to submit its report by tomorrow evening. Action will be taken against those responsible.

He also said that alternative arrangements had been made from neighbouring Sant Kabir Nagar district to ensure availability of liquid oxygen for the hospital. At present, there are 50 oxygen cylinders and 100 to 150 more will be reaching soon.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply saddened over the Gorakhpur Baba Raghav Das Medical College tragedy that has claimed 64 lives so far, informed MoS Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI before leaving for Gorakhpur to look into the matter personally, Patel said, "The incident is very unfortunate and we are deeply saddened. Honorable Prime Minister is extremely sad with the incident that has taken place. I am trying to reach Gorakhpur as soon as possible, so that I can get first hand information on what went wrong where and who is responsible."

On this note, Union Health Minister JP Nadda has directed Patel to visit Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College to look into the incident that occurred due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

"Magisterial enquiry has already been ordered by the state government. I hope it brings out the fact and the person who is guilty. Who so ever is found guilty will not be spared, so that no such incident happens in future. I can assure that," she said.

Earlier, Nadda told ANI that he has also also sought a report from State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon.

As many as 64 lives have been lost so far due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital, to which Opposition has demanded the resignation of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Siddharth Nath Singh, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Earlier in the day, Congress delegation paid a visit to Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College to get a first hand knowledge of the incident. BSP and Samajwadi Party also announced that they will send delegation to take stalk of the situation.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man from Hyderabad has been jailed at Doha in Qatar for allegedly carrying drugs.

Shaik Sikander, left for Doha in search of a job on June 20. While leaving for Qatar, his agent, Razaaq, handed him two packets that needed to be delivered.

The moment Sikander landed at the airport, officials detained him on the charges of carrying drugs.

Speaking to ANI, Sikander's mom, Sajida Begum, said, "He (Sikander) was very interested to work in a foreign country. When he left to Qatar two months ago; the agent handed him two packets that needed to be delivered to someone in Qatar. And they would come and collect it from him."

"My son believed him and carried it along; when he landed there the airport authorities caught him and found that he was carrying cannabis. He was instantly detained and currently in Qatar Jail. I would request External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the matter and rescue him," she added.

Sikander is allowed to talk to his family over the phone once in a week.

The family has requested the Union Minister for External Affairs and Telangana Minister for NRI affairs to intervene to secure his release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Army has launched a massive manhunt with the help of reinforcement of Para commandos, soon after terrorists attacked 41 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) headquarter in the forest area of Kalaroose Kupwara district of north Kashmir yesterday night.

The indiscriminate firing continued on the RR headquarter for at least 10 minutes. The troops retaliated which resulted in a brief clash, official sources said.

Besides 41 RR, the camp also houses troopers of other units including 21 Jammu and Kashmir (Jak) Rifles.

One JaK soldier was injured in the attack, who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment.

The areas that have been cordoned include upper belt of Kalaroose forests and Kunnad, Kani Behak, Manigah, Chat forest areas of Batpora Haihama.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed in the shelling from Pakistan side in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Praising citizens of India for their achievements in 70 years of independence, Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that Kathmandu has benefitted tremendously from its ties with New Delhi.

He made these remarks at a reception hosted at India House to mark 70 Years of India's independence.

The Himalayan Times quoted Deuba as saying, that his government attached high importance to further strengthening Nepal-India relations.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also present at the occasion.

"India is what it is today because development was not constrained by ideology. We are not only the largest democracy today but also amongst the most advanced nations in the world," Swaraj said at the event.

Swaraj was in Kathmandu to attend the BIMSTEC ministerial meeting.

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 Flash

Beijing slammed Washington for sending a warship to waters adjacent to one of its islands in the South China Sea, saying the action will only prompt Beijing to strengthen its defense.

Spokesmen from both the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning the "unauthorized entry into neighboring waters of relevant islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands" by the USS John S. McCain.

The US Navy destroyer conducted a "freedom of navigation operation" on Thursday and came within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef, part of China's Nansha Islands, Reuters quoted anonymous US officials as saying.

China immediately dispatched two missile frigates to identify the ship, and they warned it to leave, said Wu Qian, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, early on Friday.

The muscle-flexing "promotes regional militarization and can very easily trigger accidents in sea and air", Wu said.

"The US military's provocation will only prompt the Chinese military to further strengthen construction of defense capacity in various fields," Wu added.

China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated on Thursday.

This was the second time a US warship entered waters within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef without China's permission in recent months. The US destroyer Dewey did so in May.

It also came days after China and ASEAN countries adopted the framework in Manila for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

The US is attempting to stir up troubles in the waters where the situation has cooled down, Geng said, adding that the warship's intrusion showed "who is exactly the one that does not want to see sustained stability in the South China Sea, and who serves as the biggest factor in the 'militarization' of the South China Sea".

Zhou Fangyin, a researcher of China's foreign policy at the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, said the incident shows that the US, a country outside the South China Sea region, doesn't want to play "a minor role" in the region.

At a time when China and Southeast Asian countries have agreed to solve and manage the South China Sea issue through bilateral talks and to avoid influence by nonregional forces, the US behavior shows that Washington wants to maintain its presence in the region, instead of solving the issue, Zhou said.

Besides the US, nonregional countries including Japan also want to stir up trouble in the South China Sea, Zhou added.

Japan will deliver about 40,000 helicopter parts to the Philippines, Reuters quoted a senior Philippine officer on Thursday as saying.

Zhou said Japan doesn't want to see a peaceful resolution of the issue between China and Southeast Asian countries and has always wanted to sow discord between them.
Uhuru Kenyatta has won re-election as president in Kenya, defeating veteran opposition leader and longtime rival Raila Odinga in a tense contest.

Kenya's election commission declared the final official results, giving the incumbent a substantial margin of victory over the veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga. But the opposition has rejected the result by terming it of "systematic" fraud. The nation's top elections official, Wafula Chebukati, said that the vote was carried out in a "free, fair and credible manner."

The 55-year-old businessman and son of the country's founding President Kenyatta garnered 54.27% of the final vote to secure a second five-year term. Odinga received 44.74%.

With reports of violence in Kisumu, Kenya's third city, there were fears that the former British colony could witness a reprise of the violence that claimed 1,300 lives after Odinga's defeat in another election ten years ago.

In a nationally broadcast speech, the President said that he and his opponent were not enemies.

"We are all citizens of one republic," CNN quotted Kenyatta as saying. "As with any competition, there shall always be winners and there shall be losers. But we all belong to one great nation called Kenya."

Kenyatta said he wanted to work with the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA).

"I extend a hand of partnership knowing fully well that this country needs all of us pulling together in order for us to succeed," he said.

A 72-year-old former political prisoner Odinga, who has campaigned for the presidency four times, is refusing to accept the results, claiming the vote was hacked.

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Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh claims that the death of 64 children in the Gorakhpur Baba Raghav Das Medical College is a matter for Uttar Pradesh to handle and they should be left alone with it.

Singh said, "This is a matter for Uttar Pradesh and I don't know much about it."

As many as 64 lives have been lost so far due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital, to which Opposition has demanded the resignation of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Siddharth Nath Singh, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed is grief over the incident.

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District

Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

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Mukesh Hariawala, who will next be seen in Amitabh Bachchan-Rishi Kapoor-starrer '102 Not Out,' is a Harvard University-Boston alumni, who has taken a sabbatical from clinical work to make a career in films.

NRI Dr Hariawala has to his credit been an internationally revered heart surgeon for over a decade for performing pioneering surgical work.

He recently spoke to ANI about this sudden change in profession.

In 2014, he randomly interviewed for a student spot in the 'Short Term Acting Program' at the world renowned 'New York Film Academy', which boasts of graduates like celebrities Paul Dano, Shaquille O'Neal, Imran Khan and Kangana Renaut.

On a surprise acceptance in the program and full support from his family, he temporarily moved from Boston and started living in a Hotel in New York City close to the school campus.

The faculty teachers included guest speakers such as Steven Spielberg, Andy Garcia, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey and Glenn Close.

Dr Hariawala graduated from the course in time, and was offered few opportunities to work in Hollywood films to portray Asian characters, since many of his teachers were established directors in Los Angeles.

He politely declined, but chose the route of returning to India and immediately started getting small character roles in films being made by renowned Bollywood directors such as National award winner Ananth Mahadevan, Anurag Basu of 'Barfi' fame, Umesh Shukla 'OMG' and AR Muragadoss, who directed the Aamir Khan blockbuster 'Ghajini'.

He has shared screen space with superstars like Amitabh Bachchan ('102 Not Out'), Sonakshi Sinha ('Naam Hai Akira') and Zareen Khan ('Aksar 2') and has already signed three more films with top production houses.

Dr Hariawala candidly went down memory lane and opined, "Going to acting school reminded me of Mithibai college days in 1976. The camaraderie amongst acting school students from all over the world has changed my outlook to life. I was the oldest in the class but my classmates and teachers never made me feel so. They were most encouraging of my prospects."

He further added, "I am fortunate and feel blessed to be accepted in Bollywood without much struggle, but I have a lot to learn from senior established actors."

He stated, "I consciously avoid playing Doctor roles which are frequently offered to me, but at my age of 50 plus, I can only expect character roles. I am still anxiously waiting for an opportunity to portray a serious negative or grey shade character that wins the heart of audiences."

On a parting note, Dr Hariawala tongue in cheek quipped about his new chosen profession and quoted "Acting for me is more challenging than open heart surgery, and I am enjoying it".

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MILKFED today signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to put up 'Verka' booths at the selected Retail Outlets of HPCL.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited has retail outlets at various locations to market the petroleum products and to provide value added services to the customers. Now the customers can enjoy healthy and tasty products of Verka at these HPCL outlets while they avail the outlet's services.

Milkfed is always at a look out for new avenues to reach the consumer. With this agreement the favorite Verka products will be readily available at the HPCL outlets making it easier for people to indulge into their favorite craving on the go.

Speaking on the occasion Manjit Brar, Managing Director MILKFED said, "Verka has been delighting the customers for so many years now. It is one of the most loved dairy brands of the region. The collaboration is a very good opportunity for us for increased customer engagement we will be able to deliver our products to the consumers more conveniently. This association will help us to expand our in the region by tapping in the large customer base of HPCL. It will also generate employment opportunities to local youth."

"Verka is the leading dairy brand in the region. It is our pleasure to associate with Verka to provide our customers healthy, tasty and superior quality products at our outlets," said Subodh Batra, Chief General Manager, HPCL North Zone.

HPCL has about 1650 retail outlets in Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, HP and J&K. Verka products will be available at selected outlets.

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Ad-man cum lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who has replaced Pahlaj Nihalani as the chief of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), says he hopes to make a positive difference with the guidance and support of respected minds.

"I believe in taking on responsibilities. The way I have fulfilled other responsibilities, I will give my best to this new task as well. I am happy that people have expectations from me and I deeply respect the film industry," he told media.

When asked if he would like to would iron out the creases of the tainted image that CBFC has, the 45-year-old replied, "I first need to understand the role and responsibility. I do understand it in a short form but I need to know completely what the processes are specially. With good intent, I would like to make as much difference as I can."

Members of the reconstituted board also include Bollywood actress Vidya Balan.

Speaking about which, the lyricist said, "All the good people who join will make a difference. I think it has to be done together and there has to be some sort of understanding which has to brought in this is a job, it needs to be done and we need to look at it constructively. That's what I would do. I would do it to the best of my abilities."

The government on Friday evening issued a notification announcing the appointment of Prasoon Joshi as the chief of the film certification body.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (37 of 1952) read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983, the Central Government is pleased to appoint Sh. Prasoon Joshi as Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification in an honorary capacity from 11th August, 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier," said an Information and Broadcasting Ministry statement.

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Kathmandu [Nepal], Aug 12 (ANI): At least 20 people have reportedly lost their lives and more than 50 have gone missing due to the floods and landslide triggered by incessant rainfall from past 24 hours in various parts of Nepal.

A total of six people died due to water borne disaster in the low lying district of Sunsari where 50 people are still missing, local media reported.

Four people lost their lives in the Banke district after the torrential rain flooded into the residential areas.

The local police in the area informed that three children lost their lives after their house got collapsed.

The identity of persons found submerged in water is yet to be known.

In the hilly regions of Nepal, 10 people have lost their lives after the landslide collapsed their houses.

Four people have died in the Panchthar district of Nepal after their house was buried by the landslide last night.

Another four people have died in similar incident in Sidnhuli district of Nepal where a house was buried by the land mass from the part of a hill.

The incessant rainfall with the active monsoon over the various parts of Nepal has created havoc in the country throwing the lives of the people out of gear.

The Government of Nepal has issued warning with prediction of more rainfall in the coming days urging precautious measures.

"There is high chance of heavy downpour in East to the Mid- Terai- Chure areas of Terai. The weather over other areas in Nepal will keep on changing. Let's be more precautious," the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) tweeted Saturday morning.

The department has also requested the people residing in the low lying southern plains of Nepal as well as residents near the river to get to the higher grounds claiming the condition might last for some more days.

Many of the villages in the southern plains of Nepal have been daunted by floods, compelling over 2, 000 people to move to other places.

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Convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Nadeem Nusrat has said that Pakistan has been pursuing the policy of sheltering terrorists and jihadists to fight against India over Kashmir.

"MQM outrightly rejects the policy of sheltering jihadis in Pakistan, we call it creation of proxies. Unfortunately, this has been a practice in Pakistan for the last 70 years, when kabalis (tribals) were used in the fight against India over the issue of Kashmir right form 1948."

"Then these proxies were being used by Pakistan against long standing feud with India and excessively used during the soviet invasion of Afghanistan," he added.

Reiterating that proxies became a constant factor in Pakistan politics, Nusrat said, "Terrorists or banned jihadi outfits are patronised, armed and financed by Pakistan and are being used against MQM for the last 4 years. Taliban carried out bombings at MQM rallies; party workers are being tortured and killed."

When asked about Jamaat-ud-Dawa's Hafiz Saeed launching his political party Milli Muslim League to contest 2018 Pakistan general elections, Nusrat told ANI, "The situation is just a joke as media is not allowed to expose this and you cannot discuss these matters in Pakistan. Altaf Hussain, the leader of Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), who lives in London in exile, can't defend himself in Pakistan media, but Hafiz Saeed, the head of banned outfit, can carry out political activities."

MQM being the dominant political force in Karachi, Nusrat stated, "It has been winning the elections since 1987 in Karachi which generates 75% revenue for Pakistan, but not allowed to operate as political party."

Nusrat further said that Pakistan government is involved in human rights violations, enforced disappearances, torture and killings of MQM activists.

"Ehsanullah Ehsan, the spokesman of Pakistani Taliban is a guest of Pakistan establishment, living under its complete protection and support. Pakistan has a very short sighted policy that has harmed its image worldwide as we have seen everywhere in the world," Nursat continued.

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At least 12 civilians were reportedly killed in a rocket attack in Afghanistan's Faryab province, local officials said on Saturday.

Tolo News quoted local officials as saying that children and women were among the victims, who were killed after a rocket hit a village in Dawolat Abad district on Friday.

No group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

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Virginia's governor Terry McAuliffe has declared an emergency after rally turned violent killing one person and injuring 19 when a vehicle rammed into a group of protesters marching against white supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

Police has been busy in dispersing demonstrators after clashes erupted when hundreds of white supremacists, white nationalists and alt-right groups gathered at Charlottesville's Emancipation Park ahead of Saturday's 'Unite the Right' rally to protest the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has declared a state of emergency "to aid state response to violence."

President Donald Trump tweeted: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

Bearing shields and chanting racist slogans, thousands of alt-right nationalists descended on Emancipation Park formerly known as Lee Park in downtown Charlottesville.

Robert Edward Lee was an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

The skirmishes unfolded following a scuffle Friday night between torch-bearing demonstrators and counter-protesters at the nearby University of Virginia.

Police has been engaged in dispersing the crowds after fistfights and screaming matches erupted in several locations late Saturday morning and the Governor declared the gathering an "unlawful assembly", CNN reported.

"Numerous protesters have been arrested in Charlottesville as torch-carry white nationalists, yelling 'white lives matter' and Nazi slogans, marched through the University of Virginia Friday night, punching counter-protestors and some using pepper spray" ,state police said.

Tensions increased as white nationalists holding tiki-style torches marched onto the University of Virginia's campus.Chanting, "Blood and soil" and "You will not replace us," the group rallied around a statue of Thomas Jefferson before they clashed with counter-protesters, CNN eported. The group left the university's grounds when police arrived and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer released a statement referring to Friday's rally as a "cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights.

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United States President Donald Trump has reiterated his bellicose rhetoric on North Korea and warned Kim Jong Un that if any of the U.S. territory is attacked, he "will truly regret it."

"This man will not get away with what he is doing," Trump said. "If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam, or any place else that is an American territory or an America ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast."

"I hope they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said. And what I said is what I mean," Trump said, adding that his statements' significance was "pretty obvious" and his administration is looking "very carefully" at possible future actions against North Korea.

In the morning, Trump tweeted "Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"

Trump, who is in New Jersey, has been issuing threats to North Korea as Kim tested intercontinental ballistic missiles on July 4 and July 28 and also threatened to strike Guam.

North Korea has been responding through state media by indicating that military is about to present a plan to Kim jong-Un to strike near Guam with missiles by the end of this month, a threat that has ratcheted up concerns within the Trump administration.

Trump blamed previous administrations for the current stance of North Korea, saying that tensions in Korean Peninsula is an extension of past failures and he has no choice but to respond to the rogue nation.

"We want to talk about a country that has misbehaved for many, many years, decades actually, through numerous administrations and they didn't want to take on the issue," he said. "I have no choice to take it on -- and I am taking it on -- and we will either be very, very successfully quickly or we are going to be very, very successful in a different way, quickly."

"I take exception to the President's comments because you've got to be sure that you can do what you say you're going to do," Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said. "The great leaders I've seen don't threaten unless they're ready to act and I'm not sure President Trump is ready to act.

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Apart from issuing threats to North Korea, United States President Donald Trump's administration has been maintaining direct back-channel diplomatic talks with North Korean regime to defuse the tensions over Pyongyang's missile tests and nuclear program.

Diplomats from each country, including U.S. envoy to North Korea Joseph Yun and North Korean diplomat Pak Song Il are maintaining a relationship with each other in New York, fostered as well by outside groups that favor direct engagement.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has insisted that diplomatic efforts to contain the threat posed by North Korea are working and the favoured means for resolve the crisis. Mattis praised the diplomatic leadership of Tillerson and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, as well as a unanimous vote by the UN Security Council to impose fresh sanctions on North Korea.

The diplomats initiated negotiation during the release of imprisone student Otto Warmbier and it was revealed that diplomatic talks are on since then.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised Yun directly during a recent discussion of U.S. efforts to handle the crisis.

"We're trying to convey to the North Koreans we are not your enemy, we are not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond," he said last week. "I'm quite proud of what we've accomplished. In dealing with North Korea, Acting Assistant Secretary Susan Thornton and Ambassador Joseph Yun have been stellar in helping us develop these policies and carry them out,"Washington examiner quoted Tillerson as saying.

The tensions between U.S. and North Korea escalated after Pyongyang tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in July that appears to have the range to hit major US cities. The move was condemned by United States, South Korea and Japan.

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Transfer of PT Spice Digital Indonesia to Omnia Pte. Limited

Spice Mobility announced that Omnia Pte. Limited, Singapore ('Omnia'), a step down foreign subsidiary of the Company, has approved to purchase entire stake in PT Spice Digital Indonesia, ('Indonesia'), another step down foreign subsidiary of the Company, from Spice Global Services Pte. Limited, Singapore ('SGS'). Consequently, 'Indonesia' will become a subsidiary of 'Omnia' and step down subsidiary of 'SGS'. All these three companies will continue to be the step down subsidiaries of the Company.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

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At least 13 civilians were killed and three injured when two mortars struck a residential area in Faryab province, an official said on Saturday.

"Two mortar mines fired by militants on Friday night struck some houses in Tort Atai village in Dawlatabad district," Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

No one knows who fired the mortars, villagers said.

Dawlatabad Governor Abdul Salam Nazhat said an investigation was underway to determine who fired the mortars.

Faryab province, with Maimana as its capital, has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency over the past decade.

The Taliban outfit is yet to make comments.

--IANS

py/vm

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Beirut, Aug 12 (IANS/MAP) At least 23 militants were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A bomber detonated an explosive belt at a base used by Jaish al-Islam near the Nasib border crossing on Friday, the war monitor group said.

"Most of the 23 rebels killed were from Jaish al-Islam. Dozens were wounded, including 20 in critical condition," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

--IANS/MAP

soni/bg

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Two All India Students Association (AISA) activists were allegedly attacked by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the AISA said on Saturday.

According to AISA members, their activists Sudhanshu and Aman were attacked by ABVP's Chhattarpal Yadav, former Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) Joint Secretary, and some others in Motilal Nehru College, where the two had gone to meet their party associates on Friday.

An FIR has been lodged in the South Campus Police Station.

The two parties got into an argument in the college premises and the ABVP members reportedly tried to lock the two in a room.

They attacked them twice -- once in Motilal Nehru College and then in Aryabhatta College the same day, an AISA statement said.

Sudhanshu said he would "not back down and seek justice in this case and fight for a violence-free campus".

DU AISA President Kawalpreet Kaur said it was very shameful that instances of violence on the campus were rising day by day.

"Police are not at all serious about it. In the last one year, numerous instances of ABVP's violence against teachers and students have been reported. Many others do not report out of fear of reprisals," she said.

"ABVP considers itself above the law because of the impunity allowed to them by police and the government," she added.

Kaur stressed that there was a concerted attempt to terrorise the entire student community through these violent attacks.

"We demand strictest action against those involved in the attacks and that police should ensure that law and order is maintained on the campus," she said.

--IANS

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A bomb blast early on Saturday at the no man's land in Moreh shattered the fragile peace of the border town ahead of the Independence Day celebrations. No casualty was reported.

Hijam Chaoba, Station House Officer of Moreh police station, told IANS the blast was triggered by suspected trans-border militants at 5,20 a.m. The explosion scooped out a big crater at the blast site.

The remote-controlled bomb was planted opposite the Sun Rise Club in Moreh. Police and personnel of the 11 Assam Rifles rushed to the spot. However, no arrests were made.

Last week, a remote-controlled bomb was planted at the boundary pillar No.79. However, locals noticed it and informed the police. The bomb was neutralised only after the bomb squad arrived from Imphal several hours later.

The border town has witnessed several bomb blasts. Besides, one woman was shot dead two months back. No one has been arrested so far in the case.

There have been general strikes and other forms of agitations in protest against bomb blasts and killings. But the police say it is leaving no impact since suspected militants continue to unleash violent activities.

Home Minister N. Biren Singh told IANS that the government is concerned over the increasing violence in the border areas.

He added: "In the recent past, state and central forces personnel were killed and wounded in well executed ambushes. Police, paramilitary personnel have intensified patrolling and combing operations in the border areas."

"However the militants who sneak outside the country at will are yet to be accounted for."

--IANS

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Cambodia and Laos on Saturday on Saturday agreed to withdraw their troops from the border between them Cambodia had accused Laotian troops of encroaching on its territory.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen travelled to the Laotian capital Vientiane to meet with his counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith on Saturday to diffuse tensions surrounding the presence of Laos troops in Steung Treng province, reports Efe news.

"The Lao side has agreed to withdraw troops from Cambodian territory (on Sunday), and Cambodian troops will also return with immediate effect," a statement on Hun Sen's official Facebook page.

Cambodian troops were seen riding through the capital Phnom Penh in armored military vehicles to reinforce defences at the border.

Phnom Penh on Friday had issued an ultimatum for the 30 troops, who have been there since April, to leave by August 17.

--IANS

ksk/vm

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The Congress on Saturday sought an apology from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the deaths of more than 60 children in Gorakhpur.

A Congress delegation led by senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief Raj Babbar visited the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur on Saturday and met the family members of the 63 children who died over a period of five days due to encephalitis and a reported lack of oxygen supplies.

The leaders also visited the hospital's paediatric ward.

Talking to reporters later, Azad said that the tragedy was caused due to carelessness of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state and demanded Adityanath's apology.

The senior Congress leader also said that the two ministers responsible for healthcare and medical education should immediately resign.

"These callous people cannot be allowed to continue" the Rajya Sabha member added.

--IANS

md/ksk/vm

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Acting on a complaint, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra on Saturday ordered a Crime Branch probe into the death of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s state unit President Uzhavoor Vijayan, who passed away on July 23.

The NCP is an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and has two legislators in the government, including a cabinet minister.

It was the Kottayam district unit of the NCP that first wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that there was a need to probe the death of their party's state chief.

The complaint that the Chief Minister received was forwarded to Behra, who on Saturday directed IG of Police S. Sreejith to submit a report after conducting a probe into the complaint.

It was on July 23 early morning that 60-year-old Uzhavoor Vijayan breathed his last at a private hospital here. He had been admitted there since the beginning of July as he was suffering from cardiac and gastrointestinal ailments.

Ever since the death of the state NCP chief, top party leaders have been expressing differing views with regard to the reason of his death.

With the media also joining the issue, the Kottayam unit of the party -- the home unit of the departed leader -- decided to write to the Chief Minister seeking a probe into his death.

A hugely popular leader, Uzhavoor Vijayan was known for his humour and during his four decades in active politics, he rubbed shoulders with all the leading Congress leaders in Kerala, including A.K. Antony, Oommen Chandy, V.M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala.

He parted ways with the Congress following a split in the party during the Emergency days and never returned, even though his contemporaries like Antony and others returned to the Congress fold.

Since then, he was the top leader of the then Congress (S) and when the NCP Kerala unit was formed, he was one of the first leaders to have pledged support to Sharad Pawar, the NCP President.

--IANS

sg/nir/bg

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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has cancelled his proposed visit to African nation Botswana next week, citing "exhaustion" as the reason.

The Dalai Lama, who is alleged by the Chinese to be a separatist, was invited to address a three-day human rights conference at Gaborone in Botswana on August 17 and was scheduled to meet Botswana's President.

A statement on the website of the spiritual leader says he has written to the President of Botswana, expressing "profound regret at having to cancel his impending visit to Botswana due to exhaustion".

"During the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually tired," said the statement, adding: "Since his physicians have also advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, His Holiness will return to Dharamsala to recuperate".

According to reports, China, Africa's largest trade partner, had stepped up its warning to Botswana over the planned visit by the elderly monk.

In his letter to President Ian Khama, the Nobel Peace Laureate expressed deep admiration, respect and gratitude to him and the government of Botswana for their unwavering principled stand to welcome him to their country, despite overwhelming pressure not to do so.

The Dalai Lama's office here said he was invited to Gaborone from August 15-20 to participate in the Mind & Life Conference and other engagements.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since he fled Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959. He favours "greater autonomy" for Tibetans rather than complete independence.

Chinese leaders have, however, called him a separatist who wants Tibet to secede from China.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has welcomed talks between leaders of former militant groups with New Delhi's interlocutor. He also said feelers had been sent out to insurgents still fighting the state.

Debendra Sharma, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, has started talks to settle issues, including the demand for a homeland and rehabilitation, with those who have come overground in the state, Biren Singh said.

"We have also raised some issues. We have insisted on a time-frame for talks since the inordinate delay has caused resentment among the signatories to the Suspension of Operations," the Chief Minister told IANS in an interview.

He said the promised stipend of the past two years for the former insurgents had been cleared while extending the Suspension of Operations for one more year.

Biren Singh said it was important to move the designated camps for former militants 20 km away from the national highways. "This will help reduce allegations of heists and extortions (put on them)."

A total of 24 outfits, mostly belonging to the Kuki tribe, have come overground. There have been reports of violence within the camps housing them, causing even deaths.

At certain places, civilians have protested against these camps.

Biren Singh, who took charge of troubled Manipur in March, said he was in close touch with the central government to invite all the insurgent groups to the negotiating table.

He said feelers had been sent to some of the groups.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader claimed there had been an improvement in the law and order situation in the northeastern state.

At the same time, he admitted that there was resentment over ministry formation.

The BJP, which secured 21 seats behind the Congress in March, joined hands with splinter groups to form a coalition ministry.

Biren Singh told IANS: "There is resentment on the allocation of ministerial berths and this will be addressed in the next reshuffle."

All four MLAs of the National People's Party have become ministers.

Health Minister L. Jayentakumar and six Parliamentary Secretaries had resigned. Later, they withdrew the resignations.

Biren Singh said the Modi government had given over Rs 25,000 crore to Manipur in the last three months. This includes Rs 1,160 crore to improve national highways.

"Since funds are no problem, there are good developmental works all around. We are all for a balanced development in the valley and the hills. It will go a long way in bringing about an emotional integration."

The Chief Minister denied shielding senior officials charged with corruption.

"If there is evidence, we punish one and all. Senior engineers and police officers have been suspended and are facing inquiries.

"It is the directive of the Prime Minister to have a corruption-free administration. We are closely monitoring all recruitment to check scams."

He said the anti-corruption cell in his office had helped check corruption.

The Chief Minister also came out against mob violence, after insurgents killed some alleged rapists.

"This has to stop," he said. "The accused are facing trial and we should wait for the outcome. People should avoid mob crime before the guilt of the accused is established."

Recalling his Laos visit, Biren Singh said: "We have many things to learn from the people of Laos in keeping the city clean and controlling pollution of all sorts."

(Iboyaima Laithangbam can be contacted at imphalreport@gmail.com)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Under all-round attack, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the head of the hospital over the deaths of 63 children in five days, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Health Minister blamed it on lack of cleanliness and diseases and not due to lack of oxygen.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose constituency the hospital is located, the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers.

The Centre sent Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C.K. Mishra to Gorakhpur and look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply.

Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness. Mishra later said he had already given his resignation, owing moral responsibility for the tragedy. Mishra has been asked to stay put as a committee had been formed to fix responsibility.

Announcing the suspension of Mishra, Singh asked the media not to jump to conclusions because a probe has been ordered. He said once the probe findings are out, strict action will be taken against the culprits. He claimed that no deaths had taken place due to lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting in Allahabad, Adityanath said the deaths in his hometown were caused by filth and the scourge of open defecation.

"There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis ...It is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life," he said and reminded the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

Singh, along with his cabinet colleague, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, were sent by the Chief Minister on Saturday morning to the hospital. Singh said the Chief Minister had visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 where many things were reviewed, but the shortage of oxygen or any payment issue was never discussed.

He said that in 2014 the number of deaths due to encephalitis was 19, in 2015 it was 22, and 19 in 2016. Singh explained that he was not trying to justify the deaths at the BRD hospital.

The Minister said they have gone through the oxygen gas supply issue and that after thorough scrutiny they were of the opinion that the deaths had not taken place due to lack of oxygen. He also said that if any disruption in oxygen supply comes to light in further probe, the guilty would be brought to book.

In more embarrassment for the state government, it has come to light that the staff of the Central Oxygen Pipeline Plant at the hospital - from where oxygen is piped to different wards - had written to the head of the paediatrics department warning them of dwindling oxygen stock.

They had forewarned that the shortage could hit the patients admitted in various wards, specially the children.

It appears that the warning fell on deaf ears and that no advance arrangements were made for the oxygen.

Meanwhile, Parveen Modi, owner of Pushpa Sales company, which used to supply oxygen to the BRD hospital, denied that his company had the tender to supply oxygen.

He told media persons that his contract with the hospital had ended in March and was not renewed. He said the contract of Pushpa Sales was ended and the contract given to a new firm from Allahabad - Imperial Gas, after the BJP government came to power this year.

Modi said that till date Rs 20 lakh payment was pending with the hospital and that he had supplied liquid oxygen on Friday too, after a request made by the Divisional Commissioner.

"I did so completely on humanitarian grounds," he said, and denied reports that he had disrupted the oxygen supply over non-payment of dues.

"I have supplied 200 cylinders after the request made by officials," he added.

"Dues exist, but we were not serving the hospital oxygen since March" he clarified.

The opposition tore into the Adityanath government over the deaths. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy.

The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy.

"Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue.

The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UP CM Yogi Adityanath has rejected reports that a lack of oxygen supply caused 60 deaths in a government hospital in Gorakhpur. File photo

Rejecting reports that lack of oxygen supply was responsible for deaths of over 60 children in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last five days, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday that a committee has been set up under the Chief Secretary to go into the gas supplier's role and other lapses.

He and his Health Minister Siddharthnath Singh quoted figures of child deaths in August over a period of three years and after the BJP government came to power to claim that the deaths have occurred due to vector-borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis highly prevalent in the region.

Flanked by Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the state Health and Medical Education Ministers at a press conference, Adityanath asserted that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty.

He and Siddharth Nath Singh contended that there has been no death due to lack of oxygen supply to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital, but did concede there was a problem in supply of liquid oxygen for four hours on August 10 which was made up by the system switching to cylinders.

The Chief Minister also said that BRD College Principal Rajiv Mishra has already been suspended on grounds of negligence and administrative lapses relating to delayed payment to the gas supplier.

He said that a magisterial inquiry has already been ordered and the report will come soon, while the Committee headed by the Chief Secretary is expected to give its report in a week.

Adityanath requested the media to be responsible and only broadcast authentic death statistics.

"We are sensitive to each death in the hospital and will request you all to be careful about the facts and figures," he said at a press conference here.

Expressing his sympathies to the bereaved families, Adityanath said that encephalitis was a big challenge for the state government as well as an emotional issue for him as he have been waging a war against it since 1998.

He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enquired about the situation and assured all central help. The Union Health Secretary was in Gorakhpur, he said, adding that Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and his Minister of State were monitoring the situation as well.

Adityanath also said that during his review meeting in Gorakhpur on August 9, he had asked officials if there were any issues or they required any help from the government but was told that there were none.

The Chief Minister said that he himself had visited the BRD medical college on July 9 and August 9 to himself look at the situation but was not informed of any shortage, including of oxygen.

Meanwhile, citing figures, Siddharth Nath Singh said that 567 deaths occurred in August 2014 at a daily average of 19, 668 deaths in 2015 in the same month with a daily average of 22 and 587 deaths in August 2016 with a daily average of about 20, but the state government taken steps to improve health services in the last three months and there had been a reduction in fatalities.

"In August this year up to the 11, 133 deaths have occurred," he said.

Also denying the shortage of oxygen or disruption of the central oxygen plant had lead to the deaths of children, including infants, he attributed the deaths to some being underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on August 5 and funds sent to the BRD medical college, but it was "surprising" that Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it till August 11.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday ruled out a shortage of oxygen as responsible for the deaths in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital as he stressed no one found guilty would be spared.

He also requested the media to be responsible and only broadcast authentic death statistics.

"We are sensitive to each death in the hospital and will request you all to be careful about the facts and figures," he said at a press conference here.

Expressing his sympathies to the families who have lost their children, Adityanath said that encephalitis was a big challenge for the state government, adding that the prevalence of the disease has been an emotional issue for him as he have been waging a war against this since 1998.

He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to him, enquired about the situation and assured all help from the central government. The Union Health Secretary was in Gorakhpur along with state government officials, he said, adding that Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and his Minister of State Anupriya Patel were mentoring the situation as well.

Adityanath also said that during his review meeting in Gorakhpur on August 9, he had asked officials if there were any issues they were facing or any help they required from the government but was told that there were none.

The Chief Minister said that he himself had visited the BRD medical college on July 9 and August 9 to himself look at the situation but was not informed of any shortage of any facility, including oxygen.

Meanwhile, Patel, who arrived here in the evening, drove straight for a high-level stock taking meeting on the tragedy. She also spoke to the media and said that the guilty would not be spared and that the government would act "cruelly and with a firm hand" to punish callous officials.

State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh also denied that the shortage of oxygen or the disruption of the central oxygen plant at the BRD medical college had lead to the deaths of children, including infants. He also attributed the deaths of children to some underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on August 5 and funds sent to the medical college.

"It is thus surprising that the BRD Medical College Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it till August 11," he said, adding that prima facie he was found callous and has hence been suspended.

The minister also questioned Mishra's trip to Rishikesh in middle of such a grave crisis. He also said that a committee has been formed under the Chief Secretary to probe the role of the oxygen supplier and it is expected to submit a report within a week.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an attempt to avert the nationwide bankers' strike on August 22, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and the Chief Labour Commissioner have called the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) for talks, a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said.

"The IBA has called the UFBU for a meeting in Mumbai on Aug 16 and the Chief Labour Commissioner has called us for a meeting in New Delhi on Aug 18," AIBEA General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS.

The UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions in the Indian banking sector.

The UFBU has given notice of a nationwide strike on August 22 to protest reforms in the banking sector and other issues.

"We have an open mind to resolve the issues. The same has to be reciprocated by the IBA and the central government," Venkatachalam added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A member of an inter-state illegal gun manufacturing gang has been arrested with 20 semi-automatic pistols here, Delhi Police said on Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said that the gang operates from Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh and supplied guns in and around Delhi. It has been running for the past two years.

Ugara Singh, 39, was arrested in east Delhi around 9 p.m. on Friday, said Verma.

"The gang used to manufacture parts of guns in different lathes in Dhar and later assembled the guns in jungles," the DCP said.

To evade arrest, the gang travelled via a "golden triangle" of Indore-Jaipur-Delhi, police said.

The officer said that the gang used code words so even if someone overheared them talking over phone, they would be safe.

"They used Lal Qila for Bhairon Mandir and Taj Mahal for Sarai Kala to mislead anyone listening to them," the DCP said.

Verma said raids are being carried out in the city to arrest those who bought guns from the gang.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Incessant rain for the last five days has wreaked havoc in Meghalaya and claimed three lives, with two persons injured on Saturday, after a tree inside Raj Bhavan fell and crushed three vehicles, an official said.

Nearly 800 people were rendered homeless in South and West Garo Hills district in western Meghalaya as some villages were submerged under the rising flood waters, officials said.

Three persons, including a woman, were killed and two were injured here, when a eucalyptus tree, which had stood tall at Raj Bhavan for several decades now, came crashing down across the road.

"It took about 30 minutes to extricate the first three victims. The three dead persons are yet to be identified and the condition of the two injured is critical," Davies Marak, the district police chief of East Khasi Hills, told IANS.

Over 750 people in South Garo Hills district bordering Bangladesh and 63 people under Dalu Block in West Garo Hills district were rendered homeless following flash floods.

Though no loss of life has been reported, a government official said six relief camps have been set up in the flood-hit areas.

"Landslides and flood waters have affected the movement of vehicles," South Garo Hills district Police chief Abraham T. Sangma told IANS.

"A police team with the assistance of the Border Security Force has rescued several people trapped in the flood waters in their houses this morning," Sangma said, adding that the Baghmara police station has been damaged due to mudslides.

There were reports of flash floods and landslides in different parts of West Khasi Hills due to the rain.

The water level at the Umiam reservoir in Ri-Bhoi district was nearing the danger mark and the floodgates of the dam have been opened as a precautionary measure.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has directed the district administration to take all necessary steps in the flood-hit areas.

--IANS

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The between India and China was very much on the table when Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Bhutanese counterpart Damcho Dorji in Kathmandu on Friday, with the latter expressing hope that the situation is resolved peacefully.

The two ministers met on the margins of the Bimstec Ministerial Meeting in Kathmandu.

Their meeting focused mainly on the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Doklam in the Sikkim sector since mid-June, that has led to sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between Beijing and New Delhi. Doklam lies in the trijunction between India, China and Bhutan.

The face off began after Indian troops stopped People's Liberation Army soldiers from constructing a road in the area, which Beijing claims is part of its territory but Thimphu has strongly contested it.

Sushma Swaraj and Damcho Dorji stated their respective positions as well as reiterating the stances on the face off, according to diplomatic sources.

"We hope the current standoff in Doklam will be sorted out peacefully," said Dorji after the meeting, and added that "both sides should be satisfied with the outcome".

The meeting comes as the Government of Bhutan on Thursday refuted Chinese Foreign Ministry claims that Thimphu had told Beijing that the trilateral junction in Doklam is not Bhutanese territory. Top Chinese diplomat Wang Wenli had claimed that Bhutan had conveyed to Beijing through diplomatic channels that the area of the standoff is not its territory.

Indian officials in Kathmandu were unwilling to disclose much about the Sushma Swaraj-Dorji meeting.

Sudhakar Dalela, Joint Secretary (North) in the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry, said at a media briefing later that both leaders "discussed Bimstec-related matters and cooperation in the context of the Bimstec Ministerial Meeting as also a range of bilateral issues that we have between India and Bhutan".

"You are all aware that we have a very unique and special partnership with Bhutan.

"Our canvas of cooperation is very wide-ranging and both the leaders had an opportunity to discuss a range of issues," he said.

Sushma Swaraj also met Sri Lankan State Foreign Minister Vasantha Senanayake.

Earlier, in her address at the 15th Ministerial Meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) here, she said that the Bimstec regional bloc was a "natural choice" to fulfill New Delhi's key foreign policy priorities of Neighbourhood First and Act East and that the grouping is collectively working on strategies to counter the scourge of terrorism and violent extremism.

"Peace and security are essential for development to take place," she added.

Bimstec comprises seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

With the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) virtually rendered ineffective as a bloc, largely due to non-cooperation on the part of Pakistan in a number of areas, India has been giving more importance to Bimstec.

The bloc brings together 1.5 billion people or 21 per cent of the world's population.

India is the lead country for cooperation in four priority areas: counter-terrorism and transnational crime, transport and communication, tourism and environment, and disaster management.

India's emphasis on Bimstec is also seen as a counter to China's growing engagement among its regional neighbours, as part of encirclement of India.

Sushma Swaraj said that enhanced connectivity was vital to achieving Bimstec's common goals of growth, employment and prosperity. "To achieve smoother cross-border flows of trade and people, we need to put in place the enabling soft infrastructure such as the Framework Agreement on Transit, Trans-shipment and Movement of Vehicular Traffic and the Agreement on Coastal Shipping, at the earliest."

She also spoke on promotion of intra-Bimstec tourist circuits, joint marketing strategies, and Bimstec specific tourism products, notably the Buddhist circuit, and for cooperation in disaster management.

"To build regional capacities, India is hosting the first Bimstec Disaster Management Exercise in October 2017," she said.

On the cross-border exchange of power between India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, she said: "The Bimstec MoU on Grid Interconnection, which has been finalised, would further facilitate regional energy trade."

Pointing out that Bimstec has a combined GDP of over $2.85 trillion, Sushma Swaraj called for the bloc's deeper economic integration. "Along with the work on Bimstec FTA (Free Trade Agreement), the Bimstec Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Bimstec Agreement on Mutual Assistance on Customs Matters would fasten trade, and must be concluded at the earliest."

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Coast Guard ship "Shaurya", the fifth in the series of six 105-metre offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), was on Saturday commissioned in Goa by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

The OPV, which draws 2,350 tonne and is propelled by 9100 kilowatt diesel engine, has been designed and built indigenously by Goa Shipyard Ltd and is fitted with state-of-the-art navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machineries.

"The features include 30mm CRN 91 Naval Gun, integrated bridge system, integrated machinery control system, power management system and high-power external fire fighting system," a statement issued from the Indian Coast Guard said.

"The ship is designed to carry one twin engine light helicopter and five high-speed boats, including two quick reaction inflatable boats for swift boarding operations, search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol. The ship is also capable of carrying pollution response equipment to contain oil spill at sea," the statement said.

The ship will be based at Chennai and operate under the operational and administrative control of Commander Coast Guard Region (East) and will be deployed extensively for Exclusive Economic Zone surveillance, apart from safeguarding India's maritime interests.

Presently, the Indian Coast Guard has a fleet of 129 ships and boats, and 72 ships and boats are at various stages of construction at different shipyards in India.

--IANS

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A section of Jadavpur University students, who were protesting against the West Bengal government's directive to replace the existing students union with a nominated students' council, called off their agitation early on Saturday after nearly 36 hours of demonstrations.

The students had launched a sit-in demonstration inside the varsity premises laying siege to the administrative offices and preventing Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das and other officials from leaving the campus since Thursday afternoon.

The protests were withdrawn after the students got an assurance from the Vice Chancellor that their concerns would be conveyed to the state government.

"The protest was lifted around 1.30 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturday. The Executive Council -- the highest policy making body of the institute -- has written to the government that stakeholders are opposed to the decision. However, we can't give any opinion on it. We have just conveyed the message," said university registrar Pradip Ghosh who had signed the statement.

The state government has rolled out a new "apolitical" system of student union elections across all state-aided colleges and varsities in June this year instead of the elected students' body structure.

Under the umbrella of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU), students across all disciplines had demanded the Executive Council oppose the order.

The students voiced their concern about "the curbing of students' rights" through the new students council.

Das on Friday had appealed to the students to end the agitation.

"Since we are a state university, we have to follow the order," he said.

The new model eschews political association in student body elections.

Under the new model, a teacher in every institution will be responsible for handling funds allowed to the students' council.

A union will have office-bearers ranging from seven to over 10 depending on the size of the college.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Janata Dal United (JDU) leader on Saturday hit out at current JDU president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar's alone but belonged to him too. Yadav said that he stood up against former prime minister Indira Gandhi and was not afraid of anyone.

"JDU sirf Nitish Kumar ki hi party nahi hai, yeh meri bhi party hai (JDU is not just Nitish Kumar's party, it's my party too)," Yadav said in Bihar's Madhepura district on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Kumar's decision to break the Grand Alliance of JDU, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and form a new government.

Kumar is the JDU president and said to fully control the party in Bihar. "There are two JD-Us in Bihar, one is sarkari(official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Yadav said.

He refused to comment on reports on the JDU decision to replace him as the parliamentary party leader.

Yadav, who is Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had "not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, how do others matter".

"I am not afraid of anyone to speak the truth and stand by my principles," he said in reference to his fight against Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he was a student leader close to Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.

Yadav said action has been taken against a few leaders of the party "who are standing with me", and leaders close to Kumar have been threatening other JDU leaders supporting him.

Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

"The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls."

He said it was the people who had made the Grand Alliance of RJD, JDU and Congress in 2015 Bihar Assembly polls and given their mandate to rule for five years. "People's mandate was against the BJP-led NDA," he said.
Uhuru Kenyatta won a second term as president of Kenya in this week's election, the electoral commission said on Friday amid opposition claims of fraud.

With 54.27 per cent of the vote, Kenyatta prevailed over perennial opposition standard-bearer Raila Odinga, who garnered 44.74 of the ballots cast on Tuesday, Efe reported.

The announcement of the final tally was delayed by seven hours and took place without the presence of representatives of the National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition, who boycotted the presentation after signaling that it would not accept the results.

Turnout was 78.91 per cent, down from nearly 85 per cent in 2013, electoral commission chief Wafula Chebukati said, describing the process as "credible, fair and peaceful."

NASA, however, says that data provided by an anonymous source inside the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) shows Odinga won with 50.13 of the vote.

The anonymous source told NASA that the electronic voting system had been tampered with to ensure victory for Kenyatta, an accusation denied by IEBC.

All of the international election observer missions who monitored the balloting agreed that the process was transparent.

Talking to reporters ahead of the proclamation of Kenyatta as president-elect, NASA spokesman James Orengo said that the opposition would not pursue legal remedies.

"Court is not an alternative. We have been there before," he said.

Kenya's Supreme Court rejected the challenge Odinga brought after he lost the 2013 election to Kenyatta.

Police were deployed Friday to opposition strongholds across Kenya in anticipation of protests following the proclamation of Kenyatta's victory and trouble broke out within minutes of the IEBC announcement.

"People are demonstrating in the street. Some places are burning, there are many shots," a woman identifying herself only as Gladys said.

In Mathare, another capital district where Odinga has many supporters, police used tear gas and fired shots into the air to break up protests, area resident Don told EFE.

"There is looting, this is war," Don said from Mathare, where police fatally shot two opposition protesters on Wednesday.

Violent clashes between police and demonstrators were also reported in the western city of Kisumu.

Odinga cried foul in 2007 following his defeat to then-incumbent Mwai Kibaki. Violent opposition protests and reprisals by security forces sparked ethnic violence that led to roughly 1,200 deaths.

Kenyatta sounded a conciliatory note in his acceptance speech following the announcement of the results.

"As I said to my worthy opponents, especially my brother, the Right Honorable Raila Odinga, I reach out to you; I reach out to all your supporters," Kenyatta said.

"We shall work together, we shall partner together, we shall grow together, we shall develop this nation together. We are there, ready to dialogue, to discourse and engage so that we can build this nation together," the president-elect said.

Kenyatta also made an appeal for calm.

"I take this opportunity once again to call upon all Kenyans to exercise the same peace and tranquility we have seen before and during these elections. Your neighbor will always be your neighbor and we cannot fight over an election," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the discussion and execution of ideas around all-gender restrooms gathering steam across the world, a college student from West Bengal has taken it forward with the installation of innovative toilet signages for the transgender community here.

As many as four toilets next to Masterda Surya Sen Metro Station in south Kolkata now display 'Tridhara' stickers along with the symbol (interlocked male and female forms) for the community.

The idea was conceptualised by 21-year-old Sobhan Mukherjee.

"I was writing about the community and attended various programmes. I realised they felt discriminated when it came to pay-and-use toilets. When I proposed the concept of signages to the local councillor Anita Kar Majumdar, she readily agreed. It requires minimum investment... for printing the stickers. All it takes is social responsibility," Mukherjee told IANS.

Mukherjee said the move falls in line with the Ministry of Sanitation's guidelines stating that members of the third-gender community be allowed to use public toilets of their choice (men or women).

"Instead of creating separate washrooms, we decided to divide the existing spaces as male, female and 'Tridhara' toilets and put stickers on them," the postgraduate student in geography said.

Transgender activist Ranjita Sinha has lauded the move.

"It is praiseworthy since he is a student. Often we are unable to push through and start something new but he has done it," Sinha told IANS.

Mukherjee has now spoken to councillors in other wards to get the ball rolling in different locations of the city.

Last year, California in the US became the first state to adopt an all-gender restroom access law. This year Stanford University also increased the number of all-gender restrooms on campus. Panjab University in India will have a separate toilet for transgender people.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Ambassador Vikram Misri has held up India's federal polity as a model for Myanmar, and said federalism generates a huge stake in the country's future and progress by a wide cross section of the people.

Addressing the Forum on Myanmar's Democratic Transition here, Misri said: "We in India do diversity with a capital D. We are happy with more and more powers to the state. That does not weaken our country, it makes it strong."

Misri, who was earlier ambassador to Spain, said inclusive federalism will help in unity of the country.

"What has happened in India will also play out in Myanmar. If you create an inclusive federation, it will strengthen your unity and not weaken you," Misri said.

The Indian envoy also referred to Nepal's effort to create a federation and said Myanmar has many lessons to learn from the successes and failures of the Himalayan country.

"Nepal first started with a polity that would exclude the minorities or most of them. Obviously there were huge protests because that was not acceptable to most," Misri said.

He said the debates thus generated have helped Nepal slowly reach the goals of an inclusive federalism.

"The process is not yet complete, Nepal is yet to get a constitution and has suffered chronic legislative instability. Myanmar can closely look at the Nepal experience to avoid the mistakes they made," Misri said.

The Forum on Myanmar's democratic transition that began on Friday has brought together 35 speakers from Myanmar, other Asian and Western countries to reflect on the progress of democratisation in the country.

Inaugurating the forum, pro-democracy icon and state Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi stressed the need for "democracy with dignity".

"We can't divide peace and development," she said.

Historically, Myanmar has "lacked" opportunities for growth "while our neighbors are developed", Suu Kyi said. "But there are advantages in following from the rear. We can take the experiences as lessons from the countries which are already developed," she said.

But Suu Kyi said she totally disagreed with the widely held notion "that development is more important than peace".

"If we don't have peace, the development will not be durable," Suu Kyi said, adding, "at the same time, if there is no development, we can't get peace; we have to try for both."

This is why the Myanmar government is "trying first to stop the civil war in this country", she said, referring to ongoing peace efforts with armed rebel groups, specially in northern Myanmar bordering China.

(Subir Bhaumik can be reached at sbhaum@gmail.com)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nitesh Tiwari might have said that he was willing to wait for a few years for superstar Aamir Khan to be part of his blockbuster "Dangal" and showed interest in casting actor Varun Dhawan in his next, but the filmmaker says he doesn't write scripts with an actor in mind.

"I don't write keeping an actor in mind. Only after I have finished my writing, I start to think about who would be the best person to play that role. And if he or she is willing to play that role then he or she is definitely worth the wait," Tiwari, who bagged the Best Director award for "Dangal" in Melbourne, told IANS.

"Because good scripts are hard to come by. So, if I am in love with my script, I would look for an equally exciting option, if plan A doesn't work out," he added.

At the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, where he won the award on Saturday, he will also discuss the "finer aspects" of what went into the making of "Dangal", based on the life of wrestler Geeta Phogat and her family.

"This will also be open to questions from the audience," he said about the chat session, which will be held on Sunday.

How helpful is it to host an Indian film festival abroad?

"More and more Indian films are finding global acceptance in a big way. So a festival of this nature and stature goes a long way in solidifying our standing in foreign markets as well," he said.

But if we go by his films, they are deeply rooted in Indian culture, and are mostly shot in India. Does he plan to shoot a film abroad or work on a story with an NRI angle?

"Why not? I am open to all kind of ideas provided they fit into my style of story telling," said the director, who has made children-based films like "Chillar Party" and "Bhoothnath Returns".

He said he doesn't make a "conscious effort" to write around children.

"I guess, it's because of my love towards children that they somehow find a seamless fit in most of my films," he said.

So, which one is more challenging - fiction or a biopic?

"Fiction is all about creating something interesting out of thin air while biopics are all about recreating something that's already happened and presenting it in an interesting manner. Both are equally difficult," he said.

There are many filmmakers who make movies based on tragedies in the country, whether it's a terror attack or someone's murder. Would he ever turn a tragic event into a film?

"As a writer, I would not want to put any restrictions on myself. However, I naturally tend to gravitate towards stuff that provides hope and happiness," said Tiwari, whose wife Ashwiny is also a director.

Does he ever see her as his competition?

"I celebrate her success more than mine," he said about Ashwiny, who made a successful directorial debut with the 2016 film "Nil Battey Sannata".

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Marking a deep rift in the party, the Nitish Kumar faction on Saturday removed senior leader and former party president Sharad Yadav as head of its parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, and replaced him with Ram Chandra Prasad Singh.

JD-U spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan confirmed the removal of Sharad Yadav to IANS.

The decision was taken a day after the party suspended its rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party, for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Ansari along with Yadav expressed differences with party President Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with the Grand Alliance of Congress and RJD and form a government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking in Bihar's Madhepura district, Sharad Yadav hit out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar's alone but belonged to him too.

"JD-U sirf Nitish Kumar ki hi party nahi hai, yeh meri bhi party hai," Sharad Yadav said on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Nitish Kumar's decision to break the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress and join hands with the BJP and form a new government.

Nitish Kumar is the Janata Dal-United national president and said to fully control the party in Bihar. "There are two JD-Us in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Sharad Yadav said.

He refused to comment on the JD-U decision to replace him as the parliamentary party leader.

Sharad Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had "not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, what do others matter".

"I am not afraid of any one to speak the truth and stand by my principles," he said in reference to his fight against the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he was a student leader close to Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.

Sharad Yadav said action has been taken against a few leaders of the party "who are standing with me", and leaders close to Nitish Kumar have been threatening other JD-U leaders supporting him.

Sharad Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

"The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls."

He said it was the people who had made the Grand Alliance of RJD, JD-U and Congress in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls and given their mandate to rule for five years. "People's mandate was against the BJP-led NDA," he said.

In New Delhi, JD-U rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, said the Sharad Yadav-led faction is the "real JD-U" and there was no question of leaving the party.

"There is no question of leaving the party (JD-U). We founded the party. Sharad Yadav-led faction is the real JD-U while the other one has become a 'Sarkari JD-U' and Bharatiya JD-(U)," Ansari said while briefing mediapersons.

"We are the real one as we are still with the principles of the JD-U, but they have changed and become BJD-U," he added, in a jibe at the Nitish Kumar faction which has sided with the BJP to form the government in Bihar.

Hitting out at Kumar, Anwar said that people who brought the party to its glory were being "removed" from party posts.

Ansari said that everyone, be it opposition parties, social leaders or anyone with human values, should unite against the "divisive forces" (BJP and RSS).

He added that this was not a personal fight against Nitish Kumar but a fight of principles and to save democracy and brotherhood.

"Yesterday (Friday) they suspended me from the parliamentary party. Today (Saturday), they removed Sharad Yadav, who was the founding member of JD-U, from the leadership of the parliamentary party. We are not going to get cowed down by such threats. We will fight till the end and go to the masses," said Ansari.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actress Shenaz Treasury has turned down the offer to visit Pakistan for an event.

Shenaz, who had portrayed a Pakistani character in the 2017 American romantic comedy film "The Big Sick", was approached to visit Pakistan for an event. However, looking at the current situation between India and Pakistan, the actress decided against going.

"As of now I am not taking events in Pakistan and yes I have turned down the offer since I feel it is not the right time," Shenaz said in a statement.

The actress, who is currently in the Maldives, will soon return to India to promote her upcoming release "Kaalakaandi".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It has again become Sonia Gandhi's responsibility to put together the broken pieces of opposition unity.

She successfully performed this task in 2004, thereby paving the way for the Congress's return to power after nearly a decade.

But, 13 years later, the job has become far more difficult. For one, the Congress president's principal opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has become politically a great deal more secure as well as uncommonly aggressive under a new leadership unlike in the time of Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

For another, the Congress has become weaker and demoralised after its drubbing by the BJP in 2014. Its reputation has also suffered because of the corruption charges it faced during its tenure in power in the 2004-14 period.

For Sonia Gandhi, therefore, it is going to be an arduous endeavour to offer a serious challenge to the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo in the BJP.

Her task has been made all the more difficult by the departure of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from the "secular" camp to the BJP. As he carried considerable credibility because of his clean image and administrative ability, he was undoubtedly an asset -- perhaps the only one -- in the non-BJP camp.

If Nitish Kumar was something of an exception, the reason was -- and still is -- that none of the other leaders, including Sonia Gandhi herself, are capable of playing an inspirational role with a personal record for probity and a vision in sync with a globalised world.

Instead, they carry a lot of baggage which weighs them down. For instance, Sonia Gandhi can be said to have thrown away the Congress's upward trajectory, which was evident in the 2009 election when it improved on the 2004 outcome, by turning to populist "socialism" at the expense of the economic reforms.

Modi grabbed the opportunity provided by her by presenting himself as the new reformer in Manmohan Singh's place which caught the attention of the younger generation.

Since then, he has capitalised on his image as a man of development who has understood the changes that have taken place in the psyche of the people in the post-1991 period of a market economy.

The opposition, on the other hand, seemingly remains stuck in the pre-1991 India of a public sector-dominated controlled economy.

As a result, there is no sign of the opposition parties being able to close the gap between them and the so-called aspirational generation, although the sluggishness of the economy at present has led to the formation of various restive groups such as the Patels in Gujarat and the Marathas in Maharashtra. Their grouse is that enough employment opportunities are not being created despite Modi's emphasis on "vikas" or development.

Several other groups, too, have been airing their discontent with the performance of the Modi government as can be seen from the open letters written to the Prime Minister by retired bureaucrats and army veterans complaining about the growing intolerance and divisiveness in society.

A group of scientists also took out a procession recently protesting against the propagation of obscurantist ideas.

The opposition might have been able to exploit grievances such as these as also of the suicide-prone farmers if it had speakers who could set the pulse racing along with undertaking countrywide tours to mobilise the masses and rev up their organizational network.

The indefatigable Modi and Amit Shah have been engaged in precisely such endeavours with their speeches and interaction with the cadres.

They have also been ruthless in wooing the dissenters in the other parties to the BJP, of whom Nitish Kumar is a prize catch. But it is obvious that they wouldn't have flocked to the BJP's ranks if they did not perceive the party as one which provides better political prospects.

Among the parties which have seen such desertions are the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Janata Dal-United.

It is evident, therefore, that Sonia Gandhi's efforts to bring them under one banner will not be crowned with success any time soon. So, opposition unity is likely to remain a chimera, as Omar Abdullah of the Conference said.

Yet, the endeavour is worthwhile because the endless rounds of elections in India provide an opportunity to all and sundry to make their presence felt.

For the Congress, next year's assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan can enable the party to tap into popular grievances since the BJP can well become the victim of the anti-incumbency factor.

Besides, the Congress and the other opposition parties can be sure of their bases among the Muslims, who have had reasons to be fearful of the depredations of the gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes), and of the liberals among the Hindus who have been put off by the BJP's orthodoxy in the matter of lifestyle choices.

There is little doubt, however, that any electoral success which these parties may enjoy will be by default. It will not be because they have been able to present the public with a widely acclaimed agenda for a new India.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in wake of the death of more than 60 children in the past five days at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the PMO said.

"PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and U.P. governments," said a tweet from the Prime Minister's Office handle.

"MoS Health Anupriya Patel and the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from Gorakhpur," said another tweet.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in Gorakhpur in five days, of whom many were infants. As many as 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China's Cyberspace Administration said that it is conducting an investigation towards the largest social media platforms in the country including WeChat, Weibo and Baidu Tieba due to an alleged violation of the cyber security laws.

According to the department, people have been using these social media platforms to spread terrorism-related material, obscenities and rumors. This has reportedly breached "jeopardized national security."

It is important to take note that China's officials heavily censor the internet and routinely block search terms or content they consider that are sensitive. China immediately trace posts through registered phone numbers and people were already aware of the things they need not to discuss online. In 2016, Freedom House ranked China as the world's worst abuser of internet freedom, saying that harsh punishments for internet expression and deteriorating legal environment are "significantly undermining civil society activism on the internet". It can be recalled that China also blocked foreign social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Weibo is China's version of Twitter, WeChat is an instant messaging mobile application while Baidu Tieba is a famous discussion forum online. These three platforms have been reported to have hundreds of millions of active users.

According to BBC, China's Cyberspace Administration accused internet users of "spreading violence, terror, false rumours, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order" on the three platforms.

In response, Baidu reportedly expressed regret and said that it would be willing to actively cooperate with the government to settle the issue. Moreover, it would reportedly increase the intensity of auditing along with the officials.

Tencent, which owns Weibo and WeChat, has not released any comment yet regarding this report.
The RSS on Saturday demanded that the Centre depute a fact-finding probe by a statutory body into the killings of its workers in Kerala but is against imposition of President's rule in the state.

The saffron organisation, however, has sought the Centre's "intervention" and action within the Constitutional bounds to bring the situation under control.

"We are really against dismissing a government, which is elected by the people. That will not do good," said P. Gopalan Kutty Master, the chief of Kerala RSS (Kerala Pranth Karyavahak), adding that when Article 356 was imposed in Kerala in 1959, RSS founder Guru Golwalkar had opposed it.

"Guruji opposed it (President's Rule). He then said it was wrong to dislodge a government elected by the people," he said.

The RSS is of the view that "political violence" in the state can end only through a "political change", implying the BJP coming to power, and not through dialogue as all such efforts in the past not only went in vain but worsened the situation, he said.

Master Kutty was talking to a group of journalists from Delhi, who were on a three-day visit to the areas like Kannur which witnessed violence against RSS and CPI(M) workers, organised by Good Governance Cell of BJP.

"We want that centre should send some Commission here to enquire the matter or Home Minister can call the Chief Minister and seek report on political killings. It may give good result," he said adding it could be a statutory commission like the Human Rights Commission or the SC/ST Commission.

The RSS leader said, "The BJP-RSS needs to be strengthened politically here and a political change can only put a full stop to violence."

He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan feared that the Centre can do "something" after Governor P.Sathasivam talked to the Chief Minister and the DGP after the murder of RSS worker Rajesh here.

The RSS leader accused the CPI (M) of always violating the dialogue process and alleged that police officials of the state are working as party cadres.

"From the top, including the DGP, to the bottom are working for the CPI (M). He is a DGP. Home ministry can do something...they can question him and seek report. If this happens things may go smoother," Master Kutty said.

He accepted that on some occasions the BJP-RSS workers also attack CPI (M) workers but all that was in self defence.

"A planned retaliation is not good for the organisation. But when some incident takes place, sudden retaliation is necessary. Otherwise, our members will lose their morale. We say to our people,beware of things. Be prepared everytime as there can be attack at any point of time. Don't sit down even if peace talks are going on," Kutty said.

He said that RSS was getting stronger after every attack.

"Some six or seven years ago there was some stagnation in our work but after that we organised some programmes in all districts of the state. In Kannur alone, we are running 250 shakhas daily. Still there are some pockets in some areas where we can't go. Things are changing now. There are many in CPI (M) 'party villages' where their mind is with us but due to fear they don't come out in the open," he said.

He said that since 2016 several rounds of dialogue took place between the two sides including between the top leaders of both CPI (M) and BJP-RSS but all of them were in vain because after every dialogue they come up with some bigger attacks.

"Spiritual leader Sri M once took initiative to end the political killings. He talked to Sarsanghchalakji (RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat). We were asked by Sarsanghchalakji to hold dialogue. We followed his directions and talks for peace began. Since then several rounds of dialogues have taken place but they did not work," he said.

Kutty said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan looked sincere in every meeting and always promised to control the party cadres and take strong action against the attackers but it never happened in reality.

On being asked about the demands of RSS which can end the political killings, the RSS state unit chief said, "Only three. First, we have no freedom for organisational work and we want that. Second, impartial police action and third talks between leaders on both sides. They should sit and communicate together and try to solve the crisis."

He said in principle they agree with all these demands but after every dialogue the attacks continue. Citing an instance a year ago, he said after two sittings 13-year-old Vismaya's father Santosh was killed. "I called the CM and the party secretary and they said this was not by their party cadres. They said they were people not under their control. They again said they will take some steps and will not help the culprits in police station and in courts. But they did it again," he alleged.

"After the killing of Rajesh, again we sat in an all party conference. Some of our mebers were not ready to participate because they (CPI-M) breached the assurances given in talks. But the sarsanghchalak was in favour of talks. Same discussion, same demands and same reply were there. But after that the attacks continued," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after Chief Minister announced a probe against two cabinet colleagues for alleged corruption, Industries Minister Subhash Desai of ally Shiv Sena tendered his resignation on Saturday but it was rejected.

The quick-paced developments came after Desai met Fadnavis with his resignation letter. The chief minister spoke with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray before rejecting it. He asked Desai to continue in office.

Desai, 75, among the senior most Sena leaders, is a close confidante of Thackeray. The two leaders met late on Friday night before he decided to quit, official sources said.

After a sustained opposition onslaught in the legislature against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta and Desai, Fadnavis announced a probe into the allegations on Friday.

As pressure built up, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources claimed even Mehta offered his resignation on Friday night, but Fadnavis rejected it, prompting a sharp reaction from the opposition Congress on Saturday.

"It's a farce, announcing the investigations, getting resignations and then rejecting them... Why is there a different yardstick for (former BJP Minister) Eknath Khadse and others," demanded Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.

Hitting back, Thackeray demanded a thorough and impartial probe against several opposition leaders accused in various scandals, including "the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam," hinting at senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and others.

"The people who are accused of graft are levelling corruption allegations against our ministers... They disrupted the assembly session on these issues to divert attention from their own misdeeds," Thackeray said.

He confirmed that after discussions with Fadnavis, it was decided that Desai's resignation from the cabinet was not necessary.

Desai was accused of flouting norms while allegedly denotifying around 12,000 hectares of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Nashik land to favour private builders.

Mehta was charged with corruption in certain slum rehabilitation projects here by the Congress-NCP.

On the final day of the legislature session, Fadnavis assured an inquiry by Maharashtra Lokayukta Justice M.L. Tahiliyani into the allegations against Mehta and by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau against Desai.

The opposition had demanded probes by the Enforcement Directorate and a Special Investigation Team against the two senior Ministers - who stoutly refuted the allegations hurled against them.

Sawant said the manner in which the government sought to exonerate Mehta, even before a probe was initiated, proved that the government is "unprincipled", with both the ruling allies hand-in-glove on the issue.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, who arrived here on Saturday on a three-day visit to Karnataka, claimed that the BJP would return to power in the assembly elections in early 2018.

Addressing about 500 party cadres and its state unit leaders outside the airport on arrival from New Delhi, Shah said: "I have come here with a firm will to bring the BJP back to power in the state. I can sense the mood of the people to give our party an opportunity again to serve them."

Wearing the popular 'Mysore Peta' (headgear) and sporting a saffron shawl, Shah said the party would strive to win about 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to form the next government.

"It will be a BJP government this time to free the people from the corrupt and incompetent Congress government in the state. We will make Karnataka also a Congress-free state, as we did in other states," he said.

The BJP formed its first government in the southern state after winning a simple majority in the 2008 assembly election and was in power for five years with three Chief Ministers, but lost to the ruling Congress in the 2013 poll.

Union Ministers D.V. Sadanada Gowda and Ananth Kumar, party's state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and other leaders received Shah and accompanied him to the party's office in the city.

"Though Shah is visiting Karnataka as part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party's presence, he will have a firsthand account of the political situation in the state and draw plans for the upcoming assembly poll," a party official told IANS.

"Shah is holding a day-long meeting with the party's core group to draw the poll strategy for the assembly election, due in April-May 2018. He will also interact with our state unit leaders, lawmakers and the party's office-bearers," said the official.

Besides Yeddyurappa and Shettar, Gowda was the state's Chief Minister for a year from August 2011 to September 2012 after the former resigned following his indictment in the multi-crore mining scam in the state by the anti-graft body Lokayukta (Ombudsman).

The party has invited about 600 achievers from different fields, and celebrities for an interaction with Shah at a star hotel in the city on Saturday night and for their feedback on the BJP-led NDA government in the Centre.

The party's chief will call on hill town Adichunchanagiri Mutt seer Nirmalananda Swamiji in the city on Sunday and visit the ashram of Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar on the city's southern outskirts.

"Shah will address the party's elected representatives, cadres and supporters on Monday before leaving for New Delhi. He will share with them the poll strategy to win absolute majority in the ensuing assembly election with its 'Mission 150' target," added the official.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Janata Dal-United rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, on Saturday said the Sharad Yadav-led faction is the "real JD-U" and there was no question of leaving the party.

Ansari said the faction led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has become a "Sarkari JD-U".

"There is no question of leaving the party (JD-U). We founded the party. Sharad Yadav-led faction is the real JD-U while the other one has become a 'Sarkari JD-U' and Bharatiya JD-(U)," Ansari said while briefing mediapersons.

"We are the real one as we are still with the principles of the JD-U, but they have changed and become BJD-U," he added, in a jibe at the Nitish Kumar faction which has sided with the BJP to form government in Bihar.

Hitting out at Kumar, Anwar said that people who brought the party to its glory were being "removed" from party posts.

"They say I was removed from the parliamentary party because I attended a meeting of opposition parties but I did so when Sharadji, who was then our parliamentary party head, asked me to go there."

Ansari said that everyone, be it opposition parties, social leaders or anyone with human values, should unite against the "divisive forces" (BJP and RSS).

He added that this was not personal fight against Nitish Kumar but a fight of principles and to save democracy and brotherhood.

"Yesterday (Friday) they suspended me from the parliamentary party. Today (Saturday), they removed Sharad Yadav, who was the founding member of JD-U, from the leadership of the parliamentary party. We are not going to get cowed down by such threats. We will fight till the end and go to the masses," said Ansari.

"We will start a Jan Andolan (mass movement)," he added.

"We have the support of activists, students and other social leaders. We will go to different universities across the country. We will go among Dalits and will make efforts to save democracy, the Constitution and the social fabric of the country."

He said that they will now decide whether to attend the JD-U's National Council meeting on August 19.

Ansari also condoled the deaths of children in BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur and said that this incident has brought "shame" to the nation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar says that he is tied up with Varun Dhawan-starrer "October" and that reports about him planning to collaborate with superstar Shah Rukh Khan on a film are wrong.

According to reports, Shah Rukh and Sircar are keen to collaborate on a film that will be based on the Indian Army.

Asked about it, Sircar told IANS over phone from Melbourne: "No. This is wrong news. I am not aware of it at all. I have no clue. I'm just getting into a film with Varun. That's already been announced."

He is in the Australian city for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne where his 2016 production "Pink" won the Best Film award on Friday. The movie, with a strong social message, has even bagged the National Film Award. But getting recognition in Australia is different for the "Madras Cafe" director.

"It's a joy and a proud moment for the team, especially because we have got an acknowledgement from the Australian jury. The film has resonated with them as well. That gives a high. It shows that we are on the right path," he said.

Sircar, who has worked with actors like Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Ayushmann Khurrana, is also looking forward to a chat session on actors and acting process at the festival on Sunday.

"I am going to speak on my films right from the scripting process to execution," he said.

Talking about his criteria for choosing actors for his films, Sircar said: "I don't have actors in mind, but definitely I have the characters in mind while writing the script because we are developing the character, then we start working on it...the nuances of the character and then that decides who the actor is going to be. Sometimes, it is also because of the economic pressure."

"The kind of films that I make...I try to keep the budgets as low as possible," he added.

Still, he manages to strike the right chord with the audience.

"I am just lucky that they (his films) have all worked. I never thought that my films... like on constipation would work. I thought they were very average stories, but very important. I thought somehow I would just manage. I thank the audience for giving so much of love to my films," said the director, who has helmed successful films like "Piku" and "Vicky Donor".

He is set to touch the audience's hearts with his next, which will be a slice of life love story.

Sircar, unlike most filmmakers, has never locked horns with the Central Board of Film Certification, whose chief Pahlaj Nihalani has now been replaced by writer, lyricist and adman Prasoon Joshi.

Asked about the move, Sircar said: "I think Prasoon Joshi is absolutely eligible. He has been a part of the mainstream film industry. He knows exactly...he himself is a creative person. So, I think he will understand much deeper what we filmmakers want and what people should watch. It's a great move that Prasoon Joshi has come on board."

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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A full-fledged intense war between nuclear armed India and China is unlikely, but chances of a skirmish cannot be ruled out, former Army Chief General V.P. Malik said.

As India and China remain in wait-and-watch mode with a standoff continuing along the border in Sikkim, retired Army Chief Malik, who was heading the Indian Army when the Kargil conflict took place in 1999, also said the situation cannot be compared with 1962.

"I don't expect the situation is likely to develop into a high intensity extended conflict, but skirmishes cannot be ruled out either in Chumbi valley or anywhere else along the border," General Malik told IANS.

He hoped the conflict could be resolved through dialogue.

"There are attempts being made diplomatically to resolve the situation. One hopes that it gets resolved but one has to be prepared for all contingencies. If a military confrontation takes place we have to be prepared," he said.

"I suppose both sides are prepared. As far as soldiers are concerned their job is just in case diplomacy fails and there is a confrontation then they have to cope up with that," he added.

The former Army chief said the situation today cannot be compared to that of 1962, adding that the two nuclear-armed nations may not have a long war.

"We are no longer in 1962 kind of a situation. Don't forget both countries, China as well as India today are nuclear nations. They are both conscious of their responsibility," he said.

Amid a stand-off in Doklam, close to the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, both India and China have been reinforcing troops along the border.

At Doklam, the point of the stand-off, there are around 350 troops on the Indian side and around the same number of soldiers on the other side of the border. There have been no increase in troops or any movement on the Chinese side that may indicate a possible conflict.

The soldiers have been asked to be on high alert, and artillery guns have been moved to different points. Army officials in New Delhi have refused to comment on the situation.

On Friday, another flag meeting between Indian and Chinese Army officers over the ongoing standoff in Doklam remained inconclusive.

The flag meeting at the designated point in Nathu-la was attended by a Major General rank officer from the Indian side and an equal rank official from the other side.

Usually flag meetings are held between Brigadier level officers.

Another flag meeting is expected to be held soon, and may involve a more senior Lieutenant General level officer, according to sources.

The standoff close to the tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan started on June 16, after a construction party from China's People's Liberation Army entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road.

A Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them and the ambassador of Bhutan publicly stated that it lodged a protest with the Chinese government through their embassy in New Delhi on June 20.

--IANS

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The annual Nehru boat race, a signature event of Kerala, was held here on Saturday evening in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

The 65th edition of the race, named after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, took place in the Vembanad Lake. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who said that even though there are several similar boat races held across the state, this one is the most prestigious.

Even though it was earlier stated that 78 boats of various shapes and sizes will take part, the number crossed 100, of which 24 were snake boats.

The grand finale of the snake boat race was won by Gabriel snake boat, edging out its nearest rival by a whisker. Gabriel finished the race in 4.22 minutes.

However, the final got delayed as some teams contested that one particular snake boat had employed the services of more than 25 per cent professional oarsmen.

After 45 minutes of deliberations, State Finance Minister Thomas Issac resolved the issue and the race took place amid very little light.

The snake boat race is the main tourist attraction because of the boats length, from 120 to 140 feet and with about 120 oarsmen.

"The rains kept away and that was an added attraction. Without doubt there were more than 30,000 spectators and as in the past, the turnout of foreign tourists was also very good. This race has now become very high on the itinerary of many water sport lovers, both in and outside our country," Tomy Pulikattil, who is one of the organisers of the event, told IANS.

The history of the event dates to 1952 when Nehru visited the area and a small flotilla of decorated boats accompanied him from Kottayam to Alappuzha on the famed backwaters.

An impromptu race was conducted in his honour. Thrilled by the performance of the oarsmen, Nehru jumped into a snake boat.

On returning to Delhi, he donated a silver trophy, a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus with an inscription and his signature. This trophy is awarded to the winner of the snake boat category every year.

--IANS

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Aiming for complete elimination of man-animal conflict, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday called for a model to fix the elephant habitats and corridors.

According to a report, 415 persons in 2015-16 and 245 in 2016-17 (up to February 9, 2017) were killed by elephants, while over 100 elephants also died during the same period.

Depleting corridors, through which the megaherbivore moves across the forests for food and water, is considered to be the top reason for such conflicts.

India has about 110 recognised elephant corridors, most of which require rigorous fixing.

"Our goal is to completely eliminate the menace of man-animal conflict, in which around 400 people and 100 elephant die every year," Harsh Vardhan said here on the occasion of the release of the latest census report to mark the World Elephant Day.

According to the census report, India has 27,312 free-ranging elephants that make for 60 per cent of the total Asian elephant population.

Fixing the elephant habitats will also positively impact all other species of the region, according to the experts.

"We have a good number of elephants and we must not be obsessed with population. The only issue is management of the habitats and their population," said Professor Raman Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science.

Calling for an end to poaching, animal cruelty and wildlife crime at the earliest and spreading overall awareness, Harsh Vardhan said the issue of conservation required a scientific approach.

"If we can have cure for cancer then why not cure the issue of conservation as well," the Minister said.

The Environment Ministry also released the 17-point list of actions to be taken for the trans-border conservation of elephants in the India-Bangladesh landscape. The list was prepared at a summit in Shillong last month.

Bangladesh has a population of 200 resident elephants.

--IANS

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My father went to jail in the 1942 Quit India movement. He was interned for 2.5 years in Delhi and Lucknow jails and was released in 1946.

I often used to ask him whether he and hundreds and thousands of Indians like him who sacrificed their lives for India's independence ever thought that it will become such a chaotic and corrupt country and whether his sacrifice was in vain? We started with such a high moral ground in 1947 and where have we brought our country to? He used to fumble with the answer and was clueless about it.

This is the same question I still ask myself when giving lectures to youngsters in innumerable universities, IITs and other colleges. Yet these youngsters are the future of our county and we should educate and inspire them to do better.

At the time when we are celebrating 75 years of the Quit India movement and 70 years of independent India we should perhaps give a new slogan for Quit India: Banish from India poverty, hunger, hatred and violence. Freedom from these will be true independence for our country.

How do we achieve this? Not by slogans or posters or Twitter! But by solid hard work for changing India from the bottom up.

Poverty can be reduced drastically by creating wealth from the land. When 55 per cent of India's population is dependent on farming, it is important that we focus very intensely on agriculture and improving the lot of farmers. Some of the poorest in the rural population are farmers. By giving them proper incentives and regulating the mandis so that the middlemen give them good prices for their produce, the government can really help the farmers increase their income and create wealth for the country. Our survival depends on eating food and not nuts and bolts or software! A proper farming policy and its implementation can be the real game changer for the country and can be the biggest industry.

With increased food availability and wealth of the farmers, the issues of hunger can also be mitigated. India has the dubious distinction of having one-third of its population malnourished. A country which has a massive space programme but cannot take care of its millions of malnourished citizens is really a matter of shame for all of us and needs introspection.

Hatred and violence are linked and come from the lack of resources and hence the desire to control them. These tendencies exist in all humans but when the resources get diminished, because of overpopulation or for other reasons, then the desire to control and horde them becomes strong. This leads to insecurity and ultimately to violence. The control is practised in the name of religion, caste, belief or anything which allows a group of people to indulge in violence.

Spirituality can reduce insecurity and help us in becoming tolerant to others' points of view and hence less violent. With the country's increased wealth because of excellent farming, this tendency of control and hatred can be further reduced and checked.

At the same time there has to be a very conscious effort to teach good moral science and value system in schools. A complete overhaul of the schooling system, which is at present based on passing examinations, is required. It should be more focused on imparting value-based education together with skill development.

True independence will be when we all work together to produce a sustainable and holistic India.

(Anil K. Rajvanshi is Director of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute at Phaltan in Maharashtra. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)

--IANS

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US President Donald Trump has told Guam Governor Eddie Calvo over the phone that "You are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent", the media reported on Saturday.

According to a video tweeted by the Guam News on Friday, Calvo while talking to Trump via an office phone switched the call to speaker phone to enable viewers hear the conversation clearly, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I just wanted to pay my respects and we are with you one thousand per cent, you are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent. I wanted to call you and say hello, how are you?" Trump said.

"Mr President, as the Governor of Guam, representative of Guam's people, and as an American citizen, I felt never more safe and confident with you at the helm," the Governor said with a smile.

"Don't worry about a thing," Trump said. "I have to say, Eddie, you're going to become extremely famous. All over the world they're talking about Guam and they're talking about you," the clip, about 45 seconds long, showed the President as saying.

Tensions between North Korea and the US escalated this week amid increasingly heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korean military on Thursday said it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike Guam, a US island territory in the Western Pacific, with intermediate missiles.

It was a response to Trump's unusually stern warning to North Korea, when he said: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Trump on Friday furthered the rhetoric, saying the US was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.

--IANS

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For two decades, Wisconsin was a shining example of what an open court system could be. The state Supreme Court was one of the few in the nation that conducted deliberations in public.

Now that experiment in good government is over.

In June, justices voted to close the doors. No longer will residents get to watch them argue about arcane judicial policies and codes of ethics. They will make those decisions in secret, and the people can just live with whatever they decide, no questions answered.

It was the end of an era in which transparency built trust and allowed voters to make informed decisions when a justice came up for re-election every 10 years. Since the 1990s, Wisconsinites have been able to watch the states legal luminaries thoughtfully consider both complex and mundane issues.

Granted, often wisdom and restraint were absent. Justices were sometimes no better than churlish children in a schoolyard. They insulted and berated each other. There was even a physical altercation.

They werent building trust. They were undermining it. Transparency caused embarrassment.

Most people in similar circumstances would identify the problem as the behavior and work to change it. They might seek to develop a more collegial environment where justices could disagree respectfully, even across ideological lines. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the late Justice Antonin Scalia couldnt have been much further apart ideologically, but they developed a famously close friendship. Surely, Wisconsins justices could strive for courtesy if not friendship.

Wisconsins justices arent most people. They identified transparency as the problem, not their behavior. So last month they changed the rules. Justices Pat Roggensack, Annette Ziegler, Michael Gableman, Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly supported moving their bad behavior behind closed doors. Justices Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley wisely opposed it.

To be clear, these are not deliberations in lawsuits and criminal cases argued before the court. This is not like a jury going into a room to hold a frank conversation that decides the fate of a defendant.

This is more like lawmakers in the Capitol writing laws. The justices are deliberating about policies and the ground rules that affect anyone caught up in the Wisconsin legal system, not specific cases.

Voters can send a message that they expect better from the states highest court. Wisconsins system of electing judges has serious problems, but in this case it could serve the people well.

Justice Michael Gableman has announced he will not seek re-election in 2018. At least three people have already declared their candidacy, and others could join them.

We will ask the judicial candidates about this decision and whether they support the publics right to watch their government at work.

Voters should do the same and think twice before supporting someone who endorses secrecy over the publics right to know.
Two policemen and a civilian were injured when unidentified assailants threw a petrol bomb on a police party here on Saturday evening, police said.

The attack occurred in Dalgate area of the city.

"Three persons including two policemen and a civilian were injured in this attack. The injured were shifted to hospital where doctors described their condition as stable," police said.

--IANS

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The deaths of over 30 children in the past two days at a Gorakhpur hospital prompted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday to dispatch two cabinet ministers to the town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon were directed by an "extremely unhappy" Adityanath to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.

Over the past five days more than 60 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital at the parliamentary constituency and hometown of the Chief Minister lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply.

Under attack from opposition over the incident, Siddhartha Nath Singh has appealed not to "make this political".

A delegation of the Congress led by party General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, UPCC chief Raj Babbar and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh is likely to visit the BRD Medical college later in the day.

The ministerial visit, officials informed, would involve preparing an exhaustive report on the reasons behind the tragedy.

The two ministers, before leaving for Gorakhpur, met Adityanath, who asked them "not to spare any one found guilty".

Although there has been no official statement by Adityanath's office on the incident, he is learnt to be monitoring the situation on an hourly basis.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh has slammed the state BJP government over the incident and has called for the sacking of the Health Minister and other concerned officials.

Vaibhav Maheshwari, state spokesman of AAP told IANS "it was a matter of shame that the Chief Minister was mum on such a serious issue and that the state government was trying to defuse facts".

The tragedy that struck the children, including many infants, in the last 48 hours were at the medical college that has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.

--IANS

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Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on Saturday slammed the "warmongering" declarations of the US President Donald Trump as "threats to peace."

Trump's statement about not to "rule out" a military option in Venezuela was a "violation" of UN and international laws, Xinhua quoted Arreaza as saying.

"Venezuela categorically rejects the unfriendly and warmongering declarations of Trump, who has threatened us with a military intervention, in violation of UN principles and international law," said the foreign minister.

Bolivian President Evo Morales also condemned on Saturday the "armed interventionist eagerness by the US against Venezuela," slamming the international community for keeping silent.

Writing on Twitter, Morales stated that "we condemn the armed interventionist eagerness by the US against Venezuela, a country which seeks peace in dialogue."

Venezuela's government has been severely criticised by the international community for creating a National Constituent Assembly (ANC), which will rewrite the Constitution.

This has been widely derided as a power-grab by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

Several Venezuelans also dismissed Trump's words as "imperial interference."

"It is an act of arrogance. It is not the first time that Trump has acted like this towards Venezuela, which has been besieged for a long time," said Cristobal Alva, a Venezuelan poet from Guatire in the northern state of Miranda.

Rosalia Pulgar, a pensioner from Caracas, said that "we are prepared to resolve our own problems."

She highlighted the "moral and military...preparation" of the Venezuelan people and added that "diplomacy" was the right way to resolve conflicts.

Also on Saturday, South American trade bloc Mercosur rejected the use of force in Venezuela, according to a statement by Argentina's foreign ministry.

--IANS

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Haryana BJP President Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar were on Saturday sent to judicial custody by a court here in the attempted abduction and stalking case involving an IAS officer's daughter.

Presenting the accused in the court here, Chandigarh Police, which had taken a two-day police remand on Thursday, did not seek further custody.

The police had earlier sought their remand to reconstruct the crime scene.

Both were re-arrested on Wednesday after they were booked under non-bailable offences, including attempt to abduct Varnika Kundu, under Section 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to confine person) and Section 511 (attempt to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.

Vikas and Ashish have denied that they intended to abduct the woman, who is a disc jockey.

Varnika Kundu, 29, daughter of Haryana Additional Chief Secretary V.S. Kundu, had complained to police that the two accused had stalked and intimidated her and tried to abduct her on August 4-5 night.

--IANS

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Congress leader and former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari hosted the leadership team of the Atlantic Council, a global think tank of which he is a distinguished senior fellow, in Delhis Gymkhana Club. It was a well-attended lunch, with a large number of journalists and members of Parliament cutting across party lines being present. The surprise guest was Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi. He seemed to take an aggressive stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party and questioned the medias responsibility in fighting that party. Some had said Tewari and Gandhi had fallen out: It didnt appear so at the luncheon.
With a spate in globally orchestrated cyberattacks, many non-information technology (IT) and -banking companies are enquiring and purchasing cyber worth up to $100 million (Rs 640 crore).

Indian firms are buying cyber from $1 million to $100 million. The early adopters and those with cyber insurances are increasing their cover, said Sanjay Kedia, country head and chief executive officer, Marsh India. He added companies with exposure to the European General Data Protection Regulation were proactive in expanding their cover as they could be fined as much as 4 per cent of their global annual turnover for failing to comply with rules.

Earlier, only IT and banking companies would purchase cyber insurance, as their business in developed countries required them to comply with data protection regulations. But now, many manufacturing, pharmaceutical, automobile and ancillary activity, oil and energy, as well as utility companies were showing an interest in and purchasing customised cyber and commercial crime policies that cover a range of risks.

This is now a necessity, claim experts, as India is one of the top destinations for digital services, with the government pushing digitisation and an increasing smartphone and internet penetration. At the same time, India is also one of the top targets of cybercrimes  it was the third-worst hit country by WannaCry.

Government-owned companies, especially security installations and energy firms, are also realising they are exposed to state-sponsored actors apart from cyber fraudsters.

With a surge in reports of organisations being duped by fraudsters online, such as the Bangladesh Bank heist last year, there has been 25 per cent increase in requests for crime insurance policies over the past few years. The premium for a Rs 25-crore policy would be about Rs 15-30 lakh a year, depending on the type of insurance, said Sanjay Datta, chief underwriter  claims and reinsurance, ICICI Lombard.

There are, however, a few challenges in converting an enquiry for insurance into a sale. Sector players claim the biggest among these is the lack of a strong assessment policy across industries.

An EY report earlier this year had noted 55 per cent of Indian enterprises do not have a threat-assessment programme. The study also found 68 per cent of companies would not increase their security spending even if a direct supplier was attacked, and despite knowing suppliers have access to its systems.

The cost of insurance goes up when insurance companies see a weak security system. Companies also do not have a model to measure their losses effectively and hence they dont see the need to invest (in insurance). Yet, the cost of insurance cover goes down only when the volume of policies increases, said Sivarama Krishnan, partner and leader for cybersecurity, PwC India.

He also noted that unlike health and vehicle insurance, there was no regulatory requirement for cyber insurance. So companies opting for it were doing so out of client requirement or a need to safeguard their brand.

At present, in India, insurance companies provide policies covering common cyber risks such as legal liabilities for data breach, loss of customer information, loss of revenue, ransom and certain kinds of incidental expenses related to cyberattacks, said Venkat Nippani, partner, Grant Thornton India LLP.

Premium for a policy covering loss of reputation may be about 3 per cent of the sum insured, compared to a policy for loss of operational time, which might be 0.3 per cent of the sum insured. The reason for the difference in cost was because while unavailability of systems can be measured, reputation cannot. As policy price rises, clients lose interest, said PwCs Krishnan.
The Janata Dal (United) will make a formal announcement on joining the NDA in its executive meeting on August 19 after BJP president Amit Shah invited Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to join the ruling alliance.

JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said the party will approve the proposal in the meeting in Patna.

The JD(U) executive will be chaired by the party chief Nitish Kumar and a decision to join the NDA government will be formally announced, he said.

Tyagi's comments came following Shah's invitation to Kumar to join the ruling alliance.

"I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA," Shah said in a tweet.

The Bihar-based party is also likely to join the Narendra Modi cabinet whenever a reshuffle takes place.

Asked if the party would join the Modi cabinet, a JD(U) leader said such a decision would be "natural".

"When we are together in government in Bihar, it is only natural that our party joins the Union government," he said.
The Delhi Police has arrested a man for allegedly trying to smuggle 22 semi-automatic pistols in the Capital from Madhya Pradesh ahead of the Independence Day, officials said today.

Ugara Singh was part of a gang involved in supply of illegal arms and ammunition from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi, the police said.

Yesterday, the police learnt that an arm supplier would come near Bhairon Marg in Central Delhi to deliver a consignment of illegal weapons to a local conduit of a gangster, said Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Around 9 PM, Ugara was nabbed near Udyan Nursery.

Twenty semi-automatic pistols were recovered from his possession, the officer said.

During interrogation, he told the police about a gang headed by one Bacchu Singh that was involved in supplying weapons for the last many years.

Ugara joined Bacchu's gang about two years back.

The gang members used code words while talking on phones for deciding places to deliver the weapons, said Verma.

For instance, Taj Mahal denoted Sarai Kale Khan, Lal Quila for Bhairon Mandir among others, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party president on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government).

Shah, who is in Karnataka on a three-day visit to re- energise a faction-driven state unit, asserted that the party was ready for the electoral battle to win the assembly polls under the leadership of BJP state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa.

Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state, Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport here.

Assembly polls in Karnataka are due early next year for which the party has a 150-plus seats goal to come back to power.

Shah is scheduled to interact with partymen at various levels and expected to give a pep talk to senior leaders to remain united, as the open bickerings between some of its leaders until recently had embarrassed the party.

Yeddyurappa has come under criticism from a section of partymen over his alleged "arbitrary style" of functioning with another senior leader K S Eshwarappa openly flagging the issue until both were told to shun open display of differences.

"I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power," Shah said.

Addressing the party workers who gave him a rousing reception near the airport, Shah said he had come here to realise the goal of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka.

"I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government) resolution," he added.

He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Vijay Rath' (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into the southern India by winning Karnataka.

BJP's first ever government in the South had ruled Karnataka from 2008-2013 that saw internal fights leading to change of chief ministers thrice and paved the way for return of Congress to power.

The ruling Congress is going all out to retain power but BJP has said it has a counter-strategy to fight its "polarisation ."

The BJP would neither interfere in the Lingayat religion issue nor use Kannada language row as a political tool to counter the "polarisation politics" of the Congress in Karnataka, senior BJP leader Suresh Kumar said.

The Congress support to a separate religion cause of Lingayats, the largest community in the state, ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, is seen as an attempt to cause damage to the BJP, which enjoys considerable support from the community.

The BJP also does not want to use the language issue as a tool to create hatred towards other communities and sections of the people, Kumar said.

Huge protests were staged by pro-Kannada outfits over the use of Hindi on 'Namma Metro' signboards, which also had forced Siddaramaiah to write to the Centre stating the government was compelled to ask Namma Metro to temporarily re-design signboards in stations without the Hindi language following a row over its use.

Shah's visit is part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party.

Shah's programmes during his three-day stay include interaction with intellectuals, meeting religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs, and leaders of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

On Sunday, he will take part in the Political Affairs Committee meeting of the party and visit Adi Chunchanagiri Math at Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet the seer, who is the religious leader of Vokkaligas, the second most powerful community in Karnataka.

He will also meet Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

On the third day, Shah will address party "vistaraks" (volunteers) who had fanned out across the state to get feedback from the people.
An Army jawan and a woman were killed as Pakistani troops today violated ceasefire twice along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

A defence spokesman said the Pakistan army initiated the unprovoked firing on the Indian Army posts at around 5 PM today.

"The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said.

In the exchange of fire, Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar (42), resident of Madhya Pradesh, was grievously injured and later succumbed to injuries, the spokesman said.

Tomar, who hailed from Tarsana village in Morena district in MP, is survived by his wife Omavati Devi, a son and a daughter, he said.

"He was a brave and sincere soldier. The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," he added.

His death took the number of jawans killed in the sector in the last five days to two. On August 8, Sepoy Pawan Singh Sugra (21) was killed in unprovoked Pakistani firing.

Earlier in the day, a 40-year-old woman was killed in Gohlad Kalran village after the Pakistani army resorted to indiscriminate firing for nearly one-and-a-half-hour.

"The Pakistani army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 0515 hours in Poonch sector along the LoC. The Indian Army personnel guarding the border posts retaliated strongly and effectively. The exchange of fire stopped at 0645 hours," the spokesman said.

A police officer, while giving details about the incident, said at around 5.20 AM, mortar shells fired from across the border exploded near the house of one Mohammad Shabir in the village, killing his wife Raqia Bi.

Till August 1 this year, there have been 285 instances of ceasefire violation by the Pakistani troops. In 2016, the number was significantly less at 228.

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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson today blamed North Korea for the stand-off with the United States and said London wants a diplomatic end to the crisis.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it ," he said on Twitter.

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

"We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."



US President Donald Trump today reassured Guam it was secure amid mounting regional tensions, vowing that American military forces "stand ready" to safeguard the US Pacific island territory against a belligerent North Korea.

The North has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the tourism-dependent island, as Pyongyang and Washington ratchet up their war of words.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged Trump to avoid rhetoric that could inflame the situation, while French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an "escalation of tensions".

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The standoff between India and China in Doklam of the Sikkim section is a matter of concern, a top American commander has said and asked the two sides to work together and resolve the issue diplomatically.

India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area for more than 50 days after Indian troops stopped the Chinese People's Liberation Army from building a road in the area.

Admiral Harry B Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, echoed the State Department's view that the US encourages the two countries to resolve their differences diplomatically.

"Well, I think that any time you have two great powers at odds across a common border, that's an area of concern. Of course, it's potentially dangerous," he told PTI when asked about the Doklam standoff.

"But I think that I would echo those sentiments of our own government leaders, America's national leadership, that we encourage both India and China to engage in diplomacy, to help reduce these tensions," he said.

When asked if in Doklam China is repeating the pattern it has been following in the South China Sea to change the status quo, Harris said it is for India to make a determination in this regard.

"I think that's a determination that India is going to have to make itself. I don't want to speak for India, and I certainly don't want to speculate on what might happen. I think this is a dispute, as it stands now, and that India and China must work out together. Hopefully peacefully," Admiral Harris said.

Harris also said China's actions in the South and East China seas are "coercive" to its neighbours.

"I believe that their (Chinese) actions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea are aggressive...And they are coercive to their neighbours," he said.

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At least 44 people were killed and nearly 180 others injured after two trains collided near Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, officials said.

The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that the number of deaths may increase and the final toll will be announced after clearing the debris of the two trains.

The deadly collision took place yesterday after a train travelling to Alexandria from Cairo, crashed into the back of another train coming from the Canal city of Port Said, which was waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, east of Alexandria, the Egyptian Railways Authority said in a statement.

The area of the collision has been cordoned off by security forces as a rescue team is currently searching for survivors over the night and removing the wreckage off the tracks, it said.

Iman Hamdy, 26, a survivor of the accident, said that she was travelling in the train going to Alexandria and noticed that it was already in a bad condition.

The Al-Masri el-Youm Arabic newspaper quoted her saying that the train abruptly stopped for 15 minutes in Ebies area near Khorshid station when she felt its collision with the another train.

Hamdy, who succeeded in escaping from the train through one of the windows, said that she will never forget the large number of injured, mostly women and children, she saw at the accident site.

Another survivor, 10 year-old Karim Abdel Wahab, said that he couldn't find his mother and brother who were travelling with him in the train.

The driver of the Cairo-Alexandria train has surrendered himself to police and has been transferred to El-Raml police station in Alexandria for investigation, local media said quoting a health ministry official.

Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadiq has ordered an urgent investigation into the collision to find out the reason behind the crash.

President El-Sisi has expressed his condolences to the victims and ordered government bodies to follow up on developments from the deadly collision and identify the cause of the accident.

"The rescue team is currently searching for survivals while ambulances are transferring the injured to nearby hospitals," said Magdy Hegazi, undersecretary at the Health ministry.

The ministry said 75 ambulances had been deployed at the crash scene to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.

Train accidents are common in Egypt. In 2016, a train derailed in south of Cairo, killing five people, and injuring 27 people in the al-Ayat area.

Another train derailment in Badr Rashin in Giza killed at least 19 people in 2013.

In 2012, a collision between a train and school bus on a rail crossing in the town of Manaflut in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

At least 360 people were killed in 2002 in Egypt's worst train disaster when a major fire engulfed seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train.

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Former Samajwadi Party member of UP Legislative Council Sarojini Agarwal today joined the BJP at the ruling party's headquarters here in the presence of deputy Chief Minister and state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya.

On August 4, Agarwal had resigned from the Legislative Council membership, saying that she was not feeling comfortable in the party as senior leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was being ignored.

"I had been a party MLC twice due to Netaji (Mulayam). As he is not active in the party, I have resigned. I don't have problems with anyone in the party and I respect everyone. I felt awkward after split in the party and did not feel like working in it," Agarwal had said.

On Wednesday, SP MLC Ashok Bajpai resigned from the UP Legislative Council.

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Veteran actor Glenn Close will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at this year's Zurich film festival.

Close will receive the Golden Icon honour on October 1, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The actor will also present her new film "The Wife" at the Swiss festival. The film is about a woman who decides to leave her husband while travelling to a prestigious award ceremony.

Close is best known for her roles in "Fatal Attraction", "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Albert Nobbs".

"From her commanding portrayal of Patty Hewes in 'Damages' to the glorious Marquise de Merteuil in Stephen Frears' 'Dangerous Liaisons' via Alex Forrest and Cruella De Vil, Glenn Close has brought her extraordinary presence to countless memorable roles over a truly formidable career," said festival co-directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri.

The 13th Zurich film festival runs September 28 to October 8.

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Director Guy Ritchie will receive a prestigious award at the Raindance film festival.

Ritchie, who is currently prepping Disney's live-action "Aladdin", will be honoured with the festival's annual auteur award on Tuesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Guy has gone on to become a prominent figure in film, breathing new life into the British film industry when he exploded onto the scene with his cult crime comedies," said Elliot Grove, Raindance's founder.

The director is best known for helming films such as "Snatch", "RocknRolla" and the "Sherlock Holmes" franchise.

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The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday said stringent action will be taken against those found guilty of the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had yesterday said least 30 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.

However, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.

"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters here today.

According to the official Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (@CMOfficeUP), Yogi Adityanath has directed that a detailed probe is conducted into the incident and strict action be ensured.

Meanwhile, Singh and Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon today left for to take stock of the situation at the medical college.

Before leaving for Gorakhpur, Singh said, "The Chief Minister was not informed by the doctors and officials about the shortage of oxygen neither on July 9 or on August 9.

"The shortage of oxygen was not highlighted. The medical education minister was also not briefed about it. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done," he said here.

Tandon said, "The Chief Minister is keeping a close watch on the entire issue. We will take appropriate action after investigating all aspects."



Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry had said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to the shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.

"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to the shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. The exact cause is being verified by the civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson had said.
The Uttar Pradesh government today said stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state- run Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had yesterday said at least 30 children had died in the medical college within 48 hours.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.

"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters here today.

According to the official Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (@CMOfficeUP), Yogi Adityanath has directed that a detailed probe be conducted into the incident and strict action be ensured.

Meanwhile, Singh and Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon today left for Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.

Before leaving for Gorakhpur, Singh said, "The Chief Minister was not informed by the doctors and officials about shortage of oxygen neither on July 9 nor on August 9.

"The shortage of oxygen was not highlighted. The medical education minister was also not briefed about it. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done," he said here.

Tandon said, "The Chief Minister is keeping a close watch on the entire issue. We will take appropriate action after investigating all aspects."



Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry had said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.

"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson had said.

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Sri Lanka's Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe is facing the wrath of the Cabinet members after he opposed a recently signed deal with China on the strategic Hambantota port.

Rajapakshe in an interview had said that the USD 1.12 billion deal to handover the loss making Hambantota port to China on a long lease was a sell out and he would make sure that it would be taken back and given to the people in the future.

State Minister Harsha De Silva said Rajapakshe had expressed his own opinion on any subject but it is wrong to make a statement on a subject on which a collective decision was taken by the Cabinet of which he was a member.

The government backbencher Mujibur Rahman said, "It was wrong for him to criticise outside what had happened after Cabinet approval."



Cabinet spokesman and Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratne said Rajapakshe does not know the difference between an outright sale and a lease agreement.

Sri Lanka said the deal with China was important to the the country's fragile economy amid the huge external debt left behind by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa had made commercial borrowings from China to fund his large infrastructure projects in which he built the sea and airport at Hambantota and the highways in the district - his home base.

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"Glee" actor Matthew Morrison has been tapped to star in a Chinese feature "Crazy Alien".

The new film is a third installment in director Ning Hao's black comedy trilogy that includes "Crazy Stone" and "Crazy Racer", reported Deadline.

The plot details are being kept under wraps. Production on the film is underway in Qingdao.

The film also features Ning's frequent collaborator Huang Bo, who was in the previous "Crazy" films.

Morrison will next be seen in "Tulip Fever", which releases on August 25.

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The Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board has directed the 4,750 registered madarsas in the state to hoist the tricolour, hold cultural programmes and compulsorily take part in or organise 'Tiranga rallies' on the Independence Day.

The board issued a circular to this effect on August 10, in which it also asked the heads of these madarsas to click and e-mail photographs of the I-Day activities.

"All the madarsa managers are hereby ordered to hoist national flag, hold cultural programme and compulsorily take part or hold Tiranga rallies," reads the circular.

Talking to PTI over phone, Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board chairman, professor Syed Imad Uddin, said, "We have asked the heads and students of the 4,750 registered madarsas to hold flag-hoisting and cultural events on Independence Day."



"These madarsas, which are registered with us, have also been asked to compulsorily take part in or organise Tiranga yatra (tricolour rallies) in their respective cities if no other organisation has planned such an event," he added.

"We want to demonstrate our love for the country by organising or taking part in such Tiranga rallies. If no other organisation holds such a rally on that day in a particular city, the madarsas have been asked to take out their own Tiranga rallies," Uddin said.

There are around 2.5 lakh students enrolled in these registered madrasas.

According to him, in the past as well the board had issued such directives, asking the madarsas to unfurl the tricolour and hold cultural events on the Independence Day and Republic Day.

"But we have added Tiranga yatra in the circular this time. All Madarsa heads have been asked to click and e-mail pictures of all activities to the board as in the past. The photographs will be used in the board's magazine and uploaded on its official website as in the past," Uddin said.

The Uttar Pradesh government has also directed all madrassas (Islamic schools) to hold celebrations on Independence Day and videograph the event.

The UP government has said that the events to be held on August 15 by the madrassas should include hoisting the tricolour, singing the national anthem and paying tributes to freedom fighters.

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The opposition National Conference (NC) today hit out at Pakistan for "interfering" in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that Article 35A, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents, was a shield for the people of the state.

Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakria in a statement on Thursday had accused India of trying to alter the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.

The main opposition party also lashed out at the local BJP for giving a "political and communal colour" to the issue and called for a referendum in Jammu region on Article 35A.

The article empowers state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

Provincial president Devinder Singh Rana announced a campaign to educate people about benefits of Article 35A with the inauguration of a seminar by party working president Omar Abdullah here on August 14. He would also inaugurate anotherseminarin Kashmir on the same day.

Block presidents, block secretaries, district presidents and district secretaries would participate in it and later disseminate the information at grassroot level, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the party headquarters here, he said the statement issued by Pakistan seems to be part of a "conspiracy to make the issue India versus Pakistan to pave way for its abrogation".

He also said if the Article 35A is tinkered with, the Dogras will suffer the most and Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to the state, will be rendered merely a "skeleton".

"The BJP is trying to sell that the Dogras are with it in its demand for revocation of the Article 35A and gives it a communal and regional colour. There should be a referendum on the issue in Jammu and Dogras be given a chance to decide whether the law should remain or go.

Questioning those who term the presidential order as "illegal", Rana said if that order is illegal, what about the other orders passed by the president.

He said the defense of the attorney general and the state in the Supreme Court on the issue was "weak" to pave the way for abrogation of the constitutional provision.

The Supreme Court last month had asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.

The PIL said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non- residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

The Centre would explain to the Supreme Court the legal aspects of Article 35A. Attorney General KK Venugopal is expected to explain before the apex court these aspects.

He said the debate over Article 35A was neither Hindu versus Muslims nor Jammu versus Kashmir.

"We are part of India and we are Indians. Constitution of India and Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir govern our living and existence but we have been vested with certain rights and we will protect those rights," he said.

The National Conference leader questioned the BJP leadership for introducing a domicile certificate in Himachal Pradesh and of assuring the citizens of Maharashtra of introducing a similar law.

"In Sikkim, there is article 371A but you don't challenge it," he claimed.

Rana accused the BJP of deliberately raking up such issues for politics and undermining the safeguards ensured to people of the state by the Constitution.

He said the people of Jammu were angry at the discrimination with the region, especially during the last three years of the BJP-PDP rule.

"We demand that the rights of all the people of all the three regions--Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh--should be protected and there should be no discrimination.

He said if Article 35A was abrogated, it would create serious problems for the people of the state, especially Jammu region, as businessmen and shopkeeperswould lose their businesses, students lose their scholarships, and various jobs as well.

In reply to a question about the issue bringing together mainstream and separatistsin Kashmir, he said, "It is the responsibility of people of all threeregions to ensure protection of their rights," he said.

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The BJP today accused the opposition National Conference of trying to create a "fear psychosis" among the people of Jammu over the issue of Article 35A of the Constitution.

The saffron party, which is in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the PDP, alleged that the NC was responsible for promoting "majoritarianism" at the cost of minorities in the state.

The party was reacting to a statement by the Jammu provincial president of the NC, Devinder Rana, on the issue of Article 35A of the Constitution, which defines the residency laws in Jammu and Kashmir and bars outsiders from buying any immovable property or applying for jobs in the state government.

"We are taking a serious note of the statement...He (Rana) tried to create a scary picture of the ill-effects on the people of Jammu region if Article 35A is held illegal by the Supreme Court. He is creating a fear psychosis," BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said.

"His (Rana) statement that Jammu will be affected far more than Kashmir since no outsider will like to settle there but will flock in hordes to settle in Jammu clearly indicates the mindset of his party that has always advocated politics of exclusion," he said.

It is a direct attack on the composite culture and communal tolerance of the people of Jammu, the BJP spokesman said.

The Supreme Court had last month asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.

The plea said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non- residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

"The NC was responsible for promoting 'majoritarianism' in the state at the cost of the minorities leading to a demographic invasion of the Jammu region taking shelter under the discriminatory provision of Article 35A," Gupta said.

Gupta also took a dig at the NC leader for equating the West Pakistan Refugees with the Rohangiya refugees.

"The comparison is not only absurd but defies all logic," he said.

The BJP spokesperson asked if the NC leadership was so sure of the legal correctness of Article 35A, why are they resorting to agitational politics and provoking the Kashmiris?



"Rather than rabble-rousing, they should present their case before the Supreme Court," he added.

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The opposition NCP today said the decision of Maharashtra Chief Minister Minister Devendra Fadnavis to refer to the Lokayukta the allegation against his cabinet colleague Prakash Mehta was "clever game" to save himself from any possible fallout.

Fadnavis last night announced a Lokayukta probe into into the opposition allegation that there had been serious impropriety in clearing a slum-redevelopment project in the city by Housing MinisterPrakash Mehta, a BJP member in the cabinet.

"The chief minister has played a clever game. On the one hand he has saved his own skin against the fallout of the probe against the housing minister. This is also an attempt to show people that he will not let any allegation pass of without an inquiry," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

Malik said according to the Maharashtra Lokayukta Act, the chief minister does not come under the purview of Lokayukta.

"When the housing minister himself said that he had apprised the CM of his decision to sign on the file (relating to the slum development under question), it is obvious that the CM would be made to answer some difficult questions. Since the Lokayukta will not probe that angle, there will no questions raised against Fadnavis," he said.

He said that was why the opposition parties sought a probe into the allegations against Mehta and industries minister Subhash Desai (of Shiv Sena) by a sitting judge of the high court.

Mehta has been facing heat over alleged "unauthorised" transfer of extra building rights of an the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) project at the MP Mills Compound in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project- affected people.

The opposition has alleged that the move was aimed at favouring a particular developer.

The opposition had also accused Mehta of incorporating the names of his family members as the beneficiaries of a slum redevelopment project in suburban Ghatkopar.

On allegations against Industries Minister Desai, Fadnavis had said the government will request the Lokayukta to consider the case and if that does not work out an independent probe would be conducted.

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The new Haj policy will be unveiled this month and from the next year, Haj will be organised according to it, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here today.

"The new policy is aimed at making Haj process more transparent and smooth. Providing best facilities to Haj pilgrims is at the centre of this policy," he said at a review meeting on Haj 2017 and 22nd annual Haj orientation camp organised for pilgrims at the Haj House here.

Naqvi said that a high-level committee constituted to frame the new Haj policy is giving final shape to the policy.

Reviving the option of sending Haj pilgrims through the sea route is also one of the important part of the new policy.

"Sending pilgrims through ships will help cut down travel expenses by nearly half as compared to airfares. It will be a revolutionary, pro-poor, pilgrim-friendly decision," he said.

The practice of ferrying Haj pilgrims between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped from 1995.

An advantage with ships available these days is they are modern and well-equipped to ferry 4,000 to 5,000 people at a time, he said.

They can cover the 2,300-odd nautical miles, one-side distance between Mumbai and Jeddah, within just two-three days, he added.

Earlier, the old ships used to take 12 to 15 days to cover this distance.

Talks are on with Saudi Arabia on reviving Haj pilgrimage through sea route, he said.

During first phase of Haj 2017, about 65,000 Haj pilgrims have gone to Saudi Arabia.

In the first phase, Haj pilgrims went from embarkation points in Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Gauhati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Srinagar and Varanasi.

In the second phase, Haj pilgrims will go from Bangalore, Bhopal, Ranchi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Indore. The second phase will end on 26th August, the minister said.

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Nigerian soldiers conducted an unauthorised search of a United Nations humanitarian base in the city where the Boko Haram insurgency began, the UN has said, expressing "grave concern" over the military's actions.

Aid groups and Nigerian officials at times have been at odds in their approaches to the vast crisis in the country's northeast, where millions have been uprooted during Boko Haram's deadly eight-year insurgency.

"The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria's northeast is one of the most severe in the world today," Edward Kallon, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, said in a statement yesterday.

"I am extremely concerned that these actions could be detrimental to the critical work that is being carried out every day to support the most vulnerable in the region, and I call upon the government of Nigeria to provide clarification."



Local media reported that large numbers of soldiers surrounded the UN building in Maiduguri last morning searching for arms.

The UN said the search lasted three hours before the soldiers departed. It said it had no information "regarding the reason or motivations for the unauthorized search."



Nigeria's military confirmed the incident in a separate statement, saying its actions were in line with ongoing search efforts in counter-insurgency operations. It said no arrests were made.

The UN property searched "did not carry a UN designation," the military added.

Rumors have spread that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau may have been taking refuge in one of the UN buildings.

Nigeria's military recently intensified its search for Shekau, recently announcing a 40-day ultimatum for its commanders to find him.

Maiduguri and the northeast remain at risk of deadly attacks by Boko Haram, despite President Muhammadu Buhari's declaration late last year that the extremist group had been "crushed." Buhari has since spent two weeks-long stretches in London for medical treatment and has been out of the country since early May, creating uncertainty around the country's security efforts.

Boko Haram has been using a growing number of girls and young women in suicide bombings in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, and elsewhere, sometimes drugging them to make them carry out the attacks. Bombings in recent weeks have targeted displaced persons' camps in Maiduguri.

The extremist group has abducted thousands of Nigerians over the years, including the nearly 300 Chibok schoolgirls seized in a mass abduction in 2014. Earlier this year, Nigeria's government exchanged five Boko Haram commanders for the release of more than 80 Chibok girls.

The insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and spilled into neighboring countries, which have joined together in a multinational force to combat the extremist group.

The threats to those caught in the fighting include Nigeria's own military. The air force last month expressed its "deepest regrets" for mistakenly bombing a displaced persons' camp in the town of Rann in January. A Borno state government official said more than 230 people were killed when the air force bombed the camp multiple times.

The continuing unrest has created a vast hunger crisis in northeast Nigeria as markets and agriculture are disrupted and many people fear returning home, even as the government claims that security is returning.

The UN says more than 50 non-governmental aid groups are working in Nigeria's northeast to help nearly 7 million people in need, and that funding appeals are badly met so far.

The UN says the threat of famine in Nigeria, along with Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, forms the world's largest humanitarian crisis since the world body was founded in 1945.

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Vice President Mike Pence has called Donald Trump a "great champion" of America's inner cities.

Pence made the remarks during a speech before an anti- violence group in his home state of Indiana yesterday. The Republican former Indiana governor heaped praise on the faith-based group, called the Ten Point Coalition, which local authorities credit for helping to reduce homicides in several neighborhoods, even though the overall murder rate is up.

Trump "and I talked about it this morning," Pence said. "All of you who feel called to confront the challenge of urban youth violence you have an ally, an advocate and a champion in President Donald Trump."



But considering Trump was swept into office following a campaign that trafficked in racial and anti-immigrant themes, not everyone is convinced. A group of about 30 protesters, including some sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, protested outside the fundraising event at a downtown hotel.

Joe Slash, the former head of the Indianapolis Urban League, told The Indianapolis Star that "a lot of people in the black community don't have fond feelings for Mike Pence and there's been a negative reaction about their bringing him here for a fundraiser."



Slash said the Ten Point Coalition "should have consulted people before they made that decision" though he credited the group with reaching out across the aisle.

The coalition, led by several African-American ministers, is known for its campaigns to stem violence in crime-plagued city neighborhoods. It uses community members, in some cases reformed gang members, to de-escalate neighborhood tension. Pence said the group "literally everyday works miracles in the evening hours of the streets of Indianapolis" and he said their model should be exported to other cities.

The speech was not Pence's only stop in Indianapolis. He also attended a Statehouse ceremony where his official state portrait was unveiled, which the vice president said left him "deeply humbled."



Pence's portrait shows the one-term Republican seated on top of his desk, with an open Bible and a family picture to his right. A stack of law books is to his left, with Indiana and US flags in the background.

Pence is also wearing a blue and gold tie designed by wife Karen Pence - that is based on the state's logo.

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British fashion house Ralph & Russo will present its ready-to-wear collection during London Fashion Week.

The brand, headed up by Michael Russo and Tamara Ralph, is usually a regular on the Paris Couture Fashion Week schedule, but will bring its inimitable signature to London come September 15, reported Vogue UK.

"With London being a cosmopolitan hub, we couldn't think of a better place to launch our first ready-to-wear offering.

"We continue to listen to the demand of our customer and the market, which will continue to fuel the expansion of the R&R product and universe," Russo said



Ralph & Russo was first established in 2007, focusing on haute couture. It became the first British brand in nearly 100 years to be welcomed into the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, a governing body of the French fashion industry that dictates who's allowed to present during Paris Couture Week.

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As part of its expansion plans, Sapna, one of India's largest book malls, will have another 50 book stores across the country in another five years, a top official said today.

Sapna, which has 15 stores at present, majority of them being in Karnataka, has an ambitious target of setting up another 50 stores, with a total investment of Rs 150 crore, Sapna Group of India President Nijesh Shah told reporters here.

An average of Rs 2.5 crore to Rs three crore were required to set up a store and the company, as part of its plan, is also will have 100 Sapna Express, which have all textbooks for students other than high demand, fastest selling books, stationery, gifts, chocolates and many more, from the present two in Karnataka, in another five years, he said.

Sapna will open five stores in Tamil Nadu--Coimbatore two, Chennai, Erode and Vellore one each-- in another three years, besides planning to open franchisee models, to cater to the potential and rural markets across India, Shah said.

Stating that the the company has 6,500 titles, with 150 titles in Tamils, Shah said that the Tamil titles will be increased to 800 in another three years.

Another major achievement during the golden jubilee year of Sapna was its on-line service, which has 1. 9 lakh titles, with demand from foreign countries like USA, Australia, Kenya and Ghana, it will be increased to three lakh in another three years, Shah said.

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Shiv Sena Minister Subhash Desai, accused of graft by the opposition, today offered to resign, but Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis turned down his request.

The development comes a day after Fadnavis announced a probe by Lokayukta against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, who has been accused by the opposition of impropriety in a slum redevelopment project here. He belongs to the BJP.

The opposition has accused Desai of violating norms while allegedly denotifying lands acquired by state-run MIDC in Nashik.

On allegations against Desai, Fadnavis had yesterday said the government will request the Lokayukta to consider the case and if that does not work out, an independent probe would be conducted.

The 75-year-old Sena veteran, who holds the industries portfolio, said he met Fadnavis and offered to quit the state cabinet, but his request was rejected by the chief minister.

"I met the chief minister at 'Varsha' (the CM's official residence) with my resignation letter and requested him to relieve me until I am proved innocent. However, the chief minister refused to accept my resignation and said I need not resign," Desai told PTI.

"The chief minister said let there be an independent inquiry and until the result is out for everyone to see, I should continue performing my duty," he said.

Desai said he has decided to co-operate with whatever inquiry is instituted and accept its result.

"I met Uddhavji (Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray) last evening and apprised him of my decision to resign. Uddhavji then spoke to the chief minister and both of them jointly decided that my resignation would not be accepted," he said.

Thackeray, speaking to reporters today, backed Desai and said those (in opposition) levelling allegations are themselves "stuck knee deep" in corruption.

"It is dangerous that they (the opposition parties) are not ashamed of what they have done (in the past). Levelling baseless allegations and asking for resignations will dent the image of the state," Thackeray said.

"The chief minister has promised a fair probe. We hope the truth comes out soon. The party stands firmly behind Desai," he added.

Later, the opposition parties slammed Fadnavis for not accepting Desai's resignation.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of the NCP said by not accepting Desai's resignation, Fadnavis has discreetly saved Mehta, who is also accused of corruption.

"The ministers accused of corruption have no moral right to keep occupying their chairs. Unless they are removed, a fair probe cannot happen. Even if the CM is backing them, we will continue our fight against the corrupt ministers and the government," Munde said.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said Fadnavis has proved he is a "political opportunist" and has no firm stand against corruption.

"The chief minister had immediately accepted the resignation of (then minister) Eknath Khadse (last year) but refused to do so now. This shows he is an opportunist who will only do what suits his politics," Sawant said.

Khadse, a BJP leader, had last year resigned after facing allegations of committing impropriety in a land deal in Pune.

The chief minister had said mere denotification of land does not mean corruption has taken place.

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After "Baywatch", director Seth Gordon is set to helm a story about a notorious racial injustice case.

Titled "Tulia", the film is based on the infamous 1999 case that saw dozens of men, most of them African-American, arrested for a drug scandal based on the word of an unreliable cop, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Mubina Rattonsey's LA-based production shingle, Zero Gravity Motion Pictures, acquired the film rights from author Nate Blakeslee.

"I'm excited to bring this important and poignant story to a wider audience, to call attention to what happened in Tulia," said Gordon.

The director's other credits include comedies "Identity Thief" and "Horrible Bosses".

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US President Donald Trump today warned of a military action against Venezuela in response to its president Nicolas Maduro's power grab, describing the situation in the country as a "very dangerous mess".

Protests rocked the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities after a July 30 vote that allowed Maduro to replace the opposition-dominated National Assembly with a new 545-member Constituent Assembly filled with his supporters.

The Trump administration has called Maduro a "dictator" and issued sanctions against him and more than two dozen other former and current officials, accusing Maduro's government of violating human rights and undermining the country's democracy.

"We have many options for Venezuela. And by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option. We have many options for Venezuela," Trump said after a meeting with his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and National Security Advisor H R McMaster.

"This (Venezuela) is our neighbour. You know, we're all over the world. And we have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away. And the people are suffering. And they're dying. We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary," Trump said.

Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino described Trump's remarks as an "act of craziness" and "supreme extremism".

Earleir in a statement, the White House said Trump refused a phone call from Maduro.

"Since the start of this Administration, President Trump has asked that Maduro respect Venezuela's constitution, hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners, cease all human rights violations, and stop oppressing Venezuela's great people," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued oppression by the Maduro regime. President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country," Sanders said.

Yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said the Defence Department has not been ordered to make any military movements related to Venezuela -- but is prepared for that if need be.

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US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping today reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula and agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after Kim threatened the US this week to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, after the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House after the phone call.

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour," the White House said, adding that the two leaders also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

"Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event," the White House said.

"The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," it said.

In another statement, the White House said Trump spoke with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo.

"Trump reassured GovernorCalvoand our fellow Americans on Guam that United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam,along with the rest of America," it said.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke separately to Calvoearlier in the day, the read out said.

Guam has about 7,000 US troops with almost a third of the land controlled by the US military.

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At least two people were shot dead in Kenya during overnight protests against the election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta by opposition supporters who believe the vote was rigged, according to police and a health official.

"We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries," said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county.

In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in protests, but "we have not managed to collect the body... Because of resistance from protesters."



Angry protests flared in opposition strongholds in Nairobi as well as in Kisumu after the election commission declared Kenyatta the victor in a hotly disputed vote over rival Raila Odinga.

After late night looting and riots, anger remained high Saturday morning, with running battles in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums.

However there were also joyous celebrations, some of which also turned deadly. A senior traffic police officer said "there were four people killed when they were hit by vehicles while celebrating.

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The wrong-way driver accused of causing the deaths of three Minnesota men on Interstate 94 last month made his appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court. But instead of wearing the orange uniform issued to those in jail, Serghei Kundilovski was instead clad in hospital blue on Wednesday.

Still recovering from injuries he sustained in the July 13 collision, the 36-year-old California man was wheeled into Judge James Petersons courtroom by a deputy.

Kundilovski faces counts of first degree reckless homicide, knowingly operating while revoked and causing death, and homicide by intoxicated use of vehicle.

After Peterson quashed the warrant and continued a $300,000 cash bond, Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf asked the judge to consider postponing the initial appearance because Kundilovski is still undergoing medical treatment at a Menomonie hospital.

Noting that the Kundilovski is receiving narcotic medications, she questioned whether he would be able to make an informed decision about his constitutional rights. Public defender Christopher Bub, however, said his client was ready to move forward. A preliminary hearing was set for Thursday, Aug. 17.

On the matter of bond, Nodolf expressed concern that Kundilovski could pose a flight risk and requested that he not leave the Menomonie hospital unless ordered to do so for medical reasons.

He is charged with a number of very serious offenses which involve homicide charges, Nodolf said, noting that he has zero ties to the community. His address is in California. My understanding is that he is a Russian immigrant with family in Washington...If the defendant were to try to escape, it would be very difficult to try and get him back to either the U.S. or Wisconsin.

Peterson ruled that Kundilovski will remain in Dunn or Eau Claire counties.

Kundilovskis license was revoked in June after being convicted of intoxicated driving in Sauk County.

According to the criminal complaint:

Witnesses reported that a driver in the westbound lane of I-94 lost control of his car and headed across the median into the eastbound lanes, up the Knapp hill. Three minutes later, the vehicle, with Kundilovski behind the wheel, collided head-on with a 2015 Kia Soul on the shoulder of the interstate near Milepost 33 in Lucas Township.

The three Minnesota men who died in the fiery crash were identified as Jeremy A. Berchem, 27, Bryan Rudell, 29, and Adam Kendhammer, 32, who was driving. The cause of death for each was multiple traumatic injuries due to the motor vehicle accident.

Two canned air duster containers were found at the scene, one near the front drivers side tire outside Kundilovskis vehicle and a second on the front passenger floorboard. A blood sample revealed that 0.022 of ethanol and 1,1 of difluoroethane  both of which are found in aerosol sprays and gas duster products  were present. Difluoroethane is used as a refrigerant and as a propellant for an aerosol spray.
The Congress today held the Uttar Pradesh government "responsible" for the death of 30 infants at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and a probe by a Supreme Court judge.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited Baba Raghav Das Medical College in eastern Uttar Pradesh, along with party colleagues, expressed deep anguish over the death of 30 children, allegedly due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen, in a span of 48 hours.

Azad said the probe ordered by the state government and the suspension of the college principal is just "an eyewash" and demanded that the matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.

He said if the matter is properly investigated the state government would be found to be squarely responsible for the "gross negligence" that led to the death of infants. He also said that the truth would come out only if an all-party delegation held an inquiry and the report would come in a week's time.

"This incident took place due to the laxity on the part of state government. The state government is fully responsible for it. The chief minister, health minister and the health secretary must immediately resign and doctors should not be blamed for this," he said.

"The suspension of the college principal and holding of a probe by district authorities has no meaning and is merely an eyewash. This matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and the report should come in 15 days time," he said.

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said the chief minister and UP's Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should resign taking "moral responsibility" for the deaths.

"There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible -- the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital, and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister.

"While all those responsible must be charged with criminal culpability accounting to murder,...There is a moral dimension which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and his health minister must take responsibility for and resign immediately," he said.

Taking a swipe at the Uttar Pradesh health minister, the Congress leader tweeted, "UP Health Minister only seeks votes in Lal Bahadur Shastri ji's name -he doesn't follow Shastri ji's high morals in politics... Shastri ji resigned taking moral responsibility for railway accident, @sidharthnsingh holds on to power even after death of infants (sic)."



Singh is the grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Health Minister Singh had yesterday told PTI, "The deaths of children were very unfortunate and the government will set up an inquiry committee to ascertain if any lapse has been there and if anyone is found guilty he will be made accountable."



He said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the hospital, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Singh, however, asserted that the deaths were not because of paucity of oxygen.

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The United States today vehemently denied claims by Afghan officials that it had killed several civilians in an air strike in volatile eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials had said 11 civilians, including women and children, were killed when a private vehicle was struck in Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, on Thursday.

But United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement the air strike "killed a number of militants".

"The militants were observed loading weapons in to a vehicle and were under surveillance until the vehicle was destroyed by an airstrike," said Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for American operations in Afghanistan.

"The strike was conducted in the middle of open terrain. There was zero chance of civilian casualties.

"This was the second false claim of civilian casualties in the same district in the last three weeks," Purtiman added.

Of the roughly 13,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan only the US carries out airstrikes.

They have been regularly targeting IS fighters who control several districts in restive Nangarhar.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the close to 16-year campaign against insurgents, prompting strong public and government criticism.

Last month a US air strike killed 16 policemen in Helmand province. It came after a US air strike in Sangin killed at least 18 civilians, mostly women and children, in February.

Civilian deaths are at an all-time high in Afghanistan. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.

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Washington has urged Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani to postpone an independence referendum scheduled for next month but he requested something in return, his office said today.

The timing of the September 25 vote has drawn criticism from both the Baghdad and Western governments, coming as the campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq if still unfinished.

In a telephone call yesterday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington "would want for the referendum to be postponed and that the issues between the Kurdistan region and the federal government in Baghdad should be addressed through dialogue", Barzani's office said in an English-language statement.

The Kurdish leader responded that were it to be put off, "the people of the Kurdistan region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future".

Some Iraqi Kurdish officials have openly acknowledged that calling the referendum was intended as a bargaining counter in negotiations with Baghdad on other issues.

The Kurdish regional government's representative in Iran, Nazem Dabbagh, said last month that the Kurds wanted Baghdad to meet their longstanding demand for plebiscites on incorporating other historically Kurdish-majority areas in their autonomous region.

He said they also wanted Baghdad to ratify laws on oil revenues and funding for the Kurdish security forces, known as the peshmerga, who have played a crucial role in the fight against IS.

The referendum would in any case be non-binding and is strongly opposed by neighbours Iran and Turkey, which have sizeable Kurdish minorities of their own and whose acquiescence is seen as key to achieving a viable separation.

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Stability across Latin America is in jeopardy from President Donald Trump's "reckless threat" to consider military action against Venezuela, Caracas said today, after its military vowed to stand up to the US leader's "craziness."



The warning from Trump yesterday that his administration was mulling many options, "including a possible military option if necessary," struck the government of Venezuela's beleaguered leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, like a thunderbolt.

The leadership of the crisis-wracked nation -- Latin America's biggest oil producer and an ally to Russia and Cuba -- suddenly found itself going from battling dissent, protests and growing international isolation to contemplating US military action last seen in the region in 1989, when American troops invaded Panama to topple its president, Manuel Noriega.

"The reckless threat by President Donald Trump aims to drag Latin America and the Caribbean into a conflict that would permanently alter stability, peace and security in our region," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told a conference, reading a statement in Maduro's name.

The menace, however, also gave Maduro's regime an unexpected opportunity to substantiate its daily refrain that it is a victim of a Washington plot to grab control of its oil reserves, the biggest in the world.

The military, current and retired members of which control a third of the government, leapt on the threat to say it was the nation's only bulwark against the "imperialist aggression."



General Vladimir Padrino, Venezuela's defense minister and commander of its armed forces, yesterday called Trump's threat "an act of craziness."



"I am certain that we will all be in the first ranks defending the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela," he said.

Trump had said the military option was among a range of scenarios he was considering to fix the "very dangerous mess" in Venezuela.

He has already had his government impose sanctions on Maduro -- an extremely rare step against a head of state -- and two dozen of his officials.

They were for perceived moves towards a "dictatorship" in Venezuela, especially through Maduro's establishment this month of a new, all-powerful assembly filled with loyalists that has powers to override the country's legislature, controlled by the opposition.

The head of that new Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Twitter: "We reject the cowardly, insolent and vile threats against the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela."



The assembly was elected two weeks ago in a vote marred by allegations of fraud, an opposition boycott and violent protests and repression by security forces that brought the death toll in four months of unrest to more than 125.

Since starting work, the assembly -- ostensibly tasked with rewriting the constitution -- has fired Venezuela's attorney general who had become a major critic of Maduro, and stepped up measures to quash opposition politicians.

The supreme court, which has also shown itself consistently loyal to Maduro, stripped two opposition mayors of the right to public office and ordered them to jail, bringing to 23 the number targeted by legal action.

The developments have prompted major Latin American nations Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru to slam Maduro's government for "breaking democratic rule."



Peru yesterday ordered Venezuela's ambassador to leave, with Caracas reacting by ordering out Lima's envoy.

But not all of Latin America is ranged against Maduro. Venezuela can still count on support from leftist allies Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, as well as a handful of Caribbean nations that depend on it for cheap or free oil.

The prospect of US military action in a region that has very bitter memories of multiple such interventions last century has stirred unease even among countries opposed to Venezuela.

US Vice President Mike Pence will tomorrow begin a Latin American visit -- a trip seen as coordinating action between Washington and regional powers against Venezuela.

Brazil yesterday said it and the other members of the South American trading bloc Mercosur -- from which Venezuela was suspended indefinitely days ago -- rejected the threat of force.

"The repudiation of violence and whatever option involving the use of force is resolute and constitutes a fundamental basis of democratic cohabitation, both in domestic contexts as well as in international relations," Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Venezuela's military chief has said two renegade officers behind an attack on an army base to raid its armory have been captured.

"The leaders and masterminds of the paramilitary and terrorist assault" last weekend against the base in the northwestern city of Valencia were arrested, said the defense minister and armed forces commander, General Vladimir Padrino.

The suspects were a former captain, Juan Carlos Caguaripano Scott, 38, and a lieutenant at the base who was in charge of the weapons, Jefferson Garcia.

Venezuelan officials said Caguaripano, who was discharged from the army in 2O14, had commanded around 20 uniformed men in the attack.

Two of the men were killed and eight were captured, officials said previously. Caguaripano and Jefferson Garcia escaped with the rest of their team and a stolen arsenal.

"This capture is a hard blow against fascist terrorism put into play by the Venezuelan right over the past few months," the defense minister said on Twitter, using a term referring to the opposition.

"Whoever betrays the nation, whoever takes up arms against the FANB will receive exemplary punishment," he said, referring to Venezuela's armed forces.

Padrino later told state television the two men were arrested after a chase in eastern Caracas, when they were spotted at a road checkpoint.

The rest of their group was being hunted, he added.

Just before the base attack, Caguaripano appeared in a video posted online with more than a dozen armed, uniformed men saying he was carrying out a "legitimate rebellion" against the "murderous tyranny" of President Nicolas Maduro.

The attack dramatically ratcheted up tensions in Venezuela's long-running crisis, raising the prospect it could spill into some form of armed conflict.

Violent demonstrations vigorously countered by security forces have killed nearly 130 people since the beginning of April.

Maduro has come under fire by the opposition and my the major countries in the Americas for seeing over the establishment of a new assembly filled with loyalists given powers to override the legislature, controlled by the opposition since 2015.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he did not rule out "a possible military option if necessary" against Venezuela.

Padrino dismissed that threat as "an act of craziness.

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Vigilance sleuths today arrested a police Sub-Inspector on graft charge from Bihar's East Champaran district, a Vigilance department release said.

A Vigilance Investigation Bureau caught one Amit Verma, a Sub-Inspector-cum-Bhopatpur Outpost (OP) in-charge under Kotwa police station area of East Champaran district, red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 for arresting an accused besides helping the complainant in a case diary.

One Wakil Sahni, a resident of Bhopatpur village under Kotwa police station of East Champaran district, had lodged a complaint with the Vigilance Investigation Bureau that the Sub-Inspector-cum-Bhopatpur OP in-charge was demanding a bribe of Rs 10,000 for arresting an accused besides helping the complainant in a case diary in connection with a case lodged with Kotwa police station, the release said.

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With most Bangladeshis preferring West Bengal as their destination while visiting India, the state has the most to gain from a better relation between the two countries, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.

"The minimum amount required for carrying by a person from Bangladesh before we give Indian visas is 150 US dollars. Half a billion of people from that country come to India for recreation, for tourism, shopping, medical facilities and all they prefer is West Bengal. So the tangible gains to the economy of West Bengal are incredible," he said.

However, the difficulty in accessing Indian visas by Bangladeshis was impacting the relation between the two countries. The problem has been addressed by augmenting the facilities and helping the system to be more efficient.

In 2015 around 7.5lakh visas had been issued, while last year it was 9.33 lakh. The figure in the first half of this year was close to seven lakh. The Indian high commission in Dhaka handles the largest volume of visas in the Indian system followed by Oman, he said at the ICC programme 'India-Bangladesh Business Relations: The Way Forward' here late last night.

Stating that the relationship potential between India and Bangladesh has not been appropriately viewed, Shringla said, "There is a lot more that the state(Bengal) can gain out of the relationship and I think in business you should look at it more carefully. We must look at what we can give, and if we give what we can get. I think this symbiotic relationship that is something West Bengal really needs to look into."



Referring to the requirement of power in Bangladesh, Shringla said that scope to meet part of that demand from the surplus that Bengal has is enormous.

"You can sell a couple of thousand MW without a problem from West Bengal to Bangladesh. In case of energy connectivity we are planning to connect our energy pipeline integrated gas link from Haldia. We will also connect from Dattafulia to Khulna (in Bangladesh) which will go up to north Bengal so that Coochebehar gets gas and they do not have to build a gas pipeline."



It has been planned that LPG would be provided to the north east through Chittagong, where a terminal would be set up and a pipeline laid to Tripura, he said.

About connectivity, the diplomat stressed on the inland waterways and coastal shippings.

"We have already started transshipments in Indian waterways so in a certain sense we have already started sending goods through Bangladesh. We have also started using smaller vessels along the coast to transport goods from our different ports right into the interior parts of Bangladesh using the riverine system," he said.

Later talking to journalists on the sidelines of the session, Shringla stressed on the need for consultation to reach a consensus before taking a decision on the Teesta water issue.

"Of course Teesta is an outstanding issue but I think we have made clear that it requires more consultations within our own country. Land boundary (in Coochbehar) took five years to resolve because it required extensive consultation. But when we ultimately concluded the land boundary we did it with consensus. I think we need to have to look into the Teesta issue in the same manner," the diplomat said.

Settling maritime boundaries had restored lot of confidence and enabled both countries to set out their economic engagements to exploit the 'blue economy', he said.

Talking about terrorists using Bangladesh soil, the diplomat said, "Terrorism is an issue which is deflects both the countries. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wrote to PM Narendra Modi immediately after the attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims stating that the two countries stand together in solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Sk Hasina had also mentioned that terrorism has to be tackled jointly by countries and not alone.

"We are on the same wavelength on issues that involve radicalism, fundamentalism, terrorism. We cooperate closely in tackling these threats to our countries. Given the long porous land border that the two countries share it could be detrimental if they do not work together," he added.

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By Sankalp Phartiyal

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian telecoms carrier Reliance Communications (RCom) posted its third straight quarterly loss on Saturday as its heavy debt load and a price war triggered by an upstart rival continued to weigh on sales and profit.

RCom, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, has won a reprieve on its debt until the end of the year as it works on two asset sale deals that it expects will reduce its $7 billion debt by about 60 percent.

On Saturday, it reported a net loss of 12.21 billion Indian rupees ($190.38 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended June, against a profit of 540 million rupees a year earlier.

Revenue from operations fell 33.6 percent year-on-year to 34.94 billion rupees, while finance costs rose to 9.98 billion rupees.

The company's continued losses are, in part, a result of competition from free voice and cut-price data plans offered by Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom startup backed by Ambani's elder brother Mukesh.

Jio has upended India's uber-competitive telecom sector, forcing all incumbents to drop prices despite falling margins and profits.

But RCom's struggle with its debt load and little success with its initial bet on a network based on CDMA technology have also led to its current financial situation.

RCom, whose mobile phone unit is India's seventh-ranked carrier with 82.3 million customers as of end-May, is awaiting regulatory approval for a merger of the unit with rival Aircel. It has also agreed a deal with Canada's Brookfield to sell a stake in its mobile masts business.

The company has previously said it expected the transactions to close by September.

Worries over the company's ability to repay debt have led to a series of downgrades by ratings agencies and the company's stock has plummeted 39 percent so far this year compared with an 18 percent rise of a broader Mumbai market.

($1 = 64.1350 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal, editing by David Evans)

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In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
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Welcome to Kumba Archives

While the government has embarked on a massive media campaign to get classes resume on September 4, tracts are flying all over the city of Kumba threatening both parents and teachers not to dare send children to school.

Tension is brewing in Kumba, chief Economic town of the South West region, as back to school gets closer. This is in the backdrop of the crisis which has now entered the 11th month with no solution insight.Some school proprietors confirmed of having received threats from unknown sources asking them to end all form of activities in their schools latest August 14.

Presently, in some schools in Kumba, holiday and catch-up classes are going on in preparation for the anticipated academic year 2017/2018. However, most proprietors confirmed that they are not ready to risk their lives, or that of their pupils and students or even their assets for school resumption.

In the meantime, registration of students and pupils in anticipation of the new academic year in all of North West and South West has remained very slow according to our findings. Some schools disclosed that they havent registered any candidate for the

new academic year. some proprietors and school administrators confirmed that some parents are instead choosing to send their children to schools in Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam. They revealed that many parents have come asking for transfer certificates to send their kids to schools in out of the town. Most of the parents are still sceptical about school resumption in the Anglophone regions after they lost all of last year. In Kumba in particular, tension in the air is causing such fear and safety issues to the effect that most parents do not want to send their kids to school.
| BY Lynchy |

Australias two biggest selling newspapers today rebadged their mastheads for a day in partnership with UBER.

The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun changed their front page mastheads to the Sam Day Telegraph and Sam Day Herald Sun for UBERs brand new above the line creative campaign created by The Special Group, Sydney, offering a national incentive of free UBER rides to anyone named Sam for a week.

The masthead change is a first for the Sunday Herald Sun, and a second for The Sunday Telegraph. The campaign goal was to ensure UBERs message was amplified with an initial launch audience of almost two million Sunday paper readers.

Says Head of Print Innovation Zac Skulander: We needed an innovative way to answer a strong brief and a really great initiative. It is a very compelling offer for our readers and subscribers, and a unique opportunity to demonstrate the flexibility of our print brands.

UBERs analytics revealed Sam, or variations of Sam, was the most popular name in their database, and decided it would be great to reward them for one week with free UBER rides up to the value of $20 per day.

Mick Carroll, editor of The Sunday Telegraph and Nick Papps, editor of the Sunday Herald Sun both agreed the unique, fun, campaign would resonate with their readers.

Adds Andrew Da Silva of MediaCom: Were so excited about this campaign because it truly connects a compelling offer from UBER with the readers of the leading newspapers in the country, brilliant creative work from The Special Group, integrated PR from One Green Bean and News Corp and, of course, supported by paid media. This is an awesome example of connected paid, owned and earned media.

In addition to rebranding the front page mastheads, the campaign investment includes a full page ad on page two of both Sunday papers  designed as a letter from UBER explaining the concept  eight different strip ads in prominent placements throughout the Sunday papers and newsagent posters provided nationally.
Saturday, August 12, 2017 at 5:20PM

Google updates its native camera app to bring a new feature selfie lovers will like. The Google Camera now has a selfie flash. This feature (and the others thatll be mentioned below) are designed to work for recent Nexus and Pixel devices that run Android 7.1.1 and above. What the app does is it adds a beige color light right after you take the photo to bring a bit more light into the shot. Google opted to use a warmer color instead of a flash of bright white to make it look a bit more natural. However, as The Verge points out, this feature doesnt seem to have automatic white balance like that on the iPhones camera.

Its easy to enable the feature, you just need to tap on the Flash icon when youre in front-facing mode and toggle between automatic or on. You know the feature is enabled if a beige block is covering the menu bar at the bottom. Aside from this, version 4.4 of Google Camera introduces shortcut gestures like swipe to toggle between shooting stills and videos and double tap to zoom.
The slight increase in the number of firearms comes in the middle of a national gun amnesty, which started at the beginning of the July and will run until the end of September.
"I did tell him, and basically the more people I told, the more I realised I was into women. It was like looking at the world from one angle and then suddenly realising I needed to take a step to the side and look at it from a different view.
"We know that people who have shorter sleep duration tend to consume more calories and that may be one of those reasons why these people are more prone to weight gain and obesity," she said.
The duty solicitor suggested Alexander will argue he was not the driver of the car and that accurate identification was not possible due to the event taking place at night and the speed at which events unfolded. He claims he was in the back seat of the vehicle, where he was apprehended, the whole time.
Shortly after, police were alerted to her presence at the Canberra Hospital. She was arrested and taken to the Woden watch house. She allegedly made admissions to police about the stabbing, and told them there was also blood on her pants, which she had changed before visiting the hospital.
But any claim that it's a loss of innocence would be overblown. Whether the fence is undemocratic in meaning is debatable - these ideas could be rejected with an argument that democracy continues, but needs greater protection now. The fence isn't necessarily forever either. There may be a time when the city can dismantle it and walk to the top of the sloping lawns again. Until then, Parliament House will take on new meanings and Australia's growth will make Canberra itself more visible to the world.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
It is a sad, sad, sad day for pizza lovers everywhere after a truck crash in Arkansas resulted in the destruction of hundreds of cheesy, circular pieces of culinary heaven.



Arkansas Online reports that a semi-truck carrying the precious cargo crashed at approximately 1 pm on Interstate 30 in Little Rock on Wednesday after hitting the low Mabelvale Pike overpass, ripping apart the trailer and sending frozen pieces across the road.

Unfortunately, it doesnt appear that any pizzas were saved and instead, footage from the scene shows hundreds of them being run over and scraped away from the tarmac by a host of bulldozers and trucks. It is surely one of the most heinous acts of pizza genocide in all of human history.

Talking to the media, Arkansas Department of Transportation Department spokesman Danny Straessle aptly described the sickening scene.

Theres a lot of frozen pizzas laying out on the interstate right now. Lots of pizza fatalities, he said. We fell you fam. We feel you.

Pulaski Co I-30 & Mabelvale: Despite the involvement of a few Tombstones we are glad the driver & overpass are okay. #artraffic #arnews pic.twitter.com/9hVsA3y897 Arkansas DOT (@myARDOT) August 9, 2017

VIDEO
Cheers and applause greeted the demolition of a Kelowna education institution, Friday.

Heavy machinery tore into St. Joseph's Hall, revealing the new St. Joe's Catholic school behind it.

Students and parents celebrated by having a demolition party, said spokesperson Holly Routley.

"We're here to say goodbye and celebrate all the years of service given to the community by these buildings," she said.

"For the last 20 years, we've been talking about what to do next," said construction task force leader Hal Spelliscy.

The brand new, $4.8-million school will open to students this fall. It will allow the school to grow by 100 pupils.

St. Joseph Elementary has operated from the same site for nearly 80 years.
Photo: City of Penticton 2017 Peachfest parade route

The 70th annual Penticton Peach Festival is entering its fourth day Saturday, to be kicked off by the Peters Brothers Grand Parade.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. and will follow a different route this year due to changes made to Main Street during downtown revitalization.

On the main stage in Okanagan Lake Park, its tribute night. Attendees will be treated to tribute acts for ABBA, Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.

The full days schedule can be found below:
Photo: Google Maps

UPDATE: 10:45 p.m.

Kamloops RCMP confirm a two-vehicle collision on the Trans-Canada Highway at Savona Friday afternoon was a fatality.

An eastbound Ford crossed the centre line and collided head on with a westbound Mazda.

The driver and lone occupant of the Ford, from the Cariboo region, died at the scene.

The driver and lone occupant of the Mazda, from the Savona area, was airlifted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

RCMP and the BC Coroners Service continue to investigate what may have caused the crash.

Witnesses are asked to call Central Interior Traffic Services in Kamloops at 250-828-3159.

ORIGINAL: 5 p.m.

A serious crash has closed the Trans-Canada Highway west of Kamloops.

The highway is closed one kilometre east of Savona for what is reportedly a head-on collision.

RCMP advise the highway will remain closed in both directions until further notice.



A detour is available through the village of Savona, but motorists should expects delays.



Use an alternative route around the area if possible.

Send your news, photos and video to [email protected]
Photo: Contributed The dock from neighbouring property, still under construction

Neighbours of a winery in Osoyoos are trying to stop the construction of a large commercial dock being built on Osoyoos Lake.

La Stella Winery is in the process of building a 35 metre private dock for boat and float plane access for patrons.

But the winerys immediate neighbours  and the Regional District  dont believe it's an appropriate spot for a normally quiet corner of the lake.

Its up against a bunch of residential properties, the area is used by families, you go out there on any summer day and you will see people out there with floaties and paddle boards, neighbour Mike Greig said, adding a person in a rubber boat shouldnt have to contend with commercial boat traffic and float planes.

He added that it is also an aesthetic issue.

With the exception of a couple of small private docks, there is just nothing large and looming like this dock is, he said.

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen appeared to agree with that view, and recommended the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) deny the application for the dock.

We thought it wasnt appropriate for the area, RDOS planning technician Timothy Donegan recalled, noting they have no jurisdiction on the lake and can only offer feedback to the province.

Regardless, the commercial dock permit was issued by the province in Sept. 2015, according to FLNRO. In a statement the Ministry added that an environmental impact assessment found the dock will not cause serious harm to fish.

In response to public concerns, the licence of occupation was issued for only five years, as opposed to the normal 10-year term, to provide opportunities to consider any further tenure conditions that might be needed, the Ministry statement continued.

The province also barred the use of dock for parties, private gatherings or functions hosted by the winery, that generate loud noise after 10:00 p.m. It deferred the issue of safe operation of boats and float planes to the Federal Government and Transport Canada.

La Stella Winery is owned by Enotecca Winery and Resorts out of Vancouver.

When Castanet News contacted Enotecca they were transferred to a man who identified himself as Sean, who refused to provide his last name. However, a Sean Salem is listed online as one of the company's principal owners.

Sean initially refused to disclose what his business plans for the dock were, repeating several times that the dock is a legal one on a lake full of illegal docks.

This is agri-tourism, this is agricultural land, if anyone wants to do anything they have to go through legal channels, he said.

Sean compared the complaints to people that live near the airport and complain about airplanes, there are boats on the lake.

We haven't even used it yet, and we are getting phone calls. This to me, is harassment, he declared. We applied for the permits, we went through the proper channels, we put everything on the table.

Sean eventually stated that the dock is for greeting the guests, however they want to come in, adding that it is the most environmentally friendly ever built in the Okanagan.

Enotecca has donated $9,500 to the governing B.C. Liberal Party, dating back to 2009.

Even with the caveats the province put on the approval of the dock, residents feel like they are not being listened to by the government or winery.

No one received a response to our complaints, concerns or questions, said Lauren Bartholomew, daughter of an elderly resident living next door to the winery.

Greig said he wishes the winery was a bit more receptive to discussion, and would consider at the very least, building it a bit further from the homes.

He called himself a a big supporter of the winery industry, calling it a godsend for the Okanagan Valley it would be just good if we could get along and resolve our differences somehow.
Photo: RCMP

The Penticton RCMP is turning to the public for help identifying a bank robber.

Police were called to the Valley First Credit Union at 184 Main Street on Aug. 9 for the robbery. The streets were full at the time with crowds leaving the annual Peachfest peach bin races just down the block.

No weapon was revealed during the incident, Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth said Police were on scene within minutes but did not locate the suspect.

The male is estimated to be in his thirties. The clothing he was wearing during the robbery was discarded in the alley east of Main Street.

The forensic identification section is analyzing items seized for evidence," Wrigglesworth added.

Anyone with information on the mans identity is asked to contact the RCMP.
Madison Erhardt

Hundreds of people filled the parking lot outside of Prospera Place to take in the sights and sounds of Rock the Lake.

A number of rock lovers waited in the lot for hours to make sure that they had prime spots.

''We got to have the VIP tickets, we got here at 4:00," said concert attendee, Corrine Fazan. "It has been good, we saw people that were here last year. The wait wasn't long, they have been really good."

One couple said they booked their tickets months ago and have been waiting for this day to come.

''We are so excited, we have been waiting for months and months since we bought our tickets," Shelly Cameron said. "We bought them really, really early just to make sure we got here.

''I'm excited for Chilliwack, April Wine, Toronto, which is first up. They are all here. It's so cool. We lived through it all and now we get to see it."

The concert runs all weekend and a few tickets are still available for the show on Sunday.
Photo: Twitter

Police are calling a fire at a vacant home in Kamloops suspicious.

About 4 a.m., Saturday, RCMP were called to a residence on the 300 block of Maple Street, where firefighters had just extinguished a fire.

The home was vacant at the time, and both the residence and garage were heavily damaged.

Investigators remain on scene this morning, examining the fire pattern, collecting evidence and trying to establish the cause of the blaze.
Photo: Contributed Cops For Kids raises money for families whose children are going though some type of crisis.

Police are warning Interior residents of a scam that's making the rounds involving the RCMP's Cops For Kids charity.

The RCMP has received multiple reports of someone calling people in the Southern Interior and asking for donations to the charity.

In most cases, callers on the phone are seeking donations via credit card for the Cops for Kids charity, said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, media relations officer for the RCMP Southeast District.

People have reported the caller is aggressive in their soliciting.

Cops For Kids raises money throughout the year to help local families with children who are in medical, physical or traumatic crisis.

The annual Cops For Kids bike ride is coming up in September, but Cpl. Moskaluk says their charity members never engage in phone solicitations to raise money.
Photo: Rob Balsdon A fire was sparked in a Rutland backyard Saturday morning.

A quick response from a Rutland resident put out a backyard fire before it became out of control Saturday morning.

Just before 10 a.m., a witness heard a loud bang, reportedly from a blown transformer, behind Dougall Road near McIntosh Road.

Sparks landed in a backyard and ignited the dry grass, but the resident quickly fought the fire with a hose, dousing it before fire crews arrived.

The Kelowna Fire Department and FortisBC crews are now on scene.

The incident has knocked out power across most of Rutland, affecting almost 6,000 homes in the area.

FortisBC does not have an estimated time the power will be back on at this time.
Okanagan Lake Park was packed with country music fans on Friday night for the third day of the 70th annual Penticton Peach Festival.

British Columbias own Aaron Pritchett headlined the Peters Bros. main stage, supported by Amanda Bentley and Cory Marquardt.

Photographer Jordan Shade was there to capture the action. A gallery can be viewed above.
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Four years ago, Facebook spent over $150 million on a free app used by millions.

Today that app, called Onavo, has become a little-known weapon in Facebook's massive expansion strategy - helping the social-networking giant determine what is gaining popularity among consumers. It can then bring similar features to its own products, according to five people familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it involves internal corporate strategy.

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The Onavo app, called Onavo Protect, is what is known as a virtual private network, which means it disguises the traffic of smartphone users as they browse the Internet and use apps. But while it advertises itself to users as a way to "keep you and your data safe," Facebook is able to glean detailed insights about what consumers are doing when they are not using the social network's family of apps, which includes Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

The technology shows how far Facebook is willing to go as part of its aggressive strategy to reach into new areas beyond social networking, often by rapidly acting to mimic the most successful features of rival companies' apps. Facebook did this most recently by replicating a key element of the Snapchat app. It also has done so for many other businesses, including a recent online fundraising tool, food delivery, offline meetups and its "On This Day" feature, which shows Facebook users pictures of what they did on the same day a year earlier.

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Nobody has claimed that what Facebook is doing is illegal. But interviews with two dozen top investors and entrepreneurs suggest it is having a profound impact on innovation in Silicon Valley, by creating a strong disincentive for investors and startups to put money and effort into creating products Facebook might copy.

"It's what we did at Microsoft," said Scott Sandell, managing partner of the prominent venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, who was product manager for Microsoft's Windows 95 until 1995. The Justice Department brought a landmark antitrust case against the company in 1998. "Whenever we saw a threat, boy, did we pounce on it."

Facebook declined to comment but noted that roughly 100 million apps and businesses use Facebook's developer tools or have a Facebook page that drives installations to apps.

Unease about Facebook's influence comes when the balance of power in Silicon Valley has been shifting away from startups toward four dominant companies - Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com and Google.

With their app stores, Apple and Google - which recently was fined $2.7 billion by the European Union on antitrust concerns - are the gatekeepers for millions of new businesses. Forty-three percent of all online retail revenue now flows to Amazon, according to the market research firm Slice Intelligence. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) And Facebook counts one-third of the world's population in its monthly user base.

"The dominance of these companies is choking off the startup world," Roger McNamee, an early investor in Google and Facebook and founder of the investment firm Elevation Partners, said of the two companies. "I helped create a monster, and I regret it."

Many in Silicon Valley say copying is fair game, arguing it is intrinsic to competition and to the history of U.S. business. While some academics have begun to question whether there needs to be new rules to limit the power of tech giants, almost no one in libertarian-leaning Silicon Valley thinks Facebook should be further regulated, with some saying it forces the best entrepreneurs to be more creative. Others point out that Facebook is nimble at copying but also frequently fails, leaving room for outsiders.

"They can predict the future as much as I can predict the future, and they can't be right 100 percent of the time," said Peter Pham, co-founder of the Los Angeles-based startup studio Science.

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Investors also now say they are eager to invest in closed networks that they think Facebook will not wade into - like social apps for distinct groups, such as health-care professionals - or ideas like blockchain, which would enable consumers to transfer their information without letting a large company become a hub of data.

Facebook's use of Onavo is partly borne of need. Because Google and Apple, for instance, control the operating systems in which many apps live, they have access to huge amounts of information about how consumers use their apps. Facebook is more limited. It knows what consumers do within its own apps, and it knows about behavior on apps that work with Facebook - such as for sign-in credentials.

Onavo, on the other hand, helps Facebook's expanding ambitions by offering near real-time access to information about what users do while Onavo is active in the background. Onavo sends anonymized data to Facebook on what apps consumers have installed, how frequently they open those apps, how long they linger inside them, and the sequence throughout the day of consumers' app usage - information that functions as an early-detection system on whether an app is gaining popularity, according to the people familiar with the company's activities. This information can be far more valuable, and be available earlier, than waiting for an app or feature to publicly take off.

Once Facebook detects a popular app, it can then quickly unleash a team of engineers that can swoop in to start building its own version, one person familiar with the strategy said.

- - -

If Facebook once aimed to become the town square where people meet and share gossip, today it wants that proverbial town square to encompass many more commercial activities. When venture capitalists hear pitches from entrepreneurs, they say that one of the first questions they ask is how easy would it be for Facebook to copy the idea. It is increasingly the reason they decline to invest, according to interviews with over a dozen top investors, including Sequoia Capital and Union Square Ventures.

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At Sequoia's annual off-site retreat, held in March, skirting Google and Facebook were main topics of conversation, said Sequoia partner Alfred Lin.

"They have a chokehold on distribution," Lin said in an interview.

Sandell said the growing dominance of giants, with Facebook being the most recent heavyweight, weighs on his choices.

"We don't touch anything that comes too close to Facebook, Google or Amazon," he said. "Which is to say, we don't think our companies should fly too close to the sun."

At the same time, Facebook has honed its internal organization toward spotting innovation - in ever more precise ways, according to the people familiar with the company's strategy.

Onavo is one of many tools that Facebook uses. Consumers and developers use the free security app, built by an Israeli data analytics startup, to look across their smartphone and help them reduce data use and monitor security threats. Before Facebook purchased the company in October 2013, Onavo sold insights on use behavior to outsiders. It closed its doors to other customers once Facebook acquired it.

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Onavo was used to detect the popularity outside the United States of the messaging service WhatsApp, which Facebook purchased for $19 billion in 2014, several months after the Onavo acquisition, according to the people familiar with the company's activities.

Onavo does not broadly advertise that it is owned by Facebook. Onavo is available for download in Android and iOS app stores. Onavo's status as a Facebook unit is mentioned in the privacy policy after the app is downloaded and on the Onavo website in the "About" section.

Facebook's new reputation as a threat to startups is a reversal from several years ago, when a wave of startups, from dating and food-delivery apps to political consultancies, were able to grow by targeting their customers' friends - and friends of friends - on Facebook. Facebook has curtailed access by limiting what third parties can do within Facebook and is building some of the same features on its own.

- - -

A tour through Facebook's app can feel like deja vu for avid app users.

For example, users who log onto Facebook are often first shown a feature called On This Day, a snapshot, contained in an orange picture frame, of themselves on the very same day last year, or four years ago. The feature is similar to a product once offered by Timehop, an app that had reached 6 million daily users just months before Facebook launched its own time-machine-like product.

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Rick Webb, Timehop's chief operating officer, said that Facebook had copied the company's product down to the tiniest design details.

"Why did Facebook have to make it orange with little picture frames on angles?" he asked. "We now had to shift our coloring to make it more yellow!"

Webb said that Timehop's growth had slowed but that by focusing on collecting pictures from Dropbox, Google Drive, the iPhone camera roll and other places where people store images, it maintained 20 million users, a sizable number for any app.

Facebook's food-delivery tab, added last year, seems to be a play on startups such as Grubhub, Seamless, Caviar and Postmates.

This year, Facebook created a tab that enables people to raise money for personal or charitable causes - previously offered by sites such as Kickstarter and GoFundMe. It has offered a marketplace to sell goods like Craigslist and is reportedly building a group-video-chat app modeled on Houseparty.

In June, Scott Heiferman, chief executive of Meetup.com, the site that helps communities organize in-person meetup groups, said he was surprised to see Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announce his intentions to help people who use Facebook groups meet up in person.

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Heiferman said he was threatened but not intimidated. "It's not in their DNA," he said. "They know how to keep people really engaged to a screen; everything about Facebook is geared toward that. The art and science and subtlety and nuance to get people to create real community is a different thing."

He said it was a sign that his business was onto something.

"In this era of consolidation, whenever you figure something out, if you crack the code on that, then Facebook comes along and copies it," he said. "There's certainly fire under our feet to go faster and bolder, and I guess you could say that's the good thing about competition."
Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel, second from left, speaks about the incentive deal for Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group before the Assembly Committee on Jobs and Economy, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. (Mark Hoffman / AP)

MADISON, Wis.  Wisconsin Republicans announced revisions Friday to a state incentives package for Foxconn, including provisions that would tie tax credits to the number of living-wage jobs created and encourage the company to hire Wisconsin residents.

The Taiwanese electronics giant plans to build a 20 million-square-foot plant in southeastern Wisconsin that the company says could eventually employ up to 13,000 people. Gov. Scott Walker has introduced a bill that would lay out $3 billion in tax credits for the company, exempt the plant from a host of environmental regulations and borrow $252 million for interstate highway repairs around the plant.

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Walker's fellow Republicans control both the state Senate and Assembly, but the two houses have spent the last two weeks at loggerheads over the bill. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who represents portions of Racine County where the plant could end up, has been pushing to pass the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has been more cautious, outlining a number of concerns about the plan. One of his main complaints has been that the bill doesn't lay out any deadlines for Foxconn to create jobs.

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Vos released the new version of the bill on Friday afternoon. The changes tie payroll tax credits to the number of jobs Foxconn creates that pay between $30,000 and $100,000. They also call for state officials to include terms in any contract with the company that encourage hiring Wisconsin residents. Those revisions are designed to allay fears the jobs will be low-paying and could go to Illinois residents.

The new bill also calls for spending $20 million on worker training in the 2019-2021 biennium. Vos said that language will help create a pipeline of workers for both Foxconn and small businesses that lose employees to the massive plant.

The package retains provisions exempting plant construction materials from local sales taxes. Also still in the bill is a call to borrow the $252 million for road work and requiring a federal match before spending it. New language, though, would require the Legislature's budget-writing committee to sign off on any spending plan.

The Assembly's jobs committee plans to vote on the new bill Monday, with a full Assembly floor session to follow on Thursday. Passage would send the bill to the Senate.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, a Kenosha Democrat, issued a statement saying he was shocked Republicans would release a new version of the bill three days before the committee vote.

"It's clear that Republicans are trying to appear proactive without actually fixing the concerns that many people have with this bill," Barca said.

Fitzgerald has said he doesn't know if he has the votes to pass the bill in his chamber, drawing criticism from influential conservative radio talk show hosts worried he might blow the deal and drive Foxconn to another state.

On Thursday Fitzgerald emerged from a meeting with his members saying they'd made headway and he believes the budget committee could meet and pass the bill by the end of August.

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The new bill doesn't contain any deadlines for creating jobs, though. Fitzgerald spokeswoman Myranda Tanck didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment. Fitzgerald said Thursday that the deadlines didn't have to be in the bill and could be part of a contract the state signs with Foxconn to enact the legislation.
The Death in the Afternoon cocktail, made with absinthe and sparkling wine, was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Absinthe has a frightening reputation. The mere mention of the licorice-y spirit makes bar patrons fearful of its strong flavor and poisonous notoriety. Says Charles Baker, in his 1939 cocktail classic "Jigger, Beaker and Glass: Drinking Around the World," "Absinthe  can conquer the most desiccated puritan on occasion, but makes the heart of many agreeable folk shudder at the taste." The book, by the way, is a treasure trove of classic cocktail recipes containing absinthe.

Chicago bartenders, ever intrepid, are finding that the classic herbal liquor makes a fine addition to summer cocktails, its dry, unique flavor adding a refreshing, if powerful, zing to their icy creations.

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Anthony Selna, partner at Logan Square's Spilt Milk, takes a page from Baker's book for a summery but powerful classic absinthe cocktail. He suggests a simple absinthe phosphate using Vieux Pontarlier absinthe, because, he says, "it is a French artisanal-style absinthe made with a refined recipe of traditional flavors," combined with Italian sweet vermouth and lemon soda, perfect for sipping on the bar's new outdoor patio.

At Mezcaleria Las Flores, the same French absinthe adds its awesome herbality to a tall fizzy purple drink named the Chaca Chaca, along with tequila, mezcal, hibiscus, citrus and cava.

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The Black Iron Tavern in River West has revived a classic with its Death in the Afternoon (recipe below). Copper & Kings absinthe plays with sparkling wine in an up drink that rekindles the old-time effects of the noble liquor. Created by Ernest Hemingway, who was known to recommend imbibing several in a sitting, the eerily cloudy cocktail is almost shockingly strong. If you prefer absinthe to stay in the background, this one's not for you.

We asked Joe Heron, founder at Copper & Kings, a Louisville distillery well known for its brandies and absinthes since 2014, to weigh in on the spirit. The distillery's delicious absinthe blanche is a clear, brandy-based, double-distilled concoction which relies on what he calls the "big 4" of classic absinthe botanicals (wormwood, fennel, hyssop, and anise), which are macerated in Muscat and then re-distilled.

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"That's why we're not green," says Heron, referring to the traditional peridot color of absinthe that comes from post-distillation maceration of herbs. The result of their New World technique is an herbal, clean, slightly viscous ("It has lovely legs," says Heron) spirit. Licorice-sweet, not sugar-sweet, absinthe is a mildly nefarious and totally appealing addition to a summer bar lineup.

Lisa Futterman is a freelance writer.

Death in the Afternoon

1 1/2 ounces Copper & Kings Absinthe Blanche

4 ounces chilled brut Champagne, prosecco or cava

Lemon twist

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Pour absinthe into a flute or coupe; add sparkling wine until it clouds up. Garnish with a lemon twist.






The "Annabelle: Creation" cast talks with the Los Angeles Times at Comic-Con 2017. Some of the cast believes in the myth of Annabelle and some don't. (Los Angeles Times)

Cinematic universes are all the rage these days, thanks to the billion-dollar bounties of Marvel's Avengers-verse and the competing DC squad led by Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. But as Hollywood's franchise-making scheme du jour has crept into other genres, it's also proven that you can't guarantee success, as evidenced by Universal's recent Dark Universe-launching clunker "The Mummy," the diminishing returns of Paramount's "Transformers: The Last Knight" and Sony's disappointing "The Dark Tower."

Yet in Warner Bros. and New Line's "Conjuring" films and the spinoff prequel "Annabelle," contemporary horror has made a potent first stab at interconnected universe-building. The first three films in the "Conjuring" universe created by filmmaker James Wan have racked up a cumulative $897 million worldwide to date, and the fourth entry in the series, "Annabelle: Creation," opens Friday boasting both a noticeable leap forward in production value and robustly positive reviews.

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Director David F. Sandberg preps his star for a scene in "Annabelle: Creation" (New Line)

Not bad for a prequel to a spinoff about an evil doll. Chucky, who slashed his way through six "Child's Play" movies and has a seventh on the way, would be proud.

Set in a gothic 1950s farmhouse far removed from the 1970s-era supernatural sleuthing of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose case files inspired "The Conjuring," "Annabelle: Creation" crafts a vivid tale of how Annabelle the doll came to be before she wound up in the Warrens' supernatural collection.

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The mystery involves a grieving doll maker, Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia), and his wife, Esther (Miranda Otto), who welcome six orphaned girls and their guardian, Sister Charlotte ("Miss Bala"'s Stephanie Sigman), to share their cavernous two-story homestead.

Unfortunately, as young polio-stricken Janice (Talitha Bateman) discovers while navigating shadowy hallways, forbidden rooms and other bumps in the night in her new digs  they're not alone.

And, of course, there are Easter eggs planted throughout the film alluding to past and future films in the growing "Conjuring" universe.

Lulu Wilson and Annabelle the doll in "Annabelle: Creation" (New Line)

A relatively budget-conscious sleeper success like "The Conjuring" may not have seemed a natural choice to spawn a cinematic multiverse, but Wan's studio bosses are already so confident that they've announced more standalones to come  "The Nun," due in 2018 from director Corin Hardy, and "The Crooked Man"  not to mention a third "Conjuring" film.

It was while making 2013's "The Conjuring" that Wan  who had the successful "Saw" series and budding franchise-starter, "Insidious," under his belt  saw the potential in expanding the world by zeroing in on the Warrens' collection of spooky relics. The same year, coincidentally, Warner Bros. launched its interconnected DC Extended Universe with "Batman v. Superman" precursor "Man of Steel."

"It was something that came up pretty organically," Wan said from the set of "Aquaman," the sixth installment in the DCEU and the horror veteran's first venture into the world of big-budget superhero blockbusters. Immersed in the world of "The Conjuring" while designing the museum of haunted artifacts collected by the Warrens, he wondered: Were there more stories to be told in these objects?

The first spinoff, "Annabelle," was shot on a $5-million budget in 25 days, directed by longtime Wan cinematographer John R. Leonetti from a script by Gary Dauberman. Set in the decade prior to "The Conjuring," it imagined a Manson-era backstory to the real Annabelle doll that still resides under glass in the Warrens' Connecticut museum with a warning: "Positively do not open."

Critics weren't impressed, but audiences flocked to the multiplex, and "Annabelle" ended up with a $256 million global take. After steering Universal's high-profile "Furious 7," the seventh installment in Hollywood's arguably most adaptive blockbuster franchise, Wan returned to his horror roots to direct "The Conjuring 2," which grossed $320 million and stoked fan interest in the burgeoning universe.

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Charging ahead on an "Annabelle" prequel that would explore the origin of the demonically possessed doll  this time with a bigger budget, more shooting days, and a more expansive story  producers Wan and Peter Safran hired director David F. Sandberg, the Swede who'd shown a sure hand transforming his own no-budget viral short film into "Lights Out," a nerve-fraying debut feature that scored more than $148 million worldwide on a limited budget for Wan's Atomic Monster production shingle.

With a script by "Annabelle" scribe Dauberman that gave the titular doll an origin story grounded in themes of family, loss, and tragic desperation, Sandberg underwent a casting search for the ensemble of multi-generational actresses who would carry "Annabelle: Creation."

"We were very open  we auditioned all sorts of nationalities and we weren't set on characters having to be [certain] ages," Sandberg recalled on a recent day in Franklin Village, near where he and "Lights Out" collaborator and wife Lotte Losten now live.

He found his lead in 15-year-old Bateman  her brother, the actor Gabriel Bateman, coincidentally starred in "Lights Out"  who brings preternatural depth to the object of Annabelle's sinister intentions. Her 11-year-old costar Lulu Wilson had experience acting in an unexpectedly classy horror prequel thanks to "Ouija: Origin of Evil," and makes the most of a meaty role as Linda, Janice's BFF, who has a particularly harrowing experience with a creaky dumbwaiter. Most important, the film's ensemble breathes life into the relationships and themes that help "Annabelle: Creation" deliver more than clever set pieces and jump scares.

Wan's guiding influence in cinematic universe-building? Taking more cues from the small screen than the Marvel blueprint. "I actually equate cinematic universes more to long-form TV storytelling  I've always said that the 'Conjuring' universe in some ways plays like a classic 'monster of the week' episodic, like 'X-Files' or 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' a serial with an overarching storyline that ties back to the main characters," he said.

"Annabelle: Creation" also embraces a classical filmmaking style, maximized by shooting on custom-built sets that allowed Sandberg and cinematographer Maxime Alexandre to move freely and stage sequences with invention.

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"It gets boring when you shoot just standard coverage, the same thing over and over," said Sandberg, who had a sprawling multistory interior built on the Warner Bros. lot. "I also wanted the movie to be beautiful, because I feel that horror movies can still look beautiful  it doesn't mean they're less scary."

To shoot the film's exterior scenes, including a memorably chilling daylight sequence involving a wheelchair, a barn and demonic possession, Sandberg's crew took over the Big Sky Movie Ranch in Simi Valley  which is why sharp-eyed viewers might recognize the Mullins' home from HBO's "Westworld." "That's the house where [Evan Rachel Wood's character] Dolores lives," Sandberg said with a smile. "But it looks very different in our movie."

Creation (New Line)

"Annabelle: Creation" was a giant leap for a relative newcomer like Sandberg, who grew up weaned on VHS horror classics like "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Fright Night," "Evil Dead" and, yes, "Child's Play." But like Wan, Sandberg is the latest indie horror director to make the jump to superhero filmmaking: Earlier this year he landed at the helm of New Line's "Shazam," based on the DC Comics character, which he's prepping while developing "Lights Out 2."

"Horror is really difficult to pull off, as evidenced by the really bad horror that's out there," he said, laughing. "So if you can do that, because it's both technical and tonal, then it helps taking on anything else  and usually the budgets [in horror] are a lot lower, so you have to be inventive."

Wan, who's more than halfway through filming on his Jason Momoa-led "Aquaman," agrees that the tools cultivated in indie horror  learning to play your audience for scares and nervous laughs while managing typically minuscule budgets  makes fertile training ground for studio blockbuster gigs.

More power to indie horror film directors!  "Annabelle: Creation" producer James Wan

"I think [studios] are looking beyond the fact that we might not be experienced in action and visual effects, but they can see that what we care about are characters and storytelling, and that's what it comes down to," he said. "It's not a bad trend for us genre filmmakers  we're no longer [looked] down at, as much as it used to be. More power to indie horror film directors!"

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With a foot in two cinematic universes and some of horror's most profitable franchises to his name, Wan might be one of the most qualified experts in Hollywood to expound on the secret to weaving interconnecting movie mythologies.

"At the end of the day you've got to make sure you have interesting characters and an interesting story to tell. Because you might have this amazing, grand, master scheme of a plan  but if you tell a story that no one really cares about," he said with a laugh, "it's kind of pointless."

jen.yamato@latimes.com

@jenyamato

ALSO:

Review: Hello, dolly! 'Annabelle: Creation' is a creaky, crafty origin story

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'Annabelle: Creation' expected to rise amid deathly August box office

LA Film Festival program continues to expand with 'The Beguiled' and 'Annabelle: Creation'
Angelo Tato Sanchez, Roberto "Carpacho" Marin and Carolina Aloma-Gibbs sit in the stairwell of a building on Belmont Avenue in Chicago leading to a space that was a nightclub in the 1960s. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

On a sunny Monday afternoon in Lakeview, a man bikes by Chicago Bagel Authority and a woman walks into Walgreens. Someone wearing a tie-dye Lollapalooza T-shirt crosses the street. At 959 W. Belmont Ave., patrons of Milio's Hair Studio open a glass door and ascend a staircase.

It's nothing remarkable. And it's nothing like the scene you would have seen decades ago on a Saturday night, as men in their best suits and women in spaghetti strap dresses crossed over the same chipped and fading olive green tiles still peeking beneath that glass door, ready to dance the night away at the Havana Madrid, a place that felt like home.

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This summer, that club and the stories shared by the people who loved it have been brought back to life onstage in "La Havana Madrid," Sandra Delgado's hyperlocal trip back in time to the haven and hot spot for Chicago's Cuban, Colombian and Puerto Rican communities. The immersive play weaves together narratives from the 1960s and '70s  inside-the-club romances, the Peter Pan airlift, Lincoln Park gentrification  as everything from boleros to salsa underscores the history.

Before the reimagined Havana Madrid closes its doors at the Goodman Theatre, following the premiere by Teatro Vista at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre and a run at Logan Square's Miracle Center, three former regulars meet up at a Starbucks a few blocks away from the original site of the real, long-closed nightclub.

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There's Angelo "Tato" Sanchez, who arrived in the U.S. from Puerto Rico in 1959 and eventually worked at Chicago's Gaslight Men's Shop selling suits to clubgoers. There's Roberto "Carpacho" Marin, a Colombian-American musician whose story inspired a character in the play and whose band of 30 years, Carpacho y Su Super Combo, plays live onstage in Delgado's production. And there is Carolina Aloma-Gibbs, daughter of the Cuban-born White Sox player and original club owner Luis "Witto" Aloma.

"Did you ever play dominoes in the back?" Aloma-Gibbs asks. Too young to fully revel in the club's offerings, she would sleep in the coat check room on late nights and wake up at closing time to go to the nearest diner for breakfast. Her family would head home to Edgewater as the sun was rising.

Tato and Carpacho go back and forth about the regulars they remember.

"There was an old American gentleman," Tato says. "Very old. In his 70s or 80s maybe. And he would come in. He had a hard time sitting down. But when the salsa music started playing, that guy was like a ..."

"Ralph?" Carpacho asks.

"Ralph!"

"Oh my God," Carpacho says. "He had a potty mouth!"

"And then when they closed the Havana Madrid, I saw him at Tania's," Tato says, recalling a shuttered Logan Square spot. "Little old man that couldn't walk, but he could dance!"

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Before we head to 959 W. Belmont., Carpacho grabs an imaginary partner. "You only need one tile and just stay there," he says, swaying back and forth and stroking imaginary hair to a bolero only he can hear.

As we walk to the address and pass the "L" tracks and renovated buildings, Aloma-Gibbs talks about how seeing Belmont Avenue in 2017 would freak out her father.

The club began as a post of the Cuban American Society, which counted the ballplayer Aloma as its president. The group helped Latinos settle in Chicago, along with serving as a center for activists and anti-revolutionary efforts. In 1962, according to notes from the secretary, a jacket and tie were required in the evenings, beer was sold on dance nights at 45 cents for a large pint, Sunday night dinners were held and the lounges were open nights and weekends for guests to play dominoes, pingpong and billiards.

"I think that's why it was such a community place," Aloma-Gibbs says. "Because it didn't start as a nightclub."

When we reach the door at 959 W. Belmont and walk into the vestibule, there are no left-behind smells that the three visitors remember  something like tin cleaner or an old antique shop.

Tato starts to walk up the stairs and stops on the second step. "Oh, my god," he says, wide-eyed. All that's there are muted walls and a Barre Code gym sign.

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On the second floor inside Milio's, we're greeted by a sound system playing MGMT's "Kids" and exposed brick and air conditioning and a receptionist who doesn't understand why people just walked into a salon and are pointing out a dance floor.

The bar was to the right and the dance floor was in front, Aloma-Gibbs explains as she maps out the space. The elevated stage was in the corner, where bands would play in full suits, sweating in front of only a fan rather than tossing away their jackets. The dining hall was to the left. Behind double doors, dominoes. To the right of that was the kitchen.

"And of course the windows are the same," she says. "Except they were painted. On the outside he did the fancy 'HM' in gold."

"I remember," says Tato, staring ahead. "My wife at the time was 17. That's when we first met. And I brought her here. And she was 17 and nobody knew it. And we're celebrating 47 (years) right now. Wow. This is ..."

A blow dryer fills the silence.

On our way out, women walk in for hair appointments. We're blocking the stairs. Carpacho tells them, "We are filming a movie."

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Roberto "Carpacho" Marin and Carolina Aloma-Gibbs and Angelo "Tato" Sanchez (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

In 1967, the club was taken over by Tony Quintana, a major figure in Chicago's Puerto Rican community who knew everyone and who everyone knew. "He had a radio show," Tato says. "He had a television show. He had a travel agency. He was a writer. He had a magazine." And a club. He's still on the radio. And now he is portrayed in "La Havana Madrid."

Quintana, a skilled promoter, brought in headliners like Celia Cruz, Pedro Vargas and Bobby Capo to the Havana Madrid. His daughter Yolanda Quintana says he always wanted to have a place for the Latino community to congregate. She describes him as a family man whose "intention was to leave a story," a legacy, for his kids and grandkids. By 1968, he left the club and concentrated on his other ventures, including accompanying Mayor Harold Washington on a trip to Puerto Rico.

In his self-published book "The Tony Quintana Story: Memorias de un Boricua Ausente," Quintana cites harassment from the Mafia and City Hall that made it "impossible" to manage the Havana Madrid. In 1969, the space became the famous Quiet Knight, changing the lives of another generation of Chicagoans while they watched performers like Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffett and Bruce Springsteen.

Then came the punk bar Tuts. Then the rock and hip-hop club Avalon. Then the B-Side Cafe.

There were always other Chicago clubs for Caribbean music and dancing  Tania's, Latin Village, now 90 Miles in Lincolnwood. But La Havana Madrid was the pinnacle, an original. Its devotees say there was nowhere classier.

"Life is so funny, isn't it?" says Aloma-Gibbs. "You think you're done with something, and then it gets a new life."

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Aloma-Gibbs, Tato and Carpacho are still reminiscing as we head to another coffee shop, but now it's about the play "La Havana Madrid."

"I tell you, when I saw it, I was there," Tato says.

"We go out and talk to them and they can't believe the story," Carpacho says. "A lot of people have related to my story because they went through immigration problems.  My friends go, 'You never told us this story.' I said, 'I'm always playing, so nobody asked me how I came to the United States.'"

Carpacho says the Miracle Center, the second run, hosted the production's loudest audience. It was like bringing the show back home. He still likes how close the original club is to the lake, which inspires the crashing waves heard at the beginning of "La Havana Madrid." "We all lived for the lake," he says. "It was the closest thing to my country."

A number of people whose stories appear in the play have brought spouses, children, neighbors and friends to the show. Some know the history. Some don't. But for those who frequented the club, the last moments of the play have echoes of the past.

The audience is finally invited to join in the festivities.

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Tato brought his wife onstage. Aloma-Gibbs shared a moment with her husband as she watched her daughter go the dance floor. Carpacho played on. And for those who never really said goodbye to the Havana Madrid, there was one last dance.

"La Havana Madrid" continues through Aug. 20 in the Goodman's Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; tickets $30-$50 at 312-443-3800 and goodmantheatre.org

mgreene@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @morgreene

[ RELATED: 'La Havana Madrid' is musical tribute to Puerto Ricans of 1960s Lincoln Park  ]

[ 'Trevor,' a musical about a gay teen, debuts in a world that still needs him  ]

[ Full lineup announced for Chicago International Latino Theater Festival  ]







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Considered the glory years of Mexican Pilsen by many current and former residents, Akito Tsuda's photos brought an avalanche of nostalgia for many families that made their life there. (Video by Cultura in Pilsen, Music by Zenen Huervo, Photos by Akito Tsuda) (Cultura in Pilsen)

In 2016, an unexpected book release in Japan got an enthusiastic reception in Pilsen. The book contained never-before-seen black and white photos of the neighborhood, shot in the 90s by a Japanese student and photographer, Akito Tsuda. Now, more than 20 years later, Tsuda is planning a visit to Pilsen to promote the 2nd edition of his book, and hes asking the community for help to make the journey.



Considered the glory years of Mexican Pilsen by many current and former residents, the photos brought an avalanche of nostalgia for many families when Tsuda shared photos on Facebook, prompting dozens of Facebook users to recognize the subjects, locations, and even the contexts of the photos.

The first edition, titled made me better than before (sic) quickly sold out.

Tsuda was born in Hamamatsu, Japan and arrived in Winnetka, Illinois in 1989 on a work visa. He later moved to Chicago and enrolled at Columbia College to study photography.



I didnt know almost anything about the neighborhood when I first went. I didnt even know the neighborhood was called Pilsen, he said. I was attracted by the presence of people on the street. I remember many people were sitting on their front steps.



As part of a school project, Tsuda picked Pilsen to photograph from 1991 to 1994. In those three years, he captured street scenes and intimate moments in peoples homes across the neighborhood, from Halsted St. to Western Ave. and 16th St. to Cermak Rd. He particularly liked to walk the neighborhoods alleys, Tsuda said.



Tsuda speaks little English and no Spanish, and relied on the assistance of Mexican-American kids to act as translators for their parents and neighbors.

He was surprised by peoples open-mindedness toward what he was trying to do, Tsuda said.



I was pleased to witness the beautiful relationship among siblings and family members in Pilsen. I especially liked the way many mothers in Pilsen cared for their children. I do not have good words to explain it, but that was beautiful, Tsuda said.



The photographer claims he never asked people to pose for, or look at, the camera. When there were few media portrayals of the intricacies in the Mexican community, Tsuda managed to capture working families, gangbangers, graffiti taggers, vagrants, and other residents from diverse walks of life, without much resistance.



Although I was trying to avoid stereotyping, I cannot deny that I was interested in taking photos of sharp-looking faces, especially in my early visits, he admitted. I wanted to impress teachers and other students with my boldness. I was immature.



From the hundreds of photos he shot, he only showed thirty to his class and published a few in a magazine. His self-published book was the first time he released them to the public.



After getting feedback from supporters in Chicago, Tsuda decided that instead of re-printing the book, he would create a second edition taking their suggestions into account. About 120 pictures from the first edition are included in the new book, titled Pilsen Days, with the addition of 60 new, larger, hand-picked selections depicting the daily life in Pilsen in the 90s.



Pilsen old-timers continue to communicate with Tsuda online, he said, and the neighborhoods rapid gentrification makes his project and visit more urgent.



Its very sad to hear. People must not be forced out of their homes. Private developers need to understand the importance of having consensus from the local people, he said.



Two community organizations, Cultura in Pilsen and La Catrina Cafe, hope to crowdsource funds to help bring Tsuda to exhibit his photos in the fall. On Friday they launched an Indiegogo campaign seeking to raise $7,500 for his round trip, housing, and honorarium, by September 1st. A $75 contribution will get a donor a signed copy of Pilsen Days.



Akito's Pilsen experience has been an inspiration to many. In a time of cultural erasure, lets highlight the history and beauty of Pilsen, said organizer Moira Pujols of Cultura in Pilsen. We want this to be a community effort done very professionally.



Cultura in Pilsen will feature the photography of Akito Tsuda in a special book release and exhibit at La Catrina Cafe on October 27. Clinard Dance Company will also partner with them on November 4 by presenting a new interdisciplinary dance piece inspired by Tsuda's photos, with original music by guitarist Pedro Cortes.

If hes financially able, Tsuda will be in attendance for both events and will give a talk about his work.

"I hope my book will be a tool for conversation. If my photos make people reach to the past and reacknowledge the beauty of Pilsen's community spirit, my publication will have been rewarding," he said.


An image from the graphic novel No Small Plans shows the busy intersection of State and Madison streets, complete with a streetcar in 1928. This is from the book's chapter on the past. (Chicago Architecture Foundation)

A graphic novel about city planning would seem to be destined to gather dust. If it didn't turn out to be a pedantic yawner of a book, it might be a simplistic good-guy-versus-bad-guy affair, its content as cartoonish as its drawings. ZAP! POW! BUILDER AS SUPERHERO!

But "No Small Plans," a new graphic novel that was inspired by the great Chicago planner Daniel Burnham and will be introduced to Chicago Public Schools students this fall, doesn't fall into those traps. It manages, instead, as its authors hoped, to capture the "grit and shine" of Chicago's cityscape. It is architecturally authentic, refreshingly human and, as you would expect of a book aimed at school kids, a tad idealistic.

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Nevertheless, "No Small Plans" delivers an important message for adults as well as the sixth- through 10th-grade students who are its chief intended audience: Be sure to take note of, and participate in, the design decisions that affect your life. Even seemingly minor things, like the layout of a park or the lighting of a street  can affect you.

"For a young person, there's no such thing as a small plan. When the city doesn't work for you, it can have a profound impact on your life," said one of the book's authors, Gabrielle Lyon, vice president of education and experiences at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the book's publisher.

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Best known for its Chicago River architectural boat tours, the foundation and its president, Lynn Osmond, are extending their already-strong public education efforts with the graphic novel. The book is touted as the heart of a three-year citywide education initiative, "Meet Your City," that the foundation is carrying out with CPS and the Chicago Public Library. The American Planning Association is supporting the effort, which aims to get the novel to 30,000 Chicago teenagers during the next three years.

Cynics will no doubt roll their eyes and complain that contributions from real estate developers to the campaign funds of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city's aldermen rig the urban design game, or at least tip the scales in favor of developers. While the book can be faulted for not focusing on the City Hall money trail, it does confront other conflicts, like the link between development and displacement, in compellingly complex terms that ring true.

In one of the book's three main storylines, set in 2017, Natalie Guerrero, whose family has long lived in Logan Square, learns that her family will be evicted from their apartment near The 606 trail because a developer plans to tear it down to build something new. When an African-American friend of Natalie's who lives in Englewood tells his father, a construction worker, about the situation, the dad replies: "If it weren't for developers, I wouldn't have any construction work. ... Development can help people too." The parents of another friend, who had battled against a coal-fired power plant in Pilsen, explain the virtues of joining with other residents to effect change.

Believable conflicts also enliven the other stories. The first, set in 1928 at the height of the Roaring '20s construction boom, tells the tale of three teenagers from different neighborhoods who meet downtown, run into white racist thugs when they take a trip to the beach and experience the engineering marvel of the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

The third, set in 2211, portrays a Chicago that sounds like an extension of the present: The "City Core" district is populated by the wealthy. Teenagers mostly communicate through virtual reality. Some of them are assigned to a city planning council that will decide which of several visions offers the best bet to revive the Uptown Theatre, the old movie palace.

Short chapters follow each story, introducing us to Burnham, his visionary 1909 Plan of Chicago and the men who promoted it. One of them, Charles Wacker, was the namesake of "Wacker's Manual," a book for Chicago public schoolchildren that touted the plan and the idea that citizens have a responsibility for the stewardship of a great city. Although "No Small Plans" will not be required reading in Chicago Public Schools, it aims to be a "Wacker's Manual" for our time, Lyon said.

In the book, the city is not idealized and neither is Burnham. The book repeats the criticism that Burnham's plan paid little attention to housing or the lives of working people. Burnham responds: "Ultimately, the decisions were not mine alone. Who should decide, do you think? ... What is it that makes a city livable? What is a city for everyone?"

The book's fundamental strength is that it focuses on provoking such questions, not dictating answers. It is more about the process of development than the end product, reflecting the reality that we live in a different city than Burnham did, one in which sweepingly grand plans are much harder to achieve.

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Yet reading the book is not a chore. It's a pleasure, thanks to the stories crafted by Lyon and her artist co-authors  Devin Mawdsley, Kayce Bayer, Chris Lin and Deon Reed. Their drawings crisply capture such landmarks as the Wrigley Building and reflect how the ever-shifting cityscape plays out, for better and for worse, not just for architecture, but for people.

bkamin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BlairKamin
Violinist and Roosevelt University graduate student Artem Kolesov talks about his concerns stemming from the creation of a video he made to share views on homophobia in his native Russia. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

One day this spring, Artem Kolesov set up a video camera in the Chicago townhouse where he lives, sat down in a chair and started talking to the young gay people of Russia.

"Yesterday I turned 23 years old," he began.

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He went on, in Russian, to tell the story of growing up as the fourth of six brothers in a small town, an hour's drive from Moscow, where his father was a deacon and his mother was a youth pastor at the Pentecostal church.

"In my family," he said on the video, "I often heard that all gays should be destroyed, that they should be bombed and that if anyone in our family turns out to be gay, my family should kill them with their bare hands."

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He spoke for 15 minutes, dressed in a plain white pullover shirt, his voice occasionally shaky as he talked of his suicidal thoughts and his search for courage.

"I never thought I would live to be 23," he said into the camera, not knowing who, if anyone, would watch. "I think about everything I would have missed if I took my life."

Frankly, Kolesov hadn't been sure the world needed another coming-out video. But he told himself that if anyone did, it was kids in Russia, where being openly gay can be dangerous and discrimination is common and condoned.

The response to the video has proved him right.

"My heart has been breaking for the five months since I posted this video," he said one day this week, sitting at Cafecito, a Cuban coffee shop near Roosevelt University, where he is a master's student studying violin.

He's a slender man with sharp, bright eyes. The left side of his face droops slightly, which, as he explained in the video, is the consequence of nerves damaged when he was born. His English is impeccable.

Almost every day brings Kolesov new messages from Russian kids trapped in a culture where they're shamed and threatened. He spends hours communicating with them, grateful that he has made it to Chicago, where he doesn't have to hide.

He came to the city two years ago, after attending college in Canada, to work with the renowned violinist Almita Vamos, who calls him "a very natural player, with a natural, beautiful sound."

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"When he started studying with me, he told the kids, 'Don't tell her I'm gay,'" Vamos said. "He was afraid I might not react well."

Eventually, he opened up to her about the conflict that being gay had created between him and his family, especially his mother, whom he loves deeply and has always wanted to please.

Once, at the age of 7, as he tells the story, he overheard her friends lamenting to her that she had no daughters.

He put a pair of leggings on his head, like braids, and went to her and said, "I will be your daughter and help you around the house."

If she suspected the truth about her son's sexuality, it was never spoken of, not until this March, after she'd made a strained visit to Chicago, when he wrote her a long coming-out letter and read it to her over the phone.

"I was afraid if I did it on Skype, I would chicken out," he said.

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By his account, she didn't respond well. She told him it was unnatural, that he was just trying to be cool, hadn't found the right girl, should keep it to himself, needed an MRI, should come back to Russia to be cured.

Her censure motivated him to make the video, but also made him hesitate.

"People like to put out positive things," he said. "A boy comes out, his parents accept him and everyone cries. No one wants to see a video where people are disowned."

Apparently, they do. The video went viral.

Kolesov's decision to come out was also eased by his relationship with Carol and Rob Schickel, a couple he met while playing violin at Chicago's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Last summer, when they heard he had no money and nowhere to stay, they invited him to live with them in their South Loop townhouse. He made the video in their living room.

"I don't think it was until he got to Chicago that he could really publicly be out," said Carol Schickel, a psychotherapist. "His coming out has been not only about his sexuality. It's about him being in life. What's being revealed, even to him, is his deep inner strength."

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Because of the video, many of Kolesov's old Russian friends deleted him from their social media accounts. He says the Russian church he once attended, aware of his video, is planning a youth course on why being gay is wrong.

Even if he wanted to go home for a visit, he wouldn't feel safe. With the video, he has broken the so-called "gay propaganda" law, which bans the distribution of information on "nontraditional sexual relationships" to minors.

But if making the video has cost Kolesov relationships he cherishes, it has also led him to new friends.

"I saw that video on Facebook," said Bruce Koff, a longtime Chicago gay activist, "and I wept. I went to my husband and said, 'You have to watch this,' and he wept."

They and some friends got in touch with Kolesov, and as a result have organized a benefit concert on Saturday, Aug. 26, at the Center on Halsted. Kolesov will perform, along with the well-known violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Some of the money raised will help him pay legal fees involved in getting a green card, and some will go to organizations that help LGBT people fleeing persecution in other countries.

Soon after that, Kolesov will leave Chicago for California. In May, he got married to a man who is enrolling in a Ph.D. program at UCLA. The Schickels, whom he calls "my American parents," came to the wedding in San Francisco.

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His only regret was that his mother wasn't there.

"I hope her love for me is bigger than these misconceptions," he said.

One thing he has learned in his 23 years is that you never know what's going to happen next.

mschmich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarySchmich
When daylight slowly surrendered into darkness during a solar eclipse in ancient times, some civilizations believed the spectacle was the result of an enormous creature devouring the sun.

In the centuries that followed, solar eclipses continued to be seen as harbingers of disaster or death. Eclipses were thought to be harmful to pregnant women. Some people were suspicious that eclipses had the ability to make food toxic.

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But as science evolved, mankind debunked these superstitions and, in turn, demystified solar eclipses. Eventually, scientists like Sir Arthur Eddington, whose observations of deflected starlight during a 1919 solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, considered the rare celestial events as prime opportunities to learn more about the solar system and beyond.

Nearly a century later, on Aug. 21, a new generation of scientists are preparing to conduct another slate of experiments during the first total solar eclipse over the mainland of the U.S. since 1979, and the first to span the continental U.S. since 1918.

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NASA officials are planning to conduct research projects across the path of totality  where the sun will be completely covered  that include atmospheric balloons, aircraft, satellites, the International Space Station and the city of Carbondale, where the eclipse will reach its greatest point of duration. Carbondale will see the sun's face completely blocked for 2 minutes and 43 seconds, beginning at 1:20 p.m., during which time NASA intends to obtain high-resolution imagery and various other measurements.

Bob Baer, a Southern Illinois University physics professor, will be taking telescopic images of the eclipse in Carbondale as part of a NASA initiative to collect photos from nearly 70 sites in the path of totality. The experiment aims to map electrons within the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, and could answer the question of why the sun's surface, which is several thousand degrees, is so much cooler than its atmosphere, which has been gauged in the millions of degrees.

"What we're hoping to do is take images and stitch them together to make a long movie of the corona," Baer said. "Anyone in the path of totality will see it for about 2  minutes, but the strength is in the network. Over 90 minutes we should see the evolution in the corona and see the corona changing.

"The ultimate goal is we want to be able to predict when solar flares happen, and, right now, we can't do that with good accuracy."

Astronomers can view the sun's corona with a device known as a coronagraph, but the innermost reaches of the sun's atmosphere, called the photosphere, remain elusive outside of solar eclipses, according to Kris McCall, director of Triton College's Cernan Earth and Space Center in River Grove.

The mechanism that blocks out the sun in a coronagraph also obstructs views of the sun's atmosphere closer to its surface, McCall said. During an eclipse, astronomers get an exceptional chance to study the photosphere "just up to a hundred miles from the sun's surface," she said.

NASA will also be taking high-definition images and measurements of visible and infrared light from two WB-57 jet planes flying over the path of totality in Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee. The flights are expected to net the clearest pictures of the sun's corona to date, because, at 50,000 feet above ground, the sky will be 20-30 times darker than as seen from the ground and there will be much less atmospheric turbulence.

In addition to shedding more light on the dynamics of the sun's atmosphere, the images could reveal whether a hypothesized family of asteroids between Mercury and the sun exists.

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Chicago's Adler Planetarium will be taking its own high-flying observations during the eclipse. The planetarium's Far Horizons team, a group of students, volunteers and Adler members, will travel to Perryville, Mo., to launch a pair of high-altitude balloons into the stratosphere to capture 360-degree video of the eclipse.

Larry Ciupik director of Adler Planetarium's Doane Observatory, hopes even the most modest observations could help scientists fine-tune their knowledge of the solar system.

"We've very accurately timed the moon's passage, but each time there's an eclipse, we can time its orbit a little better," Ciupik said. "You have to be in totality to see the precise moments of time the sunlight hits the edge of the moon where it's cratered or there's a valley."

People in the path of the total eclipse can expect twilight-like darkness. The wind usually picks up, and temperatures drop.

But weather forecasts could be a challenge for local meteorologists who will have to somehow account for reduced or no sunlight. The entire North American continent will see at least a partial eclipse, which is expected to result in temperature drops up to 20 degrees and an uptick in wind, according to NASA.

"I'm not really sure if we have a forecast model or if we'll have to make manual adjustments," said Mike Bardou, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "The last total (mainland) eclipse was 1979, so I don't know if historical data can be modeled. It will be a learning experience in that regard."

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The sudden, albeit brief, transformation from day into night has elicited strange behavior in animals in the past. Birds have been known to return to their nests and insects to sing as if it were night. And when sunlight was completely blocked during one eclipse, scientists in Mexico observed orb spiders tearing down their webs.

Though Chicago is expected to see only a partial eclipse, with 87 percent of the sun covered, it will be the closest the city has been to the path of totality since 1925. And the Lincoln Park Zoo is using the opportunity to closely monitor its animals in outdoor enclosures, including great apes and snow monkeys.

"They'll certainly react to the dark and temperature and react to environment, but to see whether they react to it in a meaningful way is difficult to tell," said Steve Ross, director at Lincoln Park Zoo's Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes. "I think the primates are what we'll be interested in watching because they are cognitively advanced. But I think many birds will be interesting because they have tri-chromatic vision, so they ... are also relatively sensitive to light."

For people in many places, the total solar eclipse could be a once-in-a-lifetime event. In any given place, a total eclipse happens only once every hundred years or so.

Chicago won't see one until 2099. But Carbondale will see its second total solar eclipse in April 2024.

"If you stood still, you should see an eclipse about once every 150 years, so this is less than a 1 percent chance," Adler's Ciupik said. "These little lines cross the Earth over the period of hundreds of years. That's why people go around chasing it with planes that go above the clouds, cruises that you can find and road atlases."

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With an opportunity for repeat experiments, researchers surely will be returning to Illinois.

tbriscoe@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_tonybriscoe
Chicago comes out to celebrate with grand marshal Chance the Rapper at the Bud Billiken Parade on Aug. 12, 2017. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

The Bud Billiken Parade is the end-of-summer treat for the children of Chicago's South Side, the truest way to ring in the new school year. But the familiar sights and sounds of the parade  the sequined leotards, the rumbling snare drums, the sweet scent of barbecue wafting from backyard grills  were overshadowed Saturday by the parade's grand marshal.

"Chance! CHANCE!" children yelled as they pushed through crowds, hoping to catch a glimpse of Chance the Rapper, the 24-year-old local musician who rose to greater fame this year by winning three Grammy Awards and donating $1 million to Chicago Public Schools. One group of kids ran down the entire parade route, trying to keep up with the white convertible driving him so that he wouldn't leave their sights.

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For several families, no one was better suited to lead the historically back-to-school celebration than Chance, who isn't shy about championing youth empowerment or standing up for Chicago schoolchildren. Trailing the white convertible was a U-Haul truck from which volunteers with the rapper's local charity, SocialWorks, unloaded 30,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies. Children cheered as they were handed backpacks by volunteers.

"A water bottle! Headphones! Oh, my God!" cried out 7-year-old Xavier Pratt. The second-grader at Heather Hill Elementary in Flossmoor rummaged through the backpack as though it were a Christmas stocking. There were pens and pencils, Post-it notes, a notebook and a sturdy folder. His cousin Kailyn Paschal, a third-grader at Calvary Academy in South Holland, was just as delighted.

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"This is lit! This is lit!" Kailyn said as she pulled out each item. She was excited to come to the parade this year to see Chance, but would've attended the parade regardless, she said.

"This is tradition," she said. "Something we always do."

Chance stole the show with a second giveaway: tickets to a free concert Saturday evening at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Parkway. He posted on Twitter on Saturday afternoon that the tickets had been available at locations around the city, but that they were all gone. He told his followers to "stay tuned" for more opportunities to get into the concert.

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The parade's 88th year was met with sunshine and summer breeze, and while organizers expected more than 1 million to attend, an official crowd estimate for the parade wasn't immediately available. The parade was started in 1929 by the Chicago Defender and was named after a mythical symbol of good luck and guardian of children.

For some of the parade's young participants, the best part of the day was the hour before the festivities started, when the drill teams and marching bands arrived at their meeting spots and rehearsed their performances. Those moments were filled with hugs and selfies as teenagers saw their friends for the first time all summer.

On the corner of Oakwood Boulevard and Vincennes Avenue, the Proviso West High School Marching Band warmed up with brassy tunes that brought other parade participants to their feet. A group of mothers, after putting the finishing touches on their daughters' makeup, began to dance.

Ivoryana Neal, a 14-year-old freshman who plays the cymbals in the marching band, said it's important for youth to participate in the parade in order to display their talents and strengths.

"For a lot of African-Americans, this is our time to come out peacefully and show that we're not violent or anything," she said. "Some don't get a chance to come out here and perform because they're caught up in something that's not good."

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meltagouri@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @marwaeltagouri
A shell casing at the scene of a shooting in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Two cars were damaged after someone opened fire on the northbound lanes of Interstate 55 near Damen Avenue, according to Illinois State Police.

About 1:55 a.m. Saturday, Illinois State Police received reports of shots fired on the northbound lanes of the Stevenson Expressway. At least two vehicles were damaged by the gunshots, but no one was reported injured, state police said.

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The northbound lanes were temporarily closed early Saturday as troopers canvassed the road for evidence. The lanes were opened to traffic about 7 a.m.

The incident remains under investigation.
Panzy Edwards speaks about her son, 15-year-old Dakota Bright, during a Chicago Police Board meeting at police headquarters Aug. 10, 2017. Dakota was fatally shot by a police officer, and the Independent Police Review Authority ruled the 2012 shooting was unprovoked and unwarranted. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

A Chicago police officer found at fault by the city's police watchdog for a teen's fatal shooting in 2012 had fired at suspects in two other incidents, was involved in more than half a dozen lawsuits and had about 25 complaints filed against him, records show.

Over a recent four-year period, in fact, Officer Brandon Ternand was among about a dozen officers who had amassed the most complaints within the 12,000-strong police force.

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In its 43-page ruling made public Thursday night, the Independent Police Review Authority called the officer's shooting of 15-year-old Dakota Bright once in the back of the head during a foot chase "unprovoked and unwarranted."

On learning of IPRA's findings, a spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said Friday that the office would take another look at the shooting. In 2013, the office, then led by State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, decided not to prosecute the officer.

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"In light of IPRA's recently released report, the Office plans to review the case to ensure that the matter has been thoroughly reviewed in light of all available information," Foxx's spokeswoman, Tandra Simonton, said in an emailed statement.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Ternand, a 10-year veteran, remains on active duty while the department reviews IPRA's findings.

Reached by telephone Friday, Ternand declined to comment, but a statement issued by the head of the police union that represents rank-and-file officers blasted IPRA's findings as politically motivated and questioned the competence of its investigators.

"We believe the decision by IPRA to rule this incident unjustified is certainly arbitrary, based more on political considerations than the rule of evidence," said Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham. "A gun was recovered. This incident also cries out for the fact that IPRA should have personnel qualified to conduct shooting investigations, which it currently does not have."

IPRA did not identify the officer, citing union contract prohibitions, but other records obtained by the Tribune through Freedom of Information Act requests show Ternand shot Bright in the South Side's Park Manor neighborhood on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 2012.

The IPRA report said that Bright was not armed when he was fatally shot but may have tossed a gun during the chase. Officers recovered a .22-caliber revolver in a front yard by where the chase began, IPRA said.

The IPRA report disclosed that a woman witnessed the shooting, called 911 and reported that an officer had shot someone in the back.

"The fact that this statement was made contemporaneously with the actual event weighs in favor of its reliability, as does the fact it is corroborated by the physical evidence," IPRA said.

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The records obtained by the Tribune show that Ternand was among 11 officers in the department who amassed the most complaints between mid-December 2010 and mid-December 2014.

Over that four-year period, he received 23 complaints for allegations ranging from excessive force to illegal searches, according to the records. Ternand was not disciplined in any of the cases.

FOP officials commonly point out that officers who work in high-crime areas often are hit with complaints they allege to be false. Ternand has worked in violence-plagued parts of the South and West sides throughout his career.

Ternand has also been named in six federal lawsuits in addition to the suit by Bright's family filed in Cook County Circuit Court. Records show that the city has paid out about $1.1 million overall in litigation involving Ternand, including $925,000 last year to settle the lawsuit by Bright's mother.

According to the records, Ternand has fired shots on three separate occasions  all within an approximately two-year period.

In August 2012, about three months before Bright's shooting, Ternand and another officer fired at two men in the 6700 block of South Blackstone Avenue. Ternand fired three shots but didn't hit anyone, according to the records.

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In October 2014, Ternand shot three times at a 16-year-old in the 6600 block of South Kenwood Avenue but missed, the records show.

The ruling by IPRA on Thursday marked a rare decision finding a Chicago police officer at fault for use of force. Since the court-ordered release in late 2015 of video showing an officer shoot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times sparked heated protests, political turmoil and promises of systemic change, IPRA has found five shootings  including Bright's  to be unjustified uses of force. By contrast, in the eight years before that, the agency investigated hundreds of shootings but found only two to be unjustified.

Ternand and his partner, along with a second police unit, had responded to a call of a burglary in progress at about 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2012, but the officers found no trouble and began to leave the area when they saw Bright walking toward them in an alley.

The officers claimed Bright held a gun in his right hand, looked toward the officers and took off running while tucking the handgun in his waist.

Ternand gave chase on foot as Bright ran through backyards and jumped fences.

Ternand later said he opened fire as he saw the teen stumble, reach toward his waist and turn in his direction.

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Ternand, identified by IPRA only as Officer A, had told detectives at the scene of the shooting that he spotted a dark-colored handgun in Bright's hand on first seeing him in an alley. But IPRA noted that when his partner called in the description of the fleeing teen to dispatchers at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, he never said the suspect was armed, only that he was "holdin' his left side."

"The fact that Officer A claims to have seen (Bright) wield the firearm in this manner and failed to ensure that this information was reported to OEMC to inform his fellow officers lacks credibility," IPRA said.

IPRA also found that Ternand gave inconsistent accounts of what he saw Bright doing with his hands as he fled. Ternand later said he saw Bright reaching for his waist, which IPRA called "an important justification" for Ternand's belief that the teen was armed. That made it all the more surprising, though, that Ternand failed to mention that detail when he first spoke to detectives at the shooting scene, IPRA said.

The civilian witness said she didn't see Bright reaching for anything on his waist because "he was runnin' so fast." She also said that "I think you could see his boxers"  leading IPRA to suggest he might have just been pulling his pants up, not reaching for a gun, as he cleared fences while being chased.

IPRA also took issue with Ternand's claim that after scaling the last fence, Bright reached toward his waist area and started turning toward the officer. "This lacks credibility," said IPRA, noting that Bright was already two city lots away  about 50 to 55 feet  from Ternand.

Given that it turned out that Bright had no gun when he was shot, IPRA said, it was unlikely that the teen would have made a gesture toward the officer, particularly since he was likely pulling away from the officer during the foot chase.

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In addition, IPRA pointed out that Bright was shot in the back of his head, calling that detail "another important piece of verifiable evidence that undermines the plausibility of Officer A's account of the events."

"This evidence suggests that (Bright) was facing away from the officer when he was shot," IPRA said.

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When asked to explain how Bright could have been shot in the back of the head, Ternand said he guessed that the teen turned his head back the "split second" after he fired. But IPRA said that conflicted with Ternand's consistent claim he fired at Bright as he began to turn toward him.

IPRA pointed to other inconsistencies as well. Ternand said he saw Bright reach into his waist, yet the officer acknowledged the teen was facing away from him as he fled, making "it difficult for the officers to see what his hands were doing in front of his body," IPRA said.

IPRA concluded that Ternand's use of deadly force was "objectively unreasonable" by a preponderance of the evidence.

"IPRA relies upon the inconsistencies in Officer A's statements, contravening physical evidence and eyewitness testimony to determine that Officer A was unreasonable in his belief that (Bright) presented an imminent threat of death or bodily harm to the officer, necessitating the use of deadly force," IPRA said.

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Chicago Tribune's Todd Lighty and Dan Hinkel contributed.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JeremyGorner
A motorcyclist was critically injured early Saturday in a crash about 12:10 a.m. in the 8200 block of West Foster Avenue on the city's Northwest Side, according to Chicago police.

A 30-year-old woman was driving a 2012 Ford Fusion when she tried to make a left turn onto Pioneer Avenue. She then crashed into a 45-year-old man who had been riding a Kawasaki motorcycle, police said.

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The man had been heading west when the crash happened. He was taken in critical condition to Lutheran General Hospital, police said.

The woman was cited for making an improper turn, police said.

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The crash remains under investigation.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Korea, a bipartisan group that seeks to strengthen U.S. ties to South Korea. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam said President Donald Trump's forceful rhetoric on North Korea is clear and helpful, sending a strong message to China to act as a "restraining influence" against ruler Kim Jong Un.

"I would say that the clarity is helpful, the lack of ambiguity is helpful, the public pressure on China is helpful," Roskam said.

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The Wheaton Republican lawmaker co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Korea, a bipartisan group that seeks to strengthen U.S. ties to South Korea, which Roskam has visited once.

After previously threatening "fire and fury like the world has never seen," Trump tweeted Friday: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."

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Trump has faced some criticism for the tough talk, but Roskam said he's supportive of the recent comments, though he said he wasn't familiar with everything the president has stated or tweeted.

Roskam said he traces his interest in the region to his late father's Army service there during the Korean War. V.R. "Swede" Roskam was an Army lieutenant deployed there from 1952 to 1953.

China is the key player in the region but is in a "quandary" because it wants neither a war in its backyard nor a unified Korea as a U.S. ally, the lawmaker said.

"Essentially North Korea is a client state of China," Roskam said. China has an "incredible responsibility among the community of nations to be a restraining influence" but "doesn't appear willing to do that."

"At this point, China, from my point of view, is underperforming and seems to be underestimating the provocative language and actions of the North Korean regime," Roskam said.

North Korea recently has successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles and threatened to strike the waters surrounding Guam, a U.S. territory.

Asked what the U.S. should do if North Korea followed through on its threat to fire missiles near Guam, Roskam said that would seem to provoke a U.S. military response, which he would support.

"I'm assuming there's a very robust (U.S.) military plan that's in place, and an intelligence plan that's in place, to make clear what the next moves would be," Roskam said.

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Roskam, asked what he would tell Trump if he had his ear, said he would urge him to "aggressively" use diplomatic back channels with the Chinese.

"The lines North Korea are crossing are very significant and the Chinese have the capacity to influence this for the good," he said.

Another Illinois Republican with ties to South Korea issues disagreed with Trump's language. Former U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, now working as president and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America, said "shrill words and invective statements" have "never accomplished anything."

Manzullo's think tank deals with issues including trade and security and is funded by the Republic of Korea, as the country is officially known. He served in Congress for 20 years until 2013 and was active in foreign relations with Asian countries through committee work. During and after his congressional years, he's made five trips to South Korea, he said.

He agreed China is a pivotal player and said he was encouraged the Chinese foreign minister had urged both Kim and Trump to use diplomacy and refrain from language that would escalate tensions.

Manzullo said North Korea's leader had made outrageous and bellicose threats long before Trump was elected and the U.S. president should not have responded in kind.

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"Am I thrilled with (Trump's) language? Absolutely not," Manzullo said. "Words have consequences. Diplomacy is underway ... and shrill words and invective statements, bellicose statements, have never accomplished anything."

He said given his druthers, he would take away Trump's Twitter account. He'd also urged him to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, calling the vacancy "inexcusable."

"This is the world's largest and most unpredictable chess game that we've seen in a long time," Manzullo said, calling the risk of a nuclear attack real. "The risk is that North Korea would accidentally do something very stupid, because they don't have experience in dealing with nuclear weapons."

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @KatherineSkiba
June Michaelson had her own business doing inspections of hotels, sometimes wearing disguises. She died July 22, 2017, at 86. (Handout )

June Michaelson built a thriving business by visiting hundreds of hotels around the country, evaluating everything from room service to restrooms, using an array of disguises to always ensure her anonymity.

"That was the secret to her success," said her husband, Marc. "She did what nobody else did back then. She kept her identity under wraps."

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For two decades, Michaelson ran a highly regarded hotel and resort quality assurance consulting firm that was based in Skokie. Her work often required an alias and a constant change of outfits that included wigs, eyeglasses  and even some subterfuge.

"Actually, I've found that the men's rooms generally are kept up better than the women's (rooms)," Michaelson told the Tribune in 1986. "I think that's because most hotel managers are men."

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Michaelson, 86, the founder and president of Hospitality Standards Ltd., died July 22 in her Skokie home, her husband said. She had Parkinson's disease and vascular dementia.

Having spent so much time in hotels and as a "professional guest," Michaelson had one main message to share with consumers.

"When something troubling occurs during your visit, immediately go to the general manager and discuss with him what you feel you would like as a reimbursement for the discomfort you suffered," she told the New York Times in 1996. "Plenty of people complain, but they complain only to other people. You have to discuss it with the general manager."

Initially a one-woman operation, Michaelson founded Hospitality Standards in the early 1980s and ran it out of her home. As her business grew, she expanded her staff and moved into an office building in downtown Skokie.

At its height, the firm employed seven inspectors who made visits to about 100 hotels each year, many high-end, including those within the Marriott, Westin and Ritz-Carlton chains.

"What was so important to her was maintaining her standards," her husband said. "A member of the Marriott family once told her, 'If my general managers had your eyes, I wouldn't worry about anything.'"

According to the Tribune story, a hotel would pay the firm $2,500 to conduct a detailed inspection during a two-day, two-night visit, often without the knowledge of mid-level managers.

Michaelson and her inspectors would tell top management their findings, along with a written report that could run from 40 to 60 pages.

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"I don't try to do anything that's so perplexing that it wouldn't be a fair test," she told the Tribune, "just things that might normally come up and annoy a guest."

June R. Rappaport was born and raised on Chicago's Northwest Side and graduated from Schurz High School in 1949.

It was during that time that she met her husband on the floor of Chicago City Council chambers, where both were serving as student representatives on a committee aimed at reducing juvenile delinquency.

"I looked up and she caught my eye right away," he recalled.

Michaelson attended Beloit College in Wisconsin for two years before transferring to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in history. She later earned a master's degree in history from Northwestern University, her family said.

After settling in Skokie and starting a family, she taught elementary school in the western suburbs before joining the faculty at New Trier High School, where she taught history and civics.

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In the late 1960s, Michaelson became the editor-in-chief of the Mobil Travel Guides, a publication that provided ratings and reviews of hotels and restaurants. She left there to start her own business, retiring in the late 1990s.

"As a family, we were always packing our bags and headed off somewhere," said her husband, a former public relations director for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

"Our kids were travelers from damn near birth," he said.

Other survivors include two sons, David and Grant, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at Temple Judea Mizpah, 8610 Niles Center Road, Skokie, followed by Shiva calls in the community hall until 8 p.m.

Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter.
Google's former engineer James Damore was correct to point out gender differences, but he drew false and discriminatory conclusions. Even if it were true that women were nothing more than the stereotype of being people persons, companies need these skills to balance other male skills when developing products and services. For example, a majority of online purchases are made by women. Does it make sense to have, say, 85 percent of those website coders be male? Women coders can shape the user shopping experience and test code for ways in which women will be using the applications. These gender differences lead to different perspectives to solving problems and ultimately stronger products.

Companies that embrace all genders, all races, all religions, all sexual orientations and gender identities are striving to nurture workplaces that allow diverse ideas to germinate, to have innovation and creativity thrive. That is why useless diversity initiatives are important and contribute positively to the bottom line.

The way Damore expressed his opinions and pushed discriminatory conclusions runs counter to a free idea exchange. Google was justified in revoking his right to represent it as an employee.

 Ruta Kulbis, Riverside
COLUMBUS  A 49-year-old Columbus man pleaded guilty to aggravated second-offense driving under the influence after spinning his pickup around on 17th Street with a Columbus Police officer watching from nearby.

Platte County Court Judge Frank Skorupa scheduled William Serr for sentencing Wednesday in connection with the show of power from the defendants Dodge Dakota pickup in the 3200 block of 17th Street on May 5.

The aggravated DUI is a Class I misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a $1,000 fine.

The judge gave Serr credit for six days already served in the case.

In exchange for Serrs guilty plea, the Platte County Attorneys Office dismissed a charge of third-degree assault. The defendant was also cited for excessive torque during the incident.

According to court documents, Columbus Police Officer Troy Urkoski observed Serr traveling east on 17th Street when he turned south onto 32nd Avenue, stopped and went in reverse with his pickup's rear wheels spinning and squealing until he was facing west on 17th Street.

As I approached the vehicle Serr stepped out, Urkoski wrote.

Serr appeared unsteady on his feet and used his vehicle to balance himself, the officer wrote while also noting the driver's slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.

Serr submitted to a preliminary breath test at the scene, which showed a blood alcohol content of 0.199, more than twice the states legal limit of 0.08 for driving. An evidentiary breath test when Serr was booked into the county jail gave a reading of 0.198.

Serr was convicted of refusing to submit to an alcohol breath test during a traffic stop in 2015 in Platte County.

The defendant was also convicted of DUIs in 1984, 1995 and 1998 in Platte County, all prior incidents that are beyond the states 15-year look-back period when determining multiple offenses.
Lets set the record straight. This, the original title of the purported news story to which Im referring, was patently false: Lawmaker compares teachers who support transgender rights to dirty old men. No such comparison was made by me or even by Laurie Higgins, the author of the original article to which I posted a link. The reference to dirty old men was made by Higgins to make a point about those who support the use of obscene, pornographic resources used in public schools. Higgins did not use the term transgender rights. To my knowledge, no such specific rights exist.

Regarding the transgender issue, Higgins was criticizing the policy of allowing transgender students unfettered access to opposite-sex restrooms and locker rooms in public schools and the requirement that teachers (and eventually students) use pronouns that do not correspond to the sex of trans-identifying students, thereby making everyone a party to the notion that ones gender identity supersedes in meaning and value ones biological sex. In other words, the government is imposing an arguable, leftist ideology on employees and students. This is an important policy debate, and I remarked on it months ago at my local school board meeting. So, if my comments are news, why the delayed reporting?

It seems the intent of your article was to undermine me politically. Describing me as far to the right without describing the Southern Poverty Law Center or the ACLU  both of which were cited  as far to the left reveals the biased nature of this story. You apparently seek to destroy my reputation without mentioning the important legislative work I have done with nearly every member of the Illinois House of Representatives, including those with whom I strongly disagree on cultural issues.

 State Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton
Winner: "When will these party animals learn you can't tuna fish." - Don Farrell, Glenview

Extras:

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"Chicago Cubs Fans rally to protest lack of fish taco's at Wrigley Field"!

"Tax payers rally outside City Hall to protest strange odor coming from 'red-light camera' offices"!

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Tim Collins, Antioch

"This guy just asked me if he could bum a fin."

"This is the last place I would have expected to find Nemo."

Mike Rourke, Chicago

"Now there's something to carp about."

Pat Foley, Homer Glen

"My being here is a fluke."

Stephanie Bransfield, Chicago

"I feel like the Budget."

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Mike McPartland, Tinley Park

"These people are clueless of the fact that I'm an Asian CarpYippee!"

Ron Gaj, Hawthorn Woods

"We came for the music and we're leaving with a huge haddock."

Jerry Shapiro, Northbrook

"He thinks it's TunaPalooza!"

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K.Michalsen, Lake Zurich

"We are in trouble now. The Asian carp has made it all the way to the mosh pit at Lollapalooza!"

Patrick Carry Waukegan

"What the #/%,. Why did Stantis put this whale up here?"

Jim Kozy, Chicago

"And now for something that smells worse than Illinois politics."

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Carolyn Wartinbee, Elmhurst
This house at 1121 Solfisburg, in Aurora's 2nd Ward, won the "Make it Beautiful" first-place award given out by Ald. Juany Garza. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News )

Aurora Ald. Juany Garza wants residents to know it pays to improve property in the 2nd Ward.

Garza recently gave out awards  which included some cash as well as a yard sign  to five properties, the winners in her "Make It Beautiful" property improvement contest she has been running each year since 2009.

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"I decided it was a good idea to put out some incentives," she said.

Mayor Richard Irvin agreed, saying the city wants to "give awards and commendation to people who improve their neighborhoods."

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Garza takes entries into her contest every March and April, and goes out and takes "before" photos of the properties. It runs through July 31 each year, when Garza goes back around to each property for the "after" photos.

Irvin and Garza presented the awards to the winners at a recent City Council meeting.

First place went to a property at 1121 Solfisburg, owned by Jovana Cortez. As Garza presented her the award, she said, "you could be a landscape designer."

The other awards went to: second place, 959 Liberty St.; third place, 53 Root St.; fourth place, 1008 Claim St.; and fifth place, 327 Ohio St.

Garza said she gets as many as 30 entries in the contest.

slord@tribpub.com
DeKalb resident Norman Walzer examines artifacts from the 1850s Saturday during Civil War Days, which continues Sunday at Blackberry Farm in Aurora. Walzer said he makes shoes and boots from the 1830s using tools from the era. (David Sharos / Beacon-News )

For some history buffs like Barb Phipps, there's no such thing as too much when it comes to the War Between the States.

"I've come to Civil War events before, and I still feel the history of it all is very interesting," Phipps, of Aurora, said. "I love to talk to the re-enactors and hear their stories. Despite it being the worst conflict in our history, I find the period and the supplies they used and all of that fascinating."

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There was all that and more Saturday at Civil War Days, which continues Sunday at Fox Valley Park District's Blackberry Farm in Aurora. Among the weekend highlights are full-scale battle reenactments, appearances by Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd, a wide variety of speakers, and demonstrations of what life was like in the 1860s.

Jeff Long, the park district's public affairs and communications manager, said the event normally draws about 1,200 people each day.

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"There are things kids can read about in history books, but it's another thing seeing these demonstrations and re-enactments live," Long said. "We have about 10 stations altogether for people to visit, and we get a number of people from out of state who follow these events all over the country."

Visitors were able to see the dyeing of fabrics for soldiers' uniforms, medical procedures used during the war, and toys and games that would have been popular at the time.

The 17th Army Corps field hospital set up in one of the park's picnic areas was one of the new offerings this year, district recreation supervisor Laureen Baumgartner said, as was using new "tween" interpreters to interact with the audience.

"The group doing the field hospital approached us about doing a demonstration this year, and we're always happy to expand the program with new things," she said. "I think people will find the staged operations they'll be conducting interesting. We've also added about four kids between the ages of 9 and 13, who are working at some of our other stations and getting experience."

One of those new young interpreters was Evelea Sologos, of Aurora, who portrayed a school teacher inside the one-room schoolhouse exhibit. Sologos told groups of visiting students that classrooms during the 1800s were manned by one person who taught all grades.

"There were grades one through eight in the same room, and in order to teach, you only had to complete eighth grade yourself to be certified," Sologos told one group. "If you weren't paying attention, you had to wear a sign around your neck all day or sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap. The idea was that your brain waves would come together and go up to the top."

Chris and Carly Williams, of Naperville, said this was their first time visiting Blackberry Farm "after hearing a lot ... about it from friends."

"I think it's beautiful and I got excited just driving up," Chris Williams said. "I think the Civil War thing and the interest it continues to generate is because of Abraham Lincoln."

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Carly Williams said the war "brought us to where we are now," a sentiment echoed by Dave Griffiths, of Oswego, who came to the event with his wife Cindy and son Gerard, 3.

"The Civil War was a huge part of American history and while it was tragic we had to go through it, there were good reasons given where we've come out on the other side," Griffiths said.

DeKalb resident Norman Walzer offered a different perspective, noting that people follow the Civil War for historical reasons but also as a way of examining culture and lifestyle.

"I make 1830s-era shoes and boots, using actual tools from the time period, and while my work predates the Civil War, it's interesting to follow the evolution and see where things went," Walzer said as he visited a tool and gun exhibit on the grounds. "I find the re-enactors that do these things are very well prepared and have done their research. They understand what people then would think and do.

"Some people like me are able to find a hobby and develop it and then continue to follow where it leads," Walzer said. "It just depends on where your historical interest lies."

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
The nonprofit nurses group, Show Me Your Stethoscope, holds a rally as part of a national effort to bring awareness to violence against nurses and other health care workers in hospitals Aug. 11, 2017, in front of the Kane County Sheriff's Office. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Nurses are not anyone's punching bags, and they're done letting patients treat them as such, they said at a rally in St. Charles on Friday.

On the green lawn outside the Kane County Judicial Center, nurses and others preached awareness and reform of the way workplace violence affects not just nurses, but all types of medical workers.

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"Stop martyring yourself to nursing," said Janie Garner, a nurse and executive director of Show Me Your Stethoscope, the nonprofit nursing group that organized the rally. "It's not helping."

Throughout the event, which lasted more than three hours and drew about 100 people, Doris Carroll  whose involvement in advocacy groups includes being vice president of the Illinois Nurses Association  led several chants the crowd loudly repeated, such as "What do we want? Stamp out violence. When do we want it? Now."

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The group chose the site of the event because Tywon Salters had been an inmate at the Kane County Jail when he was taken to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva for medical treatment in May. Five days after he was admitted, Salters got the gun of a corrections officer guarding him and took two nurses hostage, instigating a standoff that ended when a SWAT officer fatally shot him.

Several speakers Friday referenced what happened at Delnor as a catalyst in their decision to start speaking up about issues related to violence in hospitals. Some described patients physically harming caregivers or said they'd long suppressed their frustrations.

Organizers stressed a need for violence-prevention programs involving both hospital and law enforcement officials, training for hospital workers for both de-escalation of incidents and self-defense and better staffing at health care organizations.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show hospital employees become injured on the job by another person acting intentionally at significantly higher rates than other private industries, with 8.5 injury cases per 10,000 full-time hospital workers compared to 1.7 cases for all private industries in 2015, the most recent year for which data is available.

Even though Illinois in 2014 made aggravated battery to a health care worker a felony offense, similar to enhanced penalties in several other states, nurses say they still face challenges getting charges approved, regardless of whether their employers are on board.

The only male nurse who spoke, Andrew Lopez, talked about his own experience dealing with workplace violence. Supervisors discouraged him from reporting it, but he did anyway, he said.

Talking after the rally, Lopez said he thinks a female nurse in his position may have faced harsher repercussions than he did. While men are also victims of violence in hospitals, it's much more prevalent among women, Lopez said.

Nurses listen at a rally in St. Charles focusing on violence against medical workers. ( Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune )

He likened hospital scenarios to domestic violence, saying victims are often afraid to make reports because they don't want to cause trouble and will come up with excuses to rationalize the behavior of an abuser.

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Part of the problem is that nurses are trained to think of others rather than themselves, speakers said.

When a nurse walks into a room, she or he knows to assess how to care for the patient, said Pamela Robbins, a past president of the Illinois Nurses Association.

"You need to assess how to take care of yourself too," Robbins told the nurses.

Health care workers also need to understand what they can do to protect each other, she said.

Advocates cautioned against placing blame on nurses who are attacked, giving examples of hospital incident report forms that ask victims of violence to suggest what they could have done differently to better handle the situation.

A number of political leaders attended the rally. Despite having a nurse for a daughter, state Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, said he hadn't realized the profession faced so much violence. He said he was shocked to learn assaulting a nurse wasn't subject to mandatory prosecution.

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Efforts to draft legislation to better protect medical workers are in the works, said state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, and the push is a bipartisan one.

"A new era of workplace safety is coming," state Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego, said.

hleone@tribpub.com

Twitter @hannahmleone
A rendering shows a 300,000-square-foot industrial building that will be built near Interstate 80 and Ridgeland Avenue in Tinley Park. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown )

With seven buildings totaling almost 1.5 million square feet already in Tinley Park, Hillwood Investment Properties is preparing to start on its eighth property in the village.

Tinley Park and Hillwood officials took part Friday in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the nearly 300,000-square-foot building, directly south of Interstate 80, west of Ridgeland Avenue and north of the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.

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Construction is expected to get underway within a month, and the building should be ready for occupancy by the end of June 2018, according to Don Schoenheider, senior vice president with the Dallas-based company.

Building it is expected to create as many as 100 construction jobs, and once completed, the warehouse/distribution building could create up to 340 permanent jobs, according to Hillwood, which is expecting to invest $18 million in the project.

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Tinley Park officials recently approved a tax break for the building, which will be in Cook County.

It will be built directly east of another building Hillwood owns, at 18801 S. Oak Park Ave. More than 900,000 square feet, it is leased to M. Block and Sons Inc., a Bedford Park-based logistics company that supplies retail outlets with products, including Keurig coffees and coffee makers.

Following Friday's ceremony, Schoenheider said that its leasing firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, is in talks with "at least three good prospects" for the building. He said the building would be able to accommodate up to six tenants, but that the final number will probably be closer to three.

"We've seen the demand for (warehouse/distribution) product in Tinley Park, he said, noting low vacancy rates among that type of building in the region.

According to JLL, the vacancy rate for the overall Chicago market for warehouse/distribution properties in the second quarter was 8.1 percent, while the rate was 4.4 percent along the I-80 corridor and 6.8 percent in the south suburban market.

While speculative light industrial development  putting up a building without having one or more tenants on board  has surged in the Chicago area in recent years, not much spec construction has taken place in the south suburbs. The last such spec building was in 2008 in Sauk Village, according to Scott Duerkop, with JLL, who is working to lease the new Hillwood building. In Sauk Village, DP Partners has been developing its LogistiCenter Sauk Village near Sauk Trail and Illinois 394.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

In May, Tinley Park trustees agreed to support a Class 8 incentive for Hillwood's new building.

The incentive reduces the Cook County tax assessment rate from 25 percent, which is the rate applied to industrial and commercial property, to 10 percent, which is what homes are assessed at, for a period of 10 years. The incentive is renewable. According to the company, the reduced assessment rate would not take effect until after the building is completed.

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The Village Board also approved a resolution to renew a Class 8 property tax break for the building M. Block is leasing. The company and Hillwood were in talks to renew the lease for the property, and M. Block was considering moving, but having the tax break renewed helped Hillwood negotiate a new lease, according to Patrick Hoban, Tinley Park's economic development manager.

Keeping M. Block in place also encourage Hillwood to move ahead with plans for the new spec building, and Schoenheider said that if the company had been unable to renew that lease, resulting in a large vacancy, "I don't know if we would have been as comfortable" proceeding with the spec building.

The new building will be on a nearly 22-acre site, and although it will have access from Ridgeland Avenue, Schoenheider said that truck traffic would follow Prosperi Drive, immediately south of the M. Block building, to Oak Park Avenue.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Twitter @mnolan_J
Tinley Park's mayor moved traffic safety cones and insisted police allow the party bus he was on to bypass regular traffic routes after leaving the July 26 Paul McCartney concert at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in that village, police documents show.

Officers responsible for directing vehicles leaving the concert said in their memorandums they had to hold up traffic to give the bus Mayor Jacob Vandenberg was a passenger on preferential treatment, and that, without permission, Vandenberg moved traffic safety cones set up to keep post-concert traffic flowing.

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One officer in her memo said Vandenberg shouted "mayor coming through" as he began moving cones at her post at 183rd Street and Ridgeland Avenue, and yelled, "I'm the mayor" as he moved a second set of cones to allow the bus to pass. She wrote that once she recognized the person as the mayor, she didn't stop him from moving the cones. The cones were set up to prevent traffic from continuing north on Ridgeland or to go west on 183rd.

The documents were obtained by the Daily Southtown in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

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Vandenberg, in a statement Friday, acknowledged he left the bus "at multiple locations and spoke with a number of the Village Traffic Enforcement Officers," but that "I should not have interfered with their duties." Vandenberg said he later contacted the officers "and conveyed my apologies for interference or offense they perceived that evening."

The mayor said that he, family members and friends were on the bus, and that while leaving the concert, "I, like many concert goers that evening, grew frustrated with the traffic pattern and the gridlock it was causing."

The outdoor venue  at one point called the World Music Theatre and more recently First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre before the casino operator bought the naming rights  is south of Interstate 80 between Oak Park and Ridgeland avenues.

In the documents, Vandenberg appeared insistent that the bus wasn't going to abide by the designated theater exit routes. Six police personnel  three of whom are auxiliary officers  filed memos regarding their encounters that night with the mayor.

The officers were instructed to file the documents by the sergeant in charge that night of the venue detail, police chief Steve Neubauer said. He declined to comment regarding the officers' encounters with the mayor.

At one point as concert traffic was letting out, a heavy downpour started, and full-time officers stationed at Ridgeland and Flossmoor Road, who recognized Vandenberg, reported him walking toward them in the rain "in a determined manner and talking out loud." Another officer, in his memo, described Vandenberg as approaching in an "aggressive manner."

"Move the cones we are going left move the cones," one officer wrote. The cones are set up to keep traffic from going north on Ridgeland, instead directing traffic south on that street or east on Flossmoor Road.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

He and his fellow officer had to stop other traffic to allow Vandenberg's vehicle to proceed north on Ridgeland, according to their memos.

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Another officer at a post closer to the theater said in his memo that Vandenberg also moved traffic cones to clear a path for the bus, saying, "I am the mayor of Tinley Park and I need to get out of here."

After the bus went through the intersection at 183rd and Ridgeland, auxiliary officers posted at 183rd and Oak Park Avenue reported a bus headed west on 183rd, and when it got to the intersection a man holding a can of Miller Lite beer got off the bus, walked into the middle of the intersection with Oak Park Avenue and started to wave the bus through even though traffic had not stopped.

One auxiliary officer said the man, later identified to him by a supervisor as the mayor, was asked to get back on the bus and responded, "This is my bus and these are my people, we are going west."

The officer's partner, also an auxiliary officer, in his memo verified that statement and noted that as Vandenberg was in the intersection, several vehicles had to maneuver to avoid striking him.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Twitter @mnolan_J
I see that North Korea has been in the news a lot lately as reports indicate that its nuclear arms program has been progressing faster and further than imagined. Diplomacy, sanctions, and other peaceful methods have not yielded any real success in the last 25 years. This North Korean problem has dogged the previous three presidential administrations, and has resulted in the situation that we are looking at today. Its weapons program should have never been allowed to go this far. Now, the world is stuck with a mess and there is no easy solution to the situation. Sometimes, inaction is worse than action. This may be an example of just that.

This is in response to Bob from Oak Forest. Since Bob seems to have all the answers that ails Cook County, I say get elected to office and change it.

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Tom, Homer Glen

I saw a great commercial during the Bears game. A lady decorated the front of her home in a Chicago Bears motif. I hope that home was not in Tinley Park. The Green Bay fans in Tinley would disapprove.

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Oak Forest

Highest taxes in America, coupled with federal subsidies and still how many programs are unfunded or underfunded. Illinois is a text book example of incompetence and gross mismanagement.

J.K.

What's Speak Out?

Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown.
Todd Rundgren is part of the Yestival tour that comes to Elgins Festival Park Aug. 19. (Jim Snyder)

Yestival  a night featuring the music of Yes, Todd Rundgren and Carl Palmer's tribute to his former, deceased bandmates Keith Emerson and Greg Lake  comes Saturday to Elgin in a Grand Victoria Casino concert in Festival Park.

Bands such as Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer were known for melding classical and rock music for their sound and for elaborate, theatrical stage shows, replete with willowy, wizardly outfits, spinning pianos and other grand gestures.

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Rundgren, too, had a band back in the 1970s, Utopia, that fit well into the progressive rock mix.

"To tour the album 'Ra' we had a pyramid stage set," Rundgren said. "Lasers would shoot out of the head of a sphinx."

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During one number, each musician would have a solo, Rundgren recalled, and each represented an element of the universe.

Rundgren said the Utopia keyboard player had one of the first hand-held keyboards. As he was representing fire, the instrument shot lasers at a Chinese dragon. The drummer had a water show, and during the bass player's solo, tumbleweeds would blow across the stage, Rundgren said.

For his part, Rundgren said he would climb the 25-foot pyramid, attach himself to a safety cable and flip off the top.

While there will be costume changes and contemporary touches to Rundgren's Yestival appearance, it won't be as wild as those days. Rather, Rundgren said, it will offer an abridged version of his current touring show, which features music from his latest album, "White Knight," along with music his fans will be familiar with from periods in his long and varied career as a performer and producer.

What people should recognize, Rundgren said, is that in a progressive rock show, the bands did have top 40 hits. And while some see it as a narrow category, it also expanded to include jazz and rock with acts such as Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

For his current release, Rundgren collaborated with a broad range of artists, including Daryl Hall, Bettye LaVette, Trent Reznor, Robyn, Joe Satriani and Joe Walsh.

What caught media and social media attention is the song and video for "Tin Foil Hat." Rundgren worked on that number with Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, and it's a putdown of Donald Trump.

"People are all dishonest to a certain degree. You have to be to get through life," Rundgren said. "But Trump and those around him seem to have so little regard for personal integrity. And Trump's behavior gives cover to other dishonest people."

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The media seems to keep hitting themselves in the face too, Rundgren said, and perhaps shouldn't spend time covering news conferences where they know they won't be told the truth.

Still, when "Tin Foil Hat" came out, Rundgren said he received death threats, and a Facebook page, set up in his name but managed by someone else, was filled with vitriol.

While disconcerting at first, in retrospect the negative attention seemed tame, Rundgren said, as the Kathy Griffin controversy  with the comic holding up a severed faux Trump head  soon dominated the news cycle.

Scary in its own way, Rundgren said, was giving the commencement address this spring at Boston's Berklee College of Music.

A challenge was finding a balance in trying to remain honest and encouraging to budding musicians, while knowing that, because of the nature of the music industry, many most likely will wind up doing something besides performing for a living, Rundgren said.

During the speech, Rundgren noted he would decline an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, should such an invitation ever come.

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"I never thought the hall was a good idea," Rundgren said. "It's just a way to try to sell more music. And they should have run out of acts in five years."

The hall really is a place for pop music, Rundgren said, and if it were really about rock, the building would be a factory in Youngstown, Ohio, not an IM Pei-designed pyramid in Cleveland.

"Every so often rock's essence comes back, when people who don't know how to play instruments take it up and reclaim it. It's a simplified form. It's not what the Beatles wound up doing."

Rundgren said rock probably died after Elvis Presley joined the Army then returned to record songs with choirs. And Rundgren said he takes umbrage to his own music being called rock.

"It's never what I tried to do," Rundgren said. "It's a broader range of styles."

For tickets and information on the Yestival stop at Festival Park, go to grandvictoriacasino.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=35.

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mdanahey@tribpub.com
Understanding a culture requires experiencing it, according to Native American Bill Brown. The public can experience Native American culture by attending the 24th annual Potawatomi Trails Pow Wow at Shiloh Park in Zion Aug. 26 and 27.

"It's important that people see and experience the drumming and dancing of Native Americans," said Brown, who helps run the event. He said the pow wow is not only about revealing his culture to others but also about celebrating inclusion of all races.

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Native Americans host pow wows to celebrate the end of a season and welcome a new one.

The two-day event includes storytelling, singing, dancing, craft-making, eating traditional food and walking through a small village.

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A highlight is the grand entry to be held at 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday.

"All of our dancers come into the arena at one time and dance to the beat of the drums," Brown said. They will be dressed in colorful Native American garb.

"The drum is the heartbeat of the earth. As long as the drums continue, that heart beat will continue," he said.

Dancers will also demonstrate different styles  the men's traditional, the women's traditional and the fancy shaw, which is more flamboyant than the traditional, he said.

Those who come to the pow wow can join in what's known as intertribal dancing, he said.

An important part of the pow wow is the giveaway at noon on Sunday, Brown said.

"We offer gifts to everyone because they are interested in our culture," he said. "It's a gift from us to them from our heart."

The gifts are small tokens, perhaps a hand towel, or a tube of toothpaste. "It's items people can use," he said.

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In addition, Dan King, who lives with the Oneida nation in Wisconsin, will tell traditional stories in the arena, perhaps about eagles and other animals  whatever he is comfortable with at the time, Brown said.

"He's been part of our pow wow for many years. He's a major speaker for a lot of native organizations."

Visitors can also watch men and women creating items out of porcupine quills or making arrowheads. A food vendor will sell traditional foods including fry bread and fry bread tacos, a combination of meat, vegetables and seasonings placed inside the fry bread.

The pow wow is held at Shiloh Park because of its link to the Potawatomi culture, which thrived before settlers came.

"It's an old council area. It's a special place. It has a good feeling. We're up in the oak grove of the park and it's just a beautiful place to be," Brown said.

Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer for the News-Sun.

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24th Annual Potawatomi Trails Pow Wow

When: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Aug. 26, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Aug. 27

Where: Shiloh Park, 25th and Emmaus, Zion

Tickets: $1-$5
Flossmoor resident Aaron Deal enjoys a frozen treat on a late July Sunday at Zarlengo's Italian Ice in Chicago Heights. "It does the job," he said. (Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown)

It was sunny but not too hot on a recent Sunday. Still, the tables outside of Zarlengo's Italian Ice in Chicago Heights were full.

Aaron Deal, of Flossmoor, sat with some old friends at one of the tables. They had graduated seven years ago from Marian Catholic High School across the street and decided to celebrate their reunion of sorts with some cold treats.

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"It's still good," Deal said. "It does the job."

Zarlengo's has been doing the job of satiating the sweet teeth of its patrons in Chicago Heights since 1983, and in recent years it has been sending out its products to an increasingly large circle of clients.

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The family's long-honed Italian ice recipe now can be tasted throughout the Chicago area, including during Chicago White Sox games at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Still, some customers would like to see its availability become even more widespread.

"Italian ice is hard to get anywhere," said Lou Wortel, of Beecher, who was savoring a fruit-flavored ice treat at a nearby table with his wife, Pam. The Wortels said they have been traveling up Illinois Route 1 for Italian ice for the better part of a decade.

"It's light and refreshing," Pam Wortel said. "And it's not full of fat like ice cream."

These days, the only American-style ice cream found at Zarlengo's is in the packaged items, such as its Zar Bar  chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick.

Visitors to the longtime storefront on Joe Orr Road just east of Ashland Avenue who prefer their frozen treats to be scooped by hand have to choose from fruity Italian ice or creamy gelato, Italian ice cream that's lower in butterfat and higher in density than typical American ice cream, according to owner Tom Zarlengo.

An Italian ice cooler at Zarlengo's pairs Italian ice with vanilla ice cream. ( Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown )

He said his Italian ice, as well, is a step up from the syrup-covered ice shavings served at fairs and some stands because it is made with real fruit blended with ice crystals in specialized equipment.

Zarlengo said the operation started as a second business for his parents, John and Sally Zarlengo, who had been in the construction trade, as well as he and his then-pregnant wife, Mary Lou.

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Though they started as a fairly straightforward soft-serve ice cream and hot dog place, Tom Zarlengo soon started putting his own personal touches into the offerings.

"My father used to tell me, 'As you grow, you can stay the same or get better,'" he said. "We're always trying to get better."

In the 1990s, Zarlengo decided that to get better, he'd gradually switch from offering ice cream that could be had elsewhere in the area to a product that simply wasn't available in Chicago Heights at the time: Italian ice.

"We zeroed in on Italian ice because it wasn't around back then," he said, noting that he'd heard family members and others talking about their memories of it as well as their laments at not being able to get it any more.

"I was told if I was to do it right, I'd have to get it right with a lemon ice, so that's where I started," Zarlengo said. So he worked overtime coming up with his own recipe for lemon Italian ice.

"I gave it a try, and I failed a hundred times before I got it right," he said.

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Now just one of a rotating menu of scores of flavors, the lemon continues to be a mainstay both at the Chicago Heights store and at retail outlets that sell Zarlengo's "tubes" of Italian ice. Those include Rubino's Italian Imports in Tinley Park  which was one of the first to order packaged goods from Zarlengo's  as well as specialty markets throughout the south suburbs and Chicago.

Tom Zarlengo opens up a batch of homemade chocolate sauce at Zarlengo's Italian Ice in Chicago Heights. ( Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown )

Even upscale restaurants such as Au Cheval in Chicago and the Cottage on Dixie and LaVoute in Homewood have added Zarlengo's products to their menus. Zarlengo's products can be found from Miller Pizza in Michigan City, Ind., to Tavern on Rush in Chicago. A partnership with distributor Sysco sends the products to even more locations.

As for the Italian ice, Zarlengo said some of the earliest flavors, such as root beer and blue raspberry, remain among the most popular sellers today.

"Those flavors spark memories in people," Zarlengo said.

Also revolving and evolving are the gelato offerings. Zarlengo has developed a diverse selection, including cannoli, mascarpone, rum raisin, Nutella and salted caramel, along with the more traditional vanilla, chocolate and mint.

While the Chicago Heights storefront is open only in the warmer months, production for the packaged items is ongoing year-round.

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Already it's forced the Zarlengos to expand twice from their original building. And in the near future, they plan to erect a new facility on land next door that was home to a gas station that closed.

It's demand that's spurring the expansion, and the Zarlengos attribute that demand to their hard work as well as a commitment to quality.

Todd Zarlengo, Tom's son, who along with his sister Alison Marino and brother Tommy Zarlengo represent the third generation of the family to be involved with the business, often delivers packaged goods personally to clients.

"Many times I'm making the gelato one day, and the next I'm stocking on shelves in Chicago," Todd Zarlengo said, noting he goes so far to personally rotate the stock he delivers.

The new building is expected to be 5,000 square feet, and the Zarlengos have enlisted the help of a former professional dairy manager to assist with the design.

While the new facility will enable the business to ramp up its production, Tom Zarlengo said the same homemade quality will still go into each product sent out.

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"Everything we sell is made to order," Todd Zarlengo said. "Even with our wholesale, everything is sent out fresh. They can't stack up because they sell out so fast."

peisenberg@tronc.com

Zarlengo's Italian Ice

Address: 257 W. Joe Orr Road, Chicago Heights

Opened: 1983

Number of employees on-site: 35 in summer; 10 year-round

Website: www.zarlengositalianice.com
The Naperville City Council is to vote Tuesday on a committee recommendation that Ryan Cos. be chosen as the developer for 8 acres of city-owned land along Fifth Avenue near the Metra/Amtrak train station. (Suzanne Baker / Naperville Sun )

Naperville City Council members Tuesday will be asked to approve Ryan Cos. as the developer of city-owned Fifth Avenue corridor project.

The company, one of eight to submit proposals in May in response to the city's request for qualifications, known as an RFQ, was chosen by a 15-member committee that met in meetings not open to the public.

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Developers were asked for concepts on how they would would develop several parcels of land around the Metra/Amtrak train station at 105 E. Fourth Ave., just north of downtown. The committee evaluated each company based on its qualifications, experience and ideas.

"There's no plan being approved. This is choosing a group that's fully capable of doing a project of this scale," said Naperville City Councilwoman Judy Brodhead, a non-voting member of the committee. "There will be lots of opportunities for public input."

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If the council approves a deal with Ryan Cos., which is based in Minneapolis but has an office in Naperville, the next step will be to determine how to proceed on the project, Deputy City Manager Marcie Schatz said.

"We plan on working with Ryan Cos. and the community in developing a concept for what should be done in the Fifth Avenue area," Schatz said. "We don't yet have specific plans on meeting styles and times and dates."

A city council workshop had been scheduled for Aug. 28 at which council members were expected to discuss the groups determined to be qualified through the RFQ process. That meeting was canceled, however, after the selection committee found Ryan Cos. to be the only qualified respondent, Schatz said.

In addition to Ryan Cos., the city received proposals from Flaherty & Collins Properties, Hamilton Partners, Inter Continental Real Estate and Development Corp., Lincoln Property Co., Morningside Group, Renaissance Downtowns Urban Holdings and Marquette Cos.

Naperville-based Marquette Cos. was the developer of downtown Naperville's Water Street District.

In Illinois, Ryan Cos. has worked on a 31-story, 373-unit apartment development in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood and the Clarendon in Mokena, which offers senior, assisted and independent living and memory care. It was also responsible for the Wirtz Beverage of Illinois regional headquarters and warehouse in Cicero.

Proposals were reviewed by a committee consisting of community leaders, city staff members from the legal, finance, TED Business Group and city manager departments and four residents chosen by Mayor Steve Chirico. Five finalist companies  Ryan, Hamilton Partners, Lincoln Property, Marquette, Renaissance Downtowns  were interviewed, according to city documents.

"Based on scores and reference checks, the selection committee identified one firm, Ryan Companies US, as the most qualified to potentially work with the city to redevelop the city-owned/leased parcels adjacent to the Fifth Avenue Station," city documents said. "They completed projects twice this size, as well as projects significantly smaller. Their understanding and experience with development, the market, financing and working with public and private stakeholders to get a project completed elevated them amongst other teams."

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The properties included in the redevelopment footprint are the Water Tower West, Kroehler, Lower Burlington, Upper Burlington and Parkview lots, some of which is being used for Metra parking. It also includes land at 190 E. Fifth Ave., purchased by the city in March, and the DuPage Children's Museum property, the lease for which expires in 2030.

Awarding the contract to a developer does not mean the company's concept for the 5th Avenue redevelopment will proceed, but initial ideas from Ryan Cos. included "well-received mix of residential, office and retail uses with amenities to serve commuters, area residents and visitors," city documents said.

The development's cost has not yet been determined.

ehegarty@tribpub.com
Misty Galloway Tucker, a teacher at Hill Middle School in Naperville, sits above Machu Picchu in Peru. This summer she worked in the Amazon rain forest studying birds as part of a master's degree program. (Misty Galloway Tucker)

Eating guinea pig, talking to Berliners about Cold War Germany and standing on one of America's largest dams are just a few of the lengths Naperville teachers went to for their students this summer.

When it comes to recharging for a new school year, educators often plug into workshops or trips abroad, and several area teachers are amped like Energizer Bunnies after what they did on their summer vacations.

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Jennifer Nekolny, who teaches seventh-grade social science at Jefferson Junior High School, said she can't wait to apply what she learned visiting Germany through the Transatlantic Outreach Program. Classes resume Thursday for Naperville District 203 schools.

"You've got to have the passion," she said. "That's when kids start to care about stuff and develop a global perspective."

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Students can tell when a teacher doesn't truly know about what they're teaching.

"Students are much more savvy, and they know when a teacher is being inauthentic," Nekolny said.

Listening to someone who relays first-hand experience and responds to questions can spark better understanding, she said.

"Throughout the trip I kept thinking I am at this amazing place," she said. "I am the textbook. I am a living text."

Nekolny said because the trip was sponsored by the German Foreign Office, many of the historical places and schools her group visited highlighted the best Germany has to offer. But they also were given latitude to speak to people about how the country is dealing with history, including the Holocaust and the Cold War.

One woman shared a box of mementos she'd kept when she lived in East Germany, Nekolny said.

Jennifer Nekolny, a teacher at Jefferson Junior High School in Naperville, stands in an area that was once no mans land between East and West Germany. Because the area was untouched by man during the Cold War years, many species of plants and animals thrived. Under a united Germany, the area is a nature preserve and home to endangered species. (Jennifer Nekolny)

While the junior high teacher expected the woman to talk about the deplorable conditions of living in a communist country, many of items in the box evoked fond memories of her home.

Nekolny said the woman spoke about how they had free electricity and excellent schools.

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The teacher plans to use that experience to help students think about items they would put in a box.

"What does it mean to be home?" she said.

Germany was not Nekolny's first educational trip abroad. She learned about this summer's program from teachers on a plane to India with a different group.

Misty Galloway Tucker's summer global field program in the Amazon was part of her master's program through Miami University's Project Dragonfly.

Last summer she traveled to Kenya to study Masai communities and sustainable approaches to human and wildlife coexistence.

This summer the eighth-grade science teacher at Hill Middle School in Naperville focused on avian ecology in Peru.

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"I will admit, I was not much of a bird expert," Galloway Tucker said. "What a better way to learn than immerse yourself for two weeks.

"I have a new appreciation for birds. They have a niche in our ecosystem."

Much of her summer work concentrated on biology and ecology, though the science curriculum she teaches at Hill in Indian Prairie School District 204 focuses on earth science  water, weather, climate and plate tectonics.

She said biology and earth science may differ, but the basic premise on which both are based remains the same.

The Next Generation Science Standards she teaches stress the importance accurate data, and Galloway Tucker said she's done her homework and can provide proof to her students.

"I know a little hummingbird weighs five grams because I weighed it," she said.

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Without accurate data, scientists and researchers would not be able to support their claims, she said.

If nothing else, Tucker can share stories about Peruvian delicacies guaranteed to gross out middle school students.

"I did try guinea pig," she said, likening the taste to dark meat poultry or rabbit. "It was one of my best meals. I felt so guilty."

Not making her list of favorite foods, however, was grilled palm weevil larvae. While the flavor was OK, she just couldn't stomach the texture, she said.

Tucker views summer learning as a chance to delve deeper into subjects from a student's point of view.

"The more you know, the more questions you have," she said.

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Perpetual learning is what drives Keisha Rembert, who teaches English language arts and U.S. history at Crone Middle School in Naperville.

She spent a week looking at a great U.S. engineering marvel  the Grand Coulee Dam  from the perspective of Native American people.

Keisha Rembert, a teacher at Crone Middle School in Naperville, stands on Grand Coulee Dam in Washington as part of a workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. (Keisha Rembert)

"As a country, we often are taught the big things," she said. "In the workshop, U.S. history is taught through the voices of indigenous people."

Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the teacher and her classmates were given a private tour of the dam on the Columbia River in Washington state, one of the largest U.S. hydroelectric plants.

Hailed as a feat of American ingenuity, the dam provides electricity and irrigation for agriculture in what was once an arid high desert plateau.

But construction of the dam had a devastating effect on the Colville and Spokane tribes of the Pacific Northwest, whose livelihood and culture were wrapped around the movement of salmon.

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"Why is land so important to them? For them it is a part of who they are," the Indian Prairie District 204 teacher said.

At the conclusion of the weeklong workshop, participants were asked to incorporate what they learned into a lesson plan they could use in their classrooms.

Rembert focused on the Naperville Riverwalk's impact on the DuPage River.

Students can expect to explore the indigenous people and the first settlers of Naperville and what the DuPage River means to them.

"I'll have them think about how it evolved into the Riverwalk. Is the purpose the same? What's the difference?" Rembert said. "What is our salmon?"

subaker@tribpub.com

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One thing I haven't heard much in this latest health care debate is that the U.S. has the best health system in the world. That's different from the last two times around.

When the nation debated the Clinton health plan in 1994 and the Affordable Care Act in 2009-2010, a huge talking point for politicians and special business interests opposed to reform was, "The American system is so good, why change it?"

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It's different this year. Maybe that's because the public realizes America doesn't have the best, and their own interactions with what American health care has become tell them a different story. The old talking point doesn't compute any more.

Of course, we've all had some good experiences. And we generally continue to believe that the money we spend on super expensive technology and medicines equates to good care even though evidence shows those costly interventions may not deliver as advertised and actually may be harmful.

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However, taken as a whole and measured on several dimensions, including access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes, the U.S. compares poorly relative to other industrialized countries.

In its latest study comparing the U.S. with 10 other countries  the United Kingdom, Australia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and France  the U.S. ranks dead last. This is the sixth time since 2004 that The Commonwealth Fund, which supports Thinking About Health columns, has done such a survey.

"Each time we have managed to be last," says Eric Schneider, a senior vice president of the Fund.

I've been writing about these surveys since they began, but this time the findings really grabbed my attention, especially this:

In the U.S. 44 percent of people with incomes below the median  about $55,700 in 2015  reported that the cost of care prevented them from getting medical treatment they needed. Twenty-six percent of those with incomes above the median also said financial barriers prevent them from getting care. That means that the high deductibles and high coinsurance that most health plans now require makes it hard to pay for care.

By contrast in the U.K. only 7 percent of people with low incomes and only 4 percent of those with higher incomes said they had trouble getting care. Yes, that's England, the nation whose National Health Service has been much maligned by American politicians over the years.

In this latest survey, the U.K. ranked number one overall and was judged the best when it came to equity and the process of care  preventive care, safe care, coordinated care and patient preferences  and third when it came to access. People in Britain seem to be doing OK despite all those queues for services Americans have heard about from the media.

When it came to equity, access to care, and health outcomes, the U.S. ranked last, which also challenges the common assumption we have the best care in the world.

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The U.S. has given a lot of attention to health care over the past decade, and the positive changes made by the Affordable Care Act have substantially decreased the number of uninsured and provided generous subsidies to help them buy coverage. I would have expected our rankings to improve. I asked Schneider about that.

He explained that the lack of universal coverage is a barrier and the cost of care is still too high for too many Americans, even if they have insurance. Families with incomes in the middle ranges of eligibility for ACA subsidies  incomes of around $60,000 or $70,000  get small subsidies and face high deductibles and other cost-sharing, a trade-off they must make if they can afford only plans with low premiums.

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Our complicated system of getting medical bills paid and the endless negotiations between providers and insurers  in other words, the administrative hassle  is also a huge drawback. Fifty-four percent of U.S. primary care doctors said insurance restrictions made it hard to get needed treatment for their patients, Schneider said. "That's a big problem."

The U.K., Australia, and New Zealand shine on this dimension. Schneider said that if the U.S. changed the way it pays providers, used fee schedules and global budgets  an amount a country, group, or hospital decides it will spend on care  the public would benefit.

Just as important, Schneider told me, was the lack of U.S. investment in primary care compared to other countries where primary care is more widely and uniformly available. They dedicate a greater percentage of their medical workforce to that kind of care rather than specialty care. The U.S favors expensive specialists.

So does the U.S. do well on anything? Although we ranked last on overall health outcomes such as life expectancy at age 60, there were bright spots such as breast cancer survival and fewer hospital deaths for heart attacks and stroke.

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Those few achievements are simply not good enough.

Trudy Lieberman is a columnist for the Rural Health News Service.

trudy.lieberman@gmail.com
Pueblo East, Pueblo West football teams knocked out of playoffs

Both Pueblo West and Pueblo East high schools had their faced stiff competition Friday night on the road.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba has signed an agreement with its home city government to use the company's technology to create an online system for house rentals.

The system will cover apartments put up for rent from all sources -- the government, individuals, real estate developers and agents, according to the agreement signed earlier this week.

People seeking rental housing in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, will be able to use the application and website created by Alibaba for every stage in the process, from searching for apartments to signing contracts and payment.

Information on apartments, user reviews, and credibility ratings of owners, renters and agents will all be shared, said Han Junqing, director of Hangzhou Real Estate Registration Center.

The smart house renting system, as it is called, will be supported by Alibaba's big data, online payment technology, and commerce credit system and can prevent fraudulent deals, sources with the government and Alibaba said.

China's housing rental market in major cities has been dominated by real estate agents, and fraud and disputes are not unusual.

Though some big real estate companies already have apps, the information is not shared with others. Apartment seekers have to repeatedly compare offers from different apps, and these companies lack a mature credit system comparable to Zhima Credit from Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial.

The Chinese government is prioritizing the development of its rental market to rein in runaway home prices in the country's big cities. Hangzhou is among the first 12 cities chosen by the central government to take bold reforms to boost the rental market.
By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman

One of my favorite days of racing each year is Arlington Million day, when Arlington Park in Illinois puts on an impressive card including three Grade 1 turf races that attract top-notch horses from around the world. The highlight each year is the $1 million Arlington Million (gr. I), a ten-furlong event that ranks as one of the most prestigious turf races in North America.

Twelve horses (Scottish is an early scratch) will contest the 2017 renewal of the Arlington Million, including one of my favorites horses in training--Divisidero. Let's take a look at the race!

Arlington Million (gr. I)

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a very big fan of Divisidero, having supported him faithfully since his maiden win 2  years ago. Perhaps this also means I'm biased, but I believe Divisidero is sitting on a huge run in the Arlington Million.

At first glance, the son of Kitten's Joy might not appear to be an ideal fit for the Arlington Million. After all, he's 0-for-3 at the ten-furlong distance of the Arlington Million, and three of his four stakes wins have come at Churchill Downs, including two renewals of the nine-furlong Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (gr. I). When he's taken on top-class competition going longer--most notably in two editions of the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont--he's been defeated.

But in my opinion, this says more about Divisidero's subtle preference for certain types of turf courses than it does about potential distance limitations. Over the very firm, very fast turf courses at Belmont Park and Gulfstream Park, Divisidero is at a distinct disadvantage since he lacks any meaningful tactical speed. He's much better suited to slower courses like Churchill Downs or Keeneland, where it's harder to produce fast finishing times and Divisidero's powerful late kick can be utilized to its greatest potential.

Even a brief glance at Divisidero's record hints at his preference for a specific type of course. He's 2-for-10 at Belmont and Gulfstream but 3-for-4 at Churchill Downs and Keeneland, with his lone defeat at those tracks coming by a nose in an allowance race at Keeneland.

As an example of the effect that fast courses can have on a horse like Divisidero, consider his three races going ten furlongs, all of which were at Belmont Park. In the 2015 Belmont Derby (gr. I), his debut at the distance, Divisidero was reserved in last place early on behind slow fractions of :50.30 and 1:15.38. When asked to quicken in the final quarter-mile, Divisidero did so and ran the distance in about :22 flat... which was only good enough to finish seventh since the leaders also finished in around :22 flat over the very fast course.

The following year, Divisidero employed a change in running style when contesting the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Stakes (gr. I), settling in third through fractions of :49.77 and 1:13.90. To his credit, he managed to finish in a bit more than :22 flat despite the change in tactics, but that only yielded a fifth-place finish behind Flintshire.

Divisidero's most recent attempt at ten furlongs came in this year's Manhattan Stakes, where he was again compromised by a slow pace over a very firm turf course. In a race where the final quarter-mile was timed in :21.99, making it virtually impossible for late runners to gain any significant ground, Divisidero more than held his own down the homestretch and was beaten just 2  lengths while finishing sixth.

Notably, Divisidero was sidelined with minor issues following both the Belmont Derby and the 2016 Manhattan Stakes, but he emerged from this year's Manhattan in good shape and has posted a solid series of workouts in preparation for the Arlington Million. The turf course at Arlington is generally much slower than the courses at Belmont and Gulfstream, being much more similar to the courses at Churchill Downs and Keeneland. In my opinion, the switch to Arlington could be the key to success for Divisidero, and I view him as by far the most likely winner among the North American runners in the Arlington Million. Don't forget, in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes two starts back, Divisidero overcame slow fractions of :50.69 and 1:15.45 over a "good" turf course to win with an impressive late rally. Give him the right type of course, and pace doesn't seem to bother him.

The main threat to Divisidero is probably Deauville, who ships in from Europe for trainer Aidan O'Brien. Last year, the son of Galileo won the Belmont Derby (gr. I) and finished a close third in the Arlington Million, but his form this year is better than ever. He's had a busy season with six starts dating back to March, but he's cracked the trifecta in five of those while facing some of the best horses in Europe. On May 28th he finished third in the 10.5-furlong Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, and on June 20th he was third by just 1  lengths to Ribchester in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes going a mile at Royal Ascot.

With a career-best Racing Post Rating of 121 (earned in the Queen Anne), Deauville looms as a major threat to give O'Brien his third win in the Arlington Million, following the victories by Powerscourt in 2005 and Cape Blanco in 2011. Still, North American runners have historically been successful at defending their home turf in the Arlington Million (four of the last five winners were based in North America), and Deauville--although talented--probably isn't in quite the same league as Cape Blanco, who had already won Irish Derby (Ire-I) and Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-I), or even Powerscourt, who had already earned six Racing Post Racings of 121 or higher, including a 122 for a win in the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Ire-I).

In any case, I view the Arlington Million as a two-horse showdown between Divisidero and Deauville. For the purpose of multi-race wagers, I believe using both would come close to locking up the race, but for the purposes of a win bet I have to side with Divisidero. His 0-for-3 record at ten furlongs and his recent defeat in the Manhattan Stakes figure to boost his odds into a very appealing price range, and if he goes off at 5-1 or higher, I would have to rank him as one of my "best bets" of the year. I'm expecting a very big run.

Another major player is Mekhtaal, winner of the Group 1 Prix d'Ispahan in France earlier this year. While he might be a step or two below Deauville (his career-best Racing Post Rating is a 116), Mekhtaal has flashed good enough form on his best day to suggest that finishing in the trifecta or superfecta is within his capabilities. While at first glance his sixth-place finish last time out in the Group 1 Prince of Wales's Stakes isn't eye-catching, he was only beaten 3  lengths against a deep field, and the first four horses across the finish line--Highland Reel, Decorated Knight, Ulysses, and Queen's Trust--are among the best in Europe.

Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Arlington Million?

*****



The Unlocking Winners Road to the Breeders' Cup Classic Handicapping Challenge is back for a third consecutive year! Please be sure to post all entries, prime horses, and stable additions on the official contest page. Thanks, and enjoy the racing!

*****

J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, blogger, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. He is the founder of the horse racing website www.theturfboard.com.
 Flash

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula amid escalating tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) act unwisely," Trump tweeted Friday morning.

Trump's warning came after Pyongyang accused the United States and Japan of reckless behavior earlier in the day.

Pyongyang said it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike the U.S. territory of Guam with intermediate missiles, the Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

Trump's words on Friday were the latest in a string of warnings unleashed this week against the northeast Asian country.

On Tuesday, Trump issued a controversial warning to the DPRK, saying that threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Earlier on Thursday, Trump escalated his threat, claiming that maybe his previous warning "wasn't tough enough."

However, top U.S. officials have been trying to play down the growing tensions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that the U.S. efforts to deal with the Korean peninsula issue were "diplomatically led," warning that war with the DPRK would be "catastrophic."

"Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Wednesday.
Chinese missionaries Meng Lisi (left) and Li Xinheng

(right) were murdered by ISIS in June, causing

international outrage and causing two churches to

come under intense scrutiny.

ChinaAid





(Wenzhou, ZhejiangAug. 12, 2017) Following the ISIS murder of two Chinese evangelists in Pakistan, the Chinese Communist Party launched an extensive investigation of two churches thought to be affiliated with them. On Sunday, a ChinaAid correspondent reached out to an attendee of a church in Chinas coastal Zhejiang province to speak about this matter as well as the resulting comradery demonstrated between churches of different denominations.

Zheng Leguo, a long-time champion of human rights and religious freedom in China, sat down to interview a house church member identified only as G. Zheng opened the interview with questions about the Chinese governments investigation into a Korean church and a church located in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, for their affiliation with Chinese missionaries Li Xinheng and Meng Lisi. Meng and Li both disappeared in Pakistan on May 24, only to resurface in what is believed to be video footage of ISIS executing them in early June.

A third missionary also vanished along with Meng and Li, but ISIS kicked her out of the car due to a lack of space, and she survived.

This occurrence stirred international outrage; however, Chinese authorities have failed to investigate their deaths or lend the Pakistani government assistance in their rescue efforts after they went missing. Instead, China focused its attention on the Wenzhou and Korean churches, blaming the Korean congregation, which runs a school dedicated to training missionaries in the various aspects of religion, history, and culture in Muslim countries, for their role in helping Li and Meng. The two churches have received an enormous amount of pressure.

When the government instigated the investigation, four Christians were summoned for interrogation, and local government officials held internal conferences and put all Christians who held important positions under surveillance. Two of these church members, identified only as Uncle Z and Brother W, were detained for several days and are still not allowed to leave Wenzhou.

When asked whether or not neighboring churches have come to the aid of the Wenzhou church, G said most Wenzhou Christians are unaware that the missionaries were connected to the church. However, he described the increased comradery between neighboring churches of different denominational backgrounds and the establishment of regular unity gatherings, which seek to unite such churches while respecting each others traditions.

Currently, Wenzhou churches have halted evangelism activities due to the governments surveillance.

ChinaAid exposes abuses, such as those suffered by Chinese Christians in the wake of Meng and Lis executions, in order to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.

ChinaAid Media Team

Cell: +1 (432) 553-1080 | Office: +1 (432) 689-6985 | Other: +1 (888) 889-7757

Email: [email protected]

For more information, click here
A stand of China National Nuclear Power Co at an expo in Beijing, July 18, 2015. [Photo/VCG]

Joint enterprise plans to research, build small marine power stations

A joint venture to develop and produce small, floating nuclear power plants has been set up by State-owned China National Nuclear Power Co and four other domestic companies, according to an announcement released late Thursday.

The new venture would have 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in registered capital, the announcement said.

Such marine plants can sail to where they are needed and be used for many different needs, industry experts say. The demand for such power plants is expected to grow, according to analysts.

They can be used to operate drilling machinery for offshore oil and gas fields, meet heating and desalination needs and run nuclear powered icebreakers, the announcement said.

China National Nuclear Power will jointly set up the new company with Zhejiang Zheneng Electric Power Co, Shanghai Guosheng Group Co, Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard Group and Shanghai Electric Group, the statement said.

The new company will be involved in maritime nuclear power research, development, building, operation and management, as well as power sales and seawater desalination.

"It is hard to choose the site for large nuclear reactors as they have high hydrological and geological requirements, and safety is always a major concern for local residents living in places with large nuclear stations, which see 60 to 70 years of service life," said Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Net Consulting Co.

"Small nuclear reactors, however, can provide cheap and sustainable electricity," he said. One kilowatt-hour of electricity generated by an offshore nuclear plant costs about 0.9 yuan, compared with 2 yuan for the same quantity generated by diesel for use by drilling platforms in the Bohai Sea.

They also can be moved to isolated areas when they reach the end of their service life, Han said.

Floating nuclear reactors can also be exported to economies with large populations but scarce land resources, including economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, Han said.

China National Nuclear Power said establishment of the new company also is in accordance with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Exploitation of marine resources is vital to China's efforts to build itself into a maritime power, said Wang Yiren, deputy director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The United States launched the first floating nuclear power plant five decades ago, and Russia started its own project in 2000. However, China is not lagging behind, Han said. What matters now to advance in nuclear power is mastering new technology and concepts, such as high temperature gas-cooled reactors.

Wang Shoujun, president of China National Nuclear Corp, said the company has already signed memorandums of understanding with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in HTGR cooperation. CNNC is the parent company of China National Nuclear Power.
A Taxify driver enters his car in Tallinn, Estonia. REUTERS

Taxify, a new car-hailing service is preparing to take on Uber in London, after being boosted by investment from China's Didi Chuxing.

The company plans to charge fares similar to that of Uber but will allow drivers to keep a greater share.

Taxify has applied for an operating license with the city's transport authority Transport for London and has opened a training office near King's Cross station. UK operations manager Finn Geraghty said Taxify has already signed up drivers "in the thousands".

"We're progressing very well. We're developing a close relationship with TfL and at the moment we are onboarding drivers," Geraghty said. "We're confident that in the coming months, we'll be launched, live, and putting out a bit of a change for London."

On Aug 1, Didi announced it had invested an undisclosed amount in Taxify and had entered into a strategic partnership with the company. Didi is one of the world's largest mobile transportation platforms, with around 400 million users signed up to its taxi, minibus and bike-sharing services.

Uber sold its China operations to Didi in 2016 in a deal that saw both companies receiving equity in the other. The Beijing-based company has entered into strategic partnerships with other ride-hailing services.

In 2015, Didi bought a minority stake in Indian carhailing service Ola, and on Tuesday, the company invested in Middle East online taxi service Careem. Didi's partnership with Taxify extends its reach into 19 European, African and Middle East countries.

"Taxify will utilize this partnership to solidify our position in core markets in Europe and Africa," said Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Taxify. "We believe Didi is the best partner to help us become the most popular and efficient transport option in Europe and Africa."

While Taxify will charge users rates similar to other car-hailing services', the firm hopes its favorable commission rates will attract London drivers to sign on to its service. The company takes 15 percent of the price of a ride, compared to Uber's 25 percent commission.
Three Chinese internet giantsTencent, Baidu and Sinaare under investigation for failing to regulate content such as posts that are violent, fake or pornographic on their online sites, the country's top cyberspace watchdog announced on Friday.

Public tips have alerted regulators to content posted by some users of Tencent WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging tool; Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service; and Baidu Tieba, a popular online forum. Some of the content, including posts that are terrorism-related, harms national security and public order, according to a statement by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Cyberspace regulators in Beijing, where the headquarters of Baidu and Sina are located, and regulators in Guangdong, which has jurisdiction over Tencent, have filed an official probe of the three platforms for possible breaches of the Cybersecurity Law and failure to prevent such information from being released, the statement said.

The national watchdog did not release details of the accusation, but said its local bureaus in Beijing and Guangdong will brief the public in a timely fashion on development of the case.

All three companies responded on Friday, saying they would cooperate with governmental departments in the investigation and strictly supervise their platforms.

"We apologize for our problematic information online," Sina Weibo said in a statement. "We'll further fight rumors, terrorist-related information and pornography by improving our technologies, products and services," it said.

Sina Weibo said it welcomes netizens' reports and wants to keep the online environment clean.

Baidu said it has devoted much labor and technology to supervise its online forum, "but there is still some content that we missed or where we failed to find the problems, for which we should apologize".

Tencent confirmed it had received the notice from the provincial cyberspace department, saying its WeChat team prioritizes the fight against rumors, terrorism and pornography.

The company also called on WeChat users to obey the law and rules, and join hands to stop illegal information.

Liu Deliang, a law professor at Beijing Normal University, said internet enterprises should increase self-discipline, in addition to the county's efforts to fight illegal information.

"If they find problematic content or receive reports about it, the website operators should give a quicker response and handle it in a timely manner," he said.

The administration on Friday encouraged the public to report possible internet violations through the 12377 hotline or send emails to jubao@12377.cn.

The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center under the administration said it got 3.67 million complaints about possible problematic information in June, up 42.2 percent year-on-year.

In the same period, major commercial websites, including Baidu, Tencent and Sina, received a total of 2.03 million complaints via their reporting channels, of which 1.96 million were sent to law enforcement departments to handle, according to the center.

He Wei in Shanghai and Fan Feifei in Beijing contributed to this story.
CARLISLE  Remains unearthed at the Army War College dont match the Native American child thought to have been buried there after dying at the government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the 19th century, authorities said Friday.

The U.S. Army said the grave thought to contain 10-year-old Little Plume, also called Hayes Vanderbilt Friday, doesnt match his age, and in fact contains two sets of unidentified remains.

The remains of 15-year-old Little Chief, also known as Dickens Nor, and 14-year-old Horse, also called Horace Washington, do match and will be returned to a Northern Arapaho delegation on Monday. Theyll be reburied in Wyomings Wind River Reservation.

The grave with Little Plumes headstone contains remains from a teenage male and another person of undetermined age or sex. They will be reinterred at the site.

The government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded by an Army officer, took drastic steps to separate Native American students from their culture, including cutting their braids, dressing them in military-style uniforms and punishing them for speaking their native languages. They were forced to adopt European names.

More than 10,000 Native American children were taught there and endured harsh conditions that sometimes led to death from such diseases as tuberculosis.

The exhumations began early Tuesday at the post cemetery on the grounds of the Carlisle Barracks, which today houses the War College.

Seventeen members of the Northern Arapaho tribe, including tribal elders and young people, came to Carlisle to take part in the process. In 2016, the tribe had formally requested the bodies be returned to them.
This photo taken on June 27, 2017 shows a woman making purchases by scanning QR codes using her smartphone at a fruit stall in a market in Beijing. China's lack of "credit card culture" has somewhat fueled the popularization of mobile payments, especially in small cities and underdeveloped areas. WANG ZHAO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Payment platforms run promotions to boost volumes WeChat and Alipay, two major online payment platforms in China, call for consumers to go cashless and cardless in their daily life through promotions in August. Cashlessness is a new Chinese characteristic. In a recent report by Tencent, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, and French market research firm Ipsos, 84 percent of Chinese were "comfortable" going out with only mobile phones, no cash.

Gao Jingwen, in her 20s, can hardly recall when she last paid in cash.

"I do not need cash in a restaurant, seeing a doctor, paying electricity and water bills. I cannot think of any place I cannot pay with my smartphone," she says.

Zhang Shucui, 67, always used to take a large amount of change when going to the wet market near her home in Beijing's Haidian District, but that time has gone.

"The QR code replaced the change basket in front of the stalls," she said. "Gone are the days when I had to search all my pockets for a coin."

Monday's report also showed more than 70 percent of the 6,500-plus respondents saying they could live more than a week with only 100 yuan ($15) in cash, and 52 percent only use cash for 20 percent of their total monthly consumption.

Mei Houdui, an electronic products dealer in Shenzhen, shared a recent "awkward" experiencehe wanted to borrow some cash as pocket money for his child at a party, and failed as no one had any cash in their pockets.

A big cake

The new payment pattern has won over Chinese consumers with its convenience and flexibility, squeezing the market share of card and cash payments.

Alipay or WeChat? This is the most often question posed up when a purchase is made in China. Cards and cash, the once dominant purchasing methods, have become a second option in less than half a decade.

"Mobile payment companies were worried about their future just four years ago, but the spread of technology has exceeded the imagination of almost everyone," says Li Gang, a professor at the Tencent Research Institute.

Data from the People's Bank of China showed a total of 157 trillion yuan of payments were made on mobile devices in China last year, more than 200 times that in the United States in the same period. The figure is expected to continue expanding by 50 percent each year, it said.
A woman has been held by police on suspicion of abandoning her child by using a courier service to send the newborn to a local children's home, according to police in Fuzhou, Fujian province.

The woman, identified by police only as Luo, is said to have packed up her newborn baby girl in plastic bags, put it in a cloth bag, and called a delivery service on Wednesday, saying she wanted to send something to the Fuzhou children's home.

When the courier requested to see what was inside the parcel, she refused to open the package for inspection.

On his way, the courier heard a crying sound from the bag, which he had hung from his handlebars, and opened it to find a baby with her umbilical cord still attached.

The courier called police for help, and passers-by who saw him standing with a baby offered assistance. Pictures posted online showed the baby girl being held in a woman's arms, with her lips moistened by a cotton swab to protect her from sunstroke in the 37 C heat.

The baby was soon sent to the Jin'an district hospital, where she had her cord cut and went through health checkups. Doctors said the baby is out of danger and her vital signs remain stable. She has been transferred to the pediatrics department.

Local residents have sent diapers and baby formula to the hospital.

Police said the 24-year-old woman is from Sichuan province, and the baby's father is unknown.

Luo was quoted by fjdaily.com, the news portal by Fujian Daily, saying that she did so because she thought she couldn't raise the child on her own and that it could get better care at a welfare house.

She has lost contact with the baby's father and her family knew nothing about it, she said.

The story made headlines nationwide, with many netizens criticizing the young woman for putting the baby through such an ordeal, arguing that the baby could have died on such a hot day while being wrapped in several layers of plastic.

Wu Ming'an, an associate professor of criminal law at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the woman is alleged to have violated the criminal law.

"She is suspected of infringing on the baby's personal rights, because the baby's life was threatened after being wrapped up," Wu said.

Cheng Si contributed to this story.
A Shanghai man has been released from a psychiatric hospital, where he had been forced to stay since 2003, after a judicial appraisal showed that he had recovered from schizophrenia.

The 51-year-old Shanghai native, surnamed Xu, said a forensic science center of the Ministry of Justice found in July that he has full capacity for civil conduct, and the Shanghai Youth Psychiatric Rehabilitation Hospital has agreed to let him leave.

Xu had taken the hospital and his eldest brother Xu Canxingwho was acting as his guardianto court several times for "infringing upon his right to personal liberty". It was seen as the first case involving a mental health law that required the patient's voluntary consent for hospitalization.

The law, which took effect on May 1, 2013, is viewed as a substantive step forward in protecting the rights and interests of people with mental health problems in China, where official figures showed there were 5.4 million people with serious mental problems registered at different health departments at the end of 2016.

In the past, the lack of due process in the application of forced hospitalization resulted in perfectly healthy people being sent to hospital by family members who find them disobedient or covet their property.

"After leaving the hospital, I will rent an apartment and lead a normal life with my girlfriend," said Xu, who was still living in the hospital so he could take care of his girlfriend, who is also staying at the institute and has applied to be discharged.

His guardian, Canxing, who Xu has accused of forcing him to be hospitalized to seize his legitimate share of an apartment inherited from their parents, said on Thursday that he will respect the forensic results.

"I never prevented him from leaving," the brother said. "I have a job and I don't have time to take care of him. Whether he can leave the hospital or not needs to be determined by the forensic authorities, not me."

Xu's lawyer, Yang Weihua, told China Daily that many people like Xu were filing lawsuits with mental health hospitals and their guardians, and they needed help.

In Xu's case, he was first sent to a regional hospital by his father and eldest brother for mental problems in 2001, when he persisted in appealing against the Australian immigration authority after he was repatriated to China for gambling and other misconduct.

In 2003, after a physical conflict with his father, Xu was sent to the privately-run Youth Psychiatric Rehabilitation Hospital and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

In 2008, Xu's father died and his eldest brother was appointed his legal guardian. But Xu claimed his brother, unwilling to have Xu stay at the house left by their father, rejected his plea to leave the hospital, though he had obviously recovered.

The hospital also declined to discharge him without the consent of his brother.

Starting in 2012, Xu contacted lawyers and resorted to courts for help. He saw some hope after the mental health law was implemented.

However, he still lost two lawsuits against the hospital and his brother. Two previous forensic appraisals showed that he still had residual symptoms of schizophrenia, but it was not categorized as a "serious mental health problem".

The latest lawsuit, with the help of his lawyer, was launched in June. Yang said the court will announce its decision later this month.

He Qi in Shanghai contributed to this story.
HANGZHOU - Mark Spitalnik, a US lawyer, has always had a special affection for China.

When he came to China 19 years ago, he brought an air force uniform and a veteran's medal of honor.

They belonged to his father, who had been a soldier in the United States. "Flying Tigers" air squadron helped the Chinese fight the Japanese aggressors during World War II.

Spitalnik's father often recalled his army days in China, which left a strong impression on him.

"I never intentionally set my mind to stay and live in China, but I just stayed," Spitalnik said with a smile.

He came to China in 1998 as a lawyer specializing in medical disputes and has learned a lot about China's health care industry.

"It surprised me that the hospitals in China were often full of patients with chronic diseases such as dementia and physical disabilities. Hospital resources should focus more on patients with acute diseases," said Spitalnik.

Chronic disease care is demanding, and hospitals are not the best choice for these patients, he said.

Spitalnik has opened a senior nursing institution in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. As China becomes an aging society, there is huge demand for nursing services for the elderly.

As of the end of 2016, the number of seniors aged over 60 in China had reached around 230.8 million, accounting for 16.7 percent of the total population, official data showed.

Spitalnik decided to offer more advanced and professional care services for wealthier people.

From the outside, the institution looks more like a vacation villa than a nursing home. With advanced equipment and professional service, the mental and physical health of the elderly living there will be improved, said Chai Haiyan, Spitalnik's wife and partner. Each patient is cared for by about 2.5 nursing employees on average.

Spitalnik has also noticed differences in the psychology of elderly people in China compared to those in the United States.

"In the United States, people over 75 do not consider themselves old, such as my mother," he said. "While in China, they think they are rather old, and this will affect the way we treat them," he said.

He acknowledges that his nursing home, which can accommodate up to 64 patients, targets only high-income people.

"As for the vast majority of the elderly population, it should be the government's duty. The government should develop a better social welfare system," Spitalnik said.
A high-level think tank has suggested the population of the Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, should be capped at 5 million, the Beijing News reported Saturday.

The report by the think tank affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the population density of the new area should not be too high with an initial population of about 1 million and a long-term limit of 5 million.

The report said Xiongan will primarily serve as a new home for Beijing's "non-capital" functions, while driving the development of neighboring Hebei Province. With this primary goal, the new area should avoid a surge in population and sidestep the "big city disease" that Beijing is suffering now, the report noted.

The think tank was set up last year to look at the integrated growth of Beiing, Tianjin and Hebei.

The new area will be built in several stages. In the first stage, an area of 100 square kilometers will be developed, with 200 sq kms to be developed in the middle stage and 2,000 sq kms in the long term.

In the long term, its population density will be 2,500 people per sq km, lower than Shenzhen special economic zone, Shanghai Pudong new area and Tianjin Binhai new area. In 2015, there were 5,713 people per sq km in Shenzhen, 3,809 in Shanghai, and 1,323 in Beijing.

China announced plans to establish the Xiongan New Area in April. It covers Hebei's Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties with a total area of 1,577 sq kms. Currently there are 380,000 people in Xiongxian, 390,000 in Rongcheng and 260,000 in Anxin.

In the initial stage, most of the development will occur near beaches and on agricultural land some distance from all three county seats. The initial urban residents are expected to mainly come from higher education institutions, research institutions, administrative institutions and corporate headquarters that move from Beijing.

Xiongan will also recruit talents from across the world to help its development.

To house people moving from Beijing, Xiongan will provide public rental housing or encourage these institutions to build apartments for their employees.

Xiongan will focus on development of high-end industries in the future and develop a smart and green city.

The current urban and rural population in the three counties will mainly engage in the service industry in the future or may enter employment which demands less complicated skills.
Events and stories coming up in the next few days

Bolivia's foreign minister on China visit

Bolivia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Huanacuni Mamani is in China on a weeklong working visit through Wednesday at the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
On a sunny summer day amid green fields in Egypt's Fayoum Oasis, Khaled Abdul Nabi sat under the shade of a mango tree watching his workers preparing lemon grass crops to be exported to Europe.

Just like most of his peers and neighbors in Agamyeen village in Fayoum Valley, 42-year-old Abdul Nabi inherited farming from his ancestors.

For decades, Abdul Nabi grew wheat, rice, cotton and corn in his 50-acre farm. But 13 years ago, the man decided to shift to the cultivation of organic medicinal herbs to earn more money.
ZHAI HAIJUN/CHINA DAILY

Two Chinese tourists were detained in Berlin for giving a Nazi salute while posing for photographs in front of the Reichstag parliamentary building on Saturday. Three days later, the Shanghai Sihang Warehouse Anti-Japanese Aggression Museum issued a statement criticizing four Chinese youths for wearing Imperial Japanese Army uniforms and posing for photos in the warehouse, which Chinese forces successfully defended against the Japanese invaders in late 1937, and calling their act "impudent blasphemy".

The youths are citizens of a country where more than 35 million people died or were injured in World War II and have inadvertently, or otherwise, reopened old wounds.

The world has undergone radical changes since those days of endless horror. And almost everything has changed, from the interiors of homes to the exteriors of buildings, from our modes of transport to the way we shop. Perhaps the only thing that has not changed is that every society has its taboossome religious, some historical. And every society objects to the breaking of those taboos.

In many cases, it is what we oppose, not what we support, that determines who we are. A posture or a set of clothes may be right in one society but taboo in another culture, because humans, who, depending on their histories and cultures, have their own objects of reverence and set of taboos.

The hands of the clock continue to move signaling the changing of time, but the wounds of history and those who caused those wounds should never be forgotten. That's why the tourists' and youths' actions cannot be attributed to their ignorance about German laws or their shallow understanding of their own country's recent history, especially because they occurred at historical spots.

The actions of the youths should bring to mind what happens at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where Japan's "war heroes" since the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, including 14 Class-A war criminals of World War II, are honored. People wearing Imperial Japanese Army uniforms can often be seen swaggering in and around the shrine as a way of paying obeisance to the Japanese "war heroes" and "true patriots"in other words, warmongers.

The Germans, on the other hand, have banned all symbols of Nazism and declared such actions a criminal offense. They have rebuilt their nation by condemning the atrocities committed by the Nazis and have put in place strict laws to punish people who use such symbols, whatever the reason. As such, Germany's resurrection within the international community is complete.

In contrast, Japan has not even initiated a process of self-introspection, although it is known as the land of Zen that is focused on meditation or dhyana, which in Sanskrit means a series of cultivated states of mind that lead to the "state of perfect equanimity and awareness". One wonders how can the Japanese attain that "perfect" state without self-introspection.

Without officially atoning for its war crimes, Japan cannot become a normal nation. And if perforce Japan assumes to be a normal nation by building a military, it will again pose a threat to regional and international peace.

The Nazi salute by the two Chinese tourists and the Japanese army uniforms the four youths in Shanghai put on have been nailed to the shameful pole of history. The crimes the Nazis and Japanese forces committed against humanity will continue to remind us to never let down our guard against fascism and its symbols.

If the peaceful development over the recent decades weakens our memory of the horrors of fascism and wars, we might end up opening up old wounds or inflicting new ones on the 21st century.

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the opening session of a workshop in Beijing. A workshop for provincial and ministerial officials was held from July 26 to 27, 2017 in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the CPC. [Photo/Xinhua]

The keynote speech Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivered at a high-level workshop on July 26 offers a glimpse into the themes of the 19th CPC National Congress scheduled for the fall, and lays an important political, ideological and theoretical foundation for its success.

Xi shared five points with senior Party officials. To begin with, he said the 19th Party Congress is of key importance to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and building a moderately well-off society in an all-round way. The Party must hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and feel more confident about the road, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi said. It should also contribute to people's pursuit of better livelihoods, and devise new strategies and take new measures to help realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Second, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage, Xi said. Having experienced tribulations and hardships in modern times, the Chinese nation fought hard to "stand up" after the First Opium War in 1840 to establish the People's Republic of China in 1949. In the years since, China has made a historic leap from "standing up" to becoming the world's second-largest economy and gaining in national strength while developing the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Based on the fact that China's GDP crossed $11 trillion and its national fiscal income was nearly 16 trillion yuan ($2.38 trillion) last year, Xi concluded that after reaching a new stage, China's comprehensive capability is "getting stronger". So it would be logical to make decisions at the 19th Party Congress based on these facts.

Third, the 19th Party Congress must make a series of decisions and policies on politics, economy, culture, ecological civilization, national defense, diplomacy and Party building, whose common goal should be building a moderately well-off society in an all-round way by 2020. And the campaign to root out poverty and the fight against pollution must be successful, so as to promote sustainable development and help the people to build a comprehensively well-off society.

After fulfilling that task in 2020, the entire nation will strive to fully develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Fourth, since socialism with Chinese characteristics has reached a new starting point, there is a need for innovative theory and practice to develop it further. And the Party must boost its theoretical confidence and strategic focus, broaden its vision, and provide a new summation so that socialism with Chinese characteristics reaches the highest stage of maturity.

The fifth point Xi shared with senior Party officials is that the Party leadership must propel the great mission of Party building with greater dedication and belief. And to strictly govern the Party, the leadership should take more effective and firm measures, so as to ensure the Party always works with the people and navigates the ship of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation to its glorious destination.

The author is a professor specializing in Party building at the Central Party School.
China's lack of "credit card culture" has somewhat fueled the popularization of mobile payments, especially in small cities and underdeveloped areas. PHOTOS BY WANG ZHAO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Payment platforms run promotions to boost volumes

WeChat and Alipay, two major online payment platforms in China, call for consumers to go cashless and cardless in their daily life through promotions in August. Cashlessness is a new Chinese characteristic. In a recent report by Tencent, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, and French market research firm Ipsos, 84 percent of Chinese were "comfortable" going out with only mobile phones, no cash.

Gao Jingwen, in her 20s, can hardly recall when she last paid in cash.

"I do not need cash in a restaurant, seeing a doctor, paying electricity and water bills. I cannot think of any place I cannot pay with my smartphone," she says.

Zhang Shucui, 67, always used to take a large amount of change when going to the wet market near her home in Beijing's Haidian District, but that time has gone.

"The QR code replaced the change basket in front of the stalls," she said. "Gone are the days when I had to search all my pockets for a coin."

Monday's report also showed more than 70 percent of the 6,500-plus respondents saying they could live more than a week with only 100 yuan ($15) in cash, and 52 percent only use cash for 20 percent of their total monthly consumption.

Mei Houdui, an electronic products dealer in Shenzhen, shared a recent "awkward" experiencehe wanted to borrow some cash as pocket money for his child at a party, and failed as no one had any cash in their pockets.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., held a town hall meeting in Farmington on Friday afternoon before a crowd of around 80 people who, for the most part, seemed to be middle-aged to older Democrats ready to cheer on the two-term lawmaker who will be facing her next run for reelection to the Senate in 2018.

In fact, if anyone in the audience pushed back against the centrist message McCaskill brought to Long Memorial Hall, it was a row of Bernie Sanders fans who several times expressed their displeasure with McCaskill's unwillingness to support single-payer health insurance, as well as what they saw as dishonest favoritism within the Democratic Party in choosing Hillary Clinton over Sanders as its 2016 presidential candidate.

"I know that you won't like what I'm about to say, but I don't think the federal government can afford to provide single-payer health insurance," she said. "There are Republicans I'm working with in the Senate who are trying to take a bipartisan approach to fixing Obamacare and stabilizing the insurance markets."

In most of her remarks, McCaskill took a decidedly bipartisan tack in which she often spoke of working behind the scenes with her Republican colleagues to work on areas like health insurance and tax reform.

"We definitely work on the tax code and lower the corporate tax rate," she said, "but the focus shouldn't be on just helping the wealthy 1 percent, but helping out the middle class that really needs it."

McCaskill spent the hour answering random questions selected from those provided by the audience prior to the start of the meeting, the vast majority focused on healthcare and the future of Obamacare ... but there was also a question asked about unions  she favors them  and government regulations, which she feels are often necessary, but overall, too great in number.

Surprisingly, McCaskill directed her strongest criticism toward the EPA, whom she said too often "overreach" with their regulations.

"They had one where they were trying to control dust on farms," she said. "Come on, anybody who's been on a Missouri farm in the middle of summer knows you can't do anything about the dust."

She also noted the EPA's failed attempt to regulate "navigable waters" in which the federal agency asserted that it could prevent a landowner from doing anything with a wetland that was near a ditch that eventually drained into navigable water.

As far as clean air and water regulations, she basically told the audience they were out of luck until there was another U.S. Congress, another president and perhaps even different Supreme Court justices.

When the town hall was over, McCaskill broached several other topics, including the nuclear impasse between the United States and North Korea.

"I think that the President unfortunately has elevated [North Korean Supreme Leader] Kim Jung-Un now," she said. "What he wants is to be seen as a world stage player and now we've kind of made him one.

"I know people say the rhetoric wasn't stopping the advancement of their weapons, but we're tracking it and we have the technology to intercept.

"I've traveled and (seen) the anti-ballistic missiles that we have in Alaska, South Korea, Guam as part of my service on the Armed Services Committee. I feel very comfortable with the technology that we have."

Asked her opinion of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, McCaskill said she learned as a federal prosecutor not to speak on a case until all the evidence is in.

"And all the evidence isn't in on this yet," she said.
Han Wei Yang, an organization that promotes Han culture by organizing Han weddings, has seen a rising trend of holding traditional weddings in recent years. [Photo provided to China Daily]

One of the most common dilemmas soon-to-be married couples in China face these days is whether to hold a Western or Chinese wedding ceremony.

The issue is so prevalent that most wedding companies have started to offer packages catering to either options.

At the Shanghai Wedding Expo that took place from June 17 to 18, a couple could be heard squabbling about this issue with a wedding planner by their side. Song Lichuan, the groom-to-be, wanted his upcoming wedding in November to be a Western-style one.

His fiancee Wang Ningning, however, was more excited about the prospect of wearing a traditional red and gold Chinese wedding dress which she said seems "more joyous" than a white wedding gown. She added that a traditional Chinese theme would also help differentiate her wedding from those her friends had.

Song and Wang are currently trying to reach a compromise. They might hold their wedding on a cruise liner instead.

"It will be very strange if all the guests turn up wearing modern clothes at a traditional wedding," said Song.

According to Zhang Wenhao, an increasing number of couples today are choosing to have traditional Han weddings. Zhang is the deputy director of Han Wei Yang, an organization that promotes Han culture by organizing Han weddings that feature traditional clothing and activities.

He said that the organization used to help plan about 10 traditional weddings per year since 2006. Starting from 2013, however, Han Wei Yang has helped up to 30 traditional weddings annually, a clear indication of the rising trend.

The most recent wedding that Han Wei Yang held was for a Shanghainese couple who studied abroad in the United States. They returned to Shanghai just to hold the traditional wedding ceremony.

The couple explained that they chose the traditional Chinese ceremony because they preferred the solemnness involved. They noted that Western weddings in China are nothing like those in the US where there is still a strong sense of tradition and ceremony.

A traditional Chinese wedding in China differs greatly from a Western one in terms of budget, clothes, magnitude and customary protocols.

With regard to wedding customs, couples need to perform certain tasks, such as drink wine from a special container made of a bitter hyacinth. This symbolizes that the husband and wife will share in each other's joys and sorrows in future. Another task involves cutting a strand of hair from the bride and bridegroom and tying it into a knot to symbolize a lasting marriage.

Zhao Qianqian, a wedding planner from Marry Me Wedding Planning Company, said that traditional Han weddings are generally more expensive.

"We usually don't recommend Han weddings to couples who have a tight budget," said Zhao.

The Han wedding package by the company starts around 30,000 yuan ($4,391) and includes wedding decorations, costumes, a professional team to coordinate the event and a wedding emcee. In contrast, modern wedding packages range from 10,888 yuan to 25,888 yuan.

Zhao said a big budget is required for Han weddings because of the many specific requirements that need to be fulfilled. Traditional Han weddings often require elaborate decoration and settings such as palace lanterns, Chinese-style pavilion and chimes. There is also a need for a specialized emcee who has been trained for several years in the art of hosting such occasions.

According to customs, there needs to be at least six bridesmaids and six groomsmen. The wedding couple would usually pay for their costumes too. In addition, the parents from the two families will also need to be dressed in special attire.

He Qi contributed to this story.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (R, Front) receives the certificate as the winner of presidential elections from Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati (L, Front) in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on Aug 11, 2017. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was on Friday declared the winner of Tuesday's presidential elections with 8.20 million (54.27%) votes against 6.76 million (44.74%) for his main challenger, Raila Odinga after a tense electoral process which was preceded by an opposition walkout. [Photo/Xinhua]

NAIROBI - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta who was formally declared winner of the country's presidential election on Friday night, vowed to unite the country after his main rival, Raila Odinga rejected the vote as a fraud.

The Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati announced that Kenyatta garnered 8.20 million votes or 54.27 percent of the total votes cast against Odinga's 6.76 million or 44.74 of the total votes cast, ending a protracted four-day standoff over the outcome of Tuesday's vote.

"Having fulfilled the requirements by law, I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta as the President-Elect and William Ruto as the Deputy President-Elect," Chebukati said.

The 55-year-old Kenyatta will be serving his second and final five year term in office in line with the requirement of the constitution.

During his acceptance speech, Kenyatta pledged to unite the country and implement development projects that would uplift the living standards of citizens.

"I thank the people of Kenya for the confidence they have shown in me and we shall continue the work we started and rededicate our service to this nation," said Kenyatta who was flanked by his Deputy William Ruto.

He said he wanted to reach out to his main rival, Odinga of the National Super Alliance (NASA) to "build Kenya together."

"We are not enemies, we are all citizens of one republic. I extend a hand of friendship and cooperation. We shall partner to develop this country," Kenyatta said.

"I reach out to you, I reach out to your supporters. We shall work together, we shall partner together, we shall grow together so we can build this great nation," Kenyatta said.

He commended his supporters and the general public for maintaining peace during the voting exercise.

Kenyatta extended an olive branch to opposition leaders and their supporters, saying he was ready to engage with them in dialogue to solve challenges facing the country.

He urged Kenyans to move past the electioneering period and commence nation building.

Odinga did not attend the announcement of the result, saying their concerns have not been addressed.

The opposition coalition has strongly disputed the outcome of the presidential results, saying they do not represent the true verdict of Kenyans.

NASA chief agent Musalia Mudavadi said IEBC told them their concerns will be addressed after the declaration is made. "Basically (the meeting with IEBC) was a PR exercise," Mudavadi told journalists in Nairobi.

He spoke after the NASA coalition walked out of the meeting with IEBC commissioners where the commission made its stand to announce the winner.

"This commission has shown that it is an arm of the executive. It looks like the president (and) the deputy president knew all along what the commission was going to do," coalition agent James Orengo said.

He accused international observers of pressuring and encouraging the IEBC to announce the winner regardless of NASA's concerns about the accuracy of the election results.

Orengo said the African Union, the European Union and the Commonwealth should adopt the vetting of the observer missions to ensure they have no relationships with the governments of the day.

"The AU should have vetted the members of those observer missions because clearly the delegations rushed to judgement and gave this commission to go on with making this announcement and telling us we can do what we want suggesting that we should go to court."

"Every time an election has been stolen, the Kenyan people have stood up to make sure changes are made to make Kenya a better place. No force on earth can go against a people united," Orengo said.

"Therefore nobody should think this is the end of the matter and nobody should make us feel guilty that we have got constitutional alternatives in interrogating the decision that has been made by this commission that is a great tragedy," he added.
Photo taken on Aug 8, 2017 shows the construction site of a security wall on Turkey's border with Iran in Agri province, Turkey. Turkish government has launched the construction of a security wall on its border with Iran, Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

ANKARA - Turkey has started work on a huge security wall along its Iranian border in order to halt influx of Kurdish militants and smuggling activities, while a similar and longer barrier with war torn Syria has neared completion.

The information, published this week by the Turkish news agency Dogan quoting local officials, doesn't come much of a surprise, as the country's government took in fact the decision several months earlier as part of moves to bolster national security in the perspective of an Integrated Border Security System.

There are also plans to bolt the third wall along its frontier with Iraq, another problematic neighbor in the south, but planning works are still ongoing on this project, Xinhua learned from government sources.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last January that his country plans to build a wall also with Iraq, without giving a firm date. The work is expected to begin in October or November 2017 in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The 2-meter-wide, 3-meter-high barrier on the Iranian border is being built out of portable reinforced concrete blocks and is aimed at boosting Turkey's security by keeping out smugglers and stopping infiltration by Kurdish militants.

The 144-km-long wall will cover part of the 450-km-long border between the two countries. Some portions of the border are mined, which will render building efforts difficult and costly.

Turkey claims that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the outlawed Kurdish movement, involved in an ongoing conflict with the government since 1984, has bases and camps in the Iranian side of the border.

The Turkish-Iranian border is also an important route of drug smuggling towards the European continent. Each year, custom officers intercept hundreds of kilograms of cannabis and heroin produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In June, Ankara announced that it was finishing building a 700-km-long wall, costing $400 million, running along most of its 900 km border with Syria, with an "integrated security" system comprising of sophisticated lighting, sensors and security cameras.

According to media reports, the Syrian wall, which is 90 percent complete, has been useful and a deterrent for illegal traffic of goods and arms as well as militants movements, but specialists agree that no barrier can be 100 percent effective against determined armed elements.

"The security paradigm has drastically changed for Turkey with the eruption of the civil war in Syria and it is only natural that she takes appropriate action against it. Radical changes need radical measures," commented for Xinhua Selim Koru, an analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.

"Turkey's border with Syria was always seen as very porous by the international community" for terrorist infiltrations, he pointed out, saying that "non-state actors took benefit of this situation to maneuver" in this volatile region.

The wall erected at the Syrian border makes it the third longest wall in the world, the first being the Great Wall of China. 120 observation towers have been constructed in critical locations and are equipped with land infiltration radars, night vision radars and advanced weapons.

Daily Hurriyet reported that the first stage of the Iranian wall is expected to be completed until October and that security agents will also patrol the border wall which will feature 15 big doors with bulletproof glass.

Contrary to the heatedly debated proposed wall between Mexico and the United States, which has caused an uproar against President Donald Trump, the Turkish-Iranian wall has been met with little disapproval on the other side, at least on the official level. In May, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said that his country welcomed any steps towards increasing border security.

"We welcome all kinds of actions that will increase security and stability at the border. We are in favor of deeper bilateral dialogue to increase coordination in this regard," the Milliyet newspaper quoted Qassemi as saying. "Border security is important for both Iran and Turkey, and the necessary efforts should be made by both countries."

In Ankara, a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua that "as a sovereign country, Turkey has the right to take all necessary steps to ensure its national security. As it is the case for the one on the Syrian side, this barrier will protect not only Turkey but also Iran as well since they have similar concerns."

"The Iranian side has been informed about the developments and we did not hear any negative comments from them. In the future, problems that were affecting our both countries such as drug and arms trafficking and illegal entries from terrorists will be prevented," said the source on condition of anonymity.

Last June, the Kurdistan Free Life Party, an offshoot of PKK in northwestern Iran, attacked Iranian border guards, killing two. It is the last of a series of incidents linked to Kurdistan militants in this region, which prompted reaction from Iranian forces.

Turkish Armed Forces are waging a comprehensive and intense security operation against the PKK, which was listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. The conflict escalated in July 2015 after the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year cease-fire. The ongoing cycle of violence has claimed about 3,000 lives, most of them rebels and affiliates, largely concentrated in mainly Kurdish southeastern region, according to independent sources.

However, violence is unlikely to end in the near future in the absence of a political solution, predict analysts.

Kurdish aspirations of independence are on the rise in Syria, a country hit by the civil war since 2011. Turkey considers also as terrorist organization Syrian offshoots of PKK in Syria, the Democratic union party (PYD) and its armed wing, the People's protection forces (YPG). Ankara is at odds with its NATO ally, the United States, for arming the YGP, which it considers a partner in the war against the Islamic state (IS).

Not only Iran and Turkey, but also Iraq as well, the three neighboring countries that have Kurdish minority, fiercely oppose all independence moves.

Relations between Turkey and Iran have soured since the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011 and the Syrian civil war, when Tehran supported President Bashar Assad while Ankara called for him to resign.

Turkey is also concerned about Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq involved in the fight against IS, while Iran is equally anxious about Turkish military activity there. But in more recent months the two powers have found themselves standing on the same side in the Gulf diplomatic crisis, denouncing the sanctions against Qatar.

"Turkey and Iran are two key actors of the region. We as Turkey are convinced that reinforced bilateral ties will make this zone safer, so this wall should be seen as a medium of cooperation against security threats but not a wall of division," said the Turkish diplomatic source.
A body was reportedly found floating Saturday morning in the Houston Ship Channel, according to a spokeswoman from the Port Houston.

A person from the Port Houston told police around 9:43 a.m. they saw a body floating near 75th Street and Navigation, Houston police said.
Dear Abby:

I am married to a great guy. We've been together 27 years, so I know him well. He recently stopped smoking after 30 years of nicotine addiction. He did it cold turkey, and he's been smoke-free for three months now. I'm proud of him and tell him so.

The problem is, when he drinks he gets drunk - which I'm used to - but then he starts saying (sometimes belligerently) that he wants a cigarette badly. I don't know how to respond to this. I continue praising him for quitting and point out the health benefits, but it's getting old.

Should I continue to say helpful things or just ignore him when he's drunk?

Dumbfounded in Dallas

Dear Dumbfounded:

Try this. Tell him calmly that his craving for a cigarette is normal, particularly if he used to smoke while consuming alcohol. Reassure him that with time the craving will lessen, and continue to reinforce that he did himself a huge favor by mustering up the willpower to quit. Tell him you know it wasn't easy and that the longer he resists the urge for a nicotine fix, the easier it will be for him to stay smoke-free.

The fact that he becomes "belligerent" when he drinks should be a sign to you that he probably shouldn't be drinking either. Instead of keeping him company when he's in his cups, consider leaving to attend an Al-Anon meeting. It's a supportive organization created for friends and family members who are affected by a loved one's alcohol consumption. Find one at al-anon.org.

Dear Abby:

I was in a relationship with a man for a year and a half. We got along great. We never argued, and we had a healthy sexual relationship. He took me on amazing vacations, introduced me to all of his friends and family.

But during all our time together, he never once expressed how he felt about me. He never even called me "Honey," or "Babe."

About a month ago, I told him how I felt. I came right out and asked if he loved me or had any kind of romantic feelings for me. He ignored my question! I guess he didn't want to hurt me more by saying no. Two weeks later, he broke up with me.

I'm divorced, while he has never been married or had a live-in girlfriend. He said his reason for breaking up was he felt our relationship was good but not great (!) and he didn't think it ever would be. This is painful, but I can't help holding onto hope. Should I just give up and move on?

Good, But Not Great

DEAR G.B.N.G.:

Give him credit for having been honest with you, but if after a year and a half he wasn't able to summon up any romantic feelings for you, you must accept that it isn't going to happen. Moving on may be painful for a while, but you will be doing yourself a big favor. Start now.

DearAbby.comDear AbbyP.O. Box 69440Los Angeles, CA 90069Andrews McMeel Syndication
A man driving the wrong way on the West Loop slammed head on into another vehicle and killed the driver Saturday morning, according to the Bellaire Police department.

The man traveling in a white pick-up truck was seen driving northbound in the southbound lanes of the West Loop near Pine at 2:18 a.m. The driver collided with a small SUV and the woman inside died at the scene, said Sgt. Daniel Kerr with the Bellaire Police Department.
The owners of a Houston tortilla company plead guilty to federal charges of employing undocumented workers for nearly four years.

The owners of La Espiga De Oro (Espiga) plead guilty to misdemeanor violations associated with their continued employment of undocumented workers between October 2011 and August 2015, according to a news release from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Friday morning.

The owners also forfeited $1 million following the felony conviction of conspiracy to induce and encourage unlawful immigration through a pattern and practice of hiring and employing illegal workers, said acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez in the news release.

BACKGROUND: Owners of Heights tortilla factory charged with illegally hiring workers

The people found guilty include owners Alfredo Sosa Lira, 72, his wife Lydia Botello-Lira, 68, their daughter Lydia Lira, 25, and night manager Roberto Guerra, 45.

"Employers who knowingly hire immigrants with fraudulent or suspect documents face serious consequences under the law," Martinez said. "This company violated the law by allowing more than half of its employees to work as undocumented immigrants. The $1 million forfeiture will help pay for the investigation and assist immigration authorities in their continued pursuit of employers who engage in similar conduct. Enforcement of our immigration laws is serious business and employers must only hire those with legitimate documentation to demonstrate they are legally in the United States."

SHOCK: Immigrant advocates alarmed after raid of tortilla factory

Espiga opened in 1977 and is located on the 1200 block of 15th Street in the Heights neighborhood. The company made tortillas for distribution to restaurants and businesses throughout Texas, Louisiana and Colorado, the Department of Justice added.

The investigation into Espiga began on Aug. 4, 2015, when Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed a search warrant on the business. HSI discovered 10 undocumented workers "as well as evidence demonstrating that 55 percent of their employees were not authorized by law to work at the factory," the DOJ said.

MASS ARRESTS: ICE raids net 95 immigrants in Houston region

"One long-term employee that the company knew to be employed illegally was injured on the job and received a settlement under her true name after using an alias for more than six years. The company owners and managers continued to employ this alien knowing that she was illegally in the United States," stated the DOJ.

Espiga is currently under a 12 month probation imposed by the DOJ. The company was fined more than $100,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last summer for dangerous working conditions that could have led to amputations, falls, and heat exhaustion.
Evidence presented at the murder trial of Sandra Melgar on Friday helped answer how the Houston widow accused of stabbing her husband in a staged home invasion could have tied herself up in her own closet.

Sandra Melgar, 57, is accused of stabbing her husband, Jaime Melgar, on the eve of their 32nd anniversary in December 2012 in their northwest Harris County home. Police contend she tied her own ankles and hands behind her back, then somehow locked herself in a closet by wedging a chair under the outside door knob.
Hundreds of people faced off in Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday as neo-nazis, white nationalists and alt-right groups joined together in a "pro-white" rally.

Counterprotesters, some carrying signs that read "Killing Nazis is my heritage" and other messages of violence, met the group. The high tensions and threats from both sides prompted Gov. Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency "to aid state response" to the rally and protests.
Houston ISD trustees opted not to save an under-performing charter school on Thursday, voting 3-4 against making the C.O.R.E. Academy an in-district charter school.

The Texas Education Agency told the southeast Houston charter, which serves about 475 students in elementary school through high school on Houston's south side, that it could either close or be absorbed by Houston ISD after it received poor academic ratings from the state in each of its three years of existence.

While traditional public schools are given five years to improve their accountability ranking, charter schools only have three years, according to state law.

C.O.R.E. Academy officials told the board on Thursday that preliminary data showed the school had finally improved its accountability rankings this year, although the ratings won't be published until Tuesday.

"C.O.R.E. would not enter HISD as a failing school but rather one that would add value to HISD's portfolio of schools," said Shun Johnson, C.O.R.E. Academy's business manager. "We ask for your vote of confidence, we ask you to help us keep our doors open to these promising students we welcomed four years ago."

The school ranked last out of 878 elementary schools and 317 middle schools in the Houston area on the Children at Risk rankings, which measure academic performance in the context of poverty levels.

About 93 percent of C.O.R.E. Academy's students qualified as economically disadvantaged, and 84 percent were deemed "at risk" under state guidelines in 2016-17. Children can be considered at-risk if they have a history of poor academic performance or meet certain social criteria, such as being homeless or pregnant.

The TEA this week notified Houston ISD that the district faces takeover or campus closures if by 2018 it fails to improve 15 low-performing schools. Some HISD trustees worried that absorbing the school would add another campus to its list of struggling schools that could trigger a state takeover.

C.O.R.E. Academy has floundered academically amid extraordinary teacher turnover. According to state data, about four in five C.O.R.E. Academy teachers each year had zero classroom experience. The average C.O.R.E. Academy teacher earned about $38,000, at least $10,000 less than was made by entry-level teachers at Houston-area traditional public schools.

At the same time, Johnson and Principal-founder David Fuller each earned about $180,000 in 2016-17. By comparison, Houston ISD principals earned $80,000 to $130,000 this year, and superintendents of traditional public school districts serving less than 1,000 students averaged about $100,000 a year.

Fuller told the Chronicle earlier this month that he and Johnson took in salaries of $143,750 this year and back compensation of $36,000, the result of board members not having paid them their full salaries in prior years.

Despite the C.O.R.E. Academy's shortcomings, students and parents said Thursday night that the school helped them succeed when they otherwise would have been lost on a larger campus.

Shawntae Wilson, whose two students attended C.O.R.E., said the school's caring teachers helped reignite her children's love of learning.

"I really love this school. The main reason why is because my kids leave in the morning and they're excited, and in evening when they come home they're excited," Wilson said. "They'll come home talking about assignments and what they learned in school."

Savannah Nicole Parrish, who would have been a rising senior at C.O.R.E. Academy, said she came to the school a year behind but will now graduate on time thanks to help from the school's teachers and administrators.

"I didn't have the confidence in myself, but C.O.R.E. believed in me and taught me how to believe in myself," Parrish said. "They saw the potential in me I never knew that I had. It showed me my potential and changed my life forever."

Trustees Jolanda Jones and Rhonda Skillern-Jones said the testimony from teachers, parents and students made them change their votes in favor of keeping the school open. They and Board President Wanda Adams voted to keep the school open while Trustees Anna Eastman, Diana Davila, Anne Sung and Holly Flynn Vilaseca voted against it. Trustee Mike Lunceford was absent during the vote.
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A Texas middle school assistant principal is defending himself from claims that his new children's book uses an Alt-Right hate symbol.

Eric Hauser with Denton ISD recently self-published "The Adventures of Pepe and Pede," a children's book with conservative themes. According to its Amazon description it's "an adventurous tale for all ages packed with patriotic prominence."

Hauser's book features "Pepe the frog," an internet meme that in recent years has been co-opted by the Alt-Right.

"Pede," the other character in Hauser's book, is a centipede, a term that some Donald Trump supporters refer to themselves as.

THE LATEST: Organizer of 'pro-white' rally disavows violence

While Pepe the frog's origins are innocent  a comic series started by artist Matt Furie turned meme  its newfound use in certain dark circles has resulted in it being labeled as a hate symbol by The Anti-Defamation League.

Hauser told The Dallas Morning News he didn't know the character was a hate symbol until after the book came out.

"I think people will take that and then just assume negative, just assume bad things," Hauser told the paper. "That's unfortunate. I hate that."

BACKLASH: Police official resigns after posting racist meme

Mario Zavala, a spokesperson for Denton ISD, said the school district is aware of Hauser's new book.

"The book was written on his own time, using his own resources and is not affiliated with our curriculum or instruction," Zavala said in a statement. "Mr. Hauser's book and its contents belong to him and are not tied to our district."

Click through above to learn more about the Alt-Right movement in the U.S.
AUSTIN -- The Texas Legislature labors into the 26th day of the 30-day special session on Saturday with more than three-quarters of Gov. Greg Abbott's priority items still unresolved.

Lawmakers have sent Abbott just three of the 20 items he demanded they pass during the special session. The session is set to end on Wednesday.

During a rare Saturday session, the Senate is expected to meet at 5 p.m. to take up legislation on property tax reform and school finance reform.

Also on tap: insurance coverage for abortion.

The Texas House earlier this week passed House Bill 214, which bars abortion coverage on the health exchanges and private insurance. The Texas Senate passed identical legislation weeks earlier. Now it is essentially one vote in the full Senate from heading to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature, and that's likely to happen Saturday evening.

The House, meanwhile, goes into session at 3 p.m. to take up similar property tax reforms and a bill to clarify the state's do-not-resuscitate orders at medical facilities - a bill that has already passed the Senate once.

The House also expects to give final approval to a bill granting voters in highly populated counties power to reject a city's effort to annex their community.

So far, Abbott has signed three of four bills the Legislature has passed into law, with a fourth one expected to be signed on Saturday.

He has signed two bills that assure the Texas Medical Commission and four other state agencies continue to operate and a bill increasing penalties for mail-in ballot fraud.

On Saturday he is expected to sign a bill increasing reporting requirements for abortion facilities.

Check back for updates throughout the day on Saturday and follow Houston Chronicle reporters @jeremyswallace and @andreazelinski on Twitter for updates.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
Trump on North Korean Threat: Military Solutions Are 'Locked and Loaded'

Does it really take a brain trust to know that you don't taunt, goad and dare a bully? Li'l Kim is a bully - let him have his braggadoccio - I'm sure Trump understand that character trait well enough - and it will go just go along as it has. If you push his buttons, he's just off his rocker enough to start something. Now, I'm not afraid of losing a war with NOrth Korea -it's clear we would win. But do want to?! We don't WANT to have a nuclear war with ANYBODY winning do we?

Why doesn't our loudmouth-in-chief just shut the **** up?!

President Trump issued yet another warning to North Korea Friday morning, saying the U.S.s military solutions are ready to respond.Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely, the president tweeted. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!The president on Thursday told reporters his threat of fire and fury may not have sent a clear enough message.Maybe it wasnt tough enough, he said at his Bedminster golf club."I will tell you this: if North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack  of anybody that we love or we represent, or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous," Trump warned. "And they should be, because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."The president said his threats are "not a dare.""[Kim Jong Un is] not going to go around threatening Guam and hes not going to threaten the United States and hes not going to threaten Japan and hes not going to threaten South Korea. Thats not a dare, as you say. That is a statement of fact," Trump said.Defense Secretary Jame Mattis also issued a stark warning to North Korea, saying in a statement that the DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.North Korea has vowed to launch four intermediate-range missiles that would land in the sea around Guam.
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Mumbai, Aug 12 : Actress Shenaz Treasury has turned down the offer to visit Pakistan for an event.Shenaz, who had portrayed a Pakistani character in the 2017 American romantic comedy film "The Big Sick", was approached to visit Pakistan for an event. However, looking at the current situation between India and Pakistan, the actress decided against going.



"As of now I am not taking events in Pakistan and yes I have turned down the offer since I feel it is not the right time," Shenaz said in a statement.The actress, who is currently in the Maldives, will soon return to India to promote her upcoming release "Kaalakaandi".
You mean a SUCCESSFUL MAN that does not speak with Poise verses a Person that speaks well that has done nothing with their life except marry a man that Screwed around on her.



What has Clinton accomplished



1. She was fired for ethics violation in the prosecution of RICHARD NIXON. How do you out do Nixon on ethics violaions (classic)

2. She Went to work for a Law firm in Arkansas left it with a mess in ethics issues due to her over billing.

3. She was appointed Chair of the Healthcare Taskforce that was shut down because of ETHICS violations (Violated Sunshine laws).

4. Elected Senator and not one bill from her office was ever put to a vote, Then she had the gumption to claim she was the author of Abrams Veterans benefit bill. (Stolen Valor)

5 As Sec. of State she left the state department Eyeball deep in Ethics violation. Emailing Classified data, Keeping Classified data on an unsecured Server which the NY Times reported may have been hacked as many as 6 times, destroyed evidence that was ordered to be turned over to the senate, Distruction of dozens of blackberries and Cell phones. (they forgot the copying of the data to the computer of a sex offender (not her husband's) but her lover's husband's computer.



That is the Clinton accomplishments.



Trump had failures but he had many many more successes.
AVON, Ohio - A belated yet welcome hero's recognition awaited Jason Rubinski at Cleveland Clinic Avon Pointe Family Health Center for his efforts that helped to save a baby's life.

Rubinski was thanked for his efforts on August 12 by staff at the health center, as well as being presented with a proclamation from Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen. Avon Fire Chief Frank Root and Police Chief Richard Bosley were also present for the presentation.

Rubinski, of Lakewood, was driving on the Nagel Road ramp in May of 2016 when he saw a woman trying to flag someone down. "She was obviously in distress," said Rubinski. "I saw the baby, the baby's eyes looked (strange), so I put them in my car and then tried to think of where to take them."

As the lead developer at Kuno Creative, an inbound marketing agency which is located in Avon Pointe as well, Rubinski, 31, said he realized he sees kids all the time going in and out of the Cleveland Clinic branch located there. Fortunately, the pediatrics department is only a few feet from the front door.

"So I dropped them off there," Rubinski said. "They rushed them in and I came back later and introduced myself."

An employee at the health center, who declined to be identified, said she believes, at the time, the baby appeared to be less than six months old.

Mollie Colan, a patient service representative who was present at the time the baby was brought in, said to the group assembled for the presentation, "We were able to rush the baby into the back and give the life-saving care that was needed. We want to thank Jason for his efforts; he most likely saved this child's life. On behalf of the Avon Pointe team, thank you very much."

Jensen presented Rubinski with the proclamation stating that he is being recognized for "...outstanding effort in the act of saving the life of a child." The proclamation further states "...the child has made a full and complete recovery."

Jensen said some mayors give out many proclamations, and that he is asked numerous times for them, but during his time in office he has presented only three proclamations. Rubinski's is now the fourth.

Rubinski was all smiles but made no statement. His father, Dan, of Strongsville, later said, "He made me really proud."

Dan Rubinski described his son as a kind and caring young man with a lot of empathy for others as he volunteered at a nursing home when he was in high school. "He would take them their food trays and then sit and talk with them and listen to them," said Dan.

Reflections of those qualities even show up on the Kuno Creative web site where the first two of the three words used to describe Jason are "empathetic" and "sincere."
The Jefferson City Council made an abrupt about-face on a proposed 15-acre annexation, voting to approve the matter during its meeting on Thursday night.

The vote was 3-1 with Dave Beyerl, Michael Myers and Walt Perry in favor, and Stan Neal against. Brad Cheney was absent from the meeting.

It was pretty surprising, said Greg Ellis, interim city manager/recorder.

During its previous meeting on Aug. 3, the council deadlocked with a 3-3 vote on the annexation, which resulted in a denial.

The council initially considered findings for denial on Thursday, but those were defeated with a 3-1 vote. And then Beyerl requested another vote on the annexation itself.

If you make a motion and you lose by a majority vote, you cant bring it back up. If its a tie vote, you can, Ellis said.

The annexation will be before the council again during its Aug. 24 meeting, as the government body will hear the first reading of an ordinance to affirm the decision and rezone the land to residential.

And, as before, the matter could be far from over.

This doesnt mean that it cant be appealed. Those opposing it may continue to do so, Ellis said.

The annexation was initially approved by the council in August 2016, but it was before the council again due to an Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals case.

Mayor Cyndie Hightower, Neal and Cheney were part of the group that filed the appeal, as well as a group that filed a Marion County Circuit Court lawsuit about the right to vote on annexations. They have since distanced themselves from those organizations.

Hightower, Neal and Cheney are subjects of a recall effort. Petition signatures were ratified Thursday morning and the recall will be on an upcoming election, which must be completed by Sept. 19.

Neal and Cheney and former councilor Bob Burns also were under investigation by the state for ethics violations connected to their actions regarding the annexation. Burns resigned from the council in late July because he is moving from the community.

Edna Campau, a former mayor and city councilor, was appointed to the council to fill Burns' position with a 3-1 vote during Thursdays meeting.

Beyerl, Myers and Perry voted in favor, and Neal voted against Campaus appointment.

The council thought they were all great candidates, Ellis said.

Campau, in particular, won praise for her experience and involvement in the community, he added.
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A telecoms engineer who turned up for a job at the back of town centre shop was shocked to discover a backyard full of needles, wrappers and used condoms.

When Openreach engineer Mikey Palmer turned up to fix a cable on a pole at the back of Poundstretcher on Market Jew Street, Penzance, he discovered wet clothing dotted around including a white hospital gown.

But, more worrying, among the garments were many citric acid wrappers, sealed needles, condoms, syringes, used needles, metal bowls with what seemed to be drug residue still in, bags and alcohol bottles.

He said there were so many needles he could not reach the telephone pole safely without first having to clear up the drug mess.

He contacted the manager of the shop, but was told it could take seven days to clear up the mess.

He said: "There were needles left on the floor in the public eye and anyone could be in danger.

"A customer was left without a telephone service. So I got gloved up and using my metal bin cleared up all the needles and managed to get to the pole I needed to climb.

"I counted at least 15 used needles. I then called Cornwall Council who were very helpful and sent around a team to collect the sharps after I finished."

The dad of five added: "I feel the staff in Poundstrecher where very unhelpful and basically did not think about what impact this could have on the public especially if any children were to walk up to the area at the back of their shop.

"As a dad of five I feel very concerned because I've seen needles in other places in Penzance. The town is becoming worse for loose needles from drug addicts."

It is not the first time Penzance has hit the headline for its drugs problem.

In January a resident discovered the floor of a public toilet covered with used needles and drugs paraphernalia.

It is thought that someone broke into the sharps box inside the public toilets by St John's Hall and as a result scores of needles and other litter was spilled across the floor, leading to a very dangerous HIV risk.

At the time, town and county councillor Tim Dwelly said: "I was contacted by a concerned resident on the weekend when council offices are closed,"said Penzance East Councillor Tim Dwelly.

"I immediately called Cornwall Council's emergency service and ensured that the items were removed and the area made safe. The response was fast, which was reassuring.

"However, serious questions need to be asked about the security of the sharps box at these toilets."
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Mindless vandals have 'attacked' Cornish language signs on First Kernow buses and people say they are 'anti-Cornish racist offenders'.

Pictures of the damage have been shared online. They show small signs with Cornish words, put at the back of a bus' seats, being defaced with black ink.

The incident has been reported by several people, including on the "I pledge to become more fluent in Cornish" Facebook page. An Internet user even commented that another bus he travelled on the week before had all the stickers removed.

The episode of vandalism has been described as a "racially aggravated criminal damage" by "anti-Cornish racist offenders" by Cornish group Kernow Matters To Us (KMTU).

In a statement, it said: "Our organisation notes with sadness the mindless vandalism which has occurred on First Kernow buses including the popular open-topped St Ives to Land's End service.

"When First Bus introduced the Cornish language in signs on the buses, this development was met with widespread praise and gratitude. Several members of our organisation, many of whom speak Cornish, congratulated First.

"Local residents and visitors alike welcomed this open celebration of Cornwall's diversity and its resurgent indigenous language, which has been formally and legally recognised since 2002.

"We are very saddened indeed to receive reports of the Cornish language phrases on the vehicles being attacked by anti-Cornish activists with marker pens used to erase the Cornish words and with some signs being forcibly removed by offenders.

"This matter has been actively discussed on social media with the usual hateful anti-Cornish remarks made by a few individuals. We believe these actions represent racially aggravated criminal damage and condemn them wholeheartedly."

KMTU said it was now drawing the issue to the attention of the police, the Equality and Diversity Advisor at Cornwall Council and the Council of Europe and is considering offering a reward for information.

It added: "We would add that following due consideration our Steering Group may offer a cash reward for information leading to the identification of such anti-Cornish racist offenders to the proper authorities."

A First Kernow spokesperson said the offenders were attempting to spoil positive engagement with the community.

"We were very disappointed when we discovered that the Cornish language signs on the seats of our new Tinner buses had been vandalised," the spokesman said.

"The reaction that we have had from the community has been fantastic since we introduced this feature earlier this year, as well as the famous Cornish phrases on the back of our vehicles. We've always tried to positively engage with the community and it's disappointing that the actions of some mindless individuals has attempted to spoil this.

"However, this has not deterred us. We will be getting the buses repaired soon and we will continue to look for new ways to put the spotlight on Cornwall's fantastic heritage."
LEBANON  The Lebanon Community School District will convene a committee to explore the possibility of collecting a construction excise tax to raise money for capital projects.

Board members voted 4-0 on Thursday, with Mike Martin absent, to form a committee of two board members, two district officials including Business Director Linda Darling, two representatives from City Hall and three Lebanon residents to study the issue and provide a recommendation to the school district. The timeline for that recommendation is to be about six months out.

Construction excise taxes became part of Oregon law in 2007. They allow school districts to enter into intergovernmental agreements with taxing entities  both Linn County and the city of Lebanon, in Lebanon's case  to collect a tax on certain new developments or on additional square footage added to certain developments.

The current maximum that can be collected is $1.26 per square foot for residential construction and 63 cents per square foot for nonresidential construction (capped at $31,400). Private schools, public buildings, hospitals, low-income housing, churches, senior care facilities and agricultural buildings are exempt.

Money raised through the taxes can be used only for capital projects such as purchasing land, constructing a building or buying furnishings and other tangible property. It can't be used for salaries or building maintenance.

In the mid-valley, Albany, Corvallis and Monroe school districts all collect construction excise taxes. Lebanon board member Russ McUne said hearing about Albany's use of the tax prompted him to bring up the question.

Darling told board members she estimates the district could raise about $250,000 a year. The money can grow from year to year and does not have to be spent at any particular time.

Members of the Lebanon City Council discussed the potential for the school district to move forward with the tax at Wednesday's meeting of the council and had several concerns, City Manager Gary Marks told the Lebanon board.

Lebanon doesn't have a lot of buildable residential land right now, Marks said. Last year, which he called a good year, saw 50 new homes built. The city doesn't track development by square footage, he said, but assuming each was 1,400 square feet, the school district would gather about $88,000, which he noted doesn't jibe with the figure Darling gave.

"I don't see that, at least in the short term," he said.

Councilors also are concerned a new tax could hurt economic vitality, possibly even future school bond requests. They also didn't like the idea that city employees, as the tax collectors, would feel the brunt of taxpayers' wrath.

However, Marks said, the city values the school district's role in the community and welcomes a continued dialogue "that addresses the best interests of our community."

Board members said even small amounts could go a long way in making school improvements and said better buildings helps the city as a whole. They agreed studying the subject could bring more clarity.
Search teams on Saturday morning found a missing hiker they'd been looking for since Wednesday evening near Parish Lake.

A ground crew located Jerry Walter Thomas, 70, of Prineville, at approximately 8:55 a.m. near Daly Lake, about three miles from the Parish Lake trailhead.

Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley said that Thomas was wet and hungry but overall in good spirits and health. After taking a hot shower and being reunited with his wife, a registered nurse, Thomas declined medical treatment.

"This is a testament to the teamwork, dedication and tenacity of all involved," Riley said, in thanking all the agencies and personnel who participated in the search. "Being part of a life-saving mission such as this is one of the most satisfying rewards we can experience in law enforcement. The successful outcome of this search would not have been possible if not for the services and dedication of numerous volunteers and agencies."

More than 80 SAR members from numerous agencies were deployed Saturday morning alone. The Marion, Lane, Jefferson, Benton, and Deschutes County sheriff's offices, as well as Corvallis Mountain Rescue and the Oregon Army National Guard, participated in the operation.

Thomas had been picking huckleberries with friends Wednesday, but he failed to return to camp at about 1:30 p.m. After searching for some time themselves, Thomas' friends called 9-1-1 at 5:20 p.m. Members of Linn County Search and Rescue responded with a team of 15 personnel and began searching, continuing their efforts through the night.
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NEW MILFORD  At the end of the gravel driveway to Candlelight Farms Airport, Nic Marsicano anxiously awaited word on the fate of his best friend, Anthony Duke Morasco.

Marsicano had heard a small plane crashed Friday morning, and Duke likely was in it.

Hows Duke doing? he asked each passing emergency responder. Hows Duke doing?

Nobodys doing that well up there, one man answered. The rest just drove past.

Marsicano soon learned Morasco  a flight instructor and his best friend of more than 30 years  had died in a crash that seriously injured two others.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, a Cessna 172, departed Danbury Municipal Airport around 8:30 a.m. and crashed about an hour later in a grassy area a quarter-mile from the New Milford runway.

New Milford Police Sgt. Lee Grabner said the flight appeared to be a training flight. He said one of the victims, though badly disoriented, was able to walk several hundred yards to a nearby home to report the crash, and was eventually taken by ambulance to Danbury Hospital.

Police found two people still trapped inside the plane. The pilot, a woman who has yet to be identified, was extricated and airlifted to Hartford Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The other person was the flight instructor, Grabner said.

Police have yet to release any of the victims identities, saying family members are still being notified. But friends of Morasco said he was the man who died.

Marsicano, who had known Morasco since the two were students at Western Connecticut State University, said he was an experienced pilot who had flown for nearly four decades and had occasionally given flight lessons.

Marsicano, who had flown with Morasco many times, said his friend was a kind man and a phenomenal pilot whose aspiration was to fly for a living.

He was one of those guys who would do anything for you, Marsicano said. I will miss him greatly every day.

When Morasco wasnt flying, he was a well-liked, hard-working maintenance worker for New Milford, said former Mayor Patricia Murphy.

He was one of those people who could fix anything, she said. Just a very bright guy.

Morasco worked for the town for two stints totaling about 15 years, Murphy added. He later worked for a rehabiliation center in town.

The planes registration number, obtained through photos of the crash scene, shows the plane is owned by Arrow Aviation, a Danbury flight-training school that owned a plane involved in a fatal crash nearly two weeks ago.

Mark Stern, of Redding, died from injuries he sustained after crashing a rented Cessna near Danbury Municipal Airport on July 30. Two passengers were injured in the crash, which is still under investigation by federal authorities.

Preliminary results of that investigation showed Sterns plane began to lose altitude shortly after takeoff and crashed in a wooded area near the runway. The accident happened just two weeks after the plane had received its annual inspection.

A woman who answered the phone at Arrow Aviation on Friday declined to comment on either crash.

Were not able to talk about it, she said.

The Cessna 172 is a single-engine four-seater and is one of the most popular aircraft in general aviation for flight instruction.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday he is concerned by the crashes.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family and those injured in this tragic crash, Blumenthal said in a news release. I am alarmed by the number of small plane crashes that have claimed lives in recent months and years in Connecticut.

For more aerial photographs of the crash, check out NBC Connecticut.

Staff writers Dirk Perrefort and Mackenzie Rigg contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  President Trump could have been talking about Connecticut when he suggested opportunity seekers in depressed upstate New York move to Wisconsin, where the president was ballyhooing a China-based Foxconn pledge to open a $10 billion factory employing 3,000.

Its no accident the Republican president likes to lob barbs at Democratic-led states like Connecticut that pursue an advanced-tech brainpower paradigm for job development  compared to GOP-led states like Wisconsin and Alabama that prefer robotic plants yielding bigger numbers of jobs that require fewer skills.

And the flip-side of the Trump strategy is opposition to trade deals, scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the pledge to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump blames badly negotiated trade deals for rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, as he put it in his inauguration speech.

Does Trumps brand of economic activism portend an abrupt turnaround for Connecticut, parts of which have suffered decades of manufacturing losses that predate trade deals? Is it a brushing away of cobwebs or, if fully implemented, could it damage the fragile recovery Connecticut has found in high-tech defense contracting, bio-tech, financial services and the like?

Making an adjustment

There is little doubt that trade deals have drained away jobs in Connecticut. NAFTA took away more than 7,600 jobs in the state between 1994 and 2010, according to data compiled by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

And Chinas admission to the World Trade Organization in 2001 took away 38,400 jobs in Connecticut through 2015, according to EPI.

But boosters of the new advanced-tech era in Connecticut say that at this point, the benefits of globalization and trade deals have reversed the downward spiral caused by the decline and fall of the traditional industrial economy.

What was made in Bridgeport in 1950s and 1960s has no place in the economy today, said Chris Bruhl, president and CEO of the Business Council of Fairfield County. Loss of livelihood is not pleasant for the people who experience it and it is the responsibility of government to help the transition, but you cant avoid change. Our economy has grown through trade, not been victimized by it.

The Business Roundtable and even Trumps own Department of Commerce produce copious statistics aimed at showing the benefits of free trade to the Connecticut economy: Trade supports 518,300 jobs in Connecticut and exports overseas from the state are valued at $24.8 billion.

Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk were the states No. 2 exporting zone in 2015 (behind Hartford), at $9.2 billion. New Haven and New Milford were No.4, at $1.8 billion.

Close to 50,000 jobs in Connecticut are with foreign-owned companies, including ones based in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany and Japan.

Among them is Dutch-owned ASML, which employs 1,100 in Wilton making machines that create circuitry on chips and displays for electronic devices.

But is that enough to offset the tremendous job losses in Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford and elsewhere in the state?

A trade deal can be signed and a facility can move out much faster than workers can adapt, said Doug Sutherland of Trumbull, chairman of Democracy for America-Fairfield County, a chapter of the organization created by onetime Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean. It doesnt get written about, but those people never will recover. Theyve been left behind.

Pushing added value

Those who see a path forward for Connecticut in a globalized world economy insist that whatever occurred in the past, its too late to turn back now.

Connecticut has been the nations industrial cradle for centuries. Its armaments powered the Union forces in the Civil War. Soldiers and Marines in both world wars fired ammo made in Connecticut.

But now, we compete based on value we can add, said Bruhl. Its never about cost, its about the cost-value equation  its the relation between cost and value delivered. A sub costs more than rowboat, but they both involve the ocean.

Connecticuts calling card continues to be its well-educated, skilled workforce, Bruhl said. Thats our secret sauce.

The jury is still out on what a rewrite of NAFTA or any other existing trade deal would to do to export-minded or foreign-owned businesses in Connecticut.

We make investment decisions with the long term in mind, and continue to do so, said Brittney Wolff Zatezalo, spokeswoman for ASML. Our Wilton operations play a crucial role in the global success of the company.

Even Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., who opposed fast-tracking the now dormant Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, says the architecture of trade and exports is too engrained in Connecticuts economy to ignore.

Globalization is happening, she said in an interview. One of biggest things we need to do is make sure our people have skills for the jobs of future and make sure we have policies that promote that.

Connecticuts place in the world economy is not going away, Esty said. Its here to stay.

dan@hearstdc.com
Hey, check out those yahoos in Florida! They're censoring textbooks!

My fellow progressives have worked themselves into a good liberal lather over a new law in Florida that allows citizens to object to books assigned in the public schools. Promoted by conservative activists, who accused textbooks of fostering left-wing propaganda, the measure lets anyone in the state raise concerns about teaching materials and entitles those who object to a public hearing of their complaints.

Liberals immediately raised the specter of censorship, worrying that schools would purge information about sex, evolution and climate change. But we should applaud rather than resist the popular scrutiny of textbooks, which has been a force for social justice and equality in other key moments in our past.

If you think otherwise, I've got three words for you: Little Black Sambo.

Remember Sambo? He was the jolly, ostensibly Indian figure who dotted the pages of elementary school readers and spellers for much of American history. But he was really a slave, and a happy one at that. Sambo was racist shorthand for a docile and childlike African-American who cheerily accepted his subjugation to the white master.

He's gone from our textbooks, thankfully. And the reason is - you guessed it - citizen pressure on the schools. Starting in the 1940s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other African-American organizations issued a steady drumbeat of protest against Little Black Sambo and other types of racism in textbooks.

History books valorized the Ku Klux Klan. Music books featured the original lyrics of Stephen Foster songs, including the N-word and darky. Geography books described Africa as a dark continent of barbarity and superstition.

And in New York City, home to millions of Jews and African-Americans, schools taught an anti-Semitic and racist play called The King's English. It told the story of a boat shipwrecked on an island where a black cannibal - Kawa Koo - threatens to eat all 20 of the survivors.

Eventually, Kawa agrees to let a single passenger survive. The boat's white captain, Ripley O'Rannigan, decides to select the person who speaks the best English. That draws gripes from the boat's lone Jewish passenger, Perlheimer, who talks with both hands as he denounces Ripley.

Inklish? Vat for I speak Inklish? Perlheimer asks. I read Yiddische papers. I talk Yiddish mit mein friends. Ripley cuts him off. You may have him, Kawa! he tells the cannibal. America doesn't want him. He's indigestible.

Black and Jewish protests led the New York schools to drop The King's English in the early 1950s. Little Black Sambo held on a bit longer, but he mostly disappeared from our textbooks by the late 1960s.

Does that mean racism has been purged from school materials? Of course not. Just two years ago, a Texas citizen discovered that her son's history textbook described slaves as workers who came from Africa to America to work on agricultural plantations.

She objected, of course, and the publisher agreed to revise the offending passage. And that provided an object lesson in American democracy, which is always enhanced by citizen participation.

That doesn't mean every objection is valid, of course. Supporters of the new Florida law took aim at biology books describing evolution and human-made climate change, although both concepts are embraced by almost every informed scientist. Others condemned history textbooks that allegedly praised government services at the expense of individual initiative and self-reliance.

But the answer to this challenge isn't to cut off citizen challenges, which would also prevent complaints of the sort that the Texas mom made. Nor should we squawk about censorship, which is the ultimate red herring in these debates. I'm glad Little Black Sambo and The King's English were censored, if by that term we mean their removal from the official curriculum. Aren't you?

Instead, we liberals should use this occasion to call for more public engagement - not less - in school affairs. The Florida measure specifies that school boards must conduct an open public hearing about every citizen complaint before an unbiased and qualified hearing officer.

There's our opening. When conservatives move to eliminate material about climate change or evolution, we need to flood these hearings to defend it. We've got knowledge on our side, just as we did in the case of Little Black Sambo. Depictions of slavery as a benign institution weren't simply racist or offensive, although they were surely that. They were false.

Condemning the new Florida measure, one Democratic state legislator warned it could let anybody come in and complain about . the history of slavery, or the fact that maybe we shouldn't have evolution in our textbooks. He was right, but it would be wrong to prevent that.

If you don't like what the schools are teaching, raise your voice. In America, that's the only way we get closer to the truth.

Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author (with Emily Robertson) of The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Email: jlzimm@aol.com.
11 Agustos 2017 Cuma, 15:28

CANAN COSKUN



The holding of the first hearing in the trial brought against our newspapers columnists and managers and in which journalism is in the dock has commenced at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 27. Following Kadri Gursels defence at the hearing, our papers Executive Board Chair Akn Atalay followed suit.

There follows the full text of the defence by Atalay, who says, This prosecution has two mutually complementary aims. The first is to take over Cumhuriyet newspaper or silence it. The second is to show the end that awaits newspapers and journalists who contemplate or entertain the idea of publishing news undesired by the political rulership and articles that will not be to its liking.

I. Introduction

I will set out by saying at the very beginning what I will say at the very end. The investigation targeting Cumhuriyet newspaper is nothing but a legal murder. It is a threat and attack against the person of Cumhuriyet newspaper aimed at all newspapers and journalists. When the whys and wherefores of the launching of the investigation, its timing, the things done over the investigation, the indictment that emerged and the thousands of annexed pages most of which are repetition, the investigations basic prosecutor, the witnesses and experts are taken in conjunction, a very clear picture emerges:

This prosecution has two mutually complementary aims. The first is to take over Cumhuriyet newspaper or silence it. The second is to show the end that awaits newspapers and journalists who contemplate or entertain the idea of publishing news undesired by the political rulership and articles that will not be to its liking.

To spread the fear, Is there anything those cannot do to us who can do this to this countrys oldest and longest established newspaper that was named by Ataturk, is of the same age as the Republic of Turkey and has constantly defended its values and achievements? and to deliver this message in the starkest manner. I wish to stress that not the slightest regret or fear has been instilled in me by the severe injustice and wrong we have suffered thanks to being Cumhuriyet newspapers managers. I am actually of the view that those responsible for this injustice are undergoing great fear. They cannot intimidate us with oppression, threat and imprisonment. Our will, resolve and determination to conduct journalistic activity in accordance with the ethical demands of the profession, without distorting events, and objectively, factually and fairly is intact. That is, Cumhuriyet newspaper will not be afraid, give in and surrender. For, it has no business, relationship, connection or adjunction with illegal formations, terrorism, terrorist organisations and gangs and brotherhoods that have ensconced themselves within the state. This newspapers sole activity is journalism that it conducts in the legitimate and legal sphere.

This newspaper that has fallen victim to an operation with the wish to secure its surrender, break its resistance and force it to fold is no ordinary paper. It is this countrys longest established and most venerable newspaper, and numbers among its most esteemed newspapers. This paper has a passion for independence and freedom in its roots, history and even its genes. It has paid heavy prices for the sake of these values and journalism. Out of the responsibility imposed by this history and legacy, those working on this paper will not compromise on journalistic values and will not do homage to, bow before or surrender to anyone. It is known that, thanks to this papers dogged insistence on informing the people and imparting the truth to the public, our columnists and employees have been slaughtered, subjected to assassinations, murders, attempted lynchings and imprisonment, but it still has not surrendered. This paper is Cumhuriyet newspaper and is a monument to journalism.

Those tens of journalists senior to us who were our predecessors, we who have been imprisoned for about nine months, occupied important positions in this papers past and that of the Turkish press. How can we forget them? This paper, today just as in the past, has suffered enmity, threat and intimidation, embargo and oppression from the political rulership. Those holders of power and oppressors have all become history. But this paper is still firmly on its feet. If there are those who think that an honourable entity possessing and imbued with a rich historical heritage like Cumhuriyet newspaper can have its resistance broken and will bow to fear and oppression and compromise on journalism, they are mistaken. We have the following to say to those who think we will give in: We will stand firm, will not give in and will not bow until we have taken our final breath and until we have fulfilled our duty without ever besmirching the profession of journalism, the professions ethical principles and the well-earned respect and honourable past of the entity we represent.

Before moving on to countering the indictment and the acts imputed and the charges raised against us in the indictment, I will pass comment on certain matters relating to the outset of the proceedings. There are things that I wish to comment on and that I have perceived to be important in the investigation stage of this case. It is known that the first stage of a case is investigation and the second is prosecution. These two stages are mutually complementary stages that are not independent of one another. However soundly and productively the investigation stage is conducted, the prosecution stage that starts with the acceptance of the indictment by the court will proceed that much more soundly, speedily and fairly. When the opposite prevails, this means that all flaws and errors within the investigation process will infect the prosecution stage and will negatively impact on that process. When account is taken of what was done and what happened in the investigation stage of this case, it will be clearly apparent just how contrary to reason, logic, fairness, justice, the law and conscience the prosecution is.

Concerning the investigation process

There is a prosecutors record in binder number 30; its name is EX OFFICIO INVESTIGATION COMMENCEMENT RECORD. According to this record, which is undersigned by Republic Prosecutor Murat Inam and clerk Sevgi Karadeniz, the process that has lasted until we were brought before the court today and caused us to be detained for nearly nine months started on 18 August 2016. The following is entered in the record:

Since there was mention in columns and news reports appearing in certain press and publishing outlets that Cumhuriyet newspaper had been taken over by the PKK and FETO/PDY terrorist organisations and the newspaper was working in accordance with these organisations interests, a coup attempt was staged on 15 July 2016 in which there was a bid by a group in military attire to overthrow the government, the group that attempted the coup named itself the peace at home council, an article entitled Peace in the world, so at home what? was published in Aydn Engins column in Cumhuriyet newspapers 13 July 2016 edition, there exists suspicion that Cumhuriyet newspapers managers have connections with the PKK and FETO/PDY armed terrorist organisations and the opinion was reached that there was adequate suspicion to launch this investigation, an ex officio investigation was commenced. 18 August 2016.

The first thing that Republic Prosecutor Murat Inam did on 18 August 2016 on which he launched the ex officio investigation was to send a letter to the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (FCIB). In this instruction letter, request was made for a financial report starting from 1 January 2013 showing the financial relationships between natural and juristic persons under investigation in relation to the PKK and FETO/PDY and a total of eleven people, being the board of directors members (five people) and second-degree authorised signatories (four people) of Yenigun Haber Ajans Basn ve Yaynclk AS which publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper, two editors-in-chief who had served over this period (one of them was at the same time a board of directors member) and a person named as an editor. The next investigatory procedure saw him take a witness statement on 22 August 2016, the first Monday following the weekend. The witnesss name was Cem Kucuk. Two days after this, the Istanbul Police Directorate Anti-Terrorism Branch, serving as the judicial police, was notified in writing of the investigation. It is curious and noteworthy that according to the file a hasty witness statement was procured as soon as the investigation had been launched. The launching of the investigation by the prosecutor relying on the said persons testimony gives an adequate idea of the seriousness, quality and subsequent fate of the investigation. There will be a general assessment of mine regarding witness statements in later sections of my comments. But the need arises just now to point out the difference in formal terms of this witness statement from the others, because, until 31 October on which the search, seizure, apprehension and arrest operations were carried out, no need was felt to hear any other witnesses following this person whose statement was obtained on the fifth day after the investigation was launched. This means that Cem Kucuk was deemed to be an acceptable and sufficient witness. All his statements conflict with the material truth and facts. An investigation stage that started with just such a witness is proceeding with such a lack of merit, seriousness and quality. How? Let me explain. But, first, I wish to point to an important consideration. The aim in penal proceedings is to investigate the truth to reach the truth. If we seek the truth in fact and not in fiction we have a chance of reaching it. If we take personal interpretations and analyses, rumour, speculation and guesses as data in place of facts, there is no chance of reaching the truth. Consequently, I will endeavour to base my own answers to an assertion that has entirely been dreamt up on concrete documents, corroborated information and actually occurring facts.

The investigating prosecutor

The name of the prosecutor who is conducting the terrorism investigation targeting the newspaper through the person of Cumhuriyet newspapers managers is Murat Inam. We learnt on the day following that on which the papers managers had been arrested at his behest that the prosecutor himself was standing trial at Penal Chamber No 16 of the Court of Cassation for committing a good many terrorism-related crimes, not least the charge of FETO membership. Apart from one aggravated life and one life sentence, custodial sentences running into the tens of years for other crimes are sought against him. Moreover, given the opinion as to the existence of strong suspicion of guilt that he committed these crimes and grounds for detention, he has been subjected to pre-trial release conditions.

Can you imagine a venerable newspaper having the defence of the principle of secularism at the heart of its editorial policy being imputed with having acted on behalf of FETO, which sprang up as a religious-based brotherhood formation, gradually infiltrated the state and turned into a terrorist organisation? And also the person making this imputation as prosecutor himself being charged with FETO membership and facing the most serious penalty under our law?

According to Article 8 of the Judges and Prosecutors Law, numbering among the reasons barring a person from being a candidate judge or prosecutor is the opening of an investigation into that person for terrorism-related crimes. In the event of, not even prosecution, but an investigation being opened against you for these crimes, far from being a judge or prosecutor, you cannot even be a candidate. The same circumstance has been enumerated among the situations that act as a bar to serving as a lawyer in Article 5 of the Attorneyship Law. Under a decree with the force of law promulgated last month, being attached or adjunctive to an armed terrorist organisation now serves as a bar to both undergoing training as a notary and also acting as a mediator and expert witness.

As has been seen, we find ourselves defendants here on the strength of an indictment drafted at the conclusion of an investigation conducted by a prosecutor who cannot even be a candidate prosecutor due to the proceedings against him. It is not a procedure that a balanced, reasonable person in possession of their senses can easily perform to accuse a newspaper whose entire past and established practice is replete with proclamations and elucidations to the public and relevant persons about the danger and threat in relation to the democratic, secular, law-based state posed by this terrorist organisation of aiding the same organisation. It may well have been precisely for this reason that such an investigation could be commissioned from a prosecutor who stands charged of and is being prosecuted for membership of this terrorist organisation.

Taking stock as a whole of the witnesses he has heard and the identity, capacity and merit of the expert he has selected, I wish to say that the bringing before a court of such an indictment that has been manufactured out of such material and can only serve as an ironic text does disrespect to both the law and the court.

One is really left wondering at how so much irrationality, illogicality, irresponsibility and lack of seriousness could arise at the same instant. The assessment that I have managed to elicit from this entire process is as follows:

As you know, in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case law on the fair trial principle, there is an expression that it forever repeats: Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done. The proprietors of the Cumhuriyet newspaper investigation have, inspired by this expression of the European Court of Human Rights, lent their signature to a new expression. They say, when Cumhuriyet is involved, It does not suffice for injustice to be done; injustice must also be seen to be done so that it may be a warning to others.

Concerning the investigation process

There is a prosecutors record in binder number 30; its name is EX OFFICIO INVESTIGATION COMMENCEMENT RECORD. According to this record, which is undersigned by Republic Prosecutor Murat Inam and clerk Sevgi Karadeniz, the process that has lasted until we were brought before the court today and caused us to be detained for nearly nine months started on 18 August 2016. The following is entered in the record:

Since there was mention in columns and news reports appearing in certain press and publishing outlets that Cumhuriyet newspaper had been taken over by the PKK and FETO/PDY terrorist organisations and the newspaper was working in accordance with these organisations interests, a coup attempt was staged on 15 July 2016 in which there was a bid by a group in military attire to overthrow the government, the group that attempted the coup named itself the peace at home council, an article entitled Peace in the world, so at home what? was published in Aydn Engins column in Cumhuriyet newspapers 13 July 2016 edition, there exists suspicion that Cumhuriyet newspapers managers have connections with the PKK and FETO/PDY armed terrorist organisations and the opinion was reached that there was adequate suspicion to launch this investigation, an ex officio investigation was commenced. 18 August 2016.

The first thing that Republic Prosecutor Murat Inam did on 18 August 2016 on which he launched the ex officio investigation was to send a letter to the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (FCIB). In this instruction letter, request was made for a financial report starting from 1 January 2013 showing the financial relationships between natural and juristic persons under investigation in relation to the PKK and FETO/PDY and a total of eleven people, being the board of directors members (five people) and second-degree authorised signatories (four people) of Yenigun Haber Ajans Basn ve Yaynclk AS which publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper, two editors-in-chief who had served over this period (one of them was at the same time a board of directors member) and a person named as an editor. The next investigatory procedure saw him take a witness statement on 22 August 2016, the first Monday following the weekend. The witnesss name was Cem Kucuk. Two days after this, the Istanbul Police Directorate Anti-Terrorism Branch, serving as the judicial police, was notified in writing of the investigation. It is curious and noteworthy that according to the file a hasty witness statement was procured as soon as the investigation had been launched. The launching of the investigation by the prosecutor relying on the said persons testimony gives an adequate idea of the seriousness, quality and subsequent fate of the investigation. There will be a general assessment of mine regarding witness statements in later sections of my comments. But the need arises just now to point out the difference in formal terms of this witness statement from the others, because, until 31 October on which the search, seizure, apprehension and arrest operations were carried out, no need was felt to hear any other witnesses following this person whose statement was obtained on the fifth day after the investigation was launched. This means that Cem Kucuk was deemed to be an acceptable and sufficient witness. All his statements conflict with the material truth and facts. An investigation stage that started with just such a witness is proceeding with such a lack of merit, seriousness and quality. How? Let me explain. But, first, I wish to point to an important consideration. The aim in penal proceedings is to investigate the truth to reach the truth. If we seek the truth in fact and not in fiction we have a chance of reaching it. If we take personal interpretations and analyses, rumour, speculation and guesses as data in place of facts, there is no chance of reaching the truth. Consequently, I will endeavour to base my own answers to an assertion that has entirely been dreamt up on concrete documents, corroborated information and actually occurring facts.

The investigating prosecutor

The name of the prosecutor who is conducting the terrorism investigation targeting the newspaper through the person of Cumhuriyet newspapers managers is Murat Inam. We learnt on the day following that on which the papers managers had been arrested at his behest that the prosecutor himself was standing trial at Penal Chamber No 16 of the Court of Cassation for committing a good many terrorism-related crimes, not least the charge of FETO membership. Apart from one aggravated life and one life sentence, custodial sentences running into the tens of years for other crimes are sought against him. Moreover, given the opinion as to the existence of strong suspicion of guilt that he committed these crimes and grounds for detention, he has been subjected to pre-trial release conditions.

Can you imagine a venerable newspaper having the defence of the principle of secularism at the heart of its editorial policy being imputed with having acted on behalf of FETO, which sprang up as a religious-based brotherhood formation, gradually infiltrated the state and turned into a terrorist organisation? And also the person making this imputation as prosecutor himself being charged with FETO membership and facing the most serious penalty under our law?

According to Article 8 of the Judges and Prosecutors Law, numbering among the reasons barring a person from being a candidate judge or prosecutor is the opening of an investigation into that person for terrorism-related crimes. In the event of, not even prosecution, but an investigation being opened against you for these crimes, far from being a judge or prosecutor, you cannot even be a candidate. The same circumstance has been enumerated among the situations that act as a bar to serving as a lawyer in Article 5 of the Attorneyship Law. Under a decree with the force of law promulgated last month, being attached or adjunctive to an armed terrorist organisation now serves as a bar to both undergoing training as a notary and also acting as a mediator and expert witness.

As has been seen, we find ourselves defendants here on the strength of an indictment drafted at the conclusion of an investigation conducted by a prosecutor who cannot even be a candidate prosecutor due to the proceedings against him. It is not a procedure that a balanced, reasonable person in possession of their senses can easily perform to accuse a newspaper whose entire past and established practice is replete with proclamations and elucidations to the public and relevant persons about the danger and threat in relation to the democratic, secular, law-based state posed by this terrorist organisation of aiding the same organisation. It may well have been precisely for this reason that such an investigation could be commissioned from a prosecutor who stands charged of and is being prosecuted for membership of this terrorist organisation.

Taking stock as a whole of the witnesses he has heard and the identity, capacity and merit of the expert he has selected, I wish to say that the bringing before a court of such an indictment that has been manufactured out of such material and can only serve as an ironic text does disrespect to both the law and the court.

One is really left wondering at how so much irrationality, illogicality, irresponsibility and lack of seriousness could arise at the same instant. The assessment that I have managed to elicit from this entire process is as follows:

As you know, in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case law on the fair trial principle, there is an expression that it forever repeats: Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done. The proprietors of the Cumhuriyet newspaper investigation have, inspired by this expression of the European Court of Human Rights, lent their signature to a new expression. They say, when Cumhuriyet is involved, It does not suffice for injustice to be done; injustice must also be seen to be done so that it may be a warning to others.

II. What does the indictment charge us with?

As far as I can comprehend, given that they appear in the indictment in a pretty jumbled, dispersed and careless manner, we are accused of the following acts:

1- The taking over of the Cumhuriyet Foundation Management Board,

2- The changing of Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy,

3- The publishing of news and articles in Cumhuriyet newspaper that serve the purpose of the FETO, PKK and DHKP/C armed terrorist organisations, and

4- The selling below reasonably equivalent value of one immovable property each of Cumhuriyet Foundation and Yeni Gun Haber AS, which publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper, the transferring of funds from Cumhuriyet Foundation to Cumhuriyet newspaper, and the non-convening of a company general meeting in accordance with Article 376 of the Commercial Code even though more than half of Yeni Gun Haber ASs capital was uncovered.

The indictment claims that, through taking over Cumhuriyet Foundation and changing editorial policy, news and articles serving the purpose of armed terrorist organisations were published, and asserts that these acts fall within the definition and scope of the offence of aiding a terrorist organisation in Article 220/7 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The first charge

What is the event that the indictment is from the very outset phrased and worded to criminalise with its resort to the term take over? What happened at the foundation, when did it happen and who took over the foundation and from whom? How did the takeover happen; with coercion or threat, or using intimidation or even violence? The affair calculated to leave a psychological influence on the judicial authorities with it described as the Cumhuriyet Foundation being taken over and through the application of perception management, stacks up as follows:

According to Cumhuriyet Foundations official deed, there are twelve people on the management board and they are elected to serve for a period of two years. When management board members terms of service expire, the old management board members whose terms have expired elect the new management board members. Should a place on the management board be vacated for reasons such as death or resignation prior to the expiry of the term of service, a management board election is held for the place that has been vacated. Prof. Aydn Aybay, one of the twelve foundation managing board members, passed away in March 2013. An election was held for the one vacant place in April 2013. Then, as the terms of service of all the management board members expired six months later, fresh management board elections were held in October 2013. Three or four days after this election held in October 2013 for all places on the management board, application was made to the General Directorate of Foundations in an anonymous and unsigned tip-off letter. It was asserted retrospectively in the application that the election held in April 2013 for the vacant place on the management board was contrary to the provisions in the foundations official deed and should be deemed invalid. Since the election held in April for one place affected the elections for membership of the new management board, the declaration that those elections were invalid was also sought. An investigator appointed to investigate the matter by the General Directorate of Foundations Istanbul Regional Directorate compiled a report to the effect that the elections should be repeated. This report was forwarded by the Regional Directorate to our foundation with a request for the necessary action to be taken. The Cumhuriyet Foundation Management Board discussed the matter and summoned the eleven management board members who had voting rights in April 2013 to a meeting with repeat elections on the agenda, in compliance with the Regional Directorates letter, to avoid giving rise to any controversy in the future, even though there was no obligation to comply with this legal opinion. The date of the meeting was set for 18 February 2014 and service was made on the eleven management board members prior to the day of the meeting along with the agenda. On 17 February 2014, one day prior to the meeting, a management board member submitted his resignation in writing and indicated that he was not standing for management board membership. Hours before the meeting, another member submitted his resignation in writing and intimated that he was not standing for membership of the management board that was to be elected, either. Following the vacancies ensuing from the death of one member and the resignation of two members, six of the nine remaining members of the twelve-person management board attended the meeting, while three did not attend.

This is precisely where the whole storm broke out and the legal dispute had its inception in this meeting. Viz:

Two of the three management board members who did not attend the meeting held on 18 February 2014 brought legal proceedings over the meeting a full two years after the date of the meeting. Their claims took the form that the meeting held on 18/02/2014 was conducted without the meeting quorum in the foundation official deed being attained; to constitute a meeting one more than half of the full number of management board members had to be present at the meeting and this amounted to seven people, while six people attended the said meeting, and so the meeting and the election held at the meeting was invalid and should be annulled.

Conversely, the legal argument and view asserted by the foundation takes the form:

No provision is made in the founation deed for any meeting quorum for meetings at which elections are to be held; this point is expressly stressed in the foundation official deed; indeed, even were it for a moment to be presumed that the meeting quorum required for non-electoral meetings had to be imposed for electoral meetings, the meeting quorum was met because the meeting quorum had to be calculated based not on the total number of members but the existing number of members; it would neither comply with reason and logic for people whose membership has ended due to death or resignation to be included in meeting quorum calculations nor would this be a manner of interpretation that was fit for purpose, either; a contrary manner of interpretation would amount to enabling a few members who remained in the minority to frustrate the foundations business, bring it to a standstill and leave it without an organ; there was no wording in the foundation official deed that the meeting quorum was to be calculated based on the full number of members; it is envisaged in the Civil Code, in Article 78 concerning juristic persons which includes provisions concerning associations and foundations, that in determining meeting quorums the number of members entitled to attend the meeting be adopted as the base; and, for these reasons, at the meeting attended by six of the existing nine members, the quorum was not seven members but six members, being one more than half of the nine members.

As has been seen, the legal dispute and controversy between the juristic person of the foundation and the two former management board mambers who did not attend the 18/02/2014 meeting is based entirely on a difference of legal interpretation and opinion. Indeed, the legal dispute over this matter was brought as a claim before the civil courts by the said persons some six months prior to the present investigation and, moreover, fifteen months before the indictment, and, on the other hand, was also subjected to administrative examination at the General Directorate of Foundations.

This is the affair that has, thanks to the use of terms such as take over and purge, intentionally been brought onto another plane, into the criminal and penal arena. There was no takeover but an election; no purge but an inability to be elected. Thus, even if it makes sense as a description in political terms for somebody to speak of being purged following an election in which they were unable to be elected, in the legal arena this situation is referred to not as a purge but an inability to be elected.

Let me add that had it been the intent and wish of the foundation founder for certain management board members to be elected every time they stand or to be unchanging and unchangeable members of the management board until they die, he would have been able to expressly state this in the foundation official deed. In fact, in temporary Article 1 of the foundation official deed, it is laid down expressly and clearly that three people from among the first management board members would have no time limits on their term of service and these three people would be management board members until they died. With the demise of the last of these three people, Ilhan Selcuk, in 2010, there remained no unchanging and unchangeable members of the management board. There is no guarantee that any management board member whose term of service has expired will be reelected to the management board. This is what makes sense and is logical, too.

It must be noted that the bringing of a civil dispute that relates to the sphere of private law and falls to the jurisdiction of the civil court of first instance before the serious crime court and bringing charges over it is a bad-faith endeavour to exert influence, guidance and pressure. The aim is to procure a judgment along certain lines in the civil court of first instance. Although the prosecution is aware that civil proceedings are pending over this civil dispute, experts reports have been obtained within these civil proceedings from specialists in the area and there are also detailed reports of General Directorate of Foundations inspectors into the same matter, it speaks volumes that he has commissioned a fresh expert examination into the meeting quorum as if the matter fell to his own subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction. Moreover, the expert he has chosen is somebody who is not included on the list of judicial experts but who has been nominated from outside the list in flagrant breach of the law with no reason adduced. There is also no information as to his specialisation, competence, capacity, experience and accumulated knowledge.

Basically, it is obvious that which of two candidates is elected to a place that has been vacated on a foundation management board and whether the meeting at which the election was held was conducted in accordance with the quorum in the official deed has no relation to or connection with the public prosecution, probes, crime and penal law. It is clear that the prosecution is also aware of this from the following comment in the introduction to the section on the matter in the indictment:

While a portion of the procedures concerning the Cumhuriyet Foundation are of the nature of a civil dispute and are external to our concerns, on account of the change that the foundation underwent after 2013 such that the newspaper carried manipulative content detrimental to national security, there was a need for an examination of the penal law aspects of the matter so as to shed light on the penal responsibility of Foundation Management Board Members. (page 102 of the indictment)

This could be summed up by saying that the prosecution has embroiled itself and become embroiled in a private-law dispute that is absolutely unconnected with its duties and has protected and aided the proponents of one of the legal arguments against the other by waving the stick of a penal investigation. In the prevailing political and legal atmosphere and judicial climate, given the existence of prosecutors and judges who are wary of being accused of FETO allegiance, there can be no doubt that a civil court of first instance judge, aware of a terrorism trial that has been brought against the suspects for aiding FETO and in which the charges include taking over the foundation that owns the newspaper, will get the required message. I imagine that everyone who is cognisant of the worries and concerns that plague judicial offials today as to whether they may possibly be expelled from the profession and accused of FETO alliegance will acquiesce to the following truth:

In the face of claims by the chief prosecution which is conducting a FETO investigation that the foundation was taken over through the holding of an inquorate meeting and that this constitutes an offence relating to aiding FETO, a civil court of first instance judge cannot easily say, The meeting was quorate and no takeover of the foundation is involved; the meeting and election were conducted as per due procedure. The judge, were he or she to rule along these lines, could well fear being accused at any moment of aiding FETO under the guise of judicial activity.

At this point, it will be beneficial here once more to individually mention the names of those members who attended and did not attend the meeting held on 18/02/2014. The names of the six management board members who attended the meeting are:

1- Orhan Erinc

(The year in which he first started to work as a journalist on Cumhuriyet newspaper was 1963. So, he has been a member of Cumhuriyet newspaper for a full 54 years.)

2- Hikmet Cetinkaya

(The year in which he first started to work as a journalist on Cumhuriyet newspaper was 1966. So, he has been on this newspaper for a full unbroken 51 years.)

3- Cuneyt Arcayurek

(His name was synonymous with journalism and later with Cumhuriyet newspaper and he numbered among the fabled names of journalism, and passed away in 2015.)

4- Ibrahim Yldz

(He is a journalist who has worked on the newspaper since 1981 and who served as Cumhuriyet newspapers editor-in-chief from 2000 until 2014.)

5- Mustafa Ali Balbay

(He is a journalist who was on Cumhuriyet newspaper for thirty years from 1986 to 2016 and served at various managerial levels. He is currently a CHP member of parliament for Izmir.)

6- Akn Atalay

(He has filled juristic and managerial posts at Cumhuriyet newspaper for an unbroken 25 years since 1992.)

It is precisely these six people who took over Cumhuriyet Foundation. How and from whom do you say these people, the newest of whom has been on the paper for an unbroken 25 years and the mention of each of whose names conjures up Cumhuriyet newspaper, took over Cumhuriyet newspaper? To answer the question, it is necessary to list the names of the two management board members who resigned immediately prior to the meeting and the three management board members who did not attend the meeting.

The members who resigned:

1- Inan Krac

(He is a member of Koc Holdings board of directors and his institutional and duty-based relationship and connection with Cumhuriyet newspaper started in 2009 as a management board member elected from outside the paper to the Cumhuriyet Foundation.)

2- Nevzat Tufekcioglu

(He is a member of the supervisory board of the Koc Foundation and Suna Inan Krac Foundation and his relationship and connection with Cumhuriyet newspaper is restricted to his having been a member of Cumhuriyet Foundation management board for two years at the recommendation of Inan Krac.)

The three members who did not attend the meeting:

1- Alev Coskun

(He first took up a post at Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1992 and continued to perform managerial duties at various levels and serve as a management board member until the end of 2013.)

2- Sevket Tokus

(He was elected as a management board member following the demise in 2006 of his wife, the late Lale Tokus, in her place and, given that he is the son-in-law of the papers founder Yunus Nadis granddaughter, so as to represent the family.)

3- Sukran Soner

(She has been a member of Cumhuriyet newspaper for an unbroken 51 years since 1966.)

The truth that this depiction of the affair reveals is as follows:

There were conflicting votes by the eleven management board members for the person who was to fill the vacant place and, with six of the members voting for Onder Celik, the preferred candidate of five of them was Mustafa Pamukoglu.

It is clear that, in the absence of unanimity or the reaching of an understanding over the electee, the person that the majority, i.e. the six people, voted for will be elected. Two of the five members who were in the minority resigned in protest one day prior to the meeting and election, while three opted not to attend the meeting.

Following the passage of two years, two former members who were in the minority, Alev Coskun and Sevket Tokus, who had been unable to get their candidate elected in the election conducted by majority vote, turned the matter into a civil dispute and brought it before the courts and alleged that their non-participation had been abused and the meeting was inquorate. This is the heart of the matter.

So, who is Onder Celik, the candidate six people preferred and voted for to fill the vacated place on the management board? Is this person somebody who is a stranger to the Cumhuriyet newspaper community, having no relation or connection with journalism, and whose thoughts and chemistry do not conform to the papers well-established philosophy and publishing line?

Was it, as the prosecution asserts, the electing of Onder Celik, whom the six people in the majority voted for, and not Mustafa Pamukoglu, the preference of the five members who were in the minority, that was instrumental in the foundation and newspaper management more or less passing into the hands of FETO/PYD? Was this really so? You can get nobody who knows this newspaper and this newspapers make-up and memory to believe this nonsense and this absurd claim. Why? Because, in stark contradistinction to the other candidate Mustafa Pamukoglu, who joined the paper in the 2000s from the outside and whose name was known to hardly anybody on the paper until that date, Onder Celik's past, employment, career and position on the paper has been as follows:

He started work on Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1984 as an administrative supervisor and then continued as operations manager and subsequently as printing and production manager. He has served this paper as an administrator since that date in an unbroken and continuous manner. With no such juristic person as the Cumhuriyet Foundation yet in existence, a company named Yenigun Haber Ajans Basn ve Yaynclk AS was established in 1992, i.e. 25 years ago, to publish this paper and this company began to publish the paper as of October 1992. They set up this company, established to publish the paper, with eleven people whose names were synonymous with Cumhuriyet newspaper as founding shareholders holding equal stakes with the aim of publishing the paper following a certain line. One of these eleven founders whose names are synonymous with Cumhuriyet newspaper, from Ilhan Selcuk to Ugur Mumcu and from Cuneyt Arcayurek to Ali Sirmen and Hikmet Cetinkaya, was Onder Celik. So, the fact is that, even before the foundation was in existence, Onder Celik was among the eleven founding and equal shareholders of the company that published the paper. The electing to the foundation management board of a venerable Cumhuriyet newspaper member who has devoted more than half his life to this paper should not give rise to charges against those who voted for him, but, if anything, be deemed to be a correct preference and procedure. My final comments on this matter are as follow:

The first sentence of Article 38 of the Constitution and the imperative provision of Article 2 of the Turkish Penal Code emphasise a universal principle of penal law. What is this? Nobody can be punished for an act that the law does not expressly deem to be a crime. So, what then is the act that the prosecution alleges us to have committed? To convene the foundation management board in the absence of the meeting quorum and pass invalid resolutions. Do you wonder what crime the prosecution thinks this act corresponds to? It does not set this out very cogently, or, more to the point, is incapable of doing so, but it says that this act falls within the scope of aiding FETO. That is, we have aided FETO by electing a Cumhuriyet newspaper employee of 33 years standing, a left-winger who has spent his life in revolutionary struggle and at Cumhuriyet newspaper, embracing and practising Cumhuriyets basic values and enlightenment, secularism, freedoms and contemporariness. The maker of this accusation is also a prosecutor who himself stands charged of FETO membership. What can I say? This is as absurd as it can get. Deeming it futile to comment any further on this comedy, I bring to a close the legend of Cumhuriyet Foundation being taken over through an election.

We come to the second charge ...

We supposedly changed the editorial policy.

Could there possibly be truth in what some people are saying out of enmity, as others are doing in exercise of criticism within the bounds of freedom of expression? Did Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy change? While greeting contrary assessments and criticism with respect and understanding, I wish to state most forcefully that editorial policy has not changed. Essentially, courts cannot be the place and arena for this debate. I thus protest about the diverting of this matter from its own natural channel and its being dragged into penal proceedings that have been taken as far as detention.

I believe that the majority of those who comment on and criticise Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial line and policy in good faith and within the bounds of freedom of expression and the right to criticise will also be disturbed at their own criticism being taken out of context and adduced as evidence for detention and charges. I most certainly know, am aware and accept that a newspaper that informs the public from a certain perspective, reports the news, criticises and publishes thought-provoking articles every day must put up with the harshest of criticism emanating from all quarters. And Cumhuriyet newspaper has put up with the criticism and until today, with one or two exceptions, has not even sued anyone despite encountering a barrage of rhetoric and injustice some of which goes well beyond not only criticism, but foul-mouthing, defamation and aspersion.

Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy underwent radical change after 2013. This is what the indictment says. Because, in 2013, the candidate named Onder Celik, and not the candidate named Mustafa Pamukoglu, was elected as twelfth foundation management board member to the place on the management board made vacant by death, that is why. I have already explained who Onder Celik is. If so, why the resort to such a hollow lie? Certain parties, drawing on the authority of the public prosecution, investigations and penal courts, are striving to determine Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy and procure a result from this. Those desirous to learn what Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy is and is not can refer, not to those commenting glibly on various media platforms, certain self-appointed Cumhuriyet foes or the fabrications of the minds of non-expert people stated to be experts, but to the preamble to the Cumhuriyet Foundation Official Deed. I wish briefly to recall this basic policy that is also to be found on Cumhuriyet newspapers website:

Cumhuriyet is neither a government nor party newspaper. Cumhuriyet is the defender of nothing but the democracy of the republic in the scientific and broad sense. It will fight every force that tries to overthrow the Republic and the notion and principles of democracy. It will devote its utmost to the cause of establishing a true democracy in all senses in our country. It will endeavour to bring about the unfettering of reason from bigotry and science from religion and the embracing by society of the principle of secularism along the path of enlightenment ushered in by the Republic and Ataturks revolutions and principles. Cumhuriyet, which adopts the Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as the universal constitution of democracy, deems by way of basic principle that its goals may only be attained within the independence and integrity of the Republic of Turkey established by Ataturk.

Cumhuriyet newspaper still continues to publish within the framework of these principles. The assertion that its editorial policy has changed is untrue.

Looking at the indictment, there is persistent mention of Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy having changed and having been changed over the last three years. The thrust of the indictment is to prove, not that the reports and articles published in the paper were criminal in nature, but that editorial policy changed. Included are criticisms and assessments penned by certain people about a change in editorial policy. Witness testimony has been obtained. Normally, it would be absurd for prosecutors, courts and the judiciary to concern themselves with whether newspapers have changed their editorial line and policy, how this is supposed to take place, the framework governing reports and articles and whether there has been compliance with editorial principles. Regimes in which this is done are fascist regimes. In democratic societies, it does not fall to prosecutors to assess, measure and set newspapers editorial policies and press charges over them, nor are they entitled to do so. Prosecutors may conduct an examination and investigation, not into those newspapers editorial policies, but purely into whether newspaper content, reports and articles are criminal in nature. If there is thought to be content that is expressly defined in the law as being criminal, they may conduct an investigation limited to the persons they hold legally responsible for that content. This can be taken no further.

The unjust, misplaced and untruthful claims and criticisms of people the majority of whom are in a relationship of political or personal enmity with Cumhuriyet newspaper cannot be made the basis for a penal investigation. Relying on these peoples assertions that the papers editorial policy changed, the crime of a newspapers editorial policy being changed cannot be invented. By virtue of this invention, all a newspapers managers cannot be arrested, detained and punished in an injustice the like of which is rarely encounterable in the world.

This unjust operation targeting Cumhuriyet newspaper has gone down in both the history of the press and the history of the judiciary: In the former as an honourable stance and position in the name of journalism, and in the latter as a shameful investigation. It is said in the experts report on which the indictment relies that the newspaper, Suddenly changed its statist, traditional, secular and neo-nationalist line and targeted the state. This finding in the experts report was also cited as grounds in the detention order. The determining of Cumhuriyets editorial line is not a business so trivial that it can be left to the assessment of an individual who describes himself as a Communications and IT expert of uncertain competence and expertise. Within Cumhuriyets editorial line, the principle of secularism and national integrity have always been the paramount lines. Apart from these, ascribed attributes such as statism and traditionalism are valid for the ascriber alone. We wish to remind those who, in proclaiming that Cumhuriyet newspaper has deviated from the Ataturkist editorial line, act as if they were authorised to define the Ataturkist line and determine its scope, and the prosecution in this context, that there have been those who set about doing the same thing before you. This papers leading columnist at the time, Nadir Nadi, told those who were making glib pronouncements on behalf of Ataturkism where to get off by saying I am not Ataturkist in response to these excesses.

At this point, I wish to counter the desire to use the judiciary to facilitate interference in editorial policy by saying that editorial policy concerns the readership alone and is accountable to it and the place and arena for this is not the courts. Absolutely no official and authority can interfere in a newspapers editorial policy under the guise of a penal investigation. This cannot and will not be permitted.

If there is a price for preserving Cumhuriyet newspapers independence, for defending its principles and values, for continuing its editorial policy, for not surrendering the paper to any political or economic power clique and for standing firm without compromising on reporting and journalistic principles  and it is abundantly apparent that there is  we have paid and will pay it.

The assertion that editorial policy has changed and the statement that the law deems this to be a crime neither accords with jurisprudence nor complies with the law. The political line that newspapers adopt, be it liberal or conservative, nationalist or revolutionary, right or left-wing, the editorial policy they follow and whether they subsequently change this policy is not a matter relating to crime and penal law. There is hence no merit in manufacturing an investigation and charges with reference to what Cumhuriyet newspapers editorial policy is, whether it has changed and the dynamics and interactive relationship it has with its readership. Everyone who takes stock of this situation will see that there is merely the illusion and impression of an operation and prosecution within legal rules and statute. The fundamental aim and goal is the mass punishment and silencing of a newspaper whose coverage causes discomfort and, by this means, for a salient message to be sent to other journalists.

Now is the turn of the third charge.

Reports and articles that serve the aims of the armed terrorist organisations FETO/PDY, PKK/KCK and DHKP/C are alleged to have been published in Cumhuriyet newspaper. With reference in this connection to certain reports, headlines and opinion pieces, the indictment speaks of these constituting the crime of aiding terrorist organisations. It is stated that not only the owners of the articles and those responsible for their publication bear criminal responsibility for these reports or articles, but, along with these, all board of directors members of the company that published the paper, those granted second-degree signature authorisation at the company and even the management board members of the foundation that rented the right to the newspapers name to the publishing company. Why? Because criminal responsibility is incurred in delivering the instrument by means of which the crime was committed (i.e. the paper) to those who committed the crime.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a first. As a consequence of this chain of responsibility that was not even conceived of in the Inquisition period in the Middle Ages, it is not hard to engage in flights of fantasy that lead to criminal responsibility extending as far as family members who fail to prevent the instrument from being delivered, and not just to newspaper bosses and board of directors members.

Out of my respect and love for the institutional traditions and values of Cumhuriyet newspaper and the principle of editorial independence that is this papers ingrained culture, I deem that it does not behove me and would exceed my authority to comment on the reports or articles at issue in the charges.

The charge of employment-related abuse of trust:

It is alleged that the offence described in the second paragraph of Article 155 of the Turkish Penal Code was committed four times. I must note at the outset that punishment is sought for the crime of aiding a terrorist organisation. So as to engineer an altered perception among the public, they have also watered down the investigation and indictment and brought up an accusation of this nature. However, trials into this offence do not fall to the jurisdiction of serious crime courts competent to hear terrorism charges or even to normal serious crime courts. Charges over a crime that penal courts of first instance will hear have been included in this investigation and trial with a view to discrediting us in the public eye.

Charges are pressed for employment-related abuse of trust over four transactions that were or were not conducted within the setting of the board of directors of, in two cases, the juristic person of the Cumhuriyet Foundation and, in two others, Yenigun Haber Ajans AS that publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper. While pressing charges and bringing prosecution for aiding terrorist organisations by publishing reports and articles that serve the aims of the FETO-PKK-DHKP/C terrorist organisations, the inclusion within a prosecution for terrorist offences of inconsistent and unrelated allegations along the lines of us as the companys board of directors having neglected to convene a general meeting or having made a loss of ten lira by selling an immovable property at ninety lira instead of a hundred bears witness to how unbalanced and frivolous an investigation stage this case has passed through.

The first of the acts to give rise to charges was the failure of Yenigun Haber Ajans AS board of directors members to fulfil the obligation to convene a company general meeting. It is laid down in Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code that, should it be ascertained from the companys most recent annual balance sheet that half or two-thirds of the sum of the capital and statutory reserves are uncovered due to loss, the board of directors must convene a general meeting. Additionally, should there be signs that the company has become insolvent, it stipulates that an intermediate balance sheet must be drawn up and certain procedures conducted as circumstances dictate. Let us not go into any greater technical detail here. I will suffice by saying that Yenigun Haber Ajans AS which publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper is not an insolvent company. Apart from a reasonable level of debt to its controlling and preferential shareholder, the Cumhuriyet Foundation, it owes no debt to either the state or the public sector or third parties. In fact, the continuation of its commercial activities in denial of unjust and ill-motivated findings in the General Directorate of Foundations inspectors report and despite the pressure that has been brought to bear on dozens of occasions provides the clearest indication and proof that it is not insolvent.

That the company has constantly made a loss since 2013 and the loss has grown and the necessary commercial measures have not been taken is another untruthful claim that has been transferred from the inspectorship report into the indictment. Even though this bears not even the slightest connection or relation to the crime in Article 155/2 of the Turkish Penal code, let us still make the point. The year in which this company was established was 1992. I am in possession of the 25 annual financial statements and corporation tax statements it submitted to the ministry of finance from that date until now. I will furnish you with them all. Let them enter the file. We have no shortcomings or deficiencies to be hidden, concealed or feared. On examination of these statements you will see the following. The company that publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper made a miniscule amount of profit of between 2,000 and 30,000 lira in the first six years after 1982, i.e. until 1998, and always broke even in commercial terms. Conversely, in the 18 years stretching from 1999 until now, with the exception of four years, it made a loss in the remaining 14 years. With the loss incurred in 1999 alone, the company came into a position in which it had lost, not simply more than half of its capital as laid down in Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code, but all of it. The same situation continued in the following years. I will tell you the amount of profit or loss each year and you will easily understand. Losses of 272.000 lira in 1999, 794,000 lira in 2000, 29,000 lira in 2001, 3,494,000 lira in 2002, 9,086,000 lira in 2003 and 2,639,000 lira in 2004 were made and there was a profit of 102,000 lira in 2005 and a loss once more of 243,000 lira in 2006.

Let me stop here and provide the running total. As of the end of 2006, the total accumulated loss had exceeded 16 million lira! In 2007 and 2008, the company made a profit of 1,368,000 lira and 1,260,000 lira respectively. The newspapers daily average sales in these two years was in the 70-80,000 range. In the preceding years, this sales (circulation) figure was in the daily range of 40-60,000. At the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, an operation was undertaken to besmirch the papers identity and good name by including Cumhuriyet newspapers Ankara representative in the Ergenekon investigations following its publisher Ilhan Selcuk. As a result of this, the papers daily sales once again fell to trend in the region of 50,000. The paper, losing 477,000 lira in 2009, made a profit of 80,000 lira in 2010.

Following this, the financial crisis that was experienced in the newspaper sector both in our country and globally also certainly affected Cumhuriyet. Students of the sector to any degree know in any case that many newspapers and many businesses either folded or closed. Those who are curious can access plenty of information in a brief search on the internet. I will continue to impart the figures from the point at which I broke off. Let this enter the public domain, too, and be common knowledge. Losses of 895,000 lira in 2011, 1,080,000 lira in 2012, 919,000 lira in 2013, 2,336,000 lira in 2014 and 1,727,000 lira in 2015 were made. However, the management that is alleged to have taken no steps of any kind in the face of the ever-growing loss, to have augmented the loss and to have made the paper insolvent in fact made a profit of 326,000 lira in the 2016 operating period. Coming as a masterful sharp blow to the dark propaganda asserting otherwise, to those witting and unwitting imparters of disinformation out of their personal grudges against the paper and their malice and hostility and to the claims of the inspectorate and prosecution, one of the three years in which the company made a serious profit in its 25-year past was last year, i.e. 2016. Moreover, this profit was achieved in spite of the economic woes caused by the 15 July coup attempt, increases in exchange rates and the politically inspired economic embargo applied to those who place adverts in Cumhuriyet newspaper.

I address this comment to those who know the newspaper sector. The total accumulated loss over Cumhuriyets 25-year operating period equates to no more than the annual losses of most of the newspapers in the pool media, a name known to all, that publishes with the support of and commercial means furnished by the political rulership. Despite all the efforts of the political rulership and, subsequently, certain zealots who cast themselves in the role of supposed Cumhuriyet lovers, Cumhuriyet newspaper and the company that publishes it has succeeded in staying afloat. It has still proved unsinkable despite its entire management being in detention for nine months.

I believe that for as long as its readership and friends stand by it, Cumhuriyet will remain firmly on its feet and will continue to impart the truth to the people. It is as clear as the light of day that this charge, the would-be creation of the mentality of an inspector at the General Directorate of Foundations that tries to make a crime under Article 155 of the Turkish Penal Code out of the obligation to convene a general meeting under Article 376 of the Turkish Commercial Code which the prosecution has unquestioningly and undoubtingly placed in the indictment, is unfounded, unsupported and unjust. I reject it.

As per the General Directorate of Foundations inspection report, we are accused of breaching Article 155 of the Turkish Penal Code through the transaction in which an unsecured loan was provided from the foundation to an insolvent company and the expending of foundation resources in the absence of consideration despite the foundation management board resolution of 4 June 2015. Let us first look at who these funds were transferred from the foundation to. To Yenigun Haber AS, which publishes Cumhuriyet newspaper and has the status of the foundations sole preferential shareholder, i.e. to Cumhuriyet newspaper. So, what size of funds were transferred on what dates? One million lira in 2012, 1.3 million lira in 2013, 1,275,000 lira in 2014, 90,000 lira in 2015 and 2.5 million lira in 2016. A total of 6.2 million lira. Of this, 3.6 million was transferred to fund the paper before June 2015 to which the inspector refers, and 2.6 million on later dates. The 2.5 million lira that were transferred from the foundation to the newspaper in 2016 were used in their entirety to eliminate the newspapers paper and printing works debts that had accumulated and were unpaid despite having fallen due. The newspaper thus had no remaining outstanding debt and was spared the burden of additional interest. Well, did the Cumhuriyet Foundation management make a mistake, fail to act as a prudent manager and make disposition outside the foundations objectives in making foundation resources available to Cumhuriyet newspaper, which was in strained economic circumstances? Did it, as set out in Article 155 of the Turkish Penal Code, make use of funds that had been entrusted to it so as to be used in a certain manner outside the purpose for which they had been entrusted?

The definitive answer to this question can be found from analysis of the preamble to the Foundation Official Deed in conjunction with Article 3 with the heading Objectives of the Foundation and subparagraph () of Article 12 with the heading Duties and Powers of the Management Board thereof. It will be seen that the Foundation indeed has the duty to secure the survival of and support Cumhuriyet newspaper. Subparagraph () of Article 12 of the official deed reads as follows:

When deemed necessary, the realisation through sale or other means of movable and immovable property in the foundations possession or its being exchanged for other property, provided the necessary legal terms are observed for carrying out activities that accord with the foundations objectives.

In line with this imperative and founding intent, there could be no activity more natural and compliant with objectives than the transferring of funds to Cumhuriyet newspaper in keeping with the foundations sole objective.

When the General Directorate of Foundations inspectors raised this matter in the course of inspection and inquired about it to the foundation management, we replied as follows:

In assessing the business, transactions and activities of the Cumhuriyet Foundation, account must be taken of the objective for which the foundation was established and the function, objective and structural wholeness of a mutually complementary and inseparable nature between the foundation and the newspaper and the company that publishes the newspaper. Stated in the Preamble section of the Cumhuriyet Foundation Official Deed is, In the first edition of Cumhuriyet newspaper published in May 1924, its editorial principles were set out with founder Yunus Nadis pen. (...) Securing the continuation in the same orbit of Cumhuriyet, whose identity, principles and aims have become established and have taken root in society over this long time, has assumed the nature of a duty (...). Cumhuriyet Foundation has been established to fulfil this purpose.

It has also been stipulated expressly and precisely in Article three with the heading Objectives of the Foundation that, The objective of the foundation is to support (...) Cumhuriyet newspaper. As such, the bounds, scope and nature of the founding objectives, activities, business and transactions of the Cumhuriyet Foundation are clear-cut to the extent of dispelling all doubt. The reason for this foundations existence is to support with all of its means and strength the continued publication of Cumhuriyet newspaper. The integration, dependence, organic and structural unity and togetherness of purpose between Cumhuriyet Foundation and the publishing company Yenigun A.S clearly point to both entities mutual interests. Business and transactions between these two entities must be assessed in these terms.

Punishment is also sought pursuant to Article 155/2 of the Turkish Penal Code for the act of causing loss to the foundation with it alleged that a loss of at least 100,000 lira and at most 933,333 lira ensued from the sale for a price of 2,400,000 lira on 17 December 2015 of Cumhuriyet Foundations immovable property located in Istanbul Sisli. We encounter one of the most blatant examples of the dire situation one can end up in from an inspection and investigation that focuses, not on the law and objectivity, but on enmity and establishing guilt come what may.

The Cumhuriyet Foundation resolves to sell an immovable property. Is it empowered to do so? Undoubtedly yes. Does it have to obtain permission from anybody? No. What does it need to do? An objective reasonably equivalent value appraisal. Well, did it do this? Yes. Did it commission a trustworthy, capable, competent and licensed body with registered expertise in the field to appraise the reasonably equivalent value of the immovable property it was going to sell? Yes. Well, who did it commission the appraisal of the reasonably equivalent value from? From Vakf Gayrimenkul Degerleme AS. This valuation company, which is one of the oldest, best established, most trustworthy and expert bodies in the immovable property appraisal sector, is a body that is affiliated to Vakfbank AS of which the General Directorate of Foundations is the owner. The majority of foundations established in Turkey, even if this is not mandatory, commission their appraisal work from this valuation company that is affiliated to the same general directorate to avoid giving rise to any later impropriety or trouble. The Cumhuriyet Foundation followed suit. But, when ill will prevails, look at the result to ensue. The General Directorate of Foundations Inspection Board inspectors attached no credence to the valuation report provided by the body that is licensed and authorised for this business of which its own institution is the owner, and commissioned a fresh report from certain institution employees who are neither licensed nor possess expertise. Have you really lost your grip on reality to this extent? The General Directorate of Foundations inspector who is investigating whether the immovable property was sold at reasonably equivalent value attaches no credence to the valuation report into the matter provided by its own institutions body that is licensed and authorised for this business, and, attaching credence to the opinion of natural person who have neither licences, expertise nor competence, endeavours to create accusations and charges out of this. Once again, this takes the cake!

About one month later, on 16/12/2015, we sold Yenigun Haber Ajans ASs immovable property in Ankara province Cankaya sub-province for the price of 2,900,000 lira as against the appraised value of 2,500,000 lira in the valuation conducted on 19/11/2015. The purchasing company for its part sold the same immovable property for the price of 3,563,600 lira some three months after this sale. According to the inspectorate and the indictment based on the report it drafted, the difference in price at which the company that bought the immovable property sold it three months later was deemed to be the companys loss. The making of an accusation based on such logic, the raising of such an inference and the endeavour to create a crime out of this turns the makers of such claims into the objects of ridicule. Cumhuriyet newspaper made a loan instalment payment every month for a period of five years until the end of 2015 for this immovable property that it acquired with a bank mortgage in 2010. Having repaid the loan, it had the mortgage in favour of the bank established over the immovable property deregistered and transferred the self-same property to Dogan Ds Tic. AS, the transferee of the property, for the purpose of paying a portion of its accumulated newspaper paper debt. It once more had the immovable property appraised by Vakf Gayrimenkul Degerleme AS and the sale transaction was conducted at a price 400,000 lira above the appraised value as per the agreement reached with the purchasing company. The price of this sale was, as said, offset against the newspaper paper debt to the purchaser. A copy of the invoice raised by the purchasing company in respect of this particular immovable property sale is on page ten of binder 18. On examination, it will be apparent that VAT did not arise and so the benefit secured for the company from the sale of the immovable property was 2,900,000 lira net. For its part, Dogan Ds Tic. AS, which bought the immovable property for 2,900,000 against amounts due to it, sold this property to the third party of Alter Limited Company on 25.3.2016 for 3,563,600 lira, as stated in the indictment. But, one particular detail has not been included in the indictment. Of course, in the inspectorate report, to the inspectors question of how much Alter Limited Company bought the said immovable property for, they obtained the reply that they had bought it for the net sale price of 3,020,000 lira plus VAT at 18% of 543,600 totalling 3,563,600 lira. That is, after deduction of the payable VAT, 3,020,000 lira net remains in the hands of the vendor Dogan Ds Ticaret AS following this sale. Because three months later they disposed of the immovable property for the net sale price of 3,020,000 lira that they bought from us paying 2,900,000 lira net, i.e. sold it three months later for a price 120,000 lira higher, we are deemed to have caused loss to the company and committed the crime of abuse of trust. Were I to go into detail, I would need to explain that Dogan Ds Ticaret AS would additionally pay tax on the amount of profit derived from the property sale in respect of its profit from the 120,000 lira price difference three months later, while we had no tax liability thanks to having held it for five years and selling after five years, and many other needless pieces of information.

I finally wish to say the following on this point:

First, foundations are not commercial companies. The object of their activities, in contradistinction to commercial companies, is not profitability, but to accomplish the bequeathers wishes as set out in the official deed. The bequeather of the Cumhuriyet Foundation has laid down in an express manner in the official deed that the sole objective of his bequest and the foundation he had established was to secure the survival of Cumhuriyet newspaper and to support it. Thus, foundations managers can be judged in terms, not of activity aimed at profit-loss in a commercial sense, but of activity aimed at the objectives of the foundation. It will be useful to recall that foundations have property assigned to them not for commercial activity but for a certain objective (and this objective is stated to be to support Cumhuriyet newspaper). However much it would appear that the foundations inspectorate and prosecution think differently, our thoughts and evaluations concerning our journalistic activity are as follow:

Just as in justice, judicial, health and educational activities, the prior and defining function and aim of journalistic activity is not to make a profit or to provide commercial earnings for proprietors or shareholders. The prior aim of journalistic activity is the public good. As such, journalism, as much as and before it is a free commercial activity, is a public service of a nature that is indispensable for a democratic society. Just like those who bequeathed this valuable brand without seeing Cumhuriyet newspaper as a profit-oriented commercial activity, the newspaper managers who followed them approach journalistic activity from this viewpoint. It has and will be seen that, when journalism is conducted for profit and as a profit-oriented activity, this comes at the price of relinquishing the news and truth and the loss of the purpose and meaning of journalism, and it is democracy and the people itself that are the losers.

III. The experts

Normally people go to the doctor, not a lawyer, when they have a temperature or a headache. Likewise, you go to the pharmacy, not the greengrocers, to get medicine. Application is sometimes made to experts in legal disputes. As is stated in Article 63 of the Code of Penal Procedure, in situations whose resolution calls for expertise or special or technical knowledge, it is possible for an expert to be appointed. For example, application is made to a civil engineer or academic working in the field as an expert regarding whether there was a fabrication error and the materials were inadequate in a collapsing building. What is both sensible and logical and also complies with the law is for the expert to have expertise, capability and competence in whatever matter they are consulted for their opinion on. However, for some reason, when an investigation into Cumhuriyet newspaper is involved, to put it crudely everyones circuits burn out and an exercise in futility replaces reason, logic and the law. There is a flagrant breach of Articles 62 et sequentes of the Code of Penal Procedure governing the appointment of experts. This is not a situation we encounter in the sphere of the penal investigation alone. We run into the same irrational mindset in the examinations and inspections conducted by administrative institutions. For example, the Foundations Regional Directorate appoints an archaeologist from its own institution as an investigating expert into the dispute over the meeting quorum in accordance with the foundation deed and the provisions of the Civil Code and Foundations Law for the meetings held by the Cumhuriyet Foundation and the resolutions it adopted. When Cumhuriyet newspaper is involved, an institution having dozens of jurists and inspectors for some reason keeps on appointing the same person, somebody whose profession and specialism is archaeology, as investigator.

But, our present concern is these proceedings. I thus wish to size up the two expert examinations and reports that the prosecutors commissioned at the investigation stage. One of these is the examination commissioned from the expert named Unal Aldemir. Who is this expert and what was the matter on which he was consulted? Reference to the expert appointment record provides no information as to the matter over which he was appointed. We gather from the report the expert compiled on 24 October 2016 and the undated report he submitted later that the expert indicates himself to be a communications and IT expert. Well, is this really so? Is this information correct? It is uncertain. Should your court concur, I wish him to be summoned to the hearing for account to be given in accordance with Article 68 of the Code of Penal Procedure.

I believe that light will be shed on the matter through the questions that we will ask him. Whatever is in the experts report, which contains the accusations constituting the basis for these proceedings, the reports and articles relied on in the charges, and interpretations, analysis and criticism that have been lifted from other media sites and cited as evidence for the charges, has been transferred verbatim into the indictment. The basis and foundation of the indictment, the source of the allegations and all the related reports and articles have been taken from this experts report. It is laid down in Article 64 with the heading, Those who may be appointed as experts of the Code of Penal Procedure that experts must be nominated from the list compiled by judiciary justice commissions, but experts may also be nominated from among those not included on the list with the reason for the appointment cited in the decision. The name of Unal Aldemir, whom the prosecution appointed and who describes himself as a communications and IT expert beneath the report, is not on lists of experts circulated by the judiciary justice commission. As such, pursuant to the statutory provision, he had to be appointed from outside the list with the reason cited. I looked at the annexes to the file, and in binder number 30 there is an Expert Swearing-in and Document Delivery Record dated 14.10.2016 undersigned by Republic prosecutor Murat Inam, chief clerk Sevgi Karadeniz and expert Unal Aldemir. On reading the three-line record, you see that there is absolutely no mention of the statutorily required reason. However, the statute states that the reason must be cited if the expert is nominated from outside the list. If you look at the record, there is not a single word, even by implication, as to the reason. In truth, I am curious about this talented Mr Unal Aldemir who drew up a report with this level of detail in the very short time of ten days. My curiosity was enhanced even more as I read the report. I wondered where the prosecutor found this person and who guided him in his direction. I am deprived of the opportunity to investigate because I am in detention. So, I passed on requests to my friends and lawyers. I said, Who is this expert? Who is he in relation to others? Whats his line? Would you make a simple search of public domain sources on the internet? The results I got hold of were that this individual, i.e. our expert Unal Aldemir, studied between the years of 2007-2011 at and graduated from the Computer Engineering department at Gebze Higher Institute of Technologys Engineering Faculty. That is, he is a young computer engineer friend. I wonder if the appointing in an investigation that is proceeding under close domestic and international public scrutiny and attention of a computer engineer aged around 26-28 to read reports and articles in the countrys oldest and most venerable newspaper and analyse where journalism and news reporting stands in relation to penal law, crimes and terrorist propaganda also appears dubious and odd to you. What knowledge, ability and expertise, unknown to us  and I imagine to the court, informed the appointment of this computer engineer to such a demanding task?

Also, according to information that can be viewed first hand in the public domain, he became a contributor to the news site with the URL www.haber10.com in 2012. He has experience of voluntary work at such public bodies as the Prime-Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, and at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, known for its closeness to the political rulership. He apparently holds the post of lecturer at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Universitys Ardesen Higher Vocational School. I imagine that if I quote three example tweets from the experts Twitter account, this will enable an idea to be formed. Our expert posted on 17 May 2017, The chiefs bodyguards make mincemeat of PKK terrorists in the heart of America and the world becomes a better place. On 4 June 2017, he posted photographs of a visit to the family of one who died for the country by AKP Istanbul Provincial Chair Selim Temurci. On 5 June 2017, he posted a photograph of President Erdogan along with the text, The chief has once again taken a deep look. Informed by these facts, I do not imagine it would be very hard to form an idea of how impartially the expert will have acted in an investigation targeting Cumhuriyet newspaper. I have referred to his profession and education a little earlier. I now turn to the experts report that this expert compiled and completed in ten days.

He states the following at the beginning of the report:

(...) I have been appointed as expert. The report I have compiled on the basis of sources in the public domain and newspaper archives follows. Manipulation is a means for foisting ideas. Manipulation is also a method for influencing and guiding people and confusing their minds. (p.1)

The expert, who defines manipulation as a method for influencing and guiding people and confusing their minds and concludes that Cumhuriyet newspaper veils the truth through manipulation (see p.2, para. 4), himself makes recourse to manipulation in the report and veils the truth. At this stage, I will not embark on the endeavour to demolish every line of the report that bears the signature of somebody who quite clearly lacks expertise and knowledge and does not possess the competence to be an expert. However, I wish to give one example showing how flawed this experts report is and that the truth has been veiled for the purpose of deceiving the court. The following statements and findings are included on pages 12-13 of the report under the sub-heading Cumhuriyet newspaper: The witch-hunt begins:

The citizens who embarked on a democracy watch in opposition to the bloody coup attempt and displayed their reaction in the open spaces to every illegal endeavour, on the other hand, were targeted in Cumhuriyet newspapers headline of 19 July 2016. With even the world press greeting the peaceful protests being held in the spirit of a feast of democracy with appreciation, the sub-heading Nobody is speaking of democracy in the open spaces was used in the Cumhuriyet newspaper report. As to the states legal battle against the coupists, the attempt was observed to water this down. The newspaper engaged in perception management in which it described anti-coup demonstrations as hate and the removal and expulsion of those linked to FETO from their posts as purges.

Pasted immediately beneath these lines is an image of the papers front page that day with the headline, The witch-hunt begins. I will be frank: it escaped my attention on my first reading of the report. But, all of a sudden, I noticed it with horror. In the report, the expert had himself engaged in the manipulation, veiling of the truth and perception management that he had imputed to Cumhuriyet newspaper. On making comparison with the images of the papers front page on various dates, it became apparent that something was missing on the front page dated 19 July 2016 on which the headline The witch-hunt begins appears. Cumhuriyet newspapers masthead was absent from the front page whose image is displayed. At this, I looked at the original image of the papers front page dated 19 July 2016. It is on page 98 of the 102-page Public domain sources record dated 3/11/2016 in binder number 29. Placing the full image of the front page here alongside the image of the front page reproduced in the experts report most clearly reveals the truth that it was wished to conceal and the perception management that it was wished to conduct. It is clearly visible from the original image of the front page that the headline of the lead news is, The coupists treasonous talk along with the reefer, They started by saying shoot at the people and finished by saying lets flee, the off-lead headline in the centre of the page is, The witch-hunt begins, and the headline of the third story is Coupists at the judicial complex with the reefer, The chain of command in the coup attempt gives account to the judiciary.

However, the expert, who accuses Cumhuriyet newspaper of engaging in manipulation, veiling the truth and conducting perception management, cuts the top and bottom from the original front page and only takes the portion of the page that serves his ends into his report so as to conceal and veil Cumhuriyets headlines about the coupists and conduct perception management. On reading the 36-page experts report, it will be seen that this report is the basis for the indictment. This means that the basis for the arrest of sixteen managers of the countrys oldest, most respected and venerable newspaper that has caused uproar in the world, and the source of charges that has led to ten of them spending nine months in detention, is a computer engineer aged around 26-28 whose abilities and identity have been mentioned a little earlier. This is not a joke. The extent to which a judicial system has gone crazy and a country has lost its mind!

I will also speak of yet another experts report. Alongside the experts report I am now turning to, I have to concede that by comparison Unal Aldemir's report that I described above merits consideration as a paragon. I saw another experts report on page 77 of binder number three while examining our files annexes.

The experts report of 20 December 2016 introduced an innovation that I think has found application for the first time in our law. The expert was secret. This is the first time I have encountered an examination and report by an expert whose identity was kept secret. The prosecution that was conducting the operation must have felt the need for a secret expert scheme in the wake of the secret witness scheme such that it went about implementing it in practice with a fait accompli logic and no need for a statutory basis and fresh statutory provision. We had it coming to us! What is stated and what kind of findings and expert opinion are contained in this report bearing the date of 20 December 2016 and, while speaking of an expert, not including his or her forename, surname, expertise, profession or absolutely any other information and just bearing an indeterminate signature?

Stated in the introduction to the report is, A decision was made for expert examination of the file number 2016/97293 investigation of your Republic Chief Prosecution and I was appointed ex officio as expert under the expert appointment record of 2/11/2016. Let me note before I forget that I have been unable to find this expert appointment record of 02/11/2016 among the annexes to the file. If it is absent, I request that the prosecution be asked why this record was not placed in the file and that a copy be asked for, because the presence in the file of all components of this experts report that, as will be pointed out presently, is an incomparable masterpiece in its own field will be most beneficial in terms of serving as a deterrent to others.

The introduction to the report continues with the following comments:

The Preliminary Experts Report concerning our examination conducted into the two FCIB reports dated 18/10/2016 and 24/08/2016 and the two CDs annexed thereto in which account movements pertaining to the examinations made by the FCIB are contained that were entrusted to me has been submitted in attachment to our letter. (...) Should the needed information and documents about individuals and entities a breakdown of which is given in the CONCLUSION section of our report be obtained from the institutions and bodies also stated in the CONCLUSION section of our report and entrusted to me, it is deemed that a detailed experts report can be drawn up.

An experts report totalling 28 pages is annexed to the reports introductory page. I wish to quote certain sections of this report. This will make it far clearer whether it is warranted to ascribe such attributes as meritlessness, frivolousness and worthlessness to this investigation that directly targets the newspaper through the person of Cumhuriyet newspapers managers. A finding made on page 2 of the report is as follows:

3-As no information was encountered concerning the shareholders of Cumhuriyet Newspaper AS at which Hikmet Aslan Cetinkaya worked between the years of 1967-1991, it is deemed necessary to determine who the shareholders in question were and examine whether there were people among them who were connected and/or adjunctive to terrorist organisations.

Another finding is as follows:

It is deemed that money was sent by transfer/EFT from bank accounts by Akn Atalay (...) and there is a need for the monetary relations between the founder and administrators of the Penal Law Association and the reasons for them to be established. (p. 15 of the report)

The report even says, The sending by Ezgi Celik by transfer or EFT of double the total of the transfer/EFT that Onder Celik sent to his daughter Ezgi Celik requires explanation and must be investigated. (p.17) It is said how come a daughter can send her father more money within a father  daughter relationship and this needs explaining? Come again?

In the concluding section, the information and documents are listed for the prosecution that need to be requested from various institutions and bodies concerning the twelve suspects. There is no end to it. Let us take a slightly closer look at what kind of information and documents are requested and from which institutions concerning the twelve suspects.

The unknown expert says:

These twelve peoples

a) bank account movements of closed and currently open bank accounts from the past until today,

b) credit card statements, including open and closed cards,

c) rented safes,

d) presented or unpresented cheques issued until today and cheques given to these people,

e) promissory notes these people have obtained and made, and

f) Western Union transactions

must be requested in writing from Banks Association members (investment, participation and deposit banks).

Additionally, these peoples foreign transfer, EFT and Western Union transactions must be requested from the Central Bank.

Likewise, these twelve suspects account information, account movements, all information resting with the institution and all manner of insurance transactions must be requested from the postal authority, Central Registry Agency, Settlement and Custody Bank, Turkish Brokerage Association and the Insurance Association of Turkey.

Information showing in detail the immovable properties of which these named suspects are the former and new owners within the borders of Turkey, all their former and new owners and the prices at which the immovable properties were acquired must be requested from the General Directorate of Land Registry.

This is still not enough!

These suspects civil registry extracts showing events must be procured and their family members identified and the self-same information and documents mentioned above must be requested for each persons family members.

Yes, these are the opinions of the unknown expert in his or her report as to the matters that must be determined and investigated. As can readily be grasped, this is not an investigation into a crime. It is research and investigation in the most detailed manner into the lives starting from their births of the twelve people they are fixated on, covering their entire family. Had it stopped at this, I would have wished good health to the author of such a report and brought the matter to an end. But, the joke has been taken seriously because the investigating prosecutor has set about doing precisely whatever this unknown expert whose identity he has concealed recommends in his report. He has drafted writs to the institutions mentioned and asked for the requested information and documents to be furnished. And also, just as the expert said, he has procured the twelve peoples civil registry extracts showing events and has added these twelve peoples mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren alongside them. He has requested the same research, information and documents for them, too. There was no holding him back and he has called for these suspects former spouses to be investigated in the same way. There are other examples, but I will make do with citing one because it is egregious. One of the suspects first former wife whom he divorced 44 years ago and his second wife whom he divorced 26 years ago have also been included within the research and investigation. Is this not enough to justify us saying this is the limit? Can the situation we are encountering be shrugged off saying There has been a slip up? Let us make a running total. What picture emerges?

Crime: Aiding FETO

Accused: Cumhuriyet newspaper

Accuser: A person who, while legally incapable of being a candidate prosecutor, is still serving as a prosecutor and is being prosecuted with an aggravated life sentence sought for FETO membership and overthrowing the government on behalf of FETO.

Witnesses: Cem Kucuk, Latif Erdogan, Huseyin Gulerce...

The experts are the people I have spoken of a little earlier. And we have been detained for nine months because of an investigation conducted at this level of merit and worth. I am lost for words about such a state of affairs and its explanation. At best, I can repeat my answer before the Penal Judgship of the Peace where I was brought with an application seeking detention. I said that I wanted to tell a story while contemplating the accuser, accusation, adduced evidence, witnesses and experts, and the relevant party would be able to draw the requisite moral from this. The place and time has come and I need to tell it again:

At the time of Sultan Murat IV, there was a dervish named Bekri Mustafa who was famed for his drunkenness. Bekri Mustafa, who was forever drinking wine and was under the constant influence of alcohol, was passing before a mosque one day. At that moment, there were mortal remains awaiting a funeral at the mosque. Although the congregation had been waiting for a long time, the mosque imam was nowhere to be seen. Some of the congregation, seeing Bekri Mustafa passing along the road and noticing his attire, beard, gown and grandeur, say, Scholarly gentleman, please do us the goodness of performing funeral prayers and let us not leave the mortal remains in the open. Even if Bekri Mustafa says, I am not a religious scholar or such, any funeral prayer I perform will not be valid, he cannot make himself heard and convince anyone and he is dragged before the stone bier. Having performed prayers and finished the business, Bekri Mustafa bends down to the coffin and mumbles something that nobody can hear. One member of the congregation, his curiosity piqued by this event, later asks Bekri Mustafa, Scholarly gentleman, what did you whisper beside the coffin? Bekri Mustafa replies, I told the deceased that he was now going into the next world and they would ask him there about the state of the world and what is going on. I said there was no need to go on at length. If you told them that Bekri Mustafa had become an imam and was holding funerals, they would understand! And I say to those inquiring after the state of the law and judiciary in our country that Cumhuriyet newspaper is accused of aiding FETO and all its managers are in detention on this charge. Everyone who has retained their mental health will immediately understand.

IV. The FCIB Reports  Suspicious money movements

On the FCIB Reports:

The following pronouncement with reference to the Cumhuriyet Foundation was made on page 12 of the FCIB financial analysis report of 18/10/2016:

(...) out of the search conducted of the FCIB database, from among the people and entities in question, absolutely none of the named people or entities were encountered in analysis reports into the PKK/KCK and FETO/PDY compiled by our department and in correspondence sent to our department by various institutions regarding the PKK/KCK and FETO/PDY.

Nine transactions from among the results of financial analyses obtained with regard to Yenigun Haber Ajans A.S. are included on pages 239-240 of the indictment as suspicious money movements. We will respond one by one to the allegations in the indictment about money movements between people regarded as suspects in investigations, eight of them into FETO/PDY and one of them into the PKK. However, prior to this, I wish to emphatically point out that the prosecution, which has incorporated what it describes as suspicious money movements from the FCIB report into the indictment, ignores and overlooks the final assessment made in the FCIB report. On pages 9-11 of the FCIB report, having listed these nine transactions in detail, the following is set forth by way of final assessment:

When it is borne in mind that the total transaction volume in the transfer and EFT data obtained from the results of the search made into Revenue Administration and Republic of Turkey Central Bank data relating to the company under analysis [Yeni Gun AS  AA] amounts to some 230 million lira excluding transactions performed between the companys own accounts, the volume of the monetary transactions conducted with people and entities whose names are directly mentioned in analysis reports into the PKK/KCK and FETO/PDY whose details are set out above and which have been compiled by our department or in correspondence sent to our department by various institutions regarding the PKK/KCK and FETO/PDY appears to constitute a fairly small proportion of the total transactions.

The FCIB says the monetary value of the total volume of the newspapers transactions between the years of 2011-2016 was 230 million lira. By contrast, the monetary value of the nine transactions made over these six years with people recorded as having the status of suspects in relation to FETO/PDY is 174,000 lira. That is, this is not even one thousandth of the volume of the newspapers total monetary transactions.

This being so, let me answer them one by one:

1- Payments to
Great Allegheny Passage improvements coming

The bids were opened Nov. 1 and Adam Eidemiller's was the lower of two bids received. The project will take two weeks starting within the next week.
Roman Abramovich this week announced he is to separate from his third wife after 10 years of marriage - in a move which could potentially spark the world's most expensive divorce.

The Russian oligarch, 50, who is worth 7billion, and his magazine editor wife Dasha Zhukova, 36, have 'amicably' agreed to part ways, but will continue to work together for their joint businesses and two children.

Discussing the potential cost of the impending divorce, Ayesha Vardag, President of family law firm Vardags, said that everything Abramovich built during his 10-year marriage will be shared equally with Dasha.

Roman Abramovich this week announced he is to separate from his third wife Dasha Zhukova in a divorce that's predicted to be the world's most expensive divorce

She said: 'Roman Abramovich is by far the most prominent of Britain's Russian billionaires and like many of his fellow countrymen he will be well-aware that a divorce in the London courts could be far more costly than one in Moscow.

'The English courts start from the position that marriage is a partnership  and the starting point will be that everything built up during the marriage will be shared equally.

'Whilst Mr Abramovich will want to show that much of his wealth was generated before the marriage, the substantial returns he has generated in nine years of marriage could be split with his wife Dasha. The courts will also take a generous approach to assessing her financial needs.'

As what could be the world's most expensive divorce looks set to get underway, Ayesha has detailed the most expensive divorce cases in the UK.

Roman Abramovich this week announced he is to separate from his third wife after 10 years of marriage

1. AAZ v BBZ 453m

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave presided over the case of anonymous Russian nationals AAZ v BBZ in December 2016.

In this case, the husband's argument for 'special contribution' was rejected and the wife was awarded 453 million, including a 90 million art collection.

2. Cooper-Hohn 337m

The case of philanthropists Sir Christopher Hohn and Jamie Cooper was concluded by Mrs Justice Roberts in December 2014.

The husband was successful in his argument for 'special contribution' and the judge departed from equality to award the wife 337 million, 36 per cent of the overall total assets.

In June 2017 Sir Geoffrey Vos then ordered Sir Christopher to make a payment of 282 million from his charity into his ex-wife's own foundation.

The case of philanthropists Sir Christopher Hohn, left, and Jamie Cooper, right, saw her take 337 million, which was 36 per cent of the overall total assets

3. Estrada v Juffali 75m

The divorce between model Christina Estrada and Saudi billionaire Walid Juffali was finalised by Mrs Justice Roberts in June 2016.

The case was notable for the consideration of the couple's 'stratospheric' standard of living and Juffali's Islamic marriage to a second wife in 2012.

Mr Juffali had previously tried to avoid the proceedings through a 'spurious' assertion of diplomatic immunity.

The divorce between model Christina Estrada and Saudi billionaire Walid Juffali was worth 75m

4. WM v HM 73m

Mr Justice Mostyn presided over the case of WM v HM in May 2017. The husband's claim for 'special contribution' was dismissed and the wife was awarded 73 million. The case was also interesting for Mostyn J's words on valuing a business in hindsight.

5. Chai v Peng 64.5m

In April 2017, the wife was awarded 64.5 million by Mr Justice Bodey in the 'titanic' case of Chai v Peng.

The litigation between this former beauty queen and her business tycoon husband lasted four years and involved complicated jurisdiction battles between England and Malaysia.

6. Al-Baker 61million

The judgment for the multinational case of Al-Baker v Al-Baker was handed down in October 2016 by Mr Nicholas Cusworth QC.

Christina Estrada and Saudi billionaire Walid Juffali's divorce was notable for the consideration of the couple's 'stratospheric' standard of living

The case which stretched between civil and religious courts was remarkable because of the husband's consistent non-compliance and non-disclosure which resulted in the wife being awarded 61 million.

7. M v M 54m

Mrs Justice Eleanor King DBE presided over the case of M v M in August 2013, resulting in the wife being awarded 54 million.

Owing to the Russian couple's marital assets being tied up in offshore trusts, the case had an extra five respondents.

8. Charman 48m

In June 2007 Sir Mark Potter and two other judges at the Court of Appeal heard the case of Charman v Charman.

In the original judgment, the wife was awarded 48 million, proportionately 36 per cent of the matrimonial assets. The husband unsuccessfully appealed the decision arguing that his 'special contribution' had not been taken into account.

9. Sorrell v Sorrell 30m

The case of Sorrell v Sorrell was heard by Mr Justice Bennett in July 2005. This is one of the rare cases where a husband successfully argued 'special contribution', which led to Lady Sorrell being awarded 30 million, a 60/40 split of the marital assets.

The acrimonious split saw the head of advertising group WPP living for a time in the basement of their Knightsbridge townhouse. In the divorce settlement, she also got two parking spaces at Harrods.

Michelle and Scot Young, pictured on their wedding day in 1995, were involved in a particularly public divorce battle with 6m worth of costs

10. Young v Young 20m (6m costs)

Mr Justice Moor handed down the judgment for Young v Young in November 2013.

Michelle and Scot Young were involved in a particularly public divorce battle where, though he was legally bankrupt, the wife insisted that the husband had thousands or millions hidden offshore.

Ultimately, the wife was awarded 20 million and the husband was ordered to pay 6 million - believed to be the highest costs order in family law history.
It is one of the biggest days in a childs life  even if you are a Princess.

So it was no surprise Princess Athena of Denmark was looking shy and nervous ahead of her first day of school.

Doting parents Prince Joachim and his second wife Princess Marie looked proud as they embarked on the school run to St Josephs Sisters School in Odrup, not far from the family home, with their youngest child.

But like many youngsters on such a huge day of change, the youngster was more interested in clinging to her mother than in meeting new friends and classmates.

Princess Athena of Denmark, pictured, looked sullen and sulky ahead of her first day of school

The five-year-old clung to her mother Princess Marie, left, and held father Prince Joachim's hand, right, as they tried to comfort her on what must have been a stressful day

But her parents were all smiles as they posed for a photoshoot at the family home in Kalmpenborg, before Princess Marie gave her some tender loving care

Royal children now attend public schools in Denmark and it is understood a deal was agreed between the Prince and the press to have a photo shoot near the family home in Kalmpenborg so as to not disrupt the day for other children.

The school starting age in Denmark is actually six, with Princess Athena, born in January 2012, currently five-and-a-half.

But her parents opted for her to start school as one of the younger children this year rather than have her be substantially older than classmates if she started next year.

The Princess was also seen shouting and yelling at what was likely a stressful time for the child but she eventually broke out into a smile as her parents left the home.

Prince Joachim told reporters the girl could not read yet but was able to write her own name.

Her older brother Prince Henrik, eight, attends the same Catholic school, which he started at in 2015.

The school starting age in Denmark is actually six, with Princess Athena, born in January 2012, currently five-and-a-half. But her parents decided they would rather her be one of the youngest in the class than the oldest

Prince Joachim at one point joked with photographers that his daughter needed a time-out

But he was eventually able to persuade her to make a move to St Josephs Sisters School in Odrup, not far from the home

It comes as the Princess carried on a Danish tradition earlier this year when she received a gold bracelet upon turning five  something every female member of the family receives at that age since the late 1800s when the custom was started by Princess Margaret of Connaught and her daughter Queen Ingrid of Denmark.

Prince Joachim, who has two sons from his first marriage, and his second wife married in 2008 after bonding at a chance meeting at a dinner party.

The Prince, who was married at the time, previously revealed they were sat together because 'they were the only two French-speaking people in the room'.

Marie had held jobs in PR and advertising before landing a gig as an executive secretary in ING Numismatic Group SA, where she worked until her engagement to Joachim.
Dr Bobby Qureshi performed miracle eye surgery on thousands of patients with age-related macular degeneration

The celebrity eye surgeon who saved EastEnders actress June Brown from blindness is being investigated by the General Medical Council amid growing concerns about his practices, exposed by this newspaper in April.

Ophthalmologist Dr Bobby Qureshi performed miracle eye surgery on thousands of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), including Brown  who plays one of the BBC soaps longest-running characters, Dot Cotton  and socialite Lady Annabel Goldsmith.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that he is being investigated by doctors governing body the GMC after scores of furious patients, most in their 70s and 80s who paid up to 25,000 for the heavily promoted procedure at the London Eye Hospital, alleged they were left with little or no improvement to their vision following the surgery.

Many claimed they were not adequately warned that it might not work.

A dossier of evidence detailing a number of cases was submitted to the GMC by leading vision charity the Macular Society in June.

An interim hearing was held last month and, as a result, it has placed restrictions on Mr Qureshis practice while it investigates further.

The conditions include a requirement for Mr Qureshi not to perform any operations until the patients medical notes and signed consent forms have been seen and discussed with him by a GMC-appointed clinician.

Witness statements from at least two former patients of the clinic have been taken as part of the probe.

The Macular Societys Cathy Yelf said: We have raised concerns with the GMC and are pleased an investigation is under way.

Mr Qureshi, who set up the London Eye Hospital, has invested heavily in advertising and promotions for the artificial lenses that he developed.

The ophthalmologist treated actress June Brown, but is now being investigated by doctors governing body the GMC after scores of furious patients alleged they were left with little or no improvement to their vision following the surgery

The pioneering implants, iolAMD and EyeMax Mono, give hope to millions of Britons who suffer from AMD, an incurable condition which robs sufferers of their vision when the part of the eye responsible for central vision deteriorates.

The lenses are designed to magnify vision and redirect light rays to healthier parts of the eye.

Inserting them involves a ten-minute procedure at the Harley Street clinic. The operations are known to have helped many hundreds of patients improve or prolong their vision.

But our investigation earlier this year revealed concerns over Qureshis hard sell tactics targeting vulnerable and elderly patients, with patients also complaining about a catalogue of failings and poor care at the clinic.

Since then, more than 20 other former patients have contacted the MoS, again increasing the total number of disgruntled patients.

One 77-year-old, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she felt she was a victim of unscrupulous practices after paying 25,000 for iolAMD lenses in 2014. They made no difference to her vision  and she was registered blind a year later.

Another patient, Pauline Hardie, 79, from Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, was also told  as were other patients who spoke to this newspaper  that both eyes had to be fitted with the lenses, at additional cost, for balance.

NHS specialist Winfried Amoaku, a consultant ophthalmologist in Nottingham, said there were some cases in which an implant could be inserted into a single eye, especially if its deemed not to be helpful in the other eye.

Lady Annabel Goldsmith (pictured with her son) was another of Dr Bobby Qureshi's patients

The Harley Street clinic has also been advising patients to obtain a prescription for its own-brand vitamin supplement MacuLEH Light, which it claims is available via the NHS.

The supplement, which costs about 90 for a three-month supply, is based on a formulation used in a trial which found it could delay the progression of AMD. But some local NHS clinical commissioning groups have refused to prescribe the supplement because of a lack of evidence that it is effective.

Several former patients complained of huge delays in processing refunds when they pulled out of having surgery.

It is not clear whether Mr Qureshi attended the Interim Orders Tribunal on July 19, but he would have been informed of the hearing.

A GMC spokesman confirmed that Mr Qureshi was under investigation but a full hearing, where he would face any charges, had not been scheduled. The investigation may be dropped if officials decide there is not enough evidence.

A spokesman for Mr Qureshi and the London Eye Hospital said: It is an unavoidable consequence of having this disease, for which there is currently no cure, that sufferers will eventually lose their vision.

Mr Qureshis work aims to give patients the opportunity to retain or improve their vision but, unfortunately, it is not always possible to delay the patients loss of sight.

Mr Qureshi is careful not to give any guarantees to patients who undertake the procedure. While he cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality obligations, he is confident that no patients have been misled.

Mr Qureshi is fully co-operating with the GMC and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage other than to say that he expects that the GMC will exonerate him in its investigation.
The Mile End Murder

Sinclair McKay

Autumn Press 20

Rating:

The eccentric and very funny American poet Ogden Nash once wrote this ditty about detective stories:

Had she told the dicks

How she got in that fix

I would be much apter

To read the last chapter.

I thought of this charming little verse as I was reading Sinclair McKays interesting new book about the real-life Victorian murder of a wealthy old lady. Though the crime took place more than 150 years ago, McKay thinks he has finally worked out who did it  and, according to him, it wasnt the poor man who was sent to the scaffold.

But has he fingered the right villain? Only the victim could ever really tell the dicks how she got in that fix, and she, alas, is beyond words, having been found lying dead in a messy pulp on the top floor of her own home in the hot summer of 1860.

Mrs Emsley, an elderly widow living in Stepney, London, was beaten to death in August 1860

Mary Emsley was by no stretch of the imagination a sympathetic character. Rather like the murder victim in Dostoevskys Crime And Punishment, she was a grasping, mean-spirited moneybags who seemed to take delight in collecting rent from hundreds of poor tenants, and evicting those who were unable to pay, never allowing them any more than a weeks grace.

Twice-widowed, and with no children, she lived by herself in a three-storey house in the East End of London, and seemed to relish her own miserliness. Rumours went around her neighbours  many of whom were also her tenants  that she spent her evenings counting out her money.

In August 1860, one of her rent-collectors grew worried that no one had seen her for two or three days. One thing led to another, and soon the police were letting themselves into the house.

The first thing that struck them was the foul and unmistakeable smell. On the top-floor landing they noticed a bloody footprint and an intensification of the nauseating stench.

Seconds later, they stumbled upon the corpse of Mrs Emsley, her head pulverised, and maggots writhing in and around the lurid crater in her skull.

As you can see, Sinclair McKay doesnt believe in holding things back. He knows full well that we British prefer our murders grisly, and preferably in Technicolor. There was, he adds, a greenish hue on her face, and one of her hands was grasping a table leg. Furthermore, there had been an explosion of blood in three directions.

And now read on Needless to say, its impossible not to. McKay tells a compelling story, and skilfully weaves into it fascinating threads about Victorian London, with illuminating sketches on such diverse contemporary themes as immigration, the workhouses, the coming of gaslight, the temperance movement and the threat of terrorism.

Given that Mrs Emsley was a mean-spirited moneybags with more than a hundred hard-pressed tenants, there should have been any number of suspects. At first, the police spread their net wide, realising, in their blunt way, that some hundreds of the most depraved and lowest class have frequently threatened her.

But they soon convinced themselves that, as there was no sign of forced entry, and very little taken, the murderer must surely have been someone she knew and trusted.

A fairly typical murder had suddenly turned into a proper whodunit, with what appeared to be a fairly limited cast of suspects.

Mrs Emsleys solicitor offered 200 for information leading to a conviction, to which the government added a further 100. In todays money, this would amount to 35,000 or more, so a considerable fortune, and quite enough to transform an entire neighbourhood of paupers into fanatical sleuths.

One of those with an eye on the reward money was an odd-job man named James Mullins, who had been employed by Mrs Emsley to help repair her multiple properties.

With an eye to the main chance, Mullins led the police to a shed in which he claimed to have spied Mrs Emsleys chief rent-collector, Walter Emm, depositing a mysterious parcel.

The police opened the parcel and found a few sundry objects, among which were four teaspoons owned by the late Mrs Emsley, along with a cheque made out to her.

An open-and-shut case, one might have thought, but at this point the tables were turned on Emms accuser, Mullins, when the sharp-eyed police inspector noticed that the string that wrapped the parcel exactly matched the string Mullins used to lace up his boots.

Might Mullins have set Emm up? And might Mullins himself be the murderer?

The police decided to hedge their bets, and arrested both men. They then went off to search their homes and, among Mullinss possessions, chanced upon a hammer which soon became one of their key pieces of evidence.

It was, they said, with just such an instrument that the deceased, Mrs Emsley, was struck. Furthermore, they thought that Mullinss boots matched the bloodied footprint on Mrs Emsleys floorboards.

Within a matter of days, there seemed to be a solid case against Mullins, and the public were soon convinced that he was the guilty man. It didnt matter to them, or to the police, that there was no trace of blood on his hammer or on his boots: there was no shortage of nosey neighbours happy to say that they had noticed a strange, haunted look on his face in the hours after the murder.

One of them, Mrs Fuke, even remembered the accused telling her that Mrs Emsley deserved everything that was coming to her. It was a great pity, she claimed he had told her, that such a miserable old wretch should be allowed to live.

The Old Bailey trial lasted two days, which was considered quite lengthy at that time. The judge dismissed as idle dreaming the evidence of those who said that they had spotted Mullins on the night in question looking crazed and haunted, and made it clear that he thought that the blooded footprint on the floorboard, theatrically displayed in the courtroom, had no relation to the accuseds boots.

Nevertheless, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and, after a failed appeal, the unhappy Mullins was executed before an audience of 30,000, which some felt was the largest ever seen at Newgate.

Mullins, it emerges, had lived an extraordinary life before meeting this sorry end. As a young man, he had been recruited into the newly formed police force, and then had served as a spy in Ireland, successfully infiltrating a bloodthirsty group of Irish nationalists.

But this terrorist cell had got wind of him, and had been about to execute him when he managed to escape and raise the alarm. Forced to return to the British mainland, he was demoted, then badly injured in an accident, and driven to petty crime, for which he was sentenced to six years in Dartmoor prison.

Once out of prison, he seemed to have fallen on his feet when he got plastering work from Mrs Emsley. But then came her murder, his over-zealous sleuthing and his subsequent arrest.

Sinclair McKay waits until the last two chapters in his book to reveal the true identity of the guilty party. His choice of the real villain is ingenious, and artistically satisfying, too

Did he actually commit the crime that sent him to the scaffold? Writing about the case 40 years later, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, felt that his guilt should be reclassified as unproven, but McKay is completely convinced that Mullins was innocent.

IT'S A FACT Unlike his fictional creation, Conan Doyle was not the world's greatest detective, being taken in by two girls who claimed to have photographed fairies. Advertisement

With elaborate taran-taras, he has waited until the last two chapters in his book to reveal the true identity of the guilty party. My lips are sealed. All I will say is that his choice of the real villain is ingenious, and artistically satisfying, too, in that it would have pleased Wilkie Collins, or even Conan Doyle.

But is it true? Perhaps it is, and perhaps it isnt. But it doesnt strike me that, based on McKays fairly slim evidence, a sensible jury would convict. My own suspicion is that Mrs Emsley might have let a total outsider into her house  she had advertised a sale of wallpaper, so would have been expecting strangers  which means that her murderer might have been anyone.

And I suspect, too, that McKay is not quite as convinced by his solution as his publishers, who confidently state that he has finally revealed the true murderer, would have us believe.

Being an honest writer, he uses the weasel-word possibly on two different occasions when announcing whodunit. Nonetheless, this is a fascinating book, by turns riveting and unsettling, and wonderfully rich in period detail.
Why, 25 years since he saw action, wont the best-selling author reveal his TRUE identity  even to the Queen?

His real name is a secret but even the Queen calls him Andy McNab these days. Shes just made the SAS hero turned best-selling author a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, but the enigmatic McNab admits he almost threw the letter away.

I didnt see the honour coming, not at all. I genuinely thought it was something from the Inland Revenue, so I thought, F*** it, Ill sort that out at the weekend or whatever and I forgot about it!

The legendary tough guy cracks a smile. Then I picked the letter up the following Monday and it was all this. Ive been playing up to it with my wife, going: The Commander wants a cup of tea. And what does she say to that? You can shove it, you know where the kettle is!

All this secrecy is good for the image but I wonder, isnt it just a little over the top? Above: McNab in a balaclava at an FBI training camp

Sounds like Mrs McNab doesnt take any nonsense, but then Jenny is his fifth wife. They met after he had left the SAS in the Nineties and published Bravo Two Zero, a thrilling account of the mission he led behind enemy lines during the first Gulf War.

Three men were killed, McNab and four others were caught, imprisoned and tortured before release six weeks later. He made it out with nerve damage to his hands, a dislocated shoulder, damage to his internal organs and hepatitis B  as well as a Military Medal and a great story to tell.

Bravo Two Zero was published in 1993 and is still the best-selling military history book of all time. And with the help of his wife  who was in publishing when they married 17 years ago  McNab moved on from memoirs to fiction and has had phenomenal success on both sides of the Atlantic, shifting tens of millions of copies and achieving eight Amazon number ones. The latest is Cold Blood, an action thriller about a group of wounded ex-soldiers trying to reach the North Pole.

Home for McNab is in Cornwall, but of course he wont say where. All this secrecy is good for the image but I wonder, isnt it just a little over the top? Cant I just look up the citation for CBE, wont that be in his real name? No, it was Andy McNab. Doesnt that make it invalid then? No, its the same as if youve got a stage name, like Elton John.

Wikipedia says hes called Steven Billy Mitchell, is that right? Er no. People can say what they want, great, let them crack on, but basically no. There are about six names going around out there at the moment. I just leave them to it.

McNabs face is always in shadow in his publicity shots, but I spot him immediately when we meet in a discreet corner of a private members bar in Soho. Yeah, but thats because youre looking for me. So would a potential attacker, surely? Thats really not how it works. Out of context, its very difficult for people to identify me.

To be fair, hes the only man in the club who looks like Action Man in retirement. McNab is short and stocky but visibly still very fit in his late 50s, with a square jaw and salt-and-pepper hair cropped close. How careful does the former SAS troop sergeant really have to be these days? Im not hiding anywhere. Its just about being sensible. Im running around like a blue-a***rsed fly anyway , its not as if Ive got a set routine.

I must look sceptical, because McNab reveals hes still getting death threats from former enemies  including a recent one from whats left of the IRA. I was over in Northern Ireland, doing events with the police. When one of them said, Theyre trying to zap ya.

He was travelling with his publicist, Laura. We had plain-clothes escorts with us all the time including a woman with an MP5 [sub-machine gun] in her bag. Laura hadnt got a clue what was going on. This policeman came round and said, So far, so good. They havent hit us. She said, What? He was banging on the door of the car going, Its armoured, dont you get it? This is where it gets real.

McNab first killed in Northern Ireland, when he was a teenage squaddie with an IRA man in his sights. He described it in detail in one of his books. He also served undercover there. Now a mood change in politics has led to new investigations into what the Army did during the Troubles, with the threat that veterans like him could be prosecuted - while many of the paramilitary men they fought have served very short sentences or been officially told they are no longer wanted. McNab is angry.

The terms of reference have been changed and all of a sudden everything that took place on the government side is now being reassessed. Weve got no protection. You want a military force when the s**** hits the fan, but then when everythings OK okay you basically f**** us over. Its absolutely crazy.

Is he personally afraid of being tried for murder? Basically, no -one was there. I feel totally justified in what I done. So I dont mind being in front of a jury, because nine out of ten times people are quite sensible.

He let his true feelings show on Twitter earlier this year when others were praising the late IRA commander turned deputy first minister Martin McGuinness. McGuinness the prophet of peace? The IRA killed more UK citizens, including children, than all Islamist groups together.

How careful does the former SAS troop sergeant really have to be these days? Im not hiding anywhere. Its just about being sensible. Above: the SAS insignia

Hes no fan of Jeremy Corbyn either, is he? In the Eighties, when McNab was a young squaddie, Corbyn was part of a the campaign to have British forces withdrawn from Ulster. He was also talking with Sinn Fein [at the time]. Its different if youre there and you see people getting killed - not only mates, but kids. I dont think hes ever seen a kid blown up. So hes talking with people who blow up kids. Youre like, Really? What happens if its your kid?

McNab has one daughter, who is now 30 years old. He blames the Army for his having been married five times, the first when he was just 19. When I was in the infantry there was no support system for girlfriends, it was marriage or nothing. If you was a lad in Germany or Cyprus or wherever, she could only come over and live there if you were married. So when a battalion moved, all of a sudden thered be loads of marriages. The military has changed a lot for the better since then.

McNab was a working class south Londoner who hated school, got in trouble and was sent to borstal before an Army recruiting officer offered him a way out. I liked it. They threw you into a shower twice a day. You could have as much food as you wanted.

Clean sheets every Tuesday, and your own bed space. Youre getting paid. Yeah its tough work, you get shouted at and you have to march, but actually there was this care and attention too. I was thinking, Well, my mum never checked my toe nails to see if they were properly cut. The guy who used to do that for me is now a general!

What about the actual soldiering? As a young man, its very exciting. We forget that theres a proportion of young men and women who like to fight.

This hugely successful author had never even read a book before he joined up. I didnt know it, but when I joined the Army I had the numeracy and literacy of a nine-year-old. We were marched into the Army education centre and the guy in there changed my life. He said: Youre not thick, youre just uneducated. He gave us a Janet and John book, for primary school kids.

McNab now goes into schools, prisons and workplaces with a charity called The Reading Agency, helping adults. Its the main reason he was made a CBE.

McNab says he learned how to write tight, fast-moving plots by spending seven months on set as an advisor to director Michael Mann during the making of Heat. That was with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino back in 1995, while he was considering working in Hollywood, before the success of his books took over.

If you put a Hollywood hardman in a real fight, would he have a chance? Theres a difference between having the gear and having the intention to kill. A movie hardman will run about, but a 19-year-old squaddie will just kill him.

Cold Blood includes a very realistic account of what its like for a soldier to have post-traumatic stress disorder, so has he suffered? Im very fortunate, Ive had nothing. I havent even had a nightmare.

Soldiers he served with have committed suicide over the years and theres a striking passage in the book in which he calls the popular view of the military the worlds biggest lie.

What does he mean by that? For thousands of years weve turned this thing into a big heroic process  whether its a war to maintain our civilisation, or whatever. The Glorious Dead. All it boils down to is loads of young lads chopping each other up. Then the people who survive  whove had a little bit chopped off  actually have to live in this world that is living the lie. One day a year  on Remembrance Sunday  we all love them, but then the next day, we dont really give a s***.

Havent attitudes to soldiers changed dramatically thanks to charities like Help For Heroes? Fantastically. But I think the way that its been done, unfortunately, is by turning them into victims.

Thats quite a confession, what is he saying? Well by complaining about the lack of equipment to get funding for their operational needs. And as patron for Help For The Heroes, really pushing with the media that these lads are not getting the help they need. But what happens is then we look at our military as victims. Whereas other nations have this natural bond with their military, the prime example being the Americans. Theyre very pro their military as fighters, as opposed to victims.

Nobody could call Andy McNab a victim. Hes managed to turn himself into a legend  and all on his own terms, which means keeping his face out of it.

Commercially it would be much better to get out there and do stuff [on screen], but most lads who get out of UK Special Forces dont want to put themselves out there, because there is always the possibility of reprisals. I know people who are in the public domain and its s***, the way theyve got to conduct their lives. I wouldnt want it. I have the best of both worlds.

And with that hes off, moving through the crowd, glad that nobody knows who he really is. Not even the Queen.

Andy Mcnab's latest thriller, 'Cold Blood', is published in paperback on Sep 21. His latest novel for young adults, 'Silent Weapon', is out now.
Writer-Lyricist Prasoon Joshi has been appointed the new chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in a decision that ends the controversial tenure of Pahlaj Nihalani.

While Joshi's gameplan as censor boss will be gradually known, the film industry expects the 45-year-old to work at reinventing CBFC as a body of film certification rather than censorship, true to the board's name.

Joshi started out with an advertising background before making his mark as a lyricist in hits like Hum Tum, Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Black, Taare Zameen Par, and Delhi 6.

Writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi will replace Nihalani as the CBFC head

He has also written dialogues for several films, besides the script of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

Nihalani's term was to end in January 2018, and names of filmmakers Prakash Jha, Madhur Bhandarkar and Chandraprakash Dwivedi were doing the rounds as possible replacement.

Nihalani's sudden sacking on Friday comes in the wake of Smriti Irani taking over the information and broadcasting ministry a while back.

Since he was appointed as censor boss in January 2015, it was time and again alleged by CBFC colleagues and industry folks alike that Nihalani had virtually turned the board into a personal domain, often disregarding co-members while unanimously giving cuts, and occasionally banning films.

Pahlaj Nihalan

While almost every other week of Nihalani's tenure saw a fresh Bollywood controversy related to censorship erupt, this year itself has already seen around half a dozen.

Recently, the censors demanded 48 cuts in the upcoming Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Babumoshai Bandookbaaz despite giving the film an 'A' certificate, owing to the usage of cuss words.

Another controversial film was Alankrita Shrivastava's Lipstick Under My Burkha.

Initially banning the film, the CBFC had sent a letter to the makers, stating: 'The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life.

There are contagious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society.'

Shrivastava released her film after almost six months of legal hassle.

Noor, Indu Sarkar, Anarkali OF Aarah, Maatr, Munna Michael and docu-film The Argumentative Indian are among other films that faced censor heat this year.

Recent breaking news about Pahlaj Nihalani making way for writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi as chief of the censor board came as a huge relief for Bollywood.

In the three-odd years that he headed Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Nihalani had been in the news every other week all through his tenure for chopping scenes and banning films on flimsy grounds, and allegedly running CBFC as his personal fiefdom.

SANSKARI BEDLAM

While the film industry and audiences alike look up to Joshi to rid the censor board of its 'sanskari' tag, which it had come to acquire lately, the job for the new chairperson will be a rough one.

The industry has been demanding film certification instead of censorship for long, and apart from getting rid of the 'sanskari bedlam' that has come to be associated with the censors, Joshi will have to work at making the body a board of film certification, true to its name.

Lipstick Under My Burkha: The censors issued a hilarious letter to the producers, saying the script was too 'lady oriented'

Nihalani's swan song controversy happened just a few days before his exit on Friday, when he deliberated to impose an astounding 48 on the upcoming Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, despite giving the film an 'A' certificate.

Despite declaring the film was suitable strictly for adult viewing, CBFC, insisted on removing words like saala and h*r**mzaada from the dialogues, besides kissing and intimate scenes.

According to the film's director Kushan Nandy, the CBFC had allegedly threatened that if the makers approached the Revising Committee, the cuts would be doubled.

Aligarh: Censors recommended eight cuts be given to the film

Makers of the film subsequently moved the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT).

The CBFC's logic behind giving so many cuts to the 'A' certified Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is laughable: The censors reasoned that children in India watch even those films that are certified for adults, so adults-only cinema need cuts, too!

ABSURD LOGIC

This was not the first time that the sanskari censors struck with absurd logic in the Nihalani era, ever since the onetime producer of B-flicks took over as censor chief in January 2015.

During his tenure, almost every month saw at least one film at the wrong end of the censor stick.

Only recently, Alankrita Shrivastava's critically acclaimed multiplex hit Lipstick Under My Burkha came under flak. The film, initially slated for a January release, finally made it to the halls in July, after much war of word between Shrivastava and Nihalani, played out in the media.

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz: CBFC said that children would watch the film

In a letter written to the makers of the film, the CBFC had objections with the hilarious reasoning that the film was 'lady oriented'.

The CBFC's exact letter went: 'The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life. There are contagious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society. (sic)'

The makers had appealed to FCAT. After much deliberation that led to 16 voluntary cuts and a few more cuts suggested by FCAT, CBFC issued an 'A' certificate.

While Bollywood never really went for overt sexual depiction, most of the objections have come over cuss words, even in A-certificate films.

Another recent example was Munna Michael. The Tiger Shroff-Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer faced seven visual and verbal cuts.

A couple of long fight sequences were hacked reduced and certain expletive words were muted, along with sounds of bones smashing during an action scene.

While on Munna Michael, an amusing bit was that a disclaimer had to be added with Tiger's complex dance and fight scenes: 'It is hereby notified that the stunts and dance displayed in this film are performed by professionals in controlled environments.

'Do not attempt to duplicate, re-create, or perform them or similar stunts and dances at home, as personal injury or property damage may result. The producer of this film is not responsible for any such injury or damage.'

Udta Punjab: 94 cuts demanded by censors, despite its 'A' certificate

WHIMSICAL STANCE

A recent film that seems to have got away lightly is Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar. The CBFC initially suggested 14 cuts to Bhandarkar's film set in the backdrop of Emergency.

The film, touted to be anti-Congress, faced protests before release for its alleged depiction of the Gandhi family. However, the CBFC Revising Committee cleared film with few cuts.

Only one scene featuring a lookalike of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was retained while a couple others removed. The director got away by agreeing to put an elaborate disclaimer at the start.

The Argumentative Indian: An online release is now being planned

Among the cuts the CBFC had originally recommended were dialogues as 'Bharat ki ek beti ne desh ko bandi banaya hua hai', 'Tum log zindagi bhar maa-bete ki ghulami karte rahoge', 'Main toh 70 saal ka buddha hoon, meri nasbandi kyun karwa rahe ho?' and 'Ab iss desh mein Gandhi ke mayene badal chuke hain'.

However, these lines were subsequently retained.

The CBFC's problem list this year has also included the Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Noor, for words as 'Dalit', 'sex toy' in the dialogues, and references to journalist Barkha Dutt and a brand of rum. The censor board had the term sex toy replaced with 'adult site'.

Anaarkali of Aarah: Dialogues had to be cut

Talking about Dutt, they had objected to referring to a real person without their consent. The veteran journalist reacted to the CBFC diktat calling it 'bizarre' and 'whimsical'.

Another woman-centric film to run into trouble this year was the Raveena Tandon-starrer Maatr.

The film, that had gruesome depiction of a gang rape on a mother and her teenage daughter, was initially banned for its graphic content and certain cuss words. Heroine Raveena reacted saying that the censor board was 'bound by archaic laws'.

Indeed, any subject that led to serious introspection on issues society does not like openly talking about was worth the censor wrath during Nihalani's tenure.

Last year, the censors stumped all suggesting 94 cuts in Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab despite an 'A' certificate, because the hardhitting film trained focus on growing drug menace in Punjab.

Producers were asked to remove names of cities, besides cuss words and drug-related jargon. Words such as 'Election', 'MP', 'Parliament', 'party' from party worker, and 'MLA' were removed.

After all the chopping, Udta Punjab makers had to add this disclaimer: 'The film focuses on the rising menace of drugs and the war against drugs and is an attempt to show the ill-effects of drugs on today's youth and social fabric.

'We acknowledge the battle against drugs being fought by the government and the police. But this battle can't be won unless the people of India unite against the menace.'

Noor: The CBFC objected to words like 'Dalit' and 'sex toy'

ORTHODOX STREAK

Given the CBFC's recent orthodox streak, it is no surprise that themes pertaining to homosexuality faced bans. Hansal Mehta's Aligarh, which won acclaim in international festivals, had a hard time getting release in India.

The film, despite an 'A' certificate, got eight cuts. Mehta called the cuts 'anti-democratic' but accepted them.

At times, the absurdity of censor demands extended to sequences that neither had sex or violence nor cuss words. In Anaarkali of Aarah, for instance, the censor board demanded dialogues mentioning Amitabh Bachchan and the late Amrish Puri be removed.

They also asked that the name Arjun be removed, fearing it might hurt religious sentiments. The CBFC gave 11 cuts to the film.

Munna Michael: A disclaimer warned viewers not to copy Tiger Shroff's stunts and dances

DOCUMENTED DISORDER

Censor stricture on documentary films is nothing new. Suman Ghosh's The Argumentative Indian, on the life of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, had CBFC formally issue a notice declaring the film would be given a 'U' certificate if makers agreed to six cuts.

These included bleeping words like 'cow', 'Hindu India', 'Hindutva view of India', 'these days', 'in India' and 'Gujarat'.

Frustrated, Ghosh has announced he will release the film online. Things will perhaps need more than a new CBFC chairperson.

Until censorship makes way for certification, Bollywood will not be allowed to think freely.
An investigation has revealed that those accused of being at the helm of the Bhopal train blast sought ISIS training, and planned to escape via Bengal to west Asia.

The morning blast on the train at the Jabri railway station on March 7 left at least 10 people injured.

Self-radicalised ISIS linked jihadis, who carried out the blast in a Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train had planned to escape to Syria via the Sundarbans in West Bengal to join terror training, intelligence sources have told Mail Today.

The men also carried out reconnaissance in the coastal forested region as well as Kolkata to find an escape route, but apparently failed in their bid.

According to a senior intelligence officer, this was the first ever strike by alleged Islamic State members in India.

The incident not only raised questions on railway security but also sparked concerns about the presence of self-radicalised jihadis in the country connected to ISIS.

Indian rescue workers look for survivors at the site of the derailment of the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar express train near Kuneru station in southern Andhra Pradesh state

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its charge sheet has named Uttar Pradesh residents Atif Muzaffar, Mohd Danish alias Jaafar, Syed Mir Hussain alias Hamja Abu Bakkas and Ghaus Mohd Khan.

They were allegedly indoctrinated through online content and Islamic State-inspired publications, and also tried to migrate to ISIS territory several times but failed.

The agency stated that action against Saifullah, son of Sartaj Khan of Kanpur Nagar in UP, has stopped since he is dead.

Saifullah, the alleged terrorist sympathetic to ISIS, was killed in Lucknow in an encounter on March 9 this year.

'They were very serious about 'Hizrat' (migration to ISIS territory) and the members went to Kolkata and Sundarbans to find a way to leave for Syria,' the NIA said in its charge sheet.

ISIS headhunters hide within an ocean of 2.3 billion live social media accounts, flooding the internet with romanticised videos of life inside the caliphate, as well as brutal execution clips, using them as clickbait to lure potential recruits.

Kerala's Abdul Rashid Abdulla is believed to have started ISIS recruitment and fundraising operations in the southern state in July 2015.

He had led 21 youth from the state to Islamic State dens in Afghanistan. Investigators are yet to find out how the men from the UP case were planning to reach Syria from West Bengal.

One of those accused of Patna-Indore Express train accident being taken to NIA civil court, in Patna

'This is an unusual route but probably the group members were looking for an option to enter Bangladesh to further find their way to Syria,' an officer said.

But the NIA investigation reveals that all the members took 'bayah' (oath of allegiance) to ISIS and also attempted to do Hizrat several times through Kashmir, Amritsar, Mumbai and other places.

'Having failed to do so, they then conspired with each other to cause subversive activities threatening the sovereignty of India and the safety and security of the nation.

To this effect, they shifted to a hideout at Lucknow and collected arms and fabricated IEDs there,' said a senior NIA officer.

Photos related to preparation of different explosives and some connected to ISIS were also found along with a picture of the bomb after it was placed on the overhead rack on the train.

This is the same photo which was sent by the accused on social media and the messaging app Telegram.

NIA claims that they wanted to wage a war against India which is evident from the data recovered from their phone that was used as propaganda on social networking sites to attract and recruit more followers to the cause of Islamic State.

The agency in its charge sheet also said that all of them met at religious gatherings and their discussion on the rise of ISIS led to their radicalisation.

Kuneru: Rescue and relief work in progress at the site where the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Express derailed near Kuneru station in Vizianagaram district of Andra Pradesh (stock photo)

They were more inclined towards carrying out jihad in India and tried their best to convince others to join their cause.

All took an oath of allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The men had prepared a bomb in their hideout in Lucknow which they carried to Bhopal to cause the blast.

The group planned to target innocent people and they practised firing weapons in areas near Kanpur.

The NIA found that the terrorists carried out several attempts to create fear and panic among the public.

Apart from a trial blast, they also tried to test their arms and ammunition. On October 24, 2016, they shot a school teacher in Kanpur to test their skills and to create panic.

The accused learnt to prepare a bomb from Inspire magazine, available online. The charge sheet also reveals that they tried to attack Barelvi Muslims.

They planted a bomb at a religious procession of 'Bara Rabi ul Alwal' in UP's Unnao district in December 2016, but it failed to explode.

They fixed a new timer and used the same bomb on the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train on March 7.

After planting the bomb on the train at Bhopal station, they snapped a photograph and sent it to a person called Abu Hishaam for transmission to ISIS.

During investigation, sufficient oral, documentary, technical, forensic and material evidence has been collected which establishes the criminal conspiracy and the terror act committed by these accused, the agency says.

Atif Muzzafar, leader of the group, had told officials that he was a firm believer in the ISIS ideology of establishing a Sunni caliphate.

He also used to follow controversial preacher Zakir Naik. Atif sold his ancestral property and used `70 lakh from the sale to fund the group's terror activities.

Born into a Deobandi family, Atif was interested in a purist version of Islam, especially after the death of his father.

He started visiting the Quran Centre at Kanpur. Later Atif began frequenting an Ahl-al Hadith programme in the city.

In 2013, he had gone for Umrah (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia. Ghaus Mohd was Barelvi by birth and was working in Punjab with the Indian Air Force.

However he was impressed by the Deobandi form of Islam. Later, he went to Saudi Arabia for work between 1996 and 1998 where he started believing in the Ahl-al Hadith form of Islam.

Kanpur police have initiated a process to transfer the probe into the murder of a retired school principal to the NIA after a ballistic test report corroborated that he was shot by two of the four accused mentioned in the charge sheet by the agency.

Ramesh Chandra Shukla was shot dead in Kanpur last October.
At least 33 children have died over a 48-hour period at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, due to lack of oxygen supply.

The hospital has reported that most of the deaths from a lack of oxygen occurred in its neonatal and encephalitis wards.

It is alleged that a private contractor, Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd, stopped supplying oxygen cylinders to the hospital because it was not paid dues amounting to `69 lakh.

However, the Uttar Pradesh government denied the charge, saying alternative arrangements for oxygen supply were immediately made and patients died due to other medical reasons.

Relatives mourn the death of a child at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on August 12

Pushpa Sales authorities said the hospital were well informed and reminded about the dues as well as the contract that promises arrears would not be more than `10 lakh.

This is not the first time the company cut off oxygen supply. This happened in April last year too when the hospital owed the firm `50 lakh.

The UP government, on the backfoot over the incident, have resorted to defending itself.

State health minister Sidhartha Nath Singh and minister for medical education Ashutosh Tondon visited the hospital on Saturday.

Gorakhpur: Children admitted in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College where at least 30 children died over a period of 48 hours

Singh said: 'We have taken all necessary steps to probe the matter. This government is very sensitive to such issues. This is a very serious matter. Nobody felt the need to inform chief minister Yogi Adityanath about the shortage in supply of oxygen when he visited the hospital on August 9.'

He also said the deaths are not due to lack of oxygen but because of different medical conditions of patients admitted in the hospital.

The minister started his speech with data comparing deaths in the last few years and said August is the month when usually more deaths are reported.

He also added that the principal of BRD Medical College has been suspended due to leniency in performing his duty.

In regards to the money owed to Pushpa Sales, he said funds were released to the hospital and it was the principal's fault that he did not make the payment.

In a hurriedly-convened press conference in Lucknow, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that a committee led by the chief secretary will probe the entire matter.

Gorakhpur: A woman sitting with a child on her lap in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College where children have been dying because of a 'shortage of oxygen'

'It is a very emotional matter for me as I have been raising the issue of encephalitis for a long time,' he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also expressed concern.

'The government will take action on the report of the magisterial inquiry which will be received soon,' Adityanath said, promising stern action will be taken against those responsible.

'In my personal interaction with officials, the principal of BRD Medical College and in-charge of paediatric ward, I had asked if anything was required from the government, but there was no discussion on oxygen,' he added.

Blaming the principal for delay in payment to the gas supplier, he said: 'I have been told that the principal left soon after the (August 9) meeting without informing the authorities and has been found prima facie reponsible.'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur and is in touch with central and state authorities, his office in Delhi said.

MoS for health Anupriya Patel and Union health secretary would take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office said.

Meanwhile, the Congress held the government responsible for the deaths, demanding Adityanath's resignation, and a probe by a Supreme Court judge.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad visited the hospital on Saturday along with party colleagues.
Advertisement

A luxury lodge on a 70-acre property in Montana is on the market for $4.9million.

The ranch, called The Summit, sits about 70 miles from Missoula by Seeley Lake.

The owners Jeff and Pat Aresty were living in Florida when they decided to look for a vacation home in Montana.

The 8,000sq-ft home has three bedrooms and a sleeping loft, five full baths and two half baths. The kitchen has a wood-burning pizza oven.

The luxury lodge named The Summit sits on 70 acres of land in central Montana

The extravagant lodge is listed at $4.9million. The owners declined to say how much the land costed when they bought it

Owners Pat and Jeff Aresty were living in Florida when they decided to buy a getaway in the mountains

The kitchen is decked out with a wood-burning pizza oven because the Arestys like to entertain

For Thanksgiving dinner the Arestys took the furniture out of the spacious living room and stretched out long tables in front of the fireplace to make room for 25 guests

The house has views of the northern Rocky Mountains, the Mission Mountains and the Swan Range

The guest house next door sleeps eight and has three full baths.

The Arestys bought the original 40 acres parcel in 1991. They completed building a log cabin in 1994. In 2004 they added 30 neighboring acres.

They declined to say how much they spent on the land.

Eventually the couple decided to make Seeley Lake their full-time home.

In 1999 they began a three-year remodel, adding a new living room, master bedroom, entry, powder room, gym, and hot tub. They also redid the kitchen and dining area.

Its all about how it was built. It was impeccably built, Jeff told the Wall Street Journal.

There is an outdoor fireplace along with several indoor fireplaces for the sub-zero winter months

A stone mason from Missoula worked on the cabin for three years

The guest house has a fully functional kitchen area in addition to sleeping space for eight people

The red wood found throughout the house is hand-planed oak

The master bedroom has a stone fireplace. 'It's pretty nice to have a crackling fire in your bedroom,' Jeff said

The master bathroom has a freestanding bathtub and oversize shower. The flooring is local stone

The property's remodel took three years according to Jeff

The spacious kitchen is fully furnished with appliances including a wood-burning pizza oven

Jeff estimates that they have put more than $5million into the property.

The floors are stone and hand-planed oak.

The chandeliers came from an antique lighting store in Spokane, Washington, Jeff said.

A stone mason from Missoula worked on the house for three years.

The bunk beds in the sleeping loft were custom-made.

The master bedroom has a stone fireplace. Its pretty nice to have a crackling fire in your bedroom, Jeff said.

The master bath has a freestanding tub. There is a sauna next to the gym.

Jeff and Pat are both retired hospital pharmacists. They are selling their Montana home because they're moving to California

The main house has three bedrooms and a sleeping loft along with five full baths and two half baths

Most of the decor in the house mimics the natural scenery surrounding it

The chandeliers came from an antique lighting store in Spokane, Washington, Jeff said

The cozy house is nestled in the Montana mountains

When the couple bought the neighboring land, it came with a log house that they remodeled and turned into a guesthouse. The guesthouse has a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bunk room and three full baths.

There is also a detached two-car garage and a snowmobile shed.

The house has views of the northern Rocky Mountains, the Mission Mountains and the Swan Range.

The couple will miss the solitude, the peacefulness and all of our friends Jeff said.

The scenery surrounding the house is far from what the Arestys were used to when they lived in Florida

The mountain home in a remote area of Montana 70 miles from Missoula

The couple will miss the secluded quiet when they leave their Montana mountain home

For Thanksgiving dinner they would take the furniture out of the living room and stretch out long tables in front of the fireplace and have 25 guests.

Its a great house for entertaining. We had summer parties and big Thanksgiving and Christmas parties for 20 to 30 people, he said.

The couple are both retired hospital pharmacists. They are selling because they are moving to California.

Bill McDavid of Hall and Hall has the listing.

The listing agent for the home is Bill McDavid with Hall and Hall. The photos show of the beautiful scenery surrounding the sprawling property
A motorcyclist has had a frightening near-miss after taking a corner too fast in Newcastle.

Footage uploaded to the Dash Cam Owners Australia Facebook page on Friday shows the moment the rider careened around a corner before being flung off his bike into the path of an oncoming car.

Miraculously the man avoided injury during the incident, even issuing an apology to the driver of the car before riding off.

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Footage uploaded to Dash Cam Owners Australia's Facebook page shows the frightening moment a motorcyclist was flung off his bike into the path of an oncoming car

'Fella took the corner a little to fast, but seemed fine afterwards,' the person who shared the video wrote.

'Although there was a little bit of shock, as he rode off without a chance for me to get out of the car.'

The clip shows the the motorcyclist, wearing a high-visibility jacket, as he skids around the corner and stumbles off his bike.

Managing to right-himself the force send him over the bonnet of the oncoming car, with the rider appearing to somersault before hitting the ground.

The motorcyclist then gets up and heads back to his vehicle as the driver of the car asks if he is alright, receiving an apology and a query as to whether the car is alright.

The man came off his bike after careening around a corner in Newcastle and managed to stumble to his feet

He managed to right-himself but the force pushed him over the bonnet of an oncoming car, with the rider appearing to somersault before hitting the ground

Miraculously the man avoided injury during the incident, even issuing an apology to the driver of the car before riding off

As the rider drove off, the driver of the car wrote that he 'noticed a fair bit of fluid pouring from the bottom of his bike'.

To date, the footage has been viewed more than 72,000 times and garnered more than 500 comments.

Many social media users praised the driver of the car for his quick reaction, writing: 'Well done avoiding this. Just shows what some observation and a bit of anticipation can do.'

While others were surprised at how lucky motorcyclist was to walk away from the situation, commenting they had 'never seen anyone land a stack so gracefully!'
The broadcast remains one of the defining moments of the Queens 65-year reign. Dressed in black at Buckingham Palace the evening before Princess Dianas funeral, she addressed the nation live, declaring: No one who ever knew Diana will ever forget her.

She was speaking, she said, both as a monarch and a grandmother. She [Diana] was an exceptional and gifted human being, said the Queen. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.

I admired and respected her  for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys. This week at Balmoral, we have all been trying to help William and Harry come to terms with the devastating loss that they and the rest of us have suffered.

Though most of the letter was typed, there was also a handwritten postscript, including the sign-off 'with love from Elizabeth'

That last sentence was seen as a riposte to critics who argued that the royals had badly misread the public mood by staying hidden on their Scottish estate while the focus of the nations grief was in London at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace, where tens of thousands of people laid floral tributes.

New Labour government officials, who its said persuaded the Queen to make the broadcast, had vetted her script. But what were the private thoughts of Her Majesty that week  the most dramatic and poignant days of her reign?

Now, a letter from the Queen to one of her most trusted confidantes  Lady (Henriette) Abel Smith, a lady-in-waiting  has just been unearthed. It was written six days after Dianas funeral and, for the first time, sheds a fascinating light on what she calls the Royal Familys emotions.

The Queen, Prince Charles and William and Harry stayed on at Balmoral, where they had been the previous week when the news of Dianas death was broken to them.

The content of the letter, in reply to one of condolence from Lady Abel Smith, is mostly typed.

Thank you so much for your letter about Dianas tragic death, it reads.

It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country. But the public reaction to her death, and the service in the Abbey, seem to have united people round the world in a rather inspiring way. William and Harry have been so brave and I am very proud of them.

In a statement after Diana's death, the Queen said I admired and respected her  for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys.'

Fascinatingly, the Queen adds a personal postscript in her own handwriting: I think your letter was one of the first I opened  emotions are still so mixed up but we have all been through a very bad experience!

Private letters from the Queen very rarely surface in public. Lady Abel Smith was a lady-in-waiting from 1949 until 1987, and her letter, a copy of which was passed to the Mail, is now in private hands having been auctioned after her death, aged 90, in 2005.

The letter in full Dearest Henriette, Thank you so much for your letter about Dianas tragic death. It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country. But the public reaction to her death, and the service in the Abbey, seem to have united people round the world in a rather inspiring way. William and Harry have been so brave and I am very proud of them. I think your letter was one of the first I opened  emotions are still so mixed up but we have all been through a very bad experience! With love from, Elizabeth Advertisement

Royal commentators believe it reflects both the royals horror over Dianas death and the effect on William and Harry, and the Queens bewilderment at the public turmoil over the Royal Familys seemingly distant response.

Dr David Starkey, the eminent historian who has written many books on the monarchy, insists the remarks must be viewed in context. It is important to remember that, like most of her generation, the Queen is emotionally very reserved, he says.

He explains that, at the time, she was accused  wrongly, in his view  of not showing enough compassion.

Very soon after Dianas death, the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and William and Harry went to church as usual on the Balmoral estate.

The vicar was instructed not to mention Diana in the service, prompting the charge that it was probably the only church in the country that did not mention the Princess by name in its prayers.

It was as if she was being airbrushed from history. There is even a suggestion that 12-year-old Prince Harry said to Charles during the service: Are you sure Mummy is dead?

The sheer intensity of the public response to Dianas death, at the age of 36, took Buckingham Palace aback. As did anger among MPs and the public who felt the royals were aloof and uncaring.

The hostility was inflamed by the fact that Buckingham Palaces flagpole had stood bare  in stark contrast to the way flags on all other official buildings had been lowered, and to the mass of flowers at the Palace gates.

Charles and Diana in 1981, on the way to Waterloo. After her death, the Queen said the way the nation united helped to manage the grief

It did not matter that the Queen was simply observing protocol  that the Royal Standard is flown above the Palace only when she is in residence, and had never been at half-mast because it symbolises the continuity of the monarchy.

When, finally, the Queen came to London and made her TV broadcast, the Standard was flown at half-mast. And the crowds broke into spontaneous applause.

She tore up the rule book to support the nation in its grief.

That public backlash had shaken her, says royal commentator Michael Thornton. By talking of a very bad experience the Queen meant not just the shock of the death of Diana but the events of the week after which were unprecedented to someone who had such a well-ordered life, he says. I suspect she still struggles to comprehend what happened that week.

Penny Junor, whose semi-authorised biography of Camilla Parker Bowles is top of the bestsellers list, suggests the Queen was trying to be a good grandmother while being unfairly criticised for doing so.

She was thinking of William and Harry, she says. For the first time in her life, she put family first by staying in Balmoral with the boys.

The fact those boys were as brave as they were, and able to do that ghastly walk behind the coffin, is, I suspect, a lot to do with the support they had during that week from their grandparents.

If their grandmother had left them to go to London, it would have been terrible for them.

Ian Shapiro, a leading London collector of royal memorabilia, said it was almost unheard of to read a letter from the Queen in which she expresses such private views.

I think the comments reflect the Queens utter confusion, he said.

She was following her instinct by staying with her grandsons. At the same time, she was being bullied by the Government over the need for a broadcast to the nation, to leave Balmoral and to lower the flag over the Palace.

After her death, the Queen put her duties as grandmother first. Above, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II at Clarence House

The very bad experience sums up all of that.

He added: The use of the exclamation mark at the end of letter is significant. Ive seen many letters written by the Queen and she rarely, if ever, uses it.

When its used properly the exclamation mark represents a high level of emotion, and thats clearly what the Queen was feeling.

One previous hint of the Queens view of Dianas death and the public reaction to it came from Margaret Rhodes, who was the Queens first cousin and one of her longest-standing friends. She died, aged 91, last November.

In an interview on U.S. television, she said the Queen remained at Balmoral because she put her duties as a grandmother before those as a monarch.

She was castigated . . . for staying up at Balmoral with the two little boys, she said. She was being a proper granny. What was the point of bringing the boys down to London with nothing to do but sit there feeling sad about Mum?

I think I would have behaved in exactly the same way.

In her broadcast on the eve of the funeral, the Queen said: I, for one, believe that there are lessons to be drawn from her [Dianas] life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death.

Those words seemed to be an acknowledgment that, in some important respects, the Queen, her family and her advisers had misjudged matters in that tumultuous week after Diana died.

The private letter from the Queen to one of her favourite ladies-in-waiting seems to confirm that view.
Justine Damond's devastated father John Ruszczyk held back tears as he spoke about his beloved daughter at her funeral in Minneapolis on Saturday.

The heartbroken man spoke of the moment his daughter was tragically shot dead by a police officer outside her home after calling 911 when she thought she heard a woman being raped outside.

'You have stolen my daughter and ripped her from our arms,' he cried.

Justine Damond's devastated father John Ruszczyk: 'You have stolen my daughter and ripped her from our arms'

Justine Damond, pictured, was shot dead outside her Minneapolis home by police

Justine's memorial pamphlet was washed out in blue, her favourite colour

Ms Damond's husband-to-be Don Damond during an emotional speech about her love

The proud father reflected on the last conversation he had with his daughter at the family table in Australia.

'In May Justine and I sat at the kitchen table talking. I said ''I love you and I miss you'' she said ''I love you dad'' that love was real and present,' he said.

'Then she flew back to Minneapolis and I spoke to her on the phone. I said "I love you'" and she said ''I love you dad''.

'I can still say ''I love you'' that is real and remains,' he said.

The loving father revealed his shock at hopping on a plane for the 40-year-old's funeral when he 'should have been on a plane to her wedding'.

The emotional father said his daughter's death made him realise 'love is not bullet proof'.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL - Minneapolis, signs a wooden board as his husband Richard Leyva put his hand on his shoulder during the memorial service

Don Damond, right, sits with family and friends during the memorial service for Justine Damond

The bride to be is pictured here with fiance Don Damond and his son Zach Damond

Volunteers take part in a Native American spiritual burning of sage during the memorial service

The proud father reflected on the last conversation he had with his daughter at the family table in Australia

'I want Justine to be here but she has been taken from us.

'We are determined to get justice.'

Ms Damond's husband-to-be Don Damond also spoke about his lost love.

'My love wont stop and I dont believe her live will stop either, we can still feel it,' he said.

'On July 15 Justine went into that back lane because she wanted to help  she wanted to help somebody in need.

Don Damond jokes with a supporter after she accidentally took off his heart sticker

A pair of musicians play didgeridoos during a memorial service for Justine

A pair of musicians play didgeridoos during the memorial service

Don Damond gets a hug from friend and former Philando Castile co-worker John Thompson prior to the memorial

'She went there and she was led by her heart.

'We know what happened five minutes after she went out there. I know this but I can't accept her loved stopped there or that it ever stopped.'

The devastated partner pointed out a butterfly resting on the screen with a smile.

'(It) has been sitting window all day today, hard to describe how remarkable that is those who know Justine will understand,' he said.

Hundreds of mourners dressed in blue for the public memorial a month after the 40-year-old Sydney woman's life was cut short outside her Minneapolis home.

Don Damond hugs supporters and loved ones prior to the memorial service

Supporters were asked to wear blue for Justine at her memorial service

As Ms Damond's friends mourn their loss, the police continue to investigate just how rookie police officer Mohamed Noor came to shoot the bride-to-be dead.

Investigators have issued a warrant to look through officer Noor's phone, as well as the phone of his partner, Matthew Harrity,Newscorp reports.

Ms Damond had called 911 to report a woman being raped close to her apartment block shortly before she was shot and killed.

Rookie police officer Mohamed Noor killed the Australian woman - and did not have his body cam switched on

Her friends have remembered the former vet as humourous and bubbly.

'I can just feel her basically saying ''why are you guys being so serious?'',' friend Rosie McGowan said.

Ms Damond's memorial service began with a Buddhist prayer and feature speeches from two of the most important people in her life, her father John and fiance Don.

A Native American burning of sage followed this, the ritual is said to ward off bad spirits.

The memorial finished with a walk in silence around Lake Harriet.

Mourners were asked to dress in blue which was Ms Damond's favourite colour.

The 40-year-old former vet loved blue, mourners have been asked to wear the colour to her memorial

Following her death a huge outpouring of support came from the community who left flowers and kind words near where she was gunned down.

'Justine, thankyou for your beautiful light that still SHINES on us all,' one thoughtful sign read.

Lawyers for the killer police officer, Noor, 36, claim he felt he was being ambushed when he pulled the trigger and shot Ms Damond.

His brother also claimed it to be an 'unfortunate' mistake, an 'honest and sincere' event.

Ms Damond had called police to her apartment to report a rape - but was shot dead




After six weeks without rubbish collections, Birmingham's streets have become a stinking, rat-infested mess.

But things could be about to get even worse  after striking binmen yesterday threatened to extend their walkouts until Christmas.

Residents have been left with more than a dozen overstuffed binbags outside their front doors following the six-week strike. Many bags have split or been torn open by animals.

Experts say the city could soon become overrun with vermin if the rubbish is allowed to continue piling up.

Rubbish rubbish everywhere: This shows the mounting piles of waste on Gowan Road, Birmingham during a strike. The Bin men dispute over changes to working practices

Bin workers have been holding daily walkouts over changes to working practices since June 30.

There is also an overtime ban in place and workers are returning to depots for all breaks, meaning far fewer collections are being carried out.

Yesterday the Unite union announced that workers will now carry out three hour-long walkouts a day.

It means they will return to depots five times a day  and has prompted accusations the union is holding Birmingham to ransom. One source said: 'We fear they will spend most of the time just driving and nothing will be collected.'

Unite is also balloting workers to renew its industrial action mandate, which could result in more strikes lasting until December. The current wave of strikes was due to end on September 21.

Volunteers L-R Tauseef Khan, Brian Holmes and Sadiq Naveed, who work at MST Trade Centre Limited, have cleared the rubbish on Hob Moor Road Small Heath, Birmingham as the bin strike enters its fifth week

One of the worst affected areas is Alum Rock, a suburb two miles from the city centre. Javed Iqbal, of the Alum Rock Community Forum, said: 'It is disgusting, dangerous and we won't stand for it any longer. People are taking rubbish to the tips themselves but it isn't enough  it stinks.'

Ian Sharpe, who runs Environmental Pest Control, told Sky News: 'It is like a rat hotel.

'A happy rat is going to breed more often and their litters are going to be bigger. They can have anything up to 14 babies in any one go.'

The strikes are in response to a restructuring plan by the council that Unite claims would cost 113 jobs, with some workers facing the loss of 5,000 a year.

The council says the plan will save 5 million a year. Affected staff have been offered either a lower grade role and drop in salary or an alternative role at the same pay grade in other departments. But Unite argues the jobs are not genuine alternatives.

The council is part way through a 'contingency plan' that is attempting to clear every street by tomorrow. So far, it says it has cleared the backlog at 90 per cent of the city's 8,200 streets.

The Bin men dispute over changes to working practices and the downgrading of supervisor jobs has now entered its sixth week with no sign of a resolution in sight

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: 'We continue to hold talks with the council, but progress has been slow ... In the absence of a settlement, we will be balloting our members on whether they wish to take strike action and/or industrial action short of a strike after the current industrial action comes to an end.

'A renewed industrial action mandate could see this dispute continuing up to Christmas.'

Birmingham City Council said: 'An offer has been tabled to Unite to take the disputed points from our proposal to modernise refuse collection to [conciliation service] ACAS.

'Changes ... involve no job losses as permanent alternatives are available for those affected at the same and higher grades  and there will be more than 200 permanent new jobs created.'
Terrifying footage has emerged of the moment three teen thugs stormed a service station armed with long knives and assaulted an employee.

The hoodlums were loitering outside the petrol station in Berkeley, south of Sydney, early Friday morning before making their way inside.

As the service station worker desperately tried to close the doors the teen bandits rushed the counter brandishing large kitchen knives.

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The three armed robbers (pictured) stormed the service station leaving the staff member scared and shaken

After charging behind the counter one of the teen thugs (pictured, right) allegedly hits the male employee with the butt of his knife

CCTV footage shows one of the robbers striking the male employee in the head with the butt of his knife before rifling through the cash register.

The masked thugs can be seen ransacking the store and making off with armfuls of cigarettes worth $8000 and $3000 in cash, Nine News reported.

Koushik Ramineni, who works at the service station, said the incident has left a female colleague too afraid to come in to work.

He said the employee working on the night was okay but 'pretty scared.'

Three teenage boys have been charged with the terrifying armed robbery of a service station in which a staff member (pictured, right) was allegedly assaulted

'They were long knives [and] there could be danger for him, so he didn't want to risk his life,' he told the Illawarra Mercury.

Lake Illawarra duty officer Acting Inspector Jack Brown said the incident was serious.

'While there were no serious injuries to the victim, attempting to rob someone at knifepoint is of great concern.'

Police from Lake Illawarra Local Area Command arrested three male youths - a 13-year-old and two 14-year-olds - at a home on nearby Northcliffe Drive.

All three were charged with robbery armed with an offensive weapon and appeared in children's court on Friday.
Last Saturday, in conditions of unashamed luxury they are now so familiar with, Tony and Cherie Blair paid a fleeting visit to the small Mediterranean island of Malta.

Driven in a blacked-out Mercedes, and accompanied by more fat-necked bodyguards than employed by a typical Third World dictator, the couple headed to Valletta, capital of the sunny tax haven, to visit St Johns, a famous Baroque cathedral full of historic art.

They then returned to the air-conditioned limousine and drove inland to Mdina, where their entourage strolled ancient city walls and attended evening mass.

Tony and Cherie Blair with Malta's young Labour Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, and his glamorous wife, Michelle

Sightseeing completed, the Blairs ended their day in style: a cosy dinner with Maltas young Labour Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, and his glamorous wife, Michelle.

This occasion was recorded for posterity on Twitter, where 43-year-old Muscat shared a group photo, saying: It was a pleasure hosting Tony and Cherie Blair and sharing so many insights with them.

Thanks to Tonys Hollywood smile, and Cheries awkward grimace, the image was another to add to the collection of Blair summer photos  alongside those with disgraced Italian Silvio Berlusconi and various other international tycoons.

Yet that wasnt the only reason the photograph made headlines.

For, to conspiracy-minded Eurosceptics back home, it provided yet more evidence that Blair is on manoeuvres to thwart Brexit.

Why so?

Well, the Maltese PM is vehemently opposed to the UK leaving the EU, intends to do all he can to prevent it happening, and last month made headlines by saying in an interview that he was seeing encouraging signs that Brexit will not happen.

Muscats comments appeared part of a co-ordinated PR offensive: at almost exactly the same time, a host of Remainer politicians came out with startlingly similar statements, including Blair  who said public opinion is moving in a way that makes him think its possible now that Brexit does not happen.

Tony and Cherie Blair pose for a photo alongside disgraced Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi in 2004

Fast forward to this week, and our 64-year-old former PM went to extraordinary lengths to hold that Mediterranean rendezvous with his anti-Brexit soulmate  flying to Malta from Italy (where he and Cherie, 62, had been holidaying) for a stay that lasted less than 24 hours.

With the BBC running extended interviews about his life and times in recent days, Blairs grubby fingers have also been detected in the wave of calls for the launch of a new centrist political party dedicated to overturning Brexit.

Fascinatingly, however, the EU isnt the only subject that he and Muscat may have been discussing.

For both share a long-standing and at times unedifying interest in the wealthy, but morally bankrupt, dictatorship of Azerbaijan.

Blair, who has devoted much of his post-Number 10 career to enriching himself via consultancy work for corrupt and repressive autocrats, made a lucrative visit to the country  once part of the Soviet Union  in 2009, shortly after leaving office.

There he met Ilham Aliyev, a kleptocratic despot notorious for human rights abuses who became the countrys leader in 2003.

It was a major PR coup for a regime that has rigged elections, jailed opponents, closed opposition news outlets, threatened dissidents with torture and rape, and has vastly enriched the Aliyev family.

Blair was paid to speak at a factory owned by a leading industrialist close to the regime, sparking outrage from opposition groups (who called for him to return his reported 90,000 fee) and sharp criticism from Amnesty International. In 2014, Blair signed a lucrative deal to lobby on behalf of private oil companies wishing to build a 2,000-mile gas pipeline between Azerbaijan and Southern Europe.

Blair with Ilham Aliyev THE President of Azerbaijan, outside Number 10 in 2004

The deal was backed by the Aliyev regime, whose members stood to enrich themselves. Outraged environmentalists and democracy campaigners called Mr Blairs involvement shameful.

As for Muscat, his relationship with Azerbaijan has, if anything, been even more controversial.

The fact is that the Maltese PM is at the centre of a major political scandal involving allegations of bribery, corruption, money-laundering and tax evasion by some of Maltas most powerful figures.

As a result, five official investigations have been launched by Maltese magistrates, one of which is digging into the financial affairs of Muscat and his wife.

Central to the affair is the Panama Papers scandal last year, in which 11 million files were leaked from a law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in helping rich people hide assets from tax authorities.

The documents revealed two of Muscats senior allies, then energy minister Konrad Mizzi and chief-of-staff Keith Schembri, had each used the firm to set up two mysterious corporate entities in Panama.

At the time, Maltas centre-right opposition Nationalist Party called  albeit unsuccessfully  for both men to be sacked. Muscat stood by them and for a time it looked like the grubby scandal might be forgotten. But then it exploded again in April this year.

An influential political blogger called Daphne Caruana Galizia, who has close links to the Maltese opposition, published a series of damning articles about the affair.

First, she claimed Muscats wife is secretly a shareholder in a third company  very similar to the two set up by Mizzi and Schembri  named in the Panama Papers.

Then, she alleged all three of these firms had been established to launder money corruptly channelled to their beneficiaries from Azerbaijan.

According to Galizia  whose claims, it should be stressed, have always been vigorously denied  Prime Minister Muscat and his allies received the cash by way of kickbacks from Azerbaijani ruler Aliyev and his associates. They were paid, she alleged, in return for handing Azerbaijans state energy companies lucrative business concessions in Malta. These are said to have included an 18-year deal (signed in 2014) for the country to supply Maltas gas  and a second agreement to help build a new power station.

Among other things, Galizia claimed that the Azerbaijani leaders daughter, Leyla, used a bank in Dubai to transfer more than a million euros to the firm allegedly belonging to Muscats wife (Muscat and his wife deny receiving payments or having any connection to the company).

Both Blair and Muscat (pictured) share a long-standing and at times unedifying interest in the wealthy, but morally bankrupt, dictatorship of Azerbaijan

On her website, Galizia published a photo of Leyla Aliyeva and Michelle Muscat holding a chummy meeting in early 2014.

She also revealed that Maltas PM visited Azerbaijan later that year, when the business deals in question were being discussed, with both Muscats chief-of-staff Schembri and the then energy minister Mizzi. No members of the Press or diplomatic staff were invited, in an apparent effort to keep proceedings under wraps.

The trip happened just months after Muscat had sent an obsequious letter to the countrys despot offering congratulations on having just won a rigged election. Crucially, Galizia alleged that documents that would prove her claims about kickbacks were held in a safe at the headquarters of Pilatus, a Maltese bank.

Late at night on April 20, the day Galizia had published her claims, the plot thickened when reporters from an organisation called Net News were tipped off that lights were on at the banks HQ.

The newsmen filmed a man later identified as Seyed Ali Sadr, the banks chairman, emerging from a side door. In his arms were several heavy bags. Galizia believes that these contained the damning documents.

The bank, which denies wrongdoing, says Sadr was merely preparing for a board meeting and the bags contained luggage from a business trip. It denies that the Muscats were clients.

In another surreal twist, a yet unnamed whistleblower, reported to be a Russian woman who previously worked as personal assistant to one of the banks senior executives, then came forward. She is said to have seen the documents in question and for a time co-operated with investigators.

However, the woman, who has been accused of fraud by the bank in the past, recently vanished from Malta and is now believed to have returned home to Russia.

Fallout from the scandal has so far seen thousands of opposition activists take to the streets demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister.

Thus the decision for separate investigations to be launched by Maltese magistrates.

For his part, Muscat claims the allegations against him are the biggest political lie ever told in this country. He believes he is the victim of a campaign orchestrated by his enemies, and his office has called the affair a politically motivated attack.

Be that as it may, the controversy has sparked fierce criticism within the European Parliament, with German MEP Manfred Weber saying: Its time for a new leadership of Malta.

Meanwhile, Werner Langen MEP, who is chairing the European Parliaments inquiry into the Panama Papers affair, has accused Maltese officials of total disdain for refusing to give evidence to his committee.

The scandal has also thrown awkward light on Maltas status as a haven for dirty cash, with weak laws that allow tax-dodging corporations and foreign oligarchs to exploit the islands EU membership and deposit money there.

No wonder the opposition Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil has said Malta is facing an unprecedented political and constitutional crisis.

Nonetheless, Muscat squeaked home in the election in June (taking 55 per cent of the vote) and promptly re-appointed the two aides whod been linked to the Panama papers to key positions: Schembri as his chief-of-staff and Mizzi to a top job in his cabinet  demonstrating his confidence in their innocence.

An important propaganda tool during that election campaign was a video endorsement in which a well-known international statesman addressed voters over an uplifting soundtrack of violin music, declaring, Ive known Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for some considerable time and describing him as a great example of what a progressive politician can do in power for the people.

The name of that statesman? Tony Blair.
Watchdogs are investigating whether eggs tainted with pesticide have also been used in cakes and pastries.

Four supermarkets have already removed a range of products including salads and sandwiches.

The recall could now be widened to include desserts, quiches, mayonnaise, Yorkshire puddings, ice cream and noodles. British manufacturers import the equivalent of 15 million eggs a week and nearly half come from Holland.

There are concerns that at least some of these were contaminated with the pesticide fipronil, which was used illegally on farms in the Netherlands.

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Four supermarkets have already removed a range of products including salads and sandwiches

Eggs are destroyed at a chicken farm in Nadrin, Houffalize, on August 9, 2017. There are concerns that at least some of these were contaminated with the pesticide fipronil

Most of the imported eggs arrive in liquid or powder form which is then used as ingredients.

Millions of fresh eggs have been cleared from shelves across Europe as a result of the contamination.

Chairman of British Lion Egg Processors, Ian Jones, said the public would be shocked at the huge quantity of foreign eggs used in products in their fridges and cupboards.

He said it was particularly alarming given the number of food poisoning outbreaks linked to imported European eggs in recent years. Mr Jones said: The UK are big consumers of Dutch egg products, so it is clearly possible that these were exported to the UK.

Millions of fresh eggs have been cleared from shelves across Europe as a result of the contamination

Eggs are so versatile that they are used in a huge variety of foods, but mainly cakes, pastries, Yorkshire puddings, ready meals, mayonnaise, Scotch eggs, quiche and egg custards.We need to find out whether these products have been made with tainted eggs. That will be a job for the Food Standards Agency and the Dutch authorities.

Mr Jones called for better labelling and demanded that supermarkets should use only British eggs in all their products, not just those sold as fresh in boxes.

While imported eggs are cheaper, British products are produced to the highest safety standards. Seventy per cent of UK shoppers say that prepared food containing eggs should clearly show the origin of the eggs on the packaging, said Mr Jones.

Nothing comes close to our standards. Lion egg products are the best in the world. People want safe British food.

Chairman of British Lion Egg Processors, Ian Jones, said the public would be shocked at the huge quantity of foreign eggs used in products in their fridges and cupboards

The Food and Drink Federation, which speaks for manufacturers, confirmed its members are investigating the use of egg products from Holland across all relevant food categories.

The Food Standards Agency says the number of suspect eggs has reached 700,000 and has ordered recalls of products sold by Waitrose, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrison.

A spokesman for the watchdog, which insists there is no risk to public health, said: Investigations are continuing. The situation is constantly evolving and it is possible that we will identify more implicated products as our investigations continue.

The Food Standards Agency says the number of suspect eggs has reached 700,000 and has ordered recalls of products sold by Waitrose, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrison

Governments in Europe are at loggerheads over apparent delays in issuing recalls.

Two companies, one from Holland and another from Belgium, apparently colluded to use fiprinol to combat a red mite infection on chickens on some 180 farms.The chemical is recognised as a toxin by the World Health Organisation and it is illegal to use it on food producing animals.

Earlier this week, Dutch authorities arrested two managers of the pest control company ChickFriend over allegations that it supplied the chemical.

To date, 15 EU countries along with China and Switzerland have reported receiving contaminated eggs or associated products.
The number of lung cancer cases among non-smokers has doubled in the last decade, with experts blaming air pollution on the rise.

If the trend continues, the number of deaths from lung cancer among non-smokers will leapfrog those among nicotine users in a decade.

Previously, nine in ten cases of the disease were linked to cigarette use, but this proportion has decreased as more people shun the habit.

The number of lung cancer cases among non-smokers has doubled in the last decade, with experts blaming air pollution on the rise. These figures were taken from the European Journal of Cancer

The increase in lung cancer rates among non-smokers was noted by experts at the UK's largest cancer surgery centre, London's Brompton Hospital and Harefield NHS Trust, The Times reported.

National data regarding lung cancer among non-smokers is hard to obtain, so other researchers are yet to notice the trend.

However, a similar trend has been observed in America.

Currently there are 36,000 deaths from lung cancer and 46,400 new cases each year.

Just one in 20 patients lives for more than ten years, making lung cancer one of the deadliest forms of the disease.

Stephen Spiro is a former head of respiratory medicine at University College Hospital and an honorary adviser to the British Lung Foundation.

He told The Times' Oliver Moody: 'There is no good evidence that lung cancer is becoming commoner in never-smokers.'

China has seen a sharp rise in the incidence of lung cancer in the past 10-15 years, with many blaming heavy smog in cities.

If the trend continues, the number of deaths from lung cancer among non-smokers will leapfrog those among nicotine users in a decade

Experts at the China Academy of Medical Sciences said they had noticed more cases among non-smokers and women.

Its study said there had been a rapid increase in a form of lung cancer that develops deep in the lung and is not associated with tobacco use.

China has been waging a battle against air pollution, with concentrations of small, deadly particles known as PM2.5 often topping 300 micrograms per cubic metre.

Last year's national average stood at 47 micrograms, with only a quarter of cities meeting the country's official air quality guideline of 35 micrograms.

The World Health Organisation recommends levels of no more than 10 micrograms.
Bearded Broz: Volunteers L-R Tauseef Khan, Brian Holmes and Sadiq Naveed have been clearing the rubbish in Birmingham

To the residents of Birmingham they are heroes, stepping in to clear the mountain of rubbish left by the binmen strikes.

But a Muslim community group has been branded a 'scab army' by communist newspaper The Morning Star.

Using language that harks back to the industrial disputes of the 1980s, an opinion piece criticised the group for breaking the strike.

The volunteer group, called the Bearded Broz, have taken truckloads of rubbish to a tip on behalf of frustrated neighbours who had not seen a collection in six weeks.

But writing in the hard-Left newspaper, journalist Steve Sweeney said: 'A dispute over in Birmingham continues to escalate after a 'scab army' of volunteers has been clearing pile ups of rubbish.

'The community group, known as Bearded Broz, are encouraging people to join their scab operation as they undermine the strike by Birmingham City Council refuse workers over job losses.'

'Scab' was a term of abuse frequently used during the miners strike, referring to workers who turned up, or were brought in, for work while their colleagues stayed away.

The attack on the volunteers has been met with outrage. Matt Bennett, a Conservative councillor for Edgbaston, wrote on social media: 'What a disgusting way to refer to residents who don't want to live in filth.

'The Bearded Broz are not paid workers, just people who wanted the dirt and filth removed from their neighbourhood.'

But communist newspaper The Morning Star branded the voluntary cleaners a 'scab army'

However, the Midlands Communist Party of Britain sought to defend the Morning Star, tweeting: 'The criticism is not people cleaning streets, but a complete lack of understanding of the issues of the strike.'

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Naveed Sadiq, 42, of the Bearded Broz, expressed sympathy with the binmen's situation, but said he did not believe the group's actions were undermining the strike.

'We're on the binmen's side,' he said. 'We've spoken to some of them. Having done their jobs, we realise what hard work it is. They are worth every penny. The council needs to sort this out.

'But we will not stand by and do nothing with our streets in this state.

'We don't undermine [the binmen] at all, we don't have a personal agenda or a personal grief with the binmen. If you want to call me a scab, that's fine.'
Iain Duncan Smith last night heaped pressure on ministers to take swift action against gambling machines which he branded a tax on the poor.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary said maximum stakes on addictive fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) should be slashed from 100 to just 2.

He argued that the machines, which have been compared to using crack cocaine, fuel debt, crime and family breakdown.

His comments came as a report by his Centre for Social Justice think-tank concluded that a 2 maximum stake was vital to protect the public.

Iain Duncan Smith last night heaped pressure on ministers to take swift action against gambling machines which he branded a tax on the poor

Last year the Department for Culture, Media and Sport ordered a review of the touchscreen machines that offer casino-style games such as roulette, amid concerns about their damage to society.

But last week the Daily Mail revealed that a clampdown on the terminals had been shelved after the Treasury raised concerns about the potential loss of hundreds of millions of pounds in tax revenue if stakes were cut sharply.

Mr Duncan Smith urged ministers to combat the vicious spiral of poverty linked to the machines.

He told the Mail: It is essential the Government acts now to curb the damaging impact of fixed betting terminals.

These machines constitute a tax on the poor. Lowering the maximum spend for each bet will slow down the rate at which money can be lost.

High stakes gambling leads to problem debt, crime and family breakdown. It is detrimental to mental and physical health and employment prospects. The families of gamblers inevitably pay a high price as these terminals feed an addiction every bit as pernicious as drugs addiction.

We must reduce the number of people falling into this vicious spiral of poverty.

The CSJ review revealed a worrying rise in problem gambling. The number of FOBTs is now at an all-time high of 34,809, and 1.7 billion is lost on the machines every year.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary said maximum stakes on addictive fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) should be slashed from 100 to just 2

The report said: Stakes should be cut off beyond the 2 mark. This will protect users from falling into problem gambling, thus nullifying the corrosive effects that evidence has shown FOBTs to have in perpetuating poor mental health, violence and family breakdown.

Two years ago Government regulations forced gamblers wanting to bet 50 a time or more to open an account. But the CSJ said the rules had missed the mark.

It pointed to evidence that one in four calls to gambling helplines were linked to the machines. This week a senior Church of England Bishop wrote to Chancellor Philip Hammond to urge him not to obstruct the cut to the size of the stake gamblers can pump into the machines.

The Bishop of St Albans, the Right Reverend Alan Smith, wrote to the Chancellor yesterday to warn of concern. He said there are a great many vulnerable people who are at risk of gambling-related harm, and whose lives are often blighted by the presence of FOBTs on our high streets.

Ministers would be backed in any vote to limit stake sizes by the Democratic Unionist Party, which wants to combat problem gambling.

A 2 maximum stake also appeared in the Labour manifesto. But officials estimate this could cost the Exchequer as much as 400 million.

Last night, the first UK gambling company suggested it would be open to reforming the rules on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs).

Breon Corcoran, the Paddy Power Betfair chief executive, admitted that his company is almost ambivalent about slashing the maximum stake on the FOBTs, which allow gamblers to bet 100 every 20 seconds on virtual casino games, to just 2.

He told gambling analysts in the trade publication Gambling Compliance: The only thing weve asked the government for is clarity.
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These pictures show the inside of the remote Italian hideaway where British model Chloe Ayling was kept as a 'hostage' for six days.

It includes the bedroom where Ayling, 20, slept alongside her captor and the 65-square-feet kitchen where they shared meals.

The 'stone cottage', in the quiet mountain village of Borgial, was featured in an advert offering space for eight to ten people and homely features including a 'wood-burning fireplace'.

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These pictures show the inside of the remote Italian hideaway where British model Chloe Ayling was kept as a 'hostage' for six days, including the bedroom where they slept alongside each other

The 'stone cottage', in the quiet mountain village of Borgial, was featured in an advert offering a 'wood-burning fireplace' and space for eight to ten people. Pictured: The kitchen

The cottage was advertised for rent on a 'monthly or monthly consecutive' basis for a nature-inclined break featuring 'hiking and outdoor sports'

The remote house was Ayling's prison as a gang tried to auction her for sex online unless her modelling agency paid a 270,000 ransom. Left: A corridor. Right: The bathroom

It was advertised for rent on a 'monthly or monthly consecutive' basis for a nature-inclined break featuring 'hiking and outdoor sports'.

The remote house was Ayling's prison as a gang tried to auction her for sex online unless her modelling agency paid a 270,000 ransom.

Ayling told police she had been lured to a fake shoot in Milan where she was drugged and handcuffed before being bundled into a suitcase in the boot of a car.

The prime suspect in the case is Polish odd-job man Lukasz Herba, who moved to the UK several years ago.

The remote house was Ayling's prison as a gang tried to auction her for sex online unless her modelling agency paid a 270,000 ransom

Ayling told police she had been lured to a fake shoot in Milan where she was drugged and handcuffed before being bundled into a suitcase in the boot of a car

Miss Ayling told Italian police in her official statement that he did not sexually assault her but instead gave her gifts of chocolate and underwear.

The mother-of-one told officers: 'From the second night he took the cuffs from my feet, assuring me that sooner or later I'd be freed so I had no need to escape.

The holiday home that became a prison An advert for the house offered the following: A wood burning fireplace An 130-square-foot garden 10 beds 22-square-foot balcony Advertisement

'From that moment I always slept in his room, sharing the bed. To be clear, he didn't molest me sexually or ask for sexual favours.

'He never sexually molested me or asked for sexual favours because Black Death prohibited or severely punished members who touched kidnapped girls.

'He held me prisoner for entire time of my kidnapping, guarded me, stopped me from going out or escaping, threatening me that 'they' would kill me if I did so. I never went outside because he prohibited it.'

She only drank from sealed bottles because she was scared about getting poisoned but later developed a 'trusting relationship' with him.

Miss Ayling told the newspaper: 'Even now I fear for my life.'

Ayling said she was held prisoner and threatened with death if she tried to run away from her captors in the mountains

Residents of quiet Borgial where just a handful of homes lie, say they thought the model and her Herba were a couple when she arrived with him last month.

They have also claimed they saw Herba walk around on his own, getting pizza from a local takeaway, and questioned 'what kind of kidnap' it was when the victim was walking through the village.

Cesare Prati who rented the white house to Mr Herba for 300 for 20 days, told iNews: 'The whole affair seems strange  I heard from friends she was going round the village. What kind of kidnap is that?

'In Viu there's police and carabinieri, it's full of people. Why didn't she ask for help, I don't understand.'
The number of unconditional university places being dished out to students has more than doubled at some top institutions.

Many universities are increasingly trying to tempt applicants with an offer of a place regardless of the exam grades they eventually achieve.

The move comes amid unprecedented competition for undergraduates following the removal of limits on student numbers in 2015.

Many universities are increasingly trying to tempt applicants with an offer of a place regardless of the exam grades they eventually achieve (file picture)

Nine of the leading Russell Group universities, including King's College London, Warwick and Manchester, have seen increasing numbers, according to the Daily Telegraph.

It has led to accusations that universities are focusing on increasing their income by taking students who would previously have been rejected based on their grades.

Alan Smithers, director of the centre of education and employment at Buckingham University, suggested the quality of education could suffer as a result.

'It has developed into a bit of a free-for-all,' he told the newspaper. 'They feel they can maximise their income by expanding places. But if they over-expand, the risk is that it will damage the quality of what is on offer.'

For the academic year of 2012/13, Birmingham University issued 1,003 unconditional offers to British students.

But by 2016/17, this had jumped to 2,471, Freedom of Information figures revealed.

Similarly, Edinburgh University's unconditional offers almost trebled from 125 to 350 over the same duration.

Other students have been made 'safety net' offers if they name a university as their first choice, which will guarantee admission even if their A-level grades dip.

A recent report by Ucas, the university admissions service, warned unconditional offers were partly to blame for a fall in the number of students achieving their predicted A-level grades.

It said: 'Applicants holding unconditional firm choices were more likely to miss their predicted attainment by two or more grades, compared to applicants holding conditional firm choices.'

A Russell Group spokesman defended the offers, saying: 'All offers are based on a detailed assessment of an applicant's academic record and whether they will be able to meet the demands of a particular programme of study.'
A British tourist has been arrested and charged with online child exploitation offences after allegedly arranging to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Police say the 34-year-old believed he was speaking with a 13-year-old girl when he was actually engaging with officers from Strike Force Trawler.

After allegedly taking part in sexually-explicit conversations he arranged to meet the child in Sydney after driving down from Cairns in his campervan.

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A British tourist (pictured, left) has been arrested and charged with online child exploitation offences after allegedly arranging to meet a 13-year-old girl

Police say the 34-year-old (pictured) believed he was speaking with a 13-year-old girl when he was actually engaging with officers from Strike Force Trawler

Police then arrested the man in Westmead, western Sydney, on Friday and charged him with use carriage service to procure persons under 16.

Sex Crimes Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett, warned parents and carers of the dangers posed by sexual predators online.

'We know that sexual predators use social media and other online platforms to target children and it is imperative that children know what to do if they are exposed to explicit or inappropriate conversations,' she said.

'It is common for young people to feel uncomfortable reporting these types of conversations, so I urge parents to make sure they let their children know they dont need to be embarrassed or upset  no one will judge you.'

Police then arrested the man (pictured, left) in Westmead, western Sydney, and charged him with use carriage service to procure persons under 16

After the arrest of the man (pictured, right), police warned parents and carers of the dangers posed by sexual predators online

'Our priority is tracking down people who use the internet to groom and procure children for sex. We want to make sure we protect children from any type of harm.'

Strike Force Trawler conducts covert online investigations into the sexual abuse and exploitation of children online.

It is run by the Sex Crimes Squad's Child Exploitation Internet Unit and works with similar bodies interstate and overseas.

Officers from the strike force searched the suspect's campervan and removed items for examination by forensics.

The man was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
The dark web is part of the internet that is accessible only by using software

The intelligence leaks by US whistleblower Edward Snowden pushed paedophiles on to the 'dark web' and made it easier for them to stream live abuse online, a former head of MI5 has warned.

Jonathan Evans said yesterday Snowden's 'damaging' revelations about security service snooping had made it more difficult for police to tackle child abuse.

In chilling remarks, Lord Evans, who retired from MI5 in 2013 and is now a cross-bench peer, also warned that Britain faced the threat of Islamist terrorism for another 30 years.

Referring to Snowden's leaks, he said: 'The way in which the material was released meant that a lot of people who are mis-using the internet were able to get away with things they shouldn't have got away with.

'The revelations that Snowden made, made it harder for the police to stop people streaming live abuse,' said Lord Evans

'The revelations that Snowden made, made it harder for the police to stop people streaming live abuse.'

The dark web is part of the internet that is accessible only by using software which allows users to remain anonymous and untraceable.

Snowden's leaks were published by the Guardian in 2013. Despite former GCHQ head Sir David Omand calling them the 'most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever', the newspaper continued to nurture the former CIA employee, with then-editor Alan Rusbridger visiting him in Moscow last year.

Lord Evans, who was director general of MI5 for six years, also said the Westminster Bridge attack earlier this year may have had an 'energising effect' on extremists.

He warned the UK was 'vulnerable' to a dirty bomb attack and said the cyber threat was becoming more acute and devices connected to the internet needed to be made more secure.

Jonathan Evans said yesterday Snowden's 'damaging' revelations about security service snooping had made it more difficult for police to tackle child abuse

The former spy chief said the terrorist threat was a 'generational problem' and the UK must 'persevere' with its efforts to defeat it.

He said the UK had faced threats from Islamic terrorists since the 1990s, telling BBC Radio 4: 'On the terrorism side, we're at least 20 years into this. My guess is that we will still be dealing with the long tail in over 20 years' time. I think this is genuinely a generational problem. I think we are going to be facing 20 to 30 years of terrorist threat and therefore we need, absolutely critically, to persevere.'

Lord Evans warned of the threat of a cyber-attack against the 'internet of things'  the networking of physical devices, such as vehicles and domestic tools. Cyber security must be tightened because people's daily lives were 'dependent' on it, he added.

Asked about comments made by his predecessor Eliza Manningham-Buller, who said it was 'only a matter of time' before there was a biological or chemical attack in the West, he said he was surprised the UK had not yet been hit by a dirty bomb.

Chemical weapons had been used in Iraq and Syria, he said, adding: 'In principle there is a risk those could also be used in the West and in the UK.'

Lord Evans also gave a stark warning about the potential for Russian interference, saying the UK should be 'alert' to Russia's interventions in the West.
The actor Robert Hardy, who has died at the age of 91, is fondly remembered for his role as the Yorkshire vet Siegfried Farnon in the BBC TV series based on James Herriots bestselling books. Starting today and all next week, we celebrate the publication 45 years ago of the quintessentially English and much-loved All Creatures Great And Small by revisiting its heartwarming world of animals and their often eccentric owners...

They didnt say anything about this in the textbooks, I thought, as the snow blew in through the gaping doorway of the barn and settled on my naked back. I was lying face down in a pool of nameless muck next to a cow that just didnt seem to want to give birth.

It had been a miserable session throughout. The farmer, Mr Dinsdale, was a long, sad, silent man of few words. He had a long, sad, silent son with him and the two of them were watching my futile efforts with deepening gloom.

But worst of all was the presence of Mr Dinsdales brother, Uncle, a bright-eyed old man in a pork pie hat.

Now then, young man, hed cried in the nasal twang of Yorkshires West Riding when I arrived. I farm over in Listondale  my vet is Mr Broomfield. I expect you know him? Wonderful man is Mr Broomfield, especially at calving. Ive never seen him beat yet!

Id managed a weak smile. Normally I would have been delighted to hear about the prowess of my fellow vet. But somehow an unheated barn in the middle of a freezing Yorkshire night seemed neither the time nor the place.

And how long have you been qualified, may I ask? said Uncle.

Oh, about seven months.

Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Peter Davison with Penny the dog on All Creatures Great and Small

Seven months! Uncle had smiled indulgently. Well, theres nowt like a bit of experience, I always says. Mr Broomfields been doing my work now for over ten years and he really knows what hes about. No, you can ave your book learning. Give me experience every time.

And now, two hours later, defeat was around the corner and I was exhausted. Id rolled and grovelled on the filthy cobbles to no avail while the Dinsdales watched in silence and Uncle kept up a non-stop stream of comment. He was the only one of us  the cow included  who was having any fun.

Youre about beat, young man, he said with deep satisfaction. Ive never seen Mr Broomfield beat, but then hes had a lot of experience. And whats more, hes strong  really strong. Never seen such muscles on a man.

Rage flooded through me. I clenched my teeth, braced my legs and pushed my arm farther inside the animal. With a sensation of disbelief I felt my rope noose slide over the sharp little incisor teeth and into the calfs mouth.

Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon in the vet show All Creatures Great and Small

Gingerly, muttering a prayer, I pulled on the thin rope and felt the slipknot tighten. After hours of trying, I had hold of its lower jaw.

Now hold this rope, Mr Dinsdale, and just keep a gentle tension on it, I said. Im going to repel the calf and if you pull steadily at the same time, the head ought to come round.

What if the rope comes off? asked Uncle hopefully.

I didnt answer. As the head turned round I extended the noose till it reached behind the calfs ears. Now pull on the head as she strains, I said.

Nay, you should pull on the legs now, cried Uncle.

Pull on the bloody head rope, I tell you! I bellowed at the top of my voice and felt immediately better as Uncle retired, offended, to a hay bale. With traction, the head was brought out and the body followed easily. The little animal lay motionless on the cobbles.

Itll be dead. Bound to be, grunted Uncle, returning to the attack.

I blew hard down the throat and began artificial respiration. The calf gave a gasp and its eye- lids flickered.

This was the bit I loved  the miracle of which I never tired.

I know what this little fellow wants, I said. I grasped the tiny creature by its forelegs and pulled it up to its mothers head.

The cow was stretched out on her side, her head extended wearily along the rough floor, her eyes almost shut. She looked past caring about anything.

But then she felt the calfs body against her face and there was a transformation: her eyes opened wide and her muzzle began a snuffling exploration. The little creature arched its back as she began to lick him methodically all over.

Uncle took off his hat and scratched his head in disbelief.

By gaw  its alive. Id have thowt itd be dead after youd messed about all that time.

Some of the fire, it seemed, had gone out of him.

How about a drink? asked Mr Dinsdale.

A vision of hot tea well laced with whisky swam before me. Thats very kind of you, Mr Dinsdale, Id love a drink. Its been a hard couple of hours.

Nay, said Mr Dinsdale, looking at me steadily. I meant for the cow. I began to babble. Oh yes, of course, certainly, by all means give her a drink. She must be very thirsty. Itll do her good. Yes, a drink. Absolutely.

I gathered up my tackle and stumbled out of the barn.

Christopher Timothy, as James Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon and Peter Davidson in the clinic

On the moor a bitter wind whipped over the snow, stinging my eyes. As I plodded down the slope to my car, Uncles voice, strident and undefeated, reached me for the last time.

Mr Broomfield doesnt believe in giving a drink after calving. Says it chills the stomach.

It hadn't seemed true when the letter came from Darrowby, in the Yorkshire Dales.

Mr Siegfried Farnon MRCVS would like to see me on Friday afternoon. I was to come to tea, and if we were mutually suited I could stay on as his assistant.

I had grabbed at the lifeline in disbelief  so many of my friends who had qualified as vets with me were unemployed or working as shipyard labourers that I had almost given up hope of a future in the job I loved.

Darrowby didnt get much space in the guidebooks  a grey town with a cobbled marketplace and little of interest except its two ancient bridges. But its setting was beautiful, on the shores of a pebbly river where the buildings clustered along the lower slopes of a picturesque 2,000ft fell.

There was a clarity in the air, a sense of space and airiness that made me feel as though I had shed something a few miles before: the confinement of a city, the grime, the smoke  already they seemed to be falling away from me.

Trengate was a quiet street off the market square and I had my first sight of Skeldale House  a handsome Georgian building with a fine, white-painted doorway. I rang the doorbell and instantly the afternoon peace was shattered by a distant baying like a wolf pack in full cry.

As I peered through the glass a river of dogs poured round the corner of a long passage and dashed itself with frenzied yelps against the door.

If I hadnt been used to animals I would have run for my life.

A large woman appeared in the passage. She rapped out a single word and the noise stopped as if by magic. When she opened the door, the ravening pack was slinking round her feet ingratiatingly, wagging their tucked-in tails.

Good afternoon, I said with my best smile. My name is Herriot. Im applying for the position of assistant. Mr Farnon said to come in time for tea.

Well now, thats nice, she said, ushering me into the sitting room. Im Mrs Hall, the housekeeper. It shouldnt be long before hes back. Moments later the doorbell rang again. The dogs, as if touched by a live wire, leapt screaming into the air and launched themselves at the door.

There was no sign of Mrs Hall, so I went out to the door myself. Shut up! I yelled and the din switched itself off. I opened the door and looked into an eager face. Ello, ello. Mr Farnon in? said its owner.

Not at the moment. Can I help you?

Aye, give im a message when he comes in. Tell im Bert Sharpe of Barrow Hills has a cow wot wants borin out.

Boring out?

Thats right, shes nobbut going on three cylinders.

Three cylinders?

Aye, and if we dont do summat shell go wrang in er ewer, wont she?

Very probably.

Dont want felon, do we? Certainly not.

OK, youll tell im, then. Ta-ta.

I returned thoughtfully to the sitting room. It was disconcerting, but I had listened to my first case history without understanding a word of it.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. I must have nodded off, because the next thing I heard was a voice saying: Hello! Hello!

A tall, thin man was standing looking at me as if something was amusing him. Long, humorous, strong-jawed face. Sorry youve had to wait. Im Siegfried Farnon.

I told him about Bert Sharpe. Something about boring out a cow which was going on three cylinders. He talked about her ewer and felon  I didnt quite get it, Im afraid.

Farnon laughed. I think I can translate. He wants a Hudsons operation doing on a blocked teat. Ewer is the udder and felon the local term for mastitis. How about coming with me and Ill show you a bit of the district?

Farnon was an unorthodox driver. Apparently captivated by the scene, he drove slowly down the hill, elbows resting on the wheel, his chin cupped in his hands.

At the bottom of the hill he came out of his reverie and spurted to 70 miles an hour. His old car rocked crazily along the narrow road and my seat slewed from side to side as I jammed my feet against the floorboards.

Then he slammed on the brakes, pointed out some pedigree shorthorns in a field and jolted away again.

He never looked at the road in front; all his attention seemed to be on the countryside around and behind him.

It was that last bit that worried me, as he spent a lot of time driving fast and looking over his shoulder at the same time.

Mr Sharpe was waiting for us, still looking eager. He led us into the byre and Farnon gestured towards the cow. See what you make of it.

I squatted down and palpated the teat, feeling the mass of thickened tissue. It would have to be broken down by a Hudsons instrument and I began to work the thin metal spiral up the teat.

One second later I was sitting gasping in the dung channel with the neat imprint of a cloven hoof on my shirt front.

It was embarrassing, but there was nothing I could do but sit there fighting for breath, my mouth opening and shutting like a stranded fish.

Mr Sharpe held his hand over his mouth, his innate politeness at war with his natural amusement at seeing the vet come to grief.

Im sorry, young man, but I owt to ave told you that this is a very friendly cow. She allus likes to shake hands. Then, overcome by his own wit, he went into a long paroxysm of silent mirth.

I took my time to recover, then rose with dignity from the dung channel.

With Mr Sharpe holding the nose and Siegfried lifting up the tail, I managed to clear the obstruction  but not before the cow had got in several telling blows on my arms and legs.

When it was over, the farmer grasped the teat and sent a long white jet frothing on the floor. Capital! he said. Shes going on four cylinders now!

On the way home we stopped off at a country pub. Farnon guided me to a seat, ordered two beers and turned to face me.

Well, you can have this job if you want it, he said. Four quid a week and full board. OK?

I was in.

And four pounds a week was sheer affluence. Thank you, I said, trying not to look triumphant. I accept.

It was the start of a working relationship  and a close friendship  that would last for more than four decades.

I WAS so lucky to meet my brilliant, eccentric, mercurial boss that day, and later his equally brilliant, happy-go-lucky student brother Tristan. And so fortunate to have been given a job full of small incidents that invariably brightened my day.

Like the letter from the Bramleys. That really made me feel good.

The Bramley family was in many ways unique  even by the standards of the Thirties their lives were untouched by the flood of progress. There were four of them: three brothers and a sister, Rosemary.

There was no road to their farm, but that didnt bother the Bramleys because the outside world held no great attraction for them.

Rosemary made occasional trips to Darrowby on market days for provisions and Herbert, the middle brother, had come into town in the spring of 1929 to have a tooth out, but apart from that they stayed contentedly at home.

I knew they were fond of cats by the number and variety that swarmed over the place and perched confidently on my car bonnet on cold days. But I was unprepared for the familys utter desolation when the cats started to die.

Miss Bramley was on the doorstep at Skeldale House nearly every day, carrying an egg basket with another pitiful patient  a cat or sometimes a few tiny kittens  huddling miserably inside. Even today, with the full range of modern antibiotics, the treatment of feline enteritis is unrewarding, and I had

little success with my prewar potions. The Bramleys were utterly stricken.

I was surprised at their grief because most farmers look on cats as pest-killers and nothing more.

But when Miss Bramley came in one morning with a fresh consignment of invalids she was in a sorry state. She stared at me across the surgery table and her rough fingers clasped and unclasped on the handle of the basket.

Is it going to go through em all? she quavered.

Well, its very infectious and Im sorry to say it looks as though most of your young cats will get it.

For a moment Miss Bramley seemed to be struggling with herself. Her eyes brimmed and two tears wandered among the network of wrinkles on her cheeks. I looked at her helplessly.

Its Topsys kittens Im worried about, she gasped out at length. Theres five of em and theyre the best weve got.

Topsy was one of a strain of incomparable ratters and mousers. Her last family were only about ten weeks old and it would be a crushing blow to the Bramleys if anything happened to them.

But what the devil could I do?

There was, as yet, no protective vaccine against the disease  or was there? I remembered Id heard a rumour that one of the pharmaceutical companies was working on one.

I made a quick phone call. The company told me they were having great results with a new vaccine and would be glad to let me have five doses if I would inform them of the result.

The vaccine arrived promptly and as I injected the tiny creatures Miss Bramley extolled the virtues of the Topsy line. Look at the size of them ears! Did you ever see bigger uns on kittens?

I hadnt. The ears were enormous, sail-like, and they made the ravishingly pretty little faces look even smaller.

Miss Bramley nodded and smiled with satisfaction. Aye, you can allus tell. Its the sure sign of a good mouser.

The injection was repeated a week later. So far, so good.

Well thats it, I said. Well just have to wait now. But remember I want to know the outcome of this, so please dont forget to let me know.

I didnt hear from the Bramleys for several months and had almost forgotten about the little experiment when I came upon a grubby envelope which had been pushed under the surgery door. It was the promised report and was, in its way, a model of conciseness.

It was in a careful, spidery scrawl and said simply: Dere Sir, Them kittens is now big cats. Yrs trly, R. Bramley.

There was nothing more I needed to know. Without wasted words, that note was the work of a true Yorkshire farmer.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele at Tyne Cot cemetery near Ypres in Belgium

Among Theresa May's first promises on becoming Prime Minister last year was that she would protect British businesses from foreign predators.

This was universally welcomed, in view of the fact that, over the previous two decades, there had been a seemingly endless series of rapacious raids on UK companies.

Not only had British corporate giants such as the industrial and chemical firm ICI, Cadbury, Boots the Chemist and Scottish & Newcastle Breweries fallen into foreign hands, but significant parts of the country's infrastructure had become controlled from abroad.

For example, four of our big six energy companies, some of our most important airports, the National Grid gas network and Thames Water are now owned by foreign companies.

Not only is this a humiliating blow to national pride, it has meant that with these successful firms now headquartered abroad, there is less tax revenue for the Treasury to invest in public services.

Now  aided by the fall in the value of sterling  a new attack by overseas marauders is being made on Britain's world-beating technology companies, which are mainly the products of our great research universities.

In the year since the Prime Minister's vow to protect UK firms  which was reinforced in her re-elected Government's Queen's Speech in June  foreign predators have launched a 74.5 billion takeover blitz on British businesses.

The Government's response, frankly, has been pathetic.

Business Secretary Greg Clark has been particularly inept  standing idly by as overseas competitors continue to pick Britain's pockets.

Some firms, though, have fought back. Only a robust defence by Unilever's Dutch boss Paul Polman stopped his firm (which produces a host of products, from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and has major research facilities in the UK) being taken over by Brazilian billionaires.

At a time when London's rival European financial capitals, such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris, are energetically trying to exploit the UK's perceived weakness over Brexit by tempting away banking and insurance jobs, ministers ought to be fighting back.

But, shamefully, they are not.

The current, most high-profile foreign takeover target is Worldpay, the world's largest card payment processing firm.

You may never have heard of the company. But it plays a crucial part of our daily lives.

Worldpay handled 15 billion financial transactions (by credit and debit cards, and online) last year, earning money for itself from commissions when its technology is used at card terminals. It deals with more than 40 per cent of such payments in the UK.

British corporate giants such as the industrial and chemical firm ICI, Cadbury, Boots the Chemist and Scottish & Newcastle Breweries have fallen into foreign hands

An American rival  Cincinnati-based Vantiv  has launched a 9 billion takeover bid. Although 5,000 UK jobs are at risk, it seems that Worldpay bosses, led by former CBI president Sir Mike Rake, have succumbed with barely a murmur.

This supine cave-in typifies the attitude of our political and business elite.

They seem totally unconcerned at the speed with which British high-tech firms  built by the scientific and engineering skills of some of Britain's greatest brains  are falling into the ravenous maw of foreign firms.

With Brexit on the horizon, the timing could not be worse.

Instead of stopping our national assets and technological genius being stripped, employers' groups such as the CBI  who were used as puppets for the Cameron government's cynical Project Fear  should now be straining every sinew to protect Britain plc.

This is why the fate of Worldpay  Britain's largest and most profitable financial technology ('fintech') group  is so vitally important.

In the past few days, the firm's bosses have agreed to the American takeover. Chief executive Phil Jansen, a former catering boss, claims he had no choice.

But Worldpay is precisely the type of company Britain should keep on these shores.

This is an area of business that is booming  with the huge shift from people using cheques and cash to using credit cards and digital transactions online.

Worldpay has been a pioneer in this field  and a great British success story.

Originally using software built at the High Street bank NatWest, it then became owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland. But when the latter fell into dire trouble during the financial crisis, Worldpay was sold to private equity investors and then re-emerged as a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange.

It dominates the world of online payments, operating in 146 countries and 126 currencies. Its clients include Apple and other Silicon Valley giants.

The truth is that its predator, Vantiv, is simply plundering British technology.

Although Worldpay bosses will cash in (for example, chief executive Jansen, who already pocketed 32 million from the FTSE float), the only benefit seems to be the offer of the merged company having an 'international' headquarters in Britain.

There is no commitment about keeping research and development, lucrative patents, engineers or jobs in the UK.

Moreover, as we've learned from bitter experience in the past, such commitments are rarely worth the paper they are written on. (When America's Kraft took over Cadbury in 2006, it reneged on a promise to keep open a factory near Bristol.)

Sadly, Worldpay is not the only British 'fintech' firm to throw in the towel.

Two American private equity firms, CVC and Blackstone, have launched a 3 billion takeover for Paysafe, another stock market-quoted British payments group. Among other services, it provides much of the software for gaming enterprises across the world.

Its biggest investor, London-based investment giant Old Mutual, capitulated and accepted the offer.

In our high-tech age, these businesses are key to Britain's future. Their worth is proved by the fact that five out of the ten largest corporations in America are technology behemoths such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

However, in the UK, we have just one world-beater in the technology sector: mobile phone giant Vodafone.

Its wise bosses have shown the way to go by building on their successes and looking to buy foreign rivals, as they achieved with Germany's biggest mobile firm, Mannesmann.

I wish other company bosses and business leaders showed the same vision.

In the weeks following the Brexit vote, I was told by one of the key policy-makers at the Bank of England that the City of London would thrive, as it had a history of innovation which would keep it ahead of foreign rivals.

He stressed that our best prospects lay with 'fintech'  the digital side of finance. The south bank of the River Thames in London, he said, was lined with offices and laboratories where bright young engineers were revolutionising banking and finance.

The Bank of England itself has set up its own team to encourage innovation and help such businesses.

But this enlightened approach is now being betrayed as we are witnessing a depressing exodus of 'fintech' firms. For example, the financial technology group Monitise (once a pioneer in payments systems) is also being sold to an American rival.

Britain's first licensed purely online bank, Durham-based Atom, has become largely controlled by Spanish bank BBVA. And the brilliant, Edinburgh-based flight-comparison website Skyscanner is now Chinese-owned.

However, the biggest and most worrying sale was the 24 billion takeover of Cambridge-based ARM by Japan's Softbank. ARM is a pioneer in the area of the so-called 'internet of things'  the sophisticated system that, for example, lets ordinary household items such as fridges and kettles become linked through the internet.

The scale of this loss was demonstrated recently as Softbank hived off 25 per cent of ARM, valued at 8 billion, to a Saudi Arabian-backed company.

Why are our politicians not doing more to protect such national jewels?

The tragedy is that too many of them seem pre-occupied with seeking to undermine Brexit and talking down what is, in fact, our remarkably resilient economy. By doing so, they are presiding over the slow destruction of Britain's economic foundations.

Meanwhile, rival governments  across Europe, in Japan, China, India, America, Canada and Australia  are investing money and energy in order to nurture their precious high-tech companies and protect their national assets from foreign predators.

When, in the name of sanity, is Britain going to wake up to the fact that it's the antagonists within the country that we should fear more than the enemies without?
A teen girl who was previously trafficked for sex is now missing again, and may have run away to rejoin her pimp.

Malia Jenae Carbaugh, 16, was reported missing in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, with investigators suspecting she may have fled to Las Vegas to meet 25-year-old alleged pimp James Damarr Jackson.

Investigators have confirmed that Malia bought a plane ticket from Portland to Las Vegas, KPTV reported.

Malia Jenae Carbaugh, 16, (pictured) was reported missing in Portland, Oregon on Thursday

Investigators suspect the teen may have fled to Las Vegas to meet 25-year-old alleged pimp James Damarr Jackson

In July, Malia was rescued in Las Vegas during a sex trafficking sting.

Jackson, who allegedly pimped the girl out in California and Nevada, was arrested in California on the charge of trafficking a minor for sex.

Jackson was released on bail and investigators believe Malia may be trying to reunite with him.

Authorities have put out a plea to the public for information about Malia's whereabouts.

Investigators have confirmed that Malia bought a plane ticket from Portland to Las Vegas

She is described as white with brown hair and brown eyes, five-foot-two and weighing 100 pounds. She has a naval piercing.

A mugshot of Jackson was not immediately available, but booking records describe him as a black male, six-foot-one and weighing 163 pounds.

Anyone with information about Malia's whereabouts is urged to call the Portland Police Department at 503-823-3333.
A Tory MP has resigned from his role at Bath University over the six-figure salary of its vice-chancellor, who is the highest-paid in the country.

Andrew Murrison said Dame Glynis Breakwells 451,000 salary was inappropriate at a time when student fees are rising and he accused university bosses of forming a self-serving cartel.

Yesterday, the MP for South West Wiltshire announced he will cut his 16-year association with the university over the pay settlement, which is three times that of the Prime Minister.

Andrew Murrison (left) said Dame Glynis Breakwells (right) 451,000 salary was inappropriate at a time when student fees are rising and he accused university bosses of forming a self-serving cartel

He has written to Dame Glynis this week to resign from the university court, a statutory body representing Baths internal and external stakeholders.

In his letter, he expressed his disappointment at her pay package, given low levels of pay for ordinary academics and the high burden of student debt.

He told the Daily Mail: Vice-chancellors are having a laugh over the levels of remuneration that they think is appropriate. I was shocked to find that the vice-chancellor of Bath University had the highest pay package of any in the country.

It is three times the size of that of the Prime Minister, which I think is wholly indefensible. This error of judgment is sufficiently grave for me to suspend my association.

Minutes from a Bath court meeting in February show a motion expressed concern about the vice-chancellors pay. However, former Education Minister Lord Adonis said last month that the court voted by the narrow margin of 33 votes to 30 not to censure the remuneration committee.

He said: The majority of three included the vice-chancellor herself and the very members of the remuneration committee whose conduct was in question.

In his letter, he expressed his disappointment at her pay package, given low levels of pay for ordinary academics and the high burden of student debt

Mr Murrisons resignation statement read: Universities really need to be asking whether the eye-watering sums some are dispensing to vice-chancellors are really necessary to attract what they represent as talent.

As a pack, they are looking increasingly like a self-serving cartel at a time of mounting student debt and wage restraint elsewhere in the public and quasi-public sectors.

Dame Glynis also earned 27,000 from non-executive directorships and lives in a large house in the historic centre of Bath, which was bought for 1.6 million in 2002, a benefit in kind thought to be worth 20,000 a year.

Meanwhile, 66 senior managers at Bath are also on six-figure salaries  with 13 of these earning more than 150,000 a year.

Mr Murrisons resignation statement read: Universities really need to be asking whether the eye-watering sums some are dispensing to vice-chancellors are really necessary to attract what they represent as talent

Together, these salaries total 8.7million a year  a significant portion of the universitys annual budget of 283million. This is despite Bath being relatively small, with only 13,310 full-time students last year  around a third of the number at Manchester, the largest British university, which had 34,565.

University fat cat pay has extended beyond vice-chancellors elsewhere to hundreds of academics and executives who earn more than 200,000, a new analysis reveals.

It found 300 teaching, research and administrative staff at elite Russell Group universities earn more than this amount.

This compares with 238 in 2012-13, a rise of almost 30 per cent.

One Oxford academic was paid more than 880,000 in 2015-16. Meanwhile, another earned more than 450,000 and two more were in the 370,000 to 380,000 bracket.
Conservative MPs who have taken a strong stance against same-sex marriage have had fake accounts using their photos set up on popular dating apps.

Nationals Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad, and Federal Member for Dawson, George Christensen, are two politicians who have had fake profiles emerge on sites such as Tinder and Grindr.

The parliamentary members were told the impersonated accounts are believed to be from people looking to discredit them, according to The Herald Sun.

Nationals Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad (pictured), is one of a number of conservative politicians who have become the target of fake accounts on dating apps

One image from an offending Tinder account used a black and white photo of Mr Broad and claimed that the user was a man named 'David' who was a 'Canberra based guy'.

The profile continued to call the person pictured 'relaxed and open-minded,' and said that he was trying the app out to see what it was about.

Mr Broad's office has reportedly contacted the platform to have the offending profiles removed and was unavailable for comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Saturday.

Mr Christensen's images were said to have been used with the gay dating app Grindr.

An image from an offending Tinder account used a black and white photo of Mr Broad, claiming the user was a man named 'David' who was a 'Canberra based guy'

George Christensen (right) is another politician who had a fake account set up using his image, with both he and Mr Broad (left) said to be targeted because of their opposition of gay marriage

Mr Broad's views towards gay marriage have caused controversy in the past, with the MP supporting the Federal Government's plan for a same-sex marriage plebiscite in 2016.

'The government that I am a part of and will remain a part of is conditional on the fact that the only way that there will be a change to the Marriage Act in this parliament is a plebiscite,' he said.

While Mr Christensen has also been vocal about his opposition to gay marriage, sparking outrage on Twitter in 2015 when he compared same-sex marriage to America's pro-gun laws.

The fake dating profiles come just months after dozens of MPs were caught up in an online scam, where copycat Facebook accounts were set up using their names in March

The fake dating profiles come just months after dozens of MPs were caught up in an online scam, after copycat Facebook accounts were set up using their names in March.

Dan Tehan, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security, invited representatives from the company to parliament to brief politicians on how to improve online security at the time.

MPs were told to be on the lookout for such accounts and to act immediately when one was discovered.
It's a crime that will likely take a major sting to solve.

Police are investigating the theft of a beehive containing up to 40,000 bees.

Paul Williams, 43, who keeps bees as a hobby, kept a hive in a ditch in a field in Rhydwyn on Anglesey.

But when he went to check it last week, he discovered the 400 hive and its thousands of occupants were nowhere to be seen.

Mr Williams, of Caergeiliog, estimates that it was taken some time between July 26 and August 2.

Paul Williams, 43, who keeps bees as a hobby, kept a hive in a ditch in a field in Rhydwyn on Anglesey

Bee rustlers are suspected, with police confirming that whoever had taken it had most likely gone equipped for the job.

The popularity of beekeeping, has pushed up the prices of a hive, according to Diane Roberts of the British Beekeepers Association.

The wet weather will have also aided the theft as bees tend to stay and eat their own honey, rather than flying far from their hives.

She said that the thief must be an experienced apiarist.

The wet weather will have also aided the theft as bees tend to stay and eat their own honey, rather than flying far from their hives

You need to know what you are doing to steal a hive  which entrances of the hive to block up, and not to use solid tape, otherwise you could suffocate the bees, she told The Guardian.

She also said the thief will have needed a getaway car or other means to move the hive, which can way up to 40lb when full.

PC Dewi Evans of North Wales Police rural crime team, which is investigating the theft, said it was likely a professional job.

The fact there were thousands of bees inside suggests they were wearing a full bee suit or they risked being stung to smithereens.

He appealed for people to listen for any unusual buzzing in their neighbourhood.

No arrests have been made.

Bee rustling has become a growing problem, with reports of similar thefts in Norfolk, Cornwall and Devon in recent years.

In 2015, more hives worth hundreds of pounds were stolen from a honey farm on the Welsh island.

Police believe the thief will have needed a getaway car or other means to move the hive, which can way up to 40lb when full

Katie Hayward lost three irreplaceable queens when her colony was raided as she slept. The thieves made off with two of her prized hives, stealing roughly 30,000 bees.

Speaking at the time, she said: Beekeeping itself has become quite a popular hobby.

The nucleus of bees - which is what theyve taken - is a small amount of bees with the queen.

They are quite valuable, quite sought after and its a quick 170-180.

You put those bees in a new hive, people can ask 400 or 500 for it. Its lucrative.

Gill Maclean of the British Beekeepers Association, said there were usually a couple of incidences each year.

She suggested the most likely reason for the thefts was for commercial gain from their honey surplus.

Bee rustling has become a growing problem, with reports of similar thefts in Norfolk, Cornwall and Devon in recent years

There will be a number of reasons but the main one is likely to be financial, either to sell it on or to keep as beekeepers themselves, she said.

But this is the odd thing. To actually pinch a hive you have to have some knowledge of beekeeping or youre just going to get stung.

In terms of selling them on, beekeepers are pretty social and know each other, so you wouldnt buy bees from someone unless you knew them and where they came from.

The equipment itself doesnt have much of a value. Lots of it will have been used for many years, so I dont think it would just be for that.

They are most likely to have been taken for their honey surplus which could be used for commercial benefit.
A 14-year-old boy who was home alone got the shock of his life when two intruders broke into his house.

The frightening ordeal was all captured on camera thanks to a home security system, but the footage does not reveal the sheer terror the teen must have felt as he had no choice but to allow the robbers to walk in through the front door.

The Miami-Dade Police Department is now investigating the armed robbery that took place last Friday evening.

The teenager can be seen scampering away in this picture as robbers enter the home

The boy went to hide in his bedroom and the men demanded that he wrap his head in a t-shirt so that he could not see what was going on

The nightmare began when the boy heard a knock at the front door and went to have a look.

Upon opening it, the men barged their way inside forcing the boy back into the living room.

As the teen ran towards the kitchen area, the robbers followed him.

According to WPDF the men then forced the teen to lay on the floor and wrap his head with his own shirt while the pair began to ransack the place and steal electronics including a printer and flat-screen TV.

Even the family dog can be seen running away in this shot taken by a CCTV system in the home

The thieves took electronic items from the home before they fled through the back door including this flat screen TV

Unfortunately, the robber's face was not captured clearly on camera

The family dog did not appear to put up much of a fight as the robbery was underway and the thieves were able to leave easily through the back door.

The teenager was said to be shaken up afterwards but not injured.

Police described the suspects as black males between 28 and 30 years old.

Anyone with information on the robbery or suspects is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
The ice addict stepson of murdered Melbourne retailer Karen Ristevski has repeated claims he was having an affair with his father's wife in a new blog about her death.

Anthony Rickard has declared he entered into a secret relationship with his stepmother and had plans to flee the family home together, The Advertiser reported.

The revelations come as the 33-year-old created a Facebook blog to bring attention to the unsolved death of Ms Ristevski.

Anthony Rickard (pictured) has claimed he had entered into a secret relationship with his stepmother Karen Ristevski and had plans to flee the family home together

Since the discovery of Ms Ristevski's (left) body in February, her husband Borce Ristevski (right) has been a key suspect with police

Named 'A life of missery from Rickard to Ristevski', the page looks for financial contributions to 'make a bit of an impact' into the case.

He informed police their relationship blossomed after his father, Borce Ristevski, and Ms Ristevski welcomed him into their home as a teenager following an argument with his mother.

Despite his father taking him in, Mr Rickard has been vocal on social media, accusing Mr Ristevski of his wife's murder after her body was found decomposed in Mt Macedon bushland on February 20.

'Boris u were not there for me for my first 14years why the f  k did u come into my life and f  k the next 14 years?,' Mr Rickard wrote in April.

'What a f  king looser u are staying with the woman who wanted to leave u for ur son I choose to stay with the wrong person!'

He urged for help online to 'get old mate put away can't have murders walking around', in reference to his father.

The revelations come as the 33-year-old has created a Facebook blog (pictured) to bring attention to the unsolved death of Ms Ristevski

Ms Ristevski's body was found by a jogger between logs in the Macedon Regional Park on February 20, eight months after she was reported missing

Since the discovery of Ms Ristevski's body, her husband has been a key suspect with police.

'It's pretty clear police have him as their number one suspect,' Mr Ristevski's criminal defence lawyer Rob Stary said.

Mr Ristevski has been questioned by police on numerous occasions but denied any involvement in his wife's death.

The 52-year-old claimed he last saw his wife on June 29, 2016 at their Avondale Heights home after a financial agreement.

Ms Ristevski's body was found by a jogger between logs in the Macedon Regional Park on February 20, eight months after she was reported missing.

Police pulled information from the phones of Mr and Mrs Ristevski after the woman vanished, and both phones were found to have connected with transmission towers on the Calder Freeway.

Mr Ristevski (pictured with his daughter Sarah) has denied any involvement with his wife's disappearance and murder

Mr Ristevski was also seen to be near Diggers Rest, about 20 kilometres north of Avondale Heights, where the family lived.

Ms Ristevski's phone was last pinged near Gisbourne - a further 20 kilometres along the Calder Freeway.

The evidence obtained by police also shows Mr Ristevski's phone had been turned off for two hours.

Police also seized Ms Ristevski's black Mercedes after a similar vehicle was spotted on CCTV in Diggers Rest on the day of her disappearance.

Mr Rickard took to Facebook once again this week with another incoherent post to apologise to his alleged lover for not being there for her when she disappeared.

'RIP karen Im sorry I made the wrong choices that morning I was loyal to who was not to me didnt want to b a toy boy my single crazy mum brought a real man up by14 was as u was 20.'

Mr Rickard has also been interviewed by police. He has denied anything to do with Ms Ristevskis death but says he cannot account for his movements on the day of her disappearance.
'Teflon' John Ibrahim is said to be worth up to $50million, according to senior law enforcement officers, who claim he is 'very clever with his money'.

The approximate valuation of the self-proclaimed 'King of the Cross' comes after police searched his home 'for eight hours' during a massive sting which led to his son, girlfriend, brothers and real estate agent being arrested or charged.

According to the Saturday Telegraph the search, which finished with police leaving 'empty handed' and with John Ibrahim not being arrested, has inflated his 'Teflon John' reputation even further.

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'Teflon' John Ibrahim, pictured, is said to be worth up to $50million

'Eight hours of tearing up his house and they leave with a few garbage bags and no charges, bit embarrassing really,' a senior Sydney lawyer said

The approximate valuation of the self-proclaimed 'King of the Cross' comes after police searched his home 'for eight hours'

Police are seen at the home of Kings Cross club owner John Ibrahim during an operation in Sydney

'Eight hours of tearing up his house and they leave with a few garbage bags and no charges, bit embarrassing really,' a senior Sydney lawyer told the publication.

It is understood police have been watching the Ibrahim family for three decades.

John's son Daniel was one of 18 people arrested this week as part of a sting on the multi-million-dollar drug syndicate alleged to be operating across Australia, Dubai and the Netherlands.

The 26-year-old was arrested in Sydney for allegedly handing over a suitcase holding $2.25m to buy illegal tobacco as part of a deal masterminded by his uncle Michael.

As Daniel was bailed, it was revealed his uncles Michael and Fadi who were arrested as part of the sting would have their extradition back to Australia fast-tracked, with the pair likely to be home as soon as Monday, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Daniel Taylor (pictured) has been released on bail after a AUD$630,000 surety was paid in full on Friday afternoon

Michael (left) and Fadi Ibrahim (right), who were arrested as part of the sting, will have their extradition back to Australia fast-tracked, with the pair likely to be home as soon as Monday

Both Michael and Fadi, who were arrested after stepping off a luxury yacht in Dubai on Monday, are reportedly set to return to Australia as soon as next Monday.

The two brothers are expected to be joined by Mustapha Dib, Stephen Elmir and Comanchero bikie Hakan Arif, who were all arrested alongside them.

'The Attorney General's office is keen to push through the paper work and get the Australians extradited out of Dubai,' a prosecution official said.

'It's up to the Australian authorities to deal with them, their (alleged) crimes were not committed in the UAE so these men are nothing to do with us.'

Officials from the Australian embassy in Abu Dhabi reportedly flew to meet with the men in Dubai on Friday night. The five men are split between three Dubai prisons.

The alleged deal that led to Daniel Ibrahim being arrested was reportedly set up by his uncle Michael.

Daniel, who is also known as Daniel Taylor, was granted bail on Tuesday but was not released until Friday when the entirety of his surety was finally posted.

He was charged with dealing with money intended as an instrument of crime after a raid on Sydney homes on Tuesday. It's believed the alleged deal took place in July.

Daniel, the son of Kings Cross nightclub giant John Ibrahim (right), was arrested as part of the sting on a drug syndicate alleged to be operating in Australia, Dubai and the Netherlands

The 'King of the Cross' John Ibrahim (left) with his son Daniel (right) who has been released from custody

Both Michael (left) and Fadi (right) are expected to be joined by Mustapha Dib, Stephen Elmir and Comanchero bikie Hakan Arif, who were all arrested alongside them

Daniel's lawyer Nick Hanna visited his client on Thursday, telling media outside it may take 'a few days' to raise the money to get the former army officer released.

Authorities say they prevented two tonnes of illicit drugs, including 1.8 tonnes worth of MDMA, from coming in to Australia from the Netherlands as part of the operation.

The estimated street value was up to $810 million, AFP Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan said this week, but authorities managed to pounce on the haul in time.

After working for his father at a number of bars in Kings Cross, Daniel later joined the army, serving in the Middle East. He left after three years.

'My mates joke that he joins the army to get an easier life, and that's a win for the army,' Ibrahim wrote in his recent autobiography Last King of the Cross.

As part of the raid's John Ibrahim's model girlfriend Sarah Budge (pictured) was also arrested

Budge is not involved in the alleged drug-smuggling syndicate but has faced court on firearms and ammunition charges

Ibrahim began taking Daniel to the Anzac Day Dawn Service when he was a boy and believed that may have influenced his decision to join the army.

As part of the raids John Ibrahim's model girlfriend Sarah Budge was also arrested, but received bail on Thursday.

She is not involved in the alleged drug-smuggling syndicate but has faced court on firearms and ammunition charges.

Court documents suggested she was in possession of a Glock 26 pistol with its serial numbers removed when she was arrested at Double Bay on Tuesday.
Thomas Kokoraleis (pictured) is set to be released in September unless prosecutors can stop it

An infamous Chicago killer who was a member of the Ripper Crew, believed to be responsible for killing as many as 20 women in the 1980s, is expected to be paroled in September.

Thomas Kokoraleis, 59, is due for release after serving half of his 70-year-sentence for killing Lorraine Borowski who was just 21-years-old.

The Ripper Crew was a gang of four men that stalked and terrorized the streets of Chicago in the '80s, hunting for women.

They would cut women's breasts off with knives and garroting wires while they were still alive, rape them and ultimately murder them in their ritualistic killings.

Lorraine's brother Mark Borowski was 14 when his sister was raped and brutally murdered by the Ripper Crew. He said he was horrified when he learned Kokoraleis is due for release on September 29.

Mark recalled the haunting memories from the time after his sister went missing to the Chicago Tribune. He remembers five months of passing out fliers in hopes of finding her, and finally, the gruesome discovery of her remains.

Lorraine had a closed coffin Catholic funeral as her remains were too decomposed for loved ones to view and say their goodbyes.

Lorraine Borowski (pictured) was brutally mutilated and raped before being murdered

Thomas Kokoraleis in a mugshot from 1982. He was convicted of the brutal slaying of Lorraine Borowski

Left to right, the Ripper Crew: Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer- both ineligible for parole and Andrew Kokoraleis- killed by lethal injection

Thomas Kokoraleis' older brother, Andrew Kokoraleis, was sentenced to death for his involvement in the torturous killings.

Mark says his parents attended Andrew's execution, and watched him draw his last breath.

He says his father Raymond, who died several years ago, 'never really got over her death.'

Mark told the Chicago Times: 'You really never get over something like this. Time goes on and you work your way through the memories but it's never gone. It's always there.'



Andrew Kokoraleis was the last of inmates to be executed in Illinois. He was 35 when he was killed by lethal injection in 1999. In 2011 the state abolished the death penalty.

The Ripper Crew's ringleader, Robin Gecht, 63, is the only member who wasn't convicted of murder- he never confessed. He is serving 120 years years for the rape and mutilation of a teenager working as a prostitute, according to the Tribune.

The teenage prostitute survived her ordeal and provided the crucial information to authorities to end the crew's brutal run.

Mark Borowski (pictured), Lorraine's brother, is appalled that Kokoraleis is due to be released

Left: Sandra Delaware, 18, was stabbed and strangled. Right: Linda Sutton, 26, was raped and stabbed to death, she was a mother of two

Left: Rose Beck Davis, 30 was raped, beaten with an ax and stabbed to death. Right: Shui Mak, 30 was beaten to death

Other victims' of the Ripper Crew included Rose Beck Davis, 30, who was raped, beaten with an ax and stabbed to death. And Shui Mak, 30, was beaten to death.

Sandra Delaware was just 18 when she was stabbed and strangled to death. Linda Sutton, 26, was raped and stabbed to death and left behind two children.

Finally another member of the crew, Edward Spreitzer, 56, also remains behind bars and is ineligible for parole.

'This guy should never get out of prison,' said John Smith Jr., a retired DuPage County Jail chief who took Thomas to his first jail cell. 'I was appalled when I saw he was going to get out. My opinion? They all should have gotten the death penalty.'

Thomas is eligible for release in a plea deal he made to do 70 years for pleading guilty to murdering Lorraine, however there is a loophole prosecutors are looking at that may keep him behind bars.

Thomas may fit the requirements for a civil commitment process for inmates who are deemed too sexually violent to be freed, sources tell the Tribune.

For civil commitment a person must be convicted of a sexually violent offence and must suffer from a mental disorder.

During Thomas' trial his lawyer described him as 'borderline' mentally impaired with an IQ of 75.
Two women have been charged after another woman was bashed unconscious outside a train station in Sydney's West.

NSW Police allege that a 20-year-old woman was walking on Main Street to Blacktown train station when she was approached by two other women at about 9.30pm on Friday.

The unidentified victim was allegedly then beaten up by two other women, aged 20 and 19.

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Two women have been arrested after bashing another woman unconscious in Blacktown

The victim was taken to the Westmead Hospital with non-life threatening injuries and is in a stable condition.

Investigators have established a crime scene.

The two women have been arrested and were taken to Blacktown police station.

They have both been charged with assault and affray and granted conditional bail to appear at the Blacktown local court on August 16.

Both women had attacked the 20-year-old near the Blacktown train station on Friday night
The shocking moment a teacher and aid dragged a seven-year-old with autism through the hallways of a school has been caught on video.

Mother Bonnie McKean on Thursday released surveillance video of the May 8 incident in Crestline, Ohio, showing two school employees dragging her son Corbin Kemle through the corridors.

The video spread quickly after McKean shared it on Facebook, where it has been viewed over 112,000 times.

'It was wrong the way my son was treated,' McKean said in an interview with WJW.

Bonnie McKean is seen with her son Corbin Kemle. Newly released surveillance video shows teachers dragging Corbin down the school corridors

The incident apparently began when Corbin was acting up on the playground and was marched inside by the two school employees

As the child continues to struggle and refuses to walk, the two employees pick him up by his wrists and ankles

'The other staff, and you can see them on the video, didn't even think twice about it,' she said.

McKean allowed her son to be shown on local news broadcasts to speak out about the experience.

The teacher and the teacher's aid shown in the surveillance tape have been placed on paid administrative leave, but have not been charged with a crime in the incident.

The incident apparently began when Corbin was acting up on the playground.

The video shows the teacher and aide marching Corbin into the school and then dragging him by his arms as he goes limp.

As the child continues to struggle and refuses to walk, the two employees pick him up by his wrists and ankles.

Other children look on in amazement as the staffers haul the recalcitrant child down the corridor.

As the video continues, the teacher is seen dragging the boy on the floor by his ankle

Other staff members appear either not to notice or think nothing is out of the ordinary

Then, the teacher is seen grabbing the boy by one ankle and dragging him along the linoleum floor.

The incident came to light when the school called McKean and told her that her son had bitten a staff member.

Later that week, she learned that there was more to the incident and that the teacher and aide had been placed on administrative leave.

Prosecutors reviewed the case and determined that criminal charges were not warranted, and referred the case to the Ohio Board of Education's Board of Professional Conduct.
Omarosa Manigault's appearance at a conference for black journalists descended into chaos as members of the crowd turned their back in protest.

Just moments later the Apprentice star and White House aide walked off the stage in disgust after the moderator brought Donald Trump's name into a discussion on police brutality.

The walkout occurred during her controversial talk at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in New Orleans in which she told the crowd 'I fight on the front lines everyday'.

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White House aide Omarosa Manigault refused to answer questions about the administration in which she serves

Some have their backs to Omarosa in protest #nabj17 pic.twitter.com/h0jHR98ynW  NBC BLK (@NBCBLK) August 11, 2017

Moderator and broadcast journalist Ed Gordon, left, sparred with Manigault, almost as soon as she stepped on stage and it wasn't long before she decided to walk out herself

Courtesy of Miki Turner

Several people planning to attend already boycotted the event after hearing she would be there.

But when she entered the room, there was immediate tension as some turned around and others left the room altogether.

According to TMZ the longtime Trump supporter and now aide to the President got offended with how journalist Ed Gordon phrased a question about Trump during the debate.

Although Manigault appeared to be happy sharing her personal story about how her father Jack Manigault Sr., and her brother, Jack Thomas Manigault Jr. were murdered, her mood suddenly changed when Trump's name came up.

She said that she wasn't going to defend every single one of his decisions.

Manigault, 43, is director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison and noted that she is often the 'only African-American representative' in the White House and frequently tries to be an advocate on behalf of black people.

Slate.com reports how she began by sharing a personal story about the violent deaths to her family members until she addressed a fellow panelist who had asked what she had done for people who have lost loved ones to the police.

'I fight on the front lines everyday,' she replied, causing room to erupt in laughter.

When asked about President Trump's recent comments that police should rough up people they are detaining, Manigault said his comments were wrong but said she could not elaborate on private conversations with the president

White House aide Omarosa Manigault speaks during a panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans, Louisiana

Bounce TV's Ed Gordon who was moderating the session 'Black and Blue: Raising Our Sons, Protecting Our Communities,' attempted to hold her accountable for the administration she represents by tying in her personal story with the administration's policy, but Manigault was ready to fight back.

The event began cordially, but within minutes, it devolved into a shouting match.

Manigault refused to allow Gordon to finish a follow-up question and stood up accusing him of being aggressive.

Organizers them played a clip of President Trump's recent speech encouraging the police to be 'rough' with people whom they arrest.

Asked for her comments on Trump's remarks and changes to criminal justice policies under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Manigault said, 'I don't work for the justice dept.'

Im not going to stand here and defend everything about Donald Trump, she said, to loud sighs in the audience, reports the New York Times.

Eventually she decided shed had enough of the tense exchanges and she ended up walking off the stage before the end of the panel.

Gordon described the entire incident to Slate as a 'hot mess.'

'It was my understanding that she was there to talk about her personal story, but also to be a representative of this administration,' he said.

Manigault accused the crowd of journalists of not having sympathy for the deaths of her father and brother. 'I came out to laughter as if this was a joke,' she said. 'Walking into a room where you get shut down does not open a line of communication so change can happen.'

Panel moderator Edward Gordon, White House aide Omarosa Manigault, Cheryl Dorsey and Arthur Reed react during the panel discussion

But even before she took to the stage, her very inclusion in the conference sparked controversy with many branding the invite as'extremely offensive'.

An insider told Page Six on Friday that members and moderators have been dropping out of the event after Manigault was added to a panel discussing police brutality.

The source said: 'The majority there don't want her involved. It's heavy drama  even the moderator is refusing. Everyone sees it as extremely offensive.'

Among the dropouts are New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New Yorker's Kelani Cobb.

Cobb told Page Six that Omarosa's inclusion wasn't the sole reason for quitting the panel, branding the event 'very disorganized'.

Last week it emerged that she has waged war on journalists April Ryan and Roland Martin, as well as renowned Pastor Jamal Bryant calling them 'enemies of the Trump administration.'

Among those who Omarosa has waged war on is journalist April Ryan, pictured in June

The former Apprentice star told the president that the three high-profile personalities are the 'biggest threats to sow discord in the African American community against the White House agenda,' sources told DailyMail.com exclusively.

Panelists had voiced their outrage over Omarosa Manigault's inclusion

Omarosa, who now works on Trump's communication team, was once close pals with Ryan, Martin and Bryant, but is now monitoring them because of their political differences.

The reality star turned-political aide regularly partied with Martin, a former CNN contributor, during the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference every September - but reportedly turned on him after he made bold anti-Trump commentaries.

Her friendship with Ryan came to an end after the CNN contributor advised Manigault against taking a job at the White House.

She also cut things off with Bryant after he supported Senator Bernie Sanders for the 2016 presidential election.

'It's shocking that three people she once considered her close friends are not just her personal nemeses, but she's always bashing in meetings with senior White House staff and has her team keeping a dossier on each of them,' one source revealed.
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James Alex Fields Jr (pictured), of Maumee, Ohio, was arrested on Saturday after he 'intentionally drove his vehicle into a crowd of anti-fascists at white nationalist rally, killing one woman and injuring 19 others' in Charlottesville, Virginia

At least one person is dead after a driver intentionally plowed into a group of anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, following violent clashes that erupted between white nationalists and activists on Saturday.

James Alex Fields Jr, of Maumee, Ohio, is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. He was charged with second-degree murder.

Video of the Dodge Challenger, which is registered to Fields, showed the driver accelerating into the crowd throwing bodies into the air as people scream before reversing at high speed.

The incident killed a 32-year-old woman, whose identity has not been released by authorities pending her family's notification.

Fields was apprehended and arrested a few blocks away from the bloody scene.

According to the jail's superintendent, Martin Kumer, Fields was also booked on suspicion of malicious wounding, failure to stop for an accident involving a death, and hit and run. Kumer said Fields is being held without bail.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said a total of 35 people had been treated for injuries, 14 of those were from individual engagements on the streets.

Horrifying video from the scene of the attack shows the silver muscle car speeding towards a group of fleeing anti-fascist protesters.

Another clip shows the vehicle ramming into the crowd at high speed and victims crying out in pain as they desperately seek medical help.

Witnesses said the car was traveling up to 40 miles an hour when it hit and reversed before ramming into the crowd again and speeding off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper.

Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe strongly condemned all of the so-called 'patriotic' white nationalists during a press conference Saturday evening.

'Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth,' McAuliffe proclaimed. 'You are not patriots. You came here today to hurt people and that is not patriotic,' McAuliffe added.

Witnesses said moments before the car plowed into the crowd, a counter-protester had allegedly thrown a rock at the car, causing the driver to swivel around and ram into people and two cars in its way.

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A Dodge Challenger (pictured) intentionally plowed into counter protesters, killing one woman and hospitalizing 19 others, as violence erupted at a rally where thousands of white nationalists gathered for an alt-right event in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. Police said a total of 35 people were treated for injuries

Witnesses said the car was traveling up to 40 miles an hour when it hit and reversed before ramming into the crowd again and speeding off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper

Fields was apprehended and is currently in police custody. He was arrested a few blocks away from the bloody scene. Pictured: The car that allegedly ran into several people

A counter protester had allegedly thrown a rock at the car, causing the driver to swivel around and accelerate into people and two cars in its way, before driving away from the scene

Rescue personnel help an injured woman after a car ran into a large group of counter protesters. There were several hundred people marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them

Rescue personnel help an injured man after the car drove into a large group of protesters after the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville

Local police reported there were multiple injures and three vehicles were involved in the crash. Pictured: The two vehicles that were rammed into by a Dodge Challenger

People were heard screaming and crying in the aftermath of the smash, as blood was splattered on a car's windshield and victims were desperately calling out for medical help

In addition to the dozen of people hurt in the accident, at least 15 people were already being treated for their injures during other destructive clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters at Emancipation Park before the controversial Unite the Right rally.

President Trump admonished the day's tragic events, saying in a press conference: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, violence, on many sides... The hate and division must stop, and must stop right now.'

There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them and police said the crash happened near the intersection of Fourth and Water streets.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counter-protesters were marching when 'suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound.'

The silver sedan smashed into another car, then backed up, plowing through 'a sea of people.'

People scattered, running for safety in different directions, he said.

Witness Nic McCarthy told C-VILLE Weekly: 'There was someone in a dark vehicle that sped, very quickly, down this road and rammed into the crowd.

'People... He backed up and he went back in again.'

McCarthy added: 'There was a girl that was caught and she was trying to get up and it ran over her again. I hope the cops catch these terrorists.'

The day was met with more tragedy, when a Virginia State Police helicopter, believed to be carrying two people, crashed inside city limits and thick black smoke was seen rising from behind the trees, according to local reports.

According to WSET, there were two people on board the helicopter when it crashed, however it is not known if there are any injuries or fatalities.

Warning: Explicit language

The day was met with more tragedy, when a Virginia State Police helicopter, believed to be carrying two people, crashed inside city limits and thick black smoke was seen rising from behind the trees, according to local reports

A 10-second video posted to Twitter and filmed on a golf course shows thick black smoke rising from behind the trees. It is unknown if there are any injuries or fatalities from the crash

Upsetting video footage of the vehicle ramming into the crowd, described by some as a terror attack, was uploaded online moments after the fatal collision

A vehicle reverses after driving into a group of protesters demonstrating against the day's white nationalist rally

There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them and police said the crash happened near the intersection of Fourth and Water streets

It is believed a counter protester had thrown a rock at the vehicle, causing the driver to swivel around and ram into people and cars in its way, before driving off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper.

The horrifying scenes in Virginia came after violent clashes erupted between white nationalists and activists.

Upsetting video footage of the vehicle ramming into the crowd, described by some as a terror attack, was uploaded online moments after the fatal collision.

Another witness claimed the act was intentional. He said: 'Yeah, it was intentional.About 40 miles an hour, hit about 15-20 people, crashed into the two cars in front of it, and then backed up and sped away while cops were standing on the side of the road and didn't do anything.'

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Singer announced the death on Twitter. He wrote: 'I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will - go home.'

There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them

A witness claimed the act was intentional. He said : 'Yeah, it was intentional.About 40 miles an hour, hit about 15-20 people, crashed into the two cars in front of it, and then backed up and sped away while cops were standing on the side of the road and didn't do anything'

President Trump admonished the day's tragic events, saying in a press conference: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, violence, on many sides... The hate and division must stop, and must stop right now'

President Trump admonished the day's outcome, tweeting: 'Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!'

President Trump added: 'We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!'

First Lady Melania Trump tweeted: 'Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence'

On Saturday evening Trump followed up with this tweet in which he sent his 'deepest condolences to the families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today'

Trump took a break from his time in Bedminister to condemn the violence in Charlottesville but also took the time to announce the signing of legislation to expand a veterans health care program.

He said: 'We have to respect each other, ideally we have to love each other.'

Trump had earlier tweeted about the violence that erupted amid the white supremacist march. He tweeted that 'we ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for.' He then wrote 'There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!'

The White House was silent for hours about the clashes except for a solitary tweet from First Lady Melania Trump. The president has received previous criticism for being slow to condemn acts of hate done in his name.

And though the White House may have been slow to condemn the hateful acts, Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe gave a powerful speech in which he said all of the so-called 'patriotic' white nationalists are not wanted in the United States.

And though the White House may have been slow to condemn the hateful acts, Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe (pictured) gave a powerful speech in which he said all of the so-called 'patriotic' white nationalists are not wanted in the United States. 'My message is clear we are stronger than you. You will not succeed,' he said

A counter demonstrator uses a lighted spray can against a white nationalist demonstrator at the entrance to Lee Park

'My message is clear we are stronger than you. You will not succeed,' he said. 'There is no place for you here and there is no place for you in America.'

McAuliffe also said he spoke to the president on Saturday following the horrific acts of violence in Virginia.

'I told the president that there has got to be a movement in this country to bring us together,' he said.

McAuliffe said he told the president that he's willing to 'work with him to stop the hate speech and the bigotry in this country'.

During Saturday evening's press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, confirmed that a total of 35 people had been treated for injuries, 14 of those came from individual engagements on the streets.

Nine pedestrians were treated with injuries that ranged from 'life-threatening to minor' after the car plowed through the crowd.

Thomas said the 32-year-old woman was struck by the vehicle as she was crossing the street. He didn't release any information on the woman pending her family's notification.

He said the incident is still under investigation and will be investigated as a criminal homicide.

The crash occurred approximately two hours after violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters earlier that day during the planned Unite the Right rally.

Hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event on Saturday morning.

Counter-protesters flocked to the march in retaliation against the white nationalists, neo-Confederates and alt-right activists, screaming: 'We're here, we're gay, we fight the KKK!'

First Lady Melania Trump tweeted: 'Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence.'

The protest hadn't officially started but social media videos showed the rally was escalating as people were seen throwing objects, breaking out into fights and people spraying mace into the crowd.

Arrests were made after police in riot gear attempted to clear the park and a group of protesters pushed back against them, while the battle between the two protester groups continued to rage on in the streets of the city.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer had denounced the 'cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights' and warned for residents to stay away from the rally.

At least 15 people were seriously injured earlier during the day during clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters at Emancipation Park before the controversial Unite the Right rally on Saturday. A video appears to show the altercation, as a man is being dragged away while a woman screams: 'Don't allow them to do this!'

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer denounced the 'cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights' and warned for residents to stay away from the rally

The Unite the Right rally was being held at Emancipation Park and hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event

White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' clash with counter-protesters

Police were in position at Emancipation Park and downtown Charlottesville by 6am as they prepared for the rally.

Between 4,000 and 6,000 people from groups including white nationalists, neo-Confederates and alt-right activists were expected to protest at the park, which had recently been renamed from Lee Park.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler planned what he called a 'pro-white' rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Supporters and counter-protesters screamed, chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other. Men dressed in militia uniforms were carrying shields and openly carrying guns.

The protest hadn't yet begun when two people were seriously injured and protesters reportedly deployed pepper spray, according to state police.

Jason Kessler, the organizer of the rally, said he disavows the violence that eroded it.

The alt-right blogger said in an interview later that day that whoever drove a car into a group of counter-protesters 'did the wrong thing.' He said he was saddened that people were hurt.

Kessler is a local blogger and activist who described the event as a pro-white rally. He planned it to protest the city's decision to remove a Confederate monument.

He also criticized law enforcement's response to the event, which was dispersed before speakers could take the stage. He said they did a poor job controlling the chaos to allow free speech.

Warning: Explicit language

A white supremacist stands behind militia members after he scuffled with a counter demonstrator in Charlottesville

Several Nazi flags were seen proudly raised during the controversial rally protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

Images show the two opposing sides of the crowd throwing bottles and becoming increasingly violent

They were gathered because right-wing blogger Jason Kessler planned what he called a 'pro-white' rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

The violence, which erupted ahead of the rally's start time of noon, forced the city to declare a local emergency around 11am and determined the event was an unlawful assembly, using tear gas bombs to clear the unruly crowd

A white nationalist demonstrator, bloodied after a clash with a counter demonstrator, talks on the radio receiver

A group of white activists clash with others at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville on Saturday morning

Social media videos show the crowd throwing bottles and objects as police film the interaction from behind fences but don't intervene.

Brawls broke out as people in militia gear tackled others to the ground and began throwing punches.

Christopher Mathias, a reporter for the Huffington Post tweeted: 'Just witnessed a violent fight in a parking garage. Nazi dude pulled a gun. Some bad injuries.'

Officials declared a local emergency shortly after 11am. Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her black son out of town for the weekend.

'This isn't how he should have to grow up,' she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the 'counter protesters are crazier than the alt-right. Both sides are hoping for a confrontation,' he said.

We are breaking down and relocating - being hit with tear gas bombs. My view from behind the barricade: pic.twitter.com/iGKaFb5oXT  Craig Stanley (@_CraigStanley) August 12, 2017

City officials declared a local emergency shortly after 11am. Brawls broke out as people in militia gear tackled others to the ground and began throwing punches

Counter-protesters flocked to the march in retaliation (pictured) against the white nationalists, screaming: 'We're here, we're gay, we fight the KKK!'

The Unite the Right rally was being held at Emancipation Park and hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event

Christopher Mathias, a reporter for the Huffington Post tweeted: 'Just witnessed a violent fight in a parking garage. Nazi dude pulled a gun. Some bad injuries'

A local resident of Charlottesville who did not wish to be identified, wipes tears from her eyes at a vigil where 20 candles were burned for the 19 people injured and one killed when the car plowed into a crowd of counter protesters at the 'Unite the Right' rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville

Counter protesters pay their respects at a vigil where 20 candles were burned for the 19 people injured and one killed on Saturday

In response to the day's events, the University of Virginia announced on Saturday afternoon that all scheduled events and programming would be canceled.

The announcement stated: 'This cancellation includes all academic programming, the scheduled community discussions taking place in the University Libraries, and all UVA Athletic events and programming. The University is monitoring the developments in Charlottesville and continues to coordinate with state and local law enforcement.'

The city announced earlier this week that the rally must be moved out of Emancipation Park to a larger one, citing safety reasons. The rally and counter-protests wereexpected to draw thousands of people.

Kessler sued, saying the change was a free speech violation. The city said in a statement that it would abide by the judge's decision.

Kessler had led a torch lit procession through the University of Virginia campus on Friday night with burning torches, ending at the statue of Thomas Jefferson.

Almost 200 white nationalists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, were heard chanting 'white lives matter' and 'Jews will not replace us'.

They clashed with University of Virginia students who held an anti-racist protest, and were seen holding up signs which read: 'VA students against white supremacists.'

Students on Friday night were heard chanting 'go home Nazis,' a reporter from the Washington Post tweeted.

Clashes have started. Keep in mind, the rally doesn't start officially until noon. #charlottesville #rally pic.twitter.com/DswIVyE6RB  Craig Stanley (@_CraigStanley) August 12, 2017

Hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia with burning torches on Friday

A group of white activists participate in a torch lit march through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville

Almost 200 white nationalists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, heard chanting 'white lives matter' held burning torches

White nationalists carry torches around a statue of Thomas Jefferson on the grounds of the University of Virginia

Jason Kessler lead the torch lit march of white nationalists on Friday. He is also the organizer of the Unite the Right rally which took place on Saturday

Police say violence broke out between the rival groups and officers swiftly intervened to break up the riot which they ruled was an unlawful assembly on Friday night.

At least one person was arrested and several on campus were treated for minor injuries, the Daily Progress newspaper said. Several of the marchers were also hit with pepper spray.

The protesters' decision to use flaming torches seemed to be a deliberate one, to bring back the imagery of KKK violence and cross burning.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer denounced the 'cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights.'

'Everyone has a right under the First Amendment to express their opinion peaceably, so here's mine... I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus,' he told CNN.

'Jews will not replace us' and 'white lives matter' were among chants heard at the rally, according to witnesses

The protesters' decision to use flaming torches seemed to be a deliberate one, to bring back the imagery of KKK violence and cross burning

Hundreds of alt-right activists snaked through the university campus, illuminating the path with their many torches

The march, which comes ahead of a much larger rally due to take place Saturday, was condemned by Charlottesville's mayor

On Friday, it was predicted that nearly 6,000 people were expected to descend on the college town on Saturday for the Unite the Right rally.

Saturday's rally gathered at the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Emancipation Park - a focal point for a number of white supremacist protests since the council voted to remove the structure in April.

McAuliffe had urged Virginians to stay away ahead of Saturday's rally.

'In advance of the rally there have been communications from extremist groups, many of which are located outside of Virginia, who may seek to commit acts of violence against rally participants or law enforcement officials,' he said in a statement.

'In the event that such violent or unlawful conduct occurs, I have instructed state public safety officials to act quickly and decisively in order to keep the public and themselves safe.

White nationalists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, heard chanting 'white lives matter,' clashed with University of Virginia students at the statue of Thomas Jefferson (pictured)

Students held an anti-racist protest, and surrounded the statue which has been the focal point for a number of white supremacist protests since the council voted to remove the structure in April and rename the park

'I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans.

'Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent.

'As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right. But it is also the right of every American to deny those ideas more attention than they deserve.'

'The Charlottesville event could be a potentially historic showcase of hate, bringing together more extremists in one place than we have seen in at least a decade,' said Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.

Earlier this week, the city had ordered the rally planned for Saturday to be relocated out of Emancipation Park to a larger one, further out of the city, citing safety reasons.

But Kessler, who organized the rally, said on Twitter that the company's move amounted to an attack on 'free speech and civil rights'.

He sued added that the change was a free speech violation and that moving the protest away from the Lee statue undermined his event.

One group of students were seen holding up a sign which read: 'VA students against white supremacists'

Police say violence broke out between the rival groups and officers swiftly intervened to break up the riot which they ruled was an unlawful assembly

An activist reacts to pepper spray in his eyes during a torch lit march through the University of Virginia campus

Several of the activists appeared to have been subjected to pepper spray, and several treated for minor injuries

Police used pepper spray on several marchers and counter-demonstrators after clashes broke out between them

A man who was pepper-sprayed is helped away from white supremacist marchers at the University of Virginia campus

On Friday, US District Judge Glen Conrad granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed against Charlottesville by the right-wing blogger which allowed the rally of white nationalists and other extremists to take place at its originally planned location downtown.

The city said in a statement that it would abide by the judge's decision.

Mimi Arbeit, an organizer of the planned counter-protests, rejected Kessler's argument that the rally was about freedom of speech.

'Fascism functions by using the institutions of a democracy towards its own ends,' she said by telephone.

On July 8, a few dozen Ku Klux Klan marchers gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove the statue of Lee. But they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counter-protesters.

Kessler, who also organized the Saturday's rally, was among the white activists and held up a tikki style torch during the march

The protesters' decision to use flaming torches seemed to be a deliberate one, to bring back the imagery of KKK violence and cross burning

Friday night (pictured) was just a taster of things to come as up to 6,000 people are expected to descend on the college town on Saturday for the Unite the Right rally

Earlier this week, the city had ordered the rally planned for Saturday to be relocated out of Emancipation Park to a larger one, further out of the city, citing safety reasons

This time the extreme right hopes to have a stronger showing thanks to the presence of various leaders of the 'alt-right' movement that has been emboldened by Donald Trump's ascent to the White House

This time the extreme right hopes to have a stronger showing thanks to the presence of various leaders of the 'alt-right' movement that has been emboldened by Trump's ascent to the White House.

On Friday, City Manager Maurice Jones revealed the rally called for the largest Virginia State Police deployment in the state in nearly three decades.

'These are trying and difficult times for our city and our nation,' Jones said, according to the Daily Progress. 'We have deep political and ideological differences, and those differences will play out here in our community this weekend. It will be stressful and it will be tense, but I'm optimistic that cooler heads will prevail and we will ultimately be stronger as a community once this event is over.'

Generally, the white nationalist protesters appear to have come from outside the city, and many local residents raised fears over Saturday's event.

Last month, hundreds went to City Hall to demand the protest be canceled.

Many local businesses also declared their stores 'safe spaces' while both firms and local people put up signs showing support for diversity before the event.

However, Kessler has even bigger plans for the city.

'We're going to have bigger and bigger events in Charlottesville,' he told CNN.
The family of a dying man misdiagnosed with the flu want the Sydney doctor responsible hauled before the State's health authorities.

Barrister Richard O'Keefe told Glebe Coroners Court on Friday that computer analyst 29-year-old Samuel Seeto would still be alive today if not for Dr Bhikhubhai Patel's incompetence when failing to recognise how gravely ill he had been.

Mr O'Keefe, representing Mr Seeto's family, said they wanted Deputy State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan to refer the case to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission.

The parents of Samuel Seeto leaving the Glebe State Coroners Court

The barrister said Dr Patel's decision to send home Mr Seeto - who had collapsed in the Chatswood Medical Centre's waiting room minutes before seeing the doctor - after telling him to take some Nurofen tablets, was 'woefully short of what was appropriate'.

Mr Seeto was found dead in his bed at Forestville by his father about 4pm on December 6, 2015, the day after consultation. He had been suffering from the heart disease myocarditis.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Tracey Stevens, in her final submission, said that based on the evidence Mr Seeto would more than likely have survived if he had been properly treated.

Ms Stevens said a chest X-ray unit and an ECG (electrocardiography) machine which records the electrical activity of the heart had been available at the medical centre at the time but Dr Patel ignored the chance to use them for Mr Seeto

She said it would be open to the coroner to find Dr Patel's eight-minute consultation had been 'significantly inadequate'.

Dr Hester Wilson, who prepared a report for the coroner detailing her opinions on Dr Patel's conduct, claimed alarm bells should have been ringing when the computer analyst suddenly collapsed in the waiting room after fainting the night before at home.

The family of Samuel Seeto leaving the court with their lawyer (pictured left)

Dr Wilson said it was unusual for people as young as Mr Seeto to collapse and Dr Patel should have immediately been asking questions to find out what was going on.

She believed a full respiratory examination had been needed to check Mr Seeto's vital signs.

Mr Seeto's father Lawrence told the court Dr Patel did not ask his son any questions about the times he had collapsed or his feelings of being dizzy and cold.

Dr Patel took his son's blood pressure, placed a stethoscope on his son's back right shoulder on top of his rugby jumper and checked his throat before declaring he must have the flu because he was dehydrated.

Ms O'Sullivan will hand down her findings on August 21.
A beef burger weighing 3.5kgs could arguably be the biggest in Australia but so far only a handful of people have ever tasted it.

The Peninuslar Hotel's chef Tony Moss, who has been making the hotel's signature dish since joining the business nine years ago, says only a handful of big hamburgers get sold every year.

'We sell about four to five burgers in six months,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Fancy a monster sized burger? Hotel staff Raewin Angelovski (pictured) with the big burger

The Peninsular big hamburger consist of 1.2kg beef patties, five rashers of bacon and five eggs

He said the burger is not available on its menu but had been advertised to patrons through flyers found at the hotel's premises in Newcomb, a residential suburb of Geelong, Victoria.

Mr Moss added that those interested in pursuing the hotel burger challenge should contact them a day prior to their visit and place their orders.

'We need a 24 hours' notice as we have to get in touch with the local baker which makes the bun for us.

'The bun is specially made for us due to the size.

'The burger tastes great, and every time I make it, I make sure I keep some for myself to savour later on,' he said.

Mr Moss added once the bun is in-house, it only takes kitchen staff approximately 25 minutes to assemble the burger from start to finish.

Some patrons attempting the big hamburger challenge which the hotel has run for 10 years

The 36cm-wide burger is made up of two 1.2kg beef patties, five rashers of bacon, five eggs, and handfuls of caramelised onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese and relish.

The ingredients are all sandwiched within three custom-made 30mm buns.

Mr Moss adds that the big hamburger challenge is the brainchild of the hotel's owner Keith Burns.

A closer up at what you need to eat if one is keen on the Peninsular Hotel burger challenge

The big hamburger challenge cost $35 and sole diners who take up the challenge and successfully demolish the burger within three hours are rewarded with a full refund as well as a $100 cash prize.

Mr Moss said to date only two diners have won the challenge in the last nine years.

The hotel's big hamburger challenge is available from Monday to Wednesday from 6.30pm onwards.
A city council's plan for the future will allow the homeless or vulnerable to camp in the street and neighbours to go through each other's garbage bins.

Moreland City Council in Melbourne have drafted a general local law plan which has proven to be quite controversial.

The rubbish law will allow people to pick up items from the side of the road in the annual hard rubbish collection days.

This appears to be a popular move however it would also mean people would be free to rifle through the contents of their neighbours' bins.

The new laws would mean anybody could use your wheelie bin or go through it (stock image)

Moreland Mayor Helen Davidson is one of the people responsible for voting the new plan in or out at the end of the month

The homeless will be allowed to set up tents in the city streets if the plan is implemented (stock image)

People would also be allowed to use anyone's wheelie bins if theirs were full.

'No people should not touching your own bin at all. With hard rubbish yes to people taking away your hard rubbish for a few reasons its saves the rate payers money cos there is less to pick up and people rubbish can be someones gold so play on,' one local said.

'I don't pay rates for my bins to be communal bins,' said another.

'It's funny how attached we all seem to be our possessions even the ones we deem rubbish! Of course one should be able to reuse something that is left out for hard waste.

'One mans trash is another mans treasure after all. As for wheely bins - once it hits the kerb it's public property. I have no problem with anyone using my bin especially if the alternative is littering,' one woman said.

The new draft plan also means changes to who can camp in the street.

Moreland Counci spans from Brunswick East near the CBD to Glenroy near Essendon airport in the west and Fawkner in the east with the Metropolitan Ring Road marking the northern most boundary.

If the local law is passed homeless people could spring up tent cities in the area.

The plan will also mean vulnerable people will be allowed to sleep in the city in their cars, caravans or tents (stock image)

The proposed law states camping must be limited to prescribed council areas unless a person is homeless or is in need of secure accommodation or they are experiencing challenging circumstances and need support.

The proposed plan has been met with some opposition from locals.

'No don't do it, all the homeless people will permanently live in the parklands.....look at Hawaii,' one woman said.

'No ... homeless people will move in and then be hard to move on!' said another.

'No. No rate payers on Moreland will be camping out. But homeless and backpackers will at the expense of ratepayers who pay for the Parklands,' said another.

But others agreed with the proposal.

'Yes. If homeless people find somewhere safe to stay, ... that is a good thing,' one woman said.

'If they're not hurting anyone I don't see a problem,' said another.

The council will make a decision on the plan after August 20.

The laws will mean anyone can sort through their neighbour's rubbish bins (stock image)




Australian fruit juice makers are being forced to import orange concentrate from as far away as Brazil as a nationwide shortage continues.

The lack of locally grown Valencias is hitting local firms hard, and is being blamed on skyrocketing global demand for oranges.

Prices for premium navel oranges have hit $1000 a tonne, making them first pick for local growers and leaving juicing companies with no choice but to import their fruit.

Nippy's (pictured) has had one of the worst years ever, and has only been saved by having its own orchards

Prices for premium navel oranges (pictured, stock image) have hit $1000 a tonne, making them first pick for local growers and leaving juicing companies with no choice but to import their fruit

Juicing firms like South Australia's Nippy's are now struggling to survive and dependent on Brazilian concentrate, the Advertiser reported.

Nippy's co-managing director Ben Knispel says his company has had one of the worst years ever, and has only been saved by having its own orchards.

'It's a real struggle to run a juice business in Australia at the moment,' Mr Knispel said.

'We've gone from being a sustainable, profitable juice business to now having a job on our hands making a small profit.'

The Daily Juice Company have informed customers of the orange shortage by attaching stickers to 2 litre bottles of orange juice (pictured)

'It's a real struggle to run a juice business in Australia at the moment,' said Mr Knispel, of Nippy's (pictured)

The same story is playing out nationwide, with many juice companies needing to relabel their products.

The Daily Juice Company have informed customers of the shortage by attaching stickers to 2 litre bottles of orange juice.

'Due to a national shortage, our orange juice is currently 100% imported yet still 100% tasty,' the notice reads.

Customers have reported seeing the stickers on orange juice bottles in supermarkets across Sydney and Melbourne.

A spokeswoman for The Daily Juice Company confirmed the national orange shortage Daily Mail Australia and said it was likely to continue.

Juice companies are being forced to import 100% of their oranges from overseas with Australia experiencing a national shortage

'There is currently a national shortage of oranges for juicing in Australia and as a result we have moved to using 100 per cent imported juice to ensure we can continue to manufacture Daily Juice and have it available for consumers on the shelves,' the spokeswoman said.

'We expect to use 100 per cent imported orange juice until around mid August. This is a short term solution until the new local navel season is available.'

While proving challenging for juicing companies, high demand for oranges worldwide had been a boon for local growers.

Citrus producers in some areas have seen overseas volumes go up by 45 per cent, mainly due to a market boom in Asia.

As recently as five years ago low prices - $200 per tonne at one stage - were causing growers to abandon plots and dump unsold fruit.
When applying for a job it's common for most hopefuls to exaggerate their skills and qualities on a resume to increase their chances of landing the role.

But one Australian 'job seeker' has taken a different approach in his search for employment.

One recipient of his CV posted a page of his application to Reddit that enlisted his array of 'credentials'.

The boss accompanied the image with the tongue-in-cheek line of 'Should hire him right?'

One Australian 'job seeker' has taken a different approach in his search for employment with this brutally honest CV

In a bizarre approach, the resume proceeds to explain why he would be a burden to any potential employer (stock image)

In a bizarre approach, the man's resume proceeds to explain why he would be a burden to any potential employer.

'I'll likely me more of a liability for the first 6-8 months. I am more than likely heavily underqualified for *this* position.'

The CV with a twist reveals his only intentions of his submission is in order to receive his weekly benefits from Centrelink.

'This resume is only really being submitted to fulfil a quota set by the Australian Department of Employment,' the CV reads.

Yet that didn't stop the unemployed candidate from giving a brutally honest account of his suitability to begin work. And, yes, it's full of spelling mistakes.

'I get bored very quickly working long hours, none of my referances are likely to exibit any merit or value on my behalf as it's been at least a few years since I've known anyone on a proffessional level willing to vouch for my competance.'

The CV with a twist reveals his only intentions of his submission is in order to receive his weekly benefits from Centrelink

If his lengthy spiel hadn't endeared company chiefs enough, his punchline is sure to seal the deal.

'I'm about as interested in working for your company as I am in watching youtube advertisements,' it read.

The inevitable online response flooded in, with many comments giving credit to his unusual approach.

'This guy is a legend. Wish i had the guts to do this when the dark abyss of months of no replys got to much. It would be a wonderful way to vent', one Reddit user wrote.

'The only difference between this applicant and all others, is that this one is telling the truth,' another comment read.

Not all were as impressed by the self-proclaimed 'smarta**', with others thinking he'd be the employee from hell.

'There's a good chance this guy thinks he's top notch, but constantly has the people who he works with try to advise him that there may be better ways to approach things, which he ignores,' one comment predicted.

Another user didn't hold back when writing: 'This guy sounds like an insufferable, self-entitled, piece of human garbage.'
A parliamentary inquiry has uncovered horrific incidences of abuse inflicted on disabled and special needs children.

Among the dozens of alleged incidents are cases in which children were tied to chairs, beaten with sticks, put in 'headlocks' and locked in cupboards.

The shocking level of abuse uncovered in primary and high schools across New South Wales has led to calls for a royal commission.

A disabled child was allegedly stripped naked and pushed in a cupboard at a school camp at Ravenswood (pictured)

One reported incident involved 'ankle straps and a weighted belt' being used to tie a child to chair, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A parent claims her child was dragged out of class in a 'headlock,' and another student was allegedly beaten with a stick.

The inquiry viewed one report which showed 78 teachers were charged with child sex and violence offences last year, 19 of them relating to disabled kids.

A child who has a form of dwarfism called hypochondroplasia, was allegedly stripped naked and pushed in a cupboard at a school camp.

An inquiry into alleged mistreatment of disabled students is being heard in NSW parliament

The alleged victim says the incident happened while she was a student at the elite Ravenswood School For Girls on Sydney's North Shore.

Her mother has spoken out about the alleged abuse, saying the school should have acted sooner.

'It became horrendous at the end and they had no choice but to act. I am lucky [she] is mentally strong. It is upsetting seeing your child go through this,' she said.

Greens MP David Shoebridge served on the inquiry committee and said the abused children had been failed by the state.

Children and Young People with Disability Australia chief executive Stephanie Gotlib agrees, and is calling for a royal commission into the abuse of disabled children.

'We are getting reports of abuse far more frequently,' she said.

She also said improvement were needed to the complaints process, and responses from educational authorities were inadequate.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Ravenswood for comment on Saturday.
Two men have been arrested in connection with a Melbourne shooting linked to Middle Eastern gangs which left two others in hospital.

Five properties at Meadow Heights, Coolaroo and Craigieburn were raided on Saturday with police arresting two men, 18 and 23, who are being questioned over the shooting.

They are currently being questioned after two teenagers suffered bullet wounds to their legs.

There are fears Melbourne is on the brink of a full-scale gangland war after the shooting was the second gun-related incident in Roxburgh Park this week.

Two men have been arrested in connection with a Melbourne shooting linked to Middle Eastern gangs which left two others in hospital

Three men were rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning after multiple shots were fired on Orion Way

Two teenagers were rushed to hospital in the early hours of Friday morning after multiple shots were fired on Orion Way.

The 16 and 18-year-old youths were shot in the leg and two others were was bashed in the same suburb where another man was shot dead on Wednesday.

The teens were hit with a number of bullets at 2.30am before they were rushed to hospital.

Two 20-year-old men were also found with 'blunt force trauma' injuries, police said.

Detective Acting Inspector Mark Burnett said two groups of men met in the street and had an argument before the shots were fired.

'The victims are not cooperating with police due to their perceived fears of possible retribution,' Mr Burnett said.

Anwar Teriaki, 21, was killed just after midnight on Wednesday after an altercation between a group of men

It's believed that the men were from rival Middle Eastern gangs.

Roxburgh Park residents fear the shooting may have been a payback attack after a 21-year-old man was shot dead just three kilometres away two days earlier.

'I'm frightened for my family... I'm actually shocked there's another shooting,' a witness told Seven News on Friday.

'I'm scared for my family,' another local resident told Nine News.

'It's a very quiet neighbourhood... these things never happen around here.'

Anwar Teriaki, 21, was shot dead just after midnight on Coronet Avenue on Wednesday after an altercation between a group of men.

Mr Teriaki was reportedly believed to be an associate of the Tiba crime family.

The Tibas have been linked to at least six Melbourne shooting since last September, according to The Age.
I am a retired newspaperman. I am 69 and live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 45 years, Lou Ann. We grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.

More on who I am is here.

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John Ruszczyk had dreamed of walking his beautiful daughter down the aisle this week as she married the love of her life in a dream wedding in Hawaii.

Instead, he gave a touching euology at her memorial after she was shot dead by a police officer.

Justine Damond's heartbroken father John Ruszczyk held back tears as he addressed the huge memorial crowd on Saturday - at a time when he should have been exploring the island with his daughter.

'We should be walking arm-in-arm down the streets smiling and laughing,' he said.

Justine Damond's devastated father John Ruszczyk: 'You have stolen my daughter and ripped her from our arms'

Justine Damond, pictured, was shot dead outside her Minneapolis home by police

Justine's memorial pamphlet was washed out in blue, her favourite colour

Ms Damond's husband-to-be Don Damond during an emotional speech about her love

He always thought his first trip to his daughter's new home in the US would be a happy one.

'I don't understand. I should have been on a plane to her wedding but we were flying to her funeral,' he said.

Ms Damond was shot dead by a police officer on July 15, shortly after calling 911 and venturing outside when she heard a woman being assaulted.

Mohamed Noor, a rookie police officer, and his partner Matthew Harrity .

'Justine was killed by a bullet fired by an agent of the state,' the devastated dad said.

'You have stolen my daughter and ripped her from our arms.'

Ms Damond was supposed to be marrying her fiance Don Damond, 50, in a dream ceremony in Hawaii - halfway between her old home in Australia and the new life she had made in the US.

But instead of celebrating a new chapter of the yoga teacher's life on Saturday her closest friends and family were joined by hundreds of strangers to say goodbye.

Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL - Minneapolis, signs a wooden board as his husband Richard Leyva put his hand on his shoulder during the memorial service

Don Damond, right, sits with family and friends during the memorial service for Justine Damond

The bride to be is pictured here with fiance Don Damond and his son Zach Damond

Volunteers take part in a Native American spiritual burning of sage during the memorial service

Ms Damond's husband-to-be Don Damond also spoke about his lost love.

'My love won't stop and I don't believe her live will stop either, we can still feel it,' he said.

'On July 15 Justine went into that back lane because she wanted to help  she wanted to help somebody in need.

'She went there and she was led by her heart.

'We know what happened five minutes after she went out there. I know this but I can't accept her loved stopped there or that it ever stopped.'

Mr Damond revealed that he had never fallen in love before, that his wife-to-be had made him a better person and he was excited to spend the rest of his life with her.

The proud father reflected on the last conversation he had with his daughter at the family table in Australia

Don Damond jokes with a supporter after she accidentally took off his heart sticker

A pair of musicians play didgeridoos during a memorial service for Justine

'It's just an irony that we would have been on the airplane now heading to our destination. And it's rather surreal. But the irony isn't really lost on any of us, I don't think,' he said.

The devastated partner pointed out a butterfly resting on the screen with a smile.

'(It) has been sitting window all day today, hard to describe how remarkable that is those who know Justine will understand,' he said.

The speech by the 40-year-old's father was the most emotionally charged of the day.

The proud father reflected on the last conversation he had with his daughter at the family table in Australia.

A pair of musicians play didgeridoos during the memorial service

Don Damond gets a hug from friend and former Philando Castile co-worker John Thompson prior to the memorial

Don Damond hugs supporters and loved ones prior to the memorial service

'In May Justine and I sat at the kitchen table talking. I said ''I love you and I miss you'' she said ''I love you dad'' that love was real and present,' he said.

'Then she flew back to Minneapolis and I spoke to her on the phone. I said 'I love you'' and she said ''I love you dad''.

'I can still say ''I love you'' that is real and remains,' he said.

The emotional father said his daughter's death made him realise 'love is not bullet proof'.

'I want Justine to be here but she has been taken from us.

'We are determined to get justice.'

Supporters were asked to wear blue for Justine at her memorial service

Rookie police officer Mohamed Noor killed the Australian woman - and did not have his body cam switched on

The 40-year-old former vet loved blue, mourners have been asked to wear the colour to her memorial

Doug from the twin cities says he came to the Justine Damond memorial to demand the officer who shot her stand down

As Ms Damond's friends mourn their loss, the police continue to investigate just how rookie police officer Mohamed Noor came to shoot the bride-to-be dead.

Investigators have issued a warrant to look through officer Noor's phone, as well as the phone of his partner, Matthew Harrity, Newscorp reports.

Ms Damond had called 911 to report a woman being raped close to her apartment block shortly before she was shot and killed.

Her friends have remembered the former vet as humourous and bubbly.

'I can just feel her basically saying ''why are you guys being so serious?'',' friend Rosie McGowan said.

People dressed in blue, Ms Damond's favourite colour with hundreds turning up

The memorial service featured speeches from some of Ms Damond's closest friends

Ms Damond's memorial service began with a Buddhist prayer and feature speeches from two of the most important people in her life, her father John and fiance Don.

A Native American burning of sage followed this, the ritual is said to ward off bad spirits.

The memorial finished with a walk in silence around Lake Harriet.

Mourners were asked to dress in blue which was Ms Damond's favourite colour.

Following her death a huge outpouring of support came from the community who left flowers and kind words near where she was gunned down.

'Justine, thankyou for your beautiful light that still SHINES on us all,' one thoughtful sign read.

Lawyers for the killer police officer, Noor, 36, claim he felt he was being ambushed when he pulled the trigger and shot Ms Damond.

His brother also claimed it to be an 'unfortunate' mistake, an 'honest and sincere' event.

Ms Damond had called police to her apartment to report a rape - but was shot dead




Crown Resorts head of VIP operations has been released from a Chinese prison after he spent ten months in jail on charges related to organising gambling tours.

Jason O'Connor was released from a Shanghai detention centre on Saturday, before he was escorted to the airport by Public Security Bureau officers.

He was one of 16 people who were jailed in the country after pleading guilty to promoting gambling.

Crown Resorts head of VIP operations, Jason O'Connor, was released from a Shanghai detention centre on Saturdayafter spending ten months in jail on charges related to organising gambling tours

O'Connor was sentenced to ten months in prison after pleading guilty to his charges, with his sentence back-dated to his October detainment.

He had been visiting China on business when authorities conducted a raid on Crown's Chinese marketing team.

Nineteen employees were detained after Crown was found to be trying to attract high-spending Chinese to its casinos outside of China, where gambling is illegal except in the territory of Macau.

Chinese court documents reportedly showed O'Connor was responsible for the businesses Chinese sales targets and in addition to his jail sentence he was fined $390,000, according to The Age.

A court jailed 16 of the employees including three Australians for nine to 10 months, back-dated to their October detention. Crown Resorts employee is pictured Jiang Ling rear centre

James Packer, seen here arriving at Crown Casino's New Year's Eve Party at Crown Palladium in 2015, has suffered a drop in profits for Crown Resort following the arrests in China

Four other employees including Crown's head in China, Alfred Gomez, are also expected to be released after serving the same sentence as O'Connor.

China released two other Australians nationals, Jane Pan and Jerry Xuan, on July 12 this year after they spent 9 months in detention.

Ten of the accused were released from two facilities in the city on the same day, with one family member telling media 'everything went ok'.

The incident prompted Crown to shift focus to its home market, however a new financial report released last week shows profits had taken a dramatic tumble.

Business from VIPs have halved in Crown Resorts Australian casinos, recording a net profit after tax of $343.1 million in the 2017 financial year, down 15.5 per cent.
An urgent recall has been issued after a blood-thinning drug was mixed up with an anaesthetic.

The Therapeutic Goods Company have sent out the alert when Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd noticed Lignocaine ampoules inside a box of Heparin injections.

People on Pfizers blood-thinning or dialysis medication are being urged to check they have the right drug.

The Therapeutic Goods Company have sent out the alert when Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd noticed Lignocaine ampoules inside a box of Heparin injections

Pfizer and the Therapeutic Goods Administration have recalled a batch of Heparin and Lignocaine after a box that was meant to contain the blood thinner instead had Lignocaine (pictured)

Pfizer and the Therapeutic Goods Administration have recalled a batch of Heparin and Lignocaine after a box that was meant to contain the blood thinner instead had Lignocaine.

People who take Heparin or their carers should check the blister pack to make sure there are no anomalies and it matches the external packaging.

Patients should contact their pharmacy or health professional with any concerns or questions.

Serious side effects of Lignocaine Injection include: Fits or convulsions , skin rash, hives or itching, unconsciousness, breathing problems, low blood pressure , slow heart beat.
At least a dozen people including a nine-year-old girl were killed during protests last night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the Kenyan election.

The country is on edge after the announcement of the results led to violent demonstrations from supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga.

But Johnson Muthama - an official in Odinga's National Super Alliance coalition - said the opposition would not stop in their bid to overturn the 'sham' election result, adding: 'We will not be cowed, we will not relent.'

The family of Moraa Nyarangi, nine, said the girl had been shot in the back while watching the protests from a balcony in Mathare, a slum in the capital.

Wycliff Mokaya, her father, said: 'I was watching her play with her friends when she suddenly fell down.

'She was my only hope.'

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Pictured: Demonstrators on the streets of Nairobi this morning

Pictured: A man wearing a woolly hat holds a slingshot in the Kibera slum of Nairobi during protests today

Pictured: Riot police move towards protesters as barricades were set alight in Nairobi today

Pictured: Moraa Nyarangi, 9, lies dead as brokenhearted family members gather round in Nairobi

Pictured: A relative of Moraa Nyarangi, a nine-year-old girl allegedly killed by a gunshot injury while on the balcony of his house, reacts in the Mathare slums in Nairobi

Violence broke out immediately after the official result was declared. Pictured: The same man being carried with blood on his jacket and a swollen face

Pictured: A man in a wheelchair passes by a burning barricade in Kibera, Nairobi

Pictured: Supporters of the opposition coalition march in the Kibera neighbourhood of Kenya

Onlookers stand on their balconies and watch the street protesters developing in the Kibera slum of Nairobi

Pictured: Spectators stand on the balconies of apartments as supporters of opposition candidate Raila Odinga demonstrate against the election results in the slum neighborhood Kibera in Nairobi

Pictured: Riot police are given water by people watching the unfolding violence on the streets of Nairobi following the announcement of the election results

Nine young men were shot dead overnight in post election violence in Nairobi's Mathare slum and have been brought to the city morgue, a security official has confirmed.

The official, who did not want to be named, said he understood the men had been shot by police in anti-looting operations.

'We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries,' said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county. A police officer confirmed another death in the southwest town of Siaya.

In Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in protests, but 'we have not managed to collect the body... because of resistance from protesters.'

Angry protests flared in opposition strongholds in Nairobi as well as in Kisumu after the election commission declared Kenyatta the victor in a hotly disputed vote over rival Raila Odinga.

After late night looting and riots, anger remained high this morning, with running battles in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums.

Pictured: A man supporting opposition leader Raila Odinga is helped in the streets of Nairobi after receiving wounds to his face

Pictured: An officer from the Kenyan Administration Police force walks past a burning tyre in the Kawangware slum in Nairobi after a night of unrest in response to the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta's election victory

Pictured: A police officer in combat fatigues and armed with a rifle and wooden bat patrols Nairobi after a night of violence

Pictured: Riot policemen armed with rifles push back protesters in the Mathare suburb of Nairobi this morning

Pictured: A riot policeman fires a gas canister towards protesters in the Mathare area of Nairobi

Pictured: Riot policemen disperse protesters in the Mathare area of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, following a night of violence

Pictured: A man is bandaged after over a dozen people were allegedly beaten by police in Nairobi this morning

Pictured: A man lies on the ground as emergency workers treat him during unrest in Nairobi

Pictured: Supporters of opposition candidate Rail Odinga block the road in the Kibera neighbourhood of Nairobi

'My brother was shot and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating now he has a bullet injury on the hip,' said Truphena Achieng, at a Kisumu hospital.

Interior Minister Fred Matiangi blamed the unrest on 'criminal elements' looting and robbing businesses and assured Kenyans that 'there is no need for alarm', urging them to return to their daily lives.

Oburu Odinga, brother of opposition leader Raila Odinga, said the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta appears to be targeting 'particular communities in this country.'

Oburu Odinga says the government should stop 'the random killing of our people.'

The government says most of Kenya is calm although it accuses what it calls 'criminals' of taking advantage of the tense election period to loot and destroy property in several areas.

However there were also joyous celebrations, some of which also turned deadly. A senior traffic police officer claimed 'there were four people killed when they were hit by vehicles while celebrating.'

While protests were limited to opposition strongholds, they came as a gloomy reminder of a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

An Associated Press photographer, meanwhile, said Kenyan police in Nairobi have used tear gas on a large convoy of vehicles carrying opposition officials. Police also fired guns into the air.

The photographer said the attack occurred today as the convoy tried to enter Kibera, a slum where opposition supporters have rioted since Tuesday's disputed election.

Pictured: Protesters loot and burn premises belonging to the Kikuyu tribe in the Kibera slum of Nairobi last night

Last night: Protesters loot and burn premises belonging to the Kikuyu tribe in the Kibera slum of Nairobi

Pictured: Businesses were burnt and fires set while others celebrated with flags and vuvuzelas last night

Pictured: Riot police officers fire tear gas in Kawangware slum in Nairobi. Police and rioters clashed last night in response to the election result

Riots broke out across slums in Nairobi after the incumbant president held onto power with 54 per cent of the vote

Pictured: Kenyan police officers grab a motorcycle driver who drove through a street they had cleared a few minutes prior in the Kawangware slum last night

All eyes will now turn to Odinga and his reaction to his loss which he claimed was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's election, which his party denounced as a 'charade' and a 'disaster'.

Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency after four unsuccessful runs. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74.

'Let Uhuru rule. He is the best leader we have had,' said Simon Kipkoech in the town of Eldoret.

Pictured: Emergency workers tend to about 15 injured people who were allegedly beaten by police during a raid in Kenya this morning

Pictured: A supporter of opposition leader Raila Odinga hurls a teargas canister back towards police as rioting continues in Kenya this morning

However in Odinga strongholds in Nairobi's slums and poor areas, almost immediate protests and outbursts of anger were seen after the electoral commission (IEBC) announced the result, with gunshots ringing out and fires lit in the streets.

Burned tyres, debris and looted shops in the Kawangware slum in Nairobi bore testament to a night of running battles with police who tried to clear away rocks from the road.

In the western city of Kisumu three young men were admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, one to the jaw, another to a chest and a third, who gave his name as Michael Oluoch, 21, with a bullet to the thigh who said he had been shot by police.

Two men sustained gunshot wounds in the Mathare slum.

Pictured: Riot policemen in the streets of Nairobi after protesters reacted to the news of Kenyatta's election victory

Pictured: Police officers patrol the scarred streets of Nairobi after a night of unrest in the capital. Two people were killed in Kenya last night and another four shot

Opposition leader Raila Odinga is popular in certain slums of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Pictured: The Kibera area of the city, which was hit by protests in the wake of the announcement of the results last night

Pictured: A man is carried after being badly beaten in the Kibera slum of Nairobi

Catholic leaders today appealed for calm and asked security forces to exercise caution during protests.

'We appeal to them to restrain themselves from using excessive force in handling crowds,' said John Oballa Owaa, vice chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. 'No life should be lost because of an election.'

The bishop said any dispute over the election should be resolved peacefully and by 'legal norms as provided in the constitution.'

Human Rights Watch today urged police to show restraint in the face of protests.

'With growing reports of demonstrations and heavy gunfire in some areas, it is important for security forces to work to deescalate - not escalate - the violence,' said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW.

'The police should not use teargas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful.'

Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process - which saw turnout of 78 per cent - but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting.

The country is on edge after the announcement of the results last night led to violent demonstrations from supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose claim the vote was rigged prompted demonstrations on Tuesday. Pictured: The beaten man being carried

Pictured: Officers from the Kenyan Administration Police force remove stones from the road in the Kawangware slum in Nairobi

The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner.

On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds.

NASA on Friday demanded access to the IEBC's servers, saying they would accept any result contained therein, as they remain convinced the commission has released manipulated results.

However despite opposition requests for more time to resolve their concerns, the IEBC went ahead and announced election results amid a NASA boycott.

Human Rights Watch said: 'The police should not use teargas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful'. Pictured: A man stands in front of a shop that was burned down and looted last night

Pictured: A man walks through the remains of a shoe shop that was burned down last night during protests

In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost.

'We have been there before. Court is not an alternative,' said top NASA official James Orengo.

After being declared the victor, Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to 'work together... so that we can build this nation together'.

'Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this.'

Odinga had called for calm from his supporters before the announcement, but added: 'I don't control anybody. People want to see justice.'

Pictured: Boys walk through the remains of a damaged area of the Kibera slum of Nairobi

Odinga believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him. Pictured: a man carrying a stone walks through the Kawangware slum of Nairobi

Six people have died in election-related violence, including two protesters in Nairobi shot dead by police on Wednesday.

In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive, however his new government will face the rising debt as a result, and a predicted slowdown in growth from an average of more than five percent in recent years.

A major issue on the campaign trail was a spike in food prices and shortage of the staple maize meal due to a prolonged drought, which has hit the country's poorest hard.

Kenyatta's administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.
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North Korean workers have held rallies in support of Kim Jong-un's regime as they country continued to rail against fresh UN sanctions that cut off $1billion in international trade.

Thousands of youths, workers and trade union members gathered in the capital Pyongyang and around the country for rallies, saluting pictures of the country's former dictators, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

Workers also carried red banners emblazoned with slogans praising their leaders and the country's strength as President Trump continued to tout military action 'if Kim Jong-un utters one overt threat against the US'.

The pictures were released by North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA on Saturday, along with a statement which said: 'The "sanctions resolution" is no more than the last-ditch efforts of those frightened by the might of [North Korea].'

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Thousands of youths, workers and trade unionists have rallied across cities in North Korea to protest sanctions which cut off $1billion in international trade over the country's missile tests

The regime also put out a statement vowing to 'win the final victory for the cause of Socialism' in defiance of President Trump's warnings of war if Kim makes 'overt threats' toward America

Workers carried red banners, the colour of official propaganda, praising their leaders and the country's strength. They are written in a font which is only used when mentioning the names of the country's dictators

Industrial leaders, the heads of local parties and academics spoke at the rallies, according to the state-run news agency KCNA, where workers were assured of victory in any confrontation with America

Workers salute pictures of the country's previous leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il at the Monument to Party Founding in the capital Pyongyang as they attend a rally in defiance of international sanctions

The marches came as North Korea claimed to be preparing for a strike against the US military base in Guam to take place in mid-August, as many feared war breaking out on the Korean peninsula

North Korea said the rallies took place on Friday, the same day that President Trump warned weapons were 'locked and loaded' if any more overt threats were made

The rallies were held across South and North Phyongan, South Hwanghae and South Hamgyong provinces, according to official North Korean state media

It says that sanctions and international pressure 'will not frighten' the country, and has only focused their resolve 'for independence and self-development'.

'The service personnel and people of [North Korea] will firmly defend the security of the country and win the final victory of the cause of socialism,' it added.

Washington and Pyongyang have been engaged in an escalating war of words since Wednesday when Trump warned of 'fire and fury like the world has never seen' if the North continues escalating its nuclear threat.

North Korea has responded in kind, assuring the US of 'total defeat' in the event of a war and claiming it is preparing for an attack on the American military base in Guam in mid-August.

Analysts say Hwasong-12 and 14 missiles, the latest to be developed by North Korea and the subject of recent tests, have been moved into position but it is not clear if they are ready to be fired.

The missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons but it is not clear if the North has warheads small enough to fit on them, or the technology to bring them back to earth in one piece.

Workers are pictured in Pyongyang at a monument to the country's former leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, who are immortalized in two huge bronze statues (pictured rear)

Generals, farm and factory leaders and party activists address workers gathered in Pyongyang to protest the UN sanctions

State media released these images on Saturday, along with a statement accusing the UN of passing sanctions because it is 'frightened' of an independent North Korea

Workers carry banners emblazoned with political slogans through the capital in a show of strength amid US threats of war

Propaganda posters boast of North Koera's strength and the people's will to defend it on a march through Pyongyang

North Koreans salute party leaders as they marched in defiance of world efforts to stop them developing nuclear weapons

The worker rallies came after similar military marches and amid saber-ratting with President Trump over missile tests

Kim Jong-un has made it his mission to develop nuclear weapons capable of hitting the mainland US and has made strides this year with the country's first successful ICBM tests
King Cross nightclub identity John Ibrahim's model girlfriend and young son have both reported for bail at police stations in Sydney on Saturday night.

Girlfriend Sarah Budge attempted to sneak past media wearing a dark black cap into the police station just after 6pm.

The model refused to answer questions from the media about being charged with possession of a firearm after a loaded Glock 26 pistol was allegedly found in her bedroom.

John Ibrahim's girlfriend Sarah Budge reported for bail at Sydney police station (pictured left Saturday night) while his son Daniel Taylor (right) reported for bail at Waverley police station

Ms Budge was arrested after police allegedly found a Glock 26 pistol in her bedroom

Ms Budge was arrested at her Double Bay apartment on Tuesday and received bail Wednesday.

The 27-year-old signed in at the Sydney police station after being dropped off by a man the Daily Telegraph believed to be her father.

Ms Budge was in charged with possessing a loaded semi-automatic handgun which had its serial numbers removed. She had to surrender her passport and pay $50,000 with strict bail conditions.

The model attempted to dodge media at the police station, trying to hide her face under a dark black cap (pictured Saturday night)

Ms Budge (pictured Saturday night), 27, received bail Wednesday after being arrested and charged with firearm possession

Ms Budge was charged with possession of a semi-automatic handgun which had its serial numbers removed

Ibrahim's son Daniel Taylor has also reported for bail at Waverley police station after he was arrested for allegedly helping transfer more than $2.25 million to buy smuggled tobacco.

Mr Taylor, who also goes by the surname Ibrahim, was seen quietly arriving at the police station dressed in dark clothes after driving himself, before signing in and leaving soon after.

The 26-year-old was granted bail after raising $630,000. Strict bail conditions apply including that he lives with his mother in Sydney's eastern suburbs and does not leave New South Wales.

John Ibrahim's son Daniel Taylor (pictured Saturday night) has reported for bail at Waverley police station

Mr Taylor was seen quietly arriving at the police station dressed in dark clothes Saturday night

The 26-year-old drove himself to the police station, leaving shortly after reporting for bail

Mr Taylor received strict bail conditions stipulating that he lives with his mother and doesn't leave NSW

Ms Budge received bail after a series of police raids were executed across Sydney, including at her boyfriend John's house. Police did not charge John Ibrahim.

The model is not involved in the alleged ecstasy, cocaine and ice smuggling syndicate that Ibrahim's brothers Fadi and Michael were arrested over in Dubai.

Fadi has spoken out from his prison cell for the first time since being arrested, denying any involvement in a crime syndicate.

Ms Budge received bail with strict conditions

Ms Budge (pictured) rushed to a waiting car after spending a few minutes at Sydney police station

The man waiting for Ms Budge at the Sydney police station is believed to be her father

His lawyer Abbas Soukie said Fadi was determined to prove his innocence.

'I have spoken to him and he thoroughly denies the allegations and welcomes the opportunity of returning to Australia to clear his name. He vehemently denies what he has been accused of,' Mr Soukie told Daily Telegraph.

It is believed Fadi and his brother Michael are being held in the same prison in Dubai but in separate areas.

Police raided the home of John Ibrahim but found nothing to charge him over

Eighteen people were arrested as part of the Australian Federal Police operation that busted the alleged drug syndicate.

The alleged syndicate is operating across Australia, Dubai and the Netherlands with police alleging that some members of the Ibrahim family are part of a multimillion-dollar global crime syndicate that imports illegal drugs.

Authorities prevented about two tonnes of illicit drugs, including 1.8 tonnes of MDMA, from coming to Australia in July as part of the operation.

The estimated street value was up to $810 million but authorities intercepted the haul in the Netherlands before it made its way to Australian shores.
A six-year-old boy died of Sepsis after doctors repeatedly sent him home and told him to take Calpol, an inquest has heard.

Connor Horridge, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, began suffering ear ache and sickness and was rushed to the doctor's when his symptoms worsened.

But his parents were told it was 'nothing to be majorly concerned about' and it would 'probably' be a viral infection.

A six-year-old boy died of Sepsis after doctors repeatedly sent him home and told him to take Calpol, an inquest has heard

In less than 24 hours, Connor was taken to hospital as an emergency with a dangerously high temperature but was again discharged, advised to continue taking Calpol and told 'he would get better', Bolton Coroner's Court heard.

Four days later Connor's mother rushed him to hospital after he collapsed shouting 'mummy, my legs'.

Despite the best efforts of medical staff Connor passed away later that evening.

The youngster's parents, Joanne, 34, and Thomas, 38, believe that if the doctors examined Connor 'properly', there could have been an 'entirely different' outcome.

They claim that it was only after Connor's death the hospital took a blood test and saw that his white blood cells had gone 'through the roof'.

There were 'accepted missed opportunities' on the part of the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, with consultant paediatrician Dr Martin Farrier admitting that a senior doctor should have been called to have a consultation with Connor the second time he presented.

Connor Horridge (pictured with his father), from Wigan, Greater Manchester, began suffering ear ache and sickness and was rushed to the doctor's when his symptoms worsened

But the pathologist who examined Connor's body confirmed that no one could have predicted the outcome as the infection took over so 'rapidly'.

Dr Melanie Newbold, who assisted with the post mortem, said: 'Sepsis can be lethal. Sepsis can be aggressive and angry, especially towards a young child.

'We all have bacteria in our blood, however, this kind of bacteria cannot be controlled and therefore changes rapidly out of control and can cause septicaemia. There is no way of protecting against it.

'Whilst we were looking at Connor's body, we saw that he did have a number of viruses at the time, but none of them would have contributed to his death. He appeared to be a healthy boy.'

Dr Newbold continued: 'There was no suggestion that previous doctors would have known this outcome. When he was seen on December 11 they were right in diagnosing him with a viral infection.

Dr Melanie Newbold, who assisted with the post mortem, said: 'Sepsis can be lethal. Sepsis can be aggressive and angry, especially towards a young child'

'Whilst the evidence does show the viral infection, you cannot predict what was going to happen to Connor because it happened so quickly.

'I believe when he collapsed he went into septic shock, meaning that his body began to shut down. In Greater Manchester, only three or four children have died from this devastating infection.

'Many people's organs shut down and their heart slows down too. This is a lethal and aggressive disease and is something we have not been able to master, nor prevent, due to the severity of it's symptoms.'

Giving evidence at the Bolton hearing, Mr Horridge said: 'He had a bright and bubbly personality, he was boisterous, loud, energetic. He had everything to live for. He was funny and full of life. He would always make himself known if he wanted something. He was a typical six year old boy.

'He would always throw 100 per cent of himself at something, he was just so energetic. You can see in the before and after pictures how much he changed within those days. He wasn't one of those children who would lie to get out of school, he loved school.

'When he came home from school he would start playing school and we would have to be taught by him. He never took a day off.

Mr Horridge added: 'On Thursday December 8 2016 Connor was complaining of ear ache in his left ear. He had a bit of a temperature and had started feeling sick. Measuring on the thermometer he was around 38 degrees.

Mr Horridge said of his son: 'He had a bright and bubbly personality, he was boisterous, loud, energetic'

'He was complaining how much his ear hurt. Initially we thought it was an ear infection. We used Calpol and gave him lots of water. We decided to keep him off school by this point with the intention that when he was better, we could take him back.

'On the Saturday night he was really ill and complaining so we decided to call the doctors the following morning and make an appointment. Our first appointment was with Dr Gopall on December 11.

'She examined him and had a look down his throat and in his ear. She explained it wasn't anything big, nothing to be majorly concerned about. She explained it would probably be a viral infection and sent him home.

'We were told to give him Calpol and fluids and if he wasn't better within four days then ring him back for a check-up. There were two physicians at the time who examined him and both gave the same diagnosis and advice.

'He continued to be sick, he had already been vomiting since Thursday and could keep nothing down. He was even bringing up fluids. He was still like this by Tuesday December 13.

'We went back to the doctors on the Tuesday. She did the examinations of him and said that it was a viral infection and that we should give him Calpol and it would clear within a day. She also explained he had a rash that would go down with time.

'She explained that because he had been poorly for so long, he would be on the mend. We thought he was getting worse, but listened to the advice of the doctor and took him home.

'He kept saying that he wanted to sleep and he wasn't himself at all. I phoned an ambulance at around 5am on December 14 to take him to A&E because his temperature wouldn't go down. It was at around 40 degrees. He was in a lot of pain by this point.

'The doctors at the hospital examined him again and explained that it was a viral infection and we were sent home within the hour. He had perked up by the time we got there and he was more alert. But he was still poorly.

'Once he was being discharged they told us to keep giving him Calpol and to keep an eye on him. He was still vomiting a lot, the doctors knew about this too. He was really pale, complaining of tummy ache.

'We then drove back to the hospital in Wigan. This was Saturday December 17. We tried to get him to eat some chips, as that was his favourite. At 1.30pm he was just below 40 degrees and he was still being sick. Again the nurses explained that it was a viral infection so we should take him home and give him fluids.

'On Sunday December 18 he looked at me and gave me a wry smile and managed to eat two pieces of pasta. He was sat on the sofa, his head lolling about, his eyes rolling and still being sick.

'I started to panic again as his temperature had flown up and he was hot to the touch. We went outside to get in the car and he just said 'Mummy, my legs' and he collapsed. They just gave way under him.

'I had to pick him up and carry him back inside. I called an ambulance straight away, he was in a lot of pain and crying.

'I just remember hearing 'code red, possible sepsis' and they rushed him to the hospital. 45 minutes we were there and they tried to bring him round, but he fell unconscious, the doctors were doing all they could, but he passed away that evening. It was after that they took a blood test and saw that his white blood cells had gone through the roof.

Dr Martin Farrier, a consultant paediatrician, explained that by the time he was diagnosed it was 'too late'

'Our concerns are that if the doctors would have examined Connor properly, this could have had an entirely different outcome for our son. They don't currently conduct blood tests on children as they believe it will hurt them and make them upset, but it could have saved our little boy's life.'

Connor's medical cause of death was recorded as 1A Group A Streptococcal Septicaemia.

Dr Martin Farrier, a consultant paediatrician, explained that by the time he was diagnosed it was 'too late'. He said: 'In my experience sepsis takes 24 hours to invade the body, but this usually happens within a 12 hour time window, so I believe Connor got poorly overnight, and that was when he contracted the sepsis.

'I do not believe that the other doctors or nurses could have done anything more as there was nothing to examine at the time, apart from the viral infection. They played the 'wait and see' approach, which I believe was the correct way to go about things in this case.

'The streptococcal septicaemia is rather rare and unheard of, but it still affects a lot of people. I believe it was implausible to think that any form of test would have picked up the septicaemia. You can't predict the future, and doctors cannot see what is not currently there.

'It was undiagnosable because there was nothing to diagnose at the time. So if the family feel it could have been picked up before, well to be transparent, they did everything on protocol. There was nothing for them to see, and sadly there are no tests to predict it happening.

'Sadly he did start to deteriorate during the night and in the morning. When the ambulance arrived they knew what sepsis looked like and wanted to get him the fastest help possible, but unfortunately, it was too late.'

Recording a natural causes conclusion, Coroner Timothy Brennand, said: 'As the parent of a boy who was born just five weeks after Connor I understand how hard this must be for you, appearing in court and hearing about the tragic loss of your son.

'I find you both to be articulate, intelligent, wholesome people who did absolutely everything you could to help your son. You have not pointed blame at anybody and have been appreciative of the work done.

'I will remember this case for a very, very long time. Connor was a bright, energetic, funny little boy who loved life and I have no doubt that he was at his happiest when he was with you, his parents.

'I am very sorry we had to meet in these circumstances. I can only hope that you have got some peace of knowing that the doctors did everything they could.'

After the inquest, Ms Horridge, said: 'His death showed he had done something with his life. I'm glad his death mattered for something and will help other children. I feel he's got justice.

'He wouldn't want us to be crying and upset, he'd want us to be laughing and happy. He was my brave little boy. He was such a little rascal. Such a little hero, he was my little soldier and I'll love him forever.'
North Korea could be preparing to carry out a submarine missile test in defiance of President Trump's attempts to bring the rogue nation to heel.

Satellite images taken on Monday shows activity at a test site which mirrors preparations ahead of the country's last test of their Pukguksong-1 submarine-launched ballistic missile in August last year.

The images were released after President Trump said American weapons are 'locked and loaded' in case Kim Jong-un makes any more 'overt threats' toward the US.

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Satellite images taken on Monday of a submarine test site in North Korea show activity that mirrors preparations for a missile test in August last year

Pictured is the same testing site last year before a successful test of the Pukguksong-1 submarine-launched ballistic missile

Joseph Bermudez, a specialist in North Korean defense and intelligence affairs, posted photographs on the authoritative 38 North blog of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

'Recent commercial satellite imagery reveals several developments suggesting that North Korea may be accelerating the development of the sea-based leg of its nuclear forces,' he said.

Activity on a SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine at the Mayang-do navy shipyard and submarine base, he said, suggests 'that the North may be preparing for a new series of 'at sea' test launches, has undertaken modifications or upgrades to the submarine's launch systems, or is developing a more advanced version of the Pukguksong-1.'

The Pukguksong-1 is an SLBM that was first successfully test-launched on August 24, 2016.

That missile flew 500km (300 miles) towards Japan, which leader Kim Jong-Un said at the time put the US mainland within striking range from a Pacific-based submarine.

Bermudez said the preparations at the submarine in recent weeks match those ahead of previous tests.

Other satellite images of naval bases in the region show a fleet of submarines stationed there after unusual patrol activity earlier this month

Experts say numbers of submarines have remained constant, suggesting the unusual patrols were a one-off, rather than a change of tactics

The subs were pictured as President Trump warned US weapons are 'locked and loaded' in the event of another 'overt threat' from North Korea

Trump has not made it clear exactly what would constitute an 'overt threat' to the US, or whether a fresh missile test would be grounds for military intervention.

Amid the heightened tensions other countries in the region began preparing for the possibility of war as Japan deployed missile defenses on Saturday.

Patriot missile defenses were pictured being set up in Kochi prefecture after the North threatened to fire its newly developed Hwasong-12 and 14 missiles over the country in order to strike at the US military base in Guam.

Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The defense ministry deployed the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which North Korea had warned could be along its missiles' flight path.

It also deployed the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, according to the reports, while the Asahi Shimbun said one maritime Self-Defence Force Aegis destroyer was stationed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to shoot down missiles.

Japan deployed Patriot missile defenses on Saturday after North Korea warned it was going to fire rockets over the country and at the US base in Guam

Japan has previously said it will shoot down any North Korea projectiles that it believes pose a threat to its security

The missile defenses were pictured being set up in provinces along the anticipated flight path of North Korea's weapons

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping called for calm in the region as Japan said it was prepared to defend itself against any threat from North Korea

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

'While standing by 24 hours in preparation for a launch, we are calling on our residents to be on alert in case we issue emergency information,' a government spokesman said.

The deployment came as Chinese President Xi Jinping made a plea for cool-headedness in a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, urging both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

Trump has called on China to pressure North Korea to halt a nuclear weapons program that is nearing the capability of targeting the United States.

China is the North's biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone can't compel Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programs.

State-run China Central Television quoted Xi as telling Trump the 'relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.'
This is the dramatic moment a senior member of the international Kinahan crime cartel is arrested in his Spanish hotel bed.

Armed officers held the Irishman after storming his room as he was fast asleep beside an unidentified woman at the hotel in the Costa Dorada resort of Salou 60 miles south of Barcelona.

Footage released by police showed the elite team - carrying semi-automatic weapons with flashlights on them - running into the room after getting radio orders to strike as colleagues went in through a back terrace.

They can be heard shouting in Spanish, 'Las Manos, Las Manos' - English for 'Hands up, hands up' before yelling in English, 'Don't Move'.

Pictured: A scene from the footage showing a police officer shining a torch at the sleeping suspect

Pictured: A police officer armed with a sub-machine gun raids the bedroom of a senior member of the Kinahan cartel 60 miles south of Barcelona

The 34-year-old Irishman, wanted on weapons and drugs charges, appeared to be asleep at the time although the television in his hotel room was still on.

The fugitive, also a suspect in the 2010 murder of gang boss Eamon 'The Don' Dunne who cannot be named for legal reasons, was driven to Madrid after his arrest for an extradition hearing.

It was not immediately clear today if he had consented to extradition or opposed his forced return to Ireland at the behind-closed-doors hearing.

The hotel where the arrest took place has not been named.

Today Spanish police revealed they had come close to catching the wanted 'major league' gangster in November last year at Malaga airport.

The Irishman is also a suspect in the 2010 murder of gang boss Eamon 'The Don' Dunne. Pictured: Police during the raid

Pictured: The suspect lies in bed as police shine their torches in his face

He escaped after crossing a busy motorway as officers closed in on him when he went to meet relatives arriving from Ireland.

The European Arrest Warrant was issued after two guns and cocaine were found in his car during a 2013 search.

He is also understood to be facing serious charges over the gunning down of Eamon Dunne at a friend's birthday party at a pub in Cabra, Dublin in April 2010 in what was described at the time as 'a perfect hit.'

The gangland boss was sitting on a bar stool when his killer calmly walked in and told other terrified customers to 'get on the floor' before blasting his victim with two shots to the head and three others to vital organs.

Today Spanish police also revealed they had come close to catching the wanted 'major league' gangster in November last year at Malaga airport. Pictured: Footage from the raid

Pictured: The heavily armed police storm the resort to grab the wanted Irishman

A Spanish police spokesman, confirming the Costa Dorada hotel arrest and identifying the detainee only by his initials, said: 'Spanish National Police officers have arrested an Irishman born in 1982 on foot of a European Arrest warrant at his hotel in Salou near Tarragona.

'The warrant was issued by Irish authorities for illegal possession of firearms and drugs offences, relating to a search on the suspect's vehicle in 2013 in which Garda found two loaded guns and cocaine.

'Investigators were made aware that the fugitive had left Ireland to head to Spain in May 2016 using a a passport issued by the Irish authorities which he had in a false name.

'Efforts to locate him centred on the province of Malaga due to his alleged links to the Kinahan organised Irish crime family.'

The spokesman, revealing how the suspect narrowly avoided capture in November last year, added: 'Subsequently it was discovered several members of his family were due to travel to Malaga and a surveillance operation was set up on Spanish soil, thanks to which he was located with his family at Malaga Airport.

The 34-year-old Irishman, wanted on weapons and drugs charges, appeared to be asleep at the time although the television in his hotel room was still on. Pictured: Footage showing the man in bed

'He reacted with great violence against officers who went to arrest him and fled, crossing several lanes of a motorway before managing to escape.'

The Irishman had checked into the hotel in Salou using a false identity. His detention was the work of Special Operations Group GEO officers based in Catalunya who are often called on to rescue hostages or take out terrorists.

The Dublin-based Kinahan crime family, which is well established on the Costa del Sol, is regarded as one of Europe's leading crime syndicates.

They have ties to Colombian and Mexican cartels as well as the Russian mafia and are said to control most of the drugs smuggling into Ireland and the UK.

At least a dozen people have been killed in Ireland and Spain, including an innocent holidaymaker gunned down in Majorca in September 2015, as a result of an ongoing bloody feud between the Kinahan and the rival Hutch gang.

The suspect held in Salou has been called a 'trusted' member of the Kinahan international crime syndicate, with access to large amounts of cash.

The Dublin flats where he used to live when he was still in Ireland are now the focus of heavily-armed Garda checkpoints as officers try to keep a lid on the gangland feud between the Kinahan and the Hutch mob.
A Sydney fruit shop has been severely damaged by fire less than four months after another suspicious blaze ripped through the business.

Emergency services were called to Fruit World in Sylvania about 5am on Saturday to find the property well alight.

Fire and Rescue NSW crews extinguished the blaze but not before residents were evacuated from nearby homes and the Princes Highway was briefly closed.

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Fruit World in has been damaged by fire less than four months after a suspicious blaze in April

Sylvania Fruit World in Sydney's south has been damaged by fire twice in the last four months

Police established a crime scene and guarded the building until investigators arrived later on Saturday morning.

'Inquiries into the cause of the fire continue and police have urged anyone with information about unusual or suspicious activity in the area to come forward,' a spokesperson said in a statement.

Fruit World was also damaged in late April by a fire which remains under investigation.

Emergency services were called to Sylvania Fruit World on Princes Highway in Gymea just before 1am on Monday April 24 to reports of a business that was well alight, NSW Police said.

Emergency services were called to Fruit World in Sylvania about 5am on Saturday morning

Police established a crime scene and guarded the building until the investigators arrived

The fire department battled fires in multiple places including the entrance, external walls and a stack of pallets in the back.

The ferocious blaze was extinguished a short time later by firefighters but there was a moderate amount of damage done to the shop.

No-one was injured in the fire, but officers from Sutherland Local Area Command established a crime scene and treated the fire as suspicious.
Alabama is hopelessly red at this point. Trump beat Hillary there 1,318,255 (62%) to 729,547 (34%). Even the one "Democrat" in the congressional delegation, Terri Sewell, is a conservative New Dem with an "F" rating from ProgressivePunch. There'll be a special election December 12 to fill Jeff Sessions' seat but what's important in beet red Alabama is the primary, specifically the Republican primary. Primary day is in 3 days, Tuesday (August 15) and if there's a need for a run-off (almost certain) that will be September 26.





There is a plausible Democrat running, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones (who's been endorsed by Joe Biden, Terri Sewell and John Lewis) but he'll probably be beaten by a silly candidate with a famous name , Robert Kennedy, Jr. (who was likely put up to it by the GOP). It probably doesn't matter. Like I said, the GOP primary is what matters. Of the 9 Republicans running, 3 are polling in double digits, appointed incumbent Luther Strange, crackpot ex-state Supreme Court chief judge Roy Moore and Congressman Mo Brooks. There is no good choice, no moderate, no mainstreamer... just three far right-extremists, although I suppose a case could be made that Moore is the worst. So, naturally, he's ahead in the polling.





very conservative) and 70% identify as evangelical Christians. Cygnal and L2 poll this week shows Moore with 30.7%, Strange with 22.6% and Brooks with 18%. (The same poll shows Moore winning a runoff against Strange with a double-digit lead.) The new Fox News poll has Moore at 35%, Strange at 29% and Brooks at 19%. And the third poll released this week, from JMC Analytics has Moore with 30%, Strange with 22% and Brooks with 19%. It also shows Moore with the highest favorables and lowest unfavorables. 74% of voters say they are conservative (46%conservative) and 70% identify as evangelical Christians.





By the end of July Strange has raised $3,220,749 and already spent $2,286,479. Brooks had spent $937,132 and Moore had raised $459,807 and spent just $286,421-- two million less than Strange! McConnell has been pumping money into Strange's flailing campaign-- $569,896 on positive ads about Strange and a massive $1,337,634 in a vicious smear campaign against Brooks, claiming he isn't Trumpy enough. Another PAC-- the Swamp Drainers Foundation, which doesn't disclose its sources of cash-- spent $85,178 against Strange and the NRA spent $126,792 running pro-Strange radio ads. Strange's biggest hope to turn things around was a tweeted endorsement by Senor Trumpanzee of Bedminster the other day.





Duck Dynasty). "I dont know if theres anything Id say about Trumps endorsement. Trumps got every right to endorse who he wants. I dont know what kind of deals are made behind the scenes in Washington, DC. I dont know. He doesnt know me and I dont know what hes been told about me and probably if hes been told about me what theyve been saying-- I dont know. I dont know why he did what he did or what he said... Chuck Norris isnt running. Theyre not voting for Chuck Norris. Hes a recognizable figure, but they wouldnt vote for me because of Chuck Norris. Theyre going to vote for me because of who I am and what Ive done... Weve been out campaigning and they know what we stand for and not only what we say well do, they know what weve done. Thats very important for all of us." People outside of Alabama may not be aware of what the radical right appears to be ready to elect to the U.S. Senate. Moore downplayed the endorsement during an interview with a neo-Nazi website while pointing out that crackpot Chuck Norris had endorsed him (so did the lunatic from). "I dont know if theres anything Id say about Trumps endorsement. Trumps got every right to endorse who he wants. I dont know what kind of deals are made behind the scenes in Washington, DC. I dont know. He doesnt know me and I dont know what hes been told about me and probably if hes been told about me what theyve been saying-- I dont know. I dont know why he did what he did or what he said... Chuck Norris isnt running. Theyre not voting for Chuck Norris. Hes a recognizable figure, but they wouldnt vote for me because of Chuck Norris. Theyre going to vote for me because of who I am and what Ive done... Weve been out campaigning and they know what we stand for and not only what we say well do, they know what weve done. Thats very important for all of us." People outside of Alabama may not be aware of what the radical right appears to be ready to elect to the U.S. Senate.





Moore was first elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001 and was removed from his position 2 years later for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments despite orders to do so by a federal court. Alabamans elected him Chief Judge again in 2013 and he was suspended in 2016 for directing probate judges to continue to enforce an unconstitutional ban on same-sex marriage, after the ban had had been overturned. Moore appealed and lost and finally resigned 4 months ago. In the middle of all that, in 2010, he ran for governor and came in 4th in the Republican primary with 19%. When Moore was suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court there were 6 charges:

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for disregarding a federal injunction.

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for demonstrated unwillingness to follow clear law.

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for abuse of administrative authority.

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for substituting his judgement for the judgement of the entire Alabama Supreme Court, including failure to abstain from public comment about a pending proceeding in his own court.

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for interference with legal process and remedies in the United States District Court and/or Alabama Supreme Court related to proceedings in which Alabama probate judges were involved.

 Violation of the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics, for failure to recuse himself from pending proceedings in the Alabama Supreme Court after making public comment and placing his impartiality into question.

He was found guilty of all six charges. He writes a pro-faacist column for right-wing propaganda website WorldNetDaily where he writes things like a demand that Keith Ellison (D-MN) shouldn't be allowed to sit in Congress because he practices the Muslim faith. Moore has an imbecile son named Caleb who works at the family business, a scam operation to separate dull-witted evangelicals from their money, the Foundation for Moral Law. Recently Caleb was arrested for selling marijuana and prescription drugs and was convicted-- his 4th conviction for peddling drugs. He's been arrested 8 times in all and blames everyone but himself, having told the family's cult followers that "the media and crooked police officers and critics of my dad try to not only destroy his career for what he stands for but will go as far as trying to destroy his family." A few months ago he was arrested again, this time on weapons charges. Perfect family to represent Alabama Republicans!





This week, ole moral pillar Roy Moore indicated he thinks "the focus of evil in the modern world" is not, as Reagan was quoted as saying, Russia, but is the U.S. Like many on the extreme fringe of right-wing politics, Moore is pro-Putin and an outspoken America-hater. He does like Trump though and said "it was the providential hand of God" that gave Trump the election (rather than Putin's interference and Wasserman Schultz's cheating).





Politico Thursday Seung Min Kim, writing for reported that "none of the three main candidates in the increasingly nasty Senate GOP primary in [Alabama] are taking the majority leaders side." Brooks, who's been demonized in McConnell's ad campaign told the press that of McConnell that "if he's not gonna get the job done, needs to resign so someone else can try to get the job done."
A suspect has been arrested after a manhunt was launched when a mother and daughter were found stabbed to death inside their home in north London.

Police were called to the house of Joshua Cohen at 8.50pm on Friday night and found his sister and mother, aged 33 and 66, suffering from stab wounds.

Officers launched a hunt for Cohen, 27, and later arrested him after he was spotted in Golders Hill Park by a member of the public at around 2pm today.

Neighbours claimed that Cohen had recently been to prison for assaulting his sister, who was named locally as Hannah Cohen.

In a public appeal, Met Police said Cohen had shaved his head and eyebrows and suffers from mental health issues including paranoid schizophrenia.

Officers arrested Joshua Cohen (pictured) after his sister  named locally as 33-year-old Hannah Cohen (right)  and his mother, 66, were found stabbed to death at a home in Golders Green, north London

The two bodies of the mother and daughter were discovered inside this home (shown left) at about 9pm last night

Forensic personnel investigate the double murder of a mother and daughter at a home in north London last night

One neighbour, 44, who did not want to be named, said he saw Josh outside the house at around the time of the attack.

'He was heading towards the tube station, which is where other people said they saw him wandering around.

'I knew of him - he was a bit of a character in the area because of his mental problems - he was known about, but I don't think anyone knew he had this in him.

'I don't know the mum's name but I know she was disabled, mentally and psychically I think and she had a lot of help at the house.

'I live right across the road; I've spoken to him and sat on the wall and had a cigarette with him - it was that type of relationship.

'He used to live in the house but there were problems, so he moved to an annexe at the back of the house for a while, but there were more problems.'

The neighbour also claimed Joshua's late father Asher owns a bagel shop on Brick Lane, east London.

He added: 'The family were Jewish but I don't think Josh was interested in it at all from what I'd gathered and the way he looked and acted.

The suspect was last seen wearing a red Nike hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the chest. He was also wearing white trainers and dark grey trousers

Police officers question residents in Golders Green Crescent, the scene of a double murder

A photograph taken in the road last night shows ambulances and police cars outside the home

'It's absolutely sickening, the police presence afterwards was crazy so I knew something had gone on but once I found out it was his mum and sister I felt sick.'

A video taken in the road last night shows armed officers on the scene and police warned members of the public not to approach Cohen.

Golders Green Crescent has been closed off by police as investigations are carried out inside the house.

Cohen is described as white male, 5ft 9ins tall, with short cropped hair and short beard or stubble.

He was last seen wearing a red Nike hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the chest. He was also wearing white trainers and dark grey trousers.

Speaking before the arrest, Detective Inspector Ian Lott from the Homicide and Major Crime Command said: 'This was a devastating attack on two women in their homes.

'The individual we are seeking was known to them and from all the information we have, acted alone.

The family own Beigel Bake in Brick Lane in the east end of London

'I would urge anyone who saw anything in the local area at the time of the attack to get in touch with investigators immediately.

'Likewise, if you spot Joshua Cohen please call police on 999.'

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose from Barnet said: 'I would like to reassure local residents that police are doing everything they can to find and apprehend the individual suspected to be involved in this horrific attack.

'High visibility foot patrols have been stepped up in the area and police will be on hand to listen and respond to community concerns.

'We will continue to work with the CST and keep them fully updated with significant developments.'

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 0208 358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

A video taken in the road last night shows armed police on the scene and police warned members of the public not to approach Cohen before he was arrested

In a public appeal, Met Police said Cohen had recently shaved his head and eyebrows and suffers from mental health issues including paranoid schizophrenia
A Danish inventor whose crowdfunded submarine sank near Copenhagen on Friday has now been arrested on suspicion of killing a journalist last seen on board.

Peter Madsen is being investigated over the disappearance of journalist Kim Wall who was on the 154,000 UC3 Nautilus submarine before it was wrecked.

Miss Wall, 30, has not been seen since the ill-fated voyage began on Thursday, with police and family saying they have been unable to get in contact with her.

Journalist Kim Wall, 30, boarded a submarine built by 46-year-old Peter Madsen on Thursday night and has not been seen since it sank on Friday morning

Madsen (pictured right after he was rescued from the sinking craft) claims he dropped Miss Wall off on an island in Copenhagen's harbour before his vessel sank

The UC3 Nautilus was built by Madsen who crowd-funded 154,000 to create the 40-ton, 18m vessel which he claimed could reach a depth of 1,150ft (pictured, an unidentified woman stands in the tower of the submarine in Copenhagen harbour on Friday)

Madsen claims the pair set off on their voyage on Thursday night, at that he dropped her near a restaurant called Halvandet at the mouth of the harbour around 10.30pm, according to Swedish newspaper Expressen.

It was not until the following day at 10.45am that the Danish Navy said the submarine had been found sunk in the harbour.

The newspaper also reports Madsen sent a mysterious text to a friend around the time he claims to have dropped Miss Wall off, saying she had left the vessel and cancelling a trip he was supposed to be taking on the submarine the following day.

He did not respond to questions from the friend about why he had dropped Miss Wall off or why the trip was being cancelled.

Madsen was arrested on manslaughter charges on Saturday before a judge ordered that he be held in custody while investigations are carried out.

Speaking to reporters at court, Madsen said 'there is something I really want to tell you later', without elaborating any further.

The prosecutor asked for doors to the hearing to be closed as information likely to distress Miss Wall's family was about to be heard.

The 40-ton, 18-meter long Nautilus, one of three subs built by Madsen, was found by divers under 7m (24ft) of water, though they were unable to enter it safely.

A salvage ship, the Vina, has now raised the sub from the sea bed close to Copenhagen's south island of Dragoer and brought it back to shore to be inspected.

Salvage ship Vina has been working to bring the Nautilus up from the bottom of Copenhagen harbour where it is currently sitting under 7m (24ft) of water

Divers located the submarine but were unable to enter it safely so it is not yet known whether Miss Wall's body is inside

The submarine was reported missing early on Friday by Miss Wall's boyfriend after she failed to return home, prompting a major search operation by the Danish Navy

Authorities were alerted that something had gone wrong with the submarine by Miss Wall's boyfriend after she failed to return home, prompting a major search operation involving two helicopters, three ships and several private boats.

Kristian Isbak, who had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the ship, sailed out immediately Friday and saw Madsen standing wearing his trademark military fatigues in the submarine's tower while it was still afloat.

'He then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink,' Isbak told The Associated Press.

'(He) came up again and stayed in the tower until water came into it' before swimming to a nearby boat as the submarine sank, he added.

Madsen said there was a valve error that became serious when he tried to repair it.

Footage aired on Denmark's TV2 channel showed Madsen, 46, getting off what seemed to be a private boat and making a thumbs up sign as he walked away.

Upon his rescue from Kge Bay, Madsen said: 'I'm fine. But I'm sorry because 'Nautilus' has gone down.'

Miss Wall is a freelance journalist who graduated with a masters from Columbia University before going on to write about identity, gender, pop-culture, social justice and foreign policy.

Madsen, pictured above in 2008 in front of his submarine, was seen standing the tower of the still-floating submarine moments before it sank, according to a rescuer

Madsen claimed his creation had suffered a valve failure that became much worse when he tried to fix it, leading to the sinking

She is from Sweden but spent time living in New York and Beijing. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, The Guardian, New York Times, Foreign Policy, Vice Magazine, Slate, South China Morning Post, The Atlantic, Roads & Kingdoms, and TIME.

The submarine was Madsen's third attempt at building such a structure and was the largest privately built submarine in the world at the time of its launch.

The Nautilus was a diesel-electric submarine. The diesel engine is uses when sailing or propelling just below the surface, while the electrical engine is used when the submarine is deep below the water's surface.

It was built like a post-World War II submarine, with a galley, crew bunks, officer's mass, bridge and engine room.

It's named after the famed submarine manned by Jules Verne's Captain Nemo character in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
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A bittersweet sale marked the end of an era for a Sydney family who sold their Bronte home after owning the property for more than 50 years.

In 1965 Josie Pavlides parents brought the house in the beachside suburb for 9500 - a staggering difference from the $2.65 million a buyer forked out on Saturday.

'We've got mixed emotions,' Ms Pavlides told Domain after the auction.

A Sydney family sold their home, owned for more than 50 years, at auction on Saturday for $2.65 million

Josie Pavlides parents brought the 341sqm property in 1965 in the beachside suburb of Bronte for 9500

'It's a good result and it needed to be sold, but it's a bit sad as we've had it for more than 50 years,' she said.

The home, which hadn't been on the up for sale in more than half of a century, was contested by two men who were eager to win the three-bedroom, one-bathroom stake in the Sydney property market.

It was one of more than 600 pieces of Sydney real estate up for grabs across the city on Saturday.

Styled with its original fittings, which included bright coloured wallpaper and retro patterns, the home was auctioned off by James Hayashi of Phillips Pantzer Donnelley.

Bids began at $2.4 million, despite Mr Hayashui calling for a start at $2.5 million, by a man from Bondi who would have liked to flip the house.

An investor from Pymble took him on and the pair went against each other with no other competitors, although four others had registered.

The property was one of more than 600 pieces of Sydney real estate up for grabs across the city on Saturday

Styled with its original fittings, which included bright coloured wallpaper and retro patterns, the home was auctioned off by James Hayashi of Phillips Pantzer Donnelley

A man from Bondi who would have liked to flip the house was taken on by an investor from Pymble and the pair went against each other with no other competitors

The Pymble man won, citing he intends to add a modern touch to the house before renting it out.

'I'm going to put a tenant in there in the short term, but in the long term I'd like to look at doing a renovation and moving in,' the buyer, who did not want to be named, said.

He told Domain he was just glad the other man didn't go any higher.

The average price of properties in the affluent suburb reaches around $3 million, according to selling agent Alexander Phillips.

'There's only about five to 10 of these [original homes on the market] every year,' he said.

'Interest in them is generally stronger than that for new homes, as it's something people can buy and turn into the dream home; they're not paying for someone else's renovation that might not be to their tastes.'

The Pymble man won and later cited he intends to add a modern touch to the house before renting it out to a tenant
Police investigating the death of an 83-year-old dog walker who was found dead in woodland have arrested a man on suspicion of murder.

Norfolk Police confirmed a man aged in his 20s from East Harling, Norfolk, was being questioned in custody over the killing of Peter Wrighton.

Mr Wrighton, from Banham, was found dead last Saturday morning in the woods near East Harling, prompting a huge police investigation.

Norfolk Police have arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murdering Peter Wrighton, 83, (pictured)

The pensioner was a much-loved father and grandfather and his death has left the local community reeling in shock

The victim's two dogs stayed by his body until it was found by a passer-by among thick nettles and undergrowth.

His death was initially treated as unexplained with an 'animal attack' considered as one of the possible explanations.

But a Home Office post-mortem examination later found the grandfather had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck.

A spokesman for Norfolk Police said the arrested man is currently being held in police custody.

He added: 'Inquiries are continuing regarding the incident and detectives ask that anyone with information should contact Norfolk Police immediately.'

It is understood police are investigating whether Mr Wrighton may have had a row with another man moments before he was killed.

Mr Wrighton was hacked to death in a crime so brutal that detectives at first assumed he had been mauled by an animal

Police confirmed a witness reported hearing two elderly men having a bust-up in the woods around the time the pensioner was murdered.

Earlier in the week, Mr Wrighton's family paid tribute to him, describing him as a 'lovely, gentle husband, dad and grandfather'.

They told how he had a 'kind nature' and talked of his 'love of walking his dogs and chatting with people to pass the time of day'.

Mr Wrighton's wife of 59 years, Ann, said: 'Peter was immensely kind and never had a bad word to say about anybody and people always seemed to take a liking to him.

'We are extremely thankful for all the people who have come forward to speak with the police and hope we will soon be able to understand why this has happened.

'When we think of Peter we remember him with with fond and happy memories that will stay with us always.'

Labelled on this map is the post office where Mr Wrighton was seen on CCTV and where he was found by a patch of woodland

Crime officers hunt for clues in the area where Mr Wrighton's body was found

On Thursday, police released footage of Mr Wrighton shopping in a post office on the day that he died along with maps of his final movements in the hope that it would 'jog memories'.

Det Supt Andy Smith said at the time: 'We want to piece together Peter's final days so that we can understand what happened to him and why. We know that Peter's family and the people of the local area want to understand and we want to help them to do that.'

Anyone with any information should call The Operation Graduate helplines on 0800 056 0944 or 0207 158 0010.
Hundreds of Jetstar passengers were left stranded and hungry in Christchurch after the pilot was a no-show.

Customers were informed that the scheduled flight to Wellington would be 'delayed indefinitely' because there was 'no pilot'.

They were not told that the delay was due to pilot illness until several hours later, according to Stuff NZ.

Hundreds of Jetstar passengers were left stranded and hungry due to pilot illness on Saturday

Customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration after being made to wait more than 7 hours

The flight, which was meant to leave at 10.30am, was rescheduled for 3.30pm and then pushed back again to 5.20pm.

'It staggered me that it takes seven hours for an airline to get another pilot,' one disgruntled passenger said.

Jetstar staff were reportedly 'quite cavalier about the whole thing,' and passengers were given $8 vouchers for refreshments while they waited.

A stranded passenger said that Jetstar were 'quite cavalier about' the 7-hour flight delay

This is not the first time that Jetstar have come under fire for grounding flights because of pilots calling in sick.

In March 2016, ten out of 100 regional flights were cancelled in New Zealand over the course of three days.

Jetstar spokesman Phil Boeye apologised for the cancellations and thanked customers for their understanding, but it appears that customers were not understanding at all.

Furious customers told Jetstar that they were 'utterly disgruntled' after flight cancellations

On the last day of the October 2016 school holidays, the cancellation of two flights from Wellington to Auckland caused chaos.

'We have back-up staff available but once they get sick there's not much we can do,' a Jetstar spokesperson said at the time.

Aviation commentator Irene King said that while disgruntled customers may go elsewhere for air travel in the future, 'ultimately the market was determined by price and if Jetstar continued to offer low pricing people would continue flying with it'.

Jetstar have been contacted for comment.

Annoyed customers told Jetstar to get its act together after a double cancellation in October
A train journey that should have taken five minutes turned into a three-hour ordeal for passengers on a Brisbane train.

A train carrying about 60 people travelling just one stop between Windsor and Bowen Hills came to a sudden stop at about 6.15pm on Friday and did not move again until 9pm, ABC News reported.

To make the three-hour journey worse the power went out, leaving commuters in the dark.

Passenger Christian Berndt documented the three-hour journey on Snapchat (pictured)

To make the three hour journey worse the power went out, leaving commuters in the dark (pictured is passenger's Snapchat)

Passenger Christian Berndt, 18, (pictured) was on his way to Fortitude Valley for a music gig when the train stopped

Passenger Christian Berndt, 18, was on his way to Fortitude Valley for a music gig when the train stopped.

'By the end everyone was done. People were pacing up and down the carriage and just wanting to absolutely give it to Queensland Rail staff,' Mr Berndt said.

The 18-year-old said some passengers missed out on Friday night's clash between the Brisbane Broncos and the Cronulla Sharks at Lang Park.

To add insult to injury Mr Berndt was only offered $1.95 refund for his ticket from Queensland rail.

'I'm not real happy with that to be honest. I definitely think there should be some more compensation, definitely for those people going to the Broncos game they should get their tickets refunded,' Mr Berndt said.

Queensland Rail said the delay was caused by a flying fox getting caught in the overhead lines.

'We acknowledge this took considerable time. We would like to sincerely apologise to the customers affected for the experience they had and the inconvenience to their evening,' Queensland Rail said.

A train journey that should have taken five minutes turned into a three-hour ordeal for passengers on a Brisbane train (journey as it should have been is pictured)
Shelly Bertram was jailed after driving with her partner on the car bonnet when she caught him smoking indoors

A furious bride-to-be snapped in a row with her fiance, driving for three-and-a-half miles with him on the bonnet of a new 60,000 Range Rover he paid for after she caught him smoking.

Drunk Shelly Bertram reached speeds of up to 70 mph, swerving and braking hard to try and shake partner Clive Gibbs off the car, a court heard.

The builder suffered cuts and bruises to his head, legs and arms as he tried to stop his future wife from drink-driving in the car he bought her.

Portsmouth Crown Court, Hampshire, heard businesswoman Bertram flew into a rage just two weeks before her wedding when she spotted Mr Gibbs smoking indoors after they got home from a night out.

The cleaning firm owner stormed out of their home in Waterlooville, Hampshire, getting into the new Range Rover that Mr Gibbs had bought for her.

As Bertram, who had been drinking alcohol, went to drive away from the property, her partner flung himself onto the bonnet to try and stop her.

But the court heard she floored it onto the A3 as Mr Gibbs screamed at her to stop as his legs dragged along the road.

He eventually jumped off the front of the car three and half miles down the road near Horndean.

Bertram fled to her friends house, then to another mans house, where she was arrested.

A breath test revealed she had 48 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst told the court Bertram had left Mr Gibbs in the road.

'The defendant did not pause for a moment to check if her future husband was alright as he jumped from her bonnet.

'She just drove away.'

Self-employed Mr Gibbs said he lost a 250,000 roofing contract after not being able to work in the months after the incident on June 12 last year.

'That night absolutely destroyed me, she was supposed to be marrying me.

'It has destroyed my life, after that I felt absolutely gutted.

'I went outside after our argument and I heard the Range Rover I had bought her as a wedding present starting up.

'She [Bertram] drove out to where I was standing and so I grabbed the bonnet.

Clive Gibbs says the incident destroyed his life, after the woman he met on Plenty of Fish drove him for three-and-a-half miles on the bonnet of her Range Rover

'She then drove three and a half miles with me on the bonnet, hitting the brakes and swerving.

'I was screaming "I love you, stop the car what are you doing to me?" at her.

'I was crying, screaming, holding on. We got on the slip road, I remember losing grip  Im being dragged along, with one arm holding on.

'I was losing my grip, hanging on for dear life and I knew I was going to have to let go.

'I decided I would do it when she slowed down and when she hit the brakes I let go and rolled into a hedge at the side of the road and called an ambulance.

'Im still not fully back at work and I still wake up at 2am thinking about that night.

'She said she loved me, and never loved anyone like it and that shed been waiting for someone like me all her life.

'I just wanted to know why? Why did she do it? Ill never know.'

The couple, who met on dating site Plenty of Fish, were due to fly off to Thailand and Dubai after the wedding on June 25 on their honeymoon, costing 10,000.

Mitigating, James Caldwell said Bertram, of Portsmouth, told probation Mr Gibbs was her soulmate but added the relationship had difficulties and troubles like any other.

'She had just been involved in a sad and tragic event, when she was given devastating news that she wouldnt be able to fit in her wedding dress.'

Mum-of-two Bertram admitted dangerous driving, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and drink-driving on the first day of her trial last month.

Judge David Melville QC sentenced her to 18-months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered her to complete 200 hours unpaid work.

He also banned her from driving for 18 months, adding she would have to complete an extended retest before getting her licence back and ordered her to pay 1,200 costs.

'This was totally out of character to you.

'However insane and a moment of madness, it was totally out of character.'
A pilot is in a critical condition following a light plane crash at Caloundra Airport on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Amateur pilot Ben Berg took the plane for a joy flight with his three passengers, two men and one woman.

The plane, which left from northern Gold Coast, stalled and flipped on the runway as it landed at Caloundra Airport just before midday on Saturday, emergency services said.

Amateur pilot Ben Berg (pictured) took his plane for a joy flight with his three passengers before it crashed Saturday morning

Mr Berg, 49, is fighting for his life after the plane crashed in Caloundra with three passengers

It took more than an hour to extract Mr Berg from the wreck (pictured) while two passengers freed themselves and one other was rescued in about half an hour

Mr Berg, 49, and one of the male passengers, were trapped in wreckage for more than an hour and had to be freed by emergency crews.

It took 70 minutes to extract the first person from the South African-designed Sling 4 piston-engine kit plane and 'considerably longer' for the second, Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman Kristy McAlister said.

The South African pilot, who built the plane himself, was airlifted to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition while the passengers were transported to Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

The pilot had 'multi-trauma injuries' including significant lower limb, chest and head injuries, Ms McAlister said.

The plane (pictured), which left from northern Gold Coast, stalled and flipped on the runway as it landed at Caloundra Airport

The South African pilot, who built the plane himself, was airlifted to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a critical condition

The other trapped passenger had 'significant lower limb injuries'. The two passengers who freed themselves suffered minor injuries only.

Those three were in a stable condition on the Sunshine Coast.

One of Mr Berg's friends told Fairfax Media he was a reasonably experienced pilot who had been flying for several years.

The forensic crash unit is investigating.

The three passengers, two men and one woman, were in a stable condition on the Sunshine Coast
A man arrested on suspicion of being the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of an oncoming bus has been released with no further action.

Millionaire American investment banker Eric Bellquist, 41, was held by police in relation to the incident in which the woman was pushed on Putney Bridge.

But yesterday his lawyers revealed he has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

This afternoon, Metropolitan Police announced Mr Bellquist had been eliminated from the investigation, while the hunt for the jogger continues.

A spokesman for the force said that Mr Bellquist, who was arrested on Thursday, was quick to offer evidence that he was out of the country at the time of the assault.

Eric Bellquist, 41, was arrested on suspicion of being the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of an oncoming bus but has been released with no further action

Millionaire American investment banker Mr Bellquist, 41, was held by police in relation to the incident in which the woman was pushed on Putney Bridge

However Metropolitan Police did not officially announce he was no longer under suspicion until Saturday afternoon.

The bus managed to swerve at the last minute, narrowly avoiding running over the 33-year-old woman's head.

Yesterday, the law firm acting on behalf of Mr Bellquist, who works for London-based investment firm Hutton Collins, released a statement to say he was in the US at the time of the incident.

It read: 'Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident.

'Consequently we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.

Mr Bellquist, who lives in Chelsea, west London, joined Hutton Collins in 2002.

Over the course of various transactions he has represented Hutton Collins in the leisure, media/telecom and manufacturing sectors.

Metropolitan Police said Mr Bellquist had been eliminated from the investigation and enquiries continue

But today a law firm acting on behalf of Mr Bellquist, who works for London-based investment firm Hutton Collins, released a statement to say he was in the US at the time of the incident

Prior to Hutton Collins, Mr Bellquist worked in the European Leveraged Finance and Sponsor Coverage group at Lehman Brothers

He currently represents Hutton Collins on the boards of Byron Hamburgers and was responsible for the firm's investment in Caffe Nero.

Officers claimed the jogger ran the other way across the bridge around 15 minutes later and the victim attempted to speak to him, but 'he did not acknowledge her'.

Speaking earlier this week, sergeant Mat Knowles said: 'After he pushed her he ran across the bridge and 15 minutes later came back.

'By this time the members of the public who had helped the woman were gone and she tried to talk to him as he ran past her but he just ignored her.

A senior source from the bus company Go Ahead London said it was only down to the slow speed of the vehicle that the accident did not result in serious injury.

The Metropolitan Police said that officers had received a 'good response' after calling for information on the incident
A sick 11-month-old girl is being refused crucial surgery at Sunshine Coast University Hospital because of 'ludicrous' regulations, her mother has revealed.

There is a paediatric Ear, Nose and Throat specialist ready to operate on Olivia-Rose Ciseau, who is suffering from infected tonsils and adenoids that cause her to stop breathing in her sleep.

But it is against Queensland health regulations for doctors to operate on children under 12 months of age.

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Olivia-Rose Ciseau is being denied crucial surgery because of her age, her mother revealed

'We're tired, we're devastated  Our daughter's whole personality has changed,' mother Victoria Bromhead told 9NEWS.

One partiularly 'rough' night, Ms Bromhead recorded the wheezing and hacking sound of her daughter struggling to breathe.

She says that she is afraid her daughter will die in her sleep if she is not treated.

A spokesperson for the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service said that age limits for 'elective' surgery were purposely strict.

'These age limits are set solely for patient safety and reflect the surgical intricacies involved in treating very young children,' the spokesperson said.

Olivia-Rose is now in the care of Lady Cilento Hospital doctors - the only hospital that does not have an age limit for a tonsillectomy.

Olivia-Rose is suffering from infected tonsils and adenoids and stops breathing in her sleep

Doctors are currently assessing the child to see if she is a candidate for immediate surgery.

But Ms Bromhead said that she still fears for the lives of other children who are tangled up in the same red tape

'What is it going to take for Queensland Health to change these regulations? A child to die? ... Because that's what is going to happen.'

Victoria Bromhead fears that children will die because of the Queensland Health regulations
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Furious Barcelona residents have stormed the city's beach to 'reclaim' it from tourists who they accuse of driving a spike in rowdy drunken behaviour.

Around a hundred activists descended on the white sands on Saturday to make their voices heard as several weary-looking visitors seemed to be sleeping off a heavy night nearby.

Organisers say they have seen a spike in loutish behaviour caused by hard-partying foreigners while increased tourist numbers have also driven up rent and house prices.

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Furious locals in Barcelona held a protest on the city's beach on Saturday to protest a spike in rowdy behaviour which they say is being caused by drunken foreigners

Two men seemed to be trying to sleep off a heavy night and were oblivious to protesters setting up signs demanding they leave just a few feet away from them

Activists were attempting to 'reclaim' the beach which they say is being treated like a resort by loutish visitors who spend the night drinking before going there to sleep it off

Locals are also angry that private apartment rentals are driving up the cost of properties as people buy up housing with the sole intention of letting it out to visitors

Tensions have been growing between authorities and hard-left groups who launched a campaign of vandalism against mass tourism in Barcelona and other parts of Spain.

Police on the island of Mallorca, and in particular the party town of Magaluf, have vowed to clamp down on public nuisances, many of which are caused by holidaying Brits.

At least 70 people have been fined for public nudity or sex this year alone, including one group who were filmed running through the streets naked.

Meanwhile authorities have proposed banning alcohol sales at airports or on flights, while hoteliers are reported to be drawing up a blacklist of badly behaved guests so they can be banned.

Bemused sunbathers watch as protesters form a human chain in front of the ocean in Barcelona in anger at the growth of tourism and privately rented apartments in the area

Spanish authorities are attempting to crack down on loutish behaviour by tourists across the country, but especially on the island of Mallorca which is notorious for its party scene

A banner in Catalan which reads 'never again a summer like this' was posted on the beach as locals demanded authorities take action over the growing numbers of tourists

Spanish authorities are facing demands from across the country to reign in the tourism industry, which sees 75million people visit each year to a country of 46million residents

Magaluf has long attracted negative headlines, most famously in 2014 when an 18-year-old British girl was filmed performing a sex act on 24 men in two minutes at Magaluf bar to win a 4 cocktail.

In addition to the new rules that will be imposed for the first time this summer, the number of police officers in the resort will be doubled during the busy months.

There will be 2,639 officers compared with 1,227 in 2016.

Spain, a country of 46 million, received 75.3 million tourists in 2016. The number of arriving tourists increased by 12 per cent in the first six months of this year.

Tourism accounts for 11 percent of Spain's gross domestic product.

A banner reading 'and now they want our houses' is seen on Barcelona's beach. Locals are angry that homes are being bought up and used as holiday rentals

Residents from the neighbourhood of La Barceloneta are at the heart of protests in the city, though similar movements have popped elsewhere including Ibiza and Mallorca

Protesters in inflatable dinghies hold a banner which reads 'for the abolition of tourist apartments' as sunbathers watch in Barcelona on Saturday

Airbnb, which allows people to rent out private apartments as holiday homes, is at the centre of much of the anger, as residents accuse the company's business model of driving up prices
A wife is accused of fatally shooting her husband before turning the gun on herself inside the master bedroom of their newly purchased $1.6million New Jersey home.

Arshad Zarak, 52, was found dead on his bed with two gunshot wounds to the head as his wife Asma Hussain lay dead on the floor with a gun in her hand on Thursday afternoon.

Holmdel police determined that Hussain, 42, was the suspect in the murder-suicide case after they were called to the scene by a teenage boy who found their bodies.

The couple had moved into their new luxury home less than a month ago, worth $1.66million, and residents report Hussain and Zarak had three children.

Asma Hussain, 42, is accused of fatally shooting her husband Arshad Zarak, 52, before turning the gun on herself inside the master bedroom of their newly purchased $1.6million home (pictured) in Holmdel, New Jersey, on Thursday

The apparent murder-suicide occurred at 4 Paddington Court (pictured) in the Toll Brothers development neighborhood. A teenage boy had found their bodies and called police

The apparent murder-suicide occurred at 4 Paddington Court in the Toll Brothers development neighborhood, called The Reserve at Holmdel, reported NJ.com.

An unnamed teenage boy had called police to report that the couple was dead inside their master bedroom around 1.20pm on Thursday.

Zarak died from two shots to his head and Hussain, who was lying face down on the floor, died from one shot to the head, according to the Middlesex County Regional Medical Examiner's Office.

The family moved into the luxury home shortly after the closing sale on July 21, putting down around $1milllion as a down payment and around $1.15million was borrowed, reported News 4.

Neighbors claim Zarak and Hussain had three children and they never heard fighting or suspected they had marital problems, they told the news outlet.

The couple had moved into their new luxury home less than a month ago, worth $1.66million. Neighbors said the family had three children. Pictured: The model home that the couple's property was based on

The house was built by Toll Brothers and the couple's home appears to be based on the developer's model home, Henley.

The model starts out at a base price of $1.4million and has a minimum of four bedrooms and baths, three-car garage and is 4,700 square feet.

According to the website, the master bedroom suite 'includes a private den with a columned entry; two extraordinarily large walk-in closets.'

It also has 'a luxurious master bath with a tray ceiling, a sunken tub, two vanities, two dressing areas, a shower with a seat, and two private toilet areas.'
A hairdresser refused to shave off a depressed teenager's hair and instead spent 13 hours fixing it for her instead.

Kayley Olsson, a student hairdresser in Waterloo, Iowa, recently shared a story on Facebook that has touched the hearts of millions about a depressed teenager who came to sit in her salon chair.

The 20-year-old explained the 16-year-old had been dealing with severe depression for years and felt so worthless that she couldn't even brush her own hair.

The unnamed teen asked Olsson to just shave her head in time for her school's picture day but the hairdresser refused and spent 13 hours fixing it for her.

Olsson shared the heart-warming story with her Facebook followers on Tuesday, as a reminder that mental illness affects people of all ages.

This unnamed depressed teenager asked her hairdresser to shave off her matted hair on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa. The 16-year-old said she felt so worthless that she couldn't even bring herself to brush her hair

Instead, the girl's 20-year-old hairdresser spent 13 hours over two days fixing her hair so it would look good on picture day on Tuesday. Pictured: After shots of the teen's hair

The hairdresser, who attends cosmetology school at Capri Waterloo, has garnered more than 160,000 likes, 67,000 shares and more than 8,500 comments on the post.

Olsson began her story by saying it was one of the most challenging experiences that she ever had and said she chose to keep the teen anonymous.

She wrote: 'She got to the point where she felt so down and so worthless she couldn't even brush her hair, she told me she only got up to use the restroom.

'She starts back at school in a few weeks but she has her school pictures today. When she walked in she told us "just cut it all off I can't deal with the pain of combing it out", she called herself worthless for it.

'It honestly broke my heart and we tried everything we could to keep this child's hair for her! At the end of the day I want this to be a lesson to people.'

Kayley Olsson, a 20-year-old student hairdresser, shared the story with her Facebook followers as a reminder that mental health illness affects people of all ages

SIGNS THAT YOUR TEENAGER MAY HAVE DEPRESSION Although they may not describe feeling depressed, warning signs include saying they are stressed or easily annoyed. Other symptoms include tearfulness, withdrawing from socializing, changes in eating habits and a lack of energy. Physical signs are headaches, poor digestion, and muscle and joint pain. Stress and depression often appear together. Like depression, stress can also cause fatigue, headache and aching muscles, as well as ulcers. Source: Helpguide.org Advertisement

Olsson continued: 'MENTAL HEALTH is a thing, it effects people all around the world and of all ages! PARENTS take it serious don't just push your kids off and tell them to get over something they legitimately can't.

'A CHILD should NEVER feel so worthless to not even want to brush their hair. After being here 8 hours yesterday and 5 hours today we finally made this beautiful girl smile and feel like she IS worth something!

'Her last words to me was "I will actually smile for my schools pictures today, you made me feel like me again".'

Social media users have cheered Olsson for sharing the story and helping the young woman.

Mary Litchfield wrote: 'You did a beautiful job. Most people who have taken the easy way and just cut her hair and told her stat (sic) fresh. But you took the time and invested time she needed to be invested in her for her to know she has beauty and value.'

Nicole Miller Lardy added: 'Wow! I had a client like this... in the past but she was an older lady, bed ridden.... totally gave me a new perspective on being a stylist when she cried from being so thankful.'

Recent studies show that depression rates have rocketed among young people, 11.3 per cent of 12- to 17-year-olds have untreated depression, up from 8.7 per cent in 2005.

However, the number of teenagers being treated for depression remains unchanged, according to a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The owner of a 'Wolf of Wall Street' company has reached a settlement with ex-workers who accused him of sexual harassment.

Allegations against Mark Mancino and the Tinton Falls, New Jersey firm included him summoning one female worker and saying 'Get your t*ts in here,' then rubbeing his face in her breasts - but he says that they are all just a 'misunderstanding'.

'We are pleased that this misunderstanding with some of our former employees has been amicably resolved and the allegations withdrawn,' owner Mark Mancino - who owns Corporate Bailout and related companies - told The New York Post on Friday.

Chief Financial Officer Mark Mancino (pictured) dressed as Willy Wonka last Halloween and ordered a stripper to dress as an Oompa Loompa, according to the x-rated lawsuit

Neither parties' lawyers would disclosed how much was paid in the suit settlement.

One employee, Maria Formoso, quit because she was tired of all the sexual harassment she faced in the office despite being offered a raise and a bonus because, allegedly, the boss 'wants to put his d**k in her.'

On Friday, Formoso shared that she had never experienced or seen actual harassment but that she considered watching a stripper straddling her boss a regular day.

Things allegedly got hot and heavy again with a stripper of short stature at this June party

Birthday boy Michael Hamill (pictured) is the underwriting manager for the companies named in the suit

'It was a birthday party. It was all in good fun. I thought it was funny,' she said.

Now, customers are also looking to sue the company over their business practices.

'I dont think this is over for them,' a source told the Post.

'There are potentially more lawsuits over their business practices.'

Former employees of the debt consolidation and lending company filed the explosive lawsuit against the firm claiming it is a 'sexually erotic cesspool' of harassment and discrimination.

Former human resources director Nicole Orlando, with two other former female employees, filed the lawsuit on Thursday.

As the stripper wielded a sex toy in one hand, Mancino (not pictured) told Hamill (seated) that if he refused to put the ball gag in his mouth, the stripper would 'use the strap-on on him'

Seven managers of the companies ran them in a way 'that is so sexually aggressive, morally repulsive and unlawfully hostile that it is rivaled only by the businesses portrayed in the films "Boiler Room" and "The Wolf Of Wall Street",' claims the suit filed by Orlando, Evelyn Grondski and Donna Simone, two former sales reps.

Their bosses 'shamelessly created a sexual harassment playground fueled by drugs and alcohol and swarming with hand-picked young women rewarded for dressing and behaving provocatively - all in order to indulge their misogyny and vulgar sexual perversions,' Matthew A. Luber, attorney for the plaintiffs, told DailyMail.com.

In one of the litany of anecdotes offered up, the suit claims that Mancino, Chief Financial Officer of the companies, ordered Orlando to handle the payment for a stripper at a company party.

The managers also ordered up a sex doll for the party, with 'a wig near the crotch to mimic pubic hair,' according to the suit

After Mancino shouted out that Hamill 'was getting a hard on,' the festivities culminated with a 'giant penis cake' reading 'Happy Birthday D**k,' according to the plaintiffs

Mancino, who had dressed as Willy Wonka last Halloween and order a stripper to dress as an Oompa Loompa, ordered another raunchy party for his co-defendant Michael Hamill's birthday on June 2, the suit claims.

'Make sure you have enough money to pay the stripper out of petty cash,' Mancino allegedly barked at Orlando, his human resources chief.

When Orlando explained that it was not a good idea, Mancino told her to 'get over it' and 'stop being a tight a**', according to the suit.

The managers also ordered up a sex doll for the party, with 'a wig near the crotch to mimic pubic hair,' according to the suit.

In shocking video purporting to show the birthday party, a stripper of short stature puts a ball gag in Hamill's mouth and handcuffs him to a chair, and then grinds on him and whips him on the floor.

The suit claims that Mancino (not pictured) ordered the human resources director Nicole Orlando to handle the payment for a stripper at a company birthday party in June

The stripper is seen grinding on the birthday boy during the debauched office party

Another manager shouted that Hamill (pictured) 'was getting a hard-on' during the lap dance

Sex toys were frequently placed in co-workers cars and desks as pranks, according to the suit. This photo purports to show a sex toy placed in the rear window of an employee's car

The plaintiffs called the workplace a 'sexually erotic cesspool'. Pictured: phallic glitter and gummi treats allegedly placed on a male co-worker's desk as a prank

As the stripper wielded a sex toy in one hand, Mancino told Hamill that if he refused to put the ball gag in his mouth, the stripper would 'use the strap-on on him', the suit claims.

FOUR COMPANIES NAMED IN THE SUIT The suit claims the following companies have shared ownership and offices, though they allegedly pose as separate entities: American Funding Group and Coast to Coast offer high-interest cash advances funded by third parties to small businesses. PLG Servicing is the loan-servicing arm of the company. Corporate Bailout offers 'debt consolidation' services. The suit claims that as long as clients make six to ten payments, the company did not care if they defaulted, because the servicing and debt consolidation arms could still 'bamboozle' the client Advertisement

After Mancino shouted out that Hamill 'was getting a hard on,' the festivities culminated with a 'giant penis cake' reading 'Happy Birthday D**k,' according to the plaintiffs.

As the celebration went on, Hamill 'became increasingly intoxicated' and 'inserted a cigarette inside the blow up doll's vagina and a party horn into the anus,' the complaint says.

The lawsuit also brings the employer's business dealings into question, accusing the managers of running a family predatory lending and debt consolidation offices.

Using the front companies American Funding Group and Coast To Coast Funding, the defendants rake in $100,000 revenue a day through 'predatory' high-fee cash advances to small businesses, the lawsuit claims.

Posing as completely unrelated companies, the companies PLG Servicing and Corporate Bailout front would offer debt relief services 'which are just as predatory' to the very same small businesses, allowing the owners to 'double-dip on the debts of unsuspecting consumers and clients,' the suit claims.

Flush with the income generated by the companies, the managers allegedly showered perks and gifts on female employees who brought a certain special something to the job.

Chief Financial Officer Mark Mancino and his wife (pictured together) are said to be in the process of divorcing

Favored were those female subordinates 'who dress provocatively, have large breasts, or who are having an actual sexual relationship with the [bosses]' according to the suit.

On the other hand, the lawsuit claims, 'competent female employees who dressed conservatively or refused to take part in the sexual promiscuity were blackballed and ridiculed'.

A special favorite was a female sales rep named Wendy, whose last name is being withheld.

'Wendy - get your t*ts in here!' Mancino and Hamill would allegedly yell at the nubile subordinate to summon her to their office.

In the office, the suit claims the two managers could be heard 'motorboating' Wendy's breasts.

A footnote to the complaint explains that motorboating 'is the colloquial term for placing one's face in the area between a woman's breasts and blowing onto her skin while rapidly shaking one's head, thereby creating a sound similar to that of an outboard boat motor.'

'Who hasn't seen Wendy's t*ts?' the managers would allegedly yell in addition.

Michael Hamill, a co-owner and manager at the companies, was accused along with other managers of fostering a hostile work environment

At one point, Orlando, who had been hired as a bookkeeper in February of this year but was immediately promoted to the head of human resources, asked Mancino why he frequently got male erectile enhancement pills delivered to the office.

'I have to keep my dick working to keep up with these young ladies,' Mancino allegedly replied.

The complaint also states that Mancino paid a low-level female employee an executive salary with generous bonuses 'so she could afford breast implants'.

On another occasion, Mancino allegedly met a 22-year-old named Gabby at the gym, and hired her on the spot.

Mancino carried on a sexual affair with Gabby, whose last name is being withheld from publication, paying her a $60,000 salary and buying her a $4,000 Gucci bag and luxury beauty treatments with the company credit card, according to the suit.

Orlando says through her attorneys that she was instructed to treat the lavish gifts as legitimate company expenses, and that employees were ordered to keep the sexual affair secret from Mancino's wife.

His wife did learn of the affair, though, and is in the process of divorcing the corporate finance whiz, according to the suit.

The defendants to the suit all either declined to comment or were not reachable late Thursday.
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The White Helmets rescuer who pulled a baby girl from the wreckage of an airstrike in footage that brought a BBC newsreader to tears is among seven volunteers who have been shot dead in Syria.

Abu Kifah made headlines in October after a moving video of him saving month-old Wahida Ma'artouk was broadcast on television.

The moment was so powerful that journalist Kate Silverton was overcome with emotion live on air.

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Abu Kifah (pictured left with the baby girl he rescued, Wahida Ma'artouk) is among seven killed in the shooting by unidentified gunmen

This disturbing image shows the blood-spattered walls of the room in which the volunteers were shot. The White Helmets logo is seen in the centre

Members of the Syrian White Helmets bury their fellow volunteers who were shot dead early this morning in an emotional ceremony in Sarmin, a jihadist-controlled town six miles from Syria's north-western city of Idlib

Abu Kifah made headlines in October after footage of him saving the infant by pulling her out of a rubble-strewn building were broadcast on television

This photo is believed to show one of the White Helmets' stolen buses, which was found burnt out near Idlib city

Matiah Jallal, a close friend and colleague of Abu Kifah, told MailOnline: 'It is hard for me to describe what I feel now. The whole town is mourning Abu Kifah and his colleagues.'

His wife is understood to be in a state of shock and with her husband's relatives.

Khaled Khatib, a media officer with the White Helmets who knew Abu Kifah before his murder, confirmed the deaths to MailOnline and said: 'Abu Kifah was a tailor before the revolution began in 2011 and joined the White Helmets due to the incessant and brutal attacks on civilians.'

The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, confirmed seven of its volunteers had been killed in cold blood by unidentified gunmen who attacked their office in Sarmin early this morning.

The bodies of the men have since been buried in a funeral service in Sarmin.

A large procession of mainly men, some wearing White Helmets, carried the dead with many mourners seen breaking down in tears.

'The civil defence centre in Sarmin was the target of an armed attack by unknown assailants in which seven volunteers were killed,' the White Helmets said in statement.

'Two minibuses, some white helmets and walkie-talkies were stolen.'

An image of the moment the bodies were discovered shows the bloodied corpses of the uniformed workers surrounded by grieving colleagues clasping their heads in their hands.

Another photograph shows a wall at the office emblazoned with a White Helmets logo that is spattered in blood.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the rare attack but it comes amid tension in the area.

The sight of the baby being rescued was so powerful that journalist Kate Silverton was overcome with emotion live on air

A friend said the whole town is in mourning Abu Kifah and his colleagues. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group which controls the area where the attack happened, denounced what it called an 'ugly crime'

An image of the moment the bodies were discovered shows the bloodied corpses of the uniformed workers surrounded by grieving colleagues clasping their heads in their hands

Sarmin is in Idlib province, which was recently taken by the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group after several clashes with Ahrar al-Sham, an ultraconservative rival organisation.

The HTS recently said its members have discovered sleeper cells of Islamic State, who they claim were planning an attack.

Al-Qaida's affiliate, which used by to be known as the Nusra Front, has fought deadly battles with ISIS over the past years.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham denounced what it called an 'ugly crime' and vowed to track down the perpetrators and bring them to account.

The jihadist group said the attack was aimed at 'undermining our revolution', adding that it stood ready to protect the White Helmets in 'liberated areas' of Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven were killed after being shot execution style, adding that the bodies were discovered by fellow White Helmets volunteers who had arrived to start a shift.

The attackers had fled with two vans, helmets and walkie talkies. One of the vehicles was later found burned out on the edge of a field near the centre.

A member of the White Helmets mourns his seven comrades at their funeral service. The group's activities have been depicted in numerous documentaries and news reports shown in the west

No one has immediately claimed they carried out the attack, sparking numerous theories about who was responsible, but it comes amid tension in the area

Opposition activists in Idlib said they did not believe the killings had been orchestrated by the HTS as the group has not targeted the White Helmets in the past.

Some have claimed that the attack was conducted by agents of the Assad regime in order to fuel distrust among rival rebel groups.

One activist, who did not wish to be named, said the attackers used pistols equipped with silencers, adding that people living nearby did not notice anything unusual.

He claimed ISIS sleeper cells have been discovered in Sarmin and added that he believed the attack could likely been carried out by members of the terrorist organisation in a bid to show that Idlib is not safe.

Another theory is that the attacks were carried out by criminals wanting to steal equipment from the centre.

The White Helmets have called on all Syrian checkpoints in the north of the country to detain any vehicle emblazoned with the group's logo.

The organisation, which concentrates on urban search and rescue in response to bombing, has seen more than 150 of its members killed since its formation in 2014.

The White Helmets were widely considered likely to win last year's Nobel Peace Prize.

A large procession of mainly men, some wearing White Helmets, carried the dead - many mourners were seen breaking down in tears

They emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.

The group has since gained international renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although they work exclusively in rebel-held areas, they insist they are non-partisan.

Their detractors, including President Bashar al-Assad's government and his ally Russia, accuse them of being tools of their international donors.

They receive funding from a number of Western governments, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

Critics also accuse them of harbouring rebel fighters, including jihadists, in their ranks.

Elsewhere in Syria, a suicide attacker blew himself up inside a training camp for the Army of Islam rebel group in the southern town of Naseeb, near the border with Jordan, killing more than 20 fighters.

The Observatory said Saturday that the Friday night blast killed 23 and wounded 20, some of whom were in critical condition.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist based in the southern province of Daraa, said about 80 Army of Islam members were having dinner inside a tent when the suicide attacker walked in and blew himself up. He said 30 were killed, 20 were wounded and six are still missing.

No one claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing but IS has previously claimed such attacks.
Police are investigating an anti-Muslim campaign of intimidation after hate mail and suspicious packages were sent to mosques in London, South Yorkshire and even the USA.

Handwritten letters were also sent to three mosques and other places in London in July, all of which bore a Sheffield postmark, leading counter-terror units to believe the campaign is being orchestrated near the Yorkshire town.

Hate mail bearing the postmark was also sent to to at least four American mosques this year and three UK mosques in July 2016.

The Shacklewell Road Mosque in Dalston is just one of the places to have received hate mail in what police say is a transatlantic campaign

Many of the letters, which have been seen by the The Guardian, are signed by the same pseudonym or initials.

Three of the letters received by US mosques were sent at the same time, with the postmarks reading 5.14pm or 5.15pm on February 22.

Steve Rose, who oversees content at counter-extremist group Faith Matters, said there were other similarities.

'There were two second-class stamps on all the letters sent to the USA, which is interesting.

'There are similarities in the shape of the numbers. It could be one person sending them, it could be several people.'

This east London mosque was also threatened, with the letter appearing to have been sent from south Yorkshire

Muslims in east London were targeted as Forest Gate mosque, Coventry Cross mosque in Bromley-by-Bow and Dalston's Shacklewell Lane mosque received letters last month threatening that the sender would visit each one.

In July 2016, three other London mosques in Leyton, Finsbury Park and Tottenham were sent white powder.

The packages were also sent to the Bank of England and the parliamentary office of independent peer Nazir Ahmed.

The letters also contained offensive remarks about Pakistani Muslims, with one sent to a New Jersey mosque threatening death for Muslims alongside an offensive cartoon.

Anti-Muslim abuse watchdog TellMama reports similar letters were sent to mosques in New York, Georgia, and Kentucky this year.

In February letters bearing the same pseudonym were received by mosques in Washington DC, New Jersey and Alabama.

The latest letter was sent to South Dakota's Islam Center in June but Mr Rose fears others might be escaping scrutiny.

'Maybe other mosques got them but didnt report it.'

Places of worship in London, Yorkshire and the USA have been sent letters containing abusive language, threats to kill Muslims and offensive cartoons

On February 28 the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia,received written threats of violence and offensive cartoons, posted with two first-class UK stamps.

Spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Corey Saylor says the letters he's seen all seem to have come from south Yorkshire.

'All the letters I have seen have similar drawings, handwriting, and originated from Sheffield.

'Whoever is behind these letters feels empowered to make people on the opposite side of the Atlantic feel afraid to go to their places of worship.

'Such religious intimidation is wrong in any context and I hope British authorities act to expose and bring appropriate legal charges against the sender.'

North East Counter Terrorism Unit issued a statement to say it was investigating.

'Police received a number of reports of malicious communications and packages which have been received in recent days across London.

'Specialist officers have attended the addresses and the contents of the packages were examined. In all cases, the substances were found not to be noxious or harmful.'

The police are considering the possibility that these latest letters are linked to the earlier packages of powder and letters reported in London, South Yorkshire and the US.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, from Rotherham, was sent a package containing white powder in an earlier incident, with police trying to determine if it was linked to the latest letters

Mr Rose said Muslims should report any threatening behaviour at mosques to police.

'Its encouraging that within a day theyd gone to mosques and the counter-terrorism unit was involved.

'Police are taking their time with it  and its very hard to trace. But its good they are taking it seriously.

'We need the mosques to report, and check their mail regularly.

'They should make sure they have hate mail policy in place for hateful mail. If youre worried, contact 101.
Kevin Bronson made the comments after receiving a list of complaints from EMS staff

EMS employees were outraged by the comments and talked with reporters

A county official in South Carolina told EMS workers they can go kill themselves if they didn't like their working conditions

South Carolina official Kevin Bronson (pictured) reportedly told a group of EMS workers to 'go kill yourselves' if they didn't like their work conditions

A county official in South Carolina is under fire after he told a group of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers to go 'kill themselves' if they didn't like their work conditions.

Richland county assistant administrator for public safety Kevin Bronson allegedly made the comments during a meeting with an estimated 100 EMS employees on Thursday.

Several employees who spoke with CBS affiliate KFVS said that Bronson made the comments after EMS workers submitted a list of complaints to his office.

'So Im looking through this list with 50 different problems and if its really that bad you can just kill yourself or leave,' Bronson reportedly said, according to one employee who spoke with the broadcaster.

'People were crying, people were yelling at him. One we just lost a deputy because of suicide. I dont think he understands the gravity of the situation.'

'Were not here for the money, were here because we love what we do,' one staff member present at the meeting said.

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The comments came after EMS employees submitted a list of complaints to his office

EMS employees submitted the complaint after persistent problems including understaffing, underfunding, management concerns and long response times were leading to inadequate care for some patients.

Richland county is one of the most populated areas in South Carolina, with EMS crews fielding over 70,000 calls a year, according to KFVS.

More than 100 EMS employees have also quit in the past year.

'There was the final straw, but several things that were gnawing on me for a while,' former EMS employee Matt Gottlieb said.

'The biggest one that was gnawing on me, I can't get you a lot of detail because of HIPAA [law]. But let's just say that a patient didn't get the best care and died because of it.'

Courtesy of KRON4

EMS employees who were outraged by the comments spoke to reporters about the incident

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a set of national standards that protects the privacy of medical patients.

Bronson later apologized to the employees, according to KFVS, saying in an email that he comments were 'inappropriate and insensitive.'

Bronson also said he was reprimanded for his statement, but did not specify how he was disciplined.

Richland County Administrator Gerald Seals also released a statement, saying the county is committed to ensuring all employees are 'valued and respected.'

'While public recounting of the incident has been mischaracterized, the fact that such comments were made will not be tolerated,' reads the statement.

'Although this Assistant Administrator promptly apologized, more needed to be done  and he has been disciplined. On behalf of Richland County, I also apologize for what happened and regret that an employee in the Administrators Office spoke in such a manner.

'I am committed to ensuring all County employees know they are valued and respected,' the statement added.
Australia's most wanted terrorist has revealed he has two young children to a Dutch woman, who could gain Australian citizenship.

Melbourne born terrorist Neil Prakash, 27, told Turkey police he married a Dutch jihadi bride while he was fighting for Islamic State in Syria.

Prakash's Dutch bride, whose identity is unknown, and two children are believed to be in Syria, according to News Corp.

Melbourne born terrorist Neil Prakash, 27, (pictured) reveals he has a wife and children

Prakash told Turkey police he married a Dutch jihadi bride while he was fighting for Islamic State in Syria (pictured)

Prakash's Dutch bride, whose identity is unknown, and two children are believed to be in Syria and could potentially claim Australian citizenship

While the Australian Government is aware Prakash, who left Australia in 2013, has children, no claims for citizenship have been made.

A source in Turkey told the publication that Prakash, a failed rapper, revealed he had a family but didn't know where they were now.

After spending the last 10 months in a maximum security jail near the Turkish-Syrian border after he was captured crossing the Turkish border, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed Prakash had sought consular assistance from his jail cell.

Consular officials have given the terrorist 'basic' assistance, according to News Corp, which has included visiting him in jail twice.

'If he were surrendered to Australia I expect him to face prosecution for very serious offences,' Ms Bishop said.

The Australian Government is planning to extradite Prakash - a former Buddhist - so he faces terror charges in court.

The failed rapper (pictured) has also begged for the Australian Government to help him from his jail cell in Turkey

Prakash has saught consular assistance after spending the last 10 months in a maximum security jail near the Turkish-Syrian border

Consular officials have given the terrorist 'basic' assistance which has included visiting Prakash (pictured) in jail twice

While Prakash has pleas for consular assistance, it has previously been reported the terrorist begged to be sent to a Muslim nation instead.

'I do not want to be extradited to Australia. I want to be extradited to a Muslim country. I want to be released,' Prakash told a court in June.

At the court hearing in Turkey, it was reported Prakash 'rejected' all the accusations against him.

In June, Prakash (pictured in an Islamic State video) begged to be sent to a Muslim country instead of Australia

Prakash, who is of Indian, Fijian and Cambodian descent, has been linked to plans to kill Australians including a failed Anzac Day plot to behead a police officer in 2015 and recruited Australian citizens to join the Islamic State.

The 27-year-old reportedly works with English-speaking cells to radicalise Western people before luring them to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State.

Authorities are also investigating Prakash's involvement in an attack by Numan Haider, who was killed after stabbing two police officers in 2014.

The failed rapper (pictured) is behind failed terror plots on Australians including the plot to behead a police officer on Anzac Day in 2015

The 27-year-old former Budhist (pictured) is Australia's highest ranked ISIS fighter and is on America's 'kill list' who is also wanted by the UK, Israel and Turkey

The 27-year-old, who is Australia's highest ranked ISIS fighter, dropped out of high school and converted to Islam at the notorious Al Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne.

He has since appeared in ISIS propaganda videos and magazines and was on America's 'kill list' targeting foreign-born fighters.

It was thought Prakash was killed in a US airstrike in northern Iraq but it later emerged he was wounded by the strike in Mosul on April 29 last year.

Prakash is a wanted man in the US, the UK, Israel, Turkey and Australia for his senior role with ISIS.
This is the moment a lorry driver was forced to wrestle a desperate migrant trying to reach the UK before being spat at and pelted with rocks in Calais.

The violence broke out after the car transporter driver noticed the man attempting to hide underneath a coat on the back seat of one of the vehicles he was towing.

He managed to drag the migrant, who suffered a bloodied lip, out by the feet before witnesses told of how things turned nasty.

A vehicle transporter driver was pictured wrestling a migrant from the back seat of a British-registered Peugeot 307 after the man tried to stow away on the back seat in Calais

After dragging the bloodied man out witnesses said the driver was spat at and pelted with stones by gang of migrants hanging around at a service station near the port

Express reporter Giles Sheldrick, who was at the scene, said the migrant then spat at the lorry driver before other migrants loitering nearby grabbed rocks.

The group then pelted the driver and the vehicles he was towing with the stones.

Mr Sheldrick said that ugly incident was one of two he witnessed in just 30 minutes on Friday at unpoliced service stations along the N216 motorway which leads to the main ferry crossing.

It comes juts days after it was revealed that migrants made 30,000 attempts to reach Britain from Calais this year alone.

The French interior ministry logged 17,867 efforts to break into the fortified zone around the port and Channel Tunnel.

Asylum seekers also tried 12,349 times to stow away on UK-bound lorries.

The ugly incident comes after it was revealed that migrants have made 30,000 attempts to sneak in the UK through Calais so far this year

Emanuel Macron has been asked to provide more security for lorry drivers who claim of daily harassment by those trying to illegally reach the UK

The French insist only around 350 migrants are in the Calais area yet charities say the true figure is at least twice that.

Small groups are sleeping rough in woodland a few hundred yards from the Jungle camp that was once home to 10,000 people.

Charlie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover and Deal, last night urged French president Emmanuel Macron to get a grip on the situation.

The shocking figures underline the importance of keeping the border between Dover and Calais strong, safe and secure, he said.

It matters to France every bit as much as Britain because a strong border means that Calais will not act as a magnet.

Migrants would not go there if they knew they had no hope.

A direct comparison with figures from last year is not available. But previous estimates suggested there were between 25,000 and 28,000 attempts to breach border security around Calais from January to August 2016.
A driver has been left fuming after he got a parking ticket while filling up at a petrol station.

Erkan Ozpembe, 42, left his car at the pump of a Shell Garage in Ilford, Essex for two minutes while he went to a cash machine down the road because the one at the garage wasn't working.

A few days later the cafe manager was stunned to receive a parking ticket in the post.

Furious: Erkan Ozpembe, 42, got a parking ticket while filling up at a petrol station

He said: 'I was only away for two or three minutes. I'd understand it if I had parked there all day but I was getting money out next door after their cash machine was not working.'

Outraged Mr Ozpembe appealed against the parking ticket and even attached a copy of his fuel receipt to the letter but has got nowhere.

He said Shell told him customers are warned that if they leave the site they'll get a ticket.

'I want to warn other residents and motorists about what is going on,' said Mr Ozpembe.

'It is so unfair on the consumer and lots of people could find themselves in the same situation as me.'

He's now vowed never to use the petrol station again after the astonishing incident.

He's now vowed never to use the petrol station again after the astonishing incident

Shell said the site was operated by St Albans-based Motor Fuel Group (MFG).

An MFG spokeswoman said: 'We operate over 370 filling stations across the UK and some of our locations are situated in built-up areas whereby parking requirements warrant monitoring.

'MFG as a responsible business has developed a partnership with a number of parking management companies.

'We believe their procedures are compliant with the industry code of conduct and in this case regretfully we do not acknowledge this claim.'
Tiffany Trump said 'I do' to her billionaire beau Michael Boulos in a magical wedding under the fading Florida sunshine. Former President Donald Trump's youngest daughter looked resplendent in an iridescent long sleeved gown, her blonde hair styled in sleek waves and set off by diamond and peaks drop earrings. Her white veil trailed majestically behind her. The fairytale outdoor event started at 5pm with the blissful bride walking down the aisle towards a rhododendron festooned arch - thousands of blooms in dusty pink, blue and white. Her father - dressed like all the male guests in a black tux and bow tie - and posed together with her afterwards (top right). Tiffany, 29, looked ecstatic as she focused her gaze on her new husband as the sun began to go down and lights twinkled at her father's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, with Groom Michael, 25, returning the look of adoration (bottom right). The couple then took a picture with Trump and Tiffany's mother, Marla Maples (left). The bride, mother of the bride and Maid of Honor Ivanka all wore gowns by Lebanese designer Elie Saab. Marla and Ivanka were in goddess style gowns, Tiffany in an exquisite crystal encrusted confection. Tiffany told DailyMail.com, 'I have always loved Elie Saab and it's a Lebanese/American wedding so we are happy to have Elie create the magic.'
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A Japanese man who built a bunker capable of withstanding Hiroshima-class nuclear bombs under his own house is seeing a surge in demand as he offers to provide them for others.

As nuclear-armed Stalinist autocracy North Korea promises to fire ballistic missiles over Japan and into water just off the American island of Guam, Kenji Oribe is busy building shelters with 19in-thick walls.

Were North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to go ahead with his threat to hit Guam, the missiles would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima, Shikoku Island prefectures in Japan.

Though the country is defended by its recently deployed PAC3 surface-to-air-missile system, Oribe - who lives in Suma - is finding the surge in demand too much keep up with.

Were a bomb to be dropped that was similar to Little Boy - the 15 kilotons nuke that killed 129,000 in Hiroshima in 1945 - 2,165ft away from one of Oribe's bunkers, the occupants would be able to survive for at least two weeks.

That's because his safe houses - which take between four and six months to build - are decked out with Swiss-made air purification systems, large stocks of tinned food, bunk beds and a toilet.

Safe as houses: Kenji Oribe of Oribe Seiki Seisakusho Co. Ltd (right) sits with his managing director Nobuko Oribe a nuclear bunker they built in Suma, western Japan. Because of threats from pariah dictator Kim Jong-un, the leader of the Stalinist autocracy North Korea, he has seen demand for his bunkers outstrip supply. North Korea has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan and into waters just off the coast of the American island of Guam. US President Donald Trump has promised to unleash 'fire and fury' on Pyongyang, adding that the military was 'locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely'. Pictured in the background are the bunker's bunk beds.

The 19in-thick door (pictured) is made from reinforced concrete. Oribe builds the bunkers himself, taking between four and six months to finish them off. Were a bomb similar to the one that killed 129,000 people in Hiroshima in 1945 to be dropped 2,165ft away from one of the bunkers, the occupants would be able to survive for at least two weeks. Behind Oribe are shelves stacked with emergency food supplies

Pictured: Oribe on the wrong side of the nuclear bunker's door. If North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un went through with his threat to hit the American island of Guam, the missiles would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima, Shikoku Island prefectures in Japan. And despite Japan deploying its advanced PAC3 surface-to-air-missile system to defend against the North Korean threat, Oribe is still inundated with requests for bunkers

Pictured: Oribe shows off his food and toilet paper supply. He has put in orders for Swiss-made air purification systems to match the surge in demand for his bunkers. The cost of building the bunker varies depending on the location

Pictured: The small house above the bunker at Oribe's Suma home

Food and a loo: Oribe holds onto packets of food used by astronauts when they venture into space. Also visible is the bunker's toilet

Pictured: Kenji and Nobuko Oribe prepare the bunk beds in an effort to make their shelter more homely. On the left, candles can be seen

Pictured: Oribe demonstrates the Swiss-built air purification system

Pictured: Nobuko sits in one of the bunker's rooms while noodles stacked on shelves are visible in the foreground

Pictured: Biscuits, noodles and space food stored in Oribe's bunker in case the worst should happen

Pictured: Oribe stands at the threshold of his bunker's larder

Pictured left: Kenji walks up the stairs of his nuclear bunker while, right, Nobuko heads down them
Renters in Sydney could pass their homes down to their children under a new proposal to increase housing affordability and stability for those locked out of the city's property market.

The NSW Government on Friday announced it was developing a plan.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the government was looking at creating a 'build to rent' sector of property development in NSW.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said he was looking at creating a 'build to rent' sector of property development in NSW

In the 'build to rent' sector investors build apartment blocks to lease on a long term basis

The aim would be to make housing more stable and affordable for the one-third of Sydney residents who currently rent.

In the 'build to rent' sector investors build apartment blocks to lease on a long term basis.

In a speech to the NSW Property Council Mr Perrottet said the government had already begun looking at options.

'Current property prices make the dream of home-ownership more difficult than for past generations,' he said

'But for long-term renting to be a viable alternative, it has to be affordable and it has to be secure.

'Finding ways to give renters that security without excessively curtailing the rights of property owners is a fine line to walk.'
Monsoon season forced a villager to carry livestock on his shoulder as he moved them to safer ground to rescue them from flooding that has killed over 25 people in two days.

He was spotted wading through waters in Topa Village in the Saptari district of Nepal today, where torrential monsoons have caused fatal landslides.

Thousands have been affected as the second day of heavy rain hit the region, where a woman and her child were photographed watching water levels rise up around their home.

The man was seen attempting to rescue his livestock from flooding in Topa Village, Nepal

Another villager attempts to save cattle from the flooding, which has killed over 25 people in two days

One man was seen struggling to lead cows through the chest-high water using a rope, as a woman shifted her goats from the area.

Rajbiraj, also in the district, has been hit with heavy rain too as home ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle told AFP that over a dozen eastern and western areas were affected.

This year's monsoon season in Nepal has killed over 90 people after nearly 100 died last year

The monsoon season could stretch until the end of August, with authorities warning heavy rain will last until the end of today

'We are still collecting the details of the loss. According to the preliminary reports to the ministry over 25 people are feared dead.'

These deaths bring the total toll from this year's monsoon to over 90 since it began in late June.

A woman and her child appear stranded as the water rises around their home in the Saptari district

Goats are led to safety as flood levels rise in Topa Village

An empty aircraft was stranded on tarmac in Biratnagar, Morang, where the airport was forced to shut after its runway was submerged in a metre of water.

Flooding has hit densely populated lowlands bordering India, while remote eastern districts have suffered landslides.

Nepal's villagers have been left negotiating flooding as the monsoon season affects thousands

This man struggled to keep his head above water as the flooding submerges parts of Nepal

Shocking footage showed a girl suddenly disappear into muddy water in Kathmandu while navigating a flooded road, only to emerge from another drain 10 metres away a few seconds later.

The video sparked outrage over road conditions in the country's capital after going viral on social media.

A girl was seen disappearing under water in Kathmandu, leading to outrage over road conditions

Nepal's weather department has advised districts to close schools and residents to stay indoors.

Nearly 100 people died last year Nepal's rainy season, which usually lasts until the end of August.
Parents are outraged after a Florida middle school sent out a form offering children a pass to cut the lunch line for $100.

The pass, described in a PTSA sponshorship form, was offered in an orientation packet handed out at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland earlier this week.

Titled 'Family and Business Sponsors, the form stated that the PTSA was looking for 'local families and business to partner with' during the school year.

For $50 a family or business could get their name on the school website, and for $100 they could get their child a pass that would let them cut to the front of the line in the cafeteria.

Parents at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida were outraged after the school sent out orientation packets with a form offering children a pass to cut the lunch line for $100

The form stated that the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy (pictured) PTSA would use the $100 as a sponsorship for the school

Parent Chris Stephenson was shocked when he saw the offer while going through his child's packet, and posted it on Facebook.

It quickly received hundreds of comments from fellow parents who were angered and scared that such a pass could promote bullying.

Parent Chris Stephenson (pictured) was shocked when he saw the offer in his child's packet, and posted it on Facebook

'With middle school already being a very contentious age, with hormones and everything else, the last thing you really want to do is add a food hierarchy on top of that,' Stephenson told WFLA.

'Bullying is already a huge deal as it is, so why add yet another way of differentiating kids from each other.'

Stephenson's post helped bring the form to the attention of Principal Bryan Andrews, who said he was not aware of and did not approve the fundraiser.

'I have strived to be as inclusive as possible with all kids and this is not something I support,' he told the station.

Andrews sent an email to parents making it clear that no such pass would be offered at the school.

The principal said he also brought up the issue with the school's PTSA group.

'Sometimes people make mistakes, I don't think it was anything intentional at all,' he said. 'They all volunteer. We just want to get it right, move forward, apologize.

Stephenson's post helped bring the form to the attention of Principal Bryan Andrews (pictured), who said he was not aware of and did not approve the fundraiser

'They're always looking to for creative ways to raise funds. I think it was brainstorming on their part... however it seems like this didn't pass my desk.'

PTSA President Jil Bevis has since claimed that the group had already decided not to implement the pass program, and it had only appeared in the packet 'due to a clerical error'.

'This Family and Business Sponsorship program was explored, but we decided not to implement,' she said in a statement.

'Due to a clerical error, the form was inadvertently included in the Orientation packets. Our families have been notified this program is not being offered.'
A seven-page memo written in May recently made its way to the desk of President Trump and outlines several concerning events happening within the 'deep state' and National Security Council.

The document, obtained by Foreign Policy, was arranged by former NSC director of strategic planning, Rich Higgins, who was fired from his job last month after officials within the council learned it was created by him.

In the letter, Higgins said globalists, actors, bankers, Islamists and several other members of the 'deep state' have allegedly been working together to undermine Trump's position of power.

The memo was also said to have ties to the departure of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who H.R. McMaster replaced back in February.

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The author of the memo, Rich Higgins, who was in the strategic planning office at the NSC, was among those recently pushed out

Members of the 'deep state' attacked the Trump administration because the President represents a threat to cultural Marxist memes

Other enemies are allegedly working to subvert U.S. President Donald Trump

The magazine states that McMaster, who let Higgins go from his job, was one of the members said to be working in the secret society. He was also reportedly aware it was written prior to the release.

Related sources confirmed the memo was found last month in Higgins's email account during a routine security check within the department.

Higgins penned in the 'POTUS & Political Warfare' titled entry that the attack on the President stems from his 'existential threat to cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative.'

The source referred to the letter as a technical assessment for the current political affairs taking place.

'While opposition to President Trump manifests itself through political warfare memes centered on cultural Marxist narratives, this hardly means that opposition is limited to Marxists as conventionally understood,' the memo reads.

'Having become the dominant cultural meme, some benefit from it while others are captured by it,' while referring to the 'deep state' members.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster, who let Higgins go from his job, was one of the members said to be working in the secret society

The memo landed on the president's desk, and precipitated a crisis that led to the departure of several high-level NSC officials tied to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

Trump previously said he and McMaster, pictured, 'work very well together'

'The administration has been maneuvered into a constant back-pedal by relentless political warfare attacks structured to force him to assume a reactive posture that assures inadequate responses.

'The president can either drive or be driven by events; it's time for him to drive them.'

Last month, Trump expressed distaste for Higgins' ousting as the strategic planning directer for NSC.

The President also released a statement after controversy erupted last week from his supporters in favor of McMaster being dismissed from his position within the council.

'General McMaster and I are working very well together. He is a good man and very pro-Israel,' Trump said in a statement last Friday. 'I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.'
Donald Trump has condemned the violence in Charlottesville - but is coming under fire for speaking about bigotry 'on many sides' and failing to denounce white nationalism.

The president was speaking minutes after it was announced that one person has died after being hit by a driver who accelerated into a crowd of counter-protesters in the Virginia city.

He said: 'We condemn this egregious display on bigotry and violence on many sides, it's been going on for a long time in our country.'

Trump also brought up his predecessor Barack Obama during the speech, saying that the United States has been divided for many years.

The president added: 'Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it's been going on a long time.'

Police arrested James Alex Fields, 20, in connection with the deadly crash. Fields was charged with second-degree murder Saturday evening.

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Donald Trump has condemned the violence in Charlottesville - but is coming under fire for speaking about bigotry 'on many sides' and failing to denounce white nationalism

One person was killed and others were injured after a car rammed into a group of counter-protesters as white nationalists stormed Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday

NBC reporter Hallie Jackson asked the White House what exactly Trump meant by 'on many sides', and it posted a statement on Twitter.

The president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides, the official said. 'There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today.'

Attorney Gen Jeff Sessions also failed to call on white supremacists.

'We stand united behind the President in condemning the violence in Charlottesville and any message of hate and intolerance,' he said in a statement.

'This violence is totally contrary to American values and can never be tolerated.'

Trump also called for a 'swift restoration of law and order' in the small college town during his remarks, saying 'no child should be afraid of going out to play'.

The president said he had just gotten off the phone with Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe and they agreed 'the hate and violence must stop now'.

'We must come together with love for our and true affection - and I say this strongly - for each other.'

Trump then went on a tangent about how the country was doing 'well in so many ways', referencing employment numbers and how 'companies are pouring into our country'.

'We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American workers, so many incredible things happening in our country.'

Trump did not call out white nationalists or the Ku Klux Klan during his remarks. Nor did he call the crash that left one dead an act of domestic terrorism

The horrifying moment the car crashed into the large group was caught on camera

There were several hundred people marching in a long line when the car drove into the group

'So when I watch Charlottesville to me it's very, very sad,' Trump added.

'Above else we must remember this truth, no matter or color, creed religion or political party, we are all Americans first.'

'We love our country, we love our god, we love our flag, were proud of our country, were proud of who we are.'

'So we want to get this situation straightened out in Charlottesville. And we want to study it and we want to see what were doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.'

Trump did not call out white nationalists or the Ku Klux Klan during his remarks. Nor did he call the crash that left one dead an act of domestic terrorism.

Trump was swiftly denounced on Twitter for failing to denounce the white supremacists in Charlottesville or even reference racism or antisemitism in connection with the violence

KKK leader David Duke previously said on Saturday that the white supremacist demonstrators were 'fulfilling the promises of Donald Trump'.

'That's what we believed in, that's why we voted for Donald Trump. Because he's going to take our country back,' he said.

James Alex Fields (pictured), 20, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Saturday evening

Earlier on Saturday the president reiterated that 'all' Americans needed to unite and 'condemn all that hate stands for'.

'There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!,' he tweeted.

'Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!'

The First Lady was first to speak out against the rally, which saw white nationalists waving Nazi flags and sporting shirts with Hitler quotes on the UVA campus.

'Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts,' she tweeted. 'No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville.'

Violence erupted ahead of a planned rally where thousands of white nationalists were expected to gather for an alt-right protest.

Two people were seriously injured in the clash, Virginia State police reported.

It was noted that Trump refused to discuss the alt-right groups even when directly asked by reporters during the press conference

At least two people were seriously injured during a destructive clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters at Emancipation Park before the controversial Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. A video appears to show the altercation, as a man is being dragged away while a woman screams: 'Don't allow them to do this!'

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer has denounced the 'cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights' and warned for residents to stay away from the rally

The First Lady was first in the Trump administration to speak out against the rally, which saw white nationalists waving Nazi flags and sporting shirts with Hitler quotes on the UVA campus

Nearly an hour after Melania Trump condemned the violence, Trump finally followed suit

Trump, who is currently on vacation at Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey, remarked that the violence was 'sad'

A video appears to show the altercation - a man can be seen being dragged away by officials while a woman screams: 'Don't allow them to do this!'

Another woman with blood streaming down her face pushes the man away from the scene of the fight.

The Unite the Right rally was being held at Emancipation Park and hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer denounced the 'cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights' and warned for residents to stay away from the rally.

The Unite the Right rally was being held at Emancipation Park and hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event

Several Nazi flags were seen proudly raised during the controversial rally protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

The Unite the Right rally was being held at Emancipation Park and hundreds were seen stomping through the city, wearing militia uniforms, waving flags and chanting 'Blood and Soil' as they made their way towards the event

'The Charlottesville event could be a potentially historic showcase of hate, bringing together more extremists in one place than we have seen in at least a decade,' said Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors and combats anti-Semitism

Still, counter-protesters flocked to the march in retaliation against the white nationalists neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, screaming: 'We're here, we're gay, we fight the KKK!'

A number of politicians have also taken to Twitter to condemn the white nationalists, calling their demonstration 'reprehensible' and 'repugnant'.

'The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society,' tweeted Bernie Sanders.

'Our nation is defined by the march of progress. Our strength lies in our diversity. We must reject hate. #Charlottesville,' added Nancy Pelosi.

'The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant,' Rep. Paul Ryan wrote. 'Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.'

A number of politicians have also taken to Twitter to condemn the white nationalists, calling their demonstration 'reprehensible' and 'repugnant'

Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy criticized Trump's delay in condemning the demonstration

Former president Bill Clinton added that free speech was not akin to hate speech.

'Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy. #Charlottesville,' he tweeted.

Sen. Patrick Leahy criticized Trump's delay in condemning the demonstration.

'President Trump's silence as #Charlottesvile roils with racist and fascist provocation is shameful, irresponsible...and, DEFINING,' he wrote.

Unlike Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Hucakbee wasn't afraid to condemn white nationalists.

"'White supremacy" crap is worst kind of racism - it's EVIL and perversion of God's truth to ever think our Creator values some above others,' he tweeted.

The protest hadn't officially started but social media videos showed the rally was escalating - people were seen throwing objects, breaking into fights and pepper spray being used, as officers watched from behind fences.

The violence forced the city to declare a local emergency and determined the event was an unlawful assembly. Tear gas bombs to clear the unruly crowd.

Arrests were made after police in riot gear attempted to clear the park and a group of protesters pushed back against them. However, the battle between the two opposing groups continued to rage in the streets of the city.

Almost 200 white nationalists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, heard chanting 'white lives matter' held burning torches

Hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia with burning torches on Friday

Between 4,000 and 6,000 people from groups including white nationalists, neo-Confederates and alt-right activists were expected to protest at the park, which had recently been renamed from Lee Park.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler planned what he called a 'pro-white' rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad granted a preliminary injunction Friday in a lawsuit filed against Charlottesville by Kessler.

Supporters and counter-protesters screamed, chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday morning. Men dressed in militia uniforms were carrying shields and openly carrying long guns.

'Jews will not replace us' and 'white lives matter' were among chants heard at the rally, according to witnesses

One group of students were seen holding up a sign which read: 'VA students against white supremacists'

Social media videos show the crowd throwing bottles and objects as police film the interaction from behind fences but don't intervene.

Brawls broke out as people in militia gear tackled others to the ground and began throwing punches.

Kessler had led a torch lit procession through the University of Virginia campus on Friday night with burning torches, ending at the statue of Thomas Jefferson.

Almost 200 white nationalists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists, were heard chanting 'white lives matter' and 'Jews will not replace us'.

They clashed with University of Virginia students who held an anti-racist protest, and were seen holding up signs which read: 'VA students against white supremacists.'
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New information about the devastating Gatlinburg wildfires in Tennessee have revealed that a mother and her two young daughters died while running away from their home in an attempt to escape the blaze.

Constance Reed, 34, and her children Chloe, 12, and Lily, nine, died alongside each other as they tried to outrun the flames as it consumed their neighborhood on November 28, 2016.

They were three of the 14 people who were killed in the devastating wildfire that injured nearly 200 other people and damaged 2,500 homes and businesses.

A 911 call revealed that Constance had seen her neighbor's house burst into flames.

New information about the devastating Gatlinburg wildfires in Tennessee have revealed that Constance Reed, 34, and her daughters Chloe, 12, and Lily, nine, died alongside each other as they tried to outrun the flames

A 911 call revealed that Constance had seen her neighbor's house burst into flames before she and her daughters tried to escape on November 28, 2016

They were three of the 14 people who were killed in the devastating wildfire that injured nearly 200 other people and damaged 2,500 homes and businesses

She told the dispatcher that her husband wasn't home and that she and her daughters had no way out, according to records obtained by WATE.

The dispatcher asked for Constance's addresses and tried to connect her to the Gatlinburg Police Department, but the line dropped.

It appears Constance and her daughters then attempted to make a run for it. The sheriff's office later said that she had only been able to make it up part of a hill near her home.

Constance and her children's faces became well known in the local community as her husband Michael Reed and their 15-year-old son Nicolas desperately searched for their family in the days after the fire.

Michael had last spoken to Constance at 8.15pm on the night of her death, when she called to tell him she could see flames across the street from their home.

'I told them to call 911 and get out, and that was the last I heard from them,' Reed told the Knoxville News Sentinel in November.

Reed, who had been out with his son at the time of the fire, clung onto hope that they were still alive after police checked the couple's home and found no bodies.

Constance and her children's faces became well known in the local community as her husband Michael Reed (pictured) and their 15-year-old son Nicolas desperately searched for their family in the days after the fire

Reed, who had been out with his son (both pictured with their family) at the time of the fire, clung onto hope that they were still alive after police checked the couple's home and found no bodies

He spent hours searching different shelters before their deaths were confirmed.

Reed later wrote a letter to the two juveniles who were initially charged with starting the deadly fire.

'I forgive you. My son forgives you. My wife and beautiful girls forgive you,' the letter read, according to WBIR. 'We know you didn't mean for this to happen. We know you would take it all back if you could.'

The tragedy also inspired Reed to launch Constance's Bill, which proposes a national helpline abuse number that children can text if they're being hurt.

Constance had made a YouTube video in 2015 in which she revealed she had been sexually and physically abused as a child and thus suffered from constant anxiety.

'I live in constant fear,' she wrote in the heartbreaking video, which has been viewed more than 220,000 times. 'I can't even go shopping without having an anxiety attack.'

Reed is hoping that Constance's Bill, which was filed by West Virginia State Senator Sue Cline in March, will help defenseless children and honor his wife's memory.

Records released earlier this week revealed that 11 of the Gatlinburg fire victims died of burns or smoke inhalation, while three others perished from other causes

After months of drought, hurricane-force winds engulfed the city in flames, injuring almost 200 people and damaging close to 2,500 homes and businesses

'My wife's one true hope for her life was to help others whod experienced the same kind of trauma that she did,' he wrote on a website dedicated to Constance's Bill.

'Now that shes gone, its up to me to help make Constances life-long wish come true.'

Records released earlier this week revealed that 11 of the Gatlinburg fire victims died of burns or smoke inhalation, while three others perished from other causes.

Elaine Brown, 81, died in a car crash 'when her vehicle left the roadway' as she was fleeing the blaze, while Bradley William Phillips, 59, was said to have had a tree limb fall on him outside his home.

May Evelyn Norred Vance, 75, was running from the fire with her husband, Jimmy, when she suffered a heart attack. They had been married for 53 years.

Jon Summers, 71, and his wife Janet, 61, were on vacation from Memphis with their three sons, when they were caught in the fire. Jon's body was found with three cellphones nearby and the couple's three sons suffered severe burns. Records didn't indicate where Janet's body was found

Alice Hagler, 70, perished inside her house while the Reverend Ed Taylor's body in an embankment not far from his home

Three people died from causes that weren't because of the fire. Bradley William Phillips (left) had a tree limb fall on him and May Vance (right) suffered a heart attack

Another couple, John and Mariln Tegler, died trying to escape their home. The 71-year-old's body was found on a nearby road, and it was revealed he collapsed from smoke inhalation and had been struck by at least one car

A burned out resort shows just how disastrous the fire was in the community

Jon Summers, 71, and his wife Janet, 61, were on vacation from Memphis with their three sons, when they were caught in the fire. Jon's body was found with three cellphones nearby and the couple's three sons suffered severe burns. Records didn't indicate where Janet's body was found.

Another couple, John and Mariln Tegler, died trying to escape their home. The 71-year-old's body was found on a nearby road, and it was revealed he collapsed from smoke inhalation and had been struck by at least one car.

Two people died in their rooms at a local Traveler's Motel. Pamela Jean Johnson, 59, was found in Room 4 while Robert A. Hejny was found in Room 13. Alice Hagler, 70, perished in her home.

Police found the Reverend Ed Taylor's body in an embankment not far from his home. He had performed more than 85,000 marriages.

After months of drought, hurricane-force winds rapidly engulfed the city in flames.

Communication that night was wiped out for hours, as a massive power failure shut down the emergency operations centers where the city directed it's initial response to the blaze. Another angle of the burned down resort

Notes have been gathered from inside the emergency operations center, and they tell of a fire that was too hard to fight on multiple fronts that ravaged the region

'Resource(s) depleted; requesting more. ... Flames greater than 40 feet ... Wall of fire... Overrun... Retreating,' read one of the notes

Communication that night was wiped out for hours, as a massive power failure shut down the emergency operations centers where the city directed it's initial response to the blaze.

Records, like those from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency's command center in Nashville, were lost due to technical issues while others have yet to be released.

Under a court order obtained by 4th Judicial District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn, the autopsy records were sealed for months.

Dunn asserted that releasing the records would tamper the prosecution's case of the two teenage boys who had been charged with starting the fire.

Five days prior to the blaze, the two boys were playing with matches inside the Great Smoky mountains National Park.

The charges were ultimately dropped as the prosecution noted that there was not enough evidence to tie the fire to the teenagers.

In the days following the blaze, harrowing descriptions of door-to-door search communities reveal how the rescue for the missing went
Thousands of British families flocked to the beach today as the sun finally shone, after three washout weekends in a row.

Brighton was expected to see 200,000 weekend visitors, with 100,000 at Bournemouth and 100,000 at Great Yarmouth, as families made the most of the first sunny weekend since schools broke up for the six-week break.

But it won't last, as the Met Office predicts more wet weather in the coming days, meaning a stinker of a British summer.

A cargo ship sits out at sea off the north east coast near Tynemouth as the sun comes up on the brightest weekend in August

Temperatures reached 22 or 23 for most people today, and Sunday is likely to feel warm as well

Throughout today, most Brits saw temperatures around 22C, feeling warmer in the sun, which will continue tomorrow as the sun stays out and the skies stay blue.

But by Monday, the rain will have returned, and the Met Office predicts a wet and breezy day for the north and west, though the southeast might get some sun.

Tuesday will be a mix of sunshine and showers, with the ratio tilting to more showers by Wednesday.

The rest of the month could well be a washout, as the Met Office forecasts brief spells of sun breaking through for what it mostly going to be a wet August.

The Met Office forecast states: 'Some of the showers are likely to be thundery. It will also be windy with coastal gales.

A young boy fishes for crabs from a wooden bridge with his grandad on August 11, as the sun finally arrived

A young girl fishes for crabs from a wooden bridge on August 11, in Walberswick, on what has become the best weekend weather this month

Holiday makers play in the sea on August 11, after the unseasonably wet weather across Britain

'The remainder of the period is set to see a continuation of the changeable theme, with spells of wet and windy weather interspersed by brighter, showery conditions.

'Northern and some western areas are likely to see the heaviest rain and strongest winds, perhaps with coastal gales at times, whilst the best of any drier weather is expected towards the south and southeast.'

It will feel cooler than expected for this time of year too, with lower than average temperatures.
All it takes is a light dusting of snow for schools to close in Britain but it is a very different story in India.

Not even a raging river was able to hold these youngsters back from making it to their classes on time.

Extraordinary footage filmed in the northern India region of Himachal has emerged showing schoolchildren crossing the flooded river.

The nail-biting clip shows pupils carefully treading over the swollen river that was created by in intense monsoon season.

Extraordinary footage filmed in the northern India region of Himachal has emerged showing schoolchildren crossing a flooded river

The nail-biting clip shows pupils carefully treading over the swollen river that was created by in intense monsoon season

Children can be seen perilously traversing through the water  some carrying very young pupils on their backs

Children can be seen perilously traversing through the water  some carrying very young pupils on their backs.

They also link arms and form a chain to prevent their peers from being swept away.

'There is a lot of grass and vegetation on the slippery footpaths in the village. Risk of snakes and flashflood is always there,' villager Deendyal Sharma told the Times of India.

District authorities are reportedly setting out to address the hazardous crossing.

The youngsters were filmed helping one another cross the river but they could easily have been swept away

Even flooded rivers caused by a monsoon is unable to hold youngsters back from making it to class on time

District authorities are reportedly setting out to address the hazardous crossing in the northern India region of Himachal
June 17, 1932July 28, 2017

Donna Rae Bellinger, 85, longtime resident of Elko, Nevada, passed away peacefully on July 28, 2017, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Donna was born in Wenatchee, Washington on June 17, 1932 to Clay and Arline Kern. When she was a young child her family moved to Nevada, settling in Rowland until Donna was 10 years old. At that time, her family moved to Elko where she attended school and graduated from Elko High School in 1950.

Donnas first employment was at Stinson Berger Furniture Company where she met her beloved husband, Bob. They were married on August 21, 1955 and enjoyed 59 years of marriage until his passing in 2015.

Donna was a homemaker when her children were young. She returned to the workforce at the office of Dr. Roger Seyferth, and she was later employed by the Elko County School District until her retirement in 1995.

Through the years, Donna enjoyed photography, needle crafts, flower arranging and many other hobbies that she did with great creativity and enthusiasm. She also loved to bake and was known for her delicious coconut cream pie and cinnamon rolls. She liked to entertain and play bridge with her friends, but spending time with her family was what delighted Donna most of all.

She is survived by her son Greg (Deborah) Bellinger; daughter Susan (Allan) Stefka; four grandchildren John (Andrea) Stefka, Katie Bellinger, Julie Stefka and Trevor Bellinger; great-grandson Luke Stefka; brother Duane Kern; sister Joan Conner; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband Bob; parents Clay and Arline Kern; and sister Laverne Asher.

The family would like to extend a special thank you to the caregivers and friends who supported Donna through the difficult years as her health declined and their deep gratitude to Silverado Aspen Park and Silverado Hospice for the love and exceptional care they provided her.

A private service was held for the immediate family and a celebration of life is being planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in Donnas name to the First Presbyterian Church, 1559 Sewell Drive, Elko, NV 89801 or to Silverado Hospice at 855 East 4800 South, Suite 240, Salt Lake City, UT 84107.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI announced it through the Vatican, to shock and surprise.

A poised Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands revealed it in a video uploaded to YouTube, and King Juan Carlos of Spain confirmed it by signing a parliamentary bill.

Queen Elizabeth, however, has vowed that abdicate is something she will never do.

Abdication is, after all, a dirty word in the corridors of Royal palaces, especially after the earthquake caused when her uncle Edward VIII quit the throne in 1936 to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.

And there is no indication that that will ever change.

Yet with the Queen now into her 92nd year, and with the hard-working Duke of Edinburgh choosing to retire last month at the age of 96, plans are afoot which, if implemented, would see Charles appointed King in all but name.

Palace sources have indicated that the Queen has told her inner circle that, if she is still on the throne at the age of 95, she will ask for a piece of legislation called the Regency Act to come into force  granting her eldest son full power to reign even while she still lives.

The Queen now into her 92nd year, and with the hard-working Duke of Edinburgh choosing to retire last month at the age of 96, plans are afoot which, if implemented, would see Charles appointed King in all but name

I have spoken to a number of high-ranking courtiers who made it clear that preparations for a transition are moving ahead at pace. They have all confirmed that a Regency with Charles taking the lead is now, at the very least, a real possibility.

One senior former member of the Royal Household said: Out of the profound respect the Queen holds for the institution of monarchy and its stewardship, Her Majesty would want to make sure that she has done everything she can for her country and her people before she hands over. She is dutiful to her core.

Her Majesty is mindful of her age and wants to make sure when the time comes, the transition of the Crown is seamless.

I understand the Queen has given the matter considerable thought and believes that, if she is still alive at 95, she will seriously consider passing the reign to Charles.

High-ranking courtiers have all confirmed that a Regency with Charles taking the lead is now, at the very least, a real possibility

Clarence House  the household of Prince Charles  is making no comment about Plan Regency, as it has been called. However, it is understood to be a matter of increasingly open discussion at court.

But Palace staff responsible for communications have been ordered to be up to speed on the 1937 Regency Act, which grants power to the heir apparent in the event of the incapacity of the Sovereign through illness, and for the performance of certain of the Royal functions in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign in certain other events.

The development is all the more significant as it comes against the backdrop of momentous shifts at court  a series of senior staff changes and departures at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, home to the young Royals.

The Queens Private Secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, 55, resigned his position two weeks ago, sparking turmoil and a wholesale regime change  as revealed in The Mail on Sunday.

His shrewd deputy  former banker, political adviser and television executive Edward Young, 50  will replace Sir Christopher after a suitable handover period.

I understand that a number of other high-profile figures  many loyal to Sir Christopher  are poised to leave the Royal Households at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace after his unexpected exit.

They include Assistant Private Secretary Samantha Cohen, the capable former Press Secretary and Sir Christophers number three in the private office. Ms Cohen, who is Australian, is said to be a firm favourite with the Queen.

SCANDAL OF THE LAST STAND-IN Affectionately known as Prinny, the future George IV, was notorious for his hedonism The last Prince Regent was appointed in 1811 after George III suffered episodes of mental illness and his eldest son was asked to take over his duties. Affectionately known as Prinny, the future George IV, was notorious for his hedonism  drinking, eating to excess and keeping several mistresses at once. The Regency, which lasted until his fathers death in 1820, was tumultuous. Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated in 1812 and, with the Napoleonic Wars raging, taxpayers were riled by the Regents spending. His failed attempts at divorcing Caroline of Brunswick also caused a scandal. He died after ten years on the throne and was succeeded by his brother, William IV. Advertisement

Falklands and Afghanistan veteran, Vice Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt, the Master of the Queens Household, is also said to be weighing up his position. Sir Alan Reid, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, had been due to retire at the end of this year but decided to depart when Prince Philip stepped back from public duties, leaving the job to his deputy, Sir Michael Stevens.

At Kensington Palace, the Duchess of Cambridge has hired a new Private Secretary, Catherine Quinn, who is head of the University of Oxfords Said Business School. It is understood she will take up her new role in October.

Prince Williams Private Secretary, former Ministry of Defence communications expert Miguel Head, and Prince Harrys Private Secretary, former Blues and Royals Captain Ed Lane Fox, 40, are also said to be considering their options.

Perhaps significantly, there have been no major staff changes at Clarence House, home to Prince Charles.

Of course, the transition to a world in which significantly more Royal duties are undertaken by the younger generations is already well under way. Next month, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will step into their new roles as full-time working Royals, and Prince Harry will be expected to carry out more engagements at his grandmothers side.

As ever, the Queen wants there to be the minimum of fuss, said the former member of the Royal Household. Of course, for obvious reasons, abdication is not even a consideration.

That is not in doubt. On her 21st birthday in 1947 the then Princess Elizabeth took to the airwaves to make one of her earliest radio broadcasts. Speaking from Cape Town, where she was on tour with her parents and younger sister, it was as unequivocal as it was momentous.

I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening, she said. I should like to make that dedication now. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

It was a conviction that she confirmed in her Coronation Oath on June 2, 1953.

While it may be acceptable for Queen Beatrix and King Juan Carlos to pass the baton to the next generation, Palace aides still believe the A word is not part of Her Majestys vocabulary.

There is no escaping the passage of time, however, or the fact that the Queen, at 91, is the oldest and longest-serving monarch in the history of these islands  one who is now without the company of Prince Philip, her consort, on the hundreds of engagements she carries out each year.

The monarch is in remarkable health, yet courtiers are increasingly aware that there is only so much a nonagenarian, albeit one with incredible stamina, can realistically be expected to achieve.

An example of a royal warrant emblem given by Prince Charles to those suppliers that he favours with his regular custom

Charles has already been filling in for his mother, representing the head of state on foreign trips during her Diamond Jubilee year to Australia and New Zealand.

Earlier this year he went in her place to Canada to mark the nations 150th anniversary. On a tour of the Persian Gulf, he represented the Crown and was treated like a king with other Royals bowing to him.

More will no doubt come as the Queen gradually scales back her demanding list of duties.

A Regency, however, would ensure a more formal handover  and, indeed, the Act was considered in more recent times when the Queen first acceded to the throne.

Documents show that following the Coronation of 1953, the young Elizabeth II intervened to ensure that Prince Philip  and not her sister Princess Margaret  would take over as Regent if she were to die or succumb to illness or mental incapacity before Charles, then aged four, reached adulthood. This was not, of course, required.

Times have changed, so with the heir apparent fast approaching his 70th birthday next year, what would it mean in practice today?

Certainly, it is not be a decision to be taken lightly.

To safeguard against a coup, a Regent can only be installed once a decision is taken by at least three of the following: the Sovereigns consort, in this case the Duke of Edinburgh; the Lord Chancellor, David Lidington; the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow; the Lord Chief Justice, the incoming Sir Ian Burnett; and Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton.

Clarence House and Buckingham Palace officials have played down this speculation, as one would expect. But as one insider told me: We are in uncharted territory right now  a monarchy in transition with a clear shift in power.
The BBC is to answer critics of its Left-wing bias by inviting a radio shock jock  known for eviscerating Labour MPs  to present Newsnight.

Nick Ferrari, who was once in the running to be Tory candidate for London Mayor, will front the flagship current affairs programme twice this week.

His interviews on LBC Radio during the General Election included the skewering of Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott on police numbers, and Labour education spokesman Angela Rayner over class sizes.

Nick Ferrari, who was once in the running to be Tory candidate for London Mayor, will front Newsnight twice this week

In a recent newspaper article, Ferrari, 58, said that the BBC licence fee forces viewers to fund an organisation with an undoubted bias against Brexit.

In 2006, he was invited by then Prime Minister David Cameron to stand as the Tory candidate for London Mayor but decided against it as he couldnt afford the pay cut.

His radio show has seen him rebuked by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for the active reinforcement of prejudiced views about asylum seekers and investigated by Ofcom after he said that the November 2015 Paris attacks were a Muslim problem.

His interviews on LBC Radio during the General Election included the skewering of Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott on police numbers

Ferrari started his career as a news and showbusiness reporter before working on the L!VE TV station, where he devised shows such as Topless Darts.

He was not available for comment last night.

A BBC spokesman said: Its quite normal to have a mix of people presenting the programme over the summer.
Reince Priebus (pictured) is being sought for questioning by special prosecutor Robert Mueller

US special prosecutor Robert Mueller is seeking to interview former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus as apart of a ever widening investigation into the Trump administration.

According to the New York Times, Mueller's office is currently in contact with the White House about interviewing former and current senior staff at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mueller is looking to speak to officials who may provide information, transcripts, notes and testimony on a number of issues, including insight on President Donald Trump's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey in May.

The discussions may prove crucial as Mueller continues to investigate whether Trump obstructed justice in firing Comey.

Mueller is also looking to attain information from senior Trump officials related to possible Russian interference in the 2016 election

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus arrives for an event where US President Donald Trump will present the Medal of Valor to the first responders of the June 14 shooting against members of the Republican Congressional Baseball team

Indications that Mueller's investigation is intensifying was evident last week when he executed a warrant to search the Alexandria, Va., home of Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign chairman.

A lawyer for Trump, John Dowd, described the warrant as excessive, and accused Mueller of abusing his position of power.

'The search warrant here was obtained by a gross abuse of the judicial process by the special counsels office,' Dowd in an email to The Wall Street Journal.

'In addition, given the obvious unlawful deficiencies, this extraordinary invasive tool was employed for its shock value to try to intimidate Mr. Manafort,' he added

Priebus did not respond to a request for comment by the Times.

At least three sources with law enforcement told the New York Times that the White House and Mueller (pictured) are in communication

A special legal adviser to Trump, Ty Cobb, said the White House would 'continue to fully cooperate' with the Mueller investigation.

The Times notes that figures close to the administration are concerned with Mueller's probing into Priebus, who was chair of the Republican National Committee and worked closely with the Trump campaign during the election.

After the election, Priebus was made chief of staff and worked directly with the President on key decisions made in the first six months of the administration, until late last month when he was ousted from the position.

Priebus also reportedly spoke to Comey on February 8, a week before Trump allegedly asked the former FBI director to drop an investigation into the president's former National Security Director Michael Flynn, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter.

The law enforcement official told the Times that Comey discussed with Priebus a Justice Department policy that bars White House officials from speaking with the FBI about ongoing investigations to avoid the appearance of impropriety or political meddling.

It remains unknown if Priebus relayed the information to Trump.

Mueller's probe is showing signs of widening with last week's issuing of a search warrant at the home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (pictured)

The FBI began looking into the possibility of Russia attempting to meddle in the election around July 2016 (pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin)

Trump denies having a private meeting with Comey or asking him to end the investigation into Flynn.

Comey testified to Congress earlier this year that Priebus was aware of the one-on-one encounter he and the President had on February 14. Comey also testified that Trump ordered the Vice President, senior administration officials and Priebus to leave the Oval Office after a national security briefing.

'The president began by saying Flynn hadnt done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the vice president,' Comey told Congress during a public hearing in June.

'The president then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information  a concern I shared and still share. After he had spoken for a few minutes about leaks, Reince Priebus leaned in through the door by the grandfather clock and I could see a group of people waiting behind him. The president waved at him to close the door, saying he would be done shortly. The door closed.'

After the door closed, Comey said that was when Trump asked him to end the investigation into Flynn.

Mueller is also investigating allegations that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 presidential election to sway the vote into Trump's favor.
Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who dropped the law firm representing him earlier this week, has reportedly been facing financial troubles.

A source closely related to Manafort released a brief statement on the matter in an interview with the Daily Beast.

'Paul Manafort's resolve is limitless, but his resources are not,' the person claimed.

After cutting ties with WilmerHale, Manafort gained representation from Miller & Chevalier, a leading Washington, D.C. law firm with specialties in international taxes, employee benefits and government affairs.

Paul Manafort is just one of the people said to be suffering financial strain from Mueller's investigation

Manafort cut ties with his lawyers earlier this week and is now being represented by a leading D.C. firm

Robert Mueller's ongoing Russian investigation has left others suffering financial setbacks due to the costliness of the probe

Amidst Robert Mueller's ongoing Russian investigation, other parties are also said to be suffering financial setbacks due to the costliness of the probe.

A source told the news site that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who was replaced from his job earlier this year, has been dealt an enormous amount legal bills, leaving him and his loved ones under a period of immense strain.

'Its expected he will soon create a legal defense fund to keep from going bankrupt,' the report said.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has hefty legal bills, a source said

Mueller's attorneys are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice

David Rivkin, a Washington attorney and political writer, said the investigation has extended far beyond its initial purpose.

'It's obvious that it has morphed into an open-ended investigation that is way beyond the Russian collusion, and the only unifying principle seems to be that it covers people who are close to Trump or worked with Trump,' Rivkin said.

'That is a classical definition of a fishing expedition ... It obviously has a deleterious effect on both people's professional livesin terms of their ability to carry out their jobsbut also on a personal level,' he added.
Teenage recruits have alleged that they were attacked and abused by instructors, from the Army Foundation College in Harrogate

Seventeen Army instructors have been charged with committing horrific assaults on teenage recruits in the Armed Forces biggest-ever abuse case, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The alleged abuse includes instructors pushing the recruits heads under water until they choked and forcing animal excrement into their mouths during a training exercise.

Some of the instructors are also said to have repeatedly kicked and punched the terrified teenagers, according to legal documents.

The veterans face a total of 40 charges of battery, ill-treatment and actual bodily harm and could be jailed if found guilty.

They will appear at a military court next month following a three-year, 1 million military police investigation into abuse claims made by six recruits, who were 17 at the time of the alleged attacks.

The accused, all veterans of battles in Iraq or Afghanistan, vehemently deny the charges.

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is feared the publicity will deepen the Armys recruitment crisis, with troop numbers already at their lowest for centuries.

Top brass are also under fire for signing up 16- and 17-year-olds, who critics say are too young to cope with military life.

Acused: Corporal Scott Richard Dyson from the Yorkshire Regiment denies all charges

Rob Comley (left) and Danny Royle (right) have been charged with committing horrific assaults on teenage recruits in the Armed Forces biggest-ever abuse case

The instructors, from the Army Foundation College (AFC) in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, were charged last week.

They have been ordered to attend preliminary legal hearings at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, on September 21 and 22.

Military sources told The Mail on Sunday last night how the instructors accompanied about 200 recruits on a battle camp in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.

Over two days, the trainees were taught infantry skills, including using bayonets. They were due to graduate a few weeks later after almost a year of rigorous military training.

A source said: The recruits were ordered to charge with bayonets fixed to their rifles, as they would if they cleared an enemy trench in battle. According to legal documents, some recruits allege they were punched, kicked and tripped as they advanced.

Some claim when they fell into a stream, instructors used their boots to push the recruits heads under the water, making them gasp for air. Others claim instructors carrying handfuls of sheep and cow dung approached from behind and smeared the excrement over their faces and pressed it into their mouths.

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is feared the publicity will deepen the Armys recruitment crisis, with troop numbers already at their lowest for centuries

A few weeks later the recruits reported what allegedly happened to military police. They launched a full-scale criminal probe that eventually identified six alleged victims.

One has since left the Army but the other five completed their training and joined regiments, including one who has become a lance corporal in the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

But military sources have also told the MoS that the highly experienced instructors vehemently deny the incidents took place. It was stressed they are highly experienced combat veterans who were strictly vetted and received specialist training before joining the AFC.

According to sources, the instructors maintain they conducted themselves within strict official guidelines that forbid mishandling or roughing up of recruits, even on exercises simulating combat situations. Many of them have since been promoted.

Last night, the former British Army commander in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, said: This is extraordinary, I have never heard of a case of this scale.

If these charges are proven it will certainly be detrimental to the Army from a recruiting perspective.

But I am incredulous as well as surprised. While there must be some aggression in recruit training, what is alleged goes far beyond what is acceptable.

The MoD last night confirmed the details of the case.
It was set to reveal an intriguing new insight into the tragic romance between Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed on the 20th anniversary of their deaths.

A new book, Diana And Dodi: The Truth, promised explosive new revelations about the fateful night in August 1997, when the pair died in a car accident in Paris, as well as fuel rumours of a cover-up.

But the book by Michael Cole, who works for Dodis father Mohamed Al Fayed, is now at the centre of its own mystery after Mr Al Fayed dramatically intervened to prevent its publication.

The book has been pulled and its potentially scandalous contents, based on years of painstaking research and first-hand insight by Mr Cole, may never be known.

A new book, Diana And Dodi: The Truth, promised explosive new revelations about the fateful night in August 1997, when the pair died in a car accident in Paris, as well as fuel rumours of a cover-up

Publisher Biteback, owned by former Tory parliamentary candidate Iain Dale, is said to be furious and has complained about receiving legal letters from Mr Al Fayeds solicitors.

The row is all the more fascinating because Mr Cole, a former BBC correspondent, was director of public affairs for Harrods and still works as Mr Al Fayeds spokesman. He once declared that he loved the tycoon as a father.

The reasons for the cancellation of the book are unknown.

Mohamed Al Fayed, far left with author Michael Cole, intervened to stop the publication of Mr Cole's book, inset, about his son Dodi and Princess Diana

It is understood that Mr Al Fayed had at one stage been aware and supportive of the book, and had even supplied photographs from his private collection.

The former Harrods boss is also said to have seen a manuscript and expressed an interest in ordering copies for his family.

But Biteback confirmed that Mr Al Fayed had experienced an abrupt change of mind and had asked Mr Cole not to go ahead with its publication.

The publisher also said that Mr Al Fayed had subsequently sent it a needless and unjustified legal letter via his solicitors, Lewis Silkin, even though Mr Cole had already undertaken not to publish the book.

Mr Cole said he made his decision when he became aware the Al Fayed family did not wish me, in this book, to revisit the terrible events of 20 years ago.

The author, a BBC correspondent, was director of public affairs for Harrods and still works as Mr Al Fayeds spokesman.

In a statement released by Biteback, Mr Cole added: Knowing how acutely the family continues to feel the loss of Dodi and the Princess, I have now decided that the best and most appropriate thing I could do to honour the memory of Diana and Dodi would be to continue to share the Fayed familys grief, borne in silent dignity for the past 20 years.

The book was set to be released on the 20th anniversary of the crash on August 31 and had attracted a significant number of pre-orders.

Mr Cole had unparalleled access to sources, having worked with Mr Al Fayed since he left the BBC in 1988.

He says he was the only person to know all three victims of the crash  Diana, Dodi and driver Henri Paul  and learned of the Princesss death hours before it was announced by the British ambassador.

A press release for the book notes that Mr Cole sensed a cover-up over the deaths, and witnessed strange things in the weeks leading up to the crash.

It adds: This is the inside story of what really happened.

Mr Cole left Harrods to take early retirement in 1998, the year after the tragedy, but has continued to work for Mr Al Fayed as his spokesman.

In 2008, he gave evidence at the inquest into the couples deaths, claiming he knew Diana had been pregnant with Dodis child and that Dodi had planned to propose.

Mr Cole (right) left Harrods to take early retirement in 1998, the year after the tragedy, but has continued to work for Mr Al Fayed as his spokesman

Mr Dale, Bitebacks managing director, said he respected Mr Coles position.

He said that the decision not to publish was not one made lightly, adding: It also deprives the world of reading a very different and moving account of Dodi Fayeds relationship with the Princess of Wales.

I hope in time the Fayed family may come to realise that this books publication would not only be in their interests but represents a vital contribution to the truth surrounding the events of July and August 1997.
An erotic novel first banned more than 200 years ago has been censored once again  in case it upsets students.

Fanny Hill, the tale of a young girls sexual exploits, was infamous for its racy content. The book by John Cleland was published in London in 1748 but was denounced by the Bishop of London as the lewdest thing I ever saw. It was banned a year later.

Censorship was lifted in 1970 and it has since been routinely taught on university literature courses. In 2007, it was adapted for a highly successful BBC series by Andrew Davies.

Fanny Hill, the tale of a young girls sexual exploits, was infamous for its racy content it was first published in 1748

But now Professor Judith Hawley, of London University, an expert on 18th Century literature, has revealed she has struck it from her students reading list in case it upsets them.

She told the Radio 4 programme The Invention Of Free Speech: In the 1980s I both protested against the opening of a sex shop in Cambridge and taught Fanny Hill. Nowadays I would be worried about causing offence to my students.

But Professor Frank Furedi, from Kent University, said: The idea that young men and women need to be protected from reading this is tragic.

He added it created the impression that they could only handle the most banal, boring accounts of life.
Theresa May will try to head off a threat to sack her as Prime Minister by making a public plea to Tory supporters to give her another chance.

She will make a grovelling apology at the Conservative Party Conference for the loss of the Governments majority at the General Election.

News of Mrs Mays mea culpa speech  live on TV in a Sunday confessional at the start of the rally in Manchester on October 1, and three days before her main speech  came as the Tories were rocked by more divisions.

News of Mrs Mays mea culpa speech came as the Tories were rocked by more divisions

It emerged last night that:

Former Minister and pro-EU Conservative MP Anna Soubry warned she could quit the party if Mrs May pursued a hard Brexit stance;

Pro-Brexit MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has reportedly let slip his own secret plan to succeed Mrs May;

Chancellor Philip Hammond and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson are said to be poised to back a leadership bid by fellow soft Brexit supporter Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

Mrs Mays decision to beg the party faithful to forgive her for throwing away the partys majority  and to let her stay in No 10  is seen by MPs as a major gamble.

Her supporters say it will clear the air and stop the conference being dominated by recriminations over the Election and plots against her.

She knows she has to say sorry very loudly and clearly to the tens of thousands of our supporters who did all the door-knocking in the Election, said one of her advisers.

She will say she feels the same pain as they do, say she has learned her lesson and is ready to change, take advice and be more open. She will ask them to trust her and stick with her through Brexit. She has to stop comments about her being robotic  it isnt true.

But critics fear the apology will only draw attention to her weakness.

The ploy is similar to Tony Blairs masochism strategy after the 2003 Iraq War, when he met relatives of Army casualties to defuse widespread criticism of his handling of the conflict.

Some Labour MPs believe it helped him win the 2005 Election.

Former Minister and pro-EU Conservative MP Anna Soubry warned she could quit the party if Mrs May pursued a hard Brexit stance

Mrs May hopes her plea could help her survive as PM, though few Tory MPs expect her to last until the next Election.

In her apology, dubbed a May-a-culpa, she will say sorry for:

Categorically ruling out a snap Election  only to go back on her vow and be forced to form a pact with the DUP when it led to a hung Parliament;

Riding roughshod over Cabinet Ministers by putting unpopular policies such as the dementia tax in her manifesto without telling them and sidelining them;

Looking wooden during the campaign, leading to her being described as the Maybot.

Writing in todays Mail on Sunday, outspoken Ms Soubry says that if Mrs May allows Britain to stagger recklessly towards a hard Brexit that destroyed the lives of my constituents, she could not rule out leaving the Conservatives and joining a new centre party.

She says: Could I ever see myself joining like-minded people who want to save our country from such an appalling fate? It is not impossible.

I would be betraying my principles if I didnt make it clear that country must always come before party. She says that moment has not yet arrived, but warns that if Mrs May fails to confront Tory Brexit ideologues the party could split, with fatal consequences for her leadership.

Fanatical anti-EU Tories had played a key role in the downfall of John Major, David Cameron and Margaret Thatcher  and will not hesitate to do the same to Mrs May, claims Ms Soubry.

She also warns party chiefs not to target soft Brexit Tories such as her. Treating people like me as the enemy within, as opposed to patriots with a legitimate and well-considered view shared by millions of voters, will achieve nothing.

Mrs May faced a new threat to her leadership after it was claimed that maverick Right-winger Jacob Rees-Mogg wants to succeed her.

The claim came from Anglo-US academic Ted Malloch, who has close links with Donald Trump and says Mr Rees-Mogg made it clear to him over lunch that he sees himself as a possible future Tory leader.

Although Mrs May is expected to cling on until the conclusion of Brexit negotiations in March 2019, potential contenders are starting to build informal alliances.

Among them is Ms Rudd, who has confided in friends about her leadership ambitions. Pro-Brexit MPs are suspicious about her growing closeness to Mr Hammond and to Remainer Ms Davidson.
Bellquist pictured this week after he was arrested and released without charge for the incident

The millionaire financier arrested after wrongly being identified as the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of a bus is being protected by bodyguards after receiving death threats, despite being cleared by police.

Eric Bellquist was 5,000 miles away on holiday in California at the time of the attack on Londons Putney Bridge on May 5 but police still held him for six hours before releasing him on bail on Thursday.

Last night, the American was in hiding under the protection of Special Forces veterans after the threats were made on social media, despite the fact he had proved his innocence.

After announcing they had eliminated Mr Bellquist from their enquiries, the Metropolitan Police last night confirmed officers investigating the case did not check whether or not Mr Bellquist was in the country at the time of the incident before his arrest.

Nor did they check publicly available records of Eric Bellquists running routes on a website which do not show any runs in which he has crossed Putney Bridge.

Mr Bellquist, 41, was dramatically hauled away in handcuffs from his home in Chelsea, West London, last week after police released CCTV footage of the incident and appealed for members of the public to identify the jogger.

The 33-year-old victim was walking along the bridge when she was shoved into the path of an oncoming bus, which swerved dramatically to avoid hitting her

Mr Bellquist protested his innocence, insisting he was in the US at the time. Asked whether the force would be issuing an apology to Mr Bellquist, a spokesman said last night: There were reasonable grounds to arrest the man in connection with this offence.

He was subsequently released with no further action to be taken.

But when asked whether they had any more evidence other than a tip-off prior to the arrest, a spokesman said they had a good response to the appeal.

Left, a shot of the runner from the bus camera, and right, Mr Bellquist, who was cleared of wrongdoing after police admitted they didn't check if he was in the country

Eric Bellquist was arrested after CCTV showed a woman being pushed on Putney Bridge, but the banker proved he was in California on holiday

Last night, Mr Bellquists friends insisted the police should apologise. One told The Mail on Sunday: Eric was as horrified as everybody else about this attack and had absolutely nothing to do with it. He has been through hell. He was woken up by the police, dragged out of his house and thrown into a cell for hours. He is very worried about his reputation and deserves an immediate apology.

Police have renewed their appeals for people who might recognise the attacker from CCTV footage to come forward.

The video clip has provoked widespread outrage and shows the woman walking across the bridge to work when she is pushed into the road by a male jogger wearing a grey T-shirt and dark shorts. She narrowly avoided serious injury after an approaching double-decker bus swerved to avoid her head as she lay inches from its wheels.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson backed Donald Trump in the incendiary war of words between the US President and North Korea

Boris Johnson last night backed Donald Trump in the incendiary war of words between the US President and North Koreas Kim Jong Un.

Blaming the North Koreans for the crisis, the Foreign Secretary called on the communist regime to fix it.

He said Britain was working with the US and other allies in the region to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington.

The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it, he said.

The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

'We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end.

Tensions between the two nations have been escalating since the revelation that US intelligence believe North Korea has developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile.

Tensions between the US and North Korea have escalated since US intelligence revealed that North Korea may have developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile

Mr Trump warned he would unleash fire and fury on North Korea if it did not stop its threats to the US.

Pyongyang responded by announcing plans to test-fire missiles towards the US territory of Guam.

Yesterday worried Chinese President Xi Jinping phoned Mr Trump to appeal for restraint.

State-run television quoted Mr Xi as telling the US President that relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel added: I dont see a military solution and I dont think its called for. I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer.

Mr Trump responded: Let her speak for Germany. Shes certainly not referring to the United States.
ELKO  Joyce Helens sees Great Basin College as a pioneer in state history.

Helens, who started as president of GBC Aug. 1, discussed the link to Elkos past and pioneering spirit of higher education in Nevada.

It all started here in Elko. Thats really the beginning, Helens said.

She refers to the founding of Nevada State University in 1874 in Elko. Six years later, the school moved to Reno, becoming the University of Nevada.

Great Basin wasnt a lone ranger, she said. It didnt come up with ideas by talking to itself, but rather, it was pioneer people who listened to their constituents and let it transform.

The college plans to honor its past while continuing to transform as GBC prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

This September, GBC will host the first Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents meeting of the academic year.

Helens said she hopes the meeting will convey the energy and excitement of GBCs founding with some integrative presentations.

The NSHE Board of Regents appointed Helens on April 28 to succeed Dr. Mark Curtis who served five years as president. She was chosen from a pool of 40 applicants.

Helens said she turned down several requests from a recruiter who suggested she look into the position when it became available. At the time, she had no intention of leaving her position as president of St. Cloud Technical & Community College in Minnesota.

I was planning on being there for a while, but once you make the decision, the whole world changes to move you along to your decision point, Helens said. I really appreciate that the consultant hired by the system didnt take no for an answer the first few times.

Stepping into her new role is both exciting and humbling, Helens said.

It feels right to be here, she said. I feel like Ive been here awhile. I havent felt like I had to get used to anything.

Lynn Mahlberg, vice president of academic and student affairs, met with Helens on her first day at GBC and said she believes Helens is ready for the challenge, thanks to her experience as president at SCTCC.

Shes hit the ground running, and she brings a great deal of experience to the job, Mahlberg said.

Part of coming onboard to GBC is getting to know the college, staff and faculty, which means Helens will ask lots of questions, she said. I am a very curious person by nature.

Becoming acquainted with the history of the college is only one of Helens goals. She said she is not interested in making changes for no reason, but for now, is ready to listen and learn.

Helens also wants to make sure there is time to dream.

The whole college has to come together and say. We know whats been; we know what is. What does that next level of excellence look like?

Helens said she sees herself as more of a catalyst to bring energetic and inspiring individuals together.

I just have to put this combination of people together, and boom, something comes together, Helens said. Ive had a lot of experience  and sometimes, its not until youre in the thick of things that you recognize how things really work.

In her career, Helens has gained experience in the community college and university systems in five states through leadership positions, administration roles and as an instructor.

The items unpacked in her office tell the story of other classrooms in Helens life, including pieces of Native American art given to her by former students and memorabilia from her hobbies of raising Texas Longhorns and Old West re-enactment shooting.

Everything has a big story to it, Helens said. Each one of those things has given me a wider, better, different perspective.

Angela de Braga, director of continuing education and community outreach, said Helens background will be an advantage to the college and that she is looking forward to the semester.

All kinds of good things are in store, de Braga said. President Helens has a lot of great ideas and lots of energy.

Although she is now president, Helens still remembers being a teacher and what it is like to spark the minds of her students.

Teaching and learning are a sacred contract to me, and thats why Im still a teacher, she said, because the dynamics of the classroom and your desire for people to learn, grow and be successful [are] not any different when youre the president, a dean, a vice president. Its a different classroom.
To fans of BBC Radio 4s Saturday Live he is the jovial  if slightly bumbling  vicar with a fine line in gentle clerical whimsy.

And when the Reverend Richard Coles was announced as one of the new contestants for the 15th series of Strictly Come Dancing on Friday, it seemed the series had found its new comedy fool; this years Ed Balls or John Sergeant.

An avid Twitter user, the 55-year-old Church of England priest proudly announced yesterday to his 125,000 followers that he had burst Ainsley Harriotts trousers during his costume fitting; and joked benignly on Chris Evans Radio 2 Breakfast Show that he was a graduate of the David Brent School of Dance.

Reverend Richard Coles (pictured) has signed up for the 15th series of Strictly Come Dancing

But even by the standards of Strictlys exotic participants, the Rev Coles is a colourful contestant.

Many of his listeners, as well as his devoted parishioners at the 14th Century St Marys Church in Finedon, Northamptonshire, will be aware of his rather incongruous past as a member of pop duo The Communards with Jimmy Somerville, who enjoyed a No 1 hit in 1986 with Dont Leave Me This Way. He is also credited as the inspiration for Tom Hollanders potty-mouthed priest in BBC comedy Rev.

Yet it is the details of Coles troubled past, bravely revealed in two autobiographies, that could scatter a few Strictly sequins.

The Reverend has described how his 20s and 30s were a riot of anonymous casual sex, class-A drugs, jealousy and lies. At the peak of his fame, the self-styled gawky , bespectacled music geek spent a lost year in Ibiza on what he describes as a massive drugs binge and enjoyed numerous sexual encounters in a rural lay-by with random male strangers  one of them, at Christmas, with a man completely naked apart from a bow of tinsel around his genitals.

Indeed, the Reverend once declared that dogging  having sex with strangers in public places  was one of the great liberations of my life. In a later interview, he added: I was very much healed by the experience of anonymous sex with strangers in lay-bys. I had a fantastic time.

It was, in fact, the sex which finally drew Coles out of a dark downward spiral which culminated in the end of his commercial music career and eventually drove him towards God.

.The 55-year-old Church of England priest was formerly in a pop group The Communard's in the 80's alongside Jimmy Somerville (pictured)

The most candid of these confessions are contained in Coles 2014 autobiography Fathomless Riches: Or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit.

Born in Northampton, Coles was one of three brothers, prodigiously clever and a brilliantly talented musician. He realised he was gay at the age of 16 while at a minor boys public school.

He repeatedly played his parents Tom Robinsons track Glad To Be Gay until they guessed, but they were nothing but supportive, he said. After a stint at drama school in Stratford-upon-Avon, he fled to London where he bought a saxophone, resolved to become a pop star and, fortuitously, met Somerville.

But the hedonism of that time, against the terrible backdrop of the Aids epidemic which claimed so many of his friends, gave rise to a prolific drugs habit. Coles describes his regular use of cocaine, LSD, amphetamines and cannabis. But what really diverted my attention was ecstacy, he writes in Fathomless Riches. It was like an explosion of delight going off in our heads.

Of one particular clandestine encounter, he explains: Like many gay men after a family Christmas, I decided to seek the comfort of strangers I pulled into a lay-by, hidden by woodland a car was parked in the darkness a figure got out it was a man, doing a dance, and he was completely naked apart from a bow of tinsel Merry Christmas, I thought: Happy Feast of the Nativity.

As intoxicating as the lifestyle was, Coles became increasingly resentful of Somervilles precocious talent. Friction grew, and it was as the drug-fuelled rows escalated that Coles invented a terrible deception.

During a European tour, he fell ill with shingles  common in those with a compromised immune system caused by HIV infection.

He took a blood test, but before the results came through he shut down an argument with Somerville by blurting out: Im HIV-positive.

The Reverend Richard Coles has said that his 20s and 30s were a riot of 'casual sex, class-A drugs, jealousy and lies'

In fact, the test came back negative. But Coles admits that he had come to enjoy the horrible fiction he had created. He told one interviewer: The harder part to admit was that there was a dark glamour to being HIV-positive, there was this drama and I was drawn to that. The lie continued for an astonishing five years, during which time he says he was too ashamed. I felt like such an idiot.

It was only after he found God in 1990  after a tentative visit to a Technicolor High Anglican church  that he found the courage to admit the truth.

Inspired by his new-found faith, he took a theology degree at Kings College London and was ordained into the Anglican priesthood in 2005. He is now in a civil partnership with Rev David Oldham, 40, a curate in a neighbouring parish, and they live together chastely with their four dachshunds.

We just fitted together. The sex wore off.

Today, his life is relatively sedate and bucolic. He has co-presented Saturday Live since 2011 and regularly appears on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You and QI. Last year he cemented himself as part of the BBC fabric, presenting Celebrity MasterChef and The Big Painting Challenge, but he claims to have been waiting 11 years for the phone call from Strictly. David has, according to Coles, padlocked the fridge to get him into shape.

He has already apparently enjoyed a briefing with Ed Balls, but admits: I love dancing and I love music, but God does not always endow us with gifts equally, and I was near the back of the queue.

William Hill is offering 50/1 odds of him lifting the glitterball trophy  so it may take more than prayer to win over the judges.

This morning, previewing his Saturday Live show with Today presenter John Humphrys, he said: The time is right for a great dance talent as yet undiscovered. Within me lurks the Baryshnikov du jour.

Whether the judges agree or not, the Reverend Of Rumba will make for riotously entertaining TV.
Taylor Lorenz, a political reporter for The Hill, was attacked on Saturday in Charlottesville

A female reporter has been punched in the face in a crowd of counter-protesters as she filmed the aftermath of a fatal car attack in Charlottesville.

Taylor Lorenz, a political reporter for The Hill, was assaulted while filming live in the aftermath of a car rampage through a crowd of Black Lives Matter activists that killed one and injured 19.

Arrested was Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, officials said.

Lorenz said the suspect had an outstanding warrant when police detained him.

Lorenz (who formerly worked as a reporter for DailyMail.com) was filming live at the scene for The Hill when, just feet away from her, a car struck multiple people who were marching in counter-protest to a massive white nationalist rally.

Video courtesy of Taylor Lorenz: @TaylorLorenz on Twitter

Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery

Lorenz told DailyMail.com that the shirtless man pictured far left above shouted 'Stop the f**king recording!' and punched her in the face while she was reporting live

Lorenz was filming the aftermath of a fatal car rampage when she was punched in the face

The reporter for The Hill was assaulted about 15 minutes after the car rampage killed one

James Alex Fields Jr has been named as the driver in the car attack and charged with second-degree murder.

In the aftermath of the street carnage, Lorenz continued to interview witnesses and gather facts at the scene.

She was attacked about fifteen minutes after the car rampage, while filming first responders and police responding to the carnage in the street.

Video from the scene shows a shirtless man approach Lorenz and shout 'Stop the f**king recording!'

Lorenz screams and her recording device spins to the ground and shuts off.

The reporter said on Twitter shortly after the assault that she was fine, adding that she was 'really f**king pissed at the guy who punched me mostly because he cut off my stream].'

The attack on a reporter was just one instance of violence in a day filled with clashes between white nationalists and anti-fascist counter-protesters.

The political reporter said on Twitter shortly after the assault that she was fine

Lorenz said that the suspect had an outstanding warrant when police detained him

The violence culminated in the death of one when a Dodge Challenger plowed through a crowd of the counter-protesters, and the crash of a police helicopter that killed two people on board.

Horrifying video from the scene of the car attack shows the silver muscle car speeding towards a group of fleeing anti-fascist protesters.

Another clip shows the vehicle ramming into the crowd at high speed and victims crying out in pain as they desperately seek medical help.

Witnesses said the car was traveling up to 40 miles an hour when it hit and reversed before ramming into the crowd again and speeding off with someone's shoe attached to its bumper.

Witnesses said moments before the car plowed into the crowd, a counter-protester had allegedly thrown a rock at the car, causing the driver to swivel around and ram into people and two cars in its way.

This is the moment a car drove into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville on Saturday

Lorenz (not pictured) was filming the aftermath of the car attack at this intersection when she was punched in the face by a male counter-protester

The alleged driver of the car was apprehended and is currently in police custody. He was arrested a few blocks away from the bloody scene. The suspect's name has not yet been released.

In addition to the dozen of people hurt in the accident, at least 15 people were already being treated for their injures during other destructive clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters at Emancipation Park before the controversial Unite the Right rally.

James Alex Fields Jr, 20 (pictured), of Maumee, Ohio, was named as the man who drove a car into a crowd of of anti-fascist counter protesters on Saturday

President Trump admonished the day's tragic events, saying in a press conference: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, violence, on many sides... The hate and division must stop, and must stop right now.'

Hours after the car attack, a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed in Charlottesville, killing two people on board.

A statement released by Virginia State Police reads: 'Shortly before 5pm today (August 12), a helicopter crashed into a wooded area near a residence on Old Farm Road. There are two confirmed fatalities.

'No one on the ground was injured. The cause of the crash remains under investigation at this time. State police are on scene with Albemarle County police and fire units.'
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Theres nothing like a boat to expose the true hierarchy within a family. And theres nothing like a river with 16 locks to be opened, negotiated with care and then closed, to start an argument.

A week spent on the River Lot in France was my idea, so I didnt let my smile slip when we picked up our boat in Douelle, a day-long drive from the Eurotunnel exit at Calais, and realised that our floating home was more of a margarine tub than a slimline gin palace.

We had booked late so were lucky to get a boat at all. And there are not that many vessels for hire travelling from Douelle down to Saint-Cirq Lapopie and back. Consequently, boating on the Lot is more peaceful, especially in August, than on the busier Loire or the Dordogne.

This Morning presenter Alice Beer (left) took her husband and twin teenage daughters Phoebe and Dora (right), sailing along France's scenic River Lot

As I say, our little boat was more functional than fancy, but it had everything we needed and we quickly warmed to our new home.

From the very first minute, my husband Paul took the wheel and I was doing exactly what I had envisaged: sitting at the bow with beer in hand, transfixed by the slowly passing scenery.

Wide and meandering, the Lot cuts through limestone cliffs topped by villages and castles, and passes fields and banks with lush willow trees. This is a beautiful part of the world and other boats were rare enough to warrant a cheery wave and a bonjour to the occupants.

Our twin daughters Phoebe and Dora and I had only just worked out the perfect configuration of cushions on the deck to be totally comfortable when a shout went up from the self-appointed skipper. Lock ahead! Everyone get your gloves and shoes!

Every time their boat reached yet another of the river's gates, opening them up and guiding the vessel through was no easy task

Now, I applaud the family with two teenagers who can pass through a lock in 30C heat without any screaming, gritted teeth and cursing because the mechanics are as follows: yell at said teenagers to decide which of us is getting off the boat this time, jump off moving craft on to riverbank, run up hill to lock gates, undo four stiff sluices by rotating a metal handle 56 full turns, rub banged ankle and suck cut on hand, catch fore and aft ropes, tie up boat, re-tie boat according to shouting skippers new instructions, worry about falling into deep, dark lock with swirling waters, open sluices, let water in or out, open stiff gates, throw ropes back on boat, run down hill from lock gates, and finally jump back on to moving boat.

The following hour should then be spent showering off sweat and oil and being grumpy with partner who raised his voice in front of other tourists.

When I tell you there are 16 locks (yes, in each direction, so 32 over the course of a week), do the maths and work out if your relationship can survive it. Ours did but only after I decided to treat the whole thing as an anti-bingo-wing workout and also as a fake demonstration to onlookers about just how chilled and loving our family is.

Between locks, life on the boat was heavenly. Dora and I set up fishing rods and unsuccessfully trailed maggots through the water for hours on end.

Phoebe read book after book, smiling contently when a butterfly landed and remained for 20 minutes on her copy of Jane Eyre.

Wide and meandering, the Lot cuts through limestone cliffs topped by villages and castles, and passes fields and banks with lush willow trees. Pictured, a bridge spans the Lot at Cahors

Armed with the boats handbook and a little pre-Googled knowledge, we found a couple of lovely restaurants and climbed hills to explore a castle or admire a view. But we were happiest when back on board.

The evenings were long and delightful: a simple meal on deck and a game of cards until it got dark. The skipper could barbecue without leaving his comfy seat by the dining table: the definition of contentment.

Early mornings involved Paul and I creeping off the boat to find patisseries and boulangeries for breakfast pastries and lunchtime baguettes.

It did become a bit of a joke that we seemed to arrive in a dusty village at lunchtime just as the shutters were coming down. I dont think we managed to catch a single market, and on more than one occasion we had to manage with leftovers for lunch in the absence of any new provisions.

We didnt realise how little we were looking at our phones until one day, mooring close to the beautiful bridge of Cahors, we suddenly picked up a wi-fi signal from a nearby cafe.

Alice remarks of their floating abode (pictured) - 'Our little boat was more functional than fancy, but it had everything we needed and we quickly warmed to our new home'

As I sat drinking coffee, my family digitally drained the establishment to post photos and download evidently vital emails. It was a one-off and I didnt mind one bit.

The temperature rose each afternoon until the most comfortable place to lie was on a lilo, being pulled gently behind the boat. I am certain French health-and-safety officials would have had a fit but it was a lot of fun until my bikini bottoms parted company with my body just as we passed a line of hairy fishermen. If I had been 20 years younger perhaps they wouldnt have looked quite so horrified

A week was the perfect duration for boat life and I would be very tempted to smuggle some crew on board to deal with the locks next time.

And there will be a next time. Another year, another river, because this was an adventure I liked a Lot.
The warning signs along South Africas Indian Ocean coastline are rather unusual, to say the least. Its not sharp bends or speed bumps you have to look out for  its hippos.

At the bottom of a gorgeously languid estuary system, St Lucia initially appears to be a happy-go-lucky holiday town. But despite the sunshine, bars, restaurants and boat trips, theres also an ever-present menace from portly beasts.

The town, about 150 miles north of Durban, was built on a hippo pathway and every evening the animals leave the water to graze in grassy fields  the hippos have simply refused to acknowledge that they should shift.

David explored St Lucia, a town in South Africa which is home to a 'hippo pathway' where the dangerous animals, pictured here fighting on the estuary, roam freely

If walking or driving after dark, theres a strong chance that you might encounter one of the so-called townies. But as staff of the hippo-watching river cruises during the day warn, you dont want to get too close to them.

Hippos are responsible for more deaths in Africa every year than any other mammal, which is quite something considering theyre vegetarian. Skipper Stacey Farrell, at the helm of the Shoreline Boat and Walking Safaris vessel, says its their temperament thats the problem.

They are extremely territorial, she says. If we were another hippo, theyd be attacking us.

Were very fortunate that the three families nearest the town are now tolerant of boats. This allows us to get remarkably close. Elsewhere in Africa  and, indeed, further down the estuary  hippos are much more likely to attack boats. They are very grouchy, aggressive and instinctively opt for fight rather than flight.

If walking or driving after dark, theres a strong chance that you might encounter one of the so-called townies

Its instructive that there are also crocodiles  we see them sunning themselves on the banks  and bull sharks in the water. But they give the hippos a wide berth. Even those great predators dont want to take them on.

As the boat sidles up to one family, theres a furore.

Ones probably trodden on anothers foot, and theres a cacophony of grunting going on. Theyre in the water because they cant sweat. Spending the day belly-down in the shallows is an essential coping mechanism under the hot sun.

But that doesnt stop the little ones from playing. One leaps out of the water, doing its best impression of a flying fish. Its remarkably cute  or at least it seems that way until I ask what would happen if I jumped in with it.

Without the slightest hesitation, Stacey answers: Its mum would kill you.

Yes, I think Ill drive to the restaurant this evening
Do you want to zip-wire across a swimming pool and listen to DJs all day? No, neither do I. Some of us prefer a more relaxed and sophisticated style of cruising.

Todays older generation of cruisers are more likely to appreciate intelligent on-board programmes, formal dining, attractive cabins and more imaginative itineraries.

Most cruise ships offer modern facilities such as lifts and medical facilities so theres really no upper age limit for enjoying a holiday at sea. Here are five of the best voyages to suit elderly travellers

A ten-night cruise to see New England in autumn would be a great way to sample its elegant style

Undiscovered Canaries

You have to be over 50 to book with Saga, so expect a ship full of like-minded passengers and staff used to dealing with the needs of older clients. Its smaller ships make a cruise of the Canary Islands more interesting because they can reach places giant ships cannot.

The Canary Island Medley on December 8 offers winter sun on a 12-night holiday. Youll sail from Southampton for Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma and Lanzarote, with stops in Madeira and Spain, too.

Prices are from 2,584pp all-inclusive. Visit saga.co.uk/cruises.

A Russian Princess

Baltic and Scandinavian cruises tend to attract a more refined crowd because its less about sun and sea, and more about sights and history. Princesss relaxed, traditional ships bristling with modern comforts and dining make an excellent choice for a trip to St Petersburg. Pacific Princesss 14-day cruise from Dover offers a superb itinerary including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Kiel, St Petersburg and Helsinki.

It runs in September this year, and twice in 2018. Prices are from 2,688pp. Visit princess.com.

Cruise through the fabulous Norwegian fjords, islands and mountains in the charming Hurtigruten small working freight and passenger ships

Falling for New England

One of the most traditional cruise lines, Holland America, offers impressive lectures and courses on board and high-quality dining options to cater to its generally older passengers.

A ten-night cruise to see New England in autumn would be a great way to sample its elegant style. The October 14 sailing from Montreal calls at ports in Nova Scotia and New England before heading south to Fort Lauderdales sunshine.

Prices are from 1,399pp. See hollandamerica.com.

A flamenco dancer in Seville

Let there be lights

Cruise through the fabulous Norwegian fjords, islands and mountains in the charming Hurtigruten small working freight and passenger ships. Youll also see the Northern Lights on the 12-day Classic Round Voyage from Bergen into the Arctic Circle. If the Lights dont appear, you can claim another free cruise.

Prices are from 947pp (no flights included) and the ships run all year, every day. See hurtigruten.co.uk.

Fred knows best

Fred Olsen is always a favourite with pensioners because of its smaller ships, traditional dining and quality guest speakers, and the ships reach ports the giant cruisers cant. Fred Olsens Authentic Andalusia on October 20 offers you a 14-night round-trip from Southampton with visits to ports such as Cadiz, Malaga and Almeria.

Its an adults-only trip, with no noisy children to disturb your afternoon naps. Theres even an overnight stay in Seville, the home of flamenco.

Trips cost from 1,499pp. Visit fredolsencruises.com.
She's the bisexual contestant and latest to be turfed off The Bachelor Australia.

And on Friday, Natalie Holmberg, 26, revealed she wouldn't be dating any of her eliminated co-stars.

Speaking to Yahoo! the midwife said she wasn't sexually attracted to any of the girls.

'No!' On Friday, Natalie Holmberg, 26, revealed she wouldn't be dating any of her eliminated co-stars

'No!' she said when asked if she would be following in the footsteps of past contestants Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon.

'Because, from the bottom of my heart, the girl I dated is the only girl I've ever liked.'

Revealing she was rooting for Tara Pavlovic or Lisa Carlton to win Matty's heart, Natalie also expressed her hostility for Bachelor 'mean girl' Jen Hawke.

Thoughts: Revealing she was rooting for Tara Pavlovic or Lisa Carlton to win Matty's heart, Natalie also expressed her hostility for Bachelor 'mean girl' Jen Hawke

Truth: 'What you're seeing is what you're getting which is pretty scary because it's pretty crazy!'

'What you're seeing is what you're getting which is pretty scary because it's pretty crazy!' she said.

'[I] didn't appreciate things Jen said off-camera and on-camera.'

On Thursday night's episode, rival Jen was seen calling the star a 'bogan'.

'Mean girl': On Thursday night's episode, rival Jen was seen calling the star a 'bogan'

Speaking to WSFM's Jonsey & Amanda earlier in the day, she said she's found watching the episodes 'quite confronting'.

'It's hard to watch sometimes. It's a very once in a lifetime experience and I've learned a lot,' she revealed.

'When [Jen] was calling me a bogan, it hit met right in the feels. It was a bit rough.'
Stephanie Davis was seen looking worse for wear and emotional in video footage of after she suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage.

The footage sees the former Hollyoaks actress, 24, intoxicated and emotional, an understandable state after sources revealed to MailOnline the video was filmed just three days after her loss.

It comes as her ex-boyfriend Jeremy McConnell will be sentenced on Friday, and could face jail time, after being convicted of assaulting Stephanie.

In the clip, Stephanie can be seen drinking with a group of friends before reaching out and playfully slapping a male patron across the face, prompting an animated exchange with an unidentified female.

Make-up artist Claire Jane, who was present while the film was shot, claims the troubled actress 'cried in her arms' after she ushered her into a ladies toilet.

She said: 'I was so worried I got her in the toilets and she turned into a right state, crying, saying she had ruined her life. I was that worried I thought I should call the police because I just didnt know what to do.'

Emotional: Stephanie Davis was seen looking worse for wear and emotional in video footage of after she suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage

Distressing: The footage sees the former Hollyoaks actress, 24, intoxicated and emotional, an understandable state after sources revealed to MailOnline the video was filmed just three days after her loss

Awaiting sentencing: It comes as her ex-boyfriend Jeremy McConnell will be sentenced on Friday, and could face jail time, after being convicted of assaulting Stephanie

Claire claims she left soon afterwards, adding: 'It turns out after the bar stopped serving her she went off with one of my female friends.'

Stephanie suffered a miscarriage two weeks ago, and in an emotional Instagram post on Wednesday evening, she expressed her belief that it was due to stress in the midst of her ongoing court battle with ex-boyfriend Jeremy, claiming: 'He killed our baby'.

Writing a lengthy caption, the actress revealed she was 'broken' and claimed she could 'never forgive' Jeremy - who was found guilty of domestic assault in Liverpool Magistrates Court on Monday.

Slap: In the clip, Stephanie can be seen drinking with a group of friends before reaching out and playfully slapping a male patron across the face

Tense: The slap prompted an animated exchange with an unidentified female

Distressing: Make-up artist Claire Jane, who was present while the film was shot, claims the troubled actress 'cried in her arms' after she ushered her into a ladies toilet

Ruined: Stephanie said: 'I was so worried I got her in the toilets and she turned into a right state, crying, saying she had ruined her life'

Leaving early: Claire claims she left soon afterwards, adding: 'It turns out after the bar stopped serving her she went off with one of my female friends'

Stephanie's heartbreaking post read: ' Too loose a child is something I hope no one EVER goes through. The grief and pain is UNBELIEVABLE . Words CANNOT describe. My heart is BROKEN.

'I lost my baby due to the stress Jeremy put me under, history repeating its self after carrying caben alone for 9 months while he goes out with women and partying and posting pictures on purpose when I was in hospital and nearly lost caben on several occasions.

'How evil someone can be to the mother of their child with revenge porn etc the list goes on, hitting me and setting up paps to take pictures of him on date whilst I'm carrying his child....

Downcast: Stephanie emerged from her Liverpool home on Thursday afternoon, hours after revealing she has tragically miscarried her second child with ex Jeremy McConnell

Emotional: Her appearance comes following a difficult 24-hours, during which she confirmed the loss of her unborn baby in a heart breaking Instagram post

Low key: The former Hollyoaks star, 24, looked downcast as she exited the property in a loose fitting grey T-shirt bearing the distinctive slogan Sleep under the Stars'

Let's go: The actress stepped out for a low key outing in her native Liverpool

'cheating on me and treating me like I'm not even human I have No words! Evil. He ruined my life and killed our child!and for that I can never forgive him!!

'He knew I was pregnant and has never ONCE again asked about his unborn child OR asked how caben is, he's been to busy out on benders and spending money on drink and drugs and getting women to lick his nipples.'

Stephanie continued: 'He's not paid ANYTHING towards caben since he was born. He doesn't care about his child, he was simply a trophy child to him. He was found guilty, for a reason.

Subdued: Stephanie sported casual black jogging bottoms and flip-flops as she stepped out for supplies

Devastated: Her appearance comes following another turbulent episode for the actress, who confirmed she miscarried her unborn second child two weeks ago

Blame: Sharing an emotional Instagram post on Wednesday evening, Stephanie expressed her belief that it was due to stress in the midst of her ongoing court battle with ex-boyfriend Jeremy

'He destroyed my life and took away my happiness, and if anything comes from me being in the public eye and some saddo selling videos of me for a bit of cash when someone's at there lowest says more about them than me.

'I hope to help women of domestic violence, to stop what happened to me to other women. I would like to Grieve for my child, find strength and move on.

'I walked into that court with my head held high after he laughed and goaded me, and I continue to be strong, be a good mum to my son and if ANYTHING has come from my horrific ordeal, to help those who have been in my shoes and help give them the hope, that there is light at the end.

Devastated: Stephanie suffered a miscarriage two weeks ago which she believed was due to stress in the midst of her ongoing court battle with ex-boyfriend Jeremy

'I don't know HOW I'm standing, but I am. And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! I will NEVER again be treated the way I was, Thankyou to domestic violence for helping me and building me back up.

'It may seem mad what's in the press and a lot not 100% true about me, to deal with it in real life and in the public eye has been soul destroying, but thankfully I'm here to tell the tale. Mummy Loves u little one GBNF'.

MailOnline have contacted a representative for Stephanie for comment. Jeremy's representation declined to comment.

Distressing: On Wednesday Stephanie shared an Instagram post in which she explained she had lost her baby and placed the blame on Jeremy in a lengthy statement

Family: Stephanie shares eight-month old Caben-Albi with Jeremy. She was pregnant with his second child but has devastatingly suffered a miscarriage

'My world': Hours after revealing the news of her devastating miscarriage on Instagram, Stephanie shared a picture of her son Caben that she captioned: 'My world, my everything'

Happier times: The couple's tumultuous romance had been intricately documented at every saddening turn

Heartbreaking: Reaching a guilty verdict in 15 minutes, Judge Wendy Lloyd said: 'This is a sad story, like many of this sort there is much emotion on both sides'

Stephanie's miscarriage came just two weeks before ex Jeremy was found guilty of domestic assault in Liverpool Magistrates Court on Monday, with the actress revealing she even feared he would kill her during one particularly heated row.

She told the court that Jeremy 'threw her around like a rag doll' - leaving her to think: 'This is it; he's going to kill me.' She claimed that Jeremy suspected her of a lesbian affair and a fling with a fireman as he attacked her at a property in Rainhill, Merseyside, on March 10.

While the Irish model awaits sentencing, of which he could possibly face up to 26 weeks, he has now been faced with news of the loss of his second child with the actress, who repeatedly mentioned his demons and battles in her statement.

Love of their lives: After many attempts at creating a family for Caben, the duo remain at loggerheads to this day much to their respective chagrin

Reaching a guilty verdict in just 15 minutes, Judge Wendy Lloyd said: 'This is a sad story, like many of this sort there is much emotion on both sides. Mr McConnell may prefer to think he acted in self-defence. I believe his judgement was totally clouded by drugs and alcohol.'

During her testament in court on Monday, Stephanie described the assault 'like something out of a horror movie', adding that the Irish model threatened to smash a bottle over his head. The prosecution said the assault took place as Stephanie held Caben in her arms, a claim that was denied by Jeremy.

The former Hollyoaks actress said: 'He's completely destroyed my life, it's been the worst 18 months of my life.' She also told the court: 'He threatened to throw acid in my face.'

Way back when: During her testament in court on Monday, Stephanie described the assault 'like something out of a horror movie'

Concern: Stephanie (pictured leaving court on Monday) has suffered the horrific loss of her second child with her CBB co-star, with whom she has suffered a toxic on-off romance

Stephanie's devastating statement 'Too loose a child is something I hope no one EVER goes through. The grief and pain is UNBELIEVABLE . Words CANNOT describe. My heart is BROKEN. I lost my baby due to the stress Jeremy put me under, history repeating its self after carrying caben alone for 9 months while he goes out with women and partying and posting pictures on purpose when I was in hospital and nearly lost caben on several occasions. 'How evil someone can be to the mother of their child with revenge porn etc the list goes on, hitting me and setting up paps to take pictures of him on date whilst I'm carrying his child.... 'cheating on me and treating me like I'm not even human I have No words! Evil. He ruined my life and killed our child!and for that I can never forgive him!! He knew I was pregnant and has never ONCE again asked about his unborn child OR asked how caben is, he's been to busy out on benders and spending money on drink and drugs and getting women to lick his nipples. 'He's not paid ANYTHING towards caben since he was born. He doesn't care about his child, he was simply a trophy child to him. He was found guilty, for a reason. He destroyed my life and took away my happiness, and if anything comes from me being in the public eye and some saddo selling videos of me for a bit of cash when someone's at there lowest says more about them than me. 'I hope to help women of domestic violence, to stop what happened to me to other women. I would like to Grieve for my child, find strength and move on. I walked into that court with my head held high after he laughed and goaded me, and I continue to be strong, be a good mum to my son and if ANYTHING has come from my horrific ordeal, to help those who have been in my shoes and help give them the hope, that there is light at the end. 'I don't know HOW I'm standing, but I am. And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! I will NEVER again be treated the way I was, Thankyou to domestic violence for helping me and building me back up. It may seem mad what's in the press and a lot not 100% true about me, to deal with it in real life and in the public eye has been soul destroying, but thankfully I'm here to tell the tale. Mummy Loves u little one GBNF' Advertisement

Troubled: Stephanie - who shares eight-month-old son Caben-Albi with the model - told the Liverpool court that Jeremy 'threw her around like a ragdoll' - leaving her to think: 'This is it; he's going to kill me'

Happier times: Stephanie and Jeremy's romance began in the CBB house in January 2016 (pictured), when the actress was still dating model Sam Reece

Tough times: Her appearance came shortly before ex Jeremy McConnell was found guilty of domestic assault, with the actress revealing she even feared he would kill her during one particularly heated row

Timeline of Stephanie and Jeremy's tumultuous romance January 2016 - Stephanie strikes up a romance with Jeremy in the CBB house despite dating model Sam Reece on the outside world February 2016 - After being voted out, Jeremy is faced with cheating rumours, leading to an explosive argument on night of the CBB final March 2016 - In a bid to reconcile, the duo head to Spain on holiday but yet again break-up and later make-up April 2016 - The couple are locked in a violent altercation during a holiday to Cape Verde after which Jeremy reportedly required six stitches May 2016 - After another split, Stephanie announced she was pregnant with Jeremy's child June 2016 - Jeremy insists he is not the father of her child, saying: 'Look, if she is pregnant it's not my kid' January 2017 - Stephanie gives birth to son Caben-Albi. After the birth, she said: 'A baby doesn't fix a toxic relationship, but if he hadn't lied and cheated, it wouldn't have been toxic.' February 2017 - Jeremy undergoes paternity test live on This Morning and finally confirms he is Caben's father March 2017 - After a brief reunion, Jeremy is arrested for assault while staying with Stephanie in Liverpool July 2017 - Stephanie is arrested on suspicion of GBH after attacking Jeremy in late night hotel brawl after which he confirms she is pregnant 7 August 2017 - Jeremy is found guilty of assaulting Stephanie 8 August 2017 - Stephanie confirms she suffered a stress-induced miscarriage with their second child Advertisement

As Stephanie gave evidence, Jeremy was heard to utter 'lies, lies, lies' under his breath, forcing Stephanie to shout 'Jeremy, can you stop talking over me when I'm trying to talk?'

The defence accused Stephanie of 'fabricating' parts of the assault and 'embellishing' her injuries. The court also heard that her original statement to police was retracted.

Following her social media confirmation, naturally Stephanie's fans were quick to send love and support, as users penned: 'You're the best mummy caben can ask for. Focus on him and yourself from now on. Sorry for your loss...

'Wow my thoughts are with you, Broken people cut you on their pieces... God bless u & take care...

'So sorry for your loss girl! You deserve so much better than this, You really do! Your amazing and your little boy will grow up knowing how amazing you truly are! Keep strong...

'Poor Stephanie, when someone you love treats you like this, it would send anyone barmy...

'Hope your ok keep smiling look that beautiful little boy of yours and he will give you all the strength and more that u will need your doing amazing and don't let any one else tell u different' (sic).

Stephanie now wants to use her public battle 'for good' by fronting a new show about domestic abuse, and is also working alongside charities to stop her ordeal happening to others.

Revealing her desire to start afresh after her difficult year, a source told MailOnline: 'If it could happen to her, to anyone. This is a new start for Stephanie and a chance for her to move on once and for all.

'For a long time she was in a toxic relationship and she is now relieved that everyone can see from the court reports what has actually happened. Stephanie will now be busy with recording her album, television commitments and other projects.'

Me and my boy: Stephanie appeared on This Morning with Caben in April

Tough times: Stephanie soared to fame with her role in Hollyoaks, and reached out to a wider fanbase after she appeared on CBB last year. During her time in the house, the star struck up a relationship with Jeremy - which proved to be notoriously turbulent

Comeback: In April 2016 Jeremy and Stephanie headed to Cape Verde on holiday, where they were alleged to have had a blazing row culminating in Jeremy requiring six stitches (pictured arriving at London Gatwick Airport after the trip)

Earlier this year, after the arrival of Caben Albi, the star appeared on Loose Women where she was asked if she ever considered not going through with her pregnancy.

She said: 'At one point I got certain phone calls and completely broke down and was on my hands and knees and I couldn't take any more.

'I said in the house what I went through in the past and I thought he was the one to save me from that and never let me go through anything like that again.

'I lost it and thought I am reliving the same nightmare but worse, now I'm pregnant. I thought this isn't fair to bring a baby into such a toxic relationship.'

Pior to Caben's arrival, Jeremy took to Twitter to pen: 'Everything will be dealt with accordingly and mature, but a baby doesnt fix a toxic relationship, end of discussion.'

Hard times: Pior to his arrival, Jeremy took to Twitter to pen: 'Everything will be dealt with accordingly and mature, but a baby doesnt fix a toxic relationship, end of discussion'
She recently sparked engagement speculation, following a whirlwind getaway in the US with beau Andy Lee.

But on Friday, Rebecca Harding, 25, stepped out solo to attend the Linen House launch in Melbourne.

The stunner was glowing as she beamed while posing alongside a gal pal on a display bed.

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She's all smiles! Rebecca Harding stepped out solo to attend the Linen House launch in Melbourne on Friday amid speculation she is engaged to Andy Lee

She appeared to be channelling a boho meets city chic look wearing a white off-the-shoulder top and black denim jeans.

Rebecca kept her luscious brunette tresses down and paired the ensemble with a black strappy heels.

The model did not accessorise the look with any jewelry, but did strategically place her left hand behind a pillow on her lap.

Loved up! Engagement rumours were rife after the 25-year-old model recently posted a photo of herself and Andy looking smitten at the luxurious Nubo Resort in Malibu, California

The photo sparked speculation the comedian had finally popped the question, with fans commenting on the image. One follower said: 'Calling it, they're engaged!'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Rebecca Harding and Andy Lee representatives for comment.

Her appearance comes after she shared a snap of herself and Andy on Instagram during their romantic getaway at the luxurious Nubo Resort in Malibu, California.

The photo sparked speculation the comedian had finally popped the question, with fans commenting on the image.

One said: 'Calling it, they're engaged!'

While others posted engagement ring emojis.

Earlier in the year Rebecca posted a selfie showing her left hand, which also sent fans into a frenzy. One fan said: 'Thought Andy had gotten down on one knee for a second there'

Earlier in the year Rebecca posted a selfie showing her left hand, which also sent fans into a frenzy.

A follower wrote: 'Thought Andy had gotten down on one knee for a second there'.

In May, Woman's Day reported that Andy was ready to walk down aisle with Rebecca.

A source told the magazine: 'Andy knows how serious Bec is about their future together and she has walked away from their relationship before when he refused to get serious.'
She had jetted overseas to undergo surgery on her bust, after being subjected to cruel jibes from trolls on social media.

And appearing in high spirits as she returned from her trip to Prague on Friday, Jessica Shears was spotted clutching onto the hand of her supportive co-star boyfriend Dom Lever.

However, the couple's loved-up appearance was rather overlooked, thanks to Love Island star Jessica's personalised jacket that had 'Jess 4 Dom' emblazoned across the back - yet she kept her renewed assets shielded beneath the ensemble.

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Back on home soil: Jessica Shears touched down in Manchester on Friday after jetting to Prague to undergo a breast reduction after being subjected to cruel remarks about her bust

In her most brazen display of self-promotion yet, Jess appeared to be championing her romance, all while advertising clothing brand Missguided.

She and her beau Dom have previously been mocked for their incessant sponsored posts promoting a slew of products on their social media channels since leaving the Love Island villa.

The couple were also accused of attempting to be the next 'Posh and Becks' after speaking of hosting meet and greets with fans - much to the chagrin of social media.

But undeterred by the backlash, Jess was seen proudly sporting her personalised outerwear as she arrived at Manchester airport.

Brazen: And it seems the brunette bombshell couldn't resist using her flight back as yet another display of self-promotion by sporting a personalised 'Jess 4 Dom' denim jacket

Out there: She and her beau have previously been mocked for their incessant sponsored posts and her outerwear clearly appeared to be advertising clothing brand Missguided on the back

The brunette bombshell was clad in the oversized denim jacket, that featured darker patches at the elbows, form-fitting black leggings and a matching vest top that made sure to cover her cleavage.

She teamed her attire with a pink pair of lace-up boots and donned dark aviator shades, while leaving her glossy mane loose to fall past her shoulders.

Beaming from ear-to-ear, Jess made her way out of the terminal while hand-in-hand with a dapper looking Dom - who appeared to be ever the gentleman, wheeling her suitcase for her.

Smile! Jess and her Love Island boyfriend Dom Lever appeared to be in high spirits as they strolled out of the terminal together

He sported a checked shirt, paired with a white t-shirt underneath, and dark jeans, as well as a pair of slip-on loafers.

Dom couldn't have looked happier to be in the company of his new love, no doubt pleased to see Jess recovering well from her recent op.

The starlet had made sure to document her entire trip, including her journey to the Czech Republic and a video of herself juggling her new plants during a consultation with her surgeon, with her 1.2million Instagram followers.

Going under the knife: The model had jetted off to Prague for a breast reduction, sharing her journey with her 1.2million Instagram followers

Trolled: Jessica previously revealed she had been trolled for her 'weird' breasts since her appearance on ITV2 dating show Love Island

Jess can be seen grinning with excitement as her surgeon juggles two more implants in the background. 'It's happening', she captioned the boomerang video, before adding, '@w1wellness so excited'.

The operation marks Jess' second boob job and she previously confessed she was unhappy with the results of her first breast augmentation.

Jess recently discussed the horrors of getting trolled over her 'weird boobs' - resulting in her now turning to breast reduction surgery.

She admitted she hadn't made a 'well-advised' decision when it came to having the procedure, which inevitably led to her implants being 'too heavy for the skin.'

Jetsetter: The 24-year-old star posted several snaps of herself travelling to the Czech Republic

Second time lucky? The operation marks Jess' second boob job and she previously confessed she was unhappy with the results of her first breast augmentation

Jess, who has been seen happily flaunting her ample assets in a number of sizzling yet perilously plunging ensembles, revealed to OK! magazine: 'Yes, I had my boobs done when I was 20 or 21, but I didnt make a very well-advised decision about them.'

'They didnt turn out great and I suffered a lot of side effects. Ive been looking at getting them reduced,' she continued before confirming she had 'found a surgeon' for the reduction.

Lamenting her '120cc implants' further, Jess admitted that she shouldn't have gone that big 'at such a young age.'

She admitted: 'Ive got rippling and what they call bottoming out, which is when the implant is too heavy for the skin.'

Putting on a brave front! Jess recently discussed the horrors of getting trolled over her 'weird boobs' - resulting in her now turning to breast reduction surgery after 'not making a well-advised decision' about her bust first time round

'I suffered a lot of side effects': Jess, who sizzles in a number of perilously plunging ensembles, candidly admitted her troubles with her busty cleavage

Her comments about her cleavage come after Jess has been flaunting her relationship with partner Dom, after meeting in the Love Island villa during the ITV2 dating show's third series.

Rumours of 'a tryst' with fellow islander Mike Thalassitis had dogged Jess following her early departure from the series, however Dom - who has since had a matching tattoo to Jess etched onto his arm - has insisted that he never had any doubts about her loyalty to him.

He has stuck by Jess following the swirling claims about her and Mike - that the pair have both vehemently denied - and did admit to briefly feeling frustrated after seeing a clip of his girlfriend and Mike on their Love Island date.

'It was a flirty date. It kind of brought everything back up. She was trying to reassure me but I was very annoyed,' he admitted.

'Ive got rippling': Jess admitted that her implants were 'bottoming out, which is when they are too heavy for the skin'

Correcting the problem: The sizzling star confirmed she had 'found' a surgeon for a breast reduction

'For a minuscule amount of time (I was annoyed), I'd never seen the date and never saw what happened on it. She said it's just how it is, you have to have a flirt on the date.

And discussing whether their love had flourished or faded since leaving the Island, Dom said: 'Obviously I feel like we're great. Being in the villa there's only so much you can accomplish and I feel like we did it all - other than being official.'

But nodding towards the future, he suggested that marriage was very much on the cards down the road.

'We've not spoken about it now we've come out but that is the natural step - not right now - but in time. She's all ready to go,' the handsome Mancunian star added.

Romance: This comes after Jess has slipped back into her partnership with Dom after they met in the Love Island villa

Rumours: Talk of a tryst with fellow islander Mike Thalassitis dogged Dom's girlfriend Jess Shears following her departure from the villa

Falling in love: Dom had a heart-to-heart with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning where he spoke about his burgeoning relationship with the Devon-born beauty

Wedding bells: Nodding towards the future, he suggested that marriage was very much on the cards down the road

'Jess and I were on a really good run. If it carries on like that outside the villa then I do see myself proposing. I fell in love with her.

'It was so difficult for me to admit that to Jess. I cried when she left the villa. I've cried more in the last four weeks than I have in the last ten years of my life.'

Seperately, Jess has also been speaking about the pair's sex life, now that they are away from prying eyes and can enjoy their privacy.

They had been the first couple to sleep together on Love Island's current series and claiming the pair have been more 'experimental' now they are not in view of cameras, Jess told Daily Star: 'It's very grabby and rough, we're both up for experimenting.
Trisha Paytas has left the Celebrity Big Brother house - shortly after being saved by the public in Friday night's tense eviction.

The Youtube blogger was seen ranting that her housemates were 'so f**king narcissistic' and 'self-absorbed' while sitting on the stairs leading to the door moments before she left.

It's not known if the 29-year-old, who was voted to remain in the house while Apprentice star Karthik Nagesan was booted out, will get her full pay cheque after lasting 11 days on the show.

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Farewell: Trisha Paytas has left the Celebrity Big Brother house - after being saved by the public in Friday night's tense eviction

Trisha was seen threatening to leave at the very end of Friday night's show, as it cut to live footage of her ranting while being comforted by Brandi.

Perching on the stairs, she vented: 'They're so f**king narcissistic, I've never met more self-absorbed people. It's crazy it blows my mind.'

Brandi seemed to agree, murmuring: 'These cliques that are happening. I don't enjoy that, it's making me crazy.'

A Big Brother spokesman said: 'After 11 days in the Celebrity Big Brother summer 2017 house, Trisha has decided to leave of her own accord and will not be returning.'

Not happy: The Youtube blogger was seen ranting that her housemates were 'so f**king narcissistic' and 'self-absorbed' while sitting on the stairs leading to the door moments before she left

Unclear: It's not known if the 29-year-old, who was voted to remain in the house while Karthik Nagesan was booted out, will get her full pay cheque after lasting 11 days on the show

While Rylan Clark said on CBBOTS: 'Trisha has decided to leave the Big Brother House. Make sure you tune in to tomorrow's night show for all of the fall out and the reasons why.

'So all is left for me to do she came here to turn us on but now it's time for me to turn her off.'

Trisha's departure comes after she blasted Sarah Harding in a scathing expletive-ridden rant on Thursday night.

Furious: Perching on the stairs, she vented: 'They're so f**king narcissistic, I've never met more self-absorbed people. It's crazy it blows my mind'

Threatening: Trisha was seen threatening to leave at the very end of Friday night's show, as it cut to live footage of her ranting while being comforted by Brandi

Consoling: Brandi seemed to agree, murmuring: 'These cliques that are happening. I don't enjoy that, it's making me crazy'

She branded the Girls Aloud star a 'f**king dog' and a 's**t' in a tirade to Chad Johnson while ranting about being up for nomination.

Trisha's rant began as she broke down in the bedroom to Bachelorette star after it was revealed that she was up for the live eviction alongside Sarah, Karthik Nagesan, Trisha Paytus and Chad.

'Shes a f**king b***h, shes a f**king c**t to people. She's f**king ignoring me,' she vented.

Chad then conceded that he thought Sarah was a 'nice girl' and reminded him of an 'old dog' he had who no-one liked but he did.

Expletive-ridden: The Youtube blogger, 29, branded the Girls Aloud star, 35, a 'f**king dog' and a 's**t' in a tirade to Chad Johnson while ranting about being up for nomination

Tensions brewing: Celebrity Big Brother's Trisha Paytas blasted Sarah Harding in a scathing expletive-ridden rant on Thursday night

Oh dear: She added: 'Shes a f**king b***h, shes a f**king c**t to people. She's f**king ignoring me'

Backtracking as he realised what he said, he apologised and said he didn't actually see Sarah as a 'dog'.

But in retaliation, Trisha vented: 'She is a f**king dog and a s**t. I cant wait for her to go. She's a fake f**king person.

'Shes a clingy f**king b***h to you, I don't know if you guys have a connection or something.

Chad said: 'She has some issues. Sarah's the girl I wish I could get to be cool with everyone.' Trisha said furiously: 'She's not cool, she's the only I cant f**king stand.'

Raising eyebrows: YouTube sensation Trisha sent tongues wagging with her outrageous ensemble and lewd sexual confessions as she joined the Big Brother House last week

Meanwhile Trisha admitted in the Borehamwood mansion that she's undergone liposuction, fat transfer and Botox.

Trisha later revealed to the reality cast that she had gone under the knife to get breast implants, enhanced lips and regularly uses hair extensions.

She has also discussed her past as an exotic dancer that started when she was just 18 and a stint as an escort, where she reportedly earned an eye-popping $50,000 for one session.

Before taking up residence in her temporary UK abode, Trisha revealed to the Daily Star that her days as an escort helped to build her confidence as well as her bank balance.
ELKO  After serving with the Elko Fire Department for 20 years and seeing people on some of the worst days of their life, Capt. James Riordan is retiring to another lofty vocation.

Riordan is moving to Kanab, Utah, to give aviation tours in his single engine propeller plane starting this fall.

Aviation has always been a passion for Riordan, who said he was unable to join the Air Force after failing the eye test.

He has enjoyed working with his fellow firefighters for the past two decades, but is looking forward to starting the next phase of his life.

Riordan said he has been into planes since the day he was born  literally.

I was flying day one. The day I was born, I was put in an airplane and flown to Reno because I was very premature, he said. I was in an incubator, and the doctor came up in his own airplane and flew me to Reno. I blame it all on that day.

The Elko native is moving away, but his family has been in the area for five generations.

Riordan said he appreciated the opportunity to serve the community where he grew up, but noted that responding to emergency situations can be particularly stressful when he knows the person in trouble.

Its difficult. A lot of times you know the house, and you get in there and you know the person, he said. I actually responded to my grandfather who passed away, which was a pretty difficult time. At the same time, it was nice to be able to be there when he passed.

One of the positives of working in a community where he was recognized was seeing the children he spoken to about fire safety in school grow up.

Fire Chief Matt Griego said it was a pleasure to have Riordan involved in community outreach programs.

He has always put the citizens of Elko at the forefront of everything he does, he said. He has been passionate with the youth of Elko in teaching fire safety in the schools, so itll be sad to see him go, but Im glad hes moving on into something that hes truly passionate about.

Aside from the fact that it reminds him of his age, Riordan said he enjoys how children have remembered him after all these years.

Ive literally watched kids in the early years that were in kindergarten, and now theyre graduating college and getting married. Nothing like that to make you feel old, he said. I was at the grocery store, and the girl thats checking me out at the checkout stand was like, Fireman James, do you remember me? I was in kindergarten at Grammar No. 2. Its so fun when they can remember you as adults.

Now that he is leaving the department, Riordan said he is hoping to create more memories for the people who go on his aviation tours.

The area where hell be flying will give him a birds-eye view of national forests and part of the Grand Canyon. Flight tours will soar at more than 5,000 feet in the air.

Although Riordan had to get over his fear of heights when the department required him to climb ladders, he said he is looking forward to getting up to altitude on a more regular basis.

He said he will enjoy flying above southern Utah but that the view up above this area will probably remain one of his favorites.

I picked that airplane up in Georgia and flew it clear across the country to get here, and the prettiest landscape was coming into southern Utah and coming home, he said. You cannot beat the mountains we have here in the West.
He's no stranger to wearing works of art created by the world's top fashion designers.

And as he takes a break from modelling with a break in Sydney, supermodel Jordan Barrett has shown off his artistic side, splattering canvases with paint as he relaxed with friends on Friday.

But the 20-year-old hunk soon found himself the target of his mates and was pelted with paint as they hung out by the beach.

Showing off his artistic side! A shirtless Jordan Barrett is pelted with paint by friends as they splatter canvases with colour for art project in Sydney

The Byron-Bay born model hung out on a beach cliffside in Sydney with a group of friends.

Jordan showed off his slender tanned torso in a pair of white boardshorts, opting to wear a beige jacket when he got chilly.

After selecting their spot on the rocks, the model and his mates set up their canvases and got to work.

Stylish: Jordan showed off his slender tanned torso in a pair of white boardshorts, opting to wear a beige jacket when he got chilly

Finding the perfect spot: Jordan and his friends clambered over the rocks in their search of the right place

Starting their painting: After selecting their spot on the rocks, the model and his mates set up their canvases and got to work

Jordan soon offered himself up for the first art project, which appeared to involve the group pelting one of them with paint in front of a blank canvas.

Spreading his arms wide open, Jordan bravely posed in front of the blank square of material as his friends enthusiastically splattered paint on him.

The hunky model didn't seem to mind the paint however, laughing and smiling as the pelting of colour continued.

Sacrificial lamb? Jordan soon offered himself up for the first art project, which appeared to involve the group pelting one of them with paint in front of a blank canvas

All in a day's fun: Despite being covered in paint, Jordan looked happy

Arty type: Jordan is no stranger to wearing works of art by the world's top fashion designers

Had fun: The hunky model didn't seem to mind the paint laughing and smiling as the pelting of colour continued

After his turn was finished Jordan joined in splattering paint on another male friend who posed in front of the canvases.

The art project appeared to be thirsty work for Jordan, the model later stopping to take a sip of water.

While the hunky blond was enjoying the most of Sydney's unseasonably warm weather, winter temperatures soon kicked in, with Jordan putting his jacket back on.

Practicing? Jordan enthusiastically pelted the canvases with bottles of paint

Having fun: The Byron-Bay born model hung out on a beach cliffside in Sydney with a group of friends

Wait for it: Spreading his arms wide open, Jordan bravely posed in front of the blank square of material as his friends enthusiastically splattered paint on him

Jordan was at the beach on Thursday as well, shooting a photo editorial at Bondi Icebergs.

'Every day is work or every second day is work and then you fit the days to have fun after in-between,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'I'm just lucky to be able to travel every two days.'

Getting back: After his turn was finished Jordan joined in splattering paint on another male friend who posed in front of the canvases

Hope it doesn't hurt! Jordan's friend shut his eyes tight as the group pelted paint

Finishing touches? One of the model's pals used a brush to paint another canvas

It's not the first time Jordan has shown off his artistic side with the model's eyewear Instagram account Heavily Sedated sharing racy and naked photos.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Jordan defended the racy pictures, arguing they were artistic.

Those photos are all art. It's an art account. It's all art, every image on there,' he said.

Supervising: At one point Jordan took a back seat from painting as his friends got to work

Developing his brand: It's not the first time Jordan has shown off his artistic side with the model's eyewear Instagram account Heavily Sedated sharing racy and naked photos

'Those photos are all art': Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Jordan defended the racy pictures, arguing they were artistic.

'What everyone else thinks is raunchy... Some people don't': Jordan maintains the 'art' account separately to his main, personal Instagram account, which also features racy imagery.

Jordan maintains the 'art' account separately to his main, personal Instagram account, which also features racy imagery.

He said: 'What everyone else thinks is raunchy... Some people don't, it's everyone's opinion'.

Jordan is in Sydney this week, attending the David Jones Spring-Summer Launch on Wednesday night.

Relaxed: The hardworking model appeared carefree and happy as he fooled around with his friends

Back home: Jordan is in Sydney this week, attending the David Jones Spring-Summer Launch on Wednesday night

Ladies' man: During his short time in the spotlight Jordan has been linked to a number of beautiful women including Lara Stone, Paris Hilton and Bella Hadid

Surveying their handiwork: The group later admired their artwork

The 'bad boy' of fashion cut a dapper figure at the event, rubbing shoulders with fellow model Montana Cox and Today host Karl Stefanovic.

Discovered at the age of 14, Jordan has gone on to model for some of the biggest names in the business such as Balmain, Tom Ford and Vogue.

He has also been linked to some of the world's most beautiful women, with his rumoured paramours including Bella Hadid, Lara Stone and Paris Hilton.

Jordan previously returned to Australia for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in May, where he was reportedly paid $100,000 to walk down the runway once in the Justin Cassin fashion show.

Parched? The art project appeared to be thirsty work for Jordan, the model later stopping to take a sip of water

Boy wonder: Jordan is one of the world's most successful male models, modelling for Balmain and Tom Ford

Walked in one show: Jordan previously returned to Australia for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in May

Good paycheck! Jordan was reportedly paid $100,000 to walk down the runway once in the Justin Cassin fashion show
She is no stranger when it comes to flashing the flesh, having spent several weeks parading her bikini-clad frame on camera for the third series of Love Island.

But Montana Brown almost left nothing to the imagination, as she braved a potential wardrobe mishap by donning a VERY daringly cut mini dress on Friday night.

The reality star, 21, had joined her girl pals for a night out at Neighbourhood nightclub in Manchester and dared to bare all, thanks to her frock's eye-wateringly high split at the front.

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Girls only! Montana Brown, 21, appeared to relish the opportunity to head out with her friends in Manchester on Friday night

Montana opted for a slinky grey-hued number that sheathed her gym-honed frame.

And throwing caution to the wind when it comes to the fashion rule book, the brunette beauty chose to flaunt both her assets and her slender pins in her revealing outfit choice.

Montana's dress featured a plunging bandeau neckline that drew plenty of attention to her bust and boasted a provocative split at the front that sat high up on the starlet's thigh - just about covering her modesty.

She teamed the scanty design with a pair of black lace-up heels and was seen clutching onto her evening essentials in a complementing envelope clutch.

Cheeky! The Love island beauty managed to avoid an embarrassing wardobe mishap, as she dared to bare all, thanks to her frock's eye-wateringly high split at the front

Risque: Throwing caution to the wind when it comes to the fashion rule book, the brunette bombshell chose to flaunt both her assets and her slender pins in her revealing outfit choice

The Love Island beauty wore her locks down past her shoulders in a voluminous style that boasted glamorous curls and she finished off her night's attire with a flawless make-up look.

As she joined a female companion outside the popular venue, Montana appeared in great spirits, throwing her head back in delight as she joked with her friend.

Her girls' night out in Manchester comes just days after Montana confirmed her split from her co-star beau Alex Beattie.

She and the hunky Geordie lad had got together while starring on Love Island over the summer and made it to the final week of the series, before getting booted out of the villa shortly before the show came to a close.

Moving on? As she joined a female companion outside the popular venue, Montana appeared in great spirits, throwing her head back in delight as she joked with her friend following her split from Alex Beattie

Fans had been hooked on the starlet's romance with Alex and the duo had made their relationship official on the show, with Alex telling Montana he loved her.

She was careful not to reciprocate his feelings, however, and claimed she hadn't wanted to say the same back, as she wanted to mean it when she first dropped the L-word.

Despite leaving her beau red-faced, Montana stuck by her decision and defended herself while appearing on This Morning following their exit: 'I dont love Alex yet, no. I'm being true to myself.'

Shortly after returning to the UK, Alex and Montana had been hit by split rumours, but put on a defiant display of unity for the Love Island reunion show.

All over: Montana's appearance in Manchester came just days after she confirmed herself and Alex (above) are no longer together

The pair have since confirmed their separation, with Montana taking to Twitter recently to tell fans that she and Alex are no longer together.

She penned: 'Alex and I have decided to split.

'Making our relationship work on the outside has been hard. He hasn't been the same since coming out of the villa. Despite this we are still close and I will always support him.'

Alex, meanwhile, had revealed that the pair had met in person to discuss their future as a couple, deciding that it would be best for them to instead part ways.

He had shared his own emotional statement about the split, after Montana alluded that he had been at fault, and promised to remain supportive of his onscreen love.

'It's been very hard to make it work': They had got together on Love Island's third series and had been plagued by split rumours, before Montana confirmed their break up via Twitter

Alex shared on his Instagram story: 'Me and Montana met yesterday and have decided that it's best to call it a day with relationship with each other.

'It's been very hard on the outside to make us work how we desired. I still have strong feelings towards her and will be remaining close friends and supporting her throughout everything.'

It was previously claimed that Montana had faked her feelings in the villa as part of a 'game plan' to scoop the 50,000 prize fund. The couple were said to be at odds when Montana refused to post a picture of them together on social media, according to The Sun.

'He hasn't been the same since coming out of the villa': She appeared to take a swipe at the Geordie hunk while announcing the sad news to fans of the pair

A source told the publication: 'Montana had everyone fooled. She played a game in the villa and Alex is only beginning to realise that now.

'He watched all the other couples happily post on Instagram and begged Montana to do the same so he knew her heart was in the right place but she refused.'

Love Island, meanwhile, has kick-started lucrative modelling careers for the duo.

Montana is preparing to fly out to America as part of her new role as a brand ambassador for online retailer PrettyLittleThing, while Alex has appeared to follow suit and bagged himself a six-figure deal modelling with Boohoo.
Bryan Cranston got caught having sex on a train on his honeymoon.

The Breaking Bad actor and his wife Robin recently celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary and Bryan, 61, has opened up about the embarrassing incident which happened when they were enjoying a post-wedding break in Europe.

He told chat show host Conan O'Brien on Thursday: 'My beautiful wife Robin and I, who celebrated our 28th anniversary recently, we were in Europe for our honeymoon and one of the parts of the trip was to go from Switzerland to Italy, and they said, 'Take the train.'

Whoops! Bryan Cranston and his wife Robin Dearden were caught having sex on a train on his honeymoon (pictured 2017)

'The travel agent said, 'By the way, the third tunnel is 50 minutes long. It's traditional for honeymooners to take advantage of that time.'

'We're reclining, going, and we're enjoying our love making. Within a short period of time, I start seeing the features of my beautiful wife's face, and I'm thinking my eyes are getting acclimated to this... Within seconds, WHAM, we're out in broad daylight.'

Bryan revealed that the pair were entirely visible to their fellow passengers and Robin panicked.

Unfortunate circumstances: Bryan revealed that the pair were entirely visible to their fellow passengers and Robin panicked (pictured 2016)

He added: 'And my gorgeous wife says to me those three words you always want to hear, 'Get off me.''

Meanwhile, Bryan recently revealed how thankful he is that his career didn't take off until he was older as he was able to create a 'solid foundation' throughout his 20s without fame getting in the way.

Asked how he thinks his life would have turned out if he was famous in his youth, Bryan told The Guardian: 'I'm grateful it happened later, because I was able to develop a sound foundation of my life without any level of fame given to a boy.

Down to Earth: Meanwhile, Bryan recently revealed how thankful he is that his career didn't take off until he was older as he was able to create a 'solid foundation' throughout his 20s without fame getting in the way (pictured in August)

'One of the traps in being a celebrity is, there's a certain curfew that I have in my mind. If I'm out in public, every time I feel it, I look at my watch to see what time it is, and almost invariably, it's around 10:30 pm. I'm starting to feel a waning of the evening. The energy has changed. I attribute it to alcohol. My wife and I squeeze each other's legs, and it's time to leave.'

He has 151 TV and film credits stretching back to 1968 when he landed a small role in One Life To Live when he was just 12.

But Bryan became a megastar when he starred as Walter White in Breaking Bad, which ran on AMC from 2008 to 2013.
Jason Dundas is a successful model, TV presenter and media entrepreneur.

But the 35-year-old has credited Ryan Seacrest for 'saving and creating his career.'

The Penrith-born heartthrob revealed he based his presentation style on the American Idol host after he was fired from his first hosting gig at 20-years-old.

'He saved and created my career!' Jason Dundas credited Ryan Seacrest for 'saving and creating his career'

Speaking to Yahoo Be!, he explained that he had won in a contest to host a show on MTV despite having no television experience.

He was let go with only a month into the role and used his devastating loss as motivation for self-development.

'I looked for people who inspired me, and Ryan Seacrest had just started and he was ruling it so I watched everything he did religiously,' he said.

King of TV hosting: The 35-year-old revealed he based his presentation style on the American Idol host after he was fired from his first hosting gig on MTV at 20-years-old

Inspiration: Jason said 'I looked for people who inspired me, and Ryan Seacrest had just started and he was ruling it so I watched everything he did religiously'

'I imitated and copied and used the way he interviewed and talked, even down to how he held the mic and his cards. He was a huge inspiration to become that TV host.'

'Ryan Seacrest saved and created my career, it's crazy,' he added.

This comes after Jason was not seen on the runway of the David Jones Spring Summer launch after his contract with the high end department store finished in July.

Career success: 'I imitated and copied and used the way he interviewed and talked, even down to how he held the mic and his cards'

'(David Jones) asked me what I wanted to do. I was like, "Well, I had an awesome time." It naturally came to an end,' he told the Herald Sun.

'I worked with David Jones for five years. It went above and beyond what I expected. I'm stoked,' he continued.

For the past year he has been focusing his attention on creating highly-produced content for brands.

'Ive been watching the market shift to the second screen (online, mobile, socials). Its an exciting time and a massive opportunity.' he told the publication.
She's been spending some of her summer in beautiful Jamaica.

And Ashley Graham continued to be the envy of all her fans as she shared yet another picture perfect bikini snap from her travels on Friday.

The 29-year-old model seemed to suggest it was the last day of the getaway as she captioned the photo: 'Until next time.'

Fun in the sun! Ashley Graham continued to be the envy of all her fans as she shared yet another picture perfect bikini snap from her travels on Friday

Ashley sported a black bikini with sheer sides at the bottoms as she posed with her hair blowing in the breeze.

Playing with her hair, the star rocked a pair of sunglasses and hoop earrings.

Aside from getting in some fun in the sun, Ashley also lived it up with her girlfriends.

The model shared a fun snap of herself in a bikini as she and and a gal pal covered up in confetti.

All that glitters! The model shared a fun snap of herself in a bikini as she and and a gal pal covered up in confetti

Splish splash: Ashley also shared a snap of herself in the water with her pals

Ashley has been in Jamaica, working on a photo shoot for her new Swimsuits For All campaign lately.

The model has become the spokesperson for the full figured woman and has given a voice to a new generation of females embracing their curves.

However, she does not enjoy the use of the term 'plus size' for models or women in general as she told The Cut.

'Its like, "Plus what?" ' she said. 'Thats something Ive always been told: "Youre not good enough because youre plus-size." '

She added, 'Im not here to ban the word from the dictionary.'
The stunning blonde DJ is not shy of taking risks when it comes to fashion.

And DJ Havana Brown turned heads on Friday night at a VIP event for Belvedere Vodka as she showed off her toned stomach in a revealing fishnet top.

The 32-year-old posed with confidence as she rocked leather trousers and a transparent top with smiley face patches over her assets.

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Sheer beauty! DJ Havana Brown flaunts toned stomach in revealing fishnet top as she performs at VIP Belvedere Vodka event in Melbourne on Friday night

Havana flaunted cleavage in the low-cut leotard, as she strategically covered her bosoms with the quirky design.

The recording artist and producer accessorized her bold look with a choker-style necklace and silver rings.

She let her blonde locks down in messy waves as she posed with bottles of vodka.

Happy days! Havana hinted to a glimpse of cleavage in the low-cut leotard, as she strategically covered her bosoms with the quirky smiley face patch design

Her makeup was flawlessly applied, with blush tones used over her cheeks and lips.

Havana made a surprise midnight appearance at the VIP, event hosted by super premium vodka brand Belvedereto, to help celebrate the launch of the new illuminated magnum The Midnight Sabre.

The dancer showed off her moves to the crowd, as she assisted with the grand reveal of the Belvedere House installation at Ms Collins, officially open to VIP guests from midnight.

Stunning! Her makeup was flawlessly applied and let her blonde locks down in messy waves as she posed with bottles of vodka

Havana then took to the stage to DJ a set for the hyped-up crowd from a raised platform.

Australian model and actress Olympia Valance also attended the launch of Belvedere Midnight Sabre as the brands VIP guest.

Belvedere House, a custom built pop-up space, will remain at Ms Collins until the end of October

Hyping up the crowd! Havana made a surprise midnight appearance at the VIP, event hosted by super premium vodka brand Belvedereto, to help celebrate the launch of the new illuminated magnum The Midnight Sabre
She gave birth to her first child, Jett last month with husband Dane Rumble.

And on Saturday, Nikki Phillips took to Instagram to share a photo with her adorable three-week-old son.

Enjoying her motherhood bliss, the 33-year-old said she was still getting to know her bub.

Stunner: On Saturday, Nikki Phillips took to Instagram to share a photo with her adorable three-week-old son, Jett

'As a new parent, everyday I'm learning,' she wrote.

'However somedays you're filled with constant worry and doubt. If you've seen my insta stories you'll know I refer to a book, given to me by my sister whenever I need guidance on great tips and tricks to get through these tough early stages.'

Wearing a Gucci t-shirt in the image accompanying the caption, the stunner was seen looking mesmerized by her little boy.

New addition: 'As a new parent, everyday I'm learning'

Learning: 'Somedays you're filled with constant worry and doubt. If you've seen my insta stories you'll know I refer to a book, given to me by my sister whenever I need guidance on great tips and tricks to get through these tough early stages'

Nikki teamed her look with a pair of denim jeans as she cradled Jett on her lap.

The shot also featured the book Baby Whispering written by New Zealand baby whisperer Sharlene Poole.

Last month, Nikki took to Instagram to share the happy news of her new arrival.

Welcome to the world! Last month, Nikki took to Instagram to share the happy news of her new arrival

'Our handsome little man is here...born 17.07.17 at 8:47am weighing 3.5kg and height 53.5cm (yup has my legs),' she captioned.

'We are so smitten and all doing well. Thank you to my amazing Insta fam for all your loving messages. We feel extremely blessed and our hearts are exploding.

Earlier in the year, the Kiwi born beauty revealed on The Morning Show that she had suffered three miscarriages before Jett was conceived.
She became one of the UK's most in-demand models after being spotted by a model scout at the age of 19.

And more than than two decades later, Lisa Snowdon, now 45, has proven she still looks incredible by stripping off to a skimpy black bikini on holiday.

The brunette beauty flaunted her enviably toned stomach and lean body by doing an impromptu photoshoot on a pier in Croatia, while a man looked on in bemusement as he continued on his daily business behind her.

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Ageless beauty: Lisa Snowdon, 45, flaunted her enviably toned body in a skimpy black bikini while joking around with friends on a pier in Croatia on holiday

The gorgeous model-turned-TV presenter looked sensational in the clip, filmed by a friend, as she posed up a storm by the water in her tiny swimwear.

The busty beauty showcased her gym-honed body and golden bronze tan in a black halterneck bikini as she gleefully threw her hands in the air and beamed for the camera.

She kept her trademark long brunette locks tousled and loose, and wore minimal make-up for her day at sea.

Clearly in a playful mood, Lisa had her friend film her as she did a little dance in her swimwear before getting dressed again, after her unseen pal threw shorts, a t-shirt and handbag into the shot from off-camera.

Playful! The brunette beauty fooled around with a friend who filmed her posing on a pier looking incredible in her bikini, as a local man looked on behind in bemusement

Giggling girl: the former Britain's Next Top Model host struggled to contain her laughter as the camera rolled. She became one of the UK's top models after being by scouted at the age of 19

A man seen behind her tending to his boat looked on in bafflement at Lisa's antics, but that didn't stop her having fun on the outing.

She told fans: 'I love that I had a little friend in the back going about his business.

'[My friend] told me I was giggling too much - she can be quite bossy when directing it turns out. It was hard not to laugh!'

A slew of admirers were quick to leave compliments on Lisa's video, including ex TOWIE star Jessica Wright, who said: 'Your body is amazing Lisa.'

Lisa replied: 'Ahhhh thanks Jess! That's lovely coming from you!'

Natural beauty: Lisa kept her brunette tresses loose and tousled, and opted for a minimal make-up look for her day at sea

Lisa told FEMAIL back in May: 'Youre never too old to look good in a swimsuit or bikini if youre canny about it.'

She added: 'Ive just discovered high-waisted, Fifties-style pants, which are super flattering, and you wont have to worry about eating paella for lunch or having a couple of cocktails.

'Be proud of your body. I certainly am.'

'We can all be self-critical, but as Ive got older Ive tried to focus on the good things: Im healthy, happy and have lots of people who love me, so I accept myself warts and all.

'I am lucky because Im tall  just a tiny bit short of 5 ft 10 in  and my skin is good.'

And that's a wrap! The stunning model ended the video fully dressed again, after her pal threw shorts, t-shirt and a handbag into the shot for her

Lisa's had a pretty amazing 2017 so far, after kicking off the year by announcing her engagement to boyfriend George Smart in January.

She told The Sun's Fabulous magazine: 'I feel very content about everything and Im in a good place.

'George is a really lovely man. Hes selfless, honest, kind, wise, calm and thoughtful. The list is endless. Im very lucky!'
She describes herself as a champion of body diversity and self-confidence.

And Iskra Lawrence, 26, looked every inch the body hero last night when she poured her curves into a pair of racy figure-hugging PVC trousers and a skimpy backless top to attend a party in Los Angeles.

The blonde British beauty turned heads as she arrived for a glam bash at The Grove shopping mall celebrating the upcoming Beautycon Festival.

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Body hero: British model Iskra Lawrence, 26, turned heads in a skintight PVC trousers and a backless top at the Beautycon Festival party in Los Angeles on Friday night

The stunning model flaunted her incredible curves in a skintight pair of shiny black PVC trousers, which she teamed a pair of bright red stiletto heel boots that had a certain Wonder Woman vibe about them.

She showcased her enviably toned back and arms by going braless in a tiny backless black vest, featuring thin spaghetti straps across her shoulders and around her back.

The skimpy top featured a low cut neckline, giving onlookers a peek at the beauty's cleavage when she doubled over laughing.

It also revealed gorgeous Iskra had been sunbathing in a bikini recently, as a tan line was visible across her back.

Busty beauty: the blonde superstar looked every inch the body confidence hero in her racy ensemble

Having fun: the pretty model appeared to be in high spirits as she shared a laugh with pals at the glitzy party, which was held at The Grove shopping mall

Hostess with the mostess: Iskra is hosting the main stage at Beautycon LA on Saturday. The event features make-up gurus, social media influencers and more

Looking golden bronzed and radiant, the in-demand British model was the centre of attention at Friday night's pre-Beautycon party, kicking off the main festival which starts August 12.

She kept her make-up relatively au naturel, option for a dewy base, rosy pink blush and a slick of pink lip gloss.

Adding a bit of glam to the look was a smoky slate grey eye with cat winged eyeliner and groomed brows.

Legs eleven! The stunning model flaunted her incredible curves in a skintight pair of shiny black PVC trousers, which she teamed a pair of bright red stiletto heel boots that had a certain Wonder Woman vibe about them

Chest a glimpse! She showcased her enviably toned back and arms by going braless in a tiny backless black vest, featuring thin spaghetti straps across her shoulders and around her back

Iskra finished her party ensemble by arranging her golden blonde tresses in a plaited ponytail, wrapping hair around the knot of her pony to complete the slick look.

The busty beauty has become known as a champion of unretouched photos, and often happily poses with no make-up on social media.

In an interview with FEMAIL last year, she said: 'I want to show that every person deserves to feel beautiful and love themselves no matter what other people say or what they see in the media.

Tan-tastic: The skimpy outfit revealed gorgeous Iskra had been sunbathing in a bikini recently, as a tan line was visible across her back

Natural beauty: She kept her make-up relatively au naturel, option for a dewy base, rosy pink blush and a slick of pink lip gloss

'Instagram has changed my life both personally and professionally. It is has given me a platform to help young women and men who struggle with body-image and self-esteem, which were issues that I dealt with growing up.

'For so long, we've only seen one standard of beauty in the media, which has caused so many people, including myself, to feel unworthy and think that their bodies are not good enough.'

Iskra will be at the Beautycon festival to host proceedings on the main stage on Saturday.

Making a statement: Iskra wore her blonde tresses in an intricate plaited ponytail, which kept the locks off her back and allowed her backless top to take centre stage

Girls' night out: Iskra was joined by hair stylist and make-up artist Leah London and US Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad

Speaking ahead of the weekend's festival, Iskra told Beautycon: 'I'm a huge advocate for responsible retouching in photos. Instagram filters can be fun, they need to be used responsibly.

'I think we have a responsibility to put out images that are realistic and attainable.

'I want people to feel good about themselves when they see photos of me, not worse!

'Instagram has been a great platform for me to take control of the images that people see of me. I post real, un-retouched photos of myself and I make sure my followers know what they are seeing is the real me, flaws and all.'

Making a stand: Iskra began her campaign to promote body diversity and confidence after being told she was both 'too big' for catwalk modelling and 'not big enough' for plus size jobs
She has been getting over the heartache from her split with ex husband Romain Zago eight months ago.

And Joanna Krupa proved she was well and truly looking to the future as she made a showstopping and busty appearance at celeb hotspot Catch restaurant in Hollywood on Friday.

The Real Housewives of Miami alum, 38, made sure all eyes were on her as she donned a futuristic strapless dress, covered in gold holographic sequins, with a plunging sweetheart neckline which showed off her surgically enhanced assets.

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Holographic beauty: Joanna Krupa proved she was well and truly looking to the future as she made a showstopping and busty appearance at celeb hotspot Catch restaurant in Hollywood on Friday

Molten metal: The Real Housewives of Miami alum, 38, made sure all eyes were on her as she donned a futuristic strapless dress, covered in gold holographic sequins, with a plunging sweetheart neckline which showed off her surgically enhanced assets

The figure-hugging frock clung to the star's slender waist and flared out into a statement bell bottom skirt, grazing the star's toned and shapely thighs.

The Polish beauty wore her blonde tresses sleek and straight, parted on the side and flowing over her shoulders.

Her sparkling peepers were accentuated with metallic eyeshadow and fluttery lashes with her plump pout slicked with pearlescent pink gloss.

California dream: The figure-hugging frock clung to the star's slender waist and flared out into a statement bell bottom skirt, grazing the star's toned and shapely thighs

Honed: The Polish beauty wore her blonde tresses sleek and straight, parted on the side and flowing over her shoulders

Leggy: Her sparkling peepers were accentuated with metallic eyeshadow and fluttery lashes with her plump pout slicked with pearlescent pink gloss

Tanned: The star looked like a vision of beauty as she disembarked from her car

New love? The bombshell also posed for a sweet snap with rumoured love interest, restaurateur Nico Santucci, who she has been linked with since May

Clearly excited about the prospect of a fresh seafood dinner, the star couldn't stop flashing the peace sign as she made a leggy entrance into the restaurant, showing off her gym toned frame.

Adding height to her already statuesque frame, she slipped on matching metallic gold sandals,

The look was completed with a boxy metallic clutch and a candy pink manicure.

The bombshell also posed for a sweet snap with rumoured love interest, restaurateur Nico Santucci, who she has been linked with since May.

Chill: Clearly excited about the prospect of a fresh seafood dinner, the star couldn't stop flashing the peace sign as she made a leggy entrance into the restaurant, showing off her gym toned frame

Metallic glamour: Adding height to her already statuesque frame, she slipped on matching metallic gold sandals

The onetime Dancing With The Stars contender married Romain Zago in 2013, however they separated in December.

She filed for divorce last month, and claimed in court documents the union is 'irretrievably broken.'

A report US Weekly ran prior to this alleged she'd become romantically involved with businessman Nico, and the magazine have quoted a source who's gossiped that 'Joanna and Nico are feeling it out and like each other. Theyve been hanging out.
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She is recovering after undergoing a breast reduction in Prague this week.

And Jess Shears proved she had bounced back from her surgery, and was even feeling a little confident about the results, as she stepped out with beau Dom Lever in Halifax on Friday.

The Love Island star, 24, looked beautiful as she showed off a hint of her new cleavage in a plunging jade silk blouse covered in gold flowers which had been strategically unbuttoned.

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No worries: Jess Shears proved she had bounced back from her surgery, and was even feeling a little confident about the results, as she stepped out with beau Dom Lever in Halifax on Friday

Hot couple: The Love Island star, 24, looked beautiful as she showed off a hint of her new cleavage in a plunging jade silk blouse covered in gold flowers which had been strategically unbuttoned as she held hands with her beau, 26

The beautiful blouse, which featured a knotted waist that clung to the star's slender midriff, was teamed with ivory high-waisted jeans that flaunted her toned legs and curvaceous hips.

The model styled her brunette locks into soft waves and parted on the side.

Her make-up look featured smoky eyeshadow and fluttery lashes teamed with a berry lip, topped off with a healthy dose of bronzer.

Leggy: The beautiful blouse, which featured a knotted waist that clung to the star's slender midriff, was teamed with ivory high-waisted jeans that flaunted her toned legs and curvaceous hips

Loved up: Her make-up look featured smoky eyeshadow and fluttery lashes teamed with a berry lip, topped off with a healthy dose of bronzer

Brushing off any post-surgery blues, the star looked happy and confident as she flashed a beaming smile and held onto her handsome love's hand

Perhaps giving a nod to her status in the outside world, Jess showed off her phone case, emblazoned with the word Queen.

Jess was painting the town red in Yorkshire to support Dom on the latest stop on his 40 date club tour, for which he was widely ridiculed.

Dom, 26, looked hunky in a mint green oversize t-shirt paired with his signature ripped jeans, which showed off his many tattoos and muscular frame.

Jess travelled to Prague to undergo her second boob job after she previously confessed she was unhappy with the results of her first breast augmentation.

Smiles all round: Dom, 26, looked hunky in a mint green oversize t-shirt paired with his signature ripped jeans, which showed off his many tattoos and muscular frame.

Curves ahead: Jess was painting the town red in Yorkshire to support Dom on the latest stop on his 40 date club tour, for which he was widely ridiculed

Cheery: Brushing off any post-surgery blues, the star looked happy and confident as she flashed a beaming smile and strolled with her handsome love

The starlet had made sure to document her entire trip, including her journey to the Czech Republic and a video of herself juggling her new implants during a consultation with her surgeon, with her 1.2million Instagram followers.

Jess, who has been seen happily flaunting her ample assets in a number of sizzling yet perilously plunging ensembles, revealed to OK! magazine: 'Yes, I had my boobs done when I was 20 or 21, but I didnt make a very well-advised decision about them.'

'They didnt turn out great and I suffered a lot of side effects. Ive been looking at getting them reduced,' she continued before confirming she had 'found a surgeon' for the reduction.

Lamenting her '120cc implants' further, Jess admitted that she shouldn't have gone that big 'at such a young age.'

Buxom: Jess travelled to Prague to undergo her second boob job after she previously confessed she was unhappy with the results of her first breast augmentation

Curvy: The starlet had made sure to document her entire trip, including her journey to the Czech Republic and a video of herself juggling her new implants during a consultation with her surgeon, with her 1.2million Instagram followers

Sizzling: Jess, who has been seen happily flaunting her ample assets in a number of sizzling yet perilously plunging ensembles, revealed to OK! magazine: 'Yes, I had my boobs done when I was 20 or 21, but I didnt make a very well-advised decision about them'

She admitted: 'Ive got rippling and what they call bottoming out, which is when the implant is too heavy for the skin.'

Her comments about her cleavage come after Jess has been flaunting her relationship with partner Dom, after meeting in the Love Island villa during the ITV2 dating show's third series.

Rumours of 'a tryst' with fellow islander Mike Thalassitis had dogged Jess following her early departure from the series, however Dom - who has since had a matching tattoo to Jess etched onto his arm - has insisted that he never had any doubts about her loyalty to him.

Tangerine dream: Fellow axed Islander Chloe Crowhurst, 21, was also spotted out and about on Friday night as she rocked a burnt orange halterneck dress in London

Legs for days: The blonde beauty slipped on the unusual thigh-grazing dress, which featured tassels and a ivory lace body, and flashed her slender and tanned pins in metallic strappy stilettos

Fellow axed Islander Chloe Crowhurst, 21, was also spotted out and about on Friday night as she rocked a backless burnt orange halterneck dress in London.

The blonde beauty slipped on the unusual thigh-grazing dress, which featured tassels and a ivory lace body, and flashed her slender and tanned pins in metallic strappy stilettos.

Opting for her usual bombshell make-up look she wore copious amounts of smoky eyeshadow, massive false eyelashes and lashings of lipgloss on her pillow-lipped pout.

Her blonde locks were worn in a bouncy blow-dry.
She recently revealed she was pregnant with a baby girl, 20 months after her split from Formula One ace husband Jenson Button.

And Jessica Michibata, 32, looked every inch the proud mother-to-be as she revealed her blossoming bump in a semi sheer negligee on Instagram this week.

The Japanese model, who was in a relationship with Jenson, 37, for seven years, tenderly cradled her beautiful baby bump as she took a mirror selfie while clad in the racy black and gold number.

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Bumping along nicely: Jenson Button's ex-wife Jessica Michibata, 32, looked every inch the proud mother-to-be as she revealed her blossoming bump in a semi sheer negligee on Instagram this week

Proud: The Japanese model, who was in a relationship with Jenson, 37, for seven years, tenderly cradled her beautiful baby bump as she took a mirror selfie while clad in the racy black and gold number

Keeping the focus on her bump, the stunning star partially obscured her striking features with her phone, but showed off natural fluttery lashes, with her glossy brunette tresses swept up into an elegant half up-do.

She teased a glimpse of her ample cleavage and toned legs in the negligee, and added a pop of colour with a scarlet manicure.

The star accessorised with diamond stud earrings.

Jessica excitedly revealed her baby news on Instagram last month, sharing a joyful snap showing her holding a 'baby girl' cake and captioned 'So grateful for my #babyshower #itsaGIRL'

Blessed:Jessica excitedly revealed her baby news on Instagram last month, sharing a joyful snap showing her holding a 'baby girl' cake and captioned 'So grateful for my #babyshower #itsaGIRL'

Expecting: Other sweet snaps show the bikini-clad brunette beauty lovingly cradling her blossoming bump on the beach with the caption 'Feeling summery and blessed'

Other sweet snaps show the bikini-clad brunette beauty lovingly cradling her blossoming bump on the beach with the caption 'Feeling summery and blessed' with another swimsuit snap under a waterfall entitled 'Can't wait to take my baby for hike again!'

Last month the clotheshorse showed off her growing belly in a lycra crop-top and and skintight leggings as she got in a gym workout, writing' Feeling better and started to exercise again'

Further sweet snaps show Jessica enjoying a prenatal massage and displaying her rounded bump while enjoying a pool day with her pooch in Hawaii.

Special delivery: Last month the clotheshorse showed off her growing belly in a lycra crop-top and and skintight leggings as she got in a gym workout, writing' Feeling better and started to exercise again'

Excitement: Jessica joyfully captioned a swimsuit snap under a waterfall 'Can't wait to take my baby for hike again!'

The identity of the father of Jessica's baby remains unknown.

Jessica and Jenson - who tied the knot in a lavish Hawaiian ceremony in December 2014 called time on their relationship just one year later but remain on good terms.

A spokesperson for Jenson told MailOnline at the time: 'Jenson and Jessica have decided to go their separate ways and it is very amicable. There is no one else involved.'

Jenson and Jessica first met in 2008 in a hotel bar in Tokyo and began dating eight months later.

Past love: Jenson and Jessica first met in 2008 in a hotel bar in Tokyo and began dating eight months later (pictured six months before their split in June 2015)

Their relationship experienced ups and downs and they split for a short time in 2011 before the McLaren star proposed on Valentine's Day 2014, with a ring worth 250,000.

Unlike conventional married couples, Jenson revealed the pair did not live together throughout their marriage due to their busy careers.

'We don't see each other any more than before we were married,' he admitted in an interview with Mail On Sunday in 2015.

The TAG Heuer model shared a modest flat with her mother in Tokyo, while the sportsman's home is in tax haven Monaco.

'Jessie still works a lot in Japan,' he went on to explain. 'She enjoys her job, she models, she had a television show and has done a Japanese film.

'Prenatal massage': The star shrouded her blossoming bump in a flowered shirt as she went for a prenatal massage

Expectant: Jessica offered a glimpse of her baby bump in this cute snap of her pooch

Moved on: Jenson has since gone on to find happiness with former Playboy model Brittny Ward, 27, who he started dating three months after the split

'She enjoys working, which is great, but it obviously means that we dont see each other very often.'

Jessica - born to an Argentine father and a Japanese mother - had often been seen supporting her husband from the sidelines as he took part in the world's biggest races.

Jenson has since gone on to find happiness with former Playboy model Brittny Ward, 27, who he started dating three months after the split.

The star, who has formally retired from F1 racing, is currently enjoying a sunsoaked break on the Amalfi coast with his girlfriend, with the pair seen packing on the PDA as they smooched and hugged one another.

Smitten: The star, who has formally retired from F1 racing, is currently enjoying a sunsoaked break on the Amalfi coast with his girlfriend, with the pair seen packing on the PDA as they smooched and hugged one another
She's the actor and author who shot to fame in the comedy series Kath & Kim.

And on Saturday, Magda Szubanski was photographed looking radiant at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

There for the premiere of her latest film, Three Summers, the 56-year-old stunned in a conservative ensemble.

Stunner: On Saturday, Magda Szubanski attended the Melbourne International Film Festival for the premiere of her film Three Summers

Magda sported a mesh top over a black singlet, the lace overlay creating romantic layers.

Adding a blazer with cuffed sleeves to the ensemble, she teamed her look with straight cut black pants.

Taking out her shoe polish, Magda donned pristine, patent leather, laced-up dress shoes.

Stylish: Magda sported a mesh top over a black singlet for the red carpet event

Legends: Looking happy to be at the event, Magda also found a moment to pose between co-star and veteran actor Michael Caton (left) and film director Ben Elton (right)

Magda accessorised her look with a large silver statement necklace and ring.

Donning a fresh complexion, Magda's makeup featured rosy pink cheeks and a natural pale pink lip.

Looking happy to be at the event, Magda also found a moment to pose between co-star and veteran actor Michael Caton and film director Ben Elton.

Leading star: Also attending the festival was lead actress Rebecca Breeds

Stunner: Donning a metallic black full length dress, the star looked stunning

Fashionable: Rebecca paired the statement dress that featured velvet sleeves with blue pumps

Also attending the festival was leading star Rebecca Breeds, who is a former Home and Away alum.

Donning a metallic black full length dress with a puffed skirt and sweetheart neckline, the star looked stunning.

The statement dress featured velvet sleeves, and she added some colour with a pair of blue pumps.

Cute couple: Posing with her husband and former Home And Away co-star Luke Mitchell, the actress was gleaming

Bold: Joining the Australian cast, Irish actor Robert opted for a bold look for his film debut

Three's not a crowd! Rebecca who both sings and acts in the movie was also seen taking some photos with Ben as well as her leading co-star Robert Sheehan

Posing with her husband and former Home And Away co-star Luke Mitchell, the actress was gleaming.

Taking to Instagram earlier in the day, Luke who was wearing a coordinated blue suit encouraged his 375,000 followers to watch Rebecca's film.

Rebecca, who both sings and acts in the movie, was also seen taking some photos with Ben as well as her leading co-star Robert Sheehan.

Not shy at all: Wearing a classic white shirt and black blazer, the star also donned sequence pants and patterned boots

Co-stars: There for the premiere of her latest film, Three Summers, Rebcca and Robert posed together

Joining the Australian cast, Irish actor Robert opted for a bold look for his film debut.

Wearing a classic white shirt and black blazer, the star also donned sequined pants and patterned boots.

The movie, which also features actress Deborah Mailman, will be in cinemas from November 2nd.
Elliot Wright, 36, has been catching up with his former TOWIE crowd as they film the latest series in Marbella.

But it was his fiancee Sadie Stuart, 24, who stole the show when the cast made an appearance to film at Elliot's restaurant Olivia's La Cala on Saturday.

The ex reality star's lover sizzled in her tiny scarlet skirt, which drew attention to her sun-kissed legs with its eye-catching floral belt tied at the waist.

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Must be love! Elliott Wright and his fiancee Sadie Stuart look madly in love as they head to their eatery Olivia's La Cala on Saturday afternoon

Showing off her bronze Spanish tan, Sadie also teased a glimpse of her ample assets in the scooped neckline of her white tank top.

Boosting her petite frame, the brunette beauty headed out in sky-scraper high platform sandals.

The former TOWIE's wife-to-be swept her glossy locks into a high ponytail to keep her tresses off her face, which was accentuated by smoky eyed make-up.

Going strong: The pair decided to get engaged after enjoying a 10-month whirlwind romance

With the beautiful woman on his arm, it is no surprise Elliot looked like the happiest man in the world strolling through the sunny street with her hand in his.

Dressed for his forever holiday, he wore a slim-fitted black tee, sunglasses and white cut-off shorts perfect for the sweltering Spanish climate.

The Essex native swapped TOWIE cobbles for sunny Marbella after falling madly in love with his now-fiancee Sadie.

Pins of parade: The ex reality star's lover sizzled in her tiny scarlet skirt, which drew attention to her sun-kissed legs with its eye-catching floral belt tied at the waist

He chased his dream and opened up a glamorous eatery Olivia's La Cala in Costa Del Sol, where they set initially their sights on each other.

But no doubt the hunk was pleased when his former co-stars descended on the Spanish city to film the latest series, which will air in September.

Former The Only Way Is Essex star Elliot, who has stayed in close contact with James 'Arg' Argent, invited his pals down to his restaurant to film and get a bite to eat.

Standing tall: The brunette beauty headed out in sky-scraper high platform sandals

Dressed for his forever holiday: The heartthrob wore a slim-fitted black tee, sunglasses and white cut-off shorts perfect for the sweltering Spanish climate

Completely smitten, he popped the question after just 10 months of dating to which Sadie said yes.

The public were briefly introduced to Sadie during an episode of Elliott's reality show Playa In Marbella last year, following his exit from The Only Way Is Essex.

Speaking in July, he told MailOnline: 'I knew she was "the one" because my kids love her!'

The Only Way Is Marbella: The Essex native swapped TOWIE cobbles for sunny Marbella after falling madly in love with his now-fiancee Sadie

Missed you! The Only Way Is Essex cast film at former co-star's restaurant in Marbella

Elliott, who quit TOWIE last year to move back to Spain, has two children - Elliott, 10, and Olivia, seven - from his marriage to Joanne McGuinness.

Gushing about his fiancee, he said: 'Sadie is stunning, she's incredible. My children love her.

'That's important for any parent. If it was the case my children didn't like her, or she wasn't interested, then it would be a no go area.'

Fun in the sun: The hunk was pleased when his former co-stars descended on the Spanish city to film the latest series (pictured Elliot with Gemma Collins, Sadie and Bobby Norris)

Friendly: Bobby looked happy to be reunited with his pal

Super close: Gemma and Bobby looped arms as they headed to meet their pal Elliot and his girlfriend at the restaurant
She is embroiled in a acrimonious divorce battle with estranged husband James Stunt.

But Petra Ecclestone put her marital woes aside for an evening as she enjoyed a girls night out in West Hollywood on Friday.

The billionaire heiress, 28, failed to raise a smile as she put on a leggy display in a denim bardot dress, which featured a crossed hem that showcased her tanned, slender pins.

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Sombre: Petra Ecclestone put her marital woes aside for an evening as she enjoyed a girls night out in West Hollywood on Friday

Her blonde tresses were swept up into an elegant ponytail and she enhanced her sparkling peepers with smoky eyeshadow, fluttery lashes and liner.

Completing her make-up with a swipe of bronzer and frosted pink gloss on her lips, the mother-of-three looked effortlessly glamorous for her night on the tiles.

She added height with scarlet stiletto sandals.

Keeping her accessories simple and sparkling she wore diamond stud earrings.

Leggy: The billionaire heiress, 28, failed to raise a smile as she put on a leggy display in a denim bardot dress, which featured a crossed hem that showcased her tanned, slender pins

Polished: Her blonde tresses were swept up into an elegant ponytail and she enhanced her sparkling peepers with smoky eyeshadow, fluttery lashes and liner

Petra has been in Los Angeles for the last week, enjoying a family holiday with her children, along with sister Tamara, her husband Jay Rutland and daughter Sophia, three.

Petra had initially postponed her trip with her children to attend the case management hearing to decide how to split her 5.5 billion fortune with the businessman - but James could not attend the hearing due to being in hospital.

The battle could go down as the biggest divorce settlement in celebrity history.

Petra's father, 86-year-old tycoon Bernie Ecclestone admitted that it was 'frustrating' for her to have postponed her holiday, only for James not to come to court due to being in hospital.

The former chief executive of Formula 1 said: I dont know what is going to happen in October if he is ill again. It is frustrating for Petra. It would be better for her to get it over with.

Moving on: Petra has been in Los Angeles for the last week, enjoying a family holiday with her children, along with sister Tamara, her husband Jay Rutland and daughter Sophia, three

Petra is fine, she understands that this is the way the world goes around. She will now have to wait until October unless he [James] pulls out with an ingrowing toenail or something.

A full hearing has been scheduled for October which is due to last for two days.

The former couple are expected to fight over their 158million mansion in Los Angeles and a Grade II-listed home in London's Chelsea, worth up to 100million.

A family court hearing earlier this year was told Mr Stunt had signed a prenuptial agreement worth 16million.

Bernie told MailOnline: 'Under the circumstances she is doing okay. Her priority has always been the children and that is what she is focusing on.'

Divorce: The battle between Petra and estranged husband Jame Stunt could go down as the biggest divorce settlement in celebrity history

Six years ago the couple married at Odescalchi Castle in Rome in front of 350 guests and were serenaded by an array of pop stars in a glitzy 12million wedding.

They share three children Lavinia, four, and two-year-old twins James Jr and Andrew.

Petra has hired lawyer Baroness Fiona 'Steel Magnolia' Shackleton, who represented Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce battle with Heather Mills.

The court heard last month that James, once rumoured to be worth 3.3billion, was abusive, violent and took overdoses during his marriage to the heiress.

The businessman, who runs an international gold bullion firm, was accused of behaving in a 'disgraceful' and 'unedifying' way prior to the hearing on June 27.
She's a stunning Victoria's Secret model known for her incredible physique.

So it may come as no surprise that Sara Sampaio, 26, was more than happy to flaunt her pert bum and toned abs in a very racy cowgirl outfit while shooting a new Victoria's Secret campaign.

The brunette beauty was clearly in a playful mood as she shared some very cheeky behind the scenes snaps after joining her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels for a sexy new photoshoot in Aspen, Colorado.

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Cheeky chappie: Victoria's Secret Angel Sara Sampaio, 26, looked incredible as she flaunted her model physique and very pert bum while filming the Victoria's Secret Holiday 2017 campaign

Channelling her inner cowgirl, the Portuguese stunner highlighted her supermodel figure in a delicate white lace bra and matching thong knickers.

And while chaps aren't usually considered the height of fashion or synonymous with sex appeal, Sara managed to pull off a pair of cream tasseled chaps with model confidence.

Adding a sturdy brown leather belt, she posed with her back to the camera, allowing everyone to get a glimpse of her perky rear, which was visible through the crotchless leg covers.

Wearing a cowboy chat and dipping her head to the camera, the sultry star posed with her fingers in a cocked gun gesture.

Her glossy dark brown locks were styled in loose waves down her back, while she kept her make-up simple with a smoky eye and lined pink pout.

Unusual look: the brunette beauty was clad in lacy white lingerie and leather chaps for day one of filming in Aspen, Colorado

What a view! The Portuguese stunner highlighted her perky derriere by standing with her back to the camera while wearing a white lace thong

That could be a problem! The cheerful model joked alongside this snap: 'I could be a cowgirl except I don't get along with horses!'

Having fun? The star appeared to be in a playful mood as she joked around with crew members in a behind the scenes shot

The catwalk stunner posed in front of a pile of chopped wood before moving indoors for the next shot, where she was seen casually leaning on a dressing table and gazing at the camera.

Sara looked radiant for her shoot having just enjoyed a sun-drenched holiday across Europe with millionaire boyfriend Oliver Ripley.

The loved up couple went island hopping between the likes of Mykonos, Ibiza and Menorca on a luxury yacht before it was time for Sara to return to the US and get back to work.

Three new sheriffs in town! Sara joined Elsa Hosk and Taylor Hill for a sultry photo during a break in filming

But all good things must come to an end, and Sara was back at work for Victoria's Secret this weekend as she joined the likes of Jasmine Tookes, Elsa Hosk. Taylor Hill and Josephine Skriver to shoot the Victoria's Secret Holiday 2017 campaign in the beautiful Aspen mountains.

Details of the campaign have been kept under wraps for now, but judging from the girls' attire it will have a bit of a wild west theme.

In one photo posted between takes, Sara cosied up to Elsa and Taylor for a photo in a log cabin, showing them sporting matching chaps, cowboy hats and plunging white lace bras.

While Sara and Taylor were both clad in leather chaps, blonde Elsa was given a more sultry pair of white lace chaps that clung to her long pins.

Natural beauty: beautiful Taylor struck a pose in a white lingerie set and leather chaps while enjoying the great outdoors

Beautiful: Elsa, Jasmine Tookes and Josephine Skriver wrapped themselves in white towels for a selfie while changing clothes behind takes

Stunning Taylor also flaunted her incredible abs and toned arms in another behind the scenes shot, standing outdoors with the beautiful Aspen background taking centre stage behind her.

She wore a white bra and high-waisted matching knickers, once again teamed with the ubiquitous chaps that appeared to be the common theme running throughout the day's filming.

Elsa also joined Jasmine and Josephine Skriver for a pretty selfie, which highlighted their flawless makeup.

All three women were wrapped in white towels as they changed clothing behind the scenes, and gave their best come-hither look to the camera during their brief break from shooting.

Smitten couple: Sara has just been holidaying across Europe with millionaire boyfriend Oliver Ripley. The loved up couple went island hopping between the likes of Mykonos and Ibiza
She's living her best life as she films the latest series of TOWIE with her co-stars in Marbella.

And Amber Turner drew attention to her hourglass curves and toned tummy when she slipped into a slinky swim gear at the poolside in Marbella, Spain on Saturday.

Emerging from the water in Baywatch-esque fashion, the reality star, 23, pulled off a wet look as she flaunted her generous cleavage in the barely-there bikini top.

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Sizzling: Amber Turner drew attention to her hourglass curves and toned tummy when she slipped into a slinky swim gear at the poolside in Marbella, Spain on Saturday

The Only Way Is Essex beauty left little to the imagination in the skimpy thong-style bottoms which showcased her pert derriere.

Keeping up her glamorous looks, the golden-haired beauty swept her glossy locks into a neat bun and touched up her features with a light dusting of make-up.

Amber showed holiday mode suited her down to the ground, accessorising her beachwear with mirrored sunglasses to shield her eyes from the blazing sun.

Baywatch beauty! The Only Way Is Essex beauty flaunted her pert derriere in the skimpy high-cut bottoms

What a figure! She left little to the imagination in the slinky bikini

Feeling hot, hot, hot: The reality star pulled off a wet look as she flaunted her generous cleavage in the barely-there bikini top

Glamorous looks: The golden-haired beauty swept her glossy locks into a neat bun

The Essex native looked blissfully happy as she embarked on her second series of TOWIE.

Amber joined the TOWIE cast with her boyfriend of four years at the time Jamie Reed, 34, who was making his comeback to the show after leaving in 2012.

But she kicked off the series by cheating on him with co-star Dan Edgar, 26, in Tenerife which brought their long term relationship to an end.

Wow: She put her incredible body on display as she topped up her tan in the blistering Spanish sunshine

Holiday vibes: Amber looked utterly relaxed as she lounged by the pool

Cooling off: The blonde bombshell splashed around in the pool, pulling on her mirrored shades for protection from the sun

Windswept: The beauty let her golden locks down as she sat by the poolside

Jamie put his heartache behind him when he moved on with brunette model Jade Lewis.

It comes after Amber turned up at Jamie's house uninvited in May and persistently called his phone when he was on another holiday with his new girlfriend.

Jamie confessed it was hard being around his former flame following their dramatic break up and would even like her to move to Australia for some time.

Round two: The Essex native looked blissfully happy as she embarked on her second series of TOWIE

Chill out time: She joined The Only Way Is Essex stars in the Spanish city

Speaking on The Showbiz Show, he said: 'Its all kind of settling down now. With my ex girlfriend and what she did - the Twitter response has been so nice.

'The people on the streets have been so nice. I dont want to say that it has wasted 4 years... I just hope that she is happy.

'But I would like Amber to spend a couple of years in Australia. In the nicest possible way! So in a couple of years time we could meet and say what happened.'

Sunny spell: Amber joined the TOWIE cast with Jamie Reed, 34, who was making his comeback to the show after leaving in 2012

Happier times: Jamie and Amber were seeing each other for four years

Shocker: But she kicked off the series by cheating on him with co-star Dan Edgar, 26, in Tenerife

Flying solo: It brought their long term relationship to an end
They're The Block couple who are pulling out all the stops to impress the judges with their renovations.

And on Sunday, host Scott Cam revealed Blockheads Ronnie, 44, and Georgia, 33, are sometimes not liked among the other contestants.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, the 54-year-old said the pair are only there for themselves.

Tension: On Sunday, host Scott Cam revealed Blockheads Ronnie, 44, and Georgia, 33, are sometimes not liked among the other contestants

'Ronnie and Georgia take no prisoners,' he said.

'They really want to win each and every week. With Ronnie it is his way or the highway. If someone asks for a favour he'll go 'no'. At times people (other contestants) have hated him.'

With their 'in it to win it' attitude, tonight will see the pair make Block history when they finish their guest bedroom in record time.

In it for themselves: 'With Ronnie it is his way or the highway. If someone asks for a favour he'll go 'no'. At times people (other contestants) have hated him'

Speaking to OK! Magazine, Georgia said they found this week easy.

'We'd done the main bathroom the week before, so we thought this week [the guest bathroom], was comparatively easy,' she said.

Finishing the night before, the pair headed out to celebrate their record breaking success.

Breaking history: Finishing the night before, the pair headed out to celebrate their record breaking success

'We had massages, had our hair done and then headed off for a night at the movies.'

But it wasn't all smooth sailing for the couple during last episode after Georgia was rushed to hospital.

After 'slicing' her foot on nails and tools in the middle of the night, the mother-of-three was left getting four stitches.
Filming commitments continued in earnest as Gemma Collins reunited with former cast-mate Elliott Wright in Malaga on Saturday morning.

The Only Way Is Essex star was in high spirits as she joined Elliott, his fiancee Sadie Stuart and close friend Bobby Cole Norris outside Olivias La Cala, the beach-front restaurant he opened in 2015.

Opting for a sweeping canary yellow summer dress with a bold plunging front that exposed her cleavage, Gemma, 36, was camera-ready as they prepared to film scenes inside the Spanish eatery.

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Here she comes: Filming commitments continued in earnest as Gemma Collins made an appearance in Malaga on Saturday morning

The TV personality added to her look with a pair of seasonal sandals, while heavily tinted sunglasses and a stylish oversized handbag rounded things off.

With Elliott, 36, previously ruling out a return to TOWIE, Gemma and Bobby, 30, were on hand to make cameo appearances in his forthcoming new ITVbe show.

A follow-up to the well-received Playa In Marbella, it will follow Elliott and Sadie as they prepare for their wedding.

Happy reunion: The Only Way Is Essex star was in high spirits as she joined Elliott Wright, his fiancee Sadie Stuart and close friend Bobby Cole Norris outside Olivias La Cala, the beach-front restaurant he opened in 2015

Dressed for summer, Elliott wore a slim-fitted black tee, sunglasses and white cut-off shorts perfect for the sweltering Spanish climate.

The Essex native swapped TOWIE cobbles for sunny Marbella after falling madly in love with his now-fiancee Sadie.

He chased his dream and opened up a glamorous eatery Olivia's La Cala in Costa Del Sol, where they set initially their sights on each other.

Busy girl: Gemma was evidently keen to kill two birds with one stone during her trip to Spain, having previously filmed scenes for the latest TOWIE special in Marbella

Close friend Gemma was evidently keen to kill two birds with one stone during her trip to Spain, having previously filmed scenes for the latest TOWIE special in Marbella.

But her arrival in the Spanish coastal city got off to a less than auspicious start following an 'awkward' run-in with James 'Arg' Argent.

Their encounter reportedly came after a year of silence prompted by Gemma revealing she secretly slept with James in Marbella - just hours after he rekindled a romance with childhood sweetheart Lydia Bright.

Sources claimed Gemma 'apologised' for confessing to their romp on TV, while James said it was all 'water under the bridge'.

Appropriate attire: Dressed for summer, Elliott wore a slim-fitted black tee, sunglasses and white cut-off shorts perfect for the sweltering Spanish climate as he posed for photos alongside Sadie and Bobby

'They havent spoken in so long, it was uncomfortable,' an insider told The Sun. 'Gemma apologised for what happened. Arg is in a very positive mindset right now and just wants to focus on the future.

'He wasnt keen to discuss what happened  as far as hes concerned its all water under the bridge.'

It's understood that their conversation wasn't caught on camera and won't be aired on TOWIE's upcoming season in September as James won't return to the show until much later in the year.
He miraculously survived after his 2million electric supercar flipped over and burst into flames on a hillside in Switzerland in June.

And just two months after the horrific crash, Richard Hammond was back in the driving seat and cheering elatedly as he sped down an open road.

The Grand Tour star, 47 - who suffered a fractured knee - became emotional as he admitted that he had fantasised about being behind the wheel 'all this time'.

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Back on the road: Just two months after his horrific crash, Richard Hammond was back in the driving seat and cheering elatedly as he sped down an open road

Gleeful: The star flashed a beaming smile as he got back behind the wheel after his horror crash

The father-of-two posted the gleeful clip of what appears to be his first drive since the crash on DriveTribe.

In the clip captioned: 'Today I took my First Drive since my recent visit to Shuntsville', he yelled joyfully: 'I'm back, oh yeah!

'This feels better than the first time, being 17 and given the keys to freedom because this time, I'm ready.'

Richard, who incredibly walked away from his crash with just an injured knee, then praised his medical staff, gushing: 'This is beautiful, thank you doctors, thank you.

Fightback: Richard looked animated as he excitedly gestured while driving

Back in business: In the clip captioned: 'Today I took my First Drive since my recent visit to Shuntsville', he yelled joyfully: 'I'm back, oh yeah!'

Praise: Richard, who incredibly walked away from his crash with just an injured knee, then praised his medical staff, gushing: 'This is beautiful, thank you doctors, thank you'

Horrific: Richard reportedly escaped his horrific 120mph crash by leaping out of the supercar before it erupted into a fireball. Pictured, showing X-rays of his knee after the smash

Wreckage: Pictures from the scene of Richard's crash showed the Rimac Concept One car in flames alongside a road in St. Gallen

'I shouldn't even be sharing this moment, it feels too personal right now ... I mean I'm dressed, but I feel like I'm not,' he joked.

The presenter then became choked up, admitting: 'This is where I've been all this time, in my head. I can go anywhere.'

In a reference to the botched mountain race, he said: 'Wales is over there, it's got mountains in it, there's a ghost I need to exorcise, I'm going there.'

Richard left the nation aghast in June, when he crashed while filming a mountain race in Switzerland.

He was driving a 2million Rimac Concept One supercar when it tumbled down a slope and burst into flames.

Brave: Richard Hammond has showed off his new electric wheelchair just weeks after escaping a 120mph horror smash which saw his car turn into a 'fireball'

The badly shaken former Top Gear presenter managed to escape from the burning car before it erupted into a fireball, suffering a fractured knee.

The car burned at temperatures of 1200 to 1500 degrees and was hosed with cold water for eight hours before a tow truck could safely remove it.

Former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May feared Richard Hammond was dead following a horror crash in Switzerland.

On the cup: Appearing to be in good spirits, Hammond described his new customised electrical vehicle to fans

Past trauma: During his time as part of the Top Gear team, Hammond suffered a high-profile crash in 2006 while filming a driving stunt which left him in a coma for two weeks and with brain injuries

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Grand Tour executive producer Andy Wilman said: 'Jeremy and James both raced down to the scene of the crash as soon as it happened. When they saw the wreckage on fire they thought Richard was dead. It was really bad.

'They were staggered he had got out of it alive, because there was just nothing left. Everyone is so relieved. If Richard had been a few seconds slower getting out, he would have been incinerated.'

And during his time as part of the Top Gear team, Hammond suffered a high-profile crash in 2006 while filming a driving stunt which left him in a coma for two weeks and with brain injuries.
Justin Bieber has been looking for love on Instagram.

A woman named Jessica Gober has claimed that the pop icon contacted the Savannah gym she works at after he saw her on its Instagram page.

'Did this actually just happen... lmao Justin Bieber just messaged the gym that I work at and asked who I was hahahaha WTF,' Jessica tweeted Wednesday.

Outreach! A woman named Jessica Gober has claimed on Twitter that Justin Bieber contacted the gym she works at after seeing her on its Instagram page

She uploaded a screen-grab of messages from an account called 'Justin Bieber' reading: 'Who is that girl,' then a heart emoji, then '? In ur latest post'.

Fitness on Broughton in Savannah, Georgia had posted a Boomerang on Instagram earlier this week that showed Jessica posing with an energy drink can.

Jessica posted a screen-grab of that as well.

She also uploaded a couple of screen-grabs showing that the avatar next to Justin's messages did indeed match the one on the pop star's Instagram page.

Full of screen-grabs! 'Did this actually just happen... lmao Justin Bieber just messaged the gym that I work at and asked who I was hahahaha WTF,' Jessica tweeted Wednesday

Smitten! She uploaded a screen-grab of messages from an account called 'Justin Bieber' reading: 'Who is that girl,' then a heart emoji, then '? In ur latest post'

Unfortunately for Justin, Jessica replied to her original tweet with another one that featured several photos of her cozying up to her boyfriend.

'I've got everything I need right here,' she wrote with a heart emoji.

Maxim have reported Jessica is 22 years old and manages the front desk at the gym, as well as working as a trainer there.

Plugging the product! Fitness on Broughton in Savannah, Georgia had posted a Boomerang on Instagram earlier this week that showed Jessica posing with an energy drink can

'Everything I need'! Unfortunately for Justin, Jessica replied to her original tweet with another one that featured several photos of her cozying up to the same gentleman

This isn't the first time Justin's used Instagram to try seeking out the identity of someone who's photo caught his eye.

In December 2015 he posted a photo of a girl and captioned it: 'Omg who is this!!'

It emerged she was the Dutch-born Cindy Kimberly, then 17 years old and living in Spain, and by the following February, she'd got a contract with Uno Models.
Ditching the idea of a usual first date, they have jetted to Greece in a bid to help those in need at a refugee camp.

And continuing to document her charitable trip with her Love Island beau, Camilla Thurlow shared a touching post with her 1.3million Instagram followers on Saturday, after being moved by the people she has met during her time there.

The reality star, who has been accompanied by Jamie Jewitt overseas, explained she was feeling 'overwhelmed with sadness' after her latest experience that saw her attend an English lesson being held for young women aged 14-17 years old.

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Touched: As her visit to a refugee camp with beau Jamie Jewitt came to a close, Love Island's Camilla Thurlow admitted she has been 'overwhelmed with sadness'

Camilla, who is a keen contributor to charity and had spoken of her hopes to visit a refugee camp with Jamie during her time in Love Island, urged fans to 'do something' to help others in a lengthy message on the photo-sharing site.

She penned: 'On our final day we visited Serres, where survivors from the displaced Yazidi population live in a refugee camp. Organisations are not allowed inside the camp.

'Instead, Lifting Hands provides lessons in a neighbouring park. We attended an English lesson for young women aged 14 - 17yrs old. Under the shade of a tree, the class spoke of their desire to become doctors, lawyers, and journalists.

'Every single one of them without fail said they wanted to help others - that they know what it feels like to be alone and they never want anyone else to feel the same way.'

Charitable: She had attended an English lesson being held for young women aged 14-17 years old and was left inspired by the people she had met

Inspired: The Love Island beauty explained to her Instagram followers that the young girls, despite having nothing, all had hopes to help others in the future

Camilla continued: 'Despite the absolute horror and inexplicable violence these women have seen, somehow they have chosen love over hatred.

'Watching this group of ambitious, intelligent and compassionate individuals I was overwhelmed with sadness; they will not have the chance to live the life they deserve.'

Praising the organisation running the lessons for the girls for doing an 'incredible job', Camilla explained how seeing them in action had reiterated for her the importance of helping others.

She added: 'Seeing the incredible difference it makes to the lives of the people in the camp reminded me how important it is to do something.

'Do something': Praising the organisation running the lessons for the girls for doing an 'incredible job', Camilla explained how seeing them in action had reiterated for her the importance of helping others

'No, we cannot do everything, we cannot repay the debt conflict leaves when it steals from innocent people's lives - but we can all in our own small way do something.'

Accompanying Camilla's post had been several pictures from the blonde beauty's last few days of her trip. She was seen bonding with the young girls she had met, as well as posing alongside boyfriend Jamie in their charity t-shirts.

Her latest post comes after the humanitarian worker insisted she had been 'humbled' by her refugee camp visit.

In previous Instagram posts, Camilla and male model Jamie shared photos of them helping out at a homeless shelter in Thessalonik, as they revealed they will be making a short documentary to capture their trip on camera.

Doing their bit: Jamie and Camilla have been documenting their philanthropic efforts since arriving in Greece - they had helped out at a homeless shelter in Thessalonik (above)

'Humbled': Male model Jamie also shared a number of sweet videos of him playing with the kids and teaching them guitar (above)

Jamie had also treated his followers to a number of sweet videos of him playing games with the children on his own page.

He and his girlfriend were seen preparing wraps for the refugees, clad in matching fundraising T-shirts with the words 'Choose Love' emblazoned across the front.

The couple, who came second on ITV2's Love Island, then posed in front of a blackboard at the camp - which detailed the impressive amount of provisions they have provided over the last year.

Clearly overwhelmed by the day, Camilla accompanied the snaps with an emotional caption, which read: 'Today we were immensely humbled to join the Soul Food Kitchen team to help with the preparation and distribution of meals to homeless refugees in Thessaloniki.

Helping hands: The pair were first seen preparing wraps for the refugees, clad in matching fundraising T-shirts with the words 'Choose Love' emblazoned across the front

'We met the loveliest volunteers who are not only giving their time here, but are acting as powerful advocates back at home.

'They have made the decision to #chooselove with @HelpRefugeesUK, and their efforts are making an incredible difference to wonderful people trapped in a desperate situation.'

Having announced they are making a short film about their time in the country, she then added to fans: 'The extremely talented @jamiejewitt_ is doing an amazing job of capturing footage of our time here, and we cannot wait to share it all with you.'

Overwhelming: With the trip marking his first time helping out at such a location, Jamie, 27, was also keen to share his day with followers on social media (above)

With the trip marking his first time helping out at such a location, it is no wonder Jamie, 27, was also keen to share his day with followers on social media.

Taking to his story on the site, he shared a snap of him standing in a marquee as he set up an obstacle course for the children - before posting a sweet video of him and Camilla racing round the track with the youngsters.

Having displayed his musical talents on the reality series, the hunk then proceeded to teach the kids to play guitar, before they settled on the sofa to tell them stories for the rest of the afternoon.

Let's go! He first posted a sweet video of him and Camilla racing round the track with the youngsters

'Story time with Cam': The pair then sat down to read the kids stories for the rest of the afternoon

He added of his day: 'Today we were working with the #soulfoodkitchen prepping and packing meals which we then drove around and distributed throughout the streets of Thessaloniki.

'We met multiple homeless refugees and visited their temporary homes, we were even cooked for after being given a tour of a particular groups makeshift settlement.'

Clearly emotional about the experience, he then added: 'What a day.'

What an experience: Sharing another emotional caption to his Instagram, he rounded off his statement with the overwhelmed: 'What a day'

Camilla and Jamie arrived at Greece's Nea Kavala relocation camp last week, where they planned to spend time helping with the refugee crisis.

Bomb disposal expert Camilla and her beau took to Instagram earlier this week to share snaps from their trip, with Camilla calling their time in Greece 'incredible' - amid reports some of their co-stars are charging thousands for nightclub appearances.

The couple have been volunteering with charity A Drop In The Ocean at the refugee camp, which is 20km from the Macedonian border, and are set to make a short film about the organisation's charity efforts.

'Incredible': Camilla and Jamie have jetted out to Greece to at the Nea Kavala relocation camp to help with the refugee crisis after finding love on the ITV show

Overwhelmed by the experience, Camilla wrote on Instagram on Monday: 'Our whole trip has been coordinated by the amazing @hollypenalver founder of @indigovolunteers, and after an exceptional day one we are so excited to see what the rest of the week will bring.

'We will be keeping you updated on a daily basis, and will provide full information on how you can get involved in a short documentary when we get back.'

In the snaps, the couple could be seen distributing bags of food, water and clothing to the refugees present.

Bomb disposal expert Camilla (pictured) and her beau took to Instagram this week to share snaps from their trip, with Camilla calling their time in Greece 'incredible'

The couple have been inseparable since leaving the villa, posting endless loved-up selfies on Instagram and documenting their time together

Calvin Klein model Jamie added: 'I have never had such a rewarding experience.'

Camilla, who is rumoured to have dated Prince Harry, has previously hinted she would like to make documentaries about humanitarian causes.

Their trip comes after the Mirror reported their Love Island co-star Olivia Attwood is charging as much as 10,000 for a public appearance, with winning couple Kem and Amber also raking in thousands.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Olivia for comment.

Helping out: The couple can be seen distributing bags of food, water and clothing in a series of Instagram snaps posted this week

The couple have been inseparable since leaving the villa, posting endless loved-up selfies on Instagram and documenting their time together.

Despite bagging herself a model on the series, Camilla has revealed she struggled with her body confidence while surrounded by her fellow swimwear-clad Islanders.

The softly-spoken reality star - who became the nation's sweetheart during her seven week stint in the Hidden Hills villa - admitted that she questioned her incredible petite frame while in Mallorca, alongside statuesque Olivia Attwood and Tyla Carr.
As parents to two young children, they are surely happy to have any quality time they can spend together.

And on Thursday night in Budapest, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis looked happier than ever as they attended the Sziget Festival.

The married pair were spotted atop of a scaffolding structure taking in Wiz Khalifa's set at the event which was attended by thousands of fans.

The Kutchers: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis enjoyed a date night at Budapest's Sziget Festival on Thursday night

Ashton, 39, has flown to his wife's side as she films The Spy Who Dumped Me in Budapest with Justin Theroux.

Mila, 33, sported a pair of overalls with a white tank top underneath for the concert.

Kutcher wore a black cap and a grey shirt with black pants as they watched the American rapper's set.

So happy together: Though they wed in 2015, they still seemed to have a newlywed bliss

Still in love: At one point the couple engaged in a lively conversation, which caused Ashton to look completely smitten

At one point the couple engaged in a lively conversation, which caused Ashton to look completely smitten.

While on The Howard Stern Show in June, Ashton - who first met the beauty on the set of their sitcom That 70s Show when they were both teenagers - said it was purely sexual.

Though they played boyfriend and girlfriend on their show (he was 19 and she was 14), they had not seen each other in years.

He was busy with his marriage to Demi Moore and Mila was with Macaulay Culkin.

Fans: Thousands gathered to watch American rapper Wiz Khalifa during his set at the festival

All the way up: Eagle-eyed fans caught the Hollywood couple atop the scaffolding at the event

But when they were both single again in 2012, they ran into each other at a party and bonded.

Kutcher and Kunis began dating in 2012, got engaged in February 2014 and wed in July 2015.

They have daughter Wyatt Isabelle, aged two, and son Dimitri, seven months.
They are currently enjoying a trip to Marbella to film the 21st series of The Only Way Is Essex.

And ensuring all attention will be on them as they wrapped yet more scenes in the Spanish party resort, Lauren Pope, Chloe Sims and Georgia Kousoulou all put on an eye-popping display, thanks to their barely-there sartorial choices.

Leading the glamour had been returning TOWIE star Lauren who teased a look at her gym-honed frame in a daringly cut one-shouldered body that left little to the imagination.

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Forgetting something? Lauren Pope appeared to go braless underneath her daringly cut leotard top as she stepped out in Marbella on Saturday night

The DJ looked sensational in her risque attire that left not only her cleavage on display, but ensured her incredibly toned stomach was firmly on view too.

Lauren teamed her cut-out leotard with a pair of black skinny jeans that sheathed her slender pins, adding a leather belt with a gold buckle around the waistband and finishing off her monochrome ensemble with a complementing pair of court heels.

Wearing her glossy mane down in tousled waves that parted in the middle, the Devon-native completed her latest Marbella look with flawlessly applied make up and large gold hoop earrings.

Lauren, who recently had her implants removed, has re-joined the cast of the ITVBe reality series, having previously quit TOWIE in 2015.

Following suit: Her co-stars Chloe Sims and Georgia Kousoulou appeared to do the same as they ditched their bras for two cleavage-enhancing ensembles

Peachy: Lauren paired her risque one-shouldered top with a pair of form-fitting black skinny jeans and monochrome court heels

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Lauren revealed that she was persuaded to make a return during an alcohol-fuelled meeting with the show's producers and her long-standing pal Chloe Sims.

Lauren said: 'I had a drunken night out and I bumped into Chloe Sims and she was with a couple of TOWIE producers. Our meeting was basically drinking cocktails all day and in my tipsy state I agreed to go back!'

Since heading overseas to film for the new series, she has been in close company of Chloe - who wasn't far behind Lauren dresssed in a glamorous bardot number.

She's back! The DJ has returned to the cast of The Only Way Is Essex, after initially quitting the reality series back in 2015

Her pillar box red mini-dress skimmed over the mother-of-one's svelte frame and boasted an eye-wateringly short hemline that Chloe herself was seen grappling with - no doubt wanting to keep her modesty protected as she made her way to the group's latest filming location.

Appearing to forgo her bra just like Lauren had done, Chloe's form-fitting dress hung off of her shoulders and stole a glimpse at the faint tan lines across her chest from her bronzing sessions overseas.

The starlet added a racy pair of faux leather peep-toe heels to her ensemble that elongated her legs and threw an over-sized denim jacket atop her dress - shrugging it off of her shoulders while striking up a smouldering pose for photographers.

Sultry: Lauren was joined by a smouldering Chloe who stepped out in a rather racy outfit that paired together a bardot mini dress and faux leather peep-toe heels

Sensational: Her pillar box red number boasted an eye-wateringly short hemline that left her slender pins firmly on view

Georgia, meanwhile, stepped out in a nude two-piece that hugged her enviable curves and accentuated her sun-kissed skin.

The reality beauty, who is dating her co-star Tommy Mallet, stunned in the ensemble that paired together a ribbed crop top held up by dainty spaghetti straps, that she appeared to go braless underneath.

Its square cut neckline sat low on her bust, drawing attention to her plentiful cleavage, and Georgia flashed a glimpse at her killer abs as she paired her top with a matching mini skirt.

Adding some height to her ensemble, Georgia opted for a pair of clear barley-there heels that tied together around her ankles.

Stunning: Georgia, meanwhile, appeared to go braless underneath a nude two-piece that highlighted her plentiful cleavage, as well as her bronzed pins

Despite being without her beau, Georgia no doubt revelled in the company of her girl pals, with two of her best friends recently joining the TOWIE cast.

Prior to their Marbella trip, a spokesperson for ITV confirmed the addition of Ruby Lacey and Maddie Hooper.

Fans will see the girls make their debut when TOWIE returns to screens next month in September, with a source claiming to The Sun that bosses recruited the girls as a result of Georgia's popularity with viewers.

They said: 'Georgia has become one of the most popular Towie girls ever - she is well-loved with Towie fans and bosses wanted to bring her some mates onto the show.

'Viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more of Georgia and her friends this series.'

New additions: Georgia's best pals Maddie Hooper (L) and Ruby Lacey (R) have joined the cast of The Only Way Is Essex this series

Fitting in: The girls appeared to be right at home already, as they stepped out in seriously glam ensembles - with Ruby opting for a plunging all-in-black ensemble and Maddie a demure checked mini dress

And it seems Ruby and Maddie are fitting in seamlessly with the rest of the cast, as the duo certainly brought their own take on Essex glamour overseas with them.

Stepping out alongside Georgia, Ruby dazzled in an all-black ensemble that left her bust firmly on display.

She sported a pretty blouse that boasted frilled sleeves and tied together in a bow at the chest, ensuring all eyes were on her more than ample assets.

Ruby paired her revealing top with a matching dipped hem skirt, that featured a ruffled edge, and towering lace up heels.

Maddie, meanwhile, opted for a more demure red and white checked number. Her girly design nipped in at the waist with tie-up detailing and included peplum sleeves along with a thigh-grazing ruffled hemline.

Gorgeous: Yazmin Oukhellou, meanwhile, opted for a chic pastel pink blazer dress that skimmed the tops of her thighs

Yazmin Oukhellou, meanwhile, opted for a chic pastel pink blazer dress that skimmed the tops of her thighs.

The brunette bombshell added a studded pair of complementing wedges to her outfit and left her glossy long locks down in a sleek and straight style.

She has been flaunting the results of her recent rhinoplasty surgery. Yazmin had gone under the knife to have surgery on her nose, having previously broken it.

The starlet, who joined TOWIE last series, was spotted in the company of her boyfriend James Lock. He cut a dapper figure in a fitted white shirt and dark jeans and was affectionately clutching onto the hand of his co-star love as they strolled alongside each other.

Smitten: The starlet, who joined TOWIE last series, was spotted in the company of her boyfriend James Lock as they clutched onto each other's hand

Jon Clark also made an appearance out in Marbella, cutting a solo figure in a printed t-shirt, dark jeans and trainers. The cheeky chappy appeared in high spirits as he made his way to filming and later shared a slew of snaps with his co-stars to Instagram.

In his upload, Jon appeared to spark romance rumours with returning star Lauren, as he shared a snap of the duo cuddling up together over dinner.

The former Love Island original simply captioned his shot with a winking emoji, prompting fans to speculate that he and Lauren may have developed a holiday romance - despite her being linked to Dan Edgar.

Flying solo! Jon Clark also made an appearance out in Marbella, cutting a solo figure in a printed t-shirt, dark jeans and trainers

One follower commented: 'Future couple,' while another agreed that the pair were 'well suited'. Another questioned: 'Why aren't you both together?' while one more added: 'Pair of rockets.'

Jon had been in an on and off relationship with Love Island series three star Chloe Crowhurst before jetting out to Marbella.

They had reunited following her stint on the ITV2 dating show, but she revealed the duo had split again at the beginning of August.

More than just friends? The Love Island original teased at a romance with Lauren sharing a snap of the duo cuddling up together, alongside a winking emoji
Downton is dead  long live the Queen! That was the relieved cry when ITV series Victoria last year plugged the considerable gap left in Sunday night schedules after we said goodbye to the Earl and Countess of Grantham and their servants.

And as Victoria returns for a second series, it is easy to see why Downton devotees found it easy to switch allegiances  the similarities between the two shows are striking.

It's easy to see how fans of Downton have swapped to become diehard lovers of Victoria, too

Here, The Mail on Sunday takes a close look at the extraordinary parallels between them. And with the Queen, played by Jenna Coleman, and Tom Hughess Albert about to resume their fiery romance, we reveal tantalising clues as to what to expect when Victoria returns later this month.

Move over, Lady Mary

Victoria and Albert's passion will continue to burn in the new series of the ITV show this summer

Victoria and Albert's passion burns undimmed but, in an echo of Lady Mary and Matthew's relationship in Downton, rows are brewing. In one, Victoria exclaims: 'I am not a woman, I am a Queen. To be a Queen I must rule but to be a wife, I must submit.'

An abbey? We have castles!

With a stack of silverware and candelabras on the table and encircled by footmen, Victoria lays on a sumptuous dinner for her uncle King Leopold (Alex Jennings) that would put even the Earl of Grantham to shame.

This shot is uncannily reminiscent of the Downton opening credits, which shows how fans switch over easily

Victoria lays on a sumptuous dinner for her uncle King Leopold (Alex Jennings) that would put even the Earl of Grantham to shame

But as a carriage sweeps past a castle, the shot is uncannily reminiscent of one in Downtons opening credits.

Look away now, Carson

While in Downton, butler Carson always provided wise guidance, Victoria has poisonous steward Penge, for counsel and her gossiping maids  much like the loose-lipped footman Thomas Barrow and ladys maid OBrien in Downton.

While in Downton, butler Carson always provided wise guidance, Victoria has poisonous steward Penge, for counsel and her gossiping maids

Heirs and spares

In Downton Abbey, the lack of a male heir was the source of all the Crawley familys troubles. But Albert and Victoria had no such worries on that front  a son, the future King Edward VII, arrived 21 months after they wed. Here, the Queen looks every inch the doting mother as she cradles Victoria, the first of her nine children.

The Queen looks every inch the doting mother as she cradles Victoria, the first of her nine children

The acid-tongued duchess

Step aside Downtons waspish Countess  heres another crotchety senior citizen not afraid of taking prisoners.

Dame Diana Rigg stars as the formidable Duchess of Buccleuch, a straight-talking lady-in-waiting not afraid to tell the young Queen exactly what she thinks.

She doesnt like Germans and, yes, that includes Prince Albert.

Dame Diana Rigg stars as the formidable Duchess of Buccleuch, a straight-talking lady-in-waiting not afraid to tell the young Queen exactly what she thinks

Dogged Devotion

The young Victorian is at her most carefree when she is playing with her beloved dog Dash, a King Charles spaniel she was given as a 13-year-old girl. The pair are inseparable just as the Earl of Grantham and his labradors Isis and the Pharoah were.

Victoria's biographer Elizabeth Longford dubbed Dash 'the Queen's closest childhood companion'.

Victoria's biographer Elizabeth Longford dubbed Dash 'the Queen's closest childhood companion'

Veiled Secrets

The young Queen is dressed in mourning garb - not for the death of Prince Albert in 1861, a tragic event too early in her life to be covered in the upcoming second season.

Show insiders say this mysterious funeral touches on a plot twist that turns the Royal world upside down - a crisis to match the death of the Turkish Casanova Kemal Pamuk in Lady Mary's bedroom.

Show insiders say this mysterious funeral touches on a plot twist that turns the Royal world upside down

P.S. Where is Lord Lust?

Even Downton never had a male sex symbol quite the equal of Lord Melbourne. But will smouldering Rufus Sewell be back to play the heartthrob?
US white nationalists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, are holding a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia

A sizeable contingent of members of the extreme right and white nationalists are expected to descend on a small US university town Saturday -- and a fierce opposition front is uniting against it.

Thousands of white nationalists, including supporters of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group, and anti-fascist activists are expected to clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, a sleepy town planning to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate forces in the US Civil War.

Last month a few dozen Ku Klux Klan marchers gathered in Charlottesville to protest the statue's removal. Though they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counter-protestors, images of the extreme right marchers -- some donning the traditional white hood of the notorious white power group -- spread worldwide.

This time the extreme right hopes to have a stronger showing thanks to the presence of various leaders of the "alt-right" movement that has been emboldened by Donald Trump's ascent to the White House.

Dubbed the "Unite the Right Rally," the gathering could mark one of the most significant demonstrations of its kind in decades, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups.

But far-right demonstrators might have trouble finding somewhere to sleep: the apartment rental platform AirBnB has canceled a number of accounts linked to extreme-right views, in keeping with its non-discrimination policy.

Jason Kessler, who organized the rally, said on Twitter that the company's move amounted to an attack on "free speech and civil rights."
Tunisian activists say a phosphate processing plant in Gabes is polluting the environment and causing health issues

Next to a palm grove, a blackish mud flows into the sea. After years of living with industrial pollution, residents of Tunisia's Gabes are fighting back.

Close to the Chott Essalem beach and in front of a rare coastal oasis, the state-owned Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) has been processing phosphate since the 1970s.

The authorities say the plant pumps 14,000 tonnes of phosphogypsum into the sea every day. On top of the toxic mud, the factory also pumps phosphoric acid into the air.

"In the past, our town was clean," says Moncef Ben Ayadi, a 52-year-old carpenter who lives in Nezla, close to the plant.

But "since the company arrived, Gabes has become a victim city".

Residents blame it for a long list of woes: chronic fatigue, breathing problems, pollution of the water and soil, and destruction of biodiversity.

Many are sure that pollution from the factory is the cause of a local surge in cancer cases, a claim the government rejects.

"According to studies carried out by the health ministry, there is no causal relationship between illnesses such as cancer and asthma and the pollution caused by the chemical plant," the governor of Gabes, Mongi Thameur, told AFP.

But many residents are sceptical.

Sabeh Moumen, 47, a local restaurateur, is convinced her asthma was caused by the pollution.

Still mourning her brother's death from cancer three months ago, Sabeh says that in Gabes, "we no longer have any hope of living in a clean environment or eating anything healthy".

The Gulf of Gabes is an important spawning ground for Mediterranean fish.

But phosphate mining and processing, industries that are important for Tunisia's economy, have left it heavily polluted.

- Ending the silence -

Tunisians protest against industrial pollution in the coastal region of Gabes on June 30, 2017

The question was long off limits for discussion.

Under the dictatorship of veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, "it was forbidden to talk of environmental crimes committed by the complex, on the pretext that it was a source of national wealth," says Kheireddine Debaya, 32, an activist with "Stop Pollution", a local campaign group.

But since Ben Ali's overthrow in a 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, the silence has been broken.

Campaigners have organised protests and demanded the complex be relocated.

They have protested by setting up tents in front of an entrance to the complex.

"The situation is catastrophic," says Khaled Hassanet, 24, who is taking part in a sit-in outside the building.

"The state has prioritised its economic interests to the detriment of people's health," he adds, as thick white smoke billows from the production units.

The authorities say they are taking steps to address the issue.

In late June, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said the complex would be gradually dismantled and replaced by a "new industrial zone conforming to international (environmental) standards".

The project is expected to cost between $1.4 and $1.6 billion and take at least eight years.

The location of the new site is to be decided by December.

"With this project, the Gulf of Gabes and its beaches, including Chott Essalem, will be liberated," Thameur says, adding that it could attract tourists in the future.

But activists have their doubts.

"There are no guarantees," Debaya says.

"For years, there have been decisions and promises, but they've never been carried through."
Park Ki-Young stepped down as the head of a newly-created science centre, which is responsible for allocating $18 billion in government subsidies and budgets for research projects, a blow to President Moon Jae-In

A top South Korean technology official accused of covering up a notorious stem cell research fraud resigned Friday, a blow to new President Moon Jae-In.

Park Ki-Young stepped down as the head of a newly-created science centre, which is responsible for allocating $18 billion in government subsidies and budgets for research projects.

"I sincerely apologize for causing such disappointment and controversy," Park said in a statement.

"I hope my resignation will serve as an opportunity for the country's science sector to pull together again for development", she added.

Park, a former biology professor seen as a key figure in a scandal involving the fabrication of research by prominent stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, had been under heavy pressure to step down after hundreds of South Korean scientists protested her appointment by Moon this week.

Hwang was lauded as the "pride of Korea" after claiming to have derived stem cell lines from cloned human embryos -- a world first -- in two articles published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005.

But his research was later found to be fraudulent and riddled with ethical lapses.

Park played a key role in supporting Hwang and his research projects with generous government subsidies when she served as a presidential aide for science and technology from 2004 to 2006.

She was also one of 15 co-authors of one of Hwang's Science papers.

She resigned from her role as a presidential aide at that time after being accused of covering up crucial flaws in Hwang's stem cell study and sweeping under the carpet ethical lapses involved in his projects that used many human eggs.
US President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his already bellicose rhetoric over North Korea's weapons program

US President Donald Trump on Friday said a military option against North Korea was "locked and loaded," his latest salvo in an escalating war of words with Pyongyang's nuclear-armed regime.

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!" Trump tweeted.

The US president's Twitter missive ratcheted up his already bellicose rhetoric with Kim over North Korea's weapons program, as Beijing appealed to the two leaders to dampen their fiery exchange.

A day prior Trump had hardened his warning that Pyongyang would face "fire and fury" if it kept threatening the United States, saying maybe his tough talk "wasn't tough enough."

Trump also warned North Korea it should be "very, very nervous" of the consequences if it even thinks of attacking US soil, after Pyongyang said it was readying plans to launch missiles towards the Pacific territory of Guam.

Pyongyang said the scheme to target the island, a key US military outpost in the western Pacific, was intended to "signal a crucial warning" as "only absolute force" would have an effect on a US leader "bereft of reason."

Beijing on Friday pleaded with the US and North Korea for restraint, urging the two parties "to be cautious with their words and actions."

China has repeatedly urged a resumption of long-dormant six-party talks to peacefully resolve the crisis, but its position has been overshadowed by the emerging brinkmanship between Trump and Kim.
Facebook has long been eager to find a way into mainland China, where the social network has been banned since 2009

Facebook's interest in China has led it to discretely create a photo-sharing application released there without the social network's brand being attached.

"We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways," a Facebook representative said Friday in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

"Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform."

A source close to the matter confirmed a New York Times report on Friday that Facebook took the unusual step of creating an app called Colorful Balloons and releasing it through a local company with no hint that the social network was involved.

Colorful Balloons has features similar to Facebook's Moments application.

Facebook has long been keen to find a way into mainland China, where the social network has been banned since 2009.

Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are among Silicon Valley stars not allowed to operate on China's tightly controlled internet.

Facebook chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has made high-profile visits to China and met with political leaders there, and is even studying Mandarin.

Colorful Balloons was released early this year through a separate Chinese company, according to the New York Times. It quoted someone close to the matter who did not want to be identified, citing the political sensitivity of the situation.

Facebook is interested in learning how apps win fans in China, without having a prominent company name associated with it. This could help explain the quiet approach.

Having a company in China distribute the application can be more efficient due to local business connections and familiarity with local rules.
The Anti-Defamation League says Saturday's rally may be the biggest gathering of white supremacists and other extremists in a decade

Virginia's governor on Friday urged people to stay away from a planned weekend rally of far right and white supremacist groups in the university town of Charlottesville.

The National Guard has been put on alert because of the risk of violence during Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally. Counter demonstrators are also expected.

"I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans," Governor Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

Thousands of white nationalists, including supporters of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group, and anti-fascist activists are expected to turn out in Charlottesville, a sleepy town planning to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate forces in the US Civil War.

"The Charlottesville event could be a potentially historic showcase of hate, bringing together more extremists in one place than we have seen in at least a decade," said Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.

McAuliffe, a Democrat, said many of the people at the rally will "express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent. As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right."

He said he had given security forces instructions to act quickly and decisively if violence breaks out.

Units of the Virginia National Guard will be placed on stand-by, he added.

On July 8 a few dozen Ku Klux Klan marchers gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove the statue of Lee. But they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counter protestors.

This time the extreme right hopes to have a stronger showing thanks to the presence of various leaders of the "alt-right" movement that has been emboldened by Donald Trump's ascent to the White House.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince, seen here during 2007 testimony in Congress, is back with a plan to replace US troops in Afghanistan with private contractors

Nearly 16 years after US forces entered Afghanistan, a shadowy figure from the past is making the rounds in Washington with a plan to end America's longest war.

Erik Prince, founder of the private security company Blackwater, has resurfaced as President Donald Trump mulls over what to do about a conflict that bedeviled his two predecessors in the White House.

Prince's plan for Afghanistan would start with the naming of an all-powerful American "viceroy" who would report to the president and play a role like that of General Douglas MacArthur in post-World War II Japan.

American troops, aside from a handful of special forces, would be replaced by a private army of around 5,500 contractors who would train Afghan soldiers and join them in the fight against the Taliban.

They would be backed by a 90-aircraft private air force.

And all at a cost of less than $10 billion dollars a year, as opposed to the $45 billion the United States is expected to spend in 2017 on its military presence in Afghanistan.

Prince, a 48-year-old former US Navy SEAL, has kept a low profile since selling Blackwater in 2010 -- three years after some of his employees hired to protect US diplomats killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad and wounded another 17.

He first outlined his Afghan proposal in an article for The Wall Street Journal in May. Since then, Prince, who currently heads Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong-based security company, has met with US officials here and made television appearances promoting his plan.

Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is Trump's education secretary, says he has received a sympathetic hearing from the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and some members of Congress but a chilly reception from the Pentagon.

- 'I took over a mess' -

After taking office in January, Trump ordered a strategic review of the situation in Afghanistan, where some 8,400 US soldiers and 5,000 NATO troops are assisting the Afghan security forces in battling an emboldened Taliban.

Trump said Thursday that he was "very close" to revealing his decision on how to proceed in the war-torn nation, where 2,000 US troops have died since Americans first deployed there in the weeks after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

"We're getting very close. It's a very big decision for me. I took over a mess, and we're going to make it a lot less messy," said Trump, whose frustration with the stalemate in Afghanistan reportedly led him last month to suggest firing the US commander there, General John Nicholson.

Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan and the retired general is said to be leaning towards boosting US forces there by about 4,000 troops.

Blackwater guards secure the site of a roadside bomb after a July 2005 attack in Baghdad

Prince, in an interview with CNN, said he has not met with Trump to discuss his plan and acknowledged that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, like Mattis, a former general, was not keen on the proposal.

"I would say General McMaster does not like this idea because he is a three-star conventional army general and he is wedded to the idea that the US Army is going to solve this," Prince said.

"But I think to the president he's got to say, 'after 16 years when do we to try something different?'" Prince added.

- 'Bad soldier of fortune novel' -

Retired generals McMaster and Mattis are not the only skeptics when it comes to Prince's plan.

"It's something that would come from a bad soldier of fortune novel," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told The Washington Post. "I trust our generals. I don't trust contractors to make our national security policy decisions."

Sean McFate, a former military contractor in Africa and author of a book about the private security industry, "The Modern Mercenary," said he considers Prince's proposal to be "supremely dangerous and foolish."

"There's been no discussion about oversight, regulation, safety, accountability, control," McFate told AFP.

An Iraqi looks at a car destroyed in September 2007 when Blackwater guards opened fire in a Baghdad square, leaving 14 Iraqis dead and 17 wounded

He said private contractors in Afghanistan would inevitably be involved in a horrific event like the September 2007 killing of Iraqi civilians by the Blackwater contractors in Baghdad.

"The first time there's a massacre we're going to have to go in there with the Marine Corps and rescue them," he said.

"Ultimately you get what you pay for," McFate said. "It's like having cheap contractors fix your house. At the end of the day it takes twice as long and is four times as expensive."

Stephen Biddle, a political science professor at George Washington University, said he considered Prince's plan "pretty dreadful" but is not surprised it is at getting a hearing in a White House looking for a new approach.

"The president isn't very happy with the options that he's got and is predisposed to like things that are new," Biddle told AFP. "And Republicans in general tend to like privatization."

"But not all new ideas are good ideas," Biddle said.
War, disease and famine have left the blood bank struggling to keep up with demand

Yemen's blood bank has sent out an urgent appeal to anyone who will listen, as war and a blockade on the capital may force the centre to close within a week.

"We appeal to all humanitarian organisations in the international community and all financial donors to support the centre, as our medical supplies have nearly run out," said Adnan al-Hakimi, director of the National Blood Transfusion and Research Center in Sanaa.

"We will only be able to work for one more week, and after that if the humanitarian organisations don't mobilise to support the national centre, it will shut down."

The blood bank says it treats some 3,000 Yemenis a month who suffer from cancer, kidney failure and thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder which causes sever anaemia.

But a trifecta of war, disease and famine has left the bank struggling to keep up with spiralling demand, with basic supplies all but impossible to secure in a country locked in by port and airport blockades.

"We've been impacted by the overall situation in Yemen, including the economic collapse," Hakimi said.

Less than half of Yemen's hospitals are still up and running two years into a war between Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels, who control Sanaa, and a government allied with a Sunni Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

More than 8,300 people have died in the Yemen conflict, with another 47,700 injured and millions displaced, according to the World Health Organization

The country's main international airport in Sanaa is also blockaded, with access limited to a select few UN aid flights by the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the airspace.

The war has destroyed much of Yemen's infrastructure and pushed the country -- long the Arab world's poorest state -- to the brink of official famine.

More than 8,300 people have died in the conflict, with another 47,700 injured and millions displaced, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A cholera outbreak has also claimed the lives of some 2,000 Yemenis in less than four months.

- 'Switch support to other priorities' -

Amina Ali, whose young son has a condition that requires blood transfusions, makes the trip to the centre regularly for blood and platelets.

Now, she says, she fears those trips are numbered.

"I order blood and platelets for my son every 10 days from the centre," she told AFP.

The blood bank says it treats around 3,000 Yemenis a month

"What if it shuts down? Many children will get worse, including my son."

Hakimi said the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had been providing supplies to the bank since 2015 but "surprisingly suddenly stopped" in June.

In a statement emailed to AFP, MSF confirmed it has been supporting the blood bank for two years and only handed over the activity to the UN's WHO in June 2017.

"As health needs have been increasing in Yemen, MSF chose to switch its support to other health priorities," the group said.

"The last donation MSF gave to the blood bank was in June 2017. That donation was to support the running of its activities for 2 months, giving the time for WHO to start its support."

Like MSF, the United Nations has warned it has been forced to divert resources from one community to aid another -- most recently, from food programmes to handle the escalating cholera outbreak.

The United Nations has said that less than half of the $2.1 billion pledged this year to Yemen by the international community has been disbursed.

But despite the dwindling hope, Yemenis refuse to give up on others in need.

"I am here to donate blood as an act of charity and for my country," said Abdullah Farei, one of a handful of citizens who turned up at the centre to donate blood.

"We ask God that the citizens respond to the call of the blood bank and donate blood and money."

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Samsung head Lee Kun-Hee helped to bring the 2018 Winter Olympics to South Korea's Pyeongchang

The bedridden head of South Korea's Samsung Group has given up his IOC membership, the Olympics governing body announced.

"The IOC EB (executive board) was informed that the family of Mr. Kun-Hee Lee has asked the IOC not to consider Mr. Lee for re-election as an IOC member" when the International Olympic Committee is due to elect nine new members at a session next month in Lima.

Lee was first elected as an IOC member in 1996. He helped to bring the 2018 Winter Games to Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time during his continued illness," the IOC said in a statement Friday.

The addition of nine new members and the withdrawal of Lee would bring the total number of members to 103, it added.

In 2008, Lee voluntarily gave up his IOC membership after being indicted in a financial and tax evasion case.

Seoul pardoned him in 2009, and the IOC reinstated him in February 2010.

Lee has been laid up since suffering a heart attack in 2014.

His eldest son and heir Lee Jae-Yong has been standing trial since his arrest in February on charges of bribing the disgraced president Park Geun-Hye and her friend Choi Soon-Sil.

Prosecutors on Monday demanded a 12-year jail sentence for the junior.

The court will deliver his verdict and sentencing on August 25.
Guam residents say that if given the choice they would rather face the wrath of "crazy" Kim Jong Un than the power of a typhoon

Guam residents say that if given the choice they would rather face the wrath of "crazy" Kim Jong Un than the power of a typhoon, as they count down towards a threatened North Korean missile attack.

As Pyongyang's deadline drew closer, the archbishop of the predominately Catholic US territory urged priests to pray for peace at Sunday mass and prepared for a peace rally in the capital Hagatna.

But on the streets the outward appearance remained calm, with the main concern being the approach of the typhoon season.

"To be honest, I'm more worried about the projectiles from the typhoons when we get strong winds than whatever projectiles Kim Jong Un says he will launch on Guam," Janice Furukawa, a 58-year-old mother, said as she prepared her typhoon emergency kit at her home in the western village of Piti.

North Korea, angered by US President Donald Trump's threat of "fire and fury", has promised to have plans ready in a matter of days to launch an "enveloping fire" of missiles at Guam, which houses two large US military bases and is home to more than 6,000 US military personnel.

Trump has vowed to protect the western Pacific island and in a call to Guam Governor Eddie Calvo on Saturday "reassured" him that "United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America".

Roman Catholic archbishop Michael Byrnes asked priests in a statement to "offer prayers for peace between our nations, just resolution of differences".

Rolando Zepeda, 57, a teacher at Saint Anthonys School, said he was not making any emergency plans ahead of a North Korean attack.

"But I am always quick to shutter up whenever we get typhoon advisories or tsunami warnings," he said.

"Kim Jung Un is as crazy as typhoons but I am more scared of typhoons because they are real threats."

- 'We always survive' -

A graphic shows the distance between North Korea and Guam at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea

North Korea previously threatened to attack Guam back in 2013, leading Calvo to play down the latest potential crisis and instead remind the 162,000 residents they should prepare for the inevitable typhoon.

"You know typhoons can strike anytime... so that means, families are making family emergency plans and kits together," he said.

"With that, everybody should conduct their lives like business as usual. It's the weekend. Go out, have a good time."

If North Korea does launch a missile strike there is a public warning system in place and a 14-minute window to react, Homeland Security said.

On Friday it posted guidelines on its website about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.

"Expect to stay inside for at least 24 hours unless otherwise told by authorities," the advisory warned. "If caught outside, do not look at the flash or fireball -- It can blind you. Take cover behind anything that might offer protection. Lie flat on the ground and cover your head."

Resident Furukawa, who lived through Typhoon Paka which left 5,000 homeless and more than 30 percent of public buildings seriously damaged in 1997, said people in Guam were resilient.

"We always survive. It's the recovery period that is hard. But survival is part of our culture," she said.

Guam's modern building code demands houses and buildings be able to withstand winds of up to 160 miles per hour (260 km/h).

"Based on what we have in this community, we have been able to withstand a category 5 hurricane," Calvo said, adding that school buildings were designated as public shelters and could cope with major disasters.

"A category 2 or 3 typhoon would cause major damage in many communities around the world but not in Guam," he said.
The 82-year-old Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has had to cancel a visit to Botswana due to exhaustion

The Dalai Lama has cancelled a trip next week to Botswana because of "exhaustion" after Beijing expressed anger at the African country for allowing the visit.

The 82-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, was to speak at a three day conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone, which begins on August 17.

An official statement released late Friday said the Dalai Lama had written to the president of Botswana and the conference organisers, the Mind and Life Institute, expressing "profound regret" at having to cancel his visit "due to exhaustion".

"His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest.

"Since his physicians have also advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, His Holiness will return to Dharamsala to recuperate," the statement said.

The Buddhist leader has lived in exile in India since he fled a failed Tibetan uprising in 1959.

Botswana said last month that the visit was "purely private" but added that the Dalai Lama would be granted the status of a foreign dignitary.

Beijing issued a warning to Botswana, asking the African nation to respect China's "core interests".

China's ruling Communist party views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous "separatist" campaigning for Tibetan independence. It consistently condemns other countries which let him visit.

The Dalai Lama says he wants more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang last month called for Botswana to "earnestly respect" China's sovereignty, and "make the right decision" on Tibet-related issues.

"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and we will not accept that other countries do things that would harm the core interests of China," he said.

China is a key investor in Africa and the continent's largest trade partner. In Botswana it has helped build power plants, road networks, bridges and schools.
Rescue workers of Syria's White Helmets bury colleagues killed in a dawn raid on their base in the jihadist-held northwestern town of Sarmin, on August 12, 2017

Unidentified assailants shot dead seven members of Syria's White Helmets rescue service early Saturday during a raid on their base in a jihadist-held northwestern town, the group said.

The attackers struck in Sarmin, nine kilometres (six miles) east of the city of Idlib, that is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance.

"The civil defence centre in Sarmin was the target of an armed attack by unknown assailants in which seven volunteers were killed," the White Helmets said in statement.

"Two minibuses, some white helmets and walkie-talkies were stolen."

It was not immediately clear whether the motives for the raid were political or purely criminal.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham denounced what it called an "ugly crime" and vowed to track down the perpetrators and bring them to account.

The jihadist group said the attack was aimed at "undermining our revolution", adding that it stood ready to protect the White Helmets in "liberated areas" of Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven volunteers had all been killed by bullets to the head.

"Colleagues came in the morning for the change of shift and found them dead," its director, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

The White Helmets emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.

They have since gained international renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although they work exclusively in rebel-held areas, they insist they are non-partisan.

A member of Syria's White Helmets rescue service mourns at the funeral of seven colleagues shot dead in a dawn raid on their base in the jihadist-held northwestern town of Sarmin on August 12, 2017

Their detractors, including President Bashar al-Assad's government and his ally Russia, accuse them of being tools of their international donors.

They receive funding from a number of Western governments, including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

Critics also accuse them of harbouring rebel fighters, including jihadists, in their ranks.
Ten Nobel laureates from across the world have penned an open letter urging Saudi authorities to hold off on the execution of 14 Shiites convicted of protest-linked crimes.

Fears are mounting of the imminent mass execution of the 14 Shiites convicted of charges linked to protests in 2012, including rioting, theft, armed robbery and armed rebellion.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Saudi authorities of coercing confessions which were later retracted in court and of failing to grant fair trials to defendants, including juveniles.

Signed by anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi and former East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta, the letter released late Friday urged King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his son, to "extend the hand of mercy" and refrain from ratifying the death sentences.

"Mujtaba al-Sweika, a bright 18-year-old student in Saudi Arabia, was on his way to visit Western Michigan University in 2012 when he was arrested in the airport in Riyadh. Among his charges is starting a Facebook group and posting images of a demonstration online," read the letter.

"Another defendant, Ali al-Nimr, was charged with setting up a Blackberry page named 'The Liberals' and posting photos of the demonstrations, inviting people to participate," it added.

Other signatories to Friday's letter include US anti-landmine activist Jody Williams, Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, South African former president F.W. De Klerk, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Polish labour rights activist Lech Walesa and peace activist Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest rates of execution. This year alone, it has so far executed 75 people.

In July, the supreme court upheld the death penalty for the 14 men, all Saudi citizens. The sentences must be ratified by the king or the crown prince for the executions to go ahead.

The 14 are all linked to protests in Qatif, an eastern province home to most of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's Shiite minority, who have long complained of marginalisation.

The east is also the source of most of Saudi Arabia's oil.

Saudi authorities, who have regularly cracked down on protests in Qatif, this week seized control of the town of Awamiya after increasingly frequent clashes between residents and police.

Authorities have said drug traffickers and "terrorists" were behind the unrest in Qatif.

Awamiya was the epicentre of a short-lived Arab Spring-inspired protest movement in 2011, partly led by Nimr al-Nimr, a senior Shiite cleric from the town.

Nimr was executed in January 2016 on a "terrorism" indictment.
A picture taken on August 12, 2017 from the cab of one of the trains in a fatal collision a day earlier shows the damage and wreckage on the outskirts of Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria The toll from the accident on August 11, 2017, when two trains hurtled into each other near Egypt's second-largest city, has risen to 40 dead and 123 wounded, said health ministry spokesman Khaled Moujahed, as local media said the number of fatalities was likely to rise.

The death toll from Egypt's latest train disaster rose to 41 on Saturday as two drivers were questioned and cranes worked to clear the stricken railway line between Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

The drivers of the two trains that collided on Friday have been held for questioning and four railway officials suspended pending the results of a probe into its causes, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat told an Egyptian broadcaster.

Under floodlights, rescue teams had combed wrecked carriages all night for casualties.

Transport ministry officials, quoted on state television, have said the crash in farmland on the outskirts of Alexandria was probably caused by a malfunction in one train that brought it to a halt.

The other train then crashed into it.

Arafat had told reporters at the scene of the accident that it was not yet clear why the train had stopped, but suggested old traffic signals were to blame.

"We have a big problem we had already announced, which is old traffic signals. We are completely overhauling them. This section here is being developed," he said.

An injured passenger who was on the stationary train said its departure had been delayed and that it kept stopping en route.

"It stopped every now and then between stations or before stations for five minutes, I don't know why," the man told Dream television station from his hospital bed.

"Everyone was scattered (by the collision), bodies were flung around," he said.

The toll from Friday's accident when the two trains collided near Alexandria rose to 41 dead, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The accident also wounded 132 people, with 79 being discharged after treatment while 53 remained in hospital on Saturday, Health Minister Ahmed Emad el-Din Rady said.

Emergency personnel lift a carriage with a crane following a collision between two trains on August 11, 2017 near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that killed at least 40 people

A stream of ambulances had ferried the injured, stretched out on the ground in a field alongside the railway tracks, to Alexandria hospitals.

Workers used cranes to lift four knotted sheet-metal carriages blocking the normally busy Cairo-Alexandria line.

One train had been heading to Alexandria from Cairo and the other from Port Said, east along the coast.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has sent his condolences to the victims' families and ordered a probe to "hold accountable" those responsible for the disaster.

- Chronic transport problems -

It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a train ploughed into a bus carrying schoolchildren in November 2012, killing 47 people.

Egyptian emergency workers search the wreckage of a train collision on August 11, 2017 near the city in Alexandria that cost at least 40 lives

That accident jolted the government which ordered an investigation and sacked the transport minister and the head of the railway authority.

The accident was blamed on a train signal operator who fell asleep on the job.

The probe, however, did not prevent further accidents. Just months later, a train carrying military conscripts derailed, killing 17 people.

Around a year later, a collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of the capital.

They had been returning from a wedding when the train ploughed into their bus and a truck at a railway crossing.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.

There have been many other fatal crashes on Egypt's heavily-used rail network.

In July 2008, at least 44 people died near Marsa Matruh in northwestern Egypt when a runaway truck hurtled into a bus, a lorry and several cars waiting at a level crossing, shunting the vehicles into the path of a train.

At least 58 Egyptians were killed and 144 injured in August 2006 in a collision between two trains travelling on the same track.

In the wake of that crash, a court sentenced 14 railway employees to one year in prison for neglect.

The deadliest accident on Egypt's railways dates back to 2002 when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of the capital.
The city's Radio Television Hong Kong has been broadcasting the BBC World Service live since 1978 but will replace it starting September 4 with the China National Radio Hong Kong Edition

Hong Kong's official radio station said it will replace its 24-hour BBC broadcast with Chinese state-run programming in a move critics on Saturday said was a step towards "mainlandisation".

The city's Radio Television Hong Kong has been broadcasting the BBC World Service live since 1978 but will replace it starting September 4 with the China National Radio Hong Kong Edition (CNR).

Some see the move as signs that the city is further aligning itself with China.

"This is absolutely one step forward towards mainlandisation in Hong Kong," pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told AFP, adding that Chinese authorities may feel that city residents were not patriotic enough.

"They should all be reigned in and taught to feel Chinese," Mo said of the motive behind the move, which comes at a time when many feel Beijing is squeezing the semi-autonomous city's freedoms.

Residents also took to social media to decry the move, with Yu Yeuk-mui saying on Facebook: "One more bad news! Hong Kong is burning already".

Frustrations over the city's political and social developments have led to the emergence of a new independence movement calling for Hong Kong to break from the mainland.

The unveiling of a controversial rail link to the mainland last month which would see a portion of the city come under Chinese law has been the focus of the most recent backlash, with critics saying the city's cherished freedoms are being eroded.

RTHK's head of corporate communications Amen Ng said the CNR Hong Kong edition is "tailor-made for Hong Kong people".

"It will encourage the cultural exchange between mainland China and Hong Kong," Ng said.

Bank teller Alex Yan agreed, saying the benefits of the broadcast outweighed the disadvantages as the new CNR programming would offer residents an insight into the lives of their northern neighbours.

"It can help them better understand the things happening in China," Yan, 21, said.

The CNR broadcast will include programming in news, arts and culture, and lifestyle mostly in Mandarin, with some programmes in Cantonese. The official language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, while Mandarin is the main language over the border.

RTHK said it will still be broadcasting the BBC World Service, which residents use as an English-learning tool, but it will switch to another channel for eight hours from 11pm onwards on a daily basis.

Hong Kong was handed back to China by colonial ruler Britain in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula designed to protect its freedoms and way of life.
"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it," Boris Johnson (left) wrote on Twitter

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Saturday blamed North Korea for the stand-off with the United States and said London wants a diplomatic end to the crisis.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it," Johnson wrote on Twitter.

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

"We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."

US President Donald Trump on Saturday reassured Guam it was secure amid mounting regional tensions, vowing that American military forces "stand ready" to safeguard the US Pacific island territory against a belligerent North Korea.

The North has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the tourism-dependent island, as Pyongyang and Washington ratchet up their war of words.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged Trump to avoid rhetoric that could inflame the situation, while French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an "escalation of tensions".
A portrait provided by the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA on August 12, 2017 shows prominent actor Abdulhussain Abdulredha, a much-loved figure across the Gulf, who died on Friday in London at the age of 78

Kuwaiti actor, playwright and comedian Abdulhussain Abdulrida has died at the age of 78 after a career spanning decades that made him a household name across the Gulf.

State news agency KUNA said Abdulrida, who had heart surgery in 2015, died of natural causes on Friday in London where he had been in an intensive care unit for two days.

The seventh of 14 children, Abdulrida was born and raised in Kuwait and rose to stardom through his satirical television and theatre work, largely critical of Arab and global politics.

Throughout a career launched in the 1960s and which stretched to May 2017, Abdulrida tackled issues including mass Arab emigration, the rise of political Islam and the plight of stateless people in the region.

Abdulhussain also penned, and sang, the tune "Mister Bush" in the early 1990s, dedicated to former US president George Bush after the Gulf War triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Social media users from Saudi Arabia to Qatar took to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to mourn the loss of Abdulrida.

"Rough morning. Emotions running low. A mourning nation. Abdulhussain Abdulrida is no longer here with us," read one tweet from Kuwait.

"May he rest in peace. Today we lost a piece of Kuwait," an Instagram user posted alongside a picture of the national obituary for Abdulrida.

In May, Abdulrida had appeared in the massively popular "Selfie", a television special that airs across the Gulf during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Chinese director Wang Bing poses with the Golden Leopard (Pardo d'oro) trophy he wobn for his documentarty "Mrs. Fang", in a picture released on August 12, 2017 by the Locarno International Film Festival

"Mrs. Fang", Chinese director Wang Bing's documentary about a family waiting to say goodbye to their elderly Alzheimer's-stricken mother, scooped the top prize at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland Saturday.

The film tells the moving end-of-life story of Fang Xiuying, a farmer who has been struggling with the dementia-type disease for eight years.

After a stay at a nursing home, her family brings her home, and the film focuses on their final days together before her death in 2016.

Wang Bing counts among China's foremost documentary film makers, and has previously served on the Locarno jury.

Now in its 70th year, the Locarno festival takes place every summer in the picturesque Swiss town on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

The runner-up Special Jury Prize went to Brazilian horror film "As Boas Maeiras" (Good Manners) by directors Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas, which starts off with a woman hiring a maid to help with the housework before taking an unexpected, blood-drenched turn.

France's F. J. Ossang meanwhile won Best Director for film noir "9 Fingers", the organisers said.

French star Isabelle Huppert was named Best Actress for her role as Mrs. Hyde in French director Serge Bozon's film of the same name.

And Danish actor Elliott Crosset Hove took home the Best Actor award for his role in Icelandic director Hlynur Palmason's debut film "Winter Brothers".
Nawab Shafat Ali Khan said he shot the elephant at point-blank range, but before the animal fell it tried to swing its trunk at the hunting party, forcing him to fire a second time

India's top hunter told on Saturday how he felled a rogue elephant which had killed 15 people in a series of attacks since March.

Nawab Shafat Ali Khan told AFP he shot the elephant late Friday just hours after being called in by authorities. Saturday was World Elephant Day.

Khan said he shot the elephant at point-blank range, but before the animal fell it tried to swing its trunk at the hunting party, forcing him to fire a second time.

"If we had been hit by his truck it could have been fatal. It was a dangerous operation," Khan said of the hunt in Sahibganj district of the eastern state of Jharkhand.

The marauding elephant, believed to have lost its way after becoming separated from its herd, crushed four victims in Bihar state in March before crossing into neighbouring Jharkhand and killing 11 more.

Jharkhand's chief forest and wildlife conservator L.R. Singh said the decision to kill the elephant came after a week-long operation to try to tranquilise and capture the animal.

"It was quite a difficult operation because of the thick bushes and since the animal had turned rogue it charged at us before I pulled the trigger," Khan said.

About 100 people including forest officials and villagers took part in the hunt, but Khan said he was the only person authorised to shoot.

The area is inhabited by the Paharia tribe, one of the poorest indigenous tribal communities in India.

Khan, who has carried out 24 previous government-sanctioned hunting missions, said he was baffled by the elephant's behaviour.

"This entire belt is inhabited by native tribal communities who have co-existed with wildlife for centuries, the elephant's behaviour -- that he was literally stalking humans -- is still a mystery," he told AFP.

The sharpshooter was last roped in by authorities in western Maharastra state, where he tranquilised a killer tiger.

"I prefer tranquilising animals. But if it doesn't happen, killing is the last resort," he said.

The environment ministry estimates a human dies every day in India in clashes with endangered animals -- the vast majority crushed by elephants.

Experts say violent encounters between elephants and humans are increasing as forests are cleared for human settlements and industry.
A UN source told AFP Friday that the soldiers' search of the camp was illegal under international law and may have been triggered by inaccurate information that a Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, was at the facility

A UN humanitarian official said Saturday that relations with Nigeria remain "intact" following an unauthorised raid by Nigerian troops at a UN base in the country's conflict-torn northeast.

Peter Lundberg told a press conference in Maiduguri that the United Nations was working with the Nigerian government to resolve the issue of Friday's search of the humanitarian camp known as the "Red Roof".

"I am very pleased to report that our relationship of collaboration and trust are intact at this stage," the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria said.

"We are focused on the work ahead to ensure that the millions of vulnerable people in the northeast are supported with life-saving humanitarian aid," Lundberg added.

The UN camp in Maiduguri is located at the epicentre of the conflict with Boko Haram jihadists who have been waging an insurgency since 2009.

A UN source told AFP Friday that the soldiers' search of the camp was illegal under international law and may have been triggered by inaccurate information that a Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, was at the facility.

The Nigerian military, which claimed there was no sign it was a UN camp, issued a statement Friday calling its "operation" a success but added that no suspect was found.

General Ibrahim Attahiru, who commands operations in Borno state where Maiduguri is located, said on Saturday that the army "will continue to work toward providing and enabling a conductive environment to UN agencies to enhance their operations."

"Peace building is a collective responsibility," he said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the organisation had formally complained to the Nigerian government.

"There have been contacts -- we understand from the government that this was a mistake. The raid should not have happened," he said at a daily briefing in New York Friday.

The raid happened against a backdrop of strained relations between the Nigerian military and foreign organisations seeking to relieve the humanitarian disaster engulfing the country's northeast.

Over 20,000 people are estimated to have been killed over the eight years of the Boko Haram conflict and more than two million displaced. The UN estimates that nearly seven million Nigerians are in need of humanitarian aid.
The blast occurred at a bus stop in provincial capital Quetta and the area caught fire soon after the explosion

A powerful blast targeting a military vehicle on Saturday night killed at least 15 people and wounded 32 others in southwestern Pakistan, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The blast occurred at a bus stop in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and the area caught fire soon after the explosion.

A statement by the Pakistani military said the explosion targeted an on-duty vehicle and set several other vehicles on fire.

"Incendiary explosive was used. As a result nearby vehicles caught fire. Fifteen people including seven civilians were martyred," the statement said.

Provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti and government spokesman Anwar ul Haq Kakar confirmed the death toll and put the number of wounded at 32.

The Islamic State Khorasan Province -- the Middle Eastern group's affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- released a statement claiming the attack, according to the US-based monitoring group SITE.

A suicide motorbike bomber was behind the blast, the statement said.

The local affiliate has been known to work with Pakistani militant groups in previous attacks.

Minister Bugti said firefighters were still working to put out the blaze. The nature of the blast could not immediately be determined but an investigation was underway, he said.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Chief of the Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa and deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif all condemned the attack.

The blast came two days before Pakistan's 70th Independence Day, and the military chief said it was an effort to mar celebrations.

"Our resolve won't succumb to any challenge," he said in a statement.

Militants in past have carried out big attacks on Independence Day and other events of national importance.

Islamic State militants and the Taliban have attacked Quetta city in the past.

Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has oil and gas resources but is afflicted by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a separatist insurgency.
This handout photograph taken and released by the Nigerian government last month shows President Muhammadu Buhari (2R) receiving visitors in London where he has been undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness for more than three months.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in London for treatment of an undisclosed illness for more than three months, has assured a government delegation that he is doing fine.

"I am okay," the 74-year-old leader said, according to a Saturday statement from the information ministry.

"I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed."

The comments came following protests in the capital Abuja demanding that Buhari "return or resign".

"If President Buhari cannot return to Nigeria after 90 days, then he should resign and go home", one protester said at a sit-in on Monday.

"Buhari, where are you? Nigerians want full disclosure. What is wrong with our president?" read other placards.

Buhari left for the British capital on May 7 on what is his latest medical trip. He has been dogged by speculation about his health since June last year when he went to London for the first time to be treated for what his office said was a persistent ear infection.

Protesters are demanding details about President Muhammadu Buhari's illness after he's been away in London for more than three months for treatment. They say Buhari should return or resign.

Buhari's main opponents in the 2015 election that brought him to power claimed he had prostate cancer, which he denied.

The health of Nigeria's leaders has been a sensitive issue since the death in office of president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 after months of treatment abroad.
Trump will direct US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies

US President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum Monday that could lead to sanctions against China over its intellectual property practices, administration officials said Saturday.

Trump will direct US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies, the officials said.

If so, Lighthizer would have "broad powers" to seek remedial action.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market.

The new measure comes amid high tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea, even as he makes ever sharper threats against Pyongyang.

The officials said that matter, and the trade issue, are not linked.

The process Lighthizer will initiate, under Article 302b of the US Commercial Code, could take as long as a year to yield its findings.

The latest step follows the opening by the Trump administration of several other investigations into Chinese commercial practices, notably in the steel sector.

On Tuesday, Washington announced preliminary sanctions against imports of Chinese aluminum foil.

The US officials said "Chinese commercial policy has a major goal, the acquisition and the absorption of the intellectual property of the United States and other countries around the world."

"Most Americans are fully aware that China is stealing our intellectual property," they added. "What they may not know is that China is also forcing and coercing American companies that operate in China to turn over their technologies."

- Joint ventures under scrutiny -

US officials will particularly examine the role of joint ventures, the mixed foreign-and-Chinese companies whose establishment is required for any outside business wishing to sell its products in China.

"China also funds and facilitates the acquisition of US firms that possess advanced technologies," the officials said.

"If Americans continue to have their best technologies and intellectual property stolen or forcibly transferred off-shore, the United States will find it difficult to maintain its current technology leadership position," they added.

US and European companies have long complained of Chinese rules that force them to turn over their industrial secrets if they wish to do business in China.

Apple, which has a turnover of more than $30 billion a year in China, is currently subject to several measures taken by Beijing that hinder its activities in the country.

The manufacturer of the iPhone was forced in late July to remove certain apps that would have allowed users to circumvent extensive online restrictions imposed by the Chinese government.

Among the other big names in US technology, Facebook and Google are currently sidelined in China. Though they are largely missing out on the giant consumer market, they also fear their technologies being stolen.

Automakers as well as aeronautical giants Boeing and Airbus have been able to enter China via joint ventures, even as the Chinese seek to penetrate global markets.
The Vos Prudence, one of the largest Mediterranean rescue ships, helped save 1,500 alone in May

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group said Saturday it was halting operations of its largest rescue ship for migrants in the Mediterranean after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

"With NGOs more and more restricted in the Med & the #EU determined to trap people in #Libya, we've put the #Prudence on standby," MSF said on Twitter.

Libya's navy this week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe.

Navy spokesman General Ayoub Qassem said on Thursday that the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations "which pretend to want to rescue illegal migrants and carry out humanitarian actions".

MSF said that while it would continue to provide assistance to other rescue operations, it was suspending the use of the Prudence -- one of the largest NGO vessels in the Mediterranean that rescued 1,500 people in May alone.

"European states and the Libyan authorities are jointly implementing a roadblock for people looking for security," MSF Italy president Loris De Filippi said in a statement.

"It's an unacceptable attack on the lives and dignity of people."

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, warned NGOs earlier this month that they would not be allowed to continue working in the Mediterranean if they did not sign up to new rules governing their operations.

Under a new code of conduct drawn up as a German vessel was impounded for allegedly aiding people smugglers, boats would have to have an Italian police officer on board monitoring activities.

Most aid agencies conducting rescues off the coast of Libya have signed up to the agreement, but not MSF.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014, putting the country's reception facilities under strain and the centre-left government under pressure with elections looming next year.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.
Sharif has been addressing crowds along the route that connects the capital to his party's eastern stronghold after Pakistan's top court deposed him last month following a corruption investigation

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told thousands of supporters he would "change the fate of the country" despite being ousted by the Supreme Court, as he ended a four-day procession from Islamabad to Lahore on Saturday.

Sharif had addressed crowds along the route that connects the capital to his party's eastern stronghold after Pakistan's top court deposed him last month following a corruption investigation.

"I don't get scared and I will not sit at home now," he said. "I will not sit at home until I change the fate of this country."

"This country belongs to 200 million people and not the few who ousted me, disrespecting your vote."

"Who are those people who have disqualified me? Are they themselves qualified?" he asked the crowd, which responded with chants of "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif."

Lahore is only five hours' drive from Islamabad, but Sharif's convoy made three overnight stops, breaking up the journey with addresses to supporters in a display of street power against the court judgment.

Thousands came to catch a glimpse of the former leader as his convoy rolled down the Grand Trunk Road, a more than 2,000-year-old trade route which leads from Chittagong in Bangladesh across India and Pakistan to the Afghan capital Kabul.

The group was surrounded by heavy security, with fears lingering after a truck bomb exploded in Lahore on Monday, killing one person and injuring dozens. Sharif traveled in an armored vehicle.

On Friday, Sharif's motorcade hit and killed a 13-year-old boy who had come to his rally in Lalamusa, a town on the Grand Trunk Road.

Sharif's sacking on July 28 briefly plunged the nuclear-armed nation into political uncertainty.

Within days, Sharif's eponymous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had nominated former oil minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as a new prime minister, with the National Assembly rubber-stamping the choice.

Sharif was the 15th prime minister in Pakistan's 70-year history -- roughly half of it under military rule -- to be ousted before completing a full term.

On Friday it was announced that Sharif's wife, Kalsoom Nawaz, would contest the parliamentary seat left vacant after his ouster.
Emergency personnel and Egyptian military police search the wreckage of the train collision on August 11, 2017 near Khorshid station in Alexandria

Egypt's health ministry has punished six medics who took selfies in front of a deadly train wreck by transferring them to a remote part of the country, it said Saturday, following an online uproar.

Two trains collided Friday near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing 41 people in one of the deadliest such accidents in the North African country.

Pictures of an ambulance crew taking selfie pictures in front the wreckage sparked anger on social media, with one Twitter user posting a photograph with a hashtag reading: "conscience in a coma."

Dubbed the "Selfie Medics" by Twitter users, they faced calls for punishment on social media.

The health ministry's director of emergency services Ahmed al-Ansari told AFP six members of the ambulance crew have been transferred to the western Siwa oasis as punishment.

It was "inappropriate conduct," he said.

Egypt's ambulance services had been hailed in the country in the past for their often dangerous jobs tending to demonstrators during the Arab Spring protests of 2011 and their violent aftermath.
BERLIN (AP) - Germany's federal prosecutors say they've opened an investigation into whether Vietnam conducted illegal espionage in Berlin, after a Vietnamese national wanted by that country on embezzlement charges was kidnapped here and spirited home.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement Thursday they believe Trinh Xuan Thanh was kidnapped July 23 in the German capital.

Vietnam had requested the extradition of Thanh, 51, on embezzlement charges, which carry the death penalty.

He'd sought asylum in Germany and German authorities kicked Vietnam's intelligence attache out of the country after the alleged kidnapping and summoned the ambassador.

Vietnam last week said Thanh had turned himself in, calling it "regrettable" that Germany accused Hanoi of kidnapping.

The Vietnamese embassy wouldn't comment by phone and didn't immediately respond to an e-mailed query about the latest development.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Latest on flood concerns in New Orleans due to the city's malfunctioning water-pumping system (all times local):

11:20 a.m.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency for New Orleans with the city's water-pumping system malfunctioning and needing repairs as more rain is in the forecast.

The governor's office said Thursday's declaration is a precautionary measure amid concerns that the malfunctioning pumps leave New Orleans more vulnerable to flooding.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office said in a news release early Thursday the city has lost service to one of its turbines, which powers most of the pumping stations that service the East Bank of New Orleans. Landrieu said that means the system's capacity to drain storm water from the streets has been diminished.

Heavy rain on Saturday led to flooding in many parts of New Orleans.

The emergency declaration authorizes the state to assist the city in response work.

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11 a.m.

All public schools in New Orleans are closed amid concerns that a malfunctioning water-pumping system is leaving the city vulnerable to flooding.

The Orleans Parish School Board said in a statement Thursday that schools are closed Thursday "out of abundance of caution."

Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office said in a news release early Thursday the city has lost service to one of its turbines, which powers most of the pumping stations that service the East Bank of New Orleans. Landrieu said that means the system's capacity to drain storm water from the streets has been diminished.

National Weather Service meteorologist Phil Grigsby says scattered thunderstorms are in the daily forecast for the region through the weekend. But he called that a "fairly normal (weather) pattern" for south Louisiana in August.

___

8:17 a.m.

As New Orleans' water-pumping system continues to malfunction, the mayor is urging residents in some of the city's already-soaked neighborhoods to move their vehicles to higher ground as more rain is in the forecast.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office said in a news release early Thursday the city has lost service to one of its power turbines, which powers most of the pumping stations that service the East Bank of New Orleans.

Landrieu said that means the system's capacity to drain storm water from the streets has been diminished.

New Orleans' municipal pumping system is supposed to move water out of the low-lying city.

The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for New Orleans every day from Thursday through Sunday.
KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) - A memorial service is set a New York dentist who died after scuba diving on a World War II airplane wreck in the English Channel.

According to his obituary in the Kingston Daily Freeman, Dr. Bruce Hottum's service will be held Saturday afternoon at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.

United Kingdom authorities say the 63-year-old partner in a Kingston dental practice was stricken July 21 after exploring a WWII wreck site off England's southeast coast. He was brought to shore, where he died at a hospital in Ramsgate. A cause of death hasn't been released by UK officials.

Hottum was a volunteer member of The BentProp Project, a California-based nonprofit group that searches for Americans still missing from WWII.

Hottum, who lived near Kingston, is survived by his father, wife and three adult sons.
CLINTON, Mo. (AP) - A second man has been arrested in connection with last weekend's shooting death of a western Missouri police officer, authorities said Thursday evening.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said William Noble, 35, of Clinton was taken into custody Thursday and charged with felony tampering with evidence.

During the course of an interview, Lowe said, investigators determined that Noble had disposed of the rifle believed to have been used in Sunday's shooting death of Clinton police Officer Gary Michael.

Lowe earlier said that a gun had been found in a creek about two miles north of Clinton. Lowe did not specify the style of the rifle found or how investigators came to find it.

Ian McCarthy, 39, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in Michael's death. He was arrested late Tuesday after a two-day manhunt.

Lowe said that the relationship between McCarthy and Noble was unclear.

McCarthy's public defender, Alice Wasson, told The Associated Press that a not guilty plea will be entered on McCarthy's behalf during a court appearance Friday.

Michael, 37, had been on the force less than a year and was the first police officer killed in the line of duty in Clinton, a town of about 9,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence on Friday called Donald Trump a "great champion" of America's inner cities.

Pence made the remarks during a speech before an anti-violence group in his home state of Indiana. The Republican former Indiana governor heaped praise on the faith-based group, called the Ten Point Coalition, which local authorities credit for helping to reduce homicides in several neighborhoods, even though the overall murder rate is up.

Trump "and I talked about it this morning," Pence said. "All of you who feel called to confront the challenge of urban youth violence - you have an ally, an advocate and a champion in President Donald Trump."

Vice President Mike Pence poses for a photo with is family, mother Nancy Pence-Fritsch, right, Karen Pence and Audrey Pence after the unveiling of his official state portrait, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

But considering Trump was swept into office following a campaign that trafficked in racial and anti-immigrant themes, not everyone is convinced. A group of about 30 protesters, including some sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, protested outside the fundraising event at a downtown hotel.

Joe Slash, the former head of the Indianapolis Urban League, told The Indianapolis Star that "a lot of people in the black community don't have fond feelings for Mike Pence and there's been a negative reaction about their bringing him here for a fundraiser."

Slash said the Ten Point Coalition "should have consulted people before they made that decision" though he credited the group with reaching out across the aisle.

The coalition, led by several African-American ministers, is known for its campaigns to stem violence in crime-plagued city neighborhoods. It uses community members, in some cases reformed gang members, to de-escalate neighborhood tension.

Pence said the group "literally everyday works miracles in the evening hours of the streets of Indianapolis" and he said their model should be exported to other cities.

The speech was not Pence's only stop in Indianapolis. He also attended a Statehouse ceremony where his official state portrait was unveiled, which the vice president said left him "deeply humbled."

Pence's portrait shows the one-term Republican seated on top of his desk, with an open Bible and a family picture to his right. A stack of law books is to his left, with Indiana and U.S. flags in the background.

Pence is also wearing a blue and gold tie - designed by wife Karen Pence - that is based on the state's logo.

Vice President Mike Pence watches as his mother, Nancy Pence-Fritsch, his wife Karen Pence and daughter, Audrey Pence, participate in his official state portrait unveiling, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Vice President Mike Pence hugs his wife, Karen, following the unveiling of his official state portrait, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
BURLINGTON, Wis. (AP) - Downward dog meets jumping goat.

Yoga classes are popping up across the nation that include the playful goats.

At a recent class at Oak Hollow Acres farm in Burlington, Wisconsin, Bear Foot Yoga Healing instructor Megan MacCarthy advised participants to worry less about testing their physical ability and more about sharing their hearts.

In this photo taken July 19, 2017, Greg Wong looks at a goat during a goat yoga session at Oak Hollow Acres Farm in Burlington, Wis. Yoga classes are popping up across the country that are including the playful goats. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

She also told them to take their child's pose and "call it kid pose, maybe?"

One of the farm's owners, Abigail Lippmann, says they've had 20 to 45 people come for each session, which includes 15 goats, since they started in June.

In Massachusetts, Sage Meadow Farm provides goats to Valley Hot Yoga in Easthampton. Farm co-owner Stan McCoy says 2,000 people tried to buy tickets for recent classes, which sold out in four seconds.

In this photo taken July 19, 2017, Casey Chaffin pets a goat as part of a goat yoga session at Oak Hollow Acres Farm in Burlington, Wis. Yoga classes are popping up across the country that are including the playful goats. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

In this photo taken July 19, 2017, goats walk through a yoga session at Oak Hollow Acres Farm in Burlington, Wis. Yoga classes are popping up across the country that are including the playful goats. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
NEW DELHI (AP) - Dozens of Tibetan exiles on Friday held a rally in New Delhi in support of India in the ongoing border standoff with Chinese forces over disputed territory high in the Himalayas.

The Tibetan Youth Congress members waved Indian and Tibetan flags and demanded that China leave Tibet.

"'The border of China where they stand, it belongs to Tibetans. This is why we are standing with India," said Tashi Dhondup, the group's spokesman, adding that China was "illegally occupying" the area.

Exile Tibetans shout slogans during a protest to show support with India on Doklam standoff in New Delhi, India, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Tensions between Indian and China flared last month in the southernmost part of Tibet, in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan, after Chinese teams began building a road onto the Doklam Plateau. The banner in local language reads Tibet's independence is India's security. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

The standoff began in June after Indian troops confronted Chinese forces working on a road over the Doklam Plateau that is also claimed by India's ally Bhutan.

China demands that Indian troops withdraw unilaterally before any talks can be held, while New Delhi says each side should stand down. China and India fought a border war in 1962 and much of their frontier remains unsettled despite several rounds of official-level talks.

A large number of Tibetans have been living in exile in India since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959.

Exile Tibetans listen to a speaker during a protest to show support with India Doklam standoff in New Delhi, India, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Tensions between Indian and China flared last month in the southernmost part of Tibet, in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan, after Chinese teams began building a road onto the Doklam Plateau. The banners in local language read Tibet's independence is India's security. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is warning of military action, saying the U.S. is "locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."

Trump tweeted: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. "

North Korea has announced a detailed plan to launch a salvo of ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers. If carried out, it would be its most provocative missile launch to date.

Trump said this week the U.S. would unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea if it continued to threaten the U.S.

The tweet was one of several Trump sent Friday. He also retweeted links to Fox News stories on Trump's frustration with Senate Republicans and drone strikes in Somalia.
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - Local lawmakers are asking for a criminal investigation into the discharge of wastewater that turned the water below Niagara Falls black.

The Niagara County Legislature passed resolutions Thursday night that request investigations by the New York state attorney general, the Niagara County district attorney and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The legislators want the agencies to probe the July 29 discharge that turned the water near the base of the falls black on a sunny day when the area was crowded with tourists.

FILE - In this July 29, 2017 file photo provided by Rainbow Air INC., black-colored wastewater treatment discharge is released into water below Niagara Falls, in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Local lawmakers are asking for a criminal investigation into the discharge of wastewater that turned the water below Niagara Falls black. The Niagara County Legislature passed resolutions Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 that request investigations by the New York state attorney general, the Niagara County district attorney and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. (Patrick J. Proctor/Rainbow Air INC. via AP)

The Niagara Falls Water Board says workers at the local wastewater treatment plant let a pump run for too long while emptying a sedimentation basin. The basin contained residue from the cleaning of carbon filters at the plant.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A competency hearing is scheduled for a California man accused of shooting a U.S. diplomat in Mexico.

A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, is set to arraign Zia Zafar of Chino Hills, California, on Friday and hold a hearing on whether is competent to stand trial.

Zafar is charged with attempted murder of a diplomat in the Jan. 6 shooting of consular officer Christopher Ashcraft in Guadalajara. Part of the shooting was captured on video depicting a man taking aim and firing at Ashcraft as he exited a parking garage.

Prosecutors have offered no motive for the shooting.

Court records indicate Zafar was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation back in May. The findings of that evaluation haven't been released.
CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago's police watchdog agency has determined the 2012 fatal shooting of a 15-year-old by an officer was "unprovoked" and "unwarranted."

The Independent Police Review Authority issued its ruling late Thursday. A little over a year ago, the city of Chicago settled with the Dakota Bright's family for about $1 million.

The teen was shot in the back of his head.

IPRA sustained complaints that the unnamed officer used unreasonable force when he shot the teen, who was fleeing from police and was 50 feet (15 meters) away when he was struck. The officer said he thought the teen was armed and turned toward him. Investigators didn't find a weapon.

IPRA challenged the credibility of the officer's account, noting inconsistencies in his statements. The current status of the officer wasn't revealed.
CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on a Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford employee accused in the fatal stabbing of a Chicago man (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

An Oxford University financial officer accused in the fatal stabbing of a Chicago man has agreed to return to Illinois to face charges.

In this Aug. 2017, booking photo released by the San Francisco Police Department shows suspect Andrew Warren, an employee of the University of Oxford in Britain. California prosecutors on Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, formally charged Wyndham Lathem with murder in connection with the stabbing death of a 26-year-old Chicago man. Lathem and Andrew Warren were on the run for about a week before they surrendered Friday, Aug. 4, to authorities in Oakland and San Francisco. Warren is being held at the county jail in San Francisco. (San Francisco Police Department via AP)

Andrew Warren acknowledged during a San Francisco court hearing Friday that he is the suspect being sought by authorities in Cook County, Illinois.

Warren surrendered peacefully in San Francisco last week after being on the run for eight days with Wyndham Lathem, a former Northwestern University microbiologist.

Warren and Lathem face first-degree murder charges in the brutal stabbing of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau. The 26-year-old hair stylist's body was found July 27 in Lathem's Chicago apartment.

Authorities have not revealed any motive in the killing.

Warren is a 56-year-old British national. He arrived in the U.S. days before the killing. Warren wore an orange jumpsuit during Friday's hearing, and he appeared unshaven after six days in jail.

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9:50 a.m.

Authorities say an Oxford University financial officer accused in the fatal stabbing of a Chicago man is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Friday.

Andrew Warren surrendered peacefully in San Francisco last week after being on the run for eight days with Wyndham Lathem, a former Northwestern University microbiologist.

Warren and Lathem face first-degree murder charges in the stabbing of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau. The 26-year-old hair stylist's body was found July 27 in Lathem's Chicago apartment.

Warren, a British national, arrived in the U.S. days before the killing. Authorities haven't revealed any motive in the killing.

Lathem appeared in a California court on Monday. He was not formally arraigned but waived extradition. Chicago authorities now have 30 days to bring Lathem back. Northwestern said Monday that Lathem was fired.

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9:30 a.m.

Chicago police say a hair stylist slain last month was stabbed more than 40 times with "lacerations and mutilations" to his upper body.

Fired Northwestern University microbiologist Wyndham Lathem and Oxford University financial officer Andrew Warren are accused in a Chicago arrest warrant in the July 27 fatal stabbing of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EHL'-mee) said Friday that the attack on Cornell-Duranleau "certainly was very intense."

He said police believe there might have been some tension in Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau's relationship.

He said police were holding back details because they haven't questioned Lathem and Warren, who separately surrendered to California authorities last week after a dayslong manhunt. Lathem has waived extradition to Chicago. Warren is expected to be in a California court Friday.
CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the sentencing of a convicted hit man of a notorious Chicago street gang (all times local):

12:40 p.m.

A federal judge has sentenced a hit man with a Chicago street gang to life in prison in one of the city's largest gang cases in years.

U.S. District Judge John Tharp sentenced 37-year-old Paris Poe on Friday. The judge noted that Poe killed two government witnesses planning to testify against his gang, the Hobos.

Tharp said the killings were meant to send a message to other potential witnesses. He says the intimidation worked. One witness at Poe's conspiracy trial and five other gang members said they'd rather go to jail than testify against the gang.

The judge says anyone Poe holds a grudge against should never have to worry he'll come after them.

Tharp says Poe could still pose a threat decades from now and called him "undeterrable."

When asked if he'd be making a statement at the sentencing, Poe stood and said: "I will not, sir."

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12:10 a.m.

The convicted hit man of the notorious Hobos street gang is next up for sentencing in one of Chicago's biggest gang cases in years.

Paris Poe goes before a Chicago federal judge Friday, a day after Hobos leader Gregory "Bowlegs" Chester was sentenced to a 40-year prison term.

Jurors found Poe carried out the most chilling of multiple Hobos murders. He fatally shot government witness Keith Daniels in 2013 as Daniels' small stepchildren screamed nearby.

The 37-year-old Poe faces a mandatory life sentence on one count, for murder in aid of racketeering. But prosecutors also want life on two other counts, and want the life sentences to run consecutively. They say that'll ensure Poe stays in prison, even on the off chance some count is tossed on appeal.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - A former husband and wife from a Canadian polygamous community have been sentenced for taking a 13-year-old girl to the United States to marry the now-imprisoned leader of their sect.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge sentenced Brandon Blackmore to a year in jail. His ex-wife Gail Blackmore received seven months.

Both have been ordered to serve 18 months' probation in addition.

The pair were found guilty in February of taking a child under the age of 16 out of Canada for sexual purposes.

According to trial testimony, the girl was taken to the United States in 2004 to marry Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is now serving a life sentence for assaulting two of his child brides.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - A judge in Chile is charging six people in connection with the 1982 death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva.

The judiciary said in a statement Friday that his death was caused by "toxic substances" that were gradually introduced into his body. He had been hospitalized at a private clinic.

The six people were charged with carrying out, covering up and serving as accomplices in the alleged crime. They include Frei Montalva's driver, four doctors and two former agents of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

FILE - In this undated file photo, Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who governed Chile from 1964 to 1970, waves to supporters. A judge on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, accused four doctors, an agent of the military dictatorship and a driver as authors, concealers and accomplices of the assassination of Montalva, one of the leaders of the opposition to dictator Augustus Pinochet. (AP Photo/La Tercera, File) NO PUBLICAR EN CHILE

Frei Montalva was succeeded by Salvador Allende as president. When he died at age 71, he was becoming an opposition force against Pinochet, who began his 17-year dictatorship by ousting Allende in a 1973 coup.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Authorities have cleared a North Carolina police officer who killed a burglary suspect in May.

Cary police Officer Andre Lopez was justified in using deadly force against 22-year-old Shaquian Johnson and will not face charges, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman announced Friday.

"Officer Lopez reasonably believed that his and the lives of other officers were endangered when he shot Mr. Johnson," Freeman concluded in her report.

According to the report , Lopez was among several officers who responded to a 911 call about 3 a.m. May 28 from a woman who said her teenage granddaughter woke to sounds of someone in the home and peered over the upstairs balcony railing to see a stranger with a bag. When officers arrived, a man took off running. A vehicle registered in Johnson's name was parked several homes away.

After searching for a couple of hours, officers saw Johnson going through the belongings of another vehicle in the community. When they told him to show his hands, he instead ran away.

Lopez told investigators that he heard a gunshot and saw a muzzle flash before firing. Another officer told investigators he too heard a gunshot and saw Johnson turn back toward the officers as he ran. Johnson collapsed in an alleyway. He died at a local hospital.

The report says a revolver stolen from the vehicle where officers spotted Johnson was found near him in the alleyway, and tests at the North Carolina State Crime Lab determined Johnson had fired it.

An autopsy determined Johnson was shot twice in the face near his lip, once in his left arm and once on the left side of his back. The back wound was the fatal one, as it went through his left lung and struck the pulmonary artery.

The 29-year-old officer has been on administrative duty pending the review. He's worked at the Cary police department since 2015 and previously worked as a Lee County deputy.
LONDON (AP) - Arsene Wenger is relieved Olivier Giroud didn't take him up on the offer to leave Arsenal.

Ever since France striker Alexandre Lacazette joined in July for a club-record 60 million euros ($68 million), the future of compatriot Giroud has been in doubt.

But after deciding to stick it out for a sixth season at Arsenal, Giroud was the north London club's match-winner on the opening day of the new Premier League campaign after coming off the bench.

Arsenal's Olivier Giroud reacts as and celebrates as referee Mike Dean, centre, says the ball has crossed the line for a goal during their English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Leicester City at the Emirates stadium in London, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Arsenal won the match 4-3.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

While Lacazette netted the opener after two minutes against Leicester on Friday, a collapse left Arsenal trailing with seven minutes remaining. An equalizer by Aaron Ramsey was followed by a header from fellow substitute Giroud sealing a 4-3 victory over the 2016 champions.

"It's fantastic," Wenger said. "I must tell you I opened the door for him at some stage (to leave) because it's important for him to play. But I don't want him to go and in the end he decided to stay. It was one of the great days of recent weeks for me because I know how important he is. Not only as a player, he's a fantastic player but as well in the group. He has a big weight in this squad and it was a relief for me that he decided to stay."

Giroud appears willing - if a little reluctantly - to accept his role as an understudy to Lacazette.

"I prefer to be on the pitch," the 30-year-old Giroud said, "but as much as I can I try to help the team reach its target."

Despite only starting 17 games last season in all competitions, Giroud still scored 16 times - including an eye-catching scorpion-style kick against Crystal Palace.

"I love the man and the player because he's a fantastic guy ... committed (and) he loves the club," Wenger said. "He doesn't want to leave."

Asked if Giroud could still leave before the transfer window closes on Aug. 31 until January, Wenger replied: "No. It's a determined no."

Giroud was on the pitch for almost half an hour against Leicester with the 26-year-old Lacazette, who joined from Lyon.

"Lacazette is simple. In every game he is stronger since he has joined us," Wenger said. "Even when I played Giroud through the middle and him on the left he did very well on the left. So overall I think he adapts slowly to the way we want to play and is a collective player and an intelligent player as well."

Arsenal is not just pursuing a first league title since 2004 but also a return to the top four - and Champions League qualification - after finishing fifth in May. The defense will need to become firmer if far sterner opponents than Leicester are to be beaten.

"We kept going and the spirit of the team was absolutely outstanding," Wenger said. "If you were a manager and you were on the bench, 3-2 down with 20 minutes to go and you win 4-3, you're more happy than concerned you know.

"I feel as well that the goals we conceded we can work to get rid of that because one was a corner, one was a ball we lost in the build-up and the third goal was on a corner again so we conceded two goals from corners. We were quite good last year on corners and overall I believe that with a bit of work we can get that out of the system."

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More AP Premier League coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/PremierLeague

Rob Harris at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and www.facebook.com/RobHarrisReports

Arsenal's Olivier Giroud, second right, reacts as and celebrates as referee Mike Dean, right, says the ball has crossed the line for his sides 4th goal of the game during their English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Leicester City at the Emirates stadium in London, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Arsenal won the match 4-3.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Arsenal's Olivier Giroud controls the ball during their English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Leicester City at the Emirates stadium in London, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump's attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell come at the worst possible time, if the president's goal is actually to advance his agenda on health care, infrastructure and taxes that he's goading his GOP ally to pass.

Congress, now on summer break, will return next month to confront a brutal workload that includes two absolute must-do items: funding the government to head off a shutdown, and raising the federal borrowing limit to avert a potentially catastrophic first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Both will require bipartisan cooperation, something in short supply on Capitol Hill this year.

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., during a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Trump's attacks on McConnell come at the worst possible time, if the president's goal is actually to accomplish the agenda on health care, infrastructure and taxes he's goading his GOP ally to pass. Behind from left are Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

That's in addition to Trump's demand for a tax rewrite to lower rates, a public works bill, and renewed efforts to repeal the Obama-era health law. McConnell, R-Ky., tried but failed last month to replace the Affordable Care Act - an outcome that Trump called "a disgrace."

So the president's rhetoric this past week has widened divisions at a moment when his party should try to work together on shared goals. His agenda only can pass if McConnell navigates it through the Senate. The veteran lawmaker may not feel more motivated to do that with his president working against him.

"Virtually any substantial goals that the president intends to achieve, whether it's tax reform or more infrastructure, requires the active assistance of the Senate majority leader," said Michael Steel, spokesman for John Boehner when the Ohio Republican was House speaker.

McConnell's allies say that Trump's frustration over the failure on health care is shared by the majority leader. Campaign operatives on the political side say it's crucial that the next item on the agenda - taxes - not collapse in a similar fashion. Otherwise, Republicans will have a tough time making the case to voters during next year's that they should continue to control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

"Tax reform is a must-do issue in our view," Steven Law, head of the McConnell-aligned super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, said Friday in an interview for C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program. "I think if we fail to get action on that, I think people will start to wonder why Republicans are in charge of everything and what they're accomplishing."

Yet instead of linking arms with McConnell on the issue and working Capitol Hill, which is what President George W. Bush did when he got his big tax cuts through in 2001, the White House may already be at cross-purposes with the majority leader.

The president's team has raised expectations for fast action on taxes. White House legislative director Marc Short recently suggested a bill could be completed by the end of the year. That's a tall order for Republicans who have yet to meet a single major legislative deadline. At the same time, Congress has made virtually no progress on infrastructure or the budget, and the unfinished work is piling up.

Unlike health care, the upcoming agenda - outside of taxes and Trump's nominations - requires Democratic votes. That's sure to be another sore point between Trump and McConnell because Trump wants the Senate to eliminate the filibuster. McConnell, along with most Senate veterans, are resolutely opposed.

McConnell dinged Trump this past week for "excessive expectations" about what can happen in Congress. That didn't sit well with the president, who lashed out against McConnell.

Even as Senate Republicans rushed to the majority leader's defense, McConnell's allies tried to calm the waters. Some noted that McConnell, while expressing his displeasure with Trump's tweeting habits, has nonetheless proceeded forward despite them.

"The most important thing Leader McConnell said this week is that this Congress will be judged in its totality, not in a snapshot, which is exactly right," said Brian McGuire, McConnell's former chief of staff. "He and the president share a common set of legislative goals, and there's no reason whatsoever to believe those shared goals won't continue to be a unifying force in the months and years ahead."

A priority for Trump is U.S. taxpayer money for a wall along the Mexico border despite his repeated campaign promises that Mexico would finance it. McConnell may be hard-pressed to deliver as funds for the border wall are certain to face strong Democratic opposition and some Republican foes.

"We have announced publicly, 'No wall. Never,'" said No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois. "Don't put that on the table. It's just a nonstarter with our caucus."

The administration is signaling that Trump is so determined to win money for the wall that it may be open to a budget deal that would increase defense spending and boost funds for domestic programs favored by Democrats. Trump reluctantly relented on the wall this spring - only to turn to Twitter to threaten a shutdown if he didn't get a better deal this fall.

But adding the contentious issue to a volatile mix on the September agenda could prove too risky.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report.

FILE - In this June 27, 2017 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Donald Trump raised the possibility Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 that McConnell should step down if he can't muscle health care and other legislation through the Senate, taking an extraordinary swipe at the man with the most power to steer the White House agenda through the chamber. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
CINCINNATI (AP) - The parents of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who hanged himself from his bunk bed with a necktie are testing the issue of school liability in suicides blamed on bullying.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Gabriel Taye against Cincinnati Public Schools and school officials cites repeated examples of Gabriel and others being bullied at his elementary school. They contend school officials knew about the bullying but played it down, allowing what they call a "treacherous school environment."

Courts have been reluctant to second-guess school administrators, even as bullying among children remains a common problem. Federal authorities have said that while bullying increases the risk of suicidal behavior, most cases don't result in suicide or thoughts of suicide.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Heavy storms have brought down trees and other objects, killing five people in Poland, including two teenage girls at a scouting camp, and injuring dozens of other people.

The storm hit an area of northern Poland lying between Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea, and city of Bydgoszcz.

Polish media reported Saturday the two girls killed at camp, 13 and 14 years old, died when trees fell onto their tents. The other victims included a 48-year-old man who was crushed to death by a tree and a younger man killed in his tent.

A 56-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on a building, causing part of a chimney to fall on her.

The storms also cause electricity cutoffs to nearly 340,000 people.
LONDON (AP) - The search is still on for a road-rage jogger who shoved a woman into the path of a London bus.

The Metropolitan Police force said Saturday that a man arrested earlier this week has now been "eliminated from the investigation."

The 41-year-old American investment banker was apprehended Thursday on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

In this image taken from surveillance camera video released by London's Metropolitan Police on Tuesday Aug. 8, 2017 shows a male jogger, right, after colliding into a woman who fell into the road on Putney Bridge in London. The search is still on for a road-rage jogger who shoved a woman into the path of a London bus. The Metropolitan Police force said Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, that a man arrested earlier this week has now been "eliminated from the investigation." (Metropolitan Police via AP)

His lawyers later released a statement saying he wasn't involved and could prove he was in the United States at the time of the May 5 incident.

The arrest came after police released surveillance camera footage showing a jogger in shorts and T-shirt banging into a pedestrian, who tumbled in front of a double-decker bus. The bus swerved and then stopped to avoid hitting the woman.

Police say "inquiries continue" to identify the jogger.
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - A man with a history of "emotional issues" used a hammer to bludgeon his mother, his sister and another woman to death in his Long Island home on Saturday, police said.

Bobby Vanderhall, 34, was arrested on three charges of murder in the early morning deaths of his mother, Lynn Reichenbach-Vanderhall; his sister, Melissa Vanderhall; and Janel Simpson, who was visiting the home.

Authorities said the three women were found dead inside the Vanderhall's Hempstead, New York, home of "blunt force trauma" at about 2:15 a.m.

Nassau and Hempstead police investigate the scene of a homicide in Hempstead, N.Y., on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Police on Long Island are searching or a "person of interest" in the killings of three women found inside a Hempstead home. A Nassau County Police spokesman says the women died from "blunt force trauma" injuries. A fourth woman survived and his being treated at a hospital. Detective Lt. Richard Lebrun did not identify the suspect police are seeking. He did not describe the suspect. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday via AP)

A fourth woman survived the assault and is hospitalized.

Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding officer of the Nassau County police homicide squad, told Newsday (http://nwsdy.li/2vwKGQS ) that Vanderhall's mother had recently kicked him out of the house.

"When he came here last night and it looked like the doors were secured, he became enraged," Fitzpatrick said. "He went to the garage. He obtained a large hammer. ... With this framing hammer, he broke through the basement door."

Police said Vanderhall then found his mother in the living room and started to bludgeon her with the hammer. They said he then attacked the other women. The three victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Fitzpatrick said Vanderhall had a history of "emotional issues" and had on two occasions been taken from his mother's home to a medical center.

Authorities said Vanderhall's behavior had become more troubling recently, leading his mother to obtain an order of protection against him.

It was not immediately known if Vanderhall has an attorney.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Republican-controlled Texas Senate backed a plan Saturday night to restrict insurance coverage for abortions, over the objections of opponents who expressed concern it could force some women to make heart-wrenching choices because no exceptions will be made in cases of rape and incest.

The 20-10 party-line vote for preliminary approval requires women to purchase extra insurance to cover abortions except amid medical emergencies. A final vote Sunday will see the measure clear the chamber, meaning it's now on a fast-track to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

Legislators debated other bills limiting insurance coverage for abortion during Texas' regular session that ended in May, but Abbott called a special session and revived the issue.

Ten states already have laws restricting insurance coverage of abortion in all private insurance plans: Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah. All make exceptions if the mother's life is endangered; only Indiana and Utah also make exceptions for rape and incest.

"Texas must take steps to prohibit taxpayer and premium dollars from subsidizing abortions that are not medically necessary," said Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe, near Houston.

The bill passed the Texas House earlier this week. Both Creighton and its House sponsor, Republican Rep. John Smithee, said the rules only apply to "elective" abortions and promote "economic freedom" by not forcing Texas policyholders who object to the procedure to help pay for insurance coverage for women undergoing it.

"What we're saying here is: If you want to buy this coverage, you can buy it," Smithee, a Republican from Amarillo, said during House debate.

Outnumbered Democrats in both chambers dismissed the bill as purely political, arguing that insurance companies already cover only medically necessary abortions. They also said the law will require purchasing insurance plans that insurers won't actually offer because too few women will buy them, not knowing in advance that they will be undergoing abortions.

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat, said Saturday night that the bill would effectively require women to buy "rape insurance." She tried to include exceptions for rape and incest, but failed on a 20-10 vote.

"No woman plans to have an abortion and certainly no woman can plan to be raped, no woman can plan to be attacked by someone she knows in her own family," Garcia said. "Those are the most heinous of the heinous crimes."

Texas approved some of the nation's strictest limits on abortion in 2013, but those were mostly struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. Still, abortion clinics around the state have closed and the number of abortions performed in the country's second-largest state has fallen from more than 82,000 in 2006 to around 54,300 in 2015.

"One of the talking points we've heard lately is abortion should be considered health care," Elizabeth Graham, director of Texas Right to Life, told a Texas Senate committee. "Really, the definition of health care is to make a person well and to encourage health. The definition of a successful abortion is the complete death of the unborn child."

State policy analyst Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a national research group that supports abortion rights, said she knows of no current analysis of the impact of states imposing coverage restrictions, nor the extent to which health plans offer supplemental coverage for abortion.

"My sense is that there isn't any identifiable impact of these restrictions since most women pay out of pocket already," Nash said by email.

A Guttmacher analysis in March said about 60 percent of privately insured abortion patients pay out of pocket, because their policy doesn't cover the procedure or because deductibles are high. But many women who get abortions are too poor to afford private insurance.

Nancy Northup, president of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, depicted the insurance bans as "a shocking infringement" on women's right to opt for private insurance to cover a legal medical procedure. In cases where a woman opts for an abortion after detection of a severe fetal abnormality, the costs can run into the thousands of dollars, she said.

The insurance bans also have been criticized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which says insurance coverage of abortion should be comparable to that of other essential health care services.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - It's a role Mike Pence has come to know well.

The vice president departs Sunday for Latin America on the heels of yet another provocative statement from President Donald Trump that he is sure to have to answer for. This time it's Trump's sudden declaration that he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro has been consolidating power, plunging the country into chaos.

The dramatic escalation in rhetoric seemed to upend carefully crafted U.S. policy that has stressed working with regional partners to increase pressure on Maduro. It also contradicted high-level administration officials, including Trump's own national security adviser, who had warned that any perception of U.S. intervention would stir decades' old resentments and play into Maduro's hands.

In this Aug. 10, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, speaks to reporters before a security briefing at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Pence departs Sunday for Latin America, a trip that comes on the heels of yet another provocative statement fromTrump that Pence is sure to have to answer for: this time Trump's sudden declaration that he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro has been consolidating power, plunging the country into chaos. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Experts on the region said the president's comments Friday would undoubtedly make Pence's task more difficult when he arrives Sunday in Cartagena, Colombia, on Venezuela's doorstep.

"Once again, Latin Americans will be looking for Pence to reassure them, to put a lot of daylight between his more traditional, moderate Republican views and those of his meandering president," said Richard Feinberg, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has extensive experience in the region.

The president's comments will also complicate the calculus of Latin American leaders, many of whom had been speaking out against Maduro's actions.

"It pulls the rug out from Latin American leaders who had braved internal political criticism to stand against the dictatorial trend in Venezuela and the human rights violations of the Maduro regime," said Mark L. Schneider, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said Trump's "off the cuff comment" on military options amounted to throwing Maduro "a beautiful life preserver at a time when the growing Latin American consensus was causing fracturing within his own supporters and probably the military."

"Now they will have little option other than to unite at least rhetorically against the Trump threat to 'send in the Marines,'" Schneider said.

Almost since Maduro took office in 2013, he has been warning of U.S. military designs on Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves. Maduro has also directed his barbs at Trump, describing him as a crass imperial magnate and accusing him of backing a failed attack on a military base.

Just last week, the foreign ministers of 17 Western Hemisphere nations met in Peru, where they issued a rare joint statement condemning Venezuela's new constitutional assembly and declaring that their governments would refuse to recognize the body.

Harold Trinkunas, of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, said it was the strongest condemnation of any fellow government that he has seen in a generation.

"In general, Latin American countries are very reluctant to criticize each other," he said.

Trump's comment, Trinkunas said, will make it harder for Pence "to convince Latin American leaders to publicly coordinate measures with the United States to increase pressure on the Maduro regime. Latin American states will not want to be seen as endorsing U.S. military intervention."

It was a concern raised by Trump's own national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, in a recent interview.

"Well, you know, there's a long history in the region of American intervention and that's caused problems in the past," he said. "And so, I think we're very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to give this regime or others the opportunity to say, well, you know, this isn't the problem with the Maduro. This is the Yankees doing this."

But a spokesman for Pence insisted there was no daylight between him and the president.

"The president is sending the vice president to South and Central America to deliver a very clear message both to our partners in the region and to the Maduro regime. The president and the vice president have discussed the trip in depth and are totally aligned on the president's message to Venezuela and Latin America overall," said the spokesman, Jarrod Agen.

Pence's trip comes as the situation in Venezuela has grown increasingly desperate. The U.S. has accused Maduro of a sweeping power grab following the creation of a new constitutional assembly, which has been granted the power to rewrite Venezuela's constitution, declared itself superior to all other government institutions, and ousted Venezuela's outspoken chief prosecutor. The moves have sparked violent protests.

Pence's trip had been aimed both at rallying opposition to Maduro in his own backyard, as well as bolstering trade and economic and security cooperation with four key U.S. allies in the region. His schedule includes stops in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Panama City. The vice president is expected to meet with each of the country's leaders, deliver a major speech on U.S.-Latin American relations, and tour the Panama Canal.

The trip is the latest indication that Pence has emerged as the U.S.'s top voice on the region - a distinction that was also held by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

"Once again the U.S. is sending the vice president to deal with Latin America," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. While some might view that as "downgrading," she said, many leaders in the region may prefer dealing with Pence.

"I think they consider Pence more predictable and measured," she said.

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CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) - The NAACP is suing Indiana officials to block a new state law that the civil rights group says would discriminate against black and Latino voters in heavily populated Lake County by consolidating voting precincts.

The lawsuit challenges a law that applies only to Lake County, which is home to Indiana's second-largest African-American population and its largest Hispanic population. It alleges that the new law unfairly reassigns large numbers of voters to new polling locations that may be difficult for black and Latino voters with mobility issues or a lack of reliable transportation to reach.

The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Gary NAACP and the Priorities USA Foundation, names Indiana's secretary of state and members of the Indiana Election Division as defendants.

The law, approved this year by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, requires Lake County to immediately consolidate precincts with fewer than 600 "active" voters, with limited exceptions, The Indianapolis Star reported. More specifically, it requires the Indiana Election Commission to adopt a consolidation plan by Sept. 1.

Holcomb's office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs said in a news release that the change creates longer lines and silences "the voice of these voters in local government."

"All around the country, legislatures are dreaming up new ways to make it more difficult for ordinary Americans to exercise their most fundamental right," said Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA. "In Indiana, Gov. Holcomb and some members of the Legislature have shown they are laser-focused on keeping African-American and Hispanic voters in Lake County away from the polls."

The complaint challenges Indiana's law on the grounds that it violates the Voting Rights Act and places an undue burden on the right to vote.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said he didn't think North Korea would be able to strike the state with a nuclear warhead until 2020. But spiraling rumors about the country's missile capabilities and its leader Kim Jung Un's recent comments - coupled with President Donald Trump's statements - have led to him saying the state needs to expand its military presence.

Walker said earlier this week to Politico he was concerned about North Korea's threats to the U.S. and the Asian nation's claims that its missiles can hit Alaska, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported (http://bit.ly/2wSzwFz ). But "no one's hiding under the desk," he said.

"It's actually, in some respects, gotten here sooner than we thought," Walker said. "So we're earlier than anticipated, and we want to make sure that we're well protected and everything."

The state has a Long Range Discrimination Radar under construction, which will give missile defenders a better look at what is happening over the Pacific Ocean, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.

"We've been diligent to build the quality of our Missile Defense System," Murkowski said. "We must continue to be vigilant - now more than ever in light of the heightened threat."

Sen. Dan Sullivan said he, too, is concerned that Alaska is within North Korea's missile range.

"For months, our senior military leaders have been warning that North Korea is on the cusp of developing a nuclear-ICBM that could hit U.S. cities," Sullivan said in a statement. "According to a Defense Intelligence Agency report, that day is coming faster than anyone had predicted."

Despite the threats, Murkowski said she is proud of Alaska's capabilities and readiness to defend. "I support efforts by the administration, our allies and other nations in the region to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions," she said.
President Donald Trump's remarks Saturday about violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, delivered in Bedminster, New Jersey, and transcribed and distributed by the White House:

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Well, thank you very much. As you know, this was a small press conference but a very important one, and it was scheduled to talk about the great things that we're doing with the Secretary on the Veterans Administration. And we will talk about that very much so in a little while, but I thought I should put out a comment as to what's going on in Charlottesville.

President Donald Trump walks up to the podium to speak regarding the on going situation in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 in Bedminister, N.J. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here. In particular, I want to thank our incredible veterans. And thank you, fellas. Let me shake your hand. Great people. They're great people.

But we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.

It has no place in America. What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society, and no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play, or be with their parents, and have a good time.

I just got off the phone with the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection - really - and I say this so strongly - true affection for each other.

Our country is doing very well in so many ways. We have record - just absolute record employment. We have unemployment, the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country. Foxconn and car companies, and so many others, they're coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American worker. We have so many incredible things happening in our country. So when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad.

I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia - incredible people - law enforcement, incredible people - and also the National Guard. They've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. The federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor. He thanked me for that. And we are here to provide whatever other assistance is needed. We are ready, willing, and able.

Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our God. We love our flag. We're proud of our country. We're proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.

My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other.

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Trump spoke about a veterans medical care bill he was signing into law before returning briefly to the violence in Virginia:

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And again, going back to Charlottesville, we have to heal the wounds of our country. These are wounds that have been going on for, really, a long time. And I thought, and everybody thought, and everybody wants it to heal, and it will heal. And we're going to make every effort possible to make sure that that healing procedure goes as quickly as possible.

I love the people of our country. I love all of the people of our country. We're going to make America great again, but we're going to make it great for all of the people of the United States of America.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
NEW YORK (AP) - Shareholders of Uber Technologies Inc. are feuding over a key investor's decision to sue the ride-hailing company's board and former CEO.

The Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/2vtq3Xc ) reported Friday that three shareholders wrote a letter to Benchmark Capital Partners protesting the venture capital firm's decision last week to file the lawsuit.

Benchmark, which owns 13 percent of Uber stock, contends former CEO Travis Kalanick concealed material information from investors when he created three new board seats in 2016 and gave himself the right to appoint people to those seats. The firm says Kalanick is trying to return as CEO.

Shareholders Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital, Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Cos. and Adam Leber of Maverick demanded that Benchmark withdraw the lawsuit and remove its representative from the board.

Uber declined to comment.

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Information from: The Wall Street Journal, http://www.wsj.com
President Donald Trump blamed "many sides" for violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the wake of a white nationalist demonstration, drawing swift reactions.

Democrats and some Republicans called on him to specifically denounce white supremacy and racially motivated hate by name. Vice President Mike Pence supported the president's speech. A white supremacist website praised the comments.

What Trump said:

A white nationalist demonstrator with a helmet and shield walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. At least one person was arrested. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said. "It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. It's been going on for a long, long time."

What others are saying:

- "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president." - Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, a Democrat.

- "Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism." - Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., on Twitter.

- "Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists" - Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Twitter.

- "@POTUS needs to speak out against the poisonous resurgence of white supremacy. There are not "many sides" here, just right and wrong." - Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Twitter.

- "As @POTUS Trump said, "We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation... & true affection for each other." #Charlottesville" - Vice President Mike Pence on Twitter.

- "There is only one side. #charlottesville" - Former Vice President Joe Biden on Twitter.

- "Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy." - Former President Bill Clinton on Twitter.

- "The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of "many sides." It is racists and white supremacists." - Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat.

- "We reject the racism and violence of white nationalists like the ones acting out in Charlottesville. Everyone in leadership must speak out." - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and Trump supporter.

- "We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH" - Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Twitter.

- "We must ALL condemn domestic terror & stand together against racism, hate and evils that if left unchecked will tear us apart #Charlottesville - Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on Twitter.

- "White supremacists, Neo-Nazis and anti-Semites are the antithesis of our American values. There are no other "sides" to hatred and bigotry." - Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., on Twitter.

- "The President's talk of violence 'on many sides' ignores the shameful reality of white supremacism in our country today, and continues a disturbing pattern of complacency around such acts of hate." - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

- "Trump comments were good. He didn't attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us. ... No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him." - Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website promoting the Charlottesville demonstration as part of its Summer of Hate edition.
A police chief has hit back at untrue claims that a convicted child rapist paid to help snare a paedophile gang was placed in the midst of vulnerable women and girls.

Northumbria Police Chief Constable Steve Ashman accepted officers faced a moral dilemma over the 10,000 paid to the sex offender, known only as XY, in helping secure convictions.

A total of 17 men and one woman were convicted of or admitted charges including rape, supplying drugs and inciting prostitution, in a series of trials at Newcastle Crown Court.

Responding to criticism  including accusations from an appalled NSPCC that police planted the informant  Mr Ashman told BBC Breakfast: Its quite surprising and disappointing for the NSPCC in particular to adopt the stance they have.

This is an ill-informed position that theyve taken. The fact of the matter is we absolutely did not plant XY, the informant, in the midst of vulnerable women and girls.

Not only did we not ask him to do it, theres no evidence whatsoever that he was engaged in offending against these victims or anybody else.

He said use of XY was to find who the suspects were, their addresses, and what criminal behaviour they were involved in.

The @NSPCC is appalled to learn that police paid a child rapist and planted him amidst vulnerable young girlshttps://t.co/8CUObx0gF0  NSPCC Press Office (@NSPCC_Press) August 9, 2017

He said: I absolutely understand that this is challenging for some people but Im left with a question that I throw back  not to be clever or to evade the issue  what would you do in those circumstances?

Would you take that risk under carefully managed circumstances, that doesnt expose him to vulnerable women and girls? Is that the right thing to do? Morally does that weigh up? To me, it does.

Some people might disagree with that, I get that  its a problem that we wrestle with ourselves  but Ive got to be content on the back of 93 convictions, over 300 years of imprisonment, without the verdicts that we received yesterday, this was the right thing to do overall.

Asked whether the informant was necessary to gain convictions, he said: You might have got that evidence through other means but it might have taken a whole lot longer and that in itself would have exposed vulnerable women and girls  given the scale of this  to an unacceptable level of risk, and personally that doesnt sit comfortably morally with me either.

Jim Gamble, who set up the Governments taskforce to fight child sexual exploitation, criticised the police move.

Jim Gamble

He told the BBC: I think all police forces are under pressure to get things right.

But there are ways and means to doing it  there need to be limits and there should be lines that shouldnt be crossed. In my opinion they have gone way over the line on this one.

Personally, I cant envisage any circumstances where I would have authorised payment to someone convicted of rape.

I cant imagine how you could have control mechanisms in place with an informant of that type  that would give you reassurance that they didnt still represent a risk to young and vulnerable women, given what I know about this persons history.

A total of 461 people have been arrested as part of the investigation, while 782 potential complainants have been spoken to and 278 victims found.

Nazir Afzal said putting predators with others in the company of their prey is dangerous

Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor in Greater Manchester who oversaw the Rochdale case, said he also had reservations about the Northumbria Police investigation.

He told BBC Breakfast: You can use - and should use - informants when youre tackling organised crime because they have credibility.

But when it comes to child sexual abuse, Ive prosecuted offenders in their 70s and 80s  they dont change their behaviour invariably.

Putting predators with other predators in the company of their prey is really dangerous  and I cant think how you could manage that risk.
Two passengers were rescued after being trapped on the upper deck of a bus after it smashed into a shop in a busy London high street.

A total of nine people suffered minor injuries when the bus hit the building in Lavender Hill, near Clapham Junction railway station in south-west London shortly before 7am on Thursday.

One passenger reported that the driver said he blacked out before the collision.

Another recalled how passengers began screaming as smoke emerged from underneath the vehicle and there was a lot of blood as a woman was trapped.

The driver was taken to hospital, police said.

The bus crashed into the front of the Poggenpohl Kitchen Design Centre.

Our crews will remain at the scene in #Battersea to help stabilise the shop hit by the bus on #LavenderHill. More https://t.co/CUpL3FtTal pic.twitter.com/F7huQQ1r7c  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) August 10, 2017

Glass lay shattered across the ground as paramedics tended to people on the top deck.

Firefighters with cutting gear appeared to be trying to cut trapped passengers free.

The bus involved was the number 77 travelling towards London Waterloo.

Andrew Matthews, 34, of Wandsworth Town, said he was one of around a dozen passengers onboard.

#Battersea bus update: Crews working with @Ldn_Ambulance have brought two people trapped on the top deck to safety https://t.co/CUpL3FtTal pic.twitter.com/Hs6m7TIkLP  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) August 10, 2017

He told the Press Association: I was on the top floor at the back, fortunately.

I noticed the bus drifting. I heard a smash and saw the roof of the shop going through (the bus) from the front left. It went to the fourth or fifth row.

I wedged myself in, bracing myself.

As soon as the bus came to a stop there was yelling, screaming.

Nine people were treated for minor injuries following the incident in Lavender Hill

I noticed a lady wedged in the front right-hand side. She was screaming for help. There was a lot of blood.

Nurse Amy Mullineux, 40, of Wandsworth Common, was also on the bus and said the driver told her he had lost consciousness before the crash.

I spoke to him. He said he blacked out before the bus hit the shop.

He doesnt remember hitting anything.

A double-decker bus has crashed into a shop in London high street

The paramedic told me they think he had some kind of fit, she said.

Solange Morin, 33, lives close to the scene and was hoping to catch the bus before she saw it crash.

She said: I saw this woman (in the bus) shouting and banging on the glass.

Everybody shouted fire, fire.

Emergency services were called to the incident just before 7am

I went on to the bus. I talked to her and was holding her hands.

She was pinned. I wouldnt have been able to get her out.

She was so scared because people were shouting fire. There was a lot of smoke.

Transport for London said a full investigation is under way.

Poggenpohl UK managing director Simon Richmond said: We are relieved that no one from our team was injured as the showroom had not yet opened for the day, but our thoughts are with the driver and passengers on the bus as we understand there have been casualties.

He added that he hoped business would return to normal soon, but that the showroom had been severely damaged.
Marseille boss Rudi Garcia has given up hope of signing Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud.

The France international has been linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium after struggling to secure a regular place in Arsene Wengers starting line-up last season.

Compatriot Alexandre Lacazette arrived at Arsenal this summer in a big-money transfer from Lyon, a move which is likely to further damage Girouds hopes of securing more game time this term, but Garcia has admitted defeat in his pursuit of the 30-year-old.

Olivier Giroud celebrates after scoring the winning penalty in the Community Shield

I do not think he wants to come to Marseille, Olivier Giroud. Thats the problem, Garcia told LEquipe. It is understandable  as he is a striker with the French national team who is making progress with Arsenal  that when he does change clubs, his interests might lie beyond OM.

One player who is heading to Marseille is Jordan Amavi.

Marseille have announced on their official Twitter account that they have agreed a deal with Aston Villa for the transfer of the 23-year-old.

Amavi was on the verge of joining Sevilla last month, having agreed a deal with the LaLiga club, but the transfer collapsed, paving the way for Marseille to swoop for the former Nice player.
Government plans to cut immigration to the UK to less than 100,000 have been defended by a leading member of Theresa Mays Cabinet.

First Secretary of State Damian Green made clear ministers believe a sustainable level of immigration would be for the number of people coming to the UK to be in the tens of thousands.

He was speaking after Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson questioned the target for cutting net migration  which has never been achieved since the Government announced it in 2010.

.@DamianGreen visits @IndigoVision, whose vital work with airports, cities & police forces helps support national security  a top priority. pic.twitter.com/lOmYEtPnaD  Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) August 10, 2017

Ms Davidson, who has spearheaded a Tory revival north of the border, said it is time for her party to have a meaningful and sustained discussion on the issue.

As part of that, she said we have to ask whether the target continues to be the right one, highlighting that while the number of pensioners in Scotland is expected to rise by 28% over the next 25 years, the number of workers is set to increase by only 1%.

Ms Davidson also contradicted the Prime Minister by arguing for overseas students to be removed from net migration figures.

First Secretary Damian Green during a visit to the site of the new Edinburgh concert hall (David Cheskin/PA)

Speaking during a visit to Edinburgh, Mr Green said: Ruth has an extremely interesting view point, she is quite right we need a rational debate on immigration, weve always needed that.

I think the overall purpose of the Governments immigration policy is to have immigration at sustainable levels, we do need to identify that as being in the tens of thousands.

It is clear that one of the forces behind the Brexit vote was a feeling in some parts of the UK that immigration had been allowed to be too high for too long, and I think we should respect that.

How EU citizens working in the UK are employed (PA graphic)

Immigration policy is always a balancing act between forces pushing in different directions.

One of the things that needs to go alongside immigration policy is a successful skills policy so we can up-skill our own workforce to make sure that if there are jobs that previously Scottish workers have not done, lets make those jobs available to Scottish.

Were not going to stop immigration overnight, nobody has ever suggested that, thats never been UK Government policy and it wont be UK Government policy.

Ruth Davidson

As Ive said immigration policy is always a balancing act, a lot of people clearly feel immigration is too high and want to have it at sustainable levels, but that sustainable level is not zero.

So there will be people coming here to work and to live.

In the wake of the Brexit vote, the Scottish Government has been pressing for power over immigration to be devolved to Holyrood, arguing different needs north of the border should allow for a different policy to be put in place.

First Secretary Damian Green says the Brexit vote showed that people think immigration levels are too high ( David Cheskin/PA)

But Mr Green dismissed that suggestion, saying: Immigration has always been a reserved power and that is for obvious practical reasons, that nobody wants any kind of border control inside the UK. I cant see that changing.

SNP MSP Joan McAlpine said: This just shows how little authority Ruth Davidson has  she can make a lot of noise but nobodys listening.

Scotland was promised powers over immigration by the Leave campaign. The UK Government has a duty to deliver on that promise.
Jeremy Corbyn will continue his attack on the Government over the NHS as Labour warns that cancer patients and their loved ones are being let down.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said there had been unprecedented numbers of cancelled operations and delayed cancer treatments since Theresa May came to power.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn is expected to use visits to Bristol and Swindon to highlight the Tories record.

Jeremy Corbyn taking to former doctor and @macmillancancer volunteer Gwen at the Wellbeing Centre at Southmead Hospital in Bristol pic.twitter.com/B9XdJbSYcI  JohannaCarr (@JohannaCarr) August 11, 2017

New analysis by Labour shows 26,710 patients waited at least two months for cancer treatment following an urgent GP referral in the year to April, up 87% higher compared with the same period five years ago.

Further analysis of the latest quarterly cancer performance statistics showed 105,471 patients waited two weeks or longer for a first consultant appointment following an urgent GP referral over the same period, up 121% in five years.

Jeremy Corbyn with Dr Mike Shere during a visit to the NGS Macmillan Wellbeing Centre in Westbury-on-Tyr, Bristol (Aaron Chown/PA)

Labour says there has also been an 80% increase in patients waiting 31 days or more for cancer treatment following a decision to treat them over the past five years.

Mr Ashworth said: Theresa Mays first year in office has been characterised by unprecedented numbers of cancelled operations and delayed cancer treatments.

Breast cancer (Rui Vieira/PA)

Her staggering failure to properly support cancer services has placed entirely unnecessary mental and physical strain on thousands of families, as well as on our overstretched and undervalued cancer workforce. Frankly, cancer patients and their loved ones are being let down by this Government.

This disgraceful situation cannot be allowed to continue and one year into her premiership, the Prime Minister must finally take urgent action to ensure cancer treatment remains world class in our NHS.

Figures released by NHS England on Thursday showed in June, two of eight cancer targets were not met, including the 85% standard for 62 days between referral from a GP and first treatment.

Only 80.5% of patients began their first definitive treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral where cancer was suspected.

Labour has shifted its focus on to the NHS in recent days, using the parliamentary recess to heap pressure on the Government over access to family doctors and spates of temporary closures at maternity units in England.

It comes amid a continuing row over Mr Corbyns views on Venezuela after he failed to directly condemn President Nicolas Maduro in the wake of escalating violence in the South American country.

Mr Corbyn has said he takes very seriously UN allegations of human rights violations by security forces and pro-government armed groups.
A man has been jailed for at least 20 years for the murder of his brother and attempted murder of his brothers girlfriend by setting fire to them as they slept on New Years Day.

Blair Logan poured petrol on his younger brother Cameron, 23, and the bed he was sharing with Rebecca Williams at their family home in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire.

Ms Williams was rescued from the fire and treated in hospital, while Logans parents were treated for smoke inhalation.

Blair Logan (Police Scotland/PA)

Logan, 27, pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder last month and was given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years, reduced from 24 because of his early plea, at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday.

When Blair Logan pleaded guilty last month, the court heard the two brothers had a hostile relationship, and Logan told police they had not spoken since the death of their grandmother in 2013.

Logan admitted pouring petrol with the intention of maiming or crippling Cameron, but claimed he did not mean to kill him.

Cameron Logan with his dog Gomez (Police Scotland/PA)

The attack was said to be in retaliation for a recent incident at the house when his brother had punched him.

A computer seized from Logans bedroom showed that from October 2016 he had carried out internet searches on burns victims.

Judge Lady Scott said Cameron had died a horrible death and that Logan acted with wicked recklessness.

David and Cathy Logan, the parents of Cameron and Blair Logan (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The judge accepted court reports that he had abnormal personality traits but said there was no suggestion that Logan had a mental disorder and was fully criminally responsible for his actions.

The 27-year-old, who was a Tesco store assistant, admitted killing his brother during a police interview on January 13. He told officers: It was not my intent to kill him but I did do it.

When charged with the attempted murder of Ms Williams, he said I thought she was out of the room, and added: I did not wish to murder my parents.

Rebecca Williams, the girlfriend of Cameron Logan, leaves the High Court in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Logan had also admitted endangering the lives of his parents David and Catherine in the blaze, in which the family dog Gomez was also killed.

In mitigation, defence QC Shelagh McCall said Logan had shown genuine remorse and views the murder of his brother as horrific and that it cannot be justified.

She referred to a letter that his parents had written to the court which said they find it extremely difficult to reconcile the Blair they know with the Blair who caused Camerons death.

Both parents were in the court room in Edinburgh, along with Ms Williams and her family, as the sentence was passed by Lady Scott.
The final move to secure the pensions of tens of thousands of steelworkers has been announced, ending any fresh doubts about future payments.

Steel giant Tata gave details of a new scheme to replace the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS).

Workers voted earlier this year to accept lower benefits in return for investment which will secure jobs.

A new #TataSteelPension scheme will be sponsored. All members of the BSPS will be invited to transfer to a new scheme. pic.twitter.com/0Vm4aJZts0  Tata Steel in Europe (@TataSteelEurope) August 11, 2017

Finalising the pension arrangements is expected to clear the way for Tata to merge its European steel business with German firm Thyssen Krupp.

Tata Steel UK said it had signed the documentation for a so-called regulated apportionment arrangement (RAA) with the Trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme, offering more sustainable outcomes for pensioners, employees and the business.

When the RAA takes effect the British Steel Pension Scheme will be separated from Tata Steel UK and a number of affiliated companies.

The steel trade unions Community, Unite and GMB, said in a statement: We welcome the RAA announcement which includes a commitment that Tata will stand behind a new scheme with reduced annual increases.

For over a year our members have feared for their security in retirement, and this announcement helps to bring that uncertainty to an end.

When the RAA takes effect, workers will be able to join a new BSPS, which will have lower future annual increases for pensioners and deferred members, which will give it an improved funding position which would pose significantly less risk for Tata, said the company.

Koushik Chatterjee, Tata Steels Group Executive Director, said: The RAA process has been a long and detailed one, and I would like to thank the Pensions Regulator, Pension Protection Fund, the Trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme, its members, the unions and employees  indeed, all our stakeholders, including the Governments of the UK and Wales, for their constructive engagement through the process.

Tata Steel (Ben Birchall/PA)

Considering the continued challenges in the global steel industry as well as the uncertain global politico-economic environment, the RAA presents the best possible structural outcome for the members of the British Steel Pension Scheme and for the Tata Steel UK business.

The RAA is one important milestone in Tata Steel UKs journey towards a sustainable and enduring future, with pension obligations, whose risk profile would be consistent with the underlying business.

The net financial impact of the RAA including the payment of the agreed amount would be reflected in the Q2 FY18 financials for the company.

The RAA and the prospect of the related new pension scheme is the best possible outcome for the members of the BSPS #TataSteelPension pic.twitter.com/3FpsRB1qzO  Tata Steel in Europe (@TataSteelEurope) August 11, 2017

The union statement added: We fought to ensure that our members can choose whether they want to transfer to a new modified scheme, underpinned by Tata, or to remain in the BSPS and therefore receive Pension Protection Fund (PPF) compensation.

Now that this choice is being delivered, the company and the trustees must step up to provide the necessary information and guidance to enable every member to make an informed decision in their best interests.

Our members have been extremely disappointed at the unacceptable lack of communication in recent months, and this has to change immediately. The company and the trustees must remember they are dealing with peoples long-term future, their life savings, and their familys financial security; it is vital members are given all the support that they need.
Heathrow Airport had its best month ever in July, as the summer getaway sent passenger numbers soaring.

The UKs biggest and busiest airport said it welcomed 7.53 million passengers in July, up 1.2% compared with the same time last year, and breaking all monthly records.

That means on average 243,000 passengers passed through the airport every day, equivalent to the population of Plymouth.

Heathrow records busiest month in history with 7.53 million passengers and staggering 15% cargo growth: https://t.co/aZUgN3MSOu #avgeek pic.twitter.com/8vQJLUfICB  yourHeathrow (@yourHeathrow) August 11, 2017

Middle Eastern destinations proved particularly popular last month, with traveller numbers to the region climbing 7%.

UK destinations also jumped up 5% after Flybes recent decision to introduce flights from Heathrow to Scotland.

Trade through the airport enjoyed a record surge as well, rising 15% to 143,000 tonnes.

Much of that growth was thanks to American Airlines, which boosted cargo volumes by 44%, spurring an uptick in trade with North America.

Trade with East Asia also saw an uplift on the back of strong growth to China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: Britains global gateway is hard at work this summer holiday season  July was the best month in Heathrows history.

Passengers (Steve Parsons/PA)

With more passengers than ever and trade growing at the fastest rate ever recorded, Heathrow is helping Britain show the world our country is open for business.

It comes as Brexit continues to cast a cloud over the aviation sector, with industry leaders urging the Government to prioritise an agreement in the talks with Brussels.

Last week, Ryanair boss Michael OLeary met with Transport Secretary Chris Grayling where he reiterated his warning that British airlines are at risk of being grounded unless Tory ministers strike an aviation deal with the EU before March 2019.

The last month marked our 53rd consecutive month of growth - with 4.7 million people using the airport in July! https://t.co/8a5HtZJcql pic.twitter.com/3TGjpSNA6m  Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) August 10, 2017

Gatwick recorded a 6.1% year-on-year rise in passengers travelling to China in July, marking the first anniversary of the airports routes to Chinese destinations Tianjin and Chongqing.

Overall passenger numbers rose for a 53rd consecutive month in July as 4.7 million people travelled through the airport - up 2.4% - making it the busiest July in Gatwicks history.
Eight scouts had to be rescued by helicopter after taking a wrong turn while trekking in the Cairngorms  and asked: Are we in trouble?

The group of boys and girls aged between 10 and 14 were reported missing after failing to return to the Carrbridge area.

The Coastguard was called to begin a search mission on Thursday night, scanning the mountainous site with specialist cameras.

The crew found the group at 9.40pm waving and flashing lights towards the helicopter at a remote bothy.

Aircraft captain Simon Hammock said: They had travelled a significant distance across uneven ground, and as the weather deteriorated had elected to seek shelter in a bothy.

Their scouting training had been put to good use and had ultimately ensured their safety.

Watch dramatic moment Coastguard helicopter finds 8 overdue scouts aged 10-14 in #Cairngorms last night #allsafe https://t.co/ItQ7QEpRWj pic.twitter.com/sZuyRtMxch  Maritime and Coastguard Agency (@MCA_media) August 11, 2017

We landed next to the bothy and as our winchman Jon approached the group, one of the smallest asked: Can we have a lift? and then quickly followed up with: Are we in trouble?

He was able to put their minds at rest and when we returned them to their camp they were met with open arms by the other cubs and scouts. A great result.

The scouts had made their way to a remote bothy on the River Dulnain, seven miles from their original camp at Sluggan Bridge.

A Coastguard helicopter

They had lit a fire inside the building to keep warm, when it turned dark and the weather began to get colder.

The helicopter landed near the bothy and took the youngsters back to Sluggan Bridge, where Police Scotland and the Cairngorms Mountain Rescue Team were waiting for them.

They were given a warm welcome by their scout friends, who had raised the alarm that they were overdue.

A Scout Association spokesman said: There were no injuries and the young people used their Scout skills to remain warm and dry whilst waiting for help.

The young people are now continuing to enjoy the rest of their camp.
A Government minister has issued a new appeal to the public for vigilance in the face of the continuing terrorist threat.

Security Minister Ben Wallace said that if people saw signs that those they knew were becoming radicalised, they should report it to the authorities.

He called for a return to a mindset of the 1970s and 1980s where people were on the lookout from the threat of the IRA bombing campaign.

His comments follow a warning from the former head of MI5 Lord Evans of Weardale that the current threat of Islamist terrorism could persist for another 20 or 30 years.

Mr Wallace said the speed with which people could move from being radicalised online to carrying out deadly attacks meant it was vital that the public stayed alert.

This is why the Government is very keen to make sure that this is not just about the intelligence services and the police. It has got to involve all of us, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

We have a really strong role to play in this, especially with that group of what we would call sudden violent extremists - people who just may live next door that the police will not necessarily have time to get to, he said.

Security minister Ben Wallace. (John Stillwell/PA)

If we see something suspicious, if we are worried about things, we should raise the alarm.

We have got to get back to that stage which we had in my childhood where the IRA had bombing campaigns in the mainland. We looked out for things. We always asked ourselves Is that a suspicious thing? and did something about it.

I think that is where we have to get to again, especially with people who could very, very quickly be radicalised and take lethal action.

Were working with tech companies to tackle online terrorist content. You can report material promoting terrorism at https://t.co/nmN3w78htC pic.twitter.com/w3mhIgNf26  Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) August 2, 2017

Mr Wallace said the Government was also determined to ensure that the big internet companies such as Google and Facebook did more to take down extremist material.

We are as a Government exploring a range of issues that we can look at ranging from whether we have existing legislation or whether there is a requirement for new legislation, all the way through whether there is new technology that we can incentivise these companies to put in place, he said.

They absolutely have a duty to do something about it. Our biggest concern is that safe spaces are where everyone from paedophiles to terrorists are sitting using things such as encryption to carry out their awful, awful practices.

We have to do something about it. We cannot sit back and let it ride.
Boys could close the A-level gender gap with girls at top grades this summer, an expert has suggested.

Major reforms to the qualifications could benefit male sixth-formers, according to Professor Alan Smithers.

Official figures show that there was just a 0.3 percentage point gap last year between the proportion of boys and girls A-level entries awarded an A* or A grade.

PA Graphics

Prof Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, suggested that changes to the qualifications, particularly the move away from modular courses could mean that this gap closes further.

He told the Press Association that major reforms to A-levels back in 2000  which saw a swing towards pupils sitting exams throughout their two-year courses  had benefited girls. Now that is being reversed under a recent exams overhaul, it may advantage boys.

Curriculum 2000 put all the A-levels on a modular basis, and in 2002, when the first grades were awarded, girls leaped ahead at A* to C and at the A grade, Prof Smithers said.

PA Graphics

At the A grade, the gap increased from 0.8 to 2.6 percentage points and at A to C from 3.6 to 6.8 percentage points.

The change over to modular brought about a big difference in the relative performance of girls and boys.

Experts have previously suggested that girls tend to respond to modular courses, as they can apply themselves throughout the course, working towards specific modules or coursework, whereas boys are more likely to revise in the weeks before a final exam.

I think cutting to the chase, what happened when A-levels changed from end of course to modular, which led to a big gap opening in favour of girls, suggests that the reversion to end of course examinations will lead to a narrowing of the gap.

Pupils will receive their results next week. (David Davies/PA)

This year, the first A-level grades will be given in 13 subjects which have been reformed  art and design, biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, English language, English language and literature, English literature, history, physics, psychology and sociology.

The extent to which the gap closes depends on how much impact those 13 subjects have, Prof Smithers said.

Last year, 26% of UK girls A-level entries scored at least an A grade, compared with 25.7% of UK boys entries.

In 2011, there was a 1.5 percentage point gap, with 27.7% of girls entries awarded A*-A, compared to 26.2% of boys.

Teenagers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level results next week.
Arsene Wenger is relieved Olivier Giroud opted to stay at Arsenal this summer after the striker scored the winner in Fridays Premier League opener against Leicester.

The France international came off the bench to head home in the 85th minute as the Gunners started their season with a thrilling 4-3 win.

Girouds compatriot Alexandre Lacazette marked his league debut with a goal in just 94 seconds, only for Shinji Okazaki to level for the Foxes less than three minutes later.

Olivier Giroud celebrates scoring the winning goal (Joe Giddens/Empics)

Jamie Vardy then struck twice, either side of a Danny Welbeck equaliser, as the 2015-16 champions looked for a first league win over Arsenal since 1983. But it was not to be.

Aaron Ramsey came off the bench to level with eight minutes remaining before Giroud wrapped up the points.

The 30-year-old has been linked with West Ham, Everton and Marseille since the arrival of club-record signing Lacazette.

Wenger admitted he had given the former Montpellier man the chance to leave but is delighted he opted to stay put.

"It is fantastic," Wenger replied when asked about Girouds willingness to fight for his place.

"You know, I must say I opened the door for him at some stage because I know that its important for him to play.

Thanks for sticking with us tonight - we know we don't always make it easy for you!#WeAreTheArsenal  pic.twitter.com/LsgLy1fTUz  Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 11, 2017

"But I dont want him to go and in the end he decided to stay and it was one of the days of recent weeks for me because I know how important he is.

Not only as a player, he is a fantastic player, but as well in the group. He has a big weight in the squad and it was a relief for me that he decided to stay."

Pushed on whether he thought Giroud could leave before the transfer window closes on August 31, Wenger replied: No. Its a determined no.

Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare was good on his word and started Riyad Mahrez, despite the fact the Algeria international has asked to leave the club.

Mahrez, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal in the past 12 months, had been a target for Roma.

The Serie A side have now said they will not return with an improvement on the offer that was rejected and, while he remains a Leicester player, Shakespeare is more than happy to utilise the 2016 PFA Player of the Year.

Craig Shakespeare talks after #lcfc's narrow 4-3 defeat to Arsenal in their Premier League season opener on Friday. #ArsLei pic.twitter.com/TLGuTzNB3h  Leicester City (@LCFC) August 12, 2017

Asked whether Mahrez would be at the club when the window closes, the Foxes boss said: "Who knows?

"I think we have all seen the funny business of the transfer window and we never know what is round the corner. Riyad has been very focused.

"He came out and made a statement which we are all aware of but while he trains and plays and is professional the way he is, he will be considered for selection."
Boris Johnson has said the regime of Kim Jong Un is responsible for the crisis over North Koreas nuclear programme and must now fix it.

In a series of posting on his Twitter feed, the Foreign Secretary said Britain was working with the United States and allies in the region to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington.

The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 12, 2017

Mr Johnson said the North Korean regime was to blame for current tensions and must be the ones to fix it.

Boris Johnson

He aded: The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end.

The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 12, 2017

Mr Johnsons intervention came as Chinese President Xi Jinping appealed to both sides for calm amid fears the worsening war of words between North Korea and the US could lead to a military conflict with catastrophic consequences for the region.

In a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, he urged both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation.

The Americans have been pressing China to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear programme amid fears that it is close to developing a missile which could hit the US mainland.

State-run China Central Television quoted Mr Xi as telling the president that the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The call followed the latest barrage of threats from Mr Trump, declaring the US military forces were locked and loaded and warning Kim he will regret it fast if he takes any action against US territories or allies.
The Dalai Lama has cancelled a planned visit to Botswana due to exhaustion.

A statement on the website of the Tibetan spiritual leader said he has written to the president of the southern African nation expressing profound regret. The 82 year old was due to arrive in Botswana on Tuesday.

The Chinese government, which has been known to exert pressure on countries not to host the Dalai Lama, had warned against the Botswana visit.

(Tsering Topgyal/AP/PA)

The Dalai Lamas statement said he thanked Botswanas president and government for their unwavering principled stand to welcome him to their country, despite overwhelming pressure not to do so.

The statement also said that during the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually tired. It concluded by saying doctors have warned him against long journeys.
Campaigners protesting against the killing of animals for sport have taken to the streets of London on the first day of the grouse shooting season.

Demonstrators marched through central London to Downing Street, calling for an end to badger culling and driven grouse shooting and urging the Government to keep the ban on fox hunting with hounds.

A campaigner wearing a fox mask in Cavendish Square (John Stillwell/PA)

Thousands march to Downing Street for wildlife protection #crushcruelty pic.twitter.com/tPAqEPwNOZ  Badger Trust (@BadgerTrust) August 12, 2017

Fox and badger and megaphone. Must be time for the March to Make Badger Culling, Fox Hunting & Driven Grouse Shooting History! #StopTheCull pic.twitter.com/xcOgeN0bWT  Philip Mansbridge (@PlantBasedPhil) August 12, 2017

( John Stillwell/PA)

Ahead of the protest Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, who joined crowds of people in the capital, condemned such activities as a dying business.

Those taking part carried banners stating Kill the Cull while some wore fox and badger masks.

Chris Packham interviewed C4 News

tonight start march to Downing Street #crushcruelty pic.twitter.com/8zBzeJW6VV  Badger Trust (@BadgerTrust) August 12, 2017

( John Stillwell/PA)

A campaigner wearing a fox mask in Cavendish Square (John Stillwell/PA)

They chanted Save our badgers, stop the cull, Save our foxes, keep the ban and Theres no excuse for animal abuse.
One person has died and 19 others were injured after a car ploughed into a group of anti-white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

University of Virginia Medical Centre spokeswoman Angela Taylor confirmed the death, while the mayor of Charlottesville Michael Signer said via Twitter that he is heartbroken to announce that a life has been lost.

Witnesses said a car ploughed into a crowd of people who were protesting against a rally held by white nationalists who oppose the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee by civic officials in Charlottesville.

The city had been the scene of violent clashes between the nationalists and counter-protesters earlier.

Speaking in New Jersey, US president Donald Trump condemned this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides in Virginia.

He added: What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives.

And the US leader added that Americans must come together with love for our nation  and true affection for each other.

The damage to the car can be seen after hitting protesters (The Daily Progress/AP)

A state official later said the male driver of a car is in police custody.

During the incident an Associated Press reporter saw at least one person on the ground receiving medical treatment immediately after the car careened into a group of people several hundred strong.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counter-protesters were marching when suddenly there was just this tyre screeching sound.

A silver vehicle smashed into another car, then reversed, ploughing through a sea of people.

Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville

The incident happened about two hours after violent clashes broke out between white nationalists and others who arrived to protest against them.

At least eight were injured and one arrested in connection with earlier violence when marchers and counter-protesters traded punches and threw missiles at each other.

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, and riot police ordered people to disperse.

Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville

Small bands of protesters who showed up to express their opposition to the rally were seen marching around the city peacefully by mid-afternoon, chanting and waving flags, while helicopters circled overhead.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a pro-white rally to protest the city of Charlottesvilles decision to remove the confederate statue from a city centre park.

It is the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, DC, voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a night-time protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group travelled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Mr Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols, but also about free speech and advocating for white people.

This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do, he said in an interview.

Among those expected to attend the rally were Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and alt-right activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which track extremist groups, said the event had the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

There were also fights on Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

Mr Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town, and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

He said: Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville  Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) August 12, 2017

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city which is home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statues removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesvilles history is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Theyre now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund has filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials.

A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction which blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.
DAKAR, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The leader of Senegal's main opposition group said on Wednesday it would not participate in any future elections because the parliamentary polls that delivered a large majority to the ruling coalition were a "masquerade".

President Macky Sall's coalition took 125 seats in the 165-seat National Assembly after winning nearly half the vote, according to the results announced last on Friday.

The coalition of 91-year-old former president Abdoulaye Wade, whom Sall defeated in a 2012 presidential election, won 19 seats. Another led by Dakar mayor Khalifa Sall, who has been detained in a corruption probe for the past six months that his supporters say is politically motivated, won seven seats.

"The coordination of opposition parties Wattu Senegal ... will no longer participate in any election of any kind organised by the government of Macky Sall," Wade said in a statement on TV.

"It will oppose by all means any attempt by Macky Sall to organise a similar masquerade at a national level."

The peaceful and well organised 2012 poll reinforced Senegal's reputation as one of West Africa's most stable democracies. But in last month's legislative poll many hundreds of Senegalese voters were prevented from casting their ballots because of delays in issuing biometric voting cards, prompting the opposition to cry foul. Opposition leaders have criticised Sall for trying to stamp out opposition. Demonstrations in Dakar are often blocked by tear gas-wielding police.

The next presidential election is in 2019. (Reporting by Diadie Ba; Writing by Tim Cocks, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
By Christian Shepherd and Thomas Suen

JIUZHAIGOU, China, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Businesses near the epicentre of an earthquake that struck an ethnically Tibetan mountainous region in southwest China fear the disaster will cripple tourism, their main source of income.

Damage to the Jiuzhai Valley Scenic Area of Sichuan province may cause some of the hotels, restaurants, shops and stalls that serve the UNESCO-listed site to lose months - if not years - of income, leaving many jobless, workers told Reuters.

Tuesday's 7-magnitude quake killed 20 people and injured around 500, many of them in landslides in an area often hit by tremors. It also damaged lakes and waterfalls, according to state media.

The damage does not compare with the Sichuan quake of May 2008 which toppled buildings and killed almost 70,000 people. Initial government estimates at the time put the cost to the province at more than $7 billion in lost tourism.

But more than a dozen villagers in and around the Jiuzhai Valley Scenic Area told Reuters they feared for their future.

"The whole of Ngawa Prefecture relies on the scenic area for economic income. People from all districts come here to work. A whole generation could lose job opportunities," said Renda Caili, a Tibetan man who runs a guesthouse.

Images shared online and confirmed by residents in touch with people inside the site show some of the brightly coloured pools filled with mud, while some of the rolling waterfalls that connect them have partially collapsed.

Authorities have blocked international journalists from accessing the site, which state media said was visited 7 million times in 2016.

A Sichuan government spokesman said it could not yet make any estimates of the economic damage.

Few of the buildings in Zhangza Town, the entrance to the valley where visitors typically stay, appeared to have suffered severe damage when Reuters visited on Thursday, though locals said they worried there could still be danger of collapse.

A Tibetan woman with a four-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son said that their house partially collapsed.

"We don't dare go back. It's too dangerous," she said, declining to give her name as she said the quake was a sensitive issue for the authorities.

Her family's income was her greatest concern, she said: "My husband worked in a five-star hotel up near the epicentre. No one knows when it is going to reopen."

The glass and metal frame of the entrance to the InterContinental Resort Jiuzhai Paradise, close to the epicentre, was warped and broken when Reuters visited on Thursday.

Authorities say the majority of the estimated 60,000 tourists had been evacuated by bus or ambulance, but residents say no transport has been made available for them.

"There were no buses provided and we have nowhere to live up there now, so we are walking home," a worker from a hotel said, declining to be identified, as he rushed down the road with belongings towards Jiuzhaigou from about 10 km away.

The route into the town from the West was blocked by landslides. Boulders dislodged from the steep mountainside by regular aftershocks continued to crash on to the road on Thursday.

A business owner surnamed Zhao told Reuters he expected it to take two years before his catering business, which serves thousands per day in peak season, returned to full operation.

"Fortunately this time there have been very few deaths. It is nothing like as bad as Wenchuan," he said, referring to the 2008 quake in central Sichuan which he said he felt in Jiuzhaigou.

Many of the deaths then were caused by the collapse of old buildings, though some new school buildings collapsed because of a lack of reinforced concrete. Most of the buildings in Zhangza were relatively new, built in the domestic tourism industry boom under much tougher quality and safety regulations.

"This area is a natural wonder - the United Nations has said so," Zhao said. "Of course the tourists will come back." (Reporting by Christian Shepherd and Thomas Suen; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Mark Weinraub

CHICAGO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures fell on Friday, led lower by a sharp decline in MGEX spring wheat as investors liquidated bullish positions following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's forecast for a bigger-than-expected crop in the northern Plains, traders said.

The selloff pushed the benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contract to its lowest in nearly two months. MGEX spring wheat ended down 4.2 percent and hit its lowest since June 26, pressured by the USDA's outlook for a bigger-than-expected crop in the northern Plains.

Chicago soybean and corn futures edged higher, with mild bargain buying underpinning prices.

All three posted weekly declines as the USDA's forecast on Thursday for bumper corn and soybean harvests continued to hang over the market.

Wheat futures have fallen for five straight weeks, and corn and soybeans for three.

Chicago Board of Trade September soft red winter wheat futures ended down 1-1/4 cents at $4.39-1/4 a bushel. MGEX spring wheat for September delivery shed 29-1/4 cents to $6.74 a bushel.

"From a technical standpoint, I don't like the trade action, breaking that $7 number," said Jason Ward, analyst with Northstar Commodity Investment Co. "That was a very big support area that broke."

CBOT November soybeans were 4-3/4 cents higher at $9.45 a bushel and CBOT December corn was up 3-3/4 cents at $3.74-3/4 a bushel.

The USDA on Thursday projected the U.S. corn yield at 169.5 bushels per acre (bpa), below its previous forecast of 170.7, but well above the average trade estimate of 166.2 bpa.

The USDA also wrong-ooted investors by increasing its soybeans yield forecast to 49.4 bpa from 48.0, rather than trimming it as expected.

Traders have been grappling with erratic crop weather that has left some crop belts parched and others soggy. Rainfall was forecast to be limited this week in much of the Midwest, but heavy rain was projected toward the end of next week.

"Market attention now turns back to weather, with yield potential for U.S. soybeans and corn remaining the key focal point for the next month," Rabobank analysts said in a research note.

Wheat markets remained dampened by the USDA's supply outlook, which included a sharp increase in projected global wheat stocks in 2017-18, supported by increased estimates for Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh crops.

Russian consultancies SovEcon and IKAR on Friday gave similar estimates for the world's biggest wheat exporter last season. (Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Gus Trompiz in Paris; editing by David Evans and Andrew Hay)
Aug 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula during a phone conversation on Friday, the White House said in a statement.

Trump and Xi also agreed that the recent adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea was an important step toward achieving peace and stability on the peninsula, it added.

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior," the statement said.

The White House said the "relationship between the two presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem." (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
NAIROBI, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Kenya's opposition accused the security forces on Saturday of killing more than 100 people, including children, in a crackdown on post-election unrest.

The party did not offer any proof, and Reuters has only been able to confirm 11 deaths nationwide.

Speaking at a news conference, James Orengo, a top member of the NASA opposition coalition, said police had provoked the violence. His colleague, Johnson Muthama, said NASA would not be cowed or relent under the pressure. (Reporting by David Lewis; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Katharine Houreld)
The GMOA said yesterday the Government had still not acquired the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) on the basis that no agreement had been signed between the Health Ministry and SAITM with regard to its acquisition.

GMOA Secretary Haritha Aluthge told a news conference that SAITM, the Health Ministry and the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) had only signed a Letter of Intent by confirming their willingness to enter into a three-party agreement to be signed later.

According to the Letter of Intent provided by the Health Ministry Secretary on our request, the agreement will be signed subject to terms and conditions agreed by all three parties and on the approval of the Cabinet, he said.

Dr. Aluthge said it was evident that the government had still not acquired the NFTH and added that the Letter of Intent was not a legally binding agreement.

He said this proved that Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne had deceived the government including President Maithripala Sirisena.

A Commission similar to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on the Bond issue should be set up to investigate this controversy involving Minister Senaratne, who is also attempting to mislead the judiciary, he added.

GMOA Assistant Secretary Naveen De Soyza said the time had now arrived for the minister to resign from his portfolio.

He said the GMOA had asked MP Ravi Karunanayake to resign from his portfolio in 2015 and it had happened in 2017.

We have been asking Minister Senaratne to resign since 2016 and should do so next year, Dr. De Soyza said. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)

Video by Buddhi
ts not that many years ago that Warren Christopher, the US Secretary of State, commenting on the outbreak of separatist ethnic strife in the 1990s in countries such as Somalia, Zaire, Rwanda, East Timor and ex-Yugoslavia, asked: Where will it end? Will it end with 5,000 countries?

It was a serious misjudgment. Separatist wars have fallen sharply. Minorities are not fighting for their own patch of territory at the rate they were. Since 1993 the number of wars of self-determination has been halved.

The list of countries where the problems of ethnic conflict looked potentially ominous but which are now vastly improved is a long one. Baltic nationalists have moderated their treatment of their Russian minorities. Hungarians in Slovakia and Romania are no longer under threat. After a long war Croatia is respecting minorities. Conflicts between the central government and Indias Mizo people, the Gaguaz minority in Moldova and the Chakma tribal group in Bangladeshs Chittagong Hills have all diminished. One of Russias most important but least-noted achievements has been its peacefully-arrived-at power-sharing agreements with Tatarstan, Bashkiria and forty other regions.

A list almost as long can still be made for ethnic disputes unsolved. But what we have learnt in the last few years is that the pool of ethnic conflicts is not infinite; that the ultra-pessimism of just a few years ago was misplaced; and that human beings can settle for less, as long as the dominant party recognises the underdogs integrity and gives it enough room for manoeuvre.



Nevertheless, there is no time for complacency as a new report by Britains Minority Rights Group makes clear. Every year it publishes an index showing which countries have the worst ethnic strife and how their position relative to other countries has changed over previous years.

Yemen is the country which rose most significantly in the index this year. A local insurgency has been turned by outside intervention into a regional sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite. The majority of civilians killed have been hit by airstrikes, mainly by Saudi war planes with arms provided by the US and UK.

Two thirds of the countries on the list of major risers are in Africa. They are Nigeria, Burundi, Eritrea, Angola, Uganda, Cameroon and Mozambique. The other third are Turkey, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh. Last year, the list was headed by Ukraine (Crimea), Egypt, North Korea and Venezuela.

They are the major risers but are not necessarily experiencing the worst suffering and killings. Some 70% of the worst are not African.

Syria, as we would all expect, holds the number one place for the number killed. It is followed in order of severity by Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Myanmar, Libya and Nigeria.

"Separatist wars have fallen sharply. Minorities are not fighting for their own patch of territory at the rate they were. Since 1993 the number of wars of self-determination has been halved"



In June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed his alarm at the refusal of several states to grant access to his staff. Countries find all sorts of ways to say no entry. Elaborately ritualised and unreasonably prolonged negotiations and responses to specific requests which fob the UN off with inadequate alternatives to real, on the ground, fact-base, assessment.

After ten years of refusing all requests, Cuba earlier this year allowed a visit from a UN rapporteur. Nigeria has failed to respond to at least 14 requests to visit.

We now have the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute war crimes. An overwhelming majority of the worlds nations have ratified it including all European nations, but not India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China. The ICC, together with its affiliated courts, has pursued a number of prosecutions of war criminals who have been judged responsible for ethnic conflict.

This is a major step forward in the development of international law. But the weakness is that the Court can only deal with crimes after they have been committed. What is needed, I believe, is a Court of Ethnic Disputes.

When an ethnic group feels threatened - for instance the Rohingyas in Myanmar right now - it would have the right to appeal to the court which would then have the power to subpoena the two sides. If a party refused to appear before the court, it would be referred to the UN Security Council which could then order sanctions and even arrests.

The court would investigate the situation on the ground and make its determination. It could decide that a state has behaved brutally or that an ethnic group has been violently provocative. Again, sanctions and arrests could follow if the situation didnt immediately change for the better.

Doubtless there would be situations - as with Syria today - when the court and the Security Council would be ignored. But, if a potentially bad situation is caught in its early days, conflicts could be avoided.

We shouldnt underestimate how powerful a tool international law is when toughly applied.



For 17 years the writer had been a foreign affairs columnist and commentator for the International Herald Tribune/New York Times
Administering and monitoring of the Digital Payment Process (DPP), earlier under the purview of the Central Bank, has been handed over to a private company, Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Parliament yesterday.

He said it was transferred to a private company known as, 'Total Pay' by setting up a national payment platform which is a network of payments involving all commercial banks.

Total Pay has placed an advertisement saying the Information Communication Technology (ICTA) permitted it to manageme the payment system," Mr. Dissanayake said.

ICTA CEO Mugundan Kanagay has said before that three companies had been shortlisted for the development and the maintainance of the payment platform. He said this in 2015 but however, Total Pay has been registered in 2016," he added.

Mr. Dissanayake blamed former foreign affairs minister Ravi Karunanayake saying these changes had had taken place during his tenure as finance minister. He said Mr Karunanayake had informed the banks to contact ICTA CEO to obtain the details of the new payment platform.

Mr. Dissanayake said this had happened despite the assurance given by the former finance minister to the Cabinet that Central Bank would continue to manage and monitor this vital payment system.

Placing the National Payment Platform under a private company may lead to money laundering" he said.

Deputy Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Harsha de Silva responded saying the management of the national payment platform was not handed over to any private company. He said Total Pay was a company shortlisted as a potential organization to inspect software involved in the payment platform.

The deputy minister said a payment platform was essential when the country was marching towards the digital era. We have to get out of the Stone Age thinking patterns," he said. (Yohan Perera)
Bertrand Russell

Many people seem to have been amazed that I should mediate in such matters without having any official status to do so, but I think events show that, even in our highly organized world, there are things that a private individual can do which are much more difficult for a Minister or an organization. In particular, it is much easier to agree with a powerless individual without loss of face than it is to agree with those whose arguments are backed by H-bombs of almost infinite destructive power.

-Bertrand Russell; Unarmed Victory- Penguin: 1963

The other day, I dusted off a small 120-page book from a Maradana old bookmans shelf seeing the name Bertrand Russell on it. The leading British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and political activist(1872-1970), was awarded with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 in recognition of his rationality, humanity and extensive contributions to world literature as a fearless champion of free speech and free thought in the West. Russell authored The Problems of Philosophy, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, A History of Western Philosophy, The Analysis of Mind, Our Knowledge of the External World, and a few more in later years. Most importantly, he wrote on his involvement in solving of two international crises; the Cuban and the Sino-Indian. He named it Unarmed Victory, a copy of which I had picked up on that occasion.



In this book, I proposed to relate from my personal point of view the history of two crises: the Cuban and the Sino-Indian, in both of which I tried to influence the leaders and public opinion on both sides. I shall be giving partly an account of what I tried to do and partly the relevant public events. (Pp. 8/9)



Bertrand Arthur Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, was a Welsh historian, logician, advocate for social reform, and prominent rationalist. Although he was usually regarded as English, as he lived the major part of

In Unarmed Victory, Russell elaborate how he Influenced the Leaders and Public Opinion on Both Sides

his life in England, and he died in Wales.

The books impartiality, clarity of thought and complete production of original letters by none other than Russell himself deserves commend. This is perhaps a very useful volume from the perspective of understanding the Indo- China War of 1962. It wont make it clearer in terms of history, but will however give a profound viewpoint with respect to the personal enthusiasm and concern of the times. It was banned from being imported to India by Jawahar Lal Nehru for the same reason.

Its interesting to know Russells view and eventual failed endeavor at the resolution of Indo-China border issue which led to the war of 1962. The letters exchanged between Russel and the Chinese and Indian Heads of State were insightful. Its most disturbing to find sections of the media manipulating public emotions even in those times.

Some people think that they should eliminate others purely on the grounds of race and religion. Racial conflicts have extended in capacity and depth killing hundreds of thousands simply due to the creation of divisions among Homo Sapiens. The worlds most grave anxiety during the second half of 20th Century was race and religion. The untiring efforts of great Indian leaders like Gandhi and Nehru to cultivate secular thoughts among Indian population were in vain.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Trouble-shooter of international Politics speaks of Sirimavo and NAM

Russell, once the master of logical analysis, became a neutral trouble-shooter of international politics. He comments on the Sino-Indian conflict in the second part, the role he played, the day to day developments, and the letters he exchanged with the press, with Chinese PM Chou En-lai and Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Lord Russell had a passion for peace and resultant passion for simplicities. As we know, Russell had been and was an anti-Communist, but he argued that after Stalin the war mongers were no longer in the communist world, but in Washington. The Chinese, according to him, are aggressors, but they offered the olive branch by a successive pulling out of troops, while India (according to him) became obviously combative. Yet India has long been the best example of neutralism.

Lord Russell watchfully records that India not only was devoid of a substantial case over the issue of the disposition of the terrain in dispute, but provided steady impediment in the way of compromise which seriously inflated the crisis and the risk to mankind. Russell was serving the interests of Communism in the course of his endeavor to institute the truth and, above all, to be in opposition to the danger of looming destruction.

"A philosopher and peace activist, Bertrand Russells book, Unarmed Victory was banned along with Sulman Rushdies Satanic Verses and Stanley Wolperts Nine Hours to Rama in India because it spoke on the 1962 Sino-India war"



Unarmed Victory among banned books in India

A philosopher and peace activist, Bertrand Russells book, Unarmed Victory was banned along with Sulman Rushdies Satanic Verses and Stanley Wolperts Nine Hours to Rama in India because it spoke on the 1962 Sino-India war, which sadly India lost. The book details the discussion he had with Nehru over the war and also makes a decisive judgment of the acts of conflict and the war between China and India, which could have led to a near holocaust. Russell has at all times been a promoter of a peaceful existence among nations.World renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell also intervened in the conflict by addressing letters directly to Chou-En-Lai and Nehru. In Russells book Unarmed Victory, (a Penguin Special, published in 1963), the writer came across an interesting paragraph where he says,

Sirimavo Bandaranaike



It may be, of course, that the efforts of the conference in Colombo and Mrs Bandaranaikes mission to both the Indian and Chinese Governments may soften the present impasse to the point where mediators acceptable to both India and China may be drawn in and negotiations be made possiblepage 102. Worlds first Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement-NAM, in the 1970s, made a signal contribution to the resolution of a Sino-Indian conflict. Prof Carlo Fonseka, an authority on Philosophical writings, in a contribution to a newspaper says, To my knowledge, Mrs Sirimavo B is the only leader of our country, if not the only Sinhalese, that Bertrand Russell has referred to by name, in his vast body of writings on all matters under the sun Island-June 27, 2015.



Bertrand Russell was best known in recent years for his campaign against war, nuclear bombs and racial discrimination. He died at his home in Wales February 2, 1970. Born on 18 May 1872, he was 97 years old at the time of death.Advancing years didnt lessen his passion. In December 1969 he appealed to UN Secretary General U Thant to support an international war crimes commission to probe alleged genocide and torture by the US in South Vietnam.He named his 52-year-old American wife Edith Finch (His fourth wife) as the driving force behind his amazingly long, challenging and complex life. He married her when he was 80.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) resolved to oppose the proposed postponement of the provincial council elections till 2019.

The party's central committee took this decision at its meeting on Thursday with President Maithripala Sirisena in the chair.

The decision was taken despite the UNP-SLFP government having prepared a Bill which provides for hold elections to all nine provincial councils on a single day.

Meanwhile, the North-Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern Provincial Councils will end their terms of office by October 1, this year and in the event the proposed Bill is enacted in Parliament, the government will be able to postpone elections to these councils.

The SLFP CC resolved that the elections should be held in February or March next year. For this purpose the party felt that the elections to the provincial councils which are yet to complete their tenure should be advanced.

The SLFP was of the view that postponing elections was affront to democracy and that the elections should be conducted under a mix of the First-Past-the-Post System and the Proportional Representation system. (Kelum Bandara)
The official launch of the celebrated brand Toni&Guy, the world-renowned hairdressing brand in Colombo, took place recently with the participation of International Artistic Director and Educational Director for Japan and Southern Hemisphere Bill Watson and Artistic Director from the Toni&Guy Academy in London Stuart Matuska.



Toni&Guy has spread its fashion influence throughout the world with over 500 salons established in 50 countries across the globe. The brand employs over 7000 trained and highly skilled stylists and technicians to create a mammoth impact in the world of fashion by closing the gap between high fashion and high street on a global level. With a total of 18 hairdressing academies globally, teaching Toni&Guys unique brand of hairdressing, it is a world leader in hairdressing education.



The opening ceremony was a gala occasion and it was an honour to have Bill Watson and Stuart Matuska with us to celebrate the occasion, commented Toni&Guy Sri Lanka Director Gaya Weerabahu.



Toni&Guy opening in Colombo means a higher level of standard for the local hairdressing and fashion industry along with exposure to modern international hairdressing techniques, international level education and a chance to become a part of a global team, commented Bill Watson.



With the opening of this international award-winning brand in Colombo, Sri Lankan clients can now be a part of this international brand experience. The pricing points of services and products are very competitive and on par with the industry prices thereby making Toni&Guy affordable fashion to any discerning fashionista. Toni&Guy Sri Lanka differentiates itself from the crowd by adhering to the same high values Toni&Guy is known for internationally. The legacy and the quality of service is the key differentiator and the entire experience, which sets the brand apart from competition.



Toni&Guy salon caters to the discerning customer who appreciates a high standard of service.

Toni&Guy Colombo staff comprise of internationally experienced and qualified Style Directors, Senior Stylists and Colour Technicians. Sri Lankan stylists at Toni&Guy Colombo are trained at the Toni&Guy Academies overseas including the main Academy in London. The extensive training or vadering is of two months or more to ensure uncompromising quality of services. The brands philosophy is education through innovation and the team members receive constant training on latest trends and techniques regardless of their prior experience. The Senior Stylists at Toni&Guy Colombo are experts with over 15 years of experience, fully trained and certified on all Toni&Guy standards on cutting and colouring (technical). Customers of Toni & Guy Colombo have the opportunity to indulge in treatments and services using the select Label.m, Therapy Rejuvenating, Organic, Thickening and Brightening Blonde collections, as well as Lab Remedy - the in-salon only professional treatment range. These products are exclusively available at Toni & Guy salons and now available in Sri Lanka as well.

Toni & Guy has all the services under one roof, which includes Hair, Hair spa, Skin treatments, Nails, Waxing, Make up & Bridal dressing and much more.
TNA and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan urged the two US congressmen who were visiting Sri Lanka, that their government must hold the Sri Lankan government accountable for the commitments they have made to the international community particularly with regard to the full implementation of the co-sponsored UNHRC Resolution.

US Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen and Henry Cuellar arrived in the country on Wednesday and met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan on Thursday.

During the meeting held with the Opposition Leader, he had said that Sri Lankan government could not evade from its responsibility of fulfilling its commitment made to the international community.

Briefing on the progress of the framing of new Constitution Mr. Sampanthan said there was undue delay in the process and both the UNP and SLFP were holding on to their political future than looking at interest of the country.

After obtaining the majority vote in parliament, the new Constitution must be approved by the people at the referendum. This opportunity should not be missed and Im not speaking only on behalf of Tamils but for the whole Sri Lanka and its people, he added.

Issuing a statement, the TNA said Mr. Sampanthan had stressed that the Sinhala political leaders must go out and campaign on the new constitution which is based on united and indivisible Sri Lanka.

If they do so, not only this process would end in success but also it will clear all the unwarranted doubts that sections of the people have in their minds, he said.

He said that or 50 per cent of the Tamil population had left the country due to this unresolved national question and if we dont find a reasonable solution more people will leave. We dont want that to happen, he added.

Speaking on the unemployment among the youths, Mr. Sampanthan highlighted that the government appears to have no concrete mass jobs. He requested the delegates to initiate proposals in this regard and to support the young people of the country. (KJ and SF)
Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday denied allegations that he had breached the collective responsibility of the Cabinet by criticizing a decision taken by it.

The minister was recently criticized by several ministers over a statement he made with regard to regaining of the Hambantota Port.

The minister said it was not a criticism but a comment made to retrieve a national asset.

The Cabinet decision was to lease out the Hambantota Port and I didnt challenge or criticize it.

I simply mentioned a way to secure a national asset legally when the time comes, he said. The minister said, as someone who always stood by the country, he was able to intervene and help the government to regain the Sri Lanka Transport Board, Sri Lanka Insurance Company and the Apollo Hospital in Colombo which is now renamed as Lanka Hospital on previous occasions.

He also said it seemed that there was no collective responsibility in the Cabinet anymore.

It was only last week the Cabinet approved the 20th Amendment to the Constitution but this week SLFP Ministers upon meeting the President said that they would go against the decision. Is this maintaining the collective responsibility? There are a variety of opinions expressed in a unity government. he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
These days, the foreign policy of our nation revolves around raw muscularity rather than successful diplomacy, thanks to certain TV debates and news items laced with jingoism and outcry for war.

The recent victim of this new era foreign policy is the India-China standoff, but the realistic questions which seem to have skipped the attention of these over-charged debates are - Can India militarily stand China? What is our governments strategy towards China? What is the most realistic viable way forward?

As we enter the seventh week of the standoff, it will be worthwhile to find answers to these questions.

India needs to understand the intentions of China, weigh options keeping in view where both the countries stand at present and react in a pragmatic manner. The foreign policy of China is less about foreign relations and more about geographical expansion. It has conflicts with all its neighbouring countries with which it shares its 22,000 km border.

Most of its claims on others territories are not substantiated by facts but by instinctive greed. China has focussed its strategic energies on India because it aims at enhancing its military and economic power to achieve regional hegemony in Asia.

Beijing now projects itself as an active and open opponent to Indias global aspirations. Consistent attempts to increase its influence in Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, lack of support for India at global forums like the NSG and UN Security Council and initiatives like OBOR and CPEC are clear indications of Chinas attempts to thwart India from rising as a regional and global power.

The Pentagon in its annual report to the US Congress last year had mentioned about an increase in capability and force posture by the Chinese military in areas close to the border with India. China has also been consistent in its protective attitude towards Pakistan against India.

The Doklam standoff is already in its seventh week and tension between the two big powers of South Asia is not good for peace in the region.

What should be Indias response? Historically, India has been pursuing a policy of peaceful coexistence with all its neighbours, including China. After the 1962 War, the meeting between Rajiv Gandhi and Den Xiaoping in December, 1988, inaugurated a new phase in the India-China relationship.

The UPA government led by Manmohan Singh had accorded primary attention to relations with China and had conducted substantive interactions with Beijing. A historic landmark was achieved in the bilateral relation in 2005, when India and China took part in their first bilateral strategic dialogue, which was followed by execution of the India-China Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity.

The absence of a strategic framework in our foreign policy towards China is having serious implications for India. Photo: AP

The two countries declared the year 2006 to be a Friendship Year and this was marked by numerous political, economic, military, scientific, educational and cultural exchanges. India and China signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) in March 2014 in Beijing.

The nine agreements that were executed were aimed at maintaining peace and tranquillity on the Line of Actual Control. Starting from Nehru to Singh, Congress governments had been consistent and coherent in their approach towards China. Economic ties between India and China had accelerated during this period.

At present, we blow hot and cold on China, sending confusing signals all around, while China continues its aggressive posturing. The absence of a strategic framework in our foreign policy towards China is having serious implications for India.

Whether it is decisions on war and peace or diplomatic efforts, governments and political leaders must do what they believe is right; not what the media wants to hustle them into doing. Jingoism cannot be the basis of foreign policy of a sovereign democratic state.

There is no doubt that our military and economic strength has increased substantially since 1962 but we must be honest to admit that Chinas capabilities have also increased during this period and they have continued to remain ahead of India in these parameters.

Now, the most important point is that in case of an India-China war, who will be with us? The confusing foreign policy of the Modi government and absence of strategic thinking has created a situation where no superpower will be our ally in the event of war with China.

Relations between India and Russia - which were once all-weather friends - have weakened during the NDA regime. Russias China tilt was evident when it decided to participate in Druzhba 2016 in Pakistan while Pakistani terrorists struck at Uri in India.

We are all aware of the position US, Israel and NATO will take in such a situation. In June 2014, PM Modi had put forth a 3S formula - skill, scale and speed - to take on China.

During her trip to China in January 2015, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had proposed that both sides should think out of the box for solutions to the border issue. What happened thereafter?

The present government's lack of direction in its China policy is clearly revealed by the manner in which it has dealt with Beijing during the last three years. Modi has allowed Chinas trade surplus with India to double during this period, thereby helping Beijing in its economic globalisation project.

India should be resolute in its response. It needs to do more than prevent China from taking away the Doklam area from Bhutan. To subdue the enemy, we need to target the mind of the enemy. China's goal is to cut India off from the rest of Asia and, therefore, it should be India's endeavour to reconsider its cooperation with China at international forums.

The second option could be reconsideration of our trade relations with Beijing. Since the trade balance is in favour of China, India will not lose much from such an option. In the long run, we must focus on our economic growth and strengthen our military capabilities through defence modernisation.

At the international level, India should enhance its relation with Japan and Taiwan to counter China. The current mood in Japan offers India an opportunity for India. We should not overreact but need to creatively use all these options.

China has been fishing in Indias troubled North-East. Therefore, our policy towards the region must be in sync with our foreign policy on China. Everything that appears on Chinese media should be monitored because unlike India, the media is fully regulated by the government in China.
If you want to get your book published abroad, there are three unwritten rules.

Rule one, slam India.

Rule two, slam India.

Rule three, slam India.

These rules apply to movies as well. Satyajit Ray showcased Indian poverty to Western audiences with his film Pather Panchali in 1955. He was lionised globally.

More contemporaneously, Slumdog Millionaire by British director Danny Boyle was a rage abroad. The one stomach-churning scene in the movie starring Frieda Pinto, Anil Kapoor and Dev Patel where a child falls into an excreta-filled sewer was played and replayed on foreign television networks with feigned horror. (The excreta was, in fact, a mixture of peanut butter and chocolate sauce.)

Books receive the same treatment. Katherine Boos Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity which retells her experiences living in a Mumbai slum for three years, sparing no gory detail, was published to international acclaim in 2012.

Arundhati Roys The Ministry of Utmost Happiness received an equally rapturous welcome abroad as it wended its laborious way through Indias graveyard of troubles: Kashmir, Maoism, poverty, communalism, violence. Roys sense of bitter hopelessness about India enthrals foreign publishers.

Now a book by Sujatha Gidla, Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India, is the latest toast of the West. A Dalit Christian, Gidla tells the story of her uncle Satyamurthy, a Maoist leader who fought the Indian state from the jungles of central India.

In a gushing review, The Economist (July 29, 2017) described Gidla as heralding the arrival of a formidable new writer. The magazine added: Ants among Elephants is an interesting, affecting and ultimately enlightening memoir. It is quite possibly the most striking work of non-fiction set in India since Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

The names trip of the tongue nicely: Ray, Roy, Boo, Gidla. Of course The Economist wouldnt dare review Shashi Tharoors excellent book An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India which exposes Britains horrific crimes during its colonial occupation of India.

Even the British edition of Tharoors book was re-titled to make it less offensive to the British. An Era of Darkness became the anodyne An Inglorious Empire: What the British Did To India. In an interview with the BBC for the books British launch earlier this year, one of the panelists was dismissive of Tharoors evocative and detailed description of the brutalities of the British Empire and the financial ruination it brought upon India.

In contrast, Arundhati Roys dark vision of India has been lapped up by newspapers like The New York Times and television channels in Europe and America. Should all of this matter? Emphatically not. India has many flaws  violence, poverty, rape, corruption, casteism. It is right for journalists and authors, Indian and foreign, to write about them.

It is equally right for filmmakers to show the underbelly of India  from the coal mines of Dhanbad to the slums of Mumbai. Sunlight is a disinfectant. Shine it mercilessly on our imperfections. Only then will change take place. The problem though is balance.

Where are the films on the brilliant Team Indus in Bengaluru making a robotic spacecraft to land on the moons surface as part of a $30 million global competition sponsored by Google? Team Indus is one of only five teams, including those from Japan and Israel, left in the contest that ends on December 31, 2017. These stories too need to be told by Indian (and foreign) writers and filmmakers.

Indians are over-sensitive about how India is portrayed globally. Americans didnt care how their country was portrayed through the decade-long Vietnam war, the illegal invasion of Iraq and the historical crimes of slave trading and lynchings of African-Americans by the Ku Klux Klan as recently as in the twentieth century.

The British didnt care how their country was portrayed when it fought to retake the Falkland (Malvina) islands from Argentina, sinking in the process the cruiser Belgrano, killing 323 Argentine sailors.

The Chinese dont care that their country is projected as an international law- breaker by most of the world in its dispute with the Philippines over the South Chinese Sea adjudicated in Manilas favour by The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

The Western media, so critical of impoverished, upstart India, gives China a free pass on its human rights violations, having co-opted it into the global financial ecosystems.

Few Western journalists ask about the fate of Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who died last month after years of incarceration and possibly torture in a Chinese prison. She has not been seen since July 15 and is believed to be under unlawful detention in an undisclosed location in China.

Had such an event occurred in India, the editorial board of The New York Times would have been apoplectic. With China, which holds $500 billion in US treasury bonds, the media treads softly, softly.

There has been criticism of Liu Xias enforced disappearance but global human rights groups like Amnesty International, quick to excoriate India, have been relatively muted.

In its review of Gidlas book, The Economist gives its Western readers a detailed tutorial on Indias caste system: One in six Indians is a Dalit, which means 'oppressed' in Sanskrit. That is to say, 200 million Indians belong to a community deemed so impure by the scriptures that they are placed outside the hierarchical Hindu caste system and are commonly called untouchable. Upper-caste Hindus traditionally treated untouchables as agents of pollution. To come into contact with them was to be defiled, they believed. Indian villages depended on untouchables to provide field labour and clear away human waste. Yet untouchables were excluded from village life.

They could not  and often still cannot  enter Hindu temples, drew water from common wells, touch caste Hindus or even live inside the village. Punishments for breaching caste boundaries are severe. As a young girl, in Andhra Pradesh, Sujatha Gidla remembers adult members of her educated Christian untouchable family scrambling to their feet whenever a Hindu materalised before them.
Pakistan has been in political turmoil ever since it was revealed in Panama Papers last year that Nawaz Sharifs family had large undeclared financial assets abroad, including large properties in London and Dubai.

Sharifs defence was that his father, who owned businesses in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, acquired these properties. It soon became clear, however, that the five member-bench, which the Supreme Court set up to look at the charges, was determined to unseat him from office.

Evidence

Unable to find evidence to establish charges of undeclared assets abroad, the five-member bench held him guilty of not declaring a sum due to him from a company in Dubai, even though Sharif clarified that he never received the money, a relatively paltry sum of around $2,700 (over Rs 1,73,000). Incidentally, influential political and military leaders including Benazir Bhutto, Gen Pervez Musharraf and former army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, are known to have properties in London, Dubai, France and Australia.

The Supreme Court is accused of lacking the courage to act against army officers. Many eminent lawyers, activists and jurists in Pakistan have described the five member benchs decision as perverse. The bias of the court was also evident when the joint investigation team it set up included officers from the ISI and military intelligence, with no investigative or legal experience. The verdict is seen as being engineered by the judiciary, working in collusion with the army, which has no love lost for Sharif.

The army has had serious differences with Sharif, especially on his moves to improve relations with India. It objected to his visit to India for PM Narendra Modis inauguration. And when, in a move to improve relations, Modi visited Sharif in Lahore to attend a family marriage, the army deliberately undermined efforts to improve relations, by its attack a few days later on the Pathankot airbase, through Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The criminal cases about disproportionate assets held by Sharif, his two sons, daughter and his finance minister Ishaq Dar (who is related to him) are to be tried separately by an "accountability court". Forced to resign from office, Sharif has been determined to fight back legally and politically.

Given his effective control of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Sharif has got a loyalist, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a US-educated engineer who was earlier petroleum minister, sworn in as Prime Minister.

The sensitive post of Interior (Home) has been given to yet another loyalist Ahsan Iqbal, who was earlier planning minister. Iqbal replaces Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who was not only the senior-most member of Sharifs Cabinet but also an ambitious politician, with close ties to the military establishment. Chaudhry Nisar, who fancied himself as a logical successor to Sharif, had strong differences with the former PM in recent days. He has now been dropped from the Cabinet.

Unexpected

Prior to the swearing-in of the new Cabinet, it was expected that Abbasi would continue as Prime Minister, till Shahbaz Sharif got elected to the National Assembly from the Lahore seat vacated by Nawaz. He would then take over as Prime Minster. But this whole proposal is under a cloud.

This goes back to the complex relations between the two Sharif brothers. In their younger days, the younger brother, Shahbaz, was considered to be smarter in business matters, while the older brother, Nawaz, took to politics. Nawaz moved to set up the Pakistan Muslim League and grew to lead the party to victory in national elections.

Shahbaz had a junior role as chief minister of Punjab. He established a more comfortable relationship with the army, with whom he behaved deferentially. Nawaz, in all these three terms, had a tense relationship with the army. Matters, however, appear to have come to a head when Shahbaz mobilised party support for his son Hamza to succeed him as chief minister of Punjab, when he moved to Islamabad, as Prime Minister in the course of coming weeks.

This evidently rang alarm bells in the Nawaz family, as Shahbaz and his family would then be ruling in both Islamabad and Lahore. Nawaz has designated his daughter Maryam as his successor. If she were found guilty on charges of unaccounted wealth, the leadership would pass to his wife Kulsoom, who is known to be tough-minded and strong-willed.

Essential

Nawaz, therefore, got senior party members in Lahore to demand that it was essential that Shahbaz should continue as chief minister in Lahore, to set the stage for participation in general elections next year, which many expect the ruling PML(N) to win. Prime Minister Abbasi, therefore, appears set to continue till the elections, with remote control exercised by Nawaz. Khwaja Mohammed Asif, who held the largely ceremonial post of defence minister, has been appointed as the foreign minster.

As defence minister, Asif had got used to taking his orders from the army chief. As foreign minister, he will have to seek to moderate the armys support for terrorism in Afghanistan and India, in view of the emerging strong anti-terrorism policies of the Trump administration in Washington.

China will look on with concern about the abilities of the new dispensation to fulfil Pakistans responsibilities in implementing its growing number of infrastructure projects. These are issues India needs to keep a close eye on, as the ISI continues to spread terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere.
 Jenny Stoner has joined Cushman & Wakefield-Thalhimer as a commercial sales and leasing associate in the Charlottesville office. Stoner earned a bachelors in environmental science from the University of Virginia in 2010, and a masters in business and management from Trinity College in Dublin in 2016.

 Sigora Solar has named Ron Hisel as chief operating officer. Prior to joining Sigora, Hisel served as vice president of operations for Posi Gen Solar Solutions. He has managed more than 30 commercial construction projects and 10,000 residential installations, installed and maintained more than 1,500 solar systems and has experience in venture capital, as well.
BEDMINSTER, N.J.  President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed many sides for the violent clashes between protesters and white supremacists in Charlottesville and contended that the hatred and bigotry broadcast across the country had taken root long before his political ascendancy.

That was not how the Charlottesville mayor assessed the chaos that led the governor to declare a state of emergency, contending that Trumps campaign fed the flames of prejudice.

Trump, on a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, had intended to speak briefly at a ceremony marking the signing of bipartisan legislation to aid veterans, but he quickly found that those plans were overtaken by the escalating violence in Charlottesville. One person died and at least 26 others were sent to the hospital after a car plowed into a group of peaceful anti-racist counter-protesters amid days of race-fueled marches and violent clashes.

And officials later linked the deaths of two people aboard a crashed helicopter to the protests, though they did not say how they were linked.

Speaking slowly from a podium set up in the golf clubhouse, Trump said that he had just spoken to Gov. Terry McAuliffe. We agreed that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and ... true affection for each other, Trump said.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides, he said. Its been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. Its been going on for a long, long time.

The president said that what is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives.

After completing his statement and the bill signing, Trump then walked out of the room. He ignored reporters shouted questions, including whether he wanted the support of white nationals who have said they backed him or if the car crash were deemed intentional, would it be declared to be terrorism.

The previous two days, Trump took more than 50 questions from a small group of reporters. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation as to what Trump meant by many sides.

Other Republicans were far more explicit in their denunciation of white supremacists.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner tweeted Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wrote Nothing patriotic about #Nazis,the #KKK or #WhiteSupremacists Its the direct opposite of what #America seeks to be.

And former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, father of Trumps press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, posted White supremacy crap is worst kind of racism-its EVIL and perversion of Gods truth to ever think our Creator values some above others.

White nationalists had assembled in Charlottesville to vent their frustration against the citys plans to take down a statue of Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee. Counter-protesters massed in opposition. A few hours after violent encounters between the two groups, a car drove into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the rally. The driver was later taken into custody.

Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke attended the demonstrations. Duke told reporters that the white nationalists were working to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.

Mayor Mike Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president, he said.

Disturbances began Friday night during a torch-lit march through the University of Virginia before escalating Saturday.

The White House was silent for hours except for a tweet from first lady Melania Trump: Our country encourages freedom of speech, but lets communicate w/o hate in our hearts.

Trump later tweeted: We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. He also said there is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

Trump, as a candidate, frequently came under scrutiny for being slow to offer his condemnation of white supremacists. His strongest denunciation of the movement has not come voluntarily, only when asked, and he occasionally trafficked in retweets of racist social media posts during his campaign. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, once declared that his former news site, Breitbart, was the platform for the alt-right.

The presidents reluctance to condemn white bigots also stood in stark contrast by his insistence of calling out radical Islamic terrorism by name.

Now, to solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or at least say the name, Trump said in a general election debate.

He tweeted condolences about the crashed helicopter within minutes of the fatalities being confirmed. And in his remarks Saturday, Trump mentioned the strong economy and the many incredible things in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me its very, very sad.
Echoing the May 13 rally at the foot of Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue, hundreds of torch-wielding white nationalists who are attending Saturdays Unite the Right rally gathered at the University of Virginia and marched to the Rotunda, chanting, You will not replace us.

After the march, which began at UVas Nameless Field, reached the Rotunda, police later declared an unlawful assembly. Protesters and opponents alike reported being affected by pepper spray.

At the feet of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, fights began breaking out and some wielding tiki torches swung them at people. At least one person was arrested, and several people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

The ralliers shouted many of the same chants at the May event, such as blood and soil, but this time, they declared that Charlottesville was their city now.

In a statement, UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan condemned the rally.

"...I am deeply saddened and disturbed by the hateful behavior displayed by torch-bearing protestors that marched on our Grounds this evening. I strongly condemn the unprovoked assault on members of our community, including University personnel who were attempting to maintain order," she said. "... The violence displayed on Grounds is intolerable and is entirely inconsistent with the Universitys values."

Students discuss events in Charlottesville with UVa Dean Groves

Saturdays Unite the Right rally  a gathering of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, members of the alt-right and other far right political groups  will be met by about 1,000 first responders, including law enforcement, according to city police Chief Al Thomas. The Virginia National Guard will be on standby, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said.

Faith leaders gather on the eve of 'hate-driven' Unite the Right rally The 8 p.m. multi-faith service included dozens of local and national clergy members who are visiting the city this weekend.

City police estimated earlier as many as 2,000 to 6,000 people to be in attendance this weekend. Despite city efforts to move the rally to McIntire Park, the event still will be centered at Emancipation Park following a federal judges ruling.

Judge allows Unite the Right rally to stay in Emancipation Park The judge said testimony indicated that Jason Kessler could successfully prove that the city revoked his original permit based on his ideas.

On Friday, City Manager Maurice Jones said at a news conference this will be the largest Virginia State Police deployment in the state in nearly three decades.

These are trying and difficult times for our city and our nation, Jones said. We have deep political and ideological differences, and those differences will play out here in our community this weekend. It will be stressful and it will be tense, but Im optimistic that cooler heads will prevail and we will ultimately be stronger as a community once this event is over.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced he has been repeatedly briefed about the rally by various public safety officials and agencies, including the National Guard.

Virginia State Police is leading the commonwealths planning and response for these events and will be on the scene in a support capacity before, during and after the planned rally, McAuliffe said in the statement. At my direction, personnel from the Virginia National Guard are also standing by to respond if needed.

Thomas said he was informed the National Guard would monitor the situation.

We expect this to be a significant challenge for not only our public safety personnel, but also our community, he said. Theres a lot of anxiety in this community. We feel that we have the resources available to protect our community.

When asked about what lessons he and his department learned from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rally on July 8, Thomas said the biggest mistake they could make is apply the same operational plan to Saturdays rally.

This events different, he said. The circumstances are different and we did learn a number of lessons that we will apply, but this is a completely different event that we are planning for.

In addition, city officials stated the rights to expression and protest will be honored this weekend, but that there is no constitutional right to incite or promote violence by anyone who will be gathered this weekend, Mayor Mike Signer said.

Democracy may be noisy and it may be messy, but it remains the best system of government that people have figured out to use to govern themselves, he said. I am very confident that that system will get us through this weekend and that we will emerge from this weekend in the land that helped come up with this system of government even stronger than before.

Alternative events have been planned at both the University of Virginia and in the area for the community to take part in. More information can be found at unitycville.com and news.virginia.edu.

Charlottesville Area Transit announced it would detour multiple routes in response to planned road closures around Emancipation Park. The detour is in effect until 8 p.m. Saturday. After that, only the free trolley-style bus will be in operation.

More information about the detours can be found at charlottesville.org/catchthecat.

The City Market will operate normally Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon, according to a news release from the citys Parks and Recreation Department. Additionally, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority will close the public access boat ramp at South Fork Rivanna Reservoir on Saturday, as well, which will reopen Sunday.

The Department of Motor Vehicles location on Pantops will be closed and will open again at 8 a.m. Monday.

Earlier in the day, police responded to a call at the Wal-Mart on U.S. 29 after someone allegedly brandished a weapon. Police, however, said that Unite the Right speaker Chris Cantwell was legally carrying a handgun and did not point it at anyone.
Permanent Vice Chairman of the Hanoi municipal Peoples Council Nguyen Ngoc Tuan (R) and Vice Chairman of the Bangkok Metropolitan Council Nirunde Praditkul (Source: Internet)



Apart from bolstering ties between the two cities, Tuan expressed his wish that Bangkok would increase the sharing of its experience in State management, urban issues and investment, among others, with Hanoi.

Praditkul, for his part, said Thailand is paying attention to developing transport connectivity with the ASEAN member states and China to facilitate travelling and trade, adding that Thailand plans to expand road connecting Bangkok with Laos and Vietnam.

Tuan said enhancing regional transport connectivity also matches the goal of developing tourism in Hanoi.

Both sides discussed cooperative contents in line with the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation signed between the Hanoi municipal Peoples Council and the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, and outlined tasks for the near future./.
The wealthy residents of a San Francisco neighborhood apparently arent so street-smart.

They are, however, shocked and furious that the city sold off their street  and their sidewalks, and their common grounds  to a real estate investor.

The mansion-laden private neighborhood of Presidio Terrace has been home in the past to such luminaries as Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

But city officials said the neighborhood association hadnt been paying taxes on the real estate in its name. So, to collect the debt, the city simply sold off the property.

The $14-a-year tax bill had accumulated to $994.

But investor Michael Cheng and his wife, Tina Lam, knew a good thing when they saw it and placed the winning bid of $90,100.

This was back in 2015. But residents didnt even know about it until earlier this year when a title search company hired by Mr. Cheng asked residents if they were interested in buying back the property.

An attorney for the homeowners association said the group didnt know about the back taxes, either, because bills had been sent to a former  not current  accountant.

Seems there was a lot that residents didnt know. And in this case, ignorance is not bliss.
Militants fired 20 times at Ukrainian positions in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone on Friday, as a result of which one serviceman was killed, three were wounded, and three more were injured, the press center of the ATO headquarters reported.

"Another activation of the Russian-occupation groups along the entire contact line in the ATO zone took place last night. Until 18.00, the enemy unsuccessfully tried to test almost all the fire weapons of our defenses in the Avdiyivka area, then in the evening the tension shifted to the Luhansk sector," the ATO headquarters said in a statement posted on their Facebook page on Saturday morning.

In the area of Schastia and Novotoshkivske militants several times used mortars and grenade launchers to shell the ATO positions. In addition, at night, they shelled the Ukrainian fortifications in the vicinity of Krymske for almost half an hour using 120-mm mortars.

In the coastal area, militants used mortars, grenade launchers and small arms to fire at the Ukrainian observation post near Lebedynske twice. Also armed provocations of the enemy were registered in the area of Maryinka.

In the Donetsk sector, around 21.00 one Ukrainian soldier was wounded as a result of the shelling of the ATO positions from grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns on the outskirts of Avdiyivka. Servicemen of the Armed Forces promptly responded firing at the enemy positions.
New Delhi: Telecom company Reliance Communications on Saturday posted a consolidated loss of Rs 1,210 crore in the three-month period ended June 30, 2017.

This is the third straight quarter loss for the debt-ladden firm, besides, it has not been able to recover from the pressure of aggressive tariff war triggered after the entry of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm.

The company had registered a profit of Rs 90 crore in the same period a year ago.

"The telecom sector in India continues to be very adversely impacted during the financial year 2017-18 by competitive intensity on a scale never witnessed before in the country," RCom said in a statement.

The company attributed a loss of Rs 1,221 crore to equity holders of the company during the reported quarter compared to profit of Rs 54 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Its consolidated revenue dipped 33 per cent to Rs 3,591 crore in April-June 2017 from Rs 5,361 crore recorded in the same quarter of 2016.

"For the first time in over 20 years, the telecom sector registered de-growth in revenues, leading to a reduction in the government's share in revenues, sharp drop in operating margins, accompanied by increased interest costs arising from a staggering industry debt burden, and higher depreciation and amortisation charges as a result of higher spectrum purchase costs," the statement said.

The debt status of the company at the end of reported quarter could not be ascertained. It has been given time till December by the lenders to service dues.

RCom had earlier reported debt of about Rs 45,000 crore. The company expects to complete merger of Sistema Shyam Telecom by end of this month that will add highly 30 megahertz of premium 850 band spectrum in eight telecom circles. The validity of spectrum in these circles will remain till 2033.

RCom reiterated that merger of its mobile business with Aircel is on track which will reduce its debt to the tune of around Rs 14,000 crore.

The company expects to further reduce debt of Rs 11,000 crore by sale of its tower business to Brookfield Asset Management, which it said is in final stage.

Shares of RCom on Saturday closed at Rs 20.75 a unit, down by 2.12 per cent compared to the previous close on the BSE.
Noida: Two days into the protest, homebuyers say that the whole situation was a well-planned scam after the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT) admitted IDBI Bank's insolvency plea against Jaypee Infratech.

The protesting buyers gathered outside its Sector 128 office and shouted slogans.

Pramod Kumar, one of the buyers from Jaypee Group said, "Jaypee Industries from the Jaypee group bought land from the government. They launched the project with the name of Jay Prakash Associates. But we were made to pay to Jaypee Infratech. We can't take our claims anywhere now. This is a scam".

The buyers also said that the government must take responsibility for these things.

"Previous governments in Uttar Pradesh sheltered Jaypee Infratech and did nothing to prevent innocent home buyers from falling into the trap of this realty firm. We have suffered for last 6-7 years, as the builder failed to deliver the projects as per schedule. And now, the insolvency plea has only made things more uncertain for us," another buyer said.

IDBI filed an insolvency plea in the tribunal after Jaypee Infratech defaulted on a loan of around Rs. 8,500 crore. Although the company had claimed that it held adequate assets to repay the loan, IDBI went ahead and filed the plea.
Over the past day one Ukrainian serviceman died as a result of an explosive device going off, nine military were wounded and injured in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Ukraine's east, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said.

"Over the past 24 hours, as a result of hostilities, there have been no deaths in the Armed Forces. Six servicemen were injured in the enemy shelling," Lysenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.

However, one serviceman was killed and three others were wounded when an explosive device went off. "This happened near Avdiyivka and Zaitseve," the Defense Ministry's spokesman said.

The press center of the ATO headquarters reported earlier militants fired 20 times at Ukrainian positions in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone on Friday, as a result of which one serviceman was killed, three were wounded, and three more were injured.

"Another activation of the Russian-occupation groups along the entire contact line in the ATO zone took place last night. Until 18.00, the enemy unsuccessfully tried to test almost all the fire weapons of our defenses in the Avdiyivka area, then in the evening the tension shifted to the Luhansk sector," the ATO headquarters said in a statement posted on their Facebook page on Saturday morning.

In the area of Schastia and Novotoshkivske militants several times used mortars and grenade launchers to shell the ATO positions. In addition, at night, they shelled the Ukrainian fortifications in the vicinity of Krymske for almost half an hour using 120-mm mortars.

In the coastal area, militants used mortars, grenade launchers and small arms to fire at the Ukrainian observation post near Lebedynske twice. Also armed provocations of the enemy were registered in the area of Maryinka.

In the Donetsk sector, around 21.00 one Ukrainian soldier was wounded as a result of the shelling of the ATO positions from grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns on the outskirts of Avdiyivka. Servicemen of the Armed Forces promptly responded firing at the enemy positions.
San Francisco: Ride-services company Uber is facing a divided board of directors and angry shareholders after investor Benchmark Capital filed a lawsuit against the company's ousted chief executive, Travis Kalanick, dealing another blow to the firm as it struggles to recover from a series of scandals and hire a new leader.

On Friday morning, three Uber investors asked Benchmark to divest its shares and step down from Uber Technologies Inc's board, according to an email published by news website Axios and confirmed by Reuters.

Also on Friday, members of the board of directors sent an email to Uber staff expressing dismay over the Benchmark lawsuit, according to a copy of the note obtained by Reuters.

"The Board of Directors is disappointed that a disagreement between shareholders has resulted in litigation," the directors wrote. "The Board has urged both parties to resolve the matter cooperatively and quickly, and the Board is taking steps to facilitate that process."

Benchmark, in its lawsuit filed on Thursday, is seeking to force Kalanick off the board, and accuses him of concealing a range of misdeeds and scheming to retain power at the company even after he was forced to resign as chief executive in June.

Benchmark was among the Uber investors in June who pressed Kalanick to step down after a string of setbacks.

Investors Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital, Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Companies and Adam Leber, an angel investor who works for music company Maverick, on Friday wrote an email to shareholders and board members calling for Benchmark to remove itself from the company board and divest enough of its shares so that it would no longer have the right to appoint other board seats.

"We have investors ready to acquire these shares as soon as we receive communication from Benchmark that they are willing to withdraw their lawsuit and sell a minimum of 75 percent of their holdings," the email said, according to Axios.

Reuters confirmed the email with a source close to one of the investors. The three investors and Benchmark could not be reached for comment.

The division and hostility emerging among Uber investors and directors opens a new front in a highly unusual public battle for Silicon Valley. It is rare for a venture firm to sue the central figure of a valuable portfolio company, and equally unexpected for investors to make a counter-move to push out a fellow investor backing the same company.

Pishevar, Burkle and Leber -- who are not members of the board of directors -- said Benchmark's lawsuit harms Uber's valuation, interferes with fundraising efforts and impedes the company's search for a new CEO to replace Kalanick.

Benchmark's tactics are "ethically dubious and, critically, value-destructive rather than value enhancing," the investors wrote in the email, according to Axios.

The email from the board of directions was signed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Ryan Graves, Arianna Huffington, Wan Ling Martello and David Trujillo. Missing were the signatures of Kalanick and Benchmark board member Matt Cohler. It assured staff that there were "several outstanding candidates" for the CEO job.

One Uber investor told Reuters that Kalanick's continued role at the company has complicated the CEO search and scared off some good candidates.
Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is embroiled in a caste controversy. A character in the film was heard saying, I am a Brahmin. But I eat eggs.

While initially the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) let the line go, thinking it is more an individual comment than a comment on any caste or community, it was soon brought to light that the seemingly casual line highlights a caste bias. A source from the CBFC says, Weve asked the makers of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha to remove the caste reference. The word Brahmin is not allowed especially when it is seen to be speaking on behalf of the community. The line propagates the myth that Brahamins are strict vegetarians. We cannot allow sweeping generalisations on any caste or communit.

The line referring to a Brahmin who eats eggs would have to be removed. The caste system has been abolished in India. If today J. P. Dutta wants to make Kshatriya, or the late Vijay Anand were to make Rajput, the titles would not be allowed, says a CBFC source.

The source adds that way back in 2008, a reference to a lohar (ironsmith) had to be removed from a song and dance featuring Madhuri Dixit in Aaja Nachle.

Previously, the CBFC has asked the makers of Bombay Velvet to remove the word dhobi from a song in the film. According to the guidelines, all references to members of any specific caste or community is strictly prohibited through guidelines.

Aamir Khans Dhobi Ghat had to get a clearance from the dhobi community before it could be called that, says a source from the CBFC.
Mumbai: Noted lyricist and now CBFC chairperson Prasoon Joshi on Saturday said he would not comment on Pahalaj Nihalani, who gained infamous reputation scissoring movies like 'Lipstick Under My Burkha,' 'Jab Harry Met Sejal,' 'Babumoshai Bandukbaaz,' 'Udta Punjab' and more, in the recent past.

"Whatever Pahalaj ji has done, I don't want to comment on it. That was his way of working. He is an experienced man and has a different style of working," the 45-year-old told ANI.

"Creativity has a world of its own. If there are problems, they should be fixed beforehand. This will save us from trouble later. There is a body for this and I am trying to understand this process and that is my first task," he added.

After the removal of Pahlaj Nihalani as the Censor Board Chief, the new members of the reconstituted Board, as announced in a press release Friday evening, include names such as Vidya Balan, and Vivek Agnihotri among others.

Speaking about this, the new Censor Board chief said, "Many experienced people are joining the committee. A single person can never work. I will use my experience and knowledge, but it's also very important to have the support of eminent people from the film industry and society."
Esha Gupta is on a roll these days, she's dropping bombs on the social media with her steamy and sizzling pictures.

Mumbai: Former beauty queen and actress Esha Gupta sure knows how to keep her fans craving for more. After throwing her social media followers into frenzy with her jaw dropping bikini pictures, the Baadshaho lead heroine has now bared it all!

Check out the HOT! picture here:

Life's too short, laugh it out A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 10, 2017 at 10:30pm PDT

Earlier, this week, the sultry siren had twice posted pictures of hers clad in lacy bikinis. She looked erotic!

Here are the pictures, which will definitely leave the mercury soar higher!

Healthy life  A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 9, 2017 at 9:57am PDT

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 3:17am PDT

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 2:13am PDT

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 1:47am PDT

White shadows A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 5, 2017 at 2:50am PDT

 A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 1, 2017 at 7:33am PDT

White lies A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 2, 2017 at 10:58pm PDT

 A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 1, 2017 at 10:15am PDT

Esha is amongst one of the Indian actresses, who can ace the bikini and nude look like a pro.

However, the actress has been trolled severely for posting these nude pictures on social media.

She had disabled the comments section after posting the steamy pictures.
Actor Sidharth Malhotra shot widely in Kashmir for his upcoming film Aiyaary. While its not been easy for many filmmakers to get the right permit to shoot in Kashmir, Sidharth reveals he had a rather smooth experience.

Sidharth says, We have shot widely in Kashmir I havent witnessed anything negative, or a sense of stress. They are very resilient there.

The actor says that there is more to Kashmir than what is being showcased in the daily news. He says, I am very impressed with the armed forces. They understand that they need to send a positive message to the people by allowing a film to be shot there. There is a part of Kashmir that is very peaceful; and it can be as functional as you allow it to be.

Directed by Neeraj Pandey, Aiyaary features Manoj Bajpayee and Sidharth in lead. Revealing more about his film he said, Our film is very relevant to that climate. Our film is based on the army military intelligence. We shot in London and Delhi its almost done. Neeraj shoots really fast. He knows how to get the best performance from his actors. I admire him.
It was indeed a moment of pride for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her little daughter Aaradhya Bachchan, who hoisted the Indian flag as a part of their celebration of 70th year of Indias Independence at Melbourne.

The mother-daughter duo chose to wear Indian attires as they sang the national anthem.

Thanking Melbourne for giving such an honour to her, Aishwarya said, Thank you everyone for giving us such a moment of pride and happiness with so much love and warmth. Celebrating our 70th year of our Independence will forever be such a beautiful memory for me and my dearest Aaradhya.

Apart from Aishwarya, many other actors from the film industry have also flown to Melbourne to attend the festival. Aishwarya has become the first female actor ever to hoist the tricolour at the annual ceremony.
Babies born through caesarean section are more prone to problems with metabolism and hormones as well as the endocrine system that can lead to diabetes and a host of other illnesses (Photo: Pixabay)

A new study claims that mothers who choose to give birth via caesarean section may be putting their babies at risk of obesity and diabetes later in life.

The study showed that babies who are delivered just two weeks early are more likely to develop diabetes and become obese as they grew up.

This also means that the conditions put them at greater risk of premature death due to the conditions they acquire.

Scientists warned elective caesarean sections being carried out too soon may be endangering children.

According to study published in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, babies born through caesarean section are more prone to problems with metabolism and hormones as well as the endocrine system that can lead to diabetes and a host of other illnesses.

Professor Eyal Sheiner of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel who conducted the study said that hospitalisations up to the age of 18 involving endocrine and metabolic morbidity were found to be more common in the early term group as compared with the full term group, especially at ages five and older.

Her researchers also discovered children older than five had much higher rates of Type I diabetes when born early. This is the form that develops in childhood and is not linked to lifestyle factors.

Researchers believe that babies born, even a few weeks early, can have long term health and behavioural issues.
Teresa had advertised partner Rob as annoying but house-trained and said he was free to collect in the social media post. (Photo: Facebook)

Teresa Turner, 34, put up her husband for sale on Facebook, only for dozens of women to offer taking him off her hand.

Needless to say, he was delighted.

Teresa had advertised partner Rob as annoying but house-trained and said he was free to collect in the social media post.

But the prank backfired when pictures of her dark-haired husband caught the eye of 300 Facebook users, with many expressing an interest in 'purchasing' him.

The post got more than 300 reactions much to the amusement of her 33-year-old husband who even went on to reply, Brilliant, do I get my tea cooked too?

Teresa, a hospital supervisor, decided to put her husband up for sale after he repeatedly annoyed her with an aggravating video.

Teresa has misophonia which means she hates specific sounds such as that of people eating loudly. Rob who had found a video of a person crunching really loudly kept it playing in front of Teresa who went upstairs and according to Rob, put him up for sale.

Teresas post read, 'I have a 33 year old husband that is no longer needed due to getting on my nerves! I don't want no money he is FREE. He is house-trained and toilet-trained. First to collect!

However, it backfired when women responded over the status asking if Rob could be dropped to the pub instead of being collected. There were yet others who confessed their attempts to sell their partners online too, saying: 'I've tried giving mine away for free too, but no one wanted him.

One user even asked ig he came with a 30 day return policy.

Unfortunately, according to Rob, no one came to collect him even after a week.
Not all animals are perhaps meant to be kept as pets and keeping them often lead to darker consequences (Photo: Pixabay)

Keeping animals at home is a huge responsibility. Be it a goldfish, hamster, rabbit or a cat and maybe even a dog, each pet brings with it a set of guidelines and things one must follow that ensures that the pet has a healthy and happy life.

However, not all animals are perhaps meant to be kept as pets and keeping them often lead to darker consequences. There is a distinction between animals which can be kept as pets and those that are wild and people who break this code have very unfortunate accidents plaguing them. Sometimes they just end up paying a price much higher than the one they paid to acquire the pet.

We share with you a list of animals that killed or feasted on their own owners.

Kelly Ann Walls and her carnivores: 37-year-old Kelly had three unusual pets, a Bengal Tiger, an African Lion and a Black Bear. While they were kept in separate cages, she was mauled to death one fine day by her black bear while she was cleaning his cage. She had given him some dog food and then turned her back on her when he attacked and fatally wounded her. Neighbours witnessed the attack and called authorities, but it was too late.

Kelly Ann Walls was mauled to death by her pet black bear

Pam Weaver and her pet camel:, Pam was given a pet camel by her husband on their 60th birthday. The family wanted to give her a llama or alpaca, but they were too expensive. The ten month old animal weighing around 150 kgs had a history of erratic behaviour and knocked the lady to the ground and apparently tried to have sex with her. He lay on top of her straddling her until she ran out of oxygen and died due to the unbearable pressure.

Pam's camel lay on top of her straddling her until she ran out of oxygen and died

Riki Weinhold and his bull: Riki apparently loved his cattle and was spending more time with them as a calf was about to be born. He had a barn space for his domesticated bulls in Philadelphia where the accident happened. It was a day before his 53rd birthday that he was attacked by his one-ton bull and died succumbing to the injuries.

Riki Weinhold was killed by his pet bull

Sandra L. Piovesan and her wolf-dogs: Sandra had raised a pack of nine wolf-dogs by herself and was extremely devoted to them, saying that they gave her unqualified love. It turns out that the love went sour when she failed to show up for a meeting with her daughter. Her estranged husband went to look for her, only to find that her body was inside the cage of her wolf-dogs, partially eaten. She had bled to death after being clawed and bitten and later being dragged to the enclosure by her half wolf- half dog hybrid pets.

Sandra L. Piovesan was half eaten by her pet wolf-dogs before authorities found her

Unnamed man and his bull terrier: When an unnamed resident from Liverpool did not show up for a few days, it was cause for worry. Police went on to check on him and on entering his house found him dead. His dog, Buster, a bull terrier was in a highly agitated state. At first, the police presumed that the dog was upset over his owners death but it later turned out that he had been feasting away on his corpse for a few days.

Bull terrier managed to eat part of his deceased owner before police found them

Janet Veal and her feline friends: If dogs can feast on their owners, why not cats? When the neighbours hadnt seen much of Janet Veal, they informed the authorities. The police arrived at her house to find her dead body and more disturbingly, her cats dining on her corpse.

Police enter Janet Veal's apartment to find her feline friends feasting on her corpse

Woman and her hamster: This is another strange incident where a woman was found dead inside her apartment and was scavenged upon by, her pet hamster. The victim was found dead in her home, with unusual marks and wounds on her face.

After careful investigation, it was found that the woman owned a free-range, golden hamster. When investigators looked in an inconspicuous open drawer, they found a ghastly sight: the hamster's burrow. Its new home was made out of human skin, fat, and muscle tissue.

Pet hamster scavanged body of owner and used his skin and bones to create nest

Marius and his pet hippo Humphrey: Keeping a hippopotamus as a pet does generally seem to be a bad idea. They hare huge, scary an generally account for the maximum amount for human deaths in Africa. So it was strange when South-African farmer, Marius Hels kept a Hippo at his farm in Free State for years despite being warned about it several times, even calling the animal a son to him.. A few years back, his body was found floating in the river being thoroughly chewed up by his pet hippo.

Marius was eaten up by his pet hippo whom he considered to be his son

Child and family ferret: People are often fascinated into keeping ferrets as pets. While they find them agile and cute, what they do not realise is that ferrets have sharp pair of piranha like teeth and a taste for flesh. When a Missouri family was awakened by the sound of their infant crying in the other room- they guessed he might be hungry or the diaper needed to be replaced. What they didnt expect was finding their bloodied baby with seven of his fingers eaten by their pet ferret. The child was rushed to the hospital for recovery and the ferret was killed. And that is not all, another case happened where a couple came to their drawing room to find their new born baby being eaten alive by their three pet ferrets!

Pet ferret ate up baby's fingers before family realised the incident

Mark Voegel and his spider: The 30-year-old from Germany was found dead in his apartment when his army of exotic pets escaped their cages. His corpse was draped in spider webs which had been there for seven to fourteen days whereas more than 200 spiders, several snakes, thousands of termites and a gecko were found feasting on the corpse. Authorities believe that his Black Widow, named Bettina, may have orchestrated the whole human flesh eating event by fatally biting him.

Mark Voegel was killed by his black widow spider following which the rest of his exotic pets ate him up
Visakhapatnam: The Anti-Corruption Bureau conducted raids on the joint sub-registrars office at the Super Bazaar area. They exposed that the document writers in collusion with sub-registrars have increased the bribery amount from 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of the value of registration. Sometimes they demanded Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 additional money citing various reasons. ACB officials conducted a surprise raid at the office in super bazaar and seized Rs 2.21 lakh unaccounted money from two persons, including a document writer and a private stamp vendor.

The stamps and registration department has a reputation of being vulnerable to corruption. Our raids at the joint sub-registrars office at the Super Bazaar area revealed that some documents writers and private stamp vendors are playing a key role in collecting bribe from people who wish to register their flats, houses and other properties, ACB DSP (Visakha urban), K. Ramakrishna Prasad said.

Mr Prasad said that the document writers are indulging in brokerage. The bribery amount for registration of properties has increased from 0.2 to 0.5 per cent of the value of property. Now, we are investigating the case to establish the links between document writers and sub-registrars, he added. If the registration value of a flat is around Rs 25 lakh, staffers in sub-registrar office (document writers and sub-registrar) collect Rs 12,500 to Rs 25,000 as bribe for registration of the property. Even after registration of any property, document writers used to collect Rs 10,000 as bribe for submitting the documents to owners, Mr Prasad said.

An ACB senior officer said that despite the introduction of computerisation, bribery continues in the department. Even as people have all the necessary documents for registration along with demand drafts for stamp duty and registration fee, the writers collude with sub-registrars and are forced to pay bribes, he said. Some document writers in collusion with officials delay the process if citizens dont bribe, the ACB official said.
Ukrainian sailors detained in Spain on suspicion of drug smuggling are kept in a detention institution of the city of Almeria and are in a satisfactory condition, the a department head of the Consular Service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine Vasyl Kyrylych told Radio Liberty.

According to him, the Ukrainian consul maintains constant contact with the lawyer and the Spanish law enforcement agencies in this case.

"The detainees are provided with a state lawyer, as well as with a Russian-speaking interpreter... The detainees are in a satisfactory condition, they do not complain about the confinement conditions and sanitary and hygienic conditions, they have the opportunity to communicate with relatives in Ukraine," Kyrylych said.

He noted that according to preliminary information, the case of Ukrainian seamen will be transferred to the court of first instance of the city of Madrid.

According to the Maritime bulletin, on August 8, 2017, Spanish law enforcement officers detained the Lady Boss vessel which sailed under the flag of the Comoros, whose crew included 11 Ukrainians and two Bulgarians. The detention took place in international waters near the Spanish port of Almeria based on the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and with the consent of the flag state of the vessel. During the search on board, 600 sacks of hashish weighing around 18 tonnes were found.
An inside view of a ward of Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur on Friday,where at least 63 children died since the past six days. (Photo: PTI)

Gorakhpur/Lucknow: Raids are being conducted at a company which supplied oxygen cylinders to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College, where 63 children have died over the last six days.

According to NDTV, raids are being conducted at company supplying oxygen to the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradeshs Gorakhpur.

Earlier on Saturday, Congress demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh's resignations, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time, which led to death of 63 in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Talking to media in Gorakhpur, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "We are deeply saddened by the incident. The incident has left the whole nation in grief. What happened here was due to lapse on the Uttar Pradesh government. Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should immediately resign from their post."

Azad asserted that the Uttar Pradesh Government should apologise to the whole nation in regard to the same.

"Gorakhpur is the constituency of CM Adityanath. Considering, he is both the MP and CM, he must take moral responsibility and should resign. Same goes for Health Minister. Doctors are responsible for the incident," he said.

The Congress leader further informed that the suppliers who provide liquid oxygen were not given payment on time.

"Suppliers were not given money on time. Around 70 lakhs were due for payment," he added.

Azad further said Congress party had spent crores rupees to provide medical facilities in the hospital during the time of its ruling.

As many as 63 lives have been lost so far due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.
Police investigating found that one of her former co-workers, Sameer, also from Uttar Pradesh used to visit her often.

Chennai: Police on Saturday arrested a 31-year-old migrant worker in connection with the rape of a Manipuri woman, a beautician at her residence in Adambakkam last Sunday. The accused, Mansoor Ali hails from Uttar Pradesh, was rounded up near the central railway station late Friday night.

The woman, has been living in TN for the last 11 years and was employed as a beautician at a parlour in Sankar Nagar, Pallavaram, for the last 18 months, police said.On Sunday morning, around 3 am, the man had knocked on her doors saying he needed her services for a bride at a wedding.Since it was in the wee hours of the day, the woman didnt open the door and questioned the man on the necessity to turn up so early in the day, through the window. He told her that the beautician booked for the function cancelled and needed someone soon, a police officer said. After the women let him in, he held her at knifepoint, gagged and raped her.

Police investigating found that one of her former co-workers, Sameer, also from Uttar Pradesh used to visit her often.

The accused, a friend of Sameer, noticed the womans address and raped her, investigations revealed. The accused has been produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah, who is expected to visit Bengaluru for three days from August 12 as part of his 110-day tour of the country, is scheduled to meet members of the partys political affairs committee to prepare for the coming elections to the Karnataka Assembly as part of his itinerary.

Mr Shah, who is focusing more on non-BJP ruled states during his tour, will participate in a series of programmes with party leaders from the taluk level upwards, including the MLAs and MPs and also meet Adichunchanagiri pontiff, Nirmalanandanatha swami and Sri Sri Ravishankar of the Art of Living foundation.

Detailing his schedule, BJP spokesman Suresh Kumar told reporters here on Monday that Mr Shah had continued to interact with party workers and leaders since assuming charge and guiding them on how to strengthen the party. On arrival at the Kempegowda International Airport he will be a given rousing reception at the toll plaza on the Bengaluru-Ballari national highway, and then leave for the party office, where he is expected to inaugurate a library and also address the partys state office bearers, divisional organising secretaries, in-charge, district. presidents and general secretaries, presidents and general secretaries of various morchas and conveners of different cells.

Meetings with MLAs and MPs and eminent personalities from various walks of life will follow. The last day will see him address party vistaraks and interact with defeated candidates of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies, which the BJP failed to win in the 2014 elections.
Bhutan had pointed out that it had been decided in written agreements in 1988 and 1998 between Bhutan and China that the two sides would agree to maintain peace and tranquility in border areas, pending resolution of their boundary dispute.

New Delhi: In a major snub to China, the Bhutanese Government categorically rejected Beijing's claims that Bhutan had formally informed Beijing that the trilateral border stand-off area in Doklam, is not in its territory.

Reiterating that Doklam belongs to Bhutan, Thimphu specifically asked Beijing to take note of its foreign ministry statement issued on June 29, that states that Doklam lies in Bhutanese territory.

In the June 29 statement, Bhutan had said it had conveyed to the Chinese side on the ground and through diplomatic channels that the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory (at Doklam) is a direct violation of the agreements -between Bhutan and China - and affects the process of demarcation of boundary.

Bhutan also accused China of violating the boundary agreements and asked it to refrain from taking unilateral action or use of force to change the status quo of the Bhutan- China boundary between the two countries, saying that on June 16, 2017, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) started constructing a motorable road from Dokola in the Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp at Zompelri.

Bhutan had pointed out that it had been decided in written agreements in 1988 and 1998 between Bhutan and China that the two sides would agree to maintain peace and tranquility in border areas, pending resolution of their boundary dispute.
18-year old Gulshan's condition is severe while the 17-year old, younger sister Fiza has sustained 40 percent burns. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Bareilly: In a tragic incident, two sisters were set ablaze by few unknown miscreants late Friday night while they were sleeping in their home in Nawabganj area of Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district.

The culprits broke into the house, poured petrol on the bed on which both the sisters were sleeping and set them on fire.

As soon as the family came to know about the ordeal, both the sisters were rushed to the nearby hospital.

18-year old Gulshan's condition is severe while the 17-year old, younger sister Fiza has sustained 40 percent burns.

"Some people set my sister and me on fire while we were sleeping on the same bed at night. We don't know who they were. When we woke up they ran away. We were not able to see their face," Fiza said.

"I don't know who did this. We don't have any animosity with anyone," said the mother of the girls.

An FIR has been registered in this case and the police has formed a team to nab the perpetrators as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will send his message highlighting the farmer welfare initiatives to the agricultural community through Krishi Vigyan Kendras. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nationwide discord among farmers with concerns mounting in the agricultural sector, as the 70th Independence Day approaches.

The prime minister will send his message highlighting the farmer welfare initiatives to the agricultural community through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), an official on condition of anonymity told ThePrint.

The Information & Broadcasting Ministry is laying out a detailed plan incorporating live video conferencing and recorded message playback as a part of the massive outreach programme, the official said.

The message will speak of the government's dedication to the kisan, or the farmers, the importance of Swaccha Bharat Mission, actions taken to empower women and improve infrastructure in villages.

The KVKs will broadcast over 5,000 rounds of video-conferencing/recordings of the prime minister from next week.

Serving as agricultural technology centres, there are over 600 KVKs spread across the country. Besides making available the latest technology for agriculture, the KVKs also provide information and various other resources.

The Centre was alarmed after all the BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and even Tamil Nadu and Punjab saw massive farmer protests.

Even the RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh criticised the government's inaction despite the prime minister's promise of working for farmer welfare.

Alongside the KVKs, Narendra Modi's messages will be played across many schools and cinema halls as well.
Two persons who were arrested in Old Task Force blast case being brought to the Nampally court on Thursday. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: I was implicated in the Task Force office blast case because I am the brother of Shahid Bilal. I doubt whether it was human bomb attack or accidental blast, said Mohammed Zahed, who was acquitted on Thursday after spending 10 years in prison.

I was called to the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at Basheerbagh, who were investigating the blast. They asked me to cooperate as it was a serious issue. I did. But on December 19, 2006 I was arrested. The officials told me as you are brother of Shahid Bilal, you are involved.

The police tortured us and forced us to sign blank documents. We doubt whether it was a human bomb blast or an accidental blast. To date, the police have not been able to prove it before the court.

He gave a shameful picture of how undertrials are treated in our prisons: In jail, life was very tough. We were mentally tortured. The jail officials encouraged prisoners to call us ISI prisoners. The jail authorities maintained a register and mentioned us as ISI prisoners and we were kept in isolation.

Mohammed Zaheds ordeal began in 2004 when the police registered a conspiracy case against him and others for allegedly planning to kill the then BJP legislator from Malakpet, Indrasena Reddy.

There was a minor argument between some Muslim youths and a few of the majority community as the latter wanted to build a Ganesh pandal in a graveyard. A few days later, we were arrested in a false conspiracy case, Zahed said. They were acquitted in that case.

All the accused were released on bail in the Task Force building case in 2006 as the police failed to file chargesheet. At the instance of the then home minister, the police approached higher courts and got our bail cancelled. Now who will compensate us for the years we lost, Zahed asked. He demanded that the police officials should be punished.

December 19 will haunt Syed

The date December 19 will always haunt Syed Haji. He was 21 years old and was working as a salesman at a shop when he was arrested for alleged involvement in the Begumpet Task Force office blast on that day in 2005.

Now the court has pronounced me innocent. Who will compensate me for the 12 years I lost, he asks.

Haji, a resident of Moosarambagh was a friend of Kaleem and Zahed and the three were arrested in the case. We knew nothing about it. One fine day the police asked me to accompany them for questioning. I went and was caught, he recalled.

He recalls that his mother was searching for a wife for him. Now I have to start afresh, 12 years is a very long time. Only I know how I spent time in isolation chambers, he says.

Mohd Kaleem was 24 when he went to jail. A welder by profession he was accused of escorting suicide bomber Daleen to the task force office. I did not know where the Task Force office was. How can I go there? The police wanted someone to be arrested, so they picked us up, he said.

Syed Haji, Mohammed Kaleem and Mohammed Zaheed asked why governments discriminate on religious grounds.

Colonel Purohit, Pragya Singh Thakur, Aseemanand and Bharath Bhai were freed on bail though serious charges were pending against them. But the government approached higher courts to get our bail cancelled in 2006. Why is it so, Mohammed Kaleem asked.
Kashmir and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu region were shut on Saturday to protest against alleged devious attempts being made at the behest of Sangh Parivar to abrogate Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: Kashmir and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu region were shut on Saturday to protest against alleged devious attempts being made at the behest of Sangh Parivar to abrogate Article 35A and Article 370 of the Constitution.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who was camping in New Delhi to garner support for continuing of constitutional privileges being enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir had on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured her that there would be no fiddling with the special status of the State. She also met Home Minister, Rajnath Singh to discussed the issue.

After her meeting with the Prime Minister, Mehbooba had said, Discussions on 35A have a negative impact on Jammu and Kashmir, it should not happen. The basis of our agenda of alliance is that status quo of Article 370 has to be maintained. None of us can go against that.

She said Jammu and Kashmir chose to be part of India in 1947 in spite of being a Muslim majority state, indicating that New Delhi must accommodate the demands of the people to retain the special status.

The idea of India has to accommodate the idea of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba said.

The Chief Minister added, Spoke to PM. The situation is normalising but people think our identity can be in danger. So the message that J&K is crown of India should be reiterated.

However, her predecessor and opposition National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah while reacting to Mehbooba's assertions said she cannot be believed what she said after her meeting with the Prime Minister.

Abdullah tweeted, Excuse us if we no longer believe what @MehboobaMufti says after she comes out from these meetings. Can @PMOIndia explain assurances pls? (sic)

On Saturday, the NC categorically stated that it does not believe in Mehbooba's public utterances given her track record. It accused her of being hand-in-glove with the BJP and other affiliates of the RSS in concerted efforts aimed at striking down Article 35A as well as Article 370 which guarantees a special status to the State within the Indian Union.

NC general secretary and former minister, Ali Muhammad Sagar and the partys provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani in a joint statement said, Post Muftis meeting with the Prime Minister, senior BJP functionaries have made it abundantly clear that it will continue to actively seek ways and means to strike down Article 35A and there had been no change in their stand on the issue. This has yet again exposed Mehbooba Mufti and her party and their inexhaustible reservoir of lies.

BJPs spokesman Virendra Gupta had on Friday said, Time has come to bid a farewell to Article 370 and Article 35A as these have created separatist psyche in Jammu and Kashmir.

This was in contrast to a statement from the BJP State unit president Sat Sharma made earlier during the week that the coalition compulsion are stopping it from speaking on abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 now.

The coalition government with the PDP is run as per Agenda of the Alliance. It is because of coalition compulsions that the BJP is not speaking about abrogation of special status or Article 35A, Sharma had said on Tuesday.

He had added that the BJP will not speak on the petition seeking abrogation of Article 35A till SC gives its ruling.

Our party has decided not to give any view point on the Article 35A till the Supreme Court delivers its decision on the petition on its removal, he had announced.

On Saturday, shops and other businesses and educational institutions remained closed and public transport services were off the roads in Kashmir Valley and parts of Kishtwar and Doda districts of Jammu.

The Kashmir University and Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education deferred the examinations which were scheduled to be held on Saturday.

The train services in the Valley were suspended too. There was heavy presence of police, the CRPF and other central paramilitary forces on the streets Srinagar and other cities and towns whereas the security around the sensitive installations and the camps of security forces had been strengthened further. The entire separatist leadership was earlier placed under house arrest.

The call for the one-day strike was issued by an alliance of key separatist leaders-Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik- against the Sangh Parivar-backed devious attempts to fiddle with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

These attempts are aimed at changing the demography of the State and dilute its Muslim-majority character, it alleged.

Various other like-minded political, social and religious organisations and groups besides the lawyers associations had endorsed the call.

Article 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature to define permanent residents of the State and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954 issued by the then President in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 370 of the Constitution, with the concurrence of the Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 370 guarantees a special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union.

However, a petition seeking removal of Article 35A is currently pending before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court.

An NGO, We the Citizens', believed to be an RSS think-tank, challenged 35A in the SC in 2014 on grounds that it was not added to the Constitution through amendment under Article 368 and that it was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately. In another case filed in the SC in July, two Kashmiri women argued that the State's laws, flowing from Article 35A, had disenfranchised their children. On Tuesday, the SC sought the response of the Centre on yet another plea challenging the validity of Article 370. The petition challenged the April 11 order of the Delhi High Court rejecting a plea saying nothing survives in it as the Apex Court has already dismissed a similar prayer on the issue.
On Friday Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President met BJP national President Amit Shah in New Delhi. (Photo: Twitter | @AmitShah)

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah has invited Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar to join the ruling NDA, following the latter's alliance with the saffron party in the state to form a new government.

"I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday (Friday). I invited JD(U) to join the NDA," Shah said in a tweet on Saturday.

 JD(U)     @NitishKumar          JD(U)  NDA         Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 12, 2017

This is the first official development between Nitish and the BJP, post the debacle in July, with Nitish Kumar resigning as the Bihar Chief Minister and breaking ties with the Grand Alliance and then forming the government with the saffron party.

The Bihar-based party is expected to endorse a proposal to join the NDA in its national executive meeting in Patna on August 19, after which it is likely to join the Narendra Modi cabinet.

Asked if the party would join the Modi cabinet, a JD(U) leader said such a decision would be "natural".

"When we are together in government in Bihar, it is only natural that our party joins the Union government," he said.

The Bihar Chief Minister also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

In July, BJP's mounting pressure on Nitish to oust then Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav from the Cabinet led to the departure of JD-U and RJD led 'mahagathbandhan' government in Bihar with Nitish's resignation.

This came after the CBI registered a corruption case against RJD chief Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

Nitish, however, swore-in as the Bihar Chief Minister the very next day with Sushil Modi as his Deputy Chief Minister.

Reasoning out the whole drama, Nitish Kumar reiterated that he quit the 'Grand Alliance' in Bihar for the development of the state.
UP health minister said that even the Chief Minister visited the hospital recently but the hospital authority didn't even inform about any such things as being reported. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday assured quick action will be taken against those involved in the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital, following which over 63 children lost their lives.

"People responsible for this will not be spared. Quick action will be taken against the ones responsible for this, as it is a very serious issue," Siddharth Nath said after meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

He further said that even the Chief Minister visited the hospital recently but the hospital authority didn't even inform about any such things as being reported.

"The Chief Minister himself went there in August 9, none of the doctors or the administration informed him about any such issue of alleged lack of supply of oxygen," he said.

Siddharth Nath even hit out at the opposition for harping on this issue and said that they should not politicise over the death of the children.

"I will only say that this is a very crucial issue. It's the work of the opposition to question the ruling party. But they should not politicise over the death of the children. This is not a correct time," he said.

State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon reiterated the same and said action will be taken after detailed probe on the matter.

"The Chief Minister has given us proper instruction on this issue. We will leave for Gorakhpur soon and after details analysis of the situation will take further decision on the same," Tandon said.

Earlier in the day, the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital claimed lives of three more children.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

As per the locals, though the hospital is supposed to provide free medical assistance, neither there is proper medical facility available nor are the patients provided free medicines.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and has further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this reports, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

"There haven't been any deaths due to lack of oxygen supply. And 'only' seven children have died today. Today three deaths happened in Neonatal ICU, two due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and two due to Non-AES," UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tondon said.

"The District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The report will be out in 24 hours," he added.

He further said that the arrangement of oxygen cylinders was duly made and a strict action will be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.
The Supreme Court of Crimea ruled on Friday evening to turn down an appeal by the defense team for Server Karametov, 76, against a lower court ruling on his 10-day arrest for disobeying police during a solo demonstration in support for deputy head of the Majilis of Crimean Tatars (banned in Russia) Akhtem Chiygoz.

"Our appeal has been turned down, Server Karametov will spend ten days in prison on an absolutely farfetched charge. I am sure this is an act of intimidation," lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said after leaving the courthouse.

The defense will not further appeal the case in Russian courts and is determined to address international organizations, including the European Court of Human Rights, Kurbedinov said.

Karametov appeared with a banner in support for Chiygoz near the Supreme Court of Crimea while the latter was hearing the presentation of arguments in Chiygoz's case on August 8. Police detained him and charged him with violation of the rules of holding a public event and refusal to obey a lawful demand of a police official.

The Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Simferopol heard the police reports on August 8 and 9 and fined Karametov 10,000 rubles on the first count and put him under arrest on the second count on the evening of August 9.

Amnesty International demanded that Karametov, who has Parkinson's disease, be freed.

Lawyers said Karametov suffers from severe motor system disorder and glaucoma.

Chiygoz has been charged with organizing mass disturbances at a rally near the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol on February 26, 2014, in the run-up to a fake referendum on Crimea's joining Russia, when two people were killed and 79 others injured in a clash between activists of the Russian Unity party and Cossacks on one side and Mejilis supporters on the other.

The court heard the presentation of arguments on August 7-9. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Chiygoz to eight years in prison, and his lawyer Nikolai Polozov insisted on his acquittal.

The court is expected to deliver a sentence in the case on September 11.
Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar have been sent to judicial custody till August 25. (Photo: ANI | File)

Chandigarh: A court in Chandigarh on Saturday sent Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar to judicial custody till August 25.

Amid tight police security, both were presented before the court of duty magistrate Gaurav Dutta.

Defence counsel Surya Prakash said: "both the youths have been sent to 14 days of judicial custody".

On Thursday, both Vikas and Ashish were sent to two-day police custody for stalking 29-year-old Varnika Kundu last week.

Vikas, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Haryana unit President Subhash Barala, and Kumar were arrested on Thursday when they appeared in Chandigarh Sector 26 Police Station after being summoned in the case.

There was a massive outrage on streets and in the Parliament regarding the incident.

Subhash Barala, however, rebuffed the claim of pressurising or influencing the police in the case.

The defence lawyer had earlier claimed that Vikas and Ashish had not committed any offence and said a "media trial" was going on in the case.

Police arrested the duo after examining the CCTV footage of the incident, saying that they have sufficient evidence against the accused people.

On Friday night, several people in Chandigarh held a march 'Bekhauf Azaadi' in support of the victim, and to raise awareness on the women safety issue.

Director General of Police, Chandigarh, Tajender Singh Luthra said they were arrested on charges of attempt to abduction and IPC 365 and 511 have been filed against them.

The summon was issued to the duo under 160 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the case has been filed against Barala under Section 354D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 185 MV Act (rash driving).

Vikas and Kumar were initially arrested on August 5 on charges of stalking and harassing IAS officer's daughter Varnika Kundu in Chandigarh early that morning. They were, however, granted bail the same day.

Subhash Barala broke his silence on the matter on Tuesday after being mute for over three days and said, Varnika "is like my daughter". He assured action against his son.
Heavy fire is being exchanged between the security forces and the terrorists. (Photo: File/Representational)

Srinagar: Gunfight broke out between a group of militants and the security forces in Awneera village of Jammu and Kashmirs southern Shopian district on Saturday evening.

The police sources said two to three Hibz-ul-Mujahedin militants were trapped in the area after the troops of the Armys 55 Rashtriya Rifles, the Jammu and Kashmir polices counter insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the CRPF laid siege to it.

The militants opened fire on the search party, triggering the encounter which is underway, the sources said.

On Friday night, the militants attacked the Armys 42 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters in the forest area of Kalaroos in north-western Kupwara district, injuring a soldier, the officials said. The Army quickly launched a search operation in the area but no arrests were made, the police sources said.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted in Trichal village of southern Pulwama district on Saturday after the security forces arrived there to launch a cordon-and-search operation against the militants reportedly hiding in the village.

The witnesses said on seeing the security personnel, the residents, mainly youth, came out to hurl rocks at them.

Earlier, a search operation was launched by the security forces in Noorabad village of Pulwamas Tral area but the militants hiding in there managed to escape under the cover of darkness, the sources said.

The sources said the cordon-and-search operation was launched following inputs about the presence of militants including Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, the head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, the Al-Qaidas India cell.
Based on the doctor's advise, the girl's parents approached Charkop police, who registered a case of sexual assault on Thursday. (Representational image)

Mumbai: A man was arrested from Charkop in suburban Kandivali for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl and impregnating her, police said on Friday.

The girl is now 28-weeks pregnant, police said.

"The 22-year-old accused, an idli-seller, used to reside in the vicinity of the victim's residence in suburban Kandivali. He was arrested last night and produced in the court today, which remanded him to police custody till August 16," Shrirang Nadgauda, Assistant Commissioner of Police-Malwani division, said.

"The exact day and time of the offence could not be known so far as the girl is in a state of shock and hasn't told the police or the family members about her ordeal," he said.

The matter came to light two days back when her family took the girl to a local doctor to know the reason behind her bloated stomach. The doctor advised them to get her utra-sound test done. The test revealed that the girl was pregnant.

Based on the doctor's advise, the girl's parents approached Charkop police, who registered a case of sexual assault on Thursday.

Another police official said that although the exact time of the offence was not yet known, it is presumed that the crime was committed about seven months ago she is 28-weeks pregnant now.

Present laws, under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP), do not allow abortion after 20 weeks.

The accused was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, police said.

Further investigation is on.
BJP president Amit Shah arrived in Bengaluru on Saturday on a three-day visit to Karnataka to re-energise the rank and file, and asserted that the party stood united and would return to power in next year's assembly polls under the leadership of state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa. (Photo: Twitter | @AmitShah )

Bengaluru: Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government).

Shah, who is in Karnataka on a three-day visit to re-energise a faction-riven state unit, asserted that the party was ready for the electoral battle to win the assembly polls under the leadership of BJP state unit chief B S Yeddyurappa.

"Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state," Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport in Bengaluru.

Assembly polls in Karnataka are due early next year for which the party has a 150-plus seats goal to come back to power.

Shah is scheduled to interact with partymen at various levels and expected to give a pep talk to senior leaders to remain united, as the open bickerings between some of its leaders until recently had embarrassed the party.

Yeddyurappa has come under criticism from a section of partymen over his alleged "arbitrary style" of functioning with another senior leader K S Eshwarappa openly flagging the issue until both were told to shun open display of differences.

"I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power," Shah said.

Addressing the party workers who gave him a rousing reception near the airport, Shah said he had come to Bengaluru to realise the goal of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka.

"I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise 'Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar' (This time, a BJP government) resolution," he added.

He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Vijay Rath' (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into the southern India by winning Karnataka.

BJP's first ever government in the South had ruled Karnataka from 2008-2013 that saw internal fights leading to change of chief ministers thrice and paved the way for return of Congress to power.

The ruling Congress is going all out to retain power but BJP has said it has a counter-strategy to fight its "polarisation politics."

The BJP would neither interfere in the Lingayat religion issue nor use Kannada language row as a political tool to counter the "polarisation politics" of the Congress in Karnataka, senior BJP leader Suresh Kumar said.

The Congress support to a separate religion cause of Lingayats, the largest community in the state, ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, is seen as an attempt to cause damage to the BJP, which enjoys considerable support from the community.

The BJP also does not want to use the language issue as a tool to create hatred towards other communities and sections of the people, Kumar said.

Huge protests were staged by pro-Kannada outfits over the use of Hindi on 'Namma Metro' signboards, which also had forced Siddaramaiah to write to the Centre stating the government was compelled to ask Namma Metro to temporarily re-design signboards in stations without the Hindi language following a row over its use.

Shah's visit is part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party.

Shah's programmes during his three-day stay include interaction with intellectuals, meeting religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs, and leaders of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other

Backward Classes (OBCs).

On Sunday, Amit Shah will take part in the Political Affairs Committee meeting of the party and visit Adi Chunchanagiri Math at Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet the seer, who is the religious leader of Vokkaligas, the second most powerful community in Karnataka.

He will also meet Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

On the third day, Sunday, Shah will address party "vistaraks" (volunteers) who had fanned out across the state to get feedback from the people.
Chennai: The two AIADMK factions edged closer to merger with the O Panneerselvam camp on Friday helping itself to the anti-Dhinakaran resolution passed by the rival Palaniswami group in order to strengthen its affidavit before the Election Commission for setting aside the appointment of V K Sasikala as the party general secretary.

OPS along with senior colleagues K.P. Munusamy, 'Mafoi' K. Pandiarajan and V. Maitreyan met EC officials and submitted additional affidavits 'to strengthen' the petition filed in February for declaring as 'null-and-void' Sasikala's appointment as general secretary as it was against the AIADMK bylaws.

We gave the EC additional documents today to strengthen our case against Sasikala's appointment. We culled out some portions of yesterday's resolution (by EPS faction) against Dhinakaran and made them part of our additional affidavit submitted (to EC) now, Munusamy told reporters in Delhi, amid speculation that the EPS camp will soon withdraw its objections to the OPS petition against Sasikala.

If we withdraw our objections, the OPS petition seeking annulment of Sasikala's appointment (as general secretary) will sail through unchallenged. This will smoothen the merger process because if Sasikala goes, her appointee TTV goes automatically, said a senior EPS faction leader, recalling that one of the prime conditions laid by OPS for the merger was ejecting the Sasikala family from the party. He declined comment when asked about OPS's 'other important condition'-probe into Jayalalithaa's demise.

The probe issue, however, has been discussed in both the factions at length and at different stages, according to sources. That's one condition that will be difficult if not impossible to meet; at least, you cannot make that as a precondition to the merger process, said an EPS camp leader, adding, At best, you can say we must keep that at the back of our minds.

Elaborating, he said, Probing the former CM's demise will be extremely difficult and will open up impossible challenges, not just involving the doctors and the hospital but also crime investigators and the judiciary. Above all, how will we respond if we land in a situation where someone in the course of this so-called probe says the body should be exhumed? There are serious problems; besides, the hospital has made it clear that all its procedures and treatment had been transparent and open to scrutiny. We are sure that OPS will understand the sensitivities involved in this.
In this Aug 11, 2017 photo, a man holds the lifeless body of his child outside Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: PTI)

Gorakhpur: The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the principal of the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur, following the death of 63 children, including newborns, due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen.

"We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour," Ashutosh Tandon, the Health Minister and Siddharth Nath Singh, Minister for Medical Education said.

"High level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secretary. Will wait for report, action will be taken. Till then suspending principal," Tandon added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is monitoring situation in the Gorakhpur hospital and is in constant touch with the Central and state government officials.

As many as 63 children have died since the past six days as the oxygen supply to the company was allegedly cut by the supplier -- Pushpa Private Limited.

The cases led to outrage in the country.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a tweet, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought information about the Gorakhpur incident. On his directives, Union Health minister JP Nadda and MoS Anupriya Patel also sought information of the incident."

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) termed the death of infants as an outcome of the state government's "gross criminal negligence" and demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident.

Both the opposition parties in the state have decided to send teams to Gorakhpur.

"As many as 60 children have died in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last six-seven days. This is an example of gross criminal negligence of the BJP government," BSP chief Mayawati said in a release.

Blaming the Yogi Adityanath government for the tragedy, SP president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that a shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital led to it.

"The company supplying oxygen had informed the principal (of Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital) that it would stop the supply if payment was not made and the government must be aware that the deaths have been caused due to a shortage of oxygen," he said.

Stating that the exact toll was not available with the opposition, Yadav said, "We have received information that as the children were dying, their families were being taken out of the hospital in a hush hush manner."

Demanding a high-level inquiry into the incident, Mayawati said all possible help should be extended to the bereaved families.

"As it is not in the nature of the BJP to accept its follies, the matter of dismissing the departmental ministers for this negligence should be left on the wisdom of the chief minister," she added.

The BSP supremo further alleged that the issues of peoples' welfare were of no importance "for the governments of the BJP".

"Issues like tiranga (tricolour), vande mataram, madarsa, anti-romeo squads - which divert the attention of the people - are of more importance to them," she said.

Mayawati added that as the incident took place at a time when the chief minister was on a visit to Gorakhpur and "taking time off his political activities and puja-paath, was doing government work", it raised "a hundred questions on the capacity and working of the BJP government".

A six-member SP team, led by Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary, has been asked to submit its report to the party chief by August 13 and a three-member BSP team, led by its state unit chief Ram Achal Rajbhar, has been asked to rush to Gorakhpur.

Meanwhile, Masood Ahmed, the state unit president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, said it was a "matter of grave concern" that the district administration and the hospital were "trying to hide their shortcomings" and demanded the resignation of state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh.

"The health minister should resign on moral grounds. It seems he had been busy working as a spokesman of the government and does not have the ability to work as the health minister," he alleged.
The attack which took place on Friday, injured a soldier who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment.

Srinagar: A woman was killed when Pakistan violated ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5:30 am on Saturday.

"The 45-year-old woman Raqia Begum was a resident of upper Golat in Mendhar," said Mendhar Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Riyaz Tantray.

In a separate provocation last night, terrorists attacked 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) headquarter in the forest area of Kalaroose Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

The attack which took place on Friday, injured a soldier who was later shifted to the military hospital Drugmulla for treatment.

The search operation is still on.
Family members of the deceased jawan, Karthikeyan, from a nondescript village in Arani were informed that he died while on duty.

Chennai: A 29-year-old jawan attached to the Border Security Force (BSF) from Arani in Tiruvannamalai district died in Assam. Family members of the deceased jawan, Karthikeyan, from a nondescript village in Arani were informed that he died while on duty.

The reason for his death is not known yet. The body is expected to reach his hometown in a couple of days.
Hyderabad: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has slammed the Power Finance Corporation and the Rural Electrification Corporation for violating internal guidelines and RBI rules while lending to independent power projects such as Lanco, Nagarjuna, Krishna-Godavari and GVK.

In the report tabled in Parliament two days ago, the CAG said that between 2013-14 and 2015-16, the two corporations had lent IPPs Rs 47,706.88 crore. At the end of 2015-16, the total NPAs with these IPPs stood at Rs 11,762.61 crore.

The CAG said that the financial capacity of the promoters to bring equity for their projects in the face of competing demands was not adequately assessed by the PFC and the REC.

In the sample selected by the CAG, nine projects had to be restructured multiple times which increased the interest amount of Rs 13,312.78 crore in six loan cases and NPAs of Rs 3038.44 crore in three cases.

SHOCKING DETAILS

Nagarjuna: The company given Rs 2,710 crore for 1,320-MW project had no experience in the field.

Lanco: Rural Electrification Corporation adjusted Rs 496.02cr beyond approved loans of Rs 3,294.35cr.

Krishna-Godavari: The coal-based project given to three entities which had no experience in power projects.

GVK: Power Finance Corporation did not consider taxes running into crores as the project would have turned unviable.
Fire which first broke out in the rear portion of the Karnataka governments luxury Volvo bus spread to the entire vehicle and gutted it near Poonamallee. All 43 passengers onboard the bus were disembarked before the fire spread.(Photo: DC)

Chennai: More than 40 passengers in a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus bound for Chennai from Bengaluru had a close shave after the bus caught fire while in motion near Poonamallee on Saturday morning.

The passengers were disembarked after a motorist alerted the driver about smoke emanating from the rear end of the bus.

The incident happened around 8 .15 am, police said. The Karnataka state transport corporations luxury Volvo bus, Airavat (Regn. No. KA 01-F8288) was moving along the Poonamallee bypass when smoke ema-nated from the rear engine.

In a few minutes after driver S. Sridhar and conductor Ramachandran ale-rted the passengers and got them off, the rear portion was completely engulfed in fire, a police officer said.

Fire tenders from Poona-mallee, Maduravoyal and Ambattur fire stations rus-hed to the scene braving the traffic pile up. However, by the time the fire tenders could reach the scene, the fire spread and gutted most parts of the bus, said an officer with the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS).

Police said that a crowd had gathered around the scene, which added to the chaos.

The bus left Bengaluru around 10 pm on Friday and was supposed to reach the city early in the morning. There were 43 passengers on the bus. None of them suffered injuries. They we-re provided alternate transport to reach their destinations, a police officer sa-id.KSRTCs technical team reached the city to ascerta-in the cause. Nazrathpet Police have registered a case and are investigating.
Nearly 3,000 servicemen from various countries involved in drills in Georgia

The Noble Partner 2017 international military exercises, which continued for two weeks in Georgia, concluded on Saturday.

Servicemen from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Georgia participated in the exercises.

"Up to 2,800 servicemen from various countries, as well as U.S. and German military hardware that had specially arrived from Europe, were involved in the exercises. The objective of the exercises, achieving the compatibility between ground forces of various countries, was fully accomplished," the Georgian Armed Forces' General Staff Chief Vladimir Chachbaya told reporters on Saturday.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili participated in the closing ceremony of the drills at the Georgian Defense Ministry's Vaziani military base, he thanked troops and expressed confidence in the continuation of partnership.

The Noble Partner military exercises were conducted in Georgia for the third time. The latest drills were the largest.
New Delhi: In a classic demonstration of Chinese double-standards, President Xi Jinping on Saturday asked his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to avoid remarks and actions that could escalate the already-tense situation in the Korean peninsula over North Koreas aggressive behaviour.

But while China is trying to play the saner voice in this dispute, Beijing has been using the same aggressive language against New Delhi on the Sino-Indian military stand-off in Bhutans Doklam area.

Despite New Delhi responding with restraint, China has been provoking India with daily veiled and open threats from its government officials and state-run media about using military force against India, even as it doles out sagely advice to Washington on maintaining peace and calm. Despite its daily staple of threats, China also claims that it is patiently waiting for India to withdraw troops from Doklam.

Beijings desperation stems from its awareness of the military and economic consequences of starting a war with India, which has a strong military.

On Saturday, Mr Xi and Mr Trump spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un threatened the US to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, following the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Mr Xi told Mr Trump that China is ready to work with the US to appropriately resolve the issue, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The concerned parties should avoid remarks and actions that could escalate tensions on the peninsula, Mr Xi was quoted as saying. The relevant side must at present exercise restraint, and avoid words and actions that exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula, Mr Xi reportedly said.

But Beijing is unwilling to show the same wisdom in its dealings with New Delhi over the Doklam stand-off. China regards Doklam as its territory and calls it Dong Lang even as it has conveniently ignored a Bhutanese government statement in June calling Chinese road-construction in the area a violation of the understanding between China and Bhutan. Instead, Beijing has claimed, without any proof, that the Bhutanese have acknowledged they dont have any claim over the Doklam area.

China has demanded that India withdraw its troops from Doklam even as it is unwilling to withdraw its own troops. India had sent troops to the area to prevent the Chinese PLA from constructing a road there after Bhutan had sought New Delhis help under the special relationship that exists between both nations.
New Delhi: After a spate of raids on separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, the central investigative agencies  Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA)  are now likely to initiate attachment of their assets, worth several crores.

The ED will attach Shabir Shahs assets under stringent provisions of the Money Laundering Act. The NIA will attach properties of the separatist leaders under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Both agencies have identified their properties to be attached, sources said.

The investigative agencies were also in touch with certain banks in J&K to get details about their bank accounts and fixed deposits, they said, adding that these would be attached, too. The ED is investigating a money laundering case of alleged terror financing against Shah.

It may be recalled that the agency recently arrested Srinagar-based Mohammad Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, in connection with the case against Shah, who is in the judicial custody.

Earlier on August 3, a Delhi court had allowed the Enforcement Directorate custody of Shah after the agency alleged that he was ruining the country by using money to fund terror.
A hospital staff member checks newly arrived oxygen cylinders at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: AP)

Lucknow: An FIR has been registered against Pushpa Sales, the company that supplied oxygen to the BRD Medical College. A series of raids were also carried out on the offices of the company on Saturday.

Speaking to a news channel, Manish Bhandari, the owner of the company, squarely blamed the BRD hospital management for the deaths.

He said that on Friday night, a part of the arrears (Rs 52 lakh) were hurriedly cleared after which oxygen supply had started from Rajasthan and would reach Gorakhpur on Saturday night.

Mr Bhandari said his company was supplying liquid oxygen during the night and two other companies were also engaged in the supply of oxygen.

The hospital later gave a break-up of 60 deaths since August 7. According to the report, 34 deaths are of newborns in the NICU ward, 12 due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) cases and 14 are non-AES cases.
Lucknow/New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath government on Saturday got into damage control mode and denied that the deaths of children in Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College were due to shortage of oxygen.

Blaming encephalitis  acute inflammation of the brain thats often cause by viral infection  for the tragedy, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that a magisterial inquiry has been ordered and a committee has been formed to look into the Gorakhpur incident.

Dr Rajiv Misra, the principal of BRD Medical College, was also suspended on Saturday for negligent behaviour.

And the Centre has rushed minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and deputed Union health secretary to take stock of the situation.

With the UP government drawing flak from all sides, including from a BJP MP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself monitoring the developments in Gorakhpur.

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj on Saturday said, One or two deaths is different, but 30 deaths are genocide.

BJP MLC Devendra Pratap Singh also wrote a letter to the Chief Minister, urging him to visit his constituency and take stock of the situation.

As many as 30 infants have died within a span of 48 hours in the state-run hospital since August 10.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh, who visited the medical college, had on Friday said that according to reports from the hospitals paediatric department, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

CM Adityanath, at a hurriedly convened press conference in Lucknow on Saturday evening, said that the media was creating false propaganda as not a single death had taken place due to oxygen shortage.

Mr Adityanath claimed that the deaths were due to acute encephalitis, rampant in eastern UP. Cleanliness, he said, is the only way to combat it.

The Chief Minister also said that the role of the supplier who had allegedly stopped oxygen supply would be probed.

Stating that the supplier had been given an eight-year contract in 2014 by the previous government, and should not have shut off the supply in emergency services. If there was oxygen shortage, it is a heinous crime, he said. Mr Singh said that not a single child had died due to lack of oxygen. The deaths were due to low birth weight, pneumonia, kidney failure and infection, he added.

Oxygen supply was on low pressure for two hours in the night on August 10 and 11 and not a single death took place during this period. During this period, oxygen was not shut off and ambu-bags were used for patients, he said.

UP minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon said that `2 crore had been sent to the BRD hospital on August 5, but the money was given to the supplies on August 11.

Mr Singh said, Most of the patients come here in critical condition and do not survive. Some died due to infection shortage of gas was not the reason.

Soon after his suspension, the outgoing principal Dr Rajiv Misra announced his resignation and categorically denied disruption of oxygen as being the cause of childrens death.

Mr Singh blamed hospital officials for not keeping the government informed about the emerging oxygen crisis.
National Law University Delhi students take selfie during their annual convocation ceremony in New Delhi on Saturday.

New Delhi: This institution has grown into a great centre for learning within a short period of time. I am happy to know that students who have graduated from National Law University Delhi have brought accolades to the institution, said Justice J.S. Khehar, Chief Justice of India and visitor of NLUD, who was invited as the chief guest at the varsitys 5th annual convocation on Saturday.

The convocation was presided over by Justice Gita Mittal, acting chief justice of Delhi high court and chancellor of NLUD. She conferred degrees on 78 students of BA LLB (H), 38 students of LLM, and two PhD scholars.

In addition to the degrees, 24 gold medals and cash prizes were also awarded to students of different batches.

Notable awardees were LLM students Aradhana, who was awarded 11 gold medals and a cash prize, followed by Akshaya Parthasarthy, who was awarded five gold medals.

It is also a matter of pride for this institution to see so many students excelling in the civil services exam, Justice Khehar said.

Students from the university topped Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana judicial services exam as well. Several others, who graduated out from here, have been admitted to Oxford, Cambridge, and other reputed universities, Justice Khehar said.

It is a very big day for all the students. I am feeling very proud of my daughter who received two medals  excellence in competition law and best female student for LLM, said Anil Panwar, father of Anoosha Panwar.
New Delhi: Having stringent laws and enforcement agencies may not be sufficient unless deep-rooted gender bias is removed from the society to reduce acid attack incidents on hapless women, the Supreme Court has said.

In its judgement on Friday, a Bench of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and N.V. Ramana, in separate but concurring judgements, faulted the Calcutta High Court for acquitting the main accused. It reversed the findings and awarded life sentence to the accused Purnendu Kumar Patra and confirmed the acquittal of co-accused Rabin Jana. The victim was raped and thereafter acid was thrown at her and she succumbed to injuries in September 1998.

The trial court awarded death sentence to Patra and life term to Rabin Rana but the High Court acquitted both of them. The state of West Bengal and Suresh Chandra Jana, brother of the victim filed the present appeals.

In his judgement, Justice Ramana said usually vitriolage or acid attack has transformed itself as a gender-based violence. Acid attacks not only cause damage to the physical appearance of its victims but also cause immense psychological trauma thereby becoming a hurdle in their overall development.

Although we have acknowledged the seriousness of the acid attack when we amended our laws in 2013, the number of acid attacks are on the rise, the judge said.
CHENNAI: In another novel protest, Tamil Nadu farmers rallying in New Delhi to demand loan waiver and drought relief package on Thursday used slippers to beat themselves and shouted slogans criticising the Centre and the state for not addressing issues related to TN farmers.

About 80 farmers led by P. Ayyakannu shouted slogans against the state lawmakers, calling the salary revision for TN MLAs a shame. Tamil Nadu farmers do not have food to eat or money to survive, but our MLAs chose to increase their own salaries. We have been left speechless by their shameless action, farmers leader P. Ayyakannu told reporters.

The farmers who had suspended their 41-day long protest following government assurance in April are disappointed and feel let down by the state and Centre. And now our protests will continue in Jantar Mantar, the agitating farmers said.

The cultivators demand Rs 40,000-crore drought relief package, complete loan waiver, compensation for agriculture produce, crop insurance to individual farmers, and linking of rivers to address the water crisis in Tamil Nadu.

In March, the farmers grabbed nationwide attention by holding protests with human skulls and drank their own urine and a few stripped in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modis office.

It may be noted that TN assembly on Wednesday approved a hike in their salaries from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1.05 lakh per month, apart from an increase in the MLA Development Fund from Rs 2 crore to Rs 2.5 crore.

Meanwhile, farmers in delta districts complained that the insurance to farmers promised by private companies was awaiting settlements. Farmers are pathetically waiting for their claim settlement. Claim details of Nagapattinam and Thanjavur district villages have been pending for months, Arupathy P. Kalyanam, general secretary-Federation of Farmers Associations-Cauvery Delta Districts said.
Kochi: The state government has urged the Centre to increase the Haj quota for the state in view of the huge demand here. The application for Haj quota from here is higher than most other states. The quota should be apportioned based on demand. This matter has been already brought to the notice of the Centre, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said while inaugurating the Haj camp for pilgrims at the Nedumbassery international airport here.

The first batch of pilgrims from the state will leave for Saudi Arabia to perform Haj pilgrimage early on Sunday. While a total of 1.25 lakh pilgrims from the country is undertaking the pilgrimage, 11,800 pilgrims are travelling from the Nedumbassry airport. The state is a model when it comes to extending services to Haj pilgrims. This time around, the state has given training to those volunteers who didnt get training from the Centre. The Health department has ensured adequate preventive medicines are given, Mr Vijayan said.
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar on Friday virtually shut the door on any reconciliation with rebel leader Sharad Yadav, saying he is free to take any decision as the alliance with the BJP had the entire partys nod.

He (Yadav) is free to take his decision. As far as the party is concerned, it has already taken its decision. The decision was not mine alone and it was taken with the consent of the party. If he keeps a different opinion, then he is free to do so, Nitish told reporters.

Earlier, Mr Nitish met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah as his party prepares to join the NDA after forming the government in the state in alliance with the saffron party. It was Mr Kumars first visit to the national capital after he jettisoned the alliance with the RJD and the Congress, and sealed a tie-up with the BJP on July 26.

Meanwhile, The JD(U) suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Party spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said Mr Ansari has been suspended for attending the meeting despite the party severing its ties with the Congress-led UPA.
Chennai: Beleaguered TTV Dhinakaran and his jailed aunt V. K. Sasikala are firing canons at the BJP from the shoulder of Namadhu MGR, which is supposed to be the official organ of the AIADMK but is owned by the Sasikala family. The paper slammed the BJP leadership accusing it of splitting the AIADMK into three factions and causing political instability in several states.

Also, the paper has been blacking out all news relating to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his government ever since he presided over the party meeting on Thursday, where the all-important resolution declaring that Dhinakarans appointment as deputy general secretary by Sasikala in her capacity as acting general secretary was against the AIADMK constitution, and is invalid. The CMs Delhi trip went unnoticed by both Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV.

In a hard-hitting special article titled Kaavi adi, Kazhagaththai azhi (saffron strike destroys party) in its Saturday edition, Namadhu MGR accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, albeit without naming him, of sullying the 70-year-old political culture of India by massacring democracy and glorifying the daylight robbery indulged in by dictatorship. The article also has a provocative cartoon that shows an RSS man painting India in saffron colour.

Its these great persons who had bragged they would provide jobs for 2.5 crore youths per year, give Rs 15 lakh to every citizen, bring down the fuel prices by half and cap the US dollar to Rs 35, said the article. While none of the promises was delivered, it said they had indulged in serious violations of decent democracy in Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Puducherry, besides ruining the Congress in Goa, splitting Lalu and Nitish to grab power by the backdoor in Bihar and crush the administrative authority of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.

While the rival DMK has Murasoli as its vibrant mouthpiece the opposition party is now celebrating the papers 75th anniversary in grand manner and at least two popular TV channels backing it to the hilt, the ruling AIADMK appears to have been deserted by both its officialmedia platforms- Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV. The Sasikala family owning them is upset over Edappadi yielding to rival O. Panneerselvam factions demand that the family should be ejected from the party.

Consequently, both the paper and the TV channel have been blacking out all news relating to the Edappadi government the last couple of days.

More importantly, they are giving huge coverage to Dhinakarans statements and the preparations for his public meetings and the proposed tour starting with a rally at Melur in Madurai on Monday.

Madurai has been the centre for all major developments in our party, including the rally where MGR launched the party and the public meeting where he indicated Amma (Jayalalithaa) as his political heir. TTVs rally on Monday too will prove to be a turning point, raved a party cadre on the Jaya TV bulletin focusing on TTVs political calendar.

The channel also gave liberal coverage to the cadre praising Sasikala as thyaga-thalaivi (leader who has made great sacrifices) and BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy telling reporters at the airport that she remains the party chief and that the Election Commission had erred in freezing the two-leaves symbol of the party, which should have remained with her even after the OPS split.
In July 2017, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) has recorded 28 cases of violations of freedom of speech and journalists' rights in Ukraine. This is the largest number of violations recorded since the beginning of the year, the press service of the IMI quoted its monthly monitoring report dubbed 'Freedom of Press Barometer'.

In July, the highest number of beatings of journalists occurred since the beginning of the year. Six such cases were recorded.

According to the report, in January a total of 15 cases of violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine were registered, in February - 21, in March - 16, in April - 26, in May - 24, in June - 20.

The number of beatings of journalists in July increased compared to the previous months. Three beatings occurred in June, three in May, one in April, one in March, one in February, and none in January. The attacks and beatings occurred in Dnipro, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy, the Institute reported.

The IMI recorded violations of the freedom of speech and the rights of journalists in July in 15 regions of Ukraine. Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Volyn regions led in terms of the number of such violations, four such cases were recorded in each of these regions.

The right of journalists to the profession was violated in July by individuals, law enforcement officers, local and central authorities, hackers, representatives of the judicial branch of government and municipal enterprises, according to the IMI report.

The number of obstacles has slightly decreased compared with June (ten in June, nine in May, eight in April, three in March, seven in February, five in January). At the same time, this kind of obstacles has lead among other categories of violations of freedom of speech since the beginning of the year.

Of the six cases of obstruction, three occurred in Mykolaiv, where the authorities pushed journalists out, banned them from their offices, resented the presence of the media in a session hall.

In addition, in July, the IMI recorded five cases of threats, four cases of Internet pressure, two cases of restricting access to public information and political pressure. Also one case of damage to property of journalists and one lawsuit against the media and journalists were registered.

The property was damaged in a burning car of a Kharkiv journalist, the editor of the Insider.info news portal, a correspondent of the Crimean News agency, Ihor Rusyn. The journalist himself is convinced that the car was set on fire.

According to the IMI, cases of Internet pressure are associated with DDoS attacks on the website LB.ua, pressure on the website of the city of Zaporizhia 061.ua and on the Hlukhiv newspaper 'Week', as well as attacks by a large number of calls from unknown mobile phone numbers to the chief editor of LB.ua Sonia Koshkina on her birthday, July 8. LB.ua believes the hacking attacks on the website and on Koshkina's cell phone are connected with the portal's fight against the construction on the territory of the Senny market in Kyiv.
More than two millennia ago, in the 4th century BCE, Chanakya deposed a tyrannical king, helped to repel the Greeks, united a fractious territory, groomed a king and put him on the throne of Magadha, and made the Maurya kingdom, extending from Afghanistan to Bengal and southern India, the first ever empire in Indias history. He wrote the Arthashastra  perhaps the worlds first comprehensive treatise on statecraft, some 1,800 years before Machiavelli wrote The Prince. The Arthashastra contains an important chapter on the conduct of foreign policy. Circumstances may have changed dramatically since then, but the need for strategic clarity  which was Chanakyas strength  is as relevant now as it was then. Such clarity is at test in the serious face-off between India and China in Doklam, near the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan. It is wise that Indias reaction, against blatant Chinese provocation, has been measured, and has kept the option of diplomatic resolution open. Sama, or reconciliation, was the first dictum of Chanakyas famous formula of sama, dama (incentives), danda (punishment) and bheda (sowing discord). Most people dont know that Chanakya also spoke about a fifth stratagem  asana  the strategic art of deliberately not taking a decision and sitting on the fence.

However, not responding in like manner to increasingly aggressive Chinese rhetoric does not mean that we should be confused about our giant neighbours tactic or intention. China has a clear-cut policy towards India: engagement with containment. This policy sees India as a competitor that must be engaged but kept in place. The timing and nature of Chinese aggression in the Doklam plateau is entirely in keeping with this policy. Only recently, India, in a good strategic move, held naval exercises with Japan and the US off the Malabar Coast. China sees this as a hostile act, aimed at what it believes it is destined to be  the Middle Kingdom around which the globe must revolve. If we retain clarity on what Chinas psychic apparatus, in terms of its foreign policy objectives, is, it will become easier to interpret the consistency with which it has acted against Indian interests. The list of its hostile actions, not necessarily in chronological order, is long: the demand for stapled visas for our citizens in Arunachal Pradesh, the blocking of our membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), investments of billions of dollars in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the building of the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) through territory that we claim as ours, the attempt to encircle India by calibrated interactions and investments with our neighbours, unfounded objections to our exploration of oil in the South China Sea, carefully timed intrusions into our territory along the several thousand kms long Line of Actual Control (LAC), including, amazingly enough, in Chumar, when Chinese President Xi Jinping was on a state visit to India, deliberate indifference to the yawning trade imbalance between both countries, with China dumping its goods on us, and raising invisible tariff barriers against our exports and, blocking the naming of dreaded terrorist Masood Azhar by the UN.

The last point, in particular, highlights Chinas open and defiant collusion with Pakistan against India. There can be no other reason why China, which is itself not impervious to terrorist threats by fanatical Islamic groups, should back Pakistan in this matter. The aim is crystal clear: Pakistan must be cultivated as an all weather ally in order to keep India encircled. The strategic takeaway for us is that we must be ready to face two neighbours in open collusion against us. If so much is clear, we need to be absolutely clear about our strategic imperatives. Above all, there is no need to display unwarranted docility to Chinese aggression. In this context, our decision not to attend the recent OBOR multilateral conference convened by China was entirely correct. In fact, I believe that we should, in addition, have sent a protest note to all the countries that did attend, stating clearly that the proposed road passes through territory that belongs to India. One can only imagine how China would have reacted if India convened a conference for the building of a road that would go through territory claimed by China! Even now, China routinely sends a strong protest note to any country that Dalai Lama travels to, and recently, when His Holiness visited Arunachal Pradesh, the threatening nature of the Chinese response was emphatically offensive.

Countries respect countries that respect themselves. Our protests were far too muted when China was escalating its investments in PoK. So was our response when China decided to give stapled visas to people of Arunachal Pradesh. Our appropriate response to this hostile affront should have been to give stapled visas to Chinese of Tibetan origin. The threat of a boycott of Chinese exports to India, at the level of a peoples movement, would have also conveyed to China our national resolve to stand up to its bullying. For too long now, China has come to assume that its aggressive psychological warfare against India gets only the predictable measured response. India is an emerging superpower. Even in defence terms, it is not a walkover for any hostile power. The Chinese have a better and bigger defence prowess, but 2017 is not 1962. Yet, as once again Chanakya emphasised, countries must never neglect their defence preparedness. We have full faith in our armed forces but we need to do everything possible to ensure that they are well equipped and battle ready. A serious overhaul of our indigenous public sector defence production is urgently required. Equally important is to improve the infrastructure on our side of the border. China has a motorised road going right up to Doklam. It can move 30 divisions with 15,000 soldiers each to the Line of Actual Control within a month. The face-off at Doklam should be the turning point to change our usual response to Chinas threats. The plateau has far too great a strategic importance for us to yield. Nor can we let our time-tested friend Bhutan down. If sama, which in this case implies the conciliatory reach of diplomacy, works it is well and good. But if it doesnt then India must convey to China that, frankly, enough is enough.
In addition to herding 44 Gujarat legislators to a resort in Bengaluru, Congress president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel made every possible effort to reach out to other MLAs before his Rajya Sabha election last week. Besides visiting fence-sitting legislators at their homes, Mr Patel also made it a point to call rebel Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela to seek his support even after he walked out of the party along with six lawmakers. Mr Vaghela assured Mr Patel that he would vote for him. It is a different story that Mr Vaghela was quick to go back on his word. Mr Vaghela has been expelled from the Congress. The buzz is that Mr Vaghela is going to float his own party and contest the Assembly polls in partnership with the NCP whose president Sharad Pawar is going to bankroll his campaign. The BJP is only too happy as a division in the votes will work to its advantage. Mr Vaghela believes that if he can win 20-25 seats, he can be kingmaker.

The death of BJPs Lok Sabha member from Ajmer Sanwar Lal Jat, which will necessitate a bypoll, is being seen as an opportunity for the Congress. This is so as the Congress consistently maintains that its campaign against the Vasundhara Raje government is a big success. In fact, it is also being said that Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, who lost to a Jat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, should be fielded to send out a strong message. Needless to say that it is Mr Pilots detractors who are making a strong case for his candidature. for the bypoll. But senior Congress leaders maintain that the party cannot take such a risk as a defeat for its state unit chief would prove to be counter-productive.

Besides handling their own portfolios, ministries are also being pushed to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modis Swachh Bharat, GST rollout, Make in India and Skill India. Each ministry has been instructed to hold weekly meetings to monitor these schemes. The feedback is then forwarded to the PMO. As a result, ministries are unable to devote much time to their work as officials are busy collating material from industry representatives and civil groups. While industry representatives are quick to provide information, bureaucrats often struggle to explain how they are implementing these schemes. It is the same story with the GST rollout. Industry representatives were being pressured to give details of success stories barely 10 days after it was introduced.

Ever since textiles minister Smriti Irani was given additional charge of the information and broadcasting ministry, she has evinced considerable interest in this portfolio. She has been holding regular meetings with officials and has lost no time in issuing instructions. Ms Irani is also keeping a sharp eye on mediapersons who are not ideologically aligned with the BJP government. If the Delhi grapevine is to be believed, the ministry has even prepared dossiers on such journalists and is waiting for them to err. Ms Irani is keeping up this pace in the hope that she will be moved to the IB ministry. The biggest loser here has been minister of state Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore whose role has gradually shrunk. When finance minister Arun Jaitley held additional charge of this ministry, he had delegated most of his work to Mr Rathore. This changed when the media-savvy M. Venkaiah Naidu took over this ministry and now that Ms Irani is in-charge, there is even less scope for Mr Rathore to hit the headlines.
As the farmers search the skies for rain, the mid-term Economic Survey revealed the disturbing news that the economy will not grow at the expected 7.5 per cent and will be closer to 6.75 per cent. This should be a wake-up call for the Prime Ministers Office. India is headed for yet another low growth rate next year if the monsoon fails. Surely, the government has been briefed on the fact that Central India is dry as a twig and even fodder for the animals is wilting. Farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada in Maharashtra, who are experiencing a drought-like situation at present, also fear that the soya production will not be up to the mark as late sowing diminishes the quality of the crop which needs 110-120 days and has lost 50 days due to late rains. Even the loan waiver decided by bureaucrats is of little help as the process is painful. Farmers have to fill forms, get them scrutinised, etc. so the waiver will take several months to become effective.

Had it been done earlier it might have been of some help in assuaging the intensity of rural distress in the country. The news of a 17-year-old girl in Parbhani committing suicide as she didnt want her uncle who is already in debt to get deeper in debt by providing for her marriage, underlines the seriousness of rural distress. The government seems to be unable to understand the grimness of the situation. The recent Maratha morcha in Mumbai, said to be the biggest ever since Independence, illustrates the extent of the lack of basic facilities in non-urban, rural India. The Marathas are basically a farming community and their demand was for education and services. The young do not want to do farming anymore. It is the same story behind the recent agitation of the Jats in Haryana, the Gujjars in Rajasthan or the Patels in Gujarat where the common demand was reservations. Education is an equaliser and with education facilities the youth in these states can compete equally for jobs.

These are the real vignettes embedded in the Economic Survey. The Narendra Modi government has a lot of promises to keep the least of them being the 10 million jobs in five years, of which two and a half years have already passed. There has, so far, been the phenomenon of jobless growth but now growth itself is being threatened. None of the schemes like Make in India, Stand up India have taken off and Skilling India leaves a lot to be desired. The government and the bureaucracy need to take the suggestions provided in the Economic Survey for reviving growth seriously and begin by providing farmers remunerative prices so that they do not have to live in penury.
It appears to have taken a considerable time for the information & broadcasting wing of the government to realise that its political appointee to the chairmanship of the Central Board of Film Certification was causing damage to the very foundations of the art of film-making. Pahalaj Nihalani, who prided himself on being a sycophant of the Prime Minister and who had shot to fame by coining a poll slogan in his honour, proved a walking disaster as he stirred up controversies with every snip of the scissors as it were. His Sanskari outlook bordered on the fanatical and his moralising on a liberal art was out of tune with the modern era of open knowledge in a world in which instant content can be created. Nihalani frowned upon everything, from cuss words to women-centric roles portraying modernity. The choice of the ruling forces in two appointments to posts in cinema  the other being that of Gajendra Chauhan who headed the Film and Television Institute of India  was inappropriate in a field where imagination is the fount of thought.

The boards name had changed from old fashioned censor to certification, but the person chosen to head it to showed little appreciation of the changed times. While the appointment Prasoon Joshi, a respected ad man who is also a lyricist and poet, is bound to broaden the perspective, it is important that he makes a clean break from the times of Nihalani. and ushers in the enlightened age in which content is available anyway regardless of how the board has tried to control storytelling. It is the boards job merely to certify films while judging whether content is unfit for youth and hence should bear an adult tag or recommend adult supervision.
Born in crime, the state of Israel ethnically cleansed the Palestinians, whose lands it had seized, and now subjects them to apartheid. That said, its record on accountability vis-a-vis its own Jewish people is an enviable one. This is very much like imperialist Britains contrasting record of behaviour towards the people of its colonies and its own citizens at home. But decolonisation did not invest the people of the Third World with the norms followed by their erstwhile leaders. On the contrary, they embraced a cult of secrecy that destroys accountability at its very roots. Earlier this year, the Israel State Archives released thousands of classified official documents charting political decisions made at the highest levels during the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Made public were 150,000 pages containing minutes of the wartime security Cabinet meetings and transcripts of other ministerial meetings.

In the past, Israel published the report of a commission of inquiry headed by the president of its supreme court, Shimon Agranat, into the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. A whole generation of top leaders was forced into exile. The Kahan Commission report (1983) censured the conduct of leaders responsible for the massacre that took place in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut. In 2007 came the Winograd Commission report on Israels war on Lebanon. On June 15, 1967, a few days after the conflict ended, Israels security cabinet discussed various options for the newly occupied territories. Foreign minister Abba Eban described continued Israeli rule as a potential powder keg. Prime minister Levy Eshkol mentioned the possibility of expelling them, saying that if it were up to us, we would send all the Arabs to Brazil. His justice minister, Yaakov Shimshon Shapira, objected. They are inhabitants of this land, and today you are ruling over it. There is no reason to take Arabs who were born here out of here and transfer them to Iraq. Now, 50 years later, Arabs in Palestine are consigned to virtual serfdom by Israel.

Prime minister Margaret Thatcher set up a committee of privy counsellors to review the conduct of the government preceding Argentinas invasion of the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982. They read all the papers that the prime minister personally saw; cabinet papers and minutes of meetings; foreign office and defence ministry papers, and intelligence reports. All the prime ministers and ministers of the government, as well as those of its predecessors, spoke to the committee. In glaring contrast is the deplorable record of successive governments of India, from 1963 to 2017, to suppress the report of the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat inquiry into the military debacle in the war with China in 1962. Journalist Neville Maxwell based his book, Indias China War, on a copy of the report. He recently published the report on his website for all to read. The cult of secrecy is all-pervasive. It covers official papers, the opening of the archives as well as papers of leading personalities. All the records of the Shimla Convention in 1914, where British India negotiated the Indo-Tibetan boundary, the McMahon Line, on the sidelines of the conference, as well as the proceedings in which all three  India, China and Tibet  participated, are still under lock and key.

The 30-year rule is only on paper. Records of border areas are closed from January 1, 1914. Those relating to Jammu and Kashmir are open only up to December 31, 1924. One court ruling is very relevant. It is the judgment on the publication of the Crossman Diaries. Lord Widgery, then lord chief justice of England, said on Oct. 1, 1975: It seems to me that the degree of protection afforded to cabinet papers and discussion cannot be determined by a single rule of thumb. Some secrets require a high standard of protection for a short time. Others may require protection until a new political generation has taken over. There is another factor, besides, which is not found in cases of private confidences and that is the legitimate public interest in the affairs of the state and the right of the citizen to comment on them. Publication of the diaries was upheld.

By arrangement with Dawn
One of the more unusual things about India is that what is said is often less important than who says it. This is true to some extent for most parts of the world, of course. But in our country the primary motivation ascribed to something controversial being said is the identity of the person holding the view. And so, if I speak in favour of Patidar reservations, it is because I am Patel and pushing my own community. Or if one is against the use of shotguns on protesters, it is because she or he is Kashmiri and backing their own community over the greater good. The most vulnerable such people are Indias Muslims, who are casually accused of parochialism and narrowness. This happens without an examination of what they are saying. This phenomenon I am describing is visible to us in our everyday lives and on television news, so I do not need to describe it further. All readers will know what I mean. However, I think that we have not yet seen this phenomenon entering our high politics, which is full of politeness and decorum. I believe that tradition has been broken with the comments of the Prime Minister on the vice-president of India.

They followed an interview on Rajya Sabha TV with Karan Thapar in which this question was asked: ...the Muslim community is apprehensive, its feeling insecure. Is that a correct assessment of how Indian Muslims feel or is it an exaggerated one? Hamid Ansari replied: Yes, it is a correct assessment, from all I hear from different quarters, the country; I hear the same thing in Bangalore, I have heard from other parts of the country, I hear more about in North India, there is a feeling of unease, a sense of insecurity is creeping in. This line was grabbed and made the front pages. The interview has to be seen or read in full to gauge how measured and controlled Mr Ansari is. He has said absolutely nothing wrong. He is reporting his assessment of what he is hearing and seeing. He doesnt even blame the government. But the response from the BJP was quite vicious and aggressively communal.

I was disturbed and saddened by the words of Narendra Modi, who mocked Mr Ansari on his last day in office. Readers will remember that Mr Ansari was vulnerable from the beginning to the BJP. Ram Madhav, the partys general secretary, made some ignorant observations about Mr Ansaris conduct, which he later deleted from his Twitter account after it turned out that what Mr Madhav said was wrong. I will not repeat what happened because it was distasteful. Mr Ansari remained the picture of decorum and decency while all this was happening. On his last day, Mr Modi said to his face the following. That he (Modi) got to know the real meaning of career diplomats only after he became Prime Minister as it was difficult to immediately interpret the meaning of a diplomats handshake or smile. Mr Modi said Mr Ansaris family had a long association with the Congress and the Khilafat movement. He said that as a diplomat his work was focused on the Middle East and Mr Ansari had associated with the same sort of atmosphere, same kind of ideology and same kind of people.

Even after his retirement, Mr Modi went on, Mr Ansari had mostly worked with the Minority Commission and Aligarh Muslim University. Mr Modi ended with this barb: there may have been some struggle within you (in the 10 years that Mr Ansari was vice-president) but from now onwards, you wont have to face this dilemma. You will have a feeling of freedom and you will get an opportunity to work, think and talk according to your ideology. What ideology, according to the Prime Minister, does Mr Ansari hold? Mr Modi did not say that. He did not need to. It is impossible not to miss the intent of Mr Modis thrust. He was deliberately reducing Mr Ansari to his Muslim identity by linking his career as a diplomat in the Arab world and educationist and his reflections on intolerance with his religion.

Mr Modis supporters on Twitter and the television channels took his cue and hammered Mr Ansari in the most vulgar fashion. Mr Ansari himself began his speech with the couplet: Mujhpe ilzaam itne lagaaye gaye, begunahi ke andaaz jaate rahe. Meaning that he had been accused unfairly so often that now proving innocence was impossible. Should not all Indians worry that an exiting vice-president says these words? We probably will not give it much thought. Or, if we do, most of us will dismiss his warning. Are Indian Muslims feeling insecure in this atmosphere? It doesnt matter. If Indias vice-president says they are, then hes saying it only because hes also a Muslim.
Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) general secretary, looks quite overwhelmed by the affection and good words received from his co-members of the Upper House as he closes an exemplary innings in the Rajya Sabha. On the last day of the Monsoon Session, Mr Yechury spoke with Sanjay Basak and Sreeparna Chakrabarty about how competitive communalism between the BJP and the Trinamul Congress was squeezing out the Left in West Bengal, the propaganada against the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala and the future of Opposition unity against the Narendra Modi-led BJP.

What is your opinion about the attempts at Opposition unity? Will your party go with the Congress to stop the BJP juggernaut?

At our party congress it was decided that there would be no electoral understanding or an alliance with the Congress. We are working with non-Congress secular social movements and secular parties and certain popular struggles. We shall unite and try and build independent strength of our parties through our Left struggles and within non-Congress secular parties along with other peoples movements. We will see whether there can be any alliance with the Congress; we are having a party congress in 2018 and they will work out an alliance for the next three years.

As far as the Opposition unity is being talked about, we have already said that this was not the way by which an offensive against the current BJP government could be built. The alternative can be built only through peoples struggles. We are focusing on two major issues  privatisation and the very significant cuts in peoples welfare projects like MGNREGA, LPG subsidy cut or agrarian distress. These two issues will build popular movements. This will give rise to a broader forum of non-political parties which will include Left parties plus mass organisations and people organisations. Our firm understanding is that only by sharpening and strengthening people struggles an electoral understating can come across.

The BJP made a grand show in Uttar Pradesh.

In UP, BJP lost three per cent of votes and in Uttarakhand it lost 10 per cent. Also, it lost sitting governments in Goa and Punjab. The BJP has only perfected the art of losing elections but forming the government. Thats not an incredible victory. The main reason why it won in UP was division in the Opposition votes. A sharp ruthless communal polarisation accompanied by extremely scientific social engineering. Targeting all non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav dalits who were very ably aided by a very weak index of Opposition unity. If the SP, the BSP and the Congress had united, the BJP would have been left with only 90 seats.

What is the reason for the Lefts continuous decline in West Bengal?

It is not that we are not making any inroads; public activities that culminated in the Nabanna march were very heartening. There is sharpened competitive communalism between the Trinamul Congress and the BJP and that is why we say that they both are playing politics in tandem. The Trinamul minority communalism directly feeds BJPs Hindutva communalism. These two feed each other and whenever this happens the Left gets squeezed out though temporarily. Thats why we say Didi bhai-Modi bhai.

Can you imagine schoolchildren coming out with weapons on Ram Navami. This a trend which the Left had kept under check for 40 years; it is reviving. One should remember that on August 15, 1947, Mahatma Gandhi was not in Delhi but in Noakhali, which was known for the worst communal riots. In the psyche of large number of Bengalis, all this remains but instead of suppressing that if you rake it up then you will have mayhem and thats exactly what the Trinamul and the BJP are doing.



Do you think the Centre will target the Kerala government?

Whether in Kerala, Tripura where elections are due or West Bengal, the BJP sees in the Left, particularly CPI(M), a consistent ideological and organisational opposition. All other parties it can manage to break through intimidation, appeasement or the CBI. With the Left, the BJP knows it doesnt work. In the recent RS polls in Gujarat, they bought Congress MLAs. They will try to weaken Kerala and Tripura and try to squeeze out the Left in West Bengal.

As far as Kerala is concerned, their own central home department data says that in the first two years, more CPI(M) people were murdered as compared to the RSS. The violence, particularly in northern Kerala goes back to many years that is because the RSS-BJP standard technique of expanding their social and political presence is by creating violence. In northern Kerala, there is substantial Muslim population which acts as a fertile ground. This time around, the violence started the day results were announced for Assembly elections. Many CPI(M) workers died. The idea is to create a situation where you say there is a breakdown of law and order and then destabilise the government. The BJP in Kerala is plagued by corruption charges so the violence is to divert attention.Our government took the initiative. Our state secretary called a meeting of political parties and the chief minister called a meeting of political parties.

What do you think is the future of the Congress?

The Congress has to decide as to why it is going down. The economic policies it pursued, the neo-liberal policies, burdened the public and the consequent discontent only favoured the communal forces. This is how the communal forces entered the scene in 2014.

What do you have to say about corruption charges against many Opposition leaders?

What about the Vyapam case, the Panama papers, Sahara Birla diaries where the PM is directly named? It is selective pursuit. Earlier, we used to say that CBI is Congress Bureau of Investigation. Now it is Communal Bureau of Investigation.

Was the refusal of a third Rajya Sabha term to you a blunder?

When I became the general secretary I had proposed to focus on party work. Then the central committee felt that it would be gifting the seat to Trinamul. After that the situation in West Bengal and the people suggested that the one seat in Bengal can be won by us with the support of the Congress. However, we are not going to go with the Congress, so Congress had said that if Sitaram was the sixth candidate then it would not contest. The Politburo said that it was against party line. The central committtee said circumstances have changed and it led to voting and on that basis they said that Sitaram should not go.
The July 27 email was sent by John Beyler, an HBO executive who thanked the hackers for "making us aware" of previously unknown security vulnerabilities. The executive asked for a 1-week delay and said HBO was willing to make a "good faith" payment of $250,000, calling it a "bug bounty" reward for IT professionals rather than a ransom.

Hackers this week released an email from HBO in which the company expressed willingness to pay them $250,000 as part of a negotiation over data swiped from HBO's servers.

The July 27 email was sent by John Beyler, an HBO executive who thanked the hackers for "making us aware" of previously unknown security vulnerabilities. The executive asked for a 1-week delay and said HBO was willing to make a "good faith" payment of $250,000, calling it a "bug bounty" reward for IT professionals rather than a ransom.

HBO declined to comment. A person close to the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the email, but said it was an attempt to buy time and assess the situation. The same hackers have subsequently released two dumps of HBO material and demanded a multi-million dollar ransom.

HOW BAD IS THE HACK?

Whether or not HBO ever intended to follow through with its $250,000 offer, the email raised questions Friday among security professionals about the importance of the data and whether HBO's reaction might encourage future attacks.

"It's interesting that they're spinning it as a bug bounty program," said Pablo Garcia, CEO of FFRI North America, based in Aliso Viejo, California. "They're being extorted. If it was a bug bounty, it'd be on the up and up."

Beyler's email to the hackers said the company was working "very hard" to review all the material they provided, and also trying to figure out a way to make a large transaction in bitcoin, the hackers' preferred payment method.

"You have the advantage of having surprised us," Beyler wrote. "In the spirit of professional cooperation, we are asking you to extend your deadline for one week."

A ROUGH CHRONOLOGY

The first HBO hack became publicly known on July 31. Beyler's email, sent several days earlier, might have been an attempt to make the problem go away without too much bad publicity for HBO, said Sanjay Goel, a professor at the University at Albany and chairman of its information technology management department.

"Hackers are not in this game for $250,000; this probably took them a lot of time and effort," Goel said. "That's a very, very small amount in these kinds of negotiations."

Then, on Monday, hackers using the name "Mr. Smith" posted a fresh cache of stolen HBO files online, and demanded that the network pay a ransom of several million dollars to prevent further such releases.

The leaks included scripts from "Game of Thrones" episodes and a month's worth of email from the account of HBO's vice president for film programming. There were also internal documents, including a report of legal claims against the network and job offer letters to top executives.

HOLLYWOOD IN THE CROSSHAIRS

HBO has said that it is working with law enforcement and cybersecurity firms to investigate the attack, which is the latest to hit a Hollywood business. In April, a hacker claimed to have released episodes of Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" ahead of their official launch date.

The leaks so far have fallen well short of the chaos inflicted on Sony in 2014.

But paying ransoms to hackers can be dangerous because it shows that being a bad-guy hacker is a good business, said cybersecurity expert Oren Falkowitz, CEO of Redwood City, California-based Area 1 Security. Companies would be better off investing in preventing email spear-fishing attempts and other hacking techniques, he said.

"The reason they got in this scenario is they didn't have the right pre-emption strategy," Falkowitz said. "The next company, whether it's Showtime or Death Row Records or whomever, needs to see that they're going to wake up one day to this reality unless they confront it."

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Snapchat's second-quarter daily active users rose 21 per cent to 173 million from an year earlier, falling short of the 175.2 million expected by analysts, according to financial data analytics firm FactSet.

Snap Inc's shares fell more than 14 per cent to hit a record low on Friday morning after messaging app Snapchat's daily active user growth missed expectations for the second quarter in a row.

Snapchat's second-quarter daily active users rose 21 per cent to 173 million from an year earlier, falling short of the 175.2 million expected by analysts, according to financial data analytics firm FactSet.

In comparison, Snapchat's main rival Instagram Stories, where users and businesses can post a string of photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, had more than 250 million users as of Aug. 2.

Some analysts attributed the miss to Snap's decision to not issue a forecast, which resulted in aggressive Street estimates.

"We feel that Snap's unwillingness to provide Street guidance will continue to be a disservice to shareholders as estimates continue to fluctuate wildly and it introduces unneeded uncertainty into results," Jefferies analysts wrote in a client note.

Snapchat launched in 2012 as a mobile app is popular among people under 30 who enjoy applying bunny faces and or other filters on to their pictures. One of its colorful filters, the animated rendering of a dancing hot dog, was viewed over 1.5 billion times in snaps created by Snap's users.

While engagement of the messaging app was good, the slowing user growth has been a cause for concern.

Snap's user growth was also hurt by problems faced by users of Android-based phones, mainly outside the United States. The company said it was working to improve the performance of its app on Android phones to bring it at par with the iOS app.

"We're still in the early stages of making these improvements, and I would estimate that we won't begin to see the meaningful results of these efforts until the second quarter of next year," Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said on a conference call on Thursday.

At least seven brokerages cut their price targets on Snap. Jefferies cut its price target the most - from $30 to $16.

Of the 36 analysts covering Snap's stock, only 11 have a "buy" rating or higher. Eighteen have a "hold" rating and seven a "sell" or lower. Their median price target is $19.

Shares of the social media company were trading at $12 on Friday.

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A supporter holds up a placard of opposition leader Raila Odinga at his final electoral campaign rally in Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: File/AP)

Nairobi: Three people, including a child, have been shot dead in Kenya in opposition protests which raged overnight into Saturday after the hotly disputed election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Demonstrations and running battles with police broke out in Nairobi slums after anger in opposition strongholds against an election that losing candidate Raila Odinga claims was massively rigged.

An AFP photographer saw the body of a nine-year-old boy whose family said he had been shot in the back while watching the protests from a fourth floor balcony in Mathare, a slum in the capital.

The violence is a reminder of the bloodshed that followed a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

Attention is now focused on Odinga and his first reaction to Friday's official election results. He previously said the loss was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's polls, which his party denounced as a "charade" and a "disaster".

Protests erupted in Odinga's strongholds in western Kisumu county and poor areas of Nairobi almost immediately after the election results were declared Friday, with gunshots ringing out and fires in the streets.

"We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries," said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county.

"My brother was shot and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating now he has a bullet injury on the hip," said Truphena Achieng, at a Kisumu hospital.

In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in a demonstration, but "we have not managed to collect the body because of resistance from protesters."

The charity Doctor Without Borders (MSF) on its Twitter feed said that 19 people had been wounded in Mathare. Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged police to show restraint.

"With growing reports of demonstrations and heavy gunfire in some areas, it is important for security forces to work to deescalate not escalate the violence," said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW.

"The police should not use tear gas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful."

Exclusion, resentment: Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency, which he has sought four times. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters and their allies from other groups believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country's biggest community.

"President Kenyatta, unlike his first term, must include everyone in his government," wrote the Daily Nation in an editorial, warning that limiting power to his tribal allies was "exacerbating exclusion and creating resentment and disillusionment."

Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74.

In his acceptance speech Kenyatta urged Odinga and his supporters, to "work together so that we can build this nation together".

"Let us be peaceful. We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this."

The latest deaths mean nine people have been killed in election-related violence since Tuesday.

Court is not an option: Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process which saw turnout of 78 percent but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting earlier this week.

The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the outcome was manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner. On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president.

In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost. "We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo.

Corruption, food prices: In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive, however his new government will face the rising debt as a result, and a predicted slowdown in growth from an average of more than five percent in recent years.

A major issue on the campaign trail was a spike in food prices and shortage of the staple maize meal due to a prolonged drought, which has hit the country's poorest hardest.

Kenyatta's administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.
In language that evoked the specter of nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the guidelines cover what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack. (Photo: Representational/File)

Washington: Guam posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire missiles in the vicinity of the US Pacific territory.

Pyongyangs state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near Guam as North Korea and the United States engaged in increasingly heated rhetoric this week over the Norths nuclear weapons program.

North Korea did not threaten Guam with a nuclear attack, but the crisis between Pyongyang and the United States has stirred fears that a nuclear conflict could break out in the region.

While the governor of Guam shrugged off the Norths missile warning and said there was no heightened threat, the government has issued a preparedness fact sheet.

In language that evoked the specter of nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the guidelines cover what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack.

Do not look at the flash or fireball  It can blind you, it said. Take cover behind anything that might offer protection.

Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material, read the guidelines of what to do if caught outside.

They suggest having an emergency plan and supply kit and making a list of potential concrete structures near home, work and school to serve as fallout shelters.

Fallout shelters do not need to be specifically constructed for protecting against fallout, it said. They can be protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough (i.e. concrete) to absorb radiation given off by fallout particles.

The fact sheet advises people on how to wash: do not scrub or scratch the skin, use soap, shampoo and water but do not put not conditioner on your hair because it binds radioactive material. It offers advice for parents who are away from their children during a strike.

Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family, it said. Listen to the news. Do not call the school. Be patient. Wait for instructions to pick up your child.

The information on the fact sheet was gathered from the US Department of Homeland Security website www.ready.gov, a Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman told the Pacific Daily News.

Guam is home to about 163,000 people and a US military base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast Guard group.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday warned North Korea against threatening Guam and said on Friday that the US military was locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely.

Asked about Trumps tough posture, Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said he agreed with sending a clear message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has ramped up his countrys tests of missiles and nuclear bombs.

Though I dont want the temperature to get any higher, I think its important also that there is clarity and that if there is an attack on any American soil including Guam, that it will be met with overwhelming response, Calvo told reporters on Friday. I dont have any problem with that.
Powell was the passenger, but was arrested after police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident. (Photo: Representational Image)

Long Beach: A Muslim woman has been awarded $85,000 after an officer forcibly removed her hijab, or headscarf, when she was in police custody in Long Beach, California.

Kirsty Powell was stopped by police officers with her husband in 2015 as he was driving a lowrider vehicle. She then filed a lawsuit in 2016 alleging the police department had violated her First Amendment rights and the settlement was approved this week and is to be paid by the local municipal authority.

The city of Long Beach, California, will pay $85,000 to settle a 2016 lawsuit filed by a Muslim woman after an officer forcibly removed her hijab, or headscarf, when she was in police custody.

She cried throughout the ordeal and experienced humiliation when both her religious beliefs and personal integrity were violated, the lawsuit said.

Powell was the passenger, but was arrested after police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident. Powells husband requested a female officer handle the arrest, according to the suit, but the arresting officers denied the request and told Powell she had to remove her hijab, CNN reported.

Powell spent the night in prison without her headscarf. It was returned when her husband posted her bond.

The lawsuit states Powell was forced to appear in a publicly available booking photo without her religious headwear, as a result of the foregoing deprivations of the free exercise of her religion, Kirsty Powell suffered severe discomfort, humiliation, and emotional distress.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced the settlement in a press release praising Powell.

We commend Kirsty Powell for choosing to defend her right to religious freedom and taking action.

Powell told the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she filed the suit she wanted to be the last Muslim woman who has this experience.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was considering military options as a response to the escalating crisis in Venezuela, a move the South American country quickly shot down as craziness.

Washington has slapped sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro and some of his allies, and branded him a dictator over his attempts to crush his countrys Opposition. Venezuela has in turn accused US of imperialist aggression. Mr Trumps latest comments were the first sign he is mulling military intervention.

We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary, Mr Trump told reporters. We have troops all over the world in places that are very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering and theyre dying.
Ms Powell was arrested after the police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident, the CNN reported.

A Muslim woman in the US, who was forced to remove her hijab when she was in the police custody has been awarded $85,000 as settlement by the authorities.

The incident happened last year when Kirsty Powell and her husband were pulled over by police for driving a low rider car, according to the lawsuit. Ms Powell was arrested after the police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident, the CNN reported.

Her husband requested a female officer handle the arrest, but the arresting officers denied the request and told Ms Powell that she had to remove her hijab. Ms Powell spent the night in prison without her headscarf. It was returned when her husband posted her bond, the report said.

Ms Powell filed the lawsuit in April 2016, alleging the police had violated her First Amendment rights.
Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Tokyo: Japan was on Saturday deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said.

Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US.

The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said. It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures." In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The army used the same language to describe counter-insurgency sweeps in October.(Photo: Representational/AFP)

Yangon: Myanmar is imposing new curfews and deploying fresh troops to Rakhine state, the government confirmed Saturday, after the UN expressed alarm at reports of a military build-up in the region where authorities are accused of widespread rights abuses.

News that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine this week to boost security was met with criticism from UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee on Friday, who warned it was "cause for major concern".

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when Rohingya militants attacked police posts, sparking a months-long bloody military crackdown.

The army campaign sent more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The Rohinyga are a stateless group long maligned by Mynamar's Buddhist majority and the UN believes the army's crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing a charge the government vehemently denies.

State media said Saturday that "clearance operations are being heightened" in Rakhine's May Yu mountain range, an area where the government says Rohingya militants remain active.

The army used the same language to describe counter-insurgency sweeps in October. "Plans are underway to reinforce security forces and military forces by deployment of additional troops," the state-run Global New Light of Mynamar said, adding that curfews would be imposed in "necessary areas".

The goal was to "prevent extremist terrorists from taking a stronghold in the May Yu mountain range," the state mouthpiece said. The military build-up comes after a spike in violence in recent months, with dozens of villagers murdered and abducted by masked assassins.

The government blames the killings on the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October. The group has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

Rohingya communities in the remote area also continue to be raided, with security forces firing "warning shots" during a face-off with a mob of villagers earlier this month. UN rights expert Lee urged authorities to carry out their security operations in line with international human rights standards.

"The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State," she said in a statement.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services. The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations.

A government-appointed commission in the country has dismissed allegations of widespread abuses, while Myanmar is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe.
Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

Brussels: A scandal involving eggs contaminated with insecticide spread to 17 EU countries, Switzerland and as far away as Hong Kong on Friday as the European Commission called for a special meeting on the growing crisis.

Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the European Union are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop "blaming and shaming" each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on August 1.

The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicentre of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem.

"Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting. "We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead."

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that "this is not, let's be clear, a crisis meeting" and it is being held next month to get "distance to the events".

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.

But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

Hong Kong health minister Sophia Chan said Saturday authorities were "strengthening" inspections of eggs from Europe. As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.

Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries. On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made "errors" but denied a cover-up.

"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers.

A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the centre of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands. "I am the anonymous whistleblower," Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.

A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical. Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.

However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily. Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.

Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany. French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was "very low" given French eating habits.

The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.

Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.
Individuals associated with the Al-Qaeda core are active in Paktika, Paktiya, Khost, Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan, the report said. (Photo: Representational/AFP)

United Nations: The Islamic State terror group enlists partners of convenience in Afghanistan and outsources terror attacks to Pakistan-based outfits like the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, according to a UN report.

The 20th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team was submitted to the UN Security Council Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee here.

It said that in South Asia, the al-Qaedas core continues to compete with the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for dominance over terrorist groups in the region.

The report said the current leader of al-Qaeda Aiman al- Zawahiri is still assumed to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

ISIL in Afghanistan tends to enlist partners of convenience and outsources terrorist attacks to other groups such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan splinter group, the report said.

It said that the al-Qaeda core and its regional affiliates continue to actively cooperate with the Afghan Taliban in return for sanctuary and operating space.

By embedding itself within the Taliban movement, the Al-Qaeda core also aims to maintain local bases of influence as a part of the wider Afghan insurgency and receives operational support from the Taliban for its regional affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the report said.

It cited a UN Member state, which informed the committee that AQIS comprises around 200 fighters, who operate as advisers and trainers of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Individuals associated with the Al-Qaeda core are active in Paktika, Paktiya, Khost, Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan, the report said.

It said that the ISIS core continues to fund the group in Afghanistan, noting that while sometimes the financial flows are robust, other times they run dry.

In the assessment of one Member State, ISIL in Afghanistan would not exist without support from the ISIL core. However, the ISIL core has instructed its affiliate in Afghanistan to begin to develop its own internal funding sources, the report said.

Further, the Taliban, through the al-Qaeda core, continues to wield substantial influence over regional Al- Qaeda affiliates.

Many Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters from the Afghanistan- Pakistan border area have integrated into the Taliban, leading to a marked increase in the military capabilities of the movement, the report said, adding that currently more than 7,000 foreign terrorist fighters are fighting in Afghanistan for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda affiliates.

However, the report notes that under the order of the al- Qaeda core, several of the groups second-tier leaders had left South Asia for Syria in line with the continued ambition of the Al-Qaeda core to play a more direct role in that ongoing conflict and use it to further its agenda.

The report noted that in a video released in April this year, Al-Zawahiri tried to inject Al-Qaeda ideology into the ongoing fight, with the aim of expanding its support base and rebuilding its regional network in the aftermath of a potential collapse of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

In the video, he directly addressed fighters in Syria, painting the Syrian conflict as part of the global fight against the crusader enemy and urging them to reject nationalist sentiment and wage a protracted guerrilla war against the Syrian government.
Dubai: It's early morning at a fishing port in Dubai. A group of mostly retired fishermen are playing cards, eating dates and drinking coffee at the port's majlis, a traditional meeting space.

Here, the Emirati fisherman say they aren't too worried about the political fallout with Qatar that's gripped the region since early June, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with the small Gulf state, accusing it of supporting extremists.

"When it comes to politics, it's not our business," Thani Obeid said. "If everyone walks around saying their opinion there will be chaos."

Obeid, 65, and Salem Jomaa, 70, say they have faith in the "wisdom" of the region's rulers because "we are one family."

"The Gulf is one home. From Saudi Arabia to Ras al-Khaimah (in the UAE) to Oman. We are all brothers, cousins, friends," Jomaa said. "We are all Muslims."

Centuries-old ties that bind families to tribes and tribes to ruling sheikhs underpin the Arabian Peninsula, but that kinship is now under strain.

The crisis has also upended some red lines, making what was once illegal now legal, and vice-versa.

Chief among them was an understanding - enshrined in tradition and government enforced - that criticism of another Gulf country or its esteemed ruler could lead to automatic imprisonment and hefty fines.

After the row erupted June 5, those rules changed. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain warned instead that anyone who sympathizes with Qatar or criticizes the measures taken against it would be imprisoned and fined.

Qatari citizens were also expelled from the three countries after years of visa-free travel throughout the Gulf. Transport links with Qatar were cut and Saudi Arabia sealed shut Qatar's only land border, impacting food imports.

Saudi and Emirati officials insist the measures are not aimed at Qatari citizens, but at the government. That distinction has meant little to Qataris who say the blockade on their country and the assault on their leadership is like an attack on the whole society.

"If they talk about our emir, it's like they are talking about us. The siege and blockade and making it illegal to sympathize with Qatar, this is against us," Ahmed al-Khayli, a 36-year-old Qatari said.

Speaking by phone from Qatar, al-Khayli said he believes the relationship between Qataris and others in the Gulf has become "more sensitive."

Many Qataris - who number around 270,000 citizens - believe their small, energy-rich country is standing up for itself, refusing to surrender its sovereignty. Patriotic fervor has swept through the country. Towering images of its 37-year-old ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, are plastered on cars, billboards and storefronts across the capital.

In Qatar and the UAE, where foreigners far outnumber locals, many talk with sincere admiration for their rulers. It's a relationship that harkens to a time when tribal elders were responsible for the security of their communities, which relied on pearl diving and fishing for survival. Then, as now, tribes in the Arabian Peninsula intermarried.

The expulsion of Qataris separated mixed-nationality families, parents from their children and husbands from their wives. After public outcry, the three Gulf countries said exceptions would be made for immediate family members, though rights groups say students and families are still being affected.

Hamad al-Kulaib, a 38-year-old Kuwaiti businessman, said the crisis "feels like a battle of the egos" between high-ranking officials. Kuwait, which has remained neutral, is trying to mediate the crisis.

"The tension between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc is certainly putting all our social relationships in danger," he said.

Though there have been fallouts in the past between Gulf states, this is the most severe crisis in decades.

Saudi and Emirati media have unleashed a barrage of critical reports about Qatar, accusing it of sedition, lying, sponsoring terrorism and trying to destabilize the region. Qatar's support of opposition Islamist groups and its ties with Iran has unnerved its neighbors. Qatar says accusations it backs extremist groups are politically motivated and denies it has ever sponsored terrorism.

Meanwhile, Qatari-affiliated press upped their critical coverage of Saudi Arabia since the row erupted. Qatar and the UAE have also traded accusations of hacking.

In the years before the crisis, state-linked news channels and papers did not criticize a fellow Gulf nation's ruler or policies.

Officially, at least, Qatar has kept a modicum of decorum in place. The emir congratulated the Saudi king and his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when he was elevated to crown prince in late June. The emir also sent a cable of condolences to King Salman on the death of his elder brother.

Those acts sparked a hashtag on Twitter in support of Qatar, and another hashtag said Saudis still welcome ties with Qatari citizens. Twitter is also where people have rallied behind their governments.

Emirati social media star Taim al-Falasi hit back at accusations that citizens in the UAE were being paid to support the moves against Qatar. In a fiercely-worded post, she asked Qataris how they could continue to support their emir after all the allegations made against Qatar.

At the majlis in Dubai's harbor, the fishermen shake their heads when the mention of Twitter comes up. They disapprove of the fierce words being traded online.

"If you add fuel to a fire, the fire will grow," Obeid said.

In Kuwait, 27-year-old Barrak al-Dakhail says the crisis has polarized opinions there and made relationships among people in the Gulf "awkward."

"If the situation continues to escalate, it might create a bigger wedge between the people ... and that's certainly something we don't want," he said.
Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, who has been married to Sharif for 46 years, has largely stayed out of politics. (Photo: AFP)

Lahore: The wife of Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will contest the parliamentary seat left vacant after her husband was deposed by the country's top court last month, a party official said Friday.

The Supreme Court sacked Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against him and his family, making him the 15th prime minister in Pakistan's 70-year history to be ousted before completing a full term.

Nomination papers for Begum Kulsoom Nawaz were submitted in the eastern city of Lahore by her son-in-law, an official from Sharif's eponymous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) told AFP.

Kulsoom, who has been married to Sharif for 46 years, has largely stayed out of politics. But when Pervez Musharraf arrested her husband in a coup in October 1999, the former first lady led the movement for him to be freed before the family were exiled to Saudi Arabia.

Within days of Sharif's ouster the PML-N nominated former oil minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as a new prime minister. He was originally seen a placeholder for Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab.

But reports this week said the party appeared to be backtracking on the succession plans announced by Sharif, saying the PML-N would likely keep Abbasi in place until next year's general elections.
Islamabad: Pakistans former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday termed his disqualification from premiership as a joke and exuded confidence that he will be elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.

Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Sharif said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.

Should this even be called a disqualification? I will be made prime minister by the masses again tomorrow, he told a cheering crowd.

They have only removed me on paper but they have not removed me from your hearts. Is this removing me at all? Sharif asked. He asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted, he said.

May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted, the 67-year-old veteran politician said.

Sharif said the peoples vote had been trampled upon as millions of people elected a leader and a couple of people or five judges disgraced and sent him home.

He said it was for the people of Gujranwala to think that removal was just.

Sharif, who could not complete his term for a third time, also asked the gathering, Should I sit back and accept the verdict or fight the injustice?

The people responded in unison with a big No, prompting Sharif to ask them to stand by him.

If you do not want me to sit back then you would have to stand by me. Then stand by me to change the fate of this nation. Promise me that you would do what I tell you, he said.

Sharif said the time had come to change the country.

We would have to make sure that your vote is respected. It is a question of respect for vote of 20 crore people. I would not allow anyone to trample your right to elect leaders of choice, Sharif said.

He said he would announce his future plan of action and asked his supporters to wait for it.

Sharif stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court on July 28 and after staying in Murree and Islamabad, embarked on road journey to his home in Lahore in the company of thousands of his supporters.

He was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.
Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs wife will run from his vacated constituency, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) said on Friday.

Kulsoom Nawaz submitted her nomination papers to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday. The Parliament seat fell vacant after the Supreme Court disqualified Mr Nawaz in the Panama case in July.

Although Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was the first choice for NA-120 as PML-N candidate and was also being considered for the premiership, the nomination was withdrawn by Mr Nawaz and Mr Shahbaz was told to continue as the CM in his province.

Mrs Kulsoom is, however, not expected to replace Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the Prime Minister who was elected this month after Mr Nawazs ouster.

Meanwhile, Mr Nawaz on Friday termed his disqualification from premiership as a joke and asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Mr Nawaz said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.

I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted, he said.

May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted, the 67-year-old veteran politician asked.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged US President Donald Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions with North Korea as an escalating war of words raised global alarm.

Mr Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Mr Trump ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would truly regret taking hostile action against the United States.

The White House said in a statement that the two leaders agreed North Korea must stop provocative and escalatory behaviour and that they are both committed to the denuclearisation of the peninsula.

The Presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it added,

But the Chinese foreign ministry said Mr Xi urged Mr Trump to avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the already-tense situation, exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Mr Trump has been engaged all week in verbal sparring with the North over its weapons and missile programmes, as US media reported Pyongyang has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead.

Meanwhile, US military forces stand ready to safeguard Guam after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles toward the American Pacific island territory, the White House said.

It said Mr Trump reassured Guam governor Eddie Calvo in a phone call that the US military would ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America.

A commentary in the North Korean state-run newspaper Minju Joson called warnings from Mr Trump and other riffraff of the US...the last-ditch efforts and hysteric fit of those...in the grip of despair.
In his convocation address at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, his interview with Rajya Sabha TV and his farewell speech in the Upper House before demitting office, the common refrain of former Vice President Hamid Ansari was the values of pluralism and diversity that have traditionally formed the bedrock of Indian nationalism. In Bengaluru, he underlined the need to reiterate and rejuvenate secularisms basic principles like equality, freedom of religion, and tolerance. In his TV interview, he referred to the growing sense of unease among the minorities and the Dalits and urged the government to do more to combat the violence being unleashed across the country by the votaries of aggressive majoritarian nationalism.



In his parting remarks in the Rajya Sabha, he pointed out that the House is a creation of the founding fathers of the Constitution that portrays Indias diversity and quoted Indias first vice-president S Radhakrishnan: A democracy is distinguished by the protection it gives to minorities. A democracy is likely to degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise freely and frankly the policies of the government.Unlike the run of the mill politicians, Ansaris tone and tenor were restrained. He was only reiterating the basic tenets of the Constitution. Everyone present in the Rajya Sabha, including Leader of the House Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded his tenure, though Modis compliments were left-handed. Sheathing his attack behind words that appeared to convey his best wishes, he referred to Ansaris family ties with the Congress party and the Khilafat movement and implied that he had got used to working within a certain circle before being forced to adjust himself to the dictates of the Constitution while in the vice presidents chair. That must have made you restless, but from now on you are free to think and say what you really feel, was the Prime Ministers parting shot.



As if on cue, BJP leaders and their fellow travellers threw caution and propriety to the wind and unleashed a vicious attack. BJP general secretary, Kailash Vijayvargiya found his comments petty and accused him of seeking political shelter after his retirement. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad equated him with Pakistans founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Even the new Vice President Venkaiah Naidu  who claimed he was no more a BJP man after his election  accused his predecessor of indulging in political propaganda. Ansari, whose tenure is matched by only that of S Radhakrishnan, is perhaps the only vice-president who received such a bitter farewell from a sitting government. No greater indictment of a ruling establishments intolerance is possible.
India must augment its nuclear deterrence to meet any challenge from Pakistan, a parliamentary panel has recommended after taking note of the growing Beijing-Islamabad cooperation in missile and atomic weapon programmes.



Concerned over Pakistan's expanding arsenal of atomic weapons and its deliberately ambiguous doctrine of using such weapons, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs strongly recommended that India must aggregate its nuclear capability and enhance its deterrance capabilities.



The committee, which is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, studied India-Pakistan relations and submitted its report to the Lok Sabha on Friday.



It noted that India's no-first-use nuclear doctrine was well-articulated and specific. But, the panel observed, Pakistan has deliberately pursued an opaque and ambiguous nuclear doctrine, refusing to abjure first-use of nuclear weapons.



The Ministry of External Affairs told the panel that China's support to nuclear programme of Pakistan dated back to 1960s and had now reportedly extended to areas like nuclear fuel mining and exploration, supply of nuclear warhead designs, enriched fuel, transfer of dual use technology and materials for the development of nuclear weapons, delivery systems for nuclear weapons and training of the scientific personnel. China has reportedly helped Pakistan build and operate plutonium based reactors in Khushab (in Punjab province of Pakistan). The Khushab reactors will enable Pakistan to produce weapon grade plutonium, the MEA informed the committee.



The parliamentary panel also learnt from the MEA that China would reportedly supply enriched fuel for Pakistan's Chasma I, II, III and IV and the proposed Karachi II and III reactors for their lifetime. Beijing had also purportedly committeed to bear a large portion of of all costs required for not only the operational reactors of Pakistan, but also the ones, which are still under construction, the MEA informed the panel.



Pakistan, like India, is neither a signatory of to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nor a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group, but China is.



The NSG guidelines prohibit its members to engage in civil nuclear commerce with Pakistan or any other non-NPT country. Only India, despite being a non-NPT country, got a waiver from the NSG in 2008. Beijing, however, argues that its nuclear cooperation with Islamabad is based on an agreeement the two nations signed before China joined the NSG in 2004.



As the text of the 1986 civil nuclear cooperation agreement between China and Pakistan was not made public, it is difficult for the international community from validating Chinese and Pakistani representations.



New Delhi has been concerned over Islamabad's pursuit for developing low-yield and short-range tactical nuclear weapons designed for use against opposing troops on the battlefield. It has also been alarmed by Islamabad's move to deploy such weapons as a deterrent against surgical strikes or incursion by India into Pakistan or territory under illegal occupation of Pakistan. As the tactical nuclear weapons are more portable and mobile, both India and United States have been worried over the possibility of such weaponry falling into the hands of terrorists in Pakistan.



The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs stated that it was in agreement with the government's assessment of the Pakistani nuclear threat and the possibility of inadvertent tactical nuclear weapons use, which would have serious implications not only on the region, but across the globe.



The MEA also told the parliamnentary panel that Pakistan's precarious security situation raised doubts about the security of the nuclear power plants in the neighbouring country.



A Q Khan, the founder of nuclear program of Pakistan, was in 2003 found to have traded know-how and technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea. Islamabad, however, swept under the carpet the proliferation network run by Khan. Pakistan claims to have taken some steps to safeguard its assets and technology. However, there are reports that the A Q Khan network has never been fully dismantled and may still be active, the report of the parliamentary panel quoted MEA officials saying.



For the dialogue process (between India and Pakistan) to restart, Pakistan must abide by its 2004 commitment of not allowing its territory for use of terrorism against India, noted the parliamentary panel. It also noted that Pakistan must realize that India's goodwill and generosity could not be taken for granted.



The Government must evolve the modalities and framework for engagement on the basis of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999 and proceed in an incremental manner, observed the parliamentary panel. Peace on the Line of Control, elimination of cross-border terrorism and genuine investigation and punishing the perpetrators of Mumbai and Pathankot attacks could be the probable centre point of the agenda (of India-Pakistan engagement).






Japan is deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said today.



Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US.



The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said.



It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.



Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.



While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.



The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.



Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures."



In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.



At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile




A woman's attempt to invoke her gender and distress that her property is up for grabs due to her confinement in jail failed to move Supreme Court to grant her bail in a case in which she is accused of killing her husband in the most barbaric manner in Udupi last year. She had burnt his body in a 'homakund with the help of a priest, suspected to be his paramour, after embolising him through a chilly spray to poison him.



A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara did not allow the request to grant bail to 50-year-old Rajeshwari Shetty which was made by senior advocate Basava Prabhu Patil, after Karnataka police lawyer Joseph Aristotle contended the investigation was still on. Aristotle said a supplementary charge sheet will be filed soon against 26-year-old Niranjan Bhat, the priest.



Patil sought bail for the woman, saying the petitioner is woman and all the properties of the family are sought to be taken away by the people around. He also questioned the prosecution claim of illicit relationship between the petitioner and Bhat as he was just 26-year-old old.



Patil also submitted she has been in custody since August last year and the investigation with regard to her was over with the filing of the charge sheet. He even expressed readiness that the petitioner would stay away from Udupi district and remain either in Bengaluru or Mumbai, if enlarged on bail.



Aristotle, on the contrary, submitted that this was an extra-ordinary case of cold-blooded and barbaric murder of a man by his wife. Her son is also in jail for the offence for being a co-accused.



Our fear is that she may tamper with evidence as most of the witnesses in the case are close relatives. The case is based on circumstantial evidence and further probe is on as her paramour Bhat has recently been arrested, he said, opposing the bail plea.



The bench, however, said, We do not consider it appropriate to consider the prayer for bail at this stage since counsel for the state states that additional investigation will be carried out.



Court granted liberty to the petitioner to approach again after six months or if the investigation is over before it.



According to prosecution, Rajeshwari, along with her 20-year-old son, threw chilly powder into the eyes of her husband Bhasker Shetty and assulted him with rod. Thereafter, the accused tied victim's hands and feet and administered poison to him. Later, they carried the body of the victim to the home of Bhat and burnt it by organising 'Yagna'. Further, to destroy the evidence, the bones and body parts were thrown in the river.



The victim suspected fidelity of his wife and had lodged a police complaint on July 9 before his murder on July 28, last. The police acted on complaint filed by victim's mother Gulabi as he went missing. The prosecution relied upon a DNA report to conclude the recovered body parts were son of the complainant.


Normal life in Kashmir came to a halt today due to a separatists-sponsored strike against the legal challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution, which they termed as a move to change the demography of the Muslim- majority Jammu and Kashmir.



Article 35A of the Constitution defines the residency laws in Jammu and Kashmir and bars outsiders from buying any immovable property or applying for jobs in the state government.



Schools, colleges, shops, business establishments and private offices remained closed, officials said, adding that attendance in most government offices was very thin.



Buses stayed off the roads in most parts of Kashmir, while a few private vehicles could be seen plying, the officials said.



Authorities imposed restrictions on the movement of people in five police station areas -- Maharajgunj, Nowhatta, Khanyar, Nowhatta and Rainawari, apprehending violent protests.



The separatist camp, including both hardlne and moderate factions of the Hurriyat Conference and the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), called for the complete shutdown.



They said the plea against Article 35A was part of plans to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir, which is a Muslim majority state.



The separatists said the strike was also against the "continuous killing of Kashmiris at the hands of Indian forces".



The Supreme Court had last month asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.



The plea said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non- residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.




BJP president Amit Shah has invited Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar to join the ruling NDA, following the latter's alliance with the saffron party in the state to form a new government.



"I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA," Shah said in a tweet today.



The Bihar-based party is expected to endorse a proposal to join the NDA in its national executive meeting in Patna on August 19, after which it is likely to join the Narendra Modi cabinet.



Asked if the party would join the Modi cabinet, a JD(U) leader said such a decision would be "natural".



"When we are together in government in Bihar, it is only natural that our party joins the Union government," he said.
The Uttar Pradesh government today said stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state- run Baba Raghav Das Medical College.



Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had yesterday said least 60 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.



However, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.



"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters here today.



According to the official Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (@CMOfficeUP), Yogi Adityanath has directed that a detailed probe be conducted into the incident and strict action be ensured.



Meanwhile, Singh and Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon today left for Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.



Before leaving for Gorakhpur, Singh said, "The Chief Minister was not informed by the doctors and officials about shortage of oxygen neither on July 9 nor on August 9.



"The shortage of oxygen was not highlighted. The medical education minister was also not briefed about it. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done," he said here.



Tandon said, "The Chief Minister is keeping a close watch on the entire issue. We will take appropriate action after investigating all aspects."



Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry had said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.



"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson had said.




Without commenting on his removal as parliamentary party leader, Yadav hit out at Nitish, saying the party is not Kumar's alone but belonged to him too. "There are two JD(U)s in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Yadav said in Bihar's Madhepura district on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them.

JD(U) has two MPs in the Lok Sabha and nine in Rajya Sabha, which is very crucial for the BJP considering it is in minority in the Upper House.



Nitish had suspended one Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of Opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.



Shah's invite to Nitish to join the NDA was only a formality after he led his party out of the Grand Alliance in Bihar and formed a new government in the state with the help of the BJP. The JD(U) could be offered two ministerial berths in the Centre  one of cabinet rank and the other as minister of state, party sources said.



JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi said, Nitish Kumar himself will moot the proposal for joining the NDA, which will be passed unanimously. This is a historic moment for Bihar when the same alliance is at the helm of affairs in the state and at the Centre. The combined efforts of Centre and state will help the state reach new heights of development.



During the previous NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Samata Party leader George Fernandes was the convenor and later the baton was passed on to Sharad Yadav when the NDA remained in the Opposition.



Nitish Kumar had snapped ties with the NDA in 2013 after 17 years of partnership to protest against Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. With Nitishs return to NDA fold, the BJP believes it has bolstered the prospects for NDA in the 2019 general elections.



Shah said in a tweet that he had invited Nitish to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during their meeting at his residence in Delhi a day earlier.



Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, who opposed the partys decision to ally with the BJP in Bihar, was on Saturday removed as leader of JD(U) in the Rajya Sabha. The action against Yadav came as BJP president Amit Shah announced that he had formally invited Bihar chief minister minister Nitish Kumar to join the NDA.Nitish is expected to formally announce his decision to join the NDA at the partys national executive meeting in Patna on August 19. Nitish could be made convenor of the NDA, the stature once enjoyed by George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav, according to JD(U) leaders. The NDA has not had a convenor since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.On Saturday, JD(U) members of the Upper House members backing Nitish met Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu to hand him a letter appointing R.C.P. Singh as their leader in place of Yadav in the House. Singh is very close to Nitish.
Former Samajwadi Party member of UP Legislative Council Sarojini Agarwal today joined the BJP at the ruling party's headquarters here in the presence of deputy Chief Minister and state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya.



On August 4, Agarwal had resigned from the Legislative Council membership, saying that she was not feeling comfortable in the party as senior leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was being ignored.



"I had been a party MLC twice due to Netaji (Mulayam). As he is not active in the party, I have resigned. I don't have problems with anyone in the party and I respect everyone. I felt awkward after split in the party and did not feel like working in it," Agarwal had said.



On Wednesday, SP MLC Ashok Bajpai resigned from the UP Legislative Council.
Union health minister JP Nadda has asked minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C K Mishra to visit Gorakhpur to look into the deaths of children in a hospital in the eastern UP town.



Nadda has sought a report from the state health department into the matter. An expert team will also be leaving for Gorakhpur today.



At least 60 children have died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College here since the past two days, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said yesterday.



The Union home ministry yesterday said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen. However he gave no reason for the deaths.



"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson said.



The incident triggered outrage with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress seeking the state health minister's resignation. The Congress today also demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
NCP's rift with the Congress may be short-lived and the party may return to the opposition fold after getting some assurances from the grand old party.



NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had on Friday morning assured senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad of attending the meeting of 18 opposition parties convened by Sonia Gandhi to chart programmes to jointly counter an aggressive BJP.



However, the NCP stayed away from the meeting at the insistence of senior leader Praful Patel who was upset at the constant criticism of the Pawar-led outfit by Congress leaders who claimed that his two MLAs did not vote in favour of Ahmed Patel in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections.



The NCP decision to stay away from the meeting of opposition leaders, attended by Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool), Sitaram Yechury(CPI-M), Omar Abdullah (NC), Naresh Agarwal (SP), S C Mishra (BSP) among others, was Pawar's way of telling the Congress that smaller allies cannot be taken for granted.



We are not beholden to the Congress. We are contesting the Gujarat elections separately, still we voted for them in the RS polls. And what we get in return is accusations, Patel said.



The NCP has been asserting that it had issued a whip to its two MLAs to vote in favour of Ahmed Patel and both the legislators had followed suit. The BJP camp also said that the NCP MLAs did not vote in its favour, suggesting that there could have been more cross-voting from the Congress ranks.



NCP has been urging the Congress to form an alliance for the year-end Gujarat assembly elections, a proposal that was given a cold shoulder by the latter. An upset NCP had then announced contesting the assembly polls in alliance with the JD(U).



As of now, the NCP has decided to stay away from any joint opposition initiative and may consider its alliance options at a later date.




Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas and his friend Ashish Kumar were today sent to the judicial custody till August 25 by a court here in the alleged stalking and attempt to abduction case of a 29-year-old woman.



Amid tight police security, both were presented before the court of duty magistrate Gaurav Dutta.



Defence counsel Surya Prakash said: "both the youths have been sent to 14 days of judicial custody". They had been earlier sent to the police remand for two days till August 12.



The two accused were re-arrested on August 9 after they joined the police investigation and charged with attempted abduction under section 365 of the IPC and section 511, which relates to an attempt to commit an offence punishable with life or other imprisonment.



Police reconstructed the "crime" scene on August 10 -- six days after the incident took place -- in connection with the stalking and attempt to abduction incident.



The defence lawyer had earlier claimed that Vikas (23) and Ashish (27) had not committed any offence and said that a "media trial" was going on in the case.



They were arrested last week following the complaint of the IAS officer's daughter but released on bail as they had been booked under bailable sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.



The stalking incident - and their release - triggered a nationwide outrage and a spate of protests.



Last night, several people in Chandigarh held a march 'Bekhauf Azaadi' in support of the victim, and to raise awareness on the women safety issue.
The Centre is looking at doubling the nuclear power generation capacity to about 14,000 MW, Union minister Piyush Goyal said today even as he ruled out its becoming the main source of energy for the country.



At present, India generates about 6,800 MW of nuclear energy.



"We have recently embarked on a plan to expand it by about 7,000 MW more and this will be through indigenously manufactured equipment. So, 10 units of 700 MW each we have proposed and we shall be investing in and we will start on that," the power and coal minister said at an event here.



The Union Cabinet in May had already approved the setting up of 10 indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) for nuclear power generation.



"But, nuclear power will never ever become the main source of energy for India because it is very expensive. It has its own benefits. It is quite free of carbon, it does not pollute the environment and therefore, our government is encouraging it. We do need clean renewable sources of energy which is available 24 hours," Goyal said.



He said solar energy can only be generated during the day time and wind energy can be generated only during windy hours.



"Therefore, there is a need of a resource, which can be available 24 hours. Hydro is one such energy which we will promote and nuclear energy also we are promoting. But both these source are still quite expensive," he added.



Goyal further said: "We are dependent on foreign sources for Uranium. As you are aware, China is blocking our entry into the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group), so we have some challenges. But, we are confident we will make progress."



In a veiled reference to Donald Trump's rejection of the Paris climate change agreement, Goyal said India does not agree with the US President's views on the issue.



"There is an effort and an attempt by some senior leaders of very large countries to belittle the issue of climate change and try and say that it is not really a problem for the world. But, we in India don't believe so.



"For all of us Indians, we have always respected nature. We have always believed that the environment is an integral part of human existence," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh where at least 30 children died in a hospital and is in touch with central and state authorities, the PMO said today.



Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.



District Magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said yesterday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since August 10.



Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.



Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official here had said that according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police (SP), 21 children died due to oxygen supply shortage.



"According to the Gorakhpur SP, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College. Senior officers are at the spot. Exact cause is being verified by the civil administration," the official, who did not to be identified, had said.



The Uttar Pradesh government said today that those found guilty in the "tragic and painful" incident would face "stringent action".



"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.



Health Minister Singh and state Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon today visit Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.
Cracking the whip following the death of 30 children owing to alleged shortage of oxygen, Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the principal of BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur even as it denied that lack of oxygen supply was the reason behind the deaths.



The opposition parties launched a scathing attack on chief minister Yogi Adityanath and demanded his resignation along with the health minister. Adityanath on Saturday said that squalor was responsible for the deaths in the medical college.



Seemingly on the back foot, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh, who visited the medical college hospital with the minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon, however, admitted that the hospital had run out of oxygen for two hours on the night of Thursday.



The minister sought to downplay the deaths by furnishing statistics of casualty in the hospital during the month of August in previous years and said that in comparison fewer deaths had taken place in August this year.



''A majority of patients who are admitted to the BRD medical college hospital are in the last stage and therefore the casualty figure remains always high here...the annual average casualty is around 17-18 per day here,'' he said.



Singh said that on Thursday evening the meter showing availability of liquid oxygen started beeping indicating low supply following which cylinders were used. ''AMBU (Artificial Manual Breathing Unit) bags were used to supply oxygen to the patients after cylinders too ran out of supply,'' he added.



He admitted that the oxygen supplying company had stopped supply following non-payment of bills. ''Chief minister Yogi Adityanath was not informed about this matter when he had visited the hospital on Wednesday,'' he said.



Singh said a high level committee, to be headed by the state chief secretary, had been formed to probe the matter. ''Action will be taken on the basis of report of the committee,'' he added.



Tandon said that the principal of the medical college Dr. R.K.Mishra had been suspended on charges of laxity. He said that the government had made part payment of the bills of the company but there was some delay in the process.



30 children, mostly new born, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours between Thursday and Friday.


The BJP would neither interfere in the Lingayat religion issue nor use Kannada language row as a political tool to counter the "polarisation politics" of the Congress in Karnataka, senior BJP leader Suresh Kumar said today.



"Congress is playing polarisation politics in Karnataka, and we have a strategy to counter it under the leadership of Amit Shah," Kumar told reporters after receiving Shah at BJP office here.



"We are very, very clear about Lingayat religion issue. The issue will be resolved or solved by that particular community. We don't want to add, we don't want to interfere in any manner in this issue," he said.



The Congress support to a separate religion cause ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls was seen as an attempt to cause damage to the BJP, which enjoys considerable support from the community.



The BJP and several sections of the Hindu community were opposed to the move to give Veerashaiva-Lingayat separate religion status and have accused the Siddaramaiah government of dividing the society to draw political mileage ahead of the election due early next year.



On Kannada language row, Kumar said "since the days of Pandit Deendayal Upadhayaya it has been made very clear that in Karnataka, Kannada is the language which should be given top priority. There is absolutely no confusion here and we don't want to use it as a political tool".



The BJP also does not want to use the language issue as a tool to create hatred towards other communities and sections of the people, Kumar said.



Huge protests were staged by pro-Kannada outfits over the use of Hindi on Namma Metro signboards, which also had forced Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to write to the Centre stating the government was compelled to ask Namma Metro to temporarily re-design signboards in stations without the Hindi language following a row over its use.



The Kannada Development Authority had asked all nationalised, scheduled and rural banks functioning in Karnataka to ensure that all its non-Kannada speaking staff learn the language in six months. The authority had also asked them to set up Kannada units at all their branches in the state, in line with Hindi units which exist for the implementation of the language.



To a query, Kumar said there were no differences between senior party leaders K S Eshwarappa and B S Yeddyurappa, and Yeddyurappa is the chief ministerial candidate of the party.
Maharashtra industry minister and close aide to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Subhash Desai, offered to resign from the government on Saturday following charges of corruption.



However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected his offer and asked Thackeray to persuade Desai to take back his resignation.



In the monsoon session of the state Assembly, opposition Congress and the NCP have demanded the resignations of Desai (75) and Housing Minister Prakash Mehta (58) from the BJP over corruption charges.



While Desai faces charges of de-notifying the land belonging to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation in Nashik to favour a builder, Mehta has been accused of preferring a builder for a slum development authority project in Mumbai.



Both ministers face independent probes. Mehta had earlier said that he would abide by whatever the Chief Minister says.



Turning the tables on the opposition, Thackeray said the Rs 60,000 crore irrigation scam, lottery scam, Adarsh scam and cooperative scam that took place during the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government should be thoroughly probed.



"You keep on making allegations and we keep on resigning, this does not help Maharashtra in anyway.....there is a probe and he would face the probe," Thackeray said.



Desai said he met both Thackeray and Fadnavis before resigning his post. I deny the charges. I have already made a statement, he said.



The opposition varyingly described Desais move as a drama and a political stunt. "It is a damage control exercise, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (Congress) said.

His counterpart in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said the Chief Minister is standing by the corrupt. How could they continue (as ministers) while facing a probe? he asked.


Two senior Tamil Nadu ministers today exuded confidence that AIADMK factions, one led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the other by his predecessor O Panneerselvam, will soon come together and the government would complete its full five-year term.



"What is going on at present is disagreement between brothers, which will be settled amicably at the earliest," Forest Minister Dindigul Srinivasan told reporters here.



Separately, Cooperation Minister Sellur L Raju said that "we will work together to fulfil the dreams of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa".



The process of merger of the two factions is going on for the last seven months and the days were not far for them to coming together, Srinivasan said.



"The present government would complete its full term," he added.



About T T V Dhinakaran, nephew of jailed party general secretary V K Sasikala, reportedly calling chief minister E K Palaniswami a '420' (used to refer to people who cheat), Srinivasan said it could have been due to a slip of tongue, as he had clarified later and there was no need to play it up further.



However, the minister said he was not aware of Palaniswami calling Dhinakaran a '420'.



To a question on reports of O Paneerselvam becoming the deputy chief minister, Srinivasan said it had come out in some sections of the press.



Any fact would be revealed by Palaniswami, as both the party and government are working under him, he said. "His opinion is my opinion."



Meanwhile, in a separate press conference, Cooperation Minister Sellur L Raju, on his way to Udhagamandalam, said he alone could not take a decision on participation in the MGR centenary celebrations convened by Dhinakaran in Melur on August 14.



A decision would be taken after consultation with Palaniswami and other ministers, he added.



The government was ready to rectify the shortcomings pointed out by anybody, be it Dhinakaran or other leaders and provide good governance, he said.



Stating that nobody can create confusion among AIADMK workers, Raju said not a single worker has switched over to any party including the DMK so far, which is a clear indication of the unity among the cadres.



"To fulfil the dreams of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, we will work together," he said.
BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj today said 30 infants died in a Gorakhpur hospital because oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of dues.



He demanded stringent action against those responsible for the tragedy in Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where 30 children are believed to have died in 48 hours.



"The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident," the MP from Unnao told reporters.



Denying media reports that he had termed the incident as a "massacre" (narsanhar), Sakshi Maharaj said, "I have never said so. I said the deaths were not natural and steps should be taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future."
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today hit out at the Modi government over farmer and unemployment issues, accusing it of making "hollow" and "false" promises".



"We don't make big promises; rather we will perform and show. When Modiji's government came, farmers were promised full help, but across the country farmers are committing suicide," Gandhi said.



He said in Karnataka and Punjab, Congress governments had stood by the farmers. "Wherever there is Congress party government, you will see them standing with farmers, because we understand that farmers make India strong. If farmers are strong India will be strong, if they are weak India will become weak."



The congress leader was speaking at the state Congress committee's 'Samanatha Samavesha' here to felicitate him for his role in providing special status to the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region during the UPA rule, by an amendment of Article 371(J) of the Constitution.



Speaking about article 371(J), Gandhi said Congress has fought with the people for this for their development.



Claiming that BJP veteran L K Advani as Union Home Minister was against Article 371 (J), he said after Congress came to power in 2004, the special status was granted which has benefited people to a large extent today.



"I'm happy to note that the amount that BJP has put here in five years, that much amount is being put in three months by the Congress government today," he said, taking note of various developmental activities in the region.



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, general secretary in-charge K C Venugopal, KPCC president G Parameshwara and several other party leaders were present at the event.



Stating that Congress believes in Gandhiji's preaching of helping the poor and those at the fag end of the line, Gandhi said, "BJP and RSS's thinking is different; they believe that if they help those at the forefront of the line, things will be good. This is the difference between us."



He noted that Finance minister Arun Jaitley had said in Parliament that loan waiver was not the government's policy and a BJP leader had said they did not want to make farmers lazy by doing it.



"When you waive the loan by India's 10 richest Industrialists, they don't become lazy, but when you waive farmers loan they will become lazy. How fair is this?"



He lauded Siddaramaiah for announcing the farm loan waiver in Karnataka.



Gandhi said when the Congress-led government was at the Centre, every year minimum support price (MSP) on crops used to increase by about 15 per cent, but after BJP came to power it has been increasing only by two to three per cent.



He said Congress government in Karnataka is making efforts towards ensuring farmers fair price, through unified marketing platform. "We are helping farmers and weaker sections wherever we can, but they only speak and make hollow and false promises," he added.



Taking a dig at the Modi government for low employment rate, Gandhi said the government in Karnataka is doing a far better job in this regard.



"...they speak about Make in India, not even one factory has opened. Who has got employment here because of make in India? Now tell me how many jobs has Siddaramaiah given in Karnataka?--30,000..."



"False promises on one side, on the other hand Congress Chief Minister working from heart for the people and doesn't make hollow promises. This is the difference between us and them," he said.



Accusing the Modi government of indulging in false and hollow promises, the congress leader said people know that Congress will do, what it says.



"Farmers know that only Congress can help them and youth in India have understood that Narendra Modi canot provide employment to them. It is now proved and youths have realized it," he said.



Hitting out at the government on demonetisation, Gandhi said, "last year I don't know what happened on November 8th Narendra Modi got an idea, he came on the TV and said Bhaio, Behno I'm going to ban the notes in your pockets...as though it was fun. Whole of India, small farmers, labourers, and women were affected."



"On November 8, Narendra Modi gave axe blow (kuladi maari) to entire India...people are feeling its effects even today," he said.



Gandhi also called on party men to face the Assembly elections early next year unitedly in Karnataka as he expressed confidence about winning the polls.



"...Congress party will win the election on the strength of its work, the work done towards farmers, youth in the state. I want to tell our party workers that you are our strength. We should all work together with unity and have to fight this election," he said.



"We should work for poor, weaker sections, Dalits, adivasis, backward classes and those in need of help. What we have done in the last five years, we will do more than that in next five years," he added.
Congress on Saturday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the death of 60 children due to shortage of oxygen in his home town Gorakhpur.



Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tiwari, Sanjay Singh and RPN Singh air-dashed to Gorakhpur on Saturday to visit the BRD Medical College Hospital where the heart-wrenching tragedy took place over the past four days.



Congress President Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi had expressed deep shock at the death of children. Rahul held the BJP government in the state responsible for the tragedy and demanded action against the negligent.



Briefing reporters upon his return from Gorakhpur, Azad demanded immediate dismissal of the Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the tragedy.



The kids died because of the negligence of the government. What is unfortunate is that the tragedy happened two days after the Chief Minister's visit to the hospital, the Congress leader said demanding a public apology from the chief minister.



He dubbed the suspension of the principal of the medical college as an eyewash.



The chief minister does not know what is happening in his own home, what is happening with the kids in his home town, Azad said noting that the local media had been reporting about shortage of liquid oxygen for the past fortnight.



Azad said the hospital was expanded during the UPA regime and he had visited the facility at least thrice during his tenure as Union Health Minister.



He rejected the UP government contention that the deaths were due to diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis which are prevalent in the region.



I have talked to everyone from the clerks, peons to top officials. Everybody said shortage of liquid oxygen led to the tragedy, Azad said.



The Congress president said she was pained beyond words by the humongous tragedy and that her heart went out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on part of the authorities.
Amid the Uttar Pradesh government's claim that lack of oxygen was not behind the death of 30 children at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, it has been revealed that the hospital administration had been warned in advance about the impending shortage of the life saving gas.



According to the sources in the BRD medical college, the central oxygen pipeline operators had written a letter to the head of the pediatrics department informing him that liquid oxygen supply was very low and asked him to make necessary arrangements. The copy of the letter was sent to the principal of the college also.



The letter also contained a warning that shortage of oxygen could put the lives of the children, who were on ventilators and in the neonatal unit in grave danger.



Sources said that there was no liquid oxygen at the hospital even on Saturday and cylinders were being used to provide oxygen to the patients.



Even the company, which supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital, had also shot off several letters to the principal, the Gorakhpur district magistrate and other senior government officials of the health department threatening to stop the supply if its bills were not paid.



''The ultimatum was given around 20 days back that supply of oxygen will be stopped unless the pending bills were cleared,'' said a medical college official in Gorakhpur on condition of anonymity.



Though the UP minister for health Siddharth Nath Singh claimed that a part payment was released on August five, the money had not reached the company even by Thursday.



The principal of the medical college Dr. Rajiv Mishra, who had been suspended, rejected the charges of laxity and said that the payment had been made to the company on Friday.



Mishra said that he had already resigned from his post taking moral responsibility for the deaths though he termed them ''natural''.








The Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board has directed the 4,750 registered madarsas in the state to hoist the tricolour, hold cultural programmes and compulsorily take part in or organise 'Tiranga rallies' on the Independence Day.



The board issued a circular to this effect on August 10, in which it also asked the heads of these madarsas to click and e-mail photographs of the I-Day activities.



"All the madarsa managers are hereby ordered to hoist national flag, hold cultural programme and compulsorily take part or hold Tiranga rallies," reads the circular.



Talking to PTI over phone, Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board chairman, professor Syed Imad Uddin, said, "We have asked the heads and students of the 4,750 registered madarsas to hold flag-hoisting and cultural events on Independence Day."



"These madarsas, which are registered with us, have also been asked to compulsorily take part in or organise Tiranga yatra (tricolour rallies) in their respective cities if no other organisation has planned such an event," he added.



"We want to demonstrate our love for the country by organising or taking part in such Tiranga rallies. If no other organisation holds such a rally on that day in a particular city, the madarsas have been asked to take out their own Tiranga rallies," Uddin said.



There are around 2.5 lakh students enrolled in these registered madrasas.



According to him, in the past as well the board had issued such directives, asking the madarsas to unfurl the tricolour and hold cultural events on the Independence Day and Republic Day.



"But we have added Tiranga yatra in the circular this time. All Madarsa heads have been asked to click and e-mail pictures of all activities to the board as in the past. The photographs will be used in the board's magazine and uploaded on its official website as in the past," Uddin said.



The Uttar Pradesh government has also directed all madrassas (Islamic schools) to hold celebrations on Independence Day and videograph the event.



The UP government has said that the events to be held on August 15 by the madrassas should include hoisting the tricolour, singing the national anthem and paying tributes to freedom fighters.
Cracking the whip following the death of 30 children owing to alleged shortage of oxygen, Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the principal of BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur even as it denied that lack of oxygen supply was the reason behind the deaths and slammed the media for putting out inflated casualty figure.

The opposition parties launched a scathing attack on chief minister Yogi Adityanath and demanded his resignation along with the health minister. Adityanath on Saturday said that squalor was responsible for the deaths in the medical college. Seemingly on the back foot, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that he had been kept in the dark about the impending shortage of oxygen when he had visited BRD Medical College on Wednesday. Adityanath also attacked the media for dishing out different death figures.

''The media has given different death figures...it should give the right figure,'' he said. ''Don't try to create confusion,'' he told the media. Adityanath said that the role of the principal and the oxygen supplier would be investigated and necessary action would be taken against the guilty.



UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh, who visited the medical college hospital with minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon, however, admitted that the hospital had run out of oxygen for two hours on the night of Thursday though he downplayed the deaths by furnishing statistics of casualty in the hospital during the month of August in previous years and said that in comparison fewer deaths had taken place in August this year.



''A majority of patients who are admitted to the BRD medical college hospital are in the last stage and therefore the casualty figure remains always high here...the annual average casualty is around 17-18 per day here,'' he said. Singh said that on Thursday evening the meter showing availability of liquid oxygen started beeping indicating low supply following which cylinders were used.



''AMBU (Artificial Manual Breathing Unit) bags were used to supply oxygen to the patients after cylinders too ran out of supply,'' he added. Singh said a high-level committee, to be headed by the state chief secretary, had been formed to probe the matter.

''Action will be taken on the basis of the report of the committee,'' he added. Tandon said that the principal of the medical college Dr R.K.Mishra had been suspended on charges of laxity. 30 children, mostly new born, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours between Thursday and Friday.
Homegrown ultra-luxury hospitality major Evolve Back  earlier branded as Orange County  will be expanding its footprint over the next three years, during which it expects to open four new properties across India and abroad, investing around Rs 112 crore for the purpose.



The company is looking to tap the new-found interest among people for experiential travel, especially at untapped destinations. We usually avoid overcrowded destinations, and scout for those unspoilt markets where we sense the potential to grow  not just for us, but also for the destination, Evolve Back Luxury Resorts Executive Director Jose T Ramapuram told DH, adding that the strategy is to offer thematic experiential travel.



Accordingly, in the coming three years, the company will be opening a 35-key resort at Kumta in Uttara Kannada district over an area of 30 acres with an investment of Rs 50 crore, which will be themed on a local fishing village. Also, a palace-themed 26-key resort, which would see an investment of Rs 35 crore, is expected at the medieval town of Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, which marks the foray of Evolve Back outside Karnataka. Meanwhile, a property each in an African, as well as an Asian country, are being planned, details of which Ramapuram did not divulge, but revealed that the planned investment of Rs 112 crore would be a mix of internal accruals and debt.



Todays traveller seldom sight-sees anymore, but rather seeks to experience the essence of a destination, and wants to be transformed by that experience. Through our offerings, we also aim to benefit the local economy, and promote local culture, heritage, and cuisine, among discerning guests, he said.



The company set up its first property  a 63-key resort  in Kodagu in 1994, followed by a 37-key resort in the Kabini reserve in 2007, followed by a 46-key resort at Hampi recently. All the said properties integrate architectural elements of their destinations, making the setup all the more sustainable and authentic at the same time, complemented by luxurious amenities.



Evolve Back currently offers 150 rooms across its three properties, which will expand to a further 125 rooms, once the new properties come up. Our idea is low volume, high price tourism. We expect to close this year with Rs 85 crore in revenues, growing at a CAGR of 15%, Ramapuram concluded.
The Congress on Saturday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the death of 60 children due to shortage of oxygen in his home town Gorakhpur.



Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tiwari, Sanjay Singh and RPN Singh air-dashed to Gorakhpur on Saturday to visit the BRD Medical College Hospital where the heart-wrenching tragedy took place over the past four days.



Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi had expressed deep shock at the death of the children. Rahul held the BJP government in the state responsible for the tragedy and demanded action against the negligent officials.



Briefing reporters upon his return from Gorakhpur, Azad demanded immediate dismissal of Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the tragedy.



The kids died because of the negligence of the government. What is unfortunate is that the tragedy happened two days after the chief ministers visit to the hospital, the Congress leader said demanding a public apology from the chief minister.



He dubbed the suspension of the principal of the medical college as an eyewash.



The chief minister does not know what is happening in his own home, what is happening with the kids in his home town, Azad said noting that the local media had been reporting about shortage of liquid oxygen for the past fortnight.



Azad said the hospital was expanded during the UPA regime and he had visited the facility at least thrice during his tenure as Union health minister.



He rejected the UP governments contention that the deaths were due to diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis which are prevalent in the region.



I spoke to everyone from the clerks, peons to top officials. Everybody said shortage of liquid oxygen led to the tragedy, Azad said.
Haj policy-2018 will be unveiled this month, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (independent charge) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday.



At a review meeting on Haj 2017 and the 22nd annual Haj orientation camp organised for pilgrims at the Haj House here, Naqvi said from next year, Haj will be organised according to the new policy only.



A high-level committee constituted for the purpose is in the final stage of shaping the policy.



Naqvi said the new policy is aimed at making the Haj process smoother and more transparent. Providing the best of facilities to Haj pilgrims is at the centre of this policy, he said.



Reviving the option of sending Haj pilgrims through sea route is an important part of the new policy. "The sea route will help cut down travel expenses by nearly half compared to airfares. It will be a revolutionary, pro-poor, pilgrim-friendly decision," Naqvi said.



The practice of ferrying Haj pilgrims between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped in 1995.



Naqvi said another advantage with modern ships is that they are well-equipped to ferry 4,000 to 5,000 people at a time. They can cover the 2,300-odd nautical miles one-side distance between Mumbai and Jeddah within two-three days. Earlier, ships used to take 12-15 days to cover this distance.



Naqvi said a high-level meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on August 28. Senior officials from shipping and minority affairs ministries will attend the meeting.



He also said a discussion, on reviving the pilgrimage through sea route, with the Saudi Arabia government was on.



Naqvi said the Ministry of Minority Affairs, in cooperation with the Haj Committee of India and other agencies concerned, had completed preparations for Haj 2017 well before time.
A 13-year-old girl succumbed to grievous head injuries after a slide crashed on her at a BBMP park in M V J Layout, Mahadevapura, on Saturday.



The police said that the victim, Priya Gowda, and her two friends sneaked into the park which was locked as work on installing the slide was underway.



Priya fell off the ladder of the slide - which was not fixed to the ground - and the slide immediately crashed on her.



The incident occurred at 4.35 pm. Priya's friends and a few neighbours took her home. Priya's parents then rushed her to a hospital in Kaggadaspura, where she was declared dead on arrival.



Priyas father Subramanya is a real estate agent and her mother Vijayakumari is a homemaker. They are residents of Baddi Krishnapappa Layout. The victim was a Class VIII student of MDB School.



Case booked

Though the park was locked, there were no warning signs.



Based on the complaint by Priyas parents, the police booked a case of criminal negligence against the BBMP official concerned and the contractor.


Are you planning to build your dream home? Then be prepared to pay a hefty fee to buy floor space over and above what the existing rules permit. The Common Zoning Rules drafted by the Urban Development department has introduced a new concept of premium FAR (floor area ratio). This could potentially burn a hole in the pockets of property owners and buyers. It has also created a lot of ambiguity among the people. DH interacted with citizens and experts to throw more light on the issue.



Shakuntala Iyer, chairperson, National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), Karnataka says, It is a known fact that the real estate is an unorganised sector. The move to implement premium FAR is a welcome decision. But the proposal to reduce the existing permissible FAR means developers have to buy premium FAR paying additional cost.





The government, she says, should relax the rules so that the developers can take up more projects. It has to lessen the burden on developers to encourage people to buy their dream home, she says.



In view of the future trends in real estate, Shakuntala says the government has to substantiate the infrastructure provisions in line with urban planning. Besides, the process of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) to increase the number of floors should be made simpler and more credible for a developer.



Jaffer Khan, CEO, Jaff Design Studio, Bengaluru says according to the FAR rules, if the height is permissible and if the FSI (Floor Space Index or FAR) is not utilised, the property owner has an option to buy TDR and build on it.



He reasons that going vertical, at present, is imperative due to land scarcity. If the developer is ready to pay a certain amount to each floor, the builder can go vertical. There are a few factors that govern the permissible FSI: plot extent, ground coverage and the road width.



The developers say higher FSI would not necessarily encourage affordable housing as the norms have to be relaxed keeping the interests of both developer and buyer in mind. The intensification of density per acre needs to increase in tandem with FSI for affordable housing. Also, the government has to earmark additional funds for other services such as water, electricity and sewage.



Nagaraj Reddy, chairman, CREDAI, Karnataka says that the objective of introducing the premium FAR by reducing the permissible FAR is to collect a fee based on the market value of the property. This will generate revenue for BBMP/BDA/other municipal or corporations across Karnataka. It is not compulsory. Only if the developers or the land owners want to increase the built-up area, they need to pay and avail the premium FAR, he says.



The move is being touted as one that would boost ease of doing business. But Reddy reminds that its implications will be felt by both the buyer and developer. The land cost of the project will be higher and the apartments will be extremely expensive.



The prices will go up by at least 25%. The existing land prices of the land have to come down, but land owners will never reduce their prices and they will postpone their sales. There will not be much sale transactions and it will lead to revenue loss to the government, he cautions.



The government, he suggests, should not reduce the existing FAR. Instead, it should introduce premium FAR in addition to the existing FAR where the road width is more than 18 metres so that the land cost will be cheaper and the apartments can be affordable.



Premium FAR, he says will affect the public and property owners more than the builders. The builders always calculate the FAR cost of the land before they purchase it for development. The government should encourage more affordable housing projects, he says.






Tree lovers are not satisfied with BBMP forest cells verbal assurance that 245 marked trees near Dairy Circle will not be cut down for the second phase of Metro from Gottigere to Nagawara.



We need an assurance in writing that they will not allow BMRCL to fell these trees, said Arun Prasad, an activist.



More than 25 nature lovers had gathered in front of Accenture near Diary Circle to save the trees on Saturday morning. The trees, which are more than 60 years old, have been marked in red for felling. When the Metro station here is underground, why should they cut down these old trees which have a rich ecological value? said Prasad.



The Metro station here will be similar to the one at Cubbon Park. They did not chop down a single tree for building the Cubbon Park Metro station. Why cant they adopt a similar model here? asked Prasad. It is illogical to destruct the green cover of the city, opined Kumar Jahgirdar, president, Childrens Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), which led the protest.



Babu Peter Samson, another activist, said, We are not against development. Metro is a good initiative as it helps ease traffic. But it should not come at the cost of green cover.



Appu Rao, deputy conservator of forests, BBMP, told DH, The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) will not be allowed to cut down trees. Nature lovers will submit a petition to BBMP and BMRCL not to fell the trees on Monday.



Silent march on Old Airport Road



Residents expressed displeasure over the over-night felling of 46 trees on Old Airport Road to build the signal-free corridor. Joy V R, a resident of Sarjapur who participated in the march, said, BBMP officials do not turn up when there is a problem due to overnight rain. But they work overtime to chop down trees. Residents plan to hold a silent protest on Sunday at 9 am at HAL bus stop against the sudden axing of trees.




Police are still investigating what made 21-year-old IIITB student Goluguri Sai Sharath jump from the seventh floor of his hostel building in Electronics City, south Bengaluru, on Friday.



Sharath, a seventh-semester student of Integrated MTech at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB), was found dead by the hostels security guards in the early hours of Friday.



Police have found that Sharath had been active on his phone till the final moments but deleted the call history just before leaping to his death.



Police unlocked his phone with the help of a technician and are reviewing the call detail records.

Sharath hailed from Hyderabad and was the second son of Kodandarama Reddy, an officer in the Income Tax Department, and Sudha Rani.



His elder brother, Sathya Raviteja, is a student in the US.



On Thursday night, Sharath accompanied 11 friends to a restaurant in BTM Layout to celebrate the birthday of a classmate. He returned to the hostel around 1.30 am, hours before jumping to his death.

Police didnt find any suicide letter. Sharath was an introvert and a man of few words, police quoted his friends as saying.




(Xinhua) 10:27, August 12, 2017

KUNMING, Aug. 11 -- Scientists have cloned genetically modified piglets that may prove a safe source of organs for transplants into humans.

The 15 black-headed piglets, born in a lab in southwest China's Yunnan Province, do not carry the active infectious viral gene which has impeded the process of pig-to-human transplantation for more than a decade, said Chinese members of an international research team who released their findings Friday.

Pigs have porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) embedded in their genome. These viruses are able to jump from a pig cell to a human when mixed in the lab. The viruses can then be passed to fresh human cells from the infected one.

This standing block was cleared when the scientists using a gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, inactivate the PERVs.

Geneticist Luhan Yang and her colleagues at the American biotech startup eGenesis are behind the breakthrough.

Yang, co-founder and chief scientific officer of eGenesis, joined professors from several Chinese universities and one from Denmark to pen the study published on the Science journal on Friday.

With modified genes, the scientists created PERV-inactivated pig embryos and transferred them into surrogate sows to produce clones, in the same fashion as Dolly the sheep was created.

Earlier this year, 37 such clones were produced by 17 sows in Yunnan Agricultural University.

Today, 15 are still alive with ages ranging from one to four months. They appeared quite healthy, said Wei Hongjiang, a professor with Yunnan Agricultural University who is one of the lead authors of the publication.

"We now have the world's first ever PERV-inactivated pigs," Wei told Xinhua. "For the first time, we have dealt with the concern of cross-species viral transmission risks."

He said the international team will move to the next step, using gene editing to make pig organs less prone to attack by their human recipients' immune systems, which has been another standing obstacle in the research.

George Church, Harvard geneticist and another eGenesis co-founder, called the clones a milestone in xenotransplantation as the most important safety issue had been solved.

Xenotransplantation means to use animal living cells, tissues or organs in people to bridge the shortfall in available human organs.

Yang said the world has more than 2 million patients who need organ transplants. The supply is way below the demand and the gap is only expected to grow wider.

Pig organs are of similar sizes and function to humans' and are considered the most feasible for xenogeneic transplantation, she said.

In China alone, more than 300,000 patients are waiting for organ transplants but fewer than 10,000 surgeries are performed each year.

The country witnessed a surge of willing organ donors in recent years but far from enough to meet the need.

"We are working hard on the earliest possible clinical use of xenogeneic transplants to help hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for organ transplants," Wei said.

Xenotransplantation remains controversial.

The WHO says while animals are a potential source of high quality, readily available live organs, xenotransplantation carries risks, especially the spread of known or unknown diseases.

It says some very serious diseases such as AIDS and SARS have originated from animals and urges governments to take regulatory control and ensure surveillance mechanisms before allowing xenogeneic transplants to take place.
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An 'almost' edible 100-year-old fruit cake has been found belonging to explorer Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole.

It was found wrapped in paper inside a decaying tin in a long-abandoned hut in Antarctica. Made by the now-defunct firm Huntley & Palmers, it probably dates back to one of the parties involved in Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition from 1910 to 1913, say conservators from the Antarctic Heritage Trust (AHT).

After finding the cake and other artefacts at Cape Adare, they wrote: "Although the tin was in poor condition, the cake itself looked and smelt (almost) edible."

Conservators believe it dates to Captain Scott's Northern Party, and it has been documented that the Royal Navy officer took this particular brand of cake with him on a voyage that ended in disaster. The tin label was deacidified and the torn paper wrapper and tin label were repaired.

Lizzie Meek, the AHT's programme Manager, artefacts, said: "With just two weeks to go on the conservation of the Cape Adare artefacts, finding such a perfectly preserved fruitcake in amongst the last handful of unidentified and severely corroded tins was quite a surprise.

"It's an ideal high-energy food for Antarctic conditions, and is still a favourite item on modern trips to the Ice."

Since May last year, four conservators have been working in the Canterbury Museum lab on the preservation of Antarctic artefacts from Cape Adare. They recently finished their project in July, conserving almost 1,500 artefacts.

The AHT is now planning to begin conservation work on the huts at Cape Adare. The buildings were constructed by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink's expedition in 1899 and later used by Captain Scott's party in 1911.

They were the first in Antarctica and are the only examples left of humanity's first building on any continent. A permit allowing the AHT to collect the artefacts stipulates that all of the items must be returned to the site following conservation. That will happen once the huts have been restored.

Captain Scott and his party had set out to reach the South Pole to conduct scientific and geographic research. After reaching their destination, the entire party died.
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A huge search was launched on Friday night after two walkers went missing on Dartmoor.

The Dartmoor search and rescue team along with the fire service, ambulance crews and the police were all called in on Friday evening after the walkers went missing.

The pair, who left on Thursday on a camping trip from Burrator heading towards Okehampton via Postbridge, had become lost on the North moor.

Search teams said two phone conversations has been made with them indicated they were possibly in the Rough Tor / Cut Hill area and they were wet and cold.

No further word had been received since 9pm on Friday night.

Teams searched various parts of the moor to try and find them.

However shortly after 9am on Saturday, a conversation with a farmer who came across a Plymouth team told them he had given a lift to two walkers into Tavistock. The farmer said he was confident that it was the two crews were looking for.

This was confirmed shortly after when the Police contacted relatives to learn the walkers were being picked up from Plymouth bus station.

A representative of The Dartmoor search and rescue team added on their Facebook page: "It would be very helpful if walkers who self-rescue having raised the alarm, make sure they contact the emergency services at the first opportunity to let them know they are OK to avoid unnecessary efforts being made to locate them."
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The RSPCA is highlighting the tragic case of a Devon dog whose seven brothers and sisters were put down for being "dangerous" because of a few centimetres.

Today marks 26 years since the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) was introduced to the UK, including Section 1 which applies breed specific legislation (BSL) and bans four types of dog  the pit bull terrier, the Fila Brasiliero, the Dogo Argentino and the Japanese Tosa.

Last year, the RSPCA published a report into BSL and how it has failed to protect public safety since its introduction (hospital admissions due to dog bites has increased year on year) and how it seriously compromises dog welfare.

The charity  the UK's oldest and largest animal welfare organisation  also launched its #EndBSL campaign calling for the Government to review the ineffective legislation and replace it with something that will better protect public safety and improve the welfare for all dogs affected by it.

Kacey survived being put down, but her seven brothers and sisters, who were a few centimetres bigger than her, were put down.

RSPCA dog welfare expert and lead author of 'A Dog's Dinner' report, Dr Samantha Gaines, said: "Almost 80,000 people have signed our petition and want to see a review of this ineffective and outdated piece of legislation.

"Our campaign has also had support from experts and organisations around the world, showing that this is an issue close to the hearts of many people from many corners of the globe.

BSL makes it illegal to possess or own any of the four banned types in the UK. Dogs suspected of being of a prohibited type are typically seized from their owners and kennelled so that they can be assessed by a police dog legislation officer. This process can take several days through to weeks.

If officially identified as being of type, and the dog is not considered to pose a risk to public safety owners can apply to have their pet added to the exemption register which allows them to be lawfully kept but they must both comply with a very strict set of rules including keeping their dog muzzled at all times when out in public.

Kacey was just three-weeks-old when her mother and eight siblings were seized under Section 1 of the DDA. They were held in kennels for more than six months before being assessed.

All nine puppies were identified as prohibited types but the decision about two of the puppies  including Kacey  was, at a later point, overturned allowing them to be rehomed.

The other seven were tragically put to sleep. Mum, Mercedes, was typed and later exempted which meant she could be lawfully kept under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

Kacey's owner, Nay Beard from Devon, said: "This is where an already sad story almost defies belief. Nine puppies, the same litter, from the same parents but - for the grace of a couple of centimetres, two of their lives were saved. The others weren't so lucky.

"Although Kacey got the chance to live, her incarceration under this cruel and unfair law impacts on her daily."

Kacey was terrified of people and the outside world.

"She was frightened of grass, a breeze, water bowls, even toys. Absolutely anything and everything frightened her, she would back away while shaking uncontrollably," Nay explained.

"Little by little, she got there. But even now, almost five years later, she's still very nervous and anxious."
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A woman has been taken to hospital and her dog has been taken to a vet after they were both bitten by an 'out of control' dog in the centre of Newton Abbot.

The dog, believed to be a pit bull, attacked the pair outside of Barclays Bank in Courtenay Street in Newton Abbot just before 11am on Saturday.

Two police cars and the Devon and Cornwall Police Dog Unit attended the incident and a criminal investigation into the out of control dog and its owner has begun.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident and a spokesman said that an out of control dog attacking people and other dogs is not something that should be happening in the middle of a busy shopping centre.

They said: "We were called to a report that a dog had attacked another dog in the centre of Newton Abbot. Police officers and the Devon and Cornwall Police Dog Unit were dispatched and it was found that not only had a dog being attacked but that its owner was also injured.

"The dog has been taken to a nearby vets for treatment on its injuries while the dog's owner has been taken to hospital as she was injured as well.

"An investigation into an out of control dog in a public place has begun, as an out of control dog attacking people and other dogs is not something that should be happening in the middle of a busy shopping centre.

"The details of the owner of the dog are known to use and we will be investigating further."

They added the no details of the injuries to either the dog or the woman were known at this stage.

The incident was spotted on CCTV cameras that are operated by the Newton Abbot Security Trust.

NAST is overseen by Tom Hurst, who is the security manager for the town centre, and he told Devon Live: "The woman and her son were in town with their dog and as they were crossing the road, the pit bull dog went straight for their dog."

Eventually the dogs were separated but the injured dog was bleeding and that the woman was bitten by the dog as she attempted to free her pet.

Mr Hurst added: "It was fairly busy at the time and it happened right in the middle of Newton Abbot, so there were lots of people around.

"The dog was not on a lead, nor did it have a muzzle on it, and I feel sorry for the woman and her dog as they did nothing wrong and were just attacked for no reason."

Police are appealing for witnesses and if anyone saw anything or was in the area of Union Street or Courtenay Street in Newton Abbot at around 10.47am, they are asked to contact police on 101 or to email 101@dc-police.uk , quoting log 330 of August 12.
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A passenger of a car stopped by police in Devon risked suffering horrific injuries, like the ones pictured in this story, after resting their feet on the dashboard. Devon and Cornwall Police's road policing team tweeted about the incident after spotting that the driver of the vehicle was on his phone.

The driver of the car was holding the phone and making a phone call to say that he would be late as a result of being stuck in the gridlock on the M5 today.

Heavy traffic heading southbound has seen long delays for motorists, particularly between junction 29 and 31, while at one stage heading northbound there were 25 miles of tailbacks following a multi-vehicle collision that closed all three lanes of the motorway around Junction 27.

All lanes on the M5 northbound have reopened, but two hours later, there are still delays on the motorway and there is heavy traffic

"Pull alongside car, passenger with feet on dashboard on airbag," @RoadPolAlliance tweeted. "Driver is holding phone, making call to say he'll be late!

That meant six points on his licence and a 200 fine for the driver.

But the risk of injury being taken by the passenger was highlighted by a horror story earlier this week.

Mum Audra Tatum revealed she suffered horrific broken bones and crushed legs after resting her feet on dashboard as the car she was hit by a speeding, stolen vehicle.

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Audra was in the passenger seat while her husband Nick drove with their 10-year-old daughter in the back seat.

The impact caused the airbag on Audra's side to release, crushing and breaking her legs, ankles and hips.

The medic, from Georgia, was also left with a broken nose from the impact as her face smashed into the dashboard.

She shared the images of her contorted bones in a plea to other passengers not to rest their legs on the dashboard while travelling.

Speaking to CBS News , she said: "All my life I had my legs crossed and my foot on the dash. My husband always told me, 'you're going to get in a wreck someday and you're going to break your legs'.

"The airbag went off, throwing my foot and breaking my nose. I was looking at the bottom of my foot facing up at me. Basically my whole right side was broken and it's simply because of my ignorance."

The Chattanooga Fire Department was called to help release Audra from the car. In a statement on their Facebook page, they said: "If you ride with your feet on the dash and you're involved in an accident, the airbag may send your knees through your eye sockets."
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Police were called to a domestic incident in Torquay on Saturday morning that stemmed from a child cleaning a toilet with a toothbrush.

The incident happened in Torquay at 9.10am on Saturday and led to police being called to the property.

A police spokesman confirmed that no arrests had been made, no-one had been injured, and investigations into what had happened were ongoing.

They couldn't confirm the location as to where in Torquay it had occurred.
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The experience of staff and the use of a defibrillator helped save the life of a man who suffered a heart attack and fell down a set of stairs at a city gym.

Emergency services were called to Fitness First in Exeter last weekend after a member collapsed and reportedly fell down some stairs in the gym on Tudor Street.

South West Ambulance Service confirmed they were called to the scene at 14:15 on 6 August.

Two double crewed ambulances and a rapid response vehicle was sent to the scene and CPR was administered.

A South West Ambulance Service representative added that the patient was then taken to RDE hospital. His condition is not known at this point.

Fitness First said their team was on hand when the man collapsed and the use of a defibrillator and CPR was carried out immediately.

Brad Rushton, UK Head of Operations at Fitness First said: "Fitness First can confirm that one of our members experienced a cardiac arrest whilst training at the Exeter club this week.

"Our fitness team was on hand to assist the member with the use of a defibrillator and CPR was carried out immediately whilst waiting for the ambulance service to arrive.

"We take the health and fitness safety of our members very seriously and whilst instances of this nature do not occur regularly, we ensure that all members of staff are first aid trained. All of our clubs have first aid kits and defibrillators on site that are regularly checked."
(Xinhua) 10:28, August 12, 2017

BEIJING, Aug. 11 -- A central delegation led by top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng arrived in Beijing Friday after a five-day trip to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China.

The delegation attended a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and made a few local tours.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, visited the Xing'an League of the autonomous region earlier on Friday.

He called on people of the league to step up their pace in eliminating poverty and build a well-off society, ensure ecological security in north China and improve people's lives.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the country's first ethnic autonomous region established at the provincial level under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
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Calvert prosecution ends

Charges that led to the suspension of a Marianna doctors hospital privileges were heard today. A decision by the Jackson Hospital Board of Trustees on whether to reinstate the privileges of William E. Butch Calvert will probably not be made until Friday, according to Board Chairman Robert Pender.

An overflow crowd of about 50 listened and watched in the hospitals dining room yesterday, as hospital attorney Wayne Grant attempted to document charges against Calvert, including failure to obtain required consultations, incidents of poor medical judgment and treatment, and charging excessive fees.

Calverts attorney, Jack Harnett of Quincy, questioned the validity of charges and suggested that they reflected only differing medical opinions.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974

Coins taken in burglary

Marianna police reported yesterday that a Marianna mans home was broken into and robbed of approximately $28 in pennies and dimes, a silver coin collection valued at approximately $55, and a transistor radio.

Between Aug. 8 and 11, it was reported that someone entered the window of the guest bedroom and took money from a piggy bank and closet. The case is under investigation by Sgt. Gary Sullivan.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974

Ben H. Griffin to visit here in the morning

Ben Hill Griffin, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, will be in Marianna at 7:30 Wednesday morning for a breakfast in his honor at the Holiday Inn.

The rancher/farmer is vying against Gov. Reubin Askew and Lt. Gov. Tom Adams for the Democratic nomination. Griffin, 63, is a past president of the Florida Cattlemens Association, Florida Canners Association and Florida Citrus Showcase.

He and his wife/running mate Eleanor have six children.  Jackson County Floridan, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1974
Four Alabama community colleges are starting a program to give students skills needed to fill in-demand jobs at distribution and fulfillment centers. Thanks to a partnership with Wal-Mart, graduates of the program will have first crack at jobs at the companys Brundidge distribution and fulfillment center.

Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Chattahoochee Valley Community College, Wallace Community College and Enterprise State Community College are starting certified logistics associate and certified logistics technician programs. Courses offered through the programs will help students obtain Manufacturing Skills Standards Council certification, an industry-recognized credential that will improve their employability.

In Alabama, its estimated there are 14,485 industrial manufacturing and transportation job openings each year, Rachel Adams, communications and marketing administrator for the Alabama Community College System, said. Not only is there a shortage of individuals with these skills but this is the first time colleges in this region will offer this kind of training.

The CLA program will cover skills such as:

Global supply chain logistics life cycle

Logistics environment

Material handling equipment

Safety principles

Safe material handling and equipment operation

Quality control principles

Workplace communications

Teamwork and workplace behavior

Using computers in the workplace

The CLT program will cover skills such as:

Product receiving

Product storage

Order processing

Packaging and shipment

Inventory control

Safe handling of hazmat materials

Evaluation of transportation modes

Dispatch and tracking

Metric Conversion

Cost of attendance has yet to be set. Adams said the CLA is a prerequisite for CLT training and that both courses are about 28 to 30 hours.

The MSSC System is nationwide and is industry-driven with federally endorsed standards. Workers trained to the CLA standard will meet the competency level expected of todays employers. The course will be available online with registration and testing at Wallace Community College. Wallace is a MSSC Assessment Center.

The colleges developed the new programs in partnership with the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council and Wal-Mart. Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) helped obtain funding for the program.

Adams said students who complete the certifications through these programs will be given preference in the application and interview process at their Brundidge distribution center.
There is a verse in the New Testament book of Romans that I try to keep in the forefront of my mind.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:18.

That means thinking twice before opening my mouth, answering an email, posting to Facebook or commenting on a post, unleashing a tweet or writing a column.

Those things are my responsibility. However, as a member of the flawed human race, I jump out there on occasion and say things I shouldnt, comment when silence is more appropriate or shoot verbally first and ask questions later.

Never underestimate the power of a person to goof things up.

There are also times, however, when I measure my words carefully and respond or talk in a vein of respectability, only to have people take great offense.

I bet youve been there too.

There is a culture that exists today -- magnified by social media and the growing mass of mass media -- that revels in being offended.

I did a simple Google News search with the phrase offended by and it returned hundreds of results from just the past month.

While certainly no sensible person would encourage people to be patently offensive, the swing of the pendulum so far in the other direction is causing two things.

First, we are killing free speech. When founding fathers sought to amend the Constitution, it was the very first thing on their minds to protect.

Second, we are creating a society in which people cant discuss opposing ideas with each other.

Dont believe me? Ideas are either adopted or rejected by people based more on who said them than the substance of the idea. There can be no truth coming from someone outside your subset and no lie coming from someone within.

Im sure youve read stories about trigger warnings and safe spaces on college campuses. This has been going on for some time. If a visiting lecturer comes in and has a different worldview than the prevailing one on campus, signs are posted warning that students could be triggered if they hear a viewpoint different than the one they have. If they do become triggered, they can be directed to safe spaces where the healing can begin.

Many campuses have gone beyond that and just stopped allowing people with a different viewpoint to speak at all. Im amazed we dont all see the danger in that.

What caused this? Im sure many factors took us here, but our desire to break ourselves down to a million different "groups" instead of just one people is the root.

Im Christian, male, middle-aged, white, southern, raised in a singlewide mobile home, Southern Baptist, a Dolphins fan, a Rick Springfield fan, a Red Sox and Celtics fan, a journalist and I live in Alabama.

Do you think I could be easily offended by just about anything anyone says 24/7? Of course. All I have to do is listen closely, find a comment and draw from one of my million subsets and go all-in on being offended. If I play my cards right, I can gain some attention, maybe even a little sympathy. Who knows, maybe I can even profit from it.

And it amazes me how the people who appear to be the most out-front on promoting unity say the most divisive things.

Yes, we will all be better off if we think before we speak and make every effort to live peaceably with all. We will also be better off if we stop engaging in the business of being easily offended.

- -

What I'm reading:

- Lance Griffin's column appears Saturdays in the Dothan Eagle.
(Xinhua) 10:28, August 12, 2017

GENEVA, Aug. 11 -- In order to unleash the full power of ocean data, new distributed models of data collection, linkage, and use are needed, two scientists wrote Friday in a World Economic Forum newsletter.

They are Nishan Degnarain, a member of the National Ocean Taskforce for the government of Mauritius, and Steve Adler, chief data strategist at IBM Watson, which deals in analytical software.

"Public and private interests for marine ecology and sustainable development can be mutually satisfied with inclusive governance models that share information and promote commercial interests consistent with the UN's (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals."

In the past two years, scientists have collected more data on the oceans than in the entire history of the planet, they said.

They also describe how there is now a proliferation of sensors above, on, and beneath the oceans, along with low-cost micro satellites circling the earth to record daily what happens below.

"Undersea autonomous drones photograph and map the continental shelf and seabed, explore deep sea volcanic vents, and can help discover mineral and rare earth deposits," Degnarain and Adler describe.

However, much more data is needed at higher frequency, quality, and variety to understand the oceans to the degree already understood, as less than five percent of the oceans are monitored.

"This new wave of data innovation is constrained by inadequate data supply, demand and governance. The supply of existing ocean data is locked by paper records, old formats, proprietary archives, inadequate infrastructure, and scarce ocean data skills and capacity."

As more private operators enter the market, there is a risk that much of this data will become privatized, placing them out of the reach of many regulators in small island states, the UN, universities, and many other interested parties, Degnarain and Adler said.
A 31 year old labourer accused of pouring cement on the bonnet of a garda patrol car in County Cavan, appeared before Dundalk District Court last week on foot of a bench warrant.

It was issued four months ago after Kevin OHalloran formerly with an address at Highfield, Lisnalea, Bailieboro failed to attend court.

The vacation court sitting in Dundalk last Thursday heard how Kevin OHalloran who has an address in Derry, was arrestedthe night before at an address at Deerys Terrace, Inniskeen, Co. Monagan on foot of a warrant issued at Virginia District Court on April fourth last in respect of a charge of criminal damage to a garda patrol car at Collops, Kingscourt on November third last.

Judge Conall Gibbons was told there was no garda objection to bail subject to a number of conditions - including that he stay at an address in this jurisdiction, which is acceptable to the gardai.

Judge Gibbons remanded Kevin OHalloran on 500 bail to Virginia District Court on the 26th of September on condition that he reside at Deerys Terrace, Inniskeen and that he signs on twice a week at Dundalk Garda Station every Friday and Sunday.

The bail terms also stipulate that he must provide a mobile phone number on which he is contactable at all times. The court heard that garda are in possession of the defendants passport.

Judge Gibbons initially refused a Defence application for legal aid, after he heard the defendant works as a labourer. However, the Defence solicitor argued that that her client was earning 350 per week and has to pay 100 in rent from that.

She added that she was instructed that as he defendant had been in custody since the day before, his position may no longer be there.

Judge Gibbons said he would reserve judgement on the legal aid application and told the defendant to produce his wage slips for last year and the Northern Ireland equivalent of his P60, for the judge in Virginia on the next court date.
(Xinhua) 10:32, August 12, 2017

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 11 -- China and Mongolia should enhance healthy and stable development of bilateral relations, said visiting Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou.

China attaches importance to bilateral ties, and the two sides should implement important consensuses reached by their leaders, enhance mutual trust, and respect the core interests and major concerns of each other, said Kong during his visit from Aug. 9 to 11.

The two countries should enhance the docking of development strategies, promote practical cooperation and cultural exchanges, he added.

Kong also expressed great concern over the wrong words and deeds regarding the Tibet issue that occurred in the landlocked country, and demanded Mongolia strictly follow its promise, properly handle the sensitive issue and safeguard the political foundation of bilateral ties.

The Mongolian side maintained that developing relations with China has always been the country's key foreign policy and it will adhere to the one-China policy. Mongolia is willing to work with the Chinese side to promote further development of bilateral ties.

During his visit, Kong met with Mongolian Prime Minister Jargaltulga Erdenebat and Foreign Minister Tsend Munkh-Orgil, among others, and attended the Third Strategic Dialogue between the two countries' foreign ministries.
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Not one, but two anniversaries framed the festive beginning of the new school year at Glashutte Original: on August 1, 2017, 11 future female and male watchmakers and 2 future toolmakers, a young woman and a young man, began their course of studies. This year the Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding in 2002. In addition, the traditional ceremonies marking the beginning of the school year saw the 13 new students welcomed as the 10th cohort to begin learning their craft in the School's modern premises, inaugurated in 2008 in the landmark building that once housed the German Watchmaking School Glashutte, founded in 1878.

The new arrivals bring the number of apprentices currently learning their trade at Glashutte Original to more than 50. They follow in the footsteps of some 200 successful graduates who began their careers in the manufactory in the years since 2001, when the current training programme began. In the opening days of their studies the members of the class of 2017 were introduced to the persons responsible for their training and to the School's classrooms and workshops. In addition they gained inspiring insight into the past and present of their craft during tours of the German Watch Museum Glashutte and the manufactory production facilities.

In order to ensure the future of the craft, the Glashutte watchmaking industry has always placed considerable emphasis on comprehensive theoretical and practical training. Aware of its responsibilities in this regard, Glashutte Original is committed to continuing this tradition with its own Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking. In bright, well-lit classrooms, experienced watchmakers make use of state-of-the-art technology to pass on their tradecraft to their students. To this end, tomorrow's watch experts also take part in a number of handson training sessions in selected departments of the manufactory, where they learn to make practical use of the knowledge and skills they have acquired.

The special career opportunities offered by the Glashutte Original training programme are underscored by the fact that again this year, students from several different regions of Germany will begin their studies here. Thanks to the School's partnership with WOSTEP (Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program) the young graduates can earn, in addition to their German leaving certificate, a Swiss diploma  thus opening up international career prospects.
The European Union has responded to the North Korean threats to send a salvo of missiles toward the US territory of Guam by expanding the sanctions blacklist to align the EUs punitive measures with a new United Nations Security Council resolution. Brussels has added nine individuals and four entities including state-owned Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) to its sanctions list, thus bringing the total number of individuals listed by the EU to 103 and 57 entities. The EU had previously repeatedly used punitive measures such as asset freezes and travel bans due to violations of UN resolutions on its nuclear and ballistic programs.

This resolution was adopted on 5 August 2017 in response to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)s ongoing nuclear-weapon and ballistic missile-development activities, in violation and flagrant disregard of previous UN Security Council resolutions, the EUs statement said. In response to North Koreas tests of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) that could reach the US mainland as far as Chicago and New York, the UN last week imposed the most severe restrictions so far aimed at curbing the countrys vital export income. Brussels is moreover looking into the ways to curb earnings sent home by North Koreans working abroad.

Federica Mogherini also added that the EU was maintaining a dialogue with South Korea who is playing a leading role. We believe that the solution to tensions on the peninsula lies in the peninsula itself and that Seoul has to have full ownership and leadership in the way forward, including through confidence-building measures. Seoul has extended an invitation to Pyongyang to initiate military to military dialogues and Mrs. Mogherini said that the EU is ready to support these efforts in all possible ways. The EU has a policy of critical engagement towards North Korea and its goals are to support a lasting diminution of tensions on the Korean peninsula and uphold the international non-proliferation regime.
Kelly Isbell, who was fired in May from her position as founding principal of a tech-themed early college high school that opens Monday, has sued the San Antonio Independent School District, the principal who replaced her and a consultant who works for the school on behalf of tech industry partners.

The suit, filed here Tuesday in state district court, claims Isbell was fired as part of a power play by the consultant, Jeanne Russell, and the new principal, Melissa Alcala.

Isbell helped create the Design and Technology Academy at Roosevelt High School and worked for the Alamo Colleges educator preparation program as a field supervisor before SAISD hired her in December to lead and help design CAST Tech, the first in a network of career-focused high schools created with H-E-B funding.

Isbell was hired under a probationary contract that could be ended if the SAISD board determined it serve(s) the best interests of the District. On May 9, the day after trustees voted to terminate the contract, the district notified Isbell by letter that it would take effect June 30. Isbells lawyer, Austin-based Terry P. Gorman, said she was never given any further reason and her firing was unwarranted.

Theres nothing going on here other than, apparently, personalities and drama, Gorman said.

The suit claims Russell and Alcala conspired to execute a coup to replace Isbell, who is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Russell, Alcala and Russells business, Mission Street Consulting.

Russell, a former San Antonio Express-News reporter and editor, is married to former state Rep. Mike Villarreal. She is paid to support CAST Techs development on behalf of an advisory committee of local tech industry representatives.

Isbell also seeks a declaratory judgment that SAISD improperly fired her, Gorman said.

Isbell had worked to secure in-district charter status and a startup grant for the new school, helped develop its curriculum, worked to renovate its space at Fox Tech High School, recruited students and collaborated with industry partners on the schools technology.

SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price declined to comment on the suits particulars, calling the claims baseless.

Russell also denied the allegations, saying, I never met Melissa Alcala until after she was hired.

On the morning of April 20, Russell emailed Isbell asking about matters on Isbells schedule that day, the lawsuit states. Later that day, SAISD administrators suspended Isbell, effective the following day. Gorman said Isbell was told her contract would be terminated, but not why. Isbell received nothing in writing when placed on paid administrative leave, Price said.

During the meeting, Toni Thompson, the associate superintendent for human resources, asked whether Isbell had communicated with Russell about the cancellation of meetings with industry partners that had been scheduled for that afternoon, according to the lawsuit.

The district posted a job opening for Isbells replacement April 21 and closed the posting May 8, hours before the board voted to fire her.

During the public comment portion of the May 8 board meeting, Isbell told trustees, I would ask you to see any evaluations about me because I never received any. Ive not received a single email across this entire year or letter that says that Ive ever done anything poorly.  So I would ask you to recognize the challenges of politics in this particular situation.

The district announced Alcalas hiring on May 15. She was then the director of the STEM Academy magnet school in North East ISD.

All of that is evidence of people preplanning a course of events, Gorman said.

The district denied a grievance Isbell filed challenging her termination, and denied her appeal. At both hearings, she asked why she was fired and got no answer, Gorman said. Isbell plans to ask the board for a hearing, the third stage of the grievance process, he said.

AMalik@express-news.net
A train collision near Alexandria on Friday left at least 41 dead and 179 injured, a statement from the health ministry read.

One of the trains was travelling from Cairo to Alexandria, and the other from Port Said to Alexandria.

The transport ministry said in an official statement that the train coming from Cairo to Alexandria crashed into the back of the train coming from Port Said to Alexandria, which was stationary at Khorshid station when the collision occurred.

The driver of the Cairo-Alexandria train has surrendered himself to police and has been transferred to El-Raml police station in Alexandria pending investigations, according to Al-Ahram Arabic website.

Khorshid station is on the Cairo-Alexandria line southeast of Alexandria on the Mediterranean.

Egypt's prosecutor-general, Nabil Sadiq, has ordered an urgent investigation into the collision.

Speaking on Friday evening, President El-Sisi expressed his condolences to the victims and ordered government bodies to follow up on developments from the deadly collision, and to form investigative work teams in order to identify the reasons behind the accident and hold those responsible to account.

Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said that the dead were transferred to Koum El-Dekka morgue, while injured passengers are mainly at El-Mery, El-Gomhoria, Ras El-Tin, and Mostafa Kamel hospitals.

Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali has said that the ministry will provide EGP 50,000 in compensation to the families of those killed.

Compensation for those injured will be determined on a case-by-case basis, Al-Ahram reported.

The American embassy in Cairo wrote on Twitter that "Our thoughts & prayers w/ families of those killed & injured in today's train crash. We stand with the Egyptian people in this hard time.

A number of other foreign missions in Cairo have also expressed their condolences following the deadly accident, including the Ukrainian, British and German embassies.

El-Sisi has also received condolences from a number of Arab countries, including Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Ahmed El-Gaber Al-Sabah, Jordanian King Abdulluh, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to MENA.

Mass-casualty train accidents in Egypt are not unknown.

A train derailment in Badrashin in Giza killed at least 19 people in 2013.

In 2012, a collision between a train and school bus on a rail crossing in the town of Manfalut in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

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San Antonio City Councilman Manny Pelaez criticized Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for failures in Austin that will result in San Antonio picking up the states slack.

The citys proposed $2.7 billion budget set for approval next month would fund areas for which Pelaez says the state is responsible. But Patrick and Abbott are too busy spending millions of dollars on culture-war issues and wedge issues, he said, instead of working on reducing our tax burden for working-class families.

Our foster-care system is broken, and that impacts us. That actually adds dollars that we have to spend that is set out in this (budget) book. Our Child Protective Services doesn't have enough money to be adequately responsive to kids who are vulnerable in our community, and that adds money we have to spend in this book, said Pelaez, who represents District 8 on the North Side.

And we've got maternal mortality rates in Texas that are higher than some African counties, and that adds money that we have to spend in this book. And their big plan, the governor and lieutenant governor, is to chase people out of bathrooms and pick a fight with Mayor (Ron) Nirenberg and say we're at fault for all the problems that this state faces.

"I guess that passes for leadership in Austin these days. I don't think that passes for leadership in San Antonio, he said.

An attorney and freshman councilman, Pelaez encouraged San Antonians to call the Capitol and demand an apology, or, maybe cut it out with the theater of culture wars and get to the business of doing their jobs so we dont have to.

He also suggested that Jeff Coyle, the citys director of Government & Public Affairs, go to Austin to bring that message to the states leaders.

City Manager Sheryl Sculley said in an interview afterward that Coyle would continue to do his job in a professional manner.

We will advocate on behalf of the city of San Antonio. The council has taken a policy position to oppose revenue caps, to allow us to annex areas for the city of San Antonio, to oppose the S.B. 4  sanctuary cities-immigration bill, she said. And so were continue to follow the City Council policy direction on the bills at the Legislature and not let it get personal but rather keep it professional.

The councilman noted that Patrick said in a recent interview that Texans are happy with their state government and upset with local officials. Patrick, he said, blames local governments for a bevy of problems, including an increased tax burden.

Its hypocrisy because instead of exhibiting leadership in Austin to bring real tax reform to my neighborhoods, Gov. Abbott and the lieutenant governor are peddling a real hidden tax on homeowners by way of a 13.81 appraisal and tax increase over the next two years, Pelaez said. And my neighbors in District 8 and your neighbors, Councilwoman Viagran, in District 3, shouldn't be expected to suffer the consequences of the lieutenant governor or the governor's trying to play this dishonest shell game with their refusal to adequately fund schools.

And they're hoping you won't have the time or the interest in going and digging into their budget and looking at the funding formula that literally states  and I'm going to quote it for you because this is what is says  Property values and the estimates of local tax collection on which they are based shall be increased by 7.04 percent for 2017, and by 6.77 percent for 2018.

The councilman continued, saying that capping property tax revenues could ultimately end up costing San Antonio money through a wounded credit rating.

Pelaezs fiery rebuke comes amid a legislative special session, capping a year seen as an attack on local control.

The Legislature has gone after municipalities ability to regulate tree canopy, protect the LGBT community from discrimination, annex land, ban handheld-phone use while driving, and tax their residents, among other things.

The cap that state lawmakers are considering for property-tax revenue growth in cities and counties would do nearly nothing for the average homeowner while having potentially devastating effects on the municipal budget, local officials say.

JBaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh
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Nearly a half-century after he left the battlefields of Vietnam, Eddie Neas this week completed a mission of another kind: Presenting the weathered and tarnished dog tag of a serviceman who died there to the mans family in Texas.

Neas, who is from New Jersey, delivered a single dog tag to Magnolia resident Brian Freed. The dog tag belonged to Freeds brother, Marine Lance Cpl. David Freed, who was killed in action in September 1968 during the Vietnam War.

Neas came upon the dog tag during a return trip to Vietnam in 2016 and set out to find Freeds family.

Through tears, Neas and Brian Freed came together Tuesday before a packed Magnolia City Council chambers to honor David, who was only 19 at the time of his death.

Everybody has a piece of the puzzle, Neas said. The piece of the puzzle for me was this dog tag. I dont know why I was selected, but I found a dog tag and I had to do something with it.

The journey of David Freeds dog tag home from Vietnam began almost 18 months ago. Neas traveled back to Vietnam in March 2016 as part of the College of the Ozarks Patriotic Education Travel Program.

College of the Ozarks is a private, Christian, liberal arts college in Point Lookout, Missouri.

A group that included Neas, 11 other veterans and a dozen students traversed cities such as Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi, Da Nang, Hue City, Dong Ha and Hanoi to learn more about the war.

While in Khe Sahn, a Vietnamese peddler approached me, Neas recalled during his presentation. He was selling items on a tray, pieces of shrapnel, spent bullets  but what caught my eye was a dog tag with the initials D.B. Freed  and on it the letters USMC.

At that moment, Neas knew what he had to do. After haggling with the peddler, Neas purchased the dog tag for the equivalent of $25 and set in motion his quest to return the dog tag to the fallen Marines family.

I was not going to leave without it, he said.

Back at his hotel, Neas began an internet search to find D.B. Freed.

The first thing I did was go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and put his name in, Neas recalled. I found out that David was KIA in September 1968. Emotions hit me.

Neas and several students discovered that a Lance Cpl. Freed was born in New Jersey, not far from where Neas and his wife, Linda, live. Neas also learned that the soldier was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery. I saw his site was maintained by his brother Brian.

Neas emailed Brian. But the process stalled  Neas had referred to David as Dennis. Brian responded that it was not his brother.

Then Neas realized his error. I apologized to Brian, but a month or two went by without a response, Neas said. I had to start making this right.

Neas then reached out to several veterans groups. With help from several veterans, Neas located Brian Freed and his family in Texas and tried to contact him via Facebook. A self-described internet skeptic, Brian Freed discarded Neas information, thinking there was no way it could be true.

In a last-ditch effort, Neas contacted the Magnolia Police Department to see if they could help. Police Chief Terry Enloe and Administrative Assistant Martha Mueller tracked down Freed and went to his home.

Because of the chief and the city of Magnolia, I am here tonight to return this dog tag to Davids family where it belongs, Neas said.

Freed, a quiet man, was overcome by emotion as he held the dog tag for the first time.

I was 10 years old when he died, Freed said. I didnt get to know him. I miss him. This means more than Eddie will ever know.

Freed said he is grateful to Neas for returning his brothers dog tag. Neas said it was his duty.

I had to do something, Neas said. People ask, Why didnt you keep it? Because it isnt mine. They ask, Why didnt you leave it in Vietnam? Because it doesnt belong there.
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AUSTIN  A bill approved by the House on Friday that clarified protections for military bases is an acceptable compromise, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, but city officials remain concerned about a Senate-backed measure that restricts cities abilities to preserve trees.

With just five days left in the special session, it remains to be seen whether the two legislative chambers can reach final agreement on either one of the local control measures.

After weeks of slow going, Friday marked a milestone as lawmakers sent their first four bills to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. They included so-called sunset bills, considered must-pass legislation, that Abbott immediately signed into law to keep critical state agencies open past September.

The annexation bill, which includes the military buffer zone, was hotly debated before the House voted 124-15 to give the measure preliminary approval. Senate Bill 6 by Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, would limit the power of big cities to expand their boundaries by requiring a vote from landowners in the targeted area.

In a last-minute amendment, lawmakers clarified that residents living within 5 miles of a military base could vote whether to be annexed. But if they say no, cities would still have power to regulate land use in the area so development doesnt interfere with base operations.

This is an acceptable compromise, Nirenberg said in a statement after the vote. It gives people the right to vote on annexation and protects Texas military bases.

The so-called military buffer zone remains a point of contention with the Senate, which approved a much smaller quarter-mile distance.

San Antonio city officials have argued anything less than 5 miles is arbitrary because that radius is a recommendation from a military Joint Land Use Study. Annexation reform failed during the regular legislative session as the result of a filibuster by San Antonios Sen. Jose Menendez amid concerns that the protections for military installations fell short.

The bills champion in the House, Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, said Friday hes hopeful the Senate will agree with the changes and get it quickly to Abbotts desk.

I feel pretty good about it. I think were in good shape, Huberty said.

Campbell could not be reached for comment Friday.

San Antonio officials raised new concerns with a bill the Senate approved 17-4 that would limit cities authority to regulate tree removal. House Bill 7 now returns to the House for consideration of Senate changes.

The bill wouldnt go as far as property-rights advocates say it should, but its still a concern to cities including San Antonio. City officials particularly object to a proposed ban on tree restrictions on platted land outside city limits but within a municipalitys extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Democratic Sens. Carlos Uresti of San Antonio and Menendez cited similar military concerns, saying they arent addressed by a provision of the bill that would provide for a 5-mile buffer zone around military installations in which tree removal could be regulated by cities. Uresti unsuccessfully offered an amendment to remove the restriction on regulations within a citys extraterritorial jurisdiction.

More for you Annexation in Texas: What you need to know

The buffer zone isnt enough to ward off the prospect of the endangered golden-cheeked warbler making its home at Camp Bullis if its nearby habitat is destroyed, interfering with training exercises, they said.

Campbell discounted those concerns, saying all senators support the military but that there are a lot of trees in the Central Texas area that provide warbler habitat.

I think we have to have policies for people, not warblers, said Campbell.

Menendez responded, Actually its about both.

He cited other benefits of urban trees including their role in flood control and improved air quality. San Antonios ordinance regulates developers in a move sparked by clear-cutting of trees, but it doesnt restrict homeowners, he emphasized.

The bills sponsor, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said she had listened to all sides in crafting the latest version of the measure, which backs off some provisions that were added in a Senate committee to which cities had objected.

I believe that this is a beginning of a conversation, not the end of a conversation here in Texas, and its been a long time coming, Kolkhorst said. Most people in Texas think they own the trees on their land, but in actuality, depending on what city youre in or what deed restrictions you have, you dont.

Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, voiced concern that the bill was not strong enough, saying it was close to a bill that was was approved in the regular session and vetoed by Abbott, who then put the issue on the special session agenda. But Burton said she was voting for it because she believed it would be an improvement over the current situation for property owners.

Its about property rights. And when you own your land, that is your property, and those are your trees, Burton said.

In addition to the sunset legislation, two bills the Senate passed Friday were sent to Abbotts desk. The chamber voted 22-9 for a bill thats meant to ensure reporting of abortion complications. Physicians eventually could face license revocation if they didnt make required reports.

We can learn a lot about patient care and health issues related to abortions from collecting this data, said Campbell, sponsor of the measure.

The chamber voted 21-10 to send to Abbott legislation that would increase penalties for mail-in ballot fraud. The bill would make it a felony instead of a misdemeanor to intentionally submit false information on a mail-in ballot application or knowingly submit or alter an application without a voters knowledge.

Democrats mostly opposed the bill, worried about a provision in the bill that would make it a felony to try to influence a person  including a family member  when they have a mail-in ballot.

This bill has many unintended consequences, Menendez said.

But state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, argued the legislation is needed because mail-in ballot voting is a prime target for illegal voting and election fraud.

Jeremy Wallace of the Austin Bureau contributed to this report.

AMorris@express-news.net
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AUSTIN  Ambulance providers are fighting a payment cut proposed by the state, warning it could decimate service in rural areas and put pressure on local taxpayers to make up the losses.

The Health and Human Services Commission is recommending lower Medicaid reimbursement rates  which would cut payment by as much as 37 percent for services including basic and advanced life support  to bring Texas in line with other states, according to Executive Commissioner Charles Smith.

The rates arent yet final, but already they are drawing fire from lawmakers and providers alike. Twenty-two state senators and 52 House members signed onto letters this week calling for reconsideration of the cuts they said could be catastrophic to many Texas EMS agencies.

The San Antonio Fire Department stands to lose an estimated $600,000 a year  roughly half the cost of operating one of its 34 full EMS ambulances  should the new rates take effect Oct. 1, as proposed, according to Deputy Fire Chief Carl Wedige.

The changes are part of a Medicaid rate review the state undertakes every few years, Smith said. To arrive at the proposed payments, the commission found rate information online for 35 other states, calculated the average cost and adjusted Texas rates accordingly.

As we went through the review we found that  Texas rate of payment was considerably higher than the mean and the median, Smith told the House Human Services Committee on Wednesday. This recommendation was to get us back in line for what other Medicaid states were paying.

Lawmakers, however, questioned the validity of comparing Texas to other states as a way to set Medicaid rates.

Some pointed to a years-old state report that many now consider flawed, but that at the time led to dramatic cuts to a Medicaid therapy program for disabled children. During the special session, the House voted unanimously to reverse those reductions.

EMS providers said the rate review should have taken into account factors such as geography, demographics and population density that set Texas apart from other states.

There may be one or two states in the country that could compare to us geographically as far as vastness, said Jonathan Sell of Booker EMS, who told the committee his average transport distance is 112 miles. The state as a whole is really not comparable to most of the states that we are comparing these rates to.

As it stands now, state Medicaid reimbursements dont cover the full cost of treating and transporting patients to the emergency room, EMS providers said. San Antonio recoups only about 60 percent of its costs and the city is forced to cover the shortfall, Wedige said.

Since the rate changes were unveiled, Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said he has been flooded with letters from providers worried about having to reduce the number of ambulances they have in service.

Given how massive Houston is, reducing it by a couple of vehicles could mean that your trip to the hospital, instead of being 10 to 15 minutes, is now 30 minutes. And that could be someones life, Wu said.

Overall, nine of the rates for ground ambulance services would drop, one would increase and eight would not change, according to commission documents. Reimbursement for basic life support during emergency transport would decrease from roughly $240 to $158 under the proposal.

While some of the recommended rate changes were based on an average of costs in 34 states, others were calculated using data from as few as five, commission documents show.

HHSC is proposing to lower the Texas Medicaid reimbursement for routine disposable supplies by nearly 40 percent, based an average of rates paid in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arkansas and Alabama, the documents show.

For the review, the commission drew from Medicaid rates that were publicly available, according to a spokeswoman. Fourteen states, including New York, New Mexico and Kansas, were not included in the analysis.

Smith said the commission will take into account public feedback before finalizing the rates, which are set to take effect in less than three months.

We will do an across-the-board effort in trying to make the rates livable and manageable, he said.

AMorris@express-news.net
The Environmental Protection Agency just did an about-face on a federal ozone standard.

Two months ago, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his agency would extend an October deadline for deciding which U.S. cities do not meet limits on ozone.

The EPA now says it will make that decision by Oct. 1, according to Thursdays Federal Register. That means San Antonio is again at risk of being found not in compliance with a 2015 ozone standard. The city is the largest in Texas and among the largest in the U.S. whose air meets all federal standards.

Nonattainment is government jargon for not meeting the standard, and it would likely slow federal transportation funding for new road projects and make it more difficult for industries expanding or relocating to San Antonio to get air-quality permits.

San Antonios ozone levels are probably not high enough to trigger vehicle emissions inspections, like those in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Travis and Williamson counties volunteered to require these tests starting in 2005.

Ozone, a key component of smog, irritates and damages the lungs and has been shown to worsen chronic conditions like asthma. San Antonios ozone levels have been trending down, but the long-term average used for regulatory purposes is 74 parts per billion, above the standard of 70 parts per billion.

That ozone level could cost Bexar County and its seven neighboring counties $117 million to $1.2 billion, according to one estimate by Steve Nivin, assistant professor of economics at St. Marys University.

That is, unless Pruitt changes his mind again.

The Administrator may still determine that an extension of time to complete designations is necessary, but is not making such a determination at this time, the Federal Register post states.

Faced with turbulence at the federal level over the ozone rules and a veto by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of $1.5 million in local air quality funding, local officials are spending more money to study San Antonios ozone levels and educate the public on what they can do to improve them.

The fact that nonattainment is now back on the table, I dont think its a big surprise, said Doug Melnick, the citys chief sustainability officer.

Were not caught with our pants down, he added. Were still moving forward. Were still doing what we have to do regardless of whats going on with the federal government, as per the direction of (the City) Council.

San Antonios fiscal 2017 budget included $75,000 for a health study to look at how ozone is affecting residents. That report, by consulting firm Ramboll, is being peer-reviewed and will likely be released in September, Melnick said.

A 2016 nationwide study by New York University and the American Thoracic Institute estimated San Antonios ozone levels lead to 52 preventable deaths per year.

Another $75,000 went to communications and education, which included city-sponsored Breathe Today, SA Tomorrow ads, local broadcast interviews and roundtables with bloggers, the tech industry and the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, Melnick said.

The city plans to hold community meetings this fall to talk about air quality with the public at large, he said.

San Antonios proposed budget for 2018 includes $150,000 for air quality issues.

After the governors veto, CPS Energy officials also committed $135,000 to maintain a network of ozone monitors, and cement companies and a South Texas energy trade group kicked in $60,000 to develop pollution inventories.

The money partly replaces cuts of state funding to the Alamo Area Council of Governments, a consortium of cities, towns and counties that has for years taken the lead on local air quality. AACOG is still trying to figure out exactly what the EPAs intentions are, Director Diane Rath said.

Clearly, they have withdrawn the stay and theyre moving forward with implementation, she said. But when you read his statement, it really does leave quite a few questions.

The EPA now says it intends to reassess whether some cities have underlying technical issues, whether it wants to stick to recommendations made by states and whether some cities have enough information for the EPA to make a decision.

The EPA believes this re-evaluation will help ensure that more Americans are living and working in areas that meet national air quality standards, the Federal Register post states.

That may mean the EPA will factor in how much of San Antonios ozone-forming emissions come from outside the region, including Mexico, and how unusual weather patterns have caused recent ozone spikes, Rath said.

The EPAs decision will also affect the state, said David Brymer, director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Qualitys Air Quality Division.

First, the agency would have to prove to the EPA that it has adequate staff, regulations and air monitors in place, he said. It would then have to develop an inventory of ozone-forming emissions from power plants, industrial sites, cars, trucks, small engines and chemical use, he said. This typically takes three years, he said.

The TCEQ would also assist in assuring that projects funded by the Federal Highway Administration or the Federal Transit Administration would not make local air quality worse. This transportation conformity demonstration is usually due within a year of the EPAs decision on ozone standards, Brymer said.

Coming back into attainment would take at least three years, he said. Thats the amount of time it takes to develop an average level the EPA will use to see if San Antonios ozone has dropped below the standard.

BGibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
AUSTIN  A band of state senators voted to strip $1.5 billion from the leading school finance bill Friday, laying waste to a plan by the Texas House that would boost state allocations per student and provide additional funds for children with special needs.

The action by the Senate Education Committee Friday marks the second time the state Legislatures two chambers have wrestled over whether and how to alter the states school funding formula in light of a court ruling last summer that found Texas public school funding system was constitutional but in need of legislative repair.

The Senates Education Committee chairman said Friday hes willing to negotiate with the House to come up with a plan we can live with during the final days of the special legislative session.

Our big goal is to redo the whole school finance, but there are certain situations that arent going to be sustainable in the next two years, said Chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. Well work with (the House) on some of those things we can add that are more modest in keeping the overall price tag down.

State Rep. Dan Huberty, Taylors counterpart on the House committee, refused to say what parts of his school finance bill are non-negotiable, but said he plans to work with the senator over the next few days in hopes they can find agreement.

We want $1.8 billion, said the Republican from Humble. They obviously dont have that in the bill, so I look forward to sitting down and talking with him. Weve got time to get things done. Im optimistic.

The stakes are high for lawmakers to pass a bill that could change how the state funds education for 5.3 million children in public schools, but the Legislature will need a Herculean effort to pass a bill both the House and Senate can get behind by the time the special session ends Wednesday.

Tasked by Gov. Greg Abbott in mid-July to take up the issue in the special session, the House proposed a $1.8 billion rehab of the state formula, adding about $1 billion to boost per-pupil costs to $5,350 from the current $5,140, which would remain unchanged in the Senate version.

The Houses plan also would spend more money on bilingual children and students with disabilities, extend funding for career and technical education through eighth grade and update how the state funds school transportation.

The House bill also sets aside money for school districts now receiving stipends under a state program known as Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction, which is set to expire Sept. 1. Several small school districts may have to shut down without a financial cushion to soften the landing from the end of the ASATR program.

On Friday, however, the Senate committee approved a plan that would add $311 million to the current system, with the extra funds earmarked mostly for small school districts, capital projects for charter and traditional schools and for a hardship grant program for schools affected by the conclusion of ASATR.

Taylor said his plan is to take the Senates version of House Bill 21 to a vote of the full Senate today, then negotiate a deal with the House in a conference committee. He said he expects to add to the bill in negotiations, but stressed the Legislature needs to live within our means and criticized the House version as too expensive.

Its unfortunate that it was put out there, the $1.8 billion, because that was never really money that we had available, Taylor told the committee, adding, It sets this false expectation.

Asked whether the Senate could support the Houses increase to the basic allotment, Taylor said, Obviously, a billion dollars is not within the price range of what we can do.

How to pay for the Legislatures education plans has caused consternation in both chambers. Many lawmakers are reticent to touch the states savings account, known as the Economic Stabilization Fund. Any other spending would likely require lawmakers to put off state-required payments that come due late in the biennium, then figure out in the 2019 legislative session where to find the money to pay the bills.

The Senate would prefer not to change how the state approaches school funding this year and instead wants to create a commission to study large-scale changes to present to the Legislature in 2019. Such a commission would consist mostly of people appointed by the governor and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, neither of whom were eager during the regular session to explore refinements to the states school funding formula.

The House is nonplussed by the idea of a commission. Huberty, who has sat on five such study committees, said the Legislature already knows what changes need to be made to improve the formula.

Both Taylor and Huberty began the week saying they would not pass the others bill to address school finance reform. Those threats softened as the week wore on and talk of negotiations came into play.

The House and Senate had gone to blows over school finance earlier this year in a situation that mirrors the tensions during the 30-day legislative session. During the regular legislative session, the House passed a similar school finance bill over to the Senate, but the upper chamber changed the bill, pulling out much of the Houses adjustments to the school funding formula.

The Senate kept money for school districts phasing out of ASATR and added a school voucher plan that would allow parents to send their children with disabilities to private school with taxpayer dollars.

Both sides refused to budge and the bill died.

The states share of school funding has slipped in recent years, dropping from 46 percent in 2012 to 38 percent projected in 2019, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, forcing local taxpayers to make up the difference.

School board members and superintendents banded together this week to urge the Senate to pass the Houses version of the bill, saying its the only chance this year to meaningfully affect Texas public school children.

Nearly 1,500 top district leaders and board members signed a letter telling the Senate the original proposal provides immediate help to schools across Texas that have been coping with the states diminishing role in funding education.
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Julian Castro isnt talking.

For the former mayor, its a familiar silence. This time, he wont talk about a new political action committee he formed called Opportunity First. At least for now, Castro is declining to speak to any media about the new PAC and whether its a launching pad for a presidential run in 2020.

That could be the greatest indication that its a lanching pad for a presidential run in 2020.

In the past, Castros silence has spoken volumes. He tends to hibernate from media when reporters start to probe his major decisions prematurely  or at least sooner than he would like.

Take 2014, for example. Id learned Castro had accepted an offer from former President Barack Obama to join his Cabinet, but the soon-to-depart mayor refused to comment or confirm the news.

Im not the only one to grapple with Castros quiescence.

In 2015, a profile in The Atlantic of Castro and his twin brother, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, took note of this shared tendency. Author Andy Kroll wrote that he found the brothers exceedingly careful, even for political wunderkinds on the rise, to cloak their candid sides.

In almost every conversation we had, Kroll continued, they danced back and forth between being on the record and off the record  sometimes from one sentence to the next. By the end of our time together, I half expected them to begin their lunch orders by asking the waiter, Can this be on background?

Of course, all this shows a remarkable capacity for discipline and nuance.

But what do discipline and nuance have to do with politics anymore? Our new president is a man who rose to power spraying invective at whoever crossed his path, whether a Gold Star family or a fellow Republican or a female news anchor.

And if the unfolding crisis with North Korea has taught us anything up to this point, its that President Donald Trump will improvise even when millions of lives are at stake. His red line with the isolated Asian nation remains murky, but anyone can draw a clear line from Trumps past behavior to his ongoing refusal to treat a nuclear-armed enemy any differently than he does Rosie ODonnell or Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Take his grab em by the (expletive) quip in 2005.

During his presidential campaign, Trump dismissed the infamous Access Hollywood recording as nothing more than locker room banter. But it revealed in Trump a quality that now continues to animate his presidency: a reckless hyper-masculinity that wont allow for strategic caution.

As president, Trump treats the world like a giant locker room.

Castro, on the other hand, seems most at ease in a library: Shhhhh!

The question now is whether the loudmouthed model of Trump is a fluke or a way forward. Have American politics jumped the shark, or will quiet dignity stage a comeback?

2018 could provide some answers.

Kid Rock has announced that hes running for U.S. Senate, presumably in Michigan. The bleating, rapping rock star from Detroit (real name Robert James Ritchie) is an avid Trump supporter, as well as an avowed lover of booze, hoes and flashy jewelry. In April, he visited the White House with fellow loudmouths Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent.

Here in Texas, Thor Harris, an Austin-based musician, announced on Friday that he would challenge Gov. Greg Abbott next year. (Julian Castro declined to do so.) Harris previously made news when he posted a tutorial on how to punch Nazis and was suspended from Twitter.

Howdy, Harris said in a video posted on Twitter. My names Thor Harris. Im running for governor of Texas. Cuz (expletive) this.

Perhaps, as America tumbles further down the rabbit hole, an unreserved approach to politics has grown more appealing to an increasingly angry, polarized and freaked-out populace.

Perhaps I would have found it incredibly satisfying, both as a reporter and a concerned citizen, if, when I called Castro on Friday to ask whether he formed his new PAC as a launching pad for a presidential run in 2020, he had simply replied, Yes, cuz (expletive) this.

Instead, we all will have to wait a little longer for Castro to speak.

BChasnoff@express-news.net
One of the most renowned paintings in the state-maintained Alamo collection is a 1950s work depicting William Barret Travis, commander of the fortress, defiantly extending a sword while suffering from a gunshot wound to the head in the final seconds before his death along the north wall of the mission-fortress.

Ruth Conerly, an East Texas native and longtime commercial illustrator whose work appeared nationally, felt a strong connection to Travis and carefully researched every element of her full-size painting, Death of Col. William B. Travis, Alamo Commander, which was publicly displayed at the Alamo for more than 60 years. She recalled going to the Alamo for the first time about 1919, when she was 10 or 11, and hearing her grandmother recount stories about Travis  what a fine man he was, and what a pity he had to die that way.

Travis memory has suffered because every book or movie has emphasized Jim Bowie or Davy Crockett, Conerly wrote in a 1986 commentary in the Houston Post.

In preparation for her painting, Conerly meticulously studied what little information was available in the 1950s about the South Carolina native, a lawyer who commanded the Alamo garrison, wrote several famous letters during a 13-day siege that rallied support for the cause of Texas independence from Mexico and was among the first to die, at age 26, in the famous early morning battle on March 6, 1836.

Born in Marshall in 1908, Conerly showed promise as an artist early in life, painting portraits of acquaintances. She won second place in a sculpture competition judged by Gutzon Borglum, who later designed and directed the presidential renderings on the face of Mount Rushmore, often while working out of a studio in San Antonio. According to personal and family accounts, Borglum encouraged Conerly to hone her craft, but warned that opportunities to make money as an artist would be difficult.

At 18, Conerly became art director for Titche-Goettinger department store in Dallas, according to news archives. She later moved to New York, where she worked for various department stores and as an illustrator for a commercial art agency that distributed artwork around the world. After relocating to San Antonio at the start of World War II, she was commissioned to draw illustrations for the U.S. War Bond promotion.

Her life, including her work on the painting of Travis, was chronicled in A Girl From Texas: The Life, Loves and Battles of Ruth Conerly, Americas Extraordinary Artist, by her daughter, Dr. Sharon Smith Wolf (1999, Antigua Odisea Publishers).

In 1953, the Fiesta San Jacinto Association held a competition for Texas artists to submit proposals for a painting to be placed on display in the Alamo.

According to the biography, Claude Aniol, a leading member of the group, asked Conerly to submit work for the contest. She initially declined, worrying about having time to do the work. But she ultimately agreed, even though the $400 prize for the winner was less than what she would end up spending on the purchase of flintlock muskets, Bowie knives and other weapons to ensure visual authenticity. She read books about Travis and studied accounts of his death, including one related by Joe, the commanders enslaved servant who survived the battle.

Though wounded from a shot to the head at the Alamo north cannon station, Travis staggered to his feet and drove his sword into a Mexican officer, then fell with him, according to Joes eyewitness account. Conerly later recalled reading, as part of her research, a letter written by a Mexican soldier to his family. The letter stated that a sharpshooter had been ordered by a commanding officer, identified as Colonel Mora, to climb a tall pecan tree and get that colonel by the cannon on the north wall.

The Mexican soldado reported seeing Travis fall, then pull himself up on the wheel of the cannon and run his sword through Colonel Mora, the two embracing and falling together, Conerly would later recall, according to the biography.

In her research, she determined Travis was wounded primarily in the right lobe of the brain. She sought the advice of a doctor familiar with combat trauma. He told her Travis could have used the cannon wheel to lean on, while extending his sword with his right arm, even while his left side was giving out.

Conerlys work won the contest among quite a number of entries, including many excellent ones, Aniol told reporters when the news was reported locally.

For about 42 years, the painting was displayed in the mission-era church of the Alamo and admired by millions of visitors, including U.S. presidents, heads of state and other VIPs. According to the Texas General Land Office, it was taken down in 1995, then displayed in the Long Barrack, after the Texas Historical Commission expressed concern that the painting and other items were trapping moisture within the historic walls of the church.

The painting was removed from the Long Barrack in 2015, when that historic structure was renovated. In a letter last year to Wolf, the Land Office said it had the painting in secure artifact storage, where it remains until a suitable place for its exhibition can again be found at the Alamo. Officials of the city, Land Office and nonprofit Alamo Endowment have begun planning and fund-raising efforts to renovate three state-owned buildings in Alamo Plaza to serve as a new museum and visitor center, providing ample space to display artifacts, visual aids and art related to the historic mission and battle site.

In support of the theory Conerly embraced about the Alamo commanders death, researchers have noted a large pecan tree that grew just outside the Alamo compound, near its northwest corner  in the area of todays Hotel Indigo. Documented accounts also have mentioned a Mexican colonel named Mora at the Alamo.

Bob Sanders, a Travis biographer in Dallas, said he has doubts about the theory, since the unidentified soldados letter has not been formally documented and researched. He questions whether Travis could have been identified by his uniform in the early phase of the battle, which began in the darkness at about 5:30 a.m. He believes Travis could have continued fighting after suffering a head wound from a musket ball or other 1800s ordnance.

Sanders, who first saw the painting at the Alamo when he was 15, said it has always been his favorite image of Travis.

Its the one I always remember, having seen it as a kid, he said. To me, it just captures his defiant spirit.

shuddleston@express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA

COMING MONDAY IN MYSA: The Womans Club of S.A.
The Italian confessed to assaulting the hotel manager after an argument between them

Egypt's prosecution ordered the detention of an Italian tourist pending investigations for beating an Egyptian hotel manager to death in the Red Sea resort of Marsa Alam late Friday, a statement by the tourism ministry read.

The assault took place after the hotel manager warned the tourist, who was standing in a prohibited under construction area in the hotel with his two children, resulting in a heated argument, the ministry said.

The tourist confessed to assaulting the manager and was subsequently arrested.

Director of the general directorate of tourism and antiquities police, Mostafa Ansi, said the tourist was handed over to Marsa Alam police station, adding that forensics will conduct an autopsy Saturday to determine the cause of death.

Emad Fathi, the Egyptian tourism consultant in Italy, said that he is in contact with the Italian consul in Hurghada, Alberto Pratini, to update him on latest developments in the case.

Fathi added that he is coordinating with the Italian embassy in Cairo and the Italian consulate in Hurghada.



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Some 47 of the injured were released today after receiving treatment, while 132 are still hospitalised

Train movement from Cairo to Alexandria resumed on Saturday after the tracks were cleared following Friday's train collision that left 41 dead and 179 injured, the spokesman for the Ministry of Transportation was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA.

On Friday afternoon in Alexandria, a train travelling from Cairo to Alexandria crashed into the rear of another train en route to Alexandria from Port Said. The second train was stationary at Khorsid Station when the crash occurred.

Transportation ministry spokesman Mohammed Ezz said on Saturday that Cairo-Alexandria train traffic would operate on a single line in both directions until a second track that was damaged in the accident is repaired.

Some 47 of the injured were released from hospital on Saturday after receiving treatment, while 132 are still hospitalised, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported, quoting a health ministry spokesman.

Minister of Transportation Hisham Arafat suspended the director general of the West Delta region, the director general of the central region and two traffic monitors until investigations are concluded.

Arafat added that those responsible would be held accountable after investigations are complete.

On Friday evening, President El-Sisi expressed his condolences for the victims and ordered government bodies to form investigative taskforces to identify the reasons behind the accident and hold those responsible to account.

Meanwhile, MP Osama Sharar submitted a request to parliament to sack the transportation minister.

Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek ordered an urgent investigation into the collision shortly after the accident.

On Saturday, Bahraini King Hamad Bin Eissa Al-Khalifa and other top Bahraini officials sent messages of condolences to El-Sisi, expressing sympathy for the victims of the train collision.

El-Sisi has also received condolences from Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Ahmed El-Gaber Al-Sabah, Jordanian King Abdullah, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to MENA.

The American embassy in Cairo has also extended its condolences.

"Our thoughts & prayers w/ families of those killed & injured in today's train crash. We stand with the Egyptian people in this hard time, the embassy said on Twitter on Friday.

Other foreign missions in Cairo to express their condolences include the Ukrainian, British, French and German embassies.

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A Denver judge has dismissed the case brought against Taylor Swift by former radio host David Mueller.

Taylor Swift

Mueller was seeking $3 million in damages after claiming he lost his job at KYGO radio after Taylor's security team accused him of groping her bottom during a meet-and-greet in June of 2013 but US District Judge William Martinez has ruled there is insufficient evidence to support the claim.

Mueller had blamed Taylor directly, rather than 13 Management, and the judge said: "Simply put, it is far too late for the plaintiff to argue that he had filed the wrong claims against the wrong people."

Mueller had sued for damages and loss of future earnings but the judge ruled that he hadn't met his claim as he wasn't asking for a specific amount and had left the jury to decide on an appropriate sum.

While Taylor, 27, has personally been cleared, the case against her mother Andrea and management is still ongoing.

And Taylor's countersuit against the DJ for the symbolic sum of $1, following her claims that he intentionally groped her during the meet-and-greet session, will also proceed.

Taylor testified in court earlier this week and said: "He stayed latched on my bare ass cheek as I lurched away from him, visibly uncomfortably. The first couple of milliseconds, I thought it must be a mistake. I moved to the side very quickly."

Taylor's mother added: "It's absolutely shattered our trust. Our meet-and-greets are much smaller. We have metal detectors. We do background checks. It scared us really badly."
Matthew McConaughey's "devilish quality" landed him his role in 'Dark Tower'.

Matthew McConaughey

The Oscar-winning actor stars as the Man in Black, aka Walter Padick, in director Nikolaj Arcel's adaptation of Steven King's fantasy saga, and he had a great time playing a character who wasn't an "apologetic bad guy".

Arcel said: "One of the first things I told the producers was I really wanted McConaughey to play the Man in Black because I was a fan.

"I'd just seen him in 'True Detective' and 'Dallas Buyer's Club' and I thought he had that devilish quality to him, even though he usually plays good guys ...

"He hadn't read all the novels, he'd read the first one which he loved, and when he read the script he was like, 'Great, so I'm kind of playing the Devil here.' And I was like, 'Sure'.

"He was relishing the fact this wasn't the apologetic bad guy. I know it's a big trend, and I agree with that trend, that for villains in modern cinema you have to figure out what their motivation is and it can't be pure evil, but for Walter ... really he is pure evil. There's no redeeming him. Matthew was like, 'I'm going to enjoy this', and he certainly did."

And for the director, "coolest badass" Idris Elba was his immediate choice for the Gunslinger/Roland Deschain.

He told SciFiNow magazine: "There was a list of ideas for Roland and Idris was very high on that list. I was a huge fan from 'The Wire' and so on, so I immediately said, 'Well I think Idris Elba's the most exciting of all these to play Roland, and everybody was like, 'Yeah, we absolutely agree'.

"It's got to be Idris because he's the coolest badass. I just had to see him with the guns, he had this aura."
Fethiye Times Charity News  our pick of recent news and events from local charities.

Kedi Evi is an independent organisation that operates under the umbrella of Animal Aid Fethiye and FETAV.

Kedi Evi is run solely on donations. They provide food for adult cats and kittens, dog food for the free runners, and special recovery food for sick cats, as well as a host of other things.

They recently lost their premises and are currently looking for a piece of land with a building, to resume their activities. The volunteers still have a number of cats and kittens who are being fostered but have no capacity to take on any more are now looking to open their own sanctuary in the local area where sick, old & very young street cats can be looked after for as long as is needed.

The hunt is on to find a piece of land, with electricity and water supply and easy access for volunteers, that can be donated for the use of the Kedi Evi free of charge.

In the meantime, any monies raised will either be put aside for this new venture or used to help support volunteers and fosterers who are currently housing cats in their own homes.

Friends of Fethiye

In July a Facebook page called Friends of Fethiye, run by Melissa Jones, campaigned to find a local charity to raise funds for. Thanks to an overwhelming response from all their supporters, the Kedi Evi came out on top.

It was decided that a raffle was the best way to raise money and a fantastic selection of prizes were donated by local businesses. Tickets sold for 5 each and the raffle took place on Thursday 3rd August with a staggering 490 being raised.

Susan Cato, Team Leader of the Kedi Evi, along with fellow volunteer Sian Midgley, met up with Nicola and Terri of Celebrate in Hisaronu to receive the donation. Sue said Im overwhelmed by the support weve received from the Friends of Fethiye. Every single penny and lira raised goes towards helping the local street animals and we cant wait to get started on our new venture with the new Kedi Evi.

Finally, wed like to give a big shout out to Melissa and all those that donated items for the raffle  Help Beach and Yacht Club, Talk of the Town, Sey Beach Lounge, Istanbul Restaurant, Our House Restaurant, Charcoal Palace in Calis, Animal Excursions, Tommy Ozturk, F1 Go Karting, Baba Tekins boat, DVD Hisaronu, Gunsenin Art, Goldfinger, Ocean Blue Spa, The Soap Lady, Oyster Residences, Restaurant Bay Effeto
Readymade garment exports from Bangladesh shot up by 17.08 per cent in July 2017 to $2.479 billion compared to exports of $2.117 billion in the corresponding month of last year, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau. However, the percentage increase in garment exports was lower than 26.54 per cent growth in overall exports from Bangladesh during the month.

Category-wise, knitwear exports rose 17.28 per cent to $1.263 billion in first month of fiscal 2017-18, as against exports of $1.077 billion during the corresponding month of the previous fiscal, as per the data. Germany was the largest importer accounting for $257.043 million of all knitwear exported from Bangladesh, followed by the United Kingdom with imports of goods valued at $168.781 million.

Likewise, exports of woven apparel increased 16.88 per cent to $1.215 billion during the period under review, compared to exports of $1.040 billion during July 2016. The US was the largest importer with $323.526 million worth of woven clothing supplied by Bangladesh. Germany and the United Kingdom procured woven apparel valued at $166.622 million and $153.587 million, respectively.

Readymade garment exports from Bangladesh shot up by 17.08 per cent in July 2017 to $... billion compared to exports of $... billion in the corresponding month of last year, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau. However, the percentage increase in garment exports was lower than ...per cent growth in overall exports from Bangladesh during the month.#

Woven and knitted apparel and clothing accessories exports together accounted for 77.3 per cent of $3.207 billion worth of total exports made by Bangladesh during the month.

In the previous fiscal that ended on June 30, 2017, garment exports from Bangladesh had increased 0.2 per cent year-on-year to $28.149 billion. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Egypts official statistics agency CAPMAS said on Saturday that 23.6 percent of the countrys population  21.7 million people out of 93 million population are between the ages of 18 and 29, 48.5 percent of whom are members of the workforce and 26.7 percent are unemployed.

The CAMPAS statement, which was issued on International Youth Day, said that 51 percent of the youth are males and 49 percent are females.

Some 62.6 percent of Egypts married males and 83.6 percent of married females fall within this age range, while 23.2 percent of the countrys divorced males and 43.6 percent of divorced females are among the youth.

Of the youth who are part of the workforce, an estimated 67 percent are males and 29.3 percent are females, while unemployment among the youth is at 21.6 percent for males and 38.8 percent for females.

Some 37.7 percent of the unemployed youth hold university degrees, while 29.8 percent of the unemployed youth who hold degrees are male and 48.4 percent are female.

Among Egypts youth, 62 percent use computers, 96.7 percent use mobile phones, and 61.9 percent use the internet, while 76.8 percent of internet users use social media networks Facebook and Twitter.

According to the UNs official website, 2017s International Youth Day is "dedicated to celebrating young peoples contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace".

Since its adoption in 1998, International Youth Day is celebrated every year on 12 August.

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 11, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation ("Booz Allen" or the "Company") (NYSE: BAH and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Booz Allen's securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Booz Allen securities between May 19, 2016 and June 15, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until August 18, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Booz Allen is an American management consulting firm. The Company purports to provide management and technology consulting, engineering, analytics, digital, mission operations, and cyber solutions to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. At all relevant times, Booz Allen has derived substantially all of its revenues from services provided to the U.S. government.

The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Booz Allen engaged in improper accounting practices in its contracts with the U.S. government; (ii) consequently, the Company's revenues derived from services provided to the U.S. government were inflated and unsustainable; (iii) discovery of the foregoing conduct would subject the Company to heightened regulatory scrutiny, potential criminal sanctions, and jeopardize its business relationship with the U.S. government; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Booz Allen's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On June 15, 2017, post-market, Booz Allen disclosed that on June 7, 2017, the Company's subsidiary Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. "was informed that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a civil and criminal investigation relating to certain elements of [its] cost accounting and indirect cost charging practices with the U.S. government."

On this news, Booz Allen's share price fell $7.43, or 18.89%, to close at $31.90 on June 16, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 11, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Tahoe Resources Inc. ('Tahoe' or the 'Company') (NYSE: TAHO) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-05155, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Tahoe securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Tahoe securities between April 3, 2013 and July 5, 2017 both dates inclusive, you have until September 5, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free>, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Tahoe, together with its subsidiaries, explores, develops, and operates mines in the Americas. The Company primarily produces copper, gold, silver, lead/zinc, and natural gas and petroleum, as well as precious metals assets.

On April 3, 2013, Tahoe announced that Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines ('MEM') had granted the Company an exploitation license for the Escobal mine, a large silver mine located in the department of Santa Rosa in Southern Guatemala.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Guatemala's MEM had granted the Escobal mining license to Tahoe's Minera San Rafael subsidiary without prior consultation with Guatemala's Xinca indigenous people; (ii) the foregoing constituted a violation of Guatemalan law and provided a basis for suspension of the Escobal license; (iii) consequently, the Company's revenues associated with the Escobal mining license were unlikely to be sustainable; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Tahoe's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On July 6, 2017, Tahoe disclosed that the Supreme Court of Guatemala had issued a provisional decision suspending the Escobal mining license of Minera San Rafael, a Tahoe subsidiary, in connection with a legal action brought by the human rights organization Centro de Accion Legal Ambiental y Social de Guatemala ('CALAS') against Guatemala's MEM. CALAS alleges that MEM violated the Xinca indigenous people's right of consultation prior to granting the Escobal mining license.

On this news, Tahoe's common share price fell $2.74, or 33.01%, to close at $5.56 on July 6, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - August 11, 2017) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until October 6, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE: MMS), if they purchased the Company's shares between October 30, 2014 and February 3, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

What You May Do

If you purchased shares of MAXIMUS, Inc. and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit http://ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-mms/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by October 6, 2017.

About the Lawsuit

MAXIMUS and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) in obtaining a significant contract ("the HAAS contract"), the Company established unachievable goals for personnel recruitment and performance; (ii) the Company had difficulty meeting the goals in its performance of the contract; (iii) its failure to meet the performance goals would cause MAXIMUS to forfeit the incentive fees under the contract; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, MAXIMUS' financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447
Noida (Uttar Pradesh): As hundreds of angry home buyers of Jaypee Wish Town staged a protest here, the Noida Authority on Saturday promised to protect the interests of the flat owners, saying a plan is being worked out in this regard.

The home buyers gathered at the company office here, shouting slogans against the management and demanding refund of their investments since the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted the insolvency petition filed by IDBI Bank against the debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech.

The protesters demanded that their money be returned first as they fear that if the company is declared insolvent, all their court cases will become ineffective and they will not be able to get possession of their flats and lose their hard-earned money.

According to the SHO of Noida Expressway police station, over 400 people protested at the company's office here, and personnel from four to five police stations were deployed to control them.

Jaypee Infratech is among 12 big corporate loan defaulters against whom RBI has ordered initiation of insolvency proceedings. The company had a debt of about Rs 8,000 crore till March 2017.

The company, which is developing about 32,000 flats and plots across various projects in its township project 'Wish Town' here, has been facing protests and litigation from home buyers due to huge delays in completion of projects.

Meanwhile, Noida Authority CEO Amit Mohan Prasad said, "Hard earned money of home buyers will not be allowed to go down the drain." Asserting that strict action will be taken against the defaulting developers, he said that the Noida Authority is working on rescheduling of the payment plan under which builders will be directed to deposit the dues within a specified period.

The Authority will then take over the unsold apartments and property of the builders and auction it to recover the dues, Prasad said. He said the Authority has written to Uttar Pradesh government seeking approval to take over possession of unsold property of the defaulting builders and recovering dues from its sale.

On the other hand, Union Consumer Affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in New Delhi that the government cannot take any direct action in the matter. "It is a matter of concern. But, we cannot take direct action. Buyers have to approach consumer courts for justice," he said.

Jaypee Infratech has 2500 hectares of land in five parcels of around 500 hectares each. Now the company is planning to sell some unused land to banks to reduce its debt.

The Allahabad bench of NCLT has admitted the petition filed by IDBI Bank under Section 7 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, Jaypee Infratech had said in a regulatory filing a few days back.

This move has caused immense anxiety among the home buyers whose number is said to be around 32,000. Besides Jaypee group, home buyers of Amrapali group are also facing the same situation and are protesting.

The Amrapali group has dues of Rs 1200 crores, and it too has to deliver about 30,000 residential flats to buyers. NEFOMA, an association of home buyers of Noida, was not satisfied with the assurance given by the the Authority CEO. Its president Anu Khan said the state government should take some concrete action to convince the home buyers that their investments are safe.

He said they had met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath four months back, and he had also promised that the government would intervene to help them but nothing has happened.

Khan alleged that the builder is deliberately getting the company declared bankrupt in league with the bank, and a CBI probe should be held into this. Company officials were not immediately available for comments.

On 9 August, the Allahabad bench of NCLT admitted the petition filed by IDBI Bank under Section 7 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. As per the order, Jaypee Infratech has defaulted on Rs 526.11 crore loan outstanding to IDBI.

NCLT has appointed Anuj Jain as the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) to carry out the proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The NCLT has directed that "all the personnel connected with the corporate debtor (Jaypyee Infratech), its promoter or any other person associated with the corporate debtor are under legal obligation to extend every assistance and cooperation to the IRP". The IRP "shall be under duty to protect and preserve the value of the property of the corporate debtor as part of its obligation imposed" on it, NCLT said.

In April, Jaypee group had held a discussion with home buyers in the presence of Noida Authority officials and committed to hand over possession of apartments to all allottees by 2020. The company had informed that working capital of Rs 800 crore was being secured for completion of the Wish Town project. Jaypee Group's flagship company, Jaiprakash Associates, recently sold its cement plant to Ultratech Cements for over Rs 16,000 crore to reduce its debt liability.

Meanwhile, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has made it clear that financial institutions cannot auction the Jaypee property as it was on lease and the authority has first right to recover its dues and then financial institutions can recover their amount.

Real estate sector is facing a multi-year slowdown that has resulted in significant delays in execution of projects, forcing buyers to protest and even file legal cases in various courts.
The first time I was introduced to the concept of a lota party, I was 14 and visiting my ancestral village in western Bihar. Most homes in the village did not have toilets, which meant that women woke up an hour before sunrise. In a single file, they walked to the fields behind the village to defecate in the open. Under the cover of darkness, theyd lift up their sarees and pull down the ghoonghat until it completely covered their faces.

In a race against the sun, these women rush to the canal to bathe and wash before the men of the village wake up at 6 am. For the rest of the day, they would hold on to their bladders.

Most of us in cities dont understand how dire the situation is for women in our villages. And, this is why the Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Padnekar film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is an important film. Keshav (Akshay) and Jaya (Bhumi)s marriage hits a speed breaker as soon as she discovers that her new home doesnt have a toilet. She is expected to join the other women of the village in their lota party at the crack of dawn and relieve herself in the fields.

Almost exactly a year ago, the Tapsee Pannu-Amitabh Bachchan Pink starrer brought the conversation about sexual violence and consent into the mainstream. This year Toilet: Ek Prem Katha explores another issue pertinent to women  access to a toilet  and challenges patriarchy in the process. According to a study by the United Nations, an estimated 600 million Indians still defecate in the open. The lack of proper sanitation contributes to diseases, child malnutrition, and violence against women.

In India, open defecation is not just a rural problem. The increasing number of urban slum dwellers has put a further strain on the already inadequate sanitation infrastructure in our cities. The issue is so critical it featured prominently in Narendra Modis first Independence Day address as Prime Minister.

Brothers and Sisters, we are living in 21st century. Has it ever pained us that our mothers and sisters have to defecate in open? Whether dignity of women is not our collective responsibility. Cant we just make arrangements for toilets for the dignity of our mothers and sisters, he said. Modi also announced his intention to end open defecation in India by October 2, 2019 Mahatma Gandhis 150th birthday.

The second half of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha does seem like a bloated Swachh Bharat PSA. But regardless of its flaws (the film is heavy handed, theres brazen propaganda for the government and its 40 minutes too long), the film reflects a very crucial problem.

Like Pink demonstrated, films have the power to provoke conversations about taboo subjects. Director Shree Narayan Singh does shy away from addressing the beliefs about purity and untouchability that contribute to acceptance of open defecation but he does manage to get the films core message across. And, its peppered with enough romance and humour to keep the audience entertained.

On the surface, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha might be a film about sanitation but the story also has prominent feminist underpinnings.

Bhumi Padnekar's Jaya is a college topper who stands her ground even if it means the end of her marriage. When she is taunted about the women of the village about creating a mountain out of a molehill, she lectures them about safety, health and, most importantly, equality. When Keshav, her 12th-pass husband, is asked if his educated wife will work, he says 'if she wants'.

Considering the current political climate in the country, it is heartening to see Akshay taking on the sabhyata and sanskriti squad who ask jis aangan mein tulsi lagate hai, wahaan shaucch karna shuru kar de?

Only building toilets is not enough to tackle Indias sanitation crisis. People need to be educated on the need for better hygiene. Like Akshay says problem shauch ki nahi, soch ki hai.
New Delhi: Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman has been roped in to compose the music for the Bruce Lee biopic, which is being directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.

"AR Rahman is also doing the music for Bruce Lee," Kapur, who is in Mumbai briefly, told IANS over phone.

Kapur is pre-occupied with the shoot of Little Dragon, an authorised biopic of the martial arts legend and actor Bruce Lee.

The story is a contemporary dramatisation of the 1950's Hong Kong social and political forces that shaped Bruce Lee into the most famous martial-arts star and a significant modern-day philosopher.

Kapur said he is excited about the music that Rahman will compose for the project.

Meanwhile, the filmmaker's young and talented daughter Kaveri too is ready to do a single with Rahman.

"Kaveri and I are going to go to Chennai. She is doing a song with AR Rahman," Kapur said, adding that she will be recording a single and not any song for a film with the Mozart of Madras.

A teenager, Kaveri is Kapur's daughter with actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthi. She has already sung 'Did you know', 'Half a heart' and her latest track is called Again.
It seems the controversies surrounding Bigg Boss Tamil will not die down. According to a report by The Hindu, she has been summoned by police to probe over her alleged suicide attempt during her stint on the show.

Oviya recently exited the show, after completing 41 out of 100 days, on medical grounds.

It was earlier reported that a complaint has been filed at the Nazarathpet police station by an advocate stating that the producers of the show, Star Vijay, and the host Kamal Haasan are solely responsible for Oviya taking such a drastic step during the show.

The complainant has alleged that they had put up a lot of pressure on the actress. During the show, Oviya was seen immersing herself in the swimming pool inside the Bigg Boss house with her nose closed.

In one of the episodes, contestants were required to perform a task where they had to behave like differently-abled individuals and score luxury budget points. The show received much flak from viewers on social media for this particular task, deeming it as being insensitive. The viewers directed their anger towards both the makers of the show and the host Haasan.

Following all this uproar, Haasan took to Twitter and apologised and expressed anger over the fact that the show makers made fun of differently abled people. He even threatened to quit the show.

Oviya, meanwhile, is out of town and the media has been unable to contact her. However, the police has maintained that there is no hurry and they are in constant touch with her manager. In a report by The Hindu, Nazarathpet police Inspector Jaichandran said, "We have recorded the complaint in the Community Social Register (CSR). We spoke to Oviyas personal secretary, who denied that she attempted suicide."
A draft law aimed at lowering the minimum legal age for marriage for girls from 18 to 16 has garnered criticism in parliamentary and political circles.

The draft law was proposed by Ahmed Samih, an independent MP representing the Giza district of Al-Talbiya, who says that lowering the age of marriage would legalise the status of girls who get married at this age regardless of legality.

"Statistics show that 80 percent of girls aged 16 in rural and densely populated urban districts marry with parental consent, even though they are aware that this marriage is illegal," said Samih.

"My draft law aims solve a lot of the problems facing girls who marry and have children at this age."

Samih adds that the law aims to lower the minimum age for marriage so as to "bring it in line with Islamic Sharia."

"I also want to point out that my draft law does not aim to force girls to marry at this age," said Samih.

"Every girl has the right to choose the marriage age she likes. All I want is to make marriage under 18 lawful in order to save girls who marry at this age from all the legal problems they face."

Samih also points out that the age of consent for marriage in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ranges between nine and 13 years old.

Samih's legislative proposal has faced strong attacks from fellow MPs.

The 45-member parliamentary bloc titled Egypt's Bloc of Female MPs described Samih's draft law as "a disaster."

The bloc said in a statement on Friday that "Samih's legislative proposal will only help worsen the population explosion crisis in Egypt."

"This draft law comes at a time when Egypt is already suffering from runaway growth in population, not to mention that it legally contributes to worsening the heavy physiological and psychological problems faced by girls who marry at 16," said the statement.

Margret Azer, a female MP who is a member of the bloc, said that "instead of lowering the marriage age to 16, I intend to draft a law that seeks to raise the age of marriage from 18 to 21 in order to stem the tide of population growth and divorce problems in Egypt."

Azer acknowledges that many girls aged 16 in rural and poor districts in Egypt marry with parental consent, but our job is to stand against this trend because most girls aged 16 in rural areas marry under pressure from their parents and community.

"Most marry at this age because their families need money, not to mention that they mostly marry older men who want to evade legal problems or financial commitments when they divorce."

Azer said that Article 80 of Egypt's 2014 constitution states that "those who are under the age of 18 are to be considered children."

"This means that girls under 18 are children and should not be allowed to marry given the financial, health and legal risks of marriage at this age," said Azer.

Azer also argued that "marriage at 18 does not violate Islamic Sharia, which states that girls reach the age of marriage when they become wise enough."

"To me, girls in Egypt become wise enough when they reach the age 21, because at this age they can judge the husband they want and can bear the burdens of marriage," said Azer.

Female MP Ibtessam Abu Rehab, a member of parliaments human rights committee, said Samih's draft law contravenes the constitution and the marriage law (no.126/2008), which puts the marriage age for girls at 18.

"Samih wants to amend this law to allow girls aged 16 to marry, but we as female MPs will strongly stand against this amendment," said Abu Rehab.

"Marriage at an early age puts young Egyptian girls under heavy physical and psychological stress because it is very difficult for them at this age to bear the burdens of marriage, pregnancy and raising children."

Abu Rehab also claimed that families who allow their girls marry at 16 are usually members of the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafist groups.

"These are the ones who encourage early marriage in Egypt and who preach against birth control on the grounds that this goes in line with Islam," said Abu Rehab.

In response, Samih said he is neither a member of the Brotherhood nor a Salafist.

"I just want to legalise a prevalent phenomenon in the countryside and help girls who marry at 16 get their legal rights," said Samih.

Mohamed Fouad, an MP affiliated with the liberal Wafd Party, told reporters on Saturday that "Samih's draft law is a very bad step that will worsen social conditions in rural areas."

"The Wafd Party believes that when girls reach 18 they become mentally and psychologically mature enough to be allowed to marry," said Fouad, adding that "marriage under 18 will only exacerbate divorce cases and is not in the child's best interest."

"Someone should be asking the question; if a 16-year-old girl is pregnant without an official marriage license, is this not a crime where she is the true victim?" said Fouad.

The Egyptian National Council for Women (NCW) has described a new bill that would lower the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 16 as backwards.

In a statement on Friday, the NCW said that the draft law would lead to a regression in the rights attained by women, and would delay the achievement of desired development in the country.

"It impedes all efforts by the state to overcome the problem of population explosion, and to prevent early marriage, and it does not guarantee the rights of women to complete their studies and choose their life partner, read the statement.

It also pointed to the impact of [early marriage] on the health of women and children and hence society" and said it would contribute to the marginalisation of the role of women in the development process, and public affairs.

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New Delhi: On 11 August, newly appointed Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Prasoon Joshi said that he hoped to carry out his responsibilities in a constructive manner.

The government replaced Pahlaj Nihalani, who has hogged headlines for his controversial decisions, with Joshi in a surprise announcement on 11 August.

"Good intent is the best beginning. Bearing responsibility and doing my best has been my endeavour. I have believed that right and responsibilities are better served with constructive contribution," Joshi told PTI after his appointment.

"One hopes to make a positive difference with the guidance and support of respected minds," he said.

The 45-year-old award winning lyricist will serve as chairperson of the CBFC for a period of three years or until further orders, the information and broadcasting ministry said in a release. The government also reconstituted the existing board.

The new members are Vidya Balan, Vivek Agnihotri, Gautami Tadimalla, Narendra Kohli, Naresh Chandra Lal, Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, Waman Kendre, T S Nagabharana, Ramesh Patange, Vani Tripati Tikoo, Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Mihir Bhuta.

Joshi, a two-time National award-winning lyricist, was born in Almora, Uttarakhand. He is best known for writing songs such as 'Maa' from Taare Zameen Par, 'Bolo Na' from Chittagong and 'Zinda' from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 for his contributions in the field of arts, literature and advertising.

Actor Vidya Balan, one of the newly appointed members of the board said, "I hope to fulfil my responsibilities as a member to the best of my abilities".

"I look forward to this new and exciting phase where our cinema will be allowed to reflect the sensibilities, realities and complexities of the society we are living in today," she added.

Director Vivek Agnihotri told PTI from the US, "With people like Prasoon Joshi and Vidya Balan, we all are very progressive. We are not outsiders and will look at it (films) from fresh angle.
Pahlaj Nihalani actually deserves our sincere vote of thanks. Were it not for his cringing worthlessness, we would've remained indifferent to an obsolete idea that plonks itself on the crossroads of artistic creativity, freedom of speech, the power of a society to self-converse and manages to stifle all these vital signs of a mature democracy.

There should be no space in the new Millennium for an outdated idea that is rooted in our colonial past, and we should be grateful to the bumbling former boss of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for drawing our attention to it.

Nihalani, who turned himself and the institution he headed into a grotesque caricature, has been fired not a day too soon. He had only a few months left of a three-year tenure. Questions will be asked of the NDA government why it persisted with a fawning sycophant as the head of a so-called autonomous institution despite its proclamations of being champions of meritocracy.

The answer isn't tough to find. The self-styled Narendra Modi chamcha was only a manifestation of a deep malaise that afflicts of our public institutions that are treated more as political fiefdoms than centres of excellence. The ideologues or party poodles who sit on top create a culture of toadyism and mediocrity, sap the institutions of efficiency or credibility and erode their ability to contribute meaningfully to national discourse.

In this, the BJP is as guilty as the Congress or the Left.

Weakened public institutions, whether in the fields of health, education or culture, inevitably fail in their purpose and often become subjects of ridicule. For instance, it is one thing to publicise harmful effects of smoking and drinking and create awareness about it and quite another to snip out such instances from movies or carry intrusive textual references during screening of a film. These are heavy-handed ways in dealing with issues of import and are quite often counter-productive.

Nihalani's travails have been documented far and wide. He took the word "nanny state" to dizzying heights and wanted to impose his version of "sanskar" on films by heavily editing out things/words that he deemed inappropriate.

It is tough to imagine a more regressive, prudish anti-intellectual at the helm of a cultural institution. He controlled the length of on-screen kisses, banned cuss words, beeped out the word 'cow' from a documentary, set the parameters of reel intimacy and inflicted random cuts in gay abandon without a care in the world about artistic freedom or creativity.

Interestingly, while he found problems with a "lady-oriented movie" like Lipstick Under My Burkha, refused to certify a movie which portrayed teacher-student romance  he let go untouched some adult comedies filled with sexual innuendoes and double entendres.

His actions were homophobic but he chaffed at the label. He refused to certify a Malayalam film that tackled the concept, gave adult rating to music videos that highlighted it, reportedly clamped down on instances in movies such as Aligarh and yet claimed that we have no problem or concern with the gender of two people in love, as long as they conduct themselves within the guidelines that have been provided to us.

It is pointless, perhaps, to blame a mediocre hagiographer for his idiosyncrasies. The government that indulged him should be questioned. It is heartening to see the ministry for Information and Broadcast repose its faith in an acclaimed professional such as Prasoon Joshi. The lyricist and adman brings to the table competence and skill that was so lacking in the earlier appointment. Smriti Irani, who has freshly taken charge of the portfolio, deserves credit.

Shyam Benegal, whose recommendations for revamping the Cinematograph Act, 1952, still lies in neglect, told IANS: "Prasoon Joshi is an excellent choice. He is a very fine poet and also headed one of the best advertising agencies. So his understanding of the medium is very good."

Joshi's colleagues such as Rensil D'Silva feels he will "be fabulous for the Indian film industry and for censorship norms in the country. Hes a very fair, unbiased man, with a good sense of the audience. Hes the best person to head a board that has lost its direction and to bring it back on track, according to a report in Economic Times.



But therein lies the problem. The idea of film censorship itself is a remnant of an inhibited era. The creativity of the medium of cinema should be sanctified and institutionalized instead of subjecting it to the sensibilities of individuals. A mature democracy does not need a nanny state. It is inconceivable that we need the government to tell us what to watch, or not to watch during the era of internet of things. Censorship is pointless in an era of artificial intelligence. It not only restricts creativity that prevents society from finding solutions through self-reflection, it remains antithetical to the very idea of freedom.

What we need instead is a certifying body that will monitor, not ban or snip, adult content and rate it to be consumed by appropriate audience. In case of a dispute, it could be referred to a tribunal of credible achievers. To think that the state knows what is best for us is an idea that has run its course.
Dear Pahlaj Nihalani,

So long. Farewell.

I am sad to see you go. I hope you know that you will be missed. The last two-year-and-a-half years weve spent together have been so memorable.

It seems like just yesterday when you took over from Leela Samson, who had suddenly resigned over the cinematic masterpiece MSG: The Messenger of God. Samson, along with 12 members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), quit amid complaints of political interference and corruption. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, minister for Information and Broadcasting and a rare piece of eye candy in the corridors of power in Delhi, made all the right noises.

Read on Firstpost  Pahlaj Nihalani removed as CBFC chief: A look at some of his most controversial decisions

No government or political interference in the CBFC is what Rathore promised. Then he promptly named you, Mr Nihalani, a self-confessed BJP person, who has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi his action hero and the voice of the nation to head the board. Detractors said you were being awarded for the viral video Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi (launched before the 2014 general elections). That same Diwali, you proved all your critics right by releasing 'Mera Desh Hai Mahaan', another tribute to Modi. If this is chamchagiri (sycophancy) then I am proud of it, you said. As a wise woman (fine, it was Taylor Swift) once said, Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate so you kept shaking it off.

In this short time, you gave us #SanskaariJamesBond and a U/A certificate to the childrens film The Jungle Book. You worked tirelessly, against public opinion, to protect our weak, impressionable minds from hearing un-sanskaari words like 'intercourse' and watching lady-oriented films. And, then there were all those homosexual films (Unfreedom, Ka Bodyscapes, Aligarh)! All you were trying to do was preserve the fabric of our parampara. After all, like you said, India is a land where people put Gangajal on their face.

The press might have loved you but Bollywood definitely didnt. But they should! The Udta Blank (I agree with you, Mr Nihalani. Using a states name in a film about the drug epidemic in that state is wrong) fracas brought together an industry thats always been divided. Your demand for 89 cuts is what brought Mahesh Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap on the same platform.

This, for me, will always be your biggest contribution to Bollywood. Even greater than Anil Kapoor pulling his lungi and singing Khada Hai, khada hai, khada hai while trying to lure Juhi Chawla into bed.

Its such a shame your three-year tenure was so abruptly cut short. There was so much more we still needed you to censor and ban. You promised to censor films online. And, what about films that dont get censored before they are screened at international film festivals? Who will ban smoking and drinking on screen? *sob*

In your place, we now have Prasoon Joshi, a writer of poems and new-fangled ads. Will he even know that words like saala and saali need to be banned or how long a sanskaari kiss should be? Will he cut the troublesome Anurag Kashyap down-to-size? Will he be dictatorial and love Modi as much as you did? Like you, I also hope that your successor doesnt succumb to false notions of liberalism propagated by the pseudo-progressive elements in our film industry and work in a direction opposed to mine.

The age of Sanskaari Nihalani has come to an end. The only thing stopping me from collapsing into a puddle of tears is your promise I am returning to my first love, film production, in a big way.

Lets not say our final goodbyes as yet. I have a feeling well meet again soon.

Yours truly,

Karishma Upadhyay
One of the most controversial faces of the recent times, the 27th chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Pahlaj Nihalani's sacking from his seat has brought a sigh of relief to many, especially folks from the film industry.

With the amount of ill repute that Nihalani had earned over these years as CBFC supremo, this move by the government did not come as a big surprise. His actions, decisions and most importantly his certain statements towards films and their scenes, without thinking about the social ramifications, brought about this fate unto him.

Films like Udta Punjab, Lipstick Under My Burkha and much recently Jab Harry Met Sejal are just some of the many films which have struggled 'a lot' under his tenure. However, with adman-lyricist-poet Prasoon Joshi taking over Nihalani's place, the film industry, in particular, feels that 'acche din aayenge'.

Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal spoke about this change of power and particularly about Joshi. Speaking to Firstpost, he said, "I know Prasoon well. He is sensitive, he is a fine poet, not an ordinary one. He is also a film lyricist and knows the business of films fairly well. He has also headed one of the best advertising agencies in the country. I am happy that they have got someone with good credentials, I am happy with their choice but whether he will be allowed to take his decisions is a different matter altogether."

On further asking about the Shyam Benegal committee report, the auteur said, "I have nothing to say on that. It has been long enough that I sent the report (April 2016). I have been in touch with the ministry and now I will call them again on the next working day - Wednesday (16 August). Few days back when I called they were still studying the report. The report is related to the Cinematograph Act 1952 and we have asked for few amendments in the act which was initiated by the government. It has to make rounds and be presented in the Parliament. The members will discuss and debate over it and then accept or reject it."

According to a report by The Hindu, filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who has worked previously with Joshi on most of his films also sang praises of him saying that he is not only a "profound lyricist" but also a deep thinker. Director Ashoke Pandit also added to the same notion saying that Joshi "identifies with todays filmmakers and cinema goers." He also spoke about the good hopes rising within the film industry with Joshi's inclusion and Smriti Irani sitting as I&B Head.

Madhur Bhandarkar, who had to go through a hell lot of issues regarding the release of his most-recent film, Indu Sarkar, also cheered for Joshi's inclusion and sang praises to Govt of India. He told Firstpost, "Prasoon Joshi's an advertising man, he is an evolved person and he has a different perspective, so we definitely hope for positivity. But yes, they should soon implement Shyam Benegal's recommendations for a better change. But Prasoon's, as well as certain Board members' appointment, is a welcome move by the government of India. I applaud the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Smriti Irani ji and Rajyavardhan Rathore ji."

Director Tony D'Souza speaking about Joshi said, "Prasoon Joshi is definitely a welcome change but I am biased as I know him as I have worked with him in past. I think he will do an awesome job, as he is always fair and unbiased." Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, director of Nil Battey Sannata and upcoming Bareilly Ki Barfi said, "Prasoon is a new age thinker and belongs to the younger generation and he also comes from advertising background This also means that he has already seen a lot of consumers and has studied their behavior which means that he is well aware of the nuances of story telling so yes, it's definitely a welcome change. I have also worked with him in past at McCann Erickson."

Director Sajid Khan was hopeful about Joshi's appointment, and asserted that he should be assessed solely based on his work. "Prasoon Joshi definitely looks a welcome change, but only time will tell. One really hopes that his tenure is filled with correct decisions. The only way to judge Prasoon Joshi would be based on his diktats and what theory he comes up with. He has an amazing body of work and has earned credentials over the years by his work in the film industry and the ad industry. There is definitely a certain degree of relief in the industry after he was announced as the chairperson of the Censor Board. I am really hopeful that he will have a great inning as the chairperson of the Censor Board and will bring smile on faces of filmmakers," he said.

Rajdeep Sardesai, senior journalist tweeted wishing good luck to Joshi:

Its taken 2 years 7 months for Centre to sack Pahlaj Nihalani. What can one say? better later than never: @prasoonjoshi_ all the best!  Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) August 11, 2017

Writer Suhel Seth took a jibe at Nihalani and tweeted:

Am keenly looking forward to some fine Nihalani films. Govind and not by that other dolt.   SUHEL SETH (@suhelseth) August 12, 2017

(With inputs from Abhishek Srivastava and Seema Sinha)
There is no other way of putting this but perhaps the ouster of Pahlaj Nihalani, as the Chairman of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a welcome move, which, in the opinion of this writer, was long overdue.

Amongst the numerous firsts attached to the now former CBFC head, this one about being given the boot would perhaps be the best thing to have happened in the course of his tumultuous tenure.

The controversial and embarrassing memories of Nihalani as the boss of CBFC  including instances as finding a kiss in a James Bond film, Spectre, too long or asking for a 100,000 votes from the public to clear the promo of Jab Harry Met Sejal with the world intercourse in it  would soon be forgotten as a series of bad dreams thanks to the choice of his successor, Prasoon Joshi.

More than the good optics of getting someone such as writer-lyricist Joshi, who also happens to be a much talked about ad-guru and the CEO of McCann World group India, the Information and Broadcasting Ministrys decision to appoint him with immediate effect for a period of three years or until further orders suggests that finally there is someone who understands what needs to be done with the CBFC to initiate an overhaul.

More than anything else, Pahlaj Nihalanis appointment by the then I&B Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley in 2015 made one think that either the Ministry did not care enough or had no idea of what they were doing. In both cases, the results could have been disastrous and the way things played out, the reality far exceeded the worst fears.

As a film producer Nihalanis sole claim to fame could be discovering Govinda, who he launched in Ilzaam (1986) but other than that the only other thing people knew about him was the downright vulgarity in the songs from one of his films, Andaz, Khada hai, hhada hai and Main maalgadi hoon dhaka laga.

Prasoon Joshis appointment as the chairman of the CBFC is also an indicator of the perspective that the newly appointed Information and Broadcasting Minster Ms. Smriti Irani might be looking at the Central Board of Film Certification with. There has been a long overdue need for structural changes within the CBFC, whose primary takes is to certify films into categories for viewing by the general public but the fact that it has to operate under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952, a six and the half decades old law, somewhere makes it difficult to function in a regular manner.

The Cinematograph Act has perhaps not been updated in accordance with the changes in the society and as the CBFC must certify film into the handful of existing categories it often suggests certain changes for a film to fit into them. This is where things get complicated. These suggestions, and at times some even the ones that are out rightly bizarre such as Nihalani asking to reduce the duration of a kissing scene in a James Bond film, can seem as diktats for a denial of certification from CBFC essentially means that the film cannot be screened.

While there are various methods of redressal available to filmmakers, the bigger challenge is to bring CBFC to keep pace with the times.

It is here that the Chairperson of CBFC, as well as members of the board, can play a great role, which, to put it simply was too much to expect from a Pahlaj Nihalani. In fact, one of the board members during Nihalanis tenure, Ashoke Pandit, openly derided the ousted CBFC chief functioning on his own accord, curtailing of creative rights and shading things with his own thought process.

In that aspect, it is refreshing to see names such as Gautami Tadimalla, Vivek Agnihotri and Vidya Balan as new board members. Perhaps ultimately the entire CBFC that operates on a law that is more than half a century old and censorship could be done away and replaced with a method of accreditation of films solely on viewership (such as for 18 and above, etc.).

That would be more suited to our times but until that happens its steps like getting to be a part of CBFC that promise hope. More than anything else, the likes of Prasoon Joshi, Vivek Agnihotri or Vidya Balan are people who operate in the todays industry and considering that this is a period where Indian cinema is in some way truly coming of age, their presence in CBFC ought to be celebrated.
The film industry must have definitely heaved a sigh of relief with the departure of Pahlaj Nihalani from the post of chairperson of the Censor Board (aka the Central Bureau of Film Certification). The man, whose name had become synonymous with controversies, thanks to his diktats, had become a thorn in filmmakers sides. His replacement however  adman, poet and writer Prasoon Joshi  isnt a surprising choice. (Well explain why in a bit.)

Is it time for the film industry (and audiences) to celebrate? Which way will Joshi go during his tenure? The one established by Nihalani, or by Vijay Anand  whose radical proposals regarding film certification to the then government were considered radical? To arrive at a conclusion, it would be prudent to get to know Joshi first.

Born in the hills of Uttarakhand, Prasoon Joshi is noted for his poetry. His verses found him acceptance in Bollywood circles, and in the ad industry, where he gave catchy taglines for numerous campaigns while working for McCann Erickson. Prasoon currently heads the Asia Pacific division of the ad agency.

After earning a management degree from IMT, Ghaziabad, Joshi joined the reputed ad agency Ogilvy & Mather. Success followed. When Aamir Khan became the brand ambassador for Coke, the tagline he delivered (Thanda matlab Coca-Cola) was courtesy Prasoon. It was only when he was firmly established in the ad industry that Prasoon began to explore poetry further.

Opportunity came in the form of Mahesh Mathai, who asked Prasoon to write something on the Bhopal gas tragedy for his 1999 release, Bhopal Express. What Prasoon came up with was a mix of poetry and dialogue, highlighting the horrors of the Union Carbide leak. The icing on the cake was Amitabh Bachchan reading out his verses.

Prasoons Gustakhiyan Hai song from Amitabh Bachchans 2002 release Aankhen became a chartbuster, followed by Yash Raj Films Hum Tum  which sealed his reputation as a lyricist. This was also the phase when his friendships with Bachchan and Aamir Khan were cemented. The following years saw Prasoon writing lyrics for Khans film, including Taare Zameen Par (which fetched Joshi a National Award in 2008), Rang De Basanti, Fanaa and Ghajini.

Prasoon Joshi is not an unfamiliar name in the circles of Lutyens Delhi  be it during the time of the UPA, or NDA governments. During the UPA regime, he was asked by then finance minister P Chidambaram to conceptualise the Service Tax campaign of the government so that it reached the masses. When Aamir Khan talked about Atithi Devo Bhavo as part of Incredible India campaign, the entire theme was created by Prasoons agency, McCann Erickson. When the BJP thought of giving a new flavour to their 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign and structure things around Narendra Modi, the person they approached was Joshi (this was in addition to industry veterans Sam Balsara and Piyush Pandey). Though Piyush Pandey coined the Abki Baar Modi Sarkar and Acche Din Aane Wale Hai slogans, it was Prasoon Joshi who turned out to be the dynamo of the entire BJP election campaign. The success of that campaign has made it a case study at various management courses.

It was during the same campaign that Prasoon wrote an anthem titled Saugandh, which was voiced by none other than Narendra Modi. Modi even thanked Joshi in a tweet, on 25 March 2014.

Joshis BJP connection dates back to the days of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was one of his fans and loved Prasoons poetry. Prasoons poem titled Irade Naye Bharat Ka even became part of one of Vajpayees speeches. During the elections of 2009, when the BJP projected Lal Krishna Advani as its prime ministerial candidate, then too Prasoon Joshi was given the charge of spearheading the entire campaign. That time Prasoon came up with the slogan of Majboot Neta, Nirnayak Sarkar. Joshi was awarded for the work he had done for the BJP when in 2015, he was conferred the Padam Shri.

Prasoons latest association with the BJP has been for Modis pet project  the Swachh Bharat Mission. The BJP think tank once again roped Prasoon in, when they wanted to reach out to the masses.

Judging by his fruitful and long association with the BJP, it only seems fair to ask if things will change in the corridors of the CBFC office after the departure of Pahlaj Nihalani. Nihalanis actions never concealed that he was a BJP stooge. If Prasoons past association with the BJP is a moot point in the entire discussion, then it only seems fair to conclude that we are back to square one.

A few years ago, in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Prasoon had mentioned that we need to create a society where there is no requirement of any censorship. This statement might just haunt him in days to come if the diktats to censor films are issued from Delhi. There is no denying that the Har Har Modi, Ghar Modi campaign fetched Pahlaj Nihalani the post of chairperson of the CBFC. The same can be said about Prasoon Joshi too.

A few years ago when Sunny Leone was targeted in an interview with a TV channel, most of the film industry supported her. Prasoon Joshi didnt, stating that he didnt agree with (her choice of) past profession.

At a panel discussion organised by a newspaper a while ago, Prasoon had questioned the rights of the government to censor. He had also asked why India even needed censorship. These were bold statements to make, but they were said at a time when Joshi was not part of the system.

If we were to make any prophecies about the upcoming CBFC tenure of Prasoon, based on his past work then there is certainly a glimmer of hope. But if his association with BJP becomes a factor, then the issue becomes murkier. Seen from that prism, one may suppose that his hands would be tied as the BJP has done him a favour, and awarded his firm many contracts. It goes without saying that the coming weeks will be full of challenges for the ad man. It will be interesting to see what course Prasoon charts, and whether or not he will be able to restore confidence in the CBFC.
By Apoorva Sripathi

The most unsatisfying part of Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 (VIP 2) is the ending. Usually, in formulaic Tamil films, the hero fights the villain, beats up his gang of rowdies and then delivers a mass but simple message on unmai dhaan jeikkum (truth only wins) and dharmam dhaan vellum (duty always triumphs).

If in VIP 1, we saw a struggling Raghuvaran, trying his best to get employed, who then meets his neighbour, falls in love with her, watches TV serials with her mother, sings some gaanas about life, witnesses his mother's death and most importantly, fights a privileged male villain who takes over his father's business, in this movie, we see a married Raghuvaran, who loses his job and who goes head-to-head against, Kajol.

She who played the infamously vanquished lover in Gupt, returns to Tamil cinema after two decades. Last time round she played the unforgettable heroine in Minsara Kanavu aka Sapney. This time she is a villain.

Unfortunately, instead of a spectacular climax fight scene, in VIP 2, Dhanushs character Raghuvaran takes the mansplaining route and admonishes Kajols character Vasundhara, about fixing her attitude (take note please of his usage of headweight, which is a delightfully south Indian term for arrogance) and about how her story of a single-girl-fighting-against-all-odds-to-come-up-on-top isnt a big deal. Why are you arrogant about it, he asks and advises her to be humble and proud about it. Arent man and woman equal?, he asks. Women are supposed to be physically weaker, but theyre mentally stronger, he faffs, with a glass of wine in hand.

Vasundhara, who so far refused to be undefeated by anything, including almost losing her contract (she uses a minister's influence to win it back) and the employee rebellion when she takes over Raghuvaran's company, is brought down by a 2-minute yada yada yada from Dhanush (there may have been words but I only heard yada yada yada).

Instead of slaying him with her eyebrows, she smiles and decides to become friends with Raghuvaran and hops on his bike to get breakfast. In just one short speech, the baddie is vanquished. Now it makes sense, those other reports that mentioned Kajol isnt necessarily playing a villain, but just locking horns with Dhanush.

Underlying message: She always had good in her, even though she was an arrogant woman  she just needed a man to tame her and bring that inherent goodness out.

If there is a girl fighting against the all odds story in VIP 2 its not the character Vasundhara, its the actor Kajol. Even though it may be a needless sequel to VIP 1, and by all means, Raghuvaran's story, the film belongs to Kajol, despite the poor script and stingily imagined role. The movie opens with a shot of her stilettos seen getting out of a car and when her name is announced at an award function, she makes her presence known with an effortless hair flip. She stylishly removes her reading glasses and hands it over to her assistant. And she wears sunglasses with the greatest swagger since Rajinikanth. Truly, Kajols biggest service is to remember all the great bad women of Tamil cinema.

Vasundharas also an arrogant, rich, spoilt woman (by Tamil movie standards) who switches to English while making presentations, points her fingers at people (disrespectful by Tamil movie standards) while talking and uses the F-word quite liberally. She has all the makings of a modern Tamil villi (Tamil for female villains). She is merely the latest in a familiar list of head-weighty, English-spouting villis like Ramya Krishnans Neelambari in Padaiyappa (1999) who was the quintessential 90s villi.

Like Neelambari, who is angry, rich, modern (typically meaning westernised), impulsive, single/separated, hen-pecking, having an unreasonable hatred for a man or men in general, as Ranjani Krishnakumar writes in her essay on female villains, Vasundhara too is angry (there are a couple of outbursts), rich, modern, decadent (she calls for a glass of champagne to celebrate when Raghuvaran loses his job) and importantly, single. Unlike Neelambari, who wore lovely saris and adorned jasmine flowers in her hair, Vasundhara is sleek when it comes to her outfits (think tailored suits and high-waisted pants) and calculating when it comes to her moves.

But in the end, Vasundhara too gets tamed by the man, with so little satisfaction.

Where Neelambari chose to take her own life, leaving with a parting message that shed "attain" (meaning marry him) the hero Rajinikanth in her next birth, Vasundhara is given just a talking down  theres no showdown, theres no matching of wits or power. Shes taught to eat humble pie by the humblest man of all. (But perhaps should we count as progress that the trajectory unconventional female character in Tamil cinema doesnt end in her death? I dont know.)

Vasundharas character also resembles Shanti Devi of Mannan (a 90s Rajinikanth film where the arrogant antagonist-heroine is taught a lesson by her hero-husband) in some ways. Theyre both businesswomen who run successful companies; theyre ambitious and ruthless. Vasundhara doesnt hesitate to do anything to take someone down. She snatches projects out of Raghuvarans hands, uses her political connections to play dirty, runs down the company he works for and even buys his shares in the company he starts. Its expected of a male villain  professional rivalry, especially those of self-made men is never an alarming reflection on their gender. Rather, its intrinsic; men are ambitious, were informed over and over again thanks to Tamil cinema.

In VIP 2, its raw ambition that drives Kajols character  she keeps talking about how she was orphaned as a 13-year-old girl and had to claw her way out of her situation with her extended family to retain her money and emerge victorious. She keeps insisting that this made her the woman she is today. Naturally, when she comes across a boy half her age, who tries to advise her on how to be a person in the world (the moment moment Raghuvaran picks to give her this first lecture is when his company is awarded a construction contract because he came across as humble, honest and down-to-earth, while Vasundhara is haughty), she dismisses him and later, does all that she can to make him her employee to humiliate him.

Most women who play the villains or cross paths with the heroes and then become villains in Tamil cinema do so because of romantic mishaps. Either the hero spurned them because they werent feminine enough, like Eswari (Shriya Reddy) in Thimiru, who was boisterous and ran around with a gang of rowdies trying to intimidate her love interest Vishal into marrying her. Or because the hero preferred a simple, shy-type homely girl: In Padaiyappa, Rajinikanth invokes the three gunas in Sanskrit (or primal forces that drive our characteristics) to explain why he prefers sattvic Soundarya (patient, kind and nurturing) to the rajasic Ramya Krishnan (angry, arrogant and lustful).

Theres no romance situation here with Vasundhara the villain, but in case you felt like you are missing out on that quota, she is not the only woman in the movie who is shown her place. There are three other women in the movie, all of whom get similar treatment. Amala Paul, who is Dhanushs girlfriend-turned-wife Shalini, is a nagging homemaker, who quits her job as a dentist and does everything around the house. His mother (who died in the earlier movie) is a kindly apparition in the sequel and offers Raghuvaran support when hes down. His boss daughter Anitha is another mother to him (not for nothing did she receive his mothers lungs in a transplant in the first movie) and checks up on him when he quits his job.

But at the end of the day, they all need help from a man. Whether its Anitha who needs to be saved from rowdies who roughed her up or Shalini who must be dropped off to work by her husband. Similarly for Vasundhara, whos put in her place, but minus the trademark showdown.

Which brings me to what I needed from this movie. Just gimme a warehouse full of boxes and a smash-everything-kill-everybody final fight scene any day  its so much better than having a man who complains about doing housework, complains about his wifes nagging and lectures about equality, emerging as the victor.

Kajol should have got blood, not breakfast.

The Ladies Finger (TLF) is a leading online womens magazine
Jammu: The Opposition National Conference (NC) on Saturday hit out at Pakistan for 'interfering' in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that Article 35A, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents, was a shield for the people of the state.

Pakistan's foreign office Spokesperson Nafees Zakria in a statement on Thursday had accused India of trying to alter the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.

The main Opposition party also lashed out at the local BJP for giving a "political and communal color" to the issue and called for a referendum in Jammu region on Article 35A.

The article empowers state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

Provincial president Devinder Singh Rana announced a campaign to educate people about benefits of Article 35A with the inauguration of a seminar by the party working president Omar Abdullah here on 14 August. He would also inaugurate another seminar in Kashmir on the same day.

Block presidents, block secretaries, district presidents, and district secretaries would participate in it and later disseminate the information at the grass-root level, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the party headquarters, he said the statement issued by Pakistan seems to be part of a "conspiracy to make the issue India versus Pakistan to pave way for its abrogation".

He also said if the Article 35A is tinkered with, the Dogras will suffer the most and Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to the state, will be rendered merely a "skeleton".

"The BJP is trying to sell that the Dogras are with it in its demand for revocation of the Article 35A and gives it a communal and regional color. There should be a referendum on the issue in Jammu and Dogras be given a chance to decide whether the law should remain or go.

Questioning those who term the presidential order as "illegal", Rana said if that order is illegal, what about the other orders passed by the president.

He said the defense of the attorney general and the state in the Supreme Court on the issue was "weak" to pave the way for the abrogation of the constitutional provision.

The Supreme Court last month had asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.

The PIL said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

The Centre would explain to the Supreme Court the legal aspects of Article 35A. Attorney General KK Venugopal is expected to explain before the apex court these aspects.

He said the debate over Article 35A was neither Hindu versus Muslims nor Jammu versus Kashmir.

"We are part of India and we are Indians. Constitution of India and Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir govern our living and existence but we have been vested with certain rights and we will protect those rights," he said.

The National Conference leader questioned the BJP leadership for introducing a domicile certificate in Himachal Pradesh and of assuring the citizens of Maharashtra of introducing a similar law.

"In Sikkim, there is article 371A but you don't challenge it," he claimed.

Rana accused the BJP of deliberately raking up such issues for politics and undermining the safeguards ensured to people of the state by the Constitution.

He said the people of Jammu were angry at the discrimination with the region, especially during the last three years of the BJP-PDP rule.

"We demand that the rights of all the people of all the three regions, Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh should be protected and there should be no discrimination.

He said if Article 35A was abrogated, it would create serious problems for the people of the state, especially Jammu region, as businessmen and shopkeepers would lose their businesses, students lose their scholarships, and various jobs as well.

In reply to a question about the issue bringing together mainstream and separatists in Kashmir, he said, "It is the responsibility of people of all three regions to ensure the protection of their rights," he said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will commence the final hearing in the long-standing Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute from 5 December, a day before the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the medieval-era structure.

The apex court, after an intense deliberation for more than one-and-half-hours, reached a consensus on commencement of the hearing on a total of 13 appeals filed against the 2010 judgement of the Allahabad High Court in four civil suits.

The high court had ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acre area at Ayodhya among the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Lord Ram Lalla.

Another sect of the Muslims under the banner of Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh recently went to the court offering a solution that a mosque could be built in a Muslim- dominated area at a "reasonable distance" from the disputed site in Ayodhya.

However, its intervention has been opposed by the All India Sunni Waqf Board which claimed that judicial adjudication between the two sects had already been done in 1946 by declaring the mosque, which was demolished on 6 December, 1992, as that belonging to the Sunnis.

A specially constituted bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, asked the contesting parties to complete the translation of the exhibits of the documents likely to be relied upon into English within 12 weeks since these were in eight different languages including Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Pali and Arabic.

The bench, also comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer, asked the Uttar Pradesh government to complete within 10 weeks the translation of the evidence recorded for adjudication of the title dispute in the high court into English.

The bench made it clear that the parties would have to strictly adhere to the time frame fixed by it and that no adjournment would be given under any circumstance.

The top court said it would not allow the matter to take any shape other than the civil appeals and would adopt the same procedure as was done by the high court.

It said it would strictly go by the Civil Procedure Code and the Evidence Act.

Senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Lord Ram Lalla and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the UP government, pressed for early hearing of the matter, but senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Anoop George Chaudhari, Rajeev Dhavan and Sushil Jain, representing other parties including All India Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara, were not in favour of commencement of the hearing before January next year.

Sibal even said that it was a serious matter and the hearing should not be started in haste.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, an intervenor in the matter, made an attempt to raise the issue of the fundamental right of religion of the Hindus under Article 25 of the Constitution.

He said during the adjudication of the matter he would like to make out a case that the fundamental right should get precedence over the property right.

However, the bench made it clear that it would first hear the main appellants and respondents in the case which involved the parties like -- Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Lord Ram Lalla.

A major part of the deliberations revolved around the issue of completion of the pleadings as the Sunni Waqf Board and the Nirmohi Akhara took a tough stand that till the entire set of documents was translated, the hearing should not commence.

Their stand was strongly opposed by the counsel for Lord Ram Lalla and the UP government which said that almost seven years have passed since the judgement of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court and the contesting parties should have completed the translation work earlier.

However, the counsel for the Nirmohi Akhara and the Sunni Waqf Board submitted that the documents, including the judgement running into 9,000 pages, had come to them only an year ago and they would take at least four months to complete the translation work.

They also opposed a suggestion of the bench and senior counsel representing Ram Lalla, the UP government and others that the parties relying on relevant documents themselves place the translation of the extracts of the exhibits, saying that all documents should be referred to official translators.

The bench said the parties themselves would translate the required documents and in case of any dispute it would examine it at the relevant time.

The apex court also allowed the substitute names of appellants and respondents in case those who were originally involved had died by their legal heirs or representatives and said that the same could be made known through public notice in leading dailies both in English and vernacular languages in the area concerned.

While the bench was considering a framework completion the pleadings to commence the final hearing, Sibal stressed on following of the stipulated procedure by asking it not to circumvent the process.

He went to the extent of saying that "the judges were donning the role of registrars".

However, the bench said it was doing so as the parties have not allowed the registrar to complete the formalities.

Many of the original plantiffs and defendants in the matter including Mohd Hashim, who was the first person to take the matter to the apex court, have died.

A battery of senior advocates including Vikas Singh, Shyam Divan, UP Advocate General Raghvendra Singh, Huzefa Ahmadi appeared for appellants and intervenors in the matter.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Hourt, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had said the land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On 21 July, a bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, had said that it would soon take a decision to list the matter for early hearing.

The court's remark had come on a plea of BJP leader Swamy who sought urgent hearing of the matter. Swamy had said the main appeals against the Allahabad High Court order were pending for the last seven years in the apex court and these required urgent hearing. He had also said that a separate petition was earlier filed by him seeking enforcement of his right to worship without "much hassle" at the site.
New Delhi: The European Union (EU) is providing 200,000 euros (INR 15,052,000) in humanitarian aid funding to the northeastern states of Assam and Manipur, where floods have wreaked havoc since May, the Delegation of EU in New Delhi said on Friday.

According to a statement issued, the aid will directly benefit 25,000 badly affected people in the flood-stricken areas.

"This EU contribution underlines our commitment to the people of India, many of whom have suffered devastating losses as a result of the flooding", said David Sevcik, Head of the South Asia Regional Office for the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), in the statement.

"The funding will ensure essential aid is delivered to those most in need, thereby helping them to survive this hard time".

The statement further said that this EU-funding supports the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) in delivering much-needed assistance through the distribution of emergency relief items such as family tents, tarpaulins, temporary sanitation facilities and mosquito nets.

"Water purification tablets and storage are provided to ensure the impacted families have access to clean water," it stated.

"In addition, training sessions to promote good hygiene practices are being organised alongside the delivery of personal hygiene items, including soaps and sanitary napkins."

The EU-funded aid targets eight of the hardest-hit districts, Karimganj, Nagaon, Dhubri and Barpeta in Assam and Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishnupur in Manipur.

The funding is part of the EU's overall contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Many lives, including 84 in Assam alone, have been lost and a number of homes have been fully or partially destroyed.

According to authorities, the severe flooding has affected more than 1.7 million people and over 100,000 hectares of crop land was lost in the flood waters.

"Whilst many people have returned to their places of origin as water levels begin to recede, humanitarian needs remain immense," the statement said.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is set to start a four-day African tour Monday, a statement by the presidency read Saturday.

Presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef said El-Sisi will visit Tanzania, Rwanda, Gabon and Chad.

El-Sisi will hold bilateral talks with leaders of the named African counties, with the aim of addressing common challenges facing the continent. He will also discuss updates on regional issues related to preserving security and welfare.

According to the presidency, the visit comes as part of Egypt's "keenness for continued bolstering of relations with the African continent in all fields, intensifying of coordination and communication with its African brothers, as well as boosting cooperation with African countries on all levels, especially economic and trade ties."

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that if any notification is issued by the Centre for sale of genetically modified food products in the market, one month time should be given for raising objections.

A bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud said that provisions already exist in the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSS), 2006 in this regard and the notification can only be issued after appropriate regulations are put in place.

It noted the submission of senior advocate Ajit Sinha appearing for the Centre that the issue is under active consideration and it is only after regulations are passed by Parliament, that a notification can be issued.

Taking the statement on record, the apex court disposed of the plea filed by environmental activist Vandana Shiva challenging the notification of 2007 with regard to selling of GM food products.

Sinha said that without the regulations in place, the notification cannot be enacted upon.

The Centre said the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSS), 2006 provides for 30 days period for the notification to be implemented during which objections if any can be raised.
When reports of nearly 30 children dead in 48 hours in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College and Hospital trickled in on Friday night, it proved to be yet another ghastly example of the government's ailing public healthcare system in India.

Oxygen supply stopped

The BRD Medical College and Hospital is the largest medical hospital in the Gorakhpur region. The death of these 30 children within a span of 48 hours and 63 children in the last five days for various reasons including lack of oxygen supply at the Uttar Pradesh hospital which was stopped when the hospital failed to clear its dues of over Rs 68 lakh. A letter by the vendor  Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd  addressed to the hospital chief suggested an outstanding payment of Rs 68,65,702 was the reason behind the disruption of the oxygen supply. Gorakhpur's district magistrate Rajeev Rautela confirmed that there was a shortage of liquid oxygen at the medical college.

While the administration acknowledged the oxygen supply was halted, it denied that this was the reason behind the deaths, The Telegraph reported. The Telegraph report also said that the vendor had stopped the oxygen supply on Wednesday evening  shortly after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's afternoon visit to inaugurate a new ten bed ICU at the hospital  because of the unpaid bills. It was later found that the company's supply contract had ended in March this year. Incidentally, the chief minister had visited the ward where children infected with encephalitis were admitted.

Seventeen children died in the neo-natal intensive care unit, while eight died in the pediatric ward and five in the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome ward.

Initial denials and attempt to cover up

As the news of the death of the children spread like wildfire, it invited scorn and shock over the gravity of the tragedy. The Uttar Pradesh government initially denied the media reports and said they were misleading. A statement by the state Information Department said reports shown by "some TV channels as misleading" and that the district magistrate was personally stationed at the medical college to keep an eye on the situation. On Friday night, the government ordered a magisterial probe.

Parents left aghast by apathy

The father of an infant from Padrauna told media persons that there was acute shortage of oxygen and accused authorities of lying to the media. "I am ready to hear the worst about my child," he said amid flowing tears, reported IANS.

Another distraught father, Deep Chandra from Basti district also aired similar sentiments and said that for the last 48 hours, there was no oxygen supply and the children admitted were left to die despite prayers and requests to the officials of the medical college.

Another father Deep Chand had stepped out to buy medicines for his 10-day-old son in the neo-natal ward of the BRD hospital and found him dead when he returned half-an-hour later, reported the Hindustan Times.

State govt wakes up to act

After 4.30 pm on Saturday, the BRD Medical College Principal, Rajiv Mishra was suspended. He said he had written his resignation even before the government sacked him and took responsibility for the death of the children. He also said that the hospital had paid the gas company on time and no death happened because of low oxygen.

Politicians hijack tragedy for mileage

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday expressed her deep shock at the tragic death and said that her heart goes out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to "gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on the part of the authorities." She called upon the Uttar Pradesh government to take immediate cognizance of the crime and bring to book those responsible and asked Congress workers to provide relief to the families of the victims.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held the BJP government responsible and said in tweet that the negligent party must be punished.

On Saturday morning, Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon left for the BRD Medical College and Hospital to review the situation. Under attack from the Opposition, Siddhartha Nath Singh asked them not to "make this political", reported IANS. Adityanath reportedly told the two ministers to "not spare anyone found guilty".

During all this time, till about 1 pm, there was no official statement from Yogi Adityanath's office or from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This created a huge furore on Twitter as well where "#ModiMustSpeak" began trending.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh slammed the state government over the incident and called for the sacking of the health minister and other concerned officials.

Vaibhav Maheshwari, state spokesman of AAP told IANS, "Tt was a matter of shame that the chief minister was mum on such a serious issue and that the state government was trying to defuse facts".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari demanded strict action be taken against those resposnible. "There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible - the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital, and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister," PTI quoted Tiwari as saying.

"While all those responsible must be charged with criminal culpability accounting to murder, there is a moral dimension which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and his health minister must take responsibility for and resign immediately," said Tiwari.

The Uttar Pradesh Opposition parties tore into the Yogi Adityanath government over the incident and demanded resignation of the state health and medical education ministers. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the BRD Medical College hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar, said Adityanath should personally apologise for the tragedy.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident. Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college. "The BJP will never accept its mistake and so I leave it to their discretion to remove those responsible," she said.

Yogi Adityanath breaks silence

Yogi Adityanath finally addressed the issue on Saturday evening in Lucknow and said that encephalitis was a challenge and blamed the incident on lack of cleanliness. Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel, who will visit Gorakhpur on Sunday, was also present at the press conference.

Addressing a gathering in Allahabad earlier in the day, Adityanath told the gathering that the death of these children in his hometown was caused by filth and scourge of open defecation. "There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis, you must be hearing media reports of BRD medical college these days...it is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out at such young age because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life," he said while reminding the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

"Unclean surroundings are causing the untimely death of children," he added while praising Narendra Modi for his Swacch Bharat initiative. To further distance the ruling BJP-led government from the issue, he said, "The governments cannot be the problem, they are solutions and if they are problems in themselves they have no right to continue," IANS reported.

The state government's first serious response came around around 3 pm on Saturday, the state government finally responded and said appropriate action will be taken. "Whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.

The government, however, denied that the all deaths took place due to lack of oxygen. "We have come to the conclusion that the deaths of children in the hospital did not take place due to shortage of gas in the hospital," said health minister Siddharth Nath Singh. He claimed that when the death of seven children was reported during 24 hours, there was no shortage of gas cylinders.

After Siddharth Nath Singh admitted that oxygen supply was cut off for two hours, Newslaundry published a report which claims that most of the deaths on 10 and 11 August happened because people were relying on cylinders. When the oxygen supply was stopped at 7.30 pm on 11 August, there were only 52 jumbo cylinders at BRD Medical College on which the authorities relied to manage supply from 1.30 pm the same day, the report said.

PMO steps in

After 3.30 pm on Saturday, the Prime Minister Office tweeted that Narendra Modi was closely monitoring the situation in Uttar Pradesh and said that Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Union health secretary will take stock of situation.

Union health minister JP Nadda has also sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh health department on the deaths of the children.

Encephalitis havoc in Uttar Pradesh an annual affair

Encephalitis is a deadly disease which claims hundreds of lives in the state every year. According to a report by the Directorate of National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme, 26,686 cases of encephalitis were reported in Uttar Pradesh between 2010 and August 2017. Of this, 24,668 cases were of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and 2,018 of Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Out of those reportedly suffering from AES, 4,093 deaths were registered in the same period i.e. 19 percent of people with AES died in Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, there were 308 JE deaths registered in the state i.e. 15 percent of those who had reportedly JE between 2010-2017 eventually died.

BRD Medical College no stranger to tragedies

BRD Medical College and Hospital is not unfamiliar to tragedy. Since 1978, this hospital has an average of over 200 deaths per bed, making Gorakhpur highly endemic to encephalitis, notes TS Sudhir in this Firstpost article.

Siddhartha Nath Singh claimed no one from the hospital had informed them about the issue of lack of oxygen and said: "In August 2015, 668 deaths took place in the paediatric section of the hospital. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, 17 or 18 deaths per day on an average were reported from the BRD Medical College."

According to an RTI reply, a Department of Pediatrics report stated that from 2009 till 2011, 3,745 children had died in the hospital. Further, the report also revealed that the incubator, pulse oximeter and infant ventilators in the hospital are out of order.

Poor health spending in India

When it comes to public spending on healthcare, India lags behind abysmally. Research by medical journal Lancet showed that India ranked 154 out of 195 countries in terms of healthcare access, far behind countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana and Liberia. India spends only 5 percent of its GDP on public healthcare while China spends 10.4 percent of its budget on healthcare. India is even superseded by Uzbekistan (10.7 percent), Tanzania (12.3) percent, Kenya (12.8 percent), and Nicaragua (24 percent).

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Union health minister JP Nadda has asked minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C K Mishra to visit Gorakhpur to look into the deaths of children in a hospital in the eastern UP town.

Nadda has sought a report from the state health department into the matter. An expert team will also be leaving for Gorakhpur on Saturday.

At least 30 children have died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College here since the past two days, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said on Friday.

The Union home ministry on Friday said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen. However he gave no reason for the deaths.

"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson said.

The incident triggered outrage with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress seeking the state health minister's resignation. The Congress on Saturday also demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

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On Friday, seven children died, three in the NICU, two from AES and two in the general ward.

On 10 August, 23 children died, with 14 deaths reported in the NICU, three from AES and six in the general ward.

The next day, on 9 August, 9 kids died, including six in NICU, two from AES and one in the general ward.

On 8 August, 12 children reportedly died, seven in NICU, three from AES and 2 in the general ward.

On 7 August, nine children died, including four in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), two from Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and three in the general ward.

According to The Indian Express , at least 60 children died in the last five days in Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

The Telegraph also reported that the medical college sources told the newspaper that even the hospital's doctors and paramedical staff had not been paid since February.

Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd had written a letter to the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, informing them about cutting supply of oxygen to the hospital because of unpaid bills.

Doctors were forced to keep two patients on one bed, patients' families say they are buying medicine, food from outside

The news channel also reported that the company's owner is on the run.

Oxygen supplier Pushpa Sales Co Ltd's office in Lucknow has been raided by the police, according to Times Now.

These 3,000 deaths are among the 50,000 children killed in eastern Uttar Pradesh over the past 30 years, most of them due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), added the report.

Hindustan Times reported that according to official data, over 3,000 children have died at the government-run hospital at BRD Medical Collegeg since 2012.

"This incident has been very shocking and it should shock us all. This government is a very sensitive government," he added.

"But no one had raised the issue of the shortage of oxygen in the hospital," Singh said.

"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathji had visited the BRD Medical College on 9 August and had held consultations with various officials," Siddharth Nath Singh, UP health minister, said.

No one in the hospital raised the issue of low oxygen: UP health minister

"We have come to the conclusion that the deaths of children in the hospital did not take place due to shortage of gas in the hospital," Siddharth Nath Singh said. He claimed that when the death of seven children was reported during 24 hours, there was no shortage of gas cylinders.

Death of children did not take place due to shortage of gas: Siddharth Nath Singh

While Siddharth Nath Singh admitted that oxygen supply was cut off for two hours, he added that it was a usual incident which happens and was managed through cylinders.

BRD Medical College Principal, Rajiv Mishra, said that he had written his resignation even before the government sacked him and he is taking responsibility for the death of the children. He also said that the hospital had paid the gas company on time and no death happened because of low oxygen.

The sequence of events that led to the massacre of 60 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College since 7 August is a damning indictment of the government machinery. First, it failed to pay the contractor who supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital, running up arrears in excess of over Rs 68 lakh, even when, as the supplier argued, the terms and conditions of the supply agreement said the pending amount would not exceed Rs 10 lakh.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and assured him of assistance from the Centre, reports ANI. The report adds that Adityanath assured Nadda that "all aspects of deaths at BRD Medical college are being examined."

Denying media reports that he had termed the incident as a "massacre" (narsanhar), Sakshi Maharaj said, "I have never said so. I said the deaths were not natural and steps should be taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future."  PTI

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj today said 30 infants died in a Gorakhpur hospital because oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of dues. "The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident," the MP from Unnao told reporters.

He added that the UP MoS Health Anupriya Patel will be visiting Gorakhpur on Sunday morning to analyse the incident.

He also said that if the deaths were in fact due to oxygen shortage, it would mean that it is a despicable incident. He said, We have constituted a committee to be lead by the chief secretary to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident. Anyone found guilty will not be spared, he added.

He said that Narendra Modi expressed his concern over the incident and offered help and support to address the incident. Adityanath also discussed the cause of death of the infants, saying, We will be getting a detailed report on the cause of deaths. Not all of them were due to lack of oxygen. He added that he had toured the hospital twice since becoming chief minister.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed the death of over 30 infants in BRD medical college in Gorakhpur through a press conference in Lucknow. He said that the incident was very unfortunate and that he was glad that the media highlighted it. I had started the fight against Encephalitis in Gorakhpur. My thoughts are with grieving families, he said at the presser.

The minister also questioned Mishra's trip to Rishikesh in middle of such a grave crisis. He also said that a committee has been formed under the chief secretary to probe the role of the oxygen supplier and it is expected to submit a report within a week.

"It is thus surprising that the BRD Medical College Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it till 11 August," he said, adding that prima facie he was found callous and has hence been suspended.

According to IANS, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on 5 August and funds sent to the medical college.

State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh denied that the shortage of oxygen or the disruption of the central oxygen plant at the BRD medical college had led to the deaths of children. He also attributed the deaths of children to some underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

MoS Health Anupriya Patel, who arrived in Lucknow on Saturday evening, drove straight for a high-level stocktaking meeting on the tragedy. She also spoke to the media at the press conference and said that the guilty would not be spared and that the government would act "cruelly and with a firm hand" to punish callous officials.

According to CNN-News18, a father who lost his child in the BRD medical college incident said that his family was not allowed to leave immediately as the state health minister Siddartha Nath Singh was supposed to hold a press conference the hospital. He also said that the doctors mislead him into thinking that it was pneumonia and not encephalitis. He also said that there was a shortage of oxygen and that the ailing were in distress, verifying claims that it was the lack of oxygen that lead to the deaths of the infants.

"Unclean surroundings are causing the untimely death of children," he added while praising Narendra Modi for his Swacch Bharat initiative. To further distance the ruling BJP-led government from the issue, he said, "The governments cannot be the problem, they are solutions and if they are problems in themselves they have no right to continue."

Addressing a gathering at Allahabad, Adityanath told the gathering that the death of these children in his hometown was caused by filth and scourge of open defecation. "There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis, you must be hearing media reports of BRD medical college these days...it is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out at such young age because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life" he said while reminding the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

Even as a magisterial probe is underway into the death of over 60 children, including infants, at the Baba Raghav Das Medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath blamed the incident on the lack of cleanliness, reports IANS.

He added that the UP MoS Health Anupriya Patel will be visiting Gorakhpur on Sunday morning to analyse the incident.

He also said that if the deaths were in fact due to oxygen shortage, it would mean that it is a despicable incident. He said, We have constituted a committee to be lead by the chief secretary to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident. Anyone found guilty will not be spared, he added.

He said that Narendra Modi expressed his concern over the incident and offered help and support to address the incident. Adityanath also discussed the cause of death of the infants, saying, We will be getting a detailed report on the cause of deaths. Not all of them were due to lack of oxygen. He added that he had toured the hospital twice since becoming chief minister.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed the death of over 30 infants in BRD medical college in Gorakhpur through a press conference in Lucknow. He said that the incident was very unfortunate and that he was glad that the media highlighted it. I had started the fight against Encephalitis in Gorakhpur. My thoughts are with grieving families, he said at the presser.

The minister also questioned Mishra's trip to Rishikesh in middle of such a grave crisis. He also said that a committee has been formed under the chief secretary to probe the role of the oxygen supplier and it is expected to submit a report within a week.

"It is thus surprising that the BRD Medical College Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it till 11 August," he said, adding that prima facie he was found callous and has hence been suspended.

According to IANS, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on 5 August and funds sent to the medical college.

State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh denied that the shortage of oxygen or the disruption of the central oxygen plant at the BRD medical college had led to the deaths of children. He also attributed the deaths of children to some underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

MoS Health Anupriya Patel, who arrived in Lucknow on Saturday evening, drove straight for a high-level stocktaking meeting on the tragedy. She also spoke to the media at the press conference and said that the guilty would not be spared and that the government would act "cruelly and with a firm hand" to punish callous officials.

CNN-News18 spoke to Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and he revealed that no post-mortem was done on the infants who died in BRD medical college as they "died due to their illness." He also claimed that more deaths would have occurred if there was no oxygen supply. Siddharth added that the payment was made on time and it was the hospital principal who did not pay money to oxygen supplier.

Siddharth Nath Singh says that no post-mortem was done on the deceased

At least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency of Uttar Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in the last two days, an official said on Friday. The government, however, said that only seven had died and a probe has been ordered.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela told local TV channels, confirming the "death of 30 kids in the last two days" and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

He said that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant for patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Denying that the children had died due to lack of oxygen, he confirmed that there was shortage of liquid oxygen at the medical college and that due to non-payment of Rs 70 lakh, the vendor supplying oxygen has stopped supply. However, he said the principal had told him that for emergency use, alternative arrangements have been made.

He further said that part payment of Rs 35 lakh has been made to the vendor and that he had been requested not to disrupt the oxygen supply.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government denied media reports that more than 30 children had died at the hospital due to lack of oxygen.

A statement issued by the state Information Department termed reports shown by "some TV channels as misleading" and that the District Magistrate was personally stationed at the medical college to keep a vigil on the situation emanating out of the death of seven patients on Friday due to "different medical reasons".

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday night ordered a magisterial probe. The probe will be finished in 24 hours and a detailed report submitted, said Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar, who also put the number of deaths at seven. He also ruled out the oxygen shortage being responsible.

State Health Minister Siddarth Nath Singh told TV channels that "a lot of people come suffering from high fever and if they don't get treatment, it may result in death".

To a query if an inquiry will be ordered, he said: "Absolutely, we will do into the depth of these deaths.. we are going to check each and everything and then come with a final answer.. those who who found guilty and if we find any error on their part, they will be made accountable.."

Informed sources told IANS that senior health officials were monitoring the situation and admitted that the state government had been left red-faced because of the deaths took place in the Chief Minister's hometown. Adityanath had been in Gorakhpur just two days back and held a review meeting of healthcare, among other things.

Meanwhile, parents and attendants of patients, mostly children at the ward number 100 - the encephalitis ward at the BRD medical college  remained resigned to fate and medical negligence.

The father of an infant from Padrauna told media persons that there was acute shortage of oxygen and accused authorities of lying to the media. "I am ready to hear the worst about my child," he said amid flowing tears."

Another distraught father, Deep Chandra from Basti district also aired similar sentiments and said that for the last 48 hours, there was no oxygen supply and the children admitted here were left to die despite prayers and requests to the officials of the medical college.

Dozens of children admitted here are battling for life and in absence of proper treatment, medicines and oxygen, they have lost hope, said many others.

With inputs from IANS

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Lucknow: The deaths of over 30 children in the past two days at a Gorakhpur hospital prompted Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday to dispatch two cabinet ministers to the town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon were directed by an "extremely unhappy" Adityanath to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.

Over the past five days more than 60 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital at the parliamentary constituency and hometown of the chief minister lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply.

Under attack from opposition over the incident, Siddhartha Nath Singh has appealed not to "make this political".

A delegation of the Congress led by party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, UPCC chief Raj Babbar and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh is likely to visit the BRD Medical college later in the day.

The ministerial visit, officials informed, would involve preparing an exhaustive report on the reasons behind the tragedy.

The two ministers, before leaving for Gorakhpur, met Adityanath, who asked them "not to spare anyone found guilty".

Although there has been no official statement by Adityanath's office on the incident, he is learnt to be monitoring the situation on an hourly basis.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh has slammed the state government over the incident and has called for the sacking of the health minister and other concerned officials.

Vaibhav Maheshwari, state spokesman of AAP told IANS "it was a matter of shame that the chief minister was mum on such a serious issue and that the state government was trying to defuse facts".

The tragedy that struck the children, including many infants, in the last 48 hours were at the medical college that has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the chief minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.

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State-run BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur is in the line of fire as the hospital on Friday reported the death of 30 children within a span of 48 hours shocking the entire country. Questions are being raised on the efficiency of the hospital administration and the Uttar Pradesh government itself as the tragic deaths apparently happened due to the shutting down of critical oxygen supply to the emergency paediatric unit over non-payment of dues to the vendor.

Following the outrage all over the country, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an enquiry into the incident. According to IANS, state Health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon were directed by an "extremely unhappy" Adityanath to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible.

The report also mentioned that more than 60 children had lost their lives over the past five days due to lack of oxygen supply.

The incident has shed light on the despicable conditions of government-run medical institutions, with several people taking to Twitter to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the issue.

Several used the #ModiMustSpeak to compel Modi to voice his opinion on the incident.

Modi ji comments on everything but why is he silent on theUP incident #ModiMustSpeak  Shivanshu !! (@I_Atheist_) August 12, 2017

One tweet said that the Indian prime minister can speak about international heads suffering from dysentry, but not about the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy:

When head of Maldives or Zambia suffering from dysentery Modi tweets for his recovery but silent on #Gorakhpurtradegy.#ModiMustSpeak  Shrikant (@shrikantraut59) August 12, 2017

A tweet in the same vein stated:

#ModiMustSpeak @narendramodi tweets fast when something happens in foreign countries what our country Mr pm saamp sung gaya kya  arshad hussain (@iamarshad7) August 12, 2017

Another tweet called Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath as Modi's junior:

#ModiMustSpeak But he won't He can't troll his junior version.. May be against their Fake Raj Dharma  Poly Sarkar (@polysmind) August 12, 2017

The institution of democracy was questioned in one tweet:

Who owns the nation? We, the people. Hence the questioning of the Govt & institutions must b kept alive in a democratic order #ModiMustSpeak  Sadhavi Khosla (@sadhavi) August 12, 2017

The Indian prime minister was asked to focus on real issues:

#ModiMustSpeak focus is on video recording of Madrasa not in hospitals, interested only in creating drama, better focus on real issues  Dr. Bipin Kumar Rai (@drbipinrai) August 12, 2017

One tweet said that the life of Indians are of little value to Modi:

The life of Indians is of no value for the PM. He is pained at tragedies across the world but unmoved seeing Indians in pain. #ModiMustSpeak  Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) August 12, 2017

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera requested Modi for just one tweet on the incident:

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh where at least 30 children died in a hospital and is in touch with central and state authorities, the PMO said on Saturday.

PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

Minister of State for health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

MoS Health Anupriya Patel & the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from Gorakhpur.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

District magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said on Friday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since 10 August.

Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since 7 August.

Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official here had said that according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police, 21 children died due to oxygen supply shortage.

"According to the Gorakhpur SP, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College. Senior officers are at the spot. Exact cause is being verified by the civil administration," the official, who did not want to be identified, had said.

The Uttar Pradesh government said on Saturday that those found guilty in the "tragic and painful" incident would face "stringent action". "Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.

Health minister Singh and state medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon Saturday will visit Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.

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New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday expressed her deep shock at the tragic death of 30 ailing children at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur due to alleged shortage of oxygen and said she was pained beyond words by the tragedy.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also expressed his pain and blamed the state's BJP government was responsible for the tragedy.

In her statement, Sonia Gandhi said that her heart goes out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to "gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on the part of the authorities."

She called upon the Uttar Pradesh government to take immediate cognizance of the crime and bring to book those responsible and asked Congress workers to provide relief to the families of the victims.

Rahul Gandhi said the BJP government must punish the guilty.

"Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP government is responsible and should punish the negligent who caused this tragedy," he said in a tweet.

At least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in the last two days, an official said Friday. The government however said that only seven had died and a probe has been ordered.

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Lucknow: Terming the death of infants in a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur as an outcome of the Uttar Pradesh government's "gross criminal negligence", the SP and BSP Saturday demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident.

Both the opposition parties in the state have decided to send teams to Gorakhpur. "As many as 60 children have died in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last six-seven days. This is an example of gross criminal negligence of the BJP government," Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said in a release here.

Blaming the Yogi Adityanath government for the tragedy, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that a shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital led to it.

"The company supplying oxygen had informed the principal (of Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital) that it would stop the supply if payment was not made and the government must be aware that the deaths have been caused due to a shortage of oxygen," he said.

Stating that the exact toll was not available with the Opposition, Yadav said, "We have received information that as the children were dying, their families were being taken out of the hospital in a hush hush manner."

Demanding a high-level inquiry into the incident, Mayawati said all possible help should be extended to the bereaved families. "As it is not in the nature of the BJP to accept its follies, the matter of dismissing the departmental ministers for this negligence should be left on the wisdom of the chief minister," she added.

The BSP supremo further alleged that the issues of peoples' welfare were of no importance "for the governments of the BJP". "Issues like tiranga (tricolour), vande mataram, madrassa, anti-romeo squads  which divert the attention of the people  are of more importance to them," she said.

Mayawati added that as the incident took place at a time when the chief minister was on a visit to Gorakhpur and "taking time off his political activities and puja-paath, was doing government work", it raised "a hundred questions on the capacity and working of the BJP government".

A six-member SP team, led by the leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary, has been asked to submit its report to the party chief by 13 August and a three-member BSP team, led by its state unit chief Ram Achal Rajbhar, has been asked to rush to Gorakhpur.

Meanwhile, Masood Ahmed, the state unit president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, said it was a "matter of grave concern" that the district administration and the hospital were trying to hide their shortcomings" and demanded the resignation of state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh. "The health minister should resign on moral grounds. It seems he had been busy working as a spokesman of the government and does not have the ability to work as the health minister," he alleged.

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Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday said that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state-run Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College.

"Whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow on Saturday.

Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had on Friday said least 30 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.

However, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since 7 August.

According to the official Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister (@CMOfficeUP), Yogi Adityanath has directed that a detailed probe be conducted into the incident and strict action be ensured.

Meanwhile, Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon on Saturday left for Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.

Before leaving for Gorakhpur, Singh said, "The chief minister was not informed by the doctors and officials about shortage of oxygen neither on 9 July nor on 9 August.

"The shortage of oxygen was not highlighted. The medical education minister was also not briefed about it. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done," he said in Lucknow.

Tandon said, "The chief minister is keeping a close watch on the entire issue. We will take appropriate action after investigating all aspects."

Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry had said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.

"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson had said.

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French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

Macron also spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump with the aim of "getting North Korea to conform to its international obligations," his Elysee office said.

"The two presidents agreed to remain in contact over the coming days," it added.

In a statement, the 39-year-old voiced his "concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea", saying world leaders needed to work to get Pyongyang to "resume the path of dialogue without conditions".

Macron had joined a chorus of international voices urging restraint in the crisis, which has alarmed the global community as Trump has engaged in days of verbal sparring with Pyongyang.

France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to "proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes," Macron said in the statement.

He also assured "France's allies and partners in the region of our solidarity in the current period".

Xi Jinping, the leader of North Korea's key ally China, urged Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions, after the US leader ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States.

Trump's warning came after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation and to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Earlier this week, France had praised Trump's "determination" in standing up to Pyongyang.

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The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the Principal of the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur for the deaths of over 60 children.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office said, quoting Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, that the principal has been suspended with immediate effect for negligence.

Earlier, Adityanath dispatched Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in five days, of whom many were infants, and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The sequence of events that led to the massacre of 60 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College since 7 August is a damning indictment of the government machinery. First, it failed to pay the contractor who supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital, running up arrears in excess of over Rs 68 lakh, even when, as the supplier argued, the terms and conditions of the supply agreement said the pending amount would not exceed Rs 10 lakh.

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Lucknow: The Opposition tore into the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, seeking the scalps of the state health and medical education ministers for the deaths of over 60 children at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) hospital.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the BRD Medical College hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar, said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy.

The principal Opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the chief minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy.

"Gorakhpur, where the children have died in such large numbers, is the chief minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said.

He also slammed the BJP government in the state for the inaction so far, saying while two days ago Adityanath suspended 11 officials in Maharajganj and transferred seven others for dereliction of duty, but so far no heads have rolled in the BRD Medical College tragedy.

"No official in Gorakhpur listens to anyone, or is accountable to anyone, and it seems that such officials are being patronized by the chief minister himself," Ram Gopal Yadav alleged.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior SP leader Ram Govind Chowdhary is to visit the Gorakhpur hospital.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

"The BJP will never accept its mistake and so I leave it to their discretion to remove those responsible," she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: "The Opposition is levelling baseless charges out of frustration as the BJP government under the leadership of Adityanath was working for the welfare of the state and its people."

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

They were directed by an "extremely unhappy" chief minister to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in five days, of whom many were infants, and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the chief minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.

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Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied media reports that more than 30 children had died at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, due to lack of oxygen.

A statement issued by the state Information Department late evening categorically denied reports shown by "some TV channels as misleading".

It, however, said District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela was personally stationed at the medical college and keeping vigil on the situation emanating out of the death of seven patients on Friday due to "different medical reasons".

The statement came hours after the Gorakhpur district magistrate was seen on TV grabs confirming "death of 30 kids in the last two days" and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

Rautela had told local TV channels that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant of patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Denying that the children had died due to lack of oxygen, he confirmed that there was shortage of liquid oxygen at the medical college and that due to non-payment of Rs 70 lakh, the vendor supplying oxygen has stopped the supply. However, he said the principal had told him that for emergency use, alternative arrangements have been made.

He further said that part payment of Rs 35 lakh has been made to the vendor and that he had been requested not to disrupt the oxygen supply.

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Lucknow: Following the deaths of over 30 children at a Gorakhpur hospital, Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon left for the town on Saturday to review the situation.

The children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital died over the past few days due to encephalitis after reported lack of oxygen supply in their wards.

The visit, officials informed, was to take stock of the situation at the ground level and also to prepare a detailed report.

The two ministers, before leaving for the parliamentary constituency and hometown of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, apprised him of the situation.

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Lucknow: Rejecting reports that lack of oxygen supply was responsible for deaths of over 60 children in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last five days, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday that a committee has been set up under the chief secretary to go into the gas supplier's role and other lapses.

He and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh quoted figures of child deaths in August over a period of three years and after the BJP government came to power to claim that the deaths have occurred due to vector-borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis highly prevalent in the region.

Flanked by Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the state Health and Medical Education Ministers at a press conference, Adityanath asserted that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty.

He and Siddharth Nath Singh contended that there has been no death due to lack of oxygen supply to Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital, but did concede there was a problem in the supply of liquid oxygen for four hours on 10 August which was made up by the system switching to cylinders.

The chief minister also said that BRD College Principal Rajiv Mishra has already been suspended on grounds of negligence and administrative lapses relating to delayed payment to the gas supplier.

He said that a magisterial inquiry has already been ordered and the report will come soon, while the committee headed by the chief secretary is expected to give its report in a week.

Adityanath requested the media to be responsible and only broadcast authentic death statistics.

"We are sensitive to each death in the hospital and will request you all to be careful about the facts and figures," he said at a press conference in Lucknow.

Expressing his sympathies to the bereaved families, Adityanath said that encephalitis was a big challenge for the state government as well as an emotional issue for him as he has been waging a war against it since 1998.

He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enquired about the situation and assured all central help. The union health secretary was in Gorakhpur, he said, adding that Union Health Minister JP Nadda and his minister of state were monitoring the situation as well.

Adityanath also said that during his review meeting in Gorakhpur on 9 August, he had asked officials if there were any issues or they required any help from the government but was told that there were none.

The chief minister said that he himself had visited the BRD medical college on 9 July and 9 August to himself look at the situation but was not informed of any shortage, including of oxygen.

Meanwhile, citing figures, Siddharth Nath Singh said that 567 deaths occurred in August 2014 at a daily average of 19, 668 deaths in 2015 in the same month with a daily average of 22 and 587 deaths in August 2016 with a daily average of about 20, but the state government has taken steps to improve health services in the last three months and there had been a reduction in fatalities.

"In August this year up to the 11,133 deaths have occurred," he said.

Also denying the shortage of oxygen or disruption of the central oxygen plant had led to the deaths of children, including infants, he attributed the deaths to some being underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on 5 August and funds sent to the BRD medical college, but it was "surprising" that Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it until 11 August.

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Shut your left nostril. Now shut the right one as well. Stay that way for 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 60 seconds.

Now imagine this is not a yoga class. And the fingers belong to the state.

Welcome to India @70. The mythical land of milk and honey but short on oxygen for children and has Lord Yama, the God of death, on speed dial. Where the state indeed has its finger on the pulse but only to check if you are dead or alive.

Thirty children, suffering from encephalitis, a killer disease that visits Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh every monsoon, died at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in the last 48 hours. The death toll in the last five days is said to be 63. Since 1978, this hospital has an average of over 200 deaths per bed, making Gorakhpur highly endemic to encephalitis.

But the 30 patients who died did not succumb to the disease. Rs 68,58,596 could have saved their life but the hospital administration reportedly did not clear arrears of this amount with the firm that supplied the oxygen cylinders. The result was the firm withdrew the service, leaving the children gasping for breath. The cold irony is you cannot even say the kids breathed their last.

Someone at the Secretariat in Lucknow, I can bet, must be working the calculator to decide on the exgratia amount to be given to each grieving parent. That feudal manner of giving compensation that lends to the state a mask of benevolence. Let me help. Rs 68,58,596 divided by 30 would come to Rs 2.28 lakh per patient.

If only Yogi Adityanath's government had cleared that sum of money to the oxygen supplier, it would not possibly have had blood on its hands today. Or converted eastern Uttar Pradesh home to these tiny graves.

Incidentally, Yogi Adityanath had also been the MP from Gorakhpur since 1998 and was more than familiar with the problem of the outbreak of encephalitis in his former constituency. He has raised this issue in Parliament and has in the past, when the Samajwadi Party was in power, demanded that it should be declared an epidemic. Most of the victims are from the lower strata of society  Dalits and Muslims  who have no access to treatment facilities at primary health centres or even district hospitals.

Incidentally, the chief minister was at the hospital this week to inaugurate a ten bed ICU, a six-bed critical care unit and visited the ward where children infected with encephalitis were admitted. Knowing how hospitals are done up before a VIP visit, one can safely assume the place was spruced up to ensure no skeletons came tumbling out of the cupboard.

     BRD            ../      pic.twitter.com/duYNbGALvO  Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) August 9, 2017

Did no one pass on the SOS to the chief minister about the arrears?

On predictable lines, the Uttar Pradesh government has denied any disruption of oxygen supply. Strangely this is not what its officials on the ground are saying. To live in denial is always the standard escape procedure of those in power. I am reminded of the tragedy at Hyderabad's Gandhi hospital when 21 patients died on 22 July and it was attributed to power outage because of which many specialty wards including surgical ICU, neonatal ICU, respiratory ICU plunged into darkness. The four standby generators also developed snag at the same time.

However, a subsequent probe by engineers gave the hospital a clean chit, arguing ten deaths die every day, on an average at the hospital. Similar to the Uttar Pradesh government's defence that says 12 patients die at BRD hospital every day. This is the 'chalta hai, all in a day's work' attitude to bereavement.

But even while claiming the disruption in oxygen supply is not the reason for the deaths, the police has raided the office of the oxygen supplier.

What gets one's goat is that instead of fixing this huge medical problem in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the government puts the patriotism test higher up on the priority list. In fact, even as these children were choking to death, one of Adityanath's ministers was directing all madrassas (Islamic schools) to hold celebrations on Independence Day and videograph the event. This was followed by a warning that action will be taken against those madrassas that do not follow the order.

Minister of state for minority welfare Baldev Aulakh had company in Times Now, that debated the Independence Day story instead of Gorakhpur on its 9 pm show on Friday. When a panellist mentioned the BRD hospital deaths, he was brusquely told by the anchor not to divert and focus on the real issue.

Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani could not get more farcical.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on many occasions in the past, has spoken about 'Stand Up India.' Yes, Mr prime minister, I think it is high time we stand up for the issues that really matter. Whether anyone sings or does not sing the national anthem in a cinema theatre on 15 August is not a matter of life and death. But when 30 kids die in 48 hours for lack of oxygen at a government hospital in the 70th year of Independence it is indeed so.

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Kolkata: The sit-in demonstration by Jadavpur University students was lifted early on Saturday, after the university authorities assured them of communicating their sentiments to the government regarding provisions of a bill.

The bill, West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Bill-2017, would enable the government to have the power to prescribe rules and procedures for conducting students body or union election. It was passed in the assembly in February this year.

"We lifted the sit-in as the Executive Council members comprising the vice-chancellor, registrar and other senior officials told us that they would communicate the sentiments of the students to the state government regarding the proposed apolitical student council model which is undemocratic and unacceptable," Arts Faculty Student's Union (AFSU) leader Gitasree told PTI.

"The students informed me they have lifted the sit-in early today. They are all my children," Vice-Chancellor Professor Suranjan Das said.

The students held a general body meeting that lasted for an hour after which the sit-in was withdrawn around 2 am, almost 36 hours after it had begun.

Though the sit-in was withdrawn at 2 am, the VC, the registrar Pradip Ghosh and other Executive Council members including four deans and the Pro VC left the campus at 5 am.

"We were assured that the EC will take all stakeholders of the university in confidence by initiating a discussion about the bill by the higher education department that will pave the way for setting up apolitical student council bodies in all state-aided colleges and universities to supercede democratically elected unions," a Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) leader said.

"But we understand that we have to take this fight to the appropriate level," he said.

ABUTA leader and JU teacher Goutam Maity said, "Yes, I am happy that the the sit-in has finally been lifted. Teachers and non-teaching staff support the students' demands but we need to fight the battle with those who are behind the move."
Editor's note: This article, originally published on 12 August, 2017, is being republished in the view of the Supreme Court hearing and what it would mean for the special rights and privileges of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The hearing has now been deferred to 27 August, 2018.

The debate with respect to the constitutionality of Article 35A started after an NGO 'We The Citizens' filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2014, saying the provision was only supposed to be a temporary one.

It is imperative that we delve into the legislative history of this provision in order to make any meaningful argument. This provision was enacted by a Presidential Order in 1954. Presidential Orders are issued with respect to the state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, which is a temporary provision in the Constitution. The Presidential Order of 1954 was the most detailed of such orders and was issued to implement the agenda of the Delhi Agreement of 1952, which was signed between the Union of India and the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

This Presidential Order inter alia added Article 35A to the Constitution of India. It is pertinent to note that any addition or deletion of the provisions in a legal document, let alone the Constitution, amounts to amendment of that legal document. There is an established procedure mentioned in the Constitution by which an amendment can be carried out. This process outlined under Article 368, was circumvented during the addition of article 35A.

The process under Article 368 involves the Parliament and in certain cases, even the state legislatures, to carry out any amendment to the Constitution. However, Article 35A was inserted by an Order of the President, which means by the exclusive exercise of the executive's power. The Parliament was thereby totally alienated in the process.

The President of India exercised legislative power without informing the Parliament in this case. Under the scheme of our Constitution, the President is the head of the executive and has very little legislative role, except under Article 123. Therefore, the Presidential Order of 1954 is also a violation of Article 368 of the Constitution.

The blatant illegality in the process of enactment of Article 35A is for everyone to see. The provisions of Article 35A give special rights to the "permanent residents" of the state. It empowers the state legislature to define permanent residents and then give them special treatment, privileges and rights. This special treatment is with respect to 'employment with the state government, acquisition of immovable property in the state, settlement in the state, or right to scholarships and such other forms of aid as the state government may provide'.

The implementation of these provisions therefore leads to creation of two classes of citizens in the Union of India. One class has special access in Jammu and Kashmir and the other doesn't. This is something which goes against Article 14 of the Constitution, which says that the state shall not discriminate amongst its citizens on the basis of their gender, caste, creed, religion or the place of birth. It further says that the state cannot refuse equality before the law and equal protection of the laws to any person within the territory of India.

In other words, this means that no person or groups of people can demand for any special privileges. Most importantly, Article 14 refers to 'persons' and not 'citizens'. Therefore, it is not even necessary for a person to be a citizen of India to invoke the right under Article 14.

The Supreme Court has said on numerous occasions that the fundamental rights are the most sacrosanct part of our Constitution and can't be violated under any circumstances. Fundamental rights are also part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution, which cannot be amended at all as the apex court has stated. The amendments to the Constitution cannot even be made through Article 368. Therefore, Article 35A is in direct violation of Article 14.

The Union government has rightly parted ways with the state government in front of the Supreme Court. The Centre expressed its reservations in responding to the NGO's petition before the apex court. This means that if Article 35A is struck down, there will be more legal parity between a citizen of India in Jammu and Kashmir and a citizen of India in any other state. Even from a political point, the existence of such special legal provisions for Jammu and Kashmir is indirectly an acknowledgment in front of the international community that the state is a disputed territory and therefore, it has a special status within the country.

It is high time that the Supreme Court takes cognisance of this matter. The enactment in the first place was nothing but political appeasement and opportunism, which was done in an extra constitutional manner through an illegal process. The NGO's petition is a welcome opportunity to declare Article 35A ultra vires.

The author teaches law at National Law University, Mumbai and is also a research fellow at Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay
Srinagar: Militants opened fire on an Indian Army camp in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, injuring a jawan, police said on Saturday.

The militants fired at the army building in Kalaroos area during the night, a Jammu and Kashmir police official said.

Sunil Randhawa of the 17 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) was injured in the incident.

The injured was taken to an army hospital in Drugmulla where doctors stated his condition to be stable.

The army and police have launched search operations in the area to track down the militants, he added.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed in the shelling across Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan side in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5.30 am. on Saturday.

This attack comes only three days ahead of 15 August, marking 70th independence day of India.
A 45-year-old woman was killed on Saturday in firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, police said. The victim has been identified as Ruqia Bi.

#FLASH J&K: A 45-year old lady has lost her life in ceasefire violation & shelling by Pakistan during early morning hours, in Mendhar Sector pic.twitter.com/6ayWJqikPh  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

According to defence ministry sources, the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy unprovoked firing at about 5 am. "The Indian positions are effectively retaliating. Firing exchanges are continuing," the sources told IANS.

This comes just hours after a security personnel was injured when militants attacked an army camp in Kupwara district of Kashmir. After the attack, the army launched a massive manhunt with the help of paramilitary commandos, India Today reported.

This comes just a day after former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa was reportedly cornered by armed forces in Tral district of Kashmir.

With inputs from IANS
An exchange of fire is underway in Awneera village of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district between security forces and terrorists, ANI reported.

Exchange of fire underway between security forces & terrorists in Awneera village of J&K's Shopian; as per reports 2-3 terrorists trapped  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

According to The Times of India, the encounter started on Saturday evening between terrorists and the security forces in Awneera village. The report further added that after receiving the information, 55 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), special operations group and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were immediately deployed in the area to gun down the terrorists.

The encounter is believed to be going on in the Bagdad area of Awneera village and both the terrorists and security forces are engaged in a heavy exchange of fire; cordon-and-search operations have begun, said an India Today report.

Earlier, on Saturday, militants opened fire on an Indian Army camp in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir that injured a jawan. The militants had fired at the army building in Kalaroos area on Friday night. Sunil Randhawa of the 17 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) was injured in the incident and was taken an army hospital in Drugmulla.

After the incident, the army and police had launched search operations in the area to track down the militants.

In a separate incident on the same day, a woman was killed in the shelling across Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan side in Jammu and Kashmir's Mendhar sector at 5.30 am.
This April, Kerala, the land of 44 rivers, received a drought-hit tag from the Central government when the 2016 South West Monsoon was a disappointing one and the North West Monsoon deserted the state totally.

Rivers, ponds, dams and wells dried up, forcing people to stand in long queues to collect drinking water.

Reservoirs and dams were connected through new pipelines to ease water supply situation and an army of water tankers and redesigned water supplying boats were deployed all across the state. And now, just two months after carrying out the tiring work, the state government has been forced to begin this again on a war footing.

The state government has geared up to combat an imminent drinking water crisis as the monsoon has failed to fill the water bodies. With the monsoon rains failing in Kerala and recording a shortfall of 28 percent so far, state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held an emergency meeting to decide on the course of action needed to conserve water.

The South West Monsoon arrived over Kerala on 30 May. But after initial promise of bountiful rains, there has been a shortfall of 28 percent till 9 August, according to the Kerala regional Met Centre.

In the meeting chaired by the chief minister, three task forces have been formed to ensure that rain water is conserved by repairing the regulators across major rivers in the state.

In a tweet, the chief minister on his personal twitter handle noted that the situation is grim.

"I request all citizens of Kerala to take steps to reduce wastage of water and conserve the available resources," his tweet read.

Wayanad, with a deficit of 59 percent, and Idukki, with a shortfall of 35 percent are the worst hit. The storage level in the reservoirs in Idukki has fallen to 32 percent of their capacity.

Sekhar L Kuriakose, member secretary at State Disaster Management Authority and head scientist, said that convening such meetings can be called as Climate Change Adoption process. "In the previous years, we faced a tough time due to water scarcity. This year, we know that as rains are less we will be again facing a tough time. So, we have initiated plans to be well prepared and cushion the impact," Sekhar told Firstpost.

"One of the three task force committees will focus on rainwater harvesting and conservation. The second one will focus on repair of check-dams and regulators and construction of temporary check-dams while the third one will be devoted to the restoration of canals and ponds and maximising rainwater storage," he said.

Bindhu Suresh, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram said that the news of chief minister convening meetings due to less monsoon rain is worrying them. "Last year, we struggled a lot. I had to wake up early morning and stand in queues to collect water. Sometimes, I had to skip going to my office too to collect water. It was a scary situation. News reports claim that we are going to face a similar or a worse situation than in April. Its frightening," Bindhu who works in a private firm said.

In some parts of the capital city, drinking water scarcity has disrupted supply for 12 continuous days. In 2016, the state had received a deficit of 33.7 percent rains from the South West Monsoon from July to September.

Haritha Keralam Mission vice-chairperson TN Seema said that they are well-prepared to combat the imminent water crisis. "We are focusing on rejuvenating and recharging water bodies across the state. Many rainwater pits were dug to conserve water recharge the wells. During the last few months, we cleaned 16,000 ponds across the states. We are seeing the effect," Seema told Firstpost.
Thiruvananthapuram: The RSS on Saturday demanded that the Centre depute a fact-finding probe by a statutory body into the killings of its workers in Kerala but is against the imposition of President's rule in the state.

The saffron organisation, however, has sought the Centre's "intervention" and action within the Constitutional bounds to bring the situation under control.

"We are really against dismissing a government, which is elected by the people. That will not do good," said P Gopalan Kutty Master, the chief of Kerala RSS (Kerala Pranth Karyavahak), adding that when Article 356 was imposed in Kerala in 1959, RSS founder Guru Golwalkar had opposed it.

"Guruji opposed it (President's Rule). He then said it was wrong to dislodge a government elected by the people," he said.

The RSS is of the view that "political violence" in the state can end only through a "political change", implying the BJP coming to power, and not through dialogue as all such efforts in the past not only went in vain but worsened the situation, he said.

Master Kutty was talking to a group of journalists from Delhi, who was on a three-day visit to the areas like Kannur which witnessed violence against RSS and CPM workers, organised by Good Governance Cell of BJP.

"We want that Centre should send some Commission to enquire the matter or home minister can call the chief minister and see a report on political killings. It may give good result," he said adding it could be a statutory commission like the Human Rights Commission or the SC/ST Commission.

The RSS leader said, "The BJP-RSS needs to be strengthened politically here and a political change can only put a full stop to violence."

He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan feared that the Centre can do "something" after Governor P Sathasivam talked to the chief minister and the DGP after the murder of RSS worker Rajesh.

The RSS leader accused the CPIM of always violating the dialogue process and alleged that police official of the state are working as party cadres.

"From the top, including the DGP, to the bottom are working for the CPM. He is a DGP. Home ministry can do something...they can question him and seek report. If this happens things may go smoother," Master Kutty said.

He accepted that on some occasions the BJP-RSS workers also attack CPM workers but all that was in self-defence.

"A planned retaliation is not good for the organisation. But when some incident takes place, sudden retaliation is necessary. Otherwise, our members will lose their morale. We say to our people, beware of things. Be prepared every time as there can be an attack at any point in time. Don't sit down even if peace talks are going on," Kutty said.

He said that RSS was getting stronger after every attack.

"Some six or seven years ago there was some stagnation in our work but after that, we organised some programs in all districts of the state. In Kannur alone, we are running 250 shakhas daily. Still, there are some pockets in some areas where we can't go. Things are changing now. There are many in CPM 'party villages' where their mind is with us but due to fear they don't come out in the open," he said.

He said that since 2016 several rounds of dialogue took place between the two sides including between the top leaders of both CPM and BJP-RSS but all of them were in vain because after every dialogue they come up with some bigger attacks.

"Spiritual leader Sri M once took initiative to end the political killings. He talked to Sarsanghchalakji (RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat). We were asked by Sarsanghchalakji to hold dialogue. We followed his directions and talks for peace began. Since then several rounds of dialogues have taken place but they did not work," he said.

Kutty said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan looked sincere in every meeting and always promised to control the party cadres and take strong action against the attackers but it never happened in reality.

On being asked about the demands of RSS which can end the political killings, the RSS state unit chief said, "Only three. First, we have no freedom for organisational work and we want that. Second, impartial police action and third talks between leaders on both sides. They should sit and communicate together and try to solve the crisis."

He said in principle they agree with all these demands but after every dialogue, the attacks continue. Citing an instance a year ago, he said after two sittings 13-year-old Vismaya's father Santosh was killed. "I called the CM and the party secretary and they said this was not by their party cadres. They said they were people not under their control. They again said they will take some steps and will not help the culprits in police station and in courts. But they did it again," he alleged.

"After the killing of Rajesh, again we sat in an all party conference. Some of our members were not ready to participate because they (CPM) breached the assurances given in talks. But the sarsanghchalak was in favour of talks. Same discussion, same demands and same reply were there. But after that the attacks continued," he said.
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board has directed all madarsas in the state to celebrate the Independence Day and send photographs of their celebrations.

According to a directive issued by Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board chairman Professor Syed Imamuddin, madarsa administrators will hoist the tricolour, take out rallies or join other such rallies and organise cultural programmes.

The madarsa authorities will also have to click photographs of their celebration of the Independence Day and send the same to the madarsa board office.

Talking to IANS, Imamuddin said that there was neither anything new about the directive, nor it was being issued for the first time.

"Every year madarsas hoist the national flag and their photographs are also called in by the board," he added.
Mumbai: There was a shortage of 65,026 modern weapons in the Maharashtra police department, which constituted 45 per cent of the total requirement, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said.

The CAG report on General and Social sector for the year ended March 2016 was tabled in both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature on Friday.

The report also stated that the supply of 1,834 weapons worth Rs 9.60 crore, which constituted 41 per cent of the total ordered quantity, was pending from the Ordnance Factory Board for a period ranging from six months to four-and-a-half years.

"Vital police equipment worth Rs 28.76 crore, such as bullet-proof jackets, night vision binoculars, bomb disposal suits, portable X-ray machines, etc planned for procurement

under the Annual Action Plans of 2011-16, had not been procured as of September 2016", the report stated.

It added that functioning of forensic science laboratories was affected by the shortage of technical staff, leading to 34,171 samples (18 percent) pending investigation as on 1 January, 2017.

"Monitoring of the scheme was lax and majority of the police stations were not recording the response time to assess the operational efficiency of the police", the report stated.

Notwithstanding Maharashtra government's policy of mandatory annual firing practice for all police personnel across ranks, the CAG report said there was a shortfall of 60 to 71 per cent in the armed firing practice between 2011 and 2016 in nine test-checked districts.

The report also revealed that while the Superintendent of Police (Pune) attributed the shortfall to non-availability of ammunition, the Commissioner of Police (Mumbai) attributed the shortfall to non-availability of firing range.

The CAG said that during 2011-16, the Home department received Rs 42.91 crore under for procurement of equipment to tackle any law and order situation arising from terror/naxal attacks, communal flare up and agitations. Out of the total amount, merely Rs 4.96 crore were spent as of September 2016.

"The implementation of a central scheme for modernisation of police force in Maharashtra was far from satisfactory as during the last five years, the state government could spend only 38 per cent of the total funds released under the scheme," the CAG stated.
The chaos surrounding the delay in releasing the results of over 4 lakh Mumbai University students is far from over. Firstpost accessed the minutes of the 28 April meeting of the Management Council, which showed that three out of four representatives had opposed Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh's idea of introducing online evaluation system for every stream at the same time. Instead, the representatives  Joint Secretary Siddharth Kharat, Director of Higher Education Rohidas Kale and Director of Technical Education Subhash Mahajan  while agreeing to the idea in spirit, had advised Deshmukh to implement the plan in a phased manner. The vice-chancellor is the fourth member of the council.

The Management Council should have 22 members including two permanent invitees. However, it has only four members as of now.

However, confident that the system can be implemented across various streams offered by the university, Deshmukh overruled the suggestion of the representatives. To bolster his argument, the vice-chancellor added that the online assessment system was successfully being used in evaluating papers in technical courses. The 28 April meeting also decided the terms of the contract, which was awarded to MeritTrac, a Mumbai-based assessment and testing solutions company for a period of three years. As per the contract, the company would be paid Rs 23.50 for evaluating each paper.

But after the vice-chancellor missed the 31 July deadline given by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, the knives were out for Deshmukh.

A senior official told Firstpost, " We feel that enough time was given to Deshmukh. During a 28 April meeting too, we had opposed the move to implement in a hurry. We brought this issue to his notice in June too, yet no corrective measures were taken. We are serious about our students' future but the vice-chancellor is enjoying his foreign tour without the Chancellor's permission."

After missing his 31 July deadline, Rao, who is also the Chancellor of Mumbai University, issued a show cause notice to Deshmukh over his failure to release the results of over 4.77 lakh students. It was for the first time Mumbai University's 150 year history that a vice-chancellor had received such a flak. But the show cause notice seemed to have had no effect over Deshmukh as more than 60,000 students are yet to receive their results.

Deshmukh held his first meeting with the chancellor and other senior officials on 4 July. However, senior officials said that even during the meeting he failed to show any intent of speeding the evaluation process.

The vice-chancellor also violated Section 11 (14) and 89 of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act as he did not submit a report to the chancellor, stating his failure to announce results before the deadline. Instead, he applied for leave "for personal reasons" on 9 August. Rao, then appointed Shivaji University Vice-Chancellor Devanand Shinde as acting vice-chancellor of Mumbai University with immediate effect.

There is pressure on Deshmukh to step down once for all. "The governor has given several opportunities for him to step down with dignity. But he refuses to do so," said a senior cabinet minister. Former vice-chancellor Bhalchandra Mungekar too has asked for Deshmukh's resignation. In the last one month, student wings of every major political party in Maharashtra have sought the resignation of Deshmukh.

After missing the 31 July deadline, Deshmukh promised to release all results by 5 August, but he reneged upon this too. Now the new deadline given by the university is 15 August.

Clearly, the vice-chancellor has failed as an administrator. But he missed no opportunity to enjoy foreign jaunts on university's money. However, Deshmukh has repeatedly said that he never utilised university funds for any of his trips.

In last two years, Deshmukh undertook eight foreign trips. He visited several Israeli universities in September 2015, attended the BRICS Global Universities Summit at Moscow in October 2015, and travelled to China, Germany and South Korea last year. Currently, the vice-chancellor is in Russia and will be on a lecture tour to Nepal, while lakhs of students are staring at an uncertain future.

Rao seems to be the last hope for students now. According to government officials, he has taken strong exception to his Nepal lecture tour, urging him to return home to address the critical issue, which is also affecting scores of students who wish to join foreign universities for further studies.
The Delhi HC, while hearing the defamation suit filed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor against Arnab Goswami and Republic TV, recently observed that Goswami and his TV channel must respect Tharoors right to silence pending investigation in the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar. The defamation suit was filed by Tharoor on the grounds that Goswami and Republic TV, by implicating Tharoor in Pushkars death, risked prejudicing the investigation and any subsequent trial. One of the concerns which Tharoors defamation suit raises is the balance between trial by media and free speech.

Trial by Media

Trial by media refers to sensational reporting done by news media aimed at determining the blameworthiness of suspects in high-profile criminal cases. In other words, the media investigates (tries) high-profile matters by reporting them in a whodunit manner. Trial by media risks adversely prejudicing the accused/suspects in criminal cases during police investigations and court trials. Public opinion (as shaped by the media) can influence the police and judges in criminal cases  it can even pressurise the police to formally charge certain individuals in criminal cases based on media reports and judges to decide a case one way or the other. Trial by media also threatens the cardinal principle in criminal law that an accused is to be presumed innocent until proved guilty under the law.

The two competing concerns involved in trial by media are the accuseds right to a free and fair trial and freedom of speech of the media.

Right to free and fair trial

The right to fair trial is not expressly stated as a right under the Indian Constitution. However, it is understood that the right to fair trial forms part of Article 21 of the Constitution which states, No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. In Maneka Gandhi vs Union of India, the Supreme Court held that procedure under Article 21 must not be arbitrary, unfair or unreasonable. While the procedure under consideration in Maneka Gandhi related to an administrative procedure, one can extend the reasoning in Maneka Gandhi to cover police investigations and judicial procedures such as court trials as well. A case under Article 21 is generally brought against the State because fundamental rights are enforceable against the State and not private entities such as media houses. However, one may argue that the State would not be able to discharge its functions in the right manner when it is under public pressure (due to media influence) and therefore, if the government or courts allow the media an unfettered right to report, this would violate the right to free trial of an accused.

Freedom of speech of the media

Freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right under Article 19(1) (a) of the Indian Constitution and is guaranteed to all citizens. Freedom of the press/media is not expressly stated in the Indian Constitution and can be inferred from Article 19 (1) (a). Under Article 19 (2), reasonable restrictions can be placed on the exercise of the right under Article 19 (1) (a) on certain specific grounds including contempt of court and defamation.

Freedom of media is expressly recognised in the right to freedom of speech and expression (Article 19) under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (an international declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and signed by India).

Media laws and attempts to regulate freedom of press in criminal cases

At present, there are no laws in India relating to trial by media, however, restrictions can be placed on the media in certain cases. Under section 2 (c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 criminal contempt includes publication (words spoken or written or visual representation) which either interferes with or obstructs, or tends to interfere with or obstruct the administration of justice. Under section 2 (c), criminal contempt also covers publication which prejudices or interferes with the due course of any judicial proceeding. Under the Contempt of Courts Act, Indian courts have the power to punish the press for criminal contempt where it publishes content which could interfere with (or obstruct) the administration of justice or prejudice judicial proceedings such as criminal trials. Interestingly, section 3 states that a publication which is criminal contempt under section 2 (c) would not be treated as contempt of court where no civil or criminal proceeding is pending in the matter in connection with which the publication is made. In other words, if the media publishes a sensational report on a matter in which the police has not formally filed a charge-sheet, such publication will not amount to contempt of court. This means that any misreporting on Sunanda Pushkars death by Goswami and Republic will not amount to contempt of court, unless the publication is made after the challan/charge-sheet is filed or summons/warrants are issued.

Law Commission of Indias 200th Report on Trial by Media:

In August 2006, the Law Commission of India published its 200th Report titled, Trial by Media: Free Speech and Fair Trial under Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. In its report, the Law Commission recognised the need to regulate prejudicial coverage of crime because of its adverse impact on judges and the administration of justice. The Law Commission suggested amendments to the Contempt of Courts Act to prohibit trial by media including a provision that prejudicial publication, made after the arrest of a person in connection with a crime but before a formal charge-sheet is filed, should also be punished as contempt of court. This was also the position taken by the Supreme Court in 1969 in AK Gopalan vs Nordeen (1969 (2) SCC 734).

The Law Commissions recommendations were not adopted in the Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 2006.

Indian courts on freedom of speech and trial by media

In Saibal Kumar Gupta vs BK Sen (1961 AIR 633), the Supreme Court recognised that media trials interfere with the administration of justice and held, No doubt it would be mischievous for a newspaper to systematically conduct an independent investigation into a crime for which a man has been arrested and to publish the results of that investigation. This is because trial by newspapers, when a trial by one of the regular tribunals of the country is going on, must be prevented. The basis for this view is that such action on the part of a newspaper tends to interfere with the course of justice whether the investigation tends to prejudice the accused or the prosecution.

In Sahara Real Estate vs SEBI, the Supreme Court approved a temporary ban on media coverage to prevent infringement of the right to fair trial. The SC also provided guidance on when the court should grant such bans, and permitted applicants to ... seek an order of postponement of the offending publication/broadcast or postponement of reporting of certain phases of the trial (including identity of the victim or the witness or the complainant), and that the court may grant such preventive relief, on a balancing of the right to a fair trial and Article 19(1)(a) rights, bearing in mind the above mentioned principles of necessity and proportionality and keeping in mind that such orders of postponement should be for short duration and should be applied only in cases of real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice or to the fairness of trial.

Recommendations to regulate and restrict trial by media

The Indian government can consider enacting laws or guidelines to restrict prejudicial reporting by media in criminal cases by adopting the Law Commission recommendations. Firstly, criminal contempt should cover prejudicial reporting made after the arrest of a person and not necessarily after filing of formal charges in a criminal case. Secondly, courts should be empowered to pass postponement orders along the lines of the section 4 (2) of the UK Contempt of Court Act 1981. A postponement order is an order to postpone the reporting of court proceedings to avoid a substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice in those proceedings. Thirdly, the legislation should specify which publications amount to criminal contempt, e.g., publications referring to character, confessions and previous convictions.

One might object to the regulation of trial by media on grounds that the right to free speech is on par with an individuals right to fair trial. However, media trials are harmful to the larger public interest because prejudicial reporting obstructs justice and the societys right to determine the truth.

The author is a research fellow at Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. She is also a volunteer at Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights. Views expressed are personal.
New Delhi: The Centre is closely monitoring the rescue and relief operations in flood-affected Tripura, where NDRF personnel have been rushed to assist the state administration.

"We are in touch with our teams," Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told PTI in New Delhi.

Rijiju said one team of the National Disaster Response Force was mobilised from Agartala for Ashram Chamani colony village in West Tripura district on Friday as the water level had gone up due to an increase in water in Hoara river.

During their operations, the team had evacuated 357 flood affected people on Friday and 372 people on Saturday to safer places.

The NDRF personnel have now moved to Pratapgarh village in the district for rescue operations, Rijiju said.

Normal life was paralysed in Agartala on Friday as many areas of the town were waterlogged due to incessant rains since Friday night.

Movement of people and vehicles came to a halt, many shops were closed and attendances in government offices, banks and schools and colleges were also thin due to incessant rains and waterlogging.
Srinagar: Villagers poured out of their homes and pelted stones on Friday after security forces cordoned off the village of Zakir Musa, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir's Al-Qaeda affiliate, officials said.

The clashes erupted as the security forces began conducting house-to-house searches in Noorpora village of Pulwama district.

Police said more security personnel  including the police, the army and the Central Reserve Police Force  had been rushed to the area and three more villages were brought under the extended cordon.

There were unconfirmed reports that Zakir Musa, a former Hizbul Mujahideen commander, could be in the area. But there was no official word on him.

Zakir Musa broke off from Hizbul after declaring that the militancy in Kashmir was to set up a Caliphate.
When Jemadar Abdul Rahim Khan wrote a letter to his father back in Hyderabad about how the war was going, it was clear the rifleman thought he was in hell. We are like goats tied to a butchers stake, wrote the young soldier in 1917. If I were to tell you all we have to face it would make a book; but there is no road of escape for this helpless one.

Khan was one of the thousands of Indian soldiers who had been sent to the killing fields of Flanders as part of the larger British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in an attempt to halt the Germans move to attack France via Belgium during World War I.

With Christopher Nolans latest film Dunkirk, raising eyebrows over its portrayal of the evacuation, and resulting in a plethora of articles arguing about 'white-washing' coloured soldiers out of the narratives surrounding World War II, this seems appropriate to remember the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers during the WWI, especially given the recent centenary of the battle of Passchendaele.

Unsurprisingly, the role that the British Indian army played in the Belgium theatre of war during the Great War has been ignored and diminished by both the British and Indian governments  for reasons well come to later.

First, its important to begin with why Khan and his compatriots were in Flanders.

Long live the Indians!

When Britain first decided to deploy Indian troops into Belgium, there was a lot of scepticism about how effective they would be.

Deploying Indian sipahis (soldiers) into Belgium would necessitate training more of them to act as commissioned officers, something which the British were loath to do for two reasons. The first was the widely prevalent racist view that Indians were unfit to lead unlike the white man  the Indian has not the instincts which make leaders in modern war, as General James Wilcocks, the commander of the Indian corps in France, wrote in a memo to the War office.

But the more pressing concern was that training Indian officers would imperil the stability of the Empire. Imperial projects, after all, are sustained by controlling the means of violence.

Lord Kitchener, secretary of state for war, clearly thought so. Sooner or later the preponderating influence in the Army would be Indian instead of British, he wrote in a memo to Parliament a year before the start of WWI. When that point was reached, our position in India would be one of sufferance, terminable at any moment when the people so desired it.

At the start of the war, the total Indian army numbered 1,90,140 combatants, commanded by a corps comprising 2,600 British officers. Of that, 85,000 troops along with 1,500 officers would form the expeditionary Indian corps that was summoned to assist in the British war effort in France.

When the 129th Baluchis, the first Indian regiment to arrive in France, disembarked in Marseille on 30 September 1914, they were meet with raucous cheers from the French. It was a delirious scene, wrote Massia Bibikoff, a Russian artist who witnessed the Indian regiments march through the streets of the French port. People who were drinking in the cafes of the Canebiere, men, women, officers, stood up on their chairs and shouted Vive Angleterre! Vivent les Hindous! Vivent les Allies! (Long live England! Long live the Hindus! Long live the Allies!)

Given the lack of training, proper equipment, and non-Indian officers, the conduct of the Indian Army corps in Belgium was nothing short of miraculous. In October, they managed to recapture the town of Neuve Chapelle after the British had lost it, before losing it and subsequently recapturing it from the Germans the next year, becoming the first troops of the BEF to break through the German defense.

Its hard to emphasise just how important, and surprising, the corps victories were. Poorly-equipped (none had winter gear in the first year of combat), in an unfamiliar land far from home, facing a superior military force and enduring new horrors, like chemical warfare, the Indian troops still managed to hold the line. There were a few desertions here and there due to low morale in 1915, but those who fled later regrouped and rejoined the war effort under new battalions.

During the entire duration of World War I, the Indian army fighting in the trenches suffered 34,252 total casualties. This was similar to the other units that made up the BEF, but what was markedly different was that many of the Indian forces casualties were officers, severely hampering their chain of command.

Huddled in muddy low-lying trenches, suffering frost-bite, and being bombarded by German artillery for days on end before having to madly dash across a No Mans Land pockmarked with rows of barbed wire, groups such as the Lahore Division and the Sirhind Brigade played instrumental roles in regaining the strategically important town of Ypres from the Germans twice, despite immense casualties across the entire corps.

Their valour did not go unnoticed. Usman Khan of the 57th Rifles became the first Indian to win a decoration during the BEFs first battle in the Western Front. And Khudadad Khan received the Victoria Cross in 1914 after surviving a German offensive that wiped out the rest of his battalion and continuing to fight despite being badly wounded.

Even Wilcocks had changed his mind about his troops. The Indian soldiers are due a great debt of gratitude, he wrote to readers of Blackwoods Magazine in 1917. They...were able to step in and fill a gap.

A forgotten history

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the role played by the Indian soldiers in both World Wars was either downplayed, or completely ignored by the British in the decades after them.

British historiography, both official and popular, held right up until the 1960s that the Indian sipahis conducted themselves poorly, essentially regurgitating the racist ideology that underpinned the Empire which saw the colonised as being completely inferior to the white man.

Underplaying the part played by colonial and coloured troops is not just unique to Britain, of course; all the Allies did in in order in order to diminish what the anthropologist Ann Laura Stoler has termed metissage  the threat to white prestige.

Its only relatively recently that there has been a greater interest in the Indian Army, with calls for their role to be respected among the British public.

As for India, the sipahis sit uncomfortably with the ideology of the Nationalist movement. Fighting as part of a colonial force under the command of the same occupiers that the Independence movement was attempting to eject from India has meant that their actions have either been ignored, or seen as bordering on the treacherous.

That certainly wasnt the case during World War I, however. Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem in honour of those who died in Flanders called The Oarsman. And Sarojini Naidu, in her 1915 poem The Gift of India, described the fallen as sons of my stricken womb who are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance/ On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.

In contemporary India there has been an increasing interest in publicly commemorating the role that Indians played in both World Wars. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has repeatedly called for the sipahis to be honoured, while the success of recent books on the subject, such as Farthest Field by Raghu Karnad hints that popular fiction might be able to do what Indian historiography has not in salvaging the reputation of the sipahis.

Ultimately, history is a constant process of reinterpreting and understanding the past.

If you visit the small Belgian town of Neuve Chappelle, you can find one of the few monuments dedicated to the Indian soldiers who fought and died in WWI. In the visitors book lies an anonymous entry: One dead for every kilometre held.

Until India decides otherwise, perhaps this will remain the most poignant tribute to the fallen.

Aditya Iyer is an independent journalist based in London.
Editor's note: Up to 13 September, when the Man Booker Prize 2017 shortlist will be announced, Firstpost will be reviewing all 13 books on the longlist. This is your guide to the Booker contenders, and which ones you should read.

For at least a couple of years now the most striking images that become the tableau of social media warriors come either from the conflict in Syria or in the footsteps of those trying to escape it. The recurring question beneath this growing cascade of images that shock and at times awe, is that of the humanity of those in it, whether alive or dead.

For years now, Mohsin Hamid has given voice to many such images. He has given the people in them language, a heart, a story, some love and most importantly some humanity, their capacity to grieve for something other than what we assign to them. Hamids Exit West, which has made it to the Man Booker Prize longlist for 2017, is easily his most experimental, though not necessarily his most convincing novel. Through Exit West, Hamid brings to the narrative of refugees and migration a touch of magic realism, the immediacy of spare prose and a convex view of conflict  while he speaks of it, he rarely ever invests in its physical torments.

Exit West tells the story of Saeed and Nadia, both of whom live in an unnamed war-torn city that people are waiting to flee. In refusing to give the protagonists a location in the first half of the book, Hamid in a way universalises the context, and leaves much to the imagination to construct rather than relate to everyday images that are now norm; in a way abandoning the idea of the reader finding identity in location. Hamid leaves his protagonists to grapple with that question alone. It was the sort of view that might command a slight premium during gentler, more prosperous times, but would be most undesirable in times of conflict," he writes of a view from a flat. Migration and displacement are of course key to Exit West. While both Saeed and Nadia are given to differing opinions, interests, desires and freedoms, their idea of home is in more ways than one linked to each. Location, location, location, the estate agents say. Geography is destiny, respond the historians, Hamid writes.

Saeed and Nadias restrained love for each other, and their desperation to find sanctuary where it may survive drives them to use so-called doors that are gateways to other places, far from the conflict of home. The two end up on a beach in Greece. While the first half of the novel delves somewhat into the everyday violence of bombings and murder, Hamid rarely invests in translating the physical experience of violence into the book. Though he counts down bodies, and choreographs their ends, they appear only as qualifiers and seldom as experiential candidates for the purpose of reading from. By the middle of the book Saeed and Nadia are through the door and onwards to others, each having left something behind either in terms of people or things they cared for. While Saeed remains rooted in the past trying in vain to build from it, Nadia is adventurous, yet the more delusional and directionless of the two.

Hamids creation of a perpetual criss-crossing stairwell at each end mouthed by a door through which refugees  or rather people whose homes and therefore identity, has been snatched from them  spill, feels both magical and distant. And within the margins of this osmotic movement, this magical portal, Hamid runs the small risk of undermining their journeys. The story of the refugee is inextricably linked to the story of land and sea; to that of travel, sun, rain, heat, cold, food, water and the endurance of men and women faced with the inevitability of borders. In this group, everyone was foreign, and so, in a sense, no one was, Hamid writes. Though Hamid iterates a sense of commonality among those, for whom displacement is the least unique thing about them, there is still the veritable risk of having denied the toil of their journey its importance. Is it because people with no home, and no identity, on a journey to wherever possible, will want to forget, let alone relive it? Perhaps, Hamid wants the readers to surf for his protagonists ability to reconstruct rather than remember, even though, the latter seems more likely.

In Saeed and Nadias relationship Hamid does try and answer some questions. While they are mobile and despite everything, still together theirs has been a journey of loss. The world has begun to shape each to his own method of surrender. While Saeed is the more reluctant of the two, Nadia is more accepting of that fate. Hamid  before he creates a magical, porous world for people seeking refuge  proceeds from a restrained glimpse of conflict, to a more humanising tale of love, grief and belonging. In doing so, he gives up the immediacy of circumstance in favour of the slow, sombre, development (or disintegration) of personality.

Exit West has a lot going for it. Saeed and Nadias relationship pockets conflict into the story of two people and delivers its humanity. But to discount the influence of the arduous journeys it takes for Hamids magical doors to function, let alone flourish, might come across as crass  even perverse. In prose, Hamid is clear, hardly over-sensitising and rarely ponders or hastens his rhythm. By the end, both, the book and the lives of Saeed-Nadia, are middling, slow, stuck as if trying to rewrite or imagine other ends. But what are lives without family, roots or identity? When we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind, Hamid writes.
A little over 32 km from Wagah, in Amritsar, stands a memorial to the Partition of India  a sundering that left 12 million people displaced, and nearly two million dead. The Partition Museum Amritsar collects personal histories, artefacts and archival records that tell the story of the Partition, and after opening a part of the institution to the public in October 2016, is ready for its final launch on 17 August.

The date of its launch marks the 70th anniversary of Partition. Set up by the Arts and Culture Heritage Trust (headed by Lady Kishwar Desai), the Partition Museum now occupies some 17,000 square feet in the recently restored, historic Town Hall building in Amritsar.

Mallika Ahluwalia, CEO of the Partition Museum Amritsar, spoke with Firstpost about what's in store for the institution:

Since the Partition Museum partially opened in October 2016, what have been some of its major milestones, and what has the response from visitors been like?

We have had an overwhelming response from visitors. So many have written very heartfelt letters to us after their visits, and reached out to us to share their families stories. Since launching, some 50,000 visitors came to the Museum, which was a major milestone for us. We also hosted two cultural events at the Museum, with both Gulzar saab and the Begum Jaan team coming to the Museum.

Weve had all kinds of visitors  from local families affected by Partition, to local government like police officers or sanitation workers, to lots of school children from around the city and the country, and also the domestic and international tourists who have to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple.

What is in store when the second and final phase of the PMA opens on 17 August? What are some of the new features that visitors will be able to see/experience?

When we opened in October 2016, we had a curtain raiser exhibition open  this was four rooms. However, now we open the entire gallery  some 17,000 square feet of space.

We had suggested to the Government of Punjab, and they have accepted our suggestion, that 17 August should be marked as Partition Remembrance Day. Because this was the day that 70 years ago the borders were actually announced. Therefore, every year going forward this will be marked to remember all those millions impacted. This year we will be having a beautiful day-long commemoration event at the Museum, with poetry, music, panel discussions, and lots of memories. We encourage people from around the country to join us to mark this day, especially Partition families.

The Museum uses multiple different mediums to create a world-class engaging experience for the visitor. This includes oral histories playing on video, a soundscape in each gallery, original artefacts donated by refugees, newspapers and magazines, photographs showing the migration and camps, letters written by refugees, government documents, and especially created art installations.

What we have tried to do is create an immersive experience  where the visitor can come and get a multi-sensory experience of what Partition meant for all those millions of people who were impacted. It will be quite different from other Museums in India because a strong narrative is present through-out the Museum, so the visitor goes on a journey through time.

Visitors may especially like the installations  but I wont say more about these, people should come and see! Our Tree of Hope was very popular in the last Museum, where thousands upon thousands of people greened the Tree with their messages of love and peace.

Before the Partition Museum Amritsar, there had never been a dedicated memorial to the Partition, an event that shaped the histories of two nations in such a profound way. Why do you think there has been this lack?

We are losing the generation that witnessed Partition  and 70 years after the event there was no museum or memorial anywhere in the world to an event that shaped so many millions, and indeed that continues to shape us as individuals, families, communities and a nation.

The lack of a Partition Museum is particularly stark when one looks around the world to see how other major international events have all been memorialised  9/11 had a Museum within a few years of the event. The Partition remains the largest mass migration in human history anywhere in the world, yet the stories of those millions who lost homes or loved ones remains unheard.

My view is that in the immediate aftermath of Partition, it was too raw to remember, but also that given the deep economic loss due to losing ones home and livelihoods, there was a sense that one had to just move on and ensure a better life for ones children however one could. As time passed, I think the space for the Museum was created  and now the generation that is left wants their story to be heard, they say that a burden is lifting off them that finally there is a space that acknowledges what they went through.

When the Partition Museum Project was first conceptualised, what was the task ahead for the Arts and Culture Heritage Trust? What were some of the considerations that guided how the Partition Museum Amritsar took shape?

All four founders, of which I am one, come from Partition families. The Museum was founded by us because of a very stark realisation that we were losing the generation that had witnessed Partition, as I said earlier. Given the age of Partition survivors, we felt it was very important, that in their lifetime, as many of that generation who are with us, can know that their experience has been heard and acknowledged.

When we started two-and-a-half years ago, we had thought that it would take us much, much longer to get the Museum up. But we just received such an outpouring of support from every quarter, that we were able to move much more quickly.

We were very clear early on that our main goal was to create this as a Peoples Museum, and that focus on telling the stories of all the millions of families has been a guiding force throughout the Museum. We often speak of our Museum as one of love, loss and longing  and those sentiments have also guided us in our journey to build this.

What does the Partition Museum Project hope to contribute to the narrative around Partition?

Where Partition has been discussed, it is largely at the macro-level of nation-states. As a Museum, we are therefore, working to set this up as a People's Museum to pay tribute to all those impacted, and to give voice to their experiences.

As seen in the recent Museum of Memories project with Culture Lab, the participatory nature of the Partition Museum Amritsar is what makes it unique, especially in terms of the texture, immediacy and quality of the 'day-to-day' it can provide to an otherwise sweeping narrative that is now at some distance from us...

The Partition Museum is being set up as a People's Museum. Our main objective is to tell the stories of those millions of people who were impacted. We are using people's own voices through oral histories, their personal artefacts, their letters, photographs and documents to tell history. For example, many galleries contain objects that refugees carried with them when they travelled; some items that have been donated to us include a phulkari coat that someone carried because it was their most prized possession, and a water pot that helped a family gather water during their time at a camp. Each of these objects tells the experience of the family more poignantly and fully than any history textbook ever could.

Because we are a People's Museum, using people's own voices was very important, so you hear history first-hand from someone who lived through it. It helps create a space for all those impacted to have their stories heard and acknowledged.

What is in store for the Partition Museum, after this final phase is complete?

Our project continues to scale up constantly. We hope to create a large, publicly accessible archive, so that people can come and listen to oral histories at the Museum, access a comprehensive collection of research documents at the Museum. Maybe in 15 years, someone will be able to hear their great- grandmother's voice when they otherwise wouldn't have, or someone might find a missing relative through our video archives? And someone might do further research or make art based on our library?

We also hope to continue to do a number of traveling exhibitions. Given the age of Partition survivors, not everyone can come to the Museum physically, so we are keen to take the Museum to them.

Visit www.partitionmuseum.org for more information
Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah arrived on Saturday on a three-day visit to Karnataka to re-energise the rank and file, and asserted that the party stood united and would return to power in next year's Assembly polls under the leadership of state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa.

"Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state," Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport.

Shah was accorded a rousing reception by BJP workers. He claimed the people had decided to vote the BJP to power as the party had been exposing the "corrupt, polarising and oppressive" rule of the Congress in the last five years.

"I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power," he said.

Shah said he had come here to realise the resolution of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka.

"I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar (This time, a BJP government) resolution," he added.

He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's VijayRath (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into southern India by winning the Karnataka Assembly polls.

Shah has a packed schedule and would try to bring the factional fights in the party to an end.

BJP state president and former chief minister Yeddyurappa has been facing criticism over his "arbitrary" style of functioning with some party leaders expressing their unhappiness with him.

Shah's programmes during his three-day stay include interaction with intellectuals, meeting religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs, and leaders of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

On Sunday, he will take part in the Political Affairs Committee meeting of the party and visit Adi Chunchanagiri Math in Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet the seer, who is the religious leader of Vokkaligas, the second most powerful community in Karnataka.

He will also meet Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

On the third day, Shah will address party vistaraks (volunteers) who had fanned out across the state to get feedback from the people.
Patna: Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav on Saturday hit out at current JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar's alone but belonged to him too.

"JD(U) isn't only Nitish Kumar's party. It's mine too," Sharad Yadav said in Bihar's Madhepura district on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Nitish Kumar's decision to break the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress and join hands with the BJP and form a new government.

Nitish Kumar is the JD(U) national president and said to fully control the party in Bihar. "There are two JD(U)s in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Sharad Yadav said.

He refused to comment on reports on the JD(U) decision to replace him as the parliamentary party leader.

Sharad Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had "not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, what do others matter".

"I am not afraid of any one to speak the truth and stand by my principles," he said in reference to his fight against Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he was a student leader close to Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.

Sharad Yadav said action has been taken against a few leaders of the party "who are standing with me", and leaders close to Nitish Kumar have been threatening other JD(U) leaders supporting him.

Sharad Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

"The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls."

He said it was the people who had made the Grand Alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress in 2015 Bihar Assembly polls and given their mandate to rule for five years. "People's mandate was against the BJP-led NDA," he said.
On 27 September, 2012, a sense of jubilation enveloped the BJP National Executive meet at scenic Surajkund in Delhis National Capital Region. The news had just broken that the Supreme Court had lifted its ban that kept Amit Shah out of Gujarat.

What made the news even more exciting was that the exiled leader, considered a key strategist for Narendra Modi could not only return to Gujarat, but could also participate in the assembly elections, which was only two months away. One need not stress the importance of 2012 Gujarat Assembly election and how it was linked with Modis future prospects.

Shah was the youngest minister in the Modi government when he was first inducted in 2003, a most promising young leader who had won Assembly elections with unheard of margins (1.58 lakh and 2.35 lakh) in the two prior elections from the Sarkhej seat.

The court order had an immediate bearing on BJPs organisational structure. The party had kept the post of general secretary vacant for Amit Shah waiting only to see which way the Supreme Courts upcoming verdict might go. That general secretary seat had fallen vacant due to resignation of Ravi Shankar Prasad who had been made deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha. In influential party circles. it was believe that Prasad was moved by design to a parliamentary party post, so created space for Shah.

Armed with a favorable court order, Shah made a brief appearance at Surajkund meet and then departed for his cherished home state. He couldnt wait any longer.

Shah was to return to Ahmedabad after a gap of two years, after 31 October, 2010, when the Supreme Court had exiled him out of Gujarat until further orders, to ensure that he couldnt influence the trial in the alleged Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. In less than 24 hours, he moved out of Gujarat to Delhi and made a first floor room in Gujarat Bhawan in the Chankayapuri area as his temporary home.

No one then could have imagined the twist in the tale would be so momentous and so defining in in next few years he would become Indias second most powerful person.

To Shahs credit his road to fame and glory never came easy. He earned it hard ways for himself. His boss Narendra Modis unflinching trust and confidence in him kept him moving. Shah didnt waste his forced stay in Delhi and other parts of the country outside of Gujarat as a dejected person but this as an opportunity and challenge. In Delhi Arun Jaitleys Kailash colony home and Parliament House office were his outposts. He would meet with leaders and workers go to states, do personal research on case against him and dig out how Congress had been trying to frame him. In the process he got to know several things about Congress, Robert Vadra deals and national politics that would come handy to him while formulating strategy for 2014 parliamentary elections.

The big surprise came in May 2013 when Amit Shah was made general secretary in charge of politically critical Uttar Pradesh. The most-populous state of the Hindi heartland state with 80 parliamentary seats had been a kind of Waterloo for any BJP leader who was made Central party in-charge. Most BJP leaders and supposed political pundits outside wrote him off, even predicted his political obituary. Rajnath Singh was then party president and Modi had yet not officially arrived on the national scene.

Modi was to be made BJPs face for parliamentary election a month later in Goa. Shah with Modis support took that big bold risky step. BJP couldnt win elections if it couldnt score handsomely in UP. Shah travelled every single mile in the state and fetched an unimaginable 73 out 80 seats for BJP. Modi declared him man of the match of the 2014 General Election.

When Modi took over as Prime Minister of India in May 2014, he offered as reliable sources told Firstpost, the coveted post of defence minister to Shah. Modi then was not sure, as sources pointed out, if he would be able make Shah party president (because it was argued by some that both prime minister and party president couldnt be from Gujarat). Shah politely told Modi of his preference to be in the organisation and work to fulfil Modis dream of a "Congress-mukt Bharat".

Rajnath Singh resigned from the post of party president two months after becoming Union home minister and Shah became president. In the months and years to come, it became clear that the BJP under the Modi-Shah dispensation had an unending and insatiable desire to grow both in size and influence. As Shah went about the task of expanding the organisational structure of the BJP, he was personally targetted by his political rivals, who called him all sorts of names: "Tadipar, criminal, murderer, narbhakshi, mota" etc, but he remained undeterred. The party became the biggest political outfit in terms of primary members in the world, surpassing the Chinese Communist Party.

On his part, Shah never forgot or forgave that he was falsely implicated with a fake encounter or murder conspiracy charges, and sent to jail by the then ruling Congress dispensation. That resolve to fight against his humiliation perhaps filled him with relentless energy to go across the nation and uproot the Congress and its allied parties.

Shah ensured that Modis charishmatic reach with people translated into votes. His "Panna Pramukh" idea at booth-level was initially ridiculed, but the Assam and Uttar Pradesh Assembly results proved that with resolve, tenacity, grit and the right strategy, even the most difficult elections could be won. He would work till late at night and tell his people to start reporting from early morning. He caused many BJP leaders in election-bound states to suffer from insomnia, but they couldnt complain because their boss was leading from the front.

When Shah took over the BJP, the party was ruling in six states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Punjab (in alliance with Akali Dal). The Modi-Shah duo since May 2014 has lost Punjab, but added 13 more states  Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Jharkhand, Haryana, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and now Bihar.

The total tally of BJP-ruled states is 18. If forming governments in Goa and Manipur, as also a stealth operation in Bihar with Nitish Kumar were masterful manifestations of political maneuvering and quick thinking, the massive majority in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, the opening of an account in Kerala, raising vote percentage in states like Kerala and West Bengal, winning Panchayat and urban local bodies election in all of northern, eastern central and western India was a manifestation of sustained grassroots work. He is now eyeing the coastal states of Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala.

The party got into the habit of punching above its weight, setting ambitious targets and achieving them on most occasions.

As Shah completes three years in office and enters Parliament for the first time, he and the BJP have too many things of which to boast. The party has reason to cheer that upon the closure of the Monsoon Session, days ahead of India celebrating 70 years of Independence, the BJP has its own president and vice-president (who also happens to be Chairman of Rajya Sabha), prime minister, a two-thirds majority in Lok Sabha, its own Speaker, and the party for the first time in the history of the country is turning into the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha.

Shah can pat himself on the back for these accomplishments and Modi can unfurl the tricolour at Red Fort on 15 August with renewed confidence. India at 70 is seeing a new political system, a BJP-yukt (hegemony) Bharat.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday appears to have gone well. The chief minister focused on the need to preserve Article 35A, which empowers the Jammu and Kashmir government to decide who enjoys property and civil rights in the state.

The recent meeting between the two leaders is significant in light of sharpened differences between the main coalition partners over the past four months. In particular, the Centre and the state have differed on how to tackle insurgency, including militants and secessionist politicians. Mehbooba has pressed for dialogue, mentoring, and accommodation, while BJP bosses prefer a hard line approach.

Pushing hard

Searches of prominent business houses in Srinagar by central investigation agencies on Thursday signalled that the Centre was not in a mood to back off its hard line. The searches were in connection with investigations into terror funding, which were initiated in May. In fact, it was when the National Investigating Agency (NIA) arrested seven prominent secessionist leaders on 25 July that the growing strains emerged into the open. At Srinagar airport that day, some state police officers tried hard to prevent the NIA from taking the arrested persons to Delhi.

Mehboobas aides believe that the arrests undermined the space for negotiation. Not long ago, Syed Ali Shah Geelani was persuaded to issue a statement that made it easy to get GST extended to Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, the son of one of those arrested  Geelanis son-in-law, Altaf Fantoosh  was given a job at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre.

Reaching out

The difference in approach goes beyond how to handle secessionist leaders or militancy. Mehbooba, who is also the home minister of the state, has pushed for relatively new local militants to be counselled. Almost 50 such militants have returned to their homes in recent weeks, many of them from central and north Kashmir. However, weaning away fresh recruits remains a tenuous effort, as a larger number has joined militancy recently.

During the winter months, earlier this year, Mehboobas brother Tasaduq had asked party leaders from south Kashmir to bring groups of stone pelters to him for counselling. The chief minister has also insisted that the army must offer every militant the opportunity to surrender, before he or she may be killed in an encounter. It was in pursuit of that policy that an army major spoke to the high profile militant, Abu Dujana, over the telephone a little before he was killed on 1 August. A part of that conversation was telecast on various television channels.

The Centre, on the other hand, wants terrorism to be given no quarter. So, even while fresh recruits are counselled to return, the army and the police are going with a mailed fist after those who have already engaged in violent acts. They have had remarkable successes in south Kashmir during recent weeks.

Rocky start

The top figures in the coalition have been uneasy with each other ever since the three month period after Mufti Mohammad Sayeeds death, during which Mehbooba had sought concrete confidence building measures from the Centre before she took office. The unease lay dormant over the subsequent year, but the Centres unease increased manifold after there was intense violence during the bye-election for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in April this year.

During a meeting, a couple of weeks after the Srinagar violence, Modi asked Mehbooba to restore order within two or three months. The Centres take on how that should be done was already evident when it lionised an army major, who tied a young Kashmiri to his jeep fender and paraded him for several hours on the day of the bye-election. It is important that the coalition partners reach a cohesive understanding on how best to move forward, for the challenge is huge. All these differences pertain to internal matters but can be detrimental to national security when looked through the prism of the looming threat from the China-Pakistan axis.
Patna: Bihar chief minister and Janta Dal (United) national president Nitish Kumar will formally announce joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the partys national executive meeting called in Patna on 19 August.

BJP president Amit Shah invited Nitish to join the NDA during their meeting in Delhi on Friday. JD(U) leaders said that it was only a formality after Nitish came out of Mahagathbandhan and formed a new government in the state with the help of BJP-led NDA.

Partys national general secretary KC Tyagi said, Nitish Kumar himself will moot the proposal which will be passed unanimously. This is a historic moment for Bihar when the same alliance is at the helm of affairs in the state and at the Centre. Combined efforts of Centre and state will help Bihar reach new heights of development.

Nitish Kumar snapped ties with the NDA in 2013 after 17 years of togetherness when the BJP decided to project Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. But this break up was short lived as he declared his inability to continue running the Grand Alliance government with corruption tainted RJD leadership and weakening Congress in July this year.

Nitishs return to the NDA fold has bolstered its prospects in the 2019 general elections and Nitish might play a bigger role in that process. Sources close to Nitish told News18 that he would be made convenor of the NDA, stature once enjoyed by George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav.

Narendra Modi ji wants to harness the potential of Nitish Kumar on a national level. Nitishs image is acceptable to all and his organizational skills will help strengthen NDA in other states also. Mere reflection of the fact that the person who was considered an alternative to Modi has joined him against the UPA is enough to change the political dimension decisively in favour of the NDA, said a leader close to Nitish.

After joining the NDA, JD(U) will be offered two berths in central council of ministers - one of cabinet rank and the other of minister of state. However it will take time and it might delay cabinet reshuffle also as the party will try to replace Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar with new members in the Rajya Sabha. If they do not resign on their own then we can go to the disciplinary committee as both are engaged in anti- party activities. If this does not work too, there are ways to ensure their ouster from the Rajya Sabha, sources said.

JD(U) has two MPs in the Lok Sabha and nine in the Rajya Sabha which is very crucial for the BJP considering it is in minority in the upper house. 
tech2 News Staff

A new set of specifications for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has been spotted on the benchmarking platform Geekbench. The smartphone is expected to come with Exynos 8895 chipset and 6 GB RAM.

A report on Telefoon.nl also mentions Android 7.1.1 to be available on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The picture posted on the website shows the model number as Samsung SM-N950F and displays the single-core and multi-core score results of the prototype of the smartphone. The single-core score stands at 1,984 and multi-core score is 6,116.

As mentioned in the previous leaks the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expected to come with a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display and would be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is also expected to come with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. It will be powered by a 3,000 mAh battery, will include wireless charging and feature a Type-C USB port.

The Smartphones will be 8.5 mm thick with 162.5x74.6 mm dimensions.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will feature two 12 MP rear camera sensors with Samsung's dual-pixel auto-focus technology. The camera sensor will feature f/1.7 and f/2.4 aperture lens with 2x optical zoom. The front camera of the phone is supposed to be an 8 MP sensor with an f/1.7 auto-focus lens.

Recent leaks also suggest eight color variants of the phone that includes midnight black, arctic silver, orchid gray/violet, coral blue, dark blue, deep sea blue, pink and gold.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 expected to be priced at 1,000 Euros (around Rs 75,750) and will come with an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.
tech2 News Staff

Two teams from Kazakhstan and Hong Kong went home with the winner's award at this year's in their respective categories at the World Pitch Summit which was held at Google's headquarters.

Qamcare from Kazakhstan won the first prize in the Senior's category. This mobile app helps in keeping track of the loved ones such as children to avoid cases of kidnapping, getting lost, etc. To maintain privacy, the app allows only trusted contacts to track them. This app is especially useful for young children.

The other winner in the junior category was from Hong Kong. Dementia Care Companion, a health app, it isn't a password-enabled app and is meant for people suffering from dementia. It features a family-recognition game called Mahjong, which adds faces of family members and familiar things so that people suffering from this disease do not feel lost. This helps in monitoring their cognitive ability and to track the intensity of their sickness. It also monitors the location of such patients since they are prone to get lost often. On the flipside, it also helps the caretaker manage certain situations.

Meanwhile, a group from Armenia won the people's choice awards for their sign language app. Their bilingual app 'One Step Ahead', helps people communicate with each other using sign language.

Now, the road ahead. "Technovation has given you wings. Now it's your turn to give to other girls." @TaraChk #WorldPitch pic.twitter.com/q0Ne5vB6fP  Technovation (@technovation) August 11, 2017
Kabul: The United States on Saturday vehemently denied claims by Afghan officials that it had killed several civilians in an air strike in volatile eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials had said 11 civilians, including women and children, were killed when a private vehicle was struck in Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, on Thursday.

But United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement the air strike "killed a number of militants".

"The militants were observed loading weapons in to a vehicle and were under surveillance until the vehicle was destroyed by an airstrike," said Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for American operations in Afghanistan.

"The strike was conducted in the middle of open terrain. There was zero chance of civilian casualties.

"This was the second false claim of civilian casualties in the same district in the last three weeks," Purtiman added.

Of the roughly 13,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan only the United States carries out airstrikes.

They have been regularly targeting IS fighters who control several districts in restive Nangarhar.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the close to 16-year campaign against insurgents, prompting strong public and government criticism.

In July, a United States air strike killed 16 policemen in Helmand province. It came after a United States air strike in Sangin killed at least 18 civilians, mostly women and children, in February.

Civilian deaths are at an all-time high in Afghanistan. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.
Islamabad: Chinese vice premier Wang Yang will arrive in Pakistan on Sunday to take part in the country's Independence Day celebrations on 14 August, officials said on Saturday.

Wang will be accompanied by a high-level delegation for the two-day visit, which comes on the "directions of President Xi Jinping as a special gesture", the Foreign Office said.

"His visit on this important milestone for Pakistan is a reflection of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China," it said.

From Pakistan, Wang will head to Nepal, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang announced in Beijing.

Geng did not give the details of Wang's Nepal visit.

The visit to Pakistan and Nepal by the top Chinese official comes as India and China have been locked in a military standoff for nearly two months at Doka La near Sikkim.

The face-off began on 16 June after Chinese troops tried to build a road in the disputed area. India has protested the move saying China was unilaterally changing the status quo at the tri-junction with India's ally, Bhutan.

As a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Wang is among the top leaders in China.

In Pakistan, he will be the "special guest" to mark the country's 70th Independence Day, and later call on President Mamnoon Hussain. He will also call on Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a statement from the foreign office said.

He will participate in an inauguration ceremony of projects related to the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Some bilateral agreements are likely to be signed during his visit to Pakistan.

In March, a contingent of the guard of honour of the three services of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) took part in the Pakistan military parade held in Islamabad to mark Pakistan Day.
Washington: The standoff between India and China in Doka La of the Sikkim section is a matter of concern, a top American commander has said and asked the two sides to work together and resolve the issue diplomatically.

India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doka La area for more than 50 days after Indian troops stopped the Chinese People's Liberation Army from building a road in the area.

Admiral Harry B Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, echoed the State Department's view that the US encourages the two countries to resolve their differences diplomatically.

"Well, I think that any time you have two great powers at odds across a common border, that's an area of concern. Of course, it's potentially dangerous," he told PTI when asked about the Doka La standoff.

"But I think that I would echo those sentiments of our own government leaders, America's national leadership, that we encourage both India and China to engage in diplomacy, to help reduce these tensions," he said.

When asked if in Doka La, China is repeating the pattern it has been following in the South China Sea to change the status quo, Harris said it is for India to make a determination in this regard.

"I think that's a determination that India is going to have to make itself. I don't want to speak for India, and I certainly don't want to speculate on what might happen. I think this is a dispute, as it stands now, and that India and China must work out together. Hopefully peacefully," Admiral Harris said.

Harris also said China's actions in the South and East China seas are "coercive" to its neighbours.

"I believe that their (Chinese) actions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea are aggressive...And they are coercive to their neighbours," he said.
Washington: President Donald Trump is expressing concern over the growing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and not ruling out military action as a response.

Trump told reporters on Friday that all options remain on the table in response to anti-democratic actions in Venezuela, including military intervention.

Venezuela's defence minister called Trump's talk of a military intervention an act of "craziness" and "supreme extremism".

The Trump administration has already placed sanctions against Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro and numerous other current and former Venezuelan officials in the wake of a crackdown on opposition leaders.

The White House says it's rejected a request by Maduro to speak to Trump, saying restoring democracy must come first.

Venezuela is home to the world's largest oil reserves and is the third largest petroleum supplier to the United States.
Washington: US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping on Saturday reiterated their mutual commitment to de-nuclearise the Korean Peninsula and agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un threatened the US this week to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, after the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House said after the phone call.

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour," the White House said, adding that the two leaders also reiterated their mutual commitment to de-nuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

"Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event," the White House said.

"The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," it said.

Xi told Trump that China is ready to work with the US to "appropriately resolve" the issue, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"The concerned parties should avoid remarks and actions that could escalate tensions on the peninsula," Xi was quoted by the report.

"The relevant side must at present exercise restraint, and avoid words and actions that exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula," the report paraphrased Xi as saying.

Xi told Trump that China is willing to keep close contacts with the US, on the basis of mutual respect, to seek a sound settlement on the issue, he added.

In another statement, the White House said Trump spoke with Guam governor Eddie Calvo.

"Trump reassured governor Calvo and our fellow Americans on Guam that United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America," it said.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke separately to Calvo earlier in the day, the statement said.

Guam has about 7,000 US troops with almost a third of the land controlled by the US military.
Brussels: The European Union (EU) will convene an "extraordinary meeting" next week over the escalating tension with North Korea, the 27-nation bloc's diplomatic service announce.

North Korea announced a detailed plan on Wednesday to launch a salvo of ballistic missiles toward the Guam, a US Pacific territory. This has come after the two countries exchanged a fresh salvo of verbal attacks which saw President Donald Trump vowing to give a befitting reply to the isolated kingdom with 'fire and fury'.

This scenario does not come as a surprise to the world community as both the countries have long been engaged in a war of words. However, this time the threat has reached a "new stage", warned the Japanese defense ministry.

EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini will chair the meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC), in a bid to thrash out the bloc's possible next steps on the situation in North Korea, the European External Action Service said in a statement on Friday.

Mogherini, after meeting her international counterparts in the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, Philippines, has decided to call the meeting, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Mogherini's decision came one day after the Council of the EU broadened a sanction list targeting North Korea in response to its latest test-launch of ballistic missiles.

The list now includes 62 individual and 50 entities subject to an asset freeze and travel restrictions in the EU.
Washington: A top American commander feels that India can play a role in defusing the North Korean crisis by helping the leadership in Pyongyang to understand the seriousness of the threat posed by its nuclear programme.

Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, says it is for India to decide on what kind of role it wants to play.

"I think India's voice is a loud voice, that people pay attention to. So, I think that India could help North Korea, perhaps, understand the seriousness by which the United States views that threat," Harris says.

Tensions have risen since North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

India along with the international community condemned the North Korean missile tests and has been implementing the sanctions imposed against it by the US.

Early this year, India suspended its trade links with North Korea, a move which was praised by the Trump administration.
Kathmandu: Floods and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 25 people in the last two days across Nepal, officials said on Saturday.

Heavy rains have hit more than a dozen districts in the country's far eastern region as well as some areas in the west since Friday morning, the home ministry said.

Flooding has occurred across the densely populated lowlands that border India, while some remote districts in the hilly areas of the far east have been hit by landslides triggered by the monsoon rains.

"We are still collecting the details of the loss. According to the preliminary reports to the ministry over 25 people are feared dead," Home ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle told AFP.

The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement putting the death toll at more than two dozen since Friday.

Thirteen people died in eastern districts and at least four others are missing, the head of the region's police Ramesh Bhattarai said.

Telephone and electricity lines have also been affected by the heavy downpour making it difficult to confirm the full extent of the damage in remote areas, the police chief added.

Roads across the southern plains have been blocked by the rains and three highway bridges collapsed in western Banke district, home minister Janardan Sharma said at a press conference.

Images on social media showed the runway at Biratnagar airport in eastern Morang district submerged in a metre (three feet) of water with an empty plane stranded on the tarmac.

Chief of Morang district police Arun BC said that airport had been shut due to the flooding.

The most recent deaths bring the total death toll from this year's monsoon to over 90, according to government figures. Nearly 100 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August.

Last weekend in the central lowlands, four girls from the same family drowned when they fell into a flooded roadside ditch.

Another girl died and one was injured when they fell in open drains that had been submerged by monsoon flooding in the Kathmandu Valley last month.

Footage shot by a bystander shows one of the girls tentatively navigating a flooded road, before suddenly disappearing into the brown muddy water. A few seconds later she appears out of another drain about 10 metres away.

The video went viral on social media in Nepal, sparking outrage over the condition of the roads in the capital.

Nepal's weather department issued an alert Saturday warning that heavy rains were expected to continue for another day, and advised districts to close schools and residents to stay indoors.
London: British foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Saturday blamed North Korea for the stand-off with the United States and said London wants a diplomatic end to the crisis.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it," he said on Twitter.

The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 12, 2017

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.

The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts.  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 12, 2017

"We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."

US President Donald Trump on Saturday reassured Guam it was secure amid mounting regional tensions, vowing that American military forces "stand ready" to safeguard the US Pacific island territory against a belligerent North Korea.

The North has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the tourism-dependent island, as Pyongyang and Washington ratchet up their war of words.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged Trump to avoid rhetoric that could inflame the situation, while French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an "escalation of tensions".
Hell do a second term. Or Ivanka will run, maybe, I said to Jessica, a middle school teacher and yoga afficionado in a predominantly white neighbourhood in Maryland with top-rated schools and premium real estate.

It was a warm evening just after Trump ratcheted up a war song for raising the drawbridge on Americas borders and slashing new arrivals by half over the next 10 years.

Youre adding to my anxiety. My husband and I already disagree on him and now youre telling me this Hmm.

Jessica rested her hands on the dining table, then raising them to hold her head. Her pizza lay uneaten, the olives and arugula topping going limp, her tea cold.

My Trumpian hobby horse had touched a raw nerve. I asked Jessica why she, as an all-American white resident in a tony neighbourhood, cared.

Jessicas husband Chris did not vote Trump but didnt vote Hillary either. He travels between London and the US and when Londoners ask him about Trump, he asks them about Sadiq Khan and the bike lanes in the city, just so I dont say anything that hurts them.

My question remained.

Read on Firstpost: 20 red flags every Indian must know about the RAISE Act

Six months into the Trump presidency, urban Americans in white neighbourhoods are still unable to form coherent sentences for why Trumps dog whistles worry them.

Its just not who we are," says Jessicas husband Chris, whose work in IT cloud architecture brings him into daily contact with H1B workers.

Are his H1B teammates anxious?

Actually, the management is. They have ongoing projects and clients get used to a certain work flow. The constant threat that the H1Bs may be sent home doesnt help the business case," he says.

We get talking about the RAISE Act  the new chunk of red meat Trump has flung to his restless base, the battle-hardened anthem of his still-young political career  a proposal to slash in half legal immigration to the United States within 10 years by limiting the ability of legal residents to bring family members into the country.

This is one of hundreds of bills introduced in Congress every year, Trump has singled it out for praise at a time when he is unable to deliver on any of his other promises. Trumps promised repeal of the existing healthcare law  an enduring Obama era legacy  failed after his own partymen killed it off.

The RAISE Acts 40 pages unload policy talk in six broad subcategories but its resentment agenda is simple  to slam Americas doors shut on non-whites.

So how exactly would the points system work? In general, one would earn more points for advanced degrees in science and engineering fields. One would get more points for being younger. One would get points for a job offer if the salary was at least 150 percent of the median local wage, with even more points for salaries worth 200 or 300 percent. In Arkansas, for example, the 300 percent mark of median wages is $128,394; in Georgia, its $152,304," say the authors of the RAISE bill, now blaring from Americas loudest megaphone  the daily White House despatch.

Decoded, that means if youre  say   40, youre not a Nobel or Olympic medal winner, youre a post-grad from a top Indian University, you speak polished English, have a job offer for less than $100,000 a year and dont plan to invest at least $1.35 million in the US, youre out.

Experts will argue till theyre red in the face about how this Bill will be tough to pass in US Congress, about how it requires a super-majority. (The Obamacare repeal needed a simple majority and three Republicans is all it took to sink it.)

But who said anything about getting the RAISE Act passed?

Trumps promise has never been about the doing.

Like his real estate projects, Trumps politics follows from the license fee model that underpins his properties across the world: Take my name, pay me lots of money, enrich yourself, Im not going to wear a hard hat and stand on the construction site. Gold plating is mandatory.

Trump is neither responsible for the structural design nor construction, he pockets his license fee and exits while the builder deals with the selling.

Similarly, Trumps politics is not about practicality, its about how white men feel.

These are white men who live in Americas sinks of economic duress  in mining towns where people lost jobs during or after the 2008 crash. Two terms of a black Presidency following the greatest economic debacle since the 1930s convinced them that only a white man could be their hero.

Obama did not cause the crash of 2008 but he gave Americas voters a measure to assess the draining away of white privilege that his election came to symbolise.

Trump is not seeking to be everything to everybody but just to those who brought the Democratic vote bank to its knees.

Neither Obama nor Democratic Presidents before him began the southward slide for the party. Working class whites deserted the Democratic Party back in the early Sixties after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Trump voters worries of America becoming a non-white majority country are directly proportional to their support for Trump  greater the worry, greater the support. These are the same folks who think Barack Obama is a Muslim (60 percent) and and dont really care if they are Republican or not as much as they care about being Trumpkins.*

So, with the Opposition in tatters, what is the resistance against Trump?

White men.

White, educated men.

Ivy Leaguers, career bureaucrats, a war hero battling brain cancer who turns up at midnight just to vote against Obamacare. James Comey, Robert Mueller, John McCain.

Trump noticed.

So, hes gone and drafted a cast-iron right winger to protect the base, to make Trumpism mainstream.

Tom Cotton, 40, is Trumps new 'educated white male' mascot with custom tailored credentials  son of a cattle farmer from Iowa, Harvard law graduate, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a serving Senator.

To those who say immigration helps the labour-market thrive, Cotton responds: Only an intellectual could believe something so stupid. The laws of supply and demand have not been magically suspended.

RAISE Act is this young politicians first poison arrow.

Its not his last.

*Pew Research
Moscow: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday cautioned that the risks of escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea were "very high" following the recent war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

"I believe the risks are very high, especially considering this rhetoric, when direct threats of using force are voiced," Lavrov said at a youth forum in the Vladimir

region east of Moscow.

Lavrov did not refer to President Donald Trump's most recent remark that the US military is "locked and loaded" in the event of a misstep by North Korea, but said Moscow is "very alarmed" at Washington's rhetoric of preemptive military action.

He added that the United States, as a more powerful state than North Korea, should take the first step to cool tensions.

"When a fight has nearly broken out, the first step away from the dangerous threshold should be taken by the side that is stronger and smarter," Lavrov said.

Moscow has joined China to push an initiative that would see Pyongyang halt missile tests in return for the US ending military drills in the region.

"Kim Jong-Un freezes any nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches, while the US and South Korea freeze massive military drills that are constantly used by North Korea as a pretext for holding tests and proclamations about relying on their nuclear power," Lavrov said of the plan.

The "double freeze" plan would be a step toward the goal of "de-nuclearising the Korean peninsula," he said.

The fiery rhetoric between US and North Korea of recent days, which follows two intercontinental ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang last month, even led South Korea to mull placing nuclear weapons on its own soil.

Pyongyang said this week it was readying a scheme to attack Guam, an island outpost of the US military in western Pacific.

"We're doing everything we can so that this 'what if' doesn't happen," Lavrov said when asked about the prospects of a conflict.
Beirut: At least 23 rebel fighters were killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide blast in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, a monitoring group has said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bomber detonated an explosive belt on Friday at a base used by Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) near the Nasib border crossing.

"Most of the 23 rebels killed were from Jaish al-Islam. Dozens were wounded, including 20 in critical condition," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but jihadists linked to the Islamic State group have attacked rebels in southern Syria.

The Nasib border crossing - known as Jaber on the Jordanian side - lies in Syria's southern Daraa province and was captured by rebel groups in April 2015.

Syria's uprising erupted in Daraa province in March 2011 with widespread protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

It has since turned into an all-out war that has drawn in international powers and killed more than 3,30,000 people.

Under a plan hammered out in May between Russia, Turkey and Iran at peace talks in Kazakhstan, four "de-escalation zones" were to be established across swathes of Syria to ease fighting between regime and rebel forces.

Parts of southern Syria make up one zone. Another lies in the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, while a third is in the central province of Homs.

The fourth zone, in northwestern Idlib province, has yet to be implemented.
Beijing: Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged United States president Donald Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions with North Korea as an escalating war of words raised global alarm.

Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Trump ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States.

The White House said in a statement that the two leaders "agreed North Korea must stop provocative and escalatory behaviour" and that they are both committed to the denuclearisation of the peninsula.

But the Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation, exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Trump has been engaged all week in verbal sparring with the North over its weapons and missile programmes, as United States media reported Pyongyang has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead.

The Republican billionaire has progressively ramped up the tone throughout the week and on Friday declared that the United States military is "locked and loaded".

In a call with Guam governor Eddie Calvo on Friday, Trump said the United States military is prepared to "ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam" in response to Pyongyang's plans to launch missiles towards the Pacific territory.

Japanese media said Tokyo was deploying its Patriot missile defence system following Pyongyang's threat to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards Guam.
While job creation has been booming under President Trump  with more than 1.29 million added since he took office in January  a new study suggests not all workers are happy with the job they have. In fact, 3 out of 20 workers say they are downright miserable.

Out of 50,000 workers surveyed by Officevibe.com, 15% say they dont see themselves at their current job a year from now. Additionally, 23% of them say they feel drained or very drained upon clocking out each day. And, lastly, an alarming 60% say their job has taken a toll on their personal life.

However, many experts warn that unhappy workers shouldnt pull the plug (aka quit) on impulse.

How you quit is very important. It is always a bad idea to quit when you are angry or anxious. Your judgment is impaired and your reputation is at stake. Wait until you cool off, Priscilla Claman, president of Career Strategies, Inc., tells FOX Business.

After the cool down, Claman says there are only two scenarios that make it okay to quit in a hurry.

Bottom line  if you are being asked to do something unethical or if you are becoming sick because of your job, it is time to quit, she says.

And heres the good news: she says the current economic picture and the introduction of social media have made the job search process a lot easier, which is why people are more willing to take the risk and leave.

Tracey Jones, president of Tremendous Leadership, a professional firm that advises multiple Fortune 500 companies, says there are other good reasons to turn in your resignation letter -- including if you cant trust your boss.

If you really want to be your most successful self, youll need a position that and a leader who cultivates the best version of yourself, Jones tells FOX Business. And, if insecurity is at the root of your boss behavior, your talent and ambition will only exacerbate the problem. Polish up that resume and start searching immediately!

But, Jones warns the grass isnt always greener, and says there are some reasons that arent worth giving up a paycheck.

Sixty-three percent of the employees surveyed believe their work isnt being recognized. The reality is, its not your boss job to thank you for doing your work. Thats what your paycheck does, she said. Other illegitimate reasons, she says, include not liking your co-workers, long hours, or not feeling 100% happy.

Youre not going to love 100% of your job 100% of the time. Take an honest inventory of how much time you spend on the things you dont enjoy and make an effort to reduce it or change your perspective about it. Every job entails a degree of drudgery and tasks that are not so pleasant, so does life. The sooner you realize happiness is an inside job, the sooner youll move past this juvenile response, she said.
Hollywood sweethearts Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced via social media this week that they are legally separating after eight years of marriage.

Legal experts told FOX News that if the pair didnt have a prenuptial agreement in place a divorce could be a financial disaster.

And while "prenups" are often thought to be just for the rich and famous, 62% of divorce attorneys from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers have seen an increase in the pre-wedding legal document over the past few years.

This comes as, according to the National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau, marriages lasting happily ever after seem to be on the decline. Divorce rates for adults ages 50 and older has roughly doubled over the past 25 years, and for those married couples younger than 50 it is about twice as high.

Mary Gurganus, founder and managing partner at Triangle Divorce Lawyers, said with that being the case, it makes sense for all couples  not just the wealthy -- to consider getting a prenup before saying I do. It can cost as little as $800, and run into the thousands, depending upon the complexity of the issues, according to DivorceLawfirms.com. While without a prenup, you could stand to lose a lot more if and when your bliss takes a turn for the unexpected.

Gurganus discussed what you need to know about prenups with FOX Business.

Boomer: What is broken down on a prenuptial agreement?

Gurganus: A premarital agreement means an agreement between prospective spouses which is entered into before the marriage and which goes into effect on the date of marriage. It is a contract that states what is his, hers and theirs.

Prenups identify who owns the assets and debts, and may dictate financial support such as alimony. It can dictate the amount of time a party will remain in the home once someone asks for a separation. It also provides clarification about the assets and debts if one spouse dies.

In order to be enforceable, the parties need to provide a fair and reasonable disclosure of assets or agree to waive the disclosure. We recommend disclosure, and list the assets and large debts with their approximate values in exhibits and attach them to the prenup. The prenup also must not be too shockingly unfair to one party, for instance, waiving reasonable alimony when a spouse then would qualify for public assistance.

Boomer: Who needs a prenup?

Gurganus: Prenups are most beneficial to engaged couples who have children from a prior marriage, in order to continue to protect their assets for their childrens future. Prenups are also beneficial for someone who owns a business, whether it is a family-run business or one started before the marriage, in order to maintain the autonomy of the business and not have the other spouse gain ownership interest solely because of the marriage.

Boomer: When is the right time to get a prenup?

Gurganus: I have seen prenups done a few months in advance to just before the ceremony! If the parties do not have a prenup prior to getting married, there is another option. After the wedding date, the couple can enter into a post-nuptial agreement.
Ironically, given that it specializes in handling money, the finance sector is not a hotbed of high-yielding dividend stocks. Even after a clutch of increases from the nation's banks, many companies in that segment still pay out well shy of 2%.

It isn't all that easy to find finance stocks that yield above that level, much less twice as high. But for the intrepid investor, they're out there if you know where to look. Here is a pair of solid high-yielders you can add to your portfolio right now.

Blackstone Group

Giant alternative asset manager Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) is a master at its game, and has been winning a lot lately.

In the second of two excellent quarters this fiscal year, total assets under management grew to $371 billion -- a new all-time high -- from just over $356 billion the year before. Even better, the company posted year-over-year revenue growth of 30%, to just over $1.5 billion, and its attributable net income leaped more than 60% higher to nearly $745 million.

The company did particularly well during the quarter in its real estate investments, the critical asset category that has grown to comprise nearly 30% of its business. In one characteristically splashy deal, it signed an agreement worth almost $14 billion to divest its European Logicor warehouse subsidiary. This was the largest private-equity real estate transaction in the continent's history, by the way.

The company has much more in its pipeline. Among other deals, it just announced it will effectively acquire a 51% stake in the 30 billion euro ($35 billion) real estate portfolio of rescued Spanish bank Banco Popular Espanol. And in the financial sphere, it's teaming up with CVC Capital Partners in a nearly $4 billion arrangement to buy Paysafe, a UK company that specializes in the hot segment of online payment processing.

With a humming stock market and a world full of investors chasing higher yield, restless and busy dealmaker Blackstone is well placed to continue its successful wheeling and dealing.

Blackstone, which likes to distribute much of its take in the form of dividends, currently pays out $0.54 per share for a yield of 6.4%. Although that makes the company's payout ratio on its Q2 net income figure 106%, if we take distributable earnings -- a more accurate metric of its funds available for payouts and the like -- that number is a more reasonable 86%.

STORE Capital

Although numerous pundits have been predicting the demise of bricks-and-mortar retail, the more clever players in the sector are still managing to thrive. Exhibit A: STORE Capital (NYSE: STOR) a real estate investment trust that specializes in such properties.

STORE Capital is bucking the trend largely because its tenants commit to long-term leases of its real estate. That's an understatement -- in the REIT's most recently reported quarter, the weighted average remaining lease contract term was an impressive 14 years.

That's not the only figure to admire. Across its 1,770 properties, STORE Capital had a near-perfect 99.5% occupancy rate, and this in a sector where big operators are cutting down on store count. And the REIT's clients collectively shelled out more in rental income, which grew a very healthy 24% on a year-over-year basis to $108 million in Q2.

Meanwhile, on the back of that performance and an ambitious acquisition strategy, the company increased its funds from operations -- the most important profitability metric for REITs -- a robust 30% to over $72 million. In its brief life as a publicly traded company (it listed in late 2014), quarterly FFO has risen by nearly 80%.

Heavy hitters have noticed this.

It was revealed in June that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) snapped up nearly 10% of the outstanding shares of the company. The Berkshire Hathaway mastermind's vote of confidence goosed the share price, yet it's still a high yielder at just under 4.9% on its $0.29 per share quarterly dividend. If it's good enough for Berkshire Hathaway, it's good enough for many of us income investors.

As a REIT, STORE Capital is basically required to disburse nearly all of its net profit in dividends, which is why its payout ratio was 83% for Q2. But like Blackstone, it's got a more appropriate measure of profitability -- FFO -- and on that basis it paid out only 69%.

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Chinese authorities on Saturday released from jail a top Australian executive at a casino company following the completion of his sentence on gambling-related offenses.

Jason O'Connor, head of Australia's Crown Resorts Ltd.'s international VIP programs, was sentenced to 10 months in prison in Shanghai in June.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, in an emailed statement on Saturday, confirmed O'Connor's release from detention and said he is returning to Australia.

Casino gambling, the marketing of casinos and organizing overseas gambling trips involving 10 or more people are illegal in mainland China. The case against Crown Resorts' staff came as authorities crack down on gambling as part of a wide campaign against official corruption.

Nineteen defendants, including three Australians from Crown's sales and marketing team, had been convicted by the court in Shanghai.

According to Crown Resorts, the 17 current and two former employees were convicted of offenses including organizing gambling parties or being engaged in gambling as one's main business, which carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

O'Connor is the last of three Australian Crown employees to be released. He and other defendants' time spent in detention since Oct. 14 were counted toward their sentences.

John Alexander, executive chairman of Crown, said in an emailed statement: "We are very pleased that our employees are being reunited with their families."

Following the arrests in October, Crown Resorts began withdrawing from its Chinese business to concentrate on the Australian market. In May, it said it raised $987 million after it sold off the last of its stake in a decade-long joint-venture casino operator in Macau, a Chinese enclave where gambling is legal.

Casino operators across Asia have sought to lure Chinese high-rollers who have avoided Macau  the world's biggest gambling market  because of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ongoing corruption crackdown. At the same time, the government has been trying to stop the flow of Chinese money into foreign casinos.
Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) is one of the largest master limited partnerships (MLPs) in the world. However, what's interesting about the company is that oil and natural gas weren't the primary fuels used to grow it into its current massive size. Instead, the company has focused its attention on serving the natural gas liquids (NGLs) market, where it is the dominant infrastructure provider. The company not only makes a boatload of money from the space, which helps support its lucrative distribution to investors, but it has a vast pipeline of growth opportunities that should keep that payout growing for years to come.

Making a mint on NGLs

Given its dominance in the NGL space, it's not surprising that the company makes most of its money from assets serving that sector. In fact, of the $5.4 billion in gross operating margin Enterprise Products Partners has pulled in over the past year, 57% came from its NGL pipelines and services segment. Contrast that with the contributions from its other three segments: Its crude oil pipelines and services segment supplied 17% of the total, while the natural gas pipelines and services and the petrochemical and refined products services segments each contributed 13%.

Enterprise Products Partners' NGL business operates several noteworthy assets. The crown jewel is its Mont Belvieu hub, in Texas, where it operates eight fractionation facilities that process mixed NGL streams into purity products such as ethane, propane, and butane. In addition, the company operates several pipelines that move NGLs from production basins to that hub and others. The largest is the more than 8,000-mile Mid-America Pipeline system that ships mixed NGLs produced in the Rockies to West Texas. The company typically earns a fee for transporting and fractionating these NGLs, which provides it with steady cash flow quarter after quarter.

In addition to moving and fractionating NGLs, Enterprise operates storage facilities and export docks. In fact, the company is the world leader in exporting liquid petroleum gases (LPG) like propane and butane. It currently has the capacity to ship 14 million barrels per month, all of which is under contract through the next year. (For perspective, LPG export rival Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP) has half that capacity, and last quarter shipped only 4.7 million barrels per month due to weak short-term market fundamentals since it hasn't fully contracted its available capacity.) Furthermore, Enterprise recently built the world's largest ethane export terminal. Again, these assets primarily earn the company fees as it stores or exports volumes for customers.

Overall, these assets produced $760 million in gross margin last quarter, which is up 6% year over year thanks in part to higher fees as a result of an increase in volumes flowing across Enterprise Products' network.

More NGL fee revenue is coming down the pipeline

Enterprise Products Partners currently has $8.6 billion of capital projects underway across its four segments, 28% of which will get invested into new NGL-related infrastructure. One of the largest projects is the Shin Oak NGL pipeline that the company announced in April. The 571-mile, 250,000-barrel-per-day pipeline would move mixed NGLs from the Permian Basin to Mont Belvieu when it enters service in 2019. Enterprise could expand that pipeline to 600,000 barrels per day if it secured a joint venture partner. In the meantime, it's building a ninth fractionator at Mont Belvieu that should enter service in 2018.

There should be plenty of additional expansion opportunities for Enterprise Products Partners in the coming years given the current demand forecast for NGL-related infrastructure. According to a study by the INGAA Foundation (a research organization for the natural gas industry), over the next two decades, the U.S. and Canada will need to invest $43 billion to $55 billion into new NGL infrastructure, including transmission pipelines, fractionation capacity, and export facilities. While that's only a fraction of the $546 billion in midstream infrastructure the industry needs to build, it still represents a massive opportunity for Enterprise since the company is one of the few players focused on this niche. Besides, it has a stronger financial position than rivals like Targa Resources, which gives it a leg up in securing and funding projects.

A lucrative niche

Enterprise's emergence as the dominant player in NGL logistics has served investors well over the years. By steadily expanding its network of fee-bearing assets, the company has grown its cash flow at a healthy rate, which has helped support 52 consecutive quarterly distribution increases. And with a large backlog of fee-based growth projects underway, it should have no problems continuing that trend. That's great news for income-focused investors -- they can pick up an already generous 6.3% yield that's likely to expand at a healthy rate for years to come, thanks to the company's top-tier NGL infrastructure network.

10 stocks we like better than Enterprise Products PartnersWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

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Matt DiLallo owns shares of Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
We hear a lot about the importance of saving for retirement, and this applies whether you're a salaried employee or the owner of a small mom-and-pop store that's been in your family for years. Yet a surprising number of small-business owners aren't preparing adequately for the future. According to Manta, one-third of small-business owners don't have a retirement savings plan in place.

If you own a small business, it's critical that you establish some sort of long-term plan, whether on your own, or with the help of a trusted financial advisor. Here are a few ways to get started.

1. Create a retirement budget

Though it's not always easy to predict how much you'll wind up spending in retirement, the sooner you get a sense of how much income you'll need to stay afloat, the more accurate a goal you'll have to work toward. Since you're self-employed, your business might be offsetting some of your existing living costs. For example, you might currently be leasing your personal car for your business, or taking a home-office deduction if you conduct business out of the house. But these benefits won't be available once you're no longer generating an income, so keep them in mind as you attempt to map out your future budget.

2. Find the right retirement savings plan

Small business owners have several options when it comes to saving for retirement -- options that salaried workers don't have access to. The first one you might consider is the solo 401(k), which works just like a regular 401(k), only with one added benefit -- the ability to contribute up to 25% of your business earnings for a total annual limit of $54,000 if you're under 50, or $60,000 if you're 50 or older. Like a regular 401(k), solo 401(k) contributions are tax-deductible unless you opt for a Roth account, in which case you'll pay taxes now, but enjoy tax-free withdrawals in retirement.

Then there's the SIMPLE IRA, which, if you're self-employed, allows you to contribute up to $12,500 per year if you're under 50, or $15,500 per year if you're 50 or older. Furthermore, with a SIMPLE IRA, employers must make contributions on behalf of participating workers, either by matching employee contributions up to a maximum of 3% of salary, or contributing 2% of employees' salaries up to a maximum of $5,400. If you don't have many (or any) employees, a SIMPLE IRA could be an effective means of saving for retirement, but if you have a large number of people who work for you, it could get expensive.

Finally, there's the SEP IRA, which, if you're self-employed, lets you contribute up to 25% of your net business income per year, up to a maximum of $54,000. The one drawback to the SEP is that, as a small business owner, you're required to contribute the same amount to your employees' accounts as you do to your own. But if you don't have any employees and want to save in an IRA, you'll get more flexibility with a SEP than you will with a SIMPLE.

3. Ramp up your savings rate

Once you figure out where you're going to put your money, your next move is to work on increasing your savings rate to give your nest egg a decent amount of time to grow. Even if you start out with relatively small contributions, by steadily increasing the amount you put into your savings plan, you'll have a good chance to make up for lost time -- especially if you're eventually able to max out a plan with a generous limit to begin with, like a Solo 401(k), or a SEP IRA.

Of course, the challenge many small-business owners face in saving for retirement is that they prefer to reinvest their earnings in their companies rather than set that money aside for the future -- so you'll need to work on striking a balance. That might involve pumping more cash into your business during its early years to build it up, and then boosting your retirement savings rate once your company is well established. Or it might mean taking advantage of years with better profits and socking away the difference for the future.

If you're a small business owner, it's critical to take retirement planning into your own hands. The sooner you begin focusing on the future, the better equipped you'll be to make smart decisions for yourself and your business in the present.

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Montana's health care co-op, one of America's few remaining alternatives to traditional health insurance, will resume accepting new enrollees Sunday after it voluntarily pulled itself from the state's insurance marketplace in December.

The insurer took the nine-month hiatus from enrolling new members in the exchange created by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act to boost its financial reserves and keep it from the same fate that has befallen failed co-ops across the country.

The program was among about two dozen privately run health co-ops that sprang up across the country following the 2010 passage of the Obama administration's health care law. They provided medical coverage with premiums far lower than plans offered by traditional health insurance companies.

But within two years, half of the programs quietly folded  undermined by political attacks, financial miscalculations and the volatility of the health insurance marketplace. Just four remain  in Montana, Wisconsin, Maine and New Mexico. Earlier this week, Massachusetts officials placed the Minuteman Health co-op in receivership.

The Montana Health Co-op, which also serves customers in neighboring Idaho, temporarily suspended new enrollment in Montana because of worries that it was overextending its resources and heading toward insolvency.

"When all the other co-ops were going down, we were losing money, too," said Jerry Dworak, the Montana Health Co-op's CEO. "Thankfully, we've turned things around."

This year, the co-op is projecting $28 million in profits, after weathering a string of losses. It lost about $6 million in its first year and more than $40 million the following year, Dworak said.

So confident is the co-op about its financial health that Dworak said it has the capacity to absorb all 64,000 Montanans who buy their insurance through the state's exchange. It now enrolls about 20,000 people who purchase individual plans on the exchange. Blue Cross and PacificSource, the other two providers on the exchange, have nearly 32,000 and 12,000 enrollees respectively.

State Auditor Matt Rosendale, whose office oversees Montana's health insurance market, said he has no immediate concern over Montana's co-op.

"Right now they are very strong, and I feel very comfortable," Rosendale said.

But Rosendale, who recently announced a bid for the U.S. Senate, said the millions of dollars in federal loans that co-ops have used as seed money could be better used, and he doubts that the Montana co-op will be able to repay the $85 million in loans it has gotten under the Obama health care law.

Political and financial volatility in the country's health care system has prompted a further surge in premiums. In Montana, all three of the insurance plans participating in the exchange announced hikes in premiums, with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana announcing an average increase of 23 percent. PacificSource is looking to bump its premiums by an average of 7.4 percent, while the co-op's premiums are expected to rise on average by 4 percent.

During the heady debates over the Obama administration's health care law in 2010, a so-called public option was supposed to spur competition in the health insurance marketplace. When that effort failed, privately run health insurance co-ops emerged as alternatives.

Co-op administrators like Larry Turney, president of Montana's program, watched in concern as lawmakers in Washington debated the fate of the Affordable Care Act. While that debate has waned, worries persist that wholesale changes could cause membership numbers to plummet, especially if Congress strips away subsidies.

"There would be a lot of uninsured Americans again because members would have to pay their entire premiums," Turney said.

An analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in spring 2016 found co-ops have delivered on their promise of offering lower premiums, with the average premiums for co-op health plans substantially lower than other insurers.

But the analysis noted many of them grew too fast and did not have the necessary reserves to handle the higher-than-expected number of enrollees. As many as 1 million people enrolled in the co-ops before a substantial part of the system began collapsing.

Chuck Butler, one of the founders of Montana's co-op, cited the challenges faced by rural states like Montana in widening access to affordable, quality health care. With few insurance carriers willing to do business in rural states, where the average cost of medical care is higher, the co-op was meant to give Montanans more options.

"The people of Montana deserve choices, and they really didn't have a whole lot of choices," Butler said.
President Donald Trump is sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and negotiator Jason Greenblatt to the Middle East soon to meet with regional leaders and discuss a "path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks," a White House official said on Friday.

Deputy national security adviser Dina Powell will also be on the trip, which will include meetings with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the official said.

"While the regional talks will play an important role, the President reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress towards that goal," the official said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Unprecedented changes may be in store for the nations system of air traffic control.

The buzzword used to describe Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster's FAA reform plan is "privatization," but analogies to private sector commerce are a stretch.

In the world of private enterprise, entrepreneurs are driven by cut-throat competition to offer the best goods and services at the lowest prices.

In Shusters plan, there are no entrepreneurs, and no competition, and no prices. So what are we really talking about?

Under current arrangements, safety regulation and air traffic control are under the aegis of the FAA. While proponents say that putting regulation and operations under separate roofs is appealing, separation can hamper accountability. It becomes less easy to determine responsibility for lapses in safety, and with airplanes, lapses in safety can be catastrophic.

Instead of competition among service providers, we will now have competition for power on the governing board of the new government-certified monopoly, consisting of a variety of stakeholders, including amateur pilots, business carriers, regional carriers, and rural airports, among others, who fear being steamrolled by the big airlines. The jockeying for influence would not be conducive to good management.

The main criticism of the current system is the hope that there would be more timely service for passengers on the big airlines.

The funny thing is, it is precisely the big airlines who seem incapable of landing and taking off on time, who stand to exercise dominant influence under the new order.

Although the new entity would operate on a non-profit basis, it would be a vehicle for the airlines to exploit their monopoly franchise and shift costs to consumers, small-fry users of the system, and taxpayers.

Ownership of valuable government assets would be given over to the new entity, free of charge. Since financing would come from loans from private sector financial institutions, for all practical purposes the value of those assets would be transferred to the lenders.

So there actually is a privatization angle here  whats privatized is the finance of capital improvements to the system. Instead of vendors competing to provide good service, financial institutions will be competing to manage the sale of bonds to investors, and to each other. This makes no financial sense. The federal government itself can borrow money more cheaply.

Some functions should not be left to the private sector. Air traffic control is one of them.

To begin with, safety to the n-th degree is an imperative. Profits should have no role in air traffic control. We dont want somebody trading off safety concerns against cost considerations.

The only acceptable number of airplane collisions is zero. Nobody in this debate denies that the FAA has an excellent safety record. Air traffic control isnt broken and doesnt need to be fixed.

Air traffic control is not up for competition. There can only be one service provider.

When youre in the air, youre not about choosing which controller business is going to guide your flight safely.

Its not like choosing a barber. The same goes for the complex technology required. Modifying legacy systems and rotating their back-up service contractors according to performance is difficult. Youre largely stuck with whatever vendor you have chosen, much like the reality of big-ticket military hardware contracts.

The U.S. system dwarfs that of any other nation, in terms of scale  the number of flights  and complexity, with aircraft and functions of all shapes and sizes. The fact that privatization of some type has been effected in other countries does not automatically mean it would be successful here.

Were not Denmark!

For all the talk about bringing business acumen to government, the proposed reorganization of the FAA brings increased costs, disruptive management, largesse to private parties, and threats to the FAAs sterling safety record.

Its bad business.
The orientation for the new people takes place in a lovely corporate-style boardroom with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that give a sweeping view of the harbor.

Half-a-dozen officials walk the newbies through the procedures they will face in this next phase of their lives: where their assignments will take them; details on getting email and phone service; all the usual sort of HR stuff.

But these individuals, approximately 20 in number, arent going to a new job. Theyre going to prison.

Our image of how the convicted enter the prison system is shaped by movies like Shawshank Redemption, where new prisoners are stripped naked, deprived of all worldly goods, given a jumpsuit, assigned a cell and so on.

Surely that goes on in some places, but some folks in the Federal Bureau of Prisons realized that it was a waste of time to keep on answering the same questions over and over again for each individual entering the prison system. So they hit upon the idea of doing a seminar, complete with a multi-page PowerPoint, to answer all questions.

A friend of mine, whom Ill call Fred, told me about these seminars because he recently attended one.

Fred was involved in some financial transactions that securities law frowns upon, earning him a guest booking of several years in a minimum security federal prison camp in Florida.

They could not have been nicer, Fred told me. Super professional. In fact, you could forget about where you were going and what the meeting was for, at least for a while.

Going to prison is not a simple thing. Our lives are complicated today. We have possessions, prescriptions, email address lists. All of these things need to be taken into consideration when a person is off to do federal time.

I learned that we can put money in a canteen, Fred said. We can use that money to buy email or phone time. People on the outside can put money in as well. State prisons dont accept packages from Amazon, but the federal prisons do. There were a lot of nuances.

The other attendees at Freds seminar included a few people who looked as though they had committed white collar crimes of some sort, a few people Fred described as hardcore, and a mother and son.

The son was in his 20s, Fred said. The mother was asking a lot of questions.

There were bottles of water at the center of the table and brownies on the side bar.

I was blown away by the courtesy, Fred said. They could not have been more respectful. At the end, when one of the seminar leaders was giving me my prisoner number, he said, Good luck, sir.

The seminar leaders told the attendees that they would have case managers overseeing their prison stay and making sure that everything was up to snuff, although Fred said he checked it out with some ex-felons he met in a support group.

They said that the case manager thing was just for show.

Still, he said, you could see they were trying to do the right thing by us.

Everybody took their PowerPoints, and their brownies and maybe an extra bottle of water, and headed out of the conference room to contemplate what they would do with their email lists, their canteen money and this next phase of their lives.

If prison is anything like the seminar, Fred said, it may not be that bad.

Now that the prison system offers such a dignified approach to orientation, it just has a few more things to clean up  arbitrary placement in solitary confinement, nonconsensual sex among inmates, and beatings, to name a few  and then the system will be ready for ratings on TripAdvisor.
The president ripped into the violent MS-13 gang last week, and talked about crime and law enforcement and what his administration is doing about it. He had hundreds of law enforcement officers in the audience, and their applause made it clear that they were pleased the new President had replaced the old one and that the old ones anti-police animus was gone from public life, that the war on police was over.

Trump talked about what his administration is doing to eradicate the MS-13 gang and the violence and mayhem it is spreading, particularly on Long Island, where he made the speech. He talked about the 17 young people murdered by MS-13 gang members on Long Island in the past 18 months. He went on to discuss the 42 minors in the DC region who entered the US unaccompanied in the last years of the Obama Administration, who are now implicated in MS-13-related violence, including 19 of those minors charged in murder or attempted murder.

And he talked about what his Administration is doing to slow the flow of illegal drugs coming in from Mexico, about human trafficking on our Southern border, and about stemming the flow of illegals coming into the country. He explained how his administration cuts off trade with countries that refuse to take deportees back  mostly criminals  and how quickly cutting off trade makes those countries change their policy.

He announced that ICE officers recently conducted the largest crackdown of alien criminal gangs in history, and how in just six weeks they arrested nearly 1400 suspects and seized more than 200 illegal firearms and nearly 600 pounds of narcotics.

He spoke about sanctuary cities that defy federal law and instead turn dangerous criminals back onto the streets instead of detaining them, as requested by the federal government, and what the government is doing to end the practice. And he spoke about the wall on the US-Mexican border, and how Congress just appropriated the first $1.6 billion to start construction.

Most importantly, he spoke about all that the federal government is now doing to support the police, to restore the American concept of the rule of law to criminal justice and law enforcement. All in all, Trump made a very pro-law enforcement speech  the kind of speech that never came from President Obama, and the kind of speech that Hillary Clinton, had she won the election, could never have brought herself to make.

But you wouldnt know much about that speech if you read the news. Try this: Google Trump Law Enforcement Speech and see what comes up. Trump Endorses Police Brutality, or Trump Just Delivered the Most Chilling Speech of his Presidency, or how about Trump calls for more Police Brutality? No headlines about the surging murder rate in Los Angeles and Chicago, about knifings and slashing of children by MS-13 gang members, nothing about the opioid epidemic and the drug dealers and smugglers responsible. You would think all he did was to urge on police brutality.

And why? Because Trump ad libbed a quip about the use of force during an arrest. His staff said it was a joke, and in todays climate thats always dangerous. After describing the way MS-13 gang members slash children to death, he said, you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough  I said, please dont be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, dont hit their head and theyve just killed somebody  dont hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?

The police are obviously authorized to use force when needed, and every police department has strict rules on how force can be used. When it is abused there is a whole body of law that comes into play, including civil and criminal charges against the offending officer. Many suspects complain that police used excessive force, and most such complaints are dismissed after careful review. But the anti-police voices in the media begin with an irrebuttable presumption that the police are out-of-control, bigoted racists, and thats made our streets less safe.

But of course Im forgetting the worst thing Trump said. He talked about putting criminals in a paddy wagon. How shocking! A slur against the Irish.
God is not a racist. Torch-wielding white nationalists and white supremacists marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, Friday night and rallying again Saturday failed to learn that important lesson. They shouted unite the right and white lives matter  and called for the South to split from the United States.

The Friday evening march and the larger Alt-Right rally taking place Saturday came in response to Charlottesville's decision to move a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park to another park.

The rally is reminiscent of an Alt-Right event in Charlottesville in May, in which white nationalists marched and chanted slogans, including Russia is our friend, White lives matter, and No more brother wars.

The last chant, No more brother wars, is a shorthand way of saying that people of European heritage should stop fighting with each other because this only weakens the white brotherhood and strengthens the black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities. In other words, it is a call that places racial solidarity ahead of patriotism and loyalty to America.

One of the protest leaders at the May event was Richard Spencer, one of several white nationalists including Jared Taylor and Matthew Heimbach, who have risen to prominence in recent years. They wish to privilege their ethnic group  white Americans of European descent  over all others.

Our dream is a new society, said Spencer in a 2013 interview, an ethno-state that would be  based on very different ideals than, say, the Declaration of Independence.

Similarly, the white nationalists emphasize what they consider to be the exemplary and unique traits of their race. In a 2005 article in American Renaissance, Taylor wrote: Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization  any kind of civilization  disappears.

White conservatives  especially white Christian conservatives  should speak out openly against white nationalism and white supremacy. This is racism pure and simple, and it represents a frontal assault on the Christian gospel, a denial of human dignity and a subversion of our democracy.

The racist doctrine claiming that whites are superior to all others is diametrically opposed to biblical Christianity. The Bible teaches that God created the world as a dazzlingly beautiful unity-in-diversity (Genesis 1). God values that diversity and makes clear that every human being  regardless of race  is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27-28).

God sent his son  a brown Middle Eastern man  to save the whole world, including sinners of every race and ethnicity (John 3:16). Genuine Christianity overcomes social, ethnic, and gender barriers (Galatians 3:26, 28).

That is why we should fight white nationalism and other forms of racism tooth-and-nail, not only from the voting booth, but in our neighborhoods, at our churches, and on our social media. We should fight it when it takes the form of personal prejudice; when a person of one ethnic heritage intentionally denigrates or harms a person of another ethnic heritage.

And we should fight racism when it takes the form of corrupted cultural institutions; when our societys racial sins coalesce to warp certain social and cultural institutions so that they give preference to one race or ethnicity over another.

White nationalism and supremacy refuse to give equal dignity to all Americans. In response to the Alt-Rights choice to carry torches, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said: This event involving torches at night in Lee Park was either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK.

Signer is right. When whites bring torches to a nighttime rally, they know that even the most historically unaware American will recognize the events similarity to the days of Ku Klux Klan marches, lynchings and fire-bombings.

White conservatives  whether they are Christians or not  should speak out when white nationalists and supremacists degrade the God-given dignity of non-white citizens.

We should draw upon the Bibles teaching that all humans are created in Gods image. We should point to the Declaration of Independences assertion that all human beings are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights. And we should make a conscience-based plea that appeals to our fellow citizens ingrained sense of right and wrong.

The doctrines of white nationalism and supremacy subvert the democratic nature of our republic and run afoul of a genuinely Christian theory of politics. The danger of the ethnic variety of nationalism lies, writes political scientist David Koyzis, in the pursuit of a double standard of justice. When ethnic nationalists come to power in a given state, they privilege the members of their  ethnic group over those of other ethnic groups.

Americans should reject any attempt to value one racial or ethnic group over another. Instead, we should express our conviction that the American government should exercise power with an eye toward justice for all men and women within its borders, no matter what their color, religion or economic status.

Throughout American history, there are many ways in which white conservatives have admirably represented Christ and his gospel. I am convinced, however, that overcoming racism is not yet one of the ways that we represent him admirably or consistently.

Events like the one in Charlottesville give good-willed conservatives  especially Christian conservatives  an excellent opportunity to begin rectifying the situation by speaking a good word in the midst of a bad moment.
Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, on Friday sought to immediately retract claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is acting more responsibly than President Trump.

"North Korea is a serious thing," Ellison, D-Minn., told attendees at the NetrootsNation conference during a question-and-answer session. "You have this guy making bellicose threats against somebody else who has very little to lose over there. Kim Jong Un, the world always thought he was not a responsible leader; well, he's acting more responsible than this guy is."

Ellison immediately retracted those remarks in an interview with a Washington Post reporter after leaving the panel.

"That was one of those I wish I'd not said," Ellison told the Post. "It's tailor-made for somebody to misuse. I'd say, he's being incredibly irresponsible, and he's putting us in a situation where you could have an accidental launch.

Ellison warned Trump's rhetoric could spur Kim to take action first and called for someone to bring "calm to the situation, not spiking it."

Click for more from the Washington Examiner.
Republican candidates in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama crisscrossed the state Saturday, hoping to sway undecided voters before the election Tuesday.

A primary in which a sitting senator is seeking election is typically little more than a formality. But this is not a typical political year, and this is no typical race.

President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are backing GOP Sen. Luther Strange in the special election to fill the seat of Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Session, who earlier this year became U.S. attorney general.

Strange, a former state attorney general, was appointed to the seat in February.

Their support has left four-term GOP Rep. Mo Brooks largely cut off by Washington Republicans in the close, three-way battle that also includes former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.

On Saturday, Strange attended the Cleburne County Fair, where he spoke to members of the Heflin First United Methodist Youth Group.

We have less than 72 hours before Alabama voters head to the polls. So, can I count on you to take some time over the next couple of days to stop by your neighbors and ask them to support our campaign on Tuesday? Strange asked voters via social media.

Trumps super PAC reportedly plans to spend as much as $200,000 on digital ads for Strange, in the closing days of race. He also has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

None of the three is expected to get at least 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, which means the top-two finishers will advance to a runoff in September.

The winner will face the Democratic nominee later this year but will likely win -- considering the last time a Democrat was elected senator in Alabama was 1987, when Richard Shelby won, then switched several years later to the Republican Party.

Several polls indicate the race is too close to call, with Brooks garnering national support from conservative groups and Moore appearing to have strong support from grassroots voters, TV stars such as Chuck Norris and evangelicals, including influential faith leader James Dobson.

Brooks on Saturday attended the Baldwin County breakfast, at the Biscuit King, in the town of Fairhope.

Moores campaign said the candidate and wife Kayla plan to participate in the traditional horse ride to the polls on Tuesday.
North Korea took its turn Saturday in the countrys escalating, back-and-fourth with President Trump, with the state-run newspaper saying leader Kim Jung Uns revolutionary army is capable of fighting any war the U.S. wants.

The assertion was made in an editorial that also states the Paektusan army is now on the standby to launch fire into its mainland, waiting for an order of final attack."

The editorial also argues that the United States "finds itself in an ever worsening dilemma, being thrown into the grip of extreme security unrest by the DPRK. This is tragicomedy of its own making.  If the Trump administration does not want the American empire to meet its tragic doom in its tenure, they had better talk and act properly."

DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The editorial appears to be in response to a series of comments made by Trump in recent days, most recently Friday that the United States is locked and loaded.

The president's recent comments are in response to Kim threatening a missile attack on U.S. territory Guam.

Trump, meanwhile, continues to pursue a diplomatic solution to North Koreas purported development of a nuclear warhead that could reach the United States and other countries on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The White House says Trump has a phone conversation Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the leaders reiterated their commitment to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The president also saluted Xi for China's recent United Nations vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, in response the countrys escalating pursuit of nuclear weapons, according to the White House.

As the crisis has unfolded, Trump has alternated praising China for its help and chiding it for not doing more.

The White House says Trump also told Xi he looked forward to seeing him in China later this year.

During Trumps phone conversation Friday with Xi, the Chinese leader also requested that the U.S. and North Korea tone down their recent rhetoric and avoid actions that could worsen tensions between the two nations, Chinese Central Television reported.

At present, the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula, Xi was quoted as saying.

Trump has urged China to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, which North Korea says is nearing the capability of targeting the United States.

China is the Norths biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone cant compel Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programs.

Trump also spoke this weekend with Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo, reassuring him that U.S. military forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. territory, a White House statement said.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Saturday to do everything, to the best of my ability, to protect his nations people as tensions escalate over North Koreas plans to send missiles over Japan toward Guam.

On Friday, Japans Defense Ministry said it was deploying four surface-to-air Patriot interceptors in western Japan to respond to a possible risk of fragments falling from missiles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump on Saturday condemned the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalists upset over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue violently clashed with counter-protesters.

One woman died and 19 others were being treated for injuries after a car plowed into a crowd of demonstrators, authorities said. Two Virginia state troopers also died when a helicopter crashed nearby.

We are closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump told reporters at his golf club in New Jersey.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides  on many sides, he said.

On Saturday evening, a White House aide issued a statement clarifying why the president used the phrase "on many sides instead of singling out the white nationalists who initially gathered in Charlottesville.

The president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides, a White House official said. There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today.

During his remarks, the president said he spoke with Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who declared a state of emergency on Saturday.

What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives, the president said. No citizen should ever fear for safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents and have a good time.

The president made the comments during a bill signing with Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. He also expressed his sympathy to those who died in the helicopter crash.

Deepest condolences to the families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today, Trump tweeted. You're all among the best this nation produces.

Earlier Saturday, Trump first responded to the unrest on Twitter.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for, the president tweeted. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!



Vice President Mike Pence also weighed in, tweeting: I stand with @POTUS against hate & violence. U.S is greatest when we join together & oppose those seeking to divide us. #Charlottesville.

The demonstrators gathered for a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park.

VIOLENT CLASHES ERUPT AT UNITE THE RIGHT RALLY IN VIRGINIA

Thousands of supporters and counter-protesters screamed, chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday.

Both Republicans and Democrats released statements Saturday criticizing the protesters.

The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant, House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.

Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for governor in Virginia, said: Having a right to spew vile hate does not make it right. It is painful to see these ugly events in Charlottesville last night and today.

Former President Bill Clinton tweeted: Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy. #Charlottesville

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2016, said the white nationalist demonstration is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred.

While this incident is alarming, it is not surprising, Sanders said in a statement. Hate crimes and shows of hostility toward minorities have recently been surging.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said the march and rally in Charlottesville goes against everything the American flag stands for.

Ronna McDaniel, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Saturday the hate & bigotry on display in #charlottesville is dangerous & cowardly.

Free speech may give them the right to do this but also empowers us to unite to loudly speak out against it, McDaniel tweeted.

Likewise, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez spoke out against the gathering.

The vile & bigoted display of hate in #Charlottesville has no place in America, Perez said. We stand against white supremacy wherever it appears.

First Lady Melania Trump also called for ending the violence.

Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville, Melania Trump tweeted.

Clashes first broke out Friday night after a judge cleared the way for the protest to continue as planned. The unrest prompted McAuliffe to place National Guard members on standby and encourage Virginians to stay away from the event.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Chicago plan to give government-issued identification cards to anyone living in the city will make getting a fake ID much easier, a city alderman said.

Is this going to be a way for people get fake identification? I think there's a strong chance for that happening, said Chicago Alderman Nick Sposato.

Critics also think the program is a ploy for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to pick up Latino votes as he potentially gears up to run for mayor again.

IMMIGRATION ACTIVISTS VOW TO FIGHT FOR ID CARDS AFTER WISCONSIN LEGISLATORS PASS BILL BANNING THEM

I think it's all about votes. I mean, I think they're just trying to please a certain demographic in the city to say: Hey we're for you, we support you and I think that's what it's about, Sposato said.

Emanuel is forging ahead with plans for the million-dollar program, despite the criticism.

"Chicago will never relinquish our status as a welcoming city, Emanuel said at a recent press conference.

The city says the free IDs will help those who currently struggle to get one  like the homeless, formerly incarcerated and undocumented immigrants  live a better life.

NEW YORK CITY MAY ERASE ID CARD DATA TO PROTECT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

"You need an ID for a job. You need an ID to get an apartment. You just need an ID for everything, said Gilbert Villegas, Chair of Chicago City Councils Latino Caucus.

Villegas says an applicant will not have to prove U.S. residency. The citys website states that a person will be required to prove they live in Chicago but it does not mention U.S. residency documentation.

A spokesperson for the Chicago City Clerk, Kate Lefurgy, told Fox News all rules are still being drafted.

Sposato said the program could create an underground market for ID scams.

"I'm worried about fraud here and I'm worried who's going to get these. Who's going to say who they are? Who's going to vouch for who they say they are, Sposato said. Can somebody walk in when we open that door that day, can anybody walk in and say I'm John Smith and can they get an ID saying they're John Smith."

Villegas acknowledged, as with any system, there might be some bad actors.

"There are going to be penalties in place for those that do commit fraud, he said.

The city is currently taking bids to develop the software that will administer the IDs and is finalizing what types of documents it will accept and if an applicant will need someone to vouch for them.

Security and fraud protection are our top priorities, LeFurgy wrote in an e-mail. Like the other offices across our state that administer government IDs, we will have trained professionals who will authenticate these documents. 

Villegas says Chicago decided to pick up the speed of the program after president Trump was elected.

"This ordinance was already being worked on but there was a sense of expediency once the administration changed at the national level, Villegas said.

Chicago's ID program was modeled in part after San Francisco's, which has issued more than 20,000 IDS. That city has sworn it will protect immigrant information from the federal government.

Sposato believes the Chicago program will end up costing at least three times more than the million-dollar budget.
A 32-year-old woman was killed Saturday and 19 others were injured, five of them critically, when a car rammed into a group of counter-protesters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.

A helicopter crash that killed the pilot and a passenger later in the afternoon outside the university town also was linked to the rally by State Police, though officials did not elaborate on how the crash was connected.

At a late afternoon news conference, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said that 35 people had been injured in various confrontations during the rally and made a point of saying that none of those involved his officers. Thomas also said that the car crash was being treated as an act of "criminal homicide."

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.



WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND LANGUAGE

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, told the Associated Press several hundred counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound." A silver Dodge Challenger smashed into another car, then backed up, barreling through "a sea of people."

The impact hurled people into the air. Those left standing scattered, screaming and running for safety in different directions.

Virginia Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran told The Associated Press that the driver of the car, a man, was in custody. Moran did not provide the driver's name.

The crash occurred approximately two hours after clashes in which hundreds of people scramed, chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other ahead of the scheduled noon demonstration.

Adressing those who he called "the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesvillle today," Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told them to "go home."

"There is no place for you here," McAuliffe said. "There is no place for you in America ... Go home and never come back."

Hours earlier, President Donald Trump condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" after the clashes. He called for "a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives."

Hours later, Trump tweeted condolences to the families of the victims of the helicopter crash  who he identified as Virginia state troopers  and the unidentified woman who was killed by the car.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had planned what he called a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park.

Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups had gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead groups and Ku Klux Klan factions.



"We anticipated this event being the largest white supremacist gathering in over a decade," Segal said. "Unfortunately, it appears to have become the most violent as well."



The white nationalist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said, along with several groups with a smaller presence.



Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people."

"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.

The violence was met with universal condemnation from political leaders, as well as first lady Melania Trump, who tweeted: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville."

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted: "I stand with @POTUS against hate & violence. U.S. is greatest when we join together & oppose those seeking to divide us. #Charlottesville"

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also tweeted condemning the protests. "The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant," Ryan tweeted. "Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry."

The NHLs Detroit Red Wings released a statement Saturday denouncing the user of their logo at the rally and that they are considering legal action to stop it.

The team said it vehemently disagrees with and is not associated with the event.

A Michigan-based white nationalist group called the Detroit Right Wings uses the Red Wings logo.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said he was disappointed that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices during his campaign last year.

"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."

Saturday's violence was the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city voted earlier this year to remove the Lee statue.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named after Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They are now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.

Fox News' Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Florida middle school has come under fire after a fundraising form was sent out to parents stating that for a $100 donation a student would be granted a front of the lunch line pass.

A PTSA sponsorship form for the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Fla. was sent out to the students' parents to raise money for the school but one offer stuck out. The form stated that a $100 donation would grant the donor a last name or company logo feature on the website, as well as PTSA events AND front of the lunch line pass, according to ABC Action News.

"(The PTSA) which operates independently from the school financially, however, cannot make school decisions without the principal's approval," Brian Andrews, principal of the school, told Fox News. "Parents run the organization. They are all volunteers and any money they generate benefits the students and school."

Parents claimed the school of cafeteria classism, according to ABC Action News.

FLORIDA CARETAKER GUILTY OF ATTEMPTED MURDER OF WWII VETERAN AFTER OXYGEN TANK BEATING

You got those who can pay, and those who cannot, Christ Stephenson, a father of one of the schools students, told WXYZ. Stephenson told the media outlet he was enraged when he saw the form.

Hey, my dad has more money than you, I get to eat first. You have to wait; you have to wait, Stephenson said. He confirmed that he did not sign the paperwork but instead shared the form on his personal Facebook page.

Its like, I have money, Im in the front of line now. All you poor kids get in the back of the line, Stephenson told News Channel 8.

Andrews told Fox News that he did not approve of the form.

"There was much brainstorming among the group to find ways to generate funds," Andrews told Fox News. "I believe the intentions were meant to be beneficial, however, parents do not always have the perspective of a principal. Donations are welcome and accepted, however this addition including front of the lunch line was not approved by me, and our school goes above and beyond to be inclusive of all students. This simply did not reflect our philosophy and I felt fortunate to be in a position to eliminate it before it got off the ground."

FLORIDA DAY CARE DRIVER CHARGED IN BOYS HOT VAN DEATH

PTSA said the program offered was a clerical mistake and has released a statement to WXYZ regarding the form.

We look to strive to look for new and innovative fundraising ideas to enhance the school experience for our students. We offer a variety of fundraising options for our students and families to choose from each year. This Family and Business Sponsorship program was explored but we decided not to implement. Due to a clerical error, the form was inadvertently included in the Orientation packets. Our families have been notified this program is not being offered. The intent of our PTSA is to always do the best for our students and families.

Where were the checkpoints missed," said Stephenson. "Who allowed and approved documents to be distributed to 300 some-odd students without having read it?"
Okera Ras, a former Fox News web video producer, was found dead in his Bronx, N.Y., home Wednesday, just hours after learning that his son succumbed to injuries from a gunshot wound from two days earlier.

Ras cause of death was not officially announced. Vernon Pouncey, Ras cousin, told FoxNews.com that the New York City medical examiner told a family member it appeared Ras laid down to go to sleep and never woke up.

He was close to his son, Pouncey said. He was a dedicated father to all of his children.

The investigation into the shooting death of Ras son, Duro Akil, 34, is ongoing. Akil, who lived with his father, heard a commotion in the hallway of their apartment building and opened the door, Pouncey said. The gunman fired through the door and hit Akil, Pouncey said.

Akil was treated at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

Ras, 54, was under the impression that his son would be able to recover, Pouncey said. But the family learned that Akils injuries were more extensive than previously believed, he said.

The New York City Police Department could not confirm details about what led up to the shooting. There have been no arrests. The New York Daily News reported that police have identified a suspect.

Makini Akil, Ras daughter, told the paper that the family believes her father died of a broken heart.

It was really too much for him, she told the paper. It was really like heartbreak.

Ras, who received a masters degree in communication from New York University, was remembered in the Fox News newsroom as a diligent worker who had a warm smile for colleagues and a contagious laugh. He recently left Fox News to pursue his own business ventures.

Ras was a family man who was planning a family reunion that is taking place in Virginia Beach, Va., next week. He was active in his Bronx community and led a monthly healing retreat, his daughter told the paper.

A GoFundMePage for the family said he was a cultural custodian of Afrocentric traditions, including Kwanzaa, Khamitic and natural healing practices.
A Massachusetts charter school that came under fire for what some students and parents considered a racist policy of banning hair braid extensions has quietly removed the rule.

The handbook for 2017-2018 at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School no longer bans hair extensions, hair that's more than two inches in thickness or height, or hair coloring.

The attorney general's office in May told the school its dress code appears to violate laws against racial discrimination.

The issue came to light when the parents of twin 15-year-old black girls said their daughters were punished for wearing extensions, while white students hadn't been punished for violations of hairstyle regulations.

School administrators have said hair extensions and other banned styles were distracting to students.

The school's director and spokesperson didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday.
A member of the Chicago Ripper Crew believed responsible for 20 cult-like mutilation sex slayings three decades ago is on the brink of being paroled, leaving the family of one of the victims shocked and outraged, the Chicago Tribune reports.

He doesnt deserved to be treated like a human being for the stuff he did to my sister and all the families and the women, Mark Borowski said of Thomas Kokoraleis, 57. Its just sickening. He has no business living.

Kokoraleis is due to be paroled Sept 29 after serving half of a 70-year sentence for the rape and satanic ritual torture killing of 21-year-old Lorry Ann Borowski in 1982, the paper reported Friday.

Kokoraleis, his brother and two other men were part of a satanic gang that drove around in a red van looking for lone women to kidnap, beat, rape, torture and kill, according to the paper.

They cut off their victims breasts often while the women were still alive, as part of cannibalistic, sexual rituals.

Andrew Kokoraleis was the last inmate executed in Illinois in 1999.

Crew member Edward Spreitzer, 56, is ineligible for parole.

Crew ringleader Robin Gecht, 63, has a parole date in 2042.

Prosecutors are fighting to keep Kokoraleis behind bars.

They are expected to ask a judge to label Kokoraleis a sexually violent person that would keep him locked up beyond his parole date under a 1998 civil commitment law, the paper reported.

Kokoraleis was found guilty of killing Borowski but the conviction was overturned due to a legal error, the Tribune reported.

He pleaded guilty in 1987 in exchange for the 70-year sentence but is only required to serve half his sentence under Illinois sentencing guidelines.

Kokoraleis was also accused of killing Linda Sutton, a 26-year-old mother of a 9-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, but the charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.

Sutton was killed in 1981 a year before Borowski. Her mutilated body was found in a field in suburban Chicago.

We were cheated out of a life with our mother, her son, Antone Sutton, told the Tribune. If the Lord is willing, we want to keep him locked up the rest of his life. If he gets out, where is he going to go? Is he still going to roam the streets?
Hundreds of white nationalists  and those who oppose them -- were expected for a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday after a federal judges ruling Friday cleared the way for the event.

The judges ruling sparked a pre-rally march Friday night on the University of Virginia campus, resulting in clashes between marchers, protesters and police.

The unrest prompted Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, to place National Guard members on standby, and encourage Virginians to stay away from Saturdays event.

Men and women from state and local agencies will be in Charlottesville [on Saturday] to keep the public safe, McAuliffe said in a statement, and their job will be made easier if Virginians, no matter how well-meaning, elect to stay away from the areas where this rally will take place.

On Friday night, marchers holding tiki torches and chanting White lives matter! in front of a statue of university founder Thomas Jefferson were confronted by protesters, the Washington Post reported.

After fights broke out, police dispersed the crowd, claiming it was an unlawful assembly, Richmonds WTRV-TV reported.

Saturdays event is scheduled for Emancipation Park after U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit that right-wing blogger and rally organizer Jason Kessler filed against the city of Charlottesville.

Kessler wants to protest Charlottesvilles decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park. He sued the city over free speech violations after the officials ordered the rally moved from Emancipation Park to a larger venue because of safety concerns.

In a statement, the city said it would honor the judges decision. Kessler is being represented in his case by the Rutherford Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A security guard has been accused of killing two co-workers at a beachside resort on Florida's Gulf Coast.

The Herald Tribune reports that 29-year-old Darryl Hanna Jr. of Bradenton was charged Wednesday with armed robbery and two counts of second-degree murder for the fatal shootings Aug. 4 at Zota Beach Resort.

A Longboat Key police report says another co-worker identified Hanna through surveillance footage that showed the early morning robbery.

Authorities said Hanna had complained to his supervisors about not making enough money as a guard.

Hanna was held without bond. Manatee County jail records didn't show whether he had an attorney.

The victims were night manager Timothy Hurley of Sarasota and security guard Kevin Carter of Bradenton. Their deaths were the first homicides on Longboat Key in 17 years.

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Information from: Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, http://www.heraldtribune.com
Nevada game wardens who spend most of their time hunting down big-game poachers are focusing on a serious threat to nature in a lake: An invasive fish species that eats all the other fish prized by anglers and then turns cannibalistic.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife is offering a $10,000 reward to help nab the culprit who apparently dumped Northern pike in Comins Lake, a popular fishing spot surrounded by mountains near Great Basin National Park.

By all accounts, Comins Lake was well on its way to recovery after the state restocked the fishery with largemouth bass, brown and rainbow trout in 2015.

But the invading Northern Pike were discovered again last month by a fisherman who caught one and called state wildlife officials. Five more have been confirmed since then.

"This malicious and illegal act seriously endangers our effort to restore this important fishery," said Jon Sjoberg, chief of fisheries for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. "The people illegally introducing pike are destroying a fishery, not creating a new one."

Chief Game Warden Tyler Turnipseed announced the reward this week.

"We intend to find who did it," he said.

Northern pike may not sound as scary as piranhas or the Asian swamp eel  two of the other half-dozen fish that Nevada law singles out as invasive, injurious aquatic species.

But with its long, needle-sharp teeth, the voracious predator that sometimes grows longer than 4 feet (1.2 meters) can wipe out an entire fishery.

"They eat all the trout we put in there," Edwin Lyngar, spokesman for the state wildlife agency, said in an interview Friday. "Then they eat all the other fish they can find, and then they start to eat each other."

The remote eastern Nevada lake near Utah border covers about two-thirds of a square mile (1.7 square kilometers) and draws numerous anglers.

"It brings tremendous economic activity to this part of the state," Lyngar said. "Years ago, people came from all over the world to fish that lake."

At its peak in 2004, the lake logged 35,000 "angler user days" and generated more than $2 million for the local economy as the fourth-most visited fishery in the state behind Lake Mead, Lake Mohave and the Truckee River, which flows out of Lake Tahoe through downtown Reno. That fell to about 2,000 user days and $73,000 by 2013 as the non-native pike took over.

The reward money was donated by several sportsmen's groups, including Nevada Bighorns Unlimited and the Operation Game Thief Citizens Board. If officials catch a suspect, the person would face criminal penalties.

Lyngar did not want to speculate on the perpetrator's motives.

"But we've had people put pike in waterways before because they want to catch pike. They are a good fighting fish," he said.

Authorities also cannot rule out a distant possibility that the fish found some natural way to get into the lake.

"Anything is possible, but the evidence indicates very strongly that is not the case," Lyngar said. "We believe very strongly they were introduced by someone on purpose."

Lyngar said state biologists are doing everything they can to stop the pike before they get a toehold and they've seen no evidence of any survivors since they netted the last four during an extensive electrofishing effort last week.

A biologist "told me he doesn't mind if one is left," Lyngar said. "But if there are two, we're in trouble."

.
President Donald Trump has said he wouldn't rule out military action against Venezuela in response to the country's descent into political chaos following President Nicolas Maduro's power grab. Venezuela's government responded by accusing Trump of seeking to destabilize Latin America.

Speaking to reporters Friday at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, Trump bemoaned Venezuela's growing humanitarian crisis and declared that all options remain on the table  including a potential military intervention.

"We have many options for Venezuela and by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option," Trump volunteered, adding, "A military operation and military option is certainly something that we could pursue."

Trump's comment mark a serious escalation in rhetoric for the U.S., which has up until now stressed a regional approach that encourages Latin American allies to escalate pressure on the Maduro regime. Hours before Trump's comments, a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity stressed that approach while briefing reporters on Vice President Mike Pence's upcoming trip to the region.

Venezuela's government responded Saturday in a statement read by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza that called Trump's talk of a potential military option an act of belligerence and a threat to Latin America's stability.

The White House released a statement Friday evening saying it had rejected a request from Maduro to speak by phone with Trump. The statement said, "Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country."

The Trump administration has slapped a series of sanctions against Maduro and more than two dozen current and former Venezuelan officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a constitutional assembly charged with rewriting the country's constitution.

But even as the list of targeted individuals has grown longer, promised economic sanctions have yet to materialize amid an outcry by U.S. oil companies over the likelihood that a potential ban on petroleum imports from Venezuela  the third-largest supplier to the U.S.  would hurt U.S. jobs and drive up gas costs.

Trump's comments are sure to focus new attention on Pence's upcoming six-day tour of the region, which will include stops in Cartagena, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Panama City. Pence is set to arrive in Colombia on Sunday and is expected to meet with each of the countries' leaders, deliver a major speech on U.S.-Latin American relations and tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.

The trip was already sure to be dominated by discussion of Venezuela, with Pence expected to call on the leaders to continue to pressure the Maduro government and encourage others in the region to do the same.

But Trump's comments are likely to upend the conversations, with leaders potentially pressing Pence for reassurance that Trump won't go through with his military threat.

Trump's threat of military intervention in Venezuela also seems to contradict the advice of his top national security adviser. Citing the resentment stirred in Latin America by the long U.S. history of military interventions in the region, General H.R. McMaster said he didn't want to give Maduro any ammunition to blame the "Yankees" for the "tragedy" that has befallen the oil-rich nation.

Rather than send in the Marines, McMaster said it was important for the U.S. and its neighbors to speak with a single voice in defense of Venezuela's democracy.

"It's important for us to place responsibility for this catastrophe on Maduro's shoulders. He is the one who has caused it, and he's the one who's perpetuating it," McMaster said in an interview that aired last weekend on MSNBC.

Almost since Maduro took office in 2013, he has been warning of U.S. military designs on Venezuela, home to the world's largest oil reserves.

But most Venezuelans tended to shrug off the accusations as diversionary tactics of an unpopular leader. One website even emerged to keep track of the multiple conspiracy theories spread on state media and Maduro's frequent harangues against Washington.

But Trump's comments that he won't rule out a "military option" in Venezuela may yet validate those claims in the eyes of some government supporters.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Mark Wright said the Defense Department continuously conducts contingency planning for possible military actions all around the world. "Our job is to be prepared and be able to offer those options to the president," he said.

Still, a senior U.S. official said the Pentagon is unaware of any coming military action in Venezuela. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

__

Goodman reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Two Missouri teenagers who are openly gay said their school district deleted their quotes from the schools yearbook without their knowledge.

Joey Slavinsky and Thomas Swartz said they were shocked to see the Kearney School District has removed their quotes from the year book and left instead a blank space underneath their photos, KCTV 5 reported.

I went to find my quote in the yearbook but nothing was there, Swartz told KCTV 5. It was a blank picture under my name.

The two young men said they chose quotes that were related to their sexuality.

Mine was, Of course I dress well. I didnt spend all that time in the closet for nothing, Slavinsky said.

Swartz said his quote was: If Harry Potter taught us anything, its that no one should have to live in the closet.

The school district claimed the quotes were offensive although the two young men believe the district was incorrect.

MINIMUM WAGE HIKE WOULD KILL THOUSANDS OF JOBS IN LIBERAL DC SUBURB, STUDY FINDS

The Kearney School District told Fox News that it contacted the teenagers and their families to apologize.

The school district said in a statement: District administrators were made aware of concerns regarding the removal of senior quotes from the school yearbook. Each year, graduating seniors are provided an opportunity to pick a favorite quote to be placed in the yearbook. In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published.

It is the schools practice to err on the side of caution. Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect. We sincerely apologize to those students.

SUSPECT ACCUSED OF SHOOTING, KILLING MISSOURI POLICE OFFICER ARRESTED

All KSD staff understand the importance of inclusion and acceptance especially in an educational setting. We work diligently to help every student feel safe, supported, and included. District staff participate in ongoing training around issues of diversity and support student organizations that do the same. That being said, we acknowledge our mistake and will use it as a learning opportunity to improve in the future.

The statement was signed by the schools principal Dave Schwarzenbach and the districts superintendent, Bill Nicely. It's unclear if other quotes were removed from the school's yearbook.

They need to know what they do is wrong, Swartz said. I want to tell my story about what happened.

Swartz and Slavinsky said they intend to make labels with their intended quotes and stick them in their friends yearbooks.

I'm proud to be from Kearney and I'm proud to be who I am, Slavinsky said. I'm just disappointed at what happened.
A 9-year-old autistic boy was left with a nail embedded into his skull after a group of bullies allegedly threw a wooden plank at him, his parents say.

Romeo Smiths family told BBC News that the boy had been the target of older bullies for about a week before it escalated to the attack that left him injured on August 6.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

As Romeo was walking away one of the lads came running up behind him and threw a bit of wood with a nail in it, said father Craig Smith, of Nottinghamshire, England. I saw it just stuck there, in the back of his head and then Romeo started screaming and running towards me.

About a one-inch section of the nail embedded itself in the back of the boys head with the wood still attached, the Daily Mail reported.

The boy was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors gave him morphine and removed the nail. His mother told the Daily Mail that the nail had bent slightly when it hit his skull.

My partner was terrified, and I was so upset but Romeo has been so brave. He is a very lucky boy because it could have been more serious, Natasha Smith told the Daily Mail.

Romeo is expected to make a full recovery, however his family is concerned about the long term effects of the attack.

Now I feel I cant let him out on his own because due to his ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] he is very vulnerable, Natasha said. And this has been happened and he hasnt even told me about it. I just feel I wouldnt be able to let him out because it could happen again and he probably wouldnt mention it.

Nottinghamshire Police told the BBC that they were investigating, but may pursue restorative justice rather than criminal charges.

In cases such as this, where genuine remorse is shown and there is an understanding of the consequences of their actions, we try to mediate between both parties to avoid progressing down the criminal justice route, police said in a statement.
A Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons is a goal both Washington and Beijing are interested in pursuing, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during a phone conversation Friday.

That portion of their phone call was confirmed early Saturday in a White House statement and in a report on Chinese state television.

During the conversation, Xi also requested that the U.S. and North Korea both tone down their recent rhetoric and avoid actions that could worsen tensions between the two nations, Chinese Central Television said.

At present, the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula, Xi was quoted as saying.

At present, the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.  Chinese President Xi Jinping, quoted by Chinese state media

The White House confirmed early Saturday that Trump and Xi spoke Friday.

The leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new United Nations Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House statement said. President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior.

The Presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The statement added that Trump was looking forward to meeting with Xi in China later this year.

The trip, announced in April, was recently confirmed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met in Manila with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Trump has urged China to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, which North Korea says is nearing the capability of targeting the United States.

China is the Norths biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone cant compel Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programs.

Trump also spoke with Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo, reassuring him that U.S. military forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. territory, a White House statement said.

Japans leader makes pledge

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Saturday to do everything, to the best of my ability, to protect his nations people as tensions escalate over North Koreas plans to send missiles over Japan toward Guam.

Abe made the comments while visiting his fathers tomb in his ancestral hometown of Nagato, in western Japan.

On Friday, Japans Defense Ministry said it was deploying four surface-to-air Patriot interceptors in western Japan to respond to a possible risk of fragments falling from missiles.

The ministry did not confirm whether newly appointed Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera has already issued an order to shoot down incoming missiles.

Trump on Friday issued fresh threats of swift and forceful retaliation against nuclear North Korea, declaring the U.S. military locked and loaded and warning that the communist countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, would regret it fast if he takes any action against U.S. territories or allies.

This story includes reporting from the Associated Press.
India has deployed more troops along its eastern border with China as tensions continue to rise between the two countries over the long-disputed region of Doklam.

But despite Indias heightened military alert in the area, sources told Reuters they did not expect a conflict to spark between the roughly 300 troops on either side.

The troop level along the border with China in the Sikkim and Arunachal sectors has been increased, and the caution level has been raised, sources told the Press Trust of India.

The standoff began in June following Chinas construction of a road in the region. Doklam is claimed by both China and Indias ally, Bhutan.

China has also amassed troops, tanks and artillery in the Tibet Military District, the Times of India reported.

India sent troops as a show of force, angering China, which claimed India had no right to interfere and demanded a withdrawal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi argued Chinas move posed a threat to national security.

Diplomatic efforts failed, Reuters reported.

Chinas government-controlled Global Times warned of counter-measures if India did not comply with Beijings demands.

But India doesnt appear to be backing down from a potential conflict. Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said the 1962 war between the nations has India fully prepared for another skirmish.

I am fully confident that our brave soldiers have the capability to keep our community secure, be it the challenge on the eastern border or the western border.  They are ready to make any sacrifice for the security of the nation, Jaitley said.

The China-India relationship has deteriorated in recent years, prompted by Chinas support of Pakistan and increased presence in smaller South Asian nations, and Indias public embrace of the Dali Lama and improved relations with the United States.
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The Latest on Venezuela's political crisis (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

Venezuela's government is energetically rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump's talk of a potential "military option" to resolve the country's political crisis, calling it the most egregious act of belligerence against Venezuela in a century and a threat to Latin America's stability.

The response came in a statement read Saturday by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza in a meeting with foreign diplomats. They included Lee McClenny, the head of the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

Arreaza called Trump the "boss of the empire" and said his comments fit a pattern of aggression against Venezuelan sovereignty and violate international law and the U.N. charter.

Arreaza accused Washington of seeking to destabilize and divide Latin America and the Caribbean. He also thanked several governments, including ones recently critical of President Nicolas Maduro, for condemning Trump's comments.

Arreaza called on "good-minded" Venezuelans to put aside their political differences and unite in rejecting Trump's comments.

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11:55 a.m.

The top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela has arrived to hear what is likely to be a stinging rebuke to President Donald Trump's talk of a possible "military option" to resolve the country's political crisis.

A straight-faced Lee McClenny walked into the colonial government building known as the Yellow House in Caracas on Saturday along with other foreign diplomats for a meeting with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza. He did not make any comments.

Following the meeting Arreaza is expected to deliver a government statement responding to Trump's remarks, which have been panned by government allies as a dramatic escalation of the country's political conflict.

The United States and Venezuela have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010. McClenny has been serving as charge d'affaires in Caracas since 2014.
A Danish inventor was detained Saturday in the death of a female journalist who was believed killed when a submarine he built nearly a decade ago sank.

Peter Madsen, 46, was ordered held for 24 days after a detention hearing in Copenhagen behind closed doors.

Danish police have charged him with manslaughter.

Kim Wall, 30, a New York and Beijing-based journalist, hasnt been seen since Madsens 40-ton, nearly 60-foot-long submarine sank off Denmark's eastern coast Friday.

"It was with great horror that we were informed that Kim is missing. We believe and sincerely hope that she is found safe and sound," the 30-year-old's family wrote in a statement to Danish broadcaster TV2, according to The Local.

Madsen's defense lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains he is innocent.

Hald Engmark says Madsen is "willing to cooperate" and hasn't decided whether to appeal the detention ruling.

Madsen was rescued by a private motorboat Friday morning in Denmarks Koge Bay after the submarine sank, authorities said. He and Wall had not returned to Copenhagens Refshale Island after departing in the craft Thursday evening, Reuters reported.

Madsen told police he had dropped off Wall not far from where their journey began, but after she was later reported missing, authorities suspected she may have been inside the submarine when it sank.

Meanwhile, police in Demark were asking any witnesses who may have seen Madsen or Wall to come forward, BuzzFeed reported.

Wall had been writing about Madsen and his submarine and was reported missing by her boyfriend, Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported. It also reported that police were looking to determine if Madsen had sunk the submarine deliberately.

Wall freelanced for prestigious publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian and Vice Magazine.

She studied at the Sorbonne university in Paris and the London School of Economics.

She also received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York in 2013.
A U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornet was crash landed in Bahrain after flying off USS Nimitz, a deployed aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Cmdr. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Navys 5th Fleet, said in a statement that the pilot ejected after landing and is "uninjured.

Soon after takeoff, the F-18 suffered an engine problem and the pilot tried to divert to Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain. However, the plane couldnt make it and instead landed at the islands commercial airport, Urban said.

Due to the malfunction, the aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and the pilot ejected from the aircraft as it departed the runway, he said.

MARINE CORPS ORDERS ALL OF ITS AIRCRAFT GROUNDED FOLLOWING DEADLY CRASHES

Urban said the crash is under investigation and that the Navy was helping to re-open the runway so the airport could resume normal operations.

This comes after a U.S. Navy fighter jet squadron was grounded aboard USS George HW Bush in July due to problems with the jets.

And one day after the U.S. Marine Corps announced they were grounding their entire fleet of aircraft for a day following two deadly accidents in the last few weeks killing 19.

In a previously unreported episode, for the first time in the three-year-old war against ISIS, a U.S. Navy fighter squadron was grounded for a week aboard the USS George H.W. Bush from July 12-19. As U.S.-backed Syrian forces were battling ISIS in Syria, the U.S. Navy was forced to ground all 10 F/A-18 fighter jets in VFA-37, after two pilots flying older model F-18C Hornets fell ill with decompression sickness, a long-standing problem with the jets cabin pressure.

The two pilots required treatment in a decompression-chamber-like machine.

The USS George H.W. Bush is the first aircraft carrier to deploy with a chamber aboard after a spike in what the Navy calls "physiological episodes," which many officials blame on flying old planes.

FALLEN MARINES BODY ESCORTED BY HONOR GUARD THROUGH BAY AREA

Every deployed aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy now carries decompression chambers aboard.

A U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed the grounding to Fox News.

"Naval Aviation Leadership directed an operational pause for Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA-37) at the conclusion of the flight schedule July 12the pause was lifted on 19 July, said Cmdr. Jeanette Groeneveld.

Groeneveld said there was no operational impact on the aircraft carriers ability to support the ISIS fight in Syria, where the majority of strikes are now conducted. She noted that there are 34 other more advanced F-18 Super Hornets that remained operational among the three other strike fighter squadrons in the carriers air wing.

The Navy's Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John M. Richardson, recently decided to accelerate the phase-out of the early model F-18s beginning this month with one squadron and ending in 2019, according to Navy officials.

The Marine Corps exclusively flies the older model F-18A-D Hornets, which have long suffered from a lack of spare parts grounding jets and robbing young pilots of valuable training. Currently, about 70 percent of Marine Corps F-18s cant fly. About half the Navys Hornets are fully mission capable right now.

The F-18 was originally designed for 6,000 flight hours. Budget cuts and the delay of the Joint Strike Fighter forced the Marine Corps and Navy to continue flying them. A majority of the jets were extended to 10,000 flight hours.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.
Is it once again time for schools to start teaching students how to duck and cover?

That was standard operating procedure back in the 1960s, when the Cold War was about as frigid as a witchs nose in Alaska and the threat of nuclear war was always in the back of our minds.

Those were the days when folks in this area instinctively looked in the direction of Washington when they heard a loud boom of any kind. If we didnt see a mushroom cloud rising, we thanked our lucky stars and went back to what we were doing.

We werent that concerned with nuclear war in the 1970s and 80s and when the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union dissolved, we figured the threat of atomic annihilation was over.

Well, now that President Trump is butting heads with North Korean President Kim Jong Un maybe we should start resuming those old drills and making sure we know where the nearest fallout shelter is when we enter new surroundings.

We should have known that this ominous threat would resurface at some point. After all, in addition to the United States, Russia, China, India, England, France and Pakistan all reportedly have nuclear capabilities. Now North Korea is figuring out how to split the atom for military purposes and Iran may not be far behind.

Of course, there are still those who believe that a nuclear war would be so horrible that no country would contemplate starting one. That is wishful thinking. History tells us that no weapon has been developed that wasnt used at some point.

A country gets pushed into a corner or a leader become paranoid and all hell breaks loose. That could be the case with North Korea right now.

According to the experts, we on the United States mainland have nothing to fear from North Korea because that country does not have a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead all the way across the Pacific. Guam, a United States island territory, would be North Koreas likely target should North Korean President Un decide to strike anywhere.

But if North Korea attacks targets on American soil and the United States retaliates in kind, how will China, an ally of the North Korean government, respond? That government has plenty of nuclear warheads and missiles that can reach the United States mainland.

Then there is Russia, which would love to dominate both America and China. Does anyone remember Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchevs warning to America: We will bury you!?

Or Gen. George Pattons statement at the end of World War II that America would ultimately have to whip the Russians to maintain world peace?

It is perhaps ironic that this building nuclear war of words with North Korea should come in early August, the same time period in 1945 when nuclear weapons were first unleashed against Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Speaking of August, perhaps Donald Trump and Kim should read The Guns of August before these two leaders escalate a dangerous situation.

That book explains how small and seemingly inconsequential incidents and strategic alliances led to the outbreak of World War I.

Like today, the leaders in 1914 thought they could predict every move the opposition would make and acted accordingly. They were wrong and an estimated 16 million people died as a result of their miscalculations.

We stand at a dangerous crossroads. One miscalculation could set off a series of events that might result in nuclear war. As with the League of Nations in the years prior to World War II, the United Nations has lost much of its power and influence since the Iraq War and the big dogs on the block would pay no attention to any resolution it might put forth to stop a conflict.

Hopefully, Trump and Kim are just mouthing off and neither will take their rhetoric to the shooting stage.

I do not want to have to duck and cover.
The Rappahannock Canal in downtown Fredericksburg is one of the citys historic gems, but a group of residents is concerned that it also could become a health hazard.

The canals standing water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes at a time when the West Nile virus has been detected in Virginia, Harold Bannister, president of the Fall Hill Avenue Neighborhood Association, told City Council Tuesday.

Anyone jogging along the trail bordering the canal after 6 p.m. is likely to be chewed up by mosquitoes, he said, and residents with homes along the canal cant sit in their backyards without being pestered by the biting bugs.

The association requested that, within the month, the city begin to monitor the canals mosquito population to see if it is carrying diseases. It would also like to see the city develop a plan for controlling the large concentrations of duckweed and other harmful plants in the canal and on its banks, as well as a plan for monitoring the canals soil and water quality.

We are willing to help you to provide some kind of long-term management system to keep the canal functioning, Bannister said. The canal is a historic landmark that wed like to keep, but we dont want it to be a health hazard.

Dave King, Fredericksburgs director of public works, said at Tuesdays meeting that the city is aware of the canals problems and has made fixing them a priority.

He said that hes already checked with the Fredericksburg Health Department, and found that it doesnt have a program to monitor mosquitoes. He said that his staff doesnt have the expertise to monitor the pesky insects by trapping and checking to see if they are carrying viruses such as West Nile or Zika.

Even if they did, that wouldnt rule out the possibility that other mosquitoes werent infected, King said in an interview Thursday. To help control mosquitoes, the city has been spraying larvicides from Dale Street, which borders the canal, to Princess Anne Street. It resprayed that area on Wednesday.

The city also hired Bartlett Tree Experts to spray herbicide on such vegetation as poison ivy, invasive vines and ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven, on the canals banks from Dale to Princess Anne streets. The goal is to keep vegetation from encroaching on the Canal Path.

The Rappahannock Canal has other problems that began after the Army Corps of Engineers blew up the Embrey Dam in 2004. The canal is a remnant of the original canal used by boats from 18351855 to bypass rapids on the Rappahannock River. It used to get much of its water from above the Embrey Dam, but that intake was cut off when the dam was removed to allow fish to migrate past the fall line.

The Corps installed and turned over to the city aeration and pumping systems to keep the canal full and its water oxygenated. Over the years, there have been malfunctions, including when sediment covered holes in the plastic aeration pipes on the bottom of the canal or animals gnawed holes in them, King said.

The latest issues were discovered when the Fredericksburg Police asked to have the canals water level lowered so it could search for evidence last year. The control panel failed to operate when the intake pump was switched on, and then the pump failed after the panel was replaced. The pump was awaiting shipment to Richmond for repairs earlier this summer when a vandal cut off roughly 75 feet of its cable, possibly to steal the copper inside it.

Its been this series of unfortunate events, kind of a perfect storm of events, King said.

It also hasnt helped matters that this has been a relatively dry summer, and the canal hasnt gotten as much stormwater runoff as usual, he said.

King will meet with the Army Corps of Engineers on Aug. 24 to show whats happened to the aeration and pumping systems, and to see if they can help rehabilitate the equipment so its more reliable, as well as help remove some debris from the canal and control the duckweed. He also plans to discuss getting help creating a baseline assessment of canals health so the city can decide how to improve it and what that might cost.

We want to impress upon them that we want to have a healthy canal, King said. Weve heard they do, too.
A federal judge on Friday granted an injunction allowing the far-right Unite the Right rally to be held in Emancipation Park in the shadow of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

U.S. District Court Judge Glen E. Conrad made the decision late Friday after a two-hour debate that followed a 30-minute meeting between the judge and attorneys for rally organizer Jason Kessler, the city of Charlottesville and downtown merchants.

Conrad said he granted the injunction because testimony indicated that Kessler could successfully prove that the city revoked his original permit based on his ideas.

The injunction was filed early Friday by civil rights organizations American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Albemarle County-based Rutherford Institute.

Based on the current record, the court concludes that Kessler has shown that he will likely prove that the decision to revoke his permit was based on the content of his speech, Conrad wrote. Kesslers assertion in this regard is supported by the fact that the city solely revoked his permit but left in place the permits issued to counter-protestors.

Conrad said information presented at the hearing indicated the citys decision was based on the content of his speech rather than public safety factors.

This conclusion is bolstered by other evidence, including communications on social media indicating that members of City Council oppose Kesslers political viewpoint, Conrad wrote. At this stage of the proceedings, the evidence cited by Kessler supports the conclusion that the citys decision constitutes a content-based restriction of speech.

Kessler, in a video posted to his Twitter account, thanked the civil rights groups and attorney-activist Kyle Bristow.

I want to thank  from the bottom of my heart and from all the attendees of the Unite the Right rally, the ACLU, Rutherford Institute and the great, the legendary Kyle Bristow  for working on this case for us, he said.

The decision came after civil rights attorneys representing Kesslers effort to hold the rally in Emancipation Park argued that tweets and public statements by city councilors show that the citys attempt to move the rally to McIntire Park was in response to the rallys content rather than public safety.

The alt-right rally is expected to be attended by prominent figures in white nationalist and separatist groups and others on the far right of the political spectrum. The so-called alt-right is a white nationalist movement that is an offshoot of conservatism that mixes mixing racist and populist elements.

They also noted that the city moved only the Unite the Right rally and not rallies planned in Justice and McGuffey parks by organizations opposed to Kesslers beliefs.

City Attorney S. Craig Brown disagreed, saying the statements were simply councilors exercising their First Amendment rights. He said the City Manager Maurice Jones moved the rally strictly for safety precautions.

He also argued that the expected 2,000 counter-protesters coming to town to oppose the Unite the Right rally were not part of the two rallies planned for the downtown parks, but they would follow Kesslers rally wherever it is held.

Attorneys for the ACLU and The Rutherford Institute filed the injunction on behalf of Kessler. The city on Monday approved a permit for the Unite the Right rally, but only if it was held in McIntire Park.

Brown said the city moved the rally to McIntire Park because it can more easily be secured. The city estimates that 1,000 or more people are expected to be at the rally and that they will be met by about 2,000 counter-protesters.

The 2,000 who are coming are coming for one purpose and one purpose only, and thats to protest and counter-demonstrate against Mr. Kessler, Brown told the judge. We firmly believe there is a threat of violence if it takes place in Emancipation Park. We firmly believe the same threat of violence exists if its moved to McIntire Park. The key to preventing violence is to keep the sides apart and it is easier to keep the sides separate at McIntire because it is bigger.

Brown said that Kesslers free speech rights are not compromised by moving to a larger park because Kessler can espouse the same content at the same time for the same duration. The public safety would be better served by the added security to residents and businesses, he argued.

But ACLU attorney Victor M. Glasberg said the Emancipation Park location is central to Kesslers rally because it is home to the Lee statue and the controversy that has surrounded the citys decision to remove and rename the park. It was until recently called Lee Park. McIntire Park, meanwhile, is named for the philanthropist who donated the Lee Park land and statue.

Glasberg said the city was aware of the changing situation as more protesters for both sides signed on to demonstrate, but chose to wait until Aug. 7 to change the venue.

The city sat on its hands and let the situation get to the point that a large number of people are going to converge downtown, he said. City officials have repeatedly taken positions opposite to Mr. Kesslers opinion. The decision to change the permit only occurred after the opposition developed in the community and the city.

In his decision, Conrad noted that even with a changed venue, police would still have to deal with protesters in Emancipation Park.

Supporters of Kessler are likely to still appear at the park, even if the location of Kesslers demonstration is moved elsewhere, the judge wrote. Thus, a change in the location of the demonstration would not eliminate the need for members of the citys law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services personnel to appear at Emancipation Park. Instead, it would necessitate having personnel present at two locations in the city.

ACLU officials said they were pleased that Kesslers free speech rights were preserved, but urged police and protesters to use restraint.

We are grateful that the court recognized that the First Amendment applies equally to everyone, regardless of their views, said Claire Gastanaga, ACLU of Virginia executive director.

We hope that the city will focus tomorrow on managing the expected crowds using de-escalation tactics and flexibility, and avoid the kind of over-militarized response that was mounted on July 8, she said. We encourage everyone participating to commit to nonviolence and peaceful protest. We will be there to observe and document police practices as we were on July 8 and at other rallies and protests across Virginia since January and before.
Recently, 18 brave women graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry School, pioneers headed for fully gender-integrated ground close-combat units. Women have long served valiantly and effectively in almost every military role, but now they are tackling extremely physical combat jobs that, until recently, were designated men-only.

The Department of Defense is committed to increasing numbers of women in the ranks without delay. The commandant of the Marine Corpsconsidered the toughest of the armed services when it comes to physical requirementshas nonetheless set a goal: 10 percent of new recruits for all its jobs will be women.

Military recruiters are aggressively targeting high school female athletes. Ads featuring women glamorize close-combat skills. And since all combat roles were opened to both sexes, Congress has repeatedly voted on legislation that would force women ages 18 to 26 to register for the draft, just like men.

In this push for more female recruits, its not at all clear that young womenor the civilian population in generalunderstand the unique, disproportionate health risks women face in combat roles. The dangers, which have been known for decades, will undoubtedly be exacerbated as women serve in the most physically demanding units.

Although the Pentagon has published studies detailing these gender differences, no such information is readily found on the Army or Marine recruiting websites. And the neighborhood recruiter isnt likely to fill you in, either. But avoiding hard truths isnt a legitimate way to attract new volunteers to the military. At best, its manipulative; at worst, downright exploitative.

Obviously, men and women are not the same. On average, an adult male produces 10 times more testosterone than an adult female, which almost doubles his muscle mass. (The average woman possesses only 55 percent to 58 percent of the upper body strength of the average man.)

Testosterone also causes development of a heavier and stronger skeleton in males and has a specific effect on shaping the male pelvis, adding greater strength for load-bearing tasks and enabling more efficient locomotion.

It increases the size and function of their hearts and lungs, and consequently males have 40 percent greater aerobic capacity and higher endurance compared with females. Womens smaller hearts require more blood to be pumped each minute at a given level of exertion because they have less hemoglobin in their blood to carry oxygen.

These differences will put women at a distinct disadvantage in newly opened infantry jobs, where they will be expected to carry 100-pound packs routinely, or in armor jobs, where they will have to load 35-pound rounds again and again. Women in these roles will have to constantly work at a higher percentage of their maximal capacity to achieve the same performance as men. No training system can close the gap.

Extreme physical activity, irregular meals, inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D, sleep deprivation and stress are common in close-combat units. These factors can trigger conservation mode in women, which results in a decrease in female hormones, cessation of menstruation, and osteoporosis with a heightened risk of stress fractures.

Pelvic floor injuries are another gender-specific danger for female troops. Studies have found heavy load bearing and paratrooper training can contribute significantly to urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse among women.

Many of the consequences of taking on additional combat roles wont be obvious until years later. Just ask Marine Capt. Katie Petronio, who wrote in the Marine Corps Gazette of muscle atrophy, endurance problems, weight loss and infertility she considers the results of two combat deployments.

The Pentagon is well aware of the occupational hazards unique to women in combat units. Much of this information is laid out in a 2015 literature review, Physiological and Medical Aspects That Put Women Soldiers at Increased Risk for Overuse Injuries.

Another study, Musculoskeletal Injuries in Military Women, published in 2011 by the Army surgeon generals office, noted that women are approximately 67 percent more likely than men to receive a physical disability discharge from the army for a musculoskeletal disorder. Keep in mind, that statistic and the 2015 review were compiled before all combat jobs were opened to women.

Women are essential in Americas armed services. Unfortunately, disproportionate injuries and even physical disability are facts of life for many who serve. In targeting young women for recruitment into close-combat jobs, the Department of Defense must ensure they are fully informed of the risks, and as women take on other formerly restricted roles, their health must be meticulously documented and studied.

Potential recruits, and all Americans, deserve to know the true effects of a completely integrated military.
As a pastor and a parent in the Fredericksburg area, I care deeply about the strength of our commonwealths education system. Virginias schools have dropped 10 spots in the country during the last four years, and that is of great concern to me. In fact, its infuriating.

Providing quality public schools in every community should be a priority for Virginia, and we need a governor who can identify why we are failing and has the policies to bring us back to the top.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has released a policy plan that will improve our system of education.

His plan centers around the fundamental principle that every student in every community deserves access to a high quality education. Gillespie believes that the way to achieve this goal is to provide parents with more choices about how our children are educated and allow schools to tailor their approaches to fit the unique needs of the students.

I couldnt agree more, I invite our community to review Ed's policy on education and in November, Im voting to improve our school system. Im voting for Ed Gillespie.

Rev. Michael Hirsch

Fredericksburg
We are here for you and your loved ones beyond your cancer diagnosis.

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The fall in imported New Zealand lamb volumes in 2017 has been welcomed by British producers, but indicators show levels will likely rebound next year.

In the year to May 2017, New Zealand lamb imports were down 17.47% to 35,934t compared with the same period a year before, according to AHDB Beef & Lamb.

This was due to a drop in New Zealand lamb numbers, down 1% to 23.7 million from fewer ewes  down 5.3% to 18.06 million, making the 2016-17 New Zealand lamb crop the smallest since spring 1953.

See also: Asda and Tesco main culprits for imported lamb in Scotland

These numbers, combined with a strong New Zealand dollar versus the pound to reduce imports to the UK.

Data from the EU Commission showed that between January and early July, New Zealand only utilised 41% of its 228,254t EU lamb export quota, despite the first half of the year being New Zealands seasonal peak and when EU demand is highest.

Falling production

The latest report from the Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand (equivalent to Defra in the UK), suggested that slaughtering and production were well down in the year ended June 2017, compared with the previous year.

The export situation has been compounded by the weakness of sterling following last Junes vote to leave the EU, making returns for exporters to the UK far less attractive.

Partly in response to the weak pound, New Zealand increased its lamb shipments to China, shipping 6,000t more in the first five months of 2017 compared with the same period the previous year  despite its total exports globally falling.

Unusual season

Higher UK production has helped to satisfy domestic demand in the wake of lower New Zealand imports, as a result of an unusually higher number of old season lambs carried into 2017.

However, the UK levy board predicts that 2018 will see a return to a more regular production pattern in the UK and New Zealand, which will result in imports and exports returning to more traditional levels.

This return will be facilitated by the slowing of the rate of flock decline in New Zealand in the 2017-18 season, alongside lambing percentages increasing over the next five years and carcass weights continuing their increase, predicts the Ministry of Primary Industries.
Regional craft beers are starting to enjoy the same popularity in Korea as they do in other hipster parts of the world. "It lends uniqueness and an air of luxury to a beer if it's produced in small batches, and it stimulates the curiosity of consumers over mass-produced mainstream beers," an industry insider says.

Global craft beer maker Brooklyn Brewery is due to launch Jeju Beer in Korea next month, which is allegedly made with pure spring water from the resort island.

Local patriots are enthusiastic customers. Superstore chain Homeplus sold 7.7 times more Haeundae Beer in its Haeundae store in Busan than elsewhere, while sales of Gangseo Beer in its store in Gangseo, Seoul, were 3.2 times higher than the national average.

Kim Seon-hyeong, a 35-year-old who went on holiday at Haeundae Beach in Busan in mid-July naturally drank Haeundae Beer there. "It's like buying the local beer when you travel abroad," Kim says. "It feels like it suits the local atmosphere and local food better than mainstream beer."

This trend is not just limited to beer. Baesangmyun Brewery has launched Korean rice wine or makgeolli with regional names such as Gongdeok-dong and Sillim-dong. A staffer at Baesangmyun Brewery said, "They carry district names, so they're more specific than just the region, so I think consumers find them more special."


There currently are 93 Fisher Houses in the United States and in Europe with plans for more.
Closer to Europe : Bonn makes its application for the new site of the European Medicines Agency

Bonn Bonn has made its application for the European Medicines Agency. The Agency could move into new offices at Bundeskanzlerplatz or on to the former site of the State Authorities building.

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Sometimes things can go quicker than expected: up until now, Art-Invest, owner of the site of the former Bonn-Center had kept the plans for the area at Bundeskanzlerplatz quiet, but now it is clear: should Bonn be awarded the contract for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) headquarters in November, the London based Agency could be given a new address in direct proximity to the UN Campus.

In any case, the governments application brochure to the EU called Closer to Europe shows a simulation of new office buildings and a tower in which over 900 employees could move into. In response to the question of whether there are any concrete plans for the new buildings, Arne Hilbert, Head of the NRW branch of Art-Invest said: Bonn and the new Kanzlerplatz perfectly match the current profile of the EMA.

We will let the press now, as soon as any decisions are made. In response to the question about the height of the office tower  up to 100m is allowed  Hilbert remained vague. The height of the tower depends on the business environment.

And a further potential attractive location for the EMA is also presented: according to the building development plans, new offices of up to 110,000 m could be built on the site of the former State Authorities (Landesbehordenhaus) at Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 144. The Cologne office of the state department for construction and properties (Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb (BLB) is planning the sale, said BLB spokesman Frank Buch. The outcome is still open. The advantage of this address would be that the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices would be next door. This is the biggest national regulatory body with 1100 employees, and according to the Federal Minister for Health Hermann Grohe (CDU), the second largest regulatory authority after the EMA.

Brexit is the reason for the change of location

But first of all, the EU must make a decision about the future site of the EMA. As reported, the move away from London is necessary due to the UK leaving the EU. A few weeks ago, the EU specified the criteria to be met by the future site. An additional specification is that the EMA must also be able to continue working directly after the move.

The six criteria are:

1) The move

There must be sufficient office space for work stations, meetings, archives as well as high standards of telecommunications, enough server capacities and corresponding IT security standards.

2) Connections

There must be good flight connections and local and long distance public transport connections. Also sufficient accommodation for the employees.

3) Education

There must be multilingual schools with a European orientation for the children of the workers, as well as opportunities for further education.

4) Social and health system

The families of the employees must have access to the local employment market as well as social insurance and health care.

5) Operational continuity

Operational processes must not be interrupted. Here the expected time needed for the practicalities of the first four criteria plays a role. In case not all employees decide to relocate, there must be enough qualified personnel available at the new location. In brief: daily business must not be affected

6) Geographical distribution

The EU always tries to balance out the interests of its member states: how many EU institutions are already located in the applicant country? For example, it is not possible for Bonn and Frankfurt to be awarded the contract.

Further criteria points include accessibility, international schools and kindergarten, access to the job market for family members as well as leisure and cultural offerings. There is no other city which meets the criteria better than Bonn, said Wolfgang Clement recently at the presentation of Bonns application. The former Prime Minister for NRW is acting as special representative on behalf of the Federal government in the application for the new EMA site, in which 18 other EU cities including Stockholm, Vienna and Warsaw are also competing.

Bonns Mayor Ashok Sridharan (CDU), who has been strongly supporting the EMA relocation to Bonn for months, promises the EU: Some of our administrative departments would be dedicated to dealing purely with the relocation of the EMA to Bonn.
Fire prevention measures criticised : Liberal-Socialists demand closure of Bonn opera house

Bonn After inspecting the records, the Liberal-Socialists are calling for an immediate closure of the opera due to breaches of fire regulations. But the city official for culture affairs sees the situation quite differently.

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In an open letter to the mayor Ashok Sridharan, the Liberal-Socialists have requested an immediate closure of the Opera House for safety reasons. To our knowledge, since 2005 many of the fire prevention measures noted by experts have not been applied, wrote the head of the council fraction Felix Kopinski, who had carried out an inspection of the files. The city also cannot guarantee protection for the building which was opened in 1965. According to the law, operation of an event location is only permitted if the current safety regulations are met.

The fraction also alerted the district government as the upper supervisory authority for constructions. We will request Bonn city council to make an official statement, confirmed a spokesman for the supervisory authorities on Friday. The list of short-comings in the fire protection measures, which the theatre presented in May during a tour of local politicians, is long: There are no fire alarms in the ground floor foyer. An additional water tank needs to be installed in the basement for the planned sprinkler system. Emergency announcements in case of fire are problematic because of loud echoes. Wooden slats on the wall paneling and the carpet on the first floor are not made of the prescribed low flammability materials. There are no fire alarms in the interval foyers and in the former smoking room. The doors to the theatre require a greater fire resistance class.

There are also many deficiencies with the main emergency escape route, which according to building regulations must be faultless. The steel doors with glass components which are supposed to secure the stairwell opposite the entrance to the stalls do not have any sealing. The red carpet is flammable. The fire protection measures in the Bad Godesberg Kammerspiele are also in a sorry state.

The city council, the fire department and the theatre have been aware of the problems for years. Following regular inspections by the building authorities and the fire department, severe deficiencies were immediately dealt with, says Martin Schumacher, the city official for cultural affairs. Many of the measures were allegedly only possible as part of the renovation of the opera house which is now planned. After completion of the renovation work at the latest, all modern requirements for fire protection must be met. A new fire protection concept will thus need to be determined for the opera house.

According to GA information, after an inspection in June 2014, the fire department and the building supervision clearly warned of having serious misgivings about further operation of the opera house. Almost three years later, the list of deficiencies was still so long that the theatre management took the bull by the horns and organised the tour for the politicians.

Likewise, in May Tuv Rheinland wrote to the city council because despite reminders, the deficiencies had been not remedied in time. According to city official Schumacher, it was simply routine: it concerned the question of whether the holes in the walls had been properly sealed following electric works. Apparently the Tuv had not been duly informed. The list of deficiencies such as the door sealings and the fire protection dampers will be dealt with during the summer. Schumacher was unable to comment on the current status this week, because the contact person at the opera house on holiday. The cost of the fire security guards required by the city to respond to the deficiencies also remain unclear.
U.S. seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity said Friday it had offered to take the financial risk of a renewed search for the missing Malaysian airliner, as victims' families urged the Malaysian government to agree to a private sector hunt for Flight 370's wreckage.

Malaysia, Australia and China suspended a nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean in January after scouring 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of remote seabed and failing to find any trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Ocean Infinity, based in Houston, Texas, said it remained hopeful that Malaysia would accept its offer to continue the search using a team of advanced, fast-moving deep-sea drones fitted with sonar equipment.

"The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can... confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search," company spokesman Mark Antelme said in an e-mail.

"We're in a constructive dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted," he added.


3.5million Volunteers Join North Korea Army To Fight America, Donald Trump Reacts

kacylee at 12-08-2017 06:35 PM (5 years ago) (f)

Following the war of words between US President, Donald Trump and North Korea leader, Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang on Saturday announced that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers have volunteered to join or rejoin its army to fight against America.

Following the war of words between US President, Donald Trump and North Korea leader, Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang on Saturday announced that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers have volunteered to join or rejoin its army to fight against America.

Rodong Sinmun, North Koreas official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the Peoples Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement condemning new sanctions imposed by the UN in retaliation for North Korean missile tests. In August 2015, one million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions. Meanwhile, Trump, has said the US military is locked and loaded and ready to deal with any North Korean threat. He tweeted: Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!, Trump wrote. North Korea had on Wednesday said it is carefully examining a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.



A spokesman for the Korean Peoples Army said the strike plan will be put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment once leader Kim Jong-un makes a decision. Rodong Sinmun, North Koreas official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the Peoples Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement condemning new sanctions imposed by the UN in retaliation for North Korean missile tests. In August 2015, one million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions. Meanwhile, Trump, has said the US military is locked and loaded and ready to deal with any North Korean threat. He tweeted:, Trump wrote. North Korea had on Wednesday said it is carefully examining a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.A spokesman for the Korean Peoples Army said the strike plan will be put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment once leader Kim Jong-un makes a decision.

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 12-08-2017 06:35 PM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero

pricklong at 12-08-2017 06:43 PM (5 years ago)

(m) NORTH KOREA PRESIDENT SHOULD RETHINK Posted: at 12-08-2017 06:43 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac NORTH KOREA PRESIDENT SHOULD RETHINK Reply

maizaxx at 12-08-2017 07:39 PM (5 years ago)

(m) The beginning of the end of the world, since both of them have different ideologies and are both bent on outdoing each other. Posted: at 12-08-2017 07:39 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac The beginning of the end of the world, since both of them have different ideologies and are both bent on outdoing each other. Reply

ejiretwins at 12-08-2017 08:11 PM (5 years ago)

(m) United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States. Posted: at 12-08-2017 08:11 PM (5 years ago) | Newbie United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States. Reply

firstaustin at 12-08-2017 08:16 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Those people didn't join voluntarily Kim Jong-un forced them. Posted: at 12-08-2017 08:16 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Those people didn't join voluntarily Kim Jong-un forced them. Reply

Deltaboy1 at 12-08-2017 09:11 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ejiretwins on 12-08-2017 08:11 PM United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States.

is not about the total number of army.. its about the powerful and sophisticated weapons.. Asians are brilliants.. meanwhile small body no be sickness Posted: at 12-08-2017 09:11 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac is not about the total number of army.. its about the powerful and sophisticated weapons.. Asians are brilliants.. meanwhile small body no be sickness Reply

Starnixx at 12-08-2017 09:25 PM (5 years ago)

(m) this Koreans want to start world war 3 when the no this is not time for war the should settle it peacefully Posted: at 12-08-2017 09:25 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac this Koreans want to start world war 3 when the no this is not time for war the should settle it peacefully Reply

abcdqwer at 12-08-2017 09:32 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ejiretwins on 12-08-2017 08:11 PM United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States.



You don't know anything about military Posted: at 12-08-2017 09:32 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming You don't know anything about military Reply

abcdqwer at 12-08-2017 09:33 PM (5 years ago)

(m) If the U.S try anything funny they will be surprised the kind of resistance they will face. Russia is also watching. Posted: at 12-08-2017 09:33 PM (5 years ago) | Upcoming If the U.S try anything funny they will be surprised the kind of resistance they will face. Russia is also watching. Reply

willyking at 12-08-2017 11:35 PM (5 years ago)

(m) U.S should be very careful dealing with that boy, that kid may just be a trap . Posted: at 12-08-2017 11:35 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac U.S should be very careful dealing with that boy, that kid may just be a trap . Reply

Patrioti at 13-08-2017 12:14 AM (5 years ago)

(m) It is taking USA 16 years to finish the mess they started in Afghanistan and 13 years in Iraq, how do they think they can easily win a war with a Nuclear power country like North Korea that have already threatened to attack US interests in Seoul Korea, Japan and Guam. Posted: at 13-08-2017 12:14 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming It is taking USA 16 years to finish the mess they started in Afghanistan and 13 years in Iraq, how do they think they can easily win a war with a Nuclear power country like North Korea that have already threatened to attack US interests in Seoul Korea, Japan and Guam. Reply

Upbendel at 13-08-2017 01:27 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ejiretwins on 12-08-2017 08:11 PM United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States.



Gentleman, be well informed that North Korea have a lot of support from Asian nations including Russia and china who is not a good friend to United stated and well equipped, since America involvement in so many unfinished wars in around Asia and middle east the ISIS and it supporters will be fully involved to support North Korea, another Vietnam war on the making!!! Posted: at 13-08-2017 01:27 AM (5 years ago) | Upcoming Gentleman, be well informed that North Korea have a lot of support from Asian nations including Russia and china who is not a good friend to United stated and well equipped, since America involvement in so many unfinished wars in around Asia and middle east the ISIS and it supporters will be fully involved to support North Korea, another Vietnam war on the making!!! Reply

vestim17 at 13-08-2017 10:42 AM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ejiretwins on 12-08-2017 08:11 PM United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States.

Wake up to reality my guy....tht president u call small boy was only doing wht ANY MAN in this world will do i.e to protect z ppl...will u fold ur hands and watch wen sm1 come to ur front door everytime threatning you with knives or other weapon or do smthing abt it??..IS kept provoking North Korea for many yrs by having a military drills with South Koreans near the peninsula....BUT d public z kept blindfolded abt this exercise BUT wen North strt preparing himself 4 any attack the mefia attention z brought and ppl strt condemning them all over...If US knw d right ting to do z to uar z influence to settle d differences btween North n South korea, not takong sides...i don't pray any war sud break out, but if it does, TRUST me US will be stretch BIG TIME...My opinion Posted: at 13-08-2017 10:42 AM (5 years ago) | Newbie Wake up to reality my guy....tht president u call small boy was only doing wht ANY MAN in this world will do i.e to protect z ppl...will u fold ur hands and watch wen sm1 come to ur front door everytime threatning you with knives or other weapon or do smthing abt it??..IS kept provoking North Korea for many yrs by having a military drills with South Koreans near the peninsula....BUT d public z kept blindfolded abt this exercise BUT wen North strt preparing himself 4 any attack the mefia attention z brought and ppl strt condemning them all over...If US knw d right ting to do z to uar z influence to settle d differences btween North n South korea, not takong sides...i don't pray any war sud break out, but if it does, TRUST me US will be stretch BIG TIME...My opinion Reply

justix2bb at 13-08-2017 12:38 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ejiretwins on 12-08-2017 08:11 PM United states has over 145 million manpower available plus those ones from US Allies like Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Turkey and so on. Now in addition, United States commands the NATO army and Trump wouldn't want to use that to defeat North Korea. In fact, USA doesn't have to use more than 25000 troops to defeat that stupid boy in North korea and here we are talking about military strength, active personnel, Fighters and Interceptors, Weapons such as attack aircrafts and so on. Therefore, North Korea plus China plus any other that might want to join them are but a cockroach compared to the United States.



My guy the world is wise now and even some EU countries are against the US now. Come to think of it, Russian and China are backing North Korea and i know this is going to be a big problem if Donald Trump try to strike North Korea. Posted: at 13-08-2017 12:38 PM (5 years ago) | Newbie My guy the world is wise now and even some EU countries are against the US now. Come to think of it, Russian and China are backing North Korea and i know this is going to be a big problem if Donald Trump try to strike North Korea. Reply

Wazubia at 13-08-2017 02:06 PM (5 years ago)

(m) north korea says they will strike American Ireland of Guam. and trump America says he will reply the threat if? and I said to you all my people, if North Korea try America' north Korea will be like desert under 6mounths. I am waiting for the fight shia. it is well. Posted: at 13-08-2017 02:06 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac north korea says they will strike American Ireland of Guam. and trump America says he will reply the threat if?and I said to you all my people, if North Korea try America' north Korea will be like desert under 6mounths. I am waiting for the fight shia. it is well. Reply

gogoman at 13-08-2017 03:09 PM (5 years ago)

(m) VERY GOOD!!! WHY AMERICA GO GET NUKE AND E NO WANT NORTH KOREA TO GET Posted: at 13-08-2017 03:09 PM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero VERY GOOD!!! WHY AMERICA GO GET NUKE AND E NO WANT NORTH KOREA TO GET Reply

sugarbaby2392 at 14-08-2017 09:04 AM (5 years ago)

(f) make them no come to ma peaceful Africa oo Posted: at 14-08-2017 09:04 AM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac make them no come to ma peaceful Africa oo Reply
Overall, dont let the bhoot mislead you, nothing bhootiya about this story. Had the makers tried to push the envelope, the idea could have been outstanding for a bhootiya comedy.
U.S. Forces Train With British, Allies in Estonia

By Army Pfc. Nicholas Vidro 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

TAPA TRAINING AREA, Estonia, Aug. 11, 2017  U.S. soldiers of the 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division and airmen with the 175th Wing, Maryland Air National Guard trained with NATO allies during a combined aerial-ground exercise near Jagala, Estonia, yesterday.

The exercise consisted of U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopters, escorted by U.S. UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters, dropping off infantrymen with the British army's 5th Battalion, The Rifles, 20th Armored Brigade on their mission to secure a civilian highway. They were able to practice these specific air maneuvers the day before during a separate exercise that seized an objective and acquired a high value target at Saase Training Area, Estonia.

The 3-10 CAB is in Estonia as a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a NATO mission involving the U.S. and European allies and partners in a combined effort to strengthen bonds of friendship and to deter aggression.

Training Opportunity

This event was an opportunity for U.S., British and Estonian soldiers, as well as local law enforcement, to come together under a unified command to successfully land A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" planes in a civilian area. British Army Lt. Col. Andrew Ridland, commander of the Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group, explained the importance of combined events like this.

"This is all about air-land integration. This exercise comes a week after Vice President Mike Pence visited Estonia and spoke about how Enhanced Forward Presence is the embodiment of NATO in many respects. What we've got today is my soldiers working with American helicopters and planes demonstrating operations with our allies," Ridland said.

This marks the third time the Maryland Air National Guard has been able to complete this event successfully, thanks to the teamwork between US, British, and Estonian forces on the ground. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Spencer Burkhalter, deputy chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation in Tallinn, Estonia, spoke on what needed to be done to make this mission viable.

Extensive Planning

"The planning took over six months to make this happen as successfully as in the past. On the Estonian side there was a lot of ground work to cover," Burkhalter said. "Their military police worked with local police to close this road. On the American side, the A-10 pilots planned the flight mission. In addition to those elements, the British component provided security for the airfield in an assault exercise conducted before landing."

After the British infantrymen created a defensive perimeter around the area, the Warthogs began their descent, and after landing were assessed by a maintenance crew before taking off on the same strip. Ridland spoke on how this military display affects the public perception in Estonia.

"Here you have many people, families and the like, and for them this is an exciting thing to see. It's also a reassurance to the public that NATO is here, their country is secure, and they don't need to worry about anything," he said.

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Stratcom Commander: Staying Ahead of Multidomain Threat Requires Speed

By Jason B. Cutshaw, U.S. Army Space and Missile Command/Army Forces Strategic Command

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 11, 2017  The U.S. military's senior strategic commander stressed this week that speed is what it is going to take for the nation to stay ahead of the multidomain threat it faces.

Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, spoke Aug. 8 on "Preparing Space, Cyberspace and Missile Defense in an Uncertain World" at the 20th annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium at the Von Braun Center here.

With the theme of "Enabling Decisive Action in a Multi-Domain Environment," the three-day symposium was presented by the Air, Space and Missile Defense Association, the National Defense Industrial Association's Tennessee Valley Chapter and the Air Defense Artillery Association.

"The biggest privilege that I have is getting to command 184,000 of our nation's greatest gifts," Hyten said. "They are 184,000 men and women who come to work every day to deter our adversaries and provide a decisive response should deterrence fail."

Information Exchange

The symposium brought together experts and leaders to share their thoughts on the role space and missile defense plays in national and international defensive strategies. The symposium is designed to encourage information exchange among government, military and industrial leaders in providing future capabilities.

"Real damage to our national security can occur if we don't get our heads around the problem set and start learning how to go fast," Hyten said. "We are falling behind our adversaries, because we forgot, somehow, how to move fast in this country. In both space and missile defense, we need to get back to the basics of speed and innovation. I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, we developed a culture of risk aversion.

Need Integrated Processes

"We move slowly in everything that we do: the requirements process, the budget process, the acquisition process," the general continued. "They're all slow, and they all have to speed up. There is too much at stake not to take action. Our requirements, budget and acquisition processes are all disconnected, and none of them move quickly. We must have processes that are integrated, move fast and demonstrate greater risk tolerance."

Hyten said USSTRATCOM must continue efforts to advance capabilities and technologies to stay ahead of adversaries. The threats have shifted significantly and nuclear weapons are not everything when it comes to strategic deterrence in the 21st century. Unlike the Cold War, he explained, the nation has a lot more than just a single adversary to worry about.

Multiple Fronts

"The world today is a multidomain, multipolar problem and we have to tackle it on multiple fronts," he said. "We now have to consider space and cyber in everything we do. We have to consider our allies and our partners. We have to consider all our adversaries. We have to consider the decisions being made in one region of the world will impact the outcome of a decision in another region. The agile, integrated multidomain approach is what I consider to be 21st century strategic deterrence."

With Stratcom's priorities being strategic deterrence, decisive response and maintaining a combat-ready force, Hyten said, the combatant command will continue to provide a critical military foundation to enable America to strategically deter any potential adversary.

The Stratcom commander added that the United States has to be concerned, along with its allies, with multiple actors with an expanding range of capabilities. Stratcom has to tailor its approach to each adversary and unique situation, he said.

The multidomain approach should play a major role in 21st-century strategic deterrence, Hyten said.

Assuring Continued Dominance

"The No. 1 problem we face is being outpaced by our adversaries," he added. "The actions we take today will assure continued American dominance, especially in the critical domain of space. The nation expects us to own the high ground."

The general concluded his remarks by acknowledging the warfighters, civilian employees and international partners who defend the nation and its allies against threats from across the globe.

"I see the most amazing people in the world," Hyten said. "I see 184,000 who come to work every day to defend the nation and they want to go fast. The building blocks of speed and innovation are alive and well if we can just harness more of it."

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U.S. Army Africa conducts Exercise Judicious Activation 17-2 in Gabon

By Sgt. 1st Class Alexandra Hays August 11, 2017

LIBREVILLE, Gabon -- Members of the 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and 79th Sustainment Command (Support) joined U.S. Army Africa (USARAF) exercise planners to conduct Judicious Activation 17-2, by setting up an Early Entry Command Post (EECP), July 24-30, 2017, in Libreville, Gabon.

Judicious Activation, a quarterly exercise run by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), is in its first year of existence. During this iteration, it was the Army's responsibility to run the exercise-the responsibility will fall to other military components during other cycles.

"This exercise is short in duration, but I think it packs a good punch," said Maj. Benjamin C. Tumlinson, the lead planner for Judicious Activation 17-2 (J-ACT-17-2), and USARAF's exercise deputy. "There's great lessons to be learned from this exercise and that's what it's for."

The focus of this exercise was to test an expeditionary sustainment command's ability to deploy to a forward location and set up an early entry command post-a forward location capable of managing logistics for troops before the main element deploys and long-term structures are in place.

"It's a small piece of the ESC designed to go forward as a tactical command post to set the theater as folks flow in," said Lt. Col. Dennis Bowers, the support operations officer for the 13th ESC. "This gave us an opportunity to get after training."

About 35 members of the 13th ESC arrived in Gabon at a small, contained location and within four hours set up tents for their center of operations. The location, called a Cooperative Security Location (CSL), included two pre-existing hard structures that were used as the dining facility and a meeting area-all other life support items were brought in.

"We get to come down and test out the systems in place for the CSL-in this particular location, the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) portion of has never been activated," Tumlinson explained.

According to Tumlinson, putting the LOGCAP, or contracting portion of the exercise, to the test is important, as often the military relies on local contractors in deployed locations to supply some goods and services that would otherwise be very costly to transport.

"Everything that you see here (life support), minus the military equipment-it's all LOGCAP," Tumlinson said. LOGCAP provided tents for lodging, a wooden shower structure, Porta Potties, and two hot meals per day.

Part of what makes J-ACT-17-2 unique, is that it is one of the 13th ESC's last exercises acting as USARAF's regionally-aligned sustainment force, while the 79th SSC, an Army Reserve unit, stands ready to transition into a Theater Sustainment Command (TSC) in September take over the USARAF sustainment mission in December.

"What we really gain out of this is getting an opportunity to integrate directly with USARAF," said Capt. Valentin J. Boza, a support operations plans officer with the 79th SSC.

Boza and three other members of the 79th SSC attended J-ACT-17-2 in an observational capacity, and to facilitate the exercise's after action review. Boza explained that it is critical for the 79th to have a presence on the African continent during USARAF exercises, because in the near future, it will be the 79th supporting them.

"Africa is a very challenging continent logistically-it's unlike any other geographic combatant command's area of responsibility," Boza said. "And as USARAF gains the operational capabilities of a TSC, it gives USARAF the opportunity to expand its logistics infrastructure across the continent."

Boza expounded that the continent of Africa really tests logisticians' capabilities-as each country has different contracting capabilities, laws, and governments. He added that because of the challenges of operating on the African continent, exercises like these meet Chief of the Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey's guidance on showcasing the ability of the Army Reserve as the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal federal Reserve force in the history of the nation.

"The added benefit of this exercise is that we've been able to have Army units engage directly with multinational partners and that's a success story, not just for the Army, but for the U.S. as a whole," Boza said.

Concurrently while the 13th ESC exercised its ability to set up and run an EECP, a platoon of 101st Soldiers integrated with and conducted training alongside Gabonese troops from 1st Regiment Parachute Gabon. Training the platoons conducted together included physical fitness, a terrain walk, and situational training.

Troops from the 101st experienced a range of training locations including rainforest in Libreville's jungle warfare center, and more urban conditions training on a Gabonese Armed Forces base.

"Overall it's been a very good experience, a very eye-opening experience," said Capt. Calvin L. Torbert, commander of A Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

"The first thing that stands out about the Gabonese is how generous they are-how kind they are," Torbert said. "You expect it from your brothers in arms to look out for you and help you out, and they've treated us like that."

Torbert's platoon culminated the three days of training by hosting a small, informal ceremony where troops from both units traded patches and unit insignia.

"Despite the fact that we grew up on different sides of the world-very different cultures-we still have a lot in common," Torbert said." With the right mindset and the right attitude, you can find common ground with anyone."

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Northern Viper kicks off for the first time ever

US Marine Corps News

By Lance Cpl. Andy Martinez | | August 11, 2017

For the first time, more than 2,000 U.S. Marines joined with approximately 1,500 service members with the Japan Self-Defense Force to support the first iteration of Exercise Northern Viper 2017, at Misawa Air Base and the island of Hokkaido, Japan, August 10-28, 2017.

Northern Viper, an annual joint contingency exercise, tests the interoperability and bilateral capability of the JSDF and U.S. Marine Corps forces to work together across a variety of areas including peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. This exercise enhances and improves interoperability at the tactical level between the Marines and JSDF to keep the forces formidable and adaptive. NV17 showcases a highly-capable, forward-deployed U.S. military presence positioned with their Japanese partners to directly support the security of the Indo-Asia- Pacific region.

"We have Marines with 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Marines with 3rd Marine Division and the JSDF all currently together to train here," said Col. James F. Harp, the commanding officer of MAG-36, 1st MAW. "This exercise is strategically shaping our relationship with Japan."

U.S. Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing will provide direct aerial support to the Marines of 3rd Marine Division and JSDF with a variety of aircraft.

"The mission for 1st MAW Marines here is to have the opportunity to train outside of Okinawa," said Maj. Eric M. Landblom, MAG-36 exercise operations officer. "The government of Japan allows us the freedom to come and train in other locations. We also have good partnerships with the Air Force and Navy installations to allow us to do this type of training."

According to Landblom, the squadrons attached to 1st MAW will conduct various training operations, such as assault support missions, simulated offensive air support and simulated casualty evacuations in Hokkaido.

"We have ranges here that we don't have in Okinawa," said Sgt. Maj. Marvin M. Magcale, the group sergeant major for MAG-36. "We can utilize the ranges in Hokkaido in ways we couldn't back in Okinawa. There are ranges nearby for our aircraft to train and conduct live fires by air."

During the exercise, 3rd Marine Division mission will be on Hokkaido as the bilateral partner with JSDF's Northern Army 11th Brigade, said Landblom.

"They will do functional training where they train to learn from each other," said Landblom. "After, they will do comprehensive training, which we will take what they learned from each other and conduct a force on force operation where they work together to defeat a common enemy."

Designed to integrate the U.S. Marine Corps with the JSDF, Northern Viper allows Marines to identify their weaknesses in order to avoid them in the future, making this exercise a valuable asset to maintaining readiness in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

"This exercise is extremely important because we have very limited opportunities to come together with our Japanese counterparts in a large scale to conduct this type of training," said Harp. "We need to continue training like this to better protect the region from its adversaries."

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Venezuelan President Maduro Submits Draft Constitution to Constituent Assembly

Sputnik News

16:19 11.08.2017(updated 16:54 11.08.2017)

Venezuelan President has submitted a draft constitution to the country's newly elected Constituent Assembly.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has submitted a draft constitution for consideration to the country's newly elected Constituent Assembly.

"Today, as I have promised, I want to hand over my draft constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the Constituent Assembly," Maduro said on Thursday as quoted by the VTV broadcaster.

Maduro stressed that it should improve upon the constitution adopted in 1999.

The Constituent Assembly, elected on July 30, is a legislative body which has the power to amend Venezuela's constitution. The election of the assembly took place amid mass, deadly protests across the country. Venezuelan opposition, as well as the European Union and the United States, have refused to recognize the body's legitimacy.

The current constitution of Venezuela was drafted in late 1990s by the Constitution Assembly convened through a popular referendum by then-President Hugo Chavez.

 Sputnik

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US, North Korea warned against escalating rhetoric

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:2PM

The United States and North Korea have been warned against escalating rhetoric and making threats against one another.

China, Russia and Germany were the countries that expressed concern about the status quo.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang called on both sides on Friday to avoid "going down the old path of alternately showing strength and continuously escalating the situation."

The spokesman said the sides should try to tone down their fiery rhetoric and say things to de-escalate tensions as international concerns grow that the two could start a devastating conflict.

"We call on the relevant parties to be cautious with their words and actions, and contribute more toward easing tensions and enhancing mutual trust," Geng said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the rhetoric from Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear program was now "going over the top." He said Moscow hoped common sense would eventually prevail.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she saw no military solution to North Korea crisis. The escalating rhetoric, she stated, was a "wrong answer" to the North Korea problem.

Tensions over North Korea escalated in July, when Pyongyang twice successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of targeting the US mainland.

China has repeatedly said peace on the Korean Peninsula lies in a diplomatic solution.

Beijing says the resumption of six-party talks between the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan is the road to peace.

However, China's position has been overshadowed by constant threats from US President Donald Trump and North Korea's reactions to them.

Trump issued a new threat against North Korea on Friday, saying American weapons were "locked and loaded" after Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

The US president on Thursday threatened to pour "fire and fury" on North Korea if it continued to develop its internationally-condemned missile and nuclear program.

Pyongyang says its program acts as a deterrent against Washington's aggression and expansionism.

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India 'to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims'

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:13AM

India is planning to deport tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims it says are living in the country illegally.

A government spokesman said on Friday that New Delhi was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about its plan to deport around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims.

"These things are being discussed at [the] diplomatic level with both Bangladesh and Myanmar," Interior Ministry spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia said. "More clarity will emerge at an appropriate time."

The Indian government says only around 14,000 of the Rohingya Muslims living in the country are registered with the United Nations (UN)'s refugee agency and that the rest are considered illegal and liable to be deployed.

Reacting to the announcement, the Indian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was "trying to find the facts" about the plans to deport the Rohingya Muslims.

No better conditions would be awaiting the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Myanmar's government already denies full citizenship to the 1.1 million-strong Rohingya population that lives there, branding them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This is while the Rohingya track their ancestors many generations back in Myanmar.

Considered by the UN as the "most persecuted minority group in the world," they have been under a military siege in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since October 2016. The government used a militant attack on border guards back then as the pretext to enforce the siege.

There have been numerous eyewitness accounts of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks by security forces against the Muslims since the crackdown began.

According to UN estimates, some 75,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine to Bangladesh.

Last year, Bangladesh also pushed back a number of Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, as they desperately tried to take refuge in the country.

Bangladesh has confined those Muslims who have remained in the country to squalid camps.

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Russian forces hold major drills in Baltic Sea

Iran Press TV

Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:26PM

The Russian navy has staged major tactical drills in the westernmost region of Kaliningrad, the latest in a series of high-profile war games by the country's military forces in the strategic Baltic Sea.

More than 2,000 marines and soldiers from the 11th Army Corps of the Russian Baltic Fleet took part in the maneuver, which was held at the Khmelyovka coastal training range, Fleet Spokesman Roman Martov told TASS on Thursday.

"The drills were aimed at training the skills of seizing coastal areas and driving the enemy forces out of them," Martov said, noting that more than five tons of different munitions were used to create a more realistic environment.

Besides the relatively large number of troops, the exercises involved more than 100 pieces of military hardware, including 20 warships, boats and supply vessels as well as 12 planes and helicopters from the Baltic Fleet's naval aircraft units, according to the spokesman.

On the ground, the drills featured tanks, the Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers, Grad multiple launch rocket systems and Shilka self-propelled antiaircraft guns, while Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft and Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters provided air support and fired missiles at designated enemy targets.

Two separate assault groups also joined the drills after being airlifted by a Mil Mi-8 helicopter and an Antonov An-26 transport aircraft.

"During the exercises, ships carrying marine assault groups trained to suppress the simulated enemy's coastal strongpoints and honed the tactics of military activities behind enemy's lines, which particularly involve marine assault groups," Martov said.

The war game came weeks after Russia held its first joint naval drill with China in the Baltic Sea since the two countries began their joint exercises in 2012.

Featuring China's most advanced guided-missile destroyer Hefei, the exercise was widely seen as a strong message to the US and its NATO allies, who have been trying to expand their military presence in the region despite Russia's warnings.

Russia has announced that the second stage of the drills will be held in September. Russian military forces are also preparing for a joint exercise with Belarus in the same month.

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Admiralty Shipyards to Build Pacific Fleet Submarine Maintenance Base by 2020

Sputnik News

11:52 11.08.2017

Admiralty Shipyards will build a maintenance facility for diesel-electric submarines of Russia's Pacific Fleet by 2020, the company's CEO told Sputnik.

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik)  Admiralty Shipyards, a part of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation, will build a maintenance facility for diesel-electric submarines of Russia's Pacific Fleet by 2020, the company's CEO, Alexander Buzakov, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"Not so long ago, we were providing a one-year warranty service for the attack submarines we built, now the warranty period has increased to five years. Besides, [there is] warranty service for 10 years, from the time the vessel is delivered to the first medium-difficulty repairs. That's why we have already built a delivery-and maintenance base for the Black Sea and the Northern fleets, and now we are setting up a similar facility for the Pacific fleet," Buzakov said.

In line with a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry, a series of six Varshavyanka-class (Project 636.3) submarines is expected to be built for the Pacific Fleet by 2020. The keel laying ceremony for the first two diesel-electric submarines, the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the Volkhov, took place in late July.

According to Buzakov, the maintenance base for the Pacific Fleet submarines will be ready "by the time the first [of these] submarine arrives in 2020."

The Varshavyanka class is an improved version of Kilo-class submarines that features elements of advanced stealth technology, extended combat range and the ability to strike land, surface and underwater targets. Six such submarines have already been built for Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

 Sputnik

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Russia's Admiralty Shipyards to Build Compact Shipyard for Subs Manufacture

Sputnik News

11:40 11.08.2017

Russia's Admiralty Shipyards is building a compact shipyard for submarines' construction, the company's CEO said in an interview to Sputnik.

ST.PETERSBURG (Sputnik)  Russia's Admiralty Shipyards is building a compact shipyard for construction of submarines, the company's CEO, Alexander Buzakov, said in an interview with Sputnik, adding that around 5 billion rubles ($83.5 million) will be invested in the project.

"These works are planned as part of the federal program for the Development of the Military-Defense Complex in 2011-2020. We are implementing the project for the creation of a compact shipyard for submarines construction in the southern construction district," Buzakov said.

Buzakov added that the project required the reconstruction of a shipyard's slipway facility at which the vessels are assembled and floated out as the facility has not been modernized in over 40 years.

The reconstruction of the slipway facility will begin after all the necessary tender procedures have been carried out and the contractors for the project implementation have been chosen, Buzakov noted, adding that the works are expected to be conducted within two years.

"We have done a lot as part of the compact shipyard construction project. The hull manufacture facility has already been constructed and is now being put into commission The reconstruction of the slipway facility is the final stage of the project. The overall volume of financing amounts to around 5 billion rubles, including the funds as part of the federal program as well as the shipyards' own funds," the official said.

The Admiralty Shipyards, located in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg, is one of the oldest country's shipyards. The company is affiliated with the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the largest shipbuilding company in Russia.

 Sputnik

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Russia's Admiralty Shipyards to Sign Deal on Two Lada-Class Subs Constuction

Sputnik News

11:18 11.08.2017

The Admiralty Shipyards, a part of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation, is expecting to sign contracts on building two non-nuclear Lada-class (Project 677) submarines in 2018, the company's CEO, Alexander Buzakov, said in an interview with Sputnik.

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik)  The lead vessel of the Project 677, the Sankt Peterburg, is on a trial run with the Northern Fleet, while two others, the Kronstadt and the Velikie Luki, are being built.

"We are expecting the [next two vessels] to appear in the State Armaments Program and to be able to sign contracts on these two submarines in the next year," Buzakov said.

"The arguments over what engine should be installed will soon stop, I think. It will be either a diesel-electric system or air-independent propulsion, provided that this system has passed the tests. Only then will the fleet and the Ministry of Defense make the decision on the construction of next submarines. At the moment, the process is ongoing, our project engineers, Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering 'Rubin,' are working on this," Buzakov said.

Buzakov added that air-independent propulsion will not be tested on Project 677 submarines, the Kronstadt and the Velikie Luki, or the next two vessels.

"They definitely will not have air-independent propulsion. That may be tested on some of the next vessels of this project," the company's CEO said.

Project 677 submarines are about 220 feet long, 23 feet wide, and can submerge to the depth of 985 feet. They are equipped with six torpedo tubes and carry a crew of 35 people. These submarines' top submerged speed is 21 knots.

The chief advantage of the air-independent propulsion is increased stealth capability. A submarine equipped with this system may stay underwater without having to go up to recharge batteries. The air-independent propulsion power plant developed in Russia is different from similar foreign systems in that the hydrogen is produced by reforming of diesel fuel.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Airstrikes Destroy Daesh Supply Lines Near Lebanese Border - Reports

Sputnik News

22:04 11.08.2017

Syria's air force has inflicted significant damage to the Daesh supply lines in a series of raids carried out in the Qalamoun mountain range near the Lebanese border, Iranian media reported Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Fars News Agency reported, citing a source in Damascus, that Syrian jets hit Daesh positions in Jaroud Qarah and Jaroud Jarajeer regions, focusing on the Zamani Crossing, which serves as a major route for terrorists from Syria to Lebanon.

The raid was conducted to thwart terrorist supply lines at the border and make them withdraw their forces from the positions they still occupy in the Qalamoun mountains, according to the outlet.

The airstrikes were carried out in preparation before a joint Syrian-Lebanese anti-Daesh operation in the Aarsal mountainous region on the border between the two countries, a major arms and gunmen smuggling hub.

On August 2, a major humanitarian operation was finalized in Aarsal region, with members of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front (outlawed in Russia) transferred to Syria as part of a pact to free Lebanese Hezbollah prisoners.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Army Gains Control Over Checkpoint on Border With Jordan

Sputnik News

19:59 11.08.2017

According to the Al Mayadeen broadcaster, the Syrian army established control over the checkpoint of Abu Sharshouh on the border with Jordan.

BEIRUT (Sputnik)  The Syrian army established on Friday control over the checkpoint of Abu Sharshouh on the border with Jordan and raised the national flag over it, the Al Mayadeen broadcaster said.

On Thursday, the SANA news agency reported that the Syrian government troops had liberated over 500 square miles in the southern province of Suwayda from Daesh gaining control over about 20 miles of the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The Syrian army continues its offensive in the province of Homs, urging terrorists to retreat to the northeastern province of Deir ez-Zor.

Syria has been engulfed in a civil war for over six years with its government troops fighting numerous opposition factions as well as terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and the Jabhat Fatah al Sham, also outlawed in Russia.

 Sputnik

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Meanwhile, the Crime Branch has found that the letters were fabricated. It will recommend to the Director General of Police to charge a case for forgery.
Aid Agencies Warn Displaced Against Premature Returns to Syria

By Lisa Schlein August 11, 2017

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is warning people against returning prematurely to war-torn Syria as the number of displaced going back to their homes reaches a record high.

An IOM report found more than 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned home in the first seven months of this year, nearly as many as the total number of returnees for all of 2016.

IOM spokeswoman Olivia Haedon said most of the returns are spontaneous, but not necessarily voluntary, safe or sustainable.

"As the security situation changes in different parts of the country, displacement can occur again," she said. "As you noted, in the number of people who were displaced this year, which is over 800,000, some people are being displaced for the second or third time."

The report said most of the people returning to their homes, 84 percent, are internally displaced, while 16 percent are returning refugees from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. It said an estimated two-thirds have returned to Aleppo Governorate. Others have gone mainly to Idleb, Hama, Raqqa, and Rural Damascus Governorates.

Haedon said people cite a variety of reasons for their decision to go home.

"They are going back with the hope that they can stay to protect their property and engage in a better, improved economic situation, or, protect themselves if they are leaving because of the area that they were living was less secure than the place that they originated from," she said. "So, we do see that the people are hoping that they can stay for a longer term."

Haedon said humanitarian organizations agree organized returns to Syria are not yet an option. Syria is not safe, she added, and the places to which people return are not equipped to provide essential services.

She said the IOM is not encouraging Syrians to go home.

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The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality hosted a permit hearing for the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Wednesday evening at Chatham High School.

Nearly 100 people attended to speak their minds about the 20 miles of pipes that could run through Pittsylvania County if a group of energy companies building it get their way. Among the companies behind the project are Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based EQT and New York, New York- base Con Edison Transmission.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held hearings on the draft environmental impact study in Chatham on Nov. 1, 2016, though only a few residents attended that meeting. The final study was released on June 23.

Pittsylvania County Westover District Supervisor Ron Scearce was there for all of Wednesdays four-hour meeting, and said there were a lot of non-county residents.

I think there were a lot of people who had been to multiple meetings, Scearce said. We have some who have some environmental concerns, but I dont think a lot of people are paying attention.

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will discuss the special use permits and other local issues with the pipeline during a work session Tuesday.

Scearce said he expects the meeting will include a public announcement on how the county plans to handle these legal items.

The infrastructure is a needed thing, and the pipeline itself may not generate any jobs, but it will affect our ability to recruit other businesses, Scearce said. I think Pittsylvania County will be taken care of pretty well with tax revenue. To me, its a win all the way around.

Mount Cross resident Karen Maute has no complaint about the existence of the pipeline  only that the pipeline company has not filed for special use permits on many of the parcels that the pipeline will cross through. Special use permits are required for any easement larger than 40 feet across, without exception.

The easements for Mountain Valley Pipeline are estimated to be 125 feet across during construction, and 50 feet across once its completed.

They have time to fix it  nobodys broken ground and nobodys filed a lawsuit, Maute said firmly. If they dont do it, its just arrogance. Why pipelines before people?

Danville resident Eric Stamps sat through Wednesdays meeting, but didnt comment because others had already voiced his concerns.

Theyre going to have to remove trees and mountaintops and other wildlife, as well as possible threat to the waterway if anything happens, he warned. I dont feel like the pipeline is worth it, with the small amount of long-term jobs.

Pittsylvania County resident Sonja Ingram spoke on behalf of her personal beliefs as well as those of Preservation Virginia, where she works.

Theres several historical rural districts, and a lot of archaeological sites near the pipelines path, she said. They try to avoid significant historical sites, but it doesnt work out oftentimes.
There is no shortage on the Internet of advice on building a tech startup, or investing in one, or achieving product/market fit, or benchmarking metrics. Medium, LinkedIn, Forbes  theyre overflowing with advice.But for those niche companies that focus on selling to government? Not so much.Recently, when the urban tech venture capital firm Urban.Us set out to put the financials of a gov-tech company going public  ShotSpotter  into context, they ran into that problem head on. According to Stonly Baptiste, an Urban.Us partner, the firm could find benchmarks of enough companies to create a workable comparison, but they struggled to findcomparable companies.While digging in on how they built their business and where they are at IPO, the first insight was that there wasnt much data available to benchmark against, Baptiste toldvia text.* [Business to government] sales has nuances, so you cant just compare to enterprise or [small and medium business] sales, for example.Among the nuances: Contracts are more onerous, sales cycles are longer, hardware and software environments tend to be on the older side  and thats not to consider the culture differences that can exist in government.So, to help people on all sides of the government technology equation better understand the companies in the space, Urban.Us is looking to create a better benchmark. At the moment, the firm is conducting an online survey of software-as-a-service startups that sell to government. The plan is to veil the raw data and instead release an aggregated analysis based on how people respond.The questions are varied: Some ask about basic business metrics like average contract value and employee count, while others pin down the exact market segments the companies focus on and the avenues through which they sell. Once analyzed, the firm hopes to start addressing questions like how much various kinds of government pay for different services, what procurement channels are most often used and what technology trends have momentum.Were meeting more and more teams and individuals interested in building teams in [business-to-government sales], asking these questions around where their expectations should be and what approaches they should try, Baptiste said.Baptiste also said he thinks the information could be useful to basically everyone who has a stake in the space: Investors like him, vendors and government officials. He pointed to a recent article incovering the growing use of the secretive company Palantirs technology at local law enforcement agencies. The article showed that Palantir software has given police departments unprecedented access to disparate data about individuals, which has led at times to sensitive data leaking to people who shouldnt have been able to see it, and in some cases, users abusing the system to look up information about romantic interests.[Business-to-government] sales is a bit of a black box, Baptiste said. A recent article on Palantir showed how murky that box can get. So there are some public repercussions to the lack of transparency.Additionally, he said, government tech and procurement employees might find the information useful for things like understanding what levels are using what solutions for which problems. Having benchmarks might give them some ideas about what metrics to look at when evaluating a potential startup as a partner.Knowing who is doing well and what the behavior is from other [governments] might help [governments] adjust their procuring or piloting strategies, he said.For vendors and investors, the datas utility is a bit more straightforward: Investors need to know what success looks like, and companies need information about how similar businesses operate.The survey is here
(TNS) -- WASHINGTON  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for loans to provide and expand broadband service in rural areas, Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett announced recently.Modernizing the nations infrastructure to deliver high-speed internet service is essential in todays global marketplace, Hazlett said. Broadband helps create jobs. It also helps rural areas offer the programs and services that strengthen economies and encourage growth. These loans will help maintain Americas economic competitiveness and connect rural communities to more opportunities.USDA plans to make at least $60 million in loans available. Loans can range from $100,000 to $20 million. They will be provided through USDA Rural Developments Telecommunications Program. This program funds infrastructure and equipment to deliver broadband, distance learning and telemedicine services in rural areas.Projects receiving funding must offer broadband service at a minimum bandwidth of 25 megabits downstream and three megabits upstream.Expanding broadband service is a key component of the presidents plans to improve rural infrastructure. Last month, Secretary Perdue announced $34.6 million in loans that will add nearly 1,000 miles of fiber for broadband service in rural parts of Illinois, Iowa and Texas.The deadline for applications is Sept. 30.According to the USDAs press release for details on how to apply, see page 34473 of the July 25 Federal Register.USDA is offering pre-application assistance to review draft applications, provide detailed comments, and identify whether the draft application meets eligibility requirements for funding. For assistance, please contact the General Field Representative in the state where the proposed broadband project is to be located. Application assistance will be available on a first-come, first-served basis through Sept. 22.USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; homeownership; community services such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas.For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov
After several years of laying the foundation for a dedicated nationwide public safety communications network, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) initiative is building even more momentum as states begin to opt in. As of Dec. 21, 39 states and two territories have signed on stating their intent to join the network.But getting to this point had not been a simple process, and has required planning and a lengthy and continued outreach process in the all of the U.S. 56 states and territories.The significance of the effort is not lost on FirstNet board member Teri Takai, who also serves as executive director of the Center for Digital Government.* From where Takai sits, the progress is exciting, but has not come easily.In addition to years of planning and coordination, the FirstNet team has also made substantial outreach efforts to each state to ensure that leadership is equipped with the information necessary to make educated decisions on their participation.I think that we are off to just a great start. I think there is a lot of opportunity for states to be able to get some immediate benefit because of our partnership with AT&T," Takai said. "And obviously, some of the states are taking some time and thinking through it, and certainly there are some that may decide that they are planning to opt out, but we recognize that and are just really pleased with the progress so far.In Takais home state of Michigan, leaders pursued a competitive RFP to see if there was a better option for a statewide emergency communication network, but ultimately decided that the national network was a more prudent decision.State plans were submitted to FirstNet between June 19 and Aug. 4, and officials say feedback on those plans will continue until at least mid-September.Where opting in to the nationwide coalition does take some substantial consideration, planning and effort on the part of states, opting out could prove to be even more labor-intensive. As FirstNet spokesperson Ryan Oremland explained, opt-out states would need to prove that their individual solutions meet the overarching compatibility standards of the national network.If you are going to opt out, you are going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to make sure you are technically interoperable, financially viable  there is a whole litany of things and its a long process to opt out, he said. In designing this, Congress wanted the network to be interoperable, so there are a lot of checkpoints if you want to opt out.Looking past the process and the what lies ahead for undecided states, Takai said states and the agencies that operate within them will soon start to see the very real benefits of a consolidated and reliable communications network  or as Oremland puts it, giving first responders the first public safety-focused innovation platform and a whole new marketplace.On Aug. 16, Verizon announced its plans to build and operate a private network dedicated to public safety communications, targeting the same customers AT&T gains under the FirstNet contract. Since Verizon made the announcement, however, states continued to join FirstNet. Though Verizon stated in its announcement that its public safety network solution doesn't require states to opt out of FirstNet, it's unclear at this time what benefits might exist for states or territories taking advantage of both networks, or whether doing so is feasible.As for FirstNet, Takai noted that it's important to recognize that opting in is an essential first step, "but now we really have to concentrate on making sure that all of public safety, all the way down to the first responders and emergency management personnel that are really on the ground, also get a clear understanding of FirstNet and start to really have the capability in their hands."The jurisdictions that have opted in to FirstNet thus far are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.: Keeping Alabamas residents, visitors and first responders safe is of the highest concern, Gov. Kay Ivey said in a press release for the Oct. 10 announcement to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community. From volunteer emergency responders in our rural communities to those on the front lines in more populated areas, our public safety community deserves access to the tools they need most. This collaboration with FirstNet and AT&T will allow us to provide our first responders increased capabilities to communicate as effectively and efficiently as possible, while also ensuring that our residents and businesses have the best possible services provided to them in times of emergency. Alabama is the 26th state to opt in.On Aug. 30, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced his decision to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community, making the state the 16th to opt in. Opting in to FirstNet is an important step to ensure that Alaskas first responders can communicate when seconds can mean the difference between life and death, Walker said in a press release . Putting this technology in the hands of our public safety personnel brings us closer to building a safer Alaska.: Opted in as of Jan. 10.: On Aug. 14, Arizona became the 13th jurisdiction to opt in to FirstNet, transforming the way state's fire, police, EMS and other public safety personnel communicate and share information. "The state of Arizona is ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder with AT&T and FirstNet to finally deploy a true interoperable nationwide communications system for public safety." Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said in a press release . "We have much work ahead of us, but with AT&T's open communication and commitment to excellence, the future for all first responders will be safer as will the lives of our citizens."Arkansas was one of the first states in the nation to opt in to FirstNet. In an announcement made July 13, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the undertaking would be a major step forward for public safety in the state. "First responders put their lives on the line each day to protect our communities," he said in a press release . "I am excited to partner with FirstNet and AT&T to provide innovative communication technologies and tools that will help first responders protect communities and lives. This is a major step forward for the Arkansas public safety community, and I am proud that Arkansas is among the first states in the nation to opt in to this critical infrastructure project."Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.: On Dec. 18, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced his decision to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan, despite considering an alternative plan . We are opting in to allow FirstNet to make an investment in Colorado that promises to make our state more resilient against threats to our safety, said Gov. Hickenlooper in a press release . We, together with Colorados Governing Board, are confident that the investment will not only benefit public safety, but also provide much needed telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas of our state. Colorado is the 11th state to opt-in after evaluating proposals from both FirstNet/AT&T and other potential vendors.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.On Nov. 17, Georgia became the 31st state to advance communications capabilities for first responders by joining the FirstNet and AT&T plan. The network will drive innovation and create a system of modernized devices, apps and tools for first responders. "We are pleased Georgia is opting in to partner with FirstNet and AT&T to provide innovative communication technologies that will help us more effectively do our jobs, said Georgia State Firefighters Association President Joey Hartley in a press release . During emergencies, it is critical for us to have a fully functional network to communicate with one another and coordinate our response. There is no doubt FirstNet better equips us with the modern technology needed to save lives.: Opted in as of Jan. 5.: On Aug. 25, Hawaii became the 15th state to opt in to the national FirstNet network. Gov. David Ige said in a press release that the dedicated network would dramatically change public safety for the better. The FirstNet network will transform the way fire, police, EMS, emergency management and other public safety personnel communicate and share information, enabling them to better serve their communities during emergencies and day to day operations, Ige said. State CIO Todd Nacapuy also voiced support for the project saying, FirstNet leverages nationwide resources and a robust, interoperable system that is particularly important to a state like Hawaii, given the inherent challenges of our island geography. FirstNet also provides expanded statewide coverage and leading edge technologies for first responders and law enforcement to help save lives and protect residents, he said in the same release.: On Sept. 19, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter announced his decision to opt in to FirstNet. "Idaho is pleased to be joining with other states in participating in FirstNet's deployment of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network," Otter said in a press release , adding that timely, reliable and accurate information is critically important to ensuring that the state's first responders can most effectively protect citizens. Pocatello Fire Chief David Gates echoed that sentiment. "Advanced communications are critical to first responder safety and help make us more efficient and effective when we respond to calls for assistance from our communities in their times of need," he said in the press release. "FirstNet will deliver that advanced communications capability every day. Natural disasters  like the fires we're fighting right now  know no boundaries. With FirstNet, we can be nimble and adaptable thanks to interoperable communications tools that will give us improved information, coordination and collaboration in emergencies.": On Dec. 18, Gov. Bruce Rauner announced that Illinois would become the 37th state to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community. "Governor Rauner's decision to join FirstNet demonstrates his strong support and dedication to public safety throughout the state," said FirstNet CEO Mike Poth in a press release . "We are honored to serve Illinois' first responders and deliver to them a reliable, broadband communications network that will help them save lives and protect communities. The decision enables FirstNet and AT&T to begin offering an entirely new wireless ecosystem for public safety communications. Illinois first responder subscribers will have immediate access to quality of service, priority and preemption to voice and data across the FirstNet network.: Gov. Eric J. Holcomb announced his decision to accept the FirstNet and AT&T plan for Indianas public safety community on Oct. 11, making it the 27th state to opt in to the network. The FirstNet network will bring advanced tools to aid the states first responders. "This network will prevent communication difficulties and inefficiencies in times of crisis and confusion," Integrated Public Safety Commission (IPSC) Executive Director David Vice said in a press release . "Indiana has conducted an unprecedented effort to reach out to public safety officials and decision makers across the state to ensure FirstNet is right for our state."On July 18, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced her state would be participating in the FirstNet initiative. The move toward a consolidated first responder network will mean state agencies and emergency personnel will no longer have to rely on the more than 10,000 individual communications networks currently being used. The FirstNet network will not only strengthen and modernize public safety communications in our state," Reynolds said in a press release , "but also bring much needed investment to our communications infrastructure.": On Aug. 15, Gov. Sam Brownback announced his decision to opt in to FirstNet, making Kansas the 14th state or territory to do so. "This initiative positions Kansas to provide state-of-the-art emergency communication services to the benefit of our residents, businesses and visitors, Brownback said in a press release . Our first responders need to quickly and securely coordinate efforts during an emergency, and FirstNet will help ensure that they have the tools they need to safeguard our state. This effort will also bring welcome broadband service enhancements to many rural parts of our state, including tribal lands and those areas most recently affected by wildfires this spring.Gov. Matt Bevins decision to join the FirstNet network was announced July 13.On Sept. 27, Louisiana became the 24th state to opt-in to the FirstNet first responders network. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the project would be essential not only for emergency response situations, but also for the many large events hosted throughout the state. "The entire state of Louisiana will benefit from this decision, Edwards said in a press release . From natural disasters like flooding and hurricanes, to other planned events like Mardi Gras, hosting Super Bowls or other large sporting events, Louisiana has many unique times when communications systems can become strained.Gov. Paul LePage opted his state in to FirstNet Aug. 4, making Maine the 11th state to join the network. Maine is proud to take this important step for first responders in our state, LePage said in a press release . The decision to join this network means that FirstNet and its partner, AT&T, will deliver a highly secure, federally funded, next-generation solution for our public safety community.On Sept. 18, Maryland became the 21st state or territory to opt-in to the nationwide FirstNet network. In a press release , Gov. Larry Hogan said the emergency responders network would not only improve the economy and job creation in the most rural portion of the state, but that it would also be instrumental in enhancing communications as well. Keeping Marylanders safe is our top priority, and our first responders need to be equipped with every tool possible to protect our citizens, Hogan said. By adopting this plan, our first responders will now have the ability to efficiently and effectively work together not just within the state, but across the region and at the national level.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Lt. Gov. Brian Calley signed a letter of intent to opt in to FirstNet on Aug. 3, making Michigan the 10th state to join the collective. Calley said the new network will improve services to rural and underserved areas of the state. This initiative puts Michigan at the forefront once again for public safety and public service, Calley said in a release . The ability for public safety agencies to communicate is critical in an emergency. The enhanced capabilities offered by FirstNet and AT&T will help ensure that those risking their lives for our safety have the tools they need."Minnesota became the 25th state to opt-in to the FirstNet first responders network Oct. 4. In a press release , Gov. Mark Dayton called the move a necessary step to providing the tools first responders need and better serving the citizens of the state. First responders across our state risk their lives every day to protect and serve the people of Minnesota, Dayton said. Modernizing our communications infrastructure will allow our courageous first responders to coordinate and respond more quickly, effectively and safely, creating better outcomes for them and the communities they serve.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Gov. Eric Greitens announced Missouri would opt into the FirstNet wireless broadband network Dec. 11. "Gov. Greitens' decision to opt-in to FirstNet is the right choice for our state and for our first responders," Missouri Director of Public Safety Charles Juden III said in a press release . "We are pleased to work with AT&T and FirstNet to ensure that the public safety community gets to use and benefit from the latest technological innovations."

On Aug. 8, Gov. Steve Bullock announced that Montana would become the 12th state to opt in to the FirstNet partnership after receiving unanimous support from the Statewide Interoperability Governing Board. The governor said as wildfires continue within the state, the need for quick and effective response is more evident than ever before. As wildfires across the state impact our communities and our hometowns, its critical that we support the efforts of the men and women protecting Montana with all resources available, Bullock said in a press release : On Sept. 1, Nebraska became the 18th state and 20th jurisdiction to join FirstNet, according to a press release : On Aug. 17, Nevada became the 15th jurisdiction to join FirstNet, which will transform the way the states public safety personnel communicate and share information. Public safety is of the highest concern, Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a news release . Increasing the safety of our residents, visitors and first responders through FirstNet was the right choice. From volunteer emergency responders in rural communities to those on the front lines in populous areas, our public safety community deserves access to the cutting-edge technologies they need to get the job done.New Hampshire was the first state to opt out of the FirstNet first responders network Dec. 7, but reversed its decision on the Dec. 28 FirstNet opt-in deadline.: Like Wyoming and Arkansas, New Jersey is credited with being one of the first states to opt in to the FirstNet network. Gov. Chris Christie made the announcement July 25. New Jersey is proud to take this important step for first responders in our state," he said in a press release . "The decision to join this network means FirstNet and AT&T will deliver a highly secure, next-generation solution for our public safety community, building, maintaining and operating it at no cost and no risk to our state.Gov. Susana Martinez announced her states intent to join FirstNet on Aug. 1, making the state the ninth to opt in. We have to keep doing more to keep our communities safe, she said in a press release . I worked closely with law enforcement as a prosecutor for 25 years. Ive seen firsthand the need for a streamlined and modernized communication network for our men and women in uniform. This system will help them save more lives.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.Gov. Roy Cooper announced Nov. 15 that North Carolina would become the 30th state to modernize communications technology for their first responders. We must do all we can to make sure North Carolina is ready to respond to emergencies and keep the public safe, Gov. Cooper said in a press release . Communication is key in times of crisis and this technology can help strengthen public safety by keeping our first responders connected. AT&T, in a public-private partnership with FirstNet, will build, operate and maintain a highly secure wireless broadband communications network for North Carolinas public safety community at no cost to the state.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.: Opted in as of Jan. 19.: On Nov. 30, Ohio signed up to become a part of FirstNet and AT&T's wireless broadband network, becoming the 33rd state to do so. "The decision to bring FirstNet to Ohio's public safety community will revolutionize emergency services across the Buckeye State," said FirstNet CEO Mike Poth in a press release . "The network will provide first responders with the speed, reliability and bandwidth they need to take full advantage of new technologies and innovation. FirstNet looks forward to continuing to work with the state to ensure the network meets public safety's needs, enabling them to collaborate and communicate seamlessly, every day and in every emergency.": On Nov. 1, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin announced that she will be improving working efforts of the states public safety community by accepting the FirstNet and AT&T plan to deliver them a wireless broadband network. "Today Oklahoma will take the necessary steps forward to provide a wireless broadband network to our dedicated first responders. I am pleased to be able to opt in and provide a more effective and efficient network to those people who support our citizens in times of need, said Governor Fallin in a press release . Oklahoma is the 28th state to opt in to FirstNet.Opted in as of the Dec. 28 deadline.: On Nov. 2, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf accepted the FirstNet and AT&T partnership to deliver a wireless broadband network to enhance public safety within the community, making Pennsylvania the 30th state to opt in. "When an emergency strikes, Pennsylvania first responders are called upon to handle the situation and support the community," Governor Wolf said in a press release . "As we have learned from recent events in many parts of the country, a vital component needed for coordinating a response is the ability for all responders on the scene to share information as events unfold.": On Aug. 31, Gov. Ricardo Rossello opted in to FirstNet, giving Puerto Ricos first responders subscribers immediate access to quality of service and priority to voice and data across the existing nationwide AT&T LTE network. With this new tool, we reinforce the exchange of information between the security agencies and the response during an emergency," Rossello said in a press release . "We are convinced that improving the communication between the components of public safety will be for the betterment of the people of Puerto Rico.": On Dec. 20, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo accepted the FirstNet and AT&T plan for delivering a wireless broadband network to the public safety community. "The safety of Rhode Island first responders is of the utmost importance  and state-of-the-art interoperable communications is a major component of that," said Peter Gaynor, Director of the Rhode Island Emergency Agency (REIMA) in a press release . "After carefully examining the findings, we concluded and made the recommendation to the Governor, that the plan put forth by FirstNet and its partner AT&T offered the lowest risk, highest value option for Rhode Island first responders.": Gov. Henry McMaster announced the decision to deliver a wireless broadband network with FirstNet and AT&T on Nov. 2. FirstNet will bring advanced technologies to the state that will help first responders save lives and protect communities, making it state 29 to opt in. Reliable communication is a critical component in protecting the public, Mark Keel, Chief of the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, said in a press release . We have been working with FirstNet for some time and are pleased this is coming to fruition for the benefit of those we all serve.: On Dec. 15, South Dakota became the 36th state to opt in to the FirstNet and AT&T wireless broadband network for the states public safety community. "We deal with our fair share of severe weather and natural disasters in South Dakota. Our first responders need to have access to communication technologies that work whenever and wherever needed," Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in a press release . "FirstNet will create a single, interoperable system across our state to aid first responders in protecting citizens." The FirstNet network will drive innovation and create an entire system of modernized devices, apps and tools for first responders.: Also on Aug. 31, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam accepted the FirstNet plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community, according to a press release : On Sept. 19, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his decision to partner with FirstNet and AT&T. "The safety and security of Texas communities is my number one priority, and I want to provide our first responders with the best technology possible," he said in a press release . "As we saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, our first responders are often the last and only hope for safety in rapidly-changing and life-threatening situations, but this partnership with FirstNet and AT&T, allows Texass fire, police, EMS and other public safety personnel to be better equipped when responding in these emergencies." Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar also noted that Hurricane Harvey is still fresh on officials' minds as the area continues to recover. "The support we received from AT&T and FirstNet during our response was incredible, and with this partnership, it will only get better, he said in the press release. Whether responding to storms like Harvey or wildfires in West Texas, our states first responders go above and beyond the call of duty every day to help Texans and save lives. The innovative FirstNet system will provide them a network worthy of their service."On Aug. 1, the U.S. Virgin Islands became the first U.S. territory to opt in to the FirstNet network. The United States Virgin Islands participated in FirstNet consultation and outreach activities throughout the planning of the network and reviewed the details of the FirstNet State Plan, Gov. Kenneth Mapp said in a press release . I have determined that it is in the best interest of the United States Virgin Islands and the Country to participate in the FirstNet deployment of the National Public Safety Broadband Network.: On Nov. 6, Utah became the 31st state to opt in to the FirstNet and AT&T wireless broadband network to enhance the communications capabilities of the states public safety community. Reliable communications are critical to the safety and success of first responders and the public, said Chief Tom Ross, President of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association in a press release . During emergencies networks get clogged because people are simultaneously trying to communicate. We are excited that FirstNet will establish a dedicated network that prioritizes first responders communications.: On Nov. 29, Gov. Phil Scott announced his decision to make Vermont the 32nd state to opt in to FirstNet and AT&T's plan to deliver a wireless broadband network to public safety agencies. The decision means subscribers in the state will have quick access to AT&T network services. "It is important that Vermont's first responders have the best service and access to an interoperable network that is expected to advance and adapt with new technology through the next 25 years," Scott in a press release . "Vermont faced the choice of building its own network or using the federal solution. After thoroughly considering the technological, financial and operational aspects of both options, I believe the federal plan will more quickly and sustainably provide our public safety community with the network it needs to continue its valuable service to Vermont."Virginia was the first state in the country to announce its intention to opt in to FirstNet. Gov. Terry McAuliffe made the announcement July 10. I am proud that Virginia is the first state in the nation to opt in to this program that will help our first responders communicate during times of emergency, the governor said in a release . While this is only the beginning of the process, I look forward to the continued coordinated efforts among Virginia, FirstNet, and AT&T to provide public safety officials with innovative new technologies that will help them keep Virginians safe.West Virginia was the seventh state to announce its intention to opt in to the FirstNet network. Gov. Jim Justice made the announcement July 18, and said the undertaking would expand coverage for first responders and the states communities. "Our people will be safer because of this incredible initiative and it gives our state a launch pad for new jobs," he said in a press release . "I applaud AT&T for their commitment to a service area footprint that enhances coverage in West Virginia. Competitive pricing and the opportunities this will bring for future investment are limitless. The FirstNet network is a step toward putting West Virginia's first responders on the leading edge.": On Dec. 15, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced his decision to provide a wireless broadband network to the states public safety community, delivered by FirstNet and AT&T. Clear and reliable communication is essential for first responders to do their jobs effectively, said Gov. Walker in a press release . This new partnership provides crucial, secure, and robust broadband access to our first responders and public safety personnel to help them save lives when every second counts. I look forward to FirstNet and AT&T implementing their plan and its widespread positive effect in protecting Wisconsins communities. AT&T, in a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority, will build, operate and maintain a highly secure wireless broadband communications network for Wisconsins public safety community at no cost to the state for the next 25 years.On July 11, Gov. Matthew Mead signed onto the FirstNet/AT&T plan saying the action was in the best interest of the state to participate. "The state of Wyoming has participated in FirstNet consultation and outreach activities throughout the planning of the network and reviewed the details of the FirstNet State Plan," Mead said in a press release . Wyoming was one of the first states in the country to opt in to the network.Government Technology
(TNS) -- The first step in protecting a business from cybersecurity attacks is educating employees because nearly all breaches result from a worker clicking on a phishing email or an inappropriate website, Information Technology experts said Thursday."How are bad guys trying to get to your information? Ninety to 95 percent of it is through employees," said David DeArmond, owner of Strix Louisiana, a business productivity and IT services firm. "If the employee is educated, if the employee knows what a phishing scheme looks like  then you can avoid most of those attacks."DeArmond was one of two panelists at Louisiana Technology Park's Tech Park Academy. Brandon Reeves, CEO of EtherMon LLC, an IT cybersecurity services firm, was the other.DeArmond noted that the Democratic National Committee was hacked after a staffer responded to an email requesting the credentials for a Gmail account. Businesses can protect themselves by securing their networks with some sort of firewall, monitoring information flowing into and out of the network; installing anti-virus software on computers and smartphones; and backing up data.DeArmond said the typical system backs up data every 30 minutes, so if there is a ransomware attack  malicious software that blocks a user's access to data until a payment is made  a business loses very little of its data."If somebody's targeting you specifically, there's no doubt they're going to get in," he said.Bad guys are looking for the path of least resistance. Businesses need to put up as much resistance as possible, so the cybercriminals look elsewhere, he said.On the plus side, a specific small business is not likely to be targeted. Reeves said large health systems, which have multiple internet access points and reams of valuable data, the government and financial services firms are the most likely targets.However, small businesses as a group are a huge target, DeArmond said. They don't have controls in place or spend much on security, so they don't offer much in the way of resistance.Reeves said part of his firm's work involves penetrating customers' cyber defenses. Right now, EtherMon has a 97 percent success rate in gaining administrative access. "That means that we can control their systems from our office, our couch, Starbucks or anywhere else and theoretically lock them out," he said.Reeves said people's desire to help, especially in the South, can leave a company's IT network vulnerable.Shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting, EtherMon infiltrated a hospital's suite for chief executives, even though security had been amped up there. An EtherMon employee posed as a FedEx worker delivering a package to a hospital senior executive. A maintenance worker unlocked the executive's door and walked away, Reeves said.Reeves said it's important that businesses be aware of the security risks of the software tools they use.For example, Google indexes all user data. By typing "password + file type XLS", it's possible to see a list of every password Google has found in spreadsheets, he said. Google is helping people with "free" services, but Google gets the right to users' data.
People who drink public water in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County have nothing to fear from chemicals that have been found in elevated amounts
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NEW YORK  Summer vacation is over for "Saturday Night Live" and that means "Weekend Update" finally gets to weigh in on the latest commotion at the White House.

Anchor Colin Jost joked at the top of the mock newscast Thursday: "It's been a crazy year these last few weeks." He went on to lament "SNL" being on vacation for Anthony Scaramucci's brief tenure as White House communications director before "SNL" alum Bill Hader showed up to play Scaramucci.

The show touched on the Russia investigation with "SNL" cast members Alex Moffatt and Mikey Day reprising their roles as presidential sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

"Weekend Update: Summer Edition" runs through the end of the month.
Whether or not you believe it was militarily necessary, there is no argument about this fact: The United States is the only nation on Earth to have ever launched a nuclear strike on another nation.

It happened in 1945 when President Harry Truman ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on two Japanese cities, instantly killing more than 200,000 people. In Hiroshima, the bomb mostly killed families who had just sat down to breakfast. Thousands of the dead were children.

The world changed when the United States launched those first nuclear strikes. We now live in a precarious nuclear age, of which Albert Einstein said, Everything has changed except our way of thinking.

Now, at least nine nations possess nuclear weapons, thousands more than enough to destroy the planet many times over. These nations all maintain that they need their nuclear stockpiles for deterrence.

As horrifying as it is, its no surprise, then, that North Korea also wants nuclear weapons in order to deter attacks, protect their nation and preserve their regime. It believes it has the right to join the nuclear club.

Dont get me wrong: I am scared to death of North Korea having nuclear weapons. But I am also scared as hell of any country possessing them, starting with my own, especially because of who has his finger on the nuclear trigger at the moment.

The president is the only person who can order the use of nuclear weapons. There are no checks or balances on his authority to do so. As President Richard Nixon said in 1974, I can go back into my office and pick up the telephone, and in 25 minutes, 70 million people will be dead.

The current president, and all future presidents, should have to get congressional approval before they take actions that could annihilate thousands, if not millions. Please urge our members of Congress to support H.R. 669/S. It dictates that Congress must declare war before the president can launch a nuclear first strike. It is a small, somewhat symbolic step, but its time we stop living in denial about the realities of nuclear war and take whatever steps we each can to try to prevent it.

Collectively, we can make a difference. It is time for us all to speak out for nuclear disarmament, if we think this Earth and all its inhabitants are worth saving.
Jamoneisha Merritt, 11, went to sleep Sunday night, near another young girl she believed to be her friend. Now the young girl doesn't know what she looks like anymore.

Her shoulders and neck are scarred and bulbous. In one photo from a hospital bed, Jamoneisha's eyes are shut, her face pink from a layer of skin vaporized by scalding water.

She's still beautiful to her mother.

Jamoneisha was allegedly attacked by another girl at the sleepover in the Bronx, N.Y., with a cup of boiling water, her mother Ebony Merritt said to local media stations.

Merritt told NY1 that her daughter, who she affectionately calls "Monie," is wounded not just physically but emotionally after the 12-year old poured the water over Jamoneisha as she slept. Now she is recovering in serious but stable condition, according to police.

Merritt told local media Jamoneisha is not ready to see the full extent of her potentially lifelong injuries, so she has limited her daughter's ability to look at herself.

A New York Police Department statement released to The Washington Post said the 12-year old girl was arrested Monday night and charged with second-degree assault.

"She don't understand why they did that to her. She thought they was her friends," Merritt told the station. "I was told that they didn't like her. And they just been bullying her." Merritt also took to Facebook to tell other parents to discourage children about following social media challenges.

It was not immediately clear if the alleged attacker told police she was inspired by internet videos.

Yolanda Richardson told the local NBC affiliate that her cousin Jamoneisha and the other girl argued the night before the attack.

"[The other girl] told her if she goes to sleep they were going to do something to her," Yolanda said.

Merritt believes her daughter is the victim of a social media-fueled prank called the hot water challenge, a potentially dangerous dare in which teenagers and kids boil water and throw it on an unsuspecting victim.

Ki'ari Pope, an 8-year old girl from Florida, died in late July, months after she drank boiling water from a straw after her and a cousin watched a video of a similar act on YouTube, the Associated Press reported. Her mother, Marquisia Bonner, said Ki'ari had problems breathing after a tracheotomy removed scar tissue from her windpipe.

The pair of incidents are wrinkles of an old digital phenomenon - kids egged on by social media missions created on the dark corners of the Web, provoking them to do something incredibly dangerous to themselves or others.

Suicides, assaults and accidents have been traced back to internet fads like the blue whale challenge, which purportedly asks participants to complete a list of mundane and dangerous activities ranging from watching a horror film and self-mutilation.

One Texas teenager allegedly killed himself last month as part of the challenge, his parents say.

Other apparent criminal acts do not have a clear connection between online challenges and real world violence. The so-called knockout game, which called for kids to attack unsuspecting people from behind in an effort to knock them unconscious, sent parents, teachers and cable news into a frenzy.

It was also found to mostly be a hoax, a scary sounding and Facebook-ready phenomenon grafted onto random assaults, a report found.

But Jamoneisha's life-altering burns are very real. And her mother has reason to believe digital taunting transformed into real violence, she told NY1.

"They've been on Snapchat. It's been going on several times. The girl admitted it. 'I don't like her. I wanted to do it,'" she said.

Jamoneisha's family, who could not be reached by The Post, has been at her bedside through the recovery process, in an update with NY1.

"She seemed to still have the same energy like nothing ain't change her. She's still smiling, joking. laughing, yeah she's doing good though," Starshanae Nixon, Jamoneisha's cousin, told the network.

sleepover-scalding

Washington Post News Service (DC)

8/11/2017 5:15:21 AM Central Daylight Time
GREENWICH  Seven Republicans stand at the starting line of an electoral sprint for the Board of Estimate and Taxation. Only six will reach the finish line one month away.

Leslie Tarkington, an incumbent who was not nominated for a new term by the Republican Town Committee, successfully petitioned her way onto the ballot this week.

The Sept. 12 primary will be the first for the BET since the Democratic side of the board held one in 1993.

The Town Charter prevents any party from holding a majority on the 12-person board. Though technically an elected panel, competition usually ends when each party picks its slate of six candidates. Most members, even those who are on for many years, never have to campaign for a single vote.

Now the Republicans find themselves thrust into a sudden contest.

The campaign comes at a time of year when many people are away or not yet paying attention to local politics, presenting concerns about voter turnout. The League of Women Voters of Greenwich will hold a debate among the seven candidates on Sept. 5.

Joining Tarkington on the primary ballot will be the party-endorsed candidates: incumbents Michael Mason, Nancy Weissler and William Drake, and newcomers Debra Hess, Andrew Duus and Karen Fassulioitis.

RTC Chairman Stephen Walko said the party cannot provide financial or other support to candidates during the primary. Individual party members can do so, but not as an official RTC action.

Incumbents

Mason, who is the current chairman, is also the longest tenured member of the BET, having come on the board in 2004 after 12 years on the Representative Town Meeting. After 25 years in local government, a race like this is new for him.

Mason said his campaign strategy will include putting the word out through social media, letters to the editor and appearances at town events. He will run on his experience as BET chairman and former head of its powerful Budget Committee, and said in addition to touting his work on the panel he will also spend time listening to voters concerns.

When I first got on the BET, the outcry from the public was, You have to fix our infrastructure, said Mason, an airline executive who heads the Westchester County Airport location of Million Air. Now the outcry is, You have to roll back spending because of all these challenges were facing on the state level.

Weissler said she welcomes the campaign because it will offer voters a choice and give the candidates the opportunity to meet with them. She will talk about her 25-year career at JP Morgan in securities research as well as her years in town government. A former chairman of the Board of Education, she has been on the BET since 2013.

I look forward to talking with voters about what Ive accomplished during my four years on the BET and sharing my views as to how we can best manage future challenges, including those that result from the states fiscal crisis, Weissler said. Just as important, I will be eager to learn what issues are of concern to our residents.

Tarkingtons petition drive was essentially the start of her campaign. She said she would keep the effort going.

My goals serving as a member of the BET have been and will continue to be to control the financial demands on Greenwich taxpayers, to maintain the towns infrastructure and to preserve the residential quality of life in Greenwich, said Tarkington, who has spent 11 years on the BET, including in her current position on the Budget and Law committees. I am known to be tenacious on all these fronts and to be a team player working together with fellow BET members, the Board of Selectmen, RTM members and Town Hall staff to successfully achieve these goals within the town.

Drake, an investor who has been a BET member for four years, could not be reached for comment. He is on the boards Human Resources and Investment Advisory committees and is liaison from the BET to the New Lebanon School Building Committee and other town bodies.

New faces

Duus, a retired investment banker, said Greenwich faces challenges both internally and from the states fiscal crisis and needs to consider structural cost reductions in town government.

We no longer have the option not to consider such, Duus said. Some of these necessary cost reductions may also affect the services provided by the town. But if Greenwich is to continue to set an example of good governance, we must recognize that we are operating in a new normal, we must make some tough decisions and we must slow the growth of the cost of running the town.

A local attorney, Fassuliotis has been a vocal RTM member in calling for reductions in spending and opposing major capital expenses.

She said her RTM tenure, where she is past chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and current vice chair of the Transportation Committee, has prepared her for the BET.

I have participated in town budget reviews and know the town budget process, so I can hit the ground running on day one, she said.

While this is Hess first run for office she has been an active RTC member and said she will campaign on her experience in the financial sector, where she has 14 years as a chief financial officer, mostly with public companies.

This is an opportunity to meet and connect with people I would not otherwise be able to, Hess said. We are very fortunate that Greenwich has so many talented people seeking to be on the BET and other town boards and commissions, but I believe my financial experience allows me to stand out.

The fight for the BET comes at a time when another Republican race, for the Board of Education, already has grown acrimonious and wound up in court. By contrast, the BET candidates said they are anticipating a far quieter race.

I just hope we all behave when we go out campaigning, Hess said. I hope people come out and vote.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com




Haiti - Politics : Haitian migrant file, end of mission in Canada





Thursday, returning from Montreal Stephanie Auguste, the Minister of Haitians Living Abroad and Antonio Rodrigue, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at a press conference at the Primature intended to explain their stay in Canada from 8 to 11 August concerning the massive and illegal arrivals in Quebec https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21774-haiti-flash-the-canadian-army-builds-a-border-camp-for-haitian-migrants.html of our compatriots under TPS status fleeing the United States for fear of deportation https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21037-haiti-flash-extension-of-tps-procedures-to-follow.html



Chancellor Rodrigue reported on his meetings and discussions with Canadian authorities and Haitian Diaspora Associations in Canada on the future of these migrants.



For her part, Minister Auguste explained the opportunity of this trip and the response of the Haitian Government in the event of a deportation of these migrants.



She explained that this mission responded to the interest given by the Moise-Lafontant administration to the situation in which our compatriots are found. With regard to the possibility of repatriation, Minister Auguste said that the Government would welcome his daughters and sons of Haiti, always welcome to the country while stressing that the current conditions do not yet provide an enabling environment to such a possibility.



Meanwhile in Florida, leaders of the Haitian community are urging their compatriots not to enter Canada illegally, from where they risk being expelled. Radio owner and broadcaster Alex Saint-Surin, who recently invited two immigration lawyers to discuss the issue, going to Canada is not worth it "There is a good chance that they will be deported to Haiti [Note HL - at least 50% of the applications are rejected by the Canadian Government] where everything would have to be started again for them [...] People call to say that it's easy to cross the border, but I tell them that once there it's not so easy [...]"



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21774-haiti-flash-the-canadian-army-builds-a-border-camp-for-haitian-migrants.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21762-haiti-quebec-two-haitian-ministers-on-mission-in-montreal.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21748-haiti-montreal-nearly-2-400-haitians-seeking-asylum-ceci-calls-for-help.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21717-haiti-flash-waves-of-haitian-refugees-unprecedented-in-quebec.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21037-haiti-flash-extension-of-tps-procedures-to-follow.html



HL/ SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : Mayor Chevry meets with representatives of the International Community





Ralph Youri Chevry, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, accompanied by his Director of Cabinet and Councilors, participated this week in the premises of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Haiti to a meeting with several Representatives of the international community, in particular Manfred Auster, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Manuel Lorenzo, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Mrs. Carole Lucas, Counselor at the French Embassy and Massimo Scalorbi, Head of Delegation Cooperation of the EU in Haiti.



The purpose of the meeting, which was attended by Matt Woods, Charge d'affaires at the EU Delegation, was to clarify the Chinese proposal for reconstruction of the Town Hall and the construction of several new public contracts https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21711-haiti-politic-toward-the-reconstruction-of-the-pap-town-hall-with-the-help-of-china.html and to evaluate the possibilities of a more sustained collaboration between the City of Port-au-Prince and the various international actors involved in Haiti.



At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to maintain a more intense communication with the City Council by multiplying these meetings in order to facilitate a better collaboration with the Municipal Administration of Port-au-Prince.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21711-haiti-politic-toward-the-reconstruction-of-the-pap-town-hall-with-the-help-of-china.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Health : Inauguration of a dialysis service in Les Cayes





Friday, at the hospital of the Office of Labor, Sickness and Maternity Insurance (OFATMA) of Les Cayes, in the presence of Roosevelt Bellevue, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Agabus Joseph, General Director of OFATMA and of Dr. Jacques M. Jeudy Director of the National Dialysis Program of the Office, President Jovenel Moise, has inaugurated a medical dialysis service that will allow patients in the Great South not to have to travel to Port-au-Prince for dialysis services.



The Medical Dialysis Unit of the OFATMA of Les Cayes Hospital, with a surface area of 145 m2, includes 4 dialyzers, 1 water treatment system, a 26,000-gallon water tank and a 20-kw solar power supply.



This unit offers peritoneal dialysis and emodialysis. Open from Monday to Saturday, from 7:00 am to 6:00 am, this dialysis service will work with 4 doctors, 1 urologist, 2 surgeons and 1 internal nerophrologist.



"It is the political will that we need and today it is there" emphasized the Head of State who made reference to the creation of this second Medical Dialysis Unit in the country in less than 6 months https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20972-haiti-health-inauguration-of-a-dialysis-service-at-the-ofatma-hospital.html not to mention the forthcoming inauguration of a third dialysis unit in the Department of the North in the town of Cap-Haitien.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21751-haiti-politics-ofatma-challenges-and-prospects.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21219-haiti-health-dialysis-and-service-availability-in-the-country.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20972-haiti-health-inauguration-of-a-dialysis-service-at-the-ofatma-hospital.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18269-haiti-health-dialysis-relief-for-patients-of-the-hueh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17671-haiti-health-$100-000-donation-from-taiwan.html



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre


















It was 124 years ago today: The U.S. becomes a global power

From National Constitution Center

On August 12, 1898, the United States and Spain reached a cease-fire agreement in its brief conflict over Cuba and the Philippines. The war marked Americas entrance onto the global stage as a military power.

The Spanish-American War is just one of five conflicts where Congress approved an official declaration of war using its constitutional powers. In total, war declarations have been declared by Congress in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

The dispute between the two nations over Cuba had been simmering for decades. Earlier in the 19th Century, American forces landed on Cuban soil on several occasions to pursue pirates, and then the United States government tried to buy Cuba from Spain.

Prior to the war declaration by Congress on April 25, 1898, tensions were high as United States business interests eyed the sugar-producing industry in Cuba. The island had been ravaged by three years of civil war, which had been highly dramatized in some American newspapers.

And after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havanas harbor on February 15, war seemed inevitable. The Maine had been sent to Cuba by President William McKinley to safeguard American interests. On March 9, 1898 Congress passed a law to build up the United States military strength. On March 28, 1898 an investigation found that a mine blew up the Maine.

On April 21 President McKinley orders a blockade of Cuba, leading to Spain breaking off diplomatic relations, and four days later the U.S. Congress declared war on Spain, two days after Spain issued its own war declaration.

The actual fighting in the declared war lasted for a 10-week period. On May 1, in Manila Bay, Commodore George Deweys Asiatic Squadron defeated the Spanish naval force located in the Philippines, another Spanish possession. In June, American troops captured Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and attacked the harbor city of Santiago. After defeating the Spanish army on the ground in Cuba, the U.S. used its Navy to destroy the Spanish Caribbean squadron in July.

By late July, France intervened for Spain to start peace negotiations, and a cease-fire was signed on August 12. The final peace between U.S. and Spanish governments came with the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898.

The costs to Spain were heavy. It had to guarantee the independence of Cuba, give Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and agree to sell the Philippines to the United States for the sum of $20 million.

For the United States, the monetary cast was $250 million for the war. About 3,000 troops died in the conflict, with an estimated 90 percent dying from diseases.

But there was one final constitutional step in the process: the U.S. Senate had to ratify the treaty in February 1899, and that was far from guaranteed.

A two-thirds majority of the Senate is needed to approve a treaty, and a powerful anti-Imperialist group opposed expanding the United States into a global power. The lobby included former Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, and industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899, by a margin of just one vote, after William Jennings Bryan decided to support a treaty backed by his arch rival, President McKinley.

Also, during the conflict, the United States annexed Hawaii. A joint resolution of Congress made Hawaii a U.S. territory on August 12, 1898, as concerns grew about its strategic importance in protecting the prospective new American interests in the Pacific. The United States also purchased a perpetual lease on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in the wars aftermath.
A teenager jumped from a second-floor window in his bare feet when he was locked in a bedroom by a burglar, it has been alleged.

Michael Cummins (30) also locked the front door, and when gardai entered the house, a second "frightened" teen was found in the hallway, Dublin District Court was told.

Mr Cummins, a father-of-two, is charged with burglary in Main Street, Applewood, Swords.

Gardai objected to bail, citing the seriousness of the charge and the strength of the evidence. Mr Cummins was remanded in custody for one week and has not yet entered a plea as to the charge.

Garda Miriam O'Donovan told the court that Mr Cummins allegedly approached two teenagers, one aged 13 and another aged 15, in Main Street.

Wallet

Gda O'Donovan claimed the accused was highly agitated and aggressive and pocketed a mobile phone belonging to one of the teenagers.

She alleged Mr Cummins then walked into a nearby house and picked up a wallet in the kitchen.

He went upstairs where he filled a shoulder bag and a laptop bag with a number of items, including an iPod.

Gda O'Donovan alleged that Mr Cummins locked one of the teenagers in a bedroom and threw the key down stairs.

He was aggressive and threatening, and told the teenagers that he would "blow up the house", the court heard.

Gda O'Donovan said the teenager jumped from the bedroom window in his bare feet to get out of the house.

The court heard that gardai were called, and when they arrived the front door was locked from the inside and Mr Cummins was at the scene.

Curfew

Mr Cummins was allegedly unco-operative and negotiations began for him to open the door.

Gda O'Donovan said that when gardai entered the property, the second teenager was in the hallway.

Defence lawyer Aoife O'Halloran said Mr Cummins was willing to abide by any bail conditions, including a curfew and sign on conditions.

Ms O'Halloran also said the accused was welcome to reside at his mother's home in Applewood Avenue, Swords.

Judge Alan Mitchell refused bail and remanded Mr Cummins in custody.

As he was led from the courtroom by prison officers, Mr Cummins told the judge he was "a f**kin' joke".

He also called Gda O'Donovan a "lying, fat b***h", described the court as "a circus" and said he'd "rather be in Africa".

Judge Alan Mitchell ordered medical attention for the accused whilst in custody.
Tolls on the East Link Bridge will be reduced from next week

Motorists can expect to pay lower tolls at the Thomas Clarke Bridge, formerly the East Link, from next Friday.

The price is to drop as VAT is removed, reducing the fare for car drivers from 1.75 to 1.40.

The toll for van drivers drops from 2.60 to 2.10.

The East Link Bridge was originally a private enterprise but was acquired by Dublin City Council (DCC) in 2015.

Charges

Users can no longer be charged VAT in line with a European Court of Justice ruling.

The Revenue Commissioners advised DCC that the toll link should not include VAT in its charges, as a public body.

"Dublin City Council received notification from the Revenue Commissioners on July 31, 2017, that the collection of tolls by Dublin City Council on the Thomas Clarke Bridge is outside the scope of VAT," the council said.

It added Friday, August 18, was the earliest the new charges could commence, due to required consultation with its software contractor.

The removal of VAT at the bridge has raised questions as to why no changes will be made to charges at other toll links.

However, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) director of corporate services, Ger Hannon, said that motorists were never charged VAT at the M50 or the Port Tunnel, which are both under TII control.

He said their prices had been set with the knowledge not to charge road users VAT.

In the case of toll bridges outside of Dublin, which are all run under a Public-Private Partnership system, he said that, as private companies, these toll links are required to charge VAT on top of the fare.

Dublin Chamber has praised the removal of VAT at the Thomas Clarke Bridge but said more could be done for commuters travelling across Dublin city.

Head of public affairs Graeme McQueen said that, while the reduced toll charges were a step in the right direction, there was also a need to improve public transport.

Mr McQueen said there was a cause to set up a joint charge or a single-ticket system for drivers using the Port Tunnel and the East Link in one journey, to make the route more attractive for motorists.
Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) poultry committee chairman Nigel Renaghan has reassured consumers that Irish eggs are unaffected and 100pc safe. (File pic: PA)

A total of 15 European countries have now reported cases of eggs contaminated with a highly toxic lice insecticide.

The insecticide is dangerous to the kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Ireland is among the countries known to be affected by the scandal along with Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark.

However, the Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI) said the risk to Irish people was "very low" and Ireland imports a "very small" amount of eggs.

The FSAI confirmed that in June very small quantities of boiled eggs were supplied to nine catering outlets in Ireland.

These eggs had a 'use by' date of July 17 and are no longer available.

Similarly, in early July, a small quantity of liquid pasteurised egg (with a 'use by' date of July 20) was supplied to a number of food businesses for use in bakery products.

"All of the food businesses concerned have been contacted and any remaining products removed from sale," its statement said.

"The number of egg products imported is very small. Nevertheless, the FSAI will continue to trace any distribution in Ireland."

Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) poultry committee chairman Nigel Renaghan has reassured consumers that Irish eggs are unaffected and 100pc safe.

Assurance

He advised any concerned consumers to check for the Bord Bia quality assurance mark.

The World Health Organisation considers the insecticide Fipronil to be moderately toxic and says very large quantities can cause organ damage.

It is an insecticide which is not permitted for use around food-producing animals.

Traceability on the eggs from the Netherlands contaminated with Fipronil is continuing, while an emergency EU summit has been called for September.

Millions of hens across Europe may be destroyed and some supermarkets have taken eggs off their shelves.

Close to 700,000 eggs in the UK are believed to have been contaminated.
ABINGDON, Va.  A federal judge has established the maximum punishment Judge Kurt Pomrenke would face if convicted in his upcoming bench trial.

Pomrenke, a Bristol, Virginia, juvenile and domestic relations court judge, will stand trial Sept. 13 before U.S. District Judge James P. Jones on a charge of criminal contempt. Federal prosecutors allege Pomrenke disobeyed a Dec. 1, 2015, order from Jones regarding evidence from his wifes corruption trial.

The court will limit the sentence imposed upon the defendant in the event he is convicted of criminal contempt to the maximum authorized for a petty offense (imprisonment for up to six months or a fine of not more than $5,000) and thus the defendant has no right to a jury trial, Judge Jones wrote in an order filed earlier this week.

The government filed a motion July 20 for Pomrenke to show why he shouldnt be held in contempt after sharing details of prosecution evidence this spring with the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. That motion was granted in the judges order.

The judges wife, Stacey Pomrenke, a former BVU Authority executive, was indicted on corruption charges in October 2015. That December, Jones agreed to allow the couple to receive an electronic copy of evidence to keep in their home. The order specified they must not disclose or disseminate the materials to any other person, nor reveal or discuss them with any other person, other than defense counsel.

Stacey Pomrenke was convicted in February 2016 and is currently serving her sentence in Alderson womens prison in West Virginia.

Last year, the judicial commission began investigating Kurt Pomrenkes conduct in the wake of two contacts he made with potential witnesses prior to his wifes trial. Last August, Jones declined to find Pomrenke guilty of contempt in that aspect of the case.

But in his March 2016 response to the commission, Pomrenke referenced some of the emails that were part of the prosecutions case. The JIRC filed a formal complaint in July.

Pomrenkes bench trial is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 13.
SERVICES

RUSSELLS CHAPEL CHURCH: Marion, Va., Scratch Gravel Rd. Aug. 13, 11 a.m.: Homecoming service, everyone welcome.

JOHN WESLEY METHODIST CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 311 Lee St. Aug. 12, 3 p.m.: Homecoming, celebrating 143rd annual Homecoming, guest speaker Bryon Brooks of Bristol, Tennessee, everyone welcome.

OAKDALE FREEWILL BAPTIST CHURCH: Bluff City, Tenn., 878 Oakdale Rd. Aug. 13, 11 a.m.: Homecoming services, special singing featuring Faithful 2, 713-498-1191.

NEW GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH: Bristol, Tenn., 3055 West State St. Aug. 20, 10:30 a.m.: 12th Anniversary Celebration service, speaker Brother Scott Matthews, singing featuring The Rochesters, everyone welcome, 423-625-2938 or www.newgracebaptistchurch.org.

REVIVAL CENTER BAPTIST CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 19752 Benhams Rd. Aug. 20, 10 a.m.: Homecoming, special singing featuring the Edwards Family from Burnsville, North Carolina, Shepherds Call from Morris-town, Tennessee, the Benton Family from Kingsport, Tennessee, lunch to follow service in Opal Smith Memorial Hall, everyone welcome.

REVIVALS

SUGAR GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 18648 Benhams Rd. Aug 12. 7 p.m.: First annual Youth Rally Revival Touching Heaven, guest speakers Noah Whitt and Curtis Ponder, special singing featuring Tri State Childrens Home. Pizza served 5 p.m., everyone welcome, 423-579-8849.

CEDAR BAPTIST CHURCH: Marion, Va., 2832 Lee Hwy., Aug. 21-25, 7 p.m. nightly: Revival, guest speaker Rev. Derek Cowan, evangelist, everyone welcome, 276-783-5682.

SINGINGS

WATAUGA CHAPEL: Abingdon, Va., Watauga Rd. Route 677. Aug. 12, 6:30-7:30 p.m.: Gospel singing featuring Combs Family, everyone welcome.

BIBLE WAY CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 823 Williams St. Aug. 13, 6 p.m.: Gospel singing featuring Faithful 2, everyone welcome, 423-391-7381 or 713-498-1191.

GLENWOOD COMMUNITY CHURCH: Hiltons, Va., 2524 McMurray Hollow Road. August 13, 11 a.m.: Gospel singing featuring Good Neighbor Quartet, everyone welcome.

CLAY HILL BAPTIST CHURCH: Blountville, Tenn., 122 Hobbs Hollow Rd. Meets every third Saturday, 5 p.m.: Sullivan County Red Back Church Hymnal sing, everyone welcome, 423-323-4085.

PROMISE LAND: Belfast, Va., 2133 Mountain Rd. Aug. 12 6 p.m.: Last gospel concert for the year featuring Brian Burchfield, Harding Family, free admission, everyone welcome, concession available, 276-880-1044 or 423-483-3031.

BRISTOL CAFE & MARKET: Bristol, Tenn., 2600 Volunteer Pkwy. Aug. 12, 6-7:30 p.m.: Saturday night gospel singing featuring Dillard & amp, Refuge, Dan Henderson Family, 423-218-9941.

COMMUNITY

APPALACHIAN DHARMA & MEDIATION CENTER: Johnson City, Tenn., 108 W. 10th Ave. Suite 3.: Aug. 12, 1-4:30 p.m.: Intro to Buddhism, the history of Buddhism, session leader Jody Palm, no fee required, www.dharma4et.org.

FIRST CHURCH OF GOD: Bristol, Tenn. 301 Georgia Avenue, corner Georgia Avenue & East State Street. Aug 19, Sept.16, 4:30-7 p.m.: State Street Fish Fry, fish, coleslaw, hushpuppies, fries, soup beans, drink, plus homemade desserts, dine with us so we can feed others. Cost $10 full fish dinner, $8 small fish dinner, rain or shine, 423-956-2720.

FIRST BROAD STREET UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Kingsport, Tenn., 101 East Church Circle. To volunteer two hours any day Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Marlene Hudson, 423-817-8332. To help with food: Bob Smith, 423-246-3966. Clothing and other donations can be brought to Single Vision or taken to Shades of Grace.

FAIRVIEW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Jonesborough, Tenn., 878 Highway 81 North. Third Saturday each month, 7-10 a.m.: Country breakfast, bacon, fresh ground sausage, eggs, pancakes, gravy, biscuits and more. Donations welcome, located 5 miles from downtown Jonesborough going toward Fall Branch.

SHAKESVILLE CHURCH OF CHRIST: Bristol, Va., 262 Kingmill Pike: Connecting People with God, volunteers are needed to donate 2 hours a week, donate plastic grocery bags.

ST. THOMAS CHURCH: Abingdon, Va., 124 E. Main Street. Second Wednesday of each month, 6:45 p.m.: Taize service, everyone welcome, 276-628-3606.

YARD SALE

PENTECOSTAL CHURCH: Abingdon, Va., 17535 Jeb Stuart Highway off Exit 19 toward Damascus: Yard Sale, second Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Name brand childrens and maternity clothes, plus tons of good quality baby equipment. Proceeds benefit the Mayan malnourished children of Guatemala, and children in our orphanage and those in our orphans at home program. www.safehomesforchildren.org.

HOW TO SUBMIT

News and calendar items for the Religion section should be emailed only to features@bristolnews.com with Religion Calendar in the subject line or sent by mail to Religion Editor, Bristol Herald Courier, and P.O. Box 606, Bristol, VA 24203. Mailed items must be typewritten. Deadline is noon Monday. Please include the complete address of event location, name and telephone number of a contact person. If you have questions, contact Dorothy Hurt at 276-645-2556 or email dhurt@bristolnews.com. The service is free.
PSU report card: How Lions beat up Maryland ... where it matters most
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South American cuisine is the hottest trending food worldwide, with its flavours and accents on the top menus of 2017. Within 24 hours of being in Bahrain, Id been to two restaurants that specialise in them: Classy gourmet Mexican at Cantina Kahlo and laidback chic Cuban Fusion at Asia de Cuba.

You might say I was surprised and youd be damn right. I always judge how traditional a city is by what its citizens have for breakfast. When I ask this question, mostly nowadays I get a raised eyebrow and eggs and bread, just like everyone else, in response. Not so in Bahrain. Even in Manama, its capital and biggest city, people still eat a traditional Arabic breakfast at home, and even at restaurants. Its usually balaleet (vermicelli mixed with sugar and eggs) or shakshuka (eggs poached in a tomato gravy), says young Ayat Nasser, whom I met in Manama at Hajis Cafe, one of the oldest and best for traditional Bahraini cuisine.

It was quite intriguing that this tiny island country has so much going on in terms of trendy world flavours and yet, even with a large expat population, manages to retain its traditional food culture.

Home is best

So what is traditional Bahraini food? In simple terms: any combination of rice and meat or fish. Rice is a must for lunch in Bahrain  if you are not having rice, you are not having lunch. I tried machboos, a traditional dish of fragrant rice (cooked in stock) topped with caramelised onions served with roasted chicken, eggplant and potatoes, at Hajis Cafe. The chicken was so well cooked that it fell off the bone at the lightest prod. It was served with a saluna: gravy with beans and potatoes. Hajis Cafe doesnt have a menu, they just have a few dishes each for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you never return disappointed.

A popular food on the go is fried chicken liver with kuboos, the Arabic pita bread, often as a sandwich. Bahrain was a major trade centre, so its food has been influenced heavily by flavours from the world over, including India. You will find biryani in every traditional restaurant, and another common dish is the humble yellow dal! Seafood is as common, of course, fresh and delicious wherever you go  fine dining, or a small kuboos and fish shop. If you like fish, you should try sheri or safi, the two most popular local fish types, usually served whole and fried in traditional restaurants.

Bahrain has long been the party zone of the Persian Gulf with the Saudis coming over to eat, drink and make merry every chance they get

What I found surprising was that Hajis Cafe was full of local people, not just travellers wanting to get a little taste of local food. More surprisingly, eating breakfast out seems pretty common, and Hajis Cafe is more popular for its breakfast than anything else.

All the worlds a plate

Old and new sit easy together in Bahrain. If chicken was falling off the bone at Hajis Cafe, Wagyu beef was slicing off like butter at Cantina Kahlo. The newest Mexican restaurant to open in Manama, it introduced me to food from Mexico beyond the Tex-Mex that we are used to and has a large menu that covers north, middle and south Mexico. Its Journey of Mexico set menu has dishes from all three regions and is a good way of sampling the food as you can choose your three dishes (I recommend the grilled beef highly), and while there are all these new flavours and roasted, grilled and fried meats, I was glad to get a great guac and chips to start my meal, and crispy churros to end it. There is horchata, the traditional rice drink available on the streets of Mexico, to wash all this down with, and, of course, there are margaritas.

Hajis Cafe is famous for its traditional Bahraini fare that is a combination of rice and meat or fish (KalyaniI Prasher)

Bahrain has long been the party zone of the Persian Gulf, with the Saudis coming over to eat, drink and make merry every chance they get. (On any weekend, you can see more Saudis than locals at any restaurant.) A liberal state, shopkeepers and restaurants dont need a liquor or pork license in Bahrain, so you are assured of getting whatever food or drink you like anywhere you go, including the department stores. (Which is more than you can say about India at the moment!)

Soft-shell tacos served at Cantina Kahlo, at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain

If youve gotten hooked onto the fad of eating ceviche, Asia de Cuba is the place to go in Manama. Marinated cold slivers of beef or fish with lime and olive oil, this cold starter is served along with several innovative, funky-looking dishes (fried potato rocks; banana and shrimp salad) at this lovely airy cafe that serves Cuban food with Asian accents. Part of the arty complex, Gallery 21, a space with a cafe, fine dining, a shisha lounge, exhibition spaces (and a gourmet florist!), you should visit Asia de Cuba even if just for a coffee so that you can enjoy the quirky decor and a million little curios and collectibles that dress up its spaces.

South American may be the edgy option, but there is no shortage of good restaurants serving popular cuisines such as Italian, Japanese, Lebanese and, of course, Indian, in Bahrain. Most of the action is between the two main islands in the north, Manama and Muharraq, and you literally cannot take a few steps before you find a place youd like to stop and try something new. Traditional Bahraini or the latest flavours in vogue the world over, this little islands got it all covered.

The Brunch insiders view Visit Kingdom of Perfumes at Manama Souq. Sample locally mixed perfumes that use raw materials from India. (Source: Lonely Planet) For racing enthusiasts, the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama is worth visiting.

(Source: TripAdvisor) Check out Qalat al-Bahrain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Northern Coast of Bahrain. (Source: Conde Nast Traveller )

Off the beaten path

Not many people go to Bahrain for the wildlife and yet, the Al Areen Wildlife Park here is a great place to explore if you are travelling with your family. Both a nature reserve and an animal shelter, this is a small park where you can introduce your children to plants and trees native to the Middle East and Africa, as well as spot the exotic Arabian oryx, Persian gazelle, Nubian ibex, apart from several rare bird species. It is located in Sakhir, in central Bahrain, about 40 km from Manama.

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From HT Brunch, August 13, 2017

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Telecom company Reliance Communications posted on Saturday a consolidated loss of Rs 1,210 crore in the three-month period ended June 30, 2017.

This is the third straight quarter loss for the debt- laden firm, besides, it has not been able to recover from the pressure of aggressive tariff war triggered after the entry of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm.

The company had registered a profit of Rs 90 crore in the same period a year ago.

The telecom sector in India continues to be very adversely impacted during the financial year 2017-18 by competitive intensity on a scale never witnessed before in the country, RCom said in a statement.

The company attributed a loss of Rs 1,221 crore to equity holders of the company during the reported quarter compared to profit of Rs 54 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Its consolidated revenue dipped 33 per cent to Rs 3,591 crore in April-June 2017 from Rs 5,361 crore recorded in the same quarter of 2016.

For the first time in over 20 years, the telecom sector registered de-growth in revenues, leading to a reduction in the governments share in revenues, sharp drop in operating margins, accompanied by increased interest costs arising from a staggering industry debt burden, and higher depreciation and amortisation charges as a result of higher spectrum purchase costs, the statement said.

The debt status of the company at the end of reported quarter could not be ascertained. It has been given time till December by the lenders to service dues.

RCom had earlier reported debt of about Rs 45,000 crore.

The company expects to complete merger of Sistema Shyam Telecom by end of this month that will add highly 30 megahertz of premium 850 band spectrum in eight telecom circles. The validity of spectrum in these circles will remain till 2033.

RCom reiterated that merger of its mobile business with Aircel is on track which will reduce its debt to the tune of around Rs 14,000 crore.

The company expects to further reduce debt of Rs 11,000 crore by sale of its tower business to Brookfield Asset Management, which it said is in final stage.

The board of RCom approved holding of annual general meeting where the company will seek shareholders permit to convert outstanding debt in to equity shares whenever required.

The AGM will also consider doubling of equity share capital of the company from Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.

Shares of RCom yesterday closed at Rs 20.75 a unit, down by 2.12 per cent compared to the previous close on the BSE.
Even a flicker of laughter is henceforth banned in this column. You have to pass a test before I let you read this weeks write-up. Get up and go in front of the mirror. Carefully look at the photo on this page and then at yourself in the mirror. Ensure that your facial expression is as pathetic and irritated, if not more. Khabardaar agar smile kiya toh! Through advanced augmented reality, Ill get to know who is smiling, and my curse will ensure that your face bears a constipated look every time you get photographed for the rest of your life. Those of you who havent got married yet, apni wedding albums ke bare mein soch lo. You cant afford to take this risk, can you?

Now with the serious face, try to understand my point this week. After leading an utterly useless life that involved baring my teeth and giggling away to glory at the slightest provocation, I have finally found a mission in life  to attain and help people around me attain a state of zero sense of humour. Because in the past few days, some people have helped me realise that laughter is the silliest of human emotions. That it is frivolous and wasteful to tickle the funny bone when you can utilise that time to indulge in critical and meaningful activities like getting offended and preaching morals. And havent you noticed, serious people are way cooler than us idiots who cant contain their laughter and let out strange, gurgling sounds from the throat. Toh maine toh decide kar liya. No cracking jokes anymore. In any case, most people dont get my twisted sense of humour. And it gets me into trouble more often than I care.

Last week, I went to the neighbourhood park for a walk, and then sat on the bench to watch small children play on the swings. A woman sitting next to me tried to strike up a conversation and asked which of the children was mine. Intently gazing ahead with a devilish expression, I replied, Im still trying to decide. Before I could pat my back on my brilliant joke, the woman had rushed to collect her child and warn others about the demented kidnapper on the bench. Reputation barbaad in the colony, permanently. Hasna hi nahi ji mujhe abnot at all.

And this came exactly a day after a police constable scolded me, when, on seeing a road-side sign that said Yeh bus-stop aage chala gaya hai, I scribbled underneath  Usey jaane kisne diya? I got a long lecture about how padhe-likhe people should not indulge in mazaak. Anyway, his scolding was justified, but this thing of how I can be cool, mysterious and intellectual only if Im serious in life has entered my head strongly now. So, for myself, and for all of you who need growing up, here are tips to become permanently serious.

1. Be a joke killer: Go to a temple and take the oath that youll never let a joke break your resolve of not laughing like mad people who have no control over their emotions. If someone says a joke, stare at them as if they have lost it. In fact, read up all the jokes on the net, so that if someone tries telling a joke, you can kill their punchline, or make that genius remark  Suna hua hai. Puraana hai. Ive seen people do this to others jokes and although all this while I hated such spoilsports, now suddenly I have newfound respect for them. In fact, I demand a special reward for those brave people who take pride in saying hamein toh hasi nahi aayi when someone tells a joke. They are the real assets because of whom India continues to hold a serious position in the global scenario, otherwise the velapanti gang of non-serious people would have laughingly destroyed our image. Flippant fools, I tell you.

2. Take everything literally: Wipe off the concept of metaphors or clever phrases from your head. Be an expert at missing the point and start taking everything anyone says literally. You may be branded as an annoying one but so what? Its all for a good cause. Argue endlessly with people as if they mean each word theyve said. Slowly people will start avoiding saying anything non-serious in front of you. The shallow frivolities will be out and life will become meaningful.

3. Make a mental bank of sad thoughts: Since Im trying it out these days, let me tell you that reaching the zero sense of humour stage is not as easy as it sounds. Your body will want to revolt, a smile will try hard to escape your mouth in certain situations. But you have to be strong. What really helps is having a bank of sad thoughts in your head. The moment something funny starts to happen around you, retrieve an image from the bank  it could be the first time you got thrashed by the school teacher, or the moment when your girlfriend made you spend all your pocket money on a single date, or the state of poverty in Africa, or the rising corruption in our country. Anything that will keep you from feeling happy at that moment. Ill personally congratulate you once youll reach that level of turning sad anytime you want to. What an achievement sir ji!

4. Act depressed: This is tough, but together we can manage it if we try really hard. Stop wearing bright colours, switch over to earthy, dull shades. Keep your eyes a bit droopy all the time, and your expression confused and fed up. When you say something, dont let a hint of enthusiasm enter your voice. If someone else tries to speak to you, say hain? with an utterly irritated expression at least thrice. Make them feel as if they are THE burden on mother earth and should not take the risk of saying anything non-serious in front of you. Once in a while, go on Facebook and leave sad, preachy comments on all the so-called funny status updates. Do it on my timeline, too. Oh, you already do so? Okay.

5. Make fraandship only with serious people: Stick to people who are unfunny since birth. I met one such woman in a hospital. She said that she was there to donate her eyes, rather than pledging her eyes for donation. So I asked her, with all genuineness, if she had someone to take her back home since she wont be able to see. She shouted so rudely at me that for a moment I was also tempted to be rude and add that if she decides to donate her body, a hungry family of four in certain countries could survive just on her right thigh for a year, but stopped myself just in time to avoid being slapped. I have now decided to pursue her till she makes me her best friend. Together well spend our lives, spreading the message of seriousness all around us. Amen.

Sonal Kalra declares that nothing will make her laugh anymore. The only exception is Chaddha ji doing Kapaalbhaati aasan in the balconyLOL. Mail at sonal.kalra@hindustantimes.com or facebook.com/sonalkalraofficial. Follow on Twitter @sonalkalra

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The sharp slowdown in the migrant crisis since 2015, Emmanuel Macrons defeat of anti-EU populist Marine Le Pen in France earlier this year, and the likely re-election of Germanys Angela Merkel have reinvigorated optimism that Europe has survived yet another round of challenges. Not so fast. There will be many more problems to manage in coming months, and the current confidence is unlikely to last long.

First, the entrance onto the stage of the youthful, energetic Macron has made France the envy of others across Europe hungry for a new generation of leaders in their own countries. But the most remarkable outcome of Frances elections this year was the scale of defeat for the centre-Right and centre-Left parties that have dominated French politics for decades. Pro- or anti-EU, French voters want change, and Macron must deliver it with a legislature in which 70% of deputies are serving in government for the first time. If inexperience undermines his ability to revitalise Frances economy and energise its labour market all those fresh faces will be much less welcome.

More broadly, Macron needs to put Frances fiscal house before sceptical Germans will work with him toward EU fiscal union, banking union, and other needed EU reforms. The new president quickly lost 10 percentage points from his early approval rating as citizens look past the easy smile and confident speeches toward cuts in social spending. And as his predecessors discovered, labour reform, no matter how skilfully presented, draws labour unions into the streets.

Then there is Italy, a country that remains in political stalemate. The next elections, likely in the first half of 2018, are increasingly likely to produce either another fragmented government that cant advance much-needed political and economic reforms or a Five Star Movement-led government thats openly hostile to the EU.

The migrant story continues to reshape Italys political landscape. An EU deal with Turkey has sharply limited the flow of desperate people across the Aegean toward Greece, but arrivals in Italy, mainly by boat from Libya, increased 20% from 2015 to 2016. For the first half of this year, just 9,000 migrants reached Greece, and 4,000 arrived in Spain, while Italy has now taken in more than 90,000 people. Italian anger is rising as the French and Austrian governments seem more interested in tightening their borders with Italy than with sharing even a small part of its burdens. An EU quota system which mandates that each EU member take in refugees to ease the pressure on others is not being enforced.

In particular, the Visegrad countries of Eastern Europe  Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia  were expected to accept about 11,000 refugees as part of this system. Slovakia and the Czech Republic have taken in 28 people, as of this writing, while Poland and Hungary have accepted zero. This is not the only source of defiance from the East. Hungarys Viktor Orban has fully embraced the term illiberal democrat as he battles to consolidate political control in that country, and Polands Right-wing government is still working on legislation that would allow legislators to fire the countrys judges and replace them with political cronies. The EU has threatened to provide less money for these countries in the next EU budget, but nothing credible has yet been done to force them to comply with EU rules.

If all that werent enough to worry about, there is also the quest of Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to give himself Putin-like powers in his country and the problems that creates between Turkey and the EU. Erdogan has discovered that public hostility toward Europe boosts his popularity at home, and a re-election bid next year is sure to create more friction with Germany and others. It could also jeopardise Erdogans deal with the EU that keeps huge numbers of refugees in Turkey in exchange for European cash and various political promises. That deal will probably hold, because it works for both sides. If it doesnt, Europe could face another migrant crisis, reviving populist anger across the continent.

Add troubles with Trump, provocations from Putin, and the high-stakes complexities of Brexit negotiations. Merkel remains a force for stability, and Macron may energise reform in France and the EU more broadly, but its clear that EU leaders will have their hands full for the rest of this year and beyond.

Ian Bremmer is president, Eurasia Group

The views expressed are personal

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Far from the latest Sino-India standoff in the eastern border, Uttarakhands Nelong Valley along the border with China continues to attract discerning travellers to its picturesque Ladakh-type landscape and abandoned bunkers of the 1962 Chinese aggression.

Perched at around 11,000 feet close to the China border, the valley lies in the Gangotri National Park area in Uttarkashi district - around 315 km from Dehradun.

Once a buzzing hotspot for the Indo-Tibet trade, the valley was closed for civilians and tribals residing in villages were shifted out from there at the time of the 1962 Sino-India war.

Though the battle did not play out in this region, bunkers were erected in the valley from the security point of view, local experts say.

The valley then remained out of bounds for civilians for over five decades post the 1962 war, before a part of it was ultimately reopened by the Uttarakhand government for tourists in 2015.

No longer in use, these bunkers in the open-for-civilians-area of the valley are now attracting tourists...visitors feel very excited to set foot in the abandoned bunkers and to get a feel of how the soldiers would have survived during the harsh, climatic conditions, said Tilak Soni, an Uttarkashi-based adventure and tourism expert who strove for the reopening of the valley.

Vinod Panwar, who visited the Valley recently, said: The entire valley is like a thrilling surprise package, tucked in the Himalayasbut I especially enjoyed peeking inside an old bunker dotted along the route, getting the feel of a soldiers life.

Uttarkashi district magistrate Ashish Kumar Srivastava said over 464 tourists have visited the valley since April this year, which is double the number from the last year.

Almost 90% of the tourists applied for the special permit (which is required for visiting the valley) online through a single window clearance system introduced by the district administration in April this year.

Underlining the valleys numerous attractions, including the bunkers and an intricate wooden bridge that was used by locals for Indo-Tibet trade prior to the war, Srivastava said, We are planning to develop the entire region from heritage tourism point of view and to offer a whole range of interpretation about different attractions of the Valley to further enhance tourists experience.

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Women have forayed into different fields now, but in a first-of-its-kind initiative, they have joined their male counterparts to fight terrorism. As part of the newly introduced fleet of 14 Parakram Vans in Delhi, there are women commandos, who will counter terrorism.

When we talk about gender equality, initiatives like these bring a fair mix of both genders. Women are trained in the same way as men. So, their strength should be utilised in the same manner. Also, since they are new recruits and have more energy and passion, they are more effective. We have 10 women commandos now, and we will be getting 15 more, says Monika Bhardwaj, DCP (PCR).

Parakram Vans were introduced to fight against terrorism and are placed at different locations in the city. One van consists of a team of five  three commandos, one NSG trained driver and one incharge. This initiative is to make a special unit for the security of the country, and I feel proud to be a part of it, says Dimpal Goswami, a woman commando.

Another commando, Reenu from Uttar Pradesh, says, I always wanted to contribute to the country. I know, its a 24X7 duty, and I am ready for it. My brother, who is also a commando, is my inspiration.

To make the vans better, more initiatives will be taken in near future. Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Police, says, We will keep taking initiatives to provide world-class equipments to the commandos, which will work as a force multiplier, and will increase their efficiency to combat terrorism.

Follow @htTweets for more

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Toxic sewer gases killed two brothers cleaning a sewage tank without safety gear at a mall in east Delhi on Saturday afternoon.

The tragedy happened six days after three sanitation workers died inside a Delhi Jal Board-managed sewer line in Lajpat Nagar. Before that, four labourers were trapped to death in a sewage tank in south Delhis Ghitorni in July.

Deputy commissioner of police Nupur Prasad said disaster struck after 24-year-old Jahangir and Izaz, who was two years younger, went inside the clogged sewage tank on the basement of Aggarwal Funcity Mall in Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara.

Their 50-year-old father, Yusuf, positioned himself at the mouth of the manhole to pull out the muck. He sounded the alarm when his sons stopped responding to him and entered the tank to rescue them.

A fire station located close by responded quickly and help arrived.

But the first firefighter, Mahipal, was left unconscious by the gases when he stepped into manhole. Mahipal lost consciousness and crashed against the wall of the sewage tank. But the other firefighters were quick to rescue him as well as Yusuf, who too was knocked unconscious inside the officer said.

In all the three cases, police alleged that the workers were not provided safety gears.

By the time the brothers were pulled out, Jahangir was dead. Izaz died at a hospital in Karkardooma. Their father and the fireman are recuperating.

Police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the malls management.

The victims didnt have any safety gear on them when they were found. We are investigating to fix responsibility for the deaths, the DCP said.

Sunil Jain of Unity Group, a real estate company that owns the mall, said cleaning operations were outsourced to a sanitation firm.

According to Yusufs neighbour, Abdul Hasan, the poor family collects household garbage to make ends meet and sometimes clean sewer lines and tanks for a fee.

The deaths are a grim reminder of unsafe working conditions for people keeping Indias sewer lines and tanks clean, often with their bare hands.

Often, the workers only tool to gauge risk levels is a matchstick lit at the mouth of the sewer to find out the presence of poisonous gases and the absence of oxygen. They go in if the stick burns itself out.

A law makes it a criminal offence to make people work in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.

Employers must provide gas masks, safety harness belts, helmets and mechanised equipment at dangerous sites such as clogged underground sewers. They could be imprisoned and fined if they dont.

But theres no report of criminal cases registered against offenders.

There are no national data on such deaths, though social workers estimate that around 100 sewer workers die every year across India.
Faridkot Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, on Saturday, warned colleges against fleecing nursing candidates by booking seats even before the varsity allots it colleges.

Pertinently, only the varsity is authorised to allot seats on the basis of the merit of the candidate during counselling and colleges themselves cannot do the same.

Agents working for the colleges contact students and influence them to apply or book a seat with the colleges they work for. They offer help to students to fill preferences of colleges online and they deliberately fill only one preference  the name of the desired college.

They charge commission from private colleges, said an officer with the varsity.

The issue came to light after a few parents of BSc nursing candidates approached the university to confirm if colleges can book seats even before the varsity allots colleges.

After getting to know of the presence of agents of the colleges misguiding people and charging commission, the university immediately released a notice at its official website, the official said.

BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur said, It has been learnt by the University that certain colleges are fleecing the candidates by giving only one option at the time of filling the college of their choice / preference at the time of submitting the online application for the candidates, by themselves. This is contrary to the purpose of submitting choice/preference online where a candidate can opt for more than one college of his/her choice after qualifying the Punjab Para Medical Entrance Test (PPMET-2017) that the BFUHS has conducted.

Colleges are booking seats for the candidates much before the BFUHS allots any. Candidates should be clear that the colleges allotted to them will be the one that BFUHS will allot on the mandated day as mentioned in the counselling schedule. Any promise/claim that the seat alloted will be the same as the one promised/booked by respective colleges before the couselling holds no meaning, the V-C added.

After 1st counselling on Aug 18, the process goes on paper.

To curb the practice, the varsity has decided to conduct physical counselling of the students instead of online counselling. An official said, In the first round of counselling, nursing students were asked to fill their online preferences and colleges will be allotted to them on August 18. Since there is suspicion of this unfair practice, we have decided to conduct physical counselling in the second round.

The varsity has also released the list of candidates found ineligible in the first round of online counselling.

Authorities said they will be eligible in the subsequent physical counselling. If seats remain vacant, candidates belonging to other states will also be considered on the basis of a qualifying exam.

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Faridkot The candidates who got their seats in medical colleges in Punjab under the 15% all-India quota for medical (MBBS) and dental (BDS) courses will have to join their respective colleges by August 16.

The candidates who do not join their colleges by this deadline will lose their seats.

The state has three government medical colleges in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot. Under the all-India quota, there are total of 75 MBBS seats in these colleges. Similarly, there are total 12 seats in two dental colleges of Amritsar and Patiala under the same quota.

A senior official of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) said, In case students dont join in time, their seats will be considered surrendered and fresh applications will be called for the vacant seats to be filled at the all-India level. A new date for allotment will be decided accordingly. The allotment of seats has to be concluded before August 30.

BFUHS is the nodal agency for the state counselling for medical seats on the basis of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET).

Under the all-India quota, students from anywhere in the country can apply for seats in any state.

After the second round of counselling for all-India quota seats, a student who takes admission in a college cannot vacate the seat to get admission elsewhere. That ensures that very few seats are reverted to the state quota. Also, all-India quota seats are filled by students from national merit list, said Arvind Sharma, professor in-charge of admissions, BFUHS.

Second round of counselling

Meanwhile, students can fill their online preferences of colleges till August 13 for the second round of counselling for state quota seats at the official website of BFUHS. The university website can be accessed at www.bfuhs.ac.in.

The allotment of seats under the second round of counselling for the state quota will be done on August 18.

The university will release a list of seats allotted to medical and dental candidates at the official website.

Under the state quota, the aspirants are vying for 1,125 MBBS seats in eight medical colleges and 1,130 BDS seats in 14 dental colleges across the state.

All the seats, except 15% NRI quota seats in each college, were allotted in the first online counselling on July 24.

During the counselling for the NRI quota seats on August 4, out of the total 300 seats, including 136 MBBS seats, only 35 were filled.

The vacant NRI seats in government colleges were merged with the general quota seats. Seats in private colleges were merged with management quota seats.

Students in the second counselling will compete for the seats surrendered by the candidates after the first counselling and the left out converted seats from NRI quota.

Seats under all-India quota

MBBS

Government Medical College, Amritsar: 30

Government medical college, Patiala: 30

Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot: 15

Seats under all-India quota

BDS

Government Dental College, Amritsar: 6

Government Dental College, Patiala: 6

Government Dental College, Amritsar: 6

Government Dental College, Patiala: 6

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Minister of State (health) Anupriya Patel and secretary (health) CK Mishra, along with a team of doctors are a part of the Union health ministry delegation that left for Gorakhpur (UP) on Saturday afternoon, after 63 children suffering from Japanese Encephalitis (JE) died over a few days.

The team has three specialist doctors that will make an assessment of the situation at the ground level and submit a report to the ministry. We dont have exact details of the incident as of now, said a senior health ministry official, requesting anonymity.

The team of child specialists will also provide necessary help in treating children admitted at a Gorakhpur hospital, if required.

Japanese Encephalitis is a mosquito-borne fatal infection that is common in the eastern UP belt.

Most deaths were reported from the neonatal and encephalitis wards at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Hospital.

We had a team of paediatricians ready from Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and our own experts from the ministry. They were on a standby and have been sent to help the state government, said Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General Health Services (DGHS), health ministry.

They are doing their best in the circumstances, and we are ready to help them.

This area has sanitation issues and cases of other diseases such as malaria and scrub typhus are also high, he said.

More than 3,000 children have reportedly died at the government-run hospital since 2012, official data show.

To put things to perspective, the 3,000-odd deaths are among 50,000 children killed in eastern Uttar Pradesh over the past three decades, most of them due to JE and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES).

The first recorded outbreak of the disease in the Gorakhpur and six surrounding districts was in 1978.

In 2005, JE devastated Gorakhpur and seven surrounding districts, affecting 6,061 and killing 1,123. This was followed outbreaks in 2006 that infected 2,320 and killed 528, and again in 2007, when 3,024 cases and 645 deaths were reported.

According to sources in the health ministry, centre had sanctioned about Rs 4000 crore few years ago to upgrade infrastructure in high risk areas where people fall prey to infections.

A group of five ministries took steps for improving sanitary conditions, build clean toilets, provide nutritious meals, clean drinking water and setting up intensive care units (ICUs) among other facilities, an official said, requesting anonymity.

Secretary Mishra, who spoke to HT while boarding the flight, said, We will assess the situation and provide all necessary help.

Union health minister JP Nadda retweeted reports that he had spoken to UP CM Yogi Adityanath,and assured him of assistance/expertise from the Centre.

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World Elephant Day on Saturday brought both good and bad news for wildlife lovers.

First, the good news. Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have together recorded an increase of more than 1,200 wild elephants in the last five years as per a Census report released by environment minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday.

Now, the bad news: The population of elephants in India has declined by nearly 11% or 3,399 in the last five years  from 30,711 in 2012 to 27,312 in 2017.

At this stage, comparisons should not be made (between 2012 and 2017), the reason being that the earlier Census results were based on a mixture of direct and indirect counting methods, as reported by different states, said the Census report , Synchronised Elephant Population Estimation 2017.

Harsh Vardhan said this time the results were based on the direct count method. The indirect method includes estimation through elephant dung analysis.

The minister also launched a 15-month-long campaign  Gaj Yatra  to raise awareness about the shrinking space for Indias wild elephants and their corridors, a probable reason for decline in their population. The Wildlife Trust of India, which will coordinate the yatra, has mapped a total of 101 elephant corridors.

Of 24 states surveyed for the exercise, only eight reported an increase in elephant numbers. Tamil Nadu saw the biggest dip of 1,254 elephants, followed by Karnataka (439).

The report also highlighted the increasing elephant-human conflict with their habitat shrinking in most states in which over 100 tuskers and 660 people have died since 2015.

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Sounding the poll bugle in Karnataka, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday kicked off his visit to the state, declaring that the party stands united and said, Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar(This time, a BJP government).

Shah, who is in Karnataka on a three-day visit to re-energise a faction-riven state unit, asserted that the party was ready for the electoral battle to win the assembly polls under the leadership of BJP state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa.

Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state, Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport here.

Assembly polls in Karnataka are due early next year for which the party has a 150-plus seats goal to come back to power.

Shah is scheduled to interact with party men at various levels and expected to give a pep talk to senior leaders to remain united, as the open bickering between some of its leaders until recently had embarrassed the party.

Yeddyurappa has come under criticism from a section of party leaders over his alleged arbitrary style of functioning with another senior leader KS Eshwarappa openly flagging the issue until both were told to shun open display of differences.

I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power, Shah said.

Addressing the party workers who gave him a rousing reception near the airport, Shah said he had come here to realise the goal of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka.

I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise Ab Ki Baar, BJP Sarkar (This time, a BJP government) resolution, he added.

He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modis Vijay Rath (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into the southern India by winning Karnataka.

BJPs first ever government in the South had ruled Karnataka from 2008-2013 that saw internal fights leading to change of chief ministers thrice and paved the way for return of Congress to power.

The ruling Congress is going all out to retain power but BJP has said it has a counter-strategy to fight its polarisation politics.

The BJP would neither interfere in the Lingayat religion issue nor use Kannada language row as a political tool to counter the polarisation politics of the Congress in Karnataka, senior BJP leader Suresh Kumar said.

The Congress support to a separate religion cause of Lingayats, the largest community in the state, ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, is seen as an attempt to cause damage to the BJP, which enjoys considerable support from the community.

The BJP also does not want to use the language issue as a tool to create hatred towards other communities and sections of the people, Kumar said.

Huge protests were staged by pro-Kannada outfits over the use of Hindi on Namma Metro signboards, which also had forced Siddaramaiah to write to the Centre stating the government was compelled to ask Namma Metro to temporarily re-design signboards in stations without the Hindi language following a row over its use.

Shahs visit is part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party.

Shahs programmes during his three-day stay include interaction with intellectuals, meeting religious leaders, state functionaries, legislators, MPs, and leaders of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

On Sunday, he will take part in the Political Affairs Committee meeting of the party and visit Adi Chunchanagiri Math at Nagamangala in Mandya district and meet the seer, who is the religious leader of Vokkaligas, the second most powerful community in Karnataka.

He will also meet Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

On the third day, Shah will address party vistaraks (volunteers) who had fanned out across the state to get feedback from the people.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, death of children is mere statistics. More so, at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

While the death of 30 children over two days, allegedly due to lack of oxygen, has grabbed headlines, more than 3,000 children have died at the government-run hospital since 2012, official data show.

To put things in perspective, the 3,000-odd deaths are among 50,000 children killed in eastern Uttar Pradesh over the past three decades, most of them due to Japanese encephelitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES).

Health practitioners in Gorakhpur, chief minister Adityanaths constituency, attribute negligence as a major factor for the high number of deaths.

Earlier too, patients, majority being children, admitted in the encephalitis ward of the hospital had died due to negligence, said AK Prasad, a Gorakhpur-based medical practitioner.

Sources said the college, developed as a nodal centre for treating the mosquito-borne diseases, is awaiting release of funds for strengthening its facilities.

In May, the college administration sent a proposal of Rs 37 crore for improving facilities, including maintenance of wards, ICU, medicine procurement, ventilators and laboratory.

The state government, in turn, forwarded the proposal to the central government for approval and allocation of funds.

The release of funds is still awaited, an official said.

Former principal of the college, KP Kushwaha, stressed on the need to amend the policy regarding JE and AES patients.

Usually, officials do not provide the correct figure of encephalitis patients to the health and family welfare department, fearing that action will be taken against them, he said.

He alleged that doctors who suppress the patient numbers are promoted and those who highlight are sidelined.

Kushwaha, who was earlier the head of paediatrics department in the College, said the state government should also establish encephalitis management centre for patients.

Rather than appointing doctors and paramedical staff on contract, the health department should appoint permanent doctors and staff who work with commitment, he added.

Over the years, political leaders of all hues have made a beeline to the hospital after each incident of mass children deaths.

Promises have been made to improve the facilities after each tragedy. But they have remained just that  promises.

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Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar called upon students on Saturday to imbibe patriotism and always follow the policy of nation first.

The former defence minister said marginalised sections of the society must be empowered for harmonious development of the country.

Delivering his keynote speech at the 55th convocation of the IIT-Bombay, the senior BJP leader said, For the nation to succeed, there needs to be a strong binding force. Ours is a great nation with many themes that we are proud of.

The pearls of past, present and future can only be strung together by a strong sense of patriotism. And when it comes to working on the field, then we should always keep in the mind that nation always comes first, he said.

Parrikar, an alumnus of the IIT-Bombay, said if students think politics is dirty, then they should join it and make things better.

If you think that politics is dirty, then I would say, this is why you should precisely come here, he said.

Parrikar had enrolled in the IIT-Bombay in 1973 and graduated in metallurgical engineering in 1978. He is the first IIT graduate to become the chief minister of any state.

Parrikar said social inclusion was a major challenge for harmonious development of the country.

The truly marginalised sections of the society need to be empowered, especially Dalits and tribals, irrespective of their caste, religion and community, he said.

The engineer-turned-politician advised the graduating students to work keeping in mind long-term goals.

When it comes to long-term changes, we should not expect instant results by keeping in mind that what comes quickly, goes away quickly, he said.

As many as 2,612 students, including 357 PhD holders, were awarded degrees at the convocation ceremony.

Yusuf K Hamied, Chairman of pharmaceutical giant Cipla Ltd, was bestowed with the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) at the hands of Parrikar.

During his speech, Parrikar took a trip down memory lane and recalled his hostel days in the premier institute.

The CM, speaking in a lighter sense, said when he was the mess coordinator, he hardly got any appreciation for arranging delicious food menu. But whenever something went wrong, he was the first one to be questioned.
A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report in June had pointed out gaping holes in the infrastructure of BRD hospital in Gorakhpur, where at least 30 children died allegedly due to disruption in oxygen supply since Thursday.

The CAGs social sector performance report of the four government-run medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh had found several irregularities in procurement of crucial equipment in the past five financial years. It also found that the equipment was not being used in the absence of trained staff.

Inadequacy of infrastructure available in medical colleges and their associated teaching hospitals are areas of serious concern in the state, which need to be addressed on priority, the report said, while asking the state government to improve functioning.

The CAG said the four hospitals, including BRD, parked their funds in Lucknows Kasturba Gandhi Medical Unit (KGMU) in violation of rules, resulting in delay in realisation of funds.

The BRD hospital had parked Rs 27.38 crore.

The parking of funds not only violated the financial rules but also deprived patients of adequate healthcare as essential equipment could not be procured on time, the report said.

Talking about the BRD hospital, the report said there was 27.21% shortage of clinical equipment and 56.33% of non-clinical equipment against the minimum requirement prescribed by the Medical Council of India, even through the hospital had adequate funds. The supply of oxygen  included in non-clinical equipment  was allegedly reduced after the hospital authorities failed to clear outstanding dues of Rs 70 lakh. Large shortage of equipment not only had an adverse impact on quality of education imparted to students but also affected healthcare delivery to general public in these areas, the audit report said.
Opposition parties on Saturday demanded the resignations of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh over the deaths of 63 children in Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College in five days.

A delegation comprising senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tiwari and RPN Singh met the doctors and patients.

We are deeply saddened by the incident. The incident has left the whole nation in grief. What happened here was due to lapse on the Uttar Pradesh government. Adityanath and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh should immediately resign from their post, said Azad.

RPN Singh said the incident happened due to lapse on the governments part.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari also demanded strict action against those responsible for the deaths, allegedly due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen, at BRD Medical College.

There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible -- the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital, and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister.

While all those responsible must be charged with criminal culpability accounting to murder,...there is a moral dimension which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and his health minister must take responsibility for and resign immediately, Tiwari said.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Azad said the Congress had spent crores of rupees to provide medical facilities in the hospital during the time of its ruling.

SP questions CMs silence

The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP), questioned the chief ministers silence in the aftermath of the childrens deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a heart wrenching tragedy.

Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the chief ministers constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue, he said.

Callousness led to tragedy: Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said the state governments callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

The BJP will never accept its mistake and so I leave it to their discretion to remove those responsible, she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanaths silence. First the callousness and now the shameless silence. Its a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state, AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

Baseless charges: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of indulging in politics on such a serious issue.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: Opposition is leveling baseless charges out of frustration as the BJP government under the leadership of Adityanath was working for the welfare of the state and its people.

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to spare none for the tragedy.

They were directed by an extremely unhappy chief minister to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.
Even as a magisterial probe is underway into the death of over 60 children, including infants, at the Baba Raghav Das Medical college in Uttar Pradeshs Gorakhpur, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday blamed lack of cleanliness.

Addressing a gathering at Allahabad, Adityanath said the death of these children in his constituency was caused by filth and scourge of open defecation.

There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis, you must be hearing media reports of BRD medical college these days...it is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out at such young age because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life he said while reminding the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

Gandagi ki wajah se is desh ka baccha asamay kaal kalvit ho raha hai (Unclean surroundings are causing untimely death of children), he said, while praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how his Swacch Bharat mission aimed at ridding people of the dirty and filth around them.

The governments cannot be the problem, they are solutions and if they are problems in themselves they have no right to continue, he added.
The Indian Army is giving a befitting reply to Pakistans ceasefire violations by firing 10 bullets for every Pakistani bullet across the LoC, Jammu and Kashmirs deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said on Saturday.

A 40-year old woman was killed in a ceasefire violation on Saturday, when the Pakistan Army resorted to shelling on forward villages and Indian posts along the Line of Control in Poonch district, prompting the Indian Army to retaliated strongly and effectively.

Pakistan is being given a befitting reply. If they (Pakistan Army) fire one bullet, we (Indian Army) retaliate with 10 bullets, Singh said in Jammu.

He said that is the kind of fierce retaliation we are giving on the borders. We are giving them a reply in the language that they better understand.

But the way the Pakistan Army is brutally killing civilians on the borders. We will not tolerate it. We will deal with them sternly diplomatically and militarily, the deputy CM said.
Officials at the BRD Medical College, where dozens of children died since Thursday, had been repeatedly warned of an impending disruption in oxygen supply but chose to ignore them until fatalities struck, evidence suggests.

Pushpa Sales, the sole supplier of liquid oxygen to the hospital in Gorakhpur of eastern Uttar Pradesh, had been writing letters regularly to the officials, saying the supply of oxygen could be disrupted if accumulated dues of Rs 68 lakhs were not cleared.

The firm had written letters to the BRD authorities on August 1 and August 8 (copies available with HT), cautioning them about a possible disruption. The letters, however, elicited no response.

The hospital authorities made a partial payment of Rs 21 lakhs against the accumulated dues only late on Friday, a day after 23 children had died at the nodal medical facility for the treatment of encephalitis in the region. Officials of Pushpa Sales insisted that their contract with the hospital stipulated that the dues cannot ever exceed Rs 10 lakhs.

The fault is not ours. We also bought oxygen from another firm, which denied supply without advance payment. In such a situation, how long could we have continued supplies? asked Deepankar Sharma, the owner of Lucknow-based Pushpa Sales.

Sources said the company cut off supplies on August 1 and the hospitals stock of oxygen finally ran out on the night of August 10, when the children died.

Operators of the pipelines that supply oxygen to various wards of the Nehru Hospital within the BRD Medical College had also warned of depleting oxygen stock some 12 hours before the children began to die on Thursday evening. Some of them told HT they had warned the higher officials that oxygen supply could run out by night since the meter reading in the morning showed a limited stock of 900 kg.

The hospital needs a daily supply of about 250 oxygen cylinders of seven kgs capacity each. It translates to 1,750 kgs of oxygen every day.

Pushpa Sales on Saturday rushed fresh supplies of oxygen cylinders to the hospital following receipt of the partial payment. We have called for liquid oxygen tanker from Rajasthan, the place from where we get the supply for medical college, said Manish Bhandari, an employee of the firm.

The hospital in the interim had procured oxygen cylinders from another supplier. The Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) also provided 10 cylinders from its stock to tide over the crisis. Officials said piped supply of oxygen to the wards is continuing with the cylinders being constantly replenished from local sources.

Pushpa Sales has been the sole supplier of oxygen to BRD Medical College since July. Earlier, oxygen was procured from three local suppliers: Modi Pharma, Balaji and Mayoor.
A health ministry team that reached Gorakhpur on Saturday to assess the situation after about 30 children died in a government hospital since Thursday, found the institution was overcrowded.

Most deaths were reported from the neonatal and encephalitis wards of the Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College amid allegations that a private contractor stopped supplying oxygen.

It is a fact that the hospital is overcrowded and the number of patients it caters to is far more than what it can manage, said health secretary CK Mishra.

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is common in the region that infects and kills hundreds annually.

As for the cause of death in the hospital, Mishra said they were awaiting inquiry report from the state government.

We were not rushed here to conduct any inquiry as the state government is already doing that. We are here to assist them in handling the situation. Let the state submit its report, until then we should not jump to conclusions, said Mishra.

Mishra along with minister of state (health) Anupriya Patel was part of the team that Central government rushed to Gorakhpur to take stock of the ground situation.

The hospital sees a high number of deaths every year, which the team says is a cause for concern and that it will try to address it.

Since the patient intake is very high in this hospital, it usually sees many deaths. It is a matter of concern for us, so we are waiting for our central team of technical experts that is arriving on Sunday to prepare a blueprint for future, said Mishra.

The Uttar Pradesh government denied the deaths were caused due to shortage of oxygen, claiming alternative arrangements for oxygen supply were made.

The patients died of various medical reasons and illnesses, it said.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said oxygen supply was disrupted at the hospital for two hours on Thursday night but ruled it out as the reason for the tragedy.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who represented the eastern UP city in Parliament for decades, ordered an investigation by the state chief secretary into the role of the hospitals sole oxygen vendor who cut off supplies over dues.

The state government also suspended the principal of the medical college.

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At least 30 children have died since Thursday in Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College amid allegations that a private contractor stopped supplying oxygen cylinders as the government-run hospital hasnt paid dues of about Rs 70 lakh.

The Uttar Pradesh government denied the charge, saying alternative arrangements for oxygen supply were made and the patients died of various medical reasons and illnesses.

Highlights:

8:00pm: Wont spare those responsible for child deaths, says Yogi Adityanath

7:56pm: During my visit, no one at the hospital mentioned the issue of oxygen supply, says CM Adityantah

7:54pm: We have constituted a committee to be lead by Chief Secretary to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident: UP CM

7:51pm: Report on correct number of deaths and the cause of death will be out soon, says UP CM

7:50pm: Different media outlets have reported a different toll on number of deaths, says Adityanath

7:49pm: Health secretary govt of India, has also reached Gorakhpur: UP CM

7:48pm: PM Modi has expressed worry over media reports on Gorakhpur hospital deaths, says Adityanath

7:47pm: The report of deaths at BRD Medical College is in news since yesterday. I want to thank you that you have attracted our attention to an important issue, says CM Adityanath

7:30pm: Earlier during the day, while addressing a gathering at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh CM said the death of children was caused by filth and scourge of open defecation. Gandagi ki wajah se is desh ka baccha asamay kaal kalvit ho raha hai (Unclean surroundings are causing untimely death of children), he said.

7:25pm: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath will address a press conference shortly

7pm: BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj said 30 infants died in a Gorakhpur hospital because oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of dues.

The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident, the MP from Unnao told reporters.

6.40pm: Yogi Adityanath calls for a meeting of UP ministers Siddharth Nath Singh, Ashutosh Tandon and minister of state health Anupriya Patel.

6.15pm: Opposition SP and BSP say infant deaths an outcome of UP govts gross criminal negligence, demand high-level probe; will send teams to Gorakhpur.

6pm: In UPs Gorakhpur more than 60 children have died. Congress party is with the bereaved families: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi says in Raichur.

5.40pm: Union health minister JP Nadda has spoken to Yogi Adityanath and assured him of assistance from the Centre, reports ANI.

The report adds that Adityanath assured Nadda that all aspects of deaths at BRD Medical college are being examined.

5pm: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath says encephalitis is a challenge.

4.45pm: Suspended BRD medical college principal says he had given his resignation prior to the suspension, taking responsibility for the tragedy, ANI reports.

4.30pm: The supply of oxygen to the hospital will resume on Saturday night after the institution partially cleared its dues.

4.15pm: The principal has been suspended until a high level probe is completed: UP health minister Sidharth Nath Singh.

Owing to laxity, the principal of BRD Medical College has been suspended with immediate effect, Singh told reporters.

4pm: UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh admits that the oxygen supply was cut off for two hours, but the children didnt die due to disruption of gas supply.

3.45pm: The Prime Ministers Office tweeted, PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and UP Governments.

3.28pm: The owner of one of the firms that supplied oxygen to the hospital said his contract had ended in March and was not renewed, news agency IANS reported.

3pm: Union health minister JP Nadda has asked minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C K Mishra to visit Gorakhpur to look into the deaths of children

2pm: The Uttar Pradesh government said that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpurs state-run Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College.

Whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action, Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told PTI in Lucknow on Saturday.

1.45pm: The current government is responsible for the deaths of children in Gorakhpur due to the lack of oxygen. Strict action should be taken, tweeted former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The supply of oxygen to a tragedy-struck Gorakhpur hospital will resume on Saturday night after the government-run institution partially cleared its dues, following nationwide outrage over the deaths of 30 children allegedly of lack of oxygen.

Officials at Lucknow-based Pushpa Sales, the biggest of three oxygen suppliers to Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, said a truck full of oxygen cylinders would reach the hospital by night and that Rs 21 lakh had been credited to the firm.

The company  which was the only one supplying liquid oxygen to the hospital -- allegedly cut off supplies on August 1 after authorities defaulted on payment of Rs 68 lakh.

The fault is not ours. As per our agreement, credit limit cannot exceed Rs 10 lakh but despite this we continued supplying oxygen till it reached about Rs 70 lakh. We also bought oxygen from another firm, which denied supply without advance payment. In such a situation how long could we have continued supplies? said Deepankar Sharma, owner of Pushpa Sales.

The deaths of the children in a span of 48 hours shocked the country and triggered a political storm with opposition parties attacking the government.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had visited the BRD Medical College  including the 100-bed encephalitis ward  on August 9 and also held a review meeting with top health officials. But officials said he wasnt aware of the payment problems and suspension of oxygen supply by one of the suppliers.

We have called for liquid oxygen tanker from Rajasthan  the place from where we get the supply for medical college, said Manish Bhandari, an employee at Pushpa.

The agency said it was sending reminders to the BRD Hospital management since February, mentioning they would be forced to stop supply of oxygen if payments were not cleared at the earliest. Pushpa Sales has been supplying liquid oxygen to BRD Medical College for the last three years.

Baba Raghav Das Medical College is infamous for high mortality rate, especially of children suffering from Japanese encephalitis. This phase of the year (July-October) is crucial as majority of the cases are reported at this time. The incident hints at the practice of commission which is realised for releasing payments. This should be probed, said Raghvendra Pratap Singh, a Gorakhpur-based social worker. He said delay in payment was common but not to such extent that deaths start taking place.

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Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday urged the media to portray the correct picture of deaths at Gorakhpurs BRD Medical College.

Announcing that a committee headed by chief secretary Rajive Kumar was constituted to probe the role of the supplier and causes of disruptions, if any, in supply, the CM said the company supplying oxygen was appointed during the previous regime in 2014.

The probe committee will submit its report in a week.

Adityanath was speaking to mediapersons, along with minister for medical and health Siddharth Nath Singh, minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon and Union minister of state for health and family welfare Anupriya Patel.

The chief minister, who had sent Singh and Tandon to Gorakhpur, said he had received reports of the two ministers.

He also gave an account of number of deaths in Gorakhpur since August 7 and said different numbers were reported in different sections of the media.

The district magistrates report about magisterial inquiry on the issue was also expected soon, he said.

Adityanath said he launched the fight against Japanese Encephalitis in 1998 and had visited the college on July 9 and August 9 to review the preparations to tackle the disease.

The CM said he interacted with the officials for three hours and none of them brought to his notice the issue of delay in payment to the oxygen supplier.

My government had given standing instructions at all levels that all files should be cleared in three days, said the chief minister.

He also clarified that the company had written a letter to the principal of the medical college on August 1 who, in turn, wrote to DG medical and health on August 4 and the money was released on August 5. The company, however, was paid on August 11.

He added that the principal left for Rishikesh on August 9 and came back only on Saturday morning.

The principal has been placed under suspension and further disciplinary action is being taken against him, said the CM.

Adityanath also gave a detailed account of the JE immunisation programme launched by him in May and claimed the steps taken by his government had begun showing results.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was concerned about the deaths in Gorakhpur and had thus sent Patel to Gorakhpur.

I have requested the Union minister to also read the report of two Uttar Pradesh ministers, he said.

Earlier, Singh gave a break up of deaths taking place per day to make his point that the number of deaths had not gone up in August this year.

He said in all, there were 577 deaths in August 2014, 668 in August 2015, 587 in August 2016 and 133 deaths in August 2017 up to now.
Crisis brings out the best in some people.

At a time when all hell broke loose in Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College following alleged disruption of oxygen supply, one man  Dr Kafil Ahmed  answered the call of duty.

As patients began collapsing due to lack of oxygen, the man in charge of the encephalitis ward rushed to the ward and made last-ditch effort to save lives.

For several hours, Dr Kafil became a one-man army for the junior doctors and hospital staff, giving them instructions and showing attendants how to provide artificial respiration to patients.

However, things gradually began getting out of control.

With supply of new oxygen cylinders still two-and-a-half hours away at around 7.30am on Thursday, it did not take Dr Kafil time to realise that the desperate situation required desperate measures.

He rang up around half-a-dozen suppliers of oxygen cylinders in the district.

Only one, Mayur Gas, agreed to give them the cylinders, provided that the down payment was made strictly in cash.

With no time to lose, Dr Kafil took out his ATM card and sent one of his office staff to get the cash from the nearest teller machine.

He then took out whatever money he had in his pocket and gave it to the truck driver of Imperial Gas Service from Faizabad to buy fuel and rush to Khalilabad to get supply.

The oxygen shortage in the paediatric ward, meanwhile, only made things worse.

Without wasting time, Dr Kafil got into his car, drove down to the private hospital of his friend and borrowed three jumbo oxygen cylinders, put them in his car and rushed back to BRD.

Meanwhile, owner of Mayur Gas agency reneged on his promise to refill the cylinders.

Dr Kafil brought the matter to the notice of the authorities and sought their help but by then it was too late.

Several attempts by HT to get in touch with Dr Kafil, however, proved futile as his cellphone remained out of network coverage.

Ironically, it was another supplier, whose contract was not renewed by the hospital authorities, who came to the rescue.

When we came to know about the shortage of oxygen and the deaths following it, we supplied around 200-300 cylinders to the hospital out of humanity, Praveen Modi, owner of Modi Chemical Private Limited told news agency ANI.

BRD hospital still owes him ?20 lakh.

Since March, the medical college administration had stopped dealing with me and given the tender to an Allahabad company, he said.
The Uttar Pradesh government suspended on Saturday the principal of a medical college where 23 infants died in 24 hours but denied that a snag in oxygen supply caused the deaths that shocked India and triggered a political blame game.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said oxygen supply was disrupted at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur for two hours on Thursday night but ruled it out as the reason for the tragedy.

We studied various aspects of the deaths the deaths were due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), infection and liver failure, Singh said.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath  who represented the eastern UP city for almost two decades in Parliament -- echoed Singh and also blamed a lack of cleanliness and hygiene. Later, he announced an investigation by the state chief secretary into the role of the hospitals sole oxygen vendor who cut off supplies over dues.

Singh said piped oxygen reserves ran low at 7.30pm on Thursday, replenished by cylinders, and the hospital completely lost supply between 11.30pm and 1.30am on Friday.

Only seven deaths were reported between 7.30 pm-10.05pm when there was short supply of oxygen.

A child being treated at the hospital. (Deepak Gupta/HT Photo)

Six more children died at the hospital on Saturday, sources said. But Singh pointed out that 20-22 deaths a day was normal for a hospital where thousands poured in from far-flung areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar -- regions ravaged by the mosquito-borne Japanese Encephalitis that affects the brain.

But opposition parties were unimpressed, and pointed out that the hospital had defaulted on payments of Rs 68 lakhs to oxygen suppliers over several months. Even a warning by the oxygen pipeline operators on Thursday morning of low reserves was ignored. Sources said no post-mortem examinations were conducted before burying the dead children.

The government is squarely responsible for the death of all the children, said former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Congress Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati demanded a probe and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad  who visited the hospital on Saturday  demanded Singh and Adityanath resign.

Opposition parties also pointed out that Adityanath had visited the college  including the 100-bed encephalitis ward  on August 9 but the state government said he wasnt aware of the payment problems.

(Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; data for 2017 till August 6, 2017.)

In Gorakhpur, anger and dismay ran high as local residents and families of victims demanded an inquiry and alleged negligence at the hospital.

How could the hospital administration be callous to our suffering when Adityanath represents this constituency? asked Bhagwati Yadav whose seven-year-old daughter is battling for her life in the encephalitis ward.

Oxygen supply was restored to the hospital on Saturday night after the government partially paid its dues to a Lucknow-based company. The company, Pushpa Sales, had issued an ultimatum to hospital authorities on August 8, warning that supplies may be hampered if its dues were not cleared.

Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident will certainly face stringent action, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters.

The incident reverberated in Delhi as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur and he was in touch with central and state government officials, the prime ministers office tweeted

Minister of state (health) Anupriya Patel and secretary (health) CK Mishra, along with a team of doctors, are a part of the Union health ministry delegation that left for Gorakhpur on Saturday. Union health minister JP Nadda has sought a report from the state health department into the matter.
Days before 30 children died in a Gorakhpur hospital within 48 hours, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had reviewed arrangements at the largest medical facility in the city during his two-day visit. The officers did not tell him about the impending oxygen crisis due to non-payment of bills, which many claim caused the child deaths, the government said

Government officials have said the disruption of oxygen supply is not the reason for the deaths, encephalitis and other medical causes are.

But this isnt the only time high number of deaths have been reported from the BRD Medical College hospital, named after freedom fighter Baba Raghav Das. From politics to funding, heres a lowdown on Gorakhpurs largest hospital:

1) Political battleground

 2008: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the college after 12 children died.

 2011: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then Union health minister, visited BRD Medical College hospital to review facilities after the deaths of children admitted in the encephalitis ward.

 2012: In October, then CM and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav announced compensation for the families of patients who had died at the hospital.

 2015: JP Nadda, the Union health minister, visited the hospital to review arrangements for encephalitis patients.

 2016: Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath attacked the then SP government in the state for neglecting the issue of child deaths in his constituency. For 36 years, the death of children is being reported in Gorakhpur region. Around one lakh children have died, and majority of those who have survived are disabled. The state government has been insensitive to recurrent deaths even though central government has released much funds, said Adityanath, who is now the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

2) Lab at BRD discovered high levels of MSG in Maggi

In 2014, it was a laboratory at the BRD Medical College campus that found high levels of flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) in Maggi noodles, The Indian Express reported. The labs findings led to a full-blown controversy a year later that saw the popular snack by Nestle India being banned briefly across the country after tests ordered by the food safety regulator.

3) History of negligence?

 More than 3,000 children have reportedly died at the government-run hospital since 2012, official data show. These deaths are among 50,000 children killed in eastern UP over the past three decades, most of them due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

 The Lucknow-based company which provided oxygen cylinders to the hospital had also cut its supply last year in April when its arrears had reached Rs 50 lakh.

4) Funding

In May, the college administration sent a proposal of Rs 37 crore for improving facilities, including ICU, ventilators and laboratory. The state government forwarded the proposal to the Centre for approval and the hospital is still awaiting the release of funds.

5) Gorakhpurs largest hospital

 BRD has over 800 indoor beds, including a 100-bed encephalitis ward, and outpatient departments for various medical disciplines. More than 3.5 lakh patients avail OPD services every year at the hospital, according to its official website last updated in 2015.

 The website also says BRD is associated with various health programmes and ... the institute plays a vital role in control & treatment of and research on Japanese Encephalitis/ AES prevalent in this region).
The oxygen crisis that allegedly led to the death of over 30 children at the BRD Medical College had brought many of the services at the facility to a standstill. Doctors there had informed the district authorities and also asked for help but all in vain, sources said.

It was the SSB hospital and a few private hospitals which came forward to help. The SSB hospital supplied 10 jumbo cylinders to meet the crisis at the BRD Medical College.

The information about oxygen stock getting over was given out the intervening night of Thursday-Friday. One Dr Kafil made an attempt to call up the suppliers and ask for cylinders.

Dr Kafil then went to the SSB hospital on a two-wheeler and informed them about the crisis. The SSB authorities immediately provided 10 cylinders and also provided a truck so that the BRD Medical College can manage more cylinders from other places, sources said. Eventually, around 30 cylinders were procured this way.

Read more: Gorakhpur tragedy: Child after child collapsed as doctors tried to get oxygen supply back on

But chief medical officer of BRD Medical College Dr Ravindra Kumar said no death took place due to lack of oxygen.

He said that after getting information about deaths allegedly due to lack of oxygen, the college made efforts were made to find out the fact. The college admitted seven deaths but that were due to illnesses, he said.

Among the worst affected by the oxygen shortage were the trauma centre, the encephalitis ward, neonatal unit, labour room, emergency medicine ward, medicine ICU and epidemic medicine ward.
Shocked by the death of dozens of children at the in the BRD Medical College, residents of Gorakhpur now await the arrival of chief minister Yogi Adityanath to provide solace and to crack whip on the erring medical college and district administration officers.

Residents are sore that despite Gorakhpur being the CMs parliamentary constituency, such a tragedy has unfolded.

How could the hospital administration be callous to our suffering when they know that chief minister Adityanath represents the constituency in which the medical college is located? asked Bhagwati Yadav whose seven-year-old daughter was battling for life in the encephalitis ward. None of the senior administrative officers visited the hospital when the patients were collapsing due to oxygen crisis, he said.

Adityanath had been concerned over the continuing deaths of the children in BRD Medical College and assured better facilities after BJP forms government. We cannot imagine that officers could be so callous when Mahantji (the local people call Adityanatth since he is head priest of Gorakhnath Mutt) is at helm off affairs, said Gauri Nishad whose son is admitted in the hospital.

Locals have also taken to social media to demand that Adityanath visits Gorakhpur immediately. Only the visit of Yogi Adityanath will improve the working in the BRD Medical else the death toll will mount, said Aditya Kumar a student in the DDU Gorakhpur University.

As the pressure mounted, the state government announced that health minister, Siddharth Nath Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon will visit the BRD Medical College Hospital to take stock of the situation. But locals want the CM to show up.

Adityanath is our representative, so rather than sending the ministers he should visit the hospital and meet the parents whose children are undergoing treatment in the hospital. Large deaths have shaken their faith in the hospital machinery, said Radhey Shyam, a resident of Khorabar area near Gorakhpur.

When death stalked children in the wards of the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College snuffing lives, the alleged cold response of the medical college administration added to the plight of the parents as they ran from one ward to another in search of oxygen supply points. The fortunate ones managed to get temporary oxygen device to resuscitate their children. The absence of the principal, Professor Rajeev Mishra from the scene was startling as the doctors struggled to get oxygen the from the SSB hospital.

On August 9 Adityanath had reviewed the arrangements in hospital during his two-day visit to Gorakhpur but the officers did not tell him about the impending oxygen crisis due to non-payment of the bills. He was even kept in dark about the deaths of the children that started on August 10 when he was visiting the neighbouring Maharajganj district.

When the toll started mounting, the medical college administration informed the top Government officers about the crisis, said Ashok Prasad who runs a pharmacy on the on Medical College road.

The medical college administration and district administration officers are aware that each year there is large flow of patients to the hospital during monsoon. They still failed take steps to meet the emergency and non-clearance of the oxygen bill shows that officers are callous and unconcerned about the facilities in the hospital, said CB Prasad, a doctor.

A social activist Vinod Kumar Singh said the plight of the patients admitted in BRD Medical College was among the top agenda of the chief minister when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Gorakhpur. He blamed the BSP and SP government for the neglect of the patients admitted in BRD Medical College hospital.

In the Lok Sabha last year, Adityanath attacked the then Samajwadi Party state government for neglecting the issue.

For 36 years, the death of the children is being reported in Gorakhpur region. Around one lakh children have died, and majority of those who have survived are disabled. The state government has been insensitive to recurrent deaths even though central government has released much funds, Adityanath had said.

Demanding that Japanese encephelitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) should be declared an epidemic, Adityanath had said that along with strengthening the facilities in the BRD Medical College hospital a drive should be launched on a war footing for the eradication of the disease.

The shoe is now on the other foot. While the state government insists the deaths were not due to oxygen crisis, opposition parties have mounted pressure. Local Congress, SP and BSP leaders visited the hospital and urged the medical officers to provide relief to the patients admitted in the wards.

BJP MLA from Gorakhpur, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal who is also a paediatrician said heads would roll.

I talked with the CM over the issue and demanded strict action against the Medical College officers and district administration officers. The CM told me that he has sought a report from the health and medical education minister, the responsibility of the officers will be fixed and strict action will be taken against the erring officers, he said.

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Six soldiers injured, one of them is critical, in an exchange of fire between security forces and militants in south Kashmirs Shopian district on Saturday evening, a police official said.

Police said three militants are believed to be holed up inside Awanira village.

Cordon at Awanira in Shopian. Some exchange of fire, Jammu and Kashmir police Twitter handle wrote.

More details are awaited.

Since July 30, 14 militants have been killed in encounters with security forces in Kashmir. Five other infiltrators were gunned down along the LoC by the army in Machil sector on August 7.

The state has been witnessing violent protests and clashes since the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani last year in July.

Petrol bomb attack in Srinagar

One person was injured when a petrol bomb was thrown at Badyari Chowk in Srinagar, police said.

One person identified as Imtiyaz Ahmed got injured, a police spokesperson said.

Ahmed has been admitted in SMHS hospital in the city Srinagar and his condition is stable.

A search is on for the attackers and further details awaited.
India is days away from celebrating its 70th Independence Day. Independence has helped people and communities to smash barriers of caste, class, gender, ability and faith and achieve their dreams. But structures of oppression persist, and many people languish in islands of darkness where freedoms are few and choices absent.

HT brings you stories from of hope, courage and perseverance in free India, and of isolation, hate and despair that stalk the unfree India .

In Part 2, read about the trials of Muslim men in Hyderabad and the success story of a Kashmiri businessman . Here is the Kashmiri businessman story:

Muheet Mehrajs abiding memory of Independence Day is being home without internet. As part of security protocol, internet services are suspended in Kashmir every August 15.

And yet, at the age of 21, when he decided to drop out of college to found his own start-up, he chose to rely on the internet. Today, 27-year-old Mehraj runs a successful e-commerce website, Kashmir Box.

The best solutions often come from the worst places, he says with a smile.

From the finest Pashmina (cashmere) shawls and richly decorated paper mache products to intricately carved walnut wood furniture and packaged Goshtaba, of its famed Wazwan - Kashmir Box has a flavour of everything Kashmir.

Mehraj co-founded the site after realising the potential of online market for Kashmir products. There are about 8,000- 10,000 stores which sell Kashmiri products but there is negligible presence online. The website started in the winter of 2011 with a Rs 1,500 loan Mehraj took from his mother.

Since then, it has thrived, growing from just two people working with 10 artisans to a 25-member team working with 2,500 artisans. On the way, it has picked up orders in 35 countries and even been awarded  all at a time of great turmoil for the e-commerce industry in India and e-tail giants like Amazon and Flipkart gobbling up market space.

Last year, Kashmir Box began its Delhi operations at a sparse office in Shahpur Jat in south Delhi. The expansion came at a time of great turmoil in the Valley in the aftermath of Burhan Wanis encounter last summer. Our artisans would call us and say that we were their only link to customers so we had to deliver, Mehraj recalls.

Reaching office during the curfew was impossible, so they began work early morning from 5am - 7am before it came into effect and post 6pm till late night. But the unrest also had other repercussions. One employee was hit by a pellet gun, another rounded up and taken to the police station during the daily cycle of violence. He says, We lost 60 percent business during that time and we havent still recovered all of it. But for me, it was important to circumvent the problem, not cry about it.

Three people came down to set up an office in Delhi which became the hub. Courier services were not working so they had to go to the airport themselves and pack their products as freight to Delhi, from where the team would send it onwards.

While Mehraj says his Kashmiri identity was not a hindrance here, he admits that prejudices abound. Hes received messages calling him an agent and comments like Dont order from them, they may pack a bomb. His other peeve is that in media interviews about the brand, he is often unfairly asked about the political situation in Kashmir or his views on Pakistan, which has nothing to do with his work.

But he remains unfazed. And that has been possible since at the heart of the venture, Mehraj reiterates, is to make crafts lucrative for the craftsmen and revive the dying arts. He says, The income of an artisan was lower than that of a daily wage labourer. Right now, we have managed to double that income. We want to make it five times.

Kashmirs rich tradition of handmade arts and crafts took a severe hit in the 90s as militancy peaked. Mehraj says they built their platform after identifying specific problem areas. From high-end international luxury brands which sourced Kashmiri products before the 90s, the market became more local post that, he explains. This led to a rise in fake or cheap knock-offs flooding the market.

To counter these, Mehraj got a rigorous system of checks  for example, the Pashmina has to pass 31 parameters.

Mehraj refuses to divulge exact numbers on investment, revenue and profit but confirms they will be raising a round of funding later this year. Everyone wants to build a marketplace. We want to create an ecosystem and have social impact. We are a business with a heart.

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India is days away from celebrating its 70th Independence Day. Independence has helped people and communities to smash barriers of caste, class, gender, ability and faith and achieve their dreams. But structures of oppression persist, and many people languish in islands of darkness where freedoms are few and choices absent.

HT brings you stories from of hope, courage and perseverance in free India, and of isolation, hate and despair that stalk the unfree India .

In Part 2, read about the trials of Muslim men in Hyderabad and the success story of a Kashmiri businessman . Here is the story of a Muslim man:

In 2009, Ibrahim Ali Junaid stopped meeting friends.

The 35-year-old Unani doctor had just been acquitted after two harrowing years in connection with the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad and thought keeping a low profile would keep him out of trouble.

He was wrong. Over the next six years, the city police allegedly tailed his every move, followed him from home to work and back and picked him up every time there was communal violence in the city.

The police used to keep a watch on my movements till a couple of years ago during the twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar in February 2013, NIA authorities called me for questioning. And during the 2014 elections, I was bound over like a rowdy sheeter, Junaid told Hindustan Times.

Once outgoing and gregarious, Junaid is now reticent and doesnt mingle with people, including relatives and friends. All that he does is to walk down from his residence at Yousufain Bazar near Chandrayangutta to his clinic which runs from 11am to 3pm and again from 6pm to 10pm. I hardly go out for public functions and keep myself busy with my medical practice. Yet, the police keep a tab on people coming to my clinic, Junaid said.

He was in the third year of medical college when the explosions ripped through the old city, next to the iconic Charminar in May 2007, killing 16 people. He says he rushed to help victims and talking to media about the incident. That was my crime. The police called me in the name of gathering information and then warned me against speaking to media, he recalled.

Days later, police arrested him at the Secunderabad railway station when he was returning from New Delhi from a Unani conference. They subjected me to third-degree torture and tried to force me saying I had planted the bomb. Finally, they sent me to jail, he said.

In January 2009, Junaid and 20 others were let off by the court as the police could not produce any evidence. But by then, the damage was done -- Junaids college admission had been cancelled and his familys standing in society had been tarnished. We were not getting invitations from any of our relatives for functions and marriages. I could not even get a match for myself for a couple of years, he said.

Similar stories of horror run through the narrow maze of streets in the Muslim-dominated old city of Hyderabad, where men say the polices needle of suspicion is forever tracked at them. Hundreds of such cases are reported from across India where Muslim men are picked up on trumped-up terror charges and let off after a few years, say activists, often on the flimsiest of grounds.

Mohammed Rayeesuddin agrees. The 33-year-old was working as a helper with a famous jewellery shop when the Mecca Masjid blast took place. He says his only crime was that he was from the same locality as Shahid Bilal, the member of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islam (HuJI), a terrorist outfit based in Bangladesh.

The police kept me under illegal detention for eight days. I was blindfolded and tortured in different farm houses. Later, I was produced in the court on the charge of conspiracy. Along with other boys, I was subject to Narco Analysis test, but they could not get anything. Later, the court acquitted me for want of evidence, he recalled.

Junaid says the police subjected him to third-degree torture after picking him up on terror charges. (HT Photo)

Rayees said the police continued to hound him even after his acquittal. During Bonalu and Ganesh festivals, and during the elections, the police used to bind me over.

The questions lessened as no communal incidents were reported in the past two years. But my life has been spoiled. I have no permanent job now, Rayees said.

Police say they have become more people friendly. May be in the past, the police behaved toughnow, there are no complaints of any harassment of innocent Muslims, Hyderabad south zone deputy commissioner of police V Satyanarayana told HT.

He said police have stopped shadowing suspects. We have been adopting latest technology to track the movements of people having a dubious track records.

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Pakistan is continuing to do its nefarious movements. It has once again violated the cease fire. On Saturday morning, a bomb blast was carried out by Pakistan in the sheep sector of Jammu and Kashmir. A 45-year-old woman died in this.

According to the police, Pakistan made two shells at around 05:35 this morning, causing a house to be damaged and one woman died. Apart from this, terrorists attacked the Army Headquarter located in the forest area of Kalaros in Kupwara district on Friday night. A soldier's army was badly injured in this.

Sources said that the terrorists firing indefinitely for at least 10 minutes. Its security forces responded retort. In this firing, a Jawan Rifle man got injured, who has been admitted to Military Hospital Drugmulla. Security forces are conducting search operations in the area.

On Saturday morning, the security forces have started the search operation in the valley. However, security sources say that the terrorist Zakir Musa once again ran out of dodge. It is known that the army has started Operation All Out to wipe out the terrorists from the valley.

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Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday played down the heightened rhetoric by Beijing over the Doklam standoff and said that India was fully equipped to face any challenge.

He said the government was confident about the steps it was taking in this regard.

We are well equipped to face any challenge whether externally or internally, Singh told reporters in Jammu.

The MoS PMO was responding to a question about the recent threat by China through its official media asking India to withdraw troops from the Sikkim sector.

I think for us the more important thing is to see what we are doing. I am not here to respond to what somebody is tweeting from the opposition parties. We are confident about what we are doing, he said.

China had recently said that it had conveyed its firm stand to India that it must take concrete actions by immediately pulling back troops from Doklam in the Sikkim section with no strings attached to resolve the current standoff.

The BJP leader also said that the government was giving befitting reply with regard to ceasefire violations on the Indo-Pakistan border, and was dealing with terrorism in Kashmir with a stern hand.

On appearance of militant Zakir Musas posters in Kashmir asking youths and students to keep away from Independence day functions, Singh said such posters have come up in the past too.

The government will take a call on this. The more these (terrorist) leaders come up with such things, the more they expose themselves. The youths cannot be threatened by the diktats of these militants, he said.

The Union minister also hailed the proactive role of security forces on the borders.

It is going to reap results sooner or later. I am sure this (proactive role of forces) will bring terrorism to its logical conclusion, he said.

Singh also emphasised that the Centres stand on Article 35A granting special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir was clear.

BJPs stand on Article 35A is clear. Opposition is waiting in the wings for this coalition government (in the state) to fall. We will not oblige them, he said.

Replying to a question on Uttar Pradesh governor directing all madrasas to sing the national song on Independence day, Singh said, Vande Mataram is a symbol of Indias national ethos. It is, therefore, wrong to associate it with any particular religion or sect.

We need to educate the masses on this more intensely. Vande Mataram was composed in 1870. It later become a national song in tribute to martyrs, irrespective of religion. It is a poem which became an unifying force in pre-Independence and post-Independence era. How can this be a dividing force? It has been wrongly perceived.

On the recent infant deaths at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh for want of oxygen, the Union minister said, I am sure there is a responsible government in the state. We have a CM who is extremely proactive. Whatever is required, will be done. What has happened is bad and all of us feel for it.
Opposition National Conference (NC) on Saturday demanded a statewide referendum on Jammu and Kashmirs special status enshrined in the Constitution.

The partys demand comes in the wake of a debate over Article 35 (A) that allows the state legislature to define the list of permanent residents and their special rights and privileges. The article was added to Article 370 in 1954 by a presidential decree.

The BJP, which is an alliance partner in the Mehbooba Mufti-led government in the state, has been calling for the scrapping of the special provision since the partys inception in 1980.

A fresh debate over the continuation of the article has been generated after a Delhi-based NGO recently challenged its validity in the Supreme Court.

The NC said the BJP is using the people of Hindu-majority Jammu region of the state as a pawn in its national politics.

Addressing media here, NC provincial president and Nagrota MLA Devender Singh Rana, a close confidant of party leader Omar Abdullah, equated the article with the holy cow that cannot be touched.

It is a very serious and sensitive issue and we believe that if 35(A) is scrapped, it would be a grave injustice to the people of the state, especially Dogras of Jammu, he said

Rana said his party will reach out to the people in every district apprising them about the dangerous ramifications of abrogating the Article 35 (A).

The NC MLA said common people in villages, who do not know much about the article, too are against abrogation of the state-specific laws.

It is a shield for the backward people of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

Pointing out that the state is governed by Indian Constitution as well as the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, Rana said: We have been vested with certain rights and we will fight for their protection. Our cadre will go to each block to educate the people, he said.

Rana recalled how the erstwhile Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh issued notifications in 1927 and 1932 to check influx of outsiders, especially from Punjab, who had started settling down in the state for business and jobs.

Referring to the petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Article 35(A), Rana said his party is of the view that the attorney general presented a very weak defence in the court.

If 35 (A) is repealed then the Article 370 will also be weakened, said Rana.

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An army soldier and a civilian woman were killed when Pakistani troops attacked a security post and shelled a village along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district, violating ceasefire again on Saturday.

An army spokesperson said Pakistani forces resorted to unprovoked firing on an Indian army post in KG sector around 5pm.

Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, the spokesperson said, adding Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar was grievously injured in the exchange of fire.

Tomar, 42, later succumbed to his injuries. He hailed from Tarsana village in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. He is survived by his wife Omavati Devi, a son and a daughter.

An intelligence source said another soldier identified as Sepou Mohit Kumar also sustained injuries in the firing. He was shifted to 425 Army Hospital in Poonch. However, the army has not yet confirmed it.

Earlier in the day, a 40-year-old woman, Raqia Bi, was killed when a shell fired from across the border exploded in the verandah of her house around 5.20am.

Police sources said the woman had just woken up and was washing her hands and face for the mornings namaz (prayer).

Till August 1 this year, there have been 285 instances of ceasefire violation by the Pakistani forces.
Jamshedpur, Aug 12 (PTI) The wife and her lover were responsible for the murder of a BSF jawan who was shot dead by unidentified assailants on August 10 in West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, police claimed on Saturday.

BSF jawan Shishir Kumar Pinguas wife and lover were arrested, deputy superintendent of police Prakash Soy said.

The BSF jawans wife was allegedly passing information to the killers about Pinguas location when he was returning home in a motorbike along with mother and his sick daughter, who was studying in Chakradharpur, Soy said.

Pingua was shot dead by three gunmen at Jangiburu Ghati under Manjhari police station.

Initial report had said that the woman accompanying the jawan was her wife but it was later confirmed that she was his mother.

The couple were not in speaking terms ever since Pingua came to know about his wifes extra-marital affair around six months ago, the DSP said.

Pingua was posted at Kishangunj district of Bihar.

Soy said a hunt was on to apprehend the assailants.
A private school in Keralas Malappuram district is facing flak after it introduced two different uniforms for students based on their academic skills.

According to the bizarre uniform code, academically sharp students will wear white shirts and tops while the second category of average and under-performing students will wear red check shirts and tops. The new system was introduced in the new academic session which began in June.

Though the parents initially opposed the move they were told by the Al Farooque English medium school in Pandikkad that the new uniform will trigger a healthy competition among students and it will help improve performance of the second category.

We were told the average students will yearn for white and work hard but we find it too discriminatory, said the mother of a student.

Read more: Case filed against Kerala school with links to IS men for teaching hate

Parents complained that the school overlooked the mental agony of the children who were discriminated. When their protests fell on deaf ears they approached the Childline (a body working under the state social welfare ministry to ensure rights of children) officials who found the system highly discriminatory.

When we asked the school principal he came out with a weird explanation that it will create a healthy competition and help students. He was not bothered about the psychological problem it triggered, said Childline district co-ordinator Anwar Karakadan.

The state education department has sought a report from the district education officer. When contacted a spokesman of the Al Farooque group said the school will discontinue the new uniform immediately and take action against the principal. At least 900 students are studying in the higher secondary school.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday ruled out lack of oxygen as the cause behind the deaths of 30 children in 48 hours at Gorakhpurs BRD Medical College hospital and ordered a high level inquiry into the incident to be led by the chief secretary. (Live updates)

Addressing a press conference, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh and medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon also suspended principal professor Rajiv Mishra.

After the first level of investigation, we can claim that the deaths did not take place due to disruption of gas supply. The discussions happened in detail, but issue of gas supply that shouldve come to light didnt come up, said Singh.

Of the 30 deaths, the ministers admitted that 23 were reported on Friday alone.

Each year, a large number of children admitted in the paediatrics ward of the hospital fall prey to the disease (Japanese Encephalitis) in August, Singh said.

The hospital is the nodal medical facility for the treatment of Japanese Encephalitis in the region. Some 3.5 lakh patients visit the hospital every year while more than 40,000 are admitted for treatment and surgery annually. Official records say 641 children died last year at the hospital while another 525 and 491 died in the previous two years.

Along with Encephalitis ward, children admitted in the neonatal wards have also died. The deaths were due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), infections and liver failure as well, said Singh.

Focusing on the oxygen crisis, Singh said on August 10 the supply meter was low at 7.30 pm due to non-availability of the oxygen. However, the supply from cylinder was activated soon after.

The cylinder supply continued till 11.30 pm. When the supply got exhausted, the oxygen was provided through Ambu bags (hand-held device). At 1.30 am, the cylinder gas supply was restored in the wards. The supply of oxygen is continuing in the wards today. Only 7 deaths were reported between 7.30 pm- 10.05 pm when there was short supply of oxygen, he said.

On non-payment of bill to company supplying oxygen, Singh said the company has written letter to the principal BRD Medical College regarding delay in the payment. The principal sent the letter to DG Medical Education who released the fund on August 5 and on August 7 the fund was credited in the account of the medical college. The dealer got the money on August 11.

I have asked the officers about the delay in the release of fund and payment, he said.

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, on Saturday, demanded a CBI probe into the fraudulent transfer of public funds, amounting allegedly to over Rs 350 crore, by the last count, into the account of an NGO, Srijan Sahayog Mahila Vikas Samiti in Bhagalpur district of south eastern Bihar.

Claiming the involvement of top politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats in the scam, Prasad told reporters only an independent probe by the premier investigating agency would only unravel the magnitude of the scam.

This scam is worth Rs 1,000 crore and funds withdrawn clandestinely from government accounts by Srijan since 2005 was used in real estate, businesses and for money laundering. A CBI probe is imperative as the tentacles of the scam are spread outside the state and even abroad, Prasad said.

He also dared CM Nitish Kumar to order a probe by the premier agency to exhibit his commitment towards his zero tolerance policy on corruption. The probe ordered into the scam by a police special investigation team is intended to save the big fish, he alleged.

Prasad said there was a need to probe the involvement of BJP leaders, particular deputy CM and finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi, union minister Giriraj Singh, ex-MP Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and BJPs Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwary in the scam.

He sought to make his point by exhibiting photos showing these BJP leaders sharing dais with Srijans promoter Manorama Devi.

Dubbing Sushil Modi as Rohu (big fish) of the scam, Prasad called for the BJP leaders immediate dismissed from the cabinet, alleging the latter had failed to check the withdrawals despite being finance minister of Bihar (from November 2005 to June 2013) and returning to the post last month.

If I am facing fodder scam cases on the charge that I failed to check the (animal husbandry department) treasury withdrawals as a finance minister in 1990s, Modi should also face cases on similar grounds, said Prasad, who was at the receiving end of Modis revelations in recent months about allegedly benami property holdings of his family members.

The RJD chief highlighted that the RBI had ordered a probe into the siphoning of funds by Srijan in 2013, wondering why tangible action was not taken in the matter. He also claimed bureaucrats close to chief minister Nitish Kumar were under a cloud following the surfacing of the scam.

I will approach the CBI and also demand a special audit of public funds by the AG, he said.

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Social activist Medha Patkar on Saturday ended her 17-day fast to protest against the governments apathy towards resettlement of those affected by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Patkar, however, would remain in detention. She was detained on Wednesday, hours after being discharged from a private hospital in Indore.

On the request of several organisations associated with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the social activist ended her fast. Fifteen members representing various organisations went to Dhar jail, where Patkar has been detained for the past three days, former MLA Dr. Sunilam said, adding: Keeping her health condition in mind, the members requested Patkar to call off the fast.

The former legislator also said five false charges have been registered against Patkar and the hearing over the matter would take place on August 17.

Patkar has been told that the entire nation is supporting her over the Narmada dam issue. The letters written by several organisations including Rajya Sabha MP and Janata-Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav were also shared with her.

She was told that the people urged her to end the fast. Dr Sunilam said Patkar ended her fast by drinking lemon water in her prison cell.

Many, including Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Parikh, former MP from West Bengal Hannan Mollah, Annie Raja of National Federation of Indian Women, Akhil Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, former MLA Dr Sunilam, senior journalist Chinmaya Mishra, Pramod Bagri, Saroj Mishra and Meera were also present.

The height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, on the Narmada river near Navagam in Gujarat, is being increased by 17 metres to 138.72 metres. The Supreme Court had ordered resettlement before July 31 of people of a town and 192 villages that fall in the submerged area.

The Madhya Pradesh government has presented false figures and provided wrong information in the Supreme Court. The apex courts instructions are also not being followed, Patkar had alleged.

A major part of Madhya Pradesh would fall in the submerged area with the increase in the dams height. The government is planning resettlement in areas which are muddy, there is no facility available... how would people and livestock survive, she wondered.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan, in a statement, had alleged that the project was initially pushed in the name of drought-affected people in Gujarat.

It is obvious that it was being pushed in favour of the corporates and in the interest of electoral politics, it said.
The opposition National Conference (NC) hit out at Pakistan on Saturday for interfering in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that Article 35A, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents, was a shield for the people of the state.

Pakistans Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakria in a statement on Thursday had accused India of trying to alter the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.

The main opposition party also lashed out at the local BJP for giving a political and communal colour to the issue and called for a referendum in Jammu region on Article 35A.

The article empowers states legislature to define permanent residents of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

Provincial president Devinder Singh Rana announced a campaign to educate people about benefits of Article 35A with the inauguration of a seminar by party working president Omar Abdullah here on August 14. He would also inaugurate another seminar in Kashmir on the same day.

Block presidents, block secretaries, district presidents and district secretaries would participate in it and later disseminate the information at grassroot level, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the party headquarters here, he said the statement issued by Pakistan seems to be part of a conspiracy to make the issue India versus Pakistan to pave way for its abrogation.

He also said if the Article 35A is tinkered with, the Dogras will suffer the most and Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to the state, will be rendered merely a skeleton.

The BJP is trying to sell that the Dogras are with it in its demand for revocation of the Article 35A and gives it a communal and regional colour. There should be a referendum on the issue in Jammu and Dogras be given a chance to decide whether the law should remain or go.

Questioning those who term the presidential order as illegal, Rana said if that order is illegal, what about the other orders passed by the president.

He said the defense of the attorney general and the state in the Supreme Court on the issue was weak to pave the way for abrogation of the constitutional provision.

The Supreme Court last month had asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.

The PIL said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non- residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

The Centre would explain to the Supreme Court the legal aspects of Article 35A. Attorney General KK Venugopal is expected to explain before the apex court these aspects.

He said the debate over Article 35A was neither Hindu versus Muslims nor Jammu versus Kashmir.

We are part of India and we are Indians. Constitution of India and Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir govern our living and existence but we have been vested with certain rights and we will protect those rights, he said.

The National Conference leader questioned the BJP leadership for introducing a domicile certificate in Himachal Pradesh and of assuring the citizens of Maharashtra of introducing a similar law.

In Sikkim, there is article 371A but you dont challenge it, he claimed.

Rana accused the BJP of deliberately raking up such issues for politics and undermining the safeguards ensured to people of the state by the Constitution.

He said the people of Jammu were angry at the discrimination with the region, especially during the last three years of the BJP-PDP rule.

We demand that the rights of all the people of all the three regions--Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh--should be protected and there should be no discrimination.

He said if Article 35A was abrogated, it would create serious problems for the people of the state, especially Jammu region, as businessmen and shopkeepers would lose their businesses, students lose their scholarships, and various jobs as well.

In reply to a question about the issue bringing together mainstream and separatists in Kashmir, he said, It is the responsibility of people of all three regions to ensure protection of their rights, he said.
The new Haj policy will be unveiled this month and from the next year, Haj will be organised according to it, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here on Saturday.

The new policy is aimed at making Haj process more transparent and smooth. Providing best facilities to Haj pilgrims is at the centre of this policy, he said at a review meeting on Haj 2017 and 22nd annual Haj orientation camp organised for pilgrims at the Haj House here.

Naqvi said that a high-level committee constituted to frame the new Haj policy is giving final shape to the policy.

Reviving the option of sending Haj pilgrims through the sea route is also one of the important part of the new policy.

Sending pilgrims through ships will help cut down travel expenses by nearly half as compared to airfares. It will be a revolutionary, pro-poor, pilgrim-friendly decision, he said.

The practice of ferrying Haj pilgrims between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped from 1995.

An advantage with ships available these days is they are modern and well-equipped to ferry 4,000 to 5,000 people at a time, he said.

They can cover the 2,300-odd nautical miles, one-side distance between Mumbai and Jeddah, within just two-three days, he added.

Earlier, the old ships used to take 12 to 15 days to cover this distance.

Talks are on with Saudi Arabia on reviving Haj pilgrimage through sea route, he said.

During first phase of Haj 2017, about 65,000 Haj pilgrims have gone to Saudi Arabia.

In the first phase, Haj pilgrims went from embarkation points in Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Gauhati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Srinagar and Varanasi.

In the second phase, Haj pilgrims will go from Bangalore, Bhopal, Ranchi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Indore. The second phase will end on 26th August, the minister said.
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi expressed his outrage at the death of over 60 children in Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical Colleges hospital due to alleged lack of oxygen, saying it was not a tragedy but a clear case of massacre.

Taking to Twitter, Satyarthi tore into the Uttar Pradesh government asking is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?

Appeal to CM @myogiadityanath Ji. Your decisive intervention can correct decades of corrupt medical system of UP to prevent such incidents, he added.

Meanwhile, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a thorough probe into the matter and assured strict action against those who were involved in the alleged shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital.

Speaking to the media on Saturday after attending an emergency meeting chaired by the chief minister, Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said Yogi had recently visited the hospital, but he was not informed by the authorities about any anomalies.

State minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon reiterated the same and said action will be taken after detailed probe on the matter.

The chief minister has given us proper instruction on this issue. We will leave for Gorakhpur soon and after details analysis of the situation will take further decision on the same, Tandon said.

Earlier in the day, the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital claimed lives of three more children.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

As per the locals, though the hospital is supposed to provide free medical assistance, neither there is proper medical facility available nor are the patients provided free medicines.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and has further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the district magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

There havent been any deaths due to lack of oxygen supply. And only seven children have died today. Today three deaths happened in Neonatal ICU, two due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and two due to Non-AES, UP medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon said.

The district magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The report will be out in 24 hours, he added.

He further said that the arrangement of oxygen cylinders was duly made and a strict action will be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.
The young Muslim suspects in the 2005 Hyderabad suicide bombing spent more than 11 tortuous years in jail awaiting the long-drawn trial to end. They were guilty until proven innocent.

They were among 10 people, including a Bangladeshi man, acquitted on all counts on Thursday as the prosecution failed to prove their role in the attack that killed a home guard and the suicide bomber on October 12, 2005.

They are free men now. But our life has been ruined completely, said 34-year-old Mohammad Kaleem on Saturday, walking with a limp from alleged third-degree torture in police custody.

We have not only lost our precious youth but also our image in society. We are outcasts in our own community, he said.

Like him, Mohammed Abdul Zahed of Moosarambagh near Malakpet suffered a similar ordeal.

He was just 22 and working at a shop that repairs mobile phones when he was arrested on December 19, 2005, almost two months after the bombing.

Zahed said he was humiliated and ill-treated in jail and branded a Pakistani terrorist. That pained me a lot. How could they call me a terrorist without proof?

Read | India at 70: Tailed by police for years, Hyderabads Muslim men lost their freedom

My crime was that I happened to be the brother of Shahid Bilal, who police suspected to be a terrorist working for HuJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami)  He was killed in Pakistan in 2007, he said.

For 33-year-old Syed Haji, the experience in jail is too traumatic to speak about.

It will take the whole day to finish, he said, trying to find a way to restart his life as his parents died when he was in jail and his relatives are refusing to accept him now.

Similarly, Zaheds father Mohd Abdul Wahed was a respectable headmaster of a government school and he exiled himself in his home fearing social stigma after his two son headlined in media for alleged acts of terrorism.

He is 87 and my mother is 82. I have to take care of them and build my life from scratch, Zahed said.

Kaleems widowed mother, Khairunnisa Begum, faced social boycott after her sons arrest. She was thrown of her rented house and forced to move to a nephews place.

I was to get married within a couple of months  then the arrest happened. She married someone else, said the man whose father, Abdul Kareem, was a retired head constable.

Kaleem was a welder at a shop that makes iron grills. He was picked up when he was returning home at Amberpet from a relatives wedding in Nalgonda district on December 17, 2005.

Police told me I would be let off in an hour after questioning about a petty case involving clashes over a local dispute in 2004. But for the next three days, they tortured me, forced me to sign some papers and produced me in court, he recalled.

On the second day of my judicial remand I came to know that I was implicated in the suicide bombing case.

He got bail after nine months and sent back to jail again.

Since then, I was shifted from one jail to another  Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Warangal and Kadapa. In 2011, the cops filed another attempt-to-murder case against me, accusing me of assaulting a jailer. It was struck off in April 2016, he said.

In 2015, Kaleems health deteriorated from tumours in his lungs. After doctors warned that he might die in jail, authorities sent him to Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad for surgery and treatment.

These three men were among 10 suspects taken into custody after a special investigation team (SIT) of police accused 20 people in a charge-sheet, filed a year since the blast. The investigators said three suspects died and seven more were on the run.

After their acquittal, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi asked if the investigating officers will be made accountable. Police couldnt prove the conspiracy, but the accused lost 10 years of their lives in jails, he said.

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The Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board has ordered over 5000 madrasas or Islamic seminaries in the state to compulsorily organise a Tiranga (Tricolor) rally to celebrate Independence Day and email it the photographs of the celebrations.

This is for the first time that state that the Board has issued an order asking the managements of the madrasas to take out a Tiranga rally.

Syed Imad Uddin, chairman Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board told HT that madrsas have been sending photographs of the flag hoisting and other events to mark Independence Day over the years across the state.

"There are around 5000 madarsas in the state. They have been celebrating Republic Day and Independence Day with much gusto over the years. And they keep sending us the photographs of these celebrations. This has been the case over the years. There is no videography that is carried out of these celebrations," he said

Syed Imad ,however, said that madarsas have been hold Tiranga yantras this year. "The Tiranga Yatra will be part of the Independence Day celebrations this year. It will be for the first time that such yatras will be held in the madarsas of the state," he said.

He said that the order had nothing to do with a similar diktat of the Yogi Adityanaths government in Uttar Pradesh to madrassas in the state to videograph the I-Day celebrations. "Some sections of media has reported that we have asked to videograph the celebrations. Nothing like that is happening here," he insisted.

The order of the MP Madarsa Board directs all the madrasa managements to hoist national flag, organise a cultural programme and take out a Tiranga rally in their respective areas on August 15.

The UP governments decision has been criticised for raising doubts on the integrity of those running madrasas and its students.
The Madhya Pradesh government Indore on Sunday made it clear that petroleum products will not be brought under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The total commercial revenue that we get from petroleum products is about 35% of the total tax (commercial) that government collects.

Therefore, it is difficult for us to bring it under the GST as we need funds for running the government, development and to fulfill our social obligations, state finance minister Jayant Mallaiya told reporters.

However, the minister, who admitted that the rate of tax (VAT and entry tax) on petroleum products in the state is on the higher side, also gave a justification for it.

States like Gujarat and Maharashtra get sufficient revenue from industrial production, but it was not the case with Madhya Pradesh as industrial activities are less here. Therefore, for earning enough funds (revenue) we have to levy tax on petroleum products, Mallaiya said.

The minister said in 2016-17, a total of Rs 29,500 crore commercial tax was collected in the state which means an increase of 14.5% per year.

Mallaiya said he was satisfied with the implementation of GST in the state and the GST Council on the basis of states feedback is continuously reforming it.

Madhya Pradesh will get lot of benefit with this new tax regime because it is located centrally. It will also result in enhancement of business activities especially stocking and transportation of goods, he said.

Answering a question he said only those who dont want to do their business in a fair manner are not happy with decisions like GST and demonetisation.

On oppositions charge that the state government is burdening people by borrowing money continuously, the minister said the government will not have any problem in taking loans for developmental and schemes meant for fulfilling social obligations.

Besides, the growth rate of the state is much higher under BJP regime than that of Congress.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh where at least 30 children died in a hospital and is in touch with central and state authorities, the PMO said on Saturday.

Minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said.

District magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said on Friday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since August 10.

Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official here had said that according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police (SP), 21 children died due to oxygen supply shortage.

According to the Gorakhpur SP, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College. Senior officers are at the spot. Exact cause is being verified by the civil administration, the official, who did not to be identified, had said.

The Uttar Pradesh government said today that those found guilty in the tragic and painful incident would face stringent action.

Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.

Health minister Singh and state medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon visited Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.
Senior JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav, at odds with party president Nitish Kumar since the latter jettisoned the 20 month old grand alliance to form a new government with the BJP, late last month, hit back at Kumar, on Saturday.

This party is not Kumars alone but also belongs to me, said a seemingly defiant Yadav, a founder-leader of the party, who had merged his original Janata Dal with Kumars Samata Party, in 2003, to form the JD (U).

His reaction came close on the heels of his replacement as JD (U) leader in the Rajya Sabha, with RCP Singh, a close confidante of JD (U) president and chief minister Kumar, in the wake of the dissolution of the mahagathbandhan, of which Sharad insisted, he was still a part.

Indicating that he was not ready to toe the Nitish Kumar line, despite being outnumbered in the JD (U) by Kumars supporters, Yadav said, there are two JD (U)s in the state, one is sarkari (official) and another is janatas (of the people).

Party chief Kumar had, on Friday, spelt out the options open for Yadav after his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi since new government formation in the state, saying he is free to take a decision, insisting, it was a collective decision of the state unit to take the BJPs support.

Silent on his his replacement as JD (U) leader in the Rajya Sabha and his RS colleague Ali Anwars suspension from the party for attending a meeting called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Yadav expressed his displeasure and pain over Kumars decision to part ways with the GA.

Yadav, who reached Madhepura on the last leg of his three-day Samvad Yatra, said, Only those who want to be part of a ruling combination (government) for personal gains are with Nitish Kumar. A majority of leaders and workers, who identify themselves with the people, are with me.

Despite a seemingly imminent expulsion from the JD (U) staring him in the face, Yadav appeared unfazed and said when he had refused to be cowed down by ex-PM late Indira Gandhi, lesser mortals did not matter.

I am not afraid to speak the truth and stand by my principles, he said, referring to his close association with the 1974 Bihar movement leader Jayaprakash Narayan, as a student leader, and his fight against the internal Emergency in 1975, for restoring democracy in the country.

In Madhubani, Yadav indicated that he was aware that action had been taken against a few leaders who were standing with him and pressure was on others to disassociate themselves from him.

It is Kumar who changed the mandate given by 11 crore people in favour of Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance). I am still with the public mandate and had sent Anwar to attend Sonia Gandhis meeting so that a Bihar like alliance could be replicated in the country to defeat the BJP, he said.

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The resignation of a senior journalist with a Hindi news channel has raised eyebrows over his alleged links with a group of people under investigation for suspected fraud in medical education.

The reason for Hemant Sharmas departure from India TV is not clear, although it coincides with the arrest of three people on charges that they were planning to bribe government officials to get a ban on a medical college overturned. Sharma is known to be close to at least two of the accused.

India TV announced Hemant Sharmas departure earlier this week. When asked about the resignation, its chief Rajat Sharma told HT: I have zero tolerance for any wrongdoing. Hemant Sharma did not return repeated phone calls from Hindustan Times.

On August 3, the CBI filed a first information report (FIR) against two father-son duos  Narendra Singh and son Kunwar Nishant as well as VK Sharma and son Vaibhav  for allegedly planning to bribe health ministry officials to get a ban on a substandard medical school reversed. The accused, barring Narendra Singh, were arrested a day later.

The CBI said the Singhs managed the affairs of the World College of Medical Sciences and Research and Hospital in Jhajjhar, Haryana, which was among 46 medical institutes barred this year by the government from admitting students for a year or two.

The accused had hoped to pay off the officials using close contacts who claimed proximity to senior functionaries of the health ministry, the FIR said.

Neighbours in sector 44 of Noida, Hemant Sharma is known to be close to VK Sharma and his son. The Sharmas even hosted a gala party to celebrate the wedding of Hemant Sharmas daughter in June.

The CBI FIR was registered on the basis of reliable source information, a byword for cases the agency builds on the basis of electronic surveillance of suspects such as tracking their mobile phone conversations.

The FIR said the Singhs held regular meetings in Delhi to get the orders of debarment overturned through the ministry and that they contacted many people, including the Sharmas, who said they could help bribe government officials.

The three arrested accused spent five days in CBIs custody for interrogation.

The accused are now in judicial custody and further investigation is on, said CBI spokesman RK Gaur.

When asked if the CBI was probing the role of any journalist in the case, Gaur refused to comment.

The matter took a political turn on Friday when Aam Aadmi Party sought health minister JP Naddas response on the case.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Karnataka, will have a lot of work to do to prepare the party for the state Assembly elections in April.

Shahs visit comes at a time when the partys top two leaders, BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa are locked in a turf war while the BJPs state unit is completely beleaguered, unable to counter chief minister Siddaramaiahs manoeuvres on a range of issues.

The BJP has been caught unawares on many issues recently. Comments by senior leaders in New Delhi antagonised groups that have been demanding that Hindi not be used in the state.

Meanwhile, the chief ministers decision to set up a committee to look into the legality of having a state flag has helped the Congress strengthen its claim as the protector of Kannada identity.

Poaching senior Congress leaders SM Krishna and V Sreenivasa Prasad, too, did not yield much, with the party losing in the by-elections held for two seats in April, with Prasad, considered one of the bigger Dalit leaders in the state, personally facing a setback.

On the issue of caste too, it has found itself running for cover. A state-level programme to visit Dalits homes became a source of controversy after it was found that the BJP leaders had eaten food brought from a hotel. The party also faces a huge challenge with the Congress backing demands for separate religion status for Lingayats, which is the BJPs biggest support group.

Read more: Modi govt using I-T dept for political conspiracies: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Meanwhile, the recent Income Tax department raids on the houses of state energy minister DK Shivakumar, a strong Vokkaliga leader, galvanized the community to support the leader, as witnessed by the slew of religious heads visiting his house since the raids ended.

The BJPs attempts to attack the government on its failure to curb communal violence in the coastal regions of the state have been put on the back-burner after Siddaramaiah, who took over the home ministry portfolio in June, reshuffled the police force to curb such incidents.

However, the biggest task Shah faces in his visit is to try to end the simmering factional feud in the BJP that threatens to wreak the partys chances in the elections. Ever since, former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa was made the state unit president, there has been open dissent against him.

Since the turn of the year, this fight has come out in the open, with senior leader KS Eshwarappa and Yeddyurappa sparring over the control of the party. A group of rebel leaders also held a conclave earlier this year, criticising Yeddyurappas leadership, accusing him of favouring his loyalists.

According to Narendar Pani, a political analyst who teaches at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, sorting out the issues within the BJP local unit will be the biggest task for Shah. Although the party has declared Yeddyurappa as its leader for the state elections, I feel the campaign will be based on appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pani said this was because Yeddyurappa had a few drawbacks, especially if the BJP wanted to run its campaign based on a platform of fighting corruption. The BJP was given a chance in the state but they were voted out after the series of corruption charges that came out against the party, Pani said.

This is also the first real ideological battle for the BJP, said Pani. The demand for separate religion status for Lingayats challenges the Hindutva ideology, as does the assertion of Kannada identity. The BJP will have to be careful in responding to these issues, Pani said.

Shah has lined up 25 events over three days on which he plans to meet intellectuals and also visit religious heads, with a visit to the Adichunchanagiri Mutt, a spiritual place for the dominant Vokkaliga community, in Mandya district.

However, with the Siddaramaiah government indicating that it plans to release the findings of the countrys first caste-based census before the elections, Shah has to move fast to get the BJP ready for battle.

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A 27-year-old man has allegedly stabbed a woman teacher after she rejected his marriage proposal, police said on Saturday.

Police said the man, who was her neighbour, was angry when he heard that her marriage had been fixed.

He quarrelled with the woman when she was waiting for a bus near her college at Naduvapatti and stabbed her. When she raised an alarm, he fled.

Some passers-by rushed the woman to a nearby hospital with stab injuries in her hand, the police said.

The man has been arrested.

He told the police that he was angry with her as she had rejected his marriage proposal.

Police said the man was remanded to the judicial custody.
Police arrested on Saturday three members of the Peoples Liberation Front of India (PLFI) and seized arms from them.

The police arrested the trio after a raid at a house at Gobira near Kuanrmunda. Four of the PLFI members along with the area commander Biswajit Bhagat, were hiding in the house, police said.

The police said the PLFI activists had come here to collect money from a businessman of the area. They were waiting for the money to arrive, however, to their surprise, the police appeared in the scene, police said.

The PLFI, based in neighbouring Jharkhand, often ventures into this side of the border to commit crime. As soon as they realised that they were surrounded by the police one of them fired on the raiding party, police said.

Police also retaliated. Though they could manage to flee to nearby jungle, the police search operation could nab them. However, another managed to escape.

Police seized one country made pistol and five live cartridges from their possession.
Aiming for complete elimination of man-animal conflict, Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday called for a model to fix the elephant habitats and corridors.

According to a report, 415 persons in 2015-16 and 245 in 2016-17 (up to February 9, 2017) were killed by elephants, while over 100 elephants also died during the same period.

Depleting corridors, through which the megaherbivore moves across the forests for food and water, is considered to be the top reason for such conflicts.

India has about 110 recognised elephant corridors, most of which require rigorous fixing.

Our goal is to completely eliminate the menace of man-animal conflict, in which around 400 people and 100 elephant die every year, Harsh Vardhan said here on the occasion of the release of the latest census report to mark the World Elephant Day.

According to the census report, India has 27,312 free-ranging elephants that make for 60 per cent of the total Asian elephant population.

Fixing the elephant habitats will also positively impact all other species of the region, according to the experts.

We have a good number of elephants and we must not be obsessed with population. The only issue is management of the habitats and their population, said Professor Raman Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science.

Calling for an end to poaching, animal cruelty and wildlife crime at the earliest and spreading overall awareness, Harsh Vardhan said the issue of conservation required a scientific approach.

If we can have cure for cancer then why not cure the issue of conservation as well, the Minister said.

The environment ministry also released the 17-point list of actions to be taken for the trans-border conservation of elephants in the India-Bangladesh landscape. The list was prepared at a summit in Shillong last month.

Bangladesh has a population of 200 resident elephants.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan came down heavily on the critics of armed forces on Saturday, saying India must be the only country in the world where its defence forces have to face so much flak.

Earlier, only politicians were criticised but these days this trend has extended to our security agencies and soldiers who operate in difficult conditions, the minister of state for petroleum and natural gas said.

He said that armed forces are subjected to unfair criticism by people who are not aware of their sacrifices.

Those who criticise the Indian armed forces dont know their capability. They risk their lives everyday so that we are able to sleep peacefully in our homes, Pradhan said.

The minister was speaking in Vasco near here after commissioning an Indian Coast Guard ship, Shaurya.

India is a democratic country. Initially, only politicians faced criticism. Now even the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and BSF (Border Security Force) have to face criticism, Pradhan said.

This stems from lack of understanding of the armed forces, the minister said.

It is unfortunate that today we are not able to understand and respect the armed forces. We should give respect to them which they deserve. There must be criticism but there should be a reason for it, Pradhan said.

ICG Shaurya has been designed and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd, a Central PSU, and fitted with advanced navigational and communication systems.

The vessel can carry one twin engine light helicopter and five high-speed boats.
A 40-year-old woman was killed in shelling by Pakistan in Mendhar area of Poonch district on Saturday morning.

Raqia Bi, 40, wife of Mohammed Shabir of Kalarian Gohlad village, died on the spot when a Pakistani shell landed in verandah of her house and exploded with bang, said a police officer.

He said the incident occurred around 5.20am when the woman had just woken up and was washing her hands and face for getting ready for the morning prayers (Namaz).

At 5.20am, two Pakistani shells exploded in Upper Gohlad village. One exploded without causing any harm but another exploded in the verandah of Raqias house killing her instantly, he said.

The officer said three more shells were fired by Pakistani Army at 6.45am but they didnt cause any harm because they exploded in the fields.

Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 0515 hours in Poonch sector along the Line of Control (LC) on Saturday.

Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively. Firing ceased at 0645 hours, he said.

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Students of Jadavpur University postponed their agitation around 1 am on Saturday after the executive council wrote to the government that the states decision to introduce apolitical student body was unacceptable to various stakeholders of the university.

The statement signed by registrar Pradip Ghosh said the university had always witnessed peaceful student union elections. It also said the students opposition had the support of not only all the student unions but also of the body representing research scholars as well as two teachers associations.

Read: Bengal students union elections to keep political parties at bay

The EC feels the need for wider discussion on the issues raised. The EC is open to widest possible dialogue with all stakeholders on this matter for possible consensus, read the one page statement.

Students, however, made it clear that they were not withdrawing the agitation but merely postponing it.

Jadavpur University students are agitating against the Bengal governments decision to replace elected students unions in all colleges and universities with nominated councils. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

The JU campus has been on the boil since Thursday evening, with students from the arts, science and engineering departments picketing at the administrative building. The vice chancellor and a number of senior officials were trapped inside for almost 30 hours. The students are opposed to the Mamata Banerjee governments decision to curb the powers of student union members.

Read: Jadavpur University V-C under siege as stir against student union reforms grows

The government introduced the reforms in the wake of clashes during student union elections at colleges across West Bengal and Kolkata. Only JU and Presidency University were untouched by the violence.

Till Friday, education minister Partha Chatterjee was however not willing to offer any concessions for JU students. Let them agitate as long as they want. The rules will not change. The decision has been taken, he said.

JU students, on the other hand, want the government to instruct other varsities to follow their example of peacefully conducting union elections instead of imposing the reforms on them.

Read: Students at JU demand Gorkhaland as protests spread to Kolkata

On Friday, JU vice chancellor Suranjan Das had said: A democratically elected government has made these rules. We will apprise the government of the students objections but we cannot oppose it.

The reforms stipulate that a college lecturer has to be appointed as student council president while another teaching staff made the councils treasurer. Each class can nominate a single representative, say the rules, instead of the current practice of voting for two.

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A Lucknow-based company, which switched off the supply of oxygen cylinders to Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das Medical College that allegedly led to the death of 30 children, had issued an ultimatum to hospital authorities in a letter on August 8.

The letter  a copy of which is with Hindustan Times  was written by a representative of Pushpa Sales to the principal of the BRD Medical College and mentioned pending dues of Rs 63,65,702 till August 1 and demanded payment for the same.

The letter said the company had decided to supply stock for the next 4-5 days on the day the letter was handed over to hospital authorities but warned the supply might get hampered if the dues were not cleared.

INOX, the firm we are taking oxygen supply from, has expressed inability to continue the supply of oxygen in future, in case we fail to make payments to them, said the letter from Dipankar Sharma of Pushpa Sales to principal BRD Medical College.

This letter also mentioned that payments were due despite several reminders submitted in the past as well. Therefore it is requested to clear our dues else we might not be able to continue supply in future. It will not be our responsibility, read the letter.

The letter was sent by Pushpa Sales, the company providing oxygen cylinders to BRD Medical College.

The company sent several letters to BRD Medical College. On July 18, the letter noted dues to the tune of Rs 57,44,336 despite a partial payment made on May 11 for Rs 19,81,619. The letter on August 01 recorded the dues as Rs 63,65,702 and finally on August 08 the dues stood at Rs 68,58,596.

The spate of children deaths at the government-run hospital over the past few days, allegedly due to the lack of oxygen, has sent shockwaves through the country. At least 60 children died over seven days at the hospital in chief minister Yogi Adityanaths constituency. The government has denied that paucity of oxygen was behind the deaths, blaming complications arising out of encephalitis.

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If you are a bride-to-be, youd know what it takes to look extra perfect and beautiful on your wedding day. With everybody fussing around you, the weight of the designer dress or being decked in gold is the last thing on your mind.

Bangladeshs Tasnim Jara, president of Aroggo, a healthcare start-up, and former president of UN Youth Advisory panel, would have none of it for her marriage. She walked in for her wedding reception in Dhaka, on December 15, 2016, wearing her grandmothers cotton saree, without any make-up or jewellery.

Tasnims familys reaction, however, was on expected lines: In a Facebook post, uploaded on August 9, she recounted their resistance on her rebellious move.

Her post received more than 102K reactions and almost 27,000 shares. Certain members of my family even said that they wont take any photo with me because I didnt dress like (they imagine) a bride. I was troubled by the singular image of a bride that our society has  with tons of makeup, a weighty dress and mounds of jewellery weighing her down, Tasnim wrote in her post.

Dont be fooled, this lavish image of a bride does not represent the financial well-being or agency of a woman in the family. This sometimes rather happens against their will. As if the society has decided that if we really have to spend money on women, we spend it against their will and for a cause that wont do them any good, she added.

While maintaining that she is not against girls who want to use make-up, wear jewellery and expensive clothes on their wedding, Tasnim calls out for a need to give the girl the right to make her own choice.

In the post, Tasnim says shes against the tradition which forces women to do things in which their consent is not counted. It is a problem when she loses her agency in deciding what she would like to wear on her wedding day. When the society forces her to doll up and look like a different person, it gives a message that the authentic look of a girl isnt good enough for her own wedding. A girl should not need a whitening lotion, a gold necklace or an expensive saree to be accepted as a bride or to make her feel confident. So I arrived at my wedding venue wearing my dadus saree, with zero makeup and no jewellery. People may call it simple, but it was very special to me, for what I believe in and what it means to me, she added.

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The Shivaji Park police have arrested a 27-year-old man for stalking a college student.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Dineshkumar Naik, a resident of RAK Marg in Sewri.

The police said that the 21-year-old woman, who is also a resident of Sewri, was being

frequently followed by the accused.

An officer from Shivaji Park police station, requesting anonymity, said, On August 2, the woman was on her way to classes when the accused followed her. The accused followed the woman to her classes every day till August 6.

Later, Naik somehow managed to get the phone number of the victim and proposed to her on the phone on Monday.

In the phone conversation, the accused said he has been seeing her for a while and said that even she had seen him. Following which, when the woman asked the reason for the call, the accused said that he loves her and wanted to meet her, added an officer.

The woman approached Shivaji Park police station.

After registering an FIR, the accused was traced on the basis of the CDR location obtained from his phone number.

A police team was dispatched to his Sewri residence and the accused was nabbed.

The accused is a BA graduate and had recently left his job at a call centre.

Senior police inspector Gangadhar Sonawane from Shivaji Park police station said, We have to act promptly on every case of crime against woman. Accordingly, we took cognisance of the case which was registered earlier this week and arrested the accused on the next day. The accused has been booked under section 354 (D) (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code.

The accused was later produced in court and released on bail.
The State Transport Authority (STA) has made it mandatory for taxi and auto rickshaw drivers to display police and regional transport offices (RTO) helplines along with details about their permit and driver in their vehicles.

The decision of the transport authority chaired by transport secretory Manoj Saunik in a recent meeting, is expected to prove helpful for the commuters in getting immediate help in case of emergencies, while travelling on 70,000 taxis and 7.5 lakh autos across the state.

The STA has asked the transport commissioner to design the sticker that will contain the details about permit holders and helplines in either Marathi or Hindi , but the authority has not set any deadline for displaying it.

For failure to display sticker, the auto or taxi permit holder will have to face a permit suspension for five days or pay a fine of Rs1,000. The punishment is suspension for 10 days or Rs3,000 fine for a second offence and for a third offence, it is 15 days suspension and Rs5,000 fine.

Though the activists have welcomed the decision, it has not gone down well among taxi and auto rickshaw unions. Union leaders have opposed the decision saying it will lead to unnecessary harassment of their members.

Two years before, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport authority, which is also chaired by the transport secretary, had decided that the cabbies and auto drivers in Metropolitan Region of Mumbai will have to display stickers bearing stickers, in July.

After initial implementation, RTO offices ignored the rule and hence most taxis and auto rickshaws can be seen without any such stickers. Hence, RTO sources skeptical about the implementation of the STA rule and fear that it will remain only on cards.

Welcoming the move, the activist said the transport department should also include fitness expiry date on the sticker. Several taxis and autos plying on street are rickety in condition and many of those often break down. Hence, considering passenger safety it will prove helpful, said GR Vora, citizen activist.

AL Quadros, veteran taxi union leader blamed that STA took this decision without taking the unions in confidence. We do not have objection if government is providing the stickers, but we are not going to spend for those this time, he said.

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The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) criticised the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for wasteful expenditure at the Deonar and Mulund dumping grounds, and also criticising the state government for not approving the civic bodys proposals to lease land for processing plants.

In a report, the CAG said owing to mismanagement, the BMC wastefully spent Rs56.12 crore in getting land cleared for waste processing plants at the two sites, only to dump waste again as the installation of the processing plants could not take off.

At the Deonar dumping ground, the BMC got an area cleared for the processing plant in December 2011 by shifting 3.27 million cubic metres of existing waste and paid the contractor Rs50.37 crore for the activity, CAG said. Similarly at the Mulund site, according to the CAG report, the BMC paid the concessionaire Rs5.75 crore to clear 3.5ha for a processing plant.

The BMCs plan was to close the dumping site at Gorai and establish modern scientific processing facilities at Mulund, Kanjurmarg and Deonar. The CAG blamed the government for not giving approvals to lease land to concessionaires at the Deonar and Mulund sites owing to which processing plants could not be set up. Even for the Kanjurmarg site, the government gave an approval belatedly, delaying the installation of the processing plant by 54 months. The project at Kanjurmarg also got delayed as it was mired in litigation. The plant ultimately was commissioned last year and has been handling 3,000 metric tonnes of waste a day.

As the compost processing plants at Kanjur and Deonar could not be installed, dumping of 3,000 metric tonnes per day of waste continued at Deonar even after March 2015. Consequent on unscientific dumping, a major fire broke out on January 28, 2016, the CAG report said.

It added, during the joint visit of the Deonar dumping ground in August 2016 with BMC officials, the auditors noticed that none of the prescribed fire safety measures were installed at the dumping ground. The Mulund and Deonar projects are stuck and under a revised tendering process. A BMC official, however, said it is wrong to call this wasteful expenditure. The project was getting delayed for a number of reasons and to get it started we had to make some investment.
Once a marriage has been declared null and void, a woman cannot ask for action against her husband under the 2005 domestic violence (DV) Act, the Bombay high court said, striking down proceedings initiated by a 37-year-old woman from Akola.

Justice PN Deshmukh said after a family court at Akola said the marriage was null and void, there was no relationship between her and the husband.

The couple got married in February 2013. On a marriage petition filed by her 50-year-old husband, in May 2015, the family court declared the marriage as null and void.

The next year, when the woman initiated proceedings invoking provisions of the DV Act, the husband objected.

He said the proceedings under the DV Act was not maintainable.

In December 2016, the magistrate court overruled the objection holding the DV Act does not require parties to be formally married, and in May 2017, the sessions court at Akola dismissed the husbands appeal and upheld the magisterial order. The man then approached the high court.

In the high court, it was argued on behalf of the husband that a matrimonial relationship between the parties was an essential condition to invoke the DV Act, and in this case, there was no valid matrimonial relationship.

The husbands lawyer cited a 2010 ruling of the Supreme Court (D Velusamys case) in which it was held the relationship in the nature of marriage was akin to a common law marriage and said that if the couple was not married, the live-in partners must hold themselves out to society as being akin to spouses, they must be of legal age to marry, otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage and must have voluntarily cohabited.

Justice Deshmukh accepted the husbands contentions noting that in the same judgement the Apex Court has, in unequivocal terms, held that all live-in relationships will not amount to a relationship in the nature of marriage to get the benefit of the DV Act.
Two months after a massive protest by the states farmers saw markets go empty and forced the government to announce a loan waiver, the farmers have decided to intensify their agitation against the BJP-led state government.

Their demand: a blanket loan waiver and the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report for better prices for their produce. The steering committee, an apex body of farmers outfits, said they will take to the streets on August 14, block all major roads and not allow ministers to hoist the tricolour.

The call for protest comes as the farmers are unhappy with the conditions of the states loan waiver plan, which they say make a significant number of farmers ineligible for the waiver.

The agitation will start on August 14 by blocking all national and state highways. We have appealed to farmers to be a part of the protest, said Ajit Nawale, coordinator of the steering committee.

Nawale added, On August 15, we will not allow ministers to hoist national flag as we believe they are responsible for the suicides of farmers in the state.

Raghunath Dada Patil, a veteran farmer leader, said none of the ministers had the right to hoist the tricolour as they had cheated farmers.

Those who were claiming to give better prices for agriculture produce after coming to power have done nothing for the agrarian community. If ministers come for a flag-hoisting, we will stop them. Anyone else will be allowed to do the honours, Patil said.

READ: After loans, Maharashtra farmers now want state to waive 22,000 crore electricity dues

A farm crisis in Maharashtra for the past few years has left farmers drowning in debt and committing suicide across the state.

The community was not happy with the state governments Rs34,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme  rejecting it saying it was incomplete.

The farmers outfits are unhappy with the states cut-off date of June 30, 2016 for the waiver, as it would make those who took loans after the deadline ineligible for a waiver.

They want the government to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission that suggested 50% minimum support price (MSP) for crops over and above the input cost.

Earlier, the farmers began a 14-day awareness campaign. They have now decided to intensify the agitation.

Dada Patil also opposed the state governments decision asking farmers to apply online to get the benefits of loan waiver.

At a time when the Mumbai University has failed to complete its online assessment of answer papers, the state wants farmers to apply online to get their waiver benefits, he said, taking a jibe at the government.

In June, in what the state called a historic step, chief minister announced the Rs34,000-crore waiver that would help 89 lakh farmers in debt across the state.

The government set a cap of Rs1.5 lakh a farmer  which means the loans of around 40 lakh farmers would be completely written off.

Of all farmers in debt, six lakh can avail of the scheme for a one-time settlement of up to Rs1.5 lakh. The government also announced a special package for regular loan-payers by giving them a bonus of Rs25,000 or 25% of the loan paid  whichever is higher.

Following opposition, the state government recently extended the scope of the waiver package.

Earlier, the eligibility period was April 2012-June 2016 and this was changed to April 2009-June 2016.

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The first special round for the first year junior college (FYJC) sections began on Friday, with 88, 642 vacant seats. But only a few of them were for the arts and commerce streams across Mumbais coveted colleges.

This will drive up cut-offs in the upcoming rounds, said principals.

A student who has not been allotted a seat or did not secure admission in the earlier rounds can apply for the special round. According to education officials, more than 20,000 applicants are eligible as they were left without a seat at the end of the scheduled rounds.

Although there are fewer aspirants and more seats in this round, cut-offs (minimum marks) are expected to rise as most seats are from lesser-known colleges. Coveted colleges barely have five to 10 seats vacant in arts and commerce.

Mulund College of Commerce has filled up all its seats, while RA Podar College, Matunga, has one seat remaining in the forthcoming rounds. Another college in demand, Narsee Monjee, has three seats in the commerce-aided section. Even vocational courses offered by the institution are nearly full  tourism and hospitality management has three seats, marketing and retail has four, and accounting and office management has five.

Comparatively, HR College, Churchgate, has more seats  11 in commerce, as they surrendered leftover quota seats to the open category. We had kept some seats aside for minority students; the department had informed us that we can surrender seats after each round, said Parag Thakkar, principal of the college.

Thakkar admitted it will be tough for students seeking admission to their college. Our cut-off in the previous list itself was as high as 88.2%. So now that there are fewer seats left, we expect it to remain high, he said.

In contrast, getting into the science stream will be easier as there are 20 to 40 seats vacant across colleges. Sathaye College, Vile Parle, has just three empty seats in the commerce stream, but 76 vacancies in science and 42 in arts. Similarly, Jai Hind College, Churchgate, has 18 seats in science, compared to two in commerce and seven in arts.

Commerce has always been in high demand, so its not surprising that there are only a few seats left, but science is becoming less popular, said Ashok Wadia, principal of the college. Wadia added, Arts is finding more takers, but colleges have not increased their seats in the stream and so, by now, there are very few arts seats remaining.

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The 33rd cadaver donation in Mumbai this year gave a new lease of life to three end-stage organ failure patients. The family of a senior citizen who suffered brain haemorrhage on Raksha Bandhan donated his body, allowing doctors to transplant his kidneys and liver.

The organ donation scheme has helped 87 people this year  almost 50% of last years 184  which was the highest since the programme began in 2001.

Doctors from Saifee Hospital, where the senior citizen was admitted, said he was in the intensive care unit.

He was put on a ventilator and two days after the treatment, he was declared brain-dead. Since the family wasnt very familiar with the idea of organ donation and were in mourning, on Friday we told them about the lifesaving social benefits of the process and eventually they agreed, said a doctor from the hospital.

While the heart of the patient couldnt be donated because of the advanced age of he donor, the liver, kidneys and eyes were saved for transplant.

The family was also willing to donate the pancreas, but unfortunately the record keepers of concerned agencies dont maintain a list of eligible recipients owing to which it couldnt be donated, said a doctor from the hospital.

While the liver was sent to Apollo Hospital to a patient diagnosed with fulminant hepatic failure (development of severe liver injury), Saifee Hospital performed a kidney transplant on an in-house patient.

The other kidney was donated to a patient on Zonal Transplant Coordination Committees waiting list at Fortis Hospital.

Last year, patients from the hospital had donated three organs, but this year we have already crossed the figures with the first organ donation of 2017. We hope more lives can be saved with the awareness, said Dr Shabina Khan medical administrator of Saifee Hospital.
After the state government passed a bill in the Assembly enabling restaurants and malls to remain open round the clock if they get clearance from the police, residents of Bandra are livid with the decision and oppose increasing commercialisation of residential areas.

They want a separate zone for such establishments away from residential areas.

When Bandra (West) MLA Ashish Shelar spoke about inconvenience to residents on Wednesday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the police would decide the timings of establishments.

However, resident of Bandra, Khar and Andheri have repeatedly approached the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the police against clubs for remaining open way past the mandatory closing time. They allege that the authorities have failed to act against the errant establishments.

These establishments play loud music. Tipplers create ruckus and unnecessarily honk. So the governments decision is quite shocking. Former deputy chief minister RR Patil in 2005 assured us that no more eateries would come up in H-West area (Santacruz, Khar, Bandra). Former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria too had guaranteed that he would check licenses of 37 eateries, said Anandini Thakoor, trustee of H-West Federation.

Thakoor also added that nuns who stay near a famous club in Bandra have been facing inconvenience owing late night revelry.

Neil Pereira, a resident of Pali Village and an activist, had earlier approached the authorities to act against establishments on 16th Road in Bandra.

He said, The Thackerays pitched this idea, but they have sound barriers in their house. It is we who have to suffer, once the bill is implemented. If commercial entities have to be kept open all night, it should happen in a separate zone, Pereira said.

Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray first proposed the idea in 2013. Once the bill receives the Presidents assent, restaurants, multiplexes and malls in the city can remain open round the clock.
Amid the chaos surrounding the exam results delay at the University of Mumbai (MU), it has come to light that the state government had opposed the idea of adopting the online assessment of answer papers at one go. The university vice-chancellor (V-C) was advised to introduce the On-Screen Marking System (OMS) gradually, in phases.

Deshmukh, however, went ahead and rolled out the system for the entire university and that led to chaos, with students being the biggest losers. Students from several faculties are still awaiting their results. Two deadlines set by the state government to declare all results have not been met, putting the future of many students at risk. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who is the chancellor of all universities of the state, has also issued a show-cause notice to Deshmukh for the entire mess and has sent him on compulsory leave.

Hindustan Times is in possession of a copy of the minutes of the MUs management council meeting held on April 28. The meeting was called to select the service provider for implementation of OMS for evaluation of answer papers from the first half of 2017.

The documents reveal that three senior officers from the state higher and technical department  Rohidas Kale, joint director; Siddharth Kharat, deputy secretary; and Subhash Mahajan, director, higher and technical directorate  were present at the meeting along with Deshmukh and other senior officials.

READ: Meet the vice-chancellor who might resolve Mumbai Universitys exam results mess

During the discussions, Kale objected to the proposal of implementing OMS in one go. He said it would be better if the university adopted the system in stages. Kharat and Mahajan, too, pointed out that the university was left with less time and suggested that it adopts the system gradually, the documents reveal.

Sources said the officials had even suggested that the university start with technical courses from this year, which had less number of students as compared to commerce and arts streams.

Deshmukh, however, insisted that the management council should allow him to adopt the system for all the courses. He argued that the system was not new to the university, as it was already in place for one course for the past four years. He also told the council members that the university had prepared all the infrastructure facilities necessary for implementing the system successfully.

He then asked the Dr Suresh Ukarande, technology faculty coordinator and a representative of Merit Trac agency, who got the tender for online evaluating answer papers, to explain to the council in detail about the system. After this the resolution for giving the OMS tender to Merit Trac was passed.

Sources said the resolution was cleared only after the V-C on his responsibility assured successful implementation of the system, which was later asked to be mentioned in the meeting minutes.

Currently, the Governor has sent Deshmukh on indefinite leave, after he missed the deadline of July 31 given by the former, to declare all results. Earlier, he was also sent a show-cause notice on August 1, to which he is yet to file a reply.

Of the total 17.50 lakh answer sheets, around 1.70 lakh are yet to be evaluated

.

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Scam-hit industries minister Subhash Desai offered his resignation to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning. The move comes after Fadnavis announced an independent probe into the allegations of graft made against Desai, on the last day of the monsoon session on Friday.

Desai is alleged to have denotified nearly 30,000 acres of land earmarked for industrial use in Nashik. Opposition members claimed that he did this to benefit certain builders.

The minister met Fadnavis at his official residence, Varsha, at Malabar Hill to say he would resign. I had refuted the allegations against me in Vidhan Bhavan. Following this, an inquiry was announced on Friday. I felt that I should not hold office until the probe has been completed. However, Fadnavis refused to accept my resignation, said Desai.

Fadnavis spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who agreed that Desai should not resign, said sources.

This trend of accepting ministers resignations solely on the strength of the Oppositions allegations is not good for the state. Those making such allegations have been accused of graft themselves, said Thackeray.

He defended Desai, saying the minister was targeted despite his good work.

Desai met me on Friday, saying he wanted to resign on moral grounds. I told him he could. Today morning, Fadnavis spoke to me and we concluded that this was unnecessary, he said.

Fadnavis had also announced a Lokayukta-conducted probe into the allegations against state housing minister Prakash Mehta. Mehta is under fire over a series of allegations related to slum redevelopment projects. Opposition leaders accused him of favouring certain builders. The minister allegedly clubbed a transit camp development project in Ghatkopar with six slum pockets to form a larger slum rehabilitation scheme. In doing so, he overruled his departments objections. HT had reported how this move helped a certain developer benefit.

There was speculation that Desais resignation would pressure the BJP to ask Mehta to resign too. For now, it seems as though the ruling parties are staunchly supporting their ministers.

Mehta has, so far, not offered to resign.
A university cannot question the validity of a degree awarded by another when both of them are recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Bombay high court has ruled.

A division bench of justices Bhushan Gavai and Riyaz Chagla has struck down an order passed by Savitribai Phule Pune University, which rejected Dr Sanjay Singhs appointment as a professor at an engineering college, citing that his PhD conferred upon him by JJ Tibarewala University was not valid.

Dr Singh then approached the Bombay high court challenging the refusal.

He said that there was no legal provision that empowered the Pune University to question the validity or correctness of his degree, as JJ Tibarewala University is recognised by the UGC, like Pune University.

The bench accepted his arguments and directed Pune University to consider his PhD valid. It also asked Pune University to approve for his appointment.

Once a university certifies that the degree is granted in accordance with the University Grants Commission rules, it will not be permissible for other university to raise questions about the certificate, said the court.

There are hundreds of universities or deemed universities... of national importance and the UGC rules are applicable to all, said the bench.

The judges contended that if all universities recognised by the UGC were to doubt the validity of degrees, it would amount to opening Pandoras box.

According to the high court, it is for the UGC or the legislature to deal with the bogus degrees.
The district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar on Saturday met representatives of around 15 corporate firms who offered to help the administration in improvising the basic education system. The administration hopes that over 200 schools will be benefited with the involvement of corporate firms in this endeavour.

Number of schools and tasks and objectives were also allotted to these firms during the meeting. The meeting was fruitful as most of these firms have shown dedication to improve the education system. All the firms will be working on various aspects of education for the betterment of students in the district, said Singh.

The firms have volunteered to provide different kinds of services. While some want to help in providing better infrastructure to government schools, others want to introduce new age techniques of studying, added Singh.

In a weeks time, the district administration will be signing MoUs with HCL and Ambuja Cement. HCL has offered to take care of 30 schools saying they will be providing digital and advance training to teachers and principals to make teaching a good experience for students, the DM said. The firms will be holding 12 training sessions in a year with a batch of 40 each, he added.

A cement major will be taking care of 19 schools in Dadri and they have promised to take care of overall requirements such as better infrastructure, training to teachers and digital way of teaching.

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB) has offered to teach the importance of sanitation and hygiene at 100 schools in the district. Great India Place mall has promised to improve the infrastructure like better toilets and furniture of six schools in Dankaur and four in Bisrakh, officials said.

Read I Mother Dairy to provide milk to 3,300 girls in government schools in Noida

Step by Step, a leading school in GB Nagar has also of offered to provide training to teachers and principals to have better communication with students. Books for All has shown interest in setting up libraries in 10 schools.

According to officials, Jaquar will be helping around 16 schools in having better infrastructure and teaching facilities. Satya Sai Seva Sangathan will be taking care of around 25 schools. Another cement major has offered to adopt 6 schools in Dadri. Emenox group has volunteered to help in improving the quality of education in over five schools.

Officials added that Sopra Steria group, Powergrit and few other multinational firms have shown interest in joining hands with the district administration to contribute in making schools and education a good experience for students.

These corporate firms have offered to construct toilets and other important infrastructure, while others have evinced an interest in providing furniture to government schools.
The Uttar Pradesh government is hopeful that the visit of the industries minister to Gujarat will yield results and bring investment into the state. Many have shown interest in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway areas, officials said.

The delegation of industries minister Satish Mahana comprised principal secretary Alok Sinha and Debasish Panda, chief executive officer Greater Noida. They returned after their two-day Gujarat visit.

Officials had made the visit to study the Gujarat model of industrial development and invited those involved in textiles, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery businesses to invest in UP. The team of officials also met Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and other senior officials in Gandhi Nagar.

We gave a presentation to industrialists to the Gujarat government about our industrial schemes, investment and employment promotion policy of UP that aims to encourage industrialisation and create jobs during our visit to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, said Alok Sinha, principal secretary, industrial development department, UP.

The delegation met officials of Rajiv Petrochemicals Private Limited, All Gujarat Spinners Association, Arvind Limited, a textile major, and other industrialists from gems and jewellery business in Ahmedabad.

We invited them to set up units in our state. We told them that we have the infrastructure, industrial corridors, dedicated manufacturing clusters, proximity to the national capital, better connectivity and a friendly environment for doing business, said Sinha.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath aims to bring in investment in the state so that the government can create jobs and fuel economy. The officials in UP hope that the visit will help them in luring the investors to the state cities.

We are ready to adopt the best practices of the Gujarat model of industrial development. We assured them that the UP government will handhold them if they choose to invest in our cities. We visited the private sector industrial parks and invited the corporate houses of Gujarat to develop similar parks in Greater Noida, Noida, Yamuna Expressway areas or other cities in the state, said Sinha.

Read I Industries dept: 6,000 factories set up in Noida, Greater Noida last fiscal, generated 50K jobs

After the Jewar airport project was approved, officials of the three authorities are hopeful that the demand for industrial schemes will increase.

The Noida authority is about to launch three dedicated industrial sectors  155, 156 and 157  along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and sell plots of either 20,000 square metres or 600-800 sqm.

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Nearly 12 days after class 4 student Arman Seghal died after a fall in GD Goenka School, Indirapuram, the school management said that the incident was an accident and swept aside several queries, on the basis that the case is sub judice.

Armans parents have lodged an FIR against school officials under sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence.

School officials primarily maintained that the incident was an accident but dodged a number of questions raised by media persons.

The teacher who is an eyewitness told us that it was an accident and we told police the same. We did not meet Armans parents as people told us that there was a mob and we were concerned about our safety. We want a cordial relationship with everyone to run the school. We will fully cooperate with the police for the investigation, said Ankur Malhotra, a school director, who came to the school following the incident.

However, Malhotra declined to accept any moral responsibility for the incident. There is no moral responsibility. It is just an accident and I cannot control an accident, he added.

The school is shut since August 3 and the school authorities said that it will reopen on August 16. Five school officials are presently contesting a petition at the Allahabad high court to get a stay of arrest and get the FIR quashed.

Their lawyer, Akhand Pratap Singh, said that the school officials contesting the petition are Dr Kavita Sharma, the principal, Ankur Malhotra, school director, Joginder Dua, director & manager and Deepak Tuteja, deputy manager. However, Singh did not reveal the fifth name. Singh added that the police served them a notice for recording statements (under Section 160 of CrPC) only on Friday.

The school principal, Dr Sharma, maintained that she was not in school when the incident took place and was away to see a doctor. Midway, I got information and directly reached the hospital. Our staff had rushed the child to the hospital but he did not survive. We took all possible measures from our side, she said.

A number of questions were also raised about the absence of CCTV camera on the second-floor corridor where the incident took place, as the school has other areas under CCTV camera surveillance.

We had no camera there; maybe, we didnt feel the need. It is not required as per law but we have installed it at other places. So far, the police have not called me about the incident. We will meet the parents and seek their views about any shortcomings, which will be addressed, Malhotra said.

Sources had said that the school had facilitated the police in taking the statements of students. Singh, however, declined to comment and said that it was the prerogative of the police to record statements of people they think fit.

Questions were also raised about the expired medicines and non-functional flow meter of the oxygen cylinder in the schools medical room, but the school officials cut short the press meet at this point and declined further comments.

On Friday, the Allahabad high court issued directions to keep any coercive action in abeyance until August 28, the next hearing.

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It has been revealed that 29-year-old Mukesh Pandey, Bihar cadre IAS, had allegedly planned to commit suicide in Bihar, as indicated by a video found on his phone, according to an official source from Ghaziabad.

Pandey, who allegedly committed suicide on the railway tracks in Ghaziabad on Thursday night, had left behind a detailed suicide note and a pre-recorded video. The video was found to be recorded through the front camera of his phone on August 9 at circuit house in Buxar, Bihar.

Pandey had assumed the office of the district magistrate of Buxar.

The video is dated August 9. Thereafter, he sought leaves on the pretext of visiting his ailing maternal uncle and left the circuit house early in the morning before boarding a flight to Delhi. There, he checked in to the hotel around 11.30am and wrote the note in a diary, the officer said.

I have made this plan that I will tell a lie and go to Delhi to commit suicide. Whoever finds this video, please inform my parents, wife, in-laws and relatives... Pandey is reported to have said in the video.

After leaving his hotel room, Pandey hired a cab run by an aggregator and reached Janakpuri, during which he had sent several messages to his wife, in-laws and his elder brother who is an IFS officer posted in Moscow.

So far, we have come to know that he sent messages about his suicide to nine people. The detailed suicide note that he left behind in the hotel had praise for his family, in-laws and wife, and he described his elder brother as his role model. The contents of the suicide note found in his pocket, the detailed suicide note and the video, more or less, convey the same message, the officer said.

The officer said that after Pandey had failed to commit suicide in Delhi, he boarded a metro train from Janakpuri to Anand Vihar, from where he boarded a train to the Ghaziabad junction. His head and torso were found separated on the railway tracks nearly a kilometre from the Ghaziabad junction at Kotgaon railway crossing around 8.40pm by a government railway police (GRP) patrol team.

I am Mukesh Pandey IAS 2012 batch Bihar cadre presently posted as DM Buxar... I am committing suicide of my own volition and after my death, please inform my relatives about my suicide, the suicide note recovered by GRP from the body stated.

The post-mortem examination was conducted in Ghaziabad on August 11 and the body was flown to Guwahati, to Pandeys parents.

The body was handed over to his family. From the suicide notes and the video, it is clear that he committed suicide. However, we are yet to receive any formal complaint into the incident, said Randhir Singh, circle officer, GRP, Ghaziabad.

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Two days after the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted IDBI Banks insolvency plea against Jaypee Infratech, the Noida authority and the Jaypee Group on Saturday assured homebuyers that their investment into housing projects are safe and they need not to panic.

The Noida authority chief executive officer Amit Mohan Prasad, Jaypee Group managing director Manoj Gaur, IDBI Bank officials and others held a meeting in sector 6 administrative building to discuss home-buyers concerns. The tribunals appointee Anuj Jain, a chartered accountant, acting as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, also took part in the meeting that went on for an hour. Many top Noida authority officials attended the meeting.

Gaur met around 500 homebuyers protesting outside the Jaypee Groups sector 128 corporate office located along Noida Expressway and assured them that their investment is safe. He said the company has adequate assets and resources to revive the housing projects. Saturday marked the second day of their protest. After the plea was admitted at NCLT many buyers association have extended their support to Jaypee buyers.

We will carry out protest rally from sector 15 Metro station to Noida authority sector 6 office on August 18 at 11 am, said Anu Khan, president of Noida Estate flat owners main association.

Similarly the different groups of Jaypee Group are also planning to protest against the Uttar Pradesh government and the Noida authority soon. The Noida authority has however promised buyers that their investment is safe.

It will take six months for the Interim Resolution Professional to reach out to a resolution in Jaypee Infratechs case pertaining to insolvency plea admitted in the NCLT. Once the resolution will be be submitted to the NCLT, a result will come out. But I want to say one thing that the government assured all homebuyers that their investment in safe. Home-buyers should not panic, said Prasad.

The IDBI filed an insolvency plea in the tribunal after Jaypee Infratech defaulted on a loan of around 8,500 crore. Although the company had claimed that it held adequate assets to repay the loan, IDBI went ahead and filed the plea.

The Jaypee Group is currently developing Aman, a 26-tower housing project in Sector 151, and Wish Town, a 250 tower housing project along the Noida Expressway. It has built the civil structure of most of the towers, but needs to deliver on the flats. Most of the towers were launched in 2008-09 onwards with a promise of delivery in 2012-13.

Protestors, who have booked flats in Jaypee Groups Wish Town and Aman housing projects, said the UP government and the realty major have cheated them with false promises for six to seven years.

Jaypee Infratech has already given possession of 6,000 out of 28,000 flats that were proposed to be built. In July, it offered possession of 1,000 flats in the Jaypee Aman project in Sector 151. As part of this project, it was supposed to deliver a total 5,000 flats. After the insolvency plea, homebuyers doubt if they would ever be handed the keys to their promised apartments.

The authority assured all homebuyers that the construction, finishing, registry and other work in all Jaypee projects will continue as it is. Since we have recently issued occupancy certificate for 1,000 flats in Jaypee Aman, buyers can shift into their flats. We will continue issuing OC to other projects once the Jaypee finishes the towers, said Prasad.

The Jaypee Group assured buyers that it will finish all towers in two projects by 2019-20.

We will ensure registry continue taking place as it was already going. All those, who have booked flats will get the delivery. The homebuyers should not think that the insolvency plea will affect their investment. The government is there for them to take care of their interests as per law, said Prasad.

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The Noida authority on January 20, 2016, had announced a ban on distribution, production and use of plastic carry bags following the Uttar Pradesh governments order. However, the Noida authority and Gautam Budh Nagar district administration have failed to enforce the ban and have not penalised offenders.

The Noida authority had approved a proposal seeking a complete ban on the use of plastic bags of 40 microns thickness or less. The use of plastic carry bags is rampant in all city markets and vegetable shops, as the authorities are yet to develop a system to enforce the ban.

I have asked the Uttar Pradesh pollution control board (UPPCB) to develop a mechanism and start an intensive drive in all markets to enforce the ban on plastic carry bags. Before starting a drive against violators, we will soon convene a meeting in this regard and then penalise those violating the law, Rakesh Kumar Mishra, an additional chief executive officer of the Noida authority, said.

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet in December 2015 had approved a complete ban on the distribution, manufacture and sale of polythene carry bags of 40 microns thickness and below in the state following an Allahabad high court order in November 2015, directing it to ensure that the order is complied with by December 31.

The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) Non-degradable Garbage/Polythene (control) Bylaws, 2015, was drafted in line with UP Plastic and Non-Biodegradable (Regulation of use and disposal) Act, 2000.

As per the law, the authority staff can levy a penalty of Rs5,000 on those found using a plastic bag thinner than 40 microns. If a person is found violating the ban a second time, the authority will charge a penalty of Rs500 per day. A third-time violation would lead to imprisonment of three months.

Shopkeepers and shoppers in all markets such as Indira market in Sector 27, Atta market, sectors 51, 41 or even weekly vegetable markets all are using plastic carry bags. It is happening because the authorities have not taken any action to implement the law till date, said Ramkanwar Tanwar, who started a drive against the use of plastic carry bags in 2016 in Bishanpura village.

Read I Noida plans to ban plastic bags

I have written to the Noida authority to enforce the ban on the use of plastic carry bags in Noida. Since the Noida authority is looking after all the municipal work, it is responsible for implementing the ban. The authority should also organise awareness campaigns so that people can be discouraged from using plastic carry bags, BN Singh, district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

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The police on Saturday arrested two of four robbers who had offered a lift to a man in Sector 93 of Noida and robbed him of Rs1 lakh. The police said that they chased the gang and arrested two of them, before launching a combing operation to nab the others.

According to the police, the robbers gave lift to one Mustaqeem on Saturday afternoon in Sector 93 and drove him to ATS roundabout in Greater Noida, during which they tried to rob him. However, personnel in a PCR van that was stationed near the roundabout witnessed the scuffle in the car and started chasing the robbers car on Surajpur-Kasna Road.

The robbers drove their car to Kasna and pushed Mustaqeem out after snatching Rs1 lakh from him, the police said.

Seeing the man thrown out of the vehicle, the police approached him and ascertained that he had been robbed by the four persons. The personnel alerted the control room about the Honda Amaze car, in which the four persons were escaping with the money, and they continued to chase the vehicle.

Amit Kumar Shrivastava, the circle officer of Greater Noida-1, said, The police got suspicious after they witnessed a scuffle inside the car and they started chasing the vehicle. The police intercepted the vehicle at Sector Chi -3. One of the robbers got down from the car and started running into the nearby forest. The police shot the man in his leg and arrested him.

Police across the district were alerted about the vehicle and around half an hour later, a PCR van in Sector 36 of Greater Noida informed that they had spotted the car. Several police teams were rushed to the area and another robber was held after a brief exchange of gunfire. Two others left behind the car and fled the spot.

Shrivastava said, Both the miscreants received bullet injuries on their legs and were arrested. The arrested men are identified as Manohar, of Girdharpur in UP, and Anil, of Dankaur.

Police said Mustaqeem is a plumber contractor and is from Aligarh. He had come to the city to collect a payment after fulfilling his contract.

The police recovered the money from the assailants and are on the lookout for the other persons, identified as Bittu and Vikas, of Dankaur.
United States President Donald Trump is running out of patience with North Korea. Using heated language unusual for a US president, Trump recently warned that if Pyongyang threatens to attack the US again, the US will respond with fire and fury like the world has never seen. Whatever action Trump decides to take, he must recognise that the stakes  not just for the Korean Peninsula, but also for Americas relationship with China  could not be higher.

North Koreas two latest intercontinental ballistic missile tests, carried out last month, suggest that the country now has the capability to hit the continental US. The US Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that North Korea may well have already developed a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could be delivered on such a missile. Experts from Johns Hopkins University anticipate a sixth nuclear test any moment.

The United Nations Security Council has now unanimously passed the harshest sanctions yet against North Korea, in the hope of pressuring the small country to renounce its nuclear-weapons programme. The resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore, and seafood products, which together account for one third of the countrys annual export revenue of $3 billion. It also prohibits countries from issuing new permits to North Korean workers abroad, whose wages, it is suspected, help fund nuclear and missile programmes.

So far, however, the sanctions do not seem to be having the intended effect. North Korea has threatened to retaliate against the US thousands of times over  including by striking the US territory of Guam in the western Pacific  and reiterated its vow to never give up its nuclear arsenal. Similarly, at the just-concluded Asean Regional Forum in Manila, North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho asserted that the North would not participate in negotiations on its nuclear and missile programmes unless the US abandons its hostile policy.

The US has taken a similarly stubborn line. In a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia Susan Thornton articulated the administrations belief that talks would not get North Korea to abandon its nuclear-weapons programme, even if they brought much-needed economic concessions. We will not, she added, negotiate our way to talks.

Instead, Washington has been working hard to tighten the screws on Pyongyang, by reinforcing its international isolation. The Trump administration attempted to convince the Philippines to exclude North Korea from the Asean forum, and is pushing Myanmar to suspend its military ties with the country.

The US has been more successful in pressuring Australia, the European Union, Japan, and other US allies to strengthen unilateral sanctions on the North. According to Federica Mogherini, the EUs high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, the EU is considering additional measures, including further reductions in trade and financial exchanges. Japans government has decided to expand a re-entry ban for North Korean officials, and widen the scope of its asset-freeze programme for entities and individuals connected to the countrys nuclear and missile development.

But the US is unlikely to put all of its eggs in the sanctions basket. Already, the department of defense announced that US joint chiefs of staff chairman Joseph Dunford and US Pacific command chief Harry Harris had spoken by phone with South Koreas top military official, General Lee Sun-jin, to discuss military-response options to the launch. Moreover, US, Japanese, and South Korean forces have conducted several joint drills involving B-1B bombers and other strategic assets. The message is clear: The US is ready to fight, should it come to that.

Of course, avoiding such a fight is still the worlds best bet  a fact that even the turbulent Trump administration seems to recognise. But that will require cooperation from China, which the Trump administration has gone to great lengths to alienate.

As North Koreas main trading partner, China has substantial leverage over the country. Chinas suspension of North Korean coal imports alone  part of its obligations under the UNSC resolution  will reduce the Norths export earnings by an estimated $400 million this year (while also costing China a pretty penny).

But China has serious reservations about US North Korea policy. For example, China adamantly opposes the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea, claiming that it undermines Chinas own security.

Moreover, China condemns secondary sanctions placed by the US on Chinese companies and individuals found to have illicit dealings with North Korea as assaults on its sovereignty. Yet the senates leading Democrat, minority leader Chuck Schumer, is ready to double down on this approach, calling for the suspension of direct investment from China.

And that is not the only way the US Congress is antagonising China. The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the US House of Representatives last month, includes demands for the US government to strengthen military ties with Taiwan, with US Navy ships calling in at Taiwans ports.

Last April, senator John McCain said that North Korea is presenting the US with a Cuban Missile Crisis in slow motion. It is an apt analogy, but it gets one thing wrong: There is no longer anything slow about the situation. Trumps administration had better catch up.

Minghao Zhao is research fellow, Charhar Institute in Beijing, and member, China National Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific

The views expressed are personal

Project Syndicate, 2017
Chandigarh An accountant working with a private firm was injured after two robbers shot at him before fleeing with Rs 2 lakh that he was carrying at the Industrial Area, Phase 2, Panchkula, on Friday afternoon.

Victim Rakesh Tiwari, 25, had returned to office  Shreem Electrics Pvt Ltd  after withdrawing the money from two branches of HDFC bank in Sectors 7 and 8, when the robbers struck there around 1:40pm.

The moment he entered the office after parking his bike, two men in a white Maruti Alto car stopped outside the office gate, said Somvir Varak, a senior executive at the firm. One of them, in his late 20s, entered the office and attacked Rakesh from the rear.

The assailant allegedly tried to snatch the bag containing the cash and dragged Rakesh towards the gate as he did not let go of it. When we rushed out, the other man, who was sitting on the drivers seat, got out of the car and fired two shots at Rakesh, said Varak. The other man, who seemed to be in his late 40s, was wearing a turban and had a light beard, he said.

A forensic team collecting samples, in Panchkula on Friday. (HT Photo)

Firm employee tried to stop robbers

After Rakesh fell on the floor as one of the bullets hit him in his right arm, the duo ran towards the car with the bag.

I hit a helmet at the car, and then broke its rear windowpane with a blow on it. I also hit one of the robbers with helmet, but they managed to flee, said Varak. One of the CCTV cameras installed at a neighbouring factory has captured the car used in the crime with a white helmet stuck in the rear window. The entire crime unfolded within 15 minutes.

We kept on calling the police control room (PCR) number 100, but no one answered, alleged Varak. It was only after one of the colleagues reached the police station that the cops started arriving.

Victim Rakesh Tiwari at a private hospital in Panchkula on Friday. (Sant Arora/HT)

Police working on CCTV, other leads

Senior police officers, including commissioner and deputy commissioner of police (DCP), reached the spot within half an hour and started the probe.

We have got some leads in the case and are working on them, said Panchkula DCP Ashok Kumar. We are hopeful of solving the case soon. Even as the police retrieved the crucial CCTV footage, they could not find any traces of the bullets fired.

We have collected the dried blood stains and broken windowpane of the car, said senior scientific officer Riti Saini. We have been told that the shots were fired from the gate. So there must be some ballistic material, which we havent been able to find yet. The samples will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Karnal. The report is expected in a month.

Meanwhile, the police have registered a case under Section 394 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Arms Act. The condition of Rakesh, who was rushed to a private hospital, is stated to be stable. He had joined the firm around five months back.
The rogue elephant that had killed 15 people -- 11 in Jharkhand and 4 in Bihar -- was shot dead on Friday, said principal chief conservator of forest (Wildlife) LR Singh.

A day before the World Elephant Day, hunter Nawab Safath Ali Khan, who had been called from Hyderabad, fired two bullets on the head the animal from a distance of just 10 meters. The elephant died with minutes.

Forest officials said Khan and veterinarian Dr Ajay Kumar had tracked the elephant near Banjali village in Jharkhands Sahebganj district.

Dr Kumar had tried to tranquillize the elephant from a distance of 30 meters. But, the pachyderm suddenly ran to charge them. The officials said before the elephant could reach them, Khan shot two bullets on its head, and it fell on the ground.

The wildlife wing of the Jharkhand forest department had on Thursday evening issued a shoot-at-sight order after finding no alternative to protect the elephant.

Principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) LR Singh said a 12-member elephant-chasing squad from West Bengal and teams of experts, villagers and foresters had been deployed to trace and kill the elephant.

The teams were finding it difficult to locate the elephant as visibility was negligible in the forest due to thick vegetation and the hilly terrain was not easily negotiable by vehicles. So, chances of capturing it was very meagre in such a situation, Singh said.

Forest officials and hunter Nawab Saffath Ali khan (in cap) before leaving for jungle in search of the elephant in Sahebganj on Friday. (HT Photo)

DS Srivastava, a state wildlife board member, raised objection to the killing of the elephant. Tuskers are protected under schedule-1 of wildlife protection Act. It is irony that an elephant was killed in a state where it is declared as state animal, he said.

The elephant was on the rampage for the last four months. But, state forest department could not chalk out any concrete plan to control it. The elephant could be protected by driving it to a small forest area and digging trenches around it, said Srivastava, a former steering committee member of Project Elephant.

PCCF (wildlife), however, rejected Srivastavas proposal. Digging trenches was not possible in hilly and rocky area. Also, it was a time-taking process. Trenching could have been thought of if the elephant didnt change its location frequently, Singh said.

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You have read about them in history textbooks. This Independence Day, go down memory lane and get a new perspective on the freedom struggle. Here are some places to visit:

1) The Partition Museum, Amritsar

The Partition Museum may have opened its doors only in 2016 but it has a wealth of records about events dating back to Indias Independence. This one-of-a-kind museum preserves the experiences of those displaced by the Partition of India in 1947. The final plan for the museum is to have seven galleries spread across 16,000 square feet, with sections devoted to independence and partition, migration, research, rehabilitation and resettlement and the gallery of hope. In Amritsar, also visit Jallianwala Bagh where a crowd of non-violent protestors were fired upon by the British troops on April 13, 1919.

Freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar and Battukeshwar Dutt were incarcerated at Cellular Jail. (Shutterstock)

2) Cellular Jail, Port Blair

The term kaala pani refers to this particular jail. This remote jail in the middle of the Indian Ocean was where freedom fighters, such as Veer Savarkar and Batukeshwar Dutt, were exiled. At the museum, displays include tools used to torture the inmates. A must-attend is the sound and light show which displays stories about Indias struggle for freedom.

Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned at The Aga Khan Palace after the Quit India movement. (Shutterstock)

3) Aga Khan Palace, Pune

The beautiful Aga Khan Palace has paintings that depict Mahatma Gandhis life and the freedom struggle. This was the place where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned after the Quit India movement in 1942. He was accompanied by wife Kasturba and secretary Mahdevbhai.

On August 15, the Prime Minister hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of Red Fort. (HT file photo)

4) Red Fort, Delhi

The Red Fort is the place where Indias first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, delivered the first Independence Day speech in 1947.

Gateway of India during Navy Day celebration in December. (HT file photo )

5) Gateway of India, Mumbai

This is the site from where the last British troops left India. While the Gateway of India was built to mark the landing of King George V and Queen Mary at Apollo Bunder, this was also the place marking the end of British rule as the British troops left India.

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North Korea said on Saturday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new UN sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.

Rodong Sinmun, North Koreas official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the Peoples Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.

Earlier this week, nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam.

KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate.

In August 2015, 1 million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions.

North Korea warned foreign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it suspended work at a joint inter-Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on US Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.
Kenyan police killed at least 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums surrounding the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.

However, the NASA opposition coalition, led by four-time presidential hopeful Raila Odinga, put the death toll at more than 100, including 10 children, albeit without providing evidence. Odinga has rejected the poll and its result as massive fraud.

Reuters was able to confirm 11 deaths, including one girl, in the space of 24 hours, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said 24 people had been shot dead by police since Tuesday, election day.

Top Odinga lieutenant Johnson Muthama said police had been packing corpses into body bags and dumping them, remarks likely to exacerbate the tensions that followed Friday nights official announcement that Kenyatta had won, with 54.3% of votes.

The eruption of violence has revived dark memories of a decade ago, when Odinga, 72, lost an election in controversial circumstances that sparked a wave of ethnic unrest in which 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 displaced.

Interior minister Fred Matiangi said the trouble was localised and blamed it on criminal elements rather than legitimate political protest. He also denied accusations of police brutality.

Emergency workers take care of a wounded man after about 15 people were allegedly beaten during a police raid, following overnight protests against the election results. (AFP Photo)

Let us be honest - there are no demonstrations happening, he told reporters.

Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into peoples businesses  those are not demonstrators. They are criminals and we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with.

State terror

However, James Orengo, another top NASA official, said the killings were part of a carefully laid plan by 55-year-old Kenyattas Jubilee party and the security forces to rig the poll, crush dissent and then hide the evidence.

This violence, this state terror is being executed following very meticulous preparation, he said.

Its like they knew what they were going to do. They knew they were going to steal an election. They knew the people would be unhappy, and therefore all the instruments of violence were put in place.

He and Muthama urged Odinga supporters to stay calm and out of harms way but, ominously, said there would be no backing down. We will not be cowed. We will not relent, Muthama said.

As with previous votes in 2007 and 2013, this years elections have exposed the underlying ethnic tensions in the nation of 45 million people, the economic engine of East Africa and the regions main trading hub.

In particular, Odingas Luo tribe, who hail from the west, hoped an Odinga presidency would break the Kikuyu and Kalenjin dominance of central government since independence in 1963. Kenyatta, the son of Kenyas first president, is a Kikuyu.

Most of the trouble has been in the western city of Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, and the large, ethnically mixed slums on the outskirts of Nairobi.

The bodies of nine young men shot dead in the capitals run-down Mathare neighbourhood were brought to the city morgue, a security official said. A young girl was also killed by a stray bullet in Mathare, according to a witness.

A government official said one man had been killed in Kisumu county. A Reuters reporter in the city heard tear gas grenades and gunshots overnight and on Saturday morning.

Riot police prepare to advance towards protesters past burning barricades. (AP Photo)

In addition to the deaths, officials at Kisumus main hospital said they had treated 26 people since Friday night, including four with gunshot wounds and others who had been beaten by police.

This is just a warm-up

One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in Kisumus impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and set about him with clubs.

He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him, said his brother, Charles Ochieng. She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people.

In Nairobi, armed police backed by water cannon moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum.

At one point they fired volleys of tear gas and live rounds to force a convoy of pick-up trucks containing senior NASA officials to retreat, a Reuters witness said. It was not clear why they were going to Kibera.

Fleeing Odinga loyalists vowed to vent their rage at the seat of Kenyattas administration in central Nairobi.

This is just a warm-up. Tomorrow we will go to State House and they can kill us there, shouted Felix Oduor, 18, as he ran from clouds of tear gas along Kiberas railway line. They cant kill us all, those around him shouted in response.

Even before the official result was declared, NASA had rejected the polls outcome, saying the election commissions systems had been hacked, the count was irregular, and foreign observers who endorsed the poll and the count were biased.

A protester wearing a metal kitchen bowl as a helmet holds rocks in his hands, during a lull in clashes between police and protesters in the Mathare area of Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo)

NASA provided no evidence for any of its accusations but singled out former US secretary of state John Kerry and former South African president Thabo Mbeki - who both led teams of observers - for criticism.

In addition to the thumbs-up from foreign monitors, Kenyas ELOG domestic observation group, which had 8,300 agents on the ground, published a parallel vote tally on Saturday that conformed with the official results.

ELOGs projected outcome put Kenyatta on 54% with a 1.9% error margin, and its chairwoman said there was no evidence of manipulation.
A high-level Chinese delegation led by vice premier Wang Yang will visit Pakistan to take part in the countrys Independence Day celebrations, officials said on Saturday.

The foreign ministry said Wangs two-day visit from August 13 comes on the directions of President Xi Jinping as a special gesture for Pakistans 70th Independence Day on August 14.

As a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Wang is among the top leaders in China.

His visit on this important milestone for Pakistan is a reflection of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China, the ministry said.

Wang will attend the flag-hoisting ceremony on August 14 as a special guest, and call on Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain. He will also call on the new Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, according to a statement from the ministry.

He will then participate in the inauguration ceremony of projects related to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Some bilateral agreements are also expected to be signed during his visit.

In March, a contingent of the guard of honour of the three services of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) took part in the Pakistan military parade held in Islamabad to mark Pakistan Day.
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has cancelled a planned visit to Botswana because of exhaustion, his office said, a move that is likely to be welcomed by China, a major investor in the African country.

The Dalai Lama had been expected to address a human rights conference in the capital Gaborone on August 17-19 and meet Botswanas president during the trip.

Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China, and it stepped up warnings to Botswana last month, with its foreign ministry spokesman demanding the relevant country earnestly respect Chinas core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter.

Botswana reacted by saying that as a sovereign state, it retained the right to permit anyone to enter the country.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has long been at loggerheads over Tibet with China, which brands him a reactionary and separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom, and true autonomy for Tibetans.

In a statement late on Friday the Dalai Lamas office said his doctors had advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks.

During the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually tired, it said.

Although he had been eagerly looking forward to visiting Gaborone ... His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest.

Chinas fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana.
A tornado struck northern China, lashing it with rain, killing five people, injuring more than 50 and destroying homes in a major city in Inner Mongolia, state media said on Saturday.

The tornado hit Chifeng, a city about 650 miles (1,046 km) east of Hohhot, the capital of the autonomous region, on Friday afternoon, the Peoples Daily newspaper and news agency Xinhua said.

State media showed pictures of collapsed houses and buildings flattened by the storm, which destroyed at least 30 houses in three villages and affected 270 people, the Peoples Daily said.

The injured were being treated in hospital and authorities have launched relief efforts, Xinhua added.

Inner Mongolia is Chinas top coal producing region.
Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday morning at white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a pro-white rally to protest the city of Charlottesvilles decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a downtown park.

Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

This isnt how he should have to grow up, she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the counterprotesters are crazier than the alt-right.

Both sides are hoping for a confrontation, he said.

Its the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group travelled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and advocating for white people.

This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do, he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Among those expected to attend are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and alt-right activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

Officials have been preparing for the rally for months. Virginia State Police will be assisting local authorities, and a spokesman said the Virginia National Guard will closely monitor the situation and will be able to rapidly respond and provide additional assistance if needed.

Police instituted road closures around downtown, and many businesses in the popular open-air shopping mall opted to close for the day.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on call.

There were also fights Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

A group of counterprotesters rally against members of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, US, Saturday. (Reuters)

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city thats home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statues removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesvilles history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Theyre now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an escalation of tensions over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang on Saturday.

In a statement, Macron voiced his concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea, saying the international community needed to work to get Pyongyang to resume the path of dialogue without conditions.

Macron joined a chorus of international voices urging restraint in the crisis, which has alarmed the global community as US President Donald Trump has engaged in days of verbal sparring with Pyongyang.

France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to conform without delay to its international obligations and proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes, Macron said in the statement.

He also assured Frances allies and partners in the region of our solidarity in the current period.

Xi Jinping, the leader of North Koreas key ally China, urged Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions, after the US president ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would truly regret taking hostile action against the United States.

Trumps warning came after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the already-tense situation, exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Earlier this week, France had praised Trumps determination in standing up to Pyongyang.
The Islamic State terror group enlists partners of convenience in Afghanistan and outsources terror attacks to Pakistan-based outfits like the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, according to a UN report.

The 20th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team was submitted to the UN Security Council Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee here.

It said that in South Asia, the al-Qaedas core continues to compete with the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for dominance over terrorist groups in the region.

The report said the current leader of al-Qaeda Aiman al- Zawahiri is still assumed to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

ISIL in Afghanistan tends to enlist partners of convenience and outsources terrorist attacks to other groups such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan splinter group, the report said.

It said that the al-Qaeda core and its regional affiliates continue to actively cooperate with the Afghan Taliban in return for sanctuary and operating space.

By embedding itself within the Taliban movement, the Al-Qaeda core also aims to maintain local bases of influence as a part of the wider Afghan insurgency and receives operational support from the Taliban for its regional affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the report said.

It cited a UN Member state, which informed the committee that AQIS comprises around 200 fighters, who operate as advisers and trainers of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Individuals associated with the Al-Qaeda core are active in Paktika, Paktiya, Khost, Kunar and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan, the report said.

It said that the ISIS core continues to fund the group in Afghanistan, noting that while sometimes the financial flows are robust, other times they run dry.

In the assessment of one Member State, ISIL in Afghanistan would not exist without support from the ISIL core. However, the ISIL core has instructed its affiliate in Afghanistan to begin to develop its own internal funding sources, the report said.

Further, the Taliban, through the al-Qaeda core, continues to wield substantial influence over regional Al- Qaeda affiliates.

Many Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters from the Afghanistan- Pakistan border area have integrated into the Taliban, leading to a marked increase in the military capabilities of the movement, the report said, adding that currently more than 7,000 foreign terrorist fighters are fighting in Afghanistan for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda affiliates.

However, the report notes that under the order of the al- Qaeda core, several of the groups second-tier leaders had left South Asia for Syria in line with the continued ambition of the Al-Qaeda core to play a more direct role in that ongoing conflict and use it to further its agenda.

The report noted that in a video released in April this year, Al-Zawahiri tried to inject Al-Qaeda ideology into the ongoing fight, with the aim of expanding its support base and rebuilding its regional network in the aftermath of a potential collapse of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

In the video, he directly addressed fighters in Syria, painting the Syrian conflict as part of the global fight against the crusader enemy and urging them to reject nationalist sentiment and wage a protracted guerrilla war against the Syrian government. PTI YAS ASK ASK
Detained for joining the ranks of militants, as many as 10 youth have been let off by the Jammu and Kashmir Police this year alone in north Kashmir following counselling sessions to de-radicalise them.

The focus is on de-radicalisation in north Kashmir and our job becomes easier due to support we have received from parents and guardians of these boys, says Nitish Kumar, inspector general of Jammu and Kashmir Police for north Kashmir.

In all, 59 newly recruited militants and their overground workers have either been arrested or they surrendered in north Kashmir till August 10 this year.

The analysis of Jammu and Kashmir Police data shows that among 59 surrendered or arrested new recruits, 10 were let off by police after counselling sessions as there were only minor charges against them. Police arrested only those who were involved in major acts of violence.

Security sources told HT that after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8 last year, hundreds of youth in the Valley eft their homes to join the ranks of militants. Since then, the process has not stopped.

Social media propaganda and inflammatory speeches by religious leaders have proved to be a catalyst in the process, said a security source.

But unlike the southern part of the Valley, in north Kashmir parents and guardians of youth who leave homes to join militancy are coming forward to inform police.

In many case, the moment the kid left home, local police was informed about it,added the source.

Police is using local intelligence network and also roping in society elders to motivate these new recruits to surrender and the effort is slowly showing results.

The data shows there are 88 militants active in the north Kashmir zone of the state police and only 12 of them are locals.

They are our own kids and also the future of Kashmir. Even if they are allured by jehadi propaganda but have not committed any serious crime so far, we want to give them a second chance to begin their lives afresh, said IG Kumar.

This year so far in the north Kashmir range, as many as 62 militants have been killed and among them only 10 were locals. Police managed to identify 18 among those killed as foreigners and the rest were killed while trying to cross the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. And they remained unidentified.

In all, more than 125 militants have been killed in encounters with security forces across the Valley so far.

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Japan was on Saturday deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said.

Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would truly regret any hostile action against the US.

The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles flight path, public broadcaster NHK said.

It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.

Yoshihide Suga, Japans chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo can never tolerate provocations from North Korea and the countrys military, will take necessary measures.

In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Storms swept across Beijing and southeastern China on Saturday, disrupting thousands of flights and flooding towns, while authorities warned that rain and wind could cause landslides in the area where a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck this week.

Beijing authorities raised their weather alert level to orange from yellow early in the afternoon, warning against lightning, hail, wind and as much as 70 mm (three inches) of rain, threatening flash floods in mountainous areas.

By early afternoon rain subsided in some parts of the capital, but nine roads were still flooded and 171 tourist sites were shut, the official news agency Xinhua said.

At Beijing International, one of the worlds largest airports and Chinas busiest, more than 1,600 flights were listed as cancelled since midnight and over 300 were delayed, the website of Beijing Capital International Airport Co Ltd showed, urging travellers to check for flight updates.

Air China Ltd said on its Weibo social media account that about 225 of its flights in and out of the capital had been cancelled by 4 p.m. (0800 GMT).

Torrential rainstorms are fairly frequent in Beijing in summer, often causing long delays at the airport.

One user of Chinas Twitter-like Weibo said she had been stuck at the airport for eight hours waiting for a flight home.

There are no free seats, Im having to sit on the floor, Im jetlagged and Im really tired, said the user, who goes by the handle Vivian not soymilk.

Other airports affected by the downpours included Shanghai, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang along the Yangtze River delta.

The others were in northern regions: Shijiazhuang in Hebei, Taiyuan in Shanxi, Lanzhou in Gansu, Xining in Qinghai and Yinchuan in Ningxia.

In a statement, Chinas National Meteorological Centre cautioned rescue crews working in Jiuzhaigou, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, to be on alert for landslides and lightning.

Heavy rain was expected across south-eastern China on Saturday, it said.

Widespread flooding hit two areas, Xiangbei and Xiangxi in the southern province of Hunan, Xinhua said. Rainfall across the province ranged from 100 mm (4 inches) to 200 mm (8 inches).

The extreme weather followed a tornado that struck Inner Mongolia on Friday, killing five people, injuring more than 50 and destroying homes in a major city.
Pakistans former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday termed his disqualification from premiership as a joke and exuded confidence that he will be elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.

A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.

Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Sharif said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.

Should this even be called a disqualification? I will be made prime minister by the masses again tomorrow, he told a cheering crowd.

They have only removed me on paper but they have not removed me from your hearts. Is this removing me at all? Sharif asked. He asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.

I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted, he said.

May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted, the 67-year-old veteran politician said.

Sharif said the peoples vote had been trampled upon as millions of people elected a leader and a couple of people or five judges disgraced and sent him home.

He said it was for the people of Gujranwala to think that removal was just.

Sharif, who could not complete his term for a third time, also asked the gathering, Should I sit back and accept the verdict or fight the injustice?

The people responded in unison with a big No, prompting Sharif to ask them to stand by him.

If you do not want me to sit back then you would have to stand by me. Then stand by me to change the fate of this nation. Promise me that you would do what I tell you, he said.

Supporters of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif greet their leader as he arrives to address a rally in Gujrat, Pakistan, on Friday. (AP)

Sharif said the time had come to change the country.

We would have to make sure that your vote is respected. It is a question of respect for vote of 20 crore people. I would not allow anyone to trample your right to elect leaders of choice, Sharif said.

He said he would announce his future plan of action and asked his supporters to wait for it.

Sharif stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court on July 28 and after staying in Murree and Islamabad, embarked on road journey to his home in Lahore in the company of thousands of his supporters.

He was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.

Yesterday, he resumed his travel from Rawalpindi and reached Jhelum in the evening and addressed an even bigger rally there.

Later, he rested at a scenic hotel on the banks of the River Jhelum. He left Jhelum at around 12 PM and stopped in Gujarat for Friday prayers and addressed his supporters.

He has left for Gujranwala and will cross small towns of Wairabad, Gakhar Mandi etc. He is expected to halt briefly at some places to address his supporters.

According to the scheduled of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), Sharif is expected to spend the night in Gujranwala. He would leave for Lahore in the morning and is expected to reach there at 4pm on Sunday.
A US F-18 fighter jet suffering an engine problem crash landed Saturday at Bahrain International Airport and its pilot ejected from the aircraft after it ran off the runway, authorities said. The pilot escaped unharmed.

The crash disrupted flights to and from the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia thats home to the US Navys 5th Fleet. Images on social media showed the grey fighter jets nose tipped into the air but largely intact after what the Navy described as an uncontrollable landing.

The F-18 took off from the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier now in the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Bill Urban, a fleet spokesman. While in flight, the plane suffered an engine malfunction, forcing the pilot to divert, Urban said.

The pilot initially tried to land at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, but instead had to divert to the islands commercial airport, Urban said.

Due to the malfunction, the aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and the pilot ejected from the aircraft as it departed the runway, the commander said in a statement.

Naval officials began an investigation into the crash and were trying to help the airport resume operations, Urban said. Bahrains Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry called the crash landing a minor incident in a statement and said flights resumed at the airport several hours later.

Bahrain hosts 8,000 US troops, mostly sailors attached to a sprawling based called the Naval Support Activity. That base oversees some 20 US and coalition naval vessels in the Gulf providing security and others running anti-piracy patrols.

Bahrain is also home to an under-construction British naval base.
A 38-year-old Orlando woman who pretended to have terminal cancer and accepted donations when she lived in New Yorks Westchester County several years ago was arrested on Friday and charged with fraud, US prosecutors said.

Vedoutie Hoobraj, 38, used the name Shivonie Deokaran while perpetrating the scam from about October 2014 through at least March 2016, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Hoobraj was charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, after being arrested on Friday morning in Orlando, prosecutors said.

Social media posts from the period in question show Hoobraj posing with her two sons, her head hairless, prosecutors said.

Cancer patients often lose their hair during treatment.

Hoobraj claimed to have seen doctors at cancer hospitals, including New York Citys Sloan-Kettering Medical Center, but prosecutors said in court documents that she never actually underwent any cancer treatment.

She raised more than $50,000 from at least 300 people in Westchester County towns, prosecutors allege. Spaghetti dinners were organised to help raise money for Hoobraj, who claimed she had 18 months to live and was suffering from both leukemia and cancer of the liver, a federal complaint against her shows.

Hoobraj allegedly concocted an elaborate story about having cancer when she did not, using GoFundMe pages and accepting money raised by a local high school, all supposedly to fund her medical care, Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon H. Kim said in the prosecutors statement.

Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York FBI office, William Sweeney, said the alleged crime was an injustice to those who do truly need the support of their communities and may now be met with suspicion because of her alleged behaviour.

Hoobrajs public defender in Orlando did not immediately return a call for comment.

She is due to appear in federal court in White Plains, New York, on August 16, according to court records.
US military forces stand ready to safeguard Guam after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles toward the American Pacific island territory, the White House said early Saturday.

During a call with Guam governor Eddie Calvo, US President Donald Trump reassured him that United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America, a statement read.

It said White House chief of staff John Kelly spoke with Calvo separately during an earlier call.

Meanwhile, the United States demanded that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior early Saturday after Trump stepped up his warnings against Pyongyang and spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone.
Instagram have published their top 15 most influential accounts to celebrate the one year anniversary of their Instagram Stories Feature.

??? Ein Beitrag geteilt von Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) am 18. Mai 2017 um 13:26 Uhr This article can only be read with a Premium Account Please Log In or Subscribe to continue reading
A week ago, James Damore worked at Google. Now, he's sitting for portraits with Peter Duke, the photographer the New York Times dubbed "the Annie Leibovitz of the alt-right."

In one photograph - the user image for an unverified Twitter account believed to be his - Damore sits in front of a blue background, holding a laptop. He's wearing a T-shirt that has one word printed on the chest, in Google's font. It reads: "Goolag."

Damore, a software engineer, was the author of a 10-page internal memo at Google in which he argued that the company's current diversity initiatives were "discriminatory" against those who weren't women or people of color, that the company should focus more on "ideological" diversity, and that the underrepresentation of women in some engineering and leadership positions in Google's staff was better explained by biological gender differences rather than by institutional bias.

The memo went viral at Google and then became news when its existence was leaked to Motherboard. Damore was fired for "perpetuating gender stereotypes." But he quickly became a hero on the right-wing Internet, where a coalition of anti-politically-correct online personalities, Trump supporters and the alt-right believed that Damore's firing was proof that Silicon Valley was hostile to conservatives - and that something was about to change.

As his Duke portraits show, that is a role that Damore has embraced. Below is a look at how he got there.

Step one: The initial reaction

Each component of the Damore's story read like a fulfilled prophecy for the right-wing Internet, which has spent years accusing Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to silence conservatives.

Many of the things Damore argued in that memo were more or less aligned with this viewpoint: for instance, that "Google's left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence," and later, that "we have extensive government and Google programs, fields of study, and legal and social norms to protect women, but when a man complains about a gender issue affecting men, he's labeled as a misogynist and a whiner."

Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab - a social network that has pitched itself as a Twitter alternative for those who believe the platform engages in too much censorship - told The Washington Post in an email that he believed "Damore's memo and firing will be the shot heard across the tech world."

Torba believes this week will be the "beginning of the alt-tech revolution," an uprising of conservative Silicon Valley workers against the tech world's left-leaning culture. Gab's Medium post on said revolution is illustrated by a popular meme of Damore, in which his face has been placed over that of Martin Luther, nailing the Ninety-five Theses on the door of a church.

The Gab founder has previously said that he believes progressives have a monopoly on every major Silicon Valley company, and has built Gab as an independent, free-speech alternative - one that has been especially popular with the Trump-supporting Internet and its diaspora. Gab said in a tweet that it had raised $80,000 for its crowdfunding campaign over the past week, a period roughly aligning with Damore's story going viral.

Torba also said that Damore's memo was particularly well-timed, because "censorship from Silicon Valley has increased dramatically over the past few weeks." He pointed me to this tweet for examples:

August 2017:

"James Damore fired

"Sargon banned on Twitter

"Diamond and Silk demonetized on Youtube

"Drudge's tweet censored

"This is war."

- Gab (@getongab) August 10, 2017

If you're not steeped in this part of Internet culture, the rest of Gab's tweet might read like nonsense. So, briefly, here's a primer. "Sargon" refers to "Sargon of Akkad," the pseudonym for a pundit-style YouTube personality with nearly 700,000 subscribers who is probably best known for regularly mocking and criticizing individual feminists and "Social Justice Warriors" in his videos. He was recently suspended from Twitter, and his supporters have interpreted the suspension as politically correct censorship.

Diamond and Silk are also YouTubers. They supported Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and have accused YouTube of "demonetizing" some of their videos because of their politics (although the reality might be a bit more complicated):

"Wonder if @YouTube@TeamYouTube stopped the monetization of our videos because we are loyal supporters of the @POTUS . . ..Hummmm. . .. . .. . ..."

- Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) August 10, 2017

Since Google owns YouTube, Diamond and Silk have become a part of the Damore narrative, as further proof that the company is trying to silence conservatives.

And Drudge, of course, refers to The Drudge Report. Gab is referring to an accusation one of the President's sons made last week about a tweet of his being "censored." He was trying to quote-tweet a Drudge tweet, but ran into an issue.

Because Damore's memo, and firing, escaped the right-wing filter bubble and became a real, mainstream controversy, his story took on a much larger significance. Soon, some prominent personalities were talking about Damore with the language of civil rights;

"The mistreatment of conservatives and libertarians by tech monopolies is a civil rights issue. #googlememo"

- Dana Rohrabacher (@DanaRohrabacher) August 10, 2017

Step two: Offer support

Gab, along with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, both publicly offered to hire Damore after he lost his job at Google. But the onslaught of online support that headed Damore's way as the story about his memo blew up was more comprehensive than that.

WeSearchr, the crowdfunding "bounty" platform run by infamous Internet troll Chuck Johnson, set up a "fundraiser" for Damore that has raised $40,000 in a matter of days. The conservative media, picking up on the initial support of Damore on right-wing Twitter, began to cover the story as progressive overreach.

His new supporters believed that the only thing keeping Silicon Valley from a conservative revolution was that an army of secret conservatives were afraid to "speak out." And despite what Google said about the decision to fire Damore, his supporters were ready to read the action as a desperate attempt to silence him and anyone like him.

If Damore became an outspoken critic of the institutions for which he once worked, perhaps it would convince others to do the same.

Torba wanted to assure me that this was already in progress. In his email, he said that "Gab has personally heard from engineers working in established Fortune 500 companies, inquiring on how they can help us create the alternative online world - a world based on the principles of freedom and the freedom to dissent." And Breitbart has started publishing interviews with anonymous, disgruntled Google employees.

Others began to go on the attack against the people they blamed for Damore's firing, by tracking down the names and online profiles of individual Google employees whom they believed were outspoken against the memo.

A few viral, seemingly 4Chan-sourced social media posts highlighted the names and Twitter bios of progressive Google employees, who were apparently critical of the memo internally. Conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos posted one of those screenshots to his popular Facebook page, where it has more than 2,000 shares. Some of those employees pictured have since had to set their accounts to private.

A planned Thursday meeting at Google to address the fallout from Damore's firing was cancelled at the last minute, due to concerns about employee harassment.

Step three: Support accepted

Damore didn't appear to have a Twitter account before his memo went viral. On Tuesday, he apparently started tweeting as @fired4truth. The account tweeted a photo of Damore posing for a photo shoot outside of Google's headquarters Thursday, holding up a sign that carried the same message.

And the first two long interviews he gave after his firing were to YouTube personalities who are popular on the right-wing Internet. One was Stefan Molyneux, a popular right-wing, anti-feminist YouTuber who describes his programming as "philosophy."

Damore told Molyneux that he decided to write the memo after attending a diversity training session at the company. There were portions of the training he "definitely disagreed with," he said.

"There was a lot of just shaming and, 'No, you can't say that, that's sexist, you can't do this,' and there's just so much hypocrisy in a lot of the things that they are saying," he said.

The other interview, posted Wednesday, was with Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who runs a popular YouTube channel that regularly goes after what Peterson believes to be "political correctness."

In his 50-minute interview with Peterson, Damore accused Google's "upper management" of misrepresenting him, "just to silence me," he said.

Later, Peterson asked him how he's doing. "I've gotten a surprising amount of support," Damore said. "It definitely sucks, but at least I was proven right," he added. "The whole culture tries to silence any dissenting view."

Both interviews with Damore have hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Two days later, Damore published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

In just a week, Damore has become on one of the biggest celebrities on the conservative Internet. He hasn't indicated yet what he's doing next - Gab didn't say whether Damore had responded to their job offer.

Meanwhile, Damore's new online army is organizing "Marches" on Google's office buildings to protest his firing. Damore hasn't said whether he'll attend any of them.
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The massive four-column hull of a deep-water oil platform began sailing from South Korea to Texas this week, starting a monthslong voyage that will bring Shell closer to finishing a multibillion-dollar Gulf of Mexico project.

The departure is the latest milestone for a gigantic venture the European company sanctioned two years ago in the face of a raging oil bust that forced many of its rivals to scuttle offshore plans.

As oil prices tumbled, Royal Dutch Shell spent $600 million and employed 1,500 workers in Texas and Louisiana alone to fabricate parts for the so-called Appomattox platform, the company's largest in the Gulf, expected to start pumping oil 80 miles off Louisiana by the end of the decade. Even so, Shell says it could still wring a profit from its 125,000-ton platform with oil prices below $50 a barrel, after deep cost cutting.

"If you look at the platforms, we used to have a lot more focus on the deeper, the bigger," Wael Sawan, executive vice president of deep water at Shell, said in a recent interview. "Much of our technology spend is now geared toward more capital efficiency, lower costs."

Shell said it has whittled down expenses on the Appomattox by more than 20 percent, as it cut the time it needed to drill wells and took advantage of lower equipment prices. The company used new high-tech rigs to drill faster, and it closely monitored every step to slash nonproductive time.

As the platform's hull makes its way from south Asia to U.S. waters, it edges closer to the last major step in the platform construction, which is to integrate the hull with the platform's topsides in Ingleside.

Next, Shell will install the platform in the Gulf. At its peak, Shell's portion of the project will produce 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Shell is the project's operator and owns 79 percent of it. Nexen Petroleum Offshore owns the other 21 percent.

In recent years, Shell has found roughly 500 million barrels of potentially recoverable resources in the region.

The formation bearing that oil, the Norphet Play, is estimated to be 150 million to 200 million years old, in the Jurassic period. Shell made its first discovery there in 2009.

At 7,200 feet, the offshore project goes deeper into the ocean than all but two of Shell's deep-water projects, Perdido and Stones, also located in the Gulf.

On land, rising oil prices earlier this year prompted a rush of drilling across the United States. But offshore drilling has lagged behind, and even now, new deep-water projects are much rarer than during the go-go years of $100-a-barrel oil.

In the summer of 2015, when Shell first approved the project, oil prices floated above $60 a barrel, and the company said it would make money at $55-a-barrel oil. It has had to trim back further to make the economics work.

"What you won't see is a flurry of activity," Sawan said. "You'll see only the best and most robust projects come through - projects that break even with sub-$40 oil, you'll see that activity pick up."
It's fair to say that entrepreneurship is important to the Texas ethos, bound up in history and mythology about taking risks and striking it rich. But are Texas' business owners that different from those of the nation at large?

In some ways, yes. Using the Census Bureau's recently released Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs for 2015, we can put together a rich picture of Texas entrepreneurs and how they stack up against those in the rest of the country.

A few points:

18.3 percent of Texas' business owners were not born as citizens of the U.S., which is slightly higher than the national average.

27 percent of Texas' businesses were minority-owned, behind only Hawaii (at 55.9 percent) and California (at 32.6 percent).

66.5 percent of Texas business owners did not previously own a business before they started their current one, which is significantly higher than the national average of 61.9 percent.

Texas business owners work longer hours on average, with 27.7 percent working between 41 and 59 hours per week.

72.8 percent of Texas business owners founded their own business, compared to 70 percent on average. Texans were less likely to have purchased or inherited their businesses.

Texas entrepreneurs are less likely to derive most of their income from their businesses, with 33.7 percent saying that the business was not their primary source of income, compared to 31.7 percent on average.

Texas' business owners are more educated, with 56.7 percent having a bachelor's degree, master's degree or doctorate as their highest level of education, compared with 52 percent on average.

Texas' entrepreneurs are both younger and older than the national average, with slightly higher shares falling under age 45 and over age 55.

55.4 percent of Texas businesses had websites, which is slightly higher than the national average.

Texas businesses are slightly more likely to export, with 4.9 percent of companies sending more than 5 percent of their shipments overseas, compared to 4.3 percent nationally.

Texas entrepreneurs are less likely on average to have been staked by personal or family savings and more likely to have received seed funding through a bank loan or government-guaranteed loan, with 20.9 percent having received startup capital through the latter two channels.

29.8 percent of Texas businesses are family-owned, which is higher than the national average.

Texas employers are less likely to offer health insurance, tuition assistance, contributions to retirement plans, or profit sharing and stock options. But they are significantly more likely to offer paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave, 52.2 percent to 48.6 percent.
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Monday

BP says shale find is big

BP says it believes its holdings in a little-known shale play in New Mexico could be the next hot spot for natural gas production.

Diversity dispute flares

Google fired a software engineer who wrote an internal memo that questioned the company's diversity efforts and argued that the low number of women in technical positions was a result of biological differences instead of discrimination. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said portions of the memo had crossed the line "by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."

Milestone for Maddow

For the first month since CNN's Larry King owned cable news in October 2001, the most popular personality in prime-time doesn't work for Fox News Channel. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is the new champ.

Netflix gains superheroes

In a bid to expand its superhero credentials, Netflix has made its first acquisition, comic-book company Millarworld, with the intention of adapting characters from the publisher's titles into movies, series and kids' shows that will be available only to Netflix subscribers.

Tuesday

More foes of bathroom bill

The Texas Restaurant Association joined a growing coalition of business executives, law enforcement officials and religious leaders opposing a bathroom bill targeting transgender people.

Plains stock takes beating

The stock of Plains All American plummeted by nearly 20 percent after the Houston pipeline company disclosed plans to cut payouts to investors. The sell-off sent the company's stock market value tumbling by more than $3.5 billion, to $14.7 billion from nearly $18.3 billion.

Cabot sues activist

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., a gas driller that was targeted with allegations that it polluted residential water wells in Pennsylvania, filed a $5 million lawsuit against a Pennsylvania activist and his lawyers, asserting they tried to extort the company through a frivolous lawsuit. "Cabot will protect its rights and pursue justice against those who irresponsibly and maliciously abuse the legal system," George Stark, the driller's director of external affairs, said in a statement.

Wednesday

Housing supply increases

The area's real estate market is showing signs of rebalancing after a record-setting run, as a local housing report noted that prices were flat last month and the supply of houses for sale reached a five-year high.

CB&I calls off payouts

Engineering and construction giant CB&I said it was putting its technology business up for sale and suspending investor payouts to help stave off a potential default or bankruptcy. The Woodlands-based company reported a $425 million loss in the second quarter.

Ex-worker sues Amazon

A Kentucky man and his transgender wife sued Amazon, alleging that they endured sustained discrimination and harassment during a year as co-workers at the online retailer's warehouse in northern Kentucky. A lawyer working with the couple said the case is notable in part because Amazon has a record of strongly supporting gay and transgender rights.

Thursday

Women's health gains few

A national foundation a snapshot of the progress women are making under the Affordable Care Act. Though the Commonwealth Fund report was upbeat overall, buried deep in the data were troubling numbers for Texas. One in four Texas women remain uninsured, nearly five times the rate of uninsured women in New York.

Friday

Tough week for oil futures

Oil finished its worst week in a month as compliance with OPEC's deal faltered and the outlook for demand worsened. Futures closed 1.5 percent down for the week, and the International Energy Agency reduced demand estimates for OPEC crude for this year and 2018.

From staff and wire reports

TUESDAY

The Commerce Department releases retail sales data for July.

The Commerce Department releases business inventories for June.

The National Association of Home Builders releases housing market index for August.

Home Depot reports its quarterly financial results.

WEDNESDAY

The Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July interest-rate meeting.

Target Corp. reports quarterly financial results.

THURSDAY

The Federal Reserve releases industrial production for July.

Wal-Mart Stores reports quarterly financial results.

The Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
The massive four-column hull of a deep-water oil platform began sailing from South Korea to Texas this week, starting a months-long voyage that will bring Shell closer to finishing a multibillion-dollar Gulf of Mexico project.

The departure is the latest milestone for a gigantic venture the European company sanctioned two years ago in the face of a raging oil bust that forced many of its rivals to scuttle offshore plans.

As oil prices tumbled, Shell spent $600 million and employed 1,500 workers in Texas and Louisiana alone to fabricate parts for the so-called Appomattox project, expected to start pumping oil 80 miles off Louisiana by the end of the decade. Even so, Shell says it could still wring a profit from its 125,000-ton platform with oil prices below $50 a barrel, after deep cost cutting.

"If you look at the platforms, we used to have a lot more focus on the deeper, the bigger," said Wael Sawan, executive vice president of deepwater at Shell, in a recent interview. "Much of our technology spend is now geared toward more capital efficiency, lower costs."

Shell said it has whittled down expenses on the Appomattox by more than 20 percent, as it cut down on the time it needed to drill wells and took advantage of lower equipment prices. The company used new high-tech rigs to drill faster, and it closely monitored every step to slash non-productive time.

Related: Shell to develop 40,000 barrels per day Kaikias in Gulf

As the platform's hull makes its way from south Asia to U.S. waters, it edges closer to the last major step in the platform construction, which is to integrate the hull with the platform's topsides in Ingleside, Texas.

Next, Shell will install the platform in the Gulf. At its peak, Shell's portion of the project will produce 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Still, even now, new deep-water projects are much rarer than during the go-go years of $100 a barrel oil.

"What you won't see is a flurry of activity," Sawan said. "You'll see only the best and most robust projects come through  projects that break even with sub-$40 oil, you'll see that activity pick up."
Greenspoint Mall may soon be little more than a memory to those who harbor nostalgia for the days when Houston shoppers crowded its corridors decades ago.

A group of investors has agreed to purchase the beleaguered property and transform it into a development that could include some mix of residential and commercial space. Global Plaza Union, led by Chinese developer Feng Gao, is considering three different concepts but declined to specify them before the sale is finalized.

"It's a great opportunity for this area and an important redevelopment for the city of Houston," said Reggie Gray, president of the Houston Intercontinental Chamber of Commerce and a partner in the project. He expects the transaction to close within the next four months.

The proposed sale culminates a years-long effort to either reinvent or sell the shopping center, the epitome of the "dying mall" that has come to encapsulate broader challenges in the retail industry. Empty and gated stores line mostly vacant corridors traveled by a dwindling number of shoppers.

The mall's operator, Triyar Cannon Group, listed the property with Colliers International early last year, presenting it as a redevelopment opportunity. It eventually allowed the partnership to lapse.

Ace Schlameus, senior vice president with Colliers in Houston, for months marketed the mall to potential buyers with little success. The property needed an investor willing to dedicate years to its redevelopment.

"The real key is finding someone who has some deep pockets that is patient," he said.

RELATED: Galleria's new luxury wing proves not all malls are dying

The Greenspoint area has long struggled to attract and retain businesses, but several high-profile projects have recently energized the area. Amazon, the e-commerce giant, last month began operating a fulfillment center in the Pinto Business Park just a few miles southwest of Greenspoint Mall.

That activity will likely spur greater investment in the area, said Ed Wulfe, founder and CEO of commerical real estate firm Wulfe & Co., benefitting the proposed redevelopment project.

"It's a very good real estate play," he said, "It's a strategic location that needs to be reinvented."

Gao has developed a number of properties in Asia and established a U.S. company, WIT Union, to complete the Greenspoint project, his first in the U.S. He's eyeing other opportunities.

At Greenspoint, his group faces several potential roadblocks. Sears, Macy's and Dillards own their department stores at the mall independently of Triyar, and they must agree to sell the spaces before the redevelopment begins.

Dillards declined a request for comment, and Macy's and Sears did not respond.

Gray said the investors have approached each company with purchase offers. If they don't cooperate, he added, the project will fail.

"It's an all or nothing kind of project," he said.

Other redevelopment efforts have faced similar challenges, stalled by complex contractual issues between department stores and mall management. In Baytown, for example, an ambitious plan to turn the aging San Jacinto Mall into an open-air shopping center slowed this year during negotiations with Sears, Macy's and J.C. Penney, the property's oldest tenants.

RELATED: San Jacinto Mall redevelopment proves to be a puzzle

Triyar once operated that mall, too, and faced similar challenges as foot traffic dwindled and tenants gave up. It sold the property two years ago to Fidelis Realty Partners, which hopes to finalize negotiations with the departments stores this year and begin construction next year.

The redevelopment efforts highlight a growing divide between the nation's highest and lowest performing malls during a fraught time in the retail industry. The most dynamic malls, such as the Houston Galleria, have continued to generate money for reinvestment, while outdated ones have suffered compounding losses and spiraled into obsolescence.

That disparity is expected to hasten the death of other malls like Greenspoint and San Jacinto, sprawling centers hollowed out by a succession of closures. Investment firm Boenning & Scattergood expects as many as 255 of the nation's 1,080 malls to perish within the next decade as the most successful ones edge out their weaker competitors.

Greenspoint dominated Houston's retail scene when it opened in 1976 as one of the largest malls in the region, an air-conditioned modernity spanning 1.4 million square feet. Foley's, Montgomery Ward and other 20th-century department stores drew heavy traffic, thrilling shoppers with yesterday's luxuries.

But newer malls, including Willowbrook, Deerbrook and The Woodlands, enticed shoppers to drive farther north, and a series of several high-profile shooting deaths in the 1990s tarnished Greenspoint's reputation. By the end of that decade, the mall had lost its status as North Houston's shopping destination.

J.C. Penney pulled out of the center around that time, a harbinger of the challenges to come for department stores as online shopping and discount retailers grew more popular. Sears closed its location there in 2010, and the Macy's store went dark earlier this year.

RELATED: Once 'the place to go,' Northwest Mall is almost gone

The closures triggered a domino effect within the mall, toppling smaller tenants that relied on the anchors to attract customers. Now, Dillards and Palais Royal are the only department stores left operating there, and the other remaining tenants sell mostly cheap apparel and discount goods.

City and local officials are banking on Greenspoint's redevelopment as an economic catalyst for an area. Greg Simpson, president of the North Houston District, said the latest plans are a welcome indication that developers share in that vision.

"The fact that someone sees the potential in that site and has the interest in redeveloping it is great news," he said. "It's indicative of the positive activity that's happening across our district."
Col. David "Wil" Riggins, after a highly decorated Army career that included multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was on the verge of promotion to brigadier general in July 2013 when he got a phone call at the Pentagon from the Army's Criminal Investigative Division to come in for a meeting. Once there, he learned that a blogger in Washington state had just accused him of raping her, when both were cadets at West Point in 1986. An investigation was underway.

Riggins waived his right to an attorney and immediately gave a statement denying any sexual assault of the woman, Susan Shannon of Everett, Washington. Shannon also cooperated with the CID investigation, which could not "prove or disprove Ms. Shannon's allegation she was raped," the CID report concluded. But in the spring of 2014, with the armed forces facing heavy criticism for their handling of sexual assault cases, Secretary of the Army John McHugh recommended removing Riggins from the list for promotion to general. Riggins promptly retired.

Then, Riggins sued Shannon for defamation, claiming that every aspect of her rape claim on the West Point campus was "provably false," and that she wrote two blog posts and a Facebook post "to intentionally derail [his] promotion" to brigadier general. During a six-day trial that ended Aug. 1, a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, heard from both Riggins and Shannon at length. And after 2 hours of deliberation, they sided emphatically with Riggins, awarding him $8.4 million in damages, an extraordinary amount for a defamation case between two private citizens. The jury ordered Shannon to pay $3.4 million in compensatory damages for injury to his reputation and lost wages, and $5 million in punitive damages, "to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again," according to one of the jurors.

In Virginia, punitive damages are limited to $350,000, and lawyers for both sides said the compensatory damages would likely be reduced to $2 million, leaving a final judgment of $2.3 million against Shannon, a stay-at-home mother of three teenagers. The verdict came just days after a jury in Dallas awarded more than $1 million in damages to a wedding photographer who was harshly criticized by a beauty blogger, causing the photographer's business to collapse.

Shannon, 52, said she was devastated by the verdict and fearful for her family's future. "I feel like I'm a financial slave for the rest of my life" to Riggins, Shannon said. "I told the truth in my article and at trial." She and her lawyer, Benjamin Trichilo, said in an interview that they felt Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz wrongly prevented them from presenting witnesses and evidence about Riggins's past and the Army CID investigation findings, and they plan to appeal.

Riggins, 52, said the jury took the right steps toward restoring his life. "This journey we've been on the last four years," Riggins said, "it's been a nightmare. . . . The large dollar amount is meaningless. All I was looking for was the opportunity to be vindicated, to set the record straight, to take every action to get my reputation back to where it was before the 15th of July [2013], when she published that false accusation."

The scope and speed of the Internet can compound the damage for the subject of a false story, and the liability for the author, according to Tom Clare, a defamation lawyer who represented University of Virginia assistant dean Nicole Eramo in her lawsuit against Rolling Stone. "People really understand the value that a reputation has," Clare said. "Especially in today's Internet environment when even a blog post or a tweet can have such a broad impact. It can literally go around the world. And if something out there is false, juries are prepared to issue significant awards."

Riggins now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and works as a pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration. Both he and Shannon entered the United States Military Academy in 1983. Shannon resigned from the academy in the spring of 1986, near the end of her junior year, and claims she did so shortly after being raped by Riggins, although she denied any sexual assault to West Point officials at the time, court records show. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989, married in 1990 and had three children.

Shannon wrote in a court filing that "the demons from the rape haunted [me] for years" and that a "decade of suicidal depression led me to Christ." She writes frequently on her blog, Short Little Rebel, about her Christian faith. She has acknowledged staking out controversial positions on her blog, including that the mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was "a planned event" and that "I believe our GOVERNMENT shot those kids and teachers and used Adam Lanza and his family to pull it off." That post was not presented to the jury in Fairfax, but other inflammatory comments by Shannon were placed in evidence, Trichilo said, while witnesses who were prepared to testify against Riggins's past were not allowed to testify.

Meanwhile, Riggins graduated from West Point in 1987, was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, and was awarded a Bronze Star for his combat role in the 1990 invasion of Iraq. He joined the Army Rangers, began rising through the command ranks, served two tours in Afghanistan in 2003 and was promoted to colonel in 2007. He was working at the Pentagon as chief of Army weapon system investments when his nomination to become a one-star general was announced July 2, 2013.

Thirteen days later, Shannon published a blog post titled "The Rape of a Female Cadet at West Point: Me." She noted the recent media reports about sexual assault in the military, and wrote that "both I and my roommate were raped at West Point - and we never reported it. The man who raped me, Will [sic] Riggins, class of 1987, is now a Colonel in the Army. The rape is the reason I left West Point. So, while his military career is soaring, I left mine far behind." She reported that she "was out cold from stupidly drinking myself unconscious at Eisenhower Hall" after being provided with "FREE beer" on the West Point campus.

Eight days after that, Shannon published a second blog post, revealing that she had been contacted by the Army CID to investigate her claims. "I didn't want to give them a statement," Shannon said, noting that she did not want to hurt Riggins's family or put her own family through a trial. But she said the investigators pressured her and revealed to her that Riggins was in line for promotion to general. "They appealed to my sense of duty," she said. "That's when I agreed to do it."

Shannon said she didn't know that Riggins was up for a promotion until the investigators told her. "I had no idea, I don't read the military press," she said. But one of her own witnesses testified that Shannon did know, and that it was the motivation for her writing her first blog post. Shannon said the witness misunderstood the question, but the information remained unchallenged for the jury to consider.

The CID also contacted Riggins. A report in court records shows that Riggins described a consensual sexual encounter with Shannon after a Halloween party in 1983, and a short relationship with an amicable breakup. Riggins said he had no significant contact with her in 1986. In Washington state, Shannon told investigators there was no sex or relationship in 1983, only a rape after Riggins saw her staggering out of a pedestrian tunnel on campus in the spring of 1986. She claimed Riggins offered her a ride in his car, and that she had no memory of the actual assault, although she said Riggins "smugly admitted he did indeed rape" Shannon, according to a Fairfax court filing.

Shannon called Riggins's story about the 1983 encounter "a complete fabrication." She said she presented a witness, another cadet, who testified that he - the witness - drove her home from the Halloween party. Shannon stands by her version of the events in 1986.

"Everything in that blog post was provably false," said Stephen Horvath, Riggins's lawyer, "and could not have happened." He said no free beer was provided on the West Point campus, that drinking was prohibited by cadets, that Riggins did not have a car in 1986, would not have been allowed to drive it on campus, and that anyone emerging from the pedestrian tunnel couldn't have been seen from the road. Shannon's claims that her grades plunged after the event and that she returned her class ring were also untrue, Horvath said.

The CID investigation found that, in light of the vastly different stories provided by Riggins and Shannon, and interviews of more than 30 people from that era, there was no "testimonial or physical evidence to corroborate Ms. Shannon or Col. Riggins' version." Trichilo said the jury should have been allowed to hear that Riggins's version of events also was not substantiated. But shortly before the trial began, the judge ordered references to the findings on Riggins's version struck from the trial, Trichilo said.

Riggins's nomination for brigadier general was returned to McHugh, the secretary of the Army, who wrote that "I do not have faith and confidence in Colonel Riggins' judgment and character. Consequently, I do not support his promotion to brigadier general."

With Congress furious at the failure of military authorities to crack down on sexual assault, "there was absolutely tremendous fear," Riggins said, "that had to do with loss of the Uniform Code of Military Justice jurisdiction by commanders in the Army." Horvath added, "Once the allegation of rape had been made, there was no way Col. Riggins was going to get the position at that time, in that atmosphere." As an expert witness at trial, Horvath called retired Major General Peter Fuller to testify that the rape allegation would have caused Riggins's promotion to be rejected. Horvath said Riggins's income, both as a general and as a retired general, would have been much greater than that of a colonel.

Trichilo said Fuller should not have been allowed to testify to his opinion about the impact of the investigation without firm data. He said that enabled the jury to speculate about what damages the investigation caused.

The trial began July 24 with the testimony of Riggins and his wife, Nancy, and later in the week Shannon took the stand. Riggins testified a second time on rebuttal, and closing arguments were held on the afternoon of Aug. 1. As night fell, the jury told Judge Ortiz they wanted to deliberate that night, rather than return in the morning. Court records show they began at 6:30 p.m. and returned at 9:04 p.m.

"Honestly," said juror Marshall Reinsdorf, "we thought who was telling the truth was too obvious to be discussing. We held a vote, and everybody believed the colonel. The only argument was how big the damages were going to be." Of the four women and three men on the jury, two other jurors declined to comment, two jurors did not return messages and two could not be reached.

Reinsdorf said he had numerous problems with Shannon's testimony. "Her story had so many details in it that couldn't have been true," he said. "They started questioning her about the [pedestrian] tunnel, she kind of backed off. . . . She was so evasive. It was unbelievable."

Horvath had not suggested a dollar figure for damages, so the jury came up with roughly $3 million for his compensatory damages, Reinsdorf said. For punitive damages, the jury decided, "We need to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again," Reinsdorf said. He said one juror suggested that as the rationale for the $5 million figure, and "basically got unanimous support for that." Reinsdorf said the jury agreed that Shannon's accusation derailed Riggins's promotion. "There was no doubt in anybody's mind the colonel had made his case," Reinsdorf said. "He was believable."

On the verdict form, the jury was asked whether Shannon made her statements knowing they were false or reckless or negligent, and checked "yes" for every one.

"The bottom line," Shannon said, "is when the judge struck the [Army] CID findings at the beginning of trial" and prevented her witnesses from testifying about Riggins's character, "we could not switch gears and defend me in a certain way." She acknowledged that her blog post sparked an investigation which otherwise wouldn't have happened, but that Riggins had the burden of proof to show that the investigation stopped his promotion.

"I think the jury's verdict," Riggins said, "not only that they found her statements were false and defamatory, but the amount of the damages they assessed, speaks volumes." Although Shannon had claimed, on a GoFundMe page seeking help with her legal bills, that Riggins's suit would discourage sex assault victims from making reports, Riggins responded that "this will discourage other false accusations but would not discourage legitimate accusations of sexual assault."

Clare, the defamation lawyer, said, "We have tons of clients who want their reputation back. What they really want is a public vindication of the falsity." He said a successful claim enables victors to take the judgment to websites like Facebook and Google and convince them to remove defamatory material.

On Tuesday, a week after the verdict, Shannon deleted the two blog posts from 2013 about Riggins.
ALAMO - Meandering along a dirt trail through thick stands of mesquite near the Rio Grande, I sense movement in the brush beside the trail just ahead. As I get closer, I spot a rabbit, a cottontail that finally acknowledges my presence when I get maybe 10 yards away. The little creature glances up with big brown eyes and then goes back to nibbling green leaves on a fallen branch.

Maybe the cottontail is slow to respond because it's young, or because it's lucky enough to inhabit a wildlife refuge, one of the most biologically diverse in America. Here in the Rio Grande Valley, just a few miles from roaring Houston-style freeways, endless strip centers and subdivisions spreading amoeba-like through what used to be citrus orchards and cotton fields are 2,088 federally protected acres in a bend of the river. The refuge protects not only cottontail rabbits but also Texas tortoises, wolves, coyotes, javelinas, armadillos, bobcats, more than 300 butterfly species and the endangered jaguarundi and ocelot.

The creatures inhabit the oldest piece of old-growth forest on the Rio Grande, woodlands that include venerable moss-draped ebony trees, flowering huisache and towering sabol palms, along with the ubiquitous mesquite. Animals are drawn to refuge wetlands resembling the tropics and open fields scattered like giant postage stamps among the forested areas. Created by the federal government in 1943 for the protection of migratory birds, this riparian corridor is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Although the refuge was quiet and almost deserted on the muggy weekday afternoon I visited, it attracts thousands of bird-watchers in the spring and fall, enthusiasts from around the world eager to catch a glimpse of some 400 species, many of which they won't see anywhere else. I happened upon a flock of bronze cowbirds flitting about in a mesquite tree beside the trail, but I didn't see, as far as I know, what birders call "rare vagrants," species from elsewhere that just happen to drop by. A ranger I talked to mentioned the northern jacana, a wetland bird that drops by from as far away as Cuba and Panama, and the rose-throated becard from 500 miles to the south, in Mexico. (I had to look up both; they're beautiful.)

'Refuge  their doom'

These days the denizens of this subtropical ecosystem, and the people who care about them, face a far more invasive force than a gnat-swatting, note-scribbling hiker from the big city. If President Donald Trump gets to build the "big, beautiful wall" he has promised, the Department of Homeland Security will drive the 18-foot-tall barrier straight through this refuge and others nearby, through what a local congressman calls "these national treasures and sacred places." Most of the Santa Ana refuge would be on the other side of the concrete and iron-bollard wall; its visitors' center would be on this side. Presumably, there would be a gate.

Without venturing into contentious border-wall politics, it's pretty obvious that a barrier changes things drastically. Birds, rare vagrants and otherwise, can fly over, but endangered ocelots, beautiful spotted creatures that resemble big house cats, cannot. Nor can the jaguarundi, a small-dun-colored wildcat that favors lowland brush areas close to a source of running water. They'll be cut off from their water source, or, if the Rio Grande floods, they'll be trapped.

"The refuge that was built to save them ends up being their doom" said Jim Chapman, vice president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a nonprofit group that advocates for the Valley's native habitat. In a phone conversation earlier this week, Chapman pointed out that it's not just the Santa Ana refuge that's threatened. "There are 20 refuge tracts in Hidalgo County alone that would be affected by a border wall," he said.

In the little border town of Progreso, near the refuge, is a restored mission-style depot that served the San Benito & Rio Grande Valley Railroad in the 1920s. Now owned by a private company, the tidy, little structure is a reminder that the Valley was pretty much quasi-desert rangeland less than a century ago, before land developers enticed potential buyers from the Midwest and elsewhere to board special trains and come investigate the "Magic Valley." An old chamber of commerce promotional film available on YouTube reminded Midwesterners that "while it's freezing in Chicago, it's summer in the Valley."

Into those early decades of the 20th century, wilderness areas were the norm, not the vanishing exception. They're pre-Texas, pre-Mexico, pre-history. Now that the Valley is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, 95 percent of native habitat is gone, converted into agricultural usage or urban sprawl.

The true cost

Standing on the quiet bank of the river, thick forest on this side and green farmland on the Mexican side, I saw no drug smugglers, human traffickers or undocumented border-crossers scuttling through the brush. That's not to say, of course, that they don't venture into the refuge, perhaps near the little bluff where I stood. But Homeland Security is building a wall through Santa Ana not for tactical reasons but because it's comparatively easy. Building on government property means officials can avoid having to deal with landowners up and down the river who resent having their property seized and are likely to sue.

A wall is not the only way to achieve border security, but unlike drones or sensors or high technology, it's a symbol as much as it is a barrier. A multi-billion-dollar wall will never go away, ever. Wildlife will. A wall's effect on ocelots and rabbits and old-growth forests might make us ponder, to borrow from Thoreau, "the true cost of a thing."
#World University Games Chuncheong named host of 2027 World University Games The South Korean central region of Chungcheong was named the host of the 2027 Summer World University Games on Saturday, bringing the biennial event to the country for the fourth t...

#first lady First lady visits home of Cambodian child with heart disease First lady Kim Keon-hee visited the home of a Cambodian child with a heart disease Saturday and comforted the family, urging them not to give up under any circumstances, the presid...
A man was shot and killed early Friday after deputies from the Harris County Sheriff's Office swarmed his Channelview apartment.

Deputies with the sheriff's office's High Risk Operations Unit entered the apartment in the 900 block of Ashland around 5 a.m. to execute a state warrant, according to Deputy Thomas Gilliland with the HCSO.

They expected to find weapons and drugs in the apartment, said special agent Nicole Strong with the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Deputies arrived in an armored vehicle and announced their presence as they entered the apartment through the front door and windows. As deputies stepped into the residence, a male occupant started firing at them with an assault rifle.

Three deputies returned fire, killing the man, Gilliland said.

A woman and child inside the apartment were not injured, Gilliland said.

The three deputies who fired were placed, per protocol, on administrative leave, which includes a medical and psychological evaluation.

This was the third lethal use of force from a member of the High Risk Operations Unit in over 400 operations conducted in Harris County, Gilliland said.

"These are very highly dangerous situations that we put ourselves in with these search warrants," Gilliland said. "As you can see the suspects that we deal with are not afraid of using weapons against us."
Our nation's top diplomat says we should sleep well at night and shouldn't worry about the bellicose talk of nuclear war with North Korea. We wish we could take Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's advice, but it's hard for Americans to ignore the escalating crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

The prospect of Pyongyang's seemingly unstable leader controlling an arsenal of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles is frightening enough, especially given North Korea's history of militaristic diatribes against the United States. Now President Trump is intensifying the apocalyptic bombast, rashly spewing pugnacious threats that echo Kim Jong Un's reckless belligerence.

As the secretary of state himself clearly realizes, the president needs to ratchet down his rhetoric. This nuclear saber-rattling risks painting the U.S. into a corner, leaving our nation with the alternative of either launching a costly military strike or losing credibility on the global stage. It also creates the impression there's no peaceful resolution to this crisis.

But this dispute doesn't have to end in Trump's "fire and fury" or Kim's "final doom." History provides the U.S. with a proven playbook for dealing with nuclear-armed adversaries, a strategy outlined earlier this week by Jeffrey Bader of the Brookings Institution. It's the approach Cold War diplomat George Kennan recommended in 1947 for defeating the Soviet Union: containment, deterrence, pressure and patience.

Just as the U.S. recognized when faced with a nuclear-armed U.S.S.R., the harrowing cost of a military confrontation with North Korea would be unacceptable. Seoul sits closer to Korea's demilitarized zone than The Galleria sits to the Johnson Space Center, putting its 20 million citizens within easy range of a massive array of North Korean artillery guns. When President Clinton contemplated striking North Korea's nuclear sites in 1994, his top military adviser on the peninsula reportedly told him to expect 1 million casualties. And that was before North Korea developed nuclear weapons.

Although he's done little to discourage the world from viewing him as a wild-eyed warmonger, Kim Jong Un is well aware that using his nuclear arsenal would trigger an instantaneous U.S. retaliation that would bring a catastrophic end to his regime. At the same time, he witnessed what happened to Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi after they stopped pursuing weapons of mass destruction. As Richard Fontaine, the president of the Center for New American Security, recently pointed out to the Chronicle's editorial board, there's no retirement plan for North Korean dictators, no cushy corporate board appointments, no lucrative circuit of speaking engagements. The survival of his regime is a matter of life and death for Kim, and his nuclear arsenal is a life insurance policy.

So North Korea is unlikely to abandon its nuclear weapons, but unless Kim is suicidal he's also unlikely to use them. And given the catastrophic consequences of a war on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. is unlikely to launch an attack. That puts the U.S. in the difficult position of learning to live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, waiting for Pyongyang's government to eventually collapse of its own accord just as the Soviet Union did.

"Containment and deterrence are not appealing options, just as many condemned those approaches as passive, immoral, and defeatist during the Cold War," Bader points out. "In fact, they were none of those then, and would be none of those now."

Containment worked for the U.S. in the Cold War confrontation against an adversary much more formidable than North Korea. The playbook that was written more than a half-century ago can work again today. Instead of behaving like Kim, President Trump needs to start acting like a Cold War leader who's not only willing to confront a nuclear adversary, but also willing to wait and watch its failing government fall from within.
Outmoded ideas

Regarding letter to the editor "Christian faith" (Page A13, Tuesday), no one is asking the Rev. F.N. Williams to abandon his apparently fervently-held beliefs; he's just being asked to not use them as a reason to discriminate against people who don't meet his rigid standards for "appropriate" behavior, including transgender folks.

As for showing your birth certificate before being allowed to use the restroom; who's going to enforce that? As far as I know, there is no Department of Potty Police, nor should there be. Rev. Williams, you are not being "classed" as a bigot because, as you state, "I will not allow transgenders....to change my faith and practices." You are being classed as a bigot because you fail to see the difference between belief and behavior. Beliefs are simply that: beliefs. They should not be used as WMDs because you disagree with another person's behavior. The reverend's narrow concept of human behavior is a dangerous precursor to imposing disconnected standards of behavior to outmoded ideas.

Neal Massey, Houston

Life choices

Rev. Williams states "The highest law of the land is God's law; not national, not state, not local laws..."

Believers of all faiths will agree that ultimately, God's law is supreme. However, because our varying faiths understand God's laws differently, it is left to our nation of men and women to create laws that recognize that diversity in our faith traditions. It is up to each individual to follow their own religious teachings about God's law in his or her own life choices and actions; however, it is up to our government to protect each individual's rights regarding those choices and actions.

Nancy Pryzant Picus, Houston

Secular laws rule

The highest law of this land is the U.S. Constitution. As the United States is a democratic republic, I do not have to follow any religious laws (Christian, Judaic, Islamic or any other faith) unless I subscribe to that faith and its tenets. On the other hand, I must obey all the secular laws (federal, state or local - whichever jurisdiction applies to me) or I can be sanctioned. No such sanctions can be imposed on me should I not following some specific religious law. This country is not now, nor has ever been, a theocracy.

Len Denney, Houston
Warming Earth

There was a curious juxtaposition of articles in the Aug. 8 editions. On Page A1, the article " Balmorhea, Apache Prove Oil and Water can Mix" presents fracking and drilling in the area in a generally positive light. More was made of the economic benefits than the risks to the environment, especially the water in West Texas aquifers and springs. On Page A13, meanwhile, at the bottom, was placed an article "Recent decades were warmest in 1,500 years, draft report says" pertaining to THE most important issue facing humanity and all other species, namely global warming. It indicated the extent and increase in warming in the U.S. and linked the warming to extreme weather events.

Ironically, the activity positively discussed on page 1, the extraction of fossil fuels, is a direct cause of the negative process of warming, where the discussion is buried on the last page. The Chronicle downplays the seriousness of the most critical issue of the 21st century with its decision on the placement of the latter article.

Shawn Smith, Houston

Youth vote

Enshrined in the Texas Election Code is a unique provision that requires all high school principals in Texas to serve as deputy voter registrars in their schools. In this capacity, the principals are expected to distribute voter registration applications to those students who will be 18 years old by Election Day.

However, of the estimated 1,434 public high school principals in Texas, fewer than 200 requested voter registration applications before the 2016 elections. That means that only 14 percent of our public high schools took advantage of this important opportunity to help register their students.

Texas students deserve better, and I want to work with principals to improve upon the past.

As chief elections officer for the state of Texas, I am issuing a call to action to all Texans to encourage high school principals in our state to get involved.

My office will commit to providing all principals an effective and efficient digital mechanism for requesting voter registration applications. I am making voter registration of eligible high school students a top priority and ensuring that our state's high school principals have all the tools they need to make this voter registration effort a resounding success.

Principals may order voter registration applications from our office online at any time at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/hsvoterregistrationorderform

Principals may print a copy of the notice form at: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/notice-to-high-school-students.pdf

Please join me in striving to achieve a 100 percent participation rate among Texas high school principals - our future and the future of Texas depends on it.

Rolando Pablos, Secretary of State
My neighborhood, in far south Houston, is a place where you can live in the country without leaving the city.

Not far from where Beltway 8 and Texas 288 meet, my husband and I own a post-Depression house with some land for horses and pecan trees. There are nights when the stars above us are truly big and bright. That is why we moved here 20 years ago.

Now, an outbreak of concrete batch plants is threatening our idyll - and our health.

One of these plants, which produce the ready-mix concrete used for new buildings and roads, operates around-the-clock behind our fence. The sky is often a milky haze because the facility creates so much dust. We also see the tiny white particles on the back of our palomino horse, Joe. Our trees do not produce pecans anymore.

It is heart-breaking. I know if I can see the dust in the air and on my horse, then I am breathing it, too. So are my neighbors.

The tiny particles can get can get deep into your lungs, and some may even get into your bloodstream. Scientific studies have linked particulate pollution with aggravated asthma, decreased lung function and premature death for people with heart or lung disease, according the Environmental Protection Agency.

Many people do not realize how widespread this problem is. As the Houston Chronicle reported ("Efforts to bring fresher air to Houston face headwinds" Page A3, Sunday), Harris County has 188 concrete batch plants, more than any county in Texas. The number is likely to grow with the area's population because the plants tend to locate near a project site.

Where I live is ground zero. There are 18 concrete batch plants within a four-mile radius, including five along Schurmier Road, one of the main streets in my neighborhood. That is because land is relatively inexpensive but rich in sand, one of the ingredients for concrete.

The plants do more than dirty the air. They produce truck traffic on roads that are too narrow for them. There is noise at all hours. Open fields where horses and cattle grazed are now wide, deep canyons because of sand mining. There is pooling in our drainage ditches from these operations.

It is difficult not to feel hopeless. The plants can operate in residential areas because Houston does not have zoning, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality does not always require a 440-foot setback from a home, church or school as part of their permits.

Thankfully, Houston officials are starting to take a closer look at the problem. It is the right thing to do, considering the city's general plan lists "nurture safe and healthy neighborhoods" as a core strategy.

Here are the actions that I would like them to take:

First, the city should develop criteria to evaluate the sale or lease of its land that considers the existing environmental hazards in a community. This review should be part of the decision-making for any transaction involving the city.

Second, the city should include language in its sales contracts specifying that the land cannot create an environmental hazard for the surrounding community. Not only are these facilities a threat to public health, they harm our property values.

Third, the city should establish incentives for developers who intend to use land for a potentially hazardous purpose to locate away from where people live, work, learn and play.

Taken together, these policies would help neighborhoods like mine to breathe easier.

Furst is a resident of Houston's Minnetex neighborhood.
SAN DIEGO - California is facing off with the Trump administration over a total fantasy that has survived this long only because both political parties have an interest in keeping it alive.

Democrats and Republicans alike insist that the Golden State offers "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants by creating safe spaces that are somehow beyond the reach of federal immigration agents. Politicians also promote the idea that police and sheriff's departments often refuse those agents access to local jails and fail to alert immigration officials when a suspected illegal immigrant is released from custody back into society - even when asked to do so.

This is a stew of lies and half-truths. Symbolism and political hyperventilating aside, there is no city, town or county in America where federal immigration law doesn't apply and where agents can't rush in to enforce those statutes.

Also, aside from the state of Texas - which recently passed a law to force inter-jurisdictional cooperation - local and state law enforcement officials are under no obligation to help their federal brethren do their jobs, especially if it destroys the community trust that is needed to do their own.

Besides, if immigration officials really want someone who is in the local jail, they can get that person by obtaining a warrant. Oftentimes, they won't go to the trouble, which tells local officials that they really don't want the detainee that badly.

Still, the sanctuary lie is advanced because it helps sustain existing political narratives. Liberals can challenge the Trump administration while fooling Latinos and other immigrant advocates into thinking that they're in their corner. And conservatives can point at these sanctuaries as evidence of how lenient the left is toward lawbreakers and proof that only they can be trusted to keep the country safe.

In California, Democratic lawmakers are poised to double down on their deception by passing a law that would declare the entire state a sanctuary. Senate Bill 54 would specifically prohibit cooperation with federal immigration officials. It would also bar state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources to help federal agents detect, detain and deport the undocumented.

The Justice Department has a problem with this blatant act of defiance, and so it's threatening to withhold as much as $18 million in federal law enforcement funds that would otherwise be on their way to the nation's most populous state.

Such an odd card for the administration to play. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already shown himself to be inconsistent on the issue of local control; he trumpets the autonomy of local police departments when releasing them from federal civil rights oversight but tramples that same autonomy when condemning sanctuary cities. Now Sessions shows himself to be illogical as well; he believes that any locale that offers sanctuary to illegal immigrants puts society at risk, but he can't see how denying cops government funds to buy bullet-proof vests and other safety equipment would have the same effect.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra - who served in Congress for more than 20 years and would no doubt like to be governor or U.S. senator - has announced that, if Sessions pulls the funding, California will sue the federal government. As Becerra sees it, holding state funds hostage to force compliance with the administration's policies would violate the U.S. Constitution.

Meanwhile, this whole issue could be moot. During a recent appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press," Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signaled that he might not sign the sanctuary bill after all because of concerns about the language.

Don't fall for it. The real reason has more to do with politics, which has been Brown's stock and trade since 1969, when he was elected to occupy a seat on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. Brown, who is now 79 years old, has lived through the eras when his party was depicted as soft toward communism, defense and crime.

He probably has no desire to add illegal immigration to the list. And so he's understandably leery of SB 54, the whole point of which seems to be needling the administration.

Yet Brown also seems to want to keep faith with liberalism. He has said he wants to help undocumented immigrants who have - through blood, sweat and tears - given much to the Golden State.

Brown will likely try to strike a balance. But my hunch is that the governor will veto the bill to force the changes he'd like to see.

Out in California, when we talk about so-called sanctuary cities, the protection may be fake, but the politics are real.

Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.
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As the special legislative session heads to its finale, Gov. Greg Abbott will be getting a few of his 20 must-pass priorities on his desk.

A few.

Maybe six, perhaps seven.

On Friday, after weeks of political bickering and gamesmanship, the House and Senate delivered to the governor the first three bills -- two on continuing the operations of Texas' medical regulatory agencies and one to crack down on mail-ballot fraud.

Abbott immediately signed all three into law.

The rest? Bills on property-tax reform, a maternal mortality study, end-of-life protections and new rules for tree-cutting ordinances in cities and abortion restrictions were moving, slowly, but were moving for possible final votes this weekend.

Others, such as the bathroom bill, were considered all but dead.

For his part, Abbott publicly was remaining optimistic that he would get much of his conservative agenda approved by the time lawmakers go home on Wednesday. But lawmakers in both chambers predicted the bottom line will look more like what House Speaker Joe Straus predicted before the session even started -- that some would be approved, but the most controversial would not.

For those Texans who are just ready for all this hair-pulling to end, and want something else to think about, we dissect the reported move by U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, to gain tea party support in his underdog campaign to unseat Republican Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party darling.

And we'll respond to listener blowback on our debate last week over Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's reference to "soda pop," which some folks thought was un-Texan.

We've got the lowdown on all the political action under the Pink Dome, as the Austin statehouse is called, in this week's Texas Take. That's where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you with contributions from Texas Public Radio.
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Howie and Dale Levitz are marking 40 years in the photography business.

North Adams Photography Shop Marking 40 Years of Business



TGL PhotoWorks is celebrating 40 years in business. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  TGL PhotoWorks is marking just over nine years in the city, and 40 years in business decades that have seen its operations transition from film to digital.

Howard and Dale Levitz moved to Holden Street back in 2008 after nearly 30 years at 4 Water St., right on the corner of Main Street, but had opened at first in the Colonial Shopping Center in 1977.

"Back on Water Street in the old days, we were were selling film by bulk, 20 rolls of this 20 rolls of that," said Dale Levitz. "I have pictures someplace of the whole back wall behind our processing counter was filled because we were selling it left and right."

Now, instead of a dark room, Howard Levitz has become a maestro of sorts working in Adobe Photoshop, doing professional sittings and restorations, and printing on high-quality papers.

The Levitzes had met while working on the Hofstra University newspaper, she as an editor and he as a photographer.

"Right out of college, I got a very nice job handling work for the Museum of Modern Art, primarily doing transparencies for textbooks," Howie said. Then an opportunity opened at Williams College to handle the college's growing photography needs, including its new academic partnership with the Clark Art Institute. "They figured they could have one guy to take care of it all, and it would be terrific."

The New Yorkers set out for Williamstown, where they still live and raised their daughter, Shari, but Levitz's position as director of the Williams College Photographic Facility became more difficult as the many departments that depended on him became more demanding of his time.

He quit, and the couple opened their photography business, never looking back. Howie used to shoot weddings and teach courses in photography. They continued to do work for Williams and the Clark, along with a number of other businesses, like Sprague Electric, and Bijur and Chemfab in Bennington, Vt. They took a hit with the loss of Sprague in the 1980s, and the day the Lanesborough mall was announced, Howie said they determined to stop selling cameras and accessories.

"We knew we couldn't compete on the prices," he said. "We still did processing and film, always custom, we pretty much did it all on premises."

But things really began to change over the past 10 to 15 years. The couple said they would often attend lectures or conferences for professional photographers, and Howie remembered one he spoke at when he asked how many had gone digital.

"And of maybe 300 people in the room, half a dozen hands went up," he said. "Two years later, we went to a similar lecture, 'how many of you have gone digital yet?' Boom, everybody's hands went up."

Going digital required using computers, and Dale recalled buying their first Radio Shack TRS 80 and advising they should buy the one with the most memory, still in kilobytes at the time. "And he said, we'll never fill this up," she said. Her husband laughed, "now we're filling up terabytes."

When they moved to smaller quarters on Holden, they left behind the no-longer needed dark room and the shelves of film. Instead, they have computers and high-end printers along with the frame shop and small portrait studio.

"Now we're into computers and Photoshop and the whole nine yards," Dale said. "He would fill things in with an airbrush, and with regular paint brushes and spotting brushes and a palette of color. ... that was all done by hand."

Now, Howie uses digital applications to restore old or damaged photos, add color and perfect portraits. He recalled how he colorized a wedding photo for a woman who'd wanted her special day shot in color but couldn't afford it at the time. That kind of custom work was expensive, he told her, but she was so pleased with the outcome, she handed him 11 more to do.

Howie joked that he uses tips from watching makeup artist Carmindy on TLC's "What Not to Wear" to make his subjects look their best.

"I would do a little bit of stuff that I'd learned from those guys and [the subject] would go, 'wow, you really woke up my face,'" he laughed. "I'm not a cosmetologist, but I learned some of the rules."

Sometimes those were only $10 passport photos, but often they'd turn into $100 or more photo shoots because the customer was so impressed with the portrait.

He has a good reputation, Dale said, and their shop on Water Street in particular drew a lot of people.

"We had everybody from the Williamstown Theatre Festival all summer, it was fun," she said. "Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Christopher Reeve, Edward Herrmann. ... we did work for Elizabeth Taylor's daughter and Reza Pahlavi."

The exiled crown prince of Iran attended Williams College and his mother lived in town for awhile after his father, the shah, was overthrown. He had an interest in photography at the time and would come into their first shop with his armed entourage.

"He'd buy like 60 rolls of film," Dale said. His mother, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi, later stopped by with a catalog marked up with all the equipment he wanted.

Their customers continue to be artists, businesses, people wanting to repair "messed up old pictures," professional sittings and "everything photographic." They still do framing, believing that quality work shouldn't be consigned to cheap frames or mountings, and Dale has some of her own photographic prints for sale.

"Everybody is our customer now, they really are," said Dale.
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Guy like me, I was brought up to believe that crime doesnt pay. Ive seen enough to know thats not true.

Take this nugget that I stumbled across. Big shipment of books coming in, crime books, every last one of em. And the owners are planning to off-load them at some kind of, I dunno, underworld auction next month. Some names on this list thatll make you sweat. Lemme toss you some.

Dashiell Hammett, former Pinkerton detective. Wrote a book in 29, Red Harvest. These guys have a first edition thats expected to bring $30,000. Theyve also got another Hammett job, The Maltese Falcon. Yeah, I thought that would make you sit up. Price tag? $20,000.

Martin Edwards: 'Collecting crime novels is big business, bigger now than ever before' (Rex)

You want more? What about Edgar Allen Poe, strange guy from Boston. Heard he was mixed up in some job that ended with a guy being bricked into a wall. Alive. They got an 1845 first edition of his thats likely to fetch $10,000. Theyve even got a Sherlock Holmes tied up in all this, The Sign of Four. Dont expect any change from six grand.

And thats not all, not by a long shot. There are nearly 75 items in this collection thats going up for the highest bidders. Even a knucklehead like me knows that adds up to a lot of dough.

They call it the KoKo Collection, and its going under the hammer in Dallas on September 14, organised by some outfit called Heritage Auctions. Theyve got a guy there called James Gannon, calls himself Director of Rare Books. I decide to find out what he has to say for himself.

The KoKo Collection will mark the auction debut of several historically important novels, Gannon says. I reckon hes choosing his words carefully. A collection like this only comes along once in a lifetime and indeed required a lifetime to assemble.

Theres going to be some high-rollers interested in this, you can bet your bottom dollar. People with a lot of money. People with muscle. Its not going to be for the faint-hearted.

Question a guy like me wants to know is, whos behind it? Gannon is keeping it well and truly buttoned after peddling the party line, but there had to be someone at this Heritage Auctions whod squeal.

That someone was going to be Eric Bradley, I was pretty sure of it. Guy with a title like Director of Public Relations on his business card, hes gotta be loose with his lips, right? So I go round and lean on him.

Its difficult to really tell the story behind this collection because the owner wishes to remain anonymous, is Bradleys opening gambit. What, he thinks Im going to tip my hat to him and walk away with that? He doesnt know who hes dealing with.

So, come on, Bradley. Whos behind this? Is it one guy? A cartel? Is it the Mob?

Its a joint effort between a husband and wife, he says. He's talking at last. A little bit of friendly persuasion works wonders. Husband and wife team, though. Anyone I might know? They make the papers much?

No.

So why KoKo Collection? Is that a clue? Is that like one of those portmanteau names the starlets and wiseguys in LaLa Land use when they get hitched for six months?

The consignors preferred anonymity, says Bradley again. Yeah, yeah, give me something I dont know. So the collection was named after someone special to them.

Curious. A bit of a code, then. A puzzle. KoKo. But what does it mean? Bradleys not saying anymore, though, and suddenly I feel a bit of a chill. Last time I remember a job with a mystery word that nobody could figure out it was Rosebud, and suddenly Im not sure if I want to dig any deeper into this.

Then I look at the list again. Fer-De-Lance by Rex Stout, 1934, first outing for Nero Wolfe. Dont know if you know him, but the guys a genius. Solves impossible crimes. Id say $8,000 was a nice lot of greenbacks for that. The Dark Tunnel by Kenneth Miller. They say Millers up there with Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Now theres three guys I wouldnt mess with in a dark alley. Then weve got The Conjure-Man Dies by Randolph Fisher. This Fisher, hes the first African-American to get into the crime novel game, back in 32. Says here this is an inscribed copy. I wonder if that means it holds some sort of clue?

I need someone who isnt squeezed in the Heritage Auctions fist to open up. These guys obviously have a watertight operation; nobodys going to be the one to spring a leak, and with bread like this on the table, I could see why.

Luckily, I know a guy. Party by the name of Martin Edwards. He hangs his hat in Cheshire, far as I remember, and where the subject of crime novels is concerned, he wrote the book on it. No, really, he wrote the book on it. Its called The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, and its just been put out there by the British Library. You want to take a look at it sometime; he starts with The Hound of the Baskervilles and he finishes with Strangers on a Train. Thats a lot of secrets spilled. The guys either brave or a fool or both. Luckily for me, he also sings like a canary. So tell me, Edwards, what do you know about the KoKo Collection?

I havent heard of it, he says. I think hes telling the truth. But Edwards does have the inside track on this whole crime book schtick. This KoKo job isnt a one-off; theres money to be made here. This thing is bigger than even I imagined, and when it comes to money, let me tell you, I got a big imagination.

Collecting crime novels is big business, says Edwards. And its bigger at the moment than its been for a long time.

So whats driving it? In part, says Edwards, its the British Library itself. Not for the first time I wonder if Im getting in over my head. This thing is bigger than anyone guessed. Seems the British Library has been putting out new editions of classic crime novels, some well known, others not so much. Theyve been an amazing success, so much so that its driving up interest in the original novels, some of them from as far back as the Thirties.

Take John Bude as an example, says Edwards. I didnt know the name, but a bit of digging turned up he was the guy behind The Cornish Coast Murder, The Sussex Downs Murder, The Lake District Murder, Death on the Riviera jeez, the guys not only prolific, he gets around. Edwards goes on: Not so long ago not many people had heard of Bude, but the popularity of the books released by the British Library has brought him a new readership, and some of those are now looking for the originals, which has pushed the prices up. Some of them are incredibly expensive compared to what they were; a first edition of the Cornish Coast Murder will set you back four figures.

Then Edwards starts talking about jackets. For a minute I think he means concrete overcoats, and I start thinking about the Mob again, but he means dust jackets. Apparently, you find a first edition of a crime book in nice condition with a dust jacket, your ship might be steaming in.

A lot of people used to take the jackets off the books, sometimes even just cut them up, says Edwards. Even the British Library, which files copies of all books, used to remove the dust jackets first. Back in the Thirties and Forties, people didnt really value them. So if you can find a book with one, thats potentially going to be very valuable.

So even an average joe like me could put together his own version of the KoKo Collection? Where am I going to find this stuff? Charity shops? Only if youre very lucky, says Edwards. I actually heard from someone that some charity shops only like contemporary paperbacks, and throw out any old hardbacks they get. That said, I did recently pick up a book for 2 that I could probably get 100 for.

Not a bad investment. But Im no closer to finding out whos behind the KoKo Collection. Guess Ill just have to wait until 14 September like everyone else, and see what sort of numbers these books rack up. Looks like this whole investigation has been a busted flush. But I do have one more ace up my sleeve. I remember the Randolph Fisher lot, the inscribed copy of The Conjure-Man Dies. I ask Edwards about it. What does inscribed mean? Is it a clue?

That just means that its not just signed, theres a message in it, something written by the author to whoever has asked for it to be signed. Signatures in books from the thirties or forties are not as common as they are with modern authors, says Edwards.

Does he have any inscribed books? I have a copy of Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie, from 1940, he says. This was at the beginning of the Second World War, and Christie wrote in the book, Wars may come and wars may go, but murder goes on forever.

Which might not be any kind of clue at all, but it could well be a warning, so for this ol gumshoe, it seems a pretty good place to bow out of this investigation and let sleeping dogs lie.

The KoKo Collection will go under the hammer at Heritage Auctions Dallas event in September - details here
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Once the reserve of librarians, nerdy students and Nora Batty, it seems that its time to rethink the humble cardigan because, as far as the fashion worlds concerned, theyre on the cusp of a serious sartorial comeback.

Not only have they graced the well-dressed shoulders of models on the runway but theyve also been spotted on celebs like Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.

Think wearing the classic button-up means a prim and proper pearl necklace pairing? Well think again, because this time the look has been resurrected from the bottom of your out-all-day bag to make the ultimate anti-fashion statement.

Recommended Why fashion is plotting a tulle takeover this season

A brand thats become synonymous with its geek chic aesthetic, it seems only natural that maximalist magpie Alessandro Michele should adopt the granny style. Here, he produced the ultimate version layered over stacks of vintage-inflected clothes.

This was a look sustained at Prada too, where traditional garb was instantly de-blahed. The Italian label offered the kind of cardies youd usually spot at a trendy vintage store, pairing classic grey and caramel wrap knits with knee-length skirts, floral shirts and spans of marabou trim.

At Christopher Kane, however, androgynous chunky cardigans held together with metallic rivets channelled a look made famous by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobains cult appeal. Here, they came long, slouchy, and layered nonchalantly over sheer organza summer dresses.

Androgynous chunky cardigans channelled Kurt Cobain at Christopher Kane (Getty) (Getty Images)

So, how do you make a cardi look more fashion girl and less old lady?

A style that works well with almost anything you wear underneath, something as simple as a plain white tee, denim and strappy heels looks perfectly put-together when paired with a slack cardigan.

Alternatively, layer your easy button-downs loose over summer slip dresses or strappy cami tops.

However you want to wear them  cropped, oversized or even embellished  its the ease of a cardigan that outshines its sweater competitor. Not only do they sort of allow you to wear two outifts in one, but your hair and make-up will remain unskewed when pulling them on or off.

Gucci, Reversible Wool Jacquard-Knit Cardigan, 1,610, Net-a-Porter

Draped Neck Cardigan, 15.99, Zara

Peter Pilotto, Appliqued Wool Cardigan, 450, Net-a-Porter

Oversized Pocket Cardigan, 30, Topshop

Long Cardigan, 29.99, H&M

Long Sleeve Crew Neck Cardigan, 9.99, New Look

Ribbed Longline Cardigan, 39, Warehouse
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One of the first and most important lessons you learn in cooking is the importance of mise en place  everything in its place. Its a great idea. You measure and prep all the ingredients so when you start cooking, everything is to hand and theres no nasty surprises.

But these days Im often cooking while simultaneously folding laundry and answering emails so mise en place goes out the window along with just about anything else that isnt life-threatening.

This is what happened when I went to make my Chinese chicken salad. I searched everywhere but there was no chilli oil.

Recommended Six ethical beef recipes

I could have made my own but that takes time and time was another thing I didnt have in stock.

Instead I reached for the Vietnamese chilli garlic sauce that I did have on hand. You can find different brands of chilli garlic sauce at the supermarket but the one I use comes from Chinatown and has a rooster on it. While I was poaching the chicken for the salad I did a quick search on the internet.

Turns out its made by a company called Huy Fong Foods in the US. The company was started by David Tran, a refugee from Vietnam who left by boat in 1979.

Food and drink news Show all 35 1 /35 Food and drink news Food and drink news Healthy living makes us more inclined to binge, research suggests Gluten-free breads, dairy-free milks and other plant-based products have been some of the most favoured foods in British supermarkets this year. However, while were busy filling our shopping trolleys with gluten-free goodness, were also jamming it with junk food and alcohol, new research suggests Getty/iStock Food and drink news Growing list of Vegan celebs Making the switch to veganism is a major lifestyle choice, one that many claim can improve energy levels, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and clear up any skin issues. Beyonce, Natalie Portman and Jessica Chastain are among the growing list of Hollywood stars who have eschewed animal products from their diets in recent years. Theres also been an increasing number of professional athletes who have gone vegan, such as boxing champions Mike Tyson and David Haye, thus debunking the myth that following a plant-based diet will leave you feeling weak and malnourished. AFP/Getty/NARAS/iHeartMedia Food and drink news McDonald's has announced the launch of a new vegan burger on its menu in Germany This will mark the first time the German franchise of the fast food chain has offered a vegan burger to its customers. The Big Vegan TS burger consists of a patty made from soy and wheat. It is served in a classic sesame seed bun, and contains salad, tomato, pickles and red onion. McDonald's Germany Food and drink news Drinking too many protein shakes could lead to an increased risk of obesity and a reduced lifespan, a new study has claimed Researchers from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre carried out an investigation to determine the impact excessive consumption of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) has on the body. BCAA supplements are often consumed in the form of powder, which is then added to water to make a shake. Published in journal Nature Metabolism, the study found that while BCAAs help to build muscle, they can also negatively impact an individual's temperament, cause weight gain and lead to a shortened lifespan Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Britain consumes more chocolate than any other country Most people love chocolate but it turns out no one does more than the Brits  with the average Brit found to have consumed 8.4 kg of chocolate in 2017, according to new data. Chocolate consumption around the world is on the rise, according to Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD), which found that in the past year alone, Easter chocolate production has risen by 23 per cent Food and drink news 'Easter eggs should be banned for children under four' Dr Becky Spelman, chief psychologist at Harley Streets Private Therapy Clinic, is calling for Easter eggs to be banned for consumption for children under the age of four, claiming that giving them the opportunity to binge on chocolate so young will give them an unhealthy relationship with food later on. "This is a nightmare situation for parents of this generation as they have no idea how to teach their children to delay their response to cravings, she said, explaining that too many young kids binge on these chocolates because their parents dont know how to stop them. "Once a child starts overeating behaviour at a young age its very hard to turn things around for them in terms of food and their eating habits moving forward, leading to obesity from at very young age," she added PA Food and drink news Pineapple overtakes avocado as the UK's fastest-selling fruit According to Tesco, pineapple has overtaken avocado as the UKs fastest-selling fruit, with sales increasing by 15 per cent in 2017. In comparison, avocado sales rose by just under 10 per cent last year. The popular supermarket says the surge in popularity comes as shoppers buying the versatile fruit are beginning to use it as a main ingredient in everything from curries and barbecues, to juices and cocktails Getty Food and drink news Marks & Spencers launches stoneless avocados Rather than the result of genetic modification, the avocados are formed by an unpollinated avocado blossom. The fruit develops without a seed which in turns stops the growth, creating a small, seedless fruit. Whats more, the skin is actually edible, unlike a regular avocado. The flesh is much like that of a normal avocado - smooth and creamy, pale in colour and rich in flavour M&S Food and drink news Office teabags contain 17 times more germs than a toilet seat, reveals study The average bacterial reading of an office teabag was 3,785, in comparison to only 220 for a toilet seat. Other pieces of kitchen equipment also stacked up highly in their findings, with the bacterial readings averaging at 2,483 on kettle handles, 1,746 on the rim of a used mug and 1,592 on a fridge door handle Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New study shows drinking more coffee leads to a longer life There is good news and a final hope for coffee addicts and lovers. You will now be able to drink coffee for longer as new study shows its can lead to a prolonged life. Scientists showed that those who drank between two and four cups of coffee a day had 18% lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers. PA Food and drink news Coke Zero is replaced with Coke Zero Sugar Coca-Cola is pulling the plug on its Coke Zero. The much loved drink will be replaced with a new improved taste. The move, backed with a 10 million campaign, is said to come from Coca-Cola supporting people to reduce their sugar intake. Coca-Cola want people make this move while not sacrificing sugary taste of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Food and drink news Starbucks introduce new avocado spread The avocado craze has grown from hipster brunch restaurants to Starbucks. Starbucks have introduced their new avocado spread earlier this year and it has the internet in debate. Some argue that it not a spread but guacamole while others question if there is any avocado in there at all. When buying the new spread you can also buy an optional toasted bagel. It is a must try for all avocado connoisseurs. Starbucks Food and drink news New Mars chocolate bar The iconic British chocolate bar is about to get its partner in crime. The new bar, named Goodness Knows, will replace the gooey caramel goodness of the mars bar with oats. It is said to be more like a Florentine biscuit with a thin dark chocolate bottom. While being moderately healthy Mars says that is has good intentions. One pack has 154 calories and will sell for about 90p. Mars Food and drink news Wine prices could increase because of Brexit Wine lovers across the UK might soon have to shell out close to a quarter more for their favourite tipple after Brexit, as a weaker pound and sluggish economy takes its toll, a new study shows Rex Food and drink news Chocolate may be good for the heart A new study, published in the British Medical Journal: Heart, found that moderate chocolate intake can be positively associated with lessening the risk of the heart arrhythmia condition Atrial Fibrillation Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Brits throw away 1.4 million bananas each year British families are throwing away 1.4 million bananas that are perfectly good to eat every day at cost of 80m a year, new figures have shown PA/Armin Weigel Food and drink news Rosemary sales spike over exam time There has been a surge a surge in sales of the herb rosemary after a recent study found it helps improve memory. According to high street health food chain Holland & Barrett, sales of the herb have increased by 187 per cent compared to the same time last year Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Gluten-free diets 'not recommended' for people without coeliac disease Avoiding wheat, barley and rye in the belief that a gluten-free diet brings health benefits may do more harm than good, according to a team of US nutrition and medicine experts Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Starbucks launches two new coffee-based drinks Starbucks is launching two new coffee-based drinks in the UK, as it strives to tap into consumers growing appetite for healthy beverages. The Cold Brew Vanilla sweet cream and the Cappuccino Freddo, will both be available in stores throughout the UK from the start of May Twitter/@SbuxCountyHall Food and drink news Cadburys Dairy Milk Tiffin is making a permanent comeback after 80 years The Cadbury Dairy Milk Tiffin, first produced in 1937, is making a permanent comeback to the UK. The raisin and biscuit-filled chocolate bar is being launched after a successful trial last summer saw 3 million chocolate treats  at the cost of 1.49 for each 95g bar- purchased by nostalgic customers Cadburys Food and drink news Pizza restaurant makes worlds cheesiest 'Scottie's Pizza Parlor' in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Facebook/Scottie's Pizza Parlor Food and drink news A pizza joint in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Why not eating before a workout could be better for your health A study published in the American Journal of Physiology by researchers at the University of Bath found you might be likely to burn more fat if you have not eaten first Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New York restaurant named best in the world A New York restaurant where an average meal for two will cost $700 has been named the best in the world. Eleven Madison Park won the accolade for the first time after debuting on the list at number 50 in 2010. The restaurant was praised for a fun sense of fine-dining, blurring the line between the kitchen and the dining room Getty Images Food and drink news Why you crave bad food when youre tired Researchers at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago recently presented their results of a study looking into the effects of sleep deprivation upon high-calorific food consumption. Researchers found that those who were sleep-deprived had specifically enhanced brain activity to the food smells compared to when they had a good nights sleep Shutterstock Food and drink news Drinking wine engages more of your brain than solving maths problems Drinking wine is the ideal workout for your brain, engaging more parts of our grey matter than any other human behaviour, according to a leading neuroscientist. Dr Gordon Shepherd, from the Yale School of Medicine, said sniffing and analysing a wine before drinking it requires exquisite control of one of the biggest muscles in the body Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news British dessert eating surges after people ditch healthy eating in February : In heartening news for anyone feeling guilty about quitting their New Year diet, it seems lots of us have given in to our sweet tooths once again. New data from nationwide food-delivery service Deliveroo reveals there was a surge in Brits ordering desserts in February compared to the first month of 2017 Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news US congress debates definition of milk alternatives A new bill has been created that seeks to ban dairy alternatives from using the term milk. Titled the DAIRY PRIDE Act, the name is a tenuous acronym for defending against imitations and replacements of yogurt, milk, and cheese to promote regular intake of dairy every day. It argues that the dairy industry is struggling as a result of all the dairy-free alternatives on the market and the public are being duped too Getty Images Food and drink news Cadburys launches two new chocolate bars UK confectionary giant Cadbury has launched two new chocolate bars, hoping to lure those with a sweet tooth and perhaps help combat some of the challenges it faces from rising commodity prices and a post-Brexit slump in the value of the pound.The companys new products will be peanut butter and mint flavoured. They will be available in most major super markets as 120g bars, priced at 1.49, according to the company Cadburys Food and drink news You can now get a job as a professional chocolate eater The company responsible for some of your favourite chocolate brands  think Cadbury, Milks, Prince and Oreo  have officially announced an opening to join their team as a professional chocolate taster. The successful candidate will help them to test, perfect and launch new products all over the world. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news MSG additive used in Chinese food is actually good for you, scientist claims For years, weve been told MSG (the sodium salt of glutamic acid) - often associated with cheap Chinese takeaways - is awful for our health and to be avoided at all costs. But one scientist argues it should be used as a supersalt and encourages adding it to food. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Lettuce prices are rising Not only are lettuces becoming an increasingly rare commodity in supermarkets, but prices for the leafy vegetables seem to be rising too. According to the weekly report from the Governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a pair of Little Gem lettuces had an average market price of 0.86 in the week that ended on Friday, up from an average of 0.56 in the previous week  thats an almost 54 per cent increase. Getty Images Food and drink news Do-It-Yourself restaurant To encourage more people to cook and eat together, IKEA has launched The Dining Club in Shoreditch  a fully immersive Do-It-Yourself restaurant . Members of the public can book to host a brunch, lunch or dinner party for up to 20 friends and family. Supported by their very own sous chef and maitre de, the host and their guests will orchestrate an intimate dining experience where cooking together is celebrated and eating together is inspirational Mikael Buck / IKEA Food and drink news Ping Pong menu with a twist Gatwick Airport has teamed up with London dim sum restaurant Ping Pong to create a limited edition menu with a distinctly British twist; including a Full English Bao and Beef Wellington Puff, to celebrate the launch of the airports new route to Hong Kong Food and drink news Zizzi unveil the Maamgharita Unique pizza art has been created by Zizzi in celebration of the Queens 90th birthday. The pizza features the queen in an iconic pose illustrated with fresh and tasty Italian ingredients on a backdrop of the Union Jack Food and drink news Blue potatoes make a comeback Blue potatoes, once a staple part of British potato crops, are back on the menu thanks to a Cambridge scientist turned-organic farmer and Farmdrop, an online marketplace that lets people buy direct from local farms. Cambridge PhD graduate-turned farmer, Adrian Izzard has used traditional growing techniques at Wild Country Organics to produce the colourful spuds, packed with healthy cell-protecting anthocyanin, which had previously disappeared from UK plates when post-war farmers were pushed towards higher-yielding varieties

The name of the boat was Huey Fong which means gathering prosperity. When he started his hot sauce business in 1980 he decided to call it Huy Fong and adopted the rooster as his logo since he was born in the Chinese zodiac Year of the Rooster.

Since then, the business has grown and enjoys a loyal following, myself included. So technically, this recipe should be Vietnamese Chicken Salad  Ill leave it as it is, but send David Tran my thanks for bailing me out.

Leafy greens, crunchy almonds and chicken combine deliciously with an Asian-inspired dressing (Julia Platt Leonard)

Chinese chicken salad

Serves 2-3

If youve got leftover chicken from a roast, youre all set. If not, you can poach a chicken breast.

 Chinese cabbage, about 300g

20g coriander, with roots if possible

2 spring onions

200g chicken (1 large chicken breast)

Dressing

1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp soy sauce

 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp caster sugar

1 lime

Garnish

Cucumber

Sesame seeds

Chopped almonds

If youre using leftover cooked chicken, simply shred it into bite size pieces and keep refrigerated until ready to use. If youre poaching a chicken breast, place the breast in a pan, cover with water, add a generous sprinkling of salt and place the lid on. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat and gently poach until the chicken is just cooked. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool down in the poaching liquid then shred the meat and refrigerate while you prepare the salad.

To make the salad, remove the core from the cabbage, slice thinly and place in a salad bowl. Roughly chop the coriander and add to the mix. Thinly slice the spring onions and toss into the salad.

To make the dressing, combine the chilli garlic sauce, oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and caster sugar. Slice the lime in half and add the juice from one of the halves. Cut the remaining half into wedges to serve with the salad.

When youre ready to serve, add the chicken to the greens and top with the dressing. Combine and place into serving bowls. Top with your choice of garnishes and a wedge of lime.

@juliapleonard
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Amira smiles as she puts the final touches on a bouquet of flowers in front of her.

Sweet Williams are my favourite, she says, gesturing to the fuchsia blooms at the centre of the arrangement.

Amira is a refugee. Over six weeks she has learnt the fundamentals of flower arranging alongside five other refugee and asylum seeking women.

Like many others in the group, she had to leave behind a career after being forced to leave her home. In Syria, she was a teacher, a profession she loved but unable to teach in the UK, she's eager to learn a new set of skills.

Life is very different now, she says. In the future I want to be learning, and working.

The group's final class of the course was a lesson in sponge arrangements (Helen Hoddinott)

Arriving on the final morning of the course before they graduate, the women have to step around heaps of freshly cut flowers. They howl with laughter as they catch up over steaming cups of tea. Having all met for the first time only six weeks ago, its clear theyve become close.

The course is run by Bread and Roses, a social enterprise which trains and employs women in floristry. Meeting weekly at Hackney City Farm in east London, its a space to learn English, develop skills and build confidence.

Co-founded by Olivia Head and Sneh Jani in May 2016, Bread and Roses have run four programmes to date and worked with over 50 women from around the world.

The kind of work that many refugee women end up doing because of their difficulty accessing the labour market - low paid, zero hour cleaning and caring jobs - is hugely undervalued and therefore unfulfilling, says Olivia. We wanted to help women get a step up into jobs that would be more meaningful.

Iman makes some final tweaks (Helen Hoddinott)

The phrase bread and roses has been used as a political slogan ever since it was coined by American socialist and feminist, Rose Schneiderman, in 1912.

It has become symbolic of the struggle of the female worker to have not only enough to buy a crust, but to be able to find meaning and joy in life and work.

Having fled their homes in Syria, Eritrea and Angola, the trainee florists are all in the process of setting up new lives in London, a challenge they are committed to tackling quickly.

Refugees are determined to learn English and start contributing to their new communities through work, volunteering and socialising with their neighbours, Mariam Kemple-Hardy, head of campaigns at Refugee Action told The Independent.

They face huge barriers to learning, from a lack of provision to long waiting lists, with women in particular affected by cuts to funding for lessons and a reduction in childcare places.

Kendra's arrangement will be transported across London to its new owner (Helen Hoddinott)

In a bid to ensure mothers with young children are able to attend the course, Bread and Roses provides childcare for the duration of the classes. Its a measure that has allowed Amira to keep coming back every week. While her son, 2-year-old Mohammed, attends a baby musical play session with a volunteer child-minder, Amira is free to fully engage in the classes.

Lola, a florist who volunteers with the group, speaks six languages and is constantly on hand to help with any floristry phrases getting lost in translation.

According to Lola, some participants had been too nervous to practice English before starting the classes, despite having lived in England for years.

Here is like family and there are a lot of people to help, so they have new skills and are happy, she said.

Lola helps out with an arrangement (Helen Hoddinott)

Equipped with floristry skills gained over the last six weeks, Amira will now be able to do paid work with Bread and Roses - making bouquets that are sold to local businesses and customers across London.

Some of the trainee florists, however, are yet to receive their refugee status which would allow them to work.The wait can be long and unpredictable; the number of asylum seekers in the UK waiting more than six months for a decision from the Home Office rose more than 70% over the last year.

Having faced such adversity to arrive in the UK, the immediate challenge facing these women has been contributing to their communities and feeling comfortable in their new country. Opportunities for them are beginning to proliferate around the UK, with Ourmala providing free yoga classes, The Chickpea Sisters helping refugee women to work by equipping them with catering skills, and Women for Refugee Women on hand to offer overarching support.

After six weeks of lessons in cutting, pruning and arranging, the newly minted florists are graduating. Armed with a certificate in floristry, all have opted to become part of the Bread and Roses freelance pool which will provide opportunities and act as an ever-expanding support network going forward.

"I'd be very happy to find any work. Yes, no problem," says Amira.

"In the future, I want too much work."

Some names in this article have been changed.
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A man arrested on suspicion of pushing a woman into the path of a bus on Putney bridge has been released by police and cleared of any involvement.

Eric Bellquist, 41, who works for a private equity firm, was arrested on Thursday, but said he had irrefutable proof he was in America at the time of the incident in May.

Mr Bellquist was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. He was initially released on bail and then cleared of all charges.

Mr Bellquist was cleared of any involvement (Facebook)

The incident, which happened on 5 May, was captured by CCTV and was widely shared on the internet.

A man is seen jogging past one male pedestrian, but then barges into the 33-year-old woman, who is thrown over and into the path of a bus.

The bus is then seen swerving to avoid the woman.

Police said that after the incident the bus driver stopped and passengers tended to the woman who had minor injuries.

The jogger then ran back the other way over the bridge, the Metropolitan Police said. When the victim tried to speak to her assailant, he did not acknowledge her.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in 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Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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Prior to his elimination from the investigation, Bellquists lawyers, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said: Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently, we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.
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Courts must hand more severe punishments to grooming gangs found to target their victims by race, one of the Governments most senior legal advisors has said.

Robert Buckland QC, the Solicitor General, said existing powers can be used to lengthen prison sentences for abusers such as the 18 predominantly Asian defendants convicted in Newcastle this week.

The law does not discriminate, he told The Telegraph.

When it talks about sentencing increases for racial aggravation it doesnt cut one way, it cuts all ways.

Where there is a racial element in sexual abuse cases,the law is clear that courts can apply a sentencing uplift. Racial aggravation should be front and centre in cases where there is evidence of racial hostility or motivation.

He spoke amid calls for sentences handed to the Newcastle gang, which assaulted girls and young women in a four-year campaign of sexual exploitation, to be reviewed by the Attorney General.

One member, Badrul Hussain, had called white women trash during a rant at a female ticket inspector who found him travelling on public transport without a ticket in 2014.

 Ken Macdonald on Newcastle sex ring: "This is a profoundly racist crime"

All white women are only good for one thing, he shouted. For men like me to f*** and use like trash. Thats all women like you are worth.

Hussain, 37, was convicted of drug supply and allowing his home to be used for so-called sex parties where mainly white British girls were abused.

He is awaiting sentence, while other members of the gang have already been jailed for between 16 months and 10 years, but there was no mention of racial motives in the judges sentencing remarks.

According to guidance issued by the Sentencing Council, sections of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 give judges the power to increase sentences if the offender demonstrates hostility towards the victim based on his or her membership of a racial or religious group, or if the offence is racially or religiously motivated.

A recent precedent was set in 2015, when child abuser Jamal Muhammed Raheem Ul Nasir was given a longer sentence because his victims were Asian and their families had suffered cultural shame.

Conservative MP Mike Penning, a former justice and defence minister, said he has written to Attorney General Jeremy Wright questioning whether the sexual exploitation exposed in the north-east should be treated as a race-hate crime.

The former Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, also argued the grooming should be treated as a profoundly racist crime, telling BBC Radio 4s Today programme there was a major problem in particular communities of men viewing young white girls as trash regarded as available for sex.

Northumbria Police Chief Constable Steve Ashman during a press conference in Newcastle on 9 August (PA)

The head of Northumbria Police, which led the three-year investigation, said it was an inescapable fact  that most of the offenders are not white but emphasised they came from diverse backgrounds including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish, Albania and Eastern European.

Chief Constable Steve Ashman said it was for all communities to tackle the attitudes and behaviour enabling sexual exploitation.

Were not politically correct, he told The Independent. I dont care about the background of individuals  we find them, we arrest them and we put them behind bars.

Ewen Weir, who is responsible for social services at Newcastle City Council, said it was oversimplistic to attribute the attitudes underpinning the abuse to one group.

Its not right to oversimplify this because there are men from all sorts of backgrounds, including white men, in this, he added.

In terms of religion, Ive seen no evidence personally that it is a big driver.

The Home Secretary also said the abusers were not restricted to any single ethnic group, religion or community, but added: Political and cultural sensitivities must never be allowed to get in the way of preventing and uncovering it.

Canning Street in Newcastle, where grooming gang member Yassar Hussain lived (Lizzie Dearden)

Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central, warned that anyone seeking to use the abusers Asian or Muslim backgrounds to create division were putting other girls at risk, adding: Assuming that grooming and child abuse is prevalent in one group helps potential abusers hide in plain sight if they are not part of that group.

Crimes of sexual exploitation can be and are committed by members of all communities and indeed it remains regrettably true that sexual abuse is most likely to come from within the family circle.

Members of the Newcastle gang abused more than 100 vulnerable women and girls, meeting them on social media, at so-called sex parties or even preying on them in the street under the pretext of offering a warm car or safe place to say.

Victims were offered money, alcohol and drugs including cocaine and mephedrone before being forced or coerced into sex, or becoming incapacitated and waking up to realise they were being raped.

Some originally believed they were in loving relationships with defendants and said they initially had sex with their friends out of a sense of loyalty, while others were beaten, threatened or locked in rooms if they refused.

The gang was caught by Operation Shelter, which was a smaller part of a larger investigation covering sexual exploitation in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland codenamed Operation Sanctuary.

That has identified more than 700 potential victims since 2014 and resulted in the conviction of 93 people jailed for more than 300 years.
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Counter-terror police are hunting a suspected far-right extremist sending hate mail and suspicious packages to mosques and political targets in the UK and US.

Three mosques in London are the latest to receive malicious letters from the unknown individual or group as part of what a monitoring group believes is a structured transatlantic campaign.

One letter seen by The Independent threatened to bomb Forest Gate Mosque very soon when there are plenty of Muslims, while the sender told another mosque in east London they would make you vermin pay and a third letter received in Hackney called for the capital to be cleansed.

All bear a postmark from the same sorting office in Sheffield and share striking similarities with handwriting and content, including a symbol repeatedly used as a signature by the anonymous sender.

Tell Mama, which records Islamophobic hate crimes in Britain, said the letters appeared to be part of the same campaign that targeted three other mosques in the UK last year and others in the US.

Steve Rose, who has been documenting the phenomenon for the charity, said three mosques in Tottenham, Leyton and Finsbury Park received envelopes scrawled with abuse and containing white powder in July 2016.

What was interesting was the relative proximity of these mosques, he added.

It seems whoever it is is targeting geographic areas of London and might have targeted a mosque in Rotherham as well.

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On the same day as letters arrived at London mosques last year, a security alert was sparked at Parliament when Muslim peer Lord Ahmed received a package containing white powder and a racist note, and similar envelopes arrived at the Bank of England and a Government mail screening service in Newham.

An investigation by specialist chemical units of the Metropolitan Police found that the substance was not noxious or suspicious.

The campaign spread to the US in February this year, when the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, received a letter containing a death threat and a crude drawing of a pig defecating on the mosque.

Weeks later, another letter arrived from Sheffield at the Masjid Al-Iman in Jersey City, threatening to behead Muslims, while others sent to places of worship in New York, Georgia and Kentucky.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US largest Muslim civil rights group, called for action amid increasing fears over the prospect of attacks by those who have been emboldened by the current political climate.

We urge local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to treat this and all the other cases of threats and violence targeting American mosques with the seriousness they deserve and to bring the perpetrators to justice, said Jim Sues, the groups director for New Jersey.

CAIR has noted what it called an unprecedented spike in Islamophobic incidents since the US presidential election, while Tell Mama has recorded 167 attacks on British mosques in the past four years and rising reports of Islamophobic hate crime.

Pattern of attacks on mosques in the UK over four years (Tell Mama)

The mosque targeted by hate mail in Finsbury Park was the Muslim Welfare House, where a van was rammed into worshippers in a suspected terror attack in June, although the incidents are not believed to be linked.

Iman Atta, the director of Tell Mama, told The Independent that those behind the malicious letters "are trying to create fear within mosques and this is important  to the users of the mosque".

By targeting a mosque, they are sending out a wider message to the users of the mosque and the congregations," she added.

So the impact is wider and should always be taken into account in sentencing of perpetrators.

Police have made no arrests in relation to the hate mail campaign, and the Sheffield sorting office handles post from a large area of northern England.

A spokesperson for the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, which is leading the investigation, said: Police received a number of reports of malicious communications and packages which have been received recently across London.

Specialist officers attended these addresses and the contents of the packages were examined.

In all cases, the substances were found not to be noxious or harmful.

The spokesperson said ongoing enquiries are working to identify the origin of the packages, adding: We are looking into the possibility that the communications are linked to a number of suspicious packages and malicious communications reported at locations in London, South Yorkshire and America.
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Police are searching for a 27-year-old man after a mother and daughter were stabbed to death at their home in London.

Officers were called to the house in Golders Green on Friday night to reports of two injured women and found the victims, aged 33 and 66, suffering from stab wounds.

Both women were pronounced dead at the scene, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said.

The women were killed at their home in Golders Green Crescent, London (Google Streetview)

While we await formal identification, officers are confident that they know the identity of the victims and that they are mother and daughter.

No arrests have been made and investigators are appealing to trace a suspect, Joshua Cohen, who was known to the victims.

Detective Inspector Ian Lott said: This was a devastating attack on two women in their homes.

The individual we are seeking was known to them and from all the information we have, acted alone.

I would urge anyone who saw anything in the local area at the time of the attack to get in touch with investigators immediately.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose assured the local community that police were doing everything they could to find the perpetrator of the horrific attack.

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High visibility foot patrols have been stepped up in the area and police will be on hand to listen and respond to community concerns, he added, saying officers were working with Jewish charity the Community Security Trust.

Cohen, 27, is wanted for questioning and police said he should not be approached.

He has mental health issues including paranoid schizophrenia and should not be approached by members of the public, a spokesperson for Scotland Yard said.

Any sightings of Joshua Cohen should be reported to police immediately via 999.

He is described as 5ft 9ins tall, white with cropped hair and a short beard or stubble.

He was last seen wearing a red Nike hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the chest, white trainers and dark grey trousers or tracksuit bottoms.
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A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of double murder after a mother and daughter were stabbed to death at their home in London.

Police had been appealing to trace Joshua Cohen following the killings in Golders Green on Friday night.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said he was spotted by a member of the public in nearby Golders Hill Park and alerted officers who detained him shortly before 2pm on Saturday.

Recommended Manhunt after mother and daughter stabbed to death in London home

Detective Inspector Ian Lott said: This was a devastating attack on two women in their homes. Our investigation is ongoing.

Officers were called to the house in Golders Green at 8.50pm on Friday to reports of two injured women and found the victims, aged 33 and 66, suffering from stab wounds.

Both women were pronounced dead at the scene, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said, adding that the attacker knew the victims.

While we await formal identification, officers are confident that they know the identity of the victims and that they are mother and daughter.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

The home in Golders Green Crescent has been closed off as forensic investigations continue.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose officers were working with Jewish charity the Community Security Trust and informing them of developments, adding: High visibility foot patrols have been stepped up in the area and police will be on hand to listen and respond to community concerns.

Anyone with information is asked to call the police incident room on 0208 358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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Three women accused of mounting the first all-female terror plot in the UK have appeared in court.

Mina Dich, 43, her daughter Rizlaine Boular, 21, and Khawla Barghouthi, 20, were charged in relation to the alleged planning of a suspected knife attack in Westminster.

The trio appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday via video link from HMP Bronzefield, where they are being held in custody.

A judge set their next hearing for 23 October, with a provisional trial date set for 27 November.

Boular was shot by armed police during a raid a house in Harlesden Road, Willesden, in April, where Barghouthi was also arrested.

Dich, of Lambeth, was arrested in Kent on the same day.

Boular, of Clerkenwell, was formally charged three days later after being discharged from the hospital where she was treated for gunshot wounds.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA

Police said the operation foiled an active terror plot and the trio have been charged with the preparation of a terrorist act.

The three women are accused of conspiring together to murder a person or persons unknown between 11 and 28 April.

Boular is also charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts between the same dates, while Dich and Barghouthi are charged with intending to assist her.

Both Boular and Dich have worn full-face Islamic veils during court appearances, lifting the coverings to show their eyes when requested, while Barghouthi wears a headscarf.


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Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst says she cancelled her headline appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival because her Syrian musicians were denied visas.

The bearded pop star had been due to perform at the New European Songbook concert, which celebrates multicultural collaborations from across the world, on Friday night.

But all three members of the Austrian drag queens backing band Basalt were denied entry to the UK by the Home Office, forcing her to pull out of the gig.

Conchita told her Facebook followers; Due to the unfortunate fact that my friends Amjad, Noor and Almonther from Basalt were unsuccessful in their visa application to enter the UK, I am not performing at the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) tonight.

We are all very sorry as we were looking forward to being there. Alternatively, were recording a video message here in Austria today, and we wish everyone performing, visiting and organizing the Festival a great evening. Were with you in our hearts!

Amjad Khaboura, Noor Eli Khoury and Almonther Alshoufi formed acoustic rock band Basalt in Vienna last year after fleeing from Syria during the countrys ongoing civil war.

They have now joined forces with Conchita, 28, who shot to stardom after performing the operatic power ballad Rise Like a Phoenix at the Eurovision Song Contest three years ago.

The foursome, based in Vienna, Austria, had hoped to fly to the UK to perform their new song Small House at the 70th annual EIF.

Home Office officials have listed the event as a permit-free festival, meaning artists can apply for a standard visitors visa to enter the UK for it rather than a working visa.

Despite this, Basalts applications were turned down.

An Edinburgh International Festival spokesperson said: We were hugely disappointed to hear that you cant be with us tonight, particularly given that the point of this concert was to celebrate how different cultures working together enrich all our lives.

Well keep talking with your management in the hope that the visa issue can be resolved and you can visit the International Festival at some point in the future. Lots of love from all of us here.

The three-week festival is due to run until the 28 August.
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UK ministers may bring in licences to control the sale of laser pens following increased attacks on pilots.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has issued a call for evidence into the regulation of laser pointers amid concerns they could cause a serious accident.

In 2016, there were 1,258 incidents of lasers being pointed at aircraft recorded by the Civil Aviation Authority. In future, those who deliberately target aircraft with lasers could face a jail sentence or hefty fine. Currently, shining lasers at planes has a penalty of up to 2,500.

Last year, an air ambulance helicopter pilot was temporarily blinded. Great North Air Ambulance Service pilot Keith Armatage told the Sunderland Echo: Lasers can blind  temporarily and permanently. If the pilot is blinded, the helicopter crashes.

There have been more than 150 instances of eye injuries connected with laser pointers since 2013, with most involving children.

Professor John OHagan, of Public Health England, said he was in favour of a consultation to minimise the health risks of cheap novelty products bought innocently on holiday [which] can put consumers, and particularly children, at risk of eye injuries.

Online retailers such as Amazon are working with the Government to make sure that unsafe laser pointers are withdrawn from sale.

Margot James, the Business Minister said: Used irresponsibly or maliciously, these products can and do wreak havoc and harm others, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Thats why we want to hear from business groups, retailers and consumers about the best way to protect the public from this kind of dangerous behaviour and improve safety.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. 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BEIS will accept evidence for eight weeks as part of its public consultation process, which closes on Friday 6 October.

In the Midwestern US state of Michigan, a law has recently been passed making it illegal to point a laser at planes and trains. Those who break the law face up to five years in jail and fines of up to $10,000 (7,600).

The power of a laser pointer is restricted in most countries to under 5mW, which is not believed to cause serious damage to a persons eyes. There have been cases of high-powered laser pointers purchased online. According to a Forbes report, class three lasers, capable of burning through paper and bursting balloons, have been sold over the internet.
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A man who was injured in the Manchester attack has told how he was a millimetre from death after a bolt pierced him through the heart.

Robby Potter, from Wirral in Merseyside, was struck when the bomb went off as he waited for his children in the lobby of Manchester Arena with his partner, Leonora Ogerio.

The father-of-two would have died if the bolt had struck just a millimetre either side of where it landed.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Potter, who remains in hospital three months after the attack, described seeing the face of the bomber Salman Abedi, who was stood just metres away from him before he detonated his device.

I actually looked at the idiot  the bomber  he was only 10m away from me. I remember his face to this day, said Mr Potter.

Recounting the moment the bomb exploded, he said: It was like a cloud of mercury exploding  you could see bits of silver everywhere, which was obviously the nuts and bolts he had packed into his bag.

"I felt something in my chest and I started running down. I felt a lot more shrapnel hit me... and eventually collapsed and fell on the floor.

The doctor called me a miracle lad. Even after the operation... he said it was still touch and go.

The bolt was removed from Mr Potter's heart at the University Hospital of South Manchester by surgeon Kandadai Shadri Rammonhan.

Mr Rammonhan told the BBC: [The bolt] was wedged between the back wall and the front wall of the two blood vessels, so a millimetre either way at any velocity  and thankfully it didnt  we wouldnt be having this conversation in this setting."

One Love Manchester Show all 12 1 /12 One Love Manchester One Love Manchester Concert goers queue outside Old Trafford Cricket Ground ahead of the One Love Manchester tribute concert in Manchester. AFP/Getty Images One Love Manchester Music fans embrace outside the Old Trafford Cricket Ground ahead of the One Love Manchester tribute concert in Manchester. AFP/Getty Images One Love Manchester A woman sunbathes as police officers patrol around Old Trafford Cricket Ground ahead of the One Love Manchester tribute concert in Manchester. AFP/Getty Images One Love Manchester Manchester residents cheer as survivors walk to Old Trafford cricket grounds for the concert @AlexScapensMEN/Twitter One Love Manchester Women wearing I Love MCR T-shirts arrive at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground ahead of the One Love Manchester tribute concert in Manchester. AFP/Getty Images One Love Manchester Armed police look-on as fans begin to arrive at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground ahead of the One Love Manchester tribute concert. AFP/Getty Images One Love Manchester One Love Manchester Benefit Concert fans. One Love Manchester One Love Manchester Benefit Concert. One Love Manchester The crowd at the 'One Love Manchester' benefit concert. One Love Manchester AP One Love Manchester Gary Barlow has tweeted a picture of Take That backstage with Ariana Grande. Grande said she wanted to return to the "incredibly brave city" to spend time with her fans and to "honour and raise money for the victims and their families". One Love Manchester Take That with Robbie Williams - Music fans have said they had to attend the Manchester benefit concert to show they were determined to "stay strong and carry on", despite recent attacks.

Ms Ogerio was also seriously injured in the attack, leaving her with multiple fractures in each leg. She too remains in hospital three months on.

Speaking of the moment she first woke up from a sedated state in hospital, she said: "First question I asked was: Where is he?. They said: He is in the same hospital and I started to cry."

She added: We want to look after each other, but we cant do that because we are both on the mend.
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Authorities have been accused of failing to protect sex workers after a victim of a violent robbery was threatened with prosecution and deportation when she reported the crime to the police.

The Brazilian woman, who was in the UK on a six-month visitor visa and had engaged in sex work to save money for her trip home, was robbed at knifepoint by five men in Enfield in the early hours of 24 June.

She called the police following the attack, but when they arrived on the premises she said their focus appeared to be on her activities as a sex worker as opposed to the robbery.

Officers reportedly failed to ask her or any of the other women on the premises for a statement, and did not contact the victims in the weeks after the attack.

Twelve days later, police delivered a letter to the women threatening them with arrest and prosecution if the premises continues to be used as a brothel.

A section of the letter seen by The Independent read: Information suggested that the premises were being operated as a brothel [] Police will conduct a further visit to these premises in the near future.

If these premises continue to be used in this capacity, persons acting in contravention of the above legislation will be liable to arrest and maybe prosecuted."

Five weeks after the robbery, the Brazilian woman was detained at Gatwick airport for several hours after returning from a trip to Spain. She was handed a letter by the Home Office demanding that she leave the UK on the basis that she had stated in June that she was employed in sex work.

The letter stated: "You have sought to enter as a visitor for one month. However, you have stated you have worked as a sex worker in the UK in June this year."

It went on to state that this indicated she was not a "genuine visitor to the UK" and that she must therefore leave within four days.

The letter received by the Brazilian woman from the Home Office, before the removal notice was later postponed (Niki Adams)

Following media reports, the deportation notice was removed and the woman was told she could remain until the end of August  when she had planned to return to Brazil with her boyfriend anyway  in order to be present during the criminal trial for the robbery.

Campaigners said the threat of prosecution and deportation by authorities against sex workers who report serious crimes risk making women more reluctant to contact the police.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who is the Brazilian woman's local MP, wrote to the Met police stating that letters sent by the force threatening women with prosecution under the 1956 Sexual Offences Act could make it more difficult to stay in touch with victims of violent crimes and therefore hinder a future prosecution.

Niki Adams, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes who has been supporting the Brazilian woman following the ordeal, told The Independent: Were already in a position where sex workers are reluctant to report violence to the police for fear of prosecution and  if theyre migrant sex workers  deportation.

What has happened here has very wide implications. If the police are so dismissive of safety in this situation and theyre ready to put prostitution offences  where theres no force or coercion or exploitation  over stopping a gang of violent criminals, it raises questions about their priorities.

She said police had failed to treat the woman and the other sex workers in the Enfield premises when it was robbed as victims, instead focusing on their involvement in sex work.

She is still traumatised by what happened. Shes been having flashbacks. She said none of the other girls wanted to report it to the police, but as soon as the men left she did. She told them on the phone that she was a sex worker, she said.

Recommended Decriminalisation is the only way to protect sex workers

She said that when officers first arrived they started to do forensic tests, but they quickly started asking her and the other girls how many clients they had and what kind of money they earned, which is completely inappropriate for a victim of such a horrible crime in the immediate aftermath.

They didnt do what you would expect for a usual victim. They clearly werent seen as victims from the start.

Ms Adams said has since heard reports from other sex workers who had been attacked in a similar way across London, among whom only one other woman had reported it to the police.

Highlighting sex workers' fears about seeking protection from police, she said: One of the women in the Enfield attack told us that during the robbery she managed to escape to a bedroom, and saw a bobby on the beat on the street outside through the window.

She said she thought to herself 'Should I call him for help or keep my mouth shut?' and she kept her mouth shut. She was afraid of revealing the premises. The gangs attacking brothels know this fear exists, which is why they keep targeting them.

Following the robbery, the English Collective of Prostitutes wrote to the Met complaining that the response had been to threaten the women with prosecution. Ms Adams said the organisation initially got no response, but following political pressure the police responded by justifying their actions.

The letter from Edmonton Police stated: "Officers cannot ignore information that they are told in the course of an investigation that may highlight other offences or vulnerabilities."

A response from Enfield Police to the English Collective of Prostitutes' complaint (Screen grab)

It continued: "The Metropolitan Police takes the individual needs of those working within the sex trade very seriously and works closely with partner agencies and charities to offer support and assistance to those involved."

Ms Adams said of their response: It was a complete PR exercise. Im tired of hearing their claims that they take sex workers safety seriously.

If these attackers are allowed to act with impunity, then the violence is bound to escalate. Womens safety is not being prioritised  police policy are actively undermining womens attempts to keep themselves safe and report crimes committed against them."

A spokesperson for the Met Police said the force was "investigating reports" of the robbery and that no arrests had been made at this stage, but that enquiries were continuing, adding: "Officers subsequently made contact with the victim/s to inform them on the progress of the investigation.

On the accusations of a lack of victim support for sex workers, the force said: As a law enforcement agency, the safety of people engaged in sex work is paramount to the police and tackling violence against women and girls is also a priority for the Met Police.

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We are continuing to develop a consistent approach across London to dealing with the impact of sex work on the vulnerable, and working in partnership with support agencies to offer individuals pathways into support services and out of prostitution.

This of course does not rule out use of legislation where other options have been exhausted, or it is the appropriate action to take in the circumstances.

We can confirm that a letter was given to the occupant/s [of the Enfield premises above] that detailed the Section 33A Sexual Offences Act 1956 - this states that It is an offence for a person to keep, or to manage, or to act or assist in the management of, a brothel to which people resort for practices involving prostitution (whether or not also for other practices).

A Home Office spokesperson meanwhile said: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases.
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A senior Ukip MEP quit his post as a party whip after controversial anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters was cleared to stand in the partys leadership election.

Mike Hookem said he was resigning as deputy whip in the European Parliament after the Eurosceptic partys chief whip Stuart Agnew declared his support for Ms Waters on Saturday.

Ms Waters, who founded pressure group Sharia Watch and who has called Islam a killing machine, is one of 11 candidates cleared to run in the leadership contest by the Ukip national executive committee.

Anne Marie Waters was banned from being a candidate for the Eurosceptic party during their disastrous general election campaign (AMWaters Media Youtube)

The ambitious former Labour Party activist insists she is not a racist or a neo-fascist.

In a statement, Mr Hookem said he was not prepared to turn a blind eye to extremism.

I strongly disagree with the views Ms Waters and Mr Agnew promote and I would like to put as much distance between me and them as possible, he said.

If I were to continue in my position of deputy whip, I would be seen as supporting or at the very least turning a blind eye to extreme views and this is not something I am prepared to do.

I am not a racist and have never campaigned on race issues. While I do believe in controlled immigration, this position is about space rather than race; and I am not prepared to support someone who seeks to single out a section of our society simply due to their religious beliefs.

Mr Hookems resignation came after Ukip deputy leader Peter Whittle  who is also running for the leadership  defended Ms Waters right to be a candidate.

The whole thing was done very rigorously. There was a vetting process. We all had to go through it and if you all get through that then you absolutely have the right to stand. That means Anne Marie should be able to stand, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

 Conservatives will never win power again after Brexit 'disaster', former Tory government adviser says

However in a letter to interim Ukip leader Steve Crowther, Mr Hookem said he was not prepared to continue as a whip due to Mr Agnews support for a candidate who is not a fit and proper person to carry this party forward as its leader.

Mr Hookem said he was disturbed by comments by Mr Agnew that he looks forward to telling his grandchildren in the future how he helped in the fight against Muslims, and would keep a scrapbook of communications from those who disagreed.

Let Agnew add this to his scrapbook! he said, in reference to his resignation letter.

The row suggests that the party, already known for the intensity of the infighting among senior figures is facing another bruising contest as it seeks a successor to Paul Nuttall.

Ms Waters candidacy has divided the party, with some members threatening to quit, while former leader Nigel Farage has warned Ukip will be finished if it goes down the road of becoming an anti-Islam party.

Mr Whittle, however, insisted that Ukip was right to speak out on issues like the rising numbers of Islamic Sharia courts in the UK which other parties avoided.

There are at least 80 courts that we know about. The problem is that the people who suffer the most in these courts tend to be women because they are often about domestic issues and often women who go before the courts dont actually know their rights as a British woman, he said.

There has got to be one legal system. Certain things happen in Sharia courts which do go against the spirit of our laws.

Mr Whittle denied that his comments were anti-Islamic.

While he acknowledged that the rulings of such courts were not legally binding, he said there was great pressure on participants to accept their findings.

Ms Waters was banned from being a Ukip candidate during their disastrous general election campaign after calling Islam evil and arguing that Islamic culture does not fit with ours.

The LGBT campaigner launched the anti-Islam group Pegida UK with Tommy Robinson last year.

Former Ukip leader Paul Nuttall once described her views as way above and beyond party policy.

Other leadership contenders include Jane Collins MEP, who was ordered to pay 358,000 in damages and costs after libelling three Labour MPs she claimed knew about child sex abuse in Rotheram.

Also in contention is John Rees-Evans, a former soldier who once claimed that a gay donkey tried to rape his horse, and revealed his plans to build an underground bunker in Bulgaria in case there is a global meltdown.

London Assembly member David Kurten has vowed to stand against militant transgender activism in his bid to become Ukips first ethnic minority leader, telling Buzzfeed: People dont want their children to be confused by this kind of thing.

Press Association
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Universities are reportedly accepting an increasing number of students onto courses without asking for any grades, amid growing competition among higher education institutions to attract more undergraduates.

As sixth-form students across the UK prepare to receive their A-level results next week, figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph show that unconditional offers at some of Britains leading institutions have more than doubled over the past five years.

Admissions figures obtained by the newspaper through Freedom of Information requests reveal a sharp rise in the number of such offers by universities across the UK, including nine of the leading Russell Group institutions.

Unconditional offers handed out by Edinburgh almost tripled, rising from 125 in 2012-13 to 350 in 2016-17, while those offered by Birmingham doubled from 1,003 to 2,471 in the same period, the newspaper reported. Kings College London, Warwick and Manchester also increased the number of unconditional places they offered, it added.

The news follows a decision to lift number controls in England under new funding rules that came into force in 2015, which enabled universities to recruit as many undergraduates as they saw fit.

The move has led to accusations that they now operate like businesses, attempting to accept as many applicants as possible to maximise profits.

Last year, it emerged the number of unconditional offers rose from 12,100 in 2014 to 23,400 in 2015, indicating that the latest figures are a continuation of a steady increase since the lifting of number controls two years ago.

In another sign of the drive by universities to attract more students, a growing number of sixth-formers are being told that their conditional offers  which require that the student meets grade expectations  would be upgraded to unconditional if they mark the institution as their first-choice destination.

A recent report by the university admission service Ucas warned that unconditional offers were, in part, to blame for a fall in the number of A-level students achieving their predicted grades between 2010 and 2015.

A Russell Group spokesperson said: All offers are based on a detailed assessment of an applicants academic record and whether admissions teams feel they will be able to meet the demands of a particular programme of study.

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2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red 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of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just 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Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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Despite the rise in unconditional offers, it appears student numbers are going down. A report recently revealed that the proportion of young people who think they are likely to go to university is at its lowest level in years, with many citing cost as a primary concern.

Responding to the annual Sutton Trust poll  which questioned more than 2,600 11 to 16-year-olds in England and Wales  around one in seven (14 per cent) said they were unlikely to go on to higher education, compared with 11 per cent last year and eight per cent five years ago.

The latest statistics by the Department for Education (DfE), meanwhile, showed that the divide between the number of state and private school students attending universities was at an all-time high, despite hundreds of millions of pounds being pumped into schemes to widen access.
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Deaths from lung cancer are reportedly set to double among those who have never smoked, with pollution cited as a possible cause.

If the trend continues, this mortality rate will take over from smoking-related cancer deaths in ten years, according to The Times.

Previously, smoking-related cancer was by far the greatest factor, believed to cause around nine out of ten cases.

However, a new study by the Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield NHS Trust in London reveals a significant increase in the amount of operations on non-smokers, the newspaper reported.

It said Cancer Research UK estimates that pollution accounts for 3,500 cases of lung cancer each year.

The Royal Brompton group plans to launch the first clinical trials of a liquid biopsy blood test in 2018, which aims to catch fragments of DNA shed by lung cancer months or even years before the appearance of serious symptoms.

Other studies have not found a similar pattern. Stephen Spiro, a former head of respiratory medicine at University College Hospital and an honorary adviser to the British Lung Foundation, said in a Reuters report: There is no good evidence that lung cancer is becoming commoner in never-smokers. He added: Lung cancer will become more frequent in never-smokers as a proportion, as smoking cancers begin to decline.

Research in Britain on the smoking habits of lung cancer patients is limited although a similar finding was identified by hospitals in the United States, The Times said.

Eric Lim, a consultant thoracic surgeon, said he was positive that his team of researchers at the Royal Brompton Hospital had identified this new phenomenon.

The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Show all 10 1 /10 The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Ukraine The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bulgaria Rex Features The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Belarus The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Russia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Armenia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bosnia and Herzegovina REUTERS The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Georgia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Hungary DigitalGlobe The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths China The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Moldova

There are 46,400 new cases and 36,000 associated deaths from lung cancer in Britain every year, with only one in 20 patients surviving for more than a decade, the newspaper added.

The UK is 25th out of 184 countries according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on outdoor air pollution. Gavin Shaddick, who led the study, told the The Guardian: Globally, air pollution presents a major risk to public health and a substantial number of lives could be saved if levels of air pollution were reduced.

The British government is being sued for a third time by legal activist group Client Earth to provide better plans for tackling air pollution. Nearly 40 million people in the UK are living in areas with illegal levels of air pollution, according to a study commissioned by the Labour Party.

China has also reported a steep hike over the past 15 years, with health officials stating that long-term exposure to air pollution may be a possible cause.

Lung cancer was rising in groups not usually associated with the disease such as non-smokers and women, said experts with the China Academy of Medical Sciences.

China is the worlds deadliest country for outdoor air pollution, according to WHO.
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Kenyan police have shot two people dead and injured five more during rioting after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in national elections.

The violence occurred in the western city of Kisumu on Lake Victoria, where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support.

The deaths were confirmed by regional police commander Leonard Katana, AP reports.

Police also opened fire in the capital, Nairobi, where opposition protesters had blocked roads and set up burning barricades.

The unrest follows a fiercely fought presidential election in which Mr Odinga has repeatedly claimed the vote was rigged.

Mr Kenyatta won a second term as president with 54.3 per cent of the vote to Mr Odingas 44.7 per cent and a margin of 1.4 million votes.

The Independents Catrina Stewart, who is in Nairobi, earlier reported that since Thursday night many areas of the capital have been on lockdown and are being patrolled by a heavy police presence.

Nairobis overcrowded Kibera area has been the focus of the unrest in the capital, where residents, many of whom belong to Mr Odingas Luo tribe, reported screaming and gunfire.

 Riots break out after Kenya election's contested result

A photographer for the AP news service also reported seeing live rounds fired in the citys Mathare area.

At least five people have been killed in violent clashes since the results of Tuesdays vote were announced.

On Friday Mr Kenyatta urged opponents to set aside differences and work together.

To our brothers, our worthy competitors, we are not enemies, he said.

Elections come and go, Kenya is here to stay. There is no need for violence.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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Mr Odingas Nasa party has denounced the election as a sham and a massive fraud, fuelling fears of further unrest.
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Donald Trump has been blamed for the violent clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascist groups in Charlottesville by the mayor of the Virginia town.

Michael Signer said he was disappointed the white nationalists had descended on his town and said responsibility lay with Mr Trump for inflaming racial prejudice during his presidential campaign last year.

Mr Signer said: "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the President."

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

He was speaking shortly before it emerged one person had been killed and several others injured when a car hit anti-fascist protesters.

The clashes broke out at a "Unite the Right" protest over the decision by the local government to remove a statue of the leading Confederate general, Robert E Lee, during the American Civil War.

Mr Trump has now issued his first tweet condemning the violence, several hours after the violence began.

He followed this up with another, calling the clashes which were centered around the city's university, "sad".

Some on Twitter accused the President of not being specific enough in his tweet as he did not specify that he was referring to white supremacists or far-right groups.

Several members of the Klu Klux Klan joined in with the protests as well as various alt-right activists, militia members and Confederate heritage groups.

Mr Trump has repeatedly been accused of having stirred up racial tensions in the country through his rhetoric on immigrants and his vow to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

Officials in Charlottesville declared a state of emergency shortly after 11am local time as the clashes became more violent, with punches thrown between rival groups and pepper spray released in the crowd.

The clashes are the latest since the city, situated around 100 miles from Washington DC, voted to remove the statue from a park.

So-called alt-right journalist Jason Kessler said the protest was partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also involved wider issues around free speech and "advocating for white people".

Recommended Violence breaks out ahead of far right rally in Virginia

He said in an interview: "This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do."

More attendees are expected to flock to Charlottesville - normally a quiet, liberal-leaning university city.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on standby.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which track extremist groups, both believe the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.
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Donald Trump has said he is considering a military option over the crisis in Venezuela, punctuating a belligerent week that began with his threat to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Mr Trump said he was "not going to rule out" a military response, adding that it was "certainly something that we could pursue".

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," he told reporters.

Pentagon officials told Reuters that they had not received any orders from the White House relating to a potential strike on Venezuela.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to travel to Latin America on Sunday, according to the Associated Press, where he is to visit four countries - none of them Venezuela - and talk about relations between the US and Latin America.

Mr Trump's remarks came amid a deteriorating political situation that has seen Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, move to consolidate power, prompting the US President to describe him as a "dictator".

Mr Madura and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, regularly sought to rally their people by decrying US "imperialism" in Latin America, and Mr Trump's remarks could give Mr Maduro more ammunition. A former aide to Barack Obama on Latin American issues quickly excoriated Mr Trump's threat.

Venezuela's economic crisis has led to shortages of food and medicine and widespread unrest.

The political situation worsened when Mr Maduro, who has faced calls to step down, swore in a new constitutional Assembly that wields broad powers and has declared itself superior to other branches of government. Venezuela has become increasingly alienated in the region, with Peru moving to recall its ambassador in protest.

The Peruvian Government reaffirms its strong willingness to continue contributing to the restoration of democracy in Venezuela, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement accompanying the move reported by Reuters.

 Opposition protesters clash with security forces in Venezuela

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela last month in response to an effort to rewrite the country's constitution.

The new penalties froze the assets of 13 Venezuelan figures and prohibited Americans from doing business with them.

The United States will not ignore the Maduro regimes ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom and the rule of law, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement at the time.
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Police have released the handwritten suicide notes of a mother who killed her two children and her former partners girlfriend before taking her own life.

The Pickens County Sheriffs Office in South Carolina released three letters written by Jessica Edens, who shot her two children, Harper, five, and Hayden, nine, as well as Meredith Rahme before turning the gun on herself.

The case file, which also contains details about the incident reports as well as radio traffic and phone records, was made public following a Freedom of Information request by The Greenville News.

Recommended Teenage boy and girl arrested for murder of Jermaine Goupall

Twenty-eight-year-old Rahme had been shot on July 13 in her vehicle, on the third floor of her apartments parking area, and her body was later found behind her car.

Everyone you love is gone. Do you hear? Im about to be gone too, 36-year-old Edens reportedly told her estranged husband Ben in what would be her final phone call to him.

The bodies of Edens and her children were later found in a Jeep on the Greenville-Pickens motorway. All three had died of gunshot wounds, the coroner confirmed.

Three notes, written in Edens handwriting, were also found in her Jeep.

One note read: For my parents and sister: I am so sorry for the pain I am causing all of you. Youve always been there for me and I love you all so much. I know what I have done is selfish, but I cannot live with this pain any longer. I just cannot handle it. It is too much. It hurts too much. I will no longer be in pain and my children will no longer hurt either. I am so so sorry. I love you all.

The second, to her former husband, wrote: You have caused me more pain than Ive ever been in in my life. You have caused my children pain. I hope you rot one day for what you have done to me and my kids. You can no longer hurt us. We are at peace. I hope you live with pain and shame and guilt for the rest of your life.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

A third was titled: "Last Will and Testament."

According to the police report, Edens had become distraught following a family court proceeding that was held earlier the same week prior to the shootings.

Sheriff Rick Clark said in a statement: As we struggle to understand how a parent could possibly come to a decision such as this, we have to focus on tomorrow and the opportunity to provide services and solutions to those that feel that their life and the lives of their loved ones must end in order to find peace.

We live in a stressful world during difficult times but there are resources that stand ready to offer help and assist you if you feel that you have no other options left in life.

Please reach out to law enforcement so that we can be the bridge to lead you to a road of recovery. In time, you will see that all things come to pass and you too can become a stronger person with hope and faith in a brighter future.

All of us need a helping hand from time to time as we walk through life and asking for help is not a sign of weakness that any of us should be ashamed of.

You can contact the Samaritans by calling free on 116 123, emailing jo@samaritans.org or visiting www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch.
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An Oxford University employee will be returned to Chicago for questioning alongside a US professor on suspicion of murdering a 26-year-old hair stylist found with more than 40 stab wounds.

Somerville College's Andrew Warren, 56, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, are accused of killing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau in the academic's Chicago apartment.

Warren declined to fight extradition when he appeared in court on Friday in San Francisco, where he surrendered himself after eight days as a fugitive during which the suspects travelled more than 2,000 miles across the States.

The Briton's appearance came as Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi revealed the number of wounds inflicted to the upper body of the victim, who he said was experiencing tensions with Lathem.

"We have a lot of questions for Mr Lathem and Mr Warren and we look forward to their return to Chicago," Mr Guglielmi said.

"We have information to suggest there was tension in the relationship between Dr Lathem and the victim."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The Briton, appearing in a baggy, orange prison-issued sweatshirt and jogging bottoms, was denied bail and will be held in custody.

Judge Edward Torpoco said: "Based on the nature of the charge, the defendant is remanded and no bail is set."

Unshaven Warren timidly shuffled into the room in San Francisco's Hall of Justice while being filmed and photographed by the press.

Listening to the judge's procedural questions assisted by a hearing aid, he also quietly confirmed he is the wanted man and said he would accept a public lawyer on the basis he could not afford his own.

The judge permitted filming on the basis he had already been subject to extensive publicity as the subject of an eight-day manhunt.

After the hearing, his lawyer, Ariel Boyce-Smith, said: "Mr Warren is agreeable to being transported to Chicago, he wants the process to be started.

"I just want to remind everyone that he is presumed innocent and his agreement to go there to start the process is where we are now."

Warren and Lathem gave themselves up separately but at similar times in California on 4 August.

Warren, who says online he lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, has since been suspended from his job as senior treasury assistant.

He had been reported missing to Thames Valley Police two days before the body was found, having left the UK on 24 July.

The Chicago force said the body of Mr Cornell-Duranleau, originally from Corunna, Michigan, was found mutilated in a "very violent scene" on 27 July.

Microbiologist Lathem, since sacked by Northwestern University, plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer Kenneth Wine who described him as a "gentle soul".

Neither of the suspects have been formally charged.

PA
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The odds of Donald Trump leaving office before the end of his first term have been slashed as the US President faces continuing pressure over alleged links to Russia and his handling of the North Korea crisis.

Users of gambling site Betfair believe it is now more likely than not that the Republican will fail to make it to 2020, saying there is a 53 per cent chance he will be forced out before then.

The odds on him being removed have shortened significantly since Mr Trump took office in January, when there was thought to be a 63 per cent chance that he would remain in post until at least 2020.

Some punters believe the billionaire businessman could even be removed in the next few months, giving a 10 per cent chance that he will not be President by the end of 2017.

If Mr Trump is to be forced out before 2020, however, gamblers think it is most likely to happen next year. There is thought to be a 26 per cent likelihood that he will leave office in 2018  up from 17 per cent in March.

It comes amid mounting criticism of Mr Trumps response to North Koreas repeated missile tests.

The Republican vowed to inflict fire and fury the like of which the world has never seen on the communist state if the tests continue.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

That led North Korea to threaten to fire four missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.

Critics said the US President's comments were irresponsible and dangerous, with 60 members of Congress condemning what they said was Mr Trumps decision to dramatically increase tensions with North Korea and raise the spectre of nuclear war.

One former Republican senator described the remarks as crazy and like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Mr Trumps presidency is also being dogged by the on-going investigation into his alleged links with Russia.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to gather evidence and a number of members of Mr Trumps inner circle have had to testify in front of congressional committees.
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Donald Trump told the governor of Guam that the threat of a nuclear missile attack from North Korea will make tourism "go up like 10-fold with the expenditure of no money so I congratulate you".

The small Pacific island is a US territory about 2,200 miles (3,500 km) south east of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has said it would make an "enveloping fire" around the militarily strategic island.

It has been threatened by Pyongyang before, but tensions are heightened after reports that the isolated nation has been able to make a nuclear warhead to fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could theoretically reach the US.

Recommended Guam tells its citizens what to do if North Korea drops atomic bomb

Guam's Governor Eddie Baza Calvo posted a video on Facebook of himself taking the approximately three minute call from Mr Trump when he made the comments.

"We are with you 1,000 per cent, you are safe," Mr Trump said.

Though the likelihood of an attack is low according to experts with whom The Independent has spoken, Guam has still issued guidelines for it's roughly 163,000 residents on what to do in case of a nuclear attack.

Japan has also assured its support for the island should an attack be imminent.

According to Pyongyang's public statements, the missile would reach the waters off the coast of Guam in approximately 17 minutes.

The island is home to American nuclear submarines but also the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) system that could used to thwart an attack.

Mr Trump went on to say that he has been watching news reports about Guam and that the "beautiful" island has "become extremely famous. All over the world they are talking about Guam, and they are talking about you."

Tourism and money generated by the two US military bases and its occupants are the main sources of revenue for the territory. Mr Calvo agreed with the President that Guam is "paradise".

Many in Washington and the diplomatic community have criticised Mr Trump for his "fire and fury" comments to North Korea, saying that it does regional peace no good to mimic Kim Jong-un's bombastic rhetoric.

"So with all the criticism going on over there, from a guy thats being targeted, we need a president like you, so Im just so thankful, and Im glad youre holding the helm, sir," Mr Calvo said on the call, playing to the President's ego.

Naturally, Mr Trump agreed: "They should have had me in years ago ... frankly you could have said that for the last three presidents."
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The man overseeing the probe into Donald Trumps ties with Russia, Robert Mueller, intends to interview Reince Priebus, the recently deposed White Houses chief of staff, it has been reported.

The special counsel plans to interview several current and former Trump administration officials as part of his ongoing investigation, according to the New York Times.

Mr Mueller is asking for records including details of specific meetings with administration and campaign officials, and any related documents such as transcripts.

The meetings he is asking about specifically include those related to Mr Trump's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, according to the report.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Mr Mueller is considering whether Mr Trump obstructed justice with his dismissal of Mr Comey, which would be grounds for impeachment.

Mr Priebus is likely to be familiar with the details of all White House meetings.

The sweeping investigation is looking at Russian interference in the 2016 US election, when state-sponsored hacking is believed to have helped propel Mr Trump into office ahead of Hillary Clinton.

It is also examining possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign team or administration and Moscow.

While not unexpected, Mr Mueller's interest in Mr Trump's most senior advisers is seen in Washington as evidence the probe is widening in scope and gathering momentum.

Recommended Trump prepares supporters for worst as Russia probe closes in

Mr Priebus was forced out of his role in July and replaced with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly after he was subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade from new communications secretary Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 10 days in his job.

Mr Priebus said he had resigned privately and Mr Trump thanked him for his service, although it was widely reported that he was effectively fired after being involved in all the major decisions made by the President during the transition period and the turbulent first months of his tenure.

The special counsel to the President, Ty Cobb, said the White House would continue to fully cooperate with Mr Mueller's investigation.

The President has repeatedly said the swirling speculation around his ties to Russia is a distraction and fake news designed to undermine his position.

Recommended Donald Trump replaces Reince Priebus as chief of staff

Mr Trump denies claims he has threatened to fire Mr Mueller for not concluding the investigation more swiftly, insisting I havent given it any thought".

A bipartisan group of senators recently introduced legislation designed to prevent the sacking of both Mr Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, following fears there could be another Saturday night massacre  the name given to the evening in 1973 when Richard Nixon forced out his Attorney General amid the Watergate investigation.

Mr Nixon is the only President in US history to have been forced to resign from office following his impeachment.
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A 32-year-old woman was killed and dozens of others injured amid violent clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists ahead of a rally protesting against the removal of a statue to a Confederate general in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A police helicopter also crashed, killing two people, with officials saying this was connected to the events on the ground, although it was unclear in what way.

A state of emergency was announced by the local and state governments with police declaring the "Unite the Right" rally an unlawful assembly and ordering the crowds to disperse. The state police were deployed, with riot police and the National Guard waiting in the wings.

Some of the far-right group members were seen carrying assault rifles and wearing paramilitary clothing, while others had large shields, helmets and gas masks in apparent anticipation of violence ahead of the demonstration against plans to take down the statue to General Robert E Lee from a local park.

The 32-year-old woman was killed when a car crashed at speed into anti-fascist protesters, leaving a crowd of people lying injured on the ground. Police said they had opened a homicide investigation.

Officials said the pilot of the police helicopter that crashed had been killed, along with a passenger. They said the crash was connected to the violence but it was unclear whether this was simply because the officers had been involved in the police operation or because of some other reason.

Police were investigating the cause of the crash, which happened while the aircraft was hovering low over some trees near a golf course.

Hospital officials said a total of at least 41 people had been hurt in the violence, including 26 as a result of the car crash and 15 others from the fighting in the streets. Some were said to have life-threatening injuries.

Graphic video showed a grey Dodge Challenger speeding up a side street into a group of people and crashing into another car.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.

Charlottesville police confirmed that a suspect, named as James Alex Fields Jr, 20, of Ohio, had been arrested. Officials said he was being held on charges including second-degree murder.

Earlier the two groups of protesters were involved in violent clashes with pepper spray  used, reportedly, by both sides  filling the air, according to local media reports. Bottles were also thrown and a number of fist fights broke out.

The city council voted to allow the police chief to declare a curfew.

Recommended Militia armed with assault rifles marches through US town

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer, who confirmed one person had been killed, said he was disappointed the white nationalists had descended on his town and blamed Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president," he said.

Mr Trump put out a tweet condemning "violence" and "hate" - although he did not specify that he was talking about the white supremacists, attracting criticism on Twitter. He later blamed hatred "on many sides" for the violence, prompting a furious backlash from some leading Republicans.

Earlier in the day apparent militia members were filmed marching through the streets armed with assault rifles and wearing tactical gear.

Other demonstrators were heard to chant the Nazi-linked phrase "blood and soil" as they passed through the streets.

And on Friday night neo-Nazi protesters brandishing flaming torches descended on the University of Virginia, brawling with counter-protesters and throwing Nazi salutes.

The state's governor, Terry McAuliffe, said on Friday: "Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville ... are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent."

He urged people to stay away and "deny those ideas more attention than they deserve".

The clash was the latest in a series of confrontations after Charlottesville, situated about 100 miles from Washington DC, voted to remove the statue of General Lee.

Celebrating the Confederate cause is a highly inflammatory issue in the US because the southern states supported slavery.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a night-time protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group travelled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Charlottesville is normally a quiet university city, and many of those protesting are believed to be from out of town.

People are angry, theyre scared, theyre hurt, theyre confused, said the Reverend Seth Wispelwey of the local United Church of Christ.

White supremacists rallying in our town is an act of violence.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report; additional reporting by Ian Johnston
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A white nationalist protest descended into violence as torch-wielding demonstrators clashed with counter-protesters at the University of Virginia.

Far-right protesters shouting the Nazi-linked phrase "blood and soil" marched through the university's Charlottesville campus on Friday night, the day before a large nationalist gathering was planned in the centre of the city.

They encircled a group of counter-demonstrators at a statue of Thomas Jefferson, the NY Daily News reported, and violence broke out on both sides.

Some were pictured giving Nazi salutes.

Police broke up the clashes and at least one person was reportedly arrested.

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The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Charlottesville's mayor, Mike Signer, said: "When I think of torches, I want to think of the Statue of Liberty.

"When I think of candlelight, I want to think of prayer vigils. Today, in 2017, we are instead seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights.

"I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus."

Saturday's "unite the right" gathering is intended as a protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.

The National Guard has been placed on standby in case of further violence.

The removal of monuments, flags and other memorials to the old southern Confederacy has provoked outrage among some conservatives in the region.
Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more
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A young mother is being investigated after allegedly wrapping her newborn baby girl in plastic bags and trying to mail her to an orphanage in China, according to police.

The infant was discovered when a delivery man heard her crying inside one of his packages as he travelled through Fuzhou's Jin'an district on Wednesday.

When the Dada Delivery courier opened the package he found the girl wrapped in black bags and sweating profusely as the summer heat hit 37 degrees.

Shocked bystanders cared for the child and gave her water while they waited for an ambulance, in scenes filmed and shared online by social media users.

She was rushed to Jin'nan District Hospital, who have confirmed that "her life isn't in any danger", according to CNN.

The courier claimed he had not met the girl's parents and had only been told to pick up a package and deliver it to Fuzhou Children's Welfare Institution.

Shocked bystanders bystanders cared for the child and gave her water while they waited for an ambulance in Fuzhou's Jin'an district. (Beijing News Weibo ) (Beijing News Weibo)

Police tracked down the newborn's 24-year-old mother, who has been identified by her surname Luo, and arrested her on suspicion of abandonment, according to a statement on Chinese social media site Weibo.

Ms Luo is being held in custody while investigations continue.

People who abandon children in China can face up to five years in prison.

The Ministry of Social Affairs' latest statistics indicate there are around 460,000 orphans in China, according to CNN.

The vast Asian country introduced a controversial one-child policy in 1979 to limit population growth, but authorities are now concerned the countrys dwindling workforce will not be able to support an increasingly older population.

In 2015 China said it would allow all married couples to have two children, to address those concerns.
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Seven paramedics from the White Helmets rescue organisation in Syria have been shot dead during a raid by unknown gunmen in the province of Idlib.

The massacre has sparked a manhunt and speculation as to who carried out the killings at the volunteer group's base in the rebel-controlled village of Sarmin.

The victims' bodies were left sprawled across the floor of their operations centre after being shot through the head at close range.

They were buried by their colleagues later that day.

The heart is saddened, there are tears in our eyes for your departure, said the White Helmets' founder, Raed al-Saleh.

May God strengthen us and make us patient for facing this tragedy.

The White Helmets, also known as Syria Civil Defence, search for survivors in the rubble of bombed buildings.

They gained international attention following an Oscar-winning Netflix documentary about their work.

Several of their volunteers have been killed by airstrikes during the Syrian civil war, but activists say they have never been the subject of execution-style killings before.

One of the victims was Mohammed Abu Kifah, who was filmed weeping after he pulled a baby girl from a pile of rubble in a viral video last year, according to the Telegraph.

Two vans, several motorcycles and walkie talkies were stolen during the attack, but the motive remains unclear.

Most of the Idlib province in northwest Syria is controlled by the Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has links to al-Qaeda.

 This is why the White Helmets should win the Nobel Peace Prize

However activists don't believe they were behind the murders because they have never targeted the White Helmets before.

Some suspect it was a criminal gang who wanted to steal vehicles and equipment.

Others believe it was agents of the Assad regime, which has accused the White Helmets of working with terrorists.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the killings were discovered when volunteers arrived to start a shift and found the bodies of their colleagues.

"It is most likely a crime. It might also be an attack aimed to harm the image of the Nusra Front and to show that Idlib is not safe," said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Observatory.

An opposition activist based in Idlib told the Associated Press that the attackers used pistols equipped with silencers, and said that people living nearby did not notice anything unusual.

The activist, who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals, said Isis sleeper cells had been discovered in Sarmin.

He added that he thought members of Isis carried out the attack to show that Idlib is not safe.

The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Show all 14 1 /14 The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Douma, the largest town in the Eastern Ghouta area with more than 100,000 residents, is surrounded and regularly shelled by regime forces EPA The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria EPA The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria EPA The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria A Syrian man searches for victims as fire spreads following a reported government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, extinguish fire following a reported government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, extinguish a fire following a reported government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Syrians run for cover following a reported government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria An injured Syrian man receives treatment at a makeshift hospital following a reported government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma Getty The White Helmets assist in Douma, Syria EPA

The activist said the HTS-linked Judicial Committee was investigating the case.

Sarmin used to be a stronghold of the Jund al-Aqsa extremist group that clashed with al-Qaeda last year before many of its members went to areas controlled by Isis, whom they are fighting now.

Elsewhere in Syria, a suicide attacker blew himself inside a training camp for the Army of Islam rebel group in the southern town of Naseeb, near the border with Jordan, killing more than 20 fighters.

The Observatory said that the blast killed 23 people and wounded 20, some of whom were in critical condition.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist based in the southern province of Daraa, said about 80 Army of Islam members were having dinner inside a tent when the suicide attacker walked in and blew himself up. He put the death toll at 30.

No one claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing but Isis has previously claimed such attacks.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.
An area of woodland in south Dublin has been sealed off

Police have begun a fresh search for a bank worker who went missing in 2000.

Gardai, who are investigating the disappearance of Trevor Deely, have sealed off three acres of woodland in Chapelizod in south Dublin, broadcaster RTE reported.

Mr Deely was 22 when he vanished in south Dublin after calling to his office in the then Bank of Ireland Asset Management building on Wilton Terrace in the early hours of December 8 2000 following a work Christmas party.

Detective Inspector Paul Costello said a perimeter had been set up with no public allowed access allowed.

Speaking at the scene, he said: "The reason for this is because we are conducting a search of this area over the coming days, searching for evidence connected to the disappearance of Trevor Deely."

He was last seen in Haddington Road.

CCTV footage, released by police earlier this year from the night he went missing, showed a man in black clothing acting suspiciously at the rear entrance to Mr Deely's office block between 3am and 3.34am, just before Mr Deely arrived.

It showed the man dressed in black step out on to the footpath outside the offices on Wilton Terrace, a short distance from Baggot Street bridge, at 3.34am.

Moments later, Mr Deely could be seen arriving at the rear gates of the bank offices followed by the man, and the two of them have a brief conversation.

Mr Deely then leaves through the same gates carrying an umbrella and stops briefly to fix his jacket.

The last sighting of Mr Deely is on CCTV as he passes a Bank of Ireland ATM machine on Haddington Road at approximately 4.14am.

Detectives said today's search is unrelated to him but renewed their appeal for the man to come forward, according to RTE.

Mr Costello urged any potential witnesses to come forward.

He also said this is "a very very stressful time" for the Deely family and asked for their privacy to be respected in the coming days and weeks.
With more than 10,000 Lidl stores across Europe, the dairy farmer's son who's heading up Lidl in Ireland says the Germany grocer provides "enormous" potential for Irish food and drink suppliers.

JP Scally is the son of a retired dairy farmer from Westmeath and is the managing director (and chairman) of Lidl Ireland - a retail operation that includes almost 200 outlets (38 in Northern Ireland) and in the Republic has sales of about 1.4bn a year.

Scally says that Lidl Ireland is one of the big exporters within the wider group of domestically-produced goods. "Last year, we exported more than 200m worth of Irish produce," he says.

"There are more than 10,000 Lidl stores in Europe, so the opportunity presented for an Irish food or drink producer in getting a wide listing within the group is enormous."

Meat is exported to Lidl shops in 12 countries by Slaney Foods (which has also inked a new deal to supply meat to Lidl in the US) and Liffey Meats; cream liqueur to 10 by Cavan-based manufacturer Terra; while Kildare-based Comerford's Bakery sells Lidl a whopping 52 million buns a year, and also now exports buns to Lidl UK.

Scally says the chain doesn't charge suppliers so-called 'hello money', or a premium for shelf space - both of which were ostensibly outlawed last year for retailers with annual turnover of more than 50m, unless the terms were already included in a pre-existing contract.

On the shelves, Scally says that Lidl's products are between 20pc and 40pc cheaper than those at rival chains, with many of the goods made by the exact same suppliers. The packaging's just different.

"We saw a gap in the market to do something," says Scally. "It wasn't so much about the products, but about how we can support small food suppliers because we've benefited a lot from the Irish food and drinks industry ourselves. It gives them the leg-up they might need and who knows where the future might take them."

He also said that the Irish and other country teams have significant autonomy from head office in Germany, without deviating from the group's core principles.

"When it comes to specific product offering in stores, when it comes to our specials and the way we manage the business in terms of recruitment and training, that's different from country to country," he says.

The latest figures show that Lidl has a 12.1pc share of Ireland's grocery market based on the value of sales.

"We're a private company and we don't disclose our profit and loss, but we do work on very tight margins," says Scally. "We're not beholden to shareholders at the end of every quarter. We don't have to deliver on targets and we can reinvest in the company."

Lidl is owned by the family-owned Schwarz group in Germany, which also owns retailer Kaufland. It's the second-largest retailer in the world after Walmart.

It recently opened its 152nd store in the Republic, in Portmarnock, Co Dublin (two more will open later this year, at Wilton and Bantry in Cork).
The body representing farmers has rejected claims that its members are seeking special treatment out of the review into the 'Fair Deal' scheme.

The Government is set to announce a major overhaul in the coming weeks of 'Fair Deal' - the State-sponsored scheme that provides support for nursing home patients.

The review, being led by the new Minister for Older People Jim Daly, is expected to lead to reduced costs for nursing home care for farmers and small businesses.

However, there is now major concern within Government over the prospect of legal action in the event of the farmers getting a better deal than small business owners.

The Irish Independent revealed last week that the office of the Attorney General (AG) has stepped in to examine the Government's proposals amid fears that legal action could be taken.

Aside from the potential legal ramifications, the Programme for Government states that the coalition intends to "remove discrimination against small business and family farms under the Fair Deal Nursing Home Scheme".

But last night, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) insisted that it is not seeking to be prioritised over small businesses.

Maura Canning, the head of the IFA's Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee, told the Irish Independent that its members appreciate the need to ensure all businesses - not just farmers - are treated equally.

Nonetheless, Ms Canning added that farmers are now being forced to sell off land in order to afford nursing home costs.

"We are not looking for special treatment over small business owners," Ms Canning said.

"But there needs to be a recognition of the fact that people are being forced to sell off a piece or even the whole lot of their land. People are paying through their nose for nursing home care and it needs to be addressed."

Under the scheme at present, a family's payment is calculated based on 80pc of their annual income, as well as a 7.5pc annual charge on their overall assets.

Assets that have been transferred within the previous five years are also means-tested.

Farmers have for months claimed that the scheme in its current form places at risk their efforts to pass the farm onto future generations.

The IFA is due to meet the Government later this month, during which proposed changes to 'Fair Deal' will be discussed.
His sheep farm in Glenmalure, Co Wicklow has been in the family for generations but Jim Nolan's knowledge of the mountains has also been inherited.

Jim's father, Jim Nolan Snr (91), attended the scene of a few plane crashes on the mountains in his time, using his local knowledge to help out in search and recovery missions.

Jim has around 300 ewes and also keeps 39 suckler cows on rented land. He first got involved in mountain rescue from meeting the team out on training exercises.

"I began to get involved in 1989 just by meeting a couple of them out training. It went from that to another friend of mine, Robert Power, who was in it more or less from the beginning in 1983," he said.

Though his father was never a member of the mountain rescue, he often helped out in search and rescue operations because of his local knowledge, and this also influenced his decision to join.

"Maybe it's in the blood, but when I was approached by Bill Byrne from Dunlavin, who was the team leader at the time, I said maybe I would," he recalled.

"That was some time ago, in 1991, and I suppose I've been involved ever since."

The Glen of Imaal and Dublin Mountain Rescue Teams are amongst the busiest in the country and dealt with over 107 calls on their busiest year but usually deal with about 60 per year.

The 40 members also attend three training sessions and one meeting per month.

"We get a mixture of everything. A lot of lower leg injuries, cardiac arrests and we also get searches sometimes for despondents, people who have decided to end their lives," he said.

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"That seems to be getting a little bit more frequent but our team is pretty good at search management so we're called on to do searches.

"It can be very difficult to deal with and you have to be very careful and mind yourself.

"We have a 'buddy system' and if you find something you think you're not able to handle, you can step back.

"We try to limit the number of people who will go into an incident like that and we have access to counsellors and we also have a debriefing after all incidents," he says.

Luckily, not all incidents are tragic and it's the rescue operations that give the most satisfaction and the relief of a casualty in being found.

"This could just be someone who got lost in the fog or got hurt and what we want to do is get them back to their families and friends. If it is a fatality, then it's closure.

"Sometimes you get a bit of a downer if things don't go right and you wish you could have done more, but 99pc of the time you feel good about what you do," he added.

At home with dad Jim Snr is Jim's wife Theresa, and their four children.

"What really brought it home to us was the Rescue 116 tragedy. These were our colleagues and we would have worked with them. That helicopter was only with us the week before. That hurt everyone," he said.

Jim qualified as an emergency medication technician (EMP) in 2010 and hopes to stay involved in the team for another few years.

You need four sets of eyes watching and four brains working

Pig and beef farmer, Paul Sullivan from Caherdaniel in Co Kerry, first got involved in the Derrynane Inshore Rescue Team when friends asked him to come along.

He enjoyed the experience so much he remained and today is one of a 12-member crew that became a declared resource in 2011 and deals with about 10 call-outs each year. They train once or twice per week.

Youre with lads training and we were sent away on courses and it was all a good experience, he said.

We just brought ourselves along and we improved every year. When it started off it was hit and miss, but they raised money and got a boat.

But it progressed and we are where we are now with a lovely boathouse and a new rescue boat.

The Derrynane Inshore Rescue Team depends on voluntary donations for its survival. This year, the service was one of the chosen charities of the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle that took place on July 1, a fitting tribute to the volunteers who risk their lives to help others.

When the beepers go off, there is that worry of whats ahead and, of course, it is a worry for my wife Bernie and son Jordan at home, Paul adds.

You get very close to your colleagues. If there are four of us on the boat, youre depending on the other three.

No one can do it on their own and you have to have four sets of eyes watching and four brains working because you just dont know whats ahead of you.

Once the team even came to the rescue of one of Pauls bullocks that had got stranded on a cliff.

Castro the famous bullock got stuck on a ledge and came tumbling down the hill. I was certain he was dead but when I went to him he was looking up at me but couldnt stand up, he said.

Eventually, Pauls colleagues stretchered Castro down the mountain with eight men carrying him, taking it in turns.

Paul is confident about the future of the Inshore Rescue Team.

Its a very close community down here, especially if something goes wrong, he says.

Weve the young people now coming on board, which is great because were pushing on now and getting too old for jumping in and out of boats, but well do it for as long as we can.

Paul Sullivan is a member of the Derrynane Inshore Rescue Team

Its good to be able to help and say you have tried

Milking 60 cows and with autumn calving, dairy farmer David Sheehy is fairly tied to his farm in Highfield, west Cork.

Still, the married father of two manages to find time to be a member of West Cork Civil Defence and Baltimore Community First Responders.

This is all in addition to organising a tractor run for Motor Neuron Disease and Rath National School each year, where he also serves as chairman of the board of management.

My daughter Andrea says, Dad, youre going to have to learn to say no, jokes David, who has been a member of the Civil Defence for 12 years.

Though officially retired, my father gives me a hand and my wife Mary milks the cows. My son Darragh is also just finished his first year at Clonakilty Agricultural College, he said.

David first got roped in to Civil Defence by his brother-in-law, but says he was putting it off for a long time before that.

The demands on his time vary. Sometimes hes on alert during bad weather, if theres danger of flooding. Other times, its dealing with the fallout when there has been a weather-related incident, helping move people or furniture from houses that either have been or are in danger of being flooded.

His main involvement in Civil Defence is on the First Aid side as an EMT for which he put in six months training that included placements in a hospital emergency department and with the Ambulance Service.

His emergency medical training is of invaluable use to Baltimore Community First Response, where he trains and certifies the local groups and GAA clubs.

It can be very time-consuming but its also nice to be able to do something to help people.

Theres nothing worse than something happening to somebody and youre standing back not able to do anything about it, whether its someone choking or someone after collapsing.

Now, at least, Im able to help, although you might not always get a positive outcome but at least you can say you tried, he said.
Chupi Sweetman, the Irish designer behind the jewellery brand 'Chupi' has been designing and creating since she got her first sewing machine at the age of five.

Now 32 and a rising star in business as well as fashion, she says that key to her success was starting small enough to find her own way without dire consequences if things didn't always pan out. "Make your mistakes while no one is watching," she advised.

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Chupi officially launched on April 1, 2014, and is already exporting to 64 countries, but its founder insists it's not a case of overnight success, she has been in the design game a long time.

Initially that meant designing and making women's clothing which she sold in Dublin's Temple Bar to help finance her way through college.

It paid off. Having just completed her first year of a fashion design course, a scout for Topshop spotted her work and offered her a position at the multinational clothing company.

"I joined the team and designed collections sold in the UK and Ireland. It was all women's clothing, I hadn't started designing jewellery then, I loved it."

However it was not a complete fairytale, and meant working on three-week contacts, something she admits was tough.

In addition she says her lack of business training made it a real baptism of fire.

"I went in with a collection and on the launch night we almost totally sold out, I remember being so excited but also so terrified because we had no stock, I had no idea we were meant to have replenishment stock," she said.

Her lack of business knowledge at the time was, she said, something that is a failure of education in the creative sector.

"We teach design students the creative side but no business and this is something I see being repeated in design universities, that you have these brilliant talented graduates, with no business acumen.

"This is why so many designers leave Ireland and go to work for the big houses. We don't teach them that they can be a designer and a business person."

It was during her six years in Topshop that Chupi learnt to become a businessperson. "We only had three weeks, we had to figure out a way to make it work and there is nothing like fast fashion - innovate or die because you have a new collection launching every six weeks."

After six years Chupi had sold about 40,000 dresses in Topshop but said she "fell out of love with it".

"My boyfriend had just proposed and my grandmother had left me a necklace and I suddenly owned a piece of the past and a piece of the future though jewellery. I had been getting frustrated and bored in work so I stared making jewellery as a hobby."

It was to be a move that changed everything. Having started selling her "hobby pieces" in the Loft in Powerscourt while still working for Topshop for about a year, she then quit Topshop to commit fully to her jewellery business.

Success did not come easy and Chupi said that in order to venture out on her own she saved "like crazy".

"I have always been 'quit what makes you unhappy and chase the dream, but be practical' - I was so broke for those first few years but that's just part of it, you have to change everything you do and you have to have a plan. If it hadn't worked I would have figured it out, but I knew my heart and soul was there."

In terms of the biggest challenges in setting up her own business, Chupi highlighted the difficulty she had in asking people for help and knowing who to ask for help.

"I was proud and self-sufficient and was embarrassed by my mistakes," she said.

In addition, being a woman and running a business brought its challenges, "I was 21 when I started. I walked into a bank with a contract for Topshop and I couldn't get a credit card, my then boyfriend (now husband) was a student at the time and they gave him a credit card with a 5,000 limit. The way my husband's company is treated and mine is completely different."

However the barriers to funding that she experienced has in the long run benefited the company.

"We have bootstrapped the entire company. We don't have any debt, any overdraft or loans, but this was tough. We were self sufficient not out of strategy at first, but out of necessity," she said.

For a company like Chupi which has over 125,000 fans and followers across various platforms, social media plays a very important role both in terms of marketing to the target audience and engaging in market research.

She said it enables tiny companies to find people who love what they love for free.

"Social allows us to tell the story of our designs online. It is easy to get caught up in the idea that your product is unique, but any product I make can be replicated - you could make a thousand of them in China without even thinking about it."

And despite the fact the jewellery is 100pc made and designed in Ireland, this is not necessarily something that translates very well outside the country.

What is unique is the product story: how it's made, why it's made, she said.
Action cinema has traditionally been a man's world. From James Bond to Jason Bourne via Rambo and whatever variation of his screen persona Arnold Schwarzenegger happened to be playing at any particular moment, the genre was dominated by slap-happy chappies - typically toting a rocket launcher and bottomless supply of pithy wisecracks.

But there are signs that, after decades of gruff machismo, this blokiest of movie categories might be getting in touch with its feminine side. Consider that the summer's highest grossing film, Wonder Woman, both stars and is directed by a woman.

This weekend's big release, meanwhile, is Charlize Theron's Atomic Blonde, in which the South African actress plays a take-no-prisoners Cold War spy. Seven days from now, Netflix's The Defenders will, for its part, see cool-as-ice superhero Jessica Jones team up with the much less interesting boy's club of Luke Cage, Daredevil and Iron Fist.

These franchises, it should be noted, are not the first to put a dent in action cinema's glass ceiling. In 1986's Aliens, Sigourney Weaver memorably faced off with the xenomorph queen. And the first two Terminator movies - as with Aliens, directed by James Cameron - gave us Sarah Connor, waitress-turned rifle-waggling saviour of mankind.

What's especially interesting about Atomic Blonde is that it arrives when the stock of the conventional action film has never been lower.

Arnold Schwarzenegger can't get his career back off the ground; Sylvester Stallone is condemned to a purgatory of old-timer-filled Expendables sequels and Rocky spin-offs. The last time you saw Jean-Claude Van Damme, it was in a beer commercial. The muscle-bound action hulk is a dying breed.

Superheroes, it is true, continue to soar. The upcoming Thor Ragnorak promises to be a testosterone-soaked buddy pic featuring the eponymous Norse god and his new bestie, the Incredible Hulk. Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, the second biggest summer smash after Wonder Woman, was moreover built on the bromantic charms of Chris Pratt.

Nonetheless, Wonder Woman is perceived as changing the conversation about women in big-screen punch-fests. On the heels of its scorching box-office run, the forthcoming Justice League film was extensively reshot to give more screen-time to Gal Gadot's high-kicking Amazon. And in 2019 Alicia Vikander takes the title role in the Lara Croft reboot, while Brie Larson will star as Captain Marvel, to be co-directed by Anna Boden.

"For our films to be successful and make a lot of money, as well as having a female lead, sends a huge message to the world that this is something possible," said Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. "People are watching and paying attention."

The success of Atomic Blonde - it has already grossed $50 million worldwide - for its part shows mainstream films are increasingly open to challenging gender stereotypes. As coolly laconic spy Lorraine Broughton, Theron cuts an impressively mad and bad figure. An already iconic fight scene halfway through sees her punching, stabbing and gouging two heavily armed male opponents - defeating them not with Schwarzenegger brutishness but with street-smarts and determination.

"Because she's a woman and she's fighting men, if they use one hand she will use two," explained Atomic Blonde director David Leitch.

"If they throw one punch, she'll throw three - or use the environment around her to gain an advantage... part of the problem is that many directors treat female characters too often as precious," he added. "Or they want to live in a fantasy world where they just do spinning hook kicks and knock out guys who are 6ft 4in, and that doesn't work either."

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"I don't think we've ever given women a fair shot to really have the opportunities to take on roles like these," said Theron, who also made for a memorable action anti-hero in Mad Max: Fury Road (right). I remember seeing Sigourney Weaver in Alien when I was young, and it really left an impression on me. Tons more women could be amazing if they just had the opportunity."

"There's a definite push in popular discourse towards female representation - which we can only absolutely support, even if it is also 'hip'," says Dr Ciara Barrett of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at NUI Galway. "And at the same time, as 'sincere' iterations of the thriller/action hero films in particular see more female protagonists - e.g. Wonder Woman, Furiosa (Mad Max) - we see more 'complicated' men like X-Men's Wolverine, or men who can make fun of themselves and the genre, like the casts of Baby Driver and Baywatch. Maybe the last 'straight' male action hero retired with Liam Neeson in Taken 3. But male action heroes haven't disappeared.

"The next thing I think we're going to see regarding action cinema, and female heroes therein, is a proliferation of female-directed films - and I think it's going to be really interesting to look back in five years' time at how the genre has changed as a result, provided this trend in female direction continues. Patty Jenkins directed Wonder Woman; Anna Boden is co-directing Captain Marvel for 2019. Maybe I'm too hopeful that actually represents a 'trend'.

"It stands to reason that female representation behind the camera affects female representation onscreen, but, unfortunately, we don't have significant enough numbers yet to yield significant results."

Let's not credit Hollywood too much, however. Audiences have made it clear they want greater diversity in their screen heroes. The industry is bowing to demand, not shaping it. "The growth of female-led action films might be understood as an institutional response to public appetite for less uniformity in mainstream films in regards to characters," says Dr Sarah Arnold, lecturer in media studies at NUI Maynooth.

"Hollywood studios will invest in films so long as they are perceived as profitable. f audiences have demonstrated their enthusiasm for female action heroes and they have proven financially successful elsewhere, then Hollywood will follow, even if it won't necessarily lead.

"Hollywood studios have been under a lot of pressure of late, with organisations such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media lobbying the industry to recognise its own shortcomings and to recognise the financial viability and success of female-led films."

Moreover, female action heroes are still required to be conventionally attractive. Only when a woman can appear on screen as beaten up as Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis will true equality have been achieved.

"We could argue that this year's Wonder Woman - directed by a female - is played by a conventionally beautiful actress and therefore doesn't offer a departure from the pin-up-look of the leading female," says Dr Aileen O'Driscoll of the school of communications at DCU and a founder of Dublin's Feminist Film Festival.

"But the fact that the film is populated so heavily by women, and is strongly predicated on a collective idea of women as a self-sustaining and powerful community, still remains significant and rare."
Girls make their way up to the entrance of the Old Wesley Friday night disco in Donnybrook. Photo; Gerry Mooney

It says something instructive, and kind of depressing, about Irish society that the weekly disco at Old Wesley Rugby Club was so well-known. Dublin occupies such an oversized place in the national consciousness; what happens there is relevant  so were told, anyway  to everyone.

We never used to hear about the weekly disco at Ballybanana Road Bowling Club, for instance. Or for that matter, the one at de yoot club in some inner-sidee Dubbalin hell-hole.

But this was Donnybrook, dont you know, rugby country, home of this countrys great and good, which is why Wezz seemed as familiar to many of us non-D4 people as our own local events. I mean, we even knew that stupid nickname Wezz.

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Anyway, enough socio-political ranting. The disco for 13- and 14-year-olds closed in 2015, after some 40 years, but has left an enjoyable legacy in Love Letter to Wezz, a documentary just aired on Radio 1.

Reminiscences of slow sets, mini-skirts, enduring friendships, hair-gel, Ugg boots and Maniac 2000  Love Letter to Wezz was funny, entertaining and rather sweeteven if those horrendous cod-American accents (including the narrators) will make you want to seal your ears with molten lead.

Here are ten choice quotes:

"We were told to be careful of the boys there  so I wore shorts underneath my skirt"

"I would literally (put my hair) straight out on the ironing board, and straighten it out to within an inch of its life"

"Theres some fairly horrible photos of luminous blue eye-shadow and eye-linerit made you look like you had conjunctivitis"

"At the time I thought I looked greatin retrospect I definitely looked like a twat"

"Wed have six hours of talking about going, then two hours of actually getting ready to go"

"I remember drinking two swigs of beer the first time and I was like, wow  I am crazy, like this is mental"

"Kevins older sister knew itd be lame to turn up with your parents, so she sorted us out with a lift down. Arrive, open the car-door, music blaring. We looked like legends. The legends that we are!"

"We had to lie about what school we went to  youd be going, trying to remember the name of the PE teacher at the school you were supposed to be going to. They (the bouncers) always let in people from fancy schools"

"It was a rugby club function room, barely tarted up for the disco"

"Leave room for Jesus" (an admonition not to dance too closely together).
Annie Price was told that her mother had set her alight when she was four months old

Annie Price was just four months old when she suffered severe burns in a fire in the caravan in which she was sleeping.

Her mother was married to another white traveller but Annie was born after her mother had an affair with a black man.

Annie, who suffered severe burns in the blaze, was told by social workers that her mother had deliberately set fire to the caravan because a mixed-race baby would have been shunned by the community.

However, a new documentary investigating the incident reveals the truth.

Annie: Out of the Ashes, available on BBC Three today, sees Annie, 30, from Mitcham London, retrace her roots and track down the fireman who attended the scene that fateful night.

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John Backers tells her that her grandmother Briddie, who had been sleeping with her in the caravan, had burns on her hands where she tried to save her little granddaughter.

"What I suspect happened, because your grandmother's hand burnt, she in my view lifted you and carried you out from the van," he says.

He reveals that Annie was not expected to survive more than 24 hours or "possibly two days".

An official report said that the fire started accidentally when a cushion was set alight by a gas heater.

Before finding out the truth, Annie said, "I don't think any person with a happy normal childhood would think that's an option to do that to their child. I kind of just feel bad for her and I don't know what kind of life she must have had."

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Once she found out what had really happened she said it "knocked me for six".

"I was very shocked. My first feeling was that I felt bad, I felt really guilty realising that."

After the fire Annie was taken into care and had never met her birth family. Her mother, she finds out in the course of the documentary, died in a fire years before she made the film.

She also found out that fires were extremely common in caravans in the 1980s. More than 2,000 fires happened every year.

Annie: Out of the Ashes is available on BBC Three today (Saturday).
Donald Trump has been blamed for the violent clashes between white supremacists and opposing groups and police in Virginia by the Mayor of Charlottesville.

Mayor Michael Signer said he was disappointed the white nationalists had descended on his town and said responsibility lay with Mr Trump for inflaming racial prejudices during his presidential campaign last year.

He said: "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the President."

The clashes broke out at a "Unite the Right" protest over the decision by the city's government to remove a statue of a Confederate general.

Mr Trump has now issued his first tweet condemning the violence, several hours after the violence began.

He followed this up with another, calling the clashes which are centred around the city's university, "sad".

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Some on Twitter accused the President of not being specific enough in his tweet as he did not specify that he was referring to white supremacists or to far-right groups.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Several members of the Klu Klux Klan joined in with the protests as well as various alt-right activists, militia groups and Confederate heritage groups.

Mr Trump has repeatedly been accused of having stirred up racial tensions in the country through his rhetoric on immigrants and his vow to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

Officials in Charlottesville declared a state of emergency shortly after 11am local time as the clashes became more violent, with punches thrown between rival groups and pepper spray released in the crowd.

The clashes are the latest since the city, situated around 100 miles from Washington DC, voted to remove the statue of General Robert E Lee from a park.

Alt right journalist Jason Kessler said the protest was partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also involved wider issues around free speech and "advocating for white people".

He said in an interview: "This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do."

More attendees are expected to flock to Charlottesville - normally a quiet, liberal-leaning university city - by tomorrow.

Both local hospitals said they have taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on standby.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which track extremist groups, both believe the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.
So it begins. Unable to make sense of the brutal killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett, the dissection of the woman co-convicted of his murder, his wife Molly Martens-Corbett, follows.

There has been a conviction, sure, but no clarity. There has been a how and a what and a where and a when, but no conclusive why.

In the emerging narrative, Martens-Corbett is "the pretty and troubled femme fatale". Her father Thomas Martens, also convicted of the murder, is a mere sideshow. Martens-Corbett is front and centre as "the pretty blonde with the killer instinct". She is the "callous killer" who drank margaritas on the school run and "went out of her way to hurt people".

'Wicked Stepmother' may yet turn out to be a more accurate description.

As an au pair who rapidly became an All-American 'mom' to Mr Corbett's children, Sarah and Jack, Martens-Corbett is now morphing rapidly into an evil queen who tried to usurp the place of their deceased mother Mags in their memories. When she realised she could lose them, is it too far to extrapolate that she sought to remove the threat: their own father?

Despite intense scrutiny, Martens-Corbett and her motives remain shadowy and vague. Was she an abused spouse who acted in self-defence, or a wife who snapped, Kiranjit Ahluwalia-style, under sustained marital pressure? Was she motivated to kill by the money she sought to gain from her husband's death, or by love for another?

Or was she motivated by mother-love? After Mr Corbett's death, Martens-Corbett did one thing. She filed custody papers for the children. She lost. She then sought in vain to maintain contact with the children, posting messages online and curating a Facebook version of her life with them.

Standing in shackles after the conclusion of the trial this week, Martens-Corbett was portrayed "like she'd always been - stony faced and ice cold". Yet there is nothing of the stony-faced, ice-cold killer on show for anyone who chooses to pick apart Martens-Corbett's Facebook page, populated as it is with pictures of a radiantly happy woman, squeezing and hugging Mr Corbett's two children from infancy.

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But if we know anything about Facebook by now, it is that Facebook lies.

What makes us parents? Martens-Corbett used Facebook to post this response: "Parents are the people who love you, nurture you, care for you, tuck you in at night, drive you to practice, cheer from the sidelines, wrap your Christmas presents, hide your eggs, make you birthday cakes, make you clean your room and do your chores, go on your field trips, change your diapers, teach you your ABCs and how to tie your shoes. Parents are the people you come home to. They are the people who love you unconditionally and support you emotionally, financially, faithfully, forever."

Perhaps Martens-Corbett did all this for Sarah and Jack Corbett. But she also did something else - she sought to replace the children's mother with herself.

Whatever else Martens-Corbett did or didn't do, Mags Corbett deserved to remain present in her children's lives. Anyone, whether a parent, step-parent, adoptive parent or not, must understand this. But Molly Martens did not.

It is unavoidable that among the sheer weight of the tragedy for the Corbett family, we seek to expose the dark heart of Martens-Corbett. Women who kill fascinate with a level of repulsion reserved uniquely for their gender.

In the absence of her personal testimony at the trial, we find ourselves grasping at stray facts that show Martens-Corbett had "issues". We need to believe that she couldn't be just bad, she had to be mad too. As if any of that changes anything now.

Martens-Corbett wrote on her Facebook page that a parent is someone who loves you unconditionally but the real test of a parent is that you love your children absolutely. Mothers and fathers put their children's needs for themselves above their own needs for their children. Mr Corbett knew this, when he sought to create a stable family unit for his children despite his grief upon losing their mother.

When the Corbett children visit the grave of their parents in Castlemungret cemetery in Co Limerick, they kiss the wedding photograph of Mags and Mr Corbett that adorns the gravestone. When they visit the memory of Martens-Corbett, as they surely must, they think "murderer", as Jack Corbett put it in his letter to the court.

So perhaps when we're seeking absent answers as to what made Martens-Corbett a killer, what didn't make her act as a mother is the first question we should ask.
Molly Martens-Corbett killed her husband because she feared he would return to Ireland with his children, officials believe.

The unanimous second-degree murder convictions against Martens-Corbett and her father are set to cost the young Tennessee woman more than $1m (850,000).

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But according to sources in the District Attorney's office, Martens-Corbett (33) was afraid that her husband Jason Corbett (39) might not return from a family event in Ireland. Mr Corbett had two children from a previous marriage.

"Jason was due to fly back to Ireland for a family birthday party a couple of weeks after August 2," the source said of the weeks leading up to the 2015 killing.

"The evidence indicated he had told his family he was travelling with his children, Jack and Sarah. But there was no mention of Molly travelling.

"The jury certainly could have inferred that she was afraid the children might not return to the United States."

The source added that evidence indicated that Thomas Martens, who was also convicted of second-degree murder, was encouraging his daughter to consult with a lawyer about divorcing Jason.

"He did not consider it a good marriage. But she wanted his children and Jason had refused to sign adoption papers for her.

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"It was not all sunshine and roses (in the marriage)."

The father and daughter are to lodge legal papers within days with the North Carolina Court of Appeals, to challenge their murder convictions.

Michael Earnest, Molly's uncle whose sister Sharon is married to Martens, said they were "devastated".

"In my opinion and in my personal life this is the most atrocious miscarriage of justice I have ever been a part of," he said.

Read more: Anatomy of a murder: the brutal killing of Jason Corbett

Mr Earnest, a Federal employee who is part of the US Afghanistan Reconstruction programme, vowed the family will never stop fighting to prove their innocence and to show they acted entirely in self defence. But jurors in the four-week murder trial revealed they were convinced that callous Martens-Corbett actually attacked her husband while he was still asleep, and her father came upstairs to help finish the job.

Both father and daughter are now being kept in high security prisons outside Raleigh as they begin sentences of between 20 and 25 years for the murder of the Irish businessman.

The jury of nine women and three men unanimously rejected the self-defence argument and convicted them of second-degree murder.

Now, Martens-Corbett faces losing a $600,000 (507,000) life insurance policy pay-out due on the death of her husband.

She was the main beneficiary of the policy taken out by Jason's employer.

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The money, payable by a Maine-based insurance firm, has been kept in a trust fund since 2015.

Similarly, while Martens-Corbett was not mentioned in her husband's 2007 will, the conviction will effectively void any claim she may have to the luxury home he bought for $390,000 in 2011. There was no mortgage on the property.

Martens-Corbett will also lose any claim to the $80,000 (67,000) worth of fixtures and furnishings at Panther Creek.

It is understood she had attempted to dispose of some items from the property but all were removed and placed in secure storage pending the outcome of the trial.

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It is understood that all monies involved will instead be directed towards the estate of the Limerick man's two young children, Jack and Sarah.

Meanwhile, defence lawyers David Freedman and Walter Holton will review the trial transcripts and prepare their grounds for appeal.

All trial documents will not be available from Davidson County for at least 90 days. No North Carolina Court of Appeal hearing will take place before then.

The initial basis of challenge will be on an area of law or evidential problems - with the defence lawyers seeking a full review of the case.
The egg scandal seems to have started in Holland. Stock picture

A Europe-wide health scare continues as 15 different countries report cases of eggs contaminated with a lice insecticide, the European Commission has confirmed.

But there is no reason for Irish people to be worried, according to the Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI).

The European Commission has confirmed some 15 countries in Europe have said they have found eggs containing traces of insecticide, as well as Hong Kong.

It confirmed that all these countries had received eggs that had traces of the insecticide Fipronil.

An emergency EU summit to discuss the situation has been called for September. Millions of hens across Europe may be destroyed, while some supermarkets in Europe have taken millions of eggs off their shelves.

But the FSAI said the risk to Irish people was "very low" and Ireland imports a "very small" amount of eggs.

However, the Irish Food Safety Authority confirmed that in June, very small quantities of boiled eggs were supplied to nine catering outlets in Ireland.

These eggs had a 'use by' date of July 17 and are no longer available. Similarly, in early July, a small quantity of liquid pasteurised egg (with a 'use by' date of July 20) was supplied to a number of food businesses for use in bakery products.

"All of the food businesses concerned have been contacted and any remaining products removed from sale. The number of egg products imported is very small. Nevertheless, the FSAI will continue to trace any distribution in Ireland," its statement read.

IFA poultry chairman Nigel Renaghan has reassured consumers that Irish eggs are unaffected and 100pc safe.

He advised any consumers who are concerned to check for the Bord Bia Quality Assured mark on the pack.

The World Health Organisation considers Fipronil to be moderately toxic and says very large quantities can cause organ damage.

It is an insecticide which is not permitted for use around food-producing animals.

Traceability on the eggs from the Netherlands contaminated with Fipronil is continuing.
Pressure has risen on the emergency department in Tallaght Hospital as there was a 9pc increase in older people visiting last year.

In the annual report for 2016 from the Dublin hospital, the numbers of people over the age of 65 rose from 45,551 to 49,663, compared with 2015.

Only half of patients were discharged within six hours of attending the emergency room, while 75pc of people were discharged within nine hours.

For 2016 in total, the hospital had more than 420,000 patient attendances. This represented a combination of more than 270,000 outpatient attendances, 83,000 emergency department attendances, 24,000 inpatient admissions and 46,000 day case admissions.

"Despite an increase in demand in our emergency department, we have maintained our patient experience times at the same level as 2015," David Slevin, CEO of Tallaght Hospital, said. "We are also aware that the local population is ageing and we are prepared to provide the necessary care for this older demographic."

The hospital said it had employed 57 nurses through permanent contracts to help deal with the extra pressure, increasing its total nursing staff to 1,050.

However, the overall proportion of adults admitted from the emergency department dropped slightly in 2016, to 25pc, from 26pc in 2015.
Motorists can expect to pay lower tolls at the Thomas Clarke Bridge, formerly the East-Link, from next Friday as VAT is removed from the current price, reducing the fare for car drivers to 1.40.

The East-Link bridge was originally a private enterprise but, acquired by Dublin City Council in 2015, users can no longer be charged VAT in line with a European Court of Justice ruling.

The Revenue Commissioners has advised Dublin City Council that the toll link should not include VAT in its charges as a public body. The council said: "Dublin City Council received notification from the Revenue Commissioners on July 31, 2017, 'that the collection of tolls by Dublin City Council on the Thomas Clarke Bridge is outside the scope of VAT'."

They said August 18 was the earliest the new charges could begin: "Dublin City Council sought to remove VAT at the earliest possible time. This required consultation with our software contractor to ensure that they were available and had adequate time to make the necessary systems changes."

The removal of VAT from State-owned tolls comes as a result of a decision from the European Court of Justice.

Income

While motorists will see savings at the Thomas Clarke Bridge, the decision does not affect the charges at other tolls such as the Dublin Port Tunnel or the M50 barrier-free toll.

The East-Link Bridge opened in 1984 under a 30-year public-private partnership.

The income had been split between the city council, which got 17pc, the Dublin Port Company, which got 25pc, and the operating company DIF picked up the remainder.

Now the council gets 100pc of the approximately 4m annual income generated by tolls.

Dublin Chamber praised the removal of VAT from toll charges at the bridge, but said more could be done for commuters travelling across Dublin city.

Head of public affairs at Dublin Chamber Graeme McQueen said that while the reduced toll charges were a step in the right direction, there was also a need to improve public transport aside from the current Luas Cross City works.

"We've made decisions in the city that cars won't be able to drive through the city centre, they'll be required to go around the city centre, with College Green and the plans for the Quays all feeding into that," he said. "We're getting all these changes in the city centre without any real advances in the public transport network, outside of the Luas. We need to look at how to give drivers something back."

Why charges will not be lowered at other toll booths

The removal of VAT at the Thomas Clarke toll bridge has raised questions as to why no changes will be made to charges at other toll links around the country.

However, director of Corporate Services of Transport Infrastructure Ireland Ger Hannon explained to the Irish Independent that motorists were never charged VAT at the M50 or the Port Tunnel to begin with, which are both under TII control.

He explained their prices had been set in the knowledge not to charge VAT to road users.

In the case of toll bridges outside of Dublin, which are all run under a Public Private Partnership system, he explained that these toll links are required to charge VAT on top of the fare as private companies.

As the Thomas Clarke bridge is now run by a public body, Dublin City Council, VAT will no longer be included in charges.
A BRITISH online magazine looks set to lose significant advertising after branding Ireland a "land of puppy farms, dingy bars, drug mule celebs, verbal diarrhoea and squeaky fiddles" in an hysterical anti-Irish opinion piece.

The overall point of the piece for Country Squire Magazine, headlined 'Get Stuffed, Eire', is that Brexit could have "devastating effects" for Ireland because Britain is our biggest trading partner.

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But the bizarre tone of Jim Browne's piece has stunned readers, with some dismissing it as "racist bile" while others classed it as very poorly-delivered satire.

Among the passages in the article are:

"Eire is the land of puppy farms, rain-soaked holidays, dingy bars, drugs mule celebs, verbal diarrhoea and squeaky fiddles  that fool Bob Geldof comes from there.

"A 'country' where the burglars from Britain with surnames like Kettle and Rafferty  return to build eyesore 'palaces' in ratholes like Rathkeale (a small Irish town swollen by the proceeds of crime). Eire is bankrupt yet replete with EU white elephants (many unfinished as the money dried up to complete motorways and other infrastructure)  the destination for lots of British money via the EU unelected overlords in recent decades.

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"The countrys banking history is a joke  wasted away on a property boom and buying in furniture restoring old British castles for narcissistic Irish 'entrepreneurs'."

Mr Browne jumps between calling the country Ireland and Eire throughout the piece, and claims: "Eires history is basically British  before that it was a bunch of warring families and a corrupt church involved in an incessant spiral of gobshiteing and slaying  certainly not a nation."

And he aims a few digs at the Taoiseach also.

"If Britain wants to it can run Eire into the ground where there are no consolations  its spotty youths will brain drain again to the US and Britain and its economy will crumble. In a decade, after some bumps in the road, Britain and the North of Ireland will flourish.

"Varadkar will be on the political scrapheap like Sturgeon.

"Maybe then prodigal Eire will seek membership of the UK. Unlikely. Unless they somehow  miraculously  developed loyalty, wed not actually want them or their hurdy-gurdy," Mr Browne adds.

However, RTE journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes has contacted a number of firms advertising on Country Squire Magazine's website - and big names such as Land Rover and Balfour have indicated that they are pulling their advertising.

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Irish journalist Ken Murray also told LMFM radio that he had contacted the British Metropolitan Police about the article, and also made a complaint to gardai in Ashbourne about the "shocking racist bile against all Irish people".
The Society of St Vincent de Paul faces claims that its managers are using "bullying tactics" to force workers from their jobs.

Siptu said staff have balloted for industrial action after the charity's regional president wrote to workers about its restructuring plans for shops operated by the St Teresa's Conference section in Cork.

Sector organiser Eddie Mullins said the letters described their current roles as redundant, and their "employment will therefore cease by virtue of redundancy".

He said that the charity wants to reduce the number of managers at shops where there were two working part-time, which the union accepted. But he said it was planning to give the new managers extra hours while reducing everyone else's.

He said staff were asked to reapply for their jobs, which are paid positions, on the new terms and 22 jobs were advertised.

"The reality is that there is no need for redundancies. Indeed, it is clear that SVP intends hiring more workers as part of its restructuring plan. It is the Siptu position that the letters sent to workers amount to an attempt to bully them from their jobs," Mr Mullins said.

He said industrial action would take place if management tried to make staff compulsorily redundant.

But a spokesperson for the charity rejected the bullying claims and said it was "particularly surprised" as it will attend the Workplace Relations Commission this month.

It said it was reorganising the management of some of its Cork shops to "bring them in line" with its other shops. He said jobs would be created and staff had been consulted.
Launched earlier this month, the Facebook group page 'I Am Waterford' rapidly went viral, with 10,000 members joining up in the first 10 days. The brainchild of sand artist Sean Corcoran, the premise is simple - it's a forum for and about Waterford people.

"Waterford needed an online identity," said Mr Corcoran. "In recent years we've been hit hard by unemployment and lack of health services. From talking to people on the streets, I got a sense of being left behind. We needed an injection of positivity.

"'I Am Waterford' is not about sunsets and landscapes. I stayed with it minute by minute the first few days, making sure that each time somebody posted a picture of a beach, or a building, I'd politely explain that the focus here was on people, not places. Once they grasped the essence of the site, it took off like a rocket."

Although Mr Corcoran knows about things going viral - a picture of a sand artwork he created in memory of Rescue 116 Captain Dara Fitzpatrick quickly gained a following of 400,000 - even he was surprised by the response to 'I Am Waterford'.

"The positivity is electric. Within days, we'd reached the targets I'd set out for the year end. My initial call-out was for selfies, with 'I Am Waterford' written on the photo, but what quickly emerged was people wanting to remember loved ones, paying tribute to parents and grandparents, many of whom had passed away. There's an element of nostalgia, but it's reaching out to the diaspora in Australia, the USA and elsewhere. New connections are being made, and family and school reunions being organised."

A week ago, he contacted an English woman who'd uploaded a picture of a monument on the quay in Waterford. She said she was trying to reach out to the family of Captain Lumley, who died on the SS Coningbeg which was bombed by a German torpedo during WWl. Captain Lumley's grandson had recently died in England and the family wanted to bring his ashes back to be scattered in Waterford. As it turned out, Mr Corcoran discovered he too was related.

"Captain Lumley was my great granduncle. We're now planning a reunion for the extended family. It's an example of how 'I Am Waterford' enables modern gatherings, creates dialogue and reconnects families. It may not help us solve our immediate problems, but it is creating a more unified approach that will give us strength in tackling the issues we face in our community."
With peak summer holiday in full swing, European hotspots are struggling with tourism hordes. Here are six of the main pinch-points.

1. Venice

Relations between residents and the growing number of visitors to the Italian city are becoming increasingly fraught, with protests taking place and authorities banning new accommodation from opening up in the historic centre.

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2. Barcelona

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Last month anti-tourist campaigners in the Spanish city attacked an open-top bus tour, slashing its tyres and daubing graffiti on its sides. The crux of the issue is similar to that of Venice, in that hordes of cruise passengers are let loose in the city each day.

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3. Majorca

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Palma, the Spanish island's capital, has been contending with the same issues as above, as well as pressure on local housing due to the growing share of holiday accommodation. Meanwhile Magaluf has spent the last few years attempting to clean up its image and attract a more refined clientele to the once-party town.

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4. Dubrovnik

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Dubrovnik will drastically cut the number of visitors allowed into its ancient centre in just two years, the mayor has revealed. The new limit, designed to prevent ruinous overcrowding, will go further than Unescos recommendation of permitting only 8,000 people a day inside the hefty Medieval walls. Instead, a cap will be put at 4,000.

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5. San Sebastian

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An anti-tourism march is planned for later in the month, to coincide with Semana Grande, a celebration of Basque culture. The criticisms are that models of mass tourism impoverish working class people.

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6. Bhutan

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Not quite in the same scale as the aforementioned but there are concerns that over-development and increased tourism could have a detrimental impact on the delicate cultural and ecological balance in the Himalayan kingdom.

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Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
There is a belief that there are some dark tributaries of the human mind from which it is safer not to sip. Over the course of the Molly and Thomas Martens murder trial, we got a sense of what poisonous human hatred can do.

Murder convictions are not something to celebrate, but the Corbett family will have taken some small solace from the fact that the jury in the North Carolina court were not taken in by the web of deception weaved by the father and daughter in the dock.

Crime writers hold that nobody's ever been arrested for a murder; they have only ever been nailed for not planning it properly. It fell to jury foreman Tom Aamland to explain that the key piece of evidence that swayed jurors to convict the pair was the presence of the brick on the nightstand in the bedroom. But if the Martens revealed the worst side of their natures in lurid forensic detail, the Corbett family represented all that is cherished and decent in family and community life.

It is often argued no one is all good or all bad; but the contrast between Jason Corbett and his manipulative and ultimately murderous wife, Molly, could hardly have been more marked. Even now, Martens-Corbett insists she did not murder her husband - nor, she swears, did her father.

They claim it was self-defence. In their protests of innocence they would present themselves as victims of injustice. In doing so they are heaping insult on top of the deep scars they have already inflicted. There are many victims in this story - Mr Corbett being chief among them - but the two Corbett children, now cheated of both a mother and father, and the rest of the Corbett family, are also left with a haunting sense of grief.

Mr Corbett's horrendous head injuries make it impossible to see the Martens as anything but cold, calculating killers. The Corbett family have maintained a degree of dignity, integrity and humanity under the most appalling circumstances. Though innocent, they too have been given a life sentence of loss.

Insurers must be stopped from targeting the elderly

SEVERAL stories recently have highlighted how older people are getting the rough end of the stick from insurance companies.

We know they are up against it on motor insurance, but the latest revelations about new loadings in health seem particularly egregious.

Only weeks ago, the regulator for the sector, the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), was sufficiently worried to point out that people over the age of 60 are paying more for health cover than younger people.

It emerged that they could be paying as much as 31pc more on their premiums than younger policy holders.

Under what is known as community rating, insurers are not permitted to charge older people more than younger people for the same level of cover.

But the regulator revealed that older people tended to have higher-cost plans that give higher levels of cover.

Today it emerges there is a loading on procedures which are far more likely to be required by elderly patients.

Operations on knees and hips have been singled out for special extra costs which will certainly deter older people from taking out such cover, even though they are more likely to need such surgery. The regulator will no doubt be taking a close look at this. Insurers have an obligation to offer value and to be fair. There can be no tolerance for any possibility of discrimination.
On Thursday night I headed for Dun Lughaidh school where a huge crowd had gathered to see off the young ladies and their partners for this year's Graduation Ball which was taking place in the Carnegie Hotel in Swords.

I was only after arriving when I met up with Alice Creedon from Hackballscross, Jennifer McMaster from Kilkerley and James Donnelly from Avenue Road who were all looking extremely well and couldn't wait for the adventure to get under way.

Next I caught up with David Ryan from Avenue Road who was with Kelly Renaghan from Glenwood, Sean O'Hare from Marian Park and Leanne Carroll from McSwiney Street who were in great form and told me it was definitely going to be a mad night.

After this I headed over for a word with Kim Dullaghan from Castle Park and Jessica Murphy from Castle Heights who were looking stunning and assured me it was going to be an epic 'Girls Night Out'.

Making my way through the crowds I next got talking to Emma McDermott from Mount Avenue who had brought Ciaran McMahon from Louth Village who told me it was going to be a fantastic night and they couldn't wait to get going.

Not too far away I met up with Amy Lawlor from Toberona who had brought Liam Smith from Point Road and they were up for a night of fun with Robin Martin from Toberona who was with Shane McKeever from Dromiskin (with the silver dickie bow to match Robin's beautiful dress) who were ready for all eventualities.

Making my way through the crowds I then caught up with Jake Finnegan from Louth Village who was the lucky man to be there with Katie Rice from Louth Village and they were on for a mad one with Chloe Loughran from Louth Village and Joshua Martin from Killanny who told me they were all "keeping in fresh".

Heading over to another group I then had the pleasure of taking to Holly Carroll from Kilsaran, Chloe McElroy from Haggardstown and Mark Reid from Knockbridge who were all looking exceptionally well and were certainly not going to have a quiet night.

I then met up with a couple who were looking exceptionally well and they were Chad McEneaney from Knockbridge whose patent black shoes were a real match for Lauren Rice from Muirhevnamor's black and gold dress and they were there to party.

Not too long later I met up with Kate McCann from Dromiskin and Mandy Shields from Barton Park who told me they were there to cheer on their respective daughters Nicola Shields and Ciana McGuiness who were looking lovely and were on their best behaviour (while their mums were there)!

After this I headed over for a chat with Siobhan McKenna from Knockbridge who was with her friend and gatecrasher Megan Bellew-Murphy from Muirhevnamor whom I was told, doesn't even go to the school. So what? It was probably one of the best GNO's they were going to have all year.

I then caught up with Ann Moore from Barrack Mews who had brought Nosa Irving all the way from Dublin and they were looking forward to a lovely night together.

Making my way through the huge crowds I managed a quick word with Maria McArdle from Kilcurry who told me she had brought Caolan Kelly but she hadn't a clue where he was from! Three ladies who were definitely on a GNO, they were cousins Jessica Gaffey from Toberona and Rebecca O'Donogh from Castleross who were with their buddy Ligita Mikelionyte from McSwiney Street who were there to party the night away.

After this I headed over for a chat with Aoife McPhillips from Silverbridge who was with Katie Gorham and Cian Tuite both from Fatima who had just arrived over and were straight into the thick of the party session.

Next I managed a quick word with Teodora Camarasu from The Laurels who had brought Oskar Felldin who had come over from Sweden specially to be there with Teodora and they were on for an epic night together. Heading over to another group I then met up with Andrea Duffy Castle Height who was Kevin Tuite from Oakland Park who told me it was going to be anything but a quiet graduation night.

Beside them I caught up with two ladies who were looking exceptionally well and were in great form too, they were Aislinn Taggart from Blackrock who had brought Scott Dorian from Avenue Road and Hannah Stewart from Kilcurry who was with Owen Lennon from Louth Village who were just getting ready to climb on board the bus and get the party started.

Finally, before I departed I got a quick word with Reagan Donnelly from Ashling Park who was with Liam Kindlon and Emma Carroll from Woodview Park who had brought Ciaran Jamison from Muirhevnamor who were there to make sure it was a totally mad night with all their mates.
Chief Supt. Sean Ward with Councillors Maeve Yore, Emma Coffey and Maria Doyle at the launch of the dedicated e-mail facility for public representatives based in Louth held in the Grove House, Dunleer. Picture: Ken Finegan

When Garda Chief Superintendent Sean Ward speaks, everyone listens. And, perhaps more crucially, when others speak, he listens. That has been the hallmark of his tenure in Louth since his arrival last year, which has resulted in some interesting and useful initiatives - long wanted by many in the force - becoming real.

CS Ward has said previously that his heart is in community policing. He believes that it can make a real difference to the lives of people everywhere by putting Gardai into the middle of communities in Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda.

By putting them on the ground, giving them the time to walk the beat, speak to people, reassure the vulnerable CS Ward is making a mission statement about Gardai and their role for the public. And he says that community policing in Louth 'is second to none'.

The first part of his enhancement of community Gardai was the introduction of sectoral policing last summer. The Louth towns were divided into sections, or sectors, and each has a designated officer. There is responsibility and accountability on each Garda for the sectors and they are backed up by the detective unit and crime unit members, with assistance from colleagues in the Community Policing Unit.

The aim is to get each Garda in charge of a sector to become an expert in that area - to know where the criminals, drugs dealers, dissidents and sex offenders are, but also where domestic violence or vulnerable people, such as the elderly and those who live alone, are.

They will get to know 'the lay of the land' as it were, visiting their designated area on a regular basis during their hours of duty and checking the PULSE (Garda computer system) on a daily basis for updates about what's happening.

It all sounds good in theory, of course, but it's not the theory CS Ward is interested in. Officers are required to make quarterly briefings to their superiors, detailing the persons of interest, the number of times the area has been visited and any other problems, such as anti social behaviour, that may be taking place.

Already, CS Ward says, there has been a great buy-in from his colleagues in Louth. In addition, there has been an increase in the high visibility patrols taking place and 'a lot of intelligence' has been gathered.

'We are very happy with it so far', he said. 'Before, we had a great community policing unit, but it was small and we had to look at new ways of bringing everyone on board. We have been knocked off our feet by the standard and detail of many of the presentations we have received from colleagues about their sectors.

'There have been over 1,200 individual patrols recorded since this initiative started in Dundalk last year'. He detailed one patrol in Ardee where a Garda got talking to a woman, aged in her nineties, who is living alone.

He said: 'Now she knows that Garda, who calls to see her on a regular basis and that is making all the difference to that woman'.

The Superintendent in Dundalk, Gerard Curley, agrees. 'We have a lot of new members saying that straight away, when they arrive here, they are owning their sectors. They feel they can make a real difference with sectoral policing in terms of what they can do and they can achieve results, instead of looking at the town as a whole.

'The Gardai have bought into this; they want to help vulnerable people in the areas, call to people, speak to Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators'.

Ultimately, it is hoped that if a major incident happens in a sector of any of the three towns, the Garda in charge of that area will be brought on board the investigation team from the start, providing intelligence, assistance and expert knowledge of the sector.

Last week, CS Ward the next phase of this new era of policing. From August 2, a new, dedicated email service has been made available to elected representatives and to Louth County Council officials that will allow them to get in touch with Gardai about non-emergency issues.

These could include anti social behaviour, drug dealing, loud music, street drinking and other issues that are not 999 emergencies, but nonetheless frustrate, anger, depress, frighten, intimidate and upset people in the community and can serious affect their quality of life.

Here's how it works: a public rep is contacted by a member of the public, or a group, about a particular issue in a particular area. The rep can email the dedicated Garda address and outline the issue. On receipt of the email, an acknowledgement will be sent to the rep.

The email will be forwarded to the Garda officer responsible for the sector where the issue has arisen and the assigned member will then address the issue, find out about and try to resolve it. The message detailing the problem will also be forwarded to sergeants, the superintendent and CS Ward.

A report of the actions taken will be sent back to the central address where an email will be forwarded to the rep who raised the matter.

The councillor or TD can then tell the member of the public who initially raised the issue about the outcome. Gardai want all contact for the initiative to go through the email address to ensure proper records are kept. The email facility is managed by dedicated civilian staff.

At the moment, only certain areas in Drogheda, Dundalk and Ardee are covered by the initiative and issues raised outside the sector policing initiative should be reported to the local Garda station as normal.

There are around 50 sectors in Dundalk alone, with around 40 in Drogheda and 12 in Ardee.

And this is, CS Ward says, a pilot project which will be evaluated in six months and, depending on the success or otherwise of the email facility, it will be retained, developed or discontinued.

'We need to be working together to identify the issues and problems', the chief superintendent says. 'It's a pilot, but I don't see it stopping and I think it will be of benefit. I think it will provide effective and accountable policing for Louth'.

It's a unique plan, created by CS Ward, whose background is in community policing in some of the most demanding areas of Dublin. The Dublin North Central Division has a similar sectoral policing project underway, with a smaller one being run in Mayo too.

But geographically, and arguably in terms of the specific challenges posed by the border, the Louth Division is on its own. Only time will tell whether the initiatives are truly successful and whether the most important people, the public, have noticed a tangible difference. And Chief Superintendent Ward will continue to listen.
Louth TD Declan Breathnach has expressed his 'alarm' at level of harassment of business people and shoppers in Dundalk.

'People are being harassed on the street for money in a menacing way which is spoiling the enjoyment of the town,' said Deputy Breathnach.

'There is harassment in many ways such as people stopping in front of them looking for money and I have even heard of someone running into a cafe and taking food from a diner's plate,' said Breathnach.

'This begging and anti-social behaviour has escalated in the past few months and this sort of harrying and pestering is spoiling the enjoyment of the town by locals and visitors, be it for shopping or business purposes.

We need a greater visible Garda presence on the streets.'

'I have requested a meeting with the Garda Superintendent in Dundalk and will the Garda Community Liaison team to discuss ways to combat this behaviour,' he added.

The management of BIDS Dundalk and the Chamber of Commerce share my concerns and will join me at this meeting, when arranged' concluded Breathnach.
Gardai have launched an investigation into a shocking knife attack in Knockbridge last weekend

A man in his 40s was reported to have received facial wounds following an attack with a knife at around 10.45 on Friday night last in the centre of the quiet village.

It is believed that the man was confronted by a group of youths after he left the local pub and crossed the road.

He was rushed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda where he received stitches.

A garda spokesman confirmed they examines CCTV footage.

Gardai have appealed for witnesses and have asked anyone with information to contact Ardee Garda station.

Louth Councillor Tomas Sharkey condemned the attack, saying:

'A resident was attacked while walking to his home on a Friday night in a rural small village. I have spoken to the victims friends. He has serious injuries to his face and will take a long time to recover fully. I wish him well.'

Cllr. Sharkey said that the shocking attack came after a number of incidents over the last year

'This violent assault is a stark reminder to us all that there is a local antisocial element in our community.'

'Families living in the village have been targeted by youths and intimidated in their homes. Drugs are available freely in the area like in most neighbourhoods across Louth.'

He added: 'This incident needs to act as a wake up call to all of us. Unchecked antisocial behaviour often leads to criminal activities. Unsupervised children often end up making bad decisions. An under resourced Garda Force leaves areas open to crime.'

Meanwhile, in Dundalk the gardai are also investigating an assault on a 19 year old man along Park Street in the early hours of Friday morning last.

The teen was reported to have been in an altercation with another male when an unidentified woman came out and threw a pint glass at his face.

He was taken to hospital and his injuries resulted in 13 stitches required.

Gardai are examining CCTV and are appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident, believed to have taken place between 2.30 and 4.30a.m to contact them.

There was an attempted break in at Mount Carmel on the Dublin Road on Thursday morning last. The occupant of the house awoke to the sound of the alarm going off as an intruder attempted to gain access.

A resident of St. Ronan's Terrace on the Castletown was preparing to leave home at 9.30a.m on Friday morning last when he heard his doorbell goin.

He did not answer the door but looked out and then saw a red haired male, described as having a medium build and around 5ft 10 in height going down the driveway.

The male returned ten minutes later with a number of others and used a crowbar to try and gain entry to the house. They failed to get in, and fled to an entryway at the rear of the property.

Gardai are also investigating the theft from a van parked at Ard Easmuinn on Tuesday evening last.

The owner was packing the van, and believes a number of items were stolen as he was doing so. The following morning he noticed a Dell black laptop was missing, along with a mobile phone and a few hard drives. There was no damage to the vehicle so the believed it may have happened the previous evening.

Anyone with any information contact Dundalk gardai at 042 93 35577.
Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy has confirmed that he is continuing to raise Irish concerns regarding the Sellafield nuclear energy plant at EU level.

He recently met with Massimo Garribba, the Director in charge of Nuclear Energy, Safety and the ITER project.

Mr Carthy had requested the meeting with the European Commission following a damning BBC Panorama documentary, broadcast last year, which raised new dangers at the nuclear facility.

Speaking last week, Mr Carthy said: 'The concerns regarding Sellafield have been well aired in Ireland, albeit to a lesser extent in recent years than previously.

'However, it is important that these concerns are brought to the attention of those charged with overseeing safety management issues at the site. Unfortunately, it has been evident for some time that the British government agencies cannot be trusted to be honest brokers in this regard.

'Shocking revelations by the BBC Panorama last year showed that dangerous, radioactive materials are being stored in degrading plastic bottles.

'It also revealed that there is a lack of staff on the Sellafield site, and exposed significant risks of a major radioactive fire with devastating consequences right across western Europe but particularly in Ireland.

'During our meeting I stressed to Mr Garribba in no uncertain terms that Sellafield is now a threat to all of Europe.

'I outlined my belief that the plant must be closed and there should be a halt to the construction of any further nuclear power plants.

'He confirmed to me that his staff are conducting an updated safety study on the site which will be published next year. Sellafield must be closed and we need to see concerted political action'.
Some weeks ago an English Catholic magazine referred to Steve Bannon as a practising Catholic. When I read that I nearly choked on my porridge. It really was hilarious. Steve Bannon has married three times and has divorced three times. I have to admit that the piece confused me.

Leaving aside his marital status it's plain to see that Mr Bannon, a trusted adviser and friend of President Trump is a right-wing zealot who wants to destroy all and every trace of anything that smacks of liberal or moderate thinking. Bannon was a founding member of far-right Breitbart News, which is racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic. It would appear Bannon does not believe in compromise.

If Steve Bannon is what Catholicism is about then it's time for me to leave the church. It really is amazing the latitude many church people can give to extreme right-wing thinking. We really are being battered from every side. It's difficult to remain sane in the days that are in it. The Trump administration is not noted for telling the truth. I'm reminded of that infamous comment from Vladimir Lenin that a lie told often enough becomes a truth. Is that what alternative facts are?

When Anthony Scaramucci lost his job in the White House, it was reported that President Trump said that he had to go because of inappropriate language he had used. I have heard of examples of the pot calling the kettle black but this really takes the biscuit. Trump sacking someone for inappropriate language. He's talking about pardoning himself. Maybe he needs to think about sacking himself.

Trump and his team cleverly pandered to an American religious extreme right wing coalition and managed to garner their votes. But he also picked up a wider Christian vote. In an opinion piece in The New York Times on August 2, Ross Douthat talks about a 'cheerfully pagan Trump' getting the religious vote. Douthat points out that as politics in the US has grown more polarised, the Catholic position has become 'more difficult and perplexing'.

Sometimes it might seem that the President says the first thing that comes into his head. But most likely he is far more thoughtful than we think. If you look at his team you will quickly realise they are right-wing. And he now has four army generals in his cabinet. One might be forgiven for thinking that the US has been taken over by an army coup. Trump's popularity is now on the floor. Yes, he still has a fanatical support base but that can't last too much longer. When the coal mines stay idle and the factories in the rust belt remain closed even his die-hard support will begin to wobble.

History tells us that going to war boosts the popularity of a leader. North Korean President Kim Jong-Un is proving to be the perfect bogey man for the Trump administration. While the shenanigans in the White House may make for fun television every evening, we are living in scary times. Trump has not shown any signs of being good at diplomacy, something that the world needs in spades in the current tension-filled atmosphere.

All the time Mother Russia and The Middle Kingdom (China) watch on. And what must Pope Francis think of the alignment between Trump and some of the US bishops?
Oisin Cahill of Dublin Angling Initiative with Darcy Davila (10), who caught the winning fish, Darren Davila (8) and Doreen Davila

The group that took part in the Sean McMorrow Memorial Event at Annamoe Fisheries recently

Oisin Cahill of the Dublin Angling Initiative with Shane Brady (13) from Roundwood Scouts, Sinead Hurson and leader Weslie from Roundwood Scouts

A group of young Wicklow people were introduced to trout fishing and angling at a special event hosted by Inland Fisheries Ireland recently.

The Sean McMorrow Memorial Trout Fishing Day at Annamoe Fisheries, which was organised by Inland Fisheries Ireland's Dublin Angling Initiative, was attended by 28 participants from Rathdrum National School, St Laurence's National School in Roundwood and both Rathdrum and Roundwood Scouting Groups. Sean McMorrow was a former General Manager of Inland Fisheries Ireland and this event was kindly supported by his family.

The event began with a workshop on water quality and invertebrate testing with Sinead Hurson, Community Water Officer with the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office at Dublin County Council, which gave participants an insight into how water quality affects fish and communities in general.

Fishing lessons from experienced anglers in the Dublin Angling Initiative and the Vartry Angling Club followed with tutoring given in fishing techniques and safe fish handling. Participants practised fly fishing over an action packed morning with most landing several fish. After lunch, the young anglers enjoyed a final hour of fishing and the chance to show off their new found skills.

At the end of the event, the Sean McMorrow Memorial Trophy was presented to Darcy Santos from Rathdrum National School for his effort in landing a fine rainbow trout of over 4lb.

Suzanne Campion from Inland Fisheries Ireland said the day was a great success and a fitting tribute to their former colleague.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Dublin Angling Initiative should contact Oisin Cahill on oisin.cahill@fisheriesireland.ie.
A campaign has been launched to extend Route 84 as far as Newtownmountkennedy.

Last Thursday, local Sinn Fein representatives launched a campaign calling on Dublin Bus to extend route 84 from Kilcoole to Newtownmountkennedy, the fastest growing town in the county according to recently released census data.

Speaking about the campaign, Deputy John Brady said: 'I am delighted to join my colleague and east Wicklow Sinn Fein representative Muireann Dalton in launching this public transport campaign for the people of Newtown and surrounding areas.

'Currently, there is no direct public transport service between Kilcoole and Newtown, which is having a detrimental impact on both communities for young people and the elderly alike.

'The extension of route 84 into Newtown is essential to ensure that communities can travel easily between Kilcoole and Newtown including, students attending Colaiste Chraobh Abhann in Kilcoole. This will also be of benefit to the local economy of East Wicklow.

Muireann Dalton said: 'Last week, we launched an online petition for people to sign in support of this initiative.

'We have made petitions available in local businesses across Newtown and, in the coming days, we will be going out door to door seeking support from the community. I would encourage people to support this local campaign and ensure that the people of Newtown have access to the most basic public transport.'

The petition is available online at https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/extend-the-84-bus-route-to-newtownmountkennedy.html.
Orla Brady, who grew up in Bray, playing Lydia in Into the Badlands

Hit US series Into the Badlands is returning to Co Wicklow for filming later this year and the call has gone out for thousands of extras to take part in the show.

Filming of the third series will get under way this autumn so anyone hoping to take part must be available over the next few months.

According to movieextras.ie, they are particularly looking for male and female Asian, Black and Latino/Hispanic adults for a number of roles in the series.

They are also looking for men and women trained in dance, martial arts, gymnastics and stunt work for battle scenes. Those cast in these roles will take part in a rehearsal day with the show's stunt team, including Rudolf Vrba, who has worked on blockbusters like James Bond, Captain America, Kick Ass and Wonder Woman.

Filming is due to take place in Dublin and Wicklow from September until April and extras could have up to five days on set per month. The pay range varies from 83 to 130 per day.

Days on set could begin as early as 6 a.m. and last ten hours or more, with overtime paid after ten hours.

For more information and details on how to sign up, visit www.movieextras.ie/Badlands/

Into The Badlands follows a warrior and a young boy, who, centuries into the future, journey through a dangerous feudal land together seeking enlightenment.

The show stars Irish actresses Sarah Bolger and Orla Brady, who grew up in Bray.
Lucy Kennedy from Roundwood, who now lives in Australia

A Roundwood vet's Australian residency has been put at risk after she was told that her oral English fluency was not up to scratch by an automated computer program.

Louise (Lucy) Kennedy (34), from Roundwood has been working as an equine vet on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Despite being a native English speaker with two university degrees the young professional was deemed insufficient in her native tongue by an automatic scoring system.

Lucy and husband Adam, an Australian, are expecting their first baby in 12 weeks and the Irish woman decided to apply for permanent residency, after two years in the country.

For a skilled immigrant visa applicants need to take an English proficiency test.

'I went with a company called Pearson because they give you the most points,' Lucy said.

Part of the test, the oral competency section, involved reading a paragraph that appeared on-screen. But when she received her results Lucy discovered she has scored 74 points when the government requires 79.

It was only the oral competency section which was scored low.

'I just thought [it was a mistake] and I'll just ring them up and they'll just listen to it again,' she said.

However, after much back and forth with the company, she was given the opportunity to take the $300 (200) test again, free of charge.

'That's based on the fact that there was construction work outside of the test centre at the time which could be a possible interference,' she said.

She is convinced that it is a technical flaw in the company's software that has caused her not to be recognised as a native speaker. Other companies use human assessors.

'It was very, very easy - a really basic paragraph,' she said.

As her husband is Australian Lucy has the option of applying for a more expensive spouse visa which she is now in the process of doing.

'Because I'm married to an Aussie I luckily have a back-up visa to go to but there is a $3,000 (2,000) cost over the skilled immigrant visa which we weren't banking on 12 weeks before having our first baby,' she said.

Time was also a factor in trying to rectify her fluency test results she said as her current visa would have expired in the time-frame it would take for all of the paperwork to be completed, even if she was recognised as a fluent English speaker by the testing company.

She said the experience was very stressful. 'It was even such a pain to have to take the whole day of work to do and do the test and then be told I can't speak English,' she said.

Lucy, who works with a mobile equine unit between north Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, holds two degrees; a BA in politics and history from UCD and a doctor of veterinary medicine is from the faculty of Veterinary Science, Budapest.

Ms Kennedy is convinced the PTE technology is flawed.

'There's obviously a flaw in their computer software, when a person with perfect oral fluency cannot get enough points,' she said.

Pearson, the company running the test, told Australian Associated Press that there was nothing wrong with their systems or the scoring of test scores.

Sasha Hampson, the head of English for Pearson Asia Pacific, said that the immigration department set the bar very high for people seeking permanent residency.
The Sunbeam House Services Family Advocacy Group expressed disappointment with comments made by outgoing managing director John Hannigan in a radio interview last Friday.

During the interview on East Coast Radio, Mr Hannigan outlined that a delay in correspondence with families after the publication of the Jeyes Report was due to the fact that Sunbeam House Services did not know who was involved in the advocacy group.

He said that correspondence came from 'an anonymous email with no identifiable connections'.

'Nobody was willing to talk to us directly. We didn't know who were talking to,' he said.

The group however, has refuted this and said that each of the families in the group received individual registered letters of apology after the report was published.

They also said that the 112 members endorsed a representative committee and that the board and management of Sunbeam House Services and HSE were advised of this.

'Mr Hannigan was aware that those affected by the Jeyes Report had formed a family advocacy group. We have since met with the Board of SHS and the HSE endorsed the participation of this group in all consultations about restorative responses,' a spokesperson for the group said.

In the interview Mr Hannigan who will be leaving Sunbeam House Services to take up a new role at the end of the month, said he was 'disappointed' to learn through the media that Minister Simon Harris had commissioned a review of the service but said that the organisation was 'very happy to cooperate fully'.

He said that he was 'leaving with a heavy heart' not directly as a result of recent events but said that he believed Sunbeam House Services has a bright future ahead.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Minister Harris said that he 'continues to be fully supportive of the families and has met the group on a number of occasions'.
Following second cut silage there is an opportunity to repair swards that have been damaged by rainfall and poaching during the past year.

Any sward damage that has occurred will reduce grass production over the coming seasons unless repaired. Grassland with low levels of ryegrass will produce less grass yields. These swards will respond poorly to fertiliser and are relatively more expensive to fertilise as nutrients are taken up by less productive weed grasses that may be dominating the sward.

Full reseeds are not financially viable in these situations as a complete reseed will take the field out of the rotation for 2-3 months and would cost 300-400/acre. Surface seeding offers a short term and cheap alternative to this.

Surface seeding can be done anytime from May to September. All that's required is adequate soil moisture and direct contact between the soil and the grass seed. The more open the pasture the more grass seeds will germinate which fits into the current period for using the method following silage harvesting.

For surface seeding ensure the weather is dry and that the grass is grazed off very tightly or cut for silage. Harrow the field with a light chain/grass harrow. Spread the seeds at 6-8 kgs/acre. Tetraploid seeds should be used as they are bigger and more vigorous to grow than diploids. Recommended varieties include Abergain, Solas and Seagoe. For fertiliser 18:16:12 or 10:10:20 should be applied at two bags per acre and the surface rolled with a light roller. Slurry can also be applied at 1500 gls/acre. The field can be grazed every 18-26 days for the remainder of the year. However do not expect instant results as it may be several months before the new seeds are established. A post emergence weed spray may be requ ired if weeds are a problem. Surface seeding has a number of advantages - the farmer can carry out all the work himself and It does not interfere with the normal rotation. It is also relatively cheap - bag grass seed/acre and the method is successful if carried out in moist conditions. Surface seeding with Italian ryegrass is also successful in Italian ryegrass silage fields.

Moynihan: Urgent need to get more young people into farming

Fianna Fail TD for Cork North West, Michael Moynihan has said that Irish agriculture faces a difficult future unless more young people can be convinced that farming is a viable and sustainable career.

Deputy Moynihan was commenting after receiving information from the Department of Agriculture which shows a dangerous age imbalance in terms of the numbers of farmers in Ireland.

"Just six per cent of farmers are under the age of 35, while 53 per cent are over the age of 55. These figures, taken from the 2013 CSO Farm Structures Survey, show an underlying imbalance in Irish farm profiles," he said.

Deputy Moynihan said there is "a major challenge coming down the tracks for Irish society to replace older generations of farmers who are due to retire in the next 10-15 years".

"If we want to have locally produced, high quality food, then we will need younger people choosing a career in farming," he said. "We need to support farmers to become more productive, and therefore more viable. It's unfair to expect farmers to earn less than what they put into their farms.

Deputy Moynihan that although there are "some positive programmes" that provide young farmers with education and skills training, more needs to be done.

"How can we ask a young farmer with a family to work for what for all intents and purposes is less than the minimum wage?," he said.

Deputy Moynihan warned that unless Ireland finds solutions to these challenges, "we will see farms lying idle, and Ireland's ability to produce its own food will be greatly diminished".
IRD Duhallow have been "handed a rule book of biblical proportions that has choked the system" when it comes to Leader funding. That was the view point of its chairperson, Anna Maria Bourke, at their recently held AGM.

She pointed out in her speech that it is over a year since the Leader contracts were signed, yet no implementing partner in Cork has been able to bring a single project for approval, "such is the quagmire of rules that have been devised."

"To further look at Leader in context, IRD Duhallow has successfully implemented four Leader programmes. One year into the last programme we had 2,150,767 committed and 779,879 paid out. So it would be remiss of me to ignore the absolute frustration of communities, businesses, elected representatives, board members and staff in trying to get badly needed funds to economic, community and environment projects," she said.

Moreover, she sounded a warning bell by saying there are huge challenges in ensuring a better Leader programme the next round.

"As we approach what should be the mid-way point of the current programme, its progress has been totally hampered by red tape and regulation. We need to guard against any reputation al damage that a toxic Leader regime could inflict on a bottom up community based group like IRD Duhallow," she said.

She also said they welcome Minister Humphrey's commitment to review the programme. She said she is calling on her to reinstate IRD Duhallow's LAG (Local Action Leader Group) status at the mid-term review. She said while it is important to be mindful of European funding and how it influences the company, they mustn't be side-tracked from the bigger picture on home ground.

"The census results show that Duhallow has returned to a situation of out migration and population decrease, which is a cause of great concern. There needs to be a review of this worrying trend off allocating funding to a region based on per head capita instead of giving supports to the areas that need it most. The Board is troubled that if this were to continue, we will be set up to expect even less support going forward in the future," she said.

She also pointed to CREXIT - the extending of the Cork city boundaries, which will have a significant negative impact on them while rural Cork adjusts to its new reality of a low rates base.

"Although the proposed extended super rich county of Cork city and environs has taken on a 10 year commitment to transfer funds, a reducing Council budget for rural Cork is of great worry to all our communities and the Board, especially as our Council headquarters will now be in another county," she said. She said that agriculture is the biggest industry, but yet with the delay in Glas payments and the rising cost of inputs, the farming community is finding itself under increasing pressure.

"The Board was disappointed to note that the long awaited locally led Hen Harrier scheme only engaged with two farmers in Duhallow this year and only two nationally," she said. While she said it has been challenging to remain some way positive and adjust their sails against hostile winds to move forward.

"However, we as a board have been entrusted with the responsibility to point out what is going right and put measures in place to help out when something is going wrong," she said.

Moreover, she pointed out that much too was achieved over the past year and there is much to celebrate. She said she was delighted to welcome Minister Michael Creed to their business awards and during the year certificates were presented to the various charity of their working groups.

The Sisters of St Joseph held a wonderful day at IRD Duhallow where the book, 'Letters Under My Pillow' was launched by the guest speaker Mary Kennedy of RTE.

Maura Walsh marked 25 years with the company and the pitch and putt course, agri vintage machinery display and the courtyard grew and developed in the best practice of conservation and regard for the environment.

Challenges have utterly changed for IRD

At the recently held, IRD Duhallow AGM, its CEO, Maura Walsh, said in reviewing the operations of the company over the past year that the challenges have "utterly changed" in the context in which they operate.

"But we can record performances in other programmes in the past year, " she said. She said their Life Raptor programe, under the expert project management of Eileen Linehan, has seen over 20 farmes sign up to conservation measures which are designed to enhance the habitat of the rare hen harrier, merlin, salmon and lamprey, while enabling agriculture to continue.

They have joined with the NPWS (National Parks and Wildlife Services) to tag young birds so their progress can be tracked.

However, she pointed out that the threat of "yet another huge wind farm" looms over the community as well as the birds. She was referring to the Silverbirch Renewables Ltd application to erect 14 wind turbines across 15 individual holdings in the Ballydesmond and Gneeveguilla region.

This is now with An Bord Pleanala for a decision.

She outlined how their Life Raptor team has fenced 19 kilometres of river bank, removed 80 kilometres of Himalayan Balsam and treated 25 kilometres of the dreaded Japanese Knotweed.

The Skillnets programme has gone from "strength to strength" with the number trained in the past year almost trebling to 685 trainees and 245 rural business have now joined their network.

IRD Duhallow's Warmer Homes Programme now has the tender for an extended area of North Cork and all of County Kerry.

"Our teams also carry out insulation work to community buildings with 32 community halls completed in the last five years," she said.

She said IRD Duhallow believes that community enterprises, through the development and support of a vibrant social economy is the way forward for rural areas.

"Essential services that are not economically viable due to sparse populations and economies of scale, while meeting international standards and regulations can best be delivered through community organisations that have the capacity to meet these standards and regulations," she said.

By way of example, she pointed to the eight community creches in Duhallow and the sheltered housing projects.

"More centralised responses are sometimes appropriate and projects like the warmer homes, furniture revamp, rural meals service are best operated at a central specialised centre but made accessible to all rural dwellers in the wider Duhallow region," she said.

She thanked all of her staff for their Trojan work over the past year with so many who went above the call of duty to deliver excellent outcomes.
Earthrise from the surface of the Moon as seen during the Apollo mission

The idiom "Can't see the wood for the trees" is generally taken to mean that someone can't see the big picture because he or she is focusing too closely on some individual detail.

Similarly, in the study of nature, one cannot understand the structure and function of a wood by studying an individual tree. True, the wood is a collection of trees but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The wood cannot be understood by focusing on any of the individual trees that comprise it.

A tree is an individual organism and can be studied at that level but the concept of a wood raises matters to a new and different level requiring us to think differently.

In human terms, any of us can look at our self in the mirror and think of our self as a physical or spiritual individual. But, in the ascending hierarchy, each of us is also a member of a family, a community, a society, a nation, and so on. In the ascending order, each different level acquires new characteristics and qualities known collectively as 'emergent properties'.

In the descending hierarchy, each of us is a collection of body systems, organs, tissues, cells, cell organelles, genes, molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles. Ultimately, everything is recycled star dust. In the descending order, each descending level loses the emergent properties of the level above.

The Gaia Hypothesis is an interesting idea. In Greek mythology, Gaia (say: guy-ah) is the ancestral mother of all life, the Mother Earth goddess. She represents, or is a personification of, nature, creation and the bounty of planet Earth. In modern neopaganism she is the spiritual embodiment of our planet.

The mythological name was revived in 1979 by James Lovelock in his provocative book 'Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth'. Lovelock's hypothesis proposed that, like the aforementioned wood, planet Earth is a discrete dynamic system that cannot be understood by focusing on any or all of the very many living and non-living elements that comprise it.

Scientific endeavour to understand our planet has led to scientists calling on political leaders to take action to address such worldwide issues as global warning, climate change, deforestation, desertification, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, pollution, etc.

To date, the responses to such calls have been limited, to put it mildly. The consequences of continuing to ignore warnings based on sound scientific evidence may cost humanity dearly.
Sister Julie Urban was born Anita Urban in Medford, MA, USA in 1927 and after high school worked as a clerk and secretary.

When she joined MMM in Boston in 1951 she was in the first group of novices in the USA.

After profession in 1954 she was assigned to Ireland and worked in the hospital in Drogheda as a medical secretary. In 1959 she went to Anua, Nigeria where she was secretary in St. Luke's Hospital.

Returning to Ireland in 1962, Sister Julie was MMM Secretary General until 1970 and then Assistant for 4 years. After spending 9 years in fundraising in Winchester, USA she worked for 10 years in Chicago in fundraising and as office manager.

From 1994 to 1999 she was business administrator in the nursing facility Aras Mhuire in Drogheda.

She was then local business administrator in Somerville, MA for 11 years. When she retired in 2011, she served as a Eucharistic minister and reader in her local parish.

Ill health necessitated regular nursing care and she moved to Sancta Maria Nursing Facility in Cambridge, MA in 2015.

She died peacefully on 1 August 2017.
When Garda Chief Superintendent Sean Ward speaks, everyone listens. And, perhaps more crucially, when others speak, he listens. That has been the hallmark of his tenure in Louth since his arrival last year, which has resulted in some interesting and useful initiatives - long wanted by many in the force - becoming real.

CS Ward has said previously that his heart is in community policing. He believes that it can make a real difference to the lives of people everywhere by putting Gardai into the middle of communities in Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda.

By putting them on the ground, giving them the time to walk the beat, speak to people, reassure the vulnerable CS Ward is making a mission statement about Gardai and their role for the public. And he says that community policing in Louth 'is second to none'.

The first part of his enhancement of community Gardai was the introduction of sectoral policing last summer. The Louth towns were divided into sections, or sectors, and each has a designated officer. There is responsibility and accountability on each Garda for the sectors and they are backed up by the detective unit and crime unit members, with assistance from colleagues in the Community Policing Unit.

The aim is to get each Garda in charge of a sector to become an expert in that area - to know where the criminals, drugs dealers, dissidents and sex offenders are, but also where domestic violence or vulnerable people, such as the elderly and those who live alone, are.

They will get to know 'the lay of the land' as it were, visiting their designated area on a regular basis during their hours of duty and checking the PULSE (Garda computer system) on a daily basis for updates about what's happening.

It all sounds good in theory, of course, but it's not the theory CS Ward is interested in. Officers are required to make quarterly briefings to their superiors, detailing the persons of interest, the number of times the area has been visited and any other problems, such as anti social behaviour, that may be taking place.

Already, CS Ward says, there has been a great buy-in from his colleagues in Louth. In addition, there has been an increase in the high visibility patrols taking place and 'a lot of intelligence' has been gathered.

'We are very happy with it so far', he said. 'Before, we had a great community policing unit, but it was small and we had to look at new ways of bringing everyone on board. We have been knocked off our feet by the standard and detail of many of the presentations we have received from colleagues about their sectors.

'There have been over 1,200 individual patrols recorded since this initiative started in Dundalk last year'. He detailed one patrol in Ardee where a Garda got talking to a woman, aged in her nineties, who is living alone.

He said: 'Now she knows that Garda, who calls to see her on a regular basis and that is making all the difference to that woman'.

The Superintendent in Dundalk, Gerard Curley, agrees. 'We have a lot of new members saying that straight away, when they arrive here, they are owning their sectors. They feel they can make a real difference with sectoral policing in terms of what they can do and they can achieve results, instead of looking at the town as a whole.

'The Gardai have bought into this; they want to help vulnerable people in the areas, call to people, speak to Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators'.

Ultimately, it is hoped that if a major incident happens in a sector of any of the three towns, the Garda in charge of that area will be brought on board the investigation team from the start, providing intelligence, assistance and expert knowledge of the sector.

Last week, CS Ward the next phase of this new era of policing. From August 2, a new, dedicated email service has been made available to elected representatives and to Louth County Council officials that will allow them to get in touch with Gardai about non-emergency issues.

These could include anti social behaviour, drug dealing, loud music, street drinking and other issues that are not 999 emergencies, but nonetheless frustrate, anger, depress, frighten, intimidate and upset people in the community and can serious affect their quality of life.

Here's how it works: a public rep is contacted by a member of the public, or a group, about a particular issue in a particular area. The rep can email the dedicated Garda address and outline the issue. On receipt of the email, an acknowledgement will be sent to the rep.

The email will be forwarded to the Garda officer responsible for the sector where the issue has arisen and the assigned member will then address the issue, find out about and try to resolve it. The message detailing the problem will also be forwarded to sergeants, the superintendent and CS Ward.

A report of the actions taken will be sent back to the central address where an email will be forwarded to the rep who raised the matter.

The councillor or TD can then tell the member of the public who initially raised the issue about the outcome. Gardai want all contact for the initiative to go through the email address to ensure proper records are kept. The email facility is managed by dedicated civilian staff.

At the moment, only certain areas in Drogheda, Dundalk and Ardee are covered by the initiative and issues raised outside the sector policing initiative should be reported to the local Garda station as normal.

There are around 50 sectors in Dundalk alone, with around 40 in Drogheda and 12 in Ardee.

And this is, CS Ward says, a pilot project which will be evaluated in six months and, depending on the success or otherwise of the email facility, it will be retained, developed or discontinued.
It's been a poignant few days for two of Drogheda's best known faces as they retired after celebrating almost a century of helping others.

John Carolan has announced that the popular bicycle shop on Trinity Street, opened by his father, PJ, in 1930, is to close.

He has spent 70 years there and spoke last week of the many wonderful people who passed through its doors in that time.

It was even revealed that showband legend Dickie Rock knocked on their door looking for petrol after he ran out on the way home from a gig!

'I'll miss standing at the door and meeting people as they pass by,' John (83) remarked.

Generations of families bought their bikes at the shop, while he said some of their most memorable days was when Donaghy's Mills and Wilson and McBrin operated nearby and people would leave their bikes in for repairs in the mornings and pick them up on the way home.

And after 24 years in the service of Louth County Council, Joe Gallagher has also decided to hang up his gloves.

The familiar face behind the street maintenance machine on West Street and elsewhere, he enjoyed his last day on Thursday and parted with a word of thanks to the general public.

'The one thing I came across were wonderful people, the citizens of Drogheda and the staff I worked with,' he remarked.
If you want to see how a Fleadh Cheoil operates - get to Ennis for a day on August 18-19th.

Padraic Kierans, part of Drogheda's Fleadh team, is encouraging local people, especially business owners, to get to Clare this month to experience the Fleadh for themselves. "If you are in business in Drogheda, be it B&B, Hotel, Bar, Restaurant, Cafe or whatever - you need to get to Ennis to witness the opportunities and the pitfalls."

Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann is the world's largest annual celebration of Irish music language song and dance. Failte Ireland estimates that over 350,000 visitors attend Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann each year, making it a huge event for the host town.

And Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann is coming to Drogheda in 2018!

The early part of the week features young people taking part in master classes with world-class musicians. The weekend however is where it gets really, really busy. From Friday to Sunday hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive from all over the world to take part in competitions and to enjoy gigs, ceoil agus craic all over town.

"The event really is larger than you can imagine and a trip to Ennis a must" Padraic concluded. "With Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann taking place in Drogheda next year (12-20th August) it's vital for everyone to understand this event so that Drogheda can be really well prepared. This is the largest event ever to be hosted in the town and it's an amazing opportunity to promote Drogheda and the Boyne Valley as a destination for visitors to return to again and again. See you at the Fleadh down in Ennis!"

For more information about the event visit www.FleadhCheoil.ie.
Members of ONE provided a guard of honour for the visit of a Relic of Mother Theresa

Hundreds of locals turned out for a special night at the Dominican Church on Sunday.

The relic of Mother Teresa or Saint Teresa arrived as part of a three day celebration of the sacred sister, who did so much for the poor of India during her lifetime.

The 'First Class' relic has been doing a two month tour of Ireland, courtesy of the Knights of St Columbanus who attended Sunday's evening ceremony with members of the ONE.

A large queue formed after the mass to venerate at the relic of Mother Teresa, described by Fr Jim Donleavy as 'as a great woman and a great saint.'

He said she showed the ultimate example of the Christian way of life and worked with the 'poorest of the poor.'

Crowds began to flock to the Dominican on Sunday afternoon and the relic will be at the church until 4pm on Tuesday when it moves to Dundalk.

The Dominicans said they were very proud to host the relic and were glad to see such large crowds turn out over the three days.
The government's introduction of the new "Affordable Childcare Scheme" is causing increased childcare fees for some parents says Sarah Vanden Broeck , Local Area Representative for Social Democrats Meath East.

'The scheme also adds further pressure to child care providers often only able to offer minimum wage to their staff who are facing an increased cost of living,' she says.

The scheme, coming into force in September 2017, offers a universal, non-means tested subsidy of up to 1,040 per year for children up to start of the ECCE, as well as supports for families on lower incomes of up to 7,500 per year for children up to 15 years of age.

As a mother of 2 creche going children, Sarah states "Our monthly cost for creche fees is 1540 per month, which includes the 20 per week subsidy for both children and to be honest, I wouldn't call this 'affordable'. We are lucky to have a brilliant creche with highly qualified staff but Early Childhood Education is seriously undervalued within Irish society. The sector is critically vulnerable because of underfunding, increasing levels of qualification requirements, high staff turnover, staff working on minimum wages while parents are trying to make ends meet each month in order to afford childcare".

"Introducing this universal subsidy was inevitably going to lead to an increase of fees, as it substantially increases the workload for childcare providers . Yet no measures were implemented by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to ensure rates wouldn't go up", adds Sarah. A well planned scheme should have allowances for price increases built in.

She continues: "I was contacted by parents in Meath concerned about the increases. Many parents have informed us that their creche and preschool fees are raised either immediately or from September, with the increases ranging between 5 and 20 per month.

In some cases, the increment effectively cancels out the Affordable Childcare subsidy in its entirety".

Early Childhood Education is heavily regulated, with 5 agencies already requiring inspections with its associated paperwork , the service also pays fees towards the cost of inspections. The Affordable Childcare Scheme brings a further workload to childcare workers who need to comply with statutory inspections and additional collaboration with other agencies regarding individual child needs regarding Speech and Language, Play therapy and Educational Psychology. The industry is also expecting a demand on places at a time when very few new facilities are opening.

'Figures from Early Childhood Ireland show that Irish childcare costs are higher than anywhere else in Europe: Irish families are paying 35% of their average income on childcare, compared to 16% by our European counterparts,' Stamullen based Sarah added.
A total of 1.1 million in Government funding has been allocated to Wexford in the past three weeks.

On July 19 18 childcare facilities from around the county received a total of 163,542.01 while on July 26 Kingfisher Fresh Ltd which is located in the Strandfield Business Park in Drinagh was allocated 436,876.

On the same day 351,250 was allocated to the New Ross river walkway and the Tintern trails under the Rural Recreation Scheme.

On August 1 12 organisations received funding of 153,015.95 for additional childcare spaces while 17 environmental projects received 26,600.

Finally on August 4 two organisations received funding of 23,183 under the Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018 bringing the total funding allocated to Wexford in the past two weeks to 1,154,466.96

Minister Paul Kehoe said that the Government is committed to ensuring that all parts of Ireland share in the economic recovery.

'Fine Gael is ambitious for Ireland and determined to ensure that our improving economy benefits local communities and service providers.

'In the last fortnight funding totally 1,154,466.96 has been allocated under a number of funding streams to create additional childcare places, enhance rural amenities, support environmental projects and equip art and cultural groups in Wexford.

'In comparison to last year the overall funding amount for a number of these schemes was increased, with the majority of the funding being allocated to groups outside of Dublin.

'By providing vital funding to local community groups and service providers we can support economic development and increase the vibrancy of towns and villages across the county.

'While there is no doubt that major challenges remain Fine Gael is determined to address them for the benefit of our country and our citizens.

'Overcoming the impact of significant job losses experienced during the economic crash remains a challenge, particularly here in Wexford, but we are steadfast in our commitment to achieving full employment.

'While the live register is not a measure of unemployment it is useful in identifying trends and in Wexford that trend is downward. Since the Action Plan for Jobs was launched in February 2012, the number signing on has decreased locally by 37 per cent.'

'Over the coming months further initiatives aimed at driving further economic growth and investment in local services will be unveiled by the Government in order to meet the needs of citizens for many years to come. This will include the publication of a ten year capital plan in the autumn ensuring investment in the country's schools, roads, primary care centres and public transport.'
Applegreen has announced that the opening of its second store in Gorey last week has resulted in the creation of 48 new jobs for the town.

The service station, which also includes Burger King, Subway, Splitz ice cream and Lavazza cafe outlets, opened on Tuesday on the Paul Funge Boulevard at Ramstown, in front of Tesco.

Applegreen's said that this is its 50th Subway outlet in Ireland.

Outside, there is a four island forecourt, parking, brush and jet car washes, a Burger King drive-thru, and service bays. There is also a play area and an outdoor seating section. Inside, there is a convenience store, toilets, a baby change room, lotto and an ATM.

Burger King is the first major fast food operator to enter the local 'chip shop' market. McDonald's is expected to be part of the Topaz-run motorway service station on the M11 at Ballyellen, north of Gorey. It is due to open later this year, following the settlement of a legal challenge taken by a consortium including Applegreen, challenging the awarding of the operating contract to Topaz.

Queues extending out the door of the new store were spotted on the opening day, as locals went along for a first day look. It remains to be seen what effect, if any, the outlet will have on the traditional independent fast food outlets which have a loyal following.

Conor Lucey, head of operations at Applegreen said they are delighted to bring the new site to the town, and look forward to welcoming local customers.

Included in the 48 new jobs are ten in Subway. The new Gorey Subway is managed by Miriam Wilson, who said they were looking forward to getting the store up and running.
Revival will be by no means the last big rock event of the summer in Listowel with a host of great bands lined up at Mike the Pie's for the rest of the month.

Top Irish act Cronin are to play the famous Upper William St bar at 11.30pm on Sunday, August 13, less than 24 hours after Revival finishes up.

Meanwhile, Hot Blooded Animals make a return by popular demand to the bar on Saturday 19 with The Service returning to the Hot Press Best Live Venue on Saturday, August 26.
To celebrate its 12th birthday The Tamarind Asian Restaurant in Tralee will welcome all 64 Roses for dinner on Wednesday August 16, the opening night of this year's festival.

Then Mayor of Kerry, Ned O'Sullivan officially opened The Tamarind in June 2005 and since then the family-run restaurant has gone from strength to strength, winning the Gold Medal Award for Best Ethnic Restaurant in Ireland in 2007.

The owners of Tamarind Restaurant, Andrew Ong and his wife Angeline said they are looking forward to welcoming this year's 64 Roses, especially the first Hong Kong Rose, for dinner.

"We are truly honoured that the Roses will celebrate our 12th birthday with us next week. Just like our regular customers, from the minute they sit down, the Roses will quickly realise that Tamarind is different," said Andrew who worked in a number of restaurants in Dublin, Galway and Mayo before he settled in Tralee and opened the Tmarind.

"We aim to offer patrons an affordable and reasonably priced quality food in comfortable surroundings; flavourful foods that makes you come back for more," he said.

As you would expect with 64 Roses and their entourage dropping by for dinner The Tamarind is fully booked out next Wednesday night but Andrew and Angeline have extended an open invitation to everyone to come down and meet the Roses.

You'll be able to meet them at the front of the restaurant from around 6pm on Wednesday August 16.
Increasing human pressures on our lakes, rivers, streams and coastal waters are impacting upon our vulnerable native wildlife and fish stocks.

Even minor changes to the natural habitat can have a dramatic effect on our native species. Healthy vibrant rivers and lakes, supporting healthy fish populations, not only provide opportunities for relaxation in a natural environment and give people a profound sense of wellbeing, but they also underpin a greater biodiversity. Recreational fisheries, with the economic benefit they bring to these remote Atlantic Coast communities, are equally dependent on a pristine fresh and salt water environment.

As the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward with its draft River Basin Management Plan, part of its response to the current cycle of the EU Water Framework Directive to achieve 'good status' for all waters in Ireland, the importance of local, catchment based, community involvement becomes paramount.

The Rivers Trust Movement, originally started in the UK, now covers the whole of Ireland and we are seeing new Rivers Trusts being set up to better involve local communities in the care and protection of their own fresh and salt water environments.

The Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust, formed by concerned volunteers in 2016, is one of the new Rivers Trusts to be set up in Ireland and is currently aspiring to Charitable Status. Its remit is to protect the fresh and coastal waters of the Iveragh Peninsula..

The catalyst for the establishment of the Trust was the year on year decline, both in the runs of Atlantic salmon into the catchments and in the stocks of the unique multi-sea winter strain of sea trout for which Waterville is famous throughout the world. These species are now under serious threat, particularly in their saltwater environment.

The new Trust is currently running three programmes to try to mitigate against the marine threats to these iconic species and are initially aimed at conserving the lakes, rivers and streams of both the Cummeragh and Inny catchments in the Waterville area.

The 'Small Streams' programme involves the management of dozens of streams within the Cummeragh Catchment, where debris and blockages are cleared and gravels enhanced to provide improved habitat for salmon and sea trout on their annual spawning migration. This work is carried out entirely by local volunteers and is already showing promising results. On a recent stream survey many more juvenile fish were seen in these streams than were previously present. This work is now being extended into the adjacent Inny Catchment.

The Salmon Conservation Rearing Programme, initiated by the original volunteers in 2011, is now managed by the new Trust. Based in the 'Old Hatchery' building on the upper Cummeragh River, the programme involves the stripping of eggs from a few salmon caught up on the river in the winter. The eggs are then hatched out in the facility and the young fish reared to parr stage before being tagged and released back into the streams. This programme is enabling a better understanding of the salmon stock dynamics in the catchment and will, in the future, more precisely focus the conservation effort.

The new Trust is already running an education programme, involving local national schools in its 'Adopt a Stream' project, where local children 'get their feet wet' exploring the invertebrates and other flora and fauna in their adopted streams. Each year the transition year students from Colaiste na Sceilge in Caherciveen visit the Catchments as part of their curricular activities and the 'Old Hatchery' welcomes many casual visitors to view and find out about the ongoing work of the Waterville Lakes and Rivers Trust.

For more information about The WatervilleLakes & Rivers Trust and how you can become involved go to: www.watervillelakes.com
It's great to hear that the recent visit from the Purple Flag judges was, by all accounts, a resounding success.

Tralee did itself proud and while we won't know if our town has secured Purple Flag status for a few months the indications are very good indeed.

The judges - who were given an extensive tour of all the town's attractions - were apparently highly impressed with the town with the quality of the local restaurants and Siamsa Tire proving especially popular.

In fact so keen were the judges on Tralee that one of them has said he is planning to come back here with his family for their holidays next year.

Local businesses and the community were asked to roll out the red carpet for the judges and they did so with great aplomb.

Everyone involved in the Purple Flag bid and in organising the judges' visit - particularly the Tralee Purple Flag bid team led by David Scott - should be very proud of what they have achieved .

The results of the Tralee Health Check - which are covered extensively elsewhere in this paper - are also very encouraging.

While the Health Check did raise a few items of concern - the feeling among many of those surveyed that the town isn't safe at night is one that needs urgent attention - overall the feedback has been very positive.

The perception that there isn't adequate parking in town (a notion that Talking Tralee disagrees with) was a problem cited by many but the overall opinion of Tralee is extremely good.

In particular the quality and variety of cafes and restaurants came in for huge praise as did the excellent service in the towns shops.

The town is seen as having a good quality, varied shops; as being good value and as being easy to get around.

Our magnificent Town Park also came in for high praise.

All in all the results of the health check - which some in the business community were awaiting with a sense of trepidation - are very encouraging.

The sense of positivity in town was given another boost in the last week by the opening of the Mall.

After months of work the fences have started to come down on the revamped street and it looks extremely well.

The fact that it will be largely finished and open in time fort the festival was great news and we're looking forward to seeing happy crowds enjoying the festivities there.

Craddocks - whose staff have been working longer shifts to make sure The Mall is ready - deserve credit for the speed and skill with which they're completing the Mall project.

It's been a big few weeks for town and with the Rose of Tralee just around the corner it's set to get even busier.

Lets keep that red carpet rolled out and make sure that the thousands of visitors who will flock into Tralee for the Rose go home knowing Tralee is one of the best towns in Ireland to visit.

We're on a roll right now, lets keep it up.

A feast of fun for families in Shanakill

After days of awful weather the sun burst through the clouds just in time for the recent family fun day in Shanakill.

The event - held on Friday July 28 - was hosted by the Shanakill Family Resource centre and there was lots to enjoy for all ages.

As well as a bouncy castle and a range of games for the children there was plenty of tasty treats to be enjoyed.

The burgers and hot-dogs laid on by BBQ masters Pat O'Carroll and Junior Locke were a big hit with the adults while the candy floss proved popular with the younger guests at the event.

The array of cakes and buns also proved extremely popular as did the pizzas from the outdoor oven. We're told a great day was had by all and it's easy to see why.

Would 1,500 help with your studies? Then drop by TCU

Calling all college students. Would 1,500 help finance your studies?

If the answer is yes, then Tralee Credit Union may have the answer in the form of its annual Education and Dan Kellegher Memorial Awards.

The TCU Education Awards are open to undergraduates in a full time course of at least two years' duration and Dan Kellegher Memorial Awards are open to post-graduates in a full or part-time course of at least a years' duration.

In total Tralee Credit Union will give away 10,500 to seven lucky members who each receive 1,500 towards their chosen course of study.

The awards are open to all Tralee Credit Union members in college and you can apply for their awards online at www.traleecu.ie.

If you are yet not a member and are eligible to join Tralee Credit Union, you can join and enter before Saturday September 30, the closing date for these awards.

"It's an expensive time of year with a huge financial burden placed on students and their families. While our education awards don't solve the problem they do go a long way towards easing the financial pressure," said TCU Marketing and Development Officer Suzanne Ennis.

"We offer an easy and quick online application process on our website. All you have to do is visit our website www.traleecu.ie fill in your details and you could be one of seven lucky members randomly selected to win," said Suzanne.

"For students who need a loan we have a very low Student loan rate available to both students and their parents. We also have a low rate Saver's Loan for parents who have saved up for college to give them the option to 'spend it or save it' on loans of 5,000 or more."

Most people find it easier to repay a loan than it is to save so they borrow on the strength of their savings.

With our saver's loan they still have their savings at the end of the loan plus they have the flexibility of knowing that they can repay their loan anytime without penalty and they have peace of mind of free life cover on both their loans and their savings with our Loan Protection and Life Savings Insurance" For further information on Tralee Credit Union's awards and loans go to www.traleecu.ie.
Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae has described proposals to hike capital gains tax to 33 per cent as "insane".

Fears are mounting that a plan to impose a capital gains tax of 33 per cent on family homes may be pushed through by the government.

As work begins in earnest on next year's budget senior officials at the Department of Finance have raised the prospect of abolishing the relief on family homes from capital gains tax when they are sold.

At present, taxpayers pay capital gains tax at 33 per cent on the increase in value of any property or assets between the time they buy and sell it. However, the family home is exempt from the tax.

Deputy Healy-Rae said he would be strongly opposed to any such change.

"At this time of year in particular it is a well known fact that the Department of Finance are inclined to fly a number of different kites testing the public mood pre budget by leaking or releasing details of ideas that they may have for the budget," he said.

"The suggestion to make people pay 33 per cent tax on the sale of their own home is completely insane," he said.

"It's insane for the following reasons. Firstly these people if they bought their family home they paid stamp duty on it and paid a mortgage all their lives to pay it off. Then perhaps they want to down size and release that home to other young couples who really need it and now the suggestion is that they would have to give a third of it back in tax to the department of finance," he said.

"To even consider such a ridiculous mean and stupid suggestion would be outrageous. This kite wont fly as it is totally unacceptable to the majority of politician's and most importantly of all to the general public," concluded Deputy Healy-Rae.
Dr Patrick Malone has said that Sneem cannot be left without a full-time GP and has called on the HSE to "think outside the box" when it comes to attracting GPs to rural parts of the country.

Dr Malone has served as a GP in Sneem since 1985 but is due to retire in two months' time. He informed the HSE in April of his intention to retire in October but, while the HSE said the post has been advertised twice nationally and internationally, no application was received.

The HSE's third attempt to fill the position is ongoing, but a 5pm August 11 deadline is looming.

The Kerryman understands that at least three GPs are interested in the role and will apply for the post. But Dr Malone has reiterated his call for the HSE to make certain that a full-time replacement will be put in place and he also said that more needs to be done for areas in similar situations to Sneem's.

"There is a real sense of fear in Sneem and its surrounds that it will be left without its full-time service," he said.

"Things are looking up thankfully. I know of a Spanish locum who is interested, and two others from Cork have noticed our story in the media and have shown an interest in job sharing. They have indicated they will visit Sneem this week.

"This comes after online and print petitions have been distributed by locals calling for the GP service to be maintained, and the fact that over 1,000 signatures have been received highlights the seriousness of this situation. We know now that if the position isn't filled that it won't have been down to a lack of interest.

"We are serving an area of around 1,000 people here, but the population balloons during the summer months as we are talking about a prime destination for tourists. Parknasilla is like Picadilly Circus at this time of year! Outside of tourism, a lot more people have come to live here in recent years. Thriving local businesses have attracted an influx of families and hard-working people, and I cannot contemplate a situation in which this place is left without a GP."

The nearest service outside of Sneem is in Kenmare, some 20 miles away. Dr Malone said this would be an unacceptable situation that could cause a drift of people and business from Sneem.

"Sneem has a lot going for it - it's a thriving village in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but you'd never have guessed that from the initial HSE advertisement, which did nothing to emphasise the attractiveness of the place. This was emphasised in the third advertisement, but only after being prompted.

"Some 10 percent of GPs in Kerry are due to retire in the next two years, and we need to see much more done for rural practices. We currently have a system that accepts elite Leaving Cert performers over those best suited to being GPs, and conditions in our cities and large towns are far more attractive on almost all fronts to the majority of Irish professionals.

"We may well need to look at qualified doctors in other European countries who are suitable and willing to take up these roles in rural areas in Ireland. There are many factors for the difficulty in filling rural GP positions - but what is clear is the need for a major rethink around our approach to GP services in rural places."

The HSE has reiterated its commitment this week to filling the position and said it is working extensively to identify a GP to take up the contract.

Any one with an interest in the position in Sneem is urgently asked to contact Dr Malone at (064) 664 5102 or visit the HSE website at www.hse.ie/eng/staff/Jobs/Job_Search/Medical_Dental/General_Practitioners/PM1717.html. An application form is linked on that web page.
Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said the Dublin media have made too much out of comments made regarding fairies at work on the depleted N72 road on the Killarney side of Barraduff and that he would rather starve than level a fairy fort.

"The whole thing is blown out of all proportion. The Dublin media are making too much commotion out of it," Danny told The Kerryman on Tuesday.

Maura Healy-Rae sparked the fairy controversy at a recent meeting of Killarney Municipal District Council when, in the course of a debate, she humorously remarked that her father was convinced fairies must be damaging the road.

It was a throwaway comment that was latched on to by national media with one UK newspaper picking up on the story and giving it extensive coverage.

"Look, we have to understand that maybe the people up in the Dublin media don't know what a Lios or fairy fort is. But people in rural areas knew what I was talking about.

There's a lot of respect for them here and to be honest, there's machines here in the yard and if I was asked to level out a fairy fort I'd starve first before I'd do it. But the main thing is the road still needs to be repaired. That's what's been lost in all this," the Kilgarvan Deputy added.

Deputy Healy-Rae said the people of Kerry have strong beliefs in local folklore due to the rich and extensive archaeological monuments across the county.

"Over several generations these monuments have come to represent not only suspicion, but also a deep respect in the landscapes they are located in," he said.

"These things are important and even though my comments were taken out of context, it doesn't mean things like forts and standing stones don't have a place in the minds of people," he concluded.
"I lost the case, but I won the war."

That was the view of Moyvane Parish Priest Fr Kevin McNamara this week after his complaint against a Late Late Show discussion - in which the Eucharist was described as 'haunted bread' by Blindboy Boatclub of The Rubberbandits - was rejected by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

Despite rejecting Fr McNamara's complaint, the BAI said that presenter Ryan Tubridy misjudged the phrase's potential to offend audience members. Tubridy described 'haunted bread' as "a great term", and Fr McNamara explained to Mass-goers in Moyvane this week that he hopes the BAI's view on Tubridy's presenting will lead to a change in RTE's handling of faith-related items in future.

All 11 complaints assessed and rejected at the BAI Compliance Committee's most recent meeting related to the January 6 broadcast, in which Ryan Tubridy chaired a discussion with Blindboy Boatclub, Stefanie Preissner, and Michael Harding.

In lodging his complaint, the Moyvane-based Priest described the decline of religious practice as a serious and good subject for discussion, but claimed the treatment of the topic on the January 6 broadcast was "blasphemous and exceptionally anti-Catholic as the Eucharist and real presence of Jesus Christ is central to Catholic belief".

He also said the item was in very bad taste and made fun of the Catholic faith.

During the discussion, Blindboy Boatclub - real name David Chambers - described Holy Communion as the ghost of a 2,000-year-old carpenter, while Ms Preissner explained that, during her youth, she felt as though she was committing cannibalism by eating the Body of Christ.

Fr McNamara, who has previously described The Rubberbandits comedy duo as gifted and articulate performers, said he was most upset that Tubridy said the phrase 'haunted bread' was "great".

The BAI this week said it disagreed with Fr McNamara that Blindboy Boatclub's comments were intended to mock the faith of others.

During the broadcast, the Rubberbandits member defended people's right to belief and said he had no problem with religion except where it was in the education system. The state broadcaster did, however, apologise for any offence caused by the segment.

The BAI Committee was of the view that the programme, while causing offence, was editorially justified and did not infringe the BAI standards.

It also noted, however, that the focus of many of the complaints was on Ryan Tubridy's handling of the 'haunted bread' comment, and the Authority said that the presenter misjudged the offence likely to have been caused by the use of the term,

"I am delighted that the BAI made that observation on the presenter's handling of the item," Fr McNamara said this week.

"It was the Committee's view that the presenter's comments compounded the offence caused and they said that the degree of offence may have been minimised if he had demonstrated greater sensitivity.

"I am delighted now that the case is closed and I am looking forward to RTE and in particular its presenters to take on board what the BAI has suggested," Fr McNamara added.

"I feel as a result of this deliberation the Catholic faith and indeed all faiths will be more respected in RTE programmes from here on."

"I'm glad I raised the issue as it means that presenters for the moment will have a think twice attitude in not mocking the core values in any way and in this respect it may help other religions too.

"Of course the decision took a long time but it would be nice to know if it was unanimous and also just who was deliberating on the board."

Fr McNamara said there had been support and a little confusion too from his parishioners.

"They accept the decision. It really never was a question of winning a case, the whole idea was respect. They realise that it has put a marker down but there is confusion too over the language used in the ruling, it's not straightforward. Indeed, some people may be baffled and will still ask is it offensive or not.

"I suppose there is a legalistic side and that's why there were so many words and various phrases in the ruling.

"As for the Rubber bandits, I have no problem with their humour. I wish them well and RTE too," he added.

The Kerryman contacted The Rubberbandits for a response to the BAI decision but had not received a reply at the time of going to print.
Kerry Sinn Fein TD Martin Ferris says it is "inexcusable" that the Houses of the Oireachtas have decided to write off over 5,000 in unpaid bar and restaurant tabs.

Last week it was revealed that the Dail bar and restaurant were writing off 5,482 in unpaid bills, some of which date back over 16 years.

The majority of the unpaid bills are from the restaurant, which is owed 4,717. The Dail bar is owed 765.

A report from the Oireachtas Commission confirmed said that the body has had to write off the debts because there is "no realistic prospect of recovery of the sums due".

Deputy Ferris was highly critical of the decision to write off the debts.

"Many constituents have been asking me, tongue in cheek mostly, if I was one of the TDs with an outstanding Dail bar tab. For the record, I do not now, nor have I ever, availed of a bar tab in the Dail," he said.

"It is inexcusable that the amount owed is being written off, small businesses that are owed monies have to take remedies to recover outstanding debts and I don't see why TDs or senators cannot be treated similarly. TDs and senators are handsomely rewarded and there should be zero tolerance applied to those who expect the taxpayer to pick up their bar tabs," said Deputy Ferris.

According to the most recent price lists published by the Oireachtas - in March 2016 - a pint of Guinness in the bar cost 4.40 while a longneck beer, glass of wine or a measure of whiskey was 5. A shot of gin, rum or vodka cost 4.50.

In the restaurant the cheapest bottle of wine is 20 while a bottle of Chateauneneuf-du-Pape Domaine Duclaux will cost you 50.

In terms of food the soup of the day will set you back 2.50, while a toasted BLT is 6.50.

For lunch, a roast sirloin of beef with red wine jus is just 8.95. Baked salmon served with preserved lemon and roasted red peppers or a roast loin of bacon with Dijon mustard sauce are even cheaper options at only 7.95 each.

Steak or prawn main courses are said to be the most popular in the evening and these typically cost in or around 16.

Under new plans, the Houses of the Oireactas say that the current tab facility available to TDs and Senators in Leinster House - which has no specific time period to settle unpaid tabs - will be changed to a revised credit policy which give members a specific time in which to pay their bills.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that TDs and senators who don't pay their bills should have the money deducted from their salaries.
The results of the Tralee Town Centre 'Health Check' are in and the county council and chamber should be able to take considerable comfort from the study's findings.

Last October, Tralee was chosen as one of eight towns to take part in the 'Health Check' pilot programme which examined the economic well-being of some of Ireland's larger rural towns.

The project was overseen by the Heritage Council and in Tralee it was led by Kerry County Council and Tralee Chamber Alliance with I.T Tralee's Information Systems and Marketing programmes carrying out the research.

This research - carried out by a team of ITT students in October and November 2016 - involved surveys of shoppers and business owners; surveys of land property use; environmental quality studies; footfall counts and an analysis of crime figures.

The main areas the study examined were footfall; shopper and retailer satisfaction and outlook; traffic and parking patterns; vacancy rates and overall perceptions of the town.

The key results of the 'Health Check' were announced last Thursday at an official launch ceremony in The Ashe Memorial Hall which was attended by Housing and Urban Renewal Minister Damien English.

At the ceremony ITT media and information technology lecturer Martha Farrell outlined the key findings contained in the report.

Overall, the results were positive with Tralee seen as a busy, attractive town that's easy to get around and offers a good mix of high quality restaurants and good value shopping.

There were problems however and these will need to be addressed urgently.

Despite the fact that there are over 3,000 parking spaces in the town, nearly half the shoppers and two thirds of the business owners surveyed identified the lack of convenient parking as a major issue.

Safety was also a concern with 44 per cent of shoppers and 44 per cent of business owners saying they don't feel safe in the town centre after dark.

Mayor of Tralee Cllr Norma Foley said the 'Health Check' provides a blueprint for the development of the town going forward.

"There are many positives in the report but we need to be conscious of the challenges too. What we need to do now is deal with and take steps to respond to the findings," she said.

Parking still the main issue for most

Despite the best efforts of Kerry County Council and Tralee Chamber Alliance to convince them otherwise, shoppers and business owners in Tralee are still adamant that there aren't enough parking spaces in the town.

Parking - or rather the perceived lack of it - was the single biggest issue identified by the business people surveyed, 67 per cent of whom said parking facilities in Tralee are poor.

Shoppers weren't quite as critical but they still cited it as a major issue with 38 per cent criticising the town's parking arrangements.

Parking was also identified as the single biggest area that could be improved in the town with 46 per cent of the business owners surveyed saying parking facilities should be improved.

That's compared to 16 per cent who wanted to see the number of vacant units tackled and the five per cent who wanted to see more public events staged in the town.

Shoppers tended to agree though not by as large a margin. Parking was also the area that the majority (23 per cent) of surveyed shoppers want to see improved.

The widespread view that there aren't enough parking spaces in the town would appear to fly in the face of the facts.

There are currently just over 3,000 parking spaces in Tralee which - according to the 2013 Tralee Transportation Strategy - should be more than enough to meet the town's needs.

The problem appears to lie with drivers' habits as most seem to prefer on street parking and tend to avoid car parks.

Of the 3,000 spaces in town, the vast majority (2,050) are in surface and multi-storey car parks.

Multi- storey car parks - of which Tralee has two - are particularly unpopular. Just over two thirds of respondents said they preferred to park in a surface car park as opposed to a multi-storey one.

It should also be noted that the Health Check survey was carried out before the removal of 66 on-street parking spaces as part of the Mall and Denny St redevelopment works.

Business outlook is good

One very welcome finding contained in the Health Check report is the fact that most local business owners have a very positive outlook for the years ahead.

When asked their opinions and expectations on what lies ahead in the next two years 55 per cent of the business owners who were surveyed said they expect trading to improve.

While slightly less positive, 21 per cent were still relatively upbeat and said they felt trading conditions and levels were likely to stay as they are.

Just 17 per cent said that they feared things were likely to get worse in the coming years.

As part of the health check process, 100 randomly selected business owners in the town centre's core retail area were invited to take part in the survey. In all, 69 businesses responded.

View that Tralee isnt safe after dark poses a challenge

Of all the findings contained in the results of the 'Health Check' one should be a cause of major concern for the Chamber Alliance; County Council and the Gardai.

Any suggestion - no matter how well intentioned - that Tralee isn't safe at night is typically greeted with a 'shoot the messenger' approach and tirades of abuse on social media.

However, while many in the town might not like to hear it, the Health Check shows that many people - visitors and locals alike - do not feel safe in Tralee after dark.

When asked to rate 20 key aspects of life in Tralee 44 per cent of the public and business respondents said they do not feel safe in the town at night.

That's a considerable number of people and their views need to be acknowledged.

It's also in stark contrast with the 60 per cent of shoppers who agree that the town feels safe during the day.

The finding that more than two in five people find Tralee dangerous after dark comes in the midst of the row over the town's new Taxi rank which many people refuse to use at night as they feel - justifiably in my opinion - that it is in a dangerous location.

Those that will feel the need to dispute the report's findings should note they are based on a scientific survey carried out by a respected, experienced and professional locally led team from IT Tralee.

At the launch of the Health Check Report last Thursday Mayor of Tralee Norma Foley acknowledged that the report contains 'challenges' that the town can, will and must meet.

Tralee's well organised bid for a Purple Flag has done much to boost the town's image but clearly the perception that the town is a dangerous place after dark is still widespread.

To counter that a concerted, combined effort is needed.

What should not be allowed to happen is that this crucial finding is ignored and that only the 'positives' in the health check report are acted upon.

The head in the sand approach hasn't worked before and it won't work now.

Opening for big retailers

There appears to be a major opening for prominent high street retail chains in Tralee.

While the service and value to be found in Tralee's shops was praised, just eight per cent said they came to the town for the selection of retailers. The majority of those surveyed (60 per cent) said they only shopped in the town out of convenience.

When asked "What type of shops were missing in Tralee?" most respondents suggested popular high street chains.

These included Marks and Spencer (who previously attempted to open an outlet at Manor West), Zara, River Island (who previously had an outlet on The Mall), H&M and Ikea.

While the variety of shops could improve over 90 per cent of respondents did say Tralee was their number one destination for clothing and food shopping.

Cafes and shops should be happy

If any group in Tralee should be happy with the results of the 'Health Check' it is the town's restaurateurs.

The hospitality sector in the town came in for high praise in the report with 77 per cent of shoppers surveyed praising the choice of cafes and restaurants in the town centre.

It wasn't just the quantity but the quality that was praised with exact same number praising the high standard of the local restaurants.

Business owners too are impressed with Tralee's foodie offerings with more than 80 per cent praising the variety and quality of the restaurants in the town.

Given the findings of another part of the survey local restaurants could play a big part in developing Tralee's tourist offering.

When asked what sort of events should be staged in town 32 per cent of the business respondents and 18 per cent of the surveyed shoppers said they would like to see more food festivals, promotions and markets.

While local eateries came in for the highest praise there was also praise for the town's retail offering and in particular the excellent service provided by local retailers.

A massive 73 per cent of shoppers surveyed praised the standard of service in local shops with just seven per cent claiming it was poor.

The town was also seen as easy to get around and good value. Exactly two thirds of those surveyed said the town is good value for money.

While the restaurants and shops came in for significant praise the report was not without its criticisms.

The lack of events in the town was the biggest criticism with 46 per cent of respondents saying the range of events in Tralee was poor.

While the town park came in for praise 40 per cent said the town lacked attractions other than shops and restaurants.

In terms of a sense of life in Tralee there was a decidedly mixed response. While 48 per cent said the town centre was vibrant 30 per cent said there was little or no vibrancy in the town when they visited. Businesses were even less upbeat with just 41 per cent describing the town as vibrant.
Staff at Lake Region are planning to raise thousands for two very worthy causes at their annual run and walk, which they launched last week..

Every year, the employees of Lake Region, which is the largest employer in the county, selects two charities to raise funds for. In 2016, 15,000 was raised for both Hope Cancer Support Centre, Enniscorthy, and Inistioge Puppy Rescue.

This year the chosen charities are Touching Hearts, Waterford, and Our Lady of Fatima School, Wexford and all donations and sponsorship collected from this run will go directly to these worthy charities.

Attending the recent launch were Dermot Dooley from Touching Hearts Charity accompanied by his family and his son Darragh Dooley who is the inspiration for the charity; Rita Waters from Our Lady of Fatima School accompanied by Danielle Roche and Meg Waters; Ray Higginbotham and Mary O'Neill from the OPW who maintain JFK park.

The launch took place at Lake Region with representatives from the company including Declan Brennan (race director), Eddie Kiely (director of operations), Julie Walsh (HR manager) and various members of the Lake Region Charities Committee who helped organise and launch the event.

The Lake Region Medical 4 Mile Run/2 Mile Walk takes place on Sunday, October 15, at 1.30 p.m. on the grounds of the JFK Arboretum.

This family fun and community based event will provide plenty of activity for kids and adults of all ages. The day will commence at 1.30 p.m. with the 'Lake Region Kiddie Dash' which is an 80m sprint for kids from the ages of 4 to 12 years old (kids go free).

Medals and wrist bands will be presented to all kids who participate on the day. This will be followed by a four mile timed run comprising of two laps of the park for runners of all ages and disciplines. This will be shortly followed by a two mile lap of the park for walkers, those with buggies and kids and anyone who wants to take part. All participants must register prior to the event or on the day from 11.30 a.m.

Light refreshments will then be served and prizes will be presented to the race winners.

This non-for-profit charity event is being supported locally by the United Striders and Catherine Ronan will organise the timing of the run on the day. Local business woman Anna Furlong of Anna Furlong Hairdressing and founder of the Rapunzel Foundation is also giving the event her full backing. Numerous local businesses in the area showed their generosity with sponsorship, raffle prizes and donations in 2016.

Pick up a sponsorship pack by popping into Anna Furlong Hairdressing Studio or call 051-421287 or alternatively to Lake Region Medical Security (051 440655) to register and collect your pack. Find out more at lakeregionmedical4mile.com or on Facebook.
Farmers and landowners in County Wexford are being advised to tread carefully following cases in which the local authority has placed CPOs on their land to sink wells to augment public supplies.

Solicitor John G. Murphy, from John A Sinnott & Co Solicitors, said he wanted to highlight the issue following recent cases in Wexford in which farmers have sought advice after the CPO has been made and a well has been put in place.

Mr Murphy said farmers should seek advice during negotiations with local authorities, not after the event.

'Everyone is aware of the most unfortunate and divisive saga about water charges. Frequently, people will say water charges are ridiculous, that this is Ireland and there is no shortage of water.

'Do we need to prepare at all for water services in Ireland given the amount of rain that falls? The reality is that we most certainly do,' said Mr Murphy.

He said lakes, rivers and reservoirs deplete in a dry spell, so clearly other sources of water must also be tapped. There is an alternative water source deep underground in aquifers which run below the earth's surface.

'It is in this context that farmers would have experienced local authorities acquiring, either by agreement or by compulsory purchase order (CPO), portions of their land in which to drill a borehole and put in a well, designed to augment local public water supplies.

'Irish Water is now in charge of this enterprise but it is frequently still administered by personnel connected to the relevant local authority under guidance from Irish Water. Mr Murphy said that over the years, he had seen several examples of small pieces of land given for little or nothing to councils to allow wells to be put in place.

'Times have changed however. We are now faced with a much more structured regulatory environment concerning water, the sources of water and the protection of these sources.

'What do you know for instance about the quality or lack of quality of the well that has been put in place on your land? Do you know anything about exclusion zones? Mr Murphy said various EU directives have been transposed into Irish legislation and these must be considered when negotiating your compensation with the local authority for the acquisition of the small plot of land on which the well will be based. 'What account have you taken of a potential exclusion zone? This is a zone which can be imposed on you and which could be anything up to 200m or more in diameter, where for instance you could be excluded from spreading any fertiliser. 'What effect would this have on your farming operations? These are items which need very, very careful consideration and evaluation before any compensation package is concluded with Irish Water or a local authority in relation to the acquisition of any portion of your farm,' said the Enniscorthy-based solicitor.
New Ross hairdresser Sharon Sheehan has been recognised as one of the Ireland's top professional hair colourists following her success at reaching the UK & Ireland Final of the hairdressing industry's most prestigious competition, the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award 2017, in the Color Vision Category.

Sharon, from A C Pure salon, which is located at the Brandon House Hotel, beat off stiff competition from more than 500 entrants to scoop the title last week.

Following Sharon's success in the Irish heat she will now go onto compete at this year's UK & Ireland Final, making her one of the country's most sought-after and in-demand professional hair colourists.

In addition to being crowned one of Ireland's top hair colourists Sharon was also chosen as the Image magazine Style award winner by magazine editor in chief Melanie Morris. This is a great coup for Sharon and she will now by Image magazine's go-to expert for hair advice, tips, trends and rescue remedies. She will also judge the Image Business Of Beauty Awards and lead the charge in hair features for the next year.

Melanie Morris said Sharon was a very worthy winner.

'Every year, the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award gives the hottest hair creatives an incredible platform to showcase their expertise, and we at Image love getting this up close and personal access. In collaborating on the Image award, we've worked with some seriously talented hair stylists and this year we're over the moon to have chosen Sharon to be our go-to expert. I've been a big admirer of Sharon's work for a long time and I'm thrilled that we'll get to have her voice, tips and expertise to share with readers in Image, and on Image.ie over the next twelve months.'

A native of Poulpeasty, Sharon set up A C Pure six years ago having previously owned Toni and Guy in Waterford.

'I'm so proud to have reached the UK & Ireland Final of such a prestigious competition. I've always had a huge passion for hair and I am very excited about taking part and competing against the best hairdressers in the country at the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award UK & Ireland Final in September', said Sharon.
Fethard RNLI rescued two people last Monday night after their yacht ran aground off Wexford coast.

The volunteer lifeboat crew was requested to launch their inshore lifeboat shortly after 5pm last Monday following a report from the Irish Coast Guard that a vessel with two people onboard had got into difficulty.

The 27ft yacht had run aground on a mudbank in Duncannon Harbour.

The lifeboat launched at 5.27 p.m and was on scene at 5.30 p.m. Dunmore East RNLI's all-weather lifeboat was also launched.

Weather conditions at the time were good with a south west Force 5 wind and moderate seas.

Having assessed that the two people onboard were safe and well, the lifeboat crew proceeded to work with them to establish a tow line at the back of the yacht. However, this set up proved challenging and it was decided to tow the vessel from the front.

The yacht was successfully re-floated by Fethard's lifeboat while Dunmore East's all-weather lifeboat stood by in the event more power was required.

The yacht then safely continued on her own to Dunmore East.

Speaking following the call out, Hugh Burke, Fethard RNLI Deputy Launching Authority said: 'As we continue to enjoy the summer, we would remind anyone planning a trip at sea to go prepared and respect the water. Communications is vital and it is important that you always carry a means of calling or signalling for help should you get into difficulty and need to contact the emergency services. If you do find yourself in trouble or see someone else in difficulty call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.'
Bank Of Ireland is standing firm behind its decision to close the counter cash services at Ballymote, Tubbercurry and Manorhamilton.

A spokesperson told The Sligo Champion that "in County Sligo, three of our branches will provide all day external lodgement and withdrawal services by year end, facilitating 24/7 access to cash and cheque lodgement facilities, a significant enhancement of the service available within the county."

"When the downturn came, the Irish people bailed out Bank of Ireland. Now we need Bank of Ireland - which we still part own - to stand by communities such as ours," said Maire Doddy.

She and many others living and banking in Ballymote feel aggrieved at the piecemeal withdrawal of banking services in the town.

In March Ulster Bank announced it was closing its Ballymote branch altogether.

Amid a flurry of negative publicity, Ulster Bank executives agreed to meet with Sligo Leitrim TD and Ballymote native Eamon Scanlon in Dublin but made it clear there would be no change to their decision .

Three County Councillors raised the issue at the April monthly meeting of Sligo County Council, Cllrs Keith Henry, Dara Mulvey and Margaret Gormley.

The Council wrote to the bank strongly opposing the closure.

Ulster Bank's Public Affairs Manager Robert Kelly replied on 24th May, saying the decision to close the Ballymote branch was "never taken lightly."

With Ulster Bank out of the picture, many customers and businesses looked to Bank of Ireland.

In May Sligo Councillor Thomas Healy tabled a motion at County Council level.

He said it was "essential to maintain a full time bank service in the town of Ballymote."

His motion was deferred but passed in June. It called on the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to contact the Bank of Ireland to ensure they provide a five day service in Ballymote. He also asked the Council to prepare a report on the retention of existing banking services.
Two historic houses in Rosses Point, mentioned in the writings of W B Yeats, has made it on to the list of the county's protected structures following a plea from a councillor at last Monday's meeting of the County Council.

Councillor Declan Bree had proposed last March that the two Pilot Houses in Rosses Point be included in the Record of Protected Structures saying they were an important part of Sligo's built heritage.

"I have to say I am shocked that the Chief Executive is still recommending that the pilot houses should not be included in the Record of Protected Structures," he told Monday's meeting.

"He states that no evidence has been submitted in support of the proposed inclusion and that there is insufficient information regarding the structures and that there are insufficient resources in the Planning section at present to carry out the necessary research and assessment with regard to the structures," said Cllr Bree, who added that surely in the past eight months someone in the Council could have carried out even a minimal amount of research.

"Clearly Rosses Point's maritime tradition and history should be taken into consideration and in particular the Yeats connection to the river pilots old watch houses.

"The pilot house North of Jackson's Pier features in Jack Yeats 1900 masterpiece "Memory Harbour" which has been described as Yeats's most important water colour.

"W.B. Yeats, in "The Old Men of the Twilight" refers to "the place, close to the Deadman's Point at the Rosses where the disused pilot house looks out to sea through two round windows like eyes."

"There are a hell of a lot less important building included in the Record of Protected Structures in this county and I am at a loss to comprehend why the Chief Executive would not recommend that the pilot houses be included.

What additional information is required?

Rosses Point and its people were an inspiration for both of the Yeats brothers. As children they spent much of their summers in Rosses Point where their uncle Henry Middleton owned Elisnore Lodge, which unfortunately now lies in ruins.

Last year we learned through the media that W.B. Yeats's Nobel Prize Medal, the showpiece of Sligo's Yeats Collection, which had been in the possession of this Council and which had been on display in Sligo for over 50 years, was gone and was transferred to Dublin," said Cllr Bree.

His motion seeking protected status for the pilot houses was seconded by Cllr Gino O'Boyle and unanimously adopted.
Some weeks ago an English Catholic magazine referred to Steve Bannon as a practising Catholic. When I read that I nearly choked on my porridge. It really was hilarious. Steve Bannon has married three times and has divorced three times. I have to admit that the piece confused me.

Leaving aside his marital status it's plain to see that Mr Bannon, a trusted adviser and friend of President Trump is a right-wing zealot who wants to destroy all and every trace of anything that smacks of liberal or moderate thinking. Bannon was a founding member of far-right Breitbart News, which is racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic. It would appear Bannon does not believe in compromise.

If Steve Bannon is what Catholicism is about then it's time for me to leave the church. It really is amazing the latitude many church people can give to extreme right-wing thinking. We really are being battered from every side. It's difficult to remain sane in the days that are in it. The Trump administration is not noted for telling the truth. I'm reminded of that infamous comment from Vladimir Lenin that a lie told often enough becomes a truth. Is that what alternative facts are?

When Anthony Scaramucci lost his job in the White House, it was reported that President Trump said that he had to go because of inappropriate language he had used. I have heard of examples of the pot calling the kettle black but this really takes the biscuit. Trump sacking someone for inappropriate language. He's talking about pardoning himself. Maybe he needs to think about sacking himself.

Trump and his team cleverly pandered to an American religious extreme right wing coalition and managed to garner their votes. But he also picked up a wider Christian vote. In an opinion piece in The New York Times on August 2, Ross Douthat talks about a 'cheerfully pagan Trump' getting the religious vote. Douthat points out that as politics in the US has grown more polarised, the Catholic position has become 'more difficult and perplexing'.

Sometimes it might seem that the President says the first thing that comes into his head. But most likely he is far more thoughtful than we think. If you look at his team you will quickly realise they are right-wing. And he now has four army generals in his cabinet. One might be forgiven for thinking that the US has been taken over by an army coup. Trump's popularity is now on the floor. Yes, he still has a fanatical support base but that can't last too much longer. When the coal mines stay idle and the factories in the rust belt remain closed even his die-hard support will begin to wobble.

History tells us that going to war boosts the popularity of a leader. North Korean President Kim Jong-Un is proving to be the perfect bogey man for the Trump administration. While the shenanigans in the White House may make for fun television every evening, we are living in scary times.Trump has not shown any signs of being good at diplomacy, something that the world needs in spades in the current tension-filled atmosphere.

All the time Mother Russia and The Middle Kingdom (China) watch on. And what must Pope Francis think of the alignment between Trump and some of the US bishops?
Gary McLoughlin knows a great deal about drink. This is not to suggest or imply or presume that he is any way an alcoholic. His encounter with the reporter from the 'People' takes place at a perfectly sober hour on a weekday morning. Yet it is nevertheless abundantly clear that Gary is very well versed in drink indeed.

We meet in one of Ireland's newest examples of an ancient craft, the headquarters of Glendalough Distillery, billed as Ireland's craft first distillery. It is located down the hill from Glendalough itself in the unpretentious setting of a Newtownmountkennedy business park.

'You have to start somewhere,' muses Gary, against a background of the pipes and vats which make the manufacture of whiskey and gin possible. 'We have been here since 2013 and it is a great place.' Nevertheless, he hints that a move to a quainter, more tourist friendly site is on the cards.

The production of spirits in this country has long been the preserve of major companies, with the well-known brands owned by vast multi-national corporations. Gary used to see first-hand how these industrial giants operated. As a marketing executive working in Dublin, his portfolio included Heineken and Harp lagers, as well as Murphy's stout. During his 15-year career in advertising he also helped to make Jameson the toast of whiskey drinkers all around the world.

Whiskey was very much the topic of conversation he had a few years ago with his buddies Barry Gallagher and Brian Fagan, who earned their living as drinks analysts, studying global trends in drink sales. They confided in Gary their conviction that there was room in the market for their own small distillery, though they were realistic enough to perceive that they did not have a clue how to set about it. He persuaded his friends that that if their hunch was correct, then he was just the man to market their wares.

'Barry and Brian had the idea and they came to me about the branding. I picked up the phone to call Kevin Keenan, creative director,' recalls Gary.

Within a few months, four became five as Barry's cousin Donal O'Gallachoir was added to the growing conspiracy. The Bray man was in the United States at the time selling whiskey, so he was a logical person to turn to. Five years ago, the quintet all had good careers in well established businesses but now they are committed to making Glendalough known in pubs and cocktail bars around the globe.

They looked at a whiskey market dominated by the likes of Jameson, Midleton, Bushmills and Cooley, all controlled by multi-national corporations. The conspirators, all men in their thirties, noted that distilling used to be scattered across Ireland in hundreds of locations rather than concentrated in a handful of places. It was time, they reckoned, to recapture some of the 19th-century approach and set up the first Irish craft distillery of the 21st century.

They hit on Glendalough and St Kevin as their inspiration.

'You can tell a great story with a spirit,' says Gary. 'Growing up, we were all brought for walks to Glendalough. It is an amazing and special place, a place we loved.' Heaven alone knows what the hermit Kevin would make of being enrolled in an alcoholic enterprise but McLoughlin insists that the saint provides plenty of inspiration. 'St Kevin is our favourite Irish monk and he is prominent on all our labels.' His namesake Kevin Keenan and Gary came up with the logo.

The image shows the holy man standing with arms extended and hands raised, a bird settled on his right palm. It illustrates the legend which tells how the saint chose to stay stock still for months on end rather than disturb the bird which had chosen to nest in his hand. The tale is certainly appropriate for production of whiskey, which takes a long, long time to mature. The five lads were just a tad more impatient than their holy inspiration as they set about their revolutionary activity.

So they have started out by selling whiskey distilled by someone else (though matured by Glendalough) and with producing drinks which take less time to make. They are the front-runners in an emerging movement which has already spawned a dozen new, small-scale distilleries around Ireland, with more on the way. Gary insists that it was the Irish who showed the Scots how to make 'uisce beatha' and now it is time for the Scots to return the compliment.

Production in Scotland comes from 100 or so plants and he believes there is no reason why this more scattered approach should not be mirrored on this side of the water. Scotch is huge business, though the Irish equivalent shows signs of catching up.

'Jameson have opened the way for Irish whiskey to be great again - they are brilliant,' comments Gary McLoughlin. He likes the way that Jameson not only makes and sells its products but also welcomes tourists who come to see the distillery in Dublin. The production line in Newtownmountkennedy is a less grand affair.

The day that the still arrived from the Black Forest in Germany at the business park is remembered with laughter by those involved.

'It was pretty much flat pack - like a big Ikea project.'

The assembled contraption now that they have put it successfully together is a thing of engineering beauty, with its assemblage of copper or stainless steel vats and pipes. It is now operated by Ciaran 'Rowdy' Rooney, who commutes out from Dublin city centre to tend to the process of turning Irish ingredients into Irish spirits. But the first batches were concocted by the five pioneers over weekends and during holidays. They immediately found takers for their liquor - not just for the whiskey they have matured in oaken barrels but also for poitin made from barley and sugar beet and for gin.

'I am full time since 2015,' says Gary on his move from advertising other people's products to selling his own wares. 'It was as big decision but I didn't have to think twice about it - Glendalough was flying.' The other four have followed suit at various stages and Glendalough is still 'flying'.

Two years ago the graphic of St Kevin with his arms outstretched was exhibited on the shelves behind the bars of eight countries. Now the total runs to 36 countries, with 16 people on the pay roll. Lithuania and Finland were recently added to the ever expanding list, with India due to come on stream shortly, though the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany are the major export markets.

The key destination is the United States, where Donal O'Gallachoir is based full time, ensuring that discerning drinkers in Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington DC are catered for by a team of 'brand ambassadors'.

Word is also spreading closer to home.

'This business is all about distribution,' explains McLoughlin, delighted to report that drink distilled in Co. Wicklow is beginning to find its way into SuperValu supermarkets and O'Brien's off-licences. Persuading retailing customers to sign up has been made easier by successes at events such as the San Francisco World Sprits competition. In 2015, a Glendalough entry was rated 'Best Irish Whiskey' by the discerning adjudicators in San Fran: 'I nearly fell off the chair when I got the news.'

With such honours to boast about, Rowdy Rooney is hard pushed to keep up with the demand and a second distiller will soon be added to the Glendalough Distillery payroll.

Glendalough gin is winning plenty of admirers, as it is fortified with some most unusual ingredients. Glenealy woman Geraldine Kavanagh has been recruited to add some Glendalough magic in the form of elderflowers, clover and wild raspberries to the mix.

'We are the first to do seasonal gin,' declares Gary, who has seen the mixologists in the cocktail bars of London fall in love with the 'Wild Botanical Gin'. Whiskey takes long years to bring to market, gaining flavour in bonded warehouses as it is stored in casks that once held bourbon or sherry, while gin can be cooked up in less than two months.

Glendalough Distillery has attracted admirers, including former Irish rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll, who can look forward to an expanding choice of offerings coming their way. The current range covers the whiskey (aged seven or 13 years), the poitin (selection embraces a sherry cask spirit and the dynamite 60% alcohol 'Mountain Strength') and the gin ('Wild Botanical' or pick any one of the four seasons).

The marketing spiel traces the history of distilling back to around the time of St Kevin when sixth-century Irish monasteries were recorded experimenting with rudimentary pot stills when not attending to their prayers. Gary and his comrades reckon they are tapping into the soul of Ireland's drinks tradition as they bid to recapture the days when the island boasted more than 200 licensed distilleries.

Cheers!
The dedicated army of Tinahely Show organisers presented an epic event to be proud of on Monday last.

The 82nd annual show ran from early morning until late into the night and there was quite literally something for everyone.

The committee once again saw the rolling hills of south Wicklow turned into a small town with marquees and stalls as far as the eye could see and crowds to rival those of any summer music festival.

Whether your interest lay in the livestock and agri-machinery sections, or the trade stands showing off the latest in farming technology and brands or you simply sought a fun and entertaining day outm then the Tinahely Show kept its promise to be a day to remember.

From delicious locally-produced food to stunning crafts such as knitting, basket making and quilting the array of talent on display was a sight to behold.

This year's Show Queen title went to worthy winner Shonagh Mulligan, who represented Murphy's Butchers in Tinahely. Shonagh was picked from a very capable line-up of young women all seeking the title, and she will soon enjoy a trip to Wales as part of her prize fund.

Special guests on the day from the Pembrokeshire Agricultural Show in Wales will soon host their own event and Shonagh will be in attendance.

Country music fans were delighted to see their idol Derek Ryan in the flesh and he kept the crowds dancing throughout his set.

Sharon Lyons was the lucky winner of the VIP package to meet and greet music star Derek and was certainly delighted to have been chosen.
Wicklow RNLI has honoured two long-serving members who recently retired from service.

Dermot Collins joined Wicklow RNLI on June 1, 2004, as Deputy Launching Authority and not long after retiring from Irish Ferries, where his last position was that of captain of the ferry Ulysses.

Over the next 13 years, he served his community and the RNLI diligently and with dedication. He was involved in some of the major operations at the station over the years.

At a farewell reception in Wicklow Sailing Club, Dermot was presented with a certificate of service signed by the RNLI Director of Operations. He was also presented with a glass engraving of the M/v Ulysses by acting Coxswain Ciaran Doyle and Station Mechanic Brendan Copeland on behalf of a grateful crew.

RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, Des Davitt said: 'Dermot's quiet and unassuming manner helped him to readily fit in with the operations team at the lifeboat station. He was certainly of great assistance to me and an asset to the station'.

Barry Spencer received his framed certificate of service, signed by the Director of Operations for the RNLI, from station Mechanic Brendan Copeland. Barry retired at the end of May after 15 years' service.

He began as a crewman on both the inshore vessel and the all-weather lifeboat. He later became ILB mechanic and served with distinction for six years as Helm on the Inshore Lifeboat. Barry was involved in many rescues over his years and the popular Wexford native will be missed.
Hugh, Frances and Ruth Campbell, Mr Carlos Lucini of the Spanish Embassy, Cllr Pat Fitzgerald and Cllr Pat Kennedy unveiling the plaque to commemorate the 100th birthday of artist George Campbell

Arklow Municipal District has been shortlisted for a two national awards in the areas of heritage and business.

AMD received a nomination in the fourteenth annual Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards for Commemorating the 100th birthday and birthplace of artist George Campbell RHA (1917 - 1979) under the Heritage and Built Environment category. The members of Arklow Municipal District, along with nieces and nephews of the Campbell family, commemorated the 100th birthday of artist and writer George Campbell RHA in May 2017 by unveiling a plaque at St Patrick's Terrace, Arklow.

Born on the July 29, 1917, at 3, St Patrick's Terrace (formerly King's Terrace), Arklow, George was the son of Gretta Bowen and Matthew Campbell. Though he grew up in Belfast, he spent much of his adult life living and painting in Spain.

The 2017 Excellence in Local Government Awards, sponsored by Vodafone in conjunction with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, are held to recognise and celebrate the outstanding work being carried out by Local Authorities all over Ireland.

In 2015 Arklow's Duck Pond, Nature Walk and Leisure Area won the top award in the Excellence in Local Government Awards beating off competition from around the country, under the Parks and Recreations category.

There was more good news for Arklow in recent days as the town has been nominated for the Bank of Ireland's National Enterprising Town Awards competition in the population category greater than 7,001. This will be an opportunity for Arklow to highlight recent and forthcoming initiatives for the town.

The newly established Town Team will demonstrate the co-operation between the local authority, community, voluntary groups and the business section. This follows on from the launch of the promotional video for Arklow Municipal District - Making a Difference. The video, which is available online, successfully brought a wide variety of community, business, hospitality and local authority interests together to promote Arklow for the benefit of all.

The Town Team has successfully initiated a number of projects with overwhelming community support, such as the installation of flower baskets and planters for the town and plans are underway to resurface the Main Street which will contribute to making the town more attractive and appealing to potential investors and visitors.

Commenting on the nominations, the Cathaoirleach of Arklow Municipal District, Cllr Tommy Annesley said 'I am delighted that Arklow Municipal District, has been recognised nationally by these nominations and I would like to congratulate all involved. It is recognition of the fact that so many people in the local authority and the community are delivering great work on a daily basis.'
A young Hacketstown man will soon commence his third level education in the US after being awarded a full college scholarship valued at $48,000.

Samuel Allan-Chapkovski (17) has been studying the violin since the tender age of four and has attended masterclasses with tutors all over the world including his mother Alexandra's native city of Moscow and in London.

His family have supported his musical calling since early childhood when he first showed an interest in the instrument - first taking him to lessons in Ashford.

Samuel who was born in Newtownmountkennedy was also home-schooled throughout his childhood to facilitate regular travel overseas to competitions and lessons.

He received confirmation in recent weeks that he was awarded the scholarship to complete a diploma in Temple University, Philadelphia.

During the past seven years particularly, Samuel has participated in many prestigious international competitions and most recently won 1st Prize in the 'Remember Enescu' competition in Sinaia, Romania.

His commitment has now paid off and it will be quite a busy few weeks for Samuel as he prepares to start college and performs in the international Mozart Festival in Salzburg this weekend, Sunday, August 13.

Samuel was invited to perform in the event in the birthplace of Mozart in recent months having applied for active participation.

He will join some of the best classical musicians from all over the world.

Those who would like to see Samuel perform on home turf before he jets off to Philadelphia will be able to do so on August 27 when he gives a concert in Moore Hall, Monasterevin at 7 p.m.
Recently released figures suggesting that Arklow property prices have risen so much that Local Property Tax could rise by an average of 250 have been questioned by a local councillor.

Cllr Pat Fitzgerald said that the figures have given rise to much worry amongst local people, who are now fearful that their tax band will jump from 90 to 315 once the current property tax freeze comes to an end in 2019.

The figures were gleaned from analysis of average property prices recorded by the Central Statistics Office.

While the property market appears to be improving slowly, Cllr Fitzgerald said that Arklow properties are not reaching much higher values yet.

'The suggestion is that many houses which were in the 0 to 100,000 valuation band will now move to the third band which is between 150,000 and 200,000. This would mean that the homeowner would be liable for a tax payment of 315. It is my view that Arklow property has not increased by anything that would justify this increase,' he said.

According to local estate agent Ronan Mills of Peter Mills Property in Arklow, the market is seeing green shoots but not to the extent suggested.

'A lot of people were scraping in under the 100,000 valuation threshold but the expectation is that they would most likely move into the next band of 100,000-150,000 for which the Local Property Tax is 225,' he said.

Mr Mills said that the Arklow market is not as buoyant as other areas of Wicklow nearer to Dublin, such as Bray and Delgany, and that when it comes to rental properties, landlords are seeking rates that rival those more expensive areas.

'Prices in Arklow are driven by the market in those areas. Landlords will see what is being asked for properties in the north of the county and apply them to properties here, which many people would not be able to afford.'
Its rare that a week goes by without one of the Beckhams making the headlines, whether were reading of Brooklyns new tattoo, Harpers party at Buckingham Palace or rumours swirling about the state of Victoria and Davids marriage. There are also regular snippets of the familys jet-set lifestyle posted on their many social-media accounts, all of which feed our appetite for brand Beckham.

But for many of us, its the matriarch, Victoria, who is most intriguing. She has, after all, successfully transitioned from 90s pop star to WAG to globally acclaimed fashion designer within two decades. All while raising sons Brooklyn, 18, Romeo, 14, Cruz, 12, and daughter Harper, six; plus relocating from London to Madrid to LA and back to London.

Along the way, Victoria has faced criticism from the public and the media, for everything from the way she dresses to how she brings up her children. However, shes always managed to ride the storm and come out the other side. Over the past nine years, her fashion line, Victoria Beckham, has grown steadily and amassed a loyal celebrity following: Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Beyonce are regularly spotted wearing her pieces. She also collaborated with the massive US chain Target on a mother-and-daughter-inspired clothing line in April, which sold out within hours, and earlier this year was awarded an OBE.

But its not fashion she wants to talk about when I meet her in the penthouse suite of Claridges Hotel, its the second instalment of her beauty collection with Estee Lauder. The first offering, unveiled last September, was a runaway success, with several products selling out within hours, including the Morning Aura illuminator and the nude Lip Pencil in the eponymous shade, Victoria. The highly anticipated range was divided into four cities, London, Paris, New York and LA, with make-up looks to reflect each destination, including a Californian glow and a Parisian red lip.

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In the flesh and away from prying photographers, Victoria is warm and inviting. There is no trace of the famous aloof pout that weve become accustomed to seeing in photos; instead she offers a friendly yet firm handshake. Despite the mild weather outside, shes wearing a navy roll-neck sweater and pleated skirt from her autumn/winter 2017 collection, and her make-up, including the signature nude lip and smoky eye is, of course, perfect.

While the first collection was small and focused, the new offering, which hits the shelves next month, is about expanding and establishing her beauty philosophy  and with 18 new products, including a debut mascara, cream blusher and matte eyeshadows, there is plenty to talk about. Perched on the edge of a cream sofa with the new beauty stash precisely displayed on the coffee table in front of her, Victoria is keen to get her message across.

Its a passion project for me. There were half the amount of products the first time round; I was only scratching the surface and Ive got a lot to say about beauty, she asserts.

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Perhaps this is a discreet nod to the whisperings last autumn about Victorias involvement in the project and whether the products were just existing formulations wrapped up in new packaging. Admittedly, this isnt uncommon with celebrity-led brands, and it isnt the first time Victoria has fended off rumours about her ability, or supposed lack of it. When she unveiled her first line of dresses, rumours abounded that the designer Roland Mouret had offered more than a helping hand. In reality, he had merely recommended pattern-cutters.

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Her subsequent success  both critically and commercially  has silenced those doubters and Victoria seems determined to do the same with her beauty range. I was at the airport looking at the make-up in duty- free and I thought, Everything looks the same. For me its not about copying what everyone else is doing, its about creating make-up that women feel proud to own. Ultimately its about empowering women.

Victoria has put a lot of herself into the collection and wants it to feel attainable and wearable. There are must-have pieces that every woman should have in her make-up bag. Im obsessed with nude lipsticks and the new Matte Lipstick formula is absolute perfection. I learn an enormous amount by seeing pictures of myself and in photos the new shades read as nude, but in practical terms you can get a really great lip shape and it doesnt bleed. I put this lipstick on at seven oclock this morning  Ive eaten my breakfast, my lunch and its still in place.

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Victoria insists on trialling all of the formulas herself. I like to wear-test everything. Last night, I went home and was talking to David and he said, Youve got a lot of make-up on. I test everything and keep removing, reapplying and layering it.

She has been incredibly hands-on with the process and has worked closely with Estee Lauder Companies global partnerships lead, Sarah Creal, on everything from the initial concept of splitting the collection into cities or looks, to the nitty-gritty of product development. I never thought I would be having conversations about how much it costs to create a lipstick lid, and thats frustrating, but this is a business and Ive had to learn on the job very quickly.

Shes not the only one who has been pushed out of her comfort zone: Creal has had to source new manufacturers and factories to bring Victorias vision to life. The debut Eye Ink Mascara in Blackest is a case in point. I wanted a mascara with a beautiful, refined wand and brush that meant you could really get into the roots, says Victoria. The design of the mascara is a first for Estee Lauder as it has a tiny brush and a looser wiper, so you get plenty of mascara in one sweep.

Victoria recommends using the wand horizontally on the upper lashes. On the lower lashes I use it vertically on a few lashes at a time because I like it when they look a little spiky  I think spidery lashes are very youthful. Any leftover mascara is then used to shape and spike her brows.

The Pore Perfecting Powder was equally tricky to create as Victoria had a long list of requirements. I wanted something that closed the pore, that really perfected the skin  a lightweight but effective texture in a colour that would suit all skin tones, and I wanted to be able to contour with it. No mean feat, but Creal mastered it.

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Eagle-eyed fans will also notice a new city has been added to the collection. Miami is a burst of colour with cobalt-blue and vibrant coral matte eyeshadows. Such boldness might not seem very Victoria, but she has her own way of wearing the shades. I layer the blue on top of the black liner, so you get this subtle navy feel, she says, although she admits the orange hue takes slightly more nerve to pull off.

Essentially, Victoria is trying to cater to her existing customers while attracting new ones, who might not have been able to invest in a Victoria Beckham dress, but can afford a bronzer or lipstick. As with everything she does, though, there is very little room for compromise and she has paid stringent attention to detail, right down the eyeliner with its monogrammed pencil sharpener. I have a really obsessive eye, so the new mascara had to be the exact height of Morning Aura, [while] the lipstick looks smaller than the average, but contains the same amount of product.

The second instalment of VB beauty might have doubled in size, but she hasnt finished there. She has already revealed that there are more products in the pipeline, including a fragrance and skincare. Sometimes things take longer in development, so they might not be here right now, but we really try to push the boundaries and do something different. Im not trying to be anyone else. Im just doing what I want to do and giving women what I think they genuinely want.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Top model and actress Cara Delevingne started her 25th birthday celebrations early this week by whisking a group of close pals off to Mexico for a sunny vacation.

The Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets star got a head start on her birthday fun - she turns 25 today - and has been sharing shots from her all-girls holiday on social media.

I am so lucky to have such incredible friends, thank you for inspiring and supporting me ladies #Sexico A post shared by Cara Delevingne (@caradelevingne) on Aug 11, 2017 at 7:03am PDT

On Thursday, she began posting snaps from the Chichen Itza Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula as she and her supermodel gal pals hugged each other and smiled for the camera.

Joining Cara on the trip are her sister Poppy and fellow models Alice Dellal, Lady Clara Paget, Suki Waterhouse, and Georgia May Jagger, the daughter of fun-loving rock star Sir Mick.

WE @chaos A post shared by Cara Delevingne (@caradelevingne) on Aug 11, 2017 at 7:11am PDT

Cara returned to Instagram to post photos from a boating trip, in which she appeared to be topless.

"I am so lucky to have such incredible friends," she wrote as a caption. "Thank you for inspiring and supporting me, ladies #Sexico..."

Other Mexican party guests like Lady Mary Charteris, model Adwoa Aboah and Talulah Bernard have also been posting photos from the supermodel getaway on social media throughout the week.

It appears the fun in the sun began after the Valerian premiere in Mexico City last week.

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Unfortunately, the film hasn't been a birthday boost for Suicide Squad star Cara and her director Luc Besson - blasted by critics, the film flopped upon its release in America last month.
Eight soldiers and seven civilians have been killed after terrorists targeted a military truck with a bomb in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, authorities said.

A military statement said the bomb also wounded 25 people, including 15 civilians.

It added that incendiary explosives were used in the blast that sparked fires in nearby vehicles.

Sarfraz Bugti, the home minister for Baluchistan, said the blast took place near a private hospital but its nature is still being investigated.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Baluchistan borders Iran and Afghanistan and has been the scene of a low level insurgency by Baloch separatists groups who want a greater share of the province's mineral and gas resources.

Militant groups operating in the province have previously claimed responsibility for attacking security forces.
White nationalist demonstrators hold their ground as they clash with counter-demonstrators in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia (Steve Helber/AP)

White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville (AP)

A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville (AP)

One person has died and 19 others were injured after a car ploughed into a group of anti-white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

University of Virginia Medical Centre spokeswoman Angela Taylor confirmed the death, while t he mayor of Charlottesville Michael Signer said via Twitter that he is "heartbroken" to announce that a "life has been lost".

Witnesses said a car ploughed into a crowd of people who were protesting against a rally held by white nationalists who oppose the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee by civic officials in Charlottesville.

The city had been the scene of violent clashes between the nationalists and counter-protesters earlier.

Speaking in New Jersey, US president Donald Trump condemned "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" in Virginia.

He added: "What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives."

And the US leader added that Americans must come together "with love for our nation ... and true affection for each other".

A state official later said the male driver of a car is in police custody.

During the incident an Associated Press reporter saw at least one person on the ground receiving medical treatment immediately after the car careened into a group of people several hundred strong.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tyre screeching sound".

A silver vehicle smashed into another car, then reversed, ploughing through "a sea of people".

The incident happened about two hours after violent clashes broke out between white nationalists and others who arrived to protest against them.

At least eight were injured and one arrested in connection with earlier violence when marchers and counter-protesters traded punches and threw missiles at each other.

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, and riot police ordered people to disperse.

Small bands of protesters who showed up to express their opposition to the rally were seen marching around the city peacefully by mid-afternoon, chanting and waving flags, while helicopters circled overhead.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally to protest the city of Charlottesville's decision to remove the confederate statue from a city centre park.

It is the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, DC, voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a night-time protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group travelled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Mr Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols, but also about free speech and "advocating for white people".

"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.

Among those expected to attend the rally were Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and "alt-right" activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which track extremist groups, said the event had the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

There were also fights on Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

Mr Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town, and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

He said: "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city which is home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statue's removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville's history is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They're now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund has filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials.

A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction which blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.

AP
French President Emmanuel Macron, flanked by his wife Brigitte, holds a baby as he visits the Robert-Debre paediatric hospital in Paris this week. Photo: Reuters

August is the month when Paris is left largely to tourists as French officialdom takes to the coast and countryside for the annual holiday.

But for those who comprise President Emmanuel Macron's new administration, the summer break will be overshadowed by plunging ratings less than 100 days after his glittering inauguration. Several recent opinion polls have indicated that what the media had called 'Macron-mania' - the French fascination with its youngest president in the country's modern history - is fading.

As France's Ifop polling agency put it: "Apart from Jacques Chirac in 1995, a newly elected president has never seen his popularity rate falling as quickly during the summer after the election."

Even his much-maligned predecessors, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, had higher approval ratings at this stage of their presidencies.

Mr Macron's defenders counter that his overall ratings remain healthy, with over 50pc of French saying they approve of their 39-year-old president. But after the summer holidays comes the difficult task of implementing an ambitious domestic agenda, and Mr Macron will need all the popular support he can get.

Mr Macron's electoral triumph earlier this year upended France's staid politics, with his neophyte political movement trumping the country's traditional political divides to win both the presidency and control of parliament.

Presenting himself more as a centrist, the former investment banker and economic minister drew support from both left and right but given his main challenger was the far-right Marine Le Pen, his victory was less about what he actually represented and more about a popular swell to keep Ms Le Pen out.

Some attribute Mr Macron's plummeting ratings to an attitude that many French now complain is close to imperious. For such a young president - and one who sought to present himself on the campaign trail as very much a citizen of the world - he has shown a curiously old-fashioned love for pageantry.

Nicknamed 'Jupiter' for his aloof manner, Mr Macron keeps the media at a distance, eschewing direct questions, including the traditional Bastille Day interview, in favour of more staged public appearances.

But the growing gripes about Mr Macron go beyond questions of style. His goal of reducing France's budget deficit to the EU target of 3pc and making the economy more competitive requires navigating a whole range of interests and sensitivities. Plans to slash the military budget by 850m prompted a very public spat with General Pierre De Villiers, the head of the armed forces, last month, which culminated in De Villiers's resignation. Around the same time, the word 'authoritarian' started creeping into French media commentary about the president.

Other measures such as cutting housing subsidies and social security allowances, while at the same time proposing an easing of the wealth tax, have raised hackles.

And plans for a shake-up of labour laws, which would weaken worker protections, have galvanised France's powerful unions, raising the spectre of strikes and protests later in the year.

As domestic challenges mount, Mr Macron has been busy on the international stage, hosting US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Paris and convening talks aimed at resolving the Libyan conflict. While building up France's diplomatic profile after it took a dive during the Hollande years might appeal to some, for others the real work needs to be done at home.

Mr Macron's recent plan to boost the role of his wife Brigitte by giving the function of first lady legal status as an official of the state did not go down well, with some interpreting it as more evidence of his imperial tendencies.

"In terms of style and approach, it seems our new president thinks of himself as a mix of de Gaulle and Napoleon," one disillusioned Mr Macron voter told me this week. "It's too much, particularly when we have yet to see much of what he can actually deliver where it matters - in France."

Mr Macron's victory earlier this year not only staved off the prospect of a far-right incumbent in the Elysee Palace, it also gave France - knocked sideways by a string of deadly terrorist attacks since 2015 - a much-needed confidence boost.

But Mr Macron's habit of micro-managing and personalising power - his apparent need to be 'chief' is now increasingly mocked in French cartoons - carries risks, not least that he will have to shoulder all responsibility for what may go wrong.

Poor polling aside, Mr Macron has a large parliamentary majority behind him and with the rest of France's political factions weak, divided and dazed after this year's ground-breaking elections, there is much he can capitalise on. A little less of the Jupiter act might help.
Armed police wait to enter the hotel room of the Irishman

THIS IS the dramatic moment a senior member of the international Kinahan crime cartel is arrested in his Spanish hotel bed.

Armed officers held the Irishman after storming his room as he was fast asleep beside an unidentified woman at the hotel in the Costa Dorada resort of Salou 60 miles south of Barcelona.

Footage released by police showed the elite team - carrying semi-automatic weapons with flashlights on them - running into the room after getting radio orders to strike as colleagues went in through a back terrace.

They can be heard shouting in Spanish, Las Manos, Las Manos - English for Hands up, hands up before yelling in English, Dont Move.

The 34-year-old Irishman, wanted on a number of charges, appeared to be asleep at the time although the television in his hotel room was still on.

The fugitive, also a suspect in the 2010 murder of gang boss Eamon The Don Dunne who cannot be named for legal reasons, was driven to Madrid after his arrest for an extradition hearing.

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It was not immediately clear today if he had consented to extradition or opposed his forced return to Ireland.

The hotel where the arrest took place has not been named.

Spanish police revealed they had come close to catching the wanted major league gangster in November last year at Malaga airport.

He escaped after crossing a busy motorway as officers closed in on him when he went to meet relatives arriving from Ireland.

The European Arrest Warrant was issued after a search of his car in 2013.

The 34-year-old was arrested over the 2010 murder of Eamon 'The Don' Dunne.

The senior cartel player was previously arrested in relation to the murder but was never charged.

However, he is facing serious charges that were brought against him after Dunne was gunned down at The Fassaugh House pub in Cabra.

A Spanish police spokesman, confirming the Costa Dorada hotel arrest and identifying the detainee only by his initials, said: Spanish National Police officers have arrested an Irishman born in 1982 on foot of a European Arrest warrant at his hotel in Salou near Tarragona.

Efforts to locate him centred on the province of Malaga due to his alleged links to the Kinahan organised Irish crime family," he added.

The spokesman, revealing how the suspect narrowly avoided capture in November last year, added: Subsequently it was discovered several members of his family were due to travel to Malaga and a surveillance operation was set up on Spanish soil, thanks to which he was located with his family at Malaga Airport.

He reacted with great violence against officers who went to arrest him and fled, crossing several lanes of a motorway before managing to escape.

The Irishman had checked into the hotel in Salou using a false identity. His detention was the work of Special Operations Group GEO officers based in Catalunya who are often called on to rescue hostages or take out terrorists.
Japan's prime minister has said he will do everything he can to protect people as tensions escalate over North Korean plans to send missiles flying over Japan toward Guam.

"I will do everything, to the best of my ability, to protect the safety and property of the Japanese people," Shinzo Abe said on Saturday, while visiting his father's tomb in his ancestral home town of Nagato, western Japan.

The Defence Ministry said on Friday it was deploying four surface-to-air Patriot interceptors in western Japan to respond to a possible risk of fragments falling from missiles.

The ministry did not confirm whether defence minister Itsunori Onodera has already issued an order to shoot down incoming missiles.

AP
The North Korean Hwasong 12 is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea earlier this year Photo: AP

Between American threats of "fire and fury" and North Korea's vow to unleash a "historic enveloping fire" on a US territory, the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington has suddenly raised fears of escalating into an actual war.

Between American threats of "fire and fury" and North Korea's vow to unleash a "historic enveloping fire" on a US territory, the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington has suddenly raised fears of escalating into an actual war.

It also has brought a rush of speculation about the brinkmanship at play - including trying to understand the moves and motives of the North's leader, Kim Jong-un.

With his unequivocal words, Donald Trump appeared intent on sending a message to North Korea - and to its backer China - that enough was enough, according to administration officials.

But with Mr Kim, the endgame is above all seeking to stay in power, analysts said. The 33-year-old leader inherited control of the totalitarian regime from his father and grandfather, who founded North Korea with Soviet and Chinese backing after World War II.

"What Kim Jong-un really wants is to improve his missiles and nuclear weapons and to keep the country under his leadership," said Michael Madden, who runs the North Korea Leadership Watch website.

Although the Western caricature of Mr Kim is of a pudgy madman, he has been a textbook dictator, making rational decisions for someone who wants to retain absolute power.

On Thursday, South Korea's National Security Council urged North Korea to calm down, offering the prospect of talks, while its military issued a much sterner warning.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea would suffer "strong and resolute retaliation" from allied US and South Korean forces if it mounted an attack on either country.

The warnings came after North Korea earlier made an unusually specific threat. In a statement attributed to the North Korean army's strategic forces commander, Pyongyang threatened to fire four Hwasong-12 ballistic missiles over Japan for "3,356.7km for 1,065 seconds" - nearly 18 minutes - by the middle of this month, saying they would land within 30km-40km of Guam, the American territory in the Pacific.

This threat was not made in response to Mr Trump's "fire and fury" remarks but rather in reaction to the US launching a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on August 2.

Japanese leaders denounced the threat and residents in the three Japanese prefectures named as on the missiles' flight path expressed fear.

A war still remains in no one's interest - especially not in the case of the 25 million South Koreans who live within range of North Korea's conventional artillery - but the combination of two tempestuous leaders with nuclear codes has created an atmosphere where anything seems possible.

'The risk in north-east Asia stems from both Trump and Kim Jong-un," said Koo Hae-woo, who was a top official at South Korea's intelligence service until 2014 and now runs the Korea Institute for Future Strategies think tank.

"Kim is ratcheting up the tension to the maximum level, while President Trump doesn't rule out war as an option," Mr Koo said.

The Kims have kept a tight grip on North Korea internally through a brutal system of repression and fear, and have increasingly kept the outside world at bay by developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. This has traditionally been viewed as a deterrent to fend off the kind of fate that Saddam Hussein suffered in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi endured in Libya.

Since taking over the reins at the end of 2011, Kim Jong-un has accelerated the development of North Korea's weapons programme. Last month, North Korea launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles believed capable of reaching the US mainland, and American intelligence officials have concluded that they are now able to attach nuclear warheads to them, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a fully-fledged nuclear power.

While these weapons might work as a deterrent, it would be suicidal for Mr Kim to actually use them and risk retaliation by the much more powerful US military.

"Kim Jong-un is not trying to pick a fight," Mr Madden said, adding that Pyongyang was well aware that Mr Trump had a habit of speaking - or tweeting - off the cuff. "North Koreans are not taking this seriously. They're saying that Trump is saying these kinds of things because he hasn't 'consolidated his power' yet'," he said - using a line that American experts usually use to describe questionable things that Mr Kim does.

Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korean leadership expert at the left-leaning Sejong Institute in the South, agreed that Mr Kim does not want actual conflict with the US.

"North Korea is not developing ICBM technology to start a war with the US," he said. "This is all about preventing the US from intervening in any military conflict on the Korean Peninsula. It wants to influence American decisions. The US does not want to be criticised for risking American lives to protect its allies."

Others see a ploy by North Korea to ratchet up the tensions and make the most progress on its weapons programme before sanctions bite and it is forced to return to the negotiating table.

"The US will only agree to talk with the North if it thinks a physical clash is imminent," said Mr Koo.

"The North is not aiming for a clash but increasing the tension to create an environment for negotiation."

The closest analogy to the North Korea situation is Pakistan, he said. Rather than following the Cold War model of mutually assured destruction, Pakistan has adopted a strategy of "asymmetric escalation" - being able to use a nuclear arsenal against a conventional attack. "The fact Kim Jong-un is rational doesn't necessarily lead to good outcomes," said Van Jackson, an expert on North Korean security at Victoria University in New Zealand.

"Rationality takes us to a more dangerous place right now." ( Washington Post syndication)
US President Donald Trump has threatened military intervention in Venezuela, a surprise escalation of Washington's response to Venezuela's political crisis that Caracas disparaged as "craziness."

Venezuela has appeared to slide toward a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after a new legislative body usurped the authority of the opposition-controlled congress.

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Trump told reporters in an impromptu question and answer session.

The comments appeared to shock Caracas, with Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino calling the threat "an act of craziness."

The White House said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro requested a phone call with Trump on Friday, which the White House appeared to spurn, saying in a statement that Trump would gladly speak to Venezuela's leader when democracy was restored in that country.

Venezuelan authorities have long said U.S. officials were planning an invasion. A former military general told Reuters earlier this year that some anti-aircraft missiles had been placed along the country's coast for precisely that eventuality.

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In Washington, the Pentagon said the U.S. military was ready to support efforts to protect U.S. citizens and America's national interests, but that insinuations by Caracas of a planned U.S. invasion were "baseless."

Trump's suggestion of possible military action came in a week when he has repeatedly threatened a military response if North Korea threatens the United States or its allies.

Asked if U.S. forces would lead an operation in Venezuela, Trump declined to provide details. "We don't talk about it but a military operation - a military option - is certainly something that we could pursue," he said.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized Trump's new stance.

"Congress obviously isn't authorizing war in Venezuela," he said in a statement. "Nicolas Maduro is a horrible human being, but Congress doesnt vote to spill Nebraskans' blood based on who the Executive lashes out at today."

'MADURO MUST BE THRILLED'

The president's comments conjured up memories of gunboat diplomacy in Latin America during the 20th century, when the United States regarded its "backyard" neighbors to the south as underlings who it could easily intimidate through conspicuous displays of military power.

The U.S. military has not directly intervened in the region since a 1994-1995 operation that aimed to remove from Haiti a military government installed after a 1991 coup.

Trump's more aggressive discourse could be an asset to Maduro by boosting his credibility as a national defender.

"Maduro must be thrilled right now," said Mark Feierstein, who was a senior aide on Venezuela matters to former U.S. president Barack Obama. "It's hard to imagine a more damaging thing for Trump to say."

The United States sanctioned Maduro and other Venezuelan officials in July after Maduro established a constituent assembly run by his Socialist Party loyalists and cracked down on opposition figures. The assembly's election drew international condemnation and critics have said it removed any remaining checks on Maduro's power.

Maduro says only continuing the socialist movement started by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, can bring peace and prosperity to Venezuela, which is suffering from an economic collapse and widespread hunger.

Washington has not placed sanctions on the OPEC member's oil industry, which supplies America with about 740,000 barrels per day of oil.

Venezuela possesses a stockpile of 5,000 Russian-made MANPADS surface-to-air weapons, according to military documents reviewed by Reuters. It has the largest known cache of the weapons in Latin America, posing a concern for U.S. officials during the country's mounting turmoil.

The United Nations Security Council was briefed behind closed doors on Venezuela in May at the request of the United States. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Washington was just trying to raise awareness of the situation and was not seeking any action by the 15-member Security Council.
A man brandishing a "panga" machete challenges police near a burning barricade during clashes between police and protesters in the Mathare slum of Nairobi (Ben Curtis/AP)

In an escalation of Kenya's deadly election violence, p olice have fired live ammunition at rioters and used tear gas on vehicles carrying opposition officials.

Nine bodies with gunshot wounds have been brought to the capital's main morgue, while a young girl is among at least 24 people killed by police gunfire since Tuesday's disputed vote in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor, according to a watchdog group.

The police have come under scrutiny for what the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which monitors government institutions, described as the "unlawful and unacceptable" use of excessive force.

Seventeen of the 24 people shot by police died in Nairobi, the commission said. It cited allegations of police breaking into homes, beating people, threatening them with rape and demanding money.

The watchdog group also lamented "the destruction of private property by both civilians and allegedly by security personnel in the course of their duty".

According to Leonard Katana, a regional police commander, the police have shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters on the outskirts of Kisumu, while another five people have been injured by gunfire in in the city.

In Mathare, where Kenyatta's main challenger Raila Odinga has significant support, police opened fire to disperse protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades.

One Mathare resident said his nine-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet while playing on the third-floor balcony of their home.

Wycliff Mokaya said: "I was watching her play with her friends when she suddenly fell down.

"She was my only hope."

A mortuary official said nine bodies with gunshot wounds were brought to the Nairobi morgue from Mathare.

Police were also seen firing shots into the air and using tear gas on a large opposition convoy as it tried to enter Nairobi's Kibera slum. Witnesses added that police harassed and assaulted at least four journalists who were covering the violence.

The protests began soon after voting started on Tuesday, when Odinga alleged vote-rigging.

The government has accused those challenging security forces of being criminals intent on looting and destroying property.

In Kenyatta's victory speech, the president, whose father was Kenya's first president after independence, said he was extending a "hand of friendship" to the opposition.

Kenyatta won 54% of the vote to nearly 45% for Odinga, but the bitter dispute over the integrity of the election process tempered what many Kenyans had hoped would be a celebration of democracy. The opposition have said the election commission's database was hacked and the results were manipulated against Odinga.

The unrest has exposed divisions in a society in which poverty and government corruption have angered large numbers. Many see Odinga as a voice for their grievances.

Adding to the rift is ethnic loyalty. Kenyatta is widely seen as the representative of the Kikuyu people, the country's largest ethnic group, while Odinga is associated with the Luo group, which has yet to produce a head of state.

But reconciliation efforts and the introduction of a progressive constitution in 2010 have helped to defuse fears of the kind of ethnic-fuelled violence that followed the 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Odinga ran unsuccessfully in that election. He also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote-tampering to Kenya's highest court, which rejected his case.

Recalling its failed legal challenge in 2013, the opposition has said it will not go to court again. It has not directly urged supporters to stage protests, instead telling them to stay safe.

Most of the country has stayed calm since the election results were declared.

AP
Danish maritime authorities work on a salvage operation south of the island of Amager, close to Copenhagen (AP)

A Danish court has ordered the owner of a home-made submarine which sank off Copenhagen to be detained for 24 days while police investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been on board.

Peter Madsen was arrested on Friday on preliminary manslaughter charges over the disappearance of 30-year-old Kim Wall after his 40-tonne, 60ft-long submarine sank off Denmark's eastern coast.

Madsen has denied responsibility for the fate of Ms Wall, saying she had disembarked before his vessel went down.

Judge Kari Soerensen announced the ruling after a two-hour custody hearing held behind closed doors.

Madsen's defence lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains he is innocent.

Ms Hald Engmark said Madsen is "willing to cooperate" and has not decided whether to appeal the detention ruling.

Before the hearing was closed, the courtroom was packed with Danish and Swedish reporters and the 46-year-old Madsen's relatives.

Prosecutor Louise Pedersen said Madsen faces the preliminary manslaughter charge "for having killed in an unknown way and in an unknown place Kim Isabell Frerika Wall, of Sweden, sometime after Thursday, 5pm."

Ms Wall's boyfriend alerted authorities early Friday that the sub had not returned to Copenhagen as expected, prompting a major search involving two helicopters, three ships and several private boats.

The Navy said the sub, the UC3 Nautilus, was seen sailing, but then sank shortly afterwards.

Kristian Isbak, who had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the ship on Friday, said he first spotted Madsen standing wearing his trademark military fatigues in the submarine's tower while it was still afloat.

"He then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink," Mr Isbak said.

"(He) came up again and stayed in the tower until water came into it", before swimming to a nearby boat as the submarine sank.

Madsen told authorities he had dropped Wall off on an island in Copenhagen's harbour a few hours into their Thursday night trip.

"It is with great dismay that we received the news that Kim went missing during an assignment in Denmark," her family said.

The Sweden-born freelance journalist studied at the Sorbonne university in Paris, the London School of Economics and at Columbia University in New York, where she graduated with a master's degree in journalism in 2013.

She lived in New York and Peking, her family said, and had written for The New York Times, The Guardian, the South China Morning Post and Vice Magazine, among other publications.

A salvage vessel, the Vina, raised the submarine on Saturday. The vessel was 23ft underwater off Copenhagen's south island of Dragoer.

The submarine was brought up some 4.3 miles off the coast and is expected to be transported to land at some point.

In theory, the Nautilus can dive up to 1,550ft but has rarely gone deeper than 132ft, according to Madsen's business web site.

If tried and found guilty, Madsen faces between five years and life in prison.

AP
A supporter of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga during demonstrations in the Kawangware slum of Nairobi (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Supporters of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta cheer as he wins a second term

President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of Kenya's hard-fought presidential election but opposition candidate Raila Odinga alleged the voting was rigged.

In announcing the results of Tuesday's contest, the election commission said Kenyatta won a second term with 54 percent in balloting it called "credible, fair and peaceful."

Hundreds of riot police were in the streets of the capital, Nairobi, amid fears of further protests by opposition supporters who called the vote a "charade" and said challenging the outcome in court wasn't an option.

Mr Kenyatta, the 55-year-old son of Kenya's first president after independence from Britain, appealed for calm and unity after the bitter campaign.

"Kenya belongs to all of us," he said. "Let us shun violence and let us refuse to be used for short-term political gain."

He said he was extending a "hand of friendship" to "our older brother," Mr Odinga.

"We need and must continue to work together for the welfare of our people and in order to keep this country united," said Kenyatta, who also defeated Odinga in 2013.

"We reach out to you. We reach out to your supporters."

The election was a test of stability for the East African economic power as many recalled the post-election bloodshed a decade ago that left more than 1,000 dead.

Kenyatta added: "We have seen the results of political violence and I am certain there is no single Kenyan who would wish to go back to those days."

Kenya had been relatively calm since the election but had braced for possible violence Friday night with police in the central business district.

Gunshots and screams were heard in at least two areas of Kenya populated by Odinga supporters, according to police and a witness.

The shooting was heard in the Nairobi slum of Kibera and in the southwestern city of Kisumu, the witnesses said. Youths were also reported to be throwing stones at cars.

"There are gunshots all over; we don't know how it will end but we are praying for peace," said Kisumu resident Lucas Odhiambo, adding that people were bellowing through "vuvuzela" noisemakers when the results were announced "and police moved in".

Earlier in the day, opposition supporters burned tires and blocked roads in several areas.

The election commission rejected claims by Odinga, a former prime minister, that its database was hacked and results manipulated against him.

The long wait for election results increased tensions in the nation of 45 million people, though the commission by law had until Aug. 15 to announce them.

At least three people were killed in clashes between police and opposition supporters this week.

Odinga alleged hackers infiltrated the election commission's computer system in favor of his opponent.

He claimed the hackers used the identity of Christopher Msando, an election official in charge of managing information technology systems.

Officials had announced on July 31 that Msando had been tortured and killed.

In addition, the American CEO of an election data company working for Odinga was deported last weekend.

The election commission said there was a hacking attempt but it failed, and Odinga's camp had no right to declare him as the winner.

Earlier Friday, the opposition said it had asked for access to the commission's servers to confirm whether the alleged hacking took place.

If granted, it said it would accept the results, even if they showed that Kenyatta won.

Kenyatta has not commented on Odinga's allegations.

AP
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The advent of social media brought a sense of freedom to speak your mind freely and effectively. Now, as we all know every coin has two sides. Internet also has a very nasty side. Some people cross all the lines and hoodwink their way into spreading their filth under the cape of anonymity. The modern world calls such people trolls. Its not just the mango people who are the targets of these trolls. They do not spare anyone. Be it Bollywood celebrities, world leaders, influential people or even PM Modi.

While the best way to deal with them is by ignoring them, there are times when these trolls stoop so low that one cannot resist lashing back at them. In the recent times, many actresses have been targeted for wearing a certain kind of clothing or posing in a certain manner. From slut-shaming to racism, we have seen it all. But the good news is that the modern woman refuses to take each and every thing the way it comes. Here are 7 celebrities who gave it back to such trolls in style - be it with a post, photo or a befitting reply, these are the divas who dared to challenge the patriarchal mindset and how!

1. Esha Gupta

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 2:13am PDT

All eyes on you A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 8, 2017 at 3:17am PDT

She has been in the news this past week. Why, you ask? Well, because she shared her photos from her recent shoot wearing lingerie on Instagram. The former Miss India Internationals Instagram got flooded with extremely graphic comments. From character assassination to slut-shaming, her pictures received all sorts of nasty comments. People exercised their fundamental right of expression way more than necessary. However, all these reactions did not deter her one bit. Instead of replying to her haters, she went ahead and disabled the comments section. Furthermore, she posted many other photos from the same shoot. Effective or not, this sure is one way to shut your haters classily.

Healthy life  A post shared by Esha Gupta (@egupta) on Aug 9, 2017 at 9:57am PDT

2. Priyanka Chopra

Was such a lovely coincidence to be in #berlin at the same time as the Prime Minister. Thank you @narendramodi Sir for taking the time from your packed schedule to meet me this morning.  A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 1:04am PDT

She is a global icon who is representing India on the world map. With impressive credentials under her belt, Priyanka Chopra is someone who is always under constant scrutiny. More often than not, she is often criticized for bizarre reasons. One such incident happened recently, when she met PM Narendra Modi in Berlin. She was slammed by the trolls for not being decently dressed and showing her legs during her meeting with the Prime Minister. While her mother jumped to her defense, the actress chose to shut up the haters with a cheeky post. She posted yet another photo of herself and her mom showing legs.

Legs for days.... #itsthegenes with @madhuchopra nights out in #Berlin #beingbaywatch A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 4:23pm PDT

3. Deepika Padukone

A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jun 7, 2017 at 3:34am PDT

Even Deepika fell prey to trolls when she Instagrammed her snap from a photo shoot recently. Dressed in a two-piece white number, she definitely upped the oomph factor. Her sultry look wasnt taken in a good way by many. And hence it was followed by a lot of negative comments by a certain section of the Twitterati. They called her many names and even questioned her decision to post such a picture on the internet. Many from the film industry jumped to the leggy beautys defense but she chose to hit back at her haters by posting yet another sexy photo from the same shoot. The funda of saying Less is more is definitely more effective, dont you think?

A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jun 8, 2017 at 1:55am PDT

4. Rihanna

Galore mag

Rihanna is one celebrity that everyone loves to love. Bad gal Riri, as she is fondly called, was recently in the limelight for gaining a little weight. While many appreciated her curvy avatar, many started body-shaming her as expected. Rihanna, on the other hand, decided to answer her trolls in their own manner.

twitter

She reacted to all the negativity by posting a meme! Yes, a meme of rapper Gucci Mane showing his weight loss since 2007. The meme is two topless photos of rapper Gucci Mane, captioned with: "If you can't handle me at my 2007 Gucci Mane, you don't deserve me at my 2017 Gucci Mane." Well, we dont call her a badass for nothing. *wink*

 A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Jun 5, 2017 at 11:02am PDT

5. Sonam Kapoor

   @sonamkapoor   RASARIO SS17. Actress Sonam Kapoor wearing RASARIO SS17 jumpsuit. Picture by @rheakapoor A post shared by RASARIO (@rasario) on Mar 2, 2017 at 10:15am PST

Even Bollywoods fashionista wasnt spared by the trolls. Sonam sported a Rosario Atelier ruffled-sleeve jumpsuit for an event, earlier this year. Even though she managed to make a style statement like always, she got trolled for revealing too much skin. The actress who doesnt think twice before giving everyone a piece of mind, took to social media and said that the photographers went out of their way to take certain shots of her, but she couldn't care less as she is proud of her body. Way to go Sonam!

sexist nonsense. The photogs went out of their way to take these pics.. and frankly I don't give a damn,I'm proud of my body! https://t.co/zryjBBYI6B  Sonam Kapoor (@sonamakapoor) March 3, 2017

6. Disha Patani

Newbie Disha Patani is gaining a lot of popularity in the film industry. Disha, was massively abused online for wearing a 'revealing' black Nicolas Jebran outfit at the Filmfare awards. Instagrammers called out the actress for exposing too much cleavage and even question her for not respecting the Indian culture and traditions. When the matter got out of control, Disha lashed out at the haters for being hypocrites. She wrote, "it's easier to judge a woman on the basis of how much they cover up their skin, but it's hard to accept your own cheap mentality when you can't stop staring at those inappropriate areas which you are asking her to cover". "Wake up and start accepting that we are not going to be anybody's idea of an 'Indian girl," she added.

Really felt a need to share this!  thanks to my fan clubs friends and family for always giving me the strength i hope we all can find this strength from within each other and stop suffering  #spreadlove A post shared by disha patani (paatni) (@dishapatani) on Feb 21, 2017 at 2:59am PST

7. Nia Sharma

@photuwalas @thank u @stylebysugandhasood for this video.. i tagged u finally @shraddhamishra8 love love  @tonykakkar #waada #4thfebruary A post shared by Nia Sharma (@niasharma90) on Jan 29, 2017 at 10:18am PST

Popular TV actress Nia Sharma was also slut-shamed for putting up a music video of herself. In the video, Sharma could be seen grooving to a sensual number. In not time, haters started trolling her and called her shameless and many other names. The Jamai Raja actress posted another video and wrote, Oops! Heres one more from the photoshoot!! Ready to slut-shame a girl again? Go aheadddddd.. Ill post five moreCoz thats exactly I got this shoot done.!! And thats exactly how Ill post pictures from the same! I appreciate everyone who took out time from their absolutely worthless lives to write filthy long comments on my previous video.! I got u job again!.

All hail women power!
Amid the furore being witnessed in Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, which has claimed lives of 30 children in over two days so far due to alleged shortage of oxygen, a ray of hope was seen when a private company, which earlier supplied cylinders to the hospital, provided over 200 cylinders despite having no contract or tender with the hospital.

ani

Modi Chemical Private Limited used to supply oxygen cylinders to the hospital, however, the hospital ended its contract with the company in March.

But, this did not stop Praveen Modi, owner of the company, from fulfilling his duty as a human being.

afp

"When we came to know about the shortage of oxygen and the deaths following it, we supplied around 200-300 cylinders to the hospital out of humanity," Praveen Modi told news agency ANI.

However, the hospital still owes Rs 20 lakh to the company.

"In March, the medical college administration has stopped dealing with me and had given the tender to an Allahabad company," he added.

afp

What is shocking to know is that the oxygen supply department in the hospital had already warned about the shortage.

The letter was written to the hospital authorities on August 3 and 10 informing them about the shortage of oxygen cylinders as the Pushpa Sales stopped supply over pending payment.

ap

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.
With enough criticism on his government, Donald Trump has managed to get a lot of hate from everyone all over the world. He has left no chance to threaten North Korea, strengthening fears in minds of people. As the conflict seems to intensify, three billionaires from USA  Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are feeling the heat of the situation with the falling prices of stocks in their companies.

The investors in these companies have begun selling their shares off and investing in relatively safer goods, namely, gold.

jeff bezos is first in the list of billionaires sufferring losses : reuters

The loss faced by these billionaires is as huge as $4.5 billion. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, became the worlds richest man lately and now he suffered the loss of whopping $2 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is second on the list in terms of losses he has faced, as he had seen a significant decrease of $1.6 billion in his worth. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has faced a loss of $850 million in the value of his shares, comes third on this list.

mark zuckerberg has faced $1.6 billion worth of losses : Reuters

The total losses of the American technology companies is much larger as the number reaches an approximate $30 billion. This amount is expected to increase by Friday.

bill gates stands third in the list : reuters

Donald has said that military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded and on Friday, he again strengthened his position.
The number of infants died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, could have been higher than initially reported. New reports suggest that at least sixty children have been killed in the medical college this week alone.

PTI

Out of the 63, nearly half of them lost their lives in the past 48 hours after the hospital ran out of oxygen supply. The Yogi Adityanath government which has come under heavy criticism for the tragedy has denied reports that the deaths were caused by a shortage of oxygen.

State health minister Siddharth Nath Singh dismissed the reports and claimed that the children died of encephalitis.

PTI

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said: No death in BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, has taken place due to shortage of oxygen supply. Only seven deaths have taken place at the BRD Medical College today and these were due to different medical reasons.

Hospital authorities have however admitted that the firm that was supplying oxygen had stopped the supplies due to pending bills.

Supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted yesterday day due to pending payment," Rautela told ANI.

PTI

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh and Medical education minister Ashutosh Tandan to visit BRD Medical College and take stock of the situation there.

The deaths in Gorakhpur, the long time Lok Sabha constituency of Yogi Adityanath has given enough fodder to the opposition to target the government.

PTI

A delegation of Congress leaders led by Ghulam Nabi Azad reached the BRD Medical College on Saturday morning and spoke to the family members of the deceased.

"What happened was due to lapse on the government's part," Congress leader R P N Singh charged.

Calling the deaths at the hospital a "disaster", BSP leader Sudhindra Bhadoria called for CM Yogi Adityanath's resignation.

"This is a matter of great shame for the UP chief minister. If there's any morality in the government, he should quit and go, for such a disaster has happened. Hope he has enough shame in him to go and regret to the parents and quit on moral grounds," Bhadoria told ANI.

Samajwadi Party as well went on the offensive against the state government. Senior leader Ram Gopal Yadav said the state must provide reparations to the family members of the deceased.

"Parents of children who died must get compensation, free medicine must be provided to poor families across UP," he added.
The number of infants died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, could have been higher than initially reported. New reports suggest that at least sixty children have been killed in the medical college this week alone.

Out of the 63, nearly half of them lost their lives in the past 48 hours after the hospital ran out of oxygen supply. The Yogi Adityanath government which has come under heavy criticism for the tragedy has denied reports that the deaths were caused by a shortage of oxygen. Read more

1. US Scientists Develop A Plant-Based And Safer Vaccine For Zika Virus

There's some good news for those who are scared of Zika virus. Scientists have developed the worlds first plant-based Zika vaccine that may be more effective, safer and cheaper than other vaccines against the mosquito-borne virus.

According to reports, currently, there are no licensed vaccines or therapeutics available to combat Zika, researchers said. Read more

2. Meet 10-Year-Old Kaamya Karthikeyan, Youngest Person To Scale Mt Stok Kangri In The Himalayas

Three days before her 10th birthday, 10-year old Vizag mountaineer Kaamya Karthikeyan scaled one of the highest Himalayan peaks, Mount Stok Kangri, which is 20,187 ft above sea level. This makes her the youngest to achieve the feat.

Two months ago, she made it to the Mt Everest base camp with an Indian Navy team and this time she climbed Stok Kangri with her parents. Read more

3. Syrian Army Claims Victory Over Islamic State Terrorists In Homs, Declares It Liberated

After being driven out of Mosul in Iraq, the Islamic State fighters have now been thrown out of Syrian city of Homs. The Syrian army said it fully liberated on Saturday the city of Sukhneh, the last Islamic State (IS) stronghold in Homs province.

Tens of extremists were killed and many of their weaponry destroyed as the army finished combing operation and dismantling explosive devices left by the IS in the city, Xinhua news agency reported. Read more

4. Indian Army Is Planning To Deploy 544 Robots To Fight Terrorists In Jammu & Kashmir

As violence continues to plague the Kashmir Valley, the Indian Army has proposed to build indigenous robots that are designed to combat terrorists.

The defence ministry has recently approved an army proposal mentioning a requirement of 544 robots. Read more

5. Bihar IAS Officer Recorded 5-Minute Video Before Committing Suicide In Ghaziabad

Mukesh Pandey, the District Magistrate of Buxar, Bihar who was found dead near a railway track had recorded a lengthy video of himself speaking about committing suicide.

In the five minutes long video, which was likely recorded in Buxar, where he was posted, Pandey talks about the tension between his parents and his wife. Read more
As violence continues to plague the Kashmir Valley, the Indian Army has proposed to build indigenous robots that are designed to combat terrorists.

Reuters /Picture For Representation

The defence ministry has recently approved an army proposal mentioning a requirement of 544 robots.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the robots are under the 'Make' category of acquisition in the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 that stipulates that only Indian vendors can participate in these endeavours.

The robots are designed to deliver ammunition at targeted locations.

"The way the situation is evolving (in J&K), it may just be a matter of time when security forces as a whole, and Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in particular, will be facing the threat in built-up and super built-up areas," the army told HT.

Youtue Screenshot/ Himfact/ Daksh

According to the report "a second unit which can be operated alongside the first unit by a single operator with the same remote (having at least dual display screen) should also form part of the system."

The lightweight and rugged robots will comprise many surveillance cameras and transmission systems with a 200 metre-range.

More recently, an indigenous remotely operated vehicle called Daksh has been used for handling improvised explosive devices.
For Chiewelou Thele, life has changed in ways she could have never imagined of. From being a national level archer to becoming the face Delhi police.

BCCL

Thele, who hails from Nagaland is the new face of Delhi Police, the first real face of one of the best-trained police forces in the country after it decided to do away with using stock images.

The new posters of Delhi police released recently have Thele holding an AK-47 as the face of the campaign.

According to senior officials, Thele was chosen to be the face of Delhi police, because she was the best trainee of her batch. She has performed well in all the areas during her training. She was also chosen to represent the diversity within the Delhi Police.

BCCL

"I don't know why I was selected. I was just asked to come for the shoot. The day the posters were released, I got many calls from my friends and colleagues. I never thought that being in the police will give me a face value," Thele said when asked about how she was selected.

The former archer who underwent commando training said her background helped her a lot during rifle shooting.

"I had never even seen a rifle before joining the police force, but I am the best female shooter of my batch, and the credit goes to my archery training," she said.

Delhi Police/ Twitter

The new batch of commandos are armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, or an MP5 submachine gun, with at least four 30-round magazines, a Glock 17 or Glock 26 pistol, hand grenades, a wireless set, a 20-metre nylon rope, a pencil torch, a bulletproof helmet, bulletproof jacket, flame torch, cutter and a commando dagger. Special knee and elbow pads are also worn for protection during stealth attacks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his concerns over the deaths of more than 60 children due to the shortage of oxygen supply in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district in the last few days.

afp

According to Prime Minister's Office (PMO) minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

District magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said on Friday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since August 10.

ap

Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official here had said that according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police (SP), 21 children died due to oxygen supply shortage.

Also Read: After Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy Former Supplier Provides Oxygen Cylinders Free Of Cost

"According to the Gorakhpur SP, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College. Senior officers are at the spot. Exact cause is being verified by the civil administration," the official, who did not to be identified, had said.

The Uttar Pradesh government said on Saturday that those found guilty in the "tragic and painful" incident would face "stringent action".

ap

"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow.

Health minister Singh and state medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon on Saturday visit Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.
Posing for a selfie atop a stationary goods train nearly cost a youth his life in Ambernath. The boy suffered 65% burn injuries after he came in contact with a live overhead wire, and is battling for life at KEM hospital in Mumbai. Aniket Thorat ( 17), is a resident of Ambernath and studies in the 11th standard.

afp/representational image

Dinkar Pingale, senior police inspector of Kalyan GRP, said on Friday afternoon, the victim and four to five friends were having fun on the loop side of railway tracks between Ambernath and Badlapur railway stations, where the goods train was.

bccl/representational image

The victim's friend informed GRP that Aniket was taking a selfie when he accidentally touched the live wire. His friends first took him to a local private hospital, where the doctor shifted him to KEM.

Plastic surgeons informed police that his condition was critical as he had suffered serious burns on his chest, hands, abdomen and thighs.

bccl/representational image

GRP officials said they would record his statement once his condition improves. Aniket stays with his elder sister who is 20, at their grandmother's residence. GRP officials said his parents died few years back. GRP registered an accident case and recorded his friends' statements.
As the battle to take control of Syria's second largest city, Aleppo has entered its final phase, the pro-government forces have been accused of killing unarmed civilians.

AFP

The UN said 82 civilians were killed on the spot by the government troops. Rupert Colville, a UN human rights spokesman, said the reports indicated that 82 civilians had been killed across four different neighbourhoods. This include 11 women and 13 children.

The number of civilian casualties is expected to further go up in the coming hours as the city, which has been divided between the pro and anti-government troops could fall into the Syrian Army's control any time now.

Reuters

Thousands of people are reportedly trapped in the last remaining neighbourhoods still in rebel hands, facing intense bombardment.

The rebels, now confined to an ever decreasing enclave is continuing their race to the bottom. A Syrian Army commander had on Monday warned the rebels to surrender or face death.
As US President Donald Trump has hinted that he may order an attack on defiant North Korea, Japan, too, is reportedly preparing for a war like situation. According to AFP Japan has deployed its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam.

ap

The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said.

It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.

ap

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures."

reuters

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Waring against the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that people should be more concerned with it than the risk posed by escalating tensions with North Korea, the media reported.

reuters

"If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea," Musk tweeted on Friday.

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

Musk's comments were in reference to his non-profit start-up, OpenAI, defeating several of the world's best players at a video game, reports The Hill magazine.

OpenAI first ever to defeat world's best players in competitive eSports. Vastly more complex than traditional board games like chess & Go.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

Musk has called for regulation of AI in the past, saying just last month that regulation is needed now or "by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late".

His comments also follow heightened tensions between the US and North Korea.

Nobody likes being regulated, but everything (cars, planes, food, drugs, etc) that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

The communist regime has continued testing and expanding its nuclear programme, reporting this week that it can now fit nuclear warheads on missiles.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State has confirmed the arrest of six illegal gold miners in the state.

This was confirmed by the State Commandant, Mr Philip Ayuba, on Friday who said that the suspects were arrested on Mandela Road in Minna.

The suspects were apprehended while carrying out their illegal activities in residential areas along Mandela Road, he said.

According to him, the arrest became necessary because the miners failed to heed the warnings given by the residents that they are not comfortable with the security threat posed to their lives by their activities.

Ayuba said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

He appealed to the public to provide the command useful information about the activities of illegal miners in the state.

Source: ( PM News )
The youths are the leaders of tomorrow, this was the story of a 24-year-old Cynthia Jepkosgei Muge who was newly elected MCA of Kilibwoni ward, Nandi County, Kenya.

Muge ran as an independent candidate because she could not afford the cost of her partys nomination form.

She shocked many in the Jubilee Party stronghold after she emerged victorious with 8760 votes defeating her closest competitor Wilson Kiptanui of Jubilee who garnered 8354 votes.

I took a chance as an Independent candidate and won after a difficult penniless campaign, Muge told journalists.

The University of Nairobi graduate attributed her victory to low key issue-based campaigns that directly targeted voters in their homes as well as her determination despite multiple challenges.

Her friends also lent her a helping hand by using the social media, especially Facebook, to solicit votes.

Muge has a Bachelors degree in Planning, City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning from the University of Nairobi.
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on Friday on Friday inaugurated a seven-member Judicial Commission to review the compliance of the Nigerian Armed Forces with human rights obligations and rules of engagement, especially in local conflict and insurgency situations.

The commission is headed by Justice Biobele Georgewill of the Port Harcourt division of the Court of Appeal.

The acting president said the Buhari Administration was committed to addressing all cases of extra-judicial killings, sexual offences and all other forms of abuses in Nigeria.

He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had asked the Nigerian Armed Forces in 2015 to set up an Internal Board of Inquiry and said the report of the inquiry would be passed on to the panel.

He described members of the Nigerian military as heroes who have been combating insurgency with success and who must be commended.

He however noted that the tactic of asymmetrical warfare being used by insurgents pose a challenge for the military, resulting in allegations that some soldiers have at certain times committed abuses.

Mr. Osinbajo said it was important to look into those allegations to avoid doubts being cast on the the hard-earned integrity of the Nigerian military.

He expressed belief in the quality of the panel and his full confidence that it would thoroughly investigate and report on all allegations brought to its attention.

The acting president said the armed forces should rest reassured that there is no witch-hunt against them and that it is in the interest of all that justice is done.

Responding on behalf of the panel, the chairman, Justice Georgewill, pledged that it would carry out the assignment with the fear of God and with integrity to ensure that justice will not only be done to all but would be seen by all to have been done.

He called on all persons and or institutions affected or interested in one way or the other in any of the elaborate terms of reference given to the panel to seize the opportunity to present their grievances or cases or allegations and or defences, to enable the panel carry out very thorough review and investigations, in line with its mandate. PANEL.

He assured that all the report of the panel would be based on facts based on verifiable evidence.

Members of the panel include Patrick Akem a retired major-general, Chief of Logistics, and commander of the UN forces in Somalia; Olawale Fapohunda, a former Attorney-General of Ekiti State; and Jibrin Ibrahim, a professor,civil society leader and noted academic.

The others are Ifeoma Nwakama of Human Rights Commission; Abba Ambudashi of the Office of the National Security Adviser; Hauwa Ibrahim, a professor; Fatima Alkali, who is counsel to the Panel; and Suleima Haliru, who is the Secretary.

Source: ( Premium Times )
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on Friday debunked the claims made by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that it sponsored the recent killings at a church in Ozubulu, Anambra.

According to the National Chairman of the party, Mr Victor Oye, made the refutation when Anambra Governor, Willie Obiano, came to the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja to submit his nomination form.

Oye said I want to use this opportunity to dispute the allegation that APGA had a hand in the killings.

APGA has never at anytime sponsored the killing of innocent people regardless of what people are saying and as alleged by IPOB and we can stand at the World Court or anywhere to say this.

Anambra government is run on transparency, fear of God, love of the people and commitment to accountability; how can such a government begin to kill people?

This is the same government that held the `Ozuemena which is the burial or re-burial for all who died in the civil war; so, how can a man who has done all these turn around and kill his innocent people?

He said the allegation was the making of evil people, to distort the good work of the governor, but said that such people would fail.

The chairman assured the governor of the partys support, adding that the APGA family was standing solidly behind him.

According to him, the next election in the state would mark a crushing defeat for the opponents.

In his response, Obiano said that the incident would not dent his security record and the fact that the state remained the safest in Nigeria.

The unfortunate flash in the pan that happened last Sunday was a fight that was exported from an African country into the country between two business owners.

Early investigation showed that they wanted one of the persons killed in the house but because his house was very fortified, they thought the best way to eliminate was in the church close to his house.

So as soon as they confirmed that the guys car was parked along the road they did not know it was the father that parked the car and the guy was not there; they went into the church and did what they did.

Obiano expressed confidence that the culprits would be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others, adding, `if you have scores to settle outside Nigeria, you stay outside Nigeria, you dont bring it home.

He reaffirmed that Anambra government would pick the hospital bills of the injured and burial bills for the dead.

Source: ( PM News )
Ex-boxer Amir Khan was forced to apologise to Nigerian-born world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, for accusing him of cheating with his wife after he was threatened with legal action.

The heavyweight boxer got his advisers involved after a series of sensational tweets in which Khan shared supposed messages between Joshua and his wife online, MailOnline has reported.

Earlier on Friday, Khans ex-wife, Faryal Makhdoom, broke her silence on the public spat to reveal the Snapchat messages between her and Anthony Joshua were fake, adding that she had never met Joshua.

After several social media spats between the couple, however, Amir and Faryal have finally apologised over their very public falling out.

Reports say Joshuas team are now upset that Amir seemingly had his wife apologise for the misunderstanding.

In a tweet sent Friday morning, Faryal wrote: Ive been quiet for some time because I myself didnt know whats going on. Everything thats going on is just not right and a complete misunderstanding.

The screenshots sent to Amir were fake and Amir thought Joshua and I were speaking when we have never even met.

Anger took the better of him and he tweeted away without thinking there was absolutely NO truth to it.

Its all cleared up with both teams now and again, there was NOTHING like that going on. Apologies for all this nonsense. Lets get on with life now

Amir then retweeted his wifes note, then personally messaged Joshua, adding:Glad all is cleared up and all lies. I got angry like any man would. No truth to it. Good to know. All the best.

The British heavyweight champion would later reply to Khan, writing: Apology accepted.

See the tweets:

Source: Punch
Six aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Anambra Gubernatorial Election have been cleared by the e Screening Committee on Friday, ahead of the party primary.

The Chairman of the Screening Committee, Alhaji Adamu Waziri, disclosed this while presenting the clearance certificates to the screened aspirants at the party National Secretariat in Abuja.

Waziri said although seven aspirants submitted their nomination forms and appeared before the committee, six of the aspirants who met the laid down conditions were cleared.

He noted that Dr Ifeanyi Ubah; Sen. Stella Oduah, former Minister of Aviation; Dr Alex Obiogolu, Mr John Emeka as well as Lynda Ikpeazu were fully cleared to participate in the party primary.

He said the committee gave Mr Oseloka Obaze, former Secretary of Anambra State, a conditional clearance, pending his full compliance with the provisions of the party.

The chairman, however, disclosed that the committee did not clear the seventh aspirant, Mr Akolisa Ufodike for holding dual citizenship certificates.

Waziri said the committee was fair and firm in the conduct of the screening in line with relevant provisions of the law.

He said that the decision of the committee is appealable.

Anybody who is not satisfied with the decision of the committee should appeal to the National Working Committee or the Caretaker committee for reconsideration.

Waziri said the decision of the national working committee or the caretaker committee would override or confirm whatever we have done.

The governorship election is scheduled to hold on Nov.18.

Source: ( PM Newspaper )
Popular Nigerian musician Dammy Krane, who was arrested and detained in Miami, USA, for credit card fraud, has appealed to the general public and his fans to pray for his discharge and acquittal.

Dammy Krane said;

Everybody knows that Im just all about my music; Im a musician I dont do flight bookings, Im innocent of the allegation. Everyone should please pray for me to come out of this successfully, he pleaded.

Pertaining to the status of the case the musician said;

Ive a hearing soon, but my lawyer tells me I dont have to be there, like I said God is in control; everybody should just keep praying and supporting me. I did a song I recorded a day after I actually got out of jail, I was talking about all these things, especially the prayers my fans said for me, I actually appreciate everybody and I put it in a song and Im going to be dropping it soon.

Source: Naijaloaded
18 suspected persons of a notorious kidnap gangs operating across the country have been arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS)

The suspects include: Haliru Hassan, Usman Abdulkadir, Yusuf Saidu, Abubakar Shuiabu, Abubakar Suleiman, Uzairu Bawa and Sani Abubakar.

A statement issued by an operative of the service, Mr Tony Opuiyo, said that the suspects were arrested on July 3, at the Kakuri industrial area of Kaduna State.

Opuiyo said that the suspects had been terrorising motorists and commuters within the Rijana and Katari axis of the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.

He said that the service had also arrested two notorious kidnap suspects, Rabiu Sani alias Dogo, and Abubakar Sani.

He said that the suspects were arrested on July 4, along the Zaria-Funtua road in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The operative said that Sani was a notorious kidnapper and gun-runner who had been supplying arms and ammunition to criminal elements in Kaduna, Kano, Taraba and Plateau states.

He said that items recovered from them include: a blue Volkswagen Vento car with Reg. No. MGU 106 EA, one Pistol, four AK-47 Magazines and five FN rifle.

Others are : 989 rounds of Ammunition, one round of 9mm ammunition, one Beretta magazine, and N457, 140.

Similarly, Opuiyo said, the service had arrested two high profile kidnappers on July 5 July, at Ikara Junction, Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano State.

He said that they were members of a kidnap gang which had been operating at the Falgore forest in Kano State.

He said that 26 live cartridges and a bullet proof vest were found in their possession during their arrest.

The operative said that the service had also arrested five kidnap suspects responsible for kidnapping in the FCT and two others in Kogi.

On terrorism, Opuiyo said that the service had arrested a high profile Boko Haram cell leader alongside six of his accomplices in Sakwai, Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The suspects are: Usman Musa, Isa Halidu, Ibrahim Dauda, Bature Mohammed, Buhari Dauda, Inusa Usman and Adamu Ibrahim.

He said that the suspects were arrested on July 1, after a tactical operation was conducted against fleeing Boko Haram fighters.

Opuiyo said that items recovered from them include: Light arms, ammunition and radical literature.

He said that the service also arrested some suspected terrorists in Kano and Taraba who fled from the Sambisa forest.

Opuiyo said that the service had arrested three suspects in connection with the boundary dispute in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River and Okuiboku in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

He said that the arrest was made in liaison with the Nigerian Army on Aug. 10, after a raid of the militants enclave along Ikonoto road, Ikonoto clan in Odukpani.

He said that during the raid, one of the suspects was shot dead and two escaped with gunshot injuries.

Opuiyo said that one Dane gun and an American pump action gun were recovered from the hideout.

The Service wishes to acknowledge the efforts of the general public in providing critical and actionable intelligence, which have continued to enhance its operations.

It is hoped that this spirit of cooperation and support will further be sustained toward maintenance of prevailing peace, law and order in the Country, he said.

Source: ( PM News )
N47 million has been donated by the Niger State Government to 44 victims of the Abdulkadir Kure Ultra Modern Market, Minna, fire disaster.

The incident occurred on Jan. 3, 2016, where 38 shops and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.

Gov. Abubakar Bello, while distributing the money to the victims, on Friday in Minna, urged them to make judicious use of the money given to them to set up new businesses.

He commended the victims for their patience, noting that the fire incident occurred at a time the state was experiencing a financial crisis.

The governor said that the government had put in place measures to curtail fire disasters such as the provision of three central generators to supply electricity in the market.

He said that other measures were the construction of a fire service station in the market place with fire trucks for quick response to fire outbreaks.

Bello added that the recently employed fire operators would be deployed to the station as soon as they finished their training.

We have installed central generators to discourage people from storing fuel in their shops for smaller generators which can increase the risks of fire outbreak.

These are measures we have put in place to prevent fire disasters.

Government will continue to give assistance to disaster victims even though it has taken long, but I believe the assistance came at the time you all need it most.

Bello, however, cautioned the traders against the indiscriminate increase of prices of goods during festive periods.

He said that such increment, especially on food items, had brought untold hardship on the people in the past.

Similarly, Alhaji Ibrahim Inga, the Director-General of the State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), said that the assistance would cushion the effect of the disaster on the victims.

The time the incident happened was the same time the state was having a financial crisis and it is not how far it has come, but how well it is done.

The economic situation of the state has improved that is why the government is giving the assistance now and I am assuring other flood and fire victims who have yet to receive any assistance that they will soon get assistance, he said.

Meanwhile, Alhaji Bala Kura, the Chairman of the traders association, described the governments assistance as a fulfilled promise.

He solicited the same gesture to other fire victims whose shops were burnt down recently in a fire outbreak in the market.

Malam Idris Ibrahim, one of the victims who lost 16 shops, said that the N15 million given to him would go a long way in alleviating his plight.

Source: ( PM News )
Rap artiste, Ikechukwu Onunaku shot into prominence in 2006 with his hit song, My Name is Ikechukwu. Fast forward till date and the rapper is not as vibrant in the Nigerian music scene as he was over a decade ago.

However, it seems the rap artiste has discovered his passion for acting and like it is for him the music industry, his fan base as an actor seems to grow with each day especially after his role in the blockbuster movie, The Wedding Party.

In a chat with Saturday Beats, the rap artiste made it known that he was only expanding his horizon and not quitting music for acting.

He said, I dont see why I should quit music for acting; I dont even see why it should be considered. I see it as an expansion so I do not have to give one talent up for the other. They are both expressions of the talent God gave me so I cannot even choose which I love the most between acting and music but one thing is for sure; I am not quitting either of the two great talents that I have.

The Wedding Party was not my first stint with acting. I was actually in the award winning short film titled, The Wages. I also featured in Gidi Up, Season 2. I also featured in Gbomo Gbomo Express and that was the project that made everyone believe I could act before I became a part of the cast of The Wedding Party. I told Mo Abudu that I would love to work with her and when they were auditioning for The Wedding Party, I was called. I auditioned twice and they invited me to be a part of the cast for the movie, he said.

Source: Punch
President Buharis media aides, visited him today at the Abuja House in London, and the President who said theres tremendous improvement in his health, further disclosed he wishes to return home.

According to Femi Adesina, the President said hes only obeying his doctors orders. Heres what Femi Adesina wrote;

IM OKAY, ONLY NEED TO OBEY DOCTORS ORDERS, PRESIDENT BUHARI TELLS VISITING MEDIA TEAM President Muhammadu Buhari says there is tremendous improvement in his health, indeed, he wishes to return home, but Ive learnt to obey my doctors orders, rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge. The President spoke while receiving the presidential media team, and the Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters, at Abuja House, London, on Saturday. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, led the visiting team, accompanied by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity; Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, and Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant on Digital/Online Media. Also there was Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters.
Entertainer and social crusader, Charly Boy, 66, has opened up about the Our Mumu Don Do protest calling for president Buhari to resume work or resign. In an interview with Ademola Olonilua of Punch, he said the few people on the protests are those who are ready to die for Nigeria. .

.

On celebrities not joining the movement despite his call, he said: The bible says, many are called but few are chosen. If there are only two of us, we are going to keep insisting on the right thing. Dont forget, I did not start this movement. .

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It was some young Nigerians that started it and they roped me into it. My job as an Area Fada is to guide them because what was missing in the past which made people claim that the youths have gone to sleep is that they did not have the right leadership. .

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I have come out to say that I would take a bullet on their behalf because I feel and believe that this country would only be saved by some exceptional youths. If you look at the trend, the youths in this country have really done Nigeria proud, especially when they are abroad. .

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There are so many Nigerians in Harvard Business School, Nigerian doctors have helped to shape the American health care system; I can go on. So why is it that in our own country, the youths do not have any future? .

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It is because the terrain is polluted and infected by all these criminals. I am happy that I am making that connection with some exceptional youths and I am proud to say that it is just a question of time. We are not looking for a crowd. .

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Like I always say, the people holding Nigeria at its jugular, those who are responsible for the excruciating poverty Nigerians are going through are not up to 50. My own equation is that the people that would rescue this country may not be up to 20 despite the fact that they would try and kill some or throw tear gas at them.

Source: Nairaland
An Italian young lady by the name Chiara Del Gaudio, from Turin claimed she was rejected for a job because her potential employer realized she was engaged to a black man after checking her Facebook page.

The 18 year old had been job hunting and was shocked when a shopkeeper contacted her on social media to comment on her fiance, who is a Nigerian.

Chiara posted a series of screenshots of their conversation, where he said the serial killer the Monster of Florence would be a more suitable boyfriend.

The man wrote;

As far as Im concerned, you can go out with the Monster of Florence, but allow me to not entrust the safety of my store to those who share their life with an African.

The young woman rebuffed the shop owner, who she claims later had to delete his Facebook profile because he was being threatened.

Chiara told Corriere Della Sera:

He contacted me by saying that he was interested in my resume, but after seeing my Facebook profile he told me that he did not like me and even advised me to remove photos with my boyfriend.

Dont worry, if by just looking at my profile you think Im not the right person for the job, I can understand that you are a very superficial person so I would not accept it.

He could tell me that my curriculum was not good, I would have accepted it, but I did not think I could be a victim of racism because I was engaged to a boy of colour.

Locals reacted to Chiaras claims with horror and the president of the Torino Union of Traders, Maria Luisa Coppa, condemned the actions of the shopkeeper.

She told La Repubblica: Respect and integration are values that animate our activities. Episodes such as the one reported do not belong to our culture.

In 2016 it was estimated that there were around 666,000 North Africans living in Italy.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni on Friday warned members of the public to desist from carrying out jungle justice.

Owoseni, in a press release signed by the State Commands Spokesperson, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, said the warning became necessary following incidents recorded after the discovery of underground ritual dens in the state.

On Aug. 8, two persons suspected to be ritualists were set ablaze and some buildings vandalized at Ajala Bus-Stop, Ijaiye-Ojokoro area of Lagos.

Also on Aug. 10, at Ile-Zik Bus Stop, along Old Abeokuta Road, a group of people attempted to carry out jungle justice on some destitute suspected to be ritualists/kidnappers.

The suspects were, however, saved by the quick intervention of the Police and Sister Security Agencies.

Owoseni said jungle justice was unlawful, adding that vital evidence that could aid investigate were often destroyed in the process.

In addition, in the course of discharging its constitutional responsibilities and preventing the barbaric act, Police officers were fatally wounded while stones were hurled at them as well as Police Patrol Vans.

However, a number of arrests were made in this regard, he said.

According to the police commissioner, jungle justice, aside being a violation of the law, dents the image of the State.

He said that all those arrested in connection with the aforementioned cases would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The General public is advised to report any suspicious happening in their areas to the Police and other Security Agencies, Owoseni said.

He reassured the public of the renewed commitment of the Police and other Security Agencies to prompt response to such reports.

The commissioner said that no effort would be spared toward ensuring that lawful means are used to bring to justice, anyone that violates the law.

Source: ( PM News )
The army chief said this in Lagos while delivering a paper at the inaugural Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers of Nigeria, noting that the army had rescued more than 300,000 hostages of the terrorists between 2015 and now.

Buratais paper titled, Counter-insurgency and role of the Nigerian Army in creating conducive environment for Nigerias economic development, was read by the General Officer Commanding, 81 Division, Maj. Gen. Peter Dauke.

He said, It is regrettable that the economic impact of the Boko Haram activities in the North-East is estimated at $9bn. Borno State had the highest impact estimated at $5.9bn. Also, the loss of agricultural production in the North-East caused by terrorist activities was $3.5bn.

The restructuring of the army operations in the North-East in 2015 yielded fruitful results. This restructuring changed the counter-insurgency strategies by adopting an aggressive posture, effective command and control, efficient use of weapon and logistics with particular attention to the welfare of the troops.

Hence, not less than 1,009 Boko Haram terrorists have surrendered voluntarily to troops while 1,140 others have been arrested. Another 1,500 Boko Haram terrorists are under investigation.

The army chief said that the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe state governments had embarked on the reconstruction of damaged schools, bridges, hospitals and other critical infrastructure aimed at recreating socioeconomic activities across the region.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The National leader of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP )is said to be under intense pressure to suspend some of its members believed to be working against its interest.

This, it was gathered, was one of the issues discussed by members of the National Executive Committee of the party in Abuja on Friday night.

Sources at the meeting told our correspondent that particular attention was paid to the South-West zone of the party, where a court case was said to have been instituted at a Federal High Court, Abuja calling for the stoppage of the convention.

The None-Elective Convention of the party, which narrowly survived being stopped by the court, was said to have been mandated to discuss the possibility of suspending the erring members.

Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, disclosed at the PDPs 75th National Executive Committee that there were about five or four different attempts by persons whose names he did not mention to use the courts to halt the convention.

Makarfi said that the NEC meeting had to be delayed till last night to allow the caretaker committee monitor situations in the courts across the country and be convinced that no court order had been made against todays convention.

The crisis rocking the South-West caucus of the party had continued after the Supreme Court judgment, a development which is considered by party members as a deliberate attempt to sabotage ongoing peace efforts in the party.

A member of NEC, who spoke on a condition of anonymity after the meeting, said, There were discussions on whether we should expel some of our members, especially from the South-West over anti-party activities.

But the decision will be taken on them tomorrow and we may refer their cases to the just inaugurated Disciplinary Committee headed by Chief Tom Ikimi.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, which ended at 10:02pm, the spokesperson for the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said that the meeting took decisions on some state chapters of the party.

He listed some of the states to include Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Adamawa, Kebbi and Borno.
A 4months pregnant student and four others of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, have landed in the hospital after being assaulted by security men.

According to an online source named MOUAU tatafo, the security men beat up students celebrating the completion of their final exams.

A security personnel used the butt of a gun to hit the pregnant lady, who had to be rushed to the hospital.

MOUAU Tatafo wrote;
President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to resign from office because of his ill health by some bishops in the country

The bishops also reprimanded the Presidency for persistently refusing to disclose Buharis health status, saying they were in support of protesters demanding the Presidents resignation.

Since Monday, the resume or resign protesters  backed by a popular artiste, Charles Oputa (also known as Charly Boy)  had accused Buharis handlers of holding him captive.

The protesters had also advised the President to demonstrate his touted integrity by resigning from office as it was evident he wasnt physically fit to carry on the number one job in the country.

Speaking on Friday at the second session of the Twelfth Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Owo, the Bishop of Owo Diocese, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Rt. Revd. James Oladunjoye, asked Buhari to resign and give room for another person to do the job.

The bishop said the situation whereby the President had spent several months abroad had not helped the country, adding that it was wrong to conceal his (Buhari) health status as he was no longer a private person.

Oladunjoye said, We thank God for the President and for the way he had been ruling according to the law, but there is something wrong that we want him to address.

He has been ill for so many months in his tenure and so, is it not proper for the country to know his health condition as he is no more a private personality?

He is public property and if he is not strong enough to continue as the leader of this country, it is better for him to resign so that another qualified individual can take up the office legitimately.

Speaking based on his personal relationship with Oladunjoye, the Bishop of the Ibadan South Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Revd. Jacob Ajetunmobi, said his counterpart at the Owo Diocese was speaking based on the experience he (Oladunjoye) had.

Ajetunmobi said Oladunjoye had had accidents which forced the latter to consider early retirement, adding that if a cleric could be forced to retire early because of his health, the President should also be able to do so.

However, Ajetunmobi advised Buhari that should he decide not to resign, he should not contemplate running for the second term.

Ajetunmobi said, He (Oladunjoye) had separate accidents that led to him suffering from a broken hand. He had taken treatment in Nigeria but had to travel to the United States for more treatment. He is now being forced to retire early before turning 70 as a result of that.

He is speaking from personal experience that if health challenge will not permit him to function properly in his position, he would rather resign.

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo should be able to carry on with the administration of Nigeria. Buhari was one of those calling for late President Umaru YarAduas resignation then, but now, he knows that what goes around comes around. We should be careful what we wish others.

Here, I am a bit more radical in my opinion, but it is much more complex than we think. There are underpinning theological positions involved.

Asking Buhari not to consider running for a second term, Ajetunmobi said, Buhari has about one more year to spend as President, but he should not think of coming back for a second term. The All Progressives Congress should think along and restructure its leadership or be ready to fail in 2019.

Also, the Catholic Bishop of Auchi Diocese in Edo State, Most Revd. Gabriel Dunia, told one of our correspondents that while the constitution was silent about how long the President could be away after transferring his power to the Vice-President, an honest leader ought to voluntarily declare his inability to continue in office (when he is physically unfit).

Dunia said, A sincere person who wants to sincerely help but can no longer perform his function should be able to say, I cannot perform this function anymore.

So, there is no need pretending, unless the person is not honest. And if the person is not sincere, he is not out to help anybody. If I am helping somebody and I know that it is beyond my power to help again, I should be able to come out to say I cannot go further.

Dunia also described the Presidencys prolonged silence on Buharis health status as deceptive.

That is deception; if they cannot tell Nigerians what is wrong with the President, who is their son, father, brother and friend, then the children (Nigerians) should know what is wrong with their father, he said.

The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Kano State Chapter, Bishop Ransom Bello, indicated his support for the resume or resign protest, insisting that it was high time the Presidency opened up on Buharis health status.

The General Overseer, Christ Alive Power Assembly, Bauchi, Pastor Emmanuel Kanti, said the Nigerian constitution should be allowed to take its course in that Buhari should resign because of his illness.

He said, If the President is not strong enough to rule the country, he should give way to someone who is healthy and strong enough to rule the country.

The number one citizen of a country shouldnt conceal his health status and put the whole country in dilemma; I think it is unfair. If hes unhealthy, he should give way to someone else and stop being a ghost President. But if he feels hes okay, he should come back and continue ruling the country.

In fact, the Presidency is playing on the intelligence of Nigerians and there is no reason whatsoever for doing that. They should just tell us the present state of our President.

Also speaking to Saturday PUNCH, the leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Pastor Christmas Mark, asked President Buhari to honourably resign if he was not fit to rule the country on health grounds.

He said, Nigerians have the right to protest in the sense that the President is not a secret position holder; it is not a position that is answerable to a community and inasmuch as he is the President of the country, he is answerable to the people. And the people want to see him at all costs.

So, it is not right for the Federal Government to hide him. What they should have done is to set up a medical panel to know his health status. Nigerians do not want information (again); they want to see him.

It can even be right for one to say that if he is not fit to rule, to ask him to resign is not out of place. The reason is that people want to see the person they elected. They voted for him to rule.

They voted for the President and the Vice-President to rule. Now we are seeing only the Vice-President. Inasmuch as we know the constitution, the Vice-President has limited powers. So, if the President is not fit or if he is incapacitated, let him honourably resign.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Nigerian musician Sean Tizzle has just welcomed his first child with his America based girlfriend.

The excited musician took to social media to announce the birth of the beautiful baby.

He wrote;

Damn she is here, AYOMIDE

He also shared a lovely picture of the baby online.

Congrats to Sean Tizzle!

(Gistreel)
The Lagos state police have released a statement reacting to the mob attack on two suspected ritualists in the Ikeja area of the state earlier today. Two persons accused of working with three persons arrested in connection with the new ritualist den at the Ile-Zik bus stop in Ikeja yesterday evening, were set ablaze by a mob this morning. A statement by the Lagos state police public relations officer, Famous-Cole, says that one of those attacked was a destitute who the mob alleged had a telephone on him. Read the press statement below

In the past few days, the Lagos State Police Command has recorded some incidents of jungle justice across the State.

2. Recent cases are:

a. The incident of 8th August 2017 at Ajala Bus-Stop, Ijaiye-Ojokoro where two (2) persons suspected to be Kidnappers/Ritualists were completely burnt, while some buildings were vandalized.

b. The incident of 10th August, 2017 at Ile-Zik Bus Stop, along Old Abeokuta Road, where mob attempted to carry out jungle justice on some destitutes, suspected to be Ritualists/Kidnappers. This was prevented by quick intervention of the Police and Sister Security Agencies.

c. The incident of 11th August, 2017, where a destitute who appeared to be mentally deraigned was set ablaze by mob on the allegation that he possessed a telephone.

3. It is necessary to mention that in the course of the disdainful acts, vital evidence are destroyed. In addition, in the course of discharging its Constitutional responsibilities and prevent the barbaric act, Police officers were fatally wounded, while stones were hurled at them as well as Police Patrol Vans. However, a number of arrests were made in this regard.

4. The foregoing has made it imperative that the general public be reminded of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended which states thus:

a. It shall be the duty of every citizen to respect the dignity of other citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of others and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood

b. No person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment

5. There is no justification for jungle justice on suspected persons. It is barbaric and uncivilized. It is a manifestation of the erosion of our moral values and a disregard for the sanctity of human lives. It violates the rule of law and dents the image of the State. Above all, it is a violation of the law, and all those arrested in connection with the aforementioned cases will be made to face the full wrath of the law.

6. The General public is advised to report any suspicious happening in their areas to the Police and other Security Agencies. The public is assured of the renewed commitment of the Police and other Security Agencies to prompt response to such reports. The public is also assured of renewed synergy amongst the institutions saddled with criminal justice administration towards ensuring quick dispensation of justice.

7. The general public is therefore, strongly advised to desist from this unlawful and barbaric act. No effort will be spared in ensuring that lawful means are used to bring to justice, anyone who violates the law, please.
The results of the 2017 Presidential elections in Kenyan 2017 has been announced. according to the result, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta has won Kenyas hotly contested presidential poll, the electoral commission says.

The 55-year old incumbent, who has been in office since 2013, won a second five-year term with 54.27 per cent of the vote, followed by 72-year-old opposition leader, Raila Odinga with 44.74 percent.

Electoral Commission Chairman, Wafula Chebukati, announced the result after the commission painstakingly double-checked the tally by the electronic voting system with the results of the paper-based forms from all of the East African nations 290 constituencies.

The additional verification process was instituted after Odinga alleged that hackers had manipulated the voting system after Tuesdays polls.

The opposition coalition said just hours before the results were declared that it was not going to be party to the announcement, because their concerns over the vote were not adequately addressed.
Although there may be a point in everyones life when they need self-storage, everyone should not be your target market. We know life events can trigger the need for storagemoving/relocating, relationship-status change, a new baby, losing a family a member or reorganizing spaceand most of our customers come from within 10 miles of the facility. People in transition are our broad target, but for the best return on your marketing dollars, its essential to identify a market specific to your business.

How? The following three steps can help ensure your marketing efforts are geared toward the correct audience for the best return on investment.

1. Look at the type of storage you offer. The first step in creating a customer profile is to consider your inventory. Do you have small, locker-size units? Temperature-controlled units? Units with wide doors? Next, think about the types of customers those units might serve. Lockers and small units are great for people who need to store seasonal items. Temperature-controlled units are great for those storing business inventory. Drive-up units with wide doors are great for vehicles like boats and RVs.

2. Use your customer data. If youre not collecting marketing data from each inquiry and customer who visits your facility, start now! This is the second step in forming your targeted customer profile. You want both demographic and storage-specific information. For example:

How old are they?

What gender are they?

How far away do they live from the facility?

What they are storing?

Why are they storing?

Why did they choose your facility?

How did they hear about you?

Where do they get their information?

Collecting and analyzing this data can help you understand your specific market. For example, are most of your customers coming from within 5 miles of the facility and storing because theyre moving? This becomes your typical customer profile and part of your marketing efforts.

3. Look at your competitions marketing. Examining competitors efforts can assist you in creating your target profile, both by looking at what theyre doing well and what theyre doing poorly. Does their marketing cater to a certain demographic? Is that a market you can also serve? Or, is there a market in your area theyre completely missing?

Doing these three things will help you narrow in on your target market. Using as much specific data as possible will help you decide on the best strategies and initiatives and generate marketing ideas. Then advertising can be placed in the most effective locations to reach the target. Identifying your facilitys market using facility, customer and competition data is the first step in any marketing strategy.

Melissa Stiles, director of marketing for Storage Asset Management Inc., is responsible for the direction of marketing and sales functions of the companys 80-plus managed self-storage facilities in 24 states as well as its corporate marketing. Her previous experience includes traditional and digital marketing, specifically social media and search engine optimization in the nonprofit and manufacturing sectors. For more information, call 717.779.0044; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.storageassetmanagement.com.
The Senate Economics References Committee has released its report on the general insurance industry in Australia and called on the Government to increase mitigation spending and the industry to improve disclosure practices.The inquiry was designed to review competition and transparency in the strata, home and car insurance markets in Australia with a focus on examining how the industry is performing in relation to product disclosure and comparability and how these could be improved.The report noted 15 recommendations, with the first a call on the Government to release its long-awaited response to the final report of the Northern Australia Insurance Premiums Taskforce. The final recommendation states that the Government should, as a matter of urgency, work with states and territories to reform natural disaster funding arrangements. NIBA CEO, told Insurance Business that the review of the industry did not find any major problems with general insurance in Australia but the report could strengthen the case for seeking insurance advice from a broker.This is the trouble with a lot of these bodies where they identify issues and concerns and a lot of problems in insurance would be resolved if more people got good advice on things, Booth said.All products are not the same, all risks are not the same and therefore it is a challenge and can be a challenge for people to get the cover they need. If you dont know what you are doing youve got to get advice and sometimes Government agencies, parliamentary committees, regulators tend not to recommend people to get advice. I dont understand why that is the case.The report also recommends that the Government strongly consider introducing legislation to require all insurance intermediaries to disclose component pricing, including commissions payable to strata managers, on strata insurance quotations.Booth noted that brokers are already totally upfront and honest about their commissions and said the rest of those involved in the industry could follow suit.We do have a concern of strata managers effectively getting insurance commissions when they are not trained, and they are not experts or experienced in the world of insurance for strata risks and quite a lot of them are pocketing the insurance commission, Booth said. There is a massive question mark as to whether corporates are being well served through that process.On the issue of a price comparison service for consumers to compare insurance policies, the report recommends that the Government complete a detailed proposal for the service.Rob Whelan, CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), questioned the push towards a price comparison service as evidence from consumer groups, regulators and the industry shows that comparison sites do not empower customers to choose the best product.You cant compare insurance products as though youre comparing cans of soft drink, and each insurers product is competitive on its features as well as its price, Whelan said. The ICA notes the recommendation relating to a price comparison tool but believes enough evidence has already been provided to demonstrate a government-run aggregator would not stand up to a cost-benefit analysis.The report notes the work undertaken by the ICA to improve product disclosure practices but said that it is deeply concerned by the apparent lack of transparency in the general insurance industry.Whelan said that many of the issues raised by the report are already being addressed by the industry, such as the Disclosure Taskforce and the review of the general insurance code of practice.
AIG is asking for more time before it pays more than $675,000 in legal fees to controversial celebrity Bill Cosby.



Cosby is facing civil litigation in Massachusetts for allegedly sexually assaulting and slandering multiple women.



Celebrate excellence in insurance. Nominate a worthy colleague for the Insurance Business Awards!



Boston Globe reported that AIG Property Casualty Company asked a federal judge in Springfield to delay an order that is asking the company to make the payout to a trust controlled by a law firm defending Cosby. The order to hand over the payout was issued in April.



According to the insurers filing, Cosby has informed AIG Property Casualty Company that he intends to execute the judgment and collect the payment, despite AIG appealing the April ruling. AIG is looking to stay the order while the appeal is pending.



In June 2015, AIG asked a judge to rule that the company has no duty to provide coverage for Cosbys court battle on grounds that the women claiming against the comedian alleged sexual misconduct  something Cosbys policy does not cover.



While numerous women have accused Cosby of sexual assault, only one has so far resulted in criminal charges.




The Trump administration is moving to further delay part of an Obama-era rule to require brokers who offer retirement advice to put their customers interests ahead of their own.

The U.S. Department of Labor said in a court filing Wednesday that it has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposal to postpone parts of the so-called fiduciary rule for an additional 18 months. If approved, Wall Street firms would have until July 2019 to make adjustments to the most contentious parts of a rule that they say could open them up to a wave of lawsuits.

The Labor Department measure, the first major overhaul of retirement savings rules since the 1970s, was released last year over strong objections from the financial industry and Republican lawmakers. President Barack Obamas administration said at the time that requiring brokers to put customers first would help eliminate biased advice that costs retirement savers billions of dollars annually in high fees and commissions.

Financial firms and industry groups have argued that the new rules would prompt brokerages to drop clients with small amounts of savings and limit customers investment options. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups have sued to overturn the fiduciary standard, which theyve termed deliberately unworkable. A delay could help financial firms by giving regulators time to make tweaks to the rule that the industry would like to see.

Substantial Rewrite

While this delay was widely expected, it is a positive for the industry nonetheless, said Issac Boltansky, an analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading. This delay sets the stage for a substantial rewrite.

The industry fought especially hard to tweak whats known as the best interest contract exemption, which allows clients to join together in class-action lawsuits against financial firms.

President Donald Trump set his sights on the fiduciary rule early in his presidency by signing an executive order in February to delay its implementation. While Wall Street firms had hoped that action would lead to the rule being scrapped, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta disappointed them earlier this year when he said the rule would be implemented. As a result, the bulk of the provisions took effect in June. Others were delayed until January 2018 and now could be further delayed to July 2019.

The regulation is already harming retirement savers, James Szostek, a vice president at the American Council of Life Insurers, said in a statement Wednesday. The department needs to act as quickly as it can to reverse course to correct this regulation.

The delay plan was disclosed in documents submitted by the Labor Department as part of a lawsuit filed in Minnesota. Three provisions of the fiduciary rule, including the part permitting class-action suits, are currently set to take effect in January.

Given the importance and implementation requirements, we recognize the regulated community will need time to make the changes necessary to be compliant with the remaining requirements, Laura Edling, a spokeswoman for Vanguard Group, said in a statement. She said Labor should delay the rule to allow a realistic timeframe for financial institutions to comply with the outstanding provisions.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation
Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese.

Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa.

Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista.

E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa  ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta.

A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito.
The EU is supposed to value and respect the human rights of all. So why did several of its officials attend the inauguration of a president who has a horrific human rights record? During his first term, Rouhani oversaw thousands of executions and numerous crackdowns on the people. Only last week, Amnesty International released a report detailing the gravity of the situation in the country. It mentioned how the people are imprisoned and tortured for standing up for their rights.

To see EU officials attend the inauguration of such a president must be very hurtful to the Iranian people. They are effectively ignoring the pain and suffering that goes on inside Iran and are confirming that it is less of a concern than diplomatic and political relations.

The election process was also a complete farce in Iran and nobody can use the argument that Rouhani is a moderate. Rouhani, along with several others, was shortlisted because of his allegiance to the Supreme Leader Khamenei. Rouhani cannot change anything about the Iranian regime because he is quite simply a tool used by the Supreme Leader, the ultimate ruler of the country.

Political prisoners are treated with such cruelty and viciousness, and people bravely risk their lives every day just to speak out against the regime. Mistreatment of the people is nothing new in the country. For decades, political opponents of the regime have been arrested and hurt or killed. In 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed in what has become known as the 1988 massacre. The Supreme Leader at that time issued a fatwa calling for all these executions.

Corruption is rife in the regime at all levels. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force is led by the notorious criminal Qassem Suleimani. Even officials who were part of the 1988 massacre hold positions of power. How can anyone say that there is a chance of moderation in the leadership of Iran?

The people of Iran want freedom. Freedom in all aspects of life is what the people have been dreaming of for a long time. And their struggle may be set to end soon. At the oppositions Free Iran rally in Paris last month, many former officials and prominent political figures from around the world declared their support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). They said that the Resistance has come so far in the past few years, and the toppling of the regime is inevitable and will happen soon.

So instead of supporting the corrupt, criminal, cruel and callous Iranian regime, maybe EU officials could show their support for the people that are suffering. The EU and the rest of the West should be conditioning their relations with Iran on a complete halt of executions, among other urgent issues.
Donald Trump has said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "will regret it fast" if he continues his threats to US territories and allies.

In remarks to reporters, Mr Trump issued the threat directly at Kim, who is also known for his bellicose rhetoric, and all but drew a red line that would trigger swift US action.

"If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat - which by the way he has been uttering for years and his family has been uttering for years - or he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast," Mr Trump said.

The words followed an early morning tweet in which Nr Trump declared the US military is "locked and loaded" if the isolated rogue nation acts "unwisely".

The threats came in a week in which the long-standing tensions between the US and the isolated nation seemed to abruptly boil over. North Korea threated to launch an attack on the US territory of Guam, while Mr Trump vowed to deliver "fire and fury" if threatened.

Tough talk aside, there was scant sign the US military was preparing for imminent action and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remained open.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that talks between North Koreans and a US official continue through a back channel previous used to negotiate the return of Americans held in North Korea.

The talks have expanded to address the deterioration of the relationship, according to US officials.

But Mr Trump on Friday sought to project the military strength.

He tweeted: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"

He later retweeted a posting from US Pacific Command that showed B-1B Lancer bomber planes on Guam that "stand ready to fulfill USFK's #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so".

Such declarations, however, are not necessarily indicators of a new more aggressive posture. "Fight tonight" has long been the motto of US forces in South Korea to show they are always ready for combat on the Korean Peninsula.

US officials insist that there have been no new significant movement of troops, ships, aircraft or other assets to the region other than what has already been long planned for previously scheduled exercises.

American and South Korean officials said they would move forward later this month with the exercises, which North Korea claims are a rehearsal for war.

The days of war rhetoric have alarmed international leaders.

"I don't see a military solution and I don't think it's called for," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer," she added.

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov estimated the risk of a military conflict between the US and North Korea as "very high," and said Moscow was deeply concerned.

"When you get close to the point of a fight, the one who is stronger and wiser should be the first to step back from the brink," Mr Lavrov said on Friday.

AP
A man has been charged with murder after pulling up outside a police station with a body in the car.

Sukhwinder Singh, 40, of MacDonalds Close, Tividale, will appear before Walsall Magistrates' Court on Saturday accused of killing another man.
UPDATE 12.45: Catholic leaders on Saturday appealed for calm and asked security forces to exercise caution during protests.

"We appeal to them to restrain themselves from using excessive force in handling crowds," said John Oballa Owaa, vice chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. "No life should be lost because of an election."

The bishop said any dispute over the election should be resolved peacefully and by "legal norms as provided in the constitution."

AP

Earlier: Kenyan police have shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in national elections.

Leonard Katana, a regional police commander, said the deaths occurred on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support.

Mr Katana said another five people were injured by gunfire in Kisumu.

Also on Saturday, Kenyan police opened fire to disperse opposition protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades in a slum in Nairobi, the capital. An Associated Press photographer saw police firing live rounds in the Mathare area.

Mr Kenyatta on Friday appealed for unity after the Kenyan election commission announced results following several days of vote-counting. Mr Odinga has alleged that the election was rigged.

AP
Venezuela's government has rejected US president Donald Trump's talk of a potential "military option" to resolve the country's political crisis, calling it the most egregious act of belligerence against Venezuela in a century and a threat to Latin America's stability.

Foreign minister Jorge Arreaza's response came during a meeting with overseas diplomats, which included Lee McClenny, the head of the US embassy in Caracas.

Mr Arreaza called Mr Trump the "boss of the empire" and said his comments fit a pattern of aggression against Venezuelan sovereignty and violate international law and the UN charter.

He accused Washington of seeking to destabilise and divide Latin America and the Caribbean.

The foreign minister also thanked several governments, including ones recently critical of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, for condemning Mr Trump's comments.

Mr Arreaza called on "good-minded" Venezuelans to put aside their political differences and unite in rejecting the US leader's comments.

Earlier, Mr Trump said he would not rule out military action against Venezuela in response to the country's descent into political chaos following President Nicolas Maduro's power grab.

Speaking on Friday at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, Mr Trump bemoaned Venezuela's growing humanitarian crisis and said: "We have many options for Venezuela - and by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option.

"A military operation and military option is certainly something that we could pursue."

Mr Trump's comment mark a serious escalation in rhetoric for the US, which has up until now stressed a regional approach that encourages Latin American allies to escalate pressure on the Maduro regime.

Hours before Mr Trump's comments, a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity stressed that approach while briefing reporters on Vice President Mike Pence's upcoming trip to the region.

On Friday, the White House said it had rejected a request from Mr Maduro to speak by phone with his US counterpart. The statement said: "Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country."

The Trump administration has slapped a series of sanctions against Mr Maduro and more than two dozen current and former Venezuelan officials in response to a crackdown on opposition leaders and the recent election of a constitutional assembly charged with rewriting the country's constitution.

Even as the list of targeted individuals has grown longer, promised economic sanctions have yet to materialise amid an outcry by US oil companies over the likelihood that a potential ban on petroleum imports from Venezuela - the third-largest supplier to the US - would hurt US jobs and drive up fuel costs.

Mr Trump's comments are sure to focus new attention on Mr Pence's upcoming six-day tour of the region, which will include stops in Cartagena, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and Panama City.

Mr Pence is set to arrive in Colombia on Sunday and is expected to meet with each of the countries' leaders, deliver a major speech on US-Latin American relations and tour the newly expanded Panama Canal.
Amid the sabre-rattling between Washington and Pyongyang over North Koreas missile tests, European stock markets were hit for a third day. Some Irish leading shares, including CRH, have been notably in the firing line because the companies earn a large part of their earnings abroad.

After the South Koreans Kospi shares index, Irelands Iseq Overall index has been among one of the worst-hit stock markets. It has fallen over 2% during a week in which US president Donald Trump doubled up on his fire and fury comments with a locked and loaded tweet.

Ryan McGrath, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland, said volatility will continue next week as the market hopes the tone sways away from Mr Trumps hard line to the more conciliatory rhetoric of his secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

CRH shares have fallen almost 3% in just over a week, while AIB and Bank of Ireland, which for the most part are domestically focused, were little changed.

The winners from the flight from stockmarkets into safehavens have been eurozone sovereign debt.

The implied cost for Germany to borrow for 10 years has fallen by 10 basis points in the last three days, to only 0.39% from 0.49%, as investors sought out the classic havens at times of world tension.

Amid the North Korean tension, the Irish state can theoretically borrow for 10-years at 0.73%, with the yield down by a significant five basis points in recent days.

The yield on the UK 10-year gilt has also dropped, by 7 basis points to 1.07%.

Provided that war is avoided, we doubt whether that this marks the start of a sustained downturn in the US S&P shares index, according to Capital Economics in London.

The economists say that the S&P 500 fell after US president John F Kennedy clashed with Moscow at the height of the Cuban crisis but the index had recovered its losses even before Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev stood down his pledge to keep missiles on the Caribbean island.

Capital Economics said that S&P even rose in the month after the downing of a US spy plane over the USSR in 1960, as well as gaining during the time of the missile tests by China in the Taiwan Strait, in 1995.

Our assumption is that there will be no war between the US and North Korea.

We are therefore sticking to our forecast for the S&P 500 to end this year and next only a touch below its current level, it said.

Philip OSullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland, said government bonds and gold  the traditional safe haven assets  have risen, while the Irish shares index, which is dominated by large companies which earn revenues abroad, is exposed more than most.

Peter Brown, founder of Baggot Investment Partners, predicts stockmarkets will soon rally.

It could go down by as much as 5% but I see that going back up quickly, he said. As far as markets are concerned, he believes the Korean crisis will soon be a non-event, as the countdown continues to the US reaching its legislative debt ceiling and the German elections, while investors pay attention to interest rates hikes by central banks.
The new general data protection regulation, or GDPR, which comes into place in May next year, means private and public companies will have to take more care than ever over the ways they store and protect the data of citizens in the EU.

It is designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe and to protect citizens data privacy.

Unlike an EU directive, which can be implemented over a certain time, the regulation becomes law from May 2018, meaning penalties can be imposed from the very first day.

It applies to organisations in the EU but also to any foreign firms doing business inside the bloc.

If companies fail to comply with the regulation, they can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover, or 20m.

Chief executive of Cork-based Smarttech, Ronan Murphy, said the law was a monster in the scope of the regulations, saying that a massive push was needed to make as many organisations as possible aware before the May deadline.

First off, GDPR is a good thing as it is to protect all of our data and aims at preventing breaches. There is a lot of scaremongering about the new regulation, which neednt be the case.

However, that doesnt mean it shouldnt be taken very, very seriously indeed. We are way, way behind still unfortunately but thankfully there does seem to be growing awareness, he said.

According to cyber security experts, under the new regulation, Irish firms will have to comply with up to 90 principles relating to data protection.

Mr Murphy added: What it boils down to is that data protection officers will be able to ask how data is stored, protected, kept and used on customers, consumers, employees, etc. It will affect companies, government agencies, private public partnerships, universities, he said.

He said he would advise firms to carry out a readiness assessment to see how prepared they were for the new law.

While the law is implemented on day one and fines can be imposed on non-compliant firms, I would imagine firms taking steps to comply would be looked more favourably upon even if not fully-compliant, he said.

Dublin-based IT security firm Ward Solutions said demand for GDPR services had grown so much in recent months that it was creating a new 300,000 unit.

Chief technology officer Paul Hogan said: With GDPR looming on the horizon, there are huge fines in play for any organisation that fails to demonstrate compliance. Demand for this service is so high that 15 of our experienced data privacy consultants are now working solely on GDPR.
And that spells good news for Irish consumers and the debt-ridden Irish households which are likely to have lower prices for longer, according to experts.

The recovery in oil prices, which saw prices gain over 10% in July to $53 a barrel, has stalled in recent days. The price is lower by 3% this week on reports that the US Energy Information Administration, a key source of energy data and forecasts, cut its oil demand forecast by 400,000 barrels per day on lower demand from emerging markets, said Joe Egan, an energy trader at Bord Gais Energy.

The problem for Opec, however, is that it now faces a leaner and meaner swing producer in the form of US shale oil, able to adapt much more quickly to oil price moves. In recent months, US shale oil producers have demonstrated an ability to produce profitably at prices above $50 a barrel, possibly putting a cap on oil price gains for now, Mr Egan said.

AA director Conor Faughnan said Irish motorists could be reasonably confident that in the next quarter, fuel prices would stay on the low side.

The omens are good, with the caveat that nobody can ever truly know what will happen for sure. However, the signs point to stability. In relative terms, oil prices are quite low albeit fluctuating over the past 12 months, Mr Faughnan said.

What type of winter we have will tell a lot. If there is a benign winter in the northern hemisphere, we will probably see prices stay low.

Another factor is that the value of the dollar has fallen somewhat, and that has tended to pull prices down. You can never truly predict but current signs are good, Mr Faughnan said.

Mr Egan said there has been continued evidence that Opec nations were sticking less to the groups production cuts, as Libya and Nigeria increase oil production.

Libya, for example, has seen its production grow by an additional 180,000 barrels a day in July, and has increased production by half a million barrels in the last three months, exacerbating Opecs attempts to address the global glut.

And pledges by Saudi Arabia and Iraq have failed to prop up prices.
Andrew Strelzik, an analyst at the bank, downgraded Starbucks recently and lowered his price target on the shares, arguing that the abundance of locations in the US means that stores are stealing sales from each other and weighing down the companys results.

Competitor Dunkin Donuts is also suffering from a saturated US fast-food market, and recently lowered its new-store target.
The 36-year-old Dubliner is undertaking the challenge in aid of ISPCC/Childline.

He was blown off course by south-westerly winds near Ballinglanna, Clonakilty, late on Thursday.

He described how he ended up in Ballinglanna: The south-westerly was really strong and I got blown in here. The aim was to get to the Galley Head by midnight and I would have been set up nicely for the night but the wind was too strong.

Local residents Belgian-born Xavier Dubuisson and his son Malachy came to his aid, transporting and storing the kayak at their house before taking Ger to a camping site in Clonakilty where he spent the night.

An outdoor education instructor in Ballyfermot, Dublin, Ger began the 1,500km journey from Howth Harbour last Sunday week.

He is hoping to arrive back in the Dublin port before the end of the month.

Outlining his progress, he said: The other day, I did 80km, but some days I only did about 20km as the weather was so bad. On average its about 50km a day.

Compartments in the kayak contain sleeping and cooking equipment, a tent, navigation tools, first aid equipment, and food for up to five days.
The principal and board of management of St Audoens National School along with local residents, including a petition signed by 267 people, were some of those to object to the plan.

Dublin Simon already operates a specialist medical residential treatment and recovery centre at the site, including a 39-bed unit. The plan represents a significant expansion of services.

RPS, consultants for Dublin Simon, told the city council that the plan allows for the provision of an increased number of recovery beds enabling clients to further stabilise and enhance their ongoing recovery.

It states: This will reduce relapse rates and costs for repeated admissions to detox units or general hospitals  as well as ultimately reducing antisocial or criminal behaviour related to alcohol and drug use.

In an objection lodged on behalf of the board of St Audoens, principal Eilish Maher told Dublin City Council that the proposal is three times the size of what is already there.

Ms Maher said: Residential and business communities at Merchants Quay and Ushers Island are already affected by large addiction services, which cause daily nuisance, antisocial behaviour, intimidation, and often threats of violence.

This area is being marginalised by the transient nature of said service users, many of whom are not from Dublin 8  this is hampering the successful development of Dublin 8 and threatens sustainable communities and businesses.

Why have one major Simon Community facility when the needs are citywide? Why are such facilities not dispersed to include other areas where the issues are just as relevant?

There is an overemphasis of large crises services in Dublin at the expense of a family-friendly community. The area is over-saturated with community facilities and in particular rehabilitation and detoxification centres.

Ms Maher points out that the proposal is in very close proximity to St Audoens, with the majority of our students living just metres away from this site.

Increasing the volume of addition service users without prior consultation with relevant stakeholders is a breach of societys child protection responsibilities and primary concerns, said Ms Maher.
Publican Benny McCabe, who owns the Bodega on Cornmarket Street, a listed building, welcomed its removal and said he is looking forward to engaging with City Hall and others to further enhance the Coal Quay, and rejuvenate its street market.

Im delighted with the visibility. To be able to be seen from the road is a major plus for us, he said.

The stall, one of several on Cornmarket St, was moved by Cork City Council in recent days a month after Mr McCabe threatened legal action over what he described as a blockade.

Council spokesman, Paul Moynihan, said the stall was relocated by mutual consent to enhance the visual appearance of the area, and to improve pedestrian flow.

He said City Hall will continue to work with all stakeholders in the area to improve and enhance the area.

The council erected the stalls after a 4m facelift of the historic Cornmarket St and Coal Quay area in 2011. Shutters were subsequently installed on the units to combat anti-social behaviour.

Mr McCabe said most of the units were boarded up most of the time and had created a blockade of his, and several other businesses.

He said while the rejuvenation had delivered new footpaths and a plaza, it had failed to breathe new life into the street market.

Mr McCabe stressed his support for market traders but said the layout of the stalls was having a horrendous impact on his business.

His comments sparked a wider debate on the future of the Coal Quays street trading tradition.

Last night, he repeated his support for a thriving street market in the area.

I would envisage a street market here that would rival the markets of Camden Town. I cant see why that cant happen here on the Coal Quay. I look forward to discussions in coming months on the future direction of the Coal Quay, he said.

Meanwhile, traders from Cornmarket St, Paul St, French Church St, Daunt Square, Castle St and Careys Lane, have united to improve security in the area amid concerns about slow garda response times to certain incidents.

And separately, the Coal Quays rich heritage will be celebrated next weekend as part of Cork Heritage Open Day. Supported by the city council and traders, the sixth Coal Quay family festival will take place on August 19, with live music and an exhibition in St Peters.
The countys proposal emerged in the wake of a report recommending the first extension of Corks City boundary in more than 50 years. It is set to be discussed by city councillors at a special meeting on Monday.

The Mackinnon report calls for the retention of Corks two local authorities in tandem with a significant expansion of the city boundary to include areas such as Cork Airport, Douglas, Grange, Frankfield, Rochestown, Ballincollig to the west; Tower, Blarney, Monard, and Rathpeacon to the north; and Glanmire, Little Island, and Carrigtwohill to the east. If sanctioned, the extension would increase the citys population by 100,000 to 225,000.

The inclusion of the rates-rich areas of Ballincollig, Blarney, and Carrigtwohill has sparked controversy in the county, which is opposing the scale of the extension.

Last month, Mr Murphy established an oversight group to implement the Mackinnon recommendations.

In a surprise move last week, the county council proposed a more modest expansion that does not include Blarney, Ballincollig, Little Island, Carrigtwohill, Cork Airport, or Monard.

It said the county is prepared to cede areas including Doughcloyne, Ardrostig, Frankfield, Donnybrook, Grange, Castletreasure, and Rochestown on the southside, and Kilbarry, Carhoo, Kilcully, and Ballyvolane on the northside.

This move, if sanctioned would see the citys population increase by about a third to just over 164,000, and the geographical area of the city increase by 84.5%.

A department spokesman said Mr Murphy is not in a position to comment on the process pending a report from the implementation oversight group.

The minister has established the implementation oversight group to oversee arrangements for the alteration of the boundary between the respective areas of jurisdiction of Cork City Council and Cork County Council, in light of the recommendation in the report of the Cork Expert Advisory Group, he said.

The groups first task is to present a detailed implementation plan by September and the chief executives of the city council and the county council will work with the group to develop detailed and comprehensive proposals for the boundary alteration and to ultimately implement agreed recommendations.

At this stage, the minister is not in a position to make any comment in advance of the detailed work to be undertaken by the implementation oversight group.

On Monday, city council chief executive Ann Doherty is due to present members with a report in response to County Halls offer.
The promoter of the novel development had hoped the vessel which would house the hotel, bar and restaurant at a mooring berth on the citys quays could have opened before Christmas.

Cork City Council granted conditional planning permission last month to Sick and Sore, the development company, for locating what has been dubbed a boatel at Penrose Quay.

The local authority limited the initial term of the permission to three years in order to assess the hotels impact on other local amenities and future development plans for the area.

Sam Corbett, the owner of Sick and Sore, will now have to await the outcome of a Bord Pleanala appeal against the decision to give the project the green light.

The floating hotel is being opposed by Brian OMahony, a resident from the Wellington Rd area. In appeal documents lodged with Bord Pleanala, Mr OMahony said that the location of the vessel was inappropriate and, if allowed, would set a precedent for allowing similar type of accommodation to be located on the citys quays in the future.

He said that the decision to grant permission for the hotel was contrary to the North Docks local area plan which provides for new bridges (pedestrian and vehicular) further downstream from the hotels proposed mooring berth.

Mr OMahony claimed the construction of these bridges would make it impossible for the vessel to access dry-dock facilities for mandatory maintenance. Other problems would be encountered with the bedrooms used by hotel guests as many would face into the quay wall at low tide, Mr OMahony said.

He also claimed there is an inadequate setdown area provided at Penrose Quay to accommodate hotel guests and well as goods and services vehicles. Mr OMahony said the location of the set-down area would also obstruct plans for a cycle path along the quay.

A decision is expected in the case by December 7.
The Counter Extremist Project (CEP), a non-profit body, said swift action was needed to dismantle terrorist support networks.

The CEP  which has a base in six American and European cities, including Dublin  claimed that Islamic State (IS) fighters and fundraisers had been operating under the radar in Ireland for some time.

An Algerian man, aged in his 40s, was arrested this week by Garda Counter Terrorism International (CTI) detectives following a request from the London Metropolitan Police to check out the details of an identification document.

The Mets Counter Terrorism Command uncovered the document in a search in Greece which was part of an investigation into jihadist terrorism.

The man was arrested at a property in Drumcondra, north Dublin, under anti- terrorism legislation on suspicion of possessing fraudulent documentation for the facilitation of terrorist activity.

He was subsequently released without charge and Counter Terrorism International, part of the Special Detective Unit, will prepare a file for the DPP.

The Counter Extremism Project is encouraged to learn that Dublin police detained an Algerian national suspected of producing fake passports and documentation for Isis fighters, the organisation said.

Swift action is needed to dismantle terrorist support networks and CEP applauds the cross-border co-operation between British, Irish, and Greek police and investigative agencies that led to the arrest of a suspected terrorist sympathiser.

A CEP board member, Ivor Roberts, a former ambassador to Ireland, told the Irish Examiner that nobody is immune from jihadist terrorism.

This is a worldwide phenomenon and no one can regard themselves as safe.

He said the purpose of CEP, which was initially set up in the US, is to counter extremism in practical ways in order to minimise its toxic impact.

He praised the co-operation by the British and Irish security services in the recent operation and pointed out that, in his personal experience, there is a very close working relationship across the border.

In my time as ambassador I saw how close it is between all the security services on both sides of the border, said Mr Roberts. The co-operation was 100% and Im sure they continue to work very closely.

He left the post in 2003 which, he said, was pre-Isis.

Mr Roberts, who also served as head of counter terrorism at the British Foreign Office, said it is now crucial that authorities continue to co-operate on security in the face of Brexit and the Common Travel Area.

Both governments will want to make sure the border is seamless and permeable as possible, said Mr Roberts.

While other methods might be needed for trade, one thing they wont want to see happening is any diminution in cooperation on intelligence and security.
It is namechecked alongside classic routes such as Australias Great Ocean Road and Vietnams Ho Chi Minh Road in a book of the 50 best drives in the world.

The travel bible dubbed the rebranded 2,575km route from Kinsale to Derry at the tip of the country as untamed and utterly divine.

Irelands west coast is a dramatic procession of deserted beaches and towering cliffs where traditional music and ancient castles abound, said the new travel book, Epic Drives of the World.

Lonely Planet uses the famous Oscar Wilde quote of savage beauty to describe the Irish scenery.

Irelands west coast is battered by Atlantic rollers, strewn with jagged cliffs and littered with wide beaches and sandy coves, said Lonely Planet. Its a place where inky lakes shelter between mountains, sinewy stone walls clamber across hillsides and trees are frequently bent double by the wind.

The roads here are narrow and winding, grass often grows along a hump in their middle and a herd of sheep can easily scupper all plans.

Donegals gloriously deserted beaches also get a call-out.

The other Irish route named among the top 50 road trips is Northern Irelands Coastal Causeway Route now heavily signposted with Game of Thrones locations.

Often overlooked for the classic cliffs and laughs of the Irish Republic, the lonely shores of Northern Ireland might just be the perfect day-tripping antidote to Belfasts urban core, said Lonely Planet.

The chapter entry features a description of a journey along the route from Belfast to the north coast and back again.

It alludes to the huge tourism boon of Game of Thrones, with visitors from all over the world trekking to the route to see various locations for the TV smash hit.

Epic Drives of the World also features wilder driving routes from across the world such as a trip across the salt flats of Bolivia. Each entry includes a first-hand account of exploring the route with advice for planning a short or long driving adventure.

The Lonely Planet tome also has 200 more trip ideas, from coastal roads and desert drives to wine trails and cultural cruises.
Waves crash against the rocks as the vast ocean stretches over the horizon. We line up for photos at one of the most famous coastal landmark in Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet, and the next stop south is the Antarctic.

Our guide Latifa had arrived early that morning to start the tour, but we are not in any rush to get to the cape, as there are many things to see along the way.

As we head out along the peninsula, around Hout Bay and along the stunning Chapmans Peak coastal drive, Latifa takes a detour to a place of great reverence and beauty that is integral to the history of the Cape Malay peoples. The community is mostly descended from slaves transported to the cape by the Dutch colonisers during the 16th and 17th centuries, from Indonesia, Java Malaysia, and elsewhere in Asia.

Sayed Mahmud was a spiritual and religious leader of the Malaccan Empire in the 17th Century. He was one of the religious advisors captured on the Cape and was banished to Constantia. His Kramat, or shrine, is one of a series that populate the area, including one on Robben Island. Observing the Muslim traditions, we take off our shoes and enter the shrine, where people had gathered to pray for an upcoming journey. I leave feeling privileged to have been welcomed so warmly into this place of great meaning and reverence.

We stopped for lunch at the Hub Cafe in Scarborough (thevillagehub.co.za), where organic food in the deli, bar, restaurant, and shop are available from Natasha and her team. The town is a popular spot with bikers, cyclists, and hikers, and its easy to see why.

After reaching Cape Point, we return by the eastern side of the peninsula, where the fishing town of Calk Bay and the period architecture of St James are worth a visit. However, it is the Boulders Bay Penguin Colony that draws many to these shores. Wooden walkways allow visitors to view the African penguins in their natural habitat and there is also a new information centre. Children will love the penguins and their antics and Boulders Beach is also worth a stop for safe and enjoyable swimming.

Cape Town is a tourist mecca, and many varied attractions abound. A good place to start the day in Cape Town is breakfast at the weekly Market Day at Oranjezicht City Farm Market at Granger Bay (www.ozcf.co.za/market-day). The market is held every Saturday from 9am to 2pm, with plenty of seating to enjoy the fresh food and drink.

A living example of Cape Malay culture can be experienced in the Bo-Kaap district. The former township on the slopes of Signal Hill is filled with brightly coloured houses from the 17th and 19th Century, as well as the first mosque built in the city. Cape Malay cuisine has played a huge role in South African dishes but to fully appreciate the wonderful cooking, have lunch in one of the local houses, where you will be served samosas and fried chilli bites along with a chicken curry full of spices and flavours.

The port area, now called the V&A Waterfront, has been transformed into a vibrant shopping area full of local craft makers, selling everything from fashion to jewellery, including curios such as guitars made from oilcans to great white sharks made of wire. Empowering locals is a major aim of the country, and organisations such as Township (township.co.za) promote local fair trade businesses, producing goods high in quality that also help people improve their circumstances from the poverty that is still evident in many areas.

For a luxurious stay in the heart of the city, the five-star Cape Grace Hotel is simply magnificent. The hotel was refurbished in recent years with artists and workers from the local area and townships used to create a style that is both modern and distinctive. While there, pamper yourself with a visit to the Spa, or work out at the fitness studio, then treat yourself to a whiskey tasting at the Bascule Bar, where over 450 different whiskeys are available.

One issue sure to interest Irish visitors is the warning signs to conserve water, as the region undergoes a prolonged drought. The problem is very serious, and one which locals and visitors are asked to do what they can to not waste this precious resource.

No visit to the Western Cape would be complete without a trip to the winelands, just one hours drive away. To whet your palate, combine your visit to Table Mountain, which dominates views in Cape Town, with wine tasting on a Wine Safari.

Guide Henri Bruce takes us through the restricted barriers and journeys to remote lookout points. Henri, a former tennis coach, is passionate about the land and the area. We stop overlooking a beautiful view of the city, and sip on some of Durbanville Hills finest wines. Then after a trip to the other side of the mountain, Henri set up a picnic lunch while we ate and sipped more wine with views of both Camps Bay beach and Lions Head beyond. Who said mountain climbing had to be difficult. (www.durbanvillehills.co.za/buying-tasting/table-mountain-wine-safari)

The small town of Franschhoek, one hour from Cape Town, was settled by French Hugeunots in the late 1600s, and still celebrates Bastille Day with a festival of all things French. The main street is full of galleries, restaurants and historic buildings. For lunch, head for Roca Restaurant on the Dieu Donne vineyard (www.rocarestaurant.co.za). The view across the valley is simply breathtaking, and surely one of the finest in any dining establishment anywhere. Try the kingklip with risotto, accompanied by a crisp white, you wont be disappointed.

Wine tastings, of course, are a must, and a useful way to sample a wide range from different vineyards is the wine tram. For a more exclusive offering, the Wine Studio at the Leeu Estate combines luxury with exquisite wines managed by the Mullineux & Leeu team. The estate, about 2km from Franschhoek, houses a collection of stunning artworks, as well as an exclusive boutique hotel in the restored 19th Century Manor House. We stayed in the manor house, in spacious, sumptuously furnished accommodation, with views across the estate and valley. Stay for dinner in the adjoining restaurant, which serves delicious locally sourced organic and ethnically farmed produce.

The university town of Stellenbosch in the adjoining valley is also a haven for wine lovers.

In the heart of the town, you will find the Oude Werf Hotel (oudewerfhotel.co.za). Situated on the site of the first church in Stellenbosch (Oude Weft is Afrikaans for old churchyard), the hotel is the oldest continuously running hotel in the country. The hotel also boasts a restaurant that uses Cape flavours with a gourmet twist. For dinner, try the Oude Werf Trio - braised oxtail, mini bobotie and yellow rice, mini chicken pie and caramelised sweet potato - three classic Cape flavours beautifully presented. As you dine, you cannot fail to notice the oak tree inside the restaurant. During renovations, rather than cut it down, the building grew around the tree, a feature you will see elsewhere in the town. The ruins of the original church are also on show underneath the kitchens.

There are many options to stay in Stellenbosch. One is De Zalze Lodge, part of the Kleine Zalze Estate on Strand Road (dezalzelodge.co.za). De Zalze Lodge is the farms very own Cape Dutch style country house overlooking the lush vineyards and breath-taking Stellenbosch mountains. Nestled against the first fairway of the Kleine Zalze Golf Course, this luxurious four-star establishment is relaxed yet pristine. While there, further wine tasting will of course be on the agenda, while also enjoy a game of golf on one of the regions top-rated.

As we leave Western Cape to travel to the airport, its easy to see why over 10m international tourists visited South Africa last year, and why Im already planning my return.

Getting There

Flights: KLM fly daily from Dublin to Cape Town via Amsterdam Schiphol.

Economy fares start from 549. See www.klm.com or call 0044-20-7660-0293.

Where to stay: In Cape Town, the Irish Examiner stayed in the five-star Cape Grace

Hotel (capegrace.com) at the V&A Waterfront. In Franschhoek, we stayed at Leeu Estates boutique hotel (www.leeucollection.com).

In Stellenbosch, accommodation was at De Zalze Lodge (www.kleinezalze.co.za).

Tours: For a variety of tour options tailored to

every taste, contact Cut Above Travel & Tours (www.cutabovetours.co.za).

Other operators include MoTown Tours and Escapeto the Cape.

Eating: So many to choose from, but a must is Hallelujah (www.hallelujahhallelujah.co.za) intrendy Tamboerskloof.

They dont take bookings but the Asian fusion food on offer is divine.

Other options include Charango, and Black Sheep. For a more chocolatey escape, visit

Honest Chocolate Cafe at 64A Wale Street (www.honestchocolate.co.za).

Lady Bonins Tea (ladyboninstea.com) blends and distributes organic loose-leaf teas sourced direct from farms. The company has just opened South Africas first takeaway tea bar.

For an alternative night out, The Galileo Open Air Cinema (thegalileo.co.za) has a full programme of classics old and new that runs throughout the summer months beginning in No v e m b e r.

Watching The Hangover on a lawn in Kirstenbosch Gardens was a slightly surreal experience

but one to enjoy.

If your idea of a gift is a pair of socks, Sexy Socks (sexysockssa.com) are made from bambooand come in vibrant colours, but evenbetter is their commitment to give a sock
The 1940s, 50s, and 60s provided three decades of spy fever which have fuelled popular imagination, literature and cinema for nearly 80 years.

Those involved were the forerunners of the mass data leakers and whistleblowers of the 21st century such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

In America, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair in 1953 for passing atomic secrets from the Los Alamos programme to the Soviet Union. Earlier Klaus Fuchs , a German physicist and refugee who adopted British citizenship, confessed to leaking details of the Manhattan Project which produced the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the US for passing nuclear secrets to the USSR.

The KGB agent Rudolf Abel  whose story was told in the Tom Hanks/Mark Rylance film Bridge of Spies  was involved in providing courier services for leaked nuclear secrets and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In England, there were a host of spy trials throughout the 50s and 60s. The Portland Ring, which had penetrated the British Navy, included Peter and Helen Kroger, veteran Russian agents who had previously been based in the US before relocating to Ruislip in Middlesex via Moscow and posing as antiquarian booksellers.

They served half of 16-year sentences before being exchanged for British spy Gerald Brooke. They lived off their KGB pensions until their deaths in the 1990s and were decorated with the Order of the Red Banner (the same honour given to master spy Kim Philby) and were also declared Heroes of the Russian Federation by Boris Yeltsin.

Other contemporaries of the Krogers included Gordon Lonsdale, real name Konon Molody, who was sentenced to 25 years after being arrested trading secrets on Waterloo Bridge.

Meanwhile double agent George Blake was given the heaviest modern sentences for espionage  42 years  following a trial which took place in camera at the Old Bailey.

George Blake, left, escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison with the help of Limerick man Sean Bourke, right.

Blake had served five years before escaping from Wormwood Scrubs prison in West London. His escape was assisted by Sean Bourke, from Limerick, who was serving seven years for sending an explosive device to a detective. Bourke got Blake over the wall and helped him to flee to Moscow where he also lived for 18 months on a Russian pension.

Bourke returned to Ireland and survived two attempts by the British to extradite him before eventually dying from a coronary thrombosis . Even following the coroners verdict a former KGB general suggested that Bourkes death was a long-term consequence of poisoning ordered by Aleksandr Sakharovsky, a head of Soviet security services who had been responsible for the careers of Gordon Lonsdale and Rudolf Abel in Moscow. Blake, the man that Bourke broke out, became friendly with other double agents Donald Maclean and Kim Philby.

He survived them both and lives there still, aged 94.

But the most famous group remain the Cambridge Spy Ring:

Kim Philby

The model for Bill Haden  Gerald the Mole  in John Le Carres Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Born in the Punjab where he acquired his Kiplingesque nickname.

Graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge as a scholarship boy in 1933. Worked within British Intelligence but turned double agent in 1935. Was a war correspondent with The Times and The Telegraph before joining the Special Operations Executive specialising in propaganda and counter-intelligence. He became head of British intelligence in Washington after the war where he worked alongside other traitors Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

Their defection threw even more scrutiny upon Philby and, although he was officially declared innocent of being The Third Man in a House of Commons statement in 1955 he defected to Moscow from Beirut, where he was working as an Observer journalist, in 1963. He died of a heart attack in 1988.

Guy Burgess

Old Etonian and Trinity College, Cambridge graduate recruited by fellow homosexual and Soviet talent spotter Anthony Blunt. Worked with BBC, becoming producer of The Week in Westminster. Became an assistant to a Foreign Minister in the new Labour government in 1946. Defected with Donald McLean, in 1951 after being tipped off by Philby that MacLean was about to be named as a spy.

He died of acute liver failure at the age of 52 in 1963.

Donald McLean

Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Son of a British MP who openly declared his Marxism at university. Became head of the Foreign Offices American desk. Was outed as a Soviet spy when messages between New York, Washington, and Moscow were decrypted in 1951, Disappeared with Guy Burgess for five years until premier Nikita Khrushchev revealed the whereabouts of the missing diplomats in 1956. McLean died from pneumonia in 1983. His ashes were scattered at a village churchyard in Buckinghamshire.

Anthony Blunt

Trinity College, Cambridge. Distant cousin of the 30s British fascist Oswald Mosely. Talent spotter for the Cambridge spy ring who was given immunity from prosecution. Finally unmasked by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and stripped of his knighthood.

Blunt as surveyor of the Queens Pictures and the world expert on the French artist Nicolas Poussin. Blunt was gay, which was a criminal activity in Britain until 1967 when the Sexual Offences Act made 21 the legal age of consent between adults in private.

Wartime service included being rescued from the Dunkirk beaches in 1940. MI5 confirmed Blunts treachery in 1963 after years of suspicion and he gave up four fellow agents during interrogation.

Died at home in London in 1983.

John Cairncross

Trinity College, Cambridge. Scots-born. Entered British Civil Service and joined Foreign Office before working in the code and cypher school at Bletchley Park.

Passed full intelligence transcripts to a KGB handler in London which allowed the Soviets to confirm that the British had broken German codes. Forwarded detailed information on Operation Citadel, the last great German attack in the East at Kursk. During his espionage career provided more than 5,000 documents to the Russians. Revealed as a spy after MI5 found a handwritten letter from him in Guy Burgesss flat. Publicly Identifed as The Fifth Man in a book in 1979.
While MI5 files (KV2/4328-31) released on 11 April 11 greatly extend the intelligence profile of Desmond Patrick Costello, commonly known as Paddy, they neither fully prove nor disprove the contention that he was the Sixth Man at the heart of the Cambridge spy ring in the 1930s.

They do, however, ostensibly negate the 2008 assertions of James McNeish, a fellow native of Auckland in New Zealand. McNeish, an historian, strongly defends Costello against accusations of spying in his book The Sixth Man, which was written without the benefit of these files and has been essentially superseded by them.

In support of accusations Costello is described by the KGB as being an important agent, codenamed Long. Nonetheless, despite relatively intense surveillance by MI5 and detailed police reports, the files leave the question open as to whether Costello was a spy for the Soviets or a political intellectual and active communist.

The fact that he associated with party members while in Cambridge is not in contention; he made no secret of his affiliations. However, these associations were to bring him to the attention of the authorities, particularly given his non-English born status.

Costello was virtually under the spotlight from the moment he arrived in the UK in 1932 to take up a scholarship to read Classics at Cambridge, until his sudden death in 1964. His MI5 files are relatively extensive, including his early years in New Zealand.

Conversely, surveillance on the Cambridge spies, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, seems mostly concentrated after the event, that is, the defection of Maclean and Burgess to Moscow in 1951 and Philby in 1963. The term Cambridge spies refers to the fact they were all recruited as Soviet agents while in Cambridge University in the 1930s.

While Costello was undisputedly communist in his outlook and actions, where does that leave him with regard to the well-connected members of the spy circle?

Like John Cairncross, the Fifth Man he was not the product of an elite public school or a privileged childhood but came from a working class background. His Irishness and lack of polish set him apart from the sons of the British establishment.

In a society like that of England in the first half of the last century moving from the milieu of one class to that of another was a form of emigration, according to Eric Hobsbawm, British Marxist historian. Integration and acceptance would have been difficult.

Costello was born in Auckland on January 31, 1912. His parents were emigrant Irish, his mother from the south of the country and his father from Dublin. Following an arranged marriage in Australia they travelled to New Zealand for no known reason, making Costello according to McNeish an accidental New Zealander.

Although the district he grew up in was impoverished, Costellos parents do not appear to have been too badly off, with his father in the grocery business. He attended Auckland Grammar School and University. Costello had a strong association with Ireland particularly through his mother and their shared love of singing; she encouraged him to learn Irish ballads and revolutionary songs. He had a rich tenor voice earning him the title of the Irish nightingale at Cambridge.

Over the years, Costello made many visits to Ireland, visiting cousins and learning the Irish language, adding to his extensive linguistic profile. A photograph taken in 1963, a year before his death shows him in Dun Aengus on Inis Mor on the Aran Islands.

However, according to the MI5 files, when arrested in Wellington for drunken behaviour in 1950, Costello spoke of disliking the effing Irish or effing Irishmen. On the same occasion he confessed to the arresting police sergeant that he held communist views. It was considered that the strain of concealing his communist allegiance may have caused him to break under the influence of alcohol.

While employed from 1936-40 as a lecturer in Exeter University, Costello married Bella Lerner, a communist of Russian extraction. According to a Special Branch report she was from a large and unsavoury family. In 1940, an undergraduate at Exeter, Hubert Fyrth, was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for providing information of military importance to the Daily Worker.

The university council called on Costello to resign due to his communist sympathies and his connection with Fyrth. Although one memo from 1953 states that nothing linked Costello to the incident, a report in the file by the Exeter Police Department, states that it is known that Fyrth often visited Costellos home and Costello on occasions called at Fyrths lodgings.

How strongly his ties to Ireland were to influence him is debatable but Costello was frequently assumed to be Irish and perhaps harbouring anti-British sentiments. Despite a veneer of sophistication acquired in the diplomatic corps, he never fully shook off his upbringing among the poor of Auckland. According to a PR Clapham who was familiar with Costello as an intelligence officer during the war, while life in diplomatic circles had given him a certain suavity, he still had a chip on his shoulder but it was not offensively apparent.

The Cambridge Spies.

According to The Times obituary in February 25, 1964, Costello had been appointed as an intelligence officer by Lieutenant General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, of the N.Z.E.F. Freyberg was in charge of Allied forces during the disastrous battle for Crete.

Costellos appointment followed extraordinary action by him during the Greek campaign in 1941. He successfully aided the escape of his battalion to Crete when they were overrun by German forces at the end of the Olympus Line. Costello, then a lance-corporal in the 21st Battalion Signals led his men to the sea. His ability to speak Greek assisted in procuring a boat, and getting them away. He was discharged from the forces on July 5, 1944.

He left for Tehran in what was then Persia, now Iran, en route to Moscow two days later, taking up the position of second secretary to the New Zealand legation and then as first secretary in Paris. In 1952, a memo from the Foreign Office states that the prime minister of New Zealand had decided to accept the much-mooted British view of Costello as a security risk and he was removed from the Foreign Services.

He was then appointed to the chair of Slavonic Studies at Manchester University. It seems from the files while Costello and his family had left Russia, contact was still active.

In 1960, an application made by Costellos wife Bella under a false name for death certificates, commonly used to create false identities for Soviet agents, was traced to her by her handwriting. A memo in the file KV 2/4330 states: We now have what amounts to written proof that in December 1960 Mrs Bella Costello was a KGB agent. The MI5 file of February 20, 1963 describes Costellos record as providing every reason for supposing he is equally involved with his wife and he is the more important agent of the two.

However, notwithstanding evidence tying Costello to the Soviets, he was never charged or indicted. Neither was his wife. Why was this? Could political and diplomatic expediency have dictated that it was better to leave the issue alone?

Obviously Costellos sudden death in 1964 was a deciding factor. Were there any suspicions raised about the circumstances of his sudden demise? Perhaps the next release of files will shed some light on these questions.

WHO WAS DESMOND PATRICK COSTELLO?

Q: Who were the Cambridge Spy Ring?

A: A group of men in senior British government positions recruited at the university in the 1930s who spied for Russia during the Second World War and continued to do so in the 50s and 60s when Europe was divided by what Winston Churchill categorised as The Iron Curtain.

Q: How many were there?

A: At least five have been identified  Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, and Cairncross. But there has been increased speculation that there was a Sixth and maybe even a Seventh man.

Q: Why did they do it?

A: After the First World War, many intellectuals supported the cause of communism and an increasing number opposed the policy of appeasing Hitler and Fascist Germany pursued by British governments in the 1930s.

Q: Who was Paddy Costello?

A: Desmond Patrick Costello was born in Auckland, New Zealand, son of a Dublin grocer, Christopher and his wife Mary. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1932 and gained a first in Classics. He was linguistically outstanding, speaking at least eight languages fluently, including Irish.

Q: Why did he fall under suspicion?

A: Costello was at Trinity College, Cambridge, the alma mater of British double agents at the same time as the spy ring was being established. He was an outspoken communist and critic

of British foreign policy. His wife was also an active communist and was of Ukrainian extraction. He was dismissed from his lecturing post at the University of Exeter in 1940 because a student he had befriended was convicted under the Official Secrets Act.

Q: What did he do in the War?

A: He enlisted and saw service in the Middle East, Greece, Crete, and north Africa, where he was a member of the Long Range Desert Group. This force, trained to fight behind enemy lines, was known to Italian soldiers as the Ghost Patrol and was recruited predominantly from New Zealanders in its early days.

It was one of the forerunners of the SAS. In 1944 he took up a diplomatic role with the New Zealand legation in Moscow, staying there until 1950 when he transferred to Paris.

Q: What happened later?

A: In 1953, he was asked by the New Zealand government to find alternative employment and he left Paris in the autumn of 1954. It is generally believed this was because of security concerns raised by British intelligence that he was a Soviet asset.

In 1961, his loyalty came back under the spotlight when it was discovered that veteran Soviet spies Morris and Lona Cohen had been been issued with New Zealand passports in Paris in 1954.

These were in the name of Kroger and helped the couple set up the Portland Spy Ring with masterspy Gordon Lonsdale in England. After leaving the diplomatic service Costello took up the chair of Russian studies at Manchester University. He died following a heart attack in 1964.

Q: Was he a spy?

A: Unproven. Several British sources believe so. MI5 official historian Professor Christopher Andrew described him as one of the KGBs Top 10.
I LOVE this time of year because, for one short week, the light of international attention shines on Tralee, the too often forgotten county town in Kerry.

I also hate this time of year for the very same reason. Im already cringing ahead of the TV spectacle that was so pointedly labelled the Kate Middleton impersonation competition by Brianna Parkins, last years Sydney Rose.

Brace yourself for the Daithi, damhsa, and cailini deasa show which will be broadcast from a fancy tent erected in the middle of a tarmac car park and beamed to viewers all around the globe. At best, its a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? in ball gowns for women of Irish descent who gather in Tralee for what the organisers say is a global celebration of Irish culture.

At worst, its a form of cynical reality TV, which it clearly became last year when contestants were treated like animals in a circus  to quote the Down Rose Fainche McCormack  during a so-called behind-the-scenes documentary that brutally culled 32 of the 65 participants.

Thankfully, that disgraceful and disingenuous performance will not be repeated this year because, if theres one thing you could say about the Rose of Tralee, it is that it gives those who come a good-old Oirish welcome, cloying as it may sometimes seem.

However, what was encouraging about the whole sorry X Factor-like episode was what the women themselves said about it. Try as you might to turn grown women into smiling, waving, non-political clotheshorses, youll find it is impossible to impose a gagging order.

There might have been a social media ban, but women will still find a way to call it as it is. Roses, after all, come with thorns  and thank heavens for that.

I was with the many who cheered on Parkins when she called for the repeal of the eighth amendment live on stage.

It doesnt really matter whether you agree with her point of view or not but, in airing it, she was making a far more important point: Roses dont just talk about shoes, bags, and the sex appeal of a festival escort. They also talk about reproductive rights, equal pay, international politics, taxation, art, literature, and, whisper it, what constitutes feminism.

On an aside, its interesting to see that the bould Brianna still mentions the Rose of Tralee in her Twitter bio. It reads: ABC journo at Media Watch. Contributor to swear jars everywhere. Wilted 2016 Sydney Rose of Tralee. Actually thats another very sweet thing about the Rose of Tralee. There is no such thing as a former Rose; once a Rose always a Rose, whether wilted or not.

But back to the controversy  and mark my words, therell be another one in 2017; the festival thrives on it  Parkins remarks led to suggestions it was time to repeal the Rose of Tralee.

A witty remark indeed, but scrapping the Rose of Tralee would harm far more women than it would supposedly help. For a moment, lets leave aside the fact that many of those who take part say they have a great time.

Lets ignore, too, the unavoidable truth that nobody is forced to enter the competition, much less travel halfway around the world to take part, but focus instead on the real Roses  the women who live in Tralee all year round.

For the last 58 years, the festival has brought a welcome end-of-summer boost to a town that has suffered more than most in the economic downturn.

Depending on the estimates you read, its worth some 7m to the local economy. It also puts the kind of focus on Tralee that might encourage others to think about visiting it when the car park tent is dismantled and the circus has rolled out of town.

Last year, Enterprise Ireland ran an International Business Womens Conference at the same time as the festival. There were several invited guests and speakers who spoke with the aim of celebrating the business achievements and success stories of women.

It was, Im sure, meant as a foil to the flouncy dresses and frivolity taking centre stage elsewhere, but it wasnt at all necessary because if you want to celebrate achievement and strength and courage, you dont have to look further than the women of Tralee themselves.

Heres one anecdotal example. Its been a rather unusual summer as I crossed paths with more former school friends than I have in quite some time. Among their ranks youll find an engineer, a solicitor, an accountant, a financial analyst, a mayor, a mother of four who writes plays and books at her kitchen table, a nurse, a pharmacist, a lecturer, and a broadcaster.

Not bad for a generation of women who were raised in an era when the most common career-guidance question was: Have you thought about the bank?

However, just three of those friends still live in Tralee, although many more might consider returning if the town hadnt been named an unemployment blackspot in Census 2016.

Calling time on the Rose of Tralee Festival would drain the lifeblood from a town already struggling, but more than that, it wouldnt make the world any less patronising towards women.

What the lovely girls show has shown over the years is that women wont stand for being lovely-ied any longer. They have also forced the organisers to look the new Ireland directly in the face. In 2008, a single mother was celebrated on the stage. In 2014, Maria Walsh became the first openly gay Rose of Tralee.

Im waiting for the day when there will be a black Rose and a Rose from the Travelling community. It will come, Im sure of it. In the meantime, please let overlooked Tralee have its imperfect moment in the sun. Let us celebrate its streets, its twisting lanes, its park, its canal, its surrounding mountains and beaches but, most of all, its own wonderful women.
A law passed by the Oklahoma legislature with the dual purpose of raising revenue while serving as a smoking-cessation tool was ruled unconstitutional Thursday by its state Supreme Court.

The approval of the $1.50 per pack increase was fought in Oklahoma state court by Reynolds American Inc., Philip Morris USA and several convenience stores, wholesalers and smokers. The law was set to go into effect in late August.

Senate Bill 845, passed May 26, was pitched as a way to encourage smokers to lower, if not eliminate, their consumption of traditional cigarettes by making cigarettes more expensive.

The law would have more than doubled the states tobacco excise tax of $1.03 per pack. The federal excise tax is $1.01. The Oklahoma Tax Commission projected the fee would have raised $225 million in annual revenue. It would have been assessed on cigarette wholesalers.

The court ruled the bill levies a tax in the strict sense in violation of the state Constitution as it relates to revenue bills. The state has until Thursday to file a petition for rehearing.

The violations cited by the court are: the bill not being introduced initially in the Oklahoma House; passing on the final session day (revenue bills must be passed before the final five days of a session); and getting a bare majority of votes in each chamber, rather than the votes of three-fourths of members in both the House and Senate.

Analysts said the Supreme Court ruling could temper efforts in other states to pass similar non-traditional tobacco excise tax legislation.

Given the negative impact excise taxes have on Oklahoma consumers, wholesalers and retailers, we felt it was important to join them in this case and believe the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled correctly, Philip Morris USA spokesman Brian May said Friday.

Reynolds spokesman David Howard said Friday the company has no comment at this time.

Most states, for many years, have siphoned annual Master Settlement Agreement payments from tobacco manufacturers into their general fund. The MSA was created in 1998 primarily to help states offset the cost of tobacco-related public-health expenses.

The courts ruling said the smoking-cessation tax was part of an attempt by the Oklahoma legislature to generate new revenue streams to help meet the constitutional mandate to balance the state budget. The state has been dealing in recent years with declining recurring tax revenue.

Four bills were introduced in the Oklahoma House that listed the $1.50 per pack requirement as a tax.

The insertion into SB845, however, switched the terminology to smoking-cessation fee even though just $1 million of the $225 million in revenue would have used toward preventing youth tobacco usage.

Legislators sought the $225 million in revenue from SB845 as a last-minute strategy to meet the state Constitutions balanced budget mandate, the court said. It would have been the largest amount of new recurring revenue passed by the legislature during the 2017 session.

The court said the legislature faced a constitutional conundrum of whether to violate the constitution with passage of SB845 or violate the balanced budget mandate.

None of this is to say that the legislature cannot choose this particular sort of regulatory tool  a sin tax  to further its goal of reducing smoking, the court said.

But the enormity of the revenue generated by SB845, when contrasted with the (minimal) sums earmarked for smoking cessation programs, and the scant inclusion of any other regulatory function in the bill, compels the conclusion that the generation of revenue for the support of state government was the measures primary purpose, the justices said.

John Schachter, director of state communications for anti-tobacco advocacy group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the group is disappointed by the state Supreme Court decision.

We encourage Oklahoma lawmakers to move forward with enacting a significant increase in the price of cigarettes, Schachter said.

Its a proven way to address high smoking rates in Oklahoma, and will also raise revenue to fully fund the states tobacco prevention and cessation programs and meet other critical needs.
The dining room of the original Sweet Potatoes restaurant has been empty a couple months now, since Sweet Potatoes moved into more spacious quarters a block north.

But that space wont be empty for long. New tenants are renovating the spot at 529 N. Trade St. downtown and plan to open a restaurant in it in September.

Chef John Tharp will be the man behind the food at Trade Street Diner.

Tharp, currently the chef and owner of Towne Centre Diner in Wallburg, is opening the new place with help from his former bosses Freddy and Terry Lee. Tharp was the chef of the Lees Bleu. The Lees also own Bernardins and have a stake in the recently opened Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse.

Work has already begun to renovate the dining room and replace kitchen equipment in the space.

Trade Street Diner will be open for lunch and dinner. The menu will be Tharps contemporary take on diner comfort food.

We want to have a small menu and change it often, he said. Itll be modern Southern, not a traditional diner.

The dinner menu will have about eight entrees, four to five salads and four to five appetizers.

Its going to change every day, though there will be some carryover, said Tharp, who is working with the Childrens Home to provide local produce to the diner to supplement his supplies of local eggs, collards and other items he already uses at Towne Centre.

Tharp said he plans to create entrees that offer a lot of the same familiar flavors of Southern diner fare, but with a creative twist.

Im going to make chicken cigars as an ode to Winston-Salem, he said, referring to Trade Street and Winston-Salems tobacco history. This appetizer will feature shredded chicken confit leg meat and chicken-liver pate wrapped in brioche dough.

They will be like little cigars and well bake them crispy. Ill serve them with crispy chicken skin and a mustard aioli, he said.

Other appetizers will include pimento cheese, crab cakes, fried green tomatoes, and chicken and dumplings.

Dinner entrees will include Tharps twist on hamburger steak  a patty of freshly ground chuck, short rib and brisket meat cooked in duck fat and served with shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions and red-wine gravy.

Other entrees will include fried catfish, roast chicken and buttermilk-soaked pork tenderloin.

The milk really sets the juice, so the meat is really moist, Tharp said. The pork will be finished with a brown-butter apple glaze.

Sides will be shared  in bowls to serve three or more  and will include macaroni and cheese, collards, fried okra and hush puppies. Tharp said that hush puppies will be accompanied by honey creme fraiche and fresh chives.

Dishes, he said, will be very playful, but everything will be identifiable.

The lunch menu will include many of the same items as dinner. But it will focus on such sandwiches as BLT, egg salad, fried pork chop, burgers and a patty melt.

Desserts will be homemade, including ice cream.

Tharp said he plans to keep lunch items in the $10 to $12 range and dinner entrees at $20 or less.

If everything goes smoothly, the restaurant could open as early as the first week of September.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday morning defended President Trumps reckless threat to rain fire and fury on North Korea, but make no mistake: In the course of doing so, Tillerson quietly erased the red line that Trump laid down, and redrew it in a relatively more reasonable place.

Tillersons comments will in this sense have a calming effect. But they are also cause for a different sort of alarm: They raise additional questions as to why Trump made the comments in the first place; what process went into the creation and delivery of them, if any; and what will  or wont  be done to ensure that there is a sane process in place to shape further comments from Trump as this crisis unfolds.

Tillerson, returning from Asia, defended Trumps comments this way:

What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesnt seem to understand diplomatic language  I think it was important that he deliver that message to avoid any miscalculation on their part.

In this sense, Tillerson stood by Trumps threat. But Tillerson also sought to reassure Americans by saying this:

I think what the president was just reaffirming is that the United States has the capability to fully defend itself from any attack, and our allies, and we will do so. So the American people should sleep well at night.

Tillerson also said the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime that the U.S. has the unquestionable ability to defend itself  and its allies. But that subtly  and meaningfully  shifts the red line Trump drew.

Trump, recall, said this Tuesday: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

Trump then once again alluded to Kim Jong Uns threats, and reiterated that they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.

In other words, Trump clearly stated  twice  that any further threats from North Korea would be met with a response that dwarfs any show of military power ever seen in human history, including, presumably, Americas dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan. Anything Trump does, or threatens to do, will be bigger and stronger than what came before it, including nuclear annihilation.

But Tillerson backed off of that. He recast Trumps comments to mean that we will respond to defend ourselves from any attack, not respond with force to any further threats. (Indeed, North Korea crossed the red line Trump drew only hours later.)

Tillerson has drawn the line in a more traditional and reasonable place, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert who tweets as ArmsControlWonk, told me Wednesday. The question is: What did Trump think he was saying? My guess is he didnt think about it at all. Thats the problem.  He doesnt pay any attention to word choice.

As many have already observed, by vaguely vowing an overwhelming nuclear response to continued threats from North Korea, Trump sounded a lot like North Korea itself, employing a formulation that is both vague and menacing, which in combination increases the risk of miscalculation and, with it, unspeakable horror. Tillerson plainly tried to undo that Wednesday by redrawing the line more sharply, while defending the impulse behind Trumps comments.

But that still leaves us guessing in a way that raises worrisome unknowns about whats to come. We dont know what Trump really meant. What has now been confirmed, however, is that Trump will use vague and reckless language in the most dangerous conceivable contexts. If one had any doubt that Trump was going to be incredibly reckless with language at the worst possible times, he just did it, Lewis said. Tillersons efforts suggest that everyone around Trump knows that was crazy.

But that raises an additional question: What process went into the creation and delivery of this statement in the first place? Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard suggested Wednesday morning that the White House, including Trumps national security team, was not aware that Trump was going to deliver this statement. And The New York Times adds, alarmingly, that White House officials did not respond to questions about how much planning went into his brief statement.

This urgently needs to be teased out. We need to know more about the process, if any, that went into the creation of this statement, and well need to know more about this process going forward, as Trump delivers more similar statements in what looks like an escalating situation.

No administration is of one mind on anything, so process determines how different preferences are aggregated together in presidential statements, Lewis says. Trump doesnt choose words with any care whatsoever. If you dont understand the process, youre not going to understand whats been agreed to  by broad inter-agency agreement.

Or if there was any such process at all.
Bats over penguins. Thats how I describe things that defy expectations and leave me drop-jawed in surprise.

Years ago on a trip to Portland, my husband and I went to the Oregon Zoo mostly to see the penguins.

I love penguins. Theyre like toddlers on a sugar high from too much birthday cake  fun to watch, if you dont have to chase them. I could hardly wait.

So we saw them. They were great. Then we left to go eat. But a funny thing happened on our way to find food. We stumbled upon an exhibit of, yes, bats.

Bear in mind, I grew up in the South, intimately acquainted with all manner of jaw-dropping critters. But never in my life had I seen anything like those bats.

My husband, a California native/newspaper editor who prides himself on having seen it all, was duly impressed. But me? I was flat-out blown away.

The point of that story is this: Sometimes we expect to see penguins. Then, out of the blue, totally unexpected, we get blown away by bats.

We cant make it happen. Its a gift, a surprise that surpasses anything we hoped for. All we can do is smile and be thankful and know weve been blessed.

This has been a bats-over-penguins kind of week. My husband and I live in Las Vegas, a place with no shortage of jaw-dropping sights. But we were hungry to see family and friends in California. So we planned to stay for month by Monterey Bay, a place we once, and will forever, call home.

Our expectations are simple: To spend as much time as possible with people we love.

Its a good goal, dont you think, for a month or a lifetime?

Early this week, I got to pick up my grandson, Henry, from his first day of kindergarten. His mom, my daughter, is a teacher at his school. She needed to stay late, so she asked me to take him home. I met her outside his classroom and we waited with dozens of other mamas and daddies and nanas and papas.

Watching my daughter wait for her little one, I remembered how I felt waiting for her on her first day of kindergarten. Its such a joy getting to relive what its like to be a young mother, without doing any of the work.

When the bell finally rang, I wish you couldve seen all those little faces lighting up like the sun as they spotted someone waiting just for them. It brought to mind a simple truth: Children are not races or nationalities or differences of any kind. Theyre just children. And they belong, not only to their families, but to us all.

Then I saw Henry flash me a grin as he hugged his mom and for a moment, I forgot my name.

Two nights later, Randy, my sons 6-year-old, was all set to spend the night with us  until he popped out his front tooth. But his mom told him the Tooth Fairy could find the house weve rented. Then she entrusted the boy and his tooth to our care.

That night, I told Randy this story. Long ago, when his dad lost a tooth, he left a note under his pillow: Dear Tooth Fairy, he wrote, Two teeth came out of my mouth but I lost one. Please give me double credit.

Randy liked that story a lot. Then I tucked him in bed with his tooth under his pillow. And after he fell asleep, I helped the Tooth Fairy do her thing.

The next morning, Randy flipped up his pillow and found five whole dollars. He was thrilled. Especially after I told him it was five times as much as his dad got for double credit.

Our month by the bay with people we love will be filled, I am sure, with surprises. But this week will be hard to top.

Henrys first day of school and Randys lost tooth were better than a zoo full of bats.

As my grandmother liked to say, its worth waking up every morning, and putting in your false teeth, just to see what on Earth will happen next.
MINDEN  When founder-owner Harley Cole started Royal Plastic Manufacturing after World War II, the company made small household items and toys. In 1954, a transition was made to fiberglass-reinforced parts.

A connection that started a relationship with aircraft manufacturers was made at Harlan County Lake.

The story goes that McDonnell Aircraft engineers were boating when their craft developed a serious leak. They crossed paths with Cole, who fixed their boat and was invited to submit bids to make spare parts for the company.

Royal was awarded some contracts and, by 1958, was a composites business exclusively.

Ownership change

After Cole died in 1978, Royal Plastic was acquired by California-based M.C. Gill Corp.

Stephen Gill ran the division through 1992, as Royal acquired more aeronautics industry customers and primarily manufactured fiberglass covers and ducts for military aircraft.

In 1990, ground was broken for a new 20,000-square-foot building in Minden.

Phillip Gill moved to Nebraska in 1993 and took control of Royal, bringing with him business from California. The move enabled Royal to double employment to 18 and reinvest profits in technologies and equipment needed to grow and compete in the structural composites industry.

In 1996, an autoclave was purchased to allow manufacturing of antennas for the GPS IIA global positioning satellite.

More high tech

Royals engineering capabilities were developed in 2001, along with an emphasis on making parts requiring more sophisticated quality systems.

By 2004, Royal had more than 50 customers and was qualified to make structural graphite-epoxy composite parts for Boeing. By 2006, it had met graphite-epoxy NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) and AS9100 (aerospace) quality and accreditation standards, which are maintained today.

The plant was expanded to 52,000 square feet and employment reached 100.

The Royal Plastics name was changed in 2010 to Royal Engineered Composites to reflect its use of state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and expertise as a leader in manufacturing composite materials. By then, on-time delivery to customers was at 98 percent.

More room, contracts

In 2011, another 30,000 square feet was added, including a 12,000-square-foot clean room and space for a 12-foot by 30-foot autoclave (installation was completed on Oct. 14, 2013), Flow Water Jet Cutter and ply-cutting table.

In January 2014, Royal was awarded contracts to produce approximately 50 composite components for the tailboom and cockpit assemblies for Bell Helicopters new 525 Relentless.

Royal already was producing more than 100 part numbers for the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey.
KEARNEY  Kearney Public Schools will be starting the conversation on the district budgets and finances during Mondays Kearney Public Schools Board of Education meeting.

Its facing significant losses in state and federal aid, so the conversation may be a heavy one.

Our state aid dollars are the lowest theyve been in the last 20 years, KPS Finance Director Chris Nelson said.

Nelson will be presenting the preliminary 2017-2018 budget to the board Monday. It will reflect a loss of about $1.5 million in state aid, among a number of other losses.

About $1.2 million of that is due to a change in state aid formula, Nelson said.

KPS also lost another $300,000 in funding on the county, state and federal levels, Nelson said, leaving the district with $7,897,369 in aid for the upcoming school year.

The total budget for will be $84,455,304 for the upcoming school year, according to Nelson. That number is down almost 10 percent from last years budget, which totaled $93,082,220.

The general finance budget will be $56,547,000 for KPS during the 2017-2018 school year, Nelson said, which leaves a significant gap in finances when compared with last year.

Were planning to use a significant amount of cash reserves, Nelson said.

The district plans to cut about $1 million from the budget for facilities and maintenance for the upcoming year, in part because the district isnt funding any big projects and construction on Kearney High School is complete.

KPS hasnt received the property valuation from Buffalo County yet, so the district hasnt been able to set a tax levy, Nelson said. The tax request from the 2016-2017 school year was $42,254,805, and the tax levy dropped from $1.22 to $1.19 per $100 valuation.

Nelson will also ask the board to approve Sept. 11 as the date for the annual budget hearing and regular meeting of the board of education, during which the public will be able to give their input on the 2017-2018 KPS budget.

The Kearney High School FFA Chapter will ask the board during Mondays meeting to approve two trips: One to the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis in October; the other to judge livestock at the Western National Roundup in Denver in early 2018. No direct cost for the trips is expected to be incurred by the district, according to the agenda.

Several other items on Mondays agenda are related to the approval of handbooks for the upcoming school year: The board will be asked to approve the 2017-2018 Elementary Parent Handbook, Middle School Student Handbook, High School Student Handbook, Activities Handbook and the Kearney Public Schools Classified and Classified Exempt, Certified, and Substitute Employee Handbooks.

In other news, the board will:

- Recognize Mia Kegley, National Runner-up at National Conference.

- Be asked to accept the Bryant PTO Annual Self-Audit Report for the 2016-2017 school year.

- Be asked to vacate the current board policies, waive second reading and approve new and revised board policies.

The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Cope Presentation Room of Sunrise Middle School at 4611 Ave. N.
KEARNEY  Kearney Powersports will host its 16th annual Make a Wish Roll N Ride from 1-9 p.m. Aug. 19.

The event begins with food from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. a Kearney Powersports at 511 S. Second Ave. Food trucks will include Sprockets, The Food Truck, The Big Pig and Taquero San Judas. Registration begins at noon.

Riders will pull out at 1 p.m. for a ride of 160-180 miles that includes stops at Koopers Korner in Hildreth, the No Where Bar in Naponee, Mulligans in Oxford and Medos Resort at Johnson Lake. They will then return to Kearney Powersports, where NebraskaLand National Bank and Cunninghams will provide a dinner of pulled pork, beans, potato salad and chips. The meal is included in registration.

Profits go to the local chapter of Nebraska Make a Wish. All riders will receive door prizes. A Kearney Make-a-Wish child and his parents will attend.

The first Roll N Ride in 2002 raised $1,500. Profits now average $15,000-$10,000 per year, with 400 riders and 275 bikes. In the past 16 years, the event has raised $129,000 for the local Make-a-Wish chapter.

Sponsors include NRG media, NebraskaLand National Bank, The Big Rack Shack, Sweetwater Cattle Co, West Pharmaceutical, Barney Insurance/Tim Hughbanks, Eagle Distributing, The Eagles Club, Lonnie & Sandy Warner and Cunninghams Journal. T-shirts, raffle tickets and silent auction items are available now for purchase.

Register until 1 p.m. Friday at www.kearneypowersports.com/roll-n-ride. For more information, call Kearney Powersports at 308-236-7672.
MINDEN  Pieces of precision technology from a Minden manufacturing plant constantly soar around the world in military and commercial aircraft.

Royal Engineered Composites President David Arnold, who came to Royal 20 years ago as an engineer, said production is about 50-50 for commercial and military projects.

The 84,000-square-foot plant on the east side of Minden currently employs 175 workers, Arnold said, with half or more living within 10 miles of town and others commuting from nearby communities.

Each part starts with a composite, the raw material delivered on rolls that look as if they belong in a tailor shop.

Arnold defined composite as fiber inside a resin matrix. He said the woven broadcloth fiber is coated with epoxy or other resin when it arrives at the plant.

When composites are layered onto molds and heat treated, they become light, strong aircraft parts.

How many parts?

It depends on how you slice and dice that, Arnold said. We probably make about 1,000 part numbers.

However, the number may be tens of thousands when considering all the different models of structures, secondary structures, covers and specialty parts that are carefully made and rigorously tested to exact customer specifications.

A Tri-Basin Natural Resources District plant tour group saw many of the steps Tuesday involved in turning fabric layers into nearly completed panels assembled into reverse thrust blocker doors for commercial airplanes.

Dani Wendt of Minden, a tour leader who is an interim assembly manager, said the whooshing sound passengers hear just after a commercial jet lands is the reverse thrust of engines to slow the airplane.

She said composite parts made at the Royal plant can require three to 40 layers.

In addition to aircraft parts that make up approximately 90 percent of the orders, other projects over the years have included hoses for space shuttle launches, radar equipment covers and antennas for GPS satellites.

Traceability is maintained from start to finish for every part, Wendt said.

Times are listed for each step because the epoxy is time sensitive. Wendt said the material must be heat treated within a set time frame or sealed in bags for storage in freezers at minus 10 to minus 20 degrees.

After cut pieces are layered on a mold, an additional protective layer is taped on top to seal the mold and fabric for heat treatment. The epoxy life is still running ... we want to get it cured as soon as possible, Wendt said.

Heat treatments are done in six autoclaves. The largest, at 12 feet by 30 feet, was fully installed in October 2014.

One worker described curing as pretty much like making grandmas cookies because the electricity-powered autoclave is set at 350 degrees. The difference is that cooking time for composites can range from one to nine hours.

Its a manufacturing setting, but its definitely not an assembly line, Wendt said, because of the orders often unique specifications.

Next in the process is mechanical milling, trimming and creating screw holes with computer-guided equipment.

Trimming also is done with a Flow Water Jet Cutter. Were kind of pioneers in the water jet, Wendt said. Usually you see that only at bigger companies like Boeing.

There are inspections all along the way toward having a part ready to ship.

High-tech computer programs allow digital data specialists to ensure parts meet all tolerances set in customer- or Royal-generated designs. Some contracts call for testing of every part and others allow a representation, such as one in 10.

At another station that uses sound waves to measure quality, blocker door panels and other parts are sprayed with water because it helps distribute the sound waves across surfaces. Its kind of like an ultrasound with a baby, Wendt said.

Some parts also pass through a climate-controlled room where paint is applied in design-specified formulations and colors. Assembled blocker doors  front and back panels with a honeycomb material in the middle  are inspected when hardware is attached and yet again in a final inspection prior to shipping.

We dont just make a thousand and call it good, Wendt said. ... You can see how many times that part gets handled or inspected. We dont want it to fail now, or ever.

Except for people in engineering and drafting positions, most employee training is done in-house. Some people do better at some things, but we try to cross train so people can fill in, Wendt said, adding that employees can get tuition reimbursements for taking Central Community College classes.

Another employee benefit is the opportunity to own company stock.

In 2008, Royal owner Phillip Gill began selling stock to employees. He continues as majority owner, but Arnold said employees now own about 20 percent of the company through a plan set up similar to a retirement program.

Arnold said the plan is to transition to employee ownership over the next five to 10 years.

When asked how a small-town company that started after World War II grew into a manufacturer of high-tech aircraft parts, he said the keys are employees who go above and beyond to help customers, support from the Minden community, and Royals long reputation for quality work.

Royal officials began an effort in 2008 to increase public awareness of their business by hosting more plant tours, other events, and making contacts with high school and college students. So if people today tell me they dont know what we do, that surprises me some, Arnold said.

He hopes Nebraskans will take more notice of what is going on in places like Minden. There are some really neat industries in Nebraskas small towns, he said.
Before readers put down todays Weekend Hub they should invest a few minutes to look inside at the special section detailing the new $23 million Kearney Center that Central Community College will unveil for the community on Thursday. The 11 a.m. ribbon cutting will be followed by tours through 8 p.m. Thats ample time for visitors to explore what has to be one of the most fascinating and cutting-edge facilities in Kearney.

That claim isnt inflated, and we make it in full acknowledgment of other recent and amazing additions to Kearney. They would include structures and installations such as the Heath Science Education Complex at UNK, the 400,000-square-foot distribution center at Baldwin Filters, and SoCores 53-acre solar array that will be Nebraskas largest when it goes online in January.

CCCs new Kearney Center is noteworthy for the energy efficiency that went into its design and for the level of community support CCC received when it went public with its plans to build in Kearney.

CCC leaders tapped $13 million in cash reserves for the 66,000-square-foot Kearney Center at 11th Street and 30th Avenue. But CCC leaders also reached out to the community and discovered an army of businesses and industries hungry for the brand of well-trained and prepared graduates that the new center will produce. Donors provided $10 million in donations and pledges, including a planned gift of $600,000 by CCC President Greg Smith.

The Kearney Center will open for classes on Aug. 22 without long-term debt. That is hardly the norm. The great majority of public facilities rely on bonds issues, which local property owners repay with property taxes over 20- to 25-year spans.

CCC planners designed the Kearney Center to be extremely energy efficient. Someday it will be powered by its own on-site solar array or wind turbines. Until those are installed, the center will shave energy expenses by tapping geothermal, installing ultra-effective effective insulation and utilizing high tech windows that reduce power consumption for cooling and heating.

Of course, CCC will provide an array of classes and training programs to meet the Kearney areas need for nurses, manufacturing professionals, lab technicians and a host of other professions.

So take the time to read todays special section about CCC-Kearney, and then plan to visit the center on Thursday. Youll feel impressed and proud by what you discover.
Toward the end of each summer, my mothers family gathers in southeast Nebraska for the annual Sunday lunch and family reunion, almost as if we never eat any other time than at a family gathering. The lunch also marks the only time of the year I eat anything from the food group that features Jello as the main ingredient. And miniature marshmallows.

The family raised funds to build a museum on the grounds of the farmhouse overlooking the village of Dawson and the Big Nemaha River in Richardson County. After a delicious meal and a chance to catch up with my relatives, I looked around the museum. Tucked into a corner, I found something mysterious and compelling, something that speaks volumes about my familys heritage and history  a three-foot wide ball of twine.

Naturally I asked about it. Turns out the postmaster of Dawson collected bits of string and twine from packages that arrived at the post office over the years. The postmaster tied the ends together and before the community knew it, a ball of twine grew and grew.

Upon further inspection, I noticed a second ball of string near the first one. This one, equal in size to the first, contained lighter string. I imagined how the postmaster, overseeing a small town post office, gathered string into two different balls while the rest of the world wrestled with the Great Depression, suffered through two world wars, braced for the impact of the computer and watched the moon landings.

I mentioned this to Roger Davis, a board member of the Buffalo County Historical Society, during the ribbon cutting of the new Family History Center at Kearneys Trails & Rails Museum on Wednesday. I loved what he said. History is a conversation. That conversation helps us remember the important aspects of our families.

Roger also talked about how families gather for special events.

Family reunions are fading, he said. Part of getting together every year or four years was to tell the same stories over and over so they would be remembered. When we stop doing that, we end up living, as Roger said, in the present tense.

My favorite part of our conversation came next when he said, And living in the present tense is not a healthy thing for humans. It diminishes us and keeps us from our potential.

I believe that part of our potential comes from nurturing a balance of history, a sense of now and an opportunity to strive for something in the future. All of these things combine to keep us interested in life and collecting bits of twine or string, the stuff that helps us understand and tell our stories.

Im finally old enough to be the keeper of our family stories  at least the ones I remember and the ones that make me look good. If I tend to embellish the stories too much to my credit, my children step in to correct me, offering a different viewpoint. Thanks to my conversation with Roger, I now feel free to tell the same stories over and over.

I never again need to feel bad for starting a story with, Did I ever tell you about the time?

At the reunion, my family lingered after saying good-bye to everyone. My children had a chance to walk the grounds where my mothers side of her family gathered for their reunions going back nearly 100 years. We walked in the same grass, looked out over the same valley and enjoyed the same kind of summer day.

Rick Brown is a Hub staff writer who limits his Jello intake to special occasions.
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FILE - This file image released by HBO shows Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in an episode of "Game of Thrones," which aired Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. Hackers released a July 27, 2017, email from HBO in which the company expressed willingness to pay them $250,000 as part of a negotiation over electronic data swiped from HBOAos servers. The hacked HBO material included scripts from five "Game of Thrones" episodes. HBO declined to comment. A person close to the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the email, but said it was an attempt to buy time and assess the situation. (Macall B. Polay/HBO via AP, File)
FILE - A Tuesday, May 2, 2017 file photo of Loris De Filippi, president of Medicins Sans Frontieres Italy NGO, attending a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome. Doctors Without Borders said Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, it is temporarily suspending the activity of its rescue ship due to alleged threats from LibyaAos coast guard, which has increasingly become more aggressive in patrolling the waters off its coasts where human traffickers launch boats crowded with migrants desperate to reach Europe. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)
Relatives mourn the death of a child at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Parents of at least 35 children who have died in the hospital over the past three days have alleged that the fatalities were due to the lack of oxygen supply in the children's ward. District Magistrate Rajiv Rautela said Saturday the deaths of the children being treated for different ailments were due to natural causes. He denied that the lack of oxygen led to their deaths. (AP Photo)
Papermaking classes offered for kids

KENOSHA  Drypoint for Kids is the next class in the Press and Paper on Wheels series. Classes meet in St. Matthews Guild Hall, 5900 Seventh Ave.

A session for high school students will be Monday, middle school students meet Wednesday, and a session for elementary students will be Friday. All sessions meet noon to 3 p.m.

Participants can bring drawings or family photos and will make etchings and learn how to ink them, run them through a press and print multiples.

Cost is $35 plus $5 for materials.

Session II will be Aug. 21, 23 and 25, same times and age groupings.

For more information or to register, call 773-746-3241 or email centerforcollaborativeresearch@gmail.com.

Youth mindfulness camp offered at Parkside

SOMERS  A youth mindfulness camp will be offered 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday in Tallent Hall Room 201 at UW-Parkside, 900 Wood Road.

Participants will work to improve their awareness with a focus on the breath, their senses and positive attitudes.

Cost is $249.

Contact Elizabeth Hensiak at 262-595-2604 or hensiak@uwp.edu for additional information.

Rummage sale to benefit Kindred Kitties today

MOUNT PLEASANT  There is a rummage sale fundraiser to benefit Kindred Kitties from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at 5242 Meachum Road in Mount Pleasant.

Dems to hold informational meeting at Lily Lake Resort

BURLINGTON  The Kenosha County Democratic Party will have a meeting 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at Lily Lake Resort, 7910 328th Ave.

Guests can share ideas and concerns, and make plans for 2018.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase.

Contact Karen Kempinen at 262-945-2091 or kkempinen@gmail.com for more information.

Twitter class offered at Northside Library Tuesday

KENOSHA  A class on using Twitter, a social media platorm, will be 9:30 to 10: a.m. Tuesday at Northside Library, 1500 27th Ave.

Participants will learn to tweet, retweet, follow, and use hashtags. Guests can bring a smartphone or table to download the Twitter app.

Basic computer and mouse skills and a valid email address are required.

Registration is required. Call the library at 262-564-6130.
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American doctors are unhappy about a lot of things. Americans, in general, are unhappy about a lot of things. In many ways, both groups share similar concerns. But the road back to happiness may follow a similar path for both, as well.

American doctors once felt part of something special. American health care, by reputation at least, was the best in the world, and we were its proud emissaries. We functioned with a satisfying sense of autonomy. Patient care was paramount, and the business of health care derived from that ethic, not the other way around.

And Americans once felt like members of a special club. America symbolized what could be achieved, in a moral sense and an economic one, when a people, a benevolent and effective government, and powerful industries worked together and, at least in some senses, in partnership, and for the greater good.

I know that I am painting an overly rosy picture. Things in America, for doctors or for the general population, have never been perfect. But the American dream was a powerful and arguably, a largely positive force for Americans (with exceptions). And the American medical system, American government, and American industry were something in which Americans took pride (again, with exceptions).

But much has changed. It is not a happy time. The American health care system may now be the worst in the world. And American doctors today are buried under a mountain of unnecessary, overbearing government regulations, and pushed about by giant health care corporations. Money drives the system. Likewise, Americans are being squeezed by a controlling, corrupt, and ineffective government, and a greedy corporate culture that values nothing other than profits. People exist to serve the system, where in the past we were in partnership with it.

But maybe worst of all is that, paired with those problems, today we are also a nation divided. We have always had divisions. We even fought a civil war over them. But except for that Civil War we have always been more united than apart. And our national trajectory was growing tolerance and acceptance of one another. But now it seems we are all at one anothers throats. It is painful to see: a significant source of our national unhappiness.

Doctors are as divided as the nation when it comes to politics and opinions regarding health care reform. But we also divide by specialty, and many of our specialty organizations divide by state, as well. We are a profession of factions. More than anything, though, we are kept apart by a lack of time. Most practicing physicians are just too busy in their professional lives to have the time to organize and work together on other issues.

And as we are all well aware, Americans divide by just about everything: political parties, professions, race, religion, sexuality, etc. You name it, we are divided by it.

But division is not just a source of unhappiness. It creates a bigger problem. A divided citizenry is weak and disorganized. We fight with one another when we need to be facing down our out-of-control government, and taking on the harmful effects of unfettered corporate greed.

The solution, for doctors and for the broader population, is to come together. The American government will not fix itself. Nor has it been able to fix the health care system. And corporate greed will not rein itself in. It will take a strong, united population to bring about such changes and to bring necessary balance back to the American equation. If we want to fix things, Americans must unite behind that which brings us together, and put aside our differences.

In fact, American doctors are looking for ways to do just that. Recognizing that organizations like the American Medical Association and specialty-specific professional societies are not getting the job done, new groups representing practicing physicians have begun to spring up. I recently sat in on a conference call where a number of those new organizations were in attendance. There were representatives from Practicing Physicians of America, Physicians Working Together, the Association of Independent Doctors, American Doctors Stand Up, the National Physicians Council for Healthcare Policy, Patients and Physicians United for Quality Medical Care, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, to name a few.

It was interesting how the conversation played out. When issues concerning politicized topics such as the repeal of Obamacare were mentioned, there was little conversation. It was obvious that divisions ran deep. On the other hand, there was obvious unity when it came to conversations regarding topics like administrative overload and insurance company abuses. All doctors abhor the incredible amount of work it takes just to get paid for simple services, maintenance of certification, EHRs and the governments crazy EHR Meaningful Use program, overly aggressive insurance company pre-authorizations, the insane new government value-based pay program (MACRA), and the fact that we are being forced out of our private practices and into corporate work camps. It appears that all doctors agree on the desperate need for administrative simplification and a far less intrusive regulatory environment. And this appears to be just the issue that could unite American physicians to form a more effective political force.

It is harder to say which issues could unite the broader American population. What is clear is that if doctors and American citizens remain divided to the extent that we are today, it is unlikely that we will solve Americas greatest problems. Only by coming together in new ways can we create a health care system where patients come first and a society where American citizens are back on equal footing with American government and the nations industries.

Matthew Hahn is a family physician who blogs at his self-titled site, Matthew Hahn, MD. He is the author of Distracted: How Regulations Are Destroying the Practice of Medicine and Preventing True Health-Care Reform.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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SAO PAULO, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Brazilian mining company Vale SA on Friday said that 84.4 percent of its current shareholders agreed to swap their preferred stock into common shares, guaranteeing the success of a plan for voluntary share conversion. In a securities filing, Vale said a total of 1.660 billion preferred shares -- which comprise company stock traded in Brazil and the United States -- joined the plan. The company had set a minimum 54.09 percent threshold to approve the share conversion, whose deadline for shareholders was Friday.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
By Rajendra Jadhav

PANAJI, India, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Ghana's gold output is likely to drop sharply in 2017 because of curbs on the small-scale mining that lifted production last year but was causing damage to the environment, a government official said on Saturday.

Total gold output from Africa's second largest producer was 4.1 million ounces in 2016, the highest level in nearly 40 years, up from 2.8 million ounces in 2015. The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who took office in January, has temporarily banned artisanal mining, or panning for gold, in a renewed effort to clamp down on those who do it illegally.

"We anticipate at least a 50 percent drop in production from the small miners," Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, deputy minister of land and mines told Reuters.

"We are trying to control illegal mining which is not good for the environment," Oteng-Gyasi said on the sidelines of the International Gold Convention in Panaji, capital of India's western state of Goa.

Artisanal mining is common in parts of Africa and accidents are frequent.

The small miners account for nearly a third of the total gold production and restrictions on their activities could help bigger players to raise production, Oteng-Gyasi said.

Canada's Asanko Gold , US-based Newmont Gold and Anglogold Ashanti's have mining operations in Ghana.

Ghana's total gold revenues for 2016 including exports from small-scale mining amounted to $5.15 billion up from $3.32 billion in 2015.

The country's diamond output is also likely to fall substantially in 2017 as diamonds are mainly extracted by small-scale mines, she said.

Ghana's diamond production slipped to 143,005 carats in 2016 from 185,376 carats a year before, according to the Ghana Chamber of Mines.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
A guest post by David Garrett:

With Todd Barclay as a possible contender, I think it would be fair to say that the three MPs who left parliament under the greatest cloud of infamy in recent times were me, Darren Hughes, and Metiria Turei. Left wing commenters, including some members of the media to their shame, are now lamenting how Metiria  its always first names for people you like  was hounded out of parliament by vindictive and biased journalists. An examination of the cases this three part series covers shows that to be complete nonsense

Ms Turei has just reconfirmed the old adage that a week is a long time in politics  an MP on Monday, determined to stick it out, gone by Friday when John Campbells questions about what she really received by way of financial support in the 90s while on a benefit proved too hard to answer.

My tumultuous week began on Monday 6 September 2010 with a visit to Arohata Womens Prison, the second visit I had made there. The previous week I had  I thought  successfully dealt with questions about my so called assault conviction in Tonga  the result of a Kangaroo Court conducted entirely in Tongan, and presided over by an untrained Judge who had clearly been bribed. It was only later I realized that was just the entree, the main course was to come in the form of Guyon Espiner waiting for me outside the Law and Order Select Committee room on the Wednesday.

Espiner asked me about my discharge without conviction for forgery  in the form of an application for a false passport made 27 years earlier. The day I had always known would come finally had. It was clear from his questions that Espiner knew all about the case  including the suppression orders made, both of my name and the dead childs. I am sure he also knew that those orders made it impossible for me to comment in any detail. One cannot simply breach suppression orders, even when they are made for your benefit. To do so risks being found in contempt of court.

As I walked back to Bowen House I was largely in a daze, knowing what was to come  or at least I thought I did; the reality was much worse. My first step was to take advice from an eminent QC on what I could and couldnt say about the matter. His advice was clear and unequivocal  I could only speak in the House under the protection of absolute privilege. To speak about any aspect of the case outside the House ran the real risk of exposing me to further serious legal consequences.

Knowing as I always had that this fateful day would come, I had prepared a draft statement which had sat in my bottom drawer since the election in 2008. I now amended that statement, and duly made a personal statement to the House detailing what I had done back in 1984 and why, and expressing my deep regret for the pain I had indirectly caused the boys family when the police insisted on telling them, in 2005, of an offence which had occurred 27 years earlier.

Having made my statement, I returned to Bowen House via the underground route shown to all MPs upon their election. I managed to reach my office unmolested, but shortly thereafter a throng of journos gathered in the lobby. I was fully aware of their presence, and decided that I needed to make some sort of statement to the media over and above what I had said in the House. I chose Jane Patterson of Radio New Zealand, who had always given me a very fair shake in the past to be the one journo I spoke to.

By this time I had realized the jackals in the media were already after my family  fortunately my neighbours had warned my wife that they had been trying to find which house down our quiet rural road was mine. So I had already got my wife and children out of Dodge; they were safe at a friends remote place on Banks Peninsula. After I had made my statement to Ms Patterson, I managed to get out of Bowen House through the basement, and took a taxi to the airport, intending to join my family. By this time, unknown to me, the hounds were in full flight.

At Wellington airport the odious Patrick Gower came into the Koru Club looking for an interview. Although I did not realize it at the time, I was by then in the first stages of a nervous breakdown. I had no idea  clearly the brain wasnt working properly  that down by the departure gate the jackals would be waiting en masse.

When I went to board my flight I was surrounded by journos, all yelling questions and poking microphones up my nose. I said what I could: that I had made a personal statement to the House; that I had legal advice that I must not make any further comment, but that I had risked doing so in an interview with Radio NZ, which by then had been broadcast. I said my personal statement and the interview to RNZ was all I intended to say. It was as if I was speaking Swahili.

Gower positioned himself in the metal detector one must pass through to get to the gate lounge, poking his microphone up nose and yelling questions. I have no doubt that he hoped I would drop my bag and then drop him  he was prepared to risk a broken jaw to get a better story, all filmed for endless replaying. I managed to get on my flight and flew to Christchurch, now well aware that a similar throng would be waiting for me there. They were. I had already said all I dared say on the matter, and managed to leave the airport without being followed.

Later that day, as I recall, I resigned from the ACT caucus. It was clear to me by then that my position as an MP elected on the ACT list was no longer tenable. I realized that I would also have to resign as an MP, but my wife was deeply distressed that doing that would leave our family  my children were then aged five and nine  without an income. The Law Society had already begun an enquiry into my conduct, a process which would not end until 18 months later.

We were informed that the media had figured out where we were on Banks Peninsula, so we decamped to another location in the South Island where I tried to work out what to do. We were told by neighbours that by that time, both TV 1 and TV 3 had reporters camped outside our house, so returning there was not an option.

By the next week, I had resigned as an MP, having realized that I had no choice. The last straw was my sons plaintive voice from the back of the car as we drove to yet another hideout: Daddy, will the media get us tonight? I resigned as an MP later that day, thinking well, that will get them off my back. Some chance.

For weeks after my resignation the media continued to dig for dirt on me. They approached the former headmaster of my high school, by then in retirement. God knows what they thought he would have to say of any relevance: perhaps that I had expressed in interest in actually being an assassin, as depicted in The Day of the Jackal, the novel which outlined the method I had used to obtain a false passport? One journo flew to Sydney to interview a guy I went to school with. I hadnt seen or spoken to him since the day we left school in 1974.

The New Zealand Herald, that now woefully tarnished former Journal of Record, ran exhortations on its front page inviting those who had some dirt on me to contact them. The best they got was a mad woman I had met on a dating site almost ten years earlier. After meeting for a coffee at a McCafe, I had lured her back to my flat to watch the 1942 classic Casablanca. Shameful.

Six months after my downfall, on 2 March 2011, Labour MP Darren Hughes took a drunk young man back to his flat in Wellington. What happened subsequently at the flat led to Hughes resigning from parliament a couple of weeks later. The events surrounding that resignation, and Hughes interaction with the media, are Part Two of this series.
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By Robert Delaney, US correspondent





President Xi Jinping urged US President Donald Trump in a phone call on Saturday to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, state television reported.

Xi also called on "relevant parties to maintain restraint" and to "persist in the general direction of dialogue, negotiations and a political settlement", CCTV said.

Xi stressed that "China and the US have a common interest in realising the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".

Beijing has been voicing some alarm at the growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang, which included a warning from Trump that North Korea would face "fire and fury" if it kept threatening the US.

Trump kept up the tough rhetoric on Friday, warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" taking any hostile action against the US after he tweeted that the US military was "locked and loaded".

After the phone call, the White House released a statement saying North Korea "must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour".

According to the statement, the leaders hailed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution targeting the North as an "important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".

"The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the statement said, stressing the two leaders had an "extremely close relationship" that "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem".

Trump has sought Xi's help in reining in North Korea's nuclear weapons programme since he took office in January, even as the US cited Chinese entities for easing financial and trade ties that UN sanctions against Pyongyang were meant to halt.

In June, the US Treasury said China's Bank of Dandong served "as a gateway for North Korea to access the US and international financial systems  easing millions of dollars of transactions for companies involved in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes".

The US imposed sanctions on the bank, two individuals and one shipping company over their alleged "illicit financing" and "continued support" of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced at the time.

Those sanctions followed a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington in which US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley responded to US congressmen, who accused China of undermining international efforts to stop Pyongyang's march to the world's nuclear club.

Representative Ted Yoho, one of the most strident congressmen in the hearing when it came to Beijing, said China-based businesses are "behind the smuggling of record cargoes of North Korean weapons to the Middle East. So China is funding and allowing North Korea to gain access to these weapons, selling them to the Middle East, going into the hands of terrorists fighting our troops".
It appears that EXO's latest dance craze and challenge for their recent comeback song "KoKo Bop" has become viral even in America.

The 'KoKo Bop Challenge' has been trending worldwide on the internet as fans have been imitating the popular dance moves during the chorus and recording themselves doing it in random locations. Similar to CL's trendy "Hello B*itches" dance, fans can't resist mimicking the whacky moves and posting it online. Now, the trend caught the attention of American news program 'Good Day Sacramento.'

In the news segment, host Kinsley of 'Kinsley's Corner' discussed how popular EXO are and their recent viral dance craze. She examined one of their recent live performances and even tried imitating the dances moves alongside co-workers. Check out the hilarious clip down below!

What do you think of her segment? It seems BTS has some competition when it comes to dancing male K-Pop idols!
This article is in the August 11, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE ON FRIDAY WEBCAST

Wake Up, Americans!

Your Constitution Is Being Trashed!

[Print version of this article]

Live from Germany, Helga Zepp-LaRouche was the guest on the LaRouche PAC Friday Webcast of Aug. 4. This transcript has been edited.

Host Jason Ross: Hi there! This is Friday, August 4, 2017, and you are joining us for our regular Friday Webcast here at larouchepac.com. Im Jason RossIll be the host todayand Im very happy that this week, we are joined by special guest Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who is on with us via video from Germany. Hi there, Helga.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Hello. How are you?

Ross: Good! For the show today, as a brief bit of set-up before we get to Helga, this week we saw Donald Trump sign the sanctions bill that had been passed by the House and the SenateH.R. 3364which targets Iran, North Korea, and Russia with sanctions. Part of this bill claims, as a given, that Russia interfered with the U.S. election; part of the bill says that the United States will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia; and it would tie the Presidents hands in having foreign policy actions passed by the House and the Senate rather than through the Executive Branch. Donald Trump signed the bill this week, issuing a signing statement about the parts of the bill that he finds to be unconstitutional. Trump tweeted just yesterday that Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time and dangerous low. A very dangerous low. You can thank Congress for this.

Russia responded by calling for the expulsion of a certain number of U.S. diplomats to reach the level of Russian diplomats in the United States; something similar to what President Obama had done with Russian diplomats and Russian diplomatic property. What this means overall, is that its really increasing the pressure on U.S.-Russian relations, and making it very difficult for Trump to follow through on one of his campaign promises, which was the potential of reaching a detente with Russia. As he had famously said, Its not bad to get along with Russia; thats a good thing.

So, Helga, Id like to bring you on to provide your view of this. I know that your husband, Lyndon LaRouche, has said that if this coup against Trump succeeds, this puts the threat of nuclear war very much on the table. Could you tell us your view of the situation?

Zepp-LaRouche: Yes. I think this is not just a Senate vote, or a Congress vote. This is about the President in American history since its founding. Because it completely overturns the American Constitution, which gives the power to define foreign policy to the President, and the Constitution has a separation of powers. Now, under the bill that was voted, after the Congress and the Senate voted by an overwhelming majority to impose sanctions, if President Trump wanted to undo that, he would supposedly have to send a letter to the Congress, and the Congress would have to respond in 30 days to either approve it or oppose it.

That is Congress hijacking the power to define foreign policy from the President! I think the American people had better wake up to the fact that what is being taken away is the American Constitution. I would think that every American patriot who loves Americaand I know the American people are generally very patrioticthey have to understand this moment. Because they just can not let this go. It has so many implications.

The VIPS Memorandum

My husband, Lyndon LaRouche, said that if this is allowed to stick, then we are back to the immediate confrontation against Russia and also Chinaas we were with the Obama administration and the control of the neocons, who had controlled United States policy for two terms of George W. Bush and two terms of Obama. It was these neocons who were completely upset that somebody not belonging to the systemlike Donald Trumpwon the election.

I remember very well that on the 21st of January, the British weekly magazine, The Spectator, had a headline saying, its just a question of whether Trump will be gotten out of office by impeachment, by a coup, or by assassination. The motion towards impeachment is fully under way, as you know. It has just been revealed that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has a grand jury, which was supposed to be secret, but a leaker again leaked it to The Guardian and other media. So the aim there is clearly to advocate some story showing ties of Trump or his team to Russia.

Now let me just be very emphatic. The truth about this matter has to be gotten out. It is historically of the highest significance that the organization of the VIPSthe Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanityformer high-ranking intelligence officials from various intelligence agencies of the United States, about a week ago addressed a memorandum to President Trump in which they established, based on their indisputable expertise, forensic evidence that there was no Russian hack. Instead, there was insider leaking; someone downloaded the data from the DNC computers and then masqueraded the whole affair as if it had been done by the Russians.

To investigate this and to examine these findings in the VIPS memorandumthat is the most important way to derail this coup. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) has already commented on the VIPS memorandum. I think we must mobilize the American population to demand that the Congress invite the VIPS representatives to testify, to present their evidence, and indeed support the efforts of such people as Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who is investigating who did the unmasking, who are the leakers. Senator Grassleys efforts to do likewise must be supported. In general, I think this Congress has completely discredited itself. The approval rating of the Congress right now, according to the latest polls, is just 10%; I think this is also an historic low.

The British Empire Is the Conspiracy

But I think it now depends on the American people; and you should find all kinds of organizations and institutions representing the people, backing up President Trump. Justice has to be done; the leakers have to be investigated; and the truth has to be re-established. This is of the highest strategic importance. This is not just an internal American affairI think the Russian characterizations, that this is an internal fight, are not correct. I think this is something much more sinister.

The former weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, who was a weapons inspector during the Iraq War, made a very profound characterization. He said, you have complete unison in the U.S. media, the FBI, and other U.S. intelligence agencies, and near unanimity in both houses of Congress; how do you get such completein German you would say Gleichschaltunghow do you get such a completely univocal performance? Ritter raises the question that this points to a much broader conspiracy going on in American society. I know that people normally get completely unnerved when you mention the word conspiracy, but I dont think there is another word to characterize what is happening.

You have what people nowadays call the Deep State trying to undo the election of an American President, but you have the British role in all of this. I think that there is an effort by the British Empire, having re-established control over U.S. institutions, to go back to what we had once with the neocons in 1992the Wolfowitz Doctrine that the United States should never allow another country or another group of countries to bypass the military-political or military power of the United States. Now, that was the coup of the neocons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they proceeded to try to establish a unipolar world. I think that is exactly expressed in what the Congress did with the sanctions, and by implication it means going back to the confrontation with Russia, and naturally the Thucydides trap in the relationship with China.

This is the warpath. It has incredible implications. I just want to mention a couple of them. First of all, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev reacted much more sharply than President Putin. He said this ends the hope for an improvement in the relationship between the United States and Russia. Then there were various commentaries in Chinese publications that offered Chinas help to Russia against the effects of the sanctions and also said this will just mean a much closer relationship between Russia and China, and that together we will have deterrence against the United States. Now that is not what the Chinese want; they have offered cooperation, for the United States to join the Belt and Road Initiative, but that is what it leads to.

Russia Sanctions a Dangerous Boomerang

There are two other side-effects of this. One is the relationship with Europe, because the sanctions primarily target Russian natural gas delivery and the idea of building another pipeline, Nord Stream 2, which Germany needs, because the oil supply from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, is very tricky because of the unstable situation there. The oil reserves in the North Sea are being depleted. But because the United States insists that it has extraterritorial command, obviously the sanctions will hit all firms that produce materials or perform construction work for any energy project with the Russians. This is completely impossible. It will also target, for example, European investors in the United States: If they do business with Russia, they could be expropriated in the United States, or their capital frozen, or the like. This is causing havoc.

The European Union and the German government have already said that they will consider countermeasures, that this may lead to trade war. Amazingly, one spokesman in a leading think tank that is close to the German government has just said this will backfire, because why should countries which are targetted by the sanctions help to implement them? So, he predicts that this will be a boomerang for the Americans; but naturally, a very dangerous one. Also, various German industrial associations came out and said this is completely unacceptable.

More fundamentally, it brings up the question of international law. Why would the United States think that U.S. law can be applied all over the world? This is a violation of international law, and therefore this is an unprecedented crisis. It has, as I said, implications for the American Constitution, for international law, for the relationship with Russia and China; it can break apart the alliance with Europe for the first time. So, I think people really must understand, this must be undone.

Ross: Could you say more for our viewers about what you see as the limitations of the Deep State or Cold War idea? In other words, what is really pushing this opposition to cooperation with Russia and what can we do about it?

Financial Blow-Out, Nuclear Extinction

Zepp-LaRouche: I think it is a remnant of geopolitics. Geopolitics is the idea that a group of nations, or one nation which has a fundamental interest against another nation or another group of nations, and if need be, can fight for this with wars of aggression. It was that thinking which led to two world wars in the 20th Century, and obviously, if we dont overcome this in the age of thermonuclear weapons, what we are talking about is the danger of extinction of the human race if it comes to war. We are much closer to this than most people even wish to recognize.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated between 1989 and 1991, there was the possibility to have a lasting, peaceful order. Communism had been defeated, and we proposed at that time the Eurasian Land-Bridge; we were already calling it the New Silk Road. It was the idea of establishing a new paradigm of cooperation in the interest of all participating countries. That policy would have changed the course of history. But at that time there was Margaret Thatcher, and you had Bush, Sr., and Mitterrand.

They decided to prevent Russia from ever coming up againto reduce the Soviet Union, which was a superpower, to a Russia which would just be a raw materials-producing Third World country. They decided that, instead of having a world order of peace, lets go back to the old Anglo-American policy of running the world as an empire; lets impose a unipolar order on the world. That was the policy of the 1990s, of the early 2000s; it was the idea of ruling through regime change, color revolution. This was the policy of the wars based on lies in Afghanistan, Iraq, the murder of Qaddafi; these policies have destroyed the Middle East. They have caused the refugee crisis; they almost triggered the collapse of the European Union, because there is no union, as became clear in the course of the refugee crisis.

So this policy is now about to explode. Alan Greenspan, of all peoplethe person who again and again warned of irrational exuberancejust came out and said there is another bond bubble blow-out coming, and it will trigger a collapse of the stock market. This empire is collapsing, and that is why I think there is such desperation to prevent the rise of China; even though China has offered a completely different model, not based on geopolitics but based on win-win cooperation, in which all nations cooperating with the New Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative would profit.

Defend the American Revolution!

I think whats really in question here is, do we go back to the British Empire? And people who know American history, know very well that the British Empire never gave up the idea of reconquering the United States. George III lost his marbles at the time of the American Revolution, and the British tried to win America backfirst in the War of 1812, then in the Civil War, in which the British Empire was allied with the Confederacy. They financed the Confederacy through the East Coast banks. Then after that, the British realized it could not be done militarily, so then they tried to subvert the American establishment and persuade the leading American families to run the world as an empire based on the Anglo-American special relationship.

If you look at the whole operation against Trump, which really started long before Trump had won the electionit was British Intelligence which started the dossiers fabricating the intelligence. But it was then helped by the U.S. intelligence agencies, whose structure still came from the Obama period. Deep State is too short a formulation, because it does not express that this is a British coup. The collusion is not with Russia; the collusion is with this British Empire. Americans have to understand that their entire revolution is at stake; the Constitutionwhich is still one of the most fantastic documents in terms of constitutions in the worldis in total danger. It is already taken over, and the American people must undo that.
This article is in the August 11, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Tillerson Charts a Course

Toward a New Era of International Collaboration for Peaceful Growth

[Print version of this article]

Aug. 6Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with journalists at the State Department Aug. 1, to update and clarify the nature of the Trump Administrations foreign policy. This discussion came at a time when most news media in the United States were presenting an image of an administration wracked with chaotic internal conflicts, while being aggressively investigated for illegal collusion with Russia and China in opposition to the interests of the United States.

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These reports would have one think that top personnel in the administration were constantly at odds with each other, with the aspirations of the American people, and with the interests of the United States. In this situation, Secretary Tillerson presented a sweeping discussion of current policy, policy which could create great new possibilities in world affairs over the next fifty years, in the context of reviewing the major historic developments of the last fifty.

Although a complete transcript of his remarks and a video are available through the State Department, most news media chose to cover mere scraps of Tillersons remarks, to contribute to the notion that U.S. foreign policy is hopelessly confused. Tillerson acknowledged that we are confronted with grave difficulties, but his remarks, together with the decisive signing statements President Trump issued the next day rejecting the attempt by Congress to destroy our positive relations with China and Russia with unconstitutional sanctions, ought to make it clear that we now have a Secretary of State and a Presidency with a mature commitment to a strategy of global cooperation such as we have not seen in decades.

Tillerson began by emphasizing that the Trump Administration is unalterably committed to Making America Great Again, but emphasized that when President Trump says, America first, he does not mean America alone. He explained that despite difficulties, disagreements, and potential conflicts, the administration is committed to mutually beneficial collaboration on areas of agreement, and avoidance of open conflict over situations where collaboration is not achievable. Much of his presentation explained how the administration is approaching each major area of tension in the world on that basis.

He added that looking back 50 years, there was a major change at the end of the cold war, and that major changesmost notably what he called a pivot point due to the dramatic expansion of Chinas role in the worldcontinue to occur. In these areas of change Tillerson noted that President Trump has challenged many of the policies hes inherited. Tillerson gave assurances that the administration is not necessarily throwing these things away, but asking, How should we define these relationships to serve the American peoples interest, obviously, first and foremost? But in doing so, I think were confident it serves the global interest and the interest of our partners and allies as well.

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North Korea

Tillerson elaborated that the development of administration policy toward North Korea starts with a campaign of peaceful pressure to avoid other options that he described as not particularly attractive. He indicated that the administration hoped that this approach would develop a willingness [for North Korea] to sit and talk with us and others, but with an understanding that a condition of those talks is that there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the region, much less to the homeland. The administration engaged China in this effort because we share the same objective, a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and because China, which accounts for 90% of North Koreas international trade can put pressure on and influence the North Korean regime in ways that no one else can. Perhaps to answer Chinas objection that North Koreas quarrel is primarily with the United States, and that U.S. actions cannot be effective without changes in the relations of the United States with North Koreaparticularly in light of the history of the U.S. assault against Iraq and LibyaTillerson explained that in our relations with North Korea we do not seek a regime change; we do not seek the collapse of the regime; we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula; we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel. And were trying to convey to the North Koreans we are not your enemy, we are not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond.

China

After addressing the North Korea crisis, Tillerson turned to the issue of China, explaining I think its important that everyone understand that North Korea does not define the relationship with China. He recounted the opening up of U.S./China relationships fifty years ago, during the Nixon Administration, and the commitment to collaboration established at the Mar-a-Lago summit between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping. He then referred to the pivot point defined by the fact that China is now the second largest economy in the world, and they will continue to grow in their importance to the global economy, then asking, What should define this relationship for the next 50 years? This, he said, should be based on ensuring economic prosperity to the benefit of both countries and the world, and that inevitable differences are resolved in a way that does not lead to open conflict.

Then he referred to the disputes over the South China Sea, which the U.S. media and others have painted as a major threat to the peace and security of the United States and the nations in the area, remarking simply, And where we have differencesin the South China Sea, and we have some trading differences that need to be addressedcan we work through those differences in a way without it leading to open conflict, and find the solutions that are necessary to serve us both?

He pointed to the four high-level dialogues established at Mar-a-Lago. The first, the Diplomatic and Security Dialogue led by Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and their Chinese counterparts, has met twice. The Economic and Trade Dialogue, led on the U.S. side by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, has also met twice. The Law Enforcement and Cyber Security Dialogue and the People-to-People Dialogue have not yet met.

This approach to China, as well as the approach to Russia described below, is directly opposite to the geopolitical expressions of President Obama, Hillary Clinton, the neo-cons regardless of party affiliation, and the Democratic Party Congressional leadership today. The hideously evil view of that latter crew is that nuclear war must be at least risked, if not waged, to destroy any power that has achieved a status that might threaten the world domination of Britain and its allies, not because of anything they have done or threatened to do, but simply because of their ability to threaten the empire. This, incidentally, explains why the Cold War that many people naively believe was a conflict between communism and capitalism, is being revived almost thirty years after the collapse of European communism. The public founder of the Cold War, Winston Churchill, and his allies, have made it clear repeatedly, that their cause was neither capitalism nor freedom, but the destruction of threats to the existence of the empire.

Russia

Next Tillerson turned to the relationship with Russia. He recalled that on his first trip to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Putin had said the relationship was at a historic low since the end of the Cold War and it could get worse. Tillerson then asked, Is it getting worse, or can we maintain some level of stability in that relationship, and continue to find ways to address areas of mutual interest and ways in which we can deal with our differences without those becoming open conflicts as well?

Tillerson discussed the working relationship in the war against ISIS in Syria, saying both powers are committed to the defeat of ISIS and the other terrorist organizations, and both are committed to a unified Syria in which the Syrian people arrange a new constitution, in which the threat of post-ISIS civil war is averted, and they conduct free and fair elections to choose their leadership. The United States and Russia disagree on the future of the elected President, Bashar al-Assad. He noted that Russia has aligned itself with Assad, but that the United States finds him unacceptable. In fact, President Putin and his government have said that they are now cooperating with the elected president, but that the future leadership of Syria is up to the Syrian people. Despite these differences, a zone of deconfliction has been achieved and is holding steady, and the United States and Russia are collaborating in expanding this to other regions of Syria. As for the differences with Russia, Tillerson said, The sequencing of all that were open to, as long as that is what is achieved at the end.

Thus, although Tillerson has explained U.S. differences with Russia, the Administration is not letting these hold up the peace process. He does not mention the potential conflict between the goal of eventually ousting Assad, and that of permitting the Syrians to choose their own government. He also does not mention the fact, often raised by the governments of Syria and Russia, that Russia is legitimately providing military aid to the internationally recognized government of Syria, whereas the United States, while cooperating to some extent with Russia and the Assad government, is not a legitimate guest of Syria. Despite the U.S. misgivings about Assad, President Trump has withdrawn support for militias that have been fighting against his government. Clearly, the Trump Administration is leaving room for further reconciliation with Russia in this area.

The other area of tension with Russia that Tillerson mentioned is Ukraine. He insisted that the Minsk accords must be implemented, but Russia agrees with this. They do disagree on the interpretation of Minsk. He pointed to the appointment of special representative Kurt Volker, which Russia has welcomed, to move the reconciliation process further.

The Middle East and ISIS

Tillerson then outlined the progress being made against ISIS in Iraq, stating that approximately two million Iraqis have been able to return home. He emphasized that the U.S. role in this is to secure areas in cooperation with local law enforcement, to help local leaders return to their communities, and restore basic needs like power, water, and sewage. Thats where we stop, he said, Were not there to rebuild their communities. Thats for them to do and thats for the international community.

He referenced the grand coalition of 68 countries the United States has worked with, and stated that the intention is to recognize ISIS as a global threat that has now surfaced in the Philippines and threatens Southeast Asia. He also referred to the need to battle terrorism in cyberspace, a recruiting arena for ISIS.

Tillerson mentioned the successful agreement with Iran to curtail its nuclear weapons program, but asserted that it is conducting other destabilizing activities and is attempting to expand into Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. This approach is one that Russia openly disagrees with. Tillerson also failed to address the dire humanitarian disaster, including a massive cholera epidemic and widespread famine, in Yemen, caused by Saudi Arabias U.S.-backed war against its tiny neighbor. Nonetheless, the Administration has not cut off contact with the concerned parties.

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Western Hemisphere

Tillerson reported on his trip with then Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, to establish cooperation with Mexico. They established a framework to attack the drug cartels and other criminal organizations. A large part of U.S. responsibility in this, he said, is that we are the customer, and he said that the Department of Health and Human Services will be working on attacking that problem at home. He reported a 70% to 80% reduction in illegal border crossings.

Other concerns expressed in this hemisphere include working on security and prosperity for Central America, and the reduction of violence and return to democracy in Venezuela.

The State Department

Secretary Tillerson has come under attack in the media and by some foreign policy experts, including unnamed State Department officials, for operating independently of the foreign policy professionals. He addressed this throughout his talk by commending by name the career diplomats who made positive contributions to every initiative he discussed. In addressing the organizational problem directly, he pointed out that only one of the six under-secretary positions in the department has been filled. In the State Department, under secretaries rank just below the deputy secretary, and they direct the major branches of the Department, so this is a critical shortcoming. He also reported that many of the assistant secretary positions that rank just below the under secretaries, are filled with acting officers. Nonetheless, Tillerson said, the professional foreign service officers have made it possible for the department to accomplish what it has in his first six months in office. He added that he meets with his staff on the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary level several times a week, and is in touch with staff at all levels, through lunches and other means. In responding to a question on this, he said that he expected, given the radical change in administration, that some would have difficulty in making the transition, but that most had committed themselves. For those who objected to a particular responsibility, he offered them the option of switching to something they would do willingly, rather than having people in place who objected to their assignments.

Tillerson reported on his handling of a redesign of the State Department. Based on his experience in private business management, he is leading an employee-led effort that began with a survey soliciting input from all employees.

The Administration

The first question asked of Tillerson involved the misunderstandings created by President Trumps tweets and the appointment of John Kelly as White House Chief of staff. Rather than choosing to refer this question, as professional Secretaries of State and their spokespeople would do, to the White House, Tillerson answered directly. He said that based on his collaboration with Kelly on the issues in Mexico, he thinks he will do a fine job, and that President Trump would not have appointed him if he did not want real change at the White House. He frankly explained his attitude to the Presidents tweets as well, saying, Its part of the environment in which we work. Well adapt to it. Theres a lot of unexpected things that happen to us in the world of diplomacy and we know how to adapt to that, so I dont view it as an obstacle, a hindrance, or as an assistance. Whatever the President chooses to express, he expresses, and then thats information to everybody, us included.

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The last question to him involved Secretary Tillersons relationship to the President. His answer was unusually frank for an on-the-record press conference. He said his relationship with Trump is good. The President has repeatedly expressed his confidence in me; I talk to him just about every day. I see him several times a week. He calls me late at night on the weekends when something comes into his head and he wants to talk. He may call me at any moment at any time, but it is a very open relationship, and its one in which I feel quite comfortable telling him my views. And he and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA [the nuclear treaty with Iran] and how we should use it. I think if were not having those differences, Im not sure Im serving him. The relationship between the President and myself is good. Thats how I view it anyway.

The Future Is Ours To Win or Lose

Tillersons remarks make it clear that this administration has acted with a higher level of wisdom and responsibility than any in recent memory. It also, as Trumps signing statements demonstrate, has not lost the will or the ability to surprise its enemies with effective countermeasures. They have expressed laudable goals including improving our productive capabilities, making affordable health care available, and putting Americans back to work. The expressed intention to collaborate with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is also a tremendous improvement over the previous administrations animosity against Chinese growth. Despite these intentions, and President Trumps references to the American System of economics, and to the restoration of Franklin Roosevelts Glass-Steagall Act, the Administration has not demonstrated a clear understanding that the whole institution of money as it has been used up until now has to be scrapped, and replaced with a system in which the requirements of the future dictate what economic developments take place and are allocated financial resources accordingly.

In the area of foreign policy per se, the administration has rejected the poison of geopolitics as the basis for policy. Unfortunately, as in the approach to South Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, it has not totally put the deadly legacy of Obama Administration policies behind us.

The Trump Administration has done far more than we had a right to hope for, because of our own neglect of our nations policies. Now it is up to every American to recognize that it is their own ability to rise above the geopolitical lunacies perpetrated by the failed Wall Street establishmentand get under the skin of their compatriots to build a tidal wave for the New Silk Road policies designed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche and adopted by China, Russia, and other governments representing the majority of the worlds populationthat will carry us past the danger of economic collapse or nuclear conflict to a future in which the fight for creative development is our only conflict.
QUESTION: Our association has hired and fired so many management companies that weve lost count and, as a board director, I am exasperated with the situation.

Most companies made it very difficult to reach them by phone and it was worse actually trying to talk to a live person. The company owners would never talk to homeowners and rarely spoke with directors. Once they were hired, managers immediately changed our banks and accounts, brought in their own vendors, and forced their attorneys on us even though we already had representation! Soon, managers were trying to run our board meetings and give us legal advice.

Without fail, after we hired the companies for a set fee, we realized we were getting billed a lot more than what we agreed to. The entire board is exhausted, why cant we find an honest management company that just does what we want them to?

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ANSWER: Like anything, hiring a management company requires due diligence and persistence on behalf of the board. Part of that includes investigating these companies more thoroughly, asking for references and demanding clarity and transparency in written agreements.

Ben Bar, owner of Allstate HOA Management in Los Angeles, has been servicing Southern California associations for over 16 years. He explains that it should not be difficult for boards or owners to contact a live person at the management company and also receive a call back. Non-responsiveness is the primary reason associations replace managers and management firms, he said.

Customer service is the backbone of any management companys business. Managers need those skills to be able to provide professional and knowledgeable assistance to the board and homeowners. If a manager is disrespectful, the communication between directors, owners and management is compromised. A manager that is difficult to deal with may discourage owners from relaying potential problems early on.

Bar said that the management should defer to the board regarding banks and other third-party services, especially when the HOA has a good working relationship with existing vendors who know a complex. Managers should not change the associations vendors without a written request from the board nor should they be permitted to force attorneys on them as they are vendors too, he said.

When your board reviews a prospective management companys service agreement it should be on the lookout for any use of mandatory vendors, obligations of the association and a companys disclosure of its ownership interest in vendor companies it owns. Remember, your association is the client and should be dictating the terms of your contract  there are plenty of management companies to choose from.

In regard to board meetings, managers should not run them, plain and simple. While they can provide assistance when requested to do so, it is the president of the board that conducts these meetings. And unless the manager is a licensed attorney representing your board, no legal advice should be imparted. Board directors that act on so-called legal advice from unlicensed managers are breaching their duty of care to the owners by subjecting the association to liability.

Management companies should not increase their fee schedule right after getting hired, but boards share responsibility in this arena as well. Because boards have a duty to read the management contract very carefully before signing, they should discuss fees and potential problems before committing to any companys services, Bar said.

In the search for new management, he recommends going well beyond online reviews since they are typically not verifiable. Look for referrals from other association boards, professionals and even homeowners that experienced success with their management, he said.

Some additional pointers he provides on the search process:

> Boards should review a management companys internal systems and procedures and look for examples of how it has dealt with problems that typically arise in running a homeowner association. The management company should be well-organized and welcome a visit from board directors at any time to discuss these matters.

> Interview a minimum of three companies. Boards should allow sufficient time for interviews, at least 30 to 60 minutes. Have a well thought-out list of questions ready beforehand. Ask to meet the firms owner for the interview along with a manager, and be wary of any resistance to that request.

> Choose a management firm that shows an understanding of the complexities of interpersonal relationships and has a working understanding of governing documents and applicable statutes.

> Look for someone who listens, understands and emanates strength and maturity. And be leery of companies impatient to get on with it and close the deal.

You know what your association needs and what works best for your board. The right management company is likely the one that is most willing to tailor its services to your needs.

This is not a one-size-fits-all business. Take your time and choose wisely, Bar said.

Zachary Levine, a partner at Wolk & Levine, a business and intellectual property law firm, co-wrote this column. Vanitzian is an arbitrator and mediator. Send questions to Donie Vanitzian, JD, P.O. Box 10490, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 or noexit@mindspring.com
Sometimes all it takes is a photo.

Robert Pattinson hadnt known much about the colorful New York street-auteurs Josh and Benny Safdie when he saw a promotional image ahead of the release of their 2014 drama Heaven Knows What. But the image, focusing on desperate heroin addicts, spoke to the former Edward Cullen.

I just had a really good feeling about the photo, strange as that sounds, Pattinson recalled in an interview. I got in contact with them through a friend, and I left the meeting and it was, like, I think Im going to do something with these guys.

That something would become Good Time, a story of a street hustler named Connie trying to break his brother out of jail; the film opened Friday. The Safdies wrote the script specifically for Pattinson after that meeting, then worked with him on everything from a New York accent to body movement to shape the loose-limbed, hungry-eyed performance that has earned him raves from The Times and others.

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What Pattinson was drawn to, and what Good Time exhibits, is an authentic and streetwise approach in which hardcore real-life experience blends seamlessly with filmmaker invention. The Safdies, for instance, cast Pattinson opposite real-life figures who have only recently become actors.

Among them is Buddy Duress, a former addict and convict whos mainly been in Safdie movies. Was that difficult for someone like Pattinson, whos worked opposite the likes of Guy Pearce and Kristen Stewart?

Everybody is playing a part in their life, the star said. It would seem hard, but if you find someone whos very vibrant and has a life thats very social and innately dramatic, like Buddy does, it actually can be easier. All youre looking for as an actor are impetuses, things to be inspired by, and someone like Buddy provides so many of that through their energy.

With Good Time, Pattinson continues a professional reinvention that has also taken him to collaborations with the likes of David Cronenberg, David Michod and, shortly, Claire Denis.

For all the paces they put him through, though, its unlikely those filmmakers took him on prison visits.

Yes, the former Twilight pinup walked through New York jails to research his new role, talking to inmates and wardens to learn about the real-life experience of those people. He conducted these visits in character as Connie.

Josh Safdie said in an interview that Pattinson did this so as not be recognized for his signature vampire role. Asked if he really thought there were a lot of Twihards in the clink, Pattinson laughed and said, Maybe! Then he added, I just wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible. I love the Safdies style, and I knew that in order to get the most out of it Id have to assimilate myself as much as possible.

It didnt necessarily work as well as he thought. Even as he went through jails wearing Connies dark clothes, facial hair and a felons wolfish expression, the prisoners werent buying it.

I thought I was convincing. And then one of the inmates said to me, What are doing in here? Is it for a scared-straight program? I wasnt convincing anyone.

Still, Pattinson got so deep into his Connie research that at one point some of his Good Time collaborators had a better idea for him than simple prison tours.

I wanted to stay in prison so much, he said. Eventually it got to the point where one of the producers said, You know, theres a better way. Why dont you just get yourself arrested?

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT
We have reached the tail end of summer. For some, school has already started. Others are finishing their summer vacations (as Jonathan Gold is this week). And Labor Day is approaching all too quickly. So maybe take some time this weekend to slow down and enjoy the warm weather (lucky for us, it should stick around for a while). Maybe head to downtown L.A. to spend an afternoon sipping cortaditos at the new Don Franciscos Casa Cubana in the Spring Arcade building. We have a story on the Cuban immigrant family behind the cafe; the Gavinas have been making coffee for 50 years.

Perhaps make a plan to devour a couple pizzas at one of this citys excellent Italian restaurants, while you dream of the bubble-flecked pies from Phoenixs Pizzeria Bianco, whose pizza maker Chris Bianco fills us in this week on his plans for Los Angeles.

Or take advantage of the nice weather and invite some company over for a dinner party under the stars. Whats on the menu? Perhaps tamales. Lots of them. Test Ktichen director Noelle Carter shares 10 of her favorite recipes. If you prefer your evenings spent wrapped in curling smoke from the grill, Noelle also shares 13 of her favorite steak recipes too.

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 Jenn Harris

PHOENIX PIZZA

Food editor Amy Scattergood sat down with pizza maker Chris Bianco to chat about his new book Bianco: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like, his illustrious career that includes four Phoenix restaurants, and his plans for Los Angeles.

FAMILY BEANS

The Gavina family from left: Pedro Gavina, Jose Gavina, Paco Gavina, Lenor Gavina-Valls, at Gavina Gourmet Coffee, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Food writer Tien Nguyen checks in with the Gavina family, who have opened their first L.A. coffee shop, called Don Franciscos, in downtown, near Guisados. But although this may be their first shop, the family has been roasting coffee in the L.A. area for the past 50 years. And as Nguyen reports, its a big deal, especially in a town that sees trends come and go faster than you can Instagram a charcoal latte.

MIX IT UP

Left to right. buckwheat cardamom horchata and pumpkin seed horchata. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Food writer Arielle Johnson (she used to work at Noma in Copenhagen and is now a researcher at the MIT Media Lab) finds that whats in your glass of horchata can be a lot more mysterious than you think. The popular summertime drink can be made with rice, almonds, other nuts, grains and seeds such as pumpkin or sesame. She delves into the methods and history of making horchata, and shares a couple of recipes.

NERVY WHITES

Dry white wines are great for hot days. (Banana Pancake / Getty Images)

Wine writer Patrick Comiskey writes its the time of year for wines that whine, wines so dry and high-pitched they seem almost mean  but none is better at quenching thirst on a hot day. And we couldnt agree more. Comiskey has recommendations for the white wines you should be drinking now, including Vinho Verde from Portugal and Australian Riesling.

MUST-TRYS

I also make a case for three new L.A. restaurants you may want to add to your must-try lists, including a Scandinavian bistro on Melrose Avenue, a Silver Lake Mexican restaurant by a lauded Mexico City chef and a wine-focused restaurant with a serious list of vino. Because you never know when youll need a new destination for date night.

The Taste, our annual Labor Day food festival (this one is three days, not a whole month!) is returning to Paramount Studios. Check out the lineup, the demos and panels, the chefs and bartenders, and of course all the food. Tickets are on sale.

Goldbot: You can now talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want  or at least the robot version of him that now lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Golds latest reviews straight to your device.

The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their city food guides, restaurant lists, food stories, recipes and videos.

Jonathan Golds 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didnt get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.

Check us out on Instagram @latimesfood

Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database.

Feedback? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.
We are just off the plane when things start to get complicated. At the rental counter Im dizzy as a two-headed calf, trying to solve the chronic riddle of whether we will return our car with the tank empty or full, which involves a lot of instant calculus regarding local gas prices.

Our clerk Nicole insists: Full or empty, sir?

Been a long day. Ive been pantsed by the TSA, side-swiped by a drink cart and pulled my left schnitzel just trying to slip into the planes tiny loo. Over Iowa, I realized our connecting flight was some sort of crop-duster. Now they want me to answer AP math problems.

Its only money, Nicole, I say. What do you suggest?

Eventually we decide to go with the empty option, and suddenly were outside picking out a rental car, of which they never have the size you ordered. They offer me a bigger car, which I dont want because well be zigzagging through congested parts of the city. We might also rob a few banks.

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So I want in my rental car what I want in my life: a very tight turning radius.

Nicole talks me into a mega-Chrysler anyway, big as Chicago itself. And the little guy and I are finally out of there.

My youngest son and I are headed back to my hometown in the northwest suburbs  a village smothered in sour cream yet still a prairie paradise 50 years after I roamed the backyards barefoot, snatching apples and other kids Schwinns.

Ive promised the little guy a week of fireflies, messy conversations and distant train whistles in the night. He seems pretty excited by that.

The bass are really biting, I add. So are the mosquitoes.

Mostly he wants to visit his cousins, who are celebrities to him. They are just past college and full of mirth and knowledge.

From his cousins, he gets such life tips as, Nobody pays for drinks at the University of Illinois. Nobody.

(Chris Erskine / Los Angeles Times)

The little guy gets a kick out of every rascally thing his cousins do. The way they recline on the kitchen counters, or poke fun at their mom.

His cousins also admit that, now out in the real world, theyre experimenting with speaking in double-negatives in business meetings, as in, Im not not unopposed to that, which might actually be a triple negative.

The little guy gets a kick out of every rascally thing his cousins do. The way they recline on the kitchen counters, or poke fun at their mom. I think its their general pluckiness he likes. Or that they seem to have life so figured out. (In the current vernacular, they do not-not-not-not have life so figured out.)

Meanwhile, I am falling back in love with my hometown. My Bedford Falls was established 150 years ago, amid lakes, creeks and prairie ponds. Back then, these gently rolling hills were graced by dairy farms and Dutch cheese makers. Claim to fame: At one point, Hansel and Gretel bought a house.

The lakes and the prairie ponds are still around, but these days theyre surrounded by massive brick mansion-castles built by anesthesiologists and dudes who made it very big selling patio furniture.

Times change. So do hometowns.

Still, I am charmed by the place  the way the ancient brick outside the Catlow Theater still chalks when you run your hand across it. Or how your waitress actually seems to care how you like your eggs.

Its been five years since Ive been back to the heartland, so Im reconciling my storybook memories against what I actually see.

The difference between L.A. and Chicago often seems the difference between Pink and Pink Floyd: glitz over substance, crass commercialism over poetry.

But thats far too simplistic. In truth, Chicago may have as many phonies as Los Angeles  though they never quantify that in any census.

Both cities seem to suffer from way too much money. One morning I flirt with the thought of swimming across my hometown, the way Cheever did across suburban Connecticut, from pool to pool, announcing my arrival with a splash, followed by a quick wave goodbye, before moving on to the next pool.

As Cheever noted, Like any explorer  the hospitable customs and traditions of the natives would have to be handled with diplomacy. 

If I timed it right, I could arrive at the horsy part of town just in time for cocktail hour (usually 3 p.m.). They would think nothing of another morally challenged dad splashing across their huge pool, and probably offer me a ginormous glass of gin.

Id toast their thoughtfulness, and then beneath the gurgling Alka-Seltzer sky, move on to the next five-acre estate.

OK, who was that? theyd ask after I trotted off, sun-baked as Nick Nolte.

Used to know him, someone would say. Grew up here, I think.

Yeah, not completely.

Next week: A day in Chicago, that toddlin town.

Chris.Erskine@latimes.com

Twitter: @erskinetimes

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Chris.Erskine@latimes.com

Twitter: @erskinetimes

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Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Its World Elephant Day  yes, thats a thing, and people celebrate it (as they should). Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion.

The nightmare scenario envisioned before Donald Trump s inauguration  an erratic, ill-tempered, uninformed man itching to twitch his nuclear trigger finger  seems to be coming to pass more and more as the president continues to trade bombastic threats with North Korea over that countrys startling progress in developing long-range missiles and the ability to attach warheads to them.

But whereas most of us might be unsettled, to put it mildly, by the prospect of the normally stabilizing American presidency becoming increasingly unmoored rhetorically, UCLA law professor Russell Korobkin believes it may be just what the United States needs to break its decades-long stalemate with North Korea. He writes in a Times op-ed article:

As I tell students in my negotiation class, in hard-nosed, brass-knuckles bargaining, the crazy person wins because he can force a rational counterpart to make concessions in order to avoid mutual disaster. And no one does crazy like Trump. So-called normal American administrations have been outfoxed by the Kim family for decades. The reclusive leaders of the Hermit Kingdom have known that the only thing the United States can do to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles to carry them is to start a war that would devastate the Korean peninsula. That option was, and is, so bad that the Kims have calculated that they could bluster, stall, make agreements only to break them, and generally thumb their noses at the West with no risk of serious consequences.... North Koreas threat to take physical action and retaliate thousands of times over for the latest sanctions was bluster typical for that countrys propaganda ministry. But Trumps fire and fury rejoinder is in sharp contrast to Americas usual careful diplomatic language. Military and foreign affairs experts in the West have uniformly criticized Trump. When crazy goes toe to toe with crazy, escalation can potentially get out of hand and lead to war. North Korea has already raised the ante by specifically threatening to shoot missiles near Guam, which could trigger an American response. But the obvious danger of Trump facing off with Kim is precisely why rational Chinese leaders might reassess their nations long-standing approach and intervene more decisively. >> Click here to read more

The Times Editorial Board is less comforted by Trumps rhetoric. It wanted something other than the presidents statement on Thursday that perhaps his fire and fury remarks were not tough enough. (Interestingly, earlier in the week, the editorial board praised the Trump administration for appearing to favor diplomacy over bluster in dealing with North Korea  the lesson being that Trump doesnt often end a week as he started one.) Michael McGough, The Times senior editorial writer, reminds us that Trump isnt known for his precise use of language, so we should not freak out over fire and fury.

The U.S. also has to worry about Chinas military strength. During the Korean War more than 60 years ago, the scrappy Peoples Liberation Army pushed U.S. forces south on the peninsula and forced a stalemate. Now, warns Harvard professor Graham Allison, Chinas military is far more prepared and able to defend its interests in North Korea if the U.S. decides to intervene. L.A. Times

A memo from the West Coast to Trump: We dont want to get hit by a North Korean nuke, so please cool it with the overheated rhetoric. Timothy Egan concedes that voters in California, Oregon and Washington state overwhelmingly favored Hillary Clinton in 2016, and therefore the thought of us melting in a nuclear attack might not tug at the presidents heartstrings much. But were still Americans who expect our government to defend us  or at least not to tempt Kim Jong Un to test the range of his nuclear-tipped missiles. New York Times

But if a North Korea nuke should strike California, wed be prepared (for the aftermath, at least). In an interview with The Times Patt Morrison , Mark Ghilarducci, the states disaster preparedness chief, assures Californians that officials in Sacramento and at the local levels have developed emergency response plans in the event of a nuclear strike. L.A. Times

Way back before the threat of nuclear war increased, the weeks big story was that Google memo. The Times Editorial Board notes that Google, despite what the memo writer said critically about its efforts to diversify its ranks, is no poster child for hiring and promoting more women and minorities. Melissa Batchelor Warnke, a former Google employee, writes that the sexism at tech companies is far more insidious and pervasive than outsiders might believe and perhaps less obvious to male employees. Cassady Rosenblum points out that despite everything Google says about wanting greater diversity, the company has not articulated exactly what it hopes to achieve by having more women and minorities in its workforce.

Reach me: paul.thornton@latimes.com
Everywhere in Blue Lake, a tiny Humboldt County town nestled between redwood ridges on the Mad River, people had the same reaction when told theirs is the only all-female city council California.

Wow, thats amazing, said Kate Martin, a Brooklyn native and owner of the towns principal watering hole, the Logger Bar, which has eight vintage chain saws suspended from the ceiling. I never really thought about that.

Woo-hoo, said Lynne Owens, office manager of Blue Lakes world-famous DellArte International School of Physical Theatre, which draws students from as far away as Zimbabwe, Greece, India and Israel.

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Hey, thats great, said DellArtes founding artistic director, Joan Schirle, leaning over the balcony of her loft office in the schools surprisingly expansive building, which has a 116-seat theater with walls made of old-growth redwood planks.

I am ecstatic to have an all-woman council in this time and age, said Blue Lake Councilwoman Summer Daugherty, a project coordinator for the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, which, among other things, helps dairies stay on the right side of environmental regulations. Last year, Daugherty was elected to a four-year council term, her first. Were excited and motivated.

California has 482 cities. Only 72 of them have a majority of women on their councils, according to California Women Lead, a nonpartisan group dedicated to increasing the number of elected and appointed female public officials. Fifty-six have no councilwomen at all.

Its not just the all-female city council that makes Blue Lake unusual. Blue Lakes city manager, Amanda Mager, is a woman. So is the town clerk.

We have some amazing guys who do stuff like fix pipes, said Blue Lake City Clerk April Sousa, as she set out folding chairs for Tuesday evenings council meeting. The city attorney is a man.

Joan Schirle, the founding artistic director of Blue Lakes renowned performance school, DellArte International School of Physical Theatre, peers down from her office. Plenty of top jobs in the tiny Humboldt County town are held by women. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)

::

No one was willing to come right out and say things work better with women in charge.

Its very relaxed, which is nice, said Councilwoman Bobbi Ricca, who is a retired DellArte school administrator. Women just know how to work together in a way that men probably dont.

Among the towns pressing issues: how to slow down the big trucks that whip through town to get to gravel quarries on the Mad River, controlling noise and pollution from the local power plant, luring high-quality business to the local industrial park. And of course, public safety.

The most serious scandal to rock Blue Lake was the result, in my humble opinion, of testosterone poisoning.

In 2008, the Blue Lake police chief was charged with eight felonies, including possessing a machine gun and silencer, and drugging his wife for sex. The spousal rape charge was dropped, but a jury found him guilty of two gun-related felonies, later overturned on appeal. The police department, which had 31 submachine guns, was disbanded, and the town now contracts its policing with the Humboldt County Sheriffs Department. Now, instead of four officers and a chief, Blue Lake is patrolled by a deputy sheriff and a half.

We dont have as much coverage as we need, said Councilwoman Elizabeth Mackay, who was appointed in June after the only male council member resigned his position to spend more time with his family.

::

People sometimes say, not without reason, that Humboldt County is behind the Redwood Curtain. Thats because its not especially easy to get to. Flying into the Arcata-Eureka Airport is ridiculously expensive. That usually leaves driving, from the Bay Area, which takes more than five hours, or perhaps Santa Rosa, which takes about three.

The relative remoteness of Humboldt County made it a choice growing region for outlaw cannabis farmers, which helped revitalize an economy that had fallen on hard times as logging companies and mills went out of business.

Around here, anyone with a storefront benefits from cannabis, said Martin, who holds monthly Think and Drink events at the Logger Bar as a countermeasure to the politics of President Trump. (Recent guest speakers have come from Planned Parenthood, the Green Party, the ACLU. Not all her clientele, many of them retired loggers, appreciate the curriculum.)

I assumed that Blue Lake, which has a new industrial park at the edge of town, would open its arms to the cannabis trade, which will be legal for adult recreational users in January.

The town, it turns out, is not interested. Maybe that has something to do with the citys nickname Booze Lake. Blue Lake is far more interested in encouraging cottage industries that revolve around food and drink.

Tuesday night, the City Council directed its attorney to draft an ordinance that will keep commercial cannabis businesses out of the city, but will comport with the part of the new state law that allows every adult to grow up to six plants at home.

Kate Martin restored Blue Lakes local watering hole, the Logger Bar, five years ago (note the chain saws on the ceiling). Each month, she and her all-female staff host a Think and Drink night, which covers a range of political topics, generally with a progressive bent. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times)

::

Wednesday morning, I decided to tool around Blue Lake. How much could there be to see? The town is all of one square mile.

In front of City Hall, I bumped into Councilwoman Jean Lynch, a retired accountant. She offered a tour, so I hopped into her SUV, which had two huge carrots in the front console where someone else might keep a Mocha Frappuccino. (There are no Starbucks in Blue Lake. Also, no stoplight, movie theater, medical clinic or cannabis dispensary.)

Our first stop was the DellArte school, pretty much the last thing I was expecting to find in a town of 1,200. The school offers a master of fine arts as well as undergraduate courses, and produces theatrical events throughout the year. (The former police chief alienated many Blue Lakers when he decided the theaters summer festival was a public safety nuisance.)

We visited the towns small industrial park, which is home to the Mad River Brewing Co., maker of first-rate craft beer, a smoked fish manufacturer and a tomato sauce company. It is also the home of the fledgling Jewell Distillery, owned by Michael and Barbara Jewell. Their craft spirits include moonshine, gin and an assortment of eaux de vie.

I ended the day at Logger Bar, where Martin was setting up for the evening. When she bought the bar five years ago, the entire town pitched in to remodel it. The name of everyone who helped is listed on a wall next to the front door under the words It takes a village to raise a bar.

As we sat at the bar, chatting before her 6 p.m. opening time, Martin told me she has three rules: No dogs. No kids. But you can take off your shirt if youre a good-looking man.

No question, the ladies are in charge.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

More columns 

For more on politics 

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AbcarianLAT

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When the headquarters of the Broadway Federal Bank in South Los Angeles burned down during the 1992 L.A. riots, Elbert T. Hudson knew exactly what to do: rebuild.

He and his son Paul C. Hudson reestablished the bank, founded by Hudsons father, in a trailer across the street from the ruins of the old building.

We werent going to let a building get in the way of the banks mission, Paul said.

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Hudson, 96, died Aug. 8 at his Los Angeles home.

An outspoken advocate for black issues, Hudson strove to be an agent of change for his community, his daughter Karen said. During his tenure as president and CEO of one of the first black-owned banks in Los Angeles, he extended loans and job offers to black, Asian and Latino people who were discriminated against by other banks. He mentored dozens of black youth and served as the head of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP.

He was firmly steeped in not only civil rights and community service, but the idea that for all your blessings you have to give something back, his daughter said.

Hudson was born in 1921 in Shreveport, La., the fourth of six children. He moved to Los Angeles when he was 3 because his father, head of the local NAACP chapter, was getting death threats. He attended the 28th Street Grammar School, John Adams Junior High and Polytechnic High. His childhood was steeped in the traditions of the civil rights movement. On Sundays, after church, he helped his father sell NAACP memberships, Karen said.

He felt like he had a lot to live up to, Karen said.

During World War II, Hudson flew a P-51 Mustang as member of the Tuskegee Airmen, escorting bombers on 23 combat missions in the Mediterranean theater of operations. After the war, he obtained an undergraduate degree at UCLA and earned a law degree at Loyola University.

In 1963, Hudson was named to the Los Angeles Police Commission, where he became an outspoken advocate for the black community. When he was named the first black president of the panel in 1966, shortly after the Watts Riots, he did not hide his reservations about the position.

In view of the present tensions and conflicts that exist in our city today, I am not really sure whether I should thank you for electing me to the presidency, Hudson said in his acceptance remarks.

Back then, the names ringing out at Police Commission meetings were not Ezell Ford and Brendon Glenn but Leonard Deadwyler and Jerry Lee Arnie, both shot and killed by LAPD officers during Hudsons tenure.

Hudson urged the LAPD to learn more about minority communities, and also counseled his own community against blaming police for things they had no control over. He criticized officers for not understanding the day-to-day oppression under which black and brown people live.

He resigned his post as vice president of the commission in 1971 to take a position as head of the L.A. chapter of the NAACP. During a news conference announcing his resignation, he expressed reservations about the direction the department was taking.

I could not serve the best interests of the Police Department while serving the best interests of my organization and my community, Hudson said.

His father, H. Claude Hudson, founded one of the first black-owned banks in L.A. in 1946, and Hudson took over the bank in 1972.

As president and CEO, Hudson focused less on profits and more on growing minority neighborhoods, his daughter said. Loans from Broadway Federal Bank helped establish Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Second Baptist Church and the Lewis Metropolitan Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and several black neighborhoods in South Los Angeles.

His friends and family remember a man of humility and quiet strength who strove to be a role model for those around him. He was a highly disciplined man who woke up for a 5 a.m. walk around the neighborhood every day, maintaining the regimen well into his 80s. He took his family to the beach every Sunday, Karen said, and made pancakes for her sleepovers.

Hudson was a consummate gentleman, but never stood on ceremony, as happy with a hot dog as a steak, Karen said. He chose his words carefully, but he was not afraid to raise his voice. He eschewed a political career and instead spent much of his time mentoring dozens of men and women and supporting the children in his neighborhood.

He was so much to so many, Paul said. From war hero to civil rights activist, from legal advisor to community banker, from friend to mentor. But to me, he was everything.

Memorial services have not yet been announced. Donations in lieu of flowers should be sent to the Marilyn Project at the Ebony Repertory Theatre at 4718 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90016.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

Twitter: @frankshyong
After the Americana at Brand rejected billboard space for a film about genocide, state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) has joined a local Armenian group in asking mall officials to reverse their decision.

Last week, the Glendale chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America requested that the Americana reconsider its denial of billboard space for Architects of Denial, a documentary that examines genocides, including the Armenian genocide, through survivor accounts.

In a statement on Thursday, Portantino said he supported the committees request.

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I thought to myself that Hollywood has long-celebrated thought-provoking and hard-edged filmmaking that stimulates conversations about historical events, Portantino said. It seems like labeling art as too political was an odd reason to deny the appropriate free expression of a historical documentary.

Jackie Levy  executive vice president of operations for Caruso, which owns and operates the Americana  invited the films producers to discuss further the proposed film advertisement.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda

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An apparent case of road rage prompted a federal agent to point a gun at a woman as she was driving on Interstate 15 with her 2-year-old son in the back seat, the woman said.

California Highway Patrol officers investigating the July 6 incident identified the man involved as a plainclothes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. The federal agency said in a Thursday statement that it was cooperating fully with the investigation.

ICE holds its personnel to the highest professional standards and has zero tolerance for employees who violate the publics trust, spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.

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Felicia Ocampo, 31, said she was on her way home from a camping trip when she noticed a silver Ford Focus coming up fast behind her.

The driver started tailgating her, she said, so she sped up to get away from him. Before long, the two motorists were weaving in and out of traffic. At one point, he boxed her in between two vehicles. Later, she tapped her brakes when he started tailgating her again.

Both cars were going fast, she said.

I didnt know why this guy was messing with me, she said. I was going to do anything to get away from him. He was driving erratically. It was like he was trying to harm my car or run me off the road.

She decided to move over to the slow lane, in the hopes he would pass her by. Instead, he pulled alongside her. She said she rolled down her window, made an obscene gesture and angrily asked what he was doing.

He responded by brandishing a handgun.

He pointed the gun at me and said, Pull the  over or Im going to shoot you,  the Escondido woman said. She said he then put on a black Kevlar vest.

She said there was nothing about the Ford Focus that suggested he was a member of law enforcement, but she decided to pull over. After he pulled up behind her and appeared at her window, I start to yell, What are you doing? Youre scaring me!  she said. Then he said, If you dont shut your mouth, Im going to put my gun in it and shut it for you. 

She said he admonished her for speeding and told her that she was lucky he didnt detain her. The man asked her for her drivers license and proof of insurance, Ocampo said, then walked back to his car. At no point did he identify himself or say what agency he was with, she said.

When the man returned, his demeanor had changed. He told her it was her lucky day, she said, and that the emergency lights in his car werent working and he didnt have a citation book in his car. Then he smiled and apologized.

She said she apologized, too, and quickly drove off as he walked back to his car. Ocampos mother, who had listened in via her daughters cellphone as the incident progressed, called 911 soon after.

CHP Officer Jake Sanchez said it was too early to say whether charges would be filed. No one has been arrested.

There are occasions in which federal agents may make traffic stops on a highway, Sanchez said. An agent might choose to pull someone over if a driver is endangering other motorists, for example.

Immigration attorney Matt Holt said California law limits the ability of federal agents in the state to arrest people for violations of California and local laws. And they do not have the capability to write traffic tickets. He also said case law has established that immigration agents need to have a reasonable suspicion that a violation of an immigration law occurred in order to pull someone over.

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com

Winkley writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Eric Usher dreams of working as an audio producer, driving his friends around in a Maserati and living by the beach.

But most importantly, Usher says, he looks forward to being independent.

I wont have any system support, and Ill be living on my own, is how he describes it.

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For now, Usher must content himself with a spare ground-floor apartment a few miles from downtown L.A.

At 19, he is learning to be independent by trial and error. He recently racked up almost $700 in cable and Internet bills  the result of confusing pricing and unexpected charges.

I made a bad decision, he said. Its a learning experience. It wont happen again.

Usher has been in the foster system since he was 8. He doesnt have parents who can bail him out or guide him smoothly into adulthood.

But unlike most foster youths of the past, hes able to get help from the Department of Children and Family Services until he turns 21, thanks to a state program called extended foster care, which began in 2012. The program was created to assist youths who, on average, fare far worse in adulthood than peers who have not had involvement with the child welfare system.

Often referred to simply as AB 12, after the Assembly bill that created it, extended foster care offers young people who are still in the foster system at age 18 a roof over their head, funding and support services for three extra years, as long as they go to school, work, attend a job-readiness program or have a medical condition that prevents them from meeting these requirements.

In fiscal year 2015-16, Children and Family Services spent about $91 million on extended foster care in Los Angeles County. Federal, state and county funds pay for the extension.

Although the programs success has been uneven, the vast majority of eligible teenagers  about 80% in L.A. County  choose to remain in care.

Judge Margaret Henry presides over extended foster care cases at the Edmund D. Edelman Childrens Court in Monterey Park. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

AB 12 is helping a whole lot, said Judge Margaret Henry, who presides over a courtroom at the Los Angeles Childrens Court specifically for 18- to 21-year-olds. The security of having that money is such a relief that they can think about other goals.

Research conducted by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago showed that California youths who stayed in care for one year past age 18 were much more likely than those who didnt to enroll in college and to have financial assets, and less likely to rely on public assistance or to become homeless.

Staying in care was not, however, associated with significant differences in employment, earnings, health or rates of pregnancy.

Some young adults struggle during and after the extended program. They want to be independent but lack key skills, and the stakes are high. Securing affordable housing is a barrier. So is navigating a complicated bureaucracy. Youths who have mental illnesses and substance abuse issues need more intensive support.

Theres still a mismatch between the adequacy of supports and the needs of all young people, said Mark Courtney, who led the Chapin Hall research.

Young people who havent left the foster system by age 18 may have cycled through five or more homes in as many years. The circumstances that made it difficult to find permanent placements for them before they reached adulthood, such as trauma, substance abuse or incarceration, also can make it difficult for them to succeed independently afterward.

Theres an attitude that when you turn 18  youre on your own now, you figure it out, said Jennifer Lorson, an attorney supervisor at Childrens Law Center, which represents youths in dependency court. Where we stand is these are basically our kids. The system raised them. Were like parents. Parents dont just close the door on their kid when they turn 18.

Courtneys research showed that most 17-year-olds in the system live in foster or group homes, where they are under near-constant adult supervision. But after they turn 18, they look for arrangements with more autonomy.

In extended foster care, they have two options. They can stay in a supervised independent living placement, where they find their own housing, often an apartment or dorm, and receive an $889 check and visit from a social worker once a month. Or they can stay in transitional housing, which supplies the apartment as well as additional case management.

Just over a third of the 2,500 18- to 21-year-olds in foster care in Los Angeles County are in supervised placements, but only 315 transitional housing beds are available for this population.

In 2014, Saydra Hawley, then 18, was living with her foster mom and taking classes at Cypress College. When she got pregnant, she moved into her boyfriends two-bedroom apartment in Paramount and applied to have it approved as a supervised placement. She used her monthly check to pay for part of the $1,200 rent, car insurance, food, diapers and installments on a crib.

But Hawley and her boyfriend didnt get along. She thought about moving out.

I talked to over 20 landlords, but they all wanted the money up front, Hawley said.

So she stayed.

It was that or live in the street, she said.

Hawley eventually completed a Job Corps pharmacy technician training program and got a job in Orange. But standing in the same spot counting pills all day bored her.

There wasnt one minute I wasnt looking at the clock, Hawley said.

She had no choice but to keep working, especially after turning 21 last fall. At the urging of a friend, she applied for a job as a mail carrier, which she likes much better. The time moves by so quick, she said. Im never bored.

Earning about $16 an hour plus overtime, Hawley now makes enough money to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Bell for herself and her daughter, and to pay for daycare.

I feel like I got more than enough from extended foster care, she said. I like that it makes you work or go to school because eventually we all grow up and not everyone has someone to take care of them forever.

Many youth cant afford a supervised placement or dont meet the criteria, which include being able to manage money, be a responsible tenant and handle daily tasks such as grocery shopping.

Usher rides the bus to work in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / For The Times)

Usher, the aspiring producer, is in transitional housing. Since enrolling last December, hes made progress in fits and starts.

There was the fiasco with the cable, which Usher bought so he could watch sports. He got a job at McDonalds, but quit after a few months without having his next job lined up. He enrolled in classes at Los Angeles Southwest College and then walked out the minute he saw the board in math class. And he has yet to obtain a drivers license.

Hes testing his freedom out, said Daniel Torres, who advises Usher on school and jobs as part of the program. The way they learn is through the mistakes that they make.

Torres and others who work with young adults in foster care straddle a fine line between supporting these youth and letting them make their own decisions. Its about creating a safety net for them to fail, he said.

That thinking represents a shift for child welfare workers, who traditionally have focused on the physical safety of minors. Making the switch hasnt necessarily been smooth.

Ashley Gonzalez said she felt scared and alone when she turned 18 and was placed in transitional housing in 2014.

I didnt know who I was or what I was doing or where I was going to go from here, she said. I [was] just getting thrown to the sharks.

Gonzalez at first made a dumb decision to work instead of attending school. But accustomed to moving around, she never stayed long in any job. She worked at a Jack in the Box, as a nurses assistant, as a security guard and, at one point, as a stripper, she said.

Gonzalez had hoped to study psychology at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, but without guidance, she enrolled in too heavy a course load. I didnt know how to coordinate things, how to juggle, she said. Overwhelmed, she withdrew from her classes.

I had a roof over my head, Gonzalez said of extended foster care, but I didnt get much help.

Gonzalez moved out in June, after a dispute with her roommates. She said she stayed with a friend in Twentynine Palms, slept in her car and most recently was taken in by her former foster mom.

Shortly after turning 20, Gonzalez took a hard look at her options. I was thinking, Where am I going to go? How am I going to live?  she said. I just thought, Why not the military? I dont really have any other choices.

Gonzalez recently turned 21 and is scheduled to start basic training at the end of the month.

Children and Family Services officials said they provide young people with adequate support, but they also aim to transition foster youths away from depending on the department.

The objective is to build networks of support that rely less and less on the child welfare system, said Brandon Nichols, the acting director of Children and Family Services.

Usher works at his new job as a private security guard for an apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / For The Times)

Dependency attorneys say the county could do more. In court, they commonly ask Henry simply to order the department to provide services to which youths already are entitled.

Some say help should extend past age 21.

Id go to 26, Henry said. Wed have a lot more college graduates, successful careers  and fewer mental health problems.

Nichols said he thought there should be a program past age 21, but there is an expertise here that we are challenged with. He suggested other agencies  the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Los Angeles County Health Agency or Department of Public Social Services  may be better equipped.

For Usher, that cutoff is still two years away. Hes trying to make the most of the time he has.

In June, he received his guard card, which enabled him to begin work as a private security guard at a downtown apartment complex. He earns $12 an hour, he said, and hopes to get a raise soon so he can start saving money. One day, perhaps, hell study audio production.

But first, he plans to pay off some bills.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

Twitter: @AgrawalNina

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A federal lawsuit filed against the city and county of San Diego alleges law enforcement agencies wrongly arrested and detained protesters at a rally last year for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The complaint in U.S. District Court in San Diego against Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, Sheriff Bill Gore and the city and county governments  as well as the law enforcement officers who worked the event at San Diegos downtown convention center  contends the defendants suppressed the freedom of speech of plaintiffs and other members of the public who had committed no crime.

Ten people are named as plaintiffs and are being represented by attorney Bryan Pease, who was among those arrested.

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Unless they are actually posing some kind of threat or unlawful or violent activity, you cant arrest people just for being there, said Pease, a candidate for San Diego City Council.

The Sheriffs Department referred questions to the county, which declined to comment on the litigation. The San Diego city attorneys office said it was conferring with clients and did not comment.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages. It also asks the court to require the city and the county to destroy records of the plaintiffs arrests and to reveal whether the information was shared with any other agencies.

Pease, who is not a plaintiff, said the lawsuit was filed more than a year after the arrests because of time-consuming legal processes and for a statute of limitations to pass so that the government could not charge his clients with a crime to retaliate for their lawsuit.

Trumps rally drew thousands of supporters and protesters to downtown, as well as hundreds of police officers who were prepared to control a riot. While there were small fights and vulgar exchanges between the candidates allies and detractors, there was no widespread violence.

At one point, officers drove the crowds from the area. Police declared an unlawful assembly and told people in both English and Spanish that they needed to leave the area.

Police officers can declare an unlawful assembly in some circumstances, but protesters still have rights, Pease said.

That doesnt mean that any time two individuals do something wrong that you can suspend 1st Amendment rights for an indefinite period in an indefinite area, he said.

As police tried to control the crowd, some protesters, including Pease and the plaintiffs, headed down Harbor Drive toward the Barrio Logan neighborhood. Pease said he used a megaphone to tell officers that they were violating protesters 1st Amendment rights before he was tackled.

Police had a very heavy-handed response that was overwhelming and out of proportion to any threat, he said.

Zimmerman had said that officers effectively responded to the crowds.

We came in very quickly and decisively, Zimmerman said the day of the rally. The last thing we want is a mob mentality.

Police arrested 35 people that day, and 18 people received medical attention.

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

Stewart writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

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Debra Wong Yang is used to taking on headline-grabbing scandals.

She was one of five attorneys New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hired to examine his involvement in a scandal over closing lanes of the George Washington Bridge to punish a political rival. After the investigation cleared Christie, a federal judge criticized the attorneys for opacity and gamesmanship in not preserving complete records of the interviews they conducted.

When the city of Vernon was rocked by a series of public corruption scandals, it turned to Yang, at $990 an hour, to examine whether voters from outside the city were casting ballots in an effort to take over the City Council. One by one, she decided whether 64 voters who cast ballots in a city council election were legally eligible residents of the city. Her rulings changed the outcome of the race, putting into office a candidate supported by the Vernon Chamber of Commerce and some city leaders.

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Now, the University of Southern California has turned to Yang, a former U.S. attorney and L.A. County Superior Court judge, to investigate questions about what its leaders knew and when about the conduct of former medical school dean Dr. Carmen Puliafito.

Yang, a partner in blue-chip law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is no stranger to USC. She has represented the university in at least four lawsuits in recent years, and taught trial advocacy at its law school as an adjunct professor in the 1990s.

Her firm has extensive ties to USC. Its managing partner, Kenneth M. Doran, is a graduate of the USC law school and a former chairman of its board of councilors. He and the firms partners have been generous donors to the school.

Yang has not run afoul of any established legal ethics rules in accepting the assignment, experts say. But some experts said her conclusions might face questions because of her relationship with USC.

Looking just downstream on this, whatever is found is going to be subject to second guessing, said Michael Useem, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School and an expert in corporate risk management and governance. The investigating entity is not truly independent of the university administration.

Bruce Budner, a lecturer in legal ethics at UC Berkeley, said he would have expected an institution such as USC to have gone out of its way to hire someone whose neutrality could not be questioned.

Thats not a question of legal ethics, thats a question of optics, he said.

Yang, 57, a short-listed candidate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission for the Trump administration, said in an interview the executive committee of the universitys board of trustees had given her a broad mandate to conduct a thorough investigation.

She said she considered her review independent because the board has not put any restrictions on her.

I take my past experience and my responsibility very seriously. Its not the kind of matter Im going to risk my integrity over, she said, noting that investigations comprise more than 50% of her practice. My job is to take it wherever the facts go.

Yang declined to discuss the extent of her representation of the university, or who at the university makes the decision to hire her on other matters, citing attorney-client privilege. She said she did not know Puliafito.

Its not the kind of matter Im going to risk my integrity over. My job is to take it wherever the facts go.  Debra Wong Yang

Gibson Dunns website lists her as head of the firms Crisis Management Practice Group. The firm says the group is renowned for taking immediate action to manage any situation, executing a strategic communication plan and guiding clients through difficult events.

The Crisis Management groups team of media-savvy lawyers will quickly craft a communication plan to effectively manage any situation  a whistleblowers surprise allegation, a significant and unexpected accounting problem, a product recall, a government investigation, according to the firms website.

Yangs external investigation will parallel the work of an internal task force, USC President C.L. Max Nikias wrote in a letter to the campus. Yang was assigned to conduct a thorough investigation into the details of Carmen Puliafitos conduct, the universitys response, as well as our existing policies and procedures, he wrote.

A Times investigation published last month found that the dean used drugs and partied with a group of younger addicts, prostitutes and other criminals in 2015 and 2016, and brought some to his Keck School of Medicine office in the middle of the night.

The disclosures sparked anger and questions at USC over how administrators handled the deans case. In March 2016, the dean was with a 21-year-old woman in a Pasadena hotel room when she overdosed. The woman, Sarah Warren, told The Times she and Puliafito resumed using drugs as soon as she was released from the hospital.

Carmen Puliafito (Alex J. Berliner / AP)

A witness to the overdose phoned Nikias office March 14 and threatened to go to the press if the school didnt take action against the dean. Nikias said in a letter to the campus community dated July 28 that two receptionists who spoke to the witness did not find the report credible and did not pass it on to supervisors.

Yang is currently representing USC as the attorney of record in two matters in state and federal court. In one, involving a dispute between USC and the Doheny Eye Institute arising out of the two institutions severing their decades-long affiliation in 2011 and how an employment claim should be handled in arbitration, Yang was listed as the lead attorney on a court filing as recently as late June.

In another, a class action lawsuit filed by employees alleging mismanagement of USCs retirement plan, Yang has been representing the school since last September in federal court.

Yang said she was not involved in the day-to-day management of the ongoing cases.

Yang also defended the university in a 2012 suit filed by the parents of two Chinese graduate students who were murdered outside campus. The parents argued that USC didnt provide sufficient security and misled them into thinking the area was safe.

The judge on the case sided with USC, throwing out the parents case as not being legally valid even if the alleged facts were assumed to be true.

In another case that concluded last year, Yang defended the university in a lawsuit filed by African American students who alleged their civil rights were violated when a party they were attending was shut down by police, with the assistance of officers from the schools Department of Public Safety, and that they were battered and assaulted in the process. USC won a judgment that the university was not liable because the schools officers were acting at LAPDs direction; the city later settled the case for $450,000.

Yang was part of the team of Gibson Dunn attorneys hired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at taxpayer expense in 2014 to look into his role in the Bridgegate scandal. She was the second of five attorneys, all former federal prosecutors, listed on the report as key members of the investigative team.

The controversy involved efforts by the governors office to orchestrate a traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge to punish a mayor who wouldnt endorse the governors reelection bid.

For four days in September 2013, officials closed the access lanes to the bridge, sending Fort Lee, N.J. into gridlock.

Christie was never charged in the case. Two associates were convicted last year on conspiracy and wire fraud charges.

Yang, a friend of Christies who has vacationed with him, co-hosted a $2,700-a-person fundraiser for his presidential campaign while her firm was still working on the case.

The investigation concluded that Christie did not know of the lane realignment beforehand and had no involvement in the decision to realign the lanes.

Whatever is found is going to be subject to second guessing. The investigating entity is not truly independent of the university administration.  Michael Useem

A federal judge in Newark, presiding over the associates criminal case the following year, criticized the Gibson Dunn attorneys for engaging in opacity and gamesmanship by preserving no raw notes, transcripts or recordings of more than 70 interviews conducted as part of the $9.5 million probe, keeping only edited summaries. Noting that was not the firms typical practice, the judge wrote in an opinion that even though attorneys did not delete or shred documents, the process of overwriting their interview notes and drafts of the summaries had the same effect.

This was a clever tactic, but when public investigations are involved, straightforward lawyering is superior to calculated strategy, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton wrote.

When Yangs name was floated to head the SEC, N.J. state Sen. Loretta Weinberg wrote to senators urging them to block the potential appointment, lambasting Yang and her firm for the Bridgegate review that she wrote was marketed as an impartial investigation, but was revealed  to be more of a cover-up.

Yang said the criticism of the report was politically motivated and that she did not believe her personal friendship with Christie compromised me in any shape or form. She said her team of highly qualified attorneys conducted a thorough, quick investigation and reached the same conclusions that the state Senate and federal prosecutors also reached months later.

I put that to the side when I do my work. I call the balls and strikes as they appear, she said.

Nikias said Yang would present findings and recommendations to the executive committee of the USC board of trustees. He did not say whether the findings would be made public.

Andrew Perlman, dean of the law school at Bostons Suffolk University who served on the American Bar Associations Commission on Ethics, said Yangs past or ongoing representation of the school in a handful of cases did not in and of itself raise questions of conflict of interest.

If the school were going to her for all its outside legal work and directing millions of dollars in legal fees to her firm based on that relationship, or if she had personally represented individuals in the university administration, she might be seen as insufficiently independent, he said. Otherwise, the university retaining her for an internal review did not appear problematic, Perlman said.

Aaron Lewis, a partner at the firm Covington & Burling who was part of the team that conducted an investigation for Uber on sexual harassment and corporate culture within the ride-sharing company, said USC might have wanted to hire an attorney already familiar with the institution, rather than someone who would have to start from scratch. Lewis, a former federal prosecutor, said given Yangs reputation, he had no doubt she would be able to conduct an objective inquiry.

Richard Zitrin, who teaches legal ethics at UC Hastings, said the issue isnt whether Yang can write a fair report, but whether her prior representation of the university, particularly on litigation matters, calls into question her objectivity.

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Chanting blood and soil, white lives matter and you will not replace us, scores of white nationalists holding torches marched across the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday night.

Scuffles broke out between them and a small group of counter-protesters calling themselves anti-fascists who were surrounded as they demonstrated in advance of Saturdays Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which is expected to be one of the largest far-right gatherings in the U.S. in at least a decade.

Police soon cleared away the demonstrators, according to reporters at the scene.

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The fear we instill in them today only fuels our victory tomorrow, one rally supporter wrote on Twitter, in a message retweeted by Richard Spencer, one of the nations most prominent white nationalists, who is attending the weekends events in Virginia.

Spencer also tweeted a selfie, showing him smiling with the marchers tiki torches in the background.

I am safe. I am not fine, one of the counter-protesters, Emily Gorcenski, tweeted, saying that white nationalists had attacked her group. What I just witnessed was the end of America.

Massive brawl breaks out, tiki torches thrown as #UniteTheRight reaches Jefferson monument in #Charlottesville. Chemicals dispersed pic.twitter.com/NsepwZC0Te  Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) August 12, 2017

Pictures and video of the nighttime march spread rapidly across social media, where many black and left-leaning Americans expressed disgust at the imagery, which to them recalled torch-lit Ku Klux Klan rallies of yesteryear.

This is a disgrace, tweeted Martese Johnson, a black University of Virginia alumnus who gained notoriety in 2015 when he was bloodied by police as a student. I do not believe this is happening on my universitys campus. (The university is currently between its summer and fall semesters, when more students would be on campus.)

Charlottesvilles mayor expressed outrage at the gathering of white nationalists, who at one point stopped to pay tribute to a statue of Thomas Jefferson, a founding father who owned slaves.

When I think of candlelight, I want to think of prayer vigils, wrote Mayor Mike Signer in a Facebook post.

Today, in 2017, he continued, we are instead seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march in the hometown of the architect of our Bill of Rights.

Noting that everyone has a 1st Amendment right of assembly and free speech, he said, Heres mine: Not only as the Mayor of Charlottesville, but as a UVA faculty member and alumnus, I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus.

Now on the Lawn at UVA. Hallowed ground at the university. pic.twitter.com/iqrtUPrdTy  Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 12, 2017

Now gathering around statue of Thomas Jefferson. Chanting 'white lives matter!' pic.twitter.com/16cruXn5d8  Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 12, 2017

Now on the Lawn at UVA. Hallowed ground at the university. pic.twitter.com/iqrtUPrdTy  Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 12, 2017

For weeks, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other far-right figures have been preparing for Saturdays rally, occasionally running into obstacles as the home-rental company Airbnb banned far-right users for violating the companys anti-racism policies.

The city had also objected to the demonstrators hoped-for gathering spot  the formerly named Lee Park, where the city has ordered the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The city sought to block the rally at the park now called Emancipation Park.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties and human rights group based in Charlottesville, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city on behalf of the rally organizers. The suit said that the city was unconstitutionally infringing on the demonstrators 1st Amendment rights by directing them to go to a different park.

The city contended that its request wasnt prompted by the white nationalists political beliefs, but because the one-acre Emancipation Park would be too small for the number of demonstrators expected to arrive in the city on Saturday.

But Friday night, a judge sided with the white nationalists and ordered the city to allow them to gather in Emancipation Park, where local leaders promise to have hundreds of law enforcement officials monitoring events.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

@mattdpearce

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The violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday at the Unite the Right protest against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was irrefutably rooted in racism, and bore disgusting echoes of Nazism. For evidence, look no further than the Hitlerian blood and soil and Jews wont replace us chants during a pre-protest rally Friday night by a Tiki torch-bearing parade of overwhelmingly white men.

And to erase further doubt, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke watched the violence unfold Saturday and declared that the white supremacy movement  which is what he represents  was at a turning point. Added Duke, We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. Thats what we believed in. Thats why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said hes going to take our country back.

Some might quibble with that analysis, but they do so either as apologists for hatred, or as naifs. Because the violence in Charlottesville clearly was the product of the rise of racism as a political force in this country. And we can only hope that Charlottesville was the culmination of that rise and not, as Duke seems to hope, the first flames of a wildfire.

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So how did we get here? Its easy to blame the hatred and divisiveness that spilled out of the Trump campaign. But truth be told, he tapped into a current of American political and social beliefs that has been around for generations. The detestable views on display in Charlottesville reflect the worst of America  a nation that rose on the backs of slaves, that banned the Chinese from entering, that in some places restricted the sales of homes to white people. Yes, we as a nation are more than that. But we are also that.

Trump, to his detriment, has emboldened this rise. He missed a sterling opportunity to strike a different, more presidential, note Saturday with a milquetoast condemnation that failed to call out the racism that propelled Fridays march and Saturdays violence. We are a nation increasingly divided politically, economically and ethnically, divisions he has exploited and thus helped exacerbate. The weekends skirmishes and utterances ring of 1930s Berlin  though the nation is far from descending into fascism  and the 1950s desegregation battles across the South. They also mark a failure of political discourse and the political system, which is supposed to mediate our political differences, not accentuate them.

That young angry white men would march with torches and chant Nazi slogans is chilling, jarring and indefensible. Some have sought to equate that display with the leftist protesters who engaged in running street brawls with the white nationalists, but that is to grossly confuse messages, and motives. When the nationalists took to the streets, they did so as an act of hatred and of history. They should not have been confronted with violence  peaceful expressions of repugnant views must be tolerated lest we became a nation of mobs and thugs. But those who give vent to the darkest corners of the human heart are uniquely vile.

We as a nation are at a dangerous place in our politics. With institutions questioned, delegitimized and, in the case of the federal government, eroded from within, we must recognize that the strength of a democratic society rests in its ability to forge common ground, to have common faith in each other and to isolate those who would seek to shred the national fabric. Given the gaspingly inadequate response by Trump, we must look elsewhere for leadership that can help navigate such rocky waters.

But most of all, we must look within.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer was shot to death Feb. 20 while assisting at the scene of a traffic accident. The following day, the Board of Supervisors called for L.A. County officials to report back within 30 days on the suspects previous contacts with the criminal justice system. Accompanying statements by the motions co-authors, Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Janice Hahn, provided the subtext: Tell us whether criminal justice reform laws adopted by the Legislature and by voters led to this killing. A second subtext was better hidden but even more urgent: Please tell us this wasnt a county screw-up.

The situation was in at least some ways reminiscent of the horrid 2012 murder of four people in Northridge by Ka Pasasouk, a man with a long record of violence and instability. At the time, county supervisors had been railing against criminal justice realignment, an initiative by state government that gave them responsibility for some convicted criminals who previously were handled by the state. The change, county leaders warned, would bring disaster. Just after the killings, one supervisor thundered from the dais, We told you so!

But with a few weeks of time and investigation it turned out that, no, neither realignment nor other changes to law were to blame. Instead, in an earlier case against Pasasouk, a deputy district attorney had mistakenly told the judge that the defendant was eligible for drug treatment instead of prison despite his record. It was a lawyers failure to know the law  a basic screw-up by a county worker  that left Pasasouk free and able to kill.

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The countys customary but unwarranted (and possibly unlawful) secrecy over a matter of such obvious public importance is the backdrop.

Five years later, many law enforcement leaders and some county officials continue to argue that realignment and now Proposition 47, which changed drug possession and some property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, are to blame for an uptick in crime in Los Angeles and some other parts of the state. At present there is a stark lack of evidence to support or refute their assertions, but critics of the new laws raised the issue anew when Boyer was slain.

So Barger and Hahns motion was welcome. What happened and why? Who screwed up? Lawmakers? Voters? A deputy district attorney? A probation officer? A judge? One might argue that the killing was so shocking and the questions so straightforward that county officials ought to have demanded answers within a week instead of 30 days, but if a full month was necessary, so be it.

But 30 days came and went with no report, no board vote to extend the deadline, no public discussion of the status. Then 60 days passed, 90 days, nearly six months  not a peep.

Meanwhile, various officials associated with the county began dropping hints that particular practices or policies had been changed, and previous concerns dropped and new ones raised, in response to confidential findings in the wake of the Boyer killing. So there was a report after all  withheld from the public and shielded from any kind of scrutiny that would allow outsiders to gauge whether the secret changes in practice were meant to correct some county screw-up, or that would support or refute arguments regarding the role of realignment and Proposition 47. The county didnt even officially acknowledge the reports existence until last week. Whats in the report, when was it filed, and why are the answers to basic questions about information in the public realm  the suspects criminal history, and any risk inherent in county procedures  so sensitive?

The countys customary but unwarranted (and possibly unlawful) secrecy over a matter of such obvious public importance is the backdrop against which one ought to measure a new motion to be presented by Barger and Hahn on Tuesday. The two supervisors are calling for the creation of a blue-ribbon commission on public safety, with a mind-boggling 21 members and a staff made up of the very same hodge-podge of county law enforcement and criminal justice agency representatives who already have such difficulty getting a handle on the system they are supposed to be collectively operating.

On numerous occasions, California voters have given law enforcement agencies and county officials a set of marching orders and priorities on criminal justice. Los Angeles County has implemented them spottily. A Rand report this year politely detailed the countys utter incapacity to identify even the most basic expenses and cost savings associated with realignment and Proposition 47, so it is difficult to believe a blue-ribbon commission can get to the bottom of  well, what exactly? The motion doesnt make the goal clear.

If its to determine whether there are flaws in state criminal justice law and that those flaws, rather than county screw-ups, are jeopardizing our safety, and if the commission somehow is able to do a level of analysis that so far has eluded the county, then by all means it should proceed. We should never be afraid to find out the truth. As long as its the whole truth. And nothing but the truth.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Local governments in California have spent $24.3 million so far this year to lobby state lawmakers. Thats more than any other sector spent trying to directly influence Sacramento.

By comparison, oil and gas companies shelled out less than $17 million  even though the Legislature was working on a cap-and-trade bill of enormous importance to the industry. Another interest group famously busy in Sacramento, labor unions, spent only $6.8 million, The Times John Myers reported.

Those figures are a bit misleading, however, because energy companies, labor unions and other private-sector players have another, potentially more effective way to get their message across: campaign donations. Appropriately, state law bars local governments from spending public money on donations to political campaigns. That leaves lobbying as local governments main weapon to push back against legislation that affects themselves and their constituents.

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Local governments dont always play defense. Sometimes they push the state for something that would benefit their community.

And theres no shortage of things to push back on. State lawmakers hold tremendous budgetary and policy-making power over school districts, cities, counties and other local agencies, thanks in large part to Proposition 13s restrictions on property taxes. Counties are particularly dependent on the budget decisions made by the state Legislature, as they are responsible for implementing many state-funded programs. Thousands of bills are filed every year, many of them with direct or indirect impacts on local communities. Who has time to run a city and keep an eye on Sacramento?

Consider just a few bills pending in the Legislature that would have profound impact on local government.

SCA 12 by state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) seeks to increase the size of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from five to seven members.

AB 1250, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and authored by Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), would set rules for when counties could hire private service providers, limiting the supervisors ability to make their own decisions about when to use contractors instead of county employees. (City governments were included in an earlier version of the bill but removed after lobbying by cities.)

SB 649 pits cities and counties against AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies that have donated many millions of dollars to legislators campaigns in recent years. The companies are rolling out new equipment for the next generation of mobile phone service and want a state law giving them the right to use the utility and street light poles owned by local government for a set fee. The bill has been advancing over the vociferous objections of cities and counties.

Local governments dont always play defense. Sometimes they push the state for something that would benefit their community; for example, when Los Angeles was bidding to host the Summer Olympic Games, it lobbied successfully for help paying any cost overruns it might incur. Cities were also active in lobbying for SB 1, the package of gas tax and vehicle fees passed earlier this year that will raise $5.2 billion annually for roads and other transportation projects.

Cities, counties and other local governments and their elected leaders arent necessarily more immune to special interests than their state counterparts. But they are, by design, closer to the needs and concerns of constituents  and likely to hear about it if they dont serve the publics interest first.

In a perfect world, local elected officials wouldnt need to shell out public money to keep track of all the proposals coming out of Sacramento, or to advise state lawmakers on how best to represent the constituents they share. But with a state as vast as California and a political system that relies so heavily on funding from special interests, this is a necessary check.

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Dont be too quick to dismiss the Twitter war launched by Breitbarts John Carney over the cover of Vogues September issue, which features Jennifer Lawrence in a red satin slip dress with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The Opposition Media [is] attacking us! wailed Carney  apparently finding any reference to the Statue of Liberty to be an anti-Breitbartian, anti-alt-right (and hence pro-immigration ) political statement.

Predictably, Carneys complaints were met with derision, He was reading too much into the photo; getting triggered by the Statue of Liberty. Its a magazine cover! chided GQs Jay Willis (translation: Its trivial fluff!). Zara Rahim of Vogue explained that the cover had been shot in June, before the Stephen Miller/Jim Acosta/Emma Lazarus kerfuffle over the meaning of Lady Liberty. In other words, it could not possibly be considered a participant in the current debate.

But Willis, Rahim and the rest who dismissed Carneys point are mistaken.

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The imagery in fashion and womens magazines communicates and creates powerful cultural and political messages, and the intention of the Vogue editors is beside the point. The Lawrence cover appears now, in the aftermath of the Acosta/Miller dustup; it cant avoid that context.

Annie Leibovitzs photo glamorizes the subject of immigration, juxtaposing it with celebrity and fashion. Remember when George W. Bush told us to go shopping after Sept. 11? There is something of that here too, echoes of using glittering commerce to assuage or soften issues of national unrest, fear about foreign invaders, etc.

So while Breitbarts philosophy is repellent, Carney is not wrong to feel the power of this image, in which the huddled masses of Ellis Island are subtly evoked, then prettified and homogenized by Lawrence.

That said, Carney missed another aspect of the message (one that might have pleased him could he interpret it): Vogue featured a blue-eyed, blond, thin white woman with the Statue of Liberty and the cover line American Beauty. This is not a wildly leftist endorsement of open immigration. Its the opposite: a throwback to a view of female perfection as it has been defined for centuries, absent any overt ethnicity other than pretty/white. Such a vision of beauty is entirely in keeping with an alt-right, Breitbart-style point of view.

What Carney gets right, and his enemies get wrong, is that images like this one have meanings that exceed the intention of their creators. The alt-right pushes buttons. Those who want to push back need to admit that the messages found in fashion magazines contain far more meaning than simply pretty dress for sale.

Rhonda Garelick is the author of Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History. She is a professor of performing arts and English at the University of Nebraska.

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When the president this week warned North Korea to stop making nuclear threats, declaring it would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen, dozens of Times readers offered choice words of their own.

A dismayed majority slammed Trumps heated rhetoric, calling it unhelpful or another distraction. Most strongly urged diplomacy, while a few backed the tough talk approach.

Here is a sampling of the responses.

David N. Hartman in Santa Ana asks:

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Doesnt our president realize that when he threatens any nation with such apocalyptic language that the scene he envisions could end up here in America as well? Instead of bragging to the world, has Trump ever considered that he has the ability to sit down with any national leader and negotiate peace treaties that endure?

Comments David Woody in Bishop:

A possible goal of Trumps outrageous rhetoric is to goad North Korea to fire the first shot, which Trump would use to justify an overwhelming response. This would result in a war that would destroy North Korea and much of South Korea with little risk to the U.S. mainland.

Richard Merel of Hermosa Beach offers:

Every psychiatrist-in-training learns, very early, that in dealing with an agitated, frightened, threatening and potentially dangerous patient, one should speak firmly and calmly. Since fear and anger are both contagious, its important to make it clear who is the calm, adult person in the room. President Trump is not a psychiatrist, and there is no training program for the presidency. But someone should help him understand that our tense relationship with frightened and angry bullies in North Korea will not be improved by behaving as if this is a playground feud.

Says Phil Kirk in Encinitas:

When I read the headline of threats of fire and fury like the world has never seen, I thought immediately that it was a statement from the irrational Kim Jong Un. No, it was from the unstable and bombastic person we laughingly call the president of the United States. Although, its not much of a laughing matter anymore.

Robert S. Henry in San Gabriel disagrees:

Quite candidly, as a Trump hater, the one thing Trump has done with which I wholeheartedly agree is his threat to North Korea. Kim Jong Un is a madman and Trumps statement sends a message to those top military men around him that it is time for him to go, otherwise their whole regime will be toppled.

Chet Chebegia in San Marcos seconds that:

Well, Im a Democrat, voted against Trump, but I think he is right to stand up to this two-bit punk in North Korea. Sometimes the only thing an enemy understands is power.

Dan Linn La Jolla thinks its a Trump tactic:

The bombastic and inflaming rhetoric emanating from the president are, to my mind, consistent with his ever-present M.O. when facing a difficult situation. Bingo, its time for a distraction, in this case a major one. Congress and the people need to step up and make it very clear that diplomacy is the only allowable route for this (or any) administration to follow.

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May you die in pain: California GOP congressman gets an earful at town hall

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) kicks off his Monday morning town hall in Chico. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times)

May you die in pain.

That was the nastiest moment of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfas early morning town hall in the Northern California town of Chico on Monday.

The wish was uttered by an older man who criticized LaMalfa for voting for the House GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. He was also holding a pink sign that read Lackey for the Rich!

ALSO: LaMalfa says the Russia investigation is a bunch of crap

The open hostility and intransigence inside the Chico Elks Lodge came as the political divide in the country has grown more inflamed, with Trumps election unleashing a wave of both liberal activism and conservative empowerment.

As a result, Washingtons deeply partisan fights over issues such as health care, immigration and environmental protections have followed members of Congress home, turning once sedate town halls into in-your-face venting sessions that in left-leaning California have Republican House members on the defensive.

LaMalfa stood his ground on stage as person after person ripped into him for his votes and positions on healthcare and climate change, as well as for his unyielding support for President Trump.

A few speakers asked LaMalfa to resign, including one dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West Coast.

Heather Calun dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West Coast in protest. She wants LaMalfa to resign over his vote to repeal Obamacare. pic.twitter.com/rBZXAnjd2l  Phil Willon (@philwillon) August 7, 2017

Most comments and questions during the hour-long town hall were fairly cordial, although they were laced with plenty of boos and catcalls.

Norma Wilcox, a retired nurse who lives in Chico, also questioned LaMalfas healthcare vote. Wilcox told LaMalfa the House plan would take away healthcare for millions of Americans while providing tax breaks to the rich.

I am open to new ideas, LaMalfa told her, describing the House GOP bill as a placeholder that everyone expected to be improved during negotiations with the Senate. (The Senates healthcare efforts now appear dead.)

But the Richvale congressman, who represents Californias massive 1st Congressional District in the northeast corner of the state, said he will support only a new healthcare program that provides affordable coverage to middle-class Americans.

LaMalfa said Obamacare is quickly become unaffordable and unsustainable, with premium costs rising and the number of insurance companies offering coverage declining.

People across the board are being hurt by this, LaMalfa said.

When shouts and boos rained down on him, he chastised the crowd saying, I have the mic folks. Yep, boo away.

Ann Sisney of Chico told LaMalfa that her son, William, died of an opioid overdose two years ago. She held up a picture of the 19-year-old, asked the congressman to take it, and told him more people will die if GOP leadership in Congress gets its way on healthcare.

These are life-and-death decisions that you are making, Sisney told him.

LaMalfa assured her that Congress was working to find funds to address the nationwide opioid epidemic.

The Republican congressman also raised the ire of the crowd when he was asked about climate change and the degraded air quality in this stretch of Northern California.

I dont buy the idea that man-made activity is responsible, LaMalfa said bluntly.

The crowd of several hundred did include some LaMalfa supporters, though most stayed silent.

Ron Jones, 67, of Paradise said hes been to a few of LaMalfas town halls and all have been dominated by his critics.

Most of the time people want to ... complain, said Jones, a self-described conservative, after the event ended. The people who support him are quietly in the background.

LaMalfa does indeed have a lot of support in the district that also overwhelmingly voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton in last years presidential election. LaMalfa won his last election by almost 15%, and though he has attracted a few Democratic challengers, the district is not considered a battleground for 2018.

Unlike many California Republican members of Congress, LaMalfa hasnt shied away from holding town halls, though its rarely a pleasant experience for him. He held one in Nevada City in March and another in April in Oroville. No other California Republicans are scheduled to hold town halls during their August recess.

Near the end of Mondays town hall, a woman criticized LaMalfa for inviting only Christian pastors to provide invocations at his town halls and other events, and urged him to include religious leaders of all faiths.

If you want to have your own town hall, you can invite whoever you like, LaMalfa told her.
TrumptardA supporter of Donald Trump. Someone so ****ing stupid that they ignore obvious hypocrisy and flat-out lies; they are closet racists, and are happy that there is finally a presidential candidate who publicly expresses their ignorant hatred.Also referred to as four-toothed cousin-****ers.Every time a Trumptard opens his/her mouth, you see why they support him: they're too stupid to actually realize how stupid they are.NRA TV host openly roots for North Korea to nuke California instead of GuamGrant Stinchfield, a host for the National Rifle Associations online TV network, would be happy if North Korea dropped a bomb on the capital of California.Media Matters notes that Stinchfield wrote on Twitter that the United States government should send a note to North Korea telling them that Sacramento changed its name to Guam. Stinchfield references Guam in his tweet because North Korea has threatened to launch missiles at the U.S. territory in the event of an American attack on its military.Let's send a note to North Korea that Sacramento changed its name to Guam! Grant Stinchfield (@stinchfield1776) August 11, 2017Less than two months ago, Stinchfield spoke out against left wingers who use inflammatory rhetoric that could inspire unstable individuals to commit acts of violence.The irony of Stinchfield, who lives in Dallas, urging a foreign power to attack a major American city was not lost on his Twitter followers, who hammered him in subsequent replies.
How many false statements did Trump make in his interview with the Wall Street Journal? We count at least five

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

The Wall Street Journal didnt release the full transcript of the interview its reporters and editors had last week with President Trump, but when Politico obtained a copy and published it, the interview quickly drew attention for several false statements Trump made.

The one that immediately gained notoriety was Trumps claim that after his speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree last week, I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them.

On Wednesday, the Boy Scouts of America released a statement saying we are unaware of any such call. The Scouts specifically said that neither the organizations president, AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson, nor its chief executive, Mike Surbaugh, had made such a call.

In fact, Surbaugh last week issued an unprecedented apology for a presidential speech  Scouts have heard from presidents back to Franklin D. Roosevelt  saying he was sorry that some members of the scouting community had been offended by Trumps partisanship, language and tone.

In the daily White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that other Boy Scout leaders, whom she did not name, had complimented Trump after his speech.

That wasnt the only call to come into question recently. A few days after the Journal interview, Trump said that Mexicos president, Enrique Pena Nieto, had paid him the ultimate compliment by calling and telling him that their southern border, very few people are coming because they know theyre not going to get through our border.

The Mexican government press office issued a statement Wednesday denying that.

Pena Nieto has not had recent telephone communication with President Donald Trump, the statement said.

Sanders said that Pena Nieto did compliment Trump, but in a personal conversation, not a telephone call.

I wouldnt say it was a lie, she said of Trumps statements.

Other false statements involved broader factual matters.

Were the highest-taxed nation in the world, Trump said  a statement that he has repeatedly made and which has repeatedly been debunked. Whether measured by the top tax rate or the overall percentage of national income which is taxed, the U.S. has lower taxes than most of its chief economic competitors.

Trump may have been thinking about the U.S. corporate tax rate, which is higher than most developed countries, although not the highest. Yet few companies actually pay that top rate given various tax deductions, credits and exemptions.

Trump also said I honestly believe for six months, I have done more than just about any other president when you look at all of the bills that were passed, 42, 43.

Thats untrue. Many of Trumps predecessors had signed more legislation, and nearly all recent ones had signed more significant measures by this point in their tenures.

Jimmy Carter had signed 70 bills into law by this point, Bill Clinton 50. Franklin D. Roosevelt had 76 in just his first 100 days.

About one-third of the bills Trump has signed have been ceremonial measures, such as renaming courthouses.

Referring to his top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, Trump said Gary wrote a check for $200 million when he entered the government. He had to pay $200 million in tax.

Trump has said that before, including in a speech in June. Its false.

Cohn owned about $220 million in Goldman Sachs stock when he resigned as the banks president to become the head of Trumps National Economic Council. He sold the stock to minimize conflicts of interest, as most appointees do. But he certainly didnt have to pay $200 million in tax on that sale.

In fact, its likely Cohn hasnt paid any tax so far. He may never have to.

Federal law allows appointees to government positions to defer any tax they owe on assets that they sell to avoid conflicts. The law requires that they put the proceeds of the sale into neutral investments such as Treasury securities. If his securities go up in value, Cohn might have to pay tax on that gain. The top tax rate on capital gains is 20%.

Trump also repeated a false claim about his defeated rival from the election, Hillary Clinton.

Real crimes are what Hillary did with 33,000 emails, where she deleted them and bleached them after getting a subpoena.

Trump made that claim more than once during the campaign, and more recently on Twitter.

He is correct that Clinton deleted 33,000 emails from the private server she used for her messages while she was secretary of State. She says that all of those deleted emails were personal and that she had no obligation to keep them. No one has come up with evidence to the contrary.

The evidence from the FBIs investigation of the emails shows that in December 2014, after she turned over about 30,000 work-related emails to the State Department, Clintons aides told the company that managed the server to delete the rest of the emails. The emails were subpoenaed about three months later, on March 4.

The company didnt actually do the deletion until later in March, but theres been no evidence that Clinton knew about the delay at the time or that the company knew the messages were under subpoena.

In any case, the FBI declined to recommend prosecution, contrary to Trumps assertion that Clinton committed real crimes.

A poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University asked Americans if they believe Trump is honest. By 62% to 34%, a majority said no.

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Collectors, by definition, understand and appreciate widely and deeply.

Collections on display at this years Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa include dragons, Gremlins memorabilia, slips of wisdom from fortune cookies, restored vintage radios, concert ticket stubs and more, representing individual passions and life experiences.

Here are a few of the assortments housed in those glass cases, on display through Sunday:

Skipper dolls

Lori Breen became reacquainted with Skipper, Barbies little sister, about four years ago.

A lifelong doll collector, but not necessarily of Skipper or anyone else in the Barbie universe, she was at a doll show in Buena Park when she came across a red-haired 1964 issue of the little fashion doll. It was like the one Breen, 59, had as a child, only in much better shape.

The price was right, so Breen, of Fullerton, brought Skipper into her doll collection, which includes child-size Annette Himstedt dolls from Germany, high-end ball-jointed dolls and 1950s-era Alexander-kins dolls with walking mechanisms.

Breens Skippers are highly curated: only first-year dolls with first-year outfits. Ten of the 12 are there, per the fairs maximum display size rules.

The two others stayed home, and just as well, as she would have missed them. And no doll should be alone.

Skipper, with her Mona Lisa smile and fringy bangs, was sold in three basic hair colors, so Breens redhead was joined by a brunette, then a blonde. They needed period-appropriate clothes, so Breen started acquiring the outfits and tiny accessories issued in Skippers debut year  all 12 of them, and a model for each.

The outfits include a red velveteen swing coat with matching pillbox hat, a ballet recital costume with a pink tulle tutu and pink satin bag to carry her white pointe shoes with functional lacing, and a schoolgirl outfit with a pink knitted cardigan and a scaled-model bowl of yarn rubber-banded to her hand.

Skipper is detail-oriented.

Breen, who is an assistant teacher for deaf children with the Orange County Department of Education, joined a Facebook group for Skipper enthusiasts to catch up. The factory errors, variations and limited editions enliven her quest.

I had no idea it was so involved, she said. In the last four years Ive gotten quite the education.

The jewels in her collection are three 1963 test-market or sample Skippers, distributed mostly to Mattel employees in limited quantities, and slightly different from the mass-produced model, with a wider stance, thicker legs and coarser hair.

Breen is what is known in the toy-collecting world as a deboxer (its what it sounds like).

Im not one to really keep them in boxes, because theyre there to enjoy, she said.

McDonalds apple pie sleeves

It didnt win the most unusual ribbon, but talk about specific.

People collect McDonalds memorabilia. They collect food packaging and ephemera. But Mark Staubach of Brea said he might be the only one who collects the cardboard sleeves for McDonalds fried apple pies  the fried part is important  and specifically, from foreign markets.

Im so into my pie collection, he said.

The turnover-style hot apple pies take him back to his childhood, when he and his grandfather would go to McDonalds for a treat. He would get a coffee and I would get an apple pie.

Staubach, 34, lost interest in the pies after McDonalds started baking them in 1992. Without the crispy outside and molten inside, it wasnt the same.

But the baked pie was an American thing. International markets still fry.

In 2011, while on vacation in Japan, Staubach walked into a Tokyo McDonalds and saw people eating proper apple pies  fried ones.

The deep-fried angels sang, and a greasy cloud parted.

He kept the sleeve. It looked unique, with its hiragana text.

Staubach travels often for leisure and for work as a music video director. Knowing that most countries and their major airports have a McDonalds, he makes it a point to pick one up from each nation he visits.

His full 19-sleeve collection also includes specimens from Austria (heie apfeltasche), England, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (in Arabic script) and Australia. Most are in Granny Smith green.

His sleeves are mostly unused, pristine and smooth  he asks the employees for an extra, which they find a little odd, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

As it turns out, for the truly committed, McDonalds still sells fried pies at a few U.S. locations  in Hawaii, and at the oldest operating location in Downey. A culinary adventurer also can find non-apple flavors in international markets: red bean or pineapple in China; banana (no cream, just banana) in Malaysia; taro in Hawaii.

I really want a taro pie sleeve, Staubach said. I gotta get back to Hawaii.

Beer steins

Don Smith has 350 beer steins.

Thats a relatively small number, hell say.

Modest or not, they do well in the OC Fair.

Smith has entered steins in the collections competition several times over the years, in categories such as household and glassware. This year, he went for the fantasy and science fiction class, where his antique steins depicting scenes from fantasy and folk tales won four ribbons.

Each stein is a piece of art, said Smith, 76, of Laguna Beach. Most people look at them as something to drink a beer out of.

Smith was a young Army officer in 1961 when he got his first authentic, though inexpensive, stein as a souvenir. Many collectors got their starts that way, he said.

He is drawn to the workmanship, the colors, the symbols, the history. One of his steins was a trophy from a fencing competition in the late 19th century. Others have personalized inscriptions.

Steins spread out in four rooms around his beach cottage and in his office at the Newport Beach property management firm he owns.

There are more sub-types of steins than there are trees in the Black Forest. Smith listed a few: regimental steins, personalized for soldiers after they left the service; smaller childrens and ladies steins; whimsical, delicate character steins. They can be made of clay or porcelain or pewter or hand-painted glass. They can be collected by era or by artist or style, like art nouveau. Novelty steins can be the size of a thimble or the size of a man. Smiths are in the 8- to 18-inch range.

Stein design is a lost art, Smith said. There are many surfaces for creative, intricate details, not just on the curved sides but the handles, lids and thumb lifts.

Theyre amazing little animals to get involved with, he said.

Smiths collecting isnt limited to steins, and he has submitted several diverse collections to the fair over the years. He also enjoys German beer coasters, brass hose nozzles, matchbooks, pins, miniature books inherited from his grandmother, marbles, glass insulators from telephone poles, and rocks and masks from around the world.

Oh yes, he said. Im one of those people.

His girlfriend understands. Shes a collector, too, of antique baby dishes, of Depression glass candlesticks and of phosphorescent green uranium or Vaseline glass. And: Vaseline glass steins.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
Glendale Community College will host a viewing of the upcoming solar eclipse called the Great American Eclipse on Aug. 21.

A live video feed from NASA will be shown from 9 a.m. to noon in the colleges planetarium and in the lecture hall in room CS 177.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide NASA eclipse glasses for the viewing. Volunteers and college astronomy professors will also be on hand to answer questions about the eclipse, space and the colleges space program.

The event also includes activities such as creating a pinhole camera to safely watch the eclipse. Materials will be provided.

For more information, contact Barbara Falkowski at bfalkows@glendale.edu.

priscella.vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella
A $50,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information about the person responsible for the death of a La Crescenta woman whose body was found in the Big Tujunga Wash two years ago.

Last Friday, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 to adopt the reward in the hopes that someone will come forward with information that will lead to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for the death of Julia Moniz. The decomposing body of the 34-year-old mother of two was discovered near a homeless encampment in the wash on Oct. 17, 2015, nearly two weeks after she was last seen by her family.

The Los Angeles County medical examiners office found that Moniz had methamphetamine in her system at the time of her death, but it could not conclusively determine how she had died. Her autopsy report listed other unascertained factors in addition to meth as the cause of her death.

Prior to the vote, Monizs sister addressed the council and thanked Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez for introducing the motion. Sarah Moniz said the reward will help bring justice for her sister and get dangerous people out of our communities.

We had to wait almost two years to get validation for the value of my sisters life, she said. And were happy to see that this is finally happening.

The reward is being offered by the city for at least six months. Anyone with information about Monizs death can contact the Los Angeles Police Departments Valley Bureau detectives at (818) 374-9550.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
After the Americana at Brand rejected billboard space for a film about genocide, state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) has joined a local Armenian group in asking mall officials to reverse their decision.

Last week, the Glendale chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America requested that the Americana reconsider its denial of billboard space for Architects of Denial, a documentary that examines genocides, including the Armenian Genocide, through survivor accounts.

In a statement on Thursday, Portantino said he supported the committees request.

I thought to myself that Hollywood has long-celebrated thought-provoking and hard-edged filmmaking that stimulates conversations about historical events, Portantino said. It seems like labeling art as too political was an odd reason to deny the appropriate free expression of a historical documentary.

Portantino added that he hopes his letter will highlight Californias leadership in genocide recognition and its importance to Armenian Americans.

The example set by the State of California should be an inspiration for our corporate partners to follow, he said.

Jackie Levy  executive vice president of operations for Caruso, which owns and operates the Americana  invited the films producers to discuss further the proposed film advertisement.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda
At least 24 people have been shot by police in violence during Kenyas disputed election, including many killed in protests in opposition strongholds after President Uhuru Kenyattas victory late Friday, according to Kenyan human rights observers.

The Kenya Red Cross Society said it picked up 93 people injured by the violence. MSF Kenya, which has its own ambulances and involves figures not counted by the Red Cross, reported 54 people were treated at its clinics, raising the toll to at least 150 wounded.

Police on Saturday fired live bullets and tear gas on protesters in volatile areas of Nairobi and other parts of the country, provoking anger from opposition supporters and condemnation from human rights activists.

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Kenya faced its third successive disputed election after the opposition National Super Alliance claimed its candidate, Raila Odinga, won but Kenyatta, the incumbent, had colluded with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to steal the election.

Kenya has a vibrant capital, a burgeoning tech sector and robust middle class, but it also faces frequent terrorist attacks, is embroiled in war against the Al Qaeda-allied Al Shabab in neighboring Somalia and loses about $6 billion a year to corruption, almost a third of its gross domestic product.

Every five years during bitterly contested elections, voters divide largely along ethnic lines over who will gain power, which is often used to hand out jobs and patronage to ethnic allies. In 2007 election violence flared across Kenya, leaving an estimated 1,500 dead, as rival ethnic groups dragged people from their houses and killed them over a disputed result.

Kenyas massive deployment of riot police in opposition strongholds appears designed to prevent the nation from sliding into a similar conflict. But rights observers said police have used excessive force to quell demonstrations. The Kenyan National Human Rights Commission said 17 of the 24 killed since the Aug. 8 election died in the capital, Nairobi.

In the opposition heartland, loyal supporters look to the party leaders to determine their response to the result. Although the party has called for calm and urged supporters not to put their lives in danger, leaders have also made reference to Kenyans rising up to defend democracy.

The dead include at least eight men killed by gunshots from Nairobis Mathare slum after Friday nights election result. They were taken to the city morgue, an official told The Times.

Witnesses reported seeing police fire live ammunition and said they recovered spent rifle cartridges in Mathare and Kibera. They said they saw police in those areas drag people from their houses and beat them. One witness reported seeing police shoot a man protesting in Kibera.

Reuters reported a small girl was killed in Mathare as police fired shots. Dozens more were wounded, including children. Some cases of looting were reported.

At a news conference, NASA said at least 100 Kenyans had been shot by police and produced handfuls of bullets used against protesters.

These are the bullets that the government is using to kill innocent Kenyans, said Johnstone Muthama at a news conference Saturday. Over 100 innocent people have been killed. Police have put them in body bags and disposed of them. We will not be calm. We will not relent.

Their claims did not match those of witnesses or rights groups and they produced no evidence of where and when the deaths occurred. NASA leaders continue to rule out court action, the legal avenue for election disputes in Kenya.

A convoy of opposition leaders and lawmakers tried to visit the Kibera slum where protests were unfolding Saturday but were denied access by police.

In preliminary reports, independent international observers have found no systematic efforts to manipulate the election voting. The IEBC said there had been an attempt to hack its computer system, which failed.

A local observer group, Elections Observation Group, reported Saturday it had observed results at 1,692 of the more than 40,000 polling stations and found its result reflected the official IEBC tally but said it was premature to call the election free and fair.

Kenyan acting Interior Minister Fred Matiangi denied that police fired live bullets and said there were no real protests, just criminals.

There are no demonstrations. They are looters, and looters are criminals who ought to be arrested, he said.

But Kenya National Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Kagwiria Mbogori rejected his claim and said the use of live ammunition was totally unacceptable. She called on police to stop using live ammunition against civilians.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also reported police using bullets and called for restraint.

The police should not use tear gas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful, said Otsieno Namwaya of Human Rights Watch.

Kenya has a history of political violence and forced disappearances, torture and executions by security forces. In the first 10 months of last year, 122 people were killed by security forces, Amnesty International said. It also used lethal force to disperse demonstrations last year.

Bernard Owino, 34, a barber and opposition supporter living in Kibera, said he saw police shoot a man and hit and kick a woman. He said two other people were shot and injured by police who entered their houses. He fled when the shooting started but later picked up four spent bullets. He said the protesters were not armed.

You cant face live bullets with an empty hand, he said. I dont like it at all. I dont know why the government is bringing so many police to Kibera. They have just come and they are provoking people.

Constantine Lunyama of Kibera said she was about 200 yards away when police started shooting live ammunition.

It came from the police side. We have seen some guys taken to the mortuary and some guys rushed to hospital, he said.

Christopher Angwenyi, a peace activist in the Mathare slum district, said he saw three bodies with gunshot wounds Saturday, including two women. He saw a dozen people in a clinic who told him they had been hit on the head by police.

I can confirm the police were shooting live bullets, he said. Its very painful, knowing that our constitution guarantees peaceful demonstrations. Its very painful to see the shooting by police.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Twitter: @RobynDixon_LAT
Parents of at least 35 children who have died in a hospital in northern India over the past three days have alleged that the deaths were caused by the lack of oxygen supply in the childrens ward.

District Magistrate Rajiv Rautela said Saturday that the deaths of the children being treated for different ailments at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur city in Uttar Pradesh state were from natural causes. He denied that the lack of oxygen led to their deaths.

Parents said oxygen supply to the ward ran out Thursday night, and patients families were given self-inflating bags to help the children breathe.

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Thats the time when the death of the children peaked, said Mritunjaya Singh, whose 7-month-old son was admitted to the hospital and was not among the dead.

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an investigation.

Prashant Trivedi, the states top health official, admitted that there was a problem in the pipeline supplying oxygen.

But the situation was managed through oxygen cylinders. The hospital administration has enough supply of cylinders in its stock. So the report about death of children because of oxygen issue is false, Trivedi said.

We saw our baby struggling to breathe, and we couldnt do anything.  Parmatma Gautam, whose 1-month-old nephew died

The parents said the company that supplies oxygen to the hospital had threatened to stop oxygen distribution unless the government paid their long overdue bills.

Rautela said that the hospital owed 6.8 million rupees ($106,000) to the company, but added that it had an adequate supply of oxygen cylinders.

Parmatma Gautam, whose 1-month-old nephew, Roshan, died when the oxygen supply stopped, said the hospital authorities and the district administration were trying to cover up their failure to pay the bills on time.

We saw our baby struggling to breathe, and we couldnt do anything, Gautam said as tears flowed down his weather-beaten cheek.

The family had rushed the newborn to the hospital from neighboring Siddharthnagar district on Aug. 9 because he had a high fever.

We are now going back with his body, Gautam sobbed.

The federal health ministry sent a team of specialists to the hospital Saturday to verify what caused the deaths at the facility, which provides healthcare to a vast swath of Uttar Pradesh and neighboring Bihar state.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders took to social media to blame Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state, for its neglect and indifference to peoples health.

Opposition Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi tweeted: Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP govt. is responsible & should punish the negligent who caused this tragedy.

Some of the children had been treated for encephalitis, a disease that preys on the young and malnourished and is rampant in the state during the monsoon season, which runs from June till September.

The hospital, which has become a major center for children with encephalitis, has treated nearly 370 cases in the last two months. Of these, 129 children died, said Satish Chandra, a hospital spokesman.

Health activists said successive governments had ignored the threat posed by encephalitis as it was a disease that affected poor, malnourished children.

Encephalitis has a mortality rate as high as 30%. The government needs to tackle it with a rigorous campaign, said R.N. Singh, a medical doctor who has been leading the fight against the disease in Gorakhpur district. Commonly, this disease affects the voiceless poor, so it has not got the attention it warrants, Singh said.

Gorakhpur is 185 miles southeast of the state capital, Lucknow.

ALSO

A Bollywood star made a feature film about a toilet. Why thats a serious issue in India

After a politician in India questioned why a victim of stalking was out late, women across India responded

The sorry state of a multimillion-dollar art collection reveals deeper troubles at Indias national airline

UPDATES:

5:40 a.m.: This article was updated with quotes from a grieving relative and an opposition leader.

12:20 a.m. Aug. 12: This article was updated with details and quotes.

This article was originally published at 11:50 p.m. Aug. 11.
Doctors Without Borders said Saturday that it is temporarily suspending the activity of its rescue ship due to alleged threats from Libyas coast guard, which has become more aggressive in patrolling the coasts where human traffickers launch boats crowded with migrants desperate to reach Europe.

The humanitarian group said the rescue coordination center operated by Italys coast guard had informed it Friday that the Libyan threats pose a security risk. The group added that Libyan authorities declared their own rescue area, extending into international waters, the same day.

Doctors Without Borders says its medical crew will keep working from a ship operated by another aid group while its vessel, Prudence, is not involved in migrant rescues.

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The Italian government agreed last month to dispatch a naval mission to assist the Libyan coast guard with anti-smuggler patrols. Hundreds of thousands of rescued asylum-seekers, many of them fleeing poverty in Africa, have been brought to safety in Italian ports in recent years.

The government also has pressured rescue groups to sign on to rules that would forbid them from entering Libyan waters to save migrants without specific authorization and require them to agree that armed Italian judicial authorities may board their ships.

Italy is requiring groups operating rescue ships to subscribe to the rules or risk not being allowed to dock in Italian ports. Doctors Without Borders has refused to endorse the rules, while some other humanitarian groups have given their approval.

Critics of the new policies say they could put lives at risk by delaying rescues in Libyan waters. They also contend that if the Libyan coast guard blocks smugglers boats, migrants will be returned to inhumane conditions, including beatings and forced labor, in Libyan detention centers.

If humanitarian ships are pushed out of the Mediterranean, there will be fewer ships ready to aid persons before they drown, Doctors Without Borders Italy President Loris De Filippi said in a statement. And whoever doesnt drown will be intercepted and brought back to Libya, which we know to be a place of absent legality, arbitrary detention and extreme violence.

A Spanish humanitarian group, Proactiva Open Arms, said the Libyan coast guard ordered its rescue ship to move north and fired warning shots last week when the vessel was involved in search-and-rescue work outside of Libyan territory.

Humanitarian groups have had ships monitoring the Mediterranean Sea outside of Libyas territorial waters to help rescue migrants from smugglers boats in distress. The Italian coast guard coordinates the rescues, including those conducted by naval vessels from other European countries.
It is an idyllic place.

Green trees dot the landscape of gently rolling hills. An Australian shepherd puppy named Maverick scampers in tall grass near a barn. Green grass carpets an area around the house.

Inside, Angie and Blake Meyer sit near a tray of soap, lotion and bath fizzies made of goats milk and talk about the journey thats brought them thus far.

The Meyers and their 4-year-old twin daughters, Adalene and Ainsley, live on an acreage about 2 miles southeast of Lyons. Angie is a kindergarten-through-12th grade art teacher for Oakland-Craig Public Schools. Blake is a service technician for Platte Valley Equipment in Fremont.

About a year ago, Angie and her mom, Beth Reisz of Creighton, started making goats milk soap, a project thats morphed into other products.

Today, Wildwood products are sold online and in Younkers department stores in Omaha and Lincoln.

The venture began quite simply.

After the Meyers moved from Oakland to the place they call Wildwood Acres, Angie bought a Nigerian dwarf dairy goat and her two kids as weed-eaters. Then in 2015, she saw on Facebook that somebody was looking for goat milk soap.

People make soap out of milk? she wondered.

So she began researching the topic and talked to her mom, who said shed always wanted to make soap.

Years ago, Angies maternal grandmother, the late Margaret York, made her own soap.

Grandma would make it in her basement and thats what theyd use, Meyer said. I think a lot of farm women at that time would do that. She didnt have the milk, but she would use other ingredients for a basic soap.

Meyer and her mom made their first batch of soap in April 2016. Meyer bought three more goats  a buck and two does  which had more kids. She started milking the goats and freezing the milk.

She and Reisz were soap-makers.

We made a lot of mistakes, but we learned from them, Meyer said. We kept making more soap. You want to try different scents and colors and shapes. You want to find something that everyone likes.

Its not easy to make.

Milk is mixed slowly with lye (sodium hydroxide).

It can heat up pretty fast and you have to have it a certain temperature or you will scorch the milk, she said.

Different oils or fragrances can be mixed in and when the mixture is thick enough its poured into molds. The soap is cooled. Its taken out of the molds after a day or so and then must sit for four to six weeks to harden.

If you would use it the day after, it would just kind of melt away, she said. Thats whats hard for people to understand. We have to give it time to set up.

The small batches make the product unique. The soap also has vitamins, oils and butters which are nourishing and soothing to the skin, Meyer said.

Customers have said the products help them. A fellow teacher, whose fingers would crack during the winter, began using some of the soap. Last winter, for the first time in many years, her fingers didnt crack.

Weve had people with eczema and psoriasis, people who have done chemotherapy treatments, buy our soaps to help their skin, because its dry and the soap is very soothing and not harsh on their skin, she said.

The Nigerian Dwarf milk is very high on butter fat, which is soothing, very creamy and has a great lather, she said.

In 2016, Meyer and her mom went to Country Market Days in Pilger, where vendors could sell their products.

We realized people really liked our stuff, Meyer said. Teachers from my school have really supported me and they were some of my first customers. They wanted to give it a try and theyve bought ever since.

Blake Meyer makes soap dishes out of cedar. The dishes allow the soap to drain and last longer.

Word about their products would spread. The department store chain, Bon-Ton, parent company of Yonkers and Herbergers, saw the womens Wildwood Handcrafted Goat Milk Soap on Etsy, an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items.

They wanted our Nebraska-based products in three of their stores, Meyer said.

Their goat milk soap is sold at Yonkers at Westroads and Oak View shopping malls in Omaha and in Gateway Mall in Lincoln.

Reisz makes most of the soap. When Meyer goes to her moms house to make the soap, the twins uncles take the twins somewhere.

The women also make goat milk lotion with different scents, oils and butters and recently made goat milk bath cakes (bath bombs). The cakes dissolve and fill the water with fragrant oils and moisturizing butters and oils.

Theyre really popular with teen-age kids, Meyer said. It fizzes and you soak in it and relax and its very calming after a long day.

The cakes can be cut in half and there are smaller cakes. Some people use the cakes, which have salts like kosher and Epsom salts, as a foot soak. The women make lip balm and body butter, determining what will sell and what wont.

Its a busy life.

In the spring, the goats have their kids.

Kidding is pretty big, Meyer said. We usually sit in there with them, if they dont have them in the middle of the night.

The goats, who have names like Blossom, Tiger Lily, Peaches and Wren, are mild-mannered.

Nigerian (goats) are just like big dogs, she said. They lie in your lap. Theyre very social. Theyre a herd animal. They cant be alone. They follow you around. When I get home or when I go outside and they hear me, they all start bleating.

The Meyers have 14 goats at the moment and she milks two right now. Next spring, shell probably be milking six. Depending on the quality of the goat, Meyer can get 3 or 4 cups per milking from one goat. The Meyers have a small milking machine and she milks them once a day.

Meyer is admittedly very organized.

I grew up on a farm and you all have your jobs and you work together, she said. Its good responsibility for the girls. They like to help walk the goats around and they feed them.

Meyer has enjoyed this soap-making venture.

Its great to work with family and my two best friends  my husband and my mom  and all our critters, Meyer said, adding she likes to be able to help and meet people.

She looks ahead to the future.

My mom and I were making it (the soap) for fun and for ourselves and I said, Whatever God wants us to do, Im OK with it. Its in his hands, and its taken off.

More information about the soap may be found at: www.etsy.com/shop/wildwoodgoatmilksoap or www.facebook.com/wildwoodacresnigeriandwarfgoats.
Each year, over 289 million prescriptions for painkillers are written in the United States.

The widespread use of prescription painkillers has resulted in an increase in addiction, emergency room visits, and overdose deaths throughout the country.

In Nebraska, drug overdoses have tripled since 1999, with 81% of all poisoning deaths caused by drugs and medications. Every three days somebody dies from a drug overdose in Nebraska.

At a ceremony on Wednesday, Nebraska Lieutenant Governor Mike Foley declared August 28 through September 3rd as Nebraska Drug Overdose Awareness Week.

One mission of the recently declared Nebraska Drug Overdose Awareness Week is to raise awareness of the Nebraska MEDS Initiative which allows residents to take unused and expired medications back to pharmacies free of charge.

Unused medications can fall into the wrong hands and lead to accidental poisoning or misuse, making it vital to safely and properly dispose of medications.

Every day is take back day in Nebraska, Hallie Schimenti, Project Coordinator for the Nebraska MEDS Initiative, said. Nebraska Drug Overdose Awareness Week is aimed at making the public aware that they can take unused and expired medications back to the pharmacy any day of the year.

We hope that this proclamation will elevate the message and encourage each of us to do what we can to play an active role to raise awareness about drug overdoses in Nebraska.

Over 300 pharmacies across Nebraska participating in the Nebraska MEDS Initiative will take back medications free of charge and no questions asked. These pharmacies accept medications for safe and legal disposal, giving consumers an easy and safe method of keeping medications out of the environment and from falling into the wrong hands.

In Fremont, 5 local pharmacies are participating in the Nebraska MEDS Initiative to take back medications free of charge and no questions asked any day of the year.

Those pharmacies include FAMCare Pharmacy located at 450 E 23rd Street, Fremont Drugstore at 1900 E Military Avenue Suite 220, Hy-Vee Pharmacy at 840 E 23rd Street, Kubat Pharmacy at 350 W 23rd Street Suite E, and Walgreens at 1525 E 23rd Street.

Other pharmacies in the area that are participating in the program include Scribner Pharmacy located at 416 Main Street in Scribner, Medicine Man Pharmacy at 748 N Main Street in North Bend, and Valley Pharmacy located at 123 E Gardiner in Valley.

I do hereby urge all citizens to visit a Nebraska MEDS participating pharmacy and dispose of any leftover or expired medications in their home, as it protects the citizens and community from accidental poisoning and overdose, the proclamation signed by Governor Pete Rickets and Secretary of State John Gale stated.

When flushed, put down the drain, or thrown in the trash, over-the-counter and prescription medications can contaminate water supplies. Most water treatment facilities do not have the capacity to remove these emerging contaminants.

Since the MEDS initiative went statewide in 2016, over 32,000 pounds of medications have been returned to pharmacies across the state, Schimenti said. The Coalition is a great mix of state, local, and community organizations representing a variety of stakeholders in the medication disposal issue.
TROPHIES

Jerry Haas was cutting grass at the Union & West End Cemetery in Allentown, taking a break during a downpour, when he discovered something overlooked for 37 years. Tucked away under a workbench was a 130-pound stone marker engraved with the words: James F. Byrne/Capt US Army/World War II/1920-1980. Haas, 78, of Coopersburg, realized he was looking at a grave marker provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A check of the cemetery's records, however, showed Byrne was not buried there. Haas, a veteran himself, researched records through the Allentown Public Library, ancestry.com, and findagrave.com, and was able to contact Byrne's family. He learned that Byrne, who grew up and worked in Phillipsburg, had been buried at Holy Saviour Cemetery in Bethlehem. A few weeks later Haas helped deliver the marker to its rightful place alongside the headstone for Byrne and his wife.

With the help of a $267,000 federal grant, the Nurture Nature Center of Easton will be helping low-income people access and afford locally grown fruits and vegetables. A program run through the center, Buy Fresh Buy Local of the Greater Lehigh Valley, will allow those eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to double their government assistance at local farmers markets, including the Easton Farmers Market and Easton Public Market. Outreach Director Allison Czapp said the program not only provides more healthy eating options, but rewards local farmers and promotes a local food economy.

The

joined up with long-distance runner

Tuesday morning for a jog on Northampton Street in Easton. The runners were providing moral support for Schmidt, who is putting in 25 miles a day as part of the MS Run the US relay team, to promote awareness and raise funds for multiple sclerosis research. After stopping for an interview in Wilson Borough, Schmidt paused at Easton's Centre Square, where she was honored by the Crayola Experience. She started in Sunbury, Pa., and was scheduled to finish Friday in Fort Lee, N.J., in the 18th and final leg of the fundraiser that began in Santa Monica, Calif. It ends with a 10K run today, which the public can join, in New York City.

TURKEYS

The American Astronomical Society is warning those planning to view the Aug. 21 solar eclipse to be on the lookout for fake sunglasses -- counterfeits put on the market by

. People who want to observe the eclipse may do so safely with the required solar filters, but many will be risking eye damage if they unknowingly use bogus sunglasses, the group said. Experts say fake glasses allow some light to get through when viewing everyday light sources, such as light bulbs. When looking through adequate filters, people should see nothing but total blackness with anything dimmer than the sun. This year's eclipse, which will appear as a partial eclipse in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is the first in nearly a century to go across the the United States coast to coast.
A woman has been charged with the nasty crime of stealing an old mans collection of model cars after she gained access to his home by claiming to have been sent by environmental services to clean his house.

Portlaoise District Court heard that Roseanne Berry (53), with an address at St Bridgets Place, Pollerton, Carlow, also tried to get the elderly man to hand over 600 after she and another woman cleaned his house.

Berry was charged at last weeks court with theft from Green Road, Portlaoise, on June 28, 2016.

Inspector Aidan Farrelly said it was a nasty offence, with the injured party an elderly man.

On the day of the offence, two women called to his house and claimed they had been sent from environmental services to clean his house.

The man let them in and during the process of cleaning his house they removed a collection of model cars.

After cleaning the house they requested a payment of 600, and brought the injured party by car to a local EBS to withdraw the money.

While they were doing this, the injured partys niece came to the house and, observing the two women, followed them to the town where she flagged down a patrol car.

The model cars were recovered by the gardai and the two women claimed they had removed them during the cleaning of the house so they wouldnt get wrecked.

Describing it as a particularly insidious type of crime, Judge Fiona Lydon adjourned the case for the injured party to be contacted and informed that the accused had entered a guilty plea.

She said she would like the injured party to have the courtesy of a call to determine how he felt about the guilty plea.

The judge also directed a probation report on the accused.

The gardai attempted to contact the injured party during the lunchtime recess of the court, but when the court resumed in the afternoon it Insp Farrelly said that they had been unable to contact him.

In those circumstances, the case was put back to September 19 next, for the injured party to be contacted and for a probation report on the accused.
This week Lib Dem Peer Lorely Burt called on the Government to do more to end period poverty. Earlier this year it was revealed that some girls were missing school when they had their periods because they couldnt afford tampons or towels. In an article for the Huffington Post, she said:

The simple truth is period poverty is a hidden problem; if it wasnt for teachers and those volunteering at food banks reporting that this was a real issue, we probably would still be oblivious to it. Tragically we simply dont know how many young girls it affects because embarrassment stops them from seeking help. Anecdotal evidence tells us that young girls who cant afford sanitary products often end up using tissues, old socks and other totally inappropriate items. Shockingly this is happening up and down the UK  a prosperous and compassionate country.

Before the election, Lorely and others had extracted assurances from the Government that they would look at doing something about this but precious little has happened:

This week I wrote to Justine Greening asking for an update at very least. It seems that this Government thinks it can wash its hands of the problem and leave businesses like Bodyform and Boots, along with charities such as Freedom4Girls and In-Kind Direct, to pick up the pieces. Bodyform for example has promised to donate 200,000 packs of sanitary products by 2020, whilst Boots have placed donation boxes in their stores for customers to donate sanitary products to be distributed to girls in need. We cant get away from the fact that often these young girls and their families dont have the money to purchase these vital hygiene products, thanks to cruel Conservative austerity measures that hit the poorest hardest. It is a scathing indictment of this government that girls in our country are suffering like this. Conservative ministers shouldnt be allowed to just turn a blind eye and hope the issue goes away. I will continue to campaign on this issue when Parliament returns, but there is no excuse for the government to not act now. We already know that girls are missing classes during their periods and when schools return in September the problem will re-surface. Liberal Democrats want to see free sanitary products available in every school nurses office for all girls who need them. This isnt a huge ask, but as with everything in politics its about priorities  and priorities tell you a lot about political parties. So lets see what this Conservative government does. The ball is now in their court.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
When something goes awry in the world, I always want to hear what two people think of it  Paddy and Ming. I dont always agree with them, but what they have to say is always worth hearing.

Last night Ming Campbell was on Any Questions. He had his own alliterative response to Trumps fire and fury and locked and loaded  inexperienced, incompetent and incoherent. He said that the UK should work with the UN to sort this situation out and warned against any sort of military engagement. He said that the world was in a very dangerous situation.

Other issues raised included whether there should be a new centrist anti-Brexit party. Ming said, quite correctly, that there was one and there was no time to faff about creating another. The fallout from the Google memo was also discussed.

But youll have to listen to the end to find out what Ming used to eat before a big race in his running days when he held British records and stuff. It certainly wasnt the sort of tailored, scientific approach we see with elite athletes today.

I was also surprised that he came out in favour of the sacking of James Damore from Google. He was pretty clear. What hed said was wholly inappropriate and he had to go. I kind of agree with him  but on the other hand, I am very aware that Damore worked for a company in a country which has next to no employment rights. I suspect that firing him will make him a vast amount of money and will make him a bit of a celeb in alt-right circles. A disciplinary process that told him off might have been a better way of dealing with the situation.

Listen to the whole programme here.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
One of the things that worried me most about Brexit before the referendum was that it would lead to an erosion of the rights that we have as citizens to hold our Government to account.

In any civilised society, citizens must have the right to sue the Government. Governments make mistakes but are not very good at owning up to them or fixing them. Anyone who has worked as an MPs caseworker will have seen shocking examples of this. Sometimes the only way to sort things out is through the courts.

It seems that the not-so-great Repeal Bill is repealing that right. From the Independent:

A clause in the Brexit bill set to be debated next month means Britons could lose the ability to seek compensation or damages over issues including workers rights, environmental policy and business regulation. The Government can currently be sued under The European Court of Justices 1991 Francovich ruling. It stipulates that a member state is liable if an individual or business has been damaged because of a failure by the country to implement EU law. But a clause in the repeal bill says: There is no right in domestic law on or after exit day to damages in accordance with the rule in Francovich.

Our Tom Brake is having none of this. He said:

This is a shameless attempt to take away peoples rights through the backdoor. Citizens must be able to hold the government to account when it breaks the rules. The Liberal Democrats will fight in Parliament to stop Brexit from being used to water down individual rights.

This has to be an issue where the Government can be defeated. Lets hope that the Labour Party, which is always banging on about peoples rights, puts its money where its mouth is. Will the DUP back the Government and, if so, will enough Tory MPs threaten to defy the whip? So far, Ruth Davidsons Scottish Tories have pretty much done what they have been told by the Whips. So much for them having influence.

The important thing over the next few weeks is to give people enough real-life examples of where this matters. The case of Asthma sufferers suing the Government over air pollution is one.

Fighting for the right to sue the MOD over inadequately equipped troops is another.

The Brexit vote was supposed to take back control. What the Leave campaign didnt tell you was that that was for the British Government, not the people, who will find themselves more powerless than before. Its over to MPs to preserve this right.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Altrusa

Thirteen members met Aug. 1 at THE BREW in Valley. Sue Maly and Karen Rathje served as hostesses.

Vice president Rathje provided the program on Membership and Years of Service to Altrusa. She recognized each member for their years of dedication by presenting them with a rose and certificate along with the personal flower that went along with said years.

President Maly called the meeting to order. Minutes and the treasurers reports were read and filed. The audit committee of Gloria Wegman and Rhoda Holstine reported the books are in order.

Marilyn Clark reported that the group has provided breakfast break treats two times with the final time to be done Aug. 3.

Darlene Kroeger provided one cake to the Jefferson House on July 7.

Kay Bevington had a duty sign-up sheet for the Holiday Luncheon to be held Oct. 28. The quilt is finished and raffle tickets were distributed. The quilt is made in Nebraska-theme fabric which is also the theme of the luncheon; 150 Years in Nebraska.

The group will begin to sell streak free cloths at the garage sale which will be held Sept. 7-9 at Bev Meritts garage.

Ten members attended the 4-H Luncheon and the club won the prize for most club members in attendance.

Jolene Schauer, District Seven Governor, gave a report on the Altrusa Convention held in Nashville. There were 655 attending the 100th Anniversary of Altrusa. A 50-year pin was awarded to Vlasta Kavan, a Fremont Altrusa member. The Fremont members were given, 100 for 100 pins, to recognize hours of service they had given in the 2016-17 year.

Yearbooks were distributed.

The group will hold their next meeting at The Bridge. The meeting is at 4 p.m. and each member will bring a gently used purse to donate. The purses will contain toiletries usable by the women who arrive at The Bridge. A tour will be given; the meeting and sack lunch will be afterwards. Cherry Gocken and Carole Tremain will be hostesses.
The second phase of a $1.5 million renovation of Midland Universitys campus dining and common spaces recently with the completion of a remodeled dining hall.

The first phase was partnering with Fresh Ideas in late 2015 to provide food service. In 2016, the Warrior Grille and Presidential Dining Rooms were updated.

Now, students will find a variety of welcoming spaces to eat and hang out as well as a new array of serving stations. There is new flooring, new lighting and new seating, including nine-foot oak tables and countertop seating.

What we really wanted to do is have this space be a place where students can congregate; a place where they feel welcome and where they want to hang out, said Andrew Strecker, Director of Dining Services. They can sit in here and do homework. They can relax.

And they can eat.

There is the Foodie Bar where chefs can create everything from a Mongolian grill to a burrito bowl. The Chefs Table will offer classic home cooking. Fresh Fusion offers vegan, vegetarian and other healthy choices for students. Grilled classics such as burgers, grilled cheese and corn dogs will be available, along with a deli, panini bar and soup and salad bar.

One of the major additions is a Wood Stone pizza oven, capable of making everything from thin crust to Neapolitan style to thick crust pizzas.

We tried to spread out the serving areas so students have easy access to all the stations, Strecker said. They know if theyre coming in and they just want pizza, they just have to come over to the pizza bar. They dont have to walk through the whole gambit. It gives them more variety and more options.

In between meals, students will be able to study, do homework or just visit with friends. Each of the tables has outlets to charge phones and computers.

A students college experience is more than attending class, Midland University President Jody Horner said. It is important to have places where our students can gather to a share meal, explore ideas for projects, and build those lifelong friendships.

Next on the renovation project list is renovating the lower level of the Olson Student Center, which will become Eikmeier Commons.

A public open house and Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting has been scheduled during Midlands Homecoming celebration. The event is 9-10 a.m. Sept. 15.
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A judge who has been derided for handing down what many considered a light sentence to a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, and who faces a coordinated call for his removal, won an unexpected victory in a San Jose court on Friday.

A legal motion to halt the recall campaign against Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky  with the goal of voting him out of office  was filed at 8:15 a.m. on Friday.

By midafternoon, according to court documents, a judge approved a request by Perskys attorneys for a temporary restraining order that prevents activists from collecting signatures that would trigger a June recall election.

In June 2016, Persky sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in county jail after a jury convicted Turner of sexually assaulting an unconscious and drunk woman near a dumpster outside a fraternity party on the Stanford campus.

The Turner case, Perskys opponents say, is ultimately about neither Turner nor Persky. Though Persky must be removed, they said, what ultimately matters is the failings of the U.S. judicial system when it comes to the treatment of victims of sexual assault.

This week, a Santa Clara County official had approved the campaigns bid to begin collecting signatures, a boon to those embarking on a complex process that has been successful on only two occasions in California history.

The recall effort would not remove Persky from the bench outright.

According to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, the agency that oversees the recall process, if the campaign gathers more than 50,000 verified signatureswithin 160 days, Perskys name will be on the spring ballot. The order issued Friday does not slow that countdown.

Attorneys for Persky argued that because the judge is a state official, not a local one, the procedure for removing him ought to be overseen by the California secretary of state, not the county registrar.

His lawyers also called the petition against their client flawed, alleging that it misleads the public by implying that if the recall effort is successful, Persky would be replaced by a political appointment, which is not the case.

This is a matter of urgency, Perskys attorneys wrote in Fridays filing.

Marjorie Laird Carter, a retired judge from Orange County brought in to oversee the issue, granted the temporary restraining order.

Carter ruled that Perskys opponents  led by Stanford law Professor Michele Dauber, the chairwoman of the campaign against the judge  must present a rebuttal by Aug. 23 to move forward.

Dauber described the motion as a last-ditch effort by Perskys attorney that she did not expect would succeed. It came as a surprise, she said, sending the activists scrambling.

The ruling  which delivers a legal advantage to Persky, who has struggled to court widespread public approval  hampers the recall effort considerably.

Because the judges opponents must adhere to a strict timeline, every day counts, Dauber said.

Dauber, who knows the family of Turners female victim, said she would not give up, saying the cause mattered too much.

Were obviously disappointed, Dauber told The Chronicle. The recall is going to continue. Frankly, the recalls going to happen, no matter how much taxpayer money Judge Persky wastes.

Since the June 2016 verdict, the matter has taken on heightened relevance. Turners victim penned a 7,244-word statement that has been shared millions of times around the world.

Turners sentence, which Persky said was based on a recommendation from the Probation Department, went counter to a recommendation by county prosecutors who had asked for six years in prison for the former swimmer. He was forced to register as a sex offender.

His victim, a college student at the time the then-20-year-old Turner assaulted her, read the statement aloud in court to Turners face. It was later read on the floor of Congress.

In September 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that redefines rape in California, saying he had been inspired to do so by the Turner case.

Persky, who has served as a judge in Santa Clara County for 12 years, has previously said that the idea that judges should not become enmeshed in politics serves as rationale enough for dismissing the recall effort.

Even if Persky is voted out of office, his attorneys in the Friday filing said that the governor  and not voters  should appoint his replacement.

Persky has supporters in the legal community and elsewhere. In a previous filing, Persky defended his record, claiming he has fought vigorously for victims of sexual assault.

The judge, who was cleared of misconduct by several agencies, including Californias Commission on Judicial Performance, defended his tenure in the late June filing, first reported by The Chronicle.

California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders, Persky wrote of Turner in the Santa Clara County filing. Its not always popular, but its the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
Residents were allowed back into their homes and roads were reopened to motorists Saturday in Napa County after fire crews made headway overnight to contain a wildfire southwest of Lake Berryessa, officials said.

Burning in a relatively remote area, the blaze came within reach of several structures and homes, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. An unknown number of residents, including those in a nearby mobile home park, were advised to leave the vicinity Friday.
She was at some of the most pivotal battles ever fought by Americans.

She escorted convoys across the ocean in 1941 and shelled the Axis-held beach at Normandy. She carried out bombardments at Okinawa, clearing the way for Army and Marine landings on the beaches. Her silhouette loomed ominous as she gave supportive fire at Iwo Jima, and her captain nearly grounded her to fire on German forces at Omaha beach. She was also tasked with carrying more than 4,000 troops safely home from the Pacific for demobilization in a mission that was called the "Magic Carpet."

Now, the Battleship Texas, the only remaining World War I-era dreadnought battleship, slowly decays in the salt water of the Houston Ship Channel and officials tasked with her wellbeing are making a plea to Texans: A ship that saved thousands of lives now needs the community to save her.

"Every once in a while, there will be a story about how the ship is listing or is taking on water," said Stephanie Croatt, assistant superintendent with the Battleship Texas. "Then people won't hear anything else about it and they'll assume the problem is fixed. The problem is not fixed.

"It will never be fixed in the ship's current condition."

The condition Croatt refers to deals with major weaknesses in the ship's hull - holes and cracks where the steel has eroded away - that require pumps to run 24 hours a day just to keep up with the amount of water the ship is taking on.

"We pump about 300,000 gallons of water a day out of the Battleship Texas," said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation. "There are places on the ship where the hull is so thin you can poke your finger through it. So we're constantly pumping water out and patching holes and the water is constantly seeping back in."

A Race Against Time

Each day, said Croatt, the ship is constantly taking on water, and each day, the pumps continually run to remove that water.

But what if a pump breaks? That, said Bramlett, can be a huge issue.

"We barely have enough pumping power to keep her out of the water now," he said. "Pumps regularly break, new holes are regularly eroded into her weakened hull and that's how you get into a bad situation. If we lose pumps, we're in big trouble."

Salt water on a ship's exterior is bad enough, said Capt. Terry Bragg, executive director of the USS North Carolina, a museum ship and memorial kept at the seaport of Wilmington, North Carolina. Once water gets into the ship, the damage is compounded.

"Salt water is going to damage any ship," said Bragg, "but there are precautions in place (specialized coatings) to help reduce that damage on the outside of the ship."

Those same protective coatings aren't in place inside the ship, he said, so once water gets inside, erosion can begin to happen much faster.

"Once water gets inside the ship, the effects can be devastating," said Bragg.

Since the early 1980s, crews have worked to patch holes and replace the steel in the hull of the Battleship Texas.

"There isn't really enough good steel left to patch holes," said Croatt. "We can't place patches over holes because the steel around those holes is weak and eroded. At this point, we're not dealing with 'if we run out of time' but 'when we run out of time,' and that timeframe will likely be in the very near future."

Funding for Dry Berthing

For years, the foundation has worked to get funding to save the ship.

So far, this funding has gone for repairs, but at this point, Bramlett says more direct and aggressive measures must be taken.

It sits as a testament, Croatt said, to when ships were engineered and designed with paper, pencils and slide rules in a time before Autocad and calculators.

"This ship was commissioned one year after the Titanic," Bramlett explained. "It's historic - a living museum - and in order to save it, we can't keep patching it.

"It needs to be dry berthed."

Dry berthing the ship, an estimated $40 million project, isn't necessarily an easy task. It must be repaired so that the hull is structurally sound enough to be moved. Then a system must be built around the hull so that water can be pumped out or let in as it's deemed necessary. Being able to control the water in contact with the ship is vital to its longevity, Bramlett said.

"Right now when we have a leak, we have divers feeling around in the dark trying to find and fix those leaks," he said. "Sometimes, the leaks are below the mudline - it's a terrible way to try and fix an issue. If we were able to control the water, it would be much easier - and cheaper in the long run - to fix these problems."

The Battleship Texas is owned by the state, which means the majority of funding is gained through legislative measures. Since the ship has been at its current home in the Houston Ship Channel, a total of about $68 million has been spent on its structural repairs, said Bramlett.

"If the state decides to do nothing and we finish this round of repairs and she just remains sitting in the water, she's going to have to be disposed of in the not-too-distant future. That ship is out of time," Bramlett said.

Disposing of the ship will cost an estimated $30 million, which doesn't count the money needed to remove the precious artifacts and store them safely, Bramlett said.

"If we have to scrap the Battleship Texas, no one is just going to say 'OK, take her away'," Bramlett said. "They're going to want to carefully remove and catalog the artifacts and historical property on the ship. Then those things are going to have to be stored for years. After several years have passed, people are going to say, 'Hey, we should build a museum and put these things in there.' But we already have a museum. It's sitting in our ship channel right now."

Bramlett said the cost of removing, storing and cataloging those pieces of history only to spend the money to build a new museum in the future would likely not exceed the cost of saving the ship, especially when taking into consideration the amount the state already has spent to repair her.

"So, let's say we do nothing and have to dispose of the ship. You add that $30 million or $40 million (disposal cost) to the $68 million we've already spent on her  that's a minimum of $98 million and at the end you've got no ship," Bramlett said. "But if we spend the $40 or $50 million we think it will take to dry berth it, we can build a structure to take that ship out of the water and it can be here forever - we haven't just flushed $98 million down the drain. Either way, the state is going to have to write a very large check.

"We can write that check to save her, or we can write it to throw all we've invested into her away."

The USS North Carolina, a World War II-era ship, had to undergo similar repairs.

"We developed a strategy to build a coffer dam around the ship with vertical steel walls," said Bragg. "This allows us to pump the water out and get direct access to the hull to cut and replace the steel on the ship. We are currently water-tight and have been for years. We hope to finish this project sometime around the beginning of 2018."

The USS North Carolina serves as an economic engine for that part of its state, a position that the Battleship Texas could easily hold for the southeast region of Houston, said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, (R-Houston).

"Not only is it important to preserve the history of this amazing ship," said Culberson, "but it's necessary as a vital part of our tourism industry. The ship needs to be stabilized and placed where people can see it, tour it and enjoy it regularly. Pier 21 by the Elissa would be a great place."

Urging action

Culberson has been a proponent of saving historic sites and attractions throughout Texas. He has worked to pass legislation that would create grant programs to save historic battleships.

"We need to work with officials at the federal, state and local levels to be sure the (Battleship) Texas has the money they need to save that ship," he said. "The state is primarily responsible for funding, but the federal government has passed legislation that could help historic ships like the Battleship Texas."

But local and state representatives need to know that saving the ship is what their constituency wants, Culberson said.

"The single most important thing Texans can do is speak to their representatives - speak to the members of congress - and urge them to pass legislation that will save the ship. Tell them that you want funding to restore the battleship so we can enjoy it for the next 100 years," he said. "This ship is part of our history. It was instrumental in saving thousands of lives. I can't tell you how many former servicemen I've met who feel very strongly about saving her. I'll do anything I can to save her. Because she saved me.' That's what they say."
NAIROBI - One day after President Uhuru Kenyatta was reelected in a fiercely contested and divisive vote, violence erupted across parts of Kenya in clashes between protesters and security forces.

At least 24 people, including a 6-year-old child, have been killed since the election results were announced Friday night, according to the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights.

"Deaths can be directly linked to the elections and post-election environment," said Kagwiria Mbogori, chairman of the commission. "Family and community members have indicated they were killed during the protests, which broke out in some parts of the country after the polls."

Mbogori said loss of life is attributed to police using live ammunition and that 17 deaths were confirmed in Nairobi, the capital, alone.

In Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum, residents said that at least six people were killed late Friday and early Saturday in clashes with police. Young men in the slum had promised for days to hold demonstrations if Kenyatta defeated their candidate, Raila Odinga, who has not yet accepted the results and conceded, raising concerns of further violence.

Kenya's acting security minister, Fred Matiangi, has disputed accusations that police had shot protesters, telling reporters Saturday that officers "did not use live bullets" and adding that "the country was safe and secure."

But Mbogori said the commission "can confirm that there has been excessive use of force and misuse of firearms by security personnel dealing with members of the public who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly in accordance with our constitution."

Although Kenya is considered a pillar of stability in East Africa, it is riven by tribal tensions that rise to the surface during national elections. In 2007, more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence in the wake of that year's election.

This year, the response to Kenyatta's victory appears more tempered, with security forces more prepared than they were a decade ago. But residents in Nairobi and parts of western Kenya raised allegations of police shooting wildly at protesters.

In Mathare, another Nairobi slum, a 6-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet while on the balcony of her house, according to residents.

"The police were shooting in the air to disperse the crowds," said Boniface Okoth, a resident of Mathare. "The child came to the balcony to check what was going on. She was shot and died on the spot."

Separately, Reuters reported that nine men in Mathare were killed overnight. A security official told Reuters that they were killed in an anti-looting operation.

There were also protests in the western city of Kisumu, where police used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Reuters reported that one man was killed there.

According to the official results, Kenyatta received 54.2 percent of the votes to Odinga's 44.7 percent. Odinga has alleged that those results were manipulated, claiming the country's electoral commission was part of the coverup. But international election observers said they considered the vote to be credible.

In Kibera, Celine Adhiambo said police were marching "deep inside the slum" on Friday night and Saturday morning.

"We do not know where they took the bodies," she said. "We are in great danger."

There were also protests in western Nyanza province. The regional coordinator there said young men there attempted to attack police with rocks, but that "police dealt with the situation and cleared the roads."

Kenyatta has pledged to address the country's divide in his second term, saying in his acceptance speech Friday, "We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic."
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government approved $256 million to upgrade a section of a remote border road last month, few took notice.

Yet India's decision to revive plans for the highway, part of an ambitious 845-mile (1,360-kilometer) crossing to link northeastern India with markets in Thailand and beyond, marks the next phase in the jostle between New Delhi and Beijing for economic and strategic influence in the region.

In the last two years alone, India has assigned more than $4.7 billion in contracts for the development of its border roads, according to government figures, including the highway which will run from Moreh in Manipur through Tamu in Myanmar to Mae-Sot in Thailand.

The construction has taken on new urgency as China pushes ahead with its own vast "One Belt, One Road" infrastructure initiative, expected to involve investments worth more than half a trillion dollars across 62 nations. The intercontinental web of road, rail and trade links has raised concerns among strategic rivals India, Russia, the U.S. and Japan. A schowcase of the plan -- an economic corridor that runs through the Pakistan-administered part of disputed Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim -- has unsettled equations in the South Asian neighborhood, where border tensions often simmer.

"With China's growing interest in the region, as its wealth grows, its influence is growing beyond its borders,'' said K. Yhome, New Delhi-based senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. So while China is pushing for a north-south economic corridor under the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, India is aiming to build links with its eastern neighbors, he said.

Under the Modi government's "Act East" policy, India is investing in road and rail links on its north-east borders, where it rubs shoulders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, and Myanmar.

But the plan for the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway is not a new one. It's been on the drawing board since 2001 when it was called the India-Myanmar Friendship Road, according to Vijay Chhibber, India's former roads secretary.

New Delhi has now proposed to further extend the Myanmar-Thailand link to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, shortening travel from Mekong River to India using water transport, in its bid to bind it closer to the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, according to Chhibber.

The road link will be funded by the Asian Development Bank under the South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation program. Involving India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the program doubled investments on infrastructure to $6 billion since 2011 compared to $3.5 billion in previous decade, said Ronald Antonio Q. Butiong, Manila-based director at ADB's Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division.

The SASEC nations, not including Myanmar which joined only this February, plan to invest a further $4 billion on infrastructure projects over the next three years, Butiong said. New projects include the Kaladan multimodal transit transport project connecting India's Mizoram state with ports in Kolkata and Myanmar's Sittwe. India has financed the $120 million Sittwe port construction, according to SASEC.

"Regional cooperation is a slow process and you have to have a lot of patience," said Butiong by phone from Manila. "You couldn't imagine this happening a few years ago. But now it looks like it's becoming a reality."

India chose not to attend President Xi Jinping's two-day One Belt One Road summit in May. Three months later, the two nuclear-armed powers are managing a tense military standoff over junction between Bhutan, China's Tibet and India's Sikkim.

The Chinese government has repeatedly said its Belt and Road initiative aims to enhance regional connectivity, bringing economic benefits for China's neighbors. It urged New Delhi to shed "misgivings and doubts" about the project.

Roads, bridges and railways have been a weak link in India's infrastructure in the north eastern states. In part, it was left underdeveloped as strategy to make the region inaccessible to Chinese troops if Beijing ever tried to repeat the four-week 1962 border war and encroach into the territory India sees as its own.

This has also meant poor access for Indian businesses to markets of southeast Asia. Modi fast-tracked decades-old infrastructure plans such as opening the nation's longest bridge spanning 9.2 km across the Brahmaputra river to ensure the smooth movement of troops to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, one of India's most remote regions that is claimed in full by China.

"For India to improve its influence, it needs to take some action otherwise it will be left behind," said Rajiv Biswas, Singapore-based chief economist at IHS Markit. "If India wants to be part of growth dynamic of Asia it needs to develop infrastructure links and that is why this project is a very important first step."

In a brand new office in the heart of India's capital New Delhi, Sanjay Jaju is meeting contractors responsible for building roads in the country's north eastern states for the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corp.

The three-year-old state-owned company, where Jaju is finance director, is an unusual entity in the south Asian nation's notoriously slow bureaucratic labyrinth. The highway through Myanmar and Thailand is among the $4.7 billion in contracts the company has assigned.

In the meantime, the corporation is busy acquiring land for its projects. "We're creating sovereign assets," said Jaju. "Our international projects will take off this year."

---

Bloomberg's Ting Shi contributed.
The violence that occurred after hundreds of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend came during an election year in Virginia, where voters are electing a new governor in a contest watched as a bellwether for politics in the era of President Donald Trump.

The university town's decision to remove a downtown statute of Confederate General Robert E. Lee fueled the white nationalist backlash. The local issue has resonated in campaigns across the state, and prompted candidates in the former heart of the Confederacy to grapple with lingering racial tensions and what appears to be a new found boldness among white nationalists.

The attention to this weekend's clashes in Charlottesville, which resulted in at least one fatality and a response from President Trump, also turned a spotlight to how the gubernatorial candidates would respond.

The Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, joined other Virginia Democrats in denouncing white supremacy, and he says he plans to visit Charlottesville on Sunday. He praised Charlottesville for defending its values of "openness, diversity and inclusion" from numerous protests, including a rally of 30 Klansmen in July.

"White supremacists have descended upon Charlottesville again to evoke a reaction as ugly and violent as their beliefs - just as they did before, I am urging Virginians to deny them the satisfaction," Northam said in a statement.

The Charlottesville statue has created an awkward conundrum for GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie, who nearly lost his primary election to a candidate who welcomed the support of white nationalists and made defending Confederate statues a central issue of his campaign. During the primary, Gillespie stressed that he did not support removing the Lee statue (though he believes the issue is a local, not state, matter) after his opponent Corey Stewart ran ads claiming otherwise.

Gillespie, a longtime party operative and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, released a statement Saturday condemning the "events in Charlottesville."

"Having a right to spew vile hate does not make it right," Gillespie said. "It is painful to see these ugly events in Charlottesville last night and today. These displays have no place in our Commonwealth, and the mentality on display is rejected by the decent, thoughtful and compassionate fellow Virginians I see every day."

A spokesman for the Democratic Governors' Association criticized Gillespie's response for omitting his support for the Confederate statue "at the center of the Charlottesville march."

The other governor's race this year is in New Jersey, where Democratic candidate Phil Murphy is expected to win easily. Murphy called the turmoil in Charlottesville a "sad result of when hate and bigotry are given a wink and nod by the President and those around him."

Other Republican leaders in Virginia were more direct than Gillespie in labeling the rallies.

Lieutenant governor nominee Jill Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County, called them a "vile display of racism," while GOP attorney general nominee John Adams described them as "Nazi-ideology on display." Republican leaders in the state House called the demonstrators "racists, white supremacists and Nazi-ideologues." U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock, seen as the most vulnerable Republican member of Congress in Virginia, described the marchers as neo-Nazis.

Gillespie later suggested on Twitter that the injuries and fatality after a car plowed into a crowd were "definitely tragic effect of vile neo Nazi and white supremacist actions," in response to a former GOP state lawmaker who called on him to describe the apparent attack as terrorism.

Stewart, who plans to challenge Sen. Tim Kaine (D) next year after losing to Gillespie in the primary, posted a video on Facebook on Saturday evening accusing the media and Democrats of ignoring violence from the left and urged vigilance against attempts to stifle conservative speech in the aftermath of the Charlottesville violence. He did not criticize the white nationalists who rallied, except to say those who attacked others should be "hunt down" and punished.

"I don't believe that this is caused by white supremacy. I believe this is caused by two groups duking it out on the streets," Stewart said in an interview, adding that he hasn't wavered on his support for the Lee statue and believes that the KKK and other "racist groups" won't heed calls to butt out. "They have nothing to do with us, and they are trying to hijack this issue."

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who cannot seek consecutive terms under the state Constitution, declared a state of emergency over the clashes and told white supremacists they were "not welcome" in the commonwealth.

Attorney General Mark Herring, who is seeking a second term, had a pointed reaction to Trump's condemnation of "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

"The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of 'many sides.' It is racists and white supremacists," Herring tweeted.

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Justin Fairfax, who would be the first African American elected statewide since Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, issued a statement calling for unity against "those who want to divide communities."

"This moment is also a reminder of the need to tone down political rhetoric and the negativity we often see in our current politics," Fairfax said.

Rep. Thomas Garrett, R-Va., who represents Charlottesville in Congress, faced criticism after a months-old photo of him posing with Jason Kessler, the rally's organizer, widely circulated on Twitter.

A spokesman told the Daily Progress newspaper in May that he met with Kessler to discuss a town hall and unrelated terrorism bill.

Garrett tweeted Saturday to condemn what he called "despicable escalation of racist rhetoric in Charlottesville." Later, in an interview with Fox News, he said, "The victims of this racist violence are my constituents. . . . It blows my mind that this many racist bigots actually exist in this country."

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The Washington Post's David Weigel contributed to this report.

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Video: Violence breaks out before planned white nationalist rally

Bands of white nationalists were met by counterprotesters in Charlottesville.

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2fB3fPM

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Chaos and violence turned to tragedy Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members - planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to "take America back" - clashed with counterprotesters in the streets and a car plowed into crowds, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured.

Hours later, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed at the outskirts of town. Officials identified them as Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Virginia, who was the pilot, and H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, Virginia, who was a passenger. State police said their Bell 407 helicopter was assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday; Cullen was 48.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who had declared a state of emergency in the morning, said at an evening news conference that he had a message for "all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth."

Maurice Jones, Charlottesville's African-American city manager, looked stricken as he spoke. "Hate came to our town today in a way that we had feared but we had never really let ourselves imagine would," he said.

State and local officials declined to take reporters' questions and abruptly left after making statements.

In an emergency meeting Saturday evening, the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to give police the power to enact a curfew or otherwise restrict assembly as necessary to protect public safety.

Video recorded at the scene of the car crash shows a 2010 gray Dodge Challenger accelerating into crowds on a pedestrian mall, sending bodies flying - and then reversing at high speed, hitting yet more people. Witnesses said the street was filled with people opposed to the white nationalists who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and anti- Semitic epithets.

A 32-year-old woman was killed, according to police, who said they were investigating the crash as a criminal homicide.

The driver of the Challenger, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said. Police made three other arrests in connection with violence earlier in the day, on charges of assault and battery, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.

Records show Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo.

Fields's father was killed by a drunk driver a few months before the boy's birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His father left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

"When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him," the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where he'd been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as "not really friendly, more subdued."

He wouldn't comment on his reaction to the charges against Fields.

"I really don't want to get into that," he said. "I'm not going to slam my nephew or anybody in my family without knowing what the h--- happened."

Angela Taylor, a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center, said 19 others were brought to the hospital in the early afternoon after the car barreled through the pedestrian mall. Five were in critical condition as of Saturday evening. Another 14 people were hurt in street brawls, city officials said.

Earlier, police evacuated a downtown park as rallygoers and counterprotesters traded blows and hurled bottles and chemical irritants at one another, putting an end to the noon rally before it officially began.

Despite the decision to quash the rally, clashes continued on side streets and throughout downtown, including the pedestrian mall at Water and Fourth streets where the Challenger slammed into counterprotesters and two other cars in the early afternoon, sending bystanders running and screaming.

"I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here," Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer (D) said in a tweet. "I urge all people of good will - go home."

Elected leaders in Virginia and elsewhere urged peace, blasting the white supremacist views on display in Charlottesville as ugly. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called the display "repugnant."

But President Trump, known for his rapid-fire tweets, remained silent throughout the morning. It was after 1 p.m. when he weighed in, writing on Twitter: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

In brief remarks at a late- afternoon news conference in New Jersey to discuss veterans' health care, Trump said he was following the events in Charlottesville closely. "The hate and the division must stop and must stop right now," Trump said, without specifically mentioning white nationalists or their views. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides."

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a Trump supporter who was in Charlottesville on Saturday, quickly replied. "I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists," he wrote.

Dozens of the white nationalists in Charlottesville were wearing red Make America Great Again hats. Asked by a reporter in New Jersey whether he wanted the support of white nationalists, Trump did not respond.

Even as crowds began to thin Saturday afternoon, the town remained unsettled and on edge. Onlookers were deeply shaken at the pedestrian mall, where ambulances had arrived to treat those injured by the car.

Chan Williams, 22, was among the counterprotesters at the pedestrian mall, chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "Whose streets? Our streets!" The marchers blocked traffic, but Williams said drivers weren't annoyed. Instead, she said, they waved or honked in support.

So when she heard a car engine rev up and saw the people in front of her dodging a moving car, she didn't know what to think.

"I saw the car hit bodies, legs in the air," she said. "You try to grab the people closest to you and take shelter."

Williams and friend George Halliday ducked into a shop with an open door and called their mothers immediately. An hour later, the two were still visibly upset.

"I just saw shoes on the road," Halliday, 20, said. "It all happened in two seconds."

Saturday's Unite the Right rally was meant to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The city of Charlottesville voted to remove the statue earlier this year, but it remains in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park, pending a judge's ruling expected later this month.

Tensions began to escalate Friday night as hundreds of white nationalists marched through the U-Va.'s campus, chanting "White lives matter," "You will not replace us" and "Jews will not replace us."

They were met by counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, who founded the university. One counterprotester apparently deployed a chemical spray, which sent about a dozen rallygoers seeking medical assistance.

On Saturday morning, people in combat gear - some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs, sticks and makeshift shields - fought one another on downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants and hurled plastic bottles through the air.

A large contingent of Charlottesville police officers and Virginia State Police troopers in riot gear were stationed on side streets and at nearby barricades but did nothing to break up the melee until about 11:40 a.m. Using megaphones, police then declared an unlawful assembly and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park.

"The worst part is that people got hurt and the police stood by and didn't do a g------ thing," said David Copper, 70, of Staunton, Va.

State Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, minority leader of Virginia's House, praised the response by Charlottesville and state police.

Asked why police did not act sooner to intervene as violence unfolded, Toscano said he could not comment. "But they trained very hard for this, and it might have been that they were waiting for a more effective time to get people out" of Emancipation Park, he said.

By early afternoon, hundreds of rallygoers had made their way to a larger park two miles to the north. Duke, speaking to the crowd, said that European Americans are "being ethnically cleansed within our own nation" and called Saturday's events "the first step toward taking America back."

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer also addressed the group, urging people to disperse. But he promised they would return for a future demonstration, blaming Saturday's violence on counterprotesters.

In an interview, Spencer said he was "beyond outraged" the police had declared the planned rally an "unlawful assembly."

"I never before thought that I would have my country cracking down on me and on free speech," he said. "We were lawfully and peacefully assembled. We came in peace, and the state cracked down."

He said that counterprotesters attacked rallygoers but also acknowledged that "maybe someone threw a first punch on our side. Maybe that happened. I obviously didn't see everything."

By 11 a.m., several fully armed militias and hundreds of right-wing rallygoers had poured into the small downtown park that was to be the site of the rally.

Counterprotesters held "Black Lives Matter" signs and placards expressing support for equality and love as they faced rallygoers who waved Confederate flags and posters that said "the Goyim know," referring to non-Jewish people, and "the Jewish media is going down."

"No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!" the counterprotesters chanted.

"Too late, f-----s!" a man yelled back at them.

Michael Von Kotch, a Pennsylvania resident who called himself a Nazi, said the rally made him "proud to be white."

He said that he's long held white supremacist views and that Trump's election has "emboldened" him and the members of his own Nazi group.

"We are assembled to defend our history, our heritage and to protect our race to the last man," Von Kotch said, wearing a protective helmet and sporting a wooden shield and a broken pool cue. "We came here to stand up for the white race."

Naundi Cook, 23, who is black, said that she came to Saturday's counterprotests to "support my people" but that she's never seen something like this before.

When violence broke out, she started shaking and got goose bumps.

"I've seen people walking around with tear gas all over their face, all over their clothes. People getting Maced, fighting," she said. "I didn't want to be next."

Cook said she couldn't sit back and watch white nationalists descend on her town. She has a 3-year-old daughter to stand up for, she said.

"Right now, I'm not sad," she said once the protests dispersed. "I'm a little more empowered. All these people and support, I feel like we're on top right now because of all the support that we have."

Saturday marked the second time in six weeks Charlottesville has faced a protest from white supremacist groups for its decision to remove the statue of Lee. On July 8, about three dozen members of a regional Ku Klux Klan group protested in the city.

City officials, concerned about crowds and safety issues, tried to move Saturday's rally to a larger park away from the city's downtown. But Jason Kessler, the rally's organizer, filed a successful lawsuit against the city that was supported by the Virginia ACLU, saying his First Amendment rights would be violated by moving the rally.

- - -

Brown reported from Washington. Jack Gillum and Sarah Larimer in Washington contributed to this report.
Democrats may have a new opening to set boundaries on President Donald Trump's authority over the investigations into his 2016 presidential campaign.

For the past week, Trump and his allies have been hammering away at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., over the GOP's failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump has mocked McConnell and his lieutenants on social media for abandoning the health-care effort. Coupled with Trump's recent attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the rift between the president and Senate Republicans is growing.

Now the question is whether Democrats can seize on these moments and extract actual results in putting up barriers between Trump, the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation.

So far, Democrats have devoted most of their time to forging a new policy agenda to show voters next year what they would do if given power. They want voters to know the party would do more than just investigate Trump and focus on scandals.

Senate Republicans have tolerated Trump's controversies. His treatment of Sessions is different.

That focus has left a void in their messaging regarding the Russia investigation. It sometimes leads to a cacophony of voices and ideas shouted into the winds of the Internet every time there's a new revelation about Trump's campaign and ties to Russia.

Some Democrats want to forge a broad bipartisan coalition to put the brakes on Trump, even if it means setting aside policy disputes for the time being.

"We're going to need a temporary alliance of progressives and conservatives to save the country, and then we can get back to fighting over the size and scope of the government," Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said in an interview before Congress left earlier this month for the August recess. "This is a national emergency, and we're going to have to lay down our arms on some of these public-policy issues long enough to reassert that there are, in fact, three separate, coequal branches of government and we are a county of laws and not men."

But others suggest that investigations by Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are well underway and that Democrats need patience.

"We're seriously into it, and I have to say that the Republicans, they're not obstructing anymore. They are all moving forward and they all understand how serious this is," said Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and serves on the intelligence panel.

This Democratic dilemma was captured the night that Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., posted an excerpt from his new book, "Conscience of a Conservative," criticizing congressional Republican leaders for not forcefully confronting Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Three top Democratic strategists reacted completely differently to the Arizona Republican's criticism of his own party. "Brave and well argued. I hope both sides have his back," Robby Mook, the 2016 campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, tweeted.

"I'm much more concerned with his actual voting record. Writing a column is a lot easier than voting against TrumpCare," Guy Cecil, head of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, tweeted.

Brian Fallon, a top press aide in the Clinton campaign, called the Flake book the equivalent of "just a bunch" of tweets "[u]ntil it is matched by any real action."

For now, there has been little to no effort by Democrats to define "any real action." Do they expect Republicans to vote against Trump's policy positions because of the shadow of the Russia investigation? Do they want to push for impeachment proceedings? Do they want Republicans to join Flake in a chorus of Trump criticism?

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wants Republicans to start backing up their critiques of Trump with legislative action. After Trump tried to implement an entry ban affecting several majority-Muslim nations, Murphy introduced legislation to block the executive order and hoped for bipartisan support, given how many Republicans criticized Trump's call for such a ban during the presidential campaign.

"I heard a lot of Republicans vigorously complain about the Muslim ban, but none of them were willing to move legislation to stop it," Murphy said.

He applauded Republicans for joining Democrats in approving new sanctions against Russia, overwhelmingly passing legislation that also tied Trump's hands if he tried to waive those penalties.

A good first step for Democrats might be pressuring more Republicans to support proposed legislation that would restrict a president's ability to fire a special counsel, considering two high-profile Republicans are already supporting such an effort.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have each joined Democrats to offer bills that would require a panel of judges to sign off on the firing of Mueller or any special counsel. This would limit the president's and the attorney general's ability to shut down the investigation.

Given Senate Republicans' current feelings toward Trump, Democrats might be able to get many Republicans to sign on to one or both bills, sending a warning shot at the president.

Schatz said those are the sort of actions that he is looking for in Republicans, hoping that more of them would publicly declare that "one of the bright lines" that Trump cannot cross would be firing Sessions or Mueller.

Schatz, firmly in his caucus's liberal wing, dismissed his allies who are critical of Republicans for continuing to vote in a conservative direction. He does not expect Republicans to start opposing conservative legislation or nominees such as Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch just because Trump is president.

"That's a misunderstanding of who Jeff Flake is; he's a conservative," Schatz said. "We can't expect them to become Democrats, but we want them to be small-R republicans, and we need them to help the president understand what the boundaries are in a republic."
Dr. Ruth Pfau, a German nun who became known as the "Mother Teresa of Pakistan" for her decades-long ministry to the country's leprosy patients, a moral and medical campaign that helped curb one of the most stigmatized diseases in human history, died Aug. 10 in Karachi. She was 87.

A spokeswoman, Salwa Zainab, confirmed her death to the Associated Press. The cause was not immediately available.

Pfau, while not widely covered in the Western media, was renowned in Pakistan for her efforts to stop the spread of leprosy, a bacterial infection also called Hansen's disease that when untreated can cause disfigurement and blindness. Around the world, its victims have often been relegated to "leper colonies" and regarded as outcasts.

The Express Tribune of Pakistan once credited Pfau with having "single-handedly . . . turned the tide of leprosy in Pakistan and won the gratitude and personal attentions of people ranging from military rulers to elected ministers to the general public."

Like Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian nun who became known as "the saint of the gutters" for her service to the destitute of India, Pfau lived among the people she cared for and by a vow of poverty.

As a young physician and nun, she had planned to begin her missionary work not in Pakistan, but in India, in 1960. Waylaid in Karachi with visa difficulties, she visited a leprosy colony and was so distressed by what she saw that she could not bring herself to leave.

The facility was overrun by rats and soiled by sewage. Speaking to the BBC in 2010, she recalled watching a young man as he "crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal, as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog."

"I could not believe that humans could live in such conditions," she told the Express Tribune in 2014. "That one visit, the sights I saw during it, made me make a key life decision."

Under Pfau's leadership, that facility became the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, the nerve center of a national network of medical professionals who sought to house, treat and, at times, rescue victims of the disease. Pfau recalled collecting children who had been stowed away in caves or in cattle pens because of their illness.

With support from German donors, Pfau and her colleagues managed to bring leprosy largely into submission. Since 1996, the World Health Organization has considered the disease controlled in Pakistan. Her organization later worked on the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and blindness, as well as serving victims of drought, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.

Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau was born Sept. 9, 1929, in Leipzig, where her family's home was destroyed in the bombings of World War II. "If I give any sense to these years, it is a preparation to be ready to help others," she told the BBC.

After the war, with Leipzig under Soviet occupation, Pfau fled from East to West Germany to pursue her medical training, according to her biography on the website of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre. She said she nearly married a fellow student before experiencing what she described as a calling from God.

"When you receive such a calling, you cannot turn it down, for it is not you who has made the choice," she told the Express Tribune. "God has chosen you for Himself."

She studied medicine at universities in Mainz and Marburg before joining the Catholic order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, the organization that sent her abroad as a missionary.

No information on her survivors was immediately available.

For a period, Pfau served as an adviser to the Pakistani health minister.

"We are like a Pakistani marriage, " she remarked. "It was an arranged marriage because it was necessary. We always and only fought with each other. But we never could go in for divorce because we had too many children.
While President Donald Trump spends the next two weeks away from the White House, scores of workers will undertake the next steps in a long-planned renovation of the West Wing.

White House staffers have been relocated while stairs and leaks are repaired, electrical systems upgraded, walls repainted, drapes cleaned and a modernized system of heating and air conditioning is installed.

The massive repair work is an ideal metaphor for the troubled Trump administration rolling toward its eighth month: It has a new chief of staff, a purged National Security team, an empty director of communications slot and a brand-new work flow chart imposed by retired Gen. John Kelly. (Trump clearly favors working with generals who are, in effect, military chief executives. Well see if the impetuous elected chief executive feels the same after a couple of months of Marine Corps discipline.)

However, one serious problem remains unaddressed  the deteriorating relations between the Republican president and the Republican Congress, something that reared its head during the prolonged House struggle to repeal Obamacare. Without repair, this poor relationship threatens to sink GOP chances of holding its congressional majorities in next years midterm elections. The loss of GOP control would doom their chances of getting anything through another gridlocked Capitol leading up to 2020.

This is a critical time for us as Republicans, admitted RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, because we do have the Senate and the House and the White House  Now its our time to show  that we can govern when were given the majority.

No kidding.

Donald Trump might be described as a Republican of convenience, an outsider not bred of the ideological stock that wins and maintains D.C. power. His populist pragmatism appealed to millions of non-Beltway voters angry at both parties for years of unkept promises. He feels his electoral majority pulled GOP members along.

So, the billionaire has no trouble lashing out at his own partys members, even though he will need them next month and beyond for tax reform, debt ceiling and trade votes, and other issues.

Trump grumbled about Congress prolonged inability to pass health care reforms and new Russian economic sanctions restricting his ability to change them without approval. He said the bill worsens relations with Moscow to an all-time and very dangerous low, adding, You can thank Congress, the same people that cant even give us health care.

Tellingly, GOP House and Senate leadership had no comment. Turns out, most elected congressional Republicans got more votes than Trump last November.

And South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott replied: We work for the American people. We dont work for the president.

Blunt words coming from a caucus that for years boasted to voters and donors how much more it could accomplish if only the GOP held the White House. But now Trumps approval rating has slid into the 30s as numerous investigations of the administration proceed.

Trumps party is also moving now to block his ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. It also rejected Trumps urging to resurrect once more a bid to repeal Obamacare and his plaintive complaint over lack of congressional protection, as if Congress wasnt a separate branch of government.

Trump has now endorsed a controversial immigration reform plan authored by Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue. It would incrementally reduce legal immigration and impose a merit-based system of approval, a prominent Trump campaign promise.

But  wait for it  other Republicans have other ideas, mainly involving broader reforms. A similar plan foundered over party fractures during the administration of George W. Bush. Not only did the GOP lose both houses of Congress in 2006. It proceeded to lose the White House two years later.
Padre Island reopened to driving on its North and South beaches Friday after a brief closure earlier this week due to Hurricane Franklin.

But a warning remains in place for a high risk of rip currents along the central Texas Coast, according to the National Weather Service.
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A 39-year-old man was arrested Friday in connection with human remains found this week on a field off Old Corpus Christi Road.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman Doug Greene said Guadalupe Contreras faces a homicide charge and was expected to be booked in the Bexar County Jail on Friday evening.

The decomposing body of Elizabeth Contreras, 39, was found Tuesday off Old Corpus Christi Road by a homicide investigator who was working on a missing person report filed on Elizabeth Contreras.

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The man was transported from police headquarters to the county jail Friday evening. When asked if he committed the murder, Guadalupe Contreras said not guilty. He also told reporters Elizabeth Contreras was his wife.

Greene confirmed that the two were married at one point, but could not confirm if they were in a relationship at the time the woman was killed.

Greene said homicide detectives were able to retrieve physical evidence that linked the man to the womans body.

RELATED: Chase suspect yells 'I was set up,' while being arrested by SAPD

Based on everything that we gathered, we have enough to pursue homicide charges against him, Greene said.

Elizabeth Contreras was last seen by her family on Aug. 2, Greene said. They filed a missing person report the next day.

Greene said the womans family published a Facebook post describing the vehicle the woman was last seen getting in.

There was a response that the vehicle matching that description was located near (Interstate) 37 and between (Loop) 410 and Southton Road, Greene said.

Blood and some of the womans personal belongings were found in the vehicle, Greene said.

On Tuesday, a tip led homicide detectives to the field off Old Corpus Christi Road, Greene said. The tip was in connection with the womans missing person report.

After the body was found, Guadalupe Contreras was asked to come to police headquarters where he failed a polygraph test, Greene said.

He basically turned himself in, Greene said.

The exact cause of death of Elizabeth is undetermined at the moment, Greene said.

SMartinez-Beltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @SergioMarBel
They say that one lawyer will starve if hes the only one in town, but two lawyers can make a decent living.

There are much better lawyer jokes out there, but its no laughing matter if you need legal advice and none is available.

Thats too often the case, especially for low-income residents in West Central Nebraska.

Eleven counties, including Hayes and 10 others in the Sandhills region, have no attorneys at all.

Frontier, Dundy and Perkins counties have only two each, and Hitchcock County is home to one attorney, according to the latest information from the Nebraska State Bar Association.

The association doesnt require members to provide pro bono legal advice the way some states do, but members are strongly encouraged to provide 50 hours a year, according to Liz Neeley, executive director.

Traditionally, thats been accomplished by walk-in clinics, where attorneys man a desk in a courthouse for set hours, providing simple civil legal advice to citizens who might otherwise ask court officials who are prohibited from doing so.

You could imagine how slow business would be for such a system in a small rural county. But for someone who needs a quick answer to a civil legal matter, its no small issue.

Fortunately, the Internet offers a solution that is being implemented in Nebraska this month.

The State Bar Association is now one of 42 states participating in a new pro bono initiative sponsored by the American Bar Association, which takes the walk-in clinic online.

Nebraska Free Legal Answers Online is available at www.Ne.FreeLegalAnswers.org , where approved volunteer lawyers provide information and basic legal advice about specific legal issues to eligible users.

Eligible users must be Nebraska residents 18 or older, have less than $5,000 total assets and total household income less than 250 percent of Federal Poverty Guidelines  and cannot be in jail or prison.

Log in, and youll provide information about a civil legal problem to narrow down specific questions, uploading documents or photos for a lawyer to review. Youre limited to three civil legal questions a year.

Volunteer lawyers can view questions according to their expertise, screen for conflicts and learn whether they can answer the users questions.

If they decide to respond, it goes to a private queue for that specific lawyer, who has three days to provide an initial response which forms an attorney-client relationship.

The user logs in, views the answer from volunteer lawyer, and when it is determined there is nothing further the lawyer can to assist, the question is closed and the attorney-client relationship ended.

NSBA President Jo Bataillon said the state bar is deeply committed to expanding access to the justice system, since it is estimated 85 percent of the publics legal needs go unmet.

The Nebraska Free Legal Answers website gives people in tough situations the opportunity to understand how the law applies to their particular situation at no charge, Bataillon said.

The new system doesnt address the issue of legal advice for low-income defendants in criminal cases, who are often served by harried public defenders without time or incentive to provide an effective defense.

But in civil questions, its a win-win situation for low-income people who need legal advice, and attorneys who want an effective way to provide pro bono service.
Retired state District Judge Robert Tug Bob Pfeuffer, who for 21 years presided over courtrooms in Comal, Hays and Caldwell counties, died July 30. He was 80.

Colleagues and courtroom observers remembered him as a no-nonsense judge who kept lawyers in line  litigators, criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors alike  yet could treat individuals with empathy and tact when they came before him without legal representation.

An only child born in New Braunfels, Pfeuffer had deep roots in the areas German colonial past.

The original Pfeuffers came  in 1845 with the original settlers, said his wife, Jean Hillje Pfeuffer. His mothers father lived on River Road for 45 years.

More Information Robert Tug Pfeuffer Born: May 15, 1937, New Braunfels Died: July 30, 2017, New Braunfels Preceded by: Parents Laura Mildred Gode and Tug Somers Pfeuffer. Survived by: Wife Jean Hillje Pfeuffer; sons Michael Somers Pfeuffer and daughter-in-law Carlyn Dugan Pfeuffer; David Gregory Pfeuffer and daughter-in-law Tammy Kay; daughter Susan Gode Pfeuffer; and seven grandchildren. Services: Memorial was Aug. 3. See More Collapse

He graduated from New Braunfels High School in 1955 and enrolled at Texas A&M University, where he studied history but gravitated toward law as a sophomore.

We had a case, George Parr, in New Braunfels years ago, Jean Pfeuffer said, referring to the infamous South Texas political boss who ran Duval County until he was convicted of stealing money from the Benavides school district in 1957. My mother was a lawyer  she took Bob; that got him interested in law.

Pfeuffer and his future wife had known each other since high school and started dating just before Pfeuffer went off to A&M.

We dated every single night before he left, Jean Pfeuffer recalled.

They were married in A&Ms Memorial Student Center on Easter in 1959. Bob Pfeuffer arranged the whole thing, his wife said. He was on the (Corps of Cadets) staff his junior and senior years; we went through the arched sabers.

Graduating from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law in 1962, Pfeuffer joined the Air Force and was stationed at Dover AFB, where he served in the Judge Advocate General Corps. After his discharge in 1965, Pfeuffer and his family returned to New Braunfels, where he began practicing law at Bartram, Reagan & Burrus.

He was offered the appointment as judge for the new 207th Judicial District by Gov. Dolph Briscoe in 1973. Pfeuffer accepted and was elected to subsequent terms, serving for 21 years.

A commanding presence in the courtroom, Pfeuffer once threatened to have a defendant brought in on a hospital bed.

We had a room full of jurors waiting for jury selection, but the defendant was absent, claiming to be in the hospital with heart palpitations, said state District Judge Dib Waldrip, who was an assistant district attorney in Comal County at the time.

Noting the defendants absence, Pfeuffer instructed Waldrip to subpoena him and his doctors immediately, declaring, If hes not on his death bed, Ill try him on a gurney!

Pfeuffer heard civil and criminal cases  including those involving the death penalty  but he seldom brought his work home.

Whenever he was on the bench, he would listen to the testimony (and) if he didnt have a jury, review the facts, then make his decision, Jean Pfeuffer said. He would not rehash it at all; he didnt worry about it.

Familiar in his community, Pfeuffer occasionally received unsolicited advice, such as in a 1977 case when residents of the old cotton town of Gruene went to court to prevent an iconic water tower from being moved after it was sold.

Pfeuffer was visiting the tower when all at once, someone who happened to be a friend of his mothers saw him and said, Now Bobby, dont you let them tear down our water tower! Jean Pfeuffer recalled.

The tower stayed where it was, but not because of pressure from family friends.

He understood that law and order was not about being a dictator, it was about achieving justice, Waldrip said. He was willing to try to find  an appropriate solution.

Retiring in 1994, Pfeuffer practiced law, did mediation and arbitration work and filled in as a visiting judge when needed.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
Californias attorney general went to court Friday seeking conflict-of-interest rules from President Trumps Environmental Protection Agency, whose chief spent years suing to overturn the environmental rules he is now charged with enforcing.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitts ability to serve as an impartial decision-maker merits close examination, especially now that he has taken a direct role in initiating review of numerous EPA regulations he sought to undo while serving as Oklahomas attorney general for six years, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement after filing a federal court lawsuit in Washington, D.C.

Pruitt, in alliance with Oklahomas oil and gas industries, sued the federal agency over rules limiting power plant emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, methane and smog-causing air pollutants and setting national air-quality standards for ozone pollution. California took the opposite side in each of those cases, Becerra said.

After the Senate confirmed Trumps nomination of Pruitt and he took office in February, Becerra said, Pruitt removed himself from taking part in the suits he had filed against the agency, but not from EPA proceedings to change those rules.

Pruitt has now officially directed EPA to stay, reconsider, and possibly revise or even rescind many of these same rules, the lawsuit said.

Becerra said he asked the EPA on April 7 under the Freedom of Information Act for documents describing any conflict-of-interest standards the agency has set for Pruitt in light of his actions in Oklahoma.

The law requires federal agencies to respond in 20 working days with information about the records it would produce and the exemptions it would claim, but the EPAs only response was a couple of emails and a phone call saying it was working on the request, Becerras suit said. He asked a judge to order the EPA to produce the records and to reimburse California for its legal costs.

The federal agency responded with a statement criticizing the suit.

EPAs dedicated and hard-working career staff are working as quickly as possible to respond to all incoming FOIA requests and meet their legal deadlines, the agency said, noting its staff members contacts with Becerras office.

Its unfortunate that California is suing the agency, draining resources that could be better spent protecting human health and the environment  rather than working with EPAs career staff, as they can gather all the information requested.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > How Muslims became the Other in India

BOOK REVIEW

by Ahmad Zaboor

Being the Other, the Muslims in India by Saeed Naqvi; Publication: Aleph; 2016; 239 pages; Rs 599.

Beyond any description India is scripting a fast economic growth, that may be a solace for the corporate class including the government but the bare truth is that the growth process has simply bypassed Indias largest religious community of Muslims, as has been vindicated by the government-appointed Sachar Committee Report. Muslims also suffer from political marginalisation in the political process of India. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the national party, has not even one Muslim as a member of the Lok Sabha. The animus against Muslims has forced the other parties to leave the Muslim candidates in the election process.

Saeed Naqvi is a senior Indian journalist and television commentator who has traversed different parts of the world for the collection of different stories. Being the Other is partly a memoir and partly a disquisition into the various deliberate and inadvertent acts taken by post-independence India that has contributed to the othering of the 180 million Muslims in this country. It is a lament for the vanished syncretic Hindu-Muslims culture.

The othering of Muslims has to be viewed against the backdrop of the weakening of the firewall of secularism. Naqvi peeps into this phenomenon and remarks that in the run-up to the independence and its immediate aftermath, some of the big guns, ranging from Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel to the present dispensation, have served only to drive the communities further apart. This has been partly by design and partly by the bulging of political and religious leaders. The fallout has been alienation and insecurity for Muslims. But those who profited from it have been hardcore Hindu fundamentalists.

Who can be held responsible for this? His attack is scathing, he blames both the Congress as well as the BJP for this. Hindus and Muslims have been living in the state of institutionalised apartheid for decades, even centuries.

During the post-partition pogroms in 1947 in Jammu and Hyderabad a pattern was established: the police and the armed forces would side with the Hindus in Hindu-Muslim conflicts. (p.117) Every riot, communal incident leaves several unanswered questions which are never probed. The truth somehow remains hidden and allegations of guilt are often directed at the victims. The perpetrators, almost always, get away.

Immediately after partition, Muslims realised that politicians, officials, and the largely Hindu police force are working in tandem progressively against them in communally charged situations. Those Muslims who decided at the critical juncture of the partition to stay back in India gave the first death blow to the two-nation theory.

But simply living in India has not been enough for Muslims. None other than the first Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, asked them to prove their credentials as Indians and since then Muslims are repeatedly bracketed as traitors. The earliest accusation against the Muslims was that they were appeased at the cost of the majority; they are now being described as anti-nationals. Most of the Chief Ministers in North India have been Brahmins, belonging to the upper caste. It has only been in the 1990s that Dalits and Yadavs have become Chief Minsters.

As Brahmins felt that Muslims were in alliance with the lower class, the largely intra-Hindu tussle has worked to the disadvantage of Muslims. A thought took root in the Brahmins: target the Muslims as the other to affect greater Hindu consolidation. The growth of the RSS in North India would not have been possible without the support of the Congress. (p. 98)

After the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the covert dislike has become a lot more open and frequent. The destruction of the mosque shook the confidence of Muslims in the political class, especially the Congress.

The author laments that the abolition of the Zamindari system has exacerbated the division between Hindus and Muslims. As long as Muslims were affluent, they accepted the aspects of Hindu culture. As the lower middle class, always more religious in every society, gained upward mobility, groups like the Jamaat-i-Islami, Tableegi Jamat gained a foothold. All of them sprouted from a Sunni sect of Islam; not a single Shia has joined them. He mentions various terrorist organisations but not even a single Shia. His deliberate failure to mention those militant organisations associated with Shias becomes all the more glaring.

Muslims since Partition have been treated as the other in India. He mentions that the Nehru-Jinnah personality clash was not a negligible factor when it came to events that led to Partition. One of the taunts that Indian Muslims have to repeatedly hear from the Hindu community is that they vivisected India. Maulana Azad remarked that Nehru was impatient and wanted to become the Prime Minster. For Nehru, British rule was to be replaced with Congress rule, which the Maulana described as undiluted Hindu Raj. When Mahatma Gandhi made the suggestion that Jinnah should be asked to form the government, both Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru opposed it vehemently, and in fact forced Gandhi to withdraw the suggestion.

Nehru and Sardar Patel rejected it because Jinnah would have reiterated his demand for a federal government. But for Nehru, the country divided by deep chasms would encourage fissiparous tendencies and without Muslims, they could plan out a strong Central Government. The suggestion for an impartial army for peace during partition was overruled by a majority of Congress leaders. (p. 64) The animus of Sardar Patel against the Muslims was so much that he is said to have called Hyderabad, the Muslim Princely state, a cancer in the heart of India.

One of the remarkable campaigns by the Right-wing forces over the past few years in India goes under the startling name of Love-Jihad. It argues that Muslim men are waging jihad in India through love marriages. Muslim fundamentalists lure Hindu-Christian girls into their fold, thus swelling their number in an ongoing demographic war. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti in Karnataka claimed that 30,000 young women had been duped by Love birds. But the Karnataka Police claimed that they have been able to trace only 332 girls and a majority of them were Hindu girls who had eloped to marry Hindu men of their choice.

Whipping up anxiety about the common enemy has proved juicy as it has unified the Hindu castes. Politics in post-independence India made Hindu consolidation an imperative: targeting Muslims made an electoral expedient. (p 144) The perceived Muslim threat is being raised even after the Census Commissioner has made it clear that the growth rate of Hindus had been high than the Muslims. The creation of virulent masculinities is a part of the nationalism of Hindus directed at Muslims.

Lal Bahdur Shastri, who became the Prime Minster of India following the death of Nehru, requested the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) godfather Golwalkar to post RSS hooligans at city squares in north Indian cities for civil defence in the wake of the 1965 war, which surprised many Muslims, but there was not even a murmur against it in the Congress party. Following the end of the Emergency in 1977 and collapse of the Janata Government in 1979, Indira Gandhi found her constituency in religion, she became more religious and used her newly discovered religiosity in 1983 in Kashmir where she launched a vitriolic attack on the invasion of Muslims in Jammu city, and it yielded rich electoral dividends to the Congress party. The assassination of Indira Gandhi in the wake of the attack on a Sikh holy shrine in Amritsar resulted in the consolidation of Hindu majority against the decade-old Sikh insurgency and brought back the Congress to power.

The Congress always looked at the Muslims and their problems through the prism of electoral politics; any overture to Muslims is believed to haemorrhage the Hindu vote. The Congress Party also devised a strategy of soft Hindutva to win Hindu votes, as Rajiv Gandhi kicked off his election campaign in 1984 by promising Ram Rajya. The slogan was not convincing but backed indirectly the BJPs core ideology of a Hindu Rashtra. P.V. Narasimha Rao, brought a Special Provision Bill of 1991, to maintain status quo on all disputes over places of worship as they existed in 1947 sans Ram temple. The BJP initially didnt launch an agitation against it; it showed its displeasure by abstaining from voting to ensure its safe passage.

Saeed Naqvi posits that India-Pakistan, Hindu-Muslims problems are essentially one set of issues and based on the law of triangle: if any angle is addressed it will affect the other two. Therefore the need is to understand it and address all the angles comprehensively.

Atal Behari Vajpayee made a real bid to improve ties with Pakistan, as he was the senior leader of the Sangh Parivar. Modi hails from the same Parivar but would not transgress the red lines on Pakistan, Kashmir and Hindu-Muslims issues drawn by the Parivar. While the former was Brahmin, Modi is Ghanchi. This will continue so long caste remains a determinant in the social and political life of India.

Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India, made the decision to assuage the hurt of Muslims by appointing the Sachar Committee to look into the socio-economic conditions of Muslims; it has portrayed a dismal picture of Muslims in India and their condition has deteriorated even below that of the Dalits. Nothing was done to improve their lot except a few steps which were piecemeal.

Narendra Modi is taking advantage of the global mood, which post-9/11 turned angrily upon Muslims. Hindutva will continue to be the blueprint whenever convenient. The lot of Muslims in India has not improved and ironically deteriorated after Partition.

In retrospect, Naqvi notes that Muslims are unlikely to progress given the clerical leadership which strikes deals with the political class and keeps the community mired in religion in enclaves distant from modernity. The backwardness of the Muslims is not only due to the clerical control over the masses but the institutionalised discrimination being practised against Muslims as shown by the Sachar Committee.

The book is pithy, cogently argumentative and absorbing. However it does not present a comprehensive view of the conditions of Muslims in India, but surely provides an exhaustive narrative about the role of the Indian state and throws light on the various unknown issues which the author had himself observed while working as a journalist.

The reviewer, hailing from Anantnag in J&K, is a Lecturer in Political Science, He can be contacted at e-mail ahmadzaboor[at]gmail.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Birth of Malorossiya? : Delivery Pains For Ukraine

by R.G. Gidadhubli

Ukraine has been a victim of crisis during the last few yearslost Crimea in 2014 by the alleged annexation by Russia, the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the country adjoining Russia due to which about 10,000 people have died, and strained political relations with Russia. Even as Germany and France have taken the initiative in resolving this conflict under the Minsk Deal since 2015, durable peace is yet to emerge.

What has added to Ukraines problem is that on July 18, 2017 Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR), announced the formation of Malorossiya or Little Russia. Donetsk is a part of the macro region of Donbas in the eastern part of Ukraine in which people of predominantly Russian ethnic identity live. Adjoining the DPR is the Lugansk National Republic (LNR) which is a part of Ukraine. As pointed out by historians, this name Malorossiya was inspired by the old Czarist province which contained much of eastern Ukraine or the region held by separatists at present. Even as expected, this hype has created a lot of controversy and criticism among politicians and analysts, Zakhar Prilepin, one of Zakharchenkos advisers, frankly stated by declaring Malorossiya we really wanted to make a surprise for Moscow, for Washington, and, of course, for Kiev. Hence it is worth noting the reactions and responses from the concerned sections and political leaders.

At the outset it needs to be mentioned that there is instant protest and reaction by the Ukrainian leaders who have made allegations that this concept of Malorossiya is a Russian-inspired provocation. This is further evident from the candid statement of the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, that this is a part of the continuum of Kremlins acts from the beginning of the military aggression against my nation, [during which] the Russian Federations goal has been to divide Ukraine into parts. He has even asserted that Zakharchenko, the leader of Donetsk, and Plotnikov, the leader of Lugansk, are not political figures, but puppets that convey orders received from Moscow. But this may not be entirely correct in the present context.

At the same time it needs to be noted that the conflict in the eastern region has adversely impacted the economy of Ukraine. As rightly pointed out by Mark Galeotti, a Russia specialist in Prague, Ukraine has been spending a lot of resources in the conflict in Donbas and Lugansk and the expected return and economic benefits are uncertain. Moreover, strained relations with Russia have not only worsened its domestic energy needs, but has also resulted in its loss of revenue from energy supplies through the countrys pipelines from Russia to Europe.

As expected, the declaration of Malorossiya by Zakharchenko has been condemned not only by Ukraine but also by the Western powers since it is against the unity and integrity of Ukraine. The USA and European leaders are strongly supporting Petro Poroshenko, who has taken Ukraine more towards the West rather than towards Russia.

It is important to note that Igor Plotnitsky, who is Zakharchenkos counterpart in the Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR), has stated that he had no part in this proclamation and that at the moment the expediency of such a step raises big doubts. Moreover, as opined by analysts, some leaders of the Lugansk region have contended that by making this declaration, Zakharchenko might seem to assert his own authority over the whole of the rebel Donbas while also asserting that Poroshenkos regime has failed. This strong criticism of Zakharchenko by the LNR leaders and not associating with him on this issue might indirectly help the Ukrainian authorities.

Russias Response

There are mixed reactions and responses from Russia. It needs to be stated at the outset that contrary to Poroshenkos allegations, Russian leaders are surprised and the presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has stated on July 19 that the statement Zakharchenko made this morning about Malorossiya is his personal initiative and that Moscow learnt about it from the press. He reiterated that Moscow is committed to the Minsk agreements with regard to the solution of the east Ukrainian conflict. In support of this official statement Boris Grizlov, an old-time Kremlin insider from St. Petersburg, has stated that the Malorossiya initiative does not comply with the Minsk process and that this issue could be treated as a discussion-point with Kyiev.

Secondly, the top Putin adviser, Vladislav Surkov, has opined that the declaration of the state of Malorossiya proves that there is internal conflict in Ukraine and that Russia has no role, which the West refuses to admit.

Thirdly, as reported by RIA Novosti on July 18, 2017, while some Russian parliamentarians have supported Zakharchenko, others expressed doubts, insisting that the Malorossiya idea is impractical and badly thought through.

Fourthly, within the Russian-controlled part of Donbas, different pro-Russia separatist leaders have also expressed misgivings about Malorossiya. In fact an opinion seems to have been formed in the Russian media that Zakharchenko is a crazy separatist, who does not really know what he is talking about and has embarrassed the Russian authorities by publicly under-mining the Minsk Two protocols, which Russia officially supports, as mentioned in Kommersant on July 20.

But at the same time it is important to note that this controversial statement suits some sections of the Russian leaders and media. In fact adjoining Ukrainian DPR is the territory of Donbas which is a part of the Russian Federation. Hence Donetsk leaders in Ukraine also get military supplies and economic support from some groups from Russia for sustaining their conflict with the Ukrainian leaders, notwith-standing denial by Moscow. Hence some Russian leaders might indirectly support the idea of Malorossiya, that is, those who are against the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko. More-over, the role or support of Victor Yanukovich, the ethnic Russian who was the President of Ukraine, may not be ruled out. Because Yanukovich was forced to leave Ukraine for his pro-Russia policy by the Poroshenko partys supporters and has taken asylum in Russia and is interested to return to Ukraine. Similarly, Zakharchenko, with his declaration of Maloro-ssiya, might also get the support of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian President and Odessa regional governor who has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship; at least this too cannot be ruled out. In fact, on July 27 he lashed out at Ukrainian President Porosheko and vowed to resist what he called the cowardly move and to continue fighting for a real European Ukraine.

Thus there are mixed responses on the issue of Malorossiya by the concerned sections in Ukraine and Russia. The fact that Zakharchenko has frankly stated that he is against any progress in the Minsk deal is clear evidence that he might be preventing the implementation of the deal in reality during the last two years. However, on July 24, 2017 the German Government officially stated that Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine have agreed on a number of immediate measures to push forward with a peace deal brokered in 2015 to end the bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine. They have called for the immediate halt to all violations of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where the Russia-backed separatists are fighting the forces of the Central Government in Kiev. Hence France and Germany have called on Russia to condemn the Malorossiya project as unacceptable and to concentrate on implementing the Minsk Two protocols.

In conclusion, whether Zakharchenko will succeed in his ambitious idea of Malorossiya is highly speculative. At the same time under the prevailing uncertainties and challenges in resolving the conflict, Ukrainian President Poroshenko has to face this additional problem. Thus even as Malorossiya is born and there could be speculation about its survival and growth, Ukraine is already suffering from delivery pains.

(July 31, 2017)

Dr R.G. Gidadhubli is a Professor and the former Director, Centre for Eurasian Studies, University of Mumbai.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > In the Grip of Political Mafia

MUSINGS

Today, there is not just dismay but sorrow spreading out, as this land is in the grip of a political mafia, holding sway on all possible fronts. Hopelessness all around, to such an extent that I dont really feel azaad in this Azaad nation. Have to think a hundred times before I can decide what to wear or eat or even greet. Yes, if my as-salaam-alaikums (may peace be on you) are rather loud and clear then all eyes turn on me! Yes, in all possible spheres one is being made to feel the other.

We are sitting like mute spectators, seeing our land so very craftily destroyed by the ruling mafia, hell-bent on ruining this land. In fact, this morning as I sat re-reading Khushwant Singhs The end of India (Penguin), I marvelled at his sheer farsightedness. In that slim volume he had warned us of the dangers of fascism making inroads, creeping right into our courtyards. Look around you, see how the Right-wing brigades are out there, killing and murderinghumans and institutions and much more. Fear looms large as opportunist Chief Ministers are joining the destructive forces!

Spotlight on D.G. Vanzara!

Earlier this week, as I read news reports that the special CBI court has discharged former IPS officer from Gujarat D.G. Vanzara and Rajasthan cadre IPS officer Dinesh M.N. in the case of alleged fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, I sat back rather rattled. Though nothing really shocks me in todays times, but the fact stands out that I had been reading about Vanzaras encounter killings-cum-torture tactics for the last few years. Yet he stands free, with a clean chit!

I have read about D.G. Vanzara and his doings in at least two volumes but before I quote from those, let me fit in details to this particular case where D.G. Vanzara, a DIG-rank officer, was arrested on the charge of an alleged fake encounter.

Vanzara was arrested on April 24, 2007, in connection with the alleged fake encounter of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh who, the Gujarat Police claimed, had links with the Pakistan-based terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Toiba. ... Sheikh and his wife, Kausar Bi, were abducted by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maha-rashtra. Sheikh was killed in an alleged fake encounter near Gandhinagar in 2005, after which his wife disappeared, in all probability killed. Prajapati, an eyewitness, was also allegedly killed by the police in 2006. The Sohrabuddin case was transferred to Mumbai in 2012 on the CBIs request for a fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court clubbed the fake encounter case of Prajapati with that of Sheikh.

Now coming to the two volumes. I Am A Mufti and I Am Not A Terrorist11 Years Behind the Bars written by Mufti Abdul Qayyum Ahmed Husain Mansuri, published by Jamat Ulama Ahmedabad and Maharashtra, carries details of the torture inflicted on the Mufti by Vanzara. Starting off from the dayAugust 17, 2003when Mufti was kidnapped through forgery and deceit by men of Gujarats Crime Branch. And with that takes off the entire sequence how this man was not just torturedthird degree torture with beastly brutality but also implicated in the Akshardham case. If one were to read even a couple of paragraphs from this book, its enough to make you grasp the level of torture inflicted on him by Vanzara and his three colleagues ...To quote from this bookI saw red bearded Vanzara sahib wearing glasses sitting on the counter table and at his right some other officers were sitting, among them Singhal Sahab who was introduced last night. The other officers were P.I. V.D. Vanzara, P.I. R.I Patel were amongst the others who were introduced later ...I was made to sit on the floor near their shoes. Vanzara took the course of the conversation in his hands and repeated last nights question that who had come from Hyderabad? I replied the same answer that Maulana Abdul Samad Sahab had given. Vanzara said: call the club (stick) party. (This club stick party was a group of five to six in humans, comprising of appalling, uncivilised persons who would rush upon like hungry wolves on the oppressed and helpless people and they used to beat them until they them-selves got tired or the victims be unconscious or dead) ...Hence the club party arrived whose dreadful faces were enough to frighten me. No sooner they came, they put handcuffs in my hands and one buffalo-like fat oppressor held me down from my waist, another caught hold of both my legs. In spite of my hands fettered in iron chains, two of them caught hold of both my shoulders and stood me facing the wall and V.D. Vanzara started hitting me on my back with great inhumanity.

The other volume is, of course, R.B. Sree-kumars Gujarat: Behind The Curtain (Manas) where this whistle-blower top cop of the Gujarat cadre writes rather too candidly about D.G. Vanzara and his deeds! To quote Sreekumar from this bookOn September 5, 2002, I had sent an intelligence report to K.R. Kaushik, Commissioner of Police (Ahmedabad), informing that the recovery of indigenous firearms and arrest of Muslims in July 2002, on the eve of Rathyatra, was stage-managed by city Crime Branch DIG Vanzara. I requested the Commissioner of Police (Ahmedabad) to conduct due enquiries on this information. According to my sources, the recovered firearms were manufactured in a factory owned by local politicians (supporters of religious organisations) in Sabarkantha district and these planted on the arrested Muslims....

Space constraints come in way of my detailing the alleged proximity of Vanzara with the top brass of Gujarat as mentioned in this book. I should say its one of those must reads, to grasp how the nexus works, between the partners in crimethe cops together with the bureaucracy and cops!

Just for your sampling, this letter of Vanzara published in this volumeDIG D.G. Vanzara, jailed since April 2007 for the alleged guilt of committing fake encounters, in his resignation letter to the government of Gujarat, dated 1st September, 2013, captionedTendering of resignation from my service with renunciation of all post-retirement benefitswrote: Gujarat CID/Union CBI had arrested me and my officers in different encounter cases, holding us to be responsible for carrying out alleged fake encounters, if that is true then the CBI investigating officers of all the 4 encounter cases of Sohrabuddin, Tulsi Ram, Sadiq Jamal and Ishrat Jahan have to arrest the policy-formulators also, as we, being field officers, have simply implemented the conscious policy of this government, which was inspiring, guiding and monitoring our actions from very close quarters. By this reasoning, I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government, instead of being in Gandhinagar, should either be in Taloja Central Prison at Navi Mumbai or in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Together, We Can

I vainly search for my favourite television anchors like Karan Thapar and, more recently, Barkha Dutt. I am told that they have been taken off. Who has done this is a matter of conjecture. Some say that it is the pressure of the Narendra Modi Government while a few others lament that it was the doing of the owners of the channel. Whoever has done it has acted as the censor.

What surprises me is the absence of protests. In my time, there would be noise or a meeting to point out that the press has been muzzled or that critics have been silenced. Of course, it was a different story when the Emergency was imposed, but before that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would not dare move against the press. She would look for supportersand there were quite a fewbut the number of critics was also large.

I recall that after imposing censorship in 1975-77, she triumphantly said that not a dog had barked! This hurt me as much as other journalists. We gathered at the Press Clubthe number was 103and passed a resolution to criticise the censorship. Information Minister V.C. Shukla, who knew me well, rang up to warn that each one of you would be put behind bars. This actually happened and I, too, was detained for three months.

That period has surfaced once again before my eyes when Taslima Nasreen remarked the other day that very few opposition voices are heard in the worlds largest democracy. She had been confined to Aurangabad after leaving Kolkata. She is from Bangladesh and the fundamentalists there drove her out because she wrote the book, Lajja (Shame), narrating the plight of Hindu women at the hands of fundamentalists in her country.

It is a slur on Indian democracy that she cannot live in a city of her choosing. I am told that a few days ago she left Aurangabad for Delhi, but she was not allowed to land and sent back to Aurangabad. I do not want to dwell any further on this incident but what I have in mind is the danger to our democracy.

An Emergency-like situation can prevail without actually imposing it. The RSS has been successful in removing the liberal heads of various educational institutions. I followed the case of the Nehru Memorial Centre and found to my horror the disappearance of the familiar liberal people. True, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the RSS are the last word but they didnt go to the people asking for votes. It was never on the latters agenda either.

Still the case of Taslima Nasreen is there, unexplained. No Indian airport would admit her except the nearest one to Aurangabad, which is Pune. Apparently, the government must have given instructions not to let her in at other places. All these look like the fatwa against Salman Rushdie by Iran for having written the book, Satanic Verses, which raised questions against Islam.

The Indian nation has to be vigilant all the time because it has gone through a period of 19 months of censorship. The press overdid it because as the BJP leader, L.K. Advani, said: You were asked to bend but you began to crawl. To a large extent, Advani was right. The journalists were afraid of being arraigned by the Indira Gandhi Government. Even the Press Council of India, the custodian of press freedom, vied with Mrs Gandhis supporters to raise the flag in her favour.

Today, it is the other way round. The press has been saffronised and except the odd voices in print and electronic media, it is at the beck and call of the people in power. There is very little difference between then and now because survival is the uppermost in the minds of newspapers or television channel owners and journalists.

The NDTV is under pressure because its owner, Prannoy Roy, had taken a loan. But the CBI registered a case, said to be at the behest of the government, against the RRPR Holding Private Limited, Prannoy Roy, his wife Radhika and unidentified officials of the ICICI Bank of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.

The government may find some ways to harass Karan Thapar and Barkha Dutt because of their long association with the television channel. They have been the most vociferous anchors taking up the cause of aggrieved people. Obviously, it has not been to the liking of the establishment. The pressure must have been enormous on the channels to drop both.

How do we bring back the environment of freedom? That is the question facing the nation today. With the Damocles sword of contract hanging over their head, they are afraid to speak up lest they should annoy the owners. But then the nation is getting the news which has been sieved through because of various considerations and pressures.

In America, such a situation came up and there the journalists got together and started their own channel. It was a courage of sorts because ultimately the sacred cows became too many and the tendencies to leave out too frequent. The crunch of resources was felt very badly and the freedom was compromised.

Both Karan Thapar and Barkha Dutt will have to keep in mind that their journey would be long and arduous. The establishment would tempt them all the time to lure them to its side but it is up them to withstand the difficulties they would be facing in the wilderness. It is not easy, but they can because of their character.

My support is with them, whatever worth it is. They are the examples of courage. Now it all depends on their stamina and the support the press extends to them. Not only the media, but the entire country is looking up to them. What happened during the Emergency may not happen now. Then the press failed miserably. But, together we can.

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
MARTINSVILLE  Funding is available from the West Piedmont Workforce Development Board (WPWDB) for businesses to use to help their employees develop as professionals.

Employers in Martinsville-Henry County as well as Danville and Patrick and Pittsylvania counties can receive funds through the Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) Program, which was created to increase skill levels within the existing workforce, according to WPBDC Executive Director Lisa Fultz.

The program funds up to 90 percent of the cost of a training program enabling workers to either hold onto their jobs, get new jobs, learn new equipment and processes or earn higher wages, Fultz said.

Employees who complete a training program should also receive a recognized credential, she said.

Fultz described the program as a valuable tool that can help employees learn new skills and assist employers with enhancing the skills of their workforce without hiring new employees.

The program is really a great opportunity for businesses to drastically reduce the cost of professional development through little effort on their part, she said.

Robbie Knight, business services manager for the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, said the program helps workers increase their likelihood for promotions.

In turn, Knight said, that will open up entry-level positions that we can backfill for lower-skilled people seeking employment.

Sean Nix, director of culture and engagement for Monogram Foods, said his companys participation in the program has enabled employees to receive training in essential skills that helped the company retain talent, provide advancement opportunities and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Investing in every leader (successful employee) in Monogram has resulted in improved performance, reduced turnover and retention of talent and provided opportunities for advancement, Nix said. The IWT Program has reduced our need for external calls to vendors and increased our internal skills and capabilities significantly.

Community colleges are the preferred providers of incumbent worker training, Fultz said. But if they somehow cannot provide the types of training necessary, other sources can be used, she said.

We (the WPWDB) value our community colleges greatly, so we try to go to them first, she said.

IWT requires employers to contribute a percentage of the total training cost. Employers with less than 50 employees will see 90 percent of training costs reimbursed by the WPWDB. Those with 51 to 100 employees will see 75 percent of their training costs covered. Those with more than 100 workers must pay 50 percent of the training costs, according to Fultz.

There are no restrictions on the number of employees of a business who are eligible to participate in the training. However, the majority of participating workers should be employed by the company for at least six months, Fultz said.

She anticipates the WPWDB will have about $350,000 in federal funds to put toward the program. Of that amount, about $126,000 is from a Small Business IWT Grant that must be spent by Dec. 31, she said.
On Thursday, Martinsville School Board Vice-Chair Lawrence Mitchell announced his resignation from the school board, citing irreconcilable differences with Chairwoman Joan Montgomery and other school board members.

In an interview with the Martinsville Bulletin, Mitchell said there was a little bit too much politics in the relationship between the board and Martinsville City Council, and that the board and council are allegedly too focused on micromanaging Martinsville City Schools Superintendent Zeb Talley.

This editorial is not designed to render a verdict regarding Mr. Mitchells claims. This is a complicated situation, and its always wise to remember that few issues in life are black and white. Most are shades of gray.

However, we would like to talk about school boards.

The website for the National School Boards Association contains an interesting chart titled How are local school board members selected in your state? According to the document, which was last updated in June 2009, 30 out of 50 states have elected school boards.

What that means is that in three-fifths of U.S. states, the only way to get on a school board is to be elected to the seat by the voters of the district. That, by the way, is how Henry Countys school board operates.

In the other 20 states, some school boards are appointed by members of city council or the board of supervisors. However, even in those states, appointed school boards are the exception, not the rule. In California, for example, all school boards are elected with the exception of the Los Angeles County Board of Education, which is appointed by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. In Illinois, only the Chicago Public School District board is appointed by the mayor; the rest are elected. In Kansas, all school boards are elected except at Ft. Leavenworth, where the board is appointed by the base commander.

Finally, we get to Virginia. In our state, 108 school boards are elected, and just 26 are appointed. If 26 seems like a small number, consider that Virginia is something of an outlier. Virginia actually has more appointed school boards than any other state.

Martinsville, of course, is one of those 26. Our city school board is appointed by city council.

There are advantages and disadvantages to an appointed school board, just as there are advantages and disadvantages to an elected one. Some argue that elected school boards are more responsive to the will of the public and that school board elections increase the public interest in the school system, since the average Joe is offered a direct voice in the selection of his local board. Additionally, elected boards are often more diverse.

The disadvantage, of course, is that once a process becomes politicized, it carries with it all the negative baggage of modern politics. Someone running for school board might focus on a single popular issue, or attack an incumbent board member or unpopular school staff member in order to win the vote.

However, while school board elections could potentially invite controversy, they are also the most democratic way of selecting a board. Generally speaking, the more democracy that we can inject into our local government procedures, the better.

Again, we are not saying that Mr. Mitchells claims are correct, nor are we saying that they are incorrect. But if there is indeed a concern regarding the relationship between city council and the city school board, switching to an elected board would be an elegant way to resolve the issue. Even if the concern is unfounded, switching to an elected board would circumvent future controversy.

The Bulletin Editorial Board consists of Brian Carlton, Ben Williams and Trisha Long
As a prelude to the 2017 Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival, the Jazz & Justice event brought Grammy nominee Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, legendary Charles Neville and Springfield-native Sarah Elizabeth Charles together to offer a deeper look at the meaning of art and jazz music.

Springfield's CityStage hosted an active crowd as the panel, led by Hampshire College professor of Africana studies and history Christopher Tinson, shared some personal anecdotes, memories, insight on jazz music and laughs with the audience.

Scott started the conversation by touching on how significant jazz music has been personally and continues to be toda. "The form [jazz] is a very democratic form," he said.

"It's an intrinsically American sound, in that you're constantly negotiating between all of these characters that are trying to reach a consensus but I think when you couple that type of prowess or power with a group of people that are focused on saying something about what they see - this [type of] music has the ability to be the most powerful form in the world."

Neville followed up on that topic with an anecdote about his early years as an artist, his time in jail and how jazz music played a role during that period.

"When I started playing music, part of the jazz life was drugs...marijuana...everybody smoked. Anyways, I got busted in New Orleans for possesion of two real skinny marijuana cigarettes...two joints," said Neville.

"I got sentenced to 5 years in Louisiana State Penitentiary where I endured hard labor and met a lot of other musicians who were busted for some kind of drug-related stuff and the musicians who spoke out would get blackballed, things like that...but one of the things in the prison was a band, because of all of the musicians who were locked up...music was uplifting while being there."

When asked about motivating forces in their musical careers, Charles began to speak about the concept of freedom and how it affects her work.

"For me it's freedom...it's always something that I've held really dear. The idea of freedom and the many facets and colors that it comes in," said Charles.

"It's not just the physical ability for us to all be in this space together, it's also the ability to have a choice as an artist and as a human being to make what you want to make and live the life that you want to live...limitations are only in our mind and the time that I feel most free is when I'm creating my art and my music."

After more thought-provoking questions and responses, facilitator Christopher Tinson wrapped up the panel discussion by asking the group to talk about the importance of collaboration, which led Scott to share about the time he got to work with Prince.

"I've been really fortunate...sort've coming up with my Uncle Donald, he walked me into a lot of environments that I wasn't really eligible to in based on my skill level," said Scott.

"I've produced music for Prince...a myriad of hip-hop artists and emcees. The moment I was with Prince, it was weird because he wanted to start a jazz supergroup and wanted me to be the musical director of it...they told you to never look into his eyes and oh, that was a real thing. Of course, I'm thinking 'I'm gonna look right in his eyes,' why did I do that? Prince was so good looking. Listen, I looked that man in his eyes and I'm just melting...he's talking to me and I'm just staring at him."

Before the conversation, a short skit-like performance by the First Generation Ensemble opened the event. The event concluded with a performance by Scott and his band featuring an appearance by Charles.

The 2017 Springfield Jazz & Roots festival begins on Saturday, Aug. 11 at 11:00 a.m.
Every serious cook is familiar with spice blends such as curry, five-spice powder, and herbes de Provence.

More exotic spice combinations are, however, making their way into restaurant kitchens as chefs strive to create new flavor experiences for increasingly sophisticated customers.

Dukkah, a mix of ground-up nuts and spices, is one such blend. Compounded from coarsely milled hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black pepper, and sea salt, dukkah is a staple of Egyptian cookery. Though dukkah is traditionally eaten with toasted bread, adventurous chefs are sprinkling the mixture on fish and vegetables or blending it into olive oil to make dipping sauces.

A flavor builder from the Near East that's been popularized in Europe and America by Israeli chefs, za'atar is a combination of sumac, oregano, ground cumin, sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Originally used to season bread or meat, za'atar's herbaceous flavor profile is now being used to enhance egg dishes, mushrooms preparations, marinades, and more.

A flavoring that grew out of a French historical presence on the Indian subcontinent, vadouvan is basically a curry powder (masala) into which colonial French cooks blended shallot and garlic, components that contributed earthy depth. Look for vadouvan's smoky, savory signature to turn up in roasted and braised meats as well as dips and sauces; the spice is currently a favorite at Daniel in New York City as well as other big-city dining venues.

Advieh, an aromatic mixture indigenous to Persian cuisine, is another of the traditional spice combinations making their presence known in modern restaurant cookery.

Also similar to curry (but typically milder), advieh is compounded from cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and dried rose petals, with some complex versions also containing black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and more. Originally used to season rice pilafs, advieh now makes its way into vegetable, roasted meat, and stew preparations.

Look for these intriguing flavor blends to be an increasingly prominent presence in high-end restaurant kitchens.

Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College's hospitality and culinary arts program and has over 40 years of restaurant and educational experience. Please send items of interest to Off the Menu at the Republican, P.O. Box 1329, Springfield, MA 01101; Robert can also be reached at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com
Stan Lee, the mind behind famous characters like Spider-Man and X-Men, dished out a playful question-and-answer session that at times felt more like a comedy show.

The Friday night session at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center was billed as one of the 94-year-old's last appearances on the East Coast. Nearly 2,000 fans packed the Boston Comic Con session in order to see Lee.

Among his comments were a slam at Marvel's rival DC Comics and a poke at "Bobbo" (his nickname for actor Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man).

Lee also admitted he could no longer read what was happening in the fictional world he helped create.

"Even though I look to you like a mode of physical perfection, I know that, I can't see well," Lee began after an audience member asked his opinion of the current Marvel Universe comic books.

"I can't read the comics anymore...it's there, but I don't know what's going on...I don't know what's happening in the Marvel Universe."

He added that it makes him "feel terrible," but he only knows what happens in current comic books if someone tells him.

He told the crowd how he launched into the world of colorful characters, and how he grew up poor in New York, raised by Romanian-immigrant parents.

In his teens, he landed a job as an assistant at Timely Comics, which would later evolve into Marvel Comics.

"Little by little, I got interested in what they were doing, these comics," Lee said. When editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby left, Lee, a teenager at the time, became an interim editor.

"It's just fate," he added.

Lee also delved into his rift with the once-dominant Comics Code Authority, sparked in part by a Spider-Man story about drug abuse. The Comics Code Authority, which has since faded as a censor as comics moved into mainstream culture, was initially created as a way for the comics industry to avoid government oversight.

The Spider-Man storyline had the web-slinger saving a person who was turning to drugs, a topic the Comics Code Authority drew issue with.

Lee also said a "Kid Colt" comic was sent back when a puff of smoke surrounding a gunshot was "too big."

"Being an incredibly clever person, I whited out the puff of smoke and drew it in a little bit smaller," he said, later adding, "We are not going to operate under any censors in any way. End of story."

Marvel parted ways with the Comics Code Authority in 2001. Today, only a handful of comic book producers still adhere to the authority's rules. DC Comics, which Lee picked on during his session, was among the longest holdouts before turning towards internal ratings as an alternative.

"I shouldn't say things about DC...they mean well, they try hard...They did come out with Wonder Woman," Lee said during his talk, smiling.

Lee spent a little time jokingly gloating about his many cameo roles in Marvel movies, further comparing himself to Alfred Hitchcock after an audience member made the comparison.

"Hitchcock was just in the background...he didn't come out with beautiful examples of acting ability and talent," Lee mused.

When discussing the mental process of writing his stories - works that became internationally recognized - Lee said no one can know what readers truly want.

"I don't write stories for other people, I write them for myself," Lee said. "I write things that I would like and I figure there are enough people in the world who have the same taste as I do."
Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, which drew fire over a controversial hair extension policy and criticism from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, has quietly backed away from its original stance.

School administrators sent to parents and posted a handbook for the 2017-2018 school year on its website with a notation that it had been revised on Aug. 3.

The ban on hair extensions was excised. The change was noted by the Boston Globe.

The change at the Malden school comes after students who were wearing braids featuring hair extensions faced disciplinary measures, such as suspensions, prompting groups such as the ACLU of Massachusetts and other civil rights groups to intervene.

In its complaint with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, filed by the ACLU on behalf of sophomores Deanna and Mya Cook and "all other female students of color," the group said the hair policy is discriminatory and "advances a standard of appearance that is based on Caucasian, Christian, and Western norms."

In the handbook sent to parents, the hair policy now says students are not allowed to wear mohawks or hairstyles "featuring shaved lines (apart from a shaved line in the nature of a part where a part is traditionally worn) or designs." Headcoverings are not allowed and jewelry is also banned.

"The school will make reasonable accommodations for students with sincerely held religious beliefs or documented medical health issues," the policy says.

The original handbook entry said "students may not wear drastic or unnatural hair colors or styles such as shaved lines or shaved sides or have a hairstyle that could be distracting to other students (extra-long hair or hair more than 2 inch in thickness or height is not allowed). This means no coloring, dying, lightening (sun-in) or streaking of any sort. Hair extensions are not allowed."

School administrators had defended the original policy when it came under fire.

"The specific prohibition on hair extensions, which are expensive and could serve as a differentiating factor between students from dissimilar socioeconomic backgrounds, is consistent with our desire to create such an educational environment, one that celebrates all that our students have in common and minimizes material differences and distractions," Alexander Dan, interim school director, wrote in a note directed at parents earlier this year.

"Any suggestion that it is based on anything else is simply wrong," he added.
A politely ferocious debate is being waged in America right now about the best place to launch a start-up. This isnt surprising post Great Recessionespecially with millions of mobile Millennials graduating into the workforce willing to cart their STEM and MBA degrees anywhere, some of them with the next Uber in their heads. There are major bragging rights in play. Billions in tax revenue, investment returns, and political capital are also at stake.

Peter Lane Taylor

Full Story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/petertaylor/2017/08/10/why-americas-universities-and-business-schools-are-the-best-place-to-launch-a-start-up/#419809636e3e
McDowell County Board of Education

From staff reports

The McDowell County Board of Education gathers on Monday for their August meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the board room of the Central Office. The meetings are open to the public.

During unfinished business, the board will vote on setting a number of students they will build for at Old Fort Elementary. Architect Chuck Hamrick suggested at the June meeting the school should be built to accommodate around 500 children.

Board chair Terry Frank will give a school calendar update. Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, parents, students, teachers, school staff and community members weighed in on their thoughts about switching McDowell County Schools to a seasonal calendar, which would spread out three weeks of summer break throughout the school year, among other changes. Online and text surveys were released after multiple community meetings throughout the district. The issue seems to be about half and half in support and against the proposal.

During new business, Director of Elementary Education Crystal Hamby will ask the board to vote on the 2017-2018 Title I application, and updates will be given on Title II and Title III.

Chief Academic Officer Laura Davis will present the curriculum feature discussing the upcoming convocation and professional development for teachers and staff of McDowell County Schools prior to school starting back.

Superintendant Mark Garrett will give his administrative reports, and Teacher of the Year Benjamin Moore will present his monthly update.

The board will go into closed session for personnel considerations.

For more information, visit www.mcdowell.k12.nc.us.

McDowell County Commission

On Monday, the McDowell County Commissioners will talk more about a possible shooting range, transportation in McDowell and the countys participation in extending the greenway.

The County Commission will meet at 5 p.m. Monday in the first-floor boardroom of the County Administration Building.

At 5:05 p.m., the commissioners will hear the tax collection settlement and the order of collection. They will also hear an overview of services by Morris Broadband and discuss planning for the Universal property.

At 5:45 p.m., Jerry Broome will give them an update on the Workforce Pipeline effort. Karen Powell will give an update on the Rutherford-Polk-McDowell Health Department.

The citizen comment period will be held. This is the time when the public can speak to the board about any issue or item not on the agenda.

Under old business, the commissioners will hear updates about transportation and the N.C. Department of Transportations plan, the possible shooting range for McDowell and the greenway extension. They will talk about the fire protection ordinance and the watershed reclassification update.

They will talk about the N.C. 226 South sewer interlocal agreement with the city of Marion. This is for the site of the planned Holiday Inn Express.

Under new business, the commissioners will hear an update on the issues between Mission Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. They will consider administrative items, tax matters and board appointments.

County Manager Ashley Wooten will give his report to the board.

Marion City Council

In addition to the Brunch Bill issue, the Marion City Council will also discuss a preliminary plan for the proposed Holiday Inn Express site on N.C. 226 South.

The City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the City Hall.

The Marion Business Association will first appear before council. After that, six public hearings will take place. The first two hearings will be about the annexation of the John Gilkey Road/Northgate Investments property and the annexation of the Virginia Road/Greene property. The next two hearings will focus on the zoning for these properties. The last two hearings will focus on changing the zoning rules for Marion.

The public comment period will follow. This is the time when the public can speak to council about any issue or item not on the agenda.

The next item will be approval or a preliminary subdivision plan for the property on N.C. 226 South where the proposed Holiday Inn Express and other businesses will be located. Then the City Council will consider allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages before noon on Sundays. That applies to restaurants, bars and stores.

Council members will discuss a street request and consider a resolution of support for the National Parks. They will talk about the sale of city-owned property on Morehead Road by the negotiated offer and upset bid process and the Dogwood Lane sewer extension.

City Manager Bob Boyette will give his report to council.
It may be the heat, it may be the humidity or it may be a startling lack of self control and/or common sense, but quite a few people are making headlines for shedding their tops, their bottoms or both this summer.

Once again, its time for a look at Nudity and Stupidity in the News.

BUT NOT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON: A former substitute teacher in Oklahoma pleaded guilty to an assault charge for doing a cartwheel in front of students while wearing a skirt and no underwear, according to a report from the Associated Press, the source I turn to for nudity-related news I can trust.

The former substitute was originally charged with indecent exposure, but agreed to a lesser charge in a plea arrangement. I suppose assault was the best they could come up with. The last speeding ticket I got was reduced to improper equipment, but that may not have worked in this case.

The story said she was charged in February after allegedly performing a cartwheel in which she exposed herself to a high school choir, which was likely not in the lesson plan submitted at the beginning of the year.

Reports the choir was rehearsing Blown in the Wind when the incident occurred could not be confirmed at deadline, mainly because I just made that part up.

THERES NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS BUT DONT SHOW THAT: A man who said he wanted to jump-start his comedy career robbed a bank in Fort Lauderdale, then stripped off his clothes after a dye pack exploded and began tossing stolen money at passersby as he ran down the street, the Sun Sentinel reported.

This was no crime of opportunity, but a well thought-out plan on par with the Brinks job. According to the FBI, the man decided to rob a bank, flee by running naked down the street while throwing the money stolen during the bank robbery to people, in order to begin his career as a comedian.

Unfortunately, after his arrest, the only job he now qualifies for is substitute high school choir teacher in Oklahoma, but he cant do a cartwheel.

EXCUSE ME WHILE I GET SOMETHING OFF MY CHEST: A woman in Massachusetts has been charged with assaulting an off-duty cop in a road rage incident. She reportedly removed her shirt and ran topless at his vehicle, ran at his vehicle while holding the knife, held the knife while driving, and threw a cigarette at his vehicle, the Cape Cod Times said in its story.

The woman racked up an impressive list of charges: three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; carrying a dangerous weapon; lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct; operating under the influence of liquor, second offense; operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license; littering trash from a motor vehicle; possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle; and improper operation of a motor vehicle.

There was no indication the suspect was on her way to high school choir practice or a comedy-career launching bank robbery. Police are treating this as just a run-of-the mill, standard road-raging-topless-woman-knife-attack case.

***

And, finally, in other news, I must address a controversy from last weeks column, which dealt with my daughter and her boyfriends dog escaping my care during a dog-sitting experience. I identified the pooch as an Akita.

I loved it! my daughter wrote in text message after reading the column online. Buuut, she is a Shiba not Akita ;)

While I believe the kid may be using alternative facts or perhaps even fake news along with a winky-face emoji, I stand corrected but hope to be cleared at some point by a special prosecutor.

Scott Hollifield is editor/GM of The McDowell News in Marion, N.C. and a humor columnist. Contact him at rhollifield@mcdowellnews.com.
Eating is a natural phenomenon. We need food to survive and relish and like a lot of natural instinctive things men will always gorge on food on an autopilot, when it's right in front of them. Well, it's all cool if you're stuffing your face with pizza with your boys and acting unruly while on the PS4 but when you're out dining a lady, we suggest you be a gentleman and treat the meal you're gonna have with her like the event of a lifetime. So it's best you pay attention to a few deets and live to share the tale of how your table manners and etiquettes impressed the bejesus outta her.

1. Pull out the chair for her and seat her down before you sit down yourself. Women just don't find this chivalrous but attentive as well.

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2. Put your phone aside and your eyes on her. Women find it offensive if her date is fiddling about with his phone or his gaze leaves hers and follows another random woman.

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3. Always ask her what she wants out of the menu first, before you start placing the order for yourself. This gives her a sense of the fact that you're a selfless man and of course well mannered.

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4. Always take an average sized helping of whatever you've ordered. If you take a lot in you're plate and shove it down your throat, not only will that be piggish but how will you ever have a conversation with a whole lotta food in your mouth?

5. Don't forget to use that serviette. It's there for a purpose right? Make use of it. Best is to place it on your lap, whenever your order comes in.

6. Do your knife and fork placement homework well in advance. Nothing is more bizarre than you stumbling about with your knife and fork held in the wrong hand. Also, make sure you use them, if the food calls for it.

7. Of course, this one's a classic and most men forget in usual banter. Don't eat with your mouth full of food. It's disgusting and she really doesn't need to see the tiny morsels of chicken sprouting out from your mouth whilst you talk! Oh, also, stop talking with your mouth full. Chew, swallow and then continue the conversation.

8. Take it easy on the onion and garlic intake. We mean, it's just for a night and we're sure you can keep away from a smelly breath. Just in case you can't resist that fish in garlic butter with a side of onions, always have Listerine strips ready, at your disposal!

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9. Stop staring at her while she eats. It's very uncomfortable to stare at someone eating! Engage her in a conversation instead.

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10. Cardinal rule- keep your elbows off the table! It's something we're taught in grooming school and if you missed out no this, we're telling you now. Also don't stretch about to get something from her end of the table. Ask her for it politely and you shall have it. (Works for mostly everything in life!)

11. You need to let her know you're done, after you're done. Place your knife and fork together on your plate, right after you finish your meal.

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12. If she's a slow eater, don't be impatient. Act like you're absolutely okay if she's still eating and maybe start off with some lame jokes to make her comfortable.

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13. Well, here's a tricky one. Who pays for the meal? Definitely take your wallet out, whenever the bill comes to the table. If she reaches out for her purse, then she definitely wants to go dutch. If she offers to pay, ask her if she would like to go dutch. If she doesn't reach out for her wallet, you pay. Simple.

14. Don't get drunk on your first drink, for crying out loud! This will make her a wee bit uncomfortable. Unless of course you both decide to go a bit overboard with your wine, don't be a sole survivor here, you probably won't hear from her or else.

See, aren't these simple and easy do's and don't to remember? All you have to do is make a lady feel special when she's out with you, even at the dinner table. Who knows you might get lucky for a second date, even with a piece of spinach stuck between your teeth the entire night.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been voicing his concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Twitter and recently said that people should be more concerned about the upcoming technology threat than the risk posed by escalating tensions between U.S. and North Korea.

"If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea," Musk tweeted on Friday.

Musk was talking in reference to his nonprofit start-up, OpenAi, which managed to defeat several of the world's best video game players. Musk had called for the regulation of AI in the past and tweeted saying by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late.

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. https://t.co/2z0tiid0lc">pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/896166762361704450"> August 12, 2017

OpenAI first ever to defeat world's best players in competitive eSports. Vastly more complex than traditional board games like chess & Go.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/896163163581825025"> August 12, 2017

Nobody likes being regulated, but everything (cars, planes, food, drugs, etc) that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/896169801277517824"> August 12, 2017

He continued to say that the heightened tensions between North Korea and the U.S. are not as dangerous as compared to threats AI can pose in the future. The communist regime has continued to test and expand their nuclear program and repeatedly threatened the United States with attacks. North Korea revealed earlier this week that the country can now fit nuclear warheads on missiles.

(c) Reuters

A Facebook research team had to recently shut down an AI system (https://www.mensxp.com/technology/social-media/38580-facebook-pulls-plug-on-artificial-intelligence-system.html) which went out of control as the two bots invented their own language to communicate with each other. Facebook was forced to shut down the system as the research team could not decipher the communications and could not control the two bots' interaction.
Like many others in the Calumet Region, I am the proud legacy of immigrants who worked diligently and quietly to make a better life for their families.

My beloved late grandmother, Emily Colias  a native of Corinth, Greece  taught me her values of hard work, honesty and honor, like so many other immigrant families who made their mark here in Northwest Indiana.

It was at Ellis Island recently where I unexpectedly felt her presence again among the 700,000 names on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor.

Fittingly, my fiance Joe  who has her sweet spirit  found her name resting peacefully just feet away from the ocean.

He thanked her and his own Macedonian great-grandfather  who was employed for years at Gary Works  for being brave enough to come here, so we could eventually meet.

Between 1892 and 1954, an estimated 12 million people passed through Ellis Island, according to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which has raised funds to restore both landmarks since the 1980s.

The Indiana Historical Society noted in 2010 that countries "with significant immigrant populations in Indiana include Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, England, Ireland, Greece, Scotland, Poland and Yugoslavia."

Northwest Indiana is still home to the melting pot of nationalities who found their way here, primarily due to the steel industry.

"At the height of immigration in the early 20th century, about 50 nationalities and races called Northwest Indiana home," Calumet Regional Archives Director Steve McShane said via email.

My own family was first drawn here by the promise of work in the mills. For years, my paternal great-grandfather Nick traveled back and forth from Greece to work in the mills at Republic Steel in Chicago's Hegewisch section.

When mill work was slow, or shut down, he would return to Greece to work in the family's olive groves.

Eventually his wife gave the ultimatum  you stay, or we all go.

Ellis Island records show my grandmother arrived at age 9 with her family in New York on Oct. 26, 1920.

Their ship was the Pannonia  a British steamship carrying 840 passengers. The trip took 30 days  far longer than expected, said my aunt, Nancy Kostopoulos.

"They were surprised to see them," she said, "They thought the boat had sunk."

Born into poverty, her future husband William left his mountain village in Greece at 13 to work in Athens. At 18, he emigrated alone to the United States, eventually joining a cousin living in Hammond.

For nearly 16 years, he never once wrote his family. His mother thought he was dead. She assumed he had perished in World War I, my father, James, said.

Following their 1930 marriage, Emily discovered numerous unanswered letters and wrote her back. She told her mother-in-law her son was alive with a growing family.

My father can't say why he never wrote them. Possibly, he was just preoccupied with daily survival, he said.

My grandfather William first worked on the railroads as an engineer, then quit in the 1930s to start his own company with his wife  People's Ice and Coal Co., formerly at 5353 Sohl Ave. in Hammond.

They also ran Delta Picnic Grove in present-day Calumet Township.

When he died in 1966, she continued to run People's until she retired in 1997. She died in 2007.

My mother often said raising her children was much more straightforward, because she knew we would never do anything to embarrass our grandmother or tarnish our family name.

Perhaps, that was her greatest legacy.

Both my paternal grandparents entered the country during a time of severe economic inequality. They met later and were married at the start of the Great Depression.

Both were true believers in the American Dream. I decided to become a journalist partly due to their reverence for this country.

Unusual for its day, my grandmother worked at her business while raising five children. She always wore skirts and dresses and never swore. She was a lifelong dignified and charitable woman.

For years, she was active in the church at St. Demetrios in Hammond and would welcome new arrivals from Greece  often taking women to the grocery store to translate for them.

For anyone down on their luck, she would often spare them a small amount of cash and mark it down on receipts as a "tire repair."

While it was common among Greek-Americans to travel back and forth to Greece, my grandmother never returned.

Her attitude was, "If it was so good, we never would have left," my Aunt Nancy often said.

My father often asked my grandfather why he came. For a man that grew up using a donkey to move down a mountain, he became a landowner in the United States  something he considered once unthinkable.

"When he was in Greece, they said, 'In America the streets were paved with gold,'" my dad remembers him saying.

"So, I said, weren't you disappointed when you got here?"

"He said, 'No, they were paved in gold,'" my dad recalls. "'In Greece, I had no chance. And here, I met your mother. I raised the family. I worked. I started my company. I never would have had that.'"

"He said, 'Everything was here in America.'"
Silly me.

I was thinking the other day about a message that could be sent to Mason City political candidates and voters: Do not let Prestage become the Bermuda Triangle of Mason City.

If we keep flying into that troubled zone by continuing to harp on it, to judge our potential future public officials by their views on it, to continue to use it as a wedge to divide us, then we are probably doomed to live in the past.

And that is tantamount to flying into the Bermuda Triangle where goals and good ideas will just be lost in space.

Social media recently has been filled with comments from people who want to know how Tom Thoma, Troy Levenhagen and other announced City Council candidates would have voted on the Prestage issue if they'd had the chance.

In each case, the question came from an anti-Prestage person, and the inference was, if the candidates were for the Prestage deal, these voters will be against them, regardless of what their views are on any of the many other issues that affect the city.

It seems dangerous to judge anyone on the basis of one issue. We cannot be looking in the rear-view mirror to the extent that we ignore opportunities that are right in front of us.

I have a good friend who is opposed to abortion and therefore agrees with Republicans on that issue. But he is steadfastly opposed to GOP positions on many other issues. Should his views on one issue override the concerns he has on all the others? He has to consider that in every election cycle.

Ten years ago, when John Edwards sought the Democratic nomination for president, his aides told him he was relying too heavily on the American Trial Lawyers Association for financial support.

One of his advisers told him, "Don't put all your begs in one ask-it."

Locally, the same holds true in what we ask of our political candidates.

City Council seats will be up for grabs in September (Third Ward) and November (At-large and Second and Fourth Wards). If nobody runs unopposed, there will be at least eight candidates -- and probably more -- for voters to evaluate.

Here's a thought for you: If there are eight candidates -- or 10 or 12 or 20 -- and each of them holds the same view on how they would have voted on Prestage, whether it be for or against -- it would become a non-issue.

Voters would have to decide whom they favored based on other factors, rather than putting all of their begs in one ask-it.

That won't happen, of course, but it would be one way we could avoid flying into that Bermuda Triangle where we could be heading, if we're not careful.

Silly me.
We express our support to our friends the Egyptian people and their government for the victims of the deadly accident caused by the collision of two trains in Alexandria.

We express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims, and our best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.
PHOENIX, Aug. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For too long, Americas independent pharmacies have been forced to make a choice between doing whats right for patients and doing what they are told by the large, non-transparent Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) companies they are forced to contract with in order to have patients to serve.



Because independent pharmacists are contractually bound, they must live with abusive, anti-competitive PBM practices, including gag clauses and clawbacks. Their contracts force them to stay silent when a PBM takes advantage of patients by charging a copay higher than the non-insured price of medication. When that same PBM takes advantage of them by requiring repayment of the patients copay plus additional fees, often resulting in a loss to the pharmacists business, they are once again prohibited from speaking out.

PUTT was formed in 2011 to stop the abuse of the system perpetrated by PBMs against patients, payers, taxpayers and providers. Our members have been taking a chance on behalf of their patients to speak out against these unfair practices, risking losing their contracts and anywhere from 33 to 80 percent of their customers. Community pharmacists are also prohibited from talking to each other about their experiences with PBMs, and could be accused by PBMs of antitrust and collusion, resulting in the termination of their contracts.

PBMs would have you believe that disclosing their coverage and pricing practices would harm patients. They would have you believe American employers and insurance companies dont want transparency, because it drives up the already high cost of prescriptions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Independent pharmacies are integral to patient care and part of the backbone of the U.S. economy. Their patients trust them to be honest when helping the patient making the best choices for their health and well-being. In turn, as small businesses demanding no special treatment yet requesting fair trade practices as overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these pharmacies seek to do business in an equitable environment. They and their patients have been let down because of the vast influence and billions of lobbying dollars spent by PBMs, who have gone unregulated for so long while their abusive practices have escalated - hurting patients, payers, providers and taxpayers.

At PUTT, we stand with Americas independent pharmacies and with the plaintiffs in these extraordinary lawsuits, and are hopeful the truth about big PBMs like CVS/Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx will finally be told and the industry reformed.
Fed-up City Council members responded to MTA Chairman Joe Lhota's call for $400 million in emergency funds Tuesday with a demand for greater accountability.

"We need to know what we will be paying for," said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. "We need a complete breakdown of spending."

While MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim echoed Lhota's call for the city to allocate more money, his absence at the contentious hearing did not go unnoticed.

"I'm very disappointed that Chairman Lhota is not here himself despite multiple personal requests, especially considering the amount of money he asked for," the Speaker said, looking sternly at Hakim and two top MTA budget officials.

Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams was more blunt, accusing Lhota of parroting Governor Andrew Cuomo's position on funding responsibility to the media. "It's disrespectful. He's all over the TV carrying the governor's water," Williams scoffed.

"You're asking us for additional oversight," he said. "We don't have additional control."

For several hours, council members from across the five boroughs ticked off their constituents' grievances about maintenance and accessibility. They decried the MTA's delayed signal system overhaul, the glut of stations lacking handicap accessibility (355 of the total 472 lack elevators, according to the MTA), and the lack of reliable metrics for measuring delays.

There was also considerable back-and-forth about an estimated $456 million, which City Hall maintains has been siphoned from the MTA by the state since 2011. A recent City Hall press release cites $391.5 million diverted to the state's general fund from the Metropolitan Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Account between 2011 and 2015, plus $65 million in promised state MTA reimbursements diverted from the MTA in 2017.

MTA budget director Doug Johnson insisted that "a lot of those monies were instead given to the MTA for capital purposes," and that the net loss to the MTA since 2011 is $165 million. (The MTA did not immediately respond to a request for a more detailed explanation of these diversions.)

"We need a lock box on MTA funds," said Public Advocate Letitia James. "No more raids, no more sweeps, no more diversions, no more exclusions."



Joe Lhota presents his subway rescue plan. (via MTA Flickr)

Some members of the city council said the sparring over short-term funding is a distraction, considering the MTA's staggering overall debt of $38 billion. "I don't want to get caught in a fight about a short term plan," said Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander.

In terms of finding longterm funding, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday endorsed a tax on the top less-than-one percent of NYC residents, while Governor Cuomo began hinting at his interest in congestion pricinga proposal to tax drivers into Manhattan that has floundered in Albany since the Bloomberg administration. One recent iteration of the so-called Move New York plan failed to pass in Albany last spring, but gained a Republican endorsement in Staten Island Senator Andrew Lanza. Mayor de Blasio's millionaire tax, meanwhile, has Democratic support in Senator Mike Gianaris but has already met with opposition from Republican Senate leadership. ("Raising taxes is not the answer," majority leader John Flanagan said in a statement to the Times.)

Hakim declined multiple requests to endorse any one plan on Tuesday. "Anyone in transportation would support reliable funding sources," she said.

Alex Matthiessen, campaign director of Move NY, took a break from Tuesday's lengthy hearing to criticize Mayor de Blasio's dismissal of congestion pricing as a "non-starter" in Albany.

"I do think it's ironic that on Friday the mayor dismissed congestion pricing because of problems he saw with the Republican-controlled Senate, and then two days later he proposed a tax even less appealing to the Republican Senate," Matthiessen said.

This sparring between the city and the state over funding obscures the even more pressing issue of the MTA's documented mismanagement of funds, according to the NYC Independent Budget Office.

"The issue of when these new investments will actually be made, and when they will begin to benefit subway-riders, is perhaps even less clear than the source of funding," IBO Deputy Director George Sweeting testified Tuesday. Only 37 percent of the MTA's last $22 billion Capital Plan had been spent by the end of 2014, according to an IBO analysis.

Sweeting also referenced the state's $8.3 billion commitment to the current 2015-19 Capital Plan which, along with the city's $2.5 billion commitment, won't be spent until all other funding sources are exhausted. Sluggish signal repair is one consequence of this.

"The source for much of that money remains unspecified... with much of it unlikely to be delivered until after the plan period is oversetting up another round of delays in the funding of individual projects," Sweeting predicted.
BAD AXE -- A convicted 1997 Bad Axe murderer will receive a new sentence in September, as planned, following a final phone conference between court officials and the defendant's attorney Friday morning.

Matthew S. Bentley, 34, is currently serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, for the murder of a 54-year-old Bad Axe woman nearly 20 years ago. A jury found him guilty of felony murder, first-degree home invasion and weapons-felony firearms in 1998 connected to the killing.

Bentley will learn his new punishment at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 in Huron County Circuit Judge Gerald M. Prill's courtroom.

"We're still moving forward with the sentencing on that date," Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski told the Tribune.

Rutkowski, Prill and Bentley's defense attorney Douglas R. Mullkoff had a final phone conference Friday to ensure all parties are ready to proceed with resentencing.

Bentley was 15 years old when he received life without the possibility of parole -- the mandatory sentence at that time related to the offense.

The resentencing stems from a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered juveniles who are currently serving life, must be resentenced. The Supreme Court ruled life without parole sentences for juveniles was deemed unconstitutional.

The guidelines call for a default minimum sentence between 25 and 40 years to a maximum term of 60 years.

"It will be up to the (Michigan) DOC (Department of Corrections) if he gets good time or not," Rutkowski explained. "I'm going to be asking for a sentence of 40 years (minimum) to 60 years in prison ... and that's based on his conduct since he's been in prison and the nature of the offense."

Bentley was also sentenced 12 to 20 years and two years, respectively, for the home invasion and weapons charges. However, Bentley has already served the mandatory two-year sentence for the felony firearms charge.

Bentley is currently an inmate at the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, and has been incarcerated since Aug. 31, 1998, according to the state's Department of Corrections.

Related to the case, Prill denied Bentley's motion to vacate his convictions in June, which if granted, would have resulted in a new trial. Bentley originally was tried as an adult in the shooting of Betty Bardell.
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ANN ARBOR, MI - Zingerman's in Ann Arbor is throwing a party and you're invited to join in on the festivities and help the Michigan company celebrates 35 years of food and fun.

The 35th Anniversary Street Fair is from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, August 12 at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit St. The event is free and open to the public.

"We've done something kind of like it in the past but not on this scale, so it's pretty exciting," said Mara Ferguson from Zingerman's. "Our intention with throwing this event is really a way to connect our vendors to the community we are in, which is a lot of their customers and the people who are loving their food."

The Ann Arbor-based company, which includes the Roadhouse restaurant and the Delicatessen in the Kerrytown district, is well-known for its unique food items and celebrating 35 years of building its company's reputation, with help from celebrities like chef Mario Batali and President Barack Obama.

The event will include free samples from Zingerman's vendors, ranging from pungent cheeses to gourmet chocolates, live music, a DJ spinning tunes throughout the night and children's activities provided by the Leslie Science Center.

"Come prepared to eat a lot of food," Ferguson said, adding Zingerman's is offering tastes of its famous Reuben with a slider sampler trio for $9.99. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

Food vendors include Zingerman's businesses like Korean restaurant Miss Kim and Zingerman's Candy Manufactory alongside outside vendors like Dark Horse Maple Syrup, Underground Meats, Fortune Fish & Gourmet and Rick's Picks Pickles.

"We have people coming from as far as Italy and as close as The Brinery," Ferguson said. "Everyone's bringing a ton of samples."

Ferguson described the street fair as action-packed and "fun for the whole family," and said the company has been planning the event for about 10 months.

"Without the support of the Ann Arbor community, we wouldn't be here," said the event description on the Facebook page. "Thank you for helping to make the last 35 years so remarkable."
Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction." (File photo courtesy Miramax)

By John Serba | jserba@mlive.com

This might be the ultimate movie list. Its a primer for people who may want help in their quest to become more well-rounded film aficionados  or an argument-starter for those like myself who spend a lot of time in the dark staring at a big screen.

Either way, its highly subjective, a quasi-professorial exercise in assertive opinion. Its not a list of the greatest films ever made, or even my personal favorites, although it inevitably includes some of them, being filtered through my experience as a movie lover looking backward and forward from my place in the Star Wars generation. Its intended to cover many cinematic bases, and is broken down by category, loose genres that may seem like hair-splitting or broad classification, but seem right and appropriate.

Theres a chance youve seen some or a lot of these. (Thats why Ive included a few additional films in each category, for further exploration.) But all of them are worth seeing again  and some of them again and again and again.

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'Citizen Kane': the ultimate film

This category is full of classics among classics, films that excel in every technical (direction, editing, cinematography) and thematic (writing, acting, tone) way. Orson Welles 1941 masterpiece developed such a groundbreaking visual vocabulary and narrative structure for the medium, its influence is still prevalent today. And Rosebud is the greatest reveal in cinema history.

See also: "Vertigo," "Fargo," "Casablanca," "Star Wars," "The Godfather"

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'Psycho': the ultimate horror film

This is (almost) all you need to know about Hitchcocks influential shocker: 78 shots, 52 cuts, the blood circling down the drain. The shower scene is a filmmaking master class on its own, an exquisite balance of proficient technique and gut-wrenching horror. Every film that has tried to terrify us post-Psycho has aspired to this level of skill.

See also: "The Shining," "Night of the Living Dead," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Halloween," "Nosferatu"

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'The Wizard of Oz': the ultimate musical

When this 1939 treasure shifted from the black-and-white of drab old Kansas to a vibrant Technicolor Oz, it showed the world the transporting power of the moving picture. Its every element invokes wonder  the sets, the characters, the performances and, of course, the songs, every one of them a joyous earworm. Roger Ebert best described Dorothy's great journey from home to a fantasy land and back again: "(W)e still watch it  decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them." When even the gloried status of "Citizen Kane" is debated, we can all agree that "The Wizard of Oz" is a masterpiece.

See also: "Singin' in the Rain," "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Moulin Rouge!," "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady"

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'The Big Lebowski': the ultimate comedy

Comedy is horribly subjective, but Id wager most everyone whos experienced the jumbo mishaps of The Dude has laughed the oxygen right out of the room. In that character, the Coen Bros. concocted a zen loser for the ages, portrayed by a never-more-inspired Jeff Bridges as a sloppy passivist (thats not a typo) living by a disarmingly elegant philosophy: The Dude abides. It sort of helps him navigate a way-bonkers plot of mistaken identity, kidnapping and bowling. Lots of bowling.

The Dude is an oaf (albeit sometimes a wise one), yet is the sanest person in the film; most representative of the mad, mad, mad, mad world around him are John Goodmans bodacious, bellicose mess Walter Sobchak and Julianne Moores wildly pretentious artist Maude Lebowski. His hallucinogenic Gutterballs fantasy  set to Kenny Rogers and the First Editions Just Dropped In  is probably the looniest thing ever put to celluloid. And those who criticize the film for its proliferation of expletives arent, like, seeing the forest for the effs, man.

See also: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Some Like it Hot," "Ghostbusters," "Groundhog Day," "Raising Arizona"

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'2001: A Space Odyssey': the ultimate sci-fi

Stanley Kubricks masterpiece features perhaps the most iconic imagery of any film ever made - from the bone-chucking early ape-humans to the interstellar waltz of spacecraft to HAL 9000s unblinking red eye to the psychedelic climax, its packed with unforgettable moments. The best true science fiction isnt afraid to explore metaphysical realms: 2001 is a beautiful and terrifying exploration of the human mind, or soul, or the universe, or a place beyond time and space, maybe even beyond death.

See also: "The Empire Strikes Back," "Blade Runner," "Alien," "Aliens," "Gravity," "Forbidden Planet"

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'My Neighbor Totoro': the ultimate children's film

How can a movie almost entirely free of conflict be so moving, charming and mesmerizing, for anyone of any age? Its about a time and a place, and the people within them: the postwar Japanese countryside, where two young girls and their father have just moved, to be closer to the hospital where their ill mother resides. The kids meet the forest spirit Totoro, whos cute and benevolent when hes not being very large, and just the slightest bit scary and intimidating. He manifests to help them over a couple of difficult hurdles, mostly stemming from anxiety over their mother.

But hes primarily there as a reminder of the simple wonders of life - a nap in the grass, a surprising drop of water from above, a seed sprout emerging from the dirt. Its deeply symbolic or simply whimsical, take your pick. Few films are as sweet, innocent and beguiling as this, the greatest work from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazakis sacrosanct canon.

See also: "Toy Story," "E.T.," "Babe," "Bambi," "The Wizard of Oz"

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'Pulp Fiction': the ultimate dialogue film

The dialogue film is so beautifully crafted at the keyboard, it becomes less about plot and more about the music of language and verbal communication. Pulp Fiction is a funny, profane and engrossing display of linguistic hubris by Quentin Tarantino, who can develop a fascinating character with a million words - many of them seemingly tangential - and one quick burst of action. Some say this movie is about violence, or pop culture, or even nothing but its own brilliant and indulgent self. Ultimately, though, its about what people say, and how and why they say it.

See also: "In Bruges," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "The Lion in Winter," "12 Angry Men," "My Dinner with Andre"

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'There Will Be Blood': the ultimate character drama

This may be the leanest, meanest film ever made, 158 minutes of wiry muscle, like the limbs of star Daniel Day-Lewis, who manifests a portrait of moral corruption so charismatic, he all but walks off the screen and sits next to you, boring holes in you with his eyes, lifting you off your seat with the intimidating, lilting crescendos of his voice. Few films elicit such compulsive viewing. It propels itself forward like a freight train powered by dialogue and searing imagery, and a rivalry for the ages, between Day-Lewis oilman Daniel Plainview and Paul Danos snake-oilman preacher Eli Sunday.

See also: "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "The Shawshank Redemption," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Rocky," "From Here to Eternity"

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'Saving Private Ryan': the ultimate war film

Youre no doubt fully aware of the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan  a graphic, terrifying depiction of the D-Day landing at Normandy thats surely among the most harrowing stretches of film ever assembled. What follows is the story of a Tom Hanks-led squad sent to retrieve one soldier of his duty after his three brothers were killed in battle. Some confuse the sincerity of Steven Spielbergs film for sentimentality, but, like the soldiers in the story who gripe about what they consider a frivolous mission, theyre not seeing the forest for the trees. This movie is a powerful reminder that compassion and empathy, even for one small, pretty much inessential man, are crucial to our humanity. And that humanity is worth fighting for.

See also: "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Patton," "The Hurt Locker," "The Deer Hunter," "Dunkirk"

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'Notorious': the ultimate thriller

This category could be entirely populated by Hitchcock masterpieces. But the most masterful of them all is Notorious, in which Cary Grants U.S. agent enlists Ingrid Bergmans "notorious" woman to spy on - and seduce! - her fathers Nazi pal, played by Claude Rains. Her deep-cover dive threatens not only their love affair, but their lives. Bergman is radiant and mesmerizing, and Hitchcock turns the screws of suspense so tight, we end up sweating in our seats.

See also: "Rear Window," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Blue Velvet," "The Conversation," "North by Northwest"

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'Double Indemnity': the ultimate film noir

"We're both rotten." "Only you're a little more rotten." Fatalism, shadowy black-and-white photography, a snappy script and morally flawed characters never came together better than in "Double Indemnity," a film noir of such efficiency, it's a razor blade disguised as a movie. Fred MacMurray is an insurance scammer, Barbara Stanwyck is the irresistible femme fatale, and Edward G. Robinson is smelling the stink of their scheme. It's perfect.

See also: "The Third Man," "L.A. Confidential," "Chinatown," "The Maltese Falcon," "Touch of Evil"

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'Once Upon a Time in the West': the ultimate Western

Theres nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned dusty, galloping shoot-em-up with grandiose staredowns and pistols blazing at dawn. But Once Upon a Time in the West aims significantly higher. Sergio Leone took the twisty narratives and stylish framing and cinematography of his previous Spaghetti Westerns, brought in film legends Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento as story collaborators, and constructed a grandiose homage to the many great Westerns that came before him- and its the type of mashup that would inspire Quentin Tarantinos inimitable style.

But its Leones distinctive approach to detail that stands out most: the buzzing fly making a gauchos face twitch, the creak of an old windmill, the mysteries prowling behind Charles Bronsons expression. Also the kind of bewildered tenacity within Claudia Cardinales characterization of a young widow trying to fend off encroachments on her honor and land by Peter Fondas famously against-type murderous villain. And Ennio Morricones grand, sweeping, eccentric musical compositions comprise one of the most epic scores in cinema history.

See also: "Unforgiven," "The Searchers," "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," "High Noon," "Stagecoach"

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'Before Sunset': the ultimate romance

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawkes young lovers are nine years older than they were in Before Sunrise, when they met, talked and talked and talked, and made love during their one day together. The first films romantic idealism evolves in Sunset, when they reconnect as new people shaped and colored by reality: triumphs and disappointments, small and large. Their longings are the same, however. The relationship is explored over three films  Before Midnight visits them a third time  via dialogue only, a simple conceit made richly complex by the two leads brilliantly intuitive, often improvised performances. The overall vision of director Richard Linklater explores the effect of times passage on love with wisdom and profundity; its not always beautiful or graceful, but when it is, its like a miracle.

See also: "Brokeback Mountain," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "The Apartment," "Amelie," "Shakespeare in Love"

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'WALL-E': the ultimate animated film

Many animated films are also childrens films, but its not exclusive - hence this category, which not only covers the best use of the cartoon medium, but also opens the door to more thematically sophisticated works. Few films employ animation to such great effect as Andrew Stanton does with WALL-E. Its a work of great significance, a blend of technical brilliance and thematic depth. Its first act, almost completely wordless, is sterling visual storytelling, setting the tone for an exploration of ideas both big and small - love, identity, the environment, our future as a species.

See also: "Spirited Away," "The Lion King," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "The Iron Giant," "Grave of the Fireflies"

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'Fargo': the ultimate crime-drama

No one makes crime films like the Coen Brothers. No one makes kidnapping films like the Coen Brothers. No one makes films, period, like the Coen Brothers. And no film is more transcendently Coenesque than Fargo, a wondrously scripted dark-comic rumination on the hope and folly of the human condition featuring an impeccable performance by Frances McDormand. And here you are. And its a beautiful day. I just dont understand it.

See also: "Zodiac," "No Country for Old Men," "The French Connection," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Bonnie and Clyde"

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'Die Hard': the ultimate action movie

Stunts, choreography, editing and cinematography are the key elements of action films - technical components of car chases and shootouts generating the type of pulse-quickening suspense prompting us to grope for a seatbelt in the theater. Die Hard is the greatest of its kind, because the premise is simple but the execution is complex. Terrorists hold hostages in a high rise, and its up to an off-duty - and shoeless - cop to derail the stand-off from the inside. Director John McTiernan exploits every nook and cranny of his set, and Bruce Willis John McClane is a character shrewd enough to navigate them. The juicy one-liners and Alan Rickmans delicious scenery-chewing bad guy are the frosting on a vigorously entertaining cake.

See also: "Vanishing Point," "Bullitt," "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Mad Max: Fury Road," "Hard Boiled"

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'Annie Hall': the ultimate romantic comedy

Woody Allens greatest film is sweetly romantic and ruthlessly funny. The chopped-up narrative is a recounting of Alvy Singers marvelous, then rocky - as these things so often go - relationship with Annie Hall, played as a wonderfully enthralling ditz by Diane Keaton, never more charming and complicated. Allens attempts to penetrate the human heart are insightful, but fruitless; only a fool would offer definitive answers to such questions.

See also: "Manhattan," "When Harry Met Sally," "Say Anything," "It Happened One Night," "Harold and Maude"

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'The Godfather': the ultimate gangster film

Before Francis Ford Coppola adapted Mario Puzos novel to the big screen, the gangster movie was mostly a formulaic B-grade genre exercise. The Godfather changed that, forcing us into deep moral conflict: the murderous, manipulative, power-hungry amoral protagonist, courting our loyalty, and all but implicating us in their crimes. That idea courses beneath the film like a boiling-hot underwater spring; on the surface, its a brilliantly edited and directed epic with all-time-great performances by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.

See also: "The Godfather: Part II," "Goodfellas," "Miller's Crossing," "The Departed," "Scarface" (1932)

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'Jaws': the ultimate summer blockbuster

The first summer tentpole was made out of cartilage and teeth, and so many people got the living tar scared out of them by it in the summer of 75, the beaches were pretty much deserted. Steven Spielbergs crossover breakthrough is dumb as a stone in concept - giant shark is scary! - but in execution, its as unnerving as anything weve ever seen on a screen, and an ageless classic of jittery terror and suspense.

See also: "The Avengers," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Back to the Future," "Gladiator," "Batman" (1989)

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'Star Wars': the ultimate special effects movie

These are the howd-they-do-that movies, significant works that transported us to another world, or made our own world strange and extraordinary, by showing us great and amazing things wed never seen before. George Lucas Star Wars wasnt just a reinvigoration of the space opera, or a new and exciting mythological universe and merchandising phenomenon. It permanently altered the presentation of special effects, leaping light years ahead of what came before it. For better or worse - mostly better, I like to think - the film started the arms race that occurs every summer, when Hollywood tries to pin us to our seats with amazing stuff.

See also: "Jurassic Park," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "King Kong" (1933), "Terminator 2," "Inception"

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'The Thin Blue Line': the ultimate documentary

Errol Morris makes films of great precision. So precise, with The Thin Blue Line, he knitted together an airtight case that exonerated an innocent man imprisoned for murder, and implicated the real killer. Morris isnt just a gifted filmmaker, but an investigative journalist and activist who reshaped the documentary genre, for the better.

See also: "Grey Gardens," "Crumb," "Grizzly Man," "The Act of Killing," "Hoop Dreams," "The King of Kong"

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'The Graduate': the ultimate coming-of-age story

Plastics. One word sums up the paralyzing anxiety of encroaching adulthood. Then along comes seductive Mrs. Robinson to help a fellow through the transition - or distract him from it. Were still not sure. Dustin Hoffman is the portrait of bewilderment and desperation, and Anne Bancroft is the bored, boozy older woman seeking a naive morsel. The Graduate is a snapshot of that moment when pragmatic uncertainty dovetails exquisitely with existential dread, and all you want to do is sit at the bottom of the pool where its quiet and damp and you can be all alone with all the nothing youre feeling right now. Does life get any better after that? Who knows.

See also: "The Breakfast Club," "Dazed and Confused," "Rebel Without a Cause," "Y Tu Mama Tambien," "The Last Picture Show," "Boyhood"

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'This Is Spinal Tap': the ultimate satire

This mostly improvised faux-documentary is so inspired, everything about it goes to 11. Rob Reiner directs Michael McKean and Christopher Guest as aging rockers on the downside of their careers, and every scene is funny. Thats not a typo. Every single scene. The movie feeds the music business into the shredder 20 times over. Its an absolute delight.

See also: "Robocop," "Network," "Dr. Strangelove," "Duck Soup," "Blazing Saddles"

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'Schindler's List': the ultimate biopic

Historical biographies are as old as the medium, and the most serious ones are frequently celebrated come Oscar time. The best of their kind transcend formula and become vital works of art - none more so than Steven Spielbergs portrait of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who shifts from greedy Nazi sympathizer to humanitarian when he begins saving persecuted Jewish people from the gas chamber. Its a redemption story like no other. The scene in which Schindler watches the little girl in the red coat is as poetic and heartbreaking as anything ever put to celluloid. This is such a dramatically wrenching film, I saw it once, and never want to see it again, but will never, ever forget it.

See also: "Lincoln," "Raging Bull," "Walk the Line," "The Social Network," "The Elephant Man"

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'The Lord of the Rings': the ultimate epic

The epic is the type of grand-scale, visually ambitious, cast-of-thousands work making the most of the big-screen medium. Technically, Lord of the Rings is three movies, but they function as one massive narrative, 683 minutes long (for the extended versions  only posers bother with the shorter theatrical cuts). Peter Jacksons heros-quest saga is the perfect blend of character nuance and fantasy spectacle, of tragedy and comedy. Its an awesome technical achievement, and the rare occasion when box-office success, critical acclaim and award-season glory (final film The Return of the King won 11 Oscars, tying for most wins ever) united movie lovers everywhere. Its easy to get lost in Middle Earth  on its many majestic mountainsides, in the arms of Treebeard, and most certainly in Viggo Mortensens eyes.

See also: "Titanic," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Ben-Hur," "Seven Samurai," "Gone with the Wind"

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'The Dark Knight': The ultimate comic-book movie

To look beyond this genre is to ignore the overwhelming populist interest of the 21st century. Whether we'll look back on it in a positive or negative light remains to be seen (I've enjoyed it quite a bit), but it has churned out a couple hands-down classics, the most prevalent being "The Dark Knight." Filmmaker Christopher Nolan wasn't afraid to marinate the Batman mythos in big ideas and moral quandaries  dual-nature personalities, the compromises we make for security, the battle against existential chaos. But he also indulges the benchmark elements of the genre, from roaring action sequences  the Bat-pod/semi-truck chase is a true thrill  to oversized villains. And none has ever been, or likely will ever be, as oversized as Heath Ledger's ruthless Joker, a characterization for the ages.

See also: "The Avengers," "Superman," "Spider-Man 2," "Sin City," "Captain America: Winter Soldier"

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'Eraserhead': the ultimate midnight movie

David Lynchs debut has all the characteristics of the type of cult classic that used to draw impassioned audiences to theaters in the wee hours of the morning: a miniscule budget, the intense vision of its filmmaker, a disregard for traditional narrative, a bizarre tone and a sense of general madness that can also be interpreted as genius. Eraserhead is a strange, strange (strange!) rumination on the fears of parenthood - the wails of the little helpless mutant baby child of Bride of Frankenstein-haired star Jack Nance are one of the most unsettling sounds ever put to tape. The first time I saw it, it scared all the lights on in my house; the second time, it was one of the greatest comedies Id ever seen.

See also: "Freaks," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Pink Flamingos," "Reefer Madness"

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'They Live': The ultimate cult film

These B-to-Z-grade flicks differentiate themselves from turkeys by actually being well-made, inventive or admirably off-the-rails. They can be violent, exploitationist and politically incorrect; they lurk in the margins, leaping out to surprise us. John Carpenter is the undisputed king of the genre. His 1980s work is impeccable, led by They Live, a brilliantly paranoid sci-fi sort-of-comedy starring pro wrestler Roddy Piper as a struggling blue-collar dude who stumbles upon a conspiracy of grotesque humanoid aliens controlling all aspects of Earthling civilization; the creatures true faces and subliminal propaganda are only visible with special sunglasses.

The movie is a subversive classic highlighted by the following: A brilliant critique of consumerism and mass media. A beyond-absurd six-minute two-man fight scene thats a hysterical spoof of the eras testosterone-driven action films. A wild kidney punch of a final shot. And the classic line: Im here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And Im all out of bubblegum.

See also: "The Blob," "Evil Dead," "Slither," "Death Race 2000," "Mad Max"

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'Fitzcarraldo': the ultimate challenge

These films are acquired tastes. They test our sensibilities, our expectations of the art form, and possibly our patience. Watching them feels like a risk  but the rewards are great. No film pushes us out of our comfort zones like Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo," the story of a fool's ambitious quest. Klaus Kinski plays a 19th-century opera aficionado and wannabe business baron who concocts a harebrained scheme to drag a steamship over a mountain in order to reach a remote South American forest, rich with rubber trees. To achieve this effect, Herzog  who surely saw more than a little bit of himself in his protagonist  dragged an actual steamship over an actual mountain. Watching the craft inch up, up, up a muddy embankment is hypnotic in effect.

During filming, Herzog famously endured great physical and metaphysical hardship, including death threats by the notoriously unhinged Kinski (mind you, the antagonism went both ways), potential trouble from unfriendly native tribes and the looming possibility of failure. But he went home with the film he dreamt about, and its one of the most remarkable things Ive ever seen.

See also: "Drive," "A Clockwork Orange," "Pan's Labyrinth," "Requiem for a Dream," "Mulholland Dr.", "Man Bites Dog"

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'The Room': the ultimate turkey

Terrible movies can also be great movies. Case in point, The Room, which has to be the worst film ever made, and therefore a thing to behold. Shots are frequently out of focus. Characters make shocking revelations, then never address them again. The sets are cheaper than a K Mart furniture display. Its sex scenes are nigh-interminable, scored by ninth-rate smoove R&B trax, and are often logistically implausible, as if thats how aliens from the screenwriters planet copulate. Attendees turn screenings into parties where yelling at the screen and throwing footballs and silverware are encouraged. Producer/director/writer/star Tommy Wiseau is a cult figure whose personality and motives are impenetrable  possibly not out of calculation, we cant really be sure. The Room is a wonderful film, for all the wrong reasons.

See also: "Gymkata," "Troll 2," "Battlefield Earth," "Plan 9 from Outer Space," "Howard the Duck"

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"Dunkirk" (Photo provided to MLive.com by Warner Bros.

More on movies

The best movies of 2017 (so far)

The worst movies of 2017 (so far)

All the 'Planet of the Apes' movies, ranked worst to best

All the Spider-Man movies, ranked worst to best

Daniel Day-Lewis' 5 greatest roles

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REVIEWS:

"Detroit"

"The Dark Tower"

"Atomic Blonde"

"The Emoji Movie"

"Dunkirk"

"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets"

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"War for the Planet of the Apes"

"The Big Sick"

"Spider-Man: Homecoming"

"Transformers: The Last Knight"

"Okja"

"Baby Driver"

"47 Meters Down"

"Cars 3"

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Streaming recommendations:

20 new Netflix movie recommendations

20 must-see Netflix stand-up comedy specials

20 new movies on Netflix you need to see

25 of the best movies streaming on Netflix right now

25 more of the best movies on Netflix

25 terrible movies on Netflix you should delete from your list

25 of the best movies streaming on Amazon Prime

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LANSING, MI -- Blighted homes are going to start coming down across mid-Michigan.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) awarded grants this week that can be utilized to demolish blighted structures in several communities.

Bay City received a $250,000 award that will be utilized to demolish 22 structures that fall within the Bay City Housing Improvement Strategy.

Saginaw was awarded a $500,000 grant. The funding will be utilized in Saginaw to demolish 67 land bank-owned blighted residential structures, according to MSHDA officials.

The Genesee County Land Bank Authority received $500,000. The funding will be utilized in Flint to tear down seven blighted commercial properties that are located in key nodes within Flint's Innovation District.

Demolition projects in Flint will take place in collaboration with public and private sector partners, including the City of Flint, the Flint and Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Genesee Metropolitan Planning Commission and private developers.

There are 19 cities in Michigan slated to receive funding for residential and commercial blight elimination projects through MSHDA -- totaling more than $3.6 million in grants.

Of the 22 structures in Bay City, three lie outside of target areas, but removal will have a significant impact on the surrounding neighborhoods, according to the MSHDA.

In late June, county land banks and local governments were invited to submit eligible projects for the grant opportunity. Applications asked for project proposals that would lead to improved public safety, stabilized or increased property values and support efforts that were currently in progress.

State Rep. Brian Elder, D-Bay City, said the grant helps "continue the trajectory of upward improvement" and that Bay City is in an "era of rebuilding."

"Demolishing these buildings is ultimately a public service, as aside from being unsightly, they can often present problems for public safety," Elder said. "This grant will help Bay City take another important step forward in its plan to revitalize the community, and I am grateful that MSHDA recognized the value of this proposal."

In March, 2016, the MSHDA awarded Bay City more than $75,000 for a similar project. Bay City received $250,000 in 2015 to tear down 18 structures.
Ten ideas for small business ventures in Detroit have been chosen as semifinalists in a $50,000 competition, and the entrepreneurs behind the startup concepts are counting on the public to help them win.

The 2017 Comerica Hatch Detroit contest will narrow the group down to four finalists on Aug. 18. They'll then compete for the grand prize, along with $200,000-worth of pro bono support from contest partners.

"As Detroit continues to prosper, so does the independent small business retail," said Vittoria Katanski, executive director of Hatch Detroit, in a news release.

"This year, we received more than 160 business applications and look forward to standing alongside the community as it determines the businesses that will become this year's finalists."

The 10 semi-finalists include:

B

Bar Botanica:

Bases:

Bendicion de Dios:

Coop Detroit:

Detroit Blows:

Fam:

Rebell Nell:

Rosedale Beer & Bistro:

The Lip Bar:

Vote online at Hatch Detroit or at the following locations:

10 a.m. to noon, Friday, Aug. 11 at Sister Pie, 8066 Kercheval Ave., Detroit

11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, Aug. 14 at Cadillac Square

11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 15 at Southwest Detroit Business Association, 7752 Vernor Hwy, Detroit.

4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 17 at Grandmont Rosedale Farmers' Market, 18445 Scarsdale St., Detroit.

Voting closes at midnight on Aug. 17 and the four finalists will be announced on Aug. 18, according to a news release.
PORT HURON, MI - After 1,500 Michigan residents were blown over to Canada while floating down the St. Clair River last year, the U.S. Coast Guard has decided to officially prohibit boat traffic during this year's Port Huron Float Down.

Both the U.S. and Canadian coast guards said Friday that the river will be closed to boat and other aquatic motor sport vessel traffic between noon and 8 p.m. on Aug. 20.

All traffic requesting to enter the so-called "safety zone" must receive prior approval from a Guard patrol commander via VHF frequency 21A.

The Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies typically advise boaters to steer clear of floaters during the annual event.

But last year's mishap sent a good portion of them drifting toward Sarina, Ontario. Strong winds - not boat traffic or strong wake - were to blame.

The moment caused a lighthearted international stir and a quasi-deportation effort to bring the aquatic refugees back stateside.

Sarnia Police said only minor injuries were reported in the incident, which started at Port Huron's Lighthouse Beach and was slated to end at Marysville's Chrysler Beach before Mother Nature took control.

The Coast Guard also plans to require minors under 18 years old to wear life jackets during the 2017 Float Down - a typically unregulated, unsanctioned event.

Patrol officers said the Canadian incident and a number of other conditions, - including a fast-moving river current, poor weather and attendees penchant for heavy alcohol consumption - justify the new regulations.
BERRIEN COUNTY, MI -- A man who plowed into the rear of a sheriff's cruiser in December, injuring a deputy, died of an overdose before lab results came back showing he was drugged-driving that day.

State police issued a release about the outcome on Saturday, Aug. 12 -- eight months after the Dec. 14 crash.

The 32-year-old man, from Hartford, was driving a pickup on I-94 near Watervliet in snowy conditions Dec. 14. The pickup crashed into the rear of a Berrien County sheriff's cruiser, pushing it into two semi-trucks.

At the time, the cruiser had it's lights activated and was escorting a slow-moving vehicle off the freeway.

The deputy in the cruiser and the pickup driver were injured and taken to hospitals for treatment. Eastbound I-94 was closed to investigate the crash.

Police at the time suspected the 32-year-old man may be under the influence of drugs.

But toxicology tests on the driver's blood apparently did not come back from a lab for several months. When they did, it showed evidence of morphine and codeine.

Police then went to track down the driver and learned he died of a drug overdose in April.

Police said the death was not related to the December crash.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Tears welled up in her eyes as Taylor Dungjen looked at her late grandfather's military medals that had been missing for years.

A banker from the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming with a hobby of collecting military medals happened across Milan Dungjen's medals in May at a collectors' show in Pomona, California.

After an online search, 49-year-old Frank Smith said he quickly realized the medals were highly sought after by the veteran's granddaughter, so he purchased them to reunite them to their rightful owner.

"Lots of times (military medals) are the last tangible reminder of someone's life," Smith said. "It's a way to show a sacrifice they've made to give us the life we've inherited."

Smith connected with Taylor Dungjen and arranged to meet her at a military award conference on Friday, Aug. 11 at the Amway Plaza Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids.

She made the trip from her home in Toledo, Ohio, to end her years of searching for a tangible piece of her grandfather's legacy.

"They passed through a lot of hands before they got to Frank," Dungjen said. "Without him, who knows where they would be."

When Taylor, 29, decided to name her 2-year-old son "Milan" after her grandfather, who died in 2005, she wanted to learn more about his life. But when she asked her family to see his military medals, the family couldn't find them.

"When Frank emailed me it was the most unexpected thing," Dungjen said. "I always hoped I would find them of course, but I had not thought about the medals for a long time."

The medals were important to Taylor to teach her son about his namesake, she said, and learn about the man who believed in her during her childhood.

"I remember him saying when I was really little that, 'Taylor will grow up to do whatever she wants to do,'" Dungjen said.

Taylor followed after her father and grandfather's footsteps by pursuing a career in journalism at the Toledo Blade, she said. Even though she recently left the newspaper to join the Toledo police force, she said the shared experience of a reporting career made her connect more with her grandfather.

Taylor Dungjen still refers to her late grandfather, Milan Dungjen, as "Opa," which is German for "grandfather." Milan Dungjen served 20 years in the Army, including service during World War II and the Korean War.

During his military career, he acquired 23 military medals -- including two Purple hearts, a Bronze Star, the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
A California-based marijuana mapping company has invested in digital and physical advertising in three Michigan cities to tout the benefits of legalized marijuana.

Weedmaps, a mapping and technology service for dispensaries and other marijuana services nationwide, recently started a public education campaign called WEEDFACTS to "provide communities with credible, verifiable facts about the benefits of legal marijuana" and start discussion around the issue, a company spokesperson said.

Physical billboards are currently up in Ann Arbor and Lansing, and digital advertisements are also running in Detroit, the spokesperson said.

Subject matter includes statistics on a decrease in opioid deaths and tax revenue increases in states that have legalized marijuana, Medicaid savings as a result of legalization and positive employment statistics in cannabis-related industries.

In addition to Michigan, WEEDFACTS campaigns are also up and running in Arizona, California, Canada, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington.

The Weedmaps advertising comes as the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol continues its efforts to get signatures for a ballot proposal to legalize recreational marijuana use in Michigan. Another group, Keep Pot Out of Neighborhoods and Schools, has come out in opposition to the proposed ballot petition.

State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge -- who recently sponsored a bill to ban advertising on billboards for marijuana-related industries in a manner similar to tobacco -- said Weedmaps has a right to post signs in favor of marijuana, but said he believes legalizing recreational use would not do what the messages claim.

"I do believe there is a place for medical marijuana for the truly sick," Jones said. "If they make that recreational, I think that will be a huge mistake...it's not the big tax revenue thing they think it is."
Jake Crandall

By

BROOKLYN, MI  Each week, 40 to 50 pallets of merchandise show up at sales trailers at NASCAR racetracks.

About 20 percent of it is Dale Earnhardt Jr. gear.

The driver has long been NASCARs most popular driver and accounts for the most merchandise sales on a weekly basis, said Chris Williams, vice president of trackside sales for Fanatics.

With Earnhardt retiring in 2017, sales are even higher at the two No. 88 trailers. Those trailers already are busy at Michigan International Speedway, as Earnhardt races here for the final time in Sundays Pure Michigan 400.

I think its going to leave a void thats never been seen in NASCAR before, Williams said.

After Earnhardt the drivers accounting for the most merchandise sales are Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. But theres a huge gap between Earnhardt and the field, Williams said.

NASCAR merchandise is a billion-dollar industry, with the large trailers going to every Cup Series race and logging roughly 52,000 miles in a season.

Merchandise trailers open at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday at MIS and remain open until one hour after on-track activity ceases.

Heres a look at a few of the 400-plus Earnhardt items you'll find in them at MIS this weekend.

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This week alone, nearly nine pallets of Earnhardt gear was shipped to MIS, Williams said. The pallets are driven in from Charlotte, North Carolina and items are stocked Thursday afternoon.

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While there are hundreds of items to choose from, the most popular pieces are still hats and T-shirts. About 55 percent of sales for Fanatics at the track comes from hats and T-shirts.

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The "fan fueler," has been one of the more popular odd items sold. Shaped like a gas can, the plastic piece serves as a water bottle.

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Taylor DesOrmeau | tdesorme@mlive.com

This is the first week for merchandise honoring Earnhardt's final race of the season, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. He recently announced the paint scheme, which is a throwback to the red No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet he started his career with.

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The "Dale Call" was made famous in a Mountain Dew Commercial during the 2014 Super Bowl. Looking similar to a duck call, the battery-powered piece resembles that from the commercial, making loud engine noises. It costs $29.99.

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Another popular option is the Earnhardt helmet. This $179 piece sells out almost every week, with 30 to 40 in stock.

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Taylor DesOrmeau | tdesorme@mlive.com

At each track, Fanatics has a special shirt commemorating Earnhardt's final Cup Series race at the venue. Here's a look at the MIS edition of the T-shirt.

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Stickers are the cheapest option on the trailers, typically ranging from $2 to $4.

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The most expensive item at the trailers? A signed 1:24 scale die case car, which will cost you $199. The same piece unsigned costs $79. A plastic version for kids to race around costs $24.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. items available for purchase at Michigan International Speedway on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017. (Jake Crandall | Mlive.com)

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More from MIS

For the latest list of stories coming out of MIS, click here.

Michigan's Keselowski nabs the pole

Earnhardt receives retirement gift from MIS

In trip from airport to track, driver gets low score on safe-driving app

100-mph camera installed on backstretch for NBC coverage

Driver of $450,000 transporter is the same guy who makes the fruit salad

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The week saw several important developments  from start of a new partnership to break-up of a promising one, from launch of a new SUV to a shocking rise in cess on big vehicles. Here is the complete list of the all stories that made headlines this week.

Cess on large vehicles increased to 25%

The finance ministry decided to increase the cap on cess on large cars to 25 percent from the existing 15 percent to put an end to the anomaly in pricing of such vehicles because of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

All cars and SUVs, which are bigger than 4 meters in length, could be slapped with an additional 10 percent cess. The GST Council which is meeting next month, will decide on the extent of cess, categories of cess (if any) and its implementation date.

Bajaj Auto partners UKs Triumph Motorcycles

Bajaj Auto, the Pune-based maker of Pulsars and Avengers, joined hands with UKs largest and one of worlds oldest bike makers Triumph Motorcycles for products targeted for India and the world markets.

The two companies will jointly develop mid-capacity motorcycles (350-650cc), primarily for the leisure rider category, which will be made at the Chakan factory of Bajaj near Pune. These bikes will compete against the like of the Royal Enfield range.

Tata-Skoda end alliance

Five months after signing a tripartite memorandum of understanding Tata Motors and Skoda Auto have decided to abort plans of jointly exploring the future of mobility solutions. Though Volkswagen was the third company in the partnership group company Skoda was the front company for the venture.

The alliance looked at tapping expertise of each other through sharing of technology and manufacturing. Joint product development besides sharing of next-gen technologies were on the cards. However the alliance had to be called off as cost challenges could be addressed.

Tata Motors and TVS Q1 results

Tata Motors posted a rise of 42 percent in net profit at Rs 3200 crore for the quarter June 30, helped by a one-time gain on account of changes made to the JLR pension scheme. There was a stand-alone net loss of Rs 467 crore during the same quarter.

Chennai-based TVS Motors posted a rise of 7 percent to Rs 130 crore for the quarter ended June 30, missing analysts expectations, as additional discounts hurt margins. The company further said it will launch a hybrid two-wheeler by end of this year and a electric scooter next year.

New Land Rover Discovery launched

Tata Motors-controlled luxury brand Land Rover launched the all-new Discovery at Rs 68.05 lakh (ex-showroom, India). The seven-seater SUV will be available in five variants and with petrol and diesel options, with the top-end variant costing Rs 1.03 crore.

The SUV gets a 3.0 litre turbo-petrol V6 engine that makes peak power of 340hp and a 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine that generates maximum power of 258hp. Both versions are mated to a eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Bridgestone to invest Rs 1940cr to hike capacity

One of Indias biggest tyre makers Bridgestone has lined up investments of Rs 1940 crore to ramp-up capacity and add more different-sized tyres to its portfolio.

The company will increase tyre making capacity by 15,000 tyres per day across its Pune and Indore plants bringing the total daily production from both plants to approximately 41,000 tyres by 2022. This will create jobs for 450 skilled workers.

Maruti Suzuki to revamp True Value

Maruti Suzuki, the countrys largest car maker, announced a complete revamp of True Value, its pre-owned car division. The Delhi-based company, along with its dealers, will set up 150 brand new True Value outlets by March next year and take its tally to 300 in the next 2-3 years.

These outlets will be digitally integrated through a portal so that customers can access details of all cars available at True Value outlets nationwide. A 376-point check will be carried out on all cars sold through True Value with a certificate issued by a certified engineer indicating the health of the car through a star rating process.
Dilip Shanghvi | Founder and MD, Sun Pharmaceuticals | Net worth: Rs 89,700 (Image: Reuters)

Sun Pharma, India's largest drug maker on Friday said it has completed remediation exercise at its Halol plant in Gujarat and made a request to the US FDA for re-inspection.

The remedial steps to address these observations are now complete and we are now awaiting a re-inspection by the US FDA, said Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director of Sun Pharma in the companys earnings call.

Till we have a successful outcome from the re-inspection we will not get any approvals from this facility, Shanghvi added.

Shanghvi said the drug maker is giving top priority to bring back Halol unit under compliance.

The US FDA re-inspected the Halol facility from November 17, 2016 through December 1, 2016 and issued nine Form 483 observations.

Halol is an important plant for the company and contributed 10-15 percent to its US sales before the factory received a warning letter from the US FDA for violation of manufacturing norms in December 2015.

The warning letter blocked new product approval from that facility impacting the companys US business.

We are in the process of shifting some of the products filed from the Halol to alternate sites as a risk mitigation measure, Shanghvi said.

In the first quarter of FY18US sales declined 42 percent to USD 351 million due to pricing pressure and delay of new approvals of important products from Halol facility.

US sales account 37 percent of overall sales of the company. Shanghvi maintained that FY18 is likely to be a challenging year for the company with an expectation of a single digit decline in consolidated revenue.

The company EBITDA margin stood at 17 percent in the first quarter.

As move forward in the coming quarters, we expect our business to improve. We expect a gradual improvement in EBITDA margin from base of Q1 and reaching approximately to 20-22 percent in the second half of this year, Shanghvi said.

Shanghvi added that the margin guidance doesn't factor any approvals from Halol facility.

The company is expected to get USD 300 million synergy benefit from Ranbaxy acquisition.

The synergy benefit will be used to fund companys evolving speciality business, Sun Pharma said.
The Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government has sought six months' time from nine banks to repay the principal amount of a loan taken during the Left front rule over a decade ago for supplying iron ore to a China-based company.

"We will only be able to repay the principal amount taken from banks by the then Left front government in 2004-05 for supplying iron ore to China. We will pay it within six months," West Bengal Food Supplies Department minister Jyotipriyo Mallick today said.

"We will soon hold a meeting with the banks and tell them of our inability to pay them the interest amount," he added.

The West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation Ltd (WBECSC), which is under the food supplies department, had taken loan of over Rs 370 crore from the nine nationalised banks and had reportedly exported inferior quality iron ore to the China-based company.

The consignment was rejected but it never returned to Kolkata and WBECSC lost more than Rs 300 crore.

Following this, a consensus was reached between WBECSC and a consortium of the nine banks that Rs 232.42 crore including both principal and the interest would be paid in seven instalments in the period between October 2007 to October 2017.

The Cabinet had then agreed that the state government would be the principal guaranteer for the loan repayment.

The minister said the WBECSC has so far paid Rs 75.47 crore and the outstanding amount was Rs 156.95 crore.

After paying Rs 75 crore as loan repayment WBECSC had failed to make any further payments to the consortium and moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in 2009.

Bank of Maharashtra, one of the nine banks which had given the loan, had appointed an Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) and started Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process for the recovery of its Rs 27.93 crore as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

The IRP had freezed all bank accounts of the WBECSC, Mallick said.

"On the request of our officers the bank accounts were reopened for the period of another six months as per the time limit for resolution of the dispute," he said.

The state government, Mullick said, expects that investigations into the iron ore scam may be over in another year's time.

"The CID is working very efficiently and quickly and hopefully the investigation would be over in a year's time. But because the investigation is yet to be over we cannot speak much on it," he said.

Former food minister Naren De's successor Paresh Adhikari had lodged a complaint following a departmental inquiry in 2007 and Kolkata Police detective department had arrested two senior officers. But the subsequent chargesheet could not directly implicate those at the helm of WBECSCL or the food and civil supplies department.

After Trinamool Congress came to power, CID was asked to probe the case afresh.

Besides, six IAS officers, over 40 others including chairman, commissioner, managing directors, principal secretaries, and two former ministers Kalimuddin Shams and Naren De - both in-charge of the food and civil supplies department in different periods were allegedly involved in the scam in 2004-05.

Though the decision was taken when Kalimuddin Shams was the food minister, the export took when De was at the helm of the department.

The CID has already grilled De and arrested two IAS officers - the then managing director of the essential commodities services department Debaditya Chakraborty and the then director general of the food and civil supplies department R N Jamir for their alleged involvement in the scam.
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Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said an inquiry will be conducted into the alleged irregularities in the construction of residential buildings by Larsen & Toubro in suburban Powai, a charge the company denied saying it has all the required permissions.

The land on which these high-rise buildings came up, was given to the engineering major for industrial purposes. However, it constructed residential buildings on it, which resulted in the misappropriation of Rs 400 crore, the minister said.

Reacting to the statement of the minister, L&T said the said residential complex development is on free-hold land, which has all required permissions.

"We own two types of land at Powai. One land parcel has been allotted by the government for industrial use, and it continues to be utilised for industrial purposes only, while the other land parcel was purchased by us from private parties and is free-hold land," the company said in a statement.

The residential development is being carried out on part of this free hold land after obtaining all the due approvals from the government and municipal authorities, it said.

L&T also noted that the ULC Act (Urban Land Ceiling) was repealed in 2007 and its started real estate development only in 2011.

"The matter pertaining to the ULC Act is sub-judice with the Bombay High Court following the BMC had withdrawn its stop-work notice," the company said.

Earlier in the day, answering a calling attention notice from Shiv Sena member Sunil Prabhu, the minister said, "Larsen & Toubro was given land near Paspoli in Powai area, where the company allegedly constructed ten 24-storey towers, resulting in misappropriation of Rs 400 crore. The company has violated the ULC Act and Development Control rules".

BJP member Ashish Shelar alleged that the company had not taken necessary permissions from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and it ignored the district collector's order to stop the construction work.
mkts_crash2

Moneycontrol Research

Various reasons have been attributed to the sharp fall witnessed during the week, starting from poor results, India China border stand-off, global weakness, rupee hardening and withdrawal of money by the foreign investor. Irrespective of the reason, markets have fallen by nearly 4.8 percent from its peak in a span of a week. The carnage was greater in the smaller companies with the small cap index falling by nearly 7 percent and mid cap index by 6 percent.

It is not that Indian markets are the only ones in pain. The global market has seen a recent bout of selling. The MSCI All Country Index has fallen by nearly 9.81 percent in the last three days.

Global markets have their own set of worries. One common theme that runs across all markets and one that is causing anxiety in the markets is the war mongering between North Korea and the USA.

Markets generally get anxious over every time there are war clouds on the horizon. But this time around it's different. Western media claims that North Korea has a nuclear, chemical and biological weapon, and any war would be catastrophic. Without getting into the authenticity of the claims, the very fact that there could be a threat is enough to scare the markets.

Going back in history wars have not been bad for the markets. Within months after the commencement of the war, markets had crossed the peak before the war.

A study conducted by Ned Davis Research of the most momentous geopolitical crises between 1900-2014 markets showed that markets recovered their post crisis lows in a short time and by six months they were actually trading higher than pre-crisis levels. A total of 51 events were considered including the two World Wars, the assassination of John F Kennedy, Asian currency crisis, and the Brexit votes. In almost all cases market recovered in less than a month.

Indian markets had their first scare during the Kargil war. In less than two months a new high was touched and the market posted a 35 percent gain by the end of the year.

A slowing economy was propped up as a country at war needed men and machine. Government spending was unrestricted which further fuelled the economy. As most of the top companies in the engineering sector supported the war efforts, they and the ancillary units lead the rally in the markets.

However, since the turn of the century, there has been a change in the market. While in earlier years engineering, infrastructure, and automobile industries constituted a major portion of the index, which helped in synchronizing the government with the market rally, the index composition has now changed.

Services sector now account for a major portion of the indices, a reflection of the economy. Though certain sectors of the economy will gain in case of a war, the impact on the index is uncertain. Side counters, however, will gain on increased demand.

It is in nobodys interest that a war is declared, but historically wars, especially the shorter versions of it, have been good for the market. Any panic can thus throw up the opportunity many investors were waiting for.
New Delhi: Venkaiah Naidu being greeted after being elected as the Vice President of India, in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI Photo by Vjay Verma(PTI8_5_2017_000130B)

Amid a warm welcome, Venkaiah Naidu on Friday took over as the new Chairman of the Rajya Sabha with an emphasis that there should be no disruptions in the House and all parties should work together, without treating each other as 'enemies'.

He also said that he did not approve of bills being passed in the din and underlined that it can happen when there are no disruptions.

In a parliamentary democracy, the opposition must have its say but the government must have its way, he quipped, adding after all, the government has the mandate of the people.

His remarks came after several Opposition members urged him to continue the practice of not allowing any bill to be passed amid pandemonium.

There were also requests from the smaller parties that justice should be done with them in terms of giving them appropriate time to speak in the Upper House of Parliament.

Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said bills used to be passed in the din prior to 2014 and since the NDA came to power, the principle of not passing any legislation in pandemonium has been strictly adhered to.

At the same time, he said Parliament can't be run by the "tyranny of the Well", implying disruptions.

Felicitating Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that the new Rajya Sabha Chairman would rise to the occasion in the House and his conduct would win him accolades from all sides.

He noted that Naidu has a long experience and was well- versed with the intricacies of parliamentary procedures and the functioning of the House.

Modi said since Naidu has spent so many years in the Rajya Sabha, there might be an initial discomfort for members, similar to the one faced by lawyers when one of them becomes a judge.

After Modi, a large number of members, including Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, also welcomed Naidu. Speaking after members made their remarks, Naidu said the House should debate, discuss and decide on issues but disruptions should be avoided.

He said members belonging to various parties were political rivals but not enemies. "We have to keep this in mind and work together," he said, adding that all members should work to strengthen the country in line with their views and ideologies.

In choked voice, he spoke about his humble background and death of his parents early in life 'so much so that he cannot even recall the face of his mother'. He said he did not have the support of any 'dynasty' and was 'humbled by the honour'.

"Now I am an all-party man, above party politics," Naidu said.

He emphasised that in the Rajya Sabha, everyone should have the opportunity to have a say on important issues, whether their party had a small number or big.

"If all follow the rules, everyone will be able get the opportunity to speak. Time management is crucial," he said.

Quoting former President Pranab Mukherjee, Naidu said he had said the House should debate, discuss and decide and 'the fourth 'D'  disruption  should be avoided'.

Known for his witty one-liners, Naidu said, "After all, the culture of India is agriculture."

Jaitley, while responding to some Opposition members' contention that no bill should be passed in the din, said, "Prior to 2104, there was no such principle."

He said there were 21 bills which were passed in the din prior to 2014. The last one was the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act.

"We have seen days where the whole Opposition was in jail and the Constitution Amendments were passed by a depleted strength. Obviously, those are distant memories. But each one of them has taught us a lesson," the minister said.

"Therefore, if this principle has to be adhered to, then, as was mentioned yesterday, and this is my specific suggestion, Dr. Radhrakrishnan was quoted that Parliament can't be the tyranny of the government, it also can't be the tyranny of the Well," he said. He noted that "the Opposition is naturally concerned" that it must have a say.

"But, ultimately, there is a balancing act that has to be performed and the balancing act is that matters of public interest which the Opposition wants to raise or some other members want to raise must be given adequate time. At the same time, there is government business."

"The country depends on policy which is framed or the legislations which are framed which come up for discussion and therefore there must be an adequate balance struck between the two," Jaitley said, expressing confidence that Naidu would be able to strike a balance, given wisdom and experience

Felicitating Naidu, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that after attaining the position of the Rajya Sabha Chairman, he has become 'independent and not a party person'.

For Naidu, his religion or party should now remain only in his mind and not in his conduct, the senior Congress leader said.

He reminded him of the 'scale of balance' carved in the seat of the Rajya Sabha Chairman, that calls for the post to do justice to all. Also, the practice has been to accommodate and allow everyone to speak, Azad said.

"There is a tradition of this House that no bill is passed in din. That practice should be continued," he said.

Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) also talked about the practice of not passing any bill in the din.

He, however, added that the responsibility for smooth conduct of the House is not just of the Chair but also of those creating such ruckus as they should realise on what issues they should create pandemonium and on what not.

He hoped the smallest parties will be allowed a say.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien expressed confidence that Naidu 'will not commit a sin to pass any bill in the din'.

He hoped that Naidu would maintain his 'sense of humour and yet remain firm... May the Chair always listen to voice of opposition'.

O'Brien also urged Naidu to continue his practice of using acronyms. The TMC leader made an acronym of Naidu as 'Now All India's Dearest Umpire'.

A Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK) said the Chairman can connect with every region of the country and every member of the House effectively. He expressed confidence that each member would get an opportunity in the House to speak.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, in his last remarks as a member of the House as he is retiring, expected Naidu's innings in the Upper House to be 'very illustrious'.

He was confident that Naidu will uphold the Constitution and do justice while presiding over the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha.

Yechury said Naidu, whom he has known for last 40 years, is now holding an important position and is the custodian of our Constitution.

"If Parliament does not function and discharges its responsibilities, the people's sovereignty dissolves. This is not permissible," he said, and hoped that Naidu would run the House with justice and dignity.

S C Mishra of BSP said he has been a great admirer of Naidu and hoped that all members would get an opportunity to speak in the House.

He charged that his party leader Mayawati was not allowed to speak in the House on July 18 and hoped that such a thing would not happen again.

D Raja (CPI) hoped that Naidu will underline the importance of multi-party democracy.

"You must give space to all dissenting voices. Divergent views must be appreciated and you can be assured of our cooperation, but Constitutional values and constitutional morality must be upheld," he said.

Praful Patel (NCP) said that Naidu occupying the second highest Constitutional post reflects the strength of Indian democracy and is a great example for the coming generations.

The NCP leader said the quality of debate in the House has deteriorated. He also spoke about very less time given to the smaller parties.

Balwinder Singh Bhundar (SAD) lamented that members did not get time to speak in the House and Naidu should give more time to smaller parties to speak.

At this, Naidu said he did not believe that any party can be small, but members can be so.

Keshav Rao (TRS) lauded Naidu for his oratory skills to bring more humour and wit in the House which had turned dry for many years now.

"I hope that you would use this kind of wit because this House has sometimes been too dry and it looked like we are fighting each other," he said.

He expressed confidence that Naidu would not only do justice in the House but also do a lot for the country as Vice President.

Tiruchi Siva (DMK) hoped Naidu's outlook towards the members of the House would be unbiased and both the opposition and treasury benches would be equal for him.

Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) said Naidu has been a revolutionary who took part in the "second freedom struggle", inferring to the Emergency period.

He said Naidu had gone to jail during the Emergency when he joined the movement by Jayprakash Narayan and knows what struggle means.

He said Naidu, who joined politics as a student leader and then went up to head the BJP's students wing, has today come a full circle when he has come to "head a class with the members like me as students."

"But I want to assure you that these students are good and will not trouble you and will not let your blood pressure increase," he said.
A Bitcoin (virtual currency) coin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration - RTS18BQW

After a minor consolidation, bitcoin revisited USD 3500 on Friday and eventually broke past USD 3,700 to set new all-time highs on Saturday.

The cryptocurrency was trading at levels of USD 3,740 at the time of this writing, according to the Coindesk price index.

Bitcoin price chart:

Other cryptocurrencies too have been rallying alongside bitcoin. The total market cap of cryptocurrencies has reached a record high at USD 132 billion, as per coinmarketcap.com.

Since the start of 2017, bitcoin has rallied over 280 percent against the US dollar, while the total cryptocurrency market cap has rallied over 670 percent.

Bitcoin prices got a new lease of life following a 'hard fork' on August 1 that split the currency into two: bitcoin classic and bitcoin cash. (Bitcoin classic is the price that is usually referred to when talking about bitcoin price.)

However, lately, price of the newly-born bitcoin cash too seems to have now stabilised: it was last trading at USD 330.

Bitcoin's closet rival in terms of market cap, ethereum, was steady at around levels of USD 315.

The new gold

This rally comes at a time of major geopolitical uncertainty where equity markets across the globe saw heavy sell-off since the start of the week.

The tension between the US and North Korea has scared investors, who are now looking into shift their money to safe haven investments like gold and the Japanese yen.

Some experts suggest cryptocurrencies are now becoming a 'flight to safety' asset, which performs well during times of global turmoil.

This is buttressed by the belief that being decentralised and lacking any government oversight, bitcoins may remain immune from conflicts between central authorities.

However, unlike traditional safe-haven assets such as many currencies and even gold, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be very volatile.

As of today, the volatility of bitcoin remains 14 times that of gold.

Source: buybitcoinworldwide

In particular, since the start of the conflict between US and North Korea, the volume of bitcoins being bought with the South Korean won (KRW) has increased several times. From 1 percent in February, volumes in the Korean won-bitcoin trade pair has gone up to nearly 20 percent, according to coinmarketcap.

Whereas, Korean won makes up more than 40 percent of ethereum trading volume, the highest among currency pairs.

Experts are still divided over the mysterious nature of virtual currencies and the dizzying rally they have seen, with some believing them to be a fad, a bubble or a ponzi scheme.

But cryptocurrencies have found themselves of immense utility in countries such as Venezuela, currently facing an economic meltdown.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago state in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX34GO6

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping today reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula and agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after Kim threatened the US this week to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, after the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House after the phone call.

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour," the White House said, adding that the two leaders also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

"Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event," the White House said.

"The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," it said.

In another statement, the White House said Trump spoke with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo.

"Trump reassured Governor Calvo and our fellow Americans on Guam that United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America," it said.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke separately to Calvo earlier in the day, the read out said.

Guam has about 7,000 US troops with almost a third of the land controlled by the US military.
Since January 20th, the day he was inaugurated, President Donald Trump hasn't returned to spend the night in New York City. Sure, he visited for a few hours for an event at the Intrepid but he's been spending most of his time at his country club in New Jersey. Until now: The president will be spending a few nights back at his gilded aerie at Trump Tower, starting on Sunday. Which also means the lockdown returns.

On Friday, the NYPD announced what's happened to midtown streets:

In connection with the planned visit by President Trump to New York City during the period of Sunday August 13th thru Wednesday August 16th traffic delays should be anticipated during various times in the area of East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The NYPD will establish vehicle security checkpoints for random safety inspections on Fifth and Madison Avenues in the vicinity of Trump Tower. Some traffic delays can be expected in these areas. Although Fifth Avenue will remain open to southbound traffic, certain restrictions will be in effect at times. The following streets will be closed to vehicular traffic beginning at approximately midnight Sunday, August 13th and remain closed for the duration of the event:

 58th Street from 6th Avenue to Madison Ave.

 55th Street from 5th Avenue to Madison Ave. The following street will have managed access to vehicular traffic beginning at approximately midnight Sunday, August 13th and will remain managed access for the duration of the event:

 56th Street from 6th Avenue to 5th Ave. The New York City Police Department encourages the public to use mass transit during this event. Drivers should avoid the Midtown area, or expect significant delays and heavy congestion. NYC MTA planned bus service advisories are available and may be viewed online at: http://travel.mtanyct.info/serviceadvisory/busplanwork.aspx

Businesses around Trump Tower, especially on 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, complained about security-induced traffic restrictions ruining their livelihoods. Shortly after the election, chef David Chang, whose Ma Peche is on West 56th, Tweeted, "Not sure how mid-town business located near trump tower, can handle the loss of foot traffic moving forward. Make 56th Street Great Again."

56th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues is closed; there are police and possibly a Secret Service trailer on the block.
Representative Image: General Motors Halol plant

Plaintiffs suing General Motors Co (GM.N) over faulty ignition switches and other alleged vehicle defects have reached a $1 billion settlement requiring the automaker to turn over that amount of stock, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a court hearing on Friday.

GM lawyer Richard Godfrey strongly criticized the agreement, telling U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan the Detroit-based company was given no say in the deal negotiated between the plaintiffs and a trust set up for creditors of old GM, which holds many liabilities predating the automaker's 2009 bankruptcy.

Godfrey said the settlement was a result of collusion between the plaintiffs and the trust, and "a complete surrender and sellout using new GM's money."

The ignition switch litigation consolidated before Furman stems from GM's 2014 recall of 2.6 million vehicles with defective switches. One type of switch has been linked to nearly 400 injuries and 124 deaths. The claims have expanded to include a variety of alleged defects in millions of cars.

GM said in a statement it would fight the settlement in court, calling it a contrived scheme doomed to fail.

According to Steve Berman, the plaintiffs' lawyer, the settlement called for the trust to take on $10 billion of ignition switch claims, which would boost the total claims against the trust to more than $35 billion.

He said that would trigger a provision in GMs bankruptcy reorganization plan requiring "new GM" to transfer about $1 billion in stock to the trust, which would be used to fund the settlement.

In a phone interview after the hearing, Berman said the settlement would resolve about 11.9 million economic loss claims and between 400 and 500 personal injury and wrongful death claims. He added that he expected to ask the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan by Tuesday to set the deal in motion.

About 2.4 million claims, involving vehicles sold after GM's bankruptcy, would remain, Berman said.

"The notion from new GM that this is somehow an inappropriate procedure is crazy," he said. "They bargained for this."

Godfrey told the hearing the trust had $400 million in its own assets that could be used to fund a settlement, instead of requiring GM to turn over stock.

After the hearing, GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey said the automaker had been told the deal would include a $15 million payment from the trust releasing it from liability, effectively shielding that $400 million. That was not discussed at the hearing, and Berman declined to comment.
A security officer investigates the crime scene after a suicide blast in Lahore, Pakistan July 24, 2017. REUTER/Mohsin Raza - RTX3CP8D

At least 23 rebel fighters were killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide blast in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, a monitoring group has said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bomber detonated an explosive belt yesterday at a base used by Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) near the Nasib border crossing.

"Most of the 23 rebels killed were from Jaish al-Islam. Dozens were wounded, including 20 in critical condition," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but jihadists linked to the Islamic State group have attacked rebels in southern Syria.

The Nasib border crossing -- known as Jaber on the Jordanian side -- lies in Syria's southern Daraa province and was captured by rebel groups in April 2015.

Syria's uprising erupted in Daraa province in March 2011 with widespread protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

It has since turned into an all-out war that has drawn in international powers and killed more than 330,000 people.

Under a plan hammered out in May between Russia, Turkey and Iran at peace talks in Kazakhstan, four "de-escalation zones" were to be established across swathes of Syria to ease fighting between regime and rebel forces.

Parts of southern Syria make up one zone. Another lies in the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, while a third is in the central province of Homs.

The fourth zone, in northwestern Idlib province, has yet to be implemented.
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The large square invitation cards announcing the King Caves grand opening have been found around town for the past month, but owner Anna Palko already has her sights set on growth.

The King Cave  3303 W. Illinois Ave., Suite 8, in the Kingsway Center  is a barbershop and mens spa that offers haircuts, massages, facials, body waxing and teeth whitening. The business also offers its clients free beer, wine and champagne all day.

Midland-native Palko saw the opportunity to open a place focusing on mens grooming and relaxation in the Tall City, and the 24-year-old entrepreneur jumped in.

I wanted to offer something thats only available in bigger cities thats just for men, she said this week from the lounge room. Men really like to get pampered, but theyre embarrassed to be in a spa with women and dont want to go sit in a salon.

More Information King Cave is hosting a grand opening 6-10 p.m. today at 3303 W. Illinois Ave. To RSVP, call 634-4105. See More Collapse

Palko got the idea from a friend who runs a business that caters to men: the Boardroom Salon in The Woodlands. What she learned is men feel uncomfortable in typical spas and salons, which cater to women.

Men dont want to walk into a womens place and get their nails done. Ive talked with a million men who have just felt uncomfortable. This is a comfortable environment for men.

While oilfield workers are known for their grit, manager Amber Rozay said she knows they also like to keep fresh when not on the rig.

Our No. 1 thing is making it so they have pride in themselves and keeping their appearance up to par, she said. Just because you work in the oil field doesnt mean you have to have a shaggy look. But if thats your look, maybe fine tune it or come in and get a massage.

Palko is doing more than running a spa for men in Midland. Shes creating a concept she hopes to replicate in other cities, possibly through franchising. I already have people who want to invest in Dallas, Atlanta and Houston, she said.

With big dreams and only having been open since February, Palko said shes undeterred by detractors who tell her shes too young, not experienced enough and moving too fast.

The impetus for her entrepreneurial spirit is clear: My children, she said. Palko is a single mother who wants her children  6-year-old Ariana and 2-year-old Ava  to have lives not affected by the ups-and-downs of an oil industry economy. Her pursuit, though, has started in the heart of the oil patch because theres so much opportunity here (in Midland) and so much room to expand and grow.

The King Cave offers a membership plan for $100 per month, which includes two free services each month and 10 percent off grooming products. The company employs three barbers, three stylists, two masseuses, an aesthetician and a body waxing specialist.

Appointments can be made through the app, online at thekingcave.com or by calling 432-634-4105. Walk-ins are also available. The King Cave is closed Sunday and Monday, though special arrangements can be made for service on these days.






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A group consisting of nine men and three women have been arrested for allegedly forcing minors into sex trafficking and child pornography.

The suspects are accused of using sexually-orientated websites to traffic minors as young as 16 for commercial sex, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. All of the suspects are charged with conspiracy to traffic children for the purpose of commercialized sex, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion in the Galveston area.

TRAFFICKING IN TEXAS: Harris Co. constable says 14-year-old runaway rescued in human trafficking sting

Story continues below...

Joseph Church, 31, and Angela Marks, 23, both of Sweeney; Jamaal Crane, 25, of Angleton; Norris Moon, 23, and Christopher Walton, 23, both of Brazoria; Ronnie Beasley, 19, of Rosharon; and William Franklin, 18, of Wharton were arrested in a coordinated effort with federal and local law enforcement. They are expected to make their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith on Friday.

Jamier Coleman, 20, and Lurkesha Baugh, 35, both of Wharton, were previously in state custody on unrelated charges. They are expected to appear in court soon for their alleged roles in the sex trafficking.

Other suspects include Alisa Kimber, 24, of Freeport, who is already in federal custody on similar charges. Stephanie Walker, 35, of Houston, was arrested in Beaumont on Thursday. Eric Page, 19, was taken into custody on unrelated charges on Wednesday in Sherman. The three are expected to appear in Galveston court in the near future.

BUSTED TRAFFICKING RING: Human trafficking investigation force leads to 37 arrests in West Texas

If convicted, each person charged may face up to life in prison. Walker and Kimber face of up to five years in prison for using an interstate facility to promote sex trafficking of children. Church and Marks also face an additional 30 years in prison for child pornography charges. Moon and Walton also face up to life in prison for firearms offenses. All charges carry up to a $250,000 fine.

The investigation was conducted by the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, which includes members of the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations, and the Houston Police Department.

Numerous sheriff's offices, Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission, Texas Attorney Generals Office, Department of State, Department of Labor, IRS and the Texas Department of Public Safety also assisted in the investigation.
Plainview Lions Club

Expect the unexpected and youll end up singing Jingle Bells in the second week of August as feline gathered for their weekly confab at the civic center. Travis Thornton and Jim Tirey got us in the spirit with jocular singing. Sarianne Beversdorf led our two pledges and Greg Brown gave the invocation. Michelle Rutherford, executive of the local Salvation Army, was in attendance to present our club with the first place award for the Christmas Cheer effort conducted each year in this city. We Serve Lions have been awarded the trophy many times in recent years for our bell ringing efforts. Ron Trusler and Donnie Ebeling received awards for securing new members to the club, bumping our membership to this years high.

Doug McDonough, program chairman for the month of August, introduced Lion Jeffrey Snyder to speak on capital improvement projects that are in the works in the city. Also speaking was Mark Kimbell, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Commission, showing film strips and giving reports on financial possibilities, and a city vote on the expenditures in the near future. Raffle snatched $110 for Texas Boys Ranch. Winners drawn were James Belk, Travis Thornton, Don Eversole and John Bertsch. At meetings end, our board of directors gave a rousing ugh-wah (thumbs up) to new member, Dr. David Richburg.

Its great to be a Lion!

We Serve  Ron White

Kiwanis International of Plainview

Fifteen people were in attendance at Thursdays regular noon meeting at Plainview Country Club. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Charles Lawson offered a prayer. Charles was accompanied by daughter Kaitlin and Jonathan Petty by daughter Karissa.

Homer Marquez brought vials, courtesy of Covenant Hospital, for the Vials of Life program. Kent and Glenda Bearden have agreed to get the vials ready for Andrea Ingram to distribute.

Meredith (Riney) Hatch is serving as Meals on Wheels driver for August.

Jonathan Petty distributed tickets for the 22nd annual Kiwanis BBQ to be held from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 1 at Estacado Junior High cafeteria. The convenient drive-through station will be offered. Tickets, available from any Kiwanis member or at Independent Insurance Agents of Plainview (716 Broadway), are $7 for a Weekends Barbecue sandwich, chips, drink and dessert. Thanks to Xcel Energy, Weekends BBQ, Frito Lay, United Amigos, Covenant Hospital, Mark Warren and Meredith Riney for donations.

Ron Appling, chairman of the Hale on Wheels bike race, told members about that upcoming event set for Sept. 16. As in the past, the club will display U.S. flags and man the finish line.  Kevin Lewis

Plainview Rotary Club

The Plainview Rotary Club met Tuesday at the Plainview Country Club.

President Kim Street called the meeting to order. Chris Hanoch led the invocation and Ross Owen led the Pledge of the Allegiance.

Guests were Melody Brown, Michelle Rutherford, Mitch Williams, Dr. Kevin Loveland and Kerry McCormack.

Anniversary members were honored: Bob Copeland, 21 years; Ted Baker, 9 years.

V.O. Ortega presented the day's speakers continuing on the United Way theme. Those speaking were Matt Kelly from Centennial Bank and Plainview Police Chief Ken Coughlin.

Matt Kelly told the group the goal is $275,000 for the year. Aug. 28 is the kickoff breakfast for the year. Chief Coughlin, campaign chairman, encouraged the group to give to help those in need.

Those agencies partnered with the United Way are Central Plains Early Childhood Intervention, Crisis Center of the Plains, Epilepsy Foundation of Texas, Hale County Literacy Council and Hale County Senior Citizens Center.

Also, Plainview Boy Scouts-South Plains Council, Plainview Education Partnership, Plainview Girl Scouts-TOP Council, Salvation Army, Wee Care Child Center and the YMCA.

Ross led the Four-Way-Test and Kim adjourned the meeting.

--Cynthia Gregory
AUSTIN --Two of Gov. Greg Abbott's priority issues will soon await his signature after the Senate voted Thursday to concur with House changes to bills strengthening penalties for mail-in voter fraud and require reporting of abortion complications.

These two bills with be the third and fourth measures to completely clear the Legislature for the special session, joining two Sunset measures approved by the House on Thursday. SB 5, by North Richland Hills Sen. Kelly Hancock, would enhance punishments for people who intentionally obtain or cast a mail-in ballot. HB 13, sponsored by Sen. Donna Campbell, would require that doctors and providers report all complications resulting from abortion procedures to state health authorities. This measure only differs from the Senate version of the bill in that it changes the reporting deadline for doctors from 72 hours to three business days, and would permit electronic reporting.

Also Thursday, the Senate considered a bill that seeks to protect private property rights of individuals when it comes to cutting down trees on their own land. HB 7, sponsored by Brenham Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, would prohibit cities from enacting ordinances that prevent people who live in one- or two-family homes from cutting down small trees, less than 10 inches, on their property. It would require cities to implement tree credit programs, where these property owners can be exempted from the cost of a tree mitigation fee if they plant another tree to replace the one that was cut down. The tree could either be planted on the property where the original tree was cut down, or another location agreed to by the city and the owner or developer "The goal of HB 7 is to reduce fees while encouraging land owners to plant more trees," said Kolkhorst.

Developers and owners of commercial properties or mutli-family residential properties could be reimbursed for up to half of a tree mitigation fee if they plant a replacement tree. A provision setting a cap of $400 on tree mitigation fees was removed by amendment, and it will be up to cities to decide what type and how large a tree qualifying for reimbursement must be. The bill will now head to the House for consideration of Senate amendments.

Finally Friday, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that will serve as the Senate's counter to the House education finance reform plan as the Legislature enters the final few days of the special session. Sen. Larry Taylor of Friendswood, who chairs the committee, substituted Senate language into HB 21 that would spend far less than the $1.8 billion in the bill as it came out of the House. The bill would allocate about $310 million to continue a hold-harmless provision for school districts following the property tax compression of 2006, and would allocate $60 million each to private and traditional charter schools for facilities funding. The Senate plan would pay for that by transferring unencumbered funds from the Health and Human Services Commission to the Texas Education Agency. Taylor told members he hopes to bring up and finally pass the bill when the Senate meets in session on Saturday.

The Senate was to reconvene Saturday, Aug. 12 at 5 p.m.
A routine hearing in Anaconda district court Wednesday resulted in five years of prison time for a former drug treatment center doctor who has faced a slew of substance abuse-related allegations since 2015.

Mark Jay Catalanello appeared in court for an evidentiary hearing involving a 2016 case in which he pleaded guilty to an aggravated DUI, among several other substance abuse-related charges.

Catalanello received a seven-year deferred sentence in the 2016 case but recently faced new charges as well as having the 2016 sentence revoked after Anaconda police discovered him in possession of cocaine, marijuana, and multiple items of drug paraphernalia during a traffic stop in July. In addition, Catalanello had a case pending from a February traffic stop and arrest during which police discovered Adderall, a drug commonly prescribed to people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, inside his vehicle.

During Wednesdays proceedings, it was noted that Catalanello and Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Attorney Ben Krakowka had reached a plea agreement involving the three cases.

As per the conditions of the agreement, Catalanello admitted Wednesday to several parole-violation allegations and pleaded guilty to charges in the February and July incidents. He was sentenced to seven years with two years deferred for the 2016 charges and received two five-year sentences in the two other cases.

Krakowka on Wednesday described Catalanello as a man with potential, given his education and medical background.

During the sentencing, Judge Ray Dayton agreed, noting (this outcome) is very disappointing because of the potential that Mr. Krakowka talks about.

Dayton went on to say that Catalanello had great opportunity to seek treatment during his suspended sentence and that knowledge of the treatment options available is on his resume.

Meanwhile, Catalanellos two five-year sentences are to be served concurrently.
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A sea of red blanketed the bayside stretch of Richmond thats home to the museum commemorating the life of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic yet fictional female factory worker who redefined the role of her many peers in World War II.

Rosie and the barrier-breaking life she represents has taken on a newfound significance of late, said a number of people taking in an annual event held in her memory at the National Homefront Historical Park.

As more than 1,000 attendees, most wearing Rosies traditional garb of coordinated red-and-white polka-dotted bandanas, rough, blue working shirts and jeans rolled up over red socks, milled around in a bracing breeze, a number of people said that something felt a little different this year.

Perhaps President Trump was to blame, said Anabelle Conlin and Rebecca Ramirez, a Bay Area married couple. Or perhaps it was the recent leaked Google memo, written by a man, which argued that men are superior to women in the tech world.

More for you Texas couple finds ring lost in tornado, immediately gets engaged

Taking a time-out of sorts from the wind, huddled behind a building and looking out over the bay, Conlin and Ramirez, both dressed as Rosie, listened to a five-piece jazz band pump out a steady thrum of classic tunes.

They took in the smells of the water, and of the hot dogs wafting from across a World War II replica plane  the man sitting in the cockpit proved an exception to the gender norms of the day. The couple, now retired, reflected on their own lives, the little glimpses of their role model, Rosie, that they from time to time saw in themselves.

Conlin, 68, said she made a career out of working for what is now AT&T, starting with work that at the time was definitively a mans world. She would climb poles and crawl under houses, testing the utility giants network on a local level. For years, Conlin said, she would get her hands dirty, and she loved it.

There were rare occasions when a particularly problematic customer would muse aloud if a man might do the job better. Conlin said she would nod and she would smile, and she would do the work better than her male peers. Those peers, she said, were older, and treated her with respect, teaching her the trade.

It was very fun, she said.

Not to be outdone, Ramirez, who worked at a factory to make ends meet for three summers as she attended UC Berkeley. To this day, she joked, she cant much stomach the thought of a glazed donut, taking into account the untold hours she spent toiling over them in the heat.

That, too, was mens work, once, but Ramirez, 55, showed that a woman was every bit as capable, if not more so. And she did not complain.

Back in the crowd, as the jazz band belted out another rendition, a reporter asked a man why he was there. He declined to comment, saying the day belonged to females.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. >> A vehicle plowed into a group of people marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville.

An Associated Press reporter saw at least one person on the ground receiving medical treatment immediately afterward the incident, which occurred approximately two hours after violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters.

The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them.

Not long before, hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a pro-white rally to protest the city of Charlottesvilles decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a downtown park.

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Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

This isnt how he should have to grow up, she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the counterprotesters are crazier than the alt-right.

Both sides are hoping for a confrontation, he said.

Its the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

A march by white nationalists through the campus of the University of Virginia turned violent Friday night as the torch-carrying demonstrators clashed with counter-protesters. (Aug. 12)

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and advocating for white people.

This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do, he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Among those expected to attend are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and alt-right activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

Officials have been preparing for the rally for months. Virginia State Police will be assisting local authorities, and a spokesman said the Virginia National Guard will closely monitor the situation and will be able to rapidly respond and provide additional assistance if needed.

Police instituted road closures around downtown, and many businesses in the popular open-air shopping mall opted to close for the day.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on call.

There were also fights Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city thats home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statues removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesvilles history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Theyre now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.
Ryan Pelham

A 3-year-old boy who swam in Lake Sam Rayburn at the end of July has been diagnosed with a flesh-eating staph infection, his aunt said in an interview this week.

Layne Custer and his family swam in the lake on July 25 while visiting the Cassels-Boykin County Park in Zavalla, Samantha George said.
When 1st Lt. Shaye Have and 1st Lt. Kristen Griest became the first women to complete grueling Army Ranger training - among the most intense and demanding that the military has to offer - the Army heralded it as proof that every soldier could reach her full potential amid a growing call for equality.

But with the strides made by women in uniform, there have also been setbacks. For example, 18 other women were accepted to the first phase of Army Ranger training with Griest and Have. Yet they were the only ones who made it through.

And on Friday, the Navy announced that the first woman to begin the process for elite Navy SEAL training has withdrawn herself from the applicants pool, according to the Associated Press. The woman, whose identity the Navy will not disclose, dropped out of a summer course for officers who want to be selected for the SEALs. She was the only woman in the pipeline. Navy media officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The SEAL Officer Assessment and Selection program she was in is open to Naval Academy midshipmen and Navy ROTC cadets before their senior year.

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According to the AP, the three-week program in Coronado, California, tests physical and psychological strength, water competency and leadership skills. Sailors must complete it to be selected to take part in SEAL basic training.

That basic training, which lasts six months, is so arduous that 75 percent of candidates drop out by the end of the first month.

The successes and failures of women in the military's most taxing units is part of a steady march toward integration of the country's armed services.

The efforts followed demands for equal treatment after thousands of American servicewomen served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including many killed or wounded in service, according to the AP.

In 2013, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was rescinding a long-standing ban on women serving in ground combat units, and told commanders to investigate how to fully integrate the armed forces. But even then about 10 percent of military jobs remained closed to women.

That changed in 2015 when Ash Carter, once Panetta's deputy at Defense, directed the military branches to open all military jobs to women who qualify, including access to the most elite units.

The move has, at times, divided military leaders, as , The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe reported:

"Carter's move has proven controversial with critics who question whether full gender integration could weaken the military or cause unnecessary distractions. But proponents, including Carter, have said that if women can meet all requirements for a job, they should be allowed to do so and could in fact boost combat effectiveness."

Further stoking the debate, in September 2015, a Marine Corps study designed to compare how men and women do in combat found that female service members were injured twice as often as their male counterparts, fired their infantry weapons with less accuracy and were not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield.

But according to a Washington Post article by Ernesto Londono, advocates and experts "believe lifting the ban will go a long way toward changing the culture of a male-dominated institution in which women have long complained about discrimination and a high incidence of sexual assault."

According to the AP, another woman has set her sights on becoming a Special Warfare Combatant Crewman, another job that recently opened to women.

They often support the SEALs but also conduct missions of their own using state-of-the art, high-performance boats. She has started the various evaluations and standard Navy training.
Col. David "Wil" Riggins, after a highly decorated Army career that included multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was on the verge of promotion to brigadier general in July 2013 when he got a phone call at the Pentagon from the Army's Criminal Investigative Division to come in for a meeting. Once there, he learned that a blogger in Washington state had just accused him of raping her, when both were cadets at West Point in 1986. An investigation was underway.

Riggins waived his right to an attorney and immediately gave a statement denying any sexual assault of the woman, Susan Shannon of Everett, Washington. Shannon also cooperated with the CID investigation, which could not "prove or disprove Ms. Shannon's allegation she was raped," the CID report concluded. But in the spring of 2014, with the armed forces facing heavy criticism for their handling of sexual assault cases, Secretary of the Army John McHugh recommended removing Riggins from the list for promotion to general. Riggins promptly retired.

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Then, Riggins sued Shannon for defamation, claiming that every aspect of her rape claim on the West Point campus was "provably false," and that she wrote two blog posts and a Facebook post "to intentionally derail [his] promotion" to brigadier general. During a six-day trial that ended Aug. 1, a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, heard from both Riggins and Shannon at length. And after 2 hours of deliberation, they sided emphatically with Riggins, awarding him $8.4 million in damages, an extraordinary amount for a defamation case between two private citizens. The jury ordered Shannon to pay $3.4 million in compensatory damages for injury to his reputation and lost wages, and $5 million in punitive damages, "to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again," according to one of the jurors.

In Virginia, punitive damages are limited to $350,000, and lawyers for both sides said the compensatory damages would likely be reduced to $2 million, leaving a final judgment of $2.3 million against Shannon, a stay-at-home mother of three teenagers. The verdict came just days after a jury in Dallas awarded more than $1 million in damages to a wedding photographer who was harshly criticized by a beauty blogger, causing the photographer's business to collapse.

Shannon, 52, said she was devastated by the verdict and fearful for her family's future. "I feel like I'm a financial slave for the rest of my life" to Riggins, Shannon said. "I told the truth in my article and at trial." She and her lawyer, Benjamin Trichilo, said in an interview that they felt Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz wrongly prevented them from presenting witnesses and evidence about Riggins's past and the Army CID investigation findings, and they plan to appeal.

Riggins, 52, said the jury took the right steps toward restoring his life. "This journey we've been on the last four years," Riggins said, "it's been a nightmare. . . . The large dollar amount is meaningless. All I was looking for was the opportunity to be vindicated, to set the record straight, to take every action to get my reputation back to where it was before the 15th of July [2013], when she published that false accusation."

The scope and speed of the Internet can compound the damage for the subject of a false story, and the liability for the author, according to Tom Clare, a defamation lawyer who represented University of Virginia assistant dean Nicole Eramo in her lawsuit against Rolling Stone. "People really understand the value that a reputation has," Clare said. "Especially in today's Internet environment when even a blog post or a tweet can have such a broad impact. It can literally go around the world. And if something out there is false, juries are prepared to issue significant awards."

Riggins now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and works as a pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration. Both he and Shannon entered the United States Military Academy in 1983. Shannon resigned from the academy in the spring of 1986, near the end of her junior year, and claims she did so shortly after being raped by Riggins, although she denied any sexual assault to West Point officials at the time, court records show. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989, married in 1990 and had three children.

Shannon wrote in a court filing that "the demons from the rape haunted [me] for years" and that a "decade of suicidal depression led me to Christ." She writes frequently on her blog, Short Little Rebel, about her Christian faith. She has acknowledged staking out controversial positions on her blog, including that the mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was "a planned event" and that "I believe our GOVERNMENT shot those kids and teachers and used Adam Lanza and his family to pull it off." That post was not presented to the jury in Fairfax, but other inflammatory comments by Shannon were placed in evidence, Trichilo said, while witnesses who were prepared to testify against Riggins's past were not allowed to testify.

Meanwhile, Riggins graduated from West Point in 1987, was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, and was awarded a Bronze Star for his combat role in the 1990 invasion of Iraq. He joined the Army Rangers, began rising through the command ranks, served two tours in Afghanistan in 2003 and was promoted to colonel in 2007. He was working at the Pentagon as chief of Army weapon system investments when his nomination to become a one-star general was announced July 2, 2013.

Thirteen days later, Shannon published a blog post titled "The Rape of a Female Cadet at West Point: Me." She noted the recent media reports about sexual assault in the military, and wrote that "both I and my roommate were raped at West Point - and we never reported it. The man who raped me, Will [sic] Riggins, class of 1987, is now a Colonel in the Army. The rape is the reason I left West Point. So, while his military career is soaring, I left mine far behind." She reported that she "was out cold from stupidly drinking myself unconscious at Eisenhower Hall" after being provided with "FREE beer" on the West Point campus.

Eight days after that, Shannon published a second blog post, revealing that she had been contacted by the Army CID to investigate her claims. "I didn't want to give them a statement," Shannon said, noting that she did not want to hurt Riggins's family or put her own family through a trial. But she said the investigators pressured her and revealed to her that Riggins was in line for promotion to general. "They appealed to my sense of duty," she said. "That's when I agreed to do it."

Shannon said she didn't know that Riggins was up for a promotion until the investigators told her. "I had no idea, I don't read the military press," she said. But one of her own witnesses testified that Shannon did know, and that it was the motivation for her writing her first blog post. Shannon said the witness misunderstood the question, but the information remained unchallenged for the jury to consider.

The CID also contacted Riggins. A report in court records shows that Riggins described a consensual sexual encounter with Shannon after a Halloween party in 1983, and a short relationship with an amicable breakup. Riggins said he had no significant contact with her in 1986. In Washington state, Shannon told investigators there was no sex or relationship in 1983, only a rape after Riggins saw her staggering out of a pedestrian tunnel on campus in the spring of 1986. She claimed Riggins offered her a ride in his car, and that she had no memory of the actual assault, although she said Riggins "smugly admitted he did indeed rape" Shannon, according to a Fairfax court filing.

Shannon called Riggins's story about the 1983 encounter "a complete fabrication." She said she presented a witness, another cadet, who testified that he - the witness - drove her home from the Halloween party. Shannon stands by her version of the events in 1986.

"Everything in that blog post was provably false," said Stephen Horvath, Riggins's lawyer, "and could not have happened." He said no free beer was provided on the West Point campus, that drinking was prohibited by cadets, that Riggins did not have a car in 1986, would not have been allowed to drive it on campus, and that anyone emerging from the pedestrian tunnel couldn't have been seen from the road. Shannon's claims that her grades plunged after the event and that she returned her class ring were also untrue, Horvath said.

The CID investigation found that, in light of the vastly different stories provided by Riggins and Shannon, and interviews of more than 30 people from that era, there was no "testimonial or physical evidence to corroborate Ms. Shannon or Col. Riggins' version." Trichilo said the jury should have been allowed to hear that Riggins's version of events also was not substantiated. But shortly before the trial began, the judge ordered references to the findings on Riggins's version struck from the trial, Trichilo said.

Riggins's nomination for brigadier general was returned to McHugh, the secretary of the Army, who wrote that "I do not have faith and confidence in Colonel Riggins' judgment and character. Consequently, I do not support his promotion to brigadier general."

With Congress furious at the failure of military authorities to crack down on sexual assault, "there was absolutely tremendous fear," Riggins said, "that had to do with loss of the Uniform Code of Military Justice jurisdiction by commanders in the Army." Horvath added, "Once the allegation of rape had been made, there was no way Col. Riggins was going to get the position at that time, in that atmosphere." As an expert witness at trial, Horvath called retired Major General Peter Fuller to testify that the rape allegation would have caused Riggins's promotion to be rejected. Horvath said Riggins's income, both as a general and as a retired general, would have been much greater than that of a colonel.

Trichilo said Fuller should not have been allowed to testify to his opinion about the impact of the investigation without firm data. He said that enabled the jury to speculate about what damages the investigation caused.

The trial began July 24 with the testimony of Riggins and his wife, Nancy, and later in the week Shannon took the stand. Riggins testified a second time on rebuttal, and closing arguments were held on the afternoon of Aug. 1. As night fell, the jury told Judge Ortiz they wanted to deliberate that night, rather than return in the morning. Court records show they began at 6:30 p.m. and returned at 9:04 p.m.

"Honestly," said juror Marshall Reinsdorf, "we thought who was telling the truth was too obvious to be discussing. We held a vote, and everybody believed the colonel. The only argument was how big the damages were going to be." Of the four women and three men on the jury, two other jurors declined to comment, two jurors did not return messages and two could not be reached.

Reinsdorf said he had numerous problems with Shannon's testimony. "Her story had so many details in it that couldn't have been true," he said. "They started questioning her about the [pedestrian] tunnel, she kind of backed off. . . . She was so evasive. It was unbelievable."

Horvath had not suggested a dollar figure for damages, so the jury came up with roughly $3 million for his compensatory damages, Reinsdorf said. For punitive damages, the jury decided, "We need to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again," Reinsdorf said. He said one juror suggested that as the rationale for the $5 million figure, and "basically got unanimous support for that." Reinsdorf said the jury agreed that Shannon's accusation derailed Riggins's promotion. "There was no doubt in anybody's mind the colonel had made his case," Reinsdorf said. "He was believable."

On the verdict form, the jury was asked whether Shannon made her statements knowing they were false or reckless or negligent, and checked "yes" for every one.

"The bottom line," Shannon said, "is when the judge struck the [Army] CID findings at the beginning of trial" and prevented her witnesses from testifying about Riggins's character, "we could not switch gears and defend me in a certain way." She acknowledged that her blog post sparked an investigation which otherwise wouldn't have happened, but that Riggins had the burden of proof to show that the investigation stopped his promotion.

"I think the jury's verdict," Riggins said, "not only that they found her statements were false and defamatory, but the amount of the damages they assessed, speaks volumes." Although Shannon had claimed, on a GoFundMe page seeking help with her legal bills, that Riggins's suit would discourage sex assault victims from making reports, Riggins responded that "this will discourage other false accusations but would not discourage legitimate accusations of sexual assault."

Clare, the defamation lawyer, said, "We have tons of clients who want their reputation back. What they really want is a public vindication of the falsity." He said a successful claim enables victors to take the judgment to websites like Facebook and Google and convince them to remove defamatory material.

On Tuesday, a week after the verdict, Shannon deleted the two blog posts from 2013 about Riggins.
Gov. Steve Bullock issued a new executive order Friday declaring a fire emergency in the state.

The declaration cited numerous and intense wildland fires burning in several western Montana counties  Missoula, Ravalli, Powell, Mineral, Lincoln, Granite, Lewis and Clark, Beaverhead, Lake, Flathead counties  and on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and one in Eastern Montana  Carter County, near Ekalaka.

Under a fire emergency, the state can add resources and send the Montana National Guard to help fight fires. The state can also use more funds for the effort.

We will continue to do everything we can to make sure folks on the ground have the resources they need to protect Montanans and their property until every single fire is put out, Bullock said in a release.

Bullock first declared a fire emergency this season on July 23.
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Kelly Isbell, who was fired in May from her position as founding principal of a tech-themed early college high school that opens Monday, has sued the San Antonio Independent School District, the principal who replaced her and a consultant who works for the school on behalf of tech industry partners.

The suit, filed here Tuesday in state district court, claims Isbell was fired as part of a power play by the consultant, Jeanne Russell, and the new principal, Melissa Alcala.

Isbell helped create the Design and Technology Academy at Roosevelt High School and worked for the Alamo Colleges educator preparation program as a field supervisor before SAISD hired her in December to lead and help design CAST Tech, the first in a network of career-focused high schools created with H-E-B funding.

Isbell was hired under a probationary contract that could be ended if the SAISD board determined it serve(s) the best interests of the District. On May 9, the day after trustees voted to terminate the contract, the district notified Isbell by letter that it would take effect June 30. Isbells lawyer, Austin-based Terry P. Gorman, said she was never given any further reason and her firing was unwarranted.

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Theres nothing going on here other than, apparently, personalities and drama, Gorman said.

The suit claims Russell and Alcala conspired to execute a coup to replace Isbell, who is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Russell, Alcala and Russells business, Mission Street Consulting.

Russell, a former Express-News reporter and editor, is married to former state Rep. Mike Villarreal. She is paid to support CAST Techs development on behalf of an advisory committee of local tech industry representatives.

Isbell also seeks a declaratory judgment that SAISD improperly fired her, Gorman said.

Isbell had worked to secure in-district charter status and a startup grant for the new school, helped develop its curriculum, worked to renovate its space at Fox Tech High School, recruited students and collaborated with industry partners on the schools technology.

SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price declined to comment on the suits particulars, calling the claims baseless.

Russell also denied the allegations, saying, I never met Melissa Alcala until after she was hired.

On the morning of April 20, Russell emailed Isbell asking about matters on Isbells schedule that day, the lawsuit states. Later that day, SAISD administrators suspended Isbell, effective the following day. Gorman said Isbell was told her contract would be terminated, but not why. Isbell received nothing in writing when placed on paid administrative leave, Price said.

During the meeting, Toni Thompson, the associate superintendent for human resources, asked whether Isbell had communicated with Russell about the cancellation of meetings with industry partners that had been scheduled for that afternoon, according to the lawsuit.

The district posted a job opening for Isbells replacement April 21 and closed the posting May 8, hours before the board voted to fire her.

During the public comment portion of the May 8 board meeting, Isbell told trustees, I would ask you to see any evaluations about me because I never received any. Ive not received a single email across this entire year or letter that says that Ive ever done anything poorly. ... So I would ask you to recognize the challenges of politics in this particular situation.

The district announced Alcalas hiring on May 15. She was then the director of the STEM Academy magnet school in North East ISD.

All of that is evidence of people pre-planning a course of events, Gorman said.

The district denied a grievance Isbell filed challenging her termination, and denied her appeal. At both hearings, she asked why she was fired and got no answer, Gorman said. Isbell plans to ask the board for a hearing, the third stage of the grievance process, he said.

AMalik@express-news.net
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WARNING: Videos contain graphic language

About 500 hundred protesters squared off at Travis Park Saturday over the fate of a memorial to dead Confederate soldiers.

Members of This is Texas Freedom Force, Sons of Confederate Veterans and several other groups initially announced their rally to oppose a proposal to relocate a monument and statue of a Confederate soldier from the park

A separate rally, "No Hate, No Fear Rally," formed in response and both spent a hot Saturday afternoon shouting slogans at each other and waving signs and flags.

At one point, protesters who want the monument removed began marching away from the park.

"Hey hey, ho ho, this racist monument's got to go," the group yelled.

Over 40 police officers scrambled to barricade the protesters, using their bikes to form a shield and block the streets briefly. Demonstrators stood at an impasse, their faces less than a feet away from the officers.

Support officers stood from afar with gas masks at the ready before the protesters returned to the park, eventually dispersing.

According to San Antonio police Sgt. Jesse Salame, one person was arrested as the rallies began. Michael Murphy, 20, was charged with a class C misdemeanor assault.

Murphy was with the group protesting the group that is against the removal of the statue.

Another individual was detained but later released, Salame said.

Mike Lowe, an activist with SATX4, a group similar to Black Lives Matter, called on Chief William McManus to join the conversation, who was observing the protests nearby, but the chief stayed where he was.

Meanwhile, protesters with a group that supports the preservation of Texas History - many holding American and Confederate flags - stayed in their designated area blasting music.

The rallies come after a similar event on July 4, where a handful of protesters with SATX4, a group similar to Black Lives Matter, marched to Travis Park and called for the removal of 40-foot monument that includes an 8-foot statue of a soldier on top.

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Other cities, including Dallas and Oxford, Mississippi, where the University of Mississippi is located, have had similar conversations about confederate monuments in recent years.

Johnathan David-Jones, co-founder of SATX4, said other activists petitioned for the statue's removal two years ago, but the movement didn't gather traction. After newly-elected Mayor Ron Nirenberg took office, this group decided to try again.

Last month, District 1 Councilman Roberto Trevino and District 2 Councilman William "Cruz" Shaw jointly filed a request to relocate the monument of the Confederate soldier at Travis Park to a more appropriate location where it "will be preserved and integrated in to an educational context."

Meanwhile, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, introduced a bill during the special session that would make it impossible for statue  and others like it across the state  to be removed. Shaw said Creighton's bill undermines local government control.

After the first resolution was filed, This is Texas Freedom Force, a group dedicated to the preservation of Texas history, organized Saturday's rally. Sons Of Confederate Veterans, Daughters Of Confederate Veterans and the Alamo Militia also got involved.

"Those that do not understand history are doomed to repeat it," the organizers said online. "We believe that this monument should continue to proudly stand just like it has since 1899 without being touched."

Online and during the event, the group stressed that it had no connection to white supremacy or the KKK, and that racism would not be tolerated.

The group encouraged its members to bring Confederate flags and long guns, which many did.

Police kept the protesters barricaded on separate sides of the park, which upset some demonstrators. One protester advocating to keep the statue intact, who wouldn't provide his full name, said the opposing sides wouldn't be able to come to a resolution if dialogue wasn't allowed.

But during the rallies, some protesters  from both sides  would walk to each other's side, trying to provoke each other with slurs and profanity before police pulled them apart.

"Nazi, Nazi, Nazi  out, out, out," one man, clad in a bandanna, yelled at another man carrying a confederate flag.

There were no reports of violence or fighting like what has been happening in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalists have clashed with counter protesters over a statue of Robert E. Lee.

One person was killed in those protests when a driver slammed his car into a line of marchers. Two Virginia State Troopers also died Saturday when their helicopter crashed near the white supremacist rally.

Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report
Los Angeles Times file photo

Over 2,000 backpacks and school supplies will be distributed at the annual District 4 Back-to School Health Fair on Saturday.

The event, which will run from 8-11 a.m., will be held at the CentroMed Palo Alto Clinic, 9011 Poteet Jourdanton Freeway, which runs along State Highway 16.
AUSTIN - The Texas House voted 98-43 for a bill addressing Gov. Greg Abbotts top priority of curbing local officials authority over property tax increases Saturday.

The bills author said it would give taxpayers some protection but not one ounce of relief.

People whose local property tax bills are putting a strain on their budgets are crying out for help, say Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and some other champions of the proposal to institute automatic rollback elections when property tax revenues rise above a certain level.

But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, said he can promise only that the proposal would give people the protection of having more say over proposed tax increases.

It does not provide one ounce of property tax relief. Its not intended to, and anyone who suggests that it is giving you bad information, Bonnen said as he outlined the bill for the House.

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Whether the bill makes it through both chambers may determine whether Abbott considers this special session a success, judging by his comments before the session began.

I would say this is the No. 1 issue that we must address, Abbott said of property taxes on the eve of the session, during a forum at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. Its tough for a parent to pick among multiple children, especially if you have 19 children, but I would say of the 19 items we have on the agenda, addressing property taxes ... is the most important issue.

The session, which can last up to 30 days, began July 18 with an agenda set by Abbott including a must-pass bill to keep state agencies open and 19 other topics, many aimed at reining in local officials power over spending, taxes and regulations.

Local officials from around Texas, including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, are fighting the property tax bill, saying it would affect their ability to provide key services, including police and firefighting services that protect public safety.

Critics say if lawmakers want to relieve local property tax bills, they should address the school funding system, which relies heavily on local property taxes. The House has approved a school finance reform bill, and the Senate was scheduled to take up its own version of the topic Saturday.

Under current law, people can petition for a rollback election if cities, counties and special districts move to raise property tax revenues more than 8 percent.

The Senate has approved lowering the threshold to 4 percent and making the rollback election automatic if revenues are scheduled to increase beyond that. Abbott has suggested that a 4 or 5 percent trigger would be appropriate.

Bonnens committee changed the rollback threshold to 6 percent, also with automatic elections, before voting out Senate Bill 1. Both measures contain exemptions, although their details differ. School districts, which already have automatic rollback elections, wouldnt be affected.

Bonnen staved off amendments to the measure to honor commitments he made to his colleagues in order to move the contentious bill through his committee and the Calendars Committee to the full chamber for a vote. He said amendments would kill the bill. In a key test of the House leadership on the issue, the chamber voted down a proposal to tighten the rollback trigger to 4 percent.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration of changes. The Senate could ask for a conference committee to negotiate differences.

The 6 percent threshold was more palatable than 4 percent to some, including Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. He said he would prefer that local officials be allowed to manage their revenues, but that the county could live with 6 percent.

Rep. Diana Arevalo, D-San Antonio, is among the bills opponents.

Senate Bill 1 does not provide relief for taxpayers. In fact, it forces taxpayers to spend money on costly elections every year. Futhermore, it starves cities from being able to raise adequate funding to fund basic services like public safety, she said.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
The dial looks headed in the right direction for freshmen enrollment at the University of Montana, a UM official said this week.

Tom Crady, vice president for enrollment and student affairs, had said a realistic target for fall 2017 was to increase freshmen enrollment by 3 percent from the previous fall.

This week, Crady said metrics used to forecast the number of incoming freshmen are on the upswing compared to last summer, and the goal to bring in a freshman class of 1,300 looks possible.

"There's no reason to believe that we won't hit it. But I can't say for sure," Crady said this week.

The vice president said he has anticipated an overall enrollment drop of 400 students at UM and Missoula College because of the large class that graduated in 2017.

***

Enrollment at UM has slid some 24 percent since 2010, and in an attempt to stem the tide in the 2015 and 2016 school year, former President Royce Engstrom made enrollment a key responsibility of one of his cabinet members.

After the vice president for student affairs announced her retirement in October 2015, Engstrom renamed the position and recuited a vice president for enrollment management and student affairs.

UM hired Crady for the job effective last summer, and the Montana University System awarded him an unprecedented $70,000 hiring bonus. At Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, he had nearly doubled the applicant pool in three years and brought in two of the largest freshmen classes in recent years.

The most important predictors of enrollment at UM are housing deposits and orientation registration, Crady said. This week, just three weeks before classes start on August 31, he said those trends are headed in a positive direction.

"Things are tracking the way I expected them to track given the first year," Crady said. "I'm not alarmed, but I'm always nervous until I know for sure."

Last year, UM counted 1,409 total students who registered for orientation, he said. This week, he said new student orientation hit 1,883, jumping 50 from Wednesday to Thursday.

"The number is in flux, and it's not final," Crady said. "But we're seeing the numbers go the right direction. Whether or not they hold I won't know until people show up."

Housing deposits for first-time freshmen are 1,346, up 50 or 60 compared to last year to date, he said. In contrast, he said, UM saw a downward trend in housing deposits every week last summer.

"We haven't seen any of this (downward trajectory) this summer," he said.

***

In an emailed newsletter this week, President Sheila Stearns noted the fast approach of the upcoming school year and offered a low estimate of the number of incoming freshmen expected to arrive at UM.

"I recently heard this quip: Summer should get a speeding ticket," Stearns wrote. "This seems especially true as I reflect on this hot but beautiful summer as president of the University of Montana. It feels like yesterday that we celebrated Commencement with the Class of 2017 in our spectacular stadium.

"All of a sudden here we are, preparing to welcome more than 1,000 freshmen to UM and thousands more of our returning students back to campus."

Crady said he wanted the estimate in the letter to be low, and Stearns has said she prefers round numbers. Last fall, UM counted 1,268 first-time freshmen in its census data, and a 3 percent increase would be 1,306.

Crady said the numbers he uses to make predictions appear to be holding despite some "bad news" that caused turbulence at UM last school year.

"We've had a disproportionate number of those this year," Crady said.

In December 2016, the commissioner of higher education asked President Engstrom to step down, and a search is underway for a new head of UM while interim President Stearns fills in. UM is still experiencing budget challenges because of its low enrollment.

"There's a qualitative component to enrollment that always has an impact," Crady said.

But he said new financial aid strategies are having a positive impact on admissions, and UM is stabilizing its cost. In this coming year, tuition and fees for resident undergraduates at UM will be the same as those costs at Montana State University in Bozeman.

***

The fall 2016 census put the headcount at UM and Missoula College at 12,416, with the count on the mountain campus alone at 10,329.

In May, a large class of seniors graduated, and UM granted 1,263 baccalaureate degrees and 215 certificates, Crady said. That's 1,478 people, a "bubble class," or a disproportionately large class size, he said.

"They kind of wreak havoc on the system," Crady said.

So even if UM is able to push up enrollment of incoming freshmen to its target 1,300 this year, it's still down at least 178 students given the high numbers of graduates. On the other hand, Crady said he does not expect enrollment at the mountain campus to fall below a headcount of 10,000, although he also said it's still early.

"My goal this year was really to stabilize the first-year class because it's been dropping for a long time," he said.

The ideal enrollment for UM is open for debate, he said, and UM must decide the appropriate size for its resources under the direction of its new president. A recruitment is underway.

He also said bigger isn't necessarily better.

"I just want to serve the needs of Montana students and make sure that there's a really good number of institutions that provide equitable access," Crady said.
The Confederate Veterans cenotaph has stood as the centerpiece of Travis Park in downtown San Antonio for nearly 120 years. Unfortunately, as a result of the tragic Charleston church shooting two years ago, a vocal minority is demanding its removal because they believe it is a symbol of slavery and white supremacy.

In response, Councilmen Roberto Trevino and Cruz Shaw are proposing the removal of the monument from Travis Park. However, before doing so, they and the people of this great city need to know the facts and truth about the monument.

Since its founding, the city has had a rich military history that has respected its military veterans. It is so proud of its military heritage it is now officially Military City, U.S.A. Until recently, this respect was extended to the Confederate veterans as well.

The connection of the Confederate veterans monument and Travis Park was established by the Maverick family. Samuel Maverick deeded the land that is now Travis Park to the city. A native of South Carolina, he had come to Texas in 1835, and was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a leading citizen of San Antonio.

As a Texas representative, he voted with the majority for secession from the Union. He was mayor of San Antonio during the Civil War and had four sons who served in the Confederate Army. His heirs were advocates in getting the Confederate veterans monument erected in Travis Park.

In his column in the Express-News on July 23, Josh Brodesky made a number of statements regarding the monument. Interestingly, a key part focused on what most people who see the monument believe  that the soldier at the top is Lt. Col. William Barret Travis, the commander of the Alamo during the 1836 battle.

Mr. Brodesky also partially quoted an opinion article from the Daily Light newspaper about Confederate monuments that warned that the monuments erected today will be the scoff of a later generation. This is interesting, too, because at the time the article was published, the Light was the sole voice of the Republican Party in San Antonio and the only Republican newspaper in Texas.

On the other hand, the San Antonio Express published an article about the upcoming Confederate memorial ceremonies on April 28, 1900, closing it by stating, San Antonio may well be proud of this handsome monument which will ever be an ornament to Travis Park.

All veterans monuments and memorials on federal lands are protected, and vandalism of any is punishable as a criminal act. Federal law also recognizes that Confederate veterans have the same rights to veterans benefits as all U.S. military veterans. With this in mind, why would the City Council make it a priority to spend its precious funds to remove the Confederate monument from Travis Park rather than repair streets, better educate our children or invest more in public safety?

Among the organizations working to protect Confederate veteran memorials is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a nonpartisan, 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization. SCV members include people from all social and economic walks of life and from all races, including African-Americans, and Texans whose ancestors were Confederate soldiers.

Members pledge to defend the U.S. Constitution, as well as the good name and characters of their ancestors who served with honor, even in defeat, and helped rebuild this city and the peace after the tragedy of the Civil War. The monument in Travis Park really symbolizes the example set by Confederate veterans in leading peaceful and productive lives to reunite this nation and this city after the war.

The city of San Antonios foundation for good government and democratic traditions includes the contributions made by its Confederate veterans.

We need to live together in peace and move forward in harmony.

John McCammon is a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans in San Antonio.
Im ashamed to admit I grew up with a Confederate flag in my bedroom.

I was born and bred in Maryland, that no mans land south of the Mason-Dixon Line but north of the Potomac  not exactly the heart of Dixie.

Nonetheless, I was swift to remind anyone who questioned Marylands Southern credentials that Marylands state song is a call to secession and the only reason it didnt secede from the Union was because President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and threw all the secessionists in jail the night before the vote.

Gone With the Wind was my favorite movie as a child and Robert E. Lee my demigod.

My sense of Southern pride was heavily influenced by my dad, a self-proclaimed Virginia gentleman, a Civil War buff and a die-hard devotee of cheesy grits. I devoured book after book on the Civil War; I was told it was the War of Northern Aggression, that its root causes were states rights and tariffs, and that slavery was simply a red herring trumped up by the North to prevent England and France from siding with the Confederacy.

And so my younger self proudly displayed a Confederate flag in my bedroom and often donned a Confederate flag bracelet from the gift shop of Richmonds Museum of the Confederacy.

Eventually, I grew up. And when I did, it dawned on me that any culture and economy built on the backs of slaves was fundamentally evil, whatever the intentions of its proponents.

I had been defending the indefensible for far too long.

The Confederate flag itself, of course, has long been a source of contention in the Southern states. In 2015, South Carolina lowered the Confederate flag atop its statehouse for the last time, facing an avalanche of protest in response.

Since then, activists and politicians here in San Antonio have joined ranks attempting to remove Travis Parks memorial to the Confederate dead  a monument topped by a statue of an anonymous Confederate soldier.

The attempt has been met with vocal opposition. According to the Current, one local protester groused that destroying this monument would pretty much be the same thing as destroying a grave, and advised those who disagree to read a book.

Dear sir, I have read my fair share of books. But I must ask: What is the function of such a monument in 2017? To glorify the Confederacy and erect a monument in its honor is to whitewash  literally  the historical record.

States rights is a buzzword bruited about by modern-day neo-Confederates as a cause of the war. But states rights is an incomplete thought, and as a defense it doesnt stand up under scrutiny. Was the South fighting for states rights or for slavery? The answer, of course, is that they were one and the same. The South was fighting for states right  to expand slavery into the territories. Theres a reason Confederate sympathizers dont often finish that sentence.

The tariffs excuse, too, is a convenient deflection from the actual issues. The sky-high taxes imposed by the controversial Morrill Tariff boiled the blood of Southerners precisely because they, unlike the North, did not produce manufactured goods themselves, but only raw materials such as cotton and tobacco  with the end result being that they bore the brunt of the taxation. The North had an industrial culture while the South had an agricultural one, and by agricultural we mean slave labor dependent.

So, sure, the Civil War was about tariffs, if you squint a little  tariffs that the South resisted because of its desire to maintain an outmoded way of life that kept men, women and children enslaved.

At the end of the day, symbols, like language, evolve with times passage. In 2017, Confederate tokens  whatever their original meaning  stand as a hostile and divisive symbol of mans inhumanity to man and a source of great pain to black Americans.

For that reason alone, the Travis Park memorial should be removed  if not razed to the ground.

Perhaps some protesters have good intentions. Perhaps they fly the Stars and Bars and pay homage to Confederate monuments only to preserve their Southern heritage.

But the question worth asking is this: Is any heritage streaked with human blood worth preserving?
I remember the color of the river we crossed in my uncles truck and the pigs in the back making their high-pitched squeals. I remember the drive out to the farm that belonged to my grandmother and my grandfather that everyone called La Margarita, like the island off the coast of Venezuela. A paradise in itself.

I remember the stories my mother told us about finding gold, of my uncles killing a jaguar that kept hunting the milk cows. I remember the coat, soft orange with mesmerizing black spots, hanging in the shed of my grandmothers house. I remember the heat and my dumb cowboy boots, too new to be useful. I remember my cousin, Fran, taking me on the ride of my life on horseback. Hold on tight, he said, and I did as we raced against no one in the open space that stretched for miles.

I remember the face of my grandmother, like tan leather, and the way she would smile, mostly in the evenings, sitting on the stoop of her house, when all the chores were done. I remember the cement water tank in the courtyard catching rain during those torrential storms and the dug-out rock on top of the metal water jug where you would pour the water over so it could filter, slow as time, in the summer months. I remember mamon, the color of ripe lime, and the way you would use your teeth to crack the skin, sink your teeth into the peach flesh. Be careful with your clothes, my mother would say in Spanish. It stains. And I remember the color the mamon left when it stained.

I remember that we would split Christmas between Caracas and Guasipati. I remember the house of my other grandparents that overlooked the twinkling lights of the big city and the fireworks show, like nothing else in the world. I remember the clear waters of the pool and the mango trees. I remember the woman who used to cook for us, Senora Ana, and the way the cod fish smelled in the kitchen, for days.

I remember playing cards and going out with my cousins. I remember the beach club and the Portuguese boys thinking they were something else. I remember the drive, making me jump in my seat, how close the cars got to each other, how people would run red lights. I remember the big malls, filled with shoppers and the security guards, with their automatic rifles, just hanging out. I remember the sun setting over the mountains, turning the sky purple. I remember long walks with my aunt and stopping to eat hot dogs in the street. I remember the parks and the museums.

In Guasipati, I remember my uncles telling stories for hours, drinking for hours, making my mother laugh as Id never heard her laugh before. I remember my cousins, smiling at me. My uncles calling me different nicknames. My aunts asking me questions about my school and my grades and how I was liking the visit so far.

I remember feeling safe, even in bars at five in the morning and the way that everyone called each other pana or friend, in between a string of curses. I remember the bakeries in the morning, with fresh cachitos and pasteles and fresh-squeezed orange juice and coffees with milk. I remember the smell was something you could get drunk off of. I remember the faces of my cousins, laughing, over cigarettes.

I remember the Orinoco River meeting the Caroni, the black and brown waters forming a color line in the water. I remember the house my aunt lived in, the one with the spiral wooden staircase that folded in. I remember Juglie, who took care of my cousin and cooked platano in the oven with cinnamon.

I collect my memories of Venezuela and turn them over in my head and in my heart. The radio news programs say my country is sliding into authoritarianism. My family agrees. News of the dead killed in clashes with the military pile up. I try to focus on the time we went to the park, with the waterfalls and the monkeys. I try to remember my uncles whistling my name, calling me Maria Luisa Cara Camisa. I think of my grandmother a lot, her stiff hair, the silver filling in her tooth. Or was it gold? It hurts to not remember.

I cant remember if the Caroni has brown or black waters, either. I cant remember if the bakery in downtown Caracas sold pan de jamon only during Christmas.

Venezuela was never my country in the way that it belongs to my mother and father, my aunts and my cousins. It didnt belong to me. It was on loan to me during the summer months, but the thought of not being able to go back to the place that I was born, to the country that shaped me, that named me, that made parts of me, feels like a thing caught in my throat. Feels like an empty belly, but different from the real ones, the ones growing in Venezuela as people starve in the streets, die in their homes. There are news accounts of people eating pigeons and dogs. Of well-dressed men stopping in the streets to dig through the trash.

To me, Venezuela is still a place I can go to, even if its just in my dreams. I remember the salt water drying in my hair while my parents read the newspaper on the beach. I remember the rhythm of the waves and the fresh oysters I rejected. I remember my first drink, that awkward kiss, and the weight of a country, splitting me open. I remember the people always asking me, pero de donde eres? But where are you from? Here. And not here. From a place thats in between, like a field thats caught fire.

Maria Luisa Cesar of San Antonio is a senior policy adviser and deputy communications director in Mayor Ron Nirenbergs office. She is a former Express-News staff writer.
Re: Hemisfair landmark faces relocation, downsizing; ITCs move could spell the end of the Texas Folklife Festival, front page, Aug. 2:

Hey, why not take the money that will be used to reimagine Alamo Plaza and use it to repair and sustain the Institute of Texan Cultures? It has been of enormous value to San Antonio and keeps our focus where it belongs  on learning, history and our multicultural heritage.

Bill Sandidge

Fear is the problem

Re: Bathroom priorities, Your Turn, Aug. 2:

The letter writer exemplifies someone who knows nothing about transgender people, but this holier than thou ignorance is the problem. Our values have not dropped so low because were worried about income more than privacy. Our values have dropped so low because it is acceptable to deny certain people their rights.

There has never been one incident in a health club or locker room. This law is clearly about prejudice. And prejudice is clearly about ignorance and fear. Its all too easy to pick on a small, marginalized group like transgender people. Because of the lack of understanding and love, these people have suffered every day of their lives.

Educate yourselves, and you can conquer your unsubstantiated fear.

Terri Gorler

New-age zombies

Re: Living Dead still inescapable metaphor, Josh Brodesky, Other Views, July 30:

An updated version of the movie Night of the Living Dead might depict the White House as trying to unite to confront the threat of zombies who happen to be liberals, Democrats, environmentalists, scientists and millions of others who oppose the behavior of a president who exhibits a deeply repellent vindictiveness in the service of a pathological need to display dominance (Charles Krauthammer, Other Views, July 29) and who desecrates the meaning of truth by employing a pathological need to lie, thereby creating a society without rules, justice or democratic deliberation.

We new zombies, however, are not the flesh-eating kind, nor are we brain-dead. The White House fears us because we work to devour policies that try to obliterate Barack Obamas legacy of decency and discourage our two major parties from uniting to restore planetary health.

We oppose policies that promote the military as the only entity that deserves full funding; that demonize Muslims, transgenders, undocumented immigrants and other minorities; and that treat the concerns of peaceful protesters as evidence of disloyalty.

Joseph Dunwoody

They didnt serve

The Trump men have been in the United States since the 1890s. Our country has been involved in many military conflicts over those years. Americans have fought and died in many conflicts over that time, such as the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the conflicts in the Middle East.

It appears that no Trump men has had a compunction to serve in our military. They have not worked in any critical war-related occupation and have had no religious objections to war. They have been of prime age for military service when some of our biggest conflicts have erupted, but it seems the Trump family has been only concerned with accumulating money.

Yet our president sees fit to criticize Sen. Richard Blumenthal and others for having served in our military Reserves during times of war.

Where have the Trump men been during dangerous times in our history?

Jesse Ortiz

Cover monument

Why all the panic about the Confederate statue at Travis Park?

I suggest we manufacture a large U.S. flag of some durable material and drape it over the top of the statue. The words at the lower part of the statue should be left exposed, to indicate that the Civil War has ended.

Guadalupe Flores

Statues, rainbows

First, whoever is behind the removal of the statue in Travis Park is motivated for votes down the road. It is a Confederate statue, and it has been there for more than 100 years. If it bothers you that we fought for the South, dont visit the park.

We have too many transplants in Texas, and none realizes how we Texans feel about our history. I believe the council and others should be considered racists if they vote to remove it.

And the question of whether to allow the gay community to graffiti the street in the downtown area is absurd and should not be allowed for many reasons. Again, politics are in play.

The changing of Durango to Cesar Chavez Boulevard was another politically motivated injustice. Chavez did not want immigrants from Mexico to come to Texas to take jobs from the people living here.

Sanctuary city  wow. When did we get to pick and choose which laws we enforce? If this city is to be labeled as such, the sheriff and police chief should be held in contempt and put in jail till they change their minds.

Lastly, how would East Siders feel if we wanted to take down the Martin Luther King Jr. statue? Its the same thing.

You cant change history by removing statues. There are far more important issues facing this city and country than to beat a dead horse.

Marvin Cannon
COLUMBUS, Ga.  It was no surprise to Mary Jo Snead when her son, Carlos, became a pastor.

When he was just a boy, I could hear him preaching in the bathroom, she said. I had to tell him to hush.

The decision by her eldest son, Ernest, was a bit more of a surprise. It took him a bit longer to get the calling.

Each Sunday morning, the Columbus woman has a decision to make and that is which son to go hear preach.

Ernest Snead IV is pastor at Faithful Missionary Baptist Church in Phenix City. Carlos Snead is pastor at Faithful Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus. Both churches average more than 100 people at Sunday services.

The brothers were born and raised in Columbus.

I am proud of them and try to go to both churches, said their mom.

Her husband, Ernest Snead III, died in 2012. A pastor for about 30 years, he founded the Phenix City church one son now leads.

Neither parent pushed their boys toward the ministry. A third son, Tramaine, is a forklift operator in Virginia.

I know how hard a job being a pastor can be, she said.

The sons agree.

You have to be called to this job, said Carlos Snead, 34, who celebrates his first year at his church on Sunday. Previously, he has served as pastor at three Alabama churches.

You have to have the right temperament to deal with the people. Everyone wants something different, said Ernest Snead, 36, who is in his fifth year as pastor of his church.

The Sneads say it can be a struggle pleasing the older members who like things a little more traditional and the younger ones who want a church to be more modern and offer much in the way of activities.

Ernest Snead was not sure he wanted the job. He recalled his father asking him about taking the new role as pastor.

I told him no, he said.

His fathers death just two days later played a role in changing his mind.

Ernest Snead got involved with church work while stationed in Hawaii with the U.S. Air Force.

My wife, Korri, and I got leadership positions at a church there, he said.

Coming back, he was made a deacon and worked under his father in Phenix City.

The sons recall their father as a powerful, dynamic speaker.

While neither is a clone of him, both are animated in the pulpit.

Carlos Snead said the best advice his father gave him was to love the people.

He told me to be myself and to go with my own strengths, he said.

Most of all, he told his son to stay prayed up.

The mother gave advice, as well.

I told both of them to put their heart into it, and be faithful in what they are doing, she said. Give the people all that they have.

And she feels that advice has been followed.

I feel really blessed to have two sons in the ministry following in my husbands footsteps, blessed to have them in the Columbus area , she said. If he were alive, my husband would be happy and he would let you know it, too.

It is great to look at the congregation and see mamas face out there, Carlos Snead said.

Ernest Snead nodded his head in agreement.

And Mary Jo Snead may have another pastor to support one day. Her grandson, Jamir, is already looking toward a life in the ministry.
Music teacher award

Maroa-Forsyth music teacher Edd Powers has been nominated for the 2017-18 Life Changer of the Year award.

Sponsored by the National Life Group Foundation, the award recognized the best K-12 educators and school district employees in the country who make a difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence and leadership.

Powers has taught music at Maroa-Forsyth for 22 years.

Constitution Day

The Stephen Decatur chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will mark Constitution Day on Sunday, Sept. 17, with a 3 p.m. ceremony at the flagpole in Fairview Park next to the main pavilion. The DAR donated that flagpole.

Constitution Day was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and marks the signing of the Constitution. Schools that receive federal funding are required to teach lessons on the document on or as near as possible to the date. The ceremony will be open to the public.

Night at the museum

A back-to-school Night at the Museum event will be 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at the Christian County Historical Society and Museum. Teams of students ages 13 to 18 can sign up. Call (217) 824-6922 or email cchs254@gmail.com or like the Christian County Historical Society on Facebook.

Upcoming events include a float in the Mount Auburn Parade and back to school photo shoot fundraiser, 10 a.m. To 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Buckeye School; a float in the Edinburg Labor Day parade on Sept. 4; Prairie Days on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9 to 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Persimmon Days, Saturday, Nov. 4.

Lourdes Maker Space

A new educational concept will begin in the fall, the Maker Space.

The computer lab, no longer needed thanks to a 1-to-1 computer program at the school, has been converted by technology teacher Faith Carr in to a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) area.

Students will work individually, in pairs and in small groups to use scientific reasoning, critical thinking, artistic and geometric design and activities during their weekly visits to the lab.

As a parochial school, Lourdes has added religious and arts components to STEM to make it STREAM. The school is still accepting enrollments. Call (217) 877-4408.

Lake Land ambassadors

Students an apply for student ambassadorships for the upcoming school year.

Ambassadors are official college representatives at events such as college fairs and high school visits, conduct campus tours and assist with special functions sponsored by the college.

To be eligible, students must be enrolled at least half-time for both the fall and spring semesters during the year of application, and have a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5.

Applications are due by Sept. 1 and interviews will be conducted Sept. 5-8. Visit www.lakelandcollege.edu/student-life/student-ambassadors or call (217) 234-5254.
ZIFA have lived up to their threat of litigation against their former chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze with the association formally lodging a report with the Zimbabwe Republic Police who have since opened a docket for the alleged $700 000 fraud.

Mashingaidze was last week also slammed with a life ban that is now awaiting approval of the Zifa congress.

The soccer mother body were guided by the findings of an audit report compiled by Baker Tilly Gwatidzo Chartered Accountants on the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 2011, when they made their report.

Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa yesterday said they have decided to raise criminal charges against their former employee and the case was reported under RRB 3370099.

The report by the auditors indicated Mashingaidze as head of the associations secretariat could not account for money in excess of $700 000.

Basically what we have done is that we have reported him to the police and a docket has been opened. So police are after Mashingaidze now. These are matters that have been outstanding for some time.

This man should have answered for his sins long back. When we came in we felt we could not continue to work with him after discovering his shenanigans, hence his contract was not renewed.

An audit that was done by the associations auditors in 2011, long before we came in, is clear that some criminal activities were happening at Zifa and we wonder why people were not brought to book. This Mashingaidze abused his office to block the matters from coming to the fore.

There was no Congress of note between 2010 and 2014 and this paralysis of leadership helped him get away with it. But now its time he owns up, said Chiyangwa.

The independent auditors Baker Tilly Gwatidzo Chartered Accountants who were tasked to look into the associations books in 2011 produced an adverse report in which they also pointed out that the association was technically insolvent.

In essence, Zifa were operating illegally since then because the costs of liabilities far outweighed the value of its assets.

Zifas debts ballooned from $600 000 to $6 million inside five years with Mashingaidze at the helm and it is alleged that the previous leadership committed fraudulent transactions which included creation of non-existent debts, inflation of figures and signing fake acknowledgement of debts.

Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing.

Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the consolidated financial statements are free from misstatement.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our adverse audit opinion, read part of the report.

The auditors also noted with concern that huge amounts of money were not accounted for and that Zifa did not comply with the basic audit requirements.

The financial statements have not been prepared on the accrual basis of accounting as per the requirements of International Accounting Standard 1. This represents a material non-compliance with a fundamental principle of accounting. The effect thereof on the financial statements cannot be quantified.

Included in the consolidated financial statements are direct match expenses amounting to $1,291,636 and operating expenses amounting to $2,375.33.

However we were not able to obtain appropriate and sufficient audit evidence amounting to $41,215 and $99, 648 respectively due to unavailability of either adequate supporting documentation or confirmations from third parties.

Consequently we were not able to determine whether any adjustments to the consolidated financial statements were necessary.

We were not able to obtain appropriate audit evidence in relation to the Associations recorded accounts payables amounting to $744, 635 of the $781, 588 recorded in the consolidated financial statements, over which there was no system of internal control on which we could rely for the support of our audit.

There were no other satisfactory audit procedures that we could adopt to satisfy ourselves that the recorded accounts payables were free from material misstatements. In addition, the organisation has many pending litigations and the internal controls are not designed in a way that enables the identification of unrecorded liabilities.

A substantial portion of income comprises grants and donations. Due to the nature of this income it is impracticable to implement accounting controls prior to entry of such income in the books of account. Whilst we have no reason to believe that there is any unrecorded income of this nature, we were unable to confirm this.

The auditors also observed that it was difficult to ascertain Zifas true financial position owing to the shambolic manner the accounts were compiled.

In our opinion, because of the significance of the matters discussed in the basis for opinion paragraph, the consolidated financial statements do not present fairly, the financial position of Zimbabwe Football Association as at 31 December 2011, and its financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Without further qualifying our opinion, we draw attention to note 13 to the financial statements which indicates that the organisation had an accumulated loss of ($3 095 268) for the year ended December 31, 2011 and, as at that date, the organisations total liabilities exceeded its total assets by ($2 104 325).

Note 13 also indicates conditions, along with other matters described in note 12, that indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the organisations ability to continue as a going concern, noted the auditors.

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FEAR of treason charges and a possible counter-coup that then Justice minister Happyton Bonyongwe tried to set up around now Agriculture minister Retired Chief Air Marshal Perrance Shiri spurred delicate negotiations following the military coup that toppled former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017.

Minutes that made up discussions in cliff-hanger meetings held between Mugabe, at the time under house arrest, and military generals led by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Constantino Chiwenga between November 15 and 16, 2017 expose the intricacies of the coup plot.

The coup came after then Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa had been summarily fired from both government and ruling Zanu PF party, prompting him to flee to South Africa for security reasons.

Mnangagwa had been sacked by Mugabe on November 6 as the situation in the country deteriorated, forcing Chiwenga out of the closet to declare that the military was ready to step in to restore sanity.

The then ZDF statement was made on November 13 before the coup moved into full swing late on the 14th.

The mediation team comprised of Roman Catholic cleric Father Fidelis Mukonori, Mugabes then spokesperson George Charamba, who acted as secretary during the negotiations as well as Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda.

The team also included then Public Service Commission chairperson Mariyawanda Nzuwa and former Foreign Affairs ministry secretary Joey Bimha as well as Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) deputy director-general Aaron Nhepera.

The minutes signed by Mukonori, Charamba and Nhepera, reveal that Mugabe could have been hoodwinked during the intricate negotiations. It is also revealed that Bonyongwe, who had just been appointed Justice minister by Mugabe tried to set up a counter-force to stop the coup.

The President was informed about mounting tension and concern within the command element triggered by a mobile communication message attributed to the new Minister of Justice, and former director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Rtd General Bonyongwe, to Air Marshall Perrance Shiri who is in Dubai on official business allegedly urging him to fly back to join in efforts towards a counter-operation whose backbone would be the police force commanded by Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri.

It was drawn to the Presidents attention that Commissioner Chihuri had not attended the inaugural Wednesday (November 15) meeting after which he did not turn up for the rest, the minutes read in part. Chihuri has since then never made a public appearance, while Bonyongwe has since recoiled into private life.

It is revealed that in the subsequent meetings with Mugabe, basically a sitting duck following the bloodless military takeover, the then Zanu PF leader was told of anxiety over the actions of the police force.

Instances of friction between the military and the Zimbabwe Republic Police were also drawn to the Presidents attention, culminating in what appeared to be a withdrawal of the police force from policing duties at least in Harare.

The President was informed that the command element had made it clear that a counter-force against their operation would constitute an escalation, which was bound to lead to a bloody outcome, documents show. Bonyongwe, according to the minutes, was trying to craft a law that would have had Chiwenga and his co-conspirators charged with treason.

Since then the police have never recaptured public trust and the authority it commanded during Mugabes reign with the army a constant feature during operations. The growing influence of the military has raised fears among critics given the bloody shooting on August 1 last year last month  the two incidences which have left over 20 people dead and dozens with gunshot wounds.

While Mnangagwa, on his return, admitted that he had been in constant touch with the countrys security leadership, Mugabe was apparently told that reports that Chiwenga had met the then former Vice-President were fabricated.

The mediation team was able to provide facts that dispelled claims that Chiwenga had made a diversion and stop-over in South Africa en-route to Zimbabwe from China in order to meet with dismissed former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his team thought to include Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa and Zimbabwes ambassador to South Africa, Ambassador Isaac Moyo.

More importantly, the mediating team told the President that the operation by the command element was not calculated at top leadership change in the party and country, a process which had to be left to the party running in a fair, clean and just way and which had to be superintended by the President himself without undue influence, the report shows.

Mutsvangwa, the chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, a key figure in Mugabes fall, was to be appointed special adviser to Mnangagwa, while Moyo now heads the CIO.

 NewsDay

Breaking News via Email
Every year, thousands of migrants risk their lives on a treacherous journey from their countries to Zimbabwe in search of educational opportunities at various tertiary institutions around the country.

Despite Zimbabweans being known for their warm reception to foreigners, the story is different for female students who are reportedly subjected to all forms of harassment including se xual.

Female Student Trust, Executive Director, Evernice Munando noted that se xual harassment is a common phenomenon globally especially among female students.

Mary (not her real name), an Equatorial Guinea female student who came to Zimbabwe in 2015 to pursue her tertiary education has had a difficult time with lecturers at her institution. She reckons that language barrier was at first her biggest obstacle as she failed to assert herself resulting in being subjected to abuse by her lecturers, other male students and the general public especially in the Central Business District.

I came to Zimbabwe in 2015 and never thought I would go through such horrendous experiences, I had previously heard glorious stories of how Zimbabweans are warm and good people, but my own experience tells a different story.

From the beginning, Zimbabwean men didnt treat me fairly as a foreigner.

It started when l arrived at Harare Polytechnic as a student, I wasnt even able to speak a single English word, so most men would tease me in shona or english but i never got to understand it, It pissed me off because after they say something, they would burst into laughter while I stood there frozen.

One of the most disturbing cases was when one of my lecturers offered me extra lessons for English language, It appeared like a noble gesture but it turned out the other way.

When l got into his office, l found c0nd0ms on his table but l wasnt able to ask, he then gave me a French movie translated to English and he told me to go and watch, so that l will be able to understand.

,

When l was about to go, he grabbed my hand and kis sed me, l ran out of his office, l did not tell this to anyone because i felt ashamed.

Another problem came when l was looking for industrial attachment, men offered me all sorts of promises If I fall for them. To be frank, l fell in love with three men in the hope of getting a place for industrial attachment, said Mary.

Other foreign students cited corruption as another problem they are facing in Zimbabwe especially from lecturers who demand them to pay in cash or kind for their course work to be considered.

Being poor is a crime in Zimbabwe you cant succeed in anything without paying for it, sometimes lecturers ask for payment from us for them to give us higher marks and considering that we always want to return to our home countries,sometimes we end up giving in to their demands as they willfully fail you, said Leoma, another foreign student from Mozambique.

Meanwhile Secretary of labor and Social welfare, Ngoni Masoka called for a change of attitude towards migrants and refugees saying people need to move away from attitudes of defensiveness, fear and intolerance.

It is time that we deploy our efforts in changing the migration narrative. We need to see migrants as our brothers and sisters in search of a better life, far away from poverty, hunger and the unjust distribution of the planets resources.

A change of attitude towards migrants and refugees is needed on the part of everyone, moving away from attitudes of defensiveness, fear and intolerance, said Masoka.

International Organization for Migration Chief of Mission Ms. Lily Sanya said challenges and difficulties of international migration require enhanced cooperation and collective action among countries.

Migration draws increasing attention in the world nowadays.

Mixed with elements of unforeseeability, emergency, and complexity, the challenges and difficulties of international migration require enhanced cooperation and collective action among countries and regions to maximize the positive impacts of migration while lessening the adverse impact.

The United Nations is actively playing a catalyst role in this area, with the aim of creating more dialogues and interactions within countries and regions, as well as propelling experience exchange and collaboration opportunities, said Sanya.

According to Human Rights Watch, migrants are facing violations including denied access to fundamental rights such as the right to education, work and health which is discriminatory especially to international female students.

UNESCO Good Policy and Practice in HIV & AIDS and education booklet, states that schools are not always aware of national policies established by education ministries.

There is often a gap between policy and practice, with good intentions hindered by lack of policies, failure to communicate departmental policy to schools, lack of guidelines for educators and learners, and lack of training for school governing bodies.

With Zimbabwe hosting students from Southern African countries such as Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi among others, a lot needs to be done to tighten screws and address legal gaps to end se xual harassment of foreign students in the country.

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The Zimbabwe Defence and Security Services have officially ended Operation Restore Legacy, which was launched on the 13th of last month.

Commander Zimbabwe National Army Lieutenant General Philip Valerio Sibanda said the controversial operation has achieved its purpose to apprehend criminals around the former President Mugabe and there is now change of guard in the countrys leadership.

Lieutenant General Sibanda, who was flanked by other members of the security services, also revealed that police is back to its normal law enforcement duties since normalcy has returned to the country. A new pledge signed by the police will see radical changes in the execution of their duties a far cry from the previous road menace they had become.

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)

11 Point Plan

All members deployed on traffic enforcement duties to strictly observe and abide by the following Eleven (11) Promises.

1. We will not abuse our authority by engaging in corruption

2. We shall exhibit appropriate police customer care practices

3. We shall not withhold motorists driving licenses without written consent of the owner

4. We shall use discretion judiciously and be sensitive to motorists genuine plights

5. We shall collect no more or less than what is provided in the National Deposit Fines Schedule

6. We shall not detain motorists at roadblock sites unnecessarily

7. We shall not inconvenience law abiding motorists

8. We shall not cause congestion or accidents ourselves during the enforcements but facilitate smooth flow of traffic and pedestrians.

9. We shall all work towards building trust between the police and the general public

10. We shall always display our name tags so that the public know who they are dealing with.

11. We shall be transparent, accountable and respectful in all our dealings with our collective audience

Breaking News via Email
Former president Robert Mugabe risks losing most of his farms and mining claims as his erstwhile colleagues in the ruling Zanu PF hit back at the 94-year-old teetotaller for supporting MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa at the just-ended polls.

Mugabe, who was removed from power last November, angered his former comrades when he threw his weight behind Chamisa ahead of a crucial July 30 poll won by his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, by a small margin.

He has tried to atone for the shift in allegiance by congratulating Mnangagwa on his poll victory, but the gesture is being dismissed as too little, too late.

Last week, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (Znlwva) set in motion plans to revoke Mugabes legacy projects, starting with renaming the Robert Mugabe International Airport.

Znlwva will soon petition government to rename the national asset to Harare International Airport on the basis that the former Zanu PF leader sold out.

Mid last week, there were attempts to seize the former first familys mining claim in Mazowe by Zanu PF functionaries.

Significantly, the Mugabes, who are understood to own more than 15 farms, would be stripped of the properties so that they comply with the one-man one-farm policy.

Mnangagwa told the Independent Foreign Service, that they were still ascertaining how many the Mugabes own and will trim the number of farms that his predecessor has if he owns more than one farm.

I am still receiving evidence of what the (former) first family had. When that process is complete they will select one farm and the rest will be given elsewhere.

Its not a question of voluntarily giving up, but about complying with the policy, he said.

Signs that his erstwhile colleagues mean serious business are already on the wall.

Whereas the Mugabes had privatised use of Mazowe Dam during their reign, last week the ministry of Environment, Water and Climate took over the dam and effectively shunted out the former first family.

Already, boat cruising and other recreational activities have returned to the dam that was once a no go area.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) issued a statute barring individuals from claiming the dam, citing Section 4 of the Water Act which states that there should be no private ownership of water.

No person shall be entitled to ownership of any water in Zimbabwe and no water shall be stored, abstracted, apportioned, controlled, diverted, used or in any way dealt with except in accordance with this Act. (2) Subject to this Act, a permit issued in terms of this Act shall confer upon its holder a right to the use of water in accordance with the permit, said Zinwa.

While former first lady Grace Mugabe had taken over Manzou Farm which lies in the precincts of her sprawling empire in the picturesque Mazowe mountains  the villagers she had driven out are back in full force.

A Professor of World Politics at the London School of African and Oriental Studies Stephen Chan said Mnangagwa was desperate to demonstrate to the world that he means business and the Mugabes would not be an exception in his bid to demonstrate that no one is above the law.

With all of the controversy surrounding the elections, especially the violence that seemed to hark back to the Mugabe era, Mnangagwas regime will be anxious to provide symbols of movement away from that era  and the fall guy will be Mugabe himself, now an easy target.

I myself would like the airport to be renamed Herbert Chitepo International Airport  I hosted Chitepo during his Antipodean speaking tour in 1973  and this would retain some real link with liberation history. As for having many farms, how many farms does one man need? And, as for Grace, every man and woman should face justice, said Chan.

Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said it was not wise to target Mugabe and his family.

Saungweme said the whole thing could be a ploy by Mnangagwa whereby excitable sections of the ruling party would say explosive things against Mugabe with the Zanu PF leader stepping in to cool things down to confirm his claims that he is as soft as wool.

The whole thing, as far as Mugabe is concerned might be mere politics meant to paint an angelic Mnangagwa within and outside Zimbabwe, especially after the killing of at least six unarmed civilians on August 1 in Harare.

Saungweme said while Mugabe could get away with it, Grace who is facing assault charges in South Africa is game meat for the authorities.

Regarding Grace, its a different matter. She was hated in Zanu PF by many, and many Zanu PF supporters had drawn the line between her and Mugabe. If Mugabe goes, the likelihood of her being extradited is high, especially after her meddling in opposition politics in the just-ended election, he said.

 DailyNews

Breaking News via Email
SPRINFIELD  Gov. Bruce Rauners changes to school funding legislation would give a total of $5.4 million more to Decatur schools, according to an analysis the governors office released Saturday.

Decatur schools would receive $2.5 million more than last year under Senate Bill 1, the original school funding bill that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in May. Citing results of a review by the the Illinois State Board of Education, Rauners office said his changes would increase that funding by $2.9 million.

The state board said last week that it was evaluating the language of the amendatory veto Rauner issued Aug. 1 and that it would be at Rauners discretion when to release the file.

The political battle over education funding continues just days before schools across the state are set to open without knowing whether they will receive state money, or how much. The Illinois Senate is set to convene at 2 p.m. Sunday to take up the issue.

Among other changes, Rauners amendatory veto removed hundreds of millions of dollars meant for Chicago Public Schools, which he said would be redistributed to other districts. He said the analysis shows 97.5 percent of school districts would receive more money next year.

Democrats have said Rauner's changes would result in hundreds of districts statewide receiving less money than they would have under the original bill over the long term.

"The most glaring omission from Gov. Rauner's spreadsheets is what happens to these school districts in the out years once his provisions kick in that pit schools against economic development," said state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, chief sponsor of SB 1, in a statement. "Hundreds of districts would see a significant loss of state funding, and property owners would shoulder tax hikes as a result of the state shifting costs onto school districts under the Rauner plan."

In a statement, Rauner continued to urge lawmakers to uphold his amendatory veto.

I made these changes to Senate Bill 1 because that legislation fails to ensure fairness and equity for all children across Illinois, he said. My changes guarantee that some of our states neediest districts will receive significantly more funding.

Other Macon County school districts would receive additional funding through Rauner's changes as well, according to the analysis:

Mount Zion, $580,226

Meridian, $453,171

Sangamon Valley, $160,840

Central A&M, $135,803

Warrensburg-Latham, $88,447

Argenta-Oreana, $64,171

Maroa-Forsyth, 37,280

Lawmakers in both the Senate and House need a three-fifths vote to either override or approve Rauner's changes. Most schools have said they have reserves or other cash sources enough to open as scheduled, but few say they'd make it a whole school year without deep cuts.

Manar said few minds will be changed by these latest numbers released by the administration.

"In my view, there is no question that Senate Bill 1 is the path forward for Illinois. I look forward to the Senate proceeding with its vote to override Gov. Rauner, he said.

Decatur Superintendent Paul Fregeau has spoken in support of Senate Bill 1, the original funding legislation.

Fregeau has said the district would run out of money in mid-November without state funding, and would consider borrowing and other alternatives after that.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
(Natural News) A recent analysis carried out by researchers at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund confirmed that breastfeeding may help reduce the odds of developing breast cancer. As part of the review, the research team examined 18 studies that assessed the effects of breastfeeding on cancer risk. Thirteen of these studies looked at the correlation between the length of time spent lactating and the likelihood of breast cancer onset.

The health experts found that for every five months a woman breastfeeds, her chances of developing breast cancer drops by two percent. The research team also noted that carrying excess weight after menopause may raise the odds of breast cancer onset. However, this risk could be mitigated while women are still able to conceive, the research team added.

In addition, the scientists discovered that alcohol intake elevates the risk of breast cancer onset in both pre- and postmenopausal women. However, exercise appeared to reduce the risk in both population, the researchers said. Babies who were breastfed also had lower odds of gaining excess weight later in life, the scientists added. Study author Alice Bender from the AICR noted that while it is not always possible for women to breastfeed, those who can should bear in mind the activitys protective benefits against the disease. (Related: Breastfeeding Significantly Lowers Breast Cancer Risk.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for about six months.

Breastfeeding curbs breast cancer risk in previous studies

The recent findings were reflective of previous studies demonstrating the beneficial effects of breastfeeding on womens health. For instance, a study published in 2015 revealed that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence and subsequent death by 30 percent. The researchers also noted that women who breastfed for more than six months had significantly lower odds of developing the disease.

We found in this study of over 1,600 women with breast cancer that those who previously breast-fed had a 30 percent overall decreased risk of their breast cancer recurring. We also found those who previously breast-fed had a 28 percent reduced risk of dying from their breast cancer. If a woman breast-feeds, she reduces her risk of developing breast cancer by about five percent to 10 percent, although other factors come into play. We think this is one of the first [studies] to examine the role of breast-feeding and breast cancer outcomes  prognosis and survival. Overall, our study confirms that breast-feeding is not only good for the baby, but has potential health benefits for the mom, study leader Marilyn Kwan told CBSNews.com.

Another study published in 2013 revealed that women who breastfed were less likely to develop the disease compared with those who did not. As part of the study, a team of researchers at the University of Granada in Spain examined medical records of more than 500 women. The scientists found that women who did not breastfeed were at an increased risk of developing breast cancer 10 years earlier than those who breastfed.

In contrast, women who breastfed for more than six had an average life-expectancy gain of 10 years more compared with non-breastfeeding mothers. However, the research team also found that smoking may render the benefits of breastfeeding worthless. According to the research team, female smokers regardless of their smoking status develop the disease earlier and gain no benefits from extended breastfeeding duration.

Breastfeeding for periods of over six months not only provides children with numerous health benefits, but also protects the mother from serious diseases such as breast cancer. Breastfeeding is a potential ally in the fight against breast tumors, the researchers wrote on the Medical News Today website.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

CBSNews.com

MedicalNewsToday.com
(Natural News) It often seems as though liberals care more about diversity than anything else. On virtually every college campus in the country, for instance, it is virtually impossible to walk twenty feet without seeing a sign or a poster stressing the importance of embracing diversity. In the halls of congress, left wing politicians are constantly introducing new legislation to do everything from balance out the number of minorities and non-minorities in American neighborhoods to close the so-called gender wage gap. At times, this obsession with diversity even tries to get us to embrace delusion, as seen when liberals do things like award Caitlyn Jenner the title of woman of the year.

As it turns out, even the Internet isnt safe from this sort of diversity-above-all-else mentality. In a recent interview with Breitbart News, a Google employee who uses the alias Hal admitted that the company routinely puts diversity and social justice at the top of their priority list  even above technology.

After Breitbart reporter Allum Bokhari asked a question regarding what it was like to work at Google, Hal explained that the company intentionally hires social justice activists who spend all day fighting the culture war and get nothing done. He continued, The diversity gospel has been woven into nearly everything the company does, to the point where senior leaders focus on diversity first and technology second. The companywide Google Insider emails used to talk about cool new tech, but now theyre entirely about social justice initiatives. Likewise, the weekly all-hands TGIF meetings used to focus on tech, but now theyre split about 50/50 between tech and identity politics signaling.

For conservative employees who disagree with Googles focus on diversity instead of technology, Hal says it is most certainly a hostile environment. He explained that many of them have been driven out of the company or fired outright for sharing a dissenting view, and that others have had their promotions denied or suffered other forms of deniable retaliation. Because of this, Hal admitted that most employees keep their heads down and their mouths shut out of fear of losing their jobs.

The one thing that liberals hate even more than a lack of diversity is when people expose the sheer ridiculousness of it. Just days ago, a software engineer at Google released a document titled Googles Ideological Echo Chamber, in which he gave his opinion on the companys lack of ideological diversity. The Google employee argues that the disparity between men and women is not the result of sexism or misogyny, but rather biological differences that are beyond anyones control.

As you might expect, the employees manifesto went viral and prompted a response from Googles Vice President for Diversity, Integrity, and Governance, Danielle Brown. The tech giants diversity chief stated that the memos author made incorrect assumptions about gender, and that the views that were expressed do not reflect the overall viewpoint of the company.

Incredibly, the employee who came forward with criticisms about Googles priorities was fired just days after the memo was released. In an ironic twist, CEO Sundar Pichai released a statement explaining that the company really does respect differences of opinion, but then went on to say that the spread of gender stereotypes would not be tolerated. (Related: Read about how Google censored Natural News.)

It is abundantly clear that in addition to focusing more on technology, Google should be embracing ideological diversity. They should be making an effort to be more accepting of those that do not subscribe to the left wing, social justice philosophy, and by firing a man who openly shared legitimate criticisms of the company, Google has sadly proven that it is going in the exact opposite direction.

Join the #MarchOnGoogle August 19, 2017, now scheduled for nine U.S. cities. Click here for details on the march, or visit MarchOnGoogle.com.

Sources

Breitbart.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) For decades, those on the extreme left have been vocal advocates of imposing more regulations on the Second Amendment so as to decrease both the number of guns on the streets as well as the national crime rate, a relationship that has been largely debunked time and time again. Its ironic, however, that now that President Trump is in office, more and more left wing extremist organizations are starting to rise up, wielding firearms and openly calling for a violent revolution. It would appear that they oppose the idea of decent, law-abiding Americans owning firearms for personal self-defense, but when it comes to imposing their radical totalitarian agenda, these groups are all for it.

One of these groups is Red Guards Austin, a left wing terrorist organization hell-bent on introducing communism into the United States. On their website, Red Guards Austin describes themselves as an autonomous Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collective based in Austin, Texas. In a section labeled Why We Are Boycotting the Elections, they explain how the capitalist-imperialist system is one where the ruling class holds all the power, and because of that fact, the only democracy that exists is ruling-class democracy.

Later, Red Guards Austin explains why they dont run candidates in elections: Real change, the type this country desperately needs, does not and cannot come from the ballot box. The end of capitalism is what is required, and that requires millions of active participants. (Related: Americas universities are becoming training camps for left wing extremism.)

As extreme as they are, there is one thing that Red Guards Austin got right  this country does need change. However, the type of change that we should be working towards has nothing to do with the centralization of power or the establishment of a communist state; rather, it has to do with decreasing the size of the federal government and returning the United States back to its constitutional roots.

Furthermore, being an advocate for communism because you oppose an oppressive capitalist-imperialist system doesnt even make any sense. The truth is, a communist state would be more oppressive and more despotic than any capitalist or wealthy CEO could ever be.

If you were truly looking to end oppression and give everyone an equal playing field, then you would embrace capitalism, not reject it. As much as the radical left will tell you otherwise, there is no fairer economic system than the free market, which is based on individual liberty and property rights. Unlike socialism and communism, capitalism does not see demographics. How much you earn is not based on your gender, your race, your religion or your sexual orientation; rather, it is based solely on innovation, creativity, and the drive to become successful.

Sadly, Red Guards Austin isnt the only radical left wing group that is arming up in opposition to President Trump. Redneck Revolt is an organization that describes itself as an above ground militant formation founded in June of last year. Claiming that they have over 30 vetted branches across the country, Redneck Revolt supports the idea of militant resistance to white supremacy and capitalism, much like Red Guards Austins opposition to what they consider to be a ruling class democracy. In a 36 page handbook published on their website, Redneck Revolt includes specific sections on guerilla warfare, including sabotage, kidnapping, executions, armed propaganda, and terrorism. (Related: Liberals turn to hate as they unleash violent beatings on Trump supporters.)

Youll notice that the progressives in the media and in Washington DC are very reluctant to call out groups like Red Guards Austin and Redneck Revolt, even though they are openly calling for an armed revolution. If the left wanted to maintain even a shred of integrity, then they would immediately condemn these violent organizations and distance themselves as much as they possibly can. Otherwise, all of their credibility (which wasnt much to begin with) will be tossed out the window.

Sources include:

FarLeftWatch.com

RedGaurdsAustin.Wordpress.com
(Natural News) Is your child gender fluid? Does it not identify as either a male or a female, even though it hasnt even yet reached puberty? Is it insistent that you use strange pronouns when referring to it? Well, theres a place for it to be in like company at the Rainbow Day Camp, located in the San Francisco Bay area of California.

According to reports, this controversial summer camp for gender diverse youth accepts toddlers as young as four years of age, who are encouraged to express their non-existent sexuality in whatever way they see fit. The camp also offers a variety of gender expansive programs whereby children can interact in a community of peers that will provide a safe space for the exploration of gender identity and expression.

For children in the 13-17 years of age category, Rainbow Day Camp offers special programs for non-binary, questioning, genderqueer, and trans teens who are told to explore their gender identity while exploring local activities, all within a community of others just like them (or perhaps not like them, depending on how one looks at it).

What the younger children do at Rainbow Day Camp isnt listed on the camps website, though if the camps general curriculum description and source are any indication, these little ones are presumably being encouraged to think through whether or not their developing private parts match their biological genders  you know, normal kid stuff.

Our approach to self-empowerment at Bay Area Rainbow Day Camp is unique, the camp website explains. We take research based social-emotional intelligence curricula of RULER from Yale Universitys Center for Emotional Intelligence, best practices of creating identity safety and the most celebratory approaches of Gender Pride and Resilience to help gender diverse children where they encounter bias.

Encouraging children to embrace transgenderism is child abuse

If this all sounds like some kind of sick, perverted joke, it is. But Rainbow Day Camp is a very real place, and according to reports, enrollment there is soaring  so much, in fact, that its tripled to some 60 youngsters ranging in age from four to 14 since it first opened three summers ago.

Where are all of these children coming from? Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and even Africa, the camp claims. And because of its wild popularity, Rainbow Day Camp plans to open up even more branches all across the country to accommodate the growing number of gender-confused children who apparently need to learn important life lessons such as how to choose the best gender pronouns to avoid getting triggered.

What these children really need, of course, is the opportunity to grow up  not be encouraged to embrace transgender mental illness. Many children who experience what some experts have dubbed as gender dysphoria eventually grow out of it. Parents and others who aid them in accepting their confusion are actually doing them great harm.

In an article entitled Growing Pains: Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria, three prominent medical experts explain that encouraging children to explore transgenderism and other gender fluid identities may drive some of them to persist in identifying as transgender when they might otherwise have, as they grow older, found their gender to be aligned with their sex.

 [T]he interference with normal pubertal development will influence the gender identity of the child by reducing the prospects for developing a gender identity corresponding to his or her biological sex, the article adds.

In truth, Rainbow Day Camp and any other places like it represent little more than child abuse centers that are setting gender-confused children up for a lifetime of pain, mental anguish, and possibly even suicide.

Sources for this article include:

IBankCoin.com

RainbowDayCamp.org

TheNewAtlantis.com

NaturalNews.com
San Diegans have mixed views about SeaWorld San Diego's plans to build its tallest roller coaster ever with a 150-foot-high ascent followed by an inverted roll.

The California Coastal Commission granted permission to SeaWorld Wednesday to build the roller coaster. It will feature loops, twists and an upside-down view of Mission Bay. SeaWorld officials said they also received unanimous support from the San Diego City Council in June.

"We remain committed to long-term investment in the park and will continue to strive to provide new reasons to visit SeaWorld by giving our guests experiences that matter," said SeaWorld San Diego's Park President Marilyn Hannes.



According to SeaWorld, the adrenaline-filled ride will propel riders forward and backward, accelerating more than 60 mph in seconds.

Some residents in San Diego are looking forward to the new ride. Scott Sterns, a resident in Santee, said he supports the park and its roll in the local economy.

"I think theyve been getting beat up quite a bit over the whole Shamu situation, and theyre just trying to be successful as a company and come up with new ways to attract people to come visit SeaWorld," said Sterns. "And so they can continue as a company and move forward. I dont have an issue with it."

Others are less than thrilled with the park, suggesting that SeaWorld still has work to do on its overall reputation before focusing on thrill rides.

"If theyre building a roller coaster, I feel like thats just going to draw in more people to promote SeaWorld and kind of make it look like a good happy place," said Erics Beaulieu, a resident who lives close to the park. "But I think that its kind of all bad. So I dont know. I dont think I support it."

Beaulieu said she doesn't like the way the park treats sea life and does not support a new roller coaster.

"Even if they dont think it would block the view or make it even look that big, I think its still pretty large and obstructive," she added.

Another resident of West Point Loma, Steve Soldi, was concerned about how the new ride could affect traffic and his view.

"Seaworlds gotten pretty expansive already, and the traffic would be my main concern. The traffic is terrible," said Soldi. "I can see the SeaWorld tower from my house all the time. And as far as Im concerned, thats big enough."

The ride is currently set to open in summer 2018. SeaWorld officials said construction will begin immediately.

This will be the third coaster at the park, joining Manta and Journey to Atlantis.

"I do hope it helps them. They employ a lot of local folks here in San Diego, and I think theyve been good for our city over the years and they do a lot of great things with rescuing animals," added Sterns.
Fake advertisements are being spotted around Venice, Calif. offices Friday in response to Googles recent decision to fire engineer, James Damore, for criticizing the companys diversity initiatives.

The ads spotted at various public benches and the tech companies Los Angeles offices, illustrate Steve Jobs "Think Different" Apple ad from 1997 next to a photo of Google CEO Sundar Pichai with the words "Not So Much" below his company's logo.

A second version of the ad has been tweeted by several users showing the word Google refashioned to read "Goolag" with a search bar underneath stating, "Search for diversity of thought somewhere else," according to a report.

The word "Goolag" not only plays on the word "Google," it appears to reference the Soviet system of forced labor camps known as "Gulag."

https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/895727327916597248

An image of Damore recently surfaced on Twitter featuring him wearing a T-shirt with the words "Goolag."

It is unclear who is behind the advertisements.

NBC Bay Area has reached out to Google for comment.
A court on Friday temporarily halted the campaign seeking to oust a Bay Area judge targeted for recall for sentencing a former Stanford University student-athlete convicted of sexual assault to jail instead of prison.

Campaign officials said Friday that Santa Clara County election officials authorized campaign officials to begin collecting voter signatures to put the recall of Santa Clara County judge Aaron Persky on the June ballot. Persky was targeted for recall last year after sentencing former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a young woman passed out for too much alcohol.

Elizabeth Pipkin, Persky's attorney, argued that the recall effort is misguided.

"He is a good and fair judge who has always endeavored to follow the law," Pipkin said. "He deserves his day in court. He deserves a fair hearing. He deserves fair consideration by the people of this county."



Persky's lawyers also argued that proponents need permission from the California secretary of state because county judges are state officers.

Pipkin said the campaign is misleading voters by saying they can choose the judge's replacement if he's recalled. The governor is the only person authorized to replace county judges, Pipkin said.

Persky's lawyers contend that recall organizers must restart their campaign with the state.

Retired Orange County Judge Marjorie Laird Carter scheduled an Aug. 23 hearing. Carter is hearing the case in San Jose after all the Santa Clara County judges recused themselves because of their relationship with Persky.

If Carter rules in Persky's favor, it will shorten the time proponents are allotted to gather 90,000 Santa Clara County voter signatures to qualify the issue for the June ballot.

"We believe that this is simply a last-ditch desperate effort by Judge Persky to avoid the democratic process," said Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber, who is leading the campaign effort.

NBC Bay Area's Scott Budman contributed to this report.
Despite a court's order to reopen a path leading to a popular Half Moon Bay beach, a billionaire on Friday continued to the defy the demand.

The California Court of Appeal ordered Thursday that the gate leading to Martins Beach be open to the public, but the gate was still in place Friday.

Access to the coastal property south of Half Moon Bay has been the subject of a battle between the landowner, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, and the state of California, along with citizens who have clamored for the billionaire to allow them access to the beach.

Thursday's decision was being touted as a huge victory for surfers and Bay Area beachgoers. But even as the legal team celebrated the win, they said they are bracing for another fight, all the way to the state Supreme Court.

The California Court of Appeal ordered Thursday Martins Beach be open to the public. Robert Handa reports.

Meanwhile, the gate to the main access road for the beach remains closed.

Christopher Manchester, the operator of the Half Moon Bay Kayak Company, expressed frustration with the gate still being up.

"It's like taking Yosemite and not letting people in and just saying, 'It's yours,' and not letting other people enjoy the beauty of the place," he said.

Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, purchased the 53-acre property for $37.5 million in 2008. Two years later, he closed the gate on the only access road to the beach, which had previously been open to the public in exchange for a parking fee.

Thursday's order affirmed the previous decision of the San Mateo County Superior Court, which ruled that the closure violated the California Coastal Act and ordered that the road reopen.

If the gate isn't reopened, Khosla could face thousands of dollars in fines per day until the situation is resolved. Khosla's legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the meantime, surfing will likely continue at the popular spot.

"I expect the surfers that wish to surf on Martins Beach will continue to do so, but right now they have the backing of the law and the courts," John Claussen of the local Surfrider Foundation group said.


A car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon, killing one person and injuring dozens others, according to officials.

The car sped down the narrow street toward the protesters, slowed down as it approached the crowd of people, then accelerated again, according to witness Brennan Gillmore.

"And then it reversed back into the street, dragging bodies and clothes," Gillmore told NBC News. "It was very clearly intentional."

The driver of the car is in custody, a state official told The Associated Press.

[NATL] Dramatic Photos: Violent Clashes at White Nationalist Rally in Virginia

The incident capped off a day of violence and chaos that began when white nationalists gathered for a rally, waving confederate flags and chanting Nazi slogans. Counter-protesters arrived, and violence broke out soon after. Police in riot gear tried to quell the crowd with tear gas and the governer declared a state of emergency.

At about 1:45 p.m., a car turned towards a crowd counter-protesters and drove straight into it before driving off, according to witnesses.

"This is war downtown," Robert Grier tweeted just after the incident.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer tweeted that one person died in the day's violence. A spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Hospital said it treated 20 patients from the incident, and one had died.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will--go home.  Mike Signer (@MikeSigner) August 12, 2017

The Charlottesville Police Department reported multiple injuries, but gave few details.

"Charlottesville Police and Virginia State Police are on the scene of a three vehicle accident at Water and 4th Streets in Downtown Charlottesville," the Charlottesville Police Department said in a statement. "Multiple injuries are reported. People should clear the area to allow emergency medical personnel to respond. We will release more information as we are able."



Warning: Some video in the below tweets is graphic.

[[440054403, C]]
Jose Palma fled from El Salvador to Lynn, Massachusetts, as a last hope. After his family was displaced from their farm by a bloody civil war, he crossed the border at age 21 and did any work he could get  as a dishwasher, a deliveryman, a factory worker  to try and rebuild his life.

In 2001, he received temporary protected status, giving him the right to stay and work in the country legally. He earned his associates degree and found a job as a paralegal. But under the Trump administration, those rights are in jeopardy.

Now, he is one of many TPS holders lobbying the Department of Homeland Security to renew his legal status  or push Congress to come up with a long-term solution for people like him.

The end of TPS would destroy the life weve been building up for the past 19 years and give us an uncertain future, he said. Fighting to maintain our legal status is fighting for the future of our families, for the future of our children.

Courtesy of Jose Palma

TPS, a temporary humanitarian designation, protects people from countries in the midst of natural disasters or civil war until they are able to return home. Honduras received TPS status in 1999, after Hurricane Mitch, while El Salvador received it in 2001 following a series of deadly earthquakes.

In total, experts say there are roughly 265,000 immigrants from these two Central American countries living in the U.S. with TPS protection, forming about 80 percent of all TPS holders.

Other countries that currently benefit from the program include Haiti and Nicaragua. Three West African nations  Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone  were protected by TPS until their status was terminated in May.

As the TPS designations for Honduras and El Salvador come up for renewal early next year, Sharon Scheidhauer, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Custom Services, said in a statement that DHS will review conditions in these countries and determine what decision is warranted.

But former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has already made several indications that the future of the program is uncertain under the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to TPS designation for Haiti.

Before becoming the White House chief of staff, Kelly announced that Haitis designation would be extended for only six months, rather than the more common 18-month extension.

He later told the Miami Herald that immigrants protected by the program need to start thinking about returning.

His comments came as the Trump administration has been trying to deliver on a campaign promise of stricter immigration enforcement. Orders of removal and voluntary departures are up 30 percent. In addition, Trump has proposed limiting legal immigration, based on a new system that would cut the number of visas issued by half and set new requirements.

President Trump is backing a controversial plan to overhaul America's immigration system. He is supporting a plan by two Republicans to change how immigrants enter the U.S. The plan would "favor applicants who speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills to contribute to economy," Trump said.

For Sonia Paz, returning from Los Angeles to Honduras would mean giving up the ties shes developed to the United States since arriving in 1985, and saying goodbye to her three adult children and seven grandchildren, all of whom are U.S. citizens.

My kids dont have any family except for me, and I dont have anyone except them, she said. To have to disappear from their lives, that would be a disaster.

And it would also mean facing the threat of violence in a country thats been ravaged by gangs. Two of her brothers have been shot and killed by gang members since she came to the U.S.

Like her, many tepesianos  as theyre known in Spanish  arrived in the United States during the 1990s seeking refuge from political upheaval and the aftermath of civil war.

Its still so violent there. When people go back from the U.S., the first thing they [the gangs] do is threaten those families for money, she said. My family could get kidnapped, or I could get shot.

Eric Olson, the deputy director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center in D.C., said that conditions in the region are so unstable that deporting current TPS recipients would be like pouring gasoline in a fire.

Youre putting people in a situation where things could only get worse, he said. These are countries that face tremendous challenges in terms of crime, in terms of violence, in terms of a lack of economic opportunity.

At a Miami summit in June, the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador urged Vice President Mike Pence to push for a TPS extension for their respective countries, arguing that tepesianos are tax-paying, law-abiding immigrants who have integrated into U.S. society.

Trump himself has brought up the gang responsible for the regions rampant violence, saying at a speech in July that MS-13  a criminal gang formed in Los Angeles with ties to El Salvador  has transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields.

And while Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited the region in July in an effort to coordinate enforcement with governments there, the administraton may end TPS status despite the violence.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said that he fears for current TPS holders after a meeting between Kelly and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Kelly, at the time still secretary of Homeland Security, said he was not sure he would extend the program, according to a July 12 statement from Gutierrez.

I think we have to prepare for the worst and get ready to fight mass deportation, the representative said.

And thats exactly what people like Evelyn Hernandez, a TPS holder living in Los Angeles, are aiming to do.

As an organizer with the Central American Resource Center in L.A., Hernandez is working with a multi-ethnic coalition of immigrant groups to raise awareness about the role and contributions of TPS holders, she said.

We will meet with whoever we need until we find someone who wants to listen to us, who wants to speak for us, she said.

Courtesy of Evelyn Hernandez

The groups are targeting members of Congress to express support for TPS renewal or to take legislative action to reform the program independently of the Trump administration, ideally granting permanent residency.

Theyre also working at the local level. The town boards of Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts, have both passed resolutions urging DHS to extend TPS protection.

Cecilia Menjivar, a sociology professor at Kansas University, said that one of the main arguments for preserving TPS is the economic and social impact that immigrants have, particularly in areas with large Central American populations.

A May 2017 survey by Menjivar of 2,000 Salvadorans and Hondurans protected under TPS found that 80.3 percent pays income taxes, with nearly 30 percent volunteering in civic organizations, committees, or community groups.

A report from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco said that ending TPS for Honduras and El Salvador would result in a $6.5 billion reduction to social security and Medicare contributions over the next decade, in addition to a $42 billion reduction in GDP.

In addition, Menjivar said, the termination of TPS status would force these immigrants into the shadows, making them lose their health care and ability to drive and forcing them to search for under-the-table work.

Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in D.C., said that while the U.S.s foreign policy interests in Central America may complicate the decision, Kelly and Trump have made their views clear.

The prevailing view with the administration is that the enforcement of these immigration laws had been weak and insufficient, she said. The statute does not envision anything like the kinds of duration that had unfolded in the cases of these long-held TPS.

Congress, meanwhile, will likely be debating the immigration sections in an appropriations bill before it could take legislative action to renew or reform the TPS program, Meissner said.

Still, Hernandez said thats not deterring her or other members of the campaign.

I will fight however I can for staying here, she said. Im not just going to be home crying and depressed. I have to fight to find a way to keep my documents.
The Coast Guard has located the owner of a homemade raft was found drifting in Mt. Hope Bay, near the Massachusetts - Rhode Island border.

According to the Coast Guard, a good Samaritan alerted them to the unmanned raft around 7 a.m.

The owner was found on Saturday.
After a car plowed into a crowd of protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle each spoke out against violence and bigotry.

My thoughts are with #Charlottesville & VA today. There is no excuse for violence and bigotry. We must stand together against hate, Rauner tweeted.

Emanuel and Preckwinkle both individually declared that racism and violence that occurred at the rally has no place in American society.

"We are saddened by the ongoing events in Charlottesville, and our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Virginia, Emanuel said in a statement.

As Americans our greatest strength is our diversity, and that is just as true in Chicago as it is across the country. Violence rooted in racism, bigotry and prejudice has no place in our society and must be condemned at every turn. As one of our nations greatest voices for justice and peace, Martin Luther King Jr., reminded us all, we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools, his statement ended. [[440047303, C]]

"What we have seen on display in Charlottesville is the kind of raw hatred, racism and xenophobia that has no business in our nation," Preckwinkle said in a statement. "Denunciation of this behavior cannot be strong enough and cannot be ambivalent. Hatred must be condemned swiftly, constantly and consistently, and cannot be conditional or tolerated."



The deadly incident occurred about two hours after violent clashes broke out between white nationalists, who descended on the town to rally against the city's plans to remove a statue of the Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

At least one person was killed and 19 others injured in the crash, officials said, and the driver was taken into custody.

The suspect was later identified as 20-year-old James Fields Jr., who was charged wtih second degree murder in the crash.

Later in the day, a helicopter carrying two Virginia state troopers crashed about seven miles from Charlottesville, killing both officers.

15 people were also injured in connection with earlier violence, which prompted Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency.

President Donald Trump addressed the rally as well, delivering remarks from New Jersey to condemn "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

"The hate and division must stop now," he said. [[440066143, C]]

A unnamed White House official clarified to NBC News what the president meant by "many sides," saying that Trump was "condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today."

However, the Attorney General of Virginia was among those that disavowed Trump's comments, saying: "The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of 'many sides.' It is racists and white supremacists."

Before the car crash, Trump condemned the earlier clashes on Twitter, writing, We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

The White House has not yet acknowledged the death in the incident.
Greg Holden's two young daughters were home when his "lifelong friend" broke into the family's Woodridge apartment and shot him approximately 20 times, the U.S. Attorney's office says.

David Price killed Holden in December 2011, prosecutors say, because Holden had become a federal informant and was cooperating with authorities to take down a collosal heroin operation that funded Price's "lavish lifestyle."

Price, a 38-year-old from Brookfield, was sentenced to 37 years in prison Friday by a federal judge for supplying large amounts of heroin to the West Side of Chicago and murdering Holden, the U.S. Attorneys office announced.

Price was convicted on all 13 counts against him, including heroin conspiracy, money laundering and having an Uzi-style semi-auto pistol with an extended magazine. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber in Chicago.

Prosecutors said Price ran a violent drug ring that moved 90 kilograms of heroin to multiple open-air markets. They said he used the cash to fund a life of luxury in the city and suburbsincluding diamond jewelry, designer fashion and a South Michigan Avenue high-rise apartment. He also had homes in Naperville, Country Club Hills, Bolingbrook, Lombard, Darien and Brookfield. Prosecutors say Price owned high-end cars like a Chevrolet Corvette and a Harley-Davidson Touring motorcycle.

He protected his operation with ruthless violence, prosecutors said.

In addition to personally seeing to Holden's violent death, Price ordered the killing of another former drug partner, 35-year-old James Brown, who was shot but survived and testified against Price, authorities said.

Defendants senseless violence was motivated by greed and his love for money, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angel M. Krull and Erik Hogstrom argued in the governments sentencing memorandum. Defendant is a lifelong criminal, becoming a millionaire by pushing heroin on a suffering community, and putting money, power, and unspeakable violence above his family, above his childhood friends, above his community, and above everything.

Authorities said Price used an apartment on the citys West Side in the Austin neighborhood with others in his crew to mix heroin with sleeping pills and then package it for sale on the street.

Price's attorney, Beau Brindley, argued that there was not enough evidence to prove Price killed Holden, according to the Chicago Tribune.

David Price Sr., Prices father, who testified against his son and cooperated with federal authorities, told the newspaper the evidence was hearsay. He said his son would have been facing a shorter sentence if Price Jr. was white.

He aint no kingpin, he told the newspaper.

Prices cousin, 35-year-old Keith Carr, of Chicago, was also convicted as a conspirator in the operation. He was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison.

Two others, Rashid Bounds and Christopher Saunders, were convicted in the drug operation and are serving 17 and a half years each.
Connecticut State Police troopers are asking for the public's help, but not in the search for a suspect or a missing person. Connecticut's troopers are competing in the "Best Looking Cruiser Contest" against the nation's other state police forces.

The contest runs through Monday, Aug. 14 at 5 p.m. To vote, you need to go to the contest's Facebook page and "like" the photo of the Connecticut cruiser. Comments won't count as votes, only likes.

Some of the current top votegetters include: Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Connecticut's cruiser currently has 2,300 likes as of Friday evening.
Connecticut leaders are joining voices across the country in denouncing the violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Va., when white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters Saturday.

At least one person was killed and nineteen injured when a car plowed into a crowd of people who were peacefully protesting a Unite the Right white supremacist rally in downtown Charlottesville.

The incident happened about two hours after violent clashes broke out between white nationalists, who descended on the town to rally against the city's plans to remove a statue of the Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. At least 15 people were injured and one arrested in connection to the earlier violence, officials said.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, and police dressed in riot gear ordered people out.

Connecticut leaders are responding to the situation with strong words condemning the display as an expression of hatred and racism.

Gov. Dannel Malloy tweeted that "there is no place for hatred, bigotry, or violence" in our nation.

While freedom of thought and expression are core tenets of our nation, there is no place for hatred, bigotry, or violence. #Charlottesville  Governor Dan Malloy (Archived) (@GovMalloyOffice) August 12, 2017

Later he released a detailed statement:

As an American, I am disgusted by the violence incited and perpetrated in Charlottesville. The hatred and xenophobia of white nationalists is sickening, and the loss of a life is beyond tragic.

Whats also tragic and unacceptable is the silent complicity from the highest office in our land. This horror is not being wrought from many sides, as the President says. It is coming from one side, and the President has never unequivocally denounced that side throughout his campaign or presidency. Instead, he has incited violence in his speeches, sought to divide people, diminished the rights of minority groups, and instigated fear.

Compassionate, sensible individuals cannot remain silent in these moments. We must combat this hatred in every form.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) released a strongly worded statement against President Donald Trump's press conference held earlier in the day.

President Trump's words today were nothing more than a dog whistle to the people whose hateful ideologies spurred violence that left one dead and many more injured. Our leaders must condemn hate and bigotry in no uncertain terms, consistently, repeatedly and unequivocally. President Trumps failure to specifically denounce the racist, bigoted, white supremacist groups who organized todays rally speaks volumes. Hate and violence have no place in our democracy. I stand with all Americans against today's disgusting display of bigotry. That is not who we are.

JR Romano, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, also released a statement, which read in part:

"The events that have unfolded in Charlottesville are not only tragic they're painful. Those who espouse the values of white supremacy, racism and bigotry are not American values they aren't our values. In the face of hate we must show love. We are encouraging people from around our state and the country to engage in acts of kindness with your neighbors and your community."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D) also spoke out against the violence with an official statement.

"What has happened in Charlottesville over the last 24 hours should be a call to action for every American who has grown complacent under the assumption that our nation's moral arc naturally bends toward inclusion and tolerance, wrote Murphy. Racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia are tragically alive and well in America today. And make no mistake  these insidious psychologies have been given license to be brought out in the open air by a president that openly seized upon these hatreds during his campaign, and continues to traffic in divisive rhetoric and hateful policies in the White House.

Today, every leader of national or local significance must condemn the neo-Nazi rallies in Virginia, and the attack on counter-protesters, in the loudest and most unconditional terms. Ours is a nation whose greatness has been forged in the tough work of binding together peoples of different skin color, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation into one great powerful whole. Silence or weak condemnation will be rightly read as complicity with this newly emboldened racist movement. Further, as images travel the globe of what are reportedly anti-black, anti-Jew militias patrolling the streets of Charlottesville who are masquerading as law enforcement and brandishing military grade tactical weaponry, we need to take stock of whether our laws meet the new public safety challenges that confront our nation.
Connecticut Water Company is asked the public to be on the lookout for a company vehicle that was stolen from Windsor Locks last week.

The company said that a white 2009 Nissan Versa branded with the company logo, Connecticut plate 9766CX was stolen out of Windsor Locks late last week. Police have yet to recover it.

The company wants to warn customers to be vigilant before letting anyone in who says they are from Connecticut Water. All employees carry photo IDs and customers may ask to see them before letting anyone in.

If someone claims to be a Connecticut Water employee without an appointment, customers are encouraged to call the 24-hour customer service hotline at 1-800-286-5700 to confirm their identity. The company stresses that customers should not let someone in from any utility company if they seem suspicious and the customer does not have an appointment.

The company offers more tips here.

Anyone who spots the stolen vehicle should contact Windsor Locks police or their local department.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Saturday arrived in New Milford to begin the investigation into a plane crash that left a flight instructor dead and a student and passenger seriously injured.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration said a Cessna C-172 that left Danbury Municipal Airport crashed at the end of runway 17-35 at Candlelight Farms Airport in New Milford at 9:47 a.m. on Friday.

Arrow Aviation in Danbury owns the plane and has declined to comment.

The NTSB and FAA have begun their investigation into the crash.

PHOTOS: New Milford Plane Crash

The airplane, as far as we know, had been airborne for about an hour at the time of the accident, said Ralph Hicks, a Senior Air Safety Investigator with the NTSB.

Officials said a 17-year-old student sat in the front seat, flying the plane with her instructor, while a relative, sat in the back. A 57-year-old flight instructor, Anthony Morasco of New Milford, perished in the plane crash. He was a flight instructor at Arrow Aviation in Danbury, according to his obituary.

The teen is now listed in fair condition, up from critical. Her relative, 44-year-old Peter Jellen, has been released from the hospital.

Police said Jellen walked hundreds of yards from the site of the crash to ask a stranger for help.

Im at Border Lane and Hubbell Mountain Road in New Milford. We have a man here with a head injury. He thinks he was in a plane crash, but I dont see any planes, the caller can be heard saying on the 911 recording.

The runway at Candlelight Farms Airport reopened today, as federal investigators documented the compact debris field.

All of the major structural components of the airplane have been located, Hicks told media on Saturday.

Federal agents said Saturday morning that they planned to be on scene investigating until dusk and then they expect to remove the plane Sunday at noon. The plane will be taken to Delaware where theyll do a mechanical inspection.

New Milford Police said it could be months before they have answers.

Theres no eyewitness accounts to this crash. No one in the area saw it and the only accounts we have are from the survivors, said Sgt. Lee Grabner of the New Milford Police Department.

They also have a handheld GPS.

Generally if theyre turned on they collect data from the flight. So, were optimistic that we may have the actual flight captured, Hicks said.

Hicks explained that the airport didnt have a tower to monitor the flights, so there is no information from that.

Its an uncontrolled field which means theres no tower to talk to so pilots are on their own to clear from other airplanes, he said.

Investigators are still waiting for what may turn out to be the most important piece of evidence - the accounts of the two survivors, who have yet to be interviewed.
FBI agents looking for financial documents have searched one of the homes of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, whose past foreign political work has been swept into the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A Manafort spokesman confirmed the search Wednesday.

Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement that FBI agents had obtained a warrant and searched one of Manafort's homes, but he would not say when the search occurred or what it was for.

"Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well," Maloni said.

The Associated Press has learned the warrant for the search on July 26 at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, sought information including tax documents and banking records. The Washington Post first reported the raid.

Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation has been incorporated into the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is also scrutinizing Manafort's role in the Trump campaign as he looks into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and any possible collusion with Trump associates.

Manafort, who led the Trump campaign for several months, has denied any wrongdoing. He also spoke behind closed doors to Senate investigators for an interview just one day before the search of his home.

The use of a search warrant indicates that law enforcement officials have convinced a judge there is probable cause to believe a crime may have been committed. A house raid can be seen as an aggressive tactic given that Manafort has been cooperating with congressional investigators and has turned over hundreds of pages of documents. It could indicate law enforcement was looking for records beyond what Manafort provided.

Word of the raid is the latest revelation about Mueller's investigation, which had been operating in relative secrecy compared with numerous congressional probes looking at the election. In recent days, it's become clear the former FBI director is using a grand jury in Washington in addition to one in the Eastern District of Virginia, where investigators also have been looking into former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Also, FBI agents have been asking witnesses since the spring about $530,000 worth of lobbying and investigative work carried out by Flynn's firm, Flynn Intel Group, according to a person familiar with the investigation. That work sought the extradition of an exiled Turkish cleric living in the U.S. Through his attorney, Flynn has declined to comment on the investigation.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details of the investigation, said FBI agents have also been asking about Flynn's business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on the Trump presidential transition . Kian has not responded to multiple attempts to contact him over several months.

In recent months, Flynn and Manafort have turned over documents to congressional committees investigating the election interference.

One focus of the multiple probes, including Mueller's, is a June 2016 meeting Manafort attended with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. That meeting, held at Trump Tower in New York, was described to Trump Jr. in emails as part of a Russian government effort to help the Trump campaign by passing along information that could be used against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

During his Senate intelligence committee interview , Manafort provided his recollection of the Trump Tower meeting and turned over contemporaneous notes he took during the gathering. The interview was confined to that meeting.

Manafort has also turned over other documents to the Senate intelligence committee as well as about 400 pages of records to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee said Wednesday it has also received about 250 pages of documents from Trump Jr. and about 20,000 pages from the Trump campaign.

The content of the documents was not immediately clear. The committee said it received the Manafort and Trump campaign documents on Aug. 2 and the records from Trump Jr. on Aug. 4.

Judiciary committee leaders have also been in talks with Trump Jr. and Manafort about private interviews. The committee initially called for them to testify publicly, but lawmakers have since said they were negotiating the terms of their appearances.
The financial ratings agency Moodys said in a report Friday that Dallas County Schools could still end up in bankruptcy, even if it survives a November election vote that could shut the agency down.



The report said the finances at DCS, will remain challenged if DCS continues to operate and that ongoing cash shortfall, will require additional transfers from the DCS general fund and heightens the potential the district may file for bankruptcy.



Meanwhile, Friday DCS board members voted to set in motion a tax hike plan that would generate a very small amount off additional revenue for the struggling agency. The increase would amount to about $3.50 per year for the average Dallas County homeowner in a county where the average home is valued at about $234,000.



The hike, if approved after public hearings, would take DCS to its maximum allowable tax rate of one cent per $100 of taxable value.



One DCS board member, Kyle Renard, defended the hike at a meeting Friday saying it was the equivalent of taxpayers giving up just one Starbucks coffee a year to help bolster DCS.



But critics argue the agency does not deserve additional funding given past financial mismanagement including millions of dollars lost on a controversial school bus camera program that put the district in danger of financial collapse.



On Twitter Friday, Dallas ISD board member Dustin Marshall reacted to the tax hike discussion saying, Seriously??!? We should give them MORE taxpayer money? Dallas ISD is a separate entity that contracts with DCS for bus service.



The Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) said Friday that it will fight on behalf of DCS in the November election in an effort to save the jobs of drivers. That could bring political action committee funding into the race.



The November DCS election was triggered when the state legislature passed, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed, a bill that will let taxpayers vote on the future of DCS following concerns about safety and financial problems at the agency, which has run the buses in many Dallas County communities for decades.



TSTA President Noel Candelaria said his group will develop a boots on the ground style campaign involving bus drivers who want DCS to continue to operate.



Talking to our neighbors, talking to churches talking in community events to make sure that we are getting the facts out about what it means to have Dallas County Schools be the best option to safely transport our kids to and from school every day, Candelaria said.
Molly the Trolley will still give riders a lift around downtown Fort Worth, but it will no longer be free.

The bus service, which launched in 2009, will now charge $2 per trip. An all-day pass costs $5.

The Fort Worth Transportation Authority, which operates Molly the Trolley, said the bus costs $1 million per year to operate and outside sources of funding arent enough to subsidize the service.

So, people like Gilly and Pam Gilland of Denton, who are in Fort Worth celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, will soon have to buck up.

"I'm glad we got in the last free ride, Gilly Gilland said. That's a good thing for us."

Another visitor, Steve Bean of San Antonio, said he understands that so little in life is free.

"I'm not so sure about that but almost every other city I've been in there's a charge for this kind of thing, he said. If it's minimal I'm OK with it but I probably will ride it less if it's not free.

But Benson Grey, who recently moved to Fort Worth from Dallas, said some people may choose not to ride the bus.

"If it was my first time coming here, having to pay two bucks, I'd be like, Nevermind," he said.

This isn't the only change for Fort Worth bus riders.

Also this weekend, the price of a bus ticket citywide is going up to $2 -- up from $1.75.

All-day passes will work on Molly the Trolley and any bus in the city.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that U.S. diplomats in Havana had been the victims of "health attacks" that left them with hearing loss  the most definitive U.S. statement yet on a series of mysterious incidents that have puzzled longtime observers of U.S.-Cuban relations.

His comments Friday came two days after the State Department issued a vaguely worded statement saying there had been "incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms." U.S. officials later revealed that American diplomats had suffered unexplained losses of hearing, and on Thursday Canada's government said at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also had been treated for hearing loss.

"We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks on not just our diplomats but, as you've seen now, there are other cases with other diplomats involved," Tillerson said in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump and members of his administration spoke to reporters.

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the case. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, the officials said.

The officials told The Associated Press that the hearing loss appeared to have been caused by the deliberate use of some sort of sonic device operating outside the range of audible sound.

Former diplomats and students of U.S.-Cuba relations said they found it inexplicable that Cuba would have tried to harm U.S. and Canadian diplomats, particularly in the fall of 2016 as President Barack Obama was ending a second term marked partly by the reopening of diplomatic relations with the island.

U.S. officials familiar with the incidents said they began to be reported last October, when most domestic and foreign observers expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and continue Obama's policy of normalization with Cuba.

Attacking Canadian diplomats would be an inexplicable assault on one of Cuba's most important trading partners and the largest source of tourists to the island.

"There'd be no logic to the Cubans trying to deliberately harm U.S. or Canadian diplomats," said William LeoGrande, an American University expert on Cuban foreign policy. "It'd really be unprecedented."

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement Wednesday that "Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception."

Former U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they had been targets of low-level harassment and intimidation by Cuban agents in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, incidents that included attacks on diplomats' pets and intimidating maneuvers like tailgating and flashing bright lights into diplomats' cars as they drove with their families late at night.

"There were things like turning your electricity, turning off your water, entering your home, leaving little reminders that they were there. Things would be out of place," said John Caulfield, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2011 to 2014.

In addition to harassment, Caulfield said U.S. diplomats in Cuba are under 24-hour surveillance during their assignments.

"Nobody does anything in Cuba without them knowing," Caulfield said.

A U.S. official said some American diplomats in Cuba had come home to find that someone had used their toilet and not flushed it, in what was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to disgust and unnerve. The official served at the then-interests section in Cuba in the 2000s and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity due to the possibility of a return to Havana.

The State Department's Inspector General wrote in a 2007 report that "life in Havana is life with a government that 'lets you know it's hostile.' Retaliations have ranged from the petty to the poisoning of family pets."

"All employees are fully aware that host government hostility extends to an elaborate, aggressive intelligence apparatus," the report said.

Caulfield said aggressive tactics largely stopped by late 2013 and 2014 as U.S. and Cuban officials secretly negotiated the diplomatic reopening announced in December 2014, after his departure from Havana.

He said he believed the likeliest explanation for the diplomats' mysterious deafness was "a new surveillance technique gone bad that had consequences. I do not believe they would randomly cause harm to this variety of people."

A former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, James Bartleman, said that during his 1981-83 tour in Havana, he and his staff were targets of a string of mysterious attacks.

"One morning in 1982 the butler came to say that our dog had been poisoned and was very sick and dying," Bartleman said. "My deputy ambassador called to say someone had poisoned his dog and his dog was dead. Then the head of the commercial section called to say that, 'Out of the blue we opened the door and a rat was nailed to it.'"

Bartleman said he complained to the then-head of the Americas section of Cuba's foreign ministry, who he quoted as saying: "Someone is trying to harm Canada-Cuba relations."

He said the Cuban government sent a veterinarian to his house, but he sent his dog back to Canada, where it died six months later.

"We were their bosom buddies back then," Bartleman said of Canadian-Cuban relations. "We were their largest trading partner and always their largest provider of tourists. Why would they do it? It made no sense then and makes no sense now."

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein reported this story in Havana and AP writer Matthew Lee reported from Washington. AP writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
Megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, said in a statement that God has given Trump the authority to take out Kim Jong-Un.

The statement Tuesday night from the popular evangelical preacher who heads First Baptist Dallas comes on the heels of Trumps comments about continued nuclear threats from North Korea.

North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, the president said Tuesday. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

Jeffress has long been a supporter of the president, and has been previously outspoken on political issues.



Jeffress was one of a few religious leaders who gave sermons at an official service on the morning of Trumps inauguration.

More recently, Jeffress was among a group of pastors who laid hands on the president in the Oval Office. He also supported Trump's tweets last month announcing plans to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Jeffress is also known for previously claiming former President Barack Obama had paved the way for the antichrist.

He also called Mormonism a cult while backing Rick Perry for president in the 2012 Republican primary, though he later endorsed Mitt Romney.

Here is Jeffress full statement to The Brody Files of the Christian Broadcasting Network:

When it comes to how we should deal with evil doers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary  including war  to stop evil. In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un. Im heartened to see that our president  contrary to what weve seen with past administrations who have taken, at best, a sheepish stance toward dictators and oppressors  will not tolerate any threat against the American people. When President Trump draws a red line, he will not erase it, move it, or back away from it. Thank God for a President who is serious about protecting our country.
Authorities have charged a 20-year-old Ohio man for the deadly car ramming incident in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, as the Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing Heather Heyer, 32, hurting dozens more and ratcheting up tension in an increasingly violent confrontation.

Fields has been charged with one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of failing to stop, according to officials.

The two join previously announced performers J Balvin, Pitbull and Camila Cabello

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, said late Saturday that federal authorities were launching a civil rights investigation in response to the deadly ramming.

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice," Sessions wrote in a statement. "When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated."

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia and the FBIs Richmond field office confirmed that they, along with the Civil Rights Division, opened an investigation into the circumstances of the deadly incident in Charlottesville, noting that they are collecting all available facts and evidence.

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

Virginia police arrested three others in relation to the unrest at the rally.

Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct; Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery; and James M. OBrien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed handgun.

Footage shows a vehicle appear to drive into a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Clashes between white nationalists and counter protesters had been ongoing on Aug. 12.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound." A silver sedan smashed into another car, then backed up, plowing through "a sea of people."

People scattered, running for safety in different directions, he said.

The incident happened about two hours after violent clashes broke out between the opposing groups.

Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. Over a dozen people were injured and one arrested in connection to the earlier violence, officials said.

Five patients were in critical condition Saturday evening, four in serious condition, six in fair condition and four in good condition, according to the University of Virginia Health System.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency.

Model spotted hanging out with her rumored beau during festival party

Adding to the chaos on Saturday, a helicopter that was assisting public safety resources with the rally in Charlottesville crashed and killed two Virginia state troopers later in the afternoon, Virginia police said.

The FAA is investigating the helicopter crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine probable cause, NBC News reported. The pilot, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Virginia, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Virginia, died at the scene.

President Donald Trump, speaking Saturday afternoon from New Jersey where he has been on a working vacation, condemned the violence in Charlottesville, calling it an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."

"The hate and division must stop now," he said.

He did not respond to questions about whether he would denounce support from white nationalists.

A unnamed White House official clarified to NBC News about what the president meant by "violence on many sides," saying that Trump was "condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today."

The attorney general of Virginia fired back at Trump's comment, saying, "the violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of 'many sides.' It is racists and white supremacists."

Before the car crash, Trump condemned the earlier clashes on Twitter, writing, "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

The president and his representatives have not yet acknowledged the death in the incident.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia released a statement saying: "We condemn the intolerance behind it and those who would pass it off as a legitimate political movement."

[NATL] Dramatic Photos: Violent Clashes at White Nationalist Rally in Virginia

First lady Melania Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan also took to social media to denounce the clashes between protesters and counter-protesters.

Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 12, 2017

Small bands of protesters who showed up to express their opposition to the rally were seen marching around the city peacefully by midafternoon, chanting and waving flags. Helicopters circled overhead.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally to protest the city of Charlottesville's decision to remove the confederate statue from a downtown park.

Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

It's weird, but it works

"This isn't how he should have to grow up," she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the "counter-protesters are crazier than the alt-right."

"Both sides are hoping for a confrontation," he said.

It was the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Singer busts a move with her new man during their vacay

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people."

"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Among those expected to attend were Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and "alt-right" activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event had the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

Officials had been preparing for the rally for months.

Police instituted road closures around downtown, and many businesses in the popular open-air shopping mall opted to close for the day.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on call.

There were also fights Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."

"I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here," he wrote on Twitter later Saturday on Twitter. "I urge all people of good will - go home."



Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that's home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statue's removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville's history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They're now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

Clashes have started. Keep in mind, the rally doesn't start officially until noon. #charlottesville #rally pic.twitter.com/DswIVyE6RB  Craig Stanley (@_CraigStanley) August 12, 2017

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.
Google canceled a company town hall on diversity at the last minute Thursday afternoon out of concerns about people's safety, worrying they may be publicly outed for asking a question, according to a Google spokesperson.

The questions that were planned by "Googlers" appeared externally this afternoon and some employees are being named on "some websites," CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email sent to employees.

The tech giant planned the town hall meeting for Thursday following days of scrutiny over a controversial memo on the companys diversity initiatives written by engineer James Damore.

Pichai was expected to lead the town hall with other members of the companys leadership.

After the anti-diversity memo was made public, Pichai released a memo of his own on Tuesday addressing the importance of self-expression in the workplace while being aware of the companys code of conduct.

"To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK, Pichai said in his memo sent to Google employees.

In the controversial 3,000 word memo written by Damore, the 28-year-old engineer blamed the gender pay gap in the tech industry on biological differences between men and women. He also criticized what he called a politically correct bias in the Google culture.

"People get offended because it goes against the lefts ideology," Damore said during an interview on a conservative talk show on YouTube. And then they just think, OK, it offends people, therefore its wrong and there its an opinion."

After the canceled event, Pichai took the opportunity to make a surprise appearance at a women-in-tech awards event later Thursday. He talked directly to dozens of young female engineers from around the world and offered a short but poignant message.

"Theres a place for you in this industry. Theres a place for you at Google," he said. "Dont let anyone tell you otherwise."

The event is the culmination of a yearlong global competition for young women to use technology to address a problem. Its one of several initiatives that Google helps fund in order to diversify its workforce.

It comes as the company conducts damage control over Damore's memo and firing.

"Its definitely a defining moment for Google, for our culture," said Maggie Johnson, Google vice president of education. "Its something that were working through."


The president of the University of Virginia said one person was arrested and several people, including a university police officer, were injured Friday night as hundreds of white nationalists ralliers clashing with counter protest groups in Chartlottesville, Virginia.

According to NBC29 in Charlottesville, white nationalists marchers carried torches and shouted "white lives matter" at the University of Virginia campus. A counter group of demonstrators showed up to protest a rally white nationalists and other extremists planned for Saturday.

UVa. President Teresa Sullivan strongly condemmed the demonstration on the college ground. She said law enforcement did not use pepper spray or any other chemical agents but said there were reports that pepper spray was used by the white nationist protesters.

Sullivan said UVa. police declared the torch-lit march an "unlawful assembly" and started breaking up the groups.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said in a statement he was "beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation."

Groups began gathering early Saturday morning, and police were in position at Emancipation Park and downtown Charlottesville at 6 a.m.

Earlier Friday, U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed against Charlottesville by right-wing blogger Jason Kessler.

Kessler organized the Saturday rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park.

The city announced earlier this week that the rally must be moved out of Emancipation Park to a larger one, citing safety reasons.

Kessler sued, saying the change was a free speech violation.

The judge wrote that Kessler was likely to prevail and granted the injunction.
Days after MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said he was investigating Mayor de Blasio for holding up a train for a subway-related photo-op, Gov. Cuomo had a photo-op of his own on the tracks of the A train as he explored the antiquated infrastructure that powers the century-old transit system.

But did Wednesdays dramatic tour of the subway corridors below Columbus Circle, in which Cuomo was joined by Con Ed Chairman John McAvoy, have a negative impact on commuters?

The governors aides bristled Friday when NBC 4 New York asked whether his media event posed any safety concerns or delays to riders. They insisted his visit was 100 percent safe and was chaperoned by MTA staff and state police.

In a statement, Lhota said that MTA staff secured every aspect of the tour. It was entirely safe and not a single train was delayed. Period.

But transportation analyst Alex Armlovich says it would be hard to imagine how a normal train schedule wouldnt be impacted by a group of journalists and officials walking around on the tracks.

Armlovich says train operators shouldve slowed down for the governor and his entourage, just as they would slow down when workers are on the tracks.

Either, on one hand, they were following the normal safety procedure of slowing down trains and honking and having men wave flags to alert the driver, or you guys were not protected by the normal safety precautions that are used during track work. It has to be one or the other, Armlovich said.

The governors aides conceded that not everybody on the tour received special track safety training in advance, which has previously been a requirement to cover any assignment on the tracks.

Last year, the Daily News' transit reporter, Dan Rivoli, wrote an article about his track training. On Cuomos tour Wednesday, reporters were not asked to put on the special safety gear described in Rivoli's story, like a white hard hat or a reflective vest.

Jim Hall, who chaired the NTSB for seven years during the Clinton administration, questioned whether Cuomo put publicity ahead of safety on Wednesday, saying any effort to use an operational track for publicity purposes needs to be carefully considered.

No one was hurt during Wednesdays tour, although several journalists told NBC 4 that that they were surprised by just how up-close their access was.
Beyond the bluster, the Trump administration has been quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with North Korea for several months, addressing Americans imprisoned in the communist country and deteriorating relations between the long-time foes, The Associated Press has learned.

It had been known the two sides had discussions to secure the June release of an American university student. But it wasn't known until now that the contacts have continued, or that they have broached matters other than U.S. detainees.

People familiar with the contacts say the interactions have done nothing thus far to quell tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile advances, which are now fueling fears of military confrontation. But they say the behind-the-scenes discussions could still be a foundation for more serious negotiation, including on North Korea's nuclear weapons, should President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un put aside the bellicose rhetoric of recent days and endorse a dialogue.

Trump refused to discuss the diplomatic contacts. "We don't want to talk about progress, we don't want to talk about back channels," Trump told reporters Friday.

The diplomatic contacts are occurring regularly between Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, and Pak Song Il, a senior North Korean diplomat at the country's U.N. mission, according to U.S. officials and others briefed on the process. They weren't authorized to discuss the confidential exchanges and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Officials call it the "New York channel." Yun is the only U.S. diplomat in contact with any North Korean counterpart. The communications largely serve as a way to exchange messages, allowing Washington and Pyongyang to relay information.

Drowned out by the furor over Trump's warning to North Korea of "fire and fury like the world has never seen," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has expressed a willingness to entertain negotiations. His condition: Pyongyang stopping tests of missiles that can now potentially reach the U.S. mainland.

Tillerson has even hinted at an ongoing back channel. "We have other means of communication open to them, to certainly hear from them if they have a desire to want to talk," he said at an Asian security meeting in the Philippines this week.

The interactions could point to a level of pragmatism in the Trump administration's approach to the North Korean threat, despite the president's dire warnings.

On Friday, he tweeted: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely." But on Thursday, he said, "we'll always consider negotiations," even if they haven't worked in the last quarter-century.

The contacts suggest Pyongyang, too, may be open to a negotiation even as it talks of launching missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam. The North regularly threatens nuclear strikes on the United States and its allies.

The State Department and the White House declined to comment on Yun's diplomacy. A diplomat at North Korea's U.N. mission only confirmed use of diplomatic channel up to the release of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier two months ago.

Trump, in some ways, has been more flexible in his approach to North Korea than President Barack Obama. While variations of the New York channel have been used on-and-off for years by past administrations, there were no discussions over the last seven months of Obama's presidency after Pyongyang broke them off in anger over U.S. sanctions imposed on its leader, Kim. Obama made little effort to reopen lines of communication.

The contacts quickly restarted after Trump's inauguration, other people familiar with the discussions say.

"Contrary to the public vitriol of the moment, the North Koreans were willing to reopen the New York channel following the election of President Trump and his administration signaled an openness to engage and 'talk about talks,'" said Keith Luse, executive director of the National Committee on North Korea, a U.S.-based group that promotes U.S.-North Korean engagement.

"However, the massive trust deficit in Pyongyang and in Washington toward each other has impeded the confidence-building process necessary to have constructive dialogue," he said.

The early U.S. focus was on securing the release of several Americans held in North Korea.

They included Warmbier, who was imprisoned for stealing a propaganda poster and only allowed to return to the U.S. in June  in an unconscious state. He died days later. Yun traveled on the widely publicized mission to Pyongyang to bring Warmbier home.

Despite outrage in the U.S. with Warmbier's treatment and sharp condemnation by Trump, the U.S.-North Korean interactions in New York continued.

Yun and his counterpart have discussed the other Americans still being held. They include Kim Hak Song, a university employee detained in May accused of unspecified "hostile" acts; Tony Kim, a teacher at the same school, accused of trying to overthrow the government; and Kim Dong Chul, sentenced last year to a decade in prison with hard labor for supposed espionage.

But the American and North Korean diplomats also have discussed the overall U.S.-North Korean relationship. The two countries have no diplomatic ties and are still enemies, having only reached an armistice  not a peace treaty  to end the 1950-1953 Korean War. Twenty-eight thousand U.S. troops are still stationed in South Korea.

In its own convoluted way, North Korea has indicated openness to talks in recent weeks, even as it has accelerated the tempo of weapons tests.

On July 4, after the North test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially strike the continental U.S., leader Kim added a new caveat to his refusal to negotiate over its nukes or missiles. Instead of a blanket rejection, he ruled out such concessions "unless the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat to the DPRK are definitely terminated."

That message has been repeated by other North Korean officials, without greater specification. Nor have they offered an indication as to whether Pyongyang would accept denuclearization as the goal of talks.

Still, advocates for diplomacy, including some voices in the U.S. government, view the addendum as a potential opening.

"North Korea is assessing its options," said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the New America think tank who participated in unofficial talks with North Korean officials in Oslo in May, where Yun also met with the North Koreans. "They recognize that at some point they have to return to the table to address what's becoming a crisis. That's what they are weighing right now: the timing of engagement."

Any negotiation would face huge skepticism in Washington given North Korea's long record of broken promises. The last serious U.S.-North Korea negotiations collapsed in 2012 when Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket that derailed an agreement of a North Korean nuclear freeze in exchange for U.S. food aid.

North Korea's weapons program has developed significantly since then. As a result, its price in any such negotiation is now likely to be far higher. At a minimum, Pyongyang would renew its long-standing demands for an end to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises  which are set to resume this month  and an eventual peace treaty with Washington.

To date, the Trump administration has heavily concentrated its diplomatic energy on cranking up international pressure on North Korea's government, in particular pressing China to lean on its wayward ally. Last weekend, the U.N. adopted its strongest economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

Trump has been widely accused of injecting a new element of unpredictability and even chaos into U.S. policy toward North Korea, especially with his tweets and proclamations this week. It's unclear what effect they may have on the back channel contacts being maintained by Yun.

AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
A judge has scheduled a joint trial at the end of October for three teenagers accused of having caused the death of a Pennsylvania police officer during a chase two years ago.

Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle scheduled the proceedings to begin Oct. 30 while denying a series of pretrial motions by Tanner Curtis, Isiah Edwards and Nasiir Jones, The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reported.

The judge left undecided last week the issue of whether jurors will be selected from the county or from another county or whether the proceedings should be moved elsewhere. Defense attorneys have cited extensive publicity about the case and questioned whether their clients can receive a fair trial in the county.

Moyle rejected requests for separate trials and suppression of statements to investigators as well as a motion from defendants Edwards and Jones to disqualify the prosecutor's office from handling the case. Edwards' public defender has argued that social media posts by a former prosecutor inflamed public sentiment and the case should be handled by the state attorney general's office.

Authorities said the three, all 17 at the time, fled from Scranton police after a July 2015 armed robbery, and patrolman John Wilding died after falling from a 15-foot retaining wall during the chase. The defendants are charged with second-degree murder and murder of a law enforcement officer.

President Judge Michael J. Barrasse last month appointed a senior judge to serve as a third-party mediator to explore the potential for negotiated pleas with any or all of the defendants.
A man is dead after a harrowing gun struggle with officers during his arrest in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.

The 31-year-old man, identified by family as Tyrease Carlyle, was confronted by police as they responded to a report of a car theft in progress along N. Darien Street at Allegheny Avenue at 5:15 p.m., police said.

Officers found the Carlyle in the driver's seat of a red sedan and a woman who said he was trying to steal it.



As he was being placed in handcuffs, police said Carlyle grabbed the officer's gun. A struggle between the officer and man ensued as he tried to unlatch the handgun from its holster on the officer's belt, police said.

Failing to get the first officer's gun, Carlyle then tried to grab the gun of a second officer who joined the struggle, police said.

Police eventually broke free from Carlyle and three officers opened fire on him. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his left side, police said.

Carlyle was taken to Temple University Hospital but later died from his injuries. It wasn't clear if he was armed.

No officers were hurt.



Monica Carlyle, Tyrease's sister, told NBC10 her brother suffered from mental illness and was disabled, using a walker to get around.

"The cops said it one time for him to let go and he didn't let go and then they, all three cops, just started shooting at him," she said.

The sister said their aunt owned the car and was the person who called police.

"She called the police for help, not for them to harm him, but to help her," Monica Carlyle said. "Because when you got mental issues, you need someone to talk that's trained to help you."

This is the second police-involved shooting in the city this week. A man was shot Monday in the city's Fairhill section after he failed to drop a weapon following an alleged shooting. He survived.


Two former Singapore executives for foreign defense contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA) were sentenced Friday for their involvement in a multi-million dollar Navy bribery scheme.

Neil Peterson, 39, and Linda Raja, 44, pleaded guilty on May 9 of this year to conspiring to submit bogus bids, claims and invoices to the U.S. Navy.

Peterson served as the Vice President for Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis, known by his nickname Fat Leonard." Raja was as General Manager for Singapore, Australia and the Pacific Isles.

Both were arrested in Singapore last year and extradited to the U.S. on Oct. 28.

Friday, Raja was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison. Peterson was sentenced to five years and 10 months behind bars Friday.

Peterson worked for Francis's company for 20 years, starting after his high school graduation.

His lawyer acknowledged in court that Peterson was "part of the conspiracy, no doubt", and that he "crossed the lines knowingly, willingly, and did things he knew hurt the United States Navy and the U.S. government."

Prosecutors said Peterson had a significant role in the $35 million fraud.

But his lawyer argued that Peterson "tried to redeem himself by readily admitting his guilt" when confronted by investigators.

Prosecutors confirmed that Peterson has cooperated with investigators by sharing information about how the contracting scam worked. Peterson also spent three months in jail in Singapore--which his lawyer described as a horrific, torturous experience that makes U.S. federal prison seem comfortable in comparison.

Evidence in the case revealed that Francis kept Peterson loyal and involved in the fraud by giving him regular pay raises and rewarding him for helping with the scheme.

Raja was a flight attendant before joining GDMA.

According to her lawyer, Raja "knew it was wrong" to defraud U.S. tax payers. He claimed his client suffers from "shame and remorse" for her actions.

In court, Raja, like Peterson, apologized tearfully to the judge and said she takes responsibility for her actions.

Back in May, Peterson and Raja admitted to submitting fraudulent claims and invoices to the U.S. Navy which contained false prices and information from actual businesses. The fraud was done to ensure GDMA's quote would be chosen as the lowest bidder by the U.S. Navy.

In their plea agreement, Raja and Peterson also admitted to inflating prices set by the Port Authorities so Francis' company could charge more to the Navy.



[GALLERY] Criminal Probe Alleges Secrets Swapped for Prostitutes, Travel

NBC 7 has been following this investigation since September 2013.

A total of 27 defendants have been charged in connection to the investigation against "Fat Leonard" and his company. Seventeen of the defendants, including Peterson and Raja, have plead guilty.



In January 2015, Fat Leonard plead guilty to bribing senior Navy officials in exchange for specific U.S. Navy warship movements so his company could overbill the Pentagon.

Rear Admiral Robert Gilbeau became the first highest-ranking U.S. Navy officer to be charged in the case in June, 2016. He pleaded guilty to one felony charge in connection to the years-long corruption and fraud scheme.

Former civilian Defense Department Officer Paul Simpkins also entered a guilty plea in a federal court in San Diego.

Judge Janis L. Sammartino called the scheme "a cancer on the American public" and noted that the defendants as a group will be responsible for paying back the stolen taxpayer money.

But Sammartino acknowledged that Peterson and Raja will never have the means to repay millions of dollars.

Both were ordered to start by paying $25 every three months while in prison, and $100 a month when they are released from custody.

"Fat Leonard" and other defendants who have more assets could be ordered to pay significantly more when they are sentenced.
Two weeks after a homeless man was found stabbed to death in the woods in Adelphi, Maryland, a 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old boy have been charged with his murder.

Elias Portillo, 14, and a 13-year-old boy who Prince George's County police did not name have been charged in the July 27 death of Francisco Sagastizado, police announced Thursday.

Portillo is charged as an adult with first- and second-degree murder. The 13-year-old faces the same charges, but as a juvenile. Maryland state law allows 14-year-olds to be charged as adults for major offenses, Cpl. Tyler Hunter told News4.

On the morning of July 27, someone found Sagastizado unresponsive on the 7800 block of West Park Drive, off University Boulevard. Homes and a playground are nearby.

Maryland-National Capital Park Police responded about 8:10 a.m. and found that Sagastizado had multiple stab wounds. The officers pronounced him dead. He was 47.

According to the preliminary investigation, the boys stabbed Sagastizado when he refused to give them money. One of the boys knew the man and targeted him, police said.

"Our indications at this point are that they knew what they were doing. They unfortunately went to this level of extreme violence very quickly," Hunter said.



Information was not available immediately on whether the boys have lawyers. They were arrested after homicide detectives identified a witness to the crime.

Portillo, who lived about a mile from the crime scene, is being held by the Prince George's County Department of Corrections. The 13-year-old is in the custody of the Cheltenham Youth Facility.

Thursday evening, children played on the playground near where Sagastizado was killed.

Anyone with information for police is asked to call 301-772-4925. Callers who wish to remain anonymous can call 866-411-TIPS or send a text message with PGPD to CRIMES.

Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.
A Maryland gubernatorial candidate dodged questions about her voting during a radio show in Washington, D.C.

Krishanti Vignarajah is one of several Democratic candidates for governor of Maryland and appeared on The Kojo Nnamdi show on Friday.

She was asked by News4s Tom Sherwood, a co-host of the show, why she voted in D.C. while also being registered to vote in Maryland. Vignarajah did not answer the question, despite being asked five times by Sherwood.

The Maryland Board of Elections said question about Vignarajahs eligibility have been raised, and they have asked the state Attorney Generals Office for guidance.

According to Bethesda Beat, Vignarajah first registered to vote in Maryland in 2006. She did not vote in the state until the 2016 general election, according to her voter history obtained by Bethesda Beat.

While she remained registered to vote in Maryland, she also registered to vote in D.C. in 2010 and voted in elections that year, as well as in 2011, 2012 and 2014, according to her D.C. voting history obtained by Bethesda Beat.

Sherwood also asked Vignarajah whether she paid income taxes in Maryland while she was a registered voter in D.C. She did not answer the question.

Vignarajah maintained she is eligible and fulfills the requirements to run for governor of Maryland, saying she checked with experts before she announced her campaign.
The queen of the sea, a monster mollusk that inspired its own republic in Florida but now is as likely to be found in a frying pan or a gift shop as the ocean floor, is in trouble.

A marine preserve in the Bahamas famed for its abundance of queen conchs and intended to help keep the country's population thriving is missing something: young conchs. Researchers studying the no-take park off Exuma, one of hundreds throughout the Caribbean, found that over the last two decades, the number of young has sharply declined as adult conchs steadily matured and died off. The population hasn't crashed yet like it has in the Florida Keys, but in the last five years, the number of adult conchs in one of the Bahamas' healthiest populations dropped by 71 percent.

For the slow-moving slugs that gather by the hundreds to mate, scientists fear a new, unexpected threat may now doom the park's population: old age.

The discovery also raises questions about the effectiveness of marine preserves, long viewed as a solution to reviving over-fished stocks. If one of the Caribbean's oldest and best marine preserves isn't working to replenish one of its biggest exports  now regulated as tightly as lobster  what does that mean for other preserves and how they're managed?

"We can see (the preserve) works for grouper and sharks," said Andrew Kough, lead author of a study published earlier this month and a larval expert at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. "But for a lot of the animals you don't consider as much, for example conch that are tied to a complex life cycle of larval dispersal, it's not working."

To find out why, Kough and a team of researchers set sail this month from Miami aboard a Shedd research boat  imagine the Belafonte minus the mini sub in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." For 12 days, they'll dive the deep channels surrounding the park in search of young conchs to count and measure. They'll also take DNA samples to determine where the conchs are coming from. If they can trace the path of the young conchs, the hope is they can find a better way to protect them and manage the fishery.

"The babies are either not coming in in high enough numbers to replenish the adults or there's something else going on in the park that's an unintended consequence," Kough said. "There's so many sharks and rays inside the park they could just be chowing down on baby conchs."

In the Florida Keys, the ghost of the conch looms large: in oversized highway replicas, T-shirts, and horns. When he took the throne as king of the Conch Republic, treasure hunter Mel Fisher carried a scepter crowned with a queen conch. But in the Caribbean, conch remains a vital part of the economy, and the reason its governments are so concerned.

Conchs used to be prevalent in Florida, too. But decades of overfishing nearly wiped them out. In the mid-1980s the U.S. banned their harvest to save what was left. Yet more than three decades later, they still have not recovered in Florida waters, an inauspicious sign for the Caribbean.

Across the Caribbean, conchs are as good as currency. Almost anyone who can swim can grab one from the ocean floor and sell it or serve it. Cracked conch or conch salad appears on almost every menu. Their pink-lipped shells line porches and walkways. Countless docks are littered with piles of discarded shells. They are used for everything from jewelry to bait. Whole industries, from fishermen to exporters, depend on a healthy population.

But regulating them as been uneven. While some islands impose seasons and limits on takes  in the Turks and Caicos conch season starts in October and there are set limits on numbers and size  other have not. Populations have plummeted in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, prompting the U.S. to ban their imports.

The Bahamas has taken an aggressive approach. In 2013, the government launched a "Conchservation" campaign to save what it considers a national treasure that once gathered in vast herds along miles of flats and seagrass meadows.

In recent years, Kough said those herds have thinned considerably, driving populations down. In the Berry Islands, he said, previous surveys found the sea bottom littered with conchs, which can live up to 40 years and not only hold an important place in the food chain but graze on algae that can kill seagrass. The last time his team visited, Kough said, they found hardly any big adults.

"The fishermen are going further to get the animals," he said. "We found a lot of sub adults and juveniles as well, but it's the adults that are in decline and that just screams fishing."

Scientists believe a healthy population needs between 50 and 100 adults conchs for every 2.5 acres to sustain itself. The patchier the clusters, the harder it is for populations to find each other and connect.

Working with the Bahamian government, Kough hopes to better understand how the conchs are circulating  or more precisely the baby conchs. About five days after female conchs release their eggs in long sandy strands, larvae emerge and get caught up in currents. Because the larval stage can last up to a month, the babies can float more than 100 miles. Kough suspects the young conchs from the preserve are winding up in unprotected areas hammered by harvesting.

Although the Bahamas restricts fishing, Kough said tighter measures may be needed. Regulations currently allow the take of any conch with a flared lip, the smooth curve on its rosy shell, which for years has been considered the indication of a mature conch. Scientists now believe the thickness of the shell is a better measure of maturity, triggering a local move to change rules to require shells be at least as thick as a Bahamian penny.

"You don't want to pull up juveniles. You want animals to reproduce," Kough said.

Kough is hoping the team can find some answers by studying currents to map the ocean highways traveled by conch larvae.

"It's a lot more complex because the animals are spending so much time out in the open ocean and outside the boundaries because they're dispersing as larvae," he said. "You can't create a huge ocean open park. Well you could, but how would you enforce that?"

The international community has vowed to protect 30 percent of the world's coastlines by 2030 to keep fisheries sustainable. But, Kough said, the Bahamas is in the difficult position of having within its borders vast flats and shallows not considered shoreline that should be protected but could exhaust limited resources.

"They recognize there's a problem. That's the really important thing," he said. "So they want to take steps to fix it before it turns into something like Florida, where the population just crashed and still hasn't recovered."
A Vermont man is being held on bail in connection with alleged human trafficking charges in New Hampshire, according to police.

Lebanon Police arrested Erik Polson, 72, of Chelsea, Vermont, on Thursday after he traveled to the area to allegedly meet up with an adult and juvenile for sexual contact.

Police said they had tracked Polson through social media while conducting investigations of people who were looking to victimize children.

Polson was arrested at the scene and charged with conspiracy to commit trafficking in person and conspiracy to commit certain use of computer services prohibited.

Polsons bail was set at $20,000 cash. He's being held at the Grafton County House of Corrections.
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By Express News Service

MUMBAI: State Bank of India (SBI) posted a 20.45 per cent decline in its standalone net profit for the June 2017 quarter at Rs 2,005.53 crore against the previous years Rs 2,520.96 crore. In its defence, the bank said the results are not comparable with the previous year considering the merger of six associate banks with itself during the quarter.

The countrys largest bank saw bad loans surge with gross NPAs shooting up to 9.97 per cent (in absolute numbers Rs 1.88 lakh crore) from 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter (Rs 1.01 lakh crore) and 6.94 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Alarmingly, slippages, the pace at which loans turn bad, stood at Rs 26,249 crore.

Net NPAs rose to 5.97 per cent against 3.71 per cent in the previous quarter and 4.05 per cent in the same quarter last year. Provisions and contingencies rose 53.1 per cent to Rs 21,054.74 crore. Within this, the bank set aside Rs 12,227 crore towards provisions, and after accounting for write-offs, it stood at Rs 8,929 crore.

SBI has put Rs 32,427 crore corporate advances in the watch list and run the risk of turning bad. It also invoked strategic debt restructuring g for accounts worth Rs 12,807 crore, and the Scheme For Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets for another Rs 8,124 crore.

The saving grace, however, is the increase in net interest income, which grew 22 per cent to Rs 17,606.01 crore over last year, while other income was up 11.03 per cent at Rs 8,005.66 crore. Gross advances increased to Rs 18.86 lakh crore, up 1.46 per cent over the same quarter last year. SBIs corporate and SME loan book was pared down by 4 per cent to Rs 9.7 lakh crore, while retail advances rose 13.3 per cent.

According to Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of SBI, the entire branch process is expected to be completed by September. The total number of branches as of now stands at 23,423. She added that branch rationalisation would save Rs 1,160 crore per annum over a period of time. During the quarter, about 3,500 employees opted for voluntary retirement scheme and were paid a sum of Rs 473.4 crore.

MUMBAI: State Bank of India (SBI) posted a 20.45 per cent decline in its standalone net profit for the June 2017 quarter at Rs 2,005.53 crore against the previous years Rs 2,520.96 crore. In its defence, the bank said the results are not comparable with the previous year considering the merger of six associate banks with itself during the quarter. The countrys largest bank saw bad loans surge with gross NPAs shooting up to 9.97 per cent (in absolute numbers Rs 1.88 lakh crore) from 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter (Rs 1.01 lakh crore) and 6.94 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Alarmingly, slippages, the pace at which loans turn bad, stood at Rs 26,249 crore. Net NPAs rose to 5.97 per cent against 3.71 per cent in the previous quarter and 4.05 per cent in the same quarter last year. Provisions and contingencies rose 53.1 per cent to Rs 21,054.74 crore. Within this, the bank set aside Rs 12,227 crore towards provisions, and after accounting for write-offs, it stood at Rs 8,929 crore. SBI has put Rs 32,427 crore corporate advances in the watch list and run the risk of turning bad. It also invoked strategic debt restructuring g for accounts worth Rs 12,807 crore, and the Scheme For Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets for another Rs 8,124 crore. The saving grace, however, is the increase in net interest income, which grew 22 per cent to Rs 17,606.01 crore over last year, while other income was up 11.03 per cent at Rs 8,005.66 crore. Gross advances increased to Rs 18.86 lakh crore, up 1.46 per cent over the same quarter last year. SBIs corporate and SME loan book was pared down by 4 per cent to Rs 9.7 lakh crore, while retail advances rose 13.3 per cent. According to Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of SBI, the entire branch process is expected to be completed by September. The total number of branches as of now stands at 23,423. She added that branch rationalisation would save Rs 1,160 crore per annum over a period of time. During the quarter, about 3,500 employees opted for voluntary retirement scheme and were paid a sum of Rs 473.4 crore.
Swathi Nair By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The absence of government-run bone marrow transplant centres and a donor registry makes thalassemia treatment next to impossible in Sri Lanka. To solve this problem, Bengaluru-based Dr Sunil Bhat will be working with a team of Lankans to set up a registry and transplant centres in the country.

Sri Lanka faces several challenges while dealing with complex cases, especially those who dont have any family matched donors for transplant.It is impossible to get a donor in Sri Lanka to be honest, exasperates the father of a five-year-old boy who received a bone marrow transplant in the city.

Requesting anonymity, the Sri Lankan confesses that it took him a year of search to find a donor. I looked all over the world, including in US and Europe. At one point, I even finalised a donor in Taiwan, he says. The Taiwanese backed out later, he adds. She (the donor) wasnt willing.

The doctor advised him to avoid donors in US and Europe. They asked me to look for donors who will be similar to Lankans in terms of ethnicity, he says. Another parent Jayantha Balasoorya says, There are two private transplant centres in Lanka. None by the government run. The 35-year-old adds that the absence of a donor registry makes the treatment even more difficult.

Dr Sunil, senior consultant and head of paediatric haematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant at Narayana Health City will be working with Sri Lanka Thalasemia Circle to set up the infrastructure needed for bone marrow transplants. The circle has 5,000 members. We met Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne in December, 2016. He has agreed to our plans, says Jayantha Balasoorya.

Four Sri Lankan children suffering from thalassemia major, a life-threatening disorder were recently treated through unrelated donor bone marrow transplant at Narayana Health City.

The doctors sourced matching bone marrow cells from unrelated donors from across the world and carried out the transplants at Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, Narayana Health City. Patients included, 15-month-old Nethumi Shenaya Rajapaksha Bomaluwe, four-year-old Suwini Umeda Shreemali Balasooriya, five-year-old Purna and 10-year-old Mithun Dilesh Welgamage. If Lankans have their own donor registry, then it makes things easier medically too. A donor from their own ethnicity would anyday be a better match, says Dr Sunil, who visited the country six months ago. Around 30 Sri Lankan patients have approached the hospital for a transplant so far, he adds.

The doctor informs he has treated transplant patients from around 30 countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nepal and Bhutan. Along with ethnic resemblence, India also proves to be a cheaper destination for patients from these countries. A transplant surgery in Bengaluru will cost them less than 10 per cent of what it would in US or Europe, says Dr Sunil. Other than that, where would they find a playful and fun doctor like me, laughs the doctor.

Treatment for Thalassemia

The common treatment for thalassemia major is blood transfusion. However, the continuous transfusions can cause complications like iron overload and blood- borne infections. Bone marrow transplant is the curative option.

BENGALURU: The absence of government-run bone marrow transplant centres and a donor registry makes thalassemia treatment next to impossible in Sri Lanka. To solve this problem, Bengaluru-based Dr Sunil Bhat will be working with a team of Lankans to set up a registry and transplant centres in the country. Sri Lanka faces several challenges while dealing with complex cases, especially those who dont have any family matched donors for transplant.It is impossible to get a donor in Sri Lanka to be honest, exasperates the father of a five-year-old boy who received a bone marrow transplant in the city. Requesting anonymity, the Sri Lankan confesses that it took him a year of search to find a donor. I looked all over the world, including in US and Europe. At one point, I even finalised a donor in Taiwan, he says. The Taiwanese backed out later, he adds. She (the donor) wasnt willing. The doctor advised him to avoid donors in US and Europe. They asked me to look for donors who will be similar to Lankans in terms of ethnicity, he says. Another parent Jayantha Balasoorya says, There are two private transplant centres in Lanka. None by the government run. The 35-year-old adds that the absence of a donor registry makes the treatment even more difficult. Dr Sunil, senior consultant and head of paediatric haematology, oncology and bone marrow transplant at Narayana Health City will be working with Sri Lanka Thalasemia Circle to set up the infrastructure needed for bone marrow transplants. The circle has 5,000 members. We met Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne in December, 2016. He has agreed to our plans, says Jayantha Balasoorya. Four Sri Lankan children suffering from thalassemia major, a life-threatening disorder were recently treated through unrelated donor bone marrow transplant at Narayana Health City. The doctors sourced matching bone marrow cells from unrelated donors from across the world and carried out the transplants at Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, Narayana Health City. Patients included, 15-month-old Nethumi Shenaya Rajapaksha Bomaluwe, four-year-old Suwini Umeda Shreemali Balasooriya, five-year-old Purna and 10-year-old Mithun Dilesh Welgamage. If Lankans have their own donor registry, then it makes things easier medically too. A donor from their own ethnicity would anyday be a better match, says Dr Sunil, who visited the country six months ago. Around 30 Sri Lankan patients have approached the hospital for a transplant so far, he adds. The doctor informs he has treated transplant patients from around 30 countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nepal and Bhutan. Along with ethnic resemblence, India also proves to be a cheaper destination for patients from these countries. A transplant surgery in Bengaluru will cost them less than 10 per cent of what it would in US or Europe, says Dr Sunil. Other than that, where would they find a playful and fun doctor like me, laughs the doctor. Treatment for Thalassemia The common treatment for thalassemia major is blood transfusion. However, the continuous transfusions can cause complications like iron overload and blood- borne infections. Bone marrow transplant is the curative option.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Delhi Public School (DPS) North which was forced to cancel Chinese New Year celebrations planned at the school following the threats of protest, has decided to initiate legal action against the trespassers. On Thursday, Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists had entered the premises and allegedly shouted against celebrating the New Year of a country with which Indias relations are strained of late due to face-off in Doklam.

When they trespassed into the campus, there were thousands of kids and faculty members inside the class rooms. Entry of unknown persons inside the campus disrupted entire academic activity and we will take legal action against them, said Mansoor Ali Khan, management member of Delhi Public Schools group.

No organisation, whether it is ABVP or NSUI, is allowed to enter the school campus without getting permission or prior intimation to the schools authorities. We are running a school to educate children, not to include politics in it, Khan added.He asked who would have been responsible had any untoward incident taken place.

Parents send their kids trusting the authorities and it is our responsibility to ensure safety of children. We are discussing with our advocates about the future course of action, Khan said.

ABVP national general secretary Vinay Bidre said, We got to know about the event through some parents. Parents called me and shared the circular following which our activists visited the school. They did not stage a protest. They simply requested the principal to cancel the event. What they were going to do was a part of extra-curricular activity. If it was in their curriculum, we would not have opposed.

ABVP wanted us to hold Nation first event

Mansoor Ali Khan said that when ABVP activists entered the school on Thursday, they shouted in front of principal and even insisted to conduct Nation First event. They also wanted to be invited. Why do we have to invite ABVP for an event which we plan inside our school premises?

Avoid negative news in assembly: Advisory

Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka issued an advisory. It asked the schools not to discuss anything negative in class related to neighbouring states, countries and policy matters. It also asked schools to keep a close watch for activists with political agendas. Schools should also take steps to avoid reading of negative news during the prayer assembly.

BENGALURU: Delhi Public School (DPS) North which was forced to cancel Chinese New Year celebrations planned at the school following the threats of protest, has decided to initiate legal action against the trespassers. On Thursday, Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists had entered the premises and allegedly shouted against celebrating the New Year of a country with which Indias relations are strained of late due to face-off in Doklam. When they trespassed into the campus, there were thousands of kids and faculty members inside the class rooms. Entry of unknown persons inside the campus disrupted entire academic activity and we will take legal action against them, said Mansoor Ali Khan, management member of Delhi Public Schools group. No organisation, whether it is ABVP or NSUI, is allowed to enter the school campus without getting permission or prior intimation to the schools authorities. We are running a school to educate children, not to include politics in it, Khan added.He asked who would have been responsible had any untoward incident taken place. Parents send their kids trusting the authorities and it is our responsibility to ensure safety of children. We are discussing with our advocates about the future course of action, Khan said. ABVP national general secretary Vinay Bidre said, We got to know about the event through some parents. Parents called me and shared the circular following which our activists visited the school. They did not stage a protest. They simply requested the principal to cancel the event. What they were going to do was a part of extra-curricular activity. If it was in their curriculum, we would not have opposed. ABVP wanted us to hold Nation first event Mansoor Ali Khan said that when ABVP activists entered the school on Thursday, they shouted in front of principal and even insisted to conduct Nation First event. They also wanted to be invited. Why do we have to invite ABVP for an event which we plan inside our school premises? Avoid negative news in assembly: Advisory Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka issued an advisory. It asked the schools not to discuss anything negative in class related to neighbouring states, countries and policy matters. It also asked schools to keep a close watch for activists with political agendas. Schools should also take steps to avoid reading of negative news during the prayer assembly.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B) campus in Electronics City was drowned in shock, sorrow and disbelief on Friday morning where a 20-year-old M.Tech student was found dead near the hostel block. Police suspect that Goluguri Sai Sarath committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of the hostel building.

Sarath, a native of Hyderabad, was studying in the fourth year of the Integrated M.Tech course. He has not left behind any suicide note and the reason for him ending his life is yet to be ascertained.

A senior police officer said the body was found at 4.40am. Hostel inmates heard the noise and alerted the security guards, who in turn, informed to the police. The postmortem was conducted at Victoria hospital and the body was handed over to the parents.

During preliminary investigations, police found that Sarath and 12 of his friends had gone to attend the birthday party of Rahul, a classmate, at a restaurant in BTM Layout. They returned to the hostel around 10.30pm. According to his friends, he was normal and showed no signs of being upset.

Their entry and exit from the campus has been recorded on CCTV cameras installed in the premises. But there was no CCTV camera on seventh floor of the hostel building where Sarath was living. He may have reached the terrace through a fire escape, police said.

His parents K Sudha and G Kodanda Rama Reddy, an Income Tax officer in Hyderabad, who arrived from Hyderabad on Friday, told Electronics City police that he did not reveal anything to them during his recent visit. He had returned to the campus on August 1. He was a very quiet boy and never used to mingle with crowds. He had only a few friends at college and never shared any problems. So the parents and friends are still puzzled why he ended his life, police said.

Big shock, says IIIT-B director

IIIT-B director Prof S Sadagopan, in a press statement, said the Institute is extending all cooperation to the investigating officers and providing support to the bereaved family According to IIIT-B registrar Sridhar, the student was academically very good and performed well in class. There could be no known academic pressure on anyone like him. His classes also had just started and no exams were scheduled around the next couple of weeks. Since the hostel only has single accommodations, none of his friends knew what may have been troubling him, he said.

BENGALURU: The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B) campus in Electronics City was drowned in shock, sorrow and disbelief on Friday morning where a 20-year-old M.Tech student was found dead near the hostel block. Police suspect that Goluguri Sai Sarath committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of the hostel building. Sarath, a native of Hyderabad, was studying in the fourth year of the Integrated M.Tech course. He has not left behind any suicide note and the reason for him ending his life is yet to be ascertained. A senior police officer said the body was found at 4.40am. Hostel inmates heard the noise and alerted the security guards, who in turn, informed to the police. The postmortem was conducted at Victoria hospital and the body was handed over to the parents. During preliminary investigations, police found that Sarath and 12 of his friends had gone to attend the birthday party of Rahul, a classmate, at a restaurant in BTM Layout. They returned to the hostel around 10.30pm. According to his friends, he was normal and showed no signs of being upset. Their entry and exit from the campus has been recorded on CCTV cameras installed in the premises. But there was no CCTV camera on seventh floor of the hostel building where Sarath was living. He may have reached the terrace through a fire escape, police said. His parents K Sudha and G Kodanda Rama Reddy, an Income Tax officer in Hyderabad, who arrived from Hyderabad on Friday, told Electronics City police that he did not reveal anything to them during his recent visit. He had returned to the campus on August 1. He was a very quiet boy and never used to mingle with crowds. He had only a few friends at college and never shared any problems. So the parents and friends are still puzzled why he ended his life, police said. Big shock, says IIIT-B director IIIT-B director Prof S Sadagopan, in a press statement, said the Institute is extending all cooperation to the investigating officers and providing support to the bereaved family According to IIIT-B registrar Sridhar, the student was academically very good and performed well in class. There could be no known academic pressure on anyone like him. His classes also had just started and no exams were scheduled around the next couple of weeks. Since the hostel only has single accommodations, none of his friends knew what may have been troubling him, he said.
M Sathish By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Over 40 passengers in a KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bengaluru to Chennai had a narrow escape when a fire suddenly engulfed the vehicle as it reached Chennai's outskirts this morning.

The bus was moving slowly near a check-post at Nazarathpet around 8.20 am when motorists behind the bus alerted the bus driver about the smoke emanating from the rear of the bus.

The timely alert helped all the passengers get out of the bus safely. But as the fire tenders could not immediately reach the spot due to the traffic jam on the stretch, the bus was fully engulfed by the fire and reduced to its skeleton in just an hour.

As fire and rescue services were alerted, fire tenders from Poonamallee, Maduravoyal and Ambattur stations rushed to the spot. | Special Arrangement

"As I got down to check the smoke, it became apparent that the fire was spreading. So conductor Ramachandran and I immediately alerted all passengers to get down," bus driver S Sridhar told Express. He said the bus had begun its journey from Bengaluru last night at 10 pm.

As fire and rescue services were alerted, fire tenders from Poonamallee, Maduravoyal and Ambattur stations rushed to the spot. "But due to the burning vehicle, the traffic was jammed from Sriperumpudur on the Ponnamallee stretch. We asked police help to clear the traffic for us to reach the spot. But by the time we could get there and put out the fire, almost the entire interior of the bus was gutted," Ambattur fire station officer Muthukrishnan told Express.

"Luckily none was injured. But we have registered a case and are investigating," said Narazathpet police inspector Jayachandran.

In Bengaluru, KSRTC Public Relations Officer Latha T S said transport corporation officials were headed towards Chennai to examine the bus and ascertain the cause of the fire which was first seen coming from the engine.

"We are relieved that none of the passengers were hurt and our driver and conductor ensured that the passengers exited the bus immediately and even their luggage could be removed in time," she said.

(With inputs from ENS Bureau in Bengaluru)

CHENNAI: Over 40 passengers in a KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bengaluru to Chennai had a narrow escape when a fire suddenly engulfed the vehicle as it reached Chennai's outskirts this morning. The bus was moving slowly near a check-post at Nazarathpet around 8.20 am when motorists behind the bus alerted the bus driver about the smoke emanating from the rear of the bus. The timely alert helped all the passengers get out of the bus safely. But as the fire tenders could not immediately reach the spot due to the traffic jam on the stretch, the bus was fully engulfed by the fire and reduced to its skeleton in just an hour. As fire and rescue services were alerted, fire tenders from Poonamallee, Maduravoyal and Ambattur stations rushed to the spot. | Special Arrangement "As I got down to check the smoke, it became apparent that the fire was spreading. So conductor Ramachandran and I immediately alerted all passengers to get down," bus driver S Sridhar told Express. He said the bus had begun its journey from Bengaluru last night at 10 pm. As fire and rescue services were alerted, fire tenders from Poonamallee, Maduravoyal and Ambattur stations rushed to the spot. "But due to the burning vehicle, the traffic was jammed from Sriperumpudur on the Ponnamallee stretch. We asked police help to clear the traffic for us to reach the spot. But by the time we could get there and put out the fire, almost the entire interior of the bus was gutted," Ambattur fire station officer Muthukrishnan told Express. "Luckily none was injured. But we have registered a case and are investigating," said Narazathpet police inspector Jayachandran. In Bengaluru, KSRTC Public Relations Officer Latha T S said transport corporation officials were headed towards Chennai to examine the bus and ascertain the cause of the fire which was first seen coming from the engine. "We are relieved that none of the passengers were hurt and our driver and conductor ensured that the passengers exited the bus immediately and even their luggage could be removed in time," she said. (With inputs from ENS Bureau in Bengaluru)
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Emotional scenes unfolded at the Assisi School for Deaf at Neerpara in Thalayolaparampu, when 10-year-old Monti finally reunited with his parents after a gap of five months.

Puranchand, an autorickshaw driver in Delhi, and his wife Anitha had reached the school after they received a phone call from the Childline authorities saying their hearing and speech impaired boy was safe here in Kerala. Monti was spotted at the Ernakulam South railway station on March 22 by the Railway Protection Force. The police later informed the Childline authorities, who admitted the boy to the Special School at Neerpara with boarding facilities. After interacting with the child, one of the special educators Rincy, who visited the facility last month, understood the boy was from Delhi.

Rincy passed on the information about the child along with a photograph to her friend in Delhi, who successfully traced Montis parents.According to the office-bearers of the Kochi Childline Centre, Monti had gone missing a couple of times in the past, but was found shortly thereafter since he had not gone this far. However, it was difficult to trace the boys whereabouts as he could neither talk nor understand Malayalam. The Childline authorities produced the boy before the Ernakulam district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to get his release order to send him with his parents.

KOCHI: Emotional scenes unfolded at the Assisi School for Deaf at Neerpara in Thalayolaparampu, when 10-year-old Monti finally reunited with his parents after a gap of five months. Puranchand, an autorickshaw driver in Delhi, and his wife Anitha had reached the school after they received a phone call from the Childline authorities saying their hearing and speech impaired boy was safe here in Kerala. Monti was spotted at the Ernakulam South railway station on March 22 by the Railway Protection Force. The police later informed the Childline authorities, who admitted the boy to the Special School at Neerpara with boarding facilities. After interacting with the child, one of the special educators Rincy, who visited the facility last month, understood the boy was from Delhi. Rincy passed on the information about the child along with a photograph to her friend in Delhi, who successfully traced Montis parents.According to the office-bearers of the Kochi Childline Centre, Monti had gone missing a couple of times in the past, but was found shortly thereafter since he had not gone this far. However, it was difficult to trace the boys whereabouts as he could neither talk nor understand Malayalam. The Childline authorities produced the boy before the Ernakulam district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to get his release order to send him with his parents.
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: With the amount of public money embezzled by an NGO in Bihar rising to Rs 500 crore and the investigation on, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a probe by the CBI into the scam.

Holding deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi directly responsible for the scam, Yadav demanded his immediate resignation, saying the BJP leaders continuation in the cabinet could influence the probe. Yadav also said the unfolding scam could be as big as Rs 1,000 crore and that top government official and politicians were involved in it.

The law is the same for everyone. I call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a CBI probe into such large-scale embezzlement of public money, said Yadav in Ranchi after appearing in a court in a fodder scam case.

Sushil Modi was Bihars finance minister and held the commercial taxes portfolio when the embezzlement of public money by the NGO in Bhagalpur began. The embezzlement took place with his knowledge.

He must step down and be sent to jail, said Yadav, adding that he may approach the high court seeking a CBI probe if the Centre does not order it.

Sushil Kumar Modi denied having anything to do with the scam.

It is we who brought this scam to light and swiftly ordered a probe. Why would we do so if we were involved in it? said Sushil Modi.

PATNA: With the amount of public money embezzled by an NGO in Bihar rising to Rs 500 crore and the investigation on, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a probe by the CBI into the scam. Holding deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi directly responsible for the scam, Yadav demanded his immediate resignation, saying the BJP leaders continuation in the cabinet could influence the probe. Yadav also said the unfolding scam could be as big as Rs 1,000 crore and that top government official and politicians were involved in it. The law is the same for everyone. I call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a CBI probe into such large-scale embezzlement of public money, said Yadav in Ranchi after appearing in a court in a fodder scam case. Sushil Modi was Bihars finance minister and held the commercial taxes portfolio when the embezzlement of public money by the NGO in Bhagalpur began. The embezzlement took place with his knowledge. He must step down and be sent to jail, said Yadav, adding that he may approach the high court seeking a CBI probe if the Centre does not order it. Sushil Kumar Modi denied having anything to do with the scam. It is we who brought this scam to light and swiftly ordered a probe. Why would we do so if we were involved in it? said Sushil Modi.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Senior army officials from India and China today held a flag meeting at Nathu La mountain pass in Sikkim and extensively discussed the Dokalam standoff but the "deliberations remained inconclusive", sources said.

In the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) attended by Major General rank officers from both sides, India insisted that the face-off could be resolved through simultaneous withdrawal of troops by the Indian and Chinese sides, they said.

Today's deliberations follow a meeting between brigade commanders of the two sides on August 8.

"The meeting remained inconclusive as the Chinese side insisted on the withdrawal of Indian troops from Dokalam immediately," a senior Indian official said.

The BPM set up was launched by both countries to sort out local issues and ensure peace and tranquillity along the sensitive border.

The two sides hold BPM in five points which include Daulat Beg Oldie in northern Ladakh, Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh, Chusul in Ladakh, Bum-La near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Nathu-La in Sikkim.

India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector for nearly eight weeks after Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops from the disputed Doklam plateau. Bhutan says Doklam belongs to it but China claims it to be its territory.

China has been ramping up rhetoric against India over the last few weeks demanding an immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Dokalam. The Chinese state media, particularly, have carried a barrage of critical articles on the Dokalam standoff slamming India.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had recently said both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.

India also conveyed to the Chinese government that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for it.

NEW DELHI: Senior army officials from India and China today held a flag meeting at Nathu La mountain pass in Sikkim and extensively discussed the Dokalam standoff but the "deliberations remained inconclusive", sources said. In the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) attended by Major General rank officers from both sides, India insisted that the face-off could be resolved through simultaneous withdrawal of troops by the Indian and Chinese sides, they said. Today's deliberations follow a meeting between brigade commanders of the two sides on August 8. "The meeting remained inconclusive as the Chinese side insisted on the withdrawal of Indian troops from Dokalam immediately," a senior Indian official said. The BPM set up was launched by both countries to sort out local issues and ensure peace and tranquillity along the sensitive border. The two sides hold BPM in five points which include Daulat Beg Oldie in northern Ladakh, Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh, Chusul in Ladakh, Bum-La near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Nathu-La in Sikkim. India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector for nearly eight weeks after Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area. China claimed it was constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops from the disputed Doklam plateau. Bhutan says Doklam belongs to it but China claims it to be its territory. China has been ramping up rhetoric against India over the last few weeks demanding an immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Dokalam. The Chinese state media, particularly, have carried a barrage of critical articles on the Dokalam standoff slamming India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had recently said both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff. India also conveyed to the Chinese government that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for it.
By ANI

Terming his resignation as pre-decided, the suspended principal of Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College Rajiv Mishra on Saturday clarified that payments were duly done to the oxygen supplying agencies.

"I had already written my resignation earlier, owning up to all the deaths that happened at the BRD Hospital," he told ANI here.

When asked about the allegations put forward by oxygen supply agencies about their due payments, he said, "This is a wrong allegation against me. The amount was released from the administration on August 5. The money released from there comes to directorate first and then to us. So the money came to us on 7th evening. The tokens were made on 8th. We had the Chief Minister's visit on 9th, where he, along with other ministers, had a review meeting on encephalitis. On 10th, we sent the bills to the treasury and on 11th, the money went to the accounts of the gas agencies."

"The deaths were due to encephalitis, not due to lack of oxygen," he added.

Following the furore over multitudes of deaths at BRD hospital in a span of few days allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply, the principal of the college was earlier suspended from his duties.

"We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour," State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon said on Saturday, while addressing the media over the tragedy.

Tandon also assured of a high level probe into the multiple deaths, headed by the Principal Secretary. An action will be taken after a due report is taken out.

Also, the state government reiterated its earlier stand on the deaths and said that the children did not die to disruption of gas supply.

Over 30 infants at the BRD Hospital died due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen.

Following this, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress on Saturday asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to step down from his post.

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also informed that a Samajwadi Party delegation would be visiting Gorakhpur and said the state government and administration are hiding crucial facts in the case.

According to data procurred from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 64 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procurred data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospita

Terming his resignation as pre-decided, the suspended principal of Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College Rajiv Mishra on Saturday clarified that payments were duly done to the oxygen supplying agencies. "I had already written my resignation earlier, owning up to all the deaths that happened at the BRD Hospital," he told ANI here. When asked about the allegations put forward by oxygen supply agencies about their due payments, he said, "This is a wrong allegation against me. The amount was released from the administration on August 5. The money released from there comes to directorate first and then to us. So the money came to us on 7th evening. The tokens were made on 8th. We had the Chief Minister's visit on 9th, where he, along with other ministers, had a review meeting on encephalitis. On 10th, we sent the bills to the treasury and on 11th, the money went to the accounts of the gas agencies." "The deaths were due to encephalitis, not due to lack of oxygen," he added. Following the furore over multitudes of deaths at BRD hospital in a span of few days allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply, the principal of the college was earlier suspended from his duties. "We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour," State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon said on Saturday, while addressing the media over the tragedy. Tandon also assured of a high level probe into the multiple deaths, headed by the Principal Secretary. An action will be taken after a due report is taken out. Also, the state government reiterated its earlier stand on the deaths and said that the children did not die to disruption of gas supply. Over 30 infants at the BRD Hospital died due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen. Following this, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress on Saturday asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to step down from his post. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also informed that a Samajwadi Party delegation would be visiting Gorakhpur and said the state government and administration are hiding crucial facts in the case. According to data procurred from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 64 deaths have occurred in the hospital. The procurred data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospita
By ANI

GORAKHPUR: The Congress on Saturday demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singhs resignations, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time, which led to death of 64 in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Talking to media here, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "We are deeply saddened by the incident. The incident has left the whole nation in grief. What happened here was due to lapse on the Uttar Pradesh government. Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should immediately resign from their post."

Azad asserted that the Uttar Pradesh Government should apologize to the whole nation in regard to the same.

"Gorakhpur is the constituency of CM Adityanath. Considering, he is both the MP and CM, he must take moral responsibility and should resign. Same goes for Health Minister. Doctors are responsible for the incident," he said.

The Congress leader further informed that the suppliers who provide liquid oxygen were not given payment on time.

"Suppliers were not given money on time. Around 70 lakhs were due for payment," he added.

Azad further said that Congress party had spent crores rupees to provide medical facilities in the hospital during the time of its ruling.

As many as 64 lives have been lost so far due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

GORAKHPUR: The Congress on Saturday demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singhs resignations, blaming the state government for its sheer failure in providing proper medical facilities to the patients in time, which led to death of 64 in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College. Talking to media here, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "We are deeply saddened by the incident. The incident has left the whole nation in grief. What happened here was due to lapse on the Uttar Pradesh government. Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should immediately resign from their post." Azad asserted that the Uttar Pradesh Government should apologize to the whole nation in regard to the same. "Gorakhpur is the constituency of CM Adityanath. Considering, he is both the MP and CM, he must take moral responsibility and should resign. Same goes for Health Minister. Doctors are responsible for the incident," he said. The Congress leader further informed that the suppliers who provide liquid oxygen were not given payment on time. "Suppliers were not given money on time. Around 70 lakhs were due for payment," he added. Azad further said that Congress party had spent crores rupees to provide medical facilities in the hospital during the time of its ruling. As many as 64 lives have been lost so far due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen in the hospital. The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died. On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital. Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth. Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours. Meanwhile, according to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital. The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.
By ANI

GORAKHPUR: Under all-round attack, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the head of the hospital over the deaths of 63 children in five days, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Health Minister blamed it on lack of cleanliness and diseases and not due to lack of oxygen.



As Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose constituency the hospital is located, the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers.



The Centre sent Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C.K. Mishra to Gorakhpur and look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply.



Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness. Mishra later said he had already given his resignation, owing moral responsibility for the tragedy. Mishra has been asked to stay put as a committee had been formed to fix responsibility.



Announcing the suspension of Mishra, Singh asked the media not to jump to conclusions because a probe has been ordered. He said once the probe findings are out, strict action will be taken against the culprits. He claimed that no deaths had taken place due to lack of oxygen.



Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting in Allahabad, Adityanath said the deaths in his hometown were caused by filth and the scourge of open defecation.



"There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis ...It is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life," he said and reminded the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.



Watch video: Dozens of children die after Gorakhpur hospital runs out of oxygen



Singh, along with his cabinet colleague, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, were sent by the Chief Minister on Saturday morning to the hospital. Singh said the Chief Minister had visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 where many things were reviewed, but the shortage of oxygen or any payment issue was never discussed.



He said that in 2014 the number of deaths due to encephalitis was 19, in 2015 it was 22, and 19 in 2016. Singh explained that he was not trying to justify the deaths at the BRD hospital.



The Minister said they have gone through the oxygen gas supply issue and that after thorough scrutiny they were of the opinion that the deaths had not taken place due to lack of oxygen. He also said that if any disruption in oxygen supply comes to light in further probe, the guilty would be brought to book.



In more embarrassment for the state government, it has come to light that the staff of the Central Oxygen Pipeline Plant at the hospital - from where oxygen is piped to different wards - had written to the head of the paediatrics department warning them of dwindling oxygen stock.



They had forewarned that the shortage could hit the patients admitted in various wards, specially the children.



It appears that the warning fell on deaf ears and that no advance arrangements were made for the oxygen.



Meanwhile, Parveen Modi, owner of Pushpa Sales company, which used to supply oxygen to the BRD hospital, denied that his company had the tender to supply oxygen.



He told media persons that his contract with the hospital had ended in March and was not renewed. He said the contract of Pushpa Sales was ended and the contract given to a new firm from Allahabad - Imperial Gas, after the BJP government came to power this year.



Modi said that till date Rs 20 lakh payment was pending with the hospital and that he had supplied liquid oxygen on Friday too, after a request made by the Divisional Commissioner.



"I did so completely on humanitarian grounds," he said, and denied reports that he had disrupted the oxygen supply over non-payment of dues.



"I have supplied 200 cylinders after the request made by officials," he added.



"Dues exist, but we were not serving the hospital oxygen since March" he clarified.



The opposition tore into the Adityanath government over the deaths. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy.



The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.



Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy.



"Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said.



Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.



Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.



The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.



The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue.



The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.



Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.

GORAKHPUR: Under all-round attack, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the head of the hospital over the deaths of 63 children in five days, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Health Minister blamed it on lack of cleanliness and diseases and not due to lack of oxygen. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose constituency the hospital is located, the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers. The Centre sent Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C.K. Mishra to Gorakhpur and look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply. Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness. Mishra later said he had already given his resignation, owing moral responsibility for the tragedy. Mishra has been asked to stay put as a committee had been formed to fix responsibility. Announcing the suspension of Mishra, Singh asked the media not to jump to conclusions because a probe has been ordered. He said once the probe findings are out, strict action will be taken against the culprits. He claimed that no deaths had taken place due to lack of oxygen. Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting in Allahabad, Adityanath said the deaths in his hometown were caused by filth and the scourge of open defecation. "There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis ...It is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life," he said and reminded the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.Watch video: Dozens of children die after Gorakhpur hospital runs out of oxygen Singh, along with his cabinet colleague, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, were sent by the Chief Minister on Saturday morning to the hospital. Singh said the Chief Minister had visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 where many things were reviewed, but the shortage of oxygen or any payment issue was never discussed. He said that in 2014 the number of deaths due to encephalitis was 19, in 2015 it was 22, and 19 in 2016. Singh explained that he was not trying to justify the deaths at the BRD hospital. The Minister said they have gone through the oxygen gas supply issue and that after thorough scrutiny they were of the opinion that the deaths had not taken place due to lack of oxygen. He also said that if any disruption in oxygen supply comes to light in further probe, the guilty would be brought to book. In more embarrassment for the state government, it has come to light that the staff of the Central Oxygen Pipeline Plant at the hospital - from where oxygen is piped to different wards - had written to the head of the paediatrics department warning them of dwindling oxygen stock. They had forewarned that the shortage could hit the patients admitted in various wards, specially the children. It appears that the warning fell on deaf ears and that no advance arrangements were made for the oxygen. Meanwhile, Parveen Modi, owner of Pushpa Sales company, which used to supply oxygen to the BRD hospital, denied that his company had the tender to supply oxygen. He told media persons that his contract with the hospital had ended in March and was not renewed. He said the contract of Pushpa Sales was ended and the contract given to a new firm from Allahabad - Imperial Gas, after the BJP government came to power this year. Modi said that till date Rs 20 lakh payment was pending with the hospital and that he had supplied liquid oxygen on Friday too, after a request made by the Divisional Commissioner. "I did so completely on humanitarian grounds," he said, and denied reports that he had disrupted the oxygen supply over non-payment of dues. "I have supplied 200 cylinders after the request made by officials," he added. "Dues exist, but we were not serving the hospital oxygen since March" he clarified. The opposition tore into the Adityanath government over the deaths. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy. The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned. Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy. "Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident. Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS. The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue. The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister. Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Maharashtra industries minister Subhash Desai met Devendra Fadnavis this morning and offered to resign but the chief minister refused to accept it.

The minister, whose role in the denotification of land acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has triggered opposition allegations of corruption, has been asked to continue in the cabinet till the findings of an inquiry come in.

Fadnavis had assured the state legislature Friday night that an independent probe would be initiated into Desai actions in the controversy.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray defended Desai, who belongs to his party. "Those who are leveling allegations of corruption are themselves neck deep in it. They are not ashamed of their own deeds," he said.

He said mere allegations should not warrant a resignation. That would set a bad precedent, which would dent Maharashtra's image.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra industries minister Subhash Desai met Devendra Fadnavis this morning and offered to resign but the chief minister refused to accept it. The minister, whose role in the denotification of land acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has triggered opposition allegations of corruption, has been asked to continue in the cabinet till the findings of an inquiry come in. Fadnavis had assured the state legislature Friday night that an independent probe would be initiated into Desai actions in the controversy. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray defended Desai, who belongs to his party. "Those who are leveling allegations of corruption are themselves neck deep in it. They are not ashamed of their own deeds," he said. He said mere allegations should not warrant a resignation. That would set a bad precedent, which would dent Maharashtra's image.
By PTI

JAIPUR: Over 200 Kashmiri students in a private university here were allegedly forced to leave the varsity hostel as the institute did not receive the scholarship amount provided to them by the central government.

The students, however, were allowed to avail the hostel facilities by the university management only after they protested the varsity's move.

"We (students) came here in 2014 under the prime minister's scholarship scheme, from Kashmir. There was no issue in the last three years but from this session, the university asked us that we would not be provided the hostel facility because the scholarship amount has not reached them yet," Arshit Mahmood, a student, said.

He alleged that all the students were forced to take shelter here or there or on a road since August 1.

"We suffered as we had no place to live. We had no money to buy food. The university supported us for three years but now they did not allow us to stay in the hostel," Mahmood said.

Chief mentor of the Suresh Gyan Vihar University Sudhanshu said, "The Centre has not released the scholarship support and we are awaiting the funds. There are over 200 such students who face the problem, but now we have allowed them to stay in the hostel and the issue has been resolved."

JAIPUR: Over 200 Kashmiri students in a private university here were allegedly forced to leave the varsity hostel as the institute did not receive the scholarship amount provided to them by the central government. The students, however, were allowed to avail the hostel facilities by the university management only after they protested the varsity's move. "We (students) came here in 2014 under the prime minister's scholarship scheme, from Kashmir. There was no issue in the last three years but from this session, the university asked us that we would not be provided the hostel facility because the scholarship amount has not reached them yet," Arshit Mahmood, a student, said. He alleged that all the students were forced to take shelter here or there or on a road since August 1. "We suffered as we had no place to live. We had no money to buy food. The university supported us for three years but now they did not allow us to stay in the hostel," Mahmood said. Chief mentor of the Suresh Gyan Vihar University Sudhanshu said, "The Centre has not released the scholarship support and we are awaiting the funds. There are over 200 such students who face the problem, but now we have allowed them to stay in the hostel and the issue has been resolved."
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Indira Jaising on Friday posted on Twitter that she will shed her senior gown after this years Independence Day and termed it as gown wapasi.

Indira Jaising, whose petition challenging the process of senior designations across the country is pending before the Supreme Court, called it a symbol of discrimination.

On Thursday, a three judge bench had begun hearing the case and slated the next hearing on August 29.

Jaising was the first woman who was designated as senior counsel by the Bombay High Court.

In another tweet she said, Why do we need two classes of lawyers with different uniform?

During the hearing on Thursday, attorney general K K Venugopal told the bench that there was no thumb rule and many non-senior advocates were equally good.

Jaising said the current procedure is discriminatory in nature and it should be discarded in favour of a more transparent system.

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Indira Jaising on Friday posted on Twitter that she will shed her senior gown after this years Independence Day and termed it as gown wapasi. Indira Jaising, whose petition challenging the process of senior designations across the country is pending before the Supreme Court, called it a symbol of discrimination. On Thursday, a three judge bench had begun hearing the case and slated the next hearing on August 29. Jaising was the first woman who was designated as senior counsel by the Bombay High Court. In another tweet she said, Why do we need two classes of lawyers with different uniform? During the hearing on Thursday, attorney general K K Venugopal told the bench that there was no thumb rule and many non-senior advocates were equally good. Jaising said the current procedure is discriminatory in nature and it should be discarded in favour of a more transparent system.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: The raids and arrests of separatist leaders by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Jammu and Kashmir has isolated hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.

The NIA has arrested Geelanis two sons, Nayeem Geelani and Naseem Geelani, son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, close associates Muhammad Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Mehrajuddin Kalwal.

The 87-year-old Geelani is only being attended by his office boy at his Hyderpora residence now, said Daanish Bin Nabi, who managed to meet Geelani the other day. Geelanis residence and the office of his party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, present a deserted look as most of his party leaders and close associates have been arrested.

Geelani, who favours Kashmirs merger with Pakistan, is under house detention at his residence in the outskirts of Srinagar since 2010. The restrictions were eased in November 2013 but were reimposed after he addressed rallies in the Valley.

A contingent of police and paramilitary personnel always remains deployed outside his residence to bar him from moving out. They dont allow anybody except his family members and doctors to visit him.

On some occasions, the authorities have eased restrictions only to allow him to undergo medical check-ups at hospitals.

Geelani is not keeping well because of his isolation and old-age factor, said Daanish and added that except for the office boy and a dentist, who had come to treat Geelani, he did not see anybody else at his house.

He used to be surrounded by his family members, close associates, well wishers and youth, said a separatist leader. The leader said the NIA raids and arrests, especially of his sons, son-in-law and close aides have deeply affected him.

According to him, after the raids and arrests, people including his close acquaintances were reluctant to visit him.

Zakir Musa trapped?

Al-Qaeda Kashmir chief Zakir Musa is trapped in a village in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district after security forces cordoned off the area to flush out the terrorist on Friday, according to agency reports. A search was underway in Norpora in Tral.

SRINAGAR: The raids and arrests of separatist leaders by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Jammu and Kashmir has isolated hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. The NIA has arrested Geelanis two sons, Nayeem Geelani and Naseem Geelani, son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, close associates Muhammad Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Mehrajuddin Kalwal. The 87-year-old Geelani is only being attended by his office boy at his Hyderpora residence now, said Daanish Bin Nabi, who managed to meet Geelani the other day. Geelanis residence and the office of his party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, present a deserted look as most of his party leaders and close associates have been arrested. Geelani, who favours Kashmirs merger with Pakistan, is under house detention at his residence in the outskirts of Srinagar since 2010. The restrictions were eased in November 2013 but were reimposed after he addressed rallies in the Valley. A contingent of police and paramilitary personnel always remains deployed outside his residence to bar him from moving out. They dont allow anybody except his family members and doctors to visit him. On some occasions, the authorities have eased restrictions only to allow him to undergo medical check-ups at hospitals. Geelani is not keeping well because of his isolation and old-age factor, said Daanish and added that except for the office boy and a dentist, who had come to treat Geelani, he did not see anybody else at his house. He used to be surrounded by his family members, close associates, well wishers and youth, said a separatist leader. The leader said the NIA raids and arrests, especially of his sons, son-in-law and close aides have deeply affected him. According to him, after the raids and arrests, people including his close acquaintances were reluctant to visit him. Zakir Musa trapped? Al-Qaeda Kashmir chief Zakir Musa is trapped in a village in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district after security forces cordoned off the area to flush out the terrorist on Friday, according to agency reports. A search was underway in Norpora in Tral.
A lone protester holds up a sign as the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Jobs and Economy meets Aug. 3 about the incentive deal for Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: A soldier and a woman were killed in Pakistani troops firing and mortar shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Balakote sector of border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

Defence spokesman in Jammu, Lt Col Manish Mehta, said Pakistan Army breached border ceasefire and resorted to heavy firing on army posts at KG sector along LoC in Poonch district at around 5 pm.

He said an army many identified as Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar, 42, died was grievously injured in the Pakistani troops firing.

The soldier succumbed while being shifted to army hospital.

The deceased soldier belonged to Village Tarsana, district Morena, Madhya Pradesh. He is survived by wife, son and a daughter.

Mehta said the Pakistani troops had also breached the border ceasefire in Poonch district in the morning.

They resorted to indiscriminate firing from automatic weapons towards army posts and civilian areas in along LoC in Poonch district from 5.15 am. The Pakistani troops also resorted to mortar shelling, he said.

The spokesman said army men effectively returned the fire from similar caliber weapons and the Pakistani guns fell silent at around 06.45 am.

An official said some mortar shells fired by Pakistani troops landed in the civilian areas in Balakote sector in Mendhar, Poonch.

A mortar shell landed in a residential house of Mohammad Shabir at Gohlad, Kalran area of Balakote sector. A woman, who was standing in front of the house, received critical splinter injuries and died on spot, he said.

The deceased was identified as 45-years-old Ruqai Bi.

The official said due to heavy firing and mortar shelling by Pakistani troops, the residents living close to the LoC in Balakote sector could not take refuge in underground bunkers.

They remained confined to their homes and once the firing and shelling subsided, they moved to underground bunkers for safety, he said.

Earlier, on August 8, sepoy Pawan Singh Sugra (21) of Uttarakhand was killed in Pakistani troops firing in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district.

In July, the LoC remained hot and witnessed numerous ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops.

At least nine soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and two civilians were killed in Pakistani troops firing and mortar shelling along the LoC last month.

16 army men and civilians were also injured in the ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops.

The death toll of soldiers in July was higher than the casualties suffered by security forces in Pakistani troops firing and shelling along the LoC in the State last year.

SRINAGAR: A soldier and a woman were killed in Pakistani troops firing and mortar shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Balakote sector of border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Defence spokesman in Jammu, Lt Col Manish Mehta, said Pakistan Army breached border ceasefire and resorted to heavy firing on army posts at KG sector along LoC in Poonch district at around 5 pm. He said an army many identified as Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar, 42, died was grievously injured in the Pakistani troops firing. The soldier succumbed while being shifted to army hospital. The deceased soldier belonged to Village Tarsana, district Morena, Madhya Pradesh. He is survived by wife, son and a daughter. Mehta said the Pakistani troops had also breached the border ceasefire in Poonch district in the morning. They resorted to indiscriminate firing from automatic weapons towards army posts and civilian areas in along LoC in Poonch district from 5.15 am. The Pakistani troops also resorted to mortar shelling, he said. The spokesman said army men effectively returned the fire from similar caliber weapons and the Pakistani guns fell silent at around 06.45 am. An official said some mortar shells fired by Pakistani troops landed in the civilian areas in Balakote sector in Mendhar, Poonch. A mortar shell landed in a residential house of Mohammad Shabir at Gohlad, Kalran area of Balakote sector. A woman, who was standing in front of the house, received critical splinter injuries and died on spot, he said. The deceased was identified as 45-years-old Ruqai Bi. The official said due to heavy firing and mortar shelling by Pakistani troops, the residents living close to the LoC in Balakote sector could not take refuge in underground bunkers. They remained confined to their homes and once the firing and shelling subsided, they moved to underground bunkers for safety, he said. Earlier, on August 8, sepoy Pawan Singh Sugra (21) of Uttarakhand was killed in Pakistani troops firing in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district. In July, the LoC remained hot and witnessed numerous ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops. At least nine soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and two civilians were killed in Pakistani troops firing and mortar shelling along the LoC last month. 16 army men and civilians were also injured in the ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops. The death toll of soldiers in July was higher than the casualties suffered by security forces in Pakistani troops firing and shelling along the LoC in the State last year.
Gayathri Mani By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu's distressed farmers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for the past 27 days, demanding loan waivers, interlinking of rivers and drought-relief. Since the last few days, the protests have diversified as many people from Tamil Nadu outside the farming community are landing up at the protest site in the national capital to seek justice for their own personal issues and problems.

Narayanswamy, an 84-year-old man from Tamil Nadu's Palladam district has been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike for the last three days. He travelled to Delhi all by himself, crossing about 2,000 kilometers.

He alleges that he was cheated by his two sons and all of his property was taken by his children. He fought for years in the Supreme Court but to no avail.

The Supreme Court ordered that my son should give me shelter and maintenance money of Rs 5000. But even after the court's order I was not supported by my children and was left alone. I applied for the old age pension but nothing happened. Once upon a time, I used to provide food for hundreds but today I am sitting here with an empty stomach as I dont have even a penny to buy an idli," cried Narayanswamy.

The sorrowful tales do not end here. There are many other like Narayanswamy who have arrived at Jantar Mantar with the hope of receiving some assurance and support.

For instance, K.Vijaya, 49, who has a half-burnt face, has been sitting on a piece of newspaper at Jantar Mantar for the last 10 days, after her husband abandoned her.

Vijaya says, My husband left me and married another woman by saying that your face is burnt and I cant live with an ugly woman. I went to court, but I was asked for money. I have spent all my savings. But now I will fight until I get justice not only for me but for thousands of women like me. Nobody is supporting me but the farmers have shared their food and shelter with me.

While talking to Express, Ayyakannu who is leading the farmers' protest for the second time, said, We are protesting for a different cause but we cant let these people sit alone on these alien roads. Yes, the Centre may not have a heart but we have a big one with us. We are somehow managing here in the rain and in the sun and we will also continue to provide space for these people under our makeshift tent.

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu's distressed farmers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for the past 27 days, demanding loan waivers, interlinking of rivers and drought-relief. Since the last few days, the protests have diversified as many people from Tamil Nadu outside the farming community are landing up at the protest site in the national capital to seek justice for their own personal issues and problems. Narayanswamy, an 84-year-old man from Tamil Nadu's Palladam district has been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike for the last three days. He travelled to Delhi all by himself, crossing about 2,000 kilometers. He alleges that he was cheated by his two sons and all of his property was taken by his children. He fought for years in the Supreme Court but to no avail. The Supreme Court ordered that my son should give me shelter and maintenance money of Rs 5000. But even after the court's order I was not supported by my children and was left alone. I applied for the old age pension but nothing happened. Once upon a time, I used to provide food for hundreds but today I am sitting here with an empty stomach as I dont have even a penny to buy an idli," cried Narayanswamy. The sorrowful tales do not end here. There are many other like Narayanswamy who have arrived at Jantar Mantar with the hope of receiving some assurance and support. For instance, K.Vijaya, 49, who has a half-burnt face, has been sitting on a piece of newspaper at Jantar Mantar for the last 10 days, after her husband abandoned her. Vijaya says, My husband left me and married another woman by saying that your face is burnt and I cant live with an ugly woman. I went to court, but I was asked for money. I have spent all my savings. But now I will fight until I get justice not only for me but for thousands of women like me. Nobody is supporting me but the farmers have shared their food and shelter with me. While talking to Express, Ayyakannu who is leading the farmers' protest for the second time, said, We are protesting for a different cause but we cant let these people sit alone on these alien roads. Yes, the Centre may not have a heart but we have a big one with us. We are somehow managing here in the rain and in the sun and we will also continue to provide space for these people under our makeshift tent.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Countrys over 55 percent of elephant population is in Southern region and mainly in two states of Karnataka and Kerala, according to Elephant Census 2017 released Saturday.

The total figure of elephants in the country stands at 27312 in 23 states with Assam having second highest number of elephants after Karnataka. The population of Asian elephant was estimated at around 30000 in 2012 and at 27,670 in 2007 census.

Karnataka with 6049 elephants tops the list among 23 census states followed by Assam having 5,719, Kerala with 3054 and Tamil Nadu having 2761 pachyderms. Region wise spread of jumbos show that the highest population was in southern region (11,960) followed by north-east region (10,139), east-central region (3,128) and northern region (2,085).

Asian elephant has been identified as endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in view of the fact that its population has declined by more than 50 percent over the last three generations, estimated to be 60-75 years. India is home to about 60 percent of the global population of Asian Elephants.

Releasing the Census, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan urged the people to prepare a strategy for a more even distribution of the elephant population in all the states of the country.

The minister emphasised that an attempt must be made to bring to an end the chapter of man-animal conflict and a war must be waged against poachers and hunters who harm elephants and other wildlife.

Nation-wide elephant population estimation exercise has been conducted every five years by the forest departments of elephant range states.

The ministry said that the results of census should be interpreted with caution.

At this stage, comparisons should not be made between results from the 2017 census and the earlier 2012 census, the reason being that the earlier census results were based on a mixture of direct and indirect count methods as reported by different states, said the ministry.

The environment minister also released a document outlining Agreed Points of Action on Trans-Boundary Conservation of Elephants by India and Bangladesh which highlighted the issues on which two nations have achieved consensus on migration of elephants.

NEW DELHI: Countrys over 55 percent of elephant population is in Southern region and mainly in two states of Karnataka and Kerala, according to Elephant Census 2017 released Saturday. The total figure of elephants in the country stands at 27312 in 23 states with Assam having second highest number of elephants after Karnataka. The population of Asian elephant was estimated at around 30000 in 2012 and at 27,670 in 2007 census. Karnataka with 6049 elephants tops the list among 23 census states followed by Assam having 5,719, Kerala with 3054 and Tamil Nadu having 2761 pachyderms. Region wise spread of jumbos show that the highest population was in southern region (11,960) followed by north-east region (10,139), east-central region (3,128) and northern region (2,085). Asian elephant has been identified as endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in view of the fact that its population has declined by more than 50 percent over the last three generations, estimated to be 60-75 years. India is home to about 60 percent of the global population of Asian Elephants. Releasing the Census, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan urged the people to prepare a strategy for a more even distribution of the elephant population in all the states of the country. The minister emphasised that an attempt must be made to bring to an end the chapter of man-animal conflict and a war must be waged against poachers and hunters who harm elephants and other wildlife. Nation-wide elephant population estimation exercise has been conducted every five years by the forest departments of elephant range states. The ministry said that the results of census should be interpreted with caution. At this stage, comparisons should not be made between results from the 2017 census and the earlier 2012 census, the reason being that the earlier census results were based on a mixture of direct and indirect count methods as reported by different states, said the ministry. The environment minister also released a document outlining Agreed Points of Action on Trans-Boundary Conservation of Elephants by India and Bangladesh which highlighted the issues on which two nations have achieved consensus on migration of elephants.
Gautam Pingle By

The three-judge Bench of the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow pronounced its 8,000 page judgement on the Ayodhya case in September 2010. Each of the three judges wrote his own judgement. There are four separate suits clubbed together.

The Nirmohi Akhada had claimed redress 400 years later. Justices D V Sharma and Sudhir Aggarwal agreed that its suit was therefore time-barred, but Justice S U Khan did not. Muslims had lost the site in 1949 and filed a petition in 1961, Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled the Waqf Board suit was also time-barred but Justice Khan did not. The other suit by a Hindu party was dismissed on grounds of poor and faulty procedure.

Only the suit filed by Bhagwan Sri Ram Virajman at Ayodhya was considered maintainable and that suit was decreed and relief sought given by Justices Sharma, Aggarwal and Khan.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal agreed on many of the critical issues and differed on others. Justice Khan seems to have an opinion of his own most of the time but said that he tended to sail with Justice Aggarwal, and together with him issued the majority verdict.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled that there was no evidence that Babar had the structure constructed in 1528; Justice Khan ruled it had been done on Babars orders.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found that as Meer Baqui, a Shia Muslim, constructed the Babri Majid, it was a Shia structure. Justice Sharma ruled that the Sunni Board has no locus standi, as it is not a Sunni Waqf property. Justice Aggarwal thought it was not material to the case but anyway possession could not be given to the Sunni Waqf Board because the Shia Mutawalli was not a party. Justice Khan ruled it was not relevant.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal alone found that Hindus used the property as a place of worship immediately prior to the construction of the Masjid. Justice Sharma alone ruled that under Islamic Law, the building was not a mosque in view of the undisputed fact that it did not have minarets and surrounded by a graveyard, while Justices Khan and Aggarwal ruled it was a mosque.

The Court had commissioned the Archeological Survey of India to survey the site, excavate it and report its findings. The Report consisting 574-pages was in two volumes one text and the other entirely with photographs. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled that the evidence established that the disputed mosque had been constructed on the site after demolition of a Hindu Temple. Justice Khan said that it was constructed over the ruins of temples.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found that the evidence of pillars inside and outside the building contained images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. On this account, Justice Sharma held that the building couldnt, by Islamic tenets, have the character of a mosque. Justice Aggarwal thought this last issue (of mosque with Gods and graveyards) was redundant as did Justice Khan.

In 1938, a Full Bench of the Lahore High Court laid down that: When a mosque is adversely possessed by non-Muslims, that is to say Hindus, the Muslims lose all the right in the land and the building, including the right to worship. There is a similar judgment of a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 1994. Justice Khan accepted the case law but held both Muslims and Hindus had joint possession.

While all three granted relief claimed by Lord Rama, Justices Khan and Aggarwal decreed the suit only partially in His favour. Justice Sharma gave all the land to Lord Rama consistent with his findings on all issues.

Justices Sharma and Aggarwal, who agreed on most of the issues did not, however, agree on a common verdict. Justice Khan disagreed on most of the issues, however, but agreed with Justice Aggarwal to divide the land into three parts. They then gave one part each to the two plaintiffs whose cases were dismissed and one part to the only plaintiff (Lord Rama) whose case Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found it proper and maintainable.

Nevertheless, settled law prevents courts from giving relief not sought by a litigant without the agreement of all of them in a compromise petition. It also prevents giving reliefs to plaintiffs whose suits were dismissed. The overall judgmentthough it lacked consistency and cohesionis a matter settled law, not compromise.

Justice Khan had to deal with issues that went against undisputed facts, Islamic law and tradition and settled law in order to maintain some right of the Muslims to the site. He concluded his judgment with thoughts for all IndiansMuslims and others:

Muslims in India enjoy a unique position. They have been rulers here, they have been ruled and now they are sharers in power. They are not in majority but they are also not negligible minority ... In other countries either the Muslims are in huge majority, which makes them indifferent to the problem in question, or in negligible minority which makes them redundant.

Indian Muslims have also inherited huge legacy of religious learning and knowledge. They are therefore in the best position to tell the world the correct position. Let them start with their role in the resolution of the conflict at hand.

Seven years have now gone past waiting for the Supreme Court to address the appeal and bring closure to the issue.

Gautam Pingle

Former Dean of Research at Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad

Email: gautam.pingle@gmail.com

The three-judge Bench of the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow pronounced its 8,000 page judgement on the Ayodhya case in September 2010. Each of the three judges wrote his own judgement. There are four separate suits clubbed together. The Nirmohi Akhada had claimed redress 400 years later. Justices D V Sharma and Sudhir Aggarwal agreed that its suit was therefore time-barred, but Justice S U Khan did not. Muslims had lost the site in 1949 and filed a petition in 1961, Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled the Waqf Board suit was also time-barred but Justice Khan did not. The other suit by a Hindu party was dismissed on grounds of poor and faulty procedure. Only the suit filed by Bhagwan Sri Ram Virajman at Ayodhya was considered maintainable and that suit was decreed and relief sought given by Justices Sharma, Aggarwal and Khan. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal agreed on many of the critical issues and differed on others. Justice Khan seems to have an opinion of his own most of the time but said that he tended to sail with Justice Aggarwal, and together with him issued the majority verdict. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled that there was no evidence that Babar had the structure constructed in 1528; Justice Khan ruled it had been done on Babars orders. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found that as Meer Baqui, a Shia Muslim, constructed the Babri Majid, it was a Shia structure. Justice Sharma ruled that the Sunni Board has no locus standi, as it is not a Sunni Waqf property. Justice Aggarwal thought it was not material to the case but anyway possession could not be given to the Sunni Waqf Board because the Shia Mutawalli was not a party. Justice Khan ruled it was not relevant. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal alone found that Hindus used the property as a place of worship immediately prior to the construction of the Masjid. Justice Sharma alone ruled that under Islamic Law, the building was not a mosque in view of the undisputed fact that it did not have minarets and surrounded by a graveyard, while Justices Khan and Aggarwal ruled it was a mosque. The Court had commissioned the Archeological Survey of India to survey the site, excavate it and report its findings. The Report consisting 574-pages was in two volumes one text and the other entirely with photographs. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal ruled that the evidence established that the disputed mosque had been constructed on the site after demolition of a Hindu Temple. Justice Khan said that it was constructed over the ruins of temples. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found that the evidence of pillars inside and outside the building contained images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. On this account, Justice Sharma held that the building couldnt, by Islamic tenets, have the character of a mosque. Justice Aggarwal thought this last issue (of mosque with Gods and graveyards) was redundant as did Justice Khan. In 1938, a Full Bench of the Lahore High Court laid down that: When a mosque is adversely possessed by non-Muslims, that is to say Hindus, the Muslims lose all the right in the land and the building, including the right to worship. There is a similar judgment of a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 1994. Justice Khan accepted the case law but held both Muslims and Hindus had joint possession. While all three granted relief claimed by Lord Rama, Justices Khan and Aggarwal decreed the suit only partially in His favour. Justice Sharma gave all the land to Lord Rama consistent with his findings on all issues. Justices Sharma and Aggarwal, who agreed on most of the issues did not, however, agree on a common verdict. Justice Khan disagreed on most of the issues, however, but agreed with Justice Aggarwal to divide the land into three parts. They then gave one part each to the two plaintiffs whose cases were dismissed and one part to the only plaintiff (Lord Rama) whose case Justices Sharma and Aggarwal found it proper and maintainable. Nevertheless, settled law prevents courts from giving relief not sought by a litigant without the agreement of all of them in a compromise petition. It also prevents giving reliefs to plaintiffs whose suits were dismissed. The overall judgmentthough it lacked consistency and cohesionis a matter settled law, not compromise. Justice Khan had to deal with issues that went against undisputed facts, Islamic law and tradition and settled law in order to maintain some right of the Muslims to the site. He concluded his judgment with thoughts for all IndiansMuslims and others: Muslims in India enjoy a unique position. They have been rulers here, they have been ruled and now they are sharers in power. They are not in majority but they are also not negligible minority ... In other countries either the Muslims are in huge majority, which makes them indifferent to the problem in question, or in negligible minority which makes them redundant. Indian Muslims have also inherited huge legacy of religious learning and knowledge. They are therefore in the best position to tell the world the correct position. Let them start with their role in the resolution of the conflict at hand. Seven years have now gone past waiting for the Supreme Court to address the appeal and bring closure to the issue. Gautam Pingle Former Dean of Research at Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad Email: gautam.pingle@gmail.com
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Following the best practices adopted by the Andhra Pradesh Government in energy efficiency, the Government of India is contemplating conducting a national level programme on energy efficiency by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the State shortly, said Principal Secretary Ajay Jain. In a press release issued here on Friday, Ajay Jain said that the BEE, statutory body under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, Ministry of Power, has finalised an action plan under the guidance of Piyush Goyal. It has set a target to achieve 1.32 million units of energy savings, thereby targeting to result in economic savings of thousands of crores per annum as part of the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE).

It has also decided to create a healthy competition among States towards achieving the set goals. In this connection, BEE has shown keen interest to organise the national programme on energy efficiency in AP. Disclosing the details of the national level programme to be organised in the State, Ajay Jain said that AP has completed 2.17 crore LED bulbs distribution till date with 1,709 MU energy savings per annum with monetary savings of Rs 946 crore.

VIJAYAWADA: Following the best practices adopted by the Andhra Pradesh Government in energy efficiency, the Government of India is contemplating conducting a national level programme on energy efficiency by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the State shortly, said Principal Secretary Ajay Jain. In a press release issued here on Friday, Ajay Jain said that the BEE, statutory body under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, Ministry of Power, has finalised an action plan under the guidance of Piyush Goyal. It has set a target to achieve 1.32 million units of energy savings, thereby targeting to result in economic savings of thousands of crores per annum as part of the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE). It has also decided to create a healthy competition among States towards achieving the set goals. In this connection, BEE has shown keen interest to organise the national programme on energy efficiency in AP. Disclosing the details of the national level programme to be organised in the State, Ajay Jain said that AP has completed 2.17 crore LED bulbs distribution till date with 1,709 MU energy savings per annum with monetary savings of Rs 946 crore.
By Express News Service

H D Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: Janata Dal (Secular) state president H D Kumaraswamy has flown to Singapore for a health check-up as he continues to experience poor health. JD(S) sources said Kumaraswamy left for Singapore three days ago to get a complete health check-up. HE has been suffering from continued respiratory ailments and neither allopathic nor ayurvedic treatment has helped him.

His recent stay at Ujire, Mangaluru, to seek treatment for his persistent cough and dust allergy has not helped, the source said.A couple of months ago, Kumaraswamy had to be hospitalised as he developed a severe allergic reaction from smoke inhalation after his supporters exploded firecrackers. Kumaraswamy is scheduled to return back to Bengaluru on Monday.

H D KumaraswamyBENGALURU: Janata Dal (Secular) state president H D Kumaraswamy has flown to Singapore for a health check-up as he continues to experience poor health. JD(S) sources said Kumaraswamy left for Singapore three days ago to get a complete health check-up. HE has been suffering from continued respiratory ailments and neither allopathic nor ayurvedic treatment has helped him. His recent stay at Ujire, Mangaluru, to seek treatment for his persistent cough and dust allergy has not helped, the source said.A couple of months ago, Kumaraswamy had to be hospitalised as he developed a severe allergic reaction from smoke inhalation after his supporters exploded firecrackers. Kumaraswamy is scheduled to return back to Bengaluru on Monday.
Chandrakanth Viswanath By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The death of Biswajit Das, an 18-year-old migrant worker in Pathanamthitta, was an eye- opener to the state, prompting the Health Department to issue an alert against the outbreak of cholera.

There is every chance of cholera spreading throughout Kerala. Surveillance activities need to be intensified in all areas with special focus on high-risk areas, said the alert issued by Dr Reena K J, Additional Director of Public Health.

The Health Department has issued notices to the medical officers in all districts to be vigilant in this regard. Ernakulam, which accounts for the largest number of migrants also has started precautionary measures in anticipation of an exigency.

There is every chance of cholera spreading throughout Kerala. Surveillance activities need to be intensified in all areas with special focus on high-risk areas, said the alert issued by Dr Reena K J, Additional Director of Public Health.The Health Department has issued notices to the medical officers in all districts to be vigilant in this regard.

Ernakulam, which accounts for the largest number of migrants also has started precautionary measures in anticipation of an exigency.

"As of now, there are no cases of cholera reported in the district, said Dr K R Vidya, Deputy District Medical Officer, Ernakulam.

We are focusing on the migrant population as they are vulnerable. We will be taking water samples from various areas for testing at the Thiruvananthapuram public health laboratory. Though the feeling is most migrant workers coming to the state are healthy, there could be among them some carriers of disease, as they hail from states that have poor heath conditions.

"Those who employ them must give proper facilities for residence, cooking and sanitation, and ensure hygienic living conditions. The employers must ensure proper medical tests and check-ups.

Recently, at an inspection at Kakkanad, we found around 350 migrant labourers living in poor conditions. They had only two toilets; clearly, they had to resort to open defecation, said Vidya.

The truth about 'thattu'

'Thattukada', the roadside food vending stalls operating in temporary sheds or in handcarts or sometimes even in motor carts, are sources of diseases, mainly due to their misuse of water.

At most of these wayside eateries, water is reused several times to wash dishes. Ice used here is made in unhealthy conditions or made even for some other purpose like fish processing, resulting in the spread of waterborne diseases.

Though, according to official records, there were only 809 roadside eateries (which sell cooked food) in the district, the unofficial number is pegged at around 5,000. According to health authorities, the roadside stalls selling fruit, fish and meat would push numbers up to 10,000. A large number of them is operated by the migrant population.

"Many street food joints violate rules. We consider those shops which dont have the food safety license and those which don't have health cards for workers as illegal. Most of them employ or are operated by migrant labourers. We found 289 violations in an inspection covering just 20 per cent of the Kochi Corporation area, said P N Sreenivasan the nodal officer of a squad formed jointly by the Departments of Food Safety, Local Self Government, Civil Supplies, Health and Police.

The squad is conducting inspections at Kochi Corporation and the municipalities of Aluva, Tripunithura, Kalamassery, Paravur, Angamali, Perumbavoor and Thrikkakara in the urban areas, and Kattuvalli, Varappuzha, and Cheranellur panchayats in the rural areas.

"We have given notices to eight hotels, including some big ones, and to 67 roadside eateries in rural areas, said Sreenivasan.Though a majority of these stalls belong to persons from the lower strata of society, the disaster management committee of the Kochi Corporation has noted 59 such stalls are owned by a single person, In instances such as these, it is not just about a livelihood for an economically backward person. This happens when there is strong political patronage, said an officer on condition of anonymity.

How cholera spreads

Cholera, an acute diarrhoea, is caused by an infection in the intestine by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe. Approximately, one in ten (5 to10 per cent) infected persons will show severe symptoms characterised by profuse watery diarrhoea, vomiting and leg cramps.

Rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within an hour.

A person can get cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium. The bacterium is usually found in water or food sources contaminated by the faeces of a cholera-infected person. It is most likely to be found and spread in places with inadequate water treatment, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene.

The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and potable water. The disease is not likely to spread directly from one person to another; therefore, casual contact with an infected person is not a risk for becoming ill.

Protect yourself

Drink and use safe water.

Bottled water with unbroken seals and canned/bottled carbonated beverages are safe to drink and use.

Use safe water to brush your teeth, wash and prepare food, and to make ice.

Clean food preparation areas and kitchenware with soap and safe water and let it dry completely before reuse.

Piped water sources, drinks sold in cups or bags, or ice may not be safe and should be boiled or treated with chlorine.

Wash your hands often with soap and safe water .

Use latrines or bury your faeces; do not defecate in any waterbody.

Cook food well (especially seafood), keep it covered, eat it hot, and peel fruits and vegetables.

Clean the kitchen and places where the family bathes and washes clothes.

To be sure water is safe to drink and use:

Boil it or treat it with a chlorine product.

If boiling, bring your water to a complete boil for at least 1 minute.

Always store your treated water in a clean, covered container.

KOCHI: The death of Biswajit Das, an 18-year-old migrant worker in Pathanamthitta, was an eye- opener to the state, prompting the Health Department to issue an alert against the outbreak of cholera. There is every chance of cholera spreading throughout Kerala. Surveillance activities need to be intensified in all areas with special focus on high-risk areas, said the alert issued by Dr Reena K J, Additional Director of Public Health. The Health Department has issued notices to the medical officers in all districts to be vigilant in this regard. Ernakulam, which accounts for the largest number of migrants also has started precautionary measures in anticipation of an exigency. There is every chance of cholera spreading throughout Kerala. Surveillance activities need to be intensified in all areas with special focus on high-risk areas, said the alert issued by Dr Reena K J, Additional Director of Public Health.The Health Department has issued notices to the medical officers in all districts to be vigilant in this regard. Ernakulam, which accounts for the largest number of migrants also has started precautionary measures in anticipation of an exigency. "As of now, there are no cases of cholera reported in the district, said Dr K R Vidya, Deputy District Medical Officer, Ernakulam. We are focusing on the migrant population as they are vulnerable. We will be taking water samples from various areas for testing at the Thiruvananthapuram public health laboratory. Though the feeling is most migrant workers coming to the state are healthy, there could be among them some carriers of disease, as they hail from states that have poor heath conditions. "Those who employ them must give proper facilities for residence, cooking and sanitation, and ensure hygienic living conditions. The employers must ensure proper medical tests and check-ups. Recently, at an inspection at Kakkanad, we found around 350 migrant labourers living in poor conditions. They had only two toilets; clearly, they had to resort to open defecation, said Vidya. The truth about 'thattu' 'Thattukada', the roadside food vending stalls operating in temporary sheds or in handcarts or sometimes even in motor carts, are sources of diseases, mainly due to their misuse of water. At most of these wayside eateries, water is reused several times to wash dishes. Ice used here is made in unhealthy conditions or made even for some other purpose like fish processing, resulting in the spread of waterborne diseases. Though, according to official records, there were only 809 roadside eateries (which sell cooked food) in the district, the unofficial number is pegged at around 5,000. According to health authorities, the roadside stalls selling fruit, fish and meat would push numbers up to 10,000. A large number of them is operated by the migrant population. "Many street food joints violate rules. We consider those shops which dont have the food safety license and those which don't have health cards for workers as illegal. Most of them employ or are operated by migrant labourers. We found 289 violations in an inspection covering just 20 per cent of the Kochi Corporation area, said P N Sreenivasan the nodal officer of a squad formed jointly by the Departments of Food Safety, Local Self Government, Civil Supplies, Health and Police. The squad is conducting inspections at Kochi Corporation and the municipalities of Aluva, Tripunithura, Kalamassery, Paravur, Angamali, Perumbavoor and Thrikkakara in the urban areas, and Kattuvalli, Varappuzha, and Cheranellur panchayats in the rural areas. "We have given notices to eight hotels, including some big ones, and to 67 roadside eateries in rural areas, said Sreenivasan.Though a majority of these stalls belong to persons from the lower strata of society, the disaster management committee of the Kochi Corporation has noted 59 such stalls are owned by a single person, In instances such as these, it is not just about a livelihood for an economically backward person. This happens when there is strong political patronage, said an officer on condition of anonymity. How cholera spreads Cholera, an acute diarrhoea, is caused by an infection in the intestine by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe. Approximately, one in ten (5 to10 per cent) infected persons will show severe symptoms characterised by profuse watery diarrhoea, vomiting and leg cramps. Rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within an hour. A person can get cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium. The bacterium is usually found in water or food sources contaminated by the faeces of a cholera-infected person. It is most likely to be found and spread in places with inadequate water treatment, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and potable water. The disease is not likely to spread directly from one person to another; therefore, casual contact with an infected person is not a risk for becoming ill. Protect yourself Drink and use safe water. Bottled water with unbroken seals and canned/bottled carbonated beverages are safe to drink and use. Use safe water to brush your teeth, wash and prepare food, and to make ice. Clean food preparation areas and kitchenware with soap and safe water and let it dry completely before reuse. Piped water sources, drinks sold in cups or bags, or ice may not be safe and should be boiled or treated with chlorine. Wash your hands often with soap and safe water . Use latrines or bury your faeces; do not defecate in any waterbody. Cook food well (especially seafood), keep it covered, eat it hot, and peel fruits and vegetables. Clean the kitchen and places where the family bathes and washes clothes. To be sure water is safe to drink and use: Boil it or treat it with a chlorine product. If boiling, bring your water to a complete boil for at least 1 minute. Always store your treated water in a clean, covered container.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The deadly H1N1 continued to spread its tentacles as three more persons fell to the viral flu in the State on Friday. The deaths were reported from SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla and Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

A 32-year-old man from Bargarh, with chronic chest infection, was admitted to VIMSAR where he died on Friday morning. A 58-year-old woman of Burla died at city-based Kalinga Hospital. The third victim was a 51-year-old man from Jagatsinghpur, who succumbed at SCB Medical College. All the three had reported acute respiratory distress. With three new deaths, the swine flu toll has risen to seven in the State. All the deaths have been reported in the last one week.

As many as 12 new cases were reported on the day. The Health department had sent 30 nasal swab samples to Regional Medical Research Centre for investigation. So far, 96 H1N1 positive cases have been reported, of which, 89 have been recorded in the last 10 days.

What experts say

Experts say people with cold, prolonged fever, chest pain, body-ache and weakness must consult doctors and seek treatment. If treatment is started within 36 to 48 hours, the recovery process starts which minimises the transmission. In a number of cases, people, who had been vaccinated in 2009, when the worst global outbreak of H1N1 was reported, were found to have taken fresh vaccines. Once taken, the vaccine provides long term protection unless the virus strain has mutated. Currently, there is no report of any fresh strain appearing whereas all existing vaccines give protection against the Michigan strain. But even doctors engaged in management of H1N1 in hospitals are taking a repeat dose of the vaccine which is really unnecessary, said the sources

Basic information lacking

Even as the rising incidence led to a sense of panic among the public, the Health and Family Welfare department launched an awareness campaign on the day. The campaign, which came in form of two TV spots of 22 seconds each, were virtually non-visible as those were aired during prime time news instead of being telecast during the whole day.

None of the spots had any basic information about treatment and vaccination nor did they address basic apprehensions about the flu, thereby failing to make any impact. As publicity wing of the Health department cut a sorry figure, there was too much confusion among the public. A number of people were seen carrying blood samples to RMRC, an ICMR arm, for investigation although the institute investigates only the samples sent by government and private hospitals. People have no clue that only nasal swab samples are tested for H1N1 and only in Grade-3, (severe) cases of influenza are sent for investigation, said sources.

BHUBANESWAR: The deadly H1N1 continued to spread its tentacles as three more persons fell to the viral flu in the State on Friday. The deaths were reported from SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla and Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar. A 32-year-old man from Bargarh, with chronic chest infection, was admitted to VIMSAR where he died on Friday morning. A 58-year-old woman of Burla died at city-based Kalinga Hospital. The third victim was a 51-year-old man from Jagatsinghpur, who succumbed at SCB Medical College. All the three had reported acute respiratory distress. With three new deaths, the swine flu toll has risen to seven in the State. All the deaths have been reported in the last one week. As many as 12 new cases were reported on the day. The Health department had sent 30 nasal swab samples to Regional Medical Research Centre for investigation. So far, 96 H1N1 positive cases have been reported, of which, 89 have been recorded in the last 10 days. What experts say Experts say people with cold, prolonged fever, chest pain, body-ache and weakness must consult doctors and seek treatment. If treatment is started within 36 to 48 hours, the recovery process starts which minimises the transmission. In a number of cases, people, who had been vaccinated in 2009, when the worst global outbreak of H1N1 was reported, were found to have taken fresh vaccines. Once taken, the vaccine provides long term protection unless the virus strain has mutated. Currently, there is no report of any fresh strain appearing whereas all existing vaccines give protection against the Michigan strain. But even doctors engaged in management of H1N1 in hospitals are taking a repeat dose of the vaccine which is really unnecessary, said the sources Basic information lacking Even as the rising incidence led to a sense of panic among the public, the Health and Family Welfare department launched an awareness campaign on the day. The campaign, which came in form of two TV spots of 22 seconds each, were virtually non-visible as those were aired during prime time news instead of being telecast during the whole day. None of the spots had any basic information about treatment and vaccination nor did they address basic apprehensions about the flu, thereby failing to make any impact. As publicity wing of the Health department cut a sorry figure, there was too much confusion among the public. A number of people were seen carrying blood samples to RMRC, an ICMR arm, for investigation although the institute investigates only the samples sent by government and private hospitals. People have no clue that only nasal swab samples are tested for H1N1 and only in Grade-3, (severe) cases of influenza are sent for investigation, said sources.
T Muruganandham By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Despite a day-long wait, former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam, who is heading the rebel camp in the ruling AIADMK, has left New Delhi without meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP's national president Amit Shah. The two denied him audience.

Sources said Panneerselvam headed to Mumbai this morning. There he may visit the Shirdi Sai Baba temple.

In contrast, chief minister Palaniswami had a busy day on Friday. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, president Ramnath Kovind and vice president Venkaiah Naidu.

Perhaps this is the first time since his revolt against the AIADMK's leadership that Panneerselvam was denied an audience by Modi. His frequent meetings with Modi earlier even made the Opposition leader M K Stalin wonder on what grounds the Prime Minister was giving audience to Panneerselvam.

The BJP's top leadership has so far accorded equal treatment to both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam by listening to concerns raised by both.

But the manner in which the BJP leadership treated Panneerselvam on Friday casts a question mark over the party's commitment to bringing both factions of the AIADMK together for a merger.

There are rumors that Panneerselvam may try to meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Mumbai or even try to fly to Bengaluru to meet Amit Shah, who is camping there today.

Meanwhile, when asked about the remark made by Panneerselvam that The AIADMK (Amma) had only come half way through..let them come across fully, Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, M Thambidurai quipped: By his own statement, Panneerselvam has admitted that AIADMK (Amma) had come half way through...so if Panneerselvam too makes a move to cross the rest of the half way, it will conclude in the merger.

Currently, both factions of the AIADMK are said to be negotiating the terms of a merger Palaniswami recently announced that TTV Dhinakaran's appointment as the party's deputy general secretary was invalid. Keeping out the party general secretary VK Sasikala and her family, including her nephew Dhinakaran, was one of the key demands raised by the Panneerselvam faction. Many in the BJP wished the same

CHENNAI: Despite a day-long wait, former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam, who is heading the rebel camp in the ruling AIADMK, has left New Delhi without meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP's national president Amit Shah. The two denied him audience. Sources said Panneerselvam headed to Mumbai this morning. There he may visit the Shirdi Sai Baba temple. In contrast, chief minister Palaniswami had a busy day on Friday. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, president Ramnath Kovind and vice president Venkaiah Naidu. Perhaps this is the first time since his revolt against the AIADMK's leadership that Panneerselvam was denied an audience by Modi. His frequent meetings with Modi earlier even made the Opposition leader M K Stalin wonder on what grounds the Prime Minister was giving audience to Panneerselvam. The BJP's top leadership has so far accorded equal treatment to both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam by listening to concerns raised by both. But the manner in which the BJP leadership treated Panneerselvam on Friday casts a question mark over the party's commitment to bringing both factions of the AIADMK together for a merger. There are rumors that Panneerselvam may try to meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Mumbai or even try to fly to Bengaluru to meet Amit Shah, who is camping there today. Meanwhile, when asked about the remark made by Panneerselvam that The AIADMK (Amma) had only come half way through..let them come across fully, Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, M Thambidurai quipped: By his own statement, Panneerselvam has admitted that AIADMK (Amma) had come half way through...so if Panneerselvam too makes a move to cross the rest of the half way, it will conclude in the merger. Currently, both factions of the AIADMK are said to be negotiating the terms of a merger Palaniswami recently announced that TTV Dhinakaran's appointment as the party's deputy general secretary was invalid. Keeping out the party general secretary VK Sasikala and her family, including her nephew Dhinakaran, was one of the key demands raised by the Panneerselvam faction. Many in the BJP wished the same
In this May 26, 2010, file photo, staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, southern China.
By AFP

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

Macron also spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump with the aim of "getting North Korea to conform to its international obligations," his Elysee office said.

"The two presidents agreed to remain in contact over the coming days," it added.

In a statement, the 39-year-old voiced his "concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea", saying world leaders needed to work to get Pyongyang to "resume the path of dialogue without conditions".

Macron had joined a chorus of international voices urging restraint in the crisis, which has alarmed the global community as Trump has engaged in days of verbal sparring with Pyongyang.

France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to "proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes," Macron said in the statement.

He also assured "France's allies and partners in the region of our solidarity in the current period".

Xi Jinping, the leader of North Korea's key ally China, urged Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions, after the US leader ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States.

Trump's warning came after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation and to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement.

Earlier this week, France had praised Trump's "determination" in standing up to Pyongyang.

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday warned against an "escalation of tensions" over North Korea amid a growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang. Macron also spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump with the aim of "getting North Korea to conform to its international obligations," his Elysee office said. "The two presidents agreed to remain in contact over the coming days," it added. In a statement, the 39-year-old voiced his "concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea", saying world leaders needed to work to get Pyongyang to "resume the path of dialogue without conditions". Macron had joined a chorus of international voices urging restraint in the crisis, which has alarmed the global community as Trump has engaged in days of verbal sparring with Pyongyang. France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to "proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes," Macron said in the statement. He also assured "France's allies and partners in the region of our solidarity in the current period". Xi Jinping, the leader of North Korea's key ally China, urged Trump on Saturday to avoid rhetoric that could inflame tensions, after the US leader ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would "truly regret" taking hostile action against the United States. Trump's warning came after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam. The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation and to exercise restraint and seek a political settlement. Earlier this week, France had praised Trump's "determination" in standing up to Pyongyang.
By AFP

NAIROBI: Three people, including a child, have been shot dead in Kenya in angry opposition protests which flared up again Saturday after the hotly disputed election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

An AFP photographer saw the body of a nine-year-old boy whose family said he had been shot in the back while watching the protests from a fourth-floor balcony in Mathare, a slum in the capital.

Protests and running battles with police broke out in Nairobi slums after a night of anger in opposition strongholds against an election that losing candidate Raila Odinga claims was massively rigged.

East Africa's richest economy was gripped by uncertainty a decade after a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

All eyes will now turn to Odinga, and his reaction to the loss which he claimed was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's election, which his party denounced as a "charade" and a "disaster".

Odinga has yet to speak after the results were announced, but almost immediate protests erupted Friday night in his strongholds in western Kisumu county and poor areas of Nairobi, with gunshots ringing out and fires lit in the streets.

"We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries," said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county.

"My brother was shot and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating now he has a bullet injury on the hip," said Truphena Achieng, at a Kisumu hospital.

In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in protests, but "we have not managed to collect the body... because of resistance from protesters."

Meanwhile protests flared up again Saturday morning, with police firing teargas and engaging in running battles with demonstrators in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums, according to AFP reporters.

In Kisumu protesters blocked major highways around the city.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged police to show restraint in the face of protests.

"With growing reports of demonstrations and heavy gunfire in some areas, it is important for security forces to work to de-escalate  not escalate  the violence," said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW.

"The police should not use teargas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful."

Exclusion, resentment

Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency after four unsuccessful runs. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters - and their allies from other groups - believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country's biggest community.

"President Kenyatta, unlike his first term, must include everyone in his government," wrote the Daily Nation in an editorial, warning that limiting power to his tribal allies was "exacerbating exclusion and creating resentment and disillusionment."

Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74.

In his acceptance speech Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together".

"Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this."

The latest death toll takes the number of people killed in election-related violence since Tuesday to eight.

Another four people died after being hit by vehicles during celebrations in separate incidents Friday night around the country, said a senior traffic police officer.

'Court is not an option'

Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process - which saw turnout of 78 percent - but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting.

The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner.

On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds.

In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost.

"We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo.

Corruption, food prices

In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive, however , is new government will face the rising debt as a result, and a predicted slowdown in growth from an average of more than five percent in recent years.

A major issue on the campaign trail was a spike in food prices and shortage of the staple maize meal due to a prolonged drought, which has hit the country's poorest hard.

Kenyatta's administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.

NAIROBI: Three people, including a child, have been shot dead in Kenya in angry opposition protests which flared up again Saturday after the hotly disputed election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta. An AFP photographer saw the body of a nine-year-old boy whose family said he had been shot in the back while watching the protests from a fourth-floor balcony in Mathare, a slum in the capital. Protests and running battles with police broke out in Nairobi slums after a night of anger in opposition strongholds against an election that losing candidate Raila Odinga claims was massively rigged. East Africa's richest economy was gripped by uncertainty a decade after a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced. All eyes will now turn to Odinga, and his reaction to the loss which he claimed was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's election, which his party denounced as a "charade" and a "disaster". Odinga has yet to speak after the results were announced, but almost immediate protests erupted Friday night in his strongholds in western Kisumu county and poor areas of Nairobi, with gunshots ringing out and fires lit in the streets. "We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries," said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county. "My brother was shot and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating now he has a bullet injury on the hip," said Truphena Achieng, at a Kisumu hospital. In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in protests, but "we have not managed to collect the body... because of resistance from protesters." Meanwhile protests flared up again Saturday morning, with police firing teargas and engaging in running battles with demonstrators in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums, according to AFP reporters. In Kisumu protesters blocked major highways around the city. Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged police to show restraint in the face of protests. "With growing reports of demonstrations and heavy gunfire in some areas, it is important for security forces to work to de-escalate  not escalate  the violence," said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW. "The police should not use teargas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful." Exclusion, resentment Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency after four unsuccessful runs. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him. Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions. Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters - and their allies from other groups - believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country's biggest community. "President Kenyatta, unlike his first term, must include everyone in his government," wrote the Daily Nation in an editorial, warning that limiting power to his tribal allies was "exacerbating exclusion and creating resentment and disillusionment." Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74. In his acceptance speech Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together". "Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this." The latest death toll takes the number of people killed in election-related violence since Tuesday to eight. Another four people died after being hit by vehicles during celebrations in separate incidents Friday night around the country, said a senior traffic police officer. 'Court is not an option' Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process - which saw turnout of 78 percent - but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting. The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner. On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds. In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost. "We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo. Corruption, food prices In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive, however , is new government will face the rising debt as a result, and a predicted slowdown in growth from an average of more than five percent in recent years. A major issue on the campaign trail was a spike in food prices and shortage of the staple maize meal due to a prolonged drought, which has hit the country's poorest hard. Kenyatta's administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.
By Associated Press

KABUL: An Afghan official says at least 13 civilians, including women and children, have been killed after their house was hit by mortars during a battle in northern Faryab province.

Gen. Dilawer Shah Dilawer, Faryab provincial police chief, said Saturday that three other civilians were wounded after two mortars hit the house last evening.

Dilawer says it isn't clear who targeted the house in Dawlat Abad district the Taliban or Afghan National Security Forces. He said a delegation has been sent to the area to find out more about the attack.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban. Faryab province has witnessed an increase in violence in recent months and both sides have been accused of targeting civilians.



KABUL: An Afghan official says at least 13 civilians, including women and children, have been killed after their house was hit by mortars during a battle in northern Faryab province. Gen. Dilawer Shah Dilawer, Faryab provincial police chief, said Saturday that three other civilians were wounded after two mortars hit the house last evening. Dilawer says it isn't clear who targeted the house in Dawlat Abad district the Taliban or Afghan National Security Forces. He said a delegation has been sent to the area to find out more about the attack. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban. Faryab province has witnessed an increase in violence in recent months and both sides have been accused of targeting civilians.
By AFP

NAIROBI: Celebrations and riots erupted across Kenya Friday night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor in an election the opposition rejected as a "charade" after claims of massive rigging.

According to the election commission (IEBC) Kenyatta won the presidential race with 54.27 percent to rival Raila Odinga's 44.74 in Tuesday's election, handing him a second term at the helm of east Africa's richest economy.

Angry protests erupted almost immediately in Odinga's strongholds: in Nairobi's biggest slum Kibera police fired bullets in the direction of protesters, who looted and attacked businesses they said belonged to Kenyatta supporters, an AFP photographer said.

In other slum and poor areas around the capital, as well as the western city of Kisumu, gunshots rang out and protesters lit fires in the street.

The fury from Odinga's supporters came in stark contrast to the cheers from Kenyatta's camp in his strongholds, with vuvuzelas and cries of joy in the streets.

The result is a gloomy reminder to Kenyans of the outcome of a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

All eyes will now be on the reaction of Odinga, who has now lost three elections he claims were stolen from him.

In 2013 the veteran opposition leader took his grievances to court and lost.

"We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo, slamming the process as a "charade".

After being declared the victor, Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together".

"We are not enemies. As with any competition there shall always be winners and there shall be losers but we all belong to one great nation of Kenya," he said.

"Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this."

- Hacking, manipulation -

Odinga had called for calm from his supporters before the announcement, but added: "I don't control anybody. People want to see justice."

The National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition refused to take part in the announcement of results, which came just hours after they had requested the IEBC hold off until their concerns had been addressed.

"We are not going to be party to it, our issues have not been addressed," said top NASA leader Musalia Mudavadi.

Turnout for Tuesday's vote was 78.91 percent.

Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process, but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting.

NASA has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner.

On Thursday they demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds.

NASA demanded access to the IEBC's servers, saying they would accept any result contained therein, as they remain convinced the commission has released manipulated results.

- 'Violence not an option' -

US Ambassador Bob Godec earlier joined foreign observers in urging parties to use legal means to deal with their grievances.

"Violence must never be an option. No Kenyan should die because of an election. Kenya's future is more important than any election. Leaders above all need to make that clear," Godec said.

Six people have died in election-related violence, including two protesters in Nairobi shot dead by police on Wednesday.

Before the election the race between Odinga and Kenyatta was seen by pollsters as too close to call.

It was billed as the final showdown between the two men whose fathers Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Odinga were allies in the struggle for independence, but later became bitter rivals, setting the stage for decades of political rancour.

In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive and overseeing steady economic growth.

However his administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.

NAIROBI: Celebrations and riots erupted across Kenya Friday night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor in an election the opposition rejected as a "charade" after claims of massive rigging. According to the election commission (IEBC) Kenyatta won the presidential race with 54.27 percent to rival Raila Odinga's 44.74 in Tuesday's election, handing him a second term at the helm of east Africa's richest economy. Angry protests erupted almost immediately in Odinga's strongholds: in Nairobi's biggest slum Kibera police fired bullets in the direction of protesters, who looted and attacked businesses they said belonged to Kenyatta supporters, an AFP photographer said. In other slum and poor areas around the capital, as well as the western city of Kisumu, gunshots rang out and protesters lit fires in the street. The fury from Odinga's supporters came in stark contrast to the cheers from Kenyatta's camp in his strongholds, with vuvuzelas and cries of joy in the streets. The result is a gloomy reminder to Kenyans of the outcome of a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced. All eyes will now be on the reaction of Odinga, who has now lost three elections he claims were stolen from him. In 2013 the veteran opposition leader took his grievances to court and lost. "We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo, slamming the process as a "charade". After being declared the victor, Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together". "We are not enemies. As with any competition there shall always be winners and there shall be losers but we all belong to one great nation of Kenya," he said. "Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this." - Hacking, manipulation - Odinga had called for calm from his supporters before the announcement, but added: "I don't control anybody. People want to see justice." The National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition refused to take part in the announcement of results, which came just hours after they had requested the IEBC hold off until their concerns had been addressed. "We are not going to be party to it, our issues have not been addressed," said top NASA leader Musalia Mudavadi. Turnout for Tuesday's vote was 78.91 percent. Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process, but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting. NASA has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner. On Thursday they demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds. NASA demanded access to the IEBC's servers, saying they would accept any result contained therein, as they remain convinced the commission has released manipulated results. - 'Violence not an option' - US Ambassador Bob Godec earlier joined foreign observers in urging parties to use legal means to deal with their grievances. "Violence must never be an option. No Kenyan should die because of an election. Kenya's future is more important than any election. Leaders above all need to make that clear," Godec said. Six people have died in election-related violence, including two protesters in Nairobi shot dead by police on Wednesday. Before the election the race between Odinga and Kenyatta was seen by pollsters as too close to call. It was billed as the final showdown between the two men whose fathers Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Odinga were allies in the struggle for independence, but later became bitter rivals, setting the stage for decades of political rancour. In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive and overseeing steady economic growth. However his administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.
By PTI

LONDON: There was a significant surge in hate crime incidents in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the UK this year, the police here said today.

The UK's National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said there was an increase in abuse in the days following the car and knife attack near Parliament in March, a suicide bombing in Manchester in May and another car and knife rampage at London Bridge and Borough Market area of London in June.

Police recorded 234 hate crime incidents 48 hours after the first attack, 273 were reported following the Manchester bombing and 319 recorded two days after the London Bridge attack.

This marked a 12 per cent spike after the Westminster attack near Parliament, 50 per cent after Manchester and 34 per cent after the London Bridge attack.

"We know that terrorist attacks and other national and global events have the potential to trigger short-term spikes in hate crime and so we have been carefully monitoring community tensions following recent horrific events," said assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton, the NPCC's lead for hate crime.

"Reporting from police forces show that levels of hate crime peaked in the wake of the attacks but quickly subsided within a few days. This is in line with trends we have seen before, though obviously still a real concern for the police service and wider society," he said.

The biggest increase came after the Manchester Arena bombing, which claimed 22 lives, with a 50 per cent rise in hate crime in the week of the attack compared with a year before.

By contrast, hate crime reports were seven per cent lower in the week after the Finsbury Park attack in London when a van was driven into Muslim worshippers.

The NPCC estimates the vast majority of increases in hate crimes were driven by race or faith hate crimes.

Police said in 2016 there were on an average 171 hate crimes per day  although this could be higher on weekends, where more hate crimes tended to be reported, or after specific events such as protest marches.

LONDON: There was a significant surge in hate crime incidents in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the UK this year, the police here said today. The UK's National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said there was an increase in abuse in the days following the car and knife attack near Parliament in March, a suicide bombing in Manchester in May and another car and knife rampage at London Bridge and Borough Market area of London in June. Police recorded 234 hate crime incidents 48 hours after the first attack, 273 were reported following the Manchester bombing and 319 recorded two days after the London Bridge attack. This marked a 12 per cent spike after the Westminster attack near Parliament, 50 per cent after Manchester and 34 per cent after the London Bridge attack. "We know that terrorist attacks and other national and global events have the potential to trigger short-term spikes in hate crime and so we have been carefully monitoring community tensions following recent horrific events," said assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton, the NPCC's lead for hate crime. "Reporting from police forces show that levels of hate crime peaked in the wake of the attacks but quickly subsided within a few days. This is in line with trends we have seen before, though obviously still a real concern for the police service and wider society," he said. The biggest increase came after the Manchester Arena bombing, which claimed 22 lives, with a 50 per cent rise in hate crime in the week of the attack compared with a year before. By contrast, hate crime reports were seven per cent lower in the week after the Finsbury Park attack in London when a van was driven into Muslim worshippers. The NPCC estimates the vast majority of increases in hate crimes were driven by race or faith hate crimes. Police said in 2016 there were on an average 171 hate crimes per day  although this could be higher on weekends, where more hate crimes tended to be reported, or after specific events such as protest marches.
By PTI

LONDON: The UK will continue to face an Islamist terrorist threat for the next 20 to 30 years, a former head of British intelligence agency MI5 said today.

Jonathan Evans, who stepped down as director-general of the agency in 2013 and now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbench peer, described the issue as a "generational problem".

"I think on the terrorism side we are at least 20 years into this. My guess is that we will still be dealing with the long tail in another 20 years' time," he told the BBC.

"I think this is genuinely a generational problem. When I left MI5 in 2013 if I had been asked I would have said that I thought that we probably were over the worst of the Al Qaeda threat. That may have been true but of course not the development and emergence of IS (Islamic State) with the same ideology and many of the same people," Evans said.

"I think that we are going to be facing 20, 30 years of terrorist threats and therefore we need absolutely critically to persevere and just keep doing it," he said.

Lord Evans also said that the devices connected to the Internet needed to be made more secure in the face of emerging cyber threats and warned of a threat from Russian hacking.

"It would be extremely surprising if the Russians were interested in interfering in America and in France and in various other European countries but were not interested in interfering with the UK because traditionally I think we have been seen as quite hawkish," he said.

The peer stressed the importance of Britain defending against cyber-attacks in the face of a "growing dependence on the Internet".

"As our vehicles, as our air transport, as our critical infrastructure is resting increasingly on the Internet we need to be really confident that we have secured that because our economic and our daily lives are going to be dependent on the security that we can put in to protect our infrastructure from cyber-attack," Evans warned.

Meanwhile, the head of the UK's national counterterrorism policing described the current Islamist terror threat a "cultish movement" compared to Al Qaeda which was "a very tight network of wicked individuals".

Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told the BBC: "You've got that range of people who have picked up that ideology and come up with their own plan based on the encouragement of the propaganda all the way through to the more organised directed attacks.

"This widening cohort of people that we're concerned about and our ability to keep our radar on them is no longer just a job for police and security services," Rowley said.

LONDON: The UK will continue to face an Islamist terrorist threat for the next 20 to 30 years, a former head of British intelligence agency MI5 said today. Jonathan Evans, who stepped down as director-general of the agency in 2013 and now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbench peer, described the issue as a "generational problem". "I think on the terrorism side we are at least 20 years into this. My guess is that we will still be dealing with the long tail in another 20 years' time," he told the BBC. "I think this is genuinely a generational problem. When I left MI5 in 2013 if I had been asked I would have said that I thought that we probably were over the worst of the Al Qaeda threat. That may have been true but of course not the development and emergence of IS (Islamic State) with the same ideology and many of the same people," Evans said. "I think that we are going to be facing 20, 30 years of terrorist threats and therefore we need absolutely critically to persevere and just keep doing it," he said. Lord Evans also said that the devices connected to the Internet needed to be made more secure in the face of emerging cyber threats and warned of a threat from Russian hacking. "It would be extremely surprising if the Russians were interested in interfering in America and in France and in various other European countries but were not interested in interfering with the UK because traditionally I think we have been seen as quite hawkish," he said. The peer stressed the importance of Britain defending against cyber-attacks in the face of a "growing dependence on the Internet". "As our vehicles, as our air transport, as our critical infrastructure is resting increasingly on the Internet we need to be really confident that we have secured that because our economic and our daily lives are going to be dependent on the security that we can put in to protect our infrastructure from cyber-attack," Evans warned. Meanwhile, the head of the UK's national counterterrorism policing described the current Islamist terror threat a "cultish movement" compared to Al Qaeda which was "a very tight network of wicked individuals". Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told the BBC: "You've got that range of people who have picked up that ideology and come up with their own plan based on the encouragement of the propaganda all the way through to the more organised directed attacks. "This widening cohort of people that we're concerned about and our ability to keep our radar on them is no longer just a job for police and security services," Rowley said.
By AFP

BAGHDAD: Washington has urged Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani to postpone an independence referendum scheduled for next month but he requested something in return, his office said Saturday.

The timing of the September 25 vote has drawn criticism from both the Baghdad and Western governments, coming as the campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq if still unfinished.

In a telephone call on Friday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington "would want for the referendum to be postponed and that the issues between the Kurdistan region and the federal government in Baghdad should be addressed through dialogue", Barzani's office said in an English-language statement.

The Kurdish leader responded that were it to be put off, "the people of the Kurdistan region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future".

Some Iraqi Kurdish officials have openly acknowledged that calling the referendum was intended as a bargaining counter in negotiations with Baghdad on other issues.

The Kurdish regional government's representative in Iran, Nazem Dabbagh, said last month that the Kurds wanted Baghdad to meet their longstanding demand for plebiscites on incorporating other historically Kurdish-majority areas in their autonomous region.

He said they also wanted Baghdad to ratify laws on oil revenues and funding for the Kurdish security forces, known as the peshmerga, who have played a crucial role in the fight against IS.

The referendum would in any case be non-binding and is strongly opposed by neighbours Iran and Turkey, which have sizeable Kurdish minorities of their own and whose acquiescence is seen as key to achieving a viable separation.



BAGHDAD: Washington has urged Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani to postpone an independence referendum scheduled for next month but he requested something in return, his office said Saturday. The timing of the September 25 vote has drawn criticism from both the Baghdad and Western governments, coming as the campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq if still unfinished. In a telephone call on Friday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington "would want for the referendum to be postponed and that the issues between the Kurdistan region and the federal government in Baghdad should be addressed through dialogue", Barzani's office said in an English-language statement. The Kurdish leader responded that were it to be put off, "the people of the Kurdistan region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future". Some Iraqi Kurdish officials have openly acknowledged that calling the referendum was intended as a bargaining counter in negotiations with Baghdad on other issues. The Kurdish regional government's representative in Iran, Nazem Dabbagh, said last month that the Kurds wanted Baghdad to meet their longstanding demand for plebiscites on incorporating other historically Kurdish-majority areas in their autonomous region. He said they also wanted Baghdad to ratify laws on oil revenues and funding for the Kurdish security forces, known as the peshmerga, who have played a crucial role in the fight against IS. The referendum would in any case be non-binding and is strongly opposed by neighbours Iran and Turkey, which have sizeable Kurdish minorities of their own and whose acquiescence is seen as key to achieving a viable separation.
By IANS

LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump has told Guam Governor Eddie Calvo over the phone that "You are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent", the media reported on Saturday.

According to a video tweeted by the Guam News on Friday, Calvo while talking to Trump via an office phone switched the call to speaker phone to enable viewers hear the conversation clearly, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I just wanted to pay my respects and we are with you one thousand per cent, you are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent. I wanted to call you and say hello, how are you?" Trump said.

"Mr President, as the Governor of Guam, representative of Guam's people, and as an American citizen, I felt never more safe and confident with you at the helm," the Governor said with a smile.

"Don't worry about a thing," Trump said. "I have to say, Eddie, you're going to become extremely famous. All over the world they're talking about Guam and they're talking about you," the clip, about 45 seconds long, showed the President as saying.

Tensions between North Korea and the US escalated this week amid increasingly heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korean military on Thursday said it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike Guam, a US island territory in the Western Pacific, with intermediate missiles.

It was a response to Trump's unusually stern warning to North Korea, when he said: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Trump on Friday furthered the rhetoric, saying the US was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.

LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump has told Guam Governor Eddie Calvo over the phone that "You are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent", the media reported on Saturday. According to a video tweeted by the Guam News on Friday, Calvo while talking to Trump via an office phone switched the call to speaker phone to enable viewers hear the conversation clearly, Xinhua news agency reported. "I just wanted to pay my respects and we are with you one thousand per cent, you are safe. We are with you 1,000 per cent. I wanted to call you and say hello, how are you?" Trump said. "Mr President, as the Governor of Guam, representative of Guam's people, and as an American citizen, I felt never more safe and confident with you at the helm," the Governor said with a smile. "Don't worry about a thing," Trump said. "I have to say, Eddie, you're going to become extremely famous. All over the world they're talking about Guam and they're talking about you," the clip, about 45 seconds long, showed the President as saying. Tensions between North Korea and the US escalated this week amid increasingly heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korean military on Thursday said it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike Guam, a US island territory in the Western Pacific, with intermediate missiles. It was a response to Trump's unusually stern warning to North Korea, when he said: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Trump on Friday furthered the rhetoric, saying the US was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will agree to speak to Venezuela's leader "as soon as democracy is restored in that country," the White House said Friday night.

President Nicolas Maduro has been under intense criticism around the world for installing a new all-powerful assembly that supersedes the Venezuelan congress and is packed with Maduro loyalists.

"The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued repression by the Maduro regime. President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country," the White House said in a statement.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will agree to speak to Venezuela's leader "as soon as democracy is restored in that country," the White House said Friday night. President Nicolas Maduro has been under intense criticism around the world for installing a new all-powerful assembly that supersedes the Venezuelan congress and is packed with Maduro loyalists. "The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued repression by the Maduro regime. President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country," the White House said in a statement.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: The US is ready along with its allies to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic and military measures to stop the North Korean nuclear menace, President Donald Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron today.

Trump and Macron spoke over phone and discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation regarding North Korea's destabilising and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

"Trump reiterated to President Macron the United States' commitment to stop the North Korean nuclear menace. President Trump stated that the United States is ready, along with its allies, to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic, and military measures to achieve that goal," said a readout of the phone call.

"Trump and Macron pledged to work together with allies and partners to enforce United Nations sanctions and achieve denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the White House said.

The phone call with the French President came hours after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea dominated the conversation between the two leaders, according to a readout of the call.

According to the White House, Trump and Xi affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

They agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

Trump also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it added.

"Trump looks forward to seeing Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event. The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," the White House said.

Trump's warning came after the North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.

WASHINGTON: The US is ready along with its allies to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic and military measures to stop the North Korean nuclear menace, President Donald Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron today. Trump and Macron spoke over phone and discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation regarding North Korea's destabilising and escalatory behaviour, the White House said. "Trump reiterated to President Macron the United States' commitment to stop the North Korean nuclear menace. President Trump stated that the United States is ready, along with its allies, to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic, and military measures to achieve that goal," said a readout of the phone call. "Trump and Macron pledged to work together with allies and partners to enforce United Nations sanctions and achieve denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the White House said. The phone call with the French President came hours after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea dominated the conversation between the two leaders, according to a readout of the call. According to the White House, Trump and Xi affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. They agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said. Trump also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it added. "Trump looks forward to seeing Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event. The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," the White House said. Trump's warning came after the North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.
The search for missing Dover woman Lynn Rickard has been delayed by the historic flooding in July as many questions remain on what could have happened to her since she walked away from her home on June 25.

Her husband, John, who is now offering a $25,000 reward to locate her, said Lynn was suffering from a medical condition requiring oxygen and also had mental issues.

"It is still an active search," Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said. "I've thought out of the box with this from boots on the ground to thermal imaging drones to horses and cadaver dogs. We've exhausted every resource we have."

Partnering with 23 agencies from throughout the region, many volunteers have put countless hours into going over the corn fields and cattail-choked properties in the Kansasville area, where K-9s lost her scent seven weeks ago. The historic flooding of July 11-12 has also caused a significant set back as authorities who know say it could be late fall before her body is recovered.

"We had experts out there with cadaver dogs that recommended we hold off until the flowage was down. The cattails are literally, 6 to 8 feet tall. With the rain we had, the mud is up to your knees. It is not drying out," Schmaling said.

Considering those conditions, Schmaling is concerned his searchers may have walked right by her and may not have seen her.

"The best course of action is to continue using drones," Schmaling said.

Schmaling said there hasn't been any tips to guide them beyond the first day of the search, when a property owner reportedly saw Lynn bend over in a field between Schroeder Road and Schoen Road near County Line Road, about a half mile west of her home at the Hickory Haven mobile home park.

"I do know that we had a witness put her out in that field with no clothing on. Our dog found a track from there. We saw her bare foot prints on the ground in that area. We tracked her for a certain period of time and lost a scent," Schmaling said.

Looking for clues

John Rickard told The Journal Times that investigators confiscated their computer to check it for clues. Schmaling said they didn't find anything on the computer that was "concerning" or would have given a clue to where she would have gone.

"There is nothing to suspect foul play. The family has been more than cooperative. He wants his wife found," Schmaling said. "I think she is out there and she is deceased, in my opinion. I want to bring closure to the family."

John Rickard said he put alarms on the doors in their home, but he insists his wife was not a prisoner in her own home.

"She said a few times, 'you're locking me in. You're locking me in. I said, 'honey, if I can't see you, I can't protect you. I am a sound sleeper," John Rickard said.

Lynn Rickard, 59, had reportedly wandered away just before her June 25 disappearance.

"She walked out a week prior at 3 o'clock in the morning and walked 5 miles down the road fully dressed," John Rickard said.

Schmaling said deputies found her and brought her back home.

"She went toward the direction of Kenosha, where she wanted to visit someone," Schmaling said.

Theories abound

John Rickard doesn't believe a boyfriend took her away.

"She didn't have time. She was with me 24/7 and she wasn't on the computer in over a year," John Rickard said.

John Rickard who has been married to Lynn for 22 years, has been demonized online but his friends and family have tried to keep him insulated from it as the search continues.

"They told me not even to look at it," John Rickard said.

Lynn Rickard, an amateur Beatles historian, collected memorabilia and signatures from John Lennon. She was a musician herself that loved to play the harp and guitar.

She collected antiques and decorated her house rustically. Together the couple loved Civil War re-enactments and even had a Civil War-themed wedding.

Medication change

John Rickard said he believes trouble started when Lynn's doctor changed her anxiety medication and that led to a change in her behavior.

"I took my wife into her doctor and three days later she was a different person," John Rickard said. "Lynn said, 'these pills aren't working."

John Rickard has made peace with the facts of the case.

"I don't think she made it the first night. It was so cold. They combed the area," John Rickard said.

But he's not ready for a funeral either. He said he hold out hope that someone picked her up in a passing vehicle. But Sheriff Schmaling does not share the same view and said the idea of Lynn getting a ride, while possible, is not probable.

"Her face has been plastered everywhere. Someone would see her," Schmaling said. "I think (John Rickard) is just thinking of anything that would lend itself the fact that she is alive."

Schmaling points out the last time investigators tracked her, the trail lead into the brush not to the road.

"Lynn was timid. She's not the type of person to run to the road and ask someone to give her a ride," Schmaling said.

Schmaling said he's not ready to discuss how much the historic search has cost county taxpayers.

"I've spent thousands of dollars on the search but it's not done yet. We will find her eventually. This is not about money. It is about finding someone's loved one," Schmaling said. "I would expect and demand that if my loved one was missing there would be someone on the other side who would not give up."

Anyone with information on Lynn Rickard's whereabouts is asked to call the Racine County dispatch center at (262) 886-2300.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States demanded that North Korea "must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior" early Saturday after President Donald Trump stepped up his warnings against Pyongyang and spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone.

Meanwhile, US military forces "stand ready" to safeguard Guam after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles toward the American Pacific island territory, the White House said.

It said Trump "reassured" Guam Governor Eddie Calvo in a phone call that the US military would "ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America."

During their separate call, Trump and Xi also hailed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution targeting the North as an "important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," a White House statement read.

"The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," it added, stressing the two leaders had an "extremely close relationship" that "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior," the statement read.

It said Trump looks forward to a "very historic" meeting with Xi in China later this year.

North Korea "must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior," the White House said early Saturday after President Donald Trump stepped up his warnings against Pyongyang and spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone.

During their call, the leaders also hailed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution targeting the North as an "important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," a White House statement read.

"The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," it added, stressing the two leaders had an "extremely close relationship" that "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."

WASHINGTON: The United States demanded that North Korea "must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior" early Saturday after President Donald Trump stepped up his warnings against Pyongyang and spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone. Meanwhile, US military forces "stand ready" to safeguard Guam after the North threatened to fire ballistic missiles toward the American Pacific island territory, the White House said. It said Trump "reassured" Guam Governor Eddie Calvo in a phone call that the US military would "ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America." During their separate call, Trump and Xi also hailed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution targeting the North as an "important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," a White House statement read. "The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," it added, stressing the two leaders had an "extremely close relationship" that "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem." "President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior," the statement read. It said Trump looks forward to a "very historic" meeting with Xi in China later this year. North Korea "must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior," the White House said early Saturday after President Donald Trump stepped up his warnings against Pyongyang and spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone. During their call, the leaders also hailed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution targeting the North as an "important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," a White House statement read. "The presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," it added, stressing the two leaders had an "extremely close relationship" that "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."
By AFP

CARACAS: US President Donald Trump's threat of considering military force in Venezuela is "craziness," the South American country's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Friday.

"This is an act of craziness, an act of supreme extremism," General Padrino, who is also in charge of Venezuela's armed forces, told state television.

He was reacting to Trump saying just hours earlier that he was mulling "many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary" because of its escalating political crisis.

"There is an extremist elite governing the United States and honestly I don't know what's happening, what is going to happen in the world," Padrino said.

"As a soldier, together with the FANB (Venezuela's armed forces) and together with the people, I am certain that we will all be in the first ranks defending the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela."

CARACAS: US President Donald Trump's threat of considering military force in Venezuela is "craziness," the South American country's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Friday. "This is an act of craziness, an act of supreme extremism," General Padrino, who is also in charge of Venezuela's armed forces, told state television. He was reacting to Trump saying just hours earlier that he was mulling "many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary" because of its escalating political crisis. "There is an extremist elite governing the United States and honestly I don't know what's happening, what is going to happen in the world," Padrino said. "As a soldier, together with the FANB (Venezuela's armed forces) and together with the people, I am certain that we will all be in the first ranks defending the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela."
By AFP

ABUJA: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in London for treatment of an undisclosed illness for more than three months, has assured a government delegation that he is doing fine.

"I am okay," the 74-year-old leader said, according to a Saturday statement from the information ministry.

"I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed."

The comments came following protests in the capital Abuja demanding that Buhari "return or resign".

"If President Buhari cannot return to Nigeria after 90 days, then he should resign and go home", one protester said at a sit-in on Monday.

"Buhari, where are you? Nigerians want full disclosure. What is wrong with our president?" read other placards.

Buhari left for the British capital on May 7 on what is his latest medical trip. He has been dogged by speculation about his health since June last year when he went to London for the first time to be treated for what his office said was a persistent ear infection.

Buhari's main opponents in the 2015 election that brought him to power claimed he had prostate cancer, which he denied.

The health of Nigeria's leaders has been a sensitive issue since the death in office of president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 after months of treatment abroad.

ABUJA: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in London for treatment of an undisclosed illness for more than three months, has assured a government delegation that he is doing fine. "I am okay," the 74-year-old leader said, according to a Saturday statement from the information ministry. "I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed." The comments came following protests in the capital Abuja demanding that Buhari "return or resign". "If President Buhari cannot return to Nigeria after 90 days, then he should resign and go home", one protester said at a sit-in on Monday. "Buhari, where are you? Nigerians want full disclosure. What is wrong with our president?" read other placards. Buhari left for the British capital on May 7 on what is his latest medical trip. He has been dogged by speculation about his health since June last year when he went to London for the first time to be treated for what his office said was a persistent ear infection. Buhari's main opponents in the 2015 election that brought him to power claimed he had prostate cancer, which he denied. The health of Nigeria's leaders has been a sensitive issue since the death in office of president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 after months of treatment abroad.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum Monday that could lead to sanctions against China over its intellectual property practices, administration officials said Saturday.

Trump will direct US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies, the officials said.

If so, Lighthizer would have "broad powers" to seek remedial action.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market.

The new measure comes amid high tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea, even as he makes ever sharper threats against Pyongyang.

The officials said that matter, and the trade issue, are not linked.

The process Lighthizer will initiate, under Article 302b of the US Commercial Code, could take as long as a year to yield its findings.

The latest step follows the opening by the Trump administration of several other investigations into Chinese commercial practices, notably in the steel sector.

On Tuesday, Washington announced preliminary sanctions against imports of Chinese aluminum foil.

The US officials said "Chinese commercial policy has a major goal, the acquisition and the absorption of the intellectual property of the United States and other countries around the world."

"Most Americans are fully aware that China is stealing our intellectual property," they added. "What they may not know is that China is also forcing and coercing American companies that operate in China to turn over their technologies."

US officials will particularly examine the role of joint ventures, the mixed foreign-and-Chinese companies whose establishment is a sine qua non for any outside business wishing to sell its products in China.

"China also funds and facilitates the acquisition of US firms that possess advanced technologies," the officials said.

US and European companies have long complained of the Chinese legislation that forces them to turn over their industrial secrets if they wish to do business in China.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum Monday that could lead to sanctions against China over its intellectual property practices, administration officials said Saturday. Trump will direct US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether any Chinese laws, policies or practices discriminate against or harm American innovators and technology companies, the officials said. If so, Lighthizer would have "broad powers" to seek remedial action. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bluntly accused China of "stealing our intellectual property" -- long a concern of Western companies seeking a share of the enormous Chinese market. The new measure comes amid high tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has accused China of failing to rein in the nuclear ambitions of its ally North Korea, even as he makes ever sharper threats against Pyongyang. The officials said that matter, and the trade issue, are not linked. The process Lighthizer will initiate, under Article 302b of the US Commercial Code, could take as long as a year to yield its findings. The latest step follows the opening by the Trump administration of several other investigations into Chinese commercial practices, notably in the steel sector. On Tuesday, Washington announced preliminary sanctions against imports of Chinese aluminum foil. The US officials said "Chinese commercial policy has a major goal, the acquisition and the absorption of the intellectual property of the United States and other countries around the world." "Most Americans are fully aware that China is stealing our intellectual property," they added. "What they may not know is that China is also forcing and coercing American companies that operate in China to turn over their technologies." US officials will particularly examine the role of joint ventures, the mixed foreign-and-Chinese companies whose establishment is a sine qua non for any outside business wishing to sell its products in China. "China also funds and facilitates the acquisition of US firms that possess advanced technologies," the officials said. US and European companies have long complained of the Chinese legislation that forces them to turn over their industrial secrets if they wish to do business in China.
Princess Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark posed for photographs with their daughter Princess Athena on her first day of School. The photo shoot took place this morning in front of Prince Joachim and Princess Maries home in Klampenborg. Princes Athena is attending the private Catholic school, Sisters of St Joseph, just a short distance from her home.
Newport Art Museum wraps up fall with variety of programs

Though it hasnt always felt like fall these past few weeks, the museum is in high gear hosting fall events and planning for winter.
Policy flip-flops and "experimentation" on auto industry will have a negative impact on India's overall economy, auto industry body SIAM said today hitting out against the proposal to hike cess on big cars and SUVs to 25 percent. Seeking a stable and predictable policy regime, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) also said frequent policy changes over the past few years have shaken the confidence of companies who wanted to invest in India."When somebody invests in the country he is looking for stable policy regime, he doesn't want flip flops in a months time," SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur told reporters here. Over the past few years, there have been so many flip flops and there have been so many ambiguities in policy which have changed everything for the companies, he added. "This industry contributes almost 50 percent of the manufacturing GDP so if any experimentation is done in this industry if it doesn't get the kind of support that is required it could be very very negative for the overall economy," Mathur said.Big cars and SUVs are now facing a possible hike in cess under the new tax regime with the GST Council recommending increasing the maximum ceiling to 25 percent from 15 percent over and above the top tax rate of 28 percent. Mathur said that when the new GST rates were announced the industry welcomed them."We thought that the government has now fulfilled its promise of last four years to rationalise the tax. Now suddenly if they say the previous pre-GST rates are the benchmark that means all the discussions we had with the government over the last four years stands nullified," he added. He said the auto industry needed a stable and predictable policy regime. "They (companies) see India as a risky market with continuous change in policies... what we need is a stable and predictable policy regime. We have enough challenges in our hands in terms of technology," Mathur said.He added that the good work done over the past 25 years in terms of nurturing the industry through a stable conducive policy regime will come to a bought if such changes continued. SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen said various projects like auto mission plan (AMP) were not heading anywhere because of "total vacuum" in terms of which direction to take. "Nobody knows, somebody is talking about bio fuel, somebody is talking about electric vehicles," he added.
Germany believes the European Commission will propose quotas for electric cars in its next review of measures to cut emissions, a spokesman for the German environment ministry said on Friday.



The Commission said on Monday it had no plans to introduce quotas for electric cars for an automobile sector seeking to recover from the Volkswagen diesel scandal.



A spokeswoman for the German environment ministry, which is run by the Social Democrats (SPD) - the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition - said without quotas for electric cars the European Union could miss its carbon dioxide emissions targets.



The SPD, Merkel's main rival in September's election, wants a European-wide quota to accelerate the shift towards electric cars, the SPD's general secretary said on Friday.



"There must be ambitious targets, otherwise we won't make any headway," Hubertus Heil told Reuters.



He added that he was not, however, in favour of setting a specific date to take diesel motors out of service.



The SPD, which is lagging far behind Merkel's conservatives in opinion polls, is in favour of tax incentives to accelerate the switch to electric cars.



Merkel has repeatedly warned against "demonising" diesel engines.



Britain said last month it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 in an attempt to reduce air pollution. The global auto industry debate could one day herald the end of more than a century of reliance on the combustion engine.



Also Watch: BMW M3 Test Drive Review
Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre today joined hands with Loyola Institute of Business Administration here, to offer a certificate programme for executives in the automobile industry. The 18-month-certificate course on Automotive Quality Management is aimed at enhancing the skill of executives in automotive related businesses. The programme would further fuel the growth of the industry by training executives in manufacturing excellence practices as automotive industry accounts for 7.1 percent of the country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product)."RNTBCI is interested in creating a quality mindset and LIBA is happy to associate to design and deliver the programme," LIBA director P Christie said in a press release. The course would have 50 students currently employed at various automotive companies. LIBA would provide infrastructure and faculty to train the participants, the release added. "The partnership with LIBA through this course has given us direct access to our suppliers and we are indeed grateful for that," RNTBCI managing director Krishnan Sundarrajan said. "We are currently at six percent market share and we are working really hard to increase this to 10 percent in the near future," he said.
Navigating the job market is a bit like online dating. Its important to put your best foot forward  along with your best digital footprint.

Even if youre content in your current position, a filthy footprint can stop your career in its tracks. Its wise to examine it once a year and clean it up if its getting muddy.

Here are four steps to get you going.

Google yourself

Many employers  between 45 and 60 percent  look at job candidates social media profiles, and they often start by Googling. Search for variations of your name, as well as your email addresses and handles for Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Have a few friends do the same.

As you move through the results, flag anything that might make an employer doubt your judgment or your ability to thrive in the workplace. Review photos, videos and tweets. Assess comments youve left on articles, blog posts, and product pages. Explore public records databases. Check your credit, too.

Check your

privacy settings

Its hard for employers to see your Facebook photos and conversations if you limit access to a small group of people. But selecting Facebooks friends only setting is no guarantee of privacy: The person reading your resume could also read your Facebook comments if shes friends with someone you know. If in doubt, delete.

Upgrade your

LinkedIn photo

Make sure your LinkedIn profile photo is up to snuff, and consider doing the same for Twitter. If possible, hire a professional photographer. Choose a well-lit headshot, not a group selfie or a vacation photo. Wear office attire. Smile at the camera. Do not include pets or children, even if they are extraordinarily cute.

Remove or bury

digital dirt

Remove anything that might jeopardize your professional reputation. When you cant remove digital dirt yourself, ask the websites owner to do it. If that doesnt work, move the smudge toward the bottom of your search-results list by creating positive content about yourself. LinkedIn author Sargum Singh suggests launching your own website or answering questions in a professional forum that Google indexes.

Its also smart to monitor your online presence with tools such as Google Alerts. But the best policy is thinking carefully before posting. Theres no reason to suppress your personality, but ask yourself if another person might take what youre sharing the wrong way. After all, a misunderstanding shouldnt stand in the way of a great job.
Over a journalistic career that has encompassed more than three decades BBC anchor Simon McCoy has seen quite a bit. Hes covered the Iraq War from the ground, been the Royal Correspondent for Sky News, and even covered the birth of Prince George -- the newest one. But earlier this week, the veteran journalist had clearly had enough.In a news clip that has since gone viral, McCoy was less than enthusiastic about having to feature a dog surfing contest on his news program. McCoy began the broadcast with giving viewers the caveat that though they were watching BBC, August is usually a slow month for news coverage. In a voice-over punctuated with sighs, sarcasm and singular bitterness, McCoy reported on an annual event held in San Francisco that celebrates er, dog surfers. You can make out his disdain in the clip below:McCoys unusual frankness over his distaste over reporting fluff pieces, the content that media organizations use to tide over slow news cycles won him plaudits around the world. This isn't the first time McCoy has been so transparent on-air. Exasperated at having to update viewers over the progress over the royal birth of Prince George, McCoy, who had been stationed at the hospital for the entire process, acidly told his audience and the news studio that the news was "There is no news".In any case, late night news and talk show host Stephen Colbert had perhaps the best take on the incident. In a faux news clip, a BBC presenter bitingly mentions that the news channel which covered the Partition of India is now forced to broadcast the news of a raccoon that learnt how to sweep and an alligator wearing sunglasses, before drowning his sorrows with a significant splash of whisky. Check out the clip below:
New Delhi: Two brothers died and their father was admitted to hospital in a critical condition after they inhaled toxic gases while cleaning a sewer at a shopping mall in Delhi's Anand Vihar on Saturday.



Police said a firefighter, involved in the rescue operation, also inhaled the toxic fumes and was admitted to the hospital.



Yusuf (50) and his two sons -- Jahangir (24)and Izaz (22) -- collapsed while cleaning the sewer, the police said. As they did not come out of it for a long time, the police and fire department were informed.



One of the firemen, Mahipal, who had entered the sewer, also inhaled the toxic fumes and collapsed, the police said. All the four were rushed to the Hedgewar Hospital, where Jahangir was declared "brought dead" and Izaz died subsequently, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad said.



She added that Yusuf and Mahipal were undergoing treatment at the hospital and their condition was critical. Last week, three men who were manually cleaning a sewer line at Lajpat Nagar had died after inhaling noxious fumes.



The incident was reported three weeks after the death of four men while cleaning a septic tank in south Delhi's Ghitorni.
Lucknow: The state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur didnt pay the firm which supplied it liquid oxygen for months on end. But as soon as news broke of 30 children dying due to oxygen shortage, it released a payment of Rs 20.84 lakh, the company told News18.com on Saturday.



We are the distributors. We get our supply from Inox Company in Rewari, Rajasthan. We have been running from pillar to post for months now, but each time, the hospital authorities told us that they didnt have funds to pay us, Deepankar Sharma of Pushpa Sales said.



Sharma was the one from the oxygen supplying firm who had been in correspondence with the hospital regarding payment.



Speaking to News18.com over phone, Sharma questioned how the hospital managed to arrange for funds after facing criticism and an investigation into the childrens deaths.



I remember making regular visits to the hospital since February. I met Rajeev Mishra, the medical college principal, a couple of times. He kept us waiting till evening and then gave us hardly two minutes. Even then, he just said he didnt have funds to make the payment. After repeated attempts to get paid, we served a legal notice to the hospital authorities, Sharma said.



We were unnecessarily harassed by Rajeev Mishra for our payment. But after the yesterdays tragic news, we were paid Rs 20.84 lakh in the evening, and have been assured of a payment of Rs 30 lakh today (Saturday). Now, if the hospital had no funds for months, how did they make a payment of Rs 20 lakh suddenly?



In a letter written to the hospital authorities on August 1, the company had even threatened to cut off supply if the dues  amounting to around Rs 64 lakh  were not cleared. A copy of the letter is with CNN-News18.



The local administration in Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has admitted that oxygen supply was disrupted, but denied that it led to the deaths. It has claimed that adequate back-up supply of liquid oxygen.



Sources, however, told News18.com that once Pushpa Sales made true on its threat and cut off supply, the Baba Raghav Das Medical College asked other hospitals and oxygen vendors for additional supply.



Sharma said his firm had managed to get a consignment of liquid oxygen to the hospital on August 4 despite not having been paid.



We arranged for the funds by ourselves and got a shipment to the hospital on August 4. The payments have now been made and hopefully the Inox company will supply oxygen accordingly now, he said.



BRD Medical College Principal Rajeev Mishra remained unavailable for comments. Reports on Friday said he had left Gorakhpur for Delhi after the deaths were reported.




Srinagar: Mehbooba Mufti has the toughest job in the country, firefighting all the while she has been in the saddle. Be it the violence after the Burhan Wani killing that killed more than a 100 people and blinded and maimed thousands or the Kashmir flag controversy the NIT fiasco, the Handwara killings over allegations that a college girl was molested, or the recent GST row - she just hasn't had the time to relax.



And now she is up against the biggest challenge of her political life. If she loses this one, she risks the chance of her party either getting wiped out or becoming irrelevant for a long time.



These days Mufti is trying to rally support over Kashmir's special status that is facing what many here believe is a "judicial onslaught on its exclusive rights." She has realised she needs to convince BJP - her alliance partner in J&K - and its right wing affiliates, more so, if she has to stay afloat as a regional satrap.



Mufti is exploring every bit of support to safeguard Article 35A that bars non locals from buying property or getting government jobs in the state. Article 35A gives the people of J&K exclusive rights and privileges in owning property and in getting jobs and scholarships.



The J&K chief minister apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the "dangerous" consequences the state may face if the article is written off. At the end of the meeting Mehbooba claimed PM Modi was supportive. She is also seeking the support of Sonia Gandhi and other opposition leaders on the delicate issue.



Mufti has also met her main political rival and former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and state opposition leaders to build a consensus that Article 35A needs to stay.



Her People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Abdullah's National Conference (NC) have strode to power advocating self rule and greater autonomy for the state. And Articles 35A and 370 lie at the core of their political philosophy.



Both the Kashmir-centric parties have committed to do whatever it takes to ensure the 35A is protected. Mufti warned Centre that "there will be no one to carry the tricolour in state if the act was tinkered with." Abdullah said its abrogation would provoke a bigger agitation than 2008 Amarnath unrest.



The separatists, rocked by the recent arrests by NIA, have not taken centrestage yet except for calling a strike on Saturday. The Kashmir traders, Kashmir chamber and transporters bodies have allayed fears and held protests.



But it is PDP and NC which will face existential crisis if 35A is shot down. They know for sure that for common Kashmiris, these are articles of faith on which their future hinges too. Especially at a time when space for mainstream is shrinking due to the unabated violence following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani.



Options before Mehbooba Mufti



Unfortunately, Mufti's options are limited and she relies heavily on Centre to bail her out from a precarious position. On ground, she is exploring both the legal and political options.



Her government has filed a counter affidavit arguing similar pleas had been rejected by the apex court previously. Her legal team is contending and hoping the petition filed by the NGO, We the Citizens, is dismissed even though Supreme Court has said the issue needs be disposed off after six weeks. The case is likely to come up for hearing in the last week of this month.



Mufti's worries are only growing as the Centre has remained non committal on the issue and not filed a counter affidavit. In fact, the BJP-led government feels that it needs to be examined whether the special status enshrined by Article 370 benefited or hurt Jammu and Kashmir.



Meanwhile, her government has begun preparing to contest the case. In the brief counter affidavit that was filed before the apex court, the J&K Law department will quote two judgments: Puranlal Lakhanpal Vs President of India & Others, (1962) and Sampat Prakash v. State of Jammu and Kashmir and Another, (1969). Both the Judgements endorse the state governments views on the matter and benefit all state subjects of the state. The Mufti government has hired constitutional expert Fali Nariman to head the team to contest the case.



But its Narendra Modi-led NDA governments unclear stand on the issue that is giving her sleepless nights.



So far, Delhi has decided not to file a counter-affidavit in the matter.



By abstaining from filing a counter-affidavit, Delhi has apparently toed the line of the petitioner, which is a "dangerous" approach, the opposition NC warned, and could lead to an "irreparable damage" to the state's special status.



Politically too, Mufti's options are few. She cannot do much except hope her conversations with opposition leaders ensure some pressure is built on Union government. And that her government gets some support to either delay or find some middle way to the crisis that otherwise has the potential to stoke more passions in an already simmering Kashmir valley.



Many are suggesting snapping ties with BJP would help her avert the crisis. But that won't do. Her walking away from the alliance may or may not cause the government to fall, but will certainly have no bearing on whether the act stays or goes.



Observers believe she can do better by working within the system to make people at the helm realise the repercussions if the crucial act is taken down.



Moreover her quitting means Centre faces no resistance from the state parties and can actually go ahead with its business, if at all it intends to. And since governance and absolute governance will lie with the Governor - and he being essentially a Centre representative - the article can become a history without much fuss and ado. It is another story that there would be widespread violence, but what is done cannot be undone.



So the option of moving out of government would indeed be a bad idea and will have no bearing on what stand the union government takes on the article, although the issue is technical and will be dealt with by the courts.





Issue surrounding Article 35A



An NGO named 'We the Citizens' has petitioned the apex court seeking removal of Article 35A on the ground that the restriction imposed through its addition to the Constitution was beyond the Presidents powers under Article 370(1)d.



The petitioner has contended that The Constitution can be amended only by the Parliament as per procedure clearly laid out in Article 368,



Similar prayers, however, were quashed almost instantly by the apex court in 1956, 1961 and 1970 - while upholding the powers of the President to pass constitutional orders.



In a major departure, the Centre this time around did not challenge the petition though the Mufti government has filed a counter affidavit seeking its dismissal. And the BJP at Centre is unwilling to commit either way.



The article was enforced in J&K through the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order, May 1954 issued by India's first president Rajendra Prasad. It was devised to protect state subject laws that had already been defined during the Maharajas rule and notified in 1927 and 1932.



Apprehensions in Kashmir



The Valley, which has a largely Muslim population, fears that by striking down this president's order, BJP and its affiliates want to resolve the Kashmir issue through sweeping demographic changes. And that, they think, will tell badly on the final resolution of the Kashmir issue, if ever there is one.



The separatists have alleged in the past that New Delhi has sinister plans to settle non locals in areas of Jammu and Ladakh - to start with, before they concentrate on Kashmir - essentially to change the Muslim majority character of the state.



They have accused the Centre of planning to build a "Hindu Vatican" at major base camps of Amarnath Yatra or "Israel type settlements" for non state subjects to alter the demography of the state.



Given the current public mood, the separatists can quickly mobilise a 2016-type agitation that can be detrimental to Mufti government which is already battling a serious rebellion of sorts.



The people in valley of Kashmir, Chenab comprising Doda, Kishtwar, Baderwah and Ramban and Pir Panjal (Poonch and Rajouri) - predominantly Muslim population - are extremely emotional about their identity which they feel can be guarded through article 35A and 370. So they will hit the streets if there is a threat to their existence as they don't apparently see Muslims outside Kashmir doing well at this point of time.



Mufti has warned Delhi of the huge consequences in the wake of any fiddling with Article 35A. She is already on the back foot, given that there are daily reports of encounters, clashes and civilian killings. In fact, in the first seven months,134 militants, 44 security men and 21 civilians have been killed in Kashmir.



If push comes to shove and Centre does not budge on 35A, Mufti will have no way but to quit. In fact, no Kashmir-based party can expect to stay relevant if this crucial act is taken away. Neither PDP nor NC nor even smaller parties can afford to relax on this matter. There is already a feverish race to outdo each other on espousing this cause.



If PDP and NC are extremely nervous, BJP, especially its state unit,is in catch 22. BJP is ruling the state for the first time, and if its central leadership is seen as against Article 35A, then it runs the risk of making itself a pariah in J&K. No party, least of all the NC or PDP, would ever be eager to form a government with it. And the dynamics is such that you'd need one Kashmir party to form a government. That perhaps explains why the state BJP is not that vocal.



Secondly, the Valley will protest even more forcefully than how it did in 2016. While the mainstream in Kashmir did not protest Burhan Wani's killing considering him an anti-national, they won't any such thing holding them back this time.

Marginalising the mainstream would not be good news for Delhi as well in the long run as that segment has been the sobering influence.



The fight for 35A is bigger for the mainstream than it's for the separatists who anyway "don't believe" in the Constitution. For the common folk it would be seen as a battle for survival.
New Delhi: Two days after the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted IDBI Banks insolvency plea against Jaypee Infratech, hundreds of irate home buyers staged a protest outside Jaypee Groups Sector 128 office after being "cheated by a bankrupt builder".



Things went out of control when the protesting home buyers, who have booked flats in Jaypee Groups Wish Town in Sector 128 and Jaypee Aman housing projects in Sector 151, broke the barricades and barged into the office, shouting slogans against the realtor and the UP government. Many home buyers were lathi-charged by the guards.



Jaypee Infratech has handed over 6,000 out of 28,000 flats that were proposed. In July, it offered possession of 1,000 flats in the Jaypee Aman project in Sector 151. As part of this project, it was supposed to deliver a total 5,000 flats. After the insolvency plea, home buyers doubt if they would ever receive the keys of their promised apartments.



Previous governments in Uttar Pradesh sheltered Jaypee Infratech and did nothing to prevent innocent home buyers from falling into the trap of this realty firm. We have suffered for the last 6-7 years, as the builder failed to deliver the projects as per schedule. And now, the insolvency plea has only made things more uncertain for us. We have invested savings of our life and now we are left stranded, SK Nagrath, retired army official and president of Jaypee Aman home buyers association, said.



Jaypee Infratech promoter Manoj Gaur on Saturday came out to address thousands of angry buyers of the company's unfinished properties. He assured the angry home buyers saying, Your money wont go anywhere, I will not be able to sleep until I deliver your house.



Gaur was accompanied by insolvency resolution professional Anuj Jain, a chartered accountant with BSRR & Co, and officials of IDBI Bank.



Buyers, who have sought a refund or are seeking justice in consumer courts will not get anything until the NCLT case is settled. We are suffering, as government bodies, including the state government and the Noida authority, did not alert buyers to not invest in Jaypee Groups projects. The government should take over Jaypee Groups assets and raise funds to deliver flats to us, Orchie Bandhopadhyay, a buyer of Jaypee Group, said.



Though Noida Authority asked home buyers not to panic saying they would soon come up with a plan to secure the interest of over 32,000 homebuyers, the buyers in properties of various under-construction projects of Jaypee fear the loss of their money due to the likelihood of liquidations of the company.


Kolkata: In the wake of the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy where at least 30 children died due to disruption of liquid oxygen supply, the West Bengal government has undertaken a review of the states healthcare system.



Sources said senior officials at the West Bengal Medical Services Corporation (WBMSC) swung into action and cross-checked due payments, medicine supply chains and maintenance of government-run hospitals in the state.



We dont want to take any chances and are ensuring that things are on track. So, far we have not found any major issues. Some minor issues will be resolved soon, a senior official at WBMSC said.



We have two wings  procurement wing and engineering wing. Our job is to efficiently procure and supply quality drugs and medicines in time to all hospitals, efficient procurement of equipment and regular maintenance of the same, including supply of chemicals and reagents to all hospitals and medical colleges.



Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, has been serious about the healthcare facility in hospitals and has paid surprise visits to hospitals in the past.



The state bagged second place for the highest reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) among all the states in the country.



In 2011, the IMR was alarming  32. In six years, the State Health Department has been able to reduce it to 26.



Speaking to News18, Minister of State for Health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, said, Whatever happened in Gorakhpur is alarming. Can you imagine, supplier stopped giving oxygen due to non-payment?



It is unfortunate that so many innocent lives were lost.



She said, In Bengal, we are fully prepared to provide best health care facilities to people and children. I personally go for sudden inspection and if there is any issue I try to resolve it soon. It is true that in BC Roy hospital such incidents were common during Left rule but now things have changed. But yes, we are taking stock of health situation in Bengal and we are committed to provide best health services to children.



On the context of payments to vendors (while referring to Gorakhpur issue), she said, Payment is not an issue with us and if there is any issue, we have an online process through which we try to resolve grievances of vendors and suppliers.



Meanwhile, the state health department has alerted all the government run hospitals especially children units to take precautionary measures and were ordered to be extra vigilant in case of supply chain.


Gorakhpaur: Rajesh, a resident of the Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, arrived at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur on August 9 with his ailing son who the doctor diagnosed with pneumonia.



His kid, he said, "trembled" twice before his eyes, prompting him to ask the doctor what was wrong. "The doctor assured me he would be fine in a few days' time. 'He has pneumonia, you don't worry,'" Rajesh said.



On Saturday afternoon, Rajesh stepped out of the BRD College with his child's dead body. Rajesh holds the body, draped in a Yellow-Pink towel in one arm, and consoles his wife with the other. The hospital has been a witness to the deaths of more than 60 children.



His wailing wife kissed the feet of the kid, unable to describe her pain. Not only did Rajesh hold the staff responsible for not "understanding the disease properly" but also alleges that they stopped him from leaving the hospital.



"They didn't let me go because the health minister, Siddartha Nath Singh, was expected to visit the hospital and hold a press conference," he said. They talked among themselves about media and all, he added.



When asked if the hospital really had a problem on the nights of August 10 and 11 when the maximum number of deaths occurred, the father responded in affirmation. "Yes, there was a shortage of oxygen and people were in distress," he said, adding that his kid died because of the negligence of the doctors at the BRD hospital.



Not just oxygen, there was a dearth of beds, too. "The ailing children kept pouring in," Rajesh said, adding that at one point, "there were four kids in a single bed".



"There was anguish everywhere. A single doctor had as many as 60 patients to treat," Rajesh said.



Rajesh requested the hospital for an ambulance after he was "coerced into" staying back. "They said, 'you have a small kid. You can travel in a tempo. No body will say anything.'"



Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday evening denied allegations by families that such a large number of children had died due to the "shortage of oxygen supply" at the BRD hospital.



"The government is looking into the role of the gas (Oxygen) supplier and a probe has been launched. Those responsible for this will be dealt with strictly," Adityanath said. A committee has been constituted to investigate the matter.



Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddarth Nath Singh reiterated that none of the deaths had occurred due to the lack of oxygen and he had a proof of that. The minister added that not all patients were from Gorakhpur and several from Nepal and Bihar also come to the city for treatment.





(The name of the father has been changed.)


Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday evening broke his silence over the death of at least 33 children due to the lack of oxygen at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur. He expressed condolences for the families of kids who lost their lives. We will be getting a detailed report on the deaths. All the deaths were not related to the shortage of oxygen supply, the Chief Minister said.

While 30 deaths were reported on Friday, three more were reported on Saturday. The tragedy has also set off a war of words between the BJP and the Congress.

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I am pained beyond words by the tragic deaths of 30 children in Gorakhpur. My heart goes out to their families. - Smt. Sonia Gandhi  Congress (@INCIndia) August 12, 2017

I urge UP Govt to take immediate cognisance of the crime and bring the persons responsible for this neglect to book. - Smt. Sonia Gandhi  Congress (@INCIndia) August 12, 2017

U.P CM visited the hospital only on 9th Aug & Oxygen supply allegedly stopped on 11th.Does it not show negligence of CM Adityanath himself? pic.twitter.com/Qp2P06p4WF  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) August 11, 2017

          ,    , 20-20        Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

        ,       ,              Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

A state-run hospital in Gorakhpur where 30 children died in a span of 48 hours due to shortage of oxygen supply had not paid the suppliers dues amounting to Rs 64 lakh, CNN-News18 has learnt.Pushpa Co., the firm which supplied oxygen to Baba Raghav Das Medical College, had even threatened to cut off supply if the dues were not cleared. A copy of the letter written by the company to hospital authorities on August 1 is with CNN-News18.The letter sparks speculation on whether non-payment of the dues had prompted the company to disrupt oxygen supply, leading to the deaths of at least 30 children mostly in the Neonatal and Encephalitis wards of the hospital.Principal of BRD Medical College Rajeev Mishra, who left Gorakhpur for Delhi on Friday, reportedly knew about the non-payment of dues, but took no corrective steps.The local administration in Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has admitted that oxygen supply was disrupted, but denied that it led to the deaths.Thirty children have lost their lives due to encephalitis in the last 48 hours at BRD hospital. Yes, the supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted yesterday (Thursday) due to pending payment. I have requested suppliers not to disrupt the supply, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela told News18.Gorakhpur SP, however, reportedly admitted that 21 children had died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen. "As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," PTI quoted a Union home ministry spokesperson as saying.The tragedy has triggered a political blame game in the state with the Congress demanding the resignation of state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh. A party delegation, led by former Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, visited the hospital.This is a very sad incident and the entire nation is grieved. This happened because of the carelessness of the state government. We find the state government at fault in this. The state health minister should resign immediately, Azad told reporters.Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked the UP government to take immediate cognisance of the crime.UP Congress chief Raj Babbar blamed the state government for the deaths. "The CM was in Gorakhpur two days ago and this is what happened today (Friday). If he had taken any action over the laxity, nobody would have died. I demand the immediate resignation of the health minister on moral grounds. Also, at least Rs 20 lakh compensation must be given to the families of the children who died," he said.Samajwadi Party leader and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, too, held the state government responsible for the tragedy and demanded compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family of each victim.Hitting back, Siddharth Nath Singh said the opposition should not politicize the deaths. Proper investigation will be done and quick action will be taken, he added.Singh is scheduled to visit the hospital in Gorakhpur on Saturday and will brief the Chief Minister after that.The tragedy comes barely two days after Yogi Adityanaths visit to Gorakhpur. Ever since taking over the reins of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath has been stressing on improving the condition of medical and education sectors.In April, the Adityanath government had announced that it has started work on setting up six AIIMS and 25 new medical colleges in the state, one of the promises the BJP made in the run-up to the Assembly polls.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday said stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state- run Baba Raghav Das Medical College.



Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had on Friday said at least 30 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.



However, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.



"Whosoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters on Saturday.



According to the official Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (@CMOfficeUP), Yogi Adityanath has directed that a detailed probe be conducted into the incident and strict action be ensured.



Meanwhile, Singh and Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon on Saturday left for Gorakhpur to take stock of the situation at the medical college.



Before leaving for Gorakhpur, Singh said, "The Chief Minister was not informed by the doctors and officials about shortage of oxygen neither on July 9 nor on August 9.



"The shortage of oxygen was not highlighted. The medical education minister was also not briefed about it. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done," he said here.



Tandon said, "The Chief Minister is keeping a close watch on the entire issue. We will take appropriate action after investigating all aspects."



Though the Gorakhpur district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry had said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.



"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson had said.
Nordic, one of the biggest Epic consultant firms in the country, is expanding its offices.

Nordic already occupies the third and fourth floors of the building at 740 Regent St., and moved into part of the second floor in late July, adding work space for another 60 or more employees.

"We are filling the majority of it immediately," said Vivek Swaminathan, president of Nordic's managed services division. "At the rate we're going, we'll probably be out of space in the next year."

Nordic's main business has been to help health care organizations as they implement electronic health records systems developed by Epic Systems Corp., of Verona, one of the nation's leading EHR companies. But recently, handling other types of services for client companies has been "a huge part of our expansion," Swaminathan said.

Health care providers have a variety of cost challenges today, he said. "More consumers are paying directly, and they pay less than insurers. Reimbursement models have shifted and are based on paying for value instead of service."

As a result, staffing their own information technology department may not be a top priority for health care organizations, he said, or in some cases, they are in rural areas and can't recruit tech employees.

Swaminathan said Nordic's managed services division handles all sorts of computer technology support for client companies on a long-term basis -- whether it is related to electronic health records or other aspects of their operation.

"It is a growing and booming portion of our business and a big part in our future," he said.

Nordic, founded in 2010, has more than 800 employees, including at least 250 based in Madison. Nordic had annual revenue of $180 million in 2016, up from $137 million in 2015, Swaminathan said, and was No. 1,459 on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing U.S. companies.

The company received a major investment last fall from Silversmith Capital Partners, a Boston equity firm. The amount has not been disclosed, but when Silversmith was established, it said it planned to invest from $15 million to $50 million per company "with the ability to increase the equity commitment in select situations."

Swaminathan said the managed services division has about 60 employees -- the majority based in Madison -- and more than 30 of them have joined since Jan. 1.

"We will see continued steady growth," he said. "I am confident we will be well over 100 employees (in the division) next year."

The building is owned by The Alexander Co., Madison. Ideal Builders was contractor for the remodeling, which was designed by Potter Lawson.
New Delhi: Amid a continuing health crisis in Uttar Pradesh that has resulted in the deaths of more than 60 children, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday evening denied allegations by families that such a large number of children had died due to the "shortage of oxygen supply" at the BRD hospital.



Adityanath expressed condolences and said his government has sought a detailed report on the incident in Gorakhpur, his home constituency.



"The government is looking into the role of the gas supplier and a probe has been launched. Those responsible for this will be dealt with strictly," Adityanath said. A committee has been constituted to investigate the matter.



Early in the day, the CM had shone the light on the history of encephalitis, which according to him, has been there since 1978. And since 1978, if innocent kids are falling prey to it every year, "somewhere lack of cleanliness and open defecation are responsible for this".



"There is a lack of awareness among people about the importance of hygiene," the CM said, adding, "What will be the future of a country whose children are dying of these diseases? It's a challenge. It's distressing, but we have to find a solution to this distress," Adityanath said.



However, the families continue to blame the "dilapidated state of hospital infrastructure" and the "negligence of hospital staff" for the unfortunate tragedy.



A father, who lost his son this afternoon, alleged that he was not even allowed to move out of the hospital because health minister Siddartha Nath Singh was expected to visit the hospital and hold a press conference.



"When the kid trembled again, I asked the doctor if he was fine. The doctor first said that the kid was suffering from Pneumonia and admitted him," the father said.



When asked if the hospital really had a problem on the nights of August 10 and 11 when the maximum number of deaths occurred, the father responded in affirmation. "Yes, there was a shortage of oxygen and people were in distress," he said adding that his kid died because of the negligence of the doctors at the BRD hospital.



Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddarth Nath Singh reiterated that none of the deaths had occurred due to the lack of oxygen and he had a proof of that. The minister added that not all patients were from Gorakhpur and several from Nepal and Bihar also come to the city for treatment.



The Opposition, particularly the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party launched a scathing criticism of the government.



As many as 60 children have died in a government hospital in Gorakhpur in the last six-seven days. This is an example of the gross criminal negligence of the BJP government, BSP chief Mayawati said in a release.



Blaming the Yogi Adityanath government for the tragedy, SP president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that a shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital led to it.



The company supplying oxygen had informed the principal (of Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital) that it would stop the supply if payment was not made and the government must be aware that the deaths have been caused due to a shortage of oxygen, he said.
Jammu: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday played down the heightened rhetoric by Beijing over the Dokalam standoff, stating that India was fully equipped to face any challenge.



He said the government was confident about the steps it was taking in this regard. We are well equipped to face any challenge whether externally or internally," Singh said.



The MoS PMO was responding to a question about the recent threat by China through its official media asking India to withdraw troops from the Sikkim sector.



I think for us the more important thing is to see what we are doing. I am not here to respond to what somebody is tweeting from the opposition parties. We are confident about what we are doing," he said.



China had recently said that it had conveyed its firm stand to India that it must take "concrete actions" by immediately pulling back troops from Doklam in the Sikkim section with "no strings attached" to resolve the current standoff.



The BJP leader also said that the government was giving "befitting reply" with regard to ceasefire violations on the Indo-Pakistan border, and was dealing with terrorism in Kashmir with a "stern hand".



On posters of terrorist Zakir Musa being seen in Kashmir asking youths and students to keep away from Independence Day functions, Singh said such posters have come up in the past too.



"The government will take a call on this. The more these (terrorist) leaders come up with such things, the more they expose themselves. The youths cannot be threatened by the diktats of these militants," he said.
Bareilly: Unknown miscreants set 2 sisters ablaze while they were sleeping; both admitted to hospital; Police say probe underway,FIR lodged pic.twitter.com/GnlEGwJzvm  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

A 19-year-old girl and her 13-year-old sister were set ablaze inside their home by an intruder on the intervening night of August 10 and 11 in Bareilly. The older of the two sisters suffered 95% burn injuries and was said to be in critical condition.The girls were reportedly sleeping in their home when an intruder barged inside, doused them with petrol and set them on fire. The intruder had escaped by the time the family came running on hearing the girls scream and rushed them to a nearby hospital.The minor victim, who suffered 60% burns, said she was being stalked and harassed by a local youth for months. "He used to follow me when I went to school. I had complained about him to my family, but still the boy kept harassing me, the 13-year-old said from her hospital bed.It was not immediately clear if the boy in question was a suspect.The family, however, said it had no enmity with anyone.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Joginder Singh said an FIR had been registered against unidentified persons. We are closely monitoring the situation and several teams have already been pressed into action. A bottle containing petrol and two mobile phones have been recovered from the spot. A couple of suspects are being rounded up for possible leads," he saidAn FIR under IPC sections 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid, etc), 336 (act endangering life and public safety of others) and 307 (attempt to murder) has been registered at the Nawabganj police station.
Bengaluru: Even as two top actors from Tamil Nadu  Kamal Hasan and Rajinikanth  keep people guessing on whether they will enter politics, a film star from neighbouring Karnataka has bitten the bullet, announcing the launch of his own political party on Saturday.



Real Star Upendra (Uppi to his fans) is known for movies like A, Super, Uppi2, H2O, Auto Shankar and Raktha Kanneeru, which are filled with political innuendo and utopian ideals. Now, he is set to tackle such issues in real life as well with the launch of his prajakiya party, one that he says will be based entirely on democratic values.



Why do we believe it is not possible to do politics without cash or caste? Why do we still depend on public meetings to bring people together in this tech-savvy age? After all, the people are the kings in a democracy. I dont want to point fingers at others, I feel I must do something for the people. What we need is not rajakiya, (politics) but prajakiya, (a peoples movement), he said at a press conference to announce his entry into politics.



Uppis foray into politics has long been a matter of speculation, with rumour mills running overboard on Friday that he could join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as he is among the special invitees to a meeting of eminent personalities from different fields called by BJP chief Amit Shah.



The actor put to these rumours to rest by saying he will go his own way. I got invited by many political parties to join them. But I want to do this on my own. I dont even have a name or symbol for my party as yet, I want everyone to share their thoughts and opinions on this, he said.



In the election-bound state that will see a tough three-way battle between the BJP, Congress and the JDS, Uppis foray will add a new dimension  and is even being seen as a fourth front on the lines of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi.



He announced three e-mail IDs on social media  prajaakarana1@gmail.com, prajaakarana2@gmail.com and prajaakarana3@gmail.com  for people to send their ideas.



The first indication of his plans came in late July, when Upendra tweeted that he has stopped finding faults with the system and stopped complaining about anything anymore. He said he was only focused on finding remedies, and he would come out with his plans soon.



On Saturday, he reiterated that he would not look at public rallies that cost money, caused traffic jams, and achieved nothing on ground. His policy would be to reach out to people through technology and social media tools, constantly monitor progress of public works and projects through WhatsApp and online tools, and reach out to them with the truth.



I dont need followers, I need workers. We need to choose people who are most efficient and skilled in that task, to get the work done, instead of going by what their caste-background is, he said.



Election candidates should be chosen on the basis of a competitive exam, he said.



We have exams and interviews for everything  schools to civil services. But there is no way to check if an MLA candidate has the qualification for his post. When we supervise everything that our househelp does, who we pay just Rs 5,000, imagine what we should do for the MPs, MLAs all of whose salaries we pay? Why dont we have an exam for these people to see if they are suited to represent the people? We need to see if he knows what problems are there in his area, and if he can offer solutions for it, he said in an audio-clip he put out on WhatsApp.



Now it is yet to be seen how far the ideas of the 'Real Star' would go in the real world, but politicians from other parties have welcomed his foray. "If he comes without donning all the make-up (read, without any pretense), he is welcome," said Congressman DK Shivakumar, while JDS' Zameer Ahmed Khan said he welcomes any step that helps to cleanse politics.
Mumbai: BJP chief whip in the Maharashtra Assembly Raj Purohit on Friday said the Centre should make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in schools in the country, drawing a flak from the Congress and the NCP which said the demand was aimed at deriving a political mileage.



The veteran MLA welcomed the Mumbai civic body's decision to make the recitation of the national song compulsory in the civic body-run schools.



The general body of the Shiv Sena-ruled Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) had on Thursday passed a proposal to make singing of the national song compulsory in the civic-run schools twice a week. The proposal has been sent to the civic commissioner for administrative nod.



Speaking in the Assembly, Purohit termed it as a good move.



"I congratulate the BMC (officially called the MCGM) for making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in its schools. It is a good move," he said.



Talking to reporters outside the Assembly, Purohit said the Centre should replicate this move at the national-level.



"I am also going to make a request to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to make the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in all schools across the country," he said, adding that he has written a letter and will send it to him soon.



Maharashtra Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde said that the government would ask the state chief secretary to study the directives of the Madras High Court on recital of Vande Mataram.



"We will ask the chief secretary to study the directive and then we can take a proper decision," he said, referring to the HCs recent decision to make singing Vande Mataram compulsory in all government schools, colleges and universities in Tamil Nadu at least once a week.



Slamming the BJP, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the saffron party wants to derive a political mileage and polarise the society by raising such demands.



"The whole drama started only after the recent Madras High Court verdict. But they forget that the HC itself has said that singing the national song cannot be forced on people and that it should be done only if one wishes to. Making such demands in the state Assembly is like insulting the verdict of the court," Malik said.



Senior Congress leader Anant Gadgil said recital of Vande Mataram cannot be made compulsory considering the diversity of faiths in the country and their sensitivities.



"You cannot make singing the national song compulsory as certain religions may have certain interpretations about it which they would not like. So it is best left to an individuals choice," he said.



Notably, Purohit had raised the demand last month as well wherein he sought that the HC's ruling be implemented in schools and colleges of Maharashtra.



Purohit's demand was strongly opposed by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA from Mumbai Waris Pathan and Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi.
With the verdict on triple talaq due, representatives from the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and gave him a model Nikahnama, hoping for its early implementation.The Board also wants the Nikahnama to be linked to Aadhaar to avoid any duplication.The triple talaq hearing in the Supreme Court this May had witnessed deliberations on a model Nikahnama where the Chief Justice of India had wondered whether the woman can have a no triple talaq clause at the time of the marriage. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had then said that the woman can opt for such an option.Recently, the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, headed by Zakia Soman, had written to Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, requesting him for a favourable verdict and an early judgment.Shaista Amber, chairman of the AIMWPLB, told News18 that she has "appealed the PM to make this Islamic Nikahnama a reality very soon and the PM too had shown an inclination."Muslim women have been demanding changes in the Nikahnama for a long time. Hence, a model was prepared too, but the previous Congress government failed to implement it. Hence, we urged the Prime Minister to make this a reality," said Amber.Amber also said that the new Nikahnama will have to be linked with Aadhaar, whereby the Aadhaar number of both the bride and groom will be fed into the system, so the woman does not suffer fraud"."The model Nikahnama has been drafted in various languages so that there is uniform applicability of the proforma across the country," said Amber.The Board has also urged the Prime Minister to ensure that some Waqf properties are kept aside for the divorced Muslim women so that they can be independent."According to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, women can claim some allowance from Waqf properties to live a life of dignity after divorce if they have no one to look after them or if parents and relatives are not inclined to take them back. In such a case, she can write an application to the Waqf board which can give her monthly allowance and a shelter home to live in. This is a right and we have appealed for this," said Amber.
New Delhi: BJD MP Baijayant Jay Panda, who had introduced a Bill on data privacy and protection in the Parliament, has said that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, but it would be impractical to make it absolute and we must make room for some very narrowly defined exceptions.



Speaking at a discussion with college students and young professionals in the national capital, Panda said that India must take the middle path and avoid any extremes when it comes to its data privacy law. On being asked from where he took inspiration for his Bill, he said he had referred to the laws in the European Union, Canada and Ireland.



Panda said that the Data (Privacy and Protection) Bill, 2017, envisages a right to informed consent, wherein, only upon giving an express and affirmative consent can a persons data be collected, used or sold. Every citizen is given a right of authority over his or her individual data. The Bill makes provisions for minors or developmentally challenged people, whose right will be given to their guardians, he said.



The Bill also mandates the creation of a Data Privacy and Protection Authority (DPPA). A Quasi-judicial body, it will allow individuals to file grievances against private as well as government bodies against any breach of privacy. Articulating this as a strong directive of the Bill, Panda said that for a strong law, complaints must be heard and adjudicated within a quick time frame.



The MP said that with India taking a giant leap under the Digital India programme, the question remains how safe our online data is. Many regard 21st century as the century of data - the new oil. It is the need of the hour for the government to ensure that personal data is secure, Panda said.



The conversation also dwelled into logistical challenges in implementation of the Bill. The need for such a law has become more pressing with numerous cases of privacy breach, hacks and data theft cropping up.



Recently, data has been consumer data has been stolen from the servers of app-based cab firms, telecom companies and even government schemes. A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court is also deliberating whether right to privacy is a fundamental one. The government has also constituted a panel to look into bringing a data protection law



Panda said that the Supreme Court deliberating on the source and contours of right to privacy is a historic step. Despite Aadhaars significant contributions as a tool of inclusion, efficiency and good governance, it has become the focal point of this debate. In the 21st century, the threats to privacy, data protection and security go far beyond it, he said.



As noted by Judges itself, data protection is an aspect of privacy and will require to be considered separately. There is vast information about us already out there in the cloud, including biometrics, with more collected every day. In this context, the data protection aspect, inter alia, of my Bill has become more significant today, he added.



The event also helped facilitate a mature discussion of the present day scenario on data protection. The audience, from backgrounds such as law, engineering, liberal arts and political science. Topics such as misuse of private data and permissions given to third parties without complete awareness were raised.
Kolkata: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has invited Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung for dialogue on Sunday to end the deadlock in Darjeeling which has been witnessing unrest for almost two months now.



West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to attend the meeting as she left the capital on Saturday evening after attending a meeting of opposition parties. It was not immediately clear if any representative from the state government will attend the meeting.



In a press statement, Gurung said, Today the GJM received an intimation from the Union Home Minister requesting us to join for talks tomorrow at 4.30 pm in New Delhi. Because the movement has today transitioned into a peoples movement  with all the hill political parties as well as non-political bodies together  I have submitted this invitation for their consideration (sic).



I am hopeful the Hill parties leading the movement will attend this meeting and help find a possible road map for Gorkhaland statehood. I thank the honorable Home Minister for the kind invite and hope the central government will do justice for the Gorkhas at the earliest, he added.



Rajnaths invite for talks came a day after News18.com reported that the GJM had hinted it was ready for a dialogue, but said it had not received any formal communication from the West Bengal government.



This is for the second time when Union Home Minister appealed for talks in the recent past.



Earlier, on July 18, MHA had issued a statement, saying, The Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, telephonically apprised of the situation prevailing in Darjeeling to the Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh today. Shri Rajnath Singh has appealed to the people living in Darjeeling and nearby areas to remain calm and peaceful.



In his appeal, Rajnath said that nobody should resort to violence and in a democracy like India resorting to violence would never help in finding a solution.



Every issue can be resolved through mutual dialogue. I appealed that all concerned parties and stakeholders should resolve their differences and misunderstandings through dialogue in amicable environment, he had said.
Jammu: An Army jawan was killed on Saturday as Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on Indian posts along the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said.



He said the Pakistan army initiated the unprovoked firing on the Indian Army posts around 5 pm. The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, he said.



In the exchange of fire, Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar (42), resident of Madhya Pradesh, was grievously injured and later succumbed to injuries, the spokesman said.



Tomar, who hailed from Tarsana village in Morena district in MP, is survived by his wife Omavati Devi, a son and a daughter, the spokesman said. "He was a brave and sincere soldier. The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," he added.
The UPSC Civil Services Mains 2017 exam dates have been released by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on its official website - upsc.gov.in.



The UPSC Civil Services Mains examination papers are scheduled to commence from October 28th 2017 till November 3rd 2017. The candidates who had successfully cleared the Pre-Lims need to fill the Detailed Application Form (DAF) for the Mains Exam, which will be available on the official website of UPSC on 17th August 2017.



According to the Civil Services Mains 2017 examination schedule the Paper  I i.e. Essay will be conducted on October 28th 2017.



General Studies papers will be conducted on 30th and 31st October 2017 in four shifts.



The Language papers are scheduled for November 1st 2017 with Indian Language paper to be conducted in the morning shift wherein candidates can select from 22 Indian languages viz (Assamese / Bengali / Bodo / Dogri / Gujarati / Hindi / Kannada / Kashmiri / Konkani / Maithili / Malayalam / Manipuri / Marathi / Nepali / Oriya / Punjabi / Sanskrit / Santhali / Sindhi (Devanagari/Arabic Script) / Tamil / Telugu / Urdu ). The English Language paper will be held in the afternoon session.



The Optional papers are scheduled for November 3rd 2017.



There would be no exams on October 29th (Sunday) and November 2nd (Thursday) as per the official notice.



All the exams will be conducted for 3 hours duration in the morning session and afternoon sessions viz:

1. Forenoon Session: 9am to 12 noon

2. Afternoon Session: 2pm to 5pm



Candidates can check the complete schedule at: http://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CSM_2017_TimeTable_Engl.pdf
Chennai: Tamil Big Boss contestant Oviya has been issued a summons by the police, days after a complaint was filed against the reality shows producers and host Kamal Haasan for allegedly provoking her to commit suicide by putting her under tremendous pressure.



Police officials, however, made it clear that there was no hurry for her to appear as she is currently not in the city. They added that they are in touch with her manager and she can go to the police station whenever she is in town. There is no deadline, they said.



The complainant, Balaji, an advocate, alleged that the reality show had broadcast Oviya attempting suicide by jumping into a swimming pool. She was saved by other contestants. In his complaint, he said she was depressed because of the tasks given to her by the producer of Bigg Boss to gain TRPs and the show forced her to attempt suicide. He further added that all participants are under pressure because of the show.



Oviya is in Kerala and attempts to reach the actor have been futile. She left the Bigg Boss House after 41 days due to personal reasons. A crowd favourite, her exit trended on social media and a hashtag #oviyaarmy was created in support of the actor from the beginning. There have been reports that Oviya will be brought back to the show as a wildcard.



Meanwhile, the show has been facing legal issues ever since it was broadcast. The Madras High Court has sought details of the mechanism that is available under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to monitor such issues. This, after a petition was filed saying that the reality show is against the Tamil culture and the dress code of the female participants is vulgar.
Karachi: Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who made her Bollywood debut with Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees this year, has said she felt like "being punched in the stomach" when she saw the movie.



Mahira spoke at length about her failures in life during a lecture at a university here on Thursday, reported Dawn.



"The truth is that we have all gone through failure. I have personally as well as professionally experienced failure," Mahira said.



"I was advised by many people to not accept the role in Bol (Pakistani film) as it was a small one but my gut feeling told me otherwise. I also decided to act in the serial Humsafar on my gut feeling.



"There are no repeats of your first film, but somehow my name was missed as the Bol credits scrolled in front of me. Then for Raees, even though the teaser said introducing Mahira Khan', I felt like being punched in the stomach when there was no such credit in the film itself.



"Then when it was released, I was banned in India and the film was banned in Pakistan," added the actress, referring to the unofficial 'ban' on Pakistani actors by certain outfits in India after the terror attack at Uri last year.



However, Mahira is not affected with failure.



"It is a big thing to work in a foreign film. I pray I get my introducing credit when I work in an Iranian film," she said.



"Failure is knowledge and knowledge is a success. So it is a win-win. We actors know how to paint smiles on our faces and carry on, I did too," she added.



Mahira recalled that her grandmother wanted her to opt for medicine as she was good in studies. However, Mahira always harboured dreams of becoming an actor.



"I was dreaming of wearing a sari and dancing like Madhuri Dixit. I also used to dream of working with Shah Rukh Khan. I did nothing to make it happen. I only dreamed and believed in my dreams," she said.
Indians are known to be proud and protective of their culture, traditions and values. However, who actually set the rules for theses values and constructed the moral fibre was never actually asked by anyone. The biggest repercussions of these fabricated values were faced by the performing arts, particularly cinema.While, the CBFC was essentially established to certify movies, in recent times, the board has taken upon itself to 'purify' industry from explicit content and has transformed itself into a Censor machine rather than just a certification board.The board is often criticised for its conservative outlook for films that bring forward gender taboos, profanity prevalent in the society and show carnal desires openly. Over the years, there have been numerous issues with innumerable films that the Censor Board cropped, delayed or banned.Let's have a look at five such Bollywood movies where the content went against the sanskaars of Censor Board of Film Certification of India:The most controversial movie that came in the 90s, Bandit Queen had to face the wrath of the censor board. Directed by none other than critically acclaimed Shekhar Kapoor, the movie was based on the life of dacoit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi played by Seema Biswas. Profanity, long rape scenes and nudity were the elements that pinched censor board to ban it. The film was later released with an 'A' certificate.Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Deepa Mehta had to face censor board's flak for two of her movies viz Fire and Water. The content didn't impress the various religious group of the society due to its controversial subject which went against the culture of India (as per this group). The hue and cry around the movie were such that the censor board had to ban it in the country.Unfreedom is a modern-day thriller which took two fireballs together - lesbian love and Islamic terrorism. The censor board couldn't approve certain love making scenes and nudity. The subject too was contentious which led to the denial of CBFC certificate in India. The movie was later released in North America.Anurag Kashyap's production house has a long-running feud with censor board and the latest in the line was Abhishek Chaubey directorial Udta Punjab. The censor board sought a stay on the films' release citing the theme of the movie that dealt with drugs and vulgarity. This resulted in 89 cuts in the film. However, by the order from Bombay High Court, the film got released with a single cut.Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, Lipstick Under My Burkha hit the headlines in January this year when the board refused to certify the film for being 'too lady-oriented'. The movie has got an A certificate now and is set to release on July 21st, 2017.
Mumbai: Actress Shenaz Treasury has turned down the offer to visit Pakistan for an event.



Shenaz, who had portrayed a Pakistani character in the 2017 American romantic comedy film The Big Sick, was approached to visit Pakistan for an event. However, looking at the current situation between India and Pakistan, the actress decided against going.



"As of now I am not taking events in Pakistan and yes I have turned down the offer since I feel it is not the right time," Shenaz said in a statement.



The actress, who is currently in the Maldives, will soon return to India to promote her upcoming release Kaalakaandi.


Mumbai Filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani, who was sacked as CBFC chief on Friday, said he had no regret about being asked to step down, is proud of being labelled as 'Sanskari' censor chief and had in fact been preparing for his exit since months.



Nihalani, who was appointed to the post in 2015, a year after Modi became the Prime Minister, has been replaced by writer-lyricist-ad guru Prasoon Joshi.



One of the most controversial censor board chairpersons who ran into skirmishes with film producers over cuts, beeps and disclaimers he insisted on, Nihalani spoke in a relaxed frame of mind a few hours after the news of his ouster went viral.



"I had been preparing myself for my exit for months now. Actually, from the time I came in there have been elements working against me, some of them from within the CBFC. These elements - I'm not going to name them on-record - are currently celebrating premature Diwali.



"Unka toh tyohaar mere jaane se ho gaya (They are in a festive mood because of my ouster)," he said.



Any regrets about his departure?



"None at all. Believe me, I was brought in as the CBFC chairperson all a sudden. I happily took up the job that the government thought me fit for. Now when the government has asked me to step down, I do so without any regret.



"It was a big challenge while it lasted. When I came in, there was rampant corruption in the CBFC. I got rid of all the middlemen and touts who made money in the censor certification process. They too must be celebrating Diwali in advance this year," he said.



He refrained from commenting on Joshi being his successor.



"Whoever takes over from me is welcome to do. I only hope he doesn't reverse the work that I started at the CBFC. I feel we have achieved a lot in the past three years.



"We've speeded up the certification process and made it entirely digital. I just hope my successor doesn't succumb to false notions of liberalism propagated by the pseudo-progressive elements in our film industry and work in a direction opposed to mine.



"Do I have any regrets? None at all. I worked in all sincerity and with utmost honesty. In the process, I offended a lot of the so-called progressive elements. I also got labelled a 'Sanskari' censor chief. I am proud of that label.



"I hope I am remembered as the CBFC chairperson who took a firm stand against vulgarity and pseudo-liberalism, no matter how unpopular it made me."



What future plans?



"I am returning to my first love, film production, in a big way. I will soon be announcing a slew of films. It's been a highly satisfying tenure at the CBFC for me. But it's also been exhausting and time-consuming. I'm happy to make way for someone else," he added.



Before cracking down on a variety of movies, Nihalani had produced a string of films including Paap ki Duniya, Aag ka Gola, Shola aur Shabnam, Aankhen and Talaash: The Hunt Begins.






Wat a fabulous progressive move @prasoonjoshi_ #CBFC chairman ... out with the the trash ... #Pahlajnihalanisacked

 Salilacharya (@Salilacharya) August 11, 2017

Sacking #PahlajNihalani just before the Independence Day is no less than a feeling of being free. CBFC is free from this stupid creature.  Manish Shaarma (@Manishshaarma) August 11, 2017



Finally, flowers won't have to touch each each other for the sex that humans have. #PahlajNihalaniSacked #PahlajNihalani Pahlaj Nihalani

 Mihir Ved (@itsmihir1993) August 11, 2017

Yes yes yes finally the dark times for Indian entertainment is over #PahlajNihalani is finally GONE!! Prasoon Joshi, high hopes from you  Sharanya Narayanan (@iamsharz) August 11, 2017



Basically #PahlajNihalani's scene has been censored from censor board.

 Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) August 11, 2017



Congrats @prasoonjoshi_ ..No doubt that you are the best person for the job! Here's to new, rational beginnings #CensorBoard #PrasoonJoshi

 Sophie Choudry (@Sophie_Choudry) August 12, 2017

Replacing #PahlajNihalani with #PrasoonJoshi is swapping uncool with cool, silliness with brains. Hope Smriti Irani will overhaul system now  Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) August 11, 2017

Finally Pahalaj Nihalani is shown the door and #PrasoonJoshi takes over as CBFC Chairman. Good Days for films ahead.  Shubham Agarwal (@SirAgarwal) August 11, 2017

As soon as the reports - suggesting that there was a higher chance of CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani being fired - started doing the rounds in June, many hoped for it to come true. And the moment the governments decision to replace Nihalani with songwriter-poet Prasoon Joshi as the censor board chief was announced on Friday evening, Twitter came alive with the latters win. Former colleagues, people from the film fraternity and a whole host of fans congratulated Joshi for his fantastic win, calling it a fabulous progressive move.Officially, Nihalanis three-year term was due to be completed in January 2018. But the government issued a notification declaring the appointment of Prasoon Joshi on Friday evening. The notification read: In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (37 of 1952) read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983, the Central Government is pleased to appoint Sh. Prasoon Joshi as Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification in an honorary capacity from 11th August 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. The Notification supersedes the earlier notification F No. M-11020/1/2014-DO (FC) dated 19th January 2015. Vidya Balan, Gautami Tadimalla, Narendra Kohli, Naresh Chandra, Neil Herbert, Vivek Agnihotri, TS Nagabharana, Ramesh Patange, Vani Tripathi, Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Mihir Bhuta among others would also be joining Joshi on the Censor Board.But the question remains what exactly did Nihalani do in his two and a half year stint that he became the most abhorred name in the film industry? Well, his tenure was packed with controversies and he continued to shame the institution he chaired with his illogical decisions  uproar over Udta Punjab censorship and certification being the most talked about issue that became too much for Indian film fraternity to handle.Whether it was his decision to not clear Lipstick Under My Burkha due to its feminist narrative of women talking about their own sexual identities or his recent demand to remove the word intercourse from Jab Harry Met Sejal, he made CBFC make headlines for its orthodox approach on what the viewers should and shouldnt view. For someone who is often mocked for his inability to view narrative in a more liberal way, was also slammed when he issued a list of cuss words that cannot be used in the films, "in any category of the certificate."But if anybody who is familiar with the films that have been produced by Nihalani and watched videos too would agree his films defied the very laws recently stated by the CBFC. From being violent, vulgar to cheap, his videos were everything, but sanskari.Joshi, on the other hand, who has been appointed with immediate effect for a period of three years, was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2015 for his tremendous contribution to arts, literature and advertising.The National award winning lyricist, kicked off his career in films by penning down lyrics for Rajkumar Santoshis Lajja in 2001. Post that, he worked with several prominent filmmakers and music directors. Among his most popular works in Bollywood are the thought-provoking films Rang De Basanti, Bhaag Mikha Bhaag, Taare Zameen Par. He was also appointed as a jury member at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, which further explains his prowess.While speaking to media recently, adman-lyricist Joshi said he would work towards bringing in the much-needed understanding. Keen on shouldering his responsibilities in a constructive way, Joshi said in a recent interview , "With good intent, I will try to make as much difference as I can. I think there is some sort of understanding that needs to be brought in. I have believed that right and responsibilities are better served with constructive contribution. One hopes to make a positive difference with the guidance and support of respected minds. Right now my priority will be to understand the work assigned to me."Arent these words strong enough to understand this is just the beginning of a larger reform? We leave you with strong reactions from celebs and commoners that further indicate just how Joshi's appointment could signal 'acche din' for Indian film industry...
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should resign taking "moral responsibility" for the death of 30 infants at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur.



Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari also demanded strict action against those responsible for the deaths, allegedly due to the shortage of supply of liquid oxygen, at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in eastern Uttar Pradesh.



"There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible -- the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital, and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister.



"While all those responsible must be charged with criminal culpability accounting to murder,...there is a moral dimension which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and his health minister must take responsibility for and resign immediately," Tiwari said.



Taking a swipe at the Uttar Pradesh health minister, the Congress leader tweeted, "UP Health Minister only seeks votes in Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji's name -he doesn't follow Shastri Ji's high morals in politics... Shastri Ji resigned taking moral responsibility for railway accident, @sidharthnsingh holds on to power even after the death of infants(sic)."



Singh is the grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.



Health Minister Singh had on Friday told PTI, "The deaths of children were very unfortunate and the government will set up an inquiry committee to ascertain if any lapse has been there and if anyone is found guilty he will be made accountable."



He said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the hospital, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.



Singh, however, asserted that the deaths were not because of paucity of oxygen.
Patna: Bihar chief minister and Janta Dal (United) national president Nitish Kumar is expected to formally announce his decision to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the partys national executive meeting in Patna on August 19.



The invite was extended by BJP president Amit Shah during their meeting in Delhi on Friday. JD(U) leaders said this was only a formality after Nitish came out of Mahagathbandhan and formed a new government in the state along with the BJP-led NDA.



Partys national general secretary KC Tyagi said, Nitish Kumar himself will moot the proposal which will be passed unanimously. This is a historic moment for Bihar when the same alliance is at the helm of affairs in the state and at the Centre. The combined efforts of Centre and state will help the state reach new heights of development.



Nitish Kumar had snapped ties with NDA in 2013 after 17 years of togetherness when the BJP decided to project Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. But this break up lasted only till last July when he announced his inability to continue in the Grand Alliance government along with the tainted RJD leadership and weakening Congress.



Nitishs return to NDA fold has bolstered the prospects for NDA in 2019 general elections and he is tipped to play a bigger role in that process. Sources close to Nitish told News18 that he would be made convenor of the NDA, the stature once enjoyed by George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav.



Narendra Modi ji wants to harness the potential of Nitish Kumar at the national level. His image is acceptable to all and his organizational skills will help strengthen NDA in other states also. The mere fact that the person who was considered an alternative to Modi has joined him against the UPA is enough to swing the political narrative decisively in favour of the NDA, a leader close to Nitish said.



After joining NDA, JD(U) would be offered two ministerial berths in the Centre  one of cabinet rank and the other as minister of state. However it will take time and would delay cabinet reshuffle as the party will try to replace Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar with new members in the Rajya Sabha. If they do not resign on their own, they can then go to the disciplinary committee as both are engaged in anti party activities. If this does not work, there are other ways to ensure their ouster from the Rajya Sabha, sources said.



JD(U) has two MPs in the Lok Sabha and nine in Rajya Sabha, which is very crucial for the BJP considering it is in minority in the Upper House.
Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav turned the tables on the BJP and pointed fingers at Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey for misusing his position by deputing doctors at his home.



The BJP had earlier accused Lalus son Tej Pratap of deputing a team of three government doctors at his official residence for Lalu when he was ill. Tej Pratap was the health minister under the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar.



The RJD supremo alleged four doctors had been put on duty at state Pandey's residence along with an ambulance and questioned the silence of the BJP leaders on the issue.



The BJP had raised hue and cry over a similar situation when some doctors and an ambulance were stationed by former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav to cater to needs of the people thronging him for help. But why are they silent now? Prasad asked.



The RJD chief showed an official letter dated August 1 purportedly putting doctors in rotation at the new health minister's residence in support of his charges. Prasad sought the resignation of the health minister for allegedly misusing the ministerial position.



However, Pandey accused the RJD president of "spreading lies".



Pandey said that for five days from August 2-7, some doctors were at his official residence to provide service to the public and dispose of some official work.



Since I was new to the ministry and did not know much about the department, doctors were there at my official residence to help the public with their medical needs. But, after five days when things were streamlined they were withdrawn from residence, he claimed.



The senior BJP leader launched a scathing attack at the RJD president for drawing comparisions of the incident with the one when Tej Pratap was the health minister.



"During RJD's time doctors and ambulance were on round-the-clock duty at 10 Circular Road residence of Rabri Devi to serve the family but in my case they were there for a short period of time to help the public," he claimed.



"It's my official residence and neither I nor my family stays in the bunglow. My official bunglow is used for disposal of official work and catering to the problems of needy," he said.
Raichur (Karnataka): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Modi government over farmer and unemployment issues, accusing it of making "hollow" and "false" promises".



"We don't make big promises; rather we will perform and show. When Modiji's government came, farmers were promised full help, but across the country farmers are committing suicide," Gandhi said.



He said in Karnataka and Punjab, Congress governments had stood by the farmers.



"Wherever there is Congress party government, you will see them standing with farmers, because we understand that farmers make India strong. If farmers are strong India will be strong, if they are weak India will become weak."



The congress leader was speaking at the state Congress committee's 'Samanatha Samavesha' here to felicitate him for his role in providing special status to the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region during the UPA rule, by an amendment of Article 371(J) of the Constitution.



Speaking about article 371(J), Gandhi said Congress has fought with the people for this for their development. Claiming that BJP veteran L K Advani as Union Home Minister was against Article 371 (J), he said after Congress came to power in 2004, the special status was granted which has benefited people to a large extent today.



"I'm happy to note that the amount that BJP has put here in five years, that much amount is being put in three months by the Congress government today," he said, taking note of various developmental activities in the region.



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, general secretary in-charge K C Venugopal, KPCC president G Parameshwara and several other party leaders were present at the event.



Stating that Congress believes in Gandhiji's preaching of helping the poor and those at the fag end of the line, Gandhi said, "BJP and RSS's thinking is different; they believe that if they help those at the forefront of the line, things will be good. This is the difference between us."



He noted that Finance minister Arun Jaitley had said in Parliament that loan waiver was not the government's policy and a BJP leader had said they did not want to make farmers lazy by doing it.



"When you waive the loan by India's 10 richest Industrialists, they don't become lazy, but when you waive farmers loan they will become lazy. How fair is this?"



He lauded Siddaramaiah for announcing the farm loan waiver in Karnataka.



Gandhi said when the Congress-led government was at the Centre, every year minimum support price (MSP) on crops used to increase by about 15 per cent, but after BJP came to power it has been increasing only by two to three per cent.



He said Congress government in Karnataka is making efforts towards ensuring farmers fair price, through unified marketing platform.



"We are helping farmers and weaker sections wherever we can, but they only speak and make hollow and false promises," he added.



Taking a dig at the Modi government for low employment rate, Gandhi said the government in Karnataka is doing a far better job in this regard.



"...they speak about Make in India, not even one factory has opened. Who has got employment here because of make in India? Now tell me how many jobs has Siddaramaiah given in Karnataka?--30,000..."



"False promises on one side, on the other hand Congress Chief Minister working from heart for the people and doesn't make hollow promises. This is the difference between us and them," he said.



Accusing the Modi government of indulging in false and hollow promises, the congress leader said people know that Congress will do, what it says.



"Farmers know that only Congress can help them and youth in India have understood that Narendra Modi canot provide employment to them. It is now proved and youths have realized it," he said.



Hitting out at the government on demonetisation, Gandhi said, "last year I don't know what happened on November 8th Narendra Modi got an idea, he came on the TV and said Bhaio, Behno I'm going to ban the notes in your pockets...as though it was fun. Whole of India, small farmers, labourers, and women were affected."



"On November 8, Narendra Modi gave axe blow (kuladi maari) to entire India...people are feeling its effects even today," he said.



Gandhi also called on party men to face the Assembly elections early next year unitedly in Karnataka as he expressed confidence about winning the polls.



"...Congress party will win the election on the strength of its work, the work done towards farmers, youth in the state. I want to tell our party workers that you are our strength. We should all work together with unity and have to fight this election," he said.



"We should work for poor, weaker sections, Dalits, adivasis, backward classes and those in need of help. What we have done in the last five years, we will do more than that in next five years," he added.


The U.S. Department of Educations top civil-rights official set off a firestorm when she told the New York Times  erroneously  that 90 percent of college sexual assault cases fall into the category of we were both drunk or post-relationship regret.

Candice Jackson quickly and appropriately retracted her remarks, but her comments unintentionally highlighted the practical limits of a federal approach to the tragedy of campus sexual assault.

Consider the following:

80 percent of female college sexual assault victims know their attacker.

25 percent of sexual assault victims say they were drunk or otherwise unable to provide consent or stop the attack from happening.

Just 24 percent of victims say physical force was used against them.

The typical sexual assault or rape does not conform to the stereotype of the stranger lying in wait to rape his next victim. Rather, predators are more likely to take advantage of the environment or to psychologically manipulate their targets to commit the assaults or rapes. These behaviors are enabled by todays hookup culture that has, for many college students, blurred the lines regarding consent and acceptable behavior.

These cases often lack the physical evidence needed to successfully prosecute a case in conventional criminal and campus investigations. Hard evidence is relatively uncommon, and attempts to uncover the truth require lengthy interviews and an understanding of young adult behavior and cultural norms.

Complicating matters further is the variation in college campus climates. A nine-campus survey funded by the U.S. Department of Justice found that sexual assaults reported by undergraduate women varied from 5.8 percent to 20 percent, and the likelihood of rape varied from 2.2 percent to 6.2 percent.

Effective strategies designed to reduce sexual assault and rape have to be designed for the individual campus and culture. In many cases non-adversarial approaches that balance responsibility and culpability in light of the harm perpetrated by the offender are more likely to lead to more-just outcomes.

These nuances require a better approach than federal directives provide under programs such as Title IX, the statute being used to guide sexual assault investigations on college campuses. Indeed, the governments primary strategy has been to lower evidentiary standards to secure more convictions rather than holding offenders accountable for their actions and changing campus culture.

Campus activism should push for more innovative approaches that focus on bystander intervention, securing individual dignity, and addressing the harm created by assault. This could lead to cultural and procedural shifts what would reduce campus sexual assault.

To be sure, Candice Jacksons comments were ill-informed and statistically wrong. But those comments should not distract advocates from the real goal of purging campuses of the scourge of sexual assault and recognizing the practical limits of a federal approach.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena Minister Subhash Desai, accused of graft by the opposition, on Saturday offered to resign, but Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis turned down his request.



The development comes a day after Fadnavis announced a probe by Lokayukta against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, who has been accused by the opposition of impropriety in a slum redevelopment project in Mumbai. He belongs to the BJP. The opposition has accused Desai of violating norms while allegedly denotifying lands acquired by state-run MIDC in Nashik.



On allegations against Desai, Fadnavis had on Friday said the government will request the Lokayukta to consider the case and if that does not work out, an independent probe would be conducted.



The 75-year-old Sena veteran, who holds the industries portfolio, said he met Fadnavis and offered to quit the state cabinet, but his request was rejected by the chief minister. "I met the chief minister at 'Varsha' (the CM's official residence) with my resignation letter and requested him to relieve me until I am proved innocent. However, the chief minister refused to accept my resignation and said I need not resign," Desai said.



"The chief minister said let there be an independent inquiry and until the result is out for everyone to see, I should continue performing my duty," he said.



Desai said he has decided to co-operate with whatever inquiry is instituted and accept its result.



"I met Uddhavji (Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray) last evening and apprised him of my decision to resign. Uddhavji then spoke to the chief minister and both of them jointly decided that my resignation would not be accepted," he said. Thackeray, speaking to reporters today, backed Desai and said those (in opposition) levelling allegations are themselves "stuck knee deep" in corruption.



"It is dangerous that they (the opposition parties) are not ashamed of what they have done (in the past). Levelling baseless allegations and asking for resignations will dent the image of the state," Thackeray said.



"The chief minister has promised a fair probe. We hope the truth comes out soon. The party stands firmly behind Desai," he added.



Later, the opposition parties slammed Fadnavis for not accepting Desai's resignation.



Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of the NCP said by not accepting Desai's resignation, Fadnavis has discreetly saved Mehta, who is also accused of corruption.



"The ministers accused of corruption have no moral right to keep occupying their chairs. Unless they are removed, a fair probe cannot happen. Even if the CM is backing them, we will continue our fight against the corrupt ministers and the government," Munde said.



Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said Fadnavis has proved he is a "political opportunist" and has no firm stand against corruption.



"The chief minister had immediately accepted the resignation of (then minister) Eknath Khadse (last year) but refused to do so now. This shows he is an opportunist who will only do what suits his politics," Sawant said.



Khadse, a BJP leader, had last year resigned after facing allegations of committing impropriety in a land deal in Pune. The chief minister had said mere denotification of land does not mean corruption has taken place.
If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that people should be more concerned with Artificial Intelligence (AI) than the risk posed by escalating tensions with North Korea, the media reported. "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea," Musk tweeted on Friday.Musk's comments were in reference to his non-profit start-up, OpenAI, defeating several of the world's best players at a video game, reports The Hill magazine. Musk has called for regulation of AI in the past, saying just last month that regulation is needed now or "by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late". His comments also follow heightened tensions between the US and North Korea. The communist regime has continued testing and expanding its nuclear programme, reporting this week that it can now fit nuclear warheads on missiles.
Beijing: China's President Xi Jinping said there needs to be a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a telephone call with US President Donald Trump he urged all sides to avoid words or action that raise tensions.



Xi's comments came hours after Trump warned North Korea that the US military was "locked and loaded" as Pyongyang accused the US leader of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.



The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an action sure to further antagonise North Korea.



In a statement, China's foreign ministry said Xi told Trump that a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue was essential, and urged calm.



"Concerned parties must exercise restraint and avoid remarks and actions that escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula," it cited Xi as saying.



In their phone call, Trump and Xi "agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour," the White House said in a statement, and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. It added the relationship between Trump and Xi was "extremely close" and "will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."



Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, earlier took to Twitter to warn North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that US "military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely".



Again referring to Kim, Trump added, "If he utters one threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast."



In remarks to reporters after a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Trump said the situation with North Korea was "very dangerous and it will not continue".



He added, "We will see what happens. We think that lots of good things could happen, and we could also have a bad solution."



Despite the tough rhetoric, Trump insisted that "nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump."



South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement on Saturday the United States and China were working to resolve the North Korea crisis, and it hoped the two leaders' phone call "will be able to resolve the peak of tension and act as a catalyst for the situation to move on to a new dimension."



TRUMP TO GUAM: "YOU'RE SAFE"



Guam, the Pacific island that is a US territory and home to a US air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and around 6,000 US military personnel, posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack.



North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Thursday the North Korean army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land in the sea 18 to 25 miles (30 to 40 km) from Guam.



Japan's government decided to deploy its Patriot missile defence system to four locations in the west of the country, media reported. No one at Japan's defence ministry was available to comment on Saturday.



The governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo, posted a video on Facebook of himself speaking with Trump. "We are with you a thousand percent. You are safe," Trump told Calvo.



Washington wants to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear missiles that could hit the United States. North Korea sees its nuclear arsenal as protection against the United States and its partners in Asia.



Trump said he was considering additional sanctions on North Korea, adding these would be "very strong." He gave no details and did not make clear whether he meant unilateral or multilateral sanctions.



US officials have said new US steps that would target Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang are in the works, but these have appeared to be put on hold to give Beijing time to show it is serious about enforcing new U.N. sanctions.



BACK CHANNELS



Trump said he did not want to talk about diplomatic "back channels" with North Korea after US media reports that Joseph Yun, the US envoy for North Korea policy, had engaged in diplomacy for several months with Pak Song Il, a senior diplomat at Pyongyang's U.N. mission, on the deteriorating ties and the issue of Americans imprisoned in North Korea.



But Daniel Russel, until April the top US diplomat for East Asia, said this so-called New York channel had been a relatively commonplace means of communication with North Korea over the years, and was not a forum for negotiation.



"It's never been a vehicle for negotiations and this doesnt constitute substantive US-DPRK dialogue," he said, using the acronym for North Korea's formal name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



Both Moscow and Berlin expressed alarm over the rise in rhetoric over North Korea, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan by which North Korea would freeze missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. Neither the United States nor North Korea has embraced the plan.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no military solution, adding that "an escalation of the rhetoric is the wrong answer."



As the rhetoric has ratcheted up, South Koreans are buying more ready-to-eat meals for emergency use, and the government aims to expand nationwide civil defence drills planned for Aug. 23. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.
Gaborone: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has cancelled a planned visit to Botswana because of exhaustion, his office said, a move that is likely to be welcomed by China, a major investor in the African country.



The Dalai Lama had been expected to address a human rights conference in the capital Gaborone on Aug. 17-19 and meet Botswana's president during the trip.



Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China, and it stepped up warnings to Botswana last month, with its Foreign Ministry spokesman demanding "the relevant country earnestly respect China's core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter".



Botswana reacted by saying that as a sovereign state, it retained the right to permit anyone to enter the country.



The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has long been at loggerheads over Tibet with China, which brands him a reactionary and separatist. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom, and true autonomy for Tibetans.



In a statement late on Friday the Dalai Lama's office said his doctors had advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks.



"During the past few weeks, His Holiness has found that carrying out his activities has left him unusually tired," it said.



"Although he had been eagerly looking forward to visiting Gaborone ... His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year old body was telling him to rest."



China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana.
Tokyo: Japan is deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said on Saturday.



Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US.



The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said.



It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said.



Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.



While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.



The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.



Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures."



In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.



At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Islamabad: Nawaz Sharif on Friday termed his disqualification from premiership as a "joke" and exuded confidence that he will be elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the fourth time.



A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.



Addressing a huge gathering in Gujarat on the third day of his journey from Islamabad to Lahore via the Grand Trunk (GT) Road to display his political might, Sharif said even the judges who disqualified him failed to point out a single example of corruption against him.



"Should this even be called a disqualification? I will be made prime minister by the masses again tomorrow," he told a cheering crowd.



"They have only removed me on paper but they have not removed me from your hearts. Is this removing me at all?" Sharif asked.



He asked people to stand by him to make sure that their vote is respected.



"I cannot accept this joke. Can you accept this joke that you elect someone, then he is disgraced and ousted," he said.



"May I ask why I was ousted? Did I commit any kind of corruption? I am innocent and did not commit any financial wrong. That has been said by the judges who disqualified me. Then why I have been ousted," the 67-year-old veteran politician said.



Sharif said the people's vote had been trampled upon as millions of people elected a leader and a couple of people or five judges disgraced and sent him home.



He said it was for the people of Gujranwala to "think that removal was just".



Sharif, who could not complete his term for the third time, also asked the gathering, "Should I sit back and accept the verdict or fight the injustice?"



The people responded in unison with a big 'No', prompting Sharif to ask them to stand by him.



"If you do not want me to sit back then you would have to stand by me. Then stand by me to change the fate of this nation. Promise me that you would do what I tell you," he said.



Sharif said the time had come to change the country.



"We would have to make sure that your vote is respected. It is a question of respect for the vote of 20 crore people. I would not allow anyone to trample your right to elect leaders of choice," Sharif said.



He also announced that he would announce his future plan of action and asked his supporters to wait for it.



Sharif stepped down after being disqualified by the Supreme Court on July 28 and after staying in Murree and Islamabad embarked on a road journey to his home in Lahore in the company of thousands of his supporters.



He was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of the road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.



On Friday, he resumed his travel from Rawalpindi and reached Jhelum in the evening and addressed an even bigger rally there.



Later, he rested at a scenic hotel on the banks of the River Jhelum.



He left Jhelum at around 12 PM and stopped in Gujarat for Friday prayers and addressed his supporters.



He has left for Gujranwala and will cross small towns of Wairabad, Gakhar Mandi etc. He is expected to halt briefly at some places to address his supporters.



According to the scheduled of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), Sharif is expected to spend the night in Gujranwala. He would leave for Lahore in the morning and is expected to reach there at 4 PM tomorrow.
United Nations: Ten Nobel Peace Prize winners are appealing to Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince to show mercy and halt the executions of 14 young people sentenced to death for participating in protests in 2012.



In a letter released Friday they said staying the executions would "correct a great injustice."



The laureates said the 14 were convicted and sentenced in a mass trial "based on the actions of the worst defendant," arguing that several would never warrant the death penalty. They also accused Saudi authorities of coercing confessions and reportedly subjecting the protesters to physical force.



The 14 face execution for protests and violence against security forces.



Among the 14, all minority Shiite Muslims, is Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who was detained at a Saudi airport on his way to the United States to attend Western Michigan University.



The laureates said al-Sweikat was 18 when he was arrested on charges including supervising a group on Facebook and photographing the demonstrations. The letter said al-Sweikat's shoulder was broken while his confession was being coerced.



Others facing execution include Ali al Nimr, charged with setting up a Blackberry page named "The Liberals" and posting photos of the demonstrations and inviting people to participate; Munir Adam, a partially deaf and blind 20-year-old; and two others who were juveniles, the laureates said.



The Nobel laureates said that in court, the defendants repudiated their confessions. The letter also said that during the appeals process, the allegations of physical coercion were reportedly not investigated, which it said would violate both international law and Muslim Sharia law if true.



The American Federation of Teachers has urged President Donald Trump to demand that Saudi Arabia halt the execution of al-Sweikat and the 13 others.



Sarah Lee Whitson, who heads Human Rights Watch's Mideast and North Africa regions, said the 14 prisoners are at "imminent risk of execution."



A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Justice, Mansour al-Qafari, said in a statement published Aug. 4 that all defendants in Saudi Arabia receive due process.



He said terrorism-related cases and death penalty verdicts are reviewed by an appeals court and the supreme court, with a total of 13 judges reviewing a case before an execution is carried out.



Ultraconservative Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia have in the past referred to Shiites as apostates, and Shiite protesters have been accused of being allied with the kingdom's rival, Iran.



The Nobel laureates said that in a world where nearly 2.5 billion people participate in social media and get news on the Internet, leaders can no longer "dismiss the voices of their constituency."



Jose Ramos-Horta, the former East Timor president and Nobel laureate, said: "It is a reality that the Internet has given voice to dissent in our century, and the minority populations who may have felt sidelined now have an open forum."



The other laureates who signed the letter are: South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Polish President Lech Walesa, former South African President F.W. De Klerk and India's anti-slavery leader Kailash Satyarthi.



Also signing: Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, Iranian human rights attorney Shirin Ebadi, American anti-landmine activist Jody Williams and Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Maguire.
New Delhi: Altaf Hussain, leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has warned that Pakistan will break into pieces after August 14, the nations 71st Independence Day. The provinces of Pakistan, Hussain said, should celebrate August 14 not as Independence Day but as a day of captivity under Pakistani Army.



In a 45-minute audio address on YouTube, which has garnered thousands of views since it was uploaded on Friday, Hussain also lashed out at the Pakistan Army. He accused the Pakistani Army of carrying out extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of Muhajir youth in Pakistan. He even went as far as to say that the Army orchestrated the ouster of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



14 August ke baad Pakistan tukde-tukde ho jayega. Yeh meri baddua nahi hai.Fauj, ISI aur har siyasatdar jo Fauj ke agent bane rahe, who sab Pakistan ko todne ke zimmedar honge (After August 14, Pakistan will break into pieces. This is not a curse I wish upon Pakistan. The army, the ISI and all politicians who are agents of the army will be responsible for breaking Pakistan up), he said.



Hussain, who has been living in exile in London since 1992, added, There are songs being sung on TV. Chant all the slogans of Long Live Pakistan for the next three days! After that, this slogan will only be raised in Punjab province. After that, it will be Long Live Balochistan, Long Live Sindh, Long Live Saraiki, Long Live Gilgit-Baltistan, Long Live Kashmir, Long Live FATA, Long Live Pakhtunistan, Long Live Muhajiristan and Long Live Sindhudesh!)



Taking on the army, he said, Democratically elected Prime Ministers have been removed by the army, either by a coup or through the Supreme Court. Once again, a sitting PM was removed. People of smaller provinces should wonder why no military operations were done in Pakistan. They were done only in smaller, poorer provinces. Pakistani Army Generals are the most corrupt people in the country.



He asked why there no questions were raised against the extrajudicial killings of Muhajirs. The Army has carried out extrajudicial killings of 22,000 Muhajir youths. Over 300 of them are currently missing. Muahjirs, whose relatives are living abroad, are being arrested. Give me the army, I will fire at innocent people in Punjab, arrest Punjabi women like you have arrested our women and let me see if the graveyard-like silence also persists in Punjab. Crimes happen in both Karachi and Lahore. And yet, there has never been any major military operation in Lahore.



Addressing Muhajirs and Balochis, two ethnic groups fighting for a separate homeland within Pakistan, Hussain said, Baloch and Muhajir people, I am with you but on one condition. This year, as Pakistan turns 70, you will not celebrate August 14 as Independence Day but mark it as a day of occupation and captivity under the Pakistani Army.
Karachi: At least 12 people were killed and over 20 others injured on Saturday in a high intensity blast in Pakistan's Quetta city.



The blast took place in a parking lot near Pishin bus stop which is in a high security area.



Baluchistan's Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said the bomb was apparently kept in a vehicle parked near the bus stop.



"Investigations are continuing but I can confirm it was a big explosion and there are around two dozen injured who are being shifted to nearby hospitals," Bugti said.



Twelve dead bodies were brought to the hospital and they were all badly charred and burnt, Duniya channel reported.



The blast was so loud that it was heard in far off areas and caused a huge fire in which some vehicles and auto rickshaws were also damaged.
Bedminster: President Donald Trump said on Friday he was being sarcastic when he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for saving the United States money by ordering cuts in US diplomatic staff in Russia.



Asked whether he was being sarcastic, Trump told reporters:



"In order to reduce our payroll, absolutely. I think you know that," Trump said without explicitly criticising the move.



Breaking nearly two weeks of silence on Putin's July 30 order cutting US embassy and consulate staff by nearly two thirds, Trump said on Thursday:



"I'm very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll," adding "there's no real reason for them to go back."



Trump's remarks rekindled criticism of his kid-glove handling of Putin, especially as he has not shied away from being highly critical of members of his own party, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.



Putin, reacting to new sanctions imposed by the US Congress and reluctantly signed into law by Trump, ordered Washington to cut its diplomatic and technical staff by 755 people by Sept. 1. Many of those affected likely will be local Russian staffers.



It was also a reaction to former President Barack Obama expelling 35 Russian diplomats from the United States last December over the intelligence agency reports.



"I was just speaking to the Secretary (of State Rex Tillerson) and we're talking about coming up with an answer ... by September 1st we'll have a response," Trump said.



Congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election campaign by hacking and other methods to help Trump, a Republican. They are also looking into possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials. Moscow has repeatedly denied meddling in the election and Trump denies any campaign collusion.



During his campaign and since becoming president, Trump has consistently called for better ties with Russia, declined to criticise Putin and refused to unequivocally embrace the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.



Trump's remarks were immediately denounced by current and former US officials who have served both Republican and Democratic administrations.



The remarks also raised some eyebrows in Europe.



I would have to say in my experience (it is) one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard from any government official, not just the US," Ojars Kalnins, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Latvian parliament, told Reuters earlier on Friday.



"Thanking another foreign leader for firing people from their embassy is unprecedented. Its bizarre."
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates says four of its soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in Yemen while taking part in a Saudi-led campaign targeting Shiite rebels there.



The UAE's state-run WAM news agency reported the fatalities early Saturday.



WAM said the helicopter crashed in Yemen's Shabwa province due to a technical malfunction.



Shabwa has seen U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen's local branch of al-Qaida amid the Saudi-led war. In June, the U.S. military's Central Command said a strike there killed Abu Khattab al-Awlaqi, the emir of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.



The U.S. considers that al-Qaida faction one of the most dangerous threats to the West.



The Saudi-led coalition began its war in Yemen in March 2015 against Shiite rebels known as Houthis who hold the capital, Sanaa.
Kabul: The United States on Saturday vehemently denied claims by Afghan officials that it had killed several civilians in an air strike in volatile eastern Afghanistan.



Afghan officials had said 11 civilians, including women and children, were killed when a private vehicle was struck in Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, on Thursday.



But United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement the air strike "killed a number of militants".



"The militants were observed loading weapons in to a vehicle and were under surveillance until the vehicle was destroyed by an airstrike," said Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for American operations in Afghanistan.



"The strike was conducted in the middle of open terrain. There was zero chance of civilian casualties.



"This was the second false claim of civilian casualties in the same district in the last three weeks," Purtiman added.



Of the roughly 13,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan only the US carries out airstrikes.



They have been regularly targeting IS fighters who control several districts in restive Nangarhar.



Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the close to 16-year campaign against insurgents, prompting strong public and government criticism.



Last month a US air strike killed 16 policemen in Helmand province. It came after a US air strike in Sangin killed at least 18 civilians, mostly women and children, in February.



Civilian deaths are at an all-time high in Afghanistan. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.
Jerusalem: Israel Kristal, the world's oldest man who lived through both World Wars and survived the Auschwitz concentration camp has passed away just a month short of his 114th birthday, his family has said.



Oren Kristal, a grandson, said he died Friday. "He managed to accomplish a lot. Every year he lived was like a few years for somebody else," Oren told The Associated Press on Saturday.



Last year, Guinness World Records awarded Kristal a certificate as the world's oldest man at his home in Haifa, Israel.



Kristal was born to an Orthodox Jewish family near the town of Zarnow in Poland in 1903.



"When he was a child during World War I in Poland he was a helper for a booze smuggler, he used to run barefoot in the snow through the night many kilometers with a heavy package on his back at about 12 years old, smuggling alcohol between the lines of the war," Oren, his grandson said.



"He used to walk very fast until he was very old, faster than me, and he used to tell me that when he was my age if you didn't walk fast enough your feet would stick to the frozen ground," Oren recalled his grandfather telling him.



Kristal was orphaned shortly after World War I and moved to Lodz to work in the family confectionery business in 1920.



During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Kristal was confined to the ghetto there and later sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. His first wife and two children were killed in the Holocaust.



Six million Jews were systematically murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators during WWII.



"He used to tell us whenever we were mourning someone that we should consider that they are being buried in the land of Israel, most of the people he knew did not get to be buried in a grave when they died," Oren said.



Kristal survived World War II weighing only 37 kg, the only survivor of his large family.



He later married another Holocaust survivor and moved with her to Israel in 1950 where he built a new family and a successful confectionary business.



"He was a very hard working man, a lot of energy always running from one place to another doing something," Oren, his grandson said.



He said his grandfather participated in one of his great-grandsons bar mitzvah just a few weeks ago.



An observant Jew, Kristal himself only celebrated his bar mitzvah last year, a hundred years later than usual.



He missed his bar mitzvah the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony celebrated when a boy turns 13 because of World War I.



Oren said his grandfather gave no explanation to the secret for his incredible longevity. He is survived by two children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, media reported.
Two people died in separate wrecks Friday afternoon in the Lynchburg area.

In the first crash, a 27-year-old man was killed on U.S. 501 in Campbell County when the 1995 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck he was driving collided with a minivan driven by a Lynchburg man, Virginia State Police said.

Identification of the deceased man, who was from the Halifax area, still was pending late Saturday.

The wreck occurred at 1:29 p.m. in the southbound lane of the two-lane road, about half a mile south of Marshall Mill Road in the Gladys area, Virginia State Trooper T.J. Sica said.

A 2017 Chrysler Pacifica minivan driven by Corey Jones, 45, was traveling north and the truck south when they struck in a head-on/sideswipe collision, Sica said.

The pickup truck went over an embankment and overturned, and the minivan ran off the side of the road, he said.

No other people or vehicles were involved in the crash, and state police started arriving on the scene at 1:56 p.m., he said.

Police are still investigating what happened, but as of late Saturday did not believe intoxication was a factor, Sica said. The fatality was the only injury in the wreck, he said.

Another crash Friday afternoon, in Bedford County, killed a Huddleston woman, police said.

Donna B. Morgan, 54, was driving a 1998 Chevrolet Blazer north on Virginia 122, one-fifth of a mile south of Route 801, around 4:02 p.m.

The Blazer crossed the center line, hit a 2000 Nissan Altima, ran off the left side of the road and overturned, state police said.

Morgan, who wore a seatbelt, died at the scene.

The Nissan driver, Miranda C. Laucella, 20, of Vinton, was not injured. She also wore a seatbelt.

Police still are investigating.

Matt Busse contributed to this report.
Editors note: Regular columnist Charles Krauthammer is on vacation.

I had dreams of fire and fury like the world has never seen. But now I will sleep well, because Rex Tillerson told me I should.

There is no imminent threat from North Korea, the secretary of state said Wednesday. The American people should sleep well at night.

It was the latest and largest cleanup effort undertaken by President Trumps aides since this administration took power. Their unorthodox message to an anxious nation and a panicky world: Dont take seriously what the president of the United States says.

On Tuesday, Trump delivered remarks about North Korea  words we now know to have been off the cuff  that pushed the world toward a nuclear standoff last seen in the Cuban missile crisis: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. If it does make threats, the president said, they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

Many noted that the wording echoed Harry Trumans warning at the time of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. But then came Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chairman, to assure us that there is nothing to see. It has become a familiar exercise: walking back, cleaning up and outright contradicting crazy things uttered by the man with the nuclear codes.

Early on, Trump announced that he had undertaken a military operation to get really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobodys ever seen before.

The U.S. military is rounding up immigrants? Mexican officials freaked out. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, now White House chief of staff, drew cleanup duty: No  repeat, no  use of military force in immigration operations. None, he said.

Trump, during his visit to Brussels, shocked allies and caught his aides by surprise when he struck from his speech to NATO the usual commitment to the alliances collective defense  this, after calling NATO obsolete. Days later, Vice President Pence reassured jittery allies: Our commitment is unwavering. ... An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

Trump, appearing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, upended the long-standing U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I am looking at two-state, and one-state, he said. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was put on walk-back patrol the next day. We absolutely support a two-state solution, she said.

The cleanup patrol has a domestic operation, too. When Trump, after a bipartisan budget deal was reached, tweeted the notion that our country needs a good shutdown in September, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney was hustled out to contain the damage: Weve averted a shutdown. ... Thats the story now, not what might happen in September.

After Trump tweeted that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower, Sean Spicer, who was White House press secretary, famously explained that the president used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.

And, when Trump attacked the FAKE NEWS media, which he proclaimed the enemy of the American People, Pence swabbed the decks, saying: Rest assured, both the president and I strongly support a free and independent press.

The cleanup patrol has a broad membership. Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, took a turn after Trump declared: The Germans are bad, very bad. See the millions of cars they sell in the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this.

Cohn said: He said theyre very bad on trade but he doesnt have a problem with Germany. Cohn explained that Trumps dad is from Germany.

Asian allies became restless after Trump, during the campaign, said Japan should protect itself from North Korea, or pay the United States for providing security. After taking office, he jettisoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership and told South Korean officials that it would be appropriate if they pay for a $1 billion U.S. missile defense system. This time, it was the duty of the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, to reassure South Koreans that the United States would continue to pay.

And Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, as part of an extended cleanup tour in the region, announced: Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan, to include the employment of our most advanced capabilities, is ironclad.

There have been other such cleanup actions, and there will inevitably be many more, as Trumps advisers try to convey to the world a perverse message: Rest assured, sleep well  and pay no attention to the presidents yammering.

Milbank is a political columnist for The Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter @Milbank.
MURDER AT HOUSE OF GOD

Through her tears, Abia Williams, 30, told Newsday that she sent her son Emmanuel Okera to sell the vegetables at the front of the church located in Calcutta No. 2, Freeport.

When she tried contacting him via his cellphone at 3.17 pm, Williams got no answer. At 4.30 pm on Thursday, Williams and a member of the church went in search of the boy but he could not be located.

Williams then contacted the Couva police and told officers that Okera left their Seereeram Trace, Calcutta No. 2 home to sell vegetables at the church as he was accustomed doing. Officers visited the church on Thursday night and saw bloodstains on the ground outside the church. But still, there was no sign of Okera.

Yesterday morning, his body was found in the ravine at the back of the church. The area was cordoned off and Okeras body was later fished out of the ravine.

Police sources said injuries to his face suggests he may have been beaten before being thrown into the water. The body was taken to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy will be done.

Sources said that since Williams is a member of the church, she and her son were allowed to sell their vegetables on the churchs compound, to make ends meet.

Shocked residents who heard of the boys death yesterday said he was always respectful when dealing with people who came to purchase his vegetables. Like his mother, Okera was also a regular member of the church.

This is unbelievable. Imagine attacking this little boy by a church. He was trying to earn a few dollars to help his family and now his life has been snuffed.

What is this country really coming to, a resident asked. Police sources said they hope the autopsy will also shed light on whether or not the boy was sexually abused.

The victims mother was not at the crime scene yesterday but spoke to investigators at her home.

Okeras murder pushed the toll to 294 for the year thus far. No arrest has been made and investigations are ongoing.
Girl, 8, aunt, 40, perish in fire

The cause of the blaze which gutted the property in an area known as Dougla City in Fifth Company, Moruga was not yet known up to press time. Of the 13 homeless, five are children.

According to reports, at about 2 am, Alliyahs relatives were awakened by crackling sounds and realised their house was on fire. After the occupants ran out of the burning house, a head count was done and both Alliyah and Gopaul, who slept together, were unaccounted for.

By this time, the entire house was on fire.

Units from the Princes Town Fire Station responded and after the flames were doused, firemen came across the burnt, skeletal remains of the child and her aunt near the kitchen area on the top floor. Alliyahs cousin Lexi Butcher, eight, suffered burns to her right arm while her mother Natalie Gopaul suffered cuts. No one else was injured.

Alliyah was expected to enter Standard Three at the Fifth Company Baptist Primary School in the new term. Her mother, Nicole Gopaul, 32, was not at home when the fire broke out.

Yesterday, on arriving at the scene Gopaul was inconsolable and had to be carried away. Nicole, a receptionist at a gym, had spent the night at a house in South Oropouche.

Alliyahs aunt and Nicoles twin sister Nikeisha Mitchell, recalled that her niece had breathing problems as a newborn and was on life support for three days.

Only recently, Alliyah kept asking her mother to keep a thanksgiving in celebration of life. She kept asking her mother to keep a thanksgiving for her. Two weeks, we had the thanksgiving for Alliyah who was her mothers only child, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said her sister and Alliyah shared a close bond, hence the reason why they shared the same bed.

Neisha did housekeeping and masonry with a construction firm. She was supposed to go to Las Cuevas beach on Sunday, Mitchell said.

Patriarch of the family Lincoln Elvin, 70, a father of 11 and grandfather of 14, said he was awakened by the crackling sounds of fire and went outside.

He immediately alerted his wife Sumintra Elvin-Gopaul and other relatives.

I asked who was missing and they said Alliyah and Neisha.

We called out to them but heard nothing. There was no bawling. The fire people found them later, Elvin said. Investigations are ongoing.
AG must investigate

Ramdeen made this allegation at a news conference at his office in Woodbrook yesterday.

Referring to two documents which he said supported his claim, Ramdeen called on Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, to launch an investigation into the board of the Port today. He called on the police to launch a criminal investigation into the cancellation of the contract.

Ramdeen said that investigation must involve the seizure and preservation of all written and electronic correspondence pertaining to the Ocean Flower II. He called on Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan to fire the entire board of the Port Authority, if they do not resign immediately.

Ramdeen called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to fire Sinanan if he himself does not resign. He also said Sinanan must hand over his computer and phone to the police to assist them in any investigation they conduct into this matter. Ramdeen also demanded a full forensic investigation into Bridgeman Services TT Ltd and for a, a trace on the funds that are being paid each month under the Cabo Star. He said documentation provided to the Port Authority showed the Ocean Flower II had a plethora of defects which made it a safety hazard and unsuitable for use on the domestic seabridge. However Port Authority chairman Alison Lewis rejected Ramdeens claims about why the Ocean Flower IIs contract was terminated. She maintained that the contract was terminated because the vessel arrived late. Lewis said there are specific clauses in the contract which speak to this. She said the Port exercised its options in accordance with those clauses. Lewis wondered if Ramdeen wanted the Port Authoritys board to resign because it acted to save taxpayers money and in the countrys best interest.

She added that contrary to other allegations, we did not incur any mobilisation fee. Lewis reiterated that the Port Authority made a good corporate decision in this matter. Sinanan on Wednesday said he had no problem with any investigation into the cancellation of the contract.

He has also said it is Rowleys prerogative as prime minister to dismiss him if he feels the circumstances warrant it.
Rowley sorry for Tobagonians

In his appeal issued yesterday morning, as contained in a statement, Rowley said those assigned must do so, without compromising principles and within all contractual safeguards to ensure that an acceptable service is restored at the earliest opportunity. Rowleys statement follows calls by the Opposition for him to account to citizens on the ferry fiasco.

He apologied to citizens, particularly Tobagonians for, whom the service is more of a life line, affected by the cancellation of the contract with Bridgemans Services Group for the vessel which should have been delivered by an extended August 1 deadline.

The unsuccessful attempt to find a replacement passenger ferry is a matter of great disappointment to me and I am sure the majority of Tobagonians who rely on this service for their comfort and livelihood, he said.

He understood the efforts, he said,  made by those charged with the responsibility and the particular difficulties which they faced in the process at the time when the port sought a vessel which we all anticipated would have been on the route by this time. He assured that Government is not unmindful of your plight and is currently engaged in making all reasonable efforts to remedy the situation in the short term.
Well do what we know best

What were going to do is continue to manage this 136-yearold business well, continue to celebrate the great work our 6,000 plus employees are doing and continue to manage and grow our assets and well do what we know best. Thats what were going to do going forward, Sabga said.

This was his response to Rogets call asked by a reporter at a press conference on Thursday to discuss ANSA McALs results for the six months ended June 30.

The conference was held at the TATIL Building on Maraval Road in Port of Spain.

Sabgas comments came days after the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) condemned Rogets call as divisive, unfortunate and counter productive.

In a statement issued on August 7, Amcham called on the trade unions to return to the Tripartite Council and said that economic and social decay has been the result in every country where a minority has been persecuted, in an attempt to shift power or influence to another group.

The business group also said that Rogets call was not in the interest of the very workers that the unions are supposed to represent.

We acknowledge that trade unions have a very important part to play in protecting and promoting the rights and best interests of their members.

This can only be done through dialogue leading to constructive solutions.

In that regard, we too would like to see a return to multi party dialogue in a manner that allows all stakeholders to participate in a meaningful and constructive way. Amcham added that the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC) was that vehicle but said it is not functioning as intended.

The world is in the midst of an economic crisis, with new political and social disruptions occurring almost daily and that at this time, the country needs leaders including those from within the trade union movement, who are willing to look past all differences and seek solutions to the challenges faced by the country.

We believe that this is not the time for pointing fingers, but instead a time of increased collaboration and dialogue. Myopic viewpoints and unreasonable demands that seek to promote specific agendas rather that finding innovative solutions should not be the first course of action, Amcham stated.
Cabrera: End retrenchment

How could we talk of a relationship when you are horning me, he said in a stiff message to businesses that are laying off workers.

He urged a moratorium on Governments intended retrenchment of workers at the Tourism Development Company.

If trust is being damaged it will hurt the relationship. Cabrera said the Governments intended liquidation of Clico/CL Financial will threaten the jobs of workers at subsidiaries such as Home Construction Limited and Tru Value Supermarket.

He complained that so far his requests to meet Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus have proven fruitless.

Saying that in past times, unions would react to job-losses by merely getting their workers a little retrenchment money, Cabrera threatened, Now, we are going to bite you and boycott you. When youre hardened, you have to feel! He was particularly biting towards conglomerate ANSA Mc Al whom he accused of being unpatriotic for sending their profits abroad.

That company was accused of buying a US$1 million Guyanese radio station and investing in a Florida beer company while sending home workers in TT.

Cabrera alleged that the ongoing retrenchment of 49 workers at Guardian Media Limited (GML) was a most unusual exercise that included inducements to take early retirement.

These workers are being retrenched not because the employer is losing money but simply due to the introduction of new technology. He alleged that GML had wrongly claimed their print business was losing money, as he claimed GMLs profits from 2011 to 2015 ranged from $44 million to $48 million, while Ansa Mc Als profits ranged from $904 million to $1.163 billion.

In the case of GML, we are asking how can a business enterprise which had experienced such brilliant sustained revenue and profit suddenly find itself in the red? Does it have anything to do with the siphoning off of earnings from the print media to establish a division called the Big Bosard Company? Does it have anything to do with the purchase of a radio station in Guyana for $1 million? How could GML be losing money when it has broadcasting rights to the CPL and the International Soca Monarch, Cabrera asked.

He backed OWTU leader Ancel Rogets call for a boycott of elite-run businesses.

He said, If you dont retrench, we wont boycott. ANSA Mc Al companies are prime candidates for a boycott. He accused the conglomerate of having great wealth but poor social responsibility.
58 to begin Hajj pilgrimage tomorrow

The rest will depart on August 20 and 22.

One of the organisers Sheriff Mohammed, said his group would be leaving with 58 pilgrims tomorrow at 1 am, to start their journey to the pilgrimage in Mecca.

Mohammed said they received the group visas last Wednesday from the Saudi Arabian diplomats and everything was in place for the group to leave the country.

I want to say special thanks to the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protocol department, Mohammed said.

It feels good to know everyone has their documents for the trip. All the pilgrims are looking forward to the trip. He continued, They have formed a WhatsApp group to get the feeling of the Hajj and get in the mood of spirituality. Another organiser, Zabar Baksh, said their group of 60 people would be leaving Trinidad on August 20.

He said despite the challenges to get foreign exchange, which is a big issue in Trinidad and Tobago, everything was ready for their travel. We eventually got through for those travelling to Saudi Arabia. I personally will not be going on the trip. Since 2012 I got sick and I have not been going but my son and someone will be leading the group. In a press release yesterday, the Airports Authority of TT said they received a request to film the departure of pilgrims journeying to Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage and the request was approved by the Authority.

The release added that the Airports Authority customarily approves requests for the use of its facilities by various religious and culture groups.


Updates by The Herald

1635: President Mugabe has implored the Central Committee to continue guiding youths adding that since the First Lady is not around, he is going to brag to her about the goodness of the event.

He concludes his speech by encouraging unity among party members.

1631: He says he has watched some of the Government ministers going to consult prophets in Nigeria and asks if there is a special bible used by those prophets. He says he watches and just says hameno kwazvichasvitsana ikoko.



1626: President Mugabe says he has heard people describing Donald Trump as insane, but to him, it doesnt matter because he defeated Hillary Clinton who hates Zimbabwe with a passion

16:10 The West was not pleased with us being able to forge ahead in the face of sanctions. I wondered why he (Tony Blair) thought he is entitled to our country as if God gave him some dominion over Zimbabwe. He gave himself some supervisory role over us. Ah, who is he, President Mugabe asks and a member of the audience chants, he is a thief.



President Mugabe has thanked Zimbabweans for remaining resolute and defending the country against Western onslaught.

1605: These are the kind of leaders we need. The leaders who come up with their own programmes. We did not think up this for you. It is you who came to me and said we want to thank you for the way you executed your job as African Union and SADC chairperson



Addressing Cde Chipanga, President Mugabe says he has demonstrated that organs can be united.



We thank you. We thank you very much. You have done what those who led the youth league before you failed to do

1601: : His Excellency says following the successful land reform program, MDC-T leader tried to instill fear among Zimbabweans by saying people will starve to death. Some laughed saying we have lost our bread basket status as a country.



But do you see how much food we have this year? He asks



1548: Let us stay here and work on our land, President Mugabe says.

1546: President Mugabe says today he met the vice presidents, Cde Mohadi, Damasane, Choeni and other provincial party leaders and implored them to keep the people together. He speaks of a long standing tradition which he noticed in 1945 when he was teaching at Empandeni Mission. The tradition was of going to South Africa.



1543: President Mugabe says the liberation struggle was a struggle of leaders who did not accept disunity.

Here we are, after all what happened, we are back together, we are united. We hope this will not come to an end.





1540: I told Dumiso that this is the route others have decided to take. I dont know why Dumiso decided to do what he is doing, to leave some of us. We started this journey with him. What followed there was a split of Zapu leading to the formation of Zanu. This is one incident that we regret.



1538: We agreed with JZ and he told me he was going to leave first. He promised to make arrangements for me to follow. The following week, arrangements were made for me and my wife to leave Harare for Bulawayo, then Botswana. From Bulawayo, we were accompanied by Dumiso Dabengwa and the late Sikwili adding that DD, as Dabengwa is affectionately known, was still opposed to the idea.



1531: Chikerema was assertive in nature. He would assert himself in any grouping he found himself in. He would brag that he controlled Nkomo and as a result, he influenced him to form a government in exile. This idea was opposed by many including the youths led by Dumiso Dabengwa. The likes of Joseph Musika too were opposed to this idea.



1528: He narrates the events just after the formation of Zapu adding that among the pioneers, there was his cousin, James Chikerema who was the spokesman of Zapu.

1526: President has spoken glowingly of Zimbabwes relations with South Africa adding that nomatter what others say or think of Jacob Zuma Zimbabwe continues to relate to him normally. President Mugabe says they started Zapu together with the late Vice President Nkomo, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo.





We worked so well together and used to get so much support from local business people.

1520: Passionately, he says he hopes the late VP, Joshua Nkomo is resting in peace together with other departed Comrades. He has described the late Ndebele King, Mzilikazi as one of the pioneers of the struggle adding that even his remains are interred in the great area of Ematojeni.



1516: When I heard that our next meeting will be in Mat South, I thought of many things that connect me to this province. We held meetings with Umdala Wethu, from Kezi to Plumtree, Gwanda, Filabusi and Beitbridge.



1515: Our tears are still fresh. We miss him. We miss him today, we will miss him and we shall miss him forever. I hope you keep him in your prayers so that he continues to rest in peace.

President Mugabe has described Matabeleland South as a great province. He speaks of his strong connection with Matabeleland South.

Is this not the province of Joshua Nkomo? The values he left us with are alive. We still carry on with them in pride.



1512: His Excellency says he is still mourning the death of Cde Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu whom he calls his father in law.



1507: President Mugabe says First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe has travelled to South Africa to have her foot examined after she was injured at the airport in a freak accident recently.

1502: Cde Chipanga has invited President Mugabe to the podium. President Mugabe rises to deliver his speech to hit song Mdara Achauya
Morgan Tsvangirais MDC party has revived its bid to impeach President Robert Mugabe, this time with the full support of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), which has since fallen out with the Zanu PF leader, the Daily News can report.

Mid this week, the former liberation war fighters who are loyal to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said they were willing to support the countrys largest opposition party in its bid to impeach Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from the British in 1980.



The MDC has seized on the offer, and has started engaging ZNLWVA to agree on the strategic and tactical issues involved. More importantly, Tsvangirais party wants to assess if ZNLWVA commands the numbers they claim to have in the National Assembly to enable the impeachment motion to gain traction.



Impeachment refers to an act of calling into question the integrity or validity of a holder of public office.



Zimbabwe has 210 Members of Parliament in the National Assembly and 93 senators, with the MDC having only 70 legislators in the lower house and 20 in the upper house. This means that Zanu PF has an overwhelming majority.



For any impeachment motion to go through, it needs the support of two-thirds majority.

ZNLWVA chairperson Chris Mutsvangwa told a press conference in Harare on Wednesday that they were willing to work with the opposition to get rid of Mugabe, accused by critics of presiding over the countrys economic meltdown and social decay.



When executive authority is being abused, as is happening, a constitutional Republic like Zimbabwe can use impeachment, elections, or even votes of no-confidence against the monarchists and oligarchists in the G40, who are pushing for a dynasty. We will campaign and support such moves, if this mischief continues. The Constitution has a gamut of provisions to address all types of executive abuse of office including dereliction of duty, said Mutsvangwa.



MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu yesterday said they were keen on working with Mutsvangwa and his executive, insisting whatever ZNLWVA was offering to do should be within the confines of the law.



Definitely we are ready to work with them, especially if the things they want to do are legal and constitutional, as long as they want to do it using constitutional means we agree with them because we are fed up with the Mafia regime led by Mugabe, said Gutu.



In 2014, the MDC tried to impeach Mugabe on account of unconstitutionally giving his then deputy, Joice Mujuru, her marching orders from government, but their bid fell through.

They revived the manoeuvres last year, citing concerns over Mugabes health and the swift deterioration in the countrys economy, but without any success.



While their grounds for reviving their impeachment drive were still not clear at the time of going to print, on its own, ZNLWVA does not seem to command much influence in the august House because if they had such influence Mutsvangwa would not have been easily ejected from Parliament following his dismissal from Zanu PF in 2015.



Mutsvangwas recall triggered a by-election in his former Norton constituency, won by Temba Mliswa.



ZNLWVA can, however, still claim to have some leverage on a number of MPs through its loose alliance to a faction backing Mnangagwas elevation to the top office, known as Team Lacoste.



Team Lacoste enjoys a huge following in Masvingo and Midlands provinces, where MPs from the rival Generation 40 (G40) faction are clearly outnumbered.

In Masvingo, 10 legislators have links to Mnangagwas bid, while the Justice minister has the support of more than 20 MPs out of the 28 constituencies.



In the remaining eight provinces, G40 seem to have the numerical advantage.

Team Lacostes functionaries also occupy strategic positions in the Justice ministry, Zanu PFs legal department and in the National Assembly.



In spite of these advantages, there has not been any precedent where those who have dared Mugabe in his party have escaped the backlash.



Those who have tried it, including Mutsvangwa himself, have been consigned into the dustbin of political history with some of them rejoining Zanu PF on Mugabes terms.

Also, Zanu PF has been effective in using the whipping system to bludgeon its Members of Parliament into rallying behind its agendas and forestalling motions that work against its interests.



Only last month, Zanu PF MPs were whipped into line to pass the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill (Number One) that had clearly split the ruling party along factional lines when it went through public consultations.



The Bill, once assented into law, will allow Mugabe to handpick the leadership for the Supreme Court and the High Court, unlike before when the selection process was spearheaded by the Judicial Services Commission.



Section 97 of the Constitution states that a president can be removed from office due to physical or mental incapacitation or serious dereliction of duty.



It stipulates that the Senate and the National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least one-half of their total membership, may resolve that the question whether or not the president or a vice president should be removed from office for serious misconduct; failure to obey, uphold or defend this Constitution; wilful violation of this Constitution or inability to perform the functions of the office because of physical or mental incapacity.



The Constitution states that upon the passing of a resolution in terms of Subsection (1) of Section 97, the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders must appoint a joint committee of the Senate and the National Assembly consisting of nine members reflecting the political composition of Parliament to investigate the removal from office of the president or vice president as the case may be.



If the joint committee appointed in terms of Subsection (2) recommends the removal from office of the president or vice-president; and the Senate and the National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least two-thirds of their total membership, resolve that the president or vice president, as the case may be, should be removed from office; the president or vice president thereupon ceases to hold office.



Gutu told the Daily News that in the past they have tried to convince their Zanu PF counterparts to pass a vote of no confidence against Mugabe with little success, principally because of Zanu PF was using the whipping system to crush dissent.



Mugabe is overdue for impeachment by Parliament. His errors of both commission and omission are well documented. The man has, on several occasions, trashed the countrys Constitution by making illegal decisions and appointments. He has even refused to give rise to devolution by proceeding to appoint provincial ministers and governors instead of simply following what the Constitution says about devolution, said Gutu.



Of course, its a public secret that Zanu PF is incorrigibly divided and factionalised. The main legal hurdle is weather we will get sufficient numbers in Parliament to successfully impeach Mugabe. We are not too sure whether Zanu PF Members of Parliament will be bold enough to vote with opposition MPs. Zanu PF has perfected the art of patronage and most of their MPs will be dead scared to vote in favour of impeachment. The Zanu PF whipping system is commandist and ruthless. However, we would gladly welcome any Zanu PF MPs who have the guts to vote with us on an impeachment motion, said Gutu.



Those behind the impeachment bid seem to be getting their encouragement from their South African counterparts who launched their eighth attempt this week to depose President Jacob Zuma from office.



Zuma, however, survived the impeachment vote championed by opposition parties, mainly the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance, after that countrys Constitutional Court ruled that he ignored an order to repay State funds spent on his private home.



Two hundred and thirty-three lawmakers voted against the impeachment motion, while 143 voted in favour, including 29 from the ruling African National Congress. daily news
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson Christopher Mutsvangwa has claimed that he assisted the First Family in facilitating the relocation of Bona Mugabe to Hong Kong after she was deported from Australia.

Bona was deported from Australia in 2008 and went on to study at City University in Hong Kong.



Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Mutsvangwa said he is different from Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere and Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo who do not care about the first family.



They have no respect for the family structure and we Zimbabweans we are very particular with respecting the family structure. Zimbabweans are offended by the G40. They (G40) cant even help the first family, as their friends, to control their kids. They are preoccupied by fighting vice presidents, fighting war veterans, Mutsvangwa said.



This is a true story. This other day, the president (Robert Mugabe) was talking about . . . five to six children of the most prominent politicians who were being kicked out of schools in Western countries, among those who were being kicked out was a child of the president of Zimbabwe called Bona. She was kicked out of Australia.



I was the ambassador in Beijing, she was being taught in an English environment in Australia . . . When she was kicked out, together with (former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon) Gono and (former Labour minister Nicholas) Goches children.



They were thinking of taking her to Singapore. I said Singapores national intelligence is controlled by the Americans and I suggested and appealed to the Chinese so that Bona goes to Hong Kong, they speak English but the national security is controlled by China because Hong Kong is part of China. Thats how I managed to secure a place for her. Thats how she managed to become what she is today, Mutsvangwa said.



Thats what friends do. Kasukuwere and Jonathan want the mother. They dont want to help the family, he added.



Mutsvangwa further said Bona is the only level-headed child of the president.

He said Kasukuwere and Moyo were now destroying Mugabes legacy.

Kasukuwere and Moyo are destroying the legacy of the president. Moyo is trying to rewrite the history of the liberation struggle.



On this other day, the president claims that he received me in Chimoio. I said why Mr president, why do you change history like that? I am the one who received him in Chimoio. The president was starving, the president had no shoes, his suits were torn, he was trying to listen to the radio, he was joining batteries until they were long like my hands, by then he could not buy batteries, this is real. He was not part of the resumption of the war in 1975.









The Mgagao comrades made him the president, now you are saying you dont want guns, but they made you. You use a ladder to ascend and when you are at the top you push off that ladder. One day you will want to descent, you will have problems because the ladder will be not there, Mutsvangwa said. Daily News
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When Boxed co-founder and CEO Chieh Huang first pitched his unconventional and highly generous benefits plan to investors a few years ago, some said, "What the hell are you doing?" His company, which takes on the likes of Costco to offer low-cost online bulk purchases with two-day delivery and no membership fees, employs not just engineers fine-tuning a profitable formula, but warehouse workers packing the shipments. And he wanted all of them to have the same awesome perks, like unlimited parental leave and free weddings and tuition, reports Bloomberg. As Huang puts it, why should the "people who move atoms" be treated worse than those who "move bits and bytes"?

Huang, who is 35, grew up watching his parents, both immigrants from China, work tirelessly at menial jobs that paid poorly and offered no perks. And while it remains to be seen whether his generous benefits package will pay off, he says he's invested in a positive company culture that keeps employees happy and keeps the turnover rate down. He even spends considerable time at his four fulfillment centers, helping clean up and saying thank you to some of the several hundred people he employs. If the typically younger, higher-skilled staff who work at Boxed's headquarters in Manhattan complain about the lack of certain perks (for example, Huang eschews the ping pong tables of Silicon Valley), he reminds them that "the best thing that can happen for us in the long term is for Boxed to be a success." (Read more startup stories.)
A woman was arrested this week in China after allegedly attempting to mail her newborn baby to an orphanage, CNN reports. According to the South China Morning Post, the 24-year-old woman instructed a courier not to look inside the bag when he picked it up for delivery Wednesday. But while he was en route to the orphanage in Fuzhou, the courier noticed movement and noises from inside the package. He opened it to find a baby girlonly a few days oldwrapped in plastic bags.

The temperature in Fuzhou at the time was approaching 100 degrees, and video from the scene shows bystanders attempting to hydrate and cool the baby while waiting for authorities to arrive, Shanghaiist reports. The baby was transported to the hospital, where she is in stable condition. The baby's mother was taken into custody and could face up to five years in prison if convicted of abandoning her baby. However, a hospital official says the woman has agreed to take her baby back once she's released from the hospital. (Read more abandoned baby stories.)
OJ Simpson will be a free man in October thanks to the decision of a Nevada parole board. But the New York Times reports on a jarring oversight that perhaps could have changed board members' thinking. During the hearing, members stated that Simpson had no criminal convictions. Not true. He was, of course, acquitted in his famous murder trial, but prior to that, in 1989, he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery of wife Nicole Brown Simpson. The problem is, that court result for some reason never made it into a giant FBI database, known as the National Crime Information Center, upon which parole board officials around the country base their decisions.

Nevada officials recently re-checked the NCIC after an inquiry from the Times and still came up empty. "This most recent report also makes no mention of the 1989 California court record," says a state parole board official. Would it have made a difference? Tough to say. Board members won't comment, and Simpson, now 70, had no behavioral blemishes on his prison record. And, no, the oversight isn't cause to have the decision reviewed. CNN has more details on the 1989 assault, after which Nicole Brown Simpson told police she feared Simpson was going to kill her. (The famous white Ford Bronco in Simpson's police chase can be yours, for a price.)
A Chicago man is suing Uber after he says he was attacked multiple timesincluding once at his homeby a driver for the ride-sharing app last December, TMZ reports. David Riordan says he was taking an Uber home from a Christmas party when the driver, Munstr Abuseimi, became upset and forced him to get out. Riordan says Abuseimi then punched him multiple times. It's unclear what caused Abuseimi to kick Riordan out of his car in the first place. Riordan says he reported the incident to Uber before taking another Uber home.

Riordan's lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, states Abuseimi was waiting at Riordan's home, having gotten the address from the Uber app, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Riordan says Abuseimi attacked him with a metal baton, leaving him with a concussion, dislocated jaw, fractured orbital, and bleeding in his brain. He says Abuseimi yelled, "Don't [expletive] with Uber drivers" during the attack. Abuseimi was arrested a few days later and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon; he's pleaded not guilty. Riordan is suing Uber because he claims the company doesn't do enough to protect customers by screening its drivers. (Read more Uber stories.)
China's president delivered a direct message to President Trump: Ease up on the North Korea rhetoric. In a phone call with Trump Friday night, Xi Jinping said he wanted both sides to avoid "words and actions" that would make the situation worse, per the BBC, citing Chinese media. The White House statement on the call said the two leaders agreed that North Korea must stop its "provocative and escalatory behavior," though it didn't mention Xi's plea to Trump as well. The call came after Trump made a series of aggressive statements directed at Pyongyang on Friday, the most recent one saying that the North would "truly regret" any missile launches toward Guam. The North, meanwhile, ramped up its own rhetoric on Saturday with a boast that 3.5 million people have volunteered to join the military to fight the US, reports the Washington Post.

All the people are rising up across the country to retaliate against the US thousands of times, said a newspaper. Meanwhile, China isn't the only nation worried. Japan installed missile interceptors, South Korea is speeding up the process needed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile-defense system, and Germany's Angela Merkel voiced concern after one of Trump's tweets, saying, I consider an escalation of rhetoric the wrong answer," per the Guardian. Despite his aggressive language, Trump also has spoken of a non-military outcome. "Hopefully, it will all work out," he said Friday. "Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you." (Read more North Korea stories.)
A sculpture showing a hand making the OK sign in New Jersey is being relocated because some people fear it too closely resembles a gang symbol, per the AP. The sculpture, titled "Helping Hands," was created by kids ages 12 to 15 at a summer camp. The nonprofit organization Isles Inc. says the kids decided on the OK sign because they felt the peace sign was overused. Isles selected the Trenton intersection where the sculpture was installed Tuesday and says it had gotten positive feedback from residents. But Mayor Eric Jackson says his office received complaints the sculpture looks like a gang symbol. Jackson says he spoke with the Isles CEO and they agreed to move it off city property. (Read more New Jersey stories.)
Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and other members of the alt-right clashed with counter-protesters Friday night at the University of Virginia ahead of what the Southern Poverty Law Center says could be the "largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States," CNN reports. Images from Charlottesville, Virginia, show marchers throwing Nazi salutes, carrying tiki torches, and chanting "you will not replace us" and "blood and soil." According to the Daily Progress, fights broke out between the white nationalists and counter-protesters, and both sides were reportedly hit by pepper spray fired by the police. One arrest was reported along with several minor injuries.

Virginia Rep. Don Beyer denounced the neo-Nazi marchers as "weak, ignorant, fearful people," and Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer called the march a "cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance," NBC News reports. On Saturday, as many as 6,000 white nationalists and others are expected to arrive in Charlottesville for the "Unite the Right" rally. With officials worried about potential violence, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has put the National Guard on alert and more Virginia State Police are expected to be deployed than at any time in recent decades. The Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and others have been protesting Charlottesville's pending decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee and rename two parks named after Confederate generals. (Read more white supremacists stories.)
One person was killed and 19 people injured after a car rammed into two other vehicles and a group of counter-protesters following Saturday's failed white nationalist rally in Virginia, CBS News reports. According to Mediaite, which has graphic video of the incident, a car drove at high speed into two stopped cars, sending them into protesters, in what was "clearly a deliberate act." One witness gave a similar account to the Washington Post, and another witness said the vehicle "appeared to deliberately mow down pedestrians." There were several hundred counter-protesters marching when the car drove into them, the AP reports.

Hospital officials say 19 people were injured and one person was killed in the incident. In addition to counter-protesters, some victims may be Charlottesville residents. The driver has been detained. The incident occurred after authorities declared a state of emergency and shut down Emancipation Park before the start of the "Right to Unite" rally. The morning had seen violent clashes between the white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klan members attending the rally and counter-protesters. We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for," President Trump tweeted following the violence. "There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! He later added: "Charlottesville sad!" (Read more Charlottesville, Va. stories.)
Train Collision in Egypt

Cairo : Death toll climbed to 44 with over 123 others seriously injured on Friday in a crash between two trains in Egypt's Alexandria province.

The ministry has announced state of emergency in all hospitals in Alexandria and neighbouring Beheira province, Xinhua reported.

Some 75 ambulances have been transferring the victims to hospitals, said the ministry in a statement.

It added that the number of casualties may rise due to the seriousness of many injuries.

The Alexandria-bound train coming from Cairo crashed into the rear of another train on its way from Port Said Mediterranean city to Alexandria.

The accident took place in Kourshid area, east of the coastal city of Alexandria.

Egypt's general prosecutor has ordered an urgent investigation into the accident.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail gave orders to send giant truck-loaded cranes to help rescue teams remove the destroyed parts of the trains.

Egypt has witnessed a number of deadly train accidents in which hundreds were killed and injured.

In 2013, at least 19 were killed in a train derailment in Giza governorate, while a 2012 collision between a train and a school bus in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

(IANS with added inputs)
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BRET BAIER, FOX HOST: Thanks Marr. Joining us now to talk about this issue and others, Republican Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner. Governor, thanks for being here.

GOV. BRUCE RAUNER (R), ILLINOIS: Great to be with you, Bret. Thank you.

BAIER: Were just talking about sanctuary cities issue. And obviously you had the Mayor here suing the Attorney General, the Justice Department on Monday over this threat to cut anti-crime federal funds because Chicagos a sanctuary city. Who are you with on this one, President Trump or Mayor Emanuel?

RAUNER: Well, I can tell you this, Illinois is a state built by immigrants. My grandparents were immigrants and we  one in seven people in Illinois are immigrants. So this is a very, very big issue. I personally feel like weve got to have a system of immigration that works. Our system is broken. We need fundamental, dramatic immigration reform.

And rather than lawsuits, and rather than name calling or fighting about which community is going to enforce our laws and which arent, I think we should have a thoughtful rational discussion about our immigration laws themselves. Which ones should we enforce and which ones should we change or repeal? Thatd be far more productive.

BAIER: So why shouldnt Chicago follow federal law?

RAUNER: Well, I tell you this, the system is broken.

BRUCE RAUNER, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS: Thatd be far more productive.

BRET BAIER, HOST OF SPECIAL REPORT: So, why shouldnt Chicago follow federal law?

RAUNER: Well, I tell you this; the system is broken. We need to keep our people safe. Heres the issue; we have to put priority on keeping the people of America safe and making sure that we have laws that we enforce and that the laws are rational and theyre implemented everywhere.

BAIER: So, you have this bill, SB-31 on your desk. According to the Chicago Tribute, the bill would prohibit police from searching, arresting, or detaining a person because of their immigration status, absent a federal criminal warrant. It would also create so-called safe zones in state-funded schools, healthcare centers, secretary of state facilities and block state and local enforcement agencies from creating registries based on race, religion, and national origin.

So are you going to sign that bill?

RAUNER: So, our staff is evaluating that bill right now. In fact, we are meeting with law enforcement agencies and law enforcement leaders in the state to get their views on it. Were going to evaluate it and then well make an announcement about how were going to deal with that.

BAIER: There are some families who say theyve lost loved ones because of sanctuary status or policy and theyre trying to meet with you. Do you want to hear that point of view?

RAUNER: I want to hear everybodys point of view. I work for everybody in the state of Illinois. Our immigration system is broken and we need to have a system that keeps the people of Illinois safe, the people of America safe. Weve got to put that as the first priority.

BAIER: So Im still trying to get, do you agree with the president or not that sanctuary cities are a problem  yes or no?

RAUNER: Well, Id tell you this; what Id say is immigration in America is broken. We make illegal immigration easy and we make legal immigration almost impossible. We need dramatic immigration reform.

BAIER: All right, lets try this  here is the head of ICE at the White House just a couple weeks ago.

(Video Begins)

TOM HOMAN, ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Sanctuary cities are a criminals biggest friend. Sanctuary cities need to help us keep their communities safe. Sanctuary cities not only endanger public safety, they endanger my law enforcement officers.

(Video Ends)

BAIER: So do you agree with him?

RAUNER: You know what? If we have criminals who are in this country and committing crimes, weve got to get them out and weve got to get them prosecuted. And that is essential. Weve got to keep the people if Illinois safe and all Americans safe.

BAIER: All right, I guess Im going to turn to the budget crisis that youve been dealing with here in Illinois. Just recently, July 6th, the legislature passed the first budget in more than two years. Unpaid bills racked up to more than $15 billion before that budget was passed. Illinois has the lowest credit rating of any U.S. state. Did you lose control of that budget standoff?

RAUNER: Well, I tell you, we have a broken budget situation in Illinois and the General Assembly forced through a massive tax hike on the people of the state with no reforms. And Bret, the budget is still not balanced. Its a stunning failure. We have a broken system in Illinois. And this is  weve got to stand up and change it. And nothing is fixed.

That tax hike will not fix anything. Its just going to push more employers out, more job losses, and erode our tax base. It was a disaster.

BAIER: So how do you do it? you came to office as a plainspoken businessman who said he was going to reform things  and you wouldnt have any tax increases without reform.

RAUNER: Yeah.

BAIER: So now you have the tax increases, but wheres the reform?

RAUNER: Exactly. Thats why that budget was a disaster. Terrible situation. Bret, heres the fact; we in Illinois have not been creating jobs for decades. Im proud; since I became governor, weve added 120,000 net new jobs. But for 17 years, we basically had the same number of jobs in Illinois that we had 17 years ago. And in the meantime, Bret, our government spending has gone up 66 percent.

Completely broken, completely unaffordable, and a mindset of Lets  lets spend, borrow, and tax. Spend, borrow, and tax. We have to break that cycle and thats what were standing to do every day.

BAIER: Youre up against a record-holder, the longest-serving House speaker in known history, House Speaker Madigan. Is he too powerful in Springfield to work with?

RAUNER: Oh, my

BAIER: Did he win this battle against you?

RAUNER: I tell you, hes been in power  hes been speaker for 35 years. And hes been in the General Assembly since just right around the time that the Beatles broke up.

I tell you, hes been in power  hes been speaker for 35 years and hes been in the general subway (ph) since just right around the time that the Beatles broke up, its an amazing run.

And in that period of time, weve had massive job losses, deficits, biggest unfunded pension liabilities in America, ramped corruption (inaudible) patronage. He has been overseeing a stunning failure of government.

And one of the reasons I ran was to stand up to him and the system and change it. We will never give up and well never back down.

BAIER: are you running for re-election?

RAUNER: No formal announcements, yet but

BAIER: Leaning that way?

RAUNER: We will never give up the battle to make Illinois strong, and proud, and prosperous.

BAIER: youre a billionaire; youre a successful business man. Why do this if youre you are going to hit the wall like this? How do you change it?

RAUNER: Well you know what, by persistence. The people of Illinois come up to me everyday  and I get democrats who come up to me when Im around town here or down at the state fair, they say Governor, stay strong, were with you, dont back down, dont give in, stick to your guns. And a lot of times theyll say And Im a democrat, I dont even normally support republicans, youre the first republican Ive voted for, Im voting for you again, and we know Madigans a problem you stand up and you fix.

BAIER: All right so you talk about Madigan, you demonize democrats in Springfield, but basically there is gridlock here. Youve got rising state debt; you have increasing taxes, and kind of a lousy economic climate right now.

RAUNER: Yes.

BAIER: Businesses may leave your state.

RAUNER: Oh, theyve been leaving.

BAIER: So what would be different in a second term?

RAUNER: Oh I can tell you a dramatic change. The people of Illinois are again (ph) with opportunity next November in 18 to decide whether theyre going to keep supporting the folks in the general assembly who support the speaker and support the status quo.

And this isnt about democrats versus republicans. This is about good government versus the corrupt machine with politicians who run government for themselves. Bret, when I first got to know the speaker nine years ago he told me  asked him Whats your goal of improving the quality of life for the people of Illinois?

He laughed, he said Ive got no goal like that Bruce, I do two things, I manage power and I make money for managing power. He was proud of it, I almost threw up my soup at lunch. Thats why our systems so broke, and weve got to stand against that.

BAIER: President Trump wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, do you agree?

RAUNER: Well I can tell you so much of our Affordable Healthcare Act is broken, it needs to be repaired. Ive expressed concerns about what it might do to some of our most vulnerable residents in Illinois; Ive shared that with the Federal government.

You can look at the exchanges  the insurance exchanges, boy are they broken. Look at the rates, look at the insurance companies that are dropping out, we need some big changes in the system.

BAIER: School funding, you have a decision to make about how to solve school funding here in Illinois.

RAUNER: Thats right, well the democrats before I became Governor, cut school funding for our State four times in the prior 10 years. We were the worst funded schools in America from a state government perspective as a percentage of overall spending, terrible failure.

And as a result, we had the biggest gap between what low income schools got and high income. I said Change it, make it more equitable. We passed the Good School Funding Bill on a bi-partisan basis that I championed (ph).

But the democrats and the majority of the House inserted a poison pill, a pension bail out for the city of Chicago, hundreds of millions of dollars every year diverted away from classrooms in the suburbs and down state, so I had to mandatory veto that bill and were going to get it fixed so its fair and more equitable for everybody.

BAIER: Is President Trump a good president?

RAUNER: I could tell you this, my job as Governor is to work with every President and every Congress, and I worked with President Obama, I work with President Trump, I work with the members of Congress. I represent the people of Illinois and I want to make sure their interests are looked out after at Washington D.C.

BAIER: Well Governor Rauner thank you.

RAUNER: Well, Im glad to be here with you Bret.

BAIER: look forward to having you back.
New Delhi:

People in Navi Mumbai have been witnessing something strange since the last couple of days as all the dogs near Taloja Industrial Estate are turning blue and the untreated industrial wastes are considered to be the main reason behind the same.

According to reports, the industrial units around the locale directly release effluents in the Kasadi river in which the dogs often wade for food. As a result of this daily pollution, their skin is turning into a bright shade of blue.

The Navi Mumbai Animal Protection Cell has also filed a complaint with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on Thursday and blamed the industrial units around the place. Taloja has more than thousand pharmaceutical, food and engineering factories all over the country.

"A water quality test at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation found the waste treatment was inadequate. The levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)  the concentration of oxygen required to sustain aquatic life  was 80 milligram a litre (mg/L). Levels of chloride, which is toxic, harms vegetation, aquatic life and wildlife, were also high," a report published in 'Hisdustan Times' reads.

Also Read | Mumbai: 12-year-old found 27-week pregnant, family wants abortion

"The area is already cordoned off to the public and is in close proximity of the private company. However, five to six dogs entered the site looking for food and got the blue colour on them. We have warned the company owners to ensure no animals can enter again and such an incident should not be repeated, "Jayavant Hajare, sub-regional officer, MPCB Navi Mumbai was quoted while interacting with the leading daily.

Earlier, in 2016 the polluted river water was also affecting the stocks of fish and it might be also harmful to birds, animals and other creatures who might have died due to pollution.

Also Read: Mumbai: Bike rider slaps traffic police in Vasai; watch video
New Delhi:

Tamil actress Oviya Helen, one of the most popular contestants of Kamal Haasan's 'Bigg Boss Tamil', who walked out of the show owing to some mental health issues, has been summoned by the Nazarathpet police in connection with a complaint alleging that she had attempted suicide inside the sets of the show.

In his police complaint, the advocate said that participants in the show were required to live in a closed compound and they can only leave the compound with the permission of the show producers.

See pics: Oviyas new look post exit from Kamal Haasans show

With Oviya's alleged suicide attempt on the show that was telecasted on August 4 by Vijay TV, the lawyer has urged police to launch a probe in the matter.

Read more: Bigg Boss Tamil: Oviya to be back on Kamal Haasan's show?

He further stated that Oviya had suffered depression due to engagement rules and tough tasks, the shows host and Vijay TV. Hence, they had driven her to attempt suicide and telecast the same to increase TRP ratings.

Nazarathpet police Inspector Jaichandran said preliminary investigation is under way. We have recorded the complaint in the Community Social Register (CSR). We spoke to Oviyas personal secretary, who denied that she attempted suicide, he told The Hindu.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Famous lyricist Prasoon Joshi on Friday replaced Pahlaj Nihalani as Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). After taking over, Prasoon said that he want to pursue the responsibility with honesty and efficiency.

Prasoon refused to say anything on the outgoing CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani.

"Don't want to comment on Pahlaj Nihalani. I would like to carry out the responsibility honestly and efficiently," said Prasoon.

Prasoon said that creativity has world of its own and if there's error while connecting to it, it must be mended beforehand which is also Censor's aim.

Nihalani was surrounded by many controversies during his tenure as CBFC Chairman. His colleagues in the film industry were miffed with him for his dictatorial attitude and moral policing while clearing movies from CBFC.

Pahlaj has been grabbing headlines for ordering 48 cuts in the upcoming Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bidita Bag starrer Babumoshai Bandookbaaz. The whole film fraternity opposed Pahlaj's move to order those cuts.

It is not the first time that Pahlaj had landed in controversy. Earlier, he was opposed by the entire film industry for ordering many cuts during the release of Anurag Kashyap's Udta Punjab.

Madhur Bhandarkar's "Indu Sarkar" and "Lipstick Under My Burqa" also faced ire of Pahlaj as he opposed the releases. "Indu Sarkar" was based on the Emergency whereas "Lipstick Under My Burqa" was based on female sexual desires. The Censor board said that the movie can offend Muslims in country.

Also read: Prasoon Joshi: From 'Rang De Basanti' to CBFC Chairman, know all about the incredible journey of famous lyricist

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Grapevines are buzzing with the news that Kannada actor Updenra will join the arena of politics. Reports suggest that he will likely join Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). He is expected to meet the party chief Amit Shah, who is on a visit to Bengaluru.

The actor recently has been very vocal on several issues like corruption, India-China border issues and the IT raid which took place on minster DK Shivakumar. He has been giving major hints of entering politics.

The Sandalwood actor uploaded an audio clip on Friday where he said that he is ready to take the responsibility and ensure that representatives of the people work honestly. The 'Real star' conveyed that he can launch his own political party.

The actor has portrayed roles in movies where he fights against the muscle and money power. He is now living up to his on-screen image.

If the report about him joining BJP turns out to be true, then he will be latest addition to the list of actors who have joined the party. Actors like Tara Anruradha, Gandesha nd Malavika Avinash have already joined the party.

Upendra has cemented a place as one of the most successful and celebrated actor and directors in Kannada cinema. The actor has completed the shoot for his next movie Upendra Matte Hutti Ba, Inti Prema.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday formally invited Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to join NDA. The development comes a day after Nitish Kumar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.



Friday was Kumars first visit to the national capital after he jettisoned the alliance with the RJD and the Congress, and sealed a tie-up with the BJP on July 26.



He told reporters after meeting Modi that it was a courtesy call and he will visit Delhi again this month end to discuss Bihars developmental issues with the prime minister.



He later had a luncheon meeting with Shah in which both leaders are believed to have discussed ongoing political developments and other issues related to the state.



JD(U) sources said the party is expected to announce its decision to formally join the BJP-led NDA in its national executive meeting on July 19 in Patna.Asked if the party will also join the Modi cabinet, a JD (U) leader said such a decision will be natural.

Read | JD(U) suspends rebel leader Ali Anwar from party for attending meeting of Opposition parties



When we are together in government in Bihar it is only natural that our party joins the Union government, he said.



However, he added that such a decision will be taken by Kumar and the party had not deliberated over it yet.



The JD(U) has 12 members in Parliament, two in the Lok Sabha and 10 in the Rajya Sabha.



Shah has also asked Nitish to be co-convener of the ruling-alliance.



JDUs leader in the Rajya Sabha Sharad Yadav has rebelled against the alliance with the BJP but apparently does not enjoy much support among other partys lawmakers.



Kumar almost shut the door on any reconciliation with Yadav, saying he is free to take any decision as the alliance with the BJP had the entire partys nod.



He (Yadav) is free to take his decision. As far as party is concerned, it has already taken its decision. The decision was not mine alone and it was taken with the consent of the party. If he keeps a different opinion, then he is free to do so, Kumar said.

Read | Grand alliance row in Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar says Sharad Yadav is free to take own decisions

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New Delhi:

Father-in-law of a Bihar-cadre IAS officer Mukesh Pandey who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad on Thursday evening said that his daughter is not at fault and somebody is hatching a conspiracy against her.

"There was not even a day he didn't call his father-in-law; nothing happened that could affect their marital life," said Father-in-law of DM Buxar.

Earlier on Friday, Father-in-law of DM Buxar denied any rift in the family. He said that it is tough time for the family and whatever TV channels are showing is baseless.

According to government railway police sources, the 2012 batch IAS officers body was recovered a kilometer away from Ghaziabad GRP police station area.

Mukesh Pandey was found dead near railway tracks in Ghaziabad with a purported suicide note indicating he was upset due to marital issues, police said.

Pandeys body was found on the tracks about one km from the Ghaziabad railway station late on Thursday night and a suicide note was also recovered from the spot, they said.

In a purported video, which he recorded at Buxar Circuit House in Bihar, Pandey, a 2012-batch IAS officer spoke about how he was fed up with his life and the constant tussle between his parents and his wife.

In it, he mentioned that even his wife loved him and vice-versa, they had different personalities and were like chalk and cheese. He had also mentioned about lying to them about his going to Delhi to commit suicide.

My parents and wife have constant tussle. Their tussle has made my life difficult. They love me a lot but excess of everything is bad, he said in the five-minute long video.

Also read | Buxar DM's suicide: There was no rift in family, says father-in-law

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New Delhi:

An elephant blamed for killing more than a dozen people in Jharkhand and Bihar was shot dead on Friday. A well known hunter Sharpshooter Shafath Ali Khan was called from Hyderabad, he fired two bullets on the head of the animal from a distance of just 10 meters. The elephant died within few minutes.

Shafath Ali Khan said it was the seventh elephant he had killed, adding that in the past he had also killed five tigers and eight leopards that had threatened people in other parts of the country.

The forest official said that casualties could have continued to increase had several people from villages atop the densely forested hills not come down to lower areas.

The wildlife wing of the Jharkhand forest department had on Thursday evening issued a shoot-at-sight order after finding no alternative to protect the elephant.

Forest officials removed the elephant's tusks and planned to bury the animal in the forest with salt and some flowers. The elephant could be protected by driving it to a small forest area and digging trenches around it, said Srivastava, a former steering committee member of Project Elephant.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Rejecting UP governments claim, fire brand BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj on Saturday said that children including infants died in Gorakhpurs BRD hospital because oxygen supply was cut-off over non-payment of dues.

He also demanded stringent action against culprits behind the heart-wrenching incident in Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where 33 children have died in 48 hours.

The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident, BJP MP Maharaj said.

Maharaj also quashed media reports that he called the incident a massacre.

I have never said so. I said the deaths were not natural and steps should be taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future, he said.

Read More | Gorakhpur hospital deaths full coverage

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh on Saturday claimed that the deaths didnt take place due to oxygen supply cut off but medical complications.

The Chief Minister also said that deaths due to disruption of oxygen is a heinous act and the role of gas supplier firm is also being probed.

Those responsible for the incident will not be spared, Yogi said.

Oxygen supply firm has said that it is not the fault of the company as they have been supplying oxygen even after the credit limit has already exceeded.

The fault is not ours. As per our agreement, credit limit cannot exceed Rs 10 lakh but despite this, we continued supplying oxygen till it reached about Rs 70 lakh. We also bought oxygen from another firm, which denied supply without advance payment. In such a situation how long could we have continued supplies? said Deepankar Sharma, owner of oxygen supplier firm Pushpa Sales.

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New Delhi:

In a heart wrenching incident in which at least 64 children have died over the last five days at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital after supply of oxygen cylinders to the hospital was disrupted. Following this a private company has provided over 200 cylinders despite having no contract or tender with the hospital.

Earlier, Modi Chemical Private Limited used to supply oxygen cylinders to the hospital and its contract with the company ended in March.

"When we came to know about the shortage of oxygen and the deaths following it, we supplied around 200-300 cylinders to the hospital out of humanity," Praveen Modi told ANI.

UP: Oxygen cylinders being brought to #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/4NRHHm2HSc  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

However, the hospital still owes Rs. 20 lakh to the company.

"In March, the medical college administration has stopped dealing with me and had given the tender to an Allahabad company," he added.

It is being said that oxygen supply was disrupted by the provider because of non-payment of dues worth Rs. 69 lakhs despite several reminders.

According to the sources, technicians had informed hospital authorities about the shortage of oxygen but it fell on deaf ears.

The incident put a big question mark on the state BJP government as the hospital is in chief minister Yogi Adityanaths constituency and he even visited the hospital just two days ago to review its functioning. But despite his visit, no adequate majors were taken to ensure the safety of children.

The state govt has blamed the hospital for the negligence and said a thorough probe has been ordered into the incident. Meanwhile, district officials have reached the hospital to investigate the matter.

Also Read: Gorakhpur: 32 children die in BRD hospital due to oxygen disruption

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

The procured data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital.

 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Also Read: Gorakhpur tragedy: 1 more child dies at BRD Hospital, toll 64

With Inputs from ANI

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New Delhi:

At least three terrorists were killed and two soldiers martyred in an overnight encounter between security forces and terrorists in Awneera village of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian, an official said. The encounter broke out on Saturday evening and ended around noon on Sunday. Search operation is still on.

IGP Kashmir on Sunday confirmed that three terrorists were killed, while two army jawans lost life in service in the incident. "However, information was of the presence of 5 terrorists out of whom two are believed to have escaped. Firefight ended searches still on," he said.

The encounter also resulted in injuries to three soliders.

ALSO READ: J&K: Woman killed in ceasefire violation by Pak army in Poonch

#Visuals Cordon&search Op begins in Shopian's Awneera village ;security forces suspect presence of terrorists in the area (Visuals deferred) pic.twitter.com/or8BW3ggIH  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

Updates:

# Earlier among three militants police identified one militant as Adil Malik, but after proper verification, it has come forward that he is not among killed one. Third militant as per Police Shopian is Probably Yasin Yatoo Alias Mehmood Gaznavi (chief operational commander HM).

#11:15 AM: IGP Kashmir has confirmed that total 3 terrorists have been killed in the encounter. However, information was of presence of 5 terrorists out of whom two are believed to have escaped. Firefight ended searches still on. Earlier 2 soldiers killed and 3 were injured in same operation.



J&K: Sepoy Ilayaraja P and Sepoy Gowai Sumedh Waman - the two soldiers who lost their lives in the encounter in Shopian pic.twitter.com/LRzIFpXkWb  ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2017

Details of Shopian encounter martyrs

LATE SEP ILAYARAJA P



DOB: 18 May 1992

NOK: Smt Selvi R (Wife)

Details of Family: Sri Periasamy (Father)

Smt Meenakshi(Mother)

Smt Selvi R, (Wife)

Home: Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu

LATE SEP GAWAI SUMEDH WAMAN



DOB: 01 Aug 1992

NOK: Smt Mayawati Waman Gawai ( Mother)

Details of Family: Shri Waman Gawai (Father)

Smt Mayawati Waman Gawai (Mother)

Home: Akola, Maharashtra



Two security personnel martyred, while three injured. One terrorist eliminated and two still hiding in adjoining house: J&K DGP SP Vaid  ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2017

#8:30 AM, Sunday: One terrorist killed, Operation continues: SSP, Shopian (ANI)

From Saturday:

# Five soldiers injured in encounter at Shopian

# Exchange of fire underway between security forces & terrorists in Awneera village of J&K's Shopian; as per reports 2-3 terrorists trapped

# Cordon-and-search operation begins in Awneera village of J&K's Shopian; security forces suspect presence of terrorists in the area

Exchange of fire underway between security forces & terrorists in Awneera village of J&K's Shopian; as per reports 2-3 terrorists trapped  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

READ: Amid Doklam dispute, India-China Army hold BPM meet at Nathu La

#FLASH: Cordon-and-search operation begins in Awneera village of J&K's Shopian; security forces suspect presence of terrorists in the area pic.twitter.com/Aw8cMwU0tB  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

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Jaipur:

Over 200 Kashmiri students in a private university were allegedly forced to leave the varsity hostel as the institute did not receive the scholarship amount provided to them by the central government.

The students, however, were allowed to avail the hostel facilities by the university management only after they protested the varsitys move.

We (students) came here in 2014 under the prime ministers scholarship scheme, from Kashmir. There was no issue in the last three years but from this session, the university asked us that we would not be provided the hostel facility because the scholarship amount has not reached them yet, Arshit Mahmood, a student, said.

ALSO READ: JNU students should take oath of protecting Indias pride, nationalism, says BJP MP

He alleged that all the students were forced to take shelter here or there or on a road since August 1.

We suffered as we had no place to live. We had no money to buy food. The university supported us for three years but now they did not allow us to stay in the hostel, Mahmood said.

Chief mentor of the Suresh Gyan Vihar University Sudhanshu said, The Centre has not released the scholarship support and we are awaiting the funds. There are over 200 such students who face the problem, but now we have allowed them to stay in the hostel and the issue has been resolved.

ALSO READ: JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar wants tank on campus to remind students of 'Indian Army's valour'

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New Delhi:

At least one jawan was injured in a terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Kupwara region of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of Saturday morning.



According to sources, the firing lasted for 10 minutes during the night after which a search Operation was launched.



The area is close to LoC and is headquarters to 41 RR.

In a seperate incident, a 45-year old lady lost her life in ceasefire violation & shelling by Pakistan in J&K's Mendhar Sector during early morning hours.

#UPDATE: Pak Army initiated unprovoked firing from 0515 hours in Poonch sector. Indian Army retaliated strongly. Firing ceased at 0645 hours  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

J&K:Terrorists attacked 41 RR Army HQ in forest area of Kalaroos in Kupwara,late last night;soldier injured. pic.twitter.com/6hCW4GD08V  ANI (@ANI)

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New Delhi:

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath breaking his silence over the heart-wrenching Gorakhpur tragedy has hold dirtiness and open defecation responsible for the deaths of children.

Encephalitis disease exists since 1978, if innocents from Eastern UP are dying untimely deaths, then issues related to sanitation and open defecation are responsible for it, said CM Adityanath.

Later in a press conference, he advised media to portray the correct picture of Gorakhpur incident in which more than 30 children including infants died due to disruption of oxygen over non-payment of dues.

Addressing a press conference, CM Yogi Adityanath, along with minister for medical and health Siddharth Nath Singh, minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon and Union minister of state for health and family welfare Anupriya Patel said that deaths due to disruption of oxygen is a heinous act and those responsible for the tragedy will not be spared.+

Suggested Read | Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: BRD college didnt report oxygen scarcity issue, principal suspended: UP govt

Here are the updates:

# The payment of Rs 68,65,596 was released on August 5 but the supplier was paid on August 11, that's why the principal was suspended: CM Yogi

# 9 deaths happened on 7th August, 7 deaths on 8th August, 9 deaths on 9th August, 23 deaths on 10th August, 11 deaths on 11 August

# I request you all to present correct facts on this sensitive issue: CM Yogi

# Deaths due to disruption of oxygen is a heinous act, Anyone found guilty shall not be spared: CM

# During my visit, no one at the hospital mentioned the issue of oxygen supply: CM Adityantah

# Oxygen supplier firm is also under the scanner, I have constituted a committee to be led by Chief Secretary to inquire the role of oxygen suppliers and sought a report in seven days: CM Yogi

# My sympathies to all the families who lost their children: CM Yogi

# Govt of India has sent MoS for health ministry Anupriya Patel to UP

# Prime Minister Modi is concerned over the issue. He has assured Centre's full support: Yogi Adityanath

# UP CM Yogi Adityanath addresses press conference

# BRD Medical College's 'suspended' principal terms his resignation pre-decided.

# Uttar Pradesh Delegation of Samajwadi Party visited BRD medical college in Gorakhpur after 63 children died in 6 days.

# PM Modi tweets to congratulate on government formations by poaching MLAs but why he is silent of Gorakhpur tragedy: Raj Babbar

# Its very said. It's a murder, murder of children: Lalu Yadav

Bohat dukhad hai, hatya hai, bachhon ki hatya hai: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on children's death in #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/su0XPsYsro  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

# Heart-wrenching; I am unable to sleep for the last two days. Will speak to Yogi ji, strong action should be taken: Ram Vilas Paswan

# Governments can't be a problem, if the problem is in govt it self then it has no right to remain in power, says CM Adityanath

Sarkaarein samasya nahi ho saktin, agar sarkar swayam mein samasya hai to sarkar ko phir rehne ka adhikaar nahi: UP CM Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/s6N99huolb  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

# Encephalitis is a challenge since 1978, unhygienic conditions and open defecation reason behind untimely deaths of Children of Eastern UP: CM Yogi Adityanath

# UP CM Yogi Adityanath speaks on child deaths in Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College

# 3:48: PM: A High-level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secy. Will wait for the report, action will be taken. Till then suspending principal: Minister for medical education, A Tandon

High level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secy. Will wait for report, action will be taken. Till then suspending principal: Tandon pic.twitter.com/YzXSygAFz2  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

# 3:45 PM: We have come to the conclusion that the deaths of children in the hospital did not take place due to shortage of gas in the hospital: Siddharth Nath Singh

# 3:44 PM: PMO of India tweets, PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments.

PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

# 3:40 PM: BRD Medical college principal suspended

# 3:38 PM: In August 2015, 668 deaths took place in the paediatric section of the hospital: Siddharth Nath Singh

# 3:36 PM: In 2014, 2015 and 2016, 17 or 18 deaths per day on an average were reported from the BRD Medical College: Siddharth Nath Singh



# 3:34 PM: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathji had visited the BRD Medical College on 9 August and had held consultations with various officials, But no one had raised the issue of the shortage of oxygen in the hospital: Siddharth Nath Singh

# 3:33 PM: Ours is a sensitive government, CM has directed us to take stringent actions: Siddhartha Nath Singh

# 3:30 PM: UP Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh addresses press conference

#1:25 PM: Have made 3-member team who will take stock of situation at the hospital & update me on current situation: BSP Chief Mayawati

#1:20 PM: Any amount of criticism of BJP Govt for this heart-breaking incident is not enough: Mayawati

#12:30 PM: Govt not revealing truth. Therefore delegation from SP will go to BRD Medical College to see the situation&inform govt&party: Akhilesh Yadav



#12:30 PM:Govt not doing their job. They are busy in hounding SP workers. See what happened in Bareilly & Ballia: Akhilesh Yadav



#12:30 PM:Govt trying to run away from responsibilities that's why saying that opposition is politicising the situation: Akhilesh Yadav



#11:55 AM: Repeatedly communicated about pending payments to concerned authorities but never got response: Meenu Walia, HR Pushpa Gas Agency



#11:55 AM: Deaths not due to oxygen supply cut-off, no one can stop supply like this, we know consequences: Meenu Walia,HR Pushpa Gas agency



#11:50 AM: Oxygen supplier's Lucknow office raided, owner says they received Rs 52 lakhs on Friday

#11:12 AM: Both Health Min&Min of Technical&Medical Education must resign. UP CM can't step back from duty. Must apologize to state: GN Azad

#11:12 AM: Heart-wrenching incident. Saddened by children's death. This happened due to state govt's carelessness: Ghulam Nabi Azad

#11:10 AM: 30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?: Kailash Styarthi, Nobel Peace Laureate (read full story here)

#10:50 AM: Considering he (Yogi Adityanath) is both MP & CM must take moral responsibility & step down, so should his Health Min: Manish Tewari



#10:45 AM: UP:Congress delegation at BRD Medical College in #Gorakhpur; what happened was due to lapse on the government's part says Cong's RPN Singh





#10:45 AM:Hope he (Yogi Adityanath) has enough shame in him to goret to the parents & quit on moral grounds: Sudhindra Bhadoria, BS



#10:45 AM:Matter of great shame for UP CM. If there's any morality in govt he should quit&go, for such disaster has happened: Sudhindra Bhadoria, BSP





#10:40 AM:Parents of children who died must get compensation, free medicine must be provided to poor families across UP: Ram Gopal Yadav, SP Gorakhpur



#10:40 AM:Opposition giving statements in haste. UP Govt is committed to service of people. Strict action to be taken: KP Maurya, UP Dy CM Gorakhpur



#10:40 AM: UP:Congress delegation, including GN Azad & Raj Babbar, reaches BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur



#10:20 AM:Govt is keeping close vigillance over the matter, there will be a thorough investigation and culprits will not be spared. Children did not die because of lack of oxygen: Keshav Maurya, Deputy CM

#10:00 am: CM instructed Health Min & Min of Technical & Medical Education for proper investigation & strict action, tweets office of UP CM

Dept handling oxygen supply wrote to authorities on 3&10 Aug to infrm of shortge as Pushpa Sales stoppd supply ovr pending paymnt #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/FDKl8hlx1H  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

#Gorakhpur: Updated visuals from BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/wfEAQ7bFbk  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP)



#9:15 AM:CM is keeping track of things, He had called Health Min & me. Both of us will go to Gorakhpur, inspect& report back to him: Ashutosh Tandon



#9:15 AM:Opposition parties should not politicize deaths: UP Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh

#9:08 AM: In monsoon there are many patients, forced to keep 2 on 1 bed. There's dearth of doctors but we monitor round the clock: Doctor

#Gorakhpur: Families of children at BRD Medical College allege discrepancy in treatment, say they're buying food & medicine from outside pic.twitter.com/KUYf8coOe5  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

#8:30 AM: Both ministers Siddharth Nath Singh & Ashutosh Tandon will visit Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College after meeting CM Yogi Adityanath.



#8:30 AM: UP Health Min Siddharth Nath Singh & UP Min for Technical & Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon to meet CM Yogi Adityanath



#8:22 AM: Encephalitis claims lives of 2 more children at #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College.

UP: Police force deployed to tighten the security at #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/KFlaAcoYmI  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

UP: Oxygen cylinders being brought to #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/4NRHHm2HSc  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

From Friday: 32 children, including infants die in Gorakhpur's BRD hospital due to oxygen disruption

Even as the UP Government has denied the allegation that the deaths occurred due to oxygen deficiency, the Union Home Ministry on Friday said that while 30 children have died in hospital over 48 hours, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.



As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. Exact cause is being verified by civil administration, a home ministry spokesperson said.



The District Magistrate Rautela , who was first to confirm deaths of children, said 17 children died in the neo-natal ward, 5 in AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward and 8 in the general ward over the last two days.



To a specific question as to whether the casualties were due to shortage in supply of oxygen, Rautela, who was camping in the hospital, said he found out from the doctors that no death occurred due to lack of oxygen.



Citing a break-up of casualties since August 7 till date, Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children have died due to various diseases during the period.



Singh asserted that the deaths were not because of paucity of oxygen.The district magistrate said alternative arrangements had been made from nearby nursing homes since last night and from neighbouring Sant Kabir Nagar district to ensure availability of liquid oxygen for the hospital.



At present, there are 50 oxygen cylinders and 100 to 150 more cylinders will be reaching soon, he said.



Asked whether the vendor supplying oxygen had stopped doing so pending payment to the tune of Rs 70 lakh, the district magistrate said part payment had been made to the contractor for supply of oxygen to the hospital.He said the reason behind the deaths is being ascertained and action will be taken against those responsible.



A magisterial enquiry has been ordered to find the exact reasons leading to the deaths so that basic facts could come out by Saturday evening.

Also read | Gorakhpur children death: Rahul Gandhi expresses 'deep pain,' holds UP govt responsible for tragedy

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Cairo:

At least 44 people were killed and 180 others injured after two trains collided with each other near Egypts coastal city of Alexandria, the officials said. The number of deaths may increase and the final toll will be announced after clearing the debris of the two trains, the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.

The Egyptian Railways Authority said that the deadly collision took place on Friday after a train travelling to Alexandria from Cairo, crashed into the back of another train coming from the Canal city of Port Said, which was waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, east of Alexandria.

Security forces cordoned off the area of collision as a rescue team is currently searching for survivors over the night and removing the wreckage off the tracks, the Railways added.

A 26-year-old passenger, Iman Hamdy, who survived the accident said that she was travelling in the train going to Alexandria and noticed that it was already in a bad condition.

The train abruptly stopped for 15 minutes in Ebies area near Khorshid station when she felt its collision with another train, the Al-Masri el-Youm Arabic newspaper quoted her saying.

The survivor said that she will never forget the large number of injured, mostly women and children, she saw at the accident site.

ALSO READ: NIA files charge sheet against 4 accused in Bhopal-Ujjain train blast case, find links to ISIS

Another 10 year-old survivor, Karim Abdel Wahab, said that he couldnt find his mother and brother who were travelling with him in the train.

The driver of the Cairo-Alexandria train has surrendered himself to police and has been transferred to El-Raml police station in Alexandria for investigation, local media said quoting a health ministry official.

Egypts prosecutor-general Nabil Sadiq has ordered an urgent investigation into the collision to find out the reason behind the crash.

President El-Sisi has expressed his condolences to the victims and ordered government bodies to follow up on developments from the deadly collision and identify the cause of the accident.

The rescue team is currently searching for survivals while ambulances are transferring the injured to nearby hospitals, said Magdy Hegazi, undersecretary at the Health ministry.

The ministry said 75 ambulances had been deployed at the crash scene to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.

Train accidents are common in Egypt. In 2016, a train derailed in south of Cairo, killing five people, and injuring 27 people in the al-Ayat area.

Another train derailment in Badr Rashin in Giza killed at least 19 people in 2013.

In 2012, a collision between a train and school bus on a rail crossing in the town of Manaflut in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

At least 360 people were killed in 2002 in Egypts worst train disaster when a major fire engulfed seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ: Indian Railways earns Rs 1,400 crore from ticket cancellation charges in a year

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New Delhi:

At least 15 people died and over were 32 injured in a high-intensity bomb blast in Quetta's Pishin Stop area in Pakistan on Saturday. Following the blast, officials have declared an emergency in the city, reported the Dawn news.

According to the eyewitnesses, the powerful blast occurred at a high-security area near a security forces vehicle. The entire area was cordoned off by police and security forces.

"COAS condemns terrorist attack on Army truck in Quetta, an attempt to mar Indep Day festivity. Our resolve won't succumb to any challenge," Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed that an on-duty security vehicle was targeted in the blast, adding that 10 security officials were also injured in the blast.

"Incendiary explosive was used in the blast due to which nearby vehicles caught fire," ISPR reported.

Also Read | Doklam standoff: India prepares 'Plan 45000' to tackle China; Sukhoi fighter jets on high alert

All the injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta for treatment and rescue operations are underway.

15 bodies and 32 injured individuals were brought to the hospital. We are well equipped to deal with the emergency, Dawn news quoted a spokesperson of Civil Hospital Quetta as saying. Leaves of all doctors have also been cancelled.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti refused to give any information about the nature of the blast saying rescue operations are our priority.

We are trying to provide best possible facility to the injured people as soon as possible. Workers are also busy extinguishing the fire at the site, he told Pakistani media.

The bomb blast took place just two days before Pakistan's Independence Day. "The terrorists don't want people to celebrate the Independence Day," Bugti said.

So far, no terrorist organisation has claimed the responsibility of the blast.

Also Read | J&K: Army jawan, woman killed in Pakistan's ceasefire violation in Poonch sector

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New Delhi:

Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of Kenya's presidential election on Friday amid allegations of voting fraud by the opposition. As per official figures released by the country's electoral commission on Friday, the incumbent secured 54.27 percent of the ballots cast, while his rival, Raila Odinga, won 44.74 percent.

"Having fulfilled the requirement by law... I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta... as president elect," said polls commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, as cheers and singing broke out at the national tallying centre.

Kenyatta took to the stage to thank Kenyans "for the confidence they have shown in me." He vowed to "continue the work that we have alreadystarted and re-dedicate ourselves toward serving this greatnation and our people." Kenyatta also reached out to Odinga -- who has rejectedthe vote due to alleged rigging -- and his supporters, to"work together... so that we can build this nation together". "We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic.

As with any competition there shall always be winners andthere shall be losers but we all belong to one great nation ofKenya," he said. "Let us be peaceful... there is no need for violence.Your neighbour is your neighbour regardless of their ethnicity, their religion, their colour." Odinga's National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition refusedto take part in the announcement of results, after accusing the election commission of refusing to hear their concerns over the counting process. Top NASA official James Orengo denounced the counting process as "an entire charade, this is a disaster."

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Washington:

Emergency was declared by the authorities in the US state of Virginia after violent clashes erupted between white supremacists and counter demonstrators in a rally on Saturday.

The white supremacists were carrying the Unite the Right rally when the violence broke out. They were protesting against the planned removal of a Confederate general Robert E Lees statue from a park in the college town of Charlottesville.

Police and security forces were deployed in riot gears following the clashes.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said, It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property.

I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours, he said in a statement.

The emergency was declared to assist local government in restoring public safety, McAuliffe said while noting that most of the protesters were from out of the state.

ALSO READ | Will replace Pakistan's flawed system with new law: Nawaz Sharif

Mike Signer, the Charlottesville Mayor condemned the demonstration by white nationalists in a Facebook post. Today, in 2017, we are seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights, he said.

I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus, he added.

Calling for unity, US President Donald Trump also condemned the violence via Twitter. We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one! he tweeted.

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan described the rally as vile bigotry. The views fuelling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry, Ryan said.

He was joined by several lawmakers in condemning the violence.

Theres no place for such hate & violence in our society. Our country needs unity now. The events at #Charlottesville are shameful, tweeted Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy.

Senate Minority Leader, Charles Schumer said the march and rally in Charlottesville go against everything the American flag stands for.

Charlottesville hate rallies are in stark contrast to everything our nation represents. We reject white supremacy & bigotry of all forms, said Congressman Mike Quigley.

The Unite the Right rally by white supremacist has attracted leaders and members of the countrys largest neo-Nazi groups.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ: Bomb blast in Pishin Stop area of Pakistan's Quetta, 15 dead

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New Delhi:

Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the worlds oldest man took his last breath in Israel on Friday at the age of 113.

Kristal who was born in Maleniec, Poland, on September 15, 1903, survived the Auschwitz death camp, where he lost his first wife and two children.

However he married again to Batsheva after the war and emigrated to Israel with his family in 1950. Kristal was awarded a Guinness certificate as the world's oldest man on March 11, 2016, when he was 112 years and 178 days old.

Read more: Pakistans Mother Teresa Ruth Pfau passes away

Mr Kristal hit the headlines last year after deciding to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah a century late. Usually in Jewish faith, when Jewish boys become 13 years old, they become accountable for their actions and become a bar mitzvah.

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The Justice Ministry intends to introduce a videophone-based interpretation system for foreign nationals in prisons and detention centers.

The system is expected to be implemented in November and is aimed at responding to the increase in foreigners at such facilities amid a surge in the number of overseas visitors to Japan. The ministry plans to connect foreign inmates and detainees by videophone with international affairs officers who can provide interpretation and translation and are assigned to prisons in Tochigi, Fuchu in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka.

The interpretation system has been introduced at some prisons on a trial basis since August last year, and it will be expanded to other facilities across the country. Under the full-fledged system, one tablet device will be placed at each of the five prisons above, with other facilities expected to use the video conference devices they already have.

Foreigners who understand almost no Japanese are imprisoned in facilities where international affairs officers are based. There have also been cases at other facilities, however, where interpreters were needed to explain a foreigner's violation of facility rules or medical care.
Japan posted surpluses in its public pension accounts in fiscal 2016, which ended in March, thanks to large investment returns, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Thursday.

Japan logged a surplus of 10,503.1 billion in market value in the special account for the "kosei nenkin" pension program for corporate employees, the first surplus in two years. The country marked a surplus of 244 billion in the special account for the "kokumin nenkin" program chiefly for the self-employed, also the first black ink in two years.
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The Trump administration might be downplaying alternative energy efforts, but a Connecticut program is emerging as a leader in the field.

The Connecticut Green Bank was established by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly on July 1, 2011, making it the first bank of its kind in the country. The program has since leveraged more than $1 billion through public-private partnerships to make clean energy more affordable and accessible to homeowners, businesses and industry.

The bank recently received a prestigious innovation award from Harvard University, which called it an examplar of how to use public assets to leverage private investment.

The success of Connecticuts Green Bank is spurring the adoption of similar efforts by states and cities across the country, and illustrates how Hartfords innovative approach to green energy financing can create jobs, reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and lower energy bills, said Stephen Goldsmith, the director of Harvards Innovations in American Government Program.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty have introduced legislation that would create a federal green bank on the Connecticut model.

With the federal government pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, its more important than ever for states and local governments, businesses and other institutions to step up to meet the climate goals, said Rob Klee, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and vice-chairman of the Green Banks board of directors. The bank is an important component of that effort, he said.

More Information Completed residential solar projects in Fairfield County Bridgeport728 Stratford642 Fairfield350 Shelton303 Trumbull254 Danbury240 Norwalk245 Stamford210 Newtown130 Brookfield105 See More Collapse

Theyve had an energetic and transformative approach to clean energy and energy development, Klee said.

Investment

By the end of the 2016 fiscal year, the Green Bank had used some $165 million in state funds to attract $750 million in private investment, according to its most recent audit.

The bank also hit a key milestone this summer when it topped $100 million in projects completed under a program known as Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy, or C-PACE. According to one national energy group, California is the only state to have closed a larger total of project financing for commercial PACE projects than Connecticut.

That $100 million figure represents a cumulative 165 projects, including industrial, office, nonprofit, retail and other business sites. They include a wide range of projects that reduce energy use, such as installing solar panels, switching to more efficient lighting or replacing outdated boilers.

About 60 percent of C-PACE projects are solar and another 20 percent involve solar combined with other energy-efficient practices, said Mackey Dykes, vice president of the Green Banks commercial, industrial and institutional programs.

C-PACE projects have generated 21.2 megawatts of clean energy, created nearly 1,500 green jobs, eliminated nearly 19,600 tons of greenhouse gas emissions and saved $198 million in energy costs, according to its second-quarter report for 2017.

There are five recent commercial projects in the Danbury area, ranging from $88,000 for an energy-efficiency upgrade at the YMCA to $2.5 million for a renewable energy system and energy-efficiency upgrade at Curtis Packaging Corporation in Newtown.

When all Green Bank programs are factored in, including residential solar incentives, the total number of projects is closer to 21,000, which generate 215 megawatts of clean power and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2.6 million tons.

Fairfield County alone has more than 3,200 completed residential solar projects that generate about 23.5 megawatts of energy. Of these, 240 projects were completed in Danbury, 130 in Newtown and 105 in Brookfield.

Over the last five years, the Green Bank has been able to increase the average share of private investment in each project. In 2013, the bank funded 100 percent of C-PACE projects, but that percentage decreased to 72 percent in 2014 and is now about 33 percent.

About $6 of private investments is leveraged for every Green Bank dollar, and some projects are completely financed with private funds.

Thats the crux of our model," said Craig Connolly, the Green Banks managing director of marketing.

When the program first started, this financial model had never been used before, so banks and other potential investors were hesitant to get involved. The Green Bank began investing on its own to build the market and show that the model could work. The successes  and growing market demand  enticed private investors to join, Dykes said.

Its almost become a no-brainer for them," he said.

Outside of Connecticut

The country now has five other green banks.

Connecticuts example was followed by New York and Hawaii in 2013, California in 2014 and Rhode Island in 2015. Montgomery County in Maryland established its own green bank last year, making it the first at the local level.

Connecticut is ahead of the curve," Dykes said.

While Connecticut and Rhode Island are public-private organizations, New York operates under the state and Montgomery County is a separate nonprofit.

Collectively, these green banks have invested billions of dollars in clean energy, but Esty and Murphy say access to capital is still a big challenge. They hope their bill to establish a National Green Bank modeled after Connecticuts program would help.

Under the Green Bank Act, up to $50 billion could be invested in clean-energy projects, with at least a 20 percent local match for each project.

In announcing the bill, Esty said a national program would help fill a hole created when the U.S. left the Paris Agreement.

Recognition

The Connecticut Green Bank has received national accolades. A few weeks ago, Harvard University named the program as this years recipient of the Innovations in American Government Award.

The award, which includes a $100,000 prize, was presented to the Connecticut Green Bank for sparking the green bank movement, according to a release. It was selected from thousands of applicants.

Connolly said it was great to receive the recognition, which is backed by the programs success.

We're picking up the numbers and were generating a positive trend, he said.

He added that the green bank leaders are working to keep that trend going by using the award money to start a green bank academy to help other states and countries start green banks.

This can help other green banks outside of Connecticut, Connolly said.
DANBURY Local immigrants are joining thousands expected to gather in Washington, D.C. next week to show their support for a federal immigration program that has protected about 800,000 undocumented youth from deportation over the last five years.

On Aug. 15, Connecticut Students for a Dream, a statewide non-profit started by two local sisters, is sending two buses to the nations capital.

There, they will participate in a national day of action  rallying and marching outside of the White House to demand that President Donald Trumps administration protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.

A group of state attorneys general from across the country are pushing Trump to rescind the program that was created by the Obama administration. If Trump doesnt phase out the program by Sept. 5, the attorneys general have said that they will sue.

Aug. 15 marks the fifth anniversary of deferred action, said Carolina Bortolleto, who co-founded Connecticut Students for a Dream with her sister, Camila. At this point, its all hands on deck to save DACA.

The sisters, of Brookfield, are both DACA recipients.

Carolina Bortolleto said the hope is to have about 80 people from across the state on the two buses  one departing from Danbury, with a stop in Norwalk, and the other leaving from Hartford, stopping in Bridgeport.

Many DACA participants arrived in the U.S. as small children. DACA, launched in 2012, protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally.

DACA permits must be renewed every two years. The protection can be revoked at any time, and some young immigrants have lost its protections after being arrested for crimes.

In Connecticut, the program has had about 10,000 DACA recipients.

Carlos, 23, who asked that his last name not be used, has only recently started telling people that he has DACA. He will be going to D.C. on Tuesday.

We are all brave to do this and we will be fighting for something that we know we deserve, said Carlos, who lives in Danbury. We are here to stay and give back to this country.

Connecticut Students for a Dream also held community meetings about DACA in Hartford, New Haven and Danbury last week. The Danbury meeting drew about 30 people.
NEW FAIRFIELDAfter a contentious few years on the school board, the candidates running for the six seats up for re-election this November hope the board will have a fresh start.

Voters will choose from nine candidates this Election Day to fill the four full-term and two half-term open seats on the nine-member Board of Education. Each full term member will serve for four years while half-term candidates will fill a two-year vacancy.

The board will then appoint someone for a seventh open seat when Chairman Steve Burfeind steps down on Nov. 7.

Of the candidates running for the six open seats, only three are incumbents, meaning the board will have gained at least four new members after Burfeind is replaced.

Most of the nine candidates, whether incumbents and newcomers, said this will permit a positive turnaround for the school board, which has struggled with internal disagreement and withering public criticism over the past few years.

Some portion of the New Fairfield population sees the board as dysfunctional or non-functioning, and I cant disagree with that, said incumbent Doug DeRito, who is running for a full term after filling a vacancy last year. I have tremendous hope for the future with the new board coming on and new leadership on the board, so we can start moving forward.

The school board has faced considerable public outcry from parents, teachers and residents dissatisfied with Superintendent Alicia Roy, which culminated in arguments among board members when they evaluated her performance earlier this year. Roy announced during that process that she would leave her position after her contract expires next June.

Incumbent Vice-chair Amy Tozzo, who is running to fill a two-year vacancy, said she looks forward to putting the long-running controversy to rest. She added that she doesnt know all the candidates, but those shes gotten to know can help the board move on.

I dont think theyre going to come into the Board of Ed and look back, Tozzo said. Theyre going to really want to push the board forward. Thats really what Im looking for and not focus so much on the Dr. Roy situation, because thats over and done.

Tozzo said one reason for her decision to run again was to ensure that she could help the new candidates, most of whom havent served on a school board, to adapt to the role.

Dominic Cipollone, another incumbent running for re-election, agreed that the returning members will need to embrace the perspectives of the new candidates in developing goals for this year. He hopes to focus this year on what he calls the three Cscommunication, collaboration and cohesiveness.

I dont think thats existing at the level it needs to to be successful, Cipollone said. There are a lot of good things going on. Its a good school district and I believe it can be a great school district with some strategic changes with how people work with one another.

Voters will

choose four people from the seven candidates running for full terms and two people from the three candidates running for two-year spots. Cipollone, a Republican, is running for both a full-term seat and a two-year vacancy, so his name will appear twice on the ballot.

The six new candidates, ranging in ages, backgrounds and priorities for the schools, all say they have something unique to offer the district.

Rick Regan, a Democrat and computer scientist, said he hopes to bring data-driven logic to the board. He has been considering running since November but said his decision was confirmed when he followed the superintendents evaluation process this year and noticed the evaluation structure lacked specific goals for each year.

The other two Democrats, Peggy Katkocin and Anita Brown, both said their backgrounds in a school system will help them on the board.

Katkocin, a former first selectman who served on the Board of Education from 1988 to 1994, recently retired from her position as the high school nurse. Brown worked for 20 years as a middle-school counselor in Sherman.

Whenever theres an organized system theres give and take, hearing and listening, Brown said. As a counselor, thats my training, so Im hoping I can bring that to the system and really focus on what we can do to support the students in our district.

Republican candidate Kimberly Latourette said her experience as a teacher in a New York district could lend itself serving New Fairfield, where both of her sons attend school.

The youngest candidate, 22-year-old Republican William Touri Jr., hopes he can bring the perspective of his peers, having just graduated from New Fairfield High School in 2012.

Having a young person and being able to connect with students that are closer in age I think could be a good image for the Board of Education, Touri said. (It could) put a different perspective amongst the groups and the people that are already board members.

Greg Flanagan, a Republican with five children in New Fairfield schools, said he hopes his experience running an executive recruiting company will help with the boards task of finding a new superintendent.

The new board will be responsible for forming a committee to replace Roy. Tozzo said the committee will likely be made up of board members, parents and teachers.

Flanagan added that should he be elected he also hopes to focus on re-establishing trust with the districts teachers, 70 percent of whom cast a vote of no confidence in Roy.

Theres no reason why New Fairfield cant have the top district in the state, Flanagan said. We have good teachers and good schools, we just have to get everyone pulling in the same direction."

aquinn@newstimes.com
GATINEAU, QC, Aug. 10, 2017 /CNW/ - Interim Commissioner of Official Languages Ghislaine Saikaley voiced her concerns today about the reliability of the 2016 Census data released last week by Statistics Canada on Quebec's English-speaking communities.

"We absolutely need to be able to count on accurate data in order to assess the language situation in every province and territory," stressed Saikaley. "These figures have a direct impact on public policy, including decisions as to which federal offices are required to provide services in both official languages."

Media coverage today reported doubts about the accuracy of Statistics Canada's August 2 report on the increase in the number of English-speaking Quebecers.

The Interim Commissioner is convinced that Statistics Canada will take prompt action to confirm the accuracy of the data it has released and to maintain the high degree of trust that is placed in Canadian Census data.

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SOURCE Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

For further information: Or to schedule an interview with the Interim Commissioner, please contact: Robin Cantin, Director of Communications, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Telephone: 613-220-8396, Toll free: 1-877-996-6368, E-mail: [email protected]

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ABBOTSFORD, BC, Aug. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Weatherhaven Global Resources Ltd. ("Weatherhaven") has selected LED Smart Inc. of Edmonton, Alberta, to provide specialized tactical lighting systems in support of the company's efforts to fulfill the requirements of the $168M Headquarters Shelter System ("HQSS") program for the Department of National Defence.

The $19.2M sub-contract to LED Smart will be for five years and will include design, engineering, manufacturing, and integrated logistics support. The HQSS program, which will provide our forces with significantly upgraded mobile shelter capabilities, will require a minimum of 6,800 tactical lighting fixtures, 1,700 switch assemblies and 1,700 lighting control panels as firm contracted items. This partnership forms part of Weatherhaven's Value Proposition, under the Industrial and Technological Benefit (ITB) Policy, which is creating high value jobs and supporting world class innovation in Canada. The ITB Policy requires successful bidders on Canadian defence procurements to make investments equal to contract value.

"Weatherhaven selected LED Smart because of the superior design of their LED lighting products, competitive pricing and their commitment to providing industrial and technological benefits to Canada," said Ray Castelli, Chief Executive Officer of Weatherhaven. "We believe these energy-efficient lighting systems to be among the best in the world and that they represent significant export potential for Canada," he added.

"The opportunity to provide Canada's HQSS requirement, on top of an existing opportunity to supply HTL-BU lighting systems to the US military, will enable LED Smart to make a substantial strategic investment decision here in British Columbia. LED Smart will be investing in a new state-of-the-art facility in Surrey, British Columbia, that will be the first of its kind," said Xinxin Shan, President of LED Smart. "This new facility will position our company to become a major player in the global supply of specialized tactical LED lighting systems."

The agreement with LED Smart also contemplates an additional $4.9M of optional contracted items for more of the same lighting equipment. In addition, there is a potential for 20 years of in-service support in a series of four, five-year optional contracts.

HQSS is a next-generation tactical shelter system that will be used by Canada to support a number of humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts, both here in Canada and around the world. The "next-generation" design includes a number of innovative features focused on modularity, speed of deployment, re-use, durability and efficiency.

In addition to the Canadian program, which must be delivered by 2021, a number of other countries are evaluating the HQSS design concept for their future tactical shelter needs, thereby generating long-term potential export market opportunities.

ABOUT WEATHERHAVEN:

Weatherhaven Global Resources Ltd., headquartered in Coquitlam, B.C., Canada, is a leading international supplier of soft-wall and container-based shelter systems for key military, commercial, government and medical applications worldwide. For more than 35 years, the company has engineered, produced, and installed the highest quality structures via its global presence in strategic markets including Canada, Peru, Brazil, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. With deployments in over 50 countries and seven continents, Weatherhaven benefits from a growing base of customers consisting of prominent governments, militaries and commercial companies worldwide.

ABOUT LED Smart

LED Smart Inc. was established in October 1995. Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, with over 22 years of experience, it has a variety of LED and electronic contracts with private and governmental agencies. It has nine years of experience with the US and Canadian military projects. It is an electronic assembly manufacturer and a developer of advanced, innovative LED lighting technologies. It holds a series of patented technologies, a mature production technology, and a sophisticated R&D team.

SOURCE Weatherhaven

For further information: Weatherhaven, Ms. Karla Arias, (604) 451 8900 ext. 321, [email protected]; LED Smart, Mrs. Desiree Wartenbe, (780) 438-6624 ext. 242, [email protected]

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OTTAWA, Aug. 12, 2017 /CNW/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on International Youth Day:

"Today, on International Youth Day, we celebrate the limitless potential of young people. We put a spotlight on their ideas and aspirations, which have the power to change the world. We are inspired by their courage, passion, and the positive change they make every day.

"The theme of this year's International Youth Day  Youth Building Peace  emphasizes how young leaders can help move societies beyond conflict and violence by promoting gender equality, inclusion, and education. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to meet one of these young peace builders, Malala Yousafzai. Her relentless and inspiring work reminds us that young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow  they are leaders today.

"Listening to and appreciating the diverse views of young people will help us turn the vision of a more peaceful and prosperous planet into a reality. That is why we have taken concrete steps like creating the Prime Minister's Youth Council to give young people a voice in decisions that will shape their lives, their communities, and their country.

"As Minister of Youth, I know that young people everywhere are trying to make a difference. We must continue to amplify their voices, give them a seat at the table, and connect them with opportunities. Our future success depends on it.

"On behalf of the Government of Canada, Sophie and I extend our best wishes to all celebrating International Youth Day."

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

For further information: PMO Media Relations: 613-957-5555

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A new federal report could again challenge the Trump administrations dismissive stance on global warming, finding that last year the planet was hotter than any time in well over a century and witnessed perhaps the most significant climate disruption in modern history.

The annual State of the Climate report, published Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, confirmed that 2016 not only set a new mark for heat but broke records for sea-level rise, the amount of ocean ice and snow cover that were lost, and the level of heat-trapping pollutants in the air.

While the study, recognized as the U.S. governments most comprehensive look at climate, identified varying levels of turbulence across the globe, few spots were immune to the impacts of climate change  and some faced dire threats.

In the United States, 15 weather or climate-related disasters, including drought, wildfire, four inland floods and eight severe storms, caused 138 deaths and $46 billion in damages, the second-biggest bill since record-keeping began in 1980, according to the report.

California shared in the havoc. The state experienced its hottest summer on record last year, the report noted, and saw one of its most severe droughts give way to one of its wettest winters. The report also listed the state as among the nations hardest hit by fire.

Going forward, the reports authors issued a broader warning that increasing temperatures in California and elsewhere would mean less snowfall and tighter water supplies as well as flooding in coastal areas amid rising oceans.

When you set record after record after record, its very extreme and its cause for concern, said Jessica Blunden, a NOAA climatologist and lead editor of the new report.

Though climate change has rarely been documented in such detail, the report stopped short of linking the problem to what scientists agree is the leading cause  human activity, such as burning coal and gasoline. The agency said the aim of the report was purely diagnostic.

Earlier this week, however, a draft copy of the National Climate Assessment produced by 13 federal agencies made an unequivocal connection between weather extremes and human-produced greenhouse gases.

President Trump has not only denied the link, calling climate change a hoax, but reversed course on U.S. policy on greenhouse-gas emissions. This month, he formally notified the United Nations that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, reneging on the nations commitment to reducing heat-trapping pollutants.

Reality does not seem to play a very significant role in the way this administration is responding to the threat of climate change, said Peter Gleick, chief scientist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland think tank that studies water issues, who did not contribute to the report. I dont know what else the scientific community can say or what the planet can say that will finally get the federal government to act. As a climate scientist, its frustrating.

Last year was the third consecutive year of record-breaking heat in 137 years of tracking temperatures , according to the new 299-page report, which was written by 450 scientists in more than 60 nations.

The rising mercury, the report said, stems from last years El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean as well as the planets long-term warming trend. Globally, temperatures were up almost a full degree over the average measured from 1981 to 2010.

The spike was greatest in the Arctic, where temperatures were 3.6 degrees above the 1981-2010 average and 6.3 degrees higher than they were in 1900.

Meanwhile, the worlds alpine glaciers retreated for the 37th straight year, according to the report, while springtime snow cover dipped to new lows in many parts of the world.

Globally, sea level hit a record high last year, marking the sixth consecutive annual increase. The oceans have risen an average of 0.13 of an inche per year over the past two decades, the report stated.

Greenhouse-gas concentrations also were up. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all drivers of atmospheric warming, recorded new highs last year, with carbon dioxide surpassing a milestone 400 parts per million for the first time in recent history. The last time carbon dioxide levels were as great was probably more than 800,000 years ago, long before modern humans roamed Earth.

While the findings in Thursdays report were limited to 2016, NOAA scientists said theres been little, if any, letup in climate trends this year.

Global temperature appears to be running behind 2016, comparable to 2015, said Deke Arndt, one of the reports co-authors. But 2017 has not shown any dramatic reversal of course.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
Curtiss Ryan Honda wins 2017 Champion of Youth award

SHELTON >> Curtiss Ryan Honda of Shelton was named the 2017 winner of the annual Champion of Youth award presented by the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, according to a release, for the companys commitment to the youth of the Valley, Leadership in the Community and Volunteerism in the Valley.

Curtiss Ryan Honda certainly demonstrates those qualities, Shaye Roscoe, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club LNV, said in the release. Dick Foehrenbach, dealer principal, and Ed DeMarseilles, CEO, have served continually as Corporators of the board and have been helping our Club for many years by supporting our annual campaigns. Curtiss Ryan Honda is truly a good neighbor.

Curtiss Ryan Honda was presented with its award at the annual Service to Youth awards dinner at the Stone Barn at Whitney Farms in Monroe.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley serves more than 3,600 children in the Valley, the release said.

Tax-free shopping in Clinton

CLINTON >> Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets will hold its annual Tax Free Holiday Event as part of Connecticuts Tax Free Week from Aug. 20-26 at the outlets, 20 Killingworth Turnpike.

Participants can shop with a tax exclusion for clothing and footwear costing less than $100. There also will be giveaways, extended mall hours, and the Back to School Sale.

Shopping hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/clintoncrossing.

Women Redefining Retirement to meet

MILFORD >> Women Redefining Retirement will hold its next meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Golden Hill Health Care Center, 2028 Bridgeport Ave.

Speaker will be Eileen Carpinella from Arts for Learning CT, an organization that serves as a resource for engagement in the state, and encourages people of all ages and abilities to participate.

Back to School supplies will be collected, as well as food for the Beth El Shelter.

New members are welcome!

Business After Hours in Milford

MILFORD >> The Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce will hold a Business After Hours networking event from 5-7 p.m. Aug. 16 at Elis Tavern, 21 Daniel St.

Cost is $15 pre-registration, $20 for members at the door and $25 for non-members. To register, call 203-878-0681 or visit www.milfordct.com.
Connecticut Post

BRIDGEPORT >> A woman was killed and two pedestrians badly hurt Thursday afternoon when they were struck on Railroad Avenue by a driver fleeing from a Connecticut State Police stop on Interstate 95 just before 1 p.m.

The driver, identified as Joseph Guzman-Rivera, 21, of 537 Colorado Avenue, was later arrested by Bridgeport and state police. Nero, a state police K-9, sniffed him out hiding in a basement on Lewis Street. But, before Guzman-Rivera could be taken into custody, he assaulted the K-9, according to Trooper First Class Kelly Grant, a state police spokesperson.

Police found heroin, crack cocaine and powder cocaine in his possession, Grant said.

State police charged Guzman-Rivera with three counts each of possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school. He also is charged with illegally injuring a police service animal and second-degree burglary.

Additional motor vehicle charges may be lodged against him. He is being detained in lieu of $500,000 bail, pending his appearance at the Golden Hill Street courthouse Friday.

More than a dozen residents were watching the police investigation throughout the afternoon.

Oh my God, remarked Sybil Hopkins as she put her hands to her face. This is so sad. That woman was just minding her own business, and now shes dead.

Hopkins said there have been accidents at the site, and the city needs to put another traffic light there.

The Bridgeport Fire Department had to use their Jaws of Life to tear apart a blue Toyota and extricate the female driver, who later died. They also used the tools to free the two pedestrians who were pinned against the fleeing drivers black Infiniti.

Grant said the series of events began at about 12:56 p.m. when a trooper assigned to Troop G in Bridgeport pulled Guzman-Rivera over on I-95.

Grant said the vehicle stopped in a lane and was instructed to pull to the right shoulder. Instead, the driver stepped on the accelerator and sped off on the highway at the South Avenue exit.

Once on Railroad Avenue, his car broadsided the Toyota, which was traveling on Iranistan. The impact pushed the Toyota to the intersections corner. The impact also sent Guzman-Riveras car careening into two pedestrians who were with a bicycle. The male suffered severe injuries to a leg.

Police said Guzman-Rivera then fled the car and ran up Iranistan past Black Rock Avenue, before taking a left onto Lewis Street where he broke into a home, police said. It was there he was arrested and taken to Bridgeport Hospital to be treated for injuries received in the crash.

Both Grant and Av Harris, a spokesman for the city, said neither department was pursuing the fleeing vehicle after it left the highway.
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Richard Blumenthal isnt the first person in his family to face the scorn of Donald Trump.

Long before the Twitter age, cloak-and-dagger meetings with Russians and Trumps bold conquest of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  the president has denied calling the White House a real dump  there was a grudge over another real estate commodity.

The prize: the Empire State Building.

The other combatants were Peter Malkin, Harry Helmsley and Leona Helmsley, from whom Trump tried to pry the Manhattan skyscraper away during a failed takeover attempt in the 1990s in which rival real estate titans sued and countersued.

Malkin is the father-in-law of Blumenthal, Trumps Senate inquisitor from Connecticut and frequent target of the presidents Twitter barbs. Leona Helmsley, who was dubbed the Queen of Mean by the tabloids, was Malkins longtime business partner and a fellow Greenwich resident.

One of Leona Helmsleys best tweets, except it wasnt a tweet, was that she wouldnt trust Donald Trump if his tongue was notarized, Gerald Fields, Helmsleys lawyer at the time, told Hearst Connecticut Media.

Blumenthal has been broadsided three times by Trump over discrepancies between the Democrats military record as a Marine Corps reservist during the Vietnam War and public comments Blumenthal made in the past that gave the impression he saw combat. The most recent Twitter venom from Trump was spewed last Monday, with the president calling Blumenthal a Vietnam con artist.

I have no knowledge about financial dealings and litigation involving my father-in-law and Donald Trump, said Blumenthal, who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. I have no idea what is in the presidents mind.

Tower of contention

The typically loquacious Blumenthal avoided further comment about the two decades-old showdown between Trump and Malkin, who declined to comment for this story. Malkin took over his familys real estate empire from his late father-in-law, Lawrence Wien, whose holdings once included another future Trump property, New Yorks famed Plaza Hotel.

A White House spokesperson referred questions on the matter to the Trump Organization, for which a request for comment was left Thursday.

The turf war over the 102-story landmark and King Kong backdrop unfolded in 1994, when the Queens-born Trump acquired a 50 percent stake in the building from an investment group led by Japanese billionaire Hideki Yokoi and his daughter, Kiiko Nakahara.

The kicker is, it cost Trump nothing, with the real estate baron convincing the skyscrapers new owners to let him handle publicity and marketing of the The New Trump Tower, as the Daily News coined it.

This is a great deal for me, Trump said at the time. It solidifies my position as New Yorks native son. I get 50 (percent) of all the upside, and I intend to make my position worth a fortune. It is my intent to take the action necessary to restore the Empire State Building to its rightful position as a world-class real estate asset.

But there was a wrench in Trumps grand plan for the building, part of which he was eyeing for an apartment conversion. Malkin and the Helmsleys owned a lucrative master leasehold on the building until 2075, giving them control of the entire Art Deco tower. They even got to decide the color scheme of the buildings lights.

So Trump sued the leaseholders in 1995 in an attempted eviction. He claimed that Malkin and the Helmsleys let the landmark fall into a state of decline from its former glory.

If he could cancel the lease for the building, he now owns the building. Thats a big win, said Edward Lehner, a retired judge who presided over the case. God knows what would have happened then. Every imaginable kind of default he came up with: The windows arent good; theres crime on the street.

Trumps pursuit of one of the Big Apples biggest trophies didnt stop there, however. His lawsuit further claimed that the Empire State Building was infested with rats.

It was a strong fight for a serious amount of money over a historic property, said Henry Bubel, a top tax attorney who advised Trumps Japanese business partners. Certainly, (Trump) wanted it.

Helmsleys lawyer, Fields, said Trump claimed victory from the outset of the feud.

He used to brag at times that he owned the Empire State Building, Fields said. I think it was a typical Trump transaction: trying to muscle his way in and get a settlement.

Fields said Trumps narrative of the skyscraper being a dump didnt square with reality.

There were so many horse (expletive) claims in that litigation, Fields said.

Twitter barrage

A few months after Trump filed his lawsuit, Malkin and the Helmsleys countersued The Donald for $100 million in damages, accusing their rival of trying to extort money from them and trying to drive down rents in the skyscraper. The countersuit challenged Trumps real estate chops, saying that the deeply in debt Trump was consorting with unsavory business partners with ties to organized crime in Japan.

Im not so sure how much (Trump) equates Malkin and Blumenthal, said Bubel, a Stamford resident. Or he could just say Blumenthal is a liberal Democrat.

Said Fields, Who knows how a guy like Trump thinks?

Blumenthal has played a prominent role in the Democratic opposition to Trump, being one of the first members of Congress to call for the appointment of a special counsel in the probe of Russian contacts with Trumps family members and campaign confidants during last years election.

The former state attorney general is also at the forefront of a lawsuit against Trump that accuses the president of violating a gift prohibition from foreign diplomats and lobbyists, people the suit claims are regularly booking expensive rooms at Trump International Hotel in Washington to curry favor.

The opening Twitter salvo was unleashed by Trump at Blumenthal in February. There was another round in May and the latest in August.

I have never said that he has an obsession, Blumenthal said of Trump.

Trumps lawsuit against Malkin and the Helmsleys was thrown out by Lehner, the judge in the case. The ruling was upheld by an appellate court.

Trump was, of course, sitting there in the background, snarling, said Fields, Helmsleys lawyer.

Trump sold his stake in the landmark for $57.5 million in 2002 to the Malkin-and-Helmsley-controlled Empire State Building Associates. Malkin and Helmsley later became embroiled in litigation against each other over control of the skyscraper, with the Malkin family prevailing and later packaging the property into a publicly traded real estate trust with 19 other properties. Malkins son, Anthony Malkin, is the chairman and CEO of the Empire State Realty Trust.

I dont think (Trump) was happy, Lehner said. He made millions, but he could have millions plus millions.

http://twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436




A Chieftain of Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo has warned that if anything happens to acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria will stop existing.Adebanjo, who gave the warning noted that the Acting President was performing his duties well and should not be removed unconstitutionally.Speaking with The Sun, Adebanjo warned that all will not be well with Nigeria if Osinbajo is frustrated should the need for him to assume the presidency arises.Adebanjo said, He is handling it, Nigeria constitutionally.I only hope that people will not use unconstitutional means to displace him.He is acting well and I hope there is no circumstance that anybody would say that he can truncate this democratic system using undemocratic means.If that happens, that will be the disintegration of this country. We hope people will not use any unconstitutional means to frustrate Osinbajo if it is necessary for him to assume the Presidency.
The police in Benin, Edo State, have arrested four persons for allegedly posing as men of the Nigerian Army.

The suspects are: Iyoragie David, Emmanuel Musa, Kingsley Egharevba and Chibuike Nwabali,

The suspects were said to have put on uniforms of the Nigerian Army when they were arrested at Okhuaihe village, along Benin/Asaba Road, by local vigilante who were in search of some kidnappers.

The suspects were later handed over to the police on suspicion that they were members of the kidnappers. Investigations, however, showed that two of them were ex-service men.

One of the suspects, David who hailed from Bayelsa State, said he left the military school some times ago, adding that he knew that he was not supposed to wear the uniform after leaving the military.

He said he and his collegues went to visit a friend in the area before they were arrested and didnt know that somebody was abducted in that area.

On his part, Musa said he used to wear the uniform when he was driving because he did not return all the military kits when the left the army, while Kingsley who claimed to be a member of the Man OWar and not a military personnel, said; I used this uniform when I am going for parade.

Edo State Police Commissioner, Haliru Gwandu, who paraded the suspects before journalists, said the they would be charged to court after investigation had been concluded.

(PMNEWS)
Fuel Price: Dont Test Our Resolve, NLC Warns FG

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned the federal government against testing the resolve of workers and other Nigerians by contemplating an increase in the prices of petroleum products.The congress also backtracked on its earlier support for the plan by the Buhari administration to borrow about $29 billion, saying the government should instead pursue and recover stolen government funds and use same to fund infrastructural developmentSpeaking at the opening of its National Executive Council meeting in Sokoto, NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, expressed concern over ongoing media campaign and contradictory statements from the NNPC and government officials on the rumoured plan to increase the pump price of petrol.He said the congress was totally opposed to any form of increase in prices of petrol as such an act would further increase the sufferings of Nigerians, adding that congress would mobilise Nigerians to resist any such increase.Wabba said: While Nigerians are still struggling to cope with the severe hardship imposed on them by the last increase in the price of petroleum products, there are ongoing media campaigns and contradictory statements by the NNPC and government officials on yet another plan to review the template for the pricing of petroleum products.We are totally opposed to any further increases as we are yet to see the benefits of the last increase even as the current Minimum Wage Act has not been reviewed.It would amount to unleashing further hardship on workers and the poor if any further price increase is allowed.The government must not take us for granted. Indeed, the patience and perseverance of the entire populace must not be taken for granted, as we will sure mobilise the entire citizenry for mass protests in addition to other legitimate actions to resist any further increase.What is urgently required of government is not another increase but a downward review of the current pump price of petroleum products.The current National Minimum Wage Act has long elapsed, and as you are already aware, we have long submitted our proposal for a review but Government seems not in a haste to recognise the urgency in attending to our demands.Nigerian workers and pensioners are as important to the growth of the economy and must not be allowed to continue to suffer further hardships.We therefore reiterate our call on government to treat the review of the minimum wage and pension with the utmost urgency they deserve.While commending the Federal Government in its sustained battle against corruption and determination to ensure good governance in our country, Wabba said the battle should be more systemic and institutionalised with strong laws and institutions strengthened enough to sustain the battle, adding that our country has been seriously harmed both in image and resources by the impunity with which public funds were looted for decades such that what we need is beyond a flash in the pan approach.We will support government in all areas that will promote good governance at all levels and all facets of the Nigerian society as long as it sustains its commitment to delivering people-driven governance that will promote decency and growth in all spheres of our socio economic and political endeavour.But we will not support the plan by the Federal Government to borrow more money from anywhere as we obviously have enough to attend to our immediate needs.For instance, if the government vigorously pursues those in possession of our collective wealth, especially multinationals who have refused to remit funds meant for corporate Nigeria, we would have enough to rejuvenate the economy and the quality of the lives of our people.NEITI has already been quoted to have discovered that $22 billion (twenty-two billion dollars) has not been remitted by multinational firms to the federation account. This amount alone can take care of some of the areas any new loan is expected to be expended on.If we must borrow, perhaps such borrowings, on terms strictly not against our collective interests and in particular not designed to deepen our debt burden, it should be directed towards revitalising rail transportation and roads and not for servicing remunerations or tastes of public office holders.Loans must have specific targets in public interest and strictly directed to their original uses; that is if we must take any at all.We are also opposed to the idea of giving public funds to bail out commercial banks or interests, especially the recent proposal to give out $7 billion as bailout funds to commercial banks without any repayment schedule whatsoever.While we also support the need for budget reform, we urge the government to ensure that the process is all inclusive, transparent, accountable and in line with the principle of good governance.Once more, we urge government to be very careful with the process of economic reforms and development as it has become clearer around the world that neo-liberal prescriptions handed troubled economies have not been of any help but rather further unleashed mass poverty and infrastructural decay on recipient countries and their citizens.The prescriptions only generate massive wealth for the tiny few rich while devastating the quality of lives of the citizens.Indeed, a prominent report by Forbes has alarmed that unless it changes, capitalism will starve humanity by 2050.We should not be seen to be accepting alien economic recovery policies that have been proven to be responsible for our problems in the first instance, as all previous prescriptions from the Breton Woods institutions have only ended up destroying our economy and impoverishing our people.We have enough intellectual capacity in our country that can develop people-driven policies that is truly rooted in our specific circumstance for the recovery of our economy.
Germany to Assist Nigeria Develop Smart Cities

Germany has expressed willingness to assist Nigeria improve her urban areas through the development of the Smart City initiative.German Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Bernhard Schlagheck, who made the disclosure thursday in a goodwill message at the close of a two-day Summit on Smart Cities in Abuja, said his country is ready to partner Nigeria from the debate stage right through to the implementation level.The summit organised by the Ministry of Communications with the theme: `Leveraging on Technology Solutions to Improve the Efficiency of Cities, was aimed at assessing the preparedness, unique challenges and emerging solutions necessary for sustainable smart city initiative in Nigeria.Schlagheck said his country wants to partner Nigeria in this regard because it believes it is the right way to go if Nigeria must overcome issues associated with urbanisation and development.The envoy commended the organisers of the summit for the timely convergence of relevant stakeholders to tackle the issue of urban development.According to him, no less than two third of world population would be living in cities within the next few years. He said this may likely pose a plethora of challenges to Nigeria if proactive actions are not made to address the development.He identified factors such as infrastructural deficiency, lack of planning, insecurity among others as the bane of Nigerias development, noting that these challenges can be surmounted with the deployment of relevant modern technologies.Also speaking, Managing Director of Huawei Nigeria, Tank Li, noted that the development and widespread application of digital technologies to transform lives and economies have become the order of the day.He said ICT-enabled technologies and solutions have the huge potential to serve as a major accelerator of the vision of Smart Nigeria Digital Economy and its sustainable development goal.Huawei Nigeria boss commended the federal governments plan to launch the Smart Nigeria Digital Economy Project aimed to solve efficiency problems and create leapfrog opportunities in the economy for the next 10 years.Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, said the financial services within the countrys digital economy would add $88 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) and create more than 3 million jobs within 10 years.The potential gains of the digital economy will manifest in digital accounts, payments, mobile money, health and educational services along with other sectors of the economy, he said.While stating that Huawei as a global leading ICT solution provider has strong presence in over 170 countries and regions, including Nigeria, Li assured Nigeria of Huaweis readiness to help the country to bridge her digital divide as well as building a Smart Nigeria!He disclosed that relevant ICT products that would make Nigerian cities smarter are not only available in the country today, but are already been deployed across states of the federation.According to him the deployment of high sensitive digital cameras connected to a central data system in places where they are in use is beginning to reduce crime level in such places.Li expressed confidence that when Nigerian cities become safer through the deployment of the Safe City Solutions, foreigners would want to come and invest in the country.
Leke

The son of highly revered Nigerian pastor and leader of RCCG, Enoch Adeboye, has made some revealing statements about his father.

Leke, the youngest of the four children of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, doubles as his fathers Personal Assistant (PA).

In this interview with ADENIYI ADEWOYIN, he explains the circumstances that warranted his appointment as his fathers PA. He also speaks about the secular aspects of his fathers life, his love for bikes and the recent controversy about his fathers purported retirement, among other issues.

How would you describe your growing up years as a son of the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God?

I think he was already a pastor by the time I was born into the family. But he not be a full pastor, because you go from being a deacon to assistant pastor and then a full pastor. But he was always involved with the work of God. Obviously, he is an amazing father. He gives us fantastic examples of how to be a real and true man. He made us to understand the difference between right and wrong and he always had time for his family even though the work might be much.

One of the things most people dont get is that he nursed the idea of becoming the youngest vice chancellor in the whole of Africa. So, that was what he was pushing for and ensuring the wellbeing of his family. That was a top priority for him, bearing in mind the fact that he came from a very poor background. So, his game plan was that once God blessed him, he would need to pull everybody else out of poverty.

So, I didnt see him as a pastor; I saw him first as a man. Like the bible says, there is time for everything. You know the time to pull back as a son so that the father can do what he wants to do. You also know when it is time to help him and show that you are a real son.





Most people believe that pastors are usually strict with their children so that they would not end up being the opposite of what they preach. How strict is Pastor Adeboye as a father?

The bible actually gives the guidelines to parents on how to train their children. It says you should train your child in the way that he should go, so that when he grows up, he wont depart from it. That is the basic standard across the world. Look at Palestine; they train their children from as young as one month old to hate Israel, and that is what the children believe all their lives. A parent should train his children to be good, treat every human being with respect, dont cheat anyone and dont lie even if your life depends on it. Do what you are told by your parents. Honour your father and your mother, always be honest and caring.

Each time you do something outside of the rules and regulations that they give you, you would have to be disciplined for it. If you dont, that means they are celebrating your being disobedient, and I believe that is the basis of the problems that many people have nowadays. They are being celebrated for doing the wrong things, so they believe the wrong thing is right.

In your school days, were there times your peers felt you should not do certain things because you were Pastor Adeboyes son?

Not just that; they would even say you should not do certain things because you are from a certain tribe. They would say that you should not be talking in certain ways because you were a guy with different kinds of experience and different kinds of exposure. I have lived at the Redemption Camp since I was about six months old, and it was a different life. There was no light and no telephone. We were cut off from the rest of the world until the camp started to develop slowly and then the villages around it. There was no TV for us, so we had to read, develop our imaginations, and we had to be focused. But then, anywhere you got to as your father became more popularly known, people judged you based on him. And that is normal. Everybody will judge a lawyers son by who the lawyer is, and it is the same with being the son of a pastor. People expect certain moral standards of you. They will obviously expect that you dont do certain things.

It is undeniable that your dad is loved by many. But even Jesus had enemies. Are there times you read things about your dad that made you feel bad?

One thing I understand about life is that if you dont have haters, it means that you are not gifted or talented enough. If you dont have haters, then you are not doing something positive, because some people will be upset and ask why it is only you. I would tell you that there are people, including senior pastors, who are not genuinely happy that Pastor Adeboye is loved by many. But he remains humble at all times. He knows that he didnt ask people to love him. He just does what he is called to do. He just focuses on his assignment. His job is to get as many people to heaven as possible, but the devil would not like that because his own assignment is to get as many people as possible to hell. But he (Adeboye) is pushing the agenda of Jesus Christ, and there would be people who would be on the devils side.

So really, haters will be there. But we understand that they are doing their own primary assignment. There are certain on air personalities who no matter what you say about Pastor Adeboye or Bishop Oyedepo they will have something negative about it. We know them, but we know that they are fulfilling their own assignment, so we dont have any issues with them.

How did you feel when it was announced that Pastor Adeboye had retired as the General Overseer?

Im not even allowed to talk about that. But information is powerful, and a lot of people get things wrong because they are not well informed. They made the announcement to all of us in the same space at the same time, and I was just like, well Normally, you are supposed to work till you are 70 years old.And if God pushes you to work beyond 70, then it is fantastic.

The interesting thing is what that was done was already being done across all other nations that RCCG is. There is already an overseer in every other nation that RCCG is. So, the fact that we are based in Nigeria, most people assume that there would not be a need for one. Our pastor is also a big daddy to me. I mean the national overseer has always carried out all those assignments that should have been accorded to a national overseer in Nigeria. He attends the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) meetings, the CAN meetings and even controls the payment of salaries to the staff in Nigeria.

So I think it was just because the announcement was made and then some people just turned around and went running with it. I was like wow, thank God we are moving to something else. We would have more time for other parts of the word than just being held back in Nigeria. I mean there are countries we havent had huge influence in, and I realise that it is by you going there physically sometimes that will encourage the work of God that is going on there.

Were you made the personal assistant to Pastor Adeboye because he couldnt trust outsiders?

That is a very interesting question. Actually what happened is this: I would say I was the first person to be interviewed as a personal assistant in RCCG, and that was about eight years ago. Most people dont know I actually finished with a first degree in Aerospace Technology and a masters degree in Engineering Project Management, coming around to now say I would love to work for the mission. I mean I would have sleepless nights if God wakes me up at 2 am and say you are not supposed to be here; everything that has been invested into you is to be able to come back and use it to help this mission become much better, become more professional in their ways. So, that was one of the reasons I came back, and I was like is there any role they would like to interview me for?

They started me from the lowest pay grade that the mission has in terms of salary as well. I actually had an eight-hour interview. I went in full suit and came back with only singlet and boxers (laughs). That was how tough the interview was. And while most people are put on probation for three months, mine was for a year and a half, because they were not going to play with their general overseer, regardless of who it was going to be. I have been more scrutinised than anybody else. Ive been grilled more. But I dont mind, because when it comes to work, I dont see him as my father, I see him as my principal and my boss.

I do what Im supposed to do and constantly try to see how I can improve on my duties as personal assistant, how to improve his office as well as the office of the general overseer. We benchmarked it with the office of Obama back then and even tried to get his own PA to come and do training for us, because we do training for other RCCGs senior pastors PAs every February and also benchmark it with the office of the Pope. We try to consider how his office is run so that we can see what we are doing good, what we are not doing good and where we can do better.

So, to me, I bring in the same level of professionalism that has been instilled in me while studying. It just happened to be my father. It could be anybody else. It could have been the president or the governor or a CEO of another company. That is the way I actually see it. RCCG is a company and it has its own objectives and aims. My own job as senior personal assistant is to ensure that its CEO gets all his primary assignments done in real time without missing anything out, and I carry out basic roles even beyond that of a personal assistant. So, yea, it is interesting. And if there are other people who are interested in the role, why not? They are welcome.

How is your relationship with mum?

She is my mum. She brought me into the world. I love my mum till death. I mean without her, I will not be here. She is going to be 70 this year. Im celebrating her from now. She does so much that is not even recorded or put anywhere. She is an amazing woman. She has all sorts of initiative that Im still waiting one day for CNN to come and do a documentary on, because theres just so much she has done. She has a project where she removes prostitutes or women who have been abused sexually or domestically by their husbands, put them in a home, feed them, train them so that they can fend for themselves and send their children to school from her own pocket and fund raising from other people. Which is where it gets annoying when some people say rubbish on the social media without knowing the facts or what is going on. She has a doctoral degree, which most people dont know. They assume its only pastor E.A Adeboye that has a doctorate.

You said apart from being the PA, you have other responsibilities. Why is it only you when daddy has other children? Is it that you are his favourite?

Please, dont put me in trouble o. Im not the favourite. The first born is Pastor Adeola Adeboye who owns Wisemen Apparels. He also does Team Nehemiah, which is an arm of RCCG that ensures that there is safety in terms of movement of people in and around the camp, especially on the expressway. And he is also a full pastor and has his family to contend with. So, everybody is doing something. There are other people, but it is just that Im the one that you see around him, so they assume maybe because Im the most troublesome, they are keeping me closer.

What would you have been if you were not a pastor?

I dont even think Im a pastor yet. I am just an assisting pastor. I am assisting a pastor; I am not a full pastor. I just want to serve. I have seen what my dad has done all his life serving the people and I just want to help him make sure he does that and I do mine in my own little way.

You almost pulled a stunt out there with your bike when you arrived. Do you have a flair for bikes?

Yes, I have a flair for bikes, extreme sports. But I have to behave myself because I am married and I have four kids if you count my wife. I have to ensure that I am safe. Life insurance is from God, but obviously, I have to think about them. So I behave myself. But then, I like to get to places in time. So, yea, I like bikes. I have a flair for anything that moves fast. That is why I did aerospace, which comprises training of aircraft, jet fighters and space shuttles.

What is your most prized fashion item?

We are not allowed to be canal (laughs). But, of course, I love fashion and I like simplicity too and something that is comfortable. Everything I am wearing now is Nigerian made. Because I looked at it, we buy jeans that is Versace and you give him big money and hes making the money. The tailor that I use is actually one of our youths in Ebutte Metta in Lagos. So I told him go and look at Versace jeans; we too can sew the same thing; we just buy the material. The shirt is also made in Nigeria. The only thing I have on me that is not Nigerian made is Michael Korrs watch, and it is because I dont have anybody making watch in Nigeria yet. And the shoe. But then, if anybody decides to make that, we will support. That is the only way Nigeria will even come out of this economy issue that we are in.

People believe that everything about Pastor Adeboye is spiritual. Could you give an insight on the non-spiritual aspect of his life?

He likes to fish, so every single house that weve had on the camp has a fish pond behind it. It is very relaxing. He likes to go for walks. He likes train rides; thank God the railways are being developed back in Nigeria. But any time we are outside Nigeria, he prefers to go by train to most places, because you get to see the countryside and have a different view of life than just being in the car all the time. And we watch movies, but not corrupt ones. We watch Mount Zion movies too, but not necessarily hundred per cent Christian movies all the time, because you would be caging yourself and you are not engaging in the reality of what other people are experiencing as well. He is a huge fan of James Bond, so we have a collection of more than 50 James Bond movies. I even have one in my house just in case he comes to visit me and thats what he wants to watch.

You said earlier that he likes fishing. Is that where the theme of the churchs programme, Lets Go A Fishing, came from?

(Laughs) Thats a good one. But no, hes actually fishing for souls.

Whats his favorite meal?

He always makes a joke that it is Ila Asepo (okra soup) and pounded yam, but Iyan gbere (bread fruit). It grows on trees and it is very goo.

Your parents would be 50 years in marriage next year. Having gone this far as a couple, will you say they are perfect to have maintained that love?

They will be married 50 years by next year, I think experience makes you perfect and overtime and practice also make you perfect. I mean they are huge role models. The only other people that I know that have been married more than 50 years is elder Ohiwere and Mummy Janet Ohiwere who are friends with Daddy and Mummy Adeboye as well. I have never seen them argue. That is why I genuinely dont have any issues with my wife, because I dont want to have any place to say Im picking up a bad habit from. So its difficult for me to fight her or have issues with her.

Now 50 years and going strong, especially nowadays when some people do destination wedding and in three months the wedding is over. They warn people now in advance that if you know that this wedding wont last, we are not going to any destination with you, lets do it in Nigeria where we can catch each other (laughs). But 50 years is no mean feat, and Im hoping that I too will get to 50 years and beyond.

***

Via The Nation
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured a court order to detain a female judge of the Federal High Court, Justic...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured a court order to detain a female judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Obla, in connection with alleged N92million bribe.The judge is under investigation over a strange deposit of N69million ($150,000) into her domiciliary account; another N18 million wired into her foreign account for the purchase of a property in the United Kingdom; and alleged N5million from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Obla.Also, many choice properties allegedly linked to the judge are being investigated by detectives in Lagos, Edo, and Delta states.A top source in the EFCC, who spoke in confidence, said: As part of the ongoing investigation of the female judge, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, for a high-net worth bribery allegation, we have secured a court order to detain her and Gowin Obla (SAN).The nature of the investigation requires that she should be in custody . Her statements to our investigating team had been contradictory.We need to bring her together with other accommplices or suspects to hear from all sides. They will be able to say it as it is.Obla and the judge had contradicted themselves before the EFCC team of interrogators.According to findings, the judge had told the EFCC that the N5million was a part payment for a N40million property she sold to Obla in 2015.Obla, however, said the cash was meant for buying of building materials (iron rods) for a building he was putting up in Abuja and not for buying of any property.He said the judge, who was a colleague in the university, only assisted in buying the said building materials.He said he came across the judge during a trip to Lagos and sought for her assistance to buy the building materials.A source said: Obla said the judge gave him the name of someone who plies the trade. She provided the companys name and the account number for the transaction. Obla said he paid the money and goods were supplied.When asked the name of the trader, receipt of transaction and delivery evidence of the goods, the learned silk said he could not remember the name of the trader or his location, neither was there any receipt or delivery note for the transaction.Investigation by EFCC detectives confirmed that the N5million was paid into the account of a company in which the judge and her children have interest.The source added: The registered company, not known to be engaged in building materials or any viable business is suspected to be surreptitiously set up for the purpose of warehousing proceeds of gratification.The same company has been fingered in other illegal transactions, including suspicious payments of sorts by some other persons.The National Judicial Council (NJC) had in February sanctioned Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia for misconduct on the bench.The council also barred her from elevation to the Court of Appeal or taking any judicial appointment.A statement by the Acting Director of Information of NJC, Mr. Soji Oye, said: The NJC, under the chairmanship of Justice Mahmud Mohammed, at its meeting on February 24 and 25, 2016 decided to warn Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia and put her on the watch-list of the council for the next four years.The judge will also not be considered for any elevation to the Court of Appeal or any ad hoc judicial appointment till her retirement from the Bench.The decision was sequel to the petition written against her by Victoria Ayeni, alleging misconduct and injustice on the part of Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia for failing to deliver judgment in Suit No FHC/AB/CS/31/2011, a pre-election matter between Victoria A. A. Ayeni and Olusola Sonuga and two Ors.She was also alleged to have adjourned the pre-election matter severally until the termination of the life span of the Ogun State House of Assembly. The decision of the Council on Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia is with immediate effect.
 Former militant leader, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a photo President whom Nigerian leader...

 Former militant leader, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a photo President whom Nigerian leaders rush to London to see.





Dokubo, who made the claim in a video, which surfaced online also maintained that the independence of Biafra remains the only thing that can guarantee some eminent Nigerians security.





According to Dokubo, Nigerian president is a ghost, photo president. People go to London to take snap shots with the President, please tell me did Nigerians voted photograph?





Your President is now a picture, is that not juju is it not when our fathers die in Ijaw land that we curve them and keep them at home and pour libation, we have to rise up and know who we are.





The only thing that can guarantee our freedom is the independence of Biafra, there is no two ways about.





Goodluck, Diezani, Charlyboy can pretend all they want but the only security for him is the independence of Biafra and we are capable of achieving it.





The independence of Biafra is the only basis for our existence as a people.





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President Muhammadu Buhari must be congratulated because he has set a new Guinness World Record: President Buhari has become the first elected president of a country to become resident of another nation while still in power! Shame on all those haters who say President Buhari has not achieved anything in over two years of being in office. Is this not an achievement!And where are all those shameless critics who keep comparing President Trump to President Buhari? The two of them are not mates at all.Not only is President Muhammadu Buhari older than President Donald Trump, in a comparison between them on an elementary matter like jobs we find that according to the latest US job report from the United States Department of Labor, the US economy has added 1,074,000 under President Trump while according to to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the Nigerian economy lost 4.58 million jobs in President Buharis first year!This is no mean task! It is easy to do what Trump did and make jobs appear, but it is much harder to do what President Buhari has done and make jobs that someone produced disappear!And as President Muhammadu Buhari continues to make London Nigerias new Federal Capital Territory, his rapidly shrinking horde of supporters want us to feel sorry for him by selling the narrative that what is happening to him could happen to anyone.That is true enough, but make no mistake, President Buhari does not deserve our sympathy. When the shoe was on the other foot, he called on the Executive Council of the Federation to declare the late President Yaradua incapacitated and failing that, for the Senate to impeach him.His exact words on March 9, 2009 were If the Executive Council of the Federation had acted in accordance with the constitution, by invoking the necessary sections to declare the President incapacitated, we would not have found ourselves in this present situation.Again, when he thought he could be sanctimonious without proving his sainthood he decried the practice of government officials going abroad at public expense for medical treatment.His exact words on April 27, 2016 were While this administration will not deny anyone of his or her fundamental human rights, we will certainly not encourage expending Nigerian hard earned resources on any government official seeking medical care abroad.Today he is spending his 96th day in London and expending Nigerian hard earned resources on himself. If these are not prima facieevidence of hypocrisy, then I am as old as Robert Mugabe!And I must say that I was not really surprised that the Buhari administration brutalized popular musician Charly Boy and his #ResumeorResign group who were beaten, tear gassed and slapped at the Unity Fountain on Tuesday the 8th of August 2017.What less can one expect from an administration that killed 347 shiite men, women, children and infants in cold blood on December 15, 2015?The incident at the Unity Fountain involving Charly Boy and others only proves that dictators may grow old, but they do not grow into democrats!And the Senate lost a chance to side with Nigerians when it described the Charly Boy led group as unreasonable.If Charly Boys group is unreasonable for demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari #ResumeOrResign was President Buhari also unreasonable when he demanded that the late President Yaradua resume or be impeached on March 9, 2010?President Muhammadu Buhari himself, his side kick, Nasir El-Rufai, and other top shots of the present All Progressive Congress led government protested against the Jonathan administration but were never tear gassed or harassed!In the case of El-Rufai, woe betide you if you dare hold a press conference in Kaduna. You may end up being treated worse than Senator Shehu Sani and his guests!I mean, we are not allowed to see President Muhammadu Buhari. We are not allowed to hear from President Buhari. We are not allowed to protest against President Buhari. Yet President Buharis government wants us to pray for President Buharis health!And the most ridiculous part of the saga is that the Presidency has the guts to tell Nigerians that it is disrespectful to ask after the Presidents health status and that he is entitled to his privacy as a private citizen.Is the Presidency not ashamed to call President Muhammadu Buhari a private citizen? He is staying at Abuja House not Buharis House and we the citizens of Nigeria are paying for his treatment. He is NOT a private citizen. Yesterday he released a statement condemning the Ozubulu massacre and assuring us of our safety. Which private citizen does that?Nigeria is tired of a part time President. Nigeria is tired of a free lance President. Nigeria is tired of a private citizen President!In fact, I suddenly feel inspired to write a book titled How To Identify A Dictator: He uses your tax money to pay for his medical treatment yet you are not entitled to know his medical condition. When it suits him, he is a public official. When it does not, he transforms to a private citizen. Yet his government instructs you to pray for him. No, I am not talking of Kim Jong-Un here!That President Muhammadu Buharis Anambra statement assuring Nigerians of their safety though! How can a private citizen in London assure another private citizens in Nigeria of their safety? And what is the point in having an acting President in charge when the London based private citizen President is issuing statements. Has he resumed from London? Nigeria is getting mixed signals from the Presidency. Has the President resumed from London or is the acting President still acting?President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to the National Assembly to make Professor Yemi Osinbajo acting President, yet he is still releasing statements as Nigerias President. Is he a freelance President? Osinbajo is either in charge until President Buhari returns or he is not in charge at all. In fact, I dont know why people still pay to watch Game of Thrones on Cable TV when they can watch it for free at Aso Rock?And a week after it became public knowledge that an anti Igbo hate song is circulating in parts of Nigeria we have radio silence from the Presidency. Vacationing President Muhammadu Buhari, who condemned the Ozubulu killings in a statement, has nothing to say about the anti Igbo hate song.How wont the anti Igbo hate song take root when the Arewa Youths who gave the Igbo quit notice are walking around freely in public. In the wake of the anti Igbo song, I remind the Buhari administration that we have not forgotten the speed of their one sided arrest during the Ife Yoruba Hausa clash!Obviously, this administration is very quick to go after real or imagined enemies of the Buhari administration but is slow to act against Nigerias enemies, if at all they even act.Look at the difference in the way they treated the Charly Boy group and the Arewa Quit Notice group. Look at the speed at which they arrested the Buhari dog man. But what have they done against Fulani herdsmen?According to The PUNCH Newspaper, half of Nigerias 71 million hectares of arable farmland is not being cultivated because farmers have abandoned their farms due to the activities of herdsmen. In Benue state alone, the Governor says 1800 farmers have been killed by herdsmen in the last three years (no wonder he says we are all sick because of Buharis sickness). According to the Global Hunger Index, the Jonathan administration reduced hunger in Nigeria from 16.3 in 2005 to 15 points in 2013 (please Google it).But guess what? Under the Buhari administration according to the latest Global Hunger Index, 32.9 per cent of Nigerian children under the age of five suffered stunted growth due to hunger and malnutrition. By halting attacks by herdsmen, the Buhari administration can immediately and dramatically increase the amount of food grown in Nigeria and push prices down. Yet what is this administration doing to halt the herdsmen crisis? I do not know. If you do, maybe you can tell me!
Chelsea striker, Diego Costa, is involved in a legal battle with the club, who have no idea when he will return to the club.The Blues top scorer last season, is still on holiday and has posted regular pictures of himself partying in Brazil.Costa is yet to return to training, after an ugly war of words with manager  Antonio Conte, who has made it clear that he has no future at the club.However, the Spain internationals representatives have accused Conte of forcing him out of the club and now the club are locked in a legal battle.When asked when Costa will return, Conte admitted on Friday: I dont know. There is no news.A Chelsea spokesman added, There is nothing to report on that.
Since the story of the s*x video involving former Miss Anambra, Chidinma Okeke, broke a few weeks ago, several groups and individuals ha...

Since the story of the s*x video involving former Miss Anambra, Chidinma Okeke, broke a few weeks ago, several groups and individuals have come forward with different versions of what transpired between the embattled 20-year-old beauty queen and the organisers of the pageant.The former beauty queen was seen in a shocking x-rated video with a lesbian partner. Surprisingly, the video was released on October 11, 2016, a few days before the expiration of her tenure originally billed for October 28, 2016.Every day across the state since the video hit the streets, different versions of what led to the scandal are churned out by the actors, leaving the people confused and unsure of what to believe.Since the scandal broke, Miss Chidinma Okeke, who won the Miss Anambra beauty pageant, organised by the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), has remained incommunicado, choosing to go into hiding over alleged threats to her life. She has also remained silent, leaving her lawyer to do most of the talking.While the father, Sir Jeremiah Okeke, had claimed in recent reports that his daughter had been handed over to a relation for safety, some others claimed that the ex-beauty queen had relocated abroad. But after weeks of keeping quiet, Miss Okeke has finally broken her silence. In a chat with newsmen, she debunked claims that she threatened to commit suicide, adding that there was never a time such thought came to her mind.She also said her life might no longer be in danger, adding that her traducers were no longer threatening her life, and maintaining that those who were after her life had stopped contacting her.She also said the faces behind her agonizing period in Anambra would be revealed soon, adding that with God, all things are possible.Narrating her own side of the story, she said: Early last year, the ABS advertised for the Miss Anambra beauty pageant. I heard of it and went to make enquiry.My roommate was also interested, but one of the organisers told me to apply. I told them I was not interested but the man insisted that I might win the competition. He also promised to give me the form for free if I indicated interest, and he did when I agreed to contest.But one Jane told me that before a winner would be declared, there were certain things to be done, including the (s*x) video. I consented after some persuasion from the organisers. I later went for the contest at the Marble Arch Hotels in Awka, and I was declared winner with a Kia Rio vehicle as star prize.When I went for my car after the contest, the organisers brought out a contract form for me to sign, but I told them I wanted to contact my lawyer to see it. I was not given the opportunity to do so.What they kept telling me was that if I insisted on not signing the contract or wanted to contact my lawyer, they would release the video.At that point, I became uncomfortable and signed the contract to avoid such embarrassment, and the car was released to me from where it was packed within the premises of ABS.From that moment, I became a slave to them. On October 11, 2016, they called me to come and make presentations inside the office of one the organisers. After that, the man excused some people in that room and showed me the video again.They told me to drop my car and removed my crown from me. I told them I would take the car as stipulated in the contract. They insisted I should pack it in the premises of (ABS).I told my uncle in Abuja about the situation. My uncle called them and asked them to release my car to me. Instead, they forwarded the video to him as part of the blackmail. That was what happened, Chidinma said, crying.She also said the scandal had weighed her down. Amidst sobs, she denied being a lesbian, saying she had never been involved in the act.For her parents, Sir Jeremiah and his wife, Lady Nora Okeke, the incident remains a shock. According to Sir Okeke, the management and organisers of the pageant capitalised on his daughters age and naivety to deny her whatever monetary gains she made while serving as Miss Anambra.He added: How can a beauty queen borrow money to pay her driver, even when she is supposed to be receiving a monthly salary?I cannot say all that I heard or saw. Why was she not paid her winning prize of one million naira fully? Rather, they paid her on installmental basis. And up until today, the money has not been completely paid.They have rubbished her and rubbed the familys name in the mud. But we have united as a family, praying seriously for my daughter and for the people behind this wicked act to be exposed.My family at first agreed not to tell me about the whole thing, because I am hypertensive. But they decided otherwise when things got out of hand. I told them this issue will not kill me because I have had worse experiences while in business years back.My God, as always, will answer me and expose the truth in no distant time. I wont say much because the damage has already been done.Chidinma is a small girl who does not know anything, hence, she fell into a trap that was too heavy for her to shoulder. But I thank God she is recovering.All through the interview, Chidinmas mother, who was advised by the husband to remain silent, continued to hiss, and motioning her hands towards the heavens in supplication to God.Two of the chiefs in Ogboji community in Orumba South Local Government Area, where Chidinma hails from, Chief Obi Okoli (Idejimba) and Chief Julius Nwankwo (Nwabulu-Omee), revealed that the incident had left them in shock.Okoli, who described Chidinma as a nice and well-trained girl from a Christian home, saw the entire thing as a set up, but argued that such issues would only happen if somebody presents oneself.According to him, she is a well brought up girl from a good family background and Christian home. There could be more to this than meets the eyes.Asked if the community was not going to say anything on the s*x scandal involving their daughter, Okoli laughed and said: There are ways of handling such issues, and I dont think the community will be involved.Also speaking, Chief Julius Nwankwo, described the situation as a pity, adding that todays children behave as they like.However, he said that the people of Ogboji community were seeing it as blackmail, adding that none of them was happy with what happened to their daughter.He said: As an Ogboji man, I am pained that such a thing happened to one of our own, and that is why we want the authorities concerned to look into the saga appropriately, with a view to arresting those involved.When our daughter won the award, we were happy. For anybody or group of persons to rubbish her and our community is what we will not condone.Nwankwo said they heard some people had been apprehended over the s*x scandal, adding that the authorities should look well in making sure that wrong people were not punished.The Managing Director of ABS, the organisers, Uche Nworah did not comment on the queens allegations when we contacted him. He instead referred us to the organisations earlier statement.In the earlier statement, the organisers had dissociated themselves from the scandal. Part of the statement read: The attention of the management of the Anambra Broadcasting Service, organisers of the Miss Anambra Beauty Pageant, has been drawn to a video with lurid contents purportedly showing former Miss Anambra, Miss Chidinma Okeke (Miss Anambra 2015).The said Miss Chidinma Okeke, who is allegedly linked to the lurid content in circulation, has served out her term as Miss Anambra 2015 and handed over the crown in line with the terms and conditions of The Miss Anambra pageant.We condemn in clear terms any amoral behaviour/conduct as suggested by the alleged lurid content in circulation and do not condone such.It is on record that The Miss Anambra Beauty Pageant has been a platform to empower Anambra women and celebrate our rich culture and heritage. Winners of the pageant are bound to contracts to be of good conduct and moral behaviour and to uphold/maintain the honour in their position as queen.Winners of the pageant also contract to refrain from any personal relationship that could appear to hinder their ability to perform the duties of their office as queen and role model, and we do not expect any less.We, therefore, wish to dissociate The Miss Anambra pageant from any discussions on the said allegations.We feel sufficiently perturbed by the mere reference already made to the pageant and hereby state that we are in no way connected to the controversy.We apologise to the government and good people of Anambra State, our sponsors, supporters, friends and all those associated with the Miss Anambra project for the embarrassment the mere reference to the pageant in the controversy may have caused whilst reassuring of the good intentions of the Miss Anambra pageant franchise.
Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has officially unveiled his presidential ambition at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDPs National Convention currently taking place at the Eagles Square, Abuja.Governor Fayose who arrived the arena wearing his 2019 presidential campaign shirt and cap equally had his entourage carrying his 2019 presidential campaign posters while the crowd gave him a roaring welcome.Governor Fayose in 2019 Presidential campaign shirt and cap at PDPs National Convention in AbujaRecall that Governor Fayose had in June this year said that he would take presidential powers out of President Muhammadu Buharis hand to become Nigerias next president by contesting the 2019 presidential elections.In the statement, Fayose who spoke at a meeting with political office holders at the Governments House, Ado Ekiti, where he also inspected Osoko Political Institute Centre, had also said that I have penchant for taking powers; that one in Buharis hand. I will take it. Im going straight to that villa. Im the next president.I want to be the next president of Nigeria. My own wont be this change that has brought nothing, we are going to represent the people well and tell them the truth.Recall also that Fayose had earlier set his words to action in July when a Facebook page claimed to be one of his displayed his 2019 presidential campaign banner with the inscription, Fayose for president 2019, and a sub-slogan that read, Strong, Reliable and Rugged.The banner had Fayoses pictorial drawing, with a pair of glasses to match and a friendly smile. It also had its major slogan reading, Together, we can make Nigeria work again.However, todays public unveiling at the PDPs national convention has further removed any doubt as to whether Oshokomole, as he is fondly called, will wrestle presidential power with President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that his decision to suddenly retire 93 officers in a day ensured that the Nigeria Army w...

Ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that his decision to suddenly retire 93 officers in a day ensured that the Nigeria Army was rid of officers capable of staging coup detat, saying the action is responsible for the survival of the Fourth Republic.He also said that even though the measure was not ideal, it was the only option at that time that was capable of making the military a truly professional institution.Obasanjo, who said this in a book he co-authored with three other people entitled: Making Africa Work, explained that he specifically retired officers, who had either participated in coups or enjoyed the benefits of coups. His words: A coup is a treason punishable by death only if it fails, and yet it puts the plotter in the State House if it succeeds. It was a destructive and destabilising practice, wasteful for the military itself, and undermining in terms of discipline, good order, and military conduct.A junior officer takes a gun and looks at his political boss and senior officers through its sights, bumps them off and puts himself in the State House. He instantly becomes superior and senior to all political and military officers. Such was the situation existing in Nigeria between 1966 and 1999.On assuming office as President, I decided to put an end to these incessant coups. I asked the military to submit the list of all officers who had either participated in coups in the past or benefited in the dividends of coups by being appointed to political office as governors or ministers.Not knowing what the list was meant for, the military faithfully compiled it and submitted to me as the Commander-in-Chief and chairman of the council of each of the arms of service. Ninety-three officers in all were given six hours notice of retirement on a Friday and ordered not to spend the Friday night in uniform or in barracks to prevent an adverse reaction. The following Monday, the service council met to ratify the retirement of all the officers. From my vantage position and background as a battle-tested and war-victorious general, I knew that an officer out of uniform and barracks is like a fish out of water, and their power and influence would be greatly diminished.The retirement of these 93 officers all in one day was salutary. It meant that taking part in a coup and benefitting from one could catch up with you, no matter how long it would take, and for as long as you are alive. Some of them later entered politics and became elected governors; some went into parliament; others got appointed as ministers and ambassadors.The idea was not to punish them for life but to exclude them from positions in the military where they could be coup planners, coup plotters, coup executors or coup beneficiaries. And once an officer has tasted the trappings of a political life, of living in a government house, with free food and so on, he would easily look for excuses to want more if he is in a position to make it happen.The fact that since 1999, there has not been a coup or an attempted coup in Nigeria speaks to the effectiveness of the measures taken to put an end to the destabilizing influence of coups on the political life and dispensation of Nigeria.Before 1999, and since independence, the longest that a democratic dispensation had lasted was six years from 1960 to 1966. It has neither been easy nor perfect, but there are improvements and evidence of learning among the political class. Any bad signs and misconduct would have to be carefully monitored.
It is 95 days today since the president, General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, left the shores of our country for medical vacation in the UK. Addi...

It is 95 days today since the president, General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, left the shores of our country for medical vacation in the UK. Adding the about 50 days he had earlier spent on the same vacation, General Buhari has spent a cumulative of about 150 days and still counting outside the shores of the country.

Given that no man is beyond the fallibility occasioned by sickness, the handling of such matters especially as it concerns a public and the highest ranking official of a nation is key and paramount to how the citizens act or react to such situations.





The handlers of Buhari have done great disservice to him. To say publicly and at different fora that Nigerians do not deserve to know what ails their president is not only an insult but also a futile attempt at the privatization of the president and the presidency by very few individuals who erroneously think our presidency is their private estate.





To this extent, those of us involved in the #ResumeOrResign protests are not in any way against the president for taking ill but much more to drive home a lesson to todays cabal and tomorrows leaders that the presidency is a public entity and should be run not like a cult of secrecy and esoteric languages but as the peoples property. The people deserve full disclosure!





Some of the aides of the president have described the president as a private citizen and that it is disrespectful to ask the president to disclose what ails him! This is not only absurd but also goes a long way to show the mindset of those in the Villa.





Buharis medical bills are being picked by Nigerians. His welfare is our responsibility. When you are the one picking the medical bills of a patient, you deserve to know what ails the patient even doctors know this is the right thing to do.





Anyone who wants to live as a private citizen would do well to relocate from Aso Rock to their private residences and abdicate the mandate given them freely by the people. Aso Rock and their occupants are merely tenants. The Nigerian citizens are the landlords!





Apart from the above, we still wonder why the president would still be in the UK for treatment when his aides and supporters including the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, have told us severally that the president is hale and hearty.





Some of them have told us that he is in good spirits and have joked cheerfully with those who have visited him.





If the president is indeed hale and hearty, and is in good spirits, like his handlers would want us to believe, why is he still in the UK? Was he elected to be a foreign-based president?





Our demands are simple. Since they have told us that General Buhari is hale and hearty, and in good spirits, yet, has refused to return home after 95 consecutive days abroad, this amounts to nothing but truancy, and he should either #ResumeOrResign forthwith!





When you employ a man who has been away from work for 95 days and still counting on account of ill health, you are bound to sympathise with that man even if it is not convenient for you and is inimical to the general interest of your company.





But when his/her close relatives come to you to tell you as his employer that the one you have continued to keep as an employee, keep paying his full entitlements and emoluments, and keep picking his medical bills despite being away for so long is actually not sick but hale and hearty and is in good spirits, how would you react? What would you do? Would you keep paying his medical bills, would you keep paying his entitlements and emoluments, would you continue to keep him as an employee, or would you rather give him a mandate to either #ResumeOrResign? These are germane questions begging for honest and sincere answers.





Some have argued that Buharis absence has not stalled governance. But this is false. The truth is that governance is moving at hand-brake speed. Even when Buhari was fully fit, Nigerians, and even his staunch supporters, called him Baba Go-Slow, not to talk of now that his absence has totally blocked the road.





We know that Osinbajo is an acting president only on paper. He knows he is being watched and does not have the full powers to act independently as an acting president.





For example, the erudite professor of law has found it difficult if not impossible to assign portfolios to the ministers recently screened by the Senate. It is the same thing with ambassadors-designate who are yet to be deployed to their countries of assignment months after being screened by the senate. The functions these ones are supposed to be performing have, undoubtedly been left to suffer.





We still do not have a secretary to the federal government months after Babachir Lawal was suspended. Even the outcome of the panel set up to investigate him cannot still be acted upon beyond the suspension handed to him months after.





All these have further heightened our fears of Buharis capacity to coordinate our affairs because all these lacunae can be fixed with just telephone conversations with the acting president. We expect that even if Osinbajo is being stifled by interests, Buhari could have been giving directives on what to do on matters the cabal thinks are the exclusive preserve of the president even when we have an acting president. It is obvious that even the cabal doubts the mental capacity of the president to intervene in State matters.





Nigeria is too complex even for a fully fit president to lead not to talk of an absentee and unfit one. Little wonder we now have a more ferocious resurgence of the Boko Haram onslaught that has led to the killing of innocent people including oil explorers, University staff, fishermen, and the sacking of whole villages.





The general insecurity that has bedevilled our country in recent times is symptomatic of a country without a clear-cut chain of command. From incessant kidnappings, unabated ritual killings, terrorist attacks, police brutality on innocent and harmless protesters/citizens, continued job losses etc, it is obvious Nigeria is drifting southwards and only a sincere approach to the situation which includes giving full compliments of power to Osinbajo can save the country.





Apart from all these, General Buhari was also elected based on one of his cardinal campaign promises that he would stop medical tourism for all government officials in order to save us scarce resources. Today, no president has squandered our scarce foreign exchange on himself as much as Buhari, the same one who promised to patronize only our local hospitals. This is deceit, and Nigerians deserve better. In advanced democracies, such betrayal arising from not keeping to ones core campaign promises is enough to get the president impeached. But here, we paper over such grave infractions and even treat those who demand that the right things be done like deviants.





While we are very happy that our president is hale and hearty and in good spirits to the extent that he has been having humorous exchanges and even shared jokes with the different delegates that have visited him in far away London, his new base, we have no doubt that this is true as his aides and other government officials who have said these are men and women we should believe as speaking the truth, it is therefore not too much to ask President Buhari to either #ResumeOrResign, as running a country like Nigeria from a foreign land is not the same as sharing jokes with his retinue of visitors while the country disintegrates right before our eyes.




The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday, said history had taught him that the failure of the nations justice system to respond adequately to crisis is a major factor leading to greater conflict.Osinbajo said this while inaugurating a Presidential Investigation Panel to review the compliance of the Armed Forces with human rights obligations and rules of engagement at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.He said it was a known fact that the conduct of the nations defence and security forces during the insurgency in the North-East and militancy in the Niger Delta had in recent times attracted significant commendation.He recalled that at the inception of the present administration, seven local government areas were under the control of Boko Haram while virtually all of them had now been recovered by security forces.The Acting President said the nature of asymmetric or unconventional warfare that the armed forces had to contend with presented unique challenges that most modern armies were ill-equipped to tackle with conventional warfare tactics.He said there had been series of allegations levied against security forces by some local and international commentators, and that if left unaddressed, such could undermine the good work of the men and women of the Armed Forces who had largely conducted themselves in a disciplined and professional manner.He added, Failure to examine some of these allegations will also leave those who may have been victims of such abuses without any recourse to justice. And if history has taught us anything, it is that the failure of our justice system to adequately respond to crisis is usually a recipe for greater conflict.Osinbajo said respect for the lives of Nigerians was not just constitutional but also a moral duty.He said the report of the findings of the board of inquiries set up by the Nigerian Army to investigate extra-judicial killings and rights violation by Army personnel, which was submitted in June 2017, would be made available to the panel.He said the government was also awaiting the report of the investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in IDP camps in the North-East, which was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.He gave the terms of reference of the panel to include reviewing extant rules of engagement applicable to the Armed Forces of Nigeria and the extent of compliance thereto; and to investigate alleged acts of violation of international humanitarian and human rights law under the nations 1999 Constitution as amended, the Geneva Conventions Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Ratification and Enforcement Act and other relevant laws by the Armed Forces in local conflicts and insurgencies.Others, according to him, are to investigate matters of conduct and discipline in the armed forces in local conflicts and insurgencies; to recommend means of preventing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in conflict situations; and to make further recommendations in line with the terms of reference as may be deemed necessary.Osinbajo gave the assurance to the armed forces that exercises such as this would be regular and must not be seen as a witch-hunt or a way to denigrate the great work that the Armed Forces and paramilitary agencies were doing all over the country.He said it was the responsibility of the Armed Forces and the government to ensure that their activities met up with human rights norms and basic rules of decency observed across the world.Osinbajo said he also expected the panel to collect information about the conditions of service of the Armed Forces or any other factors that might have hindered the optimal performance of the Armed Forces in the fight against insurgents, militants and other combatants.The panel is headed by a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Biobele Georgewill. Members of the panel include Maj.-Gen. Patrick Akem; Mr. Wale Fapohunda; Mrs. Hauwa Ibrahim; Mr. Jibrin Ibrahim; Mr. Abba Ambudashi Ibrahim; Mrs. Ifeoma Nwakama; and Dr. Fatima Alkali who is counsel for the panel.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he is okay but has to obey his doctors orders in London.

Buhari had left Nigeria on May 7th to meet up follow up consultation with his doctors in the United Kingdom.Stressing that there is tremendous improvement in his health, he said that he really wished to return home.He spoke while receiving the presidential media team, and the Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, at Abuja House, London, on Saturday.The team was led by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, accompanied by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity; Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, and Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant on Digital/Online Media.Buhari, in a statement issued by Adesina, said But Ive learnt to obey my doctors orders, rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge.When the team expressed delight at the much improved health of the President, he retorted: I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. Ive now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed.On how he felt hearing different conjectures about his health, an amused President Buhari said he followed events at home closely, lauding Nigerian television stations, and the media generally, for keeping him informed.When told that prayers were going on fervently for him, not only in Nigeria, but all over Africa, and round the world, a delighted President said: What we did in The Gambia early this year fetched us a lot of goodwill on the African continent. It gave us a lot of latitude. I thank all those who are praying. May God reward them.President Buhari, the statement said, sent appreciation to all Nigerians, expressing hope that he would be with them soon.
A President delegation led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Saturday condoled with Anambra Government over the August 6 attack on worshippers at St. Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu, in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State.Members of the team include Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama; and Minister of State for Environment, Mr. Ibrahim Jubrin.Handing over the two-page condolence message to Governor Willie Obiano, who was represented by his deputy, Nkem Okeke, Ngige described the shooting as unfortunate.He said the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was deeply saddened by the news of the shooting and death of innocent worshippers, adding that he extended his deep sympathy to the government and people of Anambra.The minister assured the government of Anambra that the Federal Government would cooperate with the state government in the effort to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act.We have been delegated by the Acting President to come and condole with you on the sad shooting of innocent worshippers in Amakwa, Ozubulu, on August 6.We are also going to visit the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, Most Rev. Dr. Hillary Okeke, who is the shepherd were it happened, and we are also going to Amakwa to see things for ourselves.He (Acting President) said we should reassure you that the Federal Government will cooperate with the state to fish out the perpetrators, Ngige said.Responding, Obiano thanked the Federal Government for showing concern and sending the high-powered delegation, noting that it was not expected.Obiano said the incident was alien to the people of the state, as it had not happened anywhere around it before.He said some arrests had been made and that investigation was ongoing.
Kenyan police killed 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums ringing the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.A security official told Reuters that the bodies of nine young men shot dead overnight in Nairobis Mathare slum had been brought to the city morgue.The official said the men were killed during police anti-looting operations.Separately, a young girl in Mathare was killed by police firing sporadic shots, a witness said.The run-down neighborhood is loyal to 72-year-old opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose party rejected Tuesdays vote as a charade.A Reuters reporter in Kisumu, centre of post-election ethnic violence a decade ago in which 1,200 people died nationwide, said tear gas and live rounds were fired.A government official said one man had been killed.The unrest erupted moments after Kenyas election commission announced late on Friday that Kenyatta, 55, had secured a second five-year term in office, in spite of opposition allegations that the tally was a fraud.Interior Minister Fred Matiangi said the trouble was localised and blamed it on criminal elements rather than legitimate political protest.Odingas NASA coalition provided no evidence for its rejection of the result.Kenyas main monitoring group, ELOG, said on Saturday its tally matched the official outcome, undermining NASAs allegations of fraud.In addition to the deaths, Kisumus main hospital was treating four people for gunshot wounds and six who had been beaten by Kenyan police, its records showed.One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in the impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and beat him with clubs.He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him.She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people, his brother, Charles Ochieng said, speaking on behalf of a dazed Oduor.More shooting was heard outside the hospital on Saturday morning. In Nairobi, armed police units backed by water cannon moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum.Interior minister Matiangi defended the police against accusations of brutality.Let us be honest  there are no demonstrations happening, he told reporters.Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into peoples businesses, those are not demonstrators.They are criminals. And we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with.As with previous votes in 2007 and 2013, this years elections have exposed the underlying ethnic tensions in the nation of 45 million, the economic engine of East Africa and the regions main trading hub.In particular, Odingas Luo tribe, who hail from the west, had hoped an Odinga presidency would have broken the Kikuyu and Kalenjin dominance of central government since independence in 1963.
Real Madrid are ready to battle La Liga rival Barcelona, for the signature of Borussia Dortmunds Ousmane Dembele.According to Catalan broadcaster, RAC 1, Madrid want to hijack a move for the 20-year-old.Dembele has been suspended and fined by Dortmund, after failing to report for training on Thursday, amid speculation that he wants to join Barcelona.It is understood that Dembele prefers a move to the Camp Nou, but Madrid president Florentino Perez has asked his counterpart at Dortmund, Reinhard Rauball, to keep him abreast of the France internationals availability before a move is made.Barca have seen an off rejected already, but are expected to return with a new bid closer to Dortmunds asking price of 120million  150 million, in an effort to get the deal done.
Some bishops have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign from office because of his ill health.

Some bishops have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign from office because of his ill health.The bishops also reprimanded the Presidency for persistently refusing to disclose Buharis health status, saying they were in support of protesters demanding the Presidents resignation.Since Monday, the resume or resign protesters  backed by a popular artiste, Charles Oputa (also known as Charly Boy)  had accused Buharis handlers of holding him captive.The protesters had also advised the President to demonstrate his touted integrity by resigning from office as it was evident he wasnt physically fit to carry on the number one job in the country.Speaking on Friday at the second session of the Twelfth Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Owo, the Bishop of Owo Diocese, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Rt. Revd. James Oladunjoye, asked Buhari to resign and give room for another person to do the job.The bishop said the situation whereby the President had spent several months abroad had not helped the country, adding that it was wrong to conceal his (Buhari) health status as he was no longer a private person.Oladunjoye said, We thank God for the President and for the way he had been ruling according to the law, but there is something wrong that we want him to address.He has been ill for so many months in his tenure and so, is it not proper for the country to know his health condition as he is no more a private personality?He is public property and if he is not strong enough to continue as the leader of this country, it is better for him to resign so that another qualified individual can take up the office legitimately.Speaking based on his personal relationship with Oladunjoye, the Bishop of the Ibadan South Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Revd. Jacob Ajetunmobi, said his counterpart at the Owo Diocese was speaking based on the experience he (Oladunjoye) had.Ajetunmobi said Oladunjoye had had accidents which forced the latter to consider early retirement, adding that if a cleric could be forced to retire early because of his health, the President should also be able to do so.However, Ajetunmobi advised Buhari that should he decide not to resign, he should not contemplate running for the second term.Ajetunmobi said, He (Oladunjoye) had separate accidents that led to him suffering from a broken hand. He had taken treatment in Nigeria but had to travel to the United States for more treatment. He is now being forced to retire early before turning 70 as a result of that.He is speaking from personal experience that if health challenge will not permit him to function properly in his position, he would rather resign.Acting President Yemi Osinbajo should be able to carry on with the administration of Nigeria. Buhari was one of those calling for late President Umaru YarAduas resignation then, but now, he knows that what goes around comes around. We should be careful what we wish others.Here, I am a bit more radical in my opinion, but it is much more complex than we think. There are underpinning theological positions involved.Asking Buhari not to consider running for a second term, Ajetunmobi said, Buhari has about one more year to spend as President, but he should not think of coming back for a second term. The All Progressives Congress should think along and restructure its leadership or be ready to fail in 2019.Also, the Catholic Bishop of Auchi Diocese in Edo State, Most Revd. Gabriel Dunia, told one of our correspondents that while the constitution was silent about how long the President could be away after transferring his power to the Vice-President, an honest leader ought to voluntarily declare his inability to continue in office (when he is physically unfit).Dunia said, A sincere person who wants to sincerely help but can no longer perform his function should be able to say, I cannot perform this function anymore.So, there is no need pretending, unless the person is not honest. And if the person is not sincere, he is not out to help anybody. If I am helping somebody and I know that it is beyond my power to help again, I should be able to come out to say I cannot go further.Dunia also described the Presidencys prolonged silence on Buharis health status as deceptive.That is deception; if they cannot tell Nigerians what is wrong with the President, who is their son, father, brother and friend, then the children (Nigerians) should know what is wrong with their father, he said.The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Kano State Chapter, Bishop Ransom Bello, indicated his support for the resume or resign protest, insisting that it was high time the Presidency opened up on Buharis health status.The General Overseer, Christ Alive Power Assembly, Bauchi, Pastor Emmanuel Kanti, said the Nigerian constitution should be allowed to take its course in that Buhari should resign because of his illness.He said, If the President is not strong enough to rule the country, he should give way to someone who is healthy and strong enough to rule the country.The number one citizen of a country shouldnt conceal his health status and put the whole country in dilemma; I think it is unfair. If hes unhealthy, he should give way to someone else and stop being a ghost President. But if he feels hes okay, he should come back and continue ruling the country.In fact, the Presidency is playing on the intelligence of Nigerians and there is no reason whatsoever for doing that. They should just tell us the present state of our President.Also speaking with newsmen the leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Pastor Christmas Mark, asked President Buhari to honourably resign if he was not fit to rule the country on health grounds.He said, Nigerians have the right to protest in the sense that the President is not a secret position holder; it is not a position that is answerable to a community and inasmuch as he is the President of the country, he is answerable to the people. And the people want to see him at all costs.So, it is not right for the Federal Government to hide him. What they should have done is to set up a medical panel to know his health status. Nigerians do not want information (again); they want to see him.It can even be right for one to say that if he is not fit to rule, to ask him to resign is not out of place. The reason is that people want to see the person they elected. They voted for him to rule.They voted for the President and the Vice-President to rule. Now we are seeing only the Vice-President. Inasmuch as we know the constitution, the Vice-President has limited powers. So, if the President is not fit or if he is incapacitated, let him honourably resign.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday called on African leaders to form a strong united front to defeat terrorism and violent extremism i...

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday called on African leaders to form a strong united front to defeat terrorism and violent extremism inhibiting development in Africa.He made the call while receiving Kenyas Deputy President William Ruto at the State House, Abuja.Buhari, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also expressed concern that the continent is still grappling with acts and effects of terrorism after a successful de-colonisation campaign.Acknowledging the valued cooperation between Nigeria and Kenya in the fight against terrorism, Buhari commended the East African country for the recent successes recorded in tackling terrorism in the region.A situation in which insecurity continues to obstruct the process of national development should not be allowed to continue, the President told Mr Ruto, a special envoy to President Uhuru Kenyatta.On the forthcoming election of a new leadership for the African Union Commission (AUC), President Buhari said African States need a very strong leadership at the AUC that will encourage member states to refocus their resources and energy towards human and national development.On Kenyas request for Nigerias support for the candidature of Ambassador Amina Mohammed, Kenyas Foreign Minister, who is vying for the AUC chairmanship, President Buhari said Nigeria will hold robust consultations with other African leaders on the need for strong and capable leadership that will respond to the current challenges facing the continent.Deputy President Ruto commended President Buhari for his leadership, particularly on regional security and the fight against corruption.He said President Buharis effort to eradicate terrorism and violent extremism had emboldened the continents resolve to achieve lasting peace and security.
Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, said that security agencies had a lead that could make possible the arrest of the gunmen ...

Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, said that security agencies had a lead that could make possible the arrest of the gunmen that killed 13 people at St. Philips Catholic Church in Amankwa, Ozubulu in the state.The governor insisted that the target of the shooting was a business partner of the alleged killer of the worshippers, but said that while the target was not found, his father was killed during the attack.Obiano spoke with journalists in Abuja on Friday at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, where he submitted his governorship nomination form.He said, We are taking precautions, we have a lead and the police have made some arrests and we are very confident that we will resolve the matter very soon.He said that the state government was bankrolling both the cost of treating the injured and the burial of dead victims of the attack.The governor said that despite the killings, his state remains the safest state in the country.We cant use that singular incident to judge the state. We have stopped kidnapping, assassinations and all that in the state. So, whichever way you look at it, we remain a safe state, he said.On why he is gunning for a second term as governor, Obiano said that his target was that by the time he had done eight years in office, he would have touched the life of everyone in the state.The governor, who expressed confidence at the possibility of clinching victory at the poll, said that virtually all the major roads in the state had been lighted up.He said that so far his government had achieved 66 per cent target in internally generated revenue.Obiano said, In agriculture, the state is doing very well and has attained self-sufficiency in rice production. We consume 320,000 metric tonnes and now we produce 375,000 metric tonnes per annum, from 80,000 metric tonne when we assumed office.What I want to leave behind as my legacy when I leave office after eight years is to ensure that Anambra State is self-sufficient in its revenue sources so that we will not have to be waiting for Abuja to run the affairs of governance.
Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, said that security agencies had a lead that could make possible the arrest of the gunmen that killed 13 people at St. Philips Catholic Church in Amankwa, Ozubulu in the state.The governor insisted that the target of the shooting was a business partner of the alleged killer of the worshippers, but said that while the target was not found, his father was killed during the attack.Obiano spoke with journalists in Abuja on Friday at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, where he submitted his governorship nomination form.He said, We are taking precautions, we have a lead and the police have made some arrests and we are very confident that we will resolve the matter very soon.He said that the state government was bankrolling both the cost of treating the injured and the burial of dead victims of the attack.The governor said that despite the killings, his state remains the safest state in the country.We cant use that singular incident to judge the state. We have stopped kidnapping, assassinations and all that in the state. So, whichever way you look at it, we remain a safe state, he said.On why he is gunning for a second term as governor, Obiano said that his target was that by the time he had done eight years in office, he would have touched the life of everyone in the state.The governor, who expressed confidence at the possibility of clinching victory at the poll, said that virtually all the major roads in the state had been lighted up.He said that so far his government had achieved 66 per cent target in internally generated revenue.Obiano said, In agriculture, the state is doing very well and has attained self-sufficiency in rice production. We consume 320,000 metric tonnes and now we produce 375,000 metric tonnes per annum, from 80,000 metric tonne when we assumed office.What I want to leave behind as my legacy when I leave office after eight years is to ensure that Anambra State is self-sufficient in its revenue sources so that we will not have to be waiting for Abuja to run the affairs of governance.
The Federal Government has said it is working hard to redeem its electoral pledges to Nigerians. Minister of Information and Culture, A...

The Federal Government has said it is working hard to redeem its electoral pledges to Nigerians.Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said contrary to what some people want Nigerians to believe, the present administration was working assiduously to meet its electoral pledges, especially in the critical areas of developing the economy as well as fighting corruption and insecurity.Speaking in Abuja on Friday while signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the visiting Chinese Vice Minister of the State Council Information Office, Mr. Guo Weimin, the minister added that the fight against insecurity was yielding positive results.He said, Our fight against corruption is focused and ongoing. We are resolute and we have resolved that we will fight corruption until corruption goes under. We are happy that in this regard, we have a very good partner in China because we are aware and we know how China fought and is fighting corruption.We have succeeded in nursing a very sick economy and very soon, Nigeria will get out of recession.Mohammed said the signing of the MoU would deepen the already excellent relationship between the two countries, adding that some provisions in the MoU would help to eliminate the era of fake news.He added, This is significant because we are today in the era of fake news. Unlike China, the social media here is completely unrestrained. Therefore it is important that you get your news directly from the official source.The minister sought the support of China towards the training of the ministrys resident information officers on modern governance public communication methods in order to build their capacity as the respective spokespersons of ministries, departments and agencies.He also sought partnership with China in the areas of film production and distribution, development of community cinema houses and collaboration in the co-production of films as well as the screening of Nigerian films in China and vice versa. He called for cooperation between the Nigerian Film and Video Censorship Board and the China Censorship Board to curb the importation and exportation of pirated and adulterated movies.The Chinese Vice Minister said the signing of the MoU marked a new beginning in the relationship between the two countries, particularly in the area of media and cultural relations.He said workers training and programme exchanges would further solidify the cultural ties between both nations, adding that his ministry would scale up the broadcast of news about Nigeria in China, while appealing to the minister to reciprocate the gesture.The Chinese Vice Minister, who was accompanied by the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou Pingjian, acceded to Mohammeds request for the training of the Resident Information Officers and said the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria would fine-tune the capacity building engagement.
MARGATE -- A Superior Court judge has urged the state to slow down on a beach replenishment project in Margate until a major drainage issue can be resolved, but with the work scheduled to continue on Tuesday, the mayor says there's no sign state officials are agreeing to a delay.

Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez made the request on Friday when he met with officials from Margate and the state Department of Environmental Protection to try to work out a dispute over problems with beach replenishment in the city that have resulted in flooding along the oceanfront after rain storms.

Mayor Michael Becker said the city got a sympathetic ear from Mendez, but that the judge's hands are tied because he doesn't have jurisdiction over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of the project.

"He urged the corps (through the DEP) to slow down the project or go somewhere else until the summer is over and Margate can enjoy the beach and recoup some of the business that was lost," Becker said.

But, the mayor said, he doesn't have much faith in that outcome because after court on Friday, he was told the Army Corps plans to resume work in Margate on Tuesday.

City officials have complained the standing water poses health risks because of the presence of high bacteria levels and poses safety risks for those trying to get to the beach. They argued businesses have suffered because of the limited access to the beach.

"The entire area that's been ponding, it's like a big swamp," Becker said. "This has really affected us. They've made a pigsty of our beaches."

Ponding has occurred on the entire stretch of the oceanfront that's been replenished so far - about a third of the beach, he said.

Part of a $64 million project that includes Ventnor and Longport, work on beach replenishment in Margate, which began in late June, was temporarily halted Aug. 3 when Mendez issued an order restraining continuation of the project until the Army Corps can find a solution to the ponding issue.

After a hearing on the matter in which Army Corps officials admitted they were stymied by the problem and didn't have a permanent solution, U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb lifted that order a week later.

But Bumb also imposed conditions on the Army Corps that she felt would help alleviate the immediate concerns of the ponding.

Bumb's decision has angered Becker, who said the Corps shouldn't be permitted to continue the work without first figuring out how to correct the ponding problem.

City officials, who have argued an existing bulkhead protects the town in severe storms, has fought long and hard against the replenishment work, which is part of a massive federal project Gov. Chris Christie orchestrated for all of New Jersey's Atlantic coastline after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

On July 30, residents gathered on the beach to protest what they called "Christie Lake" and another protest is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. on the Jerome Avenue beach, the mayor said.

Becker said the Army Corps has complied with Bumb's directive to erect fences around the ponds and to build walkovers so that beachgoers won't have to wade through the standing water.

He said he will have to trust that the Army Corps will comply with another of Bumb's directives: to test the standing water for high bacteria levels.

"I hate to use the words 'good faith' because that hasn't happened so far," he said. "I guess we have to depend on them to follow the judge's order."

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Dreu Ferguson Jr. of Millville

CAMDEN -- A Millville man convicted of killing his father and burying him under a porch has lost four out of the five points in his appeal Friday.

The New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division released a 20-page decision, denying four of the five grounds of the appeal. Ferguson Jr. claimed he did not receive a speedy trial because he waited in jail for two years prior to his trial, the medical's examiner's testimony should not have been allowed because the medical examiner did not know the cause of death, the testimony of a "jailhouse snitch" caused not told to be scrutinized by the jury and that the sentence and the extended life sentence he received was excessive.

Dreu Ferguson Jr. was convicted of killing his father, 58-year-old Dreu Ferguson Sr., after arguing over a teapot lid back on May 19, 2009. He covered the body with lime and buried his father's body under the back porch of a house. Ferguson Jr. was acquitted of murder charges by a jury but convicted of aggravated manslaughter and sentenced to a minimum 63 years in prison.

The court did agree that the record did not show him being acquitted of the first-degree murder charge and guilty of first-degree aggravated manslaughter. Ferguson Jr.'s sentence will remain intact. He currently in the New Jersey State Prison and will be 99 years old before he is eligible for parole.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook
BRIDGETON -- A gunshot to a man's shoulder that led to his death while in prison 10 years later has prompted the prosecutor's office to take another look at the more-than-a-decade-old police shooting.

And the results were the same, the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

First Assistant Cumberland County Prosecutor Harold B. Shapiro said in a statement that the Bridgeton police officer who shot Hector Rodriguez in the shoulder during the early morning hours of May 8, 2005 was justified.

On the day of the shooting, Rodriguez, who was a suspect in a stabbing murder, was accused of striking an officer with a ceramic vase. The police officer then fired one shot which hit Rodriguez in his right shoulder.

Rodriguez survived the gunshot but was paralyzed from the waist down and said that he did not remember what happened to him. The officer who fired the shot suffered a black eye that was still visible four days later. Rodriguez later pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced in 2008 to serve 12 years in jail without the possibility of parole.

Rodriguez died Aug. 26, 2015 while serving his sentence in Southwoods State Prison. The prosecutor's office said the medical examiner determined the cause of death was the gunshot wound he sustained in 2005 in combination with other medical conditions and his death was changed to a homicide.

At the time of the shooting, a formal review was not conducted because there was no officer-involved shooting review process. Once Rodriguez's death was ruled a homicide, the Prosecutor's Office was called in to investigate. Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae had to recuse herself from the investigation because of a possible conflict of interest. Her spouse was working for a prison in which Rodriguez was being held, leaving Shapiro to lead the investigation.

The Prosecutor's Office said that "the facts are undisputed and that the officer acted in a manner consistent with the New Jersey Attorney General's 'Use of Force' Police and with legal justification. As such, the Prosecutor's Office has decided not to present this matter to the grand jury."

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook
NEWARK -- Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss has been cleared in what he called a "far fetched" civil lawsuit claiming that he sexually assaulted and sexually harassed a township employee three years ago.

Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss in a file photo. (Bill Wichert | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

A jury Wednesday sided with Vauss, who has staunchly denied allegations in a suit filed by Irvington housing inspector Tamara Smith, who claimed that the mayor harassed her and sexually assaulted her in a city hall office on June 9, 2014, attorneys involved in the case said Friday. The jury also ordered Smith to pay Vauss $7,000 for defaming his character, attorneys confirmed.

"It's been a long journey," Vauss said in a phone interview about the verdict Friday.

"Unfortunately throughout the three years, you have to endure all the speculation, all the people who thought this might have actually happened, even though I denied it from the beginning. It was just so outrageous."

Smith's attorney, Paul Castronovo, did not return a request for comment Friday, but told the New Jersey Law Journal his client was planning to appeal the decision.

Vauss said the Essex County Prosecutor's Office previously investigated Smith's allegations, and did not arrest or bring criminal charges against him. The township also hired a third party firm to investigate the alleged incident, which also found no wrongdoing, he said.

The suit had helped spur an unsuccessful recall bid against Vauss in 2015.

Vauss said attorneys questioned the credibility of her story, and believed she had financial ulterior motives for making the allegations.

Vauss's attorney, Christopher Kinum, said the jury voted unanimously to clear Vauss of the charges, and voted 5 to 1 in favor of his counterclaim, which alleged Smith defamed his character when telling others in city hall of her allegations.

"We're thrilled that the criminal justice system worked," said Kineum, of Critchley, Kinum, and Denola in Roseland. "The jury unanimously found that Tamara Smith falsely accused Tony Vauss."

Smith, who still holds her $49,400 civil service job in the township, filed the suit in October 2014.

Angelo Genova, who represented the township in the case, declined to comment on Smith's employment with the township, but did say he agreed with the jury's verdict.

"The township believes the jury got it right and made the proper credibility determination here," said Genova, of Genova Burns in Newark.

He added the township "hopes that this closes a chapter for Mayor Vauss and the township."

In the suit, Smith said she felt "humiliated, intimidated, and abused" when in Vauss's company.

Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Jersey City pulled an item off the city website yesterday that promoted a political meet-and-greet intended to boost the chances of one of Mayor Steve Fulop's council candidates.

The event was listed on the taxpayer-funded cultural affairs calendar as a community barbecue hosted from noon to six today by Mo Kinberg (the calendar entry spelled her name "Kingsberg").

On her Facebook page, Kinberg, who with Fulop's support is seeking to unseat Ward D Councilman Michael Yun in November, promoted the event as a meet-and-greet alongside ads for her candidacy and Fulop's.

About a half an hour after The Jersey Journal asked whether it was appropriate for the city to advertise an event hosted by a political candidate aligned with the mayor, the entry was deleted.

City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the item was added to the calendar in error.

"A new City Hall part-time employee made a mistake when she saw a permit request submitted like every other permit request and didn't realize it was political so she made a mistake and posted it," Morrill said. "It was corrected right away when brought to our attention and removed."

The episode led to verbal volleys between Yun and Kinberg, one of at least three people who intend to challenge him in the Nov. 7 municipal election, when the mayoralty and all nine council seats are up for grabs.

Ward D, which includes most of the Heights, is a key area for Fulop, whose Ward D candidate in 2013 lost to Yun. Yun has spent the last four years as a Fulop irritant, voting against major administration initiatives and criticizing the city's stance on tax breaks for real-estate developers. He mulled challenging Fulop in the mayor's race before deciding to run for re-election instead.

Reached by phone, Yun, 63, used the word "disgusting" to describe the city advertising Kinberg's meet-and-greet, and alleged that Fulop has turned City Hall into his re-election campaign office.

"He uses ... taxpayer dollars for his own campaign," he said. "Time to stop it."

Kinberg, 37, called Yun a hypocrite, noting that the councilman provides constituent services out of a Central Avenue office that doubles as his campaign headquarters.

"That's very questionable," she said.

Since Yun joined the council, he has worked largely out of a storefront office on Central Avenue rather than at City Hall. Responding to Kinberg, he did not argue that the office is also now his campaign headquarters. The difference here, Yun said, is that he pays for the office himself, not the taxpayers of Ward D.

"What a wonderful councilman they have," Yun said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Chalmette man gets sentenced to nearly 18 years for plot to kill informant
The study looks at two smaller-scale projects that are in some ways predecessors to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the $2 billion plan to slow land loss erasing Louisiana's coast. Construction on that project could begin as early as next year, while a similar one on the opposite side of the river known as the Mid-Breton Diversion could follow.
As many as 20,000 more individuals and families in Iowa would keep their health insurance next year if the federal government approves a stopgap measure being sought by the State of Iowa, according to an outside analysis of the proposal.

Without the stopgap measure, which would waive some requirements of the Affordable Care Act, high monthly premiums planned by Medica Health would cause as many as 22,000 individuals and families to drop their insurance next year, said a report by NovaRest Actuarial Accounting of Sahuarita, Arizona.

That number could reach 30,000 in 2019, the report said.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said Thursday that the report clearly finds that the Iowa Stopgap Measure is a better alternative for Iowa than the ACA.

He said in a press release that Iowans who buy their own insurance are at a breaking point, as the ACA market is collapsing. Many Iowans are considering going uninsured. To put it simply, Iowa needs the flexibility to do what works for us, so as few Iowans as possible are priced out of the individual health insurance market.

Ommen said the stopgap measure would be temporary. Medica, the only insurance company planning to offer ACA health plans in Iowa next year, has requested premium increases averaging 43.5 percent next year.

The stopgap measure would guarantee coverage and include the ACAs essential health benefits but limit options and redirect federal subsidy funds. Consumers could buy a standard health plan with available subsidies directly from insurance companies instead of through the ACA exchange.

The plan also would set up a reinsurance program for large health claims so that more companies would be willing to sell health plans in the state.

The latest study is part of the approval process for the proposed waiver from the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the Affordable Care Act system.

Ommens office said the stopgap plan meets the federal governments economic and financial requirements and would not increase the federal budget deficit.

He said his office is putting together a final proposal and hopes to receive approval by Nov. 1, when Iowans could begin applying for health plans under the Affordable Care Act. About 72,000 people in the state buy insurance through the ACA.

To see the report and to submit comments by 5 p.m. Wednesday, go to iid.iowa.gov/iowa-stopgap-measure.

The Insurance Division held hearings on the proposal in Council Bluffs, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids and will hold another Monday at the Des Moines Social Club. The hearing in Council Bluffs drew about 20 people.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) Adani Transmission has got shareholders approval to raise Rs 5,000 crore through issuance of equity share, instrument and securities in one or more tranches in different currencies.

The special resolution was approved in the Annual General Meeting held yesterday, Adani Transmission Ltd stated in a BSE filing today.

Under the proposal, the company had proposed to have flexibility to infuse additional capital to tap capital markets and to raise additional long term resources, if necessary in order to sustain rapid growth in the business, for business expansion and to improve the financial leveraging strength of the company.

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The resolution will now enable the Board of Directors to raise funds to the extent of Rs 5,000 crores in any one or more currencies, in one or more tranches, in such form, on such terms, in such manner, at such price and at such time as may be considered appropriate by the Board (inclusive at such premium as may be determined) by way of issuance of equity shares, instruments or securities. PTI KKS MKJ

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By PTI: Coimbatore, Aug 12 (PTI) Two senior Tamil Nadu ministers today exuded confidence that AIADMK factions, one led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the other by his predecessor O Panneerselvam, will soon come together and the government would complete its full five-year term.

"What is going on at present is disagreement between brothers, which will be settled amicably at the earliest," Forest Minister Dindigul Srinivasan told reporters here.

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Separately, Cooperation Minister Sellur L Raju said that "we will work together to fulfil the dreams of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa".

The process of merger of the two factions is going on for the last seven months and the days were not far for them to coming together, Srinivasan said.

"The present government would complete its full term," he added.

About T T V Dhinakaran, nephew of jailed party general secretary V K Sasikala, reportedly calling chief minister E K Palaniswami a 420 (used to refer to people who cheat), Srinivasan said it could have been due to a slip of tongue, as he had clarified later and there was no need to play it up further.

However, the minister said he was not aware of Palaniswami calling Dhinakaran a 420.

To a question on reports of O Paneerselvam becoming the deputy chief minister, Srinivasan said it had come out in some sections of the press.

Any fact would be revealed by Palaniswami, as both the party and government are working under him, he said. "His opinion is my opinion."

Meanwhile, in a separate press conference, Cooperation Minister Sellur L Raju, on his way to Udhagamandalam, said he alone could not take a decision on participation in the MGR centenary celebrations convened by Dhinakaran in Melur on August 14.

A decision would be taken after consultation with Palaniswami and other ministers, he added.

The government was ready to rectify the shortcomings pointed out by anybody, be it Dhinakaran or other leaders and provide good governance, he said.

Stating that nobody can create confusion among AIADMK workers, Raju said not a single worker has switched over to any party including the DMK so far, which is a clear indication of the unity among the cadres.

"To fulfil the dreams of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, we will work together," he said. PTI NVM SS TIR

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Man died due to a medical issue which began while watching Shootout 10 years ago

ARNOLD  Mary and Stan Mifflin of Sun City, Arizona, have a special place in their hearts for the Sandhills Open Road Challenge.

They have participated in the event seven times, but this year has extra meaning for them.

The reason were back for this particular race is that 10 years ago, our son passed away here from medical issues, Mary said. The people are so good to us and they always want us to come back so we said this is the time to come back.

The family was at the One Mile Shootout at the time of the medical issue that took their son Jason Alan Mifflins life.

He had been a diabetic since he was 18 years old, Stan said. He just told me (that day), Dad, we need to go, so we ended up going to the care unit at the Shootout.

Stan said the rescue squads from Arnold and Cozad provided good help.

We loaded him in an ambulance and transported him toward Cozad, Stan said. When they arrived there, he actually walked out of the ambulance into the emergency room. Shortly thereafter he started respiratory arrest and went into cardiac arrest.

Stan was a firefighter EMT for 35 years in his hometown of Seward and on Friday, he was wearing his Seward firefighter shirt to honor his son, who was also a firefighter EMT.

The Mifflins have been married for 50 years after meeting in San Francisco, where Mary spent most of her school years.

He was in the Navy there, Mary said. It was a blind date.

Stan said that blind date worked out pretty well.

I was in the Navy from ages 17-21 and served on K Cruisers from 1964 to 1968, Stan said. I had two tours in Vietnam for 19 months.

The Mifflins car  Stan likes to go fast, Mary not so much  is a BMW MINI Clubman Cooper S.

Its a 4-cylinder, turbo-charged BMW engine, Stan said. BMW owns MINI, so the drive train is BMW. Its 189 horsepower, 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters.

Stan is in the 80 mph class.

I have my rookie grandson as navigator so I dont want to scare him right off the bat, Stan said.

Mary said they brought their daughter-in-law and grandson, who is going to be Stans navigator, and the grandsons girlfriend.

Stan has participated at the SORC seven times.

Ive competed in and won the 95 mph class here in an 07 Corvette, Stan said.

The Mifflins worked for Hughes Brothers of Seward, Stan for 40 years and Mary for 38.

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A woman charged in connection with a boating incident that injured two girls at Lake Maloney appeared Wednesday in Lincoln County Court.

Mary Haney is charged with being an accessory to a felony and tampering with evidence. At the hearing, Haney didnt enter a plea, but her case was continued to Sept. 7.

Haneys attorney, Stephen Potter, said that instead of waiving a preliminary hearing and binding over the case to Lincoln County District Court, he plans to contest the nature of the charges at the September hearing. Potter declined to comment on which parts of the charges he plans to contest.

On June 12, Haneys husband, Doug, was pulling two children behind his boat on a floating device and made a sharp turn that threw the girls onto rocks along South Beach. One of the girls, 9, was later flown to Kearney and Omaha hospitals with serious injuries. The other girl sustained minor injuries.

As law enforcement investigated at the scene, Chief Deputy Roland Kramer said Wednesday, Mary Haney drove the boat away and later concealed evidence that would have assisted in the investigation.

Doug Haney is charged with boating under the influence and two charges of child abuse: one with intent, resulting in injury, and another with intent, not resulting in injury.

Doug Haneys case has been bound over to Lincoln County District Court; court records indicated that he does not have an appearance date yet.
I read with interest and discomfort as a sitting state senator, a member of the Revenue Committee and the chairman of the Education Committee, compared hundreds of locally elected Natural Resources District board members to drunks wanting the security of the jug of whiskey as they and their staffs sought to educate the Legislature on why a particular levy authority for fully appropriated and overappropriated NRDs should be extended beyond the planned sunset of 2019. The portrait that Sen. Mike Groene painted in his July 27 North Platte Telegraph column was the predictable portrait of a bunch of tax-and-spend bureaucrats living high on the hog  the drunks seeking the security of the jug, as it were.

This sentiment is a great deal different from the sentiment that then-citizen Groene expressed in a May 2, 2014, Omaha World-Herald article while running for the Legislature:  Water issues are really relevant to our area, Groene said. He said irrigation and groundwater problems need to be addressed, and that in general, its about having local control for local issues.

Legislative Bill 98, supported by the vast majority of state senators, would have extended the maximum 3-cent levy authority for fully and overappropriated NRDs from fiscal years 2017 and 2018 to fiscal 2025 and 2026. This levy would have been used only to implement groundwater management activities and integrated management activities under the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act. This proposal was an extension of existing authorities and not an increase of taxes, as Groene and his anti-tax colleagues erroneously portrayed. It would have simply provided the boards of directors in these districts the tools necessary to levy additional funds needed for these purposes.

The North Platte NRD is governed by nine locally elected directors in Scottsbluff. A substantial portion of the district was designated as overappropriated and the balance of the district was designated as fully appropriated under the 2004 LB 962 legislation, mandating an Integrated Management Plan. The first increment of the plan requires that this district return 8,000 acre-feet of water to the North Platte River each year. The mandates have no sunset, though the levy authorities do.

To meet this obligation, the NPNRD has made great strides to reduce consumptive use of groundwater. Aside from our historical moratorium on well drilling and acre expansion, every well is metered and pumping data is collected annually to provide accounting for our deficit irrigation allocation. Our directors are constantly reviewing these regulatory activities and seeking ways that we can increase regulation where it would be beneficial to meeting our obligations, but would not negatively impact the economy of our district.

We have embarked on forward-thinking conjunctive management involving intentional recharge of surface water, reduction of consumptive use by temporary or permanent reduction of irrigated acres through acreage-retirement programs, an alternative cropping program, an allocation buy-down program and a land-idling program. Moreover, we have reprogrammed our cost-share activities to ensure that the projects we are funding are those that will do the most good toward meeting our obligations. As we have expanded incentives to balance our heavy regulation, we have sought additional funding from outside sources by accessing more than $2 million in state, federal and private grants in the past two years. We have endeavored to rebalance these revenues in the face of potentially dwindling valuations, whether through legislation or through market forces.

Our 6.35-cent levy is among the highest in the NRD system. We are neither proud nor ashamed of that fact, but we carry no debt, nor have we instituted an occupation tax. For this fiscal year, only 0.8 cent is attributable to the 3-cent levy authority that LB 98 would extend.

Our directors are all property owners. They have never passed a budget without weighing implications for property owners. We weigh those impacts against goals and obligations that we are mandated to meet under the IMP. This local control and determination of what revenues are necessary to meet those state mandates is a big part of what makes the NRD system the envy of other states.

This last fiscal year, we budgeted close to $3.5 million solely on reducing consumptive use of water in this NRD to ensure compliance with the IMP. These activities are paid for, in part, with this special levy authority; we are funding our remaining activities through our general levy authority, and leverage state and federal grant programs to offset remaining necessary expenditures.

The sunsetting of this levy authority, particularly in the face of massive cutbacks in state and federal funding for grant programs, is shortsighted. In order to continue to do the good work that we are doing in meeting our obligations, this sunsetting will require this district and those similarly situated districts to do one of the following things: 1) scale back our incentive programs to a level that is not beneficial, 2) seek revenues through an occupation tax that would put an undue burden solely on irrigated agriculture or 3) expand regulation to the point where it is harmful to the economic conditions of the district.

Our directors dont want the security of a jug of whiskey, Sen. Groene. They want to be able to make the local decisions necessary to meet unfunded mandates that were passed in Lincoln. That is, after all, their job.

Groene was wrong in his column, and he and his anti-tax colleagues were wrong when they killed LB 98 in the last legislative session. LB 98 was supported by the vast majority of state senators and provides for local solutions to an unfunded state mandate. I would wager that Groene and his colleagues would still describe themselves as in favor of local control and pro-agriculture. Their actions, and Groenes column, tell a different story.

John Berge is general manager of the North Platte Natural Resources District, based in Scottsbluff.
By PTI: By Aditi Khanna

London, Aug 12 (PTI) Three women accused of plotting the UKs first all-female terror attack have appeared in a court in London via video link from jail.

Mina Dich, 43, her 21-year-old daughter Rizlaine Boular, and another 20-year-old woman - Khawla Barghouthi - were charged in relation to the alleged planning of a suspected knife attack in Westminster area of London.

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The trio appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday via video link from HMP Bronzefield, where they are being held in custody, The Independent reported.

The judge set their next hearing for October 23, with a provisional trial date set for November 27.

Boular was shot by armed police during a raid at a house in north London Willesden in April where Barghouthi was also arrested. Dich was arrested in Kent, outside London on the same day.

Boular was formally charged three days after being discharged from the hospital where she was treated for gunshot wounds.

Police said the operation foiled an "active terror plot" and the trio have been charged with the preparation of a terrorist act.

The three women are accused of conspiring together to murder "a person or persons unknown" between April 11 and 28.

Boular is also charged with "engaging in conduct in preparation" for terrorist acts between the same dates, while Dich and Barghouthi are charged with intending to assist her.

Both Boular and Dich have worn full-face Islamic veils during court appearances, lifting the coverings to show their eyes when requested, while Barghouthi wears a headscarf. PTI AK AJR

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DYER  Police say they are reviewing evidence, including body and dashboard camera footage, in connection with Thursday's officer-involved shooting death of a suspected car thief.

Mark Coffey, of Chicago Heights, had an active warrant for armed robbery and burglary when he led police on a bistate pursuit early Thursday, striking one pedestrian.

At the time of his death, he was found wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet issued by the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to police.

The chase began in south suburban Chicago and ended in a fatal shooting outside of a gas station in Dyer, police have said.

Indiana State Police Master Trooper Glen Fifield declined to comment on specifics Friday, but said the investigation remains in the very early stages and detectives are reviewing all facts in the case.

Coffey suffered gunshot wounds, but the manner of death is pending, police said.

Four law enforcement officers from three police departments in Lake County are on paid administrative leave pending a state police investigation into the shooting, according to Fifield.

The vehicle pursuit was initiated at about 4:55 a.m. by police in Crete, Illinois, after officers spotted a vehicle in the village that was previously reported stolen, Crete Police Chief James Paoletti said at a Thursday news conference.

Paoletti told the Associated Press his officers spotted the suspected stolen car and chased it to a church parking lot in nearby Dyer, where they confronted the driver.

Paoletti told the AP Coffey was making "numerous movements that appeared that he was holding a weapon and was going to shoot at police."

The suspect hit a pedestrian near the intersection of Sauk Trail and Jeffrey Avenue, police said.

The pedestrian was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. An update on the person's condition was not immediately available Saturday afternoon.

Fifield said Dyer Police Department got a call for assistance at 5:38 a.m.

The suspect vehicle was next located by Indiana law enforcement in the 9300 block of Sheffield Avenue, Fifield said, and the pursuit continued to 81st and Sheffield avenues, where the suspect's vehicle struck another vehicle outside a BP gas station.

"There was a confrontation between the suspect and the officers involving multiple gunshots being fired," Fifield said. "As a result, the suspect is deceased."
Mark Krentz was elected LaPortes next mayor by precinct members of the LaPorte Republican Party after a lengthy balloting process at the county courthouse.

The vacancy for the mayoral position was created after Blair Milo was appointed a member of Gov. Eric Holcombs cabinet as the states first secretary of career connection and talent, a position she takes over on Monday.

Krentz was selected to fill the remaining 29 months of Milos second term after five rounds of balloting defeating Roger Galloway 12-7. Although there are 20 precinct members one vote was invalidated in the final round.

After first ballot, candidates Spencer England and Tom Obertein were dropped from the roster with no votes; the second ballot eliminated Paul Boardman with no votes; third ballot eliminated Geoff Sellers and Tim Stabosz with one vote each; fourth ballot eliminated Leigh Morris with two votes, leaving a run off between Galloway and Krentz.

As the caucus got underway earlier in the evening, the eight candidates for major shook hands with members of the crowd and each other, patting colleagues on the back and waiting patiently for their turn to speak for an allotted time of three minutes, which was strictly observed.

Milo, dressed in a locally grown T-shirt, read Bible verses prior to the meeting and asked for Gods guidance for our city LaPorte, the hub of awesome.

Speaking in alphabetical order, Boardman began and said he wanted to Make LaPorte great again, and that he would bring the DEA and ICE to LaPorte and raise educational standards.

England touched on drugs and crime before stepping away from the microphone to walk closer to the crowd for a discussion of bureaucracy, noting that he was truly an outsider, while Galloway, who said he had been active on a number of county committees and councils, spoke about job creation, drugs, and code enforcement.

Krentz supported the work that Milo had accomplished and he discussed his membership with a number of county commissions, committees and boards, as well being as a business owner.

Morris had previously served as LaPorte's mayor and he said his experience with economic development and health care administration would serve the city well.

I believe that Im the one that has the best position to build on the momentum that Mayor Milo has created, said Morris who outlined five areas of attention  jobs, public safety, infrastructure, fiscal responsibility and quality of life.

Obertein also touted Milos work before saying he would be accessible to residents and that he would have signs in town declaring that drug dealers would have to change their address to the county jail, while Sellers spoke about his work as a former LaPorte policeman and that he would address drugs, roads and jobs.

Stabosz started with words of support to his fellow candidates before outlining a quality of life destination vision for LaPorte and the artistic, technological and educated classes.

Krentz said he was humbled by the vote of confidence and he promised to work hard for the city of LaPorte.
A homeless man is now facing several charges in connection with a string of taxi robberies in Manhattan.

Police say surveillance video from July 25 shows 50-year-old Bryant White riding a bike alongside a taxi in Union Square.

He then reaches into the window, grabs money from the driver's pocket and pedals away.

Police say he's responsible for at least seven identical robberies around the borough since late June.

NY1 talked with a taxi driver earlier this week who says White tried to rob him, too.

"The guy, same guy, he's on bicycle, right," the driver said. "Weather was nice, so I open my window. I'm driving like this, so he came. Same shirt, you know, same shirt, and he take out my money. But luckily, I got my money. He did not get any."

White's bail was set at $25,000 cash, $50,000 bond.

He's due back in court next week.
The prayers and well-wishes continue to come in for a Bronx girl who was severely burned with boiling water by another girl. Activists and psychologists say parents should pay close attention to this case to stop similar tragedies. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

The horrible story NY1 was the first to report this week about Jamoneisha Merritt shocked the city and country. The 11-year-old had boiling water poured over her face and body by a 12-year-old while at a sleepover in the Bronx.

"We are seeing children participate in violent behavior, younger and younger," said Iesha Sekou, the founder of Street Corner Resources, a crisis response organization in Harlem.

Sekou has been assisting Jamoneisha's family as the girl recovers at Harlem Hospital. But she says the other girl now needs lots of help as well.

"I'm quite sure the young girl who committed this act did not think about the consequences. Because at that age, they don't have consequential thinking. So we know young people have to be taught that there are consequences," Sekou said.

Those consequences, pain and suffering for both families and police did arrest the 12-year-old. Published reports say that girl's mother says the girl has now tried to kill herself.

Jamoneisha's mother Ebony thinks the incident was part of what is called the hot water challenge, where kids and teens do pranks or dares using boiling water and post them on the internet.

In March, 8-year-old Kiara Pope, who lived in Florida, died after drinking boiling water. Relatives say a cousin dared her.

Psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Gardere says parents need to know what their children are watching on the internet and social media, especially if they have mental health and behavioral issues.

"I think it is always better, of course, if you set the ground rules with your kid," Gardere said. "So that they know that you will be checking their phones. So you don't have to do it in a clandestine manner."

The mother and family of Jamoneisha have been angry, like other parents would be.

"No matter how angry you get, you must stay calm," Sekou said. "This is not about hurting another person, This is about healing the community, the families, and healing Jamoneisha. We do not want any more violence."
A Facebook posting from a prominent political donor has turned an under-the-radar controversy that started with Governor Andrew Cuomo and state Senate Democrats into one that is now getting public reaction from around the New York political world. Zack Fink filed the following report.

In a Facebook post that was quickly taken down Thursday night after it appeared in the New York Times, hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, a prominent donor in the charter school movement, wrote, "Thank God for Jeff Klein and those who stand for educational choice...meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-Cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood."

Andrea Stewart-Cousins is the African-American leader of the state Senate Democrats. Jeff Klein leads the breakaway Independent Democrats, or IDC, which has a coalition with Republicans for control of the upper house.

Loeb's remarks drew swift condemnation.

"I am just appalled when I read it. I got calls before I even read it, and then reading it, it sent chills," said Hazel Dukes of the NAACP New York State Conference. "I find it offensive, and it's unacceptable."

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from Loeb, quickly distanced himself from the remarks, saying they were deeply hurtful and offensive and they have no place in the public discourse.

Loeb was responding to an article in the New York Times this week about a meeting Cuomo had in his office last month with Senate Democrats.

At that meeting, sources say Cuomo told Senator Mike Gianaris of Queens that Jeff Klein understands the suburbs better than him.

Stewart-Cousins replied that the governor sees her as black and a woman but not as someone who actually represents the suburbs. Her district includes Westchester.

Loeb is also the chairman of the board of Success Academy Charter schools, which is sticking by him for now. Loeb has since apologized for his remarks.

But multiple politicians jumped into the controversy Friday, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who sent out more than one tweet Friday telling Loeb he needs to step down as chairman.

The Loeb controversy comes at an interesting time. On Monday, African-American leaders are expected to rally in Harlem to call on all Democrats in the state Senate to come together and unify. Stewart-Cousins was unavailable for comment Friday, but she is expected to be at the rally Monday.
Official sources told India Today that the group of militants are believed to be newly infiltrated.

By Ashraf Wani: A security personnel was injured after militants attacked an army camp in the forest area of Kalaroose, in frontier Kupwara district of north Kashmir on Friday late night.

Official sources told India Today that a group of militants believed to be newly infiltrated, attacked army's 41 RR (Rashtriya Rifle) headquarter camp which is located in upper belt of Kalaroose forest along LoC.

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"The indiscriminate fire continued on the RR headquarters for at least 10 minutes. The troops retaliated, resulting in a brief clash", they said.

During the incident, a soldier of 21 J&K Rifles was injured and has been admitted to military hospital, Drugmulla.

Besides 41 RR, the camp also houses troopers of other units including 21 J&k Rifles.

Soon after the attack, the army launched a massive man hunt with the help of reinforcement of Para commandos on all sides adjoining the camp, they said.

The areas that have been cordoned include upper belt of Kalaroose forests and Kunnad, Kani Behak, Manigah, Chat forest areas of Batpora Haihama.

This attack comes only three days ahead of 15 August, marking 70th independence day of India.

WOMAN KILLED IN POONCH SECTOR

A woman was killed in firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Conttol in Balakot sector of Poonch district.

According to Defence Ministry sources, the Pakistani troops resorted to heavy unprovoked firing at about 5 am. The victim was identified as Ruqia Bi.

Also Read:

35A an article of faith for Kashmir

Supreme Court admits plea challenging Jammu and Kashmir's Article 370 status, issues notice to Centre

Why Farooq Abdullah is angry over Article 35A and how it will impact special status of Kashmir

Article 370: 10 facts that you need to know

ALSO WATCH

'Don't tamper with Article 35A, else there will be repercussions', says J-K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti

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By PTI: London, Aug 12 (PTI) People working in low-paying or highly stressful jobs are more likely to face health problems than those who remain unemployed, scientists, including one of Indian origin, have found.

Researchers at The University of Manchester in the UK monitored over 1,000 participants aged between 35 and 75 years who were unemployed during 2009-2010.

They followed up with the participants during the next few years about their self-reported health and their levels of chronic stress as indicated by their hormones and other biomarkers related to stress.

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The team, including Tarani Chandola, professor at The University of Manchester, found that there was a clear pattern of the highest levels of chronic stress for adults who moved into poor quality work, higher than those who remained unemployed.

Adults who found a good quality job had the lowest levels of biomarkers, researchers said.

They noted that good quality work was associated with an improvement in mental health scores compared to remaining unemployed, but there were no differences in mental health scores between those who transitioned into poor quality work and those who remained unemployed.

"Job quality cannot be disregarded from the employment success of the unemployed. Just as good work is good for health, we must also remember that poor quality work can be detrimental to health," said Chandola.

The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. PTI APA SAR SAR

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Virginias Governor Declares State Of Emergency As Charlottesville Protest Erupt in Violence Dimas Sanfiorenzo Dimas Sanfiorenzo is the Managing Editor for Okayplayer. He specializes

UPDATE: Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has declared a state of emergency as demonstrations in Charlottesville erupted into violence. As we reported earlier this morning, alt-right, anti-progressive, Ku Klux Klan / Nazi-fueled nationalists gathered at Emancipation Park to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Thousands of white nationalist terrorists, as well as groups that oppose them, were seen in images and on television beating each other with sticks, bats, brass knuckles, while carrying fully loaded assault weapons. Two people have been treated for serious, but not life-threatening injuries, according to Charlottesville officials.

Former KKK leader David Duke was also in attendance in Charlottesville. He called the rally a turning point, saying that protesters would fulfill the promises of President Donald Drumpf.

Protesters have already drawn the ire from leaders within the community. Mike Signer, the mayor of Charlottesville, called the demonstrations by white terrorists a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism and intolerance. UVA president Teresa A. Sullivan also condemned the unprovoked assault on members of our community. With the president, better known as Quicker Twitter Fingers, not saying anything on the matter  his silence speaks loudly on the events in Charlottesville.

See original story below:

Hundreds of white nationalists and white supremacists gathered in protest at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday night.

The crowd was bearing torches  similar to the KKK  and chanting phrases like blood and soil and one people, one nation, end immigration and white lives matter. This march comes a day before the Unite the Right rally, a gathering expected to attract thousands of people. The Unite the Right will be held on Saturday at noon at Emancipation Park, where a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands. (Earlier this year the city of Charlottesville voted to remove the statue.)

READ: Airbnb Cancels Bookings, Deletes Accounts Of People Attending White Supremacist Rally

The makeshift march started at around 9:30 pm and lasted about 20 minutes before a group of people against the protesters showed up and a fight broke. According to the Washington Post, one of the anti-protesters threw some kind of chemical agent that affected the eyes of some of the white supremacists.

READ: Killer Mike Defends The Right To Punch A Nazi

After the incident, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer wrote a message on Facebook against the demonstration, calling it a cowardly parade of hatred:

University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan also released a statement, saying she was deeply saddened and disturbed by what happened:

Chilling images and videos of the night traveled all around Twitter. Here is a snapshot of what happened.

Fights breaking out tonight in #Charlottesville after marchers w/ torches chant white lives matter & you will not replace us. #Hate pic.twitter.com/yzbwatZO1r  Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 12, 2017

White nationalist alt-right torchlit march going through UVA grounds: you will not replace us pic.twitter.com/QS8ebI9XOW  Tim Dodson (@Tim_Dodson) August 12, 2017

White nationalist alt-right torchlit march going through UVA grounds: you will not replace us pic.twitter.com/QS8ebI9XOW  Tim Dodson (@Tim_Dodson) August 12, 2017

Protesters with torches surrounding anti fascists protesters on the University of Virginia campus #DefendCville #antifa #unitetheright pic.twitter.com/Y1pPxlh98y  daniel shular (@xshularx) August 12, 2017

White supremacists marching across the campus of the University of Virginia grunting and chanting. This is  this is very bad. https://t.co/6eo6mkIa2y  Taber Andrew Bain (@taber) August 12, 2017

If black folks were carrying torches on a college campus right now the administration wouldve already called the National Guard.  deray mckesson (@deray) August 12, 2017

Source: Washington Post, CNN
Agricultural News

To Succeed in China- US Beef Industry Must be Patient







Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays had the chance to speak with Phil Seng, president and CEO of the US Meat Export Federation earlier in the summer, and according to him, beef exports in 2017 have been incredibly strong. He believes there is a bright future ahead for US beef trade, now that China has opened its markets to our beef products. Seng says China has the potential to become one of America's most important markets - just not right away.





"It takes time and it's going to take, I think, some deliberate actions," Seng said. "We know from experience that a lot of times when we start up in these markets, there's growing pains."





He refers, of course, to the industry's need to simply adapt to all the new regulations and restrictions presented by China's government that allows our beef to actually pass through their customs - and all the documentation, relationship building and everything else that comes with it. He insists, the agreement is not perfect by any means and that there will likely be bumps in the road that will have to be figured out on the fly, but he says that comes with the territory. But with China's incredible pace as a trade nation, having gone from practically zero in beef imports to upwards of $2 billion in receipts, Seng is optimistic about the opportunities.





I think anybody would agree with that. But on the other hand, we do have access to China," he said. "We think through the work we can do, as far as working with the value chain, and qualifying customers and doing the type of work we do - that actually China will be a very important market. But it's a step by step process."





Listen to Hays and Seng discuss the US beef industry's opportunities as well as the challenges associated with entering China's marketplace, on today's Beef Buzz.





The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.













Ron Hays Beef Buzzes with Phil Seng of the USMEF on building beef trade with China

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Two sisters were sleeping in the verandah in their house in Jahangir village, when they were set ablaze.

The elder sister has suffered 95 per cent burns while the younger girl suffered 60 per cent burns. (Pic: ANI)

By India Today Web Desk: Two teenage girls in Bareilly were set ablaze while they were asleep at their home early Friday morning. They have admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of the district hospital.

Two sisters aged 19 and 17 were sleeping in the verandah of their house in Deorania in Jahangir village when they were attacked. The family sleeping in the next room, alerted by their cries, tried to douse the fire the fire, but the elder sister is in critical condition.

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The elder sister has suffered 95 per cent burns while the younger girl suffered 60 per cent burns.

"My sister and I were asleep on bed around 2 am when someone poured petrol on us and then lit fire," one of the victims told news agency ANI.

The family has denied disputes with anyone, however, the younger girl has reportedly said that some boys were stalking and harassing her for months.

An FIR has been registered against identified persons under Section 307 (attempt to murder) and few other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

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--- ENDS ---
Allowances to come under Income Tax ambit

Senior finance ministry officials have said that the new allowances would come under the ambit of income tax. Income tax will be imposed on the allowances which were granted from the financial year 2017-18. The tax treatment on basic salary, bonus and allowances for both government and non-government employees was proposed in the Finance Bill 2017. The government felt that if all allowances excluding basic salary of central government employees are made tax free, it would be discriminatory to others.

No increase in minimum pay

There were discussions about hiking the pay by the National Anomaly Committee. The committee was looking into the issue. The government has however decided not to go ahead with the demand. There is no scope for change, the government has decided. Despite efforts by employee unions, the government has decided that the minimum pay would stay at Rs 18,000. The matter is before the committee. It has been sought that the pay be hiked from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. Even if the committee were to consider the same, the government says that there is no scope for any change.

No exemption from tax says government

Central government employees had demanded an exemption from income tax on new allowances. The employees had also demanded that the allowances come into effect with arrears starting July 2016. However the Union Cabinet last month implemented the 7th Pay Commission recommendations and said that the allowances would come into effect from July 2017 onwards, much to the dismay of the central government employees.

One bad news after another

Employees of the Public Sector Units too had made a similar demand. They too had been demanding that their pay is hiked to Rs 26,000. However the government has made it clear it will not be likened to the one that the central government employees are getting. Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley had said after the 7th Pay Commission recommendations were cleared that salaries for central government employees have to be respectable when compared to the ones in the private sector. However employees feel cheated and frustrated as their demand for arrears on allowances from July 2016 was not met.
If Modi was careful, Doklam stand-off could have been avoided

To get China to budge, India brings in its best 3

Amidst Doklam standoff, China looks to increase reach in Indian Ocean

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Amidst the Doklam standoff, the Chinese navy is now eyeing the Indian Ocean in a bid to extend its reach. Throwing open its strategic South Sea Fleet (SSF) base in the coastal city of Zhanjiang to a group of Indian journalists for the first time, People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) officials say the Indian Ocean is a common place for the international community.

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Sikkim Standoff: Amid Doklam issue ,China increases presence in Indian Ocean | Oneindia News

China's Navy indicated that it wants to join hands with India to maintain security of the Indian Ocean, amid growing concerns in New Delhi over the increasing presence of the PLA fleet in India's backyard.

"It is my opinion China and India can make joint contributions to the safety and security of the Indian Ocean," Capt Liang Tianjun, Deputy Chief of General Office of China's SSF said.

His remarks came as China's Navy embarked on a massive expansion to extend its global reach.

Liang also explained the growing forays of the Chinese warships and submarines into the Indian Ocean, where China for the first time established a naval base at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Defending the first Chinese overseas naval base+ against criticism that it would amplify China's growing influence, he said it will act as a logistics centre and support anti-piracy, UN peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief missions in the region.

The Djibouti base will also provide a resting place for Chinese navy personnel, he said.

But analysts feel the opening of the first Chinese military base abroad was in tune with PLAN's ambitions to expand its global reach amidst China's growing economic and political footprint.

"The Indian Ocean is a vast ocean. It is common place for the international community to contribute to the peace and stability in the region," Liang said.

Interacting with the Indian media on the decks of the PLAN's frigate Yulin about Chinese growing presence at the Indian Ocean much to the disquiet of India, he said China's military is defensive in nature and not offensive.

At the same time, he made it clear that China would never "intrude into other countries" but would also not "be obstructed by other countries".

"All my major weapons are not toys," he said as he gave a guided tour of the sophisticated frigate which was commissioned in 2010.

Liang also gave a detailed account of the armaments on board the stealth vessel that includes medium-range air defence missiles and various anti-submarine rockets.

Denying any specific significance and context in inviting the Indian media delegation, whose visit is sponsored by the official All China Journalists Association (ACJA), he said it was part of regular exchanges with various countries.

The sprawling base on the coast of the South China Sea is one of the three major bases of PLAN, which now is poised to expand in a major way.

Interestingly, the Sanya naval base of the PLAN on Hainan Island -- where a large chunk of China's submarine force, including nuclear submarines, are based -- also comes under the SSF which has 70,000 personnel in its ranks.

It has 300 naval ships, a fleet of bombers, Offshore Patrol Vessels, Nuclear and non-nuclear submarines.

The role of the Chinese Navy is increasing as China's 2.3 million strong Army, the world's largest, announced plans to downsize its strength of its troops to under a million.

Under the new plan, the PLA will increase the numbers of other services including the Navy and missile forces. Both Navy and the missile forces were expected to get the lion share of the annual defence budget which last year amounted to $152 billion, second only to the US.

The SSF is also responsible for keeping an eye on the resource-rich South China Sea where China is having maritime disputes with countries like the Philippines and Vietnam.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea and is currently building multiple artificial islands+ in the area to control them as more than half of the world's annual cargo fleet passes through it.

Asked to comment on the challenges faced by the PLAN in the South China Sea, especially from the US Navy, commanding officer of Yulin Capt Hu Luyang said it was okay for the American navy to patrol the area in the international waters.

However, if they encroach upon Chinese maritime areas, "we will not tolerate such behaviour," he added.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 5:52 [IST]
Amit Shah in Karnataka: BJP jumps into Kannada debate, calls it priority

India

oi-Anusha

On the day Amit Shah arrived in Bengaluru, the BJP state unit jumped into the ongoing language debate. The state BJP has now said that Kannada is priority in Karnataka and there would be no compromise.

The Congress in Karnataka had put the BJP on the backfoot with its open pro-Kannada and anti-Hindi imposition moves. Caught between the BJP senior leadership's Hindi push and Karnataka's anti-Hindi imposition sentiment, the state BJP could not, so far, take a crystal clear stand on the issue. On the day Amit Shah visited the state, however, the scenario seems to have changed.

"Kannada is priority in Karnataka and there is no two ways about it. Our stand is clear, Kannada is not just a language for us, it is our faith. But we do not want to politicise Kannada. It is our language and not a political agenda. The local language of every state is most important," said BJP leader Suresh Kumar. The BJP office was jubiliant as it welcomed its National President Amit Shah on Saturday.

In a series of meetings held at the state headquarters, Amit Shah is said to have given clarity on what the party's stand should be on various issues that the Congress has been cashing on. Post the interaction with Shah, leaders of the state BJP now are all set to take on their political rivals with more clarity and vigour. Following a series of meetings with office bearers, MLAs and MPs from the state Shah in scheduled to interact with people from various fields including business, religion, medicine and art on Saturday.

Many of those invited for the Saturday evening meeting are expected to help BJP pave the way to prepare for election. Those invited also include Kannada actor and director Upendra who nurtures political ambitions but has refrained from openly supporting any political party.

Speaking on the Lingayat religious status row, BJP leaders said that they were confident of the community finding a solution from within. Lingayats are a huge voter base for the BJP considering its Chief Ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa belongs to the community. The BJP has managed to build a massive support base in North Karnataka thanks to the Lingayat voter base. While the BJP in the state had been mum over the demand for separate religious status to Lingayats, its leaders on Saturday said that there was no intention to intervene since it was important to keep the issue apolitical.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 15:40 [IST]
Only those from political families can eye a CMs post in Congress: Amit Shah

Amit Shah in Karnataka today: Factional feud within BJP to be crushed

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Amit Shah in Karnataka: The BJP's national president and Rajya Sabha MP, Amit Shah will be on a three day visit to Karnataka starting today. This is part of his 110 day nationwide tour to strengthen the party.

The visit is significant as the Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections 2018 are round the corner. During his visit, the BJP president is scheduled to meet party legislators from the state.

He will also chair meetings of the party's state core group and political affairs committee. Shah will discuss the Assembly elections with the state leaders, the BJP said in a statement.

Besides attending a series of meetings with local leaders, he will also address a gathering of college students and intellectuals in Bangalore.

Shah's visit is also important in view of a factional feud between state party president B S Yeddyurappa and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa.

The central leadership had sought to control the issue by acting against some state leaders. Shah has already announced that Yeddyurappa will be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the assembly poll.

Strategy:

Shah is likely to induct prominent leaders and MLAs during his visit. He will bring with him three survey reports conducted by the various agencies. This would help the BJP draw out a strategy ahead of the elections.

Shah has with him a consolidated report of 224 constituencies. The report indicates both the party's strength and weaknesses. Shah would emphasise on the need to focus on the weak constituencies.

During his three day visit, he would draw a road map for the workers which have to be implemented over the next 6 months. Following this a feedback would be given to the central leadership which would then take a call on the final ticket list for the candidates.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 7:16 [IST]
Amit Shah in Karnataka: Tone set to make Yeddyurappa the 'future CM' of Karnataka

India

oi-Anusha

Despite the rift within, a united BJP Karnataka unit welcomed National President Amit Shah as he arrived for his three-day visit to Bengaluru on Saturday. "I thank future Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa for the welcome," Amit Shah told a massive gathering near Bengaluru International airport.

Shah's Karnataka outing is his first after being elected to the Rajya Sabha. The three-day visit is aimed at setting the house in order apart from drawing the BJP's poll strategy. K S Eshwarappa who gave the state executive meeting a miss was prominently seen as part of Amit Shah's welcome party. "When the victory March of Narendra Modi arrives in Karnataka in the month of February, I hope you give them the same resounding welcome. Get ready for the battle. BJP's victory march will continue in Karnataka as well," Shah said to a resounding cheer.

Posters welcoming Amit Shah adorned the entire stretch from the party office in Malleswaram to the Bengaluru airport, a distance of more than 36 kms. Amit Shah also introduced the BJP's poll slogan for Karnataka, 'Ab ki baar, BJP sarkaar', officially sounding the poll bugle.

On Saturday and over the next two days, Amit Shah will interact with ever section of the BJP. From the IT wing, dissenting leaders, newly inducted members, Dalit leaders to those with vistarak reports, Shah will individually address each concern.

The BJP is convinced of an early poll in Karnataka and preparations have begun for the same. Despite the Congress rubbishing possibility of early elections, the BJP remains unconvinced. Over the next three days, massive changes are expected to take place within the BJP. Armed with reports that highlight the party's weaknesses and strengths in every constituency, Amit Shah will set the tone for the elections.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 12:05 [IST]
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today called upon students to imbibe patriotism and always follow the policy of nation first.

The former defence minister said marginalised sections of the society must be empowered for harmonious development of the country.

Delivering his keynote speech at the 55th convocation of the IIT-Bombay, the senior BJP leader said, "For the nation to succeed, there needs to be a strong binding force. Ours is a great nation with many themes that we are proud of."

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"The pearls of past, present and future can only be strung together by a strong sense of patriotism. And when it comes to working on the field, then we should always keep in the mind that nation always comes first," he said.

Parrikar, an alumnus of the IIT-Bombay, said if students think politics is "dirty", then they should join it and make things better.

"If you think that politics is dirty, then I would say, this is why you should precisely come here," he said.

Parrikar had enrolled in the IIT-Bombay in 1973 and graduated in metallurgical engineering in 1978. He is the first IIT graduate to become the chief minister of any state.

Parrikar said social inclusion was a major challenge for harmonious development of the country.

"The truly marginalised sections of the society need to be empowered, especially Dalits and tribals, irrespective of their caste, religion and community," he said.

The engineer-turned-politician advised the graduating students to work keeping in mind long-term goals.

"When it comes to long-term changes, we should not expect instant results by keeping in mind that what comes quickly, goes away quickly," he said.

As many as 2,612 students, including 357 PhD holders, were awarded degrees at the convocation ceremony.

Yusuf K Hamied, Chairman of pharmaceutical giant Cipla Ltd, was bestowed with the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) at the hands of Parrikar.

During his speech, Parrikar took a trip down memory lane and recalled his hostel days in the premier institute.

The CM, speaking in a lighter sense, said when he was the mess coordinator, he hardly got any appreciation for arranging "delicious" food menu. But whenever something went wrong, he was the first one to be questioned. PTI APM RSY KIS

--- ENDS ---
Only those from political families can eye a CMs post in Congress: Amit Shah

Uniform Civil Code in Himachal if BJP comes to power: Amit Shah

Amit Shah invited Nitish Kumar to join NDA

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

After allying with the BJP in Bihar, Nitish Kumar has been invited to join the NDA. "I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA," Mr Shah said in a tweet today.

The Bihar-based party is expected to endorse a proposal to join the NDA in its national executive meeting in Patna on August 19, after which it is likely to join the Narendra Modi cabinet.

 JD(U)     @NitishKumar          JD(U)  NDA         Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 12, 2017

Asked if the party would join the Narendra Modi cabinet, a JD(U) leader said such a decision would be "natural".

"When we are together in government in Bihar, it is only natural that our party joins the Union government," he said.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 15:19 [IST]
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

As 63 children die in UP hospital in 5 days, BJP, Congress engage in political fight

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Lucknow, August 12: The death toll of children, including newborns, mostly suffering from encephalitis at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, has risen to 63 on Saturday, as per a report by news agency, ANI.

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According to ANI, the latest casualty is that of an 11-year-old patient in the Gorakhpur hospital. The child, stated to be suffering from encephalitis, died on early Saturday morning.

On Friday, the news of deaths of 30 minors within 48 hours in the hospital rocked the nation. The reports suggested that the children died due to lack of availability of oxygen in the hospital. Now, it has come to light that at least 63 children died in the hospital in the last five days.

The supply of the oxygen has been allegedly stopped in the hospital by a private supplier over non-payment of dues. However, officials refuted the allegations on Friday stating that the hospital has enough oxygen supply.

The authorities maintained that all the pending dues, amounting to at least Rs 60 lakh, had been cleared by the hospital. But, doctors and patients in the hospital told a different story, admitting lack of supply of oxygen for patients. On Saturday, several oxygen cylinders were brought in to the hospital.

After the news of deaths of children in the hospital was highlighted by various media outlets, the opposition parties slammed the Yogi Adityanath government in the state.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi expressed shock and anger over the deaths.

The Congress president said she was pained beyond words by the humongous tragedy and that her heart went out to the families of the innocent children who "fell prey to gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on part of the authorities".

Congress VP said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led UP government was responsible for the tragedy. "Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP govt is responsible and should punish the negligent, who caused this tragedy," he tweeted.

The incident triggered a spate of reactions from the opposition parties, with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress seeking the resignation of the state health minister.

Reacting to the allegations, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday said that the opposition parties should not politicise the deaths.

"We will do proper investigation of the entire tragedy. We will take quick action. It's a serious issue," UP health minister added.

The incident has got a lot of attention because Gorakhpur is the parliamentary constituency of the UP CM. He still holds the seat.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 10:43 [IST]
BJP accuses National Conference of trying to create fear psychosis over Article 35A

India

oi-PTI

Jammu, August 12: Opposition party National Conference party is trying to create a "fear psychosis" among the people of Jammu over the issue of Article 35A of the Constitution, said the BJP on Saturday.

The saffron party, which is in power in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the PDP, alleged that the NC was responsible for promoting "majoritarianism" at the cost of minorities in the state.

The party was reacting to a statement by the Jammu provincial president of the NC, Devinder Rana, on the issue of Article 35A of the Constitution, which defines the residency laws in Jammu and Kashmir and bars outsiders from buying any immovable property or applying for jobs in the state government.

"We are taking a serious note of the statement...he (Rana) tried to create a scary picture of the ill-effects on the people of Jammu region if Article 35A is held illegal by the Supreme Court. He is creating a fear psychosis," BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said.

"His (Rana) statement that Jammu will be affected far more than Kashmir since no outsider will like to settle there but will flock in hordes to settle in Jammu clearly indicates the mindset of his party that has always advocated politics of exclusion," he said.

It is a direct attack on the composite culture and communal tolerance of the people of Jammu, the BJP spokesman said. The Supreme Court had last month asked the Centre to file a reply within three weeks to a writ petition filed by an NGO seeking that Article 35A be struck down.

The plea said the state government, under the guise of Article 35A and Article 370, which grants special autonomous status to the state, has been discriminating against non- residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

"The NC was responsible for promoting 'majoritarianism' in the state at the cost of the minorities leading to a demographic invasion of the Jammu region taking shelter under the discriminatory provision of Article 35A," Gupta said.

Gupta also took a dig at the NC leader for equating the West Pakistan Refugees with the Rohangiya refugees. "The comparison is not only absurd but defies all logic," he said.

The BJP spokesperson asked if the NC leadership was so sure of the legal correctness of Article 35A, why are they resorting to agitational politics and provoking the Kashmiris?

He further said that rather than rabble-rousing, they should present their case before the Supreme Court.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 15:49 [IST]
If Modi was careful, Doklam stand-off could have been avoided

To get China to budge, India brings in its best 3

Caution alert at Doklam: Heavy troop build up along Indo-China border

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There is a rise in the caution level at Doklam where India is in a standoff with China. The operational readiness by India has increased along the border with China.

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The decision was attributed to China's aggressive rhetoric and to a careful analysis of the existing confrontation.

Neither India nor China has shown any sign of backing off from a face-off that began nearly two months ago along the Sikkim border when Indian soldiers entered the Doklam plateau to stop the Chinese army from constructing a road.

While a top level flag meeting between major-general rank officers from India and China was held at the Nathu La border, the same was inconclusive.

China remained adamant that India should withdraw its troops from Doklam. India insisted that the construction equipment must be removed from the side. Although the meeting remained inconclusive, experts view this as a good sign as efforts are being made to reduce tensions at the area.

While there has been an increase in troops along the Indo-China border at the actual face off site there are still only 350 soldiers. The Chinese however have added 1,500 soldiers beyond the standoff site as part of its aggressive posture.

Official sources say that the military level alert had been raised as a matter of caution. This was being done due to the sensitivity of the matter, the sources also added.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 6:09 [IST]
To get China to budge, India brings in its best 3

Doklam standoff: Indian Air Force put on 'operational alert'

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The India Air Force has been put on operational alert amidst the Doklam standoff. The Indian Army has also enhanced troop level along the entire stretch of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh as part of an annual exercise.

Sources say that this annual exercise is conducted every September. However this time it had been rescheduled so that soldiers can acclimatise from plain areas with forward locations of high altitude.

Amidst Doklam standoff, China looks to increase reach in Indian Ocean

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There has been no solution in the sight to the standoff. In fact it is worsening with China upping the rhetoric. The 3,488-km long border stretching across five states Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is being closely monitored.

The Sukna based 33 Corps decided to advance the annual war exercise by six weeks. Officials say that this is to ensure that the troops are acclimatised in the case of a skirmish breaking out. The 4 Corps based in Tezpur and 3 Corps based in Dimapur are also on high alert. Armaments and soldiers are on the move to their operational bases.

Caution alert at Doklam: Heavy troop build up along Indo-China border

45,000 troops, including personnel having completed the weather acclimatisation process, are normally kept ready along the border, but not all are necessarily deployed, said a PTI report.

While there is a major build up, at the standoff site around 300 soldiers continue to hold their position. Both sides would now await the outcome of a possible meeting between Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to held during the BRICS summit on September 3.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 10:19 [IST]
Gorakhpur tragedy: Letters prove 'negligence' on part of BRD hospital

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The death toll of children, including newborns, mostly suffering from encephalitis at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, has risen to 63 on Saturday. While the blame game has already begun, the two letters sent by the hospital employees to its senior authorities three days back, shows how hospital was negligent on its part.

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On Thursday morning, the hospital employees who handle the storage plant at the hospital from where oxygen is piped to different wards, wrote a letter to the Chief Medical Officer informing him that the stock of liquid oxygen was dangerously low and would not last the night. The operators told with the authorities to act urgently and save the lives of the patients. This was their second letter; the first sent a week earlier had remained unanswered.

Dept handling oxygen supply wrote to authorities on 3&10 Aug to infrm of shortge as Pushpa Sales stoppd supply ovr pending paymnt #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/FDKl8hlx1H  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Pushpa Sales, the agency which was supplying Oxygen to the hospital, had been writing letters to the District Magistrate for payment of pending bills and copies of these letters were marked to Principal Secretary and Director General of UP Medical Education Department. The copies were also marked to the BRD Medical College Hospital.

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Gorakhpur tragedy: People allege discrepancy in treatment

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Families of children at BRD Medical College, where at least 30 children died since the past two days, alleged discrepancy in treatment saying they were buying food and medicine from outside.

A doctor at BRD Medical College said: ''In monsoon there are many patients, forced to keep 2 on 1 bed. There's dearth of doctors but we monitor round the clock''.

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#Gorakhpur: Families of children at BRD Medical College allege discrepancy in treatment, say they're buying food & medicine from outside pic.twitter.com/KUYf8coOe5  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

A day after the targedy was reported, Uttar Pradesh government deployed police force to tighten security outside the BRD Medical College.

Meanwhile, Oxygen cylinders being brought to the college, reports ANI.

Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and Minister for Technical & Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon will be visiting the hospital after meeting CM Yogi Adityanath.

Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told PTI, "The deaths of children were very unfortunate and the government will set up an inquiry committee to ascertain if any lapse has been there and if anyone is found guilty he will be made accountable."

Citing a break-up of casualties since August 7 till date, he said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children have died due to various diseases during the period.

Singh, However, asserted that the deaths were not because of the paucity of oxygen.

The incident triggered a spate of reactions from the opposition parties, with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress seeking the resignation of the state health minister.

(With agency inputs)
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Gorakhpur tragedy: Uttar Pradesh govt suspends BRD Medical College principal

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended Baba Raghav Das (BRD) medical college principal with immediate effect for his negligence which led to the death of infants.

Ashutosh Tandon, Medical Education Minister, announced the suspension of the principal in a press conference held after taking stock of the situation in Gorakhpur hospital.

Gorakhpur tragedy: What is encephalitis, causes and treatment

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He said, ''High level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secretary. Will wait for report, action will be taken. Till then suspending principal.''

We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour :Minister for medical education A Tandon pic.twitter.com/yNYlUpgdFa  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

However, the principal said that he tendered his resignation prior to the suspension taking responsibility of death of innocent children.

Siddharth Nath Singh, Health Minister, maintained government's stand on the tragedy '' Children have not died due to disruption of gas supply.

Gorakhpur tragedy: Oxygen shortage wasn't reported, guilty to face strict action, says UP govt

He said that during CM Yogi Adityanath's visit to the BRD Medical College on July 9th and August 9th , but the issue of gas supply didn't come up in the meeting, though detailed discussion were held.

Earlier, the UP government said that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state-run BRD Medical College.

"Whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action," Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told PTI in Lucknow on Saturday.

(With agency inputs)
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Gorakhpur tragedy: Yogi calls meeting of cabinet ministers, PM monitoring situation

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday called a meeting, which was attended by state cabinet ministers and MoS Health Anupriya Patel, to discuss the tragic incident at Gorakhpur's BRD hospital which left 63 children dead.

"We have constituted a committee to be led by Chief Secretary to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident," Adityanath said after the meeting.

The Prime Minister's Office earlier stated that Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Union Health Secretary would take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur.

"PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments," the PMO Twitter handle said.

A delegation of SP leaders at BRD hospital Earlier, a delegation of the Samajwadi Party visited BRD medical college in Gorakhpur. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had earlier lashed out at BJP-led government in UP over the tragedy, blaming the ruling dispensation of negligence. (Image courtesy- ANI/Twitter) BRD medical college's principal Rajiv Mishra The Uttar Pradesh government earlier on Saturday suspended Baba Raghav Das (BRD) medical college's principal with immediate effect for his alleged negligence which led to the death of infants. Ashutosh Tandon, Medical Education Minister, announced the suspension of the principal in a press conference held after taking stock of the situation in Gorakhpur hospital. (Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter) Candlelight vigil held to pay tribute Earlier, the UP government said that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty in the high number of death of infants in Gorakhpur's state-run BRD Medical College. (Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter) I started fight against encephalitis: UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/Gc8z3GJoA9  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017 CM Adityanath After suspending BRD Medical College Principal in the wake of deaths of infants in the hospital in Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath on Saturday eveninghad said the problem is not with the government. Speaking at a function, Adityanath said, ''Government is not the problem. The government has no right to be in power if it was a problem.'' He said that the problem of Encephalitis- inflammation of the brain- has been in Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 20:32 [IST]
Supply of Oxygen cylinders

Oxygen cylinders being supplied in BRD Hospital, Gorakhpur on Friday where at least 30 children died since the past two days, allegedly due to oxygen supply cut. PTI Photo

Inside BRD Hospital

An inside view of a ward of BRD Hospital in Gorakhpur on Friday where at least 30 children died since the past two days, allegedly due to oxygen supply cut on Friday. PTI Photo

Bereaved family

Family members and relatives mourn outside the BRD Hospital in Gorakhpur where at least 30 children died since the past two days, allegedly due to oxygen supply cut on Friday. PTI Photo

UP Police in Hospital

UP Police team Police inside the BRD Hospital for the investigation in Gorakhpur on Friday where at least 30 children died since the past two days, allegedly due to oxygen supply cut on Friday. PTI Photo

Proper investigation to be done&quick action to be taken. It's serious issue: Siddharth Nath Singh,UP Health Minister on BRD Medical College pic.twitter.com/rvnslP0gHH  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Do not politicise issue, says UP Health Minister

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday said the Opposition must not politicise the deaths that have been reported at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency represented by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Adding that proper investigation must take place since this was a serious issue, Singh told ANI, "Opposition parties should not politicise deaths. Proper investigation to be done and quick action to be taken. It's serious issue."
The MoS PMO was responding to a question about the recent 'threat' by China through its official media asking India to withdraw troops from the Sikkim sector.

By Press Trust of India: Union minister Jitendra Singh today played down the heightened rhetoric by Beijing over the Dokalam standoff, stating that India was fully equipped to face any challenge.

He said the government was confident about the steps it was taking in this regard.

"We are well equipped to face any challenge whether externally or internally," Singh told reporters here.

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The MoS PMO was responding to a question about the recent 'threat' by China through its official media asking India to withdraw troops from the Sikkim sector.

"I think for us the more important thing is to see what we are doing. I am not here to respond to what somebody is tweeting from the opposition parties. We are confident about what we are doing," he said.

China had recently said that it had conveyed its firm stand to India that it must take "concrete actions" by immediately pulling back troops from Doklam in the Sikkim section with "no strings attached" to resolve the current standoff.

The BJP leader also said that the government was giving "befitting reply" with regard to ceasefire violations on the Indo-Pakistan border, and was dealing with terrorism in Kashmir with a "stern hand".

On appearance of militant Zakir Musa's posters in Kashmir asking youths and students to keep away from Independence day functions, Singh said such posters have come up in the past too.

"The government will take a call on this. The more these (terrorist) leaders come up with such things, the more they expose themselves. The youths cannot be threatened by the diktats of these militants," he said.

The Union minister also hailed the "proactive" role of security forces on the borders.

"It is going to reap results sooner or later. I am sure this (proactive role of forces) will bring terrorism to its logical conclusion," he said.

Singh also emphasized that the Centre's stand on Article 35A granting special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir was clear.

"BJP's stand on Article 35A is clear. Opposition is waiting in the wings for this coalition government (in the state) to fall. We will not oblige them," he said.

Replying to a question on Uttar Pradesh governor directing all madrasas to sing the national song on Independence day, Singh said, "Vande Mataram is a symbol of India's national ethos. It is, therefore, wrong to associate it with any particular religion or sect".

"We need to educate the masses on this more intensely.

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Vande Mataram was composed in 1870. It later become a national song in tribute to martyrs, irrespective of religion. It is a poem which became an unifying force in pre-Independence and post-Independence era. How can this be a dividing force? It has been wrongly perceived".

On the recent infant deaths at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh for want of oxygen, the Union minister said, "I am sure there is a responsible government in the state. We have a CM who is extremely proactive. Whatever is required, will be done. What has happened is bad and all of us feel for it."

Also Read:

Bhutan hopes Dokalam standoff will be resolved peacefully

Indian Army in no war, no peace mode against China in Doklam

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In face of Doklam standoff, India deploys more troops along China border

--- ENDS ---
In Kashmir 133 terrorists killed, 70 to go

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Indian Armed forces have killed 133 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year. If one goes by the Intelligence Bureau statistics there were a total of 200 terrorists in the Valley. This means that there are just around 70 terrorists remaining.

The Army had set a six month deadline to clean up terrorists from the Valley. It had launched "Operation Clean Up," Operations since the past four months were intense in South Kashmir which prompted a few terrorists to move north. The Army launched a fresh operations to flush out terrorists in the nothern part of the state a few days back.

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The month of August was hugely successful for the forces. 17 terrorists were killed in August alone. Among those killed are 38 terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba while 37 were from the Hizbul Mujahideen in the past seven months. 54 were unidentified while the rest were from the Zakir Musa faction.

However the bigger success for the forces was the killing of 6 top commanders of both the Hizbul and Lashkar. The Indian Army had prepared a hit list of 19 top terrorists and has so far managed to gun down 6 of them.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 5:45 [IST]
Don't allow next Doklam in Arunachal, says BJP MP; claims China has encroached upon 60 km of state

In Sino-India border along Arunachal, loss of bridge due to floods hampers army deployment

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Itanagar, August 12: On one hand, floods have submerged several places across the border state of Arunachal Pradesh. On the other hand, there is a fear that if heavy rainfall continues for the next few days, it is severely going to hamper deployment of troops along the Sino-India border in the state.

At a time when the Indian and Chinese forces are involved in a stand-off near the tri-border junction at Doklam in the Sikkim region, there is an urgent need for quick movement of troops along with required arms and ammunition in case of any eventuality in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh too, said sources in the army.

However, after floodwaters washed away Siku bridge over the Deopani river in Dibang Valley district of the state on Thursday, the entire area has been cut off from the rest of the country.

The bridge was the only connecting link between Dibang Valley district and the rest of the country. The district lies along the Sino-India border and thus is a "sensitive location".

"The washing away of the bridge has cut off the movement of armed forces to the border from Anini, the last district headquarters before the Sino-Indian border," said an official.

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"The loss of the bridge over the Deopani and continuous landslides triggered by heavy rainfall has completely cut off Hunli subdivision of Roing district, its adjacent Dibang Valley district and the Sino-Indian border along Dibang Valley from the rest of the country, which is a reason to worry," Roing deputy commissioner Deepak Shinde told The Telegraph.

As per reports, the construction of a new bridge parallel to the old one over the Deopani river will take at least a year. In such a scenario, movement of vehicles has been completely halted.

An army officer told The Telegraph that the loss of the bridge has definitely curtailed the movement of troops and ammunition to the China border. He, however, maintained that the army is always prepared for any eventuality and has alternatives.

"We have enough stock on the other side to counter any situation," said the army official.

Due to heavy rains in the last few days, several parts of the state are reeling under floodwaters. Landslides have been reported from various parts of the state too. Currently, most rivers and their tributaries in the state are flowing above the danger level.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 7:54 [IST]
In this Kerala school, a two uniform rule based on academic skills

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A rule in a Kerala school which has two sets of uniforms depending on the child's academic skills has left parents fuming. A private school in Kerala's Malappuram Introduced the uniform code according to which academically sharp students will wear white shirts and tops while the second category of average and under-performing students will wear red check shirts and tops. The rule came into effect from June.

The Al Farooque English medium school in Pandikkad told protesting parents that this would help trigger a healthy competition among the students. With their protests falling on deaf ears, the parents then approached the the Childline. The authorities found this rule discriminatory.

The state education department has sought a report from the district education officer. A Hindustan Times report while quoting the spokesperson of the school said that the new system will be discontinued and action will be initiated against the principal.

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Shopian Encounter: 3 terrorists killed, operation underway

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Two soldiers were killed and three others were injured in a gun battle with the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian area on Saturday evening. Five soldiers were injured in the gun battle out of which two succumbed to their injuries at an Army Base Hospital, said reports.

Three terrorists were shot down by security personnel and a counter-operation is currently underway.

The two army soldiers who lost their lives during the encounter has been identified as Sepoy Ilayaraja P and Sepoy Gowai Sumedh Waman.

J&K: Sepoy Ilayaraja P and Sepoy Gowai Sumedh Waman - the two soldiers who lost their lives in the encounter in Shopian pic.twitter.com/LRzIFpXkWb  ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2017

The exchange of fire began after security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Awneera village when they suspected terrorist activity. As the security forces were conducting searches, the militants opened fire on them.

According to J&K DGP SP Vaid said that one terrorist was eliminated while the other two still hiding in adjoining house.

Vaid said,''There was information about militants in Shopian, while cordon was being laid, security personnel came under fire.''

There was info about militants in Shopian, while cordon was being laid,security personnel came under fire: J&K DGP SP Vaid pic.twitter.com/NcpGPMiNQ4  ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2017

On Wednesday, three terrorists have been killed in an encounter at Tral in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. The Army along with the Jammu and Kashmir police had launched the operation following a search operation that was conducted on the basis of intelligence input

On the same day (August 9), the Army confirmed the killing of 5 terrorists in Kashmir's Machil sector. The Army also confirmed that they had recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition and also ration, medicines with Pakistani markings.

On July 23, an infiltration attempt was foiled by the Army in the very same area. This year, the Army has foiled a total of 22 infiltration bids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir

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J&K: Soldier killed in ceasefire violation by Pakistan

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A 42-year-old soldier was killed in the ceasefire violation by Pakistani forces in Jammu and Kashmir's KG sector in Poonch district on Saturday.

Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar was killed at around 5 pm today following cross-border firing by Pakistan.

Tomar, who hailed from Tarsana village in Morena district in MP, is survived by his wife Omavati Devi, a son and a daughter.

Constant ceasefire violations by Pakistan are turning out to a major menace not only to the security forces but also for the civilians.

658 schools along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Nowshera sector reopened today after remaining closed for a week following cross-border shelling by Pakistan.

Authorities had closed 67l schools in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district on August 5 for safety and security of students in view of heavy and indiscriminate shelling.

Thirteen schools in vulnerable areas would remain closed till further orders, officials said.

Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary had ordered reopening of the schools in the sector from today on the recommendation of the chief education officer.

Thousands of border villagers are staying in six government camps at Nowshera after the Pakistani firing forced them to flee their homes last month.

Over 200 students had to be evacuated in bulletproof vehicles in Nowshera sector by rescue teams after they got trapped in their schools in the sector last month during the shelling.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 21:55 [IST]
J&K: Lady dies in cease fire violations, terrorists strike at 41 RR

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A 45 year old lady has lost her life in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. The incident took place at the Medhar sector early Saturday morning.

In a separate incident a soldier has been injured in a terrorist strike. Terrorists attacked the 41 RR Army headquarters. One soldier was injured in the attack. Search operations were launched to find the terrorists.

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The cease fire violation by Pakistan has been reported two days after India summoned a Pakistan official over the death of a soldier. There has been an increase in the number of cease fire violations by Pakistan as it is trying to help terrorists infiltrate into the Valley.

Intelligence Bureau officials report that there is a major push being made to enhance infiltrations. With several terrorists being gunned down in the Valley, Pakistan wants to increase the presence of terrorists in the Valley. Attempts would also be made to push in as many terrorists as possible before the winter sets in.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 7:34 [IST]
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Kailash Satyarthi calls Gorakhpur hospital deaths 'a massacre'

India

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By Chennabasaveshwar

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has termed the tragic death of over 60 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College as 'massacre'.

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In his tweet Satyarthi said: ''Over 30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not just a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?''

30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?  Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

He appealed to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath to fix the corrupt medical system of the state.

Appeal to CM @myogiadityanath Ji. Your decisive intervention can correct decades of corrupt medical system of UP to prevent such incidents.  Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

Meanwhile, UP deputy CM KP Maurya assured strict action against people responsible for the tragedy. He said that opposition parties giving statements in haste, but the government is committed to service of people.

Senior Congress leader, Manish Tiwari sought the resignation of Yogi Adityanath, who is also MP of the Gorakhpur constituency, on moral grounds.

Sixty-three children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur since the past two days, district magistrate Rajeev Rautela said on Friday. The Union home ministry said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.

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KSRTC bus goes up in smoke at Chennai

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Passengers aboard a KSRTC bus had a miraculous escape on Saturday morning. The Chennai bound bus caught fire at the Poonthamalli high road, near Poonthamalli, Chennai.

The bus was heading to the Koyambedu bus terminus, Chennai. 14 kilometres before reaching the station, the bus caught fire.

In all there were 44 passengers inside the bus when the incident occurred. The alert driver immediately parked the bus on the side of the road and ordered all the passengers to step out.

Four fire tenders were pressed into service. The fire was doused in an hour of the incident being reported. All the passengers escaped unhurt in the incident. However the luggage was charred. This is the second such incident to be reported on the same road in the past six months.

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Now 544 robots will take on terrorists in Kashmir

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Around 544 robots will fight terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The indigenously built robots will be capable of delivering ammunition at intended locations and this would come in handy for the Indian Army to fight terror in the trouble torn state.

The Army made the request to the Ministry of Defence following an increase in the number of terrorists in the state. Terrorists have used the dense jungles as hideouts and in such a scenario the robots would come in handy to fight terrorists in the Valley.

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Apart from delivering arms and ammunitions, the robots would be used for surveillance and gathering real time information about the movement of terrorists. The robots will have a capability of of picking up inputs and transmission from a range of 200 metres.

A Hindustan Times report stated that the approval for the robotic surveillance platform has been granted under the 'Make' category of acquisition in the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 that lays down that only Indian vendors are eligible for the projects.

The army has also factored in the possibility of two or more teams operating jointly in a target area. "A second unit which can be operated alongside the first unit by a single operator with the same remote (having at least dual display screen) should also form part of the system," the report also states.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 6:34 [IST]
Parsoon begins his stint as CBFC chief with good intention, Vidya Balan too joins censor board

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Aug 12: Newly appointed censor board chief Prasoon Joshi said that he hoped to carry out his responsibilities in a constructive manner. The government replaced Pahlaj Nihalani, who has hogged headlines for his controversial decisions, with Joshi in a surprise announcement on Friday. Meanwhile, noted Bollywood actor Vidya Balan has been made censor board member along with many other noted filmmakers in the country.

"Good intent is the best beginning. Bearing responsibility and doing my best has been my endeavour. I have believed that right and responsibilities are better served with constructive contribution," Joshi told PTI after his appointment. "One hopes to make a positive difference with the guidance and support of respected minds," he said.

The 45-year-old award winning lyricist will serve as chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for a period of three years or until further orders, the information and broadcasting ministry said in a release.

When asked if he would like to would iron out the creases of the tainted image that CBFC has, the Prasoon replied, "I first need to understand the role and responsibility. I do understand it in a short form but I need to know completely what the processes are specially. With good intent, I would like to make as much difference as I can."

He is best known for writing songs such as "Maa" from "Taare Zameen Par", "Bolo Na" from "Chittagong" and "Zinda" from "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag". He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 for his contributions in the field of arts, literature and advertising.

New members added, Vidya Balan too joins

The government also reconstituted the existing board. The new members are Vidya Balan, Vivek Agnihotri, Gautami Tadimalla, Narendra Kohli, Naresh Chandra Lal, Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, Waman Kendre, T S Nagabharana, Ramesh Patange, Vani Tripati Tikoo, Jeevitha Rajasekhar and Mihir Bhuta. Joshi, a two-time National award-winning lyricist, was born in Almora (Uttarakhand).

Actor Vidya Balan, one of the newly appointed members of the board said, "I hope to fulfil my responsibilities as a member to the best of my abilities". "I look forward to this new and exciting phase where our cinema will be allowed to reflect the sensibilities, realities and complexities of the society we are living in today," she added.

Director Vivek Agnihotri said, "With people like Prasoon Joshi and Vidya Balan, we all are very progressive. We are not outsiders and will look at it (films) from fresh angle."

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)
Incessant rains have wreaked havoc across districts in north Bengal with flash flood and landslides disrupting normal life. At least two persons have died in Darjeeling due to heavy landslide on Saturday.

By Indrajit Kundu: Incessant rains have wreaked havoc across districts in north Bengal with flash flood and landslides disrupting normal life. At least two persons have died in Darjeeling due to heavy landslide on Saturday. The Mahananda river is flowing above danger mark and the state administration has sounded a red alert.

In Cooch Behar, one person has lost his life after being swept by heavy currents while trying to cross the Kaljani river on a makeshift boat. Another person is reported to be missing after falling into a high drain.

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Connectivity between Bengal and Assam has been disrupted as flood water has inundated portions of national highway (NH) 31 at Maruganj. The Torsha, Raidak, Mansai and Kaljani rivers are flowing above danger-level in Cooch Behar and an alert has been sounded.

The tracks of New Jalpaiguri Station have been completely submerged in rain water. Seven passenger trains plying through north Bengal have been cancelled while most trains to the northeast via north Bengal are running late. The worst affected districts are Alipurduar, where all the six blocks have been affected, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and North Dinajpur.

Due to heavy rainfall in Bhutan, water level has increased in Jaldhaka river too. Fourteen lock gates of the Gajoldoba barrage on the Teesta have been opened to release more water downstream.

NORMAL LIFE SEVERELY HIT IN SILIGURI

Normal life has been severely disrupted in Siliguri, the urban hub in north Bengal where many low lying areas have been submerged. In Malda, flood waters have inundated a section of the Medical College and Hospital forcing the administration to shut the operation theatre.

The state government has opened a central control room in Kolkata to monitor the situation and co-ordinate rescue operations in the affected districts. The control room numbers are: 033-23218341 / 18003450117 and for Jalpaiguri district is 18003453255.

"There has been record rainfall in past few days. In fact, there are reports of even 500 mm rains in some areas of north Bengal. According to the Meteorological department forecast, heavy rains will continue for a few more days. Chief Minister is monitoring the entire situation from Delhi. We have cancelled leaves of all our staff in the irrigation department and an alert has been sounded. We are conducting rescue and relief work on a war footing," state irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee has said.

However, the opposition has termed the relief measures undertaken by the state administration as "insignificant". "Flood situation deteriorates in North Bengal, alarming in South Bengal. Insignificant relief. We've to stand beside the victims when government fails," tweeted CPI(M) politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra.

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Bengal likely to write to Centre to declare floods in state as national disaster

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--- ENDS ---
"Pluck Siddaramaiah and throw him out," says Amit Shah in Karnataka

India

oi-Anusha

Calling the Congress government in Karnataka 'the most corrupt', the BJP National President Amit Shah called for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's ouster.

He was speaking at a meeting called with intellectuals from various walks of life in Bengaluru on Saturday. The event that was scheduled to be an interactive session ended up being an address by Shah.

"I have never seen a government more corrupt that Siddaramaiah's. His ministers are raided but neither is the minister questioned nor is his resignation sought. Perhaps the government is scared of being exposed. Siddaramaiah is like a transformer who has gone kaput. He refuses to allow the electricity of development from the centre to reach Karnataka. When something stops working, you need to pluck it out. Throw out Siddaramaiah," Amit Shah urged the gathering.

Former Governor of Jharkhand and Bihar Rama Jois, renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, senior RSS members, advocates, Chartered accountants, bankers, urban scientists and conservationists etc were invited to be part of the intellectual's meet on Saturday. Many were left disappointed that no interaction took place in a meeting that was called for the very purpose.

"Leadership in BJP not based on birth or family"

Taking potshots at the Congress, Shah claimed that the BJP was the only truly democratic party in the country. "Leaders in my party are not born into families. They rise from the grassroots level. None can guess who will be the next BJP National President but does anyone have a doubt over who the next President of Congress will be after Sonia Gandhi," he mocked the Nehru-Gandhi family.

In his attempt to push BJP as a democratic entity Shah said that parties are to be evaluated on internal democracy, ideology and performance when in power. He went on to state that the BJP topped in all three criterion. "BJP has been able to give the country good Prime Ministers and Chief Minister because of this internal democracy," Shah said.

"Congress was merely a special purpose vehicle"

Deeming the Congress an entity that came to be without a singular ideological identity, Amit Shah called it a 'special purpose vehicle'. The Congress was merely a group formed by people who wanted freedom. People of all ideologies, beliefs joined the Congress to fight for freedom. Its foundation has no ideology but only had intent. It was a special purpose vehicle with people of all ideologies onboard," he said mockingly.

He compared that to the formation of Jan Sangh, the mother party that later became the BJP. Shah said that the Jan Sangh was formed on the basis of ideology. An ideology to provide alternates to the ones being offered by the Nehru government to help the people of India better.

Drawing comparisons between every state's economic performance, financial status, socio-cultural reforms under the Congress and the BJP government, Shah declared that states under BJP fared better. Be it in terms of economy, reforms or welfare schemes, Shah said that the BJP government had always ensured that states under its rule were put on the fast track for development.

Questioning the Siddaramaiah government on central funds, Shah asked where all the money was going. "You may not ask them, but I will. I have a list of funds released by the central government to Karnataka and I will ask Siddaramaiah the accounts for the same," he said in conclusion at Saturday's meeting.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, August 13, 2017, 0:24 [IST]
'Real star' Upendra likely to join BJP today

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Sandalwood actor/director Upendra, well known for his out of the box ideas, is likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday in presence of party chief Amit Shah who is visiting Bengaluru.

In a 15-minute voice recording on Facebook Upendra gave hints of joining politics areana. He said: ''For ensuring that people's representatives work honestly, I am willing to accept the responsibility. But people need to believe me. Though it is an impossible task, I have decided to try my luck and also try to form a party without money."

Recently, he had tweeted about saying no to Raja 'key' ya (politics) and yes to Praja 'key' ya democracy. He had told that the key to power should not be with the politicians but with the people.

Say no to raajakarana, Rajakeeya,Rajaneethi. We want prajaakarana, prajaakeeya, prajaaneethi.  Upendra (@nimmaupendra) August 3, 2017

No Raja key ya yes praja key ya. In prajaaprabhuthwa democracy. Key should be with praja not raja.  Upendra (@nimmaupendra) August 3, 2017

If speculations came true, Upendra will be the latest actor to join BJP after Tara Anuradha, Jaggesh, Malavika Avinash and Ganesh.

Tara is currently a nominated member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, Malavika Avinash is permanent invitee to the BJP Mahila Morcha and Jaggesh is the special invitee Executive Committee Member of Karnataka BJP.

OneIndia News
SBI Clerk Recruitment: Tomorrow is last date to apply for 5,000 posts, check details here

SBI work from facility: Check eligibility

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The SBI work from home option has been launched. The State Bank of India has informed that it has introduced 'Work from Home Policy' for permanent Officers in the Bank.

The facility can be availed occasionally up to 5 days a month or for a longer duration, subject to approval by the Competent Authority not less than officers in the grade of TEGS-VI i.e. Deputy General Manager/TEGSS-I i.e. Chief General Manager.

Job profiles covered have clear defined deliverables, which can be remotely measured and which requires minimal dependency of the job- on physical presence, on data/documents/system/infrastructure of the Bank, on vendor interaction, on daily co-ordination with team members, daily face to face meetings and regular face to face customer interactions.

Specific metrics are put in place for measurement of productivity of the officials along with addressing the security concerns on the Banks' confidential data and information.

Job profile requiring access to the Core Banking Solution or facing customer on regular basis are not be covered under the policy.

The employee is required to submit a work report based on the tasks/deliverables assigned and the respective completion status at the end of the Work from Home duration. The approver reviews the work of the employee before providing the confirmation on the work of the employee.

Employees are not be entitled for any allowance/benefits/compensation on account of Work from Home.

OneIndia News
Two more sanitation workers die in Delhi after inhaling toxic gas

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Close on the heels on deaths of three sanitation workers in Delhi last week, two more sanitation workers died on Saturday after inhaling toxic gases in the national capital.

The mishap is said to have taken place at Aggarwal Fun City Mall in Delhi's Anand Vihar area, said reports.

Another worker and fireman, who were trying to rescue the trapped workers, are admitted to a hospital after they too inhaled the toxic gas.

A case under section 304 of the IPC has been registered.

Last week, three sanitation workers died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a drain in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area. The workers were cleaning a sewer line in Lajpat Nagar near the Kabir Ram temple. They had gone inside the sewer and inhaled toxic fumes and were later found unconscious. They were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre where the doctors declared that they were "brought dead".

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 18:27 [IST]
Union Home Minister calls Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for talks on Sunday

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling, August 12, 2017: In a sudden development Bimal Gurung, President, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in a press release claimed that the Union Home Minister has invited the GJM for talks in Delhi on Sunday at 4:30 pm on Sunday.

The GJM, however, has asked the political and apolitical pro-Gorkhaland outfits to decide on the invitation.

The press statement dated August 12, states "Today the GJM received an intimation from the Union Home Minister requesting us to join for talks tomorrow at 4:30pm in New Delhi.

Because this movement has today transitioned into a people's movement, with all the hill political parties as well as non-political bodies together, I have submitted this invitation for their consideration. I am hopeful that the hill parties leading the movement will attend

the meeting, and help find a possible road map to Gorkhaland statehood. I thank the honourable Home Minister for the kind invite, and hope that the Central government will do justice for the Gorkha's at the earliest."

The release was signed by Gurung. The release was circulated after a Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC- a conglomeration of political and apolitical pro

Gorkhaland outfits) meeting in Kalimpong on Saturday. Though media persons were briefed at the end of the meeting there was no mention of the invite from the Home Ministry.

Most of the GMCC members did not respond to call when contacted regarding Sunday's meeting. However it is confirmed that members of the GMCC will be attending the Delhi talks.

Neeraj Zimba, Spokesperson of the Gorkha National Liberation Front and member of the GMCC stated that GMCC representatives would be attending talks. Kalyan Dewan, GJM leader and GMCC Convener will also be present.

The GJM MLAs are already present in Delhi along with Roshan Giri, General Secretary, GJM. They will be attending the talks too.

The sudden invite comes on the heels of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Delhi. Banerjee departed from Delhi on Saturday evening.

A renewed agitation for Gorkhaland has been on since June with an indefinite bandh clamped in the Hills since June 15. The indefinite bandh hit the 59th day mark on Saturday with a fast unto death touching the 22nd day mark.

The agitators have been constantly demanding for the Centre's intervention to resolve the impasse. They have however shut the doors to the State stating that they would sit for talks only with the Centre that too over the Gorkhaland issue.

Delhi had till now maintained a calculated silence over the issue obliquely maintaining that the West Bengal Government would have to initiate the process honouring the federal structure of the country.

There was immense pressure build up on the GJM with other political parties and apolitical parties decrying that as the movement had taken shape of a people's movement the GJM did not have the right to take any unilateral decisions. They had demanded that it would have to be a collective representation (of pro Gorkhaland forces) attending the

talks and that discussions should be held only on the Gorkhaland issue.

Political observers opine that the GJM not wanting to face consequences alone, displaying political maturity has passed the ball in the GMCC's court. Political observers further opine that the Union Home Minister would definitely request the agitators to lift the

ongoing bandh. The forthcoming Independence day coupled with the Home Minister's request would be reasons enough to call off the bandh.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 23:27 [IST]
Gorakhpur tragedy: Opposition demands resignation of CM Yogi, health minister

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Lucknow, August 12: The opposition parties are up in arms against the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh after 63 children died in the last five days at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

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The Congress, on Saturday, demanded the resignation of the chief minister and health minister of the state over the massive tragedy of deaths of minor patients in the hospital allegedly due to lack of supply of oxygen.

"Considering he (Adityanath) is both the member of Parliament (MP) and the CM, he must take moral responsibility and step down. So should his health minister (Siddharth Nath Singh)," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told ANI. Gorakhpur is the parliamentary constituency of the UP CM. He still holds the seat.

A Congress delegation also visited the hospital on Saturday. The Congress leaders who visited the hospital included Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar. Speaking to reporters at the hospital, Congress leader RPN Singh alleged that the tragedy happened due to the lapse on part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also demanded UP CM's resignation. "Hope he (Adityanath) has enough shame left in him to go and regret to the parents of the dead children and quit on moral grounds," said BSP senior leader Sudhindra Bhadoria.

"This is a matter of great shame for the UP CM. If there is any morality in the government, the CM should quit for such a disaster," added the BSP leader. The UP CM is yet to visit the hospital.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav too criticised the UP government over the tragedy. The SP demanded immediate compensation for the parents of the dead children.

"The parents of children who died must get compensation. Free medicine must be provided to poor families across UP," said Ram Gopal Yadav of the SP.

Reacting to the criticism over the deaths of children, UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the Opposition was giving statements in haste. "The UP government is committed to the service of people. Strict action will be taken against the responsible people," he added.

"It's a heart-wrenching incident. We are saddened by the children's death. This happened due to the state government's carelessness," said Azad.

"Both the health minister and minister of technical and medical education must resign. The UP CM can't step back from duty. He must apologise to the people of the state," added Azad.

OneIndia News
Why did the NCP skip the joint opposition meet

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The NCP skipped the joint opposition meeting on Friday. The decision by the NCP to stay away from the meeting came as a jolt to the opposition which had something to smile about following the Rajya Sabha win by Ahmed Patel.

During the meeting which comprised leaders of 16 parties, Congress president Sonia Gandhi was authorised to form a small group to coordinate with like-minded parties on programmes to be organised in the next three months.

While the opposition was upbeat before the meeting, it received a jolt with the NCP deciding to stay away. The NCP justified the decision and said its leaders were very angry.

NCP MP, Praful Patel said that his party was upset as it was accused of not voting for Ahmed Patel despite having issued a whip in his favour. This is a Congress propaganda to project the NCP as a B-team of the BJP, he also said. This is being done to damage the credentials of the party ahead of the Gujarat elections.

The Congress however played the incident down. Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the NCP chief Sharad Pawar had spoken to him and said that he was unwell.

During the meeting West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee suggested that they take part in the public rally being organised by Lalu Prasad Yadav at Patna on August 27.

More such programmes should be taken up in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the next three months, she suggested.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 8:12 [IST]
UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case

Yogi Adityanath says Encephalitis is a challenge, Centre assures help

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

After suspending BRD Medical College Principal in the wake of deaths of infants in the hospital in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the problem is not with the government.

Speaking at a function, Adityanath said, ''Government is not the problem. The government has no right to be in power if it was a problem.''

He said that the problem of Encephalitis- inflammation of the brain- has been reported in Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

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On the death of infants, he said, ''Unhygienic conditions and open defecation are the main reason for the untimely demise of infants in eastern UP."

'Somewhere there is also a lack of awareness among people about cleanliness. There is a problem we are facing, there is also a solution,'' he added.

[Gorakhpur tragedy: Uttar Pradesh govt suspends BRD Medical College principal]

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister JP Nadda assured Yogi Adityanath of assistance/expertise from the Centre in handling the tragedy.

The UP government has told Union Health Minister that all the aspects of deaths at BRD Medical college are being examined.

OneIndia News
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All's not well between China, Russia

China: Dam breach prompts authorities to evacuate over 700 people

International

pti-PTI

Beijing, Aug 12: The collapse of a dam wall due heavy rains has prompted authorities in China to evacuate more than 700 residents of a village.

Heavy rain have lashed parts of Hunan Province since Friday.

At a village in Yueyang County, rain-triggered landslides clogged the floodway of a dam, causing a surge of water in the dam and collapsing of the dam wall, the local government said.

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Dozens of houses were flooded, but there were no casualties as all villagers were evacuated in time, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Across the province, floods trapped hundreds in the county of Pingjiang and the city of Jishou. Landslides occurred in Luxi County.

Water at a section of the Yuanjiang River has surged nearly seven metres in the past 24 hours. The Hunan provincial weather forecast bureau said heavy rain will continue today.

PTI
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China's biggest bank to open branch at Gwadar port

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Bank of China will open a branch near Pakistan's strategic Gwadar port amid growing partnership between the two countries, a senior Pakistani official said.

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The deep-water port has a strategic importance for the Belt and Road initiative, a part of which - the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - connects Pakistan's southern region to China's western Xinjiangregion through rail and roads.

The CPEC is billed as a 'game-changer' and manifestation of strategic partnership between Pakistan and China.

Gwadar Port Authority Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini said in a meeting on Thursday that The Bank of China is planning to open a branch in Gwadar in Balochistan.

Dawn reported Jamaldini saying that with the Gwadar Deep Seaport becoming operational, several commercial banks have become interested in opening branches in the port city and the Bank of China would start doing business from Gwadar shortly -- starting with setting up a branch in the city.

"Business and trade activities will flourish in Gwadar with the opening of branches of different national and international banks," he said, adding that for the time the Gwadar Port Oversees and Port Holding had allowed the opening of two banks in Gwadar and one of them was the Bank of China.

The chairman claimed that work on the Gwadar Free Zone had started. He said the construction work would be completed in the next couple of months.

Jamaldini added that the Pakistani and Chinese were working in three shifts to complete the construction of the Gwadar Free Zone as soon as possible.

He disclosed that in the first week of December, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi along with some Chinese ministers would inaugurate the first International expo centre in the free zone.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 6:04 [IST]
By Shashank Shekhar: Self-radicalised ISIS linked jihadis, who carried out a blast in a Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train this year, had planned to escape to Syria via the Sundarbans in West Bengal to join terror training, intelligence sources have told Mail Today. The men also did a recce in the coastal forested region as well as Kolkata to find an escape route but failed.

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According to a senior intelligence officer, this was the first ever strike by alleged Islamic State members in India. The morning blast on the train at the Jabri railway station on March 7 left at least 10 people injured. The incident not only raised questions on railway security but also sparked concerns about the presence of self-radicalised jihadis in the country connected to ISIS.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its charge sheet has named Uttar Pradesh residents Atif Muzaffar, Mohd Danish alias Jaafar, Syed Mir Hussain alias Hamja Abu Bakkas and Ghaus Mohd Khan who were indoctrinated through online content and Islamic State-inspired publications, and also tried to migrate to ISIS territory several times but failed.

The agency stated that action against Saifullah, son of Sartaj Khan of Kanpur Nagar in UP, has stopped since he is dead. Saifullah, the alleged terrorist sympathetic to ISIS, was killed in Lucknow in an encounter on March 9 this year. "They were very serious about 'Hizrat' (migration to ISIS territory) and the members went to Kolkata and Sundarbans to find a way to leave for Syria," the NIA said in its charge sheet.

ISIS headhunters hide within an ocean of 2.3 billion live social media accounts, flooding the internet with romanticised videos of life inside the caliphate, as well as brutal execution clips, using them as clickbait to lure potential recruits. Kerala's Abdul Rashid Abdulla is believed to have started ISIS recruitment and fundraising operations in the southern state in July 2015. He had led 21 youth from the state to Islamic State dens in Afghanistan.

INVESTIGATORS PUZZLED ON HOW THEY WERE PLANNING TO REACH SYRIA FROM BENGAL

"This is an unusual route but probably the group members were looking for an option to enter Bangladesh to further find their way to Syria," an officer said.

But the NIA investigation reveals that all the members took 'bayah' (oath of allegiance) to ISIS and also attempted to do Hizrat several times through Kashmir, Amritsar, Mumbai and other places. "Having failed to do so, they then conspired with each other to cause subversive activities threatening the sovereignty of India and the safety and security of the nation. To this effect, they shifted to a hideout at Lucknow and collected arms and fabricated IEDs there," said a senior NIA officer.

Photos related to preparation of different explosives and some connected to ISIS were also found along with a picture of the bomb after it was placed on the overhead rack on the train. This is the same photo which was sent by the accused on social media and the messaging app Telegram. NIA claims that they wanted to wage a war against India which is evident from the data recovered from their phone that was used as propaganda on social networking sites to attract and recruit more followers to the cause of Islamic State. The agency in its charge sheet also said that all of them met at religious gatherings and their discussion on the rise of ISIS led to their radicalisation.

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WANTED TO RECRUIT MORE JIHADIS INTO THE CAUSE

They were more inclined towards jihad in India and tried their best to convince others to join their cause. They all took an oath of allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The men had prepared a bomb in their hideout in Lucknow which they carried to Bhopal to cause the blast. The group planned to target innocent people and they practiced firing weapons in areas near Kanpur. The NIA found that the terrorists carried out several attempts to create fear and panic among the public. Apart from a trial blast, they also tried to test their arms and ammunition.

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On October 24, 2016, they shot a school teacher in Kanpur to test their skills and to create panic. The accused learnt to prepare a bomb from Inspire magazine available online. The charge sheet also reveals that they tried to attack Barelvi Muslims. They planted a bomb at a religious procession of 'Bara Rabi ul Alwal' in UP's Unnao district in December 2016, but it failed to explode. They fixed a new timer and used the same bomb on the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train on March 7.

After planting the bomb on the train at Bhopal station, they snapped a photograph and sent it to a person called Abu Hishaam for transmission to ISIS. During investigation, sufficient oral, documentary, technical, forensic and material evidence has been collected which establishes the criminal conspiracy and the terror act committed by these accused, the agency says. Atif Muzzafar, leader of the group, had told officials that he was a firm believer in the ISIS ideology of establishing a Sunni caliphate.

He also used to follow controversial preacher Zakir Naik. Atif sold his ancestral property and used Rs 70 lakh from the sale to fund the group's terror activities. He was born into a Deobandi family and was interested in a purist version of Islam, especially after the death of his father.

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He started visiting the Quran Centre at Kanpur. Later he began frequenting an Ahl-al Hadith programme in the city. In 2013, he had gone for Umrah (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia. Ghaus Mohd was Barelvi by birth and was working in Punjab with the Indian Air Force. However he was impressed by the Deobandi form of Islam. Later, he went to Saudi Arabia for work between 1996 and 1998 where he started believing in the Ahl-al Hadith form of Islam.

Kanpur police have initiated a process to transfer the probe into the murder of a retired school principal to the NIA after a ballistic test report corroborated that he was shot by two of the four accused mentioned in the charge sheet by the agency. Ramesh Chandra Shukla was shot dead in Kanpur last October.

Also Read:

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--- ENDS ---
At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

Cuba must investigate sonic attack on its diplomats, says US

International

oi-PTI

Bedminster (US), August 12: Cuba was held responsible by the United States for investigating an apparent sonic attack that left several of its diplomats in need of medical treatment.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday said the US mission in Havana had not been able to determine who was behind what he called "health attacks" on its staff. But he warned: "We hold the Cubans responsible just as every host country has a responsibility for safety and security of diplomats in their country. "We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks not just on our diplomats -- as you've seen there are cases with other diplomats as well."

On Thursday, Canada revealed that one of its diplomats had also fallen victim to the mysterious attack, which officials said seem to have been carried out with some kind of sonic device.

US personnel began experiencing ailments in late 2016, but that it was not immediately recognized that it could be anything other than an ordinary health issue. US media have said the diplomats suffered hearing loss. Cuba's foreign ministry said US officials had alerted it to the "alleged incidents" on February 17.

The State Department has not said how many of its diplomats were hurt, but in May it ordered two Cubans to leave the Cuban embassy in Washington. Relations between the United States and Cuba were restored by then US president Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2015 after a half-century break.

But tensions mounted again after the detente was partly rolled back by Obama's successor Donald Trump. In June, Trump tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.

Owing to breaking down of diplomatic relations between Washington and Fidel Castro's young revolutionary regime the US embassy in Havana was closed in 1961.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 8:36 [IST]
Japan deploys missile-defense systems following N Korea threat

International

oi-PTI

Tokyo, Aug 12: Japan is deploying its Patriot missile defence system after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, reports said on Saturday.

Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US. The defence ministry started deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which Pyongyang warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK said.

It was also to deploy the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, NHK said. Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

While immediate confirmation of the reports was not available, Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The government hopes to complete deployment of the system in western Japan by Saturday morning, Kyodo News said, quoting defence ministry officials.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures."

In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down. At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 11:55 [IST]
Kenya protests: Three killed after President's 'rigged' re-election

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Nairobi, Aug 12: At least three people were killed during protests last night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the Kenyan election.

The country is on edge after the announcement of the results led to violent demonstrations from supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose claim the vote was rigged prompted demonstrations earlier in the week.

Kenyan police say they have shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in national elections.

Leonard Katana, a regional police commander, said Saturday that the deaths occurred on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support. Katana says another five people were injured by gunfire in Kisumu.

Also Saturday, Kenyan police opened fire to disperse opposition protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades in a slum in Nairobi, the capital. An Associated Press photographer saw police firing live rounds in the Mathare area.

Kenyatta on Friday appealed for unity after the Kenyan election commission announced results following several days of vote-counting. Odinga has alleged that the election was rigged.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)
At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

Muslim woman awarded 85,000 dollars lawsuit after police forcibly remove her hijab

International

oi-PTI

Los Angeles, August 12: The US authorities have awarded USD 85,000 as a settlement to a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her hijab when she was in police custody.

The incident happened last year when Kirsty Powell and her husband were pulled over by police for driving a "low rider" car, according to the lawsuit. Powell was arrested after police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident, the CNN reported.

Powell's husband requested a female officer handle the arrest, but the arresting officers denied the request and told Powell that she had to remove her hijab. Powell spent the night in prison without her headscarf. It was returned when her husband posted her bond, the report said.

Powell filed the lawsuit in April 2016, alleging the police department had violated her First Amendment rights. Powell was "forced to appear in a publicly available booking photo without her religious headwear," the lawsuit said.

As a result of the foregoing deprivations of the free exercise of her religion, Kirsty Powell suffered severe discomfort, humiliation, and emotional distress," it said. "She cried throughout the ordeal and experienced humiliation when both her religious beliefs and personal integrity were violated," the lawsuit said.

The city of Long Beach, California, will pay USD 85,000 to settle the lawsuit filed by Powell. The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced the settlement and praised Powell. Powell had told the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she filed the suit she wanted to be the last Muslim woman who has this experience.

She said that she wanted Muslim sisters to always feel comfortable and safe wearing a hijab and to stand up for what's right.

PTI
Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot

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Nawaz Sharif lashes out at judiciary, military

International

pti-PTI

Lahore, Aug 12: In a veiled attack at Pakistan's judiciary and the military establishment, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said "a few people" cannot be allowed to rule over 200 million people of the country.

Delivering a fiery speech at Muridkay, 67-year-old Sharif asked the people to support him in "revolution" he is going to bring about to change the destiny of Pakistan.

"Will you stand by Nawaz Sharif in the revolution?" he asked, inviting cheers of "yes!"

"Time has come that it has to be decided who will rule this country. A bunch of few cannot or the 200 million people. Pakistan is not the property of a few people," Sharif said, referring to the military establishment and the judiciary.

Sharif claimed that unemployment in the country would have been overcome had he stayed in power for another three years. He repeated elements of the same narrative he'd built in Jhelum and Gujranwala during his home coming journey.

"The decision (to depose me) is not yours. If Nawaz Sharif would have been involved in corruption, you would have dragged me out of office yourself," he told his supporters.

Sharif has been targeting the five judges of apex court for forcing him to quit and those in the military establishment who played a role in his ouster.

"Some people are against Pakistan's progress, therefore, they ousted your elected prime minister," he told his supporters amidst loud cheers.

"Pakistan is being embarrassed in the world because of this decision. People across the world and Pakistanis are rejecting the decision," he added.

Sharif was greeted by supporters lining up on the both sides of road as he came out of the Punjab House in Islamabad on Wednesday, making it impossible for his motorcade to move. He covered about 30 km in 12 hours to reach Rawalpindi where he addressed a big rally.

On Thursday, he resumed his travel from Rawalpindi and reached Jhelum in the evening and addressed an even bigger rally there. Later, he rested at a scenic hotel on the banks of the River Jhelum. He left Jhelum on Friday afternoon and stopped in Gujarat for Friday prayers and addressed his supporters.

On Friday, Sharif vowed before a big welcoming crowd in Gujranwala to fight back against a "conspiracy" hatched to hinder economic progress in Pakistan.

A five-member Supreme Court bench last month disqualified Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the prime minister to quit for the record third time.

PTI
Singapore: Indian-origin man jailed for smoking, assaulting officials

International

oi-PTI

Singapore, Aug 12: An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to six months and four weeks in prison by a court here for assaulting and threatening law enforcement officials who summoned him for smoking in a prohibited area.

Ramasamy Soogumar, 59, on Friday admitted in a court to three offences for causing hurt to a police officer and a National Environment Agency (NEA) officer whose colleague had summoned him for smoking in an unauthorised area, The Straits Times reported.

With a little over a year in his release in June last year after serving an 11-year, 12-stroke sentence for robbery with hurt, Soogumar, who works as a cleaner at a school, got into trouble with the law again.

NEA enforcement officer Gugan Santhirasakaran, 24, and his colleague Salvin Kaur Mindar Singh, 23, saw the man smoking a cigarette while drinking beer in the void deck of Apartment Block 676, Hougang Avenue 8, at 7.05 PM (local time) on May 30 this year.

There was a "no smoking sign" 3-metre away from where has standing, it said. After identifying themselves, the officials wrote up a notice for Soogumar to attend court for committing the offence. He then hurled vulgarities in Tamil at Gugan, bumped into him using his chest and slapped him.

Sergeant Christian Tan Kai Jun, who was on a routine patrol in the area with another police official, then spotted the two NEA personnel calling for assistance. Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Shi said that when the two police officers tried to questioning Soogumar, the cleaner tried to leave. He then repeatedly tried to confront Gugan in the presence of the police officers.

They stopped him and told him to sit.

The Indian-origin man also tried to assault Staff Sergeant Lionel Tan Wei Ming's face but was stopped. Undeterred, he then tried to move towards Gugan and when Sergeant Christian Tan tried to stop him, he slapped the police official's hand away.

Soogumar threatened Gugan in Tamil by saying "You watch out. I will deal with you" and that he would "die" at his hands. Pleading for leniency, the man's lawyer Harjeet Kaur told District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid that her client uttered the words because of him being in an inebriated state.

He had been earlier sentenced to prison after conviction for disorderly behaviour, using abusive language and robbery with hurt.

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The blast took place in a parking lot near Pishin bus stop which is in a high security area.

By Press Trust of India: At least 17 people were killed and over 20 others injured today in a high intensity blast in Pakistan's Quetta city.

The blast took place in a parking lot near Pishin bus stop which is in a high security area.

Baluchistan's Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said the bomb was apparently kept in a vehicle parked near the bus stop.

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"Investigations are continuing but I can confirm it was a big explosion and there are around two dozen injured who are being shifted to nearby hospitals," Bugti said.

Twelve dead bodies were brought to the hospital and they were all badly charred and burnt, Duniya channel reported.

The blast was so loud that it was heard in far off areas and caused a huge fire in which some vehicles and auto rickshaws were also damaged.

Also Read:

Lahore: 2 dead, 35 injured in blast near Sagiyan bridge

Sharif reaches Rawalpindi on 1st day of roadshow via GT Road

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: at marital discord

(Eds: Updating with details from suicide note)

Ghaziabad (UP), Aug 11 (PTI) Senior IAS officer and District Magistrate of Bihars Buxar Mukesh Pandey was found dead near railway tracks here with a purported suicide note indicating he was "upset" due to marital issues, police said.

Pandeys body was found on the tracks about one km from the Ghaziabad railway station late last night and a suicide note was also recovered from the spot, they said.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condoled the death of the officer. "He was a capable administrator and a sensitive officer. May god bless his soul," he said in a tweet.

In the purported note, Pandey, a 2012-batch IAS officer, said he was fed up with his life and has lost his "faith in human existence".

"I am committing suicide in district centre area of Janakpuri in west Delhi...by jumping off the 10th floor of the building. I am fed up with life and my faith in human existence has gone. My detailed suicide note is kept in a Nike bag in room 742 of a five-star (name withheld) hotel in Delhi. I am sorry, I love you all! Please forgive me," said the note, according to Senior Superintendent of Police H N Singh.

Police said they later found the "detailed suicide note" from the hotel room in which the officer had written he was "upset" because of problems in his marital life.

Police said the officer had a daughter.

Officials of the Government Railway Police (GRP), who reached the spot, near Kotgaon here, said prime facie it was a case of suicide.

The body was found around 8.40 pm near Katgaon yesterday. The body was identified with the help of ID cards recovered from his pocket.

Police said Pandeys post-mortem was conducted today by a team of three doctors in Ghaziabad and it was videographed.

The body will be transported to Guwahati where his family lives and the last rites will be conducted there, they said.

Before taking the extreme step, Pandey had sent messages to his family members that he was planning to commit suicide at Janakpuri District Centre.

A senior Delhi Police official said that police received information from his friends that Pandey would commit suicide and had gone to the Janakpuri District Centre yesterday.

A police team was immediately rushed to the mall but it could not trace him.

The police received information around 6.30 pm and started analysing the CCTV footage but it was seen that he had left the mall around 6 pm.

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The police carried out searches in nearby malls, hotels and even shut down some shops and the entrance to the top floors to scan the corridors but he could not be traced.

Later, the Delhi Police learnt that he had allegedly committed suicide, the official said.

Around 8.10 pm, the Sarojini Nagar police station in south district was informed by Pandeys sister-in-law that he was missing.

She told the police that he had checked into a five-star hotel in the morning yesterday, but after he remained incommunicado, she informed the police.

The Delhi Police said they are awaiting a report from their counterpart in Ghaziabad before taking future course of action. PTI SLB COR TIR TIR

--- ENDS ---
Guardian US reporter Kenya Evelyn explains what the protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd say about America right..

Guardian 10 Jun 2020
Jerusalem Post 01 Sep 2022

When it comes to negotiating with Iran, one should be ready to haggle: pure diplomacy without a military option in the back pocket..
Rumble 12 Nov 2022

Jason Kessler is a freelance journalist and activist who has written for VDARE, Daily Caller and GotNews as well as his own site..
Even those of us whove never read Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 know it as a searing indictment of government censorship. Or at least we think we know it, and besides, what else could the story of a dystopian future where America has outlawed books whose main character burns the few remaining, secreted-away volumes to earn his living be about? It turns out that Bradbury himself had other ideas about the meaning of his best-known novel, and in the last years of his life he tried publicly to correct the prevailing interpretation  and to his mind, the incorrect one.

Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship, wrote the Los Angeles Weeklys Amy E. Boyle Johnson in 2007. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands. Rather, he meant his 1953 novel as a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature. Its about, as he puts it above, people being turned into morons by TV. Johnson quotes Bradbury describing television as a medium that gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was, spreading factoids instead of knowledge. They stuff you with so much useless information, you feel full.









He didnt much like radio either: just two years before Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury wrote to his sci-fi colleague Richard Matheson bemoaning its contribution to our growing lack of attention, and its creation of a hopscotching existence that makes it almost impossible for people, myself included, to sit down and get into a novel again. For the abandonment of reading he saw in society, and from which he extrapolated in his book, he blamed not the state but the people, an entertaiment-as-opiate-addicted democratic society whose diverse population turns against books: Whites reject Uncle Toms Cabin and blacks disapprove of Little Black Sambo, leading to widespread censorship and eventually the burning of all reading material.

But books still do face challenges (and the FBI even had its eye on Bradbury and his genre), challenges only an intelligent, non-numbed public can beat back. I get letters from teachers all the time saying my books have been banned temporarily, says Bradbury in the clip above. I say, dont worry about it, put em back on the shelves. You keep putting them back and they keep taking them off, and you finally win. The authors, even Bradbury, cant help, but he would always tell these literarily-minded people who wrote to him in distress the same thing: You do the job. Youre the librarian. Youre the teacher. Stand firm and youll win. And they always do.

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Related Content:

Father Writes a Great Letter About Censorship When Son Brings Home Permission Slip to Read Ray Bradburys Censored Book, Fahrenheit 451

Who Was Afraid of Ray Bradbury & Science Fiction? The FBI, It Turns Out (1959)

Ray Bradbury: I Am Not Afraid of Robots. I Am Afraid of People (1974)

Ray Bradbury: Literature is the Safety Valve of Civilization

Hear Ray Bradburys Classic Sci-Fi Story Fahrenheit 451 as a Radio Drama

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. Hes at work on the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles, the video series The City in Cinema, the crowdfunded journalism project Where Is the City of the Future?, and the Los Angeles Review of Books Korea Blog. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that the number of deaths may increase and a final toll will be announced after clearing the debris from the accident site later.

By Press Trust of India: At least 44 people were killed and nearly 180 others injured when two trains collided near Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, officials said.

The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that the number of deaths may increase and a final toll will be announced after clearing the debris from the accident site later.

The deadly collision took place yesterday after a train traveling to Alexandria from Cairo, crashed into the back of another train coming from the Canal city of Port Said, which was waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, east of Alexandria, the Egyptian Railways Authority said in a statement.

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The area of the collision has been cordoned off by security forces as a rescue team is currently searching for survivors over the night and removing the wreckage off the tracks, it said.

Train movement from Cairo to Alexandria resumed today after the tracks were cleared following the accident, the spokesman for the Ministry of Transportation was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA.

Transportation ministry spokesman Mohammed Ezz said that Cairo-Alexandria train traffic would operate on a single line in both directions until a second track that was damaged in the accident is repaired.

Iman Hamdy, 26, a survivor of the accident, said that she was traveling in the train going to Alexandria and noticed that it was already in a bad condition.

The Al-Masri el-Youm Arabic newspaper quoted her as saying that the train abruptly stopped for 15 minutes in Ebies area near Khorshid station when she felt its collision with the another train.

Hamdy, who succeeded in escaping from the train through one of the windows, said that she will never forget the large number of injured, mostly women and children, she saw at the accident site.

Another survivor, 10 year-old Karim Abdel Wahab, said that he couldn't find his mother and brother who were traveling with him in the train.

The driver of the Cairo-Alexandria train has surrendered himself to police and has been transferred to El-Raml police station in Alexandria for investigation, local media reported, citing a health ministry official.

Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadiq has ordered an urgent investigation into the collision to find out the reason behind the crash.

President El-Sisi has expressed his condolences to the victims and ordered government bodies to follow up on developments from the deadly collision and identify the cause of the accident.

"The rescue team is currently searching for survivals while ambulances are transferring the injured to nearby hospitals," said Magdy Hegazi, Undersecretary at the Health Ministry.

The ministry said 75 ambulances had been deployed at the crash scene to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.

Train accidents are common in Egypt. In 2016, a train derailed in south of Cairo, killing five people, and injuring 27 people in the al-Ayat area.

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Another train derailment in Badr Rashin in Giza killed at least 19 people in 2013.

In 2012, a collision between a train and school bus on a rail crossing in the town of Manaflut in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

At least 360 people were killed in 2002 in Egypt's worst train disaster when a major fire engulfed seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train.

Also Read:

Egypt train collision kills 41, injures nearly 180

Egypt launches air strikes on Libya terror camps after gunmen attacked bus of Coptic Christians

--- ENDS ---
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Calcium Gluconate Market Size to Grow Steadily during Forecast period (2016-2026)

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Calcium gluconate is a mineral supplement which is prepared by the neutralization of gluconic acid with lime or calcium carbonate. It is listed as one of the essential medicines on WHOs list of essential medicine. Calcium gluconate is used to treat conditions arising from calcium deficiencies such as hypocalcaemia tetany, hypocalcemia related to hyperparathyroidism and hypocalcaemia due to rapid growth or pregnancy. Apart from being an active ingredient in medicines, calcium gluconate finds its application in various food products as a nutrient supplement. It is a used as a source of calcium, in a variety of food & beverage products, such as; milk, soft drinks, juices, bottled waters, dairy products, soy products, baked goods, and confectionery.Calcium Gluconate Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal calcium gluconate market is expected to grow owing to increasing demand from end-use industries such as pharmaceuticaland food & beverages. Sunrise industries like the nutraceutical industry has also largely impacted the global calcium gluconate market, as it finds itself as major ingredient in multiple calcium based health supplements. Increase in the demand for health supplements from the health conscious consumers has largely driven this market globally. More than 75% of Americans are calcium deficient, and more than one in 10 Americans either has, or is at risk of developing, osteoporosis or other bone diseases. This fact is also acting as a driver for the global calcium gluconate market in that region. The segment is anticipated to witness above average growth on account of increasing use of health supplements in developed countries for over the last few years and trend is likely to continue over the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Excessive intake of calcium gluconate may lead to various side effects such as nausea, constipationand stomachupset. Rapid intravenous injections of calcium gluconate may cause hypercalcaemia, which can result in vasodilation, cardiac arrhythmias, decreased blood pressure, and bradycardia. This has proven to be a major restraint for this market.Calcium Gluconate Market:SegmentationThe global calcium gluconate market can be broadly segmented on the basis of end use, application, and form available. On the basis of end use, the market can be further segmented into; bulking agent, emulsifier, and thickening agent. On the basis of application, the global calcium gluconate market can be bifurcated into pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, and nutraceuticals. Commercially, calcium gluconate is available in three major form, i.e. gum, liquid, and powder.Calcium Gluconate Market:Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the calcium gluconatemarket is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan.Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness high growth on account of increasing demand from end-use industries. In addition, increased government spending on infrastructure development is likely fuel market growth over the next six years.Visit For TOC@Calcium Gluconate Market: Key PlayersSome of the major global key players in this segments are; Aaron Industries, Inc. American Biorganics, Inc, AKZO Nobel Chemicals Inc, Alfa Aesar, Coyne Chemical , Glucona America, Inc, PMP Fermentation Products, Inc, Noah Technologies Corporation, Westco Chemicals Inc, Mallinckrodt Inc., Spectrum Bulk Chemicals. These companies are developing market strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, Joint Venture, New product development and Expansion to increase their market share in Global Functional Beverages Market. Apart from these big firms, there are multiple new entrants in the market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Technological Advancements to Influence Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market Growth

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Tires are considered as an important factor to improve the vehicle efficiency and reduce overall fuel consumption. According to International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), it is estimated that improvements in tire energy efficiency could reduce the fuel consumption by 3 to 5% and greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million metric tons annually, across all existing passenger vehicle fleets. In the quest for increasing fuel efficiency and gas mileage, automotive manufacturers are pushing tire makers to develop LRR tires, which have shown improvements in increasing fuel economy in recent years. While LRR tires are frequently used for hybrid cars, mainstream vehicles are expected to gain traction for LRR tires over the forecast period. Tire and automotive manufacturers globally have strived to increase fuel efficiency in recent years by equipping automobiles with LRR tires.Low Rolling Resistance(LRR) Tire Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe main factors driving the demand for LRR tires, is their ability to save significant amount of fuel when compared to tires that are not designed for LRR. It has been estimated by the automotive industry that a 10% increase in the tire rolling resistance will result in about 1.5% decrease in the vehicle fuel economy. More and more fleets every year are recognizing the benefits of LRR tires which represent a good investment for dealing with fuel economy, thus accelerating the demand of global LRR tires throughout the forecast period. Moreover, government regulations, stringent emission and safety norms globally is anticipated to fuel the demand of LRR tire market over the forecast period (2016  2026).Request Report Sample@The fact that the cost to operate LRR tires is relatively higher as compared to other tires which do not have low rolling resistance technology, is one of the factors inhibiting the growth of LRR tires market globally. Increasing adoption of LRR tires by commercial vehicles such as on highway truck fleets in last two years, is one key trend observed in global LRR tire market.Global Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: SegmentationOn the basis of vehicle type, the global LRR tire market is segmented into,Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV)Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV)Passenger VehicleOn the basis of configuration, the global LRR tire market is segmented intoDual tireWide-baseOn the basis of sales channel type, the global LRR tire market is segmented intoOEMAftermarketVisit For TOC@Global Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global LRR tire market has been divided in to seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan.The global LRR tire market is expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. North America is anticipated to be the dominant market for LRR market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Factors such as adoption of safety regulations by government agencies along with an increase in vehicle sales and safety installations per vehicle, are fuelling the demand for LRR market globally.Global Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global LRR tire market are Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bridgestone Corporation, Continental AG, Michelin, Maxxis International, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Pirelli & C.SpA, Yokohama Rubber Company and Sumitomo CorporationABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Slitting Rewinding Machine Market  Report on Development and Key Players Euromac, Parkinson Technologies, Pasquato

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A new research document with title 'Global Slitting Rewinding Machine Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa and important players/vendors such as Euromac, Parkinson Technologies, Pasquato etc. The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2017-2022.Request a sample report @SummaryThis report studies the Slitting Rewinding Machine market. Slitting Rewinding Machines are machines for paper, plastic films, aluminum foil and flexible laminates. These Slitting Rewinding Machines are broadly categorized as converting machines and are used by manufacturers of Flexible packaging material in conjunction with Rotogravure/ Flexographic printing and Lamination equipment for the production of laminated reels and pouches.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Slitting Rewinding Machine in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAtlas Converting EquipmentKampfASHE Converting EquipmentGOEBEL IMSEuromacParkinson TechnologiesPasquatoUniversal Converting EquipmentParkland InternationalSOMA EngineeringVarga-FlexoGrafotronicClass-EngineeringHCIRevomacToshinTemacKingsun MachineryKunshan Furi Precision MachineryComexiGet customization & check discount for report @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversLess than 1000mm Web Width1000-2000 mm Web WidthAbove 2000 mm Web WidthMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPlastic FilmPaperFoilsLaminatesBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Slitting Rewinding Machine market.Chapter 1, to describe Slitting Rewinding Machine Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Slitting Rewinding Machine, with sales, revenue, and price of Slitting Rewinding Machine, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Slitting Rewinding Machine, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Slitting Rewinding Machine market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Slitting Rewinding Machine sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road, Edison, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218
KinderCare nearly lost its way.

In 2015, the Portland-based childcare provider with more than 1,000 U.S. locations, hadn't seen a profitable quarter in three years. Its president chalks that up to missing out on human connections.

"We lost the passion of teachers who want to create these fun, engaging places for kids to learn," said Wei-Li Chong.

But now it's back on track, largely thanks to a turnaround implemented by Chong. The key ingredient? Data analysis  the type typically used by retailers to attract certain customers.

The Ohio native joined KinderCare in August 2012 after a decade with fashion retailer Ann Taylor and its Loft division. There, he worked with polling firm Gallup to better understand their customers and ensure the brand was targeting the right demographic.

At KinderCare, Chong partnered with Gallup again. This time, he worked backward. First, he wanted to know, what made KinderCare's best teachers so special? What did they have in common?

After surveying more than 700 KinderCare employees, a profile emerged of the ideal teacher.

Gallup then created a survey KinderCare could administer during the hiring process, ensuring that new employees had the same essential traits shared by that original group of teachers.

Though KinderCare decline to elaborate on its findings, citing the proprietary nature of its research, Chong said the biggest takeaway was the importance of the emotional connection.

"In retail, they're obsessed with emotional connection to the brain," he said. "There's never been a focus on that with early learning," he said. "But if you do that, great things happen with their children."

Since implementing this system in 2014, KinderCare has seen better teacher retention and a return to profitability. According to KinderCare, students in classrooms with teachers with ideal qualities outperform students in other classrooms.

"We're experiencing unprecedented growth right now," Chong said.

KinderCare operates about 1,350 locations nationwide, including 27 in the Portland area. Altogether, the company serves about 170,000 families.

A CHILDCARE SHORTAGE

Several Portland-area parents with kids enrolled at KinderCare said they were grateful the company, with its many locations, had an open spot for their child.

Jesse Gregg, of Southeast Portland, said he started looking for a childcare for his 1-year-old son about three months before he needed it. He learned the hard way that it wasn't enough lead time.

"We had tried to get him in at other daycares that were more 'bougie' or nice, but people were on the waiting lists there who weren't even pregnant yet," he said.

And it wasn't just the upscale daycares that were full  they were all full. Eventually, Gregg found a spot at a Lake Oswego KinderCare center.

"Because of their size, there was the ability to transfer, and more ability to fit him in," he said. "It looks like they kind of run it like a McDonalds. And that's not a criticism  they just have it down."

Finding and affording child care has become increasingly difficult for Oregonians. Aside from ensuring a child's well-being, there's mounting evidence that the caliber of care is crucial to early childhood learning and can affect academic achievement and social skills as they grow.

According to a March report by the Oregon Childcare Research Partnership, Oregon childcare facilities only have room for a fraction of the state's children. Oregon is home to about 623,000 kids younger than 13, but only 107,000 slots in organized care centers like KinderCare or smaller operations.

In 2015, the report found, 45 percent of the state's 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in preschool, which helps prepare them for kindergarten. The rest are watched by family members, friends or other caregivers.

Meanwhile, the cost of childcare has far outpaced household incomes, especially for those led by single women. The median annual cost of childcare for a toddler is $12,600, or roughly twice what someone would pay to attend one of Oregon's public universities for a year.

Novin Kaihani enrolled his infant daughter in a KinderCare near his Tualatin home in March.

Because he works for Intel, which has a partnership with KinderCare, he gets a 15 percent discount on child care. But he and his wife still fork over $1,051 a month for the service, roughly $12,600 a year.

In exchange, the center's teachers read to their daughter, play with her, help her understand the concept of sitting down for a meal and even teach her basic sign language to signal that she's hungry or that she's done eating. They also provide her with toys that encourage learning, he said.

The couple appreciates KinderCare, he said. They particularly like the photos teachers send throughout of the day of their daughter playing and eating, Kaihani said, so they feel connected to her.

"I honestly do feel like she's cared for and loved for while she's at daycare," he said. "She actually likes being at daycare, and would probably rather be at daycare than with us, playing with other kids. Rather than feeling like you're dealing with a company, it feels like you're dealing with a family that actually cares about you."

-- Anna Marum

amarum@oregonian.com

503-294-5911

@annamarum
Portland General Electric officials entered a meeting in Salem this week intent on persuading state regulators that it makes economic and environmental sense to move quickly on a massive new wind farm to meet the state's expanded green energy mandates.

The utility was already playing defense. Facing intense blowback from environmental advocates, ratepayer groups and regulatory staff, it had abandoned the centerpiece of the resource plan it had submitted to the Public Utility Commission in November. That would potentially have had it building two new gas plants in Boardman to replace the coal-fired plant it will close there in 2020.

Now it was looking to salvage the other big-dollar component of the proposal, the most likely result of which would involve building or buying the output from a $1 billion wind farm in the Columbia River Gorge. And it was facing more opposition from the commission staff and ratepayer advocates.

By the end of the six-hour session, the three commissioners were unmoved. Though they left the door open for the utility to submit a new, more incremental renewables plan, they declined to give their blessing to the existing one. And they made it clear they agreed with staff.

"This does not mean that staff is opposed to renewables," JP Batmale, a senior utility analyst told commissioners Tuesday. But "PGE did not present a persuasive case to staff that the specific, take-it or-leave-it proposal is the least-cost, least-risk for ratepayers at this time."

The decision underscores the difficulty of planning for future electricity needs at a time of rapid and accelerating change in the industry. Even as state and local leaders pursue policies to more aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions, it's unclear how those efforts mesh with utilities traditional regulatory framework and their need to keep the lights on.

The decision could have big implications for PacifiCorp, which unveiled a plan earlier this year to invest $3.5 billion in wind energy and new transmission lines in Wyoming. Regulators acknowledgement of such resource plans aren't binding on the utilities. But without that blessing, the investments are riskier when it comes to recovering costs in future rate cases.

Bottom line, staff and the ratepayer groups contend that PGE simply doesn't need another wind farm right now, particularly in the Gorge.

Wind farms produce lots of energy, but they are inherently unpredictable, meaning they can't be relied on to fill the capacity hole that will be left when PGE closes the Boardman coal plant. During the region's recent heat wave, when utilities were running their fossil fuel plants hard to meet soaring demand, wind farms in the Gorge were often producing little to no electricity.

In the next two decades, state mandates will force PGE and PacifiCorp to meet a steadily larger percentage of customer demand with renewable energy, which will require more investments. Last year, state lawmakers doubled those requirements, which now top out at 50 percent of their customers' energy use by 2040.

The utility maintains that it makes sense to act now to capture federal production tax credits before that program begins to sunset in 2020. The credits, it has stressed, would cover 25 percent of the project's costs, making near-term action a low risk approach.

But staff and others were dubious. Ongoing price declines and technological advances mean delaying big investments could be a better strategy, even if it means forgoing the tax credits, they said. They're also wary of PGE concentrating more of its renewables portfolio in the Gorge, as that makes its energy supply more dependent on weather conditions in a single area.

But there's a more fundamental issue at work. Both PGE and PacifiCorp have been generating more green power than required for years. As a result, they've built up huge banks of renewable energy credits that can be used to comply with the state mandates in years when they don't generate enough green power.

Utilities successfully lobbied for those long-lived, bankable credits as a kind of compliance shock absorber. But PGE's bank of credits is now so big that it can satisfy the increasing mandates until 2029 or 2030 without purchasing any more physical resources.

Bob Jenks, executive director of the Citizens' Utility Board, described PGE's proposal as "problematic" given the remoteness of the actual compliance need. He said the company might have been better off proposing some big solar projects in eastern Oregon, perhaps with associated storage, as they would have provided a bigger contribution to its capacity needs.

Choosing "what resource to build and when is the key to making this transition in an affordable way. Making the right investments at the right time ... We don't believe Gorge wind at this time is the right investment."

PGE warns that backloading its renewables investments into the decade before 2040 will lead to rate shock. Moreover, some customers, including the city of Portland and Multnomah County, already are pushing the utility go beyond the state requirements and supply all their electricity with green power by 2035.

Those political, regulatory and customer pressures are reinforced by the business reality that renewables investments are now the most promising avenue for PGE to grow its asset base and earnings. Collectively, they're converting the company  publicly at least  into something of a climate activist.

Last weekend, PGE chief executive Jim Piro and his named successor, Maria Pope, authored an opinion piece in The Oregonian/Oregon Live that said PGE was doing its part to combat global warming, but warned that commissioners might block the path toward "a cleaner, more reliable, and affordable energy future."

"It doesn't make sense to sit back and wait on these carbon reductions, especially when we also have an opportunity to save our customers' money," they wrote.

Commissioner Stephen Bloom was not amused. He castigated the company Tuesday, saying it had failed to make its case for the investment, and that it wasn't the commission's job to micromanage PGE's business. He also said the company was giving him whiplash, as it hadn't offered a lot of support for reducing carbon emissions in the past.

"To say the OpEd was disingenuous would be charitable," he said.

But environmental and renewable industry advocates lined up in support of PGE's wind proposal.

Michael O'Brien, an analyst with Renewables Northwest, said that PGE's economic analyses had demonstrated the value of early investment in renewables. He said viewing them simply as a means of regulatory compliance, divorced from the energy, capacity and emissions benefits they offer, was deeply problematic.

Mia Rebak, a campaign coordinator for the climate change advocacy group 350 PDX, made a more impassioned plea.

"Climate change is here," she said. "Our number one concern is to transition off of fossil fuels as quickly as possible. It's imperative to ramp up renewables as fast as possible ... We can't wait to 2029 or 2030 to make this transition."

Commissioner Megan Decker was conflicted. She said the risks and uncertainties of early action could be offset by potential lost opportunities. She suggested PGE develop another, more incremental plan to layer in more renewables over time.

PGE executives said they understood the uncertainties and had already scaled back renewables in its plan to half of what its financial modeling suggested would be optimal. They also suggested that smaller, more incremental investments would undermine the economies of scale that benefit ratepayers.

PGE's plan, insisted Brett Sims, the utility's director of resource strategy, is not risky. "It is a decision that is about as no-regrets as it gets."

In the end, the commission agreed not to acknowledge PGE's renewables plan, but invited the company to work with its staff and other stakeholders to see if it could design a more workable version. The company said it had already been on that path for two years, but would welcome another opportunity.

While the renewables plan got most of the airtime Tuesday, environmentalists claimed victory in moving PGE off its preference for new gas-fired plants. The commission formally acknowledged that the utility needs to acquire a substantial chunk of reliable capacity resources  560 megawatts. But it already had pushed PGE into negotiations to acquire existing resources to meet those needs  preferably from hydropower providers. PGE has told commissioners that the initial response in those negotiations has been encouraging.

"It was a really big win to stop a fossil fuel project in Oregon," said Amy Hojnowski of the Sierra Club. "We really feel like today was a turning point in whether Oregon will tolerate another fossil fuel plant."

She was also encouraged by PGE's stance before regulators on the need to "decarbonize" the grid and aggressively reduce emissions.

"They sound like true converts," she said. "Now that they've said it, we get to hold them accountable to this new pursuit of decarbonization."

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger
Another shoe dropped this week at the Oregon Department of Energy as a Marion County judge ruled that its 2016 assessment on energy suppliers amounts to a tax that was improperly levied and must be refunded to a group of 10 public utilities.

The annual energy supplier assessment makes up more than a third of the agency's budget  $13.1 million in the last biennium  and is the most important source of discretionary funds at the agency, which also collects federal funds and other fees that are dedicated for specific purposes.

As such, it could spell money problems for the agency, already beset by an ongoing bribery and forgery scandal and questions about its future.

"We're public employees and hate to create issues for a public agency, but we don't see the value proposition for our ratepayers from this agency," said Debra Smith, general manager of Central Lincoln Public Utility District, one of the 10 plaintiffs. "It's real money to our ratepayers, and it's the principal of the thing."

Rachel Wray, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said the agency was reviewing the ruling and will be going over options with the Department of Justice. "In our [20]17-19 budget, we did ask for and the Legislature approved additional funding for litigation expenses over the next two years in anticipation of a lengthy process," she said.

The assessment has been controversial for years. In 2012, PacifiCorp and Cascade Natural Gas filed a suit challenging it as an unconstitutional tax levied at the discretion of the department's director.

At the time, PacifiCorp was at odds with the agency for using the assessment to backfill its budget while working hand-in-hand with environmental advocates and others to oppose the utility in various regulatory proceedings.

The Legislature passed a bill in 2013 that required more transparency from the department, and the agency agreed to spend down reserves during the last biennium in an effort to hold down the cost. In response, the utilities withdrew that suit.

A group representing 10 public utilities filed a similar suit last year. They also maintained that the assessment was an improper tax, and that neither the Legislature nor the Energy Department has followed the requirements necessary to impose or increase it.

The utilities asked a Marion County Circuit Court judge to block the assessment until those requirements are fulfilled, and refund the assessment that they paid last year.

Judge Tracy Prall concluded that the assessment was a tax, and that Energy Department Director Michael Kaplan did not follow the transparency requirements to give energy suppliers a full accounting of how the money would be used.

She ordered the agency to refund last year's assessment for the 10 plaintiffs, about $715,000, according to their lawyer, Eric Kodesch at Stoel Rives.

The bigger risk may be if Kaplan failed to provide a full accounting of how the assessment would be used in the coming biennium, which could put the entire amount in question and put a much bigger hole in the agency's current operating budget.

"From the documents I've seen, it doesn't appear that they provided a full accounting, so the same problem they had for 2016, they could have for 2017 and 2018," Kodesch said.

The assessment is imposed on the gross receipts of energy suppliers of all stripes, from utilities and independent wind farm owners to petroleum companies. The agency's budget presentation for the current biennium targeted the total assessment at $15.5 million for the two-year period.

Scott Bolton, director of government affairs for PacifiCorp, said a variety of other energy suppliers had paid their 2016 assessment under protest and may be entitled to a refund.

"We feel like we made some progress on this issue, but I find it amazing that they didn't follow through on the transparency measures that they agreed to," Bolton said.

The ruling comes as the beleaguered agency is grappling with a widening corruption investigation. On June 20, former DOE manager Joe Colello pleaded guilty in Marion County Circuit Court to accepting $291,017 in kickbacks in connection with the sale of state energy tax credits. Two weeks later, the same court handed down a 78-indictment against private consultant Martin Shain in connection with the scandal that ensnared Colello.

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger
Eclipse day rentals are a dime a dozen in Oregon at the moment. Check Craigslist and Airbnb and you're sure to find pages of listings demanding three- and four-figure sums for an overnight stay leading up to Aug. 21.

But there's only one fellow we could find that's offering use of his smoke machine, karaoke machine and promising "non-stop deer situations" in a Salem condo.

Brandon Isaac Blackwood is a video producer and photographer who's renting out the first floor of his family's condo on Croisan Mountain for $1,000 a night. His Craigslist ad, titled "LITERALLY THE BEST ECLIPSE RENTAL ON EARTH," describes lodgings that feature a fridge stocked with LaCroix, "high-end eclipse glasses" and complimentary joints.

"I decided to rent it out when I realized that this is LITERALLY the best place I'd want to be for this," Blackwood told The Oregonian/OregonLive over email. "It's a big deal for me and I hope to get a cool group in here."

While the listing is a carefully constructed oddity that's sure to make you chuckle, Blackwood dials the absurdity to 11 in a promotional video on Vimeo.

BEST ECLIPSE VACATION RENTAL ON EARTH from SKY HIGH PICTURES on Vimeo.

The Salem videographer puts his drone to work in the nearly four-minute clip, which dovetails into a rousing rendition of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" about halfway through.

In addition to the rental space, Blackwood says he's willing to provide shuttle service from PDX for eclipse visitors, tours of Oregon's capital city and "other secret Salem stuff I can't talk about."

"I'll be upstairs but am willing and open to help anybody out with making their eclipsperience the best," he said.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
By PTI: Panaji, Aug 12 (PTI) The Centre is likely to tie up with the Goa government to create green energy fuel chain, which would be the first of its kind in the country, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here today.

"I met Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Delhi when he came there. I requested him that the Centre and the Goa government should come together to create green energy fuel chain in the state," Pradhan told reporters near here after commissioning ship Shaurya for Indian Coast Guard.

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"Goa is a great tourist destination of the country and in the next few years, the state can have 100 per cent green fuel, which will be add-on for the tourism potential," he said.

Responding to a query, Pradhan said that green fuel chain was not a new concept, as several European countries have brought in regulations that banned the use of fossil fuel.

"We need to study how they have done it and the same can be adopted in Goa on an experimental basis," the minister said.

According to him, enough raw material was generated through agriculture, tourism and fisheries industries to create alternative fuel.

The minister also said that the union government wanted to encourage the use of alternative fuel in the Indian marine sector. "High speed diesel, which is currently used in this sector, can be replaced with alternative fuel," he said.

Pradhan said that he has suggested that the organisations like Goa Shipyard Ltd, Indian Coast Guard and GAIL should partner to conduct a pilot study whether LNG and CNG could be used as a fuel, which is cheaper, in the marine sector.

"Soon we will have a technical MOU with these three organisations," he said. PTI RPS NP

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Vikas and Ashish were arrested on August 5 and later released on bail. On the night of August 4, the duo chased Kundu who was returning after work.

By India Today Web Desk: A local court today sent Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar to judicial custody till August 25. The duo were arrested on August 9 in connection with stalking of bureaucrat's daughter Varnika Kundu.

Vikas and Ashish were arrested on August 5 and later released on bail. On the night of August 4, the duo chased Kundu who was returning after work.

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After the incident, Kundu filed a complaint and the duo was booked on charges of stalking and attempt to kidnap. Owing to the media pressure that ensued after Kundu shared her ordeal on Facebook, the accused were rounded up by the Chandigarh Police.

While the police were under fire following reports of lapse in investigation, the police have denied any reports of political pressure.

Incidentally, few days ago a video of Vikas and Ashish buying alcohol before the incident. The video further substantiated the woman's claims.

Also Read

Chandigarh stalking: Vikas Barala, Ashish Kumar sent to 2-day police custody

Why Chandigarh stalking is not a shocker: A look at crime against women in numbers

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A right-wing blogger, Jason Kessler, had called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a downtown park.

By India Today Web Desk: "You will not replace us." "White lives matter." "Jews will not replace us." Hundreds of torch-wielding American white nationalists and white supremacists, most of whom were young men, roared these words in unison last night at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a Washington Post report said.

See for yourself.

Close your eyes and imagine if 2000 BLACK men were carrying torches and marching anywhere in America #Charlottesville #WhiteSupremacists pic.twitter.com/yBQa6M4MWf- Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) August 12, 2017

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That happened after a right-wing blogger, Jason Kessler, called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a downtown park.

Things got worse this morning. Virginia's governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency after violent clashes took place between white nationalists and counter-protestors.

Not sure who provoked first. Both sides were hitting each other at Justice Park before police arrived. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/onABUPq1mm- ACLU of Virginia (@ACLUVA) August 12, 2017

This Twitter user posted a horrifying video of a vehicle zooming towards people who he said were anti-racist protestors.

Video of car hitting anti-racist protestors. Let there be no confusion: this was deliberate terrorism. My prayers with victims. Stay home. pic.twitter.com/MUOZs71Pf4- Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) August 12, 2017

Both US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tweeted appeals for calm.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville- Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 12, 2017

'ANTI-WHITE CLIMATE'

It's the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people."

"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Among those expected to attend are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and "alt-right" activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

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Officials have been preparing for the rally for months. Virginia State Police will be assisting local authorities, and a spokesman said the Virginia National Guard "will closely monitor the situation and will be able to rapidly respond and provide additional assistance if needed."

According to initial reports, one person has been declared dead, and 19 injured after a car ploughed into a group of protestors.

(Inputs from AP)

ALSO READ

Vandalism on Wikipedia made Apple Siri give racist Indian answer

Racism slur on Indian-origin councillor in UK, banned from driving taxi

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This chain snatcher from Sipri of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh is quite a spectacle.

By India Today Web Desk: Traffic constables grooving to popular numbers on busy crossroads is passe, here is a chain snatcher who not only swindles unsuspecting pedestrians but also gyrates to the tunes of pop legend Michael Jackson while fleeing.

The chain snatcher from Sipri of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh is quite a spectacle.

This rare gem was discovered after the Jhansi Police arrested three serial chain snatchers. Rinku Bhadauria, who is the leader of the gang, is also a dance teacher and has snatched more than 100 gold chains in his locality.

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The other accused have been identified as Vishal Khare and Gudda Soni.

Incidentally, after the police found out that Rinku (28) was a dance master, they made him dance at the police station several times.

One of the videos where Rinku is seen dancing after the police caught him has gone viral, garnering more fans.

Rinku also amused the policemen by doing a dance demonstration of his modus operandi.

The police arrested Rinku and his gang after a woman's chain was snatched near Mission Compound area. Following the incident the ASP had launched an aggressive campaign to track down such offenders.

The dancing sensation revealed that he began chain snatching at the age of 16. He told the police that stayed in Mumbai where he did not commit any crime. However, after returning to Jhansi he took to chain snatching again.

Sipri Police Station in-charge Gagan Gaud said that the trio melted the stolen gold chains and stole them in different cities. Gaud added that investigations are on and those buying gold from them will also face stringent punishment.

FYI || Watch: Locals in UP turned government primary school into dance bar on Raksha Bandhan

FYI || Paranormal activity caught on cam inside dance studio. Is this video fake?

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Chicago has vast property wealth and the largest population by far in Illinois. But it also has a large amount of that property wealth locked up in tax increment financing districts.

According to figures released last week by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Chicago has over half of the $12.4 billion in statewide equalized assessed valuation locked up in TIF districts. About 8.6 percent of the city's total equalized assessed valuation is in a TIF district, well above the statewide average of 3.95 percent, but only the seventh-highest percentage in the state (29 percent of Clinton County's EAV is in TIF districts, making it the leader going away).

And partly because Chicago is by far the largest city covered under state tax cap laws, the city's public schools were able to claim $125 million in state adjustment benefits in Fiscal Year 2016 for districts with property tax caps, according to numbers crunched by the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois. But the way the laws are written, that $125 million was most of the $141 million claimed by all school districts in Illinois. The total amount was expected to drop by more than half during Fiscal Year 2017.

When valuations go up, so does the subsidy. In 2010, CPS' subsidy was almost $444 million to account for "lost" revenue due to the tax caps. Elgin's school district was second that year, at $18.3 million, but it wasn't even in the top 15 last year.

The governor's amendatory veto of SB1, the school funding reform bill, would slash state funding to school districts that are within TIF districts and covered under property tax caps. That seems counter-intuitive for this governor, who has railed against high local property taxes since first announcing for office. While he denied it last week, it's clear he wants to force local school districts to raise their property taxes to avoid state funding cuts.

Why would he do that? Chicago Public Schools funding, obviously. The governor has often put CPS in the middle of his Statehouse wars. One of the events that motivated him to run for higher office was the successful Chicago Teachers Union strike, which angered him to no end. And he's clearly looking for leverage in the wake of the budget and tax hike veto overrides.

That's not to say the Democrats aren't playing the same sort of game. They added even more money to SB1 for CPS when the bill finally reached the House and then jammed it through on a mostly partisan roll call.

The Illinois State Board of Education said it had finished its numbers crunching of Rauner's amendatory veto last week, but then found some data mistakes, so as of this writing we dont know what the numbers are, but you can bet that CPS will take a big hit.

The bigger question is how many suburban and downstate districts will be slammed by this amendatory veto. Ford County, which is within Sen. Jason Barickman's district, has the second highest percentage of assessed valuation in a TIF district in the state, over 10 percent of its EAV. Barickman, R-Bloomington, is the lead Senate Republican negotiator on education funding reform. Politically, this could be quite problematic.

These sorts of negotiations take years to complete. First, you have to convince people to open a nasty can of worms  which isn't easy because so many folks have vested interests in the status quo and have cut little deals over the years to sweeten their own pots. Then you have to convince everybody to create a whole new can of worms. And then you have to actually do it. It isn't easy.

Education funding reform has taken at least four years to get this far. Barickman has suggested that perhaps TIF districts created in the future could trigger a change to state aid. But even that could be a heavy lift at this late stage, with schools about to open.

Fiddling now with TIF and property tax caps could require a rewrite of the whole bill to achieve the bipartisan goals that were laid down at the outset of this monstrous task.

A last-minute amendatory veto isn't the right way to go. If the governor wanted this stuff, he had over two years to bring it to the bargaining table. And the same goes for the House's last-minute add-ons from the end of May.

What they should probably do is back up and run a bill that's as close to the Senate-approved version as possible.
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A Google engineer got fired this week for distributing a 10-page memo arguing that the gender gap between men and women working in tech and leadership positions is due to biological and psychological differences. The WikiLeaks founder and chief tweeted, "Censorship is for losers," before adding that there was a job for fired Google software engineer James Damore at his whistleblowing organization. Another set of tweets showed that there were a series of fake ads in and around Santa Monica and Venice California created by a street artist named Sabo who creatively bashed Google as noted below.





USA Today reported yesterday that "In one of the ads, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is pictured side by side late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Next to Jobs is a picture of the Apple logo with the company's famous slogan "Think Different." Next to Pichai is the Google logo but instead the text reads "Not So Much."





The second ad showing 'Goolag' is alluding to the Soviet Unions forced-labor camps known as the Gulag. The Gulag was recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union.

Bloomberg Interview with Fired Google Engineer James Damore









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"There are so many disputes and problems among countries but Nepal always stands by resolution of any tensions through diplomacy and in a peaceful manner", said Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

By Geeta Mohan: After the volley of verbal attacks from China threatening India with war over China-Bhutan border dispute in Doka La (Doklam), Nepal has now come forward asking all countries to resolve matters peacefully. Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara speaking to MAIL TODAY said, "There are so many disputes and problems among countries but Nepal always stands by resolution of any tensions through diplomacy and in a peaceful manner. At every step, Nepal has asked countries to resolve issues through dialogue."

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In yet another move to set the narrative and justify the change in status quo in the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction, China tried to bring other disputes into the equation. One such dispute is Kalapani, a 35-sqkm area claimed by India and Nepal which has been embroiled in controversy since mid-1996.

It is also a tri-junction between India-Nepal-China. Briefing media on Tuesday Wang Wenli, deputy director general of the Boundary and Ocean Affairs of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said, "The Indian side has also many tri-junctions. What if we use the same excuse and enter the Kalapani region between China, India and Nepal or even into the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan."

When MAIL TODAY posed the same question to the Nepalese deputy PM, he rejected the idea of another standoff at the Indian border which does not bode well for any of the countries in the region, choosing the diplomatic route rute and fobbing any Chinese overtures. He said, "We are discussing this in a diplomatic way with India and with China. That is the only way forward." Nepal as one of the Himalayan nations is feeling the heat of what is happening in Doklam. The administration is monitoring the developments at the tri-junction.

Mahara said, "We have mentioned not to go in the way of war, solve it peacefully, diplomatically. This is our stand and our request." This is the first time that Nepal has come out and urged all the three nations to resolve the stand-off peacefully. Earlier, they had kept away from commenting over the crisis. This is a sign of how any kind of escalation is what Nepal and Bhutan want to avoid. Even after the bilateral meeting between India and Bhutan on Friday afternoon, Bhutanese Foreign Minister Damcho Dorji said, "We hope the situation in Doklam will be resolved peacefully and amicably."

DEFENCE MINISTER JAITLEY SPEAKS

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Arun Jaitely Friday rejected reports about shortage of ammunition and asserted that the to a particular point of time. Thereafter significant process has been made. "It is a continuous process. Therefore, nobody should have any doubt about the availability of equipment or the preparedness of our forces," he asserted.

Jaitley also sought to allay fears of closure of ordnance defence factories, saying all these factories and defence PSUs are going to continue and no employee will be retrenched. The core expertise of these ordnance factories is manufacturing ammo and they will continue to do that, he added. With inputs from agencies armed forces have enough quantity to face any eventuality. He said this in the Lok Sabha after a member raised questions about the preparedness of the armed forces while contending that there are disturbing reports from our border areas, a reference to the Doklam standoff. A question was also asked in reference to a CAG report which had stated that the defence forces have ammunition that can last for 20 days in an event of a war, instead of the minimum requirement of 40 days.

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"This question has been asked earlier also and I will only reiterate what I had said. Our defence forces have adequate equipment to face any eventuality," Jaitely said, without any mention of the Doklam stand-off which has been going on for nearly two months. The defence minister said the findings of the CAG report, which had talked about the shortage of ammunition, related to a particular point of time. Thereafter significant process has been made.

"It is a continuous process. Therefore, nobody should have any doubt about the availability of equipment or the preparedness of our forces," he asserted. Jaitley also sought to allay fears of closure of ordnance defence factories, saying all these factories and defence PSUs are going to continue and no employee will be retrenched. The core expertise of these ordnance factories is manufacturing ammo and they will continue to do that, he added.

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Also Read:

Beyond Doklam: How China is winning over India's neighbours with money, arms

Bhutan asks India to resolve Doklam border standoff amicably with China

Doklam: China speaks in two tongues, ups war cry in media but agrees to retreat 100 m on ground

Also Watch: When Xi Jinping clashed with Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

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Im sitting at the opening session of the 2017 FairMormon conference. Neil Rappleye is speaking. His topic, as described in his PowerPoint slides, bears two distinct titles. The first is A Tale of Two Jerusalems. The second is the one also contained in the printed conference program: Put Away Childish Things: Learning to Read the Book of Mormon Using Mature Historical Thought.

I like his opening. He describes the Amarna letters, which are a fourteenth-century BC archive, written (curiously) in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets, that consists primarily of diplomatic correspondence between the pharaonic administration of the New Kingdoms eighteenth dynasty and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru. Some of them are from Urusalim  plainly Jerusalem  at a time long before Davids conquest of the city and, indeed, during a period when some have doubted that the city was anything more than a backwater village (if, indeed, it existed at all).

This is an interesting presentation in the vein of the old, sadly departed FARMS. His discussion of linguistic loan-shifting alone was worth the price of admission. Im afraid that it wont silence the critics, though. (On the question of horses, for instance.) Not because his position isnt strong, but because theyre . . . Well, because, too often, theyre simply not intellectually serious. (I saw some online apostate mockery of Brother Rappleyes notion of putting away childish things and mature historical thought, which illustrates my viewpoint rather nicely.)

I think that many will find it interesting. Fortunately, transcripts and videos of this conferences presentations will be posted relatively soon after its last (and dreadfully dull) speaker finally takes his seat.

***

Last night, I participated along with several others in the traditional informal gathering of FairMormon volunteers that takes place on the Wednesday evening before the annual conference. FairMormon simply could not function without the selfless contributions of donors and, even more, of volunteer workers.

***

Ive just learned that both of my Cruise Lady tours to the Holy Land next year are sold out.

I told people to sign up quickly.

If youre interested, though, you might still want to sign onto the wait list. Its not at all uncommon for people to drop out of the tour over the eight to ten months prior to departure.

Im not sure how much longer my wife and I will continue to do these tours. We enjoy doing them, but there are other things  including things that typically happen in late April and in May  that we enjoy, too.

So, if anybody out there ever wants to go to Israel with me, you might want to consider 2019. There might be a 2020 tour  probably will be  but, then again, maybe not.

Seriously.
During the summer of 1263, Peter of Prague traveled to Rome on a pilgrimage to pray at the tomb of Saint Peter bringing with him many doubts about his faith and his vocation as a priest. After regaining his spiritual strength and calming his doubts, Peter began his journey home, stopping in the village of Bolsena north of Rome for the night.

Early in the morning, before celebrating Mass at the tomb of a local 3rd century martyr Saint Cristina, Peters faith was once again shaken. Overwhelmed by considering the young woman who had willingly died for Christ, Peter of Prague prayed, for the strength of soul and for that extreme abandonment God gives to those who completely trust in him.

As he celebrated Mass the host began to bleed. The blood dripped onto the corporal which lay on the altar beneath the sacred vessels. Amazed and overjoyed, Peter traveled to the neighboring town of Orvieto to describe what had happened to Pope Urban IV. The Pope immediately sent his representative to bring the corporal to Orvieto for inspection. His representative did as he was told, and once the corporal arrived to Orvieto it was kept at its cathedral rather than at the small country village of Bolsena.

One year later, 1264, Pope Urban IV declared the Feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Corpus Christi. Urban commissioned Saint Thomas Aquinas, who at that time lived in Oriveto, to compose the liturgy for the new feast. From this commission Saint Thomas gave the Church the beautiful hymn Pange Lingua, which ends with the well-known Tantum Ergo.

The Eucharistic miracle of Orvieto serves as a living reminder of the words of Jesus Christ, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

It is an extraordinary reminder of a simple truth: that Jesus Christ truly comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine. Through His sacramental presence, God nourishes us by feeding us with heavenly food.

We may not have experienced a miracle like Peter of Prague, but Jesus reminds us, blessed are those who have not seen yet believe. It is possible to see the century-old corporal at the Chapel of the Corporal in Orivetos magnificent cathedral, but more magnificent is our ability to receive the Body and Blood of Christ Our Lord which are true food and true drink.
Whenever I think of the great Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan and doctor of the church, I remember a piece of trivia I learned while reading the Confessions of Saint Augustine in college.

Saint Ambrose is remembered for his great knowledge and wisdom. Few of his contemporaries surpassed him in courage and astuteness. His greatest student was Saint Augustine of Hippo who arrived to Milan in 384 to teach at an imperial school. Augustine speaks of Ambrose, in particular the influence this great learned man had on him, who was still a young, non-Christian who desperately yearned for Truth.

Among the many things Augustine notes of Ambrose, he writes this, Ambrose was an extraordinary reader. When he read his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found his reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.

This is the trivia knowledge of Saint Ambrose: he read in his head, he did not read out loud. This may sound silly to us moderns, but some argue this passage from Augustines Confessions is the first recorded description of a human being reading silently in Western culture. Historically human beings when reading would read out loud. If you look at texts and inscriptions from antiquity into the medieval world, you notice there is very little if any punctuation and that all letters are jammed together. By reading out loud, the reader would decipher when words began and ended. Words were written to be pronounced, not to be kept to oneself.

Today the local Milanese Church continues to use one of the ancient rites of the Latin Church named after Ambrose, the Ambrosian Rite. Most of us are familiar with the Roman Rite which dominates in Western Europe and the New World. If you go to Mass in Milan, be prepared for things to be done a little bit differently!

Saint Ambrose, pray for us

Pictures are mine, all rights reserved
Hakuins Song of Zazen

The Zazen Wasan

Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1768) was one of Japans gifts to our world. The reviver of a moribund Rinzai Zen community, the reforms associated with his name created the modern curricular koan system used in both the Japanese Rinzai community and the Soto reformed tradition of koan introspection restored by Daiun Sogaku Harada. My own spiritual life has been founded within Master Haradas restoration of this discipline. Here with this poem we get a taste of Hakuins spiritual call, a direct pointing the way of simple presence. Here are three translations, by Norman Waddell, Robert Aitken, and Zenkei Shibyama. The video clip gives us the chant in Japanese.

The picture is master Hakuins self-portrait.

Translated by Norman Waddell

All beings by nature are Buddha,

As ice by nature is water.

Apart from water there is no ice;

Apart from beings, no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near

And search for truth afar:

Like someone in the midst of water

Crying out in thirst,

Like a child of a wealthy home

Wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance,

We wander through the Six Worlds,

From dark path to dark path

When shall we be freed from birth and death?

Oh, the zazen of the Mahayana!

To this the highest praise!

Devotion, repentance, training,

The many paramitas

All have their source in zazen.

Those who try zazen even once

Wipe away beginning-less crimes.

Where are all the dark paths then?

The Pure Land itself is near.

Those who hear this truth even once

And listen with a grateful heart,

Treasuring it, revering it,

Gain blessings without end.

Much more, those who turn about

And bear witness to self-nature,

Self-nature that is no-nature,

Go far beyond mere doctrine.

Here effect and cause are the same,

The Way is neither two nor three.

With form that is no-form,

Going and coming, we are never astray,

With thought that is no-thought,

Singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.

Boundless and free is the sky of Samadhi!

Bright the full moon of wisdom!

Truly, is anything missing now?

Nirvana is right here, before our eyes,

This very place is the Lotus Land,

This very body, the Buddha

Translated by Robert Aitken

All beings by nature are Buddha,

as ice by nature is water;

apart from water there is no ice,

apart from beings no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near

and search for truth afar,

like someone in the midst of water

crying out in thirst,

like a child of a wealthy home

wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance

we wander through the six worlds,

from dark path to dark path we wander,

when shall we be freed from birth and death?

For this the zazen of the Mahayana

deserves the highest praise:

offerings, precepts, paramitas,

Nembutsu, atonement, practice

the many other virtues

all rise within zazen.

Those who try zazen even once

wipe away immeasurable crimes

where are all the dark paths then?

The Pure Land itself is near.

Those who hear this truth even once

and listen with a grateful heart,

treasuring it, revering it,

gain blessings without end.

Much more, if you turn yourself about

and confirm your own self-nature

that self-nature is no nature

you are far beyond mere argument.

The oneness of cause and effect

is clear,

not two, not three, the path is put right;

with form that is no form

going and coming never astray,

with thought that is no thought

singing and dancing are the voice

of the Law.

Boundless and free is the sky of samadhi!

Bright the full moon of wisdom!

Truly is anything missing now?

Nirvana is here, before your eyes,

this very place is the Lotus Land,

this very body the Buddha.

Translated by Zenkei Shibayama

All beings are primarily Buddhas.

Like water and ice,

There is no ice apart from water;

There are no Buddhas apart from beings.

Not knowing how close the Truth is to them,

Beings seek for it afarwhat a pity!

It is like those who being in water

Cry out for water, feeling thirst.

It is like the rich mans son,

Who has lost his way among the poor.

The reason why beings transmigrate through the six worlds,

Is because they are lost in the darkness of ignorance.

Wandering from darkness to darkness,

How can they ever be free rom birth-and-death?

As to Zazen taught in the Mahayana,

No amount of praise can exhaust its merits.

The Six Paramitas, beginning with the Giving,

Observing the Precepts and other good deeds, variously enumerated,

As Nembutsu, Repentance, and so on

All are finally reducible to Zazen.

The merit of even a single sitting in Zazen

Erases the countless sins accumulated in the past.

Where then are there the evil paths to misguide us?

The Pure Land cannot be far away.

Those who, even once, in all humility,

Listen to this Truth.

Praise it and faithfully follow it,

Will be endowed with innumerable merits.

But if you turn your eyes within yourselves

And testify to the truth of Self-nature

The Self-nature that is no-nature,

You will have gone beyond the ken of sophistry.

The gate of the oneness of cause and effect is opened;

The path of non-duality and non-trinity runs straight ahead.

Your form being the form of no-form,

Your going-and-returning takes place nowhere but where your are;

Your thought being the thought of no-thought,

Your singing-and-dancing is none other than the voice of Dharma.

How boundless and free is the sky of Samadhi!

How refreshingly bright, the moon of the Fourfold Wisdom!

At this moment what is there that you lack!

Nirvana presents itself before you,

Where you stand is the Land of Purity.

Your person, the body of Buddha.
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
After Iranian adviser is beheaded by ISIS, IRGC General vows Iran not to rest until eradication of all terrorists

08/11/17

Source: Press TV

General Qassem Soleimani says Iranian forces will not rest until they have taken out every last terrorist from the face of the Muslim world after Daesh reportedly beheaded Iranian military adviser Mohsen Hojaji in Syria.



Mohsen Hojaji, the Iranian military adviser beheaded by ISIS in Syria



The general, who commands the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), made the pledge in a statement carried by Tasnim News Agency on Thursday.



Mohsen Hojaji, who was a member of the Iranian advisory support team in Syria, was reportedly taken hostage by the Takfiri group near the Iraqi border on Monday and beheaded two days later.



General Soleimani said the "horrific, inhumane crime" came in the wake of successive blows dealt on several fronts to Takfiri-Wahhabi terror groups, which are tied to global arrogance.



"The atrocity does not fall within any Islamic, or even humanitarian, principle or law," the statement said.



Such acts, the general said, would further strengthen the Iranian servicemen's resolve in pursuit of their cause "to purge every inch of the Muslim territories of their (the terrorists') evil presence."



Iranian servicemen "will avenge this bestial act with a firm decision, namely [to realize] the very eradication of the evil growth of Wahhabism and terrorism from the face of the Muslim world."





Major General Qassem Soleimani on cover of Mosala magazine



Wahhabism is the radical ideology informing the acts of terrorism perpetrated by Daesh and its fellow Takfiri outfits.



At Iraq and Syria's request, the Islamic Republic has been providing the advisory assistance to the respective countries' armies in their fight against Takfiri terrorists.



On June 7, Daesh gunmen mounted assaults on Iran's Parliament and the Mausoleum of late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, leaving 18 people dead and over 50 others wounded.



The IRGC responded with a missile strike, which pummeled Daesh positions in Syria's eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province, killing more than 170 Takfiri elements and inflicting heavy damage to their weaponry and communication systems.



The group, which is by many accounts on its last legs in Iraq and Syria, is now seeking to establish footholds in countries beyond the Middle East, including Afghanistan.



On Sunday, Daesh and Taliban militants struck Mirza Olang, a Shia-populated village in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pol, in a rare concerted attack, killing at least 60 men, women and children.



Local officials say the killing marked one of the most hideous atrocities committed against civilians in recent years. Takfiri terrorists reportedly ambushed the fleeing residents in a ravine and rounded them up before beheading some of them and hurling some others from rocks to their deaths.



Some unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 120.



On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council released a report, saying Daesh continued to "motivate and enable" global attacks and funnel funds to supporters despite the defeats it has suffered Syria and Iraq.



The terror group would transfer the funds overseas in small amounts, which had made it hard to detect, the report said.



Daesh's command and control structure "has not broken down completely," and remains "a significant military threat," it said and warned about the outfit's efforts to establish a toehold in Southeast Asia, most notably the Philippines.
Police have arrested one Faith Mensah Tekpor said to be a serial confident trickster.



He poses as a Medical Doctor with several names such as Dr. Jeff Alvin Addow, Dr. Alvin Ownsa, Dr. Alvin Annan, Dr. Rill Owns, Dr. Collins Amoah and Dr. Alvin Mensah to defraud people.



A statement from the Public Affairs Department of the Police indicated that the suspect operated within the vicinity of Accra, Sakumono and Tema.



The suspect is on record to have jumped court bail and was declared wanted following a bench warrant.



His mode of operation as indicated in the statement issued by the police is usually by impersonation.



His mode of operation includes posing as a medical practitioner, approaches and proposes to a woman and pursues her to keep as a girlfriend with the potential of a lasting relationship.



He records his sexual encounters with the women, whether known to them or not. The statement said Faith Mensah Tekpor is currently facing trial for defrauding by impersonating and also under investigations for similar fraud offences.



As contained in the statement, the police say intelligence available to them show that many people have fallen victim to this fake Dr. Jeff Alvin Addow, Dr. Alvin Owusu, Dr. Alvin Annan, DA Fiifi Owusu, Dr. Collins Antoah and Dr. Alvin Mensal.



The statement also advises the general public to be on the alert and beware of tricksters and fraudsters.

Source: 3news.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former Deputy Minister of Communications has dared the Akufo-Addo-led government to reduce salaries of his appointees just as ex-president John Mahama did in order to complete the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) compounds project around the country.



According to him, there is still a backlog of debt to pay the contractors who executed most of the completed projects.



Therefore, to the extent that the NDC government is out of office, appointees of the new government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) must follow the example of the Mahama administration by sacrificing some percentage of their salaries towards completion of the projects.



Mr Kwakye Ofosu threw the challenge to the government while providing explanation about what the 10% pay cut accruals of the Mahama administration was used for following media reports that it could not be accounted for by the Controller and Accountant General.



He told Moro Awudu, host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3FM on Thursday August 10 that: As of December 2016 6 of the CHIPS compounds had been competed, 5 were nearing completion and 1 was at foundation stage.



The total contract sum was GHS 2, 549,112.76 which meant that there was deficit of about 400,000 to pay to the contractors who had executed the job.



Of course we had hoped that we will continue to be in government so that we will be able to raise that money to complete all the projects but perhaps the president will impress upon its appointees to make the same sacrifice that we made.



On Wednesday, 9 August, the Deputy Controller and Accountant General Kwesi Owusu told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the money cannot be traced.



Mr Owusu said: ...As to what they have done with the money that one is not an area for us to answer because it was not statutory deductions which we should have taken and then say pay to SSNIT or pay to GRA. This one was a voluntary deduction so when you deduct, you give it to the one who asked you to deduct on his behalf.



But Mr Kwakye Ofosu further explained that: A total of GHS2,190,718.30 had been deducted as of the end of December,2016. A total of GHS 2,130,718.30 had been paid to contractors who had either completed or were working on the CHPS compounds. Regarding the CHPS compounds themselves, a total of five had been completed at Gympokrom and Kwame Prakrom in the Upper Denkyira East District, Ada East in Greater Accra, Nkwanta Number 1 & 2 in the Western Region and Abontonso in the Afram Plains North District of the Eastern Region.



Another five were almost completed at Faso Bator and Supon in the Afram Plains North District as well as Dome, Gadokope and Samankwe in the Afram Plains South District.



Another one was nearing completion at Tetegu Old Town in the Greater Accra Region. The last one was at foundation level at Ho Zongo as of the time we were leaving office, he added.



He, therefore, disputed assertions that the money cannot be traced. Any claim, therefore, that the monies so deducted cannot be accounted for, is most misleading and inaccurate.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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India's decision to move more troops closer to India-China border in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is guided by the ground realities of the northeast.

By Prabhash K Dutta: As the standoff between Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army continues for over two months during which Beijing engaged in aggressive rhetoric, New Delhi has increased the alert level on the eastern sector of India-China border.

The Indian Army is reported to have mobilised soldiers from Sukna-based 33 Corps as well as 3 and 4 Corps based in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The army personnel have not been deployed at the border but are present at some distance in what is being referred to as "no war, no peace" mode.

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The decision of the Indian Army to increase the alert level comes in the wake of aggressive posturing by China and reports that Chinese army has moved its troops closer to the international border. The move by the Indian Army is guided by the security concerns for the seven northeastern states and Sikkim.

DOKLAM AND THE NORTHEAST

The Doklam standoff highlights the security concerns of the northeastern states, which may be vulnerable in case there is sudden Chinese military aggression. Doklam plateau is not very far from the Silliguri Corridor - also referred to as the Chicken Neck - that connects the northeastern states with the rest of India.

The Silliguri Corridor is only about 20-25 km wide and is sandwiched between China and Bangladesh. It provides the narrow channel for supplies to and from the seven states of India. The seven states of the northeast have a population of about 4.5 crore living in roughly over 8 per cent geographical area of the country. The region is rich in natural resources and noted for its cultural diversity.

Security analysts fear that if war breaks out between India and China over Doklam, Beijing might try to gain control of the Silliguri Corridor in West Bengal in order to snap the only physical link between the northeastern states and the rest of India.

IMPORTANCE OF BEING THE NORTHEAST

Including Sikkim the seven sisters of the northeast form a block of eight states extensively sharing their boundaries with a neighbouring country. About 80 per cent of the borders of these eight states is international. The Silliguri Corridor functions as the lifeline for the region.

Any threat to or actual disturbance of Silliguri Corridor is bound to affect the lives of the northeastern people adversely. The region does not have much of industries and business avenues to support itself as a self-sufficient unit. In the times of war, the region would require more support through the Chicken Neck.

Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh share boundaries with China while remaining six states share borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, where China has reasonable influence. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh also share their borders with Nepal and Bhutan respectively.

THERE IS ANOTHER WORRY

The states of the northeast battle another serious problem that threatens internal security of the region. States like Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura have seen insurgency. There are several insurgent groups in the regions which are still active.

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There is a fear that if the Doklam standoff turns into a military skirmish or war, the insurgent groups, many of which have support of China, may disrupt peace in the region.

The fact that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is still imposed in large parts of the region is indicative of the fragile security balance in the northeast. Under the prevailing situation in the northeast, it is imperative of the central government to thwart any attempt by China to take control of Doklam, which will bring the PLA dangerously close to the Silliguri Corridor.

ALSO READ |

Beyond Doklam: How China is winning over India's neighbours with money, arms

Doklam standoff: As India-China war of words continues, a look at how global media is reporting it

India deploys more troops along China border in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh

What China stands to lose if it goes to war with India

ALSO WATCH | Doklam standoff: Will conflict with India be disastrous for China?

--- ENDS ---
The Deputy National Communications Director of the NDC, Kwaku Boahen has alleged that the Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu has been secretly paid by some concerned people to drag the party into controversy.



Mr Amidu, who has over the years consistently attacked his own party and other former government officials ever since he was sacked by late President J.E.A Mills, dominated the headlines this week after he and former Deputy Chief of Staff, Valerie Sawyerr traded insults at each other in the media, a development many has said has brought the NDC into disrepute.



A petition has been filed against Mr Amidu calling on the leadership of the party to take disciplinary action against the former as his utterances and writings continue to give the party bad publicity.



Speaking on Agoo TV on the recent chaos revolving around Valerie Sawyer and Martin Amidu of the NDC, he stated, I wouldnt want to dignify that man (Martin Amidu) in any way. I can say for a fact that he has been given a huge sum of money by some people to shred the NDC into pieces with irrelevant issues. I do not regard him as a true member of the party and I honestly do not want to give him reverence on this platform because of the unnecessary propaganda hes making.

Source: kasapafmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Compiled by Mimi Brodeur | Special to PennLive

From a gregarious brewery to neighborhood bars and tucked-away fine dining, these eateries are known for their comfort and creative fare year round.

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Piazza Sorrento

16 Briarcrest Square, Hershey, 717-835-1919

Well-known for its exceptional varied hand tossed pizzas and overstuffed subs, this little taste of Italy has specialty dishes that customers rave about too. Bet you cant finish even the small size ($16) of Anna Marias lasagna filled with multiple layers of meat and ricotta. Bolognese meat sauce cascades over the top. Grilled gnocchi ($23) is also a signature dish consisting of bite size knobs of sweet sausage, peas, slow roasted caramelized tomatoes in cream sauce. Make reservations early, the dining room fills up quickly any day of the week.

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Penn Hotel Sports & Raw Bar

600 Old West Chocolate Ave., Hershey, 717-298-1461

This hidden neighborhood hangout bar has some of the best juicy, finger-dripping burgers ($7.50- $14) in town. The Great Penn stacks house-roasted pub beef, bacon, fries, melted cheddar and mozzarella cheeses over locally sourced  pound beef patty. House-made Old Bay chips come with the burgers or go all out and add appetizer size of golden, onion rings ($8) with happy sauce; a cool and spicy mix of ranch and Cajun seasonings.

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Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Khana Indian Buffet

709 Fishburn Road, Hershey, (717)-534-9615

Family owned and operated, this bistro offers fabulously spiced and priced lunch buffet ($9.99) or a la carte Indian/Nepali fare. Use chewy, freshly baked garlicky naan as an edible rubber spatula to mop up such favorites as tender vegetable meatballs (Malai Kofta) made with potato and Indian cheese in creamy cashew sauce, chicken tikka masala in sumptuous, onion-laced gravy and saucy corn saag, a spinach laced, bountiful corn dish. Friendly staff is attentive without being obtrusive.

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Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Woo de la Kitchen

23 Briarcrest Square, Hershey, 717-520-1500

Hidden among vacant and occupied storefronts at Briarcrest Square, lunchtime at this tiny, hip eatery reunites friends and neighbors at communal tables. Woos crisply fried egg Sammy slipped under an everything English muffin highlights the limited breakfast menu but its the overflowing sandwiches that garner wide-eyed attention. Varied, crusty breads, freshly sliced meats and cheeses or house made salads create unique, mouth-watering sandwiches. If you order Jesss chicken salad sandwich on a croissant ($11) grab a plastic fork, youll want all of the chunky chicken and fresh fruit that tumbles out.

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Devon Seafood + Steak

27 West Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, 717-508-5460

Discounted hefty glasses of wine or beer, handcrafted cocktails and martinis and shareable appetizers are reasons to be seated at high-top tables in the bar area for happy hour: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m, Sunday-Friday and 1 to 3 p.m on Saturdays. Catch up on kids and family while delving into luscious, overstuffed mini New England style lobster rolls, perfectly crispy calamari infiltrated by bits of jalapeno and carrot and (my favorite) tempura shrimp sushi roll.

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Susan Gleiter, sgleiter@pennlive.com

Irv's Pub

814 E. Chocolate Ave, Hershey, 717-533-7505

Take a seat at stools in rustic chic bar area or head to modern dining room furnishings with big comfy back chairs. Noisy and upbeat, the lively setting draws local customers as well as folks from nearby Hersheypark. Generous helpings of robust comfort fare include buffalo bleu roasted cauliflower ($8), slow roasted short rib ($27) with cheddar heirloom grits and local beer battered crisply deep fried fish and chips made with chunky pieces of cod ($17).

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The Hershey Pantry

801 East Chocolate Ave, Hershey 717-533-7505

For over two decades, customers have lined up to dine at this country cozy eatery on the cuff of Hershey. Locals know to swoop in for an early breakfast before the wait gets too long later in the day. Thick cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls ($5.25), warm baked oatmeal ($5.75) and flavored cream cheese stuffed French toast ($7.75) are signature items. Or keep it simple and cheaper by ordering griddle crispy home fries, two eggs and toast ($4.75) The Hershey Pantrys desserts especially oversized muffins and pies were so good and in high demand, the owners Jim and Cindy Hess opened Desserts, Etc. in 2012 across the street.

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Hershey Grill

At the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, 325 University Dr., Hershey

717-520-5656

Sleek, soft hued Hershey Grill features an updated dining room and attractive enclosed patio where thrilled children stray from tables to watch colorful, koi swimming around in the pond. Inventive sandwiches such as Hershey grill Cubano ($13) made with pulled pork and ham, garlic pickles and Swiss cheese or the massive coconut chicken salad ($13) with nuts, fruit and sesame ginger dressing are two of the most popular dishes for lunch here.

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Au Bon Lieu

110 West Chocolate Avenue, (rear building), Hershey, 717-533-4074

This compact crepe shop is a must find. Hidden behind businesses along Chocolate Avenue, newspaper-thin delectable crepes appeal to close knit tables of teenagers, families, groups of college kids and grandparents. Crepes are as thin as Parisian scarves and as tooth tender as thinly sliced jambon.The ultimate comfort crepe consisting of warm caramel and bananas is as heartwarming as a favorite coq au vin. A favorite combination is meltingly delicious mozzarella cheese, nestled with tomato, avocado and fresh spinach leaves or silky folds of smoked salmon, mozzarella, briny-edged capers, drizzle of olive oil, tomatoes and fried egg, $10.

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The Mill

810 Old West Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, 717-256-9965

Keeping the integrity of the building intact, rooms feel cozy and comfortable wrapped in rustic elements of exposed hard woods and stacked stone. Menu items cant be pinpointed as to one specific cuisine. Fresh is the kitchen focus whether the dish harkens to Vietnamese, Lancaster County or French influences. A must try are black pearl, perfectly cooked salmon with citrus beurre blanc and black lentil-quinoa pilaf ($24), house smoked brisket and mac n cheese ($27) and chicken and homemade waffles with whipped potatoes and onion gravy ($23)

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Parkside Hotel

Renovations have softened and refined this once smoky, bikers dive bar. The small eatery with people-watching porch is known for signature pit beef sandwiches ($7.50) made on Kaiser rolls with slaps of horseradish sauce, seared, juicy grilled 6 oz. chicken breast sandwich ($8) sandwich or  pound black Angus burgers ($8-$9.50)and twin Coney Island hot dogs ($6) with pile of fries. And dont forget to start with a pound of house favorite steamed clams ($6).

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Troegs Brewing Company

200 East Hersheypark Drive, Hershey, 717-534-1297

This grandiose brewery with plenty of outdoor seating is a favorite place to squeeze everyone into a booth, baby, girlfriend, grand pop, mom and dad. Catering to beer taste buds, theres also lots of good stuff on the locally focused, artisanal menu. Start by sharing a humongous ($4.50) portion of rosemary salted and nutty flavored, brown buttered popcorn. Each handful is sumptuously buttery. Other must haves besides the beer samplers are seared octopus on crisply fried potatoes ($12), crispy pork belly($7) baked beans and cornbread crumble heated with dollop of jalapeno jam and beet cured salmon ($15) with fennel, hibiscus, dill and creme fraiche.

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Chocolate Avenue Grill

114 West Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, 717-835-0888

On warm summer afternoons close knit pumpkin colored umbrellas shade outside tables. It's often a meet and greet of neighborhood residents waving "hellos" to familiar faces. One of the most ordered items on the menu is long-running Jess's favorite salad in the world ($12).The different soft and crunchy textures from strawberries, toasted nuts and coconut crusted chicken pieces enhance this colorful salad. The grilled cheese sandwich ($10) combines American and Bleu cheeses, crisp applewood smoked bacon and tomatoes on grilled sourdough for an extra pungent bite.

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The beginning of the end of World War II came on Aug. 15, 1945, (it was Aug. 14 here) when Japan surrendered to the Allies just days after the United States dropped atomic bombs three days apart on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As World War II was entering its sixth year, Nazi Germany had surrendered in May but the Japanese refused to accept the terms of surrender.

The United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Failure to comply would result in "prompt and utter destruction," according to history.com.

A uranium atomic bomb called "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The "Fat Man" plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

On Aug. 15, Japan surrendered to the Allies.

When the surrender was announced, celebrations erupted around the world - and in Harrisburg.

(Note that in 1945 it was considered acceptable to refer to the Japanese in the derogatory slang terms Jap and Nip.)

In the Aug. 14 Evening News, the headline was, "JAPAN STALLS FOR TIME; SURRENDER UNCONFIRMED."

The next day, Aug. 15, 1945, the headline in The Evening News was: "WORLD TURNS TO PEACE, STIFF TERMS FOR JAPAN."

The Evening News on Aug. 15, 1945, was filled with stories about the war and the surrender. It also included advertisements on almost every page from local businesses celebrating the victory.

The editorial that day, headlined "Victory and Peace," started as follows: "After nearly four years, final victory has come to the United States and its Allies. With it comes peace, one as welcome as the other and both equally certain to bring a measure of relief from memories of the nightmare of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

Japan's defeat has been obvious, even to the Nips, for many months. If they had been as imitative in using good sense as they are in aping industry, trade and other features in their national life, they would have seen the consequences of the Pearl Harbor 'sneak' attack and never started it.

That is the great lesson Japan can learn from this long and bloody conflict which has left her little but a national carcass - discredited, despised and defeated in the eyes of the civilized portions of the world. Her empire has become an irritating memory. As is true of all, her fall followed her pride. Now she may learn humility."

On another page was the headline, "Governor Asks 2 Days of Prayer and Rejoicing."

Gov. Edward Martin last night declared today and tomorrow legal holidays, designating them also as "days of rejoicing for victory ... and prayer for the future."

"We welcome the end of tragedy and bloodshed into which the world was plunged by evil men who denied Almighty God. The road to a better and happier world lies before us if we follow American traditions. May we be granted Divine guidance in building the future on a foundation of human rights, freedom and justice," Martin said.

On Aug. 16, the headline in The Evening News was, "PEACE TERMS BEING DRAFTED, RATIONING MAY END BY 1946."

According to the paper, rationing was expected to end by Christmas, except for butter, sugar and "other fats."

United Press reported that Japanese emissaries who were to meet with Gen. Douglas MacArthur should arrive on Ie Shima Island by Aug. 17. Emperor Hirohito had ordered all Japanese armed forces to cease hostilities immediately but expected it could take days for the order to reach some remote islands. Japan was expected to sign surrender terms aboard Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's American Pacific fleet flagship.

In the evening on Aug. 15, a celebration erupted in Market Square. The cutline with three photos of the celebration said, "High spot of Harrisburg's hilarious observance of the end of World War II last night was a mammoth parade of service men and women, industrial groups and just happy men, women and children, anxious to give expression to their feelings. Focal point for the city's celebrators was Market Square, which was a seething mass of humanity throughout the night. The top picture shows just a small portion of the throng in front of The Patriot Company Building early in the evening, with smiles lighting every face. Automobiles and buses, stalled by the growing crowd, can be seen in the background. The middle picture shows a group of WAVES from the Mechanicsburg Naval Supply Depot as they marched past the reviewing stand at the foot of the Capitol steps on Third Street. The paraders in the bottom picture carrying signs were part of the group of 1,000 employees of the Harrisburg Steel Corporation. They are shown at Fourth and Market streets."

Mary O. Bradley, the late Patriot-News reporter who wrote a history column called Cornerstone, wrote in 1999: "... local residents kicked up their heels. It was time to party, and within an hour, revelers converged on Market Square in Harrisburg.

They yelled, cheered, blew car horns and clanged bells or just banged together any two pieces of metal they could find.

Harrisburg's celebration was described in The Evening News as 'three or four New Year's welcomings rolled into one.' The Patriot called it the 'happiest and wildest celebration in history.'

The excitement was the same in Middletown, where Civil Defense sirens blew and whistles sounded as the Liberty Band led an impromptu parade of marchers and autos through borough streets.

Workers at the Middletown Air Depot were excused to participate in the festivities. Bunting was draped from porches of borough homes. Mechanicsburg residents paraded and prayed.

Both Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 have been called V-J Day as well as Sept. 2 when Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Hundreds of people are facing off in Charlottesville ahead of a white nationalist rally planned in the Virginia city's downtown.



Rally supporters and counter-protesters screamed, chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday morning.



Men dressed in militia uniforms were carrying shields and openly carrying long guns. Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler planned what he called a "pro-white" rally to protest Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.



City officials declared a local emergency shortly after 11 a.m.





Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.



Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her black son out of town for the weekend.



"This isn't how he should have to grow up," she said.



Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the "counterprotesters are crazier than the alt-right."



"Both sides are hoping for a confrontation," he said.



It's the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee from a downtown park.



In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.



Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people."



"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.



Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.



Among those expected to attend are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and "alt-right" activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.



Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.



Officials have been preparing for the rally for months. Virginia State Police will be assisting local authorities, and a spokesman said the Virginia National Guard "will closely monitor the situation and will be able to rapidly respond and provide additional assistance if needed."



Police instituted road closures around downtown, and many businesses in the popular open-air shopping mall opted to close for the day.



Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on call.





There were also fights Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.



A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.



Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disappointed that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.



"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."





Those who gather to strike fear do not reflect the Universitys values. Update: https://t.co/qXdyhDlXVI  UVA (@UVA) August 12, 2017

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that's home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.



The statue's removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville's history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They're now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.



For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.

By Sarah Rankin, Associated Press
PinnacleHealth System and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have signed an agreement to merge the two systems.



The transaction will still require government approval but a PinnacleHealth spokeswoman said late Friday it's expected to be finalized by early fall. She described the new agreement as as "a binding integration and affiliation agreement."



It's another milestone in the PinnacleHealth growth that began earlier this year when the Harrisburg-based system announced intent to buy four hospitals and eventually join together with UPMC.



The government recently approved PinnacleHealth's acquisition of Carlisle Regional Medical Center, Lancaster Regional Medical Center, Heart of Lancaster Medical Center and Memorial Hospital of York.
BELLEFONTE--A man called Penn State University a few weeks ago and threatened to "take out" any of the 18 fraternity brothers embroiled in a hazing death case if they tried to return to classes in the fall.

The general threat was left on a voicemail on an administrative number at the school, according to William Brennan, an attorney who is representing one of the defendants: Joseph Ems.

Brennan mentioned the threat Friday just before launching into his cross-examination of the state's only witness-- a police detective-- during the joint preliminary hearing for the students.

A total of 8 students and the fraternity are charged with involuntary manslaughter and other counts related to the death of Timothy Piazza, who suffered mortal injuries during a pledging party. Charges against 10 other students include such counts as furnishing alcohol to minors, recklessly endangering, hazing or tampering with evidence.

Piazza's death sparked outrage because the fraternity brothers didn't call for emergency help for Piazza for nearly 12 hours after he fell down down a set of basement stairs.

The defendants' defense attorneys took turns on Thursday and Friday cross-examining Detective David Scicchitano.

Brennan started his turn by thanking Scicchitano for his hard work on this difficult case and noted that the detective had spent roughly 37 hours so far in the witness chair. Brennan also thanked him and Lt. Keith Robb for "contacting us about the death threat."

Later, during a break in the hearing, Brennan explained to PennLive that Robb-- erring on the side of caution-- had called all 18 defense attorneys to alert them to the possible threat. The threat came in after the last round of publicity about the case in June.

The anonymous caller threatened to "take out" the defendants, according to Brennan's recollection. Police said the threat was something along the lines of threatening that the fraternity members will "get theirs," if they return to campus.

The longtime attorney said threats against defendants in high-profile cases is not uncommon.

"But you can't dismiss them all," he said.

Brennan also said that the defendants had been shouted at while walking into court and one defendant's girlfriend had been threatened with violence in a repulsive, vulgar manner on social media.

"Apparently, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is out the window now," Brennan said, adding that people would better embrace that element of due process if it were their son who had been accused of a crime.

Robb said police tried to identify the man who made the call, but no identifying information about the suspect could be determined. The phone numbers used had been "spoofed," he said, referring to a practice to disguise the originating phone number.

The lieutenant said he thought it was important to let each defense attorney know so they could review their safety plans for their clients. Security also was beefed up at the courthouse, he said.

"We don't need outsiders or vigilantes trying to exact justice," he said.

Because of the criminal charges, the Penn State educations for the defendants are either on indefinite pause, or over.

The university has launched student disciplinary proceedings against most of the defendants - triggering a bar on their ability to register for classes. Others have already withdrawn from the school voluntarily.

Several defense attorneys did not want to discuss their clients' plans publicly this week, and Penn State has said it is prohibited by statute from discussing individual misconduct proceedings.

But privately, the lawyers have described a mixed bag of jobs, taking classes from other schools, and simply waiting for the present case to play itself out.
By Fred Hiatt

As a former Moscow correspondent for The Post, I probably should not admit this, but until this summer I had never read Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace."

Fred Hiatt (Washington Post photo)

Now I can report from the far shore:

It is as long as everyone says.

It is as good as everyone says. No, better.

It is about Donald Trump and how we should respond to his presidency.

You doubt that last one? Then listen to this:

"A man of no convictions, no habits, no traditions. . . . The incompetence of his colleagues, the weakness and insignificance of his opponents, the frankness of the deception, and the dazzling and self-confident limitation of the man raise him to the head . . . and without attaching himself to any one of them, advances to a prominent position," Tolstoy writes.

Eerie, right? The dazzling and self-confident limitation of the man.

Okay, I dropped a couple of words from the passage. Tolstoy actually wrote "the seething parties of France," and "the head of the army." He was in fact describing not our president but Napoleon, for whom the Russian author harbored a magnificent contempt.

But the masterpiece does resonate, not only for that coincidence of description -- and not only because, these days, everything seems to be about Donald Trump.

In his novel framed by Napoleon's invasion of and retreat from Russia in 1812, Tolstoy asks: What moves events? Is it, as commonly assumed, "great men" such as Napoleon and Czar Alexander I? Or is it the separate decisions of thousands of individuals: soldiers, peasants, shopkeepers, lords?

It is the latter, Tolstoy says. Their actions flow together into a force that czars and generals can only pretend to control.

Which, if even only partly true, seems to have some lessons for today.

Trump has been posited as a threat in many directions: to the rule of law, to civility and truth, to America's standing in the world as a beacon of freedom and democracy. But maybe no threat is more serious than his assault on the idea of America as a nation that welcomes newcomers and outsiders and allows them, in their turn, to become American.

From announcing his candidacy with a warning about Mexican rapists pouring across the border to inaugurating his presidency with a ban on immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries, to embracing just a few days ago a proposal to sharply limit immigration of unskilled workers, Trump has exploited fears of non-white, non-Christian, non-English-speaking "others."

This is particularly dangerous because it speaks to a sentiment that existed long before Trump came along -- that always has existed in American political culture.

Let's pause to stipulate that you can oppose immigration without being racist. Until we fulfill John Lennon's vision ("Imagine there's no countries . . . "), we are all in one sense arguing about numbers, not principle. I can make a case that the current annual limit of 1 million legal immigrants is better for the economy, and the country, than Trump's proposed 500,000, and that 2 million might be better still. But even my higher cap would leave millions more on the outside wanting to come in.

What is a matter of principle is how you define being an American: Is it a question of blood, of how long you and your ancestors have been here, of whether you accept America as a Christian nation? Or is it based on your devotion to its foundational idea -- that all men and women are created equal?

That battle is being fought in the courts, and it will be fought in Congress. But the essential battle for the nation's soul will be fought by every one of us, every day.

It is a battle we will win by embracing each other's humanity: by welcoming the mosque down the street, helping a "dreamer" stay in school, translating a form for the parent at the next desk at back-to-school night. It is a battle, as Tolstoy would have understood, that will be won or lost by the nation's soldiers, farmers and shopkeepers, and by its nurses and factory workers and teachers and office workers, too; by each of us, day by day, encounter by encounter.

Tolstoy wasn't totally right about history. Even the mountebanks, the leaders of no convictions, can shift the course of events. But the rest of us, impelled by the generosity that has made America a great country, may have more power than we think.

Fred Hiatt is Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post. His work appears occasionally on PennLive Opinion.
By Mail Today Bureau: The stir over hiked hostel fees in Delhi University's Hindu College refuses to cease as the protest by students entered its third day. Students have taken to protesting over surge in hostel fees for the current academic session that currently stands at Rs 90,000 for female students but Rs 60,000 for male students. Seeking the administration's attention, students have been sleeping outside the administrative block overnight.

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"The students of Hindu College have been and will sit inside the college campus for as long as it takes for our principal to emerge from her office and address us in public. We are not willing to attend any 'word of mouth' meetings behind closed doors as the issue requires a dignified response from authorities," said a third-year student. Calls made to principal Anju Srivastava and vice-principal Seema Jain by Mail Today were not answered. After repeated requests with administration for discussion to bring down the hostel fee, students sat in protest to defy the new entry ban recently introduced which restricts entry of all non-hosteller students beyond 8 pm.

"The principal claimed to be on leave for the day and our vice principal Reena Jain finally spoke to the protesting students on video at 9 last night that the principal would address the students at 3 in the afternoon, once again refusing to provide any assurance in writing," the third year student added. However, she added that there was no dialogue from either the college principal or the college administration.

"On the contrary, the officials went ahead to lock up the administration block to lock out the student protesters. Affordable, secure and dignified accommodation is our right and the college is denying us," the student told Mail Today. The students represented by student advocacy group Pinjra Tod, advocating for non-discriminatory hostel rules and hostel fee for girls in various colleges of Delhi, had also approached Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal for intervention last month, following which the commission issued a summon to college principal.

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15-year-old boy drowns while trying to click selfie in Rajasthan's Bharatpur

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President Donald Trump with from left, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, arrive to speak to members of the media following their meeting at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
FILE - In this July 27, 2017 file-pool photo, South Korea and U.S. soldiers stand guard during a commemorative ceremony for the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas. Beyond the bluster, the Trump administration has been quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with North Korea for several months, addressing Americans imprisoned in the communist country and deteriorating relations between the long-time foes, The Associated Press has learned. (Jung Yeon-Je/Pool Photo via AP, File)
By PTI: By Youssra El-Sharkawy

Cairo, Aug 12 (PTI) At least 44 people were killed and nearly 180 others injured after two trains collided near Egypts coastal city of Alexandria, officials said.

The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that the number of deaths may increase and the final toll will be announced after clearing the debris of the two trains.

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The deadly collision took place yesterday after a train travelling to Alexandria from Cairo, crashed into the back of another train coming from the Canal city of Port Said, which was waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, east of Alexandria, the Egyptian Railways Authority said in a statement.

The area of the collision has been cordoned off by security forces as a rescue team is currently searching for survivors over the night and removing the wreckage off the tracks, it said.

Iman Hamdy, 26, a survivor of the accident, said that she was travelling in the train going to Alexandria and noticed that it was already in a bad condition.

The Al-Masri el-Youm Arabic newspaper quoted her saying that the train abruptly stopped for 15 minutes in Ebies area near Khorshid station when she felt its collision with the another train.

Hamdy, who succeeded in escaping from the train through one of the windows, said that she will never forget the large number of injured, mostly women and children, she saw at the accident site.

Another survivor, 10 year-old Karim Abdel Wahab, said that he couldnt find his mother and brother who were travelling with him in the train.

The driver of the Cairo-Alexandria train has surrendered himself to police and has been transferred to El-Raml police station in Alexandria for investigation, local media said quoting a health ministry official.

Egypts prosecutor-general Nabil Sadiq has ordered an urgent investigation into the collision to find out the reason behind the crash.

President El-Sisi has expressed his condolences to the victims and ordered government bodies to follow up on developments from the deadly collision and identify the cause of the accident.

"The rescue team is currently searching for survivals while ambulances are transferring the injured to nearby hospitals," said Magdy Hegazi, undersecretary at the Health ministry.

The ministry said 75 ambulances had been deployed at the crash scene to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.

Train accidents are common in Egypt. In 2016, a train derailed in south of Cairo, killing five people, and injuring 27 people in the al-Ayat area.

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Another train derailment in Badr Rashin in Giza killed at least 19 people in 2013.

In 2012, a collision between a train and school bus on a rail crossing in the town of Manaflut in Upper Egypt killed 51 people, mostly children.

At least 360 people were killed in 2002 in Egypts worst train disaster when a major fire engulfed seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train. PTI YES ASV

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The personal data breach affecting 300,000 patients disclosed last month by Women's Health Care Group of PA LLC was the third-largest reported this year to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to the agency's website.

Women's Health Care Group, which in March merged with Regional Women's Health Group in New Jersey to form what the companies described as the largest U.S. Ob/Gyn practice, notified patients of the breach on July 18, more than two months after it discovered the ransomware.

"It does seem to be an unusually long period of time," Adam Levin, chairman of CyberScout, a cybersecurity firm, said of the two-month delay. Two factors could have caused it, he said. They could have been trying to figure out if data had actually been taken and they could have been under orders from law enforcement to keep the breach under wraps.

Pennsylvania requires notification "without unreasonable delay."

A woman who answered the phone at the group's office in Oaks on Friday said that company had no comment.

The notice said the hackers had gained access to the company's computer systems as far back as January. "We have been unable to determine if any specific information was actually acquired or viewed in connection with this incident," the notice said.

If the hackers took data, it would have included names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, enough to create major problems for consumers. The only key missing information were driver's license numbers.

Women's Health Care had backups of the data, which means that services were not disrupted. "That's something everybody should be doing," Levin said.

Regional Women's Health and Women's Health Care Group now operate as Axia Women's Health, with 275 providers at 100 locations. It has headquarters in Oaks and Voorhees.
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Real Estate

Living the maintenance-free condo life that they wanted

"We love it here," Esther Recio says. "We still have the walking lifestyle we like - going to restaurants, and the stores are all nearby. At least once a month we walk over to the Barnes Museum. It's been a great change."
Indian Coast Guard ship 'Shaurya', the fifth in the series of six 105m Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), was commissioned in Goa by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan today.

By Manjeet Negi: Indian Coast Guard ship 'Shaurya', the fifth in the series of six 105m Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), was commissioned in Goa by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan today in the presence of Director General Rajendra Singh and other senior officials of the Central and state governments.

'Shaurya' meaning courage is a projection of Indian Coast Guard's will and commitment "To serve and protect" the maritime interest of the nation. The ship is based at Chennai, Tamil Nadu under the operational and administrative control of Commander Coast Guard Region (East).

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This 105 meters OPV has been designed and built Indigenously by Goa Shipyard Ltd and is fitted with state-of-the-art navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machineries. The features include 30 mm CRN 91 Naval Gun, integrated Bridge System (IBS), Integrated Machinery Control System (IMCS), Power Management System (PMS) and High Power External Fire Fighting System. The ship is designed to carry one twin engine light helicopter and five high speed boats including two Quick Reaction Inflatable Boats for swift boarding operations, search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol. The ship is also capable for carrying pollution response equipment to contain oil spill at sea.

The ship draws 2350 tons (GRT) propelled by two 9100 KW diesel engines to attain a maximum speed of 23 knots and has an endurance of 6000 NM at economical speed. The sustenance and reach coupled with the latest and modern equipment and systems, provides her the capability to perform the role of a command platform and accomplish all Coast Guard charter of duties.

The ship will be deployed extensively for EEZ surveillance and other duties as enshrined in Coast Guard Charter, to safeguard the maritime interests of India. Presently Indian Coast Guard has a fleet of 129 Ships & boats and 72 Ships & boats are at various stages of construction at different shipyards in India.

Shaurya is commanded by Deputy Inspector General DS Chauhan and manned by 12 officers & 94 men.

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While President Trump ratchets up a verbal war with North Korea, he can't seem to decide what to do about the real war in Afghanistan.

The U.S. effort to stabilize that country has dragged on for 16 years, since the 2001 defeat of the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda. Yet the Taliban are making a comeback and now control about 40 percent of the country.

Seven months into his term, Trump has yet to approve a new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan. He has refused, so far, to approve his generals' request for a small increase to the 8,400 troops in country  to train and assist Afghan forces.

Some of the president's advisers have urged him to pull U.S. troops out altogether and he once said he'd like to wash his hands of the Afghan conflict. That may be tempting but would likely lead to a Taliban takeover and a return of al-Qaeda  as well as a new base for ISIS  a huge defeat on Trump's score sheet.

Yet there's no sign whether Trump will do the one thing that hasn't been tried, which Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both failed to do, and which might open a path to resolving the conflict: Put a real squeeze on the country that keeps the Taliban war boiling, even as it pretends to be a U.S. ally. I'm referring to Afghanistan's duplicitous neighbor, Pakistan.

"The problem of Afghanistan is inextricably linked to Pakistan," says Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to Washington. "The Taliban would not be where they are if they did not have a safe haven in Pakistan.

"The two problems have to be solved together."

Here's what Haqqani means: For decades, U.S. leaders have chafed at the double game played by Pakistani generals and the ISI intelligence agency. The Pakistanis have trained and sheltered the Taliban Islamists in order to exert control over the future of Afghanistan, which they view through the lens of their endless struggle with India. Elected Afghan leaders, they believe, will be friendlier with Delhi.

In my many trips to Afghanistan, national and provincial leaders complained bitterly that, without Pakistani weapons, training, and shelter for the Taliban, Afghan tribes and local leaders could have resolved their problems, through mediation and bargains.

Instead, the Pakistani ISI and military kept the Afghan pot boiling. They played a frustrating game of "good Taliban, bad Taliban"  helping Afghan Talibs who were killing Americans but fighting murderous Pakistani Taliban at home.

The Pakistani military continually denied the Afghan Taliban's top leaders and their families were based in Pakistan  a blatant falsehood. Pakistan sheltered Osama bin Laden for years, right beside a military cantonment. Just this month, the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization  headed by Hafiz Saeed, a U.N.-named terrorist suspected of masterminding the 2008 attacks in Mumbai  registered as a political party under a new name.

Why has the United States put up with such duplicity? In past decades, State Department and Pentagon officials insisted they needed Pakistan as an ally to fight terrorists on both sides of the Pakistani border  and to force the Taliban to negotiate. But, Haqqani says, "every time Taliban leaders [in Pakistan] reached out to U.S. officials, they were arrested" or prevented from showing up.

However, times have changed. With only a small troop presence in Afghanistan, Washington is no longer as dependent on using Pakistan as backup. And Washington officials have recognized, as Haqqani puts it, "Pakistani behavior won't change."

So it is time to consider a new U.S. approach to Pakistan, which is the title of a Hudson Institute monograph by Haqqani and Lisa Curtis (now senior director for South and Central Asia on the National Security Council).

Among its key recommendations: Stop portraying Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally (while keeping the door open if the country stopped supporting terrorist groups). Also, curb U.S. military aid and reimbursements unless Pakistan meets counterterrorism conditions  a step the Pentagon is now taking. And keep open the option of targeting Taliban leaders in Pakistan with drones.

Two more key points: Make clear to Pakistan if it doesn't show substantial progress toward ending support to the Haqqani terrorist network and the Afghan Taliban  including an end to weapons shipments and deportation of its leaders  Pakistan may be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. This would have negative repercussions on a problematic Pakistani economy.

The point is not to break relations with Pakistan but to demonstrate that its duplicity will no longer be rewarded.

The goal of any new strategy would be encouraging reconciliation talks between Taliban factions and Kabul, without expecting help from the Pakistanis. But Pakistan should pay a price if it continues to obstruct such talks.

With a saner policy toward Pakistan, it makes sense to increase the U.S. presence in Afghanistan by 4,000 U.S. trainers and enablers. The Pentagon has learned valuable lessons while fighting ISIS in Iraq as to how to best use such troops on the ground.

But any new U.S. forces should be added without a deadline. As Haqqani warns, "You have to show Pakistan, everyone, you are not doing an Obama." He means Trump should not set a deadline at the same time he sends troops, so the Taliban know they just have to wait the Americans out.

And for god's sake, ignore the advice of Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, the private security firm that ran wild and unfettered in Iraq, killing civilians and embittering Iraqis. No surprise, Prince is urging the president to send private contractors to replace U.S. troops as trainers. Down that road lie shame and disaster.

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, recognizes the need for a new Pakistan strategy, to back up a troop increase. So does Defense Secretary James Mattis, and the concept has support in Congress. Afghanistan's fate rests on whether they can persuade Trump to do the right thing.
The family of the man police shot to death in North Philadelphia on Friday acknowledged that he had reached for an officer's gun, but questioned whether that should have been met with deadly force.

Tyreas Carlyle, 31, was killed as he struggled with police who had responded to a report of a car theft shortly after 5 p.m. Friday in the 3100 block of Darien Street.

On Saturday, his family gathered to remember him and mourn their loss.

"To me, maybe I'm wrong, but I just wish that they hadn't shot him up like that," said his grandmother Hester Carlyle, breaking into tears as she sat on her living-room sofa. As she spoke, she wrapped her arm tightly around her great-grandson, T.J., 7, Tyreas Carlyle's only child.

She and other family members recalled Carlyle as a troubled man who struggled with drugs and had had many brushes with the law. Court records show more than a dozen arrests and six convictions  for drug possession, simple assault, driving under the influence, and fleeing police.

Carlyle's life was perilous and painful, his family said, but he had overcome much. He had been shot four previous times in the last five years, said his grandmother, who raised him in her Darien Street home near Allegheny Avenue after his mother died of a drug overdose. After taking a bullet to his back, Carlyle had to use a walker, she said, and could barely raise himself from a seated position, having to lean on his walker to do so.

The day before Friday's shooting, Carlyle had been shot at in front of his home, his grandmother said. He emerged uninjured but shaken, she said. He wanted to leave the area to be with his son, who lives in Hunting Park, his grandmother said. So on Friday he tried to get into a pickup truck that was parked on the street. Alarmed, she said she called the police but was soon able to coax her grandson back into the house.

Then, she said, Carlyle took her car keys from her purse and headed back outside toward her Nissan Altima. "I was trying to stop him," she said. "I was saying, 'No, no, no, no. You can't use the car.' I was afraid if he used the car he would have hit somebody or gotten into trouble because he was not in his right state of mind."

When the first officer arrived, she said, Carlyle grabbed at the officer's holstered gun while seated in the car. The officer tried to take Carlyle's hand off the gun and told him to move his hands, "but my grandson wouldn't take his hands off the gun," Hester Carlyle said. The officer called for backup, she said, and three uniformed police officers arrived.

"Three cops got out of the car, they came toward my grandson, and took their guns out," she said, breaking into sobs. "By the time I moved out the way, they started shooting. They shot him four or five times. I didn't hear them ask any questions; they didn't ask what was going on."

When they shot him, she said, he was seated in her car, his feet on the street.

Police disputed that account. They said Carlyle was struggling with the first officer's gun when two backup officers arrived, drew their weapons, and repeatedly ordered Carlyle to let go of the officer's gun. He briefly let go, they said, then grabbed a second officer's gun. While Carlyle was holding the barrel of that gun, police said, the officer fired it. The two other officers fired shots as well, they said, and Carlyle was shot in the torso and legs. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:51 p.m.

The officers will be reassigned to desk duty while Internal Affairs and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office investigate the shooting.

On Saturday evening, Mayor Kenney pledged a thorough review of the circumstances of the shooting. In the future, he said, the city would release a written statement on all officer-involved shootings within 36 hours of the incident.

"My prayers are with the family and friends of Tyreas Carlyle," he said in a statement. "It is always tragic to lose someone you love."

The mayor said the investigation would move swiftly and added: "I look forward to them coming to a speedy resolution for the sake of Mr. Carlyle, his family, the officers, and for Philadelphia."
Sixty three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply in five days, of whom many were infants and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Centre, on Saturday, demanded a detailed report from the Uttar Pradesh government on the deaths of more than 60 children in the past five days at a Gorakhpur hospital, said Health Ministry sources.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary CK Mishra were asked to visit Gorakhpur and look into the various lapses at the Baba Ram Das Medical College where these children were admitted, a Ministry official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

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Amid these developments, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh suspended the principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where the deaths occurred, for negligence.

Health Secretary Mishra has reached Gorakhpur while Patel is expected to reach there soon.

The Union Health Ministry has planned to send a delegation of doctors from Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to help the doctors at Baba Ram Das Medical College and Hospital, the official said.

Sixty three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply in five days, of whom many were infants and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The Baba Ram Das Medical College and Hospital has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted at the medical college, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply.

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched state Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

Facing flak from the opposition for inaction, Adityanath's office on Saturday afternoon tweeted, quoting Health Minister Singh, that the medical college principal has been suspended with immediate effect.

PM constantly monitoring Gorakhpur situation: PMO

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in wake of the death of more than 60 children in the past five days at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the PMO said.

"PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and U.P. governments," said a tweet from the Prime Minister's Office handle.

"MoS Health Anupriya Patel and the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from Gorakhpur," said another tweet.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the Baba Ram Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur in five days, of whom many were infants. As many as 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

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Also Read:

30 kids die in 48 hours at a hospital in Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur

No child died due to dearth of oxygen in Gorakhpur hospital: UP health minister

Also Watch:

My Take: Children dying due to lack of oxygen in UP hospital is a shame

--- ENDS ---
He demanded stringent action against those responsible for the tragedy in Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where 30 children are believed to have died in 48 hours.

By Press Trust of India: BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj today said 30 infants died in a Gorakhpur hospital because oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of dues.

He demanded stringent action against those responsible for the tragedy in Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where 30 children are believed to have died in 48 hours.

"The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident," the MP from Unnao told reporters.

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Denying media reports that he had termed the incident as a "massacre" (narsanhar), Sakshi Maharaj said, "I have never said so. I said the deaths were not natural and steps should be taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future."

Also Read:

Gorakhpur hospital horror: UP minister says no child died due to lack of oxygen, Centre seeks report

30 kids die in 48 hours at a hospital in Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur

--- ENDS ---
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A popular ice cream man saw his life turned upside down after his van was vandalised.

But now 43-year-old Philip Burnett is bouncing back from dark times - and opened a fabulous new store on the Barbican that's sure to blow visitors away.

The former chef has just expanded his well-known ice cream business - Bertie's Ice Cream & Home Made Desserts - by setting up a permanent base at Commercial Wharf.

And it sells all sorts of wonderful treats.

Philip told The Herald that he had been thinking of expanding his business for a while, but said everything fell into place earlier this year.

He said: "I was on the ice cream van and I needed to expand as the space was really limiting what I could do.

"I've always wanted to do coffees and teas and actually have a bit more space, so in February I rang up the council and asked if they had any properties.

"This one came up at the right time and its perfect."

He said: "I specialise in homemade desserts. Everything is home baked and I make everything from scratch right here.

Philip told The Herald that he only uses local Yarde Farm ice cream, which he serves up with a range of homemade treats that are all made from scratch

These include mouth-watering sauces such as burnt sugar fudge, Belgian chocolate, white chocolate, lemon curd, raspberry, apple and rhubarb.

He also serves up as fresh cookies, chocolate brownie and English fudge  which are all made on-site.

Philip, who worked as a chef for 25 years before launching his own business three years ago, had a difficult start to the summer when his van was attacked by vandals earlier this year.

But in spite of losing more than 5,000 worth of trade as a result of the attack, Philip said that he has kept his chin up and moved on with his life.

Bertie's on the Barbican is open every day between 11am and 8pm, whilst Bertie's ice cream van is open every day between 11am  5.30pm.

Prices start from 1.50 for a cone with a flake, 3 for a homemade dessert, 1 for a cup of tea and 1.50 for a filter coffee.
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Almost 200 cannabis farms  from single plants to massive industrial scale operations  have been raided by Plymouth police over the last five years.

Figures from Devon and Cornwall Police showed that 194 illegal growing operations were found between 2012 and 2016.

Weve analysed the figures for each neighbourhood in Plymouth. They can be seen in the video above.

In total, some 1,300 cannabis plants have been seized and destroyed by police. The two biggest operations were found in the East End of the city where 125 and 110 cannabis plants were discovered in two separate police raids.

But the most prolific area of the city for cannabis grows was Whitleigh were 18 separate busts were carried out.

In the majority of cases people caught with cannabis plants were given a police caution (92). Overall, 79 people were charged and put before the courts, 12 were handed so-called cannabis warnings while nine others had material seized from their post.

In 68 cases, police were unable to say how many plants had been seized at each address, meaning the overall total will be much higher.

In April of this year, police uncovered a suspected cannabis farm with more than 600 plants in an unassuming terraced house in Greenbank.

After forcing their way in officers were stunned to discover a sophisticated cannabis-growing operation spread across four floors of the property.

Evidence at the property suggested it is very similar to other cannabis farms previously found in Plymouth which were created and maintained by Vietnamese organised crime gangs.

Two rooms on the first floor were completely given over to the operation, with each room containing a network of lights, cables, vent tubes, watering system pipes and around 100 three-foot-high cannabis plants ready to be harvested.

The loft area was set up with powerful lights, fans and a automatic watering system to grow around 200 marijuana plants, which were around a foot tall. Another section of the loft appeared empty but dried cannabis remains suggested those who were tending the plant had already harvested a crop.

In the basement, in the kitchen area, officers found two propagators, each with around 100 four-inch-high baby cannabis plants.
Sally Turkel never had a problem with her feet. Tape on her big and little toes was all she needed before slipping on her pointe shoes. But when she joined Colorado Ballet as a young dancer, the new demands of company life took a toll, and blisters became a constant enemy. I wasnt prepared for it, says Turkel, now a principal with Ballet San Antonio. I became known as the one who always had terrible feet issues. It took a few years of experience and tips passed down from senior company members to learn how to avoid blisters.

A blister is a sign from your body that its time to take a step back, says Monara Dini, a podiatrist and assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Ignoring it for too long can lead to infection, and a breakdown of the skin and wounds that ultimately take a long time to heal. Fortunately, the right foot care can help dancers speed healing, minimize pain and even avoid blisters in the first place.

Find the Right Fit Via Burst Blisters are caused by a combination of friction, pressure and moisture. When the skin is subjected to repeated force, it creates tears in the second and third layers of the skin, while the uppermost layer remains intact. A serum-like fluid flows in to fill the space. The culprit can be too-big or too-small shoes that create unnecessary friction and aggravate hot spots, such as bunions and hammertoes, says Diana Werner, also a podiatrist and assistant clinical professor at UCSF. Proper fit is essential. Keep in mind that feet evolve over time, sometimes growing in size or developing new pressure points. Chronic blisters are a sign that your feet have changed, says Werner. If blisters suddenly become a problem, consider getting refitted.

Avoid Chafing Slightly damp skin blisters more easily than either very wet or very dry skin. A little petroleum jelly dabbed onto vulnerable spots just before dancing (and reapplied as frequently as possible during long rehearsals) can reduce friction to minimize chafing. To keep skin dry, Werner recommends sprinkling foot powder inside pointe shoes just before dancing. Also, wear tights made of synthetic, wicking materials, such as polyester or microfibers; cotton tends to absorb sweat and exacerbate chafing. When it comes to padding, Werner says old-fashioned lambswool is still the best at wicking moisture away from skin. And smokers, take note: Studies suggest blisters are more likely to develop among cigarette users, possibly because tobacco damages the skin and constricts blood vessels in a way that weakens the skins friction defenses.

Tape the Trouble Spots Getty Images For extra protection, Dini recommends taping any spots where your shoes rub. Look for a high-quality adhesive bandage that can survive sweat. Using a stretch of tape thats about twice as long as the diameter of the toe you want to protect, fold one end of the tape so that you have a nonstick surface to place over the danger zone, and then wrap the rest around your toe. Keep in mind that your feet will likely swell throughout the day, so avoid wrapping too tightly.

Drain the Fluid When a blister appears, Turkel lances it with a sterile needle as soon as possible. You dont want it to pop in your shoe, she says. Lancing right away will help relieve pressure and pain. But the procedureand the potential for infectionshould not be taken lightly. It is only safe to lance if the fluid inside the blister is clear, says Werner. First prepare your skin by washing it with soap and water or swabbing it with rubbing alcohol. (If its the end of the day, experts recommend soaking your feet in warm water and Epsom salts for 15 minutes beforehand.) Next, sterilize a needle by holding it in a flame until the tip turns red. Allow the needle to cool, then use it to gently make one small hole anywhere on the blister. After draining the fluid, air the blister out overnight. Dress it with antibiotic ointment before wearing shoes in the morning. To relieve pressure, Werner recommends using a moleskin pad cut in the shape of a doughnut. (You can boost the pads adhesive power with a solution called compound tincture of benzoin, sold in medical supply stores.) Beware of any signs of infection: redness and pain extending up the ankle and leg, or pus in the blister. Theres no need to drain a blister if you have some time off. Blisters will heal on their own, says Werner. But, If you must dance and perform the next day, lance it.
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Donald Trump bragged to the governor of Guam that he was making him famous and going to increase his tourism, while North Korea is threatening to attack the island.

Video of the call between the Republican Guam Governor and Trump:

Here is what Trump said:

I doubt that North Korea bombing Guam would boost tourism. In fact, people tend not to vacation in places where they might get killed. Trump had to take a shot at Obama, because that is how petty and insecure this president is. He also seems to think that he is still in the promotion business with his boasts about tourism and making Gov. Eddie Calvo famous.

If there is still anyone out there who doesnt believe that Donald Trump is dangerously delusional, listen to the man talk to the governor of an island that is the stated target of a potential North Korea attack.

Trump cant handle a North Korea crisis that he created, so there is no way that he is going to be able to lead the country and coordinate in a time of crisis or natural. One can only imagine how Trump would have handled something like a category 5. He will tell the people getting pummeled by the storm not to worry about it, because he is making them famous, and after they get the dead bodies out and rebuild, tourism will go up ten fold.
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Showing that even Republicans are starting to view Donald Trump as a dangerous and unhinged toddler-in-chief, GOP Sen. Ben Sasse strongly rejected the presidents latest suggestion that America should invade Venezuela.

Sasse dismissed Trump like hes a child spewing nonsense and said that Congress obviously isnt authorizing war in Venezuela.

More of the Nebraska senators statement:

No. Congress obviously isnt authorizing war in Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro is a horrible human being, but Congress doesnt vote to spill Nebraskans blood based on who the Executive lashes out at today.

Trumps latest threat to wage war comes after hes spent the last week hyping up the possibility of a nuclear war with North Korea, each day escalating tensions more than the day before.

Just yesterday, Trump excitedly tweeted that the United States is locked and loaded when it comes to taking military action against North Korea.

Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017

GOP Sen. Ben Sasses response to Trumps latest threat on Venezuela proves that Republicans not only dont take Trump seriously anymore, but they also view him as a president who should be dismissed altogether.

The increasing Republican strategy when it comes to Trump is to treat him as a parent would treat a child that just had his or her toy taken from them  just dismiss his tantrums until he settles down.

Donald Trump can continue to lash out at other world leaders and threaten to invade whichever country hes mad at on a given day, but hell be doing so without the support of Congress, the American people or the international community.
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Attempting to fill the void left by Donald Trumps silence, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah denounced the white supremacist demonstration from Friday night in an early-morning tweet today.

In the post, the GOP senator said the ideas spewed by this hate group have no place in a civil society.

Their tiki torches may be fueled by citronella but their ideas are fueled by hate, & have no place in civil society. https://t.co/himqTMBQnH  Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 12, 2017

Hatchs strong condemnation of Fridays march came before todays gathering in Charlottesville, where two competing groups  the alt-right Nazis and counter-protesters  continue to clash in the streets at this hour.

While the sometimes-violent white supremacist group chanted phrases like white lives matter and you will not replace us, the counter-protesters refused to stoop to such levels, instead using their marches to spread a message of unity and tell the alt-right group that love has always won.

Meanwhile on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the President of the United States has done something he refuses to do on most other issues: Remain silent.

If more leaders from across the country  particularly those in the Republican Party  continue to denounce the indefensible rhetoric and acts of violence being carried out by the white supremacist groups that helped fuel Trumps candidacy, perhaps the president will have no choice but to speak out against them.

But his silence as tensions rise in Virginia has already spoken volumes about how he really feels.
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Sending a powerful message to the violent, white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, counter-protesters overwhelmed alt-right Nazis with a message of unity.

The counter-protesters assembled on Saturday to fight back and tell the hate group, Love has always won.

Video:

Love has! Love has! Love has always won! as the Nazis march by #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/TcNt7yfw1E  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 12, 2017

According to the ACLU of Virginia, the number of counter-protesters outnumbered those who participated in white supremacist marches:

Both sides of the barricades. Counter protesters seem to outnumber protesters. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/rXNT5JtnWY  ACLU of Virginia (@ACLUVA) August 12, 2017

More videos and pictures from Charlottesville show the two groups clashing and offering starkly different views of America:

Counter protesters singing, over my head I hear justice in the air. pic.twitter.com/pvNM4ZdYXi  CBS19 ABC16 FOX27 (@Newsplex) August 12, 2017

Theyre chanting Blood and Soil as they approach Lee Park in #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/2hPmJv9sq0  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 12, 2017

Watch a live stream of the counter-protest here

Todays events came after hundreds of torch-wielding, alt-right Nazis descended on the University of Virginia late Friday, chanting phrases like, White lives matter! and You will not replace us!

Alt-right torch-bearers converge on Charlottesville and UVA. pic.twitter.com/tOKUj4Ese1  Hawes Spencer (@HawesSpencer) August 12, 2017

In the age of Donald Trump, these are the types of hate groups that have been elevated and motivated. Its why demonstrations like this have become increasingly common and hate crimes are rising across the country.

After all, if a president can publicly express his disdain for minority groups, then why shouldnt the average Nazi be able to?

What the counter-protesters have shown, though, is that these white supremacist organizations  and the president who has emboldened them  are on the wrong side of history, and hatred will never win the day.
With the count of children's deaths at Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur going up to 63, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his government has formed a committee to probe the role of oxygen suppliers in the incident.

By India Today Web Desk: With the count of children's deaths at Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur going up to 63, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has assured that all possible causes that may have claimed the lives of these kids are being investigated.

Adityanath said that his government had constituted a committee to be led by the Chief Secretary to inquire into the role of oxygen suppliers in the incident. People took out candlelight marches in Gorakhpur and Lucknow to express their solidarity with the victims' families.

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He said he had asked the district magistrate to submit a report soon, adding that a Central team would visit Gorakhpur.

Adityanath said, "Deaths mostly took place due to encephalitis. Oxygen firm will face a probe into this matter. We have formed a committee to probe the role of oxygen suppliers in the incident."

Earlier today, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, while terming the loss of lives shocking, said that no child died due to lack of oxygen supply.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda has spoken to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, assured him of assistance/expertise from the Centre.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked two of his ministers, including the state health minister to visit the city and submit a report.

Whereas all the deaths were earlier blamed on infections and shortage of oxygen supply, the hospital has denied that.

Despite the hospital authorities denying that the children did not die due to shortage of oxygen, two letters written by it demanding the immediate supply of the gas have surfaced. The letters were written by the operators managing oxygen storage plant from where the life saving gas is supplied to different wards.

HERE ARE THE LATEST UPDATES

Candle light march held over child deaths in #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College, #visuals from Gorakhpur and Lucknow. pic.twitter.com/tbCYNWfNqD- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

#Visuals #Gorakhpur's BRD medical college where 63 children have died in 6 days pic.twitter.com/WuTU7X3mm5- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

We have constituted a committee to be lead by Chief Secretary to inquire the role of oxygen supplier in the incident, said Yogi Adityanath.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their children, said Adityanath.

I started fight against encephalitis, said CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

#UttarPradesh Delegation of Samajwadi Party visited BRD medical college in #Gorakhpur after 63 children died in 6 days pic.twitter.com/DXWd6izwOm

- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Union Minister Ram Vilas paswan seeks time-bound probe into deaths of children in Gorakhpur, says it is an hour of test for CM Yogi Adityanath.

Opposition Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party say #infantDeaths in Gorakhpur hospital are an outcome of the UP govt's gross criminal negligence, demand high-level probe.

CM Yogi Adityanath told Union Health Minister JP Nadda that all the aspects of deaths at BRD Medical college are being examined. #Gorakhpur- ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

Union Health Minister JP Nadda has spoken to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, assured him of assistance/expertise from the Centre #Gorakhpur.

Speaking at a programme in Allahabad, CM Yogi Adityanath has blamed Gorakhpur hospital deaths on abysmal sanitary conditions and unhygienic surroundings.

#WATCH: UP CM Yogi Adityanath speaking on child deaths in #Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College, says "Encephalitis is a challenge". pic.twitter.com/gyY4NZtS3B- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017

Haryana scouts and guides commissioner Naresh Kadyan has filed a complaint with Prashant Vihar police station in Delhi against deaths of 62 children at the Gorakhpur hospital.

Case must be lodged against Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur hospital tragedy, says RJD chief Lalu Yadav.

Wrote my resignation prior to that (suspension) taking responsibility of death of innocent children, says suspended Principal,BRD medical college.

The principal and other officials involved should be suspended and an inquiry commissioned into the matter. We know how the government does its inquiry these days, Azad added.

Azad said, "The onus of this disaster lies on the government. The chief minister even went there two days ago. If he doesn't know what happens in his own hometown, he should apologize to the entire nation and families."

For the last 15 days, reports were put out in various Hindi papers that there was a lack of oxygen. But no action was taken by the government or the health department, the Congress leader said.

That children died at the hospital due to lack of hospital is 100 per cent true. We spoke to all the hospital staff, said Azad.

I have been to that hospital before. If I have alloted money to any medical college, it has been to the Gorakhpur medical college. We have held multiple inspections and also made many arrangements to develop that medical college, says Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Reacting on the Gorakhpur incident, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "I went with Raj Babbar. Ajay Singh, Pramod Tiwari and Sanjay Singh. We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families."

A high-level probe to take place, headed by Principal Secretary. Will wait for the report, action will be taken. Till then suspending the principal, Tandon said.

We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour, says Minister for medical education A Tandon.

Children's deaths shocking, but none of them died due to lack of oxygen or disruption of gas supply: Siddharth Nath Singh #Gorakhpur.

MoS Health Anupriya Patel and the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from #Gorakhpur, tweets PMO.

PM Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in #Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with the authorities from the Central and UP Governments, tweets PMO.

Discussions happened in detail; but issue of gas supply that should've come to light didn't come up. Nobody spoke about it, says UP Health Minister.

CM Yogi Adityanath had visited the BRD Medical College in #Gorakhpur on July 9th and August 9th, says Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh.

A letter stating that supply of oxygen cylinders for encephalitis ward of BRD Medical College has depleted.

One of the letters sent by Pushpa Sales to BRD hospital authorities.

We have made a three-member team who will take stock of situation at the hospital and update me on current situation: BSP Chief Mayawati.

Mayawati lashes out at BJP government for the Gorakhpur tragedy.

UP ministers Ashutosh Tandon and Siddharth Nath Singh hold meeting with BRD Medical College authorities.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda directs MoS Health and Family Welfare Minister Anupriya Patel to visit Gorakhpur.

Government trying to run away from responsibilities that is why they are saying that opposition is politicising the issue: Akhilesh Yadav

Govt not doing their job. They are busy in hounding SP workers. See what happened in Bareilly & Ballia: Akhilesh Yadav pic.twitter.com/h4zXkTx7pz- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017 Government is not revealing the truth. Therefore, a delegation from SP will go to BRD Medical College to see the situation: Akhilesh Yadav

Raids are being conducted at the company that supplied oxygen cylinders to Gorakhpur hospital.

Deaths not due to oxygen supply cut-off, no one can stop supply like this, we know consequences: Meenu Walia, HR Pushpa Gas agency

Owner of the liquid oxygen supply firm Pushpa Sales Pvt limited, Manish Bhandari, is absconding.

Parents of children who died must get compensation, free medicine must be provided to poor families across UP: Ram Gopal Yadav, SP

Congress delegation, including Ghulam Nabi Azad & Raj Babbar, reaches BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

Heart-wrenching incident. Saddened by children's death. This happened due to state govt's carelessness: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Both Health Minister and Minister of Technical and Medical Education must resign. UP CM can't step back from duty. Must apologize to state: Gulam Nabi Azad

Not a tragedy, it's a massacre: Kailash Satyarthi on Gorakhpur hospital deaths.

Considering he (Yogi Adityanath) is both MP and CM, he must take moral responsibility and step down, so should his Health Minister: Manish Tewari

UP: Congress delegation at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur; what happened was due to lapse on the government's part says Congress's RPN Singh

Hope he (Yogi Adityanath) has enough shame in him to go and regret to the parents & quit on moral grounds: Sudhindra Bhadoria, BSP

Matter of great shame for UP CM. If there's any morality in government then he should quit & go, for such disaster has happened: Sudhindra Bhadoria, BSP

Opposition giving statements in haste. UP Govt is committed to service of people. Strict action to be taken: KP Maurya, UP Dy CM

Security has been enhanced in the hospital premises to prevent any untoward incident.

advertisement UP Technical and Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said that CM Yogi Adityanath had asked him and Health Minister Siddarth Nath Singh to visit the Gorakhpur hospital and submit a report on the deaths of children. advertisement "Proper investigation is to be done and quick action needs to be taken. It is a serious issue and the Opposition should not politicise the issue," said Siddarth Nath Singh while speaking to media persons. advertisement Meanwhile, more appalling details have emerged underlining the poor health facilities at the hospital. One of the doctors today said that number of patients increase during monsoon season and two patients are admitted on the same bed. The hospital does not have enough number of doctors, he said.

CONGRESS LEADER'S TO VISIT HOSPITAL

Following Congress president Sonia Gandhi's directive, party leaders have headed to Gorakhpur. Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, Sanjay Singh and Pramod Tewari are scheduled to visit Gorakhpur.

However, the hospital's Chief Medical Superintendent RS Shukla rejected reports that the kids died due to insufficient oxygen supply. The state government has also rubbished reports about non-availability of oxygen at the hospital.

In April, the Yogi Adityanath government announced that it had started work on setting up six AIIMS and 25 new medical colleges in the state. Setting up AIIMS in UP was one of the promises made in the BJP election manifesto.

ALSO READ:

Gorakhpur has a history of children's deaths, 25,000 kids have lost lives to encephalitis

30 kids die in 48 hours at a hospital in Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur

Yogi Adityanath: Previous UP govt gave us slaughterhouse, instead of hospital with good doctors

Yogi government's poll promise: 25 medical colleges, 6 new AIIMS to be set up

WATCH: My Take: Children dying due to lack of oxygen in UP hospital is a shame

WATCH VIDEO | Gorakhpur tragedy: We've constituted a committee to look into role of oxygen supplier, says UP CM Adityanath

--- ENDS ---
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President Trump blamed the left for the violence in Charlottesville, while ignoring the behavior of his own racist supporters, as Trump claimed that all sides are to be blamed.

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Trump said, We condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides. On many sides. Its been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. Its been going on for a long, long time.

Trump was blaming the left while trying to dodge any responsibility for his own rhetoric that has emboldened racists across the country. Trump was lying. Both sides arent responsible for the violence. The people who are responsible are racists and white supremacists who support Trump.

Nowhere in Trumps remark were white supremacists or racists mentioned. Trump tried to play the both sides do it game, but the side that rolled into Charlottesville, VA looking for trouble were the alt-right who support Donald Trump.

Trump is trying to blame the left, but the American people can see the swastikas, and if one person deserves the blame for creating the racist and bigoted culture of violence, it is Donald J. Trump.
South Carolina Electric & Gas closed its downtown Charleston operations office in mid-2015. It's now trying to sell the historic Meeting Street building and the 1-acre lot it sits on in the heart of the tourist district. File/Staff
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry (shown in June) met with executives from the two South Carolina utilities that were building two reactors at a Midlands nuclear plant. S.C. Electric & Gas says it asked for a grant backing the project but got "no response." File/AP
Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.
Mary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Derryck Barentine had just turned 20 and was working as a welder apprentice through a contractor at Detyens Shipyards, a ship repair yard in North Charleston. In the sprawling industrial complex, deaths due to falls, crushing and electrocution have left coworkers like him  men and women scarred by the tragedies they witnessed and the friends they lost. Read moreShipyard deaths take toll on workers left to grapple with trauma, friends lost
Records show that at least 114 children have died this year in Gorakhpur due to encephalitis, which has claimed around 25,000 lives in the last four decades.

Gorakhpur has been in the grip of encephalitis for four decades. (Photo: Reuters)

By Prabhash K Dutta: According to government records, reported in September last year, 224 kids died in the BRD Medical College hospital - where more than 60 kids are reported to have died over past few days - due to encephalitis.

The official records showed that between January last year and first week of September, 920 patients of encephalitis were admitted to the BRD Medical College hospital. But, this is not the story of a singular isolated year. It is being repeated every year in Gorakhpur since 1978.

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This year, 114 encephalitis deaths have been reported till now.

ENCEPHALITIS AND GORAKHPUR

Gorakhpur has been in the grip of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) for four decades. Both kinds of encephalitis are viral infections that affect the brain, lead to coma and cause death. At times survivors are left with serious disabilities - mental and physical.

Records show that hundreds die every year in eastern UP due to encephalitis. Gorakhpur is the epicentre encephalitis induced deaths. According to official figures, around 25,000 children have died since 1978 due to the two types of encephalitis. And, these are only recorded deaths. Independent figures put the toll around 50,000 as many kids die without reaching hospital.

The Yogi Adityanath government launched a massive anti-encephalitis vaccination programme this year. But, the results may take some time to yield desirable results.

WHY GORAKHPUR?

The children's deaths in Gorakhpur have a history which began in India with the first report of AES death in the then Madras Presidency in 1956. When it seemed that the viral outbreak had been contained, West Bengal shocked the country in 1973 when around 300 deaths took place in Burdwan and Bankura districts.

By 1978, Uttar Pradesh came under attack from the encephalitis viruses. But, the encephalitis threat grabbed attention only in 2005 when 1,344 of 5,737 (official figures reported) affected children were killed across Uttar Pradesh.

In 2007, a vaccination programme was launched with drugs imported from China. The drive achieved success in many states but somehow Gorakhpur and surrounding areas continued to stay in the grip of encephalitis.

GORAKHPUR'S PREDICAMENT

Eastern Uttar Pradesh, where Gorakhpur is located, continues to be one of the most backward areas of the country. Poverty and poor health services go hand in hand in the region. The government or charity hospitals are overburdened.

BRD Medical College hospital is the only hospital in a 300 sq km stretch of the region with decent facilities to treat encephalitis and similar infectious diseases.

This hospital treats patients coming from Gonda, Basti, terai regions Nepal and eastern districts of Bihar. These are the districts where cleanliness and sanitation have been a major problem. In fact, in the Swachh Bharat Survey 2017, Gonda was declared as the dirtiest district in India.

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The incidence of encephalitis in these districts is very high particularly among children below 8-10 years of age.

The Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome are caused by mosquito bites of Culex vishnui and Culex tritaeniorhynchus. Filth is home to these species of mosquito. Every year, monsoon season is the worst season for children in Gorakhpur.

ALSO READ |

Gorakhpur toll rises to 63, UP health minister to visit hospital: All updates here

WATCH: My Take: Children dying due to lack of oxygen in UP hospital is a shame

--- ENDS ---
LAS VEGAS  Control of the U.S. Senate may come down to Nevada, where a slow ballot count entered its final act Saturday in the nail-biter contest between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. Read moreSenate control may come down to Nevada as count nears end
Abbey and Jake Sass planted their first hops in Chatfield two years ago.

The couple now grows close to 800 hop plants on a 1-acre plot near Jake's third-generation family farm. The goal, Abbey Sass said, is to become the Minnesota hop industry's next best grower.

In November, they stamped an official name on their business: Civil Sass Hops. The name represents their family and Chatfield's rich Civil War history, which Jake Sass, a military veteran, is fascinated by.

The Sasses will harvest their first hops  which add flavors and aromas to beer  this month, and aim to boost awareness of their business through brewery partnerships and local outreach. They hope to eventually expand their hop yard to compete with national growers, whose control of the market is felt locally.

Minnesota's fledgling hop industry is still maturing. The threat of disease continues to be a risk for many Midwest hop growers, Abbey Sass said. Humidity can spawn mildew on hop plants if not monitored closely.

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But after the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill in 2011 allowing breweries to serve beer on-site, the state's craft beer scene boomed  drawing hop yards back to Minnesota.

"The agriculture of today and the craft beer boom  in Minnesota after the Surly bill, it seemed like a great opportunity and a great community to be a part of," Jake Sass said.

Maturing to harvest

The Sasses' hop farm is still developing. The plants will take three to four years to reach full yield, Jake Sass said.

But some of the hops they started growing two years ago will be harvested for an upcoming alliance with local brewers.

Civil Sass Hops will lend its hops to two local breweries, Karst Brewing in Fountain and Grand Rounds Brewing in Rochester, to craft an exclusive batch of beer.

"We'll coordinate when their harvest is going to be, and we'll have a fresh batch of one of our IPAs ready to go here," said Adam Fredericksen, head brewer at Grand Rounds.

The hops will help Fredericksen brew a wet hop beer, which is typically only possible through a partnership with a local grower during harvest.

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"They're going to go from off the vine and into a beer in a matter of hours, and that's something that's pretty unique," Fredericksen said. "There is a dankness of sorts to the aroma."

The brew will be Grand Rounds' first wet hop beer and use of local hops, he said, and will likely be on tap within the next two months.

Abbey and Jake Sass plan to promote their partnership with the two breweries during this weekend's Western Days celebration in Chatfield.

The couple will help run the local bingo stand, which Jake Sass says draws community interest. They plan to distribute flyers advertising the wet hop beer collaboration throughout the weekend.

"One of the main things we want to do is be a local presence in the community," he said.

Civil War spin

The Civil War spin on the business is another way the Sasses are connecting with their community.

"That's been a huge  part of our brand is bringing light and bringing credit to Minnesota's Civil War history," Abbey Sass said.

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They're honoring that history through an unlikely outlet for hop growers: merchandising. The two have created a Civil Sass Hops apparel line to sell to locals.

The clothing serves as a local badge of pride for Chatfield residents, Jake Sass said.

As their company grows, he said they plan to increasingly integrate their merchandise into their hop business to create a community following.

"It's definitely something we're looking to build upon as we expand," he said.

But their main goal of expansion, Abbey Sass said, is to increase their hop yard acreage. They hope to own a commercial-scale hop yard  80 or more acres  eventually.

A commercial hop farm will help them contend with national hop distributors, she said, who dominate the market.

"To be able to supply a brewery year-round, we would need much more acreage than our operation right now," Abbey Sass said.

Competition and collaboration

Minnesota hop growers are still struggling to catch up with the Pacific Northwest, where the majority of U.S. hops are grown.

Washington produced 75 percent of the country's hop crop last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2016 National Hop Report . Washington, Oregon and Idaho produced a total of 87.1 million pounds of hops last year.

"The national competition outweighs any local competition," Jake Sass said. "They've had time to produce and to centralize the genetic engineering."

National competition has also proved challenging for Minnesota's largest hop grower.

Ben Boo, co-founder of Mighty Axe Hops, an 80-acre hop yard in Ham Lake, said most state brewers only source local hops for specialty, one-off beers served in their taprooms.

"It's definitely a real problem," Boo said.

Hop yards in Washington's Yakima Valley average around 450 acres in size. The mass-scale production of hops creates a product cheaper for brewers than local varieties, Adam Fredericksen said.

"It's going to come down to a business decision for a lot of people. Is cheaper better? Or is local, community-driven better?" Fredericksen said.

For small brewers like Grand Rounds, consistent-quality distribution is key. Fredericksen said if they purchase a bad batch of hops, the financial hit to their business would be detrimental.

Minnesota hop growers will ultimately have success if they can prove their quality and consistency is up to par with those out west, Boo said.

"I guess we're going to find out if Minnesota growers are able to deliver at that volume with that level of consistency," he said.

To contend with national growers, many Minnesota hop farmers are putting collaboration before competition.

The Sasses have been working with Mighty Axe Hops and other state growers to develop best practices for their business.

"It's really an open community because right now there's a problem with providing Minnesota breweries with local hops," Jake Sass said.

Still, Fredericksen said he hopes to keep sourcing local hops like Civil Sass's if they stay reliable in quality.

"That would be the dream," he said. "If there's ever a way we can source anything from somebody local and contribute back to the community, it's only going to come full-circle and help us in the long run."
HADER  An Iowa man died Friday night in a car accident while attempting to cross four lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 52 just north of Zumbrota.

According to Minnesota State Patrol's incident report, Jacob Paul Nelson, 22, of St. Ansgar, Iowa, stopped at a stop sign on Minnesota Highway 57, waiting to cross U.S. 52 just before 7 p.m. He eventually crossed southbound traffic, but "failed to yield at the median yield sign pulling out in front of the semi" that was traveling northbound, according to State Patrol's report.

The semi driven by Christopher John Small, 54, of Coon Rapids, collided with Nelson's vehicle on the passenger side while traveling at highway speeds.

Cody William Lloyd Squier, 22, of St. Ansgar, Iowa, was riding in Nelson's passenger seat. He was declared dead at the scene.

Small was not injured, while Nelson was transported to Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester with non-life threatening injuries; a condition update was not immediately available on Saturday.

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The incident caused northbound traffic to be detoured for more than an hour while authorities investigated. The Goodhue County Sheriff's Office and Zumbrota Police Department assisted at the scene.
SPRING VALLEY  For 45 years, Brave Community Theatre of Spring Valley has defied the odds by somehow surviving as a small theater company in a small town.

"We've just gone from production to production," said Debi Neville, founder and president of the board. "We've been able to financially keep it going."

The 45th anniversary production is "The Pirates of Penzance," which will be presented Aug. 16-19 as part of Spring Valley's Ag Days celebration.

It's a musical, and musicals have been one of the lifebloods of Brave Community Theatre, Neville said. "Musicals make the most money," she said. Otherwise, she said, "It's been tough because we are not subsidized by anybody or anything. We've had wonderful volunteers and directors." In fact, by last count, 900 people have taken part in Brave productions, whether on stage, behind the lights, as costumers or musicians.

That's a plus, Neville said. At the same time, Brave Community Theatre has never done the same old thing, "By remaining open to new suggestions and ideas, we've been able to keep it going," she said.

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In total, Brave Community Theatre has done 95 productions, including 22 children's plays and original scripts. The first productions were staged in a former movie theater. After that, plays were presented in the elementary school and the high school, before finally settling at the Spring Valley Community Center.

"It's been quite a trip," Neville said.

"The Pirates of Penzance" is directed by Eva Barr, who has come up with an original concept for the show. Both acts open with a chorus singing while actors take the stage.

Musical direction is by Megan Hammon.

"The Pirates of Penzance," a comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan premiered in 1879 in New York. It has it all: romance, comedy and adventure, which explains its perennial popularity.

One of the theater's goals is to keep attracting young people as actors, technicians and volunteers. "'Pirates of Penzance' is doing that," said Maria Kingsheim, a board member. "We have a large cast of young people acting and we couldn't be happier," she said.

That youthful cohort, in turn, might lay the groundwork for another 45 years of Brave Community Theatre.
SWATARA, Minn.  A futuristic dome city was never built on the swamps of north central Minnesota. It nearly happened back in the early 1970s, but the plans were abandoned.

A big reason for that was Terry Mejdrich.

"It was totally impractical for the time," Mejdrich said. "I mean, they were going to dome the city, but dome it with what? The technology wasn't available to build a dome a quarter mile in diameter and probably 400 or 500 feet high."

Mejdrich was a young math teacher when he started hearing rumors about the Minnesota Experimental City, or MXC. It was proposed by Athelstan Spilhaus  a famous inventor, meteorologist and futurist, who ran the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota.

Spilhaus wanted to build an entire city designed for scientific advancement. It would house 250,000 people in ever-changing modular buildings. There would be monorail systems and moving walkways. The city was supposed to be self-sustaining, so plans involved high-rise parking garages filled with beef cattle, and a power plant.

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All of this would be built under a massive geodesic dome, right on top of Mejdrich's hometown of Swatara, Minn.

"At first I didn't believe it," Mejdrich said. "It sounded crazy."

But Ford, Boeing and Honeywell had all invested. So had the state Legislature. It was expected to cost $4 billion. It sounded like a sure thing, and Mejdrich did not want to live under a dome.

"It was kind of overwhelming," he said. "I'm a farm kid. I'm more comfortable picking up a shotgun and heading for the woods."

At just 26 years old, he led a group of friends and neighbors to fight the experimental city. Hundreds joined him. They rented buses and protested in St. Paul. Some of them even made signs, and marched 170 miles from Swatara to the state Capitol building.

And they won. In 1973 the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency voted to abandon the project amid local opposition and concerns about cost and feasibility.

Mejdrich still lives on a piece of his family's homestead down the road from Swatara. It was always small but these days, the unincorporated community is looking pretty sparse.

There are about a dozen homes. The general store, where a younger Mejdrich bought his groceries, went under the in the 1980s. The old church building is being auctioned off by the county, and the Swatara school is empty. Most of the windows are busted out. For awhile, somebody used it as a makeshift horse barn.

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Mejdrich sees the lack of domes and moving walkways as a victory for the local community. Not everyone agrees.

Richard Fleming owns the old Swatara school. He was living in Detroit Lakes but bought the place last year after reading about the 1970s experimental city dreams online. He and his wife are homeschooling a few of their 10 kids in a pair of trailer houses out front, while they renovate.

"They were going to build a dome over the town," he said. "It was just the perfect sci-fi setting."

For Fleming, the idea of the dome city still resonates. If they can't live under a dome, he said living in a place where a dome was nearly built is the next best thing.

The closest operating business to Swatara is a bar about four miles away, called the Corner Club. The poster behind the bar dates back to the 1980s. It shows a model holding a bottle of Schmidt lager. Her crop top T-shirt reads "Honest to Minnesota."

Science educator and writer Sharon Moen talked to people at the Corner Club a few years ago, while researching a book "With Tomorrow in Mind" on Athelstan Spilhaus. She understands why the dome city was a tough sell. Even so, she thinks it was as a missed opportunity.

Spilhaus was striving to perfect the modern city, and she said, he got really close. We had just landed on the moon, why not build a city under a dome in rural Aitkin County?

But by the early '70s that faith in science was dwindling, and not just in Swatara.

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Moen said what happened Swatara is still happening all over the country. She said it's playing out over and over on the news  in stump speeches to coal miners.

"It's people that are so afraid of changing their lives, or livelihoods," she said. "Gripping on as hard as they can to something that is crumbling. There's going to be nothing to hold on to. It's going to be rotted."

At 4 p.m. on a recent Thursday a handful of local guys relaxed at The Corner Club. The bar doesn't stock Schmidt anymore so Herb Stansberry drinks Bud Light. He talked about the old days, like when the Schmidt beer girl on the poster came to the bar and signed copies. And when a bunch of academics from the cities tried to build a dome over Swatara.

"No, I didn't want it," he said. "What the hell would I want it for? I would have moved out of here if it happened. If I wanted to live in a friggin city I'd move to a city."

Stansberry admitted Swatara has seen better days, but said it's still better than some big city  especially one under a dome.
63 children have died at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office said he took stock of the situation, and ordered stern action against the culprits.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office today said he's constantly monitoring developments in Gorakhpur, where the deaths of 63 children at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College have been blamed on infections and a shortage of oxygen supply.

PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central & UP Governments.- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

MoS Health Anupriya Patel & the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from Gorakhpur.- PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 12, 2017

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While the hospital has denied that the deaths were caused by a paucity of oxygen stores, it did send two letters requesting immediate replenishment of its stock.

The hospital's medical superintendent has been named in an FIR filed in Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office said he took stock of the situation, and ordered stern action against the culprits.

He instructed Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh and Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to leave for Gorakhpur.

While Singh later said a shortage of oxygen supply hadn't caused the children's deaths, Adityanath blamed the tragedy on a lack of sanitation.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Kailash Sathyarthi said the deaths of the children weren't a tragedy, but a "massacre."

30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?- Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

Appeal to CM @myogiadityanath Ji. Your decisive intervention can correct decades of corrupt medical system of UP to prevent such incidents.- Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

Opposition leaders, too, came down heavily on the Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.

The Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Sudhindra Bhadoria called on Adityanath to quit on moral grounds.

Both the Congress and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) sent delegations to BRD Medical College.

BSP chief Mayawati also said her party would send a three-member team to the hospital.

ALSO READ

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: Letters show oxygen was short in supply - All updates here

Gorakhpur has a history of children's deaths, 25,000 kids have lost lives to encephalitis

ALSO WATCH

People of UP are not safe under Yogi rule: Mayawati tears down govt over Gorakhpur tragedy

--- ENDS ---
I set forth the chain of events that sparked my interest in the 2016 MSP International Airport tour for Somalis only in the post (DHS) Magical mystery tour (and why I need a lawyer). Last year I sought information from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights (OCR) under the Freedom of Information Act. OCR provided a few heavily redacted pages and rebuffed the administrative law judge when he requested an explanation of the redactions.

Theresa Bevilacqua of Dorsey & Whitneys Minneapolis office answered my plea for help. Theresa has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights (OCR) on my behalf in federal court in Minneapolis. Thank you, Theresa.

I thought at the time the lawsuit was filed that the Star Tribune might take an interest. If asked about it, I had planned to respond that we are only doing the work the Star Tribune wont do. However, the Star Tribune hasnt asked.

Because the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official to whom I spoke last year directed me to OCR, I neglected to file a separate FOIA request with CBP. On Ms. Bevilacquas advice I have now done so and CBP has formally responded. CBP has produced 29 redacted pages (posted below via Scribd) with claimed FOIA exemptions stamped over the redactions. An extremely helpful guide to FOIA exemptions is posted online here. I dont think the cited FOIA exemptions apply, but we shall see. The CBP is also withholding 31 pages in their entirety. I have administratively appealed the CBPs response to my FOIA request.

I attempted to follow up on CBPs response to my FOIA request by email. CBP spokesman Kris Grogan told me by email: Every year CBP conducts numerous events and programs around the country in which civic, religious and community leaders, as well as interested residents, are afforded an inside look at how CBP secures the border at and between ports of entries. CBP is committed to fostering a positive relationship within the communities we live and serve.

I asked these follow-up questions of Mr. Grogan: Can you tell me what other groups receive annual tours of the secure areas at MSP Airport such as this one? How can I get myself invited? Do you have any reason to think that invitees who dont pass vetting (such as the disinvited imam) dont get information from the vetted guests?

I also asked these questions in a separate email: When did these annual tours begin at MSP? Did one take place this year? Does CBP or DHS conduct other such tours at airports around the United States? If so, what airports?

I told Grogan that I was working on articles based on the information provided to date and ask for your prompt response to these basic questions or some indication that you decline to respond.

Grogan has failed to respond in any manner. Stone-cold silence. Something tells me that they really dont want us to know much of anything about whats happening here.

Among the redactions in the documents provided are the names of every OCR and CBP officer on the email messages, the names of every Somali guest on the tour and the draft invitation. The documents even redact the name of the CBP Area Port Director, a name that is otherwise easily available  for example, here and here and here. The Area Port Director is Jennifer De La O.

We do have this, however, in an email from someone to someone dated January 13, 2016: I hope you are staying warm. After much some [some] anticipation, the cold front reached us today. For the airport tour, February 18 would be great from our end. Would between 6pm-8pm work? This would accommodate prayer times well.

2017-068244 JUL 19 2017 by Scott Johnson on Scribd
Todays phony Trump controversy pertains to the presidents reaction to Russias expulsion of U.S. diplomatic personnel in response to congressional sanctions (which Trump did not favor). Trump stated:

I want to thank [Putin] because were trying to cut down our payroll, and as far as Im concerned, Im very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. Theres no real reason for them to go back. I greatly appreciate the fact that weve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. Were going to save a lot of money.

Anyone who has been paying attention during the last two years knows that this is Trump being a smart ass. Indeed, we know he didnt want our diplomatic presence in Russia slashed because (1) he could have cut it himself but didnt and (2) following his election, he expressed satisfaction when Putin decided not to retaliate for Obamas expulsion of Russian diplomats and seizure of property.

Yet, the liberal media is tut-tutting Trump for thanking Putin. For example, this article in Vox is called Trump just thanked Putin for slashing Americas diplomatic presence in Russia. The nitwit who wrote the article sniffs that Trump has rolled over in response to Russias move, literally thanking the Russian president for expelling American diplomatic staff and dramatically cutting the USs diplomatic presence in Russia  on the grounds that it supposedly would cut down the United States payroll.

I suppose Trump literally did that. But no intelligent person takes snark or sarcasm literally.

The author also incorrectly assumes that Trump will roll over rather than retaliate. Nothing in the presidents statement ruled out retaliation. Even if Trump thought Putins move inadvertently helped the U.S.  and its clear enough that he doesnt think this  Trump might still retaliate because Putin did not intend to do us any favors.

Today, Trump said that the U.S. is considering its response to Russia and will have one by September 1, the deadline Russia imposed for removing U.S. personnel. For the benefit of any morons out there, he also explained that his earlier remarks were sarcasm.

How big of a deal is the expulsion of the 755 employees? Vox wants us to think its huge. However, it undercuts that case by calling it, per the New York Times, the harshest such diplomatic move since a similar rupture in 1986, in the waning days of the Soviet Union. We came through that okay.

If the expulsions are a big deal, dont blame Trump  blame Congress. It imposed the sanctions.

Im glad it did and Im not alarmed by Russias response. Because that response was altogether predictable, Democrats and their friends in the media shouldnt moan about it. Nor should they expect Trump to eschew a jaunty initial response.
This is a small but revealing illustration of how reporters hate for President Trump distorts their thinking, to the point where they have no idea how they come across to people who dont share their biases. The Associated Press reports: Trump says he wasnt being serious in remarks about Putin.

President Donald Trump said he was not being serious when he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering a drastic reduction in the number of U.S. diplomatic employees and saving the U.S. significant cash. Absolutely, I think you know that, Trump told reporters Friday when asked about the comments he made a day earlier. Trump had said he greatly appreciated Putins help cutting down the State Departments payroll. At the time, it was unclear whether he was joking.

Just ponder that for a moment. The Associated Press actually thought Trump may have been serious in thanking Vladimir Putin for helping him cut the State Departments budget by kicking diplomats out of Russia? The idea is absurd on its face. It can only have been a product of the APs extreme antipathy toward our president.

Earlier Friday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was being sarcastic when he made the remarks.

Sanders must think the reporters who question her at press briefings are morons.

This incident reminded me of one that occurred during the George H.W. Bush administration. The press despised Vice President Dan Quayle, and obsessively denigrated him. At one point, someone made a joke: the vice president visited Latin America, and regretted that he hadnt studied his high school Latin more so he could converse with people there. Ha Ha.

But when reporters heard the joke, they interpreted it as a straight news story. It appeared as such in newspapers across the United States. The storyobviously false, if you took it seriouslytold us nothing about Vice President Quayle, but quite a bit about the journalists whom most people relied on to report on him. Dan Quayle graduated from high school, from college and from law school. He worked in his familys publishing business, and then was elected to the House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate; in these capacities he traveled around the world. He was elected Vice President of the United States. And reporters seriously believed that he thought people speak Latin in Latin America? Only a reporter consumed by blind hatred could have considered that claim plausible.

The same thing is going on today with the press and President Trump, only much worse. As with this story, press coverage of Trump frequently tells us more about the reporters than it does about our president.

UPDATE: As sometimes happens, Paul and I were working on posts on the same theme simultaneously. His post is here. As usually happens, we agree.
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Officials say the number of people who died in a two-train collision in the suburbs of the Egyptian city of Alexandria has increased to 49.

Local authorities also confirmed that 123 people were injured, the Al Arabiya broadcaster reported Saturday citing local officials.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed condolences to the friends and families of the victims in a statement on the ministrys official website.

On Friday, local media earlier reported citing the Egyptian health ministry that at least 36 people were killed and over 120 were injured.

Other reports also suggested that some 179 people were injured.

One of the trains was traveling from Cairo, and the other from Port Said.

Authorities said as a result of the collision, several train cars derailed and overturned.

According to local authorities, a mistake by the operator of a semaphore caused the accident.

Egypts Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadiq reportedly ordered an urgent investigation into the collision.(Sputnik/NAN)

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North Korea said on Saturday nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to fight against the U.S. in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.

Rodong Sinmun, North Koreas official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the Peoples Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the UN in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.

North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam.

KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate.

In August 2015, one million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, raising tensions.

North Korea warned foreign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it suspended work at a joint inter-Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on U.S. Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.

On Aug. 5, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2371, which further tightens sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyangs recent ballistic missiles tests.

North Koreas military said Wednesday it was considering a missile attack near the US island territory of Guam after President Donald Trump threatened Pyongyang with fire and fury.

Guam hosts several U.S. military bases.(Reuters/NAN)

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The Federal Government has vowed to deal decisively with any person or group involved in hate speech or inciting the public to cause break down of law and order.

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, gave the warning at a media briefing on Friday in Abuja.

Mr. Dambazau said the warning became necessary following series of threats and counter-threats directed at ethnic groups and the need to maintain law and order.

He said as the minister responsible for public safety and security, proactive measures had been put in place to ensure safety of lives and property of Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic groups and where they resided.

I wish to reassure the public of governments commitment to protect lives and property, as well as to ensure the sanctity and integrity of the national space.



All those found inciting public disobedience or preaching violence and hatred under any guise whatsoever will be made to face the full wrath of the law, he said.

He said all the measures being taken were meant to consolidate on the efforts of the acting President, Yemi Osinbajo who had been addressing the concerns of different segments of the society.

The minister said that Federal Government was already putting together an Executive bill to the National Assembly to clearly state what hate speech is and the stiff punishment for culprits.

(NAN)

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US Naval War College professor James Holmes said New Delhi is "making China look like the adolescent throwing a temper tantrum."

By India Today Web Desk: A leading American expert has said India is "behaving like a mature power" in the Doklam standoff in the Sikkim section, the news agency PTI reported.

What's more, US Naval War College professor James R Holmes went on to say New Delhi is "making China look like the adolescent throwing a temper tantrum."

"New Delhi has done things right thus far, neither backing away from the dispute nor replying in kind to Beijing's over-the-top rhetoric," he said.

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The standoff between the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army has continued for over two months now.

While Beijing has used aggressive rhetoric against New Delhi, India has increased the alert level on the eastern sector of India-China border, reportedly mobilising soldiers from the Sukna-based 33 Corps as well as the 3 and 4 Corps.

That move came close on the heels of China's aggressive posturing and in response to reports that the PLA had moved its troops closer to the international border.

The Doklam plateau isn't far from the Silliguri Corridor - or the 'Chicken Neck' - which connects the seven northeastern states with the rest of India. Security analysts fear that if war breaks out between India and China over Doklam, Beijing might try to gain control of the corridor to snap the only physical link between the Seven Sisters and the rest of the mainland.

'CONFRONTING INDIA IN THE HIMALAYAS NOT RATIONAL'

But Holmes thinks taking on India in the mountains wouldn't be the wisest move.

"If China wants to pursue an assertive maritime strategy, it needs secure borders on land so it doesn't have to worry about overland aggression from its neighbours," Holmes said.

"In other words, confronting India in the Himalayas is not a purely rational course of action driven by rational cost/benefit analysis," he added.

When asked why the US has remained silent so far on this issue, Holmes said the current administration has too much on its plate.

"It's also possible Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and his advisers don't want the United States involved in a Himalayan dispute it has little way of influencing. If the dispute escalates, chances are Washington will come out in support of New Delhi," Holmes said.

(Inputs from PTI)

ALSO READ

Doklam standoff: Why India is justified in upping ante against China in Sikkim, Arunachal

Resolve Doklam peacefully, says Nepal Foreign Minister

Doklam standoff: Meeting between Indian Army, PLA inconclusive

ALSO WATCH

In face of Doklam standoff, India deploys more troops along China border

--- ENDS ---
Dr. Ibrahim Kana is the head Of Nigerias National Medical Team to Hajj 2017. In this brief interview, he speaks about what Nigerian pilgrims should do to stay healthy and successfully carry out their Hajj rites.

How is the preparation in terms of medical services going so far?

I will say so far so good. NAHCON has kept to her promise in providing all the medical team needs. Human resources have been recruited in line with the policy of the National Medical Team  states and federal contributing into the team resulting in reduced wastage while focusing on enhanced medical.services for our pilgrims.

So far, we have recruited over 400 medical personnel, including doctors, pharmacists and nurses. NAHCON also directed all states to recruit environmental health officers who would stay with pilgrims and entrench personal and environmental hygiene. This we believe will drastically reduce prevalence of food borne diseases. This is called prevention is better than cure.

We have computerised all our clinics in Makkah and Madina and operating full Electronic Health Medical Records system. This is to ease stress on the pilgrims as well as bring many other benefits to Nigeria.

Apart from the clinics set up by your team in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is there any arrangement in terms of partnership with relevant saudi institutions to handle cases requiring referral?

Yes we have a strong relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Health. Just before Hajj, the Saudi Minister of Health invited his Nigerian counterpart to Riyadh to discus mutual issues concerning Hajj. We met with the Minister in Riyadh along with Nigerias Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Binta Adamu Bello. The meeting agreed to continue to offer secondary and tertiary medical services to all pilgrims during Hajj. The Nigerian delegation requested the Saudis to increase the number of Health posts around Madina Haram, ( Prophets Mosque) and they accepted. At the moment, any patient that is beyond the scope of our clinics is immediately referred to any of the Saudi hospitals in Makkah, Madina and even Jeddah. In fact, even major surgeries can be performed if the need arises, including heamodialysia for pilgrims that may developed renal failure. In short, our relationship is excellent.

In terms of drugs, medical equipment and personnel, how sufficient is the Nigerian medical team?

Since February 2017, we set up a team of medical professionals to forecast our drug requirement for the year. Following that report, we decided to buy some of the drugs in Nigeria. So far, we have sent over 200 cartons of large cartons of drugs to Saudi Arabia. My team are already in the process of procuring more and any drug and medical consumables they require.

In terms of personnel, I can confidently say that we have adequate number. I must also mention that we carefully selected psychiatrists into the team to deal with the increasing number of mental disorder among Nigerian pilgrims.

There were reports of disease outbreak which was dispelled by Saudi Arabian authorities, but is there any measure you expect Nigerian pilgrims to take with respect to their overall well being?

Sincerely speaking there is no specific disease threat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that poses threat to pilgrims. There were concerns of outbreak of cholera from Yemen, but the Saudi authorities have taken measures in collaboration with the World Health Organisation to contain the disease. Of course there is still the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus, MERS, in Saudi Arabia, but fortunately, there has not been a case of human to human transmission. The established mode of transmission has been from animals, especially camels. We therefore advise all pilgrims to stay away from such animals in the Kingdom. Incidentally, no pilgrim would be exposed to such animals during Hajj.

What are the challenges medical personnel face in handling Nigerian patients in Saudi Arabia. What can be done to overcome them?

The number one challenge we face is that of indiscipline and lack of awareness amongst Nigerian pilgrims. For example, pilgrims coming to clinics just to get free drugs, thereby affecting our forecast. I call on all pilgrims to prevent disease than frequenting clinics to collect drugs and unnecessarily overstretching the services.

Is there any new health policy Nigerian pilgrims should be aware of?

The number one policy is for all pilgrims to ensure they get themselves immunized against yellow fever, cerebrospinal meningitis and polio. Additionally, any woman that is pregnant should suspend her Hajj because we shall drop her even at point of departure if shes found to be pregnant. For those who have chronic disease like hypertension or diabetes, they should please get certification from their physicians while those suffering from HIV/AIDS should not fear because the Honourable Minister of Health has donated all the Antiretroviral combinations and presently in Saudi Arabia already.

In terms of emergency, what do you expect Nigerian pilgrims to do?

The number one potential emergency is heat stroke. The temperatures are ranging between 35-40 degrees centigrade. We advise pilgrims to carry light clothing, frequently drink cold water and avoid crowded areas.

In terms of preparing for emergencies, NAHCON chairman is partnering with the Minister of health, Prof. Adewole in setting up an emergency and surveillance team for this years Hajj. Some of the squad members are already operating in Madina.

Do you have any message you want to pass to the pilgrims or officials?

My advise to all pilgrims is to look after their health by eating hygienic food, not to patronize the illegal food vendors who have the tendency of dishing out contaminated food. Furthermore, our clinics are open 24/7 in both Makkah and Madina. All the state officials are to note and also make good use of the ambulances that are available for emergency use.

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Kenyan police killed 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums ringing the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.

A security official told Reuters that the bodies of nine young men shot dead overnight in Nairobis Mathare slum had been brought to the city morgue.

The official said the men were killed during police anti-looting operations.

Separately, a young girl in Mathare was killed by police firing sporadic shots, a witness said.

The run-down neighbourhood is loyal to 72-year-old opposition leader, Raila Odinga, whose party rejected Tuesdays vote as a charade.

A Reuters reporter in Kisumu, centre of post-election ethnic violence a decade ago in which 1,200 people died nationwide, said tear gas and live rounds were fired.

A government official said one man had been killed.

The unrest erupted moments after Kenyas election commission announced late on Friday that Kenyatta, 55, had secured a second five-year term in office, in spite of opposition allegations that the tally was a fraud.

Interior Minister Fred Matiangi said the trouble was localised and blamed it on criminal elements rather than legitimate political protest.

Mr. Odingas NASA coalition provided no evidence for its rejection of the result.

Kenyas main monitoring group, ELOG, said on Saturday its tally matched the official outcome, undermining NASAs allegations of fraud.

In addition to the deaths, Kisumus main hospital was treating four people for gunshot wounds and six who had been beaten by Kenyan police, its records showed.

One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in the impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and beat him with clubs.

He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him.

She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people, his brother, Charles Ochieng said, speaking on behalf of a dazed Oduor.

More shooting was heard outside the hospital on Saturday morning. In Nairobi, armed police units backed by water cannon moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum.

Interior minister Matiangi defended the police against accusations of brutality.

Let us be honest  there are no demonstrations happening, he told reporters.

Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into peoples businesses, those are not demonstrators.

They are criminals. And we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with.

As with previous votes in 2007 and 2013, this years elections have exposed the underlying ethnic tensions in the nation of 45 million, the economic engine of East Africa and the regions main trading hub.

In particular, Odingas Luo tribe, who hail from the west, had hoped an Odinga presidency would have broken the Kikuyu and Kalenjin dominance of central government since independence in 1963.

Kenyatta, son of Kenyas first president, is a Kikuyu.

Even before the declaration, Mr. Odingas NASA coalition had rejected the outcome, saying the election commissions systems had been hacked, the count was irregular and foreign observers who gave the poll a clean bill of health were biased.

NASA provided no evidence for any of its accusations but singled out former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who both led teams of election observers, for criticism.

Top Odinga lieutenant, James Orengo, said NASA would not challenge the results in court, as Mr. Odinga did when he lost in 2013, but hinted at mass action by praising the history of Kenyans in standing up to previous stolen elections.

Going to court is not an option. We have been there before, Mr. Orengo told reporters.

In addition to the thumbs-up from foreign monitors, Kenyas ELOG domestic observation group, which had 8,300 agents on the ground, published a parallel vote tally on Saturday that conformed with the official results.

ELOGs projected outcome put Kenyatta on 54 per cent with a 1.9 per cent error margin, compared to an official tally of 54.3 per cent.

We did not find anything deliberately manipulated, ELOG chairwoman Regina Opondo said.(Reuters/NAN)

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Cybersecurity campaigners have proposed a crowdfunding measure to help settle legal fees of a British hacker who was nabbed by the FBI on allegations of creating and distributing a malware that steals bank account details.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, of Devon, England, was arrested by the FBI after attending the Def Con hacking convention there. He was subsequently booked in jail and released days later on a $30,0000 bond.

His bail conditions prohibit him from accessing the Internet, which effectively means he cannot work.

His lawyer, Adrian Lobo, confirmed that he had been charged with six counts of creating and selling malware identified as Kronos.

But Mr. Lobo said his client will plead not guilty to all charges when he appeared at a court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to answer the charges on August 14.

Mr. Hutchins was hailed for his uncommon heroism in stopping the wave of WannaCry ransomware barely three months ago. His arrest was in connection to an offence not related to the WannaCry attack.

The expert, who works for a California-based Internet security firm, Kryptos Logic, applied a kill-switch after WannaCry had infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries and halted activities at the United Kingdom National Health Scheme.

Other notable organisations affected by the virus as of May 12 included Telefonica in Spain and courier giant, FedEx.

The Nigerian government also issued an advisory about the effect of the virus when it began ravaging countries across the world.

On Wednesday, campaigners met in London to discuss how to crowdfund for his living costs and legal fees, according to Naomi Colvin of civil rights organisation, Courage Foundation.

American authorities have not made details of Mr. Hutchins arrest public, except disclosing that it was connected to selling of Kronos around 2015.

Some cybersecurity researchers have expressed worry about the development, with some vowing to stop cooperating with authorities to fight hacking criminals online.

Another researcher warned that the FBI might have mistaken Mr. Hutchins clean intentions for criminal activities.

This could very easily be the FBI mistaking legitimate research activity with being in control of Kronos infrastructure. Lots of researchers like to log in to crimeware tools and interfaces and play around, said Ryan Kalember, a senior researcher at Proofpoint, a California-based cybersecurity firm.

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The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, is sending a five-member Federal Government delegation to Anambra State on Saturday to visit and condole with the government and people of the state over last Sundays attack on worshippers at the St. Philips Catholic Church in Ofufe-Amakwa, Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of the state.

The Catholic Church has confirmed at least 13 deaths from the incident. The police have also announced the arrest of suspects.

A statement by Mr. Osinbajos spokesperson, Laolu Akande, said the delegation is made up of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole; Foreign Affairs Minister,Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril; and the Minister of State for Education, Anthony Anwuka.

During the visit, the delegation will present a condolence letter from the Acting President Osinbajo on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria to Governor Willie Obiano.

In the letter, Mr. Osinbajo extends deep commiserations to the families, friends of the victims and the Ozubulu community on the death of their sons and daughters and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured still in the hospital.

The Acting President condemned in very strong terms the atrocious and dastardly act which has brought sorrow to many innocent families and, has rightly provoked widespread condemnation.

He said such barbaric act constitutes an affront to our common humanity, and challenges, but will not overwhelm our collective resolve to rid our communities of all forms of violent crimes and criminality.

Mr. Osinbajo said the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari remains undeterred and will continually commit to deploying all available resources towards ensuring adequate security of lives and property in Anambra State and across the entire country.

The acting president noted that he has instructed law enforcement agencies to bring perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice without any delay.

He said he would remain engaged with Governor Obiano, the police authorities and other security agencies to ensure that the lives and property of citizens of Anambra State and all Nigerians are well protected anywhere they may live.

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Former President Olusegun Obansanjo on Saturday at Apostolic Faith Church said that Christians should be prepared for the the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as the end of the world is near.

Mr. Obasanjo made this remark during the 2017 Camp Meeting Concert by Apostolic Faith Church Choir and Orchestral at the Camp Ground Igbesa in Ogun State.

He said that as a person, he would like to make to heaven so as to sing with the angels.

You have to be fully prepared for the second coming of our Lord, there is no compromise.

I have a friend who will always say that when we get to heaven that we will be exhausted praising God and it will be like a prison and will be very boring.

But what I have seen this afternoon by the choir, I will want to go to heaven and join the hosts to sing.

If this is an example of what praising God in heaven will be, then I want to be part of it. If what I have seen here is an indication of how heaven will be, I will like go to heaven.

Jesus Christ came to the world to show us the way to salvation and eternal life. We have a good heritage and we have everything to be proud of, he said.

Mr. Obasanjo said God could not fix Nigeria except Nigerians invite God into their lives collectively and individually.

We have a lot of things wrong with this country, if all Nigerians are sincere.

Nigeria can be fixed by God but we have to invite Him into our lives. What we have to do about this country is in our hands.

Gods grace abounds when we do not abuse it, he said.

The District Superintendent, Apostolic Faith, West Africa, Adebayo Adeniran, said only tolerance, peaceful coexistence and harmonious living amongst Nigerians , irrespective of religious and political differences, could lead to meaningful development.

He said all hands must be on deck to build again a virile nation, where love and harmony, forgiveness and peace, equity and prosperity would reign supreme.

Our countrys shoulders will be raised high among the comity of nations. All Nigerians , irrespective of religion , should pray for the resurrection of what our nation has lost.

Nigerians should remain patient in the face of political and religious intolerance, insecurity and economic hardships. God will make us triumph over all of them, he said.

He also urged Christians to pray for the countrys leaders to lead the citizens with the fear of God.

We should pray for fresh outpouring of Holy Spirit on our leaders so that they can lead us aright .We must not trade the unity of our nation.

Therefore, as a nation, those who have responsibility for our nation should ensure there is true federation; they must establish trust among the leaders and the led, they must work for the unity of our country,  he added.

(NAN)

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Senate President Bukola Saraki and his colleagues on Friday earned commendation from Pakistani child education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, for a recent amendment to the Universal Basic Education Act 2004.

The amendment seeks to guarante free basic primary and secondary education to every child in the country. It also hiked budgetary allocation to the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, from its current two per cent to three per cent.

The 2004 UBEC Act prescribed free and compulsory primary education for Nigerian child from primary through junior secondary school level and earmarked two per cent of the countrys budget for basic education funding, measures senators now say did not go far enough.

Aliyu Wamakko, chairman of Senate Committee on UBEC, announced passage of the amendment late last month.

He said the current 50 per cent counterpart funding requirements for UBEC which have made it difficult for many states to access the education grant had been reviewed downward to 10 per cent.

This is aimed at reducing the current situation where most states are unable to access the grant owing to their inability to contribute the 50 per cent of the total cost of projects as its commitment in its execution, Mr. Wamakko said in the July 28 statement signed by his media aide, Bashir Mani.

The amendment could help curb the alarming rate of out of school children in the country, which Unicef estimated at 10.5 million the highest in the world.

On Friday, Ms. Yousafzai, 20, welcomed the development on Twitter, describing it as good news from Nigeria and hailed Mr. Saraki and his colleagues for it.

The approval came less than a month after Ms. Yousafzai decried the state of education in Nigeria during a visit to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

During the July 17 meeting, which held at the State House, Ms. Yousafzai urged Mr. Osinbajo to declare a state of emergency in the education sector.

She also lamented the non-implementation of Child Rights Act by many states in the country.

The youngest Nobel Peace prize winner barely escaped assassination in Pakistan in 2012, for leading campaign for child education.

She was shot by Pakistani Taliban on October 9, 2012, when she was 15.

She now runs the Malala Fund, a child education non-profit she founded.

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The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, on Saturday said the Federal Government was determined to stop the sale of drugs in open markets in the country at the end of 2018.

Mr. Adewole made this known when he visited the site for the construction of a Pharmaceutical Coordinated Wholesale Centre at Oba, near Onitsha in Anambra.

The Federal Government had announced July 31, 2017 as the deadline to end the sale of drugs in open markets.

May be people still believe that the Federal Government is joking, government does not joke.

We do not want fake drugs or falsified labels; we just want genuine drugs and the only way to do so is centralizing the drug market so that we can determine what comes in and what goes out.

We have agreed to extend the deadline till Dec. 31, 2018 and that will be the last extension. We are irrevocably committed.

By Jan. 1, 2019, if you are not here at the coordinated centre, then you cannot be anywhere. I am saying it with all seriousness that this is the last extension, he said.

He commended the Anambra Government for supporting the project, and urged the leadership of the drug market in the state to settle their disputes amicably.

The minister also commended the choice of location for the centre, and expressed hope that work on the project would commence immediately to meet the deadline.

Earlier, Mr. Adewole, in company with Acting Director-General of NAFDAC, Yetunde Oni, had visited the states Deputy Governor, Nkem Okeke and Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Achebe.

The minister also visited the traditional ruler of Oba, Peter Ezenwa, before proceeding to the project site.

While receiving the minister, Mr. Okeke commended the Federal Government for its resolve to end open sale of drugs.

He also commended NAFDAC for waging war against fake and counterfeit drugs in the country.

In an interview, the NAFDAC boss called on all stakeholders in drug business to join hands to safeguard the health of the nation.

According to her, the reason for the coordinated centre is to ensure that any drug under the facility is in appropriate drug storage condition.

Such drugs must be registered, must be of the right quality, safe and efficacious for use because it is impacting on the health and wellbeing of the society, Mrs. Oni said. (NAN)

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Veteran Nollywood actor, Alex Usifo, shot into prominence playing the tough-talking and fire-spitting Talab Abass in Zeb Ejiros defunct soap, Ripples, in 1988.It was a character people loved to hate. The soap ran for five years uninterrupted on The Nigerian Television Authority before it was rested in 1993. Known for his villain roles, the actor who recently bagged a PhD at 63 shows no signs of slowing down just yet. He opened up on his unfinished business at the SS Peter and Paul Seminary in Ibadan with PREMIUM TIMES in this interview.

PT: Tell us about your foray into Nollywood?

Alex: Before I became an actor, I worked as an Operations Assistant at NTA Benin then known as Midwest Television. I sold insurance policies with Crusader Insurance in the early 1980s. My acting career kicked off in 1984 when I played a major role in the tele-movie The Return of the Native, produced by Ray Yusuf for NTA, Ilorin. After then, I played lead roles in Natas and Two People on LTV 8 produced by Baba Babs Fashina. I partook in NTA, weekly series At Your Service. I was also a part of NTA productions: Echoes of Life, and Turning Wheel. All of these took place between 1984 and 1987.

PT: You are best known for playing villain roles. Did this happen by chance?

Alex: I wouldnt say my very first role was a tough one. The late uncle Jab Adu invited to star in his production, Turning Wheel. That particular role was Vendetta. So, I played the villain. That was the first bad role and it inspired me before I landed the role of Talab Abass in Ripples.

PT: Not much has been heard about you lately.

Alex: As you grow in your career, you have to be sure of any production or project you are involved in. Then of course I have also had to disagree with the fees I am being offered. At the end of the day the producer opts for someone who he can pay lesser.

PT: Have you starred in any projects lately?

Alex: I have starred in some projects like a a web series titled Dust to Dawn. I have also featured in quite a number of films that are yet to be released. What they (producers) do these days is that we the actors only know about the working titles. So by the time they are release the movie its a different title altogether. The producers believe that they have paid you and you have played your part so whatever they do with the movie is their business.

PT: Some of your colleagues have shot their own films. Have you thought along that line?

Alex: The thing is that I actually took a break to go back to school, I am surprised that a lot of people are not aware of this. Perhaps, it is because I am not crazy about publicity. Unfortunately, my profession doesnt permit that but when it comes to my private life, I love to keep it private. I went to Babcock University where I studied for a PhD in Information Resources Management and I was there for five years. I graduated in 2016.

PT: Why did you decide to go study for a PhD?

Alex: Education is a necessity and knowledge is something you must keep seeking. So when people ask me why I studied for a PHD I just wonder why people ask that kind of questions. I studied English at Ambrose Ali University (1st Degree), and bagged a Masters in Social Work at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho. The whole idea is to make me a better human being and I didnt study for a PhD to intimidate anybody.

PT: Did you take on any movie roles while in school?

Alex: Yes, I took some jobs but shied away from roles that would take a lot of my time and affect my studies. This is why I starred in few movies. I also had to assist some people in directing their films in the capacity of an assistant director.

PT: Will you ever lecture?

Alex: Yes, I have the tendency to teach except that I dont want to be a full-time lecturer because it cant pay me. I like to be a responsible lecturer because I dont want to be a lecturer who will be shooting a film when I am supposed to be in class.

PT: What are your thoughts on the tax break, which the Federal Government recently granted the creative industry?

Alex: I dont really like discussing what I dont understand fully. It will affect my industry positively but again I have to have a sound knowledge of what it means else I will be talking off point.

PT: Having been in the industry for three decades, what is your assessment of Nollywood?

Alex: The same problem affecting Nigeria also affects the various guilds that exist in Nollywood especially the Actors Guild of Nigeria. I think as artists we must be non-partisan in the first place. When people vie for positions within Nollywood, they are not thinking about the association or guild, but thinking of themselves. There is also the issue of favouritism where certain roles are preserved for certain actors. For instance, I can be made to play the role of a gate man because it is an important character in a film. However, some producers will rather cast their personal assistants or drivers to play the role because they think its a trivial role. A good actor is expected to be versatile and not stereotyped.

PT: Have you played your best role yet as an actor?

Alex: I have not really played my best role yet. If I were to cast myself in a film, I will play different from the role of a villain, which I am known for. So, I think I would rather want to be a different person and maybe play a normal human being who is not just wicked to people.

PT: What is your most memorable movie role?

Alex: I dont think I have yet and like I said I have not really seen my best so it is difficult for me to think in this light. I love acting and sometimes money determines the sort of roles I play.

PT: You havent courted any controversy in your career. What is the secret?

Alex: I am a very careful person and frankly speaking I was actually in the catholic seminary because I wanted to be a priest-SS Peter and Paul Seminary in Bodija, in 1978. I want to believe that also has a role to play in my personality. So, I avoid unnecessary issues that will not smear my reputation.

PT: Why didnt you follow through?

Alex: Along the line, I realised that being a Catholic priest would have caged me. I didnt know that aspect because Catholic bishops are very powerful; a Catholic bishop can transfer a priest to any part of the country whether he likes it or not you like it or not. When I was in the major seminary I acted a lot in the church dramas and we were trained by the late Zulu Sofola . I wouldnt have been as free as I am right now so I dropped out. I didnt wait to be ordained.I read Philosophy and Logic, but for personal reasons I did not stay in the Theology world.

PT: Did parents support the idea of your becoming a priest?

Alex: When I went into the seminary, I had lost my mother. But when she was alive, she suspected that I longed to become a priest. So, she was always saying things that would discourage me. But, when she died I became somewhat free. My father didnt like the idea either but he didnt have a choice. In retrospect, I would have preferred working for God instead.

PT: So, if you werent an actor

Alex: I like law but its just that I tend towards pleasing God. So maybe I would have continued as a priest.

PT: Does this unconsciously affect the sort of roles you play?

Alex: Well, it does especially when it comes to man, woman roles. When it comes down to my playing a love scene, there are some things I know that I wont do. So, of course I can kiss if it is absolutely necessary to do so in a film, but I wont want to kiss in a movie if I had my way. I will rather avoid such roles, I can peck or hug, I can do all that but when it comes down to serious romantic scenes, these are roles I cant play. I wont be comfortable playing such a role.

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The chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senate caucus, Godswill Akpabio, has said that the party will not support any separatist agenda in the country.

Mr. Akpabio made this known while speaking at the Non-Elective Convention of the PDP in Abuja on Saturday.

He said the party would continue to promote anything that would ensure the peace and unity of the country.

Mr. Akpabio, who is also the Minority Leader of the Senate, condemned hate speeches in some parts of the country, saying the unity of the country was non-negotiable.

He assured of the PDPs support for policies of the present administration.

On the PDPs stance on fight against corruption, Mr. Akpabio said it believed strongly in the cause, saying it was a PDP government that established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Corruption is endemic and it was brought about by the colonial masters.

In 1960 when the Governor-General of Nigeria was handing over to the elected government of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, one of the things he said was that the problem of Nigeria was corruption.

So, it is not a Nigerian invention and PDP has been fighting it.

However, we must distinguish between the fight against corruption and the fight against political opponents.

We must distinguish between fighting corruption and persecution. They are two different things, he said.

Mr. Akpabio lauded the recent Supreme Court judgment on the leadership of the PDP, and said that the judiciary restored sanity in the party.

He said with the judgment, the party was poised to act as a viable opposition, while working towards ensuring good governance.

What a beautiful moment this is for democracy in Africa.

Nigeria is the largest black nation in the world, and a country with the population of over 170 million people cannot afford to disintegrate.

The only way the black race can have respect is for Nigeria to have a stable democracy and the only thing that shows democracy is the legislature.

That is why we are here in our numbers as senators, House of Representatives members and all of you gathered here today.

We all represent democracy and that is what the PDP stands for. PDP stands for a show of the will of the people to determine who leads them, he said.

Mr. Akpabio assured party members who had defected to other parties and anyone willing to join the party that its doors were open to accommodate them.

He congratulated the Chairman and members of the National Caretaker Committee of the party and pledged the continued support of PDP senators in moving the party forward. (NAN)

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The Shell Petroleum Development Company operated Joint Venture (SPDC JV) has decried the occupation of its flow station and gas plant in Kula and Belema Communities in Rivers by some angry youths.

Joe Obari, the spokesman of SPDC, said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Saturday that the occupation of the flow station an gas plant was illegal.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some protesting youth on Friday shut the facility over claims of neglect, demanding that the companys licence be revoked and re-awarded to an indigenous oil firm.

Mr. Obari described the development as worrisome, saying the company and its partners had spent millions on human and infrastructure programmes in the communities.

SPDCs commitment to the welfare of host communities in the Niger Delta remains unshaken and, as such, decries the illegal occupation of Belema flow station and gas plant.

The company has implemented a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) in the area that led to a wide variety of social investment projects including university scholarships award in the communities, he said.

Mr. Obari said the Rivers Government, after mediating in a disagreement in the community, created the Kula Project Implementation and Monitoring Committee (PIMC) in 2012.

He explained that the PIMC served as an interim platform for the delivery of social investment initiatives and programmes worth N262 million in a Soku-San Berth project.

According to him, these projects are separate from the GMoU projects initiated by communities using funds provided by the SPDCJV.

However, a GMoU was eventually signed in 2014 for the Kula Cluster, but has yet to be implemented due to continuing intra-community disagreement.

As at 2015, there were a total of 11 court cases involving different groups with SPDC as a co-defendant in all of them.

Sadly, these suits and disputes have rendered it impossible to implement more development projects planned for the affected communities.

SPDC has continued to implement its social investment programmes in the communities despite divesting its equity in OML 24 in Kula and Belema communities, he said.

Mr. Obari said that the company had already spent N352 million on schools, sanitation, electricity, walkways and health outreach programmes in the communities.

He said more than N600 million had been set aside to drive SPDC development initiatives in Kula, Belema, Offoinama and Boro Communities in Akuku Toru Local Government Area.

He said that the company had informed the authorities of the illegal occupation and was working toward a resolution and resumption of safe operations in the area. (NAN)

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By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) The Centre is looking at doubling the nuclear power generation capacity to about 14,000 MW, Union minister Piyush Goyal said today even as he ruled out its becoming the main source of energy for the country.

At present, India generates about 6,800 MW of nuclear energy.

"We have recently embarked on a plan to expand it by about 7,000 MW more and this will be through indigenously manufactured equipment. So, 10 units of 700 MW each we have proposed and we shall be investing in and we will start on that," the power and coal minister said at an event here.

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The Union Cabinet in May had already approved the setting up of 10 indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) for nuclear power generation.

"But, nuclear power will never ever become the main source of energy for India because it is very expensive. It has its own benefits. It is quite free of carbon, it does not pollute the environment and therefore, our government is encouraging it. We do need clean renewable sources of energy which is available 24 hours," Goyal said.

He said solar energy can only be generated during the day time and wind energy can be generated only during windy hours.

"Therefore, there is a need of a resource, which can be available 24 hours. Hydro is one such energy which we will promote and nuclear energy also we are promoting. But both these source are still quite expensive," he added.

Goyal further said: "We are dependent on foreign sources for Uranium. As you are aware, China is blocking our entry into the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group), so we have some challenges. But, we are confident we will make progress."

In a veiled reference to Donald Trumps rejection of the Paris climate change agreement, Goyal said India does not agree with the US Presidents views on the issue.

"There is an effort and an attempt by some senior leaders of very large countries to belittle the issue of climate change and try and say that it is not really a problem for the world. But, we in India dont believe so.

"For all of us Indians, we have always respected nature. We have always believed that the environment is an integral part of human existence," he added. PTI MM NRB SA

--- ENDS ---
"SIGN OF CHRIST'S CHARITY"

At the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, I wanted to offer the Church a World Day of the Poor, so that throughout the world Christian communities can become an even greater sign of Christ's charity for the least and those most in need.

LOVE FOR THE POOR

To the World Days instituted by my Predecessors .... I wish to add this one, which adds to them an exquisitely evangelistic fullness, that is, Jesus' preferential love for the poor.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

I invite the whole Church, and men and women of good will everywhere, to turn their gaze on this day to all those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity. They are our brothers and sisters, created and loved by the one Heavenly Father.

ENCOUNTER NOT WASTE

This Day is meant ... to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter... Everyone ... is invited to openness and sharing with the poor through concrete signs of solidarity and fraternity.

ENCOUNTER AND FRIENDSHIP

It is my wish that, in the week preceding the World Day of the Poor, which falls this year on November 19 ..., Christian communities will make every effort to create moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete assistance. They can invite the poor and volunteers to take part together in the Eucharist on this Sunday, in such a way that there will be an even more authentic celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Universal King, on the following Sunday.

DRAW CLOSE TO THE POOR

This Sunday, if there are poor people where we live who seek protection and assistance, let us draw close to them. It will be a favorable moment to encounter the God we seek.

LEARN FROM THE POOR

... Let us welcome them as honored guests at our table; they can be teachers who help us to live the faith more consistently. With their trust and readiness to receive help, they show us in a quiet and joyful way, how essential it is to live simply and to abandon ourselves to God's providence.

PRAYER OF THE POOR

Let us not forget that the Our Father is the prayer of the poor. Our asking for bread expresses our entrustment to God for our basic needs in life. Everything that Jesus taught us in this prayer expresses and brings together the cry of all who suffer from life's uncertainties and the lack of what they need.

"POWERFUL APPEAL"

This ... Day ... should become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers, allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practice in our lives the essence of the Gospel.

(Source: Message for World Day of the Poor, issued June 13, 2017)
"All people speaking Polish and thinking Polish were the target of (Soviet) repressions in 1937 and 1938", President Andrzej Duda wrote in a letter read out at the Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East in Warsaw on Friday.

"Tens of thousands of people were arrested, sentenced and either killed or deported to the east, often to die there", the President wrote in a letter read out by the head of his office, Halina Szymanska. He added that the victims did not come from the same social group and their attitude towards communism differed, and their only guilt was being Polish.

"For decades, this terrible crime was unnoticed even by historians in a jungle of other crimes. Only repressions against Polish communists were for long spoken about. (...)," the president wrote, stressing that the truth had been revealed owing to hard work of researchers and historians.

"(...) We owe them our remembrance. They did not choose their destiny, they did not die in a struggle, but they are proof that the identity of a nation is important. Let the sacrifice of our ancestors from 80 years ago oblige the present and next generations of Polish people to faithfully and actively love their Homeland, to preserve tradition and heritage, and above all, to take care of our sovereign state - the guarantor of freedom and security of the nation", the President stressed.

The so-called 'Polish Operation' was launched by Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, on August 11 1937, to "completely destroy Polish spy networks". This genocide claimed over 100,000 Polish lives. (PAP)
The spokesman explained that the distinction was a sign of recognition "for his committment to the development of Polish-US military cooperation

Polish President Andrzej Duda will decorate US General Frederick "Ben" Hodges with the Commander's Cross with a Star of the Order of Merit on the Armed Forces Day, on August 15, Marcin Skowron, the spokesperson the National Security Bureau, announced on Friday

According to Marcin Skowron, "the ceremony of decorating the US general was planned earlier".

The spokesman explained that the distinction was a sign of recognition "for his committment to the development of Polish-US military cooperation, the strengthening of the NATO eastern flank and increasing the US presence in Poland".

General Hodges is the Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe. (PAP)
President Andrzej Duda has sent a message of condolence to the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, after two passenger trains collided on the outskirts of Alexandria in northern Egypt on Friday, leaving 49 people dead and 123 injured.

"On behalf of the Polish nation and myself I want to convey the words of grief and deep sympathy for the terrible result of the rail disaster in the suburbs of Alexandria, where many people lost their lives and suffered so many injuries", President Duda wrote.

"I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the casualties of this tragedy, and I wish all the injured a prompt return to health", the Polish president added.

"We are united in sadness with the Egyptian people," President Duda wrote.(PAP)
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) An Indian Army team has crashed out of international Tank Biathlon held in Russia after its main battle tank T-90 developed technical snag.

India was among 19 countries, including China, which participated in the high profile event.

Official sources said the Indian team could not advance to the next level following breakdown of its two T-90 tanks.

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The Tank Biathlon commenced at Alabino Ranges on July 29.

A total of 19 countries have participated in the event and the top 12 of them were to be selected for stage II relay race.

The competition is an international event conducted as part of the International Army Games held every year since 2013 at Alabino Ranges in Russia.

International Army Games involve 28 events which are organised in Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and China.

The Indian Army team has been participating in the competition for the past three years.

Sources said it was for the first time that the Indian team was participating with its own T-90 tanks at the competition.

The competition simulates actual battle field conditions involving driving at high speed and entails switching from one mode of operation to another at a fast pace. PTI MPB SRY

--- ENDS ---
Applebees restaurants in South Jersey are safe from the chopping block, franchise CEO Greg Flynn said Friday.

DineEquity, the parent company of the Applebees Neighborhood Grill & Bar brand, announced Thursday it expects to close as many as 135 restaurants across the country.

Apple American Group, a subsidiary of Flynn Restaurant Group, wanted to assure our valued guests and employees that this announcement in no way affects franchised Applebees locations that we own and operate, Flynn wrote in a statement Friday.

Apple Americans Applebees locations include Hammonton, Vineland, Mays Landing, Somers Point and Atlantic City. The Flynn group owns and operates 477 Applebees, 274 Taco Bell and related Yum! Brand restaurants and 130 Panera Bread bakery-cafes.

Apple American Group is supported by the strong financial footing of Flynn Restaurant Group and has no plans to close any restaurants at this time, Flynn said.

During Thursdays quarterly earnings call, DineEquity announced 105 to 135 Applebees restaurants could close, up from a previous expectation of 40 to 60. The casual-dining giant also said it has plans to open 20 to 30 new restaurants worldwide.

We believe 2017 will be a transitional year for Applebees, and we are making the necessary investments for overall long-term brand health and expect to see improvement over the next year, said Richard J. Dahl, DineEquity Inc. chairman and interim CEO.

DineEquity is based in Glendale, California, and operates more than 3,700 IHOP and Applebees locations in 18 countries. According to its website, 99 percent are franchised through more than 400 franchisee partners.
Question: Years ago, my husband and I attended a going out of business sale held by a Philadelphia law firm. We bought several items, including a dark blue, rock-shaped, molded glass paperweight embossed with a gold 1620 date. The items underside is imprinted with Inkstand Co. Prov. RI, Pilgrim Rock Trademark 1876 and a short poem about the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock. We are curious about this items age, maker and if it is valuable.  D.S., Williamstown

Answer: Your purchase, known as the Plymouth Rock paperweight, bears a gilt reminder of the English Pilgrim settlers who in 1620 arrived at New Plymouth in what is now the state of Massachusetts. They established Plymouth Colony that year.

The solid glass cobalt-blue paperweight is one of many made by the Providence Inkstand Co., in Providence, Rhode Island. The company was originally organized by Samuel Darling to manufacture and sell patented bronze and glass inkstands and patented pen cleaners.

Darlings Plymouth Rock paperweight was specifically designed and produced by Providence Inkstand to be offered as a souvenir at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia.

Currently found in a number of museums, Provident Inkstand Co. cobalt 1620 paperweights attract folks who collect a variety of glass, cobalt, historical and souvenir examples. This year, a 1620 in excellent condition fetched $550.

Question: I own a collection of bobblehead dolls given to me years ago by a friend. I want to sell most of them and need information about a 7-inch-high plaster Colonel Sanders model and KFC. My Colonel wears a white suit, black-rimmed glasses, carries a black cane in one hand and a bag of fried chicken in the other. He is in his original, somewhat damaged box marked Tops Enterprises, Inc., Arlington VA.  A.E., Marmora

Answer: You have one of the original 1960s Colonel Sanders bobbleheads, a Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. advertising piece featuring founder Harland Sanders (1890-1980). He was named an honorary Kentucky colonel by his state in 1935.

Established in Corbin, Kentucky, Sanders Court & Cafe original restaurant became famous after the colonel discovered a special way to fry chicken in a 1939 pressure cooker. By the late 1950s, his company was a very successful fast-food franchise operation, which he sold for $2 million in 1964. The colonel was retained for advertising purposes until he died in 1980. Six years later, Pepsi Co. purchased KFC for $845 million.

Throughout the years, Colonel Sanders likeness appeared on a vast assortment of KFC items, including banks, salt and pepper shakers, weathervanes, toy trucks and Lionel trains, lamps, transistor radios, sunscreen, masks, clothing, glassware, pottery and many other promotional pieces collected by KFC fans and folks who search for a variety of fast-food marketing merchandise.

KFC Colonel bobbleheads were produced for many years as a number of different editions, originally in the U.S. and later in Japan. Your first edition is especially sought after because it is made of molded plaster, not the plastic later used to form Colonel figures. Additionally, since plaster is much more fragile than plastic, fewer early models are available. A 1960s plaster edition with no damage or missing paint sold for $90 last year.
Alley Cat Allies is deeply disappointed in the Aug. 7 editorial, A.C. cat killings another reason to ban managed feral colonies, that criticized our organizations program of supported feral cat colonies. Were devastated by the loss of three Atlantic City Boardwalk cats and are doing everything we can to bring the perpetrators still at large to justice, including working with investigators and offering a $5,000 reward. But promoting misconceptions about feral, or community, cats also endangers their lives. Banning community cat colonies, as the Press suggests, is an ill-advised idea that would lead to cats being killed.

What is particularly shocking about the editorial is that evidence of how cats can live worthwhile lives outdoors is right in front of us at the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Atlantic City is an innovative model for our Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program, along with Chicago, San Antonio and Colorado Springs, to name a few. Mayor Don Guardian and other New Jersey municipal leaders have embraced TNR. The cats of our Alley Cat Allies Boardwalk Cats Project have healthy lives as a result of our TNR program, with many living well into their teens. Since community cats arent socialized to humans and cant live indoors, they are also in the best place to ensure their happiness.

Cats have lived outdoors alongside people for more than 10,000 years in virtually every landscape on every continent where people live. Only in the past 70 years, with the invention of kitty litter, have they become popular domestic pets. The idea that all cats should stay in their caregivers homes and on their properties, as the Press said, is unrealistic and unreasonable. As anyone observing the Boardwalk cats can see, their home is the outdoors and their families are the cats in their colonies.

Community cats are as natural to the outdoors as birds, mice and rabbits. The biggest threat to such wildlife arent community cats, but rather human-led activities like climate change and habitat destruction. In a report by the World Conservation Union surveying 1,173 threatened bird species, habitat loss was the biggest threat, affecting 89 percent of all threatened birds and 83 percent of the threatened mammals sampled.

Likewise, cats are often wrongly accused of potentially passing on disease when, in fact, community cats have equally low rates of disease as owned cats. Most cases of toxoplasmosis are from undercooked food, not cats. Foxes, bats and skunks are more likely to give humans rabies than cats.

Since Atlantic City began its work with the Boardwalk cats 17 years ago, there hasnt been a single complaint about feral cat bites or scratches at the Boardwalk. What officials have noticed is that the cats draw much love and attention from caring and compassionate volunteers, residents and tourists. If Atlantic City were to follow the editorials advice, it would lose a beloved and revenue-increasing tourist attraction that local businesses also support.

The Press has offered only one approach to community cats: Put them inside. This isnt practical or humane for cats that have spent their entire lives outdoors and that arent socialized to humans. Furthermore, each time cats are removed from an area they consider home, surviving or neighboring cats move in to take advantage of the available food and shelter. The result is a costly, endless cycle of trapping and bringing cats inside, leading to certain death for the cats that cant adjust.

The only effective, practical and humane way to stabilize community cat populations is TNR. There are nearly 90 community cats that live under the Boardwalk, and they have all been humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear-tipped, and returned to the home they know. Since we started TNR at the Boardwalk, the cat population has naturally declined by more than 72 percent. Its completely stable  no new kittens have been born for years.

Misinformation costs hundreds of thousands of cats their lives every year. People shouldnt let the Press of Atlantic Citys editorial make up their minds about community cats.
GOP, Trump are no good

The nation is in alarming disarray due to the election of one inept man with no concept of how government works. While the tweeter in chief displays incredible ignorance about his job, his fiercely loyal supporters accuse non-supporters of hating him.

Actually, in spite of all the damage he has done, some even pity rather than hate him, since hell surely go down in history as the worst president ever elected, an agonizing fate for one so narcissistic. His destructive policies have been so appallingly numerous, whether personal or on the nations behalf, that they defy enumeration.

However, the acquiescence of the Republican-controlled Congress is equally appalling. One would hope they would take appropriate action; they were elected by honorable people who expected principled representation.

They continue to remain silent regarding President Trumps activities  still inappropriately campaigning, tweeting damaging contempt for civil rights, belittling those who disagree with him, including Cabinet members.

After seven years of disparaging and attempting to overturn Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, they are still committed to destroying it.

Bettie Reina

Milmay

ACA hasnt made couples medical care affordable

Lets talk about the Affordable Care Act. Exactly who is it affordable for? Certainly Sen. John McCain. Oh, wait a minute. As a member of Congress, he is exempt. But what about me and my family?

I am 70 years old and semi-retired. My wife is younger, but also semi-retired. Our income is from Social Security and part-time jobs. Last year, we spent in excess of $13,000 on medical insurance (including Medicare supplemental), co-pays for prescriptions, doctors and dentists. So far this year it looks like we will be spending as much, if not more, for medical bills. This is affordable health care?

During my working career, I never let my health insurance lapse. When I was out of work, I continued to pay COBRA out of pocket. So, when a condition arose, the insurance company could not say that it was pre-existing.

So, once again, I ask, who benefits from the Affordable Care Act?

Frank Priolo

Hammonton
After a long sit-in protest followed by a meeting with students, the Executive Council (EC) at Jadavpur University has accepted that the government's call for apolitical students' councils is "unacceptable". But what happens now?

Students protesting at JU. The writing on the wall (right) says, 'Jadavpur belonged to students, will continue to belong to student.' Photo: Sougata Sinha

By Shreya Biswas: Kolkata's Jadavpur University rose up to yet another protest on Thursday against the Mamata Banerjee-led government's call to dissolve student-elected unions in colleges. The agitation was called off late last night after the students had a meeting with the Executive Council (EC) where "certain demands were met".

The 35-hour-long sit-in demonstration saw multiple meetings with the EC though the course of time, none of which yielded any positive result.

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At last, around midnight yesterday, the EC is said to have admitted that the stakeholders of the university -- which is, students, teachers and and other staff members -- "were opposed to the undemocratic and unacceptable" decision of the state government.

Speaking to IndiaToday.in, JU student Ujaan Chandra said the EC and the vice-chancellor were "forced to concede to the demands of the students under pressure,".

"The EC resolved that all the stakeholders of the university were opposed to the undemocratic and unacceptable Act, and that it would strive to have maximum possible dialogue with all stakeholders to generate consensus on the matter," he said.

Sougata Sinha, the chairperson of JU's Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) told IndiaToday.in that following a General Body Meeting, the protesting students decided to call off the protest at 1am last night.

"The EC has accepted quite a few of our demands, except for one. We had demanded that no apolitical unions will be implemented without a discussion, the EC said that they cannot promise," said Sinha.

WHAT WAS THE STATE GOVERNMENT'S MOVE EXACTLY?

Earlier in June, the state government issued the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Bill-2017. According to some of its provisions, the government would have the right to control the conduct of student unions in colleges.

Under subhead Students' Body or Union of Colleges, the bill says:"There shall be a Students' Body or Union, as the case may be, in every college and the General Secretary of such body or union shall be a member of the Governing Body, for a period of one year from the date of his election.

The composition, functions, duties and responsibilities of the Students' Body or the Union, as the case may be, including the manner, procedure and eligibility to participate in the election, shall be such as may be prescribed."

All in all, it is being derived that with the bill the state government is moving to dissolve the existing system of student-elected college unions, and replace it with 'apolitical' nominated students' council.

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The example of St. Xavier's College -- which follows the system of one students' council -- has been thrown around by the government a few times, which has increasingly ticked of JU students.

JU STUDENTS VS MAMATA: THE PROTEST

Every JU student we have spoken to (more than 10) since yesterday have repeated that their protest is not in any way a "gherao" or a lockdown, but a peaceful demonstration.

"Even last night the VC went out and went inside the building. This is NOT a gherao," JU student Ekabali Ghosh told IndiaToday.in.

Nonetheless, they stressed that they will not "accept the implementation of apolitical councils in college,".

"If the Union is done away with, all marginalised groups in campus will suffer under state oppression," said Ghosh.

FETSU chairperson Sougata Sinha said that bringing in a students' council that is not elected by students the way a union is, will make way for unnecessary fee hike in college services, new rules regarding attendance, etc.

Sinha also said the plan is to have an attendance criteria which will decide which students get to vote for the council.

Most importantly, the students fear that such a council will put a dent in the democratic atmosphere of the colleges in West Bengal at present.

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WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

Although the EC has agreed with the students on certain terms, it does not undo the government's bill.

Speaking about the meeting and the first round win, student Ujaan Chandra said, "This is just the first step, a primary victory. A tougher battle is beginning and we must be prepared to fight with all we have to win it. To keep our Jadavpur.

"As of now, the EC will send the resolution to the state government. Nothing more can be said until we hear back from the state," he added.

When asked their plan, Sougata Sinha said, "The college will be closed for the next four days. Once it opens, we will decide what the next step of the protest will be."

The students are also hopeful that the state government will now "be forced to speak to the students and the authorities on this matter,".

Until the protest was called off last night, it saw a participation of hundreds of students at the Jadavpur campus through rain, sun and dark.

Here are a few images straight from the campus:

The mural says, 'Subodh, you must spread. Escape is not your religion.' Photo: Sougata Sinha

Protest at JU. Source: Hi Ran Moy/ Facebook

Protest at JU. Source: Kamalesh Roy/ Facebook

Protest at JU. Source: Kamalesh Roy/ Facebook

Protest at JU. Source: Kamalesh Roy/ Facebook

--- ENDS ---

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NEW ORLEANS, La., Aug. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until September 11, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Arconic, Inc. (NYSE: ARNC), if they purchased the Company's securities November 4, 2013 and June 26, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Get Help

Arconic investors should visit us at https://www.claimsfiler.com/cases/view-arconic-inc-securities-litigation or call to speak to our claim center toll-free at (844) 367-9658.

About the Lawsuit

Arconic and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) Arconic knowingly manufactured and/or sold highly flammable polyethylene cladding panels for use in construction; (ii) the foregoing actions greatly increased the risk of personal injury/death and property damage in buildings constructed with the panels, as occurred in the June 14, 2017 Grenfell Tower fire catastrophe in London; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, Arconic's financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. ClaimsFiler's team of experts monitor the securities class action landscape and cull information from a variety of sources to ensure comprehensive coverage across a broad range of financial instruments.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.

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NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: APRN).

On August 10, 2017, Blue Apron released its first post-IPO earnings report revealing a loss of 47 cents a share, or $31.6 million, during the second quarter, a notably higher loss than analysts' expectations. The Company also reported a rise in costs of 86% or $65.7 million. This follows the recent sudden resignation of the Company's co-founder and Chief Operating Officer as well as reports of staffing cuts.

On this news, the price of Blue Apron's shares plummeted, down significantly since its late-June IPO.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Blue Apron and/or its officers and directors violated state or federal securities laws.

If you are a Blue Apron shareholder and have suffered losses, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ([email protected]), or visit http://ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-aprn-investigation/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

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NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF continues its investigation into Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG).

On April 25, 2017, the Company revealed a data breach affecting its payment processing systems potentially affecting its customers and advised that customers "should closely monitor their payment card statements" for unauthorized charges and notify their bank if that occurred. The breach resulted in a class action lawsuit being filed against the Company by more than 100 financial institutions based on lost accounts, repayments and other expenses caused by Chipotle's negligence in the breach, highlighting a 2015 decision by the Company to "not upgrade its terminals to EMV [chip card] technology, claiming that it would slow down customer lines" despite a prior breach that had cost the company approximately $4.3 million between 2004 and 2006.

On July 19, 2017, it was announced that the Company received a federal subpoena relating to a reported norovirus outbreak at one of its Virginia locations that left hundreds sickened, which follows a string of similar incidents involving the company dating back to 2015 and has resulted in the filing of a securities class action lawsuit against the Company.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Chipotle's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Chipotle shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson & Weaver, LLP is investigating potential violations of the federal securities laws by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (NYSE: RDY) and certain of its officers. Dr. Reddy's operates as an integrated pharmaceutical company worldwide.

On November 6, 2015, Dr. Reddy's reported that the Company received a "warning letter" from U.S. regulators over inadequate quality controls at three manufacturing plants producing drugs for cancer and other diseases. The next trading day, on November 9, the Company held an investor conference call to discuss the warning letter. On the call, it was further revealed that it was not just the three facilities singled out in the warning letter that was experiencing problems. In fact, the FDA required Dr. Reddy's to implement changes for every manufacturing site the Company operated. Specifically, Dr. Reddy's disclosed to investors that the FDA found deficiencies in its documentation practices and control, laboratory testing practices, adequacy of standard operating procedures, and incident investigation practices.

Then, on August 10, 2017, Dr. Reddy's disclosed that the Regulatory of Germany (Regierung von Oberbayern), following a recent inspection of the plant, did not renew the good manufacturing practices compliance certificate of a manufacturing unit of Dr. Reddy's German subsidiary Betapharm Arzneimittel, located in Hyderabad, India. Following these disclosures, the price of Dr. Reddy's plummeted.

If you have information that could assist in this investigation, or if you are a Dr. Reddy's shareholder and are interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact Jim Baker ([email protected]) by email or by phone at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.

About Johnson & Weaver, LLP:

Johnson & Weaver, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonandweaver.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Johnson & Weaver, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

[email protected]

SOURCE Johnson & Weaver, LLP

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VERONA, Va., Aug. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Nexus Services, Inc., CEO Mike Donovan announced today that his company would free all pro-civil rights "counter-protestors" by paying for all bonds stemming from the arrests of those standing against the "neo-Confederates" in Charlottesville, Virginia today.

"We respect the constitutional rights of the citizens' of Charlottesville, particularly the young people rallying against hate who attend the University of Virginia. We also know that many young people lack the money to secure and post bond. Nexus Services Inc. will help those counter protesting the neo-Confederate rally, particularly students, and get help them out of jail and home as soon as possible."

Nexus Services, Inc. will not secure bond for anyone wearing masks in public demonstrations that are found to be in violation the "Ku Klux Klan Act" of 1871.

The bail-assistance hotline is 434-688-0036. Collect calls will be accepted.

Friends, faculty and relatives are encouraged to share this number with any one joining the counter-protest against the neo-Confederates and in need assistance paying bail.

"While we firmly believe in freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, it appears, however, that those being arrested in Charlottesville are disproportionately young students who oppose the presence of the KKK and the neo-Confederates in their community," said Donovan.

About Nexus Services, Inc.:

Nexus Services affirms the inherent worth and dignity of people by becoming a voice to those victimized by the legal system and providing hope to those who have lost it. Nexus aids immigrant communities in crisis through bonding and pro bono legal services. Nexus guides pretrial and post-conviction offenders to a place of stability and accountability while striving to reduce jail populations. Additionally, Nexus' front-line approach to advocacy, charity, and goodwill in the community facilitates their mission to help clients achieve long-term success and become established members of society. Nexus is committed to standing with their clients and their clients' families in the same regard that they stand with their own company family. Nexus is united by the quest for justice and desire to spark change in the world.

Media Contact: Jen Little,

Director of Public Relations, Nexus Services, Inc.

540-255-9492, [email protected]

SOURCE Nexus Services, Inc.
Tokyo, Aug 8 : Okinawa Deputy Governor Moritake Tomikawa on Tuesday lodged a protest with the US for flying an Osprey in the Japanese prefecture just days after one of the accident-prone planes crashed off Australia.

Tomikawa's protest followed the Japanese government asking the US to stop flying Ospreys in Japan, but the US in response flew the controversial tilt-rotor plane from the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The plane flew from the same base as the MV-22 Osprey that crashed off Australia on Saturday, killing three US Marines.

Tomikawa met the top commander of the US forces in Okinawa to lodge a protest and expressed the residents' growing concern over the planes' increasingly checkered safety record.

The Deputy Governor's concerns were dismissed by the top commander of the US forces in Okinawa, Lt. General Lawrence Nicholson, who said: "Ospreys are flying around the world. It is the (US) military's policy."

Tomikawa said the ambivalent attitude of the US military was angering.

"From the viewpoint of Okinawa, it is unbearable and I cannot help but get angry. I was not able to get any convincing answers," Tomikawa said.

The US Naval Safety Centre categorised the Osprey's crash off Australia as "Class A".

Exasperation at the US military's continued use of Ospreys in Japan hit a fever pitch following an Osprey making an emergency landing in the prefecture in June, with residents still in fear after the crash landing of one of the planes in waters off Nago near the US Marine Corps' Camp Schwab last December.

The incident, which saw five crew members airlifted to safety and then subsequently treated for injuries, involved an MV-22 Osprey making a "shallow landing", according to US military accounts.

The crash marked the first major accident involving an Osprey since its deployment in Japan in 2012 and had Okinawan officials vehemently call for the planes to be withdrawn from Japan.

Prior to these accidents, Ospreys have been involved in multiple crashes around the world leading to numerous fatalities, dating back to the plane's developmental phase in 2000.
Agartala, Aug 8 : A day after six axed Trinamool Congress legislators joined the Bharatiya Janata party, its leader on Tuesday said the party will urge Tripura assembly Speaker to recognise the legislators as its party members.

"I will soon write to the state assembly Speaker to recognise the six MLAs as BJP members. The entire process on our side will be completed within one or two weeks," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tripura unit President Biplab Kumar Deb told IANS.

"There is a big rally to be held here tomorrow (Wednesday). After that I will write to the Speaker to recognise the legislators as BJP members."

Tripura Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath said the state BJP President and all the six legislators either individually or collectively will have to write letters to him.

"After getting all the letters, I will start the process and talk to the MLAs individually before deciding on their recognition," Debnath told IANS.

Led by Sudip Roy Barman, five lawmakers -- Ashish Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Biswa Bandhu Sen, Pranjit Singh Roy and Dilip Sarkar -- accompanied by hundreds of former Trinamool Congress leaders and workers on Monday joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and a host of BJP leaders.

The six legislators, according to the Speaker, are still recognised as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC's legislators.

Veteran tribal leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, who was the leader of the TMC legislature group, said the BJP should choose a new legislature party leader.

"The entire process will depend on the party (BJP). The state BJP President will initiate the process according to his convenience," said Hrangkhaw, a former Tripura Congress President.

After the recognition of all six legislators as BJP members, the Tripura assembly will get its first saffron party members since the northeastern state got a legislative body -- 32-member Territorial council 60 years ago in 1957.

After the princely ruled Tripura merged with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949, Tripura, the "C" category state under the North Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971, along with Manipur and Meghalaya on January 21, 1972, became full-fledged state with 60-member assembly.

The six TMC legislators led by Barman had earlier in June last year resigned from the Congress and joined the Trinamool to protest the Congress' electoral alliance with the Left for the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections.

They along with rebel Congress legislator Ratanlal Nath voted for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the Presidential election on July 17.

A BJP leader said Sarma, a former Congress minister who joined the BJP before Assam elections and is now convener of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, facilitated these TMC legislators' entry into the party.

"Ratanlal Nath will also join the BJP soon," he added.

The Congress has already served a show-cause notice to Nath for anti-party activities and meeting BJP leaders, and according to party sources, he may be expelled soon.

However, Nath has been evading queries about joining the BJP though he has met its leaders, including Amit Shah, in the past several months.

In the 60-member assembly, the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front has 51 members with CPI-M alone 50 and the Congress has only three members.

The Left-ruled state goes to polls in February next year.
Baghdad, Aug 8 : Forty Iraqi Hashd Shaabi fighters were killed when the US forces pounded its posts near Syria border, the Shia paramilitary unit said on Tuesday, warning the attack will not go unpunished.

The US forces carried out "heavy bombardment on Monday morning on the posts of Sayyd al-Shuhadaa Brigades in Akashat area near the border with Syria," Xinhua cited the unit as saying in a statement.

It said the group "holds the US forces responsible for the consequences of the action. We declare that it will not go without punishment".

The unit also called on the Iraqi government to launch a probe into the incident, and urged Iraq to protect border with Syria "in order to deprive the Americans from using the border line to pass their malicious agendas".

The media reports said around 30 persons were wounded in the US artillery bombardment on the units posts in western Iraq.

The incident came as the Iraqi forces, including the Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters, prepare to liberate the IS-held town of Tal Afar, about 70 km from Mosul.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in July declared Mosul's liberation from the IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in the country.
Are we witnessing the beginning of a grand coalition of regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir over apprehensions of an imminent move to dilute constitutional provisions that guarantee the state special status?

In a bold and surprising move, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti called on arch rivals, the Abdullahs, on the evening of August 8. The meeting with National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and his son and former CM Omar was held at Farooq's Gupkar Road home. Mehbooba said it was to seek their counsel and support on the threat to J&K's special status. The perceived threat has arisen from the central government's refusal last month to oppose a 2014 petition in the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution.

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Article 35A, issued in 1954 under Article 370, empowers the J&K legislature to define 'permanent residents' of the state and their rights and privileges. As it currently stands, the law bars non-residents from acquiring immovable property in the state, registering as voters, and holding jobs in the state government. Ironically, the provision replicates the 1927 State Subject law introduced by J&K's erstwhile ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, on persistent demands from local Dogras and Kashmiri Pandits, who feared losing their pre-eminent status in the Dogra administration to outsiders from neighbouring Punjab.

Analysts believe Mehbooba's unprecedented overture-not just the meeting with the Abdullahs but also with state Congress leaders and other political groups in the Valley-is clearly meant as a signal to ally BJP. While she has preferred to not speak out on most other issues, including the recent arrest of senior Hurriyat separatists on terror-financing charges (see: The Terror Connection), Mehbooba isn't mincing words on this one. "It's a challenge for all political parties in J&K, who swear by the J&K Constitution and the Constitution of India. There's hardly anything left in our special status, and if Article 35A is tampered with, we will cease to exist," she said after meeting the NC leaders. She described the move as a "death knell" for mainstream political parties in the Valley.

Earlier too, on July 28 in New Delhi, Mehbooba had courted controversy by saying that no one in J&K would carry the national flag if there was any move to tinker with the constitutional status of the state. The NC has taken a firm position on the issue. Omar says any debate on the legality of Article 35A has to accompany a debate on the accession of J&K to India. Perhaps for the first time, every mainstream party with a presence in the Valley is in agreement. "We are all together in this," said Mehbooba, accepting Farooq's advice on holding talks with "other like-minded parties for a broader solidarity on the issue". She has announced plans to call an all-party meeting in Srinagar.

Saifuddin Soz of the Congress has also endorsed the moves to build consensus: "The parties have adopted the right stance on Article 35A," he says. "The mainstream parties in J&K and the Hurriyat Conference are on the same page on this issue." Perhaps startled by Mehbooba's manoeuvres, the state BJP unit hastened to clarify that it does not favour "tampering with any of the constitutional provisions of J&K-Article 35A or Article 370". The party's central leadership, however, remained typically reticent.

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--- ENDS ---
Mumbai, Aug 8 : Maharashtra's opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine on Tuesday levelled allegations of corruption against Industries Minister Subhash Desai in denotifying lands acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and demanded he quit.

The opposition parties disrupted the proceedings in the legislature and also squatted on the stairs of the Vidhan Bhavan demanding resignation of Desai, who is from the Shiv Sena, and Housing Minister Prakash Mehta of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, Desai dismissed all the charges and said that the process of denotifying the lands had been initiated during the erstwhile Congress-NCP government and he had merely "clubbed individual cases to formulate a policy".

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said that Desai had denotified a staggering 31,000 acres of industrial lands at the picturesque Igatpuri in Nashik to favour builders and developers without following proper procedures.

Claiming corruption of over Rs 50,000 crore in this, he sought a probe by Enforcement Directorate, and resignations of Desai and Mehta.

The Congress leader said the denotification of the lands near Nashik was done to favour private parties despite the opposition of MIDC to the proposal.

"The Maharashtra government has denotified over 12,429 hectares land acquired by the MIDC between January 2015-March 2017. The denotification order was issues saying that the farmers have opposed acquisition. This is a new form of corruption in which land is acquired and denotified after underhand deals," he added.

In the case of Igatpuri lands, the proposal was rejected by the previous Congress-NCP government on January 16, 2012.

"The present minister (Desai) allowed it to be handed over to one Swastik Property Ltd, which is having many realty projects in Mumbai. How can a construction company from Mumbai claim to represent farmers opposing the land acquisition?" asked Vikhe-Patil.

Leader of Opposition in Council Dhananjay Munde said that till the two ministers were removed and probe ordered into their dealings, the opposition would not allow the house to function.

Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar demanded forming a Special Investigation Team to probe the entire matter and removal of Desai till the (probe) report was completed.

On his part, Desai justified the denotification on grounds that during the previous regime, it was done on a case by case basis, while he formulated a policy for the same, and cited examples of such denotification carried out by the Congress-NCP government between 2010-2014.

He explained that several plots of land are scattered and fragmented in such a manner that industries are not interested in buying them, necessitating the policy to denotify such pieces of land.
New Delhi, Aug 9 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for an India devoid of corruption and poverty by 2022 when the country marks 75 years of independence.

Participating in a special discussion to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement, Modi said the coming five years could be as decisive as it was between 1942 and 1947 when the country got independence.

He said in the present world, India could again emerge as an inspiration.

In the nearly 40-minute speech, Modi recalled the role played by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Jayaprakash Narayan and others.

The Prime Minister made no mention of Jawaharlal Nehru.

"When Mahatma Gandhi, a leader who always propagated non-violence, raised the call to 'Do or Die', it was a surprise for the nation. He told each and all of us to consider ourselves as independent nationals," Modi said.

"From 2017 to 2022, when India turns 75, we need to create the same spirit that existed from 1942 to 1947."

Modi urged people to take a pledge to end corruption, poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy besides ensuring gender equality.

"We need to bring a positive change in this regard. Today, a similar call (like Gandhi made in 1942) and determination are needed to weed out corruption from our country," Modi said, adding a lot can be achieved with the determination of collective conscience.

Modi said a sense of entitlement had increased in the country but the sense of duty had depleted.

"People break law and do not feel they are doing something wrong," he said. He called for changing this attitude.

The Prime Minister said the Indian independence struggle was an inspiration for many countries suffering from colonial rule.

"British colonialism started in India and ended in India. India's independence was not just India's independence. It spread the urge to get independence in many countries," he said.
New Delhi, Aug 9 : National passenger carrier Air India's Frankfurt-New Delhi flight made a "precautionary landing" in Tehran, Iran, due to "technical reasons" on early Wednesday morning.

The "precautionary landing" was made at 6.20 a.m. local time and all 249 passengers aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight are safe, according to the airline.

"A relief flight departed from Mumbai to Tehran," said AI's spokesperson, adding that a team of engineers and other technical staff have been sent on the "relief flight" operated by a Boeing 747 aircraft.

"Relief flight will come back to Delhi with all the passengers, while engineers and other technical staff will come back to Mumbai after maintenance of the grounded aircraft."
Ahmedabad, Aug 9 : After Congress veteran Ahmed Patel's hard-fought victory in the Rajya Sabha elections, the party on Wednesday cracked the whip against 14 rebel MLAs, including former Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, expelling them for six years for anti-party activities.

Ahmed Patel, also political secretary of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile called on the party unit to gear up for a target of winning 125 seats out of 182 in the December assembly elections.

"The party has expelled all eight rebel MLAs, including Shankersinh Vaghela, who cross-voted against Ahmed bhai, defying the party whip," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi told IANS.

"We have also initiated similar action against six other legislators who resigned earlier after the party had issued a whip to all MLAs to vote for the official nominee in the Rajya Sabha elections," he said, adding that the action against them is on technical grounds.

"We will now initiate legal proceedings against all of them to ensure that they are not able to fight Assembly polls for the next six years," Doshi said, adding that defying the party whip invites disqualification from contesting any election.

Besides Vaghela, the expelled legislators include his son Mahendrasinh and loyalists Raghavji Patel, Bholabhai Gohil, Anand Chaudhary, C.K. Raulji and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, who had voted against official party candidate. Another MLA from Sanand, Karamshi Patel, who was one of the 44 legislators flown off to Bengaluru to prevent "further poaching" from BJP, was also expelled for cross-voting in defiance of the party's whip.

Meanwhile, all the 43 legislators who voted for Ahmed Patel, held a meeting with the senior Congress leader and vowed to fight the forthcoming polls with more vigour.

Patel exhorted all the legislators to visit Tirupati Balaji temple to seek blessings for the victory and take a vow to bag 125 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The Congress veteran had asserted after winning his Rajya Sabha seat that the victory had pepped up the party's ranks and "we will fight the assembly elections with all aggression and ensure their (BJP's) defeat 100 per cent."

A spirited state President Bharatsinh Solanki said: "The victory in Rajya Sabha elections will go a big way to boost our morale. Ahmedbhai will play a crucial role (in the assembly polls)."
Mumbai, Aug 9 : Actor Rajkummar Rao, who has featured in intense roles in films like "Shahid" and "Trapped", will be seen dancing for a change in the quirky entertainer "Bareilly Ki Barfi". He says he learnt it by looking at actors.

"Like most of the people in small towns, I learned dancing by looking at a lot of actors dancing. That's how I learnt it," Rajkummar said in a statement.

In "Bareilly Ki Barfi", the National Award winning actor is playing the role of Pritam Vidrohi, a small town guy.

He gave a dekko of his dancing skills at the launch of the song "Twist kamiraya" here earlier this week.

The film features Kriti Sanon alongsideRao and Ayushman Khurana.

Written by "Dangal" writer-director Nitesh Tiwari and Shreyas Jain, the movie is scheduled to release on August 18.

It marks Ashiwny Iyer Tiwari's second film as a director after "Nil Battey Sannata".
Caracas, Aug 10 : Venezuela has "emphatically" rejected the new additional US sanctions against its eight government officials involved in the creation of the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC), a top official said.

"We emphatically reject the pretensions and intentions of the US Treasury Department against eight people, among them citizens who have had the privilege of being elected by their own people to the ANC," Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza said late Wednesday.

All the targets of the measure, including Adan Chavez, brother of the late President Hugo Chavez, have very close ties to the government of President Nicolas Maduro, reports Xinhua news agency.

As a result of the move, all assets of these individuals subject to US jurisdiction are frozen, and American nationals are prohibited from dealing with them, according to the Treasury Department.

The new sanctions comes after Washington blacklisted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on August 1, one day after Venezuela held elections for the National Constituent Assembly.

Washington has also slapped Maduro with sanctions.

Maduro rebuffed the sanctions that targeted him personally, saying he was "proud" to be singled out by the measure.

The ANC opened for its first session last week. The country's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as the president of the new body.

Since Maduro announced the plan for the ANC'S formation in April, the opposition has led street protests, which have left over 120 dead.
Kolkata, Aug 10 : A hammer and compass in hand, India's women geologists are literally rocking it. Notwithstanding the dangers of remote environments, encounters with wild animals, limited access to toilets and the occasional "detention" by left-wing extremists in disturbed areas, these women of the Geological Survey of India have evened out the odds to carve out success stories.

Now standing tall at 40 per cent of total workforce at India's premier geological survey body, they do not hesitate to get their hands dirty.

Forty-year-old Kasturi Chakraborty, a petrologist, says it's a good time for women to chase a career in geology.

"Earlier, women were mostly associated with lab work in geology. Now the mindset has changed and we are seeing more and more women on the field. Interest in the field is gender neutral... one has to harbour a love for nature," Chakraborty, Superintending Geologist, Petrology Division, Eastern Region, GSI, told IANS here.

Whether it was during the time of Etheldred Benett (1776-1845), one of the first women geologists, or to the present day, sociological, logistical and political issues remain. Chakraborty advocates three Ps for making the cut: passion, professionalism and personality.

A sense of humour also helps when a geologist has to get started on a dig: examine satellite and other data about the terrain, arrange transport, set up base camp, hire labourers, inform police of your presence, know your danger zones (Maoist or extremism hit areas), break rocks, collect samples, analyse data.

And all this time (it could be a few months at a stretch) one is away from one's family and friends.

Riding on nearly two decades of experience, Chakraborty, who has worked in South India and is now involved in projects in East Singbhum in Jharkhand, believes the suspense of what's waiting for them in the terrain eggs them on to move past the challenges.

"As a parent, one has to groom the child to understand and adapt to the fact that the parent will be away for weeks or even months on end," says Chakraborty, who has a nine-year-old daughter.

Debjani Raychaudhuri, who studies meteorites and has primarily worked in the interiors of Bihar, draws attention to the toilet conundrum.

"As a lady, I feel Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swacch Bharat is of absolute necessity. It's really tough sitting there for hours and waiting to go back to my camp and get a chance. In the interiors, there is nothing," she lamented.

Other problems are "tackleable".

"Many officers including myself were detained by Maoists... they never harm you. They offered me cashews, raisins etc. They know us as the 'pathhar kankar wale' (stones and rock people). After sunset, they dropped us off at our site. You don't misbehave, they don't misbehave," the 32-year old explained.

Arya Ghosh, whose interest in the field was sparked by Sudipta Sengupta, one of the first Indian women to visit Antarctica on an expedition, makes it a point to apprise local police of their work in a particular area.

She also felt "courageous" enough to complete a project in Nayagarh district in Odisha that had been abandoned following extremist violence.

"I love to do this so I don't view them as obstacles. The scientific objective is my priority and I am willing to go to the extent to bring it to fruition... keeping one's safety in mind," says Ghosh, who works in metamorphic petrology.

Ghosh points out the misconception that girls are not hardy enough to handle some physically demanding projects that still exist in some cases, but it dissolves once you show what you are capable of.

As for gender-based discrimination, Raychaudhuri and Chakraborty say it's work that matters in the end. The trio say fitness is a must. So are knife, hammer, antiseptics.

"Every now and then you read about NASA. Our ISRO missions have proved to the world what we are capable of. We are equally able and learning more through geology would help highlight our prowess even more," Raychaudhuri added, urging youngsters to go out more and explore nature.

The perks of the job: finding out something new, exploring nature, friendly locals, picking up local dialects and the satisfaction to have contributed to building India.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)
Bengaluru, Aug 10 : Engineers at Purdue University in the US have designed and tested a micropropulsion system that uses liquid water as the propellant for orbital maneuvering of tiny satellites called CubeSats.

With rapid developments in miniaturisation of technologies CubeSats -- which typically weigh about two kilograms -- are poised to take over the sky in the future to carry out tasks like imaging and remote-sensing currently performed by heavier satellites which are expensive to build and launch.

However, today's CubeSats cannot totally replace their larger counterparts as they are incapable of changing orbit or performing complex manoeuvres. For instance, none of the 101 nanosatellites that were launched aboard India's PSLV from the Sriharikota Space Centre in February 2017 had propulsion. A propulsion system would allow such tiny satellites to correct their orbit or maintain their altitude, thereby prolonging their operating life in space before becoming space debris.

A dedicated propulsion system that is also compact and not power hungry has been the aim of CubeSat builders in several laboratories to exploit their full potential.

The system developed at Purdue uses an innovative design of small thrusters that deliver bursts of water vapor to manoeuvre the spacecraft, its developers -- most of them undergraduate students -- reported at a recent "Conference on Small Satellites" held at Logan, Utah, in the US.

Pure water is chosen as the propellant since it is green, safe, easy to use and free from the risk of contaminating sensitive instruments by the backflow from plumes as in the case of thrusters using chemical propellants.

Called a "Film-Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array", or FEMTA thruster, it uses capillaries thinner than human hair through which the propellant water can flow. Small heaters located near the ends of the capillaries turn the water into vapor, which, on escape from these tiny tubes, provides the thrust. The minuscule capillaries act like valves that can be turned on and off by activating the heaters. The technology is said to be similar to the inkjet printer, which uses heaters that fire dots of ink at the paper.

CubeSats are usually made up of several units, each unit measuring 10 centimetres on a side. In the Purdue research, a single unit CubeSat prototype -- integrated with four FEMTA thrusters loaded with about a teaspoon of water -- was tested in a large vacuum chamber of the university's high vacuum facility.

The prototype contained electronics and an inertial measurement unit sensor to monitor the performance of the thruster system, which rotates the satellite using short-lived bursts of water vapor.

"We demonstrated that one 180-degree rotation can be performed in less than a minute and requires less than a quarter watt, showing that FEMTA is a viable method for attitude control of CubeSats," its developers reported in their paper.

Although the researchers used only four thrusters during the test, which allowed the satellite to rotate on a single axis, a fully functional satellite would require 12 thrusters for 3-axis rotation. The team is confident this device can be developed for a CubeSat. "What we really want to do next is to integrate our system into a satellite for an actual space mission," the researchers said.

The NASA-funded research involved collaboration with the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center. A patent application for the concept has been filed.

(K.S. Jayaraman is a senior journalist who writes on scientific issues. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)
Seoul, Aug 10 : North Korea's military said on Thursday that it is working on a plan to fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles near the US territory of Guam, which will be ready to present to leader Kim Jong-un by mid-August.

The state agency KCNA said the plan, if implemented, would see four Hwasong-12 missiles fired into waters 30 to 40 km off the coast of the US territory in response to escalating rhetoric from US President Donald Trump.

"The rockets to be launched by the KPA (Korean People's Army) will cross the sky above Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi prefectures of Japan," the KCNA said, quoting Army Chief General Kim Rak Gyom.

North Korea's strategic force is "seriously examining the plan in order to interdict the enemy forces on major military bases on Guam and to signal a crucial warning to the US," the KCNA reported.

It said the military would finally complete the plan by mid-August and send it to Kim Jong-un for his approval.

Earlier this week, Trump vowed to meet any additional threats from Pyongyang with "fire and fury", a statement backed by strong words from US Defence Secretary James Mattis.

He issued a strongly worded statement on Wednesday calling on Pyongyang to halt its arms programme. "The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons," he said.

However, the state media denounced Trump's warnings and said "sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason".

"This is extremely getting on the nerves of the infuriated Hwasong artillerymen of the KPA," it said.

The North first announced on Wednesday that it had been drawing up plans for a missile strike against Guam, a Pacific island which is home to US military bases, strategic bombers and about 163,000 people.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to reassure Americans that North Korea does not pose an imminent threat, CNN reported.

Speaking in Guam, where he was making a scheduled visit, he said he was hopeful a global "pressure campaign" involving Russia and China could lead to new dialogue with Pyongyang "about a different future".

Tillerson said the situation had not dramatically changed over the past few days, and that Americans "should sleep well at night".

South Korea's military said it has not seen any unusual action in the North that might indicate a provocation.

China has urged calm, describing the situation as "complex and sensitive".

Despite rounds of UN sanctions, Pyongyang carried out two nuclear tests last year and two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.
Ahmedabad, Aug 10 : Having endured a tough time in their debut season, city team Gujarat Fortunegiants are expected to face an uphill battle in their quest to clinch victory against U Mumba at The Arena here on Friday to better their record in zone A of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

Gujarat have only managed one win in their previous three encounters.

The PKL debutants registered a heavy defeat against Haryana Steelers, going down by 12 points in their previous match and will look to getting back on winning terms in their home leg.

Gujarat captain Sukesh Hegde will look to leading his side from the front, having acquired 40 raid points in his previous matches.

Gujarat's left corner defender Fazel Atrachali has been one of the standout performers for the team with 13 tackle and six raid points in his previous matches.

The Iranian will be expected to perform on Friday as well, alongside 18-year-old raider Sachin, who scored three points in defence and five in attack in the last game.

U Mumba, on the other hand, have won two out of their previous three matches and will aim at a win to clinch the top spot in the zone.

Led by India kabaddi team captain Anup Kumar, the Mumbai outfit will look to star player Shabeer Bappu and South Korean captain and all rounder Dong Ju Hong to put pressure on the opposition.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan is acting briskly to pre-empt political violence in the aftermath of attacks on the BJP and the RSS.

Kerala has been in turmoil since RSS activist Rajesh Edvakode was hacked to death in Thiruvananthapuram on July 29. Just three days earlier, the BJP's state headquarters was attacked by a group allegedly led by a local CPI(M) councillor. With the BJP and RSS raising the issue nationally, the Pinarayi Vijayan government finds itself on the back foot. Governor P. Sathasivam summoned the chief minister and DGP Loknath Behera to his office and said steps must be taken to curb political violence.

Pinarayi had apparently received an intelligence alert a week ago that the BJP was plotting violent attacks in the state's northern districts purportedly to divert attention from the medical college scam rocking Kerala. The office of state BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan faces allegations of involvement in the scam.

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"Yes, there were intelligence reports that the BJP was going to unleash violence across the state to deflect attention from the medical college scam. We have alerted the police to take all possible measures," Pinarayi informed the state assembly on August 7.

The chief minister confirmed receiving the intelligence tip-off to india today. "The government had alerted the police to take appropriate action to check political violence and initiated peace talks with all parties, including the BJP and RSS leaderships," he says. "We have agreed that the respective leaderships would exercise caution to avoid violence and instruct their cadre. But the national media is branding Kerala as a hub of political violence. That's incorrect. Our government will not tolerate political killings and has taken strong measures against the individuals involved irrespective of their political affiliations."

Pinarayi blames the RSS for past violence in the state. "It was the RSS that engineered a murder in my constituency Dharmadom on the day the assembly election results were announced (in May 2016). My government always wanted peace. We are ready for dialogue," he says.

Heads have begun to roll in the aftermath of the recent violence. Thiruvananthapuram City police commissioner G. Sparjan Kumar has been shunted out. Pinarayi has directed the CPI(M)'s Kannur district secretary, P. Jayarajan, to keep his cadre in check. Reconciliation efforts are on as well. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan convened a meeting of BJP-RSS leaders in Kannur. A few suspects have been arrested in the RSS activist's murder case.

The state BJP, however, isn't satisfied. "The CPI(M) has carried out a cold-blooded murder in Thiruvananthapuram. We have to protect our cadre. If the chief minister is honest about having received an intelligence input, he should explain what steps he took to prevent killings," asked Rajasekharan.

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Chandigarh, Aug 10 : Haryana BJP President Subhash Barala's son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar were on Thursday remanded in two-day police custody by a court here in an attempted abduction and stalking case involving an IAS officer's daughter.

Presenting the accused in the court in the afternoon, Chandigarh Police said their custody was required to reconstruct the crime scene.

Both were re-arrested on Wednesday after they were booked under non-bailable offences, including attempt to abduct Varnika Kundu, under Section 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to confine person) and Section 511 (attempt to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.

Police sources told IANS that the two accused denied during their questioning for over two hours on Wednesday that they intended to abduct the woman.

Chandigarh Director General of Police Tejinder Singh Luthra had told the media on Wednesday that the these Sections were added as new facts had come to light following their questioning.

Varnika Kundu, 29, daughter of Haryana Additional Chief Secretary V.S. Kundu, had complained to police that the two accused had stalked and intimidated her and tried to abduct her on August 4-5 night.
Nairobi, Aug 12 : Violent protests broke out across Kenya on Friday night, moments after Uhuru Kenyatta was officially declared the winner of the presidential election held on Tuesday.

The current President Kenyatta garnered 8.2 million votes or 54.27 per cent of the total votes against rival Raila Odinga's 6.76 million or 44.74 of the total votes, ending a protracted four-day standoff over the outcome of Tuesday's vote, Xinhua reported.

Violence erupted in Nairobi, Western Kenya towns and in some parts of Odinga's strongholds, where residents said angry protesters were burning property and blocking some roads.

Gunshots and screams of protests rent the air in the Western Kenyan city of Kisumu and in Nairobi's residential estates where residents took to the streets to express their anger.

"I have just seen a lorry and a car barely miss being stoned. Stones put across the road and several gunshots in Kibera slums," said an eye witness.

He said there were consisted gunshots in some parts of Nairobi.

"There are several police officers who are firing live bullets against us. I don't know what we have done wrong since we are only expressing our anger against the electoral officials," Kennedy Omondi, a resident in Kisumu, said.

At least seven people have so far been killed and several others injured since Tuesday in post election violence in Kenya after opposition leader Odinga claimed "massive" fraud in Tuesday's vote.

Police killed four people in Mathare in the east part of Nairobi, as they tried to disperse Opposition protesters who were reacting to a statement by Odinga who alleged that the election had been rigged.

Odinga had alleged that the electoral system was hacked and data manipulated in favour of the incumbent President Kenyatta.

At least one person was shot dead on Tuesday in South Mugirango constituency in Kisii County, around 300 km west of Nairobi, during a clash with the security forces.

Tension remained high in some parts of Kenya on Friday night as residents vowed to carry out more protests as long as Odinga disputes results.

The police have stepped up security to prevent any possible violent protests and to provide round the clock security to ensure safety of Kenyans and foreigners who are in the country.
Brussels, Aug 12 : The European Union (EU) will convene an "extraordinary meeting" next week over the escalating tension with North Korea, the 27-nation bloc's diplomatic service announce.

EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini will chair the meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC), in a bid to thrash out the bloc's possible next steps on the situation in North Korea, the European External Action Service said in a statement on Friday.

Mogherini, after meeting her international counterparts in the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, Philippines, has decided to call the meeting, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Mogherini's decision came one day after the Council of the EU broadened a sanction list targeting North Korea in response to its latest test-launch of ballistic missiles.

The list now includes 62 individual and 50 entities subject to an asset freeze and travel restrictions in the EU.
Mumbai, Aug 12 : Indian actress Mallika Sherawat discussed female empowerment with actress, comedienne and television personality Chelsea Handler.

Mallika on Saturday took to Twitter, where she shared a small video of herself along with Handler for the comedienne's Netflix show.

The "Murder" star says she admires Handler greatly for speaking her mind.

"Loved talking to Chelsea Handler for her show 'Chelsea show', we talked about female empowerment. I admire her greatly for speaking her mind," Mallika tweeted.

Last month, Mallika attended the annual Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala in Saint-Tropez. She was seen with US President Donald Trump's first wife Ivana in July.

On the Bollywood front, Mallika was last seen on screen in 2015 film "Dirty Politics", directed by K.C. Bokadia. The film also featured Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Anupam Kher and Om Puri.

She was also seen in the Chinese film "Time Raiders", where she played the role of a snake empress.
Mumbai, Aug 12 : Actress Shenaz Treasury has turned down the offer to visit Pakistan for an event.

Shenaz, who had portrayed a Pakistani character in the 2017 American romantic comedy film "The Big Sick", was approached to visit Pakistan for an event. However, looking at the current situation between India and Pakistan, the actress decided against going.

"As of now I am not taking events in Pakistan and yes I have turned down the offer since I feel it is not the right time," Shenaz said in a statement.

The actress, who is currently in the Maldives, will soon return to India to promote her upcoming release "Kaalakaandi".
Vientiene, Aug 12 : Cambodia and Laos on Saturday on Saturday agreed to withdraw their troops from the border between them Cambodia had accused Laotian troops of encroaching on its territory.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen travelled to the Laotian capital Vientiane to meet with his counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith on Saturday to diffuse tensions surrounding the presence of Laos troops in Steung Treng province, reports Efe news.

"The Lao side has agreed to withdraw troops from Cambodian territory (on Sunday), and Cambodian troops will also return with immediate effect," a statement on Hun Sen's official Facebook page.

Cambodian troops were seen riding through the capital Phnom Penh in armored military vehicles to reinforce defences at the border.

Phnom Penh on Friday had issued an ultimatum for the 30 troops, who have been there since April, to leave by August 17.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : Nitesh Tiwari might have said that he was willing to wait for a few years for superstar Aamir Khan to be part of his blockbuster "Dangal" and showed interest in casting actor Varun Dhawan in his next, but the filmmaker says he doesn't write scripts with an actor in mind.

"I don't write keeping an actor in mind. Only after I have finished my writing, I start to think about who would be the best person to play that role. And if he or she is willing to play that role then he or she is definitely worth the wait," Tiwari, who bagged the Best Director award for "Dangal" at the IFFM in Melbourne, told IANS.

"Because good scripts are hard to come by. So, if I am in love with my script, I would look for an equally exciting option, if plan A doesn't work out," he added.

At the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, where he won the award on Friday, he will also discuss the "finer aspects" of what went into the making of "Dangal", based on the life of wrestler Geeta Phogat and her family.

"This will also be open to questions from the audience," he said about the chat session, which will be held on Sunday.

How helpful is it to host an Indian film festival abroad?

"More and more Indian films are finding global acceptance in a big way. So a festival of this nature and stature goes a long way in solidifying our standing in foreign markets as well," he said.

But if we go by his films, they are deeply rooted in Indian culture, and are mostly shot in India. Does he plan to shoot a film abroad or work on a story with an NRI angle?

"Why not? I am open to all kind of ideas provided they fit into my style of story telling," said the director, who has made children-based films like "Chillar Party" and "Bhoothnath Returns".

He said he doesn't make a "conscious effort" to write around children.

"I guess, it's because of my love towards children that they somehow find a seamless fit in most of my films," he said.

So, which one is more challenging - fiction or a biopic?

"Fiction is all about creating something interesting out of thin air while biopics are all about recreating something that's already happened and presenting it in an interesting manner. Both are equally difficult," he said.

There are many filmmakers who make movies based on tragedies in the country, whether it's a terror attack or someone's murder. Would he ever turn a tragic event into a film?

"As a writer, I would not want to put any restrictions on myself. However, I naturally tend to gravitate towards stuff that provides hope and happiness," said Tiwari, whose wife Ashwiny is also a director.

Does he ever see her as his competition?

"I celebrate her success more than mine," he said about Ashwiny, who made a successful directorial debut with the 2016 film "Nil Battey Sannata".

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)
Lucknow, Aug 12 : The opposition tore into the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, seeking the scalps of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers for the deaths of over 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy.

The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy.

"Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said.

He also slammed the BJP government in the state for the inaction so far, saying while two days back Adityanath suspended 11 officials in Maharajganj and transferred seven others for dereliction of duty, so far no heads have rolled in the BRD Medical College tragedy.

"No official in Gorakhpur listens to anyone, or is accountable to anyone, and it seems that such officials are being patronized by the Chief Minister himself," Ram Gopal Yadav alleged.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior SP leader Ram Govind Chowdhary is to visit the Gorakhpur hospital.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

"The BJP will never accept its mistake and so I leave it to their discretion to remove those responsible," she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: "Opposition is levelling baseless charges out of frustration as the BJP government under the leadership of Adityanath was working for the welfare of the state and its people."

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

They were directed by an "extremely unhappy" Chief Minister to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in five days, of whom many were infants, and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : The Centre on Saturday sought a detailed report from the Uttar Pradesh government on the deaths of more than 60 children in the past five days at a Gorakhpur hospital, said Health Ministry sources.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C.K. Mishra were asked to visit Gorakhpur and look into the various lapses at the BRD Medical College where these children were admitted, a Ministry official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Amid these developments, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh suspended the Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital, where the deaths occurred, for negligence.

Health Secretary Mishra has reached Gorakhpur while Patel was expected to reach there soon.

The Union Health Ministry planned to send a delegation of doctors from Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital to help the doctors at BRD, the official said.

Sixty three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply in five days, of whom many were infants, and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The BRD medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted at the medical college, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply.

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched state Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to "spare none for the tragedy".

Facing flak from the opposition for inaction, Adityanath's office on Saturday afternoon tweeted, quoting Health Minister Singh, that the medical college principal has been suspended with immediate effect.
Cairo, Aug 12 : The death toll in a collision between two passenger trains in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria has risen to 41, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mujahid told the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that at least 132 people were injured in Friday's crash. Out of them, 12 were in serious condition.

However state television reported that 49 people had died in the train collision.

The accident occurred when a passenger train coming from Cairo to Alexandria rammed into the back of a train covering the Port Said-Alexandria route near the Khorshid station.

The Transport Ministry said railway traffic resumed on Saturday after the crushed train carriages were lifted off the tracks.
The declaration by CM Devendra Fadnavis that 813 farmers belonging to Mumbai were included in the farmers loan waiver scheme had surprised everyone.

Devendra Fadnavis had decided to waive off loans of farmers up to Rs 1.5 lakh completely under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana scheme

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: The Maharashtra government has confirmed that it does not have any record of the names of the farmers covered under the Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Farmers Welfare scheme in Mumbai city and Mumbai suburbs. The shocking information was obtained under RTI by a Mumbai-based activist.

Earlier in June, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had decided to waive off loans of farmers up to Rs 1.5 lakh completely under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana scheme.

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The declaration by CM Devendra Fadnavis that 813 farmers belonging to Mumbai were included in the farmers loan waiver scheme had surprised everyone.

RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the government seeking details along with names of the Mumbai farmers figuring as beneficiaries of the loan waiver scheme under the Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Farmers Welfare scheme.

D M Rane, Public Information Officer of the Maharashtra government's, Cooperation, Marketing and Textiles department, informed Galgali that the government receives information from the State level Bankers Committee and according to that information, 694 Farmers from Mumbai city have outstanding loans amounting to Rs 45.04 crores and 119 farmers from Mumbai Suburbs have a outstanding loans amounting to Rs 0.12 crores in the basis of assumption.

The government does not have the list of farmers with their names and the list is with the bankers.

"It is really shocking that the government doesn't have the data in their hands. It was CM Fadnavis who tweeted the numbers of farmers who'd benefit from the scheme. He had given regionwise numbers. Now, the government is saying there is no such data with them? This is not acceptable" said Anil Galgali.

CM Devendra Fadnavis had announced and assured that the loan waiver will be given only after in-depth inquiry and cross checking. On the contrary, the government doesn't have any list on its records

One wonders how the loan waiver will be given to farmers if the government doesn't have the data on the potential-beneficies of the scheme.

NCP's Nawab Malik has asked the government to look into this matter as it may lead to serious financial scam.

Also read | Shiv Sena elected representatives to donate a month's salary for farm loan waiver

Also read | NCP, Shiv Sena slam Venkaiah Naidu for 'loan waiver now a fashion' remark

Also read | Captain Amarinder follows Adityanath, Fadnavis, announces loan waiver for Punjab farmers

WATCH: Maharashtra government to take money from banks for waiving off farmer loans

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New Delhi, Aug 12 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in wake of the death of more than 60 children in the past five days at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the PMO said.

"PM is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and U.P. governments," said a tweet from the Prime Minister's Office handle.

"MoS Health Anupriya Patel and the Union Health Secretary will take stock of the situation from Gorakhpur," said another tweet.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in Gorakhpur in five days, of whom many were infants. As many as 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 12 : Acting on a complaint, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra on Saturday ordered a Crime Branch probe into the death of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s state unit President Uzhavoor Vijayan, who passed away on July 23.

The NCP is an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and has two legislators in the government, including a cabinet minister.

It was the Kottayam district unit of the NCP that first wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that there was a need to probe the death of their party's state chief.

The complaint that the Chief Minister received was forwarded to Behra, who on Saturday directed IG of Police S. Sreejith to submit a report after conducting a probe into the complaint.

It was on July 23 early morning that 60-year-old Uzhavoor Vijayan breathed his last at a private hospital here. He had been admitted there since the beginning of July as he was suffering from cardiac and gastrointestinal ailments.

Ever since the death of the state NCP chief, top party leaders have been expressing differing views with regard to the reason of his death.

With the media also joining the issue, the Kottayam unit of the party -- the home unit of the departed leader -- decided to write to the Chief Minister seeking a probe into his death.

A hugely popular leader, Uzhavoor Vijayan was known for his humour and during his four decades in active politics, he rubbed shoulders with all the leading Congress leaders in Kerala, including A.K. Antony, Oommen Chandy, V.M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala.

He parted ways with the Congress following a split in the party during the Emergency days and never returned, even though his contemporaries like Antony and others returned to the Congress fold.

Since then, he was the top leader of the then Congress (S) and when the NCP Kerala unit was formed, he was one of the first leaders to have pledged support to Sharad Pawar, the NCP President.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : Aiming for complete elimination of man-animal conflict, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday called for a model to fix the elephant habitats and corridors.

According to a report, 415 persons in 2015-16 and 245 in 2016-17 (up to February 9, 2017) were killed by elephants, while over 100 elephants also died during the same period.

Depleting corridors, through which the megaherbivore moves across the forests for food and water, is considered to be the top reason for such conflicts.

India has about 110 recognised elephant corridors, most of which require rigorous fixing.

"Our goal is to completely eliminate the menace of man-animal conflict, in which around 400 people and 100 elephant die every year," Harsh Vardhan said here on the occasion of the release of the latest census report to mark the World Elephant Day.

According to the census report, India has 27,312 free-ranging elephants that make for 60 per cent of the total Asian elephant population.

Fixing the elephant habitats will also positively impact all other species of the region, according to the experts.

"We have a good number of elephants and we must not be obsessed with population. The only issue is management of the habitats and their population," said Professor Raman Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science.

Calling for an end to poaching, animal cruelty and wildlife crime at the earliest and spreading overall awareness, Harsh Vardhan said the issue of conservation required a scientific approach.

"If we can have cure for cancer then why not cure the issue of conservation as well," the Minister said.

The Environment Ministry also released the 17-point list of actions to be taken for the trans-border conservation of elephants in the India-Bangladesh landscape. The list was prepared at a summit in Shillong last month.

Bangladesh has a population of 200 resident elephants.
Gorakhpur, Aug 12 : Under all-round attack, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the head of the hospital over the deaths of 63 children in five days, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Health Minister blamed it on lack of cleanliness and diseases and not due to lack of oxygen.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose constituency the hospital is located, the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers.

The Centre sent Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary C.K. Mishra to Gorakhpur and look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply.

Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness. Mishra later said he had already given his resignation, owing moral responsibility for the tragedy. Mishra has been asked to stay put as a committee had been formed to fix responsibility.

Announcing the suspension of Mishra, Singh asked the media not to jump to conclusions because a probe has been ordered. He said once the probe findings are out, strict action will be taken against the culprits. He claimed that no deaths had taken place due to lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile, addressing a public meeting in Allahabad, Adityanath said the deaths in his hometown were caused by filth and the scourge of open defecation.

"There are vector-borne diseases, such as encephalitis ...It is a tragedy that lives of young children have been snuffed out because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life," he said and reminded the crowd that the disease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.

Singh, along with his cabinet colleague, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, were sent by the Chief Minister on Saturday morning to the hospital. Singh said the Chief Minister had visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 where many things were reviewed, but the shortage of oxygen or any payment issue was never discussed.

He said that in 2014 the number of deaths due to encephalitis was 19, in 2015 it was 22, and 19 in 2016. Singh explained that he was not trying to justify the deaths at the BRD hospital.

The Minister said they have gone through the oxygen gas supply issue and that after thorough scrutiny they were of the opinion that the deaths had not taken place due to lack of oxygen. He also said that if any disruption in oxygen supply comes to light in further probe, the guilty would be brought to book.

In more embarrassment for the state government, it has come to light that the staff of the Central Oxygen Pipeline Plant at the hospital - from where oxygen is piped to different wards - had written to the head of the paediatrics department warning them of dwindling oxygen stock.

They had forewarned that the shortage could hit the patients admitted in various wards, specially the children.

It appears that the warning fell on deaf ears and that no advance arrangements were made for the oxygen.

Meanwhile, Parveen Modi, owner of Pushpa Sales company, which used to supply oxygen to the BRD hospital, denied that his company had the tender to supply oxygen.

He told media persons that his contract with the hospital had ended in March and was not renewed. He said the contract of Pushpa Sales was ended and the contract given to a new firm from Allahabad - Imperial Gas, after the BJP government came to power this year.

Modi said that till date Rs 20 lakh payment was pending with the hospital and that he had supplied liquid oxygen on Friday too, after a request made by the Divisional Commissioner.

"I did so completely on humanitarian grounds," he said, and denied reports that he had disrupted the oxygen supply over non-payment of dues.

"I have supplied 200 cylinders after the request made by officials," he added.

"Dues exist, but we were not serving the hospital oxygen since March" he clarified.

The opposition tore into the Adityanath government over the deaths. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the hospital along with the party's state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologize for the tragedy.

The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister's silence in the aftermath of the children's deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a "heart wrenching" tragedy.

"Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister's constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue," he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government's callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath's silence. "First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It's a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state," AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of "indulging in politics" on such a serious issue.

The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.
Alappuzha, Aug 12 : The annual Nehru boat race, a signature event of Kerala, was held here on Saturday evening in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

The 65th edition of the race, named after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, took place in the Vembanad Lake. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who said that even though there are several similar boat races held across the state, this one is the most prestigious.

Even though it was earlier stated that 78 boats of various shapes and sizes will take part, the number crossed 100, of which 24 were snake boats.

The grand finale of the snake boat race was won by Gabriel snake boat, edging out its nearest rival by a whisker. Gabriel finished the race in 4.22 minutes.

However, the final got delayed as some teams contested that one particular snake boat had employed the services of more than 25 per cent professional oarsmen.

After 45 minutes of deliberations, State Finance Minister Thomas Issac resolved the issue and the race took place amid very little light.

The snake boat race is the main tourist attraction because of the boats length, from 120 to 140 feet and with about 120 oarsmen.

"The rains kept away and that was an added attraction. Without doubt there were more than 30,000 spectators and as in the past, the turnout of foreign tourists was also very good. This race has now become very high on the itinerary of many water sport lovers, both in and outside our country," Tomy Pulikattil, who is one of the organisers of the event, told IANS.

The history of the event dates to 1952 when Nehru visited the area and a small flotilla of decorated boats accompanied him from Kottayam to Alappuzha on the famed backwaters.

An impromptu race was conducted in his honour. Thrilled by the performance of the oarsmen, Nehru jumped into a snake boat.

On returning to Delhi, he donated a silver trophy, a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus with an inscription and his signature. This trophy is awarded to the winner of the snake boat category every year.
Washington, Aug 12 : A Muslim woman in the US has won $85,000 in damages from the authorities after her hijab was forcibly removed in police custody in 2016.

During the incident, Kirsty Powell and her husband were pulled over by police for driving a "low rider" car, according to the lawsuit filed by Powell. She was arrested after police found a warrant under her name for a shoplifting incident, CNN reported on Friday.

The woman's husband requested a female officer handle the arrest, but the arresting officers denied the request and told Powell she had to remove her hijab, according to the report.

Powell spent the night in prison without her headscarf. It was returned when her husband posted her bond. The lawsuit stated that Powell was "forced to appear in a publicly available booking photo without her religious headwear".

"As a result of the foregoing deprivations of the free exercise of her religion, Powell suffered severe discomfort, humiliation, and emotional distress," the lawsuit stated.

Powell filed the lawsuit in April 2016, alleging the police department had violated her First Amendment rights.

"She cried throughout the ordeal and experienced humiliation when both her religious beliefs and personal integrity were violated," according to the lawsuit.

The city of Long Beach, California, will pay $85,000 to settle the lawsuit filed by Powell. The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced the settlement while praising Powell.

"We commend Kirsty Powell for choosing to defend her right to religious freedom and taking action."

Powell had told the council that she wanted to be the last Muslim woman who has this experience. "I want my Muslim sisters to always feel comfortable and safe wearing a hijab and to stand up for what's right," she said.
Jammu, Aug 12 : A woman and an army JCO were killed on Saturday in unprovoked breach of the LoC ceasefire by Pakistani soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, officials said.

Ruqia Bibi was killed in Pakistan firing on the LoC in Bakakot area of Mendhar sector in Poonch in the morning, police said.

Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt Col Manish Mehta said Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked, indiscriminate ceasefire violation in Mendhar sector at 5.30 a.m.

"After Indian positions retaliated effectively, firing exchanges stopped in Mendhar sector at 6.45 a.m.

"Pakistan Army again initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Krishna Ghati sector at around 5 p.m. Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," he said, adding that in the exchange of fire, Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries.

Tomar, 42 years, belonged to village Tarsana in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district and is survived by his wife and a son and daughter.

"The martyred junior commissioned officer (JCO) was a brave and sincere soldier. The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," said Mehta.

Another soldier is reported to have been injured in Pakistan army's indiscriminate firing in the same sector.
New Delhi/Patna, Aug 12 : Marking a deep rift in the party, the Nitish Kumar faction on Saturday removed senior leader and former party president Sharad Yadav as head of its parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, and replaced him with Ram Chandra Prasad Singh.

JD-U spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan confirmed the removal of Sharad Yadav to IANS.

The decision was taken a day after the party suspended its rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party, for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Ansari along with Yadav expressed differences with party President Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with the Grand Alliance of Congress and RJD and form a government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking in Bihar's Madhepura district, Sharad Yadav hit out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar's alone but belonged to him too.

"JD-U sirf Nitish Kumar ki hi party nahi hai, yeh meri bhi party hai," Sharad Yadav said on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Nitish Kumar's decision to break the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress and join hands with the BJP and form a new government.

Nitish Kumar is the Janata Dal-United national president and said to fully control the party in Bihar. "There are two JD-Us in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Sharad Yadav said.

He refused to comment on the JD-U decision to replace him as the parliamentary party leader.

Sharad Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had "not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, what do others matter".

"I am not afraid of any one to speak the truth and stand by my principles," he said in reference to his fight against the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he was a student leader close to Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.

Sharad Yadav said action has been taken against a few leaders of the party "who are standing with me", and leaders close to Nitish Kumar have been threatening other JD-U leaders supporting him.

Sharad Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

"The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls."

He said it was the people who had made the Grand Alliance of RJD, JD-U and Congress in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls and given their mandate to rule for five years. "People's mandate was against the BJP-led NDA," he said.

In New Delhi, JD-U rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for taking part in a meeting of opposition parties, said the Sharad Yadav-led faction is the "real JD-U" and there was no question of leaving the party.

"There is no question of leaving the party (JD-U). We founded the party. Sharad Yadav-led faction is the real JD-U while the other one has become a 'Sarkari JD-U' and Bharatiya JD-(U)," Ansari said while briefing mediapersons.

"We are the real one as we are still with the principles of the JD-U, but they have changed and become BJD-U," he added, in a jibe at the Nitish Kumar faction which has sided with the BJP to form the government in Bihar.

Hitting out at Kumar, Anwar said that people who brought the party to its glory were being "removed" from party posts.

Ansari said that everyone, be it opposition parties, social leaders or anyone with human values, should unite against the "divisive forces" (BJP and RSS).

He added that this was not a personal fight against Nitish Kumar but a fight of principles and to save democracy and brotherhood.

"Yesterday (Friday) they suspended me from the parliamentary party. Today (Saturday), they removed Sharad Yadav, who was the founding member of JD-U, from the leadership of the parliamentary party. We are not going to get cowed down by such threats. We will fight till the end and go to the masses," said Ansari.
Beirut, Aug 12 : At least 23 militants were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A bomber detonated an explosive belt at a base used by Jaish al-Islam near the Nasib border crossing on Friday, the war monitor group said.

"Most of the 23 rebels killed were from Jaish al-Islam. Dozens were wounded, including 20 in critical condition," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : Two All India Students Association (AISA) activists were allegedly attacked by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the AISA said on Saturday.

According to AISA members, their activists Sudhanshu and Aman were attacked by ABVP's Chhattarpal Yadav, former Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) Joint Secretary, and some others in Motilal Nehru College, where the two had gone to meet their party associates on Friday.

An FIR has been lodged in the South Campus Police Station.

The two parties got into an argument in the college premises and the ABVP members reportedly tried to lock the two in a room.

They attacked them twice -- once in Motilal Nehru College and then in Aryabhatta College the same day, an AISA statement said.

Sudhanshu said he would "not back down and seek justice in this case and fight for a violence-free campus".

DU AISA President Kawalpreet Kaur said it was very shameful that instances of violence on the campus were rising day by day.

"Police are not at all serious about it. In the last one year, numerous instances of ABVP's violence against teachers and students have been reported. Many others do not report out of fear of reprisals," she said.

"ABVP considers itself above the law because of the impunity allowed to them by police and the government," she added.

Kaur stressed that there was a concerted attempt to terrorise the entire student community through these violent attacks.

"We demand strictest action against those involved in the attacks and that police should ensure that law and order is maintained on the campus," she said.
By Adila Matra: In 2015, Delhi-based actor Mallika Taneja stood naked and silent on a stage in Studio Safdar for her play Thoda Dhyaan Se that talked about victim blaming in sexual assault cases. The medium was strong, brave and though it made many uncomfortable, Taneja got the message through. Now, she is back with another play, this time in partnership two other artists, Shubham and Akhil Katyal, the writer of the play.

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Rukaawat Ke Liye Khed Hai or Sorry for the Interruption is about two bodies that are constantly on the run. Explains Taneja, "The bodies find themselves constantly on the run, dealing with stories of personal loss and trying to make sense of the world they find themselves in. They are trying to negotiate the absurdity of the current times and at the same time, making sense of it."

Also Read: This play is enthralling Delhiites with its powerful portrayal of modern-day relationships

The inspiration for the play came in the form of personal experiences. "We tried to explore resonances of the loss that we felt with the loss of those we only read or heard about, like in newspapers. In the process, we find ourselves exploring questions about the nation, about the chaos that surrounds us and our need to forever be on the run," she says.

Taneja says the idea of partnering with the others was a conscious one. "I did not want create another solo after the previous work. I was interested in working with collaborators. I found Shubham and Akhil to be sharing similar concerns like the ones that I was dealing with last year. This is how we first decided to collaborate," she says.

Also Read: Plays on life and love, for your weekend entertainment fix

A year in the making, Rukaawat Ke Liye Khed Hai has a lot of international talent and support too. Sarah Buchel has come in from Zurich to design the lights for the show, and the co-producers are Zurcher Theatre Spektakel, SPIELART Festival, and Onassis Cultural Centre. There has been great support from Pro Helvetia New Delhi - Swiss Arts Council. "We travel to Switzerland and Germany this year and we are also working on setting up shows in Bombay and Bangalore. Apart from this we will apply to all major festivals in India," says Taneja. While they are busy doing that, catch the play this weekend in Delhi.

-'Rukaawat Ke Liye Khed Hai' will be staged at Odd Bird Theatre, Dhan Mills Compound, Chhatarpur, on August 12, 13 and 14 at 8 pm. Tickets are priced at Rs 300. Students can avail them at Rs 150.

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New Delhi, Aug 12 : Hours after the death of two brothers while cleaning a sewage treatment plant of a city mall, Delhi Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam directed the department officials to form a "vigilance committee" to stop such incidents in the future.

The Minister issued instructions at a meeting with the officials of the Delhi Jal Board and other members at his residence.

"It is very sad to know that today (Saturday) also one labour expired and two injured during cleaning of septic tank of a private mall. Though we have no control on private buildings but we will take stern action against the violators," Gautam tweeted.

"I am making a vigilance committee to monitor such illegal activities and stop such acts," the Minister said in a series of tweets.

He said that it was very unfortunate even after the judgement of the Supreme Court, the contractors were violating the provisions of the Manual Scavengers Act.

"I am shocked to see courage of these contractors they don't fear from the Law."

According to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government officials, since the death of three workers in Lajpat Nagar earlier this week, the Minister has been working on finding ways to control this.

"The Minister said there should not be any such incidents in future and for this he instructed the officials to set up a monitoring committee and a vigilance committee soon," a senior official said.

In the meeting, the Minister also asked officials to meet frequently so that things are updated on a regular basis.

Two brothers identified as Jahangir, 24, and Izaz, 22, died of suffocation while cleaning a sewage plant of a city mall on Saturday. Their father, who was working with them, and a fireman, who went to rescue them, have been admitted to a city hospital after they too suffered from suffocation.

On Sunday, three persons had died after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewer in Lajpat Nagar area of south Delhi.

Earlier last month, four persons had died in the national capital after inhaling poisonous gases as they entered to clean a water harvesting tank in Ghitorni area of south Delhi.

In both the cases, lack of safety equipment for the workers came to light after the tragedy.

The issue of the death of three persons in Lajpat Nagar while cleaning a sewer had rocked the Delhi Assembly on the first day of the Monsoon Session on Tuesday where the government had said that there were "standing instructions" that sewer drains should not be cleaned manually.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also announced Rs 10 lakh financial assistance for the families of three sanitation employees who died while cleaning a gutter in Lajpat Nagar. He also promised a government job to one family member each.
Bhopal/Dhar, Aug 12 : Social activist Medha Patkar on Saturday ended her 17-day fast to protest against the government's 'apathy' towards resettlement of those affected by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Patkar, however, would remain in detention. She was detained on Wednesday, hours after being discharged from a private hospital in Indore.

On the request of several organisations associated with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the social activist ended her fast. "Fifteen members representing various organisations went to Dhar jail, where Patkar has been detained for the past three days," former MLA Dr. Sunilam said, adding: "Keeping her health condition in mind, the members requested Patkar to call off the fast."

The former legislator also said "five false charges have been registered against Patkar and the hearing over the matter would take place on August 17".

Patkar has been told that the "entire nation" is supporting her over the Narmada dam issue. The letters written by several organisations including Rajya Sabha MP and Janata-Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav were also shared with her.

She was told that the "people urged her to end the fast". Dr. Sunilam said Patkar ended her fast by drinking lemon water in her prison cell.

Several personalities like Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Parikh, former MP from West Bengal Hannan Mollah, Annie Raja of National Federation of Indian Women, Akhil Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, former MLA Dr. Sunilam, senior journalist Chinmaya Mishra, Pramod Bagri, Saroj Mishra and Meera were also present.

The height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, on the Narmada river near Navagam in Gujarat, is being increased by 17 metres to 138.72 metres. The Supreme Court had ordered resettlement before July 31 of people of a town and 192 villages that fall in the submerged area.

"The Madhya Pradesh government has presented false figures and provided wrong information in the Supreme Court. The apex court's instructions are also not being followed," Patkar had alleged.

"A major part of Madhya Pradesh would fall in the submerged area with the increase in the dam's height. The government is planning resettlement in areas which are muddy, there is no facility available... how would people and livestock survive," she wondered.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan, in a statement, had alleged that the project was initially pushed "in the name of drought-affected people in Gujarat".

"It is obvious that it was being pushed in favour of the corporates and in the interest of electoral politics," it said.
Mumbai, Aug 12 : The new Haj Policy-2018, aiming to make the annual pilgrimage process more "smooth and transparent", will be unveiled later this month, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced here on Saturday.

Addressing the 22nd Annual Haj Orientation Camp for Haj pilgrims at Haj House this evening, he said the new policy was being given finishing touches and from next year, the pilgrimage would be organised as per the upcoming policy in which pilgrims are the centre-point.

He reiterated that one of the important options in the new policy would be revival of the practice to send Haj pilgrims through the sea route, as announced a few months ago.

"Sending pilgrims through ships will help cut down travel expenses by nearly half as compared to air fares. It will be a revolutionary, pro-poor and pilgrim-friendly decision," Naqvi explained.

Ferrying Haj pilgrims by ships between Mumbai and Jeddah was stopped 22 years ago after which they were being sent by air from various embarkation points in India.

According to Naqvi, another advantage with modern ships is they are well equipped to carry around 4,000-5,000 persons at a time and cover the 4,260 km (around 2,300 nautical miles) one-way voyage between Mumbai-Jeddah in just two-three days, compared to the 12-15 days in the past with the old ships.

A high-level meeting chaired by Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will be held in New Delhi on August 28 for the purpose and discussions are underway with the Saudi Arabian government on reviving the sea route for Haj pilgrimage.

The current Haj 2017 season -- for which Saudi Arabia has increased the Indian quota by 34,005 -- kicked off from 21 embarkation points in India from July 24 smoothly.

This year, of the total Indian quota of 170,025, 125,025 would go for the pilgrimage through the Haj Committee of India and the remaining 45,000 through private tour operators, he said.

To date, around 65,000 Haj pilgrims had already left for Saudi Arabia from Srinagar, New Delhi, Gaya, Varanasi, Lucknow, Goa, Guwahati, Kolkata and Mangalore, Naqvi said.

The next phase ending on August 26 will see pilgrims taking flights from Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : Two brothers died of suffocation while cleaning a 'septic tank' of a city mall on Saturday afternoon, police said.

The father of the deceased, Yusuf, 50, who was working with them, and a fireman who went to rescue them, have been admitted to a city hospital after they too experienced suffocation.

While a city police statement said it was a sewage plant, a police officer who visited the tank, a Delhi civil defence volunteer and Yusuf, who was recuperating in a city hospital, told IANS that it was a septic tank and not sewage tank.

Delhi Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam in a tweet on Saturday evening also termed it a septic tank.

According to the city police, Yusuf and his sons Jahangir, 24, and Ijaz, 22, went to clean a sewage plant at Aggarwal Fun City Mall in Anand Vihar in east Delhi on Saturday. The incident happened around 1 p.m.

When asked about the deaths, Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad told IANS that the two did not have any safety equipment on them and that no one had been arrested so far.

A senior police officer privy to the case told IANS that the "mall authorities" had said that maintenance work was outsourced and they were not responsible for it.

"We'll have to look into the terms and conditions and documentation to see who is responsible for the deaths," the officer said.

The deceased brothers were residents of Sahibabad in Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi, according to police.

"They collapsed after being suffocated due to the gas and a fireman Mahipal who went to rescue them also inhaled the gas," Prasad said.

Police said though they were rushed to a hospital, Jahangir was declared brought dead and Ijaz also died later.

The DCP said Yusuf and Mahipal were undergoing treatment and added that a case had been registered.

Jahangir was the father of two children, while Ijaz had three children, with the youngest one being a seven-month-old boy.

Last Sunday, three persons had died after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewer in Lajpat Nagar area of south Delhi.

Similarly, last month four persons had died in the national capital after inhaling poisonous gases as they entered to clean a water harvesting tank in Ghitorni area of south Delhi.

In both cases, lack of safety equipment for the workers was said to have led to the tragedy.

On Saturday evening, Delhi Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said in a tweet: "Though we have no control on private buildings, we Will take stern action against the violators."

The minister also said that he was constituting a "vigilance committee to monitor such illegal activities and stop such acts".
Nairobi, Aug 12 : A human rights organisation on Saturday confirmed that at least 24 persons, including two minors, had been shot dead during the ongoing post-electoral protests in Kenya.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said at least 17 of them were killed by police in Nairobi between Friday and Saturday as a wave of violence hit the country after supporters of the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) rejected President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election, Efe news reported.

KNCHR President Kagwiria Mbogori condemned the police's excessive use of force and demanded that authorities stop officers from using live ammunition against protesters, denouncing the brutality used as illegal and unacceptable.

Meanwhile, NASA spokesman James Orengo claimed that more than 100 protesters had been killed by police, including at least 10 minors, though he did not specify any source for this information.

He said the bodies of those killed were removed from the streets in bags to stop the public from knowing about the so called massacre.

The Kenyan government earlier on Sunday denied that protests were ongoing across the country and assured that only isolated violent incidents by criminals had been registered.

As the protests continued, police in Kisumu cut access to the city centre and security forces in Nairobi's Kibera suburb used tear gas against demonstrators and journalists.

On Friday, Kenyatta was declared the winner of Tuesday's election by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), winning his second term with 54.3 per cent of the vote. His rival Raila Odinga got 44.7 per cent votes.

The announcement of the final tally was delayed by seven hours and took place without representatives of the NASA opposition coalition being present.

They boycotted the presentation after signalling that they would not accept the results. The opposition called the election process a "charade".

The NASA had claimed that the IEBC's electronic vote counting system had been hacked and given Kenyatta a 700,000-point advantage.
Ahmedabad, Aug 12 : City team Gujarat Fortunegiants carried on their win streak to defeat Delhi Dabang K.C 29-25 at Transstadia Arena on Saturday to stay on top of the table in Zone A of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

Gujarat team raider Sachin (8 points) carried his fine form in the tournament along with Sunil Kumar (3 points) who was the top defender for his side earning all his points through tackles.

On the other side, a valiant effort from Iran's Meraj Sheykh (7 points) who accumulated all his points through successful raids went in vain.

Sheykh accumulated initial points for Delhi Dabangs K.C from his successful raids helping his side take an early 2-0 lead. He looked to be the go to man for the debut side, helping them keep the scoreboard ticking though his incredible pace and leg movement inside the opposition mat, earning successful points from his raids.

After lagging in the start, the city outfit returned on level terms courtesy of their star raider Sachin and captain Sukesh Hedge who combined to earn crucial points. With seven minutes on the clock, the home side took the initial 9-6 advantage.

At half-time, both the sides shared the honours, scoring 10 points each. Gujarat (seven points) earned most of their score through raids while Delhi (five points) earned the most of their score from tackles.

For Gujarat, youngsters Sachin and Rohit Gulia along with Hedge, Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mighani combined to help their side within the reach of the opponents score in the second half.

Later both the youngsters for Gujarat pulled out some incredible show on the opponents half to all-out them taking a slender 28-25 lead with less than three minutes to play.

For Delhi, Sheykh opened the scoring in the second half clinching four points of his successful raid to give his side a 18-13 advantage also resulting into all-out of the opposition for the first time in the match.

The Iranian, who returned from the bench after several minutes, helped his side stay level with the opposition with 24 points each in less than five minutes but failed to ensure they register a win.
We really feel as though were able to reach out to all the wine-makers now, and turn them onto our amazing wine tanks!

Vino Vessel is the Paso Robles concrete wine tank producer that is revolutionizing the wine production industry. Instead of relying on the traditional oak casks, or the newer and sterile stainless steel casks, they utilize the timeless benefits of concrete to use as the wine cask instead.

Recently, with the help of web design firm Access Publishing, Vino Vessel has re-vamped and given their website a complete overhaul. Their old website was effective at delivering information on the casks, but lacked the grandeur and elegance that their new website contains for their customers.

The new website features a much more attractive page design, as well as easier access to the information potential wine makers will need. The end result is a website as useable and reliable as their concrete wine tanks! Access Publishing has done a great job redesigning our website for us, said Vino Vessel owner Micah Utter, We really feel as though were able to reach out to all the wine-makers now, and turn them onto our amazing wine tanks!

The new reach and user-friendly nature of their website has gone live and is set to draw in many new winemakers and convert some whove been in the business quite some time.

Vino Vessel is located in Paso Robles California, and they produce concrete wine tanks that surpass oak and stainless steel in many ways. Oak is traditional, but hard to maintain, and in need of being replaced quite often. Stainless steel is very sterile, but it doesnt allow for natural oxidation, which is what gives the wine its body and bountiful flavor. Concrete merges the benefits of the oak, with its natural oxidization, and by comparison to oak, its nearly as easy to clean as stainless steel.

The Paso Robles concrete wine tanks are an affordable solution to just about any winemaking problem, and the details of which can easily be found on Vino Vessels new website.

Vino Vessel was formed by Micah Utter, who had worked in concrete for 20 years before merging his passion for concrete with his passion for wine. He currently sits as President and CEO of Vino Vessel, which is the nations leading manufacturer of Concrete Wine Tanks. They encourage their customers to visit and tour the facilities, but they will ship across the nation and set it up themselves on the customers behalf.

Because of Micahs dedication to the craft, Vino Vessel provides the best of Paso Robles concrete wine tanks. They are the leading manufacturer in the country, and are eager to share their knowledge and products. Check out the new website for

Vino Vessel.

Vino Vessel

3770 Ruth Way, Suite D

Paso Robles, CA 93446

(805) 238-2676

Press release by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890.
Join us for an evening of free food, fun, and important financial info. Bring a friend or two!

The event will be held on Thursday, September 14th, 2017 from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm at Prosperitys First Floor conference Room at 2333 San Ramon Valley Blvd., San Ramon, CA 94583. Endless appetizers will be served.

The event will feature special guest speaker Brian Nash, Regional Director for Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Brian is responsible for managing Goldman Sachs Independent Financial Advisor relationships in Northern California. Brian joined Goldman Sachs in 2005 and brings over 12 years of industry experience to the firm. Prior to this role Brian was a Regional Consultant for Goldman Sachs in their Chicago office. Brian received his BA in Finance from the University of Illinois and his MBA from Kellogg University.

Elliot Kallen, Prosperity Financial Principal, will also be presenting. Elliot brings over 25 years of entrepreneurial business ownership experience to Prosperitys financial planning and advising practice. Elliot is a keynote speaker on motivation and marketing in the independent financial advisor industry, utilizing his previous experience in international distribution to teach other investment professionals nationwide. He holds Series 7-, 24-, 63-, 65- and 66-licenses to offer securities. Since 1993, Elliot has been licensed to offer insurance and annuities underwritten by a wide variety of the nations insurers. in 2011, Elliot was named one of the Top 300 Advisors to the Defined Contribution (401k) Industry.

For more information please contact Yvette Mays at 925.314.8500 or register online.
Top 10 Gayest Cities in United States

Recently, the popular gay daddy dating app DaddyBear has released a new report conducted by its team, clearly showing that which cities are the gayest in America.

DaddyBear, the premier gay dating app for gay sugar daddies and gay bears to connect with each other, has released a detailed map of gay demographics in the United States that reveals the top ten gay friendly cities across the nation. This is a good piece of news for both successful gay sugar daddies and young gay men who are desperately looking for a gay arrangement to find the right one in those gayest cities.

The survey was conducted by DaddyBear according to its member base and the percentage of the population identifying as gay in each city. From the data offered by the survey, New York ranks top of the list, followed by Los Angeles. San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, San Diego and Fort Lauderdale. People in these cities are more likely to accept gay people, which offers many opportunities for them to hook up a gay sugar daddy or a gay sugar baby.

Moreover, while DaddyBear is doing research on the top ten gay friendly cities in the United States, it extends the scope to find out the top ten gayest countries in the world incidentally. Not surprisingly, the United States is by far the most friendly countries for gay men with most people who are seeking freedom of life. The survey shows that the U.S. takes a percentage of 38.8% in the whole data, which is much higher than the second countries - the United Kingdom that shares only 14.2%. The full list of the top 10 gayest cities goes as follows: the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Australia and France.

For this report, the co-founder of DaddyBear Justin While says, DaddyBear is by far the most friendly dating app for gay sugar daddies and gay bears to connect with each other. Our team is excellent and all our staff will spare no effort to make dating and hookup easier for those gay men who are seeking a gay arrangement. This survey is conducted to allow our members and all gay men to have a clear mind of which cities deserve their visits when they are looking for someone special in their life.

DaddyBear is the first dating app especially dedicated to gay sugar daddies and gay sugar babies. Claiming to provide a safe and private meeting platform for gay men, it is able to help them quickly find like-minded men for dating, hookup and also relationships. The app is available in App Store and you can download it for free.

DaddyBear is the first special dating app for gay sugar daddies and sugar babies. It is available to download free from the App Store.

Website: http://www.gaydaddybear.com/

IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1244767450
The BLUbadge BLE Beacon is a reliable, cost effective Attendee Tracking and Lead Retrieval solution for events and meetings.

ABTS Convention Services (ABTS), a global meetings and convention services company with 22 years of experience, in conjunction with WisePower srl, is proud to announce the launch of our latest wearable beacon. BLUbadge Beacon is a Bluetooth LE (BLE) beacon powered only by clean renewable energy ... No batteries! (Patent pending).

The ePower BLUbadge Beacon was presented at the 8th annual NiPS SUMMER SCHOOL, Gubbio Science meeting 2017, in Gubbio, Italy. The beacon was used at the meeting, providing engineers with valuable data.

A significant problem with conventional passive RFID is that it requires a strong RF signal from a nearby reader device to power the tags chip and the subsequent transmission back to the reader. This limits the range and reliability of the tag.

The BLUbadge BLE Beacon is a reliable, cost effective Attendee Tracking and Lead Retrieval solution for events and meetings. The Beacon uses 2 distinct power sources: a Vibrational Energy module to harvest energy from typical human movement and Solar cells to harvest energy from indoor lighting (very low light). The collected energy is stored in a plurality of capacitors that power the proprietary Bluetooth LE (BLE) Beacon.

The multi-year project is a joint venture between ABTS Convention Services; NiPS Laboratory, University of Perugia, Italy; and WisePower srl - a company spun off from the University of Perugia dedicated to the design and prototyping of a new class of energy generators for mobile devices. All inquiries should be directed to Adam Graham, Executive Vice President of Information Technology at ABTS Convention Services at agraham@abtscs.com.
The West Bengal government has asked schools to not necessarily follow the Centre's diktat on celebrating Independence Day in the state.

By Indrajit Kundu: The Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal administration has got into a direct confrontation with the Centre over Independence Day celebrations scheduled for next week.

Amidst the raging controversy over BJP ruled Uttar Pradesh government's diktat making it compulsory for Madrasa students to sing the national song "Vande Mataram" on I-day, the Bengal government has decided to suspend all such school programmes on that day, and rather celebrate it the way they want.

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Issuing an "urgent" directive to all District Project Officers in-charge of the Sarva Shikha Mission in the state, the Bengal government has asked schools to "stop all preparations for celebrating Independence Day 2017" in accordance with the specifications mentioned by the union Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD).

The MHRD school education department had earlier issued a circular on July 25 to education secretaries of all states had specified "additional activities" to be undertaken by schools under the Sarva Shiksha Mission to celebrate Independence Day in a "befitting manner".

According to the circular, schools were requested to organise nine prescribed activities between August 8 and 15th with an objective to "create festive and patriotic mood across the nation". These include quiz and debate competitions on the theme of India's freedom struggle, patriotic slogan writing competitions, organizing Prabhat Pheris and marches, film screenings showcasing India's progress and taking unity and Swachhta pledges.

However, taking exception to the centre's circular, the Bengal school education department issued the notice on Friday, barely 72 hours before 15th August stating that Independence Day 2017 "will not be celebrated" in the manner specified by the Modi government.

Also Read:

BJP backs BMC's compulsory Vande Mataram move but its own minister can't sing a line

UP's Yogi Adityanath wants madrasas in state to record August 15 celebrations on camera

Watch Video: UP madrasas told to celebrate Independence Day, event to be videograped

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Mike Opyd, left, and Rafay Qamar welcomed guests to their grand opening celebration. Were in one of the nations most exciting business environments and one of its hottest real estate markets. Weve got a lot of work to do, but the opportunities in front of us are very exciting.

Building a successful new real estate brokerage is a one-step-at-a-time process, and RE/MAX NEXT is taking those steps in a hurry. On July 14, it marked its grand opening as Chicagos newest RE/MAX franchise, with a celebration in its office at 1046 W. Kinzie St.

Dozens of colleagues involved in real estate and related fields joined broker/owners Mike Opyd and Rafay Qamar for hors doeuvres and drinks in their new space.

We had an amazing turn out, reports Opyd. The support we received at our grand opening and since has been overwhelming. Its exciting to see our momentum accelerating as we build something Id describe as being quite different from the typical real estate brokerage firm.

Opyd and Qamar have designed a business plan with the flexibility to attract both experienced brokers and those who are new to the business.

We describe our approach as agent-centric because commission structures and marketing can be crafted to the desires of each agent, explained Qamar. Plus, we can connect them to a top-flight group of partnerships weve established with other professionals in related fields, such as lending, law and title services.

By locating in the West Loop/Fulton Market district, were in one of the nations most exciting business environments and one of its hottest real estate markets. Weve got a lot of work to do, but the opportunities in front of us are very exciting, he said.

RE/MAX agents consistently rank among the most productive in the industry. In 2016, RE/MAX Northern Illinois agents averaged 18 transaction sides. RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989 and is continually growing. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network, with headquarters in Elgin, Ill., consists of more than 2,250 sales associates and 105 independently owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of residential and commercial brokerage services. Its mobile real estate app, available for download at http://www.illinoisproperty.com, provides comprehensive information about residential and commercial property for sale in the region. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX, a global real estate organization with 110,000+ sales associates in 100+ nations.

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EDITORS NOTE: RE/MAX is a registered trademark. Please spell in all caps. Thank you. This release is posted at blog.illinoisproperty.com. .
Westchester Toyota held its 23rd Give Back Donation Event on Wednesday, August 9th, 2017. The Westchester Toyota family, members of the three nonprofits and people of the community gathered at the dealership located at 2167 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers. The three deserving charities, Gullotta House, NAMI Westchester and Pajama Program were honored and awarded their prizes.

Each organization was awarded its donation based on the number of votes it received on Westchester Toyotas Facebook page. Gullota House was the grand prize winner of $1,500. Gullota House is a charity with a mission to help Westchester residents who face financial hardship. The organization helps those in need by providing food vouchers, holiday assistance, scholarships to aid with education payment and much more. The next nonprofit, NAMI Westchester, received a donation of $750. NAMI Westchester is one of over 1,200 local affiliates of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The organizations goal is to improve the lives of those affected by mental illness. Members advocate for access to treatment, services, support and are committed to raising awareness. The final winner of $500 was Pajama Program. This charity gives the gifts of pajamas and books to less privileged children in need. Pajama Program believes that these gifts can make all the difference in a vulnerable childs life.

We are genuinely excited about this Give Back Event because the charities are all so interesting and different, said Rich Prager, General Manager of Westchester Toyota. He continued, Their missions are all truly amazing and, out of admiration, we want to contribute to them.

Westchester Toyota is a full-service Toyota dealership located at 2167 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, New York. Westchester Toyotas goal is to always give the best customer service and fulfill every customers need, whether it be in the sales or service department.

For more information, hours and directions, please visit http://www.WestchesterToyota.com.

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For the second year in a row, Tech Experts, Southeast Michigans leading IT support firm for small- and mid-sized companies, ranks among the worlds most progressive 501 Managed Service Providers (MSPs), according to MSPmentors 10th-annual MSP 501 Worldwide Company Rankings.

The top MSP 501 companies ranked this year include organizations from around the world and from diverse technology and business backgrounds. Collectively, they amassed $14.48 billion in total revenue (based on 2016 results), up more than 15 percent from a year earlier.

In addition to honoring Tech Experts, this years MSP 501 list and study showcases the top ranked IT service providers worldwide. Over the next few weeks, MSPmentor will unveil additional lists showcasing the top MSPs in Europe, Middle East and Africa, the top Small Business MSPs list, comprised of organizations with 10 or fewer employees, as well as the top technologies they provide to customers.

It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as one of the worlds top IT service providers, said Thomas Fox, Tech Experts president. The recognition really belongs to our incredible team of IT professionals. Every day, theyre delivering on our promise of world class service to our clients.

On behalf of MSPmentor, I would like to congratulate Tech Experts for its recognition as an MSP 501 honoree," said Aldrin Brown, Editor in Chief, MSPmentor. The managed service provider market is evolving at a rapid pace and the companies showcased on the 2017 MSP 501 list represent the most agile, flexible and innovative organizations in the industry.

The 2017 MSP 501 list is based on data collected by MSPmentor and its partner, Clarity Channel Advisors. Data was collected online from Feb. 16 through May 15, 2017. The MSP 501 list recognizes top managed service providers based on metrics including recurring revenue, growth and other factors.

About Tech Experts

Tech Experts (http://www.MyTechExperts.com) is a managed services firm that provides information technology (IT), computer networking services, and cloud-based solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. Based in Monroe, Michigan, Tech Experts provides an array of solutions including server installation, virus protection, network security, backup services and complete IT outsourcing. Tech Experts supports clients in many industries, including nonprofit associations. The first Microsoft Small Business Specialist located in the Southeastern Michigan area, Tech Experts is located at 15347 South Dixie Highway in Monroe, and can be reached at (734) 457-5000.

About Penton Technologys Channel Brands

Penton Technologys channel brands define emerging IT markets and disrupt established IT markets. They are a division of Informa. The channel brands include: MSPmentor (http://www.MSPmentor.net), The VAR Guy (http://www.TheVARguy.com), Talkin Cloud (http://www.TalkinCloud.com), the WHIR (http://www.thewhir.com) and WebHostingTalk (http://webhostingtalk.com).

About Informa

Penton Technology, Think Tank, MSPmentor, The VAR Guy, Talkin Cloud, the WHIR, WebHostingTalk, Channel Partners Online, Channel Partners Conference & Expo and Channel Partners Evolution are part of Informa, the international business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events group. Informa serves commercial, professional and academic communities, helping them connect and learn, and creating and providing access to content and intelligence that helps people and businesses work smarter and make better decisions faster. Informa has over 7,500 colleagues in more than 20 countries and a presence in all major geographies. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.
The $110MM Mixed-Use Affordable Development in Hayward, California

US Capital Partners Inc. has been engaged as the exclusive advisor to New Cities Investment Partners, LLC for the capital formation for a $110MM mixed-use real estate development named the Maple & Main Project in Hayward, located in Californias flourishing San Francisco Bay Area. To showcase this project, US Capital will be hosting an investor event on Thursday, August 17th between 6pm and 8pm at the iconic Bently Reserve. This landmark, known as the former San Francisco Federal Reserve building, is located at 301 Battery Street. This will be an opportunity to meet the management team and join the discussion around Maple & Mains conception.

The Maple & Main Project has been unanimously approved by the Hayward City Council and is expected to be a catalyst for downtown revitalization. The project is located at Main, Maple & A Street on a 3.9 acre site four blocks from the BART, and consists of 240 market-rate and affordable apartments and 5,571 square feet of retail space that exhibit both eco-friendly and socially responsible design principles.

Other planned amenities include a 50,000 square foot medical office, a 504-stall parking garage, three open courtyards, a swimming pool, a 3,600-square-foot clubhouse and a 6,460-square-foot rooftop terrace. The site also has easy access to the 580 and 880 freeways, and is only a 35-minute BART ride from downtown San Francisco.

Lee Newell, Chief Executive Officer at New Cities, commented: We approached US Capital Partners to support us with capital formation for this landmark project. We are extremely pleased with the team and look forward to meeting strategic investors and other potential partners.

We are delighted to be involved in this project, which is so close to home for us, said Jeffrey Sweeney, Chairman and CEO at US Capital Partners. The business comes at a good time as the area has benefited substantially from San Francisco and Silicon Valleys prosperity. Just down the road from this site, residents will find high-profile employers such as Tesla Motors, Seagate Technology, and Amazon. The opportunity to participate in this fund is now open to eligible investors.

To join the investor event on Thursday, August 17th, please message psteele(at)uscgsecurities(dot)com to RSVP.

About New Cities Land Company, Inc

New Cities Land Company, Inc. (New Cities), formed in 1984, is a privately held corporation based in Walnut Creek, California. The company is active in land use entitlements, multi-family residential developments, and commercial investment-grade properties in California. New Cities controls New Cities Investment Partners, LLC, an entity focused on the acquisition, entitlement and development of urban infill apartment sites in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. New Cities is also the managing member of Bay Area Property Developers, LLC. New Cities is led by industry veteran Lee Newell and his senior team of Blake Peters, Stuart Brown, and Travers Newell. New Cities has developed over $2.5BN of real estate in California, Nevada, and Arizona.

About US Capital Partners Inc.

Since 1998, US Capital Partners has been providing well-structured, custom finance solutions to private and public companies in the United States and abroad. Headquartered in San Francisco, US Capital Partners, operating with its affiliate US Capital Global Securities, LLC, is a full-service private investment bank with a wide distribution for debt and equity private placements. The group makes debt investments between $500K and $100MM, participates in debt facilities, and offers asset management, financial advisory services for buy-side and sell-side engagements, and capital formation, including early-stage financings requiring equity or debt. For more information, visit http://www.uscapitalpartners.net.
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By PTI: compulsory in civic schools

Mumbai, Aug 10 (PTI) The general body of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) today passed a proposal to make singing of Vande Mataram, the national song, compulsory in the civic-run schools twice a week.

It will come into effect after Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta gives his administrative nod.

BJP corporator Sandeep Patel tabled a notice of motion, which was supported by the ruling Shiv Sena, and Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar approved it.

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The Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) corporators boycotted the proceedings, alleging that they were not allowed to put forth their views.

"A recent Madras High Court ruling, which made singing of Vande Mataram mandatory in the schools of Tamil Nadu, gave me the idea that if it can be done there, then why not in Mumbai," Patel told PTI.

"So, I tabled the motion and I am grateful that the mayor approved it after finding enough support for it," said the first-time corporator from the Goregaon area.

"We need to instill a sense of patriotism in our youth as they should remember the glorious period of our freedom struggle," the BJP member said.

However, the group leader of main opposition Congress, Ravi Raja, alleged that the BJP and the ruling Shiv Sena were "trying to impose" their will on everyone.

"We dont oppose singing of Vande Mataram in schools, but the way it is going to be imposed, we object to that. This would violate our fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution and therefore, I am going to write a letter to the municipal commissioner," he said.

SPs group leader in the House Rais Shaikh said the move was "unacceptable".

"Let me clarify that we are not opposing Vande Mataram. Whenever and wherever it is sung, we give it due respect. What we are opposing is it being made mandatory. Since we were not allowed to put forth our view in the House, we will meet the commissioner and put across our point," he added.

The Madras High Court ruling had triggered a political slugfest in the Maharashtra Legislature, with a BJP MLA demanding its implementation in schools and colleges of the state, while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and SP MLAs opposed the proposal. PTI APM KRK RC

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Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova is one brave soul.

Much of the world cowers at the mention of Vladimir Putin these days, especially after Russias brazen interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Tolokonnikova, a prominent face of the art collective Pussy Riot, actively resists Putins oppressive dictatorship with bold acts of expression as political activism that often threaten her personal safety  and even her freedom.

Now that American politics has become increasingly Putinized, the Russian activist has a simple message for Americans: Dont take your liberties for granted because they can be stripped away in an instant.

"In the 1990s, people started to believe that, oh, we can just spend time with our own issues, our own private stuff and not pay attention to whats going on in politics because its not really relevant," Tolokonnikova told Business Insider from Moscow in a wide-ranging telephone interview. "We have enough freedoms and we dont need to fight for them anymore. Activism was no longer cool."

With Trump's rise to power, she says, "I think that whats going is a backlash. Its a reminder to all of todays young kids that its important to fight for your rights because they can easily be taken away."

Rather prophetically, Pussy Riot released a video called "Make America Great Again" on YouTube on October 27, 2016, just a week before the fateful US presidential election. In the video, Tolokonnikova appears as a news anchor for "Trump TV" (which now actually exists), announcing that "everyones favorite, the great Donald Trump, has won the presidential election."

The clip then takes a dark turn as the song takes thinly-veiled swipes at Trumps proposed policies. The refrain is a call to action that flips Trumps own messaging on its head: "Let other people in. Listen to your women. Stop killing black children. Make America great again."

"I totally understand Putin and Trump and their people can have something in common their background is similar," Tolokonnikova said.

Shes currently rushing to raise funds on Kickstarter for an immersive theater project that would take the audience through a deeply experiential tour of the Russian prison system, from its kangaroo courts to its lawless, fetid jails.

Tolokonnikovas own reminders of the need for political involvement were never too far away,  and neither were extreme conditions. She was born just before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, in the glacially-northern Russian town of Norilsk, where the average temperature during the year is -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Farenheit). A Soviet mining town built from scratch in 1935, Norilsk has a population of around 180,000 and is one of the most polluted places on the planet.

"There was not a lot of culture there, so it was very lucky that a couple of amazing artists came to my town," "I remember I looked at them and thinking they were truly alive because the way they navigated our cultural heritage was so free, it was the opposite of what I saw in my school.

"So I moved to Moscow when I was 16, because it was literally impossible to be a free-spirited, open-minded in a really small town, you will just not survive."

Effectively, Tolokonnikova grew up in a fledgling post-Soviet democratic experiment that never quite took hold and fairly quickly morphed into a brutal dictatorship led by a former KGB agent. That inspired her to become politically and artistically engaged at the early age of 14.

"I decided to become an artist and a philosopher because for me it was the same," she said.

After high school, Tolokonnikova enrolled in a philosophy program at Moscow State University and met up with other artists around the city who had similarly subversive inclinations to form the beginnings of what would become Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot rose to notoriety in 2012 after they performed a feminist punk-rock protest song in Moscows Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Russian Orthodox religions most prominent symbol, which was increasingly in bed with an oppressive Kremlin regime that was jailing political protesters and violently stifling dissent. Its not difficult to see why the song was slightly offensive to the church patriarchy  or the proud autocrat.

What most people dont realize is that Tolokonnikova and fellow activists Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevichwere not arrested on the spot. They got kicked out of the church well before their song was finished, as the video shows. It was when the clip started to air on social media and came to the attention of the authorities that Putins security forces set out to find them.

Tolokonnikova says she spent a week on the lam, literally running away from Putins cops by changing locations at different times, restricting communication, and hiding in secret spots. At one point she tried to sneak out to buy her daughter, who was about to turn four, a birthday present. She was detained by what she describes as a group of thuggish, plain-clothes characters whom the cops at the local precinct first thought to be criminals themselves.

Then came a prolonged period of psychological pressure and uncertainty that came with her sentencing, which was completely random in nature since technically no actual crime had been committed other than perhaps trespassing. Can one even trespass a church? No matter: Putins regime figured out a crime with which to charge them  "hooliganism."

"You could be stuck in prison for the next seven years," guards would warn her. She recalls being taunted in the most grotesque ways, saying the high-profile nature of her case forced the police to refrain from physical abuse that might leave visible scars, resorting instead to psychological terror.

"Youre a beautiful young woman, but when you get out youll be old, 29, nobody will want to f--- you," Tolokonnikova recalls being taunted by male officers.

Following their release, the pair immediately vowed to continue their fight against Putins autocratic regime by launching both an independent news outlet aimed at countering Russias propaganda machine and a prison advocacy group working to bring awareness of the plight of other inmates.

They traveled the world to discuss their own experience and advocate for prison reform. But instead of leaving Russia, where they could undertake artistic projects more freely and safely, the pair were resolute about returning to Moscow.

During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Pussy Riot members were brutally beaten for another attempted performance protest.

To of the most striking parallels between the United States and Russia are the two countrys giant, cruel, and costly prison systems.

"Its really striking to me, a lot of people really believe that were living in a civilized world, its 2017 and we are civilized human beings," she said. "Um, not really. We have an army of slaves and America is the biggest one and second is China. Russia is third so its not great company."
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The allowance will now be paid through the Student Loan Trust, according to the new directive seen by Pulse.com.gh.

The new directive is not clear as to whether students will be made to pay back the money through monthly salary deductions when they are employed as teachers.

The directive from the minister of Education through the national council for tertiary education (NCTE) has directed that teacher trainees must register with the students loan trust fund. This requirement is for the payment of teacher trainee allowances for September 2017," a statement announcing the new directive said.

It should be noted that allowances will be paid to teacher trainees only through the students loan trust fund. In view of the above directive, students must register with the students loan trust fund immediately.

This latest move comes on the heels of the restoration of the quota system for the nursing training colleges.

Although the move has been welcomed by the major stakeholders in the health sector, the opposition National Democratic Congress has condemned the move.
The musician is under trial for exposing his manhood on stage wile performing in 2015 at Citi FMs December 2 Remember concert.

The decision to file a submission of no case comes after the prosecution had closed its case.

The presiding judge, Abena Oppong Adiin Adjin-Doku, ordered the lawyer to file the said submission before the end of August 2017.

Wisa is facing trial for allegedly exposing his penis while performing at the Accra International Conference Centre on December 24, 2015.

He has been charged with gross indecent exposure. He has since pleaded not guilty and is on a GH 8,000 bail with one surety.

The court in the course of the trial last year issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Wisa after absconding for some time. He later reappeared explaining he had fallen ill and was taken to a herbalist for treatment.

In January, the programs manager for Citi FM Jessica Opare Saforo denied seeing Wisa remove his manhood in public.
Isiyaka, 16, and Abdullahi, 15, who reside in Angwan Usama area of Masaka, were convicted for injuring a man, Abubakar Isah on the head.

The duo pleaded guilty to the charge.

The Judge, Mr Yakubu Ishaku, who gave the verdict, said the punishment would enable them to know the gravity of the offences they committed.

This will also serve as a warning to others that have the mind to commit such crimes.

I hereby order two court officials to give them seven strokes of the cane each, he ruled.

Earlier, Police Prosecutor Frank Swem told the court that the teenagers had assaulted and injured the complainant, Abubakar Isah, leaving him with a head injury on August 11.
The Jai Ho Foundation wants a ban on Pehredaar Piya Ki for its bad influence.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A Mumbai NGO has demanded a ban on a prime time tele-serial Pehredaar Piya Ki for alleged vulgarity and promoting child marriage, an official said here on Friday.

The Jai Ho Foundation has shot off a complaint to Commissioner of Police Datta Padsalgikar and Union Minister Smriti Irani raising strong objections to the content of the tele-serial, and seeking a ban on it since it is a "bad influence" on children and adults alike.

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In the plea, the NGO's President Afroz Malik and General Secretary Adil Khatri said that in the tele-serial telecast on Sony TV on prime time "A 10-year old child Piyaa is seen caressing, stalking and having a relationship of a sexual nature with a lady who is more than double his age and filling 'sindoor' in her 'maang'."

This is "an indecent and obscene representation of a child for the purpose of representing sexual relationship," they pointed out.

"This TV serial as a whole is inciting and encouraging young children's minds to commit and engage in sexual relationship," said Malik and Khatri in the complaint.

Urging a probe and registering a case under the POCSO Act, 2012, it said the action would help set a precedent for other tele-serial makers.

They said that the government spends hugely to create awareness against child marriages and sexual offences towards children, but the Censor Board approves content which promotes such social evils.

Incidentally, the tele-serial, featuring a young prince played Afaan Khan and his caretaker, played by Tejasswi Prakash, has also generated controversy on social media for its content.

There is also an online petition, addressed to Union Minister Smriti Irani, demanding a ban on the show. It has garnered more than 1 lakh signatures.

Also read: Pehredaar Piya Ki in trouble! Smriti Irani responds to petition to ban the show; writes to BCCC

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The defendant, a resident of Gwagwalada, was docked on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.

The prosecutor, Mr Patrick Ebong, told the court that the complainant, one Mr Ohiemi Joseph, filed a petition with the FCT Police Command on the matter on December 7, 2016.

He averred that the defendant and others at large, allegedly conspired and collected N1.2 million from the complainant and in return issued a fake land documents to him.

He told the court that the documents were for two plots of land situated in Gwagwalada area of Abuja.

Ebong said that the defendant issued the complainant a dude cheque of N1.2 million on Jan.18, when the land documents were proved to be fake.

The prosecuting officer said the offence contravened Sections 97, 322 and 364 of the Penal Code.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges, while the judge, Mr Umar Kagarko, admitted him to bail in the sum of N1.3 million with one surety in like sum.
He told Accra-based Citi FM that the suspects have bee arraigned before the 14 illegal mining (galamsey) courts.

We have arrested as many as 90 suspected illegal miners. In Eastern Region, we arrested 29, Western Region, 58 and in Ashanti Region we have arrested 3, he said.

These are suspects and as I speak they have been sent to the various courts where appropriate prosecution procedures are being followed, he added.

READ MORE: Galamsey operator weeps as taskforce burn excavators
READ MORE: 29 Christians return certificates to WAEC for cheating

The Council wishes to alert members of the public to a false news article circulating on social media purportedly issued by WAEC about the hacking of the WAEC website. The public is urged to disregard the contents of the said article, the statement.

The statement comes after it was widely circulated on social media that the website of the examination management body has been hacked.

Subsequently, some media houses reported the incident.

READ MORE: How to check SHS placement details on your phone

But according to Mrs Teye-Cudjoe WEAC has a way of sending out information to the media.
Speaking at the public accounts committee Thursday, Mr Quartey cited the use of motorbikes for commercial business in some West African state.

READ MORE: Heavy security at Aveyime after okada riders clash with police

The Ayawaso Central Member of Parliament said Okada serves a dual purpose and that it must be legalized.

In other jurisdictions, probably neighbouring countries around us, motorbikes are used all over, he said.

We would want to humbly plead with your august committee, in your report to see how best we can put some measures in place to ensure that there is a balance between the usage of motorbikes in the country. He added.

He made the comments after Okada riders stormed the Aveyime police station in Ho on Friday after two of their members passed away in an accident in their attempt to escape from the police.

The police were on the streets as part of efforts of clamping down on the activities of Okada riders that flout motor and traffic regulations.

READ MORE:Legalize Okada or we resort to armed robbery

The Okada drivers in their anger besieged the police station and attempted to force their way through.

They burnt some car tyres in front of the police station in the process.
His song featured on Pulse Ghana's top 10 campaign songs in 2016.

The sad news is, Mr Ackah has been hit by a strange illness causing him to have a 'bloated face.

In his moment of illness, Mr Ackah was expecting support from the National Democratic Congress, a party he has sacrificed his music career for.

But Mr Ackah says he has been neglected by the NDC. According to him, the NDC does not give him money and when it was in power, he never benefited from the party.

He told Accra-based Adom that if he was to charge for the voluntary work he did for the NDC, it would be over billions of cedis.

 NDC does not give money; they neglected me even in power. After that composition, I became a typical NDC. I did the song for free, and if I were supposed to charge for it will be over billions of cedis, he said.

In a separate interview with Onua FM also in Accra, Mr Ackah revealed that he has been battling with so many sicknesses including stroke.

"I have been battling with stroke, leg pain and I mean so many things. I just give thanks to the Almighty God for even bringing me this far," he said.
Mr Atta-Akyea, who decried the practice as "wrong," said a full-scale audit was underway to uproot unqualified occupants.

READ MORE: Governments affordable housing is not really affordable

Some of them could be the girlfriends of some people. You will be shocked to hear the kind of funny stuff going on in governmental circles, which is not good for the country," the minister told Joy FM.

He added: "We cannot have a situation where you will take the government for granted so we will certainly evict them."

Mr Atta-Akyea's comments confirm a long held belief among Ghanaians that state flats are not distributed on merit.

As a result, scores of government workers have been forced to rent at exorbitant prices and far from town.

Mr Atta-Akyea adds that some public officials come to tell him, "this is my nephew, let him leave there for free.

READ MORE: SHS student jailed for robbery in Prestea

Meanwhile doctors and nurses are marking time looking for accommodation. The audit will bring all these to bear and those there will be surcharged, he lamented.
The victim, Regina Efia Biama has since been complaining of body pains, swollen forehead and mouth after the doctor, Lawrence Hoedoafia reportedly slapped her and fell.

He then grabbed my legs and pulled them forcing me off the sofa to hit my head against a refrigerator wooden stand.

He then stepped on my abdomen and if it hadnt been my braids Im sure my head injury would have been worse, the mother of three told StarrFMonline.com.

READ ALSO: Quack doctor who blackmailed women after sex nabbed

According to her, the incident occurred after she reported late to work during her night shift on July 19, 2017.

She said the doctor followed her into the nurses rest room and began raining insults on her and calling her all sort of names.

At a point, he said I was stupid and since I couldnt bear it anymore, I responded by telling him that he was referring to his mother and wife.

Immediately, he slapped me and began beating me all over.

READ ALSO: Fake abortion doctor arrested in Bukom for rape

The 38-year-old woman was subsequently admitted at the Nabita Hospital for treatment that night after her husband came for her.

The case has since been reported to the police but authorities at the Tema General Hospital have written to Mrs. Biama to withdraw the police case so it can be settled internally.

They are threatening me They are not minding me and want me to withdraw the case. I suspect a cover up I have suffered psychologically and I want justice to be done, she said.
[I urge you] to support my government and I, because all the policies and programmes we have begun to put it place will benefit all Ghanaians in every part of the country," he said when he made a first stop in Ekumfi.

"By the end of my mandate in office, I can assure you that Ghanaians will know that I came to tell them the truth and not to deceive them, President Akufo-Addo noted.

Ekumfi, the hometown of President Evans Atta Mills, was won by the New Patriotic Party. Also, the NPP won the snatched the Awutu Senya seat from former Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh.

The president's visit to the aforementioned constituencies was part of his five-day working visit to the Western and Central Region.

At Awutu Senya East, President Akufo-Addo pledged to see to the upgrading of the health posts in the constituency, as well as the provision of potable water to Bontrase and other deprived communities.

READ MORE: Nana Addo describes Kufuor as a man noted for taking good decisions

Construction of a landing beach wharf, as well as construction of the Akotsi-Senya /Bawjiase-Kasoa and Obrachire/Bawjiase roads, the President assured, will be done.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) The opposition NCP today said the decision of Maharashtra Chief Minister Minister Devendra Fadnavis to refer to the Lokayukta the allegation against his cabinet colleague Prakash Mehta was "clever game" to save himself from any possible fallout.

Fadnavis last night announced a Lokayukta probe into into the opposition allegation that there had been serious impropriety in clearing a slum-redevelopment project in the city by Housing MinisterPrakash Mehta, a BJP member in the cabinet.

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"The chief minister has played a clever game. On the one hand he has saved his own skin against the fallout of the probe against the housing minister. This is also an attempt to show people that he will not let any allegation pass of without an inquiry," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

Malik said according to the Maharashtra Lokayukta Act, the chief minister does not come under the purview of Lokayukta.

"When the housing minister himself said that he had apprised the CM of his decision to sign on the file (relating to the slum development under question), it is obvious that the CM would be made to answer some difficult questions. Since the Lokayukta will not probe that angle, there will no questions raised against Fadnavis," he said.

He said that was why the opposition parties sought a probe into the allegations against Mehta and industries minister Subhash Desai (of Shiv Sena) by a sitting judge of the high court.

Mehta has been facing heat over alleged "unauthorised" transfer of extra building rights of an the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) project at the MP Mills Compound in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project- affected people.

The opposition has alleged that the move was aimed at favouring a particular developer.

The opposition had also accused Mehta of incorporating the names of his family members as the beneficiaries of a slum redevelopment project in suburban Ghatkopar.

On allegations against Industries Minister Desai, Fadnavis had said the government will request the Lokayukta to consider the case and if that does not work out an independent probe would be conducted.PTI MM ARS NM NM

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Most of these foods have the same element even though their methods of preparation generally differ from one another. However, one thing is consistent in any African food, it's palatability is never

Below is a list of the elements you are sure to find in every African food.

1.The "Stinking Fish" family

How can the members of this family not make a cameo at least? These members add to the spiciness and local touch of the whole gathering when used in food preparation. Wondering who they are? Momoni, Kako, Koobi, Dawadawa, Kpanla, Kpomo, Shaki, etc. These are not necessarily foods on their own but work together for the common good, much like the AU, lol.

2.Lots of pepper

Africans like so much chilli and have no chill. There is no gathering in Africa without the corner side dish that comes super packed with chilli for days. (Pepper soup anyone?) Be it in a bid to whet visitors' appetite, or to be had in the corner with meat and bottles of beer, you wouldn't have to break a sweat to locate it at any African gathering.

3. The "Chichinga" element

Be it the "Shisha Nyama" of South Africa, "piri piri chicken" from Mozambique, "Suya" of Nigeria or "Venison" of Namibia, Africans know how to tear it down when it comes to their meat servings for that party. Whatever it is called and no matter where it is found, there is no party without the Chichinga element!

4. The Carb balls

What's an African gathering without the Carbs? How does that even pan out? No Fufu and Abenkwan or any other Nkwan? no fufu and njama njama from Cameroon? No pounded yam or Eba and egusi soup from Nigeria? No Sadza from Zimbabwe and other parts of southern Africa? ..how? In fact, we just can't imagine! As far as we are concerned, Carbs are in a comfortable lead here, no two ways.

5. Green sisters

How can we talk carbs without our greens? There's always that green dish on the sidelines we just can't put a finger on standing far off. Kontomire stew, Bitterleaf, Egusi soup, 'green stew' from Sierra Leone, you name it.

6. Has pepper been mentioned already? Well, Africans and their love for pepper is just insatiable so we had to bring it back. There are also traits of aromatics, herbs and spices such as ginger, garlic, black pepper, rosemary etc in every African meal.

7. The Nameless meals

Let's face it, there are some meals that just don't have names in Africa. We obviously can't list them because they are nameless, or just a mouthful to pronounce so remain nameless, but a favourite among the people. Can you think of any off the top of your head?

8.Jollof

It's either Jollof or something that looks like Jollof named differently (Ghana Jollof, Nigerian Jollof, Benachin, Riz au gras) Either way, it is Jollof. It's so popular- especially in the West African region- that Nigeria and Ghana are at war as to who makes the best of it. Senegalese even claim ownership of this delicacy. Did you know that there's even an ancient empire named after this wonderful meal?What's an African gathering without it then?
What do we know about diabetes in Africa? Why is there a concern?

About 95% of cases around the world are type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity. The impact of diabetes is becoming much greater in poorer countries and regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 34 of the worlds 48 least developed countries. In lower-income countries, even though national and personal wealth is increasing, health systems are not developed enough to cope with the increasing numbers, or the long-term consequences of diabetes such as heart attacks, strokes, blindness, and kidney failure.

The health fraternity has a good idea that diabetes rates on the continent are increasing but they dont know enough about the number of people with the disease. For example, a recent study found that there is no information about people with diabetes in 21 countries. Added to this, the Commission also found that  in countries where the burden of diabetes is known  only about half of the people with it in populations across Africa are aware that they have the disease. Of these only one in 10  or 11%  receive the drugs they need.

What are the costs?

There are two costs affiliated with diabetes: treatment costs and economic costs.

Diabetes itself can be treated very cheaply as it only requires medications (usually tablets) to lower glucose. But the long-term consequences, for example, heart attacks, strokes, blindness, and kidney failure, require specialists and specialist equipment to treat. These are very expensive. The consequences are also more likely to lead to people not being able to work.

The Commission calculated that southern African countries accounted for two-thirds of the US $12.1billion spent on diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015. Wealthier countries, particularly South Africa, were spending more because theyre going through more societal changes. Less than a tenth of the costs (US $1.7 billion) originated from poorer countries in western Africa.

And looking ahead, projections show that by 2030 southern Africa is likely to see the greatest increases in annual health care and personal costs: between US $17.2 billion and US $29.2 billion. In east Africa spending is expected to increase from US $3.8 billion in 2015 up to $16.2 billion in 2030.

The Commission report estimates that the total costs to economies and individuals in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015 was US $19.5 billion.

More than half of this economic cost (56%, $10.8 billion) was from treatments, including medication and hospital stays. Other costs included out-of-pocket expenses paid for by the patients and productivity losses, mostly from shortened life expectancy as well as people leaving the workforce early ($0.5 billion), taking sick leave ($0.2 billion) and being less productive at work due to poor health ($0.07 billion).

In which way are health systems ill-prepared to deal with chronic diseases like diabetes? Are there countries that are worse off or better? And why?

The impact of diabetes is greater in countries and regions that are poorer. In lower-income countries, health systems have focused on tackling infectious diseases for the last 15 to 20 years. The increase in diabetes cases hasnt been seen as a priority. This has led to several gaps in care, including a lack of equipment for diagnosing and monitoring diabetes, lack of treatment, and lack of knowledge about the disease among health care providers.

Many infectious diseases can be cured relatively quickly, which means that the systems for treating chronic, lifelong, diseases like diabetes are rare.

But theres a lot we can learn from countries that have developed systems to deal with high burdens of HIV. Lessons are being drawn from them to provide care for other chronic conditions in Africa.

Another reason for health care systems in Africa not being able to cope with diabetes - or many other illnesses - is that they havent been given the level of investment needed to provide good quality care for all.

How could the challenges around diabetes be tackled effectively?

It is critical that we establish the true burden of diabetes and the burden of other risk factors associated with diabetes, like high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol.

The Commissions analysis demonstrates a clear need for improvements at all levels of diabetes care. And interventions that have been successfully trialled in sub-Saharan African countries need to be scaled up. This includes community-based care for high blood pressure, patient education, home glucose monitoring, and more education about diabetes for health care professionals.

The Commission also pointed out that the response needs to come from many different levels; from individuals, to society, to health care planners, health care providers and governments.

The researchers note that prevention is critical to improving health and avoiding further economic burden. This is because managing type 2 diabetes and its risk factors (such as obesity and physical inactivity) is much simpler and cheaper than treating complications that develop in the later stages of the disease.
LONDON  Anne Marie Waters has told Business Insider that she will not endorse any other candidate to be elected UKIP leader if she, as she is expecting, is blocked from standing.

The anti-Islam campaigner told BI this week that she expects the UKIP National Executive Committee to block her bid to be the party's new leader but said she will not give her support to any other candidate on the ballot paper.

Waters was banned from standing as a candidate for UKIP in the June general election after describing Islam as "evil" and a "killing machine." Last year she co-founded the UK branch of anti-Islam group Pegida alongside Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League.

Another UKIP figure who is running for the vacancy told BI they will "absolutely" consider their party membership if Waters is elected leader. The Huffington Post reported earlier this summer that 18 UKIP MEPs would consider quitting if Waters wins the contest.

"I do believe they're going to block me for bringing the party into disrepute, probably. Because of Tommy Robinson and Jack Buckby. If that's the case then so be it," Waters, a former Labour Party member, explained. A number of senior and former senior UKIP figures have told BI that they expect the Waters' candidacy to be blocked.

"They will have shown the membership that they are willing to ignore them [Waters' concerns about Islam]," Waters added. "And they'll show the public that, frankly, they are not brave enough to discuss Islam in terms that the public wants to hear."

Waters went on to say that there is no other candidate in the running who she would consider endorsing for the position.

"It's not because I dislike them all," she said. "I don't like a lot of what David Kurten has said about gays. I've heard him come out with his horrible, judgemental nonsense that gay people were sexually abused as children. I certainly don't want him to win.

"John Rees-Evans I quite like, but I don't think his direct democracy is going to excite the public. It's complicated and difficult to explain. But certainly not people like David Coburn either.

"So, no, there is nobody who I would particularly like to see as leader."

UKIP is in search of yet another new leader after Paul Nuttall quit following the party's poor general election performance. The party won no seats and just 1.8% of the national vote, down from the 12.6% of the vote it won in 2015.

A total of 11 people have put their name forward, including the party's Scottish leader, David Coburn; bookies' favourite Peter Whittle; and Jonathan Rees-Evans, who famously accused of a gay donkey of raping his horse.

The NEC is set to announce the final ballot paper this month before the winner is announced at the party's Autumn conference in Torquay this month.

Waters' bid has allegedly been boosted by an influx of over a thousand members of the far-right, a development she believes proves that the public is interested in her policies on Islam. "I have been banging my head against the wall trying to tell them about the level of concern but among the public and within the party about this issue," she said.

"They have not been listened to. When I announced I was standing a thousand people joined within two weeks."

She reiterated her belief that immigration from "Muslim societies" is the "biggest threat" to both the British and wider western way of life and closing Europe's borders, via bringing down the EU, is the only way of combating it.

"This is not a transient issue. This is permanent and it'll have an enormous effect on generations to come.

"This mass-migration and what it's bringing is not easily-reversible. These are huge problems. Huge existential issues that need dealing with. And I think that's why a lot of politicians turn away from it  it's just too big. Politicians are happy to kick the can down the road until their careers are over. That's not good enough for me."

Waters has promised to "democratise" the party if elected leader and hold a membership-wide referendum on scrapping the party's NEC, which she believes is out of touch with grassroots support. She also wants party members to vote on the major policies and have a direct impact on what is included in future manifestos.
A 32-year-old woman is dead and multiple other people were left injured after a driver plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon, police chief Al Thomas said.

Two Virginia state police officers were also killed in a helicopter crash outside Charlottesville as they were monitoring the protests from above.

The car crash came after a day of violent and chaotic clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters. The driver of the car has been arrested, and Thomas said at a press conference Saturday evening that the injuries from the crash range from minor to life-threatening.

The police on Saturday evening identified the suspected driver of the car as 20-year-old James Fields. The police told media they were holding him on suspicion of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one hit-and-run count.

Police said their helicopter was "assisting public safety resources" as the events unfolded in Charlottesville, and that there was no indication that foul play was a factor in the crash.

"Lieutenant Cullen was a highly respected professional aviator and Trooper-Pilot Bates was a welcome addition to the Aviation unit," police said in a statement. "Their deaths are a tremendous loss to our agency and the Commonwealth."

The protests that began Friday evening and continued on Saturday accompanied a "Unite the Right" rally that was called by white nationalists in response to a plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park in Charlottesville.

One of the counter-protesters who was hit described the scene to a reporter shortly after.

"There were just a few cars that counter-protesters were blocking," the man said.

He then said that the driver of the car was "honking their horn" and then "they were just, like, bulldozing through people."

Another witness had two friends who were hit by the car and had to take them to the hospital. The witness described the incident as "absolutely intentional."

"I am furious & heartsick by the car crash that has injured many," Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer tweeted. "Please all-go home to your families. We can work tomorrow. GO HOME! PLEASE!"
Asked about the US response to the political, economic, and social crises in the South American country, Trump said,

Asked if it would be a US-led military operation, Trump said, "We don't talk about it, but a military operation, a military option is certainly something that we could pursue."

"I support peace. I support safety, and I support having to get tough if we have to" in order to protect Americans and people around the world, the president added.

After Trump's remarks, the Pentagon said that it had not gotten any orders on Venezuela from the White House, according to Idrees Ali of Reuters. The Pentagon added that, "Any insinuations by the Maduro regime that we are planning an invasion are baseless."

The US has already issued three rounds of sanctions against Venezuela officials since the end of July.

Thirteen officials were sanctioned during the last week July, ahead of the vote to elect members to a widely condemned constituent assembly that critics charge is a government maneuver to consolidate power by President Nicolas Maduro. After the vote on July 30, the US sanctioned Maduro himself, and this week the US Treasury announced sanctions against eight more officials.

Venezuela is now in the fifth month of a period of protests that broke out in early April, after the supreme court, considered by many to aligned with Maduro, attempted to strip the opposition-led National Assembly of its powers.

The supreme court backed off that effort, but the often violent protests that have taken place since have left at least 120 people dead, the majority of them anti-government demonstrators, and led to thousands of arrests.

This week, 17 countries from the region condemned the "breakdown of democratic order" in Venezuela and said they would not recognize the constituent assembly or any measures it may pass regarding future joint oil ventures or debt matters.

Trump administration officials have previously said all options are on the table

Venezuela under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, has had contentious relations with the US and the two countries have not had ambassadors since 2010.

On Thursday, Maduro said Venezuela

During an address to the new, all-powerful constitutional assembly, Maduro told his foreign minister to approach the US about a telephone conversation or meeting with Trump.

"Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand," Maduro said, adding that he wants as strong a relationship with the US as he has with Russia.
In a game of political chess, White House officials were reportedly looking to jumpstart Trump's deadlocked agenda, most notably seen in the failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in July.

In theory, if Manchin were to head the Energy Department, the Republican governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, would be able to appoint a Republican senator, bringing the Senate closer to fulfilling President Donald Trump's agenda.

Manchin, who was briefly considered for Secretary of Energy, is up for reelection in 2018 in a state that had voted for Trump in the 2016 US presidential election by a wide margin.

Manchin unloaded in an unrelated Sunday interview with The Charleston Gazette when he was asked whether partisan bullying could get him to play ball in Congress.

"I don't give a s---, you understand? I just don't give a s---," Manchin said on Sunday to The Charleston Gazette-Mail, in response to being asked about the recent series of political attacks. "Don't care if I get elected, don't care if I get defeated, how about that. If they think because I'm up for election, that I can be wrangled into voting for s--- that I don't like and can't explain, they're all crazy."

The idea to get Manchin into the Energy Department, which is still in its "early stages of consideration," has yet to gain support by the Trump administration, according to Bloomberg.
That will change dramatically on Monday, August 21: when the total solar eclipse sweeps across the continental United States for the first time in nearly 100 years.

If you're not careful, though, the sun can rapidly scorch your eyeballs: While the moon will at least partially block the sun for the entire nation, the glowing crescent left behind will still emit ultraviolet rays.

UV is the same wavelength of light that causes sunburn and can damage the light-sensing cells of your eyes' retinas. Even looking with normal sunglasses can lead to solar retinopathy, a condition that can temporarily blind you, lead to missing spots in your vision, or even cause permanent blindness.

The only safe time to look at the solar eclipse with the naked eye, according to NASA, is during totality: where the moon's fullest, darkest umbral shadow touches. Yet only a small slice of America will experience its magic (and for less than three minutes of the entire two- to three-hour eclipse, depending on the location).

The good news is that there are several easy ways to safely watch the eclipse  even if you're not in the path of totality, or you are and want to look at the sun before and after.

Here are seven of the best methods.

1. Solar glasses or viewers

If you're just now reading this and hope to buy a pair of eclipse sunglasses, or a one-sheet viewer, you may be out of luck  many online retailers are selling out.

If you have a friend who's an astronomy buff, though, chances are high they'll have an extra pair collecting dust. You might also stop into your local library, astronomy club, or NASA event site and try to grab a free solar viewer.

NASA has also compiled a list of reputable manufacturers, sellers, and brands that meet strict standards  but beware of unscrupulous sellers pushing knock-off eclipse glasses to make a buck off desperate buyers. (If something seems fishy, it probably is.)

2. Welder's glass rated shade-12 or higher

Welder's glass is designed to protect the eyes of workers from bright bursts of light that acetylene torches give off. This is also what makes it great to look at the sun: It blocks most ultraviolet light.

However, the glass has to be dark enough to be effective. NASA recommends shades 12, 13, or 14, with shade 12 being the least-opaque of the three grades. "Many people find the Sun too bright even in a Shade 12 filter, and some find the Sun too dim in a Shade 14 filter  but Shade 13 filters are uncommon and can be hard to find," NASA wrote at its eclipse safety website.

The space agency also urges extra caution if you find and want to use an older welder's helmet or glass. "If it's less than 12 (and it probably is), don't even think about using it to look at the Sun," it said.

3. Pinhole camera

Pinhole cameras can get pretty advanced with boxes and tripods, but NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has instructions for an incredibly simple version that you can build in a few minutes.

Grab some scissors, tin foil, a piece of thick card stock (or paper), tape, and a needle. Cut a hole in the middle of one sheet of card stock, tape the edges of a tin foil section over it, then carefully pierce the center of the foil with the needle  presto, you've made a pinhole camera. Hover your device over something white, ideally a piece of paper, and move it up and down until you figure out where the ideal focus point is.

But you don't even need to even build something. Any object with tiny holes that will let light through works. A kitchen strainer, for example  or just closing your fist to barely let a point of light through  can make for a proper pinhole camera.

4. Binoculars pointed at paper

Never hold binoculars close or up to your eyes and look at the sun. That's a quick way to blind yourself.

However, you can repurpose a pair by turning them into mini projectors. Just grab a piece of paper, point the binocular's eyepieces toward it, and aim the other end at the sun.

It may help to adjust the binoculars' focal point so that it sharpens further back from the eyepieces; this will create a more crisp projection. (Binoculars usually have focus knobs directly on the eyepieces, but some have them in the central joint.)

5. Solar filter for a camera or telescope

Warning: This method is not for amateurs, as just one careless moment can focus an ultra-bright ray of sunlight directly on your retina.

That said, if you have any device like a dSLR camera or telescope, you can order a special filter to pop onto the end of the lens or tube. Be sure tolist of reputable manufacturers, sellers, and brands.

A proper filter will remove most of the sunlight, allowing you to see a magnified view of the solar eclipse  and even take photos of the moon blocking the sun.

6. The shade of a tree

You must be desperate if you've read this far, and that's ok... Just go find a tree.

Specifically, find one in the open sun that has a good amount of leaves and shade, and locate blobs of sunlight that sharply filter through the leaves.

When the solar eclipse happens, keep your eyes peeled for the semicircles of sunlight as the eclipse reaches its maximum for your region  that's what the sun looks like, and is nature's equivalent of a pinhole camera. For extra clarity, lay down a piece of paper or light-colored cloth in the blobs of sunlight.

7. Watch online

If the weather turns on you, or you can't get outside, you'll have to go online.

Fortunately, Business Insider has already collected and embedded the best live-streaming video feeds around, including those from NASA TV, NASA EDGE, Slooh, and more.
Global telecoms industry body GSMAs Ecosystem Accelerator says a total of 314 tech hubs and incubation centers were recorded in July 2016.

This represents an increase from the 117 centers that were recorded by the World Bank in 2015.

Even though these are found across 93 cities in 42 countries in Africa, most of them are located in only 5 countries, namely: South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco.

The co-operation between entrepreneurs, innovation hubs, telecom operators and giant tech companies can be the cause of the thriving tech industry.

According to the research, about 13% of the tech hubs across Africa collaborated with mobile operators which like Orange, MTN and Vodafone.

These mobile network operators believe that there is the need for them to innovate or die . For instance, in 2014, Orange support helped launch CIPMEN, Nigers first incubator. The program provides support to businesses in technology development and environmental projects like renewable energy. ActivSpaces was launched in Cameroon in 2010 and partnered with MTN (as a supplier) in 2015/2016. The hub provides both incubation and acceleration programs, helping startups secure seed funding.

Some hubs have been phenomenal since their inception in March 2010. iHub, Kenyas premier technology community working space can boast of spurring the launch of more than 170 startups.
Nepal Cabinet held an emergency meeting during which Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ordered the local district administrations to intensify the rescue and release activities.

By Press Trust of India: At least 36 people were killed and 12 others missing in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall in several districts across Nepal, officials said today.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, seven persons were killed in Sunsari district in southern Nepal.

Four persons were killed in Sindhuli, four each in Jhapa and Sindhuli districts, three each in Banke, Morang and Panchthar districts and the rest others in different districts.

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Hundreds of families have been displaced in the floods and landslides across the country.

Meanwhile, Nepal Cabinet held an emergency meeting during which Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba ordered the local district administrations to intensify the rescue and release activities.

Nepalese Home Minister Janardan Sharma said that all the security agencies will be mobilised in an integrated manner for carrying out the rescue operations.

Jhapa, Morang Sunsari, Sapttari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Banke, Bardiya and Dang districts were the worst affected by flood.

Hundreds of houses have been submerged in Morang.

Biratnagar airport has been closed after flood water gushed into the airport area.

Also Read:

Rapid rise in rivers water levels in NE, Bengal, Bihar and UP

Ghaghara swells, floods 35 villages in Bahraich, 2 children die

--- ENDS ---
Yakubu, who lives in Dala Quarters, Kano, is standing trial on a one-count charge.

The prosecutor, Insp. Yusuf Sale, told the court that one Mustafa Musa of Kabuga Quarters, Kano, reported the matter to the Rijiyar Zaki Police Division, Kano, on August 7.

Sale said that on that date at about 3.30 p.m., the defendant went to the complainants house situated at Kabuga Quarters and stole his borehole engine.

He said that the defendant was arrested with the stolen engine the value of which had yet to be determined.

The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Section 288 of the Penal Code.
Eyewitnesses account has it that the incident happened at about 12:30 pm at the car wash Ajia owns along the popular Taiwo Road in the commercial nerve center of the town.

The murdered Bayo Ajia

Photo Credit: Facebook

Ajia was said to be one of the ring leaders of the Aiye Confraternity, said to have held the state to ransom for many years as he was once convicted for the killing of two of his rivals, Abdul Yekini Gobir and Abdul Ganiyu Hussein, at a night party at Deens Motel, Ilorin, in 2004 but was later granted amnesty by then Governor of the state, Bukola Saraki, who is now the Senate President.

Those who witnessed the killing of Ajia said he was murdered in cold blood by his assailants whose identity is yet to be determined as at press time. He was said to have been shot at severally by his assailants but when it seemed like the bullets were not penetrating his body, the assailants used machetes to hack him down and kept tearing at him till he gave up the ghost.
According to a statement by the President's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President made this known at the Abuja House, London, United Kingdom.

I have learnt to obey my doctors orders rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge, the President was quoted as saying.

According to Adesina, Buhari said, I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I have now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed.

Adesina said the President sent appreciation to all Nigerians, expressing hope that he would be with them soon.

Buhari received members of his media team led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed at the Abuja house in London.

ALSO READ: Abike Dabiri, Lai Mohammed visit President in London
The suspects include: Haliru Hassan, Usman Abdulkadir, Yusuf Saidu, Abubakar Shuiabu, Abubakar Suleiman, Uzairu Bawa and Sani Abubakar.

A statement issued by an operative of the service, Mr Tony Opuiyo, said that the suspects were arrested on July 3, at the Kakuri industrial area of Kaduna State.

Opuiyo said that the suspects had been terrorising motorists and commuters within the Rijana and Katari axis of the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.

He said that the service had also arrested two notorious kidnap suspects, Rabiu Sani alias Dogo, and Abubakar Sani.

He said that the suspects were arrested on July 4, along the Zaria-Funtua road in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The operative said that Sani was a notorious kidnapper and gun-runner who had been supplying arms and ammunition to criminal elements in Kaduna, Kano, Taraba and Plateau states.

He said that items recovered from them include: a blue Volkswagen Vento car with Reg. No. MGU 106 EA, one Pistol,four AK-47 Magazines and five FN rifle.

Others are : 989 rounds of Ammunition, one round of 9mm ammunition, one Beretta magazine, and N457, 140.

Similarly, Opuiyo said, the service had arrested two high profile kidnappers on July 5 July, at Ikara Junction, Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano State.

He said that they were members of a kidnap gang which had been operating at the Falgore forest in Kano State.

He said that 26 live cartridges and a bullet proof vest were found in their possession during their arrest.

The operative said that the service had also arrested five kidnap suspects responsible for kidnapping in the FCT and two others in Kogi.

On terrorism, Opuiyo said that the service had arrested a high profile Boko Haram cell leader alongside six of his accomplices in Sakwai, Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The suspects are: Usman Musa, Isa Halidu, Ibrahim Dauda, Bature Mohammed, Buhari Dauda, Inusa Usman and Adamu Ibrahim.

He said that the suspects were arrested on July 1, after a tactical operation was conducted against fleeing Boko Haram fighters.

Opuiyo said that items recovered from them include: Light arms, ammunition and radical literature.

He said that the service also arrested some suspected terrorists in Kano and Taraba who fled from the Sambisa forest.

Opuiyo said that the service had arrested three suspects in connection with the boundary dispute in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River and Okuiboku in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

He said that the arrest was made in liaison with the Nigerian Army on Aug. 10, after a raid of the militants enclave along Ikonoto road, Ikonoto clan in Odukpani.

He said that during the raid, one of the suspects was shot dead and two escaped with gunshot injuries.

Opuiyo said that one Dane gun and an American pump action gun were recovered from the hideout.

The Service wishes to acknowledge the efforts of the general public in providing critical and actionable intelligence, which have continued to enhance its operations.
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo instituted the panel on Friday, August 11 at the Office of the Vice President.

In a statement issued by Osinbajo's spokesman, Laolu Akande, the Acting President said that the current administration places a premium on the life of every Nigerian citizen, not just as a constitutional stipulation but also a moral duty.

Osinbajo said, "... In any event fundamental to the functions of the state, is the protection of lives and property and livelihood of citizens in peace or in conflict.

"For our government, we add that respect for the lives of Nigerian citizens is not just a constitutional but also a moral duty. This is why it is incumbent upon us even as we maintain security especially in conflict situations to interrogate, as we go along on a regular basis, alleged crimes and human rights abuses by all sides in these conflicts and insurgencies."

Read the full speech below:

I have the important and special responsibility today of inaugurating the Presidential Investigation Panel to review the compliance of the Armed Forces with Human Rights obligations and Rules of Engagement.

The President, Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly stated the administrations focus on three broad issues; security, the economy and the fight against corruption.

The first security, is one without which others may prove impossible. In any event fundamental to the functions of the state, is the protection of lives and property and livelihood of citizens in peace or in conflict.

For our government, we add that respect for the lives of Nigerian citizens is not just a constitutional but also a moral duty. This is why it is incumbent upon us even as we maintain security especially in conflict situations to interrogate, as we go along on a regular basis, alleged crimes and human rights abuses by all sides in these conflicts and insurgencies.

Todays occasion is in continuation of the efforts of this administration geared towards attaining this goal.

You may recall, that in June 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the Military to conduct an internal inquiry into allegations of rights abuses by its personnel.

Accordingly, a report of the findings of the board of inquiries set up by the Nigerian Army to investigate extra-judicial killings and rights violation by Army personnel was submitted in June 2017. That report will be made available to this panel.

More recently in October 2016, the President ordered the Inspector-General of Police to investigate allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in IDP camps in the Northeast. The outcome of this investigation is being awaited.

It is also a well-known fact that the conduct of the nations defence and security forces during the insurgency in the Northeast and militancy in the Niger Delta has in recent times attracted significant commendation.

Upon resumption of office, many would recall that seven Local Government Areas were under the control of Boko Haram. Virtually all of the territory has now been recovered by security forces.

In the recent past, our Armed Forces have also fought against militants in other areas of the country; in some cases to protect critical national infrastructure and our natural resources.

These brave men and women have fought valiantly to keep this country safe despite all odds and they are heroes and we must indeed celebrate them.

There is no doubt that the nature of asymmetric or unconventional warfare that they have had to contend with presents unique challenges that most modern armies are ill-equipped to tackle with conventional warfare tactics.

Indeed conventional human right norms and conventional human rights observers are challenged by some of the various nuances of asymmetric warfare.

Nonetheless, there have been a series of allegations levied against security forces by some local and international commentators.

ALSO READ: Osinbajo wants Nigerian foods, drinks served at state banquets

It is our belief, that if left unaddressed, these allegations are capable of undermining the good work of the men and women of the Armed Forces who have largely conducted themselves in a disciplined and professional manner.

Failure to examine some of these allegations will also leave those who may have been victims of such abuses without any recourse to justice.

And if history has taught us anything, it is that the failure of our justice system to adequately respond to crisis is usually a recipe for greater conflict.

It is in the light of the following that I have mandated the panel to focus on the following terms of reference:

1. One, to review extant rules of engagement applicable to the Armed Forces of Nigeria and the extent of compliance thereto.

2. Two, to investigate alleged acts of violation of international humanitarian and human rights law under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, the Geneva Conventions Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Ratification and Enforcement Act and other relevant laws by the Armed Forces in local conflicts and insurgencies.

3. Three, to investigate matters of conducts and discipline in the Armed Forces in local conflicts and insurgencies; to recommend means of preventing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in conflict situations.

4. Four, to make further recommendations in line with these terms of reference as may be deemed necessary.

I would like to use this opportunity to assure the Armed Forces and all of our uniformed forces, that exercises such as this should be regular and would be regular, and must not be seen as a witch hunt and in any way to denigrate the very great work that the Armed Forces and uniformed forces are doing all over the country.

It is the responsibility of the Armed Forces and the responsibility of all of us who are in government to ensure that we interrogate our own activities and ensure that those activities meet up with human rights norms and basic rules of decency observed across the world.

The sterling qualifications of members of the Panel under the capable leadership of the Honourable Justice Biobele Georgewill, Justice of the Court of Appeal, is a strong indication of the quality of work that we expect of them. The other members of the Panel have been introduced, they are just to mention their names again:

a. Major-General Patrick Akem;

b. Mr. Wale Fapohunda;

c. Mrs. Hauwa Ibrahim;

d. Mr. Jibrin Ibrahim;

e. Mr. Abba Ambudashi Ibrahim;

f. Mrs. Ifeoma Nwakama; and

g. Dr. Fatima Alkali who is counsel to the Panel.

- The Panel also has a secretary from the Office of the SGF -

I am therefore confident that the Panel will also collect information about the conditions of service of the Armed Forces or any other factors that might have hindered the optimal performance of the Armed Forces in the fight against insurgents, militants and other combatants.

I therefore wish to assure you that this administration stands ready to support you in your endeavors; evidence of which you may have seen with the recent purchases of the five new super Mushak aircrafts which were recently launched on my behalf by the Honorable Minister of Defence.

To the Panel, I implore you to carry out your duties diligently, impartially and with all sense of professionalism. The work you are about to embark on is extremely sensitive and may involve some travel to post-conflict zones.

We appreciate your acceptance of this call to duty and look forward to receiving your well-researched findings and recommendations.

I hereby officially inaugurate this Presidential Investigation Panel to Review the Compliance of the Armed Forces with Human Rights Obligations and Rules of Engagement.
Osinbajo sent the delegation on Saturday, August 12, 2017 to visit and condole with the government and people of the state on the dastardly act.

That despicable attack resulted in the loss of a number of lives and injury to several others. The delegation is made up of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole; Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State for Environment, Mallam Ibrahim Usman Jibril; and the Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka.

During the visit, the delegation will present a condolence letter from the Acting President Osinbajo on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria to Governor Willie Obiano.

The delegation will also visit Bishop Hilary Okeke of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital also in Nnewi to meet with some of the victims of the attack still in the hospital.

ALSO READ: Gunman kills Catholic Church members during morning mass

In the letter, Professor Osinbajo extends deep commiserations to the families, friends of the victims, and the Ozubulu community on the death of their sons and daughters, praying for the speedy recovery of the injured still in the hospital.

The Acting President condemned in very strong terms the atrocious and dastardly act which has brought sorrow to many innocent families and, has rightly provoked widespread condemnation.

He said such barbaric act constitutes an affront to our common humanity, and it challenges, but will not overwhelm our collective resolve to rid our communities of all forms of violent crimes and criminality.

Professor Osinbajo said the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari remains undeterred and will continually commit to deploying all available resources towards ensuring adequate security of lives and property in Anambra State and across the entire country.
The governor, in Abuja, said that security agencies had a lead that could make possible the arrest of the gunmen.

He said, We are taking precautions, we have a lead and the police have made some arrests and we are very confident that we will resolve the matter very soon.

ALSO READ: Gunman kills Catholic Church members during morning mass

The governor stressed that the target of the shooting was a business partner of the alleged killer of the worshippers, but said the target's father was killed during the attack.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr Nkachukwu Orji, made the call during the Sensitization and Mobilization Forum for the Physically Challenged Persons and youth groups on Friday in Awka.

Represented by the INECs Head of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Leo Nkedife, Orji said the commission was determined to carry everybody along to ensure the record success in its operation.

Orji told the group that there was ability in disability, noting that the commission had made special provision for registration of physically challenged in the continuous voters registration and throughout the electoral process.

He assuring the people of the preparedness of INEC to conduct free, fair, and credible election come Nov.18 governorship election, adding that data capturing machines were in good shape and ready for redeployment.

The INEC Deputy Director, Civil Society Organisations, Mrs Dorothy Bello, who also spoke said there was an urgent need for people to change the narratives that youths were only used for violence during the elections in the country.

Mr Sunday Nwigboke, the INEC Head of Legal Department enumerated some of the electoral offences to include, selling and buying of voters cards and disclosure of false information.

Nwigboke appealed to youths to avoid being used to cause trouble during election, stressing that preventing eligible voter from registering, possession of dangerous weapons among others were serious offences.

In a contribution, the Chairman, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities in Anambra, Mr Lawrence Nwanolue, thanked the commission for the recognition accorded the body.

He urged INEC to assist the group in financing, sensitising and mobilising of its members for effective participation in the continuous voter registration in the state.

The Chairman of the Civil Society Network in the state, Mr Chris Azor, assured INEC that CSOs in the area were ready to assist INEC in ensuring the success of the Nov.18 governorship election.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) The government plans to bring a new policy to promote use of biofuels in transport fuel that will catalyse Rs 1 lakh crore of investment in the entire value chain, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

India imports 80 per cent of its crude oil needs and use of biofuel extracted from non-edible oils will help meet the target of reducing imports by 10 per cent by 2022, he said at a function organised to mark World Biofuel Day.

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State-owned oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) have committed USD 2 billion investment in research and development (R&D) on biofuels, he said.

"We will soon take to the Cabinet a biofuel policy that will provide for investment climate, incentives, government role and commercial returns for developers," he said.

The policy will help develop "a biofuel economy worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the next two years," he said adding the government has already asked state oil companies to set up ethanol plants at 12 locations over the coming year.

"Promoting biofuels creates jobs, fosters economic growth, supports farmers and helps improve energy security for the country," he said.

Ways are being explored on conversion of urban, rural waste to fuel and use of waste/barren lands for cultivation of feedstock for 2G biofuels.

Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari stressed upon the importance of biofuels as cost effective and environment friendly substitutes to conventional fuels.

He said that besides bringing down pollution, biofuels produced indigenously from agricultural waste, plants like bamboo, non-edible oilseeds, or municipal waste will help reduce the countrys huge import burden.

In addition, it will also generate employment and boost the economy of rural areas, including the North East and the barren wastelands of the country.

Gadkari said that the automobile growth in the country is an unsustainable 22 per cent. So efforts are on in a big way to promote public transport based on cheaper and greener biofuels and electricity.

India has brought in the necessary regulations for flexi engines. Nagpur city is running 55 buses on 100 per cent bio ethanol and another 50 on bio CNG derived from methane from sewage water.

This is in addition to a 200 strong fleet of electric taxis and autos. The shipping and inland waterways sectors too are gearing up for running ships and barges on methanol, he said. PTI ANZ MKJ

--- ENDS ---
An official statement released late Friday said the Dalai Lama had written to the president of Botswana and the conference organisers, the Mind and Life Institute, expressing "profound regret" at having to cancel his visit "due to exhaustion".

"His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest.

"Since his physicians have also advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, His Holiness will return to Dharamsala to recuperate," the statement said.

The Buddhist leader has lived in exile in India since he fled a failed Tibetan uprising in 1959.

Botswana said last month that the visit was "purely private" but added that the Dalai Lama would be granted the status of a foreign dignitary.

Beijing issued a warning to Botswana, asking the African nation to respect China's "core interests".

China's ruling Communist party views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous "separatist" campaigning for Tibetan independence. It consistently condemns other countries which let him visit.

The Dalai Lama says he wants more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang last month called for Botswana to "earnestly respect" China's sovereignty, and "make the right decision" on Tibet-related issues.

"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and we will not accept that other countries do things that would harm the core interests of China," he said.
Freeland, speaking days after a Canadian pastor was released from a North Korean prison, said North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program is a grave threat that must be stopped.

"What North Korea is doing is absolutely unacceptable, and it's posing an unacceptable security threat both in the region and to the entire world," she said.

At the same time, Freeland renewed Canada's support for its neighbor, the United States, while urging both US President Donald Trump and the regime of Kim Jong-Un to tone down the saber-rattling.

"We stand by all of our allies very much including the United States. When they are threatened, we are there," she said.

She said Canada is "working with our international partners to seek a resolution, a de-escalation" in the situation.

In direct conversations with North Korea and through China, Freeland said Canada sought to "get North Korea to understand that it must get off this path, which is so destructive for North Korea and the world."

She said she briefly spoke with her North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, on the sidelines of an ASEAN ministers gathering in Manila on Sunday and with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security advisor Daniel Jean also travelled to Pyongyang to discuss the case of pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, who was released Wednesday.

Lim was arrested in 2015 for allegedly meddling in North Korean state affairs.
While dispersing demonstrators from a white-nationalist and right-wing rally, the Virginia State Police said on Twitter, "There are "multiple injuries."

The Governor of Virginia declared an emergency, as the police worked to disperse hundreds of protesters in Charlottesville after clashes broke out before Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally of white nationalists and other right-wing groups.

CNN reports that fistfights and screaming matches broke out shortly before the rally's scheduled start for noon. The violence unfolded after a scuffle on Friday night between the torch-bearing demonstrators and counter-protesters at the nearby University of Virginia.

The rally was the latest event which would draw white nationalists and right-wing activists from all over the country to the Democratic-voting college town -- a development which was instigated by the city's decision to remove symbols of its Confederate past.

The police were seen garbed in riot gear, behind shields early Saturday afternoon, at times advancing toward crowds. Members of the Virginia National Guard also were there.

By 1 p.m. ET, the park had been cleared of the protester.

It still remains unclear how many demonstrators remained in other parts of the city.

"It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property," McAullife said. "I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours."
A man suspected of starting five fires in Bastia, a town with a population of 40,000 in northeast Corsica, was arrested late Friday, an official said.

On Corsica at Cap Corse, the most northerly point of the Mediterranean island where the fire had spread overnight into Friday, the situation has been stabilised but the blaze remains rampant in the Sisco commune.

"It's hell," Christian Burchi, a 50-year-old Sisco resident said late Friday. "We tried to extinguish the flames with two buckets of water and a ridiculous hose. Everywhere is burning."

But in Portugal firefighters managed to bring two of the major blazes under control in the centre of the country by Saturday afternoon, the civil protection authority announced, while warning that the heatwave could reignite the fires.

Firefighters have stopped the spreading of the flames from the forest fire that raged in the region of Abrantes since Wednesday, authorities said.

But more than 500 firefigters, nearly 200 vehicles and three water-bombing helicopters remain on stand-by should the fires flare up again, they added.

The other huge fire now under control was at Alvaiazere in the central region of Leiria.

Civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said a record 220 fires had started on Friday alone.

"Despite the relentless fires, the situation is now more stable," said Gaspar in Lisbon.

Emergency workers on Thursday had nearly gained control of wildfires across Portugal's drought-hit central region, but stronger winds fanned flames in several areas.

In the village of Bracal, flames were being blown towards houses as residents grabbed what they could to aid firefighters, an AFP journalist said.

Some residents voiced anger at authorities after a season of repeated wildfires which have stretched resources.

"Firefighters can't perform miracles, they are exhausted," said Lucia Ricardo, who lives in Bracal, close to Abrantes.

Six villages had been evacuated around Abrantes on Thursday as fire-dousing planes flew sorties over the flames.

The fires come after more than 60 people were killed in June, and more than 200 injured, in a giant blaze at Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal that raged for five days.
But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced Friday that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

Health minister Sophia Chan said Saturday authorities were "strengthening" inspections of eggs from Europe.

"The Centre for Food Safety is now inspecting eggs coming from Europe closely, no matter at the import, or at the retail level," Chan said.

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) said last Friday it found two samples of eggs from the Netherlands to have exceeded local fipronil limits.

"The CFS has informed the vendors concerned of the irregularities and requested the trade to stop sale and remove from shelves" it said in a statement on its website.

Free range eggs from Spain were seen on sale at a grocery store in east Hong Kong Island Saturday.

The owner said his Spanish eggs had already been checked for chemicals, but that the US and Hong Kong offerings may be "safer".

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.
"We're kindly asking priests to refrain from using emoticons in parish newsletters published online," Father Maciej Szczepaniak said in a statement.

"This is usually regarded as infantile behaviour," he said in the public statement, which itself included a smiley face emoticon by way of example.

Parish "publications refer to religious content and should not be rendered banal", added Szczepaniak who is the spokesman for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Poznan in western Poland.

"It was all just getting out of hand," the exasperated priest told AFP via telephone Friday. "In some cases, priests were using emoticons in each paragraph," he added.

It is not the first time emoticons have been a source of controversy.

Chinese censors scrubbed social media networks of candle emoticons and other tributes to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo last month as they sought to silence discussion about the prominent dissident's death.

Last year the Japan-based Line messaging app got rid of a set of emoticons satirising Thailand's royal family to avoid breaching a royal insult law.
Venezuelas foreign ministry is expected to issue a statement on Saturday responding to Trumps comment that a possible military option was under consideration for the crisis-racked nation.

The country is deep in a recession compounded by shortages of food and medicine, while anti-government protests have killed more than 120 people since April.

Responding to Trump, Padrino told state television, It is an act of craziness. It is an act of supreme extremism. There is an extremist elite that rules the United States.

As a soldier, I stand with the Venezuelan armed forces, and with the people.

I am sure that we will all be on the front lines of defending the interests and sovereignty of this beloved Venezuela, he added.

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas called Trumps remark an unprecedented threat to national sovereignty.

In a Friday night message on social network Twitter, he said, The diplomatic corps is summoned to the foreign ministry for tomorrow, when it will release a communique addressing the imperial threat to Venezuela.

In the July election of a legislative superbody packed with allies of unpopular socialist President Nicolas Maduro drew international condemnation for usurping the authority of Venezuelas opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro says the assembly, which has the power to re-write Venezuelas constitution, is needed to bring peace and prosperity to the oil-rich but economically ailing country.

Critics say the assembly casts aside any remaining checks on Maduros power.

The opposition boycotted the vote for the assembly, which assured that it would be stacked with Maduro allies.

The White House said Maduro requested a phone call with Trump on Friday, which the administration appeared to spurn.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Saudi authorities of coercing confessions which were later retracted in court and of failing to grant fair trials to defendants, including juveniles.

Signed by anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi and former East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta, the letter released late Friday urged King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his son, to "extend the hand of mercy" and refrain from ratifying the death sentences.

"Mujtaba al-Sweika, a bright 18-year-old student in Saudi Arabia, was on his way to visit Western Michigan University in 2012 when he was arrested in the airport in Riyadh. Among his charges is starting a Facebook group and posting images of a demonstration online," read the letter.

"Another defendant, Ali al-Nimr, was charged with setting up a Blackberry page named 'The Liberals' and posting photos of the demonstrations, inviting people to participate," it added.

Other signatories to Friday's letter include US anti-landmine activist Jody Williams, Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, South African former president F.W. De Klerk, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Polish labour rights activist Lech Walesa and peace activist Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest rates of execution. This year alone, it has so far executed 75 people.

In July, the supreme court upheld the death penalty for the 14 men, all Saudi citizens. The sentences must be ratified by the king or the crown prince for the executions to go ahead.

The 14 are all linked to protests in Qatif, an eastern province home to most of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's Shiite minority, who have long complained of marginalisation.

The east is also the source of most of Saudi Arabia's oil.

Saudi authorities, who have regularly cracked down on protests in Qatif, this week seized control of the town of Awamiya after increasingly frequent clashes between residents and police.

Authorities have said drug traffickers and "terrorists" were behind the unrest in Qatif.

Awamiya was the epicentre of a short-lived Arab Spring-inspired protest movement in 2011, partly led by Nimr al-Nimr, a senior Shiite cleric from the town.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials have come to believe that top Hurriyat separatists may have invested a large chunk of the money in pricey real estate.

Probing allegations of hawala funds from Pakistan being used for terror financing and to pay stone-pelting youth in the Kashmir Valley, National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials have come to believe that top Hurriyat separatists may have invested a large chunk of the money in pricey real estate.

The ongoing crackdown on the Valley's separatist leaders followed a sting operation by India Today TV on May 16, in which functionaries openly spoke of receiving funds from sources in Pakistan.

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The NIA, which arrested seven senior Hurriyat Conference functionaries on July 24, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah aka Altaf Fantoosh and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq's closest aide Shahid-ul-Islam, is now scrutinising their assets. Sources quoting NIA investigators say close to 80 properties, including apple orchards, bungalows, apartments and commercial establishments in the Valley and Delhi are being looked at minutely. The real estate under investigation, officials say, is collectively worth several hundred crores. Over two dozen residential premises, agricultural and horticultural holdings and a school on seven acres of land in Sopore are linked to Geelani's family, believes the NIA. The list includes assets owned by or 'held for' Geelani, sons Nayeem and Naseem and son-in-law Altaf Fantoosh.

The revelations have largely emerged from the interrogation of the seven arrested Hurriyat functionaries, and hawala operators and Hurriyat associates in Delhi and Jammu. This includes Devinder Singh Behal, a lawyer arrested on July 30. Sources say the NIA is set to have some of the hawala operators and financiers turn approvers.

While both the Geelani family and the Mirwaiz have refuted the NIA's assertions as "propaganda", there are clear indications in the Valley that the separatists are being isolated. Since the raids in June, there have been hardly any visitors to Geelani's Srinagar home. The police have detained his man Friday, Muhammad Ashraf Khan, while his secretary Peer Saifullah and media manager Altaf Shah have been arrested. "No one comes here any more," a police guard posted outside tells reporters. While isolating them seems to be part of New Delhi's new plan for the separatists, many in the Valley fear that the political space the Hurriyat occupied could easily be taken up by new Islamist hardliners who have so far remained on the fringes.

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AURORA, Ill.  When Aurora's Jetara Perry was 17 years old her parents adopted two daughters  up until that point, Perry was the youngest and only daughter in her family.

"Watching them grow up and seeing the way they looked up to me, it inspired me to be a better woman," she said.

"It was the first time in my life, I realized my actions do not only affect me. I have to be careful about the actions I take and the decisions I make because I have two young ladies who are watching me and wanting to mirror who they see," she said.

Graduating with a degree in business, Perry began working for a large corporation, something she continues to do today.

However, in 2016, Perry along with Laura Bermudez, founded the nonprofit Imperfect Angels with a mission to inspire young women to "bond and support one another and to assist them through their adolescent challenges to make positive choices."

"Five years ago, I never thought this is where I would be," Perry said.

The organization also is the namesake of Perry's book "Imperfect Angels," a book about Perry's own journey and her friends' journey into womanhood which sometimes was based on "trial and error" and emulating women they saw in the media.

"Sometimes we failed, so we learned we had to shake ourselves off and try again," Perry added.

Open to girls between the ages of 10 to 16, the group fosters friendship among the girls so they can be themselves and be accepted for who they are, she added.

Meeting twice a month from March through October in space provided by the Aurora Police Department, the girls participate in activities to promote self-respect, self-responsibility and happiness.

The girls participate in sessions that address topics such as bullying, peer pressure, self-defense and goal setting, including college plans and saving for college.

The group also discusses issues such as self-awareness, friendships and the use of social media.

"We discuss how friendships can alter how you feel about yourself and how you treat others," she added.

Thirteen girls are currently enrolled in the program, a number Perry and her team of volunteers hope will grow with a goal of making the Aurora community stronger.

In its first year, Perry said the grade point averages of the girls enrolled in the program increased.

"These young ladies are the mothers of tomorrow. We want to make sure that they have the right influences and mindsets to work their strengths and be OK with their weaknesses," Perry said. "I just don't want them to be the victim in every lesson they learn."

Often asked how she came up with the name Imperfect Angels, Perry said, "No one is perfect. I didn't want any young lady to come into the program and think it makes them better. I want them to know it is OK to have flaws."

However, she added, "what is important is to be kind-hearted and positive in nature."

Imperfect Angel's Activity Director Addie Forth began volunteering for the group after her friend's daughter joined.

Previously mentoring with another organization, Forth said, "I decided I wanted to devote some of my time to this organization to help area youth."

Growing up in Aurora, Forth, who now lives in Batavia, added that the group's members currently come from Aurora, Naperville, Oswego, and Crest Hill.

"I have seen so much growth in the girls through the program," she added.

The group is hosting a Back to School Bash today to celebrate the members' academic success.

"I let the girls run away with the idea," Perry said.

The event will include free school supplies, snacks and treats, a DJ, raffles, face painting, vendors and games.
ROCK ISLAND  Aldermen are expected to vote Monday on an incentive package up to $2,485,000 for renovation of property at 1701-1705 2nd Ave.

Saratoga Capital LLC plans to redevelop the site, commonly known as the VanDerGinst building, into 33 residential units and an 11-room boutique hotel with first-floor commercial space. The project is expected to cost $10,574,228.

The incentive package is funded by city tax-increment-financing funds and rebates of the citys portion of real estate taxes.

Saratoga Capital also will be responsible for restoring the Chief Blackhawk mural as well as sidewalk and safety improvements. Rock Island also would contribute, on a reimbursable basis, up to $100,000 for the mural restoration, up to $75,000 toward the sidewalk and safety improvements and up to $100,000 toward the commercial area.

In 2013, local developer Mike Roemer announced plans to spend $5.3 million to redevelop the address into the Riverview Lofts with 44 units by June 30, 2015. The project stalled, and in November 2016, Saratoga Capital president and chief development officer Sam Estep announced it was taking over the project.

Mr. Estep formerly worked for Restoration St. Louis on a number of projects, including the Hotel Blackhawk and the Renwick Building in downtown Davenport. Mr. Estep said the Rock Island project's name would be changed to Best Building Hotel and Residences.

The city council meeting is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Monday on the third floor of city hall, 1528 3rd Ave., Rock Island.

Monday's agenda also includes the sale of two city-owned properties for retail development.

The city will vote on selling Casey's General Store a 1,465-by-2,537-foot lot at the northwest corner of Illinois 92 and Andalusia Road.

The city would sell Casey's the site for $50,000. If Casey's does not develop the site by Dec. 31, 2018, the city can buy it back for $55,000.

Casey's General Store plans to build a convenience store offering fuel, groceries and carry-out foods. It also plans to seek a package beer license for the store.

Also on the agenda is a vote on selling city-owned property at 2711 18th Ave. to Rock Island Coffee for $5,500 for a planned Dunkin' Donuts. Additionally, the city will rebate two-thirds of the Prepared Food and Beverage tax revenue to Rock Island Coffee for seven years.

The property is adjacent to the CVS at 2810 18th Ave. Rock Island Coffee, part of Lee Fry Companies Inc. in Westmont, Ill., also is buying property from Highland LLC/CVS Health.
Democrat Eric Sorensen declared victory at around 1 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in the race for Illinois' 17th Congressional District against Republican Esther Joy King, but the margin of his lead was not large enough for either the Associated Press or New York Times to project him as the winner.
GENESEO  The residents and staff at Good Samaritan Village in Geneseo are collecting school supplies through Sunday and plan to deliver them to the Geneseo/Atkinson Food Pantry on Monday for distribution.

The drive was undertaken by the Fun committee created this year to enhance employee engagement, create a lighthearted work environment and develop a community spirit through the residents and staff, according to Jodi Barnhart, director of health information management. One of the previous fun events was to distribute Baby Ruth candy bars on Babe Ruths birthday.

The idea to help families by collecting school supplies surfaced at a recent committee meeting.

"We discussed how some people in the community have difficulty purchasing all the school supplies required for the school year, Mrs. Barnhart said.

Cheryl Leurhring, CNA, at Good Samaritan, contacted the food pantry for lists of students' needs. The committee expanded the school supply drive to staff, residents, families and anyone in the community who wanted to help, with drop-off boxes placed in various areas of the facility.

Jane Scherer, senior living and marketing manager, informed residents of the senior living apartments and cottages who also have helped with the project.

"The inter-generational aspect of this project is fun for us," she said. "Keeping our friends here at Good Samaritan up on what is happening with the area youth engages them in the community.

"School supply lists are so much more specific than whey they attended school or when they were shopping with their children," she said. "Those living here range in age from about 70 to 102 years old, so the supply lists were much different.

"One 95-year-old said, Our desk had a place for an ink well; we dipped the pen in when we needed to use the pen,' Mrs. Scherer said. This project has led to such fun discussions.

Joyce Will, a resident, said, I like the idea of doing something for the children in our schools.

Another resident, Donna VanDyke, said, I think it is a good idea, and Im glad we are doing it. It is hard for some parents to buy everything they need these days.

Anyone wanting to donate to the Good Samaritan school supply drive can leave items in the main building at 704 S. Illinois St., Geneseo, by Sunday, or deliver them to the food pantry.

We want every child to begin the year with a good start because, as our motto states, In Christs love, everyone is someone,'" Mrs. Barnhart said.
Steamboat accidents in the middle 1800s to the early 1900s have been a topic of many of my columns since 1984 when I began.

The 1856 railroad bridge built to connect Davenport with the island across from it (now Arsenal Island) caused several steamboat accidents. Some steamboats hit the bridge and walked away. Others were slightly damaged or totally wrecked.

The Northern Light, said the Argus, on her last trip through the draw had one wheel and her guards torn off and was damaged about $10,000.

The Effie Afton, however, was totaled. On May 6, 1856, she whistled for the draw to be opened, went through and struck the span next to the draw. Part of the bridge was wrecked; the rest burned. No lives were lost.

Capt. John Hurd, of the Effie Afton, filed a lawsuit against the bridge company. Abraham Lincoln defended the bridge company. The lawsuit ended in a hung jury. After other litigation, the Supreme Court, on Dec. 30, 1867, held the bridge could remain.

Although much was said about the bridge piers being incorrectly placed, causing trouble for steamboats, there was another problem. The bridge, near the home of Col. George Davenport on the island, ran over a treacherous area of rock chains.

Chains are ledges of rock with a ladder-shaped profile, said Ron Deiss, archaeologist with the Rock Island District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1998 when I was writing about the wreck of the steamboat Lady Jane at the bridge. When there was a high frequency of ledges, steamboats often hit them and were grounded. Some ledges are thick and some are thin. Water level of the river made a difference in the ability of a boat to successfully move through the rapids.

Lady Jane, Portage City, Wis., was going to St. Louis when she attempted the draw at the Rock Island bridge on April 19, 1865. A wind drove her off course, according to the Argus. She struck the pier on the south side and went to pieces. No lives were lost.

A portion of the wreck was lodged on the same sandbar where part of the steamboat Grey Eagle ended up when she hit the bridge. Capt. Smith Harris always insisted on taking the wheel himself when going through the rapids. Once, when Capt. Stephen Hanks was on board the Grey Eagle, he saw how Capt. Harris was running the Davenport bridge. Hanks warned him he would smash up someday because he was running it wrong.

On May 9, 1861, the Grey Eagle came tearing down over the LeClaire Rapids and whistled for the Davenport bridge, said Charles Edward Russell in his book, A Raftin on the Mississippi.

The draw caught the stern of the Eagle, slewed it around, she struck sidewise upon the head of the draw pier, and sank in seven minutes. Cries of humans struggling for life in the boiling rapids could be heard.

All people on board, except for eight, were picked up. It is interesting to note that after the boat was pulled off the sand bar, 160 feet of its plank was brought ashore. The plank found a quick sale at almost any price for sidewalks. Pine sidewalks later surrounded several businesses.

After the steamboat Dubuque hit the bridge in May 1867, newspapers began calling for the removal of the bridge. The Argus noted the Davenport Gazette had changed its position from defender to opponent of the bridge.

There can be no safe rule for navigation of the draw at the bridge nuisance. It is wholly a matter of luck whether a boat gets through, said the Gazette.

The bridge was replaced in 1872.
Id like to address the elephant in the room. That elephant being the Republican Party and their refusal to represent the majority of their constituents. Lets begin with stricter gun control (something that would help lessen the fears parents have when sending their children off to school), 53% of Americans favor this (Pew Research) yet the elephant in the room refuses to consider any such thing. Over 70% of Americans want stricter background checks yet again; the elephant in the room refuses to represent them. 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal. Again, the elephant in the room pushes laws that do the opposite. 74% of Americans do not want social security reduced in any way. But the elephant in the room pushes to do just the opposite, cut social security. 63% of Americans now prefer Medicare for all, but the elephant in the room fights it with all its might. 67% of Americans feel more needs to be done to reduce climate change, but not the elephant in the room. The elephant sides with the fossil fuel industry claiming its not a big concern. Given these few statistics (there are more like them) its obvious that the Republican Party is the party of minority rule, quite the opposite of what our founding fathers envisioned. The Republican Party has become a power cult, not a party that represents the majority of Americans. Remember this while you mark your ballot in this midterm election. Save Democracy! Vote Democratic!
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Baldwin Lake San Bernardino CountyNO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE --- HIGH BID OWNS THE LOT Nestled in the magnificent San Bernardino National Forest, surrounded by pine, cedar, and dogwood, at an area described as the "Alps of Southern California" and known as the best kept secret on the West Coast, is a stunningly beautiful, cozy and quaint mountain on a place called Baldwin Lake Vicinity. This lake is a natural, intermittent, alkali lake in the Big Bear Valley of the San Bernardino Mountains, in San ...

Price: $ 2,830 State/Province: California Seller State of Residence: California Location: 928**, Orange, California

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Welcome to Southern California's Playground of the Rich and Famous NO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE HIGH BID OWNS LOT For almost one hundred years, the Lake Arrowhead / Silverwood Lake / Lake Gregory / Big Bear area has been the primary mountain resort in Southern California. The 782 acre Alpine Lake, nestled at an altitude of 5108', is often described as the jewel of Southern California. The fresh mountain air and four-season climate is unmatched in Southern California. Part of the San Bernadino Nationa...

Price: $ 870 Seller State of Residence: Florida Property Address: Mojave River Road State/Province: California City: Cedarpines Highlands Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Location: , Cedarpines Highlands, California

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A day after meeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP President Amit Shah has invited Kumar to join the NDA.

By India Today Web Desk: BJP president Amit Shah today formally invited Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Amit Shah's invitation to Nitish Kumar has come at a time when the JD(U) is staring at a possible split. Former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and his Rajya Sabha colleague from the party Ali Anwar have openly rebelled against Nitish Kumar's decision to join hands with the BJP.

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Sharad Yadav is undertaking mass contact programme in Bihar while Ali Anwar attended the Opposition's meet in New Delhi called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi yesterday.

Earlier in July, the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) formed fresh alliance after Nitish Kumar walked out of the grand alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress.

Shah on Saturday tweeted "I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA."

Nitish Kumar met Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday in the national capital. Nitish Kumar is expected to make a formal announcement of joining the NDA at the national executive meet of JD(U) on August 19.

Nitish Kumar had snapped ties with the RJD and the Congress after the then Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav refused to resign in the wake of corruption charges levelled against him. Raids were conducted against him and Yadav family members by central agencies in connection with a case of illegal assets.

"I have been doing my best to provide good governance. But the circumstances have so developed that it was difficult for a person like me to continue to be in power. That is why I met the Governor and gave my resignation," Nitish Kumar had said .

He then partnered with the BJP and took oath as the Bihar chief minister.

A JD(U) leader told PTI, "When we are together in government in Bihar, it is only natural that our party joins the Union government."

Also Read

Nitish Kumar back as Bihar CM in 16 hours, Sushil Modi is his deputy

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

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SLICE OF PARADISE Southern California's Mountain Resort Destination. UTILITIES AVAILABLE NO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE --- HIGH BID OWNS THE LOT Nestled in the magnificent San Bernardino National Forest, surrounded by pine, cedar, and dogwood, at an area described as the "Alps of Southern California" and known as the best kept secret on the West Coast, is a stunningly beautiful, cozy and quaint mountain resort paradise called Lake Arrowhead. This community features countless outdoor recreational activ...

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Colonies at WilliamsburgWilliamsburg, VAOwnership InformationNumber of Bed/Bath: 4/4Sleeps: 12Week: 15Unit: FloatBuilding: FloatCheck in Day(s): SaturdayUsage Type: AnnualFirst Year of Usage: 2018Maintenance Amount: $764 ( 2017 Paid)Maintenance Schedule: AnnuallyTotal Closing/Transfer Fees: $300 & $250 (Paid By Seller) The total cost paid to us with this property will be the winning bid only! **Buyer will receive a $100 incentive once transfer is complete*****************************************...

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'You need to be careful about this.'

'Growth without fundamental principles is like fat.'

'Growth with good base and fundamentals is like muscles.'

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

C B Bhave, former chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India and the chief guest Business Standard Fund Cafe 2017, applauded the quality of growth and geographical penetration shown by the mutual fund industry in the past three years.

"Growth without fundamental principles is like fat. Growth with good base and fundamentals is like muscles. I am glad that the MF industry has muscle and not just fat," said the 66-year-old former Indian Administrative Service officer, highlighting sharp growth in assets shown by the domestic asset-management industry.

The assets under management of the industry have doubled in the past three years to Rs 20 lakh crore and the growth from beyond the top 15 centres has outpaced industry growth rate.

"I've come into a room where I see smiling faces. Normally, the environment used to be a bit tense whenever I got into the room. It's a nice break from that," Bhave, famous for abolition of entry loads.

"During the financial crisis the MF industry was in real trouble," Bhave, who took charge at Sebi just after the crisis broke, pointed out, "There were lots of tense moments. But then we learnt how the regulator and industry can work together to come out of the woods."

Bhave applauded the MF industry's efforts to address investors beyond the country's top cities, but said there was a long distance to cover yet.

"India is vast; it is not just the cities and towns. We need to reach this India; the challenge is to manage cost and yet be able to reach them. I think technology should help tremendously," he said evoking similar emotion as he did during his Sebi days between February 2008 and February 2010.

During this leadership, the market regulator took several crucial measures impacting the MFs, most of them were aimed helping the end investor.

"The issue at heart was the people selling MF schemes, whose agents were they? Were they agents of investors or of AMCs (asset management companies)?" he recalled.

"I am very happy to see that the industry has come a long way from the debate. We have virtually separated commissions from advisory fees. We still have some distance to go," he said.

Bhave urged fund managers to tread with caution at a time when there is too much exuberance in the market.

"It is not easy to see failure during good times. Good times also invite managers to take excessive risk. You need to be careful about this," he said.

Bhave acknowledged the industry for performing their duty as a shareholder by actively voting at resolutions proposed by listed companies.

He also said the growth in investor accounts was encouraging, but pondered how many unique individual investors were behind these 55 million folios.

He asked the industry to work with the regulator and reduce the number of me-too schemes as it will simplify investing.

Bhave asked the industry to take up an active leadership role and not just follow regulatory diktats.

He illustrated this by saying the industry should go to Sebi and ask for the data on cancelled permanent account numbers and see if any of them were present in their database of investors.

"The difficulty with taking leadership is in the short run may be harmful to you because you may as an industry be seen as too proactive to eliminate the people who are bringing money to you," Bhave said. "But that's the right attitude you need to grow with good money."
The kidnapping of MQM workers is a message from Pakistani security agencies that any show of allegiance to Altaf Hussain will be met with a brutal response, says Aveek Sen.

IMAGE: Muttahida Quami Movement supporters hold posters of their leader Altaf Hussain in Karachi. Photograph: Athar Hussain/Reuters

On August 2, the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary force, raided the home of Muttahida Quami Movement central coordination committee member Rehan Nasreen in Karachi. In her absence, the Rangers arrested her husband and took him to an undisclosed location.

The police in Mirpurkhas in Pakistan's Sindh province raided the homes of Azra Baloch and Tasleem Bibi, two women MQM workers. Both women were taken to the Ghareebabad police station and according to witnesses, allegedly tortured by the police.

This occurred after Baloch and Bibi, part of MQM's women's wing, staged demonstrations in Karachi and Mirpurkhas against the illegal raids on MQM offices and enforced disappearances of MQM loyalists.

Last month, two relatives of MQM founder Altaf Hussain were kidnapped within a week. The MQM suspects Pakistan security agencies to be involved in these disappearances. The brother of an MQM central coordination committee member was also kidnapped.

None of those detained have yet been produced in a court of law.

From 1986 till date, nearly 20,000 MQM workers, officials and supporters have been arrested.

In the ongoing operation against the MQM -- it began in September 2013 -- there have been more than 130 enforced disappearances and 76 extrajudicial killings.

Who is Altaf Hussain? Altaf Hussain is the self-exiled leader of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The MQM defends the rights and interests of the Muhajir community, Muslims from pre-Partition India who settled in Pakistan, mostly in Sindh.

Altaf Hussain's controversial style of functioning and the MQM's violent track record turned the Pakistani security establishment against the party.

In May 1992, Hussain fled Pakistan, escaping an imminent government crackdown on the MQM. He sought political asylum in London, and became a British citizen in 2002.

Last month, Khalid Hussain, Altaf Hussain's cousin, was kidnapped from near his home in north Nazimabad, Karachi. A cardiac patient, he recently underwent open heart surgery.

Altaf Hussain's brother and nephew had earlier been abducted by Pakistani security officials. Both men died in custody. As did Altaf Hussain's brother-in-law in Adyala prison, Rawalpindi, reportedly after being tortured.

'The establishment is playing the dirty game of kidnapping relatives of Altaf Hussain in order to force him to accept what the establishment wants,' the MQM said in a statement.

Neither Khalid Hussain nor the husband of the central coordination committee member nor the others abducted are MQM political workers. None of them have political affiliations.

This gives credence to the possibility that the men were abducted to exert pressure on Altaf Hussain and the MQM leadership based in London.

A message is being sent out to MQM workers that any show of allegiance to Altaf Hussain will be met with a brutal response.

Baloch and Bibi's abduction is a message to Altaf loyalists that none will be spared.

Such is the state of 'democracy' in Pakistan.
United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula and agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after Kim threatened the US this week to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, after the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House after the phone call.

President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said, adding that the two leaders also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event, the White House said.

The relationship between the two presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem, it said.

In another statement, the White House said Trump spoke with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo.

Trump reassured Governor Calvo and our fellow Americans on Guam that United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America, it said.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke separately to Calvo earlier in the day, the read out said.

Guam has about 7,000 US troops with almost a third of the land controlled by the US military.
By PTI: buyers

Noida (UP), Aug 12 (PTI) The Noida Authority today assured thousands of home buyers of Jaypee Wish Town that their hard earned money will not be allowed to go down the drain as a plan is being worked out to safeguard their interests.

The assurance came on a day when scores of angry home buyers of Jaypee Wish Town project protested at the companys office here demanding that their money be returned after the National Company Law Tribunal admitted the insolvency petition filed by IDBI Bank against the debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech.

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"Hard earned money of home buyers will not be allowed to go down the drain," said Noida CEO Amit Mohan Prasad.

Asserting that strict action will be taken against the defaulting developers, he said the Noida Authority is working on rescheduling of the payment plan under which builders will be directed to deposit the dues within a specified period.

The Authority will then take over the unsold apartments and property of the builders and auction it to recover the dues, Prasad said.

He said the Authority has written to Uttar Pradesh government seeking approval to take over possession of unsold property of the defaulting builders and recovering dues from its sale.

Jaypee Infratech has 2500 hectares of land in five parcels of around 500 hectares each. Now, the company is planning to sell some unused land to banks to reduce its debt.

The Allahabad bench of NCLT has admitted the petition filed by IDBI Bank under Section 7 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, Jaypee Infratech had said in a regulatory filing a few days back.

This move has caused immense anxiety among the home buyers whose number is said to be around 32,000.

Amrapalli group has dues of Rs. 1200 crores and has to deliver 30000 residential flats to buyers.

PTI COR AKK AKK

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'The situation in Doklam has plateaued; militarily, the Chinese know they can do nothing here,' an Indian general tells Ajai Shukla.

IMAGE: Indian soldiers patrol the border with China. Photograph: Utpal Baruah/Reuters

With China's defence ministry warning New Delhi that 'restraint has its bottom line', Indian Army officers participating in the Doklam faceoff have provided first detailed accounts of how the situation has evolved.

They say the Doklam bowl -- which is disputed between China and Bhutan -- currently has an extended, 200 metre-long line of Indian infantry soldiers confronting a smaller number of Chinese border guards.

Just one metre separates the two lines.

At any time, there are about 40 Chinese border guards in the disputed valley, facing off against three times that number of Indian jawans.

Backing up the Chinese front line are 1,500 more troops, a mix of border guards and regular People's Liberation Army soldiers.

These are positioned outside the disputed Doklam area, but cross in and out of the disputed area, relieving those on the front line at regular intervals.

Indian troops standing guard in Doklam are similarly relieved by a full infantry battalion (600 troops), located in the Indian territory to the west.

Backing up this battalion is a full infantry brigade (2,000 troops), ready to respond to any military moves from China.

In addition, a second fully acclimatised infantry brigade, slightly further away, stands ready to respond to a crisis.

"We fortunately had two brigades training in high altitudes nearby, so we have plenty of acclimatised troops. If needed, we can muster far more forces than the Chinese in Sikkim. This would never be an area where they start something," says a senior Indian commander.

According to these officers, tension began in early June, when Indian forces in the vicinity observed Chinese patrols reconnoitring the track in the disputed Doklam bowl.

Intelligence assessments concluded that China was going to try and extend the road towards the Jampheri Ridge, at the farthest edge of China's claim line.

Indian commanders strongly rejected the statement by China's foreign ministry, which claimed that India had been notified on May 18 and June 8, 'out of goodwill through the border meeting mechanism', that China would be building a road in Doklam.

They say, the Indian Army reported to Delhi that road building seemed imminent, and were granted permission to cross into Bhutan-claimed territory to stop construction.

When India crossed into Doklam and confronted the Chinese construction parties, "they were taken completely by surprise and offered no resistance," says an officer privy to events.

"These are no soldiers; they are conscripted border guards, who live in heated barracks and periodically patrol the border in vehicles. They don't walk much," says an Indian commander.

"Our soldiers, in contrast, live a far tougher life. In Doklam, they stand guard without moving, while the Chinese keep breaking the line and going back for cigarette breaks," says the Indian officer.

"Indian morale is sky-high; soldiers know they are participating in something unprecedented -- crossing a border to defend an Indian ally," the Indian officer adds.

Eventually, the Chinese had to send in a political commissar, recount Indian officers.

"The commissar ordered up martial music and the hoisting of Chinese flags to stiffen resolve. They clearly had problems," he says.

In the macho manner of militaries, the Indian Army is using a large number of Sikh and Jat soldiers to man the line in Doklam -- in the expectation that their height and sturdiness would intimidate the smaller Chinese.

Army officers are elated also at having kept the confrontation out of the media for a full 10 days until Beijing was forced to make the incident public.

"The Chinese have always complained that India's media is too shrill and pro-active. This time, China had to mobilise their media because we were there on the ground and nobody knew."

Indian soldiers also point out that China has begun building bunkers and creating defences on the border.

"That's another first. They are recognising our capability to act decisively," says an officer.

According to a senior Indian general: "The situation in Doklam has plateaued. Militarily, the Chinese know they can do nothing here. Eventually it will have to be a negotiated withdrawal, or the Chinese will have to open a front in another sector."

With Beijing warning last week that 'Chinese armed forces will resolutely protect the country's territorial sovereignty and security interests,' the PLA could choose its next move anywhere on a long, 3,500-kilometre border that stretches from Ladakh to Myanmar.
Earlier this week, nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam.

Service persons of the Ministry of People's Security met on August 10, 2017 to express full support for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government statement. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: North Korea said on Saturday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new UN sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the People's Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.

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Earlier this week, nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam.

KCNA said on Wednesday a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the government. North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate.

In August 2015, 1 million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, raising additional tensions.

North Korea warned foreign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it suspended work at a joint inter-Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on US Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.

--- ENDS ---
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called on Laos on Friday to withdraw troops he said have been present in Cambodia since April, threatening military action against the neighboring country if its soldiers are not pulled out by Aug. 17, Cambodian media and other sources said.



Speaking at a ceremony in the capital Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said that he has ordered a temporary halt to road construction in northeastern Cambodias Stung Treng province challenged by Laos to give its soldiers a chance to leave.



Residents of Stung Treng should not be alarmed, though, if they see Cambodian troops mass in the area to take back the disputed land, Hun Sen said.



I cant let anyone take an inch of Cambodian land, and Cambodia wont take anyone elses land either, the prime minister said.



I urge Laos to withdraw its troops from Cambodia unconditionally, he said.



The Lao government should complain to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if it truly believes the land to which it has sent troops belongs to Laos, Hun Sen said, adding, We should go to court together in order to avoid bloodshed.



Speaking to RFAs Khmer Service, Cambodian political analyst Meas Nee said that war between Cambodia and Laos would harm both countries, and that Hun Sens warning may now lead to talks.



Most world leaders would issue warnings like this, he said. And negotiations can sometimes result from this.



Comments on Cambodian social media meanwhile called Hun Sens warning of military action a ploy to gain popularity ahead of national elections next year, positioning him as a leader who dares to protect his country from invasion.



A Lao official in the countrys Champasak province near Cambodia said he had received no notice of a Cambodian threat of war against his country.



We have not been informed, we have not received any notice, and the Cambodian consulate here has not said anything, the official told RFAs Lao Service on condition of anonymity.



Everything seems normal [here].



Reported by Sonorng Kher for RFAs Khmer Service and by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Sarada Taing and Bounchanh Mouangkham. Written in English by Richard Finney.
North Korea on Thursday said plans would be completed by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles to land near Guam, some 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) away, after US President Donald Trump said any threat would be "met with fire and fury like the world has never seen".

A view of the entrance of US military Andersen Air Force base on the island of Guam, a US Pacific Territory. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: Fourteen minutes is not long to prepare for a potential catastrophe.

That's the estimated time taken from a launch of a mid-range ballistic missile in North Korea until impact on Guam, where residents seem resigned to the belief that their fate is out of their control.

The local government of this tiny US Pacific island issued preparation guidance to its 163,000 people on Friday on how best to hide and deal with radiation after threats by Pyongyang to strike Guam, or test its missiles in its surrounding waters.

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But islanders don't seem in a hurry to get ready.

Mike Benavente, 37, who maintains air conditioners, said he saw the advisory on Facebook, but preferred family time at a beach barbecue to stocking up on supplies and thinking about suitable shelter options.

"Preparation for attack? I'm doing it!" he said, pointing to a grill he was readying for burgers and hot dogs. "If we have a big missile coming here, everyone's gonna die. How can I prepare for a missile?"

In a guidance note titled "Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat", Guam Homeland Security advised seeking out in advance windowless shelters in homes, schools and offices, with concrete "dense enough to absorb radiation".

It said if an attack warning came, residents should seek shelter and stay there for at least 24 hours. Those caught outside should lay down, cover their heads and "not look at the flash or fireball" to avoid going blind.

Plush hotels along Guam's Tumon beach didn't seem in a rush to prepare either. Staff at several hotels and resorts said they knew guidelines had been issued but already had procedures in place for emergencies.

"We have an evacuation plan for typhoon, tsunami, terrorism, but we don't have anything for a North Korean missile attack," said a supervisor at one resort, who asked that neither he nor his hotel be identified because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media.

A manager at a hotel nearby had a printed copy of the guidelines, but said there was no instruction yet to distribute it to guests.

TIME LIMITED

North Korea on Thursday said plans would be completed by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles to land near Guam, some 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) away, after US President Donald Trump said any threat would be "met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Guam, an island half the size of Hong Kong and some 7,000 km from the US mainland, is a target because of its naval base and air force base, from which two B-1B supersonic bombers were deployed close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday.

It is also a permanent home to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor.

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Local authorities have been reassuring residents and tourists that a "strategic defence umbrella" across the Western Pacific can counter any missile attacks, and the chance of a successful North Korean strike on Guam was minimal.

"Our confidence is it's point zero zero, zero zero, zero - that's five zeros - and a one," the governor's homeland security advisor, George Charfauros, said on Friday.

"The threat level has not changed. It's business as usual."

That was the case on Saturday in Guam's malls and along its pristine beaches, where children played in the turquoise sea as parents drank beer and prepared picnics.

"I haven't really thought about preparation. We really don't know what to do if there's a missile attack," said Marlene, 37, an accountant.

"We get just 14 minutes. The military says they'll be ready, so we're banking on them."

Auto parts seller Mitch Aguon, 51, spent his day off fishing and said preparation was pointless.

"By the time we hear about it, it'll be too late and there's no room for us ordinary Joes in the bomb shelters. We're dead meat," he said.

Also Read:

North Korea says nearly 3.5 mln volunteer to join People's Army as tensions rise

--- ENDS ---

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When going on a traditional, admissions-run college tour, guides generally show the best of the school  the tastiest food options, the best lecture halls and the most beautiful buildings.

College admissions tours are more similar to a sales pitch than an honest assessment of the college, said Kent Rollins, co-founder and CEO of Candid Campus Tours. Theyre going to take you to the best dorms, the best classrooms. The streets are paved with gold. Theres no middle ground.

Thats why Rollins and fellow College of William & Mary classmate Trevor Jackson started Candid Campus Tours, a Williamsburg-based company that offers one-on-one, personalized, behind-the-official-tour-scenes look at campus life led by students at the school.

Candid Campus Tours began operations last year, offering tours only at William & Mary.

Since then, the budding company has expanded its Virginia school tours to Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, George Mason University and James Madison University.

Outside Virginia, it offers tours at 23 other college campuses, including Brown University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, Georgetown University and Stanford University.

Candid Campus Tours, because it is not affiliated with any colleges undergraduate admissions office, can honestly answer a prospective students question, Rollins said. Students can hear what (the school) is like from someone who isnt sugar-coating it and is allowed to speak their mind.

Elizabeth Hirsh, who recently toured William & Mary with her daughter, Ashlyn Hirsh, a rising senior in high school in Chapel Hill, N.C., agreed.

This tour was much more personalized to my daughters interests than any admissions-run tour that weve been on to date, Elizabeth Hirsh said. The fact that the tour was unscripted and responsive to our personal questions and interests was refreshing and gave the tour more depth and value.

Ashlyn Hirsh said Rollins took into account her personal interests. It was very impressive how detailed (the tour) was, she said.

Unlike on a traditional college tour, Candid Campus tours are more flexible, Rollins said. Guides base tour stops on the prospective students interests, instead of simply hitting the highlights of the campus.

Instead of having a set script of when to talk about what, we are able to have a free-flowing dialogue about the university, academics, the opportunities the school presents, the city of Richmond, social life, the college transition process, and anything else that the student might want to hear about, said Marie Fernandez, a Candid Campus guide as a student at the University of Richmond who also is the companys chief strategy officer.

Rollins hopes tours with Candid Campus will help students see if the school is truly the right fit and if the school offers what the prospective student is looking for in a college.

I had a couple friends who transferred because they were sold something on the tour that wasnt representative of William & Mary, said Rollins, a 2014 graduate of Maggie L. Walker Governors School in Richmond and a 2017 graduate of William & Mary with a degree in marketing and government. The 21-year-old Chesterfield County native will return this fall to William & Mary for a one-year masters degree in business analytics.

More than one-third of all college students transfer schools before graduating, according to a study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

***

Prospective tour guides fill out an online application. When Rollins started expanding to campuses other than William & Mary, he used his network of friends from high school to find tour guides on other college campuses in Virginia. We are a lot more about a positive attitude and commitment to honesty than a flawless resume and GPA, Rollins said.

We try to make sure the tours you get with us are with great people, but not class president, said Rollins, noting most tour guides on admissions-run college tours are the cream of the crop.

The business is a low-overhead company, and guides are paid only when they are working and giving the tour, or adding value to the company, Rollins said.

The company has more than 80 guides, who earn a 50 percent commission on every tour, and accept tips from clients.

This time last year, we were only at William & Mary, and I was pretty much the tour guide staff, said Rollins, noting the company made only about $100 each month. Nowadays, revenue is significantly increased and, as we continue to scale to other campuses, it really has the potential to scale exponentially.

Candid Campus Tours offers tours starting at $50 an hour for a one-on-one tour with a student at the university. The company chooses guides for each tour based on the interests of the prospective student.

A similar business, Campus Sherpa, offers personalized college tours on more than 125 college campuses throughout the country. Tours with the Washington, D.C.-based Campus Sherpa cost $60 for a 45-minute tour, and guides earn 20 percent commission.

Candid Campus tour guides will take prospective students to classrooms and visit with professors based on their interests. Prospective students can ask questions that traditionally are not answered on a college-hosted campus tour, such as which professors are the best and which dorms are the nicest.

I felt what it would feel like if I was attending the school, Ashlyn Hirsh said. It was a situation where I could really picture myself there.

The Candid Campus tour with Kent Rollins was thorough, personalized to my daughters interests and included Kents opinions and specific recommendations, Elizabeth Hirsh said. Kent took his time with us and weaved in many personal stories about getting into the business school, what he has made of the experience, and some of the classes that have been key to his experience.

In addition to just a tour guide, students have a mentor and friend on campus with whom they can ask any further questions after the visit. Ashlyn Hirsh said she has remained in contact with Rollins after the tour.

I love to keep in touch with students I give tours to, URs Fernandez said. I often end up answering questions and sometimes helping them with the decision process in general. ... Even if the student doesnt end up coming to UR, I just want to help them think through all the factors to find the college or university that is best suited for them.

Jackson, who earned his associates degree from Thomas Nelson Community College in 2016 and will graduate from William & Mary in 2018 with a degree in marketing, emphasized the importance of making connections to those already at a school prior to attending.

It is very important for the incoming students to get to know people  from current students to administrators  in order to fully grasp the culture of the college, Jackson said.

***

Businesses like Candid Campus Tours and Campus Sherpa are yet another example of disrupting an existing service, said Christopher Tremblay, former director of admissions at Gannon University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Tremblay now works as a research and marketing consultant at Michigan State University.

For families who can afford to pay for it, I can see it appealing to some, especially for being able to do a tour when they want to, said Tremblay, who served as a college admissions tour guide while attending Western Michigan University.

This is a relatively new phenomenon in our industry, he said.

But colleges and universities already offer comprehensive campus tours, said Suzanne Seurattan, a William & Mary spokeswoman.

These tours, in most cases, provide prospective students with access to both representatives from the current student body and admission personnel as well as to a variety of areas on campus at no cost, Seurattan said. We do not partner with any outside tour company to provide content.

For the most part, colleges and universities are open to the public, so Candid Campus Tours does not seek permission from the schools prior to offering tours, Rollins said.

Just like any tourist attraction, college campuses have tons of tourists walking around  we just organize them, Rollins said.

***

Rollins and Jackson do not plan to stop expanding the business.

The company had four student tour guides six months ago and now employs more than 80 guides at 30 college campuses across the country.

Rollins hopes that Candid Campus Tours will continue to expand across Virginia and into more Ivy League schools and North Carolina schools in the coming years.

But Rollins does not want to grow the company too quickly.

We want to make sure the quality of the tours is never in question, Rollins said.

Jackson said the business model is helpful for both prospective and current students, noting it helps prospective students know exactly what kind of school they are visiting, while giving existing students a flexible, well-paying job.

Rollins said he struggles working as a full-time student, working a full-time job and running Candid Campus Tours. But he likes staying busy.
Richmond fire officials are investigating the cause of a Friday morning fire at the Westhampton Clubhouse at the Country Club of Virginia that took crews about 50 minutes to mark under control.

One minor injury to a firefighter was reported. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

City firefighters were called at 10:44 a.m. for a report of a structure fire at CCV, said Brian Turnage, interim deputy operations chief.

When the first units arrived four minutes later, they found flames coming from a portion of the roof of the Westhampton Clubhouse, he said.

While they started working on extinguishing that fire, additional units came in, went inside and found the fire was inside as well, Turnage said. So we started operating on extinguishing that.

A second alarm was sounded at 11:13 a.m., primarily to get additional personnel on the scene to relieve crews because of the heat, and do a lot of what we call overhaul work  having to cut and make holes trying to find fire, Turnage said.

The blaze was marked under control at 11:34 a.m., the deputy chief said.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for a minor injury and then returned to duty. No civilians were injured, Turnage said.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is urging Virginians to stay away from a large white nationalist rally planned for Charlottesville on Saturday, citing communications from extremist groups ... who may seek to commit acts of violence against rally participants or law enforcement officials.

On Friday night, echoing a May rally at the foot of Charlottesvilles Robert E. Lee statue, hundreds of torch-wielding white nationalists who are attending Saturdays Unite the Right rally gathered at the University of Virginia.

They marched to the universitys Rotunda, chanting: You will not replace us. Ralliers also declared that Charlottesville is their city now.

After the march, which police later declared an unlawful assembly, protesters and opponents alike reported being affected by pepper spray.

At the feet of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, fights began breaking out and some wielding tiki torches swung them at people. At least one person was arrested, and several people were treated for minor injuries.

Saturdays event has been described as the largest hate gathering of its kind in decades, and police have estimated 2,000 to 6,000 rally attendees and counterprotesters will descend on the city.

I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans, McAuliffe said in a statement Friday.

Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville tomorrow are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent. As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right. But it is also the right of every American to deny those ideas more attention than they deserve.

McAuliffe said that in addition to a large contingent of state and local police, the Virginia National Guard will be standing by to respond if necessary.

The Unite the Right rally aims to bring together members of a variety of white nationalist and white supremacist groups to protest Charlottesvilles plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park. It comes a month after the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan organized a small rally around the statue, which sparked a large counterprotest that ended with state police firing tear gas to disperse a lingering crowd.

Were trying to do a pro-white demonstration, rally organizer Jason Kessler said Friday in a radio interview posted on his website. I want to stand up for my people. I feel like right now, there is officially an ethnic cleansing being done against white people in the United States. ... They are replacing us ethnically and culturally. Thats why the statue issue is so important. Its a symbol.

Several Richmond-based organizations have been encouraging residents to travel to Charlottesville to protest the event, which is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m. No one interviewed Friday said they planned to heed McAuliffes call to ignore it.

I think thats putting your head in the sand, said Camille Rudney, a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice RVA. And theres this creeping shift in what is viewed as acceptable and white nationalist beliefs. ... That (the) creep is happening is undeniable. So I would like to just say, I dont want to pay attention to those guys. Theyre scary. Theyre highly armed. Im genuinely scared to go down there. But I dont see ignoring them as a viable alternative.

Lana Heath de Martinez, a leader of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, which is rallying clergy members to attend the event, said its important to demonstrate that white nationalist and racist ideas wont go unchallenged.

Its a popular narrative to just ignore it and think that maybe it will go away, she said. But ... the only way to counter their narrative is to show up with our own, and ours is not hate, its love and its an invitation. ... That invitation is to put down our hate and put down our fear and turn toward one another to offer love and justice for all.

Based on the large number of people expected to attend, city officials said this week that they would issue a permit for the event only if it was relocated from Emancipation Park, where the Lee statue is located, to McIntire Park, a much larger space about a mile north. Emancipation Park used to be called Lee Park.

But Kessler has refused, saying it makes no sense to protest the statues removal at a different park. Backed by the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rutherford Institute, he sued Charlottesville, arguing that the city denied his permit not because of crowd size but because of the content of the rally.

On Friday night, a federal judge granted an injunction that allows the rally to be held at Emancipation Park as originally planned.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said earlier this week that the event is shaping up to be the largest hate gathering of its kind in decades in the United States and that the event may well become a seminal point for the alt-right and the extremist hate fringe: Its a bold move beyond the anonymity of websites, message boards, pseudonyms and social media  a move to take the hardcore, racist, white nationalist message to the public square.

The organization cited a recent radio interview hosted by former KKK leader David Duke, in which a promoter of the event called it the biggest rally event weve had this millennium.

Nazi imagery has figured prominently in promotional materials for the event, and a list of speakers slated to attend includes Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who organized a now notorious torch-lit rally around the Lee statue in May.

Spencers website estimated between 500 and 1,000 supporters will attend, including self-defense units equipped with shields. We welcome a fight, the website said.

McAuliffe said he has directed public safety officials to take every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of their personnel, the Charlottesville community and rally attendees.
After almost two months, the government on Friday decided to sack Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani from his position. Noted lyricist-writer Prasoon Joshi has been appointed as the new chief of CBFC. Nihalani's tenure as CBFC chief was marred by several controversies. The last straw was a series of charges against Nihalani by his colleagues in the board. Since mid-July, there were rumours that the govt was planning to replace the CBFC chief and his colleagues.

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The complaints against Nihalani were mounting as the film fraternity univocally criticised the board. This was echoed by filmmakers and producers as well.

Over the last few months, Nihalani was addressed as 'sanskari' chief, especially after removing a kissing scene from the Hollywood film Spectre as it was "too excessive".

And the sanctimonious attitude of Pahlaj Nihalani was always interpreted as a push from the BJP-led government and its nationalist-saffron agenda. Earlier this year, Nihalani had objected to certify the film Lipstick Under My Burka for being too "lady-oriented". The objection was against "sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography (phone sex)" and said that the film might offend Muslims.

The board suffered major embarrassment after the Appellate Tribunal instructed the board to grant a 'A' certificate. Recently, Nihalani had objected to use the word 'intercourse' in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jab Harry Met Sejal. Last year, Nihalani came under severe criticism when he asked the makers of Udta Punjab to drop the reference of Punjab from the film's title. He ordered no less than 89 cuts, including cuss words.

The centre faced brickbats when Nihalani demanded the removal of words like 'Gujarat' and 'cow' from Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen's documentary, The Argumentative Indian. The film industry had been constantly complaining of Nihalani's conservatism and 'grandfatherly' approach when it came to on-screen drinking and smoking scenes, despite statutory warnings.

Sources in the I & B ministry say that the centre was dissatisfied with Nihalani's tenure as he antagonised the film community and was not seen as inspirational. His stint as CBFC chief only caused more trouble for the centre. A senior minister told India Today that Nihalani was a dictator of celluloid and that the scissors in his hand was rather too active. On the other hand, Prasoon joshi too is close to the BJP and has worked with the party in the past.

Speaking about the reconstructed CBFC, filmmaker Shyam Benegal said, "I won't comment on the sacking of Pahlaj Nihalani but Prasoon Joshi is a very good choice. He is a creative person and a poet. He understands communication and media extremely well. Prasoon is an artiste, he knows artistic creation and will respond to works of arts of others with sensitivity."

On the contrary, another director said that the removal of Nihalani is the first step, but not a giant leap. The view in the industry is that the board is the DNA, which is made of prehistoric material that needs to be amended.

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Sources in the government say that Nihalani was constantly creating a discomfort in the film industry and that everyone was quite upset with the way filmmakers were treated.

A senior government official said that the ministry had received complaints of Nihalani disrespecting filmmakers and people from the industry. The move also has the stamp of the I & B minister, who due to her background understands game and could fathom the grouse of the industry.

ALSO READ: CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani shown the door, Prasoon Joshi steps in

ALSO READ: Dear Censor Board, stop shoving sanskaar down our throats

ALSO READ: Puhleez Nihalani. We're adults, stop being a nanny

ALSO WATCH: I am a Modi-Bhakt, says censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani

--- ENDS ---
Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, continues to impress us. Nominated to the position in November 2016 by President Trump, the former South Carolina governor was a foreign-policy novice. But despite the steep learning curve, she has proven adroit in global affairs and diplomacy.

A few days ago the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to approve a new round of sanctions against North Korea for its continued testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Haley deserves much of the credit.

Convincing both China and Russia to agree to sweeping sanctions against the rogue regime was far from an easy task. That she was able to do so is a diplomatic victory for the United States and especially for Trump.

The U.S-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of many products, including ore, coal, and iron. It prohibits other nations from accepting North Korean laborers or making investments in Korea. Analysts believe the sanctions will cost the dictatorship about $1 billion  one-third of the regimes $3 billion export market. The U.N. vote probably wont deter Kim Jong Un from achieving his goal of making North Korea a nuclear power with a global reach, but it will cause the sadistic little dictator some serious pain.
Rep. Donald McEachin has risen from state lawmaker to a member of Congress. Perhaps he should add another title: postmaster. By prodding the Postal Service to improve delivery times in Richmond, he has done the seemingly impossible. Still: Why should getting the mail in a timely fashion require an act of congressman?

More than 100 teaching slots in Richmond remain vacant because the HR department is not responding to applicants, according to interim Superintendent Tommy Kranz: One thing Im hearing from RPS employees and people that are applying is that it is difficult getting responses to your emails and your phone calls. Even answering phones has been a challenge. Sounds like a few more immediate vacancies are needed  in HR.

Todays surprising stat: Gay teens have higher pregnancy rates than their straight peers, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about a new survey. Among the revelatory findings: Bisexual females were five times more likely to have been pregnant than straight females. And questioning and gay males were four times more likely than straight males to report getting someone pregnant.

Heres another: Its widely known that immigrants are twice as likely to start a business as native-born Americans. Not so well known: Nearly two-thirds of the small businesses in New York City are owned by immigrants  including nearly all of the laundry and taxi services.

Obama administration attorney general Loretta Lynch used the alias Elizabeth Carlisle in official email correspondence that discussed, among other things, her airport-tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton. Using aliases apparently was A Thing for the Obama team: EPA administrator Lisa Jackson went by Richard Windsor, IRS scourge Lois Lerner went by Toby Miles, and Lynch predecessor Eric Holder used Kareem Abdul-Jabbars birth name: Lew Alcindor.

Back in 2006, then-Gen. Mad Dog Mattis told Iraqi leaders, I come in peace. I didnt bring artillery. But Im pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you (expletive) with me, Ill kill you all. On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned North Korea, We want to use diplomacy. Thats where weve been, thats where we are right now. and thats where we hope to remain. But at the same time, our defenses are robust. Hes said basically the same thing both times, but the change of tone highlights well his successful transition from warrior to statesman.
By John Kass

Before Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel feuded with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over federal immigration policy, before sanctuary city politics and long before Donald Trump became president, a man they didnt know was standing at a street corner in Chicago.

Dennis McCann, an insurance broker, was about to cross North Kedzie Boulevard and have dinner with a friend.

He was going to meet a friend, a client, Jose Gonzalez, owner of El Cid, a restaurant there, McCanns brother Brian told me Tuesday. They were close. My brother just wanted to cross the street and see his friend.

It was June 8, 2011, and Emanuel had just been elected a few weeks before on the charms of his former boss, then-President Barack Obama. Sessions was a senator from Alabama. Trump was just a rich guy on reality TV.

Most likely there was nothing on McCanns mind about illegal immigration  and whether Americans have the right to control their own borders  issues that would later propel Trump to the presidency.

What was Dennis McCann thinking about? He was probably thinking the same stuff you and I would think about when we cross the street and a friend is waiting, said his brother, like what to order, what to drink.

So Dennis McCann began crossing the street.

And he was hit by a speeding car.

All that was left on the street were his sandals.

And the rest of Dennis McCann was being dragged hundreds of feet down Kedzie.

I heard the impact, saw this man go up into the sky and land on the windshield, witness Alberto Aceves told the Tribune at the time, describing how McCann fell off the hood to roll under the speeding car. I pull up to the passenger side screaming at him. Stop! The guys under your car.

The driver finally stopped the car, got out, tried to run and was arrested by police.

Saul Chavez, then 35, a Mexican immigrant here illegally, had been drinking heavily. The Cook County sheriffs office said Chavez had a blood alcohol content of 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit. Chavez had just completed probation after a drunken driving conviction two years before.

Chavez was charged with a felony  aggravated DUI  and was given a $250,000 bond. Two days after McCann was killed, federal officials filed an immigration detainer, believing Chavez was living in the U.S. illegally. The form requested that Cook County notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if Chavez was scheduled to be released.

But as Chavez sat in jail, Chicago Democrats on the Cook County Board were playing immigration politics. Led by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia, and catering to the Latino vote, they worked out a new policy:

The Cook County Board decided that federal detainer requests would be ignored, and those suspected of being in the country illegally and in jail on criminal charges could make bond without fear of deportation.

Chavez did make bond. Cook County did not notify immigration officials. And within days, what happened?

Chavez fled. He disappeared back into Mexico, where he remains out of reach of the short, stubby arms of Chicagos law.

Ive talked to the feds recently, said Brian McCann. They know where he is. Chavez is in Mexico. There is a Mexican warrant out for him. But it hasnt been served.

McCann was quiet for a moment.

What justice did my brother get? Chicago Democrats got to pander to the Hispanic vote and ignore the rule of law. And Rahm now gets a campaign issue. And my brother? Nothing.

I first wrote about this case years ago, and called Brian McCann on Tuesday to write about it again, to remind people that politics isnt the only thing at stake here. Lives are at stake. And the confidence in the rule of law is also at stake. Without confidence in the rule of law, a republic collapses into mob rule.

Sessions is threatening to withhold federal law enforcement grants if Emanuel continues with Chicagos sanctuary city policy. Emanuel filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, demanding the federal funds.

Chicago will not be blackmailed into changing our values, and we are and will remain a welcoming city, Emanuel said.

Our Chicago values?

Hearing the mayor talk, so forcefully, you almost forget that he was stridently opposed to illegal immigration.

And under Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama, he demanded repeated and high-profile federal immigration raids and deportations and crackdowns at workplaces across America.

But now hes Mayor Zorro.

Whats amusing is that some are so blinded by their hatred of Trump, and so oblivious to how Chicago politics really work, that theyre actually applauding Emanuel for standing up to alleged Trump bullying.

Rahm must smirk at such useful idiocy. It all plays into his hands. Hes hurt himself with African-Americans, so he drops his sanctuary city card again and again, cozying up to Latinos as he seeks re-election.

Under Clinton and Obama, Rahm was against all this, said McCann. Now hes a sanctuary cities proponent. The rule of law is always compromised by power politics. Thats all this is: power politics for Rahm and Preckwinkle. And public safety be damned.

Big-city Democrats step over people like Dennis McCann, because the Dennis McCanns are in their way. Mentioning the Dennis McCanns runs counter to approved narratives, and they become the forgotten.

And you wonder why Trump won the election?
By Stephen Nash and Mary Peyton Baskin

My rules. Lets deal. Seven cards for me, three for you, and jokers are wild. But only for me.

Thats how our General Assembly works now. State legislators get to draw their own district boundaries. And they are manipulated so that incumbents have nearly unbeatable odds in favor of their own re-election.

The result is that the competitive electoral process has been shut down across our state. These elections arent an expression of the will of the majority. Theyre a sham that tries to legitimize one-party rule  bad for both Republicans and Democrats and more importantly, for all of us citizens.

The 2015 election, for example, promised 100 percent job security. Of 122 incumbents running for re-election, all 122 kept their seats.

***

This can be fixed, but first lets look at the results of a nakedly self-dealing system.

These are the little crooked puzzle pieces that you, and I, and the rest of the citizenry, inhabit  the silhouette-symbols of your disenfranchisement.

Regardless of your party, the power of your vote has often been clipped, snipped, and ripped off.

Heres the curiously shaped House of Delegates District 74 that stretches from the Chesapeake Bay and includes part of the city of Richmond:

Hmmmnn. What could explain that particular configuration, with all those little lumps and notches? Republicans, the party in power in the House, designed that back in 2011, the last time redistricting occurred.

And Democrats, who held the majority in the state Senate then, drew this weird Senate District 9, that Richmond also lies within:

Heres a final, fun example: House District 22 in central Virginia. You can imagine the conversation among our lawmakers when they drew this up. Tell you what! one may have said. Lets draw an alpaca having two crooked conversations!

Most General Assembly districts are just as screwball. The state constitution says the legislature has to redraw its districts every ten years, following the census.

The rules are simple: Districts must be contiguous and compact to ensure fair representation.

Thats vague enough that both parties have drawn districts to their own advantage, depending on whos in the majority. Its called gerrymandering  a process that dates back to the Founders.

***

But now the conflict of interest in which our legislature draws its own district boundaries has been completely weaponized.

According to Blake Wheelock of the nonpartisan, nonprofit group OneVirginia2021, the current maps are a result of a devils bargain between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate in 2011. Each approved the others scheme. Our lawmakers hand-picked their voters to stay in power. The lawmakers have carved up Virginias congressional districts in that same way.

How bad is the new gerrymandering? Well, Virginia elections for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, or U.S. president dont rely upon districts, theyre statewide. Sometimes Virginia swings Democratic, sometimes Republican.

But within our jiggered state legislative districts, bipartisan Virginia vanishes. Two-thirds of the House of Delegates belongs to Republicans, within a state that often votes Democratic, overall.

This isnt just about party politics, its about lack of representation. In the 2015 elections, only one of the two major parties bothered to field a candidate in 71 percent of House of Delegates districts. Only half of the state Senate districts saw a real race. In gerrymandered Virginia, why run a futile campaign?

Theres plenty of hope, but hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up, and thats where you come in. The next round of redistricting comes in 2021, and voters have some powerful tools at hand.

You could consider signing OneVirginia2021s petition at onevirginia2021.org/participate/petition/, as 55,000 Virginians have already done.

The group aims to unite citizens to take redistricting away from out-of-control state lawmakers and establish an independent commission. Thats not an impossible goal: Six states have handed redistricting authority over to commissions.

Fifteen local governments have also approved the resolution, including Richmond and Charlottesville. You could print the resolution and present it to your local officials.

Finally: Virginia is electing every member of the House of Delegates in November. There are 33 candidates running for 18 seats in the Metro Richmond area. Find your candidates at www.vpap.org.

Call, write, and email them now, whichever party they represent. Ask them why theyre not fighting hard to bring credibility back to our state elections, and integrity back to the office they seek. Get them to say theyll fight a rotten system with strong legislation to control gerrymandering with an independent commission. Then let us all know youve done it.
With all the saber-rattling between the United States and North Korea, I almost couldnt hear the dogs next door barking. Almost.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Americans should sleep well at night, untroubled by the escalating rhetoric over nukes, but I doubt hes ever tried to relax to the noise of yapping dogs.

My neighbor Paul has two sweet dogs, three if you count the long-term lodger, but they bark a lot, especially when hes out.

Naturally, I was more than a little interested in the news this week from Amazon.

Amazon-owned Audible  a digital book-listening service whose slogan is You dont just listen to an Audible book, you feel it  launched an audiobooks for dogs service, Audible for Dogs. It more accurately could be called Guilt Begone.

Im always looking for ways where people dont feel guilty, worried or stressed when they leave their dogs alone, dog behaviorist Cesar Millan told USA Today. Millan, known as the Dog Whisperer, curated a list of human audiobooks he says will help calm a pup whos left home alone.

Among the titles: Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, A.A. Milnes Winnie the Pooh and Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn. Theyre not all classics, though. The bestseller Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah is also on the list.

All this may seem preposterous to cat owners, but separation anxiety is no laughing matter for dog owners. Stressed pups may bark excessively, howl, tear up furniture, relieve themselves in the house and become depressed.

Many dog owners just switch on the radio when they leave home and hope for the best, but Audible cites an academic study from the United Kingdom that found dogs actually prefer an audio book to music. Really?

The 2015 paper from Hartbury College in the west of England, titled The effects of audiobooks on the behaviour of dogs at rehoming kennels, studied the reactions of 31 dogs at a pet shelter to an audiobook, classical, pop and psychoacoustically designed dog music and a control condition with no special auditory sounds.

Researchers played two hours of auditory stimulation at normal conversational volume from 10 a.m. to noon one day with two days between treatments to avoid overstimulation. Dogs were also exposed to normal kennel sounds of dogs barking and staff talking.

The audiobook was C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, from the childrens classic fantasy Chronicles of Narnia. The British researchers deemed it popular amongst humans and appropriate for all ages, therefore is suitable for a range of environments.

Video cameras recorded the dogs behavior in the various settings every five minutes.

The result: Audiobooks resulted in dogs spending more of their time resting or sleeping than any of the other auditory conditions. Dogs also spent less time sitting or standing when exposed to audiobooks compared to all other conditions, the report said.

What about barking? There was no difference between dogs in the control situation  with no special auditory stimulation at all  and those listening to audiobooks.

But among auditory stimulants, the audiobook was the most effective, even better than classical music, in reducing barking. This was surprising because earlier tests showed classical music effective in calming a variety of creatures, including chickens, dogs in kennels, elephants and gorillas.

At his dog behavior center in Los Angeles, Millan also tested audiobooks on 100 volunteer dogs for 30 days and wrote Cesar Millans Guide to Audiobooks for Dogs.

Gender, energy and consistency are important in choosing audiobooks for dogs, he says. For example, audiobooks seem more effective if the reader is the same gender as the primary owner.

Leslie, a dog owner who participated in Millans study with her 9-year-old dog Buddy, said when she had to leave Buddy alone before, she felt guilty with a capital G.

But with an audiobook playing, I felt like I was leaving him with a friend, so it gave me a great feeling of comfort, she said in a video on the Audible site.

I might mention dog audiobooks to Paul, who apologizes occasionally for the barking disturbance. But, frankly, it sounds as if wed all be better off if I found audiobooks for me to listen to when the dogs bark.
The planets changing atmosphere and oceans hit several record thresholds last year, according to an international report published by the American Meteorological Society.

2016 was the Earths warmest year in the era of human industrial activity, barely surpassing the record highs set in the previous two years.

It coincided with new highs in the amounts of heat-trapping, climate change-causing gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

The National Centers for Environmental Information collected worldwide observations for the 27th edition of the State of the Climate, which has been published since the mid-1990s.

Nearly 500 scientists from 64 countries contributed to the peer-reviewed report, representing areas of expertise ranging from oceanography to permafrost to atmospheric chemistry.

It doesnt focus on attributing individual weather events to climate change or projecting future trends, though other studies have found that some recent extreme events like rainstorms, droughts and heat waves are consistent with the effects of climate change.

The pronounced El Nino pattern that existed from 2015 to early 2016  the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean  made the planet warmer than it otherwise would have been, and contributed to some of 2016s record warmth and regional weather anomalies.

It demonstrates that there is year-to-year variability on top of the decades-long warming trend. Last years global mean temperature clearly surpassed other years with similarly strong El Nino patterns, such as 1997 and 1982.

That warming does not happen in equal measure across the planet. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as areas closer to the equator.

Its not just getting warmer  the symptoms and effects of climate change go far beyond air temperature over land surfaces.

The mass of Greenlands ice sheet reached a record low.

The combination of glaciers melting and thermal expansion of the ocean caused the global mean sea level to climb for the sixth straight year.

Sea level doesnt rise evenly every year or in every part of the coastline for several reasons, including the behavior of ocean currents.

In the case of Virginia and North Carolina, the coast is naturally subsiding faster than it does elsewhere on the East Coast, which exacerbates the effect of a global sea level rise.

Also at a record high was the temperature of the sea surface. It is now warming at a faster rate than it did during the 20th century, which reflects the fact that most of the heat added to the planet is absorbed by the ocean.

The report also noted biological findings like the northward shift of marine life and fisheries along the U.S. East Coast and more summer vegetation in the Arctic region.

To read the entire 298-page document, go to the American Meteorological Societys website, www.ametsoc.org.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Aug 12 (PTI) Pakistani security forces are committing grave human rights violations in Balochistan, a Baloch-American leader has alleged while calling for implementation of the Leahy Amendment which prohibits the US military aid to forces accused of breaching human rights.

"I am appealing to all Americans of good will to help end crimes against humanity in Balochistan in whatever way you can," Amar Khan, founder and president of the American Friends of Baluchistan said at an event at the George Washington University here yesterday.

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The event was addressed among others by Christine Fair, a South Asia expert and Associate Professor at the Georgetown University and T Kumar from Amnesty International.

"I have come here to appeal to our common humanity as the Baloch people are facing crimes against humanity at the hands of Pakistan due to a deadly USD 54 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor," Khan said.

He called for implementation of the 1997 Leahy Amendment, under which US military assistance cannot be given to foreign armed forces suspected of committing, encouraging or tolerating human rights violation.

Pakistani forces are carrying out gross violation of human rights in Balochistan, Khan alleged.

Baluchistan which is 44 per cent of Pakistans land mass and less than 10 per cent of the population is extremely rich land with the poorest inhabitants, he said.

Recounting his first-hand experience of being a victim of torture and human rights abuse by Pakistani intelligence agencies, Afghan American Najeeb Khan in his address urged Pashtuns and Afghans "to stand with the people of Baluchistan for their fundamental right of self-determination". PTI LKJ MRJ

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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
A man accused of eluding police in three states, including a three-day manhunt in Botetourt County, has been taken into custody.

The Halifax County Sheriffs Office posted on Facebook Friday evening that Mecklenburg County authorities took William Jason Roberts into custody without incident.

Multiple law enforcement agencies had been looking for Roberts since Aug. 1 after a domestic incident in Aurora, Colorado, that sent a woman to the hospital. Hes wanted there on a charge of vehicular assault, according to police.

Authorities searched for him in Colorado and then in North Newton, Kansas, where police said they pursued a vehicle believed to have been driven by Roberts. Multiple agencies were involved in a vehicle pursuit that went into neighboring Sedgewick County.

In Virginia, the search for Roberts began Aug. 4, when an Alleghany County sheriffs deputy tried to pull over a stolen vehicle.

Multiple sheriffs deputies, state police officers, Rockbridge deputies and officers from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries assisted in the search for Roberts when he was believed to be in Botetourt County.

On Monday, the sheriffs office called off the search in Botetourt County after it said Roberts was last spotted on security footage leaving the area in a truck stolen from the Dagger Springs area.

A warrant has been issued charging Roberts with grand larceny of a vehicle.
As the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet implements Project 360 with gusto, a Parliament Standing Committee has come down heavily on the manner in which civil servants are being empanelled at the Centre.

An officer in the erstwhile Hooda government in Haryana is raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged bungling in land acquisition deals when the Congress was in power in the state. The officer's wife, a joint secretary in the power ministry, is denied empanelment as additional secretary.

Another officer of the same department gets into the cross hairs of a powerful corporate house over a case in the Supreme Court which the corporate house loses. The officer later discovers he isn't getting empanelled to the next level and prefers going back to his parent cadre in Haryana.

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Another 1984 batch officer of the Rajasthan cadre who is eligible for empanelment as full-fledged secretary to government of India, but is not empanelled. The fact that she is the niece of a senior Congress leader from Rajasthan comes in the way.

As the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet implements Project 360 with gusto, a Parliament Standing Committee has come down heavily on the manner in which civil servants are being empanelled at the Centre.

The report tabled in the monsoon session of parliament says, "The Committee finds the present 360 degree appraisal system opaque, non-transparent and subjective. The feedback received from subordinates and stakeholders may be biased and lack objectivity, particularly if the officer had to discipline his subordinates. Moreover, there is no statutory backing to the scheme."

The question really is how is the government going ahead with an empanelment procedure that has no legal backing.

Sources claim that the system has gained currency as the PMO felt that in the present system, a lot of officers, irrespective of merit and proven integrity, were getting marks 10/10. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to providing a clean administration, his officers started the informal system of taking feedback. What started as a few discreet phone calls to the officer's subordinates and peers, has concretised into Project 360. And like the standing committee fears, many of these officers could be biased towards their bosses and seniors.

"The officers, some of them from the Gujarat cadre, involved in the vetting process still consider themselves outsiders and not quite sure of the choices they are making. But the present project has resulted in a policy of pick and choose which allows the present dispensation to get even with those out of favour with the present regime," says a top government official often asked to give feedback about colleagues.The practice of certain states getting more representation at the Centre is equally damning.

Coincidentally, in the past 5 year upto 2017, the states that have got their foot at the Centre have mainly been ruled by the BJP, the report points out. "In states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra the total empanelment has respectively been 11 and 13 per cent of their sanctioned strength whereas for cadres like Telengana and Uttarakhand it is only 2 and 3 per cent respectively."

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Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are other states adequately represented. UP, with one of the highest pool of officers at the Centre, at 37, is still just 6 per cent of its sanctioned strength.

The clubbing of batches, unheard of in the past, is another practice that the committee has come down hard on.

"Officers of the 84 and 85 batches have come in especially for this experimentation. The rule was if the officer had a year's tenure left, he was not made a full-fledged secretary, but a secretary equivalent with the same pay, perks and prestige. Now for the 84 batch, the one year has been turned into 2 years and for the 85 batch, it's even worse. Officers of this batch with less than three years to go could find themselves becoming secretary equivalent," point out officers.

But to its credit, the committee notes that "the DoPT has informed that the batches which have been clubbed have not been superseded by their junior batches".

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The idea is to create a younger profile of officers who will deliver at a faster pace. But for now, the procedure has led to more angst and less delivery.

READ ALSO:

Parliamentary panel for Army-like performance appraisal system for babus

Two dead wood IPS officers removed in Chhattisgarh

Govt punishes 133 non-performing babus India's top babus face new Modi test

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By PTI: Mandela

By Fakir Hassen

Johannesburg, Aug 12 (PTI) In a novel initiative, hundreds of inmates from South African prisons will knit the worlds largest portrait blanket of Nelson Mandela that will be visible from space to mark the anti-apartheid icons 100th birth anniversary next year.

The Massive Mandela Masterpiece project is the brainchild of the 67 Blankets for Mandela organisation started a few years ago by Carolyn Steyn to knit blankets in honour of the number of years that Mandela has spent in service of his country.

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The massive portrait is being made to mark Mandelas 100th birth anniversary on July 18 next year.

"This will be the largest portrait blanket in the world," Steyn said at the launch of the project by the Department of Correctional Services at the Zonderwater Correctional Centre yesterday.

"Each blanket will measure 160 by 160 centimetres to make a pixel. Together in the right pattern, the blanket will measure about 4,500 square metres and you will not only be able to see Madibas face from the sky, but also from space," Steyn added.

The huge blanket will be knitted from wool worth almost R14 million which has been donated by an anonymous well-wisher believed to be a wealthy businessman.

Steyn said she had started working with the inmates at prisons in 2014 so that they could spend their time constructively while also experiencing the therapeutic benefits of knitting.

"Initially 10 inmates made some blankets which were donated to the needy, but this soon grew by last year to inmates at 80 correctional centres (prisons) who made hundreds of blankets which were distributed to the needy during the harsh winter," Steyn said.

Excited inmates recalled how fellow inmates had initially called them "sissies" and laughed at them when they started knitting.

"But as soon as they heard that we were doing it for Madiba who freed our country, they began joining in," said Amos, who declined to give his surname and is expected to be released by next year.

The global icon died in December 2013 aged 95.

In 2014, 67 Blankets for Mandela achieved a world record with the largest crochet blanket in the world, measuring 3,377 square metres, but India made one more than three times that size - 11,000 square metres - to snatch the record in February last year.

Steyn motivated people across South Africa to join in to regain the record two months later with a blanket of 17,188 square metres. PTI FH KJ

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BRISTOL  Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie said Friday that Southwest Virginia should benefit disproportionately from his campaigns new outdoor recreation initiative but couldnt quantify how that might translate to jobs.

Gillespie unveiled some details of his Outdoor Dominion program during a campaign stop at an outdoor recreation gear store in Bristol.

Flanked by fellow GOP members and Southwest Virginia legislators, the candidate called outdoor recreation a huge sleeping giant and pledged to make it a growth industry, if elected.

Outdoor recreation in Virginia creates $21.9 billion in annual consumer spending, is directly responsible for 197,000 jobs and $6.5 billion in wages and salaries, the candidate said, citing a 2017 Outdoor Industry Association report.

I know we can do better. In North Carolina, outdoor recreation generates $28 billion in annual consumer spending, sustains 260,000 jobs and $8.3 billion in wages and salaries.

His initiative would establish a website to promote public and private outdoor recreation assets, establish the Clinch River State Park  creating a series of river access points in Southwest Virginia  expand river and stream access statewide, create a comprehensive report about the Virginia state park system and actively search for economic opportunities related to recreation.

While he predicts this plan would generate thousands of jobs, Gillespie was unable to provide a more specific estimate, in response to a reporters question.

Weve unveiled what I think is the foundation for what will be thousands of jobs. We havent gone to the point where we can break them down by region or county, Gillespie said. The truth is, to make accurate predictions you have to have access to information only the governors office can get their hands on. Id rather overperform than overpromise, but I believe its thousands when you look at our state relative to North Carolina and the assets we have.

Gillespie pledged to get the Clinch River State Park open during his tenure.

Weve already got the planning money there, so the next part is to go ahead and purchase the land, Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, said.

The concept would be a linear park, not a central site, including river access points in Cleveland, St. Paul and Dungannon. The river flows more than 130 miles from Tazewell County across Russell, Scott and Wise counties and is considered among the most biologically diverse in the nation.

Having more river access either down or up the river is really going to increase our opportunities, not only for the public but also for folks wanting to put a kayak business in or a guide business; thats very exciting, Kilgore said.
Dr. Ruth Pfau, a German nun who became known as the Mother Teresa of Pakistan for her decades-long ministry to the countrys leprosy patients, a moral and medical campaign that helped curb one of the most stigmatized diseases in human history, died Aug. 10 in Karachi. She was 87.

A spokeswoman, Salwa Zainab, confirmed her death to the Associated Press. The cause was not immediately available.

Pfau, while not widely covered in the Western media, was renowned in Pakistan for her efforts to stop the spread of leprosy, a bacterial infection also called Hansens disease that when untreated can cause disfigurement and blindness. Around the world, its victims have often been relegated to leper colonies and regarded as outcasts.

The Express Tribune of Pakistan once credited Pfau with having single-handedly  turned the tide of leprosy in Pakistan and won the gratitude and personal attentions of people ranging from military rulers to elected ministers to the general public.

Like Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian nun who became known as the saint of the gutters for her service to the destitute of India, Pfau lived among the people she cared for and by a vow of poverty.

As a young physician and nun, she had planned to begin her missionary work not in Pakistan, but in India, in 1960. Waylaid in Karachi with visa difficulties, she visited a leprosy colony and was so distressed by what she saw that she could not bring herself to leave.

The facility was overrun by rats and soiled by sewage. Speaking to the BBC in 2010, she recalled watching a young man as he crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal, as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog.

I could not believe that humans could live in such conditions, she told the Express Tribune in 2014. That one visit, the sights I saw during it, made me make a key life decision.

Under Pfaus leadership, that facility became the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, the nerve center of a national network of medical professionals who sought to house, treat and, at times, rescue victims of the disease.

Pfau recalled collecting children who had been stowed away in caves or in cattle pens because of their illness.

With support from German donors, Pfau and her colleagues managed to bring leprosy largely into submission. Since 1996, the World Health Organization has considered the disease controlled in Pakistan.

Her organization later worked on the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and blindness, and served victims of drought, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.

Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau was born Sept. 9, 1929, in Leipzig, where her familys home was destroyed in World War II bombing.

If I give any sense to these years, it is a preparation to be ready to help others, she told the BBC.

After the war, with Leipzig under Soviet occupation, Pfau fled from East to West Germany to pursue her medical training, according to her biography on the website of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre. She said she nearly married a fellow student before experiencing what she described as a calling from God.

When you receive such a calling, you cannot turn it down, for it is not you who has made the choice, she told the Express Tribune. God has chosen you for Himself.

She studied medicine at universities in Mainz and Marburg before joining the Catholic order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, the organization that sent her abroad as a missionary.

No information on her survivors was immediately available.

For a period, Pfau served as an adviser to the Pakistani health minister.

We are like a Pakistani marriage, she remarked. It was an arranged marriage because it was necessary. We always and only fought with each other. But we never could go in for divorce because we had too many children.
When Morrie Piersol opened the front door to his home in the Fan District of Richmond, he replied to a greeting of Good to see you! with Its good to be seen.

No doubt. Less than a week earlier, Piersol and two sailing mates cruising through the wide-open lonesome of the North Atlantic had weathered a storm that rocked and rolled them and ultimately smashed their 40-foot boat, plunging it into a 360-degree spin under the water and back up again.

The experience was what you might imagine its like to be sent through the heavy-duty cycle on the family washing machine with a (very) cold rinse.

Good to be seen, indeed.

Piersol acknowledged that he sailed into the North Atlantic looking for a little adventure  a sailor all his life, he retired in June as a theater teacher at Appomattox Regional Governors School for the Arts and Technology in Petersburg, and he turned 65 on the voyage  but, he said with a smile, I wasnt looking for that much adventure.

Piersol wanted to make clear there was nothing heroic about what he and his sailing companions did: We all just did what needed to be done in a very unfortunate situation that was outside of our control.

In his mind, the real significance of the story was the way others rallied to their aid and how the unyielding attention to detail of his boats captain long before they set sail likely saved their lives.

Preparation, professionalism and cool heads were the recipe that enabled this unfortunate event to have the successful outcome it did, Piersol said. A lot of effort was expended on our behalf, and a lot of people had to worry. We are appreciative of this and very, very grateful.

We never saw a single boat

The saga unfolded this way:

In the fall, Piersol heard about a long sail to Iceland that was being organized by Captain Wesley Jones of Gloucester aboard his sailboat, Valiant. Jones sought a crew of two experienced sailors to go along. His friend Robert Bobby Forrest of Mathews was one. Piersol became the third.

They left from Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville on July 1 with an itinerary that included stops in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland before a return trip to Deltaville. The expedition was expected to last two months.

Sea ice blocking the Greenland port forced a change in plans, so the men plotted a more direct course between St. Johns, Newfoundland, and Reykjavik, Iceland, a 1,400-nautical-mile route that took them into the open waters of the North Atlantic and away, it turned out, from all other traffic.

For the first 1,100 miles, Piersol recalled, We never saw a single boat. Never saw a commercial ship. Never saw a fishing boat.

It was a fact that returned to mind, worryingly, once they ran into trouble.

It wasnt like the Chesapeake Bay, where someone will see you eventually, Piersol said. No way anyone would run into us.

The men had been dealing with intermittent rain, wind and fog for several days before the wind grew stronger and the sea rougher  though still manageable.

Piersol found out later from the captain of the Icelandic ship that rescued them that waves were running 18 to 24 feet in height. Wind speeds, the captain told Piersol, were sustained at 45 knots and gusting to 50 and possibly 60 knots.

Gale-force conditions is how an Icelandic Coast Guard spokesman would later describe the weather in news reports.

Piersol said they looked at weather charts after the fact, and it seems by nothing more than bad luck they happened to wind up in a place where the worst elements of the storm intersected to create the nastiest part of the whole thing.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, July 26, they were almost 300 miles from the nearest land, the coast of Iceland. The men rotated three-hour watch shifts, and it was Piersols turn, while the others slept, to be on duty. Despite the storm and time, the sky wasnt pitch-black, as the sun barely sets in that part of the world in midsummer.

The only thing Piersol can figure is a rogue wave  perhaps 50 percent higher than the 18- to 24-footers that the boat and its crew had been weathering relatively comfortably  crashed into the boat.

All we can speculate is that one of those rogue waves crashed down us, Piersol said as he sat and sipped coffee. It broke on top of the boat and completely smashed the boat down into the water. Blew out the portholes on the low side. Took everything. It was a violent smashing. Wasnt like a gentle, oh-my-gosh-were-rolling-over. It was, wham!

Next thing you know, youre rolling over and upside-down and waters pouring over you. It took the boat over on its side and rolled it over. Once it went over, it kept going. Thank goodness. If the keel gets lost in an accident like that, youll stay upside-down, and that would have been bad.

Really in trouble

Piersol figures the whole episode didnt last more than three or four seconds, but a racing mind can cover a lot of ground in that amount of time.

About the time Piersol finished thinking, Were really in trouble, the boat completed its 360-degree-rollover and was upright again, although the deck had pretty much been stripped bare and the mast had broken off.

The men, perhaps miraculously, were OK. Piersol had been flung about the cabin, but even in the swirling craziness of the moment, he hadnt gone far, having been wearing a harness tethered by an 8-foot-long line to a U-bolt in the cockpit, which was mandatory on this trip for anyone on watch or outside the cabin.

Equally fortuitous, the boat did not appear to have a hole in it, so it wasnt sinking, though everything was soaked, of course, and the men were standing in knee-deep water.

They began pumping water from the craft, and throwing sodden belongings overboard in order to eliminate the extra weight and also to leave a trail in case someone came looking for them, since they had set off a beacon to send a distress signal on a radio frequency monitored by all commercial traffic.

It was about 4:30 in the morning Icelandic time, and Piersol said the men were not thinking gloom and doom.

We were OK. We werent dead and we werent sinking, he said, noting Jones had brought along a reserve tiller that could have been used to replace the one that was sheared off in the rollover, and they had a supply of fuel and felt confident they could have started the boats outboard motor if it had come to that.

It wasnt a good situation, and you wonder how it will turn out, but none of us was at the point of saying, Oh, my God, were done. There was stuff to do, and it kept you busy and kept you warmer.

Warmth  or the lack of it  is what Piersol feared most. Hypothermia was a real concern. The air temperature was in the 50s, the ocean temperature was in the 40s and the men were soaked.

They stripped off their clothes, tossed away anything made of cotton  which absorbs and holds moisture  and wrung the water from their synthetic clothing and put it back on, layering on as much as they could, then added foul-weather gear and caps on their heads to insulate themselves as best they could.

Research vessel responds

Meantime, the Icelandic Coast Guard picked up the signal from the emergency beacon, discovered a commercial research vessel was 30 nautical miles from the Valiant, and dispatched it to the scene.

The Danish Air Force also deployed a patrol plane from Greenland, according to a story in the Iceland Review. An Icelandic company that operates airports and air services in Iceland also sent a plane, which found the sailboat about 11 a.m., nearly seven hours after the incident, the Review reported.

The men on the Valiant made contact with the plane through a hand-held radio packed on board for just such a situation.

They told us there would be a rescue vessel in 20 minutes, Piersol said.

It sounds now as if they were waiting for the next bus, but at the time it was the most welcome news imaginable  until the ship, the Arni Fririksson, came into view: a hulking, 230-foot-long vessel, bouncing on the rough seas.

The good news was, we saw the vessel and we were going to get rescued, Piersol said. The bad news was, how in the hell was that going to happen? It was gigantic. It was going up and down (in the waves). Just because theyre big doesnt mean they dont move.

Piersol wondered how the ship would get close enough to pluck them from the sea without someone getting hurt, or worse.

Ive read it many times ... that people survive the disaster and get killed in the rescue, he said.

Skilled captain

In time, the captain of the Arni Fririksson radioed the crew of the Valiant and directed them to deploy their life raft, climb in and paddle away from the sailboat to make it easier to conduct the rescue operations.

The captain then brought the large ship close enough to the raft so that a Jacobs ladder  a long rope ladder with wooden rungs  could be dropped over the side.

One by one, the cold, tired and wet sailors from the Valiant struggled up the rope until they reached the top, where members of the ships crew pulled them over the edge and rolled them onto the deck, at which point, Piersol said, You thank your lucky stars.

The captain was very skilled, he said.

The crew provided the rescued sailors with showers, dry clothes, food and bunks, and truly rallied around the men, Piersol said.

The people were incredible, he said.

As the Arni Fririksson headed toward Iceland, those aboard the ship returned to their mission of conducting marine research, and Piersol, Jones and Forrest got to watch them work.

It was fantastic, Piersol said. We had two lovely days with some wonderful people.

The Arni Fririksson was too large to enter the harbor at Grindavik, Iceland, so a pilot boat fetched the Virginia men and took them ashore, where local authorities interviewed them to get the full story of what happened  a normal occurrence in such a situation.

Then the U.S. Embassy arranged transportation to Reykjavik, 30 miles away. Piersol spent the night, then flew home, while Jones and Forrest remained in Iceland to sightsee for a few days.

Piersol said he went into the trip knowing it was not without risks, ocean sailing not being a Sunday afternoon outing around the bay, so the experience has not soured his love of sailing. In fact, he and wife, Carol, familiar faces in the local theater community, have talked of acquiring a sailboat in retirement.

That hasnt changed, he said of the idea of owning a sailboat again, before adding with a laugh, Where I go in it might change.
A federal judge on Friday granted an injunction allowing the far-right Unite the Right rally to be held Saturday in Emancipation Park in the shadow of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad made the decision late Friday after a two-hour debate that followed a 30-minute meeting between the judge and attorneys for rally organizer Jason Kessler, the city of Charlottesville and downtown merchants.

Conrad said he granted the injunction because testimony indicated that Kessler could prove that the city revoked his original permit based on his ideas.

The injunction was filed Friday by civil rights organizations American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Albemarle County-based Rutherford Institute.

Based on the current record, the court concludes that Kessler has shown that he will likely prove that the decision to revoke his permit was based on the content of his speech, Conrad wrote. Kesslers assertion in this regard is supported by the fact that the city solely revoked his permit but left in place the permits issued to counter-protestors.

Conrad said information presented at the hearing indicated the citys decision was based on the content of his speech rather than public safety factors.

This conclusion is bolstered by other evidence, including communications on social media indicating that members of City Council oppose Kesslers political viewpoint, Conrad wrote. At this stage of the proceedings, the evidence cited by Kessler supports the conclusion that the citys decision constitutes a content-based restriction of speech.

Kessler, in a video posted to his Twitter account, thanked the civil rights groups and attorney-activist Kyle Bristow.

I want to thank  from the bottom of my heart and from all the attendees of the Unite the Right rally, the ACLU, Rutherford Institute and the great, the legendary Kyle Bristow, he said.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged Virginians to stay away from the rally. McAuliffe said that in addition to a large contingent of state and local police, the Virginia National Guard will be standing by.

The judges decision came after attorneys representing Kesslers effort to hold the rally in Emancipation Park argued that tweets and public statements by city councilors show that the citys attempt to move the rally to McIntire Park was in response to the rallys content rather than public safety.

The alt-right rally is expected to include prominent figures in white nationalist and separatist groups and others on the far right of the political spectrum.

They also noted that the city moved only the Unite the Right rally and not rallies planned in Justice and McGuffey parks by organizations opposed to Kessler.

City Attorney Craig Brown said the statements were simply councilors exercising their First Amendment rights. He said City Manager Maurice Jones moved the rally strictly for safety precautions.

He also argued that the expected 2,000 counter-protesters coming to town to oppose the Unite the Right rally were not part of the two rallies planned for the downtown parks, but they would follow Kesslers rally wherever it is held.

Attorneys for the ACLU and The Rutherford Institute filed the injunction on behalf of Kessler. The city approved a permit Monday for the Unite the Right rally, but only for McIntire Park.

Brown said the city moved the rally because it can more easily be secured. The city estimates that 1,000 or more people are expected to be at the rally and that they will be met by about 2,000 counter-protesters.

The 2,000 who are coming are coming for one purpose and one purpose only, and thats to protest and counter-demonstrate against Mr. Kessler, Brown told the judge. We firmly believe there is a threat of violence if it takes place in Emancipation Park. We firmly believe the same threat of violence exists if its moved to McIntire Park. The key to preventing violence is to keep the sides apart and it is easier to keep the sides separate at McIntire because it is bigger.

Brown said that Kesslers free speech rights are not compromised by moving to a larger park because Kessler can espouse the same content at the same time for the same duration. The public safety would be better served by the added security to residents and businesses, he argued.

But ACLU attorney Victor Glasberg said the Emancipation Park location is central to Kesslers rally because it is home to the Lee statue and the controversy that has surrounded the citys decision to remove and rename the park. It was until recently called Lee Park. McIntire Park, meanwhile, is named for the philanthropist who donated the Lee Park land and statue.

Glasberg said the city was aware of the changing situation as more protesters for both sides signed on to demonstrate, but chose to wait until Aug. 7 to change the venue.

The city sat on its hands and let the situation get to the point that a large number of people are going to converge downtown, he said. City officials have repeatedly taken positions opposite to Mr. Kesslers opinion. The decision to change the permit only occurred after the opposition developed in the community and the city.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch contributed to this report.

In his decision, Conrad noted that even with a changed venue, police would still have to deal with protesters in Emancipation Park.

Supporters of Kessler are likely to still appear at the park, even if the location of Kesslers demonstration is moved elsewhere, the judge wrote. Thus, a change in the location of the demonstration would not eliminate the need for members of the citys law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services personnel to appear at Emancipation Park. Instead, it would necessitate having personnel present at two locations in the city.

ACLU officials said they were pleased that Kesslers free speech rights were preserved, but urged police and protesters to use restraint.

We are grateful that the court recognized that the First Amendment applies equally to everyone, regardless of their views, said Claire Gastanaga, ACLU of Virginia executive director.

We hope that the city will focus tomorrow on managing the expected crowds using de-escalation tactics and flexibility, and avoid the kind of over-militarized response that was mounted on July 8, she said. We encourage everyone participating to commit to nonviolence and peaceful protest. We will be there to observe and document police practices as we were on July 8 and at other rallies and protests across Virginia since January and before.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) Shiv Sena Minister Subhash Desai, accused of graft by the opposition, today offered to resign, but Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis turned down his request.

The development comes a day after Fadnavis announced a probe by Lokayukta against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, who has been accused by the opposition of impropriety in a slum redevelopment project here. He belongs to the BJP.

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The opposition has accused Desai of violating norms while allegedly denotifying lands acquired by state-run MIDC in Nashik.

On allegations against Desai, Fadnavis had yesterday said the government will request the Lokayukta to consider the case and if that does not work out, an independent probe would be conducted.

The 75-year-old Sena veteran, who holds the industries portfolio, said he met Fadnavis and offered to quit the state cabinet, but his request was rejected by the chief minister.

"I met the chief minister at Varsha (the CMs official residence) with my resignation letter and requested him to relieve me until I am proved innocent. However, the chief minister refused to accept my resignation and said I need not resign," Desai told PTI.

"The chief minister said let there be an independent inquiry and until the result is out for everyone to see, I should continue performing my duty," he said.

Desai said he has decided to co-operate with whatever inquiry is instituted and accept its result.

"I met Uddhavji (Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray) last evening and apprised him of my decision to resign. Uddhavji then spoke to the chief minister and both of them jointly decided that my resignation would not be accepted," he said.

Thackeray, speaking to reporters today, backed Desai and said those (in opposition) levelling allegations are themselves "stuck knee deep" in corruption.

"It is dangerous that they (the opposition parties) are not ashamed of what they have done (in the past). Levelling baseless allegations and asking for resignations will dent the image of the state," Thackeray said.

"The chief minister has promised a fair probe. We hope the truth comes out soon. The party stands firmly behind Desai," he added.

Later, the opposition parties slammed Fadnavis for not accepting Desais resignation.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of the NCP said by not accepting Desais resignation, Fadnavis has discreetly saved Mehta, who is also accused of corruption.

"The ministers accused of corruption have no moral right to keep occupying their chairs. Unless they are removed, a fair probe cannot happen. Even if the CM is backing them, we will continue our fight against the corrupt ministers and the government," Munde said.

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Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said Fadnavis has proved he is a "political opportunist" and has no firm stand against corruption.

"The chief minister had immediately accepted the resignation of (then minister) Eknath Khadse (last year) but refused to do so now. This shows he is an opportunist who will only do what suits his politics," Sawant said.

Khadse, a BJP leader, had last year resigned after facing allegations of committing impropriety in a land deal in Pune.

The chief minister had said mere denotification of land does not mean corruption has taken place. PTI MM RSY DIP

--- ENDS ---
Don Butler of Richmond does not like President Donald Trump and he chose a specialized license plate to express his feelings.

The letters FTRU MPK grace the back of his Lexus SUV.

But the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles sent Butler a letter in May demanding he send back the plate because it violates state rules against plates that are profane, obscene or vulgar.

Butler requested a hearing, and hell make his case to keep the plate on Monday morning.

Theres no question that its an anti-Trump message, he said in a phone interview Friday.

But the former middle school teacher and retired lawyer says he doesnt understand DMVs concern. The F and K in the plate are the first and last letters of the word flunk, he said, and thats why he chose them.

I think that Trump has flunked miserably, he said.

Apparently theyre trying to read something else into it. ... I have no idea what they think it means.

He wonders if someone complained to the DMV about his plate.

If somebodys offended by the F and K ... well, they have a dirty mind.

The DMV has guidelines for personalized plates.

Its website says DMV will cancel and recall any personalized license plates which were issued and subsequently discovered to be in violation of the Guidelines.

Violation of the guidelines could be any combination of characters that in any way carries a connotation which may reasonably be seen by a person viewing the license plate as profane, obscene or vulgar in nature, sexually explicit or graphic, excretory related, or numerous other reasons related to drugs or violence.

A DMV spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to documents the DMV sent to Butler, the agency seems especially concerned with the letter F. DMV sent him a printout of the Urban Dictionary entry under F, which says it is short for an obscenity.
By Shreya Goswami: Shilpa Shetty knows just how to slay, especially when it comes to fashion. You'll rarely ever find this Bollywood diva making a fashion blunder. In fact, you just have to admit that she's upping her fashion game with every public appearance.

And that's just what she did when she stepped out in style with her husband, Raj Kundra. The couple was located in Bandra, Mumbai, and while Kundra looked comfortable in casuals, Shilpa just stunned us with her power dressing.

Photo: Yogen Shah

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The power-shoulder pattern on her grey jumpsuit, designed by Ashish N Soni, was beautiful. The ruffles on the three-quarter sleeves added just the right amount of drama.

Also Read: 7 pictures to let you know that Shilpa Shetty has a thing for weird sarees

The subtle colour of the jumpsuit maintained the class and elegance that comes with suiting up. You know just as well as we do that this sort of jumpsuit-formal hybrid is all we need to strike that balance between trendy and formal, and it works no matter what the occasion.

Photo: Yogen Shah

The ultra-feminine bow at the back adds a dash of chic to this already perfect outfit. The white Kurt Geiger heels are well-paired with the outfit. There are two things that Shilpa changed between her outdoor and indoor appearances.

Photo: Yogen Shah Photo: Yogen Shah

Her own Instagram posts show her wearing very classy and minimalistic Swarovski earrings, which elevate her plush look. When she was spotted in Bandra, however, the earrings were absent--and we missed the element they added to her appearance.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/theshilpashetty

Also Read: Sonakshi Sinha looks pretty as a rose in this pink jumpsuit

The same goes for the hairdo. The high pony she sported for her Instagram post was just perfect. And while we loved the soft waves she decided to sport in Bandra, we feel the pony went better with the outfit.

But no matter what little changes she makes in her accessories or hairdo, one just has to admit that Shilpa nailed the vintage look like very few others have.

--- ENDS ---
Its August and most voters havent even focused yet on whos running for governor, which means today were going to look ahead to November, and the morning after the election.

For the next few months, Democrats and Republicans will fill your ears with talk about what it means for one of these candidates to win  either grand pronouncements about the utopia that will reign if their guy wins, or dire warnings about what it means if the other guy does.

Lets look at the flip side of that, though. What will it mean for Democrats if Ralph Northam loses? And what will it mean for Republicans if Ed Gillespie comes up short?

Our focus here today is not on the policy implications, but the politics: What, politically, is at stake in November? A lot, actually.

The Democrats: If Northam loses, three things are absolutely certain.

First, the left wing of the party will blame Northam for being too middle-of-the-road. Theyll say that Tom Perriello would have done a better job of energizing the progressive base.

Second, moderates will blame Perriello, saying his unexpected primary challenge weakened Northam and left the nominee hobbled  and low on cash  going into the fall campaign. This will be the Virginia equivalent of how some Democrats are still re-fighting the Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders primary campaign of 2016, and it wont be pretty. It also means Perriello would have a logical reason to claim hes the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2021.

Theres no objective reason to think that Perriello would have run better than Northam. Virginia has never elected a statewide candidate who has run as far to the left as Perriello positioned himself in the primary. While Perriello would undoubtedly have energized some activists that Northam hasnt  such as pipeline opponents  he would have run the risk of losing swing voters to Gillespie. Thats still a hypothetical case, though, and Democratic idealists and realists will probably argue for years over the result.

The third thing that would happen after a Northam loss is that the debate over why? will resonate nationally  and a lot of the local nuance will get lost. One important piece of local nuance: Northam simply isnt as good a candidate as Gillespie is. Gillespie is smoother, quicker with the sound bite, better in a debate. If Northam wins, it will be because his aw shucks personality seems more authentic than Gillespies polished persona. But if Northam loses, some may say his candidate skills simply didnt match up.

Thats not what national commentators will see, though. What theyll conclude is that Northam couldnt win a state that Democrats had carried in the past three presidential elections, a state where three of the past four governors have been Democrats. Theyll also see that Democrats will have hit a record low for governorships. When West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice switched parties, he became the nations 34th Republican governor, tying an all-time high. A Northam loss would push that to a record 35 Republican governors and give the GOP control of both the governors mansion and state legislature in 27 states.

Against that national backdrop, a Northam defeat would simply be devastating for Democrats. Theyve consoled themselves by how close theyve come in special elections for House seats this year  even though those were fought on Republican terrain and they eventually lost. But if Democrats lose a governorship thats been in Democratic hands, in a state thats been trending Democratic, well, theres simply no good way to spin that. That would be an embarrassment of the first magnitude, and further fuel the partys in-fighting over how to proceed. Wed see more bloodshed than on any episode of Game of Thrones.

If Democrats think things are bad now, they only need to imagine President Trumps tweets the morning after Northam loses. If thats not enough to energize any Democrats still lukewarm about Northam, then they deserve a Republican victory.

The Republicans: The stakes for Republicans arent quite as high as they are for Democrats. If Gillespie loses, there are two logical explanations. The first is that Virginia has been trending Democratic for some time now. The second is that Trump was a dead weight even for Gillespie, a normal, establishment Republican who spent a good part of 2016 distancing himself from Trump. Still, that wont stop Republicans from arguing over the results, because thats what parties always do after a defeat.

If you believe that a Gillespie loss was pre-ordained no matter who sits in the White House, then it means Republicans will have to re-think how to win in a state whose demographics are changing in ways that work against them. However, not many Republicans are likely to believe Gillespie would have lost no matter what. While Democrats have won a string of statewide elections in Virginia, theyve all been close. Theres no reason  yet  to believe that the Old Dominion is a lock for Democrats. That means if Gillespie loses, the focus will surely turn to the Trump effect.

Trump didnt win Virginia, so a Trump presidency doesnt help any Republican running statewide. That means Republicans will have to confront the Trump question: Should Gillespie have done a better job distancing himself from Trump? Would that have helped him run better among suburban voters, who might have been sympathetic to Gillespies tax-cutting message but also tend to be the biggest Trump skeptics? Or should Gillespie have embraced Trump more tightly, on the theory that that would have energized the Trump base in an off-year election? Thats the Corey Stewart argument.

Many of the post-election lessons will depend on how the House of Delegates races play out. Republicans hold a commanding majority in the House now, but Democrats hope to make some significant gains. If they do, that would feed the Republican concern that Trump is a losing proposition for Republicans everywhere as we head into the 2018 mid-terms. If they dont, then perhaps a Gillespie loss in the governors race would stand alone, having turned on things that dont have any grand meaning.

The bottom line: Democrats have more to lose in this years governors race than the Republicans do, while Republicans have a lot more to gain.

Whether out of fear or out of hope, thats why both national parties have a lot riding on what Virginians do in November.
CHRISTIANSBURG  Montgomery County Commonwealths Attorney Mary Pettitt said Friday her office will not handle any case involving newly reinstated defense attorney Joseph Graham Painter.

Pettitts public statement of her position came three days after the Virginia State Bar posted an order online restoring Painters law license. The bars disciplinary board decided in May to lift a suspension it imposed in 2013, when Painter was found not guilty by way of insanity of charges that he gave guns and drugs to a convicted felon who had been his client.

While Painter still was awaiting resolution of the 2013 charges, he was in Pulaski Countys courthouse and told an assistant prosecutor that he was going to eliminate Mary Pettitt from the gene pool. That statement was treated as a threat and a judge revoked Painters bond and sent him back to jail to await trial on the drug and gun charges.

On Friday, Pettitt wrote in an email that the 2013 threat and a separate incident between Painter and one of her assistants would make it difficult for her to carry out her usual duties in a case involving Painter.

Given that Painter has threatened my life and acted aggressively enough in my office towards another prosecutor to cause an officer to check to see what was going on, I feel it would be impossible to maintain a professional relationship with Painter, Pettitt wrote. To avoid any appearance of impropriety I would ask that a special prosecutor be appointed to prosecute any charges against defendants represented by him.

Pettitt did not detail the encounter between Painter and the other prosecutor, nor did she say whether it occurred around the time of Painters statement about eliminating her.

Contacted by phone Friday, Painter said he thought Pettitt was being unprofessional.

Its a lie that I was aggressive with someone in her office, Painter said. He said he remembered the encounter to which Pettitt referred but said it was prompted by what he saw as an assistant prosecutors anti-Semitism toward one of his clients. He said he only replied strongly to counter bigotry.

Painter declined to name the assistant prosecutor and said he thought the person no longer works in Pettitts office.

As for the threat to eliminate  from the gene pool, Painter said he was speaking politically. He said he had just urged Peggy Frank, a Pulaski County assistant commonwealths attorney, to run against Pettitt for the top prosecutors job in Montgomery County. Frank unsuccessfully ran against Pettitt in 2012.

It was moments after speaking to Frank, Painter said, that he spoke to another Pulaski County assistant prosecutor, Travis Epes. When Epes asked how he was doing, Painter said he answered that he planned to eliminate Pettitt.

That was a political threat, Painter said.

Epes testified at Painters 2013 bond revocation hearing. He said he asked Painter how he was doing, and Painter made the gene pool comment.

Epes testified that he asked Painter to clarify what he meant and Painter said bar complaints and lawsuits, bar complaints and lawsuits, before walking away. Epes was unsure of what to make of the statements and reported them to his boss, Pulaski County Commonwealths Attorney Mike Fleenor, before calling Pettitt, he said.

The 2013 suspension of Painters law license was the second for the longtime attorney. In 2003, the state bar pulled his license for a year after a case in which Painter entered guilty and no contest pleas to misdemeanor charges tied to setting grass fires in the Prices Meadow subdivision being developed near his residence at the time in Blacksburg. He received a suspended five-year prison sentence and was ordered to move away from the subdivision.

In 2003, Painter told a panel of judges considering whether to suspend his license that he had suffered anxiety and depression and did not remember starting fires.

In 2013, Painter was sent to a mental health facility after being found not guilty by reason of insanity on the drug and gun charges. He was released, then sent back to the facility by court order in May 2015, according to court records.

In December 2015, Painter was granted conditional release with requirements that he continue taking a prescribed regimen of medications and also continue in various outpatient programs.

In September 2016, Judge Mosby Perrow III, the substitute judge who handled Painters 2013 charges and their aftermath, ordered another six months of conditional release for Painter.

But Perrow included in the order that if Painter continued to comply with his various requirements, Perrow would have no problem releasing him from supervision in six months.

On April 21, Perrow entered an order that said Painter had complied with all conditions of his release. The judge wrote that after reviewing a report from the New River Valley Community Services Board, he had decided to release Painter from supervision.

The state bar disciplinary boards decision to reinstate Painters license was entered May 11.

Painter said this week that he is trying to re-start a criminal defense practice and is going through the process of having his name put on court lists so that judges can appoint him to represent defendants who cannot afford to hire their own attorneys.

That touched off the unusual impasse with Pettitts office.

Jane Sherman Chambers, director of the Virginia Commonwealths Attorneys Services Council, wrote in an email Friday that she could not recall a situation where a commonwealths attorney recused herself from any case involving a specific attorney.

Donald Caldwell, longtime Roanoke commonwealths attorney, said he also could not recall a similar situation. Noting that he was not familiar with all the details in Montgomery County, Caldwell said he thought Pettitt was doing the right thing  if only to maintain the appearance of fairness for Painters clients.

The ends of justice require neutrality and if a relationship is tainted by distrust, it is probably best to get out of a case, Caldwell wrote in a follow-up email.

In reality, I dont know how many criminal cases Mr. Painter will handle in the future, Caldwell added, so it probably will be a situation that can be handled by surrounding CAs upon request.
By India Today Web Desk: Sidharth Shukla's behaviour on the sets of Dil Se Dil Tak has gone from bad to worse. Sidharth, who is known to create commotion on a regular basis on the sets, hurled abuses at his co-star Kunal Verma and also threw water at him.

According to reports Kunal was annoyed with Sidharth's brash behaviour and had asked him to behave politely with everyone on the sets. His suggestion didn't go down well with the actor and since then, the duo have been at loggerheads.

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Kunal confirmed the reports to India-Forums and said, "Yes, that's true. After that incident, Siddharth used to constantly talk nonsense to me but I chose to ignore him. But the situation only worsened further, as while I was shooting for a scene yesterday, Siddharth, who was standing behind me, started abusing me and calling me names that I am ashamed to even talk about. I kept quiet and maintained my decorum. But when things went out of the proportion, I told the production people to wind up my shoot as fast as possible or use my dupe for the scene as I just couldn't stand him anymore. I didn't even want to see his face."

Kunal feels Sidharth needs psychiatric help. When asked about the reason for the scuffle, Kunal said to Times of India, "There was no particular reason. Sidharth has always been like that. He is an unprofessional maniac and a psycho. I think he needs a psychiatric treatment again. I heard he had gone to a rehab once and I think he needs to visit it again."

Post his scene, Kunal complained about Sidharth to the production team and asked them not keep his scenes with him. "After my shot, I complained about everything to Shital (Shital Bhatia) maa'm who is the project head. She has assured that action will be taken against him. He fought with the production unit also and misbehaved with them as well. They have a video proof of the drama and ruckus that he created on the sets. They Production house informed the channel that if Sidharth is coming on the sets, all the actors and crew will stop shooting. We will leave the show if he comes back," said Kunal to Times of India.

After speaking to the media, Kunal was facing backlash on social media. He took to Twitter and wrote, "Hi, request to all lovers and haters. You guys need to calm down. I haven't said anything false. Whatever happened with me, I said it...humiliation I have faced not you lovers and haters...So, kindly don't blame the media. It's their job and they still writing in a decent manner. God bless."

This is not the first time when Sidharth has been involved in a tiff with his co-star. More than a month back, there were reports of a fight between Sidharth and his co-star Rashami Desai.

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Also read: Dil Se Dil Tak actors Sidharth Shukla and Rashami Desai get into a fight on the sets of the show; cannot stand each other?

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The brother of one of the miners trapped underground at the Mir Mine in Yakutia, Alexey Maryin, who expressed disbelief in how the search and rescue operation was carried out and accused its organizers of hiding information, spent today two and a half hours in the mine. This was reported by the press service of ALROSA. He descended underground at 8.30 local time, together with the search and rescue group of the morning shift consisting of 22 people of mine rescuers and volunteer miners. The descent was accompanied by the representative of the Industrial Safety Department of ALROSA. Together with the rescuers, Alexey Maryin inspected the workings of the ventilation and stowing gallery.







After he was lifted from the mine, he told about the progress of the search and rescue operation in an interview given to a correspondent of a local television channel.

Did they tell you about the progress of the work?

There are two rescue teams working in one direction and there is a group of volunteer miners working in another direction. They are doing everything they can. All that is in their power.

Did you see how the rescuers are working there?

Yes. They are cutting pipes, moving away boulders, clearing blockages and preparing everything else. It is not as simple as it seems down there. It is serious.

Have they explained everything to you?

Of course, but what should I be explained? I know everything, I am a miner myself. There is nothing more to say. The task is to remove the rubble and get the guys, but this takes time.



In connection with the recent speculation and rumors about the situation at the Mir Mine and the search and rescue operations that are spreading across various Internet resources and messengers, ALROSA found it necessary to state that the employees of ALROSA have no relations to the publication of such messages. "We draw your attention to the fact that false information only exacerbates the feelings of sadness experienced by the relatives of the missing miners, whose search continues, and also misleads all those who follow the search and rescue operations," the company said in a statement published on Saturday. News and reports on the progress of the search operation at the Mir Mine are regularly published on the website of the Emergencies Ministry of Russia, as well as on the website of ALROSA. All those who are interested in obtaining reliable information about the search and rescue operations, are invited to turn to official and proven sources. We also inform that the Police Department of Mirny notified the company that the law enforcement agencies increased preventive measures to maintain public safety in Mirny and to counter the spreading of anonymous messages, which are provocative in nature and contain calls for protest actions despite the emergency regime introduced in the city after the accident at the Mir Mine. For its part, ALROSA urges the residents of Mirny not to succumb to these provocations and appeals, as they complicate the work of the rescue headquarters and jeopardize the search and rescue operations at the Mir Mine.




Frank Ocean his the stage with a complete string section earlier this week during a performance at Sweden's Way Out West Festival. The string section accompanied Ocean on a selection of tracks including "Nikes," "Good Guy," "Ivy," "Forrest Gump" and a cover of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye."

The performance is just the most recent in a string of festival dates for Ocean, who also hit UK dates at London's Lovebox and Manchester's Parklife. Ocean also made recent headlines when he brought Brad Pitt out onstage for a performance art piece. Pitt had been vocal about how Ocean's music has helped him through his recent split from Angelina Jolie:

I've been listening to a lot of Frank Ocean," he told GQ. "I find this young man so special. Talk about getting to the raw truth. He's painfully honest. He's very, very special."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Entertainment News
The mens triple jump was a battle. For several rounds, Will Claye jumped, Christian Taylor responded. Nelson Evora, the ageless Portugese triple jumper, took the bronze. Will Claye and Christian Taylor paid respect to Nelson Evora, who has been triple jumping for half of his life!

Christian Taylor, photo by PhotoRun.net

In the discussion about the triple jump, Will Claye and Christian Taylor spoke about a competition next week at 12,000 feet in the French Alps. Christian and Will want to see how altitude affects the triple jump, so that will be an interesting event.

Will Claye, photo by PhotoRun.net

It is obvious that Christian Taylor wants the new world record, as does Will Claye. They see 18.29 meters as a challenge, but they want to go much farther. Taylor suggested 18.40 meters as his goal.

We look forward to seeing Claye, Taylor and Nelson Evora, who only had one competition before this in an international venue in 2017.
Congress leader Ahmed Patel's win in Rajya Sabha polls has reinforced the fact that Sonia Gandhi continues to be the unifying force capable of bringing Opposition parties together to take on the Modi government.

By Prabhash K Dutta: After having managed to secure victory for Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, the Congress is planning to take on the BJP government there with a big Satyagrah rally on September 1. Invitations are being sent by the Congress party to Opposition parties.

But, before the Satyagrah protest in Gujarat, the Opposition will have another unity test on August 27 in Patna where RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav is holding a rally. Lalu Prasad Yadav has requested Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to attend the event.

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It has been learnt that while inviting Sonia, Lalu specifically told the Congress president to send Priyanka Gandhi if she is unable to address the Patna rally. Lalu's request betrays Opposition's loss of trust in Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

WHY RAHUL HAS FALLEN OUT OF FAVOUR

While walking out of the grand alliance last month, JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had stated that following corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, he had met Rahul Gandhi requesting him to intervene and find a way out. It did not work to Nitish Kumar's satisfaction and he joined hands with the BJP.

Entering into a fresh alliance with the BJP, Nitish Kumar had said that he worked for forging an alternative alliance of Opposition parties but the Congress (read Rahul Gandhi) failed to set up the agenda.

After BJP and JD(U) stitched an alliance in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi said that he knew this was coming. Immediately, questions were asked what Rahul Gandhi did to stop the BJP from poaching Congress' alliance partner and Narendra Modi's most vocal political opponent for years - Nitish Kumar.

Several Opposition leaders have expressed their difficulties in dealing with Rahul Gandhi. The series of electoral failures since 2014 have not done any good for Rahul Gandhi's image in public as well as the Opposition leaders.

SONIA'S CHARISMA IS INTACT

On the other hand, Sonia Gandhi commands respect of the Opposition camp. It was seen when Sonia called a meeting of Opposition leaders in July, where it was almost a full house gathering. Even a reluctant Nitish Kumar sent Sharad Yadav to represent JD(U).

The latest example of Sonia Gandhi's managerial skills was witnessed in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, where Congress was battling defection but the NCP and JD(U) MLAs voted for Ahmed Patel.

Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee have expressed their willingness to work with Sonia Gandhi but they go mum on Rahul Gandhi, who has been calling the shots for the party for the past three-to-four years.

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During this period, Rahul Gandhi failed to forge an alliance with Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal polls and antagonised Mulayam Singh Yadav during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. In Maharashtra, Congress and NCP parted ways. The NCP even went on to announce unconditional support for the BJP in Maharashtra Assembly.

OLD GUARD RISES IN CONGRESS

Rahul Gandhi is not only being distanced by Opposition leaders, but even his own party members don't feel inspired by his leadership. Recently, Jairam Ramesh and Mani Shankar Aiyar questioned his style of functioning in the face of dwindling political capital of the grand old party.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have more than once stated their preference for Sonia Gandhi to Rahul.

Many in the Congress still view Rahul Gandhi as a "part-time politician". The recent case of Mandsaur agitation showed Rahul Gandhi's failure in keeping up pressure on the government on critical issues. Rahul Gandhi visited Mandsaur and extended support to the farmers, who were on the streets and the protest had turned violent. By the time the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government started looking vulnerable, Rahul Gandhi had left the scene.

Rahul Gandhi's style of politics comes in sharp contrast to that of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who appear relentless. Narendra Modi is seen as, and often criticised by rivals for, posting congratulatory messages to BJP members on their victories even in a municipal by-poll. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi did not post a single tweet to congratulate Ahmed Patel after he snatched victory from the jaws of the BJP.

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Many have interpreted this as revival of rivalry between the Rahul Gandhi camp versus the old guard in the party. The old guard made their way to the Congress communication committee after Rahul Gandhi met with Chinese ambassador over Doklam standoff.

Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Chinese ambassador led to huge embarrassment for the party following which a committee of experts was formed in the party to advise on the subjects of national importance. This committee is now dominated by the old guard and includes leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Mani Shankar Aiyar.

The revival of the old guard in the party and Opposition's preference for Sonia Gandhi has fueled speculation that Sonia Gandh and not Rahul Gandhi will be the face of the Congress and Opposition against the Narendra Modi government in 2019-general elections.

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ALSO READ |

After Nitish's exit, Sonia sets eye on Grand Alliance 2.0

Riding on Ahmed Patel victory, Sonia seems to be back with a vengeance

NCP skips Sonia's Opposition meet, JD-U accuses her of breaking party

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: Sonia Gandhi takes a dig at RSS, says few groups opposed 1942 Quit India movement

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By Srivatsan: Director Ram's Taramani is more of social commentary than a cinema. So, he just casually slips in his views on the Tamil fishermen's issue, male chauvinism, migrant workers and demonetisation. Set in the corporate hub of Chennai, Taramani, the film is supposed to be a take on modern relationships that stereotype women, while showing the flawed face of men.

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Taramani Cast: Andrea Jeremiah, Vasanth Ravi, Anjali and Azhagan Perumal

Taramani Director: Ram

Taramani Rating: 3/5)

Althea Johnson (Andrea Jeremiah) chances upon Prabhunath (Vasanth Ravi), a strange looking man with a cigarette in hand. At the moment, Althea gets reminded of the flash news we've been constantly hearing on TV --about women getting raped and assaulted by strangers. Prabhu shuts her thoughts and says, "Calm down. I'm not going to rape you." It's a nice line coming from a stranger. The rain connects several incidents and Althea-Prabhu's stories begin to intertwine.

Unlike Althea, who is an Anglo-Indian independent woman working in an IT company, the men in Taramani are hard to define. Because the men in Taramani are one among us. In fact, Prabhu looks like the quintessential Selvaraghavan protagonist when we see him at first. He is a conglomerate of Vinod and Kathir. But Vinod from Kadhal Kondein was simple and had a darker secret as opposed to Prabhu.

Althea learns about Prabhu's past-- a BPO employee, whose life was perfect until his girlfriend (played by Anjali) broke him apart. Prabhu also reveals that he's guilty of stealing Rs 3 lakh from an anonymous man, to help his girlfriend. Perhaps Taramani itself is about the guilt of men and women. Prabhu is much better than your average heroes who lecture heroines how to carry themselves. At least, Prabhu is a blatant male chauvinist and a benevolent sexist. That we know when he jokes about his girlfriend being old fashioned and keeps referring her as "Churidar potta KR Vijaya...Saree katina Anjali Devi".

On the other hand, Althea has an equally troubled character arc. She claims to be married with a child. Prabhu doesn't buy that story, as do we. How would a gorgeous looking woman of 34-28-38 size have a child, right? You might wonder as to why would two strangers talk about their personal lives in the first place? The camera slowly pans to several buildings across Tamarani. Ram, the narrator, wryly says, "Did you guys have a problem when they constructed apartments on the river banks?" The flaws in Taramani are its biggest strength. But Althea's past makes more sense that Prabhu's. She finds about her husband's sexuality a few months after their marriage. Predictable, though this is the plot point of Taramani. It's also one of the reasons why Prabhu falls for her. In fact, there's a wonderful link between Althea 's son and Prabhu.

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Anyway, the love angle is narrated in three viewpoints or phases. The first phase is when the woman accepts the proposal. Prabhu, a jobless prick, becomes increasingly possessive of Althea. So much so that he stalks her on Facebook and asks why she has 2278 friends. He asks her to wear a skirt that covers half of 3/4th of her legs. When they blow off steam, Althea pops one cigarette. He tries to moral-police her and says, "It's not good for the child." Althea shuts him down and says, "Even you came from a mother. What good?"

Second is the when-she-trusts-you phase and here, Ram packs it with all the cliches. There's workplace harassment in the corporate world followed by slut-shaming. Sometimes, you just wanna slap Prabhu because he's you! Ram not just tells, but shows our insecurities. It gets worse when Althea's friend starts her Salsa dance with a stranger in her husband's presence. Althea asks him why he wouldn't dance with his wife. The man, who's almost twice as old as Althea casually says, "Well, I like to watch."

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But Taramani's intricacies show up in the latter half, where Prabhu suddenly becomes a psychopathic Manmadhan from Simbu's film, while Althea continues to be judged by the male gaze and called a 'bit**'. The problem with Taramani is that it fails to be the kind of film it intended to be.

Despite some terrific writing, Taramani becomes confusing and convoluted just like Prabhu and Althea who are really, really good in their characters. However, the message is clear -- that a man's disguised misogyny inevitably shows up. As Ram perfectly puts it, this is the story about "Mottai thalaikum mozhangalukum mudichi podrathu".

( The writer tweets as @LoneWolf_7126 )

ALSO READ: VIP 2 Movie Review

ALSO READ: Rajini-Akshay's 2.0 Telugu rights sold for a whopping price

WATCH HERE: Taramani Trailer

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A refresher training leading to certification of senior Yazaki EDS staff on career counselling was completed on Monday.

Fourteen staff members were recognised for their skills and knowledge on planning and delivering career counselling services.

The training was a follow up to the two-day training organised in May by the International Labour Organisation (I.L.O) and the Samoa National Youth Council (S.N.Y.C).

The General Manager of Yazaki EDS Samoa Ltd, Funefeai Oliva Vaai, acknowledged the great support of I.L.O on the capacity building and skills strengthening of Yazaki management staff.

Also on the future programmes already on plan for more programmes for Yazaki staff on the transitional period to assist with securing jobs and also access to other services that are provide by ILO partners.

While the first training covered all aspects of career counselling, the refresher trained focused on interview skills, an area identified by Yazaki as the most critical, said Tomasi Peni, the I.L.O National Coordinator in Samoa.

He added that that the I.L.O in collaboration with Yazaki EDS Samoa has planned a series of programmes to support the transition of redundant workers to other jobs.

National partners such as the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (S.C.C.I), Samoa First Union, Small Business Enterprise Center (S.B.E.C) and the Samoa National Youth Council (S.N.Y.C) are will deliver various programmes.

More information on this will be released soon.

Uelese Tupuola, the President of the Yazaki Staff Association, who also received his certification said that the trainers has already reached out to about 130 workers since May and they will plan to extend this knowledge to more before the closure.

Yazaki EDS is a member of the Samoa Manufactures & Exporters (S.A.M.E) Association and member of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (S.C.C.I). The Yazaki Staff Association is a member of the Samoa National Tripartite Forum (S.N.T.F).
The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

By Press Trust of India: US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping today reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula and agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke over phone to discuss the escalating tension after Kim threatened the US this week to fire missiles at Guam, a US island territory, after the US sponsored a resolution imposing new economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

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The two leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the White House after the phone call.

"President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour," the White House said, adding that the two leaders also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

"Trump looks forward to seeing President Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event," the White House said.

"The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," it said.

In another statement, the White House said Trump spoke with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo. "Trump reassured Governor Calvo and our fellow Americans on Guam that United States' forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America," it said.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke separately to Calvo earlier in the day, the read out said. Guam has about 7,000 US troops with almost a third of the land controlled by the US military.

ALSO READ:

Let's de-nuke: Now, Donald Trump wants all countries to dump their nuclear weapons

North Korea details Guam missile plan, calls Trump's warning a 'load of nonsense'

ALSO WATCH: Trump warns North Korea over nuclear threats, says will be met with fire and fury if it threatens US

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More and more Samoans are looking overseas for work opportunities.

This perhaps explains why so many Samoans enter in the draw for the opportunity to make New Zealand their permanent home.

Tusiona Leilua of Satapuala and Sagone Savaii can understand this.

A seasonal worker, he has travelled out of the country a couple of times.

Im a fruit picker in New Zealand and at the moment, Im back for a break, he tells the Village Voice.

Ive been working for six months as a fruit picker and I will be back at it in November so Im just currently doing some part time work at the Faleolo Solar Power.

According to the 45-year-old, his work experience outside of Samoa has broadened his understanding of the difference between working locally and overseas.

Theres a difference with a lot of things, especially with the salary. For example, my pay for one day in New Zealand is the pay for one week here in Samoa.

It has lifted a heavy load off my chest because I can afford some of the things that I couldnt before for my family. Its more than enough to cover everything.

I have realized that this is the only way for some of us to deal with the high cost of living.

I believe if you have the will to work, you also have the courage to take a risk.

And I have become so used to working that I decided to make use of my break by working at the Solar power.

I also have a plantation and I help out my wifes family with looking after their cattle farm.

You know, a lot of people are still wondering about a way to deal with the cost of living easily and my answer is; just work and look for work opportunities not only in our country but in other countries as well.
Be grateful and appreciate what you have  whether its little or a lot.

Ask Timi Simoi of Matatufu and thats what he will tell you.

He said that concerns about the high cost of living varies depending on different perspectives.

Timi is usually based in American Samoa but he visits Samoa to help his family with the plantation and other obligations.

The young man shared his thoughts with the Village Voice about life and the challenges in Samoa.

Timi embraces the beautiful life in Samoa because it is easy.

I like it here so much, we have everything I mean not everything but look at our surroundings; we can get food from the plantation, he said.

We have the sea for fishing... it is more than enough

The people are always friendly; when we run out of salt and sugar we can always turn to our neighbours for daily supplies like these.

You cant do this anywhere else.

Compared to other countries, its so hard to ask them for small things like these.

He accepts that the cost of living is pricey.

But thats because people are depending too much on imported goods

Yes electricity and water is expensive but if you manage it wisely what is there to lose?

Timi is a farmer and he enjoys his work.

He prefers being a farmer instead of being employed by someone else.

One of Timis life goals is to expand their family plantation.

His theory is to work hard during the good times so when the bad days come, he is prepared.

I am a young man and I have many years ahead to plan what I want to do in the future

However, at the moment I want to pursue first my dream of helping out my family with our plantation, expand it and maintain its goodness.
A new car for Fathers day.

Thats precisely what happened to Carlos Sialaoa of Vaivase yesterday when he drove home a brand new Chevy Sonic. Mr. Sialaoa was the winner of Haleck Motors Fathers Day Promotion but he has his younger sister to thank for entering his name in the draw.

Digicel customers simply had to text their name or their dads, which cost a $1, for a chance.

Aside from the grand price three other winners received consolation prices of $500 cash including the person who had the most entries which was Vision Afamasaga, Sanele Meletino and Faamanu Gene.

As for Mr. Sialaoa, he was speechless at first.

I was really shocked when I receive the news last night, he told the Sunday Samoan.

I didnt really get much sleep on Friday night because I was just looking forward to coming today to see if its true. This is the best Fathers Day ever and I am really blessed.

Mr. Sialaoa said its a dream come true for their family.

We dont have a car so this is our first car, he said. Its a dream come true for our little family because we dont have a car so this is our first car."

Im really happy and blessed to receive this brand new car from Haleck Motors.

But there is a funny story behind Mr. Sialaoas entry.

It was actually my baby sister who put my name in for the draw, he said laughing.

Our father passed away a few years ago and so my baby sister was the one who kept entering my name in the draw using her number."

So I am thankful to my baby sister for entering my name because if it wasnt for her, our family would not have enjoyed this brand new ride."

As for the Chevy, well, I dont know if mom is going to gift it for me because it was my sister who entered my name or well just give it for mom to drive around in it. But overall Im just really happy and blessed.
The driver of the Toyota Terios is lucky to have lived to celebrate Fathers Day today after this crash at Vaitele yesterday.

The vehicle veered off the road and rolled in front of Poloa Finance and Builders.

Police officers at the scene told the Sunday Samoan the vehicle was speeding.

The vehicle was heading inland, said one Police Officer who did not want to be named.

When he got to the new road with the tar, he lost control of the vehicle. It veered off the road, hit a block of cement and the left tire at the front came off.

The Police officer said they were patrolling the area when they saw the vehicle.

When we got here the driver of the vehicle had already been taken to the hospital by some good Samaritans, he said.

The driver was lucky to be alive.

The Police officer also used the opportunity to urge members of the public to be cautious during the long weekend.
Two Apia-based suspended Tokelau senior public servants have broken their silence over allegations against them in the islands allegedly unauthorised purchases of helicopters saga.

In an exclusive statement to the Sunday Samoan four months after they were suspended, General Manager for the Tokelau Public Service, Jovilisi Suveinakama and the Director of Finance, Heto Puka, have disputed the position by the government of New Zealand, saying they have got this completely wrong.

Mr. Suveinakama and Mr. Puka are angry about the way they have been treated by N.Zs Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (M.F.A.T), namely the former Foreign Minister, Tupai Murray McCully.

They claim the Tokelau Public Service Commission and the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau need to tell the truth about the work that had been done in the lead up to the purchase of the helicopters.

New Zealands attitude and reluctance to continue with the air service, they say, is holding back the development of Tokelau.

The boat trip from Samoa to Tokelau takes almost 30 hours whereas travel be helicopter would reduce travel time to two hours, they claim.

Without air travel, the people of Tokelau continue to be isolated. Most people find this to be an unacceptable state of affairs. In fact, there are compelling social, economic and political reasons for provision of air travel.

There is a bigger issue at stake, they said.

Fundamentally in denying the Helicopters we are denying the cries of our elders, women, children and patients from an improvement in quality of life.

We are also denying opportunities for linkages to our Tokelau international community overseas and other development that Tokelau chooses.

The implementation of the Tokelau air services developments will bring a choice for those who choose to substantially change the way they travel to and from Tokelau.

It was not possible to obtain a comment from the government of Tokelau and New Zealand yesterday. The following is the statement issued by the suspended Tokelauan pubic servants:

Speaking out following 4 months of suspension, the General Manager for the Tokelau Public Service  Jovilisi Suveinakama and the Director of Finance  Heto Puka make this joint media statement alleging that MFAT officials got Tokelaus Helicopters saga all wrong.

In February this year the NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs made comments on NZTV1 that NZ was unaware of the Helicopter purchase. The Minister also commented that Tokelau did not support the purchase.

Both comments were refuted by a joint statement which mentioned that all the Taupulega, Tokelau General Fono and the Council had approved to a Tokelau Transport Strategy which included a multi-phased air service solution.

Tokelau and New Zealand have deliberated on the air service issue over many years with a number of solutions been suggested.

Cost implications for New Zealand was a hindrance which Tokelau acknowledged.

However, Tokelau continued to look to its officials for practical solutions to address the air service aspirations for her people. As such in October/November 2015 the General Fono endorsed a proposal for a 3 Phased Air Service solution being an interim, medium and long term.

In July 2016, the General Fono endorsed the Tokelau Strategic Plan 2016  2020 which focused on some key infrastructure developments including the implementation the air service solution.

The Fono also endorsed a new financing model to support the implementation of these key infrastructure developments over a 4 year period 2016-2020 beginning with the Interim solution (helicopters).

The development of air service access into the Tokelau Islands would see the people of Tokelau cut their travelling time from 28 hours on open sea from Tokelau to Samoa down to approximately 2 hours.

This development assist generally with women, children, elderly and patients  the vulnerable members of the community who finds these boat trips torturous and unbearable.

Members of the Tokelau community overseas who have the desire to visit home yet have voiced their frustrations with the debilitating shipping services to Tokelau which has remained the same over decades.

The sea between Tokelau and Samoa commands a sea-state 5 category which is usually rough almost throughout the year.

It is cruel to continue to expect our people to travel like this given the adverse effects of climate change on our weather patterns and global progress towards other advance transport infrastructure.

We believe there are only a few people using the change in government early this year to destabilize Tokelaus development platform and assert their own development agenda.

The villages of Fakaofo and Atafu are still adamant on the air-service solution. Unfortunately some key MFAT Officials by acting and or by omission have done a grave injustice to Tokelaus development.

We understand discussions have been occurring with these MFAT officials and the very few people from one village since December 2016 which may have incited all these disruptive changes to Tokelaus development plan. These MFAT officials are now standing back and saying that this is an internal employment issue for Tokelau.

This issue points to the very heart of Tokelaus decolonization and what role NZ intends to play. This negatively impacts the relationship which has been considered a lighthouse for the UN Committee on Decolonization (UNC24).

Following the untruthful, irresponsible and ambiguous statement from the NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs in February this year they cannot now be a spectator.

The least the Minister could have done at the time is to speak with Tokelau before stating publicly to the media what he mentioned. The Minister had a responsibility to the NZ citizens of Tokelau and he failed. Since our suspension in April this year, we have requested key documents from MFAT under the Official Information Act which our lawyers are still currently pursuing.

Fundamentally in denying the Helicopters we are denying the cries of our elders, women, children and patients from an improvement in quality of life. We are also denying opportunities for linkages to our Tokelau international community overseas and other development that Tokelau chooses.

The implementation of the Tokelau air services developments will bring a choice for those who choose to substantially change the way they travel to and from Tokelau.

The joint statement states that MFAT Officials got Tokelau helicopters saga wrong and this is hurting our women, elderly and children! It is not only stopping Tokelaus development momentum but also stalls the vision towards sustainable self-governance in terms of its priorities.
Foreigners  Asians included - are not allowed to operate stores in Moataa.

This is a long-standing rule of the village, according to paramount chief, Asi Blakelock.

He was responding questions from the Sunday Samoan regarding a Chinese-owned store thats been closed.

James Zhuang, a young Chinese businessman, operates the store. Efforts to expand his business led him to Moataa where he invested $70,000 in renovation and merchandise.

However, the day the store was supposed to open, the Moataa village council stepped in and thats when everything changed, said Zhuang.

Asked for a comment, Asi told the Sunday Samoan, the landlord is one of his chiefs.

The Village Council was informed the night before the store was to open. This new business came as a shock to us when we were informed that it would be operated by an Asian man."

This has been a long standing rule of Moataa which bans Asians from opening a business in our village."

Its not just Asians, the village also bans the selling of alcohol in the village stores. The ban of alcohol to be sold in our village was also not easily accepted and we have ousted several Chiefs in our village due to that ban.

This is the decision by the village, put in place by our forefathers who had since passed away and we will not lift that ban.

Asi is adamant the Village Council will not change the foundation of the village.

The landlord should have consulted the Village Council first before he made a deal with the business man, said Asi.

He also noted villages who have Asians operating stores are regretting allowing them in the first place.

We have seen what they have done. Villages have curfews and these Asians do not respect the rules and regulations of the village."

There was a request for the Chiefs to consider this one business however it was a unanimous decision by the Village Council to adhere to the rules of the Village."

If we allow this one business, this will open the door to other Asians and we just dont want that. We respect the Asians, but Im sorry we cannot allow this to happen.

He also noted that in Moataa they only allow one denomination and its always been like that.

We dont want to change our rules; we dont want to be like other villages that have moved away from their founding rules of the village.

Zhuang of China claims hes a victim of racism in Samoa. The young businessman has been in Samoa for more than five years and working at his fathers store in Apia.

I spent $70,000 on the renovations and purchasing all of the goods for the store. It has been a month and the store is not open for business because the Village Council wont allow us to operate in the village."

I am in contact with the landlord who is trying his best to convince the village council they should reconsider their decision."

I know I am a Chinese man, and that is why the village does not allow me to open my store, yet other Samoans have opened up new shop in Moataa. I will bring no harm to the village; I will abide by the rules and regulations of the village council."

If they want me to close on Sundays I will, and even at curfew times. Although I am not Samoan but I respect the rules of the village, said Zhuang.

The businessman told the Samoa Observer the discrimination against him is not fair.

We come here to live a better life than what China can provide, yet we are not given a chance because of the color of our skin. I understand that Samoans have their rules and because I want to live here and be a part of this society I can abide by those rules.

I was taught well by my father and Im willing to do what it takes to fit into the Samoan community sadly I have not been given a chance.
Whats been nicknamed the Great American Eclipse is going to cast a large shadow on solar generation on the Golden State.

The last time a solar eclipse was seen throughout California was 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president, the L.A. Clippers were based in San Diego and solar-powered generation was largely an afterthought when it came to the grid.

But when the moon passes in front of the sun on Aug. 21, operators of Californias power system will be on high alert to ensure the grid runs smoothly.

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Thats because solar power, ranging from utility-scale to residential systems that homeowners have placed upon their rooftops, will drop suddenly as the sun is obscured. Then, in quick fashion, solar power will come back online as the eclipse passes.

The dramatic ramp-up and ramp-down will cause the California Independent System Operator to order generators to dispatch between 5,800 megawatts to 6,000 megawatts from other sources.

To put those numbers in perspective, 6,000 megawatts of electricity is enough to power between 4.5 million and 6 million homes.

Yet grid managers are confident Aug. 21 will be anything but a Black Monday, as the energy needs of Californians will be met, reliability will be maintained and no power interruptions are expected.

We are really well prepared for this, said Deane Lyon, shift manager for CAISO, which oversees the operation of about 80 percent of the states electric power system, transmission lines and electricity market.

How will the power systems operators make up for the loss in solar?

By procuring additional reserves and system resources, mostly from natural gas-fired power plants and hydroelectric dams.

You have generators that are capable of producing energy above what theyre already producing, said Lyon. So theres additional capacity to produce more energy.

Lyon estimates natural gas will probably make up more of the reserves than hydro  leaning maybe 60-40, he said  but said the numbers from natural gas would have been a lot higher if the state had not experienced such a wet winter that filled up reservoirs across California.

Had this happened last year, we would have had far less flexibility, Lyon said. We would have been using far more thermal (natural gas) and other resources to keep the balance of solar that is going away on the day of the eclipse.

CAISO will also coordinate with fellow system operators who make up the Energy Imbalance Market to ensure the grid remains in balance during the eclipse, which will be seen in California between 9:02 a.m. and 11:54 a.m.

But the state will not see a total eclipse.

Northern California will experience 76 obscurity of the sun, with the numbers dropping for areas in Southern California. San Diego is expected to see 58 percent of the solar eclipse.

Still, California system operators will have more to contend with on Aug. 21 than other states will, simply due to the sheer amount of solar energy the state has online.

California accounts for more than 40 percent of the nations utility-scale solar capacity, about four times larger than the state in second place, North Carolina.

And the 40 percent figure does not take into account rooftop solar installations that have become a staple of area suburbs because the U.S. Energy Information Administration does not count photovoltaic systems of less than 1 megawatt of capacity because they are too difficult to track.

Lyon said rooftop solar customers will notice the eclipses effect on the software monitors of their home installations.

You will definitely see a drop off and then an increase when the sun comes back over those three hours, he said.

Officials at San Diego Gas & Electric said the eclipse will not affect ratepayers electric bills.

At SDG&E, planning and preparing for a solar eclipse is no different than preparing for a storm or heat wave, company spokeswoman Allison Torres said. Predicting how the obstructed sun will interfere with solar production has added another level of complexity to our everyday operating procedures, but we want to reassure our customers that we have secured enough resources to meet their energy needs  even with significantly less solar generation on hand.

The prime viewing spots for the eclipse include Oregon on the West Coast and North Carolina on the East Coast, where the eclipse will be seen in its totality.

Hotels in the path of the eclipse have been sold out, with some charging well over $1,000 a night, and airfares have soared to cities nearby.

Sales are brisk for glasses that are safe for watching the eclipse. Fears of traffic jams on interstate highways are running so high the Idaho Trucking Association has placed restrictions on vehicles carrying large loads.

Trying to take advantage of eclipse ecstasy, Krispy Kreme this week unveiled a dark chocolate doughnut to commemorate the momentary darkness coming later this month.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

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A group of property owners and marijuana-business operators filed suit against San Diego County on Friday, alleging that a March vote to prohibit new pot operations and phase out existing ones is unconstitutional.

Passed in March on a 3-2 vote of the Board of Supervisors, the prohibition amounts to an illegal taking of property  millions of dollars they spent prior to the ban to secure permits for their businesses, the lawsuit contends.

The plaintiffs are a group of nonprofit collectives and limited liability companies seeking to grow and distribute marijuana for medical purposes. The drug was also approved for recreational use by California voters last November.

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The lawsuit accuses county officials of wrongly intervening in their approval processes, which included following advice and directions of the San Diego Sheriffs Department.

Unless petitioners are permitted to develop their properties pursuant to the original plans they submitted to the county and which were approved by the countys Planning Development and Services (PDS), petitioners will lose thousands of dollars in investment and San Diego County will be denied access to lawful medical marijuana facilities, the complaint states.

County spokesman Michael Workman said he could not comment on pending litigation.

The ban was approved after a contentious Board of Supervisors hearing March 15.

Several of the plaintiffs testified at the March hearing that in addition to damaging their business interests the ban would harm patients who rely on marijuana as medication.

Nonetheless, a majority of board members supported the prohibition. Supervisors Dianne Jacob, Bill Horn and Kristin Gaspar also imposed a five-year sunset on existing collectives, meaning that previously approved dispensaries and pot companies would no longer be permitted by 2022.

The plaintiffs complained in the lawsuit that five years is not enough time to recoup their investments.

Supervisors Ron Roberts and Greg Cox opposed the ban, saying the county should bend to the will of the majority of voters who embraced legalized marijuana. In San Diego County, 57 percent of voters approved Proposition 64 on the November ballot.

The county marijuana ban only affects pot operations in the unincorporated sections of San Diego County, not those within incorporated cities. The complaint was filed by property owners and would-be growing operations in Ramona, Valley Center, Lakeside and outside El Cajon.

According to the suit, plaintiffs invested a combined $4 million-plus in property, permit fees and other costs in order to comply with the county policies on the books before the March ban.

County rules dictating where the businesses could operate pitted the prospective operators against each other in a race for approval, because only 147 sites were identified as permittable, the suit said.

If a petitioner acquired a property and a rival acquired a nearby property, there would be a race to gain county approval first because whoever gained approval would exclude their competitor due to the county separation requirements, the lawsuit states.

As a result, plaintiffs hurried to buy or lease available properties and comply with planning and sheriffs department rules.

Under the common law, if the county were granting petitioners their vested rights, then petitioners should be permitted to cultivate medical marijuana per the provisions in the original ordinance under which they filed their plans to the county, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also accuses county officials of destroying records collected by senior staff, who prior to the ban were tracking applications as they wound through the approval process.

Planning officials ordered county staff to destroy those records, delete all computer files, emails, reports and other records concerning the medical marijuana permit processing, the lawsuit states. The medical marijuana matters (or as staff referred to it MeMa or MMJ) were all removed from the county website.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has long opposed marijuana, both for medicinal and recreational use. The county sued to overturn state medical pot laws, but lost its arguments at every level of state and federal court. Supervisors voted to appeal each losing decision to a higher court, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to take up the complaint in 2009.

The lawsuit Friday was filed by entities OutCo Laboratories Inc., High Sierra Equity LLC, Downwind 27 Inc., Olive Tree Patients Association, LLI Holdings LLC, Bear Flag Group Inc., T&M Real Estate Holdings LLC, San Diego Natural Inc., Management Resource Partners LLC, RRR Investments and Survivormedz Inc.

Individual plaintiffs include Austin Birch, Renny Bowden, Stephen Lake, Chris Murray, Darren Machulsky, Scott Corlett and Anthony Cioe.

The case was brought by San Diego attorney Maria Severson, who is seeking unspecified damages and a judges declaration that San Diego County violated the statutory, contractual and constitutional rights of her clients.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
A little-known San Diego company has an unbeatable deal for select residents who wish to stream all of their favorite local TV stations. That company is Telletopia, and its offering completely free service to residents of four downtown area high-rises.

Maybe you remember Telletopia. Last year, I covered the companys ambitious plan to deliver all available local-market stations to consumers without a cable package. At the time, founders Gary Koerper and Michael Librizzi were waiting for the Federal Communications Commission to adjust rules governing retransmission consent so they could negotiate licensing deals with broadcasters.

That never happened.

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At some point it became clear that this was not an issue that the FCC was going to take up and move forward on, Koerper told me.

But instead of tabling Telletopia altogether, Koerper decided to take advantage of an age-old broadcasting exemption that lets owners of multi-family units retransmit antenna signals within their buildings. Its called a master antenna television system, or MATV for short, and its completely legal.

Its been done for decades, Koerper said. So we thought, OK, maybe we can take our user interface into that market.

The result is that for the past 90 days Telletopia has been working on a buliding-by-building basis to bring its web-based local TV product to would-be or existing cord-cutters who still need their local station fix.

As it stands, residents at CityFront Terrace, Park Laurel, The Grande North and The Grande South can stream ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TBS, KUSI and KPBS on any web browser, or using the 4th generation Apple TV, free of charge.

Telletopia is also selling a DVR service with unlimited storage for $10 a month, with content expiring after 30 days.

The only major caveat is that Telletopias streaming service only works inside the persons building, meaning that customers cant watch when theyre away from home. Thats potentially a deal-breaker for younger, smartphone-obsessed consumers, but its a restriction required by the FCCs rules.

Still, free is free.

Before you get too excited about Telletopia coming to a building near you, I should warn you about something.

Telletopia, for the time being, is merely a hobby for Koerper, a Comcast and Qualcomm alum, who works full-time for a Carlsbad robotics company. Koerper and Librizzi, an ecoATM co-founder whos stepped away from day-to-day duties with Telletopia, pumped more than $500,000 of their own money into the endeavor over a four-year period.

I got a real job, Koerper said. Its come to that.

That means Telletopia 2.0 is still a work in progress, with its future very much dependent on the former wireless communications executives ability to find a profitable niche in between the Netflixs and Sling TVs of the streaming media landscape.

Is there really a market at the really, really low end? And is there money to be made? Koerper said.

He doesnt have the answer, but he is encouraged by turnouts to Telletopias wine and cheese parties, which are educational events held in each building where the company operates.

We get fantastic turnouts  and it is not millennials at all, he said. They desperately want to cut the cord, they just dont know how to.

And, as I know from writing this column, they cant live without broadcast networks.

Of course, many of the cable alternatives such as PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV are aggressively adding these stations, but theyre also doing so with steeper prices that are starting to creep closer to the costs of old-fashioned cable bundles.

To discuss Telletopia and all things streaming TV, join our Facebook group, SDUT cord-cutters.

Also:

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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
The 12th annual Cardiff Dog Days of Summer is coming back to Cardiff Sunday with more than 100 dog-related vendors and rescue groups, pet adoptions, live music and dog contests along with kid activities, beer and wine and food trucks.

This year, the dog-centered festival will be at the Encinitas Community Park next to the Maggie Houlihan Dog Park and is slated to include a Makers Market Row where local artisans sell handmade goods and a Rescue Row presented by Encinitas-based Rancho Coastal Humane Society where folks can adopt pets from local rescue groups.

The City of Encinitas Pet Health Expo will offer on-site pet services, such as microchipping, pet licensing, vaccinations and health screenings done by the County of San Diego Department of Animal Services.

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Dogs can try out the Kamp Kanine agility course and enter a contest with categories ranging from Cutest Puppy, Best Looking Big Dog and Best Looking Small Dog to Best Trick, Best Dressed and Dog/Owner Look-A-Like. Ribbons will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place with a goodie bag of prizes.

Contest registration is 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on the day of the $5 cash per entry, $6 for credit/debit.

The fest is from noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at the Encinitas Community Park, 425 Santa Fe Drive and is hosted by Cardiff 101 Mainstreet and the City of Encinitas.

Free admission.

For more information visit cardiffdogdaysofsummer.com
By PTI: By Yoshita Singh

United Nations, Aug 12 (PTI) A UN human rights expert has expressed concern over an army battalion flying into Rakhine state in western Myanmar, saying the government must ensure security forces respect human rights.

"This development, which reportedly took place yesterday, isa cause for major concern," said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, in a press release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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The army battalion has flown into Rakhine state in western Myanmar to help local authorities boost security in the region.

"The Government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine state," she added.

In Kachin and Rakhine states, some 100,000 and 120,000 people respectively, have remained displaced for more than five years following the eruption of inter-communal conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya.

The Special Rapporteur acknowledged the States responsibility to provide security and protect people from attacks by extremists, but said this responsibility had to cover all residents, and the authorities could not afford more security to some than others.

Lee recalled the allegations of serious human rights violations which followed security force operations in the aftermath of attacks against three border guard police facilities in Maungdaw and Rathedaung in October and further clashes in November.

"There have been increasing reports of incidents affecting the local population, including the killings of six Mro villagers on August 3," she said.

"I share the concern of the Myanmar Government and its people regarding the safety and security of those living in Rakhine state in the light of these incidents."

The expert stressed that the use of force must always be in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality to ensure full respect for human lives. Lee?s call has been endorsed by the UN the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard. PTI YAS AMS

--- ENDS ---
On Nov. 9, the Marine Corps instructor pilot gazed outside his cockpit and noted nothing but clear blue skies, the sun overhead, a light wind before him and only the smoke from a large fire in Mexico skimming west over the Pacific Ocean 19,000 feet below his F/A-18C Hornet strike fighter.

His wingman was green, new to the Black Knights of Miramars Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, and he hadnt flown in a long time. Although he kept insisting over the radio that he had a visual on the instructor, the rookie really seemed to be flying blind as he began arcing left in his turn, toward the instructor.

Over the next 24 seconds, both pilots would begin to rapidly realize that their jets were hurtling toward each other at 403 miles per hour. The instructor tried to bank up and to his right, away from his wingman, but failed.

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A loud noise pointed the instructor to his outer wing panel, now bent straight up. The instructor watched his right aileron break off, followed by what appeared to be the most of the outer wing.

Jet fuel streamed out of multiple holes and then ignited, the flames running like ivy toward his cockpit. His flight controls failed. The aircraft pitched right before corkscrewing toward the sea. Flames curled over the canopy, and then toward the planes nose.

He ejected about 30 miles northwest of the Mexican city of Ensenada.

And within hours of his rescue by Navy helicopters from the carrier Carl Vinson, a probe would begin to find out what went so horribly wrong.

Released to The San Diego Union-Tribune this past week following a Freedom of Information Act request, the thick investigative report appears to have been finished on Jan. 17.

It identifies neither the instructor nor his rookie wingman in the crash by name but finds plenty of fault in how they were trained and led before they took to the air for what was intended to be basic flight maneuvers.

In his letter endorsing the bulk of the findings in the report, Col. William H. Swan, commander of Miramars Marine Aircraft Group 11, said that the training flight was not scheduled, prepared for or authorized appropriately and both the squadrons commanding officer and his instructor pilot provided an insufficient level of supervision to mitigate the risk they identified before the exercise.

Although initially redacted in the report, entries later identified the commanding officer as Lt. Col. D. J. Byrum.

Swan faulted him for trying to cycle so many Category I  green  pilots like the wingman through the MAG-11 Turkey Shoot 2016 training event.

Merely adding a seasoned pilot like the instructor to fly alongside a rookie failed to make up for a lack of additional appropriate controls, Swan wrote, and every member of the squadron who reviewed or approved the Black Knights flight schedule shared in the blame.

Joining the squadron only eight days before the collision, the wingman became overwhelmed by the gravity of the rapidly deteriorating situation and failed to communicate his disorientation and apply correct control to his jet. The instructor over-estimated the wingmans situational awareness and failed to provide supervisory radio calls to ensure that they safely avoided each other, Swan wrote.

The wingman echoed Swans assessment, writing in his official statement that he found it hard to pick out the instructors jet in the sun. By the time he realized they were on a collision course, he immediately pushed the stick full forward in a last ditch effort to miss his aircraft, but the wings struck each other.

He had logged fewer than 10 instrument flight hours in the six months before the crash, according to the report. Due to a knee injury, he also lacked 30 day currency.

Thats a standard measure the Marines use to determine how much of an additional margin of safety will be required to perform a particular aerial skill. The wingman had tried to overcome that by spending more time in flight simulators but planners should have tried harder to mitigate the higher risk level of putting so many green pilots in the sky.

Although the wingmans fighter also suffered considerable damage  including a heavily damaged left wing, its stabilator partially missing  he drew praise from Swan for exceptional airmanship by safely landing his aircraft on the tarmac at Naval Air Station North Island.

In his letter endorsing the reports findings, Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, faulted the instructors lack of flight control during execution. That, Wise wrote, signaled that instructor pilots should have not only the requisite technical skills but also the specific experience and training necessary to become effective instructors, traits he believed the flight leader lacked.

MAG-11s Swan took aim at a chronic problem in the Marine Corps, where an aging fleet of strike fighters has eroded the time pilots can spend training in the air.

When F-18s entered the fleet, the Pentagon estimated that a Hornet would spend about 6,000 hours in the air before getting scrapped. Constant sorties providing close air support to troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan ate up many of those precious hours and the planes intended replacement, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, fell years behind schedule.

Both the Navy and Marines now want to keep their legacy Hornets going for 10,000 hours but the more time they spend in the air the more extensive the repairs and the fewer planes can go around for pilots to practice flying.

Given sustained low flight hours across the F/A-18 community, our aircrew have a smaller scope of experience and significantly reduced tactical proficiency, Swan wrote. The community will continue to operate under greater risk until both the frequency and quality of training sorties can increase. The question for us then becomes not if we can schedule a certain sortie, rather should we schedule that sortie.

Although he had compiled nearly 1,378 flight hours during a nearly decade-long career, the instructor pilot averaged about 13.3 hours per month preceding the crash. The Marine Corps goal before the collision was 15.7 hours per month.

The report repeatedly praised rescue sailors from the carrier Vinsons Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Four, who also are known as the Black Knights.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
A reserve deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department died Friday during a mountain bike race at the World Police and Fire Games, authorities said.

Jacob Castroll, 67, a reserve at the Malibu/Lost Hills station since July 2010, was found unresponsive on the Castaic bike course and taken to a Valencia hospital, where he died about 11:15 a.m., authorities said.

The Los Angeles County coroners office is investigating the cause of death, said sheriffs Sgt. Tui Wright of the Lost Hills station.

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Were terribly floored and upset at the loss, Wright said.

Castroll, a Thousand Oaks resident, owned an insurance agency in Studio City, but he had a passion for reserve work, which pays $1 a year, Wright said.

He volunteered on many sheriffs units, including weapons training, custody and DUI checkpoints. An amateur radio operator, he also was part of the sheriffs disaster communications team, Wright said.

An avid cyclist, Castroll took part in the Police Unity Tour, a national ride from the East Coast to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Sheriffs Departments Memorial Torch Relay Run, which ends at the Peace Officers Memorial in Whittier.

He was a pleasure to work with and close to everybody, Wright said.

Castroll is survived by his wife, Rody, and children Victor, Lea and Rica, authorities said.

gholland@latimes.com

Twitter: @geholland

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Fresno County sheriffs officials discussed recovery efforts Friday with the Royal Thai Consulate-General Los Angeles and the families of two exchange students who died when their car plunged into the Kings River more than two weeks ago.

The meeting came a day after the Thai Consulate warned of protests unless the students bodies were pulled from the river soon. The victims families told the Associated Press that they would consider hiring a private company to get the bodies.

We outlined the challenges were facing and also showed them some images and video so they can get a better perspective said Tony Botti, a spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriffs Office. It established a good one-on-one relationship.

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The crumpled vehicle was first spotted at the bottom of the treacherous river gorge last month, not far from Convict Flat Campground in Hume. The rapid lies between two canyon faces more than 500 feet high.

Fresno County sheriffs officials have been trying to determine the safest way of recovering the bodies, which are believed to be inside the vehicle.

In a Facebook post, the Thai Consulate explained Fridays discussions with sheriffs officials to its community, noting that the agencies involved were making the recovery efforts a top priority and would not allow any private agency or person to recover the bodies because such efforts could be fatal and illegal.

The recovery must be very careful, the Facebook post read. The torrents and rapids are about 30 feet away from the point where the car is stuck and there are three more rapids in the same manner.

Botti said authorities cannot use a helicopter to recover the car because the vehicles structural integrity is unknown and because the canyon poses dangerous conditions to the aircraft.

You might rip it in half and get part of it, he said of the car. Theres also a wind factor. The canyon zigzags and creates strange wind patterns, so if you send a helicopter, it can joggle the aircraft and make it dangerous for personnel.

The torrents and rapids are about 30 feet away from the point where the car is stuck and there are three more rapids in the same manner.  Thai Consulate, Facebook

For now, officials are monitoring the flow of the river and hope that by midweek, it will have receded enough so that recovery crews can retrieve the bodies, Botti said.

According to the sheriffs office, the cars occupants are believed to be a man and woman from Thailand who were attending the University of South Florida on an exchange program. Authorities think they accidentally drove through a curve on Highway 180 and plummeted to the river.

The vehicles airbags deployed, making it virtually impossible to see inside the vehicle from a distance.

Authorities have used a military helicopter and planned to use a drone to survey the conditions in the river and the car, officials said.

The Thai Consulate said the two were staying at the Reedley Inn as part of a visit to Kings Canyon National Park. They were driving back into the park at the time of the crash.

Authorities have not identified the victims, but the Fresno Bee said they were Bhakapon Chairatanathongporn and Thiwadee Saengsuriyarit.

Vaibhav Patel, 34, told The Times on Saturday that the students had checked into his familys 22-room motel, about 10 miles south of Highway 180, on July 25. Patel said his mother met the students and described them as really nice people.

He said the students had rented the room for two nights and were supposed to check out Thursday. That morning, Patel said, his parents went into the room to do housekeeping and noticed that the students belongings were still there and they were nowhere to be found.

The family thought maybe they stayed in one of the parks and camped overnight. But by Thursday night, when they hadnt seen them, his parents had a bad feeling, Patel said.

His father said that if the students didnt return the next morning, they should file a police report just in case they got stranded and didnt have a signal, he said.

On Friday morning, Patel called the police.

Later that day, law enforcement officials came to the motel and said theyd found a red car in the river but couldnt tell whether it was the students because it was so far down. Patels mother remembered the red car, and their security camera footage showed the rental vehicle.

Patel said the officers wouldnt say it was the students car, but he had a gut feeling that it was. This is too much of a coincidence, he thought.

Days later a local news report named the students, confirming what he already knew.

After we heard the news, we just prayed for their family, that hopefully everyone is OK and they stay strong, he said.

Patel said he is a registered nurse who works in a nearby hospital and is used to dealing with death. He said he could understand the frustration of families over not being able to immediately recover the bodies.

For this long? Its still shocking, for someone to be stuck this long, for the family not to have closure, he said, shaking his head.

At least a couple of times a day I think about it, he said. Its like, when are they going to get the vehicle out? With the technology and everything, how can they not? But then you think about it, and its putting someone elses life at risk.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report. Branson-Potts reported from Reedley, and Vives and and Serna reported from Los Angeles.

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UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This story was updated with new information about the victims.

This story was originally posted at 1:10 p.m.
Two former executives for Singapore-based defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis were sentenced in San Diego federal court to prison Friday for their roles in a $35 million fraud against the U.S. Navy.

Neil Peterson, who served as the vice president for global operations at Glenn Defense Marine Asia, was sentenced to 70 months, and Linda Raja, the general manager for Singapore, Australia and the Pacific Islands, got 46 months.

The firm provided husbanding services  such as fuel, trash removal, food, water and security  for visiting Navy ships in ports throughout Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

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Prosecutors said both executives were key players in Francis scheme to overbill the Navy for supplies, services and port authority tariffs.

The scheme involved submitting fake bids from competing companies  either inflating the competitors price or lying that the competitor could not provide the necessary services  ensuring GDMAs bids always came out on top.

Peterson, 39, and Raja, 44, also admitted to helping create fake port authorities and charging the Navy fraudulent port tariff rates.

Free from the constraints of competitive bidding, GDMA and (Raja) held what amounted to a blank check, which they used to inflate prices and overcharge the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in its sentencing memorandum.

In one case, Francis asked the general manager of his Thailand operations to consult with Raja on how to prepare fraudulent billing documents for the guided-missile destroyer Mustins port visit to Laem Chabang, Thailand, in 2011.

Raja helped him format the documents so they appeared more authentic.

GDMA ended up overbilling the Navy for that port visit by $1.6 million, prosecutors said.

In arguing for prison for Peterson, prosecutors pointed to emails that appeared to show him offering or coordinating bribes to Navy officials.

Need the latest sced bro. please, he emailed a petty officer charged in the scam.

And in 2012, he reached out to a lieutenant commander who was also eventually charged, and the two agreed to get reacquainted over beers sometime.

Peterson forwarded the exchange to Francis, saying Were in Business.

Peterson and Raja were arrested in Singapore in connection with the case and extradited to San Diego in October. They have been in federal custody since.

Co-workers and others, including a former Navy commander, praised Rajas work ethic in letters to the judge.

Her attorney, John Lanahan, said Raja was conflicted by her duties at GDMA.

She knew the current practices of GDMA were wrong, but she regarded Glenn as a father figure who had favored her in the patriarchal culture of Singapore, in which the Confucian values of loyalty and obedience to authority are paramount, he wrote in his sentencing papers.

In her own letter to the judge, Raja expressed remorse for her actions, saying she gave all of herself to the job at GDMA and expected her boss to have her best interests at heart.

I put my trust and gave my loyalty to my employer but sadly my trust and loyalty was exploited, she wrote.

Petersons sentencing papers were filed under seal, although prosecutors pointed to an assertion his lawyer made that the Government cannot deny the value of the decades of work (Peterson) performed servicing U.S. Navy vessels in numerous ports across Southeast Asia.

Prosecutors dismissed the notion, saying Petersons criminal conduct has resulted in catastrophic consequences.

Twenty-one current and former Navy members have been charged in the wide-ranging scheme, as well as five GDMA executives, including Francis.

Many have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
At least three people were killed and 35 injured after a violence-filled Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalists had gathered for one of their largest rallies in at least a decade, only to see their event end in chaos and national controversy.

Bloody street brawls broke out between dozens of anti-racism activists and far-right attendees, many of whom carried shields, weapons and Nazi and Confederate battle flags. One woman was killed when a driver plowed a sports car into a crowd of protesters; he was arrested and charged with murder and other crimes. Two troopers died when a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed near the city after monitoring the chaos.

By the end of the day, top political officials around the nation, both Republicans and Democrats, were nearly unanimous in denouncing racism and the violence that stemmed from the rally, which was called off before it could even begin.

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But in a television statement that drew criticism from many of his fellow Republicans, as well as from Democrats, President Trump blamed the violence on many sides, on many sides. As he did repeatedly during his presidential campaign, Trump avoided direct criticism of the nations burgeoning white nationalist movement, whose leaders have openly and repeatedly embraced Trumps presidency.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

His position drew widespread rebukes. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of Trumps rivals from last years race, for example, said it would be very important for the country to hear Trump describe events in Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by white supremacists.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was far blunter.

I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today, McAuliffe said in a Saturday evening news conference. Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you.

McAuliffe added, You came here today to hurt people, and you did hurt people.

Saturdays violence involved political forces that have been building on the left and the right for years, as anti-racism activists and white-power advocates have battled each other  on the Internet and increasingly in the streets  over the meaning of the nations traumatic racial history and its course for the future.

The original reason for Saturdays Unite the Right rally was a battle over Charlottesvilles ordered removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. The statue is one of many Confederate symbols loathed by anti-racism advocates but embraced by many white Southerners, who see them as part of their heritage, as well as by white nationalists, who believe in a separate nation for white people.

As the date drew nearer in recent weeks, the event became a kind of Woodstock for the far-right. White nationalists and neo-Nazis made plans to travel from around the nation to attend and see movement luminaries such as Richard Spencer, who were proud supporters of the presidents candidacy in 2016 in large part due to his immigration agenda.

The night before the main demonstration, scores of white nationalists drew condemnation as they marched through the empty University of Virginia campus bearing tiki torches and chanting, Blood and soil!  an old Nazi slogan  You will not replace us! and White lives matter!

They outnumbered, surrounded and scuffled with a small group of anti-racist demonstrators who had come to protest them.

Saturday was a different story. Before the Unite the Right rally could even begin, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other far-right figures began brawling with large numbers of opposing protesters.

White nationalists in helmets, who were holding plastic shields, and anti-racism protesters, carrying red banners, could be seen skirmishing with each other on a city street, with someone spraying what appeared to be a crowd-control substance at the counter-protesters. Virginia state police said pepper spray was being released by crowd members.

The violence led officials to declare a state of emergency and shut down the event. Angered, far-right leaders fled the area. Some anti-racism activists burned Confederate flags that they captured from their adversaries.

Up until now, Ive never had a feeling that my own government is cracking down on me, a shirtless and damp-looking Spencer said in a livestream video after he escaped the scene, saying that anti-racists had attacked him with pepper spray and that he was kicked by police officers holding shields.

In a tweet to his allies, Spencer added: My recommendation: Disperse. Get out of Charlottesville city limits.

Protesters were jubilant, waving flags calling for solidarity and chanting anti-racist slogans such as Black lives matter! One man dressed in a clown suit with rainbow-colored suspenders held aloft a poster that read, simply, SHAME.

Soon after, the driver of a gray sports car with Ohio plates drove toward a crowd of protesters and then accelerated suddenly, plowing into at least a dozen people, sending bodies, shoes and personal belongings flying through the air.

Victims cried out in pain while onlookers howled in shock and ran from the scene, yelling for medical help.

Oh my God, someone screamed. He mowed down everybody.

Within seconds, the sports car, its front bumper dragging on the ground, reversed course and sped backwards up the street, disappearing around a corner at the next block as a bystander yelled, Get off the street! Get off the street!

A 32-year-old woman who was in the crosswalk was killed, police said. She has not been identified while officials work to notify her family. The Democratic Socialists of America said two of their members were among the wounded.

When police showed up after several minutes, they were met with angry cries from some in the crowd who felt the response was too slow.

Where were you? one of the protesters demanded. Where the [expletive] were you?

The driver, identified by officials as James Alex Fields Jr., 20, was detained shortly after and charged Saturday night with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death.

Officials have not given a motive or released a political affiliation, but on Saturday night announced that federal authorities had launched a civil rights investigation into the incident.

Shortly after, two state troopers died when a State Police helicopter crashed in the woods outside Charlottesville. The wreckage was fully engulfed in flames, according to images from local media.

The victims were identified as the pilot, Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Va.; and Berke M.M. Bates, 40, of Quinton, Va. Officials do not suspect foul play.

Our state police and law enforcement family at-large are mourning this tragic outcome to an already challenging day, the State Police superintendent, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, said in a statement.

In televised remarks, Trump remarked on the terrible events and condemned in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides, on many sides.

He added: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, were proud of our country, were proud of who we are, so were going to get this situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it, and we want to see what were doing wrong as a country.

As more reports about the days casualties came in, Trump tweeted: Condolences to the family of the young woman killed today, and best regards to all of those injured, in Charlottesville, Virginia. So sad!

Leaders from all over the country chimed in with denunciations.

Our hearts are with todays victims, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a tweet. White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated.

White supremacists arent patriots, theyre traitors, tweeted U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Americans must unite against hatred & bigotry.

The white nationalist demonstration in #Charlottesville is a reprehensible display of racism and hatred that has no place in our society, tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

But Trumps remarks  especially his blame for the violence on many sides  drew particular criticism.

The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of many sides, tweeted Virginia Atty. Gen. Mark Herring, a Democrat. It is racists and white supremacists.

Mr. President  we must call evil by its name, tweeted Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.

As events unfolded in the morning, rally organizer Jason Kessler blamed the chaos on the citys recent attempts to restrict the rallys location, disrupting organizers plans.

There are so many people that have come in, that have been Maced in the eyes, like half of our speakers have been Maced, Kessler said in a livestream video. Theres not a  single Charlottesville police officer out there protecting our guys.

Later in the evening, Kessler disavowed the driver who ran over protesters but laid the responsibility for harm on the city.

Charlottesville has blood on its hands, OK? Kessler said. We have been organizing this event for two months and we had a security plan in place to protect people. The police stood down and refused to separate the counter-demonstrators, and now people are dead.

The event also had drawn a range of counter-protesters, including anti-fascists and interfaith clergy.

Many protesters drove in from other towns in Virginia and from other states to join the counter-protest, including Mark Tinkleman, who came from Philadelphia with 10 other members of the protest group Refuse Fascism.

We tried to march to make it clear that were not going to be intimidated, Tinkleman said. This is what Trump is doing to the country  all these fascists coming together, white supremacists, the Klan, neo-Nazis. We cant ignore that.

Not all of the encounters between the far-right and the anti-racism protesters were violent, said Jen Siomacco, a 31-year-old Charlottesville resident who came out to protest the white nationalists.

Personally, she didnt see a whole lot of confrontation and aggressive violence, though there were a good number of small scuffles where some punches were thrown. But they were broken up by police, she said.

Many residents stayed home instead of going out, and area businesses, disturbed by the rally plans, shut down for the day. Some reportedly put a sign on their windows: If equality & diversity arent for you, then neither are we.

By 6:30 p.m., the streets where the clashes had occurred were largely deserted, except for large numbers of police and a few residents from houses nearby, who emerged to survey the scene and walk their dogs.

Fearing more violence, the City Council issued an emergency ordinance to give the police chief power to issue a curfew or restrict peoples ability to gather or drive outside.

At the First United Methodist Church, a few blocks from where the car crashed into protesters, volunteers had opened the church to those seeking shelter, including witnesses to the attack who were still shaken.

It was the most brutal scene Ive ever seen, said Izaac Rodriguez, 22, whose friend, Justice, was struck in the leg by the car.

Jennifer Rolf-Maloney, 24, of Virginia Beach, decided to make the two-hour drive to join the counter-protest. She was inspired by history.

Back in World War II, the Nazis came to power because people turned a blind eye, she said. This is home-grown terrorism.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

david.cloud@latimes.com

Times staff writer Cloud and special correspondent Armengol reported from Charlottesville, and staff writer Pearce from Los Angeles.

ALSO

Squeezed out by Silicon Valley, the far right is creating its own corporate world

Risky investigation, stalled agenda  Trumps in trouble, so heres his strategy

Alleged white nationalist to face charges in statehouse brawl that left seven stabbed last year

UPDATES:

8 p.m.: This article was updated with additional accounts from eyewitnesses and with comments from Paul D. Ryan and John McCain.

6:45 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details gathered from eyewitnesses in Charlottesville.

1:25 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect 19 people injured and include President Trumps remarks on the days events in Charlottesville.

12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with the death of one protester, who was struck by a vehicle.

11:45 a.m.: This article was updated with new details, including a vehicle striking several people.

10:55 a.m.: This article was updated with new details, including a tweet from President Trump denouncing the violence.

9:30 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 9 a.m.
Two people were shot in the Mission Beach Park parking lot early Saturday.

The incident began about 12:30 a.m. in the lot off Mission Boulevard, where a 20-year-old pedestrian got into an argument with occupants of a dark-colored sedan, San Diego police said.

One of the occupants got out of the car and walked toward the pedestrian while the car circled the parking lot. The occupant then got back inside the car and fired several rounds at the pedestrian while leaning out a back-seat window, police said.

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The victim was hit in the hand and received minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. A round also struck a nearby 19-year-old woman in the left leg. She was taken to a hospital.

The sedan drove off.

Police did not release a detailed description of either the shooter or car. Gang detectives are investigating.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
Recent news put to rest a year-long controversy around whether a historic aviation hangar could be saved from demolition.

In July, it was revealed that Hangar 385 at March Air Reserve Base would be relocated to the Tom Wathen Center at Flabob Airport, 13 miles north of the March field.

Founded in 1925 by Roman Warren, the air strip then known as Riverside Airport was purchased in 1943 by Flavio Madariaga and his partner Bob Bogen. Using the first three letters of their first names, the two men renamed their aquisition Flabob Airport (pronounced flay-bob). Today, it is the seventh oldest airport in California.

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We spoke recently with Beth LaRock, airport manager and director of operations at Flabob, about historic Hangar 385s next chapter.

Q. What will Hangar 385 be used for?

A. Part of the hangar will be used as a working aviation museum. We have a collection of engines and other memorabilia we hope to display. We are also planning to use some of the space for our Aircraft Restoration Project (BuildAPlane) when groups of young people, under direct supervision, restore aircraft. They are currently restoring a 1947 Stinson 108. The Tom Wathen Center at Flabob is well known for its youth education programs ranging from aircraft restoration, aviation field trips, Air Academies, and Young Eagle flights.

Q. What is the expected timeline for moving and rebuilding the hangar?

A. The move is occurring now. Rebuilding the hangar will depend upon how quickly we can get permits processed.

Q. When first constructed, Hangar 385 was known as Hangar 8. Does Flabob have plans to work with a historian, curator or other expert to restore the hangar to its original glory?

A. Our CEO, Jon Goldenbaum, has made contact with a longtime supporter of Hangar 385, (retired Air Force chief master sergeant) Bruce Henke. Henke will be part of the historical team to create displays of the history of Hangar 8. We do have some early images of the hangar, complete with the yellow and black checkerboard roof that we plan on reproducing.

Q. How is the project being funded?

A. We have an established budget for the project. The Tom Wathen Center as well as one very generous donor are funding this project. The anonymous donor is passionate about youth education programs, the mission of the Tom Wathen Center and the historical significance of Hangar 8.

Q. Is Flabob open to the public?

A. Absolutely, Flabob Airport is a privately owned, public use airport. We are well known in the aviation community for our youth programs, our vintage and antique aircraft restoration, and for being the home of EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Chapter One. Every third Saturday of the month is Display Day when aircraft owners show off their airplanes. Most second Saturdays of the month are dedicated to taking young people flying in an EAA program called Young Eagles.

Q. If additional original hangars from March became available in the future, would Flabob consider acquiring them?

A. Who knows what the future will bring  the Tom Wathen Center is always looking for opportunities to grow our programs and operations. We have a long history of acquiring buildings, moving them to Flabob and making them viable for our focus on young people and veterans.

Email: temecula@sduniontribune.com
Competition for success in the 21st-century economy is increasingly tied to an educated workforce with strong science, technology, engineering and math skills. Parents, community and business leaders, and policy makers trying to keep and grow jobs in California should be shocked that in just a few short years California has won the race to the bottom.

According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), children in poverty in California public schools now perform below their fourth-grade peers in math in every other state and the District of Columbia. Over half of Californias K-12 students are in poverty, which makes our academic decline particularly alarming.

At the same time, the California Legislature is poised to pass a bill that would cement this decline by doing serious harm to the teaching profession. AB 1164 by Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, rewards our worst-performing teachers and puts them firmly on the path to lifetime employment.

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If passed, AB 1164 would only allow new teachers with two years of consecutive unsatisfactory ratings  the lowest rating possible  another year in the classroom along with increased job guarantees. Other new staff who may have struggled but showed signs of promise, and earned higher ratings such as needing improvement, would not even be eligible for another year of probation.

Discouraging principals from releasing the least effective adults on probation makes no sense. Why give adults who have already proven they are failing our children an easier path to a guaranteed lifetime job? This will make things harder, especially for our most vulnerable students and the hard-working effective teachers and school leaders who are doing the difficult work every day to improve results in the most challenging classrooms.

Thurmonds AB 1164 is the embodiment of back-room deals in Sacramento that sell out our children. To free up a legislative vehicle to help the worst teachers secure a job for life, Assemblyman Thurmond gutted and amended his bill to establish an emergency child care program for foster care children to help stabilize families at the time of placement.

California is facing a severe teacher shortage, with three-quarters of school districts reporting shortages and even greater rates in high-poverty schools. But there is no research or evidence that the teacher shortage would be fixed by rewarding the most unsuccessful adults in our classrooms with another year of employment.

Focusing limited public education resources on the absolute lowest-performing probationary teachers will never be successful at scale or be hailed as the cutting-edge California Way to increase academic achievement. It will certainly do nothing to help bring new or keep great teachers in our classrooms, or encourage employers to stay or expand in California.

There are surely better ways to honor young people and attract career changers who want to enter the teaching profession. We can support them to become excellent and encourage them to stay in the high-poverty classrooms that need them the most. There are certainly struggling teachers who need help to become great teachers. But those teacher candidates are not the ones at the very bottom with consecutive years of unsatisfactory performance who would be newly protected by AB 1164.

Rather than spend tens of millions to attempt to rehabilitate the least competent adults, a fraction of that funding could be spent to counsel them into a career change to do something more suitable to their skills. The bulk of any new resources should be invested in supporting our students and the promising new teachers and those with demonstrated effectiveness in serving in challenging assignments and commitment to making teaching a career.

Rewarding failing teachers who are still on probation with another year of employment and new rights to challenge a local decision by the school principal to not employ them for life will demoralize hard-working teachers and school leaders and worsen the teacher shortage, harming the very children who need Californias best teachers the most.

Lets work together and encourage the Legislature to support students and the effective teachers in our public schools by contacting our state representatives while theyre home on summer recess. Lets tell them not to cave in to special interests in Sacramento and reject AB 1164.

Belisle is a former member of the California State Board of Education.

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President Donald Trumps habit of using Twitter and interviews to jab at his political adversaries or at fellow Republicans he finds wanting has never seemed close to constructive. Trumps contempt for political norms certainly helped get him elected and probably still pleases his millions of followers. But since he took office in January, its difficult to find a single issue where Trumps combativeness, especially on Twitter, has paid much of a dividend.

Now Trumps default instinct to escalate confrontations with those who oppose him threatens disaster. His week of swapping potshots with nuclear-armed North Korea so unnerved the world that its stocks tumbled nearly $1 trillion. Yet Trump didnt stop. Friday, he warned Pyongyang it would regret it fast if it makes one more threat against Guam, the Pacific island that is a U.S. territory.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, among others, depicts North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as rational and conventionally motivated  as trying to leverage his nations nuclear arsenal and improved missile technology into significant concessions from the United States, South Korea and Pyongyangs other neighbors. But in 2015, a United Nations Security Council diplomat compared Kim to a crazed 5-year-old in a profile in The New Yorker that dubbed him a dangerously erratic young man.

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Of course, Trump himself has also proven erratic, if not dangerously so, at least yet. The idea that a machismo-laced rhetorical squabble between two erratic men could escalate into violence is hardly far-fetched. While East Asia foreign policy expert Frank Jannuzi is among those who sees Kim as rational, he said earlier this year that he believes the only chance that North Korea would launch a suicidal attack against the United States was if Kim feared a pre-emptive attack against him  an unlikely scenario that Trump has stunningly made seem less than impossible in recent days.

Even after North Koreas successful recent tests, there are still reasons to wonder whether it would be able to hit the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, so its possible to believe that the United States might escape a war with little damage. But it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of South Koreans dont perish in such a conflict. The carnage wouldnt even necessarily come from nuclear weapons. Nearly half of the U.S. allys 51 million people live within 50 miles of the North Korean borders, where Kim has stationed up to 8,000 rocket launchers and artillery cannons able to launch up to 300,000 rounds within the first hour of a war. This is why containment of the Pyongyang nuclear threat remains by far the best U.S. option.

On Friday, another nuclear-armed superpower took a constructive course to try to de-escalate tensions. China used its state-owned newspaper to warn North Korea that it would be on its own if it attacked the United States and to say, although the nature of the support wasnt specified, that Beijing would support North Korea if the U.S. attacked.

This may help persuade Pyongyang to stand down. Americans need someone  anyone  to get President Trump to stand down. The world suddenly feels like it is in a far more dangerous place.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) The United Nations Special Envoy on Tuberculosis (TB) Dr Eric Goosbys five day visit to India, which was aimed at understanding the challenges of the national TB programme and discussing plans to eliminate the disease, ended today.

He also engaged with the Indian leadership to lend his support to further accelerate the momentum towards ending TB in the country.

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"The Health Ministry has developed a national strategic plan that is progressive and grounded in science. The challenge now is to translate this plan into action. India certainly has the talent and political will to make this happen," Goosby said after meeting Union Health Minister J P Nadda during his visit.

WHO Representative to India Dr Henk Bekedam said, " There is strong political commitment at the highest level, including the prime minister and the health minister, which has re- invigorated the TB programme."

"The government has taken steps to prioritise TB care and management, especially with the adoption of the National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Elimination 2017-2025," he added. PTI PLB ANB

--- ENDS ---
A threat from North Korea to strike the U.S. territory of Guam has everybody from President Donald Trump to Americans who had to Google, What is Guam? talking about the small island.

But what is it like for the people who actually live there amid a nuclear threat?

Well, that depends on who you ask. The governor of Guam, for one, is telling people there is no threat.

I want to reassure the people of Guam that currently there is no threat to our island, Gov. Eddie Calvo said on Wednesday as the war of words between Trump and North Korean leaders was escalating.

Hafa Adai my dear people of Guam, I know we woke up to media reports of North Koreas talk of revenge on the United States and this so-called new-found technology that allows the ...

Guam, a part of the Mariana Islands, is 2,100 miles away from the Korean Peninsula and home to Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam.

Its much more than just a military outpost, though, and people living there would be the first to point that out.

I also want to remind national media that Guam is American soil and we have 200,000 Americans in Guam and the Marianas, Gov. Calvo emphasized in his remarks. We are not just a military installation.

National reporters quickly arrived on the island to ask locals how they feel. Theyre getting mixed reactions.

I'm a little worried, a little panicked. Is this really going to happen?" Cecil Chugrad said to The Associated Press. "If it's just me, I dont mind, but I have to worry about my son. I feel like moving (out of Guam) now.

Most people that live here, they've heard this before," Aaron Burger told CNN. I'm really not concerned about it. We've been talking about this for more than two years.

Some local kids being interviewed by the local newspaper, on the other hand, said theyre freaked out.

The threat from North Korea  or other countries for that matter  is not a new one. Gene Park, who is from Guam, noted this for The Washington Post.

Guam is a nation of Chamorros, indigenous people whose culture has been ravaged and lost through almost 400 years of colonization, from Spain to the United States to Japan and back to the United States, he wrote.

(He also pointed out a great explainer piece from a fellow Guamanian at The Washington Post for those of you who might still need to Google Guam.)

Threats by North Korea against Guam ramped up in 2013, so while some around the world may have been newly introduced to Guam this week, the 160,000 people living there  including about 7,000 troops  have heard this before.

Despite the governors message of calm to the citizens of Guam, a headline blaring the message from Guam Homeland Security saying it would take 14 minutes for a missile to travel from North Korea to Guam, was printed in the Pacific Daily News on Friday.

Also on Friday, safety officials began distributing a two-page pamphlet with advice on how to prepare for and react to an attack.

Here are a few examples of what it says:

If an attack warning is issued, take cover as quickly as you can, under concrete structure or below ground if possible, and stay there until instructed to do otherwise.

Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family. Inside is the safest place for all people in the impacted area. It can save your life.

Do not look at the flash or fireball  It can blind you.

If you were outside during or after the blast, get clean as soon as possible, to remove radioactive material that may have settled on your body.

Read the full In Case of Emergency list here.

Trump and Kim Jong Uns regime have traded threats all week with Guam right in the middle. For a further look at how islanders are handling their current situation, we searched tweets with a geotag from Guam.

Here they are.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
A popular summer tradition is returning for another year as the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine performs Aug. 27 at the Bernardo Winery, 13330 Paseo Del Verano Norte in Rancho Bernardo.

The concert has sold out annually for the past six years, so tickets should be purchased early. Tickets are $25 general admission. A $160 jazz, wine and cheese package is available for four people. All tickets are available at bit.ly/2tHp5HO.

The package deal includes a reserved table for four, a cheese platter for four and a glass of wine off the winerys bar list.

The band has been performing one show per summer at the winery for the past 15 years, said Liss, the bands founder and bandleader.

As has been the groups tradition for the past nine years, a special guest artist will join the band for the performance. In years past, the guests have included big names in music like Holly Hofmann, Gilbert Castellanos, Barbara Morrison and Eric Marienthal.

Weve had a wide variety of guest artists, both instrumental and vocal, said Liss. Every year is a little different and people like that.

Liss said the guest artists allow them to show off the different kind of people who perform jazz and how they can perform with a big band group.

This year, the guest artist is jazz vocalist Slim Man. (Slim Man) has quite a following, said Liss. Hes a professional vocalist raised on the music of the Rat Pack. Hes a smooth jazz artist but he loves the old standards. Hes the real deal.

Liss said that his group and Slim Man will be using the same arrangements as used by Sinatra and other Rat Pack musicians. The songs they will perform at the concert will all be from the Great American Songbook and will include duets between Slim Man and the groups regular female vocalist, Janet Hammer, he said.

Liss formed the group in February of 1979 in Escondido, where he was living and working at the time, and the group has been performing continuously for 38 years. Im being called now the veteran big band leader in town, he said. The bands been together longer than any other in town.

The band has released four albums and is working on a fifth, which will be released later this year. Our last album went worldwide, said Liss, which included radio play. Were not just a little band from San Diego, were a worldwide entity now.

The band has 18 members including Liss, and perform at private events, festivals and anywhere else that is interested in them. Well do anything for anyone who wants to hire us, Liss said. We have a library of over 20,000 arrangements. Its easy to do any music for anyone.

More than just Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, Liss said that the bands music is very diverse and includes both traditional big band music and modern arrangements.

Email: entertainment@pomeradonews.com
Five incoming eighth-grade girls recently gained new insights into the possibilities available through STEM fields during a special camp geared for them.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, the focus of a weeklong camp at UC San Diego sponsored by the American Association of University Women. The San Diego Tech Trek camp was among eight held at college campuses throughout California this summer. The program began in 1998.

The Rancho Bernardo Chapter of AAUW selected Abigail Alvarado and Raquel Kemper from Bernardo Heights Middle School in Rancho Bernardo, Peyton Mautz from Oak Valley Middle School in 4S Ranch plus Karina Kukosyan and Chelsea Vizcarra from Twin Peaks Middle School in Poway. The girls are typically recommended by a teacher and then go through an application process.

Tech Trek combines classroom instruction with hands-on activities and off-campus field trips. The girls lived in the college dorms and were taught by women who are educators or working in STEM fields.

It costs $900 to send each girl to Tech Trek. The fee for the girls selected by RB AAUW was paid by the AAUW chapter plus the Rotary Club of Rancho Bernardo and the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club, said Pat Armstrong, RB AAUW Tech Trek coordinator.

She said in addition to the girls being encouraged to pursue STEM classes in high school and college and consider professions in those fields, the girls also learn self-confidence during the camp.

Abigail Abby Alvarado, a 12-year-old incoming Bernardo Heights eighth grader, said because she is really into science she wanted to attend Tech Trek.

One of the most interesting things she learned about were natural and man-made polymers, such as cotton, rubber and latex. I knew they were in the world, but did not know they could be man-made or natural, she said.

She got to make slime, which is a polymer, because it consists of glue, Abby said. We got to play with it, which was fun, definitely.

Her main course was marine biology, which included dissection. Ive done a few dissections here and there (before), but they make me kinda queasy, Abby said.

A field trip to the Birch Aquarium, a first for Abby, was very cool because I like the coral reef demonstration the best. I also liked looking at how fish behave in the environment.

Abby said because of Tech Trek she wants to take more science and math classes in high school. I like chemistry, she said.

As for getting a taste of college life, Abby said living in a dorm with three girls was a difference experience from sixth grade camp, but she is not yet eager for college yet because I still want to be a kid.

My experience was pretty much fun, said Karina Kukosyan, a 13-year-old incoming Twin Peaks eighth grader, who had anatomy as her main course.

We dissected a fetal pigs heart and lungs, Karina said. At my school, I have dissected a ... cow eye. I really like dissecting, but the smell is not really awesome.

Karina said her field trips included seeing equipment at a medical college and visiting the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

She said what she learned in Tech Trek will help her with future biology courses and she wanted to attend the camp for the experience.

While she has mixed feelings about living on a college campus, a first time experience for her, she added, the food was great.

Karina said she is really interested in robotics and is considering ways to get more exposure to possibilities in engineering or the robotics field.

email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com
The Congress on Saturday slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for the deaths of over 60 children at a hospital in Gorakhpur, demanding that he step down and a probe be conducted by a Supreme Court judge into the matter.

By India Today Web Desk: The Congress on Saturday slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for the deaths of over 60 children at a hospital in Gorakhpur, demanding that he step down and a probe be conducted by a Supreme Court judge into the matter.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in eastern UP's Gorakhpur along with party colleagues, expressed anguish over the deaths of these children, allegedly due to the dearth of supply of liquid oxygen.

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Dissatisfied by CM Adityanath's assurance that all possible causes that may have led to these deaths will be investigated, Azad said that the probe by the state government and the suspension of the college principal was just "an eyewash". He demanded that the matter be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.

The Congress leader was confident that if the matter was properly investigated, the state government would be found to be squarely responsible for the "gross negligence" that led to these deaths. He also said that the truth would come out only if an all-party delegation held an inquiry and the report would come in a week's time.

"This incident took place due to the laxity on the part of the state government. The state government is fully responsible for it. The chief minister, health minister and the health secretary must immediately resign and doctors should not be blamed for this", he said.

"Suspending the college principal and holding a probe by the district authorities has no meaning and is merely an eyewash. A sitting judge of the Supreme Court must investigate this matter and the report of the probe should come in 15 days time", Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

CM, HEALTH MINISTER MUST RESIGN ON MORAL GROUNDS: MANISH TEWARI

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said the chief minister and UP Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh should resign taking "moral responsibility" for the deaths.

"There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible - the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital, and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister. While all those responsible must be charged with criminal culpability, there is a moral dimension which the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and his health minister must take responsibility for and resign immediately", he said.

Taking a dig at the Uttar Pradesh health minister, the Congress leader tweeted, "UP Health Minister only seeks votes in Lal Bahadur Shastri ji's name - he doesn't follow Shastri ji's high morals in politics. Shastri ji resigned taking moral responsibility for railway accident, @sidharthnsingh holds on to power even after death of infants (sic)."

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Singh is the grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Speaking to PTI, UP Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh had said, "The deaths of children are very unfortunate and the government will set up an inquiry committee to ascertain if any lapse has been there. If anyone is found guilty, he will be made accountable."

He said according to reports from the paediatric department of the hospital, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Singh, however, asserted that the deaths were not because of paucity of oxygen.

(WITH INPUTS FROM PTI)

ALSO READ |

Gorakhpur children's deaths: BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj claims oxygen was cut off

Gorakhpur has a history of children's deaths, 25,000 kids have lost lives to encephalitis

Gorakhpur hospital deaths: Panel formed to probe role of oxygen suppliers, says CM

ALSO WATCH VIDEO | From Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur to PM Modi's constituency Varanasi, poor conditions in UP hospitals

--- ENDS ---
Speak only when you have something to say.

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Robert Ingersoll, the 19th-century American thinker and speaker, was born on this day in 1833. Long before talking heads began bloviating nonstop on cable news, the public would line up to see the most impressive orators of the day. Despite social sea changes in the 20th century, this Post article from more than 90 years ago shows that the makings of a good public speech are timeless.

In The Art of Public Speaking, a 1924 analysis of oratory, Albert J. Beveridge outlines the traits of an effective speaker. According to Beveridge, an aptitude for communication enters into it, but  as with any art  orators must gain an understanding of the form and its history if they wish to be successful.

As to composition and structure of the speech, the rules of that art may be summarized thus: Speak only when you have something to say. Speak only what you believe to be true. Prepare thoroughly. Be clear. Stick to your subject. Be fair. Be brief.

Beveridge commends Robert Ingersoll as a master of the art and recalls seeing the Civil War veteran speak as a 20-year-old: In short, everything about Colonel Ingersoll was pleasing, nothing was repellent  a prime requisite to the winning of a cordial hearing from any audience, big or little, rough or polite. The writer applauds Ingersolls conversational tone and natural gestures.

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Beveridge omits the topic of Ingersolls oration. In fact, Ingersoll was known as The Great Agnostic who often criticized religion and spoke on history and humanism. Few sound recordings of Ingersoll exist, but a short speech, On Hope, was recorded on gramophone by Emile Berliner in 1897. Ingersoll speaks in a casual, steady rhythm, saying,

I am not trying to destroy another world, but I am endeavoring to prevent the theologians from destroying this. The hope of another life was in the heart long before the sacred books were written and will remain there long after all the sacred books are known to be the work of savage and superstitious men.

Ingersolls ideas about secular humanism were not always received well, but his style of calm oration afforded him the best possible response from a 19th-century Midwestern audience. Along with Daniel Webster, Wendell Phillips, and Patrick Henry, Beveridge named Ingersoll one of the four greatest public speakers America has produced.

The weightiest advice in Beveridges article is his insistence on sincerity and honesty from a speaker, because ignorance is dangerous:

First, last and above all else, the public speaker is a teacher. The man or woman who presumes to talk to an audience should know more about the subject discussed than anybody and everybody in that audience. Otherwise, why speak at all? How dismal an uninformed speech! When coupled with sincerity, how pitiable! And how poisonous! For that very ingenuousness often causes the hearers to believe, for the time being, that the speaker knows what he is talking about.

Beveridges emphasis on honesty and research came before instant fact-checking and smart phones, yet the importance of his words endures. Whether oration is given on a soapbox, into a gramophone, or livestreamed online, words still matter.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/11/2017 -- "Baby Nutrition Insights - Issue 32", is an analytical report by GlobalData which provides extensive and highly detailed information on the key markets in the Baby Food industry.



This quarterly issue provides a review of news and analysis for the infant nutrition industry, covering the April-June 2017 period. Market News includes: the Brazilian food safety authorities have cracked down on local baby food suppliers; Ecuador is considering the restriction of infant formula to prescription only; in the US, Abbott has entered the baby meals sector with Similac Go & Grow; Australias baby food market has shrunk by 15%; the impending registration deadline for infant formula in China is disrupting normal patterns of development, with many small local companies close to collapse, while some top-end domestic brands are booming; Singapores infant formula sector faces a shake-up with the launch of low-priced Nature One and plans for the introduction of own-label products; in France, organic baby food is bucking the stagnant trend; in Germany Hipp is targeting toddlers with its Hippis pouch range; Hero has extended its organic Solo range in Portugal and Spain; the Kendamil brand has achieved nationwide listings in Morrisons stores in the UK; Pharmalys has launched Primalac CMA formula for babies with cows milk allergy. In Company News, this issue provides first quarter financial results for multinational and local players, reports on production expansion in the infant formula sector, and an insight into new joint ventures and partnerships, as well as merger and acquisition activity - including the flurry of activity between Chinese and Australian companies.



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- Market profile based upon a unique combination of industry research, fieldwork, market sizing and our in-house expertise to offer extensive data about the trends and dynamics affecting the Baby Food industry globally.



- Detailed company profiles, highlighting key focus product sectors with the key features & developments, segmentation, per capita trends and the various manufacturers & brands.



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- Canada: Love Child (Brands) has launched organic infant cereal in two variants: oats chia, and buckwheat chia, under the Love Child Organics brand. The chia seeds are a good source of omega-3, and the product also contains iron and B vitamins, with no added sugar, salt, or artificial colors and flavors.



- China: Foreign brands continue to account for around two-thirds of the infant formula market. They are particularly popular in the large conurbations, while local brands perform best in rural areas and smaller urban centers. Chinese brands are more popular among mothers with more than one child, at 44%, compared with 33% for all mothers.



- In the three months to April 2, 2017, grocery sales of baby food and infant formula underwent decline of



- 14.8%. The fall was particularly pronounced in the baby milks sector. Changes in shopping habits by Chinese consumers have been the main impetus behind the decline, with a shift towards direct purchases in China rather than indirect supplies via daigou.



- United Arab Emirates: UK-based For Aisha, a maker of halal baby meals, is looking to establish a distribution agreement.



- Nestl is investing in its Spanish plant at Sebares, Asturias. The investment will see the modernization of a liquid infant formula production line and the expansion of a quality control laboratory.



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By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Aug 12 (PTI) The US is ready along with its allies to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic and military measures to stop the North Korean nuclear menace, President Donald Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron today.

Trump and Macron spoke over phone and discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation regarding North Koreas destabilising and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

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"Trump reiterated to President Macron the United States commitment to stop the North Korean nuclear menace. President Trump stated that the United States is ready, along with its allies, to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic, and military measures to achieve that goal," said a readout of the phone call.

"Trump and Macron pledged to work together with allies and partners to enforce United Nations sanctions and achieve denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the White House said.

The phone call with the French President came hours after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea dominated the conversation between the two leaders, according to a readout of the call.

According to the White House, Trump and Xi affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

They agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

Trump also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it added.

"Trump looks forward to seeing Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event. The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," the White House said.

Trumps warning came after the North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam. PTI LKJ MRJ

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Dhanush and Kajol-starrer Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 is the big Tamil release this week. Will it live up to its hype? Here is our VIP 2 movie review.

By Srivatsan: VIP 2 takes the story forward from where Velai Illa Pattadhaari (2014) ended. The director introduces Vasundara (Kajol Devgn) like a typical masala hero. Surprisingly, Kajol's sidekick (played by Raiza) gets more reception from the audience, thanks to Bigg Boss Tamil. Much like Velai Illa Pattadhaari, the sequel is another episode in Raghuvaran's life.

Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 Cast: Dhanush, Kajol Devgn, Amala Paul, Vivek and Samuthirakani

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Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 Director: Soundarya Rajinikanth

Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 Rating: (2/5)

In several ways, VIP was a satisfying mass film. Mainly because, Raghuvaran was a simple youngster, whose world was much simpler than VIP 2. We saw him the way his mother, his girlfriend, his younger brother and father saw him. Velai Illa Pattadhaari had some really good moments that catered to Dhanush's fans and filmgoers in general. Raghuvaran's guy-next-door character was something we could connect to and he was one among hordes of underdog engineers. But Raghuvaran in VIP 2 seems to be from another mass film. Let's just say he's Raghuvaran 2.

VIP 2 begins with Raghuvaran 2 getting the Engineer Of The Year Award for his slum clearance project. Anitha (Ritu Varma) collects the award on his behalf. It took two seconds to figure out that Surabhi's character has been replaced by Ritu Varma. Just like the guy sitting next to me, I wondered who now has Saranya's (Raghuvaran's mother) lungs that were donated in the first part. Vasundara, a self-made corporate tycoon asks her employee to somehow persuade Raghuvaran to join her company. Enter Raghuvaran 2 in his Mofa, carrying vegetables.

It has been three years since the first part released but the characters are fresh in our memories. However, it looks the characters have undergone some serious psychological changes. A soft-spoken Shalini in VIP becomes the overly sensitive and doting wife. A genuinely caring father (played by Samuthirakani) wants to be a cool dad. And the introverted younger brother Karthik (Hrishikesh) grows a moustache. Raghuvaran himself talks too much in this one. A constant thing is a track between Azhagusundaram (Vivek) and Thangapushpam. One of the likeable parts about VIP 2 is Raghuvaran 2's scenes with Azhagusundaram, who gets some funny lines.

The first half centres more on Raghuvaran 2 and his wife Shalini. They play the over sentimental, over dramatic and utterly boring husband-and-wife from a television soap. Shalini's confrontations with her drunkard husband are supposed to evoke laughter, but it gets irritable and unfunny. Each time Raghuvaran 2 complaints about marriage, his cool dad comes to rescue. In fact, in one of the scenes, he gives advice on 'how to please your wife' quoting his life examples. Thank god, this isn't American Pie! Every time he gets into trouble, Saranya Ponvannan makes a cameo appearance. Last time, Raghuvaran truly created a revolution taking on the state of engineers in Tamil Nadu. This time, not so much and the results are too ambiguous.

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Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 is written by Dhanush and is shockingly ordinary film coming from someone who made a heartwarming Pa Paandi earlier this year. Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 follows a similar story as that of VIP. The only difference is that the 'Amul Baby' here is a female. Raghuvaran 2 and Vasundara face-off over business dealings among others.

Despite a weak villain in the first part, Dhanush's interactions with Amitash Pradhan were thoroughly entertaining. But the portions with Vasundara are weakly conceived. Expect perhaps the interval block, where Raghuvaran from the first part makes a cameo with Anirudh Ravichander's thumping background score. And I've never watched Kajol overacting in films as much as she does in this one. In terms of inventiveness, Dhanush has written a nice link in the climax that has something to do with the Chennai floods in 2015.

For every dull moment (if there was any) in VIP, it was backed by Anirudh Ravichander's terrific background score. Sean Roldan, too, is a great composer, whose Poonthendral had Ilaiyaraaja written all over it. But the music is a big let down and the theme is reminiscent of an 80s Rajinikanth film. Have I told you that Dhanush himself unknowingly impersonates Rajinikanth more than once?

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With VIP 2, can we also say that some films are better left untouched...without the need to make a sequel?

( The writer tweets as @LoneWolf_7126 )

ALSO READ: VIP 2 | Five reasons to watch Dhanush-Kajol's film

ALSO READ: Dhanush to producer web series after Vada Chennai

ALSO READ: Vijay on online abuse | Everyone has freedom to criticise anyone's film

ALSO READ: Netflix acquires Prabhas-Rana's Baahubali for Rs 25.5 crore

WATCH HERE: VIP 2 Trailer

--- ENDS ---
In a major anti-smuggling operation conducted over a few days by the officers of DRI and Customs, the department has seized a total of 122.5 MT of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) valued at close to Rs 10 crores smuggled from China.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: In a unique detection, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted a syndicate involved in smuggling of Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) from China into India through Myanmar via the land borders in North Eastern states.

In a major anti-smuggling operation conducted over a few days by the officers of DRI and Customs, the department has seized a total of 122.5 MT of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) valued at close to Rs 10 crores smuggled from China.

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"The smuggling is done with the objective to evade not just the customs duties and GST, but also Anti-Dumping Duty, all adding up to duty evasion of approximately Rs 4.81 crores," the DRI official said.

In the second case, the official detected anti-dumping duty evasion in the North Eastern Region. Acting on intelligence, the DRI recovered bulk packs weighing 88 MTs of Vitamin C, valued at Rs 7.04 crores from several godowns situated at Vairengte in the state of Mizoram.

The cartons, each weighing 25 kgs in which the Ascorbic Acid was packed, bore inscriptions "ASCORBIC ACID, BP/USP/EP/FCC/E300, MADE IN CHINA".

In another case, the DRI recovered a consignment of Vitamin C smuggled from Shandong province of China via sea route to South East Asia. It entered India via Myanmar through Zowkhatar border in the State of Mizoram.

The official said, "After crossing the Indo-Myanmar border through Zowkhatar, the smuggled goods were brought to Vairengte in trucks, where it was temporarily stored for onward transportation to other parts of India."

Generally, import of Ascorbic Acid from China attract Anti-dumping duty @ 3.74 USD per kg, as per the Ministry of Finance Notification No: 38/2015 (ADD), along with other applicable customs duties, namely, BCD @ 10 per cent and IGST @ 18 per cent.

Taking into consideration, the present market price of Ascorbic Acid at Rs 800 per kg, approximate total duty evasion works out to be Rs 3.54 crores, comprising of Rs 2.12 crores of Anti-Dumping duty and customs duties including IGST of Rs 1.42 crores.

In the fourth case, the DRI officers of customs in the state of Mizoram further intercepted 34.5 MT of Ascorbic Acid from a different premises in the same area, involving additional duty evasion of Rs 1.27 crores, consisting of anti-dumping duty of Rs 82.80 lakhs and customs duties is Rs 44.30 lakhs.

These cases further establishes the sensitivity of India-Myanmar border which is being exploited by international syndicates to smuggle Narcotics Drugs & Psychotropic substances, gold, wildlife products and commercial goods.

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Press Release

August 11, 2017 ANGARA: THERE MUST BE GREATER FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR POOR STUDENTS UNDER FREE COLLEGE LAW Senator Sonny Angara has urged the government to ensure that poor students enrolled in state universities and colleges (SUCs) will be prioritized in the grant of additional financial support provided by the newly enacted free college law. "While we are exempting all students in SUCs from paying tuition and miscellaneous fees, there should still be greater financial support for our poor students to help them pay for their dorm, transpo, books, and other school expenses. "Dapat may nakalaan pa ring espesyal na ayuda para sa ating mga pinakamahihirap na estudyante na nagsusumikap na makapag-aral at makatapos upang maiahon ang kanilang pamilya sa kahirapan," said Angara, one of the authors of the free college law. Under Republic Act 10931, all students enrolled in SUCs, local universities and colleges (LUCs) and in state-run technical-vocational institutions (TVIs) are exempt from paying tuition and other school fees. To support the cost of free tertiary education, the law mandates the creation of a Tertiary Education Subsidy which may cover allowance for books, supplies, transportation, room and board, and other education-related personal expenses. Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Commissioner Prospero De Vera yesterday said the government needs about P20 billion to implement the free college law--P16.8 billion will go to the 112 SUCs and 16 LUCs, and P3 billion for TVIs. The amount necessary to fund the Tertiary Education Subsidy will be included in the budgets of the CHED and the TESDA, and will be administered by the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) Board. The UniFAST law of 2015, which Angara principally authored, mandates to put up a system and create a Board that would oversee and harmonize all student financial assistance programs for a more targeted, speedy and sustained granting of scholarship programs. The senator said such bigger allocation can be used to strengthen the government's student financial assistance programs so that more poor and deserving students would benefit. "Sabi ng CHED, ang tuition ay 20% lang ng kabuuang cost of education. Ang 80% ay gastos sa dorm, pamasahe, pagkain, libro, projects at school supplies ng mga estudyante. Kaya't kinakailangan talaga ang dagdag na suporta para sa mga gastusing ito," Angara said. According to De Vera, the new law can help expand the current 40,000 student-beneficiaries of the Tulong Dunong Program which entitles poor students with a P12,000-grant per academic year. To qualify, the combined annual gross income of the parents of the student-grantee should not exceed P300,000. Angara has also filed Senate Bill 134 that provides five-percent student discount on food, medicine, miscellaneous and other school fees, including books and school supplies, to underprivileged students in all levels throughout the country.
Press Release

August 11, 2017 Sen. Bam sponsors 3 measures for welfare of start-ups, scientists and researchers Sen. Bam Aquino recently sponsored three measures that aim to support Filipino scientists, engineers and innovative start-ups, believing that technology and innovative initiatives can help solve problems besetting the country. Recently, Sen. Bam sponsored Senate Bill No. 1532 or the Innovative Startup Act where he urged colleagues to pass the measure that provides different forms of assistance to over 200,000 innovative start-up businesses, giving them better chance of succeeding. If passed into law, it will provide support innovative startups through financial subsidies like tax breaks and grants and other forms of assistance such as ease of red tape in business registration. It will also give technical assistance and training programs, free use of equipment, facilities and support for patenting or licensing of their product through the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, according to Sen. Bam, chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology. He also delivered his sponsorship speech for Senate Bill No. 1533 or the Balik Scientist Act and Senate Bill No. 1534 or the Magna Carta for Scientists. The two measures aim to promote the welfare of Filipino scientists, engineers and researchers. "The challenge for us today is to ramp up support for Filipino scientists, engineers and researchers, and to harness their talents, not just to boost industries and business, but to build a better Philippines for all," said Sen. Bam. Currently, the Philippines has 189 scientists per million, far from the ideal target of 380 per million. "Our country still lacks 19, 000 scientists to meet the bare minimum that is essential and acceptable in the development of any country," said Sen. Bam. Senate Bill No. 1533 aims to encourage scientists, engineers and innovators working in different parts of the world to return and help solve the country's problems through financial incentives. The amendments to the Magna Carta for Scientists aim to streamline the process of providing benefits and incentives to S&T government personnel. "Pahalagahan po natin ang agham at teknolohiya, ang mga siyentipiko, mga inhinyero at mga researcher upang tuluyang umasenso ang Pilipinas," said Sen. Bam.
Press Release

August 11, 2017 Stop painting IPs as enemies of the state - De Lima In the wake of human rights abuses relentlessly committed against Indigenous Peoples (IPs), especially those in Mindanao, Senator Leila M. de Lima has reiterated her appeal for the government to exert more effort to protect the rights of the natives in the province. Instead of painting the IPs in Mindanao, collectively known as Lumad, as enemies of the state, De Lima said the government should focus on protecting them from discrimination and attacks allegedly perpetrated by the military. "We've seen a disturbing rise in attacks against Lumad communities in the past years, which had prompted them to flee their houses for fear for their safety. We should empower them by giving them voice in the society to address the needs of their communities," she said. "Also, the government should not forget to observe the basic human rights to life and peace of the civilian populations, be it in urban or the mountains, especially that of children, women and the elderly," she added. The former chairperson of Commission on Human Rights' (CHR) statement came as the international community commemorated National Indigenous Peoples' Day last Aug. 9. Note that Lumad groups have since expressed hopes that President Duterte, a self-proclaimed socialist, will subject them to just and fair treatment. However, their relationship with him turned sour as the former Davao mayor associate Lumads with communists. The conditions of Lumad groups worsen when Duterte placed the entire Mindanao under martial law to address attacks by ISIS-inspired Maute group on May 23. Last month, Duterte even threatened to bomb schools built for the Lumad on suspicion that these institutions were teaching students to rebel against the government. De Lima, a known human rights defender, said the government should stop attacks against indigenous communities and instead give them power to stand up for their rights without being threatened and harassed. "They are the victims here, and should never be subjected to harassment due to their political beliefs," she said. De Lima previously filed Senate Resolution No. 195 urging the appropriate committee in the Senate to conduct an inquiry on the root causes of internal displacement of indigenous cultural communities or IPs to uphold rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The neophyte Senator also urged the Duterte administration to send a formal invitation to United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of IDPs Cecilia Jimenez-Damary to look into the growing number of citizens displaced by the crisis in Marawi by filing Senate Resolution No. 455 this month. Since the declaration of martial law on May 23, about 351,168 people have been displaced in Marawi, with 17,389 of them staying in evacuation areas, based on figures released by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Zamboanga last June. Considered as a "prisoner of conscience", De Lima is currently detained at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame, Quezon City for trumped-up drug charges fabricated by the Duterte Administration, and Duterte's personal vendetta against her.
By PTI: Shringla

Kolkata, Aug 12 (PTI) With most Bangladeshis preferring West Bengal as their destination while visiting India, the state has the most to gain from a better relation between the two countries, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.

"The minimum amount required for carrying by a person from Bangladesh before we give Indian visas is 150 US dollars. Half a billion of people from that country come to India for recreation, for tourism, shopping, medical facilities and all they prefer is West Bengal. So the tangible gains to the economy of West Bengal are incredible," he said.

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However, the difficulty in accessing Indian visas by Bangladeshis was impacting the relation between the two countries. The problem has been addressed by augmenting the facilities and helping the system to be more efficient.

In 2015 around 7.5lakh visas had been issued, while last year it was 9.33 lakh. The figure in the first half of this year was close to seven lakh. The Indian high commission in Dhaka handles the largest volume of visas in the Indian system followed by Oman, he said at the ICC programme India-Bangladesh Business Relations: The Way Forward here late last night.

Stating that the relationship potential between India and Bangladesh has not been appropriately viewed, Shringla said, "There is a lot more that the state(Bengal) can gain out of the relationship and I think in business you should look at it more carefully. We must look at what we can give, and if we give what we can get. I think this symbiotic relationship that is something West Bengal really needs to look into."

Referring to the requirement of power in Bangladesh, Shringla said that scope to meet part of that demand from the surplus that Bengal has is enormous.

?You can sell a couple of thousand MW without a problem from West Bengal to Bangladesh. In case of energy connectivity we are planning to connect our energy pipeline integrated gas link from Haldia. We will also connect from Dattafulia to Khulna (in Bangladesh) which will go up to north Bengal so that Coochebehar gets gas and they do not have to build a gas pipeline."

It has been planned that LPG would be provided to the north east through Chittagong, where a terminal would be set up and a pipeline laid to Tripura, he said.

About connectivity, the diplomat stressed on the inland waterways and coastal shippings.

"We have already started transshipments in Indian waterways so in a certain sense we have already started sending goods through Bangladesh. We have also started using smaller vessels along the coast to transport goods from our different ports right into the interior parts of Bangladesh using the riverine system," he said.

Later talking to journalists on the sidelines of the session, Shringla stressed on the need for consultation to reach a consensus before taking a decision on the Teesta water issue.

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"Of course Teesta is an outstanding issue but I think we have made clear that it requires more consultations within our own country. Land boundary (in Coochbehar) took five years to resolve because it required extensive consultation. But when we ultimately concluded the land boundary we did it with consensus. I think we need to have to look into the Teesta issue in the same manner," the diplomat said.

Settling maritime boundaries had restored lot of confidence and enabled both countries to set out their economic engagements to exploit the blue economy, he said.

Talking about terrorists using Bangladesh soil, the diplomat said, "Terrorism is an issue which is deflects both the countries. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wrote to PM Narendra Modi immediately after the attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims stating that the two countries stand together in solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Sk Hasina had also mentioned that terrorism has to be tackled jointly by countries and not alone.

?We are on the same wavelength on issues that involve radicalism, fundamentalism, terrorism. We cooperate closely in tackling these threats to our countries. Given the long porous land border that the two countries share it could be detrimental if they do not work together," he added. PTI SCH KK KK

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Press Release

August 11, 2017 Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's latest tirade against her

Dispatch from Crame No 134 Every time a scandal hits his administration, especially if it is connected to him or somebody close to him, Duterte goes on a diversionary tact using his favorite punching bag, me. Just recently the name of the presidential son, Paolo Duterte, has been mentioned as one of the alleged protectors in the drug smuggling business during the recent Customs scandal, where ? 6.4B worth of shabu was discovered at the warehouse owned by one of the younger Duterte's alleged close Chinese friends, a certain Richard Tan. Already, some quarters are calling the presidential son "the lord of all drug lords", especially in light of the serial elimination of alleged top drug lords by the PNP death squads of his father. Although a lot has yet to be uncovered and proven before any case is solidly built against Paolo Duterte, the controversy offers a delectable story that the President's drug war is merely paving the way for his son's rise to power in the criminal underworld as the country's number one drug lord and smuggler. This is the big story that the President wants to disappear. The other day he has started his diversionary tactics by attacking my person again. Duterte is not satisfied that he has already imprisoned me. He keeps on getting back at me for lack of any accomplishments after more than one year into his term, and in light of scandals involving a member of his family, his first son, who has been well-known all throughout Davao City as the city's smuggling king. More than just a rumor, this was also attested to by Edgar Matobato in his testimony during the Senate's inquiry into the ongoing extra-judicial killings. Matobato admitted that he was used as a bagman by Paolo and the other top leaders of the DDS in paying off customs officials at the Davao ports in order to smuggle shipments of contraband, most probably including drugs. This story is being repeated again, although now in a national scale. The suspicious discovery of the shabu shipment and resulting botched-up seizure operation by the Bureau of Customs in Valenzuela City, rendering the whole shipment inadmissible in evidence against Paolo's alleged Chinese businessman friend, sounds strikingly similar to the story narrated by Matobato. The Senate investigation reveals that there is more to this than meets the eye. And more and more there are indications that it involves the presidential son himself. In response to this, Duterte instead launched an attack on the EU delegation who has paid me a visit, and re-lived his amorous relationship with an imaginary sex video of me, which admittedly he keeps on watching, but this time incomprehensively throwing my own dog into the mix. This much can be decoded from his now familiar Fentanyl-induced rambling style of speaking. Duterte claims he took a peek at my detention cell in Crame. I never saw him in Crame anywhere near my detention quarters. The only way he can see my detention cell is through a CCTV installed right on top of the small courtyard of my quarters. Apparently, the President has enjoyed secretly watching me through a CCTV monitor so much, just like a neighborhood peeping Tom, that he could not avoid sharing this experience with the world. Well, the world is not amused, especially not the EU, after he has called them fools merely for paying me a visit, instead of secretly watching me through a CCTV like he did. Duterte continues to cover up his failures, this time his own son's possible involvement in the smuggling of drugs, and keeps on using his long-running obsession with my supposed immorality as a diversion. My suggestion to the President is this: Leave my dog alone. You have your own son to watch over and worry about.
Press Release

August 11, 2017 (Editor's Note: Below is the full text of Sen. Leila M. de Lima's speech read by Ms. Vicky Gachitorena, former vice president for women of the Liberal Party, during the Council of Liberals and Democrats (CALD) Women's Caucus Conference and Workshop on "Women Empowering Women: Experiences Across Asia" held at Taipei, Taiwan, 11 August 2017.) On CALD Women's Caucus Conference & Workshop

Women Empowering Women: Experiences Across Asia

"An Oath for Human Rights and Rule of Law: The Fight of Our Lifetime" Message

HON. LEILA M. DE LIMA[1]

Senator Taipei, Taiwan

11 August 2017 Greetings from the Detention Facility of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame. Liberty, equality, truth, justice, and a government that respects the rule of law and is accountable to the people, with public servants that recognize, respect, uphold and protect the human dignity and the inherent and inalienable human rights of their people. Twenty-one months ago, I stood up for these values and put myself up for consideration by the Filipino people as their representative to the Philippine Senate. I - who has had no experience as a politician, who had, thus far, been a lawyer, both in the private and public practice, and a human rights advocate - finally decided to venture into the fickle world of politics, even though I knew how treacherous life in that arena could get. Fifteen months ago, in May 2016, 14 million registered Filipino voters elected me into office, entrusting me with my first six-year term as a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. Less than 2 months later, I assumed office after swearing an oath before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, solemnly vowing to, among others, uphold and protectthe Philippine Constitution, to fight for a free, independent and public-spirited Senate, and to stand for truth, justice and human rights. You may not know this, but that oath of office, a copy of which was tweeted by the Supreme Court's Public Information Office, was touted as being "personalized", with some observing that it had a "human rights bias", after noting that the usual oath of office does not specifically mention a vow to stand up for human rights. The keen observers who noted that were absolutely right to take notice. That I, quote-unquote, "personalized" my oath of office to give prominence to the human rights cause is no coincidence. It was on purpose, and it was with the strongest of convictions that I consciously brought it to prominence. Why? Because I, along with the 14 million people who voted for me, am not blind. We could see the writing on the wall - populist sentiments rising; fear- and hate-mongering prevailing; half-truths, hyperbole, outright lies and fabrications are being peddled in the media and especially in social media by a professionally operated propaganda machinery that aimed to create a ruinous divide amongst our people by creating a false dichotomy: pitting peace and security on the one hand, versus democracy and human rights on the other. Surrender your rights and lives to a government led by an autocratic ruler, or die a violent death standing up against it. I specifically included human rights in my oath of office because I knew who the incoming President was, and what he is capable of. Seven years prior, in 2009, I investigated him for his involvement in the operation of the so-called "Davao Death Squad" - the name given by the public to the murderous group composed of police officers and some other hired guns that wrought fear in the City of Davao, allegedly under the orders of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, who had no qualms admitting, even during the national Presidential campaign trail - in between making misogynistic remarks and crass jokes about wishing he had participated in raping a woman - that he has had people killed. He claimed it was his brand of justice - he claimed to be the Dirty Harry of the South. But all he really is, is a man who pretends to be a crime-solver, but is actually a lazy bureaucrat, whose failures as a prosecutor combined by his hubris gave him the delusion that it was his right to claim for himself the power over life and death, as judge, jury and executioner. I knew him. And he knew me. Therefore, my oath of office was my message. A message to him and all other officials who would serve as part of the then incoming new administration that, first, no one is above the Constitution, and the Philippine Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to its people, even and especially against abuses perpetrated by the government; and, second, our people and their rights will have a defender in me and others like me, who have made an indefatigable and life-long commitment to truth, justice, rule of law and human rights. Less than two months later, in August 2016, I delivered a privilege speech condemning the spate of extrajudicial killings, and calling for an investigation into these Death Squad-type slayings. Shortly thereafter, I received a reply to my message in the form of a barrage of misogynistic and slut-shaming attacks. The President himself, on live television, even told me to go hang myself. That was my warning... I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I, as a woman, have no business criticizing a man for blatantly giving police officers a license to kill under the cover of a so-called "War on Drugs", which targeted, not big-time drug lords, but the poor, the vulnerable and the defenceless. The deaths of the downtrodden was to serve as the surrogate for his lack of real accomplishments in eliminating the drug problem. But I was not supposed to point that out. I was supposed to sit down and be cowered by the might of a man choking on his own machismo. I was supposed to be intimidated into silence. I was supposed to fear him. But I failed at being a coward. I chose to stand up and deliver another privilege speech condemning the killings. I refused to yield. Five months later, I landed in jail. And here I remain, 169 days later, still under detention. Why? Is it because there is a single person in his right mind who believes that I am the biggest drug lord in the country? Even without any evidence to back up the fabricated lies of convicted felons, whose perjured testimonies against me were bought at the price of their very life and security under the custody of my persecutors? No. I know why I am where I am today. Because I stood up for what is right, even when I knew that political power is not on my side. Even now, the other branches of our government are being corrupted and their independence being undermined, with threats to impeach the Ombudswoman, and an actual impeachment complaint being lodged against the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Yet, was I silenced? Since being detained, I have released 133 handwritten dispatches, along with official Press Statements and commentaries that express my thoughts on key issues of the day. I have continued to discharge my mandate as a legislator by filing resolutions and bills on legislative measures - ranging from institutionalizing human rights education, fighting fake news, seeking investigation into questionable deals with a foreign government, seeking an inquiry into the plight of internally displaced persons, etc. - and even proposing interpellation questions on key legislative measures, including in relation to the extension of the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao. No, I was not silenced, and I continue to stand for liberty, equality, truth, justice, and an accountable government that recognizes, respects, upholds and protects the human dignity and the inherent and inalienable human rights of their people. I defy my persecutors simply by adhering to my commitments, in spite of all the obstacles they have placed in my way. I perform my duty simply by not being cowered. The word "simply" is, of course, misleading. Nothing is simple when one is facing the might of the whole government machinery - from an all-powerful President, to other government institutions that have virtually abdicated their power to keep abusive and arbitrary uses of power in check. Everything is a battle. Even getting permission to allow pens for my use to be brought into the detention facility was once something we had to fight for. But fight I must. Fight we must. We might not have the power of might on our side. But we have power of right. In the words of Samuel Adams, "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." I am committed to being that irate, tireless minority. And with all of you present here in this Caucus Conference and Workshop, I know I am not alone in setting brushfires of freedom in people's minds. On a more personal note, someone once noted that it is becoming increasingly more apparent these days that people don't take women seriously, they just manifest it in different ways. The way I was attacked for my acts as a public servant made that plainly and painfully clear. Instead of being engaged on the merits in our respective positions, I was vilified and slut-shamed. I was even at the receiving end of the vilest and most shameless forms of black propaganda and fake news stories. I had thought that my nation was more progressive than that; that our people are much more critical-thinking than that. But I have been made to see reality for what it is. Which is a blessing. Because the rose-tinted glasses have been knocked off, and we can now work on the reality of the problem without being blinded by our own wishful thinking. Just as I refuse to be a cowed victim of political persecution, so, too, do I refuse to be a victim of my gender in a world that has yet to fully respect the equality of men and women. I also refuse to let the world believe the lies told against me. I proudly proclaim my innocence. Therefore, as I send this message of solidarity with you, I send it, not just as a fellow advocate and warrior of liberty, equality, truth, justice, rule of law and human rights, but also as a human rights defender in peril, and as a woman who calls on every man and woman present here today, and who is within the reach of our voice and influence, to continue fighting against all forms of discrimination and persecution, especially against those who paint human rights and the rule of law as the problem. This could very well be the fight of our lifetime. Thank you for your time and attention. ________________________ [1] Leila M. de Lima is a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines, named as one of TIME's Most Influential People in the world in 2017, and among Foreign Policy Journal's 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2016. She is a former Secretary of the Department of Justice, and a former Chair of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, and currently a prisoner of conscience.
Press Release

August 11, 2017 POE: ENSURE GOV'T PROTECTION FOR PEOPLE DISPLACED IN MARAWI CONFLICT Sen. Grace Poe urged the government to focus on the welfare of thousands of locals displaced by the conflict in restive Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, as she pushed for legislation that seeks to protect internally displaced persons (IDPs). Poe filed Senate Bill No. 1513 or the proposed Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Act to ensure that IDPS are accorded the human dignity they deserve. The senator said more than 300,000 people either continue to live in crowded evacuation centers that lack basic facilities or with relatives or friends. "IDPs are not specially protected under international law. Reports submitted to the United Nation Economic and Social Council on this topic state that 'while existing law covers many aspects of particular relevance to internally displaced persons, there remain areas in which the law fails to provide sufficient protection for them'," Poe said in her bill's explanatory note. The measure seeks to protect the human rights of IDPs in situations caused by natural or human-made hazards or disasters, armed conflicts, generalized or organized violence and clan wars. It also seeks the implementation of development projects and provides access to basic necessities (food, shelter and clothing) and health and education. Under the bill, IDPs shall also enjoy freedom of movement and protection against forcible return or resettlement in any place where their lives, safety, liberty and health will be at risk. Poe said the bill provides "for the protection of rights of IDPs during and after displacement, as well as their return, local integration or settlement elsewhere." Under the measure, national authorities and local government units are mandated to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs within their jurisdictions, including establishing conditions for IDPs to return voluntarily to their homes, integrating them into the local community or allowing them to settle voluntarily in another part of the country taking into consideration their cultural heritage and traditions. IDPs shall also have the right for political participation, and to be entitled to claim and be awarded civil damages from any public officer or employee, or any private person, who directly or indirectly violate the IDPs' rights and liberties. More than 300,000 people have so far been displaced since the violence erupted in Marawi two months ago.
Press Release

August 11, 2017 Nation dependent on P1.3 B BOC daily collections

Palace must fix Customs mess or gov't programs suffer The Bureau of Customs collects revenues which fund public services that we all enjoy. When it fails in its collection, government programs falter(s). When taxes it is supposed to collect are stolen, it is the people who will feel the pain. For 2017, BOC is tasked to collect P468 billion. On a daily basis, that would be P1.28 billion. This is the money these "fiscal stevedores" in Aduana and in airports and seaports must haul into the government coffers every 24 hours. BOC's revenue goal represents a fifth of the total tax revenue target for 2017. Or 20 centavos for every tax peso. Thus it can be said 20 percent of the total length of roads built, 20 percent of classrooms constructed, 20 percent of medicine bought, 20 percent of textbooks distributed this year will be financed by BOC collections. In real terms, BOC will bankroll 9,498 classrooms out of the 47,492 that will be built. From its collections would come the money to buy 11.2 million textbooks out of the 55.8 million pieces to be procured. It can also be computed that for every 100 peso put into the pay envelope of a government worker, 20 pesos had been remitted by the BOC. In terms of PhilHealth insurance for indigents, seniors, it can be extrapolated that BOC's share in funding would enroll 8.76 million individuals. In the war against terrorists, 1 in 5 bullets fired, 1 in 5 air sorties flown will be funded by BOC collections. Thus, BOC performance, or nonperformance, is critical to both government operations and dreams. Taxes are what translate election rhetoric into reality. If government were a vehicle, BOC's job is to fill one-fifth of the fuel tank. If it fails to deliver, if it misses its quota, the vehicle will not reach its destination, or is forced to unload passengers, or will sputter along the way. Thus the problems being encountered by the BOC, the many scandals it is grappling with must be resolved without delay as a matter of national urgency. The government will not be able to deliver on its promises to the people if its second biggest supplier of funds is broken, malfunctioning and damaged. A revamp is in order. With the resignation of most members of the current management, a new team(,) must be appointed immediately. These must be competent and ethical people, knowledgeable of the intricacies and culture of Customs operators because the country cannot afford OJTs on training wheels being appointed to such a crucial job. The Secretary of Finance, as the immediate boss of the Customs top brass, must have the major say in these designations. The President must also start holding revenue command conferences where every port collector, every section head in major ports, will report on their accomplishments and pledge their targets.
Press Release

August 12, 2017 STATEMENT OF LP PRESIDENT SEN. KIKO PANGILINAN ON CONFIRMED BIRD FLU OUTBREAK IN PAMPANGA As we confront the avian flu outbreak in Pampanga, the first in the Philippines, we urge a concerted effort from all concerned government departments and agencies to address the matter at all fronts and protect the vulnerable sectors against the impact of the virus. We call on President Rodrigo Duterte to gather all agencies and come up with a comprehensive plan of action to put in place necessary measures in dealing with the avian flu. Of utmost importance is to control the spread of the virus and to prevent it from taking people's lives and more livelihood. The Department of Agriculture (DA), together with the Department of Health, should conduct a massive information campaign such as community assemblies to educate the public about the virus, its dangers, and on ways of avoiding it. What is the H5 avian flu strain? How is it different from the much-dreaded A(H1N1) bird flu that spread elsewhere around the world in 2009? The information drive should include the protocols to be followed to prevent the further spread of the virus. Since the virus is known to infect humans as well, people, especially those who handle fowls, should know how to protect themselves. The DA should also ensure that only uncontaminated meat is available to the consuming public at standard prices. With the DA's announcement of culling hundreds of thousands of fowls, we urge the Department of Trade and Industry to watch out for profiteers who might advantage of the situation and increase the prices of raw chicken meat and processed food in the market. As it is, there is only one affected area and there are many other sources of chicken meat in the country. We laud the commitment of the national government to compensate poultry farmers for every culled bird. But more than this, we push for greater government support for the micro and small businesses and the industry in general through funding and other assistance as they battle the virus and recover from their losses. Experts have repeatedly warned that the avian flu pandemic is inevitable, even as the timing is unpredictable. We must act as one to ensure that we are spared from its devastating consequences.
Press Release

August 12, 2017 Palace seeks P4.2 B to hire 3,000 more Customs personnel President Duterte is asking Congress to appropriate P4.2 billion so the Bureau of Customs could hire more than 3,000 personnel--or double its current workforce--next year, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto disclosed today. Recto said the chief executive stated this request in the "President's Budget Message" for fiscal year 2018. The said document traditionally explains and distills the highlights of the proposed national budget. In his message to Congress, Duterte said he is seeking P3.6 billion as the BOC's budget for 2018. The money, he explained, will be used "to implement an aggressive campaign against smuggling which deprives us, on average, of more than P165.5 billion in potential revenues yearly." The President enumerated the "anti-smuggling activities" to be funded by the proposed appropriations, including "the enhancement of cyber security for all ports, and the acquisition of speedboats, firearms and other tactical equipment for better revenue collection." On top of the P3.6 billion for BOC operations is a separate P4.2 billion lodged in a "special purpose fund" in the budget for the recruitment of more personnel, Recto said. "In addition to the BOC's budget, we have tucked in an additional P4.2 billion under the (Fiscal Year) 2018 Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF). This will finance the BOC restructuring, to fill up its more than 3,000 vacant positions, capacitate personnel, improve systems and modernize facilities," Duterte said in his message to legislators. Recto's research showed that of the 6,264 authorized permanent positions in the BOC, only 3,031 are filled, leaving a vacancy of 3,233. "These are the items the Palace wants funded and filled," he said. Recto said he is supporting the President's request "if it is linked to reforms and measurable productivity goals. " "If BOC hires 1,000, and then spends P1.4 billion for their salaries, but if in return they will be able to collect, say, just 10 percent, or P16.5 billion, of the taxes lost to smuggling, then it is a good return to investment," he said. Recto said for next year, the "average per personnel collection quota is P210 million, based on a P637.1 billion total BOC collection target next year." "So kung 'yung bagong empleyado na may sweldo na sabihin na natin P500,000, but will be able to yield tens of millions of pesos in additional revenue, bakit hindi," he said. "Next year, based on the BOC budget and goals, the agency will need P1 in order to collect P182. That's the cost to collection ratio," he said. "Although mired in controversy, let us not lose sight of the fact that the BOC is a strategic agency which funds public services," he added. "For 2017, BOC is tasked to collect P468 billion. On a daily basis, that would be P1.28 billion. Its collection quota is 20 percent of total government tax income," he said. "Thus it can be said that 20 percent of the total length of roads built, classrooms constructed, medicine bought, textbooks distributed, families given health insurance will be financed by BOC collections," he said. "The government will not be able to deliver on its promises to the people if its second biggest supplier of funds is broken, malfunctioning and damaged," he said, adding that with the resignation of some high BOC officials, a new team may have to be appointed. "These must be competent and ethical people, knowledgeable of the intricacies and culture of Customs operations, because the country cannot afford OJTs on training wheels being appointed to such a crucial job," he said.
By PTI: Shillong, Aug 12 (PTI) The BJP today slammed the Congress-led governments failure to come up with a plan for restoring coal mining in Meghalaya in three years and vowed to find a comprehensive solution within eight months, if elected to power in 2018 assembly election.

"If voted to power, we are making a commitment to work with all the stakeholders including environmentalists and come to a comprehensive solution in consultation with the Centre," BJP national spokesman Nalin Kohli told reporters here.

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The comprehensive solution would be found within a span of six to eight months, Kohli said.

His statement came as a reaction to the state governments proposal to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to allow the Meghalaya Mineral Development Corporation (MMDC) to take up mining activities in the state as per provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.

An affidavit on this proposal was filed on August 10, by the state government before the NGT, which had imposed a blanket ban on unscientific coal mining in April 2014.

The state governments proposal to allow the MMDC to take up mining activities was opposed by the mining community during a meeting chaired by the chief minister Mukul Sangma on April 4 this year.

Kohli said that instead of looking at the issue from a scientific point of view and submitting a mining plan which the NGT has been asking, the state government is saying it would like the MMDC to start mining when elections are just six months away.

Pointing out the land tenure system in Meghalaya where mining land belongs to the people, he asked how a government agency like MMDC can start mining without participation of the community and stakeholders.

He alleged that the Congress government is trying to fool the people before the election. PTI JOP NN

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A sea of red blanketed the bayside stretch of Richmond thats home to the museum commemorating the life of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic yet fictional female factory worker who redefined the role of her many peers in World War II.

Rosie and the barrier-breaking life she represents has taken on a newfound significance of late, said a number of people taking in an annual event held in her memory at the National Homefront Historical Park.

As more than 1,000 attendees, most wearing Rosies traditional garb of coordinated red-and-white polka-dotted bandanas, rough, blue working shirts and jeans rolled up over red socks, milled around in a bracing breeze, a number of people said that something felt a little different this year.

Perhaps President Trump was to blame, said Anabelle Conlin and Rebecca Ramirez, a Bay Area married couple. Or perhaps it was the recent leaked Google memo, written by a man, which argued that men are superior to women in the tech world.

Taking a time-out of sorts from the wind, huddled behind a building and looking out over the bay, Conlin and Ramirez, both dressed as Rosie, listened to a five-piece jazz band pump out a steady thrum of classic tunes.

They took in the smells of the water, and of the hot dogs wafting from across a World War II replica plane  the man sitting in the cockpit proved an exception to the gender norms of the day. The couple, now retired, reflected on their own lives, the little glimpses of their role model, Rosie, that they from time to time saw in themselves.

Conlin, 68, said she made a career out of working for what is now AT&T, starting with work that at the time was definitively a mans world. She would climb poles and crawl under houses, testing the utility giants network on a local level. For years, Conlin said, she would get her hands dirty, and she loved it.

There were rare occasions when a particularly problematic customer would muse aloud if a man might do the job better. Conlin said she would nod and she would smile, and she would do the work better than her male peers. Those peers, she said, were older, and treated her with respect, teaching her the trade.

It was very fun, she said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Not to be outdone, Ramirez, who worked at a factory to make ends meet for three summers as she attended UC Berkeley. To this day, she joked, she cant much stomach the thought of a glazed donut, taking into account the untold hours she spent toiling over them in the heat.

That, too, was mens work, once, but Ramirez, 55, showed that a woman was every bit as capable, if not more so. And she did not complain.

Back in the crowd, as the jazz band belted out another rendition, a reporter asked a man why he was there. He declined to comment, saying the day belonged to females.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley
San Franciscans are feeling a little odd this summer, a little uneasy, a little unsure about their hometown. Thats only natural because we are living in two cities at the same time.

One is the old, familiar San Francisco: boxy apartment houses, two- and three-story flats, neighborhoods full of stucco homes crowded together, a Victorian or two, gray in the summer fog.

That city is still there. You can see it on Geary Boulevard, on Church Street, in the Sunset, in the Outer Mission, in North Beach. There is also a new and different San Francisco, amazing in its way, growing and growing like mountains of glass and concrete. And we live in both places.

The two worlds can be seen in a single block, distilled, freeze-dried almost, on Tehama Street between First and Second streets near the new Transbay Transit Center, in the giant shadow of the thousand-foot-tall Salesforce Tower.

Even if you have lived in San Francisco for a while, you probably have not given Tehama Street much thought. Its an alley between Howard and Folsom streets. It runs west from First Street in a kind of intermittent manner, disappearing at Second only to reappear again a few blocks west.

The first thing to remember in this part of the city is to forget the past, though parts of it are still there, old brick buildings, still standing, like ghosts from another San Francisco.

It is easy to see the mixture on the first block of Tehama. Two buildings stand like bookends at either end of the alley: a big former machine shop is on the First Street end, and the hiring hall of the Marine Firemens Union is where Tehama runs into Second Street.

In between is one of the best of the survivors of yesterdays city the old Brizard & Young Sheet Metal Works at 72 Tehama. The walls are faced with metal fashioned to look like red brick, and two ornamental lamps bracket the front door. The sheet metal business closed long ago, and now the 110-year-old building is available.

Just east of Brizard & Young is a bridge that will carry buses from the new Transbay Transit Center. Next to that will be a public park one day, open space between the towers.

All along this block of Tehama Street, a new city is rising. One of the most impressive is under construction at 33 Tehama, a 35-story glass tower with 403 rental apartments touted as an iconic new residence in the heart of SoMa in San Francisco ... truly cosmopolitan living, sophisticated design and unrivaled amenities in one of the most connected, walkable and cultured locations in the city.

Just down the block is 19 Tehama, a four-unit luxury apartment building in immediate proximity to the areas world renowned employers, restaurants and recreational amenities. It is for sale for $5.7 million.

This, of course, is techie country, and near First and Tehama is Gather, an eating place with the Silicon Valley look  tables for dining and working, open seating areas, couches and big chairs ideal for networking. The staff wears dark T-shirts that say, Learn work grow.

On the other side of the room is Galvanize, a tech school that describes itself as a community of curious, driven individuals just like yourself.

Galvanize has six campuses around the high-tech West and one in New York City. Become a web developer in 24 weeks, one brochure says. Become a data scientist in 12 weeks, another says. Both brochures ask the key question: Have you got it?

I stood for a moment, watching the Galvanize members working away, as intent as monks. I felt like a visitor from another country.

All this in a single block in a single alley. I left it behind and turned down First Street toward Market. The last time I walked on this part of First there was a stretch of little shops and coffee places there  and that was just the other day. Now there was only a pile of bricks behind a chain-link fence in a vacant lot. Construction machinery was being moved into position.

The new towers, the new people and all that energy was kind of dizzying. It was time for a change, or maybe lunch.

So I crossed Market and headed for the old Financial District, up Montgomery Street, up Bush Street toward Sams Grill, founded in 1867. The sand dabs were quite good. Its nice to be able to live in the best of two worlds.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His column appears every Sunday. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf
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About six months into the job, Chris Hsu was starting to sweat a bit.

Meg, I want my private-equity lifestyle back, Hsu half jokingly told Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, at the time.

Who could blame him? Prior to joining HP in 2014 as a senior vice president, Hsu enjoyed a relatively cushy (and lucrative) job as a top executive at private equity giant KKR (formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts). There, Hsu advised struggling companies how to shape up and make more money. But at HP, Hsu had to actually execute the strategy.

He quickly discovered theres a big distinction between telling and doing.

When youre at the top of an organization, they dont bring you the easy stuff, Hsu recently told me. Theres always something. Oh my god, we have to make a decision about doing this or this. Is it red or is it white? So that is a challenge, and Ive learned that being an adviser and being an investor is different than sitting in the seat and being on 24/7.

Hsu obviously must have done something right. After overseeing the split of HP into two separate publicly traded businesses last year, Whitman recruited Hsu as her second-in-command at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the spin-off that focuses on businesses. (HP Inc. retained printers and computers for consumers).

Come September, Hsu, 46, wont be second fiddle. Hell be the CEO of Micro Focus, a British software firm that is combining with Hewlett Packard Enterprises software business in a deal worth $8.8 billion.

Chris has been an invaluable member of HPEs leadership team over the past several years, Whitman wrote in an email. His business savvy, energy and passion for the work make him a great fit for his new role as CEO of Micro Focus. Im confident Chris will deliver the results and help take Micro Focus to new heights.

That Whitman spoke up for Hsu is a testament to the impression he made on his boss. He was born in Baton Rouge, La., one of four siblings. His father had fought in the Nationalist army against the Communists during the Chinese civil war. After the Nationalists lost, Hsus dad fled to Taiwan and later moved to the United States.

After graduating from West Point in 1992 with a degree in economics, Hsu commanded a squadron of M1-A1 tanks and later ran a U.S. Army operations center in Germany that coordinated the deployment of tanks, helicopters and troops to Bosnia.

Hsus business career reflects his military service: Hes brought order and discipline to organizational messes.

After earning a masters degree in business administration from Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management, Hsu worked at General Mills and the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm before joining KKR in 2007. He led turnaround efforts at companies including Dollar General, U.S. Foodservice and Del Monte Foods.

Chris consistently delivered impact and importantly, he was religious about ensuring the change was sustainable, Bill Cornog, a top leader at KKR, wrote in an email.

With enough resource and force, it is reasonably easy to drive a short-term bump in results, Cornog added. What is much more difficult is to build the muscle (organization, processes and systems) for sustainable change. Chris was particularly good at helping our companies build the muscles for sustainable change.

Given his lack of tech experience, Hsu would seem like an odd choice to help run a Silicon Valley firm, never mind a storied one like HP. But Hsus career at KKR, in which he learned how to break apart and reconfigure pieces of a company to shareholders benefit, was what Whitman needed at HP.

We think Hsu is taking a page from his former employer KKRs playbook and helping focus HPE much like a private-equity owner would, Management CV analysts wrote in a research report.

After years of corporate dysfunction and strategic misfires (acquiring Compaq, overpaying for Autonomy), HP needed to get smaller  and fast.

I came to HP not because it was a stable environment, but because Meg Whitman communicated to me a mission for what she believed was a very important thing ... saving an American icon, Hsu said. My whole career has been about running to the fire and being at the front line of transformation.

Splitting HP in two was no doubt complicated. But given the rise of mobile devices and cloud computing, Whitman and Hsu concluded that breaking apart offered the companys disparate businesses the best chance to survive.

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There was so much intrinsic value in the products and offerings that HP had, Hsu said. If you look at HP before we started to split it up, there was 15 different categories or more that we competed in.

The goal, he said, was to create world leaders in specific categories of technology. As independent companies, these businesses will be able to attract more capital and thus grow faster than had they remained inside HP, he said.

Renny Ponvert, CEO of Management CV, said HPs split has no doubt created significant value for the original shareholders.

But the flurry of spin-offs and divestitures has sown confusion among newer investors, he said. Losing someone like Hsu, whom Ponvert calls an impressive character, will hurt Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Hsu should have been the one to succeed Whitman, given his energy and outside experience, Ponvert said. At the same time, Hsu thinks Micro Focus  in some sense yet another HP spin-off  enjoys better growth prospects than Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Hsu is doing the right thing, Ponvert said. Hes going to do very well at Micro Focus.

Micro Focus boasts a solid portfolio of cloud management, data analytics and security, analysts say. For fiscal 2017, the company said revenue grew nearly 11 percent from the previous year to $1.38 billion,and profit jumped 19 percent to $651.1 million.

Once Micro Focus joins with Hewlett Packard Enterprises software business, the company will be in a better position to look for new deals, Hsu said.

Now we create this global platform to do larger mergers and acquisitions across an industry thats ripe for consolidation, he said. Well be right in the middle of it.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
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He could have been surfing in Cabo. Instead, Tyler Crouch, then a 21-year-old UC Berkeley mechanical-engineering student, spent spring break of 2013 building a digitized stethoscope and thinking, This better be worth it.

Since then, he and two classmates formed Eko Devices, raising nearly $5 million and selling 6,000 digital stethoscopes, used in 700 hospitals. The Berkeley companys wireless stethoscopes can transfer a patients heart rate and other vital signs directly to Ekos secure portal, where it can, among other things, be shared with doctors for a second opinion.

Now they have built something with a potentially larger market: It is the Duo, a digital stethoscope for home use, which could change how heart patients are monitored, the entrepreneurs say. It is scheduled to become available by prescription in the fall.

The product, which fits in your hand, combines electrocardiogram readings and heart sounds into a device that allows patients to monitor their health at home and send data to their physicians.

The partners behind Eko Devices are all young. Connor Landgraf, 26, is a bioengineer and former president of Berkeleys student body. Jason Bellet, 24, a business school graduate, ran for president the following year, and lost. None has a medical background.

But from the start, physicians have guided them. The Eko team relies on cardiologists at the Mayo Clinic, Stanford Universitys School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and UCSFs School of Medicine.

The Duo gives at-home heart patients a cardiology-level exam said Dr. Ami Bhatt, director of outpatient cardiology at Massachusetts General and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University.

Bhatt, a scientific adviser to Eko who will be compensated with a small stock option for her work, said that tracking patients, wherever they live, will allow cardiologists to intervene before a crisis.

Other doctors say that it is too soon to tell how helpful telemedicine devices  which include home monitoring devices for diabetes, asthma and sleep disorders  will be, given the many obstacles. For one, patients cannot always be relied on to use them consistently or correctly.

Medicine is experiencing a potentially tectonic shift, said Dr. Jeffrey Olgin, professor and chief of cardiology at UCSFs School of Medicine, who conducts research into mobile and digital health. There is a huge amount of venture investment in these kinds of things. People are betting this is going to happen  but it hasnt happened yet.

Telemedicine is a $9.2 billion business, said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, a health care market-research firm in New York. The field is growing at 8 percent annually, nearly three times as fast as other medical devices.

The Duo enters a competitive field. The more established Kardia Mobile, which is the size of a stick of gum and attaches to the back of a smartphone, takes an EKG reading in 30 seconds. It sells on Amazon for $99. This spring, AliveCor, the maker of the device, received over $30 million in funding, including an undisclosed amount from the Mayo Clinic, which is collaborating with the company on development of its devices.

The competition does not deter Ekos founders.

Bellet said the Duo could become Shazam for the heartbeat, referring to the hugely popular song-identification app. If you can walk into a Walmart and find out what someone is playing on the radio, why cant a doctor identify unusual heart sounds? Bellet said.

Fun fact, he added: The founders of Shazam are early investors.

If Ekos devices reach even 10 percent of its target market, Bellet said, It turns it into a $1.2 billion company. But there are plenty of ifs.

The $350 Duo (which does not include a $45 monthly charge) is not for Fitbit aficionados. It is a prescription-only device for heart patients.

From Ekos airy Berkeley offices, Landgraf demonstrated the Duo. lll just slip it under my shirt, he said, scooping up the one-button device, which resembles a cell phone for preschoolers. He held it to his chest for 15 seconds as he watched the Duos iPhone app display a graph of his heart sounds and electrocardiogram, which tests the hearts electrical activity.

I can also analyze it, he said, clicking to another screen. This is one of the features were working on. That next step, an algorithm, will send data to the cloud, where it will be analyzed for heart abnormalities.

The Eko team has discovered that medicine is not like other industries. Its a five- to 10-year cycle to get a product to market, because its so highly regulated and a slow-moving industry, Bellet said.

The Duo and other telemedicine devices address a common medical problem. There is a black space, said Dr. Robert Pearl, a lecturer on health care policy at Stanfords medical and business schools and, until recently, the CEO of Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, which represents 10,000 physicians.

Many small companies are developing devices for home monitoring, he said, but doctors do not want continuous information. They only want to know when theres a problem, Pearl said.

Physicians tend to want more time talking to patients and less time scanning screens  and some of them are tech averse. Some doctors are still faxing prescriptions, Bellet said.

Telemedicine data must seamlessly reach patients records, which is something he and his partners are working on, he said. And insurance companies must agree to reimbursement, another work in progress.

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Olgin, the UC San Francisco cardiologist, said he believed very strongly that its not enough to do consumer-grade evaluations of telemedicine devices.

They should be held up to the same level as drugs, because there are always unintended consequences, he said.

The market potential for products that address heart failure is great. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 610,000 people die of heart failure in the United States every year, making it the leading cause of death. Half of heart-failure patients who leave a hospital return within six months. They keep tabs on themselves by weighing themselves daily, looking for sudden weight gain that can mean water retention  a sign the heart is not functioning properly.

The Duo received clearance in May from the Food and Drug Administration, and the new device will ship in the fall. Over the next two years, the company will participate in two studies at UCSF.

If you compare Eko to Uber, it looks like were moving at a snails pace, Bellet said. But if you look at health care as a whole, were actually making quite a splash.

Charvi Shetty, a Berkeley classmate and friend of Landgrafs, has followed a similar path as the Eko Devices team. For her senior design project in bioengineering, she built a device for asthma patients. Five years later, she is chief executive of Knox Medical Diagnostics, a San Francisco startup that has developed a device for children with asthma to monitor their health at home, sending results to a smartphone app.

She said her device, called the Aeris, replaces the commonly used peak flow meter, which she said, doesnt show whats fully going on in childrens lungs. Her product is undergoing testing at the UCSF School of Medicine, where the pediatric pulmonology department is helping with development and funding.

Shettys device is a portable spirometer that measures airway obstructions and the severity of inflammation in a childs lungs and, she said, alerts a parent before a child has an asthma attack.

More than 8 percent of children in the United States have asthma, according to the CDC. While they are a fourth of all asthma patients in the nation, a study conducted in 2010 found that children make up nearly a third of asthma patients who are hospitalized annually.

After testing her device with asthmatic children, Shetty added a video game to the app, to encourage young patients to use the device effectively while keeping them engaged. Some 6-year-olds are able to understand better whats going on with the app than the adults, she said.

In November, the Aeris will become available for research purposes, she said, for $99 plus a $10 monthly subscription for the mobile application. She expects to seek clearance from the Food and Drug Administration later this year.

Carol Pogash is a New York Times writer.
California has grown so dependent on solar power that state officials have called on residents to conserve electricity during this months eclipse.

Now Nest Labs, maker of a smart thermostat, has a way to make that a little easier.

Nest  a subsidiary of Googles parent company, Alphabet  is asking its customers nationwide to join what it calls the solar eclipse rush hour, an effort to save energy as the eclipse darkens skies across the United States.

As the Aug. 21 eclipse draws closer, each Nest thermostat will display on its screen a message asking people to sign up. Customers can select the count me in button to sign up.

Then, in the hours before the eclipse begins, the thermostat will automatically cool each participating home.

As the moon moves in front of the sun, the air conditioning will switch off, to ease the power demand on the grid. The house should remain comfortable until the light returns. Nest already has a similar, voluntary program for saving electricity during periods of high electricity demand, such as heat waves.

Were doing our job if you dont notice, said Ben Bixby, general manager of energy and safety at Nest.

California, which has installed far more solar power plants and rooftop arrays than any other state, is expected to see the biggest impact.

Managers of the states power grid predict that the eclipse, which begins just after 9 a.m. on the West Coast, will cut the output from the states large solar facilities by nearly two-thirds before the sunlight starts to strengthen again.

California has more than enough fossil-fuel burning power plants to make up the difference. But using them increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Itd be an awful shame to go through all this work to clean up our economy, our power production, just to fall back on fossil fuels here, Bixby said.

The same dynamic will play out in other states, as the eclipse moves from west to east.

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North Carolina, for example, ranks second behind California in solar power generating capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. And while the eclipse will hit California in the morning, when electricity demand is typically low, it will reach the East Coast in midafternoon, when demand is higher.

Nest does not have an estimate for how many customers will choose to participate. But in the last few days before the eclipse, the company will reach out to utility companies and tell them how much power Nest customers in their regions are expected to save.

Nobodys ever done this before, Bixby said. We dont have much to go on.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
A judge in San Francisco, in the first known ruling of its kind, has halted federal prosecution of two North Coast marijuana growers because Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from interfering with states medical marijuana laws.

Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to possess and grow marijuana on a farm in Humboldt County and faced a three-year prison sentence under federal guidelines. But U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg suspended further proceedings in the case this week and said the prosecution was barred by restrictions Congress first added to the Justice Departments budget in late 2014, and has renewed ever since.

The restrictions, in an amendment sponsored by Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County), forbid department spending that would interfere with implementation of a state medical marijuana law. Last August, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the amendment barred federal prosecution of people who are complying with their states medical marijuana law, despite a federal law that forbids use or possession of the drug.

The evidence shows that Pisarski and Moore strictly complied with all relevant conditions imposed by California law, Seeborg said in his ruling Tuesday.

The defendants, who are free on bail, will seek to withdraw their guilty pleas, said Pisarskis lawyer, Ronald Richards.

Were finally seeing the tide turning and the law changing, Richards said. I never thought Id have the right to stop a federal criminal prosecution.

He said other marijuana defendants in California have challenged their federal prosecutions since the appeals court ruling, but this is the first successful challenge.

The victory will be temporary, though, if Congress allows the budget amendment to expire. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for removal of the restrictions from the budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, and Seeborg said prosecutors could then ask to reopen the case.

But Richards said the budget amendment cleared its first Senate subcommittee with bipartisan support, and hes confident it will be renewed.

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Pisarski, now 38, and Moore, 41, were arrested in July 2012 by state officers who said they found 327 marijuana plants, along with two loaded guns and $416,000 in cash. Searches over the next year uncovered more firearms, cash and gold and silver bars on the property in a remote part of central Humboldt County.

The two men presented evidence that they grew the marijuana for nearby nonprofit collectives, which reimbursed them for their costs. Moore said he was also a caregiver for his mother, and that she had a doctors recommendation to use marijuana.

State prosecutors filed no charges. In arguing for the federal conspiracy charge, U.S. prosecutors contended the cash, gold and silver showed that Pisarski and Moore were selling pot for profit outside the bounds of the California law, and thus were not protected by the budget amendment.

But Seeborg observed that legal transactions for medical marijuana are often made in cash because banks are unwilling to help facilitate the business. And he said the presence of cash, precious metals, and weapons is equally consistent with the operation of a rural, cash-intensive enterprise.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
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A computer program that assigns risk scores to San Francisco criminal defendants is itself under scrutiny after it helped free a 19-year-old man who, just days later, allegedly gunned down a 71-year-old stranger on Twin Peaks.

But in the aftermath of the slaying of Edward French, a photographer and film scout who was killed in a robbery, both the district attorneys office and the public defenders office are expressing caution  saying that while use of the tool may need to be studied and refined, one tragedy doesnt necessarily render it broken.

The city, since May 2016, has been experimenting with the algorithm, which was designed by a foundation in Texas fighting for criminal justice reform and seeks to predict whether a defendant awaiting trial can be released safely without reoffending or fleeing. The program, used in dozens of counties around the nation, was offered for free.

The idea is to use cold, efficient data to improve the traditional system of cash bail, which relies heavily on whether defendants can afford bail amounts that are assigned to them based primarily on their charges. Many San Francisco officials, including District Attorney George Gascon, believe the system is vulnerable to racial bias and penalizes the poor.

Courtesy/San Francisco Police Department

According to authorities, the new tool recommended that Lamonte Mims, a 19-year-old former resident of Patterson in Stanislaus County, be released through a special pretrial diversion program when he appeared in court July 11 to face charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a gun.

Mims was already on probation in two counties for car burglary and allegedly violated the terms of probation at least twice. But the algorithm determined he was a medium public safety and flight risk, officials said, and recommended he be released on condition that he check in routinely with the pretrial diversion unit.

Judges are not required to heed the algorithms advice. But Mims was granted release by Judge Sharon Reardon, who, according to a court representative, could not comment on the case due to judicial ethics rules.

Five days later, French was fatally shot. Investigators said they connected Mims and a co-defendant, 20-year-old Fantasy Decuir of San Francisco, to Frenchs killing after the two were arrested for robbing a man and woman at gunpoint near St. Marys Cathedral on Gough Street.

Some in the citys criminal justice system were shocked to see a defendant in Mims predicament released, whether or not he received a favorable computer score.

This guy had been given one chance and put on probation, and then another chance and put on probation, and now hes caught in possession of a firearm? said Bill Fazio, a former city prosecutor and candidate for district attorney. Why would he even be considered for release?

The programs creator, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, said researchers developed the tool using data from the criminal case histories of more than 1.5 million people, with an eye on how they performed when released.

The program is said to weigh a number of factors, including the pending charges, the persons age and rap sheet, and their record of showing up to court.

Our countrys pretrial justice system relies on judges to determine who stays in jail pending trial and who is released, David Hebert, a foundation spokesman, said in a statement. He and others with the foundation declined interview requests.

There is no perfect, foolproof way to make this determination, Hebert said. But we believe that as a society we can adopt practices that provide better information for judges to make more informed decisions  decisions that are likely to reduce the risk to our communities.

San Francisco criminal justice officials could not provide statistics documenting how the algorithm has been used and whether it has been successful.

Critics of the program  among them prosecutors in Gascons office  point to deaths like Frenchs as proof of the tools flaws. Last month, a mother in New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit against the Arnold Foundation after her son was fatally shot, allegedly by a man who had just been released from custody.

The defendant in the New Jersey case had a lengthy criminal record, and like Mims, his latest charge was being a felon in possession of a weapon. According to the lawsuit, New Jersey law enforcement officers had expressed concern that the algorithm undervalued the danger of cases involving guns.

This has been used and implemented in New Mexico, New Jersey and San Francisco, and it sounds like in all of these jurisdictions, there are failures, said Eric Siddall, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys.

Were trying to use a method that hedge funds use to make money to make a determination of whether someone should be in custody or not. The problem is if a hedge fund makes a mistake, they lose money. If we make a mistake, someone dies.

The philanthropist behind the program, John Arnold, made billions as a hedge fund manager.

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While Gascons office acknowledged that some city prosecutors have disagreed with the tools assessments, the office remains in support of the program and any productive effort to move away from the money bail system.

I think there is some disagreement to how certain scores are calculated, said Max Szabo, a spokesman. But I think its important to note that people who get out on bail also commit crimes.

Another office spokesman, Alex Bastian, said, If we are trying to enhance public safety and want to do so in an equitable way, then custody decisions based on risk are going to be better than those based on financial means. However, it is vital that risk is calculated as accurately as possible. That is why the system needs to constantly push itself to do the best it can in taking on the difficult task of predicting human behavior.

Proponents of the tool stressed that judges maintain discretion over whether to release a defendant.

It is an objective recommendation, but it is not the final word, said Nancy Rubin, interim executive director of the Pretrial Diversion Project, a nonprofit group funded by the city Sheriffs Department and the mayors office. It is presented to the judge and the district attorney and the defense, along with the rap sheet, and it is ultimately up to the court to decide.

Attorneys with the public defenders office have expressed skepticism of the algorithm ever since it was introduced. Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who is representing Mims co-defendant in the Twin Peaks killing, said the concern is that clients be treated as individuals, not as pieces of a formula.

Nevertheless, Adachi said, Frenchs death shouldnt be used as an indictment of the assessment tool.

Ive been around a long time and there are cases where people had been released and something happened that nobody anticipated, he said. While its certainly tragic, we shouldnt make any assumptions here.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
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The news is good this year for City College of San Francisco, which badly needs to boost enrollment to make up for thousands of students lost during its recent accreditation crisis: Fall registration is up 16 percent so far over last year, with nearly 4,900 more students.

The threat of closure that hovered over the college for five years has evaporated, and may be one reason for students renewed interest. But even more attractive appears to be that, for the first time, taking classes at City College is virtually free for all San Francisco residents who have lived in California for at least a year.

Participants still pay $20 a semester  $17 for a health fee and $3 for Web registration  plus the cost of books. But the $46-per-credit fee is waived. Thats $552 in savings for a full-time student taking 12 credits.

There is a caveat: Students who drop a free class after the deadline for doing so will be charged full price for that class.

The program got off to a slightly rocky start, as clerks charged at least one San Francisco student $173 for a free class on Wednesday  and he paid. Now campus officials are scrambling to contact roughly 50 others who registered in person this week to learn if they, too, were erroneously charged.

But most students had no such problem and were thrilled with the free classes.

I cant let that opportunity pass, said Daniel Sumo, 40, a nursing assistant who saved $276 as he registered this week for the math and physical education courses he needs as prerequisites for a nursing program. I feel good!

So do officials at City College, which has lost 30,000 full- and part-time students since 2012, when an accrediting commission first threatened to revoke the schools accreditation due to poor management practices. It took five years, four chancellors, two lawsuits, a state takeover and enormous effort on the part of the college to fix its problems before the commission reaffirmed City Colleges accreditation in January.

Meanwhile, City College enrollment plunged from about 90,000 to 60,000, creating a new crisis for the school. The state gives community colleges about $3,000 to $5,000 for each student enrolled, depending on whether the student is enrolled in noncredit or credit courses. So each fleeing student cost City College thousands of dollars. To offset that loss, the Legislature gave the college stabilization funding, including $44 million in 2015 and $25 million in 2016. But the extra funding ended this year.

So college officials were elated in February, when San Francisco city supervisors announced the two-year Free City College pilot program in which they expect to spend $5.4 million each year to buy out the $46-a-credit fee usually paid by students. The money will come from a voter-approved tax on San Francisco properties that sell for at least $5 million and is expected to raise about $44 million a year for the city.

City College officials have posted cheery signs all around the city declaring, Free City, with tag lines like obstacles removed, and because we believe in access and opportunity.

So far, enrollment is up by 4,866  a mixture of full- and part-time students whose attendance will bring in $7 million to $12 million in state funding for City College, depending on whether their classes are credit or noncredit.

We are thrilled, said Leslie Milloy, the colleges new Free City director. Students say this is so amazing. They say, This is making such a difference for me. I dont have to work as many hours as I would otherwise.

The program was not entirely without glitches Wednesday.

Although most students register for classes online, Simon Chan, 51, a retired civil engineer and longtime San Francisco resident, showed up at City Colleges main campus at 50 Phelan Ave. to register in person for a sculpting class.

The clerk told Chan the registration price was $173. Chan wrote a check and turned to leave.

A Chronicle reporter asked Chan why he had paid, now that City College was free.

Because theres an income requirement, right? Chan said.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

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But there is no income requirement. Even the children of the founders of Facebook would qualify, Supervisor Jane Kim, who pushed the free college program, said in February.

Chan asked registration officials why they charged him and was told that students who register in person pay up front, then ask for a reimbursement.

But thats also incorrect, said Milloy, the Free City director, who showed up with Admissions Dean Mary Lou Leyba to help.

This was a mistake on our part, Milloy said.

Leyba said the incident showed that she needs to improve training in the registration department. Thats a step we missed, she said.

Chan got his check back.

Im grateful, he said, smiling. Im retired  so I have to watch my money.

College officials said Thursday they are contacting clerks at all 10 registration sites to clarify the rules, as well as every student who has registered in person since Tuesday, when the process began. Milloy said any student who was improperly charged will receive a refund by Wednesday.

Classes begin next Saturday.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
Sure, you could get a Titos and lemonade at any of the cocktail booths around the park at Outside Lands, but one of the music festivals more unique offerings is Cocktail Magic, a collection of six San Francisco craft cocktail bars, each pouring two of their proprietary drinks, accompanied by intermittent magic shows.

This year, Alembic, Homestead, Horsefeather, Trou Normand, Whitechapel and Pacific Cocktail Haven are all repping the San Francisco cocktail scene. At $14-$16 per drink, they arent that much pricier than what youd find at any S.F. cocktail spot these days.
Bahujan Samajwadi Party's Sudhindra Bhadoria, squarely putting the blame on the Uttar Pradesh Chief minister, said that Adityanath should resign on moral grounds.

Family members and relatives mourn outside the BRD Hospital in Gorakhpur

Leaders from the Opposition have upped the ante and demanded that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tender his resignation after more than 30 children died due to insufficient oxygen supply in Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College in the past 48 hours.

Earlier today, a Congress delegation including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar reached BRD Medical College.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad expressing his concern over the incident said, "It's a heart-wrenching incident. I'm saddened by the children's death."

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"This happened due to the state government's carelessness. Both Health Minister and Minister of Technical and Medical Education must resign. UP CM can't step back from duty and must apologise to the state. He had visited the place a day before this tragedy happened," said Azad lashing out at Yogi Adityanath.

Azad added that heads should be rolled and mere judicial inquiry into the matter was not sufficient.

Congress leader Manish Tewari echoed his party member's views.

"Considering he (Yogi Adityanath) is both MP and CM, he must take moral responsibility and step down, so should his Health Minister," Tewari added.

Congress's RPN Singh also held Adityanath government's responsible for the tragedy. Whatever happened was due to lapse on the government's, remarked Singh.

Bahujan Samajwadi Party's Sudhindra Bhadoria, squarely putting the blame on the Uttar Pradesh Chief minister, said that Adityanath should resign on moral grounds.

"Hope he (Yogi Adityanath) has enough shame in him to go and express regret to the parents. It's a matter of great shame for UP CM. If there's any morality in this government then he should quit and go, for such disaster has happened," Bhadoria said.

UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, meanwhile, responding to the criticism said, "The Opposition is giving statements in haste. The UP government is committed to the service of people."

Maurya assured that strict action will be taken.

ALSO READ:

30 kids die in 48 hours at a hospital in Yogi Adityanath's hometown Gorakhpur

Yogi Adityanath: Previous UP govt gave us slaughterhouse, instead of hospital with good doctors

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WATCH: My Take: Children dying due to lack of oxygen in UP hospital is a shame

--- ENDS ---
Judy Dale died of cancer in her San Francisco home in September, in agony, after being denied the pain-relieving medication she might have received under the states aid-in-dying law that had taken effect three months earlier.

A lawsuit by her children will determine whether UCSF Medical Center, where Dale first went for treatment, was responsible for her suffering by allegedly concealing its oncologists decision not to provide life-ending drugs to patients who ask for them. More broadly, their suit illuminates the inner workings of a law that confers new rights on terminally ill patients, but few obligations on their health care providers.

The law allows a medically competent adult who has six months or less to live to ask a doctor to prescribe lethal medication. The patient, not the doctor, must be the one to administer the drug. Two doctors must agree on the terminal diagnosis, and the patient must make two requests, at least 15 days apart, before receiving the medication.

But doctors and hospitals are not required to take part in the process or to refer the patient to someone who will grant the request. Hospitals can prohibit their physicians from prescribing life-ending medication, something that medical centers affiliated with the Catholic Church and some secular hospitals have done. And a doctor who has decided not to prescribe the drugs is not required to disclose that fact until the patient asks for them.

Those provisions helped persuade the powerful California Medical Association and California Hospital Association to drop their opposition to assisted-dying legislation that had been rejected four times by state lawmakers, and once by the voters in 1992, before the Legislature passed it in 2015. They may have also made it harder for patients to find doctors who will help them end their lives.

Theyre not required to discuss the aid-in-dying law with their patients even when discussing other end-of-life treatment options, said Dr. Lael Duncan, medical director of the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, which seeks to inform health professionals and the public about caring for terminally ill patients but is neutral on physician assistance in dying.

Although no studies of doctors views have been conducted since the law took effect, Duncan said her conversations with colleagues and other information led her to conclude that far fewer than half of Californias 135,000 licensed physicians would agree to prescribe life-ending medications.

Some have religious or personal objections, she said, and others just dont see it as part of the doctor-patient relationship. Even most doctors who specialize in end-of-life care, such as those who work in hospices, dont have comfort or expertise in the new law, Duncan said.

Handout/Courtesy Dale Family

Judy Dale never learned why her doctor at UCSF and his fellow oncologists refused to provide life-ending medication. In fact, her two daughters said in their San Francisco Superior Court suit last month, she told doctors and others at the medical center from the time of her hospitalization in June 2016 that she wanted the medication and was assured it would be available, until she learned the truth from a social worker more than two months later.

By the time the 77-year-old Dale and her family could locate a willing doctor elsewhere, the suit said, it was too late  she requested the medication and died 14 days later, one day before the laws waiting period expired.

Dale family / Courtesy Dale family

To compound the familys grief, her husband of 35 years, Gene Dale, who had also been a patient at the UCSF hospital, died in January at age 90.

It was a horrible period, said Catherine Dale of Santa Rosa, who described her mother as an artist who had seen her own mother die painfully of cancer and was determined not to suffer the same experience. Each time she woke up, that was her question  How many more days? ... They took her last bit of dignity.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for alleged fraud and elder abuse.

UCSF did not comment on the accusations, but said its medical center was one of the first hospitals in the state to develop the process for implementing the new law. The hospital respects clinicians rights not to participate, the university said, but in such cases, a written policy statement tells patients that a social worker will assist you in finding a doctor who has agreed to participate.

That never happened in Dales case, her daughters said.

Medical industry observers say California appears to be following the same learning curve experienced in other states with aid-in-dying laws, starting with Oregon in 1997.

Hospitals may be taking a more conservative position now when the law is new, said Jackie Garman, vice president and legal counsel of the California Hospital Association, which represents about 400 medical centers. As the state develops more experience, its possible theyll revise to be more flexible.

She said expectations that a small group of doctors would issue most of the prescriptions for life-ending drugs were contradicted by a study of the first few months of the California law, which found that the 193 lethal prescriptions were written by 171 different physicians. And opponents warnings that greedy relatives would exploit the law to hasten a family members death have not been borne out in other states, Garman said.

Catholic hospitals, while opposing the California law, acknowledge that it has stronger conscience protections for medical practitioners than laws in other states, said Lori Dangberg, a vice president of the Alliance of Catholic Health Care.

She said the church-affiliated hospitals, which provide about 13 percent of acute-care hospital beds in California, have heard from a number of terminally ill patients expressing interest in the new law.

The vast majority, once they had a chance to talk with caregivers about the kind of support they and their families will receive, their pain, their fear of being a burden to their families, and (after) we bring in social workers, chaplains and nurses to address their emotional, social and spiritual needs, those patients are no longer interested in pursuing assisted suicide, Dangberg said.

But she said she has encouraged the hospitals to refer patients to a neutral organization like the Coalition for Compassionate Care for information on a range of options.

On the other side of the issue, San Diego physician Bob Uslander, who specializes in end-of-life care, said he has prescribed lethal medications for 25 patients in the past year and stood nearby, as a supportive presence, while they died as they had chosen.

I see their struggle, feel their suffering and I know that I have the ability to help them get relief, which is what theyre looking for, said Uslander, who has practiced medicine for 30 years.

On Thursday, he said, he watched as a 93-year-old woman, immobilized and exhausted from her fight with cancer, took the medication at her home with her three daughters nearby.

She was so excited about moving on, leaving this afflicted body behind, he said. Her daughters mixed up the medication, we all had glasses of ginger ale, everyone toasted her, she drank the medication and died peacefully in 15 minutes. Her daughters felt so relieved for her.

Another who has furnished the medication is Dr. Catherine S. Forest, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford and medical director of the Stanford Health Care facility in Los Altos. She also trains other doctors in procedures under the new law  training the state has failed to provide, she said.

In some cases, she said, treatments are available to ease a patients pain, shortness of breath and feelings of helplessness, leading them to choose stress-relieving palliative care for the final months of their life. But Forest said that when a mentally competent patient, aware of the alternatives, makes a different choice under the law, she is willing to carry it out.

I believe in helping to prevent suffering at the end of life, Forest said. Most patients who choose medical aid in dying want to live. They just dont want to live this way.

She recalled the ordeal of a family friend about a decade ago who had palliative and other medical care, but continued to suffer in his final months, and decided for family reasons not to move to Oregon for life-ending medication.

He told me, If you ever get a chance ... if it ever becomes possible in California, this would be the healing at the end of life, Forest said. This is what a compassionate physician would offer him.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
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In the world of 911 emergency calls, its the one statistic that matters most: the percentage that are answered within 10 seconds.

The industry standard is 90 percent, the nationally accepted target signaling a properly functioning call center. In early May, San Francisco dispatchers were answering just 75 percent of calls within 10 seconds, prompting Mayor Ed Lee to issue an executive order demanding major change.

On May 9, he stood outside his City Hall office and told reporters he was laser-focused on getting the call response rate up.

The thing that I need most? I need that under-10-second turnaround ... so the public is reassured that weve got a 911 system that works not a year from now, but right now, he said.

I want that 10-second turnaround standard to be there right now, he repeated. It has to be within the next month  a month or two months.

The problem, the mayor acknowledged, was understaffing and low morale at the dispatch center, and he formed a task force to find ways to improve those to improve call takers response time. Three months later  and after numerous task force meetings, reports and training sessions for new dispatchers  whats the response time at San Franciscos 911 call center? Exactly the same. Stuck at 75 percent.

That means a quarter of the time, people making a 911 emergency call in San Francisco are waiting more than 10 seconds just for someone to pick up the phone. Until that call is answered, no police officer will respond if someones broken into your house. No firefighter will respond if your house is ablaze. No paramedic will respond to save your child from choking or treat your spouse whos having a heart attack.

Currently, an average of 287 calls to 911 in San Francisco are abandoned every day, meaning the caller hangs up before theres an answer. Some of those are dialed inadvertently, but many arent. The number is actually higher than it was in early May when there were 243 abandoned calls on average per day.

In a city that is a hotbed of technology and wealth, where the annual municipal budget is an astounding $10 billion, the failure to successfully provide this most basic service  and to make any progress so far in improving it  is mind-boggling.

Despite repeated requests for an interview, Lee wasnt made available for this column. In an emailed statement, he said: Improving our 911 response time remains a top priority. No delay is acceptable when were dealing with life and death situations, which is why I continue to direct staff to exhaust every possibility to improve call response times.

Robert Smuts, deputy director of the citys Department of Emergency Management, defended the call centers performance, noting theres usually a spike of 911 calls during the summer and more dispatchers off on vacation.

A lot of effort has gone into maintaining that 75 percent level, he said.

For that matter, though, a lot of effort has gone into the Giants miserable season, the failed health care talks in Washington, D.C., and President Trumps Twitter account, too.

So what has changed over the past three months at the 911 call center? Ask some of those who work there.

It hasnt changed at all, said Burt Wilson, president of the dispatchers union. Its all the same.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

He doesnt get it, Joan Vallarino, a dispatcher for 13 years, said of Lee. I dont know how he thinks hes going to solve this. This place has been neglected. Its not even benign neglect  its willful neglect.

Matthew Roybal, a dispatcher for 12 years, agreed. Theres no change, really, he said. It feels like there are a lot of fires being put out, and its hard to make progress.

Roybal himself is making a different kind of progress, studying Web programming in his off-hours in hopes of finding a new job by the end of the year. Hes already told management at the call center hes leaving.

His will be one more departure in a department rife with them, and it seems like one the city really cant afford. Just three years ago, Roybal was heralded in a Board of Supervisors meeting as the citys Dispatcher of the Year for his calm, astute coordination of emergency dispatch during the July 2013 Asiana plane crash at San Francisco International Airport.

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said during the ceremony that dispatchers like Roybal are essential during major catastrophes. If they dont do their jobs efficiently and effectively, we cant do ours, she said.

But Roybal, a 39-year-old Pacifica resident, said with morale at the dispatch center continuing to sink, hes had enough. Other dispatchers said privately theyre looking for a way out, too.

Its not just the 75 percent answer rate that hasnt budged. Working conditions for the dispatchers havent changed either.

The city is rightfully focused on bringing on more dispatchers to help handle the load. It is training new ones, persuading retirees to come back part time, and borrowing employees from other departments. But there doesnt seem to be any focus on retaining the experienced dispatchers already in place, a strategy thats self-defeating.

Since April, seven new recruits have finished training, but five dispatchers have quit or retired. One woman, a mother with no job lined up, recently quit because she couldnt stand the working conditions anymore. Currently, 110 fully trained dispatchers are working in San Francisco; a fully staffed center would have 165, according to Smuts.

He predicted the call center will be able to meet the long-sought 90 percent answer rate target by December. He said 10 to 12 newly trained dispatchers will be on the job by the end of September, with similar numbers of new dispatchers joining the staff in December and again every few months throughout 2018 and 2019. The training classes are being paid for with an extra $27.4 million per year allotted to the center since Lee took office.

The mayor is also looking at ways to divert calls to the citys nonemergency phone number, currently answered by 911 dispatchers, to other public safety agencies.

Smuts said these changes will make a big difference in the stress levels and morale of the current dispatchers. But many say they are tired of waiting.

Theyre tired of the scheduling that, remarkably, is still done by hand and takes at least two people working full time to put together  people who could be answering 911 calls instead. The new city budget provides for one of those slots to be filled by a newly hired clerk, but a dispatcher will continue in the other post.

They say were getting scheduling software, but theyve been saying that for seven years, Roybal said.

Management is testing a computerized scheduling system, and it should be ready for use too, according to Francis Zamora, spokesman for the department.

Roybal said that other than during planned vacation time, he has not had a single weekend off in his 12 years on the job. He said he had to jump through a lot of hoops to attend his brothers wedding in Hawaii this year, even with several months notice.

Roybal said its common to have to work mandatory overtime on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Mothers Day. Other dispatchers tell frustrating stories of not getting days off to attend their own bridal showers or graduations.

Smuts countered that his department tries to let dispatchers off for the most essential events, such as family weddings, and in other cases allows them to trade days off. He said management is talking with the union about creating alternative schedules to ease the burden.

Regardless, Roybal is done. Now that he has a wife  a former dispatcher who quit to become a nurse  a 2-year-old son and a baby on the way, he wants a more normal life.

Some appreciation for the overworked staff wouldnt hurt either, he said.

They celebrate Dispatcher Week once a year, he said. One day they ordered pizza. Thats really kind of the extent of it. ... People retire after 30 years, and its just like, OK, thanks. Bye.

There are yoga classes offered some days at noon, but those are really only attended by management. The dispatchers are stuck at their desks answering calls.

Theres a massage chair in the kitchen, Vallarino said. That does not help with my morale.

Smuts said the task force established by Lee in May has met four or five times, though smaller groups have also met. The mayor attended one meeting, he said. The group is preparing an action plan to improve the staffing, morale and response time at dispatch center that is due to the mayor by the end of September.

Curiously, no dispatchers have been invited to attend the meetings and are not involved in crafting the plan.

Perhaps, just as with the yoga classes, theyd be too busy answering calls to take part anyway.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

Tell your 911 stories

Have you had trouble connecting to 911 in San Francisco when you experienced an emergency? Let us know by emailing hknight@sfchronicle.com.
Evacuations were ordered in eastern Napa County and a major highway was shut down after a wildfire broke out on Friday and burned 100 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced.

The evacuations were ordered in the Turtle Rock area and at SomertonVineyard about five miles west of Lake Berryessa. Highway 128 was shut down in the area after the fire was reported around 1 p.m.
As students begin heading back to school this week, the Legislature is working to figure out whether the dramatic change in how California funds its schools is working. There are few answers.

The state adopted the Local Control Funding Formula in 2012, overturning four decades of categorical funding that attempted to micromanage school district spending from Sacramento.

The new formula gives more state money to districts with disadvantaged youths  low-income, foster and English learner students  who need additional educational supports. The result: The funding gap between the states wealthiest and the poorest school districts has narrowed  a huge and notable achievement. But it hasnt translated into improved educational opportunities in the low-income districts or markedly narrowed the achievement gap.

Legislators and education experts say they cant evaluate a program that lacks transparency. Everyone agrees on this: The state should not go back to categorical funding.

The concern categorical funding sought to address, however, remains. That is, how does the state fund schools so teachers unions and middle-class parents dont grab a disproportionate share?

The governor and state Board of Education championed the little d democracy behind Local Control Funding. School districts would receive lump sums and the school board, working closely with district parents and teachers, would decide how to spend the funds. Each district must prepare a plan that sets goals, outlines expenditures and actions needed to achieve them, and establishes metrics to measure progress.

Schools seemed a natural setting for this kind of intense participatory budgeting. Parents care deeply about how well schools prepare their kids. Locally elected school board members would be more accountable to parents and voters than faceless Sacramento bureaucrats. But that isnt how it has worked out  so far.

Stanford researchers found that parents interacted with schools, but not school districts, where the decisions are made. School board agendas had little mention of local control and accountability plans, which should reflect ideas developed with the community over months, until just before the board vote to adopt the plans in June.

Districts that did try to involve parents, holding hundreds of hours of meetings, too often delivered lectures instead of facilitating deliberations. Plans, often hundreds of pages long, meant little to parents, if they even knew they existed.

With a few exceptions, districts cant spell out how they spent the funds. The state is setting up an online dashboard to help districts convey that information.

Legislators are concerned they have too little control over more than 40 percent of the states general fund spending. School reformers want to know whether the disadvantaged students who generated the supplemental funding are benefiting. Equity advocates have applauded the formula for changes that have reduced absenteeism and suspension rates. Researchers are advocating for an independent state-funded evaluation, to ask the tough questions about our $41 billion investment, and assist districts in gauging what is working.

Gov. Jerry Brown has indicated he wants local districts to figure out how to make this work. Californians must look to the next governor to rework this noble experiment. Our job as voters? To query the gubernatorial candidates about how they would ensure every California child has equal opportunity for a good education.

State public schools numbers

6 million K-12 students

3.5 million K-12 students considered at risk

58 percent, the state average of poor, foster and English learner students in a school district

$41 billion, state funds allocated to school districts during the first four years of Local Control Funding Formula program.
EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Amid growing revulsion at systematic plunder by police and prosecutors, California was one of 23 states to curb the abused tactic known as civil asset forfeiture in recent years. Now, with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions striving to revive the discredited practice, state and federal lawmakers must do more to protect the public from what has too often amounted to thinly legalized theft.

Sessions has defended civil forfeiture as a means to defund organized crime, referring to the drug cartels held up as deserving targets of cash and property seizures, and return property to the victims of crime. The trouble is that forfeiture has created countless new victims by taking money, vehicles and even homes from people of modest means who have not been convicted of any crime. And billions of dollars a year in proceeds are going not to crime victims but to law enforcement agencies, giving them a corrupting incentive to seize even more.
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NBCs new sitcom Marlon is pretty formulaic, so much so that it would be dismissable were it not for the fact that, as the title suggests, Marlon Wayans is the star of the series, which launches on Wednesday, Aug. 16., with back-to-back episodes.

Wayans is a proven talent, so that part isnt surprising. What is unexpected is finding Wayans starring in an old-fashioned show reminiscent of the recently canceled Last Man Standing. Like that show, though, Marlon works well enough because of the comedic appeal of its star.

Created by Christopher Moynihan (Man Up), Marlon is a show about a dad whos a successful online personality, and his friendly relationship with his ex-wife Ashley (Essence Atkins) as they raise their two kids, Marley (Notlim Taylor) and her younger brother, Zack (Amir ONeil). Both of the kids roles follow well-used templates. Marley is getting to the age where shes interested in boys, thereby freaking her father out, while Zack is the young wiseass.

The tattered pages of the rule book say you have to have a comic sidekick for Mom, and her name here is Yvette (Bresha Webb), whos always on hand to get under Marlons skin and to provide punch lines for Ashley. Marlon, meanwhile, has a permanent couch occupant named Stevie (Diallo Riddle), whose presence is not needed to remind us that for all of Marlons outrageous behavior, at least he has a stable job, loves his kids and wants to ensure that his family is taken care of.

Marlon himself is the biggest kid in the show, though, and as such, the one element that at least nudges Marlon toward the 21st century. No matter what the situation, Marlon (the character) can be counted on to overreact. Ashley ponders getting breast augmentation, and Marlon freaks out, because he thinks shes doing it to attract men, of course. She visits a doctor, and Marlon causes a scene.

Marlon and Ashley consider the reality that although theyre divorced, sex between exes isnt entirely off the table, but Marlon freaks out when he leaps to the conclusion that Ashley will want them to get back together after they hook up.

Marley is showing a typical teenage interest in boys. Marlon freaks out.

No matter what the situation, Marlon freaks out, and more often than not, with comically successful results.

Marlons freak-outs may not make a whole lot of logical sense, but they are basically stand-up bits in and of themselves. In fact, even the opening of each episode evokes the much-used format where a comic in the starring role does a kind of mini-monologue before the story begins.

The rest of the cast is fine, but the character of Stevie feels vestigial here. Riddle is OK, but its almost as though Moynihan and Wayans wanted to craft a supporting male role that was so bland, Wayans would never be in danger of being upstaged.

Although Marlon may not come close in quality and sophistication to, say, Modern Family, or even The Middle, its modestly enjoyable and a smart move on NBCs part. The network is airing two episides of the new show every Wednesday, while ABCs occupants of the time slot, Modern Family and American Housewife, are on hiatus.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV

Marlon: Sitcom, two-episode premiere at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16, NBC, and two episodes each Wednesday through Sept. 13.
Political events in the Bay Area

Indivisible SF: General meeting for planning weekly actions. First-timers and previous attendees welcome. Discussion starts at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, 1661 15th St., San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2wyjiCi

Town hall: Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, holds a town hall at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Pittsburg Senior Center, 300 Presidio Lane, Pittsburg.

Comfort women: A rally will be held at the San Francisco Japanese Consulate for the commemoration of International Comfort Women Memorial Day. Noon to 1 p.m. Monday, 275 Battery St., San Francisco. For information: http://remembercomfortwomen.org

Social Security: A rally to reserve, improve and expand Social Security. Monday at noon, Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th Street and Broadway, Oakland. For information: http://bit.ly/2017_Soc_Sec_Bday

Pakistan independence: Flag-raising and cultural event marking 70th anniversary of Pakistans independence from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at James P. McEntee Plaza, 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose. For information: www.amuslimvoice.org

Voter registration: Volunteers will help new U.S. citizens register to vote after swearing-in ceremony. Sponsored by Democracy Action, which works to advance Democratic candidates. From 10 a.m. to noon Thursday outside the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. For information: https://demaction.us

Peoples budget: A discussion of progressive alternative budget priorities on the state and federal levels from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Unitarian Universalist center, 1187 Franklin St., San Francisco. For information: www.facebook.com/PDASanFrancisco/?...

Virginia candidate: The Sister District Project is raising funds for Kathy Tran, who is running for the Virginia House of Delegates, by hosting a discussion with Rita Bosworth, the Sister District Project founder, and former Assemblyman Ted Lempert. The event is from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., 390 Capistrano Road, Half Moon Bay. For information: www.goo.gl/d2KVLu

Town hall: Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, holds a town hall at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station.
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The University of California has agreed to pay $1.3 million in back wages and damages to nearly 14,000 employees it improperly paid over three years.

Under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor reached in May, the university will inform thousands of current and former employees that it underpaid those who worked overtime between January 2014 through December 2016.
The day before Magnolia's Dave McLean was due to debut his curation of the Beer Lands tent at the 10th anniversary of Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, news broke that his 20-year-old brewery was to be acquired by New Belgium, a much larger Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewing company, with a minority stake going to Oud Beersel, a Belgian lambic brewery.

The big reveal also came at a particularly odd time for San Francisco-based McLean because in the weeks before, The Chronicle reported that another of the city's stalwart brewing companies, Anchor, was also being acquired, and that 21st Amendment would sell a stake to Brooklyn Brewery.

"It blew up fast," says McLean, who was onsite at the San Francisco festival on Friday, Aug. 11. "It's been one week after another. What's going to happen next week?"

The acquisitions, to be sure, are all very different from each other. While Anchor's sale to Japan's Sapporo sees the Potrero Hill brewery continue to make their classic porters, barleywines, and of course, the Steam, New Belgium's purchase means that Magnolia would be allowed flexibility towards more experimental styles -- in particular, with the help of Oud Beersel, lambics.

"We've been focused quite a bit on the transaction," he says. "It's all very early, but there is a really cool idea of making the first lambic blendery outside of Belgium."

So much of the deal is nascent that McLean's not quite sure yet what his role will be, or what all three parties will get out of the partnership. He says that the group still needs to sit down and continue to talk about it  the whole sales discussion began less than six months ago  and adds the McLean the arrangement "feels extremely experimental."

"The basic lay of the land is New Belgium and Dick (Cantwell) and Oud Beersel created this new entity to create this wild  no pun intended  kind of lambic blendery. And with New Belgium, there was a lot of opportunity to work with their brewers and do some collaborative stuff. The biggest part of it all was Dick getting back into brewing after a couple years out of it."

As McLean stands at Beer Lands, surrounded by more than 25 local breweries that he's invited to pour for fest-goers, he considers how the industry has changed over the last year.

"The industry changes fast, and it seems like it changes faster the longer it goes. It's gotten really competitive and crowded and it's a lot of trying to find business relationships that work," he says. "The curve of growth just shot up."

That growth, though good for the industry, presented a strengthening challenge for Magnolia. The decision to sell may have been difficult, but it came only after McLean and the staff attempted every business strategy they could, he says.

"It was an evolving path of trying everything," he says. "Trying to find this outside capital without a sale was hard and by the end of last year, it became clear that for everyone involved we should go for the sale."

McLean, however, is optimistic about the "new chapter."

"There are breweries trying out what seems like different version of, 'How can we mature as an industry and deal with these challenges while still maintaining a soul?'" he adds. "That's what this deal seems like it is to me ... From the beermaker perspective it's going to get a lot more interesting."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


Magnolia's Dave McLean is not just an experienced brewer, he's also grown to be adept at beer and food pairings.

McLean, who runs the Haight district brewery as well as the cocktail bar Alembic and barbecue joint Smokestack, has been curating Outside Lands' Beer Lands tent for the last six years, stocking its taps with beers from more than two dozen Northern California breweries.

It's a challenge, as he says, because though it's important to acknowledge the trends it's also necessary to present a diverse menu of styles.

"Every year there's new (trends), but if everyone was left to their own devices, it would be a hop fest," he says. "(IPAs) are what the brewers make the most of."

RELATED: New Belgium buys San Francisco's Magnolia Brewing for $2.7 million

RELATED: Magnolia's Dave McLean on brewery sale deal: 'It feels extremely experimental"

Noting that some of his favorites this year include Anderson Valley's G&T Gose and 21st Amendment's Blood Orange Brew Free or Die IPA, McLean admits it's sometimes difficult to get beers that breweries produce in smaller amounts.

"In some cases we can't get everyone's special stuff," he says, adding that breweries often need to provide such a substantial amount of beer for the three-day festival. The exceptions to that this year are Almanac's A Tribe Called Mosaic IPA, which was brewed specifically for Outside Lands as an homage to the hip-hop crew performing Saturday, and Barebottle's Tornado Dust that recently debuted for the Haight Street beer bar Toronado's 30th birthday.

For this year's event, we asked McLean to pair beer with some of the festival's popular food picks. See them below.

1. Marlowe's bacon cheeseburger and fries with Bear Republic's Grand-Am pale ale

Alyssa Pereira

McLean: "When it comes to a burger, that's a sweet spot for me. I kind of know what I like there. There are usually three or four or five options and it really comes down to what works for you. You have to make sure it works. I like a hop-forward beer, especially with a loaded burger like this. The more assertive flavors and fattiness of the burger, the more I like the palate-refreshing nature of the hops. Maybe it's an IPA or a pilsner...For this I tend to lean towards pale ales  the Bear Republic Grand-Am. Little bit of maltiness, not over-the-top hoppy. It still has balance and hop character; it just goes with the underlying flavors of the beef."

2. Rich Table's porcini donuts and raclette cheese with Laughing Monk's Evening Vespers Belgian dubbel

Alyssa Pereira

McLean: "I would go for something maltier and with a bit of sweetness, probably Laughing Monk's Evening Vespers, a Belgian dubbel. Belgian dubbels have something that goes with some of those abbey yeast strains that works really nicely with these flavors  with mushrooms in general and the fried aspect, the doughnut aspect."

3. Charles Chocolate's S'more with High Water's Campfire stout.

Alyssa Pereira

McLean: "It's almost hard not to go with the Campfire Stout. There actually aren't many dark beers here today  those are often go-to beers for these  but the campfire stout. Having tried them side-by-side, you can go for the contrast, but sometimes it's that match where you don't know where one stops and the other begins. That's a beautiful thing."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


Three Uber investors said a lawsuit against co-founder Travis Kalanick was designed to hold the company hostage and asked Benchmark, the venture capital firm that brought the suit, to step down from the board.

The investors sent a letter Friday addressed to Benchmark, saying they opposed the suit, according to a copy reviewed by Bloomberg. The investors are Sherpa Capitals Shervin Pishevar, Yucaipa Companies Ron Burkle and Mavericks Adam Leber. They dont hold seats on the board or a majority of the companys stock, but the letter said theyre seeking other shareholders to add their signatures.

Battles among Uber stakeholders have spilled into public view, and the conflicts risk paralyzing the San Francisco ride-hailing company at a crucial time. Uber is looking to quickly fill its vacant CEO position, while trying to boost morale, battle a trade secrets lawsuit from Alphabet and defend against well-funded rivals.

At least two people in consideration for the CEO job, including General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, called Uber directors, expressing dismay after this weeks suit, people familiar with the discussions said.

On Thursday, Benchmark sued Kalanick in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that he withheld material information before asking the board to vote on adding three additional board seats last year. Kalanick now occupies one of those seats, but Benchmark is seeking to eliminate all three, according to the complaint. A spokesman for Kalanick has said the suit is completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations.

The firms didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. The board was convening Friday to discuss the lawsuit, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the meeting is private.

Naturally, we share your concerns about the problems that the company has confronted in recent months, the investors wrote in the letter. But we are greatly concerned about the tactics employed by Benchmark to address them, which strike us as ethically dubious and, critically, value-destructive.

Benchmark deployed a similar move in June to unseat Kalanick as CEO. Bill Gurley, a partner at the firm, brought in four other major investors, who altogether hold as much as 40 percent of shareholder votes, to endorse a letter asking for Kalanick to step down. Kalanick complied, though he kept a seat on the board. After his ouster, he was looking to stay involved with the company and eventually seek a new role inside.

Olivia Zaleski is a Bloomberg writer. Email: ozaleski@bloomberg.net
San Francisco investigators have released photos of the man suspected of blinding a woman in a vicious bleach attack in the Tenderloin last month.

The 53-year-old woman told police officers that she was standing on Mason Street between Turk and Eddy streets about 7:30 p.m. on July 30 when the assailant approached her and told her to leave.
Less than two hours before A Tribe Called Quests set during the first day of Outside Lands, officials announced the group will not be performing. Instead, the legendary hip-hop crew is set to play the festival at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12 on the Twin Peaks stage.

The news came midway through the first day of Outside Lands on Friday, via an alert that went out to festivalgoers that stated due to unforeseen travel issues, A Tribe Called Quest is not performing tonight. Q-Tip and Jarobi White  two of the three remaining members of the group that formed in New York back in 1985  were originally scheduled to hit the Lands End stage at 6:15 p.m. Friday.
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MISSION, Texas  Hundreds of protesters wearing white and chanting in English and Spanish marched Saturday in Texas first major protest against a border wall, crossing the earthen Rio Grande levee where President Trumps administration wants to build part of the first phase.

The protesters launched whats expected to be a fierce movement against Trumps best-known immigration policy priority. Many of the participants acknowledged they might not be able to stop a project that the U.S. government is already planning, but they hoped to draw national attention to the cause and persuade lawmakers who have yet to sign off on funding for the project.

We might seem small and insignificant. Maybe we are, said Anthoney Saenz, a 19-year-old native of the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost point of Texas and a region where Trump has proposed putting 60 miles of wall as part of a $1.6 billion proposal. But when our voices come together, when we band together as a community to try to get a voice out there, we have to hope we get heard, he said.

Organizers of Saturdays protest wanted to make clear the depth of local opposition to the border wall, which as proposed would cut through a federally protected wildlife refuge and split apart several border towns. Some 40 groups took part in the protest, from environmentalists to landowners rights groups to immigrant advocates.

The procession set out just after dawn from Our Lady of Guadalupe, a towering church in the border city of Mission.

The procession grew as it headed south toward the Rio Grande, the winding river that separates the United States and Mexico in Texas. The marchers walked uphill on a dirt path onto the levees, built well north of the river to protect border cities in the valley from flooding.

It ended at La Lomita, a tiny century-old chapel just south of the levee. Some people quietly prayed inside the chapel as a rally went on outside.

While the U.S. House has passed a spending with funding for the wall, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Democrats and some Republicans have spoken against it.

Government contractors have already been taking soil samples along the Rio Grande levees and have begun to examine property ownership records for the land condemnation lawsuits a border wall would likely require.

Scott Nicol, co-chair of the Sierra Clubs Borderlands campaign and an organizer of Saturdays rally, said some people who were neutral or quiet about the last U.S. government effort to build a border barrier are speaking against it this time.

Because people have seen the walls go up and see what they do, its not sort of an abstract, imagined concept, Nicol said. Theres a lot more opposition to it now than there was 10 years ago.

Marie Montalvo, a resident of San Benito, Texas, said she had been followed by the Border Patrol during a recent visit to Santa Ana to take pictures.

I want my nieces and nephews, and the children of the Rio Grande Valley, to know that I was completely against this, Montalvo said.

Nomaan Merchant is an Associated Press writer.
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A San Jose man was arrested early Saturday morning in Menlo Park on suspicion of several offenses including robbery and sexual assault, police said.

At 4:50 a.m., a resident called police and alleged that someone had broken into his home in the 1000 block of Ringwood Avenue, threatening him with a knife.

Police said the victim, a 60-year-old, alleged he was sexually assaulted and robbed before he escaped his home and called police from a neighbor's home. The victim said he suffered minor injuries.

CHILD INSIDE STOLEN CAR: Police seeking suspects who stole car with child still inside

Responding officers spotted a suspect on a nearby pedestrian overcrossing and blocked both ends, according to police.

But the suspect, later identified as Lamar Stevens, climbed the fence of the overcrossing and officers then released a K-9 to capture him.

MUSICIAN KILLED: Musician killed in Oakland while trying to retrieve stolen laptop

Police said Stevens, 36, jumped from the fence onto Van Buren Road, a fall of about 30 feet, which left him unable to move. Officers then detained Stevens.

Stevens has been arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, oral copulation by use of force, burglary, home robbery and assault with the intent to commit sexual assault, according to police.

OAKLAND FIRE: Investigators cannot determine cause in Oakland construction fire

Stevens was taken to Stanford Hospital to be treated for his injuries, where he'll remain until he can be moved to the county jail.

Police said that Stevens was on state parole for robbery and officials with the California Department of Corrections have placed a parole hold on him.
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A moth posing a danger to Santa Cruz County forests and crops has as been found in Santa Cruz, county officials announced Friday.

An Asian gypsy moth was found in a detection trap at a home in Santa Cruz.

When the moth is a caterpillar it is a threat to forests and local oaks as well as other hardwoods, evergreens, manzanita, cottonwood, willow and other trees.

County officials said the moths also pose a threat to county crops such as fruit trees.

A female Asian gypsy moth can fly up to 25 miles and lay up to 1500 eggs at one time. Caterpillars can eat up to one square foot of leaves each day.

To determine whether an infestation exists, county officials are working with employees of other government agencies to set more traps.

If an infestation exists, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will convene a group of experts to assess the situation and provide guidance on what should be done.

County officials said experts have stopped previous infestations by using bacteria found in soil, but whether that method will be used in Santa Cruz County has not been determined.

Asian gypsy moth eggs are frequently found on ships and shipping containers coming from Asia, Russia and other regions.

Eggs also travel on outdoor furniture, recreational vehicles, firewood, among other portable items.
Roger Waters' album cover (left) and Emilio Isgro "Cancellatura" (right)

It has been a turbulent summer for Roger Waters new album Is this the life we really want?, released around two months ago.





In Italy, the sale of the album cover, the booklet and the CD sticker was prohibited by the Milan Court of first instance on 25 July last (the decision is not available on public databases yet, as soon as this Kat finds it, she will let you know).









Mr Isgro is well known in his native Italy as well as around the globe for his erasure technique. The message he conveys through his artworks is literally hidden between the lines: he manually erases parts of the text with black ink, leaving only a few visible words. The resulting message is cryptic and evocative at the same time. These works of art have been exposed in museums and have been widely discussed by experts for half a century. The reason? The cover art was found to amount to an infringement of copyright in a work of art called Cancellatura (1964), by Italian artist Emilio Isgro Mr Isgro is well known in his native Italy as well as around the globe for his erasure technique. The message he conveys through his artworks is literally hidden between the lines: he manually erases parts of the text with black ink, leaving only a few visible words. The resulting message is cryptic and evocative at the same time. These works of art have been exposed in museums and have been widely discussed by experts for half a century.





The cover of Mr Waters' new album also uses the erasure technique, blacking out text with irregular lines and leaving out only the words forming the title of the album itself.



In the present case, the Milan Court of First Instance had to assess, first, whether Isgro's work could be protected and, secondly, whether said work had been unlawfully reproduced in the album cover at stake. As regards the first point, the court had no problem in establishing the protectability of the artist and of his works of art, which have been exposed and studied throughout the years and whose artistic value is persistent and undiminished.



As regards the second point, the court introduced the discussion by saying that it is the expression what is protected, not the idea behind it. In this case, it is clear in the blink of an eye that the expressiveness in two works of art is the same. The use of black irregular lines, traced in an irregular manner only leaving some of the words are unmistakable. The court added that the use of the same expressive forms is also strenghtened by the common perception of music and art critics.





For these reasons, the court issued the injunction banning the sale of everything but the plain CD, basically. With a hefty fine attached (

100 for each new infringement following the injunction), walling off the Italian market to the former Pink Floyd bassist (wink wink).





William Xerra's "Vive"

by some, who inferred that not even Isgro's work was original because it was inspired by and a continuation of the earlier works by Man Rey (artist William Xerra famously said Rey lives on in Isgro).





This Kat, though, tends to agree with the court. If we

compare first Reys and Isgros works, we notice that there is a similarity in the idea, the expression of it is completely different. One erases every word in the text while the other leaves out some words, to compose thoughts and sentences which express something else than deleting. If we confront, in turn, Waters album cover with Isgros Cancellatura, the expressivity which emerges is the same. There was no effort to contextualise, parody or reference Isgros work. Although the erasure technique has been used in art and in other fields, the use done by Mr. Isgro is different and stands out, while the album cover does not. Its just a watered down version.





[Update! Thanks to Kat friend

, the decision (in original Italian) can be found

The courts analysis was nonetheless criticisedReinhard Oertli's hint
The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and his faction were furious upset by Mogherinis embarrassing selfies with some members of Majlis (parliament)

because they see it as yet another step toward succumbing to the West.

Khamenei is not against rapprochement with the West and enjoys the economic windfalls that came with the nuclear deal with the six world powers-P5+1 group.

In his article for The American Thinker, Reza Shafiee, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, writes, Where does Rouhani stand in all of this? It is simple: He wants a bigger share power and wealth for his faction, that which was formerly Akbar Hasheimi Rafsanjanis when he was around. Rafsanjani was Rouhanis mentor. Now in his absence, Rouhani tries to fill his shoes but he is no match for the current Supreme Leaders might or his powerful arm, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

During his first term, Rouhani oversaw more than 3,000 executions. According to Irans main opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, last month 101 prisoners were hanged. NCRIs statement revealed, The majority of those executed were young, including two men, aged 24 and 27, who were hanged in public in Torbat Heydarieh; a 25-year-old woman in Babol; a 24-year-old man in Kerman, two 26-year-old men in Zahedan, a 28-year-old man in Zabol, and another 28-year-old man in Gohardasht, Karaj.

Iran also has more than 5,000 death-row inmates between the ages of 20 and 30.

Rouhani refused the responsibility by saying they were carried out according to laws and laws were handed down by the parliament.

In its latest report, Amnesty International stated,Iran vilifies human rights defenders as enemies of the state. The report also says that under Rouhanis first term human rights abuses have intensified in an unprecedented rate. Irans judicial and security bodies have waged a vicious crackdown against human rights defenders since Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013, demonizing and imprisoning activists who dare to stand up for peoples rights, Amnesty International said.

Further, citizens in Iran must endure indignities like the lack of decent drinking water. Ordinary citizens have lost their life savings to banks set up by IRGC commercial conglomerates. There are frequent power outages especially in the Southern Iranian provinces such as Khuzestan, where the heat is scorching. Ethnic, religious, and all other minority groups are suppressed, and protests have engulfed the country.

Iranian regime officials are now facing public criticism on the 29th anniversary of the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. When an audio tape was leaked by the son of the late Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeris in August 2016, it revealed that Montazeri, the handpicked successor of Khomeini, publicly objected to the mass executions of 1988. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, and died in 2009.

The audio tape also highlighted that Rouhanis main challenger in the May presidential election in Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of Death Commission responsible for handing down sentences to execution. Irans main opposition, Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) launched a massive awareness campaign in Iran during the May elections. Raisi stood by his role in the massacre, and asked to be decorated for his crimes.

Ahamd Khatami a Friday Prayers leader, and a Khameneis confidant, said, Then we see some people who on their websites switch the place of martyrs and murderers. It was a divine move by [Iranian regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini] to force the [PMOI (Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran)] out of the country. All those who acted based on these orders should be rewarded with medals however; those who on their websites have switched the place of martyrs and murderers should repent and beg for forgiveness.

It is unlikely that Hassan Rouhani will change course during his second term in office. Shafiee writes, He has been an active participant and a decision maker since the 1979 revolution. He has demonstrated his resolve for pleasing the Supreme Leader every step of the way. Rouhani quietly nags Khamenei for a bigger share of power which is often misread by some in the West as a sign of outright defiance to IRGC or the Supreme Leader. Moderation in Irans ruling mullahs has been an illusion created by those in the West who want to have a bigger share of Irans market.

Holding those responsible for accountable for their human rights record, must now be addressed.
Many believe that the new administration is leaning toward a policy of regime change, and are concerned that such a policy will drag America to another Middle East war.

Still, others say that U.S. military action is not necessary. The U.S. must simply recognize that the Iranian people desire regime change, and support their resistance movement, and regime change can and will happen in Iran.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of Iranian Resistance, said in her opening statement at a recent Interim Session of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), We reiterate and emphasize that regime change and establishment of freedom and peoples sovereignty, is solely the task and within the powers of the Iranian people and Resistance and no one else. Having relied on the suffering, struggle and endurance of this movement and this alternative, today we are most confident in the victory and liberation of our homeland.

The Obama administration adopted a policy of appeasement. He believed in negotiating with the regime. The new administrations policy is shifting in a different direction, and is taking a much harder line with Iranian leadership.

In her speech at the Paris gathering, Mrs. Rajavi said, We say that the struggle of the people of Iran for regime change is legitimate, righteous and imperative. We urge you to recognize this resistance against oppression. The same notion that is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Frances Declaration of Human Rights and Citizens Rights. This has also been stated in the American Declaration of Independence where it says, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of the peoples rights, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government of their liking.

Iran has a democratic, powerful, and organized opposition with the capacity of mobilizing and organizing the people of Iran for another uprising. The NCRI and the Peoples Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI-MEK) have gained widespread popular support inside Iran and abroad.The NCRIs democratic platform calls for a secular republic, gender equality, an end to capital punishment, rights of religious and ethnic minorities, and a non-nuclear Iran.

The right Iran policy is to Support for the NCRI is the correct policy on Iran, as it will prevent war in the Middle East.
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ROME  Doctors Without Borders said Saturday it is temporarily suspending the activity of its rescue ship due to alleged threats from Libyas coast guard, which has become more aggressive in patrolling the coasts where human traffickers launch boats crowded with migrants desperate to reach Europe.

The humanitarian group said the rescue coordination center operated by Italys coast guard had informed it on Friday that the Libyan threats pose a security risk. The group added that Libyan authorities declared their own rescue area, extending into international waters, the same day.

Doctors Without Borders says its medical crew will keep working from a ship operated by another aid group while its own vessel, Prudence, is not involved in migrant rescues.

The Italian government agreed last month to dispatch a naval mission to assist the Libyan coast guard with antismuggler patrols. Hundreds of thousands of rescued asylum seekers, many of them fleeing poverty in Africa, have been brought to safety in Italian ports in recent years.

The government also has pressured rescue groups to sign on to rules that would forbid them from entering Libyan waters to save migrants without specific authorization and require them to agree that armed Italian judicial authorities may board their ships.

Italy is requiring groups operating rescue ships to subscribe to the rules else or risk not being allowed to dock in Italian ports. Doctors Without Borders has refused to endorse the rules, while some other humanitarian groups have given their approval.

Critics of the new policies say they could put lives at risk by delaying rescues in Libyan waters. They also contend that if the Libyan coast guard blocks smugglers boats, migrants will be returned to inhumane conditions, including beatings and forced labor, in Libyan detention centers.

If humanitarian ships are pushed out of the Mediterranean, there will be fewer ships ready to aid persons before they drown, Doctors Without Borders Italy President Loris De Filippi said in a statement. And whoever doesnt drown will be intercepted and brought back to Libya, which we know to be a place of absent legality, arbitrary detention and extreme violence.

A Spanish humanitarian group, Proactiva Open Arms, said the Libyan coast guard ordered its ship to move north and fired warning shots last week when the vessel was involved in rescue work outside of Libyan territory.

Frances DEmilio is an Associated Press writer.
DAMASCUS, Syria  An international chemical weapons delegation will visit Syria in the coming days and Damascus will assist its mission to uncover who used chemical weapons in the country this year, a Syrian official said Saturday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the delegation of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and U.N. Joint Investigative Mechanism is scheduled to arrive in Syria within 10 days.

Mekdad reiterated in an interview that his governments denial of being behind the April 4 attack in the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed almost 100 people.

The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched a punitive strike days later on the Shayrat air base from where it said the attack was launched.

We will offer it all facilitations needed for the investigation and to help it arrive to the place where the alleged chemical attack took place, Mekdad said, adding that a delegation that came to Syria this year did not visit Khan Sheikhoun, citing security concerns. He added that the delegation also did not visit the Shayrat air base either.

It is not likely that the delegation will be able to visit Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province that has witnessed clashes recently between al Qaeda-linked fighters and rival insurgent groups.

We will ask them to go to Shayrat air base and by that Syria would have given proof that it has no relations to the use of poison gas, Mekdad said in the interview at his office in Damascus.

We bet on the professionalism and neutrality of the Joint Investigation Mechanism that will visit Syria within the next 10 days, to investigate who used chemical weapons, the Syrian official said.

Mekdad provided images including one of a crater filled with cement, saying it was the place of the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. He said the rebels were behind the April attack.

Last month, Russia said Washington and its Western allies rushed to judgment and blamed the Syrian government for using sarin nerve gas in the Khan Sheikhoun without ever visiting the site and ignoring two witnesses presented by Damascus.

Syria joined the OPCW in 2013, avoiding possible U.S. military strikes in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb. Washington and U.S. allies accused the Syrian government of being responsible for the attack, but Damascus blamed rebels.

Albert Aji is an Associated Press writer.
State-run Basij News recently wrote, The Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (MEK/PMOI) has organized the maximum propaganda and military activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The unresolved issue is how some of the political circles support the MEKs measures in the current situation and they question the events of the 80s, while trying to call the hangman a martyr.

Leadership of the regime have criticized France for hosting the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)s annual Free Iran event. At The Islamic Human Rights Conference, Foad Yazidi stated, France hosts Irans enemies, whereas it established economic relations with Iran after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He added, We had a lot of sanctions before the Iran Nuclear Deal. However, the question is that who is left out sanctions after this deal? According to this law, even the President could be sanctioned. The U.S. has enlisted us as the enemy country. Consequently, it doesnt make much of a difference to give or not to give concessions as long as we are on this list.

By discrediting the MEK, the regime hopes to discredit the movement. The MEK is seen as the foundation of the protests and domestic uprisings within Iran. The regime wants to confront the MEK, arguing that the regimes unwillingness to discuss the massacre gives the MEK a foothold with the youth and others, because of the questions they raise.

Mohammad Sadeq Koushki, an international affairs expert in Iran, said, We should have given people as much information about the MEK that there was no ambiguity about the executions in 1988.

It appears that the regime is not able to obstruct the popular position of the MEK with the younger generation, although the state-run media, and lobbyists in the international community continue to try. The regime promotes outright suppression of the group. Even with these efforts, the MEK/PMOI continue their focus on the rights of the Iranian people and advocate for human rights and the freedom to express political opinions.

Films made about the MEK must reflect the views of the regime. Historically accurate films cause the filmmaker to be accused of being a supporter of the MEK. A filmmaker was quoted as saying, Many people, even at the government level, go along with these deceptive slogans.

The MEK/PMOI questions the actions of the Iranian regime. Their network within the country has exposed the actions of the regime to the international community.

Besides the MEK/PMOI, others who oppose the regime have built a coalition known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is the democratic alternative to the fundamentalism of the regime. They have developed a 10-Point Plan for building a free, non-nuclear, and democratic country to replace the regimes fundamentalism and exporting of terrorism.
By Carla Herreria on 12 August 2017 for Huffington Post -

Image above: Why is Hawaii threatened? Because of strategic location to control the Pacific Ocean. That's a major reason for America's takeover. many of the islands are riddled with important military targets.

Image above: Test flight of an Aegis missile from the Barking Sand area of the Pacific Missile Range Facilty (PMRF) on Kauai.

Image above: "Ground Zero" on Makaha Ridge atop Kauai is a key facility for gathering critical aero-space information for the military and NASA.

.

SUBHEAD: Officials wanted to roll out a response plan before tensions escalated. Then Trump's threats began.Months before President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury, before North Korea claimed to be planning a mid-August attack on Guam and well before Trump tweeted that the U.S. military was locked and loaded to strike , officials in Hawaii began organizing guidelines for civilians in case of a nuclear attack on the islands.The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been preparing for possible threats from North Korea since January while trying to avoid causing undue anxiety among residents. But as the state began rolling out its response plan, North Korea successfully test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July with ranges within reach of Hawaii.Then a very public exchange of threats and one-upmanship began between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.Of all the worst things that can happen is to stoop to the level of North Korea [with] threats of destruction and nuclear weapons, Carl Baker, director of programs at the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, told HuffPost.Though most experts are certain that the risk of a North Korean attack on Hawaii, let alone anywhere in the U.S., is still very low, Baker said the presidents rhetoric isnt doing anybody any good.Most people are dismissive [of North Koreas threats] and understand that this isnt a problem, said Baker, a retired Air Force officer who served as an intelligence analyst for U.S. Forces Korea . But when you ratchet up the rhetoric like that and you get the bombast from both sides, it just makes everyone more uncertain.Hawaii is one of the first states to begin preparing for a nuclear strike from North Korea. Gov. David Ige requested the attack response plan from the states Department of Defense in December after military officials briefed him on North Koreas potential threats to Hawaii.Its only a matter of time that North Korea will be able to strike Hawaii with any kind of accuracy, Lt. Col. Charles Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, told HuffPost.We want to get ahead of the threat, Anthony added. To us, it made much more sense to try to get a public information campaign out there before [North Korea] had a series of successful ICBM tests.If a missile were to be launched at the islands, officials say, the state would have approximately 20 minutes to respond. The U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii would identify the launch within five minutes, giving the islands 1.4 million residents a mere 15 minutes to take shelter.This scenario is what the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is preparing residents for with a public information campaign, a revised set of nuclear response guidelines and the restoration of statewide attack warning sirens that had been turned off after the thawing of the Cold War in the late 1980s. Ideally, all this wouldve rolled out without stirring up fears  a just-in-case plan.Then things between North Korea and the U.S. escalated in a very public way.When we started this process, North Korea was zero for five in terms of ICBM missile tests, Anthony told HuffPost, referring to the five failed ICBM tests. About a week after we rolled out the public information campaign [on the states nuclear response guidelines], North Korea had successfully tested the second ICBM.Anthony said that Trumps increasingly intense exchanges of threats with North Korea arent disturbing the states plans to prepare residents and visitors for an attack.Were not concerning ourselves with any rhetoric coming out of North Korea or Washington, Anthony said. Weve got our plans, and were working on our plans on our particular time table.North Korea has made major advancements in the countrys weapon program, which now includes ICBMs and miniaturized warheads that are potentially within range of Hawaii, as well as the mainlands West Coast and Denver But most experts believe that there is no real threat to U.S. soil, especially since it remains unclear if Pyongyang has developed the accuracy to deliver a long-range missile to its intended target.An attack on Hawaii also wouldnt be a smart move for North Korea  and they know that, according to Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu who focuses on North Korea.An actual strike against Hawaii doesnt make sense because it wouldnt help North Korea win a war, Roy told HuffPost. It would result in immediate and massive U.S. retaliation, probably the complete destruction of Pyongyang, and would seal not only the defeat of North Korea but its erasure as a political entity.And leaders in North Korea arent suicidal, Roy added.However, it appears that Adm. Harry Harris Jr. , commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, would disagree.Harris, who could not be reached for an interview, told Congress in April that Kim is clearly in a position to threaten Hawaii today and requested that the government consider installing interceptors on Hawaii, which the state does not yet have, and a defensive radar.Asked about the states readiness in the event of an attack, a Pacific Command official told HuffPost in a statement, We always maintain a high state of readiness and have the capabilities to counter any threat, to include those from North Korea.The Missile Defense Agency currently has 37 interceptor missiles in Alaska and California that the agency claims would protect Hawaii from a North Korean ICBM.As Trumps threats to North Korea appear to be intensifying with every new statement, officials in Hawaii are calling for a de-escalation.The president tweeted Friday that U.S. military solutions are now fully in placed, locked and loaded , should North Korea act unwisely, later telling reporters that if Kim utters one threat ... hell regret it.In a statement sent to HuffPost, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) called for steady American leadership in order to de-escalate the tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.Bluster and saber-rattling will only exacerbate an already difficult situation, Hirono said.Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) criticized Trumps exchanges with North Korea in a series of tweets this week, calling the presidents statements unwise in tone, substance, and urging Americans to listen to the Pacific Command and U.S. Forces Korea commanders instead.Responding to reports that Trump improvised his North Korea remarks, Schatz said, Am I supposed to be reassured?Amid all this war talk, some in Hawaii want to remind the president who he is endangering when threatening North Korea with nuclear war.Trumps rhetoric puts Hawaii and even more Guam ... on the front line, DeSoto Brown, Honolulu Bishop Museum historian, told HuffPost, likening the situation to Hawaiis positioning during World War II.The situation is again beyond our capacity to control it, DeSoto said of a possible nuclear threat.Its just as it was in 1941 because of our geographic location and because of ... the country we are a part of, he added, referring to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Theres nothing we can really do about it except either ignore it or try to think seriously about what would we do.
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[August 11, 2017] Intellinetics, Inc. Issues Statement About Promotional Activity Concerning Its Common Stock

Intellinetics, Inc. (OTCQB: INLX), a cloud-based document solutions provider, announces that it has been made aware of and requested by the OTC Markets Group Inc. to comment on recent trading and promotional activity concerning INLX common stock. On August 10, 2017, OTC Markets informed the Company that it became aware of certain promotional activities concerning Intellinetics, Inc. and its common stock, including the distribution of promotional newsletter emails encouraging investors to purchase the Company's common stock. OTC Markets has notified the Company that this promotional activity has had an effect on trading activity and the market for the Company's securities. The Company understands this promotional activity coincided with higher than average trading volume and fluctuations in the Company's stock price. The Company was unaware of the promotional activity until informed by OTC Markets, and is unaware of the full nature of the promotional activity, the extent of the dissemination, or the responsible parties. In its investigation into this matter, the Company has made inquiries of its executive officers, directors, controlling shareholders (i.e., shareholders owning 10% or more of the Company's securities, of which there are two) and third party service providers. Neither the Company, nor its executive officers, directors nor, to the Company's knowledge, its controlling shareholders nor third party service providers, were involved in any way with the creation or distribution of promotional materials including these email newsletters. Additionally, neither the Company's executive officers, directors nor, to the knowledge of the Company, any controlling shareholders or any third party service providers, sold or purchased shares of Common Stock of the Company within the last 90 days. Further, the Company has not, other than disclosed in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, issued any shares or convertible instruments allowing conversion to equity securities at prices constituting a discount to the current market rate at the time of the issuance. Since January 1, 2016, the Company has engaged Bibicoff + MacInnis, Inc. as its provider of investor relations services, public relations services, marketing, or other related services. Other than Bibicoff + MacInnis, Inc., the Company has engaged no third parties to provide marketing services and has engged no third parties to provide investor relations services, public relations services, or other related services.



The Company is not affiliated in any way with the authors of the promotional newsletter emails identified by OTC Markets. Certain statements contained in the promotional materials as supplied to the Company by OTC Markets may be materially false and/or misleading. The Company encourages those interested in the Company to rely solely on information included in its press releases combined with its filings and disclosures made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. IntelliCloud - Powered by the Intel (News - Alert) NUC

IntelliCloud is a cloud-based document management platform that is optimized for the vast SMB market segment and business teams within large enterprises who are stuck with paper in business-critical processes. Thousands and thousands of people at any given moment depend upon IntelliCloud to perform their work. IntelliCloud, which is strategically packaged with Intel technology, provides Law Enforcement Grade security and compliance tools and is supported by a growing network of market-leading reseller partners. Resellers often attach IntelliCloud to the software, hardware, and/or services they already sell, without the sales or technical complexity of other less effective options in the market. About Intellinetics, Inc. Intellinetics, Inc. is a Columbus, Ohio-based ECM software company. Its flagship IntelliCloud platform is ideal for embedded work teams in businesses of any size stuck in document-centric processes that are not optimized. IntelliCloud offers a painless way to merge those documents into digital workflows, increasing service levels, compliance and customer satisfaction while decreasing costs and risk. Intellinetics collaborated with Intel to create its IntelliCloud Channel Program that enables resellers to easily embed IntelliCloud into the copiers, productivity software and services they already provide. IntelliCloud provides dealers a "deploy once, use many" innovation where one IntelliCloud customer sale/activation creates endless possibilities to add other software applications that deliver more value and increase revenue. For additional information, please visit: www.intellinetics.com. Cautionary Statement Statements in this press release which are not purely historical, including statements regarding future business and new revenues associated with any channel partner, distribution partner, reseller, or other relationship; Intellinetics' future revenues; market penetration; execution of Intellinetics' business plan; and other intentions, beliefs, expectations, representations, projections, plans or strategies regarding future growth, financial results, and other future events are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions, trends in the products markets, variations in Intellinetics' cash flow or adequacy of capital resources, market acceptance risks, the success of Intellinetics' channel partners and distribution partners, technical development risks, and other risks and uncertainties discussed in Intellinetics' most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequently filed Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks. Intellinetics cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Intellinetics disclaims any obligation and does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this press release. Expanded and historical information is made available to the public by Intellinetics on its website at www.intellinetics.com or at www.sec.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170811005549/en/

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Crown Resorts' head of VIP operations, Jason O'Connor, has been released from a Shanghai prison after serving a 10-month sentence for promoting gambling.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed Mr O'Connor had been released from detention on Saturday and was returning to Australia.

"Mr O'Connor is the last of three Australian Crown employees to be released following completion of their sentences," Ms Bishop said.

Mr O'Connor was taken by Public Security Bureau officers from a Shanghai detention centre directly to the airport, it is understood.
"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare," Robert Graves said, "is that he is really very good  in spite of all the people who say he is very good."

And the unremarkable thing about the plebiscite on marriage equality is that really has unleashed precisely the demonisation of gays that we all feared would happen, just as we had predicted would happen. Instead of the parliament resolving the issue quickly and easily with a conscience vote, we go to a non-compulsory, non-binding, glorified opinion poll costing $122 million, which in the process gives a platform to every homophobe in the land to unburden themselves of their bigotry.

And yes, I accept plenty of decent people, who are not homophobes, are against marriage equality for all kinds of reasons. But, in the meantime, you only had to see Bronywn Bishop among the crazies on Sky the other night to realise the damage it does. Apparently, if we allow marriage equality in Oz, if we recognise the rights of gays, we are only one step away from men marrying dogs, and allowing five people to marry!

Oh, and according to Tony Abbott, did you know this is all about religious freedom and stopping political correctness in its tracks, not basic human rights. The Australian Christian Lobby has the hide to refer to the children of gay parents as the "stolen generation". Can you imagine the hurt such words cause?
The relief in cafes across Sydney will be palpable today: the avocado is innocent. The lumpy green fruit has not been stopping the millennial generation from buying a house. That is the conclusion from the figures we report today on the price and availability of avocado meals.

Readers will recall that the demographer Bernard Salt suggested in a newspaper column last year that millennials were spending too much on expensive luxuries like smashed avocado on toast  costing up to $22 a pop in hipster cafes  rather than saving for the deposit on a home as their parents had. His tongue-in-cheek musings on the follies of the young hit a nerve in this time of stratospheric house prices. Much discussion followed, with pro- and anti-avocado factions forming. Cafes were subsequently reported to be discounting smashed avocado. Was it out of sympathy for the homeless young  or because demand had plummeted as hipsters realised the folly of their expensive breakfast?

Not guilty: a study has found avocado is not depriving millenials of a stake in the housing market. Credit:Chris Hopkins

While the debate has raged about the guilt or innocence of the avocado, it is clear something is stopping young people from buying homes. It is not lack of desire. As The Sydney Morning Herald reported last week, concern about home prices is the major issue worrying voters today.

The latest census data on housing, released in June, shows the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds living at home with their parents has jumped 20 per cent in just five years  the first rise in at least 15 years, and evidence that confirms high house prices and rents are discouraging younger Australians from moving out on their own.
In Sydney, a group of homeless people have just been removed from Martin Place. The leader of the "tent city" is Lanz Priestly, pictured. Credit:Daniel Munoz The NSW government scrapped a stamp duty concession scheme for seniors in 2012, despite signs of a deepening of the housing affordability crisis, and has no specific measures in its new housing affordability package to encourage older NSW residents to downsize. According to the Grattan Institute's Brendan Coates, the disincentives have fuelled the level of inequality laid bare in the figures, as more young families are shut out, not just from buying a property, but from paying the rent with fewer houses and rooms on the market. Rough sleepers along Elizabeth Street in Melbourne. Credit:Joe Armao Mother-of-five Joanna Karalis spent up to 50 per cent of her income on rent in Hurstville for a decade while supporting several children with disabilities.

"It was just horrible. I was constantly depressed and getting at the kids, which was even harder because they hadn't done anything wrong," she said. Illustration: Matt Golding "It was so hard with one wage just to keep the electricity, gas and water on and buy school uniforms for the kids." The figures show that in Ms Karalis' former local government area of Georges River there are now 664 four-bedroom homes, 169 five-bedroom homes, and 37 six-bedroom homes with only one person living in them, while one-in-six residents suffer from rental stress.

In Melbourne city, where 35 per cent of people suffer from rental stress, there are 43 six-bedroom homes with one occupant. In Port Phillip, where one in five struggle to balance rent with bills, there are 167 four bedroom homes, 30 five bedroom homes and 29 six bedroom homes with just one person living in them. It's a similar story in the Sydney local government area, where 95 six-bedroom mansions are practically vacant, while up to a third of residents battle rental stress. In Randwick, there are more than 500 four- and five-bedroom homes that have just one person living in them, while up to 20 per cent of residents push their income to the limit for a place they can afford. "You can't wait for the baby boomers to pass away to get those houses on the market," said Mr Coates.

"A lot of people in their 60s can expect to live for another 30 years. Try telling younger Australians that they have to wait for that to happen to be able to afford a house that is close to their job." Mr Coates said restrictive planning laws in the east coast capital cities meant smaller properties that would allow older Australians to downsize aren't being built. "We need to shift the subdivision laws in our middle and inner-ring suburbs to create the kind of housing that everyone needs," he said. "Anything beyond the CBD it's really hard to get beyond medium to high-density housing. In the inner and middle suburbs, they have barely changed in decades: that is part of the reason we see house prices rising and rental stress.

The national peak body representing the interests of older Australians, the Council on the Ageing, said it's clear an older individual sitting on a four to six-bedroom house is an under utilisation. "There are arguments that some of the older constituents are reaping the fruits of the 'not in my backyard' attitude to medium density development for example," said COTA chief Ian Yates. "The dilemma in 'right-sizing' is if they want to move to an appropriate home, then it's not only going to cost you money through stamp duty, but they want to stay in an area that has the right services." Mr Yates said some of the measures announced by Treasurer Scott Morrison in the May budget such as allowing seniors to contribute the proceeds from the sale of their house to super, could still discourage them from selling by counting against them on the aged pension test.

The government has restricted the perk to family homes owned for more than 10 years. "Under the 10-year rule a person who might otherwise decide to move is probably going to be advised by their financial planner to wait another two years," he said. "Public policy could perversely slow down people moving who were otherwise going to do to it." he said. The St Vincent De Paul society says many of those who are living in largely empty homes are older women, too afraid to move out of their communities where they are comfortable with support services.

Cruelly, single women are also the fastest-growing group of people with no home at all: the number of people sleeping rough in the Melbourne CBD doubled over the past year and increased by 10 per cent in Sydney over the past six months. "Worsening housing affordability has pushed people down the line," said Mr Coates. "People who used to be able to afford housing are being displaced. With a shortage of housing stock, something has to give and you end up with people in really rough circumstances." In the Sydney city area alone there are more than 6000 empty rooms in three, four, five and six-bedrooms houses - capable of housing the residents of Martin Place's homeless tent city hundreds of times over. "Wherever you look around the city now there are cranes on the skyline, but they aren't building a national housing plan to solve this problem," said the CEO of St Vincent De Paul's social and affordable housing fund, Brian Murnane.
Billionaire philanthropist businessman Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has lashed out at opponents of the cashless debit card aimed at curbing substance abuse in remote Indigenous communities, singling out the Greens in particular whom he branded "the party for paedophiles".

Arguing the switch to welfare payments via a cashless card would stop pensions being spent on drugs, alcohol, and pornography, he said the left-wing party, and others in Canberra were putting lofty principles, or in his words, "human rights horseshit" ahead of taking practical action in remote communities where children were often left to roam the streets at night because it was safer than in their homes where sexual abuse was rife.

The extraordinary attack came after Mr Forrest took a confronting video to Canberra midweek, which showed numerous incidents caught on CCTV cameras of brawls, one-punch assaults, unconscious children being assaulted, and drunken melees.

Incensed by what he views as the "principled distance" of the Greens, the long-term advocate of the cashless debit card for welfare recipients, presented the video to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, as well as crossbench parliamentarians, insisting that the period of examination should give way to the roll out of the card wherever it is requested by community leaders.
Despite industry criticism, many Australians stand to benefit from the plans to use superannuation as a savings scheme for first home buyers.

The draft legislation grants them access to up to $30,000 of new voluntary super contributions plus accumulated earnings. The proposed changes cover all new voluntary contributions made after July 1, 2017, subject to a $15,000 annual contribution limit.

The proposed scheme for first home buyers to use superannuation to save for a deposit has merit. Credit:Michael Mucci

That means obtaining the maximum $30,000 withdrawal benefit would require further contributions next tax year. The maximum amount available to be withdrawn after July 1, 2018 would be reduced by the 15 per cent contributions tax payable on concessional super contributions.

The full $30,000 limit would be available if the super contributions were made out of after-tax money. Where there are existing savings or a gift or an inheritance, putting after-tax money into super to build up part of a deposit could be popular because the after-tax investment returns in a super fund are likely to be higher than in a savings account.
About 24 primary students are the first in the country to code science experiments that will be launched on a rocket to the International Space Station this week and completed by astronauts.

The students from six public schools have spent the past three months choosing an experiment and coding the hardware necessary to complete it in space.

Granville East Public School students Jana Ajaj, Abdelelah Faisal, and Annabella Zraika have coded an experiment that is being launched into space. Credit:Janie Barrett

Abdelelah Faisal, 11, who is in year 6 at Granville East Public School, and his group have coded a mini-computer to take photographs in space and transmit the data back to earth, where they will use it to create an artwork.

"We wanted to see how much light is actually in space because in space videos it's always so dark up there," Abdelelah said.
Sydney's Sun-Herald City2Surf has been won by Harry Summers in a time of 42:16. Celia Sullohern was the first woman across the line in a time of 47:11, while Kurt Fearnley was the first wheelchair athlete to finish.

Glorious sunshine greeted 80,000 runners as they lined up for the 14-kilometre journey from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach.

The mercury is expected to rise to a top of 21 degrees today, with overnight clouds clearing earlier this morning.
In an embarrassing backflip, the Berejiklian government has conceded it unlawfully foisted an insurance-style scheme on thousands of people managing the financial affairs of incapacitated loved ones and has promised to issue refunds.

The NSW Trustee and Guardian (NSWTG) has decided not to appeal a court ruling that found it had imposed a surety bond scheme on private managers  that required them to pay up to $12,000 a year in new fees  "without power".

David Matthews, with his daughter Kylie who has dementia, rightfully refused to follow the NSW Trustee and Guardian's orders to purchase a surety bond. Credit:Fiona Morris

The private manager who instigated the David and Goliath legal battle said he felt "vindicated" by the win. The scheme will be scrapped as a result.

"I saw from the beginning that it was unethical and unconscionable," said the private manager, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Paulene Blackwood's grea-grandmother Mary Antoniolli (third from right), with her husband Borto Bortoli (far left). But the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, and the treatment of refugees in its wake so divided Australians that New Italy became a touchstone for many of the benefits derived from taking those people so vividly described on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." Mary Antoniolli and Berto Bertoli sailed to Nouvelle France when they were 9 and 14 respectively, and their great-granddaughter Paulene Blackwood, who has returned to the north coast to retire, was doing volunteer work in the museum shop when she saw the benefits that remembering and honouring the past can have for the present. Some 22 families settled on the NSW north coast on selection blocks that came to be called New Italy. "Sometimes these old Italians would come in and when they learnt that I was a descendant of the original families they would hold my hand and tears would well in their eyes," she says.

"It is a reminder for us all that the Australians who left their homelands are proud of what they left behind and what they brought to our country." While the voyage from Europe to the Pacific in the 19th century was a fraught undertaking for many, few had such a raw deal as the people who eventually settled in New Italy. About 340 Italian and some French settlers, anxious perhaps to leave their conflict-ravaged lands, were conned by a minor French aristocrat and happily signed on to establish a colony grandiosely called Nouvelle France. The Marquis de Rays sent four expeditions of gullible colonists to the jungle coast of New Ireland just south of the Equator between 1879 and 1881. The marquis is widely believed to have deliberately misled the colonists, distributing literature claiming a bustling settlement existed at a place he named Port Breton; he promised numerous public buildings, wide roads, and rich, arable land. The Italians, mainly from around Venice, sailed from Spain in July 1880. By the following March more than 50 were dead. Crushed, they abandoned their dream and fled to New Caledonia on their hell ship, the India.

There, the Frenchaboard sought sanctuary. But the Italians rightly regarded the place a penal colony  not least because that is where many Communards were banished to after the failure of the Paris Commune in 1871  and asked the British for help. Parkes responded to their plea and sent a steamer, the James Paterson, to Noumea to bring survivors to Sydney. He made the French pay the boat cost. On April 9, 1881, the Herald carried a report of the James Paterson's arrival: "Sir Henry Parkes paid a visit to the steamer, and through the Government interpreter, Mr C.O. Michel, told the people that the government would do all they could for them  that they would be provided with lodging, food, and a change of clothing, and that efforts would be made to find them employment; but, in order that this might be done effectually, it would be necessary that the immigrants should submit themselves entirely to the control of the government". They were taken ashore and housed in the Agricultural Hall in the Domain. Six days later Parkes visited, the Herald reported: "The Premier requested Mr Orlando Stevens, the Italian interpreter in charge, to inquire of the sufferers if they were thoroughly satisfied with what had already been done for them, and also to ascertain what their future intentions were. They unanimously expressed their greatest gratitude for the kindness shown them, but could give no information respecting their future intentions. Sir Henry then explained that as long as they all remained together, they need never hope to become thoroughly acquainted with the English customs and language, and he then asked if they were willing, supposing employment was offered, to disband, and take separate situations. With one voice they replied 'Yes'." They worked as labourers and domestic servants in Maitland, Goulburn, Wellington and Young and, with cedar getters opening up the north coast rainforest, some Italians clubbed together to take up selections. By 1883 they called their settlement La Cea Venezia. When other selectors moved in and the population began to diversify they re-christened it New Italy. They married, sent boys to war, but time wearied some and they started moving off the selections.
Mark Killen checks one of his buses for eggs, with about 2500 laid at the farm every day. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers There were chooks out the back of the house, but young Mark didn't like them. "I thought they were horrible things, I wouldn't touch them," he chuckles. "I knew nothing about them. Mum took care of them." The 'open range' eggs sell for up to $15 a dozen. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers Richard Killen spent increasingly less time on Papanui as he moved further into the politics of the land. He became a senior member of the National Party and was a member of Parliament in the NSW upper house for a decade. His son effectively took over the running of the 900-hectare property, which produced crops and beef cattle. Yet Mark Killen's life and livelihood were making him sick.

"I'm allergic to wheat dust," he explains. Time to sell: Mark Killen is closely involved with the eggs and thousands of them are freighted to Sydney every week. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers Years of being made miserable by cropping brought on a "mid-life crisis" for Mark Killen. He knew he had to get away from crops without leaving Papanui. He intended to concentrate on cattle, when prices crashed. Killen wasn't going to return to cropping to make a living. He couldn't - he had sold all the harvesting machinery. So he took work helping out a neighbour who was developing an olive grove. As he worked along the rows of trees, Killen realised what would keep the ground healthy were chickens. "They eat the weeds, they fertilise a bit themselves, they deal with the snails," Killen reasoned. "The whole thing worked in my head." Eggs can vary in look and taste, depending on what the chickens have been eating and the weather. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers

He didn't get to release chooks in the olive grove, but Killen figured he could try out his idea on his own farm. "I was always looking for an answer to 'Why can't we get our farm to be better? Why do we have these weeds on it?' " Killen says. "Bare ground is a vacuum to Mother Nature, so something will move in there." For years, Killen had been an admirer and reader of American farmer and author Joel Salatin. Killen wanted to apply Salatin's philosophy of trying to imitate nature in farming. Just as birds follow herd animals in the wild, Killen figured chickens could follow his cattle on Papanui. The idea was that the flattened grass and the bugs living in the dung would provide food for the chooks, and their pecking and scratching would help regenerate the land, providing more feed for the cattle. In 2001, he bought 50 chickens. However, unlike what happens in nature, he decided to put some wheels under his chooks. Killen bought a caravan for $600, gutted it and turned it into a mobile chook house. "I just fell in love with the idea, and I wanted to try it," he says, arguing that if it didn't work out, at least he could keep the bar fridge from the caravan. Still, he was hopeful those chooks on wheels would help keep him off the treadmill of cropping. His hopes were realised. That one caravan and 50 chickens have blossomed into a fleet of vehicles and about 4000 birds on the property.

As if seeing a wave of chooks washing across a paddock towards you isn't bizarre enough, the sight of a couple of old buses parked in the field is even more surreal. Inside one of the buses, there is still a sign, "Licensed to Seat 45 Passengers". But this bus has been modified by Killen to accommodate about 700 passengers. In here, chickens roost and nest. While Killen has built racks for the chooks to roost in the bus, they evidently make their own bed as well; one is resting in a cavity that once held a radiator. Killen bought his first bus from a neighbour for a dozen eggs. He now has nine on the property, including an old yellow school bus. The buses have side ramps, so the chooks can come and go at leisure to pick and peck their way around the paddocks. "These girls are doing their job," says Killen, as he looks around. "Chickens are doing pasture improvement." He explains that, while the chickens are free to wander where they want, they tend to go only a couple of hundred metres. As we trudge away from the two buses, Killen can trace the limits of the chooks' range. He points to patches of thistles. Not that I look; I'm watching what is watching us. A couple of shaggy Maremma dogs are sitting in the grass. This breed may have begun as sheepdogs in Italy, but here they are chookdogs, as they guard the chickens from predators, including foxes and wedge-tailed eagles.

"This is Bud and Juliet," Killen says, while patting the dogs. Each mobile chicken camp, or "station" as Mark Killen calls it, comprises two buses and two Maremma guard dogs. The property has four stations, and an additional "training" bus. When chicks are brought to the farm, they learn to roost in the training bus, and at about 16 weeks old, they head out into the paddocks. "People say you can't train chooks, but you can," explains Killen. "They're creatures of habit, as well all are. If they decide this is their bus, they won't get on another." Every few nights, the buses are towed to another paddock. Papanui once had about 20 large paddocks, but over the years, Killen divided the property into about 150 paddocks. Each paddock is grazed, on average, for only six days a year, "so it has time to recover", particularly with the help of the chickens.

The rotation is good for not just the land, Killen says, but also for the chickens. "They need stimulation, they like grass beneath their feet," he says. So they are happy chooks? "I think so," Killen replies. "I can't hear any complaining." That happiness, he believes, is expressed in the eggs the chickens lay. Each afternoon, the eggs are collected, usually by backpackers who stay and work on the farm. On this afternoon, Zhinan Chen, a 23-year-old from Guangzhou in China, and Krifa Abdessalem, 36, from Tunisia, are doing the rounds of the "stations". Abdessalem has been at Papanui for about six weeks. Chen has been at the property for about a week and is still getting used to the incessant noise of the chooks when she is collecting eggs.

"My ears are almost deaf!" she says. After graduating in psychology from university, Chen decided she wanted to travel and experience a large farm under big skies. Her grandparents had worked a small vegetable plot in rural China but then had moved to the city. "That's what I want to see, a farmer's life," she says. "I really enjoy this kind of life." Abdessalem is used to chooks; he had a small farm in Tunisia, he explains, as he loads trays into the back of a four-wheel-drive. In a few hours' time, those trays will be filled, as the pair collect about 2500 eggs. Even after picking up so many eggs, Abdessalem has not lost his taste for them, or for farm life.

"Every day, we're learning something new," he says. "And they're wonderful quality eggs. Two eggs, I'm full!" In the shed that once housed the grain harvester, the eggs are packaged by Killen's wife, Di, and five other women from the district, keeping the process local. "It's not just sustainability of the land, it's sustainability of the community," Killen explains. The egg cartons wear the Papanui brand, a name that the Killens grasped in desperation when they couldn't think of anything else. The eggs are referred to as "open range". Killen rejects the term "free range", because he believes that label has "been bastardised by the politicians and the big end of town". Producers can have up to 10,000 birds in a hectare and still qualify as "free range". Killen points to a dining table and argues, "that's about two chooks on this table". To emphasise his chooks had more space, could roam and were moved onto new ground frequently, Killen came up with "open range".

In a practical way, producing "open range" eggs, he says, is labour intensive and not as profitable. But for the Killens, the rewards are revealed when a shell is cracked and the contents are cooked and consumed in homes and restaurants far and near. Each week, thousands of eggs are freighted to Sydney, where a dozen can sell for up to $15. Eggs are also delivered to outlets in Newcastle, and they are also driven just down the road, to the IGA supermarket in Merriwa, where Papanui Eggs were first sold 16 years ago. "I think I didn't wait a minute, I thought it was a good idea, because this was local," recalls supermarket owner Keith Richards. Although he did wonder how the eggs would sell, since they were comparatively more expensive. But they walked off the shelves and still do. "They [the Killens] bring them in every week, and sometimes we have to ring them and get more," says Mr Richards, who retails a carton for $6.99. "Some people won't have any other eggs, they just want Papanui. They've become part of the place. "They're like the eggs from years ago, when chooks were running around backyards."

They're the kind of compliments Killen works for. He says the eggs can vary in look and taste, depending on what the chickens have been eating, and the weather. But as long as the eggs taste good, and the customers are happy, he's satisfied. "It's nice to close the gap between the people who eat the tucker and those who produce it," he says. As Killen scoops up a chicken and gently strokes its feathers, it's hard to imagine this is the same person who, when he was a kid, thought they were horrible. I ask him what he thinks of chickens now. Loading "They're fantastic creatures," he replies.
Two young men have been questioned by police over a shooting that injured two teenagers in Roxburgh Park.

Armed Crime Squad detectives arrested the 18-year-old and 23-year-old during raids in Craigieburn on Saturday.

Police at the scene of a double shooting in Roxburgh Park on Friday morning Credit:Justin McManus

They were released without charge on Saturday afternoon pending further inquiries, police said.

A 16-year-old and 18-year-old were injured when they were shot in the legs after an argument turned nasty in Orion Way in the city's north in the early hours of Friday morning.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is more than an hour late, but who wouldn't wait for the woman once dubbed the world's most beautiful?

Thousands of screaming fans with phone cameras aloft to capture the moment welcomed the Bollywood actress and former Miss World when she finally arrived at Melbourne's Federation Square on Saturday.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan stops for a selfie with fans at Melbourne's Federation Square. Credit:Darrian Traynor

The star was accompanied by her daughter, Aaradhya, who was equally unfazed by the screaming hordes.

Rai Bachchan, who is in Victoria as a guest of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, hoisted India's national flag ahead of the nation's 70th Independence Day on Tuesday.
A former Thermomix contractor in Perth who tried to sue the business after her boundary was changed, consultants were transferred and she was later dumped, has lost a legal battle against the company.

Thermomix kitchen machines are sold during in-home demonstrations by consultants, who get a commission.

Thermomix kitchen machines are sold during in-home demonstrations. Credit:Kristoffer Paulsenkris@kristoff

Consultants are independent contractors, rather than employees of Thermomix, and are managed by group leaders who also earn a commission from sales.

Elisabeth Higgins joined Thermomix in 2007 and became a group leader in 2008, but was dropped as a group leader in 2014 with two weeks' notice and her contract as a consultant was terminated a couple of months later.
Commentators laughed last year when a photograph emerged of Kim Jong-un standing next to an orb, which a North Korean newspaper stated was a miniaturised nuclear weapon. "That's a weird looking disco ball," joked one intelligence contractor on Twitter.

Not many are laughing any more.

A South Korean soldier watches North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with superimposed letters that read: "North Korea's nuclear warhead". Credit:Ahn Young-joon

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that a US intelligence assessment concluded North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead, a disclosure that rapidly intensified an already tense standoff with the rogue nation. Soon after the report, US President Donald Trump warned Kim against making further threats, saying North Korea "will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen".

Whether Kim truly possesses the ability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead  and successfully launch it on an intercontinental ballistic missile  is unknown and remains hotly debated. Yet there is no doubt now that Kim has scored one major achievement: he is finally being taken seriously by the US foreign policy establishment and intelligence agencies, evidenced by the latest assessment on his nuclear capabilities.
Eric Bellquist, an investment banker, was dismissed by Metropolitan Police as the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of a London bus.

The man arrested on Thursday on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm was released with no further action, and is no longer part of the investigation, the police said in a statement on Saturday.

They added that their inquiries continue and appealed to the public for assistance.

The 41-year-old private-equity specialist had been arrested in connection with the May 5 incident on Putney Bridge over the Thames River. Bellquist was out of the country when the assault occurred, his lawyer said on Friday.
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump spoke on the phone, with the Chinese president calling for restraint as international concern mounted about the US president's brinksmanship on North Korea.

Mr Trump continued to escalate his rhetoric, tweeting that the US military was "locked and loaded".

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely," he wrote.

Asked about his comments by reporters, Trump, referring to Kim, said: "If he utters one threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast."
Bedminster, NJ: US President Donald Trump threatened military intervention in Venezuela, a surprise escalation in Washington's response to Venezuela's political crisis.

Venezuela has appeared to slide toward a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after the installation of an all-powerful new legislative body.

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Trump told reporters on Friday.

More than 120 people have been killed in Venezuela and thousands arrested in over four months of unrest. The government in Caracas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's threat.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Sint Maarten South Leo Club joins the Lions International Organization as it observes this week as Worldwide Week of Service for Youth.

During the first cabinet meeting, being held in Barbados from August 10th to 13th, comprised by the various English speaking Lions Clubs of the Caribbean, cyber bullying, and cyber crimes were the main topic at the Leo Forum.

The Sint Maarten South Leo Club wants to bring awareness to the reality and the effects of cyber-bullying and cyber crimes here in Sint Maarten by sharing useful tips that among others came out of that forum.

Cyber-bullying and cybercrimes have had a significant increase worldwide as technology and social media have become much more integrated into our everyday life.

We feel it important to note, that not every act of bullying is intentional. So be considerate of others when you are posting on social media or sending messages.

Before posting or sending, ask yourself the following questions:

 Is this hurtful?

 Can it be interpreted as hurtful?

 How would I feel if I was the subject of this post?

The simplest way to make sure you're not bullying someone else is by treating others the way you want to be treated.

Try to avoid posting pictures or videos of people without their permission.

When someone contacts you and asks you to remove a picture or video of them, remove it.

If you were asking someone to remove a picture of you, you would want them to remove it.

Be careful about what you share and post on social media. If you socialize with people who dont really care about you or your reputation, realize that they might take compromising pictures or videos of you and post them to social media. Consider regularly searching yourself on the internet just to see whats out there about you. Most websites do have a way to opt out and have that picture or information removed.

Stay safe online. Resist accepting every friend or follower request you receive.

Accepting requests from strangers, increases your risk for victimization. Consider going through your friend lists, remove or unfollow people that you dont know.

If you do find yourself being bullied, dont retaliate as that escalates the situation.

Try to express that the bullys actions are not funny but hurtful.

Most importantly, speak out, tell someone about it. Talk to your friends about being bullied.

Block the access to cyber-bullies, on social media and or on your cellphone. If their negative messages cant get to you it could deter the bully from continuing.

Learn how to block numbers that you dont know or that send you negative messages. Report hurtful posts on social media as abusive.

If you see someone being bullied, be an up-stander, not a bystander. Be someone who stands up for what is right, when you see something happening that is wrong.

The St. Maarten South Leo Club wishes all our youth a wonderful youth day.
Statement by Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization On the occasion of International Youth Day- 12 August 2017

Today, we celebrate the role of Youth in Building Peace. Decent job opportunities for young people can make a major contribution to conflict prevention, reconstruction, and recovery, and to building resilience in fragile situations.

About two billion people are living in countries affected by conflict, violence and fragile situations. More than one-third of them are youth aged 15 to 24. Young women and men in these countries are particularly at risk of foregoing school and training  where such opportunities are available - and dropping out of the labor market.

Left without options for securing a livelihood, some, generally the most marginalized and disadvantaged, turn to armed conflict. So what is at stake here, is not only their present and future but also the resilience and ability of entire communities and societies to recover and to build a better future.

We also know that youth are part of the solution: when young women and men are listened to, supported and empowered, they become active agents of peace-building, actors for recovery and resilience.

The international focus on the role of youth in building peace could not have come at a more opportune moment. Two months ago, the ILOs International Labour Conference, adopted a new Recommendation, No. 205 (2017) on Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience. It provides guidance on promoting decent work opportunities in response to crises arising from conflict and disasters. The Recommendation pays special attention to the protection, education, and training of children and young people in situations of conflict and is founded on the value of dialogue. It has the potential to become a powerful driver of enduring peace.

We now have a historic opportunity to scale up our action on youth for peace by implementing the guidance given by Recommendation 205 and the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (2015), through the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and its unique multi-stakeholder partnership, to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Two fundamental principles will guide our action to leverage youth engagement in peacebuilding: First, youth voices must be heard, their creativity engaged, and their rights respected; as stated in our 2012 Call for Action. Second, the importance of investing in youth skills and access to decent jobs. An ILO publication, Rising to the youth employment challenge: new evidence on key policy issues, being launched for Youth Day 2017 proposes innovative approaches in this respect (add link). It has three key messages:

- Effective youth employment policies require a comprehensive strategy reflecting the interaction and interdependence of policies and programmes.

- Appropriately designed wage subsidies can enhance skills, offer meaningful work experience and improve long-term employment prospects for youth.

- Self-employment programmes  with formalization as a conditionality - can make formal employment an attractive alternative for young people and their enterprises, both disproportionately represented in the informal economy.

Today, we celebrate the contribution of young women and men to peace. Their dedication and courage should go together with our resolute commitment to scale up action and investment in skills and decent jobs for youth.

A young activist working at Zaatari refugee camp on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan declared: When adolescents and youth have a vision, they will dedicate their life to achieving it.

Young people globally have spoken of their vision for a future with decent work. We know what works to improve decent employment outcomes of youth, lets make it happen!
Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Baltimore
MATTOON -- Surgical nurse Christine Booker, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on July 27.

Booker was nominated by a co-worker for going above and beyond to provide exceptional care to all her patients.

Her nominator wrote: Christine is an amazing example of how fantastic our nurses are. She is the definition of compassion. She brought breakfast for a family member of a surgical patient and even went down to the cafeteria herself and delivered breakfast to our patients wife on Saturday morning and her shift was over. It was such a kind and caring thing to do!

She also helped a patient that needed some extra kindness and understanding. She helps maintain the dignity of patients with her compassionate care. I am blessed to work with her often and she is an amazing nurse!

Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,400 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Booker received a certificate, a DAISY Award pin and a unique, hand-carved serpentine stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, titled, A Healers Touch.

The DAISY Award was established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, who died at 33 of complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and families.

Patients, visitors, nurses, physicians and other employees may nominate a deserving nurse for The Daisy Award and a nurse will be selected by SBLs DAISY committee every month to received this special honor. Nomination forms are located at www.sarahbush.org and at all SBL clinics and on patient floors. The forms can be submitted to any Sarah Bush Lincoln staff member, or sent via email to daisy@sblhs.org or mail to Sarah Bush Lincoln, DAISY Nursing Award, 1000 Health Center Drive, Mattoon, IL 61938. For more information, contact SBL DAISY coordinator, Cynthia Edwards, RN, at 217-238 -3422 or cedwards@sblhs.org.
SPRINGFIELD -- Students from pre-kindergarten through college soon will head back to school. As families prepare for the new academic year, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) and local emergency management agencies across the state are encouraging parents to include emergency preparedness in their back-to-school plans.

Emergencies can occur any time of the day or night, including when children are in school, said IEMA Director James K. Joseph. The start of a new school year is the perfect time to make sure you know your schools plans for keeping students safe during an emergency and then talking to your child about those plans.

Joseph offered several back-to-school planning tips for parents of school-aged children, including:

Find out where children will be taken in the event of an evacuation during school hours.

Ensure your current emergency contact information is on file at your childs school.

Pre-authorize a friend or relative to pick up your children in an emergency and make sure the school knows who that designated person is.

Teach children with cell phones about Text First, Talk Later. Short, simple text messages, such as R U OK? and Im OK, are more likely to get through than a phone call if phone service is disrupted following an emergency. As phone congestion eases, you can follow up with a phone call to relay more information.

Students headed off to college also need to be prepared for emergencies. Many college campuses offer email and text messages to alert students of potential dangers, such as severe weather and other threats. Encourage your college student to sign-up for such alerts. Some colleges also provide alert messages for parents so they also are aware of potential dangers on campus. In addition, make sure your student knows the emergency plans for their dorm or apartment building.

Additional preparedness information is available on the Ready Illinois website at www.Ready.Illinois.gov.
NEW DELHI - One by one, the infants and children slipped away Thursday night, their parents watching helplessly as oxygen supplies at the government hospital ran dangerously low.

At least 30 children died Thursday and into Friday at a hospital in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after its supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted over an unpaid bill, officials said. A home ministry spokesman told the Press Trust of India, citing police reports, that 21 of the deaths were directly linked a shortage of oxygen.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. as medical practitioners and relatives - the tanks running dry - handed out manual resuscitator bags to families in a desperate attempt to save the young patients.

"We saw children dying around us," said the father of one victim, who gave his name only as Vijay. "Obviously, it's the hospital's fault. So many children have died because of them. My son was fine until nighttime, then something wrong happened."

Two more children died Saturday at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, an impoverished area in the eastern part of the state, as authorities scrambled to firm up supplementary supplies and investigate the tragedy. The government suspended the medical college principal Saturday.

The state's health minister and hospital officials have denied charges that the deaths were caused by the oxygen bill dispute. An estimated 60 children have died at the hospital since Aug. 7 from a variety of causes, officials said.

In a news conference Saturday, the state's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the tragedy despicable and said the state had set up a committee to investigate the role of the oxygen vendor.

"The guilty will not be spared," Adityanath said.

Parents of the victims described feelings of anger and bewilderment over the incident, saying they were struggling with guilt over not being able to save their children.

"The idea is devastating - that she had to suffer while trying to breathe," said Manger Rajbhar, the father of a 5-day-old girl who died in the chaos.

The deaths provoked widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum and on social media, where a political cartoon spread that showed the babies as little angels hovering in the sky as an Indian government official tries to reach them.

"30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre," Indian Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, a child advocate, said in a tweet. "Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?" (The country is set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its independence from Britain on Tuesday.)

The hospital owed $89,750 to a Lucknow-based medical supply company called Pushpa Sales Private Limited, documents obtained by The Washington Post show, and the firm had written letters to the hospital and district magistrate for the past six months demanding payment. The company asserted that the hospital was violating the terms of its contract by running a balance of more than $15,625. The agreement expired July 31, and Pushpa discontinued the oxygen supply Aug. 4.

On Thursday, employees who handled the storage plant that pipes the oxygen wrote to the hospital's chief medical officer to warn him that supplies were low and would last only until Thursday evening, according to a letter obtained by the news channel NDTV. The oxygen supply then dipped to a critical level, the channel said.

State officials claimed they had obtained sufficient backup supplies from nearby nursing homes.

The hospital is in Adityanath's parliamentary constituency. The controversial monk, who was tapped by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party to head Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, is the longtime head of a large temple there.

Adityanath had visited the hospital this week to inaugurate a new critical-care unit. Many of the young patients were suffering from encephalitis, a potentially deadly illness that causes acute swelling of the brain. The disease is often spread by mosquitoes, and infections rise during the monsoon season.

Zahid Ali, the father of a 5-year-old girl suffering from encephalitis, said he and other family members were still in shock after the death of his daughter Khushi on Friday night.

Ali said Khushi, who was running a high fever, had been admitted to the hospital's encephalitis ward Thursday. She was responding to treatment while on oxygen, he said, but her condition deteriorated as the cylinders ran dry that night.

Hospital staff gave the parents a manual resuscitator and asked them to pump it themselves, he said, and he watched in horror as his daughter first became breathless, then turned "stiff and cold."

"At that time, I understood that my daughter was gone, but doctors kept on telling me that she is still alive," he said. She was pronounced dead several hours later.

- - -

Arjumand Bano in Gorakhpur and Farheen Fatima in New Delhi contributed to this report.
SPRINGFIELD -- At this years Illinois State Fair, the Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA) hosts a variety of activities for older adults, their families and friends on Senior Day, Monday, Aug. 14. The event is open to the public and adults age 60 and older receive complimentary admittance into the fair that day.

A booth with additional information about IDoA programs and services it provides is also available.

When: Monday, August 14, 10:30 a.m.  9 p.m.

Where: Illinois Building, Illinois State Fairgrounds

What: Senior Day at the Illinois State Fair

10:30 a.m.: Welcome & Introduction by Paul Palazzolo, Sangamon County Circuit Clerk; Remarks from IL Dept. on Aging Director Bohnhoff and IL Dept. of Agriculture Director Poe

11 a.m. The NOT SO Newlywed Game  sponsored by Central Illinois Senior Celebration; Pre-register for the game by calling (217) 524-6911 or (800) 252-8966 Cash prizes of $100 and $50 will be awarded to first and second place respectively

1 p.m., 2017 Illinois Senior Spelling Bee Finals  sponsored by Assoc. of IL Senior Centers & Humana

9 a.m. 3 p.m.: Free health screenings in the open exhibit area. Includes: Home safety, bone health, colo-rectal, memory assessment, diabetes, fall risks, eye care and health assessments.

69 p.m.: Ballroom Dancing

The Grandparent and Grandchild Contest sponsored by Springfield Supportive Living will be held from 2-4 p.m. Thursday at the Illinois Building.

Register no later than Aug. 17, 1:45 p.m., in the Illinois Building, Dept. on Aging booth. Pre-register for the contest by calling 217-524-6911 or 800-252-8966.

Cash prizes of $150, $100, and $50 will be awarded to the first, second, and third place respectively.
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It will be 72 years ago -- Aug. 14, 1945 -- Monday that Japan surrendered to the United States, ending World War II. In those 72 years it seems as if the United States has been involved in armed conflict for the majority of the time. Thankfully, none of the countries has resorted to using the atomic bomb -- including the United States.

Although the United States was the first country to develop and use the atomic bomb, a number of other countries have since gained the knowledge to have atomic weapons in their war arsenal. A few rouge nations such as Syria have used poison gas against their enemies -- both domestic and foreign.

With North Korea having the atomic bomb and long range missiles to possibly deliver the bomb, they have not unleashed this terrible weapon on nations they consider to be hostile to their country. However, the North Korean leader(s) have used the threat of the "bomb" to blackmail some developed countries to send them the essentials for sustaining their economy and feeding their citizens. These essentials include refined oil, soybean oil and broadcasting material from China and rice from the United States.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE U.S.

A few years ago Betty and I were visiting friends in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when we had the opportunity to visit a museum on Sandia Military base. During our tour I took pictures of the replicas of both the bomb named "Little Boy," dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug.6, 1945, and "Fat Man," dropped on Nagasaki three days later.

We were both teachers in Albuquerque in the mid-1960s and have visited Los Alamos where a group of brilliant scientists, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, worked on development of atomic energy. There are still restricted areas where the average tourist cannot visit as research is still being conducted. Los Alamos is a very small town pitched high in the mountains north of Santa Fe with only one entrance and exit.

In September of 1942, General Leslie Graves was appointed to lead the U.S. Manhattan Project to develop a bomb. General Graves' first priority was to assemble a group of the brightest and best scientific minds, including many exiles from Europe.

It was indeed fortunate that scientists from Europe were included on his team. For example, a Jewish scientist by the name of Leo Szilard fled to London where he proposed, and in 1914 patented, the idea of a nuclear chain action via neutrons. It seems as if Nazi Germany was already experimenting with the development of the atomic bomb. Luckily, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, a number of European scientists fled Europe.

It was on D-Day that General Graves ordered a team of scientists to follow eastward-moving victorious Allied troops into Europe to assess the status of the German nuclear program. Also, the objective was to prevent westward-moving Soviets from gaining any materials or scientific manpower. These scientists concluded that, while Germany had an atomic bomb program, the government had not made significant progress in the project, and it had been a failure.

During World War II, the United States did not trust the Soviet Union so they were not informed of the U.S. development of the atomic bomb. Unfortunately, the Manhattan Project had a few scientists who shared their findings with the Soviets. It is interesting to know that none of these agents were Soviet citizens.

The most damaging loss of secrets came as a result of theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs, a United States citizen of German descent. Fuchs had been intimately involved in the development of the implosion weapon, and passed on detailed secrets to his Soviet contacts. Perhaps this is the reason the Soviet Union was the second country to develop the atomic bomb. It should be known that both Canada and the United Kingdom were at all times involved in the Manhattan atomic project.

Perhaps the best known spies were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Together they recruited at least 12 spies who presented secrets on the development of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

This couple happened to be the only two who were executed for their involvement.

President Dwight Eisenhower gave the order for their execution at the height of the Korean War. As a result of the Soviet Union receiving the knowledge necessary to build the atomic bomb, they successfully detonated their first atomic bomb on Aug. 29, 1949.

Even to this day many will ask the question, Why destroy so many lives with the atomic bomb if the Japanese Empire would surrender if they could witness a demonstration as to the horrible effectiveness and power of the atomic bomb?

In fact, it was the scientist Ernest Lawrence who had suggested giving the Japanese a non-combat demonstration. However, Arthur Compton later recalled that it was evident that just about everyone would suspect trickery. If a bomb were exploded in Japan with previous notice, the Japanese air power would still be able to give serious interference with their remaining fighters to shoot down an approaching B-29 carrying the atomic bomb.

Also, the bomb was an intricate device, still in the development stage. Its operation would be far from routine. If during the final adjustments of the bomb the Japanese defenders should attack, a faulty move might easily result in some kind of failure.

It should be known that the bomb was activated only after the B-29 had taken off from North Field, Tinian, located on the Mariana Islands. This was because if the bomber failed to achieve a desired altitude or crashed at the end of the runway, the bomb could have exploded. In fact, a few B-29 bombers had crashed either while taking off or landing after a bomb run over Japan. Such an end to an advertised demonstration of power would be much worse than if the attempt had not been made.

Remember, the United States did not know for sure if dropping the bomb would result in the desired explosion. Only one test had been completed in New Mexico and this bomb was not dropped from a plane.

In addition, the United States had made only two bombs and did not have a third bomb to use if failure of either of the first two bombs was experienced. The developers of the bomb could not afford the chance that one of the two might be a dud.

If the test were made on some uninhabited area it was believed that the determined and fanatical Japanese military men would not be impressed. If such an open test were made first and failed to bring surrender, the chance would be gone to give the shock of surprise that proved so effective.

Though the possibility of a demonstration that would not destroy human lives was attractive, not a single individual involved, including President Harry Truman, could suggest a way in which it could be made so convincing that it would be likely to stop the war.

President Truman decided to use the second atomic bomb after being given a report on Aug. 7, 1945, by the Joint War Plans Committee. The Japanese leaders, led by a group of senior Japanese officers, stated they would not surrender after witnessing the results of the bombing of Hiroshima. This was one day after the explosion of the first atomic bomb.

The committee provided planning information to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimating that an invasion of Japan would result in having the Allies suffering a minimum of 130,000 to 220,000 casualties, of which U.S. fatalities would be in the range of 25,000 to 46,000.

Yet another study estimated that had the war not ended when it did, the invading Allies would suffer between 1.7 million and 4 million casualties, of which between 400,000 and 800,000 would be fatal.

Perhaps another reason for the Japanese decision to surrender was when the Soviet Union's Foreign Minister Molotov informed Tokyo of his country's intent to invade Japanese territory. In fact, on Aug. 9, Soviet infantry, armor and airplanes launched their attack on the Japanese territory in Manchuria. This was three days after the first atomic bomb hit Hiroshima.

Due to the horrific consequences of using the atomic bomb several countries signed a treaty on Nov. 19, 1990, limiting the use of the atomic bomb. The treaty was signed by the Soviet Union, the United States and a number of other countries.

However, Russia suspended its participation in the treaty on March 10, 2015, citing NATOs de facto breach of the treaty. But they did say that they would not produce any additional atomic weapons.
I told all of my friends to go see the movie Dunkirk because that history was unbelievable, then and still is all these years later. The movie told a lot of the story. However the miracle of Dunkirk was poorly shown or told.

The Germans were driving the combined British and French forces toward the English Channel and the Port of Dunkirk, into an ever decreasing area.

Britain had over 400,000 soldiers there in the Dunkirk area. They were in need of rescue. The situation was desperate. King Charles VI called for a day of prayer. Prime Minister Churchill said he wanted 30,000 rescued but preferred 45,000. The navys ships had no way to rescue them. Their big ships could not come into the shallow waters of Dunkirk. So a plea went out for all private boats to bring their army home. Any boat, fishing, pleasure, any boat that could carry soldiers out to the large boats in the deep waters in the Channel. Over 800 came! They made trip after trip. Between May 26th and June 3, 1940  8 days. These little boats were able to rescue 338,226 soldiers. Also rescued were 140,000 French, Polish and Belgian soldiers. Over 200 boats were lost in the rescue operation.

Meantime the German bombers and fighter planes were carrying out attacks all day, every day. The British Royal Air Force planes were busy with the battle in the sky. Many pilots flew in battles until they ran out of fuel while protecting their brothers in arms on the ground and in the boats. The French army, during this time, was holding off the German troops so as many British soldiers could be, would be saved.

I had to go to Google for help, for I knew the history of Dunkirk but not all the numbers you see here. It was a miracle of monumental proportions. The movie failed to give the number of men, the magnitude of the number of boats, or the length of time it encompassed. All of that truly made up the miracle of the Battle of Dunkirk.

Joyce Kolbus, Mattoon
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SCOTTSBLUFF  With the tentative name Tri-City Roadrunner, a flexible route bus service is getting ready to hit the streets in January 2018.

The need for public transportation of this type has been there for several years, said Scotts Bluff County Board Chairman Mark Masterton. We think it will be used quite a lot because many people would just as soon take public transportation than drive.

Scotts Bluff County has provided and funded transportation for about 30 years. Starting as a service for the elderly and handicapped, federal funding requirements changed over the years as it became a public transportation service currently called Scotts Bluff County Public Transit.

There are drawbacks to the current system. One is limited hours of operation. Another is the service is provided on demand and has to be reserved ahead of schedule.

We currently have about 12 smaller buses and a few vans in the fleet, Masterton said. Its been going well but as the community grows, theres a larger need for public transportation.

Olsson Associates is working with the Nebraska Department of Transportation on the study that originated more than a year ago. The goal was to identify the mobility needs of communities around the state.

Our company focused on the Panhandle region and in the southwest, said Corrine Donahue, who works in transportation planning and transit with Olsson Associates. We first approached the county about its transportation needs and they scheduled some public hearings. We were repeatedly asked why there wasnt scheduled bus service in the community.

The two proposed flexible routes would cover the central 10th Street-Broadway corridor. Other routes would deviate off the central route to cover areas like Walmart, Western Nebraska Community College and Regional West Medical Center. Stops through Terrytown are also on the route.

Funding to get the service implemented came from a grant from the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Federal and state funding covers 80 percent of the $291,000 cost to get the service operational.

Donahue said there are about 132 total bus stops are planned over the area. Olsson Associates is currently working with Scottsbluff, Gering, Terrytown and Scotts Bluff County to identify where those stops will be located, so they are still subject to change. Stops will need to have room for bus stop signs, shelters and landing pads that are handicap accessible.

The current Scotts Bluff County budget for transportation is around $345,000 per year. But the cost to operate the new flexible route service is in the $410,000 range. So the county approached the cities to help with additional costs. They also solicited corporate sponsorship from the college, hospital and Walmart, all of which were enthusiastic in their support.

We dont always see that kind of unanimous support among different market segments, Donahue said. It shows us the community is ready for upgraded transit service.

Target date to begin the service is January 10, 2018. The two routes will run Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with hourly service to each stop.

Once operational, Tri-City Roadrunner will be the third route of its kind in the state, behind Omaha and Lincoln.
TERRYTOWN  The signs posted around Terrys Lake are self-explanatory: swimming and boating are prohibited. But its become a problem.

Were having trouble with kids, and some adults, that are wading and swimming in the lake, said Terrytown Mayor Kent Greenwalt. This is very dangerous because the lake bottom is shallow out to about 10 to 15 feet and then just drops off. It goes down some 30 feet from there.

Terrys Lake, which covers a large surface area in the town, began in the late 1940s to early 1950s as a sandpit. Founder Terry Carpenter pumped sand and gravel from there to make the cinder blocks that became the original buildings in town.

A side note of interest: The pump and diesel motor used in the gravel operation still sits at the bottom of the lake.

Were trying to prevent a possible tragedy, Greenwalt said. I was checking something at the lake the other day and saw four kids swimming in the lake. We cant have that.

Greenwalt said hes heard different estimates of how deep the lake actually is.

Ive been told its 40 to 50 feet deep and I wouldnt doubt that one bit, he said. It could be even deeper.

Summer isnt the only time of year when people getting into the lake is a problem. One winter after a big snowstorm, Greenwalt said he found tracks across the ice.

If someone is out in the middle and the ice cracks, they might fall through and no one will even notice what happened, he said. This problem has been going on every year for some time.

Greenwalt said the citys maintenance crew is keeping closer watch on the lake and the police will also keep watch while on patrol.

While swimming and boating is always prohibited, the fishing is great in Terrys Lake. City crews, including the mayor, recently pulled out some 200 dead trees so people can easily walk around the lake while looking for a fishing spot.

We see a lot of people fishing here, Greenwalt said. Its a popular spot because its so close to both Gering and Scottsbluff. The state keeps it stocked with trout. Fishermen can also hook into perch, catfish and even some Northern pike.

He encouraged people to stop by and use the lake, but stay out of the water for everyones safety.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
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When the recession hit her massage therapy business, Trisa Newburn knew she needed a career change.

A few years later, shes pulling cables and installing light fixtures as an apprentice electrician. Its not the most likely career path for a 46-year-old woman with no previous construction experience, but it suits her.

Ive always worked with my hands, just not in a mechanical sense, says Newburn, who has also worked as a barber and cosmetologist. I told one of my foremen what I had done before and he said, You have common sense. You will do really well.

Apprentices like Newburn are getting increased attention from President Donald Trump, who is famous for hosting The Apprentice on television. In June, he signed an executive order doubling the amount of federal money supporting apprenticeships.

The order also relaxes regulations that Trump said have prevented many different industries from creating apprenticeship programs. He wants to let companies, unions or trade groups create apprenticeships with relatively little federal oversight.

Trump has even spoken of having as many as 5 million apprentices in the U.S., which would be a tenfold increase.

The people in charge of current apprenticeship programs, including the Electrical Industry Training Center where Newburn is enrolled, are skeptical.

Some people just want the label to get a way to hire low-wage people for a short period of time, says Dennis Gralike, the training centers director. I dont want to see these federal dollars going to an apprenticeship program that doesnt produce outcomes and doesnt produce middle-class careers.

The Labor Department currently sets minimum standards for classroom instruction and checks to see whether trainees actually find work.

Without such oversight, the fear is that employers can relabel dead-end jobs as apprenticeships, raising false hopes. To use the word apprenticeship and not have a true career at the end of the pathway doesnt seem right to us, says Douglas Martin, executive vice president of the National Electrical Contractors Association in St. Louis.

John Gaal, training director for the Carpenters District Council here, served on a federal panel that helped rewrite the apprenticeship standards in 2008. He says the presidents goal of 5 million apprentices is unrealistic, unless you start from scratch and redefine what an apprenticeship looks like. Im afraid that is what the executive order is trying to do.

Gaal fears that by handing out money without oversight, Trump will create apprenticeships that last just long enough to spend the federal funds. As a taxpayer, I am concerned that we are going to be funding programs that are not sustainable, he said.

Current apprenticeship numbers are dominated by the construction trades, where most programs are administered by joint labor-management groups.

Newburn has completed more than 200 classroom hours and, three years into her apprenticeship, has worked on high-profile projects including a St. Louis University residence hall, a General Motors factory upgrade and the Ikea stores solar panels.

Even though shes entering a male-dominated field, she has found the workplaces welcoming. Everybody wants to teach the apprentice something, she says.

When she accumulates 10,000 hours, which generally takes five years, shell earn the journeymans wage of $36.92 an hour. Apprentices start at 40 percent of that wage and get raises as they gain experience.

Its a time-tested model, and Trump isnt wrong to think the economy could benefit from creating similar pathways in other industries. To dole out money without setting standards, though, will leave workers no better off than the hapless apprentices he fired on TV.
More than a dozen St. Louis area school districts are choosing not to hold class on the day of the solar eclipse because of safety concerns.

A number of logistical issues could arise from holding school on Aug. 21: Traffic could complicate transporting students to and from school, security for those students could be a concern and it could be difficult to ensure that hundreds of students follow proper eye safety procedures outdoors.

"Due to the unknowns pertaining to this once in a lifetime event, it is impossible for us to predict what may happen," the Washington School District said in a statement on its website explaining why it's cancelling class.

It's also likely that not all students will show up to school. Some families may want to watch the event with their children.

Local emergency service and transportation officials have been advising their schools to close and err on the side of caution.

"It is impossible for them to know how quickly they will be able to respond to any request for aid should an emergency occur," the Union School District said in a statement on its website.

Many of these districts, including Union and Washington, plan to send or have sent students home with eclipse glasses and eclipse teaching materials in advance of Aug. 21. Many schools will give in-class lessons on the eclipse in the days leading up to it.

Other school districts, including most in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County, have acquired eclipse glasses for all students and are planning eclipse viewings and lessons for Aug. 21.

At least the following Missouri school districts will not be in session on Aug. 21:

 Crystal City

 De Soto

 Dunklin

 Festus

 Fox

 Gasconade County

 Hillsboro

 Lonedell

 Meramec Valley

 Northwest

 St. Clair

 Union

 Windsor

The following Metro East schools will be closed:

 Edwardsville

 Granite City
Vice Media, a youth-focused digital news operation, reported last week that twice a day, President Donald Trump has been getting a folder full of positive news stories, summaries of video clips, screen shots of good-news chyrons (those annoying crawls across the the bottom of TV screens) and, when good news is scarce, flattering photographs of himself looking presidential.

Upon reading this, my first reaction was: Really? His ego needs that much stroking?

My second reaction was: Where can I get a service like this?

The lamestream liberal mainstream media immediately mocked these folders, which Vice reporter Alex Thompson, citing three current or former White House sources, said are referred to as the propaganda document. Thompson reported that now-departed White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer competed to be the one delivering the good news packets.

Spicer and his successor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, disputed parts of the story, saying the packets arent necessarily all good news and besides, now that Spicer and Priebus are gone, theyre not delivered every day.

Thompson said the folders are compiled at Republican National Committee headquarters by a staff of 10, some of whom begin work at 6 a.m. Every 30 minutes, they shoot an email full of the latest good news to the White House press office. Trump gets the packets at 9:30 a.m. and an update at 4:30 p.m.

Maybe its good for the country that the president is in a good mood in the morning, a former RNC official told Thompson.

Well, its worth a shot. Maybe if Trump had received one Tuesday at his vacation home in Bedminster, N.J., he wouldnt have gotten all ticked off and threatened North Korea with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

As it was, Trump lurched off into unhinged rhetoric that only got him more bad press. Managing this guy is tricky. The propaganda packets were an attempt at doing that, an attempt rooted in pop-culture management theory and kindergarten classroom teaching technique.

There are entire shelves in bookstores (assuming you can find a bookstore) devoted to personnel management in business. They all contain pretty much the same advice, along with lots of white space to make the book look long enough to be worth $24.95.

One of the most famous (and shortest) of them is The One-Minute Manager, by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. It became a best-seller by (a) being only 112 pages long and (b) offering pearls like, People who feel good about themselves produce good results, and, Help people to reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right.

Then theres good old Sam Walton, the Walmart founder, who said, Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. Theyre absolutely free and worth a fortune.

Plus, as Mr. Sam surely knew, praise is cheaper than higher wages.

Kindergarten teachers are taught the same technique  positive reinforcement. Catch em being good. Hand out gold stars. Get one of those rubber stamps that say, Great job!

You can imagine the White House press office and the RNC thinking, well, if this is true of managers praising employees, and for teachers dealing with 5-year-olds, why wouldnt it work for a needy 71-year-old commander-in-chief? The packets catch Trump getting credit for being good from the public, his ultimate boss, via the news media, making him feel good about himself.

Youd like to think the president of the United States wouldnt need to be fawned over, but its obvious that he does. Besides, who among us wouldnt like a twice-daily attaboy from the boss? Sure there are news clips and chyrons about us, but would a doughnut hurt?

The propaganda packets were a bold idea, an attempt to recognize Trumps deep neediness, keep him soothed and make it less likely that hed tweet or say something ridiculous. Unfortunately, he accepted the stuff in the packet as the real news and exiled anyone who told him reality is not just the stuff you agree with.

Now the RNC and the Trump political operation have taken the next step: Manufacturing their own news-like operations, streaming things that look like newscasts anchored by Fox News-like blonde women. The RNC hired Kayleigh McEnany, a pro-Trump commentator, away from CNN and installed her behind an anchor desk to read pro-Trump news.

The presidents daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is married to second son Eric, is running the operation out of a studio in Trump Tower. So far its only seen on social media, but wider distribution may be next.

So instead of seething in his bathrobe while watching regular news, Trump can be pacified with the endless praise he craves. The world has seen this kind of media strategy before and it didnt end well. You can be pretty sure that news wasnt in the packet.
Retailers have closed thousands of stores this year and are expected to close thousands more. In Lincoln, chains that have closed or are planning to close some or all stores include Family Christian Stores, Gymboree, Radio Shack, Rue 21, Teavana and Vanity.

But one category where store openings, rather than store closings, is the norm is wireless phone stores.

CoStar Group, which provides commercial real estate data and analysis, last week reported on its analysis of 15,000 retail leases signed so far this year. It found that wireless phone companies were among the most active retail tenants, with T-Mobile the single-most active tenant in terms of both number of leases signed and overall square footage leased.

Of the 170 most-active tenants, mobile phone companies as a whole accounted for 10 percent of the retail square footage leased, according to CoStar.

The story is much the same locally.

Both Sprint and AT&T have opened new stores in Lincoln this year, and T-Mobile is in the process of opening its first-ever Lincoln store.

Those stores are among aggressive moves by the wireless carriers to expand their footprint nationwide.

Sprint has announced plans for hundreds of new stores across the country. That included an announcement late last month that it has plans for 30 new stores across a five-state region including Nebraska.

Four of those stores are in Nebraska, including one in Lincoln at 48th and Van Dorn streets. All four stores were former Radio Shack/Sprint combo stores that Sprint decided to keep open after Radio Shack went out of business earlier this year.

In a statement, Tim Donahue, Sprint regional president for the Midwest, said the company is "making an aggressive national push to expand on the local level."

In the Midwest alone, Donahue said wireless data usage has grown more than 1,000 percent over the last three years.

"We are rising to meet that demand by investing in our network and giving shoppers more opportunity to find Sprint and give us a try.

T-Mobile is another wireless company that is aggressively opening new stores, with plans to open 3,000 new ones in 2017, including both T-Mobile and its MetroPCS brand. More than 400 of those stores have been in new cities where T-Mobile has never had a retail store before.

That includes Lincoln, where T-Mobile plans to open its first store in the third bay of a new retail building at SouthPointe Pavilions that has Valentino's and Eat Fit Go as its other tenants.

T-Mobile also has been building out its network in this area, applying for several permits over the past few months for cell towers in Lancaster County.

Joel Rushing, senior communications manager, for T-Mobile, said the company has been working on building out its network nationwide, with 315 million people now covered by its 4G LTE network and 321 million planned by the end of the year.

Rushing said those enhancements have positioned the company "to be able to expand the companys distribution footprint with new retail stores, giving T-Mobile the ability to reach new customers and provide them another (and we think, better) wireless choice."

T-Mobile has specifically targeted improvements in the rural Midwest and West using the 600 MHz spectrum it bought from TV broadcasters earlier this year. By the end of this year, it is expected to have coverage in vast swaths of western and southern Nebraska, Wyoming and the Dakotas where it doesn't now.

"We will bring the uncarrier to every inch of the United States, bringing real choice and competition to all wireless customers," John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile US, said last month during the company's second quarter earnings conference call. "This is also a great story for rural America, much of which is seeing or will see real wireless competition for the first time."
All too often, a war of words escalates into actual hostilities. The results can be disastrous, as Americas own recent wartime history underscores. Before President Donald Trump allows a juvenile exchange of tough talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to escalate into real military confrontation, he owes it to the American people to assess the grave potential consequences.

No one in his right mind, probably including Kim, doubts Americas ability to unleash its nuclear and/or conventional weapons arsenal and annihilate North Korea. Something of that magnitude would be necessary to eliminate North Koreas nuclear threat and prevent its artillery and ground forces from gutting South Korea.

Until last week, such a scenario seemed unthinkable. But Kims and Trumps penchants for irrational behavior create perfect-storm conditions for catastrophe. The two risk a cascade of miscalculations and miscommunication that could spark a major war. Lots of better options remain to be explored.

Consider the conditions that led to Americas disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003. At the time, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein posed no actual threat to U.S. security. Yes, he talked a lot, and his government bluffed that it might possess weapons of mass destruction. It was sheer bluster, but President George W. Bush succumbed to it in spite of multiple intelligence indicators that Iraq was a paper tiger.

A war of words, unsubstantiated by belligerent actions on Iraqs part, prompted the United States to invade in 2003, costing our country more than $1.7 trillion and 4,400 service members lives. U.S. leaders allowed heated rhetoric to win the day. But the war was entirely avoidable.

Likewise, Americas wars in Vietnam and Panama had roots in bloated tough talk, followed by actions designed more to put recalcitrant dictators in their place rather than address actual threats to U.S. national security.

The North Korean threat is very real and based on evidence the entire world can see. Kim is a showman intent on boosting his countrys standing on the world stage. By making bellicose threats and openly goading Trump, Kim plays to his own base while tweaking Trumps ego. But so far, North Koreas threats have not caused the loss of a single life nor won Kim even a square inch of any other countrys sovereign territory. His crimes do not warrant risking World War III.

Trump holds the upper hand with a nuclear-backed military second to none. We know he also is a showman, but this is precisely the time when he must tamp down the urge for theatrics and consider the consequences of the fire and fury he threatens to unleash on North Korea.

Let Kim huff and puff. Its time for the United States to be the adult in the room instead of stooping to these childish antics.
The Post-Dispatch ran a picture (Aug. 3) of the former Buster Brown Blue Ribbon Shoe factory being dismantled with the caption Making way for the new economy, a rather cheery reference to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency development in whose footprint the building had the misfortune to lie.

Not to quibble, but neither did the Buster Brown factory stand in the way of anything nor was it unproductive. Its destruction was never a fait accompli. The building, not close to any of the proposed NGA structures, is set to become a plot of grass at the far fringes of the suburban-style office park that will be the new NGA. It housed a functioning business and was lovingly cared for; never mind if that business was not new or oriented around technology.

This grand building, so evocative of St. Louis and its colorful business history, is being sacrificed because top-down city leaders refused to alter by one block an arbitrary line drawn around 99 acres of a north side neighborhood. As I understand it, the NGA itself never requested more than half that amount of acreage.

Lack of imagination doomed the Buster Brown factory. Another piece of St. Louis history will be irretrievably lost. Buster Brown, his dog Tige and all friends of historic architecture cannot be pleased.

Jeffrey T. Shors  Union
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Burslem is rarely a busy place these days. It is a town which last year topped a list of those with the most empty shops. Casual footfall is not a natural accompaniment to daily trade. And with visitors charged 90p to park for an hour, rising to 2.70 for three hours, it's not hard to position such charges as a major part of the reason. Why pay for parking when, at retail parks and supermarkets, you can park for free?

Research shows that nine out of 10 shoppers would use the high street more if free parking was offered. But that would appear a pipedream in a city where parking revenue is seen as a valuable boost to the coffers. Last year, Stoke-on-Trent City Council made more than a million pounds by demanding payment to park a car, although, by law, income has to be ploughed back into maintenance and staffing costs.

Lack of footfall in a town quickly has a negative knock-on effect. Some 94 per cent of British people, reports the British Retail Consortium, miss the community feel of their high street, while 47 per cent are annoyed at the impact of struggling high streets.

"The high cost of parking in high streets and shopping centres," says high street expert and retail analyst Diane Wehrle, "together with elongated travel times due to congestion, means that urban destinations are at an obvious and increasing disadvantage."

In Burslem, there is a smattering of vehicles using paid parking. Charges are hard to avoid. Pay machines don't just sit in car-parks but pepper surrounding streets. Shopping free in Burslem will entail a long walk.

Michael Nally, aged 59, has parked up in Market Square. He's only collecting a prescription but sticks an hour on his car so he's not in a rush.

"They should just get rid of it," he says of the parking charge. "It's obvious to everyone, and I hear this said all the time, that if they got rid of parking charges then you'd immediately have people back here shopping. You'd then have businesses paying rates and get revenue in that way. None of it makes any sense. To me, it's just lazy. They can see what it's doing to the area but they can't be bothered doing anything about it."

Hilda Barlow has been shopping in Burslem since she was a girl. Now in her seventies, the current state of the town is someway removed from what she recalls of the Forties and Fifties.

poll loading Should it be free to park in our town centres? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Yes - it would encourage people to shop local No - it would cost the council much-needed revenue

"You had the potbanks then," she says. "Hundreds of people pouring out on to the streets at dinnertime, same again at home time. There were shops of every kind  a proper thriving town.

"I know it's not the same now. There just aren't the numbers, but for goodness sake we shouldn't be in the state we're in now. It's like a ghost town.

"It's a shame  a real shame. They should be laying on free buses here, not making people pay to park."

Hostility to parking charges is not the sole preserve of those in Burslem. Across North Staffordshire as a whole, they hardly invite unbridled joy. In Hanley, many visitors enjoy the three hours free parking on Tesco, but there's resentment at charges approaching a fiver which drivers face on council car-parks for greater chunks of the day.

"All we're here for is to make money for the council," says Lynn Harrop, aged 59, of Trentham, pulling up on Hinde Street. "Rip-off - that's all there is to it. We're a cash cow. I swear if it wasn't for the money they've had off us the whole city would collapse!"

Retail guru Mary Portas has claimed that local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes. In her much publicised vision for Britain's high streets, she warned that "after many years of erosion, neglect and mismanagement", our high streets would disappear forever unless urgent action was taken.

The British Parking Association, meanwhile, sees matters rather differently, claiming that to find a conclusive link between town centre prosperity and car parking provision is "extremely difficult". "There is no clear relationship between car-parking charges and the quality offer of a location," it claims.

However, the might of government may yet be against them. High streets minister (yes, there is such a thing) Marcus Jones has suggested that small town centres could become "parking meter-free zones" in an effort to save shops from closure.

Either way, it seems less and less people are willing to pay to park in town centre locations. "Thing is," says Mr Nally, "I could have used the chemists at Sainsbury's and parked there for nothing.

"I probably will next time."
The new religious cross at Red Hill Christian Centre.

THE Red Hill Christian Centre celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend and to mark this milestone and the creation of a prayer walk at the site, a new religious cross was installed at the centre.

For nearly 25 years a cross has been a focal point on the hill viewable from the centres buildings complex but over time it has become obscured by tree growth, thousands of which have been planted by worshippers and staff at the centre. The cross has also become quite weather worn and was due for replacement at some stage.

Via Beata is a Christian Charity founded by Steve Eggleton from Norfolk whose vision is to create a pilgrims walk of prayer from Lowestoft in Norfolk to St Davids in Wales.

As part of this, at each way station - which will occur every ten miles - a piece of artwork carved from timber will be situated to facilitate meditation and prayer.

When taken in a straight line Red Hill Centre is directly at the centre point of this walk from east to west.

Via Beata  which means a way of blessing - kindly donated an 18 foot long cross carved from English oak to replace the previous one.

Full story in this week's Herald.
Ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Supreme Court (SC) under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution in Panama Leaks case, on Saturday has resumed his homecoming rally towards Lahore via Grand Trunk Road after big show in Gujranwala.

The passionate Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers have gathered in the provincial capital to express solidarity and love for their ousted leader whereas camps have also been formed all along the way in Kamoke, Sadhoki, Muridke, Kala Shah Kaku and Ferozwala.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has arrived in Kamoke from Sialkot along with his convoy to unite with Nawazs rally.

A big stage has been made at Shahdara Chowk where the former premier is likely to address while the last stop of the cavalcade will be Data Darbar where Nawaz Sharif will pay his visit.

The supporters have displayed banners, flexes, party flags and posters on the route while strict security arrangements have been ensured by deploying officers. The metropolis will be monitored by helicopters.

The road from Azadi Chowk to Data Darbar has been sealed by placing containers due to which the locals are facing immense difficulties.

Nawaz Sharifs Gujranwala address

Addressing a rally in Gujranwala, Nawaz Sharif claimed that no power can drive him out of peoples hearts. He said that there were conspiracies being hatched against the government from the past three years.

Ex-PM said that the government was successfully curbing terrorism and crime incidence across Pakistan but they toppled his government.

He once again claimed credit for turning Pakistan into an atomic power. Nawaz Sharif said that his mandate-given government was toppled after two and a half years twice.

Panamagate verdict

On April 20, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had announced Panama Leaks case decision comprising of 540 pages, saying that the court issued a split ruling calling for a JIT. Two of the five judges went further, branding Sharif "dishonest" and saying he should be disqualified, but they were outnumbered.

The court formed a six-member inquiry team that included Federal Investigation Agencys (FIA) Additional Director General Wajid Zia, Military Intelligences Brig Kamran Khurshid, National Accountability Bureaus (NAB) Director Irfan Naeem Mangi, State Bank of Pakistans Amer Aziz, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistans (SECP) Executive Director Bilal Rasool and Inter-Services Intelligences Brig Muhammad Nauman Saeed.

The JIT members during the seven-week period interrogated eight members of Sharif family including Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law Captain Safdar, cousin Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and brother-in-law Ishaq Dar and submitted its report on July 10.

On July 29, the five-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan after a week-long hearings unanimously disqualified Nawaz Sharif.

"It is hereby declared that having failed to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from Capital FZE Jebel Ali, UAE in his nomination papers filed for the General Elections held in 2013 in terms of Section 12(2)(f) of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (ROPA), and having furnished a false declaration under solemn affirmation respondent No. 1 Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is not honest in terms of Section 99(f) of ROPA and Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 and therefore he is disqualified to be a Member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)."

The fresh PM for Pakistan

On August 2, President Mamnoon Hussain had administered oath to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after he was elected as the leader of the House in National Assembly (NA) for 45 days by securing 221 votes.

On August 4, a 43-member new cabinet that included 27 federal and 16 state ministers took oath in a ceremony at Prime Minister House.

"Panama Papers" Fallout

Panama Papers had published a leak of documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in April 2016 creating uproar in Pakistan among other countries. The leak was studied by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and stated names of incumbent as well as former leaders of the world who owned shell companies.

Opposition parties in Pakistan saw offshore companies as proof of money laundering done by Sharif family. Questions over the source of money used to purchase flats in Londons posh Mayfair locality by Sharif family were raised.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami.
At least 16 civilians were killed in an airstrike carried out by foreign forces in Nangarhar province, sources said.

According to the sources, the incident took place in Haska Mina district when an airstrike targeted a civilian vehicle on Thursday evening.

The source said women and children were among the victims.

Meanwhile, Nangarhar governors spokesman Attaullah Khogyani confirmed the casualties but said the identity of those killed in the airstrike is not clear so far.

The Resolute Support and U.S. forces in Afghanistan have not commented on the report so far.
A train collision near Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria has killed 43 people and injured over 120 others, Egyptian officials say.

The two trains collided head on --one was coming from the capital of Cairo, to the south of Alexandria, and the other was coming from the city of Port Said, located on the northern tip of the Suez Canal.

The head of the ambulance services in the Alexandria's western sector, Dr. Mohamed Abu Homs, said the collision took place in the district of Khorshid, southeast of the city.

Abu Homs said he fears the death toll and the number of injured could rise further.

Egypt's railway system has a poor safety record, mostly blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment and poor management.

Footage from the scene broadcast on state television showed dozens of people crowding around the damaged train cars, with dead bodies strewn on the ground.

State television, citing transport ministry officials, reported that the crash was probably caused by a malfunction in one of the trains that brought it to a halt on the rails.

It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a November 2013 collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of Cairo.
The Damascus university medical doctor heading Medical Forensics department Dr. Hussein Nofal estimates that at least 18,000 Syrians have had organs removed during the war thus far. Since the outbreak of war in 2012, 6.5 million people have been displaced within Syria and another 4.8 million have become refugees forced to flee to neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon or 10% have migrated to Europe. With another 386,000 estimated dead, that's 11.7 million humans in Syria who have violently lost their lives or homes - stunningly over half the total prewar population of 22 million Syrians.

All this tragic human horror only occurs because of an overly aggressive, imperialistic US-Israeli foreign policy creating a path of chaos and destruction across the Middle East and North Africa secretly supporting Islamic terrorists to fight US-Israeli proxy wars to illegally overthrow sovereign national governments like Assad's. The ruling elite behind the Greater Israel Project deploys US Empire to manufacture unlawful wars and the subsequent largest migration crisis since WWII to willfully and methodically destabilize the world generating such dire human living conditions that expedite formation of a one world government.

Ironically but also by criminal design, the two closest neighboring countries most powerful in the region that are most directly responsible for the Islamic terrorists and the MENA wars - Israel and Saudi Arabia - refuse to even take in a single refugee from the very same wars they both create and promote. Note that Israel, Saudi Arabia along with third wheel Turkey as part of the US Empire-led axis-of-evil, longtime regional ally and fellow NATO member Turkey received a $6.6 billion bribe from the bankrupted EU to "manage and control" the migration crisis, only to then turn around and unleash yet more waves of refugees pouring into Europe to this day. And it's Turkey and Israel that both also play the most prominent role in the soaring organ trafficking epidemic as well. But more on that later.

A 2001 BBC report disclosed that Israel per capita stands as the world's largest recipient nation for organ transplants yet is the country with the fewest organ donors. The problem is additionally compounded by the fact that the Tel Aviv government including the Minister of Defense has historically encouraged the practice, only making organ harvesting and trafficking illegal in 2008. For years the Israeli healthcare system subsidized transplant holidays up to $80,000 in reimbursement for organ recipients to travel abroad for transplants. Insurance carriers customarily paid the tab on all remaining costs. Hughes has described Israel's leading role in the international crime syndicate that is "organized through a local business corporation in conjunction with a leading transplant surgeon, operating out of a major medical center not far from Tel Aviv." Additional connections include transplant surgeons in Turkey, Russia, Moldova, Estonia, Georgia, Romania, Brazil and New York City.

A 1984 law made human organ trafficking illegal in America. But the first case in the US occurred in July 2009 when an Israeli citizen living in New York who paid donors in Israel $10,000 was arrested trying to sell them for $120,000 each to three Americans in need of kidney transplants. After making millions trafficking in kidneys, he was not deported because his crime was not deemed "of moral turpitude" and after the organ peddler served a brief two and a half year prison sentence, he was released in December 2014. The convicted Israeli trafficker carried a gun on him and if he encountered misgivings by a potential donor, the kidney smuggler would allegedly point his finger at the donor's head simulating he was pulling the trigger.

His illegal racket became the biggest corruption case in New Jersey state history as it uncovered a money laundering scheme into the millions. A former state assemblyman who was the current NJ Commissioner of Consumer Affairs resigned over his involvement and the supervising FBI agent concluded:

"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the country. Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state and this great nation."

Last December another Israeli organ trafficker was arrested by Interpol police at the Istanbul airport. After forty days in Turkish custody, he was extradited back to Israel to face charges. The organ smuggler had made arrangements to tap the large destitute Syrian migrant population in Turkey to coordinate illegal organ surgeries with local doctors in small private hospitals. He already had charges against him for his illicit operations amongst impoverished organ donors in Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka from 2008-2014. He had also placed ads in Russian newspapers in search of potential donors. As is typical, no information or medical follow-up is ever given to donor victims who often suffer complications. For example one boy in Kosovo was paralyzed after his kidney removal.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP)  A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing one person, sending at least 26 others to hospitals and ratcheting up tension in an increasingly violent confrontation.

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said several hundred counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound." A silver sedan smashed into another car, then backed up, barreling through "a sea of people."

The impact hurled people into the air. Those left standing scattered, screaming and running for safety in different directions.

The driver was later arrested, authorities said.

The turbulence began Friday night, when the white nationalists carried torches though the university campus in what they billed as a "pro-white" demonstration. It quickly spiraled into violence Saturday morning. Hundreds of people threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. At least eight were injured and one arrested in connection.

President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that "we ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for." He then wrote "There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

But some of the white nationalists cited Trump's victory as validation for their beliefs, and Trump's critics pointed to the president's racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation's festering racial tension.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson noted that Trump for years publicly questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship.

"We are in a very dangerous place right now," he said.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a "pro-white" rally in Charlottesville. White nationalists and their opponents promoted the event for weeks.

Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead groups and Ku Klux Klan factions.

"We anticipated this event being the largest white supremacist gathering in over a decade," Segal said. "Unfortunately, it appears to have become the most violent as well."

The white nationalist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said, along with several groups with a smaller presence.

On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered in Charlottesville, but they generally aren't organized like white nationalist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many others were just locals caught in the fray.

Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

"This isn't how he should have to grow up," she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the "counter-protesters are crazier than the alt-right."

"Both sides are hoping for a confrontation," he said.

It's the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and "advocating for white people."

"This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do," he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices.

"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president," he said.

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that's home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statue's removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville's history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They're now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to temporarily block the city from removing the statue for six months.
Galle Fort post office transforms to a revenue generating venture By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

After carrying out postal services for hundreds of years since the early 18th century, the historic Galle Fort post office has been run down, a dusty labyrinth of rooms, damaged walls and collapsed roof spread out over the building.

Now, this dilapidated building  originally constructed and used by the Dutch Administrator as his official quarters  is to undergo its most significant renovation under the present governments plan to utilise it in a way to generate high revenue.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) has directed the postal authorities to transfer the building to the Galle Heritage Foundation for proper maintenance as an immediate remedial measure.

Proposals will be called from prospective bidders to renovate the building preserving the ancient heritage where they should indicate a clear design plan in accordance with the guidance given for the restoration of the site based on historic reasons.

The proposal should include the space allocation for the resumption of postal services within the premises.

It should be guided by the conservation principles stipulated by UNESCO and the Galle Heritage Foundation, a senior official of the Postal Department told the Business Times.

However postal workers trade unions are protesting against the move claiming that the governments plan is to sell it to the private sector to build a luxury hotel, a charge denied by the Postal Department senior official. He said the aim is to develop the city of Galle, renovate old buildings and use it in a way to bring high revenue.

This building had been renovated by the Archaeology Department in 1998 and thereafter by Central Cultural Fund in 2007 and again by the Postal Department in 2015/2016.

But these renovations were not carried out using proper conservation methods for old heritage buildings.

This has resulted in the deterioration of the historic building which was also maintained by the Indian Trading company during the British period and later expanded it to a commercial food stores for over 100 years. Conversion of old iconic state buildings into revenue generating hotels is the present trend worldwide, official sources said adding that a recent example for a similar endeavour was the post office hotel conversion recently to build the Trump International Hotel, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington.
Governance levels unlikely to improve  BT Poll View(s):

Not many people believe Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayakes resignation would improve governance and accountability levels, a quick Business Times poll conducted through email on Friday, reveals.

But it was noted that this is a landmark development in Sri Lankan politics where an accused (not proven guilty yet by a court of law) has resigned. Some respondents commended the former minister for his bold move.

Three questions were asked in the poll which drew a sizable response. While 57 per cent of the respondents agreed that the resignation would improve governance and accountability, 35 per cent disagreed and 8 per cent were undecided. Asked whether this development would speed up probes against politicians of the former regime, 51 per cent agreed, 34 per cent disagreed while 15 per cent were undecided.

In terms of the resignation instilling confidence amongst foreign investors, 42 per cent agreed while 37 per cent disagreed and 21 per cent were undecided.

The poll drew responses from a cross-section of the professional class like bankers, accountants, company directors, academics, entrepreneurs, educationists, civil society activists. There were also comments from a leftist politician and two senior government officials.

In the plethora of comments received, one respondent said that the resignation was as a result of a power struggle between the two top leaders and had nothing to do with accountability or good governance. Another urged the immediate setting up of a special court with respected judges and definite timelines to probe misdeeds of the former regime. A large percentage of the people want a proper probe against the last regime and subsequent punishment because it is the peoples money that was plundered. This appears to be a difficult task because of double deals and some traitors in the present regime apparently obstructing the inquiries, a civil society activist said.

An academic said that the incident has highlighted the fact that this Government is corrupt as well with the only difference being that there is democracy now when compared to before.

Some respondents were unhappy at the treatment meted out to the former Foreign Minister. This was a ploy by the highest authorities to get rid of one person. Look at the sequence of events. Why was Ms. Anika Wijesuriya called to testify at the Commission all of a sudden? I am not favouring RK. If he has done wrong he has to pay for it. But to me, it was a beautifully planned plot to evict him, said a senior corporate director, adding: If all are served with the same spoon, it will be beneficial to increase investor confidence. But I seriously doubt it will happen in the hands of Yahapalana Government. Culprits of the previous government will never be brought to book. This is why I firmly believe that there is a conspiracy to sideline the UNP in the Yahapalana Government and eventually to get rid of them.

Here are excerpts of the comments received:

I do not believe that RK is the only person who is tainted and stands or stood in the way of good governance and accountability. There has to be a wider purge of the corrupt politicians. For the record, I voted for this government; it was a vote against corruption and better governance. I will not vote again.

Over 40 odd politicians and officials who were accused of corruption never resigned in the previous government. Leave alone resigning, some were reappointed against Supreme Court judgments that they are not fit to hold government posts. Furthermore not a single politician or official in the previous government ever faced any inquiry or commission.

In terms of governance and accountability, there is still a lot more to be done.

Revenge politics will probably take precedence now, as the government goes after the Rajapaksas.

Improving the Ease of doing business Index, Corruption Perception Index and a jungle of red tape and multiple taxes will have to be eliminated before our FDIs improve.

It will moderately and indirectly have a positive impact on good governance and country political stability.

Good governance was implemented from January 2015 in several areas; notably freedom of expression, improvement in law and order, independence of the judiciary and setting up of the Constitutional Council and Independent Commissions. The appearance of a senior cabinet minister before a Commission to be grilled by an over-enthusiastic prosecutor was itself a welcome change. The resignation of RK before any conviction by a court or Commission augurs well for good governance, which nevertheless has a long way to go.

This development will speed up probes against politicians of the former regime. However several ministers who have been indicted in courts from the SLFP are in office. Nothing will happen unless there is pressure from citizens.

There are serious problems for foreign investors, including ad hoc taxes from midnight gazettes, history of retrospective taxes, expropriation, which also hurt domestic investors.

He resigned because he knew he would lose the no confidence motion and the UNP knew as well. If he challenged this, it would have been political suicide for him. So he resigned as the better option for his political survival.

I initially hoped that this will expedite probes against the politicians of the former regime. But in thinking about this further, it may not happen because this government probably is becoming more aware that it may not be elected again. So why take chances against pursuing cases against politicians of the former regime because if they come back to power (whats the alternative?) these crooks will be in the same predicament in 2.5 years.

Policies (and some are very good) are announced but overturned in a week because some interested party will protest against it.

At least now there is a potential deterrent for misbehaving (in government). One hopes that the resignation is only the start, if there is proof of breach of trust and corruption then he should be criminally pr0secuted.

Politicians will now find better ways to cover the paper trail! Ministers and Government MPs especially RK and his supporters will use every opportunity to highlight delays by the AGs department, FCID and Bribery Commission in view of what happened.
Long-delayed NBT revision boosts dwindling tax revenue By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

With the passing of the Nation Building Tax (NBT) Amendment Bill in parliament last week, this long-delayed amendment comes into retrospective effect from April last year,

The imposition of the NBT was delayed due to legal and administrative issues of the Treasury. Considering five FR petitions filed impunging the Finance Ministers decision to impose NBT from May 2, 2016, the Supreme Court issued an interim order suspending the imposition of the tax until the final determination of the petition or suitable amendments are passed in Parliament. Issuing a statement, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested that Sri Lanka should abolish the NBT as levying excises on a few key items at appropriate rates can support revenue needs while addressing externalities.

But the government decided to continue with NBT which is a consumption type tax. Therefore it was more important to decide the stage at which point the tax is to be imposed, a senior Treasury official told Business Times. Under this amendment, a large number of manufacturers and services providers have to register with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and pay NBT. It can be assumed that the consumption base NBT offers a major revenue option, he disclosed. A person engaged in the business of wholesale and retail trade has to register with the IRD and comply with the law relating to the imposition of the NBT, he added. The existing 2 per cent NBT will remain unchanged while the turnover limit to charge tax has been changed. The existing limit per quarter Rs.3.75 million has been reduced to Rs.3 million.

Turnover threshold of Rs. 25 million from operating a hotel, guest house, restaurant or other similar business, provision of education services by locally established institutions, and supply of labour (manpower) will be removed. Liable turnover threshold of Rs. 25 million continues for processing of any locally procured agricultural produce for sale.
SEC after Perpetual Treasuries spoils By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing some trades that under-fire Perpetual Treasuries PLC had done during 2009 to 2015, informed sources say.

This is in a bid to ascertain whether there was any price-pushing and dumping the shares on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), they told the Business Times. The Perpetual Group has been in a media blitzkrieg owing to the infamous bond scam which saw Foreign Minister and former Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake resigning on Thursday.

Thurston Investments, connected to Perpetual Group had a 14 per cent stake as at 31 December 2016 in HDFC and many trades through this company also happened which the regulator is scrutinising, a source said noting that the Central Finance, Ceylon Grain Elevators and LOLC were questionable transactions by Perpetual Treasuries.

Perpetual Treasuries and Perpetual Equities held 6.52 per cent of NDB as at 31 March 2017, i.e. 11.2 million NDB shares. The stake that Perpetual has in NDB (during 4Q2016 it increased the holding to 7,352,180 shares which is 4.45 per cent of the bank  from 6,153,686 shares as at 30 September 2016) was bought by them after the bond issue surfaced in 2015.
Applaud only when the law holds corruptors responsible View(s):

For those who laboured long and hard to bring fresh cleansing winds to Sri Lankas degenerate political culture in 2015, these are times of mortified reflection. The collective angst of the United National Party (UNP) amidst a dismaying disarray and loss of public confidence beggars the imagination. Its parliamentarians are filing no-confidence motions against its own ministers as well as those from the other half of the (dis) unity alliance. And the very air is rendered hideous with their loud lamentations that Justice is not being done.

Satire of the most devilish kind

We are battered by complaints that the focus is only on current corruption rather than gross violators of the previous regime. This is vis a vis the resignation of the UNPs Foreign Affairs (formerly Finance) Minister in the wake of testimony before the popularly styled Bond Scam Commission relating to an egregious conflict of interest. The public is told that it must rejoice since a Minister resigned. Alas, this is satire of the most devilish kind.

So after whitewashing the Central Bank bond fiasco for well upon two years, is applause the fit reaction when a Minister resigns and that too grudgingly due to a public outcry? Lest we forget, the whitewash of this incident by the UNP included appointing a committee of largely unknown party lawyers to skim over the responsibility of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.

It also included the UNP parliamentarians in the parliamentary committee on public enterprises (COPE) insisting on adding footnotes to the COPE report to preempt questions of legal wrong doing on the part of the former Governor. In truth, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa must be engaging in fiendish chuckles in his Medamulana lair at the predicament that the Government, (his bete noir as well as a protector of sorts) finds itself.

Less than propitious performance of ministers

Regardless, let us see where the truth lies. Since the inception of this coalition Government, portfolios of the most important ministries relating to law enforcement and justice have been held by the UNP. However, the performances of the respective ministers were less than propitious. Not only were principles of conflict of interest disregarded but this unconcern was blithely paraded in public.

In the first year, the minister holding the portfolio of Law and Order, himself a senior lawyer who should have abided to more fastidious standards than his plebian colleagues, resigned in the wake of a conflict-of-interest uproar. This was over his defence of the controversial maritime security firm Avant Garde on the floor of Parliament, referring to the said firm as his (one-time) client and protesting that the controversy had no factual basis.

To be plain, the issue here was the propriety of the Minister of Law and Order holding forth in regard to a matter that was under investigation and adjudication. Whether the allegations against Avant Garde were justifiable or not, whether they will be ultimately proved in a court of law or whether the ordinary foot-dragging that takes place will result in a stalemate outcome was therefore not the question.

Who should the UNP blame but itself?

Besieged by an angry public, the Minister resigned. Then too, the public was asked to clap its hands at the rare spectacle of a Minister resigning. He was brought back a few months ago to be gifted the portfolio of development assignments. At the time of his resignation, his Cabinet colleague, the UNPs Minister of Justice managed to adroitly wriggle out of an outcry when he reportedly made statements partial to the Rajapaksas in relation to ongoing investigations.

Now, to add spice to the mixture, his party colleagues are waving a no-confidence motion before the Justice Minister for preventing speedy resolution of an enormous amount of corruption investigations against Rajapaksa politicians and for not supporting the establishing of a special Corruption Court.

So, I am bewildered. Who should the UNP blame for these unnerving dilemmas other than itself? When the Department of the Attorney General allegedly delays in proceeding against corruptors or when the ordinary law collapses under the strain, (or so we are told rather unconvincingly), should not the responsibility rest on the Justice Minister? And when the Inspector General of Police (IGP) is captured on television cameras abjectly promising the current Law and Order Minister that a person (later exposed as a favorite of the previous regime) would not be arrested, in whose direction should fingers be pointed?

Understanding a simple logic

In the political tug-of-war that these dramas reflect, promises by the President and the Prime Minister that the law would be respected are pure balderdash. Only one credit is due. Up to now, this Government has not directly interfered with the judiciary aside from certain flippant statements made by some who should know better.

But it is quite clear now that President Maithripala Sirisena failed to take decisive action before the rot became pervasive and engaged in political compromises within the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) itself which undermined the legitimacy of the pro-governance platform which gave him the mandate two and a half years ago.

On its part, the UNP must surely refresh the knowledge of its top tier leadership as to the precise meaning of the law in relation to conflict of interest. There is no point in querulous queries as to why the UNP is being held to this standard when these lofty principles never bothered the Rajapaksa regime. If the people wanted the Rajapaksas and their degradations to continue, they would have voted them back. They did not. Is this simple logic so difficult to understand that it must be repeated at each and every turn as if to an imbecile?

Rightful public applause must wait its turn

That said, it must be acknowledged that as dismal and as disheartening as it is, these fiascos signal one fact. Public pressure works at least in some instances though not in all. This weeks withdrawal of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Bill, another ill-begotten effort of the Justice Minister is a further indication of this.

Notwithstanding such apparent victories, the spectacle of a Minister resigning, tears and all does not suffice. The law must take its due and proper course into corruption allegations, sophisticated or crude as it may be. Perpetrators must be punished.

The cycle of impunity must be broken. It is the same rationale as in regard to transitional justice really.

It is at this point that applause will be rightfully fitting. Not before.
Yahapalanaya wins the day View(s):

I am proud to resign says Ravi Karunanayake: but the proud moment belongs to the free media

Even as many politicians from both sides of the political divide joined in to add voice to the nations chorus and let know to both the President and the Prime Minister,  you can tell your cabinet minister there with you, hell have to go, this weeks welcome resignation of Ravi Karunanayake from his foreign minister portfolio served to strike a blow for the Yahapalana policies of this government and redeem, to a certain extent, the faith, hope and trust the people had reposed in Sirisena when they voted him to presidential office two years ago on his solemn vow to usher in a government that would be just, transparent and accountable to the sovereign people of Lanka.

Even though it took some while  and a great deal of plodding by the media  to make the Yaha Government realise the death wish it would harbour within unbeknown if they played footsie and dilly dallied any longer; and failed to take remedial action in a situation where immediate action was called for. But no matter. Better late than never.

It was inevitable that Ravi K had to go. The writing had been on the wall for long. With the word RESIGN writ large. Pity that long sighted Ravi had not put on his reading spectacles to read and discern the import of the message. And had to have it read out to him by the nations free press, representing as it does the voice of the people.

But none is so blind as those who refuse to see or so deaf as those who refuse to hear. And when the bell tolled for Ravi K he did not send to ask for whom it tolled but remained mute with ears muffled for he knew it tolled for him  in the same manner Mahinda Rajapaksa did not sign the vote of no confidence motion the joint opposition presented to the Speaker against Ravi Karunanayake last week.

But the die was cast and he had to go. But he did not make his exit with a whimper but rather with a self praise bang. First lets be served with a sample taster of choice rump steaks from Ravis banquet farewell feast. On Thursday afternoon as the House clock chimed half past one, the former Minister of Finance and the nations Foreign Minister the honourable Ravi Karunanayake rose to address parliament and deliver his valedictory speech.

He said: The media and some Opposition politicians demand that I be crucified over being probed by a presidential commission of inquiry. I decided to resign to set an example in keeping with the good governance policy we introduced and I do so without regret. Martyred on that self same cross he would have been crucified upon had he not bowed out with grace at the eleventh hour, he first arrogated to himself fulsome credit for introducing good governance policies to the nation. And said he is resigning to set an example in keeping with Yahapalana policies.

Good. But how much better would it have been if he had followed the Yahapalana policies from the start and steadfastly refused to accept the gratuitous Rs. 1,450,000 per month hospitality of bond scam Arjun Aloysius for eight months ensconced in Monarch Residencies penthouse suite? But, of course, he knew nothing. Didnt know, as he had told the presidential bond commission only a week before, that it had all been done by his wife and daughter and he had never asked them as to how he had been blessed with such good fortune to wake up each morn in such luxurious surroundings.

Perhaps he thanked his patron saint St Anthony of Padua for his good fortune and never dreamt that it had come courtesy of St Aloysius of Perpetual. And as far as resigning to set an example was concerned wasnt it only this Monday when he dismissed media reports that President Sirisena had called for his resignation and stated indignantly:  Why should the president ask me to resign, I have done nothing wrong?

Last week on Wednesday, he had admitted at the Presidential Commission of inquiry into the Central Bank Bond Scam that he had lived at the penthouse suite of Monarch residencies. He had admitted that the rent was Rs. 1.450,000, per month He had admitted that he had lived there for eight months enjoying the patronage of Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries, the primary bond dealer who is presently at the epicenter of the bond scam inquiry.

Ravi Karunanayake had admitted that he had not known of this. He had admitted that he had not known that there was no lease agreement between him or any of his family members with the owner of the premises. He had admitted that the family had bought the premises for Rs 165 million. He had admitted he had not known that it was bought by cash deposited in the safe of the chairman of the company he owns and of which his wife and daughter are directors. He had confessed that it was all done by his wife and 25-year-old daughter and that he knew nothing of it. And admitted he never thought it fit to ask them how they managed to pull it off and work their miracle and cocoon him in the lap of luxury.

Not that he was a stranger to luxury. As he proudly boasted in his resignation speech, I have no need to acquire a house through illegal means. Many MPs in this House know that I have a house in Battaramulla. Not only have those on our side but also those in the opposition visited that house. They came there to have political discussions, as friends, to eat and drink and enjoy and sometimes to crossover to this side.

All those who came there know of my assets. They also know that I have never earned through illegal means. They also know that I never made use of my political power to earn money. Many of those who signed the no-confidence motion against me, too, are aware of this fact.And thus the nation wonders and thus the wonder grows, how one small man the heavens blessed with such great business genius to own so much could crave for so much more?

But lets give the new UNP backbencher his right of reply. Especially after he accused the media of crucifying him.

First his own elevation to the ranks of Christ and the Buddha when he said that both Jesus and Gautama had been accused wrongly even as he had been done wrong by the media  the harbinger of bad news to all politicians. On a secular front, he said that even Dudley Senanayake had been accused of corruption though none can recall any such instance and would consider it an unwarranted blasphemy to make such reference to such an unblemished character and to drag the gentle statesmans time honoured name into this sordid episode merely to save ones own skin.

But there was more to come from him in his resignation speech. And it came in the form of him quoting the scriptures. But it was not to quote chapter and verse from his Catholic Bible but to quote from the Buddhas Dhammapada he sought refuge in.

He said: In the Dhammapada, in Ashta Loka Dharma, the Eight Worldly Conditions, anyone would have to face challenges and situations similar to this. The Buddha had stated if one who himself has done wrong attacks another, then, like the dust thats flung to the winds, the wrong will visit him. If one wrongs a person who should not be wronged, one who is pure and is free from moral defilement, the evil falls back upon that fool, like fine dust thrown against the wind.

Dont get the message yet from the morally undefiled? Then wait for the rejoinder to reinforce innocence. Again from the Dhammapada, his New Testament of faith, he said

As a mountain of rock is unshaken by wind, so also, the wise are unperturbed by blame or by praise.In other words, like the rock of Gibraltar against which the winds unleash their fury, remains unmoved and unshaken, he, too, remains, like the pundits of old, unshaken and unstirred by the insults hurled against him.

Impressive, isnt it? But not convinced yet? It was then time to draw in Hinduism. And, in the manner of ancient mariners who will seek any port in a storm, to quote from the Tamil poetic epic Thirukkural: Act with righteousness. At all times. At all places, and then proceed to declare that he was in the company of the saints; and if not manifested in flesh and blood, then, at least, found in the same spirit.

He stated without a blink that his own personal manifesto held: To do the right thing always. My intention is to serve the people honestly. Come what may I will continue to serve my people, my party and my country. I will always stand for truth. I will continue with my struggle to eliminate crime and corruption from my country.

And as a final resort, perhaps, to wrap his ignorance in purdah, he peeped out from his unveiled eyes to reveal to us all what the Koran had to say: How much one tries to suppress the truth, the truth cannot be suppressed. Those who seek to suppress the truth would gain massive defeat. 

But wouldnt it have been more helpful to him  rather than summoning the aid of poets and prophets to justify his blissful ignorance and placing the Buddha and Christ in the same cell as he is in and say that there were allegations made against them too and to imply that its the natural order of the world to hurl calumnies against great men of equal temper  had he lent ear to that most pertinent question posed by his cabinet colleague Mangala Samaraweera as reported in the Sunday Times political column last week:

Samaraweera observed: That it is not a case of a telephone number of a colleague being found or his name appearing in an SMS that has come to light. There was a specific instance where it has transpired that Ravi Karunanayake had lived in an apartment that had belonged to Arjun Aloysius and had denied any knowledge of how it had happened.

Minister Samaraweeras question in distilled form is simply this: Is it right for any finance minister to enjoy the hospitality of any primary bond dealer? Irrespective of whether that particular bond dealer is bereft of guilt of any scam? 

Its that failure to understand the conflict of interest that would arise in accepting favours from such men, its the failure to understand that a defence of  I know nothing would not hold water, its the failure to realise that accusing the media  though the Sunday Punch column never did  of attacking his wife and daughter when he himself had put them in the pillory and invited the quashed tomato and the rotten egg to be thrown at them, that made Ravi K pay the price of his ignorance which led to his own downfall.

Ravi Ks resignation speech may well have been his swan song though only the naive would write of his demise. Even after pubic crucifixion, his reincarnation on an Easter soon to come as a different Avatar cannot be ruled out. For even whilst seated in the backbenches of that almighty Maithri court, no doubt, he will be marking time to make his second coming.

His final words, I am proud to sacrifice my position. I do so for my party and people whom I always considered above me and my personal gains, may have sounded sonorous in the ears of those who enjoyed his own brand of hospitality and who lined the road of his Kotte residence to greet the prodigals return home.

But for him there was nothing to be proud of. The proud moment belonged to Yahapalanaya. And to the candle lit by the free press of this country a long long time ago which, despite the many gusts of wind bellowed by all governments to snuff its flickering flame, still burns steadfast in the dark and windy night to rival the light of a thousand stars in the interest of the Lankan people; and to reveal to them the light of day.

No sooner had Ravi K bid adios from the front stalls to retire in shame to the backseats, though still a honourable member of the august House, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was quick to rise to his feet and hail the untold merits of Yahapalanaya.

He said The Assistant Leader of my party told me that he needed to resign from the ministerial portfolio. I told him to take that decision after discussing it with the President. He met the President on Wednesday. Later he went to meet the President with me and Minister Rajitha Senaratne and handed over his resignation. Some were demanding his resignation this morning, too, but he had already submitted his resignation.

But does Ravis resignation, mean that alls well that ends well.

A sitting commissioner of the bond scam probe, a judge of the Supreme Court, observed at the Presidential Commission of inquiry last week that the whole scenario which unfolded before the commission may well invite a money laundering probe, when the facts emerged from the evidence given by Chief Financial Officer of Global Logistics and Transportation Brian Sinnaiah that:

n Ravi Karunanayakes penthouse suite Monarch residencies had been bought with Rs. 165 million with the finances coming from the chairmans safe of the Ravi Karunanayake owned Global Logistics and Transportation Ltd. of which he was chairman and his wife and daughters are directors of:

n That the loan facility acquired to purchase the Penthouse was to be paid back using money belonging to GLTC Chairman T.V. Lakshmikanthan who lives in Britain. Lakshmikanthans money, of which the origin is undisclosed.

n That it was kept in the GLTCs money safe since February 2016. Lakshmikanthan has visited Sri Lanka twice in February 2016 and February 2017. At both instances, Lakshmikanthan has placed Rs 70 million and Rs 75 million of his personal money in the GLTC money safe. But no receipt had been issued to him after receiving the money.

n That the monthly installments of Rs. 11 million were taken in cash by the accountant of the company Sinnaiah and Ravi Karunanayakes only answer was to say I know nothing. He, however, stated in his resignation speech that it was bought with a loan from the Seylan Bank. But reserved his right to remain silent as to how his company was going to pay back the loan, though his own chief accountant had already disclosed to the commission that monthly installments of Rs. 11 million for the last nine months had been paid in cash drawn from the chairmans Ali Baba safe. And that the company books did not reflect or record these payments.

Ravi Ks resignation speech may have served to save the governments bacon for the day. But did it salvage the Governments Yahapalanaya promise to the people. If by the simple expedient medium of resignation, if the government suffers the belief it can wish away the call for a money laundering probe into the whole affair as touched upon by the Supreme Court Justices when they heard the testimony placed before them at the Presidential Commission last week, then it will be only kissing its own fate goodbye; and would find it signed, sealed and delivered on their Paget Road and Fifth Lane doorsteps, come elections 2020.

Yahapalanaya has survived not because the government has willed it. But because the free media have demanded democracys tenets to be followed to the letter. Thankfully, due to the Yahapalana policies of this government and its attempts to preserve its facade, however feeble its endeavours may appear, we have seen a commission been appointed. We have witnessed a minister been summoned. We have heard the Attorney Generals representatives  lap poodles under the former regime turned Rottweilers now- ferociously question witnesses with no respect to rank, as indeed they must. And that is to the credit of both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.

Yahapalanaya has won the day but it it cannot be a pyrrhic victory. For Yahapalanaya has many more miles to go and many more promises to keep before it can afford its deserved sleep. The people cannot be fobbed off that easily with a blind anymore.
Yahapalanayas collective sigh of relief at Ravi K.s brouhaha-exit By Chandani Kirinde- Lobby Correspondent View(s): View(s):

The resignation of Ravi Karunanayake from his ministerial post on Thursday, just days before the Govt of national unity celebrates its second year in office, helped defuse a crisis that has shaken the yahapalanaya govt to its roots and tested its commitment to uphold principles of good governance.

Despite his exit from the inner circles of Govt, Mr Karunanayake, who announced his resignation in a statement to the House on Thursday, remained defiant while professing his innocence, quoting from various religious scriptures to portray himself as the wronged person and in turn, drawing sympathy and praise from both Govt and Opposition lawmakers.

His resignation came as Speaker Karu Jayasuirya was to rule if a No-Confidence Motion submitted against him by a group of Joint Opposition (JO) MPs could be taken up for debate. However, shortly after Mr Karunanayake stepped down from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Speaker said there was no necessity to proceed with the Motion.

It was Mr Karunanayakes alleged links to controversial businessman Arjun Aloysius, which came to light when he appeared before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed to look into the use of Treasury Bonds (TB), that forced him to hang up his ministerial boots. Mr Karunanayake, now a backbencher MP representing the Colombo District, made a better case for himself in Parliament, explaining the circumstances under which he had come to occupy the penthouse in Colombo for several months, which was paid for by Mr Aloysius, and giving bank details of transfer of funds for the purchase of the apartment by his family.

While it begs the question why Mr Karunanayake was not more forthcoming before the CoI about the matter, which might have spared him a lot of ridicule, his address to the House detailing his political career, his loyalty to the United National party (UNP) and contribution to setting up the yahapalanya govt, as well as the personal toll the scandal has taken on his wife and children, to some extent helped him save face.

I am sacrificing my position for the honour of this August assembly, for my Party, in the name of the new political culture that we introduced, the protection of the yahapalanaya govt and democracy in this country. I have taken this decision with pride, he said.

UNP members came out in their numbers to back their beleaguered colleague as he spoke, giving him a rousing cheer as he left his front row seat and moved to the last row in the Chamber. They showed their support with hugs, handshakes and pats on his back.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who spoke soon after Mr Karunanayake, voiced strong support for his decision to step down, saying it was a victory for good governance.

The Assistant Leader of my party has decided to resign from his ministerial portfolio. He met with me and the President and made the decision. This shows the Govt will not in any way interfere with the probe by the Commission on TBs. This shows the Govt has realized its good governance goals, the Premier said.

A word of praise for Mr Karunanayake also came from Leader of the Opposition TNA parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan who commended him for his bold step.

During the adjournment debate on the Central Bank report for 2016 later in the day, JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti who chairs the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE), said he appreciated Mr Karunanayakes decision to step down but, said the probe into the TB case should not falter because of it.

We know there are other powerful persons who are linked to this. This resignation should not distract from holding others accountable, he said.

Minister of Fisheries and State Minister of Mahaweli Development Mahinda Amaraweera too welcomed the UNP MPs decision to step down. This is not a personal vendetta against Mr Karunanayake. He has stepped down on a matter of principle and we appreciate it, he said.

Mr Karunanayake has had a rough ride during the past two-and-a-half years, particularly his tenure as Finance Minister, during which he prevailed over a No-Confidence Motion brought against him in June, 2016. With a second looming, his decision to step down was the best option open to him.

In November 2016, then Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapona resigned following a controversial statement he made in the House, defending Avant Garde Maritime Services, a private company whose role during the regime of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is now under judicial inquiry. But all was not lost for Mr Marapona because, without much fanfare and almost no public outcry, he was reappointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Development Assignments this May. So going by this trend, Mr Karunanayake can look forward to another ministerial portfolio sooner, rather than later.

For now, Mr Karunanayakes exit has relieved pressure on the Govt to some extent but, the spirit of yahapalanaya and the promises to clean up corruption in high places has been broken. Wishy washy measures to take the heat off will help bolster the Govts image in the short term, and make it look better in comparison to the previous regime, but taking the public for fools would mean having to face the consequences, when the next election comes around.
Why this controversy over elections to PCs View(s):

While a new Constitution is on the drawing boards, a 20th Amendment to the existing (1978) Basic Law is creeping up for passage in the interim. The 20th Amendment was meant to be on Electoral reforms, but this appears to be a hurried move to offset the need to hold Provincial Council elections that are looming in at least three areas, viz., East, North Central and Sabaragamuwa  something sections of the National Unity Government are averse to holding, given its current standing with the electorate.

According to prevailing laws, PCs must be dissolved on time. The Government has found every excuse under the sun to put off local government elections, the hapless minister asking for long dates like a Presidents Counsel with a bad brief. So, the 20th Amendment seeks to vest in Parliament all powers of the PCs when they are dissolved, and to hold all PC elections in the nine provinces on the same date. On count one, it might seem that the Government envisages a long dissolution of the councils; certainly the three up for grabs at the end of this year. On count two, the Government has a valid argument given the dissipation of time, energy and financial resources in conducting elections on different dates.

The Prime Ministers proposal to the Cabinet for rescheduling PC elections as reported by our Political Editor last week is based entirely on the holding of elections. One of the arguments of the PM was that such staggered elections were a distortion of the public perception regarding the popularity or otherwise of a political party and that being a decisive factor at future elections. SLFP Ministers, however, now say they want elections irrespective of what the Cabinet decided.

That is precisely the point. Everything seems to revolve around elections to these PCs; nothing about their effectiveness in serving the people. These elections are primarily the flexing of the muscles of political parties. Money bags are thrown open once again. They are aimed at gaining political control and have nothing much to do with devolution of political power from Colombo to the provinces.

Now, 30 years after they were controversially introduced to the country, even the Northern PC for which it was originally mooted has done next to nothing for the people it represents. The council itself is in the throes of intra-fighting among members of the same party, the TNA that dominates it. Its all politics and power-hungry politicians, not people. Elsewhere in the country, they are miniature copy-cat parliaments, with elected councillors hurling verbal abuse at each other, running away with the mace, talking shop and only showing any unity when it comes to duty-free car permits and study tours abroad.

Civil society groups are criticising what they see as an insidious attempt to postpone PC elections through the 20A; former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who in 1987 got on the streets to oppose the setting up of PCs sniffing electoral success wants to defeat 20A; and womens activists have petitioned the Supreme Court asking for a 30 percent quota for themselves. To hell with whether these white elephant PCs do any service to man or beast  other than the political parties.

Financial criminals must pay back with interest

The entire week went by with the guessing game of whether Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake would throw in the towel or face the ignominy of being removed from office in the fallout from his alleged complicity with those in the epicentre of the storm that kicked up so much dust from the massive Central Bank bond scams of 2015 and 2016.

Ultimately, Mr. Karunanayake took the correct decision to step down from his post after some deliberation, and some coaxing. By the end of last week, it appeared that he had to be dragged out of his ministry kicking and screaming, to be drawn and quartered and thrown to ravenous wolves. He argued, and somewhat justifiably why he had to be the fall guy  the sacrificial lamb for doing his duty by the party. If Ministers must step down until corruption charges against them are cleared then more than half the Cabinet must do so right away. The biggest irony is that those in the Opposition calling for Mr. Karunanayakes blood have had their own pockets lined with filthy lucre while they were in office. Today, the reputation of Ministers  recent, past and present  is mud.

The silver lining in this saga of corruption in high-level Government, especially with the Central Bank bond scam as the focus, is that there were upright officials of the Central Bank who reacted against a brazen act  not once, but twice, of diddling the public purse by the senior-most persona in the bank and his immediate family. Whistleblowers within the Bank gave the stories to the media while the then Governor tried desperately to stop the leaks by checking on mobile phone calls and then effecting mass transfers of staff. There is no doubt that this Government deserves credit for further pressing on with the investigation into what was initially a botched attempt at covering up a great bank robbery. Whether that credit must go for altruistic reasons or partisan political expediency is immaterial because public wrath against both parties in the coalition Government had already reached boiling point and spilling over.

Yes, such an investigation under the previous Government would be unthinkable. The only somewhat recent case of a Minister being asked to step down on allegations of corruption was almost 35 years ago when then Agriculture Minister E.L. Senanayake was removed together with Ministry Secretary Ranjan Wijeratne by President J.R. Jayewardene over a fertilizer tender. Both Mr. Senanayake and Mr. Wijeratne held high office thereafter, though. A young MP for Hewaheta, Anura Daniel was also asked to step down over his connections with a smuggler. Since then only Tilak Marapana has stepped down voluntarily when his name was dragged into a controversy where he was the lawyer to a client who was being investigated by his ministry.

One of the key factors in the ability of the Central Bank officials to react to what was happening inside their establishment was the independence they enjoy as public officials. This is what is needed in the entire public service that has been totally politicised over the years. The fact that they are public servants and not government servants should be the applicable nomenclature to denote the difference.

Today, the RTI (Right to Information) Law is in force again thanks to this Government. There is a positive side to the continuing investigation on the bond scams and that is that there was also a public outcry which a section of the Government tried to muffle. The investigations will necessarily have to go beyond the Bond Commission, to a logical conclusion until Yahapalanaya can claim total victory so that perpetrators of financial crimes against the people are not allowed to take the people for suckers. They must face the consequences of their actions and pay back their ill-gotten gains, with interest.
Colombo Theatre Forum is back Goethe  Institute and Inter Act Art theatre join to promote theatre View(s): View(s):

German Children and Youth Theatre 1, a documentary film screening and the discussion is a part of the Colombo Theatre Forum, a space created for those who were seeking new dimensions in Sri Lankan theatre was held last Tuesday, July 25 at the Goethe Institute Hall, Colombo 7.

The curator of the programme is well-known playwright M. Safeer.

Scholars, directors, script writers, actors and actresses, critics, lighting directors, backstage creators, stage managers, students and spectators joined Colombo Theatre Forum to widen their horizons in the field of theatre.

Colombo Theatre Forumwhich was highly successful during last year and has commenced with a new format by Inter Act Art theatre and Goethe  Institute Colombois held every fourth Tuesday of the month at the Goethe Institute Hall from 5.00 pm onwards.

In the coming month discussion will be held on Acting and lighting in August, Theatre dramaturgy and criticism in September, Stage and Dance in October and German children and youth theatre 2 in November.
Dumpling delight Momos by Ruvi View(s): View(s):

Momo, a Nepalese dumpling of Tibetan origin is considered the perfect snack in its native Nepal and in India you will find vendors selling it on most street corners. But despite its popularity in the subcontinent it was never widely available here. In fact there was no eatery dedicated to dumplings in Sri Lanka let alone Colombo. Something Monalisa Amalraj soon remedied when she opened Momos by Ruvi in April this year.

Originally from India, Monalisa, who is of Indian and Chinese descent, realized her love of dumplings while in grad school in Singapore. A bio-medical engineer by profession, she tells us how when she first came up with the idea fours years back, people warned her against it. A lot of people told me I was overqualified for it and that I should stick to my job, she says. But despite all the naysayers she decided to follow her passion and open up her very own dumpling cafe, quitting her job to work full time on it.

Situated in the heart of Bambalapitya, Colombo 4, in a by- lane just off the Galle Road, Momos by Ruvi is a quaint little place decorated with food puns and cute knick knacks, in stark contrast to its surroundings. Its cosy interior seats approximately 10.

Momos by Ruvi offers dumplings with a range of fillings cooked in a variety of ways. Currently they offer vegetable, prawn, chicken and beef momos that you can opt to have steamed, shallow fried, wok fried or with cheese and curry. Each option gives six dumplings in a portion together with three kinds of sauce, namely the chili soy sauce, the sambol and the Szechuan sauces. A portion ranges from Rs. 330 to 570, depending on the filling and how the dumpling is cooked. They also offer platters of twelve momos cooked three ways, that range from Rs 800 to 1250. Theres also stir-fried bok choy as a side dish and a variety of flavoured ice teas.

We tried the steamed prawn, the chicken cheese and the wok fried veg dumplings, the stir fried bok choy, as well as their peach fiesta, apple green tea, and strawberry punch iced teas. Presentation wise, it was minimalistic, but the dumplings themselves were beautifully constructed, especially the steamed prawn dumplings, with a translucent outer shell and the prawn tail, which makes it appear as if the dumpling is the prawn itself.

The steamed prawn, our favourite was light and fresh, and went well with all three sauces. The wok fried veg, with its golden brown colour and crunchy texture packed a punch flavour-wise, with ginger and other spices giving it a definite intensity without too much heat. This went especially well with the Szechuan sauce, a red spicy Indo-Chinese fusion sauce, which happens to be a family recipe handed down from Monalisas grandfather. The chicken cheese momos covered in a thick curry and drizzled in cheese, were generously stuffed, the saltiness of the curry immediately hitting you, but not overwhelmingly so. But it went best with the sambol sauce which had a lovely garlic undertone to it.

The iced teas were refreshing, without being too sweet. Sipped in between eating the different momos it was a palate cleanser of sorts, counteracting the salty creamy texture of the chicken cheese and the ginger in the veg momos.

The stir fried bok choy covered in copious amounts of chili sauce, left the top layer very spicy , whereas the bottom leaves tasted bland. The fact that it was a whole leaf also made it a little difficult to eat.

Overall the Momos were well crafted and cooked, which isnt surprising as theyre prepared by a Nepalese chef and the owner herself grew up learning to cook dumplings from her grandfather.

Momos plans on expanding the menu and will hopefully feature dumplings such as Dim sums and wantons in the future.

Address: No 43/1D, Majestic Avenue, Galle Road, Colombo 4

(opposite Unity Plaza)

Operating Hours: 11 a.m.  9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday

(Closed on Mondays)

Price range: Rs 330  1550

Contact no: 076 520 4867

Follow them on:

Instagram: @momosbyruvi

Facebook: Momos by Ruvi
Fenghuang Lou Chinese food at its best View(s):

Fast becoming one of Colombos best Chinese restaurants Fenghuang Lou brings it exquisite flavours to discerning diners in the city. The renowned restaurant is currently catering to a large number of its clients at No. 43, Jawatta Road, Colombo 5.

Fenghuang Lou is reputed for its wide variety of Chinese dishes made available in its delicious a la carte menu. Each dish derived from timeless recipes that have been adapted into a modern context intricately prepared. It is a restaurant where any person with a passion for Chinese food can truly experience wholesome Chinese dishes, served by a friendly and efficient staff within a relaxed ambience bringing forth an exceptional service.

The popular dishes at the Fenghuang Lou are Hot Butter Cuttlefish, Panko Prawns, Chili crab, Devilled Chicken, Vegetable Spring rolls, Seafood Dumpling and Prawn Balls,. Chicken Fried Rice, Indonesian Fried Rice, Devilled Prawns, Stir fry vegetables, Sweet and Sour Fish are some of the popular dishes with the Sri Lankan clientele. Speaking at the press briefing, Managing Director, Rizmy Hassan stated that the day to day operation at the restaurant is well above the rest in the city.

We are very proud to be operating Fenghuang Lou which has attracted a large number of Chinese expats and tourists, besides  our own Sri Lankan clientele, all who has contributed largely towards our popularity in a very short span of time here in Colombo expressing his pleasure on how the restaurant has fast become a hallmark restaurant for Chinese cuisine amidst a large cluster of Chinese restaurants already operating in the city said Rizmy Hassan, an experience hotelier, who is also the founder of Fenghuang Lou.

He further added that he is proud to announce that the restaurants kitchen brigade comes under a leading Chinese chef from the Shandong province of China, supported by our own Sri Lankan Chef  both, who contribute as a dynamic duo to keep the restaurants image as a notable dining hub with palatable Chinese food served to all its diners.

Evoking a sense of taste as well as comfort is our motto said General Manager Rohana Perera, who continued to say that his cooking team at Fenghuang Lou combines the highest quality ingredients and prepares authentic recipes (with no added MSG or other harmful additives) to provide a truly healthy and delicious Chinese dining experience. At Fenghuang Lou Chinese restaurant Sri Lankan guests can also taste the best of upscale cuisine in an ambience of sleek and contemporary setting, he added further.

The team here, at Fenghuang Lou aims to serve its guests with the best of service, offering a delicious range of bold flavours and tastes that are bound to excite any discerning diners senses.

Fenghuang Lou Restaurant also operates an extensive take away service with a large variety of dishes for one to choose from and have it delivered to ones doorstep within the city at no extra cost. Fenghuang Lou always looks forward to meeting and treating all its guests to an enjoyable and memorable experience at all times said Sales and Marketing Executive Shanmie Rasangika Gamhewa.

Besides offering a gracious in-house dining experience Fenghuang Lou also operates an extensive Take Away service with a large variety of dishes for one to choose from and have it delivered to ones doorstep within the city at no extra cost  Fenghuang Lou also has Executive Lunch Pack delivery service with four different menus to select from at affordable rates, delivered to offices in the city limit. Fenghuang Lou Chinese restaurant is open daily from 11.00 am onwards for lunch and dinner from Monday to Sunday

For more details log onto www.facebook.com/fenghuanglou.lk
Lankas Mahamaya gets a production boost from Locarno By Susitha R. Fernando Locarno Film festivals Open Doors Hub and Lab 2017 winners View(s): View(s):

Open Doors Lab award, an initiative which centres on emerging producers or filmmakers at Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland was won by Sri Lankas Rasitha Jinasena of Sky Entertainers films. Rasith won the development Initiative Film Grant for his film project Mahamaya to be directed by Prasanna Jayakody. This award was granted for the first time.

The TorinoFilmLab Award went to Jami Mahmood from Pakistans Azadfilms and a Special Mention from Initiative Film went to Jawed Taiman, at Afghanistans Tora Bora Media. This year eight selected producers or filmmakers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had presented their projects for the award.

The film project Mahamaya which is to centre on a single incident exploring the roots of recent conflict in Sri Lanka, will enjoy a six months online follow up analytical reading and potential future partners.

I am honestly surprised and I never expected this. I learnt a lot from Open lab which is enough for me and this is like a bonus, said Rasitha immediately after it was announced about his selection.

Rasithas project was selected following a five-day workshop dedicated to eight emerging producers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

I thank you all for being here. Im sure that the true spirit of Locarno is to share your projects and different experiences, said Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival at the awarding ceremony.

I feel the energy you have and that energy is inspiring to all and I am sure you take a bit of Locarno to your respective countries, he added.

We have been experiencing a very fascinating week, lots of sharing, lot of information and experiences and it was a platform for all the professionals, described Sophie Bourdon, Open Doors Program Head of Film Festival Locarno.

And all the people from South Asia has realised that coming here to Switzerland was no bother. It was a different kind of collaboration. Open mindedness and we can have open doors when we have open minded people, she added.

The awards are financed by Open Doors in collaboration with the City of Bellinzona and the Swiss film production fund Visions Sud Est, with the backing of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

We are not in the film business but this questions frequently comes up why we support film project. But one of the brief answers is because we believe that art has an important role in any society in bringing up any societal change, said Geraldine Zeuner, Head Team Culture and Development Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

It is basically important to listen to the artists themselves. Why we are partnering is also the question why we are partnering and why filmmakers are producing films. What is the specifica

What the hub was about this year is Open Doors hub was about supporting filmmakers and producers who have the courage to take up the stories of resistance and individual identity, very often building a personal fight for justice by using imagination and metaphors that help us shape out alternative in our globalised world, she stressed.

Among the other Sri Lankan winners at the Open Doors were Pradeepan Raveendran who screened his short film and won the award in collaboration with Villa Strauli and the Locarno Festival.

Meanwhile Dawood Hilmandis Badeszenen and We Ras One Summer Day won the biggest awards at the Open Doors at the Locarno Festival.

The film, a magic-realistic tale is produced by Mohamed Husain Naikzad at Bamiyan Film Production and it follows Yoro, a motherless 12-year-old kid who serves his fathers two new wives.

This year's session was the second in the three-year cycle dedicated by Open Doors to exploring eight countries in Southern Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The prizes, both cash and in the form of tangible assistance, have been awarded to projects and participants in the international platform Open Doors Hub with the aim of supporting their progress after the Festival.
60 Indian fishermen arrested this week, 77 sent back last week as goodwill gesture View(s):

More than 60 Indian fishermen were arrested this week for allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters off the northern sea, on two separate instances. This follows the repatriation last week of 77 Indian fishermen as a gesture of goodwill, the Navy said. Along with the fishermen 15 bottom trawlers were also seized.

On Monday, the Navy with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Coastguard arrested 49 Indian fishermen for poaching off Delft island in Jaffna. Twelve bottom trawlers were also seized.

The arrested fishermen were from Nagapattinam and Jegathapattinam regions of Tamil Nadu. The fishermen claimed that at least 15 Navy vessels surrounded them at midnight and the arrests continued until early morning the next day. The Acting Magistrate of Kayts courts remanded them for 14 days.

Two days later, 12 fishermen along with three bottom trawlers were taken into custody once again off Delft island, Jaffna. They were remanded until August 23.

Following these arrests Tamil Nadhu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to take up the issue of continuing arrests saying there was unwarranted display of military power on the part of the Lankan Navy against poor innocent Indian fishermen.

Sri Lankan Navy terrorised our fishermen by ramming their boats with armoured Naval vessels and en masse arrested nine fishermen with 12 boats. ..I also request you to direct the Ministry of External Affairs to secure the immediate release of the fishermen and their boats, the letter said.
RACINE  Residents of the Atrium are asking for proof that the receivership affecting their senior living complex, and their money, is in fact based on an insolvency.

The 74-unit Atrium, 3900 N. Main St., a senior-living facility, and 40-unit Bay Pointe, an assisted-living center at 3950 N. Main St., make up the nonprofit Atrium of Racine, which went into receivership in late May.

For the previous year, the Atrium and Bay Pointe have been managed by Marquardt Management Co. Watertown-based Marquardt agreed to operate them, and three other properties, following the fiancial collapse of the former Lincoln Lutheran of Racine. One of those properties, The Atrium at Becker-Shoop, 6101 16th St., Mount Pleasant, was closed in early June.

The Atrium of Racines receivership appears to threaten the ability of Atrium residents to recoup the entrance fees they paid when they signed contracts to live there. Those amounts were as high as $111,000 or more in some cases.

Court-appointed receiver Michael Polsky has said operations at the Atrium building will continue as they have until he can sell the property as a going concern. He has presented the court with a listing order that residents want stopped, for now.

On July 28,five Atrium residents filed a document in Racine County Circuit Court that objects to having Polsky market and sell the Atrium  unless they receive proof of insolvency under Marquardts management.

A simple statement in filing a Chapter 128 (receivership) action that the corporation is insolvent does not establish insolvency as a fact. Proof of insolvency is needed, states the objection. It was written pro bono by five collaborating lawyers, according to one of the signers of the objection.

Receiver responds

The Atrium residents filed objection accuses receiver Polsky of an intentional lack of information made available to the residents.

The residents of the Atrium building have asked the receiver and his (same law firm) attorney for financial information in this regard, but we have been told it will not be inquired into or provided, it states.

Polsky, in his response filed Friday, strongly argued against halting the marketing of the Atrium properties, a process which has begun with the selection and retention of Senior Living Investment Brokerage.

Polsky responded in part that some of the residents requests amount to an attempt  to conduct discovery. Since the proposed discovery does not relate to the listing order, the receiver submits the proposed discovery is premature.

A number of the issues raised in the objection are legitmate concerns that the receiver believes relate to distribution of sale proceeds and will be the subject of futher hearings in this matter. There is no question that the objecting resident concerns need to be investigated.

However, to devote precious few resources of the Atrium receivership estate to those investigations at this time is not financially or otherwise sound. The more time that elapses in the sale and marketing process of the property, the less likely it is that there will be excess sale proceeds for the creditors of the Atrium, including the objecting residents, to fight about.

Eleven conditions

The objection asks Circuit Court Judge David Paulson to either deny Polskys motion for a listing contract to sell the Atrium or grant it only upon 11 conditions spelled out in the document, that they be provided with certain information including:

Financial records of Marquardt and the Atrium of Racines board of directors. (Marquardt CEO Matt Mauthe could not be reached for comment Friday.)

Copies of all the information Marquardt provided to support its receivership filing.

Whether Marquardt used used any Atrium funds for properties other than that one or Bay Pointe, and how much. This is critical since the receiver has apparently engaged Marquardt Management to continue its failed management of the Atrium after this (receivership) action was filed, the objection states.

Whether Atrium of Racine directors were covered by officers and directors insurance during the time Marquardt managed the properties.

In addition, the objection states, we want to have the very important matter of millions of dollars in Atrium entrance funds being missing looked into with seriousness by the receiver under his powers and duties under Wisconsin Statute Chapter 128.

A hearing before Paulson on the residents objection is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Cabinet defers National Audit Bill for 24th time; says too much powers for AG By Damith Wickremasekera View(s): View(s):

The Cabinet of Ministers this week deferred the National Audit Bill for two weeks after ministers from both the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) agreed the Bill in its present form conferred too much power on the Auditor General.

It was the 24th time the Bill came to the Cabinet but once again there was no nod for the Bill which has been opposed strongly by senior officials in the public service, mainly ministry secretaries, who act as Chief Accounting officers (CAOs) and could face fines for actions carried out in the line of duty if the Bill is enacted.

The most contentious sections in the draft Bill is the move to vest the AG power to impose a surcharge on the value of a deficiency or loss in transactions of an audited entity, where the AG has reasonable grounds to believe that such transaction has been made contrary to any written law and is due to fraud, negligence or corruption of those involved in that transaction.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the powers vested in the AG in terms of draft Bill were unlike those vested with AGs in countries such as Britain or India and if the Bill was enacted, it could prove to be hindrance to public officials in carrying out their duties.

A senior official at the Prime Ministers office said there were times like in case of natural calamities when funds had to be allocated at short notice overriding laid-down procedures. If this Bill is enacted, then public officials who carry out their duties will be penalised, he said.

The Cabinet decided that foreign experts should be consulted to see if the Bill could be redrafted in a manner that the AG retained powers but not at the cost of undermining others in the public service.

Entrusting surcharge powers with the AG has been strongly backed by the trade unions affiliated to the audit service. They say any attempts to dilute the contents of the draft Bill will be detrimental to the interests of the public who stand to benefit from additional State revenue, once the AGs Dept is empowered to impose surcharges which will be channeled to the Treasury.

In April 2015 by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed to the Cabinet that a National Audit Bill be drafted based on international standards of Supreme Audit Institutions . Since then it has made little headway.
Cell phone rings in court: HC suspends lower court sentence By L.B.Senaratne View(s): View(s):

The Kandy High Court has suspended a one-month prison sentence a magistrate imposed on a man after his mobile phone reportedly rang while the court was in session. Kanishka Dilshan Fernando obtained the reprieve when his revision application came before Kandys High Court judge Sarojini Kusala Weerawardene.

Mr. Fernandos attorney Saman Thantrige told the High Court judge that the Matale magistrate had imposed the sentence on his client without reading out the charges. He told Court that if there had been a charge, then under Section 136(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, the magistrate should not hear the case.

After hearing the submissions, Judge Weerawardene suspended the sentence till the case is taken up again on August 23. She issued notice on the Matale Magistrates Court Police Officer and the Attorney General.
Danger of another Uma Oya in Central Expressway By Namini Wijedasa CEA approves third stage without geological surveys in tunnel areas View(s): View(s):

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has approved construction of the third section of the Central Expressway (CE III) without the required geological surveys in areas where three tunnels are to be bored  even after the Uma Oya disaster.

The licence was granted due to the Highways Ministrys urgency to sign the agreement with the developer. The CEA was told to place conditions on the approval and to give it quickly, an authoritative transport sector official said.

With its complicated terrain and land acquisition requirements, the 32.5 kilometre CE III from Pothuhera to Galagedara is tipped to be one of the most expensive road initiatives undertaken in recent times. The ministry recently said it would award the Rs 134.9 billion contract to Japans Taisei Corporation and that construction would start in September.

However, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for CE III clearly states that, while bore-hole tests were done during feasibility studies, further studies on geological and soil conditions around the proposed tunnels were necessary prior to implementation. The Sunday Times obtained the relevant reports and CEAs 12-page approval letter through a Right to Information application.

The EIA was commissioned by the Road Development Authority (RDA) from the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science of the University of Sri Jayewardenapura. It said human settlements were present in all areas where tunnels are to be built. It found the groundwater table to be very shallow, especially in areas around the first tunnel. This meant the proposed tunnelling could significantly affect surrounding groundwater.

The report also said all the tunnelling sites had weak geological conditions in terms of rock weathering, groundwater stability and slope stability. It was necessary to investigate subsurface geological conditions by drilling up to the possible basement rock under guidance of a geologist and geotechnical engineer. Detailed surface geological and structural geological mapping was necessary before each tunnel is built.

None of these studies has yet been done. But the CEA has granted environmental approval for implementation of CE III without waiting for their outcomes. Permission is valid for three years. There are 93 conditions attached to the licence. Among other things, it states that the RDA shall carry out detail [sic] investigations on subsurface geology by means of boreholes [sic] tests, seismic tests, geological mapping, etc., under the guidance of geologists and geotechnical engineer/s

The CEA calls for certain designs to be adopted to mitigate/minimise slope failures, landslides, fall out of rocks, propagation of cracks across weathered rock layers, seepage of excessive amounts of groundwater, etc. There are several stipulations related to groundwater.

But CEAs approval for the Uma Oya project, which is now mired in controversy, was also subject to similar conditions which were subsequently not enforced. This has led to a massive water leak in the 15.4km Karandagolla tunnel, the drying up of groundwater and collapse of and damage to hundreds of houses.

Worryingly, CEA Chairman Lal Mervin Dharmasiri said he had no knowledge of issues related to the CE III approval. He said the Acting Director General of the Environmental Management and Assessment Division was responsible. I have to study this, he said, four months after the CEA gave its assent to the project. Without studying it, Im not in a position to comment.

But the Sunday Times reliably learns that pressure from the Highways Ministry to expedite clearance caused the CEA to repeat the process it adopted with regards to Uma Oya. The Government is speeding ahead with all sections of the Central Expressway despite strong concerns regarding environmental and economic feasibility.

If there are recommendations for further geological surveys to be conducted before the CE III project commences, how can the CEA grant approval before knowing the results of such studies? asked a senior official, on condition of anonymity. What if the outcomes say that the respective areas are not suitable for the expressway to pass through?

By law, this would mandate an immediate cancellation of the CEA approval and, if necessary, legal action. But officials admitted that this has been observed in the breach. There was no guarantee that enforcement will occur this time around, particularly because one State institution (CEA) is usually reluctant to litigate against another State institution (RDA).

CE III will be four-lane carriageway with four interchanges, 12 main bridges and 17 viaducts across the floodplains of three major riversRambukkan Oya, Kuda Oya and Kospothu Oya. It will have 106 culverts, 23 underpasses, 14 overpasses and three tunnels. Certain sections run through steep mountain slopes while others run across paddy fields and low-lying areas.

More than 1,162.5 acres occupied by 2,069 households (8,465 people) in 97 villages will be hit, requiring permanent relocation for 857 of them. The CEA has instructed the RDA to compensate for the loss of buildings and private lands, and to determine the entitlements of persons on a project-specific entitlement matrix based on the National Involuntary Resettlement Policy. The RDA has not followed the NIRP in recent years, opting to take over lands under emergency procedures that leave affected parties without compensation for years.

The EIA report admits that: Acquisition of a paddy field for the proposed project may have an adverse impact on the availability of arable wetlands in the three districts as the expressway traverses through paddy lands, through a considerable length of it. Even though such a selection of lands saves the high lands with human settlements, there is no way to replace the quantity of paddy fields. People of the project affected communities are highly concerned about the acquisition of paddy fields as they have been the main means of their sustenance for centuries. A historical and ancestral value is found in some paddy lands belonging to laymen and they enjoy the possession of them as a social status.
Emirates A380 landing tomorrow at BIAs Code E runway View(s):

An Emirates A380 will make a one-off landing at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) tomorrowas a precursor to scheduled A380 flights, officials saiddespite the runway not being in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements for the landing and take-off of such aircraft.

ICAO mandates a runway to be Code F, or with a core width of 65m, for A380 aircraft. The BIA runway remains Code E, with a core width of 45m, even after a six-month refurbishment which only saw the shoulders on either side being extended. The A380 has a wingspan of over 80m.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) has placed the onus on the Airport and Aviation Services of Sri Lanka Ltd for A380 compliance. Its latest Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) supplement says that, according to a compatibility study conducted by AASL, Bandaranaike International Airport satisfies the physical characteristics [sic] requirements for A380 Operations on Code-E Aerodromes.

In media announcements marking completion of renovation, AASL claimed the upgraded runway was a modified Code Fdespite such classification not existing anywhere in ICAO literature. But it has now accepted that BIA is a Code E airport.

ICAO has held that A380 operations require a Code F runway. ICAO Circular 305-AN/177 states that: facilities meeting code F requirements should be provided, in full, on all relevant parts of the movement area whenever new construction or major redevelopment is undertaken. When planning such construction or redevelopment, it may be prudent to consider the requirements of future aeroplane types needing facilities in excess of code F.

Emirates, which has a surfeit of A380s and is eyeing long-haul flights to Australia via Colombo, said in a statement that it joins local authorities in the celebration of the airports resurfaced runway. A special flight from Dubai will be the first A380 aircraft to disembark passengers in Sri Lanka after completing a commercial service.

You can use a Code E runway for A380 operations if you ignore ICAO regulations, an aviation expert said, requesting anonymity. The AASL is being greedy while Emirates wants to land their A380s. But consider what will happen if something goes wrong and there are insurance claims in future.

There could be a situation, once in a blue moon, where the aircraft is at maximum take-off weight with a full load of passengers and fuel, and take-off has to be aborted, he continued. Say, in the braking effort to stop the take-off, the nose feel goes into the soft area between 45 and 50m, which is shoulder material. There could be a disaster. Why are we knowingly violating ICAO rules? If we allow Emirates to come in, we have to do the same for others.

There are, however, instances of A380 operations on Code E airports in other parts of the world. Airbus says on its website that, although the A380 is classified by ICAO as a Code F aircraft (based on wingspan and outer main landing gear width), many A380 scheduled operations occur on airport infrastructures that do not comply with ICAO Code Fdesign requirements/recommendations.

But online literature shows that the outer shoulders must meet strict specifications to be suitable for A380 landings on 45m runways. The A380 Airport Compatibility Group (AACG) states that for destination airports, such as BIA, a 45m runway with 75m shoulders on both sides can be used for Airbus A380 operations if the runway is also provided with additional outer shoulders.

These outer shoulders should be prepared for jet blast protection, engine ingestion protections, and for supporting ground vehicles and their width should be at least 27.5m, AACG states. It also says runway inspection must be carried out immediately after take-off to check that no loose objects have been blown onto the runway.

The AACG describes a large number of other conditions that must be met for A380 operations on Code E runways.
Jaffna violence : Sword-carriers among more suspects snared View(s):

The police arrested more suspects this week in the North in operations against anti-social activities and criminal gangs.

At least 13 suspects were snared for their alleged involvement in the recent attack on two police constables of the Kopay police station in Kokkuvil area, Jaffna, police said.

All suspects were produced in court and remanded in custody until August 22 by the Jaffna Magistrate.

Three youths aged between 21 and 23 were arrested on Thursday for possession of swords in the Uduvil area. They will be produced before Mallakam courts.

Police spokesperson, SSP Ruwan Gunasekara, said several search operations were carried out in various parts of the North.

In a separate operation by the security forces, more than 20 people were arrested in the Thunnalai area of Vadamarachchi.

Relatives of 24 suspects in detention filed complaints with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka office in Jaffna this week alleging arrest without evidence.

The police said the suspects were involved in violent incidents after a youth was killed in a police shoot-out.

The Jaffna District Parliamentarian representing the Tamil National Alliance, S Shritharan told Parliamenton Wednesday that criminal gangs operating in Jaffna including the notorious Aava clan, are affiliated with the security forces. The police denied the claim.

He alleged that after the war ended in 2009, these criminal gangs were created by the security forces to carry out their own agendas, but now a perception has been created in the country that the shadow of terrorism is looming again.

They were working with the security forces, why cant they be controlled by the same actors who are involved in this? The government should take immediate action to make sure law and order in the region is maintained, he said.

Military spokesman Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said there was no need for the armed forces to create such groups since other institutions are tasked with maintaining law and order. This is totally false. We have no links with these groups,

Police spokesperson SSP Gunasekara said investigations will zoom in on the origin of the gang.

Navy spokesperson, Lieutenant Commander Chaminda Walakuluge, said surveillance activities haven been stepped up with the assistance of Sri Lanka Coastguard to combat illegal sand mining and drug smuggling.

The people are very supportive for our efforts. Without their input we cant take effective steps to stop this menace. With the support of community organisations and exchange of information, we are trying our best to eradicate these anti-social activities, he said.
New power plant: CEB union claims tender irregularity, but ministry refutes charge By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s):

Attempts are being made to sabotage the competitive bidding process to procure a 300 Mega Watt (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union has claimed, but the ministry has refuted the charge.

Eight bids had been submitted for the plant to be built in Kerawalapitiya. After the technical evaluation process, six had been recommended by the CEBs Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) for financial evaluation. However, the union charges that the Standard Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (SCAPC), formerly known as the Tender Board, had arbitrarily decided that only one bidder was suitable for financial evaluation.

It is highly suspicious and we assume that this has been done due to some outside influence as SCAPC does not have any technical knowledge to overrule a technical decision recommended by the TEC, Saumya Kumarawadu, the CEBEUs President claimed.

According to the CEBEU, the financial bid of the only remaining bidder, a Korean Company, was opened on Friday by the Ministry/CEB Bid Opening Committee in the presence of the other unsuccessful bidders. It was, however, found that the bidder had not submitted a written and signed financial bid but only a soft copy in a flash drive. Without filling the prices in the specified sheet along with a signature and seal, the bid is considered invalid. On the request of the bidder the Bid Opening Committee had tried to open the soft copy but this too had failed due to a technical issue.

The CEBEU suspects that plans are now being drafted to call fresh bids to procure the power plant and will require another 9-12 months resulting in power cuts in 2019, unless the Government purchases costly emergency power, Mr Manawadu stated.

The CEBEUs stand, according to its President, is that all five remaining bids which were legitimately recommended by the TEC should be opened and the tender awarded to the bidder who has quoted the lowest price.

Power and Renewable Energy Ministry secretary Dr Suren Batagoda acknowledged that the selected bidder had failed to submit a written and signed financial bid. He added the bidder has claimed that the reason for the lapse is that they had been confused by instructions in the tender document.

He defended the SCAPCs initial decision to select one out of six bidders, stating that the TEC, in its recommendations, had noted that there were technical deficiencies in the bids submitted by the other five bidders but to give them a period of time to correct the deficiencies.
New York Mayoral staffer of Lankan origin mugged View(s):

A senior staffer of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been mugged while on a Manhattan subway, US media reports.

Mahen Gunaratna, of Sri Lankan origin, is the Mayors Deputy Director of Communications. According to US media, thieves had snatched Gunaratnes iPhone from his hand while he was on a crowded Manhattan subway. Though he had chased the two suspects out of the Fulton St. station, they got away and are still being sought.

According to the New York Daily News, Gunaratna, 30, was mugged at about 5:20 pm. Tuesday. When the train pulled into Fulton St. station, Gunaratna was standing and holding onto a pole with his right hand. Just as the doors were about to close, the suspects grabbed the iPhone from his left hand and fled. Gunaratna described the suspects as black and 17-20 years old. One is about 58 and 140 lbs, and the other is about 510 and 175 lbs.

Gunaratna had served in the de Blasio administration as Director of Research and Media Analysis, but left City Hall in January 2016, to work for Hillary Clintons campaign for President. He returned to city govt in January, this year.
Qatar gives on-arrival visas to 80 nations, but not Sri Lanka View(s):

Qatar last week opened its doors to nationals of 80 countries to visit the oil-rich country, visa-free, however Sri Lanka has been omitted from the list.

The move came in the wake of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates imposing a boycott on Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and maintaining close links with Iran. The boycotting countries have cut off all transport links with Qatar, preventing the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council tourists, who account for nearly half of all visitors to Qatar, from going there.

Qatar, in an attempt to boost tourism, will grant On-Arrival visas to visitors to the country. The facility granted in two segments, will grant 30-day and 90-day stays to visitors from countries listed by the Qatar Tourism Ministry.

Accordingly, travellers from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland will get 180 days, while the second group of 47 including the United States, the United Kingdom and India will get a 30-day visa.

However, Sri Lanka has been omitted from the list. According to the Foreign Employment Bureau statistics 59,527 Sri Lankans travelled to Qatar for work, in 2016. There are daily flights to Qatar.

Officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport said Qatar Airways has four daily flights, with a daily flight by SriLankan.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry said that decisions pertaining to visas is the sovereign right of a country, and is based on reciprocity between the two countries.
Syrians seek refuge in Sri Lanka View(s):

A group of Syrians including children have taken refuge in Sri Lanka, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. Six children were among those who have sought refuge from war-torn Syria, the UNHCR said without disclosing the number of adults.

The number of foreign nationals seeking refuge in Sri Lanka has been on the rise with 312 asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR this year raising the total to 677. Most of them are from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

According to the official, at present, there are 54 foreign refugee children in Sri Lanka and the UNHCR supports standardised education of primary aged children. The UNHCR assisted by providing school fees, text books and uniforms.

The UNHCR has partnered with private schools to provide primary education for refugee children. Secondary aged refugee children are provided with English language skills through UNHCR partners Muslim Aid and ZOA international, the official said.

He said recognised refugees had not set timeline of residence in Sri Lanka. It varies from one individual to another and depends on their willingness to voluntarily return to their place of origin or acceptance by a third country for resettlement, the official added.

However, the official emphasised that permanent residence would not be provided for refugees in Sri Lanka.
Welcome rain brings some relief, but not enough to end drought View(s):

While torrential rains this week brought much needed relief to several drought-hit regions, officials warned that the drought itself is set to continue at least until the beginning of October.

Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu districts all received heavy rainfall over three days this week, resulting in significant improvement in some areas affected by drought. The most striking example was in the Trincomalee district. The Disaster Management Centers (DMC) statistics issued a week ago on August 5 noted that nearly 141, 000 persons from more than 37, 000 families in the district were affected by the drought. This number has fallen to 36, 000 people from 10, 700 families as of yesterday (August 12). The rains have significantly improved the situation in the Trincomalee district, DMCs Assistant Director Pradeep Kodippili, the told the Sunday Times. Mr Kodippili however, warned that there were still no signs that the drought was abating.

The rains arent enough and besides Trincomalee, the situation in most other areas remained the same, the official stressed.

The main problem continues to be a severe shortage of drinking water. Mr Kodippili explained the DMC has been distributing drinking water to drought-affected areas for the past eight months using about 500 bowsers, 200 of which were sent into service within the past two months as the drought became more intense. About 6000 water tanks have also been delivered to affected areas.

More than 1.24 million people from over 360, 000 families in 19 districts were affected by the drought as of yesterday, according to the DMC. Kurunegala district remained the worst with 200, 000 being affected, up from 151, 000 a week ago. This meant almost 60, 000 families. Puttalam district with over 164, 000 affected people was next. Jaffna District saw 128, 652 persons affected while the number in Mulliativu stood at 115, 308. Between 85, 000 to 90, 000 persons were affected in each of the districts of Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mannar.

Meteorology Department Director K.H.M.S Premalal observed that water was still scarce in most drought-hit areas despite the rains this week. We have to remember that many tanks in the affected areas have either run dry or their water levels have dropped considerably, he pointed out. There has to be a prolonged period of heavy rain for the effects of the drought to diminish, and such rains are only expected towards the end of September when the inter-monsoonal rains become active, he added.

Inter-monsoonal rains generally account for 30 per cent of the countrys total rainfall and their effectiveness will be vital in ending the drought period, Mr Premalal noted.

The Irrigation Department has 73 major tanks coming under its purview. The total balance water availability of these tanks has now fallen to just 14 per cent, Wasantha Bandara Palugaswewa, Director of Irrigation (Water Management & Training) disclosed. Many smaller tanks have run completely dry.

Nevertheless, the Department had been able to release water adequate to cultivate about 50 per cent of paddy lands due to be cultivated during the Yala season, Mr Palugaswewa claimed. Despite the difficulties, we were able to release water for cultivation purposes and we are now at the tail end of the Yala season. Water was still being released from certain large tanks in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts.

Mr. Palugaswewa added that heavy rains which were experienced in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa this week was an encouraging sign and said officials were hoping for more of the same.

The drought has also impacted hydropower generation. However, some heavy rains were also experienced this week in areas where hydropower reservoirs are located. Maussakale, Castlereigh, Kotmale, Norton Bridge, Canyon, Lakshapana and Kukuleganga hydropower reservoirs received rains this week. This has resulted in total water levels of hydropower reservoirs reaching 39.6 per cent by yesterday, up from about 36.4 per cent two weeks ago, Director (Development) of the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena stated. This however, is only a minor increase, he insisted.

At present, just 20 per cent of the countrys daily electricity demand is being met by hydropower. The balance 80 per cent is being generated mainly by diesel and coal power.
RACINE  Mother Mayfields Family Ministry of Racine will hold its annual rummage and school supply give-away from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, at Zoe Outreach Ministries, 2130 Racine St. The public is invited.

Hattie Mayfield continues the tradition of helping those in need. Her mother, the late Mary Hamilton, also demonstrated a concern for the welfare of others in the community. Mother Mayfields Family Ministry was established in 2010.
Celebrating the uniqueness of Pophams Arboretum By Randima Attygalle In a move to promote international research at this only naturally regenerated arboretum in the country, a team of research students was here from Falmouth University, UK View(s): View(s):

I have been on so many overseas expeditions but this visit to Sri Lanka is undoubtedly the best so far both in terms of biodiversity and hospitality. Such diversity within one canvas is just incredible, says Josh Raper, a Falmouth University Marine and Natural History Photography graduate. Josh is among the group of visiting Falmouth students on an expedition tour in the National Institute of Fundamental Studies (NIFS)  Popham Arboretum in Dambulla.

The research team of Conservation Photography students led by Dr. Margaret Upton, Senior Lecturer from the Falmouth University, UK, was here on a one-month tour in July. The first international visit of this scale to the Popham Arboretum, set up by the British planter and former naval officer, Francis Home Popham way back in 1963, it aims to promote international research at this only naturally regenerated arboretum in the country.

The arboretum which Sam Popham gifted to the then Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), in 1989 is presently managed on behalf of NIFS now (National Institute of Fundamental Studies), by Ruk Rakaganno.

The tour was facilitated by Prof. Mayuri Wijesinghe from the Faculty of Zoology and Environment Sciences, University of Colombo on a link made possible by Simon Lazenbatt, a member of Ruk Rakaganno. Simon, a one-time pharmaceutical guy whose professional commitments first brought him here in 1984, was bowled over by the natural beauty of the island. I kept coming for vacations with my wife who too fell in love with the place, so much so we both wanted to live here after my retirement and here we are having realized our dream, says Simon who has made his abode in Naula.

Simon who came to associate with the Arboretum through his involvement with Ruk Rakaganno initially linked up the Zoology Faculty of University of Exeter. The zoological tour which did not materialize last year, finally evolved into an educational tour of photography this year with Falmouth University tying up, explains Simon who sees it as a stepping stone to more progressive ventures in time to come. A database of photographic material is being generated and will be donated by the Falmouth group. This valuable resource material, with proper management and the will and vision to utilise it properly, can be used to produce promotional materials and items for sale to visitors, says Simon. Currently there are no informative or souvenir items available for sale, which means a huge opportunity to support the Arboretum has been lost up to now, he notes.

NIFS-Popham Arboretum which is home to around 200 species of flora, among them, several endemics, is also a place to see the Slender Loris. The arboretum in the dry zone proudly proclaims its genetic diversity. We couldnt have expected a better place which would do justice to our theme of Science meets Photography, reflects Josh Pawlowski, second year student of Marine and Natural History Photography at the Falmouth University who is excited about developing a series of documentaries together with his fellow students.

These documentaries will bring under the spotlight the evolution and the importance of the Popham Arboretum and its flora and fauna with special emphasis on the Loris. Their specialist gear, including heat sensitive and night vision appliances, enable non-obtrusive observation of the wild life and more sophisticated documentation of the behaviour and ecology of the Loris population in particular. An exhibition celebrating the arboretum and its biodiversity, is also in the pipeline says Josh for whom the first time tropical experience has been just overwhelming. Such exposure, as the young photographer asserts, it is hoped, will kindle interest in the Arboretum in UK-based wildlife media and other like-minded individuals.

For Josh Raper, the visit had been a thrilling photographic experience, along with a food encounter with Sri Lankan pumpkin and spinach! For Meike Simms, a Zoology graduate, currently working in wildlife tourism, the Popham Arboretum also offered insights into other issues such as what levels of tourism should be best for Sri Lanka in terms of sustainability without disturbing the natural equilibrium, especially in wildlife parks, she notes. Our potential for wildlife tourism is enormous, says Meike who also asserts that collaborations of this nature become a bonus in the process.

The mud hut which is at times an auditorium transforms into a lunch room where all youngsters help themselves to a simple Sri Lankan lunch where papadam seemed to hold sway and monkeys keep them amused! Held in natures rapture, they look forward to the next visit to the island, with the Kandy Perahera and tea estates on their bucket list.Lauding the NIFS-Ruk Rakaganno collaboration which made the visit possible, Dr. Margaret Upton looks forward to similar student-centric encounters in the near future. With the intervention of Prof. Mayuri Wijesinghe, hopefully we can enter into a MoU with the University of Colombo, so that a mutual learning experience will be possible and exercises of this nature could be sustained.

The conservation of the Arboretum fuelled by schemes of this nature becomes increasingly decisive, given the exclusivity of the place, says Prof. Wijesinghe. Compared to the wet zone, endemism in the Dry Zone is poor further intensified by the post-war phase where forests have been cleared at an alarming rate. In this backdrop, the Arboretum emerges an exception with its rich biodiversity converged into an inclusive landscape of around 36 acres, she observes.

Several interactive sessions were held with leading researchers and scholars including Prof. Wipula Yapa, Head, Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, University of Colombo and Prof. Siril Wijesundara, Research Professor from NIFS.

The visit of the students had been at a critical juncture, says Prof. Siril Wijesundara who serves on the management committee of the Arboretum. He urges for sustainable scientific collaborations both local and international which would reflect positively on research as well as the Arboretum which requires upgrading. Although we have had on-site research programmes before, this is the first time a venture of this scale is taking place and through the proposed tripartite MoU, we hope to promote theme-based research, he says.

With the more consolidated partnership between NIFS and Ruk Rakaganno coming into place, the conservation efforts of the Arboretum certainly appear to be more encouraging, asserts President, Ruk Rakaganno, Kamini Vitarana. With both Prof. Wijesundara and Prof. Wijesinghe on board, more robust undertakings look possible, says Ms. Vitarana, adding that international spotlight is a step in the right direction.

The house Geoffrey Bawa built for Sam Popham The vessel-shaped granite cottage designed by iconic architect Geoffrey Bawa for Sam Popham renders the arboretum a Bohemian flavour, while celebrating the naval officer in the visionary naturalist. The cottage has been Jayantha Amarasinghes second home since 1994 as Manager of the Arboretum. The much loved ebony tree still stands beside the cottage as in Pophams time, he says, leafing through old photgraphs. He wore many hats as a naval officer, teacher, planter and above all a naturalist. Mr. Popham would not even touch a twig of a tree, allowing nature to take its own course, reflects Jayantha who is now responsible for the management of the arboretums 36 acres.The visiting team of youngsters keeps Jayantha happily busy. The additions to the place such as the first ever camping site in the arboretum which was put up for the students will serve similar groups in future.
Fast fading frescoes of Degaldoruwa Described by Ananda Coomaraswamy in 1905 as the best paintings he had yet seen in Ceylon, these valuable 18th century temple drawings are in need of urgent restoration. Chandani Kirinde reports View(s): View(s):

The tale of Prince Wessantara, whose utmost generosity led him to give away all his possessions including his two children, is one of the most popular Jataka stories. It takes pride of place in many temple paintings and considered finest among these are the frescoes of the Degaldoruwa Raja Maha Viharaya in the village of Amunugama in Kandy.

Work on this rock temple had been initiated by King Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747  1780), who was a great patron of Buddhist art. However he did not live to see the work completed but his younger brother King Rajadhi Rajasinghe who succeeded him saw to the completion of the work.

The Degaldoruwa frescoes caught the attention of none other than the great philosopher of art Ananda K. Coomaraswamy who called them the best paintings I have yet seen in Ceylon. Coomaraswamy also publicly canvassed for their preservation by way of an open letter to the Kandyan Chiefs published in the Ceylon Observer of February 17, 1905.

Coomaraswamy had spent 15 to 20 hours copying part of these frescoes as part of his work and in his letter to the Kandyan Chiefs who administered the temple funds, he made specific reference to the Degaldoruwa Vihara as one of the places in need of urgent repair.

The temple is built into a rock and one passes through three doors to reach the innermost chamber in which is an impressive statue of a reclining Buddha. On the ceiling of this rock chamber are also fine paintings of the life of the Buddha. Ven.Walapane Teripaha Piyaratne Thera, a resident monk at the Degaldoruwa Vihara who carries the three giant keys that open the doors of the different chambers explained in detail the various Jataka stories depicted in the paintings that tell the stories of the previous incarnations of Lord Buddha. These paintings are invaluable not only to Buddhists but to people all over the world, he said.

The frescoes of the Wessantara Jatakaya are on the left hand side of the inner door of the temple pictured in the most worthiest and most beautiful manner imaginable, as Coomaraswamy says quite aptly.

The wall is divided horizontally into panels and the story of Prince Wessantara unfolds starting from the top. Coomaraswamy found the fresco of Prince Wessantara riding on his elephant with all the insignia of state as one of the grandest. The elephant is drawn with the greatest skill, the slow movement of the lifted feet and the swinging bells give just the right idea of dignified slow progress; immediately afterwards the elephant is seen again but King Wessantara has climbed down and is walking in front, with one hand pouring water into the hands of the Brahmans from Kalinga, betokening the gift of the elephant, and with his other arm round the elephants trunk; the elephant has stopped the while, and the swinging bells are still.

Coomaraswamy heaped much praise on this scene in the Jataka story. The gorgeous trappings of the elephant, the kings and the attendants dresses and the royal insignia are drawn with very great care and just like the early illuminated manuscripts of Europe are invaluable records of past manners and customs, he wrote.

The story depicted on the right side of the inner door is the Sutasoma Jatakaya, the story of the King of Banaras who for a time was a cannibal but later converted by the preaching of Lord Buddha, in his then incarnation, became a virtuous man.

Coomaraswamy noted that the picture of the Kings cook preparing food in the royal kitchen is a valuable historical record. The man is seated on a combined vegetable slicer and coconut scraper and is slicing up a

human arm for the kings repast. On one of the posts of the kitchen is hung a pingo, (a carrying pole) with a gahoniya (a bell shaped cloth used to cover food) hanging from each end, covering the chatties in which the kings provisions had been brought that morning, he noted.

The paintings are done in flat decorative style and the only colours used are red, black, yellow, white and greenish-grey, these colours made by the artists themselves.

The Temple stands today, a tribute to the great artisans of the yore, but worrying is the slow decay that has set in slowly erasing the fine paintings and posing the real threat that these maybe lost forever.

Ven. Watagamuwe Ananda Thera, a scholarly monk resident at the Raja Maha Viharaya voiced these concerns. Of the six Jataka stories, only the Wessantara Jathaka and the Sutasoma Jataka panels remain well preserved while the other four are in various degrees of ruin. However of late, two of the Wessantara Jataka paintings too are slowly peeling away, he said.

The temple is a protected site coming under the Archaeology Department, which through the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) engages in restoration work at the temple.

Money has been allocated by the CCF to carry out restoration work on these frescoes but work is yet to get underway. Work must be expedited as we can see that some of the paintings are beginning to fade and can be fully damaged without timely intervention, Ananda Thera said.

Over 100 years ago, Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote, Here are a series of paintings of great artistic and historical value; and if they are destroyed or injured by complete or even partial repainting, nothing can replace them.

The challenge now is for the relevant authorities to act promptly to ensure that these invaluable frescoes are preserved for future generations.
SOSL: 60 years of spreading the sound of music View(s):

This year sees the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka reach its 60th yearan important milestone in the history of any institution. It is a testament to the enduring nature of this organisation and its dedication to preserving, supporting and promoting western classical music in this country. The SOSL is the oldest orchestra in the South Asian region that has been performing continuously throughout its existence.

The Symphony Orchestra of Ceylon, as it was called then, was established by the panel for Western Music, Dance and Drama of the Arts Council of Ceylon in 1958. The Symphony Orchestras first concert in 1958 was conducted by Hussein Mohammed, and featured the famed Malinee Jayasinghe-Peiris as soloist. The event received the good wishes of the Prime Minister of Ceylon, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, whose message appeared in the first concert programme. The Prime Minister wrote: The formation of the Symphony Orchestra is the first venture of its kind undertaken by the Arts Council, and I wish the Arts Council of Ceylon and in particular the Panel for Western Music, Dance and Drama, all success in the promotion of the Symphony Orchestra of Ceylon.

The longsighted members of the Arts Council would feel vindicated today, if they could see how the fledgling orchestra they sponsored has prospered and thrived.

One of the key figures in the SOSLs history is Kala Keerthi Dr. Earle De Fonseka, who stood at its helm from 1960 to 2000forty years during which he steered the orchestra through the storms that cropped up as surely as he did through the years of smooth sailing. Dr. Earle de Fonseka inspired generations of musicians, and his legacy lives on as the SOSL moves forward to bring a new generation of musicians into the musical fold.

The position of conductor of the SOSL has since been held by Lalanath De Silva, Dr. Ajit Abeysekera, Ananda Dabare, Manilal Weerakoon, Eshantha Peiris, and at present, Dushyanthi Perera.The orchestra has also benefitted greatly from the guidance of visiting conductors, with musicians like Hans-Joachim Koellreutter and Sir Steuart Wilson directing in the past, while more recently the SOSL has performed under the baton of Gregory Rose, James Ross, Keiko Kobayashi and Ksenia Zharko.

The SOSL has been fortunate indeed in its concertmasters. Eileen Prins led the orchestra at its inception, and remained for 27 yearsa legendary performer and teacher whose influence is still felt today in the calibre of students she trained. After her came Tania Anandappaa dedicated leader whose technical facility was matched by her musical sensitivity. Tania was succeeded by Ananda Dabarethe foremost violinist in the country today, and worthy indeed to fill the shoes of his predecessors. Ananda is known as a brilliant performer and teacher, and his students have since made up a large section of the SOSLs violin section. The immensely talented Thushani Jayawardena was the next to take up the position, and currently the SOSL is jointly led by two extremely accomplished young violinistsNilupul Silva and Sulara Nanayakkara.

Fostering young talent has always been a focal point of the orchestra. The biennial Concerto Competition was one of the SOSLs vehicles for showcasing young talent, and this competition served as a platform for aspiring young musicians to give their orchestral debuts in their chosen instrument. Notable Sri Lankan musicians Dushy Perera, Soundarie David, Tharanga Goonetilleke, Tania Ekanayake and Kishani Jayasinghe are among the winners of this competitionwhich to many was a starting point in a distinguished career in music. The SOSL also reserves one of its yearly subscription concerts for young musicians and composers, providing young artists with opportunities to perform in public and encouraging them to develop and nurture their talents.

The SOSL has also developed the JSO or Junior Symphony Orchestra as a training-ground for younger players, providing valuable opportunities for students to learn the arts of orchestral and ensemble playing while developing both technically and musically.

The orchestra has organised many outreach programmes for which the SOSL has travelled as far as Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Galle, Kandy and Kurunegala in order to perform educational concert-lectures that have not only helped to awaken interest in classical music, but have also helped music students to see and hear live orchestral music for the first time in their lives. The SOSL organizes a free concert for school children every year, which students of western music in areas as far as Jaffna attend.

The SOSL has for years been recognized as Sri Lankas only full symphonic orchestra which regularly performs music that requires a full complement of orchestral instruments. In 2007, the SOSL was chosen to represent Sri Lanka at Asia Orchestra Weeka festival celebrating symphonic music, and the symphony orchestras of the Asia-Pacific region. This festival took place in Tokyo, and the SOSL performed at one of the best concert halls in the worldthe Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, under the baton of Maestro Yazaki Hikotaro.

The SOSL was also called upon to perform as part of the official events organised for the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting, which took place in Sri Lanka in 2013. The SOSL was part of a multi-national orchestra comprising players from the UK, India and Sri Lanka, and on this momentous occasion performed at Nelum Pokuna under the Baton of James Ross. More recently, in February of 2017, the Embassy of China invited the SOSL to perform a joint concert with the China National Symphony, Chinas national orchestra, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and China. This gala concert was held at the BMICH under the distinguished patronage of the President and the Prime Minister.

The SOSL has since its inception, been a bastion of classical and orchestral music in this country. It has nurtured and shaped the career of many a musician, has for 60 years been either the only or one of the main sources of live symphonic music in the country, and been involved in education and training.

In the words of the poet Arthur OShaughnessy  We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams yet we are the movers and shakers of the world forever, it seems.
Farewell for Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam in Washington D.C. View(s):

Washington DC  The US State Department last week hosted a reception in honour of Sri Lankan Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam before he left the US capital to take up a new assignment as the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Aa select group of well-wishers of Sri Lanka, including US government representatives, Washington-based foreign diplomats, and representatives from business establishments, civil society and non-governmental organisations attended the reception.

Welcoming the Ambassador, Assistant Chief of Protocol Gladys Boluda recalled the Ambassadors close association with the State Department in the past three years and remarked that the turnout at the reception was a statement to his accessibility to his peers and interlocutors at all times. Echoing a long-held view in the State Department that governments send their best to serve in Washington D.C., she said this was certainly justified in the case of Ambassador Kariyawasam, whose next assignment in Colombo further strengthened this claim.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Thomas Shannon observed that Ambassador Kariyawasam was witness to two transitions in administration during his tenure  one in Sri Lanka in 2015, the other in the U.S. in 2017  and was able to navigate both skillfully for the benefit of both countries. He hailed the upward trajectory in bilateral relations and recalled the inaugural US-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue in 2016 in which he and the Ambassador played a leading role to set up a structured framework for bilateral cooperation. Undersecretary Shannon pointed to Sri Lankas significance as a key player in the United States Indian Ocean policy and alluded to the immense potential for expanding the bilateral partnership.

Ambassador Kariyawasam recalled the historic government transition in Sri Lanka in 2015 which engendered a path-breaking revival in Sri Lankas bilateral relations with the United States, and the landmark achievements in the partnership since, including, among others, Sri Lankas selection for development programmes by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the many high level bilateral visits and the renewal of military cooperation. This trend continues in spirit and in substance under the current US administration, he said, observing that, like all relationships, constant care and nurturing would be required to sustain the partnership and guide it to greater heights.
Krish Vignarajah enters race for Maryland governor View(s):

Sri Lankan born Krish Vignarajah, a former Obama official, is entering the race for governor of Maryland. An official campaign kick-off and announcement is scheduled for September 19.

About her decision, Ms. Vignarajah said: I am running for Governor because I am worried my daughter will not have the same opportunities that my mom gave me when she brought our family here when I was a baby girl. I hope Marylanders will agree the best man for the job is a woman.

It was not long ago that Maryland was a beacon of hope, opportunity, innovation, and courage. We led the nation in school performance, job creation, and conservation. But today too many of the students who can least afford to be left behind have been forgotten altogether. Too many workers have been left out. And our precious Chesapeake Bay faces its greatest risks in decades. A deficit in leadership from the Governor could not come at a worse time.

I am running for Governor because Maryland must lead again. As Governor, I will focus on what matters mostimproving schools, increasing wages, reducing crime, treating drug addiction, alleviating traffic, investing in infrastructure, and protecting our sacred environment. To accomplish all this, we need a new generation of leadership that will make progress at home, while standing up to a White House that threatens the very values that unite and define us.

Ms. Vignarajah served most recently in the Obama White House as Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama and at the State Department as Senior Advisor under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. During her tenure at the White House, she led the First Ladys signature Let Girls Learn initiative.

A lifelong Marylander, Ms. Vignarajah was 9-months old when she and her family escaped Sri Lanka when it was on the brink of civil war and built a life in Maryland. A product of Maryland public schools and the daughter of Baltimore City public school teachers, Krish attended Woodlawn High School. She earned degrees in molecular biology and political science at Yale College, and attended Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and then Yale Law School.

Before the Obama Administration, her career spanned law and business, having worked at McKinsey & Company, practised law at Jenner & Block, and taught at Georgetown University.

Ms. Vignarajah and her husband Collin OMara, who is CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, welcomed in June a new baby girl, Alana.
RACINE PUBLIC LIBRARY

RACINE  The Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., is offering these free events:

Its the End of the World As We Know It: YA Book and Movie Talks, for youth in grades six to 12, 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17. A twice-monthly movie showing and book talk series featuring paired movies and books around dystopian themes. The August book talk will feature the book The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau. For more information, contact Carrie Richmond via email at carrie.richmond@racinelibrary.info.

Repair Cafe, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. Volunteer repair experts will be on had to make possible repairs on broken things people bring to the library. Examples of broken things to bring include toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothes, bikes, toys, crockery, etc. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library to help reduce waste.

Coming Together Racine invites the community to participate in a movie and discussion about racism and race relations at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22. Hidden Figures will be shown. The movie is about three brilliant African-American women at NASA who serve as the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit. A discussion will follow the screening.

For more information, call 262-636-9217 or go to www.racinelibrary.info. A valid library card is required.

WATERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY

WATERFORD  The Waterford Public Library, 101 N. River St., will offer these free programs:

Read to Chester, 10-10:45 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15. Individual children and/or families can sign up for one 15-minute block of time during August to read to Chester, a friendly cairn terrier/dachshund mix dog.

Classics Book Club, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy will be discussed. Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk.

Explore a Truck, 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16, Village Hall Park next to the library. Waterford Fire Department, Racine County Sheriff, Waterford Department of Public Works, Waterford Police Department workers will be at the event with the vehicles they use in their jobs. Children will be able to talk to the workers, explore their vehicles and make thank you cards for them.

The Great American Eclipse, 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17. On Aug. 21, the United States will experience a total eclipse of the sun, the first time since 1979. John Heasley, amateur astronomer, will explain this unusual occurrence.

For more information, call 262-534-3988 or go to www.waterford.lib.wi.us.

BURLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BURLINGTON  The Burlington Public Library, 166 E. Jefferson St., will offer these free following:

Sensory Play, 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Aug. 15-29. This is a hands-on program in the park next to the library where kids can explore with their senses so they may get messy. If weather is bad the program will move to the basement of the library.

Popcorn and a Movie, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug 16. Registration is required.

Teacher Night at the Library, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursdays. Teachers from the Burlington Elementary School District read with children and do projects. There is a different theme each week.

Solar eclipse program, Sharing the Starry Skies with John Heasley, 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 17. On Aug. 21, the United States will experience a total eclipse of the sun for the first time since 1979. Heasley is an astronomy educator with Driftless Stargazing and a solar system ambassador with NASA/JPL.

Solar eclipse program, noon-1:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21. Enjoy crafts and activities inside, then go outside to see the peak eclipse. Limited glasses will be available so people may need to share.

Volunteer Thank You Party, 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18. Teen volunteers are invited for a pizza celebration. Registration is required.

For more information, call 262-342-1130 or go to www.burlingtonlibrary.org.
Regions need to take a lead in developing a different approach to renting, according to a report commissioned by the SmartGrowth Partnership in the Bay of Plenty.

As home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach for many New Zealanders, the rental market is seeing increasing overcrowding according to the study by SmartGrowths Population Ageing Technical Advisory Group.

A recently commissioned a one-off case study as part of a government-funded National Science Challenge on ageing well shows that by 2033, over a third of Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty Districts population will be over 65.

This report, which focuses on older people and the rental market, documents evidence of what we see is already happening in the local market. Home ownership has halved to just 44 per cent in 40 years, says PATAG chair Anne Pankhurst.

We also have overcrowding as more people live together to make rentals work. In a place like the western Bay of Plenty, with a transitory workforce, the rental market is critical. In kiwifruit season rentals are an important part of addressing our accommodation issue. With population growth and changes, in five to 10 years this is going to be even more relevant.

The western Bay of Plenty case study, funded by the SmartGrowth Partnership in support of its PATAG forum, is led by consultants Dr Bev James (PP&R) and Dr Kay Saville-Smith (CRESA).

The research is ahead of its time, says Anne.

The series of research reports, now completed and summarised in a final report for the SmartGrowth Partnership, highlight the need for the rental market to become a pivotal part of wider conversations about housing.

As housing affordability bites and home ownership drops, the next part in the continuum of addressing these issues is the rental market.

The issue is about more than just rental prices.

Its about choice and quality of stock and security of tenure, says Anne. We need to ensure we have one to two bedroom properties for these residents and older people downsizing for retirement.

The key for the SmartGrowth Partnership in terms of addressing housing affordability is to look forward and imagine what things might look like for both young and older people in 40 years time.

Over the next year, PATAG will move into tool development. This will bring key stakeholders, including older people themselves, together with the researchers to reflect on the findings and:

Identify practices and services needed to optimise older peoples housing in the context of both structural ageing and declining home ownership.

Develop tools and best practice that allow services to assess and adapt current services, practices, and procedures to meet the needs and circumstances of older renters.

Tools may also include landlord accreditation, best practice to promote secure tenancy, tenancy management of older tenants, along with age-friendly and accessible homes.

For a copy of all the research reports relating to the Life When Renting, Ageing Well Western Bay of Plenty case study please visit the new research section of SmarthGrowth.
Judgement time is drawing nearer for butchers as the hunt is on for the nations best tasting sausage.

Sausage makers from all around New Zealand are perfecting their recipes and preparing to send entries into this years Great New Zealand Sausage Competition in the hopes of being announced the supreme winner.

The judging panel will be made up of a mixture of New Zealands favourite foodies, butchers and industry heavyweights. Over a two-day period the judges will sample and examine all competition entries to determine the top 12 sausages which then go on to the final taste test.

Sausages are judged prior to cooking on their inner and outer visual appearance then once cooked, on appearance, aroma, texture, composition and taste.

Having judged the competition for the past four years, past president of Food Writers New Zealand, Kathy Paterson, knows exactly what its all about and what goes into an award-winning sausage.

"This competition celebrates a Kiwi classic. There arent many New Zealanders out there that would go through the summer season without indulging in at least one sizzling sausage, whether that be at the local hardware store, at the beach or on their dinner plate.

"As judges, we are looking for a good meat-to-fat ratio along with the appropriate mix of herbs or spices.

The winning sausage will be announced at an awards event on October 19, in time to celebrate National Sausage Day on the following day, October 20.

In addition, members of the public will be called upon to have their say in naming the winner of this years Peoples Choice Award, with a public tasting being held on Friday, October 13 at Smales Farm Business Park in Aucklands Takapuna.
Collaboratively. Its a hard word to get your tongue around when youre only five.

Heck, its hard to get your tongue around when youre 45.

But its a word that students at Papamoa Primary School will hear a lot from now on as their teachers embark on a two-year research inquiry looking at whether teachers working together more closely  collaboratively  improves student learning.

A team of six teachers at the school, led by deputy principal Gen Fuller, has been given $71,500 from the governments Teacher-Led Innovation Fund and will work with researchers from the University of Melbourne and local iwi Nga Potiki.

The inquiry will look at collaboration between students, between teachers, between students and teachers, and between teachers and the school community.

The project gets underway in the next few weeks with a visit from an expert from the University of Melbourne who will not only work with teachers but also talk to the local community about what collaborative learning looks like.

Its quite different to what our parents have experienced as learners themselves and sometimes thats a little concerning because its change, says Gen.

Papamoa Primary received an extremely positive review from the Education Review Office last year and didnt want to lose any momentum  hence the desire to go a step further.

Schools often reach a plateau and end up skipping down. While were at the top we want to create that upward momentum so were developing further, says Gen.

We know what we are doing is working for our kids but now we want to focus on this idea of collaboration and preparing our kids for a world of adulthood where their challenges are going to be significantly different to ours.

Gen says while technology and collaborative teaching spaces are important  and the school has new teaching spaces currently being built  the quality of teaching is always going to make the most difference to student learning.

Our role is to build the capacity of our learners to learn. Our focus has to be on what it means to be a learner, what is learning and what are the strategies and tools I need to be a successful learner.

One of the conditions of the TLIF is that the results are shared with other teachers, which Gen says the team is looking forward to.

That excites us too because weve been fortunate enough to draw on the experience of other environments and other leaders. An important aspect of this is that were contributing to learning for many communities across New Zealand.
Whats Going On includes upcoming one-time events in and around Racine County such as breakfasts, dinners, car washes, rummage sales, parties and dances intended to be money-raisers by or in behalf of nonprofit community organizations, either held or requiring reservations within the next two weeks. Events held on a regular basis are not used. Announcements must arrive at The Journal Times by noon Tuesday before the desired Saturday publication date. Announcements may only be used one time. Send information to the Online Calendar at www.journaltimes.com/calendar and select Benefit & Fundraiser under sections; mail information to Community, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403; fax to Loreen Mohr, 262-631-1780; or send email to Loreen.Mohr@journaltimes.com.

Today

RUMMAGE ON THE AVENUE

Christ Church United Methodist, 5109 Washington Ave., 8 a.m.-2 p.m. today, Aug. 12. Featuring a variety of hidden treasures, donated by church members. There will also be a bake sale and hot dog lunch. Proceeds benefit the church.

SHOW FUNDRAISER

Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave., 7-8 p.m. (seating at 6:30 p.m.) today, Aug. 12. The fundraiser features a variety of dance and musical performances by Shritha and friends. Tickets cost $7 each, three for $20 or four for $25. For tickets, go to www.shownonprofit.org. Start Helping Our Watersources is holding the fundraiser for the Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization.

Wednesday

DINING FOR DONATIONS

Masons Eatery & Pub, 7000 74th Place, Kenosha, 11 a.m.-midnight Wednesday, Aug. 16. Hospice Alliance will receive 15 percent of sales for customers who mention Hospice Alliance to their server.

ROAR AND POUR

Racine Zoo, 2131 N. Main St., 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16. Roar and Pour features unlimited tasting of featured beers, a free Roar and Pour beer glass, two free drink tickets and hors doeuvres. Tickets cost $30 in advance and $40 on the day of the event. For tickets, go to www.racinezoo.org or visit the zoo office, 200 Goold St.

Aug. 19

CANS FOR K-9 COPS

Memorial Scrap, 3056 Hamilton Ave., Mount Pleasant, 7:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. This is a can drive for the K-9 officers of Racine County. Donations will also be accepted Sept. 9 and 23.

BAKE SALE

West Racine Farmers Market, 3113 Washington Ave., 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, Aug. 19. Proceeds will benefit the Racine Literacy Councils Adult Literacy Program.

ESTATE & RUMMAGE SALE

St. Joseph School, 1525 Erie St., 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. Items for sale include hutches, dressers, computer desks, treadmill, curio cabinets, chairs, lamps, rugs, patio set, file cabinets, Eastlake table, toys and matchbox cars. Sponsored by St. Joseph Catholic Church.

FASHION SHOW & LUNCHEON

Meadowbrook County Club, 2149 N. Green Bay Road, Mount Pleasant, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. Fashion show featuring little sisters and their big sisters modeling Racine area Goodwill fashions, as well as a luncheon, silent auction, raffles and Racine vendors. Beth Heidorn, executive director of the Racine Zoo, will speak on her career journey and her role at the zoo. Tickets cost $20, $10 ages 12 and younger. For vendor or sponsorship opportunities, call 262-633-8434.

WHISKERS & WHISKEY FUNDRAISER

Racine Zoo, 2131 N. Main St., 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. The fundraiser will feature a five-course whiskey and meal pairing, silent auction and big cat chat from the Racine Zoo animal care department. Tickets cost $50 each or $90 for two. Proceeds will go toward conservation and care of Racine Zoo animals. For tickets, go to www.racinezoo.org.

Sept. 9

ZOO DEBUT

Racine Zoo, 2131 N. Main St., 5:30-11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9. The theme is A Wild Affair. Enjoy dining and dancing under the stars at Racines premier black tie affair. Features seated dinner, open bar, live music, live and silent auctions and special raffles. Attire is black tie or animal print apparel. Tickets cost $125 by Aug. 13, $140 Aug. 14-31. Reservations required, call 262-636-9312 or go to www.racinezoo.org. Proceeds benefit the Racine Zoo.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- State Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti told Syracuse.com readers in 2016 that he would retire when he's required to leave at age 70 under the state's mandatory retirement rule.

"I plan to leave Dec. 31, 2018, when I am dragged out, feet-first, at age 70," Brunetti said during a Q&A with Syracuse.com readers in May 2016. But the judge said today that he will be retiring this fall.

Brunetti will retire on Oct. 23 -- more than 1 year earlier than required.

"I may seek association with a local law firm, but have had no discussions with any," he said. "I have no other concrete plans at this time."

Brunetti declined to answer questions about his decision to retire.

Brunetti has been an acting justice of the Supreme Court in Onondaga County since 1995. He has also served on the state Court of Claims since 1995, according to the New York Law Journal.
BEDMINSTER, New Jersey (AP) -- President Donald Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "will regret it fast" if he continues his threats to U.S. territories and allies, in another warning that the U.S. is willing to act swiftly against the nuclear-armed nation.

In remarks to reporters, Trump issued the threat directly at Kim, who is also known for his bellicose rhetoric, and all but drew a red line that would trigger swift U.S. action.

"If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat -- which by the way he has been uttering for years and his family has been uttering for years -- or he does anything with respect to Guam or anyplace else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast," Trump said.

The words followed an early morning tweet in which Trump declared the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" if the isolated rogue nation acts "unwisely."

The compounding threats came in a week in which the longstanding tensions between the U.S. and the isolated nation seemed to abruptly boil over. North Korea threated to launch an attack on the U.S. territory of Guam, while Trump vowed to deliver "fire and fury" if threatened.

Tough talk aside, there was scant sign the U.S. military was preparing for imminent action and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remained open. The Associated Press reported Friday that talks between North Koreans and a U.S. official continue through a back channel previous used to negotiate the return of Americans held in North Korea. The talks have expanded to address the deterioration of relationship, according to U.S. officials and others briefed on the process. They weren't authorized to discuss the confidential exchanges and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Still, Trump on Friday sought to project the military strength.

Trump tweeted Friday: "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"

He later retweeted a posting from U.S. Pacific Command that showed B-1B Lancer bomber planes on Guam that "stand ready to fulfill USFK's #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so."

Such declarations, however, are not necessarily indicators of new more aggressive posture. "Fight tonight" has long been the motto of U.S. forces in South Korea to show they are always ready for combat on the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. officials insist that there have been no new significant movement of troops, ships, aircraft or other assets to the region other than what has already been long planned for previously scheduled exercises.

American and South Korean officials said they would move forward later this month with the exercises, which North Korea claims are a rehearsal for war.

The days of war rhetoric have alarmed international leaders.

"I don't see a military solution and I don't think it's called for," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She declined to say whether Germany would stand with the U.S. in case of a military conflict with North Korea and called on the U.N. Security Council to continue to address the issue.

"I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer," Merkel added.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, estimated the risk of a military conflict between the U.S. and North Korea as "very high," and said Moscow was deeply concerned.

"When you get close to the point of a fight, the one who is stronger and wiser should be the first to step back from the brink," Lavrov said Friday.

Trump's rhetoric, however, stands in stark contrast to an ongoing back channel for negotiations between the United States and North Korea. People familiar with the contacts say the interactions have done nothing thus far to quell tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile advances. But they say the behind-the-scenes discussions could still be a foundation for more serious negotiation.

Despite tensions and talk of war, life on the streets of the North Korean capital remains calm. There are no air raid drills or cars in camouflage netting as was the case during previous crises.

North Koreans have lived for decades with the state media message that war is imminent, the U.S. is to blame and their country is ready to defend itself. State-run media ensure that the population gets the North Korean side of the story, but don't convey any sense of international concern about the situation.

As it is, the U.S. has a robust military presence in the region, including six B-1 bombers in Guam and Air Force fighter jet units in South Korea, plus other assets across the Pacific Ocean and in the skies above. U.S. military options range from nothing to a full-on conventional assault by air, sea and ground forces. Any order by the president could be executed quickly.

The U.S.-South Korea exercises are an annual event, but they come as Pyongyang says it is readying a plan to fire off four Hwasong-12 missiles toward the tiny island, which is U.S. territory and a major military hub. The plan would be sent to Kim for approval just before or as the U.S.-South Korea drills begin.

Called Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, the exercises are expected to run Aug. 21-31 and involve tens of thousands of American and South Korean troops on the ground and in the sea and air. Washington and Seoul say the exercises are defensive in nature and crucial to maintaining a deterrent against North Korean aggression.

The exercises were scheduled well before tensions began to rise over Trump's increasingly fiery rhetoric and North Korea's announcement of the missile plan, which if carried out would be its most provocative launch yet. Along with a bigger set of maneuvers held every spring, the exercises are routinely met by strong condemnation and threats of countermeasures from North Korea.

The heightened military activity on the peninsula this time is a concern because it could increase the possibility of a mishap or an overreaction of some sort by either side that could spin into a more serious escalation. North Korea has been increasingly sensitive to the exercises lately because they reportedly include training for "decapitation strikes" to kill Kim Jong Un and his top lieutenants.

The possibility of escalation is made even more acute by the lack of any means of official communication across the Demilitarized Zone, though there has been no easing of the barrage of inflammatory comments in the U.S. and the North since new sanctions against North Korea were announced last week.

___

Talmadge contributed from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Matthew Pennington and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A billionaire hedge fund manager has apologized for an online post saying that a black state senator has "done more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood" because of her support for teachers unions.



Daniel Loeb issued a statement saying he regrets the language he used in the Facebook post about Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat. The post, an apparent reference to the white headgear of the Ku Klux Klan, was deleted late Thursday.



Loeb, the CEO of the investment firm Third Point, is a top donor to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and many other politicians. He is a leading supporter of charter schools.



"I regret the language I used in expressing my passion for educational choice," he said in his statement about the post, emailed to The Associated Press on Friday morning. "I apologize to Sen. Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended."



Cuomo and other Democrats quickly denounced Loeb's comments.



"These comments were deeply hurtful and offensive and there is no place for this type of rhetoric in any discourse -- political or otherwise," Cuomo said in a statement.



Stewart-Cousins' spokesman Mike Murphy said there was "no place in our discourse, political or otherwise, for these dangerous words."



"Daniel Loeb should be utterly ashamed of his disgusting statements," Murphy said. "This whole episode speaks volumes about the state of our politics right here in New York."



Loeb's Facebook post was in response to a story in The New York Times earlier this week on the ongoing tension among Cuomo, mainline Democrats and a Democratic Senate faction led by Sen. Jeff Klein, of the Bronx, who broke ranks with the party to empower Republicans, who now control the Senate. The story detailed an exchange between Stewart-Cousins and Cuomo in which Cuomo suggested that Klein had a better grasp of suburban issues than mainline Senate Democrats.



"You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you don't see me," Stewart-Cousins told Cuomo in response, according to the article. "You see my black skin and a woman, but you don't realize that I am a suburban legislator. Jeff Klein doesn't represent the suburbs. I do."



While Loeb deleted his remarks, the Times reported the text and the AP obtained a screenshot of the post.



"Thank God for Jeff Klein and those who stand for educational choice and support Charter (sic) funding that leads to economic mobility and opportunity for poor knack kids," the post read. "Meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-Cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood."



Klein, another recipient of Loeb contributions, also distanced himself from the remarks.



"The statements are wrong and have to be repudiated," he said in a statement.

-- By David Klepper, Associated Press
After a long delay, the Nokia 5 will be finally available in Indian Markets starting August 15.

It will be sold exclusively offline for 12,899

We are humbled by the response to Nokia 3. Currently, we are ramping up our production for Nokia 3 on priority to meet the existing consumer demand. In the coming week, we will start production of Nokia 6 and Nokia 5 to get them ready for sales start by mid-august.





With Nokia 5, you get 5.2" HD display,

Seamless aluminium unibody, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage with Support for up to 128 GB, Stock Android 7.0 Nougat.

It comes with a

3000 mAh battery.





Camera wise, the Nokia 5 features 13MP rear camera with PDAF, 1.12um, f/2, dual tone flash, to the front there's a 8MP

with

AF, 1.12um, f/2, FOV 84 degrees. It comes in

Tempered Blue, Silver, Matte Black and Copper color options.





The Nokia 6, one the other hand will be sold via Amazon with sale starting from August 23rd. Nokia 6 or Nokia 5: What device are you thinking of getting?




Google CEO Sundar Pichai has canceled a town hall meeting scheduled Thursday, Aug. 10. The all-hands meeting, in which everyone is expected to show up, was called in light of a memo that caused a media firestorm over the past few days.

The decision to drop the event was made after several employees voiced their concerns over personal safety  ones who have received various forms of online harassment after openly criticizing the controversial memo. Some of them have had their names and profiles published by alt-right groups.

Google Cancels Town Hall Meeting Over Safety Concerns

"Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be 'outed' publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall," wrote Pichai.

Had the meeting followed through, Pichai would have addressed 60,000 employees and discussed James Damore's internal post that went viral. In a nutshell, that 10-page essay panned Google's diversity efforts and argued that a gender gap exists in tech because of certain biological differences between men and women. He argued women are more "neurotic," and men have a higher drive for status.

Google Anti-Diversity Memo: The Aftermath

The whole situation unfolded rapidly. The manifesto went public; think pieces started to appear; Danielle Brown, Google's new VP of diversity, integrity, and governance, responded; and shortly thereafter, Damore was dismissed. Since Damore's firing on Monday, Aug. 7, various corners of the internet have begun targeting Google employees critical of the memo.

On Aug. 8 A certain Twitter account published 14 screenshots showing Twitter profiles of several Google employees. These "targets" were either a woman, a trans man, or a man of color. Brown herself was included, and she has since locked down her Twitter account after getting harassed online.

Breitbart has also published a larger set of internal screenshots clearly showing names and profile pictures.

This is a form of doxxing, albeit a comparatively tamer form than full-on exposing of one's sensitive data and identity. It's an internet practice that's frowned upon, and it's easy to imagine why certain Google employees would be fearful if it escalated to something more dangerous and possibly life-threatening.

"[I]n the coming days we will find several forums to gather and engage with Googlers, where people can feel comfortable to speak freely. We'll share details soon," Pichai wrote in an email sent to employees.

Damore, meanwhile, has gotten plenty of attention from several news outlets. He has appeared on Bloomberg saying he feels as if Google had betrayed him. He has also spoken with YouTuber Stefan Molyneux, explaining the key points of his document, among other things.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A mother from Oregon is suing a Portland hospital for negligence after she accidentally smothered her 4-day-old baby. Apart from the death of her son, she is suing the hospital for the resulting trauma she experienced due to the accident.

Accidental Death

On Aug. 2, 2012, Monica and Graham Thompson welcomed their first child Jacob into the world at Portland Adventist Medical Center. A few days after delivering him via caesarean section, they were mourning over his death.

According to the lawsuit filed by Monica Thompson, on Aug. 5 at about three in the morning, a nurse placed Jacob in the room with her to breastfeed while she was still heavily medicated and groggy. When she woke up, the baby was already unresponsive in her arms.

When nurses failed to come to her aid, the lawsuit states that Thompson carried her child into the hallway where she yelled for help.

As a result of the incident, Jacob suffered major brain damage and was placed on life support at Randall Children's Hospital for a few days before doctors told the couple that his comatose was already irreversible. They decided to pull the plug on his life support when he was just 10 days old.

Hospital Policy

One of the hospital's health tips on its official website states that it is dangerous for infants and parents to share a bed, stating that "bed-sharing is linked with sleep-related deaths in babies." It is a sentiment which American Academy of Paediatrics agrees with.

However, a spokesperson for the hospital, Kristi Spurgeon Johnson, declined to comment on the lawsuit, as well as the hospital's policy about mothers and new-born babies sharing beds.

Traumatic Experience

As a result of the accidental death of her son, Monica Thompson filed the lawsuit at Multnomah County Circuit Court. The lawsuit seeks $8.6 million in damages for Jacob's death, counseling, and medical expenses incurred from the depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that Monica experienced after the death of Jacob.

Baby Box Trend

Parents across the United States have been following the footsteps of Finnish parents of late in order to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which is related to suffocation, strangulation, or entrapment among very young infants.

The baby box trend that is spreading across the country essentially offers expecting parents baby essentials such as clothes and fitted sheets, a safe and sturdy box for infants to sleep in for the first few months of their lives when they are most fragile, as well as education about using the box as a safe sleeping space for their infants.

New Jersey and Ohio have officially adopted the universal baby box program, and some hospitals in Texas and Philadelphia are also following the trend.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
CALEDONIA  Celebrations of the Divine Liturgy at Racine Countys Armenian churches will take on special significance Sunday, with the addition of historic chalices on loan to those congregations.

The chalices  which were recovered from a seminary that was destroyed during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-21  will be used in the preparation and distribution of communion at St. Hagop Armenian Church, 4100 Newman Road, and St. Mesrob Armenian Church, 4605 Erie St., during Sundays morning services.

It will be the first time in more than 100 years that these liturgical vessels will be used for their intended purpose of holding bread and wine during Sunday worship, according to the Rev. Avedis Kalayjian, pastor of St. Mesrob. Kalayjian said that he and the Rev. Daron Stepanian, pastor of St. Hagop, are working together to share these historic treasures with their congregations.

We hope to share them with the broader Racine community as well, he said. Armenians, fleeing persecution in the Ottoman Empire, have been in Racine for over a century. Being reunited with these liturgical vessels after all this time is a meaningful and profound opportunity for Armenians, and we would like to share this event with the community at large.

Expression of faith

The chalices are on loan to the congregations from their current owners, Levon Saryan, a member of St. Hagops Board of Trustees, and Chuck Hajinian, a member of St. John the Baptist Armenian Church in Greenfield who has family ties to Racine. Both men are collectors of Armenian artifacts and together they recently purchased the chalices as part of collection of historic items from an estate sale.

Through documentation and research, theyve discovered that these beautifully ornate, silver chalices, both dated from the 1800s, had been donated to the Armenian seminary of Armash, located outside of Istanbul, in the 19th century. During the genocide, Armashs Armenian residents (including monastery graduates) were rounded up by Ottoman authorities and sent on death marches to Syria, and the seminary was looted of its priceless artifacts before its monastery was destroyed, according to Hajinian and Saryan.

The chalices are an expression of faith, which those priests paid for with their lives in the Armenian Genocide, Hajinian said.

And, being able to use them again in church gives people a lot of comfort and a connection to their past, Rev. Kalayjian said.

Back to the people

While they arent certain of what happened to the chalices following the genocide, the collectors assume that they eventually reached the antiques market in Europe, Saryan said. He and Hajinian purchased them from the estate of another Armenian collector, who lived in Washington, D.C., and specialized in Armenian needlelace and embroidery.

While they legally own the chalices, both Saryan and Hajinian said that, from an emotional standpoint, they feel the chalices belong to the monastery and the Armenian people. They hope to eventually donate them to a museum or other institution, where they can be preserved for future generations and continue to tell the story of the Armash monastery.

In the meantime, they would like to share the chalices and their story with as many people as they can in this area, and said they are available to give presentations to any interested groups. Inquiries can be sent to Saryan at lasaryanphd@gmail.com or to Hajinian at hajinian@yahoo.com.

On Sunday, the chalices will be used in the morning Mass, during the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God, at St. Hagop and St. Mesrob Armenian churches. Sunday is one of the Armenian Churchs five principal feast days. Service times are 9:30 a.m. at St. Mesrob, and 10 a.m. at St. Hagop.
On November 11, the EU announced the renewal, until November 14, 2023, of the sanctions against officials linked to the Administration of Nicolas Maduro. | Read More
9 killed, 100 houses inundated in Sunsari, Morang floods

Floods triggered by incessant rainfall for the past two days have killed nine persons in Sunsari and Morang districts.
Timothy is a copy editor for The Kathmandu Post. Previously, he was a reporter on the Features desk and deputy editor on the National News desk.
Bimstec issues Kathmandu Declaration

The 15th Bimstec ministerial meeting on Friday adopted a Kathmandu Declaration on various areas of cooperation even as the seven-country meet failed to clinch a concrete deal.
The manhunt for a Lafayette businessman wanted in a bizarre kidnapping that has played out across multiple parishes this week ended Friday with the 49-year-old's man capture in Slidell.

Lawrence Michael Handley was arrested and booked in the Slidell City Jail as a fugitive following his arrest by Slidell police and members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force.

Det. Daniel Seuzeneau, a spokesman for the Slidell Police Department, said Handley was apprehended around 4 p.m. Friday at motel located off Old Spanish Trail in Slidell  ending a manhunt that had stretched four days.

Handley, the co-founder and former CEO of a chain of addiction treatment centers throughout the region, was wanted by The Lafayette Police Department since Monday on conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to attempted second-degree kidnapping and violation of a protective order.

Authorities believe he may have orchestrated the kidnapping of a woman who was found alive in West Baton Rouge Parish several hours after two men snatched her from her Lafayette home Sunday afternoon.

The home was one Handley previously shared with his estranged wife. Police have yet to confirm whether the victim was Handley's wife.

Court records in Lafayette show that Handley has been involved in acrimonious divorce proceedings that included allegations of violent threats. Handley and his wife each obtained court orders restricting both parties from contact with each other.

Police reported earlier this week that two armed men barged into the home, handcuffed an adult and a juvenile and placed a black bag over the head of a female victim who was forced inside a white van.

The victim was discovered handcuffed in the back of the van in West Baton Rouge Parish after her abductors abandoned it trying to evade police. The pair attracted police attention along Interstate 10 when they tried to avoid a traffic pile-up by driving down the shoulder of the highway.

The two men, both 27 and from Jackson, Mississippi, drowned in the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway in Port Allen while trying to get away from police. They had extensive criminal records, including arrests in a previous kidnapping a decade ago, armed robbery, assault, burglary and other crimes.

Seuzeneau said Handley will be transported back to Lafayette to face the charges related to the kidnapping.

Cpl. Bridgette Dugas, a spokesperson for the Lafayette Police Department, said Friday evening that investigators plan to question Handley once he's in their custody.

Once a successful computer consultant, Handley struggled with alcoholism before co-founding Townsend with a single Lafayette clinic in 2007, records show. It grew over the next several years to include clinics throughout South Louisiana. Tennessee-based American Addiction Centers Inc. purchased the business in a $21 million deal at the end of 2015.

Handley initially remained with the company but left not long after the sale, according to a former colleague and business associate.
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Jones Creek Road has been designated as a "purple heart trail" in honor of veterans and those who were wounded during their military service.

Military Order of the Purple Heart local members received a thundering, standing ovation this week at an East Baton Rouge Metro Council meeting when the designation was made.

"We're not changing the name of Jones Creek, Jones Creek will always be Jones Creek, but it will be a memorial highway," said Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso as he addressed Military Order of the Purple Heart members who mostly served during the Vietnam War.

"I hope that when people drive by, they will think of you, they will think of these brave men that have just come back from Iraq and Afghanistan that were wounded," he added. "Thank you, gentlemen, for your service and what you've done."

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome also announced that Aug. 6 to Aug. 12 has been proclaimed as "Purple Heart Week" in Baton Rouge.

"Throughout the years we have been inspired by those who have earned the purple heart," Broome said. "Your combat wounds remind us of your great valor and the preservation of this nation, its liberty and its way of life."

BRPD hiring evidence technicians to help manage body camera program

The Baton Rouge Police Department is hiring two evidence technicians to help manage the data, public records requests and other challenges of its body camera program.

In late April, the Metro Council agreed to allocate $2.25 million for the city-parish to buy hundreds of permanent body cameras for BRPD officers after a pilot program that lasted more than a year.

The cameras themselves were only a sliver of the expense. Throughout the pilot programs, experts warned about the need for more manpower, public records policies and more that would go along with having a departmentwide body camera program.

The salary ranges for the evidence technicians will be from $27,828 to $47,375.

More Q&A sessions announced for proposed BTR tax to build roads

The rest of August and early September will be jam-packed with public meetings about Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's proposed Better Transportation and Roads tax for the city-parish.

All meetings will run from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Their schedule is as follows:

August 17

Council District 5

Charles Kelly Community Center

3535 Riley St, Baton Rouge, LA 70805

August 21

Council Districts 8 and 9

Jones Creek Library, Adjoining Rooms 1-3

6222 Jones Creek Rd, Baton Rouge, LA 70817

August 29

Council District 1

Zachary Library

1900 Church St, Zachary, LA 70791

Thursday, August 31

Council District 2

Jewel J Newman Community Center

2013 Central Rd, Baton Rouge, LA 70807

Tuesday, September 5

Council District 12

St. Aloysius Parish Hall

2025 Stuart Ave, Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Thursday, September 7

Council District 6

Broadmoor Methodist Church

Adult Educational Center  Room #101

10230 Mollylea Drive

Baton Rouge, LA 70815

Advocate staff writer Andrea Gallo contributed to this article.
Dahal, Bhattarai discuss political issues, unification

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Naya Shakti Nepal Chairman Baburam Bhattarai held discussion on contemporary political issues on Saturday.
Suspended Southern University law professor Dorothy Jackson is seeking $10,000 for legal work she did after drafting a will  at the school's taxpayer-supported Elder Law Clinic that she manages  that named East Baton Rouge Council on Aging Director Tasha Clark-Amar to oversee the estate of a now-deceased woman who was a COA client.

Members of Helen Plummer's family said Friday they are upset and shocked that Jackson has requested $9,000 in attorney's fees and another $1,000 in court costs for a will they have called into question, a will that an attorney for one of Plummer's grandchildren on Friday called "bogus."

"It's very upsetting. It's just real hurtful," Plummer's grandson, Dan Freeman, said in a phone interview. "It's like, when does it stop?'"

Plummer died in March. A month later, a Baton Rouge state judge removed Clark-Amar from overseeing Plummer's estate, and Jackson  a COA board member and the board's former attorney  stepped down from her role as the estate's attorney.

Bill Aaron, an attorney for Jackson, stressed Friday that there were two legal representations involving Jackson. First, she represented Plummer, who had a relationship with the Elder Law Clinic. After Plummer passed away, he said, Jackson represented the executor of the estate, Clark-Amar, for a time.

"The client that had a relationship with the clinic was Miss Plummer," Aaron said.

Aaron said he is not aware of any invoice for Jackson's services but said any money sought would have been for work performed for that separate client after Plummer died.

Aaron also said Jackson is willing to accept $1,000 in court costs that she advanced and waive the $9,000 in attorney's fees.

Southern put Jackson on paid administrative leave in April while it investigates the matter.

Southern Law Center Chancellor John Pierre said Friday that Jackson remains on paid leave and is not teaching any courses during the fall 2017 semester.

Asked whether it is right for Jackson to charge for work as part of a law clinic, Pierre said in an email that he could not comment "based upon advice of legal counsel."

"It's supposed to be free," Freeman said.

The Advocate and WBRZ-TV sued Southern on Monday over the university's refusal to release the findings of its investigation of Jackson.

WBRZ first reported Thursday that Jackson is seeking $10,000 for her services in the Plummer matter.

Robert Garrity Jr., who represents Plummer's granddaughter, Tracie Davis, said Davis recently received an email from David Koch, who was appointed by Johnson to oversee the Plummer estate after Clark-Amar was removed from that position.

Koch indicated in the email that Jackson is willing to waive the $9,000 in requested attorney's fees if $1,000 in court costs that she advanced is paid to her.

"The whole deal is just bizarre," Garrity said.

Once the Plummer succession is finalized, Garrity said, he intends to file suit against those involved in the Plummer matter.

"It's fraud. There's no other way to call it," he said.

The will's terms allowed Clark-Amar, the daughter of state District Judge Janice Clark, to be paid $120,000 over the next two decades to oversee Plummer's trust, which is valued at $314,000.

Clark-Amar voluntarily withdrew as executor of the estate after Plummer's family balked at the arrangement. Clark-Amar claims her relationship with Plummer was genuine.

"I was in shock. I was in shock," Freeman said of Jackson's request for $10,000. "What actually did you do for our estate? What did you do for our side of the family? Nothing. Not one thing."

Garrity said Jackson's request will be taken up Aug. 24 when the succession case returns to state District Judge Don Johnson's courtroom. He also hopes the succession will be resolved then.

"All parties are in agreement," Freeman said. "My family is not at odds."

Clark-Amar, however, is at odds with the Plummer family and is suing them for defamation. The family accused Clark-Amar of using her role as Council on Aging chief executive officer for wrongdoing. Garrity represents Davis in that lawsuit.
At the end of July, as homicides in the parish continued to surge far ahead of last year's pace and the number of domestic violence killings rose to unprecedented levels, Baton Rouge police and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office were dealing with noticeable gaps in their officer corps.

The Sheriff's Office had about 90 openings for deputies, while the Baton Rouge Police Department was looking at about 60, according to numbers provided to The Advocate from both law enforcement agencies for the end of July and beginning of August, respectively.

"When we have a personnel shortage like we do, we have to do some innovative things just to answer calls," said Sheriff Sid Gautreaux. "It takes us away from our main goal of being a proactive department."

Forty-nine of the Sheriff's Office openings are for staff in the Parish Prison. But even taking that into account, the Sheriff's Office is without 10 percent of its public safety officers. There are currently 365 deputies working Uniform Patrol and as specialized detectives, while the Office allots for 407 such positions, leaving it 42 deputies short at the end of July.

Baton Rouge police were not far behind, with 8 percent of their entire department going unstaffed. The city's plan for the Police Department allows for 698 total officers, but only 639 positions are filled.

All the divisions feel it," said interim Baton Rouge Police Chief Jonny Dunnam. "When I walk into my office, I have division commanders lined up at my door and the number one request is manpower, across the board."

Dunnam said over the years, the department would hover at about 20 open slots.

"The largest I can remember for the last 15 years was probably about 24 officers short, he said.

Both Dunnam and Gautreaux cannot point to one reason for the decline in numbers, but they both believe it's a combination of factors, stemming from the controversies surrounding law enforcement nationally, natural attrition of officers retiring and moving on, a more attractive  and less dangerous  private sector, and the low pay new officers, especially in Baton Rouge Police, are compensated.

Though Baton Rouge and Sheriff's Office leaders are watching the increase in homicides, neither Dunnam nor Gautreaux believe there's a connection between their current officer shortages and those numbers  but both agree it has been affecting their agencies.

"It's gotten to the point now where were just trying to meet the basics," Gautreaux said.

He said he recently decided to move officers from their Special Community Anticrime Team (SCAT) and K-9 units to Uniform Patrol  the men and women who respond to daily calls from residents.

"Since I've been sheriff for more than 10 years, I've never been faced with this shortage and having to move people just to answer the demand of the calls," Gautreaux said.

Dunnam said he also is working to make sure his Uniform Patrol division doesn't fall behind or get run down, keeping officers there instead of filling openings in more specialized divisions.

Sgt. Bryan Taylor, spokesman for the Union of Baton Rouge Police, said that while those officers are working as hard as they can, it's not easy.

The guys on the street are feeling it," Taylor said. "Theyre having to work more overtime, they're having to go from call to call. Theyre doing the best they can with what they have ... We need manpower."

And while Dunnam and Gautreaux are making sure calls are answered, they said it's nearly impossible to expect officers to interact with the community, proactively working to prevent crime or starting on new initiatives  there simply is no down time.

"You're not doing anything but going from call to call," Gautreaux said "You're not getting to build community relations."

He said his agency takes pride in community service and patrols to preemptively reduce crime, but they have been largely left by the wayside of late.

After a meeting on a proposed police-ambassador program, an idea collaboratively conceptualized by Baton Rouge residents through a Metro Council-led committee as a way to improve city police, Dunnam admitted in an interview with The Advocate that implementing such a program will leave his officers "stretched a little thin," but he thinks it would be worth it long term.

"Those programs, we hope, will ultimately reduce crime, which will of course reduce the need for the numbers of officers, if its successful," Dunnam said of the police-ambassador program and others proposed by the mayor.

And while Taylor doesn't doubt the good intentions behind these programs, he said they require more investment.

"If they're really committed to making this Police Department what they claim to be a lot more professional, and if they would like to see us implement all of these things, like community policing, weve got to be able to recruit," Taylor said. "We've said from the beginning that our pay needs to increase."

That reason, low pay for the tough, demanding job, has been cited over and over again by officers throughout the department as a challenge for recruiting and retaining officers.

First-year Baton Rouge police officers make $33,473 a year, while deputies with the Sheriff's Office make almost $5,000 more initially. State Police troopers, upon completion of all training, are paid at least $15,000 more than new Baton Rouge police officers.

"It's a conversation that's been out there for a long time, putting our money where our mouth is," said Councilwoman Tara Wicker, who leads a community-based police policy committee. "It's important to the Police Department. It's important to the community. It needs to be a priority."

However, Wicker said she has no specific plans to try to dedicate more money to the department. Wicker said she hopes her committee's community ambassadors a program still months from fruition  will be an avenue to implement other discussed improvements to the Police Department, like additional funding.

"I really believe that we're going to have to be creative," Wicker said. "It's a concern that we've got to address. We've got to pay our officers."

Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said her administration will look into raise options as they discuss a new contract with the Union of Police, but she did point out that there are many options for increases in pay as officers move up the chain. Upon completing their first year, an officer's salary increases by $6,000, said Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola.

State Police pay raises have BRPD singing the blues A sizable pay raise approved for State Police troopers last month has created a stir among B

She also said she is also looking into options to fund the community policing initiatives that she has supported.

"The Mayor's Office has identified potential grant opportunities that focus on police community relations and effective policing," Broome said. "We are working with the chief and his staff to prepare and submit applications."

Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg agreed that finding the money to better compensate officers won't be easy, but hopes the council will once again make it a priority.

"We need to look at some out-of-the-box ways that we fund our police," said Freiberg, who often attends Wicker's police policy committee meetings. "I think we've still got a long way to go."

Gautreaux said the Sheriff's Office is struggling financially, which he thinks is an effect of last August's flood. Their funding is not a part of the city-parish's budget, but rather comes from resident property taxes, many of which decreased as homes lost value after the flood.

"As a wife of a former state trooper, to this day, he's telling me things he encountered as a police officer on the street," Wicker said. "People don't recognize the amount of stress and pressure. It's not an easy job, and especially now, coupled with the bad pay, this is not something people will flock to."

Dunnam said he thinks the recent drop is mainly an outcome of attrition, with many officers recently retiring.

However, he and Gautreaux also said the national perception of law enforcement  the dangers of the job driven home by the recent attacks on officers, particularly the three killed in Baton Rouge last year, as well as the negative response toward law enforcement generated by a viral video of a violent police encounter with a member of the public  has made it harder to hire new officers. The uptick in the economy has also led more job seekers to choose the private sector, Dunnam said.

"Its a lot of things. It might be a perception that people have about doing the job. Its a dangerous job," Dunnam said. "But I still think you still have a large segment of people who want to be police officers that do it because of the love for their communities and wanting to make a difference.

The Police Department plans to soon launch its "GeauxBRPD" initiative, which will include a new website with information for potential applicants and a media campaign to enhance recruitment, and the Sheriff's Office is working on a video promotion to do the same.

However, Dunnam said he hopes the department's fall police academy will take in 40 new officers, which would cut deeply into the current shortage. So far the department has received 160 applications for the October academy, which he thinks is a good sign that 30 or 40 will make it through.

In the meantime, Dunnam said he wants to reassure the community that immediate policing needs are being met.

"The fact that we're that many officers short, the level of service hasn't changed because we're filling that time with overtime," Dunnam said. "We're not going to change our level of service."
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State lawmakers on Friday recognized a $1.5 billion shortfall the state faces in the coming year, but some legislators expressed skepticism about the figure.

The state Legislature last year approved a temporary 1-cent sales tax hike that expires next year as a quick fix to shore up the state's finances until a more permanent solution could be reached.

State budget leaders told budget leaders on Friday that the sales tax hike's expiration; growth in expenses, including the need to cover costs that have been delayed; and oil projections, have pushed the previously anticipated billion-dollar figure to $1.5 billion.

"That's the net effect of all revenue sources," state economist Greg Albrecht told the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which is made up of the budget leaders from the House and Senate.

But legislators, who have held four special sessions in the past two years to deal with budget issues, questioned the accuracy and whether budget advisers were accurately calculating the current expenses.

"It would be a lot better to have real numbers," said Sen. Jim Fannin, a Jonesboro Republican who previously chaired the House Appropriations Committee. "Historically, those numbers don't work."

Gov. John Bel Edwards has been holding hearings with business leaders and plans to meet with legislators and community groups to come up with plans for addressing the "fiscal cliff" the state faces for the coming budget cycle that begins July 1.

Lawmakers, driven by House Republican leaders who have frequently been at at odds with Democrat Edwards, rejected a package the governor proposed during this year's legislative session. Many budget and tax measures can only be taken up during odd-numbered years, so Edwards is likely to call a special session to take up legislation to address the revenue shortfall. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of continuing all or part of the sales tax increase.
I recently read your article about the Louisiana Department of Education releasing a Request For Proposals for a review of three special education schools. While I do agree that this needs to be done, I am concerned about the approach for this RFP.

Members of the Deaf Education Alliance, the Louisiana Deaf Grassroots Movements, concerned parents and community agency representatives have been meeting with Superintendent John White, LDOE staff and BESE Board members over the past several months to share our concerns about deaf education. When White shared his idea of an RFP we were supportive but concerned

When White shared his idea of an RFP, we were supportive but concerned about the amount of time it would take to produce results. When a subsequent meeting revealed that his intention was to include all three board special schools in one RFP, we expressed our concerns in finding a qualified applicant for this RFP as well as our concerns with how the department would vet such applications. There seems to be a lack of regard within the Department of Education for the value of employing people who are specially trained to work with children with specific low-incidence disabilities  the type of students that the board special schools were specifically established to serve.

Without this knowledge and experience in these specialty fields, we are seeing that the schools are continuing to be labeled as failing schools. This lack of regard for expertise is evident, again, in the RFP. The Department of Education is expecting that it can garner one entity to pull together a team with expertise in all three areas. This is unlikely. I have forwarded the RFP to several university programs with the hope that at least one will be able to pull together teams while also trying to get ready for the start of their semester. As an advocate for the Deaf community and a retired employee from the Louisiana School for the Deaf and the Department of Education, I am concerned that there is an urgent need for reform at the School for the Deaf, and a need for guidance and resources for deaf educators. The RFP process does not address this urgency and by combining three schools under the RFP my fear is that the true needs of the students at LSD will not be sufficiently addressed at all. I have to wonder why nothing has been done to correct the failing school status over the past several years. Is it possible these administrators didnt know there was a problem? Or do they just have no idea how to address the problems? While they are just now trying to figure this out, our students are missing out on real access to effective education. All of this has been happening over the past three years or more and the administration doesnt seem to have even realized they should correct it. Sad.

Melodie Sparks

retired educational supervisor

Gonzales
Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni, addresses the crowd during the first day of the Fat City Farmers Market Sunday, July 9, 2017, at the Dragos Restaurant parking lot at 18th Street and Edenborn Avenue in Fat City. The market, which features produce and other fresh and prepared foods, plants, crafts and handmade items, will be held on the second and fourth Sunday of the month from 9 am. to 1 p.m.
It was a miracle no one was hit when a Baton Rouge-area man wielding a pair of guns inexplicably fired bullets at two cars and a hotel entranc
A rally to protest the Safe Schools program in the city on Saturday was effectively drowned out by vocal supporters of the initiative.

The rally was headlined by NSW MP Fred Nile and Lyle Shelton, both conservative Christians.

The rainbow flag flew freely in Civic Square on Saturday. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Roughly equal numbers turned up on both sides of the issue, however there was no doubt over which group was more visible.

As the first speaker took to the microphone outside the Legislative Assembly the Safe Schools proponents took up position in front of the speakers and attempted to block signage with their own.
DPM Shrestha urges Dr KC to end fast-onto-death

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Gopalman Shrestha has urged Dr. Govinda KC, who is on a fast-unto-death, to break the fast, saying his demands have been met.
Majors Creek residents are outraged at a decision to bulldoze a fire trail alongside a swamp behind houses in the village, which they say was without justification or consultation.

Even the local bush fire captain has described the location of the trail as "peculiar".

A fire trial being pushed through swampy land behind houses at Majors Creek, as photographed by upset property owner Peter Marshall.

Peter Marshall, who owns a house that backs on to the creek, said the project was a farce of "government bumbling, wasted public money and disrespect for citizens and the environment", and deeply upsetting to locals.

The creek ran parallel to Seymour Street, and the fire trail was being built between the row of houses and the wetland. Large amounts of fill were being dumped into the water and soft soil banks were being cut through.
Spring is coming. Remember that, folks, and take heart. Yes, the winter of 2017 has seemed bitterly cold, and dark, at times. White-walkers didn't invade, as feared by Game of Thrones fans, but the vengeful sprit of a Trump presidency seemed to cast a shadow across the world, culminating in this week's threat of "fire and fury" against Pyongyang.

And now we face an emotionally fraught and potentially divisive postal vote  of dubious constitutional and statistical validity  to attempt to resolve the question of same-sex marriage. Many will feel that the extension of a basic human right to all citizens is reason enough for a "yes" vote in the upcoming "voluntary survey". But for any still undecided, there is another significant  and entirely selfish  reason to vote yes.

And it's this. The explosion of love and goodwill that would accompany the legalisation of same-sex marriage cannot come soon enough for the Australian economy.

Battered and bruised from the global financial crisis and the end of the mining boom, the Australia economy is in desperate need of a boost to demand to fuel job creation and pay rises.
During my lifetime, the share of Australians without a religious affiliation has gone from one in 100 to about one in three.

That's what you call a momentous social change.

The spike in people opting for "no religion" was one of the big stories to come out of the 2016 census results released in June. More than 7 million Australians said they have no religious affiliation, a 46 per cent increase on the previous census in 2011.

Given that trend, you might expect the share of the world's population with no religion is also on the rise.
Security and strategic experts have defended Malcolm Turnbull's declaration of support for America if North Korea launched an attack as the "only practical" response to the situation.

Mr Turnbull drew criticism, including from Greens leader Richard Di Natale, who said it made Australia a "target" after saying Australia stood by its allies and would invoke the ANZUS treaty if North Korea moved forward with its threats to fire missiles into the US territory of Guam.

Kim Jong-un is waging carefully calibrated brinkmanship but what is Trump's game plan? Credit:AP

"So be very, very clear on that," Mr Turnbull told 3AW Radio on Friday.

"If there's an attack on the US, the ANZUS Treaty would be invoked and Australia would come to the aid of the United States, as America would come to our aid if we were attacked."
A PAC-3 Patriot missile unit deployed in the compound of the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, after North Korea announced a detailed plan to launch a volley of ballistic missiles over Japan and towards the US Pacific territory of Guam. Credit:Shizuo Kambayashi Japan might not like the evolving international order, with China the pre-eminent nation in the Asia-Pacific region, but it may have to accept it. But over a week in Tokyo and Okinawa, as Fairfax Media was granted rare and wide-ranging access to leading figures in the departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence and the national security establishment, as well as to a range of academics and think tanks, a uniformly pessimistic view of North Korea activities emerged, as did grave concerns about China's geo-strategic intentions. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump spoke at the start of the month and agreed to take further action against North Korea following its latest missile launch. Credit:Shizuo Kambayashi, Evan Vucci Japan's political and military elite are grappling with how to calibrate their response to the existential threat posed by North Korea, just a short 1200 kilometres away across the Sea of Japan.

Much of the discussion was not for attribution so as to allow these policy makers within government ministries to speak freely or, as one official put it, to "give you more than the party line". Kim Jong Un displays some "narcissistic personality traits'', according to a South Korean expert. Credit:AP Yoichi Kato, a senior fellow at Tokyo think tank the Asia Pacific Initiative and also an adjunct fellow at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, is deeply enmeshed in both the Japanese and US national security establishments and a regular participant in so-called track 1.5 dialogues  but as he is not a government official, he can also say bluntly that at which officials only hint. Japan, he says, faces two inconvenient truths. A public TV screen broadcasts news of North Korea's test-firing of its second intercontinental ballistic missile, in Tokyo, Japan. North Korea was the main concern cited in the 'white paper' approved by Japan's cabinet this week. Credit:Eugene Hoshiko

"The first is thatballistic missile defence is not good enough, you cannot intercept and shoot down all the missiles North Korea may shoot. That's beyond BMD capability. The second is that US extended deterrence may break. We may come under nuclear attack from North Korea," he tells Fairfax Media. "So because of those intricacies, which really jeopardise Japanese security, the argument in Japan right now is [whether] to have our own deterrence capabilities, or even our own offensive capabilities. We perhaps need to redefine the Japan-US relationship, which has traditionally been Japan being the shield and the US the spear." The launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on July 28. Credit:AP His hawkish views on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (whatever agreement he makes, he cheats), Trump (you can't trust him) and China (it wants North Korea and the South China Sea as strategic buffers) are blunt outliers in so far as how they are expressed, but not in so far as how they assess the current security environment for Japan. He sums up the situation like this: "Japan's ultimate concern on Trump is that our national security interests will be traded away for US economic interests."

Therefore, he says, Japan has three options: building up its internal power; strengthening its network of alliances with countries like Australia, India and ASEAN nations such as Vietnam; or hugging China closer, as the Philippines appears to be doing. Noriyuki Shikata, a senior diplomat in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is one of the few government officials who agreed to speak on the record to Fairfax Media during a week of policy discussions. He is far more careful in how he describes the geo-strategic challenges confronting Japan. Shikata returns again and again to two ideas: the need for a "free and open Indo-Pacific; and the importance of a rules-based international order respected by all players, including China and North Korea. "We want to gain partners across the region, including the US, Australia, New Zealand, India and ASEAN countries. As far as the security landscape, we are extremely concerned about North Korean missile development.We think that it is extremely important to be united among like-minded countries to prevent North Korea pursuing its nuclear missile program," he says. Asked what specifically Japan wants from Australia, Shikata demurs, and says only that his government was "very much encouraged by the message from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the context of the Shangri-La dialogue [and that] Foreign Minister Bishop has sent a strong message from Australia" on the need to respect the rules-based order.

In that Shangri-La dialogue speech, in June, Turnbull said the Asia-Pacific region had to "find new sources of leadership to help the United States shape our common good"  a message that was well received in Japan because of a perception that smaller nations in the region, confronted by the growth in the military strength of China and at the same time increasingly dependent on China for trade, appear reluctant to stand up to China over its militarisation of the South China Sea or its support for North Korea. A case in point: an ASEAN meeting this week could only agree to a "negotiating framework for a code of conduct" in the South China Sea, despite Vietnam leading the charge for a stronger stand against Chinese expansionism. Shikata says Japan has switched its diplomatic focus from cultivating individual countries in the region to a more regional strategy  the free and open Indo-Pacific  and that it wants to have "even closer discussions and dialogue with our allies and security partners". Could that Indo-Pacific strategy be interpreted as a bulwark against China's "One Belt, One Road" policy, and its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank? Shikata again demurs, and switches to highlighting the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Japan remains hopeful that a TPP11 (minus the US) will be signed off on, and that at some point in the future  presumably post-Trump  the US will sign up too. Broadly speaking, Japanese security officials divide the world into "revisionist" states such as China and Russia  those that want to upend the current international order  and supporters of the status quo, such as Japan, the United States and Australia.

What they worry about, primarily, is North Korea's missiles and nuclear ambition; China's expansion into the South and East China seas; and Russia's desire to re-draw the map of Europe. As one official puts it, Japan had hoped that "as they [China] became rich, so they would become good" but that hasn't happened. Now, a sharply realpolitik consensus view is emerging. "We welcome China's rise, but if they try to take our territory, we will defend it," one official says. Yuichi Hosoya, a politics professor at Keio University and some-time informal adviser and dinner companion to Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, says  like Kato  there is grave concern in Japan that Trump could agree to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear program and, in so doing, agree to a "de-coupling" of the decades-old US-Japan defence alliance. Trump's rhetoric on trade has spooked Japanese policy makers.

"One of the biggest nightmares is that the Unites States' current government will link trade issues with security issues, because of the large trade surplus with Japan. President Trump will possibly say that without reducing unbalanced trade the United States cannot defend Japan," Hosoya says. The solution? "In January, in Canberra, I said that Japanese, Australia and Indian co-operation will become more important to maintain the rules-based international order in the Asia-Pacific  because the United States might lose interest in playing its previous role, in maintaining the international order," Professor Hosoya says. "So Japan, Australia, India must play a role in filling the vacuum created by the dysfunction of the White House." While North Korea represents a clear and present danger for the Asia-Pacific region and for the rules-based international order, it is the rise of China  and the ascent of Trump to the presidency  that is the causing the most concern in Japan.

North Korea is just the most obvious manifestation of a changing international order. But fairly or unfairly (no doubt China would say unfairly) Japan views China's rise as the greater medium-term challenge. As Kato says, there is a near-consensus view on North Korea that the "best we can hope for" is to involve them in negotiations, buy time, and slow down development of nuclear weapons. Can the issue be solved? "That's the question no one can answer," he says, with a rueful grin.
By the time al-Sharif was a teenager, she believed it. She burnt music cassettes, seeing them as sinful, and experimented with wearing the face-covering niqab. However, she also continued with her education, graduating in computer science from university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second-largest city. She was awarded an internship at Aramco, the state-owned oil and gas company, for which her father had to sign a consent form. At 24 she married a controlling and abusive man, and two years later gave birth to her first son, Aboudi, now 12. She divorced her husband when her son was two after the former beat her up savagely. If education started her journey to becoming an activist, travel cemented it. Posted by her employer to the US for a few months, she was astounded. She could open a bank account, get in a car, do anything she liked. She stopped wearing the hijab and, once back home in Saudi Arabia, wore it only at work. "I'm proud of my face," she writes in her book, Daring to Drive. "I will not cover it. If it bothers you, don't look. If you are seduced by merely looking at it, that is your problem. You cannot punish me because you cannot control yourself." Of all the forms of oppression faced by Saudi women, why was it the driving ban that irritated her the most? "Because I believe that when women drive in my country, that will liberate them. We don't have pedestrianised cities; there's no proper public transport. Driving is the key. It means that women are independent, they can leave the house, they don't have to wait for a male guardian. "Guardianship is the source of all evil when it comes to binding women. I'm 38 years old, I am a mother, I pay my own bills but, legally, I'm a minor. I can't do anything. I have to go to my father to get my passport. It's outrageous. When women drive in my country, that will liberate them.

"Once women can drive, all this evil will fall." She set up a Facebook page, Women2Drive, where young women who wanted to learn to drive could contact women who could teach them. Then, on June 17, 2011, she and about 35 Saudi women did something radical: they got behind the wheel, something that was forbidden, although not, al-Sharif had discovered, technically illegal. She was called a whore, a traitor and a spy. Colleagues shunned her and Aboudi, then six, was bullied. After three months of harassment from his colleagues, her brother moved his family to Kuwait. The online comments beneath the YouTube videos were so offensive that she had to delete them. Manal al-Sharif with her Emirati drivers licence (Saudi Arabia doesnt issue licences to women). Her girlfriends, meanwhile, told her she was creating a scandal and shaming her countrymen. They warned her not to write her book. They were scared. She may be a rebel to her own generation, she argues, but millennials are on her side. "They talk the same as me. Finally I don't feel like I'm ostracised. How long do we have to shush each other?" She dismisses claims by the ruling royal family that Saudi society is too conservative to accept women driving as "rubbish nonsense" and rails against the hypocrisy of Western governments in not doing more. She suspects, like many observers, that the UK was one of the countries that voted in April for Saudi Arabia to become a member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The British Foreign Office refuses to confirm or deny this, but her outrage is palpable.

"We were like, 'What? A country that is proud to have women's rights, that has a woman PM, would vote for Saudi Arabia to join this commission?' Saudi is ranked 141/144 on the Global Gender Gap Index. It should not be a member and should not have been voted in by countries like the UK that support women's rights. "It happened exactly seven days after one of our prominent activists had been jailed for disturbing the public order. That was a stab in the neck for me. If you won't put some pressure on your ally for women to drive, at least don't support them and put them in such powerful positions." She is equally disdainful of Ivanka Trump, who recently said how encouraged she was by the advancement of women's rights in the kingdom. The West, al-Sharif argues, has an obligation to use its freedoms to advance Saudi women's liberty by applying more diplomatic pressure. She was thrilled when the Saudi Arabian Olympic team were told that they had to include female athletes if they wanted to compete at the 2012 London Games. "That was huge," she says. "Historic. We need more things like that." Sarah Attar at London 2012: the first Saudi woman to compete in athletics during the Olympics. 'We need more things like this,' says al-Sharif. Credit:Anja Niedringhaus Saudi women may not attain equality in her lifetime but she thinks it will eventually happen, and warns that change can only come from within. "You cannot ask for your rights if you don't believe you have rights. Women need to believe that they deserve to be treated equally and that they deserve to be full citizens in their own country."

Simple economics are on her side. The oil price collapse and two years of conflict with Yemen has meant that Saudi Arabia is no longer quite as wealthy as it was. The state oil company is due to be partially floated on stock exchanges next year, and al-Sharif thinks the Saudi government may make concessions to avoid any negative headlines. She is also jubilant at talk of the government having to levy taxes for the first time. "Only 11 per cent of women work today. You cannot have that if you want people to pay taxes, you need them to go to work and be productive. There are all these women who are highly educated with no jobs, because they don't want men and women to mix in the workplace, and they don't want women to drive. That's a luxury they can't afford any more." Al-Sharif's struggle has cost her her job, her country and her son Aboudi. When she was invited to talk about her struggle at the 2012 Oslo Freedom Forum, Aramco forbade her to go, so she resigned. When she wanted to remarry, to a Brazilian man she met at Aramco, the government refused her permission. She married in Dubai in 2012, at which point she automatically lost custody of Aboudi. He now lives with his paternal grandmother, while al-Sharif has moved to Australia for her husband's work. "My first impression on arrival here was, 'What beautiful nature.' I have got my Australian driver's licence and am excited at the thought of driving around the coast of this continent. And in co-operation with an Australian professor and students at [Sydney's] Macquarie University, I'm starting a social enterprise called Drive for Freedom, to help Saudi women studying or living abroad to gain their driver's licence." Manal al-Sharif with older son Aboudi, who she can only see when she visits Saudi Arabia. She sees Aboudi only two or three times a year, and he has never met his two-year-old half-brother, Daniel, her son with her second husband. The Saudi authorities won't allow her to take her younger son into the country or her older son out. "I want to go back to Saudi Arabia, of course I do," she says. "I want my children to be together. I thought I'd get government approval for my marriage in a few months and I'd be back, but it's now been five years. That's being an activist in my country. Welcome to my life. Welcome to Saudi Arabia."
We instinctively resist our darker emotions, but feeling bad may be essential for ultimately feeling better.

New research by psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley, were looking to explore the link between emotional acceptance and psychological health.

Pressure to feel upbeat can make you feel downbeat. Credit:Stocksy

In three separate experiments, 1300 adults had their response to negative feelings tested.

In the first test, participants were asked how strongly they agreed with statements including "I tell myself I shouldn't be feeling the way that I'm feeling". In the second test, after a public speaking task, participants rated their feelings about the task while in the third test, participants wrote about their most recent challenging experience.
Energy drinks could be a gateway to cocaine use, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that young adults who said they'd consumed energy drinks yearly between ages 21 and 24 were at greater risk for subsequently doing cocaine, using prescription stimulants for non-medical uses and problem drinking.

Energy drinks are a booming segment of the beverage market.

The 1,099 study participants were recruited as 18-year-old college students.

Those who didn't consume energy drinks as they got older were less likely to develop substance-abuse problems.
In a world of uncertainty, there remain some constants; taxes, Donald Trump's tweets  and complaints about telecommunication services.

It's what is sparking those complaints that is up for debate.

"The data shows a significant number of the industry's TIO complaints are from customers moving to the NBN," a Telstra spokesman said. Credit:Fairfax Media

In the three months to June, complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman increased from 8.4 complaints per 10,000 services, to nine complaints per 10,000 services, continuing an upward trend for most of the past financial year.

The ombudsman releases a snapshot of the number of complaints about telephone and internet services for residential and small business customers each quarter.
A British tourist who allegedly groomed a 13-year-old Sydney girl to have sex in his campervan has been caught in an undercover sting.

John Alexander Kenyon, 34, who was travelling Australia's east coast in a campervan, was arrested in Westmead on Friday after arriving from Cairns.

Police allege that last week he began talking online to a person who he thought was a 13-year-old girl living in Sydney.

He engaged in "sexually-explicit conversations with the child," police said in a statement. "The man told the child he was driving down the coast from Cairns and made arrangements to meet when he arrived in Sydney."
Fast track project handed over to Army officially

The government has handed over the much-talked about Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Road Project to the Nepal Army.
A raging house fire in Maribyrnong has sent smoke billowing across surrounding suburbs on Saturday night.

Forty firefighters are battling the blaze that has destroyed the two-storey Cedar Drive home in Melbourne's north west.

Firefighters at Cedar Drive, Maribyrnong, on Saturday night. Credit:MFB Media

No one was home at the time of the fire.

Firefighters managed to stop the blaze spreading to neighbouring properties which had been under threat.
Police will allege a driver who crashed into a Perth home overnight was under the influence of alcohol.

Police will charge the 20-year-old man via summons after he allegedly crashed a vehicle into a house in Mt Hawthorn at about 2.25am.

The man will be charged via summons. Credit:Rohan Thomson

The man was driving a Toyota Camry east along Powis Street and at the intersection of Powis and Brady Streets, when he lost control and hit a kerb and a tree, before crashing into the carport of a house on Brady Street.

Damage was caused to the carport and a Hyundai i20 parked in the car port. A woman was home at the time but was not hurt.
New York: A 12-year-old girl has been arrested and charged with assault after a bizarre attack at a sleepover party in New York that left an 11-year-old girl with second-degree burns to her face and upper body.

The victim, Jamoneisha Merritt, was sleeping on a living room couch, the police said, when the 12-year-old poured a cup of boiling water over her face and shoulders. Friends inside the apartment then poured cold water on the scalded girl to try to alleviate the pain, according to the police.

Jamoneisha Merritt was at a sleepover when her friend, 12, poured a cup of boiling water over her face and shoulders. Credit:Facebook

Police officers responding to a 911 call at 4:40am on Monday arrived at the apartment in the Bronx, a borough of New York, to find Jamoneisha, who lives in a neighbouring building, conscious, with burns on her face, neck, chest and back.

She was taken to Harlem Hospital, where she remained in serious but stable condition, her mother, Ebony Merritt, said.
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
17 dead due to flood, landslides across country in 2 days: Nepal Police

At least 17 persons have died across the country on Friday and Sunday due to flood and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall, Nepal Police said.
Foreigners working in airlines allowed to repatriate income

Foreigners working in airline companies in Nepal can now repatriate up to 75 percent of their net income to their home countries.
Never before have so many Aggies earned their degrees all at once during a summer commencement ceremony. From Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, 2,252 students at four A&M campuses received either a graduate or undergraduate degree, making Texas A&M history.

While students in Qatar do not walk the stage, and graduates at the Galveston campus receive their diplomas this morning, all graduates of the A&M campus in College Station turned their Aggie rings and mortar board tassels under the roof of Reed Arena throughout the day Friday. Early Friday morning the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the Mays Business School and the Bush School of Government and Public Service took center stage. Later in the afternoon the colleges of Architecture, Education and Human Development, Geosciences, Nursing, Medicine, Science and the School of Public Health had their turn.

Friday afternoon also marked the commissioning of 29 new military officers. One of these new officers, now a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, is Dallas native and former political science major Craig Hogg. He will begin training in September to become a military police officer and said Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets facilitated this monumental step, which he has dreamed of since he was 12. Hogg said he is slightly nervous but feels he has been well-equipped for the Army.

"The thing is, one of my professors of military science told us that having the rank of second lieutenant is not the same as saying that you're ready to lead soldiers," Hogg commented. "It's just showing that you're new, but you have shown your capabilities and you're ready to learn."

Hogg recalls his time in the Corps as being both awe-inspiring and challenging, and he advises incoming freshmen to press on through any obstacles.

"I just think about my first day being introduced to all this, walking onto the campus, seeing the scenery, seeing what the Corps is all about," Hogg recalled. "There were hardships along the way, like passing combat survival [water training]. I have a big fear of water, but I realized how much I wanted all of this, because I had faced my greatest fear to get this far."

Alexandra Arrigunaga, a resident of Austin and native of Mexico, also can attest to the trying upward climb of receiving an undergraduate degree. Friday afternoon she received her Bachelor of Science in biology, putting her one step closer to her goal of becoming a physician's assistant.

"I really wanted to go to Texas A&M, but I didn't get admitted the first time I applied," Arrigunaga explained. "I looked at other schools, but there was something about A&M that really captivated me. So I waited for a year, went to Austin Community College. ... Texas A&M has been an experience that is life-changing. I've learned so many values, and it's shaped who I am."

Arrigunaga is a first-generation Aggie, drawn to the school simply because she desired the famed Aggie camaraderie and sense of community. Now that she's finished her run in College Station, Arrigunaga said she wouldn't change a thing.

"It can be a little overwhelming at first, like it was for me transferring in, but I'd tell a freshman to stick to your faith and find buddies," she said. "You'll have the best four years of your life, or five, or six."

Alyssa Brinkley, a Fort Worth resident earning her bachelor's degree in health, also couldn't get enough of the Aggie Spirit when she first came to College Station.

"The traditions here stuck out more than anything else," Brinkley said just before the ceremony Friday afternoon. "I love the Aggie Spirit. I like that we can be a family. I'm moving to Ohio soon, and already I got an email from the guy who organizes the Northeast Ohio A&M Club. It's crazy!"

Brinkley works as a pharmacy technician for Walmart and hopes to attend pharmacy school in the near future, building on her health degree. Her advice for incoming freshmen is to keep an open mind.

"Don't be afraid to try new things," she said. "I was involved in five different clubs here. Take advantage of the opportunities that come from this school."
New equipment for Hearne firefighters will be purchased with a $25,000 donation to the Hearne Volunteer Fire Department by the Union Pacific Foundation.

The grant was presented Thursday morning at a ceremony in Hearne. The Union Pacific Foundation offered the gift to reflect the company's respect and support for first responders in towns where Union Pacific has train stops, a foundation release said. According to a press release from Union Pacific, the donation comes from the company's newly established Building Community Investments program.

"We are very pleased to receive this award, as it will help us secure a new compressed breathing air machine," said Hearne Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief David Shannon in the press release.

"This new equipment will better equip our firefighters to protect and serve this community."
One Aggie who walked the stage Friday was able to do so only after triumphing over extensive physical and financial battles. Mason Hatch received his Bachelor of Science in nursing, and soon will be applying for intensive care nursing positions in Houston, an experience which eventually will allow him to pursue a graduate degree in the field of anesthesiology.

Hatch has faced what he calls "curve balls" throughout his life. Perhaps the most prominent began in junior high school when a young Hatch was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy. Since his diagnosis he's had four operations, has been in a wheelchair, and still struggles today with a limp and muscle pains.

It was a nurse who treated Hatch during his battle with the condition who inspired him to help others through the nursing career field.

"Everyone has challenges," Hatch said. "You either crumble when they come your way, or you roll with the punches. And that's what I did."

It's difficult to wake up each day in pain and do the hard work of a nurse, but Hatch perseveres.

In addition to the setbacks he faces with muscular dystrophy, Hatch comes from a small town and modest upbringing, and had to support himself financially the entirety of his undergraduate degree, working between 20 and 30 hours per week at a local restaurant. Combined with studying and working clinicals as a nursing student, Hatch's time at the restaurant strained his schedule. But the new graduate said he is proud of himself, proud of how far he's come, and is ready to take on new challenges.

"I think I learned a lot, and I wouldn't change anything," Hatch said. "... I feel like I have all the tools I need to be an adult."
By Roger L. Beckett

Special to The Eagle

Its easy to understand why discussions of religion, no matter where they take place, make some people uncomfortable. But thats no reason to ban the topic from American classrooms.

Many of the people who first came to America were seeking a place to practice their faith freely. The majority of our colonies, at one time, had official churches.

Over time, the idea of religious toleration developed, in which colonies with established religions would tolerate the practice of other faiths. By the time of Americas founding, we had moved beyond religious toleration to an American understanding of religious liberty, which is enshrined in our founding documents.

But in protecting the free exercise of religion, as the Bill of Rights puts it, we have sometimes gone too far. The separation of church and state does not require that the government shun religion, only that government not compel worship or favor a particular religion.

The American social studies classroom is the ideal place to talk about the role religion and faith have played in American history. As the National Council for the Social Studies writes, Knowledge about religions is not only a characteristic of an educated person but is necessary for effective and engaged citizenship in a diverse nation and world.

Even the American Civil Liberties Union agrees with this. It would be difficult to teach art, music, literature and most social studies without considering religious influences, notes a statement on religion in public schools jointly signed by the ACLU and numerous other organizations spanning the ideological, political and religious spectrum.

At the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, academic programs all are based on the premise that the best way to learn about American history and government is to learn it from those who lived and shaped it.

To know what they thought, how they felt, and what motivated them personally and intellectually  in many cases their faith  our students read their letters, speeches, pamphlets and books.

The role of religion in American history and politics is part of this ongoing first-person story.

To understand the motivations and thinking of the early colonists, for example, we suggest that students read John Winthrops 1630 discourse, A Model of Christian Charity, which lays out a vision for building a godly commonwealth and urges Massachusetts Bay colonists to be generous with their resources  considering the good of their neighbor to be integral to their own good. Good advice for today as well.

Our suggested reading list on religion in American and politics includes 25 core documents that helped shape our nation, such as:

 Cotton Mathers 1718 essay on the principles of reason

 George Washingtons 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport Rhode Island.

 Abraham Lincolns second inaugural address, delivered in 1865, and

 Henry Ward Beechers Moral Theory of Civil Liberty, written in 1869.

More recent writings include Franklin D. Roosevelts 1933 address to the National Conference of Catholic Charities, the Rev. Martin Luther Kings 1962 Ebenezer Baptist Church sermon  Can a Christian Be a Communist?  Ronald Reagans remarks at the 1983 annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Barack Obamas 2009 address at Cairo University.

As any honest historian will attest, there is no way to divorce American government and history from the religious beliefs of those who created our government and lived that history.

The National Council for the Social Studies puts it like this: Only through learning about religions and beliefs will young people be adequately prepared for citizenship in a religiously diverse society and world.

Schools shouldnt run from the topic; they should embrace it.

Roger L. Beckett is the executive director of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. Write him at 401 College Ave., Ashland, OH, 44805. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
By Max B. Sawicky

Special to The Eagle

Every morning in grade school, we said the Lords Prayer. I still remember the words.

Thats somewhat remarkable considering I never believed in a god back then and still dont today.

That said, being required to pray did not cause any lasting damage to my psyche. But Im still convinced there are dangers to mixing religious observance with public education.

The key question for those who want religion in schools is this: Can you handle the truth?

Because the truth is different people want their children to believe different things, and thats everyones right.

Based on the way our educational institutions work and drawing on past experiences, its almost certain school-sponsored religious observances would be one-size-fits-all exercises going against the preferences of at least some, if not many.

Even the most basic type of prayer affronts those who dont want to pray. And meanwhile, some common prayers might be rejected by devout Christians as weak tea.

The most important feature of Americas kindergarten-through-high-school public education system is that its governance is decentralized. And that same attribute would make allowing religious instruction particularly troublesome.

Because birds of a feather flock together and the members of many communities worship in the same way, there are minorities everywhere who would risk being big-footed by majorities who would want their local schools to reflect their religious preferences. Consequently, introducing any particular worship  or discussing even the history of religion in local schools  is a formula for discord, which public schools need like a new rat population.

Rather than debate about religion, we should focus on teaching students practical skills. In our increasingly integrated world, technology has brought diverse groups closer together, requiring individuals to go outside their bubbles and understand broader society.

And even if greater discussion of religion were permitted, would local school boards allow teachers to talk about religious groups outside the mainstream?

And what about Islam?

No shortage of libelous, ignorant rubbish is circulated about that religion and its adherents in the U.S. by groups including well-known entertainers, politicians and religious leaders. What would schools have to say about that?

But its not just Muslims who face discrimination.

My daughter recently gave me a study Bible as a gift. It includes a page that soberly explains why Mormonism is not a legitimate type of Christianity. And in addition to inter-Christian squabbling, there is anti-Semitism and assaults against Sikhs.

Us all getting along? The evidence is mixed.

The fact is, schools have their hands full with reading, writing and arithmetic.

For the foreseeable future, I think well have to make peace with the fact that, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, The most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 oclock on Sunday morning.

Max B. Sawicky is an economist specializing in public finance and privatization. Write him at Center for Economic Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, suite 400, Washington, D.C., 20009. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
Fresh changes in HPE Bill fail to convince Dr KC

As Dr Govinda KCs 11th fast-unto-death entered its 19th day on Friday, there were serious concerns about his health condition, with doctors attending to him continuously warning of possibility of life-threatening infections.
Heartless hoodlums

Every year, hundreds of thousands of families are displaced due to landslides and floods in this country but our incompetent government never takes any initiative to minimise such disasters.
NOC land purchase scam: House sub-committee says NOC violated procedure

A sub-committee under the parliamentary Bill Committee has concluded that Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) violated procedure when buying land to build fuel storage plants.
NEW HAVEN >> First responders on the scene of a drug overdose in Connecticut no longer are dealing simply with a medical emergency. The site of a suspected drug overdose in the state now is a crime scene.

More than 80 people believed to have sold drugs to victims of overdoses have been arrested on federal charges since February 2016, as the result of an initiative started by the U.S. attorneys office. All of those investigations into the alleged dealers began after an overdose caused by an opioid, cocaine, benzodiazepine, or combination thereof. Not all of the overdoses were fatal.

U.S. Attorney Deirdre Dalys office has worked to convict approximately 60 individuals that were charged with federal drug crimes as a result of an overdose in the last 19 months. Each of those defendants pleaded guilty. The rest of the cases still are working their way through the process, Daly said.

When asked whether the number of arrests, prosecutions and convictions since the initiative began have made a significant impact on the drug trade in the state, Daly said, Im not arrogant or naive enough to say yes.

But, we are in a new place now, Daly said, referring to the importance of continuing to try these cases. Death is different.

In 2016, more than 900 people died as a result of accidental drug intoxications, or overdoses, according to the medical examiner. Heroin was a factor in more than 500 of those deaths, and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, was a factor in 273, according to the data.

Updated statistics for 2017 have not been released by the state medical examiners office.

Daly often has said she does not believe her office can arrest the state out of an opioid crisis, and there has been a big push of educational outreach in schools by her office to bring the message about the dangers of prescription opioids and heroin to students and their parents.

Traditionally, her office focuses more on violent crime, but the initiative targeting dealers is one way to target those who are distributing lethal drugs on Connecticut streets, and the ripple effects are there as federal prosecutors look beyond the courtroom to bring awareness to the community, she said.

This was a very conscious decision, Daly said. If this many people are dying we need specific attention to these cases.

Working up the chain

On Jan. 3, 2016, first responders found a 20-year-old male in a friends house in Weston unresponsive as a result of an overdose of oxycodone and Xanax. While the victim remains in a vegetative state even more than one year later, the U.S. attorneys office tracked down not only the direct supplier of the oxycodone involved in the overdose, but two dealers up the supply chain.

Tahir Farid, 22, of Hamden was sentenced to six months in prison after it was found that he sold 30 oxycodone pills to the victim for $900. Farids supplier, Ryan Looney, 19, also of Hamden, was convicted of one count of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, oxycodone and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Looneys supplier, Wayne Bradbury, 32, also of Hamden, pleaded guilty in July to one count of distributing oxycodone and marijuana to an individual under 21 years of age and faces up to 40 years in federal prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spector said this Hamden case is one of the best examples of how the initiative the office has taken of targeting dealers directly related to overdoses has helped law enforcement work up the chain to prosecute more prominent dealers in the state.

Bradbury, the top dog in this case, also was convicted of money laundering charges, according to court documents.

Were doing both big and small, Daly said.

Daly said that, like in the Bradbury case, dealers often also are convicted of other charges, not just drug distribution charges.

In a case prosecuted this year, Ramon Gomez of Uncasville was convicted of sex trafficking of a minor and drug distribution charges after a 17-year-old girl died from an overdose in a motel room in Groton. Gomez faces at least 10 years in prison for the offenses.

Most defendants are charged with possession with intent to distribute or conspiracy to distribute, rather than a charge that indicates the dealer was responsible for the death of the victim in the case. Daly said because so many of the overdoses are caused by a combination of substances, its hard to show direct causation between a heroin dealer and a death.

In addition, if such charges were brought where the defendant was charged with causing the death of an individual, there is a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, Daly said. She said that seems too Draconian.

Spector, who has taken on a large quantity of these overdose cases, said he has been happy to see the initiative targeting dealers to victims of overdoses span outside of the federal courts and more overdose cases being taken up by state prosecutors.

Theres no reason they cant do state cases, as well, Spector said. For us, thats what our ultimate goal is. Everybody working on the same sheet of music.

Spector also said he doesnt measure the success of the initiative on the number of convictions the office is able to get.

My measure of success is to think in terms of lives saved, Spector said. If we can teach a generation not to smoke, we can teach kids not to use pills.

Ripple effects

More convictions leads to potentially more inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and more people tasked with readjusting to society after a period of incarceration.

Warren Maxwell, chief U.S. probation officer in New Haven, said at the federal level there is a wealth of resources for those leaving prison on supervised release, from support court to Reentry Court. For those looking for jobs, having a probation officer is a good selling point, he said.

We do work with our people to help them navigate the conversation about their conviction, Maxwell said. Theres a lot of great reasons to hire somebody on supervision. ... They have people working with them to ensure their success.

The prison time for those convicted of the drug distribution crimes due to this initiative have varied between probationary sentences and several years behind bars  even in a case in which it came to distributing the same batch of drugs.

For example, four men were charged with distribution offenses after a batch of cocaine was sold in New Haven in June 2016 that was laced with pure fentanyl. Three fatalities resulted from the sale of that particular batch of cocaine, and more than a dozen other people overdosed and were hospitalized from it.

While Frank Pina, the supposed leader of a conspiracy, will be in prison for the next seven years and Emeth Soloman, the bottom of the distribution chain in that case, only received a sentence of probation, both men have federal convictions on their record.

A period of incarceration, no matter how long, may have damaging effects, said Maxwell, citing new research about the topic. Maxwell said some research suggests that even if someone is only incarcerated for a couple of days while they wait for a bond hearing, the person may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

So, even a short sentence of only a couple of months because of a relatively minor drug crime can take its toll, he said.

Even short-term periods of incarceration can have negative impacts, Maxwell said.
WILTON  When Joan McCulloughs daughter was 8 years old, she developed a motor tic involving her fingers.

The Wilton mom noticed the involuntary movement was similar to that of her friends son, who had been diagnosed two years earlier with PANDAS  pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections.

Though McCullough had been a registered nurse for more than 20 years, this was her first time hearing about the disorder that describes children and adolescents who have obsessive compulsive disorder and/or tic disorders with severe accompanying symptoms  like anxiety, concentration problems and severely restricted food intake  that worsen as a result of untreated strep infections such as strep throat.

Even though her daughter showed no symptoms of the infection, her pediatrician found an active strain on her throat and diagnosed her with PANDAS. In fact, 85 percent of children with PANDAS that have strep throat dont show signs of symptoms, McCullough said.

Her daughters tic went away after taking antibiotics for three months. Antibiotics are recommended as the best treatment for acute episodes of PANDAS because it eradicates the strep infections causing the symptoms.

Thats why its so hard to diagnose (PANDAS) because you never associate a psychiatric illness like OCD or even a tic with an infection, McCullough said. But its going down that road now where were starting to see more and more mental illness is from brain inflammation.

More Information PANS/PANDAS Severe accompanying symptoms*: Separation anxiety Extreme mood swings Problems with attention and concentration Handwriting changes Bed-wetting Sleep disorders See More Collapse

Dr. Susan Swedo and her team at the National Institute of Mental Health were the first to identify PANDAS in 1998, through studies that showed a strong association between untreated strep throat and the uptick in the number of OCD cases with varied psychological behaviors stemming from brain inflammation around the basal ganglia. Swedo and others modified the criteria in 2010 to describe PANS, a larger class of acute-onset OCD cases that didnt require prepubertal onset or association with just streptococcal infections.

Yet, despite 30 years of research that support the validity of PANDAS, it remains a controversial disorder treated and recognized by a relatively small number of U.S. providers  though that number has been growing quickly in recent years, Swedo said.

Swedo said landscape of diagnosis and treatment had its turning point in 2013, when the conversation about PANS and PANDAS included a larger consortium of medical experts from multiple institutions, including Stanford, Mass General, Yale and Harvard, to name a few.

Then, in 2015, diagnostic guidelines were established and the initiative to open 10 PANS/PANDAS centers around the nation began.

The controversy should be over because of the strength of the evidence, Swedo said. And if it continues, I have no explanation because, honestly, we know more about PANS/PANDAS than about any other mental illness and the majority of physical illnesses.

Dr. Nancy OHara, a certified pediatrician at Center for Integrative Health in Wilton, is one of several physicians who treat patients with PANS/PANDAS in Connecticut. One of the biggest challenges for her is trying to get other practitioners to recognize and treat the disorder appropriately and early on. Even she approached the disorder with healthy skepticism at first, she said.

I was willing to try antibiotics, and once I saw improvement in that first child and the next five, 10, 20 and 100, then that certainly fortified my understanding of it, OHara said. And I think if pediatricians and physicians could start treating it, they would see the improvements in the kids and they would recognize that it is something that needs to be understood and treated appropriately.

OHara saw her first patient eight years ago and now sees several hundred with PANS/PANDAs, with one new patient a week. McCulloughs daughter was one of her patients.

I was lucky my pediatricians did know about PANDAS, McCullough said.

To help spread awareness among parents and in the community, McCullough leads a meet-up group at Coffee Barn every first Tuesday of the month, except during the summer. The group offers support to parents who have children with PANS/PANDAS or to those who have questions about the disorder. Sometimes, its simply lending an ear to a parent whos emotionally and financially drained, as insurance in Connecticut has yet to cover treatment for PANS/PANDAS.

The meeting is associated with the New England PANS/PANDAS Association, a group of parent and medical volunteers from the New England area focused on raising awareness of the disorder.

Gabriella True, president of the NEPANS, has a son who was diagnosed with PANS in first grade, several years after he was diagnosed with autism. Based on his progress over the years, with flares that are now far and few, she said shes optimistic about his future and the future of other children with the disorder.

Im hopeful for the future that we will have more and more doctors, especially after these treatment papers, and that care will be expanded, True said. The future may be slow, but its not grim.
Dear Annie: My husband of 44 years passed away from Alzheimers disease six years ago. I was a widow when I met him and had three small children, a son and two daughters. He had been divorced for 2-1/2 years and also had three children from a previous marriage, two sons and a daughter. The two boys came to live with us. The daughter, Alice, stayed with her mother.

Alice kept in close touch as long as we were supporting her financially. We noticed she seemed to be jealous of my children, especially my daughters. We tried to include her in all of our family gatherings. But after she got married  with a big church wedding that we paid for  we didnt hear from her very much. We didnt even get so much as a phone call from her on my husbands birthday or on Fathers Day.

A while back, my husband had a heart attack and was not allowed visitors in the hospital aside from me. Alice went into a rage. She told me he was her daddy and he had been taken away from her. I reminded her that I had nothing to do with their divorce. (Her mother asked for the divorce; she was having an affair.) It was very upsetting, to say the least.

Years later, toward the end of my husbands life, I let Alice know when he was put on hospice. She made one visit to see him. She lived an hour and a half away.

Ive not seen her since my husbands death. I have sent notes and tried to stay in touch. Her brothers passed away several years ago, and she was in contact with me about their assets, but thats all. When I heard her mother passed away, I sent a sympathy card.

My husband realized Alice did not really want to be a part of our lives (he even said, I know she doesnt really care about me), but he was such a wonderful father I felt that I should try keeping in touch with her out of respect for him. She doesnt have any children. Should I keep trying to stay in touch or just give up?

 A Stepmother

Dear Stepmother: It is sad that Alice has used you as an emotional scapegoat for all these years, and its sadder still that shes denying herself the love of a family member when she has no other family left.

Youve reached out and given her many chances to build a good relationship with you. Maybe one day shell come to her senses and want to reconnect. But until then, allow yourself to move on. Your husband wouldnt want to see you repeatedly hurt by his daughters rejections.

Dear Annie: You recently provided a very useful list of what a gentleman should wear to a wedding or event based on the dress code listed on the invitation. Could you do the same for women, please?

 Mary Lou

Dear Mary Lou: If its a white tie event, dress as if you were headed to the Oscars  with a full-length ballgown and carefully styled hair. For black tie outings, go with a long evening gown or an elegant black cocktail dress. If its formal, stick with a chic cocktail dress or long evening gown. Semiformal or cocktail means a cocktail dress. For a casual wedding, go with a sundress or dressy blouse and skirt. When in doubt, ask the host.

Annie Lane, a graduate of New York Law School and New York University, writes this column for Creators Syndicate. Email questions to dearannie@creators.com.
The Northwest school board will get its first look at the estimated general fund levy for the 2017-18 school district when it meets Monday night for its regularly scheduled August meeting.

Meanwhile, the legality of advisory board members may once again be questioned on Monday.

The new general fund levy is scheduled to drop to just over 82.2 cents per hundred dollars of property valuation, compared to just over 88.2 cents for the 2016-17 school year. The new levy would raise an estimated $8.34 million for the general fund, which is a decrease of $606,000 for the coming year.

The estimated building fund levy is just over 4.08 cents per hundred dollars of valuation, which is expected to bring in a total $414,000 or about $101,000 more than it did for the 2016-17 school year.

The proposed levy for the qualified capital purpose undertaking fund or QCPUF is just under 2.44 cents, which should generate $247,500 in property taxes. The proposed bond fund levy is just over 2.98 cents, which is expected to generate $317,140 in property taxes.

That places the total tax bill for the Northwest school district at more than $9.32 million, which would be $505,000 less than the total tax bill for the 2016-17 budget year. The total levy  general fund, building fund, qualified capital purpose undertaking fund, and bond fund  is an estimated just under 91.74 cents per hundred dollars of valuation compared to 96.71 cents per hundred for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

At this point, everything remains an estimate for the upcoming budget year because Northwest Public Schools business manager Sharon Placke does not have the final valuation for the district, which covers parts of Hall, Howard and Merrick counties.

The next step for the board will be to conduct a budget workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 23, after Placke and other Northwest officials learn the exact district valuation for 2017-18. The Northwest workshop is typically when the board makes unofficial  but often binding  budget recommendations.

The 2017-18 property tax askings, property tax levies and budget are officially set after the board conducts public hearings on those topics during its regular September meeting, which falls on Sept. 11 this year. However, all those hearings must be preceded by legal advertisements that show the proposed property taxes, property tax levies and budget.

As a result, most school board members are reluctant to make any changes as a result of its official public hearings, because that would require it to publish another round of legal advertisements. That also would also require the board to conduct a special meeting to officially adopt any revisions in property taxes, property tax levies and the budget.

In other action, the board will be asked to adopt a number of policies on how its operates. One of those policies says the board should have six members. However, it also says two advisory board members can be selected to represent the great number of option students who attend Northwest schools.

Randy Stueven, who began attending Northwest school board meetings to argue in favor of keeping Chapman School open, has continued to attend board meetings because of additional concerns, including the legality of those two advisory board members.

He noted that those advisory board member positions were originally created as the result of a 20-year contract signed by Northwest school officials and Grand Island school officials in 1984.

That contract was created after the city of Grand Island annexed five large parcels of land west of Highway 281, bringing those properties into the Grand Island school district. In 1984, Nebraska did not have an option enrollment law for public school students. Consequently, the contract was needed so that students in the annexation area could continue to attend Northwests K-8 feeder schools, as well as Northwest High School. The contract also provided for the election of two advisory board members from that same annexation area.

However, the contract lapsed in 2004, in large part because Nebraska had an option enrollment law by that time.

Stueven said with no contract and Nebraska law silent on the subject, the Northwest school district has no statutory authority to continue to elect advisory board members.

He pointed out that option enrollment students attend Northwest Public Schools not just from the original annexation area created in 1984, but from many other Grand Island neighborhoods. Option students also come from many neighboring school districts. As a result, Stueven has objected to restricting advisory board members to a so-called annexation area that existed 33 years ago.

The revised board policy now says selected, rather than elected, but Stueven still believes there is no statutory authority to have advisory board members on the Northwest board. He believes state statute only allows Northwest to select one or more student advisory members.

He also believes that advisory board members may run afoul of the law if they participate in an executive or closed sessions of the Northwest school board. Stueven said one reason to have an executive session for personnel is to protect the reputation of the staff member or staff members who are being discussed behind closed doors. He said that principle is violated when people who are not part of the Northwest board  or who even live in the school district  are allowed to attend a closed-door meeting on personnel.

Stueven said elected school board members are entitled to be indemnified against any legal action against. But because he is not sure advisory board members are allowed by statute, Stueven questions whether they would enjoy that same right to indemnification.
Lengthy checks ward off traders from Bhairahawa

Nepali traders have started shunning the Bhairahawa border crossing point to conduct trade with India due to lengthy security checks on the Indian side which have led to higher transportation costs, delayed deliveries and deterioration in the quality of goods.
A 28-year-old Grand Island man was transported via ambulance following a two-vehicle accident Friday morning at South Locust and Fonner Park Road.

Elvis Tobar Hernandez complained of neck pain, said Sgt. Kevin Sheeks of the Grand Island Police Department. A 3-year-old passenger in Hernandezs vehicle was taken to CHI Health St. Francis as a precautionary measure, Sheeks said.

The accident happened at about 10:55 a.m.

Alberto Rubi Perez, 20, was heading south on Locust in a 2008 Chevy Silverado, traveling in the left lane. Hernandez, in a 1997 Honda Accord, was heading east on Fonner Park Road, about to turn north on Locust.

Witnesses reported that the signal handling Locust Street traffic was red, Sheeks said. Perez was cited for a traffic violation.
With a large swath of Central Nebraska right in the path of the total solar eclipse coming on Aug. 21, I turned my attention to movies that hinge on eclipses.

I discovered that there are many films that try to depict an eclipse, some more successfully than others, but I focused on three for which the eclipse is the story, or at least a catalyst for the story.

My favorite is a true story, as is typically the case for me.

Einstein and Eddington, a 2008 HBO film that is available on HBO Go, tells the story of a total solar eclipse seen in Africa on May 29, 1919, and how it helped a scientist turn the worlds views of the universe inside out.

Everyone knows that Einstein is the creator of the theory of relativity. But few anymore know who Arthur Eddington was, even though Eddington was the astrophysicist who proved that Einsteins new theory about how the universe works was sound and made Einsteins fame possible.

Einstein up to that time had published little about his theories. He was a theoretician who was more comfortable theorizing on his own about huge conundrums than writing at length about his ideas and speaking to large groups about them.

But Eddington read his paper about special relativity and was fascinated with the impact that Einsteins theorizing could ultimately have on Isaac Newtons law of universal gravity. He became Einsteins champion, even though the young theoretician was German, Eddington was British and their countries opposition in the Great War made any collaboration between them seem unpatriotic.

Still, in 1919, with a total solar eclipse coming up, Eddington set out for Africa, convinced that he could prove Einsteins theory. He knew that if he took a photo of stars in the sky at night and then took another photo from the same location during a solar eclipse, a difference in the locations of the stars would prove that Einstein was right.

Eddington faced a roadblock when May 29 arrived that may be an issue for us here in Central Nebraska on Aug. 21, 2017  the weather. Rain and clouds threatened to make his trip a bust, but the rain stopped and the clouds moved away from the sun long enough for him to get two good photographs.

His comparison showed the stars in exactly the position Einsteins theory would predict and the German scientist went on to be considered the most influential scientist of the 20th century.

The depiction of the eclipse in this movie is fantastic. It shows exactly what we will see in Grand Island on Aug. 21, if the weather cooperates, and you dont even need special glasses to watch a movie eclipse.

Another movie in which an eclipse plays a big part in the storyline is Apocalypto, from 2006.

This fictional film is an exciting adventure story set at the time of the Mayans in Yucatan and Guatemala in the early 1500s.

A solar eclipse, a big surprise to the average Mayan of course, is used by the Mayan priests and rulers to demonstrate their power to the people. Theyre supposedly about to conduct human sacrifices to appease the gods because theyre suffering with disease and poor harvests, but when the eclipse happens, the priests spare the lives of the men they were about to sacrifice.

This can be seen as a classic example of the use of religion to control the masses in the ancient world.

But Ill also warn that this is a very gory movie, as would be expected, since the director is Mel Gibson.

A third movie featuring a solar eclipse is Barabbas from 1962.

Dino De Laurentiis, the films director, took the time to film the crucifixion scene for this movie about Jesus death and the criminal who was released in his place during a total solar eclipse on Feb. 15, 1961, in Italy.

Barabbas opens with the crucifixion of Christ. De Laurentiis only had one chance to shoot the scene because he was timing it with the actual eclipse, but everything, including the weather, went perfectly.

The resulting scene has the fantastic visual impact the director was seeking and sets the course for the whole movie.

Senior editor Bette Pore spends her weekdays at The Independent, but if shes not at work or home, chances are youll find her at the movies. Email her at bette.pore@theindependent.com.
A hearty Saturday Salute goes this week to Rachel Ziegler and Zion Lutheran Church in Worms who are working together to revitalize a mural created in Worms about 15 years ago.

The mural included both scenes indicative of Worms, Neb., and images from Worms, Germany. Ziegler created it back when her father was pastor at Zion Lutheran, painting it on a building that is owned by Dick Spiehs.

When Zion Lutherans members decided the mural needed to be redone after 15 years of weathering, they contacted Ziegler to see if she would do the project and Spiehs cooperated by giving them the go-ahead.

Now Ziegler, who lives in Texas but spends a lot of time with her parents who live in Omaha, is in the midst of a longterm project to create a mosaic mural made of glass and ceramic tiles. She said she chose tiles because she admired the Byzantine mosaics of the Middle Ages. She also imagined that maintaining the mural would be easier once the project is done.

The design will have an angel with arms wide open, with a Luther rose above the angel and the old skyline of Worms, Germany, and the Rhine River surrounding it. It also encompasses elements of corn and agriculture, depicting Nebraskas heritage.

This is a huge undertaking for Ziegler, who has spent considerable time at her parents home in Omaha cutting tiles and starting the design process. When shes in Worms working on the mural, she stays with Tim and Rosie Morthole in Palmer.

She hopes to have the angel, town, river and rose done before winter, but then the work in Worms will be on hold until spring.

Ziegler has also noted that she would like this to be a community project, so people are welcome to help put the mural together. Donations are also welcome and can be made to Zion Lutheran Church.

Trails to a healthier lifestyle

We also salute the Central District Health Department, Walk and Bike Grand Island, Central Community College-Grand Island Campus and the city of Grand Island for working together to put way-finding signs in five locations on the citys hike and bike trail.

The new signs are located in these places:

 John Brownell/Beltline Trailhead at South Cherry and East Sutherland streets

 Pier Park at the corner of West Bismark Road and South Pine Street

 St. Joe Trailhead near Ada Street and South Avenue

 CCC on the trail across from the main entrance of the campus center

 Hall County Park at its entrance from St. Joe Trail near the exercise equipment

Designed with the statewide brand Step & Repeat, they were installed and produced with help from the Grand Island Parks and Recreation Department and CCCs environmental sustainability staff through a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska grant.

The signs show how the trails can be used to reach certain locations in Grand Island, including Fonner Park, CCC and downtown.

A bicycle fix-it station also has been installed on the trail on the west side of Stuhr Museum under an oak tree, between Hall County Park and CCC. It offers cyclists a place to make minor repairs so they can keep going on the trail.

Grand Island has an excellent trail system. Its important to continue adding amenities that make it easier to use and encourage people to get out and be active.
It's not over. Thousands of uncounted ballots remain in Bucks, Montco

Bucks County officials do not anticipate all ballots cast Tuesday will be counted - or not - until next week. Leaving House key races in limbo
With school just around the corner, The Land of Goshen Rotary Club is lending a helping hand in providing school supplies.

Partnering with the Wildey Theatre, the LGRC will be hosting a showing of Cars, at 2 p.m., Sunday, August 13. The showing is free with a donation of school supplies.

The supplies will be given to the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Food Pantry, who will then hand out the supplies to children before school starts.

The film showing is open to all ages.

Economic/Community Development Director for the city of Edwardsville Walt Williams said although the Wildey has hosted similar events in the past, this is the first time the Goshen Rotary Club is participating.

This is the first time (the Wildey) has worked with the Goshen Rotary to show a movie to get donations for school supplies. They have done this in the past for the Edwardsville Rotary for the food drive but this is the first time for school supplies. That is actually where we got the idea from, Williams said.

The recommended supplies to bring to the event include number 2 pencils, combination locks, colored pencils, dry-erase markers, Elmers glue sticks and highlighters.

General Manager of the Wildey Theatre Al Canal said he is hoping the community gets behind the event.

Im hoping for a good turnoutIts the last week before school starts so it gives everybody one last chance for a family outing and it definitely helps the less fortunate in the community, especially the kids, Canal said.

The movie, Cars, was picked for the showing after receiving several requests, according to Canal.

Its a good movie for kids and adults and we had a few people suggest Cars. I guess it was on their minds because the new Cars came out not that long ago, Canal said.

If the event goes well, Williams said it could be an annual event at the Wildey prior to every school season.

(If all goes well), this will be an annual event. Probably have it a week earlier, but have different organizations help to (provide) school supplies for the food pantry. Were trying to just contribute to that so they have more to give out, Williams said.

If youre unable to make it to the Cars showing, Canal said the theatre is also accepting cash or check donations to go toward the school supplies. Donations can be dropped off at the Wildey the day of the event.

For more information about the event, contact the Wildey Theatre at 618-307-2053. To learn more about the LGRC, visit its website at www.thegoshenrotary.org.
Petro dealers end protest after deal with NOC

Operators of the gasoline stations called off their protest on Friday after the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) agreed to increase the commission margin on the shrinkage loss.
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 12, 2017 10:39 1919 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac5e932 1 Art & Culture art-stage,Art-Stage-Jakarta,Art-Stage-Jakarta-2017,#artstage,art,#art,arts-and-culture,#ArtsandCulture Free

The second installment of Art Stage Jakarta officially opened on Friday at the Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel in South Jakarta.

Slated to run until Sunday, the three-day art fair features prominent galleries, such as Japans Shugoarts and Mizuma Gallery, South Koreas Arario Gallery, as well as local galleries like Edwins Gallery, Nadi Gallery, CANs Gallery and more.

Among a myriad of paintings, sculptures, installations and special projects, The Jakarta Post discovered seven local galleries that should not be missed by art enthusiasts as they present awe-inspiring artworks.

Curious much? Below is the list of seven local galleries to check out at the 2017 Art Stage Jakarta.

D Gallerie

'Cangklong Kesayangan' sketch by Affandi. (JP/Jessicha Valentina)

Twelve Indonesian maestros, namely Affandi, Basuki Abdulah, Batara Lubis, Fadjar Sidik, Harijadi Sumadidjaja, Henk Ngantung, Hendra Gunawan, Itji Tarmizi, Lee Man Fong, Sudjana Kerton, S. Sudjojono and Widayat, lived in an era when canvas was a rarity due to economic restriction and the countrys independence revolution, leading them to sketch or draw on papers with pen and pencil.

For this years event, D Galleries presents drawings and sketches on paper from these maestros in an exhibition titled Frozen in Time  the last line from Chairil Anwars poem Yang Terampas dan Putus (Some are Plundered, Some Escape). Here, art enthusiasts can learn how each artist used sketches as a medium of documentation to record the atmosphere of war and daily life during the revolution.

Read also: Heres what you shouldnt miss at 2017 Art Jakarta

Rachel Gallery

A post shared by rachelgallery (@rachelgallery.ind) on Jul 25, 2017 at 1:46am PDT

Those loving ceramic sculptures may have a look at the works of Bandung-based artist Argya Dhyaksa at Rachel Gallerys booth.

Inspired by pop culture and daily lives, the artist turns porcelains into satirical sculptures, such as Rice Cake Racing (literally means Surabaya-dish lontong balap) or Piring Binting (Stir Wirs), a parody of Star Wars.

Bale Project

'Hallucinogenic' installation by Titaribu. (JP/Jessicha Valentina)

Art enthusiasts should not miss Bale Project's booth as it features one-of-a-kind artworks, such as Hallucinogenic installation by Titaribu. Featuring giant robe made from gold plated nutmegs, the installation transports visitors to the colonial era, reminding them with Gold, Glory and Gospel motivations.

In addition to Titaribus installation, Bale Project also showcases Paintings of Fame series by Sunaryo, featuring the countrys leaders from time to time, namely Sukarno, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Joko Jokowi Widodo.

Srisasanti Syndicate

A post shared by Suroso Isur (@surosoisur) on Jun 13, 2017 at 3:21am PDT

In the 2017 Art Stage Jakarta, Yogyakarta-based gallery Srisasanti Syndicate presents artworks by local artists, including Heri Dono, Suroso Isur, Djoko Pekik and Ronald Manullang.

Though Suroso is the youngest among the artists featured in the exhibition, his art piece could easily compete with the seniors. Presenting artwork titled Killing Sudjojono, the piece features selected parts from 28 Sudjojono masterpieces, which were studied and repainted by Suroso. The idea derived from Suroso's admiration towards the legendary painter as well as his frustration upon seeing people irresponsibility copied Sudjojonos paintings.

Read also: How BEKRAF and Art Jakarta 2017 supported emerging Indonesian artists

Art:1

A post shared by Art:1 New Museum (@art1newmuseum) on Aug 11, 2017 at 7:25am PDT

This year, Jakarta-based Art: 1 gallery showcases a solo exhibition by Nyoman Erawan.

Presenting a series of paintings titled Shadow Dance, Nyoman collaborated limited expressive brushstrokes with inlay work, making the abstract pieces look striking. A closer look reveals that the canvas appears to bulge in or out with elements of Balinese culture, adding uniqueness to the artworks.

Zola Zolu Gallery

'Keberagaman itu Indah (Diversity is Beautiful)' by Arifien Neif. (JP/Jessicha Valentina)

Zola Zolu Gallery presents artworks from Richard Winkler and Arifien Neif.

The former is known for his vivid colors and Balinese-themed paintings, such as women walking home from the rice fields, tropical fruits sellers and more.

As for the latter, Arifien is recognized for his Fauvism style. In the 2017 Art Stage Jakarta, Arifien presents an interesting piece titled Keberagaman itu Indah (Diversity is Beautiful), displaying the 72nd Indonesian Independence Day in a new capital' Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. The artist told The Post that the piece was inspired by recent events and Jokowi's plan to move the state capital to Palangkaraya.

In addition to Keberagaman itu Indah, Arifien also presents artworks inspired by his recent trip to Europe.

Ruci Artspace

A post shared by Blessed and grateful (@mochtarsarman) on Aug 11, 2017 at 9:06am PDT

Fans of contemporary arts may want to check out Mochtar Sarmans works at Ruci Artspace. This time around, Mochtar artworks revolve around Japanese manga Astro Boy and Slam Dunk.

However, unlike the usual painting, the artist collaborated ChromaDepth 3D art into the artworks. The former would turn into animation once one put on an Augmented Reality glasses. As for the latter, the Slam Dunk 2D painting would turn into 3D when it is seen through 3D glasses. (kes)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 12 2017

It is confirmed! The dancing water fountain at the National Monument (Monas) will enliven the city once again on Saturday night after ceasing operations around a decade ago.

Monas management head Sabdo Kurnianto told The Jakarta Post on Friday that Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat would attend the inauguration at 7 p.m. at the Monas compound in Gambir, Central Jakarta.

Yes, it is true [that the dancing fountain will be inaugurated on Saturday night], Sabdo said. The renovation of the fountain, which was once so popular that it inspired a song composition by dangdut musician Rhoma Irama, was initiated by former governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 12 2017

The police have intensified their operations to hunt down and arrest drug dealers and users, including celebrities, as they step up their game in the fight against drug abuse.



Since early this year, the Jakarta Police have arrested at least 15 actors and musicians for alleged drug consumption. The drugs in circulation include crystal methamphetamine, marijuana and psychotropic substances such as Happy Five and Dumolid.



The most recent arrest was made by the South Jakarta Police, which detained singer Marcello Ello Tahitoe, 34, for alleged possession of marijuana. The police have named him a suspect.



Ello, who rose to fame with after remaking the song Pergi untuk Kembali (Leave to Return) in 2008, was caught at a house in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta, with two other men, DM and RGG, on Sunday.



The police seized from them two packages, each containing five grams of marijuana.



The police released RGG afterwards due to lack of evidence.



From the investigation, they admitted to buying marijuana for Rp 200,000 [US$15] per package. They made the transaction near a university in South Jakarta, South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Iwan Kurniawan said.



Ello admitted he had been using marijuana since his university days for recreational purposes,

Iwan said.



The police will conduct tests on Ello to see whether he can be rehabilitated, while they press charges against him for drug abuse, Iwan added.



Despite the frequent busts against celebrities, South Jakarta Police drug unit head Comr. Vivick Tjangkung said the police did not specifically target celebrities in their operations. The police will act firmly against all drug users regardless of their background, she said.



A lawyer with the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat), Yohan Misero, said the arrest showed the police were trying to restore their image, which has lately been marred because of their failure to solve some cases, including the acid attack against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel

Baswedan.



However, the police should not only focus on tracking down drug users. More importantly, they should hunt down the drug dealers, he said.



National Police commission member Poengki Indarti said the polices move to arrest and expose celebrity drug users was in line with President Joko Jokowi Widodos and National Police chief Tito Karnavians tough stance against drug distribution.



The arrest could disseminate a message to the public to avoid consuming drugs, she said.



As celebrities are public figures, the public can see that to consume drugs is not right. The arrests can also prevent the public from using drugs, she said.



On July 22, Jokowi ordered law enforcers to shoot drug dealers on site, especially foreigners, and offer them no mercy.



Last Tuesday, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Idham Azis said he would dismiss his subordinates if they failed to handle drug trafficking in the capital.



Nanda Persada, the head of the Association of Indonesian Artists Managers (IMARINDO), said celebrities were prone to drug abuse due to the nature of their jobs, which demanded physical endurance and often triggered depression.



As an example, an actor who stars in a soap opera must work from early dawn without enough time to rest.



They could not take their jobs for granted because of the tight competition between actors, he said.



Sometimes, the actors cannot sleep because they are too exhausted. So they consume certain kinds of drugs to help them, Nanda said.



He added that it was easy for artists to get drugs, as drug traffickers often targeted them due to their glamorous lifestyles.

_________________________



Celebrities arrested for drug abuse:



 Aug. 3: Couple Tora Sudiro and Mieke Amalia are arrested for allegedly possessing and consuming Dumolid without a doctors prescription.



 July 17: Model Axel Matthew Thomas is arrested for allegedly possessing Happy Five



 July 16: Actress Pretty Asmara and seven artists are arrested for allegedly consuming crystal meth, ecstasy and Happy Five

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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 12, 2017 11:01 1919 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac5feb9 1 Guide To Jakpost-guide-to,kramat-pela,South-Jakarta,salon,spa,cafe,#JakpostGuideTo Free

Jl. Kramat Pela in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, is nestled between Blok M Square and Gandaria City mall. At its east end, the road begins on a bend, turning from Jl. Barito II into Jl. Kramat Pela.

The Jakarta Post explored the relatively short road and continued on until Jl. Gandaria I to the west, stopping just at the intersection with Jl. Gandaria Tengah III.

Several spots mentioned are not located along the aforementioned stretch but are also worth visiting as they are unique to the neighborhood.

Fantasia, a kindergarten on Jl Gandaria I, South Jakarta, on July 27. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

Although it is commonly a go-to area for local residents, with schools, eateries and grocers, Jl. Kramat Pela and its neighboring streets are host to interesting spots for relaxation, with must-visit spas and cafes.

How to get there

Buses 939, AC89 and P21 stop along Jl. Kramat Pela. It is also convenient to use app-hailing rides to get there.

Read also: Jakpost guide to Jl. Radio Dalam

What to wear

If you choose to explore the area by foot, it is highly recommended to wear sturdy walking shoes and comfortable casual clothes, such as a T-shirt and jeans. The roads are usually packed with traffic, especially during rush hour. Mind your step, as the stretch has narrow sidewalks.

What to buy

Jl. Kramat Pela and its neighboring streets are host to a wide variety of shops, ranging from basic daily necessities to pampering places.

People have treatments at the Dr Eva Mulia beauty clinic on Jl Gandaria I, South Jakarta. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

The Eva Mulia beauty center on Jl. Gandaria I is a popular establishment specializing in skin care, providing quality facials since the 1990s. On the second level, the building is home to the recently opened M3 Salon and Spa, which is part of the Eva Mulia company.

M3 itself provides a wide range of services at affordable prices, including hair care, nail treatments and body scrubs and massages. Special pampering packages cost approximately Rp 200,000 (US$15) and include a combination of three treatments.

The Eva Mulia beauty center is a popular establishment specializing in skin care, providing quality facials since the 1990s. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

It also prides itself on quality waxing services, as it uses organic products from Italy, which include a four-step routine to prep the skin and slow down regrowth. Waxing prices start at Rp 90,000 for underarms to Rp 260,000 for a Brazilian wax.

A popular newcomer in the area is Everlash, an eyelash salon for those wanting long and flirty lash extensions. Prices range from Rp 650,000 to Rp 1.2 million, depending on lash quality. The extensions last for approximately one month.

It's not only adults who can be pampered, as the George Shella Spa provides spa services for babies and toddlers. Babies aged two to 11 months can enjoy the swimming and massage package, which lasts one hour at a cost of Rp 270,000.

One to five-year-olds, meanwhile, can enjoy a bubble bath and chocolate scrub package, which is also one hour in duration and costs Rp 280,000.

For parents, there are mommy and daddy massage packages, as well as mommy and baby massages, all ranging from Rp 450.000 to Rp 1 million.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for something different than your average groceries to pamper your taste buds, there is Hanil Mart, a Korean minimarket that sells authentic products from Korea. Since it first opened 15 years ago, the store has been the go-to spot to get ingredients such as kimchi chili powder and various sauces.

Read also: 5 best day spas in Jakarta

Since it first opened 15 years ago, the Hanil Mart has been the go-to spot to get ingredients such as kimchi chili powder and various sauces. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

What to eat

There are several cafes along the stretch, generally serving typical Western-style culinary, ranging from coffee, snacks and cakes to main course meals.

One Fifteenth Coffee, or 1/15, is one of the most well-known cafes in the city that specializes in quality coffee using local and imported coffee beans.

The spacious open floor setting makes for a comfortable spot to hang out or work while enjoying a meal. The cafe also serves pasta, salads and all-day breakfast, such as ricotta hotcakes and avocado on toast.

Meanwhile My Coffeegram is a smaller cafe alternative, serving its signature roasted local coffee beans, including from Bali and Toraja. It also sells bottled brews for take away.

But if you're looking for something different and uniquely Indonesian, take a little detour to Jl. Petogogan I, the intersection is located right in the middle of Jl. Kramat Pela.

Read also: Damn fine coffee! 6 places in Jakarta to get your caffeine fix

Customers enjoy food and jamu (herbal drinks) at Suwe Ora Jamu cafe. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

A short walk down the street is Suwe Ora Jamu, a cozy cafe specializing in jamu (traditional herbal medicine).

First-time drinkers looking to try something light and sweet might want to give a glass of rosella a taste. Its most popular drinks, meanwhile, include, kunyit asam (tamarind and turmeric), beras kencur (mixed rice and herbal tea), wedang jahe (ginger drink) and alang-alang grass.

There are also light snacks to nibble on, such singkong goreng (deep fried cassava).

If you don't have time to sit down, the store also sells bottled jamu in various flavors and sizes. Upstairs, the establishment hosts jamu making classes every two weeks, with the next class scheduled for Aug. 12.

It also has a jamu bar at Paviliun 28, a quirky cafe and cinema joint located across the road from Suwe Ora Jamu.

Tips

If you're planning to explore the area on foot, protect yourself against the sun and put on sunscreen and wear a hat.

Bring bottled water to stay hydrated while you walk around.

The sidewalks are narrow on some sections of the road, so be mindful of your step. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sat, August 12, 2017 19:03 1918 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ac67998 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Gunungkidul,yogyakarta-tourism,spa-treatment Free

In an effort to boost spa tourism in Ngalanggeran tourist village, Gunungkidul, a total of 20 local women from Purba Ayu Spa have been chosen to receive training from Putri Kedaton Team led by Lastiyani Warih Wulandari.

These women are set to become a therapist for Gunung Api Purba Spa tour package, hence would be taught the skills of massaging, such as foot, hand and back massages.

The group will also learn how to create scrub and mask products, as well as spa food and beverages.

Read also: Riau Islands sees increase in number of international tourists

Lastiyani herself has been doing a lot of women-empowerment activities in villages in Yogyakarta, such as Sleman and Gunungkidul. As she head of Yogyakarta's Indonesian Spa Therapists Association (ASTI), she's on a mission to promote the image of spa as a clean and healthy activity with certified therapists.

By turning Gunungkidul into a spa haven, it is hoped that tourists will take a longer stay there since up until now people often visit the area for a one-day trip only.

Gunungkidul itself is famous as home to 50 beaches located along the southern coast. For example, Siung Beach is known as one the best sites for rock-climbing in the ASEAN region, Nglambor Beach is popular for snorkeling activity, Jogan Beach has a waterfall facing the Indian Ocean, and Sundak Beach is known for its lobsters.

Lately, Gunungkidul is also known as a place for cave tubing. There are three caves where visitors can do this activity, namely Pindul, Bejiharjo and Kalisuci caves. (kes)
Safe haven

Rakib arrived in Nepal in April last year with just a mobile phone and few change of clothes in his small backpack. Among many countries, he chose Nepal because the country is progressive in regards to LGBTI rights and because he could afford the air tickets and living expenses for a short while
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe works on very important principle: no one is denied entry. Unlike most festivals, students from universities around the country are given the chance to stage their work to an international audience, helping to give exciting work from young creatives more visibility.

In 1947, the festival was started after eight performance groups were denied entry to the Edinburgh International Festival. As a result, they performed on the fringes of the festival and now, 70 years later, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the worlds largest arts events.

Naturally, this allows a huge range of performers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, sexual identities, and age groups to perform. Its become a hotspot for student theatre and has given hundreds of young performers the kick-start they needed to start a career in the industry.

Here is our roundup of the most exciting student theatre to see at the 2017 festival, from sperm to Berlin to Oscar Pistorius.

War of the Sperms

Nine sperms. One egg. One winner.

This is a sweet and salty comedy about nine sperms in training school, following their lives as they prepare for The Great Sperm Race. Written by Lewis Wilding, a drama student at UEA, War of the Sperms is a bonkers exploration of our earliest selves.

More info here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/war-of-the-sperms





Pistorius: A Shakespearean Tragedy

Performed in Elizabethan English and Shakespeares famous metre, students at the University of St Andrews have turned the downfall of Oscar Pistorius into a tragedy to rival the likes of Macbeth and Hamlet, told from the perspective of three cackling news anchors.

More info here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/pistorius-a-shakespearean-tragedy

The Inevitable Quiet of the Crash

This musical is performed by current students and recent graduates from St Catherines College, Oxford. It tells the story of three women living in London who, after a tragic train crash, come to terms with love, loss, and grief. With an all-female cast, this critically acclaimed musical exposes our addiction to consumer driven society.

More info here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22The%20Inevitable%20Quiet%20of%20the%20Crash%22

Walls

Already, Walls has won awards at the London Student Drama Festival earlier this year. Intersecting between the past and the present, Walls is set in Eastern Berlin in 1989 and the Calais Jungle in 2016. We see a girl attempt to cross the Berlin Wall from east to west and a young Afghan boy try to reach his family in the UK, exploring how young people have been denied freedom from physical and political borders.

More info here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Walls%22

Pornography

Four explosions, 52 casualties, an hour that changed Britain.

Marking the 10th anniversary of Simon Stephenss harrowing masterpiece, this production of Pornography is performed by students and alumni from the Lincoln School of Performing Arts. It gives a kaleidoscopic portrait of London in the aftermath of the July 7th bombings, offering new perspectives in post-Brexit Britain.

More info here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/pornography-by-simon-stephens
Stephen King has become one of the great authors of modern time and film studios have tried to capitalise on that success by adapting his best-selling books into feature films.

Not all attempts at this have been successful with 1992s atrocious Sleepwalkers being a prime example and The Shining, whilst being a great movie in its own right, failing to keep to its source material, even according to King himself.

Luckily there are a bunch of great Stephen King adaptations out there, and with The Dark Tower and IT quickly approaching, now is a great time to look back at some of them. Here, then, are five of the best Stephen King adaptations.

1) Stand By Me (1986)

Based on Kings novel The Body which released in 1986, Stand By Me remains one of the best Stephen King Movies out there. A heartfelt story that mainly follows four boys on a journey to recover the body of a dead peer, the film successfully tells a much deeper story of friendship and growth.

The film is so relatable in how it presents its characters; four young people who are all crossing into adolescence and come from different, troubled backgrounds. The way the movie depicts each of the leads and follows them through an important point in their lives, can be quite emotional at times.

The theme present throughout is the value of friendship and the young actors, Will Wheaton as Gordie, River Phoenix as Chris, Corey Feldman as Teddy and Jerry OConnell as Vern, all do a fantastic job of making their camaraderie believable and meaningful. Whilst this is probably one of the most grounded Stephen King adaptations, it is undoubtedly one of the best.

2) Misery (1990)

1990s Misery is arguably one of the scariest Stephen King films. Telling the intense story of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) who, after a car crash in the mountains, is rescued then held hostage by the dangerously obsessed Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates).

Kathy Bates put in a chilling performance, deservedly winning an Oscar for her efforts. Every time she is on screen she brings a sense of dread that makes the audience uneasy as to what her character will do next. She rightfully steals the show despite Caan also being excellent as the helpless Sheldon.

The film masterfully builds tension by having Sheldon fight small battles with Annie throughout. This makes it all the more satisfying when everything occasionally boils over and Annie descends further into madness in a couple of explosive scenes that have since become iconic.

Misery, surprisingly, remains the only Stephen King adaptation to win an academy award.

3) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Often hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, The Shawshank Redemption is based off of Kings 1982 short story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Following Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover, the film is an epic tale of friendship and justice.

The film does a fantastic job at creating a believable bond between Dufresne and his fellow inmates, so much so that even with the more minor characters such as Brooks (James Whitmore), we care what happens to them.

This makes it all the more devastating when the film confronts the realities of prison life, which at times are depicted brutally. This however makes it all the more satisfying when we get the massively satisfying ending, which is flawlessly put together.

Morgan Freeman gives one of his most iconic performances here as Red whilst Tim Robbins is fantastic as what is a great protagonist in Andy. The Shawshank Redemption, is not only the best Stephen King film out there, it is also one of the greatest films of all time.

4) The Green Mile (1999)

Often compared unfairly to The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen Kings other prison film directed by Frank Darabont is in its own right a great movie. The film is told from the perspective of prison guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) as he re-tells the supernatural events that occurred on death row whilst the prisoner John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) was awaiting execution for the murder of two girls.

The Green Mile is quite possibly the saddest Stephen King film and is certainly one that shows off more of the authors supernatural storytelling. The movie showcases many iconic characters with Doug Hutchinsons cruel prison guard Percy, Michael Jeters sympathetic Eduard being memorable and of course Michael Clarke Duncan's excellent performance as the simple yet sweet John Coffey.

The film is incredibly dark in its themes, more so even than Shawshank before it, but despite all this it still manages to tell a touching story that, whilst being incredibly sad, is still worth definitely worth seeing.

5) The Mist (2007)

Now for Frank Darabonts third Stephen King movie and one of the most criminally underrated of the entire authors adapted works, The Mist. After strange mist rolls into the small town of Bridgton hiding deadly creatures, David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) become trapped in a supermarket as society begins to break down around them.

Filmed and written more in the style of a B-Movie, The Mist is not for the faint hearted as beneath its cheesy surface, it tackles themes that questions societys ability to hold itself together in the event of a crisis. The tension mounts throughout as people quickly turn on one another, with the supermarket David and his son are trapped in, acting as a microcosm for society as a whole.

The film should be watched in black and white as it was intended by Darabont as it adds to its B-Movie feel whilst covering over some of the lower budget CGI. This movie is given far less credit than it deserves and is most certainly one of Kings more disturbing stories.

These are just a handful of the many Stephen King adaptations out there. With The Dark Tower being the first in a planned series, and with IT Part 2 lined up for next year, we can hope that many more directors will take note of the authors huge collection of works and keep putting his enthralling stories on the big screen.
Teela Sanders, University of Leicester and Lucy Platt, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Romina Kalachi, a 32-year-old woman, was stabbed to death in her own home on May 29, 2017. She was killed in her flat in Kilburn, London and is the latest known sex worker to be murdered in the UK.

Shutterstock Sex workers deserve justice and protection, too.

In 2007, Hilary Kinnell wrote a book chapter, Murder Made Easy, followed by her important book Violence and Sex Work in Britain , an accumulation of research and practice-based knowledge about the extent of violent crimes and homicides against sex workers in the UK. She reported comprehensively the nature of violence against sex workers, who the perpetrators were and heavily criticised the legal context in which sex workers worked.

A decade on, the reality is that those working in the commercial sex industry likely remain the most at risk of violent crime.

As part of a Wellcome Trust funded project reviewing the occupational risks of sex workers compared to those in other risky professions, my colleagues Dr Lucy Platt, Stewart Cunningham, Pippa Grenfell and Dr PG Macioti and I analysed a database of sex worker homicides in the UK between 1990 and 2016. The data are curated by National Ugly Mugs , a reporting mechanism for crimes against sex workers. In the absence of a comprehensive police database, we believe that it may be the most accurate existing resource for understanding these extreme crimes. Of the 180 victims in the database, we classified 110 as known occupational homicide cases  that is to say, they were murdered while engaging in sex work.

We found that women accounted for the clear majority of victims (105), with only two male and three trans victims. Overall, the vast majority of victims (85) were also street-based sex workers.

This trend remained consistent during the decades 1990-1999 and 2000-2009 even when total number of reported homicides nearly doubled (from 28 between 1990-1999 to 50 in 2000-2010), reflecting the increased vulnerability of street-based sex workers.

Recent trends

Since 2011, proportionally more indoor sex workers have been murdered (ten, or 59%) than street-based sex workers (seven, or 41%)  and the majority of murdered indoor workers were working alone. This is likely to be because most sex work now happens indoors as street markets have declined and the internet has become the preferred place for advertising and marketing. It may also be the case that working alone indoors presents greater risks.

Overall, the numbers killed whilst working in the current decade (2011-2016) is suggesting a decreasing trend with 18 homicides (16 of them cisgender women victims) compared to other decades. Since 2011, there has been a significant shift to indoor working only, and different forms of online sex work , such as webcamming, that do not require physical contact. There were also fewer serial killer murders reported than in the previous decade.

The static nature of murders so far this decade reflects the overall homicide rate in the England and Wales which been stable for a similar period  ranging from 533 to 574 recorded murders a year , apart from a spike in 2015-16 when the number rose to 723.

Our other key finding is that the proportion of homicide victims with a migrant background has increased in recent years. In the 20 years between 1990 and 2009, only 6% (five individuals) of sex work occupational homicide victims (where nationality/migration status is known) were migrants, compared to 94% (77) who were British born. Since 2010, however, the proportion of migrant victims has dramatically increased with eight of the last 18 victims coming from a migrant background.

This may reflect changes in the overall makeup of the sex industry, with increasing numbers of migrant workers working in it, and/or suggest that offenders are specifically targeting migrants because of their potentially increased vulnerability

One positive finding was that the solve rate for sex worker occupational homicide improved substantially in the 2000s. Since 2006, all 34 occupational homicide cases were solved with the offender in question convicted and given lengthy and sometimes multiple life sentences.

But there should be no perpetrators to sentence. These homicide patterns must be considered against the broader evidence of how the justice system in the UK (and other jurisdictions) increases the risks and vulnerabilities faced by those involved in the sex industry. Laws that make involvement in the sex industry criminalised means that safety can never be prioritised.

Where a legal system stigmatises, marginalises and pushes into the shadows those in the industry , sex workers are made vulnerable by their treatment as partial citizens. Hate crimes against sex workers are prevalent on an everyday basis through physical attacks, online abuse and harassment, largely because sex workers are not treated as equal citizens worthy of the same protection and rights as those working in other professions.

Policing strategies also have to be scrutinised when we question why sex workers are considered easy targets who will not report crimes against them. It is clear that for both street and indoor sex workers, enforcement led policing creates barriers to reporting crime and the law offering adequate protection

Without Without legal reform , which moves on from the simple ideology that prostitution is wrong and towards a legal and policy framework which addresses the practicalities of sexual labour in the 21st century, such tragedies will continue to occur.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Eleanor Formby, Sheffield Hallam University

What does the phrase LGBT community mean to you? Chances are if you dont identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans yourself, you might think about what youve seen on TV  so Queer as Folk, Orange is the New Black, or The L Word , to name a few TV hits. It might also bring to mind images of brightly coloured rainbow flags or Pride parades.

Living in a rainbow of chaos. shutterstock

But just stop for a minute and think about how often youve heard someone talk about the heterosexual community? Rarely I imagine  but the term LGBT community, or sometimes gay community, is frequently used by pretty much everyone.

This might not sound like a big deal  after all its just a phrase used to identify a large group of people, right? But herein lies the problem, because after carrying out my latest research , which involved over 600 LGBT participants from across the UK, Im not sure that community is a very suitable word for such a diverse group of people.

And as I explain in my new book, Exploring LGBT spaces and communities , the term LGBT community can be understood in many different ways, and can mean many different things to many different people.

A sense of place

In my research , people often said they experienced the community part of the phrase as an actual physical space. This could be a particular geographical area such as Brighton or San Francisco, or could relate to places frequented by LGBT people  such as bars and clubs  often referred to as the scene.

People I spoke to also reported experiencing this community aspect as part of a virtual space  such as online, or even in an imagined sense  in that LGBT people were thought to share something.

Shutterstock

People revealed how they often had fears or negative expectations of wider society. And that this is in part why they invest in the idea of an LGBT community  as somewhere where they could feel safe and understood.

But the term does not capture differences and complexities of experience. It can also wrongly suggest some form of shared experience, which for some people can be frustrating because it seems to ignore their experiences of inequality or discrimination within  or exclusion from  so-called LGBT community.

LGBT and beyond

Then there is also the issue of the acronym LGBT itself, as it excludes a lot of people  such as those who identify as queer or intersex. And it was clear in my research that some people feel less welcomed within this acronym. Even those who do feature within these four letters  notably bisexual and trans people  can often feel marginalised by lesbian and gay people, and like that they dont really belong to such a community.

People also spoke about their quest to find this community  with many trying and failing to discover such a thing. The idea of an LGBT community suggests that people who identify in this way should feel part of something. If they dont it can compound negative experiences.

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Many participants in my research also talked about experiencing discrimination from other LGBT people relating to their age, body, disability, ethnicity, faith, HIV status, or perceived social class. So although the phrase implies that LGBT people somehow automatically belong to a ready made community  this is simply not the case.

A group of people

It is clear then that community belonging is not a given just because people share a gender or sexual identity. And this is why the notion of LGBT community is problematic. As someone I interviewed argued:

The idea doesnt exist, its a kind of big myth  a bit like saying theres a brown-eyed community or a blonde community.

In this way, then, the use of the term LGBT community could alienate some people and even risks deterring LGBT (and other) people from engaging with services aimed specifically at them. As another participant said:

I find anyone who uses this language dubious and with doubtful intention.

This is not to say that we should abandon the phrase altogether, but often using LGBT people would be more accurate  and would not risk alienation felt by an already (at times) marginalised group of people. This is not to say that we should abandon the phrase altogether, but often using LGBT people would be more accurate  and would not risk alienation felt by an already (at times) marginalised group of people.

Eleanor Formby, Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Education, Sheffield Hallam University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A class shaped hole exists across the performing arts industry in Britain, a diversity report has found.

Widespread action by government, drama colleges, HMRC, broadcasters, film companies and theatres is needed to counter a diversity crisis across performing arts according to Labour Party research, Acting Up.

Led by the partys MPs Tracy Brabin, an ex-Coronation Street actress, and Gloria De Piero, a former ITV journalist, Acting Up lays out a series of recommendations including urging the government to take action over a drop in the number of GCSE students studying drama.

Labour MP Tracy Brabin and deputy leader Tom Watson (Anna Gowthorpe/PA)

It also calls on the Arts Council to stop funding projects which pay poverty wages and the need for a targeted review by Her Majesties Revenue and Customs into enforcing the application of the national living wage across the industry.

The report took evidence from a number of on-screen and behind-the-scenes talent including actress and star of The Good Wife, Cush Jumbo, who revealed she was told her south London accent was lazy during her time at drama school and described the experience as the first time she realised I was of colour.

Ms De Piero and Ms Brabin said the report shows the arts is increasingly dominated by a narrow set of people from well off backgrounds.

Ms Brabin warned a carousel of the same stories would continue if action was not taken to increase the amount of working class, disabled and diverse talent.

Cush Jumbo (Anthony Devlin/PA)

The research, commissioned by the partys deputy leader and shadow culture secretary, Tom Watson, found an example of the Arts Council funding a project which paid workers or performers as little as 100 a week for eight weeks full-time work.

Citing the release of the BBC top paid on-screen talent in highlighting the gender and black, Asian and minority ethnic pay gaps, the report calls for a more comprehensive approach to diversity data collection across film, TV, theatre and drama schools in order to form a clearer picture of the current make-up of the performing arts.

Other key recommendations include:

:: An increase in funding for schools to take students on free trips to the theatre.

:: Reforming the application process for drama schools which currently charge audition fees of up to 100.

:: A revamp of the EBacc  a school performance indicator tied to GCSEs made up of English, maths, science, history or geography, and a language  which the report claims

has

led to a systematic marginalisation of arts subjects, particularly drama, from schools.

Rakie Ayola praised the report (Matt Crossick/PA)

Writing in the report, Ms Brabin and Ms De Piero, said: As women from northern working class backgrounds who went on to work in TV we know what its like to have people sneer at your accent and struggle to pay your way.

They added the issue matters particularly in the performing arts as it offers a mirror to the nation and claimed well all be poorer if progress is not made.

Rakie Ayola, who is currently starring as Hermione in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, praised the report and called for immediate action.

She said: If you ask everyone in the industry if they are for diversity they all put their hands up, but there comes a time when people need to say it out loud. That time is now.

A Government spokesman said they were completely committed to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to take part in arts and culture, including in schools,.

They also referenced a 2016 Culture White Paper and a review of Arts Council England which aim to make diversity across the arts workforce a priority.

He added: There is no evidence that GCSE entries in arts subjects have declined as a direct result of the introduction of the EBacc performance measure. We are also investing 300 million between 2016  2020 to help young people from all backgrounds enjoy music and arts.

The government is clear that all businesses, irrespective of size or sector, are responsible for paying the minimum wage and takes action to ensure that everyone receive what they are entitled to, the spokesman said.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Tony Blair is a war criminal. Not in the traditional sense, there is no catalogue of crimes as there was with Nuremberg. Yet 300,000 people are dead and one country has never recovered because Mr. Blair misled and misinformed those he was elected by.

His motives have been constantly debated and are still unknown but his abuse of power is evident.

In 2003 Britain was scared. The fall of the World Trade Centre was a catalyst for fear and created a complex of suspicion and prejudice that remains even now. In one day the Islamic peoples of the world found themselves culpable for an abhorrent atrocity that has dictated so much about this century for the all wrong reasons. However, one nation became the great bogey-man who was apparently the puppeteer of this evil.

Iraq was no great power. It was not well respected internationally after years of rage which had seen war crimes, threats to the precious oil lifeblood of the world and a confrontation with the US and its allies. Saddam Hussein was a malevolent man, the Hitler of his time, giving the world a focus for its crusade against injustice. Iraq was quickly becoming the battleground for the campaign for Earths morality.

But Iraq was not the Third Reich or the Soviet Union or the British Empire. It was a small country whose people were led by a man, Saddam Hussein, drunk on his own power which in actuality amounted to very little. It had never truly recovered from the devastation inflicted upon it by the US for invading Kuwait; its nuclear programme was dead in the water and its ability to make war was ruined.

So why Tony Blair and George Bush Jnr. decided Iraq had to be tamed is hard to say. Oil is the most likely motivation. Expansion of their military footholds in the Middle East too. Settling old scores (Bush Snr was criticised and condemned for not removing Hussein from power a decade earlier) and avenging the tragedy of 9/11 on an Islamic population also seem likely drives. Whatever the reason it was not rooting out weapons of mass destruction, they were a fantasy.

The Chilcot Inquiry, launched by Gordon Brown in 2009, was set the task of finally comprehending why it all happened. Why did a Prime Minister who was enjoying relatively strong poll figures seek a war? And why, with no solid intelligence, launch a war far from his shores against an enemy widely considered weak, perhaps even on the verge of collapse?

By July 2016 the Inquiry had its verdict. It took seven years, Tony Blair himself was called twice to give evidence and several political, and legal, challenges but the report was released. Its verdict was described as damning by the BBC, Lord Chilcot considered the entire war unnecessary and in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The government had knowingly misled the people about the power of Husseins WMDs and links to global terrorism, greatly exaggerating the threat posed to the people. Reports since have suggested the weapons were exaggerated by security services and senior politicians using imagery from a Michael Bay film.

Using fear as a tool of manipulation is a common crime committed by those leading the masses into illegal wars. Tony Blair went one better though, not using just fear but instilling a sense of pride in Britain for toppling evil and saving the world despite it being a fallacy.

More damning than this though is the obvious disregard for international law which Tony Blair thought he was upholding by deposing a bad-man. The United Nations ruled there was no case for war and yet two of the founders of the UN, Britain and the US, trampled over its legacy as they raced to make war.

Even John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister at the time, said this was an illegal move in 2009. North Korea is punished for such violation, as was Libya and Syria. Not Britain though, and certainly not Tony Blair.

That within itself is simply unfair but is so easily forgotten now, a distant memory for the guilty that seem to hold no respect for international law. It is for that reason I applauded efforts to bring Tony Bair, his Foreign Secretary, and Attorney General at the time, Jack Straw and Lord Goldsmith respectively, to a criminal trial. At the very least, if they were not to be sentenced, they would have to answer for their actions outside the political safety net of an inquiry.

It would seem High Court judges desperate to swipe this under the carpet using all their legal knowledge have won. What have they won? Well, they have won the chance to let a man who prides himself on defending the freedom to walk freely, make money of his experiences and lecture us on the government when he committed several crimes.

Websites such as Arrest Blair which offers a cash prize for the citizens arrest of Tony Blair may seem extreme but they raise a valid point that those directly affected the people have been barred the right to seek justice.

Lying is not a crime but why can the law not look to the hundreds of British families affected, the thousands of Iraqis dispossessed and hundreds of thousands dead. For those people, Tony Blair should stand trial for his criminally dangerous lies and leadership that abused the peoples trust, faith in government and worst fears.
Edinburgh, Scotlands capital, is a beautiful city thats known for many things: its glorious castle, fried everything and being the birthplace of Harry Potter.

Most well-informed muggles are aware that Rowling penned her initial novels in Edinburgh cafes, but only the best know that she drew inspiration from her surroundings. Consequently, when navigating your way around Edinburghs cobbled streets, its not uncommon to come across reminders of everyones favourite books (and films).

To save you some time, we have put together a list of places in Edinburgh that any true Potterhead should visit.

Situated on George IV Bridge, this relaxed coffee house is one of many Rowling utilised when writing the Potter books. Its bathroom is filled with heartwarming messages written to J.K from dedicated fans, detailing how much the characters that she created mean to them.

interviewed Rowling wasat the cafe when writing her third book and can be seen enjoying the cafes delicious coffee.

It was in Greyfriars Kirkyard that Rowling found inspiration for names of some of her most well-known characters: Tom Riddle, Made Eye Moodie and McGonagall. The headstones of William McGonagall, Elizabeth Moodie and Tom Riddle are regularly visited by Potter fanatics. The graveyard can be found near Edinburgh landmark, Greyfriars Bobby.

The Meadows is a huge park just south of the citys centre, and home to Edinburghs Holyrood Hippogriffs: our very own Quidditch team. The team is run by the University of Edinburghs Harry Potter society and is open to both students and non-students in the community. The Holyrood Hippogriffs are extremely successful, with many players being selected for national teams.

A busy, vibrant square thats often filled with tourists and locals alike. Grassmarket and its attached Victoria Street were thought to provide Rowling with inspiration for Diagon Alley. As well as a colourful array of restaurants and cafes, the streets include a joke shop, multiple bookshops and a vintage clothes shop that wouldnt look out of place next to Ollivander's or Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.

Spoon Cafe

Another cafe that Rowling used to visit while writing the early books was the cafe that existed before Spoon Bistro on Nicholson street, near the University of Edinburgh. To prove the legitimacy of this claim, the cafe has a plaque outside stating where Rowling would write.

The Balmoral

This luxury hotel is where the successful author finished the last few pages of the Deathly Hallows. Rowling celebrated this feat by writing on a bust in the room with the following: J.K Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this hotel room (552) on 11th Jan 2007.

up to 1000 per night The hotel suite that she stayed in has been renamed after her and is often requested by fans who payto stay there.
Highgate Cemetery In its chequered history,has seen the likes of duelling magicians, blood-thirsty mobs of vampire hunters, and is home to Karl Marx, George Michael and Christina Rossetti to name but a few.

Located near Hampstead Heath in London, Highgate Cemetery was opened in 1839. Its age is reflected by the multitude of imposing Victorian Gothic buildings and tombs that can be found in its sprawling grounds.

Following World War II, Highgate Cemetery became overgrown and fell into disrepair which only added to its creepy, disturbing feeling and served to increase public interest in the cemetery as it became a location used regularly by the horror film studio, Hammer.

Perhaps the most interesting period of the cemetery so far is the Highgate Vampire Sensation of the late 1960s. A number of supernatural sightings at the cemetery led to widespread media reports. Mobs of vampire hunters from far and wide regularly descended on the cemetery and destroyed graves and mutilated corpses. One beheaded corpse was even found propped up behind the wheel of a car.

The events culminated in early 1970 as two magicians, David Farrant and Sean Manchester, called an official vampire hunt on Friday 13th March. A duel was planned between the two magicians, both of whom supposed that they would be the first to kill the vampire. The duel, however, never happened as Farrant was arrested by the police and was found carrying a crucifix and a wooden stake. Cheerily, he was later imprisoned for damaging memorials and interfering with dead remains. Grisly goings-on continued through the 1970s, with a charred, decapitated corpse of a woman found in one noteworthy incident.

Whilst the vampire hysteria has since subsided, Highgate Cemetery continues to be a mecca for ghost hunters and is reputed to be one of Londons most supernatural sites. The cemetery is also a favourite haunt of some of those who subscribe to the occult beliefs.

In addition to this, Highgate is a whos who of some of historys most notable figures. A plot to destroy the bust of Karl Marx by blowing it up ironically left the bust leaning to the left, much like his political views. Other famous graves include those of boxer Thomas Sayers, physicist Michael Faraday, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy writer Douglas Adams and novelist George Elliot. The Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in London in 2006, is also interred here, 12 feet deep in a lead lined coffin so as to prevent visitors contracting radioactive poisoning.

The cemetery itself is an incredible place to walk around. Nature battles with Victorian architecture as tall grass grows around chipped, weather-worn graves and ivy climbs up the walls of elaborate yet sombre tombs.

You can wander the cemetery at your own pace or pay for a guided tour. Either way, admission for an adult is 4, which makes you wonder what Karl Marx would have to say?

The gates to the cemetery officially close at 5pm, though it is thought that some sneak in after dark to practice the dark arts. If youre looking for somewhere out of the ordinary to visit, Highgate Cemetery is well worth it.
Strike is a new three-part crime drama based on the novels by Robert Galbraith - otherwise known as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Following a screening of the first episode, The Cuckoo's Calling, actors Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger were joined by writer Ben Richards, director Michael Kellior and executive producer Ruth Kenley-Letts to discuss how they brought Cormoran Strike to life.The intellectual property of such a huge writer is hard to come by, especially when there's so much competition in the industry. When asked about how the series ended up as a TV series on the BBC, Bronte Productions' Ruth Kenley-Letts said that it seemed like the "natural" choice. "Neil Blair [Rowling's agent] did get a number of calls from Studio and Hollywood and lots of people, actually, but because we knew that J.K. Rowling is planning on writing quite a few books in this series - we still don't know how many - it just lent itself to TV, and when the BBC said that they'd be really keen to commission it, we chose to go that route." Having found a home for the material, the next step was finding the right team to bring Cormoran Strike to life. "Ben Richards, who has adapted it - he and I worked together previously on The Tunnel," said Kenley-Letts. "Ben popped into my head because he's a brilliant writer who is particularly good at doing both character and genre, and this felt like a book that needed both. Then Michael came on board, along with all our HoD's, and it all came together from there." Speaking of adapting the Galbraith novels, Richards revealed the challenges that he faced: "There are a number of challenges about adaptation; it's about keeping the essence of the book, the essence of the story, whilst making it suitable for the slightly different demands of television in terms of pace and shape. The characters were fine - they were faithful to the brilliant characterisations in the book." "It was more a case of making sure that [the books] fit into three hours of television and the ordering - which was something we had ongoing discussions with J.K. Rowling about. It was mainly logistical stuff - there are a lot of characters in the books, so we had to have fewer characters to make it more easily accessible, particularly in the third episode. So, the big challenge was how do you do that, whilst staying true to the book? And I really think we managed to do that with the amazing support of Tom and Holliday by making those characters come alive - they are the essence of this series." In the series, Tom Burke leads the cast as Cormoran Strike - a war veteran turned private detective, who also happens to be the estranged son of a famous rock star. Casting such a larger-than-life character proved tough - particularly as readers have developed such a clear-cut image of the sizeable character. When asked whether the character's perceived size was an issue, Burke disagreed. "I think when you read a book instead of a script, you come at it from a slightly different angle. I've played all sorts of parts - I was aware that he had a size to him, but it's something you can do if you do it in an imaginative way." Quipping in, Kenley-Letts added: "I have to admit, after I read the books, I did google 'tall British actors over 6 ft"2' - there weren't that many!"Director Michael Kellior also chimed in on Strike's on-screen characterisation: "There were some tricks deployed to give him some heft - but once you get into it, you go with it. He's such a charismatic character. A big part of the way Tom captures Strike is his stillness." "There's quite a few factors [about Strike] in the book that were removed, that Ruth and I discussed at length - on screen, we didn't want his hair to appear "wiry like pubic hair" - that's not something we wanted to recreate!" (Amidst the laughter, Burke chimes in: "I did offer to get a perm.") Speaking about the tone of the series, Richards expressed his adoration for it's "old-school" vibe: "It's a whodunnit, it's a private investigator - it's not trying to be Scandi. It absolutely knows what it is, but it also has a contemporary sensibility and a character that feels familiar but also new and rooted in the modern world." The show's female star, Holliday Grainger, added her own perception of the books and of her character, Robin Ellacott. "I loved the books - I felt I knew who Robin was. She's so compassionate and lovely - I think you recognise the best aspects of yourself in her. She feels like your mate or someone you want to be your mate. And I love the way that you get to know Strike and Robin through Strike and Robin and how they perceive each other." Speaking about Strike and Robin's friendship/chemistry as another Holmes-and-Watson-esque TV pair, Grainger continued: "The way that Jo writes, her world is so 'you know it, when you read it'. We know each other's characters from reading the books. There's an ease to that from the first day, so you don't have to question who you are." When asked about Rowling's involvement in the series, Burke spoke generously about the author: "We were both very aware of her communication at a script level, and of certain things she said along the way. She's very good at getting the team she wants and then going 'go away and have fun.' I think that's part of her enjoyment of it - having this whole world she's created and seeing how other people interpret it." Richards also spoke kindly of Rowling's involvement as an executive producer on the show."She was involved at every stage, but she was also quite hands off. She would intervene when she wanted to, but it was normally very specific. She was very generous about allowing changes - she's a screenwriter as well so she understands that you can't just take a book and shove it onscreen. At each draft, she would give notes and we'd talk about those and... I'd do what she said." The series' over-arcing plot centres on the mysterious death of a popular supermodel, showing a darker side to celebrity culture. "It feels familiar. There are reference points in the real world - though it isn't based on it all, the death of Amy Winehouse strikes a chord," said Richards. However, despite the series' darker themes, there is still a lot of humour embedded in the show. "Shows that have no humour just enevate me," sighed Richards. "I think you can have serious themes and serious characters and serious topics and still have jokes. You can still have detectives who smile. There is a bit of a tendency to do these things Poe-faced. Strike's got problems, but he can still smile. That's what I like about the books. He's got his issues, but he gets on with it - he doesn't have to be tortured." Finally when asked what Rowling thought about the finished product, Kenley-Letts seemed positive. "She absolutely loved it. But she's been involved all the way through - she wasn't a lazy exec at all. She read all the drafts of the scripts; she came into the cutting room and saw each episode; she was involved in the casting of our leads. She was very present throughout the process." "I know that she thinks Tom and Holliday have done a fantastic job. The chemistry is great between Strike and Robin - a lot of people who loved the books love Strike and Robin and, it feels to me, that [Jo is] writing a love story - this relationship is going to develop, so we're all thrilled that those two work so well."
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Student found murdered in Kailali college hostel

A student of the Siddhanath Science Campus has been found murdered at his hostel in Kailali on Saturday.
Vegetable prices double in Biratnagar

Prices of vegetables have doubled in the eastern Nepali city of Biratnagar due to heavy rainfall, which has inundated most of the vegetable fields.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

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A day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a probe against two cabinet colleagues for alleged corruption, Industries Minister Subhash Desai of ally Shiv Sena tendered his resignation on Saturday but it was rejected.

Desai, 75, among the senior-most Shiv Sena leaders, is a close confidante of party President Uddhav Thackeray. The two met late on Friday night before he decided to quit, official sources said.

After a sustained opposition onslaught in the legislature against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta and Desai, Fadnavis announced a probe into the allegations on Friday.

Desai was accused of flouting norms while allegedly denotifying around 12,000 hectares of MIDC Nashik lands to favour private builders, while Mehta was charged with corruption in slum rehabilitation projects here.

Fadnavis assured an enquiry by Lokayukta M.L. Tahiliyani into the allegations against Mehta and by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against Desai.

I am ready for any investigation by any department, Desai asserted after offering his resignation.

The opposition had demanded probes by the Enforcement Directorate and a Special Investigation Team against the two, who stoutly refuted the allegations hurled against them.
Tragedy, suffering and violence pervade this exhibition like the dark blotches that soak into Gilliams tear-soaked handkerchief of a painting. It starts in 1963 with the March on Washington when King spoke immortal words to more than 2 lakh people from the steps of the Lincoln Monument.

A group of African American artists called Spiral started, at the height of the civil rights movement, to make art that reflected its ideals. This exhibition traces the twists and turns of that aspiration to represent black America in the following two decades as Kings dream gave way to disillusion. How could black consciousness be expressed in art? That question turns out to open dazzling new vistas on a brilliant epoch in art history.

Soul of a Nation transforms how we see American art in the age of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol (who makes a cameo appearance with his portrait of Muhammad Ali). All those artists were white, and all are enshrined as American icons. By contrast, Sam Gilliam was until recently forgotten. He has only now, in his 80s, started getting the attention he deserves. In the end, the achievement of this exhibition is the simple one of recovering the talent of a legion of artists who have been kept out of the American canon of genius in a way that is utterly unjust. Yet it does more.

The curators have looked far and wide in their search for the forgotten riches of art in the age of Malcolm X. They include everything from copies of The Black Panther magazine to the witty, deadpan self-portraits of the 70s ironist Barkley Hendricks. When a critic described Hendricks as a brilliantly endowed painter, he immediately responded with a nude self-portrait called Brilliantly Endowed. Sadly, he died earlier this year, too soon to bask in this exhibitions star shine. The open and imaginative way curators Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley have delved into the archives means they have looked far beyond what happens to be fashionable now.

One reason Gilliam, for instance, is not well-known is that he belongs to the colour field movement, a style often dismissed as a soggy aftermath of abstract expressionism. This exhibition rescues not just some great abstract painters but colour field painting itself. Another mighty exponent is Frank Bowling. Thats Frank Bowling RA, OBE, the Guyana-born painter who is usually seen in a context of post-colonial British art. In the 60s Bowling went to the US and met the critic Clement Greenberg, who had spotted the genius of Jackson Pollock and also acclaimed him.

Bowlings vast, addictive 1971 canvas Texas Louise is a romantic blaze of desert light almost seven metres wide in which a map of the Americas glows like a dying vision of an anguished history. It is an unforgettable painting. In the 60s Los Angeles, Noah Purifoy and Betye Saar created mysterious totems of what seems their own private religion.

They have something in common with Rauschenberg but more with the Watts Towers, the masterpieces of outsider art built by Simon Rodia that soar giddily over LA. In fact Purifoy cofounded the Watts Towers Art Centre. His work Totem is a kind of miniature Watts Tower with an African aesthetic, made from anything he could find.

Saar, meanwhile creates altars, icons and mobiles that mix world religions and recycle junk to create one the most magical bodies of work in American art. Saar is still alive, aged 90, to receive the homage of an entire room dedicated to her by this exhibition. She ranks with Joseph Cornell as a surrealist of everyday life who weaves found stuff into poetry. Like others here she has never had a fraction of the museum space allotted to the great white men of American art.

This exhibition does not destroy the canon, however. It enlarges it, showing how the history of American modernism that started with Pollock released radical visions of uncommon beauty and eloquence. Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power is at Tate Modern, London, until 22 October.
A full-fledged intense war between nuclear armed India and China is unlikely, but chances of a skirmish cannot be ruled out, former Army Chief General VP Malik said.

As India and China remain in wait-and-watch mode with a standoff continuing along the border in Sikkim, retired Army Chief Malik, who was heading the Indian Army when the Kargil conflict took place in 1999, also said the situation cannot be compared with 1962.

I dont expect the situation is likely to develop into a high intensity extended conflict, but skirmishes cannot be ruled out either in Chumbi valley or anywhere else along the border, General Malik told IANS.

He hoped the conflict could be resolved through dialogue.

There are attempts being made diplomatically to resolve the situation. One hopes that it gets resolved but one has to be prepared for all contingencies. If a military confrontation takes place we have to be prepared, he said.

I suppose both sides are prepared. As far as soldiers are concerned their job is just in case diplomacy fails and there is a confrontation then they have to cope up with that, he added.

The former Army chief said the situation today cannot be compared to that of 1962, adding that the two nuclear-armed nations may not have a long war.

We are no longer in 1962 kind of a situation. Dont forget both countries, China as well as India today are nuclear nations. They are both conscious of their responsibility, he said.

Amid a stand-off in Doklam, close to the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, both India and China have been reinforcing troops along the border.

At Doklam, the point of the stand-off, there are around 350 troops on the Indian side and around the same number of soldiers on the other side of the border. There have been no increase in troops or any movement on the Chinese side that may indicate a possible conflict.

The soldiers have been asked to be on high alert, and artillery guns have been moved to different points. Army officials in New Delhi have refused to comment on the situation.

On Friday, another flag meeting between Indian and Chinese Army officers over the ongoing standoff in Doklam remained inconclusive.

The flag meeting at the designated point in Nathu-la was attended by a Major General rank officer from the Indian side and an equal rank official from the other side.

Usually flag meetings are held between Brigadier level officers.

Another flag meeting is expected to be held soon, and may involve a more senior Lieutenant General level officer, according to sources.

The standoff close to the tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan started on June 16, after a construction party from Chinas Peoples Liberation Army entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road.

A Royal Bhutan Army patrol attempted to dissuade them and the ambassador of Bhutan publicly stated that it lodged a protest with the Chinese government through their embassy in New Delhi on June 20.New Delhi
It is hardly surprising that the investigation into the Panama Papers described by Edward Snowden as the biggest leak in the history of data journalism has rocked the boat in Pakistan. It has been revealed that Nawaz Sharif, as Prime Minister, had used two companies in the British Virgin Islands~ Nescoll and Nielson ~ for dubious business deals, that he bought luxury homes through these companies in such places as London, and that the owner, at least till 2012, was Mariam Safdar, nee Sharif, the daughter of Nawaz.

The former Prime Minister has been targeted ever since it was revealed that shell companies were owned by his

children, and that they owned property in London worth millions of pounds. Despite the furore and cries of blue murder one gets to hear about his disqualification from holding public office by Pakistans Supreme Court and not by the powerful military, and the point that his premiership has been cut short thrice, his disqualification should hardly occasion despair not least because corruption in Pakistan is endemic and institutional.

Both Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto faced multiple corruption cases. Both claimed that their trials were politically motivated.

While the charge may not be off the mark, the two could never prove that they were above board. Sharifs opulent estate at Raiwind near Lahore and Benazirs ancestral home in Larkana in Sindh continue to be questioned by the

poorer sections in Pakistan, in the manner of Antilla, owned by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries.

The dubious extent of the Sharif familys foreign holdings has been part of the countrys urban legends. The revelation that the patriarch of Pakistan owned undeclared luxury flats in Londons Park Lane and that the deeds of the properties were in the name of offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands sparked the uproar particularly because Sharif never denied that he possessed them.

Following Zia-ul-Haqs suspected killing, the civilian prologue to General Musharraf s dispensation was mired in corruption indulged in by members of two political dynasties ~ the Bhutto and Sharif families. This corruption on a massive scale was marked by patronage and dubious activities of clients.

In 1990, at the height of the US economic sanctions on Pakistan (after it failed to show that it was not conducting a nuclear weapons programme), President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the PPP government on charges of

corruption and incompetence.

In 1996 President Farooq Leghari dismissed the PPP government again on of corruption, leading to a sweeping victory for the PML (N) of Nawaz Sharif.

In April 1999 Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were convicted of corruption, with Ms Bhutto being exiled abroad and her husband spending several years in jail.

From 1999 to 2008, the Musharraf administration had introduced stern measures against corruption,and rolled back some of the Islamist laws passed by Zia and Sharif. In December 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared illegal an amnesty passed by Musharraf, giving Zardari and other leading PPP figures immunity from prosecution for corruption. The Generals appetite for waging a crusade against corruption clearly fizzled out.

Now to be fair to Musharrafs anti-corruption drive and his post-coup enunciation that the elimination of Corruption was one of his top priorities the regimes commitment to end corruption had disappeared by 2002. This was amply demonstrated by the case of Mansur-ulHaq. The judiciary managed to secure an undertaking that, in return for its retrospective validation of Musharraf s coup, judges would not be investigated for corruption.

As regards corruption in the army, Admiral Mansur-ul-Haq, chief of the navy between 1994 and 1997, was once rumoured to have taken kickbacks on defence contracts.

But the civilian government of the time ~ eager to conceal its own involvement in the scandal ~ took the stand that if the Admiral was formally charged, it would undermine the prestige of the armed forces. Though by May 2001, sufficient evidence had been gathered to secure Mansur-ul-Haqs extradition from the United States so that he could face charges in the Pakistani courts, by the end of that year, the National Accountability Bureau struck a deal through

which he secured his freedom by promising to pay back $7.5 million to the state.

By the beginning of 2002, corruption cases against several politicians had been dropped. The military took the stand

that collecting evidence of white-collar crime is extremely difficult and time-consuming. But the real reason, as Owen Bennett Jones writes in his stunning expose, Pakistan: Eye of the Storm has revealed, was that the military viewed corruption cases as useful levers with which they could control politicians.

The striking feature was the simple rule of thumb that as long as politicians do not transgress the line of acceptable criticism of the military, their corruption cases would not be revived. The jury is still out on the question why Musharraf backtracked on his mission, but one domestic reason might be that he was overtaken by a phase of judicial activism in Pakistan that began in 2005 with the appointment of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

He had put up a brave fight not only against Musharraf s authoritarianism but also against the disappearance of Baloch nationalists and Islamist militants. Chaudhry targeted Zardaris corruption, and forced Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to resign in 2012 because the latter did not want to initiate a proper investigation.

In October 2012 he chaired a three-member bench of the apex court, which gave an unprecedented judgment against former COAS general Aslam Beg and former Director General of the ISI (DGISI) Asad Durrani. Both were accused of having distributed money (Rs.60 million) to opponents of Benazir Bhutto to ensure her defeat in the 1990 elections.

Musharraf struck a deal in October 2007, under which the PPP agreed to support his re-election as President in return for a retraction of the corruption cases and the removal of the third-term ban on Benazirs election as Prime Minister.

He agreed to rescind the corruption charges and enacted an amnesty law, the National Reconciliation Ordinance

(NRO), thus paving the way for Ms Bhuttos return with the intention to secure a second presidential term by a controversial parliamentary vote with the PPPs help.

The moral and strategic objective ~ that could well be his signature mission ~ was lost in the welter of short-term political gains, lending currency to the notion that if politicians adjust themselves with the military regime they can expect to have their cases dropped.

Way back in 1976 a Pakistani Lt. General, M Attiqur Rahman, in a devastating critique of the Pakistani army in Our Defence Cause: An Analysis of Pakistans Past and Future Military Role wrote how under Ayub Khans regime, army officers had been exposed to opportunities for making money and how the guilty went unpunished for fear that the morale of the army would suffer.

In fact, to reform Pakistan radically along the lines of how Western states supposedly work, Anatol Lieven in his book Pakistan: A Hard Country wrote, It would require most of the population to send itself to gaol. Corruption

in Pakistan is endemic and institutionalised, but India has no room for the moral high ground either.

(The writer is a Kolkata-based commentator on politics, development and cultural issues)
In 1986, the then Philippines President Corazon Aquino met with Chinas paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to discuss the South China Sea issue. Deng talked to Aquino, as he told some other Asian leaders at that time, and told her Madam President our generation might not be wise enough to decide the territorial dispute but there are a lot more areas of South China Sea we may discuss without discussing the territorial claims.

The current Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano referred to Dengs words to justify his governments

soft approach toward China on the contentious South China Sea issue, during a conversation with Asean journalists in Manila recently.

The stance taken by the Philippines under leader of President Rodrigo Duterte these days is totally different from what Aquinos son Benigno Aquino III did against China when he was running the country from 2010-2016.

While Aquino III took the conflict to a Hague-based arbitral tribunal constituted under the UN Convention

on the Law of the Sea and won an award in July last year, successor Duterte, who took office only a few weeks after that ruling, said he would keep the award and might use it when it is necessary. But, for now, he employs a different approach while dealing with China on a bilateral basis.

Under Duterte, a tentative fishing agreement has been put up, so Filipino fishermen are allowed to fish in the area where we believe is our traditional fishing area, Cayetano said.

China gave verbal assurance that they will not build any more facilities in Scarborough shoal. So, we believe the

current strategy  without judging the past strategy  is now working, he said.

The Philippines and China, as proposed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during his visit to Manila recently, agreed to conduct joint exploration for oil and gas in the contentious sea.

We have to do this, I mean (if we continue the old approach) we might be fighting over nothing in terms of natural resources, but if we find a way to look at how much resources are there, maybe our generation is wiser to say this is better than no one can benefit from this and confront each other, he said.

Members of Asean, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes for decades. While China has consistently insisted on dealing with contesting parties on a bilateral basis, many Asean members, notably Vietnam, want the group to speak on the issue in one voice, although they realise that

territorial disputes can never be solved multilaterally.

Vietnam, which is not a party to the arbitral award although many officials in Hanoi have said that they have thought about having one, wanted to see Philippines implement the award which rejects Chinas historical right over the disputed areas.

Prior to a ministerial meeting in Manila, Vietnam urged Asean countries to unite in the settlement of disputes in the South China Sea, emphasising the importance of completing a binding code of conduct, based on international law, including the tribunals award.

While analysts have noted the active role of Vietnam in mobilising Asean leaders to balance the Chinese influence on the matter, the outcome of the ministerial meeting last week on the South China Sea was not so impressive due to the soft approach of Philippines, which holds the Asean Chair at the moment, and counterproductive moves by some members.

The joint communique issued a bit late after the meeting refrained from using any strong word on the militarisation in the contentious sea. It simply says we emphasised the importance of non-militarisation and self-restraint in the conduct of all activities by claimants and all other states.

For the Philippines, China and many diplomats, such a statement is enough given the fact that foreign ministers of the group and China on August 6 adopted a framework for the code of conduct in the South China Sea.

Without unity among Asean members, however, analysts doubt whether the code of conduct, if indeed it is agreed upon in future, will be meaningful in resolving conflicts.

Indeed, Asean and China signed in 2002 a non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). But the document failed to prevent conflicts, as most of the claimants, notably China, built facilities on islands and features in the sea, which facilitated militarisation.

The framework of the code of conduct as leaked to media addressed nothing different from the general principle seen in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which the Asean DOC also referred to.

While many Asean members, including the Philippines and Vietnam, wished to see a legally binding code of conduct to control the behaviour of countries in the sea, the difference between binding and non-binding is not clear.

Non-binding could become binding if contracting parties are willing to implement such an agreement, while a binding pact could become a nonbinding one if parties do not enforce it.

Similar anomalies exist elsewhere.

Take the UNCLOS for example. The United States has not signed in the convention but now champions it. While China, which ratified it in 1996, acts like it does not exist. The Philippines won the arbitral award but shelves it while Vietnam, which is not a party in the case, actively calls all parties to comply.

A major challenge for the group, which adopted with China a framework to establish the code of conduct last Sunday in Manila, is how to make the new document relevant.

If the history of DOC is a guide, officials will begin, in November, to waste their time in drafting the text of the code for nothing.

(The writer is Regional Editor, The Nation, Thailand. This is a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors and columnists from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers and websites across

the region.)
Tata Steel UK on Friday said it has signed the documentation for a Regulated Apportionment Arrangement (RAA) with the trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme, offering more sustainable outcomes for pensioners, employees and the business.

When the arrangement takes effect, the British Steel Pension Scheme will be separated from the steel maker and a number of affiliated companies, it said in a statement.

This announcement came after the key commercial terms of a RAA had been agreed in principle between the steel producer and the trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme.

Consequent to the signing of the documentation, the Pensions Regulator has issued a determination notice and a clearance statement in response to Tata Steels application for clearance and approval in respect of the RAA, the statement said.

This has resulted in the commencement of a 28-day period, during which directly affected parties by the RAA may refer the decision to approve the RAA before a tribunal of the UK court system called the Upper Tribunal.

Meanwhile the Pension Protection Fund has issued confirmation of non-objection to the RAA.

At the end of that period, and in the absence of any referrals, it is expected that the regulator will confirm its approval of the RAA, which would take effect after the steel maker makes a payment of 550 million pounds to the British Steel Pension Scheme.

Tata Steels Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee said that considering the continued challenges in the global steel industry as well as the uncertain global politico-economic environment, the RAA presents the best possible structural outcome for the members of the British Steel Pension Scheme and for its Britain business.

The RAA is one important milestone in companys journey towards a sustainable and enduring future, with pension obligations, whose risk profile would be consistent with the underlying business. The net financial impact of the RAA including the payment of the agreed amount would be reflected in the Q2 FY18 financials for the company, he said.
The Pointe Claire dog park located in Terra Cotta Park will be getting an upgrade and extension due to popular demand from residents and dog lovers alike.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
Even as seven Congress MLAs, who voted in favour of the BJP in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections, are all set to join the saffron party, the Congress is confident that their absence won't make any difference to it.

Former Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela's son Mahendrasinh is among those who are to join the BJP. Mahendrasinh said that he had a meeting with national BJP president Amit Shah and they would join as party workers.

These MLAs had also not accompanied the 44 MLAs to Bengaluru. The MLAs were put up at Eagleton Resort near Bengaluru after many of them complained of alleged horse trading and threats by the BJP ahead of the polls. The BJP has denied the allegations.

Former state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia told THE WEEK that the MLAs joining BJP won't affect the party as these MLAs had lost their credibility. People say a lot of things about them, he said, adding that only they would know whether they took anything or not.

Coinciding with the anniversary of Quit India Movement on August 9, the Congress gave a slogan of Quit BJP from Gujarat.

Modhwadia said that in the past when Vaghela had defected from the BJP with 45 MLAs, all the MLAs except four had lost their deposits.

This time also, if the BJP gives tickets to Congress rebels then they would lose their deposits, Modhwadia sounded confident and added that people do not like rebels.

In fact, even before Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Raghavji Patel joins the BJP formally, a large number of Congress workers had protested against him and flayed him for leaving the Congress and his growing closeness to the BJP.
As the BJP tries to revive the Bofors issue, the Congress is attempting to get back at it by making corruption the main point of its attack on the BJP governments both at the Centre and in the states.

The Congress' Research Department has come out with a white paper on the 'systemic crippling of anti-corruption laws by Modi sarkar'. The issues listed include non-implementation of the Lokpal law, weakening of the Whistleblowers Protection Act, eroding of the Right to Information Act and electoral bonds.

The list includes the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh and the CAG reports castigating various ministries. As per the white paper, 31 per cent of BJP government ministers have criminal cases against them, and 18 per cent face serious criminal charges. It points out that in Maharashtra, 17 ministers of the BJP-led government are under the scanner for corruption.

The record shows that Mr Modi's fight against corruption, the action level is absolutely zero, and until he takes action against his own colleagues, we will not believe and the nation will not believe a word further that he utters on the issue of corruption, said Congress leader Rajeev Gowda, who heads the party's research department.

Coming at a time when it has fought off a fierce effort by the BJP to defeat its master strategist Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, the Congress has accused the saffron party of employing methods of coercion, intimidation and misuse of state agencies and money power to poach its MLAs.

The alleged transfer of slum dwellers' building rights to a prominent builder in Mumbai has been taken up by the Congress in a big way. The state assembly was not allowed to function, and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan held a briefing in Delhi in a bid to give the issue a national relevance. He linked the issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, stating that the minister in question has the blessings of higher-ups in the party.

Narendra Modi won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 promising a corruption free government. The time has come to live up to that promise, Chavan said.

In Chhattisgarh, the party has raised the the issue of Chief Minister Raman Singh's son Abhishek's name figuring in the Panama papers. The issue of forest land grabbing by the wife of a minister in the Raman Singh cabinet has also been raised.

We have raised the issue of land grab in the Vidhan Sabha and we have demanded that this minister be sacked. He has committed a criminal offence, said P.L. Punia, AICC in charge of Chhattisgarh.
Around two dozen cases of swine flu have been reported from various parts of Madhya Pradesh. Some of the cases reported have been found to be positive and a 25-year-oldwoman died on Friday in Bhopal. Government has issued orders to reserve beds in hospitals for such cases and created isolation wards.

Director of Madhya Pradesh Health Services, Dr K.L. Sahu, said that nearly 22 cases have been reported across the state of suspected swine flu since July 1. He said isolation wards have been created in district hospitals and guidelines sent by the Centre have been forwarded.

According to reports, cases of suspected swine flu were reported from districts of Dhar, Gwalior, Morena, Raisen, Jabalpur and Mhow in Indore. Though health officials of the state are denying severity of such incidence, blood samples of eight patients have been sent to laboratory of Gwalior for confirmation. These reports are awaited.

According to local media reports, a patient from Gwalior was referred to higher medical centre for Delhi. Two patients in Gwalior are being kept in isolation ward of the government JH Hosiptal, while patients in Indore are also being kept in isolation ward of the government hospital.

Chief Medical and Health Officer of Indore, Dr H.N. Nayak, said, "We are constantly screening the patients for suspected virus while tablets of Tamiflu have been made available at all hospitals".

According to medical experts, the H1N1 swine flu gets activated during the onset of cold season. The rains in Madhya Pradesh have brought temperature considerably down and this triggered the growth of the virus. Meanwhile, the health directorate of the state has asked the field hospitals to keep an eye on the situation and ensure supply of required medicine.

Swine flu has claimed two lives in Madhya Pradesh since July with the latest in Bhopal on Friday.
India, home to 60 per cent of the Asia's wild elephants, began its World Elephant Day celebrations on a sombre note on Saturday. Just a day before, forest officials in Jharkhand were forced to kill a rogue elephant which had killed 15 people. Ironically, the state animal for Jharkhand is the elephant.

The incident was symbolic of the increasing human-animal conflict in the country, where space for wildlife is rapidly decreasing. Even as elephants have been domesticated, ever so often, an elephant gets aggressive, and if wild, separated from the herd. With human settlements so close to elephant corridors, it is quite regular in India for rogue elephants to attack humans.

>> View Gallery: Jumbos on rampage

Despite the elephant being an everyday symbol in India since millenniait was depicted on Indus Valley seals way back in BC 2500, and the elephant-headed god Ganesha's ten day birth celebrations are just around the cornerthe population of elephants is declining.

From around 30,000 in 2012 to 27,000 now, the drop has been recorded by the all India elephant census of 2017, the detailed report of which will be released later. Environment ministry officials claim that the drop in numbers may not be alarming, they might only be reflecting the population more accurately, because this time, more sophisticated methods have been used for the count. These methods include direct counting as well as indirect count (dung count, waterhole and salt lick observations.) While a nationwide elephant census is done every five years, this time, the government has also mapped elephant distribution in India.

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan launched Gaj Yatra on the occasion of World Elephant Day. This is a nationwide campaign to protect elephants and will cover 12 states across which the elephant has a range. The minister also released two other documents: Agreed Points of Action on Trans-Boundary Conservation of Elephants by India and Bangladesh and Right of Passage, on elephant corridors in India. A compilation, Glimpses of Initiatives Taken for Elephant Conservation in India (2012-2017), based on parliamentary questions was also released. Actor and model Dia Mirza has been appointed brand ambassador for 'Gaj Yatra'. This campaign will also rope in traditional artists and craftsmen to work on popularising the elephant in art form.

World Elephant Day, an annual global event celebrated on August 12, was conceived by Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark and secretary-general of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, Sivaporn Dardarananda. India has had its own Project Elephant for conservation of the tuskers since 1992. African elephants are listed as vulnerable and Asian elephants as endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List book of threatened species.
BJP president Amit Shah extended a formal invitation to Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar to join the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) when the latter came to meet him on Friday. This invitation has opened doors for the JD(U) to the Narendra Modi cabinet at the Centre.

I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA, Shah tweeted as he started his three-day tour of Karnataka on Saturday. Shah had first met his party MPs and ministers from Bihar a day earlier to apprise them of the new addition in the alliance.

As BJP aggressively expands its foot prints, many regional parties are seeking alliance than risk facing the saffron attack. After JD(U), speculation is rife if AIADMK too would join the NDA, giving BJP foothold in yet another state, particularly in the south. The BJP is putting pressure on the rival factions of AIADMK to merge, so that DMK does not take advantage of the split. Shah is travelling to Tamil Nadu on August 22, thus hinting a political realignment sooner than expected.

K. Chandershekhar Rao-led-Telangana government has been supportive of almost all of Modi's key policy moves, be it demonetisation or even picking the new president and the vice-president. He has shown an inclination to join the NDA, but many of his policies are not seen to be aligned with the BJP's vision, thus making his entry into NDA a bit difficult.

But bringing new allies into the NDA fold would mean cementing ties by giving cabinet berths to them.

The cabinet expansion is long overdue as there are vacancies in Modi's team after former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar returned to Goa as CM, former Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu got elevated to vice-president and former Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away in May. The prime minister would not want to keep these key ministries without a dedicated minister in view of current developments, be it at the China border, or implementing policy decisions in other ministries.

Modi had twice expanded his team after he took over in May 2014first in November the same year and then in July 2016. The cabinet expansions are done not only keeping in mind the work at the central level, but also significant political considerations.

Nitish Kumar's party would certainly get a cabinet berth as he has added to NDA's parliament tally by nine seatsseven seats out of the 10 in Rajya Sabha and two in Lok Sabha. Three of JDU's Rajya Sabha Mps, including Sharad Yadav, are going separate ways as they do not approve the alliance with the BJP.

Even AIADMK would need to be placated with at least two cabinet berths given their Lok Sabha strength.

Will it mean poaching of seats where BJP MPs could have been accommodated? Currently, there are 72 ministers in the cabinet, while it can be expanded to include 83 ministers. So Modi has manoeuvering space for eight or nine more ministers.

As Karnataka elections are to be held next year, some of the MPs from the state could be included in the cabinet as it was done ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections.

But when will Modi announce the new addition to his team? The prime minister is known to surprise everyone with his announcements. Though expansion is due, he would probably take a call when the buzz around it has subsided.
In 1962 , when China's People Liberation Army stormed Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh (then known as Northeast Frontier Agency), Beijing had got its timing right. At least, it thought so.

The Sino-Indian war coincided with the Cuban crisis. Russia was reeling under Cold War with the US, and the Cuban missile crisis had heightened tensions so much that India could not garner immediate support from its super power friends.

Beijing may be having similar thoughts today. India is once again locked in a bitter stand off with China in the tri-junction of India-Bhutan-China in the Doklam plateau and Beijing is warning of military action if India does not pull back its troops.

If strategic analysts are to be believed, the North Korea engagement of the US could prompt Beijing to escalate the tensions on the border once again. They feel that the timing of any spill over of the Doklam stand off could well coincide with what is happening on China's other frontier with North Korea.

"Beijing will definitely be weighing its pros and cons. Can they afford to have military action on its frontier with India is something that won't be seen in isolation but viewed alongside America's engagement and response to North Korea. The recently signed LEMOA agreement between India and US allows use of military assets of each other in case of emergencies ," said strategic expert VinayJoshi of the Guwahati-based Institute for Conflict Research and Resolution. In August 2016, India and the United States signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). LEMOA is a facilitating agreement that establishes basic terms, conditions and procedures for reciprocal provision of logistic support, supplies and services between the armed forces of the two countries.

Meanwhile, if any lessons are to be learnt from history (as Beijing is warning India ) it is not just for New Delhi. This might also be a time for Beijing to look back.

In 1962, New Delhi's friends did find time for it. The timing, after all, didn't prove as perfect as Beijing had supposed it to be. The US became active and military supplies had started pouring in for New Delhi. The Sino-Indian war went on for a month before Chinese troops went back to their original position while setting up a base in Aksai Chin.
Under rainy skies on April 22, hundreds of thousands of scientists marched on to the streets of cities in the United States. In what they called 'March for Science', scientists, researchers and teachers chose to step out of their research labs and classrooms to break the silence. They were protesting US President Trump's measures to cut federal science and research budgets, and also his critical comments on climate change, often calling it a 'hoax'.

While March for Science was a global movement that saw similar protests in about 600 cities across the world, India missed it. That, however, did not mean the Indian scientific community was content with the state of science in the country. Better late than never. On August 9, thousands of scientists from India's premier research institutes and colleges took to the streets in about 42 cities in the countrythe India March for Science. This time, putting their brains to creating colourful placards and catchy slogans, scientists rallied across the country to demand increased funding for scientific research and an end to unscientific practices and religious bigotry.

This is a march for science, and has nothing to do with a particular political party. We need all governments to sit up and notice, says K.S. Rajini, Karnataka state secretary of the Breakthrough Science Society which had sent out the initial call for India's March for Science. While to an outsider it may seem as a quick inspiration from the global march, the protests last week was just a spillover of the frustration towards decades-long apathy towards science in India.

The march pledged to carry forward the legacy of eminent scientists like U.R. Rao, Yash Pal and Puspha Mittra Bhargava. In the 70th year of Independence, the scientific community enlivened the spirit of the Quit India Movement with slogans like 'superstitions  Quit India'. The state of science is pathetic even today, says Kalyani.

More funds please

One of the key demands of March for Science was to allocate at least 3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to science research in the country. According to the World Bank which analysed economies of countries from 1996 to 2014, India spends only 0.6 per cent of its budget towards research and development. This has grown to 0.8 per cent over the last two years. Nothing fancy, though, considering our neighbour China has allocated over 2 per cent of its GDP towards R&D.

In June this year, Girish Sahni, director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), admitted that they were feeling a budgetary pinch. According to reports, Sahni, in a mail wrote that after covering salaries, pensions and perks of employees we will be left with no funds to support new research projects. A sad reality for one of India's premier scientific institutions. Ironically, researchers of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, a lab under the CSIR had received a gag order against participating in the March for Science.

While Indian-origin scientists in the United States and the West are engaged in path-breaking research, those back home have been left behind in the race. Increased funding is a must to tackle brain drain, too, adds Kalyani. She also reminds us of degree courses in basic science subjects shutting down in many colleges due to lack of takers. Students have no hope of a future with these streams, says Kalyani who is retired Head of Department of Biology, Presidency College, Bengaluru.

Unscientific beliefs  Quit India

In June, the AYUSH ministry became the butt of all jokes with a prescription for pregnant womensay no to meat, sex and bad company to have a healthy baby. Despite vain attempts to clear the air about the controversial suggestion, this signals at just the tip of the ice berg. It is unfortunate when those with power itself spread such unscientific notions. The scientific community hopes for governments to use science to take decisions, and declare policies for a better future.

In addition to funding, the organisers of March for Science have also called for an end to 'propagation of unscientific, obscurantist ideas and religious intolerance'. With statements such as planes were developed during Vedic ages and that it could fly between planets, being presented at the annual Indian Science Congress, this event, too, has lost its significance. Or rather, it has become yet another joke.

The March for Science also urged that the education system only impart ideas backed by scientific evidence. Sample this: in November 2014, a class V science text book taught students that first test tube babies were created in India 7,500 years ago and the first such baby was sage Dronacharya! We are not against mythology or religion, but let us not mix it with science and spread irrational ideas, adds Kalyani. Science must be given priority, right from primary stages of education, she says.

The overwhelming response shown by students from colleges and research institutions to the march on August 9 is proof of the general sentiment about these issues. High time governments take note and address the matter. As Kalyani rightly puts it: If there is no focus on science, Make in India is a hollow slogan.
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By Mark Hallum

Jamaica Arts and Music Summer, better known as JAMS, returned to southeast Queens last weekend, bringing some of the best food and talent to the streets for the second decade in a row.

Jamaica Avenue from Parsons Boulevard to 170th Street was lined with street vendors last Friday and Saturday, selling every variety of goods from clothing to jewelry to culinary treats from different nationalities. Top-notch musicians took to the stage both days, showcasing R&B, jazz, hip-hop and rock sounds at the event organized by the Cultural Collaborative of Jamaica.

Artistic Director Craig Crawford organized the performers and said JAMS has the ability to bring a healthy dose of fun and economic benefit for a community that feels overlooked in some respects.

This is the community where sometimes they can feel left out; sometimes they can feel forgotten, Crawford said. So organizations like the Cultural Collaborative have been doing this for 21 years. This is our 21st anniversary. Its the Cultural Collaborative that understands what this community needs.

Crawford explained how the Cultural Collaborative brings JAMS to southeast Queens every year, and runs a summer-long program for youth called Arts in the Park. Executive Director Tyra Emerson is responsible for bringing these events together every year, according to Crawford.

The purpose of JAMS was to highlight Jamaica and the different small businesses in the area, Emerson said in an interview leading up to the event. The whole purpose of the event is to shine a positive light on Jamaica, do something fun the community can enjoy, and hopefully get some foot traffic from tourists from JFK, because Queens is the first place they will arrive when they come to New York.

Veronica Daeh Band played in the late afternoon Saturday. The Bronx native currently works with the R&R Soul Orchestra and brought a big sound to the main stage of the event.

The Queens Classic Car Club brought its members out to show off some of the communitys best hot rods. The types of historic vehicles ranged from a 1970 Grand Prix to a Ford built in the 1920s.

We use our organization to support charities, Queens Classic Car Club President Gordon Duncan said, explaining they had recently raised funds for a donation to Long Island Jewish Medical Center to support breast cancer research. We use the cars for a social benefit. Were fortunate enough to have them, so were fortunate to be able to use them for a positive impact.

According to Crawford, hundreds of vendors were on the street. Cuisines from the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean were being sampled by the huge crowds.
Bridgewater looks to become a regional nightlife hub in western PA

Bridgewater bars offer patrons a nightlife experience that is unique from any other in western Pennsylvania
BETHLEHEM  The Bethlehem Democratic Committee's emergency meeting Thursday night has a back story that sounds like one of the more complex Game of Thrones plots.

The BDC voted overwhelmingly to stand by candidates it endorsed for highway superintendent and town board  former Selkirk fire commissioner Giles Wagoner and attorney Dan Coffey, respectively  even if their choices are banned from the Sept. 12 primary and forced to appear as Working Families candidates, not Democrats, in the November election. Rival Dems Dan Morin, running for highway superintendent, and town board candidate George Harder sued successfully to get Wagoner and Coffey bounced off both ballots due to a BDC clerical error. The fatal error was on a form filed with Albany County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Matt Clyne.

"Clyne has done everything he can to work at cross purposes with us and frustrate us; this is disenfranchising the Democratic vote in the election," BDC chair Jeff Kuhn said, adding that the combat was not over ideology or issues.

"It's about Clyne and his spite," he said.

Clyne was chair of the BDC for 22 years when Kuhn replaced him after a bitter 2012 battle. Clyne was also Albany County Democratic chair at the time. Two years later, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan called for Clyne's ouster from that position. Kuhn believes Clyne has punished the BDC ever since. Clyne did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The most recent battle erupted over a one page form. The bottom of was completed by Wagoner to everyone's satisfaction. It is simply Wagoner's consent to be the Democrats' endorsed candidate. The top third is notification that Wagoner will be the endorsed candidate. (The highway superintendent who was running for re-election dropped out to take a university job so the BDC interviewed replacements and chose town board member Wagoner). Kuhn and his two vice chairs signed their names on lines marked "signatures."

The middle of the form became the battleground.

It is an affidavit that statements on the form are true. Kuhn and his vice chairs printed their names on the three lines. The affidavit sentence begins; "we the undersigned." There are no directions beneath each line indicating whether to print or sign names in cursive. Kuhn says they assumed they should print their names because their signatures were already on the form above the affidavit. The form is notarized.

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"Clyne could have told us we made an error on the form and we would have corrected it immediately  that is his job," said Coffey, who was one of the vice chairs who signed. "Instead, he told Morin and Harder it was an error and encouraged them to file a lawsuit ... This was a simple error. No one argues there was an attempt at fraud."

Coffey also provided the Times Union with copies of petitions Clyne circulated, collecting signatures on behalf of Morin and Harder so they could be considered as Democratic candidates. (The BDC interviewed them but chose Coffey and Wagoner to be part of Bethlehem's Democratic slate.) He believes Clyne's efforts on Morin's and Harder's behalf is a conflict of interest that affected his handling of the form.

State Supreme Court Justice L. Michael Mackey ruled Tuesday, Aug. 1, that Coffey and Wagoner cannot be on listed on the November ballot as Democrats and cannot be on the Democratic primary ballot. The BDC appealed and oral arguments will be heard Monday, Aug. 28.

Harder did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment. Morin said he had been advised not to comment since the lawsuit had been appealed.
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ALBANY  Two of the three candidates running in the Democratic primary for Albany mayor sought support Saturday from the union for city blue collar workers, but incumbent Mayor Sheehan passed, claiming the union already backs an opponent.

About 40 members of AFSCME Local 1961 heard from challengers Frank Commisso Jr., the 15th Ward Common Council member, and Carolyn McLaughlin, council president, on issues including the union's frustration over a lack of a new contract with the city for nearly four years.

In a meeting at the Labor Temple on Third Street, both candidates said they wanted to reach an agreement, while also saying they supported efforts to contain health care insurance costs, including kick-starting the work of a six-year-old city committee that has been sporadically studying potential consolidation of health insurance coverage among the city's unionized workers.

Local 1961 represents about 230 workers in the water, sewer and public works departments. Last November, union members showed up at the Common Council's vote on the annual budget to protest the stalled contract. Public Works Commissioner Joe Coffey later refused to take a 9.4 percent raise under that budget in solidarity with his workers.

Steve Napier, Sheehan's campaign manager, said the mayor declined to attend the union event because Local 1961 "has already endorsed our opponent ... they have been walking with Frank Commisso Jr. for months."

Frank Coons, president of local 1961, said the union Executive Board  which four years ago backed Sheehan  has yet to make a formal endorsement, but could do so shortly. This year, union members attending Council meetings to protest Sheehan have brought signs denouncing her as "anti-worker."

Coons called Sheehan's absence "another slap in our face ... morale is definitely down among our members."

Coons said the union wants to see some compensation increase, but understands the city's financial challenges. He said the union also wants to see stability in health insurance, as well as increased job training so workers can rise to better-paying positions.

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Currently, the city has a checkerboard of different health insurance plans for each of its employee unions. Both Commisso and McLaughlin criticized a health insurance committee originally set up six years ago by former Mayor Jerry Jennings and continued by Sheehan.

Commisso said Sheehan recently called a meeting of the committee "just as a show before the primary election."

Added McLaughlin, "It does not take six years to come to conclusions on health insurance." She said she has not been invited to committee meetings, if any have been held, during the last year.
Albany

A state Supreme Court justice has thrown out a petition by Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove that sought to undo the state attorney general's power to take over cases in which unarmed civilians are killed by police.

Abelove filed his court petition in March, about a week after investigators with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office used a search warrant to seize the district attorney's cellphone. The extraordinary seizure was part of an ongoing probe by the attorney general into Abelove's controversial handling of a case in which a Troy police officer was cleared in the April 2016 shooting death of a DWI suspect.

The attorney general's office is immersed in a two-pronged investigation that's examining both the actions of Troy police in the fatal shooting as well as Abelove's handling of the case.

Schneiderman last year accused the district attorney of doing an "end run" around Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2015 executive order granting the attorney general's office authority to take over such cases. Schneiderman said Abelove rushed the shooting case in front a county grand jury that cleared the officer less than a week after the shooting  and after the attorney general's office said they wanted to review the case.

Abelove's petition questioned the constitutionality of the governor's order, claiming it usurped the authority of elected district attorneys. The petition also sought to disqualify Schneiderman's office from investigating Abelove due to a conflict of interest: Paul Clyne, an assistant attorney general, is a potential witness in the broader case  including any potential criminal prosecution of Abelove  because Clyne allegedly told the district attorney's office on the morning after the shooting that his office would not intervene in the investigation.

The attorney general's office, however, has denied Clyne made those statements. They also argue that his potential to be a witness in any part of the case would not create a conflict for the entire attorney general's office.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott, who reviewed Abelove's petition, agreed.

John W. Bailey, Abelove's attorney, said their case focused on the fact that Cuomo, when he signed the executive order two years ago, stated that while he believed district attorneys would appropriately handle fatal police incidents, he wanted to alleviate "public concerns ... that such incidents cannot be prosecuted at the local level without conflict or bias, or the public perception of conflict or bias."

Bailey said the governor's statements made the executive order "irrational" and affirmed that the order was not based on his personal views, but rather on those of a special-interest group.

"We elected our elected officials, including our governor, to act rational and to act on their best judgment," Bailey said, "not to delegate to a group of people  particularly since he disagrees with them."

Mott also struck down that portion of the argument, saying the statute giving the governor the ability to issue an executive order neither limits the governor's ability to issue one nor requires him to explain his decision for doing so.

"Thus, the authority to supersede (a local district attorney) is within the governor's sound discretion," Mott wrote in the 12-page decision.

Bailey said an appeal is planned.

The state district attorneys association, which has internally debated the constitutionality of Cuomo's order, voted last March not to file a motion in support of Abelove's petition.

Cuomo signed the order following a series of controversial fatal encounters between police and unarmed civilians in New York and across the nation. The order gave Schneiderman the power to conduct independent investigations in police encounters when, "in his opinion, there is a significant question as to whether the civilian was armed and dangerous at the time of his death."

In February, Cuomo signed another order that gave the attorney general specific authority to probe Abelove and to pursue charges against any person for unlawful acts "in any way connected with the incident and its subsequent investigation, including its grand jury presentation." Abelove personally presented the case to the Rensselaer County grand jury that cleared Sgt. Randall French in the fatal shooting of Edson Thevenin, 37.

The Times Union reported last year that French testified before the grand jury, but was given immunity from prosecution. Also, the grand jury did not hear testimony from two civilian witnesses whose accounts may have contradicted the police's version.

Schneiderman went to court last year seeking an order giving him access to Abelove's files on the fatal shooting. Abelove initially challenged the court petition but settled the case and agreed to turn over his files to the attorney general.

The shooting took place about 3:15 a.m. April 17, 2015, on Hoosick Street near the Collar City Bridge after a car driven by Thevenin was boxed in by two police cruisers following a brief chase that police said began when he fled a traffic stop. Abelove said Thevenin ran away as he was being given a field sobriety test by French, who pepper-sprayed Thevenin and ran after him.

Abelove said two police cruisers chased Thevenin and boxed in his vehicle. French's legs were allegedly pinned between his cruiser and Thevenin's car. Abelove said the officer fired eight shots at Thevenin, killing him. Police officials said they considered Thevenin was considered armed because he was using his vehicle as a weapon.

The attorney general's investigation is examining whether French was moving when he fired the shots.

"The Thevenin family, and the families and communities of all those involved in these cases, deserve answers  and our office is committed to pursuing those answers, without fear or favor," said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman.

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
Irish Girl Guides wish to thank the people of Cashel for their tremendous welcome before and during their international camp, IGGNITE2017, which was held at Rockwell College from July 30 to August 6.

Over 1,800 Girl Guides and Leaders attended in total with the grounds of Rockwell College being transformed into a tented village.

Some 250 of the girls came from 12 different countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Malaysia, the Philippines, Georgia, Finland, St Vincent and the Grenadines, England and Scotland. All the girls had a fantastic experience both on and off-site, says Camp Chief Jenny Gannon.

They tried out a range of activities and grew in confidence during the course of the week and enjoyed their trips to Cashel, Fethard, Cloughjordan and Fota. We were given such a warm welcome by local businesses who went to great lengths to help us in whatever way they could and we want to say a big thank you to every local person and business who helped make the camp such a success.We are all going home tired at the end of this week but happy too, and happy that we have made memories and friends for life - and determined too to make this world a better place, concluded Ms Gannon.
[August 11, 2017] Assemblymember Miguel Santiago Leads Para Los Ninos Charter Elementary School's Opening Day with School-Supply Giveaway

Para Los Ninos: WHEN:

Monday, August 14, 2017 | 7:15 AM - 8:00 AM WHAT:

53rd District Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) will lead opening day for nearly 400 Arts District students with classroom supplies and additional district office resources for families. The first day of school kicks off the campus's 15th academic year, in which it introduces Dr. Frances Esparza, a 25-year bilingual education leader as the organization's new academic chief. WHO: Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles)

Approx. 400 Para Los Ninos Charter Elementary School students

Dr. Drew Furedi, President & CEO, Para Los Ninos

Dr. Frances Esparza, Superintendent & VP of CharterSchools, Para Los Ninos



Bilingual interviews available WHERE:

Para Los Ninos Charter Elementary School (Penguins)

1617 E. 7th Street

Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90021

VISUAL: Assemblymember Miguel Santiago hand-delivering first day of class welcome gifts; 400 students interacting with a life-size penguin (school mascot) and Para Los Ninos families. ABOUT PARA LOS NINOS:

Para Los Ninos serves over 5,000 impoverished children and family members annually through its 6 preschools, 3 charter schools and array of mental health and social services. Geographically, Para Los Ninos' focus is in Downtown/Skid Row and Westlake/Pico Union. A community-based nonprofit founded in 1980, PLN has served an estimated 50,000 children and their families over the last 36 years. Originally established as a child poverty agency on L.A.'s Skid Row, Para Los Ninos today continues its mission of alleviating child poverty with a theory of action that integrates education with deep mental health and social services. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

Facebook (News - Alert): @ParaLosNinosOrg

Twitter: @ParaLosNinosOrg

Instagram: @ParaLosNinosOrg View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170811005587/en/

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We're launching a full month of surprises to say thank you to our most loyal subscribers!
Serial Crook Scourge Earns Hard Time

Notorious Northeast burglar sentenced to 12 years in prison By Paul Thompson Northeast News Gladstone. Park. Windsor. Garfield. Benton. Historic Northeast residents from each of these streets were terrorized by a prolific burglar for seven months between December 2, 2014 and July 12, 2015. On the morning of Friday, August 11, 50-year-old Robert L.

Highway Tragedy Fact Check

Lenexa trucking company in fiery I-435 crash has dozens of violations, feds say KANSAS CITY, Mo. - 41 Action News took a closer look at the safety record for Alpha Transport. Police say a driver with that trucking company caused a multi-car crash on I-435 that critically injured one man.

Kansas City Runaway Mommy Aftermath

Woman suspected of driving drunk speeds away from sirens at 100+ mph, crashes with toddler, man inside KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Three people including a toddler were injured early Friday morning after a driver refused to pull over when a Jackson County deputy tried to stop her, suspicious that she was driving drunk. At about 3 a.m., Friday the deputy noticed she was weaving all over the road at 291 and 40-highways.

KCK Dumping Ground Scare

Authorities investigating possible human remains found at Big Eleven Lake The Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office is investigating possible human remains found at Big Eleven Lake Friday afternoon. Big Eleven Lake is located just east of North 11th Street and Washington Blvd. in Kansas City, Kansas. It was around 4 p.m. when a concerned citizen notified the sheriff's department.

Alleged Rock Chalk Malpractice?!?!

Lawsuit: KU Health System doctor misdiagnosed patient, removed parts of organs KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A patient has filed a lawsuit against The University of Kansas Health System claiming she was misdiagnosed and unnecessarily operated on. Wendy Ann Noon Berner claims she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer following a biopsy in 2015, according to the lawsuit.

Because the adults among us understand that crime and unfortunate events are the onlynews that impacts the people of Kansas City. Check a collection of some recent local bummer headlines . . .And this isKansas City. . .
"Tell your Councilperson to repeal Question 1 now, because it prevents city officials and employees from conducting necessary city business."

QUESTION 1 EARNED FIVE TIMES THE SUPPORT FROM KANSAS CITY VOTERS THAN THE RIGGED MAIL-IN STREETCAR EXTENSION VOTE THAT REQUIRED A NOTARY AND WAS SPECIALLY DESIGNED BY DEVELOPMENT LAWYERS!!!

The dangerous part of streetcar irrational exuberance is the Mayor, members of Council, consultants, lawyers and biz people actively working to subvert local Democracy and bypass voters.

A hastily thrown together website with faulty forms and featuring an outright lie as its tagline.Actually, Question 1 simply mandates a citywide vote for extending the streetcar which is reasonable given that. . . And the streetcar can't move forward without more City Hall funding that goes beyond the TDD boundaries.And once again we remind locals . . .Moreover, our main disagreement with the streetcar isn't even about the streetcar which is kinda cute and serves its purpose as overhype faux transit . . .This latest grumbling looking to nullify voters is just another example the tend.You decide . . .
The Blue Flag label is an international symbol of quality and is one of the best known environmental symbols worldwide

486 beaches in Greece have been awarded the Blue Flag this year!

The Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature has announced that, out of a long list of 47 countries, Greece ranked number two on the Blue Flag quality awards this year. In total, the region of Halkidiki collected the majority of awards with 71 flags. Last year, 430 beaches and 9 marinas around Greece were honoured with the quality Blue Flag award.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has announced 2017 as the Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Furthermore, the Blue Flag programme has reached 30 years of successfully accrediting awards to beaches and marinas worldwide.

What is the Blue Flag Programme?

The Blue Flag is a programme of environmental awareness and protection which is implemented every year, on a large scale, in more than 50 countries in Europe and other parts of the world by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The Blue Flag label is an international symbol of quality and is one of the best known environmental symbols worldwide. It has been awarded since 1987 to beaches and marinas meeting the strict requirements of the programme. It aims at making beaches and marinas better and safer, while at the same time protecting their natural environment, so that we may always enjoy them. The Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature is the programmes coordinator for Greece. It is the oldest conservation organisation in the country and has been active in environmental education and the protection of nature since 1951.

Did you know?

In order to receive a Blue Flag eco-label, a beach must not only be found to have an excellent quality of bathing water, it must also comply with a further 32 criteria concerning cleanliness, environmental management and organisation, environmental education and information, visitor safety and services, as well as protection of nature, the coast and the coastal area.

It is not easy for a marina to be awarded the Blue Flag. It must meet 24 strict criteria, which have to do with the cleanliness of the marina, organisation, safety of visitors, protection of nature and environmental awareness. Even when a marina is awarded the Blue Flag, it only keeps it that year and goes through the evaluation process again the following year. HSPN and FEE inspectors visit marinas throughout the tourist season and note any problems or shortcomings.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Source: visitgreece.gr

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Tripiti_beach_South_Gavdos License: CC-BY-SA
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 12

A patient from Gurdaspur with swine flu symptoms was shifted to Sri Guru Ram Das Ji Hospital here today. Her samples have been sent to the swine flu laboratory at Government Medical College.

Meanwhile, the lab released reports of seven samples it had received from hospitals in Ludhiana district two days ago. Of them, two samples have been found positive, an official said. The swine flu lab, which had become operational two years ago, is proving a boon for patients as reports are readily available in a short period of time.

The lab is getting samples not only from districts across the state, but also from other states, such as Jammu. Earlier, hospitals in the district as well as other cities were sending samples to Delhi and PGI, Chandigarh.

While most private hospitals sent samples to Delhi, it took long before the reports were received back.

The facility here has helped patients as well as doctors as reports are available easily, said District Epidemiologist Dr Madan Mohan. No patient from the district has been found swine flu positive so far, he said.
Kolkata, August 12

The central government will bring down the number of tax slabs in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime with improvement in revenue, a union minister said on Saturday.

With the exempted category, the existing tax slabs are of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.

Defending the different slabs, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the central government was trying to introduce the new tax system with the consent of states and did not want to impose it.

"The Centre could have taken decisions in the GST council on the basis of majority but that was not done," the minister said at an interactive session organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Meghwal also said as many as 13.2 lakh new dealers have registered themselves in the system so far after the implementation of GST. Out of which, 56,000 were from West Bengal, the highest in India.

He said total number of registered dealers in the indirect tax system in the pre-GST regime was 80 lakh.

Describing the GST Network (GSTN) as a "perfect system", he said: "We must be facing some teething problems but it is a perfect system. The new system will remove inspector raj and there will be no human interface. The government will improve the GSTN system". He said the GST Council would take its decision on how to extend the excise duty benefits for the entities with operations in the northeast.

Later, at a session organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Minister said around 1.78 lakh shell companies have been identified by the government.

With the objective to improve corporate governance and the ease of doing business, the Centre brought amendments to Companies Act and the Companies (Amendment) Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha, is expected to be passed by the Upper House in the next session, he added.  IANS
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

A local court here on Saturday sent Vikas Barala and his friend, the two accused in the stalking and attempt to abduction case, to judicial custody.

They were sent to jail as Chandigarh Police did not seek their police remand.

The suspects, Barala  son of BJP chief Subhash Barala  and his friend Ashish were re-arrested on August 9 and charged with attempted abduction under section 365 of the Indian Penal Code, and also under section 511, a provision that deals with attempt to commit an offence punishable with life or other imprisonment.

Police reconstructed the "crime" scene on August 10  six days after a woman claimed she was stalked, an incident that led to an outcry across the nation.

The suspects have denied any wrongdoing and have blamed the press for media trial

The suspects are accused of chasing down a 29-year-old woman, Varnika Kundu, in their car while she was driving home, and blocking her way with their own vehicle in the early hours of August 5.

Although police had previously arrested the two for stalking, an offence that attracts a jail term of three years at the first offence, they later added attempted abduction to their charges under growing public pressure.

The suspects had been released on bail soon after their arrest the first time, but were re-arrested after police added the charge.

Several people gathered in the city on Thursday to hold a protest rally called 'Bekhauf Azaadi' to protest crimes against women. With PTI
Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

While Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, is abuzz with activities related to student elections, the poll fever is yet to grip city colleges. Most student parties are yet to start campaigning and decide their panels. As of now, they are interacting with freshers.

Even the university authorities informed that they had not been able to hold a proper meeting with students as they failed to give names of their leaders. The Dean (Student Welfare) of DAV College, Gurjeet Gill, said, At one of the meetings, two students from the same party started quarreling about who their leader was.

Most parties are yet to decide the panel due to which lobbying at the student level is on. The delaye in admissions coupled with the online process hurt the parties and their campaign plans. Student parties had to wait longer to see full strength of freshers as admissions for courses like BA is still on at some colleges. Most parties are yet to decide their issues to be taken up in their manifestos.

Nikka Sidhu of the Student Organisation of India (SOI) at the SGGS- 26 says, We will start planning for the elections next week as the number of students on the campus will be high then. Rajendar Kahtkar of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) at the DAV-10 says, We are deciding on our panel currently. Campaigning will begin after that. Harsh of the Sanatan Dharam College Union at the GGDSD- 32 said they had started one-on-one interaction with freshers and start their formal campaigning from next week.

Defacement, violence major challenges

City colleges will have their task cut out as they will have to work towards ensuring a peaceful election. Last year, the colleges witnessed multiple election-related violent incidents even though most of them took place outside their campuses.

Another challenge is defacement. While colleges like DAV and GGDSD have not allowed party stickers or pamphlets on their campuses, posters of student parties at the college have defaced several tricity areas.

The implementation of the Lyngdoh committee norms is yet to be seen at city colleges. The colleges have taken the first step towards it by putting up notices asking for election expenditure from parties. However, even colleges are not expecting parties to submit the details as it has not been done in the previous years as well.

However, colleges say that they do take steps to keep a check on such practices and keep them under control. Ajay Sharma, DSW, GGDSD-32, said, We have put up a prohibition notice but they are our students after all. We will try and keep a check on poll spendings.

Parties yet to decide issues

Most parties are yet to decide the panel due to which lobbying at the student level is on. The delay in admissions coupled with the online process have hurt the parties and their campaign plans. Student parties had to wait longer to see full strength of freshers as admissions for courses like BA is still on at some colleges. Most student parties are yet to decide their issues to be taken up in their manifestos. As of now, they are interacting with new students to muster support.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 12

Customs sleuths recovered about 950-gram gold worth Rs 25 lakh from a flight at Chandigarh International Airport here today. The gold was hidden under a seat of the Dubai-Mohali flight.

According to sources, the gold, in the form of small discs, was kept in a packet hidden under a seat of the aircraft, which was further scheduled to fly to Delhi on domestic service. However, nobody was nabbed as all international passengers had reportedly crossed the immigration counter before the recovery of the gold, the sources said.

The recovered gold discs are plated with other metal.

Somebody, who was travelling from Mohali to Delhi, was to pick the packet before landing in Delhi, but alert sleuths foiled the smuggling attempt, said the sources.

A similar attempt was made on June 14 when the customs staff had nabbed a 19-year-old smuggler and recovered 840-gram gold worth Rs 23.11 lakh from him at the airport. The accused, Arsalan from Delhi, had hidden the gold in a belt and kept it under the cushion of his seat in the aircraft from Dubai to Mohali.
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

I am being made a scapegoat and have done nothing. These were the words of Haryana BJP chiefs son Vikas Barala as he spoke to his lawyer, Surya Prakash Garg, in a local court today.

This is the first time that the accused has talked in public in the stalking case involving Varnika Kundu, daughter of an IAS officer. He, along with his friend Ashish Kumar, was booked on August 5 under various sections, including stalking and attempt to abduction (added later).

Garg, who could speak to Barala for a second, said: By this, he meant he had done nothing and was being framed as he is the son of a senior party leader. He was not stalking the girl and he did not even know that a girl was there in the car. He was on his own way.

His lawyer said he had a word with Baralas family who had said the police should thoroughly probe the matter, so that whatever the truth is, it comes to light. While denying all charges against the duo, Garg had told the court during previous hearing that there was no recovery of weapon from them, nor there was any intention behind the alleged stalking.

Judicial remand for both accused

The court of Duty Magistrate Gaurav Dutta on Saturday sent the duo to Burail Jail in judicial custody as the Chandigarh police did not seek their further remand. They were remanded in two-day police custody on January 10. During the past two days, the police reconstructed the crime scene on the route where alleged stalking took place. There was no word from the police about the motive of the crime. Earlier, while pleading for the accuseds police remand, the police had stated that they wanted to find out the motive.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 12

The Mohali police today claimed to have worked out last months firing incident at Balongi village, in which a financier was injured, with the arrest of three members of a supari killers gang, main conspirator Rohit Madhok and co-conspirator Rajinder, alias Joker. The police have also claimed that Madhok had also hired three other assassins to kill Baltana-based Ajay Jain following business rivalry and they have been identified.

The arrested supari killers have been identified as Vipan Kumar from Nanheri, Fatehabad (Haryana); Sunil Kumar, alias Seelu from Serawali Baglehar (Himachal Pradesh); and Hardeep Singh, alias Happu from Bhalaan. The police have also recovered two .32-bore pistols along with 35 cartridges, three 315-bore pistols with 39 cartridges, one 30-bore pistol with two cartridges and a motorcycle (PB12B 9438) used in the crime from their possession.

Madhok and Joker, who are already lodged in Ropar Jail, were brought here on production warrant by the Mohali police, which later arrested them. Joker introduced the supari killers to Madhok for the elimination of Balongi-based financier, Harwinder Singh, aka Hira, and Madhoks wife Reena. The deal was closed at Rs 2.5 lakh.

Madhok suspected that his wife had illicit relations with Hira. The conspiracy to eliminate Hira and Reena was hatched by Madhok and Joker in Ropar Jail.

Earlier, Madhok was arrested for opening fire on his wife Reena last year, and was sent to Patiala Jail. Later on, he was shifted to Ropar Jail.

Madhok is the same person, who had hired three other supari killers to kill Baltana-based Ajay Jain over business rivalry. Jain was shot dead by the supari killers on April 27 in the main market of Baltana.

Giving details, Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said Vipan, Seelu and Happu were hardcore professional killers, who took money from Madhok through Joker to eliminate Hira and Reena. The miscreants had opened fire at Hira on July 14 after calling him out of his house at Balongi and fled the scene. Hira, who had suffered three gunshot wounds in the leg, survived the attack. Then the killers were asked to kill Hira (at the PGI) and Reena. They conducted a recce at the PGI but failed to give shape to their nefarious activities, and were arrested, said the SSP.

Madhok had sent the details of his wife, including her vehicle registration number, its make and a photo, to the killers on WhatsApp, said the police.

The gang members, including Neeraj from Nurpur Bedi, Gurpreet Singh, alias Preeti from Dhadi village (Kiratpur Sahib), Vipan Kumar and Seelu, had also opened fire on Chanpreet Singh at Government College, Ropar, said the SSP, adding that a case in this connection had been registered under Section 307, 148, 149 and 506, IPC, and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act at the Ropar police station.

Vipan faces a theft case at the Kurali police station while at least four criminal cases, including one of attempt to murder, have been registered against Happu at Nangal and Una.

In connection with the firing incident at Balongi, a case under Section 307 and 34, IPC, and 25 of the Arms Act has been registered.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

The Centre today launched a campaign aimed at elephant conservation that targets to cover 12 elephant range states of the country during which artists and craftsmen will create life-size works on the theme of elephants in places along its route.

Led by Wildlife Trust of India, the campaign aims to raise awareness about the shrinking space for wild elephants and the importance of securing elephant corridors.

Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan underlined the need for a strategy for a more even distribution of the animals population across the country.
Singapore, August 12

An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to six months and four weeks in prison by a court here for assaulting and threatening law-enforcement officials who summoned him for smoking in a prohibited area.

Ramasamy Soogumar, 59, on Friday admitted in a court to three offences for causing hurt to a police officer and a National Environment Agency (NEA) officer whose colleague had summoned him for smoking in an unauthorised area, The Straits Times reported.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

With a little over a year in his release in June last year after serving an 11-year, 12-stroke sentence for robbery with hurt, Soogumar, who works as a cleaner at a school, got into trouble with the law again.

NEA enforcement officer Gugan Santhirasakaran, 24, and his colleague Salvin Kaur Mindar Singh, 23, saw the man smoking a cigarette while drinking beer in the void deck of Apartment Block 676, Hougang Avenue 8, at 7.05 pm (local time) on May 30 this year. There was a no smoking sign three metres away from where has standing, it said.

After identifying themselves, the officials wrote up a notice for Soogumar to attend court for committing the offence.

He then hurled vulgarities in Tamil at Gugan, bumped into him using his chest and slapped him.

Sergeant Christian Tan Kai Jun, who was on a routine patrol in the area with another police official, then spotted the two NEA personnel calling for assistance.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Shi said when the two police officers tried to question Soogumar, the cleaner tried to leave.

He then repeatedly tried to confront Gugan in the presence of the police officers. They stopped him and told him to sit.

The Indian-origin man also tried to assault Staff Sergeant Lionel Tan Wei Mings face but was stopped.

Undeterred, he then tried to move towards Gugan and when Sergeant Christian Tan tried to stop him, he slapped the police officials hand away.

Soogumar threatened Gugan in Tamil by saying You watch out. I will deal with you and that he would die at his hands.

Pleading for leniency, the mans lawyer Harjeet Kaur told District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid that her client uttered the words because of him being in an inebriated state.

He had been earlier sentenced to prison after conviction for disorderly behaviour, using abusive language and robbery with hurt. PTI
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

Khap panchayats today demanded amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to ban marriages within the village as well as people from the same gotra.

The khap has also announced to organise a meeting of all khap panchayats of northern India at the chabootra (platform) of Kandela khap in Jind district in the last week of September to discuss the issue and build pressure on the government.

Representatives of various khap panchayats today met at Kandela under Tek Ram Kandela, president of the Kandela khap and national convener of the Sarv Jatiya Khap Panchayat, Haryana.

Marriages within the same gotra and in the village where people of same gotra are in majority are deteriorating mutual brotherhood between people and resulting in tension. Even scientifically, it has been proved that marriage within the same gotra result in births of unhealthy children, said Kandela.

He said the Kandela khap has been taking reformatory steps on social issues in the past and among its recent decisions were complete ban on playing of DJ music system and celebratory firing during weddings.

The khap today also banned hosting of lunch on the death of a person and has restricted mourning period from 13 days to seven days.

Khap leaders expressed concern over increasing trend of intoxication among youths and the declining water table in the state.

The khap panchayats will discuss all these issues in the meeting scheduled in September, Kandela said. The demand for amendments in the Hindu Marriage Act is not new among the khap panchayats.

In a function to mark the 251st martyrdom of prominent Jat emperor Raja Surajmal in December 2014, the Sarv Khap Panchayat had announced to launch a struggle for suitable amendments to ban same-gotra and same-village marriages in accordance with social ethos of the region.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 12

On the back foot after the alleged remarks of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh offended the Gaddi community, the state government was today in damage-control mode and listed works done for the community.

A spokesperson of the government said here that the government had been providing adequate funds for the socio-economic development of the Gaddi community. He said funds from the tribal budget as well as the general budget had been ensured for development in the areas of the Gaddi population. He said the government had expanded the Gaddi Kalyan Board, raising its membership from 33 to 74, so that representation could be ensured to every region.

The state government, in the last four years, has spent Rs156.42 crore on various sectors of development for the community in the state, he said.

To promote sheep and goat rearing, the government has increased wool procurement rate to 20 per cent, so that people engaged in the profession get remunerative prices for their produce. In addition to this, market development assistance of 15 per cent as handling charges is also being given to the Wool Federation, he stated.

The state government had constructed tribal bhawans at Chamba, Sihunta and Dari in Dharamsala to provide suitable accommodation to people of the community during transit and Rs 61 lakh had been spent this year to provide employment to unemployed youths of the community, he added.

Bharmouri comes to rescue of CM

Nurpur: Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri, who hails from the tribal Gaddi community, on Saturday came to the rescue of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who had come under fire by the BJP following his alleged anti-Gaddi remarks. Addressing a press conference here, Bharmouri alleged that BJP leaders and some BJP-backed Gaddi leaders in Kangra district were exploiting the community for their political ends. Such exploitation was unaccepted to the community. BJP leader Kishen Kapoor and Onkar Naheria, another BJP Gaddi leader of Dharamsala, had done nothing for the welfare of the community when the BJP was in power but now they were trying to regain their political existence by exploiting the issue, he said. He had shared the dais with Virbhadra Singh at Mehatpur in Una district. No such remarks were passed as being claimed by the BJP, he said. The Chief Minister was a mass leader who cared not only the Gaddi community but every section of society by launching a number of welfare schemes. OC
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News service

Shimla, August 12

The state government has directed principals of all colleges and high and higher secondary schools to organise additional activities on Independence Day to create festive and patriotic mood in the state. The students would attend the schools for 2-3 hours for celebrations.

The instructions have been issued following a letter received from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, which also gave a detailed list of activities to be undertaken.

The ministry has asked the state government to direct the educational institutions to arrange patriotic programmes and give exposure to children on national integrity and conduct essay, quiz and debate competitions on the theme of struggle for independence and slogan writing.

Other activities suggested by the government include organising prabhat pheris by students with patriotic slogans and banners, painting competitions, school band competitions and band display, PT, parade and march past at district and sub-divisional level.

The screening of periodic films on journey of Indias progress since Independence to the present era, life stories of freedom fighters, scientists, etc, also figures among the additional activities.

Schools and colleges have also been asked to administer national integration pledge and organise cultural programmes, including dance, drama and other activities, highlighting the role of children in the freedom struggle.

Director, Higher Education, B L Binta said earlier also programmes were held in school and colleges to mark Independence Day on August 15 or a day before but this year, the state government had directed principals of all colleges and schools to organise additional activities.

There would be no teaching in the schools and the students would participate in the celebrations for 2-3 hours. The purpose was to create the feeling of nationalism among the students, he said, adding that the principals could also hoist the National flags in their institutions. However, there would be no holiday the next day.

Independence Day is celebrated in educational institutions every year but it is for the first time that such instructions, mentioning the activities to be undertaken, have been issued.

Orders to state
Tribune News Service

Mandi, August 12

Two persons, going by car from to Mandi from Kullu, were injured in a massive landslide on the Chandigarh-Manali highway at Dwada near Hanogi temple this evening.

The injured, identified as Rajinder Mehta (44) of Rampur in Shimla and Sanjeev Kumar of Bayal village in Kullu, had been rushed to the Zonal Hospital, Mandi.

According to DSP, Mandi, Hitesh Lakhan Pal, debris of the landslide fell on the vehicle but following immediate response of the district authorities and local people, they had been to rescued safely.

The road was prone to landslide and police personnel were also deployed to alert the commuters.

During this rainy season, there were frequent incidents of landslide in the region, which makes the journey a risky affair on this route.
Srinagar, August 12

A fierce gunfight is underway between militants and forces in south Kashmirs Shopian district. There are reports that Hizbul Mujahideen top commander along with two to three other militants are trapped in the area.

The gunfight broke at Awneera village, some 70 km from Srinagar, when joint teams of the police, Army and CRPF launched an operation in the area after an input that militants were holding a meeting in a local mosque.

As the search operation was launched this evening, militants hiding in the area opened fire to break the cordon, triggering an encounter that is still underway, said a security officer. There are no reports of any casualty so far, he said. Intense clashes erupted in the area as protesters from neighbouring village tried to march towards the gunfight site to disrupt the anti-militancy operation.

However, heavy deployment of the police and CRPF are tackling the protesters.

As the gunfight is underway in Shopian, another cordon and search operation has been launched in neighbouring Kulgam district. The search operation was launched at Matalhama, Kulgam, following an input about militant presence. No contact with any militant has been established as yet. Heavy stone-throwing is going on in the area, a police official said.  TNS
Shyam Sood

Rajouri/Jammu, August 12

A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) was killed and another soldier was injured critically when they were targeted by Pakistani soldiers with sniper fire while manning the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district on Saturday.

Earlier, a 40-year-old woman was killed in firing by the Pakistani army along LoC in Poonch.

Pakistani soldiers from their forward posts opened fire at an Indian forward posts in the Barasingha area manned by Mahar Regiment.

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In the exchange of fire that started in KG sector at around 5 pm Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries, the Army said in a statement.

Sepoy Mohit was seriously injured and was shifted to nearby Army medical centre.

A woman, identified as Raqia Bi, was killed in Pakistani firing along the LoC.

The Pakistani army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 5.15 am in Poonch sector along the LoC, a defence spokesman said.

Indian Army personnel guarding the border posts retaliated strongly and effectively.

The exchange of fire stopped at 6.45 am, he said.

Around 5.20 am, mortar shells fired from across the border exploded near the house of Mohd Shabir at Gohlad Kalran village, killing his wife Raqia Bi, a police officer said.

Naib Subedar Tomar (42), belonged to Tarsana village, Morena district, Madhya Pradesh and is survived by his wife Omavati Devi, a son and a daughter, the Army said.

Tomar was a brave and sincere soldier. The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty.

Naib Subedar Tomar is 11th soldier of Indian Army who had been killed while manning the LoC in Rajouri-Poonch districts during last three months.

On August 8, sepoy Pawan Singh Sungra of Kumaon regiment and resident of Uttarakhand was killed when Pakistani soldiers targeted him with sniper fire while manning a forward post in Poonch district.
Shyam Sood

Rajouri, August 12

A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and a woman were killed while a soldier was critically injured when snipers of the Pakistani army resorted to unprovoked firing at the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district today.

In the afternoon, Pakistani snipers deployed at forward posts targeted Indian soldiers in the Barasingha area manned by Mahar Regiment.

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Naib Subedar Jagram Singh Tomar, 42, from a village in Morena district in Madhya Pradesh was killed while Sepoy Mohit was injured and shifted to a nearby Army medical centre, sources said.

An Army statement released in Jammu said the Pakistani army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in the Krishna Ghati sector around 5 pm, in which Naib Subedar Tomar was grievously injured and later succumbed to his injuries. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Naib Subedar Tomar is the 11th soldier of the Indian Army to have been killed while manning the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts during the past three months.

The deceased woman was identified as Ruqia Bibi, a resident of Bakakot area of Mendhar sector in Poonch, the police said.

Shopian encounter: 2 jawans die, 3 hurt
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 12

A day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to protect Article 35A, the BJP today reaffirmed commitment to its core ideological issues, including the abrogation of Article 370.

Without naming Mehbooba and other Valley leaders for raking up the Article 35A controversy, the BJP observed that it was inappropriate to react on sub judice matters.

However, party leaders made it clear that the coalition government, in which BJP is an equal partner, would stick to the Agenda of Alliance (AoA) for governance. The agenda has decided that a status quo should be maintained on contentious issues.

In an obvious reference to the partys core ideology, Union minister Jitendra Singh said, The stand of the BJP on these issues is clear. We are pursuing this ideology for the past 70 years. He, however, avoided any comment on Article 35A, saying, the matter is sub judice so it is not appropriate for me to speak on it. The minister attacked the Opposition for raking up sentiments of the people on the issue for political gains.

BJPs national vice-president and in-charge of J&K Avinash Rai Khanna was also of the view that one should not react to sub judice matters.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said the BJPs stand was known to everybody. He sought to make it clear that the BJPs position was not similar to the coalition government.

So far the stand of the government is concerned, we are following the AoA where it has specifically been mentioned that a status quo would be maintained on constitutional matters, he said, adding, the matter is sub judice. Some people have approached the apex court and let us wait for the verdict.

When asked whether the Prime Minister had given an assurance on protecting Articles 370 and 35A, he said, as per media reports, Mehbooba met the Prime Minister in New Delhi. According to her statement, the PM has assured that the status quo would be maintained on some matters.

Nirmal Singh said instead of raking up the issue at this point of time, people should wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Attacking the Opposition for raising the issue to hoodwink the people, he said, these people (NC-Congress) are overreacting on Article 35A. They must understand that the matter is with the Supreme Court and we must wait for the verdict.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 12

A soldier was injured in a militant attack in north Kashmirs frontier Kupwara district on Friday night, officials said.

Militants attacked the headquarters of Armys 41 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in the forest area of Kalaroos, Kupwara, nearly 100 km from Srinagar, late on Friday. The fire was retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for some time. A jawan was injured in the attack, official sources said. The injured jawan was shifted to an Army hospital in Kupwara and his condition is stable, they said. The militants managed to flee taking advantage of the darkness. A massive combing operation was launched in the forest area as the Army suspected two militants involved in the attack may be hiding in the area. The combing was carried out in Cherrkote, Doniwari, and Kani Behak Manigah forest areas.

This is the second attack on an Army base in Kupwara in nearly four months. On April 27, an Army captain, two soldiers were killed when three fidayeen militants stormed a well-fortified Army garrison in Panzgam, Kupwara. While two fidayeen were killed in the gunfight inside the garrison, a militant had managed to flee from the base.

Meanwhile, the cordon and search operation in south Kashmirs Tral sub-district was called off this morning as no contact with militants was established. On Friday evening, the search operation was launched at Noorpora, Tral, nearly 35 km from Srinagar, after an input that two or three militants were hiding in the village. Noorpora is also the native village of radical Al-Qaida militant Zakir Musa.

The operation was closed this morning, a security official said.

Civilian injured in petrol bomb attack

Srinagar: A civilian was injured in a petrol bomb attack in Srinagar on Saturday, the police said. The petrol bomb was hurled at Badyari Chowk, Dalgate, injuring one person, identified as Imtiyaz Ahmed. He has been admitted to the SMHS, Srinagar. His condition is stable, a police spokesman said. The blast spread panic in the area
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 12

A 40-year-old woman was killed in firing by the Pakistani army at border villages and Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district on Saturday, officials said.

The Pakistani army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 0515 hours in Poonch sector along the LoC, a defence spokesman said.

Indian Army personnel guarding the border posts retaliated strongly and effectively.

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The exchange of fire stopped at 0645 hours, he said.

Around 0520 hours, mortar shells fired from across the border exploded near the house of Mohd Shabir at Gohlad Kalran village, killing his wife Raqia Bi, a police officer said.

On August 8, the Pakistani troops had resorted to firing and shelling in the Krishnagati sector of Poonch district, killing Sepoy Pawan Singh Sugra (21).

Till August 1 this year, there have been 285 instances of ceasefire violation by the Pakistani forces. In 2016, the number was significantly less at 228. With PTI
Filmmaker Karan Johar; actors Sushant Singh Rajput, Konkana Sen Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have emerged as big winners at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) awards.

Johar was honoured with the leadership in cinema award. I feel so blessed... especially to be a part of this absolutely amazing year, to be nominated with films like Dangal, Pink and Baahubali, which I felt so proud to be associated with in a tiny way, Johar said. The fest will screen Johars latest movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil along with 60 other films. The director will also hold a special masterclass.

Sushant was named best actor for his role in M S Dhoni: The Untold Story, while the best actress honour went to Lipstick Under My Burkha star Konkona. The award for excellence in global cinema was given to Aishwarya. I would like to dedicate the honour to every talent, every director who believed in me and gave me the opportunity to do the kind of work that I have done in cinema, she said.

Nitesh Tiwari won the best director award for Dangal and also shared the peoples choice award with Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. Rahul Bose-directed film Poorna won the equality in cinema award, while the best film gong went to Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Pink. PTI

Doing India proud

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has become the first female actor ever to hoist the Indian National Flag at the festival. The official handle of IFFM posted a picture on Twitter with a caption that read, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan hoists the Indian national flag at @FedSquare celebrating the 70th yr of Indian independence. While she looked stunning donning a white and light blue floor length Anarkali dress, her darling daughter Aradhya was in a white ghagra choli. Thank you so much Melbourne, thank you everyone for giving us such a moment of pride and happiness, she said. ANI
Gurminder Singh Grewal

Samrala/Khanna August 12

Questions were raised over working of the drug de-addiction centre at Samrala when the MLA from Ludhiana, Simrajit Singh Bains, stormed into the Samrala Civil Hospital on Friday. He alleged that there was a scam in de-addiction medicines distributed at the centre located in the hospital. He also presented some proofs in this regard and demanded a Vigilance enquiry into the matter.

The MLA even threatened to raise the issue in Assembly and hold a sit-in if the Vigilance enquiry was not ordered without any delay.

As MLA and his team came to the drug de-addiction centre in the hospital, the Samrala SMO, Dr Sudesh Kumar, along with in charge, Dr Sudha Vasudev, also reached the venue. The MLA presented a photocopy of centre record register to them, which showed difference in entries with another register, shown by Dr Sudha.

Bains alleged, This time there is a scam in drug de-addiction medicines. These are sold outside by showing forged receipts. He presented a receipt of Jaskaran Singh for Rs 1,030 while on the government record the receipt showed only Rs 530. Jaskaran paid more for medicines at the centre, but was given a receipt showing a less amount. The centre in charge failed to give any answer to MLAs inquiry.

Another file No. 2000 showed de-addiction drugs given to Mohan Singh, who said that he had taken tablets of mental tension, but his name was mentioned against de-addiction drugs. Mohan said he it was wrong as he had never consumed drugs.

Bains alleged that count of tablets shown as given to patients, who were drug addicts, but actually they were never hooked to drugs. He said these drugs, which were supplied to government hospitals at very low rates, were sold outside centres on high profits. He added that the previous register was changed by officials concerned. Photocopies of the register presented by him were different from present register, he said. Alleging there was a big scam the MLA vowed to bring the matter in front of the people.

Meanwhile, Dr Sudha expressed ignorance about photocopies in possession of the MLA. She said there was nothing wrong in her record. While refuting all allegations of any scam she said, I am right in every way.

Chequered past

The in charge of the de-addiction centre has a controversial past. A case was registered against her at the Mullanpur police station. As many as 18,500 tablets used in government hospitals for drug de-addiction were recovered from her private centre. That time SHO, Inspector Harjinder Singh Bhagowal, confirmed that a case was registered against Dr Sudha on December 19, 2014. Meanwhile, the Health Department is yet to give approval to present a challan of Dr Sudha. When contacted, the Mullanpur Dakha DSP, Jasmeet Singh, said they had written to the Health Department twice for approval, which was still awaited to present the challan.
Bengaluru, August 12

BJP president Amit Shah arrived here today on a three-day visit to Karnataka to re-energise the partys rank and file, and asserted that the party stood united and would return to power in the Assembly poll next year under the leadership of state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa.

Friends, our party stands united, and is geared up to take to the electoral battlefield under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji in the coming days, and see to it that we form a BJP government in the state, Shah told party workers near the Kempe Gowda International Airport here.

He was accorded a rousing reception by BJP workers. He claimed the people had decided to vote the BJP to power as the party had been exposing the corrupt, polarising and oppressive rule of the Congress over the past five years.

I am hopeful that the way the party, for the last five years, has been fighting against the corrupt, oppressive and polarising rule of the Congress, the people of this great state of Karnataka have decided to vote the BJP to power, he said.

Shah said he had come here to realise the resolution of forming the next BJP government in Karnataka. I have come here amidst BJP workers to realise Ab ki baar, BJP sarkar (This time, a BJP government) resolution, he added.

He said when Prime Minister Narendra Modis Vijay Rath (victory chariot) would reach Karnataka in next February-March, party workers should be ready with their quest to make inroads into the southern India by winning the Karnataka Assembly poll.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 12

The Congress today held the UP Government responsible for the infants death at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a probe by a Supreme Court judge.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited Baba Raghav Das Medical College in eastern UP, along with party colleagues, expressed deep anguish over the death of 30 children. He said the probe ordered by the state government and the suspension of the college principal was just an eyewash and demanded that the matter should be probed by a sitting judge of the SC.

The party also demanded the resignation of Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and health secretaries.

They dont have the right to remain in office, Azad said.

Ex-CM Akhilesh Yadav also accused the authorities of covering up the incident. Demanding an unconditional apology from the CM, BSP chief Mayawati said those responsible should be jailed. (With PTI inputs)
Lucknow, August 12

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday ruled out a shortage of oxygen as responsible for the deaths in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital as he stressed no one found guilty would be spared.

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He also requested the media to be responsible and only broadcast authentic death statistics.

We are sensitive to each death in the hospital and will request you all to be careful about the facts and figures," he said at a press conference here.

Expressing his sympathies to the families who have lost their children, Adityanath said that encephalitis was a big challenge for the state government, adding that the prevalence of the disease has been an emotional issue for him as he have been waging a war against this since 1998.

He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to him, enquired about the situation and assured all help from the central government. The Union Health Secretary was in Gorakhpur along with state government officials, he said, adding that Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and his Minister of State Anupriya Patel were mentoring the situation as well.

Adityanath also said during his review meeting in Gorakhpur on August 9, he had asked officials if there were any issues they were facing or any help they required from the government but was told that there were none.

The Chief Minister said that he himself had visited the BRD medical college on July 9 and August 9 to himself look at the situation but was not informed of any shortage of any facility, including oxygen.

Meanwhile, Patel, who arrived here in the evening, drove straight for a high-level stock taking meeting on the tragedy. She also spoke to the media and said the guilty would not be spared and that the government would act "cruelly and with a firm hand" to punish callous officials.

State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh also denied that the shortage of oxygen or the disruption of the central oxygen plant at the BRD medical college had lead to the deaths of children, including infants. He also attributed the deaths of children to some underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, happened due to encephalitis as well.

Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said pending payments of the vendor supplying oxygen were cleared on August 5 and funds sent to the medical college.

"It is thus surprising that the BRD Medical College Principal Rajeev Mishra did not release it till August 11," he said, adding that prima facie he was found callous and has hence been suspended.

The minister also questioned Mishra's trip to Rishikesh in middle of such a grave crisis. He also said that a committee has been formed under the Chief Secretary to probe the role of the oxygen supplier and it is expected to submit a report within a week.  IANS
Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 12

With emerging evidence of gross negligence by all concerned, the death toll has reportedly risen to 44 at Gorakhpurs state-owned Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College hospital.

The hospital has given a break-up of 60 deaths since August 7 of which 34 are of newborns in the NICU ward, 12 Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) cases and 14 non AES cases.

Speaking to the media before leaving for Gorakhpur, Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh charged the BRD Medical college management, district administration and the doctors of keeping the chief minister, ministers and senior bureaucrats in the dark about the emerging oxygen crisis.

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The chief minister visited the hospital on July 9 and against on August 9 to take stock of the situation. Why did no one bring up the subject during the review meeting, asked Singh hinting at heads that are likely to roll.

He, along with minister for medical education Ashutosh Tandon, left for Gorakhpur after meeting CM Yogi at his residence for 45 minutes on Saturday morning. They are expected to brief him after their return.

While initially the state government maintained that the deaths were not due to shortage of oxygen now evidence to the contrary has put them on the backfoot.

There appears to be a letter dated August 10 on the records which had been written by the employee handling the oxygen storage plant to the Chief Medical Officer informing him that the stock was fast depleting and would last till evening.

The same night the deaths came in quick succession and the toll had reached 23 for a single day.

Several letters of Pushpa Sales Private Ltd which supplies liquid oxygen to the Nehru Hospitals neo natal, JE and ICU wards are also on record repeatedly requesting for clearing of arrears of Rs 52 lakh. They had also informed of not being left with any option but to stop supplies if arrears were not cleared.

Speaking to a news channel the owner of the company Manish Bhandari squarely blamed the BRD hospital management for the deaths.

He admitted that on Friday night the arrears were hurriedly cleared after which oxygen supply had started from Rajasthan and would reach Gorakhpur on Saturday night.

Bhandari said his company was supplying liquid oxygen during the night and two other companies were also engaged.

Director General Medical Education Dr KK Gupta had rushed to Gorakhpur on Friday night. After meeting district magistrate Rajeev Raoutela, Gupta had visited the BRD hospital to study the files of the oxygen supplier.

It was after his visit that the arrears were hurriedly cleared, sources say.

Meanwhile, the display box outside the hospital OT showed low levels of oxygen and nitrate gas. The slow humming of the alarm was clearly audible in the hospital corridors warning of low level of supplies.

Azad demands resignation of health minister

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday demanded the immediate resignation of the states health minister and health secretaries.

They do not have the right to remain in office for a single minute more, Azad told the media outside the BRD hospital complex.

He said CM Yogi as the MP of Gorakhpur constituency who had visited the hospital just two days ago could also not be absolved of his responsibility.

Azad recalled the funds and facilities he brought to the BRD hospital for the control of AES when he was the union health minister under the UPA government.

A high-level Congress delegation, including UPCC president Raj Babbar and MPs Sanjay Sinh, Pramod Tiwari and former minister RPN Singh visited the hospital.

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav charged the authorities of a cover-up exercise.

He said he had reports that ever since the deaths started rising rapidly the hospital administration was making attendants quietly leave the premises with the bodies by side gates without conducting post-mortems.

He alleged that medical admission cards had also been tampered with to hide the true situation.

The Samajwadi Party has also sent a delegation to make an on-the-spot review of the situation.

Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh has asked the Opposition parties to resist politicising the deaths in Gorakhpur to draw political mileage.

Dept handling oxygen supply wrote to authorities on 3&10 Aug to infrm of shortge as Pushpa Sales stoppd supply ovr pending paymnt #Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/FDKl8hlx1H  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 12, 2017








New Delhi/Unnao, August 12

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh where several children died in a hospital and is in touch with central and state authorities, the PMO said on Saturday.

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj, meanwhile, said infants died because oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of dues.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and the Union health secretary will take stock of the situation in Gorakhpur, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

District Magistrate of Gorakhpur Rajeev Rautela had said yesterday that at least 30 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College within 48 hours since August 10.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.

Sakshi Maharaj demanded stringent action against those responsible for the tragedy in Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital.

"The deaths which took place in a Gorakhpur hospital were very saddening. The person, who switched off the oxygen supply on the pretext of non-payment of dues, was responsible for the incident," the MP from Unnao told reporters.

Denying media reports that he had termed the incident as a "massacre" (narsanhar), Sakshi Maharaj said, "I have never said so. I said the deaths were not natural and steps should be taken to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future."  PTI
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, August 12

Some 300 years after Alexander Pope wrote his famous mock-heroic The Rape of the Lock, incidents of women losing their long hair without their knowledge has created scare among the women in Gujarat.

These have forced the state government to sit up and take note of the happenings.

After similar incidents in some northern states, the invisible lock rapists seem to have come to Gujarat.

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During the past three days, nearly two dozen incidents of someone neatly cutting the hair of women apparently with a pair of scissors have been reported from various parts of the state.

The incidents are not confined to a particular area or region, but spread over the entire length and breadth of the state from Kutch to Bulsar, covering the rural, semi-urban and even major cities like Ahmedabad.

While Ahmedabad city reported two such incidents today, Kheralu town in Mehsana district reported four such incidents in past two days.

Women of different age group and with different hair styles have suffered the damage. While some women complained of having lost their bunch of hair in the night, some claimed that someone cut their hair during daytime but without them noticing the culprit.

So scared are the women that they arent venturing out in the open without tightly covering their heads. On this, the Congress lambasted the state government for not taking the incidents seriously.

State Congress spokesman Manish Doshi said the state government was showing total lack of concern for women who had been subjected to such harassment from unknown quarters.

Worried about losing womens votes in the coming state Assembly elections, the BJP government has asked the CID (crime) to look into the matter, Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said.

The police have constituted a team headed by a deputy superintendent of police and incorporating a number of policewomen as well as a team of psychiatrists to investigate each incident and to find out any common link, Jadeja said. The police believe that some local hooligans are trying to take advantage of the situation to spread scare among the women.

The government has warned of strict penal action against all such women and their relatives if any incidents are found to be baseless and deliberately engineered to spread rumour and scare among the people.
Bhopal/Dhar, August 12

Social activist Medha Patkar on Saturday ended her 17-day fast to protest against the governments apathy towards resettlement of those affected by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Patkar, however, would remain in detention. She was detained on Wednesday, hours after being discharged from a private hospital in Indore.

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On the request of several organisations associated with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the social activist ended her fast. Fifteen members representing various organisations went to the Dhar jail, where Patkar has been detained for three days, former MLA Dr Sunilam said, adding: Keeping her health condition in mind, the members requested Patkar to call off the fast.

The former legislator also said, Five false charges have been registered against Patkar and the hearing over the matter would take place on August 17.

Patkar has been told that the entire nation is supporting her over the Narmada dam issue. The letters written by several organisations, including JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, were also shared with her. She was told that the people urged her to end the fast. Dr. Sunilam said Patkar ended her fast by drinking lemon water in her prison cell.

The height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, on the Narmada river near Navagam in Gujarat, is being increased by 17 m to 138.72 m. The Supreme Court had ordered resettlement before July 31 of people of a town and 192 villages that fall in the submerged area.  IANS
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are told, has sought a detailed report from the Yogi Adityanath government on more than 60 deaths in UPs Gorakhpur Medical College and Hospital in the past five days. Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary CK Mishra have been told to take stock of the situation.

The PM is monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with the authorities, a PMO statement today read. However, questions are being raised on the social media whether this is good enough for a state that voted overwhelmingly for the BJP less than six months ago, hoping for a better future. During his extensive poll rallies, the PM had promised to rid the state of its many problems, promising vikas and sushasan (development and good governance) and blaming rivals for the peoples plight.

Five years of the SP government, five years of the BSP government and 50 years of Congress rule are responsible for the abysmal condition of UP, he had declared.

It is now being asked why the PM has not visited Gorakhpur to provide a healing touch and also whether BJP chief Amit Shah should not have left his political assignment in Karnataka and rushed to the state from where he hopes to re-position Modi for a second term in 2019.

Lack of oxygen or otherwise, the tragedy has exposed the helplessness of the authorities in eradicating Japanese encephalitis, called the curse of eastern UP. The disease is responsible for the death of hundreds of children every year in Gorakhpur area, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths Lok Sabha constituency. It seems nothing has changed even after Yogi taking charge of the state.
Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 12

The principal of Gorakhpurs Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Rajiv Mishra, has been suspended with immediate effect for irresponsible behaviour in not being prompt with making payments to the company supplying oxygen to the hospital. Uttar Pradeshs Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon made this announcement at a press conference after a lengthy review meeting with doctors and officials concerned.

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Soon after being suspended, Misra announced his resignation. He categorically denied that 30 persons, including 17 newborns, had died in the past few days owing to disruption in oxygen supply. Hospital sources said there had been 60 deaths since August 7, including that of 34 newborns and 12 suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome (AES).

The minister announced a probe committee under the Chief Secretary to fix responsibility as to why the supplier  Pushpa Sales Private Ltd  was not paid till August 11 when money had been released by the government on August 5 following the suppliers letter dated August 1. The offices of the supplier in Lucknow are being raided. The authorities are contemplating punitive action against the company for stopping the supply of something as essential as oxygen, said Tandon.

However, Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh reiterated that the deaths were routine and not owing to shortage of oxygen. After reviewing the previous years data on AES cases at the BRD Medical College in the month of August, it appears that the 23 deaths reported on August 11 were not out of the ordinary, he maintained. To substantiate his point, he quoted casualty figures for the month of August in the last three years.

In 2014, at least 567 children died, which is 19 deaths a day. In 2015, the toll was 668, an average of 22 deaths per day. In 2016, the toll was 587, which comes to 19.5 children per day, he said. Though the state government does not wish to undermine the enormity of the problem, it would not be correct to correlate the recent deaths with oxygen disruption, he held. Claiming that backup cylinders were immediately put to use and there were enough in stock, he pointed out that the 950-bed hospital catered not only to Gorakhpur, but adjoining districts and neighbouring Bihar and Nepal too.

As Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) are not equipped to handle such cases, patients approach the BRD Hospital when in advanced stages of illness. Hence, the mortality rate is high, Singh reasoned.

Meanwhile, terming his resignation as pre-decided, the suspended principal claimed that payments were duly made to the oxygen suppliers.The deaths were due to encephalitis, not lack of oxygen, he claimed.
Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

It has taken years of persuasion and even some track 2 diplomacy to get hold of 40 valuable volumes from Pakistan on Punjabs political, social and economic history from 1935 to 1947.

Thanks to the efforts of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, the incumbency list of the Punjab Provincial Assembly from 1935 to 1947 and transcripts of all debates in the Assembly during those 12 years are finally here.

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The papers mention not just the names of the members of the Assembly, but also the unique problems of each of the 175 constituencies  from Multan to Gurgaon, and the language spoken in each part.

The 40 thick volumes will soon adorn the libraries of both the Punjab and Haryana Vidhan Sabhas. The transcripts of the debates are in English, with detailed information on the members. The papers also contain historical anecdotes about the ruling parties of the time  Congress, Muslim League, Unionist Party, Akali Dal and Khalsa National Board, Hindu Election Board and Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam.

For the past five years, Manpreet Badal, an ardent student of British Indian history, had been fervently pursuing with the Government of Pakistan Punjab to get copies of transcripts. I have a keen interest in history, especially events relating to the Partition of India. These documents reveal so much about the developments and any research is incomplete without getting access to these. Thus, I pursued it relentlessly, he said.

When officially the copies were denied to him, he didnt waste much time in initiating track 2 diplomacy. A close relative of a key functionary of the Pakistan Punjab legislature, based in London, was roped in to help get these important historical documents.

When the copies were ready, the next big challenge was getting these documents across the border. Manpreet Badal says friends on both sides helped in transferring the documents from Lahore to Amritsar, with a small distance being traversed each day to avoid any suspicion.

Though these documents adorn a corner in his personal library now, Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP, who got wind of these documents being in possession of Badal, approached him. I learnt that this important slice of Punjabs political history is finally available. I met Badal a few days ago, and he has agreed to donate copies to the Vidhan Sabha library, the Punjab Speaker said.

Manpreet Badal says that he will also be donating copies of these 40 volumes to Haryana, besides Panjab University and the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA).
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 12

Coming in support of prisoners of war (PoWs), Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh who was killed in a Pakistan jail in 2013, has appealed to the Union Government to intervene to secure the release of Army men who had been languishing in Pakistani jails since 1965 and 1971.

Dalbir Kaur, who had joined the BJP last year, said she had already met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and pressed her for talks with Pakistan for the release of about 214 PoWs from Punjab.

She was accompanied by six families of PoWs from Malwa region.

Arshinder Pal Singh, son of Dharampal Singh of Lehra Dhurkot village in Bathinda, said his father had fought for the 1971 war as part of the 4 Sikh Regiment. My father was declared a martyr. We even have his statue at our village. But much later we learnt through a soldier, Satish Kumar of Ferozepur, that my father is alive. Since then we have been meeting prisoners released from Kila Attock Jail. All have confirmed my fathers presence there, he said holding his fathers picture in Army uniform.

Other families too had a similar tale to tell. They demanded immediate intervention of the Centre to secure their kins release.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar today lashed out at the BKU (Ugrahan) for its politically motivated protest during Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singhs visit to Mansa yesterday. He described the act as an attempt to divert attention from the governments efforts to help the aggrieved cotton farmers of the region.

Instead of appreciating Amarinders proactive intervention after taking cognisance of reports of crop infestation by whitefly, a handful of farmers, under the banner of BKU (Ugrahan), chose to give it a political colour, Jakhar said in a statement issued here, criticising the organisation for trying to promote its vested interests at the cost of the farming community.

He dismissed as ridiculous the justification given by the farmers that they resorted to sloganeering to draw the CMs attention. Amarinder had specially gone to the villages to meet the aggrieved farmers and was easily accessible to all of them, he said.

Substandard pesticides seized in Abohar

Abohar: Agriculture Department officials on Saturday searched a godown reportedly owned by Sunil Pesticides and claimed to have seized pesticides that had not been disposed of after the expiry date.

Firm owner Rahul Kumar was arrested on Friday. Assistant Plant Protection officer Gurmail Singh claimed that many products were suspected to be substandard. OC
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday alleged that Punjab had incurred a loss of Rs 2,500 crore on outdoor advertising in the 10 years of the SAD-BJP government.

He said the government would come up with a law for establishing an advertisement directorate this year.

Addressing a press conference here, Sidhu said, Making a law, particularly its vetting, is a technical issue; so the process can take two to three months. With the coming of this law, the current annual collection of Rs 25 crore would jump to Rs 300 crore. At a modest average of Rs 250 crore annually, the state lost at least Rs 2,500 crore.

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Quoting figures based on comparative data, the minister alleged, The government had a revenue collection of Rs 25 crore from 164 towns and cities. Compared to this, Haryana collected Rs 150 crore from its 80 urban settlements alone. Also, of the total collection in Punjab, Rs 11 crore came from Mohali alone and another Rs 2.5 crore from Zirakpur.

He said the entire amount should have gone to the Road Safety Fund, but not a penny was contributed. The figures had come up following the constitution of an SIT for an ongoing case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he added.

Sidhu said, The state had lost about Rs 2,000 crore in a separate case of non-payment of taxes by Fastway Transmissions. The existing laws, in both cases, were inadequately empowered for seizure or penalty. We are coming up with separate policies for cable television and advertising.

Citing the example of weak advertising laws, Sidhu alleged that Green Line Advertisement, associated with a former SAD minister, made crores with conditional tendering from advertisements on bus queue shelters.

First, the company of the friend of a minister in the last government was given a conditional tender at Rs 8.05 crore by denying entry to the rightful contender. Then, the earlier government paid the company Rs 2.12 crore as compensation, he alleged.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today alleged that the state had incurred a loss of Rs 2,500 crore on outdoor advertising in the 10 years of the SAD-BJP rule.

He said the government would come up with a law for establishing an advertisement directorate this year.

Addressing a press conference here, Sidhu said, Making a law, particularly its vetting, is a technical issue; so the process can take two to three months. With the coming of this law, the current annual collection of Rs 25 crore would jump to Rs 300 crore. At a modest average of Rs 250 crore annually, the state lost at least Rs 2,500 crore.

Quoting figures based on comparative data, the minister alleged, The government had a revenue collection of Rs 25 crore from 164 towns and cities. Compared to this, Haryana collected Rs 150 crore from its 80 urban settlements alone. Also, of the total collection in Punjab, Rs 11 crore came from Mohali alone and another Rs 2.5 crore from Zirakpur.

He said the entire amount should have gone to the Road Safety Fund, but not a penny was contributed. The figures had come up following the constitution of an SIT for an ongoing case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he added.

Sidhu said, The state had lost about Rs 2,000 crore in a separate case of non-payment of taxes by Fastway Transmissions. The existing laws, in both cases, were inadequately empowered for seizure or penalty. We are coming up with separate policies for cable television and advertising.

Citing the example of weak advertising laws, Sidhu alleged that Green Line Advertisement, associated with a former SAD minister, made crores with conditional tendering from advertisements on bus queue shelters.

First, the company of the friend of a minister in the previous government was given a conditional tender at Rs 8.05 crore by denying entry to the rightful contender. Then, the earlier government paid the company Rs 2.12 crore as compensation, he alleged.

Govt hits back at Khaira over mining probe

Chandigarh: The government on Saturday slammed Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira for rejecting the Justice JS Narang Commissions report on the sand mining auctions. In a press release, a government spokesperson said Khaira was indulging in political gimmickry by making unsubstantiated statements. The spokesperson said the elevation of the commissions presenting officer, Avtar Singh Sandhu, as a law officer was made in accordance with the Punjab Law Officers Engagement Act 2017. Sandhus appointment as an Additional Advocate General was made by a selection committee, which included a retired HC judge, the spokesperson added, ruling out alleged manipulation of the inquiry by the former. TNS
Roopinder Singh

The Tribune, ever the chronicler of the people and events of Punjab, found itself in an unusual situation of becoming the subject of news reports. In the days leading to Partition, two employees were killed in Lahore, one was stabbed. The Tribune ceased publication in Lahore on August 16, 1947. A truck and a car evacuated 94 staff and some of their family members. The printing press it left behind, newsprint, typewriters and a van were given to Pakistan Times by the West Punjab Government. Just 40 days later, on September 25, 1947, the newspaper resumed publication  from Simla. Yes, the printing press was small, staff inadequate, and finances badly crunched, but the paper gave a voice to the people and made them aware of events that were shaping their lives.

A perusal of the files shows that it was on Wednesday, April 9, 1947, that The Tribune had a banner headline Proposed Partition of Punjab and Bengal; another one, Maharaja of Patiala Urges the Princes to Join Constituent Assembly. Even then, there was hope. On April 21, the banner headline read: No Partition of Indian Now.

However, reality soon sunk in, and on June 21 and 23, the headline declared: Bengal votes for Partition, and Punjab to be Partitioned, with another item highlighting the worsening situation in Amritsar where 100 bombs [were] exchanged by rival mobs. Details about how various institutions and assets were to be divided are fascinating  instant records have a compelling intensity, even as the fluid situation makes for patchy, chaotic historical narrative.

The August 15 issue declared: India Wakes to Life and Freedom. It reported on the historic session of the Constituent Assembly for New Delhi. From Karachi came another report: Birth of Pakistan an event in History and another one titled Goodwill and Friendship with Britain and Hindustan Qwaid-i-Azam Jinnahs Aim. Thereafter, the staff was forced to flee from Lahore.

By October, when The Tribune resumed publication in Simla, the horrific deaths and displacement of millions dominated the reporting. There is the story of how Hindus and Sikhs were wiped out in Miani, a village in Pakhtunkhwa. Another day, another story. This about the Ill-fated train from Pindi to Dadan Khan; Witnesses Account of Loot, Murder and Abduction, even as an adjoining item says Retaliation Denounced: UP Communists Appeal for Peace. On October 5, the banner headline is: 4 Columns of 1,15,000 Marching to India: 30,000 Hindu and Sikh Refugees Cross Border. Muslims attack Convoy Near Janarwala.

A separate story on this page details the efforts of The Tribunes Refugees Forum, wherein displaced people made efforts to contact their loved ones. By the end of the year, On December 5, 1947, The Tribune was able to announce: Hindus and Sikhs Evacuated from W. Punjab. Colossal Task Completed Within Allotted Time. Small Pockets Yet to be Cleared. Over 8 Million people cross border.

One aspect of the task may have been completed, but there was so much more. A new country was being run. This region and its people had borne the brunt of Partition. Millions of lives had been lost, many more millions displaced, rendered homeless, and many families torn apart in the days that led to the Independence of India. The Tribune was, once again, the chronicler of Punjab, serving the people of the state.
Harish Khare

Harish Khare

With rare exceptions, the world has simply not known how to divide a nation amicably and peacefully. The division of India in 1947 to carve out a new state of Pakistan inevitably produced its own ghastly share of violence, dislocation and disruption.

Admittedly, the British decision to grant India independence was principally driven by the simple fact that the four-year-long World War II had totally exhausted the imperial will to rule; in fact, the British desire to hold on to India had already been tested morally and ethically by the Indian National Congress, which under the Mahatmas leadership had waged a unique peaceful freedom struggle. The British middle classes, with their pretensions to liberal values, had no answer to the Mahatmas saintly leadership. The Union Jack had to be lowered from Red Fort, sooner than later.

But by the time the British came to the conclusion that they could no longer stay in India, they had already instigated mischief among the Indian leadership. The colonial rulers had cynically worked on the Indian societys religious fault lines, encouraged and cultivated sectarian agendas which ultimately coalesced into the demand for a separate nation.

The Muslim League, under Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had already legitimised use of violence in pursuit of its demands. The Leagues call for Direct Action was an invitation to chaos and the mobs. Once a society develops a taste for violence, its leaders are rarely able to calibrate and control the streets. By the time August 15, 1947, came the Muslim Leagues leadership skills were already over-extended even in what came to be known as East Pakistan and West Pakistan. In India, the Congress leadership was barely able to push the mobs back.

Still, a monumental tragedy was destined to take place. The sheer scale of the number of Hindus and Sikhs, who found themselves forced to migrate out to India and of the Muslims in India who had to leave for Pakistan, was maddeningly benumbing. Grand statistics simply cannot convey the trauma and the tragedy that engulfed this part of the world soon after August 1947.

A sympathetic American reporter and an eye-witness described the post-Partition days as one of the great convulsions of modern history. On December 12, 1947, he tried to convey the nature of disaster that overtook the two nascent nations: Consider what has happened. In an orgy of religious-communal madness, some 10 million citizens of the north-western provinces had been routed from their homes. An unknown total, probably between 2,00,000 and 5,00,000 (compared to 2,95,000 American war-dead in World War II), had been put to sword, machine-gunned, or roasted alive. The splintered Punjab administrations were quickly swamped and there even appeared danger that the infant central governments of India and Pakistan Dominions might succumb. Phillips Talbot (An American Witness to Indias Partition).

The frenzy in the East was no less violent, no less gory, no less bloody than it was in the West. The Hindus, the Muslims and the Sikhs joyfully discovered their capacity for inflicting violence and death on their erstwhile neighbours as well as total strangers. The massacres, the mayhem and the madness outpaced humanity and all known civic-minded virtues; the trauma and tragedy touched nearly every home, every life. No one was unaffected; no one could remain emotionally unmolested by this continental turbulence.

After a few months the mobs could be rolled back and blood could be washed off the streets, but the memory of Partition-centric violence was now etched on the soul of an entire generation on both sides. The two successive states had entrenched habits and protocols of acrimony and suspicion and political leaders and sectarian interests saw to it that India and Pakistan would not settle down to a peaceful co-existence.

The raw memories of Partition also impacted on how the two states went about the business of creating an internal political order. Once Jinnah was gone, Pakistan hastily abandoned his ideas of an inclusive society and nation. In India, the Mahatma was assassinated. The murder was planned by those who wanted to make India a Hindu State and they thought the Old Man was an obstacle. Ironically, the assassination settled, once for all, how India would grant equal protection and equal citizenship to all its minorities.

Perhaps some in India would argue that Partitions unfinished agenda still remains unattended. May be, after 70 years, we should simply revisit those horrible, horrible days of chaos and disorder before we embark on another self-defeating journey
Saba Naqvi

NO person in the world has as much power over me as my dentist does when I am in the chair. There I am helpless on my back and there he is, God or Devil himself, holding the drilling machine that can theoretically gauge out my eye, poke my cheeks, stab my forehead and so on. But being a good guy he only fixes my teeth. And being a great guy he also holds worth on the state of the nation and has over the years become my thermometer into the thinking of the professional middle class. When he loves Modi, Modi wins, when he tries out AAP, they win too (and when he hates them they lose).

He has spent many years hating the Congress and they have been losing. But my dentist is a troubled man these days because he is unhappy with GST and says that demonetisation also damaged his rather large practice that he had expanded some years ago, investing in equipment and many juniors who walk around in smart coats. But he's had a bad financial year and is not optimistic about the immediate future. Make no mistake, he still loves Modi but is getting the sort of pangs that lead to infidelity.

Therefore, last week he committed the blasphemy (or is it treason these days?) of saying that he is beginning to wonder if the days of Manmohan Singh were not better for professionals. The minute I could speak, I sat up and said but doctor, you love Modi so much are you saying he's not perfect? By now it was clear that my dentist was depressed and the Hindu Rashtra was not compensating for monies lost.

The poor man was grappling with what I would call a crisis of faith. He was muttering about economy and destiny as great nation but having to let one junior go and so on. So I asked him straight: If there was an alternative to the BJP, would you vote for it? The reply was straightforward: There is no alternative as long as Rahul Gandhi is there and as long as he is there I would not vote for the Congress but if they project another leadership, I would!

I know this is the week when the Congress is supposed to be upbeat because Ahmed Patel made it to the Rajya Sabha (and I have nothing against Patel who has only been pleasant and courteous with me). But I want to stress that the sort of energy and resources that went into ensuring that a trusted family retainer made it to the Upper House is exactly the sort of spectacle that has alienated the middle class from the Congress.

My quarter century spent covering politics has left me with a few conclusions. People prefer to vote for those who they believe are likely to win. Rahul does not look like a winner. Yet the Congress has an impressive history and is the party that opened up the economy that benefitted the middle class. But they can never tap into that goodwill as long as the party is run by a family that's lost all its charisma.

The counter argument may be that multiple regional parties are led and run by dynasties so why ask the Congress to be different? Because the Congress is traditionally rooted in values, history and ideology that is bigger than a diminished dynasty. It needs to tap into that legacy and abandon the undemocratic idea of the bloodline. Long time hacks who cover the Congress keep saying it will fall apart if a family member is not there to hold it together. I have two responses to that: first, what's left to fall apart? Second, wouldn't that be a good thing as the party structures are dominated by people unable to win an election anyway (never mind the Rajya Sabha seat).

What if a New Congress can be created by an entirely new and young set of leaders? Let Sonia and Rahul give up control as president and vice-president and retire into advisory senior citizen roles. Let the state leaderships, defeated or still holding ground, recommend talented names and individuals. Yes, there will be chaos, but it is only from a churning that something new can emerge. Destruction lies at the heart of creation.

Elections are often won because people wish to defeat the incumbent. Right now, they have no alternative. Imagine the electric impact if the Congress makes an announcement the dynasty is retiring and young, fresh and clean leaders will henceforth lead the party and from among them a face will emerge. At least the country would be interested.

I see no good reason why this can't be tried as there is nothing left to lose (except Ahmed Patel's seat it seems). If drastic measures are not taken then one can only deduce that members of the dynasty see the party as a private limited company and they need it for a career option and/or a retirement plan besides a necessity to protect some in laws.

Letting go, I believe, is the bravest thing they can do now.
Majid Jahangir in Srinagar

ON July 24, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly funding militancy and unrest in Kashmir. It marked a shift in governments policy to deal with secessionism in Kashmir. It is defined by iron fist with no valet glove.

The arrests followed a series of raids by the NIA that continued for over a month. Apart from active separatist workers, a battery of businessmen is also under scanner within and outside Kashmir, making the crackdown more target-oriented. Only this week the Enforcement Directorate raided a prominent business man of Kashmir.

Such crackdowns  conducted in the past too  related to alleged unlawful activities, in which cases were formally registered for follow-up investigations. But these yielded no results. The general belief among security agencies is that the hawala money has been pumped through cash, trade and funding through Middle East, but nothing has been established conclusively. The NIA probe, however, appears aimed at fixing the separatists and their alleged links to hawala channels.

The police, state intelligence and Central agencies maintain that hawala money has been used to fund street protests, subversive activities, violence and militancy in the state. According to the J&K government, 173 cases of funding have been registered in the state since 2001 till last year.

Charge-sheets were issued in 90 cases, 45 were under investigation and 23 are awaiting sanction. Nine cases were untraced and six not admitted, says a senior official. The police require the state home departments sanction to proceed in the cases under various laws. Some of the cases were:

2011: Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a key aide of hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani was arrested along with three others with alleged hawala money of Rs 21 lakh. The case was later handed to the NIA.

2002: J&K Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik was arrested after his aide was held on way to Srinagar from Nepal along with $100,000. A charge-sheet followed.

2006: Delhi Police slapped charges of funding separatist organizations on a Dubai-based Kashmiri businessman close to Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

These cases have only dragged on. The separatists have called the seizures and arrests as a campaign of vilification. Their denial lent some weight when last year Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in a written response to a question in the state Assembly, denied having received any report about separatist leaders receiving hawala money.

Whats different now?

While the security situation on the ground remains fluid, the NIA has extended its role in targeting the entire separatist spectrum. The operation is to basically explore a co-relation between funding from Pakistan and Hurriyat as well as militants, an official privy to NIA investigations said. The state police have been treating individuals of terrorist organizations invoking section 18 & 20 of UA(P) (Unlawful Activities Prevention) Act and the NIA is targeting organizations as a whole, including their hierarchy (section 38 UA(P) Act, the officer said.

This is perhaps the first time section 38 UA(P) has been invoked in the state.

Hot on the money trail in Srinagar, Jammu, Haryana and Delhi, the NIA has tightened its noose and arrested seven Kashmiri separatist leaders for allegedly funding militancy.

The arrested separatists included Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Funtoosh (Geelanis son-in-law and in-charge of legal cell in Hurriyat), Ayaz Akbar (Hurriyat spokesman), Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal (district president of Srinagar for Geelani-led Tehreek-e-Hurriyat), Peer Saifullah (Geelanis aide), Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam (spokesman for Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat), Nayeem Khan (National Front chairman) and Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate (head of a JKLF faction). The sleuths have summoned at least over two dozen people for questioning, including Geelanis sons.

The separatists were arrested in connection with the terror funding case under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against Republic of India), 121A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state) of IPC and sections 13 ( punishment for unlawful activities), 16 (punishment for terrorist act), 17 (punishment for raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (punishment for conspirac), 20 (punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organization), 38 (offence relating to membership of terrorist organization), 39 (offence relating to support given to terrorist organization), 40 (offence of raising funds of Unlawful for a terrorist organization) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

War against India

The investigations began in the follow-up of a television expose that found Nayeem Khan, Karate and Javed Baba conceding that they received funding from Pakistan to perpetuate secessionist activities in Kashmir. The NIA later registered a case on May 30, against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including the members and cadres of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed organizations Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Dukhtarane Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and other militant organizations. These outfits allegedly raised, received and collected funds through various illegal means, including hawala. Some of the charges relate to funding separatist and terrorist activities, including throwing stones on security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

J&K former Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar says NIA is a professional organization and the investigation will definitely have impact on the ground. They (NIA officials) have all the data and are immune to interference from any quarter. You need to cut the oxygen of funding. Once that is done, you will see an impact on the situation, he says. The investigation of funding is a specialist job. The NIA has the logistics to investigate such cases.

Separatists, who have termed the crackdown aimed at defaming them and their movement, have roped in Kashmiri lawyers to defend their case. While the lawyers may question the jurisdiction of NIA in J&K, the separatist have a tough road ahead. Their shutdown call against the NIA crackdown did not evoke an effective response from the people.

The NIA crackdown may trouble us, but in the end New Delhi will be a loser. Any further delay in resolving the Kashmir issue will only harm the government, says a separatist leader.

The crackdown: No one spared, hardliners or moderates
London, August 12

The far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) has allowed an anti-Muslim campaigner to contest its leadership, potentially causing divisions within the anti-immigrant party.

Anne Marie Waters, founder of the Sharia Watch pressure group, was approved by the UKIP national executive to stand for its leadership along with 10 others who will be put to a vote of members next month.

Waters believes her anti-Islam message, including a proposed ban on the burqa, the closure of all sharia councils and a temporary freeze on immigration, will strike a chord with many voters.

The UKIP said the executive voted by a majority to allow all 11 to go forward. If you get through that, you should be allowed to stand. Were going to have what will be an interesting contest, said UKIP deputy leader Peter Whittle, who is also in the fray. Voting papers will be sent to party members soon and the new leader will be announced at the partys annual meet in Torquay on September 29 and 30.  PTI
London, August 12

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Saturday blamed North Korea for the standoff with the United States and said London wants a diplomatic end to the crisis.

"The North Korean regime is the cause of this problem and they must fix it," he said on Twitter.

"The international community is shoulder to shoulder in ensuring North Korea stops its aggressive acts. We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end."

US President Donald Trump reassured Guam on Saturday it was secure amid mounting regional tensions, vowing that American military forces "stand ready" to safeguard the US Pacific island territory against a belligerent North Korea.

The North has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the tourism-dependent island, as Pyongyang and Washington ratchet up their war of words.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged Trump to avoid rhetoric that could inflame the situation, while French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an "escalation of tensions".  AFP
United Nations, August 12

Nine child soldiers have been handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Mali city of Kidal, which is controlled by a former rebel group, a UN spokesman announced in New York.

Good news from our colleagues in the peacekeeping mission in Mali.... Nine child combatants were handed over to the UN mission in Kidal this morning, the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.

The mission is organizing their transportation to Gao and making arrangements for their care by child protection officials pending reunification with their family, he added, without giving the ages of the children.

A source with the UN mission in Mali told AFP that the children were between 15 and 17 years old, and some of them are showing signs of trauma.

The Malian Human Rights Association (AMDH) called for a thorough investigation to identify armed groups that use child soldiers and prosecute the offenders.

Fighting between the ex-rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) and the pro-government Platform group has worsened in recent weeks in northern Mali, in repeated violation of a 2015 ceasefire.

We were able to establish that the armed groups had minors in their ranks, Guillaume Ngefa, director of the human rights division of the UN mission to Mali, said in a statement Thursday.

What is extremely concerning is that among the 33 people currently held prisoner by the CMA in Kidal, eight are children, he added, saying the children could be soldiers.

The conflict dates back to 2012, when key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

The armed groups accused of abuses by the UN operate in areas where Malis army is absent or has a very limited presence.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French- led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Allegations of collusion between the former rebels and jihadists continue to circulate.  AFP
Bedminster (US), August 12

The United States has said it holds Cuba responsible for investigating an apparent sonic attack that left several of its diplomats in need of medical treatment.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday said the US mission in Havana had not been able to determine who was behind what he called health attacks on its staff.

But he warned: We hold the Cubans responsible just as every host country has a responsibility for safety and security of diplomats in their country.

We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks not just on our diplomatsas youve seen there are cases with other diplomats as well.

On Thursday, Canada revealed that one of its diplomats had also fallen victim to the mysterious attack, which officials said seem to have been carried out with some kind of sonic device.

US personnel began experiencing ailments in late 2016, but that it was not immediately recognized that it could be anything other than an ordinary health issue.

US media have said the diplomats suffered hearing loss.

Cubas foreign ministry said US officials had alerted it to the alleged incidents on February 17.

The State Department has not said how many of its diplomats were hurt, but in May it ordered two Cubans to leave the Cuban embassy in Washington.

Relations between the United States and Cuba were restored by then US president Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2015 after a half-century break.

But tensions mounted again after the detente was partly rolled back by Obamas successor Donald Trump.

In June, Trump tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.

The US embassy in Havana was closed in 1961 when diplomatic relations broke down between Washington and Fidel Castros young revolutionary regime.  AFP
A Ponca City woman who was jailed earlier this year on allegations that she schemed to hire someone to murder her ex-husband in Israel was arrested Thursday on an obstruction complaint.

Ponca City police officers assisted a state agency in the morning arrest of Danielle Dana Layman, 37.

A police spokeswoman had no details beyond the departments blotter, which said the arrest was related to obstruction.

In June, Layman was jailed in an alleged scheme to hire someone to go to Israel and poison her ex-husband with ricin, as previously reported.

The Ponca City News reported that Layman was released from jail in that federal case and is on house arrest awaiting trial.

Layman, whose aliases reportedly include Samantha Dowry, Danielle Givati and Dana Abecassis, posted an advertisement on the online classifieds website Craigslist seeking someone for a 10 day gig overseas for amateur, competitive pay, authorites said.

The ad sought a 30- to 45-year-old person who was creative, outgoing and friendly, according to federal court documents. It also said the person should be bold and brave, as some of the stunts required for the job could be risky.

The ideal candidate would have some experience in acting, performing magic shows or dealing at casinos, the ad said.

After a candidate responded to the ad on May 3, he or she met Layman at a Ponca City coffee shop less than a week later to discuss the jobs details, according to court documents.

Authorities said Layman identified herself as Samantha Dowry and came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation outlining the hit job, which is referred to as Operation Insecticide.

The destination, the job candidate learned, was Tel Aviv, Israel, and the task was to murder the womans ex-husband, a taxi driver, using ricin powder, a highly toxic product of castor beans, according to the documents.

The alleged plan involved hiring Laymans ex-husband to drive the hired killer to Tel Aviv tourist attractions for a week. He or she would put the ricin in the drivers coffee every morning, court documents indicate.

The would-be assailant was offered $1,000 for personal expenses for 10 days in Tel Aviv and $4,000 upon successful completion of the hit, the documents state.

Authorities said that after the meeting, the responder to the ad contacted an attorney for advice on how to handle the situation. The friend told the person to call the FBI immediately, which he or she did.

Court documents indicate that Layman was in a child custody battle with her ex-husband in 2014.
Clarification: This story has been updated to better reflect when Shannon Kepler became an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Citing a recent ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of overturning a death-row inmates conviction, former Tulsa Police Officer Shannon Kepler has asked a judge to dismiss his 3-year-old murder case because he says it occurred on land governed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Lead defense attorney Richard OCarroll wrote in a motion filed Friday that Kepler, 57, is a citizen of the Creek Nation and can trace his ancestry to a grandparent and great-grandparent.

Identification documents attached to the motion show the U.S. Department of the Interiors Bureau of Indian Affairs certified that Kepler was of Native American heritage in February 1983. The Creek Nation issued Kepler a citizenship identification card, which includes his photo, on Thursday, although documents show he was enrolled in the tribe since at least 1989.

The motion also argues that the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake outside his aunts home on Aug. 5, 2014, happened in an area within the boundaries of a Native American jurisdiction and therefore cant be prosecuted by the Tulsa County District Attorneys Office.

Lakes aunts home, which is in the 200 block of North Maybelle Avenue, is just outside the northwest corner of the Inner Dispersal Loop and within a mile of the northern boundary of the Creek Nation, which includes Tulsa and 10 other counties. However, the area is part of the city of Tulsa, whose Police Department generally assumes jurisdiction over investigating homicides within the city limits.

The motion from OCarroll cites a Tuesday ruling from a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that says Congress never disestablished the Creek Reservation and therefore tossed the 2000 murder conviction of Creek Nation citizen Patrick Murphy. The unanimous opinion from the appellate court indicates the judges belief that Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Murphy because he is Native American and is accused of committing a crime in Indian Country.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief James Floyd released a statement Tuesday saying in part that the decision affirms the rights of all tribes to make and enforce their own laws in their own boundaries.

The court went on to say Murphys case should be handled by the U.S. Attorneys Office or the Creek Nation tribal court.

University of Tulsa professor Judith Royster told the Tulsa World earlier this week that the 10th Circuits opinion, if it is upheld on appeal, will change how crimes committed by or against Native Americans in the 11-county Creek Nation reservation are prosecuted.

The Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office hasnt yet filed an appeal of the decision in Murphys case, nor have prosecutors in Tulsa County submitted a written response to OCarrolls motion. However, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray said Friday evening that the state expects the Attorney Generals Office to appeal and ask for an immediate stay of enforcing the 10th Circuits ruling.

At that point the ruling by the 10th Circuit will not go into effect, he said. Therefore, we think its premature for any district court (and) any district judge to make a ruling based on a decision that is still subject to appeal.

Gray said he hadnt seen OCarrolls motion, which was filed late Friday afternoon, but anticipates asking District Judge Sharon Holmes to hold a hearing so both sides can further discuss the relevant legal issues.

Kepler is scheduled on Oct. 9 to begin his fourth jury trial in less than a year after the previous three resulted in mistrials due to hung juries.
Annabel Crabb will sit down with former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and John Howard in a special live interview, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the opening of Old Parliament House.

Its now a decade since an Australian Prime Minister last served a full term in office. We live in a time of epic turbulence  domestically and internationally  and shortened attention spans both for politics and policy. What a privilege to be able to draw upon these two elder statesmen, under the very roof where they had their start as leaders, said Annabel.

Both men started their Federal political careers at Old Parliament House before moving up the hill when the new parliament building opened in 1988.

Between them they held Australias highest elected office for 19 years. Bob Hawke was Prime Minister between 1983  1991 and John Howard remains the nations second longest-serving Prime Minister, leading the Coalition in government between 1996  2007.

They remain two of the countrys most venerable elder statesmen.

In Conversation: Hawke & Howard 8pm Wednesday 16th August on ABC News.
The Block recently announced casting for its 2018 season, which has previously been confirmed as The Gatwick hotel in St. Kilda.

Couples must be aged between 18-65, available for a 10-12 week shoot period from mid January until April 2018.

Previous home renovation experience is an asset, but not required from both partners. Successful participants are paid a nominal weekly fee during filming to cover basic living costs and expenses.

Producer Julian Cress has today told News Corp what it takes to be cast: persistence.

People shouldnt feel disheartened if they dont make it on the show first time, Cress says. So many couples have tried a number of times before they made it.

30 short-listed teams are flown to The Block headquarters in Melbourne and given the challenge of styling a room in 30 minutes.

We get to see how they work as a team on camera  how quickly they make and execute decisions  by giving them a choice of 200 items they can put in a room, Cress says.

You can apply here.
Studio 10 co-host Ita Buttrose received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 NSW Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism, held last night in Sydney.

At the awards ceremony, Buttrose was surprised with a video tribute, featuring a message of congratulations from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The award was presented to her by Studio 10 co-host Sarah Harris, as well as former newspaper editor Peter Newell.

Simon Dulhunty, Chairman of the Kennedy Foundation, said: The Kennedy Foundation is built on a tradition of honouring the greats of Australian media and Ms Buttrose qualifies for the highest recognition in every way.

From magazines, newspapers to television and radio, there is not one mountain on the Australian media landscape that Ita has not conquered with distinction.

With over 50 years experience, Ita is one of the most recognised women in the Australian media industry. At just 23 years old, she was appointed womens editor of The Daily Telegraph, before the founding editor of Cleo and then the youngest ever editor of The Australian Womens Weekly. Ita was also the first woman to edit a major newspaper, as Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, and the first female director of News Limited.

In 2013, Ita joined Studio 10 alongside co-hosts Sarah Harris, Jessica Rowe, Joe Hildebrand and recent addition Denise Drysdale. Ita co-hosts the panel every Tuesday and Wednesday, delivering her quick wit, wisdom and sharpness, drawn from immense experience as a media editor, businesswoman, best-selling author and charity advocacy.
Valentina, 70, can barely walk with a stick. Her husband Gennadiy grasps her hand tightly to help, but he too has difficulties walking. Together, like thousands of other Ukrainians, they must cross a de facto border in the east of the country just to visit family, receive social payments and seek medical treatment.

Surrounded by minefields, crossing points are the only way to travel back and forth between conflict-torn areas in Eastern Ukraine. For many Ukrainians, this dangerous yet inevitable route is a part of their regular travel routine.

To get through a checkpoint, Valentina and Gennadiy must walk about 600 metres on foot from a bus stop and then wait in line for the necessary documents, before taking two buses to get to the checkpoint on the other side. A journey like this can be hard for anyone  but for vulnerable people with limited mobility it is excruciating. This is inhuman, says Valentina, wiping away her tears.

We did not choose to live like this."

Four-year-old Katya* and her mother regularly cross the checkpoint in the village of Marinka.  UNHCR/Tania Bulakh

The Ukrainian authorities have registered more than 6 million crossings of the contact line since the start of 2017, already fast approaching the overall 8.5 million crossings from 2016. One of the reasons for this increased mobility is the verification procedure for social payments that was introduced by the Ukrainian government. For many vulnerable people in non-government controlled territories these payments are vital for survival, leaving them with no choice but to travel back and forth.

We did not choose to live like this, says Viktoria*, who takes her four-year-old daughter, Katya*, across the dividing line once every two months to visit her sick grandfather. While Katya waits for a bus with her mother, the sound of gunfire echoes around the area, as fighting continues.

This is inhuman."

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is concerned about difficulties regarding freedom of movement of civilians, particularly while crossing the conflict line.

"There are frequently long queues and subsequent delays at checkpoints," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday (August 11). "Those waiting to cross have limited access to basic services, such as drinking water, latrines, weather shelters and medical care."

With the support of the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and other international donors, UNHCR is providing technical support and equipment to improve conditions at crossing points. Computers and furniture have been supplied to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in order to speed up processing of documents and there are plans to install new heated tents and shade covers for pedestrians moving across the line.

Since 2015 and the signing of the Minsk Agreement, the conflict in Eastern Ukraine has disappeared from headlines, with a decrease in gunfire often seen as a sign that the situation has stabilized. However, explosions and bombings continue, along with damaged infrastructure and a lack of security that exposes people to life-threating dangers. And, with many families torn apart by the contact line, hope is in short supply.

We do not deserve this after all the years that we contributed working for this country, says Valentina.

* Names have been changed for protection reasons.


Stunning Australian DJ, Brooke Evers, will perform a sultry set at award-winning gentlemens club, Crazy Horse III, in celebration of Labor Day weekend on Saturday, Sept. 2 (Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net).

Evers rose to stardom quickly, with 2016 residencies in Atlantic City, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles  thanks to her performances alongside top hip-hop artist Lil Jon. With thousands of followers loyal to her #IPartiedWithBrookeEvers tag, the DJ hosts a radio show in her home country of Australia and is signed to SKAM artists. Known for her mixed-format sound on the decks, Evers has no boundaries within the electronic genre.

Guests ready to party all night may take advantage of the clubs complimentary limo service, pending availability, using the Crazy Horse III signature app or by calling 702-673-1700. The easy-to-use app, available for download on all mobile platforms, allows users to personalize their experience with features including table reservations, bottle service packages and dancer profiles.
Breath of fresh air: The 67ha islet attracts tourists with its serene setting, fresh air, fruit orchards, floating houses, and delicious traditional southern cakes made by locals. - Photo tuoitre.vn

The city aims to turn Con Son into a popular attraction for local and foreign tourists, Le Van Tam, deputy chairman of the Can Tho Peoples Committee, said.

Situated in the Hau River, a tributary of the Cuu Long (Mekong), the 67ha islet attracts tourists with its serene setting, fresh air, fruit orchards, floating houses, and delicious traditional southern cakes made by locals.

It is 600 metres from the river bank and takes only five minutes by boat from Co Bac boat station.

According to Phan Thi Nguyet, deputy chairwoman of the Binh Thuy District Peoples Committee, 74 households live on the islet, earning their livelihoods from farming and tourism.

Fifteen of them offer community tourism services to tourists such as catching fish in ponds, making cakes together with their hosts, visiting fruit orchards and homestay.

Tam said the city would provide all required support for the islet, with top priority being its infrastructure.

There is now only one boat to Con Son from Co Bac boat station, and the city plans to build a new boat station.

The city will upgrade roads and deploy electric vehicles for visitors to tour the islet.

It has also instructed the district to establish a management board to support locals with and instruct them in sustainable tourism. The board will be managed by the city Tourism Association.

Tam added that local households offering tourism services should work together to provide quality services to attract more and more tourists.

Le Thi Be Bay, deputy head of Binh Thuy Districts culture and information office and the person in charge of tourism services on Con Son, said: The district began community tourism on Con Son in late 2014, and it quickly became a favourite with local and foreign tourists.

She said the islet received more than 150,000 visitors in 2015, a surprisingly high figure.

Nguyet said: Community tourism has been booming in the Mekong Delta. Im worried that if we have no new services, we will gradually decline.

The citys support is necessary to turn Con Son Islet into one of the citys major tourism brands along with Cai Rang Floating Market, she added.
At least 11 countries in Europe have found eggs contaminated with the chemical fipronil since the scare emerged on August 1. (Photo: AFP/KRISTOF VAN ACCOM)

Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the European Union are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop "blaming and shaming" each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on Aug 1.

The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicentre of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem.

"Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting. "We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead."

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that "this is not, let's be clear, a crisis meeting" and it is being held next month to get "distance to the events".

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

'DUTCH ADMIT 'ERRORS'

Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.

But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.

Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries.

On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made "errors" but denied a cover-up.

"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers.

A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the centre of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands.

"I am the anonymous whistleblower," Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.

A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical.

Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.

However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

FRESH DISCOVERIES

Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily.

Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.

Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was "very low" given French eating habits.

The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.

Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease - cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder - which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.
Onlookers gather at the scene of a train collision just outside Egypts Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Aug 11, 2017, where two trains collided killing dozens of people and injuring over 100 in the countrys deadliest rail accident in more than a decade. (Photo: AP/Ravy Shaker)

Onlookers gather at the scene of a train collision just outside Egypts Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Aug 11, 2017, where two trains collided killing dozens of people and injuring over 100 in the countrys deadliest rail accident in more than a decade. (Photo: AP/Ravy Shaker)

The crash also injured 123 people, the ministry said in a statement.

Footage on the state broadcaster showed one train had partly keeled over in the crash, and medics were seen moving the dead and injured to ambulances.

Transport ministry officials, quoted on state television, said the crash was probably caused by a malfunction in one train that brought it to a halt on the rails.

The other train then crashed into it.

One train had been heading from Cairo to the northern city of Alexandria and the other from the canal city of Port Said, east of the capital, to Alexandria.

The dead and injured were initially placed on blankets in a field beside the tracks running through farmland on the outskirts of the city.

The health ministry said 75 ambulances had been dispatched to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.

Assistant health minister Sharif Wadi told state television that most of the injured had been transferred to hospital.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sent his condolences to the victims' families and ordered a probe to "hold accountable" those responsible for the disaster, his office said.

It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a train ploughed into a bus carrying schoolchildren in November 2012, killing 47 people.

That accident had jolted the government which ordered an investigation and sacked the transport minister and the head of the railway authority.

The accident was blamed on a train signal operator who fell asleep on the job.

STRINGS OF ACCIDENTS

The probe, however, did not prevent further accidents. Just months later, a train carrying military conscripts derailed, killing 17 people.

Around a year later, a collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of the capital.

They had been returning from a wedding when the train ploughed into their bus and a truck at a railway crossing.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.

There have been many other fatal crashes on the busy rail network.

In July 2008, at least 44 people died near Marsa Matruh in northwest Egypt when a runaway truck hurtled into bus, truck and several cars waiting at a level crossing, shunting the vehicles into the path of a train.

In August 2006, at least 58 Egyptians were killed and 144 injured in a collision between two trains travelling on the same track.

In the wake of that crash, a court sentenced 14 railway employees to one year in prison for neglect.

The deadliest accident on Egypt's railways dates back to 2002 when 373 people died when a fire ripped through a crowded train south of the capital.
A lull in the HCM City real estate market is pushing developers to offer promotions to bring back buyers.- Photo nguoiduatin.vn

Tuoitre.vn quoted an unnamed developer as saying that in the last two months it has been difficult to sell apartments. His project in District 6 has 450 units but only 140 have been sold since the beginning of this year.

His company had planned to begin a new project in the second quarter of this year, but it has been put on hold as a result of the market slowdown.

All his employees have been put on the job of selling apartments at old projects, he said.

Pham Lan, general director of Danh Khoi A Chau Company, said the land segment has slumped since last month since customers have become apprehensive after prices skyrocketed in districts 2 and 9.

Besides, many expect the market to remain steady until the end of the year and so have put off their buying plans, he added.

Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said this year developers had been selling their old projects and few new ones have come to the market.

Land transactions are strongly down since Lunar New Year in late January, he added.

Dao Xuan Tung, head of the Can Gio Notary Office, said the number of land transactions has declined sharply.

In May every day his office handled 30-40 registrations, but the figure has come down to below 10 since June, he added.

Other notary offices reported a similar situation, with transactions coming down by 30-40 per cent.

Faced with a slump on one hand and the need to repay banks on the other, developers are offering many promotions like increasing the amenities on offer, furniture packages, increasing the time between instalments and lucky draws, though they have not reduced prices or only reduced them marginally.

The developer of the District 6 project said cutting prices would not be fair to previous buyers, but, faced with pressure from the bank, he had decided to increase the time between instalments from one month to three.

Since the beginning of last month, a company in District 7 has added many amenities at a project it plans to build. Besides, customers from districts 1, 5, 7 and Binh Thanh will get 1 per cent discount and an additional 1 per cent if they buy in a group.

The company has also oragnised a lucky draw to attract customers.
Dorothy and Levi Reeves display their wedding photo from 57 years ago in their Oakland, Calif., home. Dorothy Reeves agreed to donate both of their brains after death to the University of California-Davis for research.
New Waco ISD Superintendent Marcus Nelson will join with Church Under the Bridge on Sunday to bless children who are starting or returning to school. The church meets under the Interstate 35 and South Fourth Street underpass at 11:00 a.m. The service is open to everyone. For more information, call 235-7818.

Empowerment workshop

The Central Texas District will host an empowerment workshop on Saturday at Carters Temple Church of God in Christ, 316 Dallas St. in Waco. Registration costs $30.

The program starts with breakfast at 8:15 a.m. Facilitators include Patricia Jackson, Willie Conner and Pastor Larry Polk. For more information, call 662-8957.

Salado art fair

The Salado Annual Art Fair is Saturday and Sunday in Pace Park, which offers a large walkable area for the many expected booths and vendors with the backdrop of Salado Creek.

There will be numerous juried artists and artisans covering a wide variety of artistic genres. The fair is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $2. Children 12 and under are free.

For more information or to become a vendor, visit www.salado.com or call 947-5040.

Women of Waco luncheon

The August Women of Waco luncheon is 11:30 a.m. Saturday at La Fiesta House, 3725 Franklin Ave.

For more information, call Diane Jenkins at 744-2430.

Waco High class of 64 reunion

The Waco High School class of 1964 will have its 53rd class reunion from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Richfield Christian Church, 4201 Cobbs Drive. Lunch will be provided.

The class will meet for dinner at 6 p.m. at Casa de Castillo, with guests responsible for their own food purchases.

For more information, call Shirley McDonald Fuller at 666-3304.

Family Night on the Brazos

The Alliance for Safe Children will host Family Night on the Brazos and an outdoor screening of Zootopia from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

The event offers a chance to catch up on child safety practices, gain family resources and get to know local nonprofits face to face. Admission is free. For more information, call 732-0482.
Hurts Donut Co., a growing regional chain known for large doughnuts with offbeat toppings, is bringing its act to Waco.

Richard West and his wife, Kathryn, confirmed they have secured franchising rights for this area, and we plan to open a store in Waco as soon as possible, he said in an email response to an inquiry.

The rumor is true, West said. Hurts Donut is coming to Waco, and we are thrilled to become a part of the Waco community. We are currently looking for a location.

He said fans and followers of Hurts Donut Co. can receive updates on a Facebook page titled Hurts Donut-Waco Texas.

Hurts has grown from a single location to a presence in eight states and recently unveiled a location in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Frisco.

Pechacek joins FNB

The First National Bank of Central Texas has announced the hiring of Rachel Pechacek as senior vice president of the Woodway-Hewitt banking center, according to a news release from spokesman Dan Ingham.

Pechacek, who has 13 years of experience in commercial and real estate lending, received a bachelors degree in real estate-finance from the University of Texas at Arlington and her MBA from Tarleton State University.

We are very excited to have a senior lender with Rachels experience, education and community mindedness join our First Family, said Joe Barrow, executive vice president of FNB of Central Texas. Rachel is a proven leader who knows how to assist her customers in meeting their financial goals. We are fortunate to have her.

Pechacek has served on the board of the Waco Family Abuse Center, was a member of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerces 25th Leadership Waco class and took part in the chambers Total Resource Campaign.

Law firm turns 100

The Waco-based law firm Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday passed a resolution honoring the firm founded in 1917.

The firm has 72 lawyers, active and retired, and has expanded to include offices in Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio in addition to Waco, according to a news release from attorney Roy L. Barrett.

Now the 44th largest law firm in Texas, Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee in 2015 was named one of the top-ranked law offices in the country. It achieved that distinction by having at least one-third of its attorneys achieve an AV Preeminent Rating from the Martindale-Hubbell rating agency. In its rating system, A stands for legal ability and V stands for very high ethical standards. Barrett said in his release that only 2,466 firms were selected nationally to receive this honor out of 254,000 reviewed.

Cases and clients of note for the law firm include:

Coryell County landowners, who in the 1970s opposed expansion of Fort Hood. The Army reportedly wanted to acquire an additional 59,500 acres, but owners of farms, ranches and homes said Fort Hood was not fully utilizing the 217,000 acres it already had. After a long legal battle, the General Accounting Office, which is the official investigative arm of Congress, sided with the landowners, Barrett said in a summary.

The city of Waco in its legal action against Erath County dairies in an effort to clean up Lake Waco.

Baylor University, which in the 1990s changed its charter to guard against a takeover by any special focus group such as the fundamentalist movement in the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Central Texas communities, including Gatesville, Hillsboro, Hewitt, Robinson, Woodway, Bellmead, Temple, Killeen, Clifton, Meridian, Hubbard and Nolanvile, just to name a few, Barrett said

.

Leadership Waco

The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce has named its 34th Leadership Waco class. The program is a 10-month leadership development experience in which participants learn about such topics as History Day, Serving Others, We The People, Economic Development, Tools for Leaders, Healthcare, Education, Tourism and Visions for the Future.

Class members include: Tony Acosta, Douglass Nissan; John Calaway, Mission Waco; Lynsey Castillo, La Fiesta Restaurant & Cantina; Jacob Cates, Community Bank & Trust; Sydney Cox, Texas Tech University, Waco; Christopher Dahman, Avila Apartments; Nick Deaver, American Bank; and Clinton Dennard, Tarleton State University, Waco.

Others are Rene Duffy, Lamar Advertising; Eva Gregely, Veterans Affairs; Keith Kusler, Greater Waco Chamber; Christopher Lancaster, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, Hillcrest; Domingo Lopez, Englander dZignPak; Keith Maynard, Andrews CPA; Nicholas Messerall, The Behringer Group; Becca McCormack, Refine 31; and Clark McCormack, Baylor IMG.

Also, Ashley Norris, Providence Foundation; Timothy Payne, American Amicable Life Insurance Co. of Texas; Angela Ragan, Jaynes, Reitmeier, Boyd & Therrell; Joe Rivera, Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee; Clint Savage, Extraco Banks, Joel Shields, Scanes & Routh LLP; Greg Shropshire, Pattillo Brown & Hill; and Lori Young, TFNB Your Bank for Life.
With three years in business and as many locations behind them, a duo of Baylor University graduates will open a coffee shop Tuesday with plans to offer more than specialty drinks.

Dylan Washington and John David Beard hope their new Pinewood Coffee Bar at 2223 Austin Ave. will serve as a community hub and live music venue for the neighborhood as they offer up coffee roasted on-site, pastries in the morning and farm-to-table options for lunch.

Baylor grads to open McGregor coffee roaster Two Baylor University graduates are opening a new coffee roaster business in McGregor, with 

After starting in a garage, Washington and Beard moved their roasting operation to rented space in downtown McGregor in 2015 with the goal of selling coffee online and in local shops. A year later, they opened a coffee bar in the Alpha Omega restaurant in downtown Waco as they continued roasting in McGregor.

After leaving the restaurant in the spring and a public hiatus for the summer, they now have eight employees and a new venue to themselves. The location is fit with space for their roaster, a coffee bar, lunch service and an outside patio to host monthly live music events.

The venture started out of a love for the coffee industry and a strong desire to be part of that world, said Beard, who has a management degree from Baylor. At every step since they moved out of the garage, there has been a lingering question of Now what? Beard said.

Up until now, its just been arriving here, Washington said.

The space

The shop takes up 1,800 square feet in a 3,000-square-foot space next to the offices of Rydell Real Estate, which owns the building.

Natural light pours through large windows and across the room into custom booths handmade by Wacos E2 Creative while music from a hi-fi record player fill the air.

Our colors are a natural, an eggshell and brown, just really clean and warm and inviting and happy  all the things I love, Washington said.

Seating surrounds the room, with a 15-seat coffee bar in the middle.

Its set up to where this is an extremely communal environment, Washington said. Hopefully if people want to come in, read the paper, see people that they see every morning, we can serve this neighborhood well.

The shop will offer muffins and doughnuts with coffee in the morning, and the lunch options have the duo excited.

Pinewood partnered with Waco-based Happy Harvest owners Toby Tull and Juanita Barrientos. Happy Harvest will offer several nutritious farm-to-table lunches, including sandwiches and vegan pizzas that dont include refined sugars, Beard said.

Youll be able to come here for a quick good lunch without the crash mid-day, he said.

People, product

Pinewoods mission goes beyond a quality cup of coffee.

I think it can be captured really well in the question were getting asked, which is, Why are you not downtown?  Washington said. Ultimately, its because we wish to serve the Greater Waco area. We wish to plug into Castle Heights and Sanger Heights at this point and be a community hub for those people and for anybody.

Everybody thats ever interacted with our brand hopefully knows were about serving the customer almost too well. Really, we care very, very deeply about that. When the customer is not around, we exhaust ourselves on how much we can know about coffee.

Thomas Csorba, Pinewoods head of music and staff foreman, said since joining forces with Washington and Beard he has learned the importance of understanding every customer is a gift and treating them as such. The duo truly cares about the product and the people, he said.

They are so enamored by both, that people just want to be around it, he said. We want this to be a place the community feels at home.

Upgrading the water

Making the community feel at home wont tamp down the attention to detail on the coffee. Pinewood will use a water filtration system for all drinks.

The idea is that were going to bring our water down to almost completely pure water and were going to make mineral recipes for our water, Washington said. So our water will be unlike anyone elses.

The concept is not novel for specialty coffee shops and is one Pinewood is approaching seriously, he said.

Pinewood staff spent much of the summer crafting recipes for new drinks.

They plan to offer a specialty drink or two every month, including some flavors not typically associated with coffee, general manager Chris Wernette said.

I really believe that weve got some stuff up our sleeve thats going to be awesome, Washington said.

Not every experiment has panned out, and several will never make the menu.

Washington said they attempted to make an avocado latte, which failed miserably.

It wasnt bad. It was interesting, Beard said.

It tasted like it needed diced tomatoes, some cilantro, some opinions and a tortilla chip, Washington said.

Live music

Waco favorite Lomelda will perform the first show at Pinewood on Sept. 1, Csorba said.

Csorba said he and Washington have played a lot of shows in bands at various locations and know how difficult it is to find an area that is designed for guests to be attentive to the performing artist. Their outside performance space, centered around a large live oak tree, has been crafted to create that type of atmosphere, he said.

This is honestly one reason why we love this spot, Washington said.

When artists are not performing, the space will serve as an outdoor seating area for customers.

On a sunny day, theres not an unshaded spot out here, Wernette said.

As the fledgling location finds its feet, Pinewood will continue selling its products at Common Grounds and locations in Tyler, Austin and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and continue the push to have their coffee sold across the country.
Graffiti bearing Nazi symbolism, the word Satan and the name of the president of the United States was found Tuesday morning at a predominantly black Baptist church in McLennan County that is home to about 30 members.

The words and swastika, surrounded by a six-point star and circle, were scribbled in ketchup and mustard at Willow Grove Baptist Churchs fellowship hall where members hold Bible studies, Sunday classes and community events.

The church near Speegleville was founded in 1871 by former slaves A.J. Crawford and Buck Manning and named after the willow branches at the site, which once included a school.

Offer them love and forgiveness, Pastor Kenneth McNeil said of how Crawford and Manning would respond to the perpetrators. As I read some of their records, I think they would offer forgiveness.

McNeil, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army, approached the church at 11 a.m. Tuesday and saw damaged doors, one with a removed deadbolt. Bleach was strewn over a choir room and hallway, and the secretarys office was ransacked. Nothing was stolen and the sanctuary remained untouched, but Willow Grove now faces $3,000 in damages.

The McLennan County Sherriffs Office is investigating the incident as an act of vandalism, Sheriff Parnell McNamara said. Detectives have no information about the number of suspects or possible motivation.

It is very shameful when anyone disgraces a church like that, McNamara said. It is just a disgrace and really sad.

After calling authorities, McNeil entered the fellowship hall and saw a swastika, the last name of President Donald Trump and the word Satan drawn on the floor. The hall with a broken window smelled of condiments on Friday.

Longtime member Charlesetta Farrish said her first reaction to the news was that of shock. Farrishs great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandchildren have attended Willow Grove.

We hear stuff like this on the news, said Farrish, who sings in the choir and teaches Sunday school. Im just thankful that they didnt burn it down or anything like that. Even after I heard what they had done, I just feel like we have to pray for these people, for the things that theyve done, and forgive them. I just ask God to have mercy on them. They have not a clue what theyre doing.

World War II hero and Waco native Doris Miller also attended the church, Farrish said, citing conversations she has had with older members.

Located a few miles away from another Baptist church and a Methodist church, Willow Grove has close ties with the surrounding community and hosts an annual Thanksgiving service with them. More McLennan County churches have offered support, to the overwhelming thanks of the church members.

I see where people are willing to come and help and donate, and its just wonderful, Farrish said. What (the perpetrator) meant for our bad, its turned into our good.

The incident is yet another to add to the database of threats against historically African-American churches, said Jerry Park, an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University who studies racial and religious prejudice.

The endorsements of Nazism, Satan and Trump could indicate the work of a teenager without historical knowledge of those topics, he said, though the injection of terror was a clear goal of the perpetrator.

Swastikas represent the Aryan nationalism or white nationalism that the Nazi party endorsed around World War II, Park said. For them, that racial purity not only extended to Jews, who were the primary target, but also to anyone who is not Aryan. That would include African-Americans. It wouldnt surprise me if there is some cooptation of that ideology with anyone who is a white nationalist here in the United States in McLennan County.

McNeil said he does not talk politics from the pulpit, nor does the congregation. In May, Trump signed an executive order to allow clergy members to endorse candidates. Polling indicates most Americans believe bringing politics into churches is not smart, The New York Times reported.

White nationalists clinging to Trump represents a classical notion of a charismatic leader who attracts unrelenting support of specific groups, Park said.

Theres this complicated interplay, he said. Some would say these people of prominence shouldnt be held accountable for the actions of individuals for whom they have no connection with and they never intended their message for any of that.

On the other hand, you can also say entire groups are claiming tacit support from these kinds of figures. When that happens, Id say youre not just talking about an individual, isolated incident, but now youre talking about why it is that entire communities are finding this persons rhetoric compelling.

Texas came in third on a Southern Poverty Law Center list of states with the most post-election hate incidents.

McNeil said he and the congregation do not feel fear after the incident, which brought on thoughts of the 2015 shooting by a white supremacist at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine people, including the senior pastor and a state senator.

We are determined not to allow that fear and that hate to win, McNeil said. We keep going and keep loving on folks and keep offering that forgiveness and that hope that people are looking for.

One piece of Scripture I play over in my mind is in chapter eight of Romans. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Somehow, some way, some good is going to come out of this.
The public is invited to Festival of Faiths, a program of the Greater Waco Interfaith Conference on Sunday that will feature songs, readings, chants and samples of food from the various faith traditions in Waco.

Called One Song, Many Melodies, the event starts at 3 p.m. at St. Jerome Catholic Church, 9820 Chapel Road, said Brenda Khozein, who publicizes events for the interfaith group that hosts similar events annually.

Representatives of religions and faith groups including Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Unitarian Universalist and the Bahai Faith likely will attend, Khozein said. Information tables on each faith will be set up.

The purpose of the interfaith conference is to promote harmony, understanding, cooperation and respect among the various faiths in Waco and the surrounding area, she said.

Last year, it was held at the Mayborn Museum, and there was quite a crowd, Khozein said. This year we are expecting between 60 and 100, and the general public definitely is invited.

Sampling foods from varied cultures is the fun part.

You get to try things you may never have tried, Khozein said.

Many locals would be surprised by the variety of faiths active in the area, she said.

There are Buddhists in the area, Muslims in the area and various Christian sects and Unitarian Universalists, Khozein said. We just need to buckle down and realize we all come from one God, and when we do that, all fears will disappear. I am a member of the Bahai Faith, and we believe there is only one God, the God of all, who created everyone.

She said a representative of the Bahai Faith will join others at the festival to discuss specifics of their religion with anyone wanting to learn more.

For example, we emphasize the equality of men and women, the elimination of prejudice of all kinds and the independent investigation of truth for yourselves, Khozein said. We believe the manifestations of what God wants us to know at any given time are sequential and include, for example, the teachings of Moses, Christ, Buddha, Muhammad and Bahaullah, the founder of the Bahai Faith.

Khozein said she is employed in the registrars office at Baylor University, a Baptist university, and enjoys her work environment. She has discussed her faith with colleagues.

Acceptance of other faiths and a willingness to learn more about them is the cornerstone of the Greater Waco Interfaith Conference.
President Donald Trump was recently briefed on the opioid crisis, and he offered the following advice afterward. The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place. If they dont start, they wont have a problem  So if we can keep them from going on  and maybe by talking to youth and telling them: No good, really bad for you in every way. But if they dont start, it will never be a problem.

Its obvious Trump has no understanding of addiction or abuse. His words are reminiscent of Nancy Reagans Just say no policy and drug education endeavors such as the DARE program. The evidence is clear that Just say no and DARE were and are naive and ineffective.

So the message is dont start, but for those who do, the Trump administration has a second prong to their approach, which is the criminal justice system and punishment.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this month the requirement that federal prosecutors must charge drug offenders with the most severe offenses possible. Sessions words in the speech send a clear message. In recent years some of the government officials in our country I think have mistakenly sent mixed messages about the harmfulness of drugs  We cannot capitulate intellectually or morally unto this kind of rampant drug abuse. We must create a culture thats hostile to drug abuse.

For the past 50 years, we have been waging a war on drugs that has relied nearly exclusively on supply control and tough punishment. It hasnt worked.

Despite the logic of limiting the availability of drugs and threatening and punishing those who are involved in the drug trade and using drugs, the report card for tough on drug crime is bleak. We have invested more than $1 trillion during the past 45 years on the war on drugs. There is essentially no evidence in support of the success of that effort. One would be hard pressed to find many with knowledge of the war on drugs who would claim it has worked.

Why has it failed?

The medical community declared nearly 70 years ago that drug and alcohol addiction and dependence are medical disorders. We cant punish diabetes or cancer away. Why do we think getting tough on addiction would work?

To complicate the landscape, approximately 40 percent of opioid-dependent individuals have depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, and some have co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorders are also present, though less frequently. Punishment is not only ineffective, it often exacerbates these mental health disorders.

Punishment also does not deter those with substance-use disorders. Today, the vast majority of individuals who enter the U.S. criminal justice system have problems with drug addiction, dependence or abuse. The recidivism rate for those with such disorders is nearly 80 percent. The reason is simple  punishment does nothing to address drug abuse, dependence or addiction.

Its time to stop disregarding the scientific and clinical evidence. Its time to get realistic about how we should address the drug problem. The evidence is unequivocal  we cannot effectively control supply. There is simply too much money to be made. We should recalibrate drug policy by dramatically ramping up evidence-based strategies of demand reduction. The only way to reduce the incidence of substance-use disorders is effective treatment. Ideally, that should occur outside the confines of the justice system with community-based treatment. Those who end up in the justice system should be diverted to treatment, not simply locked up.

Drug abuse is a public-health problem. It is time we treat it that way.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made clear that he would invoke the relevant clauses of the ANZUS Treaty should North Korea launch an attack on American forces. These are clauses to "consult" not automatically commit force, but that would be the logic of it. It is distinctly possible that miscalculation by North Korea in the current crisis could trigger those commitments though the event is still not likely.

President Trump's "fire and fury" statements earlier this week drew him into the rhetorical contest the Kim Jong Un regime finds empowering.

Kim Jong-un is waging carefully calibrated brinkmanship but what is Trump's game plan? Credit:AP

The default position in Australian domestic national security debate in these circumstances is hand wringing over whether or not our alliance obligations impair our right of sovereign decision. They don't, of course. The Prime Minister's response to a hypothetical but possible situation make that clear. It would be his decision to invoke ANZUS not an automatic commitment. The situation with the Korean Peninsula has some special wrinkles however.

We have a commitment there which is as close to automatic as we can get. It does not arise from the ANZUS alliance but from the United Nations. We are still technically at war on the Peninsula but we are signatories to an Armistice, agreed with the UN. That concluded hostilities in 1953 on the condition that should it break with an unprovoked attack by the North on the South, we would respond. That would invariably involve an attack on American forces stationed in South Korea which of course would also trigger an ANZUS consultation and the PM is clear on what would follow.
Washington: A cabal of leftist "deep state" government workers, "globalists," bankers, adherents to Islamic fundamentalism and establishment Republicans are conspiring to remove President Donald Trump and impose cultural Marxism in the United States, according to a former White House aide whose darkly worded memo detailing the alleged conspiracy got him removed last month from the National Security Council.

The seven-page memo by Rich Higgins, who had been a director for strategic planning at the council, is a manifesto against multiculturalism and political correctness, and a call, using apocalyptic language, for the president to return to the message that animated his campaign.

Trump's first national security adviser Michael Flynn. Credit:AP

While it is not clear the document ever reached Trump's desk, its emergence highlights the deep divide within the White House between Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, and harder line officials aligned with Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, over the administration's direction.

With its highly charged language and overtly political tone, the memo, which Higgins drafted on his White House computer and circulated to colleagues, set off alarm bells inside the West Wing. Most documents emanating from the National Security Council amount to dryly worded policy dissertations and intricate planning documents.
Migrants on board a rescue boat. Credit:Raoul Kopacka But the moment "particularly sticks" with her, she says. "I think that's the pinnacle of the whole crisis. For me it just feels like every mother in the world has the right to meet their baby. It's just a horrible situation, the difference that exists." The Iuventa Ship of the German NGO Jugend Rettet is seized at Lampedusa harbour, Italy, on August 2. Credit:ANSA/AP The difference between us, writing and reading this story, and the people it is about. That mother, left dead on an African beach, as her child tried without knowing to reach sanctuary.

Pender doesn't want this to be a political story. She says it is a humanitarian story. It is about desperate people who need rescue, who (she has seen in the marks on their bodies, and has heard in the snatches of personal stories she gleaned while treating them) are fleeing abuse, torture and slavery. Rescued migrants are given thermal blankets. Credit:Theresa Leisgang She wants it to be about women like Virtue. That was the scariest moment of Pender's life. It was the worst-case scenario: a boat sinking even as they approached it. About 50 people were in the water. The surface of the sea was filmed with gasoline, which was inhaled by those in the water, wrecking their lungs, preventing them from getting enough oxygen. Dr Stefanie Pender undertook two rescue missions aboard the Sea-Watch. Credit:Raoul Kopacka

Pender was on the main boat as body after body was pulled from the water and "flopped" ominously onto the deck. They raced them into the ship's medical room. Many were barely breathing. "I didn't think she'd make it," Pender says of Virtue, who was in respiratory failure. Dr Stefanie Pender (third from left) with rescued children. Credit:Raoul Kopacka After six hours of oxygen and care, Virtue improved a little. She asked about her baby. She was six months pregnant. Pender found it hard to bring herself to check, but Virtue said she felt it moving. So Pender listened for a heartbeat. And heard it.

"It was the most beautiful sound in the whole Mediterranean." Later that night Pender had to identify another pregnant woman, who had been on the same boat as Virtue, but didn't survive. "No-one knows her story." Pender doesn't want this to be a political story. But for the last three months she has been working in one of the most politicised patches of water on the planet. Though the numbers are slightly down on last year, still thousands of migrants are attempting the crossing from North Africa to Europe, and thousands are dying in the attempt.

On the latest United Nations data, there have been 2408 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean in 2017, with 116,692 arriving in Europe by sea. More than nine out of 10 arrived in Italy  and a third of those were rescued by aid organisations, whose boats patrol the "search and rescue zone" off the Libyan coast. As Italy takes more and more migrants it struggles to provide for, and its neighbours shut their borders and refuse to take a share, there has been an increasing pushback. Italy has tried to impose a code of conduct on aid boats that would restrict their operations, with some Italian prosecutors and politicians accusing NGOs of providing a taxi service for migrants  and by extension traffickers. Europe provided resources to encourage Libya to intercept boats on their way north. That's the macro story. Pender has seen it in action. She has stood terrified on a flimsy rubber speedboat as a Libyan gunship bore down on her, determined that she should not help the desperate people she was about to rescue. And last week she was interrogated by Italian police after the Iuventa, the ship she had been working on for her third rescue mission, was seized and then confiscated, accused of colluding with people smugglers.

In a Skype call from Malta, Pender is diplomatic and cautious. She tells me, as she told the police, that she saw nothing untoward or odd in the mission, and she was worried the seizure of the boat would prevent them saving lives. "It's just a distraction from the real issues ... the fact that people are dying almost daily in the Mediterranean," she says. "It's part of the toxic narrative and these attacks [the accusations that NGOs are collaborating with people smugglers] have already been refuted." She provides me with an account of Iuventa's seizure, co-written with a colleague, that makes it clear she suspects foul play. "Events of the past few days have forced us to question the integrity and priorities of European search and rescue authorities," they wrote. They outlined a complicated series of events involving the transfer of rescued migrants, a strangely fruitless search and rescue mission, and then the impounding of the ship operated by the German charity Jugend Rettet (literally 'youth rescues'). The MRCC, the official centre in Rome that co-ordinates rescues in the Mediterranean, "either dangerously mismanaged the rescue operation or had other motivations for their decisions", they wrote.

None of the three incidents being investigated took place during Pender's mission. Trapani prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who briefed media on the allegations about Iuventa, said his "personal conviction" was that the aid group's motive was humanitarian, and it "would be fantasy to say there was a co-ordinated plan between the NGOs and the Libyan traffickers". Pender studied medicine in Melbourne and worked there for a year, then the last two years in Darwin. She hasn't specialised yet, but a lot of her work in Darwin is in women's health. She was on a course in Europe earlier this year when a friend of a friend asked if she was interested in working on a Mediterranean rescue boat. The German group Sea-Watch needed a doctor at the last minute. "And the next week I was on a boat," Pender says, laughing at the memory of how abrupt it was. She had little idea what she was getting into  the first of her three rescue missions to date.

"I don't think I could have imagined the situation," she says. "It's very much more than I was expecting, and completely overwhelming." First there's a point on the horizon, then you start making out bodies, then you start making out faces. Pender's job was to hop into a RHIB, a small speedboat, to make first contact with the refugee boats. It's a delicate time. "They're all extremely overcrowded," she says. "The worst-case scenario is when the boat collapses or when people are in the water or jump into the water." "There's about 200 people that are extremely desperate and in fear that their boat will go under."

Many are angry. Pender doesn't know what they're told at the Libyan end, but they were clearly not aware of the situation they were going into. She gets the impression some were told Italy was four hours away by boat. "So the realisation that they are just stuck in the middle of the ocean and that we found them with binoculars wasn't the understanding that they had. "We approach the boat and start by just waving, you try and keep the situation very, very calm because it's so tense that it can become very panicked quickly. You explain that we're there to help and we're going to give everyone life jackets. "We circle around and that's when I'm trying to make an assessment and see inside the boat if there is anyone looking really unwell." It varies, but in many boats there are very sick  even dead  people. She has seen extreme dehydration, people who have been exposed to the sun for days or sitting in a corrosive, poisonous mixture of salt water, engine fuel and human waste. Some had fresh wounds, from whatever happened to them before (or when) they boarded the boat.

She's had to deal with very sick or unconscious people, sometimes performing CPR in the speedboat. Back on the main ship she is usually flat out treating the sick, handing out food and water. But she has heard stories from women of the slave camps in Libya, of "being sexually abused almost nightly, a lot of violence and being forced to work for little or no money or just a bit of food". "I just had so many medical things to do that I didn't really get to delve into the stories, but from what I can understand Libya is just hell on earth." She has seen relief and a lot of joy in those rescued. "Far above all, I am deeply touched and inspired by the beautiful people I met  their stories, strength, perseverance and remarkable ability against their horror to manage a smile and keep hope," she wrote home in a letter to her brother, who was helping raise money for Sea-Watch. But some were beyond relief: children so traumatised they no longer cried.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 11, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 11, 2017 | 11:33 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A single-vehicle crash Friday afternoon injured the driver, who is also facing charges.



According to the McCracken County Sheriff's Department, the accident happened at 4:39 pm at the intersection of Blandville Road (U.S. Highway 62) and North Gum Springs Road. Deputies say 39-year-old Amber Thayer of Benton was westbound on Blandville Road when her vehicle left the road. The car traveled through a ditch, hit a utility pole and stopped in a wooded area.



Thayer was taken to a local hospital by Mercy EMS for treatment of her injuries. Deputies determined in their investigation that she was under the influence of alcohol, so Thayer was cited to appear in court for DUI, driving on a DUI suspended license, and not having proof of insurance.



Traffic on the highway was affected by the accident because a power line came down in the accident.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 12, 2017 | MAYFIELD, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 12, 2017 | 10:55 AM | MAYFIELD, KY

State Police are cautioning drivers in Mayfield to be aware of potentially congested traffic for the Alabama concert at Graves County High School.



Independence Bank is celebrating the opening of its branch in Mayfield by bringing the country music legends to town. The gates open at 5pm, the show starts at 6:30 pm, and should end around 10 pm.



Police say drivers should expect heavy traffic by mid-afternoon, especially closer to the time of the concert. Congestion is also likely when everyone leaves after the show.



Kentucky State Police, Mayfield Police, and Graves County Sheriff's Department will periodically have traffic control measures in place to include limiting traffic to one way.



Drivers are asked to watch for pedestrians near roads in the area, including Highway 121. Anyone not attending the concert is asked to avoid the immediate area if possible, especially during the anticipated arrival and departure times of attendees.
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By The Associated Press Aug. 12, 2017 | 05:46 PM | LEXINGTON, KY

A Kentucky woman drove off from a recent traffic stop with an engagement ring instead of a ticket.Media outlets report that University of Kentucky Police helped retired Shepherdsville Police Officer Rocco Besednjak propose by pulling over his girlfriend, Lauren Vincent, on Thursday in Lexington.The officer pulled over Vincent and said there was something dragging behind her car. When she got out to look, Besednjak was on one knee asking her to marry him. She said yes. The plan took five or six months to plot out.Police released video of the proposal (see below).Vincent works at the University of Kentucky's Children's Hospital.Besednjak is medically retired after a woman ran him over last summer while he attempted to arrest her. Last week, he had back surgery.

Rocco Besednjak Proposal from Antonio Pantoja on Vimeo.
67 YEAR OLD MAN CHARGED WITH FELONY SEX OFFENSE WITH A CHILD

IN JAIL UNDER $500 THOUSAND BOND

Detectives from the Violent Crimes Unit of the Henderson County Sheriff's Office have arrested Brooks Gordon Ross, age 67, of 634 Cobb Road in Greenwood, South Carolina. Ross was charged with one felony count of Sexual Offense with a Child.

After working with investigators from the Greenwood County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina, Ross, who fled the area in 2012 when the allegations were first made, was arrested and waived extradition early Friday morning.

He is currently incarcerated in the Henderson County Jail under a $500,000 secured bond.
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The Sauk County Board is expected to receive a report Tuesday on what caused a government-managed construction project to go considerably over budget.

The boards Highway and Parks Committee is slated to meet 45 minutes before the full board meeting to discuss a $136,000 overrun on a completed building project managed by the countys Highway Department. Sauk County Administrative Coordinator Alene Kleczek Bolin is scheduled to give a report on the matter to the full board later in the evening.

The storage building at the departments West Baraboo shop was budgeted to cost $280,000, but exceeded that amount by 48 percent.

Details of Kleczek Bolins findings were not available this week. In an email Thursday, she said her written report was still a work in progress, but promised to provide a copy after it is distributed to the board.

Administrative officials discovered the budget discrepancy after employees alleged the countys former highway commissioner, Steve Muchow, sought to conceal it through time card manipulation and questionable construction practices.

That alleged concealment was one of numerous complaints against Muchow that prompted officials to open a personnel investigation in April. The county engaged an independent accountant and outside legal counsel to begin an inquiry.

Muchow submitted his retirement notice April 27, prompting officials to drop the probe. The 25-year highway commissioner has denied any wrongdoing, and said he was not aware of the investigation when he decided to retire.

In a June 15 phone interview, Muchow denied that he sought to conceal cost overages or manipulated time cards related to the construction project. I dont have anything to do with the time cards, he said.

Muchow said he was aware that the project had gone over budget, but never received a final number. The former highway commissioner said unplanned expenses, such as wiring, ventilation and a sprinkler system, caused the overrun.

Board wants more info

Kleczek Bolin asked Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister in June to determine whether the storage building allegations, and numerous others, should be the subject of a law enforcement inquiry. Meister determined they should not, because evidence gathered during the incomplete personnel investigation was not enough to prove the claims, which he believed could not be substantiated.

For example, in his June 16 letter to Kleczek Bolin, the sheriff said allegations that Muchow ordered the departments timekeeper to alter time cards in relation to the building project were unproven.

(The timekeeper) did not cooperate with the interview and would not confirm if someone instructed him to make any changes, Meister wrote, referencing the accountant's discussion with the employee.

After the personnel probe was dropped and the sheriff declined to investigate, Acting Sauk County Highway Commissioner Darin Carignan completed an internal review of allegations specifically related to the building project.

In late June, Carignan found that the building had exceeded its budget by $136,000, but that cost overages were never approved by Muchows oversight committee. He also found that Muchow had indeed ordered the timekeeper to alter time cards.

According to Carignans report, Muchow decided that paving work completed around the storage facility was not directly related to its construction.

Muchow allegedly ordered changes to the time cards so that the work was billed to another project. The timekeeper proceeded to make these corrections and accurately document the changes made on each time card, Carignan wrote in his report.

However, Carignan said the paving work should not have been charged to the construction project in the first place. Although he disagreed with the project Muchow decided to bill for the time, Carignan said he did not believe time card fraud had occurred.

After receiving Carignans report, the county board was slated in July to retroactively approve the additional $136,000 in expenses for the storage building, but voted to postpone the matter.

Supervisors said although Carignans report verified that the building exceeded its budget, it did not explain why. They said the additional wiring, ventilation and sprinkler system expenses mentioned by Muchow and members of his oversight committee only accounted for a portion of the overrun. In a 25-4 vote, the board directed staff to investigate and report back this month.

DOJ reviewing allegations

An article in Tuesdays edition of the Baraboo News Republic disclosed that the sheriff and the former highway commissioner are members of a group that meets monthly for breakfast. The story included a firsthand account of the two men dining together with several others at a North Freedom diner, and included a photo of the sheriff outside the restaurant.

Criminal law experts quoted in the story said it was not appropriate for the sheriff to have made an investigatory decision involving another county official, especially one he meets with socially. They said he should have forwarded the matter to an outside agency to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The same attorneys said they saw multiple allegations in the accountant's report that, if proven, may constitute violations of Wisconsins misconduct in public office statute. They disagreed with Meisters determination that the matter was not worthy of a law enforcement probe.

In response to that article, Meister on Tuesday asked the Wisconsin Department of Justice to review the allegations against Muchow.

Aside from the allegations involving the building project, employees also alleged that Muchow misrepresented financial information, manipulated bids, used county resources for personal reasons, misused county business relationships, and mistreated employees.
Swan City Park pool was closed for three days this week due to a code violation related to the absence of lifeguards.

According to a memo from Jana Stephens, community activities and services administrator, on Aug. 7 Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection conducted an annual pool inspection of the Swan City Park wading pool. During the inspection, the DATCP staff determined that due to the size of the pool, the area requires lifeguards. As a result, the pool was temporarily closed. City staff was present during the inspection.

By Thursday the pool was open again. YMCA of Dodge County has agreed to help the city staff lifeguards. Stephens says in the memo that she was in contact with the YMCA following the inspection to work out an agreement for staffing lifeguards through the rest of the summer.

Stephens said over the phone that she is in the process of budgeting for lifeguards at Swan City Park for the 2018 summer. She would like to have at least two lifeguards on duty at the pool next year.

In 2015, the city of Beaver Dam made changes to the citys aquatic programs. Alderperson Don Neuert argued that Beaver Dam should start looking at ways to cut costs and save money in order to repair Swan City Park pool. This included cutting seasonal lifeguard positions at Swan City Park and Crystal Lake Park Beach.

Crystal Lake Park Beach doesnt require lifeguards because beaches and pools are regulated differently.

In addition, last year, Water Technology pitched Beaver Dam Common Council on building a splash pad instead of making repairs to the pool. The reason behind the pitch is due to a five-year Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, which suggested pool improvements to Beaver Dam parks.

Looking ahead, Stephens said that building a splash pad where the pool is located in Swan City Park is still being thought about in her department. Her department will revisit the idea as they begin to work on the 2018 budget and Capital Improvement Plan requests.
JUNEAU  Jane and Dan Jahnke are the new owners of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store here, and they are planning to host a grand opening from Aug. 23-27.

I always wanted to one day own my own store in Juneau, Dan said.

Piggly Wiggly, 100 Western Ave., opened under new ownership July 16.

Dan Jahnke was born and raised in Juneau and is not a stranger to the grocery business. He said in 1978 that he worked at Mountains Piggly Wiggly in Mayville. He managed that store and later moved into the sales business, where he worked for numerous companies for more than 20 years. He got back into retail with the goal of purchasing a grocery store locally.

He co-owns Piggly Wiggly with his wife Jane, but their grown children, Erica and Wesley, Dans sister Sue and Janes father Ross Canniff are all working there, too.

Jane said the family wasnt forced into the workforce  everyone wanted to chip in and help build the business.

We want this store to be a locally owned family business supporting the community and the surrounding communities, Dan said.

He explained that Jane and he are beginning to pursue plans to involve Piggly Wiggly with more community groups and events like Juneau Legion, VFW, Dodgeland High School, the Dodge County Antique Power Show and the Dodge County Fair. He said more activity will happen once they get their feet wet.

Dan said he also erected a 20-foot flagpole with an American flag on the property to show support for the armed forces, firefighters and police.

Jane and Dan have no plans for expansions to the store. Since opening, they have brought on a new produce manager and meat department manager. The idea is that with some new talent, it will bring new ideas to the store.

The Jahnkes bought the Juneau Piggly Wiggly from Daryl and Brenda Schoenfeld, who own the Beaver Dam Piggly Wiggly. The Schoenfelds bought the Juneau store in November.

The grand opening event will include tributes to area farmers, free samples on Aug. 25 and discounts for police, EMS or military, among many other features.

We want this store to be locally owned family business supporting the community and the surrounding communities.Dan Jahnke, co-owner of Juneau Piggly Wiggly
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Police in Austin have released surveillance video showing a car plunging seven stories from a downtown parking garage and striking another vehicle as it lands in an alley.

The video released Thursday shows the car landing atop an SUV then rolling upside down onto the ground. Moments later, people run to help the driver escape.

Police say the July accident happened when the woman drove through retention wires on the seventh floor, hit a building across the street and plunged to the alley below.

The SUV's driver wasn't hurt. Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services officials said at the time that the woman was treated at a hospital.

Last September, a sport utility vehicle plunged from the ninth floor of the same parking garage.
Assembly lawmakers want the state to spend $20 million to train Wisconsin workers as part of a deal to convince Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn to build a $10 billion campus in southeastern Wisconsin to build LCD panels.

The proposal is part of a number of changes Assembly Republicans released Friday to a bill authored by Gov. Scott Walker moving quickly through their house.

The thrust of Walkers bill provides about $3 billion in refundable tax credits to Foxconn as long as they create jobs in Wisconsin. Under the bill, Foxconn also is eligible for lower utility rates and is exempt from sales taxes and environmental regulations during the construction of the 20-million-square-foot campus they want to build.

Assembly lawmakers made a host of changes to that bill on Friday, including providing money to the Department of Workforce Development after 2019 for job training, requiring the states jobs agency to provide tax credits only for jobs that have a salary of at least $30,000 per year, and allowing tax incremental financing funds to be used for fire, police and other government services.

The lawmakers also want state officials negotiating a final contract with Foxconn to emphasize that workers living in Wisconsin should be given preference during the companys process of hiring what they promise will be for 13,000 jobs. But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, acknowledged that requiring that preference could be illegal.

If Foxconn fills a wetland during its construction process, Assembly lawmakers also want to require the creation of two wetlands in its place in the same watershed, if possible.

The ideas put forward today in the amendment reflect our commitment to our constituents to bring the best bill forward that protects taxpayers and our natural resources while preparing Wisconsin for the biggest economic development in state history, Vos said in a statement.

A public hearing on the bill was held last week in the Assembly Committee on Jobs and Economy. That committee will hold a vote Monday and an Assembly floor vote is scheduled for Thursday.

Yes, I am very confident this bill will pass on Thursday, and my hope is it will do so in a bipartisan fashion, Vos told reporters Friday.

Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, said much of the changes put forward Friday were done with help from Democratic lawmakers who were briefed on the final changes Friday morning.

But Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, warned the process was going too quickly and questioned Republicans motives.

Its remarkable that with a vote scheduled for Monday, we just received the Republican amendment. The legislature and the public will have little to no time to review these changes, Barca said in a statement. Its clear that Republicans are trying to appear proactive without actually fixing the concerns that many people have with this bill.

Neylon said Democrats have been instrumental in the language of the amendment so Im not sure where the criticism is coming from.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he wants the deal with Foxconn to include deadlines to create jobs.

Vos said he feels Walkers proposal to tie the tax credits to job creation is an assurance, but would be open to making more changes as long as the requirement would not harm the deal.

Fitzgerald has scheduled a public hearing on the Senates version of the Foxconn package on Aug. 22.

He said the budget-writing committee will come in the rest of that week to wrap up the state budget, which was due on June 30.

Liberal group: Foxconn violate lobbying laws?

Meanwhile, the liberal-leaning Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is considering filing a complaint regarding Walkers negotiations with Foxconn, director Matthew Rothschild said Friday.

The group, which analyzes and monitors campaign finance and ethics, raised questions on Friday about whether the company violated state lobbying laws by not registering lobbying activity with the state before Aug. 3, when its lobbyists officially notified the state campaign ethics board about their work.

Walkers bill outlining the incentive package for Foxconn was introduced on Aug. 1, but Walker and other state officials met with Foxconn officials in April, Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel has said, and a memorandum of understanding was signed between Walker and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou on July 27.

State lobbying laws require paid employees of companies seeking to influence or create legislation to register their lobbying efforts with the state Ethics Commission within 10 days after their fifth communication with state officials and after they spend $500 on lobbying efforts within one six-month reporting period, said Brian Bell, administrator of the Ethics Commission.

The six-month reporting periods are between January and June, and between July and December.

In his haste to push this deal through, Walker is willing to give Foxconn a pass on our lobbying law, which clearly states that companies must register as lobbyists not after legislation is introduced but while its being developed, Rothschild said.

Andrew Cook, a lobbyist hired by Foxconn, said the company first retained his employer, Michael Best Strategies, on Aug. 3, and that his firm had its first lobbying communication that same day.

Tom Evenson, spokesman for Walker, said it is common for business employees to meet with state officials when considering building in the state and discussing what advantages of moving here might be.

This is what happened here, he said.

Wisconsin was actively competing with many other states. While partisan groups are trying to derail this big win for Wisconsin, it is absurd to think every business is required to register as a lobbying principal just to begin discussing why Wisconsin is now a great place to do business, Evenson said.

The bottom line is that right after a bill was introduced, the company hired a firm that registered to lobby as required by law, he said.

Bell, who would not comment specifically on the questions raised by Rothschild, said generally lobbyists must register after doing $500 worth of lobbying even if a bill they are seeking isnt introduced yet.

He also said just because lobbyists are meeting with lawmakers or state officials on five occasions doesnt mean lobbying is taking place necessarily.

He said he could not comment on whether a complaint had already been filed over the states negotiations with Foxconn.
A Portage man accused of a violent sexual assault early Wednesday morning is facing more than 50 years in prison.

Wilson Miller, 29, is charged with second-degree sexual assault and false imprisonment.

Assistant District Attorney William Appleton requested that Judge W. Andrew Voigt impose a $50,000 cash bond with the conditions that there be no acts or threats of violence against the victim and for any release to be contingent on a curfew between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. with an order of absolute sobriety.

Portage Police responded to a call Wednesday at 2:53 a.m. and upon arriving, heard through an open window someone say no sounding to be in distress.

The doors were locked so when no one answered, the officers forced their way in, reportedly finding Miller holding the woman down by her wrists. The woman told the officers that the two of them had an exchange about two hours earlier after Miller had come back from the bar and she had asked him to leave the room and barricaded the door behind him. He later forced his way through before assaulting her at which point the officers arrived.

The criminal history of the defendant and the current allegations against him obviously demonstrate that he is a threat and a danger to the community and the victim, said Appleton. On Feb. 1, 2017, there was a domestic battery repeater and a domestic disorderly conduct repeater charge and the defendant was found guilty, but not guilty due to mental disease or defect.

Feb. 27, Miller was given a conditional release.

In January 2013, Miller was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, following an incident involving lighter fluid and lighters in which family members reportedly prevented a more dangerous situation. Miller entered a plea of no contest in June 2013 and was given a withheld sentence and three years of probation.

In court Friday, Appleton stipulated that the State would not argue against conversion of the cash bond to a signature bond for the purposes of Miller being released to have a planned surgical procedure and the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.

The upcoming brain surgery is of course of great importance, said defense attorney Alexander Kostal. The brain surgery is due to a mental condition that Mr. Miller has and he is hoping to be able to recuperate, not in jail and not under lock-and-key.

Voigt said, Fortunately or unfortunately, this court is extraordinarily familiar with Mr. Miller and his issues.

Given his history, Voigt expressed doubts as to whether Miller could remain sober long enough outside jail in order to proceed with the medical procedure.

This court continues to be amazed by the efforts that Mr. Millers family has made on his behalf to try to help him avoid this sort of thing and the consequences his behavior has imposed ... said Voigt ordering the $50,000 cash bond but allowing for a medical stipulation. The court is willing to do that, because the court has been aware for some time that there was hope that this surgery could provide Mr. Miller with some relief and some improvement of his condition, and this court, even in the face of allegations like this, is not interested in standing in the way of that.

Miller is scheduled to appear in court next for an Oct. 25 return hearing.
Typically, approval of the minutes from the last meeting is a routine item on a public bodys agenda  accomplished in seconds, with no comments or controversy.

Thursdays meeting of the Portage Common Council was an exception.

When the motion was made to approve the minutes of the councils July 27 meeting, Alderman Bill Kutzke requested the minutes include correspondence and other information the council had received about a proposal for a performance pavilion in Pauquette Park.

Kutzke said he was referring not only to the letters for and against the proposal that were included in the councils information packet for that meeting, but also a 47-signature petition against the pavilion, signed mostly by people who live near Pauquette Park.

On July 27, the council voted 5-2 in favor of a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Portage Service Club Association, which has pledged to raise the entire cost of the band shell and new restrooms and sidewalks for Pauquette Park, estimated to cost $315,000.

Kutzke and Alderman Mike Charles voted against the memorandum of understanding.

Alderwoman Mary Hamburg expressed perplexity at Kutzkes request, because the public can already access most of the pavilion-related letters, and everything else in the councils meeting packets online at the citys website, portagewi.gov.

Kutzke said he thinks the information would be easier for the public to access if it were incorporated into the meeting minutes.

I think things that pertain to this issue should be included in the minutes, he said.

But, asked Mayor Rick Dodd, if the minutes must include letters and other packet information related to the Pauquette Park pavilion issue, then why shouldnt the minutes also include packet information pertaining to other items on the councils July 27 agenda?

And, noted City Clerk Marie Moe, adding documents to the minutes increases their volume, and increases the cost to the city for complying with state laws that require the minutes publication.

City Attorney Jesse Spankowski said the law requires inclusion of specific elements in the minutes of a public bodys proceedings, and the supporting documents pertaining to a particular issue are not necessarily among the required elements.

I have the same question as the mayor, Spankowski said. Where do you draw the line?

If any member wants to address the Common Councils policies regarding what information is included in minutes, Dodd suggested, the place to start would be the citys Finance and Administration Committee.

In the end, the minutes were approved as submitted, without the additional material. Kutzke voted no. Mark Hahn and Martin Havlovic abstained, because they were absent from the July 27 meeting.

In other business, the council took two actions that move forward plans to fix and raise roads in the flood-prone Blackhawk Park area.

The council adopted a resolution awarding the Wood Street paving project to the low bidder, DL Gasser Construction, for $132,208.

And, the council approved an intergovernmental agreement with the town of Caledonia to share the costs of improving Wood Street, but also nearby Blackhawk Road. Blackhawk Road lies entirely within the towns boundaries, and Wood Street lies mostly in the city limits, but partly in the town.

One aspect of the project entails raising the level of Wood Street so that it is less likely to accumulate standing water when the Wisconsin Rivers level is at or near its flood stage of 17 feet.

City Administrator Shawn Murphy said the work is expected to start after Labor Day.

The council also heard from Moe that 602 registered voters have been de-activated from the citys voter rolls as part of a process that must be undertaken every 10 years.

Moe said 653 notices were sent to people who were registered to vote, but who had not voted in the past four years. The notices said the voters would be deactivated unless they responded within 30 days of receiving the notice. Two of the voters were determined to be deceased, and some others had moved away without registering to vote in another Wisconsin jurisdiction, which would have automatically resulted in their removal from Portages voter rolls. Most of those who were removed did not respond at all.

In the upcoming spring non-partisan election, three council seats, each with three-year terms, will be decided. They are the seats for District 3, now held by Dennis Nachreiner; District 4, now held by Doug Klapper and District 8, now held by Havlovic.

The spring election will be April 3. If a primary is needed (if more than two candidates file for the same seat), it will be held Feb. 20.
The latest student-built Building Trades house is back on the market, the Portage Community School District reported.

The house, located at 461 School Road, was the second home built by Portage High School students in the area, where five lots were purchased by the district when it revived Building Trades about three years ago.

The district, in the spring, had approved the sale of the 1,800-square-foot home to a buyer the district said was returning to the area.

The home has since been relisted for $299,000, United Country Hamele Auction and Realtys Travis Hamele said Friday. Hamele, a 1994 PHS graduate and former student of the Building Trades program, has donated his time to help sell the Building Trades property on School Road. The program had been on hiatus for about five years due to a lack of property to build on, the district had said.

Its a great opportunity  a great area for convenience to all the local areas, the schools, Hamele said. I think its where everybody wants to be  the north side of Portage  close to schools, close to shopping.

The districts business manager, Margaret Rudolph, said a contingency set by the district for the buyer to sell their house was not met in time. The home was relisted in July.

Thats real estate, Rudolph said, adding the district would not suffer any financial setback related to its canceled arrangement. Building Trades, while under the umbrella of the district budget, exists separately from other operations, meaning that whatever Building Trades earns goes directly to Building Trades. The sale delay will not threaten the programs next project, a house to be built by students next door, at 441 School Road.

It would have been beneficial to have those extra couple of months to find a buyer, Rudolph said, but thats just how it goes in real estate and home buying, which always involve many steps.

The house, whose yard was recently re-sodded for grass, has been shown to prospective buyers since being relisted, she said.

The house to be built in 2017-18 had its basement dug out by contractors last week, and Portage High School students will begin construction after safety training in September. The goal is always to finish a Building Trades house by the end of a school year, though the district usually lists a house for sale in the spring.

The relisted house is on a half-acre lot and features three bedrooms and two bathrooms on its main level, a full basement with 10-foot ceilings and a three-car garage.

District Administrator Charles Poches noted in the spring that, in the past two years, Building Trades houses have added more than $500,000 in property value for the city.

The house is beautiful, Rudolph said Friday. I dont know how to say it any better than that: it was hand-built by our students, and its really impressive.

When you walk in and you see it, its just very elegant and appealing.

Pictures of the house can be viewed at portage.k12.wi.us/district/buildingtrades2017.cfm.




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The British Librarys centenary exhibition, Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths, on display until August 29, includes notable documents and exhibits.

The most poignant items include letters of Lenin and Trotsky, an original tattered Budenovka cavalry cap and a handmade Soviet banner bleached white with time and ceramics.

These artifacts are intrinsically valuable and interesting, but their presentation is fundamentally undermined by an ahistoricaland in some cases directly hostilepresentation of events.

The introductory text on the first display board sets the tone for what follows. It describes how the Bolsheviks efforts to create an ideal social order  provoked the tragedy of a civil war.

That is, the Bolsheviks were guilty of provoking the forces of bloody counterrevolution because they made a revolution!

The organisers create a narrative that ultimately sidelines the complex evolution of events, or the ideas of their participants.

The very first document on display is a first edition of the Communist Manifesto, published in London in 1849, accompanied by the explanation that Karl Marx had never expected revolution to erupt first in Russia. This is a philistine myth or over-simplification in its own right.

In fact, as anyone who has studied his writings should know, Marx was never so prescriptive. He explained in his preface to the 1882 Russian edition of the Manifesto, If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development.

Marxs early theorising on this point might have been an excellent starting point for a discussion of Leon Trotskys theory of Permanent Revolutionof fundamental significance to the events of 1917. However, neither Trotskys nor any other political tendencys ideas are shown serious attention.

One can already hear the response: that this exhibition aims to explore the cultural experience and moral response to the events of everyday Russians, not to focus on the political programs of a few intellectuals, or worse still, 70 years of narratives determined by the political views of the interpreters.

But what the organisers actually do with their claim to be giving a voice to the people is pursue their own partisan political views and interpretations.

A whole chapter in the exhibition catalogue, for example, is given over to authors such as Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin and Alexander Solzhenitsyn to prove the tragedy of revolution and then postulate the supposedly inevitable rise of Stalinism.

Just one fleeting reference is made to American socialist journalist John Reed and his first-hand account of the revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World, in which he memorably wrote, Think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian men staring up at speakers all over the vast country, workmen, peasants, soldiers, sailors, trying so hard to understand and to choose, thinking so intenselyand deciding so unanimously at the end.

It is not only the thoughts of political leaders that are ignored, therefore, but the participation of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of workers and peasants in the socialist movement. In regard to the events of 1905, for example, the revolutionary dress rehearsal for 1917, the exhibition does not even mention the Petrograd Soviet.

Meanwhile, the policy of bloody class repression embarked upon by the Russian government is whitewashed with a reference to the Tsars poor handling of Bloody Sunday, when at least 1,000 protesters were massacred on January 9 (22), 1905.

The few short scenes on display from Sergei Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin (1925) provide, by themselves, a more insightful commentary on the periodpresenting the solidarity and struggle of the impoverished masses against the Russian elites and their police protectors. By contrast, the exhibitions handling of sources and events transforms the revolution, which proceeded with a political logic well understood by its leaders, into a hodgepodge of accident and happenstance.

The February Revolution of 1917 therefore arrives as something of a surprise, but is welcomed by the organisers and proclaimed to be what should have been the conclusion to the struggle for bourgeois democracy against autocracy. What followedthe October Revolutionis portrayed as a huge mistake. How astonishing that the British cultural establishment feels this way!

The rise of the Bolsheviks and their eventual seizure of power is characterised as a counterrevolution against the Provisional Government. October is summarised as a process whereby optimism turned into revolutionary violence, aided by soldiers returning from the front who had lost any sense of the value of life and of Mother Russia.

This formula, so beloved of nationalist reactionaries, introduces a rehash of the old right-wing lie that the Bolsheviks triumphed because they were the most violent and ruthless. It signals a shift in gear, as the exhibition gets into its central theme: the suffering of the civil war.

The civil war is portrayed as if terrible suffering were the inevitable product of the revolution itself. In fact, the war was forced on the Bolsheviks by White (counterrevolutionary, but here characterised as liberal) armies, financed and armed by the imperialist powers, which launched a series of attacks on the new Soviet democracy.

Given the exhibitions location, a detailed examination of the British governments efforts, in the words of Winston Churchill, to strangle the Bolshevik baby in its cradle would be in order. The details of foreign intervention, however, are for the most part ignored. Nothing is said, unsurprisingly, of British imperialisms campaign to protect its oil assets in the Caucasus.

Again, the sources speak with more historical truth and power. On display in this section is a leaflet headed, All-Lies . It was distributed by the Red Army to intervening British soldiers, exposing their governments true motivations and the lies told about the Bolshevik regime.

Among those lies was the claim that the Bolsheviks ruled through the dictatorship of a narrow cabal, enforced by the Cheka secret police. Little mention is made of the attractive power of the democratic and social rights granted by the Soviet regime versus the return to Tsaristand worseconditions threatened by the Whites. The creation of the Cheka and other emergency measuresforcible grain requisitioning, for exampleare discussed in detail in a separate section to the Civil War, as if such policies were the Bolsheviks intentions regardless of the perilous military context.

In the catalogue, historian Jonathan Smele takes the supposed perfidious aims of the Bolsheviks a stage further. He dismisses the claim propounded by the strictures of anti-imperialist Soviet ideologies that the outbreak of the civil war originated with the 1918 revolt of the Czech Legion, which had made common cause with Admiral Kolchaks White Guards and occupied huge sections of central Russia.

Smele claims what was happening were a series of civil wars for independence launched by states oppressed by the Russian Empire, beginning with the 1916 Turkestan revolt against the tsarist regime. The Bolsheviks, Smele declares, werent really interested in their self-determination, but their subjugation into a new Soviet Empire. So much for the earlier invocations of Mother Russia, as glorifying one nationalism gives way to a glorification of many nationalisms!

Smele repeats the old lie that Bolshevism naturally gave rise to Stalinism. He writes off the intense debates in the Bolshevik party over what sort of federative relationship should be established between the various soviet republics that had emerged. There is no consideration of the bitter struggle launched by Lenin against the advocates of Great Russian chauvinism, represented above all by Joseph Stalin and his actions in Georgia, where he ordered in the Red Army, without the knowledge of its commander, Trotsky, to brutally suppress a minor uprising.

In one of his last commentaries, On the Question of Nationalities or Autonomisation , in December 1922, Lenin declared that, whilst it was of the utmost importance to maintain and strengthen the union of socialist republics, the right to autonomy or secession for the national minorities of Russia was absolutely necessary. In Georgia, he explained, Stalins chauvinism had damaged working class unity by imposing the interests of a big nation over a smaller one.

The inclusion of a large animated map in the exhibition to plot the course of the battle-lines in the Civil War is a plus, primarily for the way in which it exposes the narrative put forward by the organisers. The viewer can see the enormous challenges faced, and overcome, by the fledgling Soviet State and the Red Army across such a huge territory and the near disastrous position in which it found itself at times.

Having considered this map and its implications, it seems appropriate to ask how a regime that apparently maintained itself through the repressive mechanisms of a fanatical few was able to win such immense victories.

At this stage, the organisers appear to have decided some semblance of balance was needed and turned to the positive efforts of the Bolsheviks to create a new society. All they could muster, however, was back-handed praise for the Soviet states effective propaganda, which did well to create a compelling alternative reality to the chaos.

Moving to the final section on the international impact of the revolution, posters are displayed from the Social Democratic Party and Spartacus League of Germany and the Hungarian Communists led by Bela Kun; memoirs from a fighter in the Bavarian Red Army; a pamphlet from the Limerick Soviet in Ireland; and a banner presented to the British Young Communist League by the Soviet Union. These are testament to a global movement of working people and undermine the idea that the Bolshevik revolution was a conspiratorial coup hatched by a small clique.

Leaving the exhibition the question ariseswhy organise an examination of such world historic events in this distorted way?

The exhibitions final comment says it all. Revolutions, it warns, reveal the vulnerability of democratic procedures in the face of organised violence and the challenge to humanitarian values posed by civil strife. In other words, revolutions are badinspired by ultimately doomed ideas and led by bloodthirsty tyrants.

Such moralistic drivel is answered by Trotsky in What is a Revolutionary Situation where he explains, The revolutionary situation  begins only from the moment that the economic and social premises of a revolution produce a break in the mentality of society and its different classes.

Revolution arises from objective processesthe breakdown of the economy, the pressures of war, the impossibility of reforms. Revolutionary parties do not conjure up these circumstances, they intervene in them as the vanguard of the working class and the decisive element in its struggle for power; just as organisations of the old order intervene to crush that struggle.

Had the Bolsheviks been defeated in 1917, the ruling elite would have reasserted its power through bloody repression, as the civil war proved. The people of Russia would have experienced the worlds first fascist state under the heel of counterrevolutionary White Generals.
Andrew Harrison has written an extensive defence of the mainstream media (MSM), in the face of growing public hostility and mistrust. He chooses the Grenfell Tower fire as his focus.

Writing in the Observer, the Sunday sister paper of the Guardian, he has set himself a monumental task. He cites, for example, the extraordinary findings of communications agency Edelmans 2017 Trust Barometer survey of 1,500 Britons. This found that the percentage of people who trusted British news outlets at all has fallen from just 36 percent in 2015 to a staggering low of 24 percent this year.

Harrisons attempted defence falls flat. To his question, Can you trust the mainstream media? most of his own readers in the comment section answer, No. You cant.

He lists the many issues on which Britains media made a wrong callon the vote for Brexit in last years referendum, the election of Donald Trump, Labours performance in the 2017 electionbefore focusing on Grenfell as proof of a a crisis of faith in journalism.

He cites the widely viewed footage of political activist Ishmahil Blagrove railing against a Sky News journalist, whom he describes as the undeserving recipient of the rage and frustration of the Grenfell disaster that should have been directed at the borough council that enabled it and not those who covered it.

What Harrison cannot properly explain is why Blagroves accusations of biashe cites him regarding the medias attacks on Labour leader Jeremy Corbynhave become part of what he calls popular consciousness.

After all, he writes, the belief that the media is an elite-directed component of the system rather than a complex collection of independent agencies holding the system to account was once confined to old footsoldiers of the left. Yet now the old footsoldiers are making new recruits to the war they are waging to undermine the respectable mediasolely, he argues, because of a few mistakes.

Harrison is fooling no one.

Working peopleand the younger generation above allhave not lost trust in the media because of one or another wrong position, but because they know that almost every major newspaper and TV station are in the pockets of the billionaires who own them.

When a Sky News journalist appears at Grenfell, he is seen not as an impartial recorder of events, but as the representative of Rupert Murdochs News Corpwhose News of the World newspaper was forced to close, Harrison acknowledges, because of overwhelming public revulsion at its hacking of phone messages belonging to the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, victims of the 7/7 bombings and many others 

To that should be added the routine portrayal by Murdochs The Sun, along with the Daily Mail, Daily Express, et al, of unemployed youth as a feral underclass, constant denunciation of immigrants and asylum seekers, benefit claimants, support for cuts and closures that impact on millions, combined with glorification of the rich and famous and incessant warmongering.

That is why Grenfell survivors and local-residents responded as they did to the complex collection of independent agencies: Because the medias complexities are more apparent than real and their independence is only from the opinions and interests of working people.

Harrison in the end seeks to divert attention from this appalling record by asserting that there is still a quality media the Observer, the Guardian and the state-owned BBC are name checkedthat should be treated with due respect. But his case for the defence only underscores the nepotism that characterises the media and how the Guardian is an integral part of that setup.

He chooses as his main witnesses Emily Bell, a former editor of the Guardian web site, now director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and former deputy editor of the Guardian Ian Katz, who now edits BBC2s Newsnight.

Harrison even ties a defence of the BBCs Laura Kuenssbergagainst charges of bias against Corbynto a defence of his own newspaper. He rails against a new article of faith on the political left: that, in its attitudes to Corbyn, the media inadvertently revealed the truth about themselves. Instead of supporting Labours new leader, goes the narrative, liberal newspapers such as the Guardian and O bserver, along with state broadcaster the BBC, set out to destroy him.

He claims, rather, that all concerned are motivated solely by a journalistic duty to examine and a necessary separation of news and comment.

An audacious claim, given that Kuenssbergs reporting of Corbyn was so nakedly hostile that the BBC was forced to finally acknowledge that she had broken the state broadcasters official duty of impartiality!

In January 2017, the BBC ruled that in a November 2015 report, Kuenssberg (BBC salary 200,000-250,000) broke its impartiality and accuracy guidelines. An interview with Corbyn was edited to give the impression that he disagreed with the use of firearms by police in incidentswhich had the effect of reinforcing the Conservative Partys claim that he was soft on terrorismand deliberately so. Kuenssberg even commented that Corbyns views couldn't be more different from those of Prime Minister Theresa May.

Descending into self-parody, Harrison cites as proof of Kuenssbergs impartiality the statement of Mark Wallace, editor of Conservative Home. Wallace, he solemnly reports, doesnt know a single Conservative MP or minister who feels they get an easy ride from Kuenssberg.

In any event, when compared to the Guardian s commentariat, Kuenssberg was a bit player in the efforts to secure Corbyns removal as Labour leader. Jonathan Freedland, Polly Toynbee, Owen Jones, Martin Kettle, John Harris and Suzanne Moore were all open advocates for the Blairite coup plotters. And the Guardian has repeatedly exposed its liberal pretensions to journalistic independence to public scornnot least regarding its witch-hunt of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and calls for Edward Snowden to go to the US and face trial.

To the paragons of journalistic integrity who are his colleagues, Harrison counterposes the Internet as a repository for fake news and fictional, manipulative stories.

Making an amalgam between left-wing opposition to the mainstream media and that of the alt-right, he writes, For professional journalists, this is a nightmare prospect: news and commentary devolving into a baseless cacophony where anyone can say anything and whatever is shared most will win.

Harrison, whose own professional qualifications are as a music journalist, only betrays his own contempt for the ability of workers and youth to distinguish between good online journalism and bad. Better that everyone concerned accepts the Guardian and its editorial staff of well-paid, conformist Public School and Oxbridge alumni as an exemplar of acceptable political and social reportage and commentary.

The chorus of denunciations of fake news by Harrison et al has little impact because the mass media is understood to be voices of the establishmentof an existing social order that makes a few rich beyond all comprehension, a few more very wealthy indeed and leaves the rest of the population in desperate straits.

This is why the covert censorship of left-wing and progressive web sites by the Google search engine, as exposed by the World Socialist Web Site, is now the order of the day. Here is a genuine injustice, an attack on essential press freedoms and the democratic rights of millions. Perhaps Mr. Harrison should concern himself with that.
Residents of 242 flats in four 13-storey blocks on the Ledbury estate in Peckham, south London, spoke to the WSWS about Labour-controlled Southwark Councils telling them they will have to temporarily decant the blocks over the coming weeks and months for emergency works.

The council said safety checks carried out following the Grenfell Tower fire indicate the blocks are at risk of collapse in the event of a gas explosion. Workmen are now disconnecting the gas supply and residents are being given electric hotplates.

Safety issues were known at the tower blocks for many years. But Zola Nopondo, who has lived on the estate since 1998, said that it was only two years ago that fire alarms were fitted:

I only heard about this last night, this letter was just posted through peoples doors in the evening between 7 and 8. So others would have either seen the letter last night or this morning.

Its confirmed that over the next few weeks and months Southwark Council will be evacuating us from the building to do more repair work and offering us temporary accommodation. We have been told that the council will buy a block in order to rehouse people that have been evacuated from this building and then the work will be carried out. They say those who want to move back into a refurbished building will be able to do so. Thats what we have been told and thats the latest.

I have not that many cracks in the walls of my flat, not like those that have been reported, but I do have some. Every flat is different and has a different severity. Mine do not seem to be as bad as my neighbour in the other block who can actually put her hand through the cracks, and thats what has kicked off this whole thing. She hired an independent structural engineer after Southwark Council signed off the cracks as safe.

She spent her own money to get an independent report carried out. They said, no way are they safe. They wrote a letter to the council and to her and it was this that sparked off this whole thing on fire safety. As is mentioned in the council letter, it was only because of this resident leading a movement that the whole thing started off.

Only then did the fire service get involved and its then we got the fire wardens on each block as well as a public meeting on this issue. It was also the time of the residents AGM [annual general meeting] and the whole agenda changed because of the fire at Grenfell and our own fire safety concerns around the 1st or 2md of July and it has all snowballed from then. But we have no idea where we are going to gonone at all.

Resident Glenn Holmes said, It all started with the fire safety issue from the cracks in the block which undermined the compartmentalisation of the blocks. Our concerns go back as far as 30 years and have been reported many times, but the council have never really joined the dots up. All the council did was to redecorate to hide the water damage from general view.

I have had cracks which let the rain in and all they did was to patch the crack up. I believe this was down to many years of incompetence from the council who downplayed and misunderstood all the fire safety stuff.

The Lakanal House tower block fire in Camberwell, south London, in 2009, in which six people died, resulted in a number of recommendations by the coroner, Judge Frances Kirkham, that should have been applied to thousands of similar blocks. Holmes explained, Since the fire down the road there at Lakanal House six years ago they were supposed to inspect all the council blocks in the borough.

It is now obvious that they did not do this estate, which is only a short distance from the council itself. It was the tenants who threatened them with court action and getting the media involved and raised their concerns with the local fire brigade.

That led to the situation where six weeks ago we now have these fire wardens placed on every floor who are here 24 hours a day and if there is a fire they are supposed to evacuate the blocks.

The fire brigade ordered this and they have been put in place by the council who I believe has spent well over 200,000 pounds already.

We only found out last night from the structural engineers that these blocks are of the same construction as the Ronan Point, which fell down in 1969. We were initially told repeatedly that it wasnt. I have just done a half hour of Googling to find out that it is. This was raised at the recent public meeting with an independent fire safety expert about four weeks ago. The expert has been on TV a lot since the Grenfell fire, Mr. Tarling.

The council dismissed his concerns initially, but finally they have said he was right all along. Now they are turning the gas off. That is all the construction work around the blocks. We have been given these hobs to cook on but we have no hot water to wash with.

We do not know where we will be going, but we have to bid on the council housing web site for a home and we now are supposed to have priority on housing over others.

People have already started to do this and we are told we have the right of return. I do not know if we can believe them or not. I have a suspicion that the cost to rebuild the blocks, which is what is needed, with all the scaffolding and other cost will be far too much.
Hundreds of families in four 13-storey blocks in Ledbury estate in Peckham, south London, have been told by the local Labour-controlled Southwark Council to leave their homes.

Residents of the 242 flats have been sent letters saying they will have to temporarily decant the blocks over the coming weeks and months for emergency works. Council officials do not know when they will be able to return.

The council said safety checks carried out following the Grenfell Tower fire indicate the blocks are at risk of collapse in the event of a gas explosion. Workmen are now disconnecting the gas supply and residents are being given electric hotplates.

The council announced the evacuation following an investigation by engineering consultancy company Arup, which revealed that strengthening of the buildings may not have been carried out after the collapse as a result of a gas explosion at Ronan Point, a similarly constructed high-rise in east London, in 1968. Four people died and 17 were injured. The reinforcement of vulnerable buildings and the replacement of gas supplies by electricity were fundamental recommendations of the Griffiths Inquiry set up by Harold Wilsons Labour Party government following the disaster.

The fact that 50 years after the disaster, Griffiths recommendations have been ignored at the Ledbury estate, and probably many more blocks around the country according to safety experts, is yet a further warning to those who put their faith in the Conservative governments announced Grenfell Fire inquiry.

Southwarks deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, Stephanie Cryan, blamed the failure to carry out Griffiths recommendations on the former Greater London Council, declaring, We didnt own the blocks when they were constructed at the end of the 1960s, but all the reports we found suggested the blocks were strengthened following the Ronan Point incident in 1968 to make them safe to include a gas supply.

Arups structural investigations suggest this strengthening may not have occurred, and we have therefore turned off the gas until further investigations can be done.

Southwark councils Strategic Director for Housing & Modernisation, Gerri Scott, added, Earlier today I heard from Arup, who regrettably informed us, based on their structural investigations, that the information we have regarding the history of the blocks may not be correct, and we have therefore taken the decision to turn off the gas supply to all Ledbury tower blocks immediately, and have asked Southern Gas Network to do so.

Scott assured reporters that the council would offer residents 5,800 to help with moving costs, should they wish to find new accommodation. Some would be able to move into a new block of 80 flats in the vicinity of the Ledbury Estate, with others placed at the top of the housing waiting list. Those who dont want to move will be offered the right to return to the refurbished Ledbury blocks, Scott added.

The latest announcement is a volte face that demonstrates Labour is as guilty as the Tories of contempt for council residents.

Back in July, Ledbury residents, concerned by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, were told at a council meeting that there were no structural safety issues relating to the cracks in their flats. However, at the meeting, building surveyor and fire safety expert Arnold Tarling revealed that flammable polystyrene inserted between concrete slabs and flues meant a fire could travel up the building.

There were gaps around cabling and gas pipes, Tarling explained, that were wide enough to fit his hand through, which no amount of fire-stopping would be able to fill.

Deputy leader Cryan criticised Tarling for springing the issues on the audience, saying that Southwarks fire safety teams are already carrying out safety checks, although residents had not yet been told about them.

Cryan declared, I have to be very clear that there are no surprises in any of the points made by Arnold Tarling, these are all matters we have been dealing with for some time, with advice from the best and most up-to-date sources of information. We will continue to investigate and carry out works if and when they are required. We will keep our residents informed at every step.

Following the announcement of the evacuation of residents from the towers, Tarling repeated to reporters, As soon as I walked in and saw the gas supply, I knew it was all wrong  Southwark council did not listen to me, and you really have to question their competence.

The sudden evacuation from the Ledbury estate after so many years raises questions over whether this has any connection with Southwark councils social cleansing policies.

The estate is slap bang in the middle of the councils Old Kent Road Action Plan and Opportunity Areaopportunity being the appropriate word for developers who have made millions from the councils regeneration schemes.

Published in May 2016, the report points out that a whole swathe of Southwark, including the Ledbury estate, is the latest to be earmarked for regeneration by the Labour council. The plan, in explaining that the Old Kent Road is the last remaining undeveloped district in central London, just one mile from Tower Bridge, declares, Over the next 20 years the opportunity area will be transformed, becoming increasingly part of central London Located so close to central London, the areas housing stock has become very popular and house prices have risen accordingly.

Real estate company Savills has highlighted the problem of high investment need estates and a legacy of poorly designed and built housing. It has recommended alternative options for poorly performing stock and the need to make difficult choices, accompanied by the prospect of leveraging in private sector investment.

The council insists the Old Kent Road regeneration will provide 35 percent social housing. But its record shows that this is never achieved.

The notorious public-private partnership (PPP) redevelopment of the Heygate estate at Elephant and Castle, in cahoots with developers Lendlease, led to the replacement of 1,200 social homes with expensive private apartments. Only 82 social homes were replaced and just three of the original households have returned. Landlease made a profit of 113 million from the venture, while council leader Peter Johns claim the council would get north of 100m from it to build new housing, never materialised. It ended up with just 12 million.

Local campaign group 35percent.org has campaigned to expose the councils social cleansing policies. It has pointed out that the first major development along the Old Kent Road at the Bermondsey Works has used a subject to viability clause in a 19-storey, 158-unit scheme to provide just 10 affordable homes, none of which is social-rented. It has submitted 46 developments in a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman in which affordable housing from private developments was not being delivered.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis said in a statement Wednesday that North Korea would face the destruction of its people if it did not comply with the demands of the United States.

The retired Marine Corps general, given the name Mad Dog for his bloody conquest of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004, issued this genocidal proclamation as he was departing for a trip not to a forward operating base, but to the headquarters of Amazon in Seattle and a Defense Department agency in Silicon Valley that works closely with tech firms such as Google.

With the United States closer to nuclear conflict than at any point since the end of the Cold War, Mattis visit was an indication of the increasingly vital role played by the US tech giants not just in the conduct of wars abroad, but in the censorship and suppression of political opposition at home.

In the preparation for war against North Korea, and very possibly its ally China, Mattis and the US military are well aware that they face their greatest potential adversary at home, in the form of mass working class opposition to war. The growth of militarism and war are always accompanied by expanding attacks on democratic rights and the development of authoritarian forms of rule.

In the US today, the military, the intelligence agencies and major media outlets are working with technology companies, in the first instance, Google, to institute systematic censorship aimed at silencing left-wing, antiwar web sites. The chief target of this operation is the World Socialist Web Site.

Over the past three months, in the name of combating fake news and promoting authoritative content on the Internet, Google has implemented a change to its search algorithm that has slashed the search traffic of leading left-wing web sites by 45 percent. This political censorship operation has reduced traffic to the World Socialist Web Site from Google searches by more than two thirds.

The censorship algorithms rolled out by Google no doubt figured prominently in Mattis discussions with tech executives. The nominal purpose of his visit, however, was to integrate Silicon Valley firms even more closely into the booming and lucrative business of waging war.

On Thursday, Mattis met with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the tech giants headquarters in Seattle.

On Friday, he spoke at the headquarters of Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUX), a Defense Department unit located two miles from the Google campus in Mountain View, California. Among the units advisors is Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Googles parent company, Alphabet.

Mattis said the Pentagons partnership with Silicon Valley via DIUX would make the US military more lethal and more effective than ever before. DIUX awards military technology contracts to US hi-tech firms.

The operation has already awarded more than $100 million in contracts for 45 pilot projects in areas such as artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and outer space. Its web page encourages technology firms to tap into a $100+ billion market.

During his visit, Mattis proclaimed, Well get better at integrating AI advances out here into the US military as a result of the unit, which he said would grow in influence and impact on the military. Among the projects rolled out by DIUX, according to Bloomberg News, is a system to coordinate air strikes against targets such as fleeing vehicles.

Following his prepared remarks, Mattis added that the US military was ready with military options against North Korea.

Even more important to the Pentagon than the utility of the tech giants in waging war abroad is the use of their communication infrastructure to shape public opinion and block the expression of antiwar and oppositional sentiment. A major player in this sphere is a thinktank called Jigsaw, a subsidiary of Googles parent company, Alphabet. Jigsaw is headed by Jared Cohen, a former State Department advisor to both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Jigsaws most prominent project is a web commenting censorship system called Perspective API, which it calls a new tool for web publishers to identify toxic comments that can undermine a civil exchange of ideas.

Developed in cooperation with major US newspapers, Jigsaw has already been implemented to flag comments for deletion in the New York Times comments section. This week, WikiLeaks noted that a comment containing the language The CIA armed Islamists in Syria, killing thousands would be flagged as 66 percent toxic by Perspective API. A comment declaring that the US government is wonderful is labeled zero percent toxic, while the US government is corrupt is flagged as 71 percent toxic.

In the second quarter of this year, Google spent more than it had ever previously spent, nearly $6 million, to lobby the US government. This was more than was spent by any other US company.

Google had the closest of relations with the previous White House. The Intercept reports that Google representatives attended White House meetings more than once a week, on average, from the beginning of Obamas presidency through October 2015.

The Intercept report added, Nearly 250 people have shuttled from government service to Google employment or vice versa over the course of [the Obama] administration, and concluded, No other public company approaches this degree of intimacy with government.

The growing partnership between the tech giants and the military is in line with the findings of the US Army War College, which, in a series of recent reports, declared that controlling the growth of political opposition was a major element of contemporary military strategy, and that control over Internet communications was vital to military operations.

In a study titled Social media, the vital ground: Can we hold it? published in April, the Army War College noted, The impact of social media on the media environment has been widely recognized, as has the ability of extremist and adversarial organizations to exploit the media to publicize their cause, spread their propaganda, and recruit vulnerable individuals.

It went on to conclude that Social media will increasingly have a direct impact on virtually all aspects of military operations in the 21st century, and that the military had to expand its control over social media, in particular, its use in deception and Psychological Operations (PSYOPS).

Control over online communication will become increasingly significant amid what one Defense Department report published last month warned was an increasing chasm between governments and their governed over the basic right to rule.

That report concluded, Today, all states are experiencing a precipitous decline in their authority, influence, reach and common attraction, as populations are presented with myriad alternative sources of political alignment or allegiance.

Yet another report, published last year, warned that growing international antagonisms were leading to an intensifying crisis of social order.

It concluded that states now all wrestle with one another over competing interests while standing on quicksandthreatened not only by national rivals, but by the fragile and restive social order they themselves rest on.

As the danger of a major new war mounts, free and unfettered access to information becomes increasingly vital to the mobilization of the working class in opposition to the war plans of the capitalist ruling elite. We call on all our readers to share WSWS articles on social media and sign up to join the fight against Googles censorship of the Internet.

The author also recommends:

Google blocked every one of the WSWSs 45 top search terms

[4 August 2017]
The world is daily and hourly edging closer to the brink of nuclear war, as US President Donald Trump maintains a constant stream of extraordinarily inflammatory and reckless threats against North Korea. Such bellicose language coming from the man in charge of the most powerful military force on the planet is generating increasing shock and fear that war with nuclear weapons could break out at any moment.

Having tweeted yesterday morning that the military option is now locked and loaded should North Korea act unwisely, Trump followed up with images of B-1 strategic bombers and a message from US Pacific Command that these warplanes were ready to fulfill their Fight Tonight mission in Korea.

Just hours later, Trump rebuked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for criticising the escalation of rhetoric, declaring, I hope they understand the gravity of the situation of what I said, and what I said is what I mean. The US president again menaced North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warning that if he utters one more overt threat, he will truly regret it.

With the danger of war looming with ever greater menace over the worlds population, it is natural to think, or at least hope, that what is involved is just a war of words, and that somehow a means will be found to pull back from the precipice. It is necessary, however, to look reality in the face.

Comparisons are being made to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962the closest the world has come to nuclear war. But that tense and precarious confrontation was finally resolved and nuclear arsenals stood down because neither the American nor the Russian leader wanted to unleash a nuclear exchange.

The same cannot be said today. At least one side, the Trump administration, is primed and prepared to engulf the other side in fire and fury like the world has never seen. Moreover, whether intentionally or not, Trump is recklessly goading North Korea into making a desperate military move.

Trump has said absolutely nothing to reassure North Korean leader Kim that the US wants a negotiated settlement or anything short of complete and abject capitulation. And as the prospect of conflict increasingly seems inevitable, military logic increasingly takes over. If the highly unstable Pyongyang regime believes that a massive US attack is imminent, it could decide to launch its own pre-emptive strike rather than have its capacity to retaliate completely destroyed.

In its recklessness, the Trump administration is proceeding with indifference and disregard for what would be unleashed by a war against North Korea. Unlike the Korean War of 195053, which cost the lives of millions on both sides of the north-south border, a new conflict would be unlikely to be confined to the Korean Peninsula.

The threat of nuclear war is not simply the product of a fascistic madman in the White House, but arises out of immense geo-political tensions fueled by the deep economic crisis of American and global capitalism. Trump has the backing of powerful sections of the military and political elites in Washington who have been pressing for the US to challenge and if necessary go to war with China, regarded as the chief obstacle to American global dominance.

The present crisis is the outcome of the political climate prepared by a quarter-century of continuous wars by US imperialism in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, as Washington sought to use its military might to overcome its historic economic decline. It has become a virtual article of faith in American ruling circles that all of their problems on the international arena can be resolved through military action.

The ground was prepared for war against North Korea by the Obama administration, which, as part of its pivot to Asia against China, authorised a huge military build-up throughout the Indo-Pacific. The US military has now stationed its most advanced weaponry in Asia, along with 60 percent of its air and naval forces, and secured new basing agreements throughout the region.

The Pentagon could immediately call on more than 28,000 Air Force, naval, Marine and Special Operations personnel based in South Korea as well as many more forces from its bases in Japan and Guam. Moreover, in the event of a war with North Korea, the US would assume operational control of the South Korean military, with its 625,000 personnel and 3,100,000 reservists.

Any war on the Korean Peninsula poses great dangers not only for China, but also for Russia, as both countries share borders with North Korea. The criminal irresponsibility of the Trump administration is underscored by the fact that it is prepared to initiate a war in what has been a dangerous flashpoint throughout the past century.

It cannot be assumed that China or Russia will simply sit by while the US starts a firestorm in their backyard that will grossly undermine their own security. Having just voted in the UN Security Council for harsh new sanctions on North Korea, Beijing and Moscow can only regard Trumps warmongering this week as a betrayal.

China intervened in the first Korean War as American troops approached its border, and it could do so again. An editorial in the state-owned Global Times, reflecting the more militarist sections of the Chinese regime, insisted that Beijing had to respond with a firm hand to defend its interests. While urging that China remain neutral if North Korea launches a first strike, it warned: If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime China will prevent them from doing so.

It cannot be ruled out that a way will be devised to defuse the immediate crisis on the Korean Peninsula, at least temporarily. However, the Rubicon has been crossed. The US has made clear that it is no longer constrained by previous understandings on the use of nuclear weapons and is willing to wage nuclear warin this case against an impoverished, backward and poorly armed enemy. Around the world, rivals and allies alike will be compelled to alter their strategic and military planning accordingly to ensure they can defend their vital interests.

The greatest danger in this situation is the lack of political understanding and preparation on the part of the working class in the US, Asia and internationally for the crisis that now confronts humanity. While the monstrous threats emanating from Trump have evoked a great deal of anxiety, fear and hostility, workers lack their own political strategy and party to end the danger of war. What is required now is the building of an international anti-war movement of the working class based on socialist principles and the International Committee of the Fourth International and its sections as the mass revolutionary parties needed to lead it.
A recent indefinite strike by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) workers created a political crisis throughout the island. Although the trade unions called off the strike in less than 48 hours, it marked the high point to date in a series of struggles by working people against the government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and its policies.

The Petroleum Trade Union Collective, a combine covering CPC workers, began the strike on July 24 on three demands: halt the sale of Trincomalee oil tanks to India, prevent the sale of Hambantota Port oil storage tanks to China, and speed-up renovations of the countrys main oil refinery at Sapugaskanda.

As these demands ran counter to the policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government immediately imposed a draconian essential services order and unleashed the military to suppress the strike. Government-sponsored thugs were also mobilised to attack picket lines, resulting in injuries to many strikers.

The trade unions quickly called off the strikesupposedly temporarily. But on August 1, union leaders met with President Sirisena then declared that no further industrial action was needed. This was on the basis of a promise that a clause was inserted into the lease agreement with China Merchants Ports Holdings (CMPH) for Hambantota Port that could be amended at any time.

Sirisena later suggested that other facilities, including the Trincomalee oil tanks, would not be sold to a foreign country, but did not rule out a sale to local investors. CPC also indicated that some renovations would proceed at the Sapugaskanda refinery.

None of these vague promises should be taken at face value. The government was desperate to end the strike, which threatened to become the rallying point for other sections of workers confronting austerity measures. Moreover, with the assistance of the unions, the privatisation of Hambantota Port, including its oil tanks, has gone ahead, with the sole change being a meaningless clause that commits the government to nothing.

Workers supported the strike because they feared that the lease to CMPH would affect jobs and conditions of workers in the Petroleum Storage Terminal (CPST), a CPC subsidiary, after the Chinese company took over.

Since the 1980s, successive Colombo governments have systematically attacked the CPC monopoly by opening the door for the privately-owned Indian Oil Company and the transport of oil by private operators. Cuts to jobs and working conditions have taken place already following the partial privatisation of Sri Lanka Telecom, the countrys ports and power sector.

The betrayal of the CPC strike is a further demonstration that workers cannot defend their basic rights and defeat the governments austerity measures through the trade unions. The root cause of the deepening assault on the jobs and conditions of workers lies in the worsening crisis of global capitalism, which can be fought only on the basis of a unified struggle by workers in Sri Lanka and internationally for a socialist program.

The unions are deeply hostile to such a perspective. They accept the framework of capitalism and are completely tied to the Colombo political establishment. They called the strike not to defend jobs and living standards of workers, but to divert the mounting opposition into reactionary nationalist channels, against Indian and China companies, and futile appeals to the government. Whomever the CPC facilities are sold towhether local or foreignworkers will confront continuing attacks.

The All Ceylon Port General Workers Union (ACPGWU), which is controlled by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), planned to hold a July 28 protest of Colombo port workers against the lease of Hambantota Port to a Chinese company but then abandoned it on the basis of President Sirisenas phony promise.

ACPGWU general secretary Chandrasiri Mahagamage railed against the lease, denouncing it as a treasonable act. This anti-Chinese rhetoric has nothing to do with defending CPC workers but is part of the xenophobic campaign being whipped up by US imperialism as it prepares for war against China.

The working class confronts not only the treachery of the trade unions but the resort to police-state measures, which were developed during the 26-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

To justify the invocation of the essential services order, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe condemned the CPC strike as an attempt to destabilise the government and declared no such actions would be allowed in a situation of national crisis.

The Sri Lankan economy, which has been hit by the global economic downturn, is mired in debt, confronts falling exports and remittances, and a widening balance of payments deficit. As in other countries, the mantra of ruling class is: workers and poor must pay for the crisis!

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government came to power by exploiting the popular hostility to President Mahinda Rajapakse. It promised to improve the lot of workers and the poor and restore democratic rights. No sooner was the unity government formed, however, than it began to implement the IMFs austerity demands and crack down on protests and strikes.

To fight for their rights, workers have to embark on a fundamentally different political road, which firstly means a complete organisational and political break from the trade unions. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) urges workers to form independent Action Committees, free from the control of unions, in every workplace, working class neighbourhood and big estate. Committee leaders must be democratically elected and decisions reached through democratic discussion.

The Action Committees need to turn to other sections of workers in Sri Lanka and internationally in order to develop a unified struggle against the corporations and banks that oppress them all. In the recent period, postal workers, tea plantation workers, doctors and university students all have been engaged in protests and strikes. But in each case these struggles were kept isolated by the unions, political parties and protest organisations, and defeated.

Only by directly challenging the government and corporations, and the profit system itself, can workers and the poor defend their class interests. The SEP seeks to unify all sections of the working class and rural poor in the struggle for a workers and peasants government to implement socialist policies and secure the democratic rights of all oppressed people.

The major companies, plantations and banks must be put under the democratic control of the working class, and the economy re-organised to meet the social needs of working people, not the profits of the wealthy elite.

A struggle against capitalism requires a political break from all the capitalist partiesthe United National Party (UNP), the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the JVP and the smaller parties and factions, particularly their pseudo-left hangers-on such as the Nava Sama Samaja Party, the United Socialist Party and the Frontline Socialist Party.

This fight can be waged only by turning to the international working class in the fight against imperialist war and for international socialism. The SEP calls for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of the broader political struggle for a union of socialist republics in South Asia and internationally.

Workers need an internationalist revolutionary party to lead them in this struggle. The SEP, as the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, urges workers, youth and intellectuals to join this struggle and build it as a mass revolutionary party.
Defying widespread anti-war sentiment, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday gave an unprecedented pledge to join what would be a catastrophic war by the United States against North Korea.

Without any public consultation, Turnbull vowed that his government would come to the aid of the United States if it were attacked by North Korea. In a radio interview, he said this pledge extended to a so-called North Korean attack on Guam, a heavily-militarised US Pacific island territory.

These comments followed Trumps warnings that the US would unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen in response to further threats by North Korea. Trump refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike on North Korea in supposed self-defencethe doctrine first enunciated by George W. Bush to illegally invade and occupy Iraq.

Like Trump, the Liberal-National Coalition prime minister turned reality on its head. He branded North Korea a reckless, provocative regime that seems determined to continue destabilising the region. On the contrary, Trumps inflammatory threats are seemingly calculated to goad the North Korean regime into a conflict.

Turnbulls remarks gave credence to Trumps insistence that the small, impoverished country with a relatively primitive weapons capacity, is a dire threat to the US, the worlds largest nuclear power by far. For decades, successive US administrations have sought to cripple North Korea economically and overturn its government.

Turnbulls declarations followed a reportedly lengthy conversation on Thursday night with US Vice President Mike Pence, an indication of Washingtons insistence on Australias unwavering alignment.

Earlier in the week, Turnbull had declined to explicitly endorse Trumps threats. On Wednesday, Turnbull warned of catastrophic consequences of a Korean war and said the only way to deal with North Korea was with maximum economic pressure and UN sanctions. That line was overturned following Pences phone call.

Turnbulls commitment has enormous implications. If the US triggers a war against North Korea, Australia will be involved immediately in a conflagration that could rapidly draw in China, a major nuclear power.

Not only will the US-Australia Pine Gap satellite communications facility in central Australia be automatically engaged in coordinating the assault and targeting bombing sites, bases across northern Australia, from where US warplanes and Marines operate, will become war staging posts.

Beyond that, the US is likely to request the deployment of Australian Special Forces troops, warships and planesall of which are already closely integrated into the US military.

Turnbull doubled down on his remarks yesterday afternoon before ostentatiously spending 90 minutes at Defence headquarters in Canberra with Defence Minister Marise Payne, getting briefed on North Korea by military chiefs, nuclear experts and the heads of the intelligence agencies, including the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States, Turnbull reiterated outside the Defence complex. The ANZUS Treaty means that if America is attacked we will come to their aid. If Australia is attacked, the Americans will come to our aid. We are joined at the hip. The American Alliance is the bedrock of our national security.

This is only the second time an Australian government has cited the 1951 ANZUS collective security treaty as requiring a military mobilisation behind a US-instigated war. Prime Minister John Howard invoked the treaty to join the devastating US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, purportedly to defend America from Islamic terrorists and non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Turnbulls remarks flatly contradicted Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. She had told the media on Thursday that the ANZUS agreement only required Australia, New Zealand and the US to consult together in the event of an attack.

Bishop also had insisted that Australia was not a party to the ceasefire that ended the Korean War in 1953 and not legally obliged to automatically join a conflict on the peninsula. Australian military forces were on the frontlines of that war that killed at least three million people.

Labor Party opposition leader Bill Shorten yesterday swiftly backed Turnbulls total commitment to Washington. I and the government share the same concerns and the same views, and Australians should be reassured that on this matter of North Korea and our national security, the politics of Labor and Liberal are working absolutely together, he said.

The Australian today hailed Turnbull and Shorten. Australians can be proud of Malcolm Turnbulls pledge to stand alongside the US if North Korea attacks the superpower, the editorial proclaimed. At a historic juncture, he rose to the challenge. Shortens response was good.

Nevertheless, there is unmistakeable nervousness in Australias ruling class about the prospect of a nuclear war in Asia. Such a war, particularly if it dragged in China, could have a calamitous fallout for Australian capitalism, which depends heavily both on exports to China and investment from the US. It would also ignite opposition among young people and the working class to a conflict that could endanger life on the planet.

On Thursday, an Australian Financial Review editorial supported Turnbulls initial warning of catastrophic consequences, declaring that Trumps daring rhetoric is extremely high risk. Similar anxieties are surfacing in military and strategic circles. Former Australian Army chief Peter Leahy today urged Turnbull to consult parliament before joining the US in a bloody ugly war against North Korea.

The Australian Greens have also voiced reservations. Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale yesterday accused Turnbull of putting a target on Australias back. Di Natale contended: If there was ever a clearer example of why Australia needs to ditch the US alliance and forge an independent, non-aligned foreign policy, this is it.

The Greens, resting on an upper middle-class constituency, reflect the twin concern of sections of the capitalist elite about the potential economic disaster and the danger of triggering popular anti-war opposition. Their calls for an independent foreign policy are also oriented to the pursuit of the profit interests of Australian big business.

Despite the Greens posturing, they bear direct responsibility for the war danger. They welcomed President Barack Obamas aggressive military and strategic pivot to Asia, aimed against China, which Trump has expanded and made more bellicose. When Obama announced the pivot on the floor of the Australian parliament in 2011, Greens MPs applauded and maintained their backing for the minority Labor government of Julia Gillard.

Like the Greens, the pseudo-left groups are complicit in the eruption of US militarism, having endorsed Washingtons brutal intervention in Syria. Noticeably, all these groupssuch as Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Alliancehave remained silent this week on the mounting war drive. They are doing everything they can to play down the danger and prevent the development of a politically conscious anti-war movement.
(WTXL) - The inspector general is investigating an attack from earlier this week where an inmate stabbed three officers and hit another one in the face.

The Corrections department says it happened Tuesday around 6 p.m. at the Hamilton Correctional Institution.

Inmate Joseph Miller became rattled, and that's when the assault took place. Staff got the situation under control.

The officers' injuries were not serious. Miller is serving time for burglary, robbery and grand theft.

This was not the only inmate attack this week.

The Corrections department says Quentin Bradley, who is in prison for murder, assaulted two officers Sunday at the Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry.

The officers were examined by the medical staff for injuries.

Bradley was given a disciplinary report.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
(WTXL) - Officials on the Pacific U.S. territory island of Guam are telling citizens how to try to survive in the event of a nuclear attack.

It comes amid rising tensions and alternating threats between President Donald Trump and the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

A two-page fact sheet released by officials on Guam provides advice that is both detailed and unsettling.

It urges residents to find concrete shelters nearby in case of an attack, to lie flat and to avoid looking directly at the blast.

Guam natives who have friends and family still on the island are divided on how they feel about this.

Christian Tenorio: "This is, like, heartbreaking 'cause we have family there. And it's like our culture, that's just us, and without Guam, we don't have anything, really,"

Tiffany Stiles: "There's this fear, but at the same token we are confident that the U.S. military knows what they're doing and foresaw something like this happening."

The fact sheet also says to shower after a strike but instructs civilians not to use conditioner as it will bond radioactive material to hair.

MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
Couple to share experiences as missionaries in Uganda on Sunday at The Christian Church in Selah
For more than a century, house on Sunnyside Dam home to a long line of keepers on the Yakima River
Kate Pizano is a junior at Davis High School and is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republics Unleashed program for teen journalists. 
Ever since I was very young, I have been trying (and delighting in) foods that would probably turn off other kids.
Ernst Zundel, a far-right activist who rose to notoriety over decades of public neo-Nazi activity in Canada and the US before being deported back to his native Germany on Holocaust denial charges, has died. He was 78.

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Marina Lahmann, a spokeswoman for the community of Bad Wildbad in Baden-Wuerttemberg where Zundel lived, told The Associated Press on Monday that Zundel died over the weekend. She had no further information, saying the paperwork had not yet been processed.

Zundel (Photo: AP)

"We can only confirm at the moment that he died," she said.

Media in Canada quoted a statement from his wife, Ingrid Zundel, saying that he died of a heart attack at his home on Sunday. His wife, who lives in the United States, told CTV news she had spoken to her husband "just hours before he passed on and he was as optimistic and upbeat as ever."

Born in Germany in 1939, Zundel emigrated to Canada in 1958allegedly to avoid German military serviceand lived in Toronto and Montreal until 2001.

He achieved international notoriety for his neo-Nazi beliefs and writings, including "The Hitler We Loved and Why," and operated Samisdat Publishers, a leading distributor of Nazi and Nazi-era propaganda. He also provided regular content for an eponymous far-right website.

Canadian officials rejected his attempts to obtain citizenship in 1966 and 1994.

After leaving Canada, he moved to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where he had married fellow right-wing extremist Ingrid Rimland.

But in 2003 he was deported back to Canada for alleged immigration violations. After he arrived in Toronto, he was arrested and held in detention until a judge ruled in 2005 that his activities posed a threat to national and international security and he was deported to Germany, where he was being sought for Holocaust denial.

Denial of the Holocaust is illegal in Germany. Because Zundel's Holocaust-denying website was available in Germany, he was considered to have been spreading his message to Germans.

Zundel, who portrayed himself as a peaceful campaigner being denied the right to free speech, was convicted in Mannheim in 2007 of 14 counts of inciting hatred for engaging in years of anti-Semitic activities and sentenced to five years in prison.

After serving his sentence, a crowd of some 20 supporters clapped and shouted "bravo" as he was released from prison in Mannheim in 2010.

Outside the prison, he refused to comment on his beliefs about the Holocaust, saying only "it's kind of a sad situation, there's a lot to say" before adding "I'll certainly be careful not to offend anyone and their draconian laws."
A teenage boy reading the Torah at a summer camp in Panama, two teenage girls blowing a shofar in Houston, Texas, and a bat mitzvah at the Hebrew school in Chilethese are just a few of the daily Jewish experiences documented by 100 teenagers from three different continents as part of the Jewish Lens photo competition. The result is a beautiful exhibition of 25 selected projects, which was inaugurated last weekend at Beit HatfutsotThe Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

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The exhibition, which is a joint initiative of the museum and photographer Zion Ozeri, reveals how Jewish youth around the world perceive their Jewishness.

Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste, director of the Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies (ISJPS) at Beit Hatfutsot, says she wanted to enlist the smartphone and youths tendency to take pictures of everything to manifest their Jewish belonging: How are they part of the people? In what sense?

Ezequiel Noble, Noar Panama, Panama City, Panama: The joint prayer and Torah reading in the Noar Panama summer camp are formative events in Ezequiels life. The concept of God being everywhere is a meaningful part of his Jewish experience. The gathering in the open space brings together people who have the same desire and share the traditions of the Jewish people.

She received many diverse answers: Some 100 photographs were submitted to the competition, and the 25 selected ones, she says, point to teenagers who focus on the family, the different generations, the items on the book shelf, the youth movement, the synagogue. Each with their personal point of view, but together we see an abundance and diversity of Jewish identity in the 21st century, as reflected in the eyes of teenagers.

Nathan Brenner, Temple Adat Elohim Religious School, Thousand Oaks, California, US: Nathan uses the technique of perspective to illustrate that the Torah is limitless, connecting out past, present and future. It is our job to pass on the legacy, and the best way to do that is to encourage young students to learn, love and embody the book that makes Jews who they are.

Shofar selfie

One of the teens who used their cellphone to document their Jewish identity was Miriam Handel of Texas. We are used to seeing this situation in so many pictures of youth who feel like posing for the camera, and here there may be a call for some form of subversion. Its a penetrating picture. They are looking straight at the camera and blowing a shofar, appropriating a role that used to belong to men until now, with a lot of pride and joy," Avnon-Benveniste says.

Miriam Handel, Kehillah High, Houston, Texas, US: Jewish identity revolves around expressing oneself creatively and giving meaning to years-old rituals. The ancient meets the contemporary, tradition meets movement, and young people make their voices heard in a Jewish way.

Micaela Norambuena, Instituto Hebreo Santiago, Chile: Three threads connect me to the Jewish peoplemy family, the Jewish school where I study, and the Tzeirei Ami youth movement to which I have belonged since the age of 10. Tradition, customs, Hebrew, Zionism and community are the essential parts of Micaelas identity that enable her to continue to take an active and meaningful role in the community.

Another picture that made the exhibition was taken in Chicago and given the name And These Words. According to Avnon-Benveniste, This picture looks inwards. We cant actually see who is behind those hands, but we see the holy moment in which a person who could be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, prays and reads ancient verses, seeking a moment of peace, of giving thanks, of introspection in the Jewish world of prayer.

Justin Aronwald, Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago, Northbrook, Illinois, US: And these words, which I command you this day bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them serve as a symbol between your eyes (Deuteronomy, 6:6-8). When the Torah is imprinted on our hands, on our bodies, it reminds us about our Jewish history and traditions and gives us morals to live by.

A reason to look forward with hope

The competition was launched at quite a difficult time for Jewish communities around the world, when Jewish identity has become a source of anti-Semitic and political persecution.

Avnon-Benveniste believes the differences between the situations of communities in Europe and in North America make it difficult to receive a comprehensive answer on how to deal with these hardships. The message, however, remains clear.

Sarah Strenger, Kulanu School of Jewish Studies, Margate, New Jersey, US: Sarahs family has always collected tzedakah (charity) in an empty Jack Daniels bottle. This Jewish tradition goes back as long as she can remember, entwined in her childhood memories. Here, seen from the top, the bottle resembles a pond with the coins rippling out from the center, sending out waves of tzedakah to help those in need.

Our challenge as a nation is to ensure that when young Jews look forward at the Jewish world, it will be out of hope rather thanGod forbidout of fear or conflict, as happened in different periods in history. Our challenge is to march as individuals, as families, as communities and factions side by side, and say: It doesnt matter what were going throughbe it an external or internal threatwell get through it together, out of joy and excitement about the future, rather than out of fear of what will happen," she says.

Sarah Davis, Bet Torah Mount Kisco, New York, US: Almost everything I know about Judaism I learned through the hands of my mother and grandmother. The traditions that I will one day teach my children will have been passed down through them.

I hear people from all around the world answering the question what makes you part of the Jewish people? and there are always plenty of different answers. So its a great privilege to be dealing with these issues," Avnon-Benveniste adds. Im always very excited by the depth they ascribe to questions of identity, how much respect youth have for their family members, their parents, their grandparents. We see it in each and every picture."

Grzegorz Sadurski, JCC Krakow, Krakow, Poland: This street art is a sign of revitalization in Krakows Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz. Jewish symbols in the style of artist Marc Chagall recall history and life in Kazimierz. They evoke ritual, music and folklore to tell the continuing story of Jewish life in Poland.

When you browse through the pictures, one by one, you see how personal the connections are, yet they sit on some kind of sequence of the peoples identity, which is diverse but outlined. At the end of the day, this nation has a Jewish identity that is clear to all those who are part of the Jewish story, she concludes.
An explosion hit a rebel gathering near the Syria-Jordan border on Friday, killing at least 23 fighters and wounding dozens more, a war monitor and an activist said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a violent explosion hit an army camp of the Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam near the border crossing town of Nassib.

The Britain-based war monitor said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber and the death toll was expected to rise.

A video passed to Reuters by an activist in the area claimed to show at least a dozen seriously injured people lying on a carpeted floor. Reuters could not independently verify the content of the video.

The Nassib crossing used to be a major transit point into Syria for people and goods coming to and from the Gulf countries through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, until it was seized by rebels during Syria's civil war.

The town of Nassib is southeast of the southern Syrian city of Deraa in an area covered by a US-Russian brokered ceasefire that went into effect in July.
Women who seek to undergo a tubectomy in a hospital that declares itself a religious institution will find that even if they have a doctor's approval, they will still need the permission of the hospital's rabbiunless they are Arab, in which case the hospital might deny them the procedure altogether.

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Tubectomy, or Tubal ligation, is a surgical procedure for sterilization in which a woman's fallopian tubes are clamped or severed. According to Halacha, this procedure is considered castration and is prohibited, except for life-threatening medical reasons.

Photo: Shutterstock

In both Laniado Hospital in Netanya and Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak, officials told women who called on behalf of Ynet and expressed interest in the procedure that they will have to seek the permission of the hospital Rabbi.

Furthermore, when they called and indentified as Arab, Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital still requested them to contact the rabbi for permission, while Laniado Hospital told the woman that she cannot undergo the procedure at the hospital.

Laniado Hospital serves many residents of the Triangle and is one of the two main hospitals serving the residents of Qalansawe, Tayibe and Tira (the other one being Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba).

Although both hospitals rely on donation funds from Ultra-Orthodox organizations, both are state-funded, and as such are obligated to provide equal medical treatment to all Israeli citizens. Additionally, Interference with medical considerations for religious reasons is illegal.

"A physician cannot impose on a patient his religious world view, and he must present to the patient all the options that are relevant to him, whether they conform to his belief or not," said attorney and medical law expert Adi Niv-Yagoda. "A religious physician who thinks that tubal ligation is contrary to Halacha does not have to perform the procedure himself, but he is obligated to give the woman this option. Religious hospitals are no exception to this rule."

In the case of obtaining the rabbi's permission, it is not as simple as filing a request, as most woman who do so are turned down unless the procedure is imperative for their medical well-being.

A brief scroll through the forums of the religious and Ultra-Orthodox sectors sheds more light on this mindset.

In one case, a woman with serious womb-related medical issues was recommended the procedure by a doctor, who advised her not to have children and to consider tubal legation, as he said it will help with her general health. After asking the rabbi if this was allowed, he answered that no, as any form of castration is forbidden according to Halacha.

In another case, a woman expecting her fifth child said that her pregnancy was accompanied by gestational diabetes and other complications, and that since she was expected to give birth by cesarean section, and not for the first time, she was offered to undergo a tubectomy. Asking if this was permissible, the rabbi's answer was an unequivocal "No!" adding that "there is no knowing what tomorrow will bring and with God's help you will have more children."

'Medieval behavior'

MK Zahava Gal-On, Chairperson of Meretz, has long campaigned against restricting women's freedom of choice in hospitals for religious reasons. In the past, she also demanded from Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to impose sanctions on hospitals that refuse to perform abortions for religious reasons, but Litzman has yet reply to her demand.

"This is completely undermining the institutions of the state and the laws of the state," said MK Gal-On. "Hospitals that receive state funding cannot decide on political or religious agendas that ultimately guide their actions.

"In fact, there are two cases of discrimination here, one against Jewish women which violates their autonomy, as well one against Arab women who are discriminated not only as women but also as Arabs.

"This is a medieval behavior that stands in contradiction to the fact that we are an amended state of law and the fact that these hospitals receive government funding."

Following the findings of the inquiry, MK Gal-On again appealed to Minister Litzman in a letter to exhaust the proceedings before appealing to the High Court of Justice.

"We will not give up on this matter," said MK Gal-On.

MK Zahava Gal-On (Motti Kimchi)

A Health Ministry spokesperson commented: We do not agree with these practices. We intend to get to the bottom of this issue as soon as possible, possibly with the ombudsman of the medical professions, to inspect the disciplinary and ethical aspects of this affair, and will act according to the findings.

The Physicians for Human Rights organization said: "Tubal ligation is a treatment that is provided by the state as part of its universal health care, and since the women who are treated are autonomous, it is their full right to decide on their bodies and how they wish to prevent future pregnancy. This procedure is done at the hospital, and therefore it cannot be claimed that it should be performed elsewhere.

"The fact that the treatment is conditional upon the approval of a rabbi and / or spouse is a gross violation of the patient's autonomyone of the four basic principles of medical ethics, in addition to being a violation of the Patient's Rights Law."

A spokesperson for Maayane HaYeshua defended the practice: "Since tubal ligation is not a life-saving procedure and is irreversible, the hospital believes it requires reflection and so we do not perform it at the patients request only. We must find a clear medical reason requiring intervention and we make sure the woman in question has considered the procedure.

"If this is an ultra-Orthodox woman, the rabbi of the hospital or another rabbi she wants to consult with must be a partner in this decision. For a woman who is not Jewish, there is no requirement to consult a rabbi, but she will be evaluated by a social worker or psychologist, and we will approve the procedure only if there are reasons that justify it."

No response was given by Laniado Hospital.
Iraq's Kurds will maintain their plan to hold a referendum on independence on September 25, despite a US request to postpone it, a high-ranking Kurdish official told Reuters on Saturday.

"The date is standing, Sept. 25, no change," said Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, commenting on the request communicated by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The US State Department said in June it was concerned that the referendum will distract from "more urgent priorities" such as the defeat of Islamic State militants.
Twenty Palestinian children were injured Friday night in an amusement park in Ramallah when the park's swing carousel experienced a technical malfunction, causing its rotating top to drop at a high speed to the ground.

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The wounded children were evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah, most of them in light condition, and no serious injuries were recorded.

Swing carousel in Ramallah amusement park malfunctions

X

This is not the first time that a malfunction has occurred in one of the rides in this amusement park.

Following the incident, the Palestinian Police, Public Prosecution and the Ramallah District Governor's Office began an investigation into the circumstances of the incident and prevent its recurrence in the future.

Meanwhile, a temporary closure order was issued against the park.
ISTANBUL - Three men suspected of carrying out murders on behalf of the Islamic State group have been arrested, Turkey's official news agency Anadolu reported Saturday.

The three men are thought to have been part of a "Daesh execution team," using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

The counter-terror operations in the southeastern provinces of Sanliurfa and Gaziantep as well as eastern Malatya province followed an investigation into a drive-by shooting of a Syrian national in Sanliurfa last month. The gun used in that attack was found on the suspects.

The suspects used chats in phone gaming applications to communicate with ISIS members, according to private Dogan news agency.

Anadolu said the men are thought to have been planning attacks on people working against ISIS.
DUBAI - Iran is holding talks with European planemaker Airbus to buy 48 helicopters for civilian use, an Iranian official was on Saturday quoted as saying, as Iran continues its shopping spree of Western aircraft after the lifting of sanctions.

"The Health Ministry is planning to order 45 HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) helicopters and the purchase is being negotiated by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development," Iran's Financial Tribune daily quoted Deputy Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan as saying.

"Ports and Maritime Organization is also planning to hold a tender to purchase three search-and-rescue helicopters," he added.

An Airbus Helicopters spokesman said: "We don't comment on discussions we may or may not be having with potential customers".
DAMASCUS - A Syrian official said Saturday an international chemical weapons delegation will visit Damascus in the coming days vowing to facilitate its mission to uncover who used chemical weapons in the country earlier this year.

The delegation of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and UN Joint Investigative Mechanism is scheduled to arrive in Syria within 10 days, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad.

Mekdad reiterated in an interview with The Associated Press his government's denial of being behind the April 4 attack in the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed nearly 100 people.

The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched a punitive strike days later on the Shayrat air base from where it said the attack was launched.
A 65-year-old Israeli parachutist was killed in an accident in the Lower Galilee on Saturday when his paraglider crashed.

Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the scene of the crash, an open area near Moshav Shadmot Dvora, had to declare him dead.
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone on Saturday and agreed to work together on a crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the White House said in a statement.

"They discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation associated with North Korea's destabilizing and escalatory behavior," the White House said in a statement.

In recent days, Trump and the North Korean regime have engaged in heated rhetoric about the Asian nation's nuclear weapons program.
Delays in the investigation into the ecological disaster at the Ashalim Stream could result in lenient punishment for those responsibleRotem Amfert and its parent company, Israel Chemicals Ltd.

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The acid spill threatens wildlife, plants and ground water in the nature reserve. Almost the entire ibex population has been wiped out, with many other animals dying as well. The acid waste also caused immense damage to the flora at the stream.

The Environmental Protection Ministry has yet to find an engineering expert to examine the Rotem Fertilizer reservoir that collapsed at the end of June, causing a massive acid spill into the stream.

The ecological disaster at the Ashalim Stream (Photo: Reuters)

The few experts in Israel could face a conflict of interest because they worked with Israel Chemicals in the past, and their testimony would therefore not be admissible in court.

Other experts in Israel declined their services, perhaps because they might want to work with the massive conglomerate in the future.

This led the ministry to look for experts abroad, who price their services at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This leaves the ministry with little choice but to issue an international tender, which could take a long time.

The ecological disaster at the Ashalim Stream (Photo: Israel Nature and Park Authority)

"The ministry has been looking for expert consultants in recent weeks and is conducting a search abroad. This is a small area of expertise, and there aren't many consultants in this field," the Environmental Protection Ministry said in a statement. "We've recently located several experts, and we are examining how we could make use of their services."

The ecological disaster at the Ashalim Stream (Photo: Terrascan Labs LTD)

In addition to undermining deterrence, delays in investigations and in filing indictments force the ministry to reach plea bargains resulting in mitigated punishments in many cases.

Such a deal was recently reached with the Haifa Oil Refinery, which is also under the control of Israel Chemicals Ltd. The prosecutor on behalf of the ministry confirmed one of the reasons for the plea deal was the delay in filing the indictment.
The past 10 years (2006 to 2016) should be very enlightening to Nebraska taxpayers.

Our homes have had to pay 35 percent more in property taxes in that 10-year period. Thats right. I used the word our when referring to our homes. Ag and non-ag resident owners pay the same amount of property tax on our homes, as we should.

And our commercial property taxes have increased 49 percent. Again, I used the word our.

Ag businesses and non-ag businesses owners also pay at the same rate on their businesses and their equipment.

But heres the killer. Land owned by farmers and ranchers is now taxed at a rate that is 176 percent more than 10 years ago.

We in ag account for less than 3 percent of Nebraskas population and the land cannot be moved, therefore farmers and ranchers can be held as hostages while our politicians extort huge amounts of taxes from them.

There is no justifiable reason to use ag land to pay over 30 percent of all property taxes in the state, and in some cases more than 70 percent of the cost of public education in some areas, unless we provide 70 percent of the students. There is a correlation between residences and students. There should be no connection between number of students needing education and a business such as agriculture, especially when you consider that we are less than 3 percent of the population.

This perfect storm relating to land values has brought the tax inequity issue to its head.

There will never be enough land available to take care of the wishes of young people that want to farm or ranch. Due to technology and equipment improvements retiring ag producers cannot be replaced by the number of aspiring young producers. Urban sprawl and need for more infrastructure continues to use up available land. We also went through a period of unprecedented ag prices. As banks lowered their rates on interest to near zero the old money in the banks came out and chased land to improve its earning capacity. And, finally, the land used by urban sprawl was quite often replaced with more acres in the farming and ranching community.

The massive valuation increases took place at a time when our incomes have been cut in half. But farmers and ranchers do not own land to sell, they need it as a tool for production and simply pass it on to the next generation. The increased valuation is simply a number that has no relevance to reality. Increased valuation is a curse Nebraskas politicians use to continue their addiction to property taxes.

Do we tax wealth? Berkshire Hathaway presently has $100,000,000,000. (Yes folks, thats $100 BILLION ) in CASH! So how much property tax does Warren Buffet pay on this $100 billion? Nada, nothing, naught, nil, goose egg, zero, not one dime! If he had that invested in irrigated land in Seward or Yorks school districts he would have to pay $1 BILLION EACH YEAR for property taxes! There are many cases similar to this showing the extreme unfairness of our property tax system in Nebraska.

Fair Nebraska is comprised of individuals that are determined to correct and simplify our tax system. We would welcome any opportunity to meet with anyone, anytime to discuss our plan to fix the system while ensuring adequate funding for public education and other public needs. Please, contact any of us. Its time to start over and be fair to everyone.
SATURDAY 8/12

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

MONDAY 8/14

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Monday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

>> OB Enrollment is Monday, Aug. 14 at 8 a.m. in the Lower Level of the Medical Office Building. Please attend class as soon as possible after your positive pregnancy test. For more information or to enroll in the online Childbirth Preparation class, contact OB Director Nancy Hengelfelt, RNC, at 402.362.04573.

TUESDAY 8/15

>> Sexaholics Anonymous, a 12 Step recovery group for those dealing with addiction to pornography, sex, and other forms of lust, meets Tuesday nights at 5:45 p.m. For more information please call our toll free number 1-877-889-8071 or visit sanebraska.org.

>> La Leche League of York will meet Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Lower Level Conference Room of the Medical Office Building, 2222 North Lincoln Avenue.No pre-registration or fee necessary. During pregnancy is the ideal time to seek birth and breastfeeding education though all women and babies are welcome at any stage. Contact accredited leader, Gloria at 402-362-6875 or turnbull@inebraska.com.

>> Parkinsons Support Group will meet Tuesday,Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. in the Willow Brook AL Gathering Room. For more information, contact Rita Maloley at 402.362.0440.

WEDNESDAY 8/16

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Wednesday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

THURSDAY 8/17

>> Weight Watchers meets in the basement of the York Towne House, 5th & Grant Ave., each Thursday. Weigh in 5:15 - 5:45 p.m.; Member meeting 5:45 - 6:15 p.m.

>> AL-ANON meets Thursday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

>> Narcotics Anonymous meets Thursday at 8 p.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in the Annex building.

FRIDAY 8/18

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Friday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

SATURDAY 8/19

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

MONDAY 8/21

>> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Monday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York.

TUESDAY 8/15

>> Sexaholics Anonymous, a 12 Step recovery group for those dealing with addiction to pornography, sex, and other forms of lust, meets Tuesday nights at 5:45 p.m. For more information please call our toll free number 1-877-889-8071 or visit sanebraska.org.
YORK  Noah Bouchard, 30, of York, has pleaded no contest to felony terroristic threats and possession of a deadly weapon (firearm) to commit a felony.

He entered his changes of plea this week in York County District Court.

Judge James Stecker explained to Bouchard that upon his changes of plea, he is now convicted of a Class 3A felony which carries a possible maximum sentence of three years in prison with 9-18 months of post release supervision and/or a $10,000 fine. He is also convicted of a Class 2 felony which carries a possible maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

During the factual basis proceedings this week, acting York County Attorney Benjamin Dennis, deputies with the York County Sheriffs Department went to a home in York after receiving a citizen complaint about drug use there.

Dennis said the deputies could smell marijuana when they arrived and spoke with a woman at the house. They were directed to a van, which was used by Bouchard, because there was a gun inside and Bouchard was prohibited from having a firearm because he was a convicted felon due to a case in Butler County in 2010. The deputies could see the gun inside and obtained a search warrant. The gun was later seized.

Dennis said that later, a woman reported to authorities that Bouchard had held a gun to her head and threatened to blow her head off. Dennis said Bouchard was interviewed and said he had been under the influence of meth and did not recall that happening.

Sentencing has been set for Oct. 20.
New Delhi: Keeping in view the Independence Day celebrations, Delhi Police's Special cell has put up posters of 'wanted terrorists' across the national capital.

If any citizen has some information about the terrorists, he/she can call on the two phone numbers 011-24641278, 011-23016770.

Keeping in view the Independence Day celebrations, scheduled to be held on August 15, security has been tightened in the national capital.

14 Counter Assault Parakram Vans launched from Red Fort

In order to combat anti-terror activities and tackle other serious law and order situations Delhi Police on Friday flagged off 14 new 'Parakram' vans.

Each Parakram Van will be manned by one driver, one in charge and three commandos. Drivers deployed on these vans will be armed with a small weapon and are trained by NSG in offensive/evasive driving with 360 degree turning and firing in mobile mode.

In-Charge of Parakram Van would be wearing a tactical vest and would be equipped with stunner gun with light, body worn camera, pepper spray, baton etc.

Commandos will be in war mode round the clock and will be attired in dungaree fatigue enabling their agility.

Commandos will be armed with AK-47 and MP-5 rifles and provided with tactical gear including BP Jacket, tact belt with pouches, all-weather caps, arms and knee pads, anti ballistic goggles, half gloves, pepper spray etc.

All commandos have undergone firing training at Delhi Police short range training facility in Old Police Lines, Civil Lines. The contingent of commandos has a fair mix of lady commandos.
New Delhi: Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said the government has no immediate plans to further hike wheat import duty from the existing 10 percent.

On March 28, an import duty of 10 percent was imposed on wheat to curb shipments in view of record domestic output at around 97.44 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year (July-June). Prior to that, there was no duty at all for nearly four months.

"There are no immediate plans to increase import duty on wheat," Paswan told reporters.

There are adequate supplies in the domestic market in view of the bumper crop in 2016-17, he added.

Wheat import has not been much after the Customs duty was imposed. Prior to that, private traders had imported about 5.5 million tonnes at zero Customs duty till March-end, according to industry data.

Global prices of wheat are currently ruling high. For instance, prices of Australian wheat -- which India normally imports -- have gone up by 15-20 percent due to likely lower crop. Some quantity of wheat from Ukraine is being imported, traders said.

The government has sufficient wheat stock as it has procured 30.8 million tonnes of the 2016-17 crop and prices are also ruling stable in the range of Rs 18-20 per kg in wholesale markets.
Gandhinagar: In an unfortunate incident, two persons were killed in an accident on Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway.

The ill-fated accident happened when the deceased's car plunged into a canal on the Expressway.

As per news agency ANI, two people were killed on the spot. The injured were rushed to a hospital in Anand.
Lucknow: Hitting out at Yogi government over the deaths of 30 children in the last two days at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh called for strong action.

          ,    , 20-20        Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

Taking to Twitter, Yadav expressed grief and wrote, "Families of the dead were sent off with the bodies, they did not even do autopsies... extremely unfortunate".

        ,       ,              Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

Yesterday, District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela addressed a press conference and confirmed the death of 30 children in the last two days and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

He had said that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant for patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Rautela further said that an inquiry committee has been set up to ascertain the exact causes of the deaths and it has been asked to submit its report by tomorrow evening. Action will be taken against those responsible. He also said that alternative arrangements had been made from neighbouring Sant Kabir Nagar district to ensure availability of liquid oxygen for the hospital. At present, there are 50 oxygen cylinders and 100 to 150 more will be reaching soon.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi also expressed deep shock at the tragic death of the children.

Pained beyond words by this humongous tragedy, Sonia Gandhi said, "My heart goes out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on the part of the authorities."

She urged the Uttar Pradesh government to take immediate cognisance of the crime and bring the culprits to book. She also called upon the state Congress workers to provide relief to the families of victims.

Meanwhile, Rahul took to his Twitter page and said "Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP govt is responsible and should punish the negligent, who caused this tragedy."

Deeply pained.My thoughts are with the families of the victims.BJP govt is responsible & should punish the negligent,who caused this tragedy https://t.co/rdwDJblJEj  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 11, 2017

Yesterday, as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, in a span of 48 hours at the hospital of Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Yogi Adityanath government has reportedly asked for a report on this incident within 24 hours.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Congress leaders on Saturday described the death of over 60 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital due to lack of oxygen as an act of cold-blooded murder and not an accident.

Congress leaders Sandeep Dixit and Meem have termed the incident a criminal act

Dixit said, "Oxygen is a basic facility which people can have at homes these days. Not having oxygen in a hospital is an extremely serious matter."

He also said the incident reflected the incompetency of the state government.

"Ever since Yogi Adityanath has been the chief minister, he has not focused on matters like education and development. Instead, he has been focusing on other matters," Dixit claimed.

He added, "Strict action must be taken against the hospital and the people responsible for it so that a message is sent out to the whole country,"

Meem Afzal said, "The hospital was informed that a lot of money was due to the company which supplies oxygen. The administration did not heed to the notice, because of which the whole incident happened."

He said that calling the incident an 'accident' is an understatement and the management should be held responsible for it.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe and assured strict action against those responsible for the alleged shortage of oxygen supply at the hospital.

State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon had said action will be taken after a detailed probe on the matter.

On Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children had lost their lives due to encephalitis over a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela said the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and appealed to suppliers not to cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped to the defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and that the report will be out in 24 hours.

According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have taken place in the hospital.
New Delhi: Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi expressed his outrage at the death of over 60 children in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College's hospital due to alleged lack of oxygen, saying it was not a tragedy but a clear case of massacre.

Taking to Twitter, Satyarthi tore into the Uttar Pradesh government asking "is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?"

"Appeal to CM @myogiadityanath Ji. Your decisive intervention can correct decades of corrupt medical system of UP to prevent such incidents," he added.



30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It's a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?  Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

Appeal to CM @myogiadityanath Ji. Your decisive intervention can correct decades of corrupt medical system of UP to prevent such incidents.  Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) August 11, 2017

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a thorough probe into the matter and assured strict action against those who were involved in the alleged shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital. Speaking to the media today after attending an emergency meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said that Yogi had recently visited the hospital, but he was not informed by the authorities about any anomalies.

State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon reiterated the same and said action will be taken after detailed probe on the matter.

"The Chief Minister has given us proper instruction on this issue. We will leave for Gorakhpur soon and after details analysis of the situation will take further decision on the same," Tandon said.

Earlier in the day, the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital claimed lives of three more children.

The shortage of oxygen allegedly led to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, following which the children died.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

As per the locals, though the hospital is supposed to provide free medical assistance, neither there is proper medical facility available nor are the patients provided free medicines.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital.

Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital was the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and has further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

Following this report, the Uttar Pradesh Government jumped in defence of the medical college, while also assuring that the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the report will be out in 24 hours.

"There haven't been any deaths due to lack of oxygen supply. And 'only' seven children have died today. Today three deaths happened in Neonatal ICU, two due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and two due to Non-AES," UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said.

"The District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The report will be out in 24 hours," he added.

He further said that the arrangement of oxygen cylinders was duly made and a strict action will be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths have occurred in the hospital.
New Delhi: The death toll in Gorakhpur tragedy rose to 63 after an 11-year-old child died due to encephalitis at Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen at the hospital had claimed lives of two children.

Yesterday, it was reported that as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in a span of 48 hours at the hospital. As per the data procured from the BRD hospital, in past five days from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths occurred in the hospital. The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called for an emergency meet later in the day over the alarming turn of events. It has also been reported after the meeting, the ministers are expected to visit the BRD Medical College in CM's home turf.
New Delhi: The flag meeting between Indian and Chinese Army officers on Friday over the ongoing Doklam standoff remained inconclusive.

The Army officers from both the sides extensively discussed the Doklam standoff meeting at Nathu La mountain pass in Sikkim.

Usually, flag meetings are held between Brigadier level officers, but Friday's meet was attended by Major General rank officers from both sides.

In the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) attended by Major General rank officers from both sides, India insisted that the face-off could be resolved through simultaneous withdrawal of troops by the Indian and Chinese sides, sources said.

The two sides hold BPM in five points which include Daulat Beg Oldie in northern Ladakh, Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh, Chusul in Ladakh, Bum-La near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Nathu-La in Sikkim.

The standoff close to the tri-junction of India-China-Bhutan started on June 16, after a construction party from China`s People`s Liberation Army entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct the road.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Doklam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.

The two countries share a little over 200 km of border in the Sikkim sector.

Amid the border stand-off with China, Defence Minister Arun Jaitely on Friday rejected reports about shortage of ammunition and asserted that the armed forces have enough quantity to face any eventuality.
New Delhi: The month-long Monsoon Session of Parliament ended on Friday, with the two houses recording a dip in productivity compared with the last session.

According to the data provided by the secretariats of the two houses, the Lok Sabha's productivity was 77.94 per cent, significantly down from 114 per cent during the Budget Session.

The Rajya Sabha's productivity was marginally higher compared with the lower house at 79.95 per cent. In the Budget Session, the upper house clocked around 93 per cent productivity.

Productivity is the ratio between the scheduled number of hours and the number of hours the house actually worked.

Addressing media after the end of the session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that the government was happy with the session's outcome.

"It has been a successful session in terms of legislative business conducted and wide participation of all political parties in discussions on various issues of national importance."

Ministers of State for Parliamentary SS Ahluwalia said the dip in productivity in percentage terms did not affect legislative business done by the two houses, as the Lok Sabha passed 14 bills and the Rajya Sabha nine bills.

"This session was short. In between, there were holidays, there was the Presidential election, obituary references, and there was also a day dedicated to discussion on the Quit India movement. There were disruptions, even though we were ready to discuss what they wanted..." the Minister said, adding that these factors led to low productivity ratio.

"There was no affect on the legislative business, as both houses passed several bills," he said.

All that has happened during the session?

The session began on July 17, the day voting to elect the 14th President of India was held. During the session, voting to elect the 13th Vice President was also held on August 8.

During the session, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also saw itself becoming the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha after a fresh round of elections to the upper house.

During the Monsoon Session, the opposition protested over several issues, including the agrarian crisis, withdrawal of cooking gas subsidy, and stalking of a young woman by the son of a Haryana BJP leader.

Two major issues that saw opposition protests were mob lynchings and cow vigilantes, with members blaming the government of inaction. Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections also led to much heat as the opposition Congress alleged use of money and muscle power to influence its MLAs.

The bills passed during the session include The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, The Right of Children Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, and The Right of Children Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill.

Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2017-18, including Railways, and Demands for Excess Grants for 2014-15 and related Appropriation Bills were discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha.

These Bills were sent to the Rajya Sabha on August 2, but could not be taken up for consideration but were not returned to the Lok Sabha. As per the rules, the bills will deemed to have been passed by both houses on August 15, the end of 14-day period for returning a Finance Bill to the lower house.

The session also saw External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speak on the stand-off with China along the country's border in Sikkim, as the upper house took up a discussion on India's foreign policy.

The Lok Sabha lost nearly 30 hours to disruptions but sat for more than 10 hours extra. The Rajya Sabha lost around 25 hours, but members sat for seven hours extra.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Slamming Pakistan for the atrocities committed by the forces on locals, Misfar Khan, a politician from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir region said, political parties of Islamabad need to end the drama in the area and Gilgit-Baltistan, as these areas are not a part of Pakistan.

The loot and exploitation being done by political parties of Pakistan in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan need to be stopped, Khan said.

Meanwhile, Taifoor Akbar, a political activist in PoK said people living in the particular region are treated as slaves.

Exposing Pakistan's cruelty, Akbar said people of PoK are called traitors and are regularly abducted and thrown in jail in the name of National Action Plan.

PoK locals are deprived of basic amenities, they have no roads, factories, even books are banned in the region, the political activist said.

In 2016, PoK locals staged protest against the rigged July 21 election, which saw Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 32 out of 41 seats.

The protesters had claimed that they were not allowed to cast their votes, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and others rigged the polls in favour of Sharif's PML(N).

Baloch Human Rights Organisation (BHRO) chairperson Bibi Gul Baloch in January 2017 had claimed that at least 113 mutilated bodies were found dumped across Balochistan last year.

Revealing details of the annual report compiled by the BHRO at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, Gul Baloch said that during 2016 scores of military operations were carried out in the province`s insurgency-hit south-western parts and that 32 people had gone missing after being "arrested by the law enforcement agencies".
Patna: As the JD-U decided to replace him as Parliamentary party leader, senior leader Sharad Yadav on Saturday hit out at current JD-U President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar`s alone but belonged to him too.

"JD-U sirf Nitish Kumar ki hi party nahi hai, yeh meri bhi party hai," Sharad Yadav said in Bihar`s Madhepura district on the last day of his three-day Samvad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Nitish Kumar`s decision to break the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress and join hands with the BJP and form a new government.

Nitish Kumar is the Janata Dal-United national president and said to fully control the party in Bihar. "There are two JD-Us in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legislators, leaders, who are close to the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me," Sharad Yadav said.

He refused to say anything on the JD-U decision to replace him as the Parliamentary party leader on Saturday.

Sharad Yadav, who is Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had "not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, what do others matter".

"I am not afraid of any one to speak the truth and stand by my principles," he said in reference to his fight against Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he was a student leader close to Jayaprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.

Sharad Yadav said action has been taken against a few leaders of the party "who are standing with me", and leaders close to Nitish Kumar have been threatening other JD-U leaders supporting him.

Sharad Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

"The decision to join hands with the BJP and form a government in Bihar was against the mandate given in the 2015 assembly polls."

He said it was the people who had made the Grand Alliance of RJD, JD-U and Congress in 2015 Bihar Assembly polls and given their mandate to rule for five years. "People`s mandate was against the BJP-led NDA," he said.
Mumbai: A day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a probe against two cabinet colleagues for alleged corruption, Industries Minister Subhash Desai of ally Shiv Sena tendered his resignation on Saturday but it was rejected.

Desai, 75, among the senior-most Shiv Sena leaders, is a close confidante of party President Uddhav Thackeray. The two met late on Friday night before he decided to quit, official sources said.

After a sustained opposition onslaught in the legislature against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta and Desai, Fadnavis announced a probe into the allegations on Friday.

Desai was accused of flouting norms while allegedly denotifying around 12,000 hectares of MIDC Nashik lands to favour private builders, while Mehta was charged with corruption in slum rehabilitation projects here.

Fadnavis assured an enquiry by Lokayukta M.L. Tahiliyani into the allegations against Mehta and by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against Desai.

"I am ready for any investigation by any department," Desai asserted after offering his resignation.

The opposition had demanded probes by the Enforcement Directorate and a Special Investigation Team against the two, who stoutly refuted the allegations hurled against them.
New Delhi: The Indian Army will use hundreds of indigenously built robots to fight terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report has said.

The robots are reportedly capable of delivering ammunition at the intended locations in case of unsafe and emergency situations.

According to online portal the eastcoastdaily.in, the defence ministry has already approved an army proposal to induct 544 robots for the purpose.

The army plans to boost the use of such machines for security and surveillance as the 'terror theatre' has of late moved from the jungles to urban areas.

The way the situation is evolving, it may just be a matter of time when security forces as a whole, and Rashtriya Rifles in particular, will be facing the threat in built-up and super built-up areas, the army was quoted as saying.

These robotic surveillance platforms can be extensively used by the RR forces (Rashtriya Rifles) for gathering real-time input prior to manual insertion, the report quoted an army note as saying.

These robots are of lightweight and consist of surveillance cameras and transmission systems with a range of 200 metres.

Citing the army, the report said the requirement of the robots is to deliver suitable ammunition e.g. stun grenade.

The ministry has approved the proposal under the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 which states only Indian vendors are eligible for the projects.

The security forces have been currently using a remotely operated vehicle Daksh to handle the improvised explosive devices, the report said.

Daksh, developed by DRDO, can climb stairs, lift 20 kg loads and has a three-hour battery life. It can be operated with remote within a range of 500 metres.
New Delhi: One army jawan and a civilian were killed in Pakistan firing on Saturday even as the security forces continued a massive manhunt in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district in response to a daring terror attack on a military base a day earlier.

A 45-year-old woman was killed in a cross-border shelling from Pakistan in J&K's Mendhar sector early on Saturday. She has been identified as Raqia Begum, a resident of upper Golat in Mendhar.

Later on the day, army jawan Jagram Singh Tomar lost his life in another ceasefire violation by Pakistan. The incident took place in the state's KG sector at around 5 pm.

Meanwhile, the security forces have continued their search operation in Kupwara on Saturday after the attack on 42 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters by terrorists last night.

One soldier was injured when the terrorists had opened fire. The attack lasted for at least 10 minutes. He was later shifted to a military hospital in Drugmulla.

The army in collaboration with the para commandos was carrying out the operation in north Kashmir's Kupwara, comprising forested areas of Kunnad, Kani Behak, Batpora Haihama, Manigah and Chat.

Also on Saturday, an explosion occurred in Srinagar's Dalgate area. However, there was no report of casualty.
New Delhi: A private English medium school in Kerala raised controversies after introducing variations in uniforms for students based on their academic performances. The incident took place in Al Farooque English Medium School at Pandikkad.

Offended students along with their parents jointly approached the child welfare authorities' to complain against such a discrimination. Following the complaint, the school on Thursday withdrew the system, reported the Times of India.

While other students wore regular uniform to school, 32 students were asked to wear a gray uniform. Reportedly, this was due to that fact that they were good in studies, said the Childline authorities.

The Childline authorities had conducted a survey among the students for their feedbacks on the new system following the complaint received in June. The survey revealed that the students feel discriminated owing to the introduction of the new system.

"As most of the students were unhappy, we had demanded the school authorities to withdraw the system immediately," said Anwar Karakkadan, district coordinator of Childline.

The school, however, did not withdraw the system even after a month. This led the child welfare organisation to knock the doors of Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) and district Child Welfare Committee seeking intervention in the issue.

School principal Abdul Kareem defended himself saying that the new system was launched as part of forming students' group in class rooms to monitor different co-curricular activities. However, the system was immediately withdrawn due to the complaints received from various ends.

Meanwhile, the KeSCPCR has registered a suo motu case against the school authorities.
Mumbai: BSE-promoted India International Exchange (India INX) will launch trading in gold options from August 30, a move which will allow investors an opportunity to hedge their risk without worrying about daily market volatility.

India INX, which has received regulator Sebi's nod to launch the product, has estimated that gold options, along with other gold contracts, would clock a daily average turnover of USD 35 million on the exchange's platform.

Recently, domestic commodity exchange MCX also said it has received Sebi's approval to commence trading in gold options contracts. The bourse is likely to launch the product by August-end.

"Gold options will give participants an opportunity to hedge their risk without worrying about daily volatility," India INX managing director and CEO V Balasubramaniam said in a statement here.

"This instrument will give buyer a right to buy or sell an underlier at a preset price on a future date," he added.

In June, Sebi had allowed options trading in commodities to deepen the market but permitted each exchange to launch options on futures of only one commodity initially.

Trading in options has been a long pending demand of the exchanges and market intermediaries. While the market watchdog had agreed to permit options trading last year itself, some legal requirements were holding back the move.

Sebi had stipulated necessary guidelines with regard to the product design and risk management framework to be adopted for trading in options on commodity futures.

India Inx began its operations on January 16, 2017 and is India's first International Exchange set up at GIFT City in Gandhinagar.

The exchange, which operates for 22 hours a day, allows international investors and Non-Residents Indians to trade in various asset classes including equities and derivatives from anywhere across the globe.
New Delhi: As the Reliance Jio barrage continues to lead the telecom industry, its rival operators are racing to attract customers with their new data plans.

Aircel has recently launched two new offers which would provide 2GB data per day and unlimited calls with a validity of 84 days. These plans have been released in order to compete with Jio's Dhan Dhana Dhan offer of Rs 399, which provides same facility as that of Aircel's new data plan along with free SMSs and access to Jio apps suite.

Aircel's prepaid plans are priced at- Rs 419 in the Northeast, Rs 449 in Jammu and Kashmir and Rs 229 for the Jammu and Kashmir circle with fewer benefits.

The Aircel Rs 419 plan provides allowance of 2GB data per day for 84 days which sums up to a total of 168GB data for the time period in Northeast region. Carrying a drawback of providing the data in 2G & 3G speed only, it allows free unlimited calls to any network with this pack.

For the J&K circle, it provides same data and calling perks for Rs 449 pack. Whereas, the Rs 229 plan offers 1GB data per day for 84 days (84GB for 84 days), unlimited local/STD calls restricting to the Aircel network only. For both the plans, the company will provide 2G/3G speed.

Establishing a comaprision between the offers provided by both the telecom companies, Reliance Jio's peculiar benefit is 4G speed. Jio's Dhan Dhana Dhan offer provides 84GB data for 84 days at Rs 399 and 2GB data per day priced at Rs 509 with validity lasting up to 56 days.

Aircel is in process to introduce plan of 84GB data for 84 days for eastern circle of UP as well. Other telecom brands namely Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are also competing for the mobile data war by offering plans with 84 days validity only with 84GB data as for now.
New Delhi: Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez make a stunning pair in their upcoming film 'A Gentleman' and fans are already looking forward to witnessing their sizzling chemistry.

The makers have now released a 10-second teaser of their new song from the film, called 'Bandook Meri Laila' and it evokes a tremor of excitement.

Check it out below:

'A Gentleman' will hit the theaters on August 25, 2017.
New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan will be a part of the much awaited film, 'Thugs of Hindostan' and his dedication tells us that the movie would be worth a watch.

According to a Bollywoodlife.com report, Big B injured himself during the shoot and fractured his rib. However, that didn't deter him and he continued working.

This is what a source told Bollywoodlife.com:

"It was only on his return to Mumbai that an MRI was done on doctors orders, and the source of this terrible pain was found. Despite a cracked rib, Amitabh Bachchan continued to focus on the films shoot and push himself."

'Thugs of Hindostan' will be based on the lives of Indian pirates and will hit the theaters on Diwali 2018. The movie is directed by Dhoom 3 director, Vijay Krishna Acharya.


New Delhi: Sky gazers across the northern hemisphere are in for a treat this weekend, as the Perseid meteor shower is about to bless the skies.

According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, the Perseids are perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years (such as in 2016) the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour.

The shower will peak around 1:00 pm EDT on August 12, which means that the night before and the night after will both have good rates; Cooke said the show would be slightly better in the predawn hours of August 12, but that there'd be a decent show both nights.

However, this year, the Perseids will be a bit difficult to view because of the moon which will be three-quarters full and will rise shortly before the shower hits its peak around midnight local time.

"Rates will be about half what they would be normally, because of the bright moonlight," Cooke told Space.com. "Instead of 80 to 100, [there will be] 40 to 50 per hour. And that's just because the moon's going to wash out the fainter ones."

But don't let that put a dampener on your skygazing plans.

"The good news is that the Perseids are rich in fireballs; otherwise the moon would really mess with them," Cooke added.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs every July and August as the Earth passes debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet.

Below is a short video released by NASA guiding you on where, when & how to watch the celestial spectacle. Check it out!
New Delhi: The astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are about to welcome a new member in their midst next week.

No, it's not another astronaut, but their first ever supercomputer! As part of a joint experiment with the US space agency NASA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) said on Friday that it will launch a supercomputer into space on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft next Monday.

Called the Spaceborne Computer, the system is designed to last for up to a year, which according to the company, is roughly the amount of time it will take to travel to Mars.

"A mission to Mars will require sophisticated on-board computing resources that are capable of extended periods of uptime," Alain Andreoil, senior vice president and general manager at HPE's data centre infrastructure group, wrote in a blog post.

"To meet these requirements, we need to improve technology's viability in space in order to better ensure mission success. By sending a supercomputer to space, HPE is taking the first step in that direction," he wrote.

Currently, many of the calculations needed for space research projects are still done on Earth due to the limited computing capabilities in space, according to HPE.

While this approach works for space exploration on the moon or in low Earth orbit, it would take up to 20 minutes for communications to reach Earth and then another 20 minutes for responses to reach astronauts once they travel farther out and closer to Mars, it said.

"Such a long communication lag would make any on-the-ground exploration challenging and potentially dangerous if astronauts are met with any mission critical scenarios that they're not able to solve themselves," Andreoil said.

The HPE Spaceborne Computer is based on the so-called Apollo 40 class systems, running an open-source Linux operating system, with a unique water-cooled enclosure, but has no hardware modifications, according to the company.

Generally, in order for NASA to approve computers for space, the equipment needs to be "ruggedized," or hardened to withstand the conditions in space, Andreoil explained.

"This physical hardening takes time, money and adds weight, so HPE took a different approach to 'harden' the systems with software," Andreoil said.

"HPE's system software will manage real time throttling of the computer systems based on current conditions and can mitigate environmentally induced errors," he said.

"Even without traditional ruggedizing, the system still passed at least 146 safety tests and certifications in order to be NASA-approved for space."

(With IANS inputs)
Lucknow: Following the deaths of over 60 children at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the college principal with immediate effect for negligent behaviour.

However, speaking to news agency ANI, the 'suspended' principal said, "I tendered my resignation prior to that (suspension) taking responsibility for the deaths of innocent children."

Addressing a press conference, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said, a high-level investigation, headed by Principal Secretary, has been ordered and the state government will take appropriate action after probe report is submitted.

Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had on Friday said that at least 30 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.

However, state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and state governments.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda has asked Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary CK Mishra to visit Gorakhpur to look into the deaths of children in a hospital in the eastern UP town.

Nadda has sought a report from the state health department into the matter. An expert team will also be leaving for Gorakhpur on Saturday.

The opposition tore into the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, seeking the scalps of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers for the deaths of over 60 children.
New Delhi: Villages across the banks of River Ganga were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under Namami Gange initiative on Saturday.

The declaration was made by Union Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar at the Ganga Gram Sammelan held at Allahabad's Naini.

The venture includes as many as 4480 villages in 52 districts and five states namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Union Minister for Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharati in collaboration with Tomar later launched model Ganga Gram initiative which identifies 24 Namami Gange villages to make them Adarsh Ganga Grams.

Ganga Gram is a joint initiative of MDWS and MoWR, as per a PIB press release. The Gram Pradhans of these villages were administered oath for achieving the goal of Adarsh Ganga Gram by Bharati.

According to the release, the Ganga Gram initiative would focus on better cleanliness and infrastructure facilities like Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM), rejuvenation of ponds and water sources, water conservation projects, organic farming, crematorium and overall convergence with other government departments and projects.

Bharti while addressing said that a major step has been taken in the direction of cleaning the holy river Ganga by putting the required framework in place.

While speaking on the occasion, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reiterated the commitment to make the entire Uttar Pradesh state ODF by December 2018 and stressed that SBM is among the top priority programs in the state.

Tomar highlighted the progress made under Swachh Bharat Mission. He said that the country has made fast and remarkable progress with sanitation coverage increasing to around 66.5% with 2.25 lakh villages and 169 districts becoming ODF. He said that the country is well placed to achieve the target of becoming ODF by 2nd October 2019.

Reportedly, the Sammelan was also attended by the Deputy CM of UP, Shri Keshav Prasad Maurya, State Minister- Panchayati Raj, senior officials from MDWS, MoWR, state officials, Gram Pradhans of Ganga Gram Villages and more than 1500 village representatives and swachhagrahi.

The program ended with flagging off 30 Swachhta Raths by Adityanath, Bharti and Tomar. The Raths are mobile vans equipped with LED panels for screening Swachhta Films and also a Nukkad Natak Team for community engagement in villages.

As reported by PIB, the Raths would tour the entire state and create mass awareness and would help in triggering behaviour change among the community members. In this week about 300 Raths in may states will tour thousands of villages to disseminate message of swachhta.
New Delhi: Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday sought a time-bound probe into the deaths of 30 children in a government hospital in Gorakhpur, and said it was an "hour of test" for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Paswan, a BJP ally, termed the deaths, many of which were reportedly caused by lack of oxygen, as "heartrending" and noted that the tragedy happened in Adityanath's constituency.

"I am sure he will take it very seriously and it must be taken so. This is an hour of test for the chief minister," he told a press conference.

Paswan said there must be a high-level probe and action should be taken within a week.

He said condition of government hospitals in UP and several other states is "very bad".

At least 30 children have died, many due to lack of oxygen, in the hospital in the last 48 hours.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Saturday expressed anguish over the death of over 60 children at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

While admitting that tackling Encephalitis is a challenge for his government, the Chief Minister said, Eastern UP has been bearing the brunt of Encephalitis since 1978, adding that open defecation and dirty surroundings are the main reasons for the disease to thrive.

Notably, Encephalitis claims the lives of hundreds of children every year in the state.

Meanwhile, following the deaths of over 60 children at BRD Medical College, the Uttar Pradesh government suspended the college principal with immediate effect for negligent behaviour.

Addressing a press conference, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said a high-level investigation, headed by Principal Secretary, has been ordered and the state government will take appropriate action after probe report is submitted.

Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajeev Rautela had on Friday said that at least 30 children had died in the Medical College within 48 hours.

However, state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children had died due to various diseases since August 7.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur. He is in constant touch with authorities from the Central and state governments.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda has asked Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary CK Mishra to visit Gorakhpur to look into the deaths of children in a hospital in the eastern UP town.

Nadda has sought a report from the state health department into the matter. An expert team will also be leaving for Gorakhpur on Saturday.

The opposition tore into the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, seeking the scalps of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers for the deaths of over 60 children.
Bareilly: In a tragic incident, two sisters were set ablaze but few unknown miscreants late last night while they were sleeping in their home in Nawabganj area of Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district.

The culprits broke into the house, poured petrol on the bed on which both the sisters were sleeping and set them on fire.

As soon as the family came to know about the ordeal, both the sisters were rushed to the nearby hospital.

18-year old Gulshan's condition is severe while the 17-year old, younger sister Fiza has sustained 40 per cent burns.

"Some people set my sister and me on fire while we were sleeping in the same bed at night. We don't know who they were. When we woke up they ran away. We were not able to see their face," Fiza said.

"I don't know who did this. We don't have any animosity with anyone," said the mother of the girls.

A FIR has been registered in this case and the Police has formed a team to nab the perpetrators as soon as possible.
Kolkata: A section of Jadavpur University students, who were protesting against the West Bengal government`s directive to replace the existing students union with a nominated students` council, called off their agitation early on Saturday after nearly 36 hours of demonstrations.

The students had launched a sit-in demonstration inside the varsity premises laying siege to the administrative offices and preventing Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das and other officials from leaving the campus since Thursday afternoon.

The protests were withdrawn after the students got an assurance from the Vice Chancellor that their concerns would be conveyed to the state government.

"The protest was lifted around 1.30 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturday. The Executive Council -- the highest policy making body of the institute -- has written to the government that stakeholders are opposed to the decision. However, we can`t give any opinion on it. We have just conveyed the message," said university registrar Pradip Ghosh who had signed the statement.

The state government has rolled out a new "apolitical" system of student union elections across all state-aided colleges and varsities in June this year instead of the elected students` body structure.

Under the umbrella of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students` Union (FETSU), students across all disciplines had demanded the Executive Council oppose the order.

The students voiced their concern about "the curbing of students` rights" through the new students council.

Das on Friday had appealed to the students to end the agitation.

"Since we are a state university, we have to follow the order," he said.

The new model eschews political association in student body elections.

Under the new model, a teacher in every institution will be responsible for handling funds allowed to the students` council.

A union will have office-bearers ranging from seven to over 10 depending on the size of the college.
Kolkata: With most Bangladeshis preferring West Bengal as their destination while visiting India, the state has the most to gain from a better relation between the two countries, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.

"The minimum amount required for carrying by a person from Bangladesh before we give Indian visas is 150 US dollars. Half a billion of people from that country come to India for recreation, for tourism, shopping, medical facilities and all they prefer is West Bengal. So the tangible gains to the economy of West Bengal are incredible," he said.

However, the difficulty in accessing Indian visas by Bangladeshis was impacting the relation between the two countries. The problem has been addressed by augmenting the facilities and helping the system to be more efficient.

In 2015 around 7.5lakh visas had been issued, while last year it was 9.33 lakh. The figure in the first half of this year was close to seven lakh. The Indian high commission in Dhaka handles the largest volume of visas in the Indian system followed by Oman, he said at the ICC programme 'India-Bangladesh Business Relations: The Way Forward' here late last night.

Stating that the relationship potential between India and Bangladesh has not been appropriately viewed, Shringla said, "There is a lot more that the state(Bengal) can gain out of the relationship and I think in business you should look at it more carefully. We must look at what we can give, and if we give what we can get. I think this symbiotic relationship that is something West Bengal really needs to look into."

Referring to the requirement of power in Bangladesh, Shringla said that scope to meet part of that demand from the surplus that Bengal has is enormous.

?You can sell a couple of thousand MW without a problem from West Bengal to Bangladesh. In case of energy connectivity we are planning to connect our energy pipeline integrated gas link from Haldia. We will also connect from Dattafulia to Khulna (in Bangladesh) which will go up to north Bengal so that Coochebehar gets gas and they do not have to build a gas pipeline."

It has been planned that LPG would be provided to the north east through Chittagong, where a terminal would be set up and a pipeline laid to Tripura, he said.

About connectivity, the diplomat stressed on the inland waterways and coastal shippings.

"We have already started transshipments in Indian waterways so in a certain sense we have already started sending goods through Bangladesh. We have also started using smaller vessels along the coast to transport goods from our different ports right into the interior parts of Bangladesh using the riverine system," he said.

Later talking to journalists on the sidelines of the session, Shringla stressed on the need for consultation to reach a consensus before taking a decision on the Teesta water issue.

"Of course Teesta is an outstanding issue but I think we have made clear that it requires more consultations within our own country. Land boundary (in Coochbehar) took five years to resolve because it required extensive consultation. But when we ultimately concluded the land boundary we did it with consensus. I think we need to have to look into the Teesta issue in the same manner," the diplomat said.

Settling maritime boundaries had restored lot of confidence and enabled both countries to set out their economic engagements to exploit the 'blue economy', he said.

Talking about terrorists using Bangladesh soil, the diplomat said, "Terrorism is an issue which is deflects both the countries. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wrote to PM Narendra Modi immediately after the attack on Amarnath Yatra pilgrims stating that the two countries stand together in solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Sk Hasina had also mentioned that terrorism has to be tackled jointly by countries and not alone.

We are on the same wavelength on issues that involve radicalism, fundamentalism, terrorism. We cooperate closely in tackling these threats to our countries. Given the long porous land border that the two countries share it could be detrimental if they do not work together," he added.
Sanna: At least 17 fighters were killed from both pro and anti-government forces in a fierce battle that erupted on Friday evening in northern Yemen.



Around 10 Houthi rebels and seven government soldiers were killed in the clashes on a front line in Yemen's northern border province of Jawf, Xinhua reported.



Four other soldiers were wounded and several military vehicles were also damaged in the fighting, which occurred after Houthi rebels launched a fierce attack on government military positions in Akabah and Mizlak areas.



"The soldiers managed to repel the rebels' attack," a source said on condition of anonymity.



The targeted government-held positions are located south of Sha'af district north of the province.



The district is the key front line between rival forces after the government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, advanced last year from near Saudi southern border in an attempt to recapture the rebel-held province.



Tension remains high in this region, which witnesses deadly battles almost on a daily basis.



Yemen's internationally-backed government has been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for more than two years over the control of the country.



The Saudi-led coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to the power.



The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.



The war has killed more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, and displaced around 3 million, according to UN agencies.



The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.


Pyongyang: Some 3.5 million North Korean citizens have signed up to enlist in the army to fight against the US, as tension between Washington and Pyongyang continues to mount, state media reported on Saturday.

The Rodong Sinmun daily reported on Saturday that 3.47 million students, young workers and retired soldiers were asked to join the armed forces in the three days since August 7 when the regime announced a retaliation against a new round of UN sanctions, reports Efe news.

"All the people are rising up across the country to retaliate against the US thousands of times," the daily said.

North Korea has a population of 25 million, with an army of between 700,000 and 1.3 million members.

North Korean state-media on Wednesday showed images of a mobilisation of tens of thousands of citizens parading through Kim Il-sung square in Pyongyang carrying banners in defence of leader Kim Jong-un and denouncing the latest UN sanctions to punish the regime for its missile launches.

State news agency KCNA has reported such mobilisations all over the country on Thursday and Friday.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have been escalating due to North Korea`s tests of nuclear and inter-continental ballistic missile.

US President Donald Trump this week warned North Korea he would respond with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if Kim Jong-un`s regime did not cease to issue threats the to US and its allies.
Nairobi/Kisumun: Kenyan police killed at least 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums ringing the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.

The bodies of nine young men shot dead overnight in Nairobi`s Mathare slum had been brought to the city morgue, a security official told Reuters. The men were killed during police anti-looting operations, the official added.

Separately, a young girl in Mathare was killed by police firing "sporadic shots", a witness said. The run-down neighbourhood is loyal to 72-year-old opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose party rejected Tuesday`s vote as a "charade".

A Reuters reporter in Kisumu, centre of post-election ethnic violence a decade ago in which 1,200 people died nationwide, said tear gas and live rounds were fired. One man had been killed, a government official said.

The unrest erupted moments after Kenya`s election commission announced late on Friday that Kenyatta, 55, had secured a second five-year term in office, despite opposition allegations that the tally was a fraud.

Interior Minister Fred Matiang`i said the trouble was localised and blamed it on "criminal elements" rather than legitimate political protest.

Odinga`s NASA coalition provided no evidence for its rejection of the result. Kenya`s main monitoring group, ELOG, said on Saturday its tally matched the official outcome, undermining NASA`s allegations of fraud.

In addition to the deaths, Kisumu`s main hospital was treating four people for gunshot wounds and six who had been beaten by Kenyan police, its records showed.

One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in the impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and beat him with clubs.

"He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him. She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people," his brother, Charles Ochieng said, speaking on behalf of a dazed Oduor.

More shooting was heard outside the hospital on Saturday morning. In Nairobi, armed police units backed by water cannon moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum.

"CRIMINAL ELEMENTS"

Interior minister Matiang`i defended the police against accusations of brutality.

"Let us be honest - there are no demonstrations happening," he told reporters.

"Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into people`s businesses  those are not demonstrators. They are criminals. And we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with."

As with previous votes in 2007 and 2013, this year`s elections have exposed the underlying ethnic tensions in the nation of 45 million, the economic engine of East Africa and the region`s main trading hub.

In particular, Odinga`s Luo tribe, who hail from the west, had hoped an Odinga presidency would have broken the Kikuyu and Kalenjin dominance of central government since independence in 1963. Kenyatta, son of Kenya`s first president, is a Kikuyu.

Even before the declaration, Odinga`s NASA coalition had rejected the outcome, saying the election commission`s systems had been hacked, the count was irregular and foreign observers who gave the poll a clean bill of health were biased.

NASA provided no evidence for any of its accusations but singled out former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former South African president Thabo Mbeki - who both led teams of election observers - for criticism.

Top Odinga lieutenant James Orengo said NASA would not challenge the results in court - as Odinga did when he lost in 2013 - but hinted at mass action by praising the history of Kenyans in standing up to previous "stolen" elections.

"Going to court is not an option. We have been there before," Orengo told reporters.
Islamabad: Pakistan`s Foreign Office has said that the disclosure made by retired President General Pervez Musharraf in his 2006 autobiography that Dr.Abdul Qadeer Khan transferred sensitive nuclear material to North Korea was a big embarrassment for the country.

Briefing the Senate`s Foreign Relations Committee on Friday, representatives of the Foreign Office were quoted by the Dawn, as saying that Pakistan had to then accept that a disclosure had been made and give a standard response that it was firmly against nuclear proliferation.

A senior officer of the Foreign Office was quoted, as saying that the response was viewed internationally with scepticism and disbelief.

The Foreign Office reply came in response to a question by Senator Farhatullah Babar as to what was North Korea`s official reaction to Pervez Musharraf`s revelation in his memoir, In the Line of Fire, that a clandestine proliferation network operating from Pakistan had transferred nearly two dozen centrifuge machines, a flow meter and some special oils to North Korea.

"Had such an irresponsible disclosure been made by a civilian minister or a bureaucrat, he would have been sent to the gallows, but Musharraf got away with it because he was a general," Senator Farhatullah observed.

The official reaction to Pervez Musharraf`s disclosures would help this committee better understand "the nature and depth" of Pakistan-North Korea relations, he added.
Kabul: The United States on Saturday vehemently denied claims by Afghan officials that it had killed several civilians in an air strike in volatile eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials had said 11 civilians, including women and children, were killed when a private vehicle was struck in Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province, a hotbed of Islamic State activity, on Thursday.

But United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement the air strike "killed a number of militants".

"The militants were observed loading weapons into a vehicle and were under surveillance until the vehicle was destroyed by an airstrike," said Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for American operations in Afghanistan.

"The strike was conducted in the middle of open terrain. There was zero chance of civilian casualties.

"This was the second false claim of civilian casualties in the same district in the last three weeks," Purtiman added.

Of the roughly 13,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan only the US carries out airstrikes.

They have been regularly targeting IS fighters who control several districts in restive Nangarhar.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the close to 16-year campaign against insurgents, prompting strong public and government criticism.

Last month a US air strike killed 16 policemen in Helmand province. It came after a US air strike in Sangin killed at least 18 civilians, mostly women and children, in February.

Civilian deaths are at an all-time high in Afghanistan. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.
Washington: US military forces "stand ready" to safeguard Guam after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles toward the American Pacific island territory, the White House said early Saturday.

During a call with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo, President Donald Trump "reassured" him that "United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America," a statement read.

It said White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke with Calvo separately during an earlier call.
Washington: The US is ready along with its allies to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic and military measures to stop the North Korean nuclear menace, President Donald Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.

Trump and Macron spoke over phone and discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation regarding North Korea's destabilising and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

"Trump reiterated to President Macron the United States' commitment to stop the North Korean nuclear menace. President Trump stated that the United States is ready, along with its allies, to apply the full range of diplomatic, economic, and military measures to achieve that goal," said a readout of the phone call.

"Trump and Macron pledged to work together with allies and partners to enforce United Nations sanctions and achieve denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," the White House said.

The phone call with the French President came hours after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea dominated the conversation between the two leaders, according to a readout of the call.

According to the White House, Trump and Xi affirmed that the recent adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

They agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behaviour, the White House said.

Trump also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it added.

"Trump looks forward to seeing Xi in China later this year, a meeting that will be a very historic event. The relationship between the two Presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem," the White House said.

Trump's warning came after the North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan towards the US Pacific island of Guam.
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping urged US President Donald Trump in a phone call on Saturday to avoid "words and deeds" that would "exacerbate" the already-tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, state television reported.

Xi also called on "relevant parties to maintain restraint" and to "persist in the general direction of dialogue, negotiations and a political settlement", CCTV said.

Xi stressed that "China and the US have a common interest in realising the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

Beijing has been voicing some alarm at the growing war of words between Washington and Pyongyang, which included a warning from Trump that North Korea would face "fire and fury" if it kept threatening the US.

Trump kept up the tough rhetoric on Friday, warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" taking any hostile action against the US after he tweeted that the US military was "locked and loaded".

Both leaders said they were looking forward to Trump making a state visit to China this year.

"At the moment, China-US relations are in a state of good development," Trump said, according to CCTV. "I believe they can become even better."

China has traditionally been North Korea`s closest ally, but it voted in favour of a series of UN Security Council sanctions against Kim Jong-Un`s regime last weekend.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Demolition of Armenian cemetery in Turkey is nothing new. Its not surprising that the local authorities of Edremit district of Van Province permitted to build toilets in the territory of the Armenian cemetery in Dilkaya village, Aragats Akhoyan  Chairman of the Return Foundation, member of the National Congress of Western Armenians, told a press conference in Armenpress. He has just returned from the Western Armenia.

I have visited the site and got acquainted with the issue. That area is close to the beach, the local authorities have decided to provide the beach with infrastructures, therefore, they built toilets on those areas, Aragats Akhoyan said, adding that despite criticism by Kurds, media, the construction has been quickly carried out. Akhoyan told that they were informed that during the construction works human bones have been discovered.

Turkey has not changed its policy and approaches. We have witnessed that numerous other Armenian cultural values have been eliminated. The maintenance of the Holy Cross of Akhtamar and the St. Giragos churches are not enough to be presented to the world as a civilized country, he said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, ARMENPRESS. The passenger flow in Armenias two airports comprised 1 million 373 thousand 856 people in January-July 2017 which is an increase of 28% compared to January-July 2016, Satenik Hovhannisyan  press secretary of the General Department of Civil Aviation told Armenpress.

In July 2017 the passenger flow in Yerevans Zvartnots airport comprised 270 751 people exceeding the figure of July 2016 by 19%.

In January-July 2017, 24.7% increase in passenger flow has been registered in Zvartnots airport. The cargo transportation in January-July 2017 comprised 12.708 tons of goods which is an increase of 59.7% compared to the same period of 2016.

In July 2017 the passenger flow in Gyumris Shirak airport amounted to 9098 people exceeding the figure of that of 2016 by 15063%. In January-July 2017 the passenger flow in Shirak airport increased by 526.6 % compared to January-July 2016.

In January-July 2017 flights-landings recorded 24.2% increase in both airports.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, ARMENPRESS. High temperature is expected in Armenia on August 8-12, the ministry of emergency situations told Armenpress.

In the daytime 4041 degrees above zero, 42 degrees at separate parts and a high risk of fire are expected in the valleys of Syunik province, in Yerevan and Ararat Valley.

The daily average air temperature will be 5-7 degrees higher than normal.
NEW YORK, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. USA main indexes values for 11 august:

Armenpress reports the value of Dow Jones up by 0.07% to 21858.32 points, S&P 500 up by 0.13% to 2441.32 points, Nasdaq up by 0.64% to 6256.56 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow. It measures the daily stock price movements of 30 large, publicly-owned U.S. companies.

S&P 500 measures the performance of 500 widely held common stocks of large-cap U.S. companies.

NASDAQ measures a number of indices reflecting the reaction of USAs high tech markets and business environments on the countrys political and economic developments which have an impact on high tech markets.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan has sent a message on International Youth Day. As Armenpress was informed from the press service of Yerevan Municipality, the message runs as follows,

Dear young people,

I cordially congratulate you on International Youth Day.

Its not a secret that youth is the best time of human life for these years are years of dreams, purposefulness, new ideas, and overcoming of hardships. At young age we choose our further way. Ant its very important that the knowledge and skills we get should serve development of our country and strengthening its safety.

I would note with delight that today, with their endless enthusiasm and inspiration young people stand at the beginning of any initiative aimed at welfare of our country and our people and are ready to resist any challenges.

Congratulating you once again I wish you new achievements and realization of all gals. Be sure that Yerevan Municipality is always next to you and is ready to support all your constructive initiatives for the sake of our country and welfare of our capital city-Yerevan.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. The article of the clearly fake website armenianreport.com is intensely discussed on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan. Director of Armenpress news agency Aram Ananyan, referring to the inquiries about the article in the fake website intensely discussed on Kirgiz social networks, stated that its not an Armenian source.

Moreover, its an anti-Armenian website the aim of which is implementing informational operations against Armenia like this one. We exposed them long before. By pretending that they are Armenians, the Azerbaijani resource pursues specific goals, Aram Ananyan said.

This fake website with fascistic inclinations activated anti-Armenian moods on the social networks of Kyrgyzstan following the stir over the participation of Armenian Susanna Yegoryan in World Next Top Model 2017 international contest in Lebanon.

Susanna Yegoryan, who represents Kyrgyzstan, has become the winner of the international contest in Lebanon and came to the podium during one of the shows with a ribbon reading Armenia. After that there were calls in Kyrgyzstan to deprive the ethnic Armenian of citizenship. The model clarified in her Instagram page that she has not betrayed Kyrgyzstan, but implemented the demands of the contest that took place in Lebanon. The rules of the contest were the following: In one case going to the podium we had to present our country, in another case  the nationality mentioned in the passport. I and many other girls were given two ribbons. I cant understand what this stir is for. I have not betrayed my country, Susanna wrote.

Using the stir over the step of Susanna, armeniareport.com presenting itself as an Armenian website, has published articles with insulting accents, trying to make the situation worse. After those anti-Kirgiz publications anti-Armenian moods and comments are still found on the Kyrgyz social networks.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Chief of General Staff of Armenian Armed Forces, General-lieutenant Movses Hakobyan has departed for Moscow to attend the final stage of International army games-2017, award ceremony and the solemn closing ceremony, Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime nearly 200 times on Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line during August 6-12, firing over 2200 bullets against Armenian positions from different firearm weapons.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh, despite the relatively calm situation on the front line, the Defense Army units conduct their military duty vigilantly and keep the tactical superiority in their hands.
VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania's top appeals court on Friday upheld a decision to extradite to the United States a Lithuanian man accused of defrauding Facebook and Google out of more than $100 million. According to a U.S. indictment made public in March, Evaldas Rimasauskas is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, which each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. A further charge of identify theft carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years. The alleged crimes took place in 2013-2015. Rimasauskas will be handed over to the United States within 10 days, the Lithuanian general prosecutors office told Reuters. He had appealed against an extradition ruling made in July. Rimasauskas allegedly swindled $23 million from Google and $99 million from Facebook , the Lithuanian court said in a statement. The court said Rimasauskas and his accomplices were alleged to have posed as Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc. <2382.TW>, an established supplier for Google and Facebook. They then allegedly used email to convince both U.S. companies to transfer money owed to the manufacturer to accounts controlled by a Latvian company with the same name, the court said. Google then transferred money to a Latvian bank account controlled by the fraudulent Latvian company, and Facebook to a similar account at a bank in Cyprus, the court said. Quanta told Reuters it had been "impersonated" as part of the fraud, but did not suffer financial harm from the incident. Rimasauskas has been in custody since March at the request of U.S. prosecutors. (Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Editing by Catherine Evans)
By Rania El Gamal, Katie Paul and Alex Lawler DUBAI/RIYADH/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia favours New York for the main foreign listing of state oil giant Aramco, even though some financial and legal advisers have recommended London as a less problematic and risky option, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. A final decision on where to stage what could be the world's largest initial public offering will be taken by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman - or MbS as he is known - who oversees the kingdom's economic and energy policies, the sources said. Their comments point to internal disagreements between what some advisers are recommending and what the crown prince wants. Prince Mohammad may choose to list Aramco on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for "political considerations", given the longstanding relationship between Riyadh and Washington, the sources said. However, they added that financial and commercial factors would also play a role in the choice. Aramco said in a statement that no decision has been taken yet on the listing venue, beyond the Saudi exchange Tadawul. "All options continue to be held under consideration. There is no timetable requirement for an immediate definitive decision," Aramco said in response to a Reuters request for comment. Selling around five percent of Aramco by next year is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is championed by Prince Mohammad. Several advisers have recommended London for the main listing outside Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month, partly due to concerns that a U.S. flotation would require greater disclosure of sensitive information on Aramco. One senior industry source, however, said New York is likely to be the favoured option for the Saudi government and Prince Mohammad. "That is broadly correct," the source said, adding: "All awaits on the final shareholder decision." Apart from New York and London, Hong Kong is also a contender, sources say. The flotation is expected to raise tens of billions of dollars which would be invested to help develop other Saudi industries. The New York and London stock exchanges declined to comment. Exchanges are vying to win part of the flotation as it will bring a major boost to their trading volumes, and will be likely to help them win listings from other Gulf states which are looking to part-privatise their commodity assets. But the Aramco plan has created some public misgivings that Riyadh is relinquishing its crown jewels to foreigners cheaply at a time of low oil prices. Some Aramco employees secretly wish the whole idea would be shelved, sources say. Apart from choosing an exchange, no decision has been made either on exactly which assets will be floated, or what Aramco's internal organisational structure would look like after listing, the sources say. One of the main issues being discussed internally is the valuation. Prince Mohammed has said the IPO will value Aramco at a minimum of $2 trillion, although some analysts' estimates are between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion. Though listing on the New York market would mean access to more liquidity, this would bring greater scrutiny to Aramco's estimates of proven energy reserves and future oil prices, as well as its demand forecasts, all of which play a major role in the company's valuation, another industry source said. For the valuation, much depends on the outlook for oil prices, which are currently only half what they were three years ago. "That's why Saudi Arabia needs a higher oil price for the IPO now, to get a better value for Aramco," the source said. The back-and-forth internal talks between the crown prince, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, Aramco management and the many financial and legal advisers on some of these main decisions have raised speculation that the listing, which is expected to be in the second half of 2018, could be pushed further out. "They are still studying. When all is settled, they will present all options to MbS," said one industry source. JASTA RISK Aramco's lawyers caution about litigation risks associated with the U.S. Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), two sources said. That law, passed last September, allowed lawsuits to proceed against the Saudi government claiming it had helped to plan the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and should pay damages to victims. Riyadh denies the allegations. Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, a lawyer by training, is most attuned to the legal risk of the four senior government officials advising the crown prince on the listing decision, the source said. Falih, who is also Aramco's chairman, Economy and Planning Minister Adel Fakieh and Public Investment Fund Managing Director Yasir al-Rumayyan are the other members of the crown prince's advisory committee, the source said, without elaborating on their views. The Finance Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the views of Jadaan. Saudi industry sources dismissed JASTA as a reason for not listing in New York, noting that Saudi Arabia is believed to have hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in the United States already, including Aramco assets. They say the difficulty is related more to the disclosure process and complex regulations in New York. These may legally interfere with the sovereignty of the Saudi government, which would remain the major shareholder of Aramco after the flotation. While the London Stock Exchange has made winning the Aramco listing a priority, the NYSE has not offered any regulatory changes, a source familiar with talks between NYSE and Aramco told Reuters last month. Britain's Financial Conduct Authority has proposed creating a new "premium" listing category for companies controlled by sovereign states which would exempt them from certain regulatory requirements. The new rules are due to be published towards the end of this year. (Additional reporting by Tom Arnold in Dubai; Dasha Afanasieva in London, John McCrank in New York, Editing by David Stamp)
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New York, August 12, 2017The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Danish authorities to mount a rigorous, thorough investigation into the disappearance of Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist who was reported missing yesterday while reporting on an amateur-built submarine that sank off the coast of Copenhagen, according to media reports.

We call on Danish authorities to employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry into Kim Walls fate and whereabouts, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. Denmark should not be considered a dangerous assignment for journalists.

According to a statement Walls family shared with CPJ today, the 30-year-old Swedish-born journalist, who was based in New York and Beijing, was working on a story about inventor Peter Madsen when she went missing. Madsen was the owner of the sunk submarine. It is with a great concern that we, her family, received the news that Kim is missing after an interview with Peter Madsen in Denmark, the statement said. We sincerely hope that she will be found and that she is well.

A Danish court today ordered that Madsen be held in pre-trial detention while authorities investigate Walls disappearance, the Associated Press reported. The court decision follows Madsens arrest yesterday on preliminary murder charges. The inventor has denied wrongdoing and said that he dropped Wallwho was reported to be the only other person on board the submarine with himoff on an island close to Copenhagen Thursday night before the submarine sank, according to AP reports.
Virtually every state in the Western Balkans has recently held free and fair national elections, with the participation of all political parties, and with results that reflected the will of the people. This is a historic accomplishment, said Vice President Mike Pence on a recent visit to Montenegro. He urged leaders in the region to make the most of this moment.

You have the opportunity to settle grievances of the past and bring people of different backgrounds and beliefs together in pursuit of the common good, said Vice President Pence. You can strengthen your economies and open the pathway to prosperity for your people through tax and regulatory reform. You can tackle corruption and build accountable and transparent governments which will deliver on the highest aspirations of your people and build confidence among those who would invest in the prosperity of your future.

The United States will continue to support the Western Balkans countries as they take steps toward good government, democratic reform, and the rule of law. The U.S will also partner with individuals to foster civil society, a free and independent press, and an economy that opens opportunity for all who seek it.

The U.S. will continue to support the Dayton Accords and the principles they represent, and is committed to dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo to fully normalize relations between them.

Vice President Pence stressed that security is the foundation of prosperity. For that reason, well continue to build your capability to operate alongside NATO and other Western forces.

But as President Trump has made clear, all who would wish to join the NATO alliance must meet the minimum commitment of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on their own national defense.

This investment, said Vice President Pence, is necessary to keep our solemn pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all.

A commitment to democratic values and to NATO will lay the foundation for lasting prosperity and security. As Vice President Pence said, Ours is a shared future of liberty and freedom. United in this great community of nations, I know we'll face that future together as allies and friends.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

Trend:

An international judges panel meeting dedicated to the results of the international naval contest Sea Cup 2017 took place at a base of the Azerbaijani Navy, said the press service of the Defense Ministry.

During the meeting, all stages and episodes of the contest, held with the participation of crews of the warships of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan, were declared valid.

Based on the general assessments made by the judges panel, the crews of the G-124 patrol ship of the Azerbaijani Navy and the small missile ship Grad Sviyazhsk of the Russian Navy, both with a score of 246 in the overall standings, became the winners of the contest.

The crew of the missile boat Joshan of the Iranian Navy, having scored 234 in the overall standings, took the second place, while the crew of artillery ship Sariarka of the Kazakhstan Navy, having scored 227 in the overall standings, took the third place.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

Trend:

Chief of Azerbaijans State Border Service, Colonel General Elchin Guliyev held a meeting with first deputy director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), head of the Border Service, Army General Vladimir Kulishov in Gusar, the press service of Azerbaijans State Border Service said Aug. 12.

During the meeting, the sides signed the Protocol of the working meeting of delegations of the Russian FSB and the State Border Service of Azerbaijan.

They exchanged views on the current situation on the Azerbaijan-Russia border, development of ties aimed against the danger threatening border security, as well as the prospects of further cooperation.

Heads of the two countries border services positively assessed the dynamics of development of bilateral cooperation, and pointed out that the interstate relations significantly contribute to combating illegal activities on the state border.

Further during the meeting, it was noted that the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory and a part of the state border as a result of Armenian aggression is the main threat to border security.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

World Bank (WB) forecasts the grow of 0.5 to 1 percent of the Azerbaijans economy in 2018, head of the banks Baku office Naveed Hassan Naqvi said in the exclusive interview with Trend.

This year, Azerbaijans economy will probably contract between 1 and 1.5 percent, he said.

"Unfortunately, Azerbaijan is overly dependent on oil," he noted. "Nonetheless, oil prices decline and subsequent devaluation of national currency created opportunities for other sectors of the economy to evolve."

He added that, the current exchange rate will create conditions for many potential agricultural exporters to become more competitive on different markets.



The fall in oil prices means that revenues of the Azerbaijani Government have declined, which forced consideration for new reforms that will encourage diversification of countrys economy, he said.

Azerbaijan continues to work on various reforms, he noted. "So we are happy to see the Road Map that Government has unveiled this year," he said.



Among other reforms, he also outlined the establishment of the Financial Stability Council.

Reforms take time and its too early to tell how effective they will be, he said.

He added that, reforms by the Azerbaijani Government have the potential to positively impact the countrys economy.

World Banks expectations for Azerbaijans economic growth are approximately similar to those of other financial organizations.

Consequently, International Monetary Fund expects Azerbaijans economy to decrease by one percent in 2017 and grow up to two percent in 2018. Dutch ING Bank expects a one percent decrease this year and a 1.6 percent increase in 2018, Asian Development Bank  1.1 percent decrease and a 1.2 percent increase, respectively, and the Standard & Poors international rating agency  a one percent decrease and a two percent growth, also respectively.

Azerbaijan has joined the WB group in 1992.
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 12

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The implementation of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) project is making good progress in Georgia and remains on track to start up in 2018, Georgias Energy Minister Ilia Eloshvili said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) along with Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) represents the key project of the Southern Gas Corridor in Europe," he said. "Georgias involvement in this project enhances its role as a transit country in the region and the image of a reliable and important transit partner."

The minister pointed out that the SCPX will expand the existing 7 billion cubic meters SCP system to accommodate a further 16 billion cubic meters with a new 48-inch pipeline loop, constructed parallel to the existing SCP.

"The SCPX project also includes construction of a number of facilities. These comprise two new compressor stations in Georgia, two intermediate pigging stations (one each in Azerbaijan and Georgia), six 48-inch block valve stations (one in Georgia and five in Azerbaijan), pressure reduction and metering stations at the international borders, and the interconnection with TANAP at the Georgia-Turkey border," said Eloshvili. "The execution of the SCPX project is based on an overall philosophy of safe design and quality build. SCPX construction is making good progress in Georgia and remains on track to start up in 2018."

The minister pointed out that today, over 2,600 Georgian citizens are employed on SCPX construction work.

"SCPX compressor stations construction is progressing with the first compressor station near Azerbaijan-Georgia border due to start-up in early 2018; and the second compressor station - in late 2018," he added.

Construction works are also near completion at the new pressure reduction and metering station, the connection point between the SCPX and TANAP pipelines near the Georgia-Turkey border, according to Eloshvili.

He pointed out that 62 kilometers of the SCPX pipeline extension have mostly been welded and most of the pipes are now in the ground.

Total planned SCPX investment for Georgia is $2 billion out of which $400 million is being spent on Georgian suppliers and services, added the minister.

The length of the South Caucasus Pipeline exceeds 700 kilometers. It will transport gas produced from the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The shareholders are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPOC (19 percent).

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey will upgrade old hydroelectric power plants by the end of 2019, the countrys Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak said, Turkish media reported Aug. 12.

Currently, there are state and private hydroelectric power plants in Turkey, he said.

All hydroelectric power plants in Turkey must comply with the requirements of environmental protection, Albayrak said. In this regard, it is necessary to upgrade the existing hydroelectric power plants.

It should be noted that first hydroelectric power plant in Turkey was built in 1902 in the southern province of Mersin in the city of Tartus.

Currently, 600 hydroelectric power plants operate in Turkey.

The largest hydroelectric power plants are located in such provinces as Mardin, Bingel, Artvin, Siirt, Hakkari and Erzincan.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 12

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a meeting with the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Pakistan Murad Ashraf Janjua, the Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 12.

During the meeting, the diplomat noted the strategic role of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project and expressed full commitment to the further cooperation with Turkmenistan.

Having noted the dynamic development of political and diplomatic cooperation, the two sides discussed issues concerning the forthcoming meeting of the intergovernmental commission, to be held in Ashgabat, reads the Foreign Ministrys message.

The sides mulled the possibilities of developing cooperation in economy, trade, culture and education. The Pakistani envoy pointed out the active cooperation between the two countries, which is based on common history, culture and traditions of the two peoples.

TAPI will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for its gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline will run from Galkynysh  the largest gas field in Turkmenistan  through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.

Annual capacity of the gas pipeline will reach 33 billion cubic meters. Total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. The project's preliminary cost is estimated at $10 billion.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran and South Africas MTN Company will sign a memorandum of understanding in the near future to develop Irans optical fibers in eight metropolitans, Iranian ICT Minister Mahmoud Vaezi said Aug.12.

He added that the talks are in final steps.

MTN should put about $750 million investment in this project, of which $450 million will be direct investment, Vaezi told IRNA.

MTN Group Ltd has 49 percent stake at IranCell Telecommunication Co. Services since 2007, based on agreement which led to suing it by Turkcell for illegal wining the tender.

Turkcell alleges that the MTN used bribery and wrongful influence to win the project, awarded firstly to Turkcell. MTN has rejected that. Turkish company opened a $4.2-billion lawsuit against MTN in 2016.

Fiber optic internet will be launched in the cities of Karaj, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Mashhad, and Qom, providing 500,000 access ports with 10 gigabit per second internet.

MTN Irancell, has so far covered 161 cities with the latest generation of mobile broadband network (4.5G), the companys official website reported in May 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Unlike President Hassan Rouhani who earlier described talks of renegotiating the 2015 nuclear deal as meaningless, an Iranian politician believes that fresh talks would protect the interests of both, Tehran and the world powers.

Renegotiating the nuclear deal with the P5+1 is the only way to break the deadlock and it would allow the sides to enjoy maximum benefits of the deal, Saeed Yari, chief secretary of a political party known as the Organization on Iran's National Interest Protection, has told Trend.

He added that his organization had earlier drafted a new deal for replacing the current nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries which was concluded back in 2015.

Saeed Yari believes that the proposed draft would remove the shortcomings of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPO aka Iran nuclear deal) and it would protect the rights of the both sides, Iran and the members of the P5+1.

He said that the draft was proposed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials in the country.

The proposed deal would minimize the risk of a war and it would assure the Westerners about Irans peaceful nuclear deal.

He further touched upon the recent remarks by the US President Donald Trump accusing Iran of failing to live up to the spirit of the nuclear deal and said the US president is seeking to get more privileges out of the deal.

Reacting to Trumps remarks Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Donald Trump is trying to play blame game on Iran in order to avoid isolation.

Trump before taking office in January, had called the July 2015 agreement "the worst deal ever negotiated", threatening to either scrap the accord or seek a better deal.

Under the 2015 nuclear accord with the US, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, Tehran agreed to shrink its nuclear program to satisfy the powers that it could not be put to developing atomic bombs. In exchange, Iran received relief from sanctions, most of which were lifted in January 2016.

However, Tehran says the US has failed to honor its commitments under the nuclear accord.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Floods in five provinces in northeastern Iran killed 12, a provincial official has said.

Spokesman of Irans Disaster Management Organization Behnam Saeidi told state-run IRINN TV Aug. 12 that ten people were killed in Khorasan and two others in Golestan provinces.

He said that the rainfall would continue in Irans northeast in coming days.

Some people are also missing.

In April, landslides and floods in northwestern Iran killed 36 people.

Thirty out of the total number were killed in the East Azerbaijan Province, one in West Azerbaijan and five in the Kordestan Province.
The number of people who died from swine flu has reached 23, Myanmar health authorities confirmed Friday, Anadolu reported.

A total of 535 people have been hospitalized with severe acute respiratory infection in ten out of 15 regions of the country since July 21, according to the Health Department under the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The department said in a press release that the outbreak had claimed 23 patients so far, while 204 others were confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus.

Than Tun Aung, deputy director general of the Health Department, told Anadolu Agency that the outbreak was just seasonal, and not an unusual event.

"Its rainy season which is flu season for our country," he said, however, admitting that the infection rate had been on the rise as the virus spread by air.

The World Health Organization is providing technical support to the Myanmar government, consulting with regional experts, and offering assistance to have samples tested abroad, he added.

In addition to the swine flu outbreak, Myanmar also confirmed last month a H5N1 virus outbreak, commonly known as bird flu, in Yangon and in the southernmost region of Tanintharyi.
A powerful tornado has swept through several villages in northern China, flattening homes and killing at least five people, Sputnik reported citing local media.

The storm hit the prefecture-level city of Chifeng in Chinas Inner Mongolia region on Friday, according to the Peoples Daily newspaper. The number of those injured has passed 50, it said.

A relief operation is reportedly underway. Photos posted by the newspaper on social media networks showed rows of devastated houses and large trees snapped in two.
At least two people were martyred following a clash with PKK terrorists in northeastern Trabzon province on Friday, according to the local governor's office, Anadolu reported.

In a statement issued by Trabzon Governorate, a soldier and a civilian succumbed to their wounds at the Karadeniz Technical University hospital where they were being treated.

Two soldiers and a civilian were injured during the clash with the PKK in Macka district earlier on Friday, the statement added.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015.

Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including a number of women and children.
Domestic politics are at the heart of the current poor state of relations between Turkey and some European countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, Anadolu reported.

Ties between Turkey and Germany have soured in recent months, reaching a nadir last month when German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin would no longer encourage or guarantee investment in Turkey.

We know that the most of the criticism of European countries for our country is related to their domestic politics, Erdogan said at the opening of a fruit juice factory in Isparta, southwest Turkey.

Referring to the Netherlands block on Turkish ministerial speeches in the run-up to Aprils constitutional referendum in Turkey, the president said: Now we see that Germany is using the same tactics. I believe that they will return to normal after the elections.

Germany will hold a federal election of Bundestag lawmakers on Sept. 24.

A series of diplomatic incidents has included German complaints about the arrest of its nationals on terrorism charges, the lack of access for lawmakers to German troops at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey and claims that Turkey has carried out espionage in Germany.

Ankara has accused Germany of harbouring terrorists and criticized the government for barring Turkish politicians from addressing crowds ahead of the referendum.

Party change

On Tuesday, NATO brokered a deal to enable German lawmakers to visit their troops based at an air base near Konya, central Turkey.

It followed the withdrawal of German jets from Incirlik, where they had been tasked to conduct surveillance missions against Daesh in Syria, after lawmakers were denied permission to visit.

Turning to the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, which he heads, Erdogan said: We are committed to achieve a fundamental change in our party.

He has previously warned tired AK Party lawmakers to step aside ahead of the 2019 general election and he made a similar warning when he told the crowd that change was needed for those who had moved away from the values of the AK Party and become tired.

Erdogan added: We need companions who are energy-driven, enthusiastic and have equipment and projects for the future of our country, our nation and our cities.

Turning to the terror threat, Erdogan said a terror state, which is trying to establish itself along the Syrian and Iraqi borders was aimed as damaging Turkeys independence and future.

In Syria, the PKK/PYD, which Ankara views as a terrorist organization but is backed by the U.S., has established territory along stretches of the Turkish border while in Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government has pledged to hold a referendum on independence from Baghdad.

Erdogan said the insignificant and unfounded accusations of European politicians against Turkey were borne from the same desire to hurt Turkey.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 11, 2017 - 11:00 | Feature, All, Japan

A scenic western Japan port city has gone to the dark side in a bid to attract visitors -- offering them an array of black-colored foods and other items, the same color as the water of the local hot-spring spa.

After the spa facility opened near a mall in Yawatahama in Ehime Prefecture last summer, a group approached shops and restaurants in the arcade with the idea as a way to revitalize the district. Many visitors say they have found it all pleasantly spooky.

The "black list" leaflet of 50 shops and eateries in the 800-meter-long mall introduces such items as a "champon" noodle dish featuring black soup made with squid ink, as well as black-colored "manju" sweet buns, cheese cake, pasta, curry rice and fried chicken. Sushi rice mixed with black bamboo charcoal powder is also offered.

A musical instrument shop, meanwhile, sells melodicas with keyboards colored all black, while elsewhere in the mall even a postbox and a vending machine have been colored black.

Visitors say they have been amused to see normally black items such as stockings, boys' school uniforms, formal dresses and suits worn at funerals added to the list, too.

The initiative was first launched in January with a plan to run for a limited period but due to the amount of attention garnered, it will continue for an indefinite period.

Junichi Shimizu, a senior member of the promotional campaign, said he hopes visitors will not be able to resist taking pictures of the black items and posting them on social networking sites, creating a buzz.

"The look of the (black) dishes may give you a shock, but many of them are delicious once you taste them," Shimizu said, looking forward to a surge of visitors during the summer holidays.
The oil market is re-balancing as demand continues to grow but more time is needed before these shifting fundamentals are felt by markets, the latest report from the International Energy Agency said Friday.

Global oil demand is expected to reach 1.5 million barrels per day this year, the agency said, revising up its July forecast from 1.4 million. This momentum is then expected to continue into 2018, when demand is seen growing by a further 1.4 million.

This should go some way in absorbing excess supply, which OPEC oil producers have been at pains to curtail under an agreement signed in January. However, continued output expansion by Libya and Nigeria, the two OPEC members exempt from the efforts, as well as from U.S. drillers, means that the re-balancing will not play out for some time, the IEA suggested.

"Although stocks are beginning to fall, they're falling from a very great height," Neil Atkinson, head of the Oil Industry and Markets Division at the IEA, told CNBC Friday. The report noted that if OECD stocks continued to fall at rates seen in the second quarter of the year, it would still take until the early part of 2018 to return to the five-year average.

This means that more time is needed for the effects to be felt in oil prices.

"It's very difficult to see, based on the current fundamentals, oil prices rising significantly in the next few months," he noted.

Oil prices fell on the release of the report Friday morning. Brent was trading at $51.46 per barrel while WTI was at $48.14.

What's more, any uptick in oil prices will likely incentivize non-OPEC countries, for instance, U.S. shale producers, to pump up supplies.

"Potential price rises are very much capped by the likelihood of more supply coming on stream from the U.S. if prices do begin to rise," Atkinson noted.

On Thursday, OPEC announced a continued rise in its collective output , led by increased output by Libya and Nigeria.

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OPEC output jumped by 173,000 barrels a day in July to almost 32.9 million barrels, its highest level since the production agreement came into force in January.

The increase marks the fourth consecutive month of output expansion. Compliance with the deal by OPEC members currently stands at 87 percent, according to the IEA.

The deal is due to run until March 2018, which gives the group further time to see whether their goals bear fruit. However, Erik Norland, senior economist at CME Group, said the outlook is positive.

"While inventories remain at high levels, which is bearish, inventory levels have begun to fall year on year for the first time since 2014, indicating that supply and demand are finally beginning to come into balance," he told CNBC via email.

- CNBC's Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report.





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Air Force secretary: We're 'too small for the missions' expected of us

At a time when North Korea tensions are escalating, the secretary of the Air Force is warning about the capabilities of the branch of the military she oversees.

"The United States Air Force is too small for the missions that the nation is expecting of it. And as a result, we are stretched very thin," Heather Wilson told CNBC in an interview that aired Thursday.

"We've asked to increase the end-strength in the United States Air Force, but we're also putting money into immediate readiness, and then medium and long-term modernization."

Wilson said the Air Force has "turned the corner" in the 2018 budget proposal on "trying to restore" readiness."

The Air Force said it requested a top-line budget of $132.4 billion for investments, including more airmen, readiness, nuclear deterrence operations and cyber capabilities.

Earlier this year , the White House proposed an additional $54 billion in military spending, which would represent a nearly 10 percent increase overall for defense to $603 billion.

 CNBC's Morgan Brennan contributed to this report.





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The way Americans build their retirement nest egg has changed over the past few decades. Gone are the days where a company pension served as the cornerstone of retirement assets for many Americans.

Now, an employer's defined contribution plan, like a 401(k) or a 403(b) plan, is where a majority of Americans save for the future.

Today, more than 94 million Americans have defined contribution retirement accounts with assets totaling more than $7 trillion, according to a new report from Vanguard on How America Saves. As the report points out, how we save in such plans has also undergone significant change.

Here are six trends in how Americans are saving for retirement. Read on to see how your retirement saving practices stack up.

1. A record number of Americans save automatically. Since 2007, the number of retirement plans using automatic enrollment features has increased by 300 percent, with more than 60 percent of contributing participants now in plans that offer automatic enrollment. That is good news for savers, because plans with automatic enrollment have a 90 percent participation rate. The vast majority of plans (97 percent) default participants into an age-appropriate target-date fund.

2. More participants have money in professionally managed fund options. In 2016, 53 percent of retirement plan participants had money invested in funds that used professionally managed allocation strategies, such as target-date funds or balanced funds (funds that own both stocks and bonds). This is more than double those who used such savings vehicles in 2009, when just 25 percent of savers had retirement assets in these types of funds. According to the report, of the participants in these professionally managed options, 46 percent owned target-date funds.

3. Stocks dominate. Plan assets invested in equitiestypically through stock-based mutual funds or exchange-traded fundsstood at 71 percent in 2016, compared to 61 percent in 2008. In recent years, household income has been less a factor in determining who invests in equities than it used to be. Today, the percent of assets allocated to stocks and stock funds is 73 percent for those with household incomes less than $30,000and 74 percent for those with household incomes that exceed $100,000. Age, however, is a factor: In 2016, 90 percent of participants under age 45 had some exposure to equities, while only 46 percent of participants older than 65 invested in equities.

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4. Participants are diversifying away from their employer's stock. Fewer Americans are holding concentrated positions of company stock in plans that offer such investments. In 2016, 24 percent of retirement plan participants had 20 percent or more of their account balance held in company stock, down from 32 percent in 2007.

5. Participants trade less often. In 2008, 16 percent of plan participants made one or more portfolio trades or exchanges (moving assets from one investment option offered by the plan to another). In 2016, only 12 percent did so. The vast majority of participants made no trades at all in 2016. While this is less surprising when you consider the rise of target-date funds, ask yourself each year whether your 401(k) in need of a checkupand be sure to read this for more tips.

6. Participants save more than you might think. Plan participants covered by the report saved an average of 6.2 percent of their income in their employer's plan, with a median savings rate of 5 percent. This means half the participants saved more than 5 percent and half saved less. Meanwhile, 10 percent are strong savers indeed, putting away the IRS maximum of $18,000 or $24,000 for those aged 50 or older. To see what you need to do to save up to the IRS limit in your 401(k), use our Save the Max calculator.

To learn more about saving and investing, and keeping your finances in order, visit the Investors section of FINRA.org.

FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities industry  brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. FINRA, overseen by the SEC, writes rules, examines for and enforces compliance with FINRA rules and federal securities laws, registers broker-dealer personnel and offers them education and training, and informs the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers a dispute resolution forum for investors and brokerage firms and their registered employees. For more information, visit www.finra.org.
A Banker Was Arrested After Being Accused of Pushing a Woman Under a Bus While Jogging In London

London police have arrested a 50-year-old U.S. financier on suspicion of pushing a woman under a bus while he was jogging.

Eric Bellquist, 50, is a partner with private equity group Hutton Collins Partners and a former employee of Lehman Brothers. Hutton, meanwhile, is known in the U.K. for owning restaurants chains Wagamama and Byron.

Video footage of the incident, which showed a male jogger elbowing the female pedestrian into the path of an oncoming double-decker and running off without stopping, had gone viral the previous week. The bus swerved to avoid the woman, who still sustained minor injuries. In the footage, the jogger returns along the bridge about 15 minutes later and again ignores the woman as she tries to address him.

Bellquists lawyers, Duncan Lewis solicitors, told the Evening Standard that its client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently, we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.
The one-year stock price of Macys (M) and the department store industry chart vividly tells the story; these are tough times for the space. Macys shares have lost -48.2% of their value over the past 12 months, underperforming the Zacks Department Store industrys -36.2% decline.

The green line in the chart shows Amazons performance over the same time period. Amazon is working on a number of fronts, but it has been a big contributor to the department store spaces ongoing pain. The issues are well known by now - these operators needed literally to reinvent their businesses to effectively operate in an environment where consumers are steadily shifting their spending dollars to the online medium instead of visiting the physical store.



As of Friday, August 11th, we now have Q2 results from 23 of the 42 retailers in the S&P 500 index. This week brings results from the big-box operators Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD) and others. Total earnings for the 23 retailers that have reported already are down -1.7% from the same period last year on +6.7% higher revenues, with 73.9% beating EPS estimates and 78.3% beating revenue estimates.



Please note that we have a stand-alone Retail sector, unlike the official Standard & Poors placement of this space in the Consumer Discretionary sector. The Zacks Retail sector includes, besides the traditional department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers, the online vendors like Amazon and Priceline and restaurant operators. Results from the online vendors and most of the restaurant operators are already behind us at this stage.



The side-by-side charts below compare the sectors results thus far with what we have seen from the same group of 23 retailers in other recent periods.

The aggregate growth pace from the 23 retailers that have reported results already are tracking below what we had seen from the same companies in other recent periods. Positive surprises are as numerous in this sector as they have been all along in other sectors this earnings season. We will get Retails complete picture following this weeks results from Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and others.



Q2 Earnings Season Scorecard (as of Friday, August 11, 2017)



The Q2 earnings season has come to an end for 10 of the 16 Zacks sectors, with results from 456 S&P 500 members or 91.2% of the indexs total membership already out. Total earnings for these companies are up +10.8% from the same period last year on +5.8% higher revenues, with 74.3% beating EPS estimates and 68% beating revenue estimates.



The table below shows the current Q2 Scorecard

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The charts below compare the Q2 results thus far from the 456 index members with what we had seen from the same group of companies in other recent periods.

As pointed out earlier, the proportion of companies beating revenue estimates is tracking above historical periods (right-hand chart). The earnings and revenue growth pace for these 456 companies is below what we had seen from the same sample of companies in Q1, but an improvement over other recent periods.



Here are the four takeaways from the results that have come out already.



First , the earnings and revenue growth pace has steadily gone up relative to pre-season expectations. Total Q2 earnings for the index are currently expected to be up +10.1% from the same period last year on +5.3% higher revenues.



Please note that the +10.1% growth rate is the blended growth rate; it combines the actual growth for the 456 S&P 500 members that have reported with estimates for the still-to-come 44 index members. At the start of the quarter, the expectation was for earnings growth of +7.9%, which came down as the quarter unfolded, reaching as low as +5.6% just ahead of the start of the reporting season.



The deceleration in Q2 earnings growth notwithstanding, the quarters earnings tally is on track to reach a new all-time quarterly record, surpassing the 2016 Q4 level, as you can see in the chart below. The chart below contrasts the estimated 2017 Q2 total of $293.8 billion with the actual earnings for the preceding four quarters and estimates for the following four periods.

This record isnt expected to last very long, with each of the coming quarters expected to bring in ever bigger earnings tallies.



Second , an above-average proportion of companies are beating estimates, particularly revenue estimates. We typically dont give this factor a lot of weight in evaluating or assessing an earnings season since we all know that management teams are experts in managing expectations. Even then, the trend emerging in the Q2 earnings season is noteworthy for two reasons. First, estimates for the quarter had not fallen by as much as had historically been the case. Second, the proportion of positive revenue surprises, a much harder variable to manipulate relative to earnings, is really off the chart.



The chart below shows the proportion of 456 S&P 500 members that have beaten both EPS and revenue estimates and how that compares to historical periods.

Third , Q2 growth is broad-based and not dependent on one or two sectors. There is strong growth contribution from the Finance, Technology and Energy sectors in Q2, but we have 13 of the 16 Zacks sectors on track to produce more earnings than the year-earlier period.



Fourth , estimates for the September quarter have started coming down, but the pace and magnitude of negative revisions compares favorably to other comparable periods. Total Q3 earnings are currently expected to be up +3.9% from the same period last year, down from +6.3% at the start of July. The chart below shows the evolution of Q3 growth expectations since the start of the period.

This is a reassuring start on the revisions front, but we will have to see if this trend will remain in place through the rest of this earnings season.



The chart below shoes Q2 earnings growth expectations contrasted with what is expected in the following three quarters and actual results in the preceding 5 quarters. As you can see in the chart below, this growth pace is expected to continue through the rest of the year.

Note: Sheraz Mian manages the Zacks equity research department. He is an acknowledged earnings expert whose commentaries and analyses appear on Zacks.com and in the print and electronic media. His weekly earnings related articles include Earnings Trends and Earnings Preview . He manages the Zacks Top 10 and Focus List portfolios and writes the Weekly Market Analysis article for Zacks Premium subscribers.

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Here is a list of the 126 companies including 16 S&P 500 members reporting this week.

Company Ticker Current Qtr Year-Ago Qtr Last EPS Surprise % Report Day Time SYSCO CORP SYY 0.71 0.64 0.00% Monday BTO AZUL SA AZUL 0.01 N/A N/A Monday BTO CANADIAN SOLAR CSIQ -0.16 0.68 -900.00% Monday BTO GALECTIN THERAP GALT -0.13 -0.2 0.00% Monday BTO LIQTECH INTL LIQT -0.02 -0.01 25.00% Monday BTO VASCULAR BIOGNC VBLT -0.17 -0.14 -11.76% Monday BTO WIDEOPENWST INC WOW 0.09 N/A N/A Monday BTO ASURE SOFTWARE ASUR 0.11 0.15 -166.67% Monday BTO CEMTREX NEW CETX 0.12 0.16 -60.00% Monday BTO ENSERVCO CORP ENSV N/A -0.06 100.00% Monday BTO JD.COM INC-ADR JD 0.02 -0.03 260.00% Monday BTO PLYMOUTH IND RE PLYM 0.29 N/A N/A Monday BTO SORL AUTO PARTS SORL 0.33 0.37 140.00% Monday BTO TECOGEN INC TGEN -0.02 -0.02 100.00% Monday BTO URANIUM RES INC URRE -0.13 -0.75 15.38% Monday BTO ELEVEN BIOTHERP EBIO N/A -0.33 N/A Monday BTO TRANSGLOBE ENGY TGA -0.02 -0.16 0.00% Monday BTO WESTPORT FUEL WPRT -0.15 -0.4 20.00% Monday AMC ATENTO SA ATTO 0.14 0.13 112.50% Monday AMC EXTREME NETWRKS EXTR 0.12 0.07 60.00% Monday AMC FATE THERAPEUTC FATE -0.24 -0.29 -14.29% Monday AMC SOLARIS OIL INF SOI 0.07 N/A N/A Monday AMC ASTERIAS BIOTHR AST -0.18 -0.16 5.56% Monday AMC CLEAN DIESEL CDTI -0.07 -0.13 -171.43% Monday AMC CANCER GENETICS CGIX -0.16 -0.28 38.89% Monday AMC EVOKE PHARMA EVOK -0.12 -0.41 6.67% Monday AMC FUSION TELECOM FSNN -0.17 -0.2 4.17% Monday AMC ATYR PHARMA INC LIFE -0.57 -0.65 -1.82% Monday AMC LIMBACH HOLDNGS LMB 0.11 N/A -900.00% Monday AMC MARRONE BIO INV MBII -0.21 -0.28 0.00% Monday AMC ONCOCYTE CORP OCX -0.12 -0.1 -23.08% Monday AMC SITO MOBILE LTD SITO -0.02 0.04 -75.00% Monday AMC TEARLAB CORP TEAR -0.75 -1 -9.33% Monday AMC VOXELJET AG-ADR VJET -0.1 -0.1 -16.67% Monday AMC ACURA PHARMACT ACUR -0.11 -0.28 127.27% Monday AMC SPHERE 3D CORP ANY -1.5 -2.25 42.86% Monday AMC BRIDGELINE DGTL BLIN -0.1 -1 66.67% Monday AMC BARFRESH FD GRP BRFH -0.02 -0.03 0.00% Monday AMC CELLECTAR BIOSC CLRB N/A -0.49 -115.00% Monday AMC CELSION CORP CLSN -1.1 -2.66 -33.33% Monday AMC CUMULUS MEDIA CMLS 0.19 0.08 -737.50% Monday AMC FAMOUS DAVES DAVE 0.09 0.17 -150.00% Monday AMC DIGITAL ALLY IN DGLY -0.24 -0.54 0.00% Monday AMC FLEXIBLE SOLTNS FSI 0.03 0.05 180.00% Monday AMC GALENA BIOPHARM GALE -0.15 1.2 59.09% Monday AMC GREAT ELM CAP C GECC 0.2 N/A N/A Monday AMC HILL INTL INC HIL 0.01 0.03 -900.00% Monday AMC HOLLYSYS AUTOMT HOLI 0.37 0.56 -33.33% Monday AMC IMAGEWARE SYS IWSY -0.03 -0.03 -33.33% Monday AMC MARATHON PATENT MARA -0.14 0.49 13.33% Monday AMC NETSHOES CAYMAN NETS -0.23 N/A 80.14% Monday AMC ONCONOVA THERAP ONTX -0.72 -1.96 N/A Monday AMC PENGROWTH EGY PGH N/A -0.03 300.00% Monday AMC SABESP -ADR SBS 0.25 0.33 52.94% Monday AMC ONE GROUP HOSP STKS N/A -0.06 -100.00% Monday AMC INNOVUS PHARMA INNV N/A -0.05 N/A Monday AMC MYOMO INC MYO N/A N/A N/A Monday AMC PARKERVISION PRKR N/A -0.72 N/A Monday AMC SIERRA METALS SMTS N/A N/A N/A Monday AMC PHOTRONICS INC PLAB 0.09 0.12 -40.00% Monday AMC FORTUNA SILVER FSM 0.04 0.04 50.00% Monday AMC ROMACO RESOURCS METC 0.05 N/A -266.67% Monday AMC DIGILITI MONEY DGLT N/A N/A N/A Monday AMC REPROS THERAPEU RPRX N/A -0.18 N/A Monday N/A FUJIFILM HLDGS FUJIY 0.21 0.23 89.47% Monday N/A HOME DEPOT HD 2.21 1.97 3.73% Tuesday BTO TJX COS INC NEW TJX 0.84 0.84 3.80% Tuesday BTO COACH INC COH 0.49 0.45 4.55% Tuesday BTO ADVANCE AUTO PT AAP 1.65 1.9 -24.53% Tuesday BTO EAGLE POINT CRD ECC 0.51 0.57 -3.70% Tuesday BTO DICKS SPRTG GDS DKS 1.01 0.82 0.00% Tuesday BTO SANCHEZ PRODUCT SNMP -0.44 -4.37 -85.71% Tuesday BTO QIWI PLC-ADR QIWI 0.24 0.33 54.17% Tuesday BTO AGILENT TECH A 0.52 0.49 20.83% Tuesday AMC VIAVI SOLUTIONS VIAV 0.06 0.08 50.00% Tuesday AMC JACK HENRY ASSC JKHY 0.83 1.06 6.94% Tuesday AMC OBSEVA SA OBSV -0.48 N/A -41.46% Tuesday AMC SOCIAL REALITY SRAX N/A 0.3 16.67% Tuesday AMC WIDEPOINT CORP WYY -0.01 -0.01 0.00% Tuesday AMC CATASYS INC CATS N/A -0.54 N/A Tuesday AMC URBAN OUTFITTER URBN 0.38 0.66 -18.75% Tuesday AMC TARGET CORP TGT 1.21 1.23 35.96% Wednesday BTO PERFORMANCE FG PFGC 0.5 0.38 8.00% Wednesday BTO POINTER TELOCAT PNTR 0.2 0.18 38.10% Wednesday BTO CYREN LTD CYRN -0.05 -0.01 -20.00% Wednesday BTO TOP IMAGE SYS TISA -0.08 0.01 -25.00% Wednesday BTO ITURAN LOCATION ITRN N/A 0.36 N/A Wednesday BTO MSG NETWORKS MSGN 0.51 0.57 -1.69% Wednesday BTO ENZYMOTEC LTD ENZY 0.01 0.01 -100.00% Wednesday BTO NETAPP INC NTAP 0.42 0.28 5.88% Wednesday AMC CISCO SYSTEMS CSCO 0.55 0.58 1.89% Wednesday AMC L BRANDS INC LB 0.45 0.7 13.79% Wednesday AMC CACI INTL A CACI 1.64 1.75 11.03% Wednesday AMC BRIGGS & STRATT BGG 0.51 0.46 2.47% Wednesday AMC SPARTAN NASH CO SPTN 0.6 0.58 3.77% Wednesday AMC IMMUNOMEDICS IMMU -0.11 -0.17 -69.23% Wednesday AMC VIPSHOP HOLDNGS VIPS 0.14 0.13 -6.25% Wednesday AMC GEOPARK LTD GPRK 0.04 -0.02 225.00% Wednesday AMC WAL-MART STORES WMT 1.06 1.07 4.17% Thursday BTO CHINA LODGING HTHT N/A 0.67 50.00% Thursday BTO ALIBABA GROUP BABA 0.73 0.52 -17.02% Thursday BTO SWISSCOM AG ADR SCMWY N/A 0.84 N/A Thursday BTO MADISON SQUAR-A MSG -1.1 -2.11 -54.17% Thursday BTO CHINA RAPID FIN XRF -0.17 N/A N/A Thursday BTO LANCASTER COLON LANC 1.17 1.12 -12.84% Thursday BTO STAGE STORES SSI -0.04 0.03 19.12% Thursday BTO BUCKLE INC BKE 0.22 0.32 6.25% Thursday BTO LSI INDUSTRIES LYTS 0.03 0.06 -75.00% Thursday BTO GOLD FIELDS-ADR GFI N/A N/A N/A Thursday BTO HARMONY GOLD HMY N/A N/A N/A Thursday BTO GAP INC GPS 0.52 0.6 24.14% Thursday AMC APPLD MATLS INC AMAT 0.83 0.5 3.95% Thursday AMC ROSS STORES ROST 0.76 0.71 3.80% Thursday AMC SPORTSMANS WRHS SPWH 0.13 0.2 -14.29% Thursday AMC ADTELUM GBL EDU ATGE 0.72 0.65 9.38% Thursday AMC LATAM AIRLINES LTM -0.03 -0.17 -21.43% Thursday AMC ABSOLUTE SOFTWR ALSWF 0 N/A 50.00% Thursday AMC ZOES KITCHEN ZOES 0.02 0.06 0.00% Thursday AMC GLOBANT SA GLOB 0.26 0.25 0.00% Thursday AMC AMERICAS CAR-MT CRMT 0.9 0.87 12.50% Thursday AMC ESTEE LAUDER EL 0.42 0.43 24.66% Friday BTO DEERE & CO DE 1.88 1.55 46.47% Friday BTO ASCENDIS PHARMA ASND -0.78 -0.6 -29.69% Friday BTO HIBBET SPORTS HIBB -0.2 0.29 1.04% Friday BTO BANCOLOMBIA-ADR CIB 1 1.03 0.00% Friday AMC SPARK NEW ZEALD SPKKY N/A N/A N/A Friday N/A



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A lawyer representing journalist Yashar Ali demanded Friday that Fox News host Eric Bolling dismiss his $50 million defamation lawsuit against Ali, which stemmed from an Aug. 4 HuffPost report alleging that Bolling sent unsolicited lewd messages to colleagues.

In a letter obtained by HuffPost (see below), attorney Patricia Glaser described Bollings claims as utterly devoid of merit.

The Summons with Notice you filed on August 9, 2017 is purposefully sparse on allegations, she wrote, and does not identify which purportedly false and misleading statements could possibly support a $50 million damages award.

In his original story, Ali said he had spoken to 14 sources in and out of Fox News and Fox Business. Prior to publication, he reached out to Bolling to ask if at any point he had sent lewd or inappropriate text messages or emails to Fox News or Fox Business colleagues that were unsolicited and specifically, whether he sent an image of male genitalia to them.

Bolling attorney Michael J. Bowe replied on Aug. 4 that his client recalls no such inappropriate communications and does not believe he sent them. Glaser wrote that Bollings recollection and belief hardly constitute a denial of the accusations against him.

Fox News suspended Bolling on Aug. 5 pending an investigation. He initiated the lawsuit through a summons to Ali on Aug. 9, but has not yet filed a full suit.

Glaser called the summons frivolous because it asserts material factual statements that are false and was filed to harass or maliciously injure Ali. She wrote that Ali has faced racist attacks online since Bolling filed the suit.

Bolling is seeking damages only from Ali, a freelance journalist under contract with HuffPost, and not from the media outlet.

We view your decision to sue Mr. Ali in his individual capacity, for $50 million, without also naming the Huffington Post, as a calculated effort to harass and intimidate Mr. Ali personally, Glaser wrote. It will not work.

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HuffPost has defended the journalist and offered to pay his legal bills if necessary.

Yashar Ali is a careful and meticulous reporter. We stand by his reporting, HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen said in a statement Wednesday. Ali is a paid freelancer under contract with HuffPost. We have no hesitation about standing by him financially in this case.

Bolling is being represented by Kasowitz Benson Torres, the same firm that defended former Fox News host Bill OReilly following sexual harassment allegations. Partner Marc Kasowitz, who has a long-standing professional relationship with Donald Trump, was retained by the president to represent him in the Russia investigation; he is no longer leading that legal team.

In a statement to HuffPost, Bowe said it is ironic and telling that Ms. Glaser accuses us of a publicity stunt in a letter she has yet to send me and that I learned about from the New York Times.

She is right about one thing, Bowe continued. No evidence has been produced about these claims, and that is why we filed suit so that the evidence and truth will come out.

Glaser, who has also represented media figures such as Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann, wrote Friday that her team would welcome the opportunity to depose Mr. Bolling and review his message history, as we presume that you have instructed him to preserve communications.

She said that if Bolling declines to dismiss the lawsuit against Ali, she has been authorized to pursue all claims in law and in equity against you and your client, including malicious prosecution.

This article was updated with a statement from Michael Bowe.

Yashar Ali response on Scribd

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Tensions surrounding North Korea escalated this week after reports surfaced on Tuesday that the country had reached a key milestone in its nuclear program, spurring a heated war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday responded to the reports that North Korea had successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead by vowing fire and fury if the country threatened the United States.

Despite subsequent criticism, Trump doubled down on Thursday, saying his statement may not have gone far enough and that North Korea better get its act together.

North Korea reacted to Trumps initial remarks in its typical fashion, lashing out with a series of hyperbolic statements on its official KCNA news agency, including repeated claims that the nations military is examining plans to launch missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam.

Despite North Koreas threats, analysts see the countrys rhetoric as a routine part of the countrys decades-long diplomatic standoff with the U.S.. But what has changed in the latest iteration of the crisis is both the presence of Trump as an unpredictable force, as well as the expanded capabilities of North Koreas nuclear program that give its threats additional weight.

Theres actually not much new in North Koreas bombastic threats themselves, since on numerous occasions the regime has threatened to strike the U.S. or its allies, including preemptively, said Evans Revere, a former American diplomat who has participated in negotiations with North Korea.

However, as Pyongyang has moved closer to having the ability to deliver on its nuclear and missile threats, the United States is of course compelled to take the bombast more seriously.

A North Korean state-issued image of leaders Kim Jong Un inspecting a rocket. (Photo: KCNA KCNA / Reuters)

Much of North Koreas rhetoric this week is a rehash of old warnings. Even the regimes most aggressive claim of formulating a plan to attack Guam is something that Pyongyang has similarly alluded to in the past, when it issued a statement in 2013 saying that the island territory is within range of its missiles.

Story continues

The current back and forth cycle of North Korean provocations and U.S. responses goes back to at least the 1990s, when former President Bill Clinton attempted to diplomatically mitigate Pyongyangs nuclear ambitions after at one point considering strikes on the countrys facilities. Former President George W. Bush also struggled with how to handle North Korea, a problem that intensified after the country carried out its first successful nuclear test in 2006.

Since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011 after his fathers death, however, both the missile tests and bellicose rhetoric have ramped up. North Korea has rapidly advanced its capabilities, to the surprise of many arms experts, while at the same time issuing flagrant threats, such as its 2013 vow to turn South Koreas presidential office into a sea of fire if provoked.

Former President Barack Obama, whose administration had no better success than its predecessors in stemming the tide of North Korean nuclear advancements, personally warned Trump during a meeting at the Oval Office in November about the importance of addressing the issue.

But the situation deteriorated further this year after North Korea tested intercontinental ballistic missiles and then successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads, while at the same Trumps aggressive posturing has stoked fears that he is taking U.S. policy in a troubling new direction.

President Trumps initial statement was odd and worrisome, since he suggests that the United States is prepared to retaliate in response to North Korean rhetoric, as opposed to North Korean actions, Revere said.

Thats dangerous, especially since North Korea is known for issuing over-the-top threats that they do not actually intend to deliver on.

Trump's statement vowing "fire and fury" in relation to a North Korean attack has worried experts who warn it is a dangerous departure from past policy. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)

Many experts and diplomats have highlighted how Trumps volatility and potential for unplanned outbursts could further destabilize the situation.

This is a dangerous departure from historical precedent, William Perry, a former Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton, said in a statement after Tuesdays remarks.

We do not make empty threats, because empty threats weaken our credibility, and weaken the strength of threats that we do intend to carry out.

Other analysts noted that Trumps statement sounded similar to the ones that have been coming out of North Korea for years.

We are quickly moving into uncharted and dangerous territory, Revere said. The United States seems to be adopting the North Korean technique of issuing blood-curdling threats that it may or may not be prepared to deliver on.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
USADream wrote:

People's television-viewing habits could be monitored by having television sets, when on, send out low-level electromagnetic waves that are reflected back to the sets. The reflected waves could then be analyzed to determine how many persons are within the viewing area of the sets. Critics fear adverse health effects of such a monitoring system, but a proponent responds, "The average dose of radiation is less than one chest x-ray. As they watch, viewers won't feel a thing."



Which of the following issues would it be most important to resolve in evaluating the dispute concerning the health effects of the proposed system?



A.Whether the proposed method of monitoring viewership can distinguish between people and pets

B.Whether radar speed monitors also operate on the principle of analyzing reflected waves of electromagnetic radiation

C.Whether the proposed system has been tried out in various areas of the country or in a single area only

D.What uses are foreseen for the viewership data

E.Whether the average dose that the proponent describes is a short-term dose or a lifetime cumulative dose

USADream

health effects

A.

Whether the proposed method of monitoring viewership can distinguish between people and pets

B.

Whether radar speed monitors also operate on the principle of analyzing reflected waves of electromagnetic radiation

C.

Whether the proposed system has been tried out in various areas of the country or in a single area only

D.

What uses are foreseen for the viewership data

E.

Whether the average dose that the proponent describes is a short-term dose or a lifetime cumulative dose



Magoosh Test Prep





Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Signature Read More

DearI'm happy to help.This is a great question.First of all, you may find this blog, on Evaluate the Argument CR questions, helpful:Keep in mind, one the traps on this question format --- often, there are a few issues floating around in the argument, and the prompt question asks us to focus only on one. Therefore, anything related to the other issues, while relevant to the argument overall, is not relevant specifically to the issue on which the prompt question zeroes in. Here, one such issue would be the larger question --- would this design effectively and accurately measure how many people are watching TV? That would be relevant in the larger sense, but it's completely irrelevant to the prompt question, which very specifically is focused on. Without even looking at the answers, I could predict that one or more incorrect answers would address the measurement issue.Let's look at the answers:Relevant to the large issue of --- would this measure things accurately? --- but not relevant to health effects. This is incorrect.An interesting analogy, but radar detectors hit cars, which presumably blocks most of the radiation from hitting the human body of the driver/passengers, whereas these TV zapper things will be shot right at the people sitting there. This is not particularly helpful, so it is incorrect.More data is always good, but suppose we had a literal answer to this --- "Yes, tried in various areas" or "No, only in a single area" --- if we just had that information, that answer, it wouldn't necessarily tell us anything. This is incorrect.This touches on juicy issues of civil liberties and government monitoring of private information, all of which could play into the larger discussion of whether this system would be legal or morally correct or consistent with the US Constitution, but none of these are relevant to the health effects. This is incorrect.Ah, this one is relevant to the health effects. First of all, a single chest X-ray is a wallop of radiation ----- if folks get more than, say, two in a year, that's too much. If each session of watching TV with this zapper system is equivalent to a single chest X-ray dose, that would be bad enough, but if each session of watching TV were a lifetime's dose of X-rays, then it would be absolutely frying the poor TV viewers. This one is highly relevant to health effects, so this is the correct answer.Does all this make sense?Mike_________________




Contact me for online GMAT math tutoring, or about my higher-level GMAT Quant books and problem sets, at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com



ianstewartgmat.com GMAT Tutor in MontrealContact me for online GMAT math tutoring, or about my higher-level GMAT Quant books and problem sets, at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com Signature Read More

If the question is "how long should I spend on a question if I'm 100% sure I will get the right answer", the answer is "quite a long time". It's actually worth spending at least 3.5 minutes on a question if you absolutely know you'll get the question right. I can explain why that's true - the algorithm is designed so that you answer questions at your level correctly 60% of the time. So, say after spending 1.5 minutes on a question, you can see you'll get the answer in 3.5 minutes total. You're then getting 1 right answer. Then if you guess randomly at the next question, you'll get that right 20% of the time, for a total of 1.2 right answers on those two questions, with about 4 minutes invested. But if after 1.5 minutes on a question, you're down to (and this would be the best case) 50-50, and you decide to guess and move on, then you are only getting 0.5 right answers on that question, and then with a full 2 minutes for the next question you still can only expect to get 0.6 right answers, for a total of 1.1 right answers. So that doesn't work out as well as the first case.Of course the scoring isn't strictly based on the number of questions you answer correctly, but when you account for how the algorithm adapts, it's even better to get the question in front of you right - that usually means the next question will be harder, and the harder the question, the less harmful it will be to your score if you get the question wrong (or if you guess at it).But in practice, it's rarely true that you can be completely sure you'll get to a right answer if you invest more time. Most of the time, in GMAT math, if you can't see a path to the answer in the first minute or so, you're missing something, and it's hard to guess how long it will be before you 'see it' - it could take all day. So if you don't have a clear path to a solution after a minute of thought, you almost always should commit to moving on quickly. Evaluate any fallback strategies you might use (picking numbers, backsolving, estimation) and those might at least help you guess well, but save your time for other questions where investing time will clearly be valuable. It is true that most questions will appear manageable on the GMAT if you're well-prepared, but don't be misled - a lot of questions are much trickier than they look. If you think, on a geometry question, "I must be able to solve this, it's just a triangle" but you aren't getting anywhere after a minute, it's probably a much harder question than it seems. Those aren't questions you should be persisting with, or you'll find you don't have time to answer questions you could easily solve later in the test.Making good decisions about where to invest time is a skill you develop with practice, so use realistic practice tests (GMATPrep tests) to practice pacing strategy, and to develop the discipline to move on from questions where you're not getting an answer. You can then confirm from your score that your pacing strategy is improving your results._________________
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It is a constitutional question without a clear answer: Can a sitting American president be charged with a crime?

The question has new importance as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates the Trump 2016 presidential campaign. He is looking into possible connections between the campaign and Russians who reportedly interfered in the 2016 election.

Last week, it was reported that Mueller is using a grand jury as part of his investigation. Grand juries decide if government investigators may legally demand private records and information from witnesses. There was no information about whenor whetherMueller would bring criminal charges in the case.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that federal investigators searched and gathered evidence from the house of Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign manager.

Mueller can prosecute any federal crimes linked to the investigation. In theory, that could include legal action against the president. Mueller is reportedly investigating if Trump obstructed justice when he dismissed James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If Mueller's team decides to bring charges against Trump, it could create a legal battle -- one that could likely end at the Supreme Court.

The Constitution lists conditions under which a president can be impeached and removed from office.

But the Constitution does not directly say whether the president can be prosecuted, or tried for a crime. Also, federal law does not say whether a president can be prosecuted. Courts have never ruled on the issue.

Eric Freedman teaches constitutional law at Hofstra University in New York. He says legal opinion is divided as to whether a sitting president can be charged with a crime.

"It's an important and unsettled question," says Freedman. He says the possibility of legal charges is another way to keep presidents answerable for their actions.

Those who believe a sitting president is protected from criminal charges say it comes down to governing the country. A criminal charge, they say, could prevent presidents from carrying out their duties. That would damage the ability of the government to work. They say this is an understood constitutional principle.

Others argue that the Constitution would include clear terms of such legal protection for the president if that is what its creators had wanted. These experts also argue that the Constitution clearly states no person is above the law.

Kenneth Starr agrees with this view. He was the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton.

In a Starr office memo recently uncovered by The New York Times, Starr said it is right, constitutional, and legal for a president to be charged for serious crimes that are not part of the presidents official duties.

"In this country, he wrote, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law."

Impeachment

Impeachment is the process by which Congress brings charges against the president. It means Congress is the court that tries the president.

Impeachment is a political, not legal, process, according to James Pfiffner, a public policy professor at George Mason University. He believes impeachment is the best way constitutionally to hold a president accountable.

The Constitution says reasons to impeach a president include "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Congress alone has the power to decide what that means.

What does it take to impeach a president?

A majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives must agree on impeachment for it to happen. The Senate then holds a trial. And a president could be removed from office if two-thirds of the Senate agree the president is guilty.

Only two American presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. The Senate ruled not guilty in both cases.

President Richard Nixon was facing possible impeachment when he resigned. The next president, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon after he left office. As a result, the former president could not face criminal charges.

Pardons

Now, some are questioning if a sitting president could pardon him or herself. Last month, The Washington Post reported that President Trump had asked his lawyers about such a possibility, although his lawyer denied the newspaper story.

It appears the Constitution would permit a sitting president to pardon anyone for any crime at any time.

Im Caty Weaver.

And Im Anne Ball.



William Gallo wrote this story for VOA news. Anne Ball adapted this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

counsel  n. a lawyer who represents a person or group in a court of law

prosecute  v. to hold a trial against a person who is accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty

obstruct  v. to block something so that things cannot move easily

impeach  v. to charge (a public official) with a crime done while in office
When Ranis husband took his own life, he left his family with debts they could not pay. Ranis family farms in southern India. Now, she says her familys farming days are over.

There are no rains, Rani said. Rani is a 44-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu state. She was one of hundreds of farmers protesting in the capital New Delhi for increased government support for farmers. Her state has been affected by drought.

Even for drinking, we get water only once in 10 days, she said.

A recently released study suggests that more tragedies like Ranis will happen.

Higher temperatures are damaging crops and worsening droughts, the study says. It argues that the temperature and the number of people who take their lives are linked. It states that for every one degree above 20 degrees Celsius on any day during the growing season, an average of about 70 suicides take place.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.

Scientists predict that the worldwide average temperature could rise up to 3 degrees by 2050. With hotter weather, more droughts and stronger storms are likely to take place. In addition, extreme weather changes could become more common. These changes could affect Indian farmers who depend on good weather for income.

Tamma Carleton was the author of the study. She is a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley where she studies agriculture and resource economics.

Carleton looked at numbers from Indias National Crime Records Bureau. She compared the number of people who took their own lives between 1967 and 2013 with other information on agricultural crops and temperature changes.

Carleton estimated that hotter temperatures over the last 30 years have already been responsible for over 59,000 suicides throughout India.

The study said that hotter temperatures were one of the reasons why there was a 6.8 percent increase in the number of people who took their own lives in India over 30 years.

Vikram Patel is a psychiatrist and mental health expert with Harvard Medical School. Although he was not involved with the study, he helped write Indias first national mental health policy.

Patel said farming is a risky job.

He said the amount a farmer earns depends on the weather. And farming gets riskier with climate change.

Patel said anything that affects their job negatively will affect farmers mental health.

India has 1.3 billion people. For half of those people, agriculture is their source of income.

Although farmers are an important part of Indian society, they have been struggling economically over the last 30 years.

Many pressures weigh on Indias farmers

Usually there is not a single reason for a person to take his or her own life. But, some reasons include losing crops, debt, poverty or a lack of community support.

Farmers with a lot of debt may take their own lives so the government, in some cases, would give money to their families.

We may not be able to stop the world from warming, but that doesnt mean we cant do something to address suicide, Patel said.

He said financial support and increased attention to mental health could help deal with the issue.

Howard Frumkin is an environmental and occupational health professor at the University of Washington. He was also not involved in the study.

Frumkin said the study shows that unfavorable weather leads to less crops, rural misery and more people taking their own lives.

Indias farms are regularly being hit by strong storms, extreme drought and heat waves. This kind of weather is going to increase with higher temperatures. Some farmers in India still depend on rainfall instead of irrigation to water their crops.

Indias farmers have held many protests for better crop prices, more help with loan repayments and water delivery systems among other issues. Such systems would help guarantee irrigation during droughts.

Many farmers said they believe they have been ignored. Some are protesting at government offices and some have dumped large amounts of vegetables on roads to block traffic to bring attention to their situation.

In the past month, hundreds of farmers have been protesting in a central New Delhi square. Some are holding human skulls that they say are from other farmers who have taken their own lives in Tamil Nadu. They say it will be a 100-day protest.

They say they are protesting to prevent the suicide of farmers who feed the nation.

On July 27, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told lawmakers that 11,458 farmers took their own lives in 2016. That is the lowest number in 20 years. That year also had good temperatures and normal seasonal rains.

Singh noted that for 2014 and 2015, the number of farmers who took their own lives increased by 9 percent. Those two years had a drought.

The number of farmers who took their own lives reached 12,602 in 2015. Some reasons included financial failure, debt and other farming issues. Most of the people were farmers with less than two hectares of land.

The author of the research noted that the study could not tell the difference between urban and rural people who took their own lives. That is because the crime records bureau only began separating the two categories in 1995.

M. S. Swaminathan is a geneticist who is known for creating Indias Green Revolution in the 1960s. That was a movement to greatly increase agricultural productivity.

He said, Suicides occur due to extreme economic despair.

Swaminathan has carried out research suggesting that small temperature changes can hurt crop harvests.

The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation works to solve farming problems related to climate change. Some of these include rising heat, drought and increasing salt levels in soil because of rising sea levels.

Swaminathan said better crop insurance and quick compensation for crops lost to climate change will help to avoid a sense of hopelessness that leads to suicide.

Im Mario Ritter.

And Im Olivia Liu.

Katy Daigle wrote this story for the Associated Press. Olivia Liu adapted this story with additional materials for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

drought  n. a severe lack of rain

psychiatrist  n. a medical doctor that works in mental health

negatively  adj. having a harmful effect

misery  n. severe suffering

irrigation  n. systems to bring water to crops

delivery  n. the act of bringing something

compensation  n. money given to make up for the loss of something

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.


We present the short story "The Romance of a Busy Broker," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.

Pitcher, who worked in the office of Harvey Maxwell, broker, usually allowed his face to show no feeling. This morning he allowed his face to show interest and surprise when Mr. Maxwell entered. It was half past nine, and Mr. Maxwell was with his young lady secretary.

Good morning, Pitcher, said Maxwell. He rushed to his table as if he were going to jump over it, then began to look at the many, many letters and other papers waiting there for him.

The young lady had been Maxwells secretary for a year. She was very beautiful, and very different from most other secretaries. Her hair always looked plain and simple. She did not wear chains or jewels. Her dress was gray and plain, but it fitted her very well. On her small black- hat was the gold-green wing of a bird.

On this morning she seemed to shine softly. Her eyes were dreaming but bright. Her face was warmly colored, and her expression was happy.

Pitcher watched her. There was a question about her in his mind. She was different this morning. Instead of going straight to the room where she worked, she waited. She seemed not to know what to do. Once she went over to Maxwells table, near enough for him to see that she was there.

The machine sitting at that table was no longer a man. It was a busy New York broker.

What is it? Anything? asked Maxwell shortly. Papers lay like snow covering his table. His gray eyes looked at her as if she were another machine.

Nothing, answered the secretary, moving away with a little smile.

Mr. Pitcher, she said, did Mr. Maxwell talk to you yesterday about getting another secretary?

He did, Pitcher answered. He told me to get another one. Several are coming to talk to us this morning. But its now after nine and not one has appeared.

I will do the work as usual, said the young lady, until someone comes to fill the place. And she went to her table. She took off the black hat with the gold-green bird wing and put it away as usual.

If you have never seen a busy New York broker on a busy day, you know little about men at work. Every minute of a brokers hour is crowded.

And this day was Harvey Maxwells busy day.

Beside his table stood a machine. From this came a long, narrow, endless piece of paper, bringing him business news as soon as it happened.

Men began to come into the office and speak to him. Some were happy, some were not, some were in a hurry, some were full of anger.

Boys ran in and out with letters for him to read and answer at once.

Pitchers face now showed that he was alive. The other men who worked in the office jumped around like sailors during a storm.

And there were storms in the business world, fearful storms. Every storm was felt in the brokers office.

Maxwell moved his chair against the wall. Now he was like a dancer. He jumped from the machine to his table to the door and back again.

In the middle of all this, he slowly realized that something had come near him. There was golden hair; there was a very large amount of it, high on a head. On top of the hair was a big hat covered with birds wings. There was a long silver chain, hanging from a neck until it nearly touched the floor. And among all these things there was a young lady.

Pitcher was beside her to explain.

Lady for that job as secretary, said Pitcher.

Maxwell turned half around, with his hands full of letters and paper from the machine.

What job? he asked.

Job of secretary, Pitcher said again. You told me yesterday to have someone sent here this morning.

You are losing your mind, Pitcher, said Maxwell. Why should I tell you anything like that? Miss Leslie is a perfect secretary. She can keep the job as long as she wants it. To the young lady he said, There is no job here. And to Pitcher he added this order: Tell them not to send any more. And dont bring any more in here to see me.

The silver chain left the office, hitting against chairs and tables with anger, as it went. Pitcher said to another man in the office that Maxwell was more forgetful every day.

The rush of business grew wilder and faster. Maxwell was working like some fine, strong machine. He was working as fast as he could. He never had to stop to think. He was never wrong. He was always ready to decide and to act. He worked as a clock works. This was the world of business. It was not a human world, or the world of nature.

When the dinner hour was near, things grew quieter.

Maxwell stood by his table with his hands full of papers and his hair hanging over his face. His window was open, for it was the time of year when the weather was beginning to turn warm.

And through the window came a soft sweet smell of flowers. For a moment the broker was held there, without moving. For this smell of flowers belonged to Miss Leslie. It was hers and hers only.

The smell seemed almost to make her stand there before him. The world of business grew smaller and smaller. And she was in the next roomtwenty steps away.

Ill do it now, said Maxwell, half aloud. Ill ask her now. I wonder why I didnt do it long ago.

He rushed into the other room. He stopped beside the secretary.

She looked up at him with a smile. Warm color came into her face, and her eyes were soft and kind.

Maxwells hands were still full of papers. Miss Leslie, he began quickly, I have only a moment. I want to say something in that moment. Will you be my wife? I havent had time to make love to you in the usual way. But I really do love you. Talk quick, please. I have to get back to my work.

Oh, what are you talking about? cried the young lady. She rose to her feet and looked at him, round-eyed.

Dont you understand? said Maxwell. I want you to marry me. I love you, Miss Leslie. I wanted to tell you. So I took this moment when I wasnt too busy. But theyre calling me now. Tell them to wait a minute, Pitcher. Wont you, Miss Leslie?

The secretary acted very strangely. At first she seemed lost in surprise. Then tears began to run from her wondering eyes. And then she smiled through her tears, and one of her arms went around the brokers neck.

I know now, she said, softly. Its this business. It has put everything else out of your head. I was afraid at first. Dont you remember, Harvey? We were married last evening at eight, in the Little Church around the Corner.

Download activities to help you understand this story here.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. How do you organize your time? Is work the most important thing to spend your time on? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Quiz: The Romance of a Busy Broker Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

For Teachers

The activities in the document linked below help students understand the story.



_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

broker  n. a person who helps other people to reach agreements, to make deals, or to buy and sell property such as stocks or houses

secretary - n. a person whose job is to handle records or letters for another person in an office

rush(ed)  v. to move or do something very quickly or in a way that shows you are in a hurry

chain(s)  n. a series of usually metal links or rings that are connected to each other in a line and used for supporting heavy things, for holding things together or for decoration

rush  n. a situation in which a large number of people move to or toward one place at the same time usually to do a specific thing or to search for something


American Grace Clegg loves to try new food.

She recently ate at Dolan Uyghur Restaurant in Washington, D.C., with a group of friends and coworkers. There, they had what Clegg described as a delightful spread of common Uyghur food dishes: hand-pulled noodles, kebabs, nan, steamed rice with meat, and more.

Before her visit to the restaurant, she knew little about Uyghur food, she said.

I had heard of Uyghurs, yes, but it was always in an academic context, or a political context, never in terms of the culture or the cuisine  the stuff that makes up the core of the people. And I think that food is a great way to learn culture.

Clegg says it is rare that she tastes something completely new, or different from anything she has tried before.

Eating Uyghur food, however, was one of those rare experiences, she said.

You feel echoes of other cuisines, but it all comes together in something new.

Who are the Uyghurs?

Uyghurs are an ethnic group in Central Asia. About 10 million of them live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, a huge area in the northwestern part of the country.

They speak Uyghur, a Turkic language that is similar to Uzbek, and use an Arabic-based alphabet. Most practice Islam.

Xinjiang sits between China and Central Asia. It borders eight countries, including Russia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It was an important area along the ancient Silk Road trading path.

Uyghur language and culture reflect Xinjiangs history at the crossroads.

So does Uyghur food.

The rise of Uyghur food in America

Just five years ago, New York City was about the only place in America to find Uyghur food.

But more recently, restaurants serving Uyghur food have opened all across the country.

Last year, Houston, Texas, got its second Uyghur restaurant. And the city of Boston, Massachusetts, just got its first Uyghur restaurant.

In Washington, D.C, two Uyghur restaurants have opened in the past 18 months. The growing presence of Uyghur food in the area led the Washington Post newspaper to ask, will Uyghur cuisine be the next big thing in the United States?

Uyghurs in the American restaurant industry hope that the answer is yes. Bakir Osman is one of them. He is the manager of Dolan Uyghur Restaurant. It opened last November.

Were more present than ever. I believe were going to be more present moving forward. And yes, Im sure that its just a matter of time before a lot more Uyghur restaurants...start spreading or opening all over the place.

A combination of everything

Uyghur cuisine combines the rich and hearty ingredients common across Central Asia with complex and spicy tastes favored in China. Bakir calls it a combination of everything.

We have a lot of elements from the Central Asian ethnic groups, like Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Kazakh, even Russian. And of course, there are elements from the Chinese food culture...

"Its a combination of everything: Middle Eastern, Turkish, Central Asian, Chinese, you name it.

Most Uyghur food dishes include mutton or lamb. Uyghurs are known across China for their lamb kawap -- or kebabs. The meat is cooked on a grill and covered with cumin and other spices.

Another traditional Uyghur food is laghman -- fresh hand-pulled noodles, served with lamb, vegetables and a spicy sauce. The name of this dish is related to the Chinese la mian -- or stretched noodles.

But no dish is more central to Uyghur food and culture than polo. Bakir calls it the life blood of man.

Polo is a rice pilaf -- a dish made of seasoned rice and meat and vegetables. Many Central Asian countries have their own version of pilaf. Uzbeks call it plov; Afghans call it palau.

How to make Uyghur polo

The main ingredients in Uyghur polo are rice, carrots, onions, lamb and oil. Other ingredients are salt, sugar, cumin and water.

Ekber Kayser owns Dolan with his wife. He is also its head chef. On most days, Ebker prepares the polo at the restaurant. That means he must expertly cut huge amounts of carrots, onions and meat at the start of each day, Bakir explains.

Carrots need to be sliced into the correct shapes and sizes. And then onion needs to be sliced in its own way

Polo is cooked in a large, round pot. After the ingredients are prepared, Ekber heats the pot on the stove.

Once the pot is hot, he adds in a large amount of cooking oil. Then, he adds the onions and meat, followed by the carrots.

The chef then waits a few minutes before adding salt, sugar and then the water to the pot.

This is when, in Bakirs words, it gets tricky.

After the mixture comes to a boil, Ekber tastes the mixture over and over. He then adds a little salt, and then sugar. Then, he tastes it again and again, until the flavor is just right.

Uyghurs do not use exact measurements in their cooking. To prepare polo, the cook must taste dish every few minutes to make sure the flavor is correct.

When he or she feels right about it, then thats where its right. So, it has to be tasted and confirmed by the person who cooks it. Theres no way to measure.

Bakir says polo should be strong in flavor.

Once the taste is just right, Ekber adds the uncooked rice and spreads it around. Then, he covers the pot. The mixture steams for five or 10 minutes.

After this, Ekber removes the lid from the pot and mixes the rice around to make sure all of the flavors of the ingredients are spread evenly.

Then, he uses a chopstick to make holes in the mixture. This releases air and helps make the dish more flavorful.

After mixing the rice and making the holes, Ekber lets the rice mixture continue to steam for another 30 minutes.

Then, the polo is served.

It is often topped with cumin and a generous amount of meat. Some Uyghurs eat polo with a side of yogurt and a small salad made of cucumbers, onions and other cold vegetables.

You can eat it any time you like

In Xinjiang, there are many different kinds of polo. Some Uyghur cooks add raisins or apricots to polo. Xinjiang grows a lot of both fruits. Others may add chickpeas, walnuts, or even hard-boiled eggs.

Bakir says he can eat polo in whatever way, at any time of day.

Well, honestly speaking, I would eat polo all day long. And I will never get bored from eating polo. Back home...I used to eat polo...early in the morning, like 6 or 7 o'clock. So it's not really a dish that you eat at a certain time, for lunch or dinner, so to speak. But you can eat it any time you like."

Along with being a popular food all day long, polo is also commonly served at big gatherings, Bakir says.

Polo is traditionally served at parties and weddings -- gatherings -- as a way of showing respect to your guests and to your friends or family. And its also a way of celebrating or enjoying the rich cultural elements, I mean in this case, Uyghur culture.

In his native language, Bakir says that he hopes Uyghur food continues to spread across America.

"Uyghur food is strong in both taste and smell. It gives people nourishment and strength. Therefore, we hope the American people like Uyghur food. We hope Uyghur food becomes an important part of American culture. We will strive to make it happen.

Im Ashley Thompson.

And Im John Russell.

Ashley Thompson wrote this article for VOA Learning English. Olivia Liu filmed and produced the video. Caty Weaver was the editor.

What is the most significant or important food in your culture? Tell us about it in the comments section!

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

delightful - adj. very pleasant : giving or causing delight very pleasant : giving or causing delight

academic - adj. of or relating to schools and education

context - n. the words that are used with a certain word or phrase and that help to explain its meaning

cuisine - n . a style of cooking

core - n . the central part of something

echo - n . something (such as a feature or quality) that repeats or resembles something else

Turkic - adj. relating to a group of similar languages of western and central Asia

practice - v. to do (something) regularly or constantly as an ordinary part of your life

ingredient - n . one of the things that are used to make a food, product, etc.

spicy - adj. flavored with or containing strong spices and especially ones that cause a burning feeling in your mouth

chef - n . a professional cook who usually is in charge of a kitchen in a restaurant

significant - adj. very important

slice - v. to cut something with a sharp object (such as a knife)

tricky - adj. requiring skill or caution

flavor - n . the quality of something that you can taste

steam - v. to cook, heat, or treat (something) with steam

generous - adj. providing more than the amount that is needed or normal

nourishment - n . food and other things that are needed for health, growth, etc.

strive - v. to try very hard to do or achieve something
Germany withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty

Is Jordan country that has not supplied arms to Armenia?: 'The press usually has reliable information'

European Commission approves nationalization of Russian Gazprom's German subsidiary

Pashinyan: If the state interferes with the exchange rate unnecessarily, the economy will only suffer

U.S. to work with strategic coalition of Southeast Asian countries

Armenian PM: To reform army, it is necessary to make military service more attractive

Putin and Raisi discuss topical issues of the bilateral agenda

Blinken: Ukraine must decide on timing and content of any talks with Russia

Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians

More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official

Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)

Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit

EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries

Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms

Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians

Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO

Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel

Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack

Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade

Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia

Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible

Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence

US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes

U.S. fears that European support for Ukrainian strategy will begin to weaken

Armenia, Iran emphasize need to quickly implement agreements reached (PHOTOS)

Armenia soldier wounded by Azerbaijan shooting undergoes surgery

Gas over morality: Hungary guards Azerbaijan's interests

U.S. quietly seeks concessions from Saudi Arabia after Mohammed bin Salman humiliated Biden

Italy's Ambassador to Armenia visits Gyumri

Russian Armed Forces complete redeployment of grouping from right bank of Dnieper

IRGC: Adversaries are frightened and on alert

Armenia appoints ambassador to Sri Lanka

Kremlin doesn't consider leaving Kherson 'humiliating'

Israeli president thinks the world is concerned about Netanyahu's far-right coalition partner

Chinese MFA: China is not distancing itself from Russia, as Biden believes

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Marukyan: Azerbaijans Aliyev admitted that his country started 2nd Karabakh war, despite previously insisting opposite

Azerbaijan blackmailing Armenia through Lachin corridor

Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus becomes observer in Organization of Turkic States

Armenia PM: In his latest speech Aliyev flagrantly violated agreement on refraining from threat or use of force

World Bank official: Armenia is one of best countries in terms of credit portfolio performance

Azerbaijan president makes repeated accusations, threats against Armenia

Iran citizens injured in Armenia road accident

China reveals new giant drone that could point to the future of air warfare

US embassy in Armenia closed today

Karabakh MOD: Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions located in occupied territories

Israel and U.S. counter threat of hypersonic missiles together

U.S. and EU plan to publish new roadmap on artificial intelligence

Armenia ombudsperson meets with Belgium colleagues

Newspaper: Armenia parliament opposition seats to no longer be empty

Newspaper: Armenia parliament committee of inquiry into 2020 war circumstances is inactive

U.S. will no longer consider Russia a country with a market economy

US intends to protect Azerbaijan from threats of Iran

Aliyev, Erdogan discuss results of tripartite meeting in Russias Sochi
Douglas Duncan is a fully committed total eclipse chaser.

Hes followed these black and luminous visions in the sky from China to the Galapagos. Duncan once shot footage of an eclipse at the moment of totality in Baja California. Play back the video and you can hear a crowd of excitable college students roaring profanities at the sky.

A total eclipse looks like the end of the world, Duncan noted drily. It makes you say some colorful things. You dont say wow or holy cow.

Next week, Duncan, who earned his Ph. D in astronomy from UC Santa Cruz in 1980, and is now director of the Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado, will lead an eager throng of like-minded eclipse chasers to Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming, where he and a healthy contingent of other UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, will gather to lecture and learn about the eclipse before taking in the big event itself on August 21st.

Excitement is building because this will be an exceedingly rare coast to coast solar eclipse in which a 70-mile-wide band of shadow, made possible by the moon slipping between the earth and the sun, will rush eastward from the Oregon coast to South Carolina. The last coast-to-coaster was 99 years ago. The New York Times recently estimated that 100 million people live insider or close to this path of totality.

Many of those people will be looking at the sky  with special protective sunglasses, of course.

And dont expect Duncan to curb his enthusiasm beforehand. Duncan, who is quoted frequently in publications such as the Washington Post, has become one of the most vocal cheerleaders for the eclipse. Long drives? Gigantic crowds? Traffic jams? Forget about it. Duncan says any inconvenience would be well worth it, considering this is the event of a lifetime. This is something you will not forget to your dying day, he said.

Duncan has led several other full solar eclipse trips in other parts of the world. Hes even developed an online Coursera course about the sun and the 2017 eclipse to prepare as many people as possible for totality. He and three of his astronomer colleagues recently secured a grant that helped them provide eclipse education resources to 7,000 libraries and viewing centers all over the United States.

Planning ahead

Duncan predicted that there would be an eclipse frenzy this year, so he planned ahead  way ahead, in fact.

Four years ago, he found a grand old hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that he knew would be perfect for his informal eclipse-watching symposium, so he approached the front desk with a unique request. I said, I would like rooms for 300 people four years from now. I gave them the deposit.

It was a powerful feeling. He said he felt as if I owned the rooms.

Some of the guests booked way in advance. One of them, Meg Corman, special assistant to UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal, made reservations for the Wyoming trip two years ago. I met Doug during the 50th anniversary celebration, and he told me about the trip, she said. I talked to my friends about it. Now there are six of us going!

Duncans eclipse event will be a reunion of sorts for UC Santa Cruz graduates. In fact, he estimates that two thirds of the speakers went to UC Santa Cruz, including astronaut Steve Hawley (Ph.D., astronomy and astrophysics,1977) and astronomer Nick Suntzeff (Ph.D, astronomy and astrophysics, 1980.)Duncan was at UC Santa Cruz from 1973 to 1980. While he was here, he forged lasting connections with faculty and administration. For instance, my cosmology professor was a guy named George Blumenthal, he noted with a chuckle, referring to the current chancellor of UC Santa Cruz.

If you are one of the throngs of people heading out for Oregon, Wyoming, and other eclipse-zone dark spots, prepare to witness some wild behavior  and not just among your fellow human beings. In 1998, in the Galapagos, five minutes before totality, Duncan was on a boat. Suddenly something peculiar happened. Every whale and dolphin in the vicinity swam back and forth during the total eclipse. Then they vanished. We were there 10 days and didnt see them again, Duncan said.

Asked to explain this strange occurrence, Duncan explained that these sea creatures live close to the equator and are accustomed to 12 hours of light for most days of the year. Naturally, they were flummoxed when nighttime came and vanished so quickly. I figure they came up to see what was going on, he said.

In 1994, during a total eclipse in Bolivia, Duncan and his cohorts were staring up at the sky. Then someone excitedly shouted, look down.

We looked down, and we were surrounded by llamas, Duncan said. No one saw where they came from. When the eclipse was over, they kind of got in a line and marched away.

If you are planning an eclipse-watching trip, or just want to follow the progress of the eclipse shadow, check out NASAs eclipse website, which also offers information on past and future eclipses, as does the website of Fiske Planetarium, which Duncan directs: www.colorado.edu/eclipse
By Benjamin Jumbe:

President elect of the republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta has called on all citizens to keep peace and unity.

Uhuru made the call shortly after being declared winners of the 8th august presidential election together with his running mate William Ruto as Deputy President by the independent electoral and boundaries Commission.

Addressing a cheering audience, Uhuru said all Kenyans are brothers and sisters and should put the elections and campaigns behind and move together as one.

He further expressed his willingness to work with his competitor Raila Odinga and the rest of the opposition to build Kenya saying there is no enmity

Kenyatta garnered 8,203,290 votes representing 54.27% against NASAs Raila Odinga who got 6,762,224 votes representing 44.74%.
Firemen seek to control a blaze at Pietracorbara on August 11, 2017, on the French island of Corsica

Firefighters managed to contain huge wildfires in Portugal and the French island of Corsica on Saturday, though hot weather meant the risk of them spreading again remained high.

Almost 1,000 people were evacuated in Corsica overnight, mostly tourists staying at campsites, as 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of scrubland was destroyed, although no casualties were reported. The evacuees were put up in schools and other temporary shelters.

A man suspected of starting five fires in Bastia, a town with a population of 40,000 in northeast Corsica, was arrested late Friday, an official said.

At Cap Corse, the most northerly point of the Mediterranean island where the fire had spread overnight, the blaze was "contained but not controlled", according to the local authorities Saturday.

"It's hell," Christian Burchi, a 50-year-old Sisco resident said. "We tried to extinguish the flames with two buckets of water and a ridiculous hose. Everywhere is burning."

In Portugal firefighters managed to bring two of the major blazes under control in the centre of the country by Saturday afternoon, the civil protection authority announced, while warning that the heatwave could reignite the fires.

Firefighters have stopped the spreading of the flames from the forest fire that raged in the region of Abrantes since Wednesday, authorities said.

But more than 500 firefighters, nearly 200 vehicles and three water-bombing helicopters remain on standby should the fires flare up again, they added.

The other huge fire now under control was at Alvaiazere in the central region of Leiria.

After an uncommonly dry winter and spring, almost 79 percent of the Portuguese mainland was enduring extreme or severe drought at the end of July

Civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said a record 220 fires had started on Friday alone.

"Despite the relentless fires, the situation is now more stable," said Gaspar in Lisbon.

Emergency workers had nearly gained control of wildfires across Portugal's drought-hit central region on Thursday, but stronger winds fanned flames in several areas.

In the village of Bracal, flames were being blown towards houses as residents grabbed what they could to aid firefighters, an AFP journalist said.

Some residents voiced anger at authorities after a season of repeated wildfires which have stretched resources.

"Firefighters can't perform miracles, they are exhausted," said Lucia Ricardo, who lives in Bracal, close to Abrantes.

Six villages had been evacuated around Abrantes on Thursday as fire-dousing planes flew sorties over the flames.

The fires come after more than 60 people were killed in June, and more than 200 injured, in a giant blaze at Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal that raged for five days.

After an uncommonly dry winter and spring, almost 79 percent of the Portuguese mainland was enduring extreme or severe drought at the end of July, according to the national weather office.

 2017 AFP
New research by human development and family studies professor Karen Kramer and doctoral researcher Sunjin Pak found that men's and women's psychological well-being is affected differently when their wages and share of their family's income changes. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s suggested that women and men would have equal shots at happinesswhether they were their families' primary breadwinners or stay-at-home parents.

However, the reality has been far more nuanced for many families in the U.S. And new research out of the University of Illinois suggests that some mothers' and fathers' psychological well-being may suffer when their work and family identities - and the amount of financial support they provideconflict with conventional gender roles.

Researchers Karen Kramer and Sunjin Pak found that when women's paychecks increased to compose the majority of their families' income, these women reported more symptoms of depression.

However, Kramer and Pak found the opposite effect in men: Dads' psychological well-being improved over time when they became the primary wage-earners for their families.

The data sample comprised more than 1,463 men and 1,769 women who participated in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. A majority of the individuals in the study, all born between 1957 and 1965, were members of the baby-boom generation. Participants' psychological well-being was measured in 1991 and 1994 using a seven-item scale that assessed their levels of depressive symptoms.

Kramer and Pak found that although women's psychological well-being was not affected by exiting the workforce to become stay-at-home moms, men's mental health declined when they stayed home to care for the kids.

"We observed a statistically significant and substantial difference in depressive symptoms between men and women in our study," said Kramer, who is a professor of human development and family studies.

"The results supported the overarching hypothesis: Well-being was lower for mothers and fathers who violated gendered expectations about the division of paid labor, and higher for parents who conformed to these expectations."

While women's educational and career opportunities have multiplied in recent decades, societal norms and expectations about gendered divisions of labor in the workplace and the home have been slower to evolve, according to the researchers.

Mothers and fathers who deviate from conventional gender rolessuch as dads who leave the workforce to care for their children full timemay be perceived negatively, potentially impacting their mental health, Kramer and Pak wrote.

The researchers also explored whether parents who held more egalitarian ideas about men's and women's responsibilities as wage earners and caretakers for their families fared betterand Kramer and Pak found gender differences there as well.

Women in the study who viewed themselves and their spouses as equally responsible for financially supporting their families and caring for their homes and offspring experienced better mental health when their wages and share of the family's income increased.

However, regardless of their beliefs, men's mental health took a hit when their earnings as a proportion of the family income shranksuggesting perhaps that "work identity and (the) traditional role of primary earner are still critical for men, even when they have more egalitarian gender ideology," the researchers wrote.

Kramer is to present the paper at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 12-15 in Montreal.

Pak is a doctoral student at Illinois.

More information: "Depression and Relative Earnings in Families" American Sociological Association, August 12-15 in Montreal.
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Meritor, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, sells, services, and supports integrated systems, modules, and components in North America, South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through two segments, Commercial Truck, and Aftermarket and Industrial. The company offers axles, including front steer and rear drive axles for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles; heavy-duty trailer axles; suspension modules and brake products comprising drum and disc brakes; universal joints and driveline components; trailer air suspension systems and products; transfer cases and drivelines; and advanced suspension modules for use in light-, medium- and heavy-duty military tactical wheeled vehicles. It also provides air brakes, such as cam drum, wedge drum, and air disc brakes, as well as wheel-end components, including hubs, drums, and rotors to medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle manufacturers; and electric drive systems comprising electric motors and inverters, power electronics, battery pack, electrified accessories, and related software and controls for terminal tractors and medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses. In addition, the company sells other complementary products, including third-party and private label items, which include brake shoes and friction materials; automatic slack adjusters; yokes and shafts; wheel-end hubs and drums; ABS and stability control systems; shock absorbers and air springs; and air brakes. Meritor, Inc. sells its products under the Meritor, Euclid, Trucktechnic, US Gear, AxleTech, and Mach brands primarily to original equipment manufacturers, their parts marketing operations, and their dealers, as well as other independent distributors and service garages in the aftermarket industry. The company was formerly known as ArvinMeritor, Inc. and changed its name to Meritor, Inc. in March 2011. Meritor, Inc. was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a marine fuel logistics company that markets and supplies refined marine fuel and lubricants to vessels in port, at sea, and on rivers worldwide. The company offers fueling services to ocean-going and a range of coastal vessels, including oil tankers, container ships, drybulk carriers, cruise ships, reefers, LNG/LPG carriers, car carriers, and ferries, as well as to marine fuel traders, brokers, and other end-users of marine fuel and lubricants. It also markets and distributes marine lubricants under the Alfa Marine Lubricants brand; and provides a range of shipping services, such as technical support and maintenance, insurance arrangement and handling, financial administration, and accounting services. As of December 31, 2016, the company owned and operated a fleet of 46 bunkering vessels, including 45 double hulls and 1 single hull special purpose vehicle; 15 double hull bunkering vessels with an aggregate carrying capacity of approximately 292,400 deadweight ton (dwt); operated 10 land-based storage facilities with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 1,075,000 cubic meters; and operated 2 vessels as floating storage facility with a cargo carrying capacity of approximately 86,800 dwt. Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Athens, Greece.
Motorola Solutions, Inc. provides mission critical communications and analytics in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation, and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Its land mobile radio communications and video security and access control devices include two-way portable and vehicle-mounted radios, fixed and mobile video cameras, and accessories; radio network core and central processing software, base stations, consoles, and repeaters; and video analytics, network video management hardware and software, and access control solutions. The Software and Services segment provides repair, technical support, and hardware maintenance services. This segment also offers monitoring, software updates, and cybersecurity services; and public safety and enterprise command center software, unified communications applications, and video software solutions through on-premise and as a service. It serves government, public safety, and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as Motorola, Inc. and changed its name to Motorola Solutions, Inc. in January 2011. Motorola Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Camping World Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, retails recreational vehicles (RVs), and related products and services. It operates in two segments, Good Sam Services and Plans; and RV and Outdoor Retail. The company provides a portfolio of services, protection plans, products, and resources in the RV industry. It also offers extended vehicle service contracts; roadside assistance plans; property and casualty insurance programs; travel assist travel protection plans; and RV and outdoor related consumer shows, as well as produces various monthly and annual RV focused consumer magazines; and operates the Coast to Coast Club. In addition, the company provides new and used RVs; vehicle financing; RV repair and maintenance services; various RV parts, equipment, supplies, and accessories, which include towing and hitching products, satellite and GPS systems, electrical and lighting products, appliances and furniture, and other products; and collision repair services comprising fiberglass front and rear cap replacement, windshield replacement, interior remodel solutions, and paint and body work. Further, it offers equipment, gears, and supplies for camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, snowboarding, bicycling, skateboarding, and marine and watersports equipment and supplies, as well as operates Good Sam Club, a membership organization that offers savings on a range of products and services and provides co-branded credit cards. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated through a network of approximately 187 retail locations in 40 states of the United States. It serves customers through dealerships, and online and e-commerce platforms. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.
Note that this only concerns my own imagery posted here, not imagery by others which I post with permission (the latter are clearly indicated as such in the subscripts)!

Excerpt from United Nations resolution 2222 (XXI)

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies





In order to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, States Parties to the Treaty conducting activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, agree to inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations as well as the public and the international scientific community, to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, of the nature, conduct, locations and results of such activities. On receiving the said information, the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be prepared to disseminate it immediately and effectively.


Anti-immigration activists whose boat was reported in trouble said Friday they had got their engines going again, after a migrant rescue ship said it had been dispatched to help. The C-Star, which has vowed to expose what it describes as "collaboration" between privately-funded rescue ships and people traffickers, said earlier on Twitter it had "developed a minor technical problem during the night", leaving it adrift but not in distress. Germany's Sea-Eye, one of nine NGOs involved in migrant search and rescue (SAR) operations and a target of the C-Star's campaign, said it had been "asked by the MRCC (command centre in Rome) to assist the ship". But later Friday a spokesman for C-Star told AFP that the boat, which had only just got going against after being blocked for five days off the coast of Tunisia, simply stopped its engines to resolve a technical problem. This was what set off a signal to other boats in the nearby area, but not asking for help, he said. The Sea-Eye returned to its previous route and activities once it was told its help was not needed by the C-Star. The Italian coast guard could not be reached for a comment. The C-Star has been plagued with problems since its mission began last month. It was initially refused permission to travel through the Suez Canal, before later being blocked over legal questions in Cyprus. After finally making it to Libya's SAR zone, it needed to refuel but found itself stuck off the coast of Tunisia earlier this week after fishermen and a powerful Tunisian union refused to allow passage. The 40-metre long ship, which is flying under a Mongolian flag, is leased by the far-right group "Generation Identity". Funded by Internet-collected donations of more than $212,000 (180,000 euros), the Austrian, French, German and Italian activists on board have vowed to ensure migrants rescued at sea off Libya be returned to Africa. Two NGO ships were badgered at sea by the C-Star last week with a radio message telling them to "leave the rescue zone" and "stop acting as an incentive for human traffickers". The message echoed one transmitted Thursday by the Libyan navy, which has banned any unauthorised foreign ships from entering the SAR zone off its coast.
A British court on Friday denied bail to an ex-wife of jailed former Liberian president Charles Taylor, ahead of her trial on charges of torture during his rebellion. Agnes Reeves Taylor, who lives in east London, faces four allegations dating back to December 1989, when forces loyal to her former husband launched their first attack on Liberian territory. She appeared in London's Old Bailey court via video link, speaking only to confirm her name before a judge rejected her application for bail. Two charges relate to claims that between December 23, 1989, and January 1, 1991, Taylor "intentionally inflicted severe pain or suffering on an individual in the performance or purported performance of her official duties" in the central Liberian city of Gbarnga. Gbarnga was the base of Taylor's rebellion against president Samuel Doe, which deteriorated into one of Africa's bloodiest conflicts. Another count relates to the same period and the same allegation, but this time in Gborplay, on the border with Ivory Coast. The fourth count says that between the same period, Taylor "agreed with others" on a course of action that "would necessarily amount to or involve the commission of the offence of torture". Charles Taylor, once Liberia's most feared rebel fighter who served as president from 1997 to 2003, is serving a 50-year sentence in a British jail for his role in fuelling the civil conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The couple divorced in 1996. No date was set for the beginning of the trial, but it is expected to take place in October.
Hong Kong's official radio station said it will replace its 24-hour BBC broadcast with Chinese state-run programming in a move critics on Saturday said was a step towards "mainlandisation". The city's Radio Television Hong Kong has been broadcasting the BBC World Service live since 1978 but will replace it starting September 4 with the China National Radio Hong Kong Edition (CNR). Some see the move as signs that the city is further aligning itself with China. "This is absolutely one step forward towards mainlandisation in Hong Kong," pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told AFP, adding that Chinese authorities may feel that city residents were not patriotic enough. "They should all be reigned in and taught to feel Chinese," Mo said of the motive behind the move, which comes at a time when many feel Beijing is squeezing the semi-autonomous city's freedoms. Residents also took to social media to decry the move, with Yu Yeuk-mui saying on Facebook: "One more bad news! Hong Kong is burning already". Frustrations over the city's political and social developments have led to the emergence of a new independence movement calling for Hong Kong to break from the mainland. The unveiling of a controversial rail link to the mainland last month which would see a portion of the city come under Chinese law has been the focus of the most recent backlash, with critics saying the city's cherished freedoms are being eroded. RTHK's head of corporate communications Amen Ng said the CNR Hong Kong edition is "tailor-made for Hong Kong people". "It will encourage the cultural exchange between mainland China and Hong Kong," Ng said. Bank teller Alex Yan agreed, saying the benefits of the broadcast outweighed the disadvantages as the new CNR programming would offer residents an insight into the lives of their northern neighbours. "It can help them better understand the things happening in China," Yan, 21, said. The CNR broadcast will include programming in news, arts and culture, and lifestyle mostly in Mandarin, with some programmes in Cantonese. The official language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, while Mandarin is the main language over the border. RTHK said it will still be broadcasting the BBC World Service, which residents use as an English-learning tool, but it will switch to another channel for eight hours from 11pm onwards on a daily basis. Hong Kong was handed back to China by colonial ruler Britain in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula designed to protect its freedoms and way of life.
Firefighters managed to contain huge wildfires in Portugal and the French island of Corsica on Saturday, though hot weather meant the risk of them spreading again remained high. Almost 1,000 people were evacuated in Corsica overnight, mostly tourists staying at campsites, as 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of scrubland was destroyed, although no casualties were reported. The evacuees were put up in schools and other temporary shelters. A man suspected of starting five fires in Bastia, a town with a population of 40,000 in northeast Corsica, was arrested and will remain in detention at least through the weekend, officials said. At Cap Corse, the most northerly point of the Mediterranean island where the fire had spread, the blaze was "contained but not controlled", according to the local authorities Saturday. "It's hell," Christian Burchi, a 50-year-old Sisco resident said. "We tried to extinguish the flames with two buckets of water and a ridiculous hose. Everywhere is burning." Around 180 firefighters, bolstered by reinforcements from the mainland, were battling the flames aided by three fire-bombing aircraft. Bernard Weber, a 60-year-old Frenchman on holiday in Corsica, spoke of "huge flames everywhere". "It's a bit scary," said a 36-year-old Czech tourist who gave her name as Monika. She said her relatives would spend the night in a school building in Sisco. France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb praised the "admirable work" of the hundreds of emergency services workers battling the blazes. - Freak dry spells - In Portugal firefighters managed to bring two of the major blazes under control in the centre of the country by Saturday afternoon, the civil protection authority announced, while warning that the heatwave could reignite the fires. Firefighters have stopped the spreading of the flames from the forest fire that raged in the region of Abrantes since Wednesday, authorities said. But more than 500 firefighters, nearly 200 vehicles and three water-bombing helicopters remain on standby should the fires flare up again, they added. The other huge fire now under control was at Alvaiazere in the central region of Leiria. Civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said a record 220 fires had started on Friday alone. "Despite the relentless fires, the situation is now more stable," said Gaspar in Lisbon. Emergency workers had nearly gained control of wildfires across Portugal's drought-hit central region on Thursday, but stronger winds fanned flames in several areas. In the village of Bracal, flames were being blown towards houses as residents grabbed what they could to aid firefighters, an AFP journalist said. Some residents voiced anger at authorities after a season of repeated wildfires which have stretched resources. "Firefighters can't perform miracles, they are exhausted," said Lucia Ricardo, who lives in Bracal, close to Abrantes. Six villages had been evacuated around Abrantes on Thursday as fire-dousing planes flew sorties over the flames. The fires come after more than 60 people were killed in June, and more than 200 injured, in a giant blaze at Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal that raged for five days. After an uncommonly dry winter and spring, almost 79 percent of the Portuguese mainland was enduring extreme or severe drought at the end of July, according to the national weather office. burs-pg/mt
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in London for treatment of an undisclosed illness for more than three months, has assured a government delegation that he is doing fine. "I am okay," the 74-year-old leader said, according to a Saturday statement from the information ministry. "I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed." The comments came following protests in the capital Abuja demanding that Buhari "return or resign". "If President Buhari cannot return to Nigeria after 90 days, then he should resign and go home", one protester said at a sit-in on Monday. "Buhari, where are you? Nigerians want full disclosure. What is wrong with our president?" read other placards. Buhari left for the British capital on May 7 on what is his latest medical trip. He has been dogged by speculation about his health since June last year when he went to London for the first time to be treated for what his office said was a persistent ear infection. Buhari's main opponents in the 2015 election that brought him to power claimed he had prostate cancer, which he denied. The health of Nigeria's leaders has been a sensitive issue since the death in office of president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 after months of treatment abroad.
By Katharine Houreld and Maggie Fick NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police have killed at least 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums surrounding the capital, officials and witnesses said on Saturday. However, the NASA opposition coalition, led by four-time presidential hopeful Raila Odinga, put the death toll at more than 100, including 10 children, but did not provide evidence. Odinga has rejected the poll and its result as "massive" fraud. The eruption of violence has revived memories of a decade ago, when Odinga, now 72, lost an election in controversial circumstances that sparked a wave of political and ethnic unrest in which 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 displaced. Kofi Annan, the former U.N. head who mediated during that crisis, on Saturday issued a statement warning Kenya's leaders to "be careful with their rhetoric and actions in this tense atmosphere". Reuters was able to confirm 11 deaths, including one girl, in the space of 24 hours. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said 24 people had been shot dead by police since Tuesday, election day. Top Odinga lieutenant Johnson Muthama said police had been packing corpses into body bags and dumping them, remarks likely to exacerbate the tensions that followed Friday night's official announcement that Kenyatta had won, with 54.3 percent of votes. Mwenda Njeka, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the opposition claims were "hogwash". Acting Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i had earlier said trouble was localised and blamed it on "criminal elements" rather than legitimate political protest. He also denied accusations of police brutality. "Let us be honest - there are no demonstrations happening," he told reporters. "Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into people's businesses  those are not demonstrators. They are criminals and we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with." "STATE TERROR" However, James Orengo, another top NASA official, said the killings were part of a carefully laid plan by 55-year-old Kenyatta's Jubilee party and the security forces to rig the poll, crush dissent and then hide the evidence. "This violence, this state terror is being executed following very meticulous preparation," he said. He and Muthama urged Odinga supporters to stay calm and out of harm's way but, ominously, said there would be no backing down. "We will not be cowed. We will not relent," Muthama said. As with previous votes in 2007 and 2013, this year's elections have exposed the underlying ethnic tensions in the nation of 45 million people, the economic engine of East Africa and the region's main trading hub. In particular, Odinga's Luo tribe, who hail from the west, hoped an Odinga presidency would break the Kikuyu and Kalenjin dominance of central government since independence in 1963. Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, is a Kikuyu. Most of the trouble has been in the western city of Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, and the large, ethnically mixed slums on the outskirts of Nairobi. The bodies of nine young men shot dead in the capital's run-down Mathare neighbourhood were brought to the city morgue, a security official said. A young girl was also killed by a stray bullet in Mathare, according to a witness. A government official said one man had been killed in Kisumu county. A Reuters reporter in the city heard tear gas grenades and gunshots overnight and on Saturday morning. In addition to the deaths, officials at Kisumu's main hospital said they had treated 26 people since Friday night, including four with gunshot wounds and others who had been beaten by police. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had treated 54 patients, including seven for gunshot wounds. "THIS IS JUST A WARM-UP" One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in Kisumu's impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and set about him with clubs. "He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him," said his brother, Charles Ochieng. "She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people." In Nairobi, armed police and water cannons moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum. At one point they fired volleys of tear gas and live rounds to force a convoy of pick-up trucks containing senior NASA officials to retreat, a Reuters witness said. Fleeing Odinga loyalists vowed to vent their rage at the seat of Kenyatta's administration in central Nairobi. "This is just a warm-up. Tomorrow we will go to State House and they can kill us there," shouted Felix Oduor, 18, as he ran from clouds of tear gas along Kibera's railway line. "They can't kill us all," those around him shouted in response. Annan reiterated calls for Odinga to lodge any complaint in court but the opposition has said it does not trust the system. Even before the official result was declared, NASA had rejected the poll's outcome, saying the election commission's systems had been hacked, the count was irregular, and foreign observers who endorsed the poll and the count were biased. NASA provided no evidence but singled out former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former South African president Thabo Mbeki - who both led teams of observers - for criticism. Kenya's ELOG domestic observation group, which had 8,300 agents on the ground, published a parallel vote tally on Saturday that conformed with the official results. (Additional reporting by Humphrey Mulalo, David Lewis and Linda Muriki; Writing by Ed Cropley and David Lewis; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Bolton)
M Ravi speaking to reporters at the Speakers Corner in Singapore in 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Lawyer M Ravi was charged in court on Saturday (12 August) with causing public nuisance, voluntarily causing hurt and committing a rash act.

The charges include two counts of causing public nuisance at Sri Mariamman Temple on 31 July and 11 August; and voluntarily causing hurt to Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss and committing a rash act against Nakoorsha Abdul Kadir on 8 August.

District Judge Carol Ling ordered that M Ravi be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for two weeks for psychiatric observation, a report from The Straits Times said. His case will be heard again on 25 August.

Chong-Aruldoss, a lawyer at Eugene Thuraisingam LLP located at The Adelphi, said in a Facebook post on 8 August that Ravi pushed her to the floor near her office.

Her colleague made a police report over the alleged assault on the same day, said Chong-Aruldoss, who is a member of the Singapore Peoples Party.

Deputy public prosecutor Dillon Kok had called for Ravi to be remanded at the IMH, adding that he may be dangerous to other persons.

Ravi made a 20 minute statement in court accusing the prosecution of lying about his psychiatric situation and calling for Ling to recuse herself from the case due to possible bias, The Straits Times said.

Ravi also said he had been seeking psychiatric treatment and had been given medicine.

Formerly Eugene Thuraisingam LLPs Head of Knowledge Management and Strategic Alliance, Ravi was fired on 7 June this year after having started work last October. He was charged with criminal trespass in June after he allegedly unlawfully entered the premises of Eugene Thuraisingam LLP.

Eugene Thuraisingam said Ravi was fired for being unmanageable and rude to the firms staff. The firm had initially hired Ravi as it wanted to help the lawyer, who was unemployed due to his debarment.

Ravi, who is known for taking on human rights cases, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006. He was convicted on four charges of misconduct last October.

Story continues

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Human rights lawyer M Ravi charged with trespassing into law firm

Singapore human rights lawyer protests against his suspension
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said he feels ready to return to the country after being on medical leave in Britain, and he is waiting now for his doctor's permission, a presidency statement said on Saturday. Buhari's extended absence for an undisclosed ailment, his second this year, left many in Nigeria questioning whether he was well enough to run the country. The president has spent more time since the beginning of 2017 in Britain than in Nigeria. That has sparked numerous protests, including demands that Buhari should resign, as well as calls for more transparency about the president's condition. "I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge," Buhari said, according to Saturday's statement, adding that there has been a "tremendous improvement" in his health. The 74-year-old president had already been in London from January to March for sick leave before returning to Britain in May for further treatment. Both times, the president appointed his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, to act in his stead. That move helped allay fears of the intense political infighting of 2010 after then-president Umaru Yar'Adua fell ill and failed to nominate someone to run the country. It was only when Yar'Adua died that his vice president Goodluck Jonathan became Nigeria's leader, resolving the constitutional crisis. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by David Evans)
A Michigan grandmother died after being attacked by a hippo during a family trip to Tanzania.

Carol Kirken, a registered nurse and philanthropist from suburban Detroit, was watching the hippos with her son, Robert, when the attack unfolded. She died in his arms.

Read: Adventurer Shows Off His Gruesome Injuries After He's Attacked by Grizzly Bear - Twice

"Our cherished Carol Kirken died in Tanzania on August 5. She was on her annual holiday with family members for an African safari," the family wrote in her obituary.

Before her death, the 75-year-old had posted to Facebook to say how excited she was to witness a hippo migration.

Having [passed] 75 years old, she was resolutely shooting for 100," her obituary read. "She would have surely achieved it if not for this accident. We are shocked and saddened at her early departure from our lives.

Her obituary noted that she was "passionate about helping the less fortunate," and was part of multiple charitable efforts in her area.

"Without her there will always be a sadness," it read. "But the joy she created is so much... stronger for her family and friends."

Read: Zookeeper Called 'The Tiger Whisperer' Attacked and Killed by Big Cat

The tragedy highlights how hippos should never be underestimated. The beasts, which can weigh thousands of pounds, can outrun humans.

"The hippopotamus is the most dangerous animal in Africa," Tom Stalf, president and CEO of the Columbus Zoo, told Inside Edition. "They can travel nearly 20 mph. They have very sharp teeth."

Kirken's family was arranging for her body to be flown home and will be holding a memorial for her on Aug. 20, according to local reports.

One of her grandsons remembered her in a touching tribute on Facebook.

"You were an amazing woman and the greatest grandmother anyone could ask for," he wrote.

Watch: The Heart-Stopping Moment a Hippo Charged at a Truck on the Highway

Related Articles:
A supersecret sonic weapon being used to attack diplomats in a foreign country may sound like the start of a sci-fi novel, but that's exactly what several U.S. diplomats in Cuba may have been exposed to, the U.S. State Department recently announced.

The physical symptoms, which the State Department would not confirm, but which some news reports have suggested included hearing loss, got so bad that some of these officials had to be recalled from their duties in Havana.

"Some U.S. government personnel who were working at our embassy in Havana, Cuba, on official duties  so they were there working on behalf of the U.S. embassy there  they've reported some incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms," Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a news briefing Aug. 9.

After an extensive investigation, U.S. officials determined that a secret sonic weapon was to blame. [Mind Controlled Cats?? 6 Incredible Spy Technologies]

But what exactly could that weapon be, and how could it cause hearing loss without any of the people involved noticing a painful audible sound?

While the mysterious story has a lot of holes, one possibility is that the workers were exposed to infrasound, or low-frequency sound waves that are below the audible hearing range, said Charles Liberman, a hearing loss researcher at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston.

What we know

The strange symptoms emerged in the fall of 2016, when several employees at the U.S. embassy in Havana began complaining of physical symptoms. Many of the individuals were new to the embassy and some had to return to the United States because of the severity of their symptoms  the details of which have yet to be disclosed. An investigation by the U.S. government concluded that the symptoms could be attributed to a device that operated outside the audible hearing range and was used somewhere, possibly in their houses, Time magazine reported. Right now, there's no word on whether these devices were deliberately used. [Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 22 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets]

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In retaliation, the U.S. government expelled two Cuban diplomats on May 23, Nauert said.

Cuba denied any involvement in the bizarre scenario.

"Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception," according to a statement from the Cuban government.

Another possibility is that some other hostile group (such as Russian agents) may have initiated the attack, Time reported.

Hard of hearing

There are so many details missing in this story that it's hard to explain exactly what the device could be, Liberman said. However, sound-induced hearing loss requires that the mechanical part of the ear that senses audible sound be overloaded.

"You overstimulate the part of the ear that's mechanically tuned to those frequencies and it falls apart," Liberman.

If the people in the embassy didn't hear anything, that suggests the weapon probably didn't operate in the normal hearing range, or else it would have caused pain and been distracting, Liberman said. (Human audible hearing range is typically between 20 hertz, or cycles per second, and 20 kilohertz). If so, there's little possibility for it to damage the mechanical parts of the ear that are tuned to those frequencies, he said.

Infrasound

However, it's possible the devices somehow generate infrasound  the type of low-frequency sound given off by windmills or wind generators with the beating of the blades. Infrasound is below the human hearing range.

And yet, many people claim these machines are making them sick, and there are several lawsuits from people who live or work near wind farms, claiming they make them sick, according to Liberman.

"There is a growing controversy about people who live near these windmills who start feeling bad," Liberman told Live Science. "They get headaches, they get dizzy, they get nausea." [10 Odd Causes of Headaches]

For instance, a 2014 study in the journal Royal Society Open Science found that low-frequency sounds below the audible range could disrupt little whistles made by the ear, called spontaneous optoacoustic emissions, in response to noise. (How that mapped to symptoms, however, wasn't clear.)

In this instance, one possibility is that the infrasound stimulated the part of the ear not dedicated to hearing  the vestibular system that controls balance, Liberman said. In that instance, the symptoms wouldn't appear immediately.

"You could imagine them being very slow onset and very persistent," Liberman said. "It might take days before you even notice any funny sensations."

That may explain why the State Department refused to describe the symptoms experienced by their employees as including hearing loss, Liberman said.

High-frequency ultrasound

The other type of sound humans can't hear is ultrasound, which is above 20 khz. That's a less likely possibility because high-frequency sound dissipates quickly with distance and in tissue such as the ear. However, high-intensity, focused ultrasound has been used for everything from breaking kidney stones to cauterizing tissues in the body.

But the fact that it doesn't work well across long distances means it's tough to imagine a device could get close enough to the people to work, without them suspecting, Liberman said.

What's more, if a covert acoustic device using ultrasound produced enough energy to permeate and damage the ear from far away, it would probably heat the head up, too, Liberman said.

However, it's theoretically possible that high-frequency ultrasound may have somehow damaged the blood vessels in the ear canal, thereby leading to damage, he said. That seems less likely, but "I've been in science long enough to not discount as impossible things that seem improbable," Liberman said.

Sonic weapons

While the idea of a silent sonic weapon sounds like something out of James Bond, Inspector Gadget or the reject pile of DARPA, the idea of using sound as a weapon has a long history.

For instance, studies show that animals exposed to high-intensity, focused ultrasound can experience lung and brain damage. And a cruise line circling the pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast has taken to using a military-grade "sonic weapon" to deter would-be hijackers, the BBC reported. This long-range device, also known as a sound cannon, can cause permanent hearing loss at distances of up to 984 feet (300 meters), according to the BBC. Other companies have developed a magnetic acoustic device, commonly referred to as a sound laser, that deploys incredibly painful, focused beams of sound to deter people from an area, NPR reported. The Israeli army has also used a device known as "The Scream," which damages the inner ear, causing nausea and dizziness, Wired reported.

Originally published on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
A new car from Lexus has just joined the above-$500,000 club here.



SINGAPORE  The new Lexus LC 500 and 500h were launched in Singapore two weeks ago, and their price tag gives them the dubious honour of costing more than half a million dollars. They count the BMW 6 Series and Porsche 911 as rivals.

READ MORE > What its like to drive a Porsche 911 in Singapore

Still, that makes the Lexus LC only the third most expensive Japanese car here. Heres a rundown of the three priciest cars from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Lexus LC $554,000 with COE



With a price tag of $554,000 (with Certificate Of Entitlement) apiece, either of the LC coupes costs as much money it takes to buy a small apartment.

What you get instead is a plush, powerful cruiser with four seats and outrageous styling (we know which wed rather have).

The Lexus pair are technically accomplished, too. The more sporty LC 500 has a 10-speed automatic gearbox, while the more refined LC 500h (the h stands for hybrid) actually has two gearboxes  one more for efficiency and smoothness, and another to introduce a more conventional feel to the way the car accelerates.

The cars chief engineer Koji Sato was in Singapore to launch the car, and said the LC represents a new way of doing business for Lexus, and is meant to be more than just a car. You dont think your half-a-million bucks only actually bought you a mere car, did you?

Nissan GT-R $620,000 with COE

Every driving enthusiast has some familiarity with the fearsome Nissan GT-R, although most of us are only acquainted with one in theory. It costs $620,000 to buy one here, after all.

Yet, if any high performance car could be considered a bargain, the Nissan is it. A mild facelift has kept this supercar-slaying car fresh, with mild tweaks for the twin-turbo, 3.8-litre V6 engine giving it 570 horsepower; thats the sort of oomph you would have had to buy a Ferrari for, not long ago.

Most cars are evaluated in terms of 0 t0 100km/h time, but with the GT-R its probably more meaningful to ponder the time it takes to get to 200km/h: around 12 seconds, which means it must have the kind of acceleration to bend your spleen.

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Apart from raw performance, the GT-R does offer unusual touches of perfectionism. Each engine is hand-built, and only five people in the world are allowed to assemble them. Its titanium exhaust system is also painstakingly crafted by hand.

Now do you feel better about the price?

Honda NSX $929,999 with COE

The big daddy of Japanese cars here (at least in terms of price) is a Honda with a legendary name. This hybrid super coupe is only the second car to wear the NSX badge, but it lives up to the spirit of the name (which stands for New Sportscar eXperimenal) in many ways.



Its a standard supercar in some ways (lightweight body made of advanced material, powerful engine behind the passengers) but it has plenty of new tech to help it serve up fast laptimes effortlessly: namely, electric motors front and back.

Driving it is a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 worth 507hp alone, with a 48hp electric motor to add spice.

The front is driven by a pair of motors, each one producing 37hp. They can act individually, helping the car to steer aggressively into corners and feel painted to the tarmac.

The NSX may not be as dramatic as a Lamborghini, but its breathtakingly fast and, thanks to the technology, much easier to handle around a racetrack than its exotic rivals. Most of us would probably be faster in one than in a Ferrari.

Surely thats worth the money?



READ MORE

Heres what happened when we drove the Honda NSX on a racing circuit

Heres why the Lexus LC 500 really costs $554,000 in Singapore

For the latest motoring news and Singapore car reviews, there is only CarBuyer.com.sg
By Maher Chmaytelli ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurds are sticking to a plan to hold an independence referendum on Sept. 25, despite a U.S. request to postpone it, a high-ranking Kurdish official told Reuters on Saturday. The United States and other Western nations are worried that the vote could ignite a fresh conflict with Baghdad and turn into another regional flashpoint. Turkey, Iran and Syria, which together with Iraq have sizeable Kurdish populations, all oppose an independent Kurdistan. "The date is standing, Sept. 25, no change," said Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Barzani to postpone the referendum. Tillerson made the request in a phone call with Barzani on Thursday, Zebari said. "On the issue of the postponement of the referendum, the President (Barzani) stated that the people of the Kurdistan Region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future," said a statement issued on Friday by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) presidency, after Tillerson's call. The U.S. State Department said in June it was concerned that the referendum will distract from "more urgent priorities" such as the defeat of Islamic State militants. Islamic State's self-proclaimed "caliphate" effectively collapsed last month, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces completed the takeover of the militants' capital in Iraq, Mosul, after a nine-month campaign in which Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took part. The hardline Sunni militants remain however in control of territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria. The United States has pledged to maintain its backing to allied forces in both countries until the militants' total defeat. The Kurds have been seeking an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East, but their territory ended up split between modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Barzani, whose father led struggles against Baghdad in the 1960s and 1970s, told Reuters in July the Kurds would take responsibility for the expected 'yes' outcome of the referendum, and pursue its implementation through dialogue with Baghdad and regional powers to avoid conflict."We have to rectify the history of mistreatment of our people and those who are saying that independence is not good, our question to them is, 'if it's not good for us, why is it good for you?'," he said in an interview in the KRG capital, Erbil. Iraq has been led by Shi'ites since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. The country's majority Shi'ite community mainly lives in the south while the Kurds and Sunni Arabs inhabit two corners of the north. The centre around Baghdad is mixed. Kurdish officials have said disputed areas, including the oil-rich Kirkuk region, will be covered by the referendum, to determine whether they would want to remain or not in Kurdistan. The Kurdish Peshmerga in 2014 prevented Islamic State from capturing Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, after the Iraqi army fled in the face of the militants. They are effectively running the region, also claimed by Turkmen and Arabs. Hardline Iran-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and three other disputed areas - Sinjar, Makhmour and Khanaqin. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Adrian Croft)
Stability across Latin America is in jeopardy from President Donald Trump's "reckless threat" to consider military action against Venezuela, Caracas said on Saturday, after its military vowed to stand up to the US leader's "craziness." The warning from Trump on Friday that his administration was mulling many options, "including a possible military option if necessary," struck the government of Venezuela's beleaguered leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, like a thunderbolt. The leadership of the crisis-wracked nation -- Latin America's biggest oil producer and an ally to Russia and Cuba -- suddenly found itself going from battling dissent, protests and growing international isolation to contemplating US military action last seen in the region in 1989, when American troops invaded Panama to topple its president, Manuel Noriega. "The reckless threat by President Donald Trump aims to drag Latin America and the Caribbean into a conflict that would permanently alter stability, peace and security in our region," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told a news conference, reading a statement in Maduro's name. The menace, however, also gave Maduro's regime an unexpected opportunity to substantiate its daily refrain that it is a victim of a Washington plot to grab control of its oil reserves, the biggest in the world. The military, current and retired members of which control a third of the government, leapt on the threat to say it was the nation's only bulwark against the "imperialist aggression." General Vladimir Padrino, Venezuela's defense minister and commander of its armed forces, on Friday called Trump's threat "an act of craziness." "I am certain that we will all be in the first ranks defending the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela," he said. - 'Vile threats' - Trump had said the military option was among a range of scenarios he was considering to fix the "very dangerous mess" in Venezuela. He has already had his government impose sanctions on Maduro -- an extremely rare step against a head of state -- and two dozen of his officials. They were for perceived moves towards a "dictatorship" in Venezuela, especially through Maduro's establishment this month of a new, all-powerful assembly filled with loyalists that has powers to override the country's legislature, controlled by the opposition. The head of that new Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Twitter: "We reject the cowardly, insolent and vile threats against the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela." The assembly was elected two weeks ago in a vote marred by allegations of fraud, an opposition boycott and violent protests and repression by security forces that brought the death toll in four months of unrest to more than 125. Since starting work, the assembly -- ostensibly tasked with rewriting the constitution -- has fired Venezuela's attorney general who had become a major critic of Maduro, and stepped up measures to quash opposition politicians. The supreme court, which has also shown itself consistently loyal to Maduro, stripped two opposition mayors of the right to public office and ordered them to jail, bringing to 23 the number targeted by legal action. - Regional unease - The developments have prompted major Latin American nations Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru to slam Maduro's government for "breaking democratic rule." Peru on Friday ordered Venezuela's ambassador to leave, with Caracas reacting by ordering out Lima's envoy. But not all of Latin America is ranged against Maduro. Venezuela can still count on support from leftist allies Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, as well as a handful of Caribbean nations that depend on it for cheap or free oil. The prospect of US military action in a region that has very bitter memories of multiple such interventions last century has stirred unease even among countries opposed to Venezuela. US Vice President Mike Pence will on Sunday begin a Latin American visit -- a trip seen as coordinating action between Washington and regional powers against Venezuela. Brazil on Saturday said it and the other members of the South American trading bloc Mercosur -- from which Venezuela was suspended indefinitely days ago -- rejected the threat of force. "The repudiation of violence and whatever option involving the use of force is resolute and constitutes a fundamental basis of democratic cohabitation, both in domestic contexts as well as in international relations," Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Usefulness Content Freshness Before you drag yourself to another networking event, reflect on your long-term goals for going. If you don't have any long-term networking goals, then you need to read "Stand Out Networking: A Simple and Authentic Way to Meet People on Your Own Terms". This book, written by an award-winning journalist and author, helps readers break out of the outdated mode of traditional networking and into sustainable networking that prepares you for long-term career success.

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Most people still envision networking as a Pokemon Go game where the professional who exchanges the most business cards wins. In the eyes of author Dorie Clark, this narrow view of networking robs professionals of the opportunity to create valuable and meaningful long-term relationships. Clarks book, Stand Out Networking: A Simple and Authentic Way to Meet People on Your Own Terms helps readers transition from the I need the business card of everyone at this event mindset to the Im here to exchange awesomeness with the people around me way of thinking.

What is Stand Out Networking About?

For professionals tired of networking events, Stand Out Networking may offer a very simple solution to the I-hate-going-to-networking-events problem: Dont go. If you are attending a networking event for the sole purpose of collecting more business cards, you may be wasting your time. As Clark points out, people dont gain a lot of value from business cards. They gain value from the relationships with the person on the business card. Relationships, not number of business cards, are the currency of networking discussed in Stand Out Networking.

Networking, as Clark suggests, should be focused on building relationships because that is the overall goal in the first place. We attend networking events to grow our network of relationships. Traditional advice on networking, however, focuses so much emphasis on the trying to win at networking instead of the process of building a relationship. This leads people to believe that they should go to a networking event if they want to strategically advance their career.

A better approach, Clark says, is connecting on a deeper level with individuals, online and in the real world. Find ways to connect with people that match your personal style of relating to people (i.e. introvert or extrovert) and demonstrate your unique talents and skills. It doesnt matter if that connection occurs at an event or through a blog post. It only matters that you exchange meaningful value with the relationships that are in your network. By exchanging unique and meaningful value with others, you establish a relationship that can open up more doors than a simple exchange of business cards with a person you have never met. By exchanging value, you truly learn to stand out.

Clark is an author, speaker, media commentator, marketing consultant, adjunct business professor, and guest lecturer whose book Reinventing You was rated as the #1 book on Leadership by Inc magazine and one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year. A former award-winning journalist, Clark enrolled a program for the academically gifted at 14. She went on to graduate two years later with a Masters degree from Harvard Divinity School. Along the way, she also became a Grammy-nominated jazz producer.

What Was Best About Stand Out Networking?

Stand Out Networking continues the theme of adaptability that is present in Dorie Clarks best-selling book Reinventing You and applies it to networking. This offers a much more realistic response to networking than most networking books which still focus on traditional networking techniques that are slowly dying out. Clarks overall suggestion counters the idea that you need to fit a certain mold to network effectively. Instead, Clark attests, you should adapt networking to your personal style so that you can connect on a deeper and more comfortable level. This is encouraging and empowering news for networking-tired professionals.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

Stand Out Networking does an excellent job at demonstrating how networking can adapt to technology and your personality. This empowering book provides several actionable and interesting recommendations for readers to consider when trying to figure out how to refine their network skills. One area that could be developed more is the application of the books philosophy to real-life case studies. Specifically, the book could cover the results of an individuals networking efforts before the book and their results after using the books information on a daily basis.

Why Read Stand Out Networking?

Stand Out Networking looks at the future of networking for all professionals.Networking focused on short-term goals (like trying to meet everyone at a networking event) or in ways that are counter to our personal style of communication arent sustainable over the long-term. Thats where this book comes in. It pushes readers to invest in the long-term game of building a strong network that evolves with your future career.

The book also recognizes the impact of technology, both the potential and liabilities. Many books focus on technology (in particular, social media) in an overly optimistic tone. Clark, however, cautions readers to choose quality over quantity, no matter how they connect with a person (online or off). This is an important principle to keep in mind as our world moves into a tech-oriented world that still requires smart networking to thrive.

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The photographer learnt how to take photos on her own.

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Anna Opinova from Stara Lubovna won one category of the prestigious Nikon Photo Contest 2016  2017.

Opinova took the photo at a portrait session photographing a married couple and friends. The young man in the photo is a brother of the bride who was helping while taking pictures. During the cold day, he was smoking cigarettes, techbox.sk wrote.

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I remember that moment. I had goose bumps and I held my breath during the whole composition from the heavy ascending smoke, said the young photographer for techbox.sk. She learnt to take photos by herself. This year is the first that she dedicated her job only to taking photos, techbox.sk informed.

Experts from the whole world have picked the best photos in the contest since 1969. This year more than 21,000 photographers from 170 countries participated with 76,356 pieces of art, techbox.sk stated.
Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Utility and Entergy Wholesale Commodities. The Utility segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas. The Entergy Wholesale Commodities segment engages in the ownership, operation, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants; and ownership of interests in non-nuclear power plants that sell electric power to wholesale customers, as well as provides services to other nuclear power plant owners. It generates electricity through gas, nuclear, coal, hydro, and solar power sources. The company sells energy to retail power providers, utilities, electric power co-operatives, power trading organizations, and other power generation companies. The company's power plants have approximately 24,000 megawatts (MW) of electric generating capacity, which include 5,000 MW of nuclear power. It delivers electricity to 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings operates as a global life sciences company that provides vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and patients make clear and confident decisions. It operates in two segments, Labcorp Diagnostics (Dx) and Labcorp Drug Development (DD). It offers various tests, such as blood chemistry analyses, urinalyses, blood cell counts, thyroid tests, PAP tests, hemoglobin A1C and vitamin D, prostate-specific antigens, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis C tests, microbiology cultures and procedures, and alcohol and other substance-abuse tests. The company also provides specialty testing services comprising gene-based and esoteric testing; advanced tests target specific diseases, including anatomic pathology/oncology, cardiovascular disease, coagulation, diagnostic genetics, endocrinology, infectious disease, women's health, pharmacogenetics, and parentage and donor testing; and occupational testing services, medical drug monitoring services, chronic disease programs, and kidney stone prevention tests. It provides online and mobile applications to enable patients to check test results; and online applications for managed care organizations and accountable care organizations. It offers end-to-end drug development, medical device, and companion diagnostic development solutions from early-stage research to clinical development and commercial market access. It serves managed care organizations, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and diagnostics companies, governmental agencies, physicians and other healthcare providers, hospitals and health systems, employers, patients and consumers, contract research organizations, and independent clinical laboratories. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings has a collaboration agreement with Tigerlily Foundation to increase clinical trial diversity for women of color. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina.
Paycom Software, Inc. provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solution delivered as software-as-a-service for small to mid-sized companies in the United States. It offers functionality and data analytics that businesses need to manage the employment life cycle from recruitment to retirement. The company's HCM solution provides a suite of applications in the areas of talent acquisition, including applicant tracking, candidate tracker, background checks, on-boarding, e-verify, and tax credit services; and time and labor management, such as time and attendance, scheduling/schedule exchange, time-off requests, labor allocation, labor management reports/push reporting, and geofencing/geotracking, and Microfence, a proprietary Bluetooth. Its HCM solution also offers payroll applications comprising better employee transaction interface, payroll and tax management, Paycom pay, expense management, mileage tracker/fixed and variable rates, garnishment management, and GL concierge applications; and talent management applications that include employee self-service, compensation budgeting, performance management, position management, and Paycom learning and content subscriptions, as well as my analytics, which offer employment predictor reporting. In addition, its HCM solution provides manager on-the-go that gives supervisors and managers the ability to perform a variety of tasks, such as approving time-off requests and expense reimbursements; direct data exchange; ask here, a tool for direct line of communication to ask work-related questions; document and checklist; government and compliance; benefits administration/benefits to carrier; COBRA administration; personnel action and performance discussion forms; surveys; and affordable care act applications, as well as Clue, which securely collect, track, and manage the vaccination and testing data of the workforce. Paycom Software, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
EnerSys provides various stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, and Specialty. The company offers uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, renewable, and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries. It also provides motive power products that are used to provide power for electric industrial forklifts used in manufacturing, warehousing, and other material handling applications. In addition, the company offers mining equipment, diesel locomotive starting, and other rail equipment. Further, it provides specialty batteries for starting, lighting, and ignition applications in transportation; and energy solutions for satellites, military aircraft, submarines, ships, and other tactical vehicles, as well as medical and security systems. Additionally, the company offers battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor cabinet enclosures, as well as related after-market and customer-support services for industrial batteries. The company sells its products through a network of distributors, independent representatives, and internal sales forces. The company was formerly known as Yuasa, Inc. and changed its name to EnerSys in January 2001. EnerSys was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC is a publicly owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm provides investment advisory services for its clients. It primarily caters to institutional investors which include pension funds, fund-of-funds, foundations and endowments, corporations and other institutions, private banks and family offices. The firm invests in equity and alternative markets across the world. It employs quantitative and qualitative analysis to make its investments. For its multi-strategy portfolios, the firm employs strategies like convertible and derivative arbitrage, corporate credit, long/short equity special situations, buyout investments, merger arbitrage, private investments, and structured credit. It also invests in real estate and traditional real estate assets including multifamily, office, hotel and retail, loans, portfolio acquisitions, loan pools, operating companies, structured debt products, public securities, and non-traditional real estate assets including gaming, distressed land and residential, cell towers, parking, golf, debt and senior housing. For private equity investments, it considers investments in a variety of special situations that seek to realize value through strategic sales or initial public offerings. The firm typically invests in the energy investments. It prefers to invest in United States. It also manages a buyout fund, Och-Ziff Energy Fund. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC was founded in 1994 and is based New York City with additional offices in Houston, Texas, London, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Japan, Bangalore, India, Singapore, and Beijing, China.
Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the pipeline transportation, terminalling, storage, and gathering of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Crude Oil and NGL. The Crude Oil segment offers gathering and transporting crude oil through pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and at times on barges or railcars. This segment provides terminalling, storage, and other facilities-related services, as well as merchant activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and leased 18,300 miles of active crude oil transportation pipelines and gathering systems, as well as an additional 110 miles of pipelines that supports crude oil storage and terminalling facilities; 74 million barrels of commercial crude oil storage capacity; 38 million barrels of active, above-ground tank capacity; four marine facilities; a condensate processing facility; seven crude oil rail terminals and 2,100 crude oil railcars; and 640 trucks and 1,275 trailers. The Natural Gas Liquids segment engages in the natural gas processing, NGL fractionation, storage, transportation, and terminalling activities. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and operated four natural gas processing plants; nine fractionation plants; 28 million barrels of NGL storage capacity; approximately 1,620 miles of active NGL transportation pipelines, as well as an additional 55 miles of pipeline that supports NGL storage facilities; 16 NGL rail terminals and approximately 3,900 NGL rail cars; and approximately 220 trailers. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Plains GP Holdings, L.P.
Waters Corporation, a specialty measurement company, provides analytical workflow solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through two segments, Waters and TA. The company designs, manufactures, sells, and services high and ultra-performance liquid chromatography, as well as mass spectrometry (MS) technology systems and support products, including chromatography columns, other consumable products, and post-warranty service plans. It also designs, manufactures, sells, and services thermal analysis, rheometry, and calorimetry instruments; and develops and supplies software-based products that interface with its instruments, as well as other manufacturers' instruments. Its MS technology instruments are used in drug discovery and development comprising clinical trial testing, the analysis of proteins in disease processes, nutritional safety analysis, and environmental testing. The company offers thermal analysis, rheometry, and calorimetry instruments for use in predicting the suitability and stability of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, polymers, metals, and viscous liquids for various industrial, consumer good, and healthcare products, as well as for life science research. Its products are used by life science, pharmaceutical, biochemical, industrial, nutritional safety, environmental, academic, and governmental customers working in research and development, quality assurance, and other laboratory applications. Waters Corporation was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts.
The Allstate Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty, and other insurance products in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Allstate Protection; Protection Services; Allstate Health and Benefits; and Run-off Property-Liability segments. The Allstate Protection segment offers private passenger auto and homeowners insurance; specialty auto products, including motorcycle, trailer, motor home, and off-road vehicle insurance; other personal lines products, such as renter, condominium, landlord, boat, umbrella, and manufactured home and stand-alone scheduled personal property; and commercial lines products under the Allstate and Encompass brand names. The Protection Services segment provides consumer product protection plans and related technical support for mobile phones, consumer electronics, furniture, and appliances; finance and insurance products, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection waivers, road hazard tire and wheel, and paint and fabric protection; roadside assistance; device and mobile data collection services; data and analytic solutions using automotive telematics information; and identity protection services. This segment offers its products under various brands including Allstate Protection Plans, Allstate Dealer Services, Allstate Roadside Services, Arity, and Allstate Identity Protection. The Allstate Health and Benefits provides life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability, and other health insurance products. The Run-off Property-Liability offers property and casualty insurance. It sells its products through call centers, agencies, financial specialists, independent agents, brokers, wholesale partners, and affinity groups, as well as through online and mobile applications. The Allstate Corporation was founded in 1931 and is based in Northbrook, Illinois.
The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services. The Investor Services segment provides retail brokerage, investment advisory, banking and trust, retirement plan, and other corporate brokerage services; equity compensation plan sponsors full-service recordkeeping for stock plans, stock options, restricted stock, performance shares, and stock appreciation rights; and retail investor and mutual fund clearing services, as well as compliance solutions. The Advisor Services segment offers custodial, trading, banking, and support services; and retirement business and corporate brokerage retirement services. This segment provides brokerage accounts with equity and fixed income, margin lending, options, and futures and forex trading; cash management capabilities comprising third-party certificates of deposit; third-party and proprietary mutual funds; plus mutual fund trading and clearing services; and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including proprietary and third-party ETFs. It also offers advice solutions, such as managed portfolios of proprietary and third-party mutual funds and ETFs, separately managed accounts, customized personal advice for tailored portfolios, and specialized planning and portfolio management. In addition, this segment provides banking products and services, including checking and savings accounts, first lien residential real estate mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, and pledged asset lines; and trust services comprising trust custody services, personal trust reporting services, and administrative trustee services. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had approximately 400 domestic branch offices in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as locations in Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The Charles Schwab Corporation was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of Sysco: 2234829 Alberta ULC, 2234842 Alberta ULC, A. M. Briggs Inc., A.M. Briggs, Almacen Fiscal Frionet Caldera S.A., Almacen Fiscal Frionet Limon S.A., Appert's Foodservice, Arnotts (Fruit) Limited, Asian Foods, Bahamas Food Holdings Limited, Bahamas Food Services Limited, Brake Bros, Brake Bros Foodservice Ireland Limited, Brake Bros. Foodservice Limited, Brake Bros. Holding I Limited, Brake Bros. Ltd., Brakes Foodservice NI Limited, Buchy Food Service, Buckhead Beef Co., Buckhead Meat & Seafood of Houston Inc., Buckhead Meat Company, Buckhead Meat Midwest Inc., Buckhead Meat of Dallas Inc., Buckhead Meat of Denver Inc., Buckhead Meat of San Antonio LP, Buzztable Inc., CAKE Corporation, Central Seafood Co., Christys Wine & Spirits Limited, Clafra Aktiebolag, Colorado Boxed Beef Co - Specialty meat-cutting division, Corporacion Frionet Sociedad Anonima, Crossgar Foodservice, Crossgar Foodservice Limited, Crown I Enterprises Inc., Cucina Acquisitions (UK) Limited, Cucina Finance (UK) Limited, Cucina French Holdings Limited, Cucina Fresh Finance Limited, Cucina Fresh Investments Limited, Cucina Lux Investments Limited, Curleys Quality Foods Limited (Third Party), Davigel Belgilux S.A., Davigel Espana S.A., Desert Meats & Provisions, Distagro, Doerle Food Service, Doughtie's Foods Inc., Dust Bowl City LLC, Eko Fagel Fisk o mittemellan AB, Enclave Insurance Company, Enclave Parkway Association Inc., Enclave Properties LLC, European Imports, European Imports Inc., Figg Inc., Freedman Meats, Freedman Meats Inc., Freedman-KB Inc., Fresh Direct (UK) Limited, Fresh Direct Group Limited, Fresh Direct Limited, Fresh Holdings Limited, FreshPoint, FreshPoint Arizona Inc., FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., FreshPoint California Inc., FreshPoint Central California Inc., FreshPoint Central Florida Inc., FreshPoint Connecticut LLC, FreshPoint Dallas Inc., FreshPoint Denver Inc., FreshPoint Hawaii LLC, FreshPoint Inc., FreshPoint Las Vegas Inc., FreshPoint North Carolina Inc., FreshPoint North Florida Inc., FreshPoint Oklahoma City LLC, FreshPoint Pompano Real Estate LLC, FreshPoint Puerto Rico LLC, FreshPoint San Francisco Inc., FreshPoint South Florida Inc., FreshPoint South Texas Inc., FreshPoint Southern California Inc., FreshPoint Tomato LLC, FreshPoint Vancouver Ltd., Freshfayre Limited, Fruktservice i Helsingborg AB, GHS Classic Drinks Limited, Gilchrist & Soames Inc., Gilchrist & Soames UK Limited, Guest Packaging LLC, Guest Supply, Guest Supply Asia Limited, Guest Supply Singapore Pte. Ltd., International Food Group, Isakssons Frukt & Gront AB, J & M Wholesale Meats, J. Kings Food Service Professionals, J. Kings Food Service Professionals Inc., Kent Frozen Foods, Les Ateliers Du Gout, Liquid Assets Limited, M&J Seafood Holdings Limited, M&J Seafood Limited, Manchester Mills LLC, Mayca Autoservicio S.A., Mayca Distribuidores S.A., Menigo Foodservice AB, Mitshim Etatu Supply LP, Newport Meat Company, Newport Meat Northern California Inc., Newport Meat Pacific Northwest Inc., Newport Meat Southern California Inc., Newport Meat of Nevada Inc., North Star Holding Corporation, North Star Seafood, North Star Seafood Acquisition Corporation, North Star Seafood LLC, PFS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Palisades Ranch Inc., Pallas Foods, Pallas Foods Farm Fresh Unlimited Company, Pallas Foods Unlimited Company, Pauleys Produce Limited, Promotora del Servicios S.A. de C.V., Restaurangakdemien AB, Restaurant of Tomorrow Inc., Rohan Viandes Elaboration SAS, SMS Bermuda Holdings, SMS GPC International Limited, SMS GPC International Resources Limited, SMS Global Holdings S.a.r.l., SMS International Resources Ireland Unlimited Company, SMS Lux Holdings LLC, SOTF LLC, SYY Netherlands C.V., SYY Panama S. de R.L., Serca Foodservice, Servicestyckarna I Johannes AB, Servicios Ameriserve S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Guest Supply Trading Co. Limited, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Bianchi Montegut, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Boiseau, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Garcelles, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) J.D. Lanjouan, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Le Dauphin, Specialty Meat Holdings LLC, Stockflag Limited, Stockholms Fiskauktion AB, Supplies on the Fly, Sysco Albany LLC, Sysco Asian Foods Inc., Sysco Atlanta LLC, Sysco Autoservicio S.A., Sysco Baltimore LLC, Sysco Baraboo LLC, Sysco Bermuda Partners L.P., Sysco Boston LLC, Sysco Canada Holdings S.a.r.l., Sysco Canada Inc., Sysco Central Alabama LLC, Sysco Central California Inc., Sysco Central Florida Inc., Sysco Central Illinois Inc., Sysco Central Pennsylvania LLC, Sysco Charlotte LLC, Sysco Chicago Inc., Sysco Cincinnati LLC, Sysco Cleveland Inc., Sysco Columbia LLC, Sysco Connecticut LLC, Sysco Corporation, Sysco Corporation Director's Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Employee's 401(k) Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Executive Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Good Government Committee Inc., Sysco Corporation Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Plan Trust, Sysco Detroit LLC, Sysco Disaster Relief Foundation Inc., Sysco EI VI S. s.r.l., Sysco EU II S.a.r.l., Sysco EU III S.a.r.l., Sysco EU IV Capital Unlimited Company, Sysco EU IV S. s.r.l.., Sysco EU V S. s.r.l., Sysco Eastern Maryland LLC, Sysco Eastern Wisconsin LLC, Sysco Foundation Inc., Sysco France Holding SAS, Sysco France SAS, Sysco George Town II LLC, Sysco George Town Limited S. s.r.l.., Sysco Global Finance LLC, Sysco Global Finance LLP, Sysco Global Holdings B.V., Sysco Global Resources LLC, Sysco Global Services LLC, Sysco Grand Cayman Company, Sysco Grand Cayman II Company, Sysco Grand Cayman III Company, Sysco Grand Rapids LLC, Sysco Guernsey Limited, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc., Sysco Guest Supply Europe Goods Wholesalers LLC, Sysco Guest Supply Europe Limited, Sysco Guest Supply LLC, Sysco Gulf Coast LLC, Sysco Hampton Roads Inc., Sysco Hawaii Inc., Sysco Holdings II LLC, Sysco Holdings LLC, Sysco Indianapolis LLC, Sysco International Food Group Inc., Sysco International Inc., Sysco Iowa Inc., Sysco Jackson LLC, Sysco Jacksonville Inc., Sysco Kansas City Inc., Sysco Knoxville LLC, Sysco Labs Europe Limited, Sysco Labs Pvt. Ltd., Sysco Leasing LLC, Sysco Lincoln Inc., Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc., Sysco Long Island LLC, Sysco Los Angeles Inc., Sysco Louisville Inc., Sysco Memphis LLC, Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Canada Inc., Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Inc., Sysco Metro New York LLC, Sysco Minnesota Inc., Sysco Montana Inc., Sysco Nashville LLC, Sysco Netherlands Partners LLC, Sysco North Central Florida Inc., Sysco North Dakota Inc., Sysco Northern New England Inc., Sysco Philadelphia LLC, Sysco Pittsburgh LLC, Sysco Portland Inc., Sysco Raleigh LLC, Sysco Resources Services LLC, Sysco Riverside Inc., Sysco Sacramento Inc., Sysco San Diego Inc., Sysco San Francisco Inc., Sysco Seattle Inc., Sysco South Florida Inc., Sysco Southeast Florida LLC, Sysco Spain Holdings SLU, Sysco Spokane Inc., Sysco St. Louis LLC, Sysco Syracuse LLC, Sysco Technologies Cayman Ltd., Sysco Technologies LLC, Sysco UK Holdings Limited, Sysco UK Limited, Sysco UK Partners LLP, Sysco USA I Inc., Sysco USA II LLC, Sysco USA III LLC, Sysco Ventura Inc., Sysco Ventures Inc., Sysco Virginia LLC, Sysco West Coast Florida Inc., Sysco Western Minnesota Inc., The SYGMA Network Inc., Upsys, Victua SAS, Walker Foods Inc., Waugh Foods, and Wild Harvest Limited.

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Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 61,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 5,300 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.3 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 360,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating and cooling solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 4,800 km of rail; 3,800 km of motorways; and 13 port terminals. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 600 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 3,900 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as one petrochemical processing complex. Its Data segment operates approximately 148,000 operational telecom towers; 8,000 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites; 10,000 km of fiber backbone; 1,600 cell sites and approximately 12,000 km of fiber optic cable; and 2,100 active telecom towers and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 50 data centers and 200 megawatts of critical load capacity. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces, markets, and distributes fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Fresh and Value-Added Products, Banana, and Other Products and Services. It offers pineapples, fresh-cut fruit, fresh-cut vegetables, melons, and vegetables; non-tropical fruits, such as grapes, apples, citrus, blueberries, strawberries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, and kiwis; other fruit and vegetables, and avocados; and prepared fruit and vegetables, juices, other beverages, and meals and snacks. The company also engages in the sale of poultry and meat products; and third-party freight services business. In addition, it manufactures and sells plastic and box products, such as bins, trays, bags, and boxes. The company offers its products under the Del Monte brand, as well as under other brands, such as UTC, Rosy, Fruit Express, Just Juice, Fruitini, Mann's Logo, Arcadian Harvest, Nourish Bowls, Broccolini, Caulilini, Better Burger Leaf, RomaLeaf, and other regional brands. It markets and distributes its products to retail stores, club stores, convenience stores, wholesalers, distributors, and foodservice operators. Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. was founded in 1886 and is based in George Town, Cayman Islands.
Plains GP Holdings, L.P., through its subsidiary, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). The company engages in the transportation of crude oil and NGLs on pipelines, gathering systems, and trucks. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and leased assets comprising 18,300 miles of crude oil and NGL pipelines and gathering systems; 38 million barrels of above-ground tank capacity; and 1,275 trailers. It engages in the provision of storage, terminalling, and throughput services primarily for crude oil, NGLs, and natural gas; NGL fractionation and isomerization services; and natural gas and condensate processing services. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned and operated approximately 74 million barrels of crude oil storage capacity; 28 million barrels of NGL storage capacity; four natural gas processing plants; a condensate processing facility; nine fractionation plants; 16 NGL rail terminals; four marine facilities; and 110 miles of pipelines. As of December 31, 2021, this segment owned 15 million barrels of crude oil and 2 NGL linefill; 3 million barrels of crude oil and 1 NGL linefill in pipelines owned by third parties and other inventory; 640 trucks and 1,275 trailers; and 3,900 NGL railcars. The company offers logistics services to producers, refiners, and other customers. PAA GP Holdings LLC operates as a general partner of the company. Plains GP Holdings, L.P. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells petroleum products in the People's Republic of China. It operates through five segments: Synthetic Fibers, Resins and Plastics, Intermediate Petrochemicals, Petroleum Products, and Trading of Petrochemical Products. The Synthetic Fibers segment produces polyesters, acrylic fibers, and carbon fibers that are primarily used in the textile and apparel industries. The Resins and Plastics segment produces polyester chips that are used to produce polyester fibers, coating, and containers; polyethylene resins and plastics, which are used to produce insulated cables and mulching films, as well as molded products, such as housewares and toys; and polypropylene resins that are used for films and sheets, as well as molded products, such as housewares, toys, consumer electronics, and automobile parts; and PVA granules. The Intermediate Petrochemicals segment produces p-xylene, benzene, and ethylene oxide, which are used as raw materials in the production of other petrochemicals, resins, plastics, and synthetic fibers. The Petroleum Products segment operates crude oil refinery facilities used to produce refined gasoline, fuel, diesel oil, heavy oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. The Trading of Petrochemical Products segment is involved in the import and export of petrochemical products. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited is a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.
Here are the ten most common errors and misconceptions of travelers to Turkey:

1. Turkey is Dangerous

Its not. By and large, its among the safer destinations in Europe. Violent incidents happen in many countries these days, including in Europe and North America. Mideast strife may make headlines, but its in other countries. Approach Turkeys southeast cautiously for now, but travel freely in the rest of the country. More

2. Turkey is Cheap

Its no longer the bargain destination it once was, but recent Turkish lira devaluations have made it a lot cheaper now, and its more popular than evera few years ago, it became the 6th most popular destination in the entire world. And its well worth the money. More

3. Turkey is Small

Turkey is one of those little countries, right? Drive it all in a week.

No, Turkey is the 37th largest country in the world (of 235). Its larger than France, Germany, Poland, Syria, New Zealand and most other countries, larger than Texas and nearly twice as large as California. Transport can take time. More

4. I Can Buy My Visa When I Get There

Not every traveler needs a Turkish visa, but if you do (and if your passport is US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Russian or some European countries, you do), you MUST buy it online BEFOREyou travel to Turkey. More

5. Motor Fuel Costs the Same

Turks complain that they pay the worlds highest prices for gasoline/petrol and diesel fuel. But there are ways to keep the cost of fuel down. More

6. Planes & Trains Go Everywhere

They dont. Some touristic destinations have no train service, and most plane trips involve a connection through either Istanbul or Ankara, making plane trips longer. Buses go everywhere (but see Mistake No. 3). Planning your transport carefully is essential. More

7. I Can Plan My Whole Trip Easily

For simple trips, yes. But if you want to visit 3 or 4 areas in 8 to 10 days, you must get all the detailsespecially the transportexactly right, in advance. Dont make any reservations until you have all details planned, and if you need help, get it early. Any travel agent will tell you that re-designing a half-reserved trip is a nightmare. More

8. Turkish Hotel Prices are High

Most Turkish hotel rates include a large daily buffet breakfast and all hotel taxes and service chargesunlike, say, New York City, where breakfast is rarely included, and taxes and fees can add more than 17% to your bill. More

9. Islam in Turkey is Strict

By its constitution, Turkey is a secular republic with separation of religion and state. Most Turks consider themselves good Muslims, and in recent years religious practice has increased, but as in many countries, practice of religious observance varies. A minority is strictly observant, another minority never goes to mosque, and the majority is in between. Non-Muslims are not expected to observe Muslim religious practices. More

10. I Should Buy a Carpet in Turkey

Most carpets sold in Turkey today are made in other countriesChina, India, Bangladesh, etc. They may be machine-made, with chemical dyes. This does not mean you shouldnt buy them, just know what youre buying. More

One More Mistake

The mark of a tourist, for sure. Locals pronounce it (correctly) KOOSH-ah-dah-suh or koo-SHAH-dah-suh. More

For more on these and other matters, see my Travel DetailsFAQ.

Tom Brosnahan
Reuters

Germany's ruling coalition parties have agreed a raft of new trade policy measures, including quitting the Energy Charter Treaty, which has come to be seen as an obstacle to tackling climate change. The three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government also said they had agreed to back the ratification of the European Union's free trade agreement with Canada eight years after it was originally agreed. The energy charter treaty, originally designed to regulate cross-border energy trading in the aftermath of the Cold War, has been criticised for slowing the world's exit from fossil fuels, in part by creating grounds for fossil fuel users to claim compensation when they are forced to shut plants.
(This story corrects to say B1-B was designed as nuclear bomber in final paragraph.) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said it had conducted joint air drills with U.S. supersonic bombers in Japanese skies close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday as tension in the region escalates amid North Korea's continued ballistic missile tests. The exercise around Japan's southern Kyushu island involved two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers and two Japanese F-2 jet fighters, Japan's Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said in a news release. North Korea said on Wednesday it is considering a strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, hours after President Donald trump said any threat from Pyongyang would be met with "fire and fury." [nL4N1KV00Y] Andersen Air Force Base on Guam is where the U.S. keeps its B1-B bombers deployed to the Asia Pacific. The U.S. planes, which were designed to carry nuclear bombs and later switched to conventional payloads, followed up the drills with Japan with a separate exercise with South Korean Forces, the ASDF said. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Kim Coghill)
France 24 Videos

In 2014, Nadia Murad was captured, alongside many other Yazidi women, by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in the Iraqi town of Sinjar. She was held hostage, enslaved, tortured and raped, before escaping to Mosul and making her way to Germany. After sharing the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, she is now a leading global advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Nadia Murad spoke to FRANCE 24 from the Paris Peace Forum. Murad said that more needs to be done to prevent sexual violence in conflict."Progress has been made on recognising survivors' right to reparations (...) but I think it's time to put political weight and resources behind the words," Murad told FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris Trent."Not much has been done to prevent what happened to the Yazidi women and girls," Murad said. More than eight years later, "we still have 2,800 women and children who are missing in ISIS [another name for the IS group] captivity in Syria, Turkey and some parts of Iraq. No effort has been made by the international community or our own government or any international organisations to look for the missing Yazidi women and children and bring them back"."Sexual violence does not go away when war is over (...) Ukraine is sadly another example of a failure to follow through on commitments to preventing sexual violence in war," Murad continued."Women's rights were never a priority for the international community to prevent the use of sexual violence," Murad said.Read more on FRANCE 24 EnglishRead also:Amnesty International demands urgent help for survivors of sexual violence in TigrayAllegations of mass rape by Russian troops in UkraineIraqs Yazidi community: Nadia Murads ongoing fight for justice
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Implementation of a deal for the return of a group of Syrian refugees and rebels to Syria from Lebanon was delayed on Saturday, with a military news outlet run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah saying it was due to "a logistical problem". Some 300 Syrian rebels from a group called Saraya Ahl al-Sham in addition to 3,000 refugees were due to be transported back into Syria on Saturday under the agreement. A Lebanese source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said talks were continuing to resolve the problem, without saying what it was. The Lebanese security official overseeing the arrangements, General Abbas Ibrahim, said on Friday that under the agreement a group of civilians would return to a Syrian government-held area, while the fighters and their families would go to another area of Syria which he did not identify. Thousands of Syrian refugees returned to Syria from the same area of the Lebanese-Syrian frontier earlier this month in a similar agreement. Militants from the Nusra Front group left with them under that deal, leaving with the civilians to the rebel-held Idlib province in Syria. Their departure followed military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese group that is fighting in support of the Syrian government. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Stephen Powell)
NAIROBI (Reuters) - South Sudan's rebels on Saturday said they had wrested control of Pagak, their stronghold town near the country's border with Ethiopia, from government forces, a day after launching an offensive to drive them out. Formerly controlled by the rebels, the town was captured by South Sudan's military five days ago but heavy fighting erupted on Friday with rebels vowing to retake it. "We took control of Pagak...government forces are not in Pagak, we have pushed them out," rebel spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel told Reuters. Dickson Gatluak Jock, spokesman for South Sudan's Vice President, Taban Deng Gai, denied the military had lost Pagak but said they had lost three soldiers in the fighting while four were wounded. Gai is a former rebel but last year he defected to the government side and was handed the vice presidency job. His former rebel forces, who are now part of the government military, are the ones on the frontline in Pagak. "We clashed with them (rebels) yesterday in Pagak but we are in full control of the area," he said. Fighting had died down on Saturday, he said, but acknowledged the rebels "are not very far from our area." Pagak is a major town on a road connecting South Sudan to Ethiopia. Rebel control of the town allows them easy cross-border movement and smuggling of weapons and other supplies from Ethiopia. The government is also eager to control it so that it can block rebel access to resources. South Sudan descended into civil war in 2013, only two years after it won independence, when President Salva Kiir fired his deputy, Riek Machar, unleashing a conflict that has since splintered along multiple ethnic lines. Machar has been under house arrest in South Africa since December as regional leaders try to bring about an end to the conflict. The rebels fighting government forces in South Sudan remain loyal to him. Jock said the military had killed five rebels during Friday's fighting but the insurgents denied the claim. (Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Stephen Powell)
A Government minister has urged the public to stay vigilant in the face of the continuing terrorist threat.

Security Minister Ben Wallace called for a return to a mindset of the 1970s and 1980s when people were on the lookout from the threat of the IRA bombing campaign.

The UK has seen one of the worst years in recent history for terror attacks, with atrocities carried out in Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park in London, as well as an attack at a pop concert in Manchester.

And a former head of MI5 has warned that the current threat of Islamist terrorism could persist for another 20 or 30 years.

Vigilant  the public have been urged to stay alert and report any suggestions that someone is becoming radicalised to authorities (Pictures: Getty)

Mr Wallace said the speed with which people could move from being radicalised online to carrying out deadly attacks meant it was vital that the public stayed alert and said if people see signs that those they know are becoming radicalised, they should report it to the authorities.

This is why the Government is very keen to make sure that this is not just about the intelligence services and the police. It has got to involve all of us, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

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We have a really strong role to play in this, especially with that group of what we would call sudden violent extremists  people who just may live next door that the police will not necessarily have time to get to.

If we see something suspicious, if we are worried about things, we should raise the alarm.

Terror attacks include an attack on children at a pop concert in Manchester

He added: We have got to get back to that stage which we had in my childhood where the IRA had bombing campaigns in the mainland. We looked out for things. We always asked ourselves Is that a suspicious thing? and did something about it.

I think that is where we have to get to again, especially with people who could very, very quickly be radicalised and take lethal action.

Mr Wallace said the Government was also determined to ensure that the big internet companies such as Google and Facebook did more to remove extremist material.

They absolutely have a duty to do something about it, he said. Our biggest concern is that safe spaces are where everyone from paedophiles to terrorists are sitting using things such as encryption to carry out their awful, awful practices.

We have to do something about it. We cannot sit back and let it ride.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a mosque in the centre of Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Friday, killing a soldier, police said, in an attack claimed by the militant Islamist group al Shabaab. Police spokesman Major Mohamed Hussein told Reuters the bomber had wanted to target a commander of Somalia's prisons department who was praying inside the mosque. A soldier intercepted the attacker before he entered the mosque and as he tried to push him back, the bomb exploded, killing the bomber and the soldier, Hussein said. "The suicide bomber had a prison police uniform and an explosive jacket on top," Hussein said. Al Shabaab carries out frequent bombings in Mogadishu and other towns aimed at toppling the central government in the Horn of Africa nation and driving out the Africa Union-mandated peace keeping force AMISOM. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musabb, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, told Reuters the group was behind the assault and that the attack had caused "deaths and injuries", without giving a figure. He said the group was targeting a senior prisons official. Also on Friday, the militants said they had publicly executed two Somali men in Jamame, a small town about 60 km (40 miles) north of the port city of Kismayu in southern Somalia. The men had been interrogated and found to be spies for Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Jubbaland, said Sheikh Mohamed Abu Abdalla, designated as "governor" by al Shabaab for the Jubba regions of southern Somalia. "The two men admitted they were spies. They were shot dead publicly according to (Islamic) Sharia law," he told Reuters. (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Editing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services. It serves corporate, middle market, and commercial real estate developers and investors. The Consumer Bank segment provides consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, consumer credit cards, and other consumer loans, as well as deposits. The Wealth Management segment offers credit related products, and retirement and savings solutions; and trust and investment management, asset management, and estate planning services to individuals, businesses, governmental institutions, and non-profit entities. The company also provides investment and insurance products; low-income housing tax credit corporate fund syndication services; and other specialty financing services. As of March 01, 2022, it operated through a network of 1,300 banking offices and 2,000 automated teller machines across the South, Midwest, and Texas. Regions Financial Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions. It also offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution; data-driven solutions and an end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and omni-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services; data and analytics solutions; solutions for public corporations and mutual funds; SEC filing and capital markets transaction services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; and omni-channel customer communications solutions, as well as operates Broadridge Communications Cloud platform that creates, delivers, and manages communications and customer engagement activities. The company's Global Technology and Operations segment provides solutions that automate the front-to-back transaction lifecycle of equity, mutual fund, fixed income, foreign exchange and exchange-traded derivatives, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearance and settlement, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral management, asset servicing, compliance and regulatory reporting, portfolio accounting, and custody-related services. This segment also offers business process outsourcing services; technology solutions, such portfolio management, compliance, fee billing, and operational support solutions; and capital market and wealth management solutions. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York.
ONEOK, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in gathering, processing, storage, and transportation of natural gas in the United States. It operates through Natural Gas Gathering and Processing, Natural Gas Liquids, and Natural Gas Pipelines segments. The company owns natural gas gathering pipelines and processing plants in the Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain regions. It also gathers, treats, fractionates, and transports natural gas liquids (NGL), as well as stores, markets, and distributes NGL products. The company owns NGL gathering and distribution pipelines in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado; terminal and storage facilities in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois; and NGL distribution and refined petroleum products pipelines in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, as well as owns and operates truck- and rail-loading, and -unloading facilities connected to NGL fractionation, storage, and pipeline assets. In addition, it operates regulated interstate and intrastate natural gas transmission pipelines and natural gas storage facilities. Further, the company owns and operates a parking garage in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma; and leases excess office space. It operates 17,500 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines; 1,500 miles of FERC-regulated interstate natural gas pipelines; 5,100 miles of state-regulated intrastate transmission pipeline; six NGL storage facilities; and eight NGL product terminals. It serves integrated and independent exploration and production companies; NGL and natural gas gathering and processing companies; crude oil and natural gas production companies; propane distributors; municipalities; ethanol producers; and petrochemical, refining, and NGL marketing companies, as well as natural gas distribution and electric generation companies, producers, processors, and marketing companies. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: 17111 Waterview Pkwy LLC, ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Acme Aerospace, Acme Aerospace Inc., Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Angus Electronics Co., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Armtec Countermeasures Co., Armtec Countermeasures TNO Co., Armtec Defense Products Co., Auxitrol SAS, Auxitrol Weston Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Auxitrol Weston Services China Ltd., Auxitrol Weston Singapore Pte. Ltd., Auxitrol Weston USA Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments LLC, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp LLC, CEF Industries LLC, CMC Electronics Aurora LLC, CMC Electronics Inc., CMC Electronics ME Inc., Champion Aerospace LLC, Chelton Avionics Holdings Inc., Chelton Avionics Inc., Chelton Limited, Cobham Aero Connectivity, Cobham CTS Limited, Cobham Defence Communications Limited, Cobham Defense Products Inc., DART Aerospace, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, Darchem Engineering Limited, Darchem Holdings Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., EST Defence Company UK Limited, Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Esterline Acquisition Ltd, Esterline Europe Company LLC, Esterline Foreign Sales Corporation, Esterline International Company, Esterline Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Europe Limited, Esterline Technologies France Holding SAS, Esterline Technologies French Acquisition Limited, Esterline Technologies Global Limited, Esterline Technologies Holdings Limited, Esterline Technologies SGIP LLC, Esterline Technologies Unlimited, Esterline do Brasil Assessoria e Intermediacao Ltda, European Antennas Limited, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, Guizhou Leach-Tianyi Aviation Electrical Company Ltd, Harco, HarcoSemco LLC, Hartwell Corporation, Hytek Finishes Co., ILC Holdings Inc., IRVIN AEROSPACE LIMITED, IrvinGQ France SAS, IrvinGQ Limited, Janco Corporation, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Korry Electronics Co., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Leach Holding Corporation, Leach International Asia-Pacific Ltd, Leach International Corporation, Leach International Europe S.A.S., Leach International Germany GmbH, Leach International Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., Leach International UK Ltd, Leach Mexico Holding LLC, Leach Technology Group Inc., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., Mason Electric Co., Mastsystem Int'l Oy, McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S. de R.L. de C.V., NAT Seattle Inc., NMC Group Inc., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, Nordisk Aviation Products LLC, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas LLC, Norwich Aero Products Inc., Palomar Products Inc., Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Pressure Systems International Ltd, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller LLC, Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics Industries, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TA Aerospace Co., TA Mfg Limited, TDG Bavaria GmbH, TDG ESL Holdings Inc., TDG France Ultimate Parent SAS, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Telair International, Telair International GmbH, Telair International Services PTE Ltd, Telair US LLC, TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm Canada ULC, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm Technologies India Private Limited, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Wallop Defence UK Limited, Weston Aerospace Ltd, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, Young & Franklin Inc., and exas Rotronics Inc..

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WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump escalated a stunning feud against his top Senate partner Thursday, suggesting Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might have to think about stepping aside if he doesnt deliver on the presidents agenda of health care, taxes and infrastructure.

Trump called McConnells failure to pass an Obamacare repeal last month a disgrace. Asked if McConnell should consider stepping aside or retiring, an outcome some conservatives are openly clamoring for, the presidents response was far from a vote of confidence.

Well I tell you what, if he doesnt get repeal and replace done and if he doesnt get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesnt get a very easy one to get done, infrastructure, if he doesnt get them done, then you can ask me that question, the president told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersery, where he is in the midst of a 17-day break from Washington.

Trump later added that he is very disappointed in Mitch but would be the first to praise him if legislation begins moving, once again presenting himself as a passive observer in the process rather than a dealmaker with the presidential pulpit.

There was no immediate response from McConnells office.

A sitting president openly turning on a Senate majority leader of his own party in such a fashion is practically unheard of  yet another norm destroyed since Trumps rise on the political scene. And while the fighting words might elate Trumps core supporters, they can only hurt broader Republican efforts to move major legislation this fall on taxes and spending while preparing for congressional elections next year where energized Democrats are rallying to retake the House. Republicans control both chambers, but the Trump factor in many races remains a mystery.

Trumps comments came after he spent two days slamming McConnell on Twitter, writing Thursday morning that after screaming about repealing and replacing Obamacare for seven years, McConnell couldnt get it done. Several hours later, the presidents tone took a motivational turn as he exhorted McConnell to get back to work and pass bills. You can do it!

The presidential megaphone amplified the McConnell-bashing thats been snaking through conservative media: Breitbart News, Fox News Sean Hannity and radio host Rush Limbaugh are among those who have vilified the leader after the Senates failure on health care late last month. They represent a segment of the Republican electorate, including some major donors, who are out to punish what they see as a do-nothing Congress that has hampered the presidents goals.

McConnell is a coward who leads from behind, spineless, and a lifelong political animal of the sort Trump wants to eject from Washington, said Doug Deason, a major donor based in Texas. Deason said he decided months ago not to give money to any Republicans up for re-election next year unless they can pass Trumps priorities.

Trump and his supporters love such political brawls, and the McConnell flare-up potentially shores up the presidents base at a time when it is showing signs of weakening support. But other Republicans saw Trumps moves as counterproductive.

Even Newt Gingrich, a Trump backer and informal adviser who formerly served as speaker of the House, criticized the dispute.

You saw Mitch McConnell say something, you saw Trump say something, when its obviously better for them to learn not to do that, Gingrich said. They have to work together. Governing is a team sport.

After the failure on health care, McConnell and other Republican leaders, including top White House economic officials, are determined to move on to overhauling the tax code with the hope of passing cuts by the end of the year  a daunting challenge. McConnell has made clear he has little interest in revisiting the health care fight.

Trump, 71, and McConnell, 75, have never been easy allies, even though the senators wife, Elaine Chao, is the presidents transportation secretary. McConnell only met Trump for the first time in 2013, when he made a pilgrimage to Trump Tower in New York to ask the businessman for campaign money.

But McConnell quickly boarded the Trump train once the mogul secured the GOP nomination, and unlike House Speaker Paul Ryan and others, he never wavered. Hes paid numerous visits to the White House and traveled with Trump in March to Louisville. That Trump rally predated all of Congress attempts to redo health care, and the president urged the crowd to be nice to McConnell.

Fast forward to August, with the Senate on recess after the collapse of the GOP health care bill.

McConnell touched a nerve by telling an audience in his home state that Trump had not been in this line of work before and had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.

What followed was a tense phone call between the two men, according to a person familiar with the exchange but not authorized to speak publicly about a private discussion, and then a presidential Twitter screed.

Brent Bozell, a longtime McConnell detractor and president of the conservative social media group For America, said the Senate leader had made a ridiculous argument that will haunt him.

By calling President Trump a political neophyte, McConnell is saying that Trump doesnt understand that Congress doesnt keep its promises, Bozell said. This is exactly why Trump won  to shake up Washington, and that includes Republicans.

And yet, in opening a door he might want to try to shove McConnell out of, Trump once against demonstrated his naivete in Washingtons ways. A Senate majority leader is elected by members of his own conference, and McConnell has plenty of support within his, regardless of anything Trump may say about it.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a senior lawmaker and vocal Trump backer, said on Twitter that McConnell has been the best leader weve had in my time in the Senate, through very tough challenges. I fully support him.

___

AP writer Jonathan Lemire in Bedminster, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
AUBURN  Indianas property tax system is complex, to say the least, so local officials received a refresher course from state experts at a workshop Thursday in Auburn.

The DeKalb County Extension office hosted Purdue University agricultural economics professor Larry DeBoer and Extension community developer regional educator Tamara Ogle  the self-styled Indiana tax rock stars  for a workshop with leaders from DeKalb, Noble, LaGrange, Steuben, Allen and Whitley counties.

About 25 officials from county, city and town governments in the area attended to get some help from DeBoer in breaking down Indianas property tax and local income taxing processes. The workshop also allowed them to compare and contrast the differences among their respective governments.

For the average resident, their familiarity with property taxes likely is limited to the bill they get in the mail in the spring and fall.

But a number of things must happen before that bill is mailed, such as the state setting growth rates and maximum spending; calculating tax rates based on government spending and assessed value; determining rates for the many different taxing districts in every county; applying deductions for certain types of property; and crunching the numbers on credits for things like Indianas tax caps or income taxes used for property tax relief.

The complexity of the property tax is going to keep me employed for the rest of my life, DeBoer joked.

The main takeaways from DeBoers presentation?

First, local governments are able to increase their annual spending more than they have in recent years. That growth quotient is calculated by the state based on a six-year average of growth in non-farm income. The rolling average recently dropped the figure from 2009, when incomes had declined at the peak of the Great Recession.

Were not going to get back down to under 3 percent (growth) unless something like this (recession) happens again, DeBoer said.

One quirk in that, however, is while governments are able to increase their spending by 4 percent next year, assessed values on properties only grow at about 2 percent to 3 percent per year. Since tax rates are calculated by dividing the levy  the amount governments need to raise in taxes  by assessed value, rates could increase a bit, since the levy is rising at a faster rate than values.

Second, DeBoer provided packets of tax information to allow officials to compare and contrast different local governments and taxing districts, and how different areas can have vastly different tax outcomes.

For example, while the DeKalb Eastern and Garrett-Keyser-Butler school districts are similarly sized, DeKalb Eastern spends about $4,000 more per student enrolled and has a tax rate thats a third less than Garrett-Keyser-Butler.

Something like that occurs because of the properties that lie within each district. DeKalb Eastern draws taxes from an area with a much higher assessed value than the other district, which pushes down the tax rate.

And third, property tax caps are more likely to affect cities and towns than rural areas. Tax rates in incorporated areas are higher because they have an additional city or town tax rate that isnt paid by people who live in the country. When the total tax rate climbs above 2 percent, properties start hitting the cap.

While thats a good thing for property owners  their tax bills are capped at 1 percent of their assessed value for homes, 2 percent for rentals and farmland, and 3 percent for businesses  its a loss for governments, since they dont collect money thats lost to the caps.

In urban areas, where tax rates are higher, the tax caps have really hit home, DeBoer said.

Although homes have the lowest cap at 1 percent, theyre less likely to reach the cap until their tax rates become very high, since homeowners receive major deductions that help reduce their tax bills, DeBoer explained. More expensive houses will hit the tax cap before cheaper homes do.
State District Judge Shannon Bacon delivered a blow to opponents of the Albuquerque Healthy Workforce Ordinance on Friday, throwing out a challenge to the proposed sick leave law and potentially clearing the way for it to appear on the Oct. 3 ballot.

But Pat Rogers, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, is vowing to take the matter to the state Supreme Court.

The challenge to the proposed ordinance was filed on behalf of the Association of Commerce and Industry, the New Mexico Restaurant Association, NAIOP  which represents commercial real estate developers  and Kaufman Fire Protection Services.

The suit alleged that the proposed Healthy Workforce Ordinance is a form of voter fraud known as logrolling, because it lumps 14 different issues as one, and that it therefore violates the state constitution. The suit also alleged that home rule municipalities do not have the power to enact voter-initiated legislation.

But Bacon rejected those arguments in an 11-page order issued Friday morning. On the logrolling matter, she held that the constitutional provision Rogers cited does not apply to municipal ordinances. And she determined that the state constitution doesnt bar a home-rule city like Albuquerque from allowing voter-initiated legislation.

My clients will seek emergency review by the Supreme Court, Rogers said in a statement. The ordinance proposed by OLE and the intervenors is the most extreme and onerous in the nation. The proposed sick leave ordinance is a disaster for both employees and employers. With the respect that is due, no authority exists for these initiatives in the New Mexico Constitution or in the authority granted by the Legislature.

Proponents of the Healthy Workforce Ordinance, meanwhile, praised the ruling.

Albuquerque residents right to directly participate in the lawmaking process is a cornerstone of our local democracy, said Tim Davis, an attorney with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, who argued the case on behalf of several local organizations and a woman who werent named in the lawsuit but chose to intervene in the case. Todays ruling protects this right from attacks by well-connected business interests.

Intervenors in the case are Organizers in the Land of Enchantment, El Centro de Igualdad Y Derechos, OLE Education Fund and Rebecca Glenn. The defendants in the case were the city of Albuquerque and City Clerk Natalie Howard.

If approved by voters, the Healthy Workforce Ordinance would require employers to allow workers to earn paid sick time off. It would apply to full-time, part-time and temporary workers at any business with a physical presence in Albuquerque.

Supporters say the ordinance would ensure that workers dont have to choose between their paycheck and caring for themselves or a loved one.

Opponents argue that the ordinance would hurt businesses, because of higher costs and what they call onerous record-keeping requirements.

Bacons order comes one day after she rejected a challenge to Albuquerques Minimum Wage Ordinance.

The municipal ballot containing the Healthy Workforce Ordinance must be mailed to overseas Albuquerque voters by next Saturday.
Police-community relations, justice for girls and racial healing are themes that will be explored today during the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of New Mexicos annual membership meeting in Albuquerque.

The meeting is set for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Event Palace, 1413 Eubank NE.

Established in 1957, the SCLC is now an international organization made up of chapters and affiliates that offer programs that affect the lives of all Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the first SCLC president.

A discussion about police-community relations will start about 9:30 a.m. That leads up to Justice for Girls, a workshop aimed at raising awareness about sex trafficking, at 10:30 a.m.

Pamela Becknell, an official of SCLCs New Mexico chapter and former first lady of Rio Ranchos Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, will lead the Justice for Girls workshop, a program developed in 2009 by Cathelean Steele, first lady of the SCLC. The program is intended to keep young girls from being exposed to sex trafficking, which has been described by many as modern day slavery.

Gail Christopher of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich., will speak at the membership meeting luncheon following the Justice for Girls workshop. Christopher is the vice president for policy and senior advisor for the Kellogg Foundation. She will talk about racial healing and ways that communities can come together.

The workshop is free and lunch is free for all SCLC members with membership cards. Nonmembers are welcome to attend lunch for a $10 fee, which includes membership in the SCLC New Mexico chapter.

To reserve space at the luncheon, email Pamela Becknell at cepdbeck@msn.com or call her at 505-459-9440.
SANTA FE  A Santa Fe County man and his girlfriend have been arrested after he was accused of choking his young nephew and she allegedly kicked the boy in the head, because the boy went into the uncles bedroom.

According to Santa Fe County complaints, 32-year-old George Sanchez of Espanola and 31-year-old Zia Rose Loya of Ojo Caliente were picked up by State Police after the boy, who lives in the Sombrillo community, called police late Sunday to report his uncle and uncles girlfriend were beating him up. Documents on the case dont provide the boys age, but State Police spokesperson Elizabeth Armijo said he is 10 years old.

The child told officers that Sanchez told him I cannot wait to hit you after he went into his uncles bedroom to flip the homes circuit breaker.

Sanchez is said to have grabbed the boy by the neck until he began to lose consciousness and then threw him on the ground, which is when the boy said Loya kicked him in the face.

He called the police after the alleged attack and police found him at the Sombrillo home with his grandmother, who said she witnessed the incident. The complaint states that the boy had red marks on his neck and bruising on his nose where he said Loya kicked him.

After being taken Presbyterian Espanola Hospitals emergency room for evaluation, he also told police that visible bruising and swelling on his knee and calf were from an unreported incident in which his uncle assaulted him days before.

The couple left the scene before police arrived, but were later arrested and charged with third-degree felony child abuse.

Sanchez said he only grabbed the child by the shirt, and Loya said the child fell on the ground on his own and she only poked him in the face with her foot after that.

Loya, who was on probation and has had several previous failure to appear and failure to comply charges, is still in custody. Sanchez was released from Santa Fe County jail Tuesday on a $2,500 bond.

A phone number connected to Sanchezs address, the location of the reported incident, was disconnected.

New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department spokesperson Henry Varela confirmed that State Police contacted the agency, and there is currently an open investigation. The boy was placed with an in-state relative following the arrests.

Varela said he was unsure if this grandmother had legal custody of the child. Armijo said the last information State Police had on the child was that his paternal grandmother had custody, but its unclear if that is the same grandmother who witnessed the incident.
After losing in District Court, Rio Rancho Public Schools has filed an appeal to stop the Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science from opening a location at the University of New Mexico West, but the charter schools leaders have vowed to continue fighting.

At the end of May, the districts Board of Education petitioned for a review of the 1st Judicial District Courts decision. The Court of Appeals agreed on July 26.

AIMS director Kathy Sandoval contends that the appeal wastes valuable taxpayer money during a tight budget time.

While school systems protest even the smallest reduction in the education budget, its unfortunate RRPS spends that hard fought budget on lawyers rather than improving the education of our children! she said in a statement.

But district administrators say they are standing up for proper protocol.

In 2014, RRPS sued the New Mexico Public Education Department over a waiver PED granted AIMS, a top-rated charter school housed on the UNM South campus.

The waiver gave AIMS permission to open a second location at UNM West  within Rio Ranchos boundaries  without applying for a new charter. Typically, charter schools must be reauthorized if they expand outside their original district.

The RRPS board and district do not believe it is a waste of money, even in tight budget times, to seek court review of actions which violate the laws that have set out specific requirements for the opening of any charter school, Rio Rancho Public Schools spokeswoman Kim Vesely said in a statement.

Sandoval has said she believes the lawsuit is really all about turf.

To date, the district has spent about $18,000 on the case, according to Vesely, though AIMS believes the figure is actually much higher.

Marty Esquivel, an attorney representing AIMS, also questioned whether the school board followed open meetings law when the lawsuit was filed in 2014. He said he could not find any record that the board publicly discussed the lawsuit and voted to pursue it.

How was the decision made to file this lawsuit? Esquivel said. Was it a decision by the administration outside of the school board?

Vesely said the district believes the board is not required to publicly discuss threatened or pending litigation, under open meetings law.

She also noted that RRPS did not oppose two other state charter schools that followed appropriate statutory processes  ASK Academy and the Sandoval Academy for Bilingual Education.

The New Mexico School Superintendents Association and the New Mexico School Boards Association both support the districts position on AIMS attempt to locate in Rio Rancho.

Sandoval said RRPS heavy hand is denying families access to a proven, flexible and accountable education system.

The Washington Post recently rated AIMS the best school in New Mexico and 43rd in the nation. AIMS, which currently has about 350 students grades six through 12, is chartered by the state Public Education Commission.

Sandoval vowed to keep pushing to open the UNM West location.

Originally, the Rio Rancho AIMS site was slated to launch in fall 2014 with 40 sixth-graders, adding a new grade each year until the school enrolled about 350 students.

UNM West had given AIMS two classrooms, and Sandoval said some of her teachers had moved to Rio Rancho.

Rio Rancho parents and students have told us they want our type of education, Sandoval said. The Rio Rancho City Council has embraced us. There is obviously a need and a strong desire for our school.
Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, recently was named New Mexicos single most effective legislator  indeed, one of the most effective lawmakers in any state  by FiscalNote. The national, nonpartisan organization knows what it is talking about, representing many of the most successful Fortune 500 corporations. Most recipients of the award were Republicans. The award was given on how successful a legislator is at sponsoring and steering legislation through the legislative process to enactment. This complex process requires strong bipartisan skills and often goes unnoticed by the public. I can attest, however, that in all my years in the Roundhouse, no legislator has ever deserved this honor more, nor worked harder to receive it, than Stewart.

Stewart is the author of so much important legislation to improve the lives of New Mexicans. A champion for children and our public school classrooms, the environment, good government and womens rights: All are part of her record of accomplishment in the House and the Senate. Her years of experience as an educator have been invaluable to legislative deliberations on state education policy and budget priorities. As vice chair of the Senate Education Committee she fights to get teachers the additional skills and resources needed to teach children who need extra help. It is important work in a state with so much childhood poverty.

The award reflects the passion Stewart holds for a large range of political issues. She sponsored the original legislation that created the K-3 Plus summer learning program for thousands of children from low-income families. It provides kindergarten through third-grade students 25 extra instructional days. Recognized nationally, Stewarts K-3 Plus narrows the achievement gap between at-risk students and other students, improves cognitive skills and produces higher test scores for all participants. Its enactment was a bipartisan milestone.

Legislation she authored in 2003 created our states three-tiered licensure model that implements a professional salary schedule for public school teachers. It helps New Mexico attract and retain dedicated, qualified teachers and has become a nationally recognized model.

Year after year, and in the face of stiff executive headwinds, she has been a tireless advocate for extending the states consumer solar tax credit. That law alone has made it possible and affordable for many thousands of middle-class New Mexican families to install solar panels on their homes. It also created big savings on their electricity bills, delivered a nonpolluting source of energy, helped to lower air and water pollution overall in New Mexico, and improved public health. She built overwhelming support for solar energy from both parties, even though she is an unapologetic Democrat.

Stewart is a special kind of legislator who has successfully enacted key laws to meet many of our states pressing challenges, including a statewide water conservation plan and grey-water system regulations. Over the years she authored summer youth gang intervention legislation, domestic violence interventions, prohibitions on insurance companies that discriminate against victims of domestic abuse, emergency contraception for rape victims and stronger homeowner rights  all of which became law. The list goes on. She has been a bridge-builder for positive change.

Some of our states most important legislation during the last almost 25 years came about thanks to Stewart, on education, renewable energy and health care. She has been successful because of her constructive and collaborative approach to government. Stewart sets the standard for effective lawmaking.
I received an unusual letter from Arizona recently. It was written by an inmate held at the Lewis prison complex in Buckeye, Ariz., and signed by 39 other prisoners. Their complaint? That life inside the Buckley unit there is like living in hell.

This summers record-breaking heat there has them baking in their cells, according to inmate Robert Navarro. He says the temperature inside his corner cell  where the relentless sun beats down on his walls all day  was recently recorded as high as 112 degrees. No windows, no fans, no ice or chilled water, no relief. Day after sweltering day.

Regular readers of this column know Im no bleeding heart, but we wouldnt allow a dog to be subjected to conditions like that. So why, in locations where triple-digit heat is the norm, are prison officials allowed to house inmates in such life-threatening environments?

I didnt realize it was OK for our nation to treat our incarcerated people inhumanely, Navarro wrote me. Especially when they make such a big deal about prisoners treatment in Cuba and other cruel countries.

Navarro, who is serving 25 to life for aggravated assault, gave me permission to use his name knowing harsh disciplinary steps might be taken against him for speaking out. Space does not permit publication of the more than three dozen other inmates who signed the heat complaint letter.

We get to take a shower once in a while to cool off (then) its right back to the oven, Navarro explained. Its equivalent to opening the oven to rotate the turkey.

By the way, the temperature in Buckeye, Ariz., for August is forecast to be well over 100 degrees every day but one.

Naturally, the guards cannot leave cell doors open for air circulation. But, according to inmates, if officials would remove the bottom door plates (which are there to stop the passing of contraband) they might get a little relief. Apparently, that request has been denied. More importantly, hot inmates requests for a daily delivery of a bag of ice has also been refused.

Our cell water is always hot, Navarro says. Weve asked for a bucket of ice to cool off our core temps but the answer is no.

Prisoners loved ones who have complained were told by the Corrections Departments liaison office that Inmates may order drinks through their commissary orders, as well as ice, if they so choose to. They may also purchase fans.

But heres the dirty little secret: The prison commissary at Lewis/Buckley is open only one day a week, according to inmates. As a girlfriend of one told me, I suppose he could buy seven bags of ice on that one day, but they would melt within a few hours. What good is that?

The Arizona Department of Corrections ignored my required written list of questions about the heat issue. But I got ahold of a message sent to worried family members from Deputy Warden James Roan. He said they are trying to combat the heat by checking swamp coolers on a regular basis, but with this heat and humidity they are only so effective.

The Lewis complex, situated 40 miles outside Phoenix, has had its share of violence in the past. A riot and 15-day hostage situation in 2004, and two grisly inmate murders in 2010 and earlier this year. There have been complaints by high-ranking employees about dangerously low staffing levels. It is chilling to think that inmates might stage another uprising so they can be sent to lock down, where they believe it is air-conditioned.

Someone in the Arizona Department of Corrections should be taking urgent steps to defuse this situation. Something more than simply waiting for cooler temperatures to arrive.

Look, the Arizona prison system isnt the only one with this inhumane hot-box-like situation. Countless inmates across the country are held in sweltering conditions. For example, a recent civil suit in Texas revealed 22 inmates have died of heat exhaustion there since 1998, and still most prisons in Texas dont have air-conditioning.

Even though judges from Mississippi to Wisconsin and states in between have ruled that housing prisoners in too hot or too cold conditions is inhumane and unconstitutional, still it continues. Budgetary issues are most frequently mentioned as the culprit.

Correction officials like to remind civilians that their staff also endures the heat inside the prison. But guards can grab a cold drink, step into a cooled office for a break, and they get to escape to their air-conditioned cars and homes after their shift. For the prisoners, the constant heat is unrelenting.

Some will say they shouldnt do the crime if they cant do the time. But it has never been the American way to treat our own people worse than we would treat an animal. Inmate Navarro is right. We would be quick to condemn these conditions in any other country. Why is it OK here?

www.DianeDimond.com; email to Diane@DianeDimond.com.
Corporate profits at California-based transnational corporations such as Apple, Facebook and Google are hitting record highs.

California housing prices from La Jolla to Berkeley along the Pacific Coast can top $1,000 a square foot.

It seems as if all of China is willing to pay premium prices to get their children degreed at Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA or USC.

Yet California  after raising its top income tax rate to 13.3 percent and receiving record revenues  is still facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion. There is a much more foreboding state crisis of unfunded liabilities and pension obligations of nearly $1 trillion.

Soon, new gas tax hikes, on top of green mandates, might make California gas the most expensive in the nation despite the states huge reserves of untapped oil.

Where does the money go, given that the states schools and infrastructure rank among Americas worst in national surveys?

Illegal immigration over the last 30 years, the exodus of millions of middle-class Californians, and huge wealth concentrated in the L.A. basin and Silicon Valley have turned the state into a medieval manor of knights and peasants, with ever fewer in between.

The strapped middle class continues to flee bad schools, high taxes, rampant crime and poor state services. About one-third of the nations welfare recipients reside in California. Approximately one-fifth of the state lives below the poverty line. More than a quarter of Californians were not born in the United States.

Many of the states wealthiest residents support high taxes, no-growth green policies and subsidies for the poor. They do so because they reside in apartheid neighborhoods and have the material and political wherewithal to become exempt from the consequences of their own utopian bromides.

Blue California has no two-party politics anymore. Its campuses, from Berkeley to Claremont, have proven among the most hostile to free speech in the nation.

A few things keep California going. Its natural bounty, beauty and weather draw in people eager to play California roulette. The state is naturally rich in minerals, oil and natural gas, timber and farmland. The world pays dearly for whatever techies based in Californias universities can dream up.

That said, the status quo is failing.

The skeletons of half-built bridges and overpasses for a $100 billion high-speed-rail dinosaur remind residents of the ongoing boondoggle. Meantime, outdated roads and highways, mostly unchanged from the 1960s, make driving for 40 million both slow and dangerous. Each mile of track for high-speed rail represents millions of dollars that were not spent on repairing and expanding stretches of the states decrepit freeways  and hundreds of lives needlessly lost each year.

The future of state transportation is not updated versions of 19th-century ideas of railways and locomotives, but instead will include electric-powered and automatically piloted cars  all impossible without good roads.

Less than 40 percent of California residents identify themselves as conservative. But red-county California represents some 75 percent of Californias geographical area. Its as if large, rural Mississippi and tiny urban Massachusetts were one combined state, all ruled by liberal Boston.

Now, a third of the state thinks it can pull off a Calexit and leave the United States. Calexits unhinged proponents have no idea that they are mimicking the right-wing arguments of the Confederate states that prompted the Civil War. Like South Carolina residents in 1861, Calexit advocates seem to assume that federal law should apply everywhere else except in California. Many of these California residents also believe that the federal Environmental Protection Agency should always override local ordinances, but not so with another federal bureau, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

South Carolina started the Civil War by shelling and capturing federal property at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay. Calexit wannabe secessionists similarly assume that thousands of square miles of federal property  from California federal courtrooms and post offices to national parks such as Yosemite to huge military bases such as Camp Pendleton  belong to the state and could simply be confiscated from the federal government.

Calexit proponents assume California can leave the union without an authorizing amendment to the Constitution, ratified by three-fourths of all the states. And they fail to see that should California ever secede, it would immediately split in two. The coastal strip would go the way of secessionist Virginia. The other three-quarters of the states geography would remain loyal to the union and become a new version of loyalist West Virginia.

Buying a home on the California coast is nearly impossible. The state budget can only be balanced through constant tax hikes. Finding a good, safe public school is difficult. Building a single new dam during the California drought to capture record runoff water in subsequent wet years proved politically impossible.

No matter. Many Californians consider those existential problems to be a premodern drag, while they dream of postmodern trains, the legalization of pot-growing  and seceding from the United States of America.
Despite all the hand-wringing from advocates for the poor, there really is no responsible reason why the University of New Mexico Hospital should not require uninsured patients to pay 50 percent in advance for non-emergency surgeries.

Or at least require them to agree to a payment plan, which may not require the 50 percent upfront.

Of course, the key words here are non-emergency. Emergency surgery is done when needed regardless of ones ability to pay.

While community health advocates claim UNMH recently eliminated affordable co-pays from its 2015 Patient Payment Policy, UNMH officials say the hospitals finance guidelines for surgical cases issued in May require all patients to receive approval by a UNMH financial consultant before they are scheduled for non-emergency surgery.

UNMH has a good reason for the provision: Insurance companies were refusing to pay for surgeries that had not been pre-approved. And when insurance companies dont pay, and uninsured patients dont pay, taxpayers do.

The 50-percent-down payment applies only to surgeries and other procedures not deemed medically necessary and determined to be purely elective by our medical staff, UNMH officials said. And a hospital spokesman notes financial consultants can approve a payment agreement instead of requiring the full 50-percent payment up front.

Contrary to some health advocates assertions that poor patients are being singled out, note that all non-emergency surgical patients have to go through the same process, even those with the best medical insurance available  for which they pay correspondingly high premiums.

On the flip side of that coin are patients who made the choice to not purchase insurance under the Affordable Care Act, preferring instead to pay the tax penalty for not doing so. Such choices carry implicit risk.

UNMH officials point out the 50-percent-down payment can be deferred if doctors consider the surgery medically urgent. And put simply, UHMH will not  and in fact according to law cannot  refuse necessary medical treatment based on a patients ability to pay. The required financial screenings help determine what amount, if any, the patient has the ability to pay for a non-emergent surgery. If they determine a patient should be able to pay 50 percent up front, and no other payment plan is appropriate, then they should be required to do so and placed on a post-surgery payment plan that recoups as much for UNMHs services as is fair and equitable.

Sireeshe Manne, an attorney with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, claims UNMHs finance guidelines for surgical cases require indigent patients to go through a huge bureaucratic process to get care. Welcome to health care in the 21st century, where everyone  from the well-insured to the uninsured  goes through a sometimes burdensome process to obtain the medical services they need.

Everyone should be required to pay as much of their medical bills as possible. The financial screening, just like the medical screening that determines what a patient needs to ensure the best health possible, is a reasonable and financially responsible requirement.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

When the University of New Mexico made a push five years ago to build a new hospital, Lovelace Health System emerged as one of the most vocal critics.

Lovelace President and CEO Ron Stern challenged the need for the hospital, suggesting that Lovelaces Downtown Albuquerque hospital could take patients to ease UNMs crowding.

In the years since, UNM has increased its coordination with the Lovelace organization, transferring hundreds of patients to Lovelace in fiscal year 2017.

But as UNM resumes its quest for a new hospital, its unclear whether it has done enough to assuage Lovelace, because the health care provider  which has its own hospitals  is not saying where it stands on the new proposal.

Lovelace has on multiple occasions declined to answer Journal questions seeking its position on UNMs current pursuit to build what it calls a modern medical facility to boost capacity and replace current facilities its administrators say are outdated and inefficient.

No one was available to comment, spokeswoman Katherine Cox wrote the Journal on July 20 in response to questions about whether Lovelace would object to the new proposal. Asked whether it would help to give the company until the next week to answer, she responded, No, Im sorry.

Asked again about Lovelaces position Aug. 2, Cox responded Im sorry, we dont have anyone to speak to this at this time.

Lovelace was not so quiet a few years ago when UNM presented a similar proposal.

UNM in 2012 sought approval to build a 96-bed hospital. In a letter from Stern to a Bernalillo County commissioner that was made public in early 2013, he wrote, We can tell you this as far as Lovelace is concerned  given the current health care environment, a new big hospital in the downtown area is not what is needed at this point.

That UNM proposal ultimately died; the State Board of Finance, led by Gov. Susana Martinez  which had the final say  never held a vote on the project.

But UNM has since renewed its quest. It has sought approval from UNMs regents to hire an architect to design a 120-bed hospital and medical office building  the first phase of a longer-term project that could eventually replace all of its existing adult-care units. The regents are scheduled to hear the planning request at Tuesdays meeting.

UNM has coordinated more closely with Lovelace in recent years. The UNM Medical Group and Lovelace in May even partnered to open the Lovelace UNM Rehabilitation Hospital. The partners share patients, doctors and money in the joint venture.

UNM has also dramatically increased the flow of patients from UNM to Lovelace.

UNM transferred 413 patients to Lovelace in fiscal year 2017, according to numbers provided by the university. Thats up from 158 in fiscal year 2016.

Those figures include patients transferred from the emergency departments at UNMH and the Sandoval Regional Medical Center, plus transfers via Access UNM  a physician access line service (PALS) that accepts calls from providers around the state.

Software purchased about three years ago helped PALS evolve, according to Dr. Irene Agostini, UNMH chief medical officer. Originally used so that providers in more rural areas could call to consult with UNMHs network of subspecialists, PALS is also now a patient transfer center and bed-management system.

It has greatly improved efficiency, Agostini said.

While UNM has long accepted patients from other hospitals due to its status as New Mexicos only Level 1 trauma center and its range of subspecialists, it had not always actively redirected patients into other hospitals. It now works closely to put some patients into Lovelace and Presbyterian, preserving some of its own space to serve the most complex cases.

UNM averages 97 percent full, Agostini said, not including the patients waiting in the emergency room or waiting to transfer in from another hospital elsewhere in New Mexico.

Agostini said she did not know if UNMH and Lovelace officials have had conversations about whether the new arrangement is enough to end Lovelaces objections to a new UNM hospital.

But she said the motivation for the coordination was mostly about improving patient care.

We dont have enough space, so that taking a lower-acuity patient and sending them to Lovelace is a win-win for UNM, Lovelace and the people of New Mexico, she said.

Agostini said she expects the number of transfers to keep growing. There is no set target number, though UNM would like to reach a point where it never had to turn away any patients. It declined 1,000 transfer requests from around New Mexico in the last year, 250 of them critically ill or injured, according to officials.

Asked if it was possible to fill that need without a new hospital, Agostini said, I think at this point, with our physical plant, the answer is no, she said.

Agostini also noted that UNM still accepts far more patients from Presbyterian and Lovelace than it sends out  1,211 from Presbyterian facilities and 571 from Lovelace facilities in 2017 alone.

We have increased our efficiency at UNMH as well as adding at Sandoval Regional another 50 beds, she said. Despite that, we still cannot meet the needs (of New Mexico).
When it comes to New Mexico cuisine, there are myriad options.

What brought YouTube star Hannah Hart to the Land of Enchantment was to focus on the age-old question, Red or green?

Hart is the host of the new Food Network show I Hart Food. The six-part series kicks off in the City Different at 8 p.m. Monday.

I wanted a series where we get to go to different regions and taste what the area is known for, Hart says. In New Mexico, theres red and green chile. Thats what we focused on.

Hart is best-known as the creator and star of the award-winning, weekly webseries My Drunk Kitchen, which has amassed millions of views since the inception in 2011.

Her latest show starts off in Santa Fe and moves on to New England, the South and the Northwest.

Hart says extensive research went into each episode.

When you go visit a place, you just dont want to go to the tourist traps, she says. We researched online what people were saying. We found the best suggestions when we were on the ground and talking to the locals. This is where we found some hidden gems.

Hart and crew were in Santa Fe for three days about six months ago.

Its beautiful, and I like the vibes, she says. The Southwest as a region is gorgeous.

In the premiere episode, Hart visits Tecolote Cafe for breakfast.

There she had huevos yucatecos and huevos rancheros, and of course, the choice of red or green chile.

Its such a good debate, because both are delicious, she says.

While in New Mexico, Hart also had an opportunity to dive into one of her favorite foods  sopaipillas.

You really cant get them outside of New Mexico, good ones, at least, she says. Growing up, my best friend was from Albuquerque and I went to visit her one summer and tasted a sopaipilla for the first time. I personally love sopaipillas.

Though Hart has more than 5 million followers on social media, she is looking forward to going mainstream on the Food Network with I Hart Food.

The six-part series is completed, and she is looking forward to the premiere.

Weve only just touched the surface of all the great food, she says. Its been surreal for the past couple weeks. Im so grateful for this show on Food Network. Its one of the greatest opportunities Ive had. And Ive had a great time visiting amazing cities like Santa Fe.

On TV

The Food Networks I Hart Food premieres at 8 p.m. Monday. The six-part series kicks off in Santa Fe.
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Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

A Supreme Court task force charged with recommending ways to reform the states guardianship/conservatorship system questioned Friday what can be learned from the pending federal embezzlement prosecution of Ayudando Guardians Inc. and its two principals who are charged with embezzling millions in client funds.

There were no immediate, easy answers.

Our entire community has been rocked and outraged by the indictment, said Wendy York, a retired Albuquerque state district judge who chairs the commission that was appointed in April by the state Supreme Court. Ayudando, unfortunately, gives us a template for recommendations 

York also noted that a representative from Ayudando earlier this year made certain statements that may turn out not to be true.

Sharon Moore, Ayudandos chief financial officer, told commissioners in May that Ayudando was audited yearly by the New Mexico Office of Guardianship, which serves indigent clients. But an official from that office recently told the Journal the audits arent financial but are essentially program reviews of a guardian contractors staffing, policies and procedures.

Commission members hope to come up with initial recommendations for reforms by Oct. 1. Those could include recommendations for more detailed annual reports from the guardians and conservators appointed by judges around the state for adults deemed mentally incapacitated.

Commissioner Jorja Armijo-Brasher, director of Albuquerque Department of Senior Affairs, said the commission needs to figure out whats missing in the process so we dont let this (Ayudando case) happen in the future.

Tim Gardner, an attorney with the Disability Rights New Mexico, told his fellow commissioners, I think the risk has always been there. He said sometimes guardians and conservators file the required annual financial or guardianship reports to the court about their clients, but sometimes they dont. Sometimes judges have the time to read the reports, he said, but sometimes they dont.

With the states courts financially strained, Theres almost never a verified audit, Gardner said. The system is not there to prevent this from happening.

Commissioner state District Judge Nancy Franchini, of Bernalillo County, said she understands that Ayudando defendants, which include Moore and Ayudando president Susan Harris, were indicted solely because of alleged embezzlement of Veterans Affairs and Social Security benefits they managed for their clients. A federal indictment unsealed July 19 contends that at least 10 veterans were victims of the scheme. Losses have been estimated at $4 million or more.

When all this came down, it was only regarding federal money. Theres nobody as far as I know whos investigated the state money that may also be missing, Franchini added.

The Journal earlier this week posed several questions to the U.S. Marshals Office, which is overseeing the agencys operations under court order.

But in an email Friday, the U.S. Attorneys Office and Marshals Service declined to answer them, noting that the Department of Justice policy generally prohibits us from disclosing information that is not a matter of public record.

Ayudando clients will receive notices as part of the transfer process to new representative-payee or guardianship service providers, the email stated. The Marshals Service anticipates that it will close the physical Ayudando office at some point, but it will continue to oversee Ayudandos business affairs and to ensure clients receive necessary services as ordered by the courts. The U.S. Marshals Service is committed to ensuring that all Ayudando clients continue to receive the services they need and deserve.
TOPEKA, Kan.  Kansas corrections officials expect the next prison built by the state to be fully air-conditioned, including the cells for inmates, viewing it both as a way to lessen problems with inmates and to combat high employee turnover.

Some lawmakers who dont want to coddle criminals see a need to make corrections officers less miserable in the summer heat. When Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood matter-of-factly told a legislative committee earlier this month that plans for a new prison included it, its members let the statement pass without comment, though questions may come later.

The states plans to fully air-condition the new prison planned for Lansing in the Kansas City area also come as a federal judge is forcing Texas to move hundreds of inmates who are sensitive to the heat to cooler areas. The American Civil Liberties Union has prevailed in lawsuits on prisoners behalf in Arizona, Mississippi and Wisconsin since 2004.

In Kansas, the union representing corrections officers considers the lack of air conditioning in parts of the states maximum-security prison in El Dorado, east of Wichita, a contributing factor to inmate unrest there that included three reported disturbances in May and June. Corrections officials said air conditioning is becoming more necessary because of inmates medical needs.

This is not an issue of comfort or luxury, said David Fathi, director of the ACLUs National Prison Project. You should no more build a prison without climate control than you should a prison without fire escapes.

In St. Louis, the city paid $75,000 in late July to bring in temporary air conditioners to its medium-security jail when temperatures topped 100 degrees (38 Celsius) and prompted protests outside the jail. Triple-digit temperatures are not unusual for the height of summer in Kansas, and the average monthly temperature approaches 80 (27 Celsius) at the end of May and stays there or higher through September.

The Kansas Department of Corrections plans to build a replacement prison in Lansing, where its oldest and largest lockup has buildings that date to the 1860s and no air conditioning. The department hopes to have a final construction contract in November for what could be a three-year, $155 million project.

The department has a 33 percent annual turnover rate among corrections officers because of low pay, which starts at $13.95 an hour. The rate at Lansing is 37 percent and at El Dorado, 46 percent.

Norwood told the legislative committee that in the summer, without air conditioning, Lansing becomes extremely uncomfortable for staff. He said with the new prisons air conditioning, the working conditions and living conditions will be much better.

Not all legislators are on board. State Rep. J.R. Claeys, a Salina Republican and chairman of a House budget subcommittee on public safety, said he doesnt remember being told of the plan for full air conditioning and would have objected on behalf of taxpayers who cant afford it or other comforts.

That would have been a topic that would have met with some push-back, he said.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, said she understands cooling prisons to make staff safer and more comfortable and inmates less prone to unrest. But she added that for inmates, It doesnt have to be on 70. It can be on 85.

Court rulings in other states have mandated action when heat indexes get above 80 degrees (27 Celsius). Kansas corrections officials seek to keep temperatures in air-conditioned areas for inmates at 78 (26 Celsius).

Roughly 70 percent of Kansas inmates in state prisons are in buildings without air conditioning, including in Lansing and at the states second-oldest prison in Hutchinson. Five of the eight prisons are at least partially air-conditioned, including much of the one in El Dorado.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Cheryl Cadue said one concern is that many inmates are taking heat-sensitive psychiatric medication.

Robert Choromanski, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, said the new prison should come with air conditioning because, This is the 21st century. Census figures show that in 2016, 94 percent of all new single-family homes in the Midwest were built with air conditioning, compared with 40 percent in 1976.

He said that if legislators are inclined to see hot cell houses as part of the punishment for criminals, Guess who else youre punishing? Its our correctional officers.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna
Albuquerque police are seeking the publics help in finding any leads in the shooting death of a teenage boy on Friday afternoon.

Obed Cruz, 17, was found dead in the Plaza Feliz apartment complex in the 500 block of San Pablo SE, near Zuni and Pennsylvania, around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Officer Simon Drobik, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said officers responded to the address after a call from a friend of Cruz who had been playing video games with him and was communicating via headset.

When Cruz became uncommunicative, Drobik said, the friend went over to check on Cruz, found him shot and called 911.

Drobik said Cruz was suffering from an unknown number of gunshot wounds.

Police spoke to Cruzs mother and friend who called 911, but still have no suspects or leads in the case.

Were rushing, really behind the curve today, trying to find some witnesses, vehicle information, anyone in the neighborhood that thought they heard anything suspicious to give us a call, Drobik said Saturday. This is very peculiar, because theres no information on this case, at all.

APDs Crimes Against Children Unit is assisting with the investigation.

Drobik said anyone with any information may contact Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.
Policy say a Penasco man was killed in a head-on collision in northern New Mexico Friday evening.

Patrick Medina, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene after the eastbound car he was riding in crossed into oncoming traffic on N.M. 75 at around 6:20 p.m. near mile marker 16, New Mexico State Police said in a news release.

Medina was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the vehicle, Anthony Sanchez, 21, also of Penasco, and the driver of the other vehicle, 32-year-old Gregory Mascarenas of Tooele, Utah, were transported to Holy Cross Hospital in Taos for treatment, police said.

Their conditions were unknown.
Two Utah women were killed in a two-vehicle crash in southwestern New Mexico on Saturday morning, New Mexico State Police said.

Kelly Stubbs, 19, and Laura Stubbs, 28, both of Copperton, Utah, were pronounced dead at the scene on U.S. 180 near Buckhorn, which is in Grant County.

The 2003 Subaru driven by Kelly Stubbs crossed into oncoming traffic while traveling east at around 6 a.m., according to police.

A second passenger, Laura Pratt, 51, also of Copperton, was injured and flown to a Tucson trauma center for treatment.

The driver of the second vehicle refused treatment at the scene.


Marketers #MakeTheirMarq in the inaugural edition

Hindustan Unilever wins the coveted Green Marketer Award at the Marquee Awards 2017

The Advertising Club (TAC) India hosted the inaugural edition of the unique Marquee Awards at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai today. Presented by News18 India, powered by COLORS and MTV and partnered by One India, the prestigious event was flagged off by Honorable Minster of Textile, Information & Broadcasting, Government of India  Smt. Smriti Irani as Chief Guest of Honor. The Awards saw the enter marketing fraternity come together to recognized brands for their excellence in marketing, building sustainable and path breaking brands.



Hindustan Unilever won the coveted Green Marketer Award, which honors brands that have strived and conquered, by keeping a close focus on environment sustainability. The Special Award for Conquering an impregnable fortress was won by Bira 91. Pro Kabaddi League was recognized as the brand that Traversed unchartered waters and Paytm was recognized for Riding on an emerging wave. Honda Motorcycle &Scooter was awarded for Breathing new life into a category, Indian Accent was recognized for Creating a Global Impact while Oppo was recognized for Carving out a Niche for themselves in a highly competitive category.



Speaking at the Marques 2017 guest of honor for the awards, Honorable Minster of Textile, Information & Broadcasting, Government of India  Smt. Smriti Irani said My congratulations to all the award winners and thanks to the jury that made this great selection. It fills me with a sense of deep gratitude and privilege that I stand here today as the Minister of the Information & Broadcasting. I am what I am today thanks to this industry.



She further added The advertising industry inspires millions across this nation. Having been a part of this journey, I have just one appeal this evening - while we sell dreams to the nation and world, there are many amongst us who wither away with the passage of time. All I implore today to the industry stalwarts is that we now, in a systemic fashion, build a platform that takes care of those who need help, specially from the creative faction of the industry, so that the world does not accuse us selling dreams but living a lie.



I hope that one day, on this stage, some of us will stand here to applaud an Indian media company that has made it at the global stage.



Speaking about the mega success of the Marquee Awards, Mr. Raj Nayak, President, The Advertising Club said, Marquees 2017 has emerged as the gold standard in marketing awards. I thank the Honorable Minister for Textiles and Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Smriti Irani for gracing the maiden edition of Marquees 2017 as Chief Guest; enhancing the prestige of the Marquees. I also thank the Jury Chair Sanjiv Mehta & the distinguished Jury for their indulgence; commitment in making the awards robust, transparent & credible.



Talking about the scale of Marquees 201,7 Mr. Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India said, The debut edition of Marquees has set a new benchmark of excellence by recognizing brands that have challenged the communication archetype in the industry, thus appealing to the evolved consumer of today. These awards through their differentiated scope, right from the jury panel to representation to categories has ensured that they are a marketers dream.



Speaking on the occasion, Avinash Kaul, Managing Director, A+E Networks | TV18 and President - Network18 said, We take great pride in associating with the first edition of Marquees, and congratulate the winners. At News18 India we identify with the spirit of celebrating brands that drive positive change. News18 India as a brand has also undergone a transformation after the rebranding exercise and the results are visible in top ratings for the channel. This only re-affirms our association with Marquees which has today honored path-breaking marketing campaigns that have inspired change. News18 India remains committed to doing impactful stories aimed at empowering our viewers"

Marquees Awards 2017 was a laudable event bringing together thought leaders and industry veterans from Advertising, Marketing and the Media Fraternity. The scale, execution excellence and inclusivity of the awards has established Marquees as a coveted industry award.
For the first 10 days, I was in total isolation, says Mathias Depardon.

In a recent interview with the British Journal of Photography, Depardon, a French photographer who was based in Turkey, describes what his life was like after he was detained by Turkish officials on May 8. At 
Introduction

The HTC U11 and the Huawei P10 are two high-quality smartphones that go up against one another in todays comparison. The former was launched earlier this year by the Taiwanese vendor that was once one of the preeminent names in the smartphone industry, credited with popularizing the Android platform with memorable devices like the Hero and the Evo. The latter, on the other hand, comes from the Chinese telecom equipment giant whose smartphone business has experienced exponential growth over the past couple of years and, is currently the number one smartphone brand in its homeland ahead of names like Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo. The P10 and the U11 are both great devices that ship with premium hardware and sport similar price-tags, so lets compare them side-by-side to see which one deserves your money just a little more than the other.

Specifications

HTC U11

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The HTC U11 is said to be the worlds first squeezable smartphone, thanks to a unique feature called Edge Sense that allows users to squeeze the sides of the device to interact with the phone in various different ways. The feature supports both long and short squeezes, and by default, launches Google Assistant with a long squeeze and fires up the camera with a short one. The best part is that Edge Sense is customizable, so users are able to change what the squeezing does by assigning just about any other app to their squeezes if they so desire. The device also comes with a glossy Liquid Surface design language that follows the aesthetics of earlier HTC devices like the U Ultra and U Play that saw the company switch from a metallic exterior to glass panels on the back.

In terms of its hardware specifications, the HTC U11 features a 5.5-inch WQHD (2560 x 1440) Super LCD5 capacitive touchscreen display thats protected by Cornings Gorilla Glass 5. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC which comes with an integrated CPU with eight custom Kryo 280 cores, four of which are clocked at 2.45GHz while four others run at 2.19GHz. An integrated Adreno 540 GPU takes care of all the graphics processing needs. The HTC U11 ships with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage in the U.S. with support for microSD cards of up to 256GB in capacity. It also comes with a USB Type-C port for charging and data syncing, but misses out on the 3.5mm audio port. The handset ships with a 3,000 mAh Li-ion battery with support for Quick Charge 3.0, while sensors include a front-mounted fingerprint scanner integrated into the physical Home button, alongside an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor and a magnetometer (e-compass).

In terms of optics, the HTC U11 comes with a 12-megapixel primary camera with the companys proprietary UltraPixel 3 and UltraSpeed Autofocus technologies. The camera has an f/1.7 aperture, a 1/2.55-inch sensor, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), optical image stabilization (OIS) and a dual tone LED flash. Software features include geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and panorama. The camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at up to 120fps. The front-facing selfie-cam on the HTC U11 is a 16-megapixel unit that can record 1080p videos at 30fps.

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As far as software is concerned, the HTC U11 ships with Android 7.1 Nougat out-of-the-box, with the companys very own Sense UI 9 on top. The device is also expected to receive Android O going forward. Another interesting thing about the HTC U11 is that its the very first mainstream smartphone to officially support as many as three AI-based virtual digital assistants, namely, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and the companys very own HTC Sense Companion. The HTC U11 measures 153.9mm in length, 75.9mm in width and 7.9mm in thickness, while weighing in at 169 grams. The device also comes with an IP67 certification, which means it is also waterproof and dust-resistant.

Huawei P10

The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are the two flagship smartphones that the Chinese telecom major launched this year. The P10 is the smaller of the two devices with a 5.1-inch display as opposed to the more standard 5.5-inch panel that can be found on its larger sibling. The device has an all-metal build with slightly curved edges that gives it an elegant look, while two of the models also use a diamond back cut for enhanced grip. Overall, its a great little device wrapped in an aesthetically pleasing package, although, theres no real design flourish really that makes it stand out from any other smartphone in the market right now.

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As far as the hardware is concerned, the Huawei P10 features a 5.1-inch IPS-NEO LCD screen that comes with a a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The device is powered by Huaweis own HiSilicon Kirin 960 SoC that comes with an octa-core CPU clocked at a maximum of 2.4GHz along with the ARM Mali-G71 MP8 GPU for graphics. In terms of RAM and storage, the device ships with 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage that can be expanded with the help of a microSD card of up to 256GB in capacity.

As for the cameras, the Huawei P10 ships with a dual rear-camera module that incorporates a 12-megapixel RGB sensor and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor, both paired with lenses developed in association with German optics major Leica. The camera comes with an f/2.2 lens, optical image stabilization (OIS), 2x lossless zoom, PDAF and Laser AF, alongside a dual-LED, dual tone flash. The camera is capable of recording 4K videos at up to 30 fps and standard 1080p videos at up to 60 fps. On the front, the device offers an 8-megapixel camera with an f/1.9 lens for selfies and video chats.

The rest of the hardware on the Huawei P10 includes a 3,200mAh battery with fast charging. Cellular connectivity includes support for GSM, HSPA and LTE technologies, while local connectivity includes support for Bluetooth 4.2, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, DLNA, WiFi Direct, and Wi-Fi hotspot (tethering). The device comes with a fingerprint scanner on the front, an NFC chip on the back and a USB Type-C port on the bottom for charging and data syncing. On the software side of things, the Huawei P10 ships with Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box in the form of EMUI (Emotion UI) 5.1. The device measures 145.3mm in length, 69.3mm in width and 7mm in thickness, while weighing in at 145 grams.

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And The Winner Is 

The Final Word

The HTC U11 and the Huawei P10 are both great devices, so rest assured that whichever one you buy will serve you well over its lifetime. However, for the purpose of this comparison, it was just too hard to ignore all the innovations brought forth by the latest HTC flagship. From the unique Edge Sense technology to the eye-catching Liquid Surface design, the device brings forth features that, gimmicky or not, represents innovation and an attempt to bring something new to the table. The device also offers three different AI-based voice assistants, and while you dont really need three different voice-based digital assistants in a single device, to be perfectly honest, its often fun to compare the three and see how they stack up against each other. Furthermore, the HTC flagship also packs one of the most desirable SoCs under its hood in the form of the Snapdragon 835, all of which makes it fairly lucrative especially, now that the company has reduced its price by about a $100. As for the P10, it is a fantastic device when taken in isolation, but just cant compete with what the HTC flagship brings to the table. Which is why, the HTC U11 comes out on top in our comparison today.
A large National Institutes of Health grant will help a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse faculty member continue research with major medical implications, while training the next generation of scientists and healthcare professionals.

UW-L biology professor Scott Cooper received the approximately $338,000 grant in July, which will support his decade-long study that aims to understand how to prevent blood from clotting. Results could help prevent heart attacks and strokes, the first and third most common cause of death in the U.S.

In addition to health implications, the grant will also help pay for the up to 30 undergraduate students who join Cooper in his lab each semester to carry out the research. Cooper said his default answer when students ask to participate in his lab is, yes. Seniors train newer students. If students contribute to findings, they become co-authors on publications.

Grants like Dr. Coopers provide significant financial support for students to actively participate in the innovation and discovery taking place through facultys research, said Melissa Nielsen, UW-L director of research and sponsored programs.

It is important for UW-L faculty to do research, first and foremost, because of the experience it gives students, said Mark Sandheinrich, interim dean of UW-Ls College of Science and Health. Students learn skills like problem solving, critical thinking, working on a team, writing, presenting results, and more. Some experiences they wouldnt be able to get in a classroom setting, yet they are critical to employers and when applying to graduate schools.

Tanner Tenpas started undergraduate research in Coopers lab while taking an introductory biology class. A senior this fall, he still remembers how intimidated he felt the first day. He was a non-traditional student attending college as a full-time paramedic. He was surrounded by academics  and a research project he didnt fully understand.

Little by little, he developed an understanding of the concept behind the research and the lab techniques. And hes been able to apply this undergraduate research foundation in advanced-level science courses. Tenpas said the main thing undergraduate research has given him is confidence. Next summer hell be taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and will eventually apply to medical school to become a doctor.

When you start out, you see all these professors who are so good at what they do and are so knowledgeable. Its hard to see where they came from, he said. Undergraduate research gave me confidence that anyone can start at the bottom and work their way up  it doesnt take a genius to work in science.

Research also allows faculty to stay engaged and current in their field, which they apply in classrooms, said Sandheinrich.

I think of it this way, would you like to take piano lessons from someone who doesnt play? he asked. Thats why we need to have faculty, even as full professors, engaged in original scholarship.

Cooper collaborates with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, as well as several universities on the grant, including Harvard University, Colorado School of Mines, and University of Toronto. The collaborators have instruments that UW-L does not have access to, so they are able to run experiments on samples for Cooper. When they have results, the institutions will publish together.

Some think innovation and discovery only happens at larger, research intensive universities, but predominantly undergraduate institutions like UW-L are also actively engaged in cutting-edge research, said Nielsen. Thats critical to UW-Ls mission of student success, she added.

Coopers research aims to learn how ground squirrels prevent their blood from clotting when they hibernate. Answers to this question could lend insight into how to prevent blood clotting in humans, which could be used to treat human heart conditions and bleeding disorders.
LG LDE4415ST Overview

The new LG LDE4415ST 30" electric range features two ovens with a total capacity of 7.3 cu. ft. This freestanding model was designed with front-tilt control knobs for the cooking surface and glass touch controls for the oven. The cooktop surface is grey patterned on beautiful black ceramic glass. Select from various cooking modes such as Convection Roast, Convection Bake, Delay Bake and Speed Roast. Cook multiple dishes at once with the double ovens and enjoy amazing results. Available at AppliancesConnection

Features:

Probake Convection

Tired of being burned by inconsistent baking results? Not anymore- LG ProBake Convection delivers even, precise results on every rack, every time. Inspired by pro-style ranges, it's the first freestanding range to move the heating element from the bottom of the oven to the back wall for optimal heat distribution. Enjoy consistent browning on top and bottom- with every cookie baked to perfection.

EasyClean Express Technology

Got 10 minutes? Then you have time to clean your oven. LG EasyClean brings you the fastest oven-cleaning feature yet. In three easy steps and 10 quick minutes your oven can be sparkling clean, without strong chemical fumes or high heat*. Simply spray the oven interior with water, press EasyClean and then in 10 minutes, quickly wipe away any leftover grime. And you can still use the traditional self-clean cycle for the occasional deep clean.

InfraGrill

LG's infrared heating element gets your oven to broil temperature more quickly to cut over 20% off your total cooking time. Infrared cooking- which uses the same technology as premium outdoor grills- also allows your food to be juicier than traditional thermal cooking.

7.3 cu.ft. Largest Capacity

Simplify dinnertime with LGs 7.3 cu. ft. double oven offering the largest capacity available. Use the quick-heating upper oven for smaller meals on the go. For big events, youll have the room you need to cook all your favorite dishes, at different temperatures, at the same time. With LG, no meal (or guest list) is too big.

3200W Power Burner

Just when you thought it couldnt get any faster, it did. With 3200 watts, these dual cooktop elements are the most powerful available.* Not only do they deliver LGs fastest boil, they let you match the element size to your cookware for the utmost in flexibility.

Front-Tilt Control Knobs

Stop reaching over hot pans to adjust your cooktop burners. Sleek, angled controls put power and visibility at your fingertips while bringing an updated, stylish look to your kitchen.

Glass Touch Controls
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talked on the phone last night on the North Korea crisis:

The White House email release on the call: "The leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new United Nations Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior. The Presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

"The leaders affirmed that the recent adoption of a new United Nations Security Council resolution regarding North Korea was an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump and President Xi agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior. The Presidents also reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." How Chinese state media is reporting the call, via WaPo: "Xi said China hoped the parties concerned would exercise restraint and refrain from taking any action that will aggravate tensions on the peninsula ... Dialogue, negotiations and a political settlement are the fundamental ways of solving the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue, Xi said ... Xi 'stressed that China and the U.S. share the same interests on the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula...'"
While U.S. sanctions against Russia and North Korea have been dominating the news, there are a number of other countries currently under sanctions that aren't being talked about. Some are continuing from President Bush's administration, and many from President Obama's.

Here are the countries under sanctions that aren't dominating the headlines.

Issued by Bush in 2006, aimed at members of the Government of Belarus whose actions and policies undermine Belarus' democratic processes, commit human rights violations, and engage in public corruption.

Issued by Obama in 2015, targeting people who were found to be undermining the democratic process, hurting the exercise of freedom of expression, obstructing the distribution of humanitarian aid, and more. It also outlawed donations to entities who met the previous criteria.

Issued by Obama in 2014, targeting people found to have engaged in activities such as recruiting child soldiers and obstructing humanitarian assistance.

Lebanon

Issued by Bush in 2007, targeting people who were undermining the government, and contributing to "the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law."

Issued by Obama in 2016, suspending entry and blocking property of those contributing to the declining situation in Libya. Those who were involved in "the illicit exploitation of crude oil or any other natural resources," have been involved in the targeting of civilians, or planning attacks against Libyan state facilities were included on that list.

Renewed by Obama in 2012, following his original executive order in 2010. The 2012 EO addressed charcoal exports, misappropriation of Somali public assets, and "certain acts of violence committed against civilians in Somalia."

Since 1997, executive orders blocking property, prohibiting transactions with the government, and blocking property of persons in connection with the Darfur conflict have been issued. President Obama issued a new executive order in January aiming to recognize the positive improvements made by the Sudanese government, and revoking previous orders by July 12. President Trump changed that date to October 12 in his own EO issued on July 11.

Issued by Obama in 2014, the South Sudan-Related Sanctions block "property of certain persons" involved in expanding the conflict in South Sudan, in the commission of human rights abuses, the recruitment of child soldiers, attacks against UN missions, and more. It also restricted immigration from people in South Sudan into the U.S..

President Bush issued sanctions against "the former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, in southern Serbia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region" in 2001. The sanctions were aimed at those assisting in, sponsoring, or supporting "extremist violence" or "obstructing the implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244."

Issued by Obama in 2012 against those threatening "Yemen's peace, security, and stability."

Zimbabwe

Three orders issued by Bush between 2003-2008, applying sanctions to people in Zimbabwe engaging in acts undermining democracy, committing human rights violations against political opponents, and engaging in public corruption.

Other current sanctions include: Counter Narcotics Trafficking, Counter Terrorism, Cuba, Cyber-Related, Iran, Iraq-Related, Magnitsky, Non-Proliferation, North Korea, Rough Diamond Trade, Syria, Transnational Criminal Organizations, Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions, and Venezuela.
After a meeting with his national security team Trump spoke to reporters this evening in New Jersey.

If anything happens to Guam there will be big, big trouble in North Korea.

Trump said he'll be cutting his vacation short and returning to Washington where on Monday he'll hold a press conference. Secretary of State Tillerson, who met with Trump along with UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, said the U.S. still a diplomatic solution in North Korea. Trump said he prefered a "peaceful solution."

Some news on Venezuela: Trump said he wouldn't rule out the military option in response to the crisis there

On other issues:
As Axios scooped 11 days ago, President Trump will finally replace his blustery talk with the beginnings of real action against China. On Monday, Trump will initiate a U.S. government process to crack down on Beijing for stealing American intellectual property and forcing U.S. companies to hand over their technology as a cost of doing business in China.

Context: The White House had originally planned to rollout this trade investigation two Fridays ago, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson convinced senior officials to delay the action because America was on the brink of persuading China to sign on to a new U.N. sanctions resolution against North Korea. (China signed onto the sanctions resolution, and Trump now appears to feel emboldened to poke Beijing, even as North Korea veers closer to a military confrontation.)

The essentials, per senior administration officials, who briefed reporters on a conference call this morning:

President Trump will sign an "executive memorandum" on Monday afternoon that directs the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine "whether to investigate any of China's laws, policies, practices or actions, that may be unreasonable or discriminatory, and that may be harming American intellectual property, innovation or technology," per a senior official.

Should Lighthizer decide to launch an investigation, he'll have at his discretion "broad powers" including section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act.

The investigation paves the path to the U.S. taking potentially aggressive retaliatory actions against China such as tariffs on Chinese imports or rescinding licenses for Chinese companies wanting to do business in the U.S.

Initiating an investigation under section 301 could result in either a new WTO dispute between the U.S. and China or unilateral retaliation by the Trump administration.

Why this matters: Senior administration officials repeatedly stressed on the conference call that these trade actions are preliminary steps and are entirely separate from national security concerns, including the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. That might be how some trade officials think about it; but in the real world, trade and national security cannot be separated. China will view this investigation as a provocation. And Trump needs Beijing's help to stop Kim Jong-Un from careening into nuclear war. These trade actions are a new  and for some in the administration, unwanted  variable that diplomats must contend with.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer: "President Trump's pattern continues: Tough talk on China, but weaker action than anyone could ever imagine. To make an announcement that they're going to decide whether to have an investigation on China's well-documented theft of our intellectual property is another signal to China that it is O.K. to keep stealing. President Trump ought to skip his trip to Washington and the ceremonial desk signing and instead adopt the Democrats' better deal proposal, which has far more teeth in it than anything President Trump has proposed."
The River City Water Ski Show Team, Bethany Water Ski Team and NASA will host a free adaptive ski day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, at Airport Beach on Fishermans Road.

Children of all abilities are welcome and are asked to bring a swimsuit, towel, sunscreen and life jacket. Life jackets will also be available to borrow. Lunch and snacks provided.

Registration is available the day of the event, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Participants may register in advance by calling 507-895-6213 or emailing vcfitz1970@gmail.com. The event is limited to 24 participants.

Volunteers are needed to serve as side skiers, assist getting kids secured in the sit-ski and to prepare and serve lunch. Contact Jody at 608-783-1560 or lyonski1@gmail.com to sign up as a volunteer.
12 August 2017 13:19 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for renovation of Zagatala-Balakan-Mazimchay part of M-5 Yevlakh-Zagatala-Georgiastate border highway.

Under the presidential order, AZN24.6 million is allocated from the state budget for renovation of the 35km longroad connecting 16 residential areas with a total population of 100,700 people.
11 August 2017 15:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijans energy giant SOCAR will additionally extract from 2,900 to 3,650 tons of oil annually thanks to the commissioning of two new wells on the onshore field Saadan.

The company reported that daily debit of the wells is 4-5 tons of oil. Drilling was carried out till the productive reservoir "Govundag Maikop".

The Saadan deposit is located on the territory of the Caspian-Guba oil and gas area. The field is being developed by the Siazanneft oil and gas production company, which is a part of Azneft.

The geological exploration work in this region started in 1939 on the basis of detailed geological survey and industrial oil and gas content of the Maikop deposits was first discovered in 1942. Later on several oil fields have been discovered on the Chandar-Zorat, Siyazan-Nardaran, Saadan, Amirkhanly, Zagly and Zeyva areas with total length of more than 50 km.

The forecast for oil production in the country in 2017 stands at 39.797 million, while the figure is 3.7 percent lower than the index of 2016.

SOCAR includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCARs participation.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has declared the Intermediate or Class 12th arts, science, commerce and vocational compartmental examination results 2017.

The Bihar board had declared the regular intermediate exam or class 12 result in end of May this year.

Khushboo Kumari of Simultula residential school was the science topper. Ganesh Kumar with 82.6%, fron RNSJN Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya, Samastipur, topped in arts and Priyanshu Jaiswal (81.6%), from College of Commerce, Arts and Science, Patna, topped in commerce.

How to check the BSEB Intermediate compartmental examination result?

Visit the official website of Bihar board.

Click on the link for 'Results' at the bottom of the page.

Click on the link for arts/science/commerce or vocational compartmental result as desired.

Enter roll code and roll number or name.

Click on find result.

Result will be displayed on the screen.

Or click here to directly go to the login page for arts/science/commerce compartmental result.

About the Bihar Board:

According to the official information on the BSEB website, the Bihar School Examination Board is established for holding and conducting an examination at the end of the Secondary School stage, for prescribing course of studies for such examination and for carrying out such other objects and duties as may be considered necessary for the purpose as stated in the Act, Rules and Regulations of the Board. Normally every year the Bihar School Examination Board conducts Annual Secondary School Examination in the month of February/ March and Supplementary School Examination in the month of August/September on the basis of course/syllabus as prescribed by the state Government. Apart from the aforesaid Secondary School Examination, the Board also conducts departmental examinations (not on yearly basis) such as Diploma in Physical Education, Certificate in Physical Education and Teachers Training Examination on such terms and condition as laid down by the State Government.

BSEB Matric Compartmental Exam 2017 Admit Card Released: Download Now!
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman as an investment bank catering to institutions and businesses. Among the firm's first products are the revolutionary use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs which opened a new method of finance for business and industry.

The original firm expanded to Goldman Sachs in 1882 with the inclusion of son-in-law Samuel Sachs and again in 1885 with a son and another son-in-law. The firm joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1896 expanding into trading of its own and in 1898 it was worth $1.6 million. The company began its work in the IPO market in 1906 with the initial public offering of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and then moved on to Ford and other prominent names of the time.

The 1930s brings a change of leadership and a new direction for the firm. The company shifted toward a purer play on investment banking and embarks on a campaign of acquisition that lasted until the present day. The company doesnt go public itself until 1999 and from that point on it will change into a bank holding company that not only offers investment banking services but takes deposits too, and in 2016 the company added consumer banking to its list of services.

Today, Goldman Sachs is a financial institution that provides a range of financial services for corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals globally. The company operates through four segments that include Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. According to US banking regulations, it is systemically important to the financial health of America.

The company is headquartered in New York, New York, and operates 6 regional headquarters as well. Regional headquarters are located in financial hotspots such as London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangalore, and Warsaw. Among its many prominent CEOs are John Corzine and Hank Paulson who both went on to successful work in government.

The company's Investment Banking segment provides a full range of financial advisory services as well as underwriting for the public markets. The financial advisory services include but are not limited to strategic advisory for mergers and acquisitions, divestiture, restructuring, and spin-offs. This segment is also engaged in middle-market lending and transaction banking. Underwriting services include IPOs, preferred stock, debt instruments, and bridge loans.

Goldman Sachs Global Markets segment facilitates market transactions for institutions, banks, brokerages, corporations, and governments. Services include execution, derivatives, financing, clearing, settlement, and custody.

The Asset Management segment manages client portfolios across the investment spectrum while the Consumer & Wealth Management segment provides advisory and banking services to consumers.
Evangelical megachurch pastor says God has given Trump the authority to take out North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un

One of President Donald Trump's spiritual advisers, Dallas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress, said God has given the president the power to take out evildoers like North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

Shortly after Trump warned on Tuesday that North Korea would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if it threatens the security of the United States, Jeffress felt compelled to issue his support for the president's comments.

Jeffress, the 61-year-old pastor at the 12,000-member First Baptist Dallas who was one of the first well-known evangelicals to align himself with Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign, issued a statement through his public relations team that was shared with The Christian Post on Tuesday evening.

"When it comes to how we should deal with evil doers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary  including war  to stop evil," Jeffress' statement reads. "In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un."

According to the press release, the point of Jefffress' statement was to commend Trump for his "resoluteness against the regime and affirming his role as defender of the American people."

"I'm heartened to see that our president  contrary to what we've seen with past administrations who have taken, at best, a sheepish stance toward dictators and oppressors  will not tolerate any threat against the American people," Jeffress added. "When President Trump draws a red line, he will not erase it, move it, or back away from it. Thank God for a president who is serious about protecting our country."

North Korea has claimed that it's working on developing capabilities to strike the United States and has long ignored calls for it to halt its nuclear activities. Reuters reported on Wednesday that North Korea has said that it's "carefully examining" a missile strike on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.

North Korea's state-run news outlet KCNA reported that a spokesperson for the Korean People's Army said that once Kim makes a decision, such a strike will be put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment."

In an interview with The Washington Post, Jeffress explained that it is Romans 13 that gives government the authority to take out evildoers.

"That gives the government to the authority to do whatever, whether it's assassination, capital punishment or evil punishment to quell the actions of evildoers like Kim Jong-Un," Jeffress was quoted as saying.

Jeffress added that even though some Christians might cite Romans 12 to point out that the Bible says not to "repay evil for evil," that verse only refers to Christians, not leaders in power, like Trump.

"A Christian writer asked me, 'Don't you want the president to embody the Sermon on the Mount?'" Jeffress replied, "absolutely not."

Jeffress' comments did not sit well with some conservative Christians, like Ryan Anderson, a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.

Anderson posted a tweet that linked to a CBN News article about Jeffress' comments. In the tweet, Anderson claimed the argument that "God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary" is "heresy."

"Cannot use evil means to good end," Anderson wrote.

Jeffress' comment also drew the ire of many progressive Christians.

The Rev. Chuck Currie, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who teaches at Pacific University, posted a tweet in reply to Jeffress.

"You promote a dangerous theology of war that goes against Prince of Peace who preached just peace," Currie wrote. "I see nothing Christian in your remarks."

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
How to love yourself - according to the Bible

We can roll our eyes at self-help phrases like 'love yourself' but too many Christians are able to love their neighbors and forgive all their sins, yet not feel able to apply the same mercy and grace to themselves. This is wrong. Here are four things you need to do if that sounds like you.

1. KNOW HOW MUCH GOD LOVES YOU

Truth is, we can't love ourselves but we CAN love ourselves in Christ, rejoicing at all He has done for us on the cross and the fact HE now lives in us. God loved you so much, He clothed you in Christ and looks upon you as His saved, redeemed child made clean, made new, and made whole. Focus not on yourself but on Christ IN you.

2. KNOW WHAT GOD'S WORD SAYS ABOUT YOU

Cram out the negative thoughts with God's inspiring and positive Word about you. Start the day with a devotional and note down lists of Bible verses that reinforce God's love for you. Go down your lists every time you feel that negative thought creeping in and speak them over yourself.

3. MEMORIZE WHAT GOD'S WORD SAYS ABOUT YOU

It's not enough to read God's Word; we've got to have it in our hearts, minds and importantly, our mouths. We need to be able to speak back the truth to the Devil's lies and the Word is our sword when our thoughts are being assailed. So get your Bible verse lists out and memorize one a day. It's amazing how much of a difference knowing even one verse by heart can change you.

4. LOVE OTHERS

So much negativity about ourselves disappears when we focus on the needs of others above our own needs. Ask God to show you who needs your help or your love today and be INTENTIONAL about serving Him wherever needed. If we're making God and others feel happy, we'll naturally feel good about ourselves.
Man found nailed to a tree in Albuquerque, New Mexico

In a bizarre act of violence, footage was obtained showing a man nailed to a tree in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was filmed back in May.

In the video, the victim named Jose Duran was found in the Bosque area by Richard Rubio, a government employee who heard his cries for help.

Rubio said, "He kept yelling, 'Help. Help,' and so I came and I saw him and I kind of freaked out because I didn't know if there was any other guys around."

Rubio found Duran with both hands nailed to a tree in a crucifixion-style pose, still breathing and groaning in pain. Rubio notified police and led them to the scene of the crime.

When the person filming the footage asked Duran how he ended up in that situation, he was quiet and wouldn't say a word. However, when asked if there was anyone around who might hurt him, Duran replied, "Two guys. Two guys tried to kill me."

Later, paramedics and emergency workers arrived in the area to help free Rubio from the three-inch nails that pinned him to the tree. Once freed, his hands were bandaged as he was helped along to the ambulance for further treatment.

It was learned days later that two men were sent to Duran to threaten him after he was involved in a real estate deal gone wrong. In the video, he appeared holding the papers related to the deal.

However, in other another report, Duran claimed that the two men sent to threaten him were members of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan and that this wasn't the first time that he was attacked.

"Two people grabbed me and they pulled me to the trees. They said they were going to kill me," Duran said in Spanish. Apparently, it was the third time the thugs attacked him.

The Albuquerque Police Department said that the Duran's case is still an active and an open investigation. No one has been charged so far.
No, Trump does not have 'authority from God' to attack North Korea, says Texas Catholic priest

A Texas Catholic priest has contradicted the Texas Baptist pastor and adviser to Donald Trump, Robert Jeffress, who controversially claimed earlier this week that the President has been given 'authority by God' to use nuclear force against North Korea.

In a statement to the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jeffress said that Scripture endowed 'rulers full power to use whatever means necessary  including war  to stop evil'.

Jeffreys said: 'In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un. I'm heartened to see that our president...will not tolerate any threat against the American people.'

However, this is a gross misunderstanding of Scripture, according to the Catholic priest Joshua Whitfield.

'No, God did not anoint Trump to nuke North Korea,' was the headline of Whitfield's article for The Dallas Morning News.

The idea that God has given such political power to leaders often stems from a misreading of Chapter 13 of St. Paul's letter to the Romans, Whitfield noted.

'Particularly, it's based upon those verses that call upon Christians to subject themselves to governing authorities because they serve the Lord as an "avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer"' the priest wrote.

However, it is important to understand the context under which St. Paul was writing, Whitfield added. Paul was writing to people living under 'arbitrary and often anti-Semitic pagan rule, offering fellow believers a moral strategy for survival, on how to abide by Jesus' ethic of love until his coming again in glory'.

The passage is not meant to be read as 'a theology of politics, not a charter for Christian participation in the affairs of state, not a proof text for subservience,' he said.

'For Paul, it would have been unthinkable to consider a political ruler some sort of anointed Christian prince or president waging war on behalf of believers. We should remember that Paul was biblical, not Constantinian. He saw political authority as something ordered by God rather than ordained by him. Governments, wars, rulers, the innumerable fools of history: All of it, both good and evil, God mysteriously ultimately arranges according to his will,' he added.

Instead, Christians are called to imitate Jesus' way of peace, Whitfield wrote. 'That's what's biblical, not any sort of sacralizing of national leaders...we shouldn't be so quick to assume God's bellicose blessing (on aggressive use of force). It's why we should pray for peace.'
Trump threatens Venezuela with 'military option' as country's political crisis escalates

The US President Donald Trump last night threatened military intervention in Venezuela, in a surprise escalation of Washington's response to Venezuela's political crisis that Caracas disparaged as 'craziness'.

Venezuela has appeared to slide toward a more volatile stage of unrest in recent days, with anti-government forces looting weapons from a military base after a new legislative body usurped the authority of the opposition-controlled congress.

'The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary,' Trump told reporters in an impromptu question and answer session.

The comments appeared to shock Caracas, with Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino calling the threat 'an act of craziness'.

The White House said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro requested a phone call with Trump on Friday, which the White House appeared to spurn, saying in a statement that Trump would gladly speak to Venezuela's leader when democracy was restored in that country.

Venezuelan authorities have long said US officials were planning an invasion. A former military general told Reuters earlier this year that some anti-aircraft missiles had been placed along the country's coast for precisely that eventuality.

In Washington, the Pentagon said the US military was ready to support efforts to protect U.S. citizens and America's national interests, but that insinuations by Caracas of a planned US invasion were 'baseless'.
Was this Egyptian Coptic soldier murdered because of his Christian faith?

The family of an Egyptian Coptic Christian soldier who died last month on his first day at work says he was murdered because of his Christian faith.

The soldier died in the same regiment where another Copt died in mysterious circumstances in November 2015, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM).

WWM reported that, having just completed his army training, 22-year-old Joseph Helmy reported for duty at Al-Salaam Special Forces unit, on the Cairo-Ismailia desert road, at 2pm on 19 July. Six hours later, he was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Army officials claimed that he died after suffering an epileptic fit, during which he hit himself repeatedly, but his family says he had no history of seizures and that his whole body was covered in bruises. A hospital report said the injuries he sustained suggested a 'criminal' assault.

Four soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of beating Helmy to death. Helmy's family have stressed they want the soldiers to be convicted of murder - not manslaughter - because they believe it was their intention to kill him.

On 24 July, the soldiers testified in court that they were acting under the instruction of their supervising officer, Captain Mohammad Turk, but he has not been charged due to a 'lack of evidence'.

Helmy's cousin, Youssef Youakim, told WWM that other soldiers told him that Captain Turk had taken issue with Helmy's tattoos  of two Christian saints and a cross  asking him to remove them.

The witnesses told Youakim that when his cousin said he was unable to remove the tattoos, Helmy was first placed in solitary confinement, and then beaten to death.

Helmy's father, Reda, said the family was 'shocked' when they saw his brutalised body. 'His body had numerous wounds and bruises in various places  below the neck, chest, sides, abdomen, genitalia, knees, feet  and bad injuries on his back, indicating that he had been dragged along the ground,' he said.

'When Joseph joined the military, our family were very worried about him and afraid that he would be killed in a terrorist operation by ISIS, as we hear about many attacks against military and police soldiers taking place daily. But my son wasn't killed by ISIS terrorists. He was killed by terrorists inside the state institution, who target our sons because of their religious identification.'

The priest at the family's church in Kafr Dawish village, in the Beni Suef Governorate south of Cairo, paid tribute to his former church member and said that his faith was strong. 'Joseph was a very good young man,' Fr Hatour Boushra told WWM. 'He was very modest, honest and loved by all. He had a strong relationship with God.'

Boushra added that Helmy was set to be married in October. 'But now he is a bridegroom of heaven,' he said. 'He went to a good place in Heaven, with Jesus Christ. We ask God to comfort all the members of his family and give them the patience and strength to bear the pain of his loss.

'The killing of Joseph isn't the first incident like this in a military unit, but I hope it will be the last. He was targeted and killed by those criminals because of his faith in Jesus Christ, so our Church considers him one its martyrs. Jesus Christ reminded us: 'I'll send you as lambs among wolves', so what is expected when a lamb enters a herd of wolves? They will prey on him.'

A lawyer acting on behalf of the family, Ramses Al-Nagar, pointed to the similarities between Joseph Helmy's death and that of Bishoy Kamel, who died at the same unit in November 2015.

'There are some terrorists in this unit who try to kill the conscripts because of their religious identification," Al-Nagar told WWM. 'Clearly, no decisive action has been taken inside this unit since Bishoy was killed, to prevent any attack on a new Christian conscript.'

An analyst for the World Watch Research unit of the charity Open Doors, Yonas Dembele, said: 'This incident confirms reports about the abuse of Christians in the Egyptian Army and is an indication of the hostility and harassment Christians face in various sectors of Egyptian society. Although this is an extreme example, it is symptomatic of the overall vulnerability of Egyptian Christians to ill-treatment in different arenas. The fact that the authorities have arrested the [soldiers] is a very positive development. However, there is still the possibility that [they] will not be held accountable.'

World Watch Monitor provided a list of other Copts 'found dead' in the military:

February 2016  Michael Gamal, 22, died from a gunshot wound to his chest. His regiment  in Shebeen El-Kom, in the Menofia Governorate north of Cairo  said he had committed suicide, but his family disputed the claim.

November 2015  Bishoy Kamel, 21, was said to have hanged himself at his military unit  the same as Joseph Helmy's  but his body 'showed signs of torture'.

August 2015  Bahaa Karam, 22, was shot dead by a Muslim colleague following a religious dispute at his regiment in the coastal town of Marsa Matruh, in the Matrouh Governorate.

July 2015  Abraam Girgis, part of the Central Security unit in Cairo, was said by the army to have 'fainted', but a forensic report recorded multiple injuries and said there was 'suspicion' he was the victim of a crime.

June 2015  Bahaa Silvanus, 23, died from two gunshot wounds at his army unit on the Cairo-Suez desert road. He was the only Christian in his unit. His battalion alleged that he committed suicide. His father said the results of the autopsy were simply 'not true'.

August 2013  Abou Al-Khair, 22, and his unit were responsible for security at a stadium in Damietta, 200km north of Cairo. The military police informed his family that he committed suicide, but he was known to have had a confrontation with a Muslim colleague who had told him to convert to Islam.

September 2006  Girgis Youssef, 20, was said to have died from a 'sudden drop in blood pressure'. But when his family were preparing his body for burial, they discovered wounds on his shoulders and severe bruising and swelling on his testicles. A colleague of his later told the family he had been regularly insulted, humiliated and beaten because he was a Christian.

August 2006  Hany Nasrallah, 21, was found dead in the Nile River near Nag Hammadi  in the Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt. There were signs of torture on his body. According his relatives, Nasrallah told his family shortly before his death that there had been a disagreement between him and the commander of his unit, because he was a Christian. He told them that the commander bullied him in front of his colleagues.
For those of us who still remember the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the drama over North Korea is as close as it gets to that moment when the world feared the worst. It is also a serious news item, and not another ordinary day of Trump-related news, tweets, and analysis.

North Korea dominated headlines from the moment the story broke Tuesday afternoon in The Washington Post that North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles. Soon after, President Trump threatened to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen against North Korea if it endangers the United States.

That quote traveled quickly across our telephone and TV screens, as well as on the front pages of newspapers. The dramatic headlines and design are justified by a story that puts fear in the hearts and minds of many. If anyone believes the presentation of the story was overplayed, they need only refer back to the presidents own statement.

ICYMI: After North Korea threats, Twitter turns to dark humor

The story represents the first true international crisis for the Trump administration. Its also a story that will continue to make headlines and present dilemmas for news designers aiming to balance telling the story responsibly without unnecessarily stoking fear.

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The quote

Fire and Fury were two strong words (improvised, it turns out) coming from President Trump, and they landed in headlines for most of the newspapers I surveyed. Here are a few examples:

Face-off

Several designers preferred to illustrate the story with the faces of the leaders of the United States and North Korea. In particular, the tabloid newspapers opted for this visual presentation with gusto.

Tabloid newspaper designers love to do cut-out faces, and when a story calls for such notables as President Trump and his North Korean nemesis Kim Jong-un, the temptation is irresistible.



The Wall Street Journal also uses head shots, but notice how much more classic and elegant they appear. New York Post does a nice job using summaries under its headline, extending the story and offering those scanners who dont read the text inside a bit more information about a story of major significance.

The big headlines

Tabloids always go bolder, even with the most ordinary of stories, so the North Korean crisis took them to town. Some opted for irreverent treatments, such as we see with the New York Daily News.

Geographic reach

It is rare today for printed newspaper editions to turn to an international story as a lead piece. The North Korea story carries enough consequence and interest that it was the lead for a variety of regional newspapers across the country.

Another perspective

In South Korea, the Asian Correspondent went for a different angle with not-so-subtle analysis of how much President Trump understands North Korea.

The curious case of a dog leg

A curious item newspaper designers will notice: The Virginian Pilot, always one of the best designed newspapers in the world, surprised with a so called dog leg at the top of its front page. A dog leg is when a story breaks away from a perfect rectangular module I like how the designer included part of the story on Page One, while adding a navigation bar to two related stories inside.

Funny and furry

Lets end with two notable front pages. The first, a funny take on a very serious matter, is from the UKs The European. The second, from the Kennebec Journal in Maine, features an unfortunate typo for a story of such significance.

ICYMI: Photos reveal medias softer tone on opioid crisis

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Mario Garcia is CEO of Garcia Media and senior adviser on news design at Columbia Journalism School.
Sometimes we laugh to keep from crying. Thanks to Twitter, well be wiping away our tears with tweets, even as a potential nuclear war looms.

Yesterday, Donald Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury like the world has never seen should the country continue expanding its nuclear arsenal. His rhetoric caused a stir on social media. By now were used to Trumps bloviation, but this time, his tweets and brief, improvised statement got many thinking, Well, that escalated quickly.

IMAGES: How North Korea news played on front pages around the world

Instead of scouring craigslist for used bunkers or rioting in the streets, the people of media Twitter turned to humordark, dark humorto cope. Its the survival of the wittiest.



Internet culture meets folklore:

"How did the Nukey War start, Oldfather?" "Well " [I stoke the fire] "It was Hashtag International Cat Day"  Kibblesmith  (@kibblesmith) August 8, 2017

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Embodying the #YOLO mentality:





Doubling down on left-wing factionalism:

If there was only something Jill Stein could've done to stop Trump from becoming president. https://t.co/9FVNK0EuXv  Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 9, 2017





Joke or no joke:

No joke: I read Trump's statement on North Korea and thought it was a North Korean statement on Trump.  Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 8, 2017

I love modern life pic.twitter.com/vCUO1lKBSy  Jeremy Gordon (@jeremypgordon) August 8, 2017





Paging Steven Seagal:

cool to know that a contingent of people leading conservative public discourse believe we live in a steven segal direct-to-dvd release pic.twitter.com/6ep7dszXyb  _ (@MikeIsaac) August 8, 2017





Avocad-NO!

Millennial: your generation got houses and jobs Boomer: yes but we lived with constant fear of nuclear winter Millennial: hold my avocado  Ken Norton (@kennethn) August 8, 2017

100% chance Trump thinks Guam is short for Guamamole.  Michael, still here (@Home_Halfway) August 9, 2017





Too close to home:

Do you think anyone has mentioned to North Korea that they're supposed to take Trump seriously but not literally?  Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) August 9, 2017





Dad jokes:

Me: I really hope Trump doesn't nuke North Korea. Friend: The night is still young.  Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 9, 2017





Rebuilding roadsand the country:

Trump crawls out of bunker and surveys the flatten radioactive landscape that was D.C. "Well, time for Infrastructure Week"  Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 8, 2017





The good news:

The good news is, none of us will be alive to read your hot takes on "what everyone gets wrong about nuclear fallout"  Benari Poulten (@BenariLee) August 9, 2017





Its not all fun and games:

North Korea has 60 nuclear warheads ready for ICBM miniaturization and ICBMs that can reach NYC. END YOUR VACATION and STOP TWEETING, Trump. pic.twitter.com/wjsgf96jjX  Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) August 8, 2017

It's always embarrassing, but in the context of North Korea the twitter tough guy performances seem particularly absurd and inappropriate.  caffe latte person (@AdamSerwer) August 9, 2017

So it's 9:40 a.m. in Seoul, and still no real chatter about either NK nuke or Trump's "fire and fury." Zilch.  T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) August 9, 2017

And finally, a dose of optimism from Chelsea Manning, who definitely trusts the government:

destroy all nuclear weapons  #WeGotThis  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) August 9, 2017

ICYMI: Six rare images that capture Trumps TV addiction

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Nausicaa Renner and Meg Dalton are the authors of this article. Renner is editor of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism's vertical at Columbia Journalism Review. She tweets at @nausjcaa. Dalton is a Delacorte fellow. Follow her on Twitter @megdalts.
On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg interviews New York Times reporter Nick Casey about his experience following the economic-turned-political crisis in Venezuela. Casey covered the country for 10 months before the government barred him from returning in October. Then, we run through the weeks biggest media stories: the latest Fox News controversy, Israels ban of Al-Jazeera, and the narrative surrounding North Korea.

Subscribe via iTunes  Stitcher  RSS Feed  SoundCloud



SHOW NOTES:

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Meg Dalton and Pete Vernon are CJR Delacorte Fellows. Find Meg on Twitter @megdalts and Pete @ByPeteVernon.
The only concern is that the G90 may not be enough to boost the Genesis brand.

"Is that a Chrysler?" my friend asks when I pull up in the G90. Hmm, no. But if you're still asking that question, then Hyundai corporate hasn't done enough to impart the Genesis brand on the American consciousness. Does that mean I have to? Well, they gave me one to test for the week, so I suppose it's the least I could do. Look at the promo material for the brand, and you won't be surprised that it hasn't become a household brand. It says Genesis is a brand that focuses on "'human-centered' luxury through a range of new models that feature the highest standards of performance, design and innovation." What does that mean? Nothing. So I've taken it into my own hands to create a definition of the brand. Genesis, at its core, is the final step in Hyundai's transition from a low-rent, back-of-the-Hertz-lot Korean import to a full-fledged, full-line carmaker. It's the first time that the Koreans have split their luxurious aspirations into a separate brand. Tell someone this at a party, though, and you'll come off as a bore. So make it quick and tell them it's Hyundai's version of Lexus. If done right, a flagship like the G90 can catapult a brand into relevance. If done wrong, it can mean doom. Let's find out whether the folks at Genesis have sealed their own fate.

Exterior: Smart and distinct, with a lame badge

Mack Hogan | CNBC

I don't think it helps that Hyundai launched the brand from two models already in it's lineup. The Hyundai Genesis became the Genesis G80, and the Hyundai Equus became this, the G90. The G90 got a major refresh so that it looks like the old Genesis. The old one didn't get much of a makeover, so it looks the same. You have two models that look almost identical. Confused yet? Well, get over it, because it doesn't matter. This car is gorgeous. You can call it derivative, but it has a unique style that looks smart and elegant. It has presence, which is a difficult target to hit. Even established players with cars that cost six figures sometimes lack that visual magnitude, so a $70,650 G90 Ultimate pulling it off is impressive. The main issue with the exterior is the badge, which looks enough like a Chrysler emblem to throw off the average passerby or, as I found, my friend.

Interior: Genesis finally gets it

Mack Hogan | CNBC

This is where the illusion usually falls apart when a nonpremium automaker tries to make a premium product. The car looks classy, the option sheet stretches into the ionosphere and its engine suits the job well enough. But tug on the door handle and you'll immediately feel the hollow roots of a car not built for the big leagues. Not so in the G90. The interior looks like a modern Lexus, which I love, without the fussy Lexus infotainment system, which I hate. It has a unique look but Genesis definitely borrowed some inspiration from other automakers. You can't really make an interior look that different without compromising its usability.

Mack Hogan | CNBC

Good on Genesis for that, as the layout makes everything simple to use. There are enough tactile buttons to do most of your core functions, with a BMW iDrive-like controller for everything else. There are some minor nuisances. To hide the fact that it's slow to connect to Bluetooth, the Genesis always starts with radio playing even if you were streaming from your phone. This gets extremely annoying after a few days, and if you're like me, you start using the radio instead just to save yourself the annoyance. There's also no Android Auto, but to be honest I think I prefer the Genesis UI to that anyway. Finally, material quality isn't up to German levels. Accents that look like metal are often plastic, and the wood isn't nearly as nice as what you'll get from Mercedes or Audi. Pricing also isn't up to German levels, so that may be a wash.

Driving Experience: Your car awaits, sir

Mack Hogan | CNBC

The best experience is reserved for backseat passengers. On this "Ultimate" trim, you get reclining rear buckets with a full suite of climate, audio and position controls in the center console. The passenger-side rear seat also has the option of sliding the passenger seat out of the way, allowing the rider to extend his or her legs even further. You won't find better backseat thrones in anything but flagship luxury cars that often hang out around the $100,000 mark or much more. For $70,000, the backseat is exceptional. Move to the front though, and you're unlikely to be blown away.

Mack Hogan | CNBC

Power from the 5.0-liter V-8 is ample, and steering is predictably average. The ride is soft, but there's a minor tremble that comes from the rear axle at speed that makes the car feel nervous. It's quiet inside, but not underground-bunker quiet. It handles competently, even if the tires love to scream when you take a corner with any verve. The self-driving feature is solid, but nothing better than anyone else's. Unless you're in the back, it's a completely average driving experience. For most people, it's absolutely good enough and won't distract you from the rest of the package. But for $70,000, I'd expect a bit more.

Value: Perfect score

Mack Hogan | CNBC

The Genesis has yet to earn a perfect 5 in any category. It's inherently compromised, with less impressive driving dynamics and materials than its competition. It may be hard to imagine why you'd want one, even if it's a bit cheaper. The good news is it's not just a "bit" cheaper. It's absurdly inexpensive. This $70,650 Genesis 5.0 Ultimate has every option besides AWD, which can be had for $2,500 more. Despite this, I've driven 7-Series BMWs that have less equipment than this and cost $20,000 more. Sure, they likely have better ride and more power, but most people don't notice these things.

Mack Hogan | CNBC

Compare the G90 to the 5 series that I reviewed. The G90 is a full class larger than the 5er, has more power, more torque, more cylinders and the same number of driven wheels. All four outboard seats are heated and cooled, while the 5-series lacks even front-seat heating. They're both equipped with semi-autonomous tech, they both have 360-degree cameras and they both ride on adjustable suspension. Despite all of this, the G90 costs $3,000 less than a BMW a full class below it. It's an unbelievable bargain.

Final Thoughts: It's great, but is it enough?

Mack Hogan | CNBC

I'm a detail freak, and I noticed the minute ways where Genesis cut costs to deliver this product at this price. But for most of my stewardship, the G90 just felt like a flagship luxury sedan. While it may not have ever come off as class-leading, it certainly never felt like a knockoff or a store-brand solution. It felt like an honest-to-God luxury car, and a great one at that.

Mack Hogan | CNBC
President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping chat as they walk along the front patio of the Mar-a-Lago estate after a bilateral meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 7, 2017.

President Donald Trump will call on Monday for his chief trade adviser to investigate China's intellectual property practices, website Politico reported, citing an unnamed administration official.

Trump had been expected to order a so-called Section 301 investigation under the 1974 Trade Act earlier this month, but action had been postponed as the White House pressed for China's

cooperation in reining in North Korea's nuclear program.

Politico said it was not clear how much detail Trump would provide in his announcement, but that administration officials expected U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to open a

section 301 probe.

Officials at the White House and U.S. Trade Representative's office were not immediately available for comment.

Trump has suggested he would go easier on China if it were more forceful in getting North Korea to rein in its nuclear weapons program.

While China joined in a unanimous UN Security Council decision to tighten economic sanctions on Pyongyang over its long-range missile tests, it is not clear whether Trump thinks Beijing is doing enough.

"We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade with China. They know how I feel," he told reporters on Thursday. "If China helps us, I feel a lot different toward trade."

Trump will make a day trip to Washington, D.C., on Monday, briefly interrupting his 17-day August working vacation, a White House official said on Friday.

Politico said the investigation would not mean immediate sanctions, but would ultimately lead to steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
The digital currency bitcoin vaulted to a new record high above $4000 on Saturday, boosted by strong Japanese demand on its way to multiplying its value fourfold this year.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of$4,225.40 early Sunday before slightly paring those gains to trade near $4,000, according toCoinDesk.

The digital currency has now quadrupled in 2017, and is up about 40 percent in August alone. Bitcoin's market value is now around $64 billion, up about $10 billion in the last week.

Bitcoin trade in Japanese yen accounted for nearly 46 percent of global trade volume, up from about a third a day ago, according to CryptoCompare. US-dollar bitcoin trade accounted for about 25 percent, according to CryptoCompare. Bitcoin trade in Chinese yuan and South Korean won accounted for about 12 percent each.

The surge picked up speed in the last week, mirroring gold's climb amid a global selloff in stocks and bonds. Rising worries about North Korea's nuclear threat have sent investors flocking to perceived safe-havens and alternative assets.

"Bitcoin is benefitting from geopolitical tensions - trading in Japan and Korea has increased significantly over the last few months," Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and head of BKCM, which runs an digital asset strategy, said in an email. He also attributed price gains to investors buying back bitcoin after the Aug. 1 split and greater attention from the Russian government.

Analysts have also noted increased investor interest, especially from institutional investors, after bitcoin successfully survived an Aug. 1 split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

This week, Fidelity launched a feature allowing customers to also view their Coinbase bitcoin holdings. The currency also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, which in a report released this week said it is harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
The world's second-largest economy has been deploying disruptive technology that could strengthen its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. Late last month, Beijing dropped a dozen underwater drones, also known as unmanned underwater vehicles, in an unspecified location in the international waterway to carry out "scientific observations," state-run media outlet Xinhua reported.

A U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the "Blue Hawks" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 78 fires chaff flares during a training exercise near the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the Philippine Sea April 24, 2017. Sean M. Castellano | US Navy | Reuters

The torpedo-shaped vehicles  called Haiyi, or sea wings in Mandarin  will remain underwater for a month, according to reports. In March, one device hit a depth of 6,329 meters, breaking an earlier record held by a U.S. vessel, Xinhua said. China claims a massive section of the South China Sea that extends roughly 1,000 miles from its southern shores. The huge area is home to significant energy deposits and the world's busiest shipping routes, but Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also assert sovereign rights over parts of the international waterway. The use of autonomous drones raises a number of questions as to whether Beijing is deploying the technology to support its aggressive expansion in the geopolitical hotspot.

Is China really using the drones for science?

Scientific purposes may be the official line from Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration, but political intentions can't be ignored. According to one theory, underwater drones are being utilized as a symbol of supremacy.



"It is a clear attempt to signal a capability associated with leading powers in terms of technology, which often translates to prestige," said Margaret Kosal, an associate professor at Georgia Tech who specializes in the role of emerging technologies for security. Map courtesy of CSIS Underwater drones are a demonstration of maritime strength and one of the many ways China is attempting to challenge the Western-dominated world order, she continued. The U.S. Navy employs around 130 of those gadgets to collect oceanographic data. Last year, the Chinese navy seized one that was active in the South China Sea, sparking alarm.

Can the drones serve Beijing's goals in the South China Sea?

Aside from being a political symbol, underwater drones can also help the mainland enforce claims in the South China Sea. Data collected from the tools is applicable to both civilian marine scientific knowledge as well as military operations, said Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow specialized in maritime security at Singapore-based Nanyang Technological University. "Information about underwater terrain, salinity and thermal layers are extremely useful for planning and executing submarine and anti-submarine operations." The vehicles also serve as an additional tool for reconnaissance operations, which means personnel don't need to get too close to foreign assets or coasts, Koh continued.

watch now

However, there is a downside. While some sea drones can transmit near-real time info and be deployed for mapping, water as a medium slows signals, Kosal cautioned.

It is likely that the People's Liberation Army will utilize UUVs [unmanned underwater vehicles] for military purposes. Sylvia Mishra junior fellow, Observer Research Foundation

Mainland scientists, however, deny any political intentions. July's operation was strictly focused on collecting scientific data and was completely unrelated to China's sovereignty claims, Liu Xiaobo, associate research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a research organization based in Beijing and Hainan, told CNBC. Information on ocean conditions will help Beijing perform "international obligations, including navigation security, maritime humanitarian assistance and marine disaster prediction," he continued.

Can the drones do anything except collect data?

Should outright confrontation ever break out in the international waterway, Beijing may be able to use underwater drones, or UUVs, to their advantage. "The ability of UUVs to detect and hunt submarines, thereby rendering oceans transparent, potentially changes the way of warfare," Sylvia Mishra, junior fellow at New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, said in a note earlier this month. "It is precisely why Beijing has been investing in a burgeoning underwater drones industry, which enjoys considerable national-level funding and support." UUVs may be presently used for scientific research, but they could be upgraded for underwater combat, patrol, mine-sweeping and submarine detection operations, Mishra continued. "It is likely that the People's Liberation Army will utilize UUVs for military purposes."

So, what do the drones mean for South China Sea tensions?
President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping walk along the front patio of the Mar-a-Lago estate after a bilateral meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017.

The North Korean nuclear issue needs a peaceful resolution, Chinese President Xi Jinping told

U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Saturday, and called on the "relevant side" to exercise restraint, state television said.

According to a White House statement on the call, the two leaders agreed that "North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior."

Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying the U.S. military was "locked and loaded", as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war

and world powers expressed alarm.

Xi told Trump that it was in the joint interests of both China and the United States to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and protect peace and stability there, state television said in a brief report.

"The relevant side must at present exercise restraint, and avoid words and actions that exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula," the report paraphrased Xi as saying.

Resolving the nuclear issue ultimately needs to be done politically via talks, and China is willing to maintain communication with the United States on the basis of mutual respect to push for an appropriate resolution, Xi added.

Chinese state television cited Trump as telling Xi that he fully understands the role China has been playing on the North Korean nuclear issue.

The White House said the "relationship between the two presidents is an extremely close one, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem."

CNBC contributed to this report.
The discounted RV rental Judah Ross used to tour the Southwest. Judah Ross

Mark Dougherty makes a few thousand extra bucks a year as a hired driver for people who need to get their cars and moving trucks across the country. The retired 70-year-old charges $10 per hour driving time and uses Google maps to estimate his fee, plus expenses like one-way plane tickets, gas, lodging and meals. He charges an additional $60 to cover having his wife transport him to and from the airport. Dougherty advertises mostly on Craigslist and MyFamilyTravels.com, and he is occasionally tipped (such as on a recent 17-hour drive from Houston to Phoenix, when he received an extra $270). If you search for "hire someone to drive your car cross country," you'll get lots of companies and individuals vying to help you: WaynesDrivingServices.com, DriverLES.com, ProfessionalDrivers.com, IDriveYourCar.com, to name a few. These "driveaways," or hired cross-country drivers, are the ultimate side gig for many  retirees in particular  who want to get out of the house, make a few dollars and travel, said Frank Futie, who contracts about 30 drivers for his companies, Rented Truck Driver and Uride Idrive, which move cars, RVs and trucks. Car owners love when a person is driving, rather than shipping, their vehicles, too: It can be cheaper with less chance of damage. And while it's possible for aspiring drivers to work with established companies, there are also plenty of opportunities for those just wanting to take a cross-country adventure to pair with a car owner through travel forums and social media. The driver usually gets reimbursement for some or all trip expenses and the car owner gets their car somewhere cheaply. Sound like a good deal? Consider the following before hitting the gas.

Cover your liability and double-check safety

Forums on travel websites like HoleIntheDonut.com and MyFamilyTravels.com feature hundreds of posts by car owners who need to get across the country for one reason or another but don't have the time or would prefer not to be behind the wheel. Other car-less travelers would prefer to drive because their dog doesn't like flying, they want to take a national park vacation, or they are moving and want to take their time to see the country while doing it. After Washington, D.C.-based attorney Jill Williamson posted an ad on a forum with a request for someone to get her 2012 Nissan Juke to Seattle for an upcoming move, she got "tons" of takers, just for gas money. Williamson picked the first responder who sounded interesting  a New York musician making a move to Los Angeles.

I thought, why not use this as an opportunity for someone else to have an adventure? People were so jazzed. Rachel Ishofsky

To prepare, Williamson asked for a copy of the driver's license and driving record. Williamson checked that her insurance would cover the third-party operator and got the vehicle a full checkup. Because a driver may not be familiar with the car, he or she should plan to have their own roadside assistance such as AAA in case an emergency tow or flat tire occurs, Dougherty said. A truck he once drove from California to Florida broke down three times and required a tow for the last five hours of the leg. It was going to cost Rachel Ishofsky upwards of $1,000 to ship her car from New York to Los Angeles, versus the $350 gas reimbursement she negotiated with a driver she found on Facebook. "I thought, why not use this as an opportunity for someone else to have an adventure?" she said. "People were so jazzed." Ishofsky and the driver worked out how to insure the car and driver and what would happen if the car broke down (Ishofsky would pay for repairs). Ishofsky also bought new tires for the journey. The two agreed on 14 days to transport the car and to check in periodically. "It's an exercise in trust," Ishofsky said. "I'm helping him and he's helping me."

For regular cash, working with a company is key

Though it's more expensive for car owners to hire a company to match a driver to their car, it is likely to get there faster and with less risk. Drivers are paid in addition to receiving reimbursement for expenses, and because they are heavily vetted, they cannot sign up for a one-off driving trip  they need to be committed to regular assignments. Futie prefers to hire retirees for their reliability and scheduling flexibility for his moving truck driving business. They earn an average of $300 per day plus expenses and can easily make up to $3,000 per month part time (it works out to about $25 per hour), Futie said. Hauls often involve transporting snowbirds' cars to and from the Northeast to Florida during season changes. About 10 percent of all inquiries to Mark Duda's websites, CrossCountryDriver.com and DriveCartoFlorida.com, are about how to become his drivers, which he pays $500 to $1,200 per trip plus expenses (Duda says he is not hiring anytime soon because he already has a waiting list). Driving is appealing to lots of types of people, Duda said. "Many say they would do it for free."

A scene from the film "RV" starring Robin Williams. Source: Columbia Pictures | YouTube

Driving for a company means you're usually better protected against the unexpected. Duda only takes vehicles less than 7 years old and 150,000 miles to limit chances of breakdowns, for which the owners are charged for time and expense.

Know your limits

Dougherty learned the hard way that independently arranged jobs can go wrong. A client once backed out after he'd already purchased his flight (he now requires clients book his one-way airfare first). Another client didn't pay as agreed. Both Futie and Duda said their drivers can choose to stay in a destination for any amount of time they want and choose how much they want to work, where they want to go and how far. "If you're one of my drivers you get steady work when you want it. It would be scheduled well and you get a comfortable car," Duda said.

Look for commercial discounts to drive

If you're mostly interested in reducing expenses on a drive, rather than earning income, you can also seek opportunities with car and RV rental companies that need to get vehicles to other destinations. Austin, Texas-based marketing consultant and DealsAtx.com blogger Judah Ross came across an opportunity on CruiseAmerica.com to move an RV from Phoenix to Salt Lake City over the holidays. Though he wasn't paid to do it, the RV use cost him only $20 per day including insurance.

Many say they would do it for free. Mark Duda

At the full price, five nights with the RV would have cost him $525, $200 in mileage charges, plus $300 in gas. Instead, he spent about $400 total. "You really have to keep on top of it and the deals go quickly," Ross said. "It's got to work out with your schedule."

Remember driving is taxing on your health

You'll have the best shot of becoming a driver-for-hire if you're a nonsmoker, have clean driving, credit and criminal records, pass a drug test and are trustworthy, Duda said, particularly because car owners often pack their cars with personal belongings. Dougherty has even driven a client's Bernese mountain dog on a haul. Patience and comfort with being alone is also key, since you might hit unexpected weather or traffic delays that could add hours to your trip. Your health must also be good, Futie said. "There's certain looks you see in certain parts of the country at certain times of the year and that's worth doing for free sometimes," Futie said.

WATCH: Here are five risks that can drain your retirement savings
Rescue workers transport a victim who was injured when a car drove through a group of counter protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017.

A gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Virginia took a deadly turn on Saturday when a car apparently deliberately plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed at least one person.

President Donald Trump condemned an "egregious display of hatred and bigotry" at the rally, saying there was "no place" for violent protests in America.

After the state's governor declared a state of emergency to quell the growing conflict in Charlottesville, Trump said via Twitter that the country "must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

In the midst of the protest, a Dodge Charger mowed down dozens of peaceful counter-protesters assembled in the area before reversing along the same street. A man from Ohio was held by police on charges relating to the car incident, including second-degree murder, said Martin Kumer, Albemarle Charlottesville's regional jail superintendent.

The suspect was James Alex Fields, Jr., a 20-year-old white man from Ohio, Kumer said. It was not clear why the suspect was in Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia's flagship campus.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Richmond office said that there will be a civil rights probe into the incident.

A spokesperson for the University of Virginia Hospital cited one death and at least 19 injured, with 5 considered in critical condition.

Charlottesville mayor Mike Signer said in a post on Twitter that he was "heartbroken" over the loss of life, and urged protesters to "go home" in order to defuse the situation.
Venezuela's foreign ministry was expected to issue a statement on Saturday responding to Trump's comment that "a possible military option" was under consideration for the crisis-racked nation.

President Donald Trump's threat of military intervention in Venezuela was "an act of craziness," the South American country's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Friday.

The country is deep in a recession compounded by shortages of food and medicine, while anti-government protests have killed more than 120 people since April.

Responding to Trump, Padrino told state television, "It is an act of craziness. It is an act of supreme extremism. There is an extremist elite that rules the United States."

"As a soldier, I stand with the Venezuelan armed forces, and with the people. I am sure that we will all be on the front lines of defending the interests and sovereignty of this beloved Venezuela," he added.

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas called Trump's remark "an unprecedented threat to national sovereignty."

In a Friday night message on social network Twitter, he said, "The diplomatic corps is summoned to the foreign ministry for tomorrow, when it will release a communique addressing the imperial threat to Venezuela."

Last month's election of a legislative superbody packed with allies of unpopular socialist President Nicolas Maduro drew international condemnation for usurping the authority of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro says the assembly, which has the power to re-write Venezuela's constitution, is needed to bring peace and prosperity to the oil-rich but economically ailing country.

Critics say the assembly casts aside any remaining checks on Maduro's power.

The opposition boycotted the vote for the assembly, which assured that it would be stacked with Maduro allies.

The White House said Maduro requested a phone call with Trump on Friday, which the administration appeared to spurn, saying in a statement that Trump would gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela once democracy was restored.
Lawmakers will soon have an important decision to make that will have an outsize impact on our state for years to come: whether or not to approve a deal made by Gov. Walker that could send up to $3 billion in direct cash payments to Taiwanese-based Foxconn to build a manufacturing plant in southeast Wisconsin.

In my initial response to the news I urged my colleagues to proceed with caution. Not only is this an incredibly expensive offer (it could cost the average family in Wisconsin $1,200 and take 25 years or more before state taxpayers break even!) but it could set a precedent with how we approach future economic development at a time when more and more industries are moving to automation as a way to reduce labor costs.

Foxconn is at the forefront of this effort with its publicly stated goal of fully automating its manufacturing process to the greatest extent possible. Theyve already begun by laying off 60,000 workers in China who were earning $3.25 an hour and replacing them with robots.

This begs the question: If they are laying off workers to save $3.25 an hour, why are they willing to pay their workforce here in Wisconsin what appears to be five to seven times that amount?

Since Gov. Walkers initial announcement, Foxconn has already said their plan is to create 3,000 jobs rather than the 13,000 Walker claimed. They also said that manufacturing jobs would pay $13-$15 per hour, which is far less than the $53,000 initially promised.

So what to make of this deal? How does Foxconn plan to make the economics of this deal work for them if they are already replacing thousands of lesser-paid employees with robots? Is it realistic to think that any manufacturing jobs created at Foxconn will still be performed by humans 10, 15 or 25 years from now? It is likely that most of the promised jobs will be automated well before the 2043 break-even date.

According to Walkers plan, state taxpayers will pay to help Foxconn build its plant and local taxpayers will help pay for infrastructure improvements related to the plant. There is even $250 million in borrowing proposed to reconstruct I-94 between Milwaukee and Illinois despite the fact that the governor and Republicans cannot agree on a long-term fix for the billion-dollar deficit in the Transportation Fund.

This all amounts to potentially billions of state and local tax dollars being spent to help a foreign corporation build a plant in which the majority of jobs will likely be done by robots.

If that is the case, then its time we have a larger discussion about what constitutes a job for the purpose of providing economic development assistance and the impact that these new technologies will have on our workforce.

Recent reports suggest that 47 percent of all jobs in the U.S. could be lost to automation in the next 20 years. Those jobs range from manufacturing to retail to the legal and medical fields and beyond. According to a CBS report, even Wall Street is expected to replace nearly 230,000 jobs in the next eight years with machines.

Whether or not these new technologies lead to new jobs that provide better pay and benefits or to large-scale unemployment, one thing is certain: This change is coming rapidly and were not prepared to deal with its impact.

Regardless of where you stand on the Foxconn deal, their stated goal of full automation is not unique to the world we are now living in. It is time for the Legislature to take the issue of automation seriously and do what needs to be done to protect the best interests of taxpayers, our families and our workforce.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Digital Student Solutions. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. It also offers First Day and First Day Complete access programs; BNC OER+, a turnkey solution for colleges and universities, that offers digital content, such as videos, activities, and auto-graded practice assessments; and general merchandise, including collegiate and athletic apparel, school spirit products, lifestyle products, technology products, supplies, graduation products, and convenience items. In addition, the company sources, sells, and distributes new and used textbooks; and sells hardware and a software suite of applications that provides inventory management and point-of-sale solutions to approximately 350 college bookstores. Further, it offers direct-to-student subscription-based writing services; and bartleby, a direct-to-student subscription-based offering that includes textbook solutions, expert questions and answers, and writing and tutoring services. The company operates 805 physical college and university bookstores; 622 virtual bookstores; 8 True Spirit e-commerce websites; pop-up retail locations; 73 customized cafes and 11 stand-alone convenience stores; and a media channel for brands targeting the college demographic. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
Dollar General Corporation, a discount retailer, provides various merchandise products in the southern, southwestern, Midwestern, and eastern United States. It offers consumable products, including paper and cleaning products, such as paper towels, bath tissues, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry products; packaged food comprising cereals, pasta, canned soups, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar, and flour; and perishables that include milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, and wine. The company's consumable products also comprise snacks, such as candies, cookies, crackers, salty snacks, and carbonated beverages; health and beauty products, including over-the-counter medicines and personal care products, such as soaps, body washes, shampoos, cosmetics, and dental hygiene and foot care products; pet supplies and pet food; and tobacco products. In addition, it offers seasonal products comprising holiday items, toys, batteries, small electronics, greeting cards, stationery, prepaid phones and accessories, gardening supplies, hardware, and automotive and home office supplies; and home products that include kitchen supplies, cookware, small appliances, light bulbs, storage containers, frames, candles, craft supplies and kitchen, and bed and bath soft goods. Further, the company provides apparel, which comprise casual everyday apparel for infants, toddlers, girls, boys, women, and men, as well as socks, underwear, disposable diapers, shoes, and accessories. As of February 25, 2022, it operated 18,190 stores in 47 states in the United States. The company was formerly known as J.L. Turner & Son, Inc. and changed its name to Dollar General Corporation in 1968. Dollar General Corporation was founded in 1939 and is based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
One of our top priorities here in Wisconsin is making sure the government services we provide our citizens are effective, efficient and accountable. At the end of the day, we want Wisconsin government to operate at good-value for the hard-working taxpayers of our state.

Weve made huge strides since taking office, but theres still a lot of work to be done. In fact, according to a recent report, Wisconsin currently has 159,253 restrictions on the book. Thats 12 million words worth of rules that would take someone reading full-time 17 whole weeks just to get through!

Thats why earlier this week, I signed Senate Bill 15, also known as the Wisconsin REINS Act, into law.

Modeled after the federal REINS Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015 but has yet to pass in the United States Senate, this bill makes three fundamental changes to our administrative rule-making process.

First, it puts in place a $10 million cap on new rules and regulations passed by a state agency. That means that any agency that wishes to pass a rule that will cost an industry or business more than $10 million must get approval from the Legislature before the new rule moves forward.

It creates an option for the legislatures Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules to request a public hearing early in the rule-making process to give Wisconsin citizens and industry representatives the chance to voice their thoughts and opinions.

The bill also gives the committee the ability to request an independent economic analysis for a second opinion on what the cost of compliance for a new rule will be for Wisconsins business community.

The Wisconsin REINS Act takes away power from unelected bureaucrats and makes sure that state agencies are truly held accountable to the taxpayers. More importantly, it allows our taxpayers the opportunity to weigh-in early in the rule-making process.

We remain committed to making state government more accountable to our citizens, and with the REINS Act, its just one of the ways were continuing to move Wisconsin forward.
National Fuel Gas Company operates as a diversified energy company. It operates through four segments: Exploration and Production, Pipeline and Storage, Gathering, and Utility. The Exploration and Production segment explores for, develops, and produces natural gas and oil in California and in the Appalachian region of the United States. As of September 30, 2021, it had proved developed and undeveloped reserves of 21,537 thousand barrels of oil and 3,723,433 million cubic feet of natural gas. The Pipeline and Storage segment provides interstate natural gas transportation and storage services through an integrated gas pipeline system in Pennsylvania and New York; and owns and operates underground natural gas storage fields. This segment also transports natural gas for National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, as well as for other utilities, industrial companies, and power producers in New York State; and owns and operates the Empire Pipeline. The Gathering segment builds, owns, and operates natural gas processing and pipeline gathering facilities in the Appalachian region, as well as provides gathering services to Seneca Resources Company, LLC. The Utility segment sells natural gas or provides natural gas transportation services to approximately 753,000 customers in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Jamestown, New York; and Erie and Sharon, Pennsylvania. The company markets gas to industrial, wholesale, commercial, public authority, and residential customers primarily in western and central New York, and northwestern Pennsylvania. As of September 30, 2021, the company also owned approximately 95,000 acres of timber property; and managed approximately 2,500 additional acres of timber cutting rights. National Fuel Gas Company was incorporated in 1902 and is headquartered in Williamsville, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 13125882 Canada Inc., 211 E. Russell Road LLC, 4458664 Canada Inc., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES ASIA PTE. LTD., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES BORROWER S.C.A., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES LLC, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES MIDDLE EAST FZE, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES SERVICES LIMITED, ASTRUM IT GmbH, Accudyne Industries Acquisition S.A r.l, Accudyne Industries Canada Inc., Accudyne Industries S.A r.l., Air Dimensions, Air Dimensions Inc., Albin Pump SAS, BOC Edwards Global Low pressure Air business, CISA S.p.A., Cameron-Centrifugal Compression, Comercial Ingersoll-Rand (Chile) Limitada, Comingersoll-Comercio E Industria De Equipamentos S.A., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Dosatron International SAS, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Proprietary Limited, FlexEnergy Holdings LLC, Frigoblock Grosskopf Gmbh, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First (UK) Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings II Inc., GD Global Holdings Inc., GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., GPS Industries, Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp (Canada), Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Limited, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica SL, Gardner Denver Inc., Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver International Inc., Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Investments Inc., Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan Ltd., Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte. Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia s.r.o., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH (f/k/a ILMVAC GmbH), Gardner Denver Thomas Inc., Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Ghh-Rand Schraubenkompressoren Gmbh, HASKEL EUROPE LTD., HASKEL HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, HASKEL INTERNATIONAL LLC, Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, Haskel France SAS, Haskel Sistemas de Fluidos Espana S.R.L., Hibon Inc., Highspeed Newco LLC, Hingerose Limited, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, INGERSOLL RAND ITS JAPAN LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHANG ZHOU) TOOLS CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHINA) INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND CHINA LLC, INGERSOLL-RAND COMERCIO E SERVICOS DE MAQUINAS E EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA., INGERSOLL-RAND DE PUERTO RICO INC., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY B.V., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL SP. Z O.O., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL U.S. INC., INGERSOLL-RAND PHILIPPINES INC., INGERSOLL-RAND SPAIN S.A., INGERSOLL-RAND U.S. HOLDCO INC., IR HPS Holdco. Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.

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Kinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, Products Pipelines, Terminals, and CO2. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment owns and operates interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline, and underground storage systems; natural gas gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities; natural gas liquids fractionation facilities and transportation systems; and liquefied natural gas liquefaction and storage facilities. The Products Pipelines segment owns and operates refined petroleum products, and crude oil and condensate pipelines; and associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix facilities. The Terminals segment owns and/or operates liquids and bulk terminals that stores and handles various commodities, including gasoline, diesel fuel, chemicals, ethanol, metals, and petroleum coke; and owns tankers. The CO2 segment produces, transports, and markets CO2 to recovery and production crude oil from mature oil fields; owns interests in/or operates oil fields and gasoline processing plants; and operates a crude oil pipeline system in West Texas, as well as owns and operates RNG and LNG facilities. It owns and operates approximately 83,000 miles of pipelines and 143 terminals. The company was formerly known as Kinder Morgan Holdco LLC and changed its name to Kinder Morgan, Inc. in February 2011. Kinder Morgan, Inc. was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Leggett & Platt, Incorporated designs, manufactures, and markets engineered components and products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products. The company offers steel rods, drawn wires, foam chemicals and additives, innersprings, specialty foams, private label finished mattresses, mattress foundations, wire forms for mattress foundations, adjustable beds, industrial sewing and quilting machines, and mattress packaging and glue drying equipment, as well as machines to produce innersprings for industrial users of steel rods and wires, manufacturers of finished bedding, big box and e-commerce retailers, bedding brands and mattress retailers, department stores, and home improvement centers. It also provides mechanical and pneumatic lumbar support and massage systems for automotive seating; seat suspension systems, motors and actuators, and cables; titanium, nickel, and stainless-steel tubing, formed tubes, tube assemblies, and flexible joint components for fluid conveyance systems; and engineered hydraulic cylinders to automobile OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, aerospace OEMs and suppliers, and mobile equipment OEMs. In addition, the company offers steel mechanisms and motion hardware for reclining chairs, sofas, sleeper sofas and lift chairs; springs and seat suspensions; components and private label finished goods for soft seating; and bases, columns, back rests, casters, and frames, as well as control devices for chairs. Further, it offers carpet cushion and hard surface flooring underlayment, structural fabrics, and geo components to manufacturers of upholstered and office furniture, flooring retailers and distributors, contractors, landscapers, road construction companies, retailers, government agencies, and mattress and furniture producers, as well as manufacturers of packaging, filtration, and draperies. The company was founded in 1883 and is based in Carthage, Missouri.
Fundamental Forecast for USOIL: Bullish

Talking Points:

Oil market calendar spreads show backwardation hinting that supply cuts are working

Crude oil set for weekly drop as IEA trims demand estimates

Oil calendar spreads shifting from Contango to Backwardation favoring falling concerns

Per Baker Hughes, US Oil Rig count rises by 3 rigs to 768 total active US oil rigs

IGCS showing increase in retail long oil positions , contrarian view favors further price drop

$50 per barrel of West Texas Intermediate Crude seems to be a tough nut to crack. While the market has provided justification for trading in the $45-$50 price range, it remains to be seen whether or not we could see $50 per barrel soon act as support. One reason that weve argued this could be difficult in the near term is that producers are increasing hedges to lock in the near $50/barrel price tag when they bring their oil to market, which argues that well likely continue to see more supply.

Friday saw the price of Crude Oil trade at the lowest levels since late July, but the price pattern (discussed more below) appears to show that we may be retracing the uptrend before resuming higher as opposed to breaking down. Commodities have a few things going right for it, and Oil is no different. The weaker dollar, which was further enforced on Friday by the fifth straight miss in US CPI (1.7% y/y vs. exp 1.8% y/y), geopolitical tensions from North Korea and President Trump, as well as active attempts from OPEC to reduce supply appear to be in the best long-term interests of Oil Bulls.

One method to validate the increasing signs of success from OPECs supply curbing is the development of backwardation. Backwardation signals that demand is beginning to surpass supply as the discount on immediate crude would turns into a premium. We have covered this development on this weeks FX Closing Bell webinars, but it helps to show the object from OPEC is showing success. A key objective of OPEC was to reduce supply to the five-year average in stockpiles, which has not been accomplished yet showing that further supply reduction is likely and could further support the price of Oil.

The concern that remains is that the rise in price has been led more by the rise in demand than the cut in supply. While the supply curbs appear to be doing there job, albeit slowly, any reduction in demand could likely shift the outlook from Bullish to Bearish in rather short order.

We are beginning to see fundamental support in the Oil market. Click here to see our Q3 forecast on what outcomes we're watching!

On the price chart below, you can see that Crude Oil price broke above the chart resistance and bearish price channel that has framed price action for most of 2017. We will look for the price to hold above $47/bbl in WTI to validate that there is latent bullish momentum that could keep price supported near and above $50. One development in the options market that could produce a price ceiling is a further increase in put positions by E&P firms. Puts are options that give the buyer a right to sell at a higher price and are popular among producers. Therefore, if major drillers are amassing hedges, it could act as a price ceiling that will make the lower half of $50/bbl hard to crack. Put accumulation would also signal that supply will remain relatively high.

Crude Oil price holds above strong support from confluence of levels near $48.20

Chart Created by Tyler Yell, CMT

Next Weeks Data Points That May Affect Energy Markets:

The fundamental focal points for the energy market next week:

Monday 2:00 PM ET: EIA Drilling Productivity Report

Monday 10:00 PM ET, Aug. 13: China releases commodity production data including oil, coal, steel, aluminum and power output as well as crude processing at 10am in Beijing

Tuesday 4:30 PM ET: API weekly U.S. oil inventory report

Wednesday 10:30 AM ET: EIA Petroleum Supply Report

Wednesday 2:00 PM ET : China National Petroleum Corp. releases China and global energy demand outlook at 2 p.m. in Beijing

Fridays 1:00 PM ET: Baker-Hughes Rig Count at

Friday 3:30 PM ET: Release of the CFTC weekly commitments of traders report on U.S. futures, options contracts

Crude Oil IG Client Sentiment Highlight: Contrarian view suggests further drop in price

The insight derived from this sentiment analysis on Oil is that traders are increasing their long exposure (blue line on bottom half of chart) while reducing their short coverage likely due to the recent fall in price. Considering this, the sentiment picture favors further price pressure.

-TY
The Pat and Marcia Parker family will welcome Holstein enthusiasts to their familys farm, PMJs Dairy, for the 2017 Vernon County Holstein Twilight Meeting on Thursday, Aug. 17. The twilight meeting is a time for people to gather for food and fellowship while celebrating the dairy industry and showcasing a Vernon County dairy operation.

Located in Avalanche, PMJs Dairy has been home to the Parker family since they purchased the farm in 1990. They are proud to call this century farm home, as they were honored at the 2015 Wisconsin State Fair for owning and operating a family farm that has been running for a century.

The Parkers have made improvements including installing a Double 6 milking parlor in 2006. Today, they have 159 Holstein milking and dry cows, 43 bred heifers and 92 young heifers, providing milk to Westby Cooperative Creamery. They own and rent 450 acres of cropland where they grow corn silage, haylage and snaplage with dry hay being purchased. They also have an additional 100 acres of pasture for their cattle.

There four children are Westby Area High School alumni who exhibited dairy cattle at the Vernon County Fair under Westby FFA. Their son, Jared, and his girlfriend, Chrissy Stalsberg, are involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm. In addition, Jared raises Holstein bull calves up to about 400 pounds and owns 25 cows. Daughter Jessica and her husband, Kyle Peterson, have two children, Parker, 2, and Piper, 7 months. Jessica employed full time on the farm, while Kyle works for Croell Redi-Mix. Jennifer and her husband, Joseph Jandt, farm on Josephs parents farm, Grand-Vu Acres, near Barre Mills. They have two sons, Gabriel, 2, and Gibson, 7 months. The Parkers youngest daughter, Janessa, and her boyfriend, Andrew Mlsna reside on PMJs Dairy. Janessa is a cosmetologist at InStyle Salon inside JCPenney in addition to helping on the farm. Andrew owns A&M Farms.

The Parker farm is located off of Hwy. S. A meal will be provided, along with the opportunity to try your skill at dairy cattle judging at 7 p.m. A program, hosted by the Vernon County Holstein Association, will follow at 8 p.m. with National Holstein Association, Wisconsin Holstein Association and Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board reports.
General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management. The Consumer Banking and Lending segment offers diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses. Its financial products and services include checking and savings accounts, and credit and debit cards, as well as home, auto, personal, and small business lending services. The Commercial Banking segment provides financial solutions to private, family owned, and certain public companies. Its products and services include banking and credit products across various industry sectors and municipalities, secured lending and lease products, and treasury management services. The Corporate and Investment Banking segment offers a suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients. Its products and services comprise corporate banking, investment banking, treasury management, commercial real estate lending and servicing, equity, and fixed income solutions, as well as sales, trading, and research capabilities services. The Wealth and Investment Management segment provides personalized wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, lending, private banking, and trust and fiduciary products and services to affluent, high-net worth, and ultra-high-net worth clients. It also operates through financial advisors. Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: 2Cure LLC, Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, BioLegend, BioLegend CNS Inc., BioLegend China Beijing Ltd., BioLegend Europe B.V., BioLegend France SAS, BioLegend GmbH, BioLegend Inc., BioLegend Japan KK, BioLegend Shenzhen Ltd., BioLegend Taiwan Ltd., BioLegend UK Ltd., BioLegend Ventures LLC, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Boulder Diagnostics Europe GmbH, Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio.com, DIA.Metra S.R.L., DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, Dharmacon Inc., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Hangzhou Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics China Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa Pty Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Sp. z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN South East Asia Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN Tianjin Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Diagnostics Limited, Horizon Discovery, Horizon Discovery Biosciences Limited, Horizon Discovery Group Ltd., Horizon Discovery Inc., Horizon Discovery KK, Horizon Discovery Limited, Horizon Genomics GmbH, IDS Brasil Diagnosticos Ltda., Immunetics Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems, Immunodiagnostic Systems Deutschland GmbH, Immunodiagnostic Systems France SAS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems SA, Inochem S.A. de C. V., Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, Nexcelom Bioscience, Nexcelom Bioscience Holdings LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Instruments Shanghai Co. Ltd., Nexcelom Bioscience LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Ltd., NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, OZ Systems International SARL, OZ Systems USA LLC, Omni International Inc., Optimization Zorn Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories UK Limited, Oxford Immunotec, Oxford Immunotec Asia Ltd, Oxford Immunotec Global Limited, Oxford Immunotec Ireland Limited, Oxford Immunotec KK, Oxford Immunotec Limited, Oxford Immunotec Shanghai Medical Device Co. Ltd., Oxford Immunotec USA Inc., Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Instruments Philippines Corporation, Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer de Mexico S.A., PerkinElmer Argentina Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BV, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Genomics Sweden AB, PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.C.A., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Hong Kong Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer India Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments Suzhou Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Ireland Ltd., PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS UK Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Life Sciences Singapore Pte. Ltd., PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Chengdu Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V. , PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Schweiz AG, PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa Pty Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer UK Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., Qognit Inc., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., SIRION Biotech, SIRION Biotech GmbH, SIRION Biotech International Inc., Sage Labs LLC, Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Singapore Biosciences Pte Ltd., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., SonoVol Inc., Suomen Bioanalytiikka Oy, Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Synthetx Limited, Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.

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Citigroup Inc. is one of the worlds largest financial institutions. It is the 13th largest bank globally by assets and 8th by market cap with operations in consumer and institutional banking. In the US, Citigroup is the 3rd largest bank by assets and one of the Big Four deemed systemically important and too big to fail.

Citigroup Inc. was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. The bank was run by Samuel Osgood who led the company with success for many years, even throughout the War of 1812. The bank was later renamed the National City Bank of New York in 1865 and by 1895 is the largest bank in the US. In 1913 it was the first contributor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a few years later it began to expand into overseas territories.

The bank became the First National City Bank of New York after another merger in 1955 and then later, the New York part was dropped off as part of the 150th-anniversary celebration. By 1974 the company is known as Citicorp which is still the operational branch of the business and a global banking powerhouse. A merger with Travelers insurance group in 1998 resulted in the name Citigroup but the joint venture did not last. By 2002 Travelers was publicly traded once again but Citigroup retained the new name.

Today, the company is headquartered in New York, New York but boasts more than 200 million customer accounts in 160 countries worldwide. As of mid-2022, it operated 2,649 branches in the United States, Mexico, and Asia. The company reports nearly 725 branches in the US and 1499 in Mexico with the rest scattered throughout its territory. Total annual revenue topped $75 billion in 2022.

Citigroup is a diversified financial services holding company that owns Citicorp among other assets. The companys mission is to serve as a trusted partner providing responsible financial solutions to its clients. Citigroup provides financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions. The company operates in two segments, Global Consumer Banking (GCB) and Institutional Clients Group (ICG).

The GCB segment offers traditional banking services including deposit and saving accounts, credit cards, personal loans, home loans, and investment services. This segment operates through local branches and digital means. The ICG segment offers wholesale banking products and services to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients.
GMS Inc. distributes wallboard, ceilings, steel framing and complementary construction products in the United States and Canada. The company offers ceilings products, including suspended mineral fibers, soft fibers, and metal ceiling systems primarily used in offices, hotels, hospitals, retail facilities, schools, and various other commercial and institutional buildings. It also provides steel framing products, such as steel tracks, studs, and various other steel products used to frame the interior walls of a commercial or institutional building; and insulation, lumber and other wood products, ready-mix joint compound, and various other interior construction products, as well as ancillary products comprising tools, fasteners, and safety products. In addition, the company distributes acoustical ceilings, steel framing, insulation, and related building products, as well as commercial and residential building materials. It serves professional contractors and homebuilders. As of April 30, 2022, the company operated 300 branches across 44 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 6 provinces in Canada. It also operates a network of approximately 300 distribution centers. GMS Inc. was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Tucker, Georgia.
Alliant Energy Corporation operates as a utility holding company that provides regulated electricity and natural gas services. It operates through three segments: Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations, and Utility Other. The company, through its subsidiary, Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), primarily generates and distributes electricity, and distributes and transports natural gas to retail customers in Iowa; sells electricity to wholesale customers in Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa; and generates and distributes steam in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Alliant Energy Corporation, through its other subsidiary, Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), generates and distributes electricity, and distributes and transports natural gas to retail customers in Wisconsin; and sells electricity to wholesale customers in Wisconsin. As of December 31, 2021, IPL supplied electric and natural gas service to approximately 500,000 and 225,000 retail customers respectively; and WPL supplied electric and natural gas service to approximately 485,000 and 200,000 retail customers, respectively. It serves retail customers in the farming, agriculture, industrial manufacturing, chemical, and packaging and food industries. In addition, the company owns and operates a short-line rail freight service in Iowa; a barge, rail, and truck freight terminal on the Mississippi River; and a rail-served warehouse in Iowa, as well as offers freight brokerage services. Further, it holds interests in a 347 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired electric generating unit near Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin; and a 225 MW wind farm located in Oklahoma. The company was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin.
Home Four wheelers Ashok Leyland Bags An Order For 500 Fully Built Vehicles Worth Rs 120 Crore oi-Rajkamal

Ashok Leyland, one of India's leading truck manufacturer, has bagged an order for 500 fully built vehicles worth Rs 120 crore. The company claims that the order was possible because of the iEGR (Intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation) technology that was developed by Ashok Leyland itself.

The order for the vehicles was issued by Rivigo, a technology-enabled logistics company that was founded in 2014. With the new order, Rivigo is looking at expanding its fleet to 2700 vehicles.

Speaking of the iEGR technology, Ashok Leyland introduced it in April 2017 for engines up to 400hp to meet BS-IV (BS4) norms.

Speaking on occasion, Anuj Kathuria, President - Global Trucks, Ashok Leyland said, "Today, our BS-IV iEGR vehicles are giving up to 10 percent better fuel economy when compared to our BS-III range. This is helping all our customers to improve their total cost of operations by up to 15 percent, translating to improved profits."

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With the implementation of BS-IV in April, vehicle manufacturers have taken steep measures to ensure vehicles meet emission norms. The result is cleaner vehicles and marginal improvement in efficiency too.
Jammu: In Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday evening, a young man has died in the violation of the seizure of Pakistan. The young man has been identified as Nab Subadar Jagaram Singh Tomar (42). Let me tell you that on Saturday evening, Pakistan violated the siege fire in the KG sector of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Army also responded with its retort.

J&K: A 42-year-old soldier Nb Sub Jagram Singh Tomar lost his life in ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in KG sector at around 5 PM. pic.twitter.com/XtxMgI4hIw  ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2017

Army officers told that a young man was killed in an encounter with security forces while another was injured. Shaheed Jawan Jagrang Tomar resident of Madhya Pradesh (Village Tarasana) was a resident of. Tomar was the father of a daughter and a son. Apart from this, a woman has also died. Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said that Indian Army is answering 10 bullets instead of one.

In addition, Indian security forces launched the search operation in Shopians Avinira village. It was feared that 2-3 terrorists may be hidden here. According to reports, there was heavy firing from both sides.
Washington: A top US defense expert has said that India is behaving like a matured power in the wake of the Doklam deadlock, while China seems to be behaving like a bogus teen. From June 16, there is a standoff between India and China in the Dokalam region. Dokalam is Bhutans land, but China is making a claim on it. This stalemate started when Indian soldiers stopped the Peoples Liberation Army from making roads in this area. Since then, the Chinese media and its officials are trying to create a war-like atmosphere by giving provocative statements.

Praising the behavior of India in this entire episode, Professor James R. Holmes of the prestigious Naval War College said, So far New Delhi has done the right things. Neither has he ran back in the controversy nor has he responded with increasingly speeches like perching. Holmes said, India is behaving like a matured force, while China seems to be behaving like a bitter teenager.

Holmes said that he was surprised that China wants to keep the border dispute alive with its largest neighboring country. Holmes said, If China wants to show aggression in the maritime areas, then it should make its ground boundaries so secure that when it does not have to worry about the ground aggression shown towards its neighbors.

Professor Holmes said, On the basis of logical analysis of cost and profit, it is not logical to hinder India in the Himalayas. When he was asked why the US remained silent for so long, then Professor Holmes said that the present administration has so much to do at this time. He said, It is also possible that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his advisers do not want to include the United States in this dispute. If the dispute increases, it is likely that the US will come forward in support of India.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s suggested that women and men would have equal shots at happiness -- whether they were their families' primary breadwinners or stay-at-home parents.

However, the reality has been far more nuanced for many families in the U.S. And new research out of the University of Illinois suggests that some mothers' and fathers' psychological well-being may suffer when their work and family identities - and the amount of financial support they provide -- conflict with conventional gender roles.

Researchers Karen Kramer and Sunjin Pak found that when women's paychecks increased to compose the majority of their families' income, these women reported more symptoms of depression.

However, Kramer and Pak found the opposite effect in men: Dads' psychological well-being improved over time when they became the primary wage-earners for their families.

The data sample comprised more than 1,463 men and 1,769 women who participated in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. A majority of the individuals in the study, all born between 1957 and 1965, were members of the baby-boom generation. Participants' psychological well-being was measured in 1991 and 1994 using a seven-item scale that assessed their levels of depressive symptoms.

Kramer and Pak found that although women's psychological well-being was not affected by exiting the workforce to become stay-at-home moms, men's mental health declined when they stayed home to care for the kids.

"We observed a statistically significant and substantial difference in depressive symptoms between men and women in our study," said Kramer, who is a professor of human development and family studies.

"The results supported the overarching hypothesis: Well-being was lower for mothers and fathers who violated gendered expectations about the division of paid labor, and higher for parents who conformed to these expectations."

While women's educational and career opportunities have multiplied in recent decades, societal norms and expectations about gendered divisions of labor in the workplace and the home have been slower to evolve, according to the researchers.

Mothers and fathers who deviate from conventional gender roles -- such as dads who leave the workforce to care for their children full time -- may be perceived negatively, potentially impacting their mental health, Kramer and Pak wrote.

The researchers also explored whether parents who held more egalitarian ideas about men's and women's responsibilities as wage earners and caretakers for their families fared better -- and Kramer and Pak found gender differences there as well.

Women in the study who viewed themselves and their spouses as equally responsible for financially supporting their families and caring for their homes and offspring experienced better mental health when their wages and share of the family's income increased.

However, regardless of their beliefs, men's mental health took a hit when their earnings as a proportion of the family income shrank -- suggesting perhaps that "work identity and (the) traditional role of primary earner are still critical for men, even when they have more egalitarian gender ideology," the researchers wrote.

Kramer is to present the paper at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 12-15 in Montreal.

Pak is a doctoral student at Illinois.

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Nokia 3310 3G variant to arrive in late September or early October News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu 3G Nokia 3310 might be coming soon.

Lately, there were a couple of reports suggesting that HMD Global is in plans to launch a 3G variant of the new Nokia 3310 (2017) feature phone.

The Nokia 3310 (2017) was launched at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 in February this year along with the Android smartphones - Nokia 6 (global variant), Nokia 5 and Nokia 3. This feature phone was launched with the aim of bringing nostalgia to the Nokia fans who were using the original Nokia 3310 that was launched in the early 2000s. However, there is a downside that kept fans from buying it. Well, the new Nokia 3310 (2017) supports only 2G connectivity, which is the major drawback.

It looks like HMD is all set to address this issue with the announcement of the 3G variant of the new Nokia 3310. Lately, we saw the HMD CEO tipping that they are working on the Nokia 3310 (2017) 3G variant. There were speculations that this handset will be launched alongside the company's flagship Nokia 8 on August 16.

Now, there appears to be further confirmation regarding the Nokia 3310 (2017) 3G version as an Irish carrier Three Ireland taken to its Twitter page to confirm that they will be offering support for the Nokia 3310 3G variant. The tweet further reveals that the device will be available in late September or early October.

We will be ranging the 3G version of the Nokia 3310, the current launch date of late is September early October   Three Ireland Online (@ThreeCare) August 8, 2017

Late last month, the 3G Nokia 3310 cleared the FCC certification with the model number TA-1036 suggesting that the phone would be released in the U.S. market as well.

The lack of 3G support made users refrain from buying the Nokia 3310. HMD Global should have included the 3G support while announcing the handset earlier this year in order to sell it among the consumers given that these days manufacturers are incorporating 4G VoLTE in their feature phones.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with 6GB RAM and Exynos 8895 visits Geekbench News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Galaxy Note 8 visits Geekbench days before launch.

The official unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is not too far away. We know that the Galaxy Unpacked event is slated to happen on August 23 and that the upcoming flagship device will be launched at the event.

With a few more days left for the launch, the Galaxy Note 8 has been spotted on the Geekbench benchmarking database by Android Headlines. The device carrying the model number SM-N950F has been spotted on the listing thereby confirming some of the key specifications. According to the benchmark database, the Samsung device with the model number SM-N950F will be released in Europe and other global markets with a single SIM card slot.

Furthermore, it is revealed to feature 6GB RAM and Exynos 8895 SoC which was used by the Galaxy S8 (with the model number SM-G950F) as well. While the use of the Exynos processor does not come as a huge surprise as we have come across the same in many speculations and leaks in the past, the Galaxy Note 8 will become the first high-end Samsung smartphone to feature 6GB RAM.

The Geekbench listing does not stop with the hardware details. It further reveals that the Galaxy Note 8 will boot on Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS tipping that the handset will be launched with this version of the platform. However, we can expect the device to receive the Android 8.0 O update in the coming months as Google releases the update officially.

Going by the previous reports, the Galaxy Note 8 is believed to arrive with a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio. The device is said to feature a pressure-sensitive display. it will be the first Samsung device to feature a dual camera setup at its rear with two 12MP lenses and fixed optical zoom. We have also seen that the device might be launched in eight color variants with upgraded S Pen stylus.

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Sony Xperia ZG Compact running Android 7.1.1 Nougat spotted on GeekBench News oi -Rohit The GFX listing shows a Sony handset with model number Xperia ZG Compact running the Android 7.1.1 Nougat and backed by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CPU.

There's no stopping to Sony Xperia handsets paying visits to Benchmarking websites. Recently we informed you about a Sony smartphone- Xperia XZ1 that was spotted on GFX Bench running the latest Android flavor-Android 8.0. And today we have some information about a new Sony Xperia handset that has made its way to GeekBench listing.

Spotted by GSMarena, the benchmarking website's data suggests that the handset passed the GeekBench test on August 11, 2017. Dubbed as Xperia ZG Compact, the smartphone runs the Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is backed by Qualcomm MSM8994 Octa-core CPU, which the Snapdragon 810 chipset.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium Review

As per the testing on benchmarking site, the smartphone has scored 1349 in single-core segment, 951 in Crypto and 1569 in memory department. The multi-core performance has also been evaluated on the GeekBench page and shows a final score of 3049. Besides, there is no such information about the camera, display and battery of the handset.

The handset can be the successor of the Xperia Z5 Compact but the choice of the CPU seems a bit off the line in the current year. As noted, Sony is expected to unveil a smaller variant-Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact and Sony Xperia X1 during the upcoming IFA 2017. We believe the handset in discussion today is not going to make it to the annual event.

We will keep a close eye on the upcoming Sony devices in the coming month. Stay tuned on GIZBOT.

Benchmark Image Source: GeekBench

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Xiaomi Mi Home Store coming to Delhi soon: Perhaps in next few weeks News oi -Samden Sherpa Delhi-NCR may be getting its Xiaomi Mi Home' Store very soon.

After dominating the online segment and creating numerous sales records Xiaomi is now gearing up to ramp up its offline presence as well in the country.

After opening two Xiaomi Mi Home Stores ni Bengaluru, the Chinese company looks set to launch yet another signature retail store in the Delhi-NCR region in the coming days. The launch has been confirmed by a top company executive.

"Delhi-NCR will get its 'Mi Home' sometime very soon. Perhaps in next few weeks," Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, told IANS. "I can not tell you the exact date as of now unless the store is completely set up," Jain added.

However, all this development happened during an event where Xiaomi was celebrating the success of record sales of its 'Redmi Note 4' device. "In about six months time (from January 23-July 23 this year), we sold over five million units which are incredible when compared with some of the best-selling phones like Samsung J2. Last year, 3.3 million units of J2 were sold in the first six months," Jain said.

For the celebration, the company had created the world's largest grain mosaic art spanning 6,000 square feet at Thyagraj Stadium in New Delhi. The mosaic art was measured and certified by Unique Surveyors, a land surveying company. Nearly 40,000 kg of foodgrain, including pulses and rice, was used to create the mosaic. The grain was later given to the Robin Hood Army NGO which would donate it to nearly five lakh people on Independence Day as part of a Xiaomi initiative. Besides, Xiaomi's mosaic art seemed to be the biggest contributor to this mission.

In any case, coming to the main point Xiaomi has made a huge comeback and has managed to gain a lot of popularity especially with its smartphones where the Redmi Note 4 model has been the top-selling model in the first half of 2017. Interestingly, this is the first time any brand has toppled Samsung.

While the company reaches new milestones, Xiaomi is aiming to strengthen its base not only in metropolitan cities but also in tier II and III cities and rural areas that have limited reach and less exposure to e-commerce sites. "We are making a significant progress in rural areas too. We are doing some pilot programs in tier II and III cities and villages like taluka headquarters. We are working with retailers there in a very different and innovative way," Jain said.

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Haiti - Social : 53 illegal Haitian migrants arrested in Providenciales





On Tuesday, a boat of illegal migrants with 53 Haitian nationals on board was intercepted in the West Caicos region.



The interception of this vessel, a 35-foot sloop, was carried out in cooperation with several agencies, including: the US Coast Guard, the Turks and Caicos Islands Coastal Radar Station and the Royal Police Marine Unit.



At 4h11 pm the sloop docked in Providenciales, where Haitian illegal migrants were arrested by immigration officials and other Task Force officials. The police confirmed that the boat carried 16 women and 37 men, indicating that the 53 migrants were currently detained and being processed for their repatriation to Haiti.



The Minister of Border Control said that illegal migration threatened the life and livelihoods of the people of the islands of the archipelago and that those engaged in trafficking in human beings would be prosecuted with all the severity of the law. He advises all persons to strictly observe the immigration laws of the Turks and Caicos Islands, because anyone found in violation will be dealt accordingly.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-21416-icihaiti-security-rescue-of-6-haitians-off-the-turks-and-caicos-islands.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20851-haiti-social-the-body-of-15-shipwrecked-repatriated-to-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17980-haiti-security-13-haitian-migrants-rescued-at-sea.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17508-haiti-social-the-turks-and-caicos-are-fighting-against-illegal-haitian-migrants.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-17006-icihaiti-social-54-haitians-intercepted-off-the-coast-of-providenciales.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14968-icihaiti-migration-mhave-seeks-a-solution-with-the-turks-and-caicos-islands.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14578-icihaiti-social-99-haitian-boat-people-intercepted-off-providenciales.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13089-haiti-social-risk-his-life-at-sea-migrants-testify-video.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-10902-haiti-social-84-haitian-migrants-intercepted-off-the-coast-of-tcis.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8904-haiti-social-hunting-smugglers-in-turks-and-caicos.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8354-haiti-social-168-haitian-poeple-boat-intercepted-in-turks-and-caicos.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7380-haiti-social-127-boat-people-intercepted-off-the-turks-caicos.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politics : The State contributes to the work of Delmas





Wednesday, at the invitation of the Mayor of Delmas, Wilson Jeudy, the President Jovenel Moise, visited certain construction sites in the commune, notably in the neighborhoods of Delmas 75, Siloe and Delmas 33. He took the opportunity to inquire about the needs of the municipal administration in order to accelerate the construction of road infrastructures to improve the living environment and facilitate the movement of the population.



In the presence of the Minister of Public Works, Engineer Fritz Caillot and Delmas Deputy, Gary Bodeau, the Head of State renewed his promises to the Mayor of Delmas to support his efforts to disenclave and interconnect his commune. To this end, he will bring the contribution of the State by providing to the municipal administration, asphalt required to complete the construction of the sections in the framework of development of a synergy between all the powers of the State, with a view to creating a favorable environment for the development of the country.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : 410 Haitians arrested in the Espaillat Province, 109 deported to Haiti





Following the migratory control operations carried out this week in the province of Santiago Rodrigez (North-West) where 510 Haitians were arrested and 182 deported to Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21766-haiti-flash-vast-operation-against-haitians-in-dr-510-arrests.html , the Directorate General of Migration (DGM), following intelligence information on Wednesday, carried out a new and important operation including a staff of 104 men, including inspectors, DGM agents and support from the Dominican Army, in various localities of the 8 communes of the province of Espaillat (North) where 410 Haitians were arrested for control purposes.



After a process of identification and verification, 109 Haitian nationals (93 men and 16 women) who had no documents in good standing were deported to Haiti by the Dajabon border crossing.



In a statement, the DGM reiterated its appeal to citizens of different nationalities who are with an expired migratory status to regularize and those deprived of documentation to return to their country in order to avoid expulsion. The DMG recalls that control operations will continue in other provinces of the national territory to identify and deport all undocumented aliens without proper papers, who violate the provisions of the law.



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Congratulations to alert and patriotic parents for cancellation of an event glorifying China !  Editor, Hindujagruti

Bangalore : The strain of the India-China border standoff in the Sikkim sector is being felt 3,000km down south with a school in Bangalore being forced to call off its Chinese New Year celebrations because of objections by sections of guardians.

Delhi Public School Bangalore North had on August 3 sent out circulars to guardians of Class I students informing them about Chinese New Year celebrations on August 11.

The guardians had been asked to send decorative materials and Chinese food with their children, who were to be dressed in Chinese attire for the symbolic commemoration of the Chinese New Year that falls in January or February every year.

However, several guardians objected to the idea, citing the border stand-off between India and China over the disputed Doklam plateau at the two countries tri-junction with Bhutan. They brought the schools plans to the notice of the district education department.

Caught in the unusual situation of having to intervene in a school programme, Bangalore North education officer Narayan Das contacted the DPS principal and requested her to scrap the event in view of the prevailing anti-China sentiments.

Under the circumstances, we thought it best to cancel the event. The school was cooperative and immediately called it off, Das told The Telegraph today.

According to the school circular, the guardians were supposed to send glitter tubes, decorative stickers, A4 size red sheets of paper and glue sticks for their children to prepare decorative items.

As part of the food festival on the day, the guardians had been asked to send Chinese food items such as noodles, momos and fried rice in the childrens lunchboxes. The children were also required to attend school in traditional Chinese attire or at least red-coloured clothes.

The school conducts similar programmes to mark the new years of other countries such as France and Germany as part of its activities for students. But we suggested that the Chinese event be scrapped, Das said.

School principal Manju Balasubramaniam could not be contacted as she was busy in meetings. A school official confirmed that the event had been cancelled and the children informed.

It was part of extra-curricular activities where children are introduced to the culture, dresses, food and other aspects of other countries. We had planned to celebrate the Chinese New Year months before the Doklam stand-off began, said the official, who cannot be named as she is not authorised to speak to the media.

Source : Telegraph
Aflac Kicks Off 2017 Duckprints Tour at Cottage Children's Medical Center in Santa Barbara by Honoring Heroes Who Have Made a Meaningful Difference in the Lives of Children with Cancer

Posted by Press Releases on Saturday, 08-12-2017 10:13 am

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac, the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite in the U.S. and a committed corporate ally in making a difference in the lives of children with cancer, today proudly presented a group of heroes with Duckprints Awards for making an impact and leaving a footprint in the lives of children and families with cancer. 2017 Duckprints Award honorees, Jasmin Castro, Anita Williamson and Faith DeBrum, with the Aflac Duck at Cottage Children's Medical Center in Santa Barbara on Thursday, Aug. 10. "At Aflac, we believe that everyone has the power to do good," Aflac Foundation President Kathelen Amos said. "Aflac adopted the charge more than 20 years ago to further childhood cancer research and treatment and to support families, and we haven't looked back since. We are excited to kick off our 2017 Duckprints celebrations at Cottage Children's Medical Center and to honor three inspiring, selfless individuals who tr...

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Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 the winners in the anniversary year are selected

Posted by Press Releases on Saturday, 08-12-2017 9:59 am

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Essen/Germany, 10 August 2017 The Red Dot Award: Communication Design is celebrating its 25-year anniversary in 2017. With its vast experience, the award once again selected this years excellent achievements: the winners of the international competition have been chosen, and receive the Red Dot seal in recognition of their convincing design quality and creativity. Rising internationality: participants from 50 countries Agencies, designers and companies from 50 countries entered their works in the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017. They submitted 8,051 projects across 18 categories, setting a new record in terms of entry numbers as well as raising the level of internationalisation on last year. Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award had this to say: The diversity of the projects submitted is huge in terms of content, type, source and target market. This broad field of participants brings with it a large responsibility. The jurys decision must take ...

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Community colleges can support the Skill India mission and bridge the gap between industry demand and the availability of high-skill candidates in the country, says SPAN writer Burton Bollag taking a cue from an American model

For many educators, community colleges are a key part of the education system of a 21st century economy. In India, however, they remain a small part of the higher education landscape.



Community colleges typically offer two-year professional degree programmes that are more practical and less theoretical or academic than three- or four-year bachelor programmes. Indian advocates of two-year colleges say they have been inspired by the big role such institutions play in the United States, where they enrol nearly 38 percent of all undergraduate students.

These advocates believe the two-year model could do much to support the Indian governments flagship Skill India programme.

There is a huge gap between the demands by industry and entry-level candidates with the required skills, says Rahul Choudaha, who holds a doctorate in higher education from the University of Denver and is now the chief executive officer of DrEducation, LLC, a New Jersey-based global higher education research and consulting firm.



Not only are two-year colleges needed to meet the growing demands of the economy, but they are also a crucial instrument for social mobility, according to Xavier Alphonse, founder director of the Indian Center for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE) in Chennai. The organization established and oversees more than 230 community colleges in at least 17 states in India.

In an essay, Alphonse wrote community colleges empower the disadvantaged by helping them develop skills that will lead to gainful employment. He goes on to say two-year colleges can make a qualitative difference in the lives of the urban, rural and tribal poor, and women.

Like other Indian advocates of two-year colleges, Alphonse says he has been inspired by the significant role of community colleges in the United States.



The U.S. model

Ajay Mohan Goel, former executive vice-president of the Bengaluru-based Wadhwani Foundation, was one of the leading architects of a 2012 project of the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development to develop community colleges inside three-year bachelor colleges. Our original vision, says Goel, was that 5,000 three-year colleges would establish community colleges within themselves; a further 1,000 would transform themselves into a [full-time] community college.

Goel also led a trip of senior Indian officials to the United States to learn more about the community college system. We studied the American model intensively, he says, adding what they saw is extremely relevant to Indias education needs. Today, Goel is the co-founder and principal consultant at the Uttar Pradesh-based Skills Management Group, which provides consultancy services on skilling and entrepreneurship.



Indeed, community colleges play a big role in the American higher education system. There are nearly 1,300 of these colleges in the United States, with more than seven million students enrolled in degree programmes. Less than 40 percent study full-time, while the rest are working adults who take classes in the evenings and on weekends. The average age of community college students is 28. The average cost of attending a four-year college in the United States is $25,409 (approximately Rs. 16,36,000) per year, almost half the average annual household earning of Americans; though the best schools can cost more than double that amount. Community colleges, on the other hand, cost much less and are generally open to everyone who has graduated high school.



Benefits of community colleges

These colleges serve two purposes: preparing graduates for a job, and enabling access to a bachelors degree programme by allowing students to transfer credits earned to a four-year college. In the United States, there is a very smooth transition from two-year to four-year colleges, says Choudaha, something that is very rare in India. Forty-six percent of the students who graduate from a four-year college in the US were enrolled at a two-year college at some point in the previous 10 years, according to a 2015 report of the Virginia-based National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.



In India, the government is focusing on using short-term technical training programs to meet the countrys skill needs. Im not arguing against them, says Jillian Gross, a Fulbright-Nehru scholar and doctoral student at the University of Michigan, who recently conducted a study on the expansion of the community college model in India. But, she adds, while technical training teaches students how to meet a specific job requirement, two-year colleges provide a broader education to help students throughout their careers.



That education includes soft skills like communication, teamwork and critical thinking, says Gross. When they are of sufficient quality, community colleges enable individual transformation and the possibility of upward mobility.



Photo : Jillian Gross, Fulbright-Nehru scholar, in Pune.
Srinagar, Aug 12 (IBNS): A soldier was injured after suspected militants attacked an Army camp in Kalaroos forests in the border district of Kupwara in north Kashmir, late on Friday night.

According to sources, militants attacked with automatic weapons the 41 RR headquarter camp, located in the Kalaroos forests along the Line of Control (LoC).

An officer told IBNS, "Militants continued to fire on the camp for half an hour. The alerted troops retaliated effectively."

A soldier of 21 JAK Rifles was injured in the shootout, the official added.

He was moved to a military hospital in Drugmulla for treatment.

Soon after the attack, army launched a massive man hunt with the help of para-commandos, said a source.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Patna, Aug 12 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): In a first major action against rebel party MP Sharad Yadav, the JD-U leadership on Saturday replaced him by RCP Singh as new parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha.

The party handed over a formal letter to vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, informing him that from now on Singh would replace Yadav as parliamentary party leader in the RS.



Met Vice President & gave in writing that we have elected RCP Singh as our leader in Rajya Sabha, state JD-U president Vashishtha Narayan Singh was quoted as telling news agency ANI.



(We are taking) Necessary step because being leader if a person indulges in anti-party activities it has to be condemned unanimously, Singh added.



Yadav is currently leading a campaign against the party in Bihar against Nitish Kumars move to from Government with BJP support after pulling out of the Grand Alliance with the RJD and Congress..

He is at presently on three-day tour of Bihar to seek peoples opinion before he takes the next step. He has termed Kumars move as a betrayal with peoples mandate.

thebiharpost.com




New York, Aug 12(Just Earth News): As the conflict in Ukraine enters its fourth year, nearly 1.6 million internally displaced people are struggling to find safety, adequate housing and access to employment, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Sporadic exchanges of fire in areas near the line of contact continue to damage civilian infrastructure, leading to new humanitarian needs and creating risks of displacement, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at on Friday's regular press briefing in Geneva.

Safety and security remain major concerns for nearly 800,000 people living near the Line of Contact in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the country's east, he added.

In June, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine recorded more than 1.1 million crossings of the dividing line in eastern Ukraine  sparking UNHCR's concern about difficulties over civilians' freedom of movement, particularly while crossing the conflict line.

There are frequently long queues and subsequent delays at checkpoints. Those waiting to cross have limited access to basic services, such as drinking water, latrines, weather shelters and medical care, the spokesperson noted.

Mahecic pointed out that this creates additional hardships for those with limited mobility and specific needs, especially older people and mothers with children making the journey.

Since the beginning of 2016, nearly 586,000 retired and elderly people residing in the conflict zone lost access to their pensions as a result of verification procedures introduced by the Government of Ukraine. This has affected the most vulnerable groups, as many of them depend on pensions and social payments as their sole source of income, he stated.

Those living in non-Government controlled areas are required to register as internally displaced persons with the Ukrainian authorities in order to have access to their rightful pensions and social payments, he continued.

UNHCR and partners advocate for displaced people to have full access to Government services and payments, and de-linking pensions and social benefits from residences.

The agency also maintains that at least 40 communities near the dividing line have limited access to medical services  with some 150 healthcare facilities damaged since the start of the conflict  and medical personnel have left the area.

Noting that in 2017, UNHCR helped to repair 89 schools, Mahecic stressed that children in affected zones have limited access to education due to the security situation and damaged school buildings with at least 700 damaged since the conflict began, including 55 schools this year alone.

Earlier this year UNHCR received first-hand testimonies of displaced people while conducting focus groups with conflict-affected population  including women; orphaned children; persons with disabilities and medical conditions; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex people throughout 10 regions of Ukraine.

Along with problems of security, access to basic services, and livelihoods, residents of frontline communities told of civilian houses being used for military purposes.

The stationing of combatants and weapons in residential areas places civilian populations at risk during fighting, Mahecic underscored.

In conclusion, the spokesperson stressed that UNHCR continues to call on all conflict parties to protect civilians and their communities from fighting and shelling, and to restrict the use of civilian homes for military purposes.

Photo: UNHCR/Tania Bulakh

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Aug 12(Just Earth News): In the lead-up to International Youth Day, marked annually on 12 August, the United Nations kicked off a commemorative event at its New York Headquarters with a message from Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres, who underscored his commitment to young people.

I'm truly happy to address you on International Youth Day, the Secretary-General said a video message. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am committed to the empowerment and inclusion of every young person around the world, he added.

In this spirit, I have appointed an impressive new Youth Envoy, he said, introducing 26-year-old Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka as the youngest and one of the most important members of his team.

Against the backdrop that many of the world's 1.2 billion young people are affected by the hardship of conflict and war, the 2017 edition of the International Day will be celebrated under the theme 'Youth Building Peace.

Considering matters of youth, peace and security from a social developmental perspective, this year, the Day recognizes that more and more societies around the world are recognizing the role of youth as agents of change and critical actors in preventing conflict and building peace.

Organized by the UN Division for Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Inter-agency Network on Youth Development, on Friday's event draws together experts from youth civil society, government and the United Nations to explore the various ways in which young people are contributing to building and sustaining peace.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, on her first official trip, the Secretary-General's new Youth Envoy is conducting dialogues with young people and meeting with UN officials.

In December 1999, the UN General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that 12 August be declared International Youth Day.

Governments must work with young people to successfully achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Empowered young men and women can play a critical role in preventing conflicts and ensuring sustainable peace, continued Guterres.

After the Youth Envoy invited everyone to join in mobilizing young people, the Secretary-General said, Together, we can create a peaceful world for generations to come.

Photo: Aisha Faquir/World Bank

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Aug 12(Just Earth News): Hailing from Sri Lanka, the second-ever United Nations Youth Envoy is no stranger to rolling up her sleeves to get things done.

Before taking on her role as UN Youth Envoy, 26-year-old Jayathma Wickramanayake worked diligently in her mother country to transform the youth development sector. From 2013 to 2015, she served as a Senator at the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament and from 2016 to 2017 as Secretary to the Secretary-General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

Now working at the UN, her dedication to including youth globally comes out in force as she vows to do everything in her capacity to strive towards making the UN an inclusive system in which all youth is welcomed.

Speaking to UN News, she stressed that as Youth Envoy, she wants to ensure that all youth have a home at the United Nations.

UN News: Can you elaborate on your role as UN Youth Envoy?

JW: Since my school days, I have been very active in community work  volunteering both in and outside of school. When I entered university, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Youth Affairs organized the first-ever competition to select emerging young leaders in the country. I became the runner up.

I was then invited by the Youth Ministry and the UN Country Team in Sri Lanka to contribute to different programmes and policies being drafted at that time, such as the National Youth Policy of Sri Lanka, the Youth Employment Action Plan and the World Health Organizations Noncommunicable Disease Prevention Progamme.

Little by little I became introduced to the UN, including by becoming part of the UN Volunteer force.

In 2012, when Sri Lanka started the Youth Delegate Programme, I was selected as one of my countrys first Youth Delegates to participate in the UNs 69th General Assembly.

In preparation, I travelled around Sri Lanka for a month, speaking with different young people from a variety of communities to formulate a statement on the issues they wanted the UN to hear, which I subsequently delivered to the Third Committee [Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee].

As I was finishing my tenure as Youth Delegate in 2013, Sri Lanka was preparing to host the 2014 World Youth Conference, for which I was appointed to the International Youth Task Force that advised on its programme, proceedings, agenda, and declaration.

At that time, 74 million youth globally were unemployed and there was a huge gap in terms of school-to-work transition, which underscored a need for skills development.

For about one year and a half I worked on the Conference with a team of energetic young people from 10 parts of the world, including 10 Sri Lankans.

I then worked closely with the UN and the Sri Lankan government to adopt the resolution to declare World Skills Day.

Back in Sri Lanka, I started a grass roots youth organization with other Sri Lankan former UN Youth Delegates called Hashtag Generation to build the capacity of young people to participate in politics.

UN News: What inspired you to take on the role of UN Youth Envoy?

JW: I served as Youth Delegate during the formulation process of the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals]. In the UN, I saw how young people came together with diverse ideas, proposals and plans of action to weigh-in on framing the future development agenda.

I also recognized that there is a need for the UN to engage young people and get their perspective on how the world should look in 2030 because, ultimately, it is the youth who will lead the implementation of this agenda.

I think this is a time in history that we can really make a change because the future will depend on the implementation of the SDGs, and young people will have a crucial role to play.

The new Secretary-Generals vision, which is to place youth at the centre of the UNs work, also inspired me to become engaged in the process as the Youth Envoy.

UN News: What are some your goals as UN Youth Envoy?

JW: The terms of reference under the Secretary-Generals vision for young people focuses on the meaningful participation of youth across the four pillars of the UNs work, namely development; human rights; peace and security; and humanitarian action.

My goal would be to ensure that young people have a voice in all of these processes at the UN, with a special focus on the participation of girls and young women.

Institutionalizing youth participation in the UN is important because, as a Youth Delegate, I saw young people working hard on the ground  but without access to UN discussions that institutionalize youth participation. Instead, they often participate in very informal ways through their networks, non-governmental organization or during side events at forums that take place at the UN.

There is a need to formally recognize youth as partners in core processes at the UN. For example, when a government brings a delegation to negotiate a declaration on, say, peace and security, we can always include a youth delegate  ensuring that there is space for young people in the meeting room.

UN News: You have been in office for less than a month. Can you tell us about what you have already done in your first weeks here?

JW: It was quite iconic because I started my tenure as the Youth Envoy on 15 July, World Youth Skills Day, for which I had worked to adopt the pertinent resolution.

That and the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), where my office in partnership with other UN actors and Member States organized many events around youth and skills development and the engagement of young people in voluntary national reviews of the SDGs.

So, my first week was full of activities around the HLPF and gave me the opportunity to meet different stakeholders who were in town at that time.

On my fourth day in office, I had a special meeting with all the youth representatives, who were in New York for the forum. I was able to get their ideas of how they see the role of Youth Envoy and what they expect from me. It was a very good experience.

UN News: What has surprised you about the job so far?

JW: Not sure I would call it a surprise, but in this role, every day I meet young people who work tirelessly on the ground, who sometimes sacrifice their lives, compromise so much for causes that they believe are true.

It really inspires me, and on a daily basis. I think that is the best part of this job!

UN News: What do you foresee as your biggest challenge?

JW: There is a growing rhetoric about young peoples participation in formal processes. While everyone acknowledges that they should have a seat at the table, when it comes to implementing this, most often we take a step back. We find excuses not to include youth in discussions about investing in young people, or to find avenues for young people from different backgrounds to participate.

I see the challenge is actually converting this talk to work.

UN News: What changes do you think the UN needs to make in order to reach and be more relevant in young people's lives?

JW: There are two approaches that we can adopt. Firstly, I think the UN has a responsibility to go to young people and meet them where they are. We cannot expect all youth from different communities, religions and ethnic backgrounds to come to the UN.

For example, this International Youth Day, 12 August, I am celebrating with young people in Iraq, where the theme of Youth Building Peace is very relevant in their national context. I come from a region that is constantly affected by conflict, and have personally seen the effects it has had on young people. In Iraq, I will meet with close to 1,000 youth, discussing the problems they are facing.

There, I will also convene meetings with the Government and other stakeholders to see how we can resource youth development in Iraq and devise methods to constantly and substantively engage young people in preventing conflicts as well as in post-conflict reconciliation activities.

There is a need to see young people not as a liability but as an opportunity

Most often the UN jargon is not very familiar to the young people doing good work in advancing the lives of youth in their villages and communities. By taking the UN closer to young people I do not necessarily mean physically, but through new technologies, such as social media, to connect with youth in a language they can understand.

The second approach is to have the UN system look at young people. On Friday they comprise more than half of the worlds population  the largest youth population in the history of the world. There is a need to see young people not as a liability but as an opportunity, and to see how we can proactively engage them in all discussions, at all levels.

Credit: Jess Walker

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Lahore, Aug 12 (IBNS): A child was killed when he was hit by an Elite Force vehicle part of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's convoy in Lalamusa area of Pakistan on F|riday, media reports said on Saturday.

The child has been laid to rest.



District Police Officer (DPO) Gujrat Sohail Chattha was quoted as saying by Geo News: "The affected family will be served justice."

Chughtai, a student of grade 6, was standing on the lane-divider to watch Nawaz's convoy pass by when he was reportedly pushed towards the road moments before the Elite Force vehicle passed, Geo News reported.

Sharif has been rallying crowds since Wednesday.
Washington, Aug 12 (IBNS): US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is not ruling out military action to settle the Venezuelan crisis, reports said.

The announcement has not sat well with the South American nation, as Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said that Trump's statement was "crazy".

"We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary,' the US President told reporters on Friday.

He also said that the US has troops in distant lands and Venezuela is much closer to home, hinting at the ease the US soldiers will have once they get the nod from the President.

"We have troops all over the world in places that are very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering and they're dying," he said.

The White House also informed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro requested a phone call with the US President, which the latter declined saying that he will gladly pick up the call when democracy is restored in the former's country.

Meanwhile, Venezuela is also being pressurised by Peru, who has criticised its new constituent assembly.

In response to Maduro's actions, Peru has ordered the expulsion of the Venezuelan ambassador from Lima.

The Venezuelan ambassador, Diego Molero, has five days to leave the Peruvian capital.

Weeks ago the US imposed sanctions on Maduro, terming him a dictator.

Following the sanction, US firms and individuals have been prevented from conducting business with Maduro.

A similar tone has been used by Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynsk, who happens to be a fierce critic of Maduro.

Speaking to Reuters news agency, he said, "He's a dictator and has carried out a coup through a fraudulent election to eliminate Congress."

Even as Maduro stressed on the importance of the new assembly, protests and violent demonstrations keep on rocking Venezuela.

So far, at least 120 people have been killed since April.


Toronto, Aug 12 (IBNS): Catherine McKenna, Canada's Minister for Environment and Climate Change, recently visited the Inuit-operated national park in northern coastal Labrador, to learn about the life of Inuit people living there and to study the effect of climate change on them, media reports said.

Inuit people lived in Northern coast Labrador -- a large area of mainland Canada, separated from Newfoundland, an island in the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Belle Isle -- and quickly adapted to the arctic and sub-arctic conditions of the Labrador region, CBCNews reports said.

Newfoundland and Labrador together form the most easterly province in Canada.

The coastal areas of Labrador had reportedly abundance of whales, seals, fish, caribou and large forests.

McKenna said she watched the Inuit hunt seals and was also able to see firsthand the effects of climate change in the north.

During her visit to the Torngat Mountains -- ancestral home of the Labrador Inuit and managed by Inuit staff -- she was accompanied by Natan Obed, president of the national Inuit organization, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is a nonprofit organization in Canada that represents over 60,000 Inuit and works to improve their health and wellbeing through research, advocacy, public outreach and education.

"He was able to tell me about the Inuit experience in the park, so I could learn a lot more about our history  which is a lot longer than 150 years, that's for sure  and really understand the Inuit connection with the land," McKenna was quoted by the media as saying.

In the middle of the trek to the top of the Torngat Mountains, McKenna said that the bear guard spotted a black bear and she was thankful to the guard for protecting her from the bear.

McKenna also tweeted that she had an opportunity to meet with scientists & Inuit elders at Torngat Mountains to learn about Parks Canada Science.

During an exclusive interview about her tour with scientist Darroch Whitaker near Labrador's Torngat Mountains Base Camp and Research station -- a remote site Labrador and gateway to Torngat Mountains National Park and Hebron National Historic Site -- she said her purpose of coming there was two fold, first to study the life of people living there as part of reconciliation, and second, to study about climate change.

McKenna said that she is working to find ways how to link Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists with the park ecologists and biologists and Indigenous Peoples to advance their knowledge about the effects of climate change.

She said Canadas Arctic, abode of Inuit people, was one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change.

"We see it [across the country] in floods. We now have forest fires, we have droughts. But in the arctic, that's the canary in the coal mine."

"They are already seeing double the warming. That's having a real impact in very tangible ways," CBCNews reports quoted her as saying.

Inuit people of the parks were focused at the micro level, said McKenna, on whats happening in parks, whereas Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists were studying the impact of climate change at a national and macro level.

She added it was possible to achieve much more by engaging the local community in monitoring and said she hoped to apply the lessons from her tour in the park to her work with the environment in Ottawa, Canada.

Amazed by the stunning beauty of Torngat Mountains, the National park, its biodiversity, the animals, people living here, with a long history, she said she would have to think of the best ways to narrate the story of the Park when she returned to Ottawa.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Images: Catherine McKenna/Twitter; Torngat Mountains/Twitter
The Government of Bhutan on Thursday refuted Chinese foreign ministry claims about Thimpu telling Beijing that the trilateral border stand-off area in Doklam in the Sikkim sector is not Bhutan's territory.

A top Chinese diplomat Wang Wenli had claimed that Bhutan had conveyed to Beijing through diplomatic channels that the area of the standoff is not its territory.

BCCL

Wang, who is the deputy director general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs in China's foreign ministry, reportedly conveyed this information to a visiting Indian media delegation on Wednesday.

She, however, did not provide any evidence to back her claim, which has been strongly denied by Bhutan.

Official sources in the Bhutanese Government told ANI over phone, "Our position on the border issue of Doklam is very clear. Please refer to our statement which has been published on the web site of Bhutan's foreign ministry on June 29, 2017."

ALSO READ: China Ups Rhetoric, Asks What Can India Do If It Enters Kashmir And Kalapani In Uttarakhand

AFP

Reacting to the developments in Doklam, Bhutan had on June 29 issued a press release in which it clearly stated that the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between the two countries.

In the press release, Bhutan said that the Chinese Army started constructing a motorable road from Dokola in the Doklam area towards the Bhutan Army camp at Zompelri on June 16, 2017.

ALSO READ: As The Standoff In Sikkim Continues China May Go For 'Small Scale Military Operations' Against India

AFP

It further said that the boundary talks between Bhutan and China were under way and the two countries had written agreements of 1988 and 1998 stating that they agree to maintain peace and tranquility in their border areas pending a final settlement on the boundary question. The two countries have also agreed to maintain status quo on the boundary as before March 1959 and refrain from taking unilateral action, or use of force, to change the status quo of the boundary.

Bhutan has hoped that the status quo in the Doklam area would be maintained by China as before 16 June 2017.

The Chinese diplomat, while acknowledging that Bhutan had intially protested about Beijing's violation in the Doklam area, was quoted as saying, "After the incident, the Bhutanese made it very clear to us that the place where the trespassing happened is not Bhutan's territory."

AFP

She was further quoted as saying that "Bhutanese find it very strange that the Indian border troops are on the Chinese soil," and implied that her views have been gleaned from Bhutanese state media and legal blogs which have "more convincing information".

ALSO READ: Amid Border Doklam Standoff, China Violated Border In Uttarakhand Barahoti's On July 25

However, Bhutan has denied all these claims.

India has also cited the Bhutanese foreign ministry as emphasizing that "the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the 1988 and 1998 agreements between Bhutan and China and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between these two countries."
Adam Scow, California Director of Food & Water Watch, shed light on why the oil industry was so intent on getting AB 398 passed; it gives loopholes and tax breaks to corporate polluters that could actually result in more, not less, emissions.



The bill, heavily influenced by the oil and gas industry, makes Californias flawed cap-and-trade system worse by allowing excessive allowances to pollute and preventing local regulation of greenhouse gases, said Scow. The climate crisis demands that the State regulate and reduce pollution quickly, but this bill gives polluters loopholes and tax breaks that could result in increased emissions. Californias cap-and-trade system cannot be considered a model for any state or nation that takes the climate crisis seriously.



Photo: Governor Jerry Brown speaks at the signing ceremony for AB 398 at Treasure Island on July 25. Photo credit: Emily Hagopian.

Chevron, Western States Petroleum Association captured two top spots for lobbying expensesby Dan BacherState officials and the mainstream media depicted the passage of Governor Jerry Browns cap-and-trade bill last month as a historic climate victory, but over 65 environmental justice, conservation and public interest organizations slammed the bill because of the devastating impact it will have on front line communities, the people of California and our air and water.The lobbying expenses by the oil industry in the second quarter of 2017 revealed how urgent the industry felt it was to pass AB 398, legislation based on a Big Oil wish list, that will extend Californias controversial cap-and-trade system beyond 2020.Chevron, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and Tesoro captured the top three spots for lobbying expenses between April 1 and June 30, 2017, according to data filed with the California Secretary of State. The groups said they spent the money to lobby for AB 398, along with lobbying for and against other legislation.The San Ramon-based Chevron and subsidiaries topped all other lobbyists with $6,153,952 spent, followed by the Sacramento-based WSPA with $2,528,751 and the San Antonio-based Tesoro Refining and Marketing Co. LLC with $2,193.489. ( http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1147195&view=activity Thats a total of $10,876,192  in just one quarter!The Western States Petroleum Association, the most powerful corporate lobbying group in California, normally tops the quarterly lobbying list. However, last quarter Chevron officials apparently felt that the passage of AB 398 was so important that they needed to exceed even WSPA in spending.WSPA is the oil industry trade association for the Western States of California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, who serves as the organization president, is one of the most connected industry officials in California politics.Polluter loopholes & tax breaks galoreAdam Scow, California Director of Food & Water Watch, shed light on why the oil industry was so intent on getting AB 398 passed; it gives loopholes and tax breaks to corporate polluters that could actually result in more, not less, emissions.The bill, heavily influenced by the oil and gas industry, makes Californias flawed cap-and-trade system worse by allowing excessive allowances to pollute and preventing local regulation of greenhouse gases, said Scow. The climate crisis demands that the State regulate and reduce pollution quickly, but this bill gives polluters loopholes and tax breaks that could result in increased emissions. Californias cap-and-trade system cannot be considered a model for any state or nation that takes the climate crisis seriously.The total spending by corporations, agribusiness groups, business associations, unions, environmental NGOs and other organizations to lobby state officials totaled $91.2 million in the second quarter, according to the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article164845307.html In the first quarter of 2017, Big Oil also dominated California lobbying expenses. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) topped the list of California lobbyists in the first quarter of 2017, spending a total of nearly $1.4 million, $1,387,602. The Howard Jarvis Tax Association placed second with $1,011,973 spent, while Chevron placed third with $968,370.WSPA and Chevron together spent a total of $2,355,972 from January 1 to March 31, 2017, while Tesoro dished out $249,424. That comes to a total of $2,605,966 for the three oil industry organizations. ( http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article149176389.html The total of spending by Chevron, WSPA and Tesoro in the first two quarters this year comes to $13,482,158.In spite of its green facade, Jerry Browns California is the third largest oil producer in the nation, surpassed only by the number one state, Texas, and the number two state, North Dakota.Big Oil is on target to set new spending record in current sessionThe California Oil Lobby was the biggest spender in the 2015-16 legislative session, spending an amazing $36.1 million on lobbying over the two-year period. Based on the oil industry lobbying last quarter alone, it looks like the industry may set a new spending record this session.Big Oil spending last session amounted to $1.5 million per month  nearly $50,000 per day. The $36.1 million surpassed the $34 million spent in the prior session, according to an American Lung Association report. To read the complete report, go to: http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/documents/Oil-Industry-Lobbying-2016-update-4_1-31-17.pdf WSPA was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. As is normally the case, WSPA ranked #1 among all lobbying spenders last session. In the seventh quarter alone, WSPA dumped $2.6 million into lobbying legislators and state officials.Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in the 2015-16 session. It spent $3 million in 2016 alone, sixth among all lobbyists in the session.Since the 2007-08 Session, the oil industry has spent over $146 million in lobbying in California when you include the figures for the first two quarters of 2017.WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) creating Astroturf groups: 4) working in collaboration with media; and (5) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels.A huge conflict of interestIn a classic example of the fox guarding the hen house," WSPA President Reheis-Boyd served as a state regulatory official from 2004 to 2012,, a huge conflict of interest that the media and many NGOs are apparently afraid to discuss. ( http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp Backed by corporate environmental NGOs and state officials, she chaired the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called marine protected areas in Southern California. She also served on the task forces to create marine protected areas on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.The marine protected areas created under the helm of the WSPA president and other corporate operatives and political hacks fail to protect the ocean from offshore oil drilling, fracking, oil spills, pollution, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.
In Person Protests Must Serve the Public Interest

The Irrawaddy discusses the lack of public support for recent anti-government protests in Yangon and Mandalay.

Kyaw Kha: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the recent anti-government protests in Yangon and Mandalay. Im Irrawaddy reporter Kyaw Kha. Sayadaw U Pannavumsa, who participated in a 1990 anti-government protest and the 2007 Saffron Revolution, and U Kyaw Ko Ko, who participated in the Saffron Revolution and the 2015 protest against the National Education Law, join me for the discussion.

Recently, there were sit-in protests in Yangon and Mandalay staged by Buddhist monks and laypeople who identified themselves as nationalist activists. The Mandalay Region government arrested the protestors on the third day of the demonstration. The same day, protesters in Yangon dispersed, saying they were advised by senior Buddhist monks to do so, and protestors in Taunggyi also dispersed. Sayadaw U Pannavumsa, what is your view of the protests in Yangon and Mandalay that called for overthrowing the government?

The Irrawaddy discusses the lack of public support for recent anti-government protests in Yangon and Mandalay. Posted by The Irrawaddy  English Edition on Friday, August 11, 2017

Pannavumsa: When a protest is to be staged, what is important is that the people want itwhether it is because food prices are too high or people are dissatisfied with the performance of the government. You cant demand a government step down only because an individual monk or layperson dislikes it. It needs to be based on the desire of the people. That is why the peoples leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has highlighted the importance of public participation.

The protestors said they staged the protest for religious cause. But, the people still have trust in the government. According to the protesters signs, the government should be overthrown because it doesnt safeguard Buddhism. But the deepest wish of people right now is to achieve peace. And the current government is not a military regime or authoritarian. But protestors labeled the government as authoritarian in their signs. Far from supporting these protests, people view them with disgust. If a protest is to be staged, there must be strong reasons for it. Without strong reason, many will not join the protest.

Looking at the 1990 movements of Buddhist monks as well as the 2007 Saffron Revolution, monks didnt take to the streets of their own accord but at the request of people and housewives [who complained of high food prices]. In so doing, monks didnt shout slogans that were against the Buddhist commandments.

During the Saffron Revolution, monks took to the streets in townships across Yangon and were supported by students like Kyaw Ko Ko and Sithu Maung. People from all walks of lifefrom street vendors to well-off peoplejoined to support the monks. It is important that people support protests. This recent protest did not reflect the desires of the majority, but only a small group of people. So, it failed and the organizers now face legal action.

KK: Looking at those sit-in protests in Yangon and Mandalay, the number of protestors was a maximum of 40. And from what we saw on social and print media, there was no public support. When you students staged a protest march through townships, locals and students parents joined you along the way. The recent protests didnt receive similar support. Why do you think that is?

Kyaw Ko Ko: The [protesters] organization has taken the wrong path. They are not acting as they should, they are doing the opposite. Many of Myanmars problems are leftover from the military dictatorship. And it is difficult to root out the problems because of the [military-drafted] 2008 Constitution. All of the fights against military dictatorship, although they were suppressed, won a certain degree of public support. All of the united fights by us or Buddhist monks or farmers or workers against the military dictatorship garnered some public support and moved us forward in the political transition.

The recent protests in Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi did not win public support because the ideologies they espoused were not acceptable to the people. Usually, there is a three-point principle regarding protests; there must be a strong reason to stage the protest, there must be limits, and there must be an outcome. Without these three points, we cant put up a fight.

We staged a four-day protest in Yangon in our protest against the National Education Law. Before the protest, student unions across Myanmar met at the office of Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS). We staged the protest only after we reached a unanimous agreement.

The recent protest came out of nowhere. It took place without the decision of the monkhood, the people or housewives, as the Sayadaw mentioned. Why was the objective of their protest to overthrow the government? Which weakness of the government do they object to? That they say that the government is not safeguarding Buddhism is a wishful argument. It is nowhere close to reality. So, the reason behind the protest is not valid.

Again, there are limitations in a fight. In our case, we distributed pamphlets to rally the people first. As students took to the streets, parents and people who sympathized with them also joined. They cant challenge a government to step down all of a sudden. They staged the protest because they dont understand that there must be reason and limits. And they did not achieve an outcome. Their ideology is wrong, and it will never be right again.

In our country, no one oppresses Buddhism except military dictators. The Sangha protests bore witness to thisthe bloodshed. In the 2007 Saffron Revolution, we saw a photo of a dead monk drifting in Dawbon Creek in Thaketa Township. There were also other pictures that serve as evidence.

Id like to ask this questionwhy are they trying to distract the public attention with their activities while they still cant identify the main perpetrators? If they can answer, they will succeed. If they lie, they will fade away.

KK: Monks have participated in most of the protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution. But the public views on their participation have changed. Trust in monks protests has declined. Why do you think this is?

Pannavumsa: Not only has the image of monks been marred, but doubts have risen among the people. As Kyaw Ko Ko has said, we need to see to what extent a protest will benefit the people. In this instance, there is no benefit as it was staged in a confrontational manner. This has marred the image of good monks.

Eleven protesting monks were arrested in Mandalay, and it was discovered that six of them were not officially registered as monks. They dont know religious verses. And looking at their appearances, they lack charm. They have tattoos on their hands. And according to the interrogation, they joined the monkhood just before the Buddhist Retreat [which usually starts in July]. They did not join the monkhood as children. They have not studied Buddhist scripture. They are not serving the interests of the religion, but they are outsiders.

KK: People had high hopes for the National League for Democracy [NLD] government regarding reforms. But the NLD governments performance falls short of the peoples expectations in many areas, including the peace process. Why has it failed to implement speedy reforms as people expected?

KKK: It is clear. As I remember, the NLD made three commitments when contesting the [2015] electionsconstitutional amendment, peace and the rule of law. And it still cant realize its commitment to peace. It can only graze it, with no tangible achievements.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi contested the election with her eyes fixed on national reconciliation. National reconciliation is quite a problematic issue. My personal view, also the view of the Social Democratic United Front of which Im a member, is that the wishes of the people will not be fulfilled while a military dictatorship persists. We cant allow a military dictatorship to survive under the flag of reconciliation. It must be eliminated once and for all by scrapping the 2008 Constitution, which it uses as a fort. Soldiers should not be in Parliament. They must be in places appropriate to their roles. We want to get rid of military intervention in politics.

But the NLDs path is not that path. It seeks to reconcile with the other side. And for this, it has to make compromises. It cannot take the helm of the entire government. Three important ministrieshome affairs, defense and border affairsare held by the military. As the Home Affairs Ministry is held by the military, the management of the general administration departments under that ministry is largely in the hands of the military. So, it has been difficult for the NLD government to realize its commitments.

To be frank, staff officers, directors and permanent secretaries in each ministry are military associates. And [state and regional] chief ministers do not have complete power. The heads of regional and state general administration departmentswho are referred to as commissionersare more powerful than the chief ministers. The NLD doesnt have complete administrative, legislative and judicial power. So, no matter how eager it is to introduce reforms, it cant exert its full efforts, and there will be delays and setbacks.

KK: Thank you for your contributions!
Guest Column Disappointing Progress on an Important Debate: Response to The Myth Myanmar can Afford to Ditch

A woman displaced in conflict between Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar military looks at herself through the mirror at a Christian church in Tanai Township, Kachin State, on June 14, 2017. / Soe Zayar Tun / Reuters

Tea Circle Editors Note: The following is a response to a recent opinion piece by Brandon Aung Moe on Tea Circle. In light of responses to this post (both directly to our blog and circulating on social media and on other blogs), we invite readers to view an updated version of our submissions policy and to consider submitting their own responses. We also invite you to read some previous Tea Circle posts on issues related to women and womens rights here, here, here and here.

In a recent post on Tea Circle, Ko Brandon Aung Moe asserts that the notion of the disempowered Burmese woman is a myth that Myanmar can afford to ditch. He argues that it gets perpetuated by both locals and foreigners who have not thoroughly inspected the issue of womens rights in Myanmar, particularly during this period of Myanmars reintegration into the global community.

While I appreciate and agree with Ko Aung Moes apt sense that Burmese women are traditionally empowered, financially savvy, and efficient care-takers of the household, he has got it wrong that Myanmar today has achieved gender equality, and we can therefore move on from this much-needed discussion on gender and sexual identity rights. Unfortunately, there is much, much more work to be done for gender equality and basic rights for different identity groups in Myanmar.

My disagreement with Ko Aung Moes position begins from the very understanding of Myanmars context. In Ko Aung Moes worldview, Myanmar has always had a long history as an isolated patch on the worlds map until the last five years, which is how the foreigners in Myanmar today misinterpret the context of Burmese women, and locals perpetuate these misinterpreted views. My understanding of Myanmar is that the considerable detachment and isolation that the country is known for is a recent phenomenon, true only for the past five decades. As far as the existence of statehood goes, Myanmar (or the territories constituting todays Myanmar) has had remarkable exposure to the outside world, and Yangon itself was an incredibly cosmopolitan city, until the socialist governments policies took effect in the sixties.

Since Ko Aung Moe brought up the Kingdom of Ava in the late 18th century to establish then-Burmas detachment from global trade, I would like to call to his attention that Burma by then already had trade relations with countries as far away as Portugal for about two centuries, since the reigns of Mrauk-Us Minbin, and Toungoos Tabin-Shwe-Hti. Today in Lisbon, in front of the Monument of the Discoveries, still stands a world map listing Portuguese first contact with various civilizations, including Pegu 1511 firmly inscribed on the marble map. The Court of Ava employed hundreds of Armenians, who had emigrated from Persia in the early 1600s and whose descendants had gone on to establish such businesses as The Strand Hotel, or Balthazar family offices, renting space to the likes of Siemens.

Additionally, when I was a Myanmar-language walking tour leader, I would stop by Yangons Port Authority to note that this port in the early 1920s used to be the second busiest, just after New York City. The fact that Nga-Zin-Ga was a Portuguese man who served as the governor or Kalar-Wun of todays Thanlyin in the 1500s; the fact that one can see the beautiful fusion of traditional ornamental elements on an otherwise classical Corinthian column at the Rakhine merchant associations tazaung on Shwedagons precincts; or the fact that the fruit papaya  while never seen in Bagan era inscriptions  is known and loved locally as a fruit that comes on a boat all are overlooked tidbits pointing to a cultural evolution. They are also evidence that the Burmese often do a fairly decent job accepting new cultures and people, and Myanmars self-imposed isolation is only a recent measure. For this reason, the locals like myself, who happen to agree with the foreign aid workers or journalists about the changing roles and needs of Burmese women, are perhaps worth listening to.

One of these urgent needs is a legislative update. Much of the gender-specific legal guidance comes from an 1860 Penal Code, which does not address marital rape, or enable women (or men) to seek protective or restraining orders. The legal enforcement body is neither trained nor equipped to deal with women (or men) seeking support in case of sexual assault, and instead quotes the colloquial saying, kyee-thaw-ahmu-nge-say, nge-thaw-ahmu-papyout-say, meaning that the goal of a police officer is to reduce the gravity of a severe case, and do away with a small case altogether. In practice, this means that female victims in sexual assault cases are often dissuaded from pressing charges, which should strike any modern reader as a fairly egregious case of gender imbalance. A recent Myanmar Now article quotes the national police records of 700 rape cases in Myanmar last year. Assuming that only the most severe cases got reported in Myanmar last year, a comparable data point for England and Wales is 40,675 most severe cases. It stands to reason that either severe sexual assault is more pervasive in modern British society than Myanmars, or that the rape cases in Myanmar are severely underreported and the judicial infrastructure is painfully inefficient. I think I will go with the latter.

Another indicator of a severe violation of gender-based rights is an absence of legal remedies for the men and women in abusive relationships at home. Domestic violence is neither socially recognized nor legally envisaged. There are no legal provisions for a victim of domestic violence to break a tenancy agreement and walk away from an unsafe environment, for instance. Revenge porn is not deterred under the current legal guidance. Myanmar is unique in Southeast Asia for still not having a legal framework against domestic violence. While the Burmese language barely has a recognizable term for domestic violence, its neighbors, Cambodia and Thailand, passed legislation to combat domestic violence more than a decade ago, in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

According to the Penal Code, customary laws based on a given couples religion may guide the settlement of any marital disputes or divorce. This does not provide for equal protection for women or men of different faiths in Myanmar. To give a Buddhist example, a Buddhist wife may be obligated by Dhamma-that (Buddhist customary law), which technically gives the husband authority to physically but lightly punish the wife with a light cane. While having to legally declare ones faith to the state is already an outdated concept, a severe lack of protection against domestic violence, and lack of process for an equitable dissolution of marriages, seems to be a massive legislative void that Myanmar cannot afford to ignore. As a Myanmar woman, I do not want to be guided by a Penal Code that is older than the invention of the zipper, the ballpoint pen, or the remote control. Myanmars legislation for gender-based rights needs an urgent update.

Reproductive health measures go hand-in-hand with social acceptance and a lack of basic gender-based rights in legislation. Reproductive health education is still considered taboo, mainly due to norms surrounding the control of a womans body. Women are less likely to seek information on sexual health when they are still expected to preserve virginity until marriage, while the same expectation is nonexistent for men. A Myanmar woman can access sterilization only with her husbands signature. Most young Myanmar women, even in the most developed city like Yangon, are not receiving HPV vaccinations, which in many modern clinics are still reserved for married women. In 2015, the Myanmar government decided to ban the sale of birth control and contraceptives, including condoms, ahead of Thingyan Water Festival as a way to tackle unwanted sexual activity, which again seems to be an outdated measure stemming from a rigid adherence to traditional notions of a womans role and her ability to make choices about her own body.

Yet, the sexual activity seems to be there; while the data is difficult to come by on this front, we can deduce that sexual activity exists from the fact that many women seem to suffer from labor complications and preventable causes of death. Childbirth remains the most prominent cause of death for women in Myanmar, according to the Central Statistical Organization. The UNFPA data suggests that the maternal mortality rate is the second highest in ASEAN, ranging geographically from 230 to 580 cases per 100,000 live births, and averaging about 280 per 100,000 live births. Rectovaginal fistula (a very serious condition in women) is not well cared for, and I have seen a man make fun of a woman suffering from rectovaginal fistula in a village in Myanmar.

Lack of access to reproductive health information and contraception, is again a symptom of gender inequality. Instead of making it difficult to access modern contraception and family planning tools and knowledge, and then later punishing women with inadequate health care provisions for labor complications, how about we empower women to make choices for themselves? Instead of shaming a young unmarried woman in a rural village for an unwanted pregnancy and holding her to a double standard, while the man responsible for the pregnancy is not held to the same degree of accountability, how about we educate her about her body and safe options? The social pressure behind reproductive health suggests that the root cause of the problem is not simply a sign of difficult times, as Ko Aung Moe has asserted. Shocking health statistics reveal that a debate on gender inequality is not something modern Myanmar can afford to ignore.

Lastly, I would like to point to a certain sexist attitude that exists day-to-day. While Myanmar women do not need to change their last name upon getting married, as Ko Aung Moe has pointed out, Myanmar women are still identified in relation to their father on official papers. As a BBC article from awhile back makes the case, Burmese papers seem to be editing out the umbrellas being held by male subordinates for female politicians, because a reverse in traditional gender power structure is simply unsettling for many in Myanmar. The Burmese phrase for being petty is known as main-malo, main-maya, which is to say like a woman, thus effectively reducing half of Myanmars population to a petty bunch. With this baseline attitude for women, it is not surprising that at my job, my colleagues would criticize in whispers a senior female executive for seating herself on the top row of a work forum, while her male counterpart was seen as rightly taking his position there. It is not surprising that when I meet with a film crew for a TV ad, my (male) Swiss intern is asked to stand in for an executive role while I am asked to be his secretary, even when I am the one handling the crews account. In such a society, it is not surprising that women are underrepresented in politics and business. In such a society, only one respectable woman makes it to the board seat of all public companies listed on Yangon Stock Exchange.

Again, I agree with Ko Aung Moe in that Burmese women can be empowered, strong, and feisty. Women and single mothers I have met throughout rural Myanmar are a resilient, entrepreneurial bunch, defying the harshest conditions, severe weather and inefficient economic policies for many decades. Yet, while Ko Aung Moe, with his reasonable and strong mother, has been fortunate to be sheltered from the deleterious effects of Myanmars legal failings, this is not the case for many women in Myanmar today. Local activists such as Ma Cheery Zahau of Womens League for Chinland, Ma Htar Htar and Ma Win Win Khaing of Akhayar, or Ma May Sabei Phyu and Aunty Pansy Tun Thein of Gender Equality Network, work directly with women suffering from gender-based violence and often speak up about and attest to the depth and nuances of gender inequality in Myanmar. I do not agree that these locals are simply downplaying Burmese-style womens empowerment, as Ko Aung Moe has mistakenly suggested.

If anything, the debate on gender equality is slowing down, instead of making progress. A discourse on gender should go beyond womens rights, and encompass sexual identity rights, including LGBT rights and even include problems male victims face in gender-based violence. Instead of making progress on such fronts, Myanmars government recently enacted an interfaith marriage ban, which restricts womens ability to make choices and treats women as inept beings who cannot think for themselves. The inspiration behind the ban, according to the monk Wirathu, is the protection of women. The chairperson of the Theravada Dhamma Network has said, Our Buddhist women are not intelligent enough to protect themselves. While draft bills on violence against women have been in the making for more than five years, there are more restrictions now on womens ability to make choices for themselves.

Therefore, while I appreciate the positive sentiments behind Ko Aung Moes recent post, I have to argue that Myanmar society cannot afford to ignore rights based on gender and sexual identity while reintegrating into the global community, after five unfortunate decades of isolation.

Born and raised in Yangon, May Thu Khine started her career as a fundraiser for New York City-based Girls Inc. She has since worked at Proximity Designs and Yoma Strategic Holdings, and is currently pursuing her MBA in London.

This article originally appeared in Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.
Specials TIMELINE: Reporters' 67 Days Behind Bars

U Aye Naing, Lawi Weng, and Ko Pyae Bone Naing. / The Irrawaddy

On the occasion of the official release of The Irrawaddys Lawi Weng and the Democratic Voice of Burmas U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Bone Aung on Unlawful Association charges, The Irrawaddy takes a look at the most pivotal moments that have occurred during their 67 days in detention.
The word on the street regarding Googles Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 models is one of two manufacturers, no headphone jack and seeming jack-all chance of success.

When flagship phones from Samsung, LG and soon Apple will have 18:9 "infinity display" style screens, should a flagship phone from Google follow, or stick with the same old 16:9 display?

Of course, Apple too is reportedly staying with its 16:9 screens for the upcoming iPhone 7s and 7s Plus, but with the iPhone 8/Pro/X/Edition said to be shrinking bezels like Samsungs flagships, Googles reported decision not to go for the largest aspect ratio is baffling.

So too is Googles reported decision, announced by the well-known leaker, Evan Blass, that it was thinking of going with HTC for the Pixel 2, and LG for the Pixel XL 2.

Blass wonders, in his VentureBeat article whether the Pixel XL 2 might have the 18:9 displays that LGs own G6 and Q6 handsets sport.

Then he wonders whether HTCs version of the smaller Pixel will have front facing speakers and squeezable sides called Edge Sense, which on the HTC U11 have reportedly been a solution in search of a problem.

This could mean Pixel 2 devices with different feature sets, with the smaller sporting squeezable sides and a 16:9 screen, while the larger has a longer screen.

If this were true, it would be the kind of fragmentation Android is famous for, but in its very own flagship models!

Google might as well launch Android Nougat on one of the devices, and Android O on the other, just to keep up with the rest of its OEMs doing the same kind of thing across product lines.

Of course, Google actually doing that would be ridiculous. I am sure that the mighty Google, caught up in a masculinist/feminist culture war of business-killing, ending-ending and career-imploding proportions, wont go so far as to introduce two flagships radically different from the other.

I mean, it would be as stupid as massively promoting the fact that the 2016 Pixel models were "refreshingly" equipped with something not new, being standard 3.5mm headphone sockets, and then deciding in the 2017 Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 models, to omit them.

Except that has been reported, too! Oh, the diversity.

So, while Ill be very keen to see what Google cooks up with its Pixel 2 flagships in comparison with the hugely anticipated new iPhones, alongside with Samsungs new Note 8, set to make up for the smoulderingly unexpected Note 7 misadventures, one can only hope there are still people at work at Google doing technology stuff, rather than leaking against one another in the hope of everyone being fired.

And thats at a company that promised to do no evil.

Listen, guys and girls, what you need to do is focus on work. Good work. Leave the evil stuff for North Korea.

Until then, may your pixels be OLED, may your fragmentation be low, may your colleagues work smoothly together, and may you all the craziness, overthrow.
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By Diallo Brooks | (Otherwords.org) |  

Politicians have stolen our right to vote before. Theyll do it again if they get the chance.

Joseph Cox watched his friends and neighbors go to the polls for the first time.

The fight to get to that moment had been long, bloody, and vicious. But as a black man newly eligible to vote after a lifetime of discrimination, Cox did something that wouldve seemed incomprehensible only a decade before: He won an election.

Cox was one of 24 black representatives elected across Virginia that year  1867.

But the response to that progress was vicious.

Racist white politicians worked to find new justifications for stripping the voting rights of African American men (women could not yet vote), alleging voter fraud and implementing heinous tactics like literacy tests, poll taxes, and voting roll purges.

The fact that thousands of African Americans voted and held elected office during Reconstruction only to face a brutal Jim Crow backlash underscores an important theme in our countrys history: Voting rights have been won, then weakened, and then lost before.

Today, too many people take for granted that the advances achieved during the civil rights movement are still firmly in place. But progress is neither promised nor irreversible.

The latest incarnation of the long right-wing campaign to weaken voting rights is Donald Trumps Election Integrity Commission, which Trump convened after absurdly claiming that he only lost the popular vote because millions of people voted illegally. But theres not one shred of evidence of widespread in-person voter fraud in the United States.

The same sham justifications used to prop up voter suppression tactics during the Jim Crow era  claims that such measures preserve the integrity, efficiency, and sustainability of elections  are being unapologetically recycled today.

Trumps new voter suppression commission, which met for the first time in July, is led by some of the most strident opponents of voting rights alive today  people whove built careers on stripping the voting rights of thousands upon thousands of eligible voters of color.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who co-chairs the commission, is among the worst.

After requiring Kansans to show a passport or birth certificate in order to register to vote a move that blocked nearly 20,000 eligible voters  a federal court said Kobach had carried out mass denial of a fundamental right.

Kobach also promotes the Interstate Crosscheck program that claims to identify in-person voter fraud. But in reality, the Washington Post reports, the system gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time  putting voters at risk of losing their most essential right.

Another member is Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department lawyer described by former colleagues as the point person for undermining the Civil Rights Divisions mandate to protect voting rights.

Of course, no one should be allowed to vote twice in an election. But voter impersonation is basically non-existent. While the commission might claim to be about promoting the integrity of our elections, their true task is to find justifications for laws that make it harder for members of certain communities to vote.

The history of voting rights in America is a one filled with both progress and regression.

When I think of Joseph Cox winning his right to vote in Richmond in 1867, and when I think of my grandparents having to fight for that same right in that same place all over again a century later, I wonder how so many Americans have forgotten the fragility of this precious right.

I wonder how so many are blind and indifferent to the assault on the right to vote  a right people fought and died for  happening right before our eyes today. Weve seen these attacks before. And not all of us have forgotten.

Diallo Brooks is the director of outreach and public engagement at People For the American Way.

Via Otherwords.org



Related video added by Juan Cole:

1.

Democracy Now! Rights Advocates: Trumps Commission on Election Integrity Set Up as a Pretext for Voter Suppression

2.

Kris Kobach
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Mustafa Habib. | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) |  

In Iraq, larger political parties disagree on everything except maintaining the status quo: Parliament just passed a law that will badly affect the smaller parties competing in the next elections.

It has been said before. But this time it may well be true: Iraqs next elections will be the most crucial in the country since 2003.

The last elections were held in 2014 and over the past three years, there have been major developments of all kinds in Iraq, including in politics and security. The long security crisis sparked by the extremist group known as the Islamic State has seen the creation of new political forces in the country, including the Shiite Muslim militias, formerly volunteers but now a formidable military force in their own right, as well as tribe-based militias. At the same time the popularity of those who were prominent as part of Iraqs business-as-usual, quota-driven political model has declined. The traditional Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish blocs, split along ethnic and sectarian lines, are not as popular with voters as they once were. There are also plenty of new divisions within them.

And most recently Iraqi politicians have been busy passing laws that could change the situation even more.

Over the last ten days, the Iraqi parliament has agreed on many points of a new law to regulate the provincial elections, which sees local councils and governors of Iraqs various provinces elected. The elections were slated to be held in April of this year but were postponed due to the ongoing security crisis and the presence of the Islamic State, or IS, group in many areas. Now it seems they will be held on the same day as federal elections, in April 2018.

The new legislation will mean that many votes for smaller parties will simply be wasted.

This will be the first time the two kinds of elections have been held together  usually there are two years between each kind of ballot. In the past provincial elections have been considered a good indicator of the popularity of various Iraqi political parties and blocs. Often politicians will correct their course and take different positions as a result of provincial voting, so that they may do better in federal elections.

Meantime the new law provides a challenge of a different kind. There have been complaints that it favours larger parties over smaller ones. Iraqs smaller parties are often the ones that have been trying to amend Iraqs existing political system. That mission will not become any easier, thanks to this new legislation.

On August 1, Iraqs parliamentarians voted that the country would keep using the so-called Sainte-Lague system, a mathematical formula used to count votes and ascertain representation. The Sainte-Lague system stops larger parties from gobbling up the votes smaller parties have won, if the smaller parties havent won enough votes to pass a certain threshold. Politicians decided the formula should use a divisor of 1.9 to allocate seats. But this is considered high, with most other countries who use this system using a divisor of between one and 1.4. It puts smaller parties at a disadvantage.

This caused so many complaints that the Sadrist party, led by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and represented in Iraqs Parliament by the Ahrar bloc, organised demonstrations in central Baghdad. In response to the complaints and the protests, the divisor was lowered to 1.7. But again, this is still high in comparison with other nations and will disadvantage smaller parties.

Opposition parties are still demanding the divisor be lowered further, to 1.4. This opposition includes the Ahrar bloc, the Fadilah, or Virtue, party and the National Accord party. In fact MPs associated with the Sadrist movement and the Ahrar bloc left the hall, in order to try and thwart the legislation by making sure there were insufficient numbers of MPs to vote. Unfortunately their attempt failed.

The larger blocs insisted on achieving their goals without considering the demands of the people, as expressed at Fridays protests, Diaa al-Asadi, a leading member of the Sadrist movement, told NIQASH. That divisor  1.7  will only serve the big parties and it will be a challenge to smaller blocs and smaller parties.

In an official statement, the Virtue party, which has only six seats in Parliament at the moment, said the new legislation will mean that many votes for smaller parties will simply be wasted.

Forming a new Iraqi government and new provincial councils is going to be more difficult as a result of all this, argues Ziad Ahmad, a local political analyst. In the past forming coalitions and deciding who to appoint and where, had caused long delays, Ahmad says. This is going to take an even longer time and there will be many tiresome negotiations.

And there are two other issues that are going to cause headaches when it comes to April 2018.

Iraqs most senior politicians in Parliament.

The number of constituencies remains up for debate too. Currently the country has 18 constituencies but some say there should be more, to more accurately reflect how many Iraqis live in certain areas. The requirement to get a higher number of votes in some areas than others has seen skewed results, they say  that is, MPs in some areas may only have had a few votes and been voted in, whereas in others, some politicians received thousands of votes yet still were not elected.

Additionally the northern province of Kirkuk remains a major problem. Kirkuk is a disputed territory  that is, the Iraqi Kurdish say it should belong to their semi-autonomous northern region whereas the Iraqis believe it belongs to Iraq proper. Kirkuk is home to a mixture of ethnicities and sects, which makes it hard to discern where the loyalties of the province as a whole lie. There are also major security issues that make it difficult to hold elections in the province.

Kirkuk was a subject discussed by politicians during talks on the electoral legislation. There was no satisfactory conclusion drawn and MPs decided they would simply postpone provincial elections in Kirkuk for another four years.

And then finally, Iraq is currently lacking something else that is essential for the holding of elections: The lack of members on the Independent High Electoral Commission, the body tasked with overseeing elections in the country.

In April, the Iraqi Parliament formed a special commission to start selecting a new council for the Independent High Electoral Commission, or IHEC. It is supposed to be an independent body, separate from other government agencies, and its membership is usually equally distributed between Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite councillors.

Around 500 potential council members were nominated for the nine roles available and four months later, the special commission does not seem to have come very far in working out who those nine are. Iraqs political parties are jockeying to get their allies and members onto the council and there are also demands that the membership be split along the same ethnic and sectarian lines as previously.

This delay has already seen senior politicians  including the countrys president, Fouad Massoum, the countrys prime minister, Haider al-Abadi and the Speaker of the Parliament, Salim al-Jibouri  call for a deadline for this aspect of the procedure at an early August meeting.

It is important to remember that all of these issues will impact a set of elections that will be crucial to Iraqs future. The country is slowly emerging from the security crisis started by the extremist IS group. There is no doubt though, that the reconstruction and reconciliation wont be any easier.

Via Niqash.org

-

Related video added by Juan Cole

AP: Hundreds in anti-corruption protest in Baghdad
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

If you were away from news on Friday, you might like to know that in addition to hot wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen (and maybe Somalia and Libya), the Trump administration talks as though it is on the brink of opening new fronts in Venezuela and North Korea (is this what Anthony Scaramucci meant by front-stabbing?)

I wish I could reassure you that Trump is all talk and there isnt any likelihood of his bluster actually leading to real-world action. But he is the president and things can spin out of control unexpectedly because of some hotheads speech. Gamal Abdel Nassers bombast in spring of 1967 probably helped (along with Moshe Dayans itchy trigger finger) provoke the Six-Day War. Egypt was bogged down in Yemen and did not have the capacity actually to take on Israel at that point, besides which the Soviet Union, Egypts then Sugar Daddy, had sternly forbidden it. But Abdel Nassers rhetoric, helped along by Dayans opportunism, spun out into a brief, epochal war that destabilized the Middle East right to today. It was the defeat of secular Arab nationalism by Israel in 1967 that began the stampede to Muslim fundamentalism as an alternative.

Donald Trump never served in the military and it is not clear he has ever fired a gun.

His garish posturing about US weapons being locked and loaded with regard to North Korea and his repeated threats of hot war against Pyongyang if baby Dictator Kim Jong-un doesnt stop trash talking the US just makes him and the country a cartoonish caricature.

Like W. before him, he is just mouthing things he saw in old John Wayne movies. In fact, the phrase locked and loaded, a favorite in 1950s Hollywood, refers to the Garand M1 rifle, which had a bolt that had to be pulled back and locked before the clip was inserted, then it would automatically spring forward after being loaded.

The Garand was used by US troops in WW II and the Korean War (ironically enough) but began being superseded in the mid-1960s and is no longer in use.

Let me just repeat that. There is no weapon in the US arsenal today that is locked before being loaded. The phrase is an anachronism, like Trump himself, with his 1960s Rat Pack self-image (for which he is too fat and too inarticulate).

Tom Engelhardt was among the first cultural critics to point to the importance of childhood 1950s games and fantasies like cowboys and Indians for Americas real world warmongering. Of course the great WW II movies of the post-war era were part of that imaginary.

I dont know if younger readers even know who John Wayne was. He was a B movie actor with limited range who hated the left with a passion, who often pretended to be a cowboy.

In like 1866-1886 cattle used to be herded by cowboy ranch hands from Santa Fe over the open range up Kansas on the hoof for shipment to the slaughterhouses of Chicago, before the railways were extended and the cowboy way of life collapsed. It was just a 20 year period, and entailed a fair amount of lawlessness and unpleasantness, but it seems to have permanently afflicted our country, as a sort of polio of the mind, with morally crippled metaphors of unbound masculinity and seething menace.

The real cowboy era isnt as important for todays political purple prose as the Hollywood cowboy of the 1930s through the 1960s. It was like a seed bed for right wing politics. Ronald Reagan played in Death Valley Days (I remember watching him in it). Clint Eastwood piled up bodies in spaghetti Westerns long before he fell to addressing empty chairs on a political stage. George W. Bush announced his intention to disregard the Constitution and the rule of law when he said that alleged al-Qaeda members were Wanted Dead or Alive  a reference to the bills posted for bounty hunters in the Old West, which surely were unconstitutional if phrased that way since they amounted to a Bill of Attainder. A fugitive could be killed by law enforcement in self defense, but you cant just shoot down someone because they are on a wanted list.

But lets face it, this cowboy rhetoric is intended to cut through constitutional issues and deliberative government the way a hot knife cuts through whipped cream.

America needs a new self-image, and probably more to the point, a new conception of masculinity, that doesnt involve whipping poor beasts and driving them haggard over a thousand miles while casually engaging in drunken gun play and injuring the rights of settled homesteaders and Native Americans. And as for the Korean War, the US public has never come to terms with the atrocities our side perpetrated during it, or the scale of the loss of life. This amnesia is why Americans cannot imagine what North Korea has against us.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Donald Trump Surprises By Not Ruling Out Military Option In Venezuela | The Last Word | MSNBC
TORONTO, Aug. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation (TSX:TNX) (NYSE MKT:TRX) hereinafter (the "Company") announces that it is not affected by new laws in Tanzania.

"The new mining laws in Tanzania appear to be an action to gain a fair share of the financial rewards for the people and nation of Tanzania while still providing incentives to the investors. The proposed legislation is not nationalization," stated James E. Sinclair, Executive Chairman.

Jim Sinclair co-authored a book titled "BOOM," written in the 1990s with Mr. F. Vogl, former Director of Communications for the World Bank. "BOOM" outlines the authors' prediction for the economic development of China, Tanzania and India as those countries move into the modern Global economy. Many of the new laws adopted in Tanzania (and elsewhere) were outlined in the book. The authors' premise, which is being borne out in present legislative trends states that to participate in the development of a foreign economy investing companies must enter into mutually beneficial contracts.

The Company executed a joint venture contract granting 45% for STAMICO, the State Mining Company, and 55% for the Company as investor. The Company carried all the costs for the Buckreef Project up front. These front end costs of the project shall be reimbursed out of production. Tanzanian Royalty paid to the Government of Tanzania US$3,000,000, a non-refundable up front fee, for the privilege of operating in Tanzania.

Public companies are required to comply with reporting regulations. Reporting is necessary for transparency. Reporting transparency is required not only for all exploration results but also for all economic and mineral information published on the Canadian and USA government regulatory sites, SEDAR & EDGAR.

To date, the Company has invested Cdn$21,981,125 in the Buckreef Gold Project.

The most recent Canadian National Instrument 43-101 report filed by the Company provides that an economic analysis has been carried out on the Buckreef Gold Project for a range of gold prices with $1,250 per ounce selected as the base case. The analysis demonstrates that the Project is expected to generate a positive NPV at a 5% discount rate of US $243 million and a positive IRR of 53.7%.

Based on this economic analysis, the estimated value of STAMICO's holdings in the Buckreef Project is substantial. STAMICO acts as agent for the Tanzanian federal government. The NI 43-101 revealed 1,064,000 ounces of gold to be mined at the Company's Buckreef Project, which will benefit the Company and Tanzania.

"We believe the Company is in total compliance with all new mining standards. The Company was in compliance with the new laws in Tanzania prior to the adoption of these laws. There are no outstanding differences or disputes between the government of Tanzania and the Company. Due to corporate foresight, the Company's actions and policies were well ahead of the new laws Tanzania has currently promulgated. The new laws will not impact our Company. These new laws will impact companies in our industry who have a history of exploiting Tanzania without benefit to the nation or it's people. Our arrangement with the Tanzanian government should be a role model for the entire industry. We also take great comfort in the various economic and investor protection Treaties in place between Tanzania and Canada. We welcome and look forward to our continued good relationship with Tanzania, together with our exciting mining prospects there," stated James E. Sinclair, Executive Chairman.

For more information and updates, please see the Company website at: www.tanzanianroyalty.com
A North Korean defected to South Korea on Friday after crossing the western sea border, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The defector was rescued on Gyodong Island, near the Yellow Sea border, around 1 a.m., according to the JCS.

Questioning is under way to determine why and how the person fled the North, it added.

The investigation has yet to reveal how the man in his 20s crossed the sea border into the southern side. While monitoring the border area, a South Korean Marine spotted the defector and came to his rescue, according to the military.

This is the latest in a series of similar cross-border defection cases by North Korean citizens this year.

Last month, five North Koreans crossed the sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line, in the East Sea into the South in a small boat.

In June, a father and son crossed the East Sea border to take refuge in the South. (Yonhap)
A woman looks at wildfires tearing through a forest in the region of Chefchaouen in northern Morocco on Aug. 15, 2021. One of the effects of global warming will be more heat waves in some areas, a risk factor for wildfires.

The effects of global warming can be seen and felt across the planet. Global warming, the gradual heating of Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, is caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that pump carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Already, the consequences of global warming are measurable and visible.

"We can observe this happening in real time in many places," Josef Werne, a professor of geology and environmental science at the University of Pittsburgh, told Live Science. "Ice is melting in both polar ice caps and mountain glaciers. Lakes around the world, including Lake Superior, are warming rapidly  in some cases faster than the surrounding environment. Animals are changing migration patterns and plants are changing the dates of activity," such as trees budding their leaves earlier in the spring and dropping them later in the fall.

Here is an in-depth look at the ongoing effects of global warming.

Global warming increases average temperatures and temperature extremes

A graph showing global temperatures for the ten hottest years on record. (Image credit: NOAA)

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One of the most immediate and obvious consequences of global warming is the increase in temperatures around the world. The average global temperature has increased by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) over the past 100 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Since record keeping began in 1895, the hottest year on record worldwide was 2016, according to NOAA and NASA data (opens in new tab). That year Earth's surface temperature was 1.78 degrees F (0.99 degrees C) warmer than the average across the entire 20th century. Before 2016, 2015 was the warmest year on record, globally. And before 2015? Yep, 2014. In fact, all 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred since 2005, which tied with 2013 as the 10th-warmest year on record, according to NOAAs Global Climate Report 2021 (opens in new tab). Rounding out the top 6 hottest years on record across the globe are (in order of hottest to not as hot): 2020, 2019, 2015, 2017 and 2021.

For the contiguous United States and Alaska, 2016 was the second-warmest year on record and the 20th consecutive year that the annual average surface temperature exceeded the 122-year average since record keeping began, according to NOAA. Shattered heat records in the U.S. are increasingly becoming the norm: June 2021, for example, saw the warmest temperatures on record for that month for 15.2%of the contiguous U.S. That's the largest extent of record warm temperatures ever recorded in the country, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (opens in new tab).

Global warming increases extreme weather events

Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm, reaches Florida, Sept. 26, 2022, as seen from the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

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As global average temperatures warm, weather patterns are changing. An immediate consequence of global warming is extreme weather.

These extremes come in a lot of different flavors. Paradoxically, one effect of climate change can be colder-than-normal winters in some areas.

Changes in climate can cause the polar jet stream  the boundary between the cold North Pole air and the warm equatorial air  to migrate south, bringing with it cold, Arctic air. This is why some states can have a sudden cold snap or colder-than-normal winter, even during the long-term trend of global warming, Werne explained.



"Climate is, by definition, the long-term average of weather, over many years. One cold (or warm) year or season has little to do with overall climate. It is when those cold (or warm) years become more and more regular that we start to recognize it as a change in climate rather than simply an anomalous year of weather," he said.



Global warming is also changing other extreme weather. According to the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of NOAA (opens in new tab), hurricanes are likely to become more intense, on average, in a warming world. Most computer models suggest that hurricane frequency will stay about the same (or even decrease), but those storms that do form will have the capacity to drop more rain due to the fact that warmer air holds more moisture.

"And even if they become less frequent globally, hurricanes could still become more frequent in some particular areas," said atmospheric scientist Adam Sobel, author of "Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future (opens in new tab)" (HarperWave, 2014). "Additionally, scientists are confident that hurricanes will become more intense due to climate change." This is because hurricanes get their energy from the temperature difference between the warm tropical ocean and the cold upper atmosphere. Global warming increases that temperature difference.



"Since the most damage by far comes from the most intense hurricanes  such as typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013  this means that hurricanes could become overall more destructive," said Sobel, a Columbia University professor in the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics. (Hurricanes are called typhoons in the western North Pacific, and they're called cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian oceans.)



What's more, hurricanes of the future will be hitting shorelines that are already prone to flooding due to the sea-level rise caused by climate change. This means that any given storm will likely cause more damage than it would have in a world without global warming.

Lightning strikes light up the sky in Montevideo, Uruguay on Feb. 20, 2022. (Image credit: Mariana Suarez/AFP via Getty Images)

Lightning is another weather feature that is being affected by global warming. According to a 2014 study (opens in new tab), a 50% increase in the number of lightning strikes within the United States is expected by 2100 if global temperatures continue to rise. The researchers of the study found a 12% increase in lightning activity for every 1.8 degree F (1 degree C) of warming in the atmosphere. NOAA established the U.S. Climate Extremes Index (opens in new tab) (CEI) in 1996 to track extreme weather events. The number of extreme weather events that are among the most unusual in the historical record, according to the CEI, has been rising over the last four decades. Scientists project that extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, blizzards and rainstorms will continue to occur more often and with greater intensity due to global warming, according to Climate Central (opens in new tab). Climate models forecast that global warming will cause climate patterns worldwide to experience significant changes. These changes will likely include major shifts in wind patterns, annual precipitation and seasonal temperatures variations. These impacts vary by location and geography. For example, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (opens in new tab), the eastern United States has been trending wetter over time, while the West  and particularly the Southwest  have become increasingly dry. Because high levels of greenhouse gases are likely to remain in the atmosphere for many years, these changes are expected to last for several decades or longer, according to the EPA.

Global warming melts ice

In this aerial view, icebergs and meltwater are seen in front of the retreating Russell Glacier on Sept. 8, 2021, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. (Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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One of the primary manifestations of climate change so far is melt. North America, Europe and Asia have all seen a trend toward less snow cover between 1960 and 2015, according to 2016 research published in the journal Current Climate Change Reports. (opens in new tab) According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, there is now 10% less permafrost (opens in new tab), or permanently frozen ground, in the Northern Hemisphere than there was in the early 1900s. The thawing of permafrost can cause landslides and other sudden land collapses. It can also release long-buried microbes, as in a 2016 case when a cache of buried reindeer carcasses thawed and caused an outbreak of anthrax.



One of the most dramatic effects of global warming is the reduction in Arctic sea ice. Sea ice hit record-low extents in both the fall and winter of 2015 and 2016, meaning that at the time when the ice is supposed to be at its peak, it was lagging. The melt means there is less thick sea ice that persists for multiple years. That means less heat is reflected back into the atmosphere by the shiny surface of the ice and more is absorbed by the comparatively darker ocean, creating a feedback loop that causes even more melt, according to NASA's Operation IceBridge (opens in new tab).



Glacial retreat, too, is an obvious effect of global warming. Only 25 glaciers bigger than 25 acres are now found in Montana's Glacier National Park, where about 150 glaciers were once found, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A similar trend is seen in glacial areas worldwide. According to a 2016 study in the journal Nature Geoscience, there is a 99% likelihood that this rapid retreat is due to human-caused climate change. Some glaciers retreated up to 15 times as much as they would have without global warming, those researchers found.

Sea levels and ocean acidification

View of major bleaching on the coral reefs of the Society Islands on May 9, 2019 in Moorea, French Polynesia (Image credit: Alexis Rosenfeld via Getty Images))

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In general, as ice melts, sea levels rise. According to a 2021 report by the World Meteorological Organization (opens in new tab), the pace of sea level rise doubled from 0.08 inches (2.1 millimeters) per year between 1993 and 2002 to 0.17 inches (4.4 mm) per year between 2013 and 2021.

Melting polar ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, coupled with melting ice sheets and glaciers across Greenland, North America, South America, Europe and Asia, are expected to raise sea levels significantly. Global sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1870, according to the EPA, and the rate of increase is expected to accelerate in the coming years. If current trends continue, many coastal areas, where roughly half of the Earth's human population lives, will be inundated.

Researchers project that by 2100, average sea levels will be 2.3 feet (.7 meters) higher in New York City, 2.9 feet (0.88 m) higher at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and 3.5 feet (1.06 m) higher at Galveston, Texas, the EPA reports. According to an IPCC report (opens in new tab), if greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked, global sea levels could rise by as much as 3 feet (0.9 meters) by 2100. That estimate is an increase from the estimated 0.9 to 2.7 feet (0.3 to 0.8 meters) that was predicted in the 2007 IPCC report for future sea-level rise.

Sea level isn't the only thing changing for the oceans due to global warming. As levels of CO2 increase, the oceans absorb some of that gas, which increases the acidity of seawater. Werne explains it this way: "When you dissolved CO2 in water, you get carbonic acid. This is the same exact thing that happens in cans of soda. When you pop the top on a can of Dr Pepper, the pH is 2  quite acidic."

Since the Industrial Revolution began in the early 1700s, the acidity of the oceans has increased about 25 percent, according to the EPA. "This is a problem in the oceans, in large part, because many marine organisms make shells out of calcium carbonate (think corals, oysters), and their shells dissolve in acid solution," said Werne. "So as we add more and more CO2 to the ocean, it gets more and more acidic, dissolving more and more shells of sea creatures. It goes without saying that this is not good for their health."

If current ocean acidification trends continue, coral reefs are expected to become increasingly rare in areas where they are now common, including most U.S. waters, the EPA reports. In 2016 and 2017, portions of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia were hit with bleaching, a phenomenon in which coral eject their symbiotic algae. Bleaching is a sign of stress from too-warm waters, unbalanced pH or pollution; coral can recover from bleaching, but back-to-back episodes make recovery less likely.

Plants and animals

Caribou in the Arctic are migrating earlier due to temperature changes. (Image credit: Mint Images/ Art Wolfe via Getty Images)

The effects of global warming on Earth's ecosystems are expected to be significant and widespread. Many species of plants and animals are already moving their range northward or to higher altitudes as a result of warming temperatures, according to a report from the National Academy of Sciences.

"They are not just moving north, they are moving from the equator toward the poles. They are quite simply following the range of comfortable temperatures, which is migrating to the poles as the global average temperature warms," Werne said. Ultimately, he said, this becomes a problem when the rate of climate change velocity (how fast a region changes put into a spatial term) is faster than the rate that many organisms can migrate. Because of this, many animals may not be able to compete in the new climate regime and may go extinct.

Additionally, migratory birds and insects are now arriving in their summer feeding and nesting grounds several days or weeks earlier than they did in the 20th century, according to the EPA.

Warmer temperatures will also expand the range of many disease-causing pathogens that were once confined to tropical and subtropical areas, killing off plant and animal species that formerly were protected from disease.

In addition, animals that live in the polar regions are facing an existential threat. In the Arctic, the decline in sea ice and changes in ice melt threaten particularly ice-dependent species, such as narwhals (Monodon monoceros), polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and walruses (Odobenus rosmarus), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (opens in new tab) noted. Animals in the Antarctic also face serious challenges  in Oct. 2022 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) as endangered due to the threat of climate change.

A 2020 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (opens in new tab) suggested that 1 in every 3 species of plant and animal are at risk of extinction by 2070 due to climate change.

Social effects

A farmer inspects a field cracked due to drought on Aug. 26, 2022, in Neijiang, Sichuan Province of China (Image credit: VCG via Getty Images)

As dramatic as the effects of climate change are expected to be on the natural world, the projected changes to human society may be even more devastating.

Agricultural systems will likely be dealt a crippling blow. Though growing seasons in some areas will expand, the combined impacts of drought, severe weather, lack of accumulated snowmelt, greater number and diversity of pests, lower groundwater tables and a loss of arable land could cause severe crop failures and livestock shortages worldwide.

North Carolina State University (opens in new tab) also notes that carbon dioxide is affecting plant growth. Though CO2 can increase the growth of plants, the plants may become less nutritious.

This loss of food security may, in turn, create havoc in international food markets and could spark famines, food riots, political instability and civil unrest worldwide, according to a number of analyses from sources as diverse as the U.S Department of Defense, the Center for American Progress and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In addition to less nutritious food, the effect of global warming on human health is also expected to be serious. The American Medical Association has reported an increase in mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever, as well as a rise in cases of chronic conditions like asthma, most likely as a direct result of global warming. The 2016 outbreak of Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness, highlighted the dangers of climate change. The disease causes devastating birth defects in fetuses when pregnant women are infected, and climate change could make higher-latitude areas habitable for the mosquitoes that spread the disease, experts said. Longer, hotter summers could also lead to the spread of tick-borne illnesses.

Further reading on the impacts of global warming

Many governments and agencies keep up-to-date information on climate change research and statistics online. The most comprehensive and in-depth global reports are produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which released its Sixth Assessment Report (opens in new tab) on the science of climate change in 2021.



For a historical look at the effects of climate change on Earth (and how modern warming compares), read Peter Brannen's "The Ends of the Earth: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earths Past Mass Extinctions (opens in new tab)" (Ecco, 2017).

For more on the potential impacts of climate change in urban environments, the freely available book chapter Climate Change and its Impacts in the book "Climate Change Resilience in the Urban Environment" (IOP Publishing, 2017) covers the challenges that lay ahead for human populations.

Finally, for a psychological deep-dive on why all of this bad news is hard to take in, try "Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change (opens in new tab)" (Bloomsbury USA, 2015) by climate activist and communicator George Marshall.

Additional resources

This NASA page (opens in new tab) includes a series of visualizations that illustrate how some of Earth's key climate indicators  sea ice, sea level, global temperature and carbon dioxide  are changing over time.

includes a series of visualizations that illustrate how some of Earth's key climate indicators  sea ice, sea level, global temperature and carbon dioxide  are changing over time. This NOAA sea-level rise learning module (opens in new tab) includes educational videos, background for teachers, learning objectives and more.

includes educational videos, background for teachers, learning objectives and more. ClimateBrief has gathered (opens in new tab) 10 of the best climate change videos on YouTube.
Observers deployed by New York's electric companies stood on rooftops along the city's west side to document the total solar eclipse of Jan. 24, 1925. With every group, at least one observer was assigned to watch the sun go into eclipse, and another watched for the approach of the moon's shadow.

During a 1925 total solar eclipse over New York City, the streetlights turned on, three women fainted, vendors sold smoked glass while exhorting passersby to "save your eyes for 10 cents" and seagulls landed in the water, assuming it was night.

Twenty-five planes took airborne measurements, an airship sailed 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) above Long Island to view the event and 149 observers staked out Upper Manhattan block by block to determine the sun's precise southern limit.

Also, the eclipse came later than expected  which made the front page of The New York Times. [Here Are the Most Spectacular Solar Eclipses in US History]

During that solar eclipse, which crossed Manhattan just above 96th Street on Jan. 24, 1925 as temperatures hovered around 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 12.8 degrees Celsius), researchers went all out to measure the celestial event.

Today, we know the moon's precise contours and orbit, and can accurately predict an eclipse's timing and its path down to the scale of a city block. But at the time, measuring the eclipse shadow's movement across the Earth was a key opportunity to pinpoint the moon's size, shape and orbital path.

"Thousands and thousands of telescopes, spyglasses, and still and motion picture cameras were leveled at the orb," a New York Times article the next day read. "The eastern slopes of favorably situated hills were dotted with camera tripods. Opera glasses and eyepieces of every sort went up to the eyes of the parties which had gathered among the thickets of radio masts on every roof in the path of the eclipse."

"The moon was unpunctual, as well as careless of its route," the Times article added. "It was about four seconds late in blotting out the sun."

The eclipse was visible for New York observers above 96th St. (square icons), but not by any lower (circles). (Image credit: Consolidated Gas Co. of NY)

An electric effort

A massive study undertaken by New York's electric companies was responsible for 149 of those observers, dwarfing previous measurement efforts for scale, according to eclipse researcher David Dunham.

"In 1878, there were expeditions from the U.S. Naval Observatory for a total eclipse that passed over Texas, Wyoming and Colorado," Dunham told Space.com. "They had two expeditions with observers at the predicted limits. But they were both clouded out, so they didn't get any information. They did ask citizens around Texas and Colorado to make observations and report back to them, and they actually got some observations from that effort  but it was much less than the many dozens of people that were involved with the New York City effort.

"There were a few other past efforts which also had problems, mainly due to weather  so there just wasn't anything on the scale of what was done in 1925," he added. Dunham founded the International Occultation Timing Organization in 1975 to take observations when objects pass in front of the sun and other stars, and he has also plumbed previous eclipse measurements to analyze the size of the sun over time.

14 Edison Company photographers were poised to capture the eclipse and any unusual phenomena in New York City Jan. 24, 1925. (Image credit: Consolidated Gas Co. of NY)

The New York observers were split into groups of two and three, and were stationed along rooftops spanning 72nd Street to 135th Street on Manhattan's West Side. At least one person would watch for the moon's incoming shadow, and another would look for whether the sun was completely covered by the moon, according to a report put out by the city's electric companies.

The shadow watchers were unable to provide useful data; the shadow travels at an average of 2,300 mph (3,700 km/h), so its approach is very fast and hard to quantify. But the sun observers provided good results. Everyone above 96th Street saw totality  when the moon completely covers the disk of the sun  and everyone below did not. Thus, the eclipse's southern border could be pinpointed to within 225 feet (69 m)  the distance between 230 Riverside Drive and 240 Riverside Drive, on New York City's Upper West Side. In other words, they caught the shadow's border between two buildings, each on a different city block.

The electric companies, led by the New York Edison Company, also took detailed measurements of how much electrical power people used during the eclipse. Predictably, power use rose when it was dark, but the overall load was lower in some places because industries were closed for the morning. New York Edison Company also stationed 14 photographers throughout the city to document totality. [What Scientists Have Learned from Total Solar Eclipses]

"Flying observatories"

In addition, 50 people from the Army Air Service  a predecessor to the Air Force  flew in 25 planes to observe the eclipse. The service planned to send more, but some engines wouldn't start in the cold, according to a New York Times reporter.

And unlike the observers perched atop buildings, these air travelers got a clear view of the moon's rushing shadow:

"Observers [in the planes] saw the rush of the moon's shadow devouring the microscopic detail of the land below at the rate of a hundred square miles per second," the Times reporter wrote. "When the swarm of flying observatories alighted at Mitchel field after it was all over, their staffs reported that nothing in the whole spectacle was so impressive as the sight of the murky monster eating up white landscapes with such frightful haste."

Astronomers from the U.S. Naval Observatory also got a lofty view: They tracked the eclipse from nearly a mile in the air on the Navy dirigible dubbed Los Angeles, which lifted off from New Jersey and observed from Long Island. The researchers wielded four astronomical cameras, two motion picture cameras and a spectrograph, to measure the wavelengths of light emitted by the sun's corona.

Watson Davis, an editor for the nonprofit communications initiative Science Service, radioed down a description of the airship's view after some transmission interference.

"During the two minutes, four and six-tenths seconds of totality, not a cloud marred the magnificent spectacle of a sun so completely blotted out by the moon that the coronal fringe of the light and the ghostly radiance of the eclipsed sun turned the ocean horizon and the clouds below into a vivid picture in yellows, purples and grays, while observers drew pictures of the corona for science," Davis said, according to the New York Times.

Everyone else

An article in Popular Astronomy from the time, written by the magazine's editor, H.C. Wilson, warned that professional astronomers would be congregating near established observatories in New York and Connecticut, and that it would be "important therefore that amateurs all along the path of the total eclipse should do all that they can to obtain records of the phenomena of the eclipse" in the event that bad winter weather clouded the observatories' views.

Wilson said amateurs could time the eclipse's phases; photograph the corona and measure its spectrum; observe its effect on magnetic and wireless instruments; observe the shadow bands created; and even take "moving pictures" of the celestial event, among other suggestions.

Scientific American implored amateur astronomers and schoolchildren by radio to fill out questionnaires to describe what they saw, Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette wrote in an article for Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Sam M. Burka (left), a physicist at McCook Field, Ohio, rides with Lt. George W. Goddard to photograph the total solar eclipse Jan. 24, 1925. They were among 25 planes to observe; others were unable to take off due to the cold. (Image credit: United States Air Force/ Wikimedia Commons

The final tally

All told, the many New York eyes on the eclipse found that it came a bit later than expected, and that its path was a bit farther north than scientists had predicted, thus teaching researchers more about how the moon moves around the Earth.

The careful observation of the moon's shadow "will make more precise computations possible next time," a New York Times reporter wrote.

Now, scientists know the moon's path and contours with incredible precision, as well as the Earth's exact elevation at different locations, which let researchers predict precise eclipse paths. But there is still a lot to learn about the sun's size and mechanisms of its outer atmosphere, called the corona.

The total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, could be the most watched solar eclipse in history as it crosses the continental United States from coast to coast, according to NASA, and it will provide an unparalleled research opportunity, and a chance for amateurs and professionals to collaborate. Projects such as the University of California and Google's Eclipse Megamovie project and an initiative by the International Occultation Timing Organization call for volunteers across the country to document the precise location of the moon's shadow.

New York City won't see a total solar eclipse this time around; only part of the sun's disk will be covered. But people across the country will again turn their (protected) eyes and instruments to the sun  and this time, there will be many more cameras and phones at the ready.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
It's a puzzler, all right: Would you rather amputate your dominant hand or have a swastika tattooed prominently on your face?

This sample question is just one of several hypothetical scenarios included in a recent psychology study designed to test how much people value their reputation within their community.

Like a game of "Would You Rather" taken to unsettling heights, the newly published study  "Death Before Dishonor: Incurring Costs to Protect Moral Reputation"  is actually a collection of data from four separate studies. Researchers from Florida State University, publishing in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, combined raw numbers from previous research with new small-sample experiments that posed a series of either-or questions and scenarios.

The Nazi-amputation query generated some interesting results. In a survey of 166 university students, both male and female, 70 percent of respondents said they would rather amputate a hand than be permanently branded as a Nazi.

Another question asked whether respondents would rather "die right now" or live into their nineties, but be widely known in the community as a pedophile. Of the 115 volunteer respondents, 53 percent said they would rather die on the spot.

Study co-author Andrew J. Vonasch, now at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the results suggest that people are far more motivated to protect their reputations than previously thought.

"People are willing to do many things to avoid a bad reputation that other theories might not have predicted," Vonasch said. "Certainly, we already knew that people cared about their reputations, but this research shows that we care a whole lot about it, and we argue that this is because the self fundamentally serves social purposes."

RELATED: To Friend or Unfriend? How Your Relationship Style Plays Out in Social Networks

The research was centered on a concept in psychology and sociology that says an individual's survival in a cooperative society can depend greatly on that individual's reputation. Citing previous studies, the paper argues that individuals with poor moral reputations have historically been punished or exiled for their behavior, which gives people strong incentive to protect their reputation.

"A good reputation is like a key that unlocks the benefits provided by society," the study says. "Getting a bad reputation means losing that key. Because cooperative society is humans survival strategy, losing that key is potentially devastating  for most people, banishment from society means death."

To increase the validity of their findings, the research team designed a series of additional experiments to see how far people were willing to go to protect their reputations in real-world scenarios.

In one experiment, a group of college volunteers took a fake test supposedly designed to assess unconscious attitudes of "implicit racism." Regardless of responses, the fake test branded the students as racist, and the volunteers were told that the results would be made public to the rest of the university.

RELATED: Loneliness and Self-Centeredness Amplify Each Other in a Vicious Feedback Loop

Then the students were told that volunteers were needed for a separate experiment, which required submerging their hands in a bucket of worms. If the volunteer agreed to the worm study, the racism study would be tossed out. Nearly a third of the respondents chose to protect their reputation and go with the worm bucket option.

Vonasch said the research results could have significant implications on existing theories of altruism and motivation. For instance, what looks like altruistic behavior may actually be an effort to protect reputation, which benefits the individual's perceived "fitness" in a cooperative society.

"With respect to altruism, scientists have come up with several reasons why evolution  in which genes are selected purely on the selfish benefit to the organism's reproductive fitness could lead to cooperative behavior," Vonasch said. "We argue that protecting your reputation has important fitness consequences, and this may be one reason the motivation to protect it is so strong."

Original article published on Seeker.
After an underwhelming start to his US career in 2016, Twins first baseman ByungHo Park has yet to appear in the Majors this season, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press notes. Park arrived in the US with fanfare but batted just .191 in his rookie season, and the 31-year-old is now hitting just .260/.318/.417 with just nine home runs over 368 plate appearances with Triple-A Rochester. Parks friend and South Korean countryman Shin-Soo Choo says Park really wants to do something here in the United States. Choos comment came in what appears to have been a response to a question from Berardino about whether Park and the Twins might reach a deal on a buyout for the remainder of Parks contract. Park is set to make $3MM in both 2018 and 2019, plus a $500K buyout or a $6.5MM option for 2020. Berardino quotes a scout, however, who notes that Park might not be able to make that kind of money were he to leave the US to return to the KBO. Heres more from the American League.

Prior to yesterdays game, the Yankees placed lefty CC Sabathia on the DL with knee inflammation. To take his place on the active roster, they recalled righty Jordan Montgomery from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Sabathia left his last start due to issues with his knee, so his DL placement doesnt come as a surprise, but his situation has to be frustrating for the Yankees  Sabathia is in the midst of a solid season, with a 4.05 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 thus far. Montgomery is scheduled to start tomorrow against Boston.

placed lefty on the DL with knee inflammation. To take his place on the active roster, they recalled righty from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Sabathia left his last start due to issues with his knee, so his DL placement doesnt come as a surprise, but his situation has to be frustrating for the Yankees  Sabathia is in the midst of a solid season, with a 4.05 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 thus far. Montgomery is scheduled to start tomorrow against Boston. The Royals swing at more of the pitches they see  50.9%  than any team, and are on pace to swing at more pitches than any team since at least 2002, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star writes. The approach hasnt been particularly successful overall  the Royals are currently tied for 12th in the AL in runs scored. Of course, Kansas Citys freest swingers include Salvador Perez (58.5% swing percentage) and Mike Moustakas (56.9%), who are both in the midst of good seasons. You dont think we address that all the time? says Royals manager Ned Yost. Of course, we do. We talk about being more selective and getting better pitches. But again, these guys are who they are.
The Mariners have struck a deal with the Braves to acquire lefty Andrew Albers, per David OBrien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). Cash considerations will make up the return in the deal.

Albers had been working at Triple-A Gwinnett; now, hell help bolster the depth for the Mariners, who have suffered a variety of pitching injuries of late. The 31-year-old has limited experience in the majors, with just 17 total appearances over parts of three seasons, but he has shown rather well this year at the highest level of the minors.

Through his 120 2/3 innings to date for Gwinnett  covering 17 starts as well as nine relief appearances  Albers carries a 2.61 ERA. Hes also carrying 8.6 K/9 against just 1.4 BB/9 as well as a solid 46.1% groundball rate.

Whether Seattle intends to bring Albers up in the near-term isnt clear. At a minimum, hell provide the organization with a new depth piece as it filters arms up to account for the recent DL placements of David Phelps, Felix Hernandez, and James Paxton.
11.08.2017 LISTEN

Former UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan has called on African governments to invest in the youth and give them opportunity to lead.

Speaking during a lecture on leadership and public service dubbed 'An afternoon with Kofi Annan' organized by the alumni of his alma mater Mfantsipim College, Kofi Annan asked African governments to offer our growing population, the opportunity for employment.

He was quick to add that African leaders must allow African youth to lead us into the future with enlightened modernity rooted in African values.

He also entreated African leaders to remember the youth of the past leaders.

Kofi Annan recalled that since Kwame Nkrumah was 48 when he became the first leader of Ghana in March 1957 and Gamel Abdul Nasser was 38 when he became Egypt's second president in 1956, African leaders must remember that one is not too young to lead nor too old to learn.

He also chided African leaders for their desire to clinch to power through fraudulent elections.

A growing number of Presidents are changing their constitutions and subverting elections to remain in power indefinitely. According to international watch dogs, democratic freedoms seem to be in retreat on our continent. Although governments organize elections, many lack integrity.

In light of the challenges he mentioned, Kofi Annan asked African leaders to ponder important questions on whether they had invested our revenues in areas that will benefit the people, particularly the young?

He believes African leaders could harness the potentials of the youth by strengthening the three pillars of healthy democratic societies thus, ensuring peace and security, inclusive development, rule of law and respect for human rights.

Kofi Annan said these pillars should be taken holistically and serve as the foundation for Africa's development agenda.

A leader must listena leader must listen to what is said and above all, to what is not said. A good leader must also be a good follower and when leaders failed to lead, the people will lead and make them follow We need strong institutions to buttress our system, we also need to think beyond the State, strong businesses, strong civil societies to hold government to the promises they make to the people will just as be important.

Masters of our own destinies

Kofi Annan indicated that African leaders cannot fail to meet our youth's aspiration with opportunity adding that the decisions African leaders take today, both in government, in business and civil society will determine whether the continent can ride the fourth wave successfully.

More than ever, out future is in our hands. A bright African future is one that requires Africa's people as central agents. We must ride the wave that begun long ago at independence to come together to affirm the way forward for the continent.



By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
Government has withdrawn the controversial draft Liquefied Petroleum Gas [LPG] policy seeking to among others, make the distribution of LPG to homes through pipelines.

It followed outcry by LPG marketing companies and tanker drivers in the country, who have expressed fears such a policy would cause job losses that would lead to economic chaos.

The withdrawal of the policy has stopped a planned protest by Association of Gas Tanker Drivers has been suspended following the Energy Ministrys withdrawal of the draft national LPG policy.

The Association of Gas Tanker Drivers last week warned that they will embark on a nationwide strike if the National Petroleum Authority(NPA) fails to withdraw the Cylinder re-circulation model, an aspect of the draft national LPG policy expected to be rolled out in September this year.

Following the withdrawal of the LPG policy by government, the Gas Tanker Drivers Association last week told the media it has suspended its national strike for further talks.

But the Public Relations officer for the group, Bernard OwireduDonkorhas said the strike would be re-launched, if the consultations do not lead to progress.

I dont think they will do a u-turn. Should they do that definitely will go back to our plans and probably even increase our actions in respect of what theyve intended to do. We believe that the government has spoken and the government has decided to recall the entire policy based on our concerns.We welcome the move and we are hoping that just as the communication has put out there, well be partakers in making this policy.

The group vowed to resist the policy because it threatens the survival of their business if allowed to be implemented.

Implementation of the policy will mean gas filling stations will no longer be allowed to refill gas cylinders at their stations.

According to the National Petroleum Authority, the policy would also increase rural penetration of gas and help minimise the recent gas explosions at filling stations across the country. But the Tanker Drivers Union and the LPG Marketing Companies Association of Ghana has kicked against such a policy.

The latter wrote to the Ministry of Energy and Vice President,Dr. MahamuduBawumia to explain how it would not make economical sense to implement such a policy.

The Ministry of Energy on last week announced it has recalled the draft policy to allow for further consultations with relevant stakeholders, especially the LPG tanker drivers and the marketing companies.

A letter to the Ministry announcing the decision said the ministerial subcommittee, which was formed to review the policy, was faced with some challenges in the completion of its work.

Meanwhile, amidst the severe opposition and agitation to the new regulations of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) introduced to help regulate the downstream gas distribution and sales by the commercial drivers of the gas tankers, the NPA has allayed the fears that they are likely to be rendered jobless if government goes ahead to implement the new regulation.

According to a statement issued by the Corporate Affairs Division of the NPA, The NPA wishes to assure the general public that it is not in our interest to keep the Gas Tanker Drivers Association out of job as is being speculated

In a response to the claim made by members of the association, NPA stated that it has no contractual agreement with Puma Energy Limited as claimed and therefore indicated that the company in question is not licensed for that purpose.

Neither Puma Energy Limited nor any other Company has been issued a license to do cylinder recirculation. Puma Energy is a licensed Oil Marketing Company whose primary role is to sell petroleum products to bulk consumers and the general public through retail stations and reselling outlets.

However, in a joint statement, the LPG Marketing Companies Association of Ghana, Ghana LPG operators Association (GLiPGOA), Ghana LPG Tanker Owners Association and Ghana LPG Table Drivers Union are challenged the decision by the NPA to disallow the refilling of cylinders at LPG outlets across the country.

But, according to the Ag. NPA CEO, Hassan Tampuli, instead of the LPG outlets, all gas cylinders will be filled by cylinder bottling plants for onward delivery to retail outlets.

The association, therefore has questioned whether the cylinder bottling plants are immune from explosion. The group said the NPA had so far failed to provide explanation regarding how the new dispensing plants would be free from explosion.

MrTampuli, however, failed, or deliberately ignored to explain to the general public how his proposal will prevent gas explosion. Are these cylinder bottling plants explosion-free or explosion-proof? The answer is an obvious NO. One could just imagine the repercussions and consequences of an explosion at a single bottling plant, the group said.

MrTampuli was emphatic that the policy his outfit sought to implement was one aimed at preventing gas explosions. To achieve that aim, Cylinder Bottling Plants would phase out the current Dispensing Outlets.

MrTampuli, however, failed, or deliberately ignored to explain to the general public how his proposal would prevent gas explosion. Are these cylinder bottling plants explosion-free or explosion-proof? The answer is an obvious NO. One could just imagine the repercussions and consequences of an explosion at a single bottling plant.

Per his proposal, it could so happen that one bottling plant could serve about 3000 cylinders at a time. An explosion at such a place will be far devastating, compared to one at a dispensing outlet. We pray against such occurrence. One can only imagine the extent of gas shortage should such an explosion occur. MrTampuli, it will be in your own interest and the interests of all Ghanaians that you take a second -glance at your proposal, it will help, the Group told the NPA CEO.

The Group continued stressing that, The second issue and perspective is to examine the position of the current players in the gas dispensing sector should MrTampuli go ahead with the implementation of his policy.

The use of LPG started around the late 1980s, and its consumption keep rising steadily over the years. The figures show that the overall consumption had risen from 5,267 tons in 1989 to 32,000 tons in 1996 and had been exceeding 200,000 tons since 2011. Dispensing Outlets and Trucks have been the main marketing and distribution outlets for the LPG.

The operation of the Dispensing Outlets is an established business sector, giving employment to over 6000 Ghanaians. Currently, there are about 700 LPG Dispensing Outlets in operation across the nation. About 300 LPG trucks are employed in the sector, each truck having a market value of about GH400, 000.00. An estimated amount of GH 700,000.00 is needed to establish a Dispensing Outlet. It is very clear that a lot of investments have been sunk into this sector by the operators, and the investment continues to grow and deepen.

Construction of a single bottling plant cost over 1 million dollars, and its an obvious truth that none of the current players in the sector will be able to construct a single bottling plant. Foreign companies with huge financial base will directly or indirectly takeover the sector to the detriment of local players. MrTampuli, its your duty to ensure active participation of locals in the Petroleum Downstream Sector. You should be seen to be promoting local content.

The Group further noted that, its very obvious that MrTampulis policy will collapse the current dispensing outlets. It is also very clear that his policy has no place for the current dispensing outlets. The consequences will be dire: huge investments will be lost, over 6000 people will be jobless, and there will be no use for the LPG trucks and over 300 drivers. Banks will find it difficult recovering loans granted to these operators. MrTampuli, if you truly seek to minimise or prevent gas explosions, the bottling plants cant be the solution, and resorting to it can only be described as ostensible. Eyes are watching.

Regular education and checks at the dispensing outlets is one big solution to prevent or minimise explosions. Strict adherence to safety procedures and processes are also key. Engage the current players more, and interrogate their circumstances and operations. That will help in your quest to minimise or prevent explosions.
There is a stinking emergence of what I call the POLITICO-ACADEMIC SPIN TALK, where acclaimed academicians fails to draw the line between a convenient political disposition talk and a factual representation of what a matter is irrespective of who it favours or not.

Dr Antwi Danso has waded into the ongoing debate of Nkrumah's over recognition or otherwise under recognition of the other members if the Big Six. As a student of history and international relations I would love to make the following observations and ask some questions.

Dr Vladimir Danso says," He will not dabble in untruths as an intellectual in what seeks to project Dr Nkrumah as the sole founder of Ghana"

May I ask Dr Danso who said and where that Nkrumah is the SOLE founder of Ghana?? This archaic trick of making statements or comments that answers incipient questions will not wash.

I read Prof Mike Oquaye being quoted as saying, "He had great respect for Dr Nkrumah because of his significant contributions to the independence struggle and his numerous development projects such as the Tema motorway". In fact we know in addition to the motorway the Akosombo dam Tema Oil refinery and a number of other industries were built and credited to Nkrumah.

On the basis of such a fact and with the unfortunate principle being peddled to downplay Nkrumah, I ask these academics Why are we not recognising the contractors, project managers and in fact supervising ministers or secretaries who managed the construction if the Tema motorway? Was it Kwame Nkrumah who laid bricks and mortars for the construction of the Akosombo dam? This is simply leadership but of course we politicise everything here in our country and so we have no problem distorting our own history to achieve this aim.

Nowhere in the annals of this globe has any leader achieved anything on his own. Definitely there would be a team in place and people might have even given him the idea for which he takes the praise.

Why are we arguing a founders day commemoration to include only the rest of the big six. Was it not true that when the rest of the Big six were arrested following the 1948 riots the denied knowledge and involvement. Why are we not arguing to recognise that brave action by the OSU Alata Mantse Nii Kwabena Bone also as a founder for his efforts. After all he was brave when the rest of the big six denied involvement.

Today, Rawlings is credited with the mastermind, and orchestration of the June 4 coup d'etat, but we all know that the verifiable and factual accounts indicates that, "Officers and Men like Boakye Gyan and others who believed in his vision and principles planned the operation secured his release and took him to announce the revolution. This is leadership and that's what we must know.

It is a dumb joke for any individual, group or organisation to suggest Nkrumah as being on the same pedigree as far as we talk about the independence struggle.

On the 6 of March every year we as a country pause to reflect on the significance and efforts that members of the GoldCoast played to gain independence. On this day we remember Nkrumah and the Big six as well, we commemorate the fallen soldiers who died in this struggle not forgetting Nii Kwabena Bone the OSU Alata Mantse and the multitudes who played various and significant roles since the colonialist first set foot on the shores of our country.

The recognition of Nkrumah on his birthday as founder of Ghana is not to suggest that he solely fought for our independence.

Cynics must stop pushing this thought and pretending to be countering it.

Where has it been seen or told that two Captains ever commanded a ship. Its true they were all in the independence struggle, in fact all members of the Gold Coast wanted that liberation from the colonialist. But they all had different understands on how the modus operandi should be. So when Nkrumah breaks ranks with them on his conviction and his strategy and plan secures for us the final freedom and country we call Ghana today, you think its sane or justifiable to place him in same pedigree as the people who history tells us at one time even tried subverting his efforts?

It's sad that in our country Ghana the politicians "fool" us the citizenry with propaganda and "disorientates" academia and the whole system is corrupted.

I expected Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso to have known that this debate never proceeded on the premise that Nkrumah was the sole Hero for our independence, in fact we recognise all those Hero's and their efforts on 6 March every year.

The founders day recognition and commemoration is about underscoring the Leadership prominence of Nkrumah and the temerity with which he fought against the current at the time to ensure that Ghana become independent immediately.

#StrongerTogether

#PossibleTogether

#GetInvolved

By: Elikem Kwami Kotoko

Email: [email protected]
Accra, Aug. 11, GNA - Visa has announced its support of the new global QR Code Payment Specifications from EMVCo, the global technical body that manages the EMV Specifications.

The specifications cover consumer-presented and merchant-presented QR code use cases for digital payment acceptance.

QR Codes are two-dimensional machine-readable barcodes, used to facilitate mobile payments at the point-of-sale.

A statement made available to the GNA said Visa and the other EMVCo Members worked to develop these new globally interoperable EMV specifications.

Visa has already successfully enabled the merchant-presented QR technology in 15 countries around the world, with India, Kenya and Nigeria currently live in market with both bank and merchant partners.

'We've already seen tremendous progress towards adoption of standardised, interoperable QR code payment systems in the developing world,' said Sam Shrauger, SVP, Digital Products, Visa.

'We are working with governments and central banks in countries like India to develop and implement QR code payment solutions that provide the convenience and security that are synonymous with Visa and help the journey toward a cashless future.'

Visa has enabled the growth of merchant-presented QR code payments around the world with its innovative mobile payments solution, mVisa.

mVisa allows consumers to pay for goods and services by scanning a QR code on a smart phone or entering a merchant number into their feature phones. Payment goes straight from the consumer's Visa account into the merchant's account and provides real-time notification to both parties.

mVisa is completely interoperable, meaning that the consumer and the merchant do not need to be customers of the same bank.

This brings the same convenience, security and reliability provided by the trusted Visa brand.

For merchants eager to harness of the power of QR code payments, the Visa Ready Programme has adopted the interoperable QR standards to develop tools and capabilities which help easy generation and deployment of QR code merchants by banks, processors and merchant aggregators.

Once enrolled, merchants can freely accept payments from any country or bank given mVisa's interoperability while trusting Visa will securely and efficiently process each transaction.

As digital payments help continue a shift toward a cashless future, this new global specification is an important step that promotes interoperability and standardizes the fast growing ecosystem of QR code payments across the world.

Already, 33 banks and more than 328,000 merchants across India, Kenya and Nigeria have adopted the interoperable standards as they accelerate their QR code digital payment programs.

'mVisa enables successful completion of the transaction independent of the mobile operator service on both the consumer and the merchants phone, and the consumers and merchant's banks.'

'This addresses a major challenge with mobile money programmes, and lets consumers and merchants choose their own bank or mobile operator,' he said.

Working with our partners, Visa is converting both every day and recurring cash purchases to digital payments through direct integrations with supermarket chains and large utility billers.

Visa intends to replicate this success in 12 other countries where mVisa has been enabled: Cambodia, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.

GNA
Accra, Aug 11, GNA - Dr Kofi Annan, a Former United Nations Secretary-General, has advised African governments and state institutions not to give undue advantage to foreign businesses at the expense of indigenous businesses.

He said they should create an enabling environment that would allowed the homegrown businesses to thrive, saying; 'government cannot do it alone'.

According to him, if the local businesses had incentives, it would encourage foreign businesses to invest in the national economies of African countries.

'Businesses include all the small and medium-scale enterprises because they have important roles to play they are the ones that create a lot of jobs and they should be supported,' he advised.

Dr Annan said this when he interacted and answered questions from a section of the public at a fundraising ceremony organised by the Mfantsipim Old Boys Associations (MOBA) in Accra.

He had earlier made a presentation on, 'Leadership and Public Service'.

The Former UN Secretary-General said businesses had influence on the communities they operated in, as well as over politicians and so they should use their influence to improve the lot of the people.

'In the private sector you have managerial autonomy which people don't have in the public sector, 'you can hire and fire' with very clear vision and mandate,' he explained, saying; 'businesses cannot make profit or succeed in a failed society'.

He said for most business, it was the maximisation of profit for their shareholders and, therefore, often reminded them about the Global Compact, which was established in 1999 that compelled businesses to have responsibility towards the society.

'In January 2008 when I went to Kenya, I met the business community, media owners, youth and religious groups encouraging them to be part of the peace process.

'When I met with them, they told me we in this room represent 85 per cent of the Kenyan economy and they ranged from general motors and all sorts of smaller businessesand so I told themthis is an influence what have you done to influence society?

'So I asked themhave you engaged the government to see what can be done to help development?they said; 'We don't talk to the government,' he said.

Dr Annan said by the time he left Kenya the business community had arranged with the government and had agreed to meet quarterly to discuss how they could put their efforts together to develop society.

The astute international diplomat said in spite of some challenges with some African countries' democratic credentials, he had hope in the younger generations.

'With the general wind of change blowing, the youth are determined to make a change and contribute to the progress of the society'.

He, therefore, advised the younger ones not to rush in life.

'I often pleaded for generational change to have new leadership and some have worked out very well whilst others are in a hurry to make money and sometimes they become as corrupt as the old ones we complained about,' he noted.

Dr Annan said he had hope in the younger generation and urged them to use the resources wisely to accelerate development.

The MOBA annual event known as the 'MOBA Ebusuapanyin's Lunch' is aimed at creating a platform for discourse on issues of national interest.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
The Government of Ghana recently announced a plan to ban the importation of mercury to augment efforts in curbing the impact of illegal mining activities in the country. The expected ban, communicated by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, will take effect by the end of 2017.

In fact, this proposal falls in line with the Minamata Convention on Mercury ratified by 128 countries. The highlight of the Convention _includes a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining._ Abibiman Foundation therefore congratulates government for taking such a bold step.

Abibiman Foundation commends Government of Ghana for this laudable initiative, we are yet to see any communique from the Government relating to its strategies on how the proposed ban will be implemented. We believe that the issue of ban on the importation is a rather complex one and without a road map, which includes how to develop mechanisms to monitor and regulate the Mercury use in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM), nothing can be achieved.

Further, it is said that, "The elder who eats without sharing will carry his own load to the house". Immediately after the pronouncement of the expected ban by the Minister, there has been several opposing thoughts by several stakeholders, including those to be affected directly by the action of the ban. Abibiman Foundation believes that it will be prudent for the Government of Ghana to engage and collaborate with all stakeholders in this action. It is also vital to sensitize small scale miners on how the dangers posed by mercury and mercury-containing products and associated waste, as well as provide training to them on the use of other alternatives.

Abibiman Foundation joins the effort to protect human health and the environment on from the harmful effects of mercury because the exposure to mercury is known to have debilitating effects on the kidney and the brain, among others.

A drop of mercury on a human hand can be irreversibly fatal and contamination of a water body can render the fish in it unsuitable for human consumption. Bearing in mind the huge amounts of money Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has to invest in purifying such polluted water in Ghana.

We therefore call on government to safeguard and protect human health and the environment,we have the opportunity to chart a new course, a course linked to SDGs 3,12, 13 and 15

Make an urgent appeal togovernment totake a serious look atit our obligations to ban importation of mercury.
Research and education think tank, Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) with support from US-based Third Dimension Institute has made a donation of GHC10,137.50 (about $2,300) to the Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service.

The donation is to enable the centre to register 45 juvenile inmates for the NVTI exam and procure testing items. The money was provided by Mr. Paul Kini, a Ghanaian resident in Nebraska, USA, a sponsor of Third Dimension Institute.

Mr. William Nyarko, Executive Director of ACILA, Rev. Richard Gyasi Kwaa, National Director of Third Dimension Institute, and Mavis Kwainoe, a former Magistrate and ACILA board member presented the cheque and an exam success card to the Deputy Director of Prisons for Greater Accra and Officer-in-Charge of the centre,Mr. Chris Larvie.

Mr. Larvie said that the donation came in handy as the NVTI exam, which is intended to equip the juvenile inmates with vocational skills and the knowledge they need to enhance their reintegration into society, will be held next month.

Mr. Larvie expressed gratitude to ACILA and the Third Dimension Institute for such a timely donation as it will facilitate the timely registration of the inmates, adding that the money will be used for its purpose.He said the centre had written to many organizations but is yet to receive a response.

Providing background information about the centre, Mr. Larvie said that the juvenile centre is not a prison but a place to re-instill the basic morals that hitherto had been lost as a result of children's detachment from their parents, bad company, or orphan state.

At the juvenile centre, the inmates are taken through various vocational training aimed at equipping them with the necessary skills they need to get them meaningfully engaged after serving their term which lasts for at most three years.

Some of the vocations the inmates are trained on include masonry,beads making,shoe making, bamboo craft, electronics, tailoring, carpentry among other trades.

Some of the products manufactured by the juvenile inmates being displayed by Mr. Nyarko

The facility also has a junior high school where inmates are taken and eventually registered for the basic education certificate examination and when they pass they pursue their education at the senior high school.

Currently, the facility houses 195 inmates of which 45 are to be registered for the upcoming NVTI examination.

Explaining the rationale for the donation, Mr. Nyarko explained that research by ACILA in May 2017 established that key common reasons for recidivism, that is, an ex-inmatere-offending and returning to custody include lack of a support system for ex-inmates when they return home to their families; ex-inmates lacking knowledge or skills to enable them to get a job and re-integrate into society; discrimination against ex-inmates and stigmatization. Facing these challenges, nearly a quarter of ex-inmates relapse into committing crime and going back to prison or custody.

He said that the donation is part of a project by ACILA and Third Dimension Institute aimed at reducing the rate of recidivism; providing ex-inmates with the knowledge and skills they need to re-integrate into society; providing a support system to strengthen their emotional, religious, and physical needs and well-being, and providing guidance to enable them to be a blessing unto others.

In his remarks, Mr. Kwaa indicated that the Third Dimension Institute, which was founded by Dr. Frank Opoku Amoako, believes that it is not enough to equip inmates with skills for a living, adding that the Institute will provide counselling and spiritual guidance along with effective mentorship tothe inmates to ensure that they can fulfill their God-given destinies.

He explained that anyone can make a mistake and fall into the grips of the law but once they have served their term,they have to be successfully re-integrated into society to prevent the ex-inmates relapsing into crime.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

The United Nations and its partners have officially held a ceremony in Accra to celebrate this year's edition of the International Youth Day.

The general theme for the International Youth Day 2017 is 'Youth Building Peace,' but in Ghana the focus was on the discussion was 'Is The Ghanaian Youth Well Equipped To Effectively Participate In The Governance And Decision Making Processes Of The Country'?

The Debate was organised by Young Diplomats of Ghana with support from UNDP, UNFPA and World Bank Group.

According to a Delegate of the Young Diplomats of Ghana, Madam Esther Azasi, the lack of responsible leaders who are not capable of providing jobs have been a great cause of worry. This have contributed to a lot in the increase in surviving through foul methods.

She cited a recent case in the ongoing fight against illegal mining Galamsey.

"That is why we find more youth in Galamsey so our leaders should do what they are supposed to do as responsible leaders working in the interest of the nation."

Since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2250 in 2015, there is growing recognition that as agents of change, young people are critical actors in conflict prevention and sustaining peace. International Youth Day 2017 is dedicated to celebrating young peoples contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.

The current generation of youth are the largest in history and young people often comprise the majority in countries marked by armed conflict or unrest, therefore considering the needs and aspirations of youth in matters of peace and security is a demographic imperative.

Another Security Council Resolution, Resolution 2282 (2016) recognizes that the scale and challenges of sustaining peace requires partnerships between stakeholders, including youth organizations. It also reaffirms the important role youth can play in deterring and resolving conflicts, and are key constituents in ensuring the success of both peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development committed to fostering peaceful and inclusive societies and affirmed that [s]ustainable development cannot be realized without peace and security. Goal 16 aims to ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.

The World Programme of Action for Youth, which provides a policy framework and practical guidelines to improve the situation of young people, also encourages >romoting [the] active involvement of youth in maintaining peace and security.

Young peoples inclusion in the peace and security agenda and in society more broadly, is key to building and sustaining peace.

The process of social inclusion for youth, including participation in decision-making as well as access to quality education, health care and basic services promotes their role as active contributors to society and affords young people with opportunities to reach their potential and achieve their goals.

When youth are excluded from political, economic and social spheres and processes, it can be a risk factor for violence and violent forms of conflict. Therefore, identifying and addressing the social exclusion of young people is a precondition for sustaining peace.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

There are threats flying back and forth from North Korea to United States. Swahili say when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. China will not sit idly while United States bombs its influence or stakes in North Korea. The consequences of proliferation of nuclear waste polluting the environment will be devastating not only on those engaged in war but to African Continent. We have suffered enough in Africa from the climate changes as a result indifference abuse by super powers. The fear of limited or world war looms and world anxiety has been raised.

President Donald Trump scored a rare victory with the cooperation of Russia and China in the United Nation on this embargo or sanctions. However, implementation has to be rigid by all of these countries in order to bite in North Korea. It is very doubtful though, if North Korea would give up on its development of nuclear weapons. Testing may be the negotiating point where agreement on all sides could claim victory.

The rule remains that you must always leave some room for your negotiating partner to claim some victory also. Hyperbolic languages could be communicated through diplomatic channels or third parties but must not be repeated in public. It leads to grandstanding and miscalculation. North Korea is notorious for such public comments but not United States. The fear is United States may have overshadowed its victory at the United Nation by making public threats.

There are vigorous diplomatic talks going on now. China and Russia went along with United State on sanctions which must not be taken as a sign of free reign on North Korea. The world remains a dangerous place and miscalculation could spell disaster because China will defend its interest in North Korea. Russia, no matter how friendly President Putin is with President Trump; would not let the balance of power in that region shift in favor of United States.

Indeed, China and Russia may have conveyed their strong opposition to United States about striking North Korea privately through diplomatic channels. In short, letting President Trump know that their support at the United Nation was not a blank check to strike as President Bush did in Iraq. The consequences of that did not deter another; a Libyan strike spilling into Africa.

Some Libya nuclear materials are still unsecured. African countries with less resources to deter inflow of terrorists have spent a great deal of the money they should use to ameliorate their citizens from crossing desert and sea. In addition to fighting terrorists as Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameron, Sudan and Niger. The reasons refugees are crossing the sea and desert are because powerful nations are deeply involved and instigated their civil wars in the name of democracy.

While the world is familiar with threats from North Korea, it is unusual that United States President would return such threat wondering who makes ego trips more. United States has no need to prove or remind the world of its might. The empty vessel here is the monkey North Korea pulling the tail of the Tiger. Mr. Trump must understand the world know as much. But the only way to join the Trading Club is to flex the nuclear threat to the Trading Club.

It is not going to be a cake walk for the most powerful nations as demonstrated in conventional wars around the world. Nuclear war can be more devastating or even worse. There is no doubt that North Korea has been provoking and now at a stage where it has developed some form of nuclear capability. It has come a long way despite North Korea limited means or resources. But the people are determined to join world nuclear club as the only insurance to external threats.

The threats exchanged between United States and North Korea may remind some of us of the label of Paper Tiger Mao Zedong labelled United States. Paper Tigers is a Chinese phrase of toothless tiger used to describe United States. Mao came to the realization that atomic bomb or nuclear bomb could be more powerful than the real tiger itself. This eventually led him in pursuit of China atomic bomb. Today China is a bona fide member of Nuclear and Trade Club.

North Korea will not be locked out of Nuclear Club nor will it take a back seat despite the threat or warnings coming from different countries. In spite of the sanctions lately agreed to by United Nations, North Korea will survive even at the expense of poor folks that will be mostly affected. North Korea may be annihilated from Earth surface, survive or lack necessities like food. But the people have been starving in that country without this latest embargo. Trade incentive is next!

North Korea must not turn its pursuit of nuclear arsenals into a contest with United States. But we also know that powerful nations do not confront one another because they understand the power of mutual or world destruction. So, powerful nations make example or send messages by using smaller countries as battle fields. Indeed, they notify one another to get out of the way.

Since China will not give United States an open door into North Korea, the rest of the world may be conditionally hopeful that war would not break out. It is hard to imagine a situation where United States would defy China and bomb North Korea anyway. If United States makes the First Strike, it would be powerful enough to wipe out North Korea. A limited Strike would not prevent more Korean strikes than missiles can shield. If 1 or 2 penetrate, the job is done!

Yet, the rest of the nations without nuclear power see North Korea as the David against Goliath. No matter how weak a country is, they do not want powerful nations threatening them and telling them what to do or not do the wishes of super powers. Cultures and customs support different ideologies. It does not have to be exactly like that of Britain or United States. Actually, the Electoral College in USA that overrides popular votes may be repugnant to some countries.

The cabinet form of Government of old Oyo Empire worked very well among the Yoruba of West Africa just as Shaka Zulu of South Africa had to commit suicide, as dictated by their custom despite his war victory against the British. We should be fighting against injustice, slave labor and oppression by the filthy rich in the world; not against different forms of governments.

Nuclear capability and destruction is knowledge based and a form of intelligence that cannot be monopolized by a group of people. Sooner or later, the evil knowledge will be acquired by more countries and people. There is no way one group of people can prevent another from acquiring it. However, there are ways we can live and trade peaceful with one another without threats.
The President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo has revealed that the Jomoro District Assembly would be upgraded to a Municipality in September 2017.

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Tuesday, 8 August, 2017, on day 2 of his 3-day tour of the Western Region, when he interacted with the Chiefs and people of Half Assini in Jomoro.

He said the elevation from the District to Municipal status will enhance the development of the area and improve the living condition of the people.

Earlier on, President Nana Addo expressed his disappointment of the inability of the Assembly to approve the DCE nominee, Hon Eric Muah on three separate occasions.

"Eric Muah is a very hardworking man to be approved as the District Chief Executive for Jomoro District but his approval was not successful, I'm bringing a new person for approval", the President said.

I am appealing to you. Help me by approving the new nominee I am proposing as DCE for Jomoro. I can assure you that this nominee is resourceful, hardworking and can do the job. We cannot have a Municipality which does not even have a DCE, the President said.

President Nana Addo used the durbar to expressed his profound appreciation to the good people of Jomoro Constituency for voting massively for him in the first time since 1992 to become the President of the Republic of Ghana.

He also thanked the electorates for electing Hon Paul Essien as their Member of Parliament. The President indicated that Hon Paul Essien is very hardworking Deputy Minister in his administration.

"The NPP is going to retain the Jomoro seat in 2020 and beyond with the able and hardworking MP like Paul Essien", President Nana Addo assured.

Hon Paul Essien was the only NPP Parliamentary Candidate that has won the Jomoro seat since 1992.

With his government having been saddled with huge debts, President Akufo-Addo told the Chiefs and people of Jomoro that he remains unfazed and will put in place the necessary measures to ensure improvement of the living conditions of the people, which included the construction of the town roads at Elubo, Half Assini and Beyin.

On the matter of the controversial free SHS programme, President Nana Addo reaffirmed his decision that the programme will commence in September 2017, and will lift the financial burden of parents with regards to the payment of fees for their wards.

" Those who said I could not do it, for propaganda sake, I hope in September, when the free SHS programme starts, they will have the generosity of heart to say that 'Nana', come for your stone but I don't think those propagandists will change their mindset about the free SHS ", the President stressed.

He added, " from September, for the first time in the history of our country, free SHS education is going to be a reality in Ghana".

Speaking at the durbar, the Paramount Chief for Western Traditional Council, Awulea Annor Adjei II appealed to President Nana Addo to revamp the abandoned Osagyefo barge at Effaso in the District.

Awulea also appealed to President Nana Addo and his government to establish a fertilizer factory in the District.

Awulea Annor Adjei II whose on several occasions invited the Assembly Members in the District to his palace to consider the President's DCE nominee, expressed his displeasure over the three rejection of the nominee, Hon Eric Muah.

President Nana Addo was accompanied by, Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, Deputy Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs who is also MP for the area, Hon Paul Essien, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon Catherine Afeku, Western Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Ghana Cocobod CEO, Mr Joseph Boahene Aidoo, Ellembelle DCE, Hon Kwasi Bonzo, as well as some national and regional executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by the Acting National Chairman, Mr Freddie Blay.
The General Secretary of Young Cadres Association (YCA), Mr Bright Botchway has called for ceasefire in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The internal wrangling in the opposition National Democratic Congress keeping on deepen after the party lost the 2016. Counter accusations have taken the centre stage of the party.

The latest is the infighting between the former Deputy Chief of Staff under erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Valerie Sawyerr, a former Minister for Justice and Attorney General in late President Mills led administration, Mr Martin Amidu and former President Jerry John Rawlings.

Dr. Valerie Sawyerr, a former Deputy Chief of Staff under erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) accused the partys founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings of corrupt practices under both his military and democratic regimes.

In a statement issued by the NDC youth wing, Young Cadres Association's General Secretary, Mr Bright Botchway on August 11, 2017 and cited by Daniel Kaku indicated that the washing of the party's dirty clothes in the public domain do not reflect on the party's National Anthem which stated, 'Ghana, our strength in unity'.

Mr Botchway, added that, "a father whose children goes wayward and later render apology for their actions and inactions ought to be considered wise and a father to whom such apology is rendered, needs to advice his children for the sake of unforseen circumstances other than exposing his children forgetting he is destroying his generation for which he will be remembered".

Below is the full statement;

General Secretary ( Bright Botchway ) Young Cadres ...YCA , writes;

TO THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ( NDC ) FRONTIERS.

I write to express my views and opinions regarding the intra - wrangling in the Akatamanso family .

Political parties had existed , still exists and would continue to exist. Most of which had collapsed by reason of several challenges which was not properly treated as such .

Political parties like any other association(s) are always established on the principles of philosophy and a common goal without which such a party cannot stand firm.

We need to as a party, shun the attitude( s ) of washing our dirty clothes in the public domain if only we are ready and remain true to our anthem whose portion states , *Ghana , our strength in unity*.With this , where lies our internal / partisan strength since the chemistry between unity and strength is of positive correlation ....????

A father whose children goes wayward and later render apology for their actions and inactions ought to be considered wise and a father to whom such apology is rendered, needs to advice his children for the sake of unforseen circumstances other than exposing his children forgetting he is destroying his generation for which he will be remembered.

Why this internal cracks ...??

Why this intra - party brouhaha this early ....???

Where is our philosophy stating that, the party believes in the principles of social democracy ....???

Why must we be at loggerheads whiles the grassroots remain united ahead of 2020 ...???

How can we wake up from our sleep just to watch and hear fictive words from someone who was once a sensitive figure and once played justice roles within the immediate past President's administration ...????

Are we under the umbrella as suggested by our party symbol ...??? *( Elephants that scatter in bushes even have their censors at work ).*

HOW CAN WE TAKE A U - TURN FROM THIS INTERNAL CANKER ...????

We need to pretend and act just like fools to skip the traps of our opponents and forge ahead .You and I can simply tell that , this crack has been created due to the self - value we individually impose on our inner conscience as executives , founding fathers and past party ambassador( s ).

The national executive committee of our dear party needs a thorough restructure of some or all constituents as we gear towards our national executive elections as part of our internal reorganization exercise .

We need to revisit the party's constitution and not only to materialise but also reinforce it as how it was during the early days of our party's birth .

We should follow the goodwill of our party alongside that of our motherland at this critical time of social democracy and accountability.

I believe we can make progress having considered this piece .

Share it if you love and have the blood of this party as I do .

Long live Young Cadres

Long live NDC

Long live Ghana.
New Delhi (AFP) - The Dalai Lama has cancelled a trip next week to Botswana because of "exhaustion" after Beijing expressed anger at the African country for allowing the visit.

The 82-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, was to speak at a three day conference in Botswana's capital Gaborone, which begins on August 17.

An official statement released late Friday said the Dalai Lama had written to the president of Botswana and the conference organisers, the Mind and Life Institute, expressing "profound regret" at having to cancel his visit "due to exhaustion".

"His Holiness has reluctantly had to concede that his 82-year-old body was telling him to rest.

"Since his physicians have also advised him to avoid undertaking long journeys for the next few weeks, His Holiness will return to Dharamsala to recuperate," the statement said.

The Buddhist leader has lived in exile in India since he fled a failed Tibetan uprising in 1959.

Botswana said last month that the visit was "purely private" but added that the Dalai Lama would be granted the status of a foreign dignitary.

Beijing issued a warning to Botswana, asking the African nation to respect China's "core interests".

China's ruling Communist party views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous "separatist" campaigning for Tibetan independence. It consistently condemns other countries which let him visit.

The Dalai Lama says he wants more autonomy for Tibet rather than outright independence.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang last month called for Botswana to "earnestly respect" China's sovereignty, and "make the right decision" on Tibet-related issues.

"China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and we will not accept that other countries do things that would harm the core interests of China," he said.

China is a key investor in Africa and the continent's largest trade partner. In Botswana it has helped build power plants, road networks, bridges and schools.
Nairobi (AFP) - Two people have been shot dead in Kenya in angry opposition protests which flared up again Saturday after the hotly disputed election victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Protests and running battles with police broke out in Nairobi slums after a night of anger in opposition strongholds against an election that losing candidate Raila Odinga claims was massively rigged.

East Africa's richest economy was gripped by uncertainty a decade after a disputed 2007 election which led to two months of ethno-political violence that left 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

All eyes will now turn to Odinga, and his reaction to the loss which he claimed was a result of massive rigging of Tuesday's election, which his party denounced as a "charade" and a "disaster".

Odinga has yet to speak after the results were announced, but almost immediate protests erupted Friday night in his strongholds in western Kisumu county and poor areas of Nairobi, with gunshots ringing out and fires lit in the streets.

"We have one person killed and four others admitted in hospital with gunshot injuries," said Dr Ojwang Lusi, the regional health chief in western Kisumu county.

"My brother was shot and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating now he has a bullet injury on the hip," said Truphena Achieng, at a Kisumu hospital.

In the southwestern town of Siaya, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said a man had been shot dead in protests, but "we have not managed to collect the body... because of resistance from protesters."

Meanwhile protests flared up again Saturday morning, with police firing teargas and engaging in running battles with demonstrators in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums, according to AFP reporters.

In Kisumu protesters blocked major highways around the city.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged police to show restraint in the face of protests.

"With growing reports of demonstrations and heavy gunfire in some areas, it is important for security forces to work to deescalate - not escalate - the violence," said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW.

"The police should not use teargas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful."

Exclusion, resentment

Odinga, 72, is a veteran opposition politician seen as having taken his last shot at the presidency after four unsuccessful runs. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions

Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters -- and their allies from other groups -- believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country's biggest community.

"President Kenyatta, unlike his first term, must include everyone in his government," wrote the Daily Nation in an editorial, warning that limiting power to his tribal allies was "exacerbating exclusion and creating resentment and disillusionment."

Amid the anxiety over how the situation would unfold, there was also much joy in Kenyatta's strongholds after he was declared the victor with 54.27 percent to Odinga's 44.74.

In his acceptance speech Kenyatta reached out to Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together".

"Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this."

The latest death toll takes the number of people killed in election-related violence since Tuesday to eight.

Another four people died after being hit by vehicles during celebrations in separate incidents Friday night around the country, said a senior traffic police officer.

'Court is not an option'

The main opposition alliance has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack

Foreign observers praised a peaceful, credible voting process -- which saw turnout of 78 percent -- but the mood quickly turned sour when Odinga rejected the results after only a few hours of counting.

The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance (NASA), has claimed both that the results were manipulated by a massive hacking attack, and that it is in possession of results being concealed on IEBC servers that show Odinga to be the rightful winner.

On Thursday it demanded Odinga be declared president on these grounds.

In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost.

"We have been there before. Court is not an alternative," said top NASA official James Orengo.

Corruption, food prices

In his first term, Kenyatta, 55, was credited with a massive infrastructure drive, however his new government will face the rising debt as a result, and a predicted slowdown in growth from an average of more than five percent in recent years.

A major issue on the campaign trail was a spike in food prices and shortage of the staple maize meal due to a prolonged drought, which has hit the country's poorest hard.

Kenyatta's administration has been dogged by several graft scandals, with the country dropping six points in Transparency International's corruption index in 2016.
Bolgatanga, Aug. 11, GNA - Mr John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has said the challenges of the land sector needed to be addressed for Ghana to realise the goal of becoming a major business destination.

Mr Amewu said it is the dream of President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo to make Ghana the becoming the gateway for business in Africa and confronting the challenges in the land sector would also pave the way for the implementation of many of the government flagship programmes such as the 'One Village, One Dam', 'One District , One Factory', 'the Planting for food and Jobs', the Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern Development Authorities , road, railway and telecommunication infrastructure .

Mr Amewu said this when he inaugurated the Upper East Regional Lands Commission at the Regional Coordinating Council in Bolgatanga.

He urged the 20-member Commissioners to work hard to help address the challenges in the sector to realize the set targets.

Mr Amewu said the myriad of land litigations among different parties at the courts, traditional authorities participating in multiple sales of lands, falsification of land records in different public agencies and the high cost of survey charges are some of the factors which discourage owners from doing proper documentation.

Other challenges, he said, were encroachment on public lands, delay in processing land documents and registration of lands.

He said poor inventory of lands that were acquired by the Government in the past has made many clans and communities to lay claim to such land and thereby encroaching on them.

He said some of the lands with encroachment concerns include the key ministries areas, the residencies and some agriculture investments like the Tono and Vea Irrigation projects, road reservations, schools and hospitals among others in the region.

Spelling out some of the duties of the Commissioner, the Sector Minister said they were expected to manage public lands and any other lands vested in the President by the constitution on behalf of government and advice government, local authorities and traditional authorities on the policy framework for the development of particular areas of the country.

They are also expected to formulate and submit to government, recommendations on national policy with respect to land use suitability and capability and assist in the execution of a comprehensive programme for the registration of title to land throughout the country.

Mr Rockson Bukari, the Upper East Regional Minister, also appealed to Commissioners to sensitize communities on the implementation of government flagship programmes adding that 'it is becoming very difficult to acquire land for the implementation of the programme and for development'.

Mr Stephen Ntim, the National Coordinator of the Commission, assured the Commissioners that government would provide the needed the resources and logistics to ensure that they work to achieve the target.

Mr Jonathan Agme, the Chairman of the Upper East Regional Lands Commission, on behalf of his colleagues, thanked Government for the confidence reposed in them and pledged that they would work hard to help government accelerate development.

GNA

By Samuel Akapule, GNA
12.08.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Aug 11, GNA - The celebrated Indian classical dancer, Anita Babu and her group of Odissi dancers will perform at the National Theatre as part of a three nation tour to mark India's 70th independence anniversary.

The performance, slated for August 14 and 15 forms part of a three nation tour by the group, an official of the Indian High Commission in Accra said in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

It named the other countries to be visited as Burkina Faso and Togo where the group was scheduled to perform in Lome, Togo on August 10 and Burkina Faso on August 12.

The last stage of the tour in Ghana will end with a final performance at Tema on August 16, according to the statement.

A senior Odissi dancer, Babu is a teacher and choreographer in Delhi and has been performing for close to three decades in addition to teaching the Odissi dance for the last 15 years at her own School, Odissi Natya Sala in New Delhi.

The Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship (RKGF), a global non-profit mission dedicated to share ideas that encourage proactive action recently honoured her with an award.

This fellowship recognises people who have the courage of conviction to think differently, walk a path less trodden and to act on alternative and innovative ideas to make a difference.

Odissi which used to be (Orissi) dance is an Indian classical dance from the Eastern state of Odissa, and has a long, yet broken tradition. Although a dance in Odissa may be traced back to more than 2000 years, it was brought to near extinction during the colonial period.

Odissa, which is an eastern Indian state on the Bay of Bengal, is known for its tribal cultures and its many ancient Hindu temples.

The capital, Bhubaneswar, is home to hundreds of temples, notably the intricately-carved Mukteshvara. The Lingaraj Temple complex, dating to the 11th century, is set around the sacred Bindusagar Lake.

The Odisha State Museum is focused on the area's history and environment.

GNA
Gayama One, Fungom Subdivision, North West Cameroons: Mr. Patrick Lienwotue, Divisional Officer (D.O) of Fungom Subdivision, Menchum Division paid a contact visit to Gayama on 7 August 2017, where he announced that Cameroon government is doing everything to ensure that all affected persons by the water from the Kashimbila Multipurpose Dam would be compensated.

He spoke after visiting the former Gayama 2 village which has been completely wiped out by the water from the Kashimbila Multipurpose Dam constructed by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The dam has since destroyed homes, crops, UNESCO world heritage sites and causing a lot of misery in the communities of Gayama, Ezong, Akum Upack and Kpep on the Cameroon side.

The adverse effects of the dam are already being felt in the whole region presently witnessing prolonged sunshine during a supposedly rainy August.

D.O. Patrick Lienwontue is the first senior authority from the Cameroons to visit the affected communities under his administrative jurisdiction since the dam waters rose to its maximum 192 meters above sea level in May 2017.

He told the communities of Gayama, Munka and Munkep in Fungom subdivision that the government of Cameroon has not abandoned them.

Responding to worries addressed by the communities concerning land crisis, destruction by cattle during transhumance, illegal logging by some Nigerians in complicity with some local authorities, he reassured the people that government was up to the task and would not fail to defend the territory.

He enjoined the Cameroonian communities to live in peace with their Nigerian brothers. The Nigerians living here are your brothers. They should respect the Cameroonian laws when they are here as you also respect the Nigerian Laws while in Nigeria. He said.

Chief Tem Eric complained about the attitude of the Munka people who trespass on Esu land and collect revenue from farmers there. He also complained about Eshimbi people who cross from a different subdivision in Menchum Division to occupy and develop land in Fungom Subdivision.

Fon Abang of Munka in his address to the D.O. on the Munka Palace grounds promptly responded to the issues raised by the Esu people of Gayama. Munka is an independent minority group recognized as such since the arrival of the German colonizers and various intelligence reports of British administrators to Southern Cameroons. Munka has never paid taxes to Esu Fondom. Munka speaks a different language and its chief is not enthroned by the Fon of Esu. The FON (chief in North West Cameroons) of Munka said.

D.O Lienwontue Patrick called on the populations of the area to prepare for the resumption of school on 4 September 2017. Start cleaning around your school premises as a sign of your preparedness for school resumption. He said.

He warned that following the disturbances throughout the North West and South West regions of the Cameroons with people calling for secession and federalism, only the Head of State could decide on the best outcomes with other political parties.

The D.O ended his first contact tours at Esu and Weh preaching the same message of respect for State authority, better hygiene and enjoining the communities to send their children back to school on 4 September 2017.

Fon Christopher Achobang

Social Commentator, Human rights activist

The Cameroons
Tamale based Non-Governmental Organization, Youth Empowerment for Life, (YEfL) has proposed the introduction of one district-one library policy for Northern Region.

This follows damning reports of poor reading and spelling skills attributed to majority of basic school pupils in the Northern Region.

The Centre for Active Learning and Development (CALID), an NGO, lately revealed that 48.5% of basic school pupils in the Sagnarigu district of the Northern Region could neither read simple letter words or workout simple numeracy from grade 2 symbols.

The knock-on effect is poor performances at the levels of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Acting Director of the YEfL, Alhassan Abdul-Ganiyu at a round table discussion in Tamale on a year-long campaign dubbed, One District; One Library: a catalyst for universal youth literacy, asked government to implement the proposal.

According to him, the campaign was in line with the Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 6 which stipulates that By 2030, all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.

The goal of the campaign is to promote literacy and numeracy skills among the youth and to improve the educational outcomes in the region especially in the BECE and WASSCE.

The performances of students in these examinations are horrifying and consistently so for the past 8 years. We believe that the establishment of these libraries would help redirect the energies of the youth from cybercrime which has taken a toll on their lives to reading which would lead to increased performance in the BECE and WASSCE in the region.

Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Aaron Kuwornu claimed truancy and laziness were major contributory factors to students' abysmal performance.

He subscribed to the establishment of modern libraries across the region to overturn the situation.

The Director in charge of Planning and Monitoring at the Northern Regional Directorate of Education, Prince Askia Mohammed accused some school heads, parents and educational authorities of poor leadership.

Huge investments have been made in the education sector over the years but still the quality is nothing to write home about.

Until there is a change in the behaviour of teachers, parents and authorities with regards to effective management of schools and strict supervision, the quest for quality education might take a long time to achieve, he underscored.

The panel discussion brought together civil society organizations promoting quality education, the media and other stakeholders to interact with over 250 youth from the region.

The discussions proffered strategies required to improve access to quality education considering the consistent poor performances at the BECE and WASSCE levels.



By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
12.08.2017 LISTEN

A Koforidua High Court has acquitted and discharged Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye III, Chief of Abomosarefo in the Kwahu Afram Plains North of the Eastern Region, of the charge of allegedly forging a colonial document with intent to defraud and claim ownership of the Abomosarefo land.

According to the court presided by Justice Henry A. Kwoffie, Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye is not guilty of all the four counts of offences levelled against him and accordingly acquitted and discharged him.

The charges

Apart from the forgery charges, Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye was also charged with deceiving a public officer contrary to the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29).

The particulars of the offences indicated that the Chief, with intent to defraud, forged a document titled, "The Report of Enquiry into the Akwamu and Kwahu Land dispute, 1845" and through his alleged machinations at the National Archives office and the Committee of Enquiry set up by the Kwahu Traditional Council, obtained judgment in his favour to have possession of Abomosarefo land which forms two-thirds of the whole Afram Plains lands.

The facts

According to historical account, the grandfather of Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye, in the 1840s served in the palace of Nana Atipah of the Asiedu Boafo Bretuo family of Kwahu Pepease in the Eastern Region.

Nana Atipah named his grandfather as Kweku Didieye and assimilated him into the Asiedu Bretuo family and later made him overseer of the Abomosarefo village.

In 1990, Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye, a descendant of Kweku Didieye, was enstooled Chiefof Abomosarefo when the position became vacant but according to the prosecution, soon after his installation, the he allegedly hatched a plot to dispossess the rightful owners of the Bukuruwa stool of the Abomosarefo village.

The prosecution said in pursuit of his plan, the Chief allegedly went to the National Archives several times and obtained certain historical documents of the Gold Coast from which he allegedly compiled a fictitious document titled "The Report of Enquiry into the Akwamu and Kwahu land dispute, 1845".

According to prosecution, a portion of the forged document contained receipts falsely alleging that Abomosarefo land and its environs were bought by the Chief's grandfather, Kweku Didieye, for 250. He sent the document to the National Archives claiming it was an ancient document prepared by one Major Cochrane in the Gold Coast Regiment and found in an animal horn in the shrine at Abomasarefo.

The prosecution again said Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye later went back to the National Archives and allegedly obtained an authenticated copy of the said document to use it as his 'weapon' to claim the Abomosarefo land from the Bukuruwa stool in 1991.

After years of litigation at different levels, several witnesses and evidence were presented by both prosecution and defence teams to the court presided by Justice Henry A. Kwoffie who swore to hear the protracted litigation to its logical conclusion, after the case had passed through the hands of six judges.

Ruling

Over a year after counsel for the two parties had presented their addresses to the court, the judgment, given under the signature of Justice Kwoffie, stated that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused person beyond reasonable doubt that he authored the 1845 document.

The court also ruled that the said 1845 document was not a forgery but it was evidently clear that the National Archives received it from the colonial office since 1959 and, therefore, acquitted and discharged Nana Anku Dododzah Didieye after finding him not guilty of all the charges.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

At any given point in time in our democracy, it is vital to have viable opposition parties able to keep ruling parties in check, on all fronts, and offer sound policy alternatives to those of governments of the day. We must also never forget that every political party in each true democracy on the planet Earth is essentially a broad church - within which there exist differences of opinion amongst party members.

Above all, we all need to understand that party members need not necessarily have to get along personally or be close friends either - as long as at all material times they are tolerant of divergent opinions on controversial issues that divide them, which crop up from time to time.

For the sake of the hardpressed ordinary citizens of our homeland Ghana, the various factions in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must not lose sight of their main constitutional role: ensuring that those who now govern our country do not eventually end up enslaving Ghanaians and gang-raping Mother Ghana. Having publicly expressed their frustrations with each other on various media platforms recently, the various factions in the NDC would be wise to let sleeeping dogs lie for the moment.

The wisest course of action for the NDC's leaders to take, for now, would be to focus on creative policy formulation and innovative initiatives that will redound to the benefit of ordinary Ghanaians, which will make it possible for their party to return to power again someday. Lest they forget: With the benefit of hindsight, clearly, it was unwise for those around President Mills to insist that Hon. Martin Amidu ought to be dismissed from the then NDC government by the president, at the particular moment when Mills did so. And it will be most unwise for the NDC to now dismiss him from the party - for the repercussions could prove fatal for a party many of whose leading lights might probably soon find themselves on trial for causing financial loss to the state: in some of the very first cases to be taken on by the Special Public Prosecutor.

Whatever their faults as individuals - and let us not forget that none of us is perfect either: for we all have our own faults too - both former President Rawlings and Martin Amidu are key NDC figures: whom many ordinary people in Ghana (for indeterminate reasons) somehow believe to be politicians who are dedicated to protecting the national national interest when it comes to fighting and exposing high-level corruption.

The NDC lost power in 2016 mainly because it failed to read the national mood correctly - which was that many Ghanaians were thoroughly fed up with a regime they perceived to be corrupt. It must not repeat the same mistake again in dealing with the 'problem' that some of the party's leading lights clearly feel Martin Amidu represents.

Strategically, dismissing Martin Amidu from the NDC is not smart politics. Full stop. It will be a shorsighted move and incredibly daft in a society that has clearly had enough of high-level corruption.

As they deal with that mischievous petition-of-convenience before them, which was filed against Martin Amidu by some disgruntled NDC members, the question the NDC's leaders must ponder over is: What conclusions will many ordinary Ghanaians draw from the dismissal of the much-admired Martin Amidu from the NDC? Food for thought.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

It was a four-sentence news story that appeared on the website of BBC.com and was migrated to their webpage by the operatives of Ghanaweb.com. Now, dear concerned reader, donot email to ask why my articles have not been appearing on Ghanaweb.com in recent weeks or months. Kindly direct such questions and/or concerns to the webmasters or whoever is/are in charge of that webmaster. I prefer not to be distracted by questions or issues over which I have absolutely no control. And, by the way, some of my articles may also be found on the website of the Berlin-based Africanewsanalysis.com.

Well, the question that we are concerned with here, presently, is the decision by the Emir of Kano, Nigeria, His Majesty, Muhammed Sanusi, II, to ban all adult-male subjects in his emirate or kingdom officially classified as poor or indigent from having more than one wife. The objective here, according to the news report, is to ensure that these poor husbands and fathers-to-be would be able to cater to the needs of their family members (See Nigeria to Ban Polygamy for Poor Men BBC.com 4/4/17). On the face of it, the decision seems quite laudable; but even as Emir Muhammed Sanusi himself and his councilors and counselors well appear to have almost immediately come to realize, it is far easier said than done.

Indeed, even as I write, a little over three months later, the Kano Muslim traditional rulers are still trying to figure out precisely what it means for any citizen or subject of their emirate to be classified as poor and thus not entitled to having more than a single wife. Then also, these Hausa-Muslim traditional rulers may not have been thinking about this corollary of their decision, but the question also immediately arises over just how many children a poor man with one wife may have in order to be considered to have met the contents or parameters of the law that is soon to be presumably enacted. For example, what would be the difference between a man with one wife but 10 or 12 children who is considered to be poor and therefore unqualified to take a second wife, and another poor man who already has two or even three wives and a total of, say, six children?

In other words, banning poor adult males from engaging in the age-old practice of polygamy, without also specifying the number of children that a poor husband and his wife may have would make the entire decision or law counterproductive. These leaders, clearly, would have a far better chance of promoting the education of young women, and even adult women, in order to heighten the chances of these veritable victims of polygamy in making wise and healthy choices in this matter. Then also, what happens if the poor man or husbands second wife comes from a family that is wealthy enough to enable their daughter take good care of their daughter and her children? Or the second wife is personally industrious enough or has the wherewithal to take care of her own children and even the children of her rival or co-wife?

It is quite clear that Emir Muhammed Sanusi would make a far more profitable use of his time and cognitive resources by creatively and progressively focusing his attention on the crafting and enactment of laws that place heavy penalties on adult-male fathers who have the means to afford their wives and children a decent quality of life or existence, but are or have deliberately refused or neglected to do so.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
12.08.2017 LISTEN

A delegation from Village of Hannover Park, Germany this morning paid a courtesy call on the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Cape Coast, Hon. Ernest Arthur. The Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly and the Village of Hannover Park have a sister city relationship which dates back to 1992.

The visit forms part of the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Sister Cities Friendship between the two cities.

The delegation which was led by Anniversary Chairperson, Mrs Linda McCance Packham and her daughter, Sandra extended the Village's congratulations to Hon. Ernest Arthur on his appointment as the MCE of Cape Coast. "It is with great pleasure that I extend congratulations on your recent appointment as Metropolitan Chief Executive", a statement signed by Rodney S. Craig, the Village President read.

According to the statement, Village of Hannover has three projects in Cape Coast. "We currently have three projects in Cape Coast; support of the Hannover Park Primary School in OLA Estates; the Metropolitan Hospital Children Ward, where we completed an interior Playroom in 2015 and for which we will start construction of an in-ward shower and toilet facility in the next few weeks; as well as the support of the Domestic Violence Prevention Unit's Open-Air shelter completed in 2014 at the Regional Police Headquarters" the statement read.

Hon. Ernest Arthur expressed his appreciation for the continued support the Assembly has received from the Village. He pledged his commitment towards the corporation. He also used the visit to discuss investment opportunities in Cape Coast and asked the German delegation to lobby its businessmen to come and invest in Cape Coast. "I think we can extend this relationship beyond friendship and tap the investment opportunities available to us" the MCE stated.

.......Signed........

Richmond Yeboah

Investment Desk

Cape Coast Metro
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of the country's election, but not everybody is happy.

His opponent Raila Odinga insists the election results have been manipulated, and protests have broken out in poor neighbourhoods in two of the country's major cities.

It's too soon to say how long, or how significant this unrest will be, but it carries risks for Kenya, a country considered one of the most dynamic and democratic in east Africa.

How did we get here?

The disagreement erupted just hours after Tuesday's vote ended, when Odinga insisted preliminary results being announced by the electoral commission (IEBC) were fraudulent.

Such allegations are not new for Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who has stood for president three times previously.

He placed third in 1997, and in both 2007 and 2013 he cried foul.

The 2007 vote -- which international observers said was riddled with irregularities -- is notorious as it sparked two months of violence that left 1,100 people dead and 600,000 displaced.

In 2013, he went to court over the elections, and lost.

In poor neighbourhoods in Odinga's western stronghold Kisumu, and in the slums of Nairobi, rioting started immediately after Kenyatta was declared the winner

Despite all that, the 72-year-old is a popular political figure in the country, and his allegations carry weight with his supporters, particularly among his Luo ethnic group who believe they have long been denied political power by Kenyatta's Kikuyu ethnic group.

What exactly are Odinga's complaints?

Odinga's National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition claims that hackers breached the IEBC's electronic voting systems and falsified the results.

Odinga has provided documents allegedly showing a database being manipulated, as well as documents purported to be from the IEBC server showing him to be the true winner.

On Thursday, NASA officials demanded that he be declared president on these grounds.

They also complained they had not seen about 25 percent of the tallying forms meant to back up electronic results streamed directly to the electoral commission's headquarters.

NASA demanded access to the IEBC's servers if they were to accept the results of the vote. The coalition has so far ruled out going to court.

The IEBC, for its part, has denied NASA's claims.

What's happening now?

In most cities in the country, nothing.

But in poor neighbourhoods in Odinga's western stronghold Kisumu, and in the slums of the capital Nairobi, rioting started immediately after Kenyatta was declared the winner.

Three people have been killed so far in the unrest, including a child shot in the back while watching protests from his balcony in the Nairobi slum Mathare.

Nineteen people were also wounded in that neighbourhood, according to charity Doctors Without Borders.

Businesses believed to belong to Kenyatta supporters were torn down in Kibera, another slum in the capital.

Police have countered the rioters with tear gas, and also live bullets fired into crowds in some instances.

Uncertainty over the election has seen many businesses stay shut, and people remain indoors in the capital since the vote.

What's at stake for Kenya?

Plenty.

The country is one of east Africa's largest economies and has been growing at a healthy five percent every year since 2013.

The vote dispute threatens that prosperity, and the violence may do even more damage because it calls into question the stability of a country that's also considered the region's strongest democracy, said Nic Cheeseman, a professor of African politics at Britain's University of Birmingham.

"Obviously, everything that happens like that is bad news for the country," Cheeseman said.

Even without the unrest, things were expected to be tough for Kenya over the next year.

The government may have to cut spending, harming growth, and food prices, which became a campaign issue after they spiked, aren't likely to come down anytime soon, Cheeseman said.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

The word found simply means to originate or establish something. King Osei Tutu I is given credit as the founder of Asante Kingdom because heretofore acephalous-like Asante society came under his political hegemony. There was nothing like Asante Kingdom before Osei Tutu I. In the same way, there was nothing like modern Republic of Ghana before Kwame Nkrumah. Saul who became known as Paul was different in nature (as Paul) from his behavior (as Saul).

Colonial Gold Coast was different in nature from New Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. The British writer, Charles Caleb Colton asserted that the consequences of things were not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that had produced them. This partly explains why at least for three reasons the minuscule contributions of the members of United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) though essential cannot overshadow theglory of Nkrumah as a founder of New Ghana.

In the first place, every struggle is started by many but it takes the charisma of one individual to usher that struggle to its designated climax. For example, in June 11, 1776, five individuals namely: Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Benjamin Franklin drafted the declaration of United States Independence but the authorship is credited to Thomas Jefferson. USA constitution was adopted in 1787 and some of the individuals who contributed included, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay and George Washington. James Madison is credited as the father of constitution and the conception of the Bill of Rights, perhaps because of his charisma or his special role.

Besides, after the declaration of US independence in 1776, it was cemented with American War of Independence (1778-1783). France contributed enormously to the successes chalked by USA over their hitherto colonial power, Great Britain. The contributions of France to the American Revolution contributed to the French revolution of 1789. The British Historian Professor Alfred Cobban (1901-1968) convincingly observed that the price to pay for American War of Independence was the French Revolution. Louis XVI, the French Monarch during American Revolution in spite of his contributions to American War of Independence is not mentioned among the founding fathers of USA. It is worthy of noting that USA has founding fathers but George Washington is credited as the father of the nation. Thus, there is nothing wrong to perceive Nkrumah as the founder of Ghana.

The second reason why I think Nkrumah founded Ghana is that members of UGCC opposed and sabotaged Nkrumah. In any case, how did the leaders of UGCC measure their shortest possible time? Like the age-long Cold War, the Soviet Union cannot claim to be contributing to the successes of the capitalist countries. Even though, I am not unaware of unity in opposition concept, it defies logic for the leaders of UGCC to claim credit for the vision they openly opposed. The two opposing views were Self-government now versus Self-government in a shortest possible time. Founding fathers of USA did not oppose each other, they built a consensus for the sake of their country. Nkrumahs view won and the colonial masters gave him a chance to found his new Ghana. Is it not nauseating and quixotic for a Nigerian defender to celebrate a goal scored against his team by AsamoahGyan? Professor Oquaye, how can the leaders of UGCC contribute to the success of the same vision they opposed?

Also, the contributors of independence struggle of Gold Coast could be mentioned ad infinitum. The traditional chiefs who signed the so-called Bond of 1844, members of Fanti Confederation in 1868, the role of Ashantis during Sagrenti War in 1874, three months after July 1874, whensouthern Ghana was declared the British colony and the formation of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS) in 1897 to frustrate the obnoxious land bill all somewhat contributed to the independence struggle.

Thus, to single out only the birthing of UGCC as a significant landmark towards Ghanas independence is very unfair to other contributors also. Needless to say, that the idea of independence struggle was not mooted by J. B Danquah. The Bond of 1844 was destined to expire in 1944 implying that the traditional chiefs who naively endorsed it were aware of independence. Since all of them cannot be mentioned. Nkrumah must be allowed to enjoy his enviable founding glory.

The last reason why Nkrumah founded Ghana is based on professor Oquayes own political tradition. The tradition is Danquah-Busia tradition. What happened to Paa Grant, Edward Akuffo-Addo, AkoAdjei and ObetsebiLamptey? Why not the big five-Busia tradition but Danquah-Busia tradition? Probably because of the special role of Danquah. In the same direction, the special role of Nkrumah made him a founder of Ghana.

Nkrumah originated what is now modern Ghana with the constructions of industrial city of Tema, Tema motorway,Tema harbor, Akosombo Dam, Ghana Atomic Energy, Ghnana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) with about 170 factories, KNUST, UCC and many Secondary Schools. He became inspiration to many. Martin Luther King Junior said he was motivated by Nkrumah to start his civil rights activism in USA.At Makerere University in Uganda, there is Nkrumah Hall, In Tanzania, there is Nkrumah Hall. Where was Danquah when Nkrumah had a fracas with SyvanusOlympio of Togo over the Trans-Volta Togoland (TVT) which was decided by a plebiscite? Olympio described Nkrumah as African imperialist for the sake of the latters new Ghana and Ewe question.

God fearing Nkrumah wanted to be catholic father, yet he was virulently and malevolently accused of worshipping KankaNyame. Thank God some of the descendants of his malicious accusers are now conspicuously being crowned as grand masters of secret society (Not my business though someones faith!).I have no scintilla of perturbation because Jesus, the Christ reminded us that a prophet is not without honor except his own hometown (Matthew 13:57). God Bless Our Home Land Ghana! God Bless Kwame Nkrumah! God Bless Catholic Church of Ghana for developing Ghana.
Kenyans now know who leads the country the next five years. Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner, the opposition has raised issues against the process but all the observer groups have described the election, free and fair. The election dominated media discussions in Ghana and Ghanaians were caught up in the Kenya elections fever. This evening on one of Accra's popular radio stations, a popular radio host working with the station, told his co-host that he saw Uhuru's victory coming and did not hide his support for the victor.

This was what he told his co-host "I was in Kenya two years ago and per the new infrastructure i saw, I knew the people will retain him to continue what he is doing". The intriguing aspect of this statement by the host is that, he was one of the journalists who confidently supported the Npp anti- infrastructure campaign message. So, I quickly went back to that article the Kenyan journalist wrote in which Mahama was lauded for reducing Ghana's infrastructure deficit.

My research did not end there, I picked Prof. Ransford Gyampo's write-up and critically scrutinised the content. After that, I read over and over again, what Prof. Baffour Agyemang-Dua is purported to have said on a GTV programme. Later in the day, I had a chat with Prof Elvis Asenso on the Kenyan election and this time, he buried his partisan inclination and dealt with the issues dispassionately.

What he said should have gladdened my heart but beloved, I sighed heavily after chatting with him, and said to myself ; "the time has come for some of us to depart from the rigid partisan stance we take on critical national issues" I salute all these noblemen of the land for exhibiting maturity and genuine spirit of patriotism. I chose the above heading because of what we all heard and read from Kenya prior to the elections. Kenya's national security instituted measures to monitor activities of the various parties and prevented suspected hackers from entering the country.I have my personal issues and suspicions about the 2016 election results in Ghana but that have decided never to make that part of the reasons why the NDC lost for strategic reasons.

My position is that, we must accept the result as the verdict by the masses, go to their appeal court with our new message, and respectively, appeal to their subconscious instincts for their votes. What happened in Kenya, the deportation of the Serbians and Ukrainians and other persons from Ghana, confirms what others said about Ghana's election that, our system was hacked. Before the elections, we witnessed emergence of a campaign strategy whereby a candidate (Nana Akufo-Addo) often supported behind the scenes foreign communication strategists, cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process and the institution that manage it.

The attacks on the EC were designed to weaken the institution and make it vulnerable. They issued threats and warnings and made all Ghanaians aware they were going to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the process to either declare themselves winners, or derail or establish lasting doubt about the legitimacy of the outcome.

So I asked my friend who always challenged my position that the 2016 election was rigged through hacking of our system, if he heard about the information the Kenyan security released about the Ukrainians, the Serbians and the deportation of the two Ghanaians and their Liberian counterpart.

I referred my friend to the decision by the authorities in the Netherlands to abandon electronic vote counting in favor of old fashioned methods following reports of foreign interference in other countries' elections.We heard about the Serbians who were brought down without the knowledge of Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, and the Nigerians who came down weeks before the elections. KENNEDY AGYEPONG AND THE VIGILANTE GROUPS- Ken, openly threatened the npp that he will expose how the npp won elections if the dared remove the BOST boss. The vigilante groups have repeatedly sent same message to the party.

What are they hiding from the public CAMPAIGN MESSAGE The opposition in Kenya made economic hardship one of its main campaign messages and despite the economy growing on average of 5% a year and foreign Investment increasing, the opposition using its conduit forces, said Kenyans are not feeling the effect of the growth.

Uhuru's administration was also accused of excessive borrowing and just like what the Npp told Ghanaians, NASA, said, Uhuru's government has borrowed much more than the accumulative amount borrowed by all past governments since independence. Kenyatta and his party,however, argued that investment in infrastructure will spur growth.

The issue of corruption also featured prominently in their campaign. They used John Githongo an anti- corruption crusader in the media to attack Uhuru's government. John Githongo, described the Uhuru government as "the most corrupt in Kenya's history" Uhuru just like John Mahama, took did act, he suspended and eventually removed five ministers and other high ranking officials in his government over corruption. But the opposition mischievously misinterpreted his action. The other message was the issue of unemployment.

The opposition adopted the strategy the Npp used to weaken the electoral commission. It constantly expressed its reservations about the commission's neutrality, efficiency and readiness to conduct a credible elections.

In Ghana, we were treated to an exhibition in the art of guile and deception every time the opposition elements mounted the campaign platform and even seemingly honest and well respected personalities in society, after setting foot in the exclusive lies peddling campaign platforms, transform rapidly into liars or Rottweilers.

AFTERMATH OF GHANA'S ELECTIONS So, let me land on what the radio host said about Uhuru and the massive infrastructure recorded under his administration and what Prof Baffour Agyemang-Dua, said about Mr Mahama and Ghana's infrastructure. The world bank and other international institutions have made it clear that unless Africa reduces its huge infrastructure deficit, real economic growth will remain a mirage.

Our economists and political lords are aware of this obvious truth yet, remained mute when the npp told the last administration that we don't eat infrastructure. The US and other countries have scrapped the trainees allowance system to expand infrastructure etc, Saudi Arabia and other countries have removed certain subsidies their citizens hitherto, enjoyed and have introduced new taxes to compensate loss in revenue as a result of the fluctuating oil price.

What are we seeing here, government is suffocating itself with certain outmoded policies whilst reneging on promises they made in opposition. The previous regime built more hospitals and other health facilities, employing people to work at these facilities is becoming a burden for the administration. Fertiliser which were distributed "free" to farmers is now being sold to them.

Nigeria is going through same stagnation after Goodluck Jonathan had propelled the economy to an appreciable level. We shall continue with the discussion but my humble appeal to all is that, the interest of Ghana must always come first and we must also think of the generation to come. Let us use every platform we control, profitably for the interest of mother Ghana.
Residents of Dunkonah, a budding community behind the plush West Hills Mall in Accra do not share in the excitement that the many patrons of the mall enjoy.

The roads in Dunkonah has many potholes and is not traffic worthy. Motorists who ply this road struggle to keep their cars in balance because of the potholes and are compelled to frequent mechanic shops to have their cars fixed.

The residents also complain about the high cost of fares they pay for transportation when Citi News visited the place.

During rainy and Harmattan seasons, one drives at his or her own risk due to the absence of road markings, road signs or even proper street lighting.

Madam Alice Darko, a resident who has lived in the community for over 15 years, lamented the poor condition of the road.

I've been living in this community for 17 years and I've never seen a grader from the local government or even the MP on this road, she said.

The resident association had asked each household in the community to pay GHc4, 000 to have the road fixed but no one has paid yet.

The poor nature of the road has also affected police response to crime. Dunkonah has no police station and over the past few weeks, several cases of armed robbery and violence connected to land litigation, have occurred.

The Assemblyman for the area, Mr. Yaw Atampuri believes that better roads will hasten police response to crime in Dunkonah.

Minister for Roads and Highways Kwesi Amoako Atta said the government is committed to fixing bad roads in the country, agitated residents of Dunkonah are hoping that they will also be beneficiaries.



By: Akua Asantewaa Anane-Darko/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Doctors in Ghana have been advised to adopt an innovative alternative means of surgery known as minimally invasion therapy in treating their patients.

The President of the Ghana Society of Interventional Radiology Dr. Benjamin Dabo Sakordie who made the call explains that, minimally invasive therapy has less complications and a short term recovery.

Minimally  Invasion therapy is a pinhole surgery which does not require the traditional way of cutting parts of the human body during surgery.

According to Dr. Benjamin Sarkodie the treatment could be used in treating cancers, fibroids, leg ulcers, and heart attacks with many other related diseases.

Dr. Sarkodie made the remark at the Ghana Society of Intervention Radiology conference held in Accra last Tuesday.

The conference reviewed the treatment methods for physicians, cardiologists and other specialist from various hospitals in the country.

He said the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, University of Ghana Hospital (which will be operational soon) and other private hospitals will be in providing the treatment while they make it available nationwide.

He further stated that the society has specialist doctors to help in that area adding that government has also provided some of the machines to the Korle-Bu teaching hospital (KATH) which is currently providing this treatment.



By: Gifty Tracy Aminu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Pwalugu (U/E), Aug. 12, GNA - Mr Rockson Bukari, the Upper East Regional Minister, has appealed to investors to partner with the Government to revive the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory in the Region, also known as the Northern Star Tomato Factory.

The Minister made the call when a television crew from the Association of Public Broadcasting Corporations in Germany, led by their reporter, Ms Joana Jaschke, paid a visit to the Factory to do a documentary following a feature article written by Mr Samuel Akapule, a Senior Journalist of the Ghana News Agency, on the state of the Factory.

Briefing the journalists, Mr Bukari said apart from the 300 workers of the Factory who were laid off, more than 1,250 tomato farmers from communities in the Region who cultivated tomato to feed the factory were also out of job.

He said no investor would regret to partner the Government to revamp the Factory since it would improve revenue as the Vea and the Tono Irrigation Schemes and the vast agricultural land in the Region, could serve as arenas for the farmers to cultivate raw material to feed the factory.

'This Government is very passionate about private partnership that will help bring industrialisation and improve the lives of the people. We will, therefore, be very grateful with any investor who will want to partner with us to help revive this important national asset to create employment and wealth for the people, especially the youth,' Mr Bukari said.

Touching on what led to the closure of the factory, the Regional Minister said the problem was due to lack of leadership, political commitment and financial constraints.

He noted that the Factory, when put back on its feet, could produce to feed the country and export to neigbouring countries including Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali to earn some foreign exchange.

Mr Vincent Atarisaga, the Technical Officer of the Factory, explained the production stages and said all the machines were fully functional except the three vacuum pumps, which had problems.

He said the Factory had the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tonnes of tomato paste per day and that one of the major factors that collapsed it was the lack of machines for canning the paste, thereby compelling it to send the product to an Italian company in Accra to be canned.

Mr Joseph Beni, the Regional Crop Officer, said a new variety of tomato suitable for cultivation had been developed for farmers and that opening the Factory would support the Government's Planting for Food and Jobs Policy.

Some of the farmers the GNA spoke to expressed disappointment at the state of the Factory and said they would be most grateful if the Government could fast-track the process of revamping it.

'We used to pay our children's school fees and cater for our family needs without much problem when the Factory was in full operation but now most of us cannot do so, thereby causing rural urban migration, particularly the youth, who used to get employment from this Factory,' Mr Ibrahim Salifu, the Spokesperson for the farmers, said.

Ms Jaschke pledged to show the documentary on their television network and expressed optimism that it would help attract investors from Germany to partner the Government to revive the Factory.

GNA

By Samuel Akapule
Bolgatanga, Aug. 12, GNA - The Business Community in the Bolgatanga Municipality has called on the Government to, as a matter of urgency, find lasting solution to the Bolgatanga chieftaincy conflict as the area was becoming fragile each passing day.

The business owners made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency and said the area was becoming unsafe for business transactions.

A Bolgatanga High Court, Presided by Mr Jacob Boon, had annulled an earlier ruling by the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs that legitimised the enskinment of Naba Awogeya Lemna Alafia Abilba IV, as Paramount Chief of the Bolgatanga Traditional Area.

The ruling, as interpreted by the court, means that for now Bolgatanga has no chief.

On Sunday night the GNA gathered that the conflict sparked again recording some injuries.

The Upper East Regional Security Council held an emergency closed door meeting on Tuesday to deliberate on the incident, which has been described by the Business Community as unfortunate and disturbing.

Mr Henry Bakiye, the Chief Executive Officer of Rykivella Ventures, bemoaned the continuous litigation and said it had affected business activities.

He said there was too much fear, suspicion and mistrust among residents and businesses and called on the Government to intervene.

Madam Lamisi Angmeliga, a clothes dealer, said: 'Chieftaincy has got nothing to do with politics, government must help the people to resolve the problem to halt these fatalities.'

Hajia Amina Iddrisu, a trader at the Old Central Market, complained about the sharp decline in sales, adding; 'we depend on our suppliers for credit to do business but these days there is no sales and our creditors are on us.

'Government must intervene to solve the problem once and for all. These court rulings can't solve chieftaincy problems,' she added.

The conflicts begun about three years ago with the passing on of the Paramount Chief of Bolgatanga Traditional Area, Naba Martin Adongo Abilba IV.

Since then, there has been succession dispute over enskinment rights and rights to the skin, which the Regional House of Chiefs, following historic precedents, turned down a petition by the Apagre Family that presented Mr Joseph Apagre as its candidate whom the Overlord of Mamprugu enskined.

The GNA observed that since Monday, businesses in the Bolga Township close early and by 2000 hours only a handful of them are seen operating.

GNA
The people of Ga Mashie in the Greater Accra Region on Saturday celebrated their annual Homowo festival in grand style.

The festival which means hooting at hunger was characterised by several activities such as the pouring of libation by the traditional authorities and the sprinkling of their traditional food; Kpokpoe amidst gunshots, singing and drumming.

Led by the chief of Gbese, Nii Ayi Bonte II, the traditional leaders, clothed in red apparels, moved from one home to the other, sprinkling the traditional food and blessing their subjects.

Prior to the festival, there was a month-long ban on noise making and drumming in the capital city, Accra.

The Ga-Mashie group celebrates the festival first followed by other towns including the La and Teshie groups.

Homowo recounts the migration of the Gas and reveals their agricultural success in their new settlement.

According to Ga oral tradition, a severe famine broke out among the people during their migration to present day Accra.

They were inspired by the famine to embark on massive food production exercises which eventually yielded them bumper harvests.

Their hunger ended and with great joy, they hooted at hunger.



By: Roberta Edem Abbeyquaye/citifmonline.com/Ghana
President Nana Akufo-Addo has admonished young doctors to accept postings in rural communities in the country.

He said they shouldn't see that as a punishment but a way of contributing their quota to the development of Ghana.

Ghana's doctor to patient ratio currently stands at one doctor to 8,000 patients a situation the president described as woefully inadequate.

The President made the comment while speaking at the congregation ceremony for medical students at the University of Cape Coast Medical School in the Central Region no Saturday as part of his tour of the region.

Our doctor patient ratio is even more lump sided when you get to the rural and deprived areas of our country. I do not put the all the blame on our medical doctors unwillingness to work in these communities. If we had good road networks and good schools are available around the country and not only in the urban centers, if we had electricity supply in all communities we will not have to be asked indeed insist that our young doctors take up postings in the rural communities. As we train more doctors to solve the shortage of doctors, we must also do more to keep them, he added.

Brain drain

The president also complained about the brain drain of doctors.

According to him although Ghana trains a lot of doctors only few remain and serve the country and thus encouraged the young medical doctors from the Cape Coast University to stay and work in Ghana.

our medical schools have got a good reputation and have been training good doctors but the doctor population ratio in our country remains very unsatisfactory after 60 years of independence. We have trained a lot of doctors but many are not practicing in Ghana. We have lost them to mostly to countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and Germany. Im told that Ghanas doctor patient ratio is approximately one doctor to 8,000 patients. This is woefully inadequate and unacceptable, he lamented.



By: Godwin A. Allotey & Joseph Ackon-Mensah /citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
A member of pressure group, Occupy Ghana, Sydney Casely-Hayford has said Prof. Kwesi Botchwey was the wrong person to chair the National Democratic Congress committee charged to probe the party's defeat at the December 7, 2016 general elections.

Speaking on Citi FM's news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford insisted that Mr. Botchwey's ideologies are far from those upheld by the NDC.

Kwesi Botchwey is the wrong person to have been put in charge of going to find out what went wrong for the party. Because Kwesi Botchwey's mentality as far as politics is concerned is not NDC like at all. He is a compromiser and is somebody with a whole different view of how things work. You can't expect to put a whole group of people like that and expect to come out with shining armour, he added.

Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman of NDCs Election Review Committee

He made the comment when a school established by the NDC was being discussed on the show.

The NDC last Thursday launched its ideological school known as the Ghana Institute of Social Democracy.

The school according to the party will inculcate its principles, ideologies, and values to members.

In April 2017, the party's school working committee, based on its previous report proposed the formation of the Ghana Institute of Social democracy as an institution of higher learning and research to train many party comrades and other interested stakeholders in the fundamental principles and philosophy of the party, General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said.

Asiedu Nketia has answers to NDC's defeat

But Casely-Hayford said answers concerning the NDC's abysmal performance in the election are with the party's General Secretary.

The person who knows what went wrong and can tell the NDC precisely what they did wrong and how to fix it is Johnson Asiedu Nketia. He made a very snide comment after the election. He said that all these going around and talking to everybody, the whole matter is clear and simple but did not make further comments after that. And they [NDC] are all living in denial, he added.

Franklin Cudjoe commends NDC

Meanwhile, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana also speaking on the issue commended NDC for the forming the school but urged them to teach a cause he described as internal centralism as part of causes to be thought at the school.

He also called on them to teach their members who to make their manifesto promises quantifiable saying I will be happy to be a lecturer.

I was laughing over it but I was also serious, ideology is very important. I think that they should also teach what I called internal centralism.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's defeated opposition coalition vowed Saturday they would not halt their bid to overturn a "sham" election result, which sparked violent protests that have left 11 people dead.

Protests flared in opposition bastions as soon as President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the victor on Friday night after an election his rival Raila Odinga claimed was massively rigged.

Kenya is no stranger to post-election violence, and scars still run deep from a disputed 2007 vote which led to two months of ethno-political clashes, leaving 1,100 dead and 600,000 displaced.

However protests remained isolated Saturday, with several hundred demonstrators engaging in running battles with police who quickly dispersed what Interior Minister Fred Matiangi referred to as "criminal elements".

Eight bodies have been taken to the Nairobi city morgue, most of them with gunshot wounds, from the protest-hit slums of Mathare, Kibera and Kawangware since Friday night, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer saw the body of a young girl whose family said she had been shot in the back while watching the protests from their balcony in Mathare.

A police officer said a man had been shot dead in a demonstration in the southwestern town of Siaya and local government official Wilson Njega confirmed one person had been shot dead outside Kisumu in protests.

At the hospital Truphena Achieng said his brother had been shot and injured "and yet he was just standing outside our house where people were demonstrating ... we don't know why police were shooting."

The Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity said on Twitter that it had treated 54 wounded in its clinics.

The opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) has not laid out its plans, but has refused to take its grievances to court and said Saturday they would not back down.

"We will not be cowed, we will not relent," NASA official Johnson Muthama told reporters, describing a police crackdown on protests as an effort to force the coalition "into submission".

"We wish to assure the people that we have the will, the determination, and the means to make sure your vote will count at the end of the day," he said.

Muthama claimed that some 100 people had been killed, without providing evidence. According to an AFP tally, 17 people have died in election-related violence since Wednesday.

'Lawlessness'

Interior Minister Fred Matiangi blamed the unrest on "criminal elements" looting and robbing businesses

Matiangi denied there had been any casualties, and said police had clamped down on "erratic incidents of lawlessness," adding the government would stop at nothing to protect citizens.

"The police have not used live bullets on any peaceful protesters," he said.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged police to show restraint.

"The police should not use tear gas or live ammunition simply because they consider a gathering unlawful," said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at HRW.

Odinga, 72, has not yet addressed his supporters after losing his fourth shot at the presidency. He believes elections in 2007, 2013 and now 2017 were snatched away from him.

He laid out accusations of a massive hacking attack on election commission servers, and said they had evidence the true results -- which showed him to be the winner -- were being hidden.

The IEBC denied this, and argued his supporting documents were riddled with arithmetic errors and originated from a Microsoft database while the electronic tallying system was based on Oracle.

On Saturday, Kenyan election monitoring group ELOG, which deployed 8,300 observers and carried out a parallel tallying operation at a sample of polling stations, released a statement backing up the official results.

And former UN chief Kofi Annan, who helped mediate an end to the 2007 crisis, congratulated Kenyatta on his win and urged Odinga, "a courageous defender of democracy" to turn to the courts with his grievances.

Exclusion, resentment

Politics in Kenya is largely divided along tribal lines, and the winner-takes-all nature of elections has long stoked communal tensions.

Demonstrations and running battles with police broke out in isolated parts of Nairobi slums

Odinga's ethnic Luo supporters -- and their allies from other groups -- believe they have been denied political power by elites from the Kikuyus, the same ethnic group as Kenyatta, the country's biggest community.

"President Kenyatta, unlike his first term, must include everyone in his government," wrote the Daily Nation in an editorial, warning that limiting power to his tribal allies was "exacerbating exclusion and creating resentment and disillusionment."

In his acceptance speech Kenyatta urged Odinga and his supporters, to "work together... so that we can build this nation together".

"Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this."
12.08.2017 LISTEN

Enugu, South East Nigeria, is set to receive a cross section of politicians, entrepreneurs , investors and women leaders for the International African Women and Empowerment Conference holding on the 28th to 30th of August 2017.

This was revealed to the Director General of Igbo Mandate Congress, IMC, Rev Obinna Akukwe in Abuja last week when a delegation of leaders of Diamond Youth Transformation Initiative (DYTI) paid him a courtesy call.

The leader of Diamond Youth Transformation Initiative, Ambassador Uchechukwu Ekpere Paul stated that the International Womens Conference is geared towards opening up wide range of business and political opportunities for the Nigerian and African Women.

Ambassador Paul stated that the conference is geared towards helping women entrepreneurs to find their feet and solicited the support of Igbo Mandate Congress for another successful event akin to last years South East Youth Economic Summit (SEYES) popularly tagged Igbo-Israeli Economic Summit of which the group played key role.

In the situation report briefing, Igbo Mandate Congress was intimated that the wife of the Acting President, Mrs Dolapo Osiibanjo had confirmed her presence. Those slated for the event include Mrs Sarah Jubril( veteran presidential aspirant) Miss Linda Ikeji( celebrated blogger)Femi Fan Kayode( former minister of aviation and celebrated activist) Senator Dino Melaiye( activist senator), Leo Stan Ekeh (computer entrepreneur) among others.

Participants from Italy will be led by Dr Antonello Lo Vecchi , one of the leading investors in Italy. The Italian delegation is coming with business empowerment and investment partnership choices. Dr Dvora Anat Perl, an Israeli Agriculturalist will lead another group from Israel while Dr Mary Francois will lead the United States delegation which will include Dr Chigbundu Anene (celebrated Speaker), Barr Gozie Udemezue (Women Affairs Expert) among others

The event will be chaired by Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Governor of Anambra State and Prof Chinedu Nebo, fprmer Minister of Power while women activists, poiliticians and entrepreneurs from across Nigeria will take the stage.

The conference which will hold at The Dome Events Centre, New Haven welcomes women professionals, entrepreneurs, and those interested in mentor-ship at various levels.

The Director General of Igbo Mandate Congress (IMC) Rev Obinna Akukwe told the Diamond Youth delegation which included Miss Onyeakaruru Chisimdi Stephanie (Admin Secretary), and Rev Friday Gary Ndubuisi that IMC will start mobilizing women professionals and entrepreneurs to make the most of this rare opportunity.

He commended Diamond Youth Transformation Initiative for successfully bringing Israel investors to the South East after the South East Youth Economic Summit of 2016 and pledged the support of IMC in mobilizing progressive minded women activists, professionals and entrepreneurs from the South East to make best use of the conference opportunity.

Akukwe commended the Igbo-Israeli partnership which came out of the earlier SEYES conference saying that he had personally supervised some projects in Igbo lands that sprang out of the Israeli partnership. Akukwe also described the array of speakers and mentors as revolutionary and capable of making Nigerian women think out of the box and spearhead the accelerated development of Nigeria.
The government of His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has declared with resolute determination to exterminate the ongoing ruinous surface mining, otherwise called in the local parlance as galamsey, from Ghana.

The President has detailed the military to the fields and instructed them to stop all galamsey activities as they may come across or discover wherever they happen to be and by any meaningful means they deem possible and applicable.

This is a President who is farsighted and means business in the best interest of Ghanaians. It is all too obvious the devastation being wreaked on our water bodies, forests and arable lands by the greedy and short-sighted illegal surface miners. For the sake of both the present generation and posterity, the President has put his head/neck on the block. He says he will be much happier to win the war against galamsey and lose his second term in office as President of Ghana should that be the case than to win a second term amid aggravated continuation of devastating galamsey activities in Ghana.

To put ones head/neck on the block means to risk doing something which will make other people lose their good opinion of you if it fails.

Before the advent of Nana Akufo Addo and his NPP to power, it was a well-documented fact established beyond doubt that irresponsible galamsey activities masterminded and orchestrated by foreigners e.g. the illegal Chinese nationals in Ghana and some Ghanaian natives, supported by then myopic and corrupt NDC administration for dubious reasons, were damaging the ecology.

How could a sensible President close his eyes to the conspicuously irreparable damages being caused to our water bodies, farmlands and forests without taking any positive action to rectify the anomaly? It is for this necessity of preventing the nations water bodies, farmlands and forests from further devastation that the President has taken all the needed steps and measures to solve the annoying problem once and for all.

I do not rejoice in the misfortune of fellow Ghanaians for whatever reason; however, I also do not condone their obstinacy and oftentimes stupid bravado to do what they want as they want regardless of the laws in place preventing them from taking such contrary actions in disrespect of the laws.

The person in the attached video that has gone viral on social media seems to have disrespected the President and his government and to a larger extent, the entire Ghanaian population. Despite the official ban on galamsey, he was still into the activity according to circumstantial evidence (evidence that tends to prove a fact by proving other events or circumstances which afford a basis for a reasonable inference of the occurrence of the fact at issue) and for reasons best known to him only.

What were his caterpillar and digger trucks doing on the farmland as found in the video? Were they not preparing the ground for galamsey work? Should the fact that he sacrificed a lot to help bring Nana Akufo Addo and NPP to power be enough credible excuse to allow him to flout the Presidents policy on fighting galamsey?

There are three essential things that sustain human life and existence on earth without which no life can continue to exist on this planetary earth. They are:

Air (oxygen) Water Food

Without air to breathe, one will die within a matter of minutes. Without water to drink, just give yourself a month or two and you will be dead. Without food to eat, you will have joined the dead ancestors after say, three months if there is anyone that can survive for that long without eating at all.

Galamsey as it is has been spoiling our water bodies making them poisonous to drink. The mercury used to get them the gold in addition to the amount of sand washed into the rivers, do damage the waters. All the big rivers (Bia, Tano, Nini, Ankobra, Pra, Offin, Birim, Anum, Ayensu, and Densu) in Ghana and most of the smaller ones have nearly been destroyed by these ruthless galamsayers. Should we allow these selfish individuals to continue to cause the premature extinction of Ghanaians from the earth because of their insatiable greed for riches?

Ghanaians do not know how essential potable water, thus clean river water, is, until they have been left in the middle of the Sahara, Kalahari or Kobe desert.

Dear reader, do you support the guy in the video continuing to do his galamsey to spoil our rivers and lands to cost us clean water and source of food production or you support the Presidents laudable initiative to safeguard our sources of human existence as spelt out above? Be the judge unto yourself on this issue/question.

Yes, some people are said to be advising the guy in the video to sue the government. Let him go ahead. He will fail because he will not be able to offer any sensible explanation for the digger and caterpillar being where they were found and torched.

Yes, it is good to burn them rather than to confiscate them for future use by the government. If they had been impounded and moved to any of the big cities, will the culprit now claiming to be victim not go and bribe some government officials to release them to him? If the heavy-duty trucks were released to him, would he not go back to continue with his abhorrent galamsey activities?

However, now that they have been destroyed, it will kill his hopes of ever going to rent such heavy and expensive trucks for the purposes of enriching himself by disrespecting the governments orders because he belongs to the ruling party.

In Nigeria in the 1980s, they chose days for public viewing when all seized contraband goods were set on fire. Such goods comprised imported lace materials, certain types of cars, etc.

Much as I feel sorry for the guy, he has paid a well-deserving price for audaciously disobeying the Presidents orders to cease all galamsey activities in Ghana. It serves him right, pity though.
Abuja (AFP) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in London for treatment of an undisclosed illness for more than three months, has assured a government delegation that he is doing fine.

"I am okay," the 74-year-old leader said, according to a Saturday statement from the information ministry.

"I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than be obeyed."

The comments came following protests in the capital Abuja demanding that Buhari "return or resign".

"If President Buhari cannot return to Nigeria after 90 days, then he should resign and go home", one protester said at a sit-in on Monday.

"Buhari, where are you? Nigerians want full disclosure. What is wrong with our president?" read other placards.

Buhari left for the British capital on May 7 on what is his latest medical trip. He has been dogged by speculation about his health since June last year when he went to London for the first time to be treated for what his office said was a persistent ear infection.

Protesters are demanding details about President Muhammadu Buhari's illness after he's been away in London for more than three months for treatment. They say Buhari should return or resign.

Buhari's main opponents in the 2015 election that brought him to power claimed he had prostate cancer, which he denied.

The health of Nigeria's leaders has been a sensitive issue since the death in office of president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 after months of treatment abroad.
Some 90 illegal miners, popularly called 'galameyers,' who have been apprehended by government's anti-illegal mining taskforce  'Operation Vanguard,' have been arraigned before courts of law in various parts of the country.

The miners were arrested in the Ashanti, Eastern and Western Regions within a period of two weeks. The taskforce has also seized some equipment from them.

The Commanding Officer for 'Operation Vanguard,' Colonel William Agyapong said, We have arrested as many as 90 suspected illegal miners. In Eastern Region, we arrested 29; Western Region, 58 and in Ashanti Region we have arrested 3. These are suspects and as I speak they have been sent to the various courts where appropriate prosecution procedures are being followed.

Colonel Agyapong also added that the taskforce had seized a number of equipment the illegal miners use and destroyed others.

' Operation Vanguard ,' which comprises a joint military and police of about 400 personnel, was about two weeks ago sent to three regions  Ashanti, Eastern and Western  to flush out illegal miners.

The operation recorded a near setback last week when the military personnel reportedly shot an illegal miner at Obuasi Anyimadukrom in the Ashanti Region.

Residents of the town blocked roads leading to the place to express their anger following the incident.

Aside the near hiccup, Colonel Agyapong told Citi Fm that the operation had so far been very fruitful.

The taskforce also set about 10 excavators ablaze when it invaded Extra Gold Company and other mining sites at Akyem-Banso and Kwabeng  all in the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region.

The burning of the excavators was contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act 2015, Section 99. Details of the Offences and Penalties state that seized equipment must be kept in the custody of the police but not to be set on fire.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed for the unalloyed support and backing of Ghanaians as his government continues to implement policies and programmes aimed at developing the country and putting it onto the path of prosperity.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the 'Free SHS' policy and the full restoration of the nurse and teacher trainees' allowances in September this year as well as the 'One District, One Factory,' 'Planting for Food and Jobs' and the 'One Village, One Dam' programmes would improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.

Despite the economic mess inherited by his administration, the president indicated that his government had put in place appropriate measures to strengthen the monetary system, and so the progress and prosperity promised the people could be fulfilled.

The 'Asempa' budget presented to parliament by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in March, President Akufo-Addo added, had placed the country's economy on a sound footing, and is gaining strength to ensure the fulfillment of the promises made during last year's electioneering campaign.

President Akufo-Addo made these remarks on Friday when he toured the Ekumfi and Awutu Senya West Constituencies on the 2nd day of his 3-day tour of the Central Region.

Having annexed Ekumfi and Awutu Senya West in the 2016 election, President Akufo-Addo thanked the chiefs and the people and assured them that the confidence reposed in him and his government would be duly rewarded with the full implementation of programmes and policies outlined by his government.

He urged the constituents, Support my government and me, because all the policies and programmes we have begun to put it place will benefit all Ghanaians in every part of the country. By the end of my mandate in office, I can assure you that Ghanaians will know that I came to tell them the truth and not to deceive them.

At Awutu Senya East, President Akufo-Addo assured the chiefs and the people that in the course of his term in office, his government would see to the upgrading of the health posts in the constituency, as well as the provision of potable water to Bontrase and other deprived communities.

Construction of a landing beach, construction of the Akotsi-Senya/Bawjiase-Kasoa and Obrachire/Bawjiase roads, the president assured, would be done.
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's health ministry has punished six medics who took selfies in front of a deadly train wreck by transferring them to a remote part of the country, it said Saturday, following an online uproar.

Two trains collided Friday near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing 41 people in one of the deadliest such accidents in the North African country.

Pictures of an ambulance crew taking selfie pictures in front the wreckage sparked anger on social media, with one Twitter user posting a photograph with a hashtag reading: "conscience in a coma."

Dubbed the "Selfie Medics" by Twitter users, they faced calls for punishment on social media.

The health ministry's director of emergency services Ahmed al-Ansari told AFP six members of the ambulance crew have been transferred to the western Siwa oasis as punishment.

It was "inappropriate conduct," he said.

Egypt's ambulance services had been hailed in the country in the past for their often dangerous jobs tending to demonstrators during the Arab Spring protests of 2011 and their violent aftermath.
12.08.2017 LISTEN

Tema, Aug 12, GNA - A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Tema West, Mr Dennis Amfo-Sefa, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is on the brink of collapse

'The collapse of every civilization does not happen from outside, but happens from within. If you see what is going on in the NDC now, it is nothing but evidence of the fact that the party is collapsing. The NDC is finished!'.

Mr. Dennis Amfo Sefa, popularly called Chairman Nana Boakye, the NPP activist had been commenting on the current impasse within the NDC in which leading members of the party are caught in a circuit of blame and condemnation.

The saga revolves around a chain reaction that has been sparked by a caustic article that a former Deputy Chief of Staff in the erstwhile John Mahama administration, Dr. Valerie Sawyerr, wrote in reaction to incessant criticism of the party's Founder and a former Attorney General.

In that article, Dr. Valerie Sawyerr takes former President Jerry Rawlings and Martin Amidu to the cleaners, accusing them of hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

In reaction, Martin Amidu published a rejoinder in which he calls Dr. Sawyerr several names.

'The crossfire of criticisms in that party is nothing but a symptom of the deep rift that exists in the party. Valerie is a Mahama girl, her daring criticism of the Founder of the party was obviously sanctioned by some big godfathers who sympathise with Former President Mahama.

'Her criticisms of Martin Amidu, was in reaction to Mr. Amidu's persistent criticism of John Mahama and his government. So in reprisal, John Mahama who could not face Rawlings and Amidu would be happy to see Valerie defend his honour,' Chairman Nana Boakye said.

He said the caustic exchanges in the biggest opposition party has seen some powerful communicators take the side of President Rawlings.

According to him, the NDC would have survived the post-election Tsunami, but Valerie Sawyerr's caustic attack has scuttled earlier attempts by the party to reconcile their founder to the party.

He said a couple of months back, the NDC had organized a trip to the home of former President Rawlings in an effort to attract their estranged founder back to the party.

'However, several weeks later, at a 25th anniversary of the party in Ashiaman, the former President had given the conditionality that for the NDC to chart a way forward, the party's current crop of leaders must be changed.

And as everybody was looking forward to conciliatory overtures from both President Rawlings and the Mahama factions, Dr. Valerie Sawyerr detonated her bombshell on Rawlings and Amidu. I don't see how the so called reconciliation process that was started some few weeks ago can continue. It is over. The NDC is finished,' he said.
Tamale, Aug 12, GNA - Mr Aaron Kuwornu, the Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Library Board, has appealed for more libraries to be constructed in the Region to help inculcate the habit of reading in children.

He said reading built strong foundation for children to achieve academic laurels adding that constructing libraries in all districts of the Region would help improve education outcomes for basic and senior high schools.

Mr Kuwornu made the appeal at a forum in Tamale, organised by the Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), in partnership with IBIS OXFAM, Ghana.

It brought together experts in various fields to interact with about 250 youth from the Region as part of this year's International Youth Day activities.

The forum, on the theme: 'One District, One Library: A Catalyst for Universal Youth Literacy' formed part of efforts by the YEfL to generate debate on strategies to improve access to quality education considering the consistent poor performance at basic and secondary levels.

It was also in line with the YEfL's campaign for the establishment of district libraries aimed at promoting literacy and numeracy skills among the youth and improve educational outcomes.

Mr Kuwornu said there were three libraries located in Tamale, Damongo and Gambaga including a regional mobile library adding those were inadequate to address the reading needs of the public.

Alhaji Mohammed Haroun, the Northern Regional Director of Education, who was represented at the forum, encouraged parents and community members to help supervise the schools by reporting absentee teachers to the authorities.

Mr Alhassan Abdul-Ganiyu, the Acting Director of YEfL, called on government to redeem its pledge to build 60 libraries across the country as part of the country's 60th Independence celebrations.

He expressed the commitment of YEfL to ensuring that 'all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy' as stipulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 4). GNA

By Albert Futukpor, GNA
'The big truck is still on ...
- The NDYC described the CNDA group which issued the quit notice, as traitors who are out to cause disaffection, hate and violence in the Niger Delta region

- The group urged all Northerners and Yorubas in the region to ignore the quit notice and go about their legitimate activities without fear, and also report any form of threats by any miscreant to the relevant authorities

- The NDYC however expressed annoyance with the federal government for not acting quickly to stop the spread of hate speech

A recent quit notice given to Hausas and Yorubas to leave the Niger Delta region before October 1, by the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators (CNDA) has been rejected by the Niger Delta Youth Congress (NDYC).

According to reports, the group categorically separated themselves from the quit notice as they stated that it was aimed at inciting violence in the region and creating an atmosphere of hatred.

READ ALSO: Nnamdi Kanus fate will eventually be decided by the Court - Abdulrahman Dambazau

Legit.ng notes that the NDYCs stance was made known in a statement signed by its national coordinator Comrade Israel Uwejeyan.

Uwejeyan stated that the CNDA had no authority to speak on behalf of the entire region.

The statement read: The Niger Delta Youth Congress is a foremost non-violent youth organisation that seeks to address varied issues of inequality, injustices, social, economical and political challenges that affect the good people of the Niger Delta region, with the sole aim of strengthening and empowering the youths to play prominent role in addressing these challenges.

We the Niger Delta Youth Congress, NDYC, totally condemn in strong terms, the quit notice issued by the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators to Northerners and Yorubas from the region before October 1, 2017.

We dissociate ourselves and well-meaning youths in the region from these traitors who are out to cause disaffection, hate and violence in the region.

We are peace loving young people and believe in the unity of our great country, and refuse and reject to be cajoled by such self-centered and faceless groups.

The so-called CNDA and their sponsors are not speaking for and cannot speak on behalf of the good people of the Niger Delta region.

We sincerely urge all Northerners and Yorubas in the region to ignore the quit notice and go about their legitimate activities without fear and report any form of threats by any miscreant to the relevant authorities.

We will ensure you are protected from all forms of harassment and violence.

However, the group expressed annoyance with the federal government for not acting quickly to stop the spread of hate speech.

The statement read further: We also want to vehemently express our dissatisfaction to the government and security operatives on their nonchalant and lackadaisical response to issues that should be nipped at the bud.

We strongly believe in the peace and unity of this Nation and we urge all youths in the various regions to shun hate statements capable of causing chaos and align in the struggle for a better and well-structured Nigeria.

We shall soon embark on enlightenment on how to disabuse the minds of young people on accepting hate speeches in the Niger Delta region.

We are resolute on the call for restructuring and urge all well-meaning groups and individuals in the region to stick to the call for the restructuring of the Nations current political arrangements and desist from making senseless agitation that would breed violence.

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Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that a coalition of Niger Delta agitators told northerners and Yorubas residing in the Niger Delta to vacate the region before October 1.

The group also threatened to resume attacks on oil and gas installation across the Niger Delta region from September 10, 2017.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking Nigerians if they want the country to be restructured or to split

Source: Legit.ng
Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari are not the only northerners reportedly eyeing 2019

- Turaki Abubakar gave some reasons why he an his group think Rabiu Kwankwaso should replace Buhari

- The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum led by Yerima Shettima had also asked aspirants above 60 to perish the thought of becoming president

The 2019 presidential election will definitely be more of a battle among brothers as a third northern group has emerged declaring support for Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso, former governor of Kano state.

The group spoke out just days after two other groups made their declarations, one for President Muhammadu Buhari and the other for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

In an exclusive chat with Legit.ng, Turaki Yahaya Abubakar, the president of the Northern Youth Forum For National Development, said while the other groups openly supported Buhari or Atiku, he and his team have pitched tents with Kwankwaso.

READ ALSO: Alleged multi-million dollar London properties of Diezani revealed

Speaking from Kaduna, where the group is based, Abubakar said among Kwankwaso is the youngest among the trio and thus would have the vigour to carry the weight of governance if elected as president.

The Northern Youth Forum For National Development is more interested in Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso due to some reasons including his youthful age," Abubakar said.

The group believes age is no longer in favour of Atiku. Buhari has remained in London for over three months now on medical grounds with civil society groups and Nigerians divided on whether he shoulf resign or remain in office.

Kwankwaso is very hard working, philanthropic, charismatic, faithful and sincere concerning all his commitments. He will also take everybody along.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

He has so many leadership qualities unlike other northern leaders regardless of party affliction.

If elected, he will certainly transform our nation economically and otherwise. He is our choice and the best of all, Abubakar said.

Legit.ng recently reported Vanguard as indicating that there is division among two major northern youth groups over who to endorse as a northern candidate in 2019.

According to the report, the 2019 purported presidential ambitions of incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, have created a gulf between the groups.

The division reportedly started after AYCF leader, Alhaji Yerima Shettima granted an interview, asking Buhari and Atiku and other northern political leaders above 60 years of age to perish the thought of seeking elective offices in 2019.

Watch this video as Nigerians speak about Buhari and his government:

Source: Legit.ng
Still, in the middle of his ongoing protest against the Buhari-led government, Nigerian entertainer Charly Boy has fallen under heavy criticism by many Nigerians.

The 66-year-old controversial entertainer has been leading the Our Mumu Don Do protest against the stay of President Muhammadu Buhari outside Nigeria on medical grounds. The protesters are asking Buhari to resign or resume work since he has spent 90 days outside the country.

Wale Ojo Lanre, Nigerian Tribune editor has taken to his social media page to lambast Charly Boy.

READ ALSO: Asari Dokubo mocks Buhari, Diezani, Charly Boy, GEJ, others as he calls for actualization of Biafra

According to him, Charlyboy is a thoughtless old fool who allowed himself to be used by corruption in staging a shameful protest.

He wrote; The face of Shameless Charly Boy!

Charly Boy is what a Yoruba call adagbamadanu , a thoughtless old fool who allowed himself to be used by corruption in staging a shameful protest purporting to force an ailing and recuperating man home irrespective of his state of health !

I am not saying, he Charly Boy and his gangsters have no right to stage a protest, even they can go naked but such an effort should be for sensible reason not to force a not yet certified medically okay person home.

This is stupidity bordering on insanity

Charly Boy and his gangs of misfits are shameless goons  Wale Ojo Lanre

READ ALSO: People who would rescue Nigeria may not be up to 20 - Charly Boy

Meanwhile, former militant leader Asari Dokubo has mocked Muhammadu Buhari for being a photo President even as he also mocked other prominent Nigerians like Charly Boy, Diezani Alison-Madueke and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video asking Nigerians if they want the country to be restructured or to split:

Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state recently said he was eyeing Aso Rock in 2019

- While many think Fayose is joking, the governor has continued with the campaign

- At the PDP convention held in Abuja, Fayose flagged-off his campaign

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state stormed the Eagle Square, Abuja venue of the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dressed in his presidential campaign shirt.

Fayose and his team also took time to parade at the venue to create better awareness and maybe, to show his seriousness ahead of 2019.

READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: PDP Non-elective Convention kicks-off in Abuja

The team members were dressed in the governors 2019 presidential campaign shirt and cap and carried his campaign posters.

Fayose acknowledges cheers at the national convention. Credit: PDP Youth Frontier

The Vanguard reports that the Fayose, who is also the chairman of PDP Governors Forum, officially unveiled his presidential ambition at the convention.

The report said the governor arrived the venue with cheers and roaring welcome from participants.

Fayose at the venue of the congress. Credit: PDP Youth Frontier

In June, 2017, Fayose declared his readiness to run for presidency and outwit Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

I have penchant for taking powers; that one in Buharis hand. I will take it. Im going straight to that villa. Im the next president.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

I want to be the next president of Nigeria. My own wont be this change that has brought nothing, we are going to represent the people well and tell them the truth, Fayose had said.

Legit.ng reported earlier that days after Governor Ayodele Fayose reportedly declared his plans to contest the 2019 presidency, a former member of the House of Representatives, Bamidele Faparusi, has told him to go learn from his performing colleagues in other states.

Faparusi begged Fayose to ensure he learns from other governors the best way to boost his states revenue.

Watch this video and tell if you can vote for Fayose in 2019:

Source: Legit.ng
Car plunges seven storeys off US parking garage BBC

I think I know where babies come from, therefore I am human Aeon (Chuck L)

Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People IdleWords

2016 confirmed as planets hottest year Politico (resilc)

We can stop hacking and trolls, but it would ruin the internet New Scientist. Important.

North Korea

Portugal recovers by ignoring neoliberal priesthoods recipe of absolute disaster failed evolution. There were also huge protests in Lisbon in the wake of the crisis that were curiously not reported in the English language media. Wonder if that had anything to do with Portugals economic policy choices.

Trump says hes considering military response to Venezuela Associated Press (UserFriendly)

On Marcel Ophuls The Memory of Justice Corey Robin (martha r)

New Cold War

Syraqistan

Imperial Collapse Watch

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Trump Transition

The Clintons, Trump and White Backlash Counterpunch

Partisan Shifts in Views of the Nation, but Overall Opinions Remain Negative Pew (UserFriendly)

Democrats in Disarray

Farmer vs. farmer Arkansas Times. OMG you must read it. Monsanto kills but not in they way you expected.

Fake News

Facebook establishes new censorship centre in Germany WSWS (micael)

Uber. In case our post today isnt enough to satisfy your prurient interest, more accounts.

Googles Gender Bender. I really wish this story were over. Its bringing out the worst in too many people. So you are getting only the big stuff.

A Battle Over Goldmans Hunger Bonds Is Being Waged in Florida Bloomberg (resilc)

GM Tests Fleet of 46 Robocar Taxis in SF: Driverless Car Timeline Promises by Manufacturer Michael Shedlock. EM:

Post closes with a list of promised timelines made by the various automakers, topped by Fords pie-in-the-sky Truly self-driving vehicles by 2021. Mish comments, apparently with a straight face, Other than Tesla, which likes to overpromise and under-deliver, the timeline promises are very realistic. Now how could he possibly know that, given that no one has ever even come close to the Holy Grail of truly driverless, much less in a realistic urban setting? Another howler: Regulation is the only missing ingredient. I expect that will be worked out in the next 2-3 years. Easy as pie, if one is a deluded techno-fetishizing libertarian. Lets recall Mish also went completely gaga over the disruptive inevitability of bitcoin and blockchain a few years back, then went oddly silent on that subject and now makes only occasional posts on the subject which are rather more sober takes such as one a few days ago likening Bitcoin to historic quasi-currency fads such as beaver pelts (which at least could be put to practical use in the cold climates of the fur trade). Curiously, I still use no cryptocurrency or blockchain-foo, and no one I know does either  and I live in Silicon Valley  except as a speculative gambling-in-the-markets vehicle.

Guillotine Watch

Partner at private equity firm denies being jogger who pushed woman into bus Guardian (DO). If this story is new to you, please watch the video. Unbelievable. The perp really did change his path to knock the woman over. The Death and Life of Helicopter Commuting Bloomberg

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (Kittie Wilson via Lawerence R):

This is really sweet. Richard Smith is showing he isnt into only anti-Antidotes:

#ThoughtForTheDay ~ Humans could learn a lot by watching as this #Cat rescues a helpless puppy. #Empathy knows no barriers! pic.twitter.com/07BUeQ6F72  PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) August 9, 2017

More cat empathy, from furzy. This is The Awesome. Cat watches Psycho.

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
The human body is engaged in a constant tightrope walk to maintain the right pH, because when our cells' acid-alkaline balance goes wrong, it can go wrong in a big way.

Abnormal pH-;in particular, abnormally low, acid pH-;is a marker for maladies ranging from cystic fibrosis, stroke and rheumatoid arthritis to cancer and Alzheimer's. Now, Michigan Technological University chemist Haiying Liu has developed new tools that could make it much easier to detect low pH in living cells. The discovery is the focus of a new study funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and published in ACS Sensors.

To measure pH, researchers and medical personnel use fluorescent dyes, called probes, that glow in acidic conditions when activated by fluorescent light. The probes are used for diagnostic imaging-;to visualize blood vessels and the digestive tract, for example-;and they can help surgeons remove diseased tissue, including tumors. However, these probes are not perfect. The problems stem from the high-energy light they need to fluoresce. Light at these wavelengths not only switches on the probe; it can also cause biological structures to shine like glow sticks. This autoluminescence makes it hard to tell the difference between the probe and surrounding tissues. High-energy light can even damage cells and cause the probe's initial shine to fade into darkness, a process called photobleaching. To fix these issues, you would need a probe that works in low-energy, near-infrared light. So chemistry professor Liu and his team developed two of them. These probes have a lot going for them. They aren't subject to photobleaching and autoluminescence. Plus, since near-infrared light can penetrate deep into tissues, they could give scientists and physicians a better look inside the body.

The chemistry of the two probes was inspired by rhodamine, which has been used in biotech applications for decades. "But the problem with rhodamine is that it can damage cells," Liu said. "We needed a probe that was compatible with living tissues." So, Liu's team sweetened its next-generation probes with a simple sugar found in many fruits: mannose. "We introduced the sugar to make the probes water soluble and less toxic," said Liu. "That helps it penetrate cell membranes and makes it much friendlier." Liu's team designed its probes to emit light in two different ways. First, they fluoresce in the conventional way when exposed to near-infrared light. In addition, they glow in the near-infrared spectrum at even lower energies, thanks to a different type of chemical response called single-photon frequency up-conversion luminescence (FUCL).

Tests under both types of light have been promising, showing that both probes are highly sensitive to pH and very gentle to living cells, even at high concentrations. Though the probes are similar chemically, one is slightly more sensitive to pH in cell cultures.

Next, Liu will study how well they detect low pH in mice, in hopes that the probes can help advance medical science and even save lives.
The Carnival of space 519 is at The Evolving Planet

Universe Today  Strange Radio Signals Detected from a Nearby Star

scientists from the Arecido Observatory recently announced the detection of a strange radio signal coming from Ross 128  a red dwarf star system located just 11 light-years from Earth. As always, this has fueled speculation that the signal could be evidence of an extra-terrestrial civilization, while the scientific community has urged the public not to get their hopes up.

The discovery was part of a campaign being conducted by Abel Mendez  the director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) in Peurto Rico  and Jorge Zuluaga of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Antioquia, Colombia.

Universe Today  Ancient Impacts Shaped the Structure of the Milky Way

Chandra X-ray Space Telescope  W51: Chandra Peers into a Nurturing Cloud




Particularly during my sojourns in South Africa, it may not be possible for me to perform the moderation function speedily. I regret the necessity of moderation but it has been rendered inevitable by the behaviour of a particular commentator whose contributions will always and without exception be rejected.





No correspondence will be entered into regarding moderation decisions.

Readers are invited to comment on blog posts. All comments require to be pre-moderated by me, and I shall reject all (a) that are not related to the Lockerbie disaster or (b) that fail to meet my -- perhaps idiosyncratic -- standards of courtesy towards other contributors. Comments will not be rejected simply because I disagree with them or because I, or other contributors, find them irritating. But comments will be rejected if they distort or misrepresent the evidence; are defamatory; or if they risk embroiling me, as publisher, in defamation proceedings. I am perfectly relaxed about being sued in respect of material which I personally have posted -- but not in respect of material that others wish to post as comments and which, in any case, I often strongly disagree with.
Thank you for reading The Cascadia Advocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics.

Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money.

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"Rob Kall's book is amazing. He's created a real breakthrough, visionary how-to for a sustainable, quality future. Like Saul Alinski's Rules for Radicals, this book is destined to become a classic must-read for all those concerned with social, economic, and environmental justice in today's interconnected world. Story shapes the world and our world needs new stories if we are to survive and thrive. The story of the bottom-up evolution and revolution is one that can change individuals, groups, businesses, religions, and governments for the positive as it shows how bottom-up inclusiveness, connectedness, collaboration, empathy, innovation, and freeform creativity can help unleash the great potentials for good inherent in our very nature. If you want to improve things in your world and the world, first read this book, then apply the suggestions. Change is sure to come."



Pamela Jaye Smith, mythologist and author of InnerDrives, Power of the Dark Side, Symbols* Images* Codes* and award-winning writer-producer-director
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From Consortium News



Mumia Abu-Jamal

(Image by (Flickr 4Ward Ever UK)) Details DMCA



A potential new front has opened up in the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence and has spent the last 30-plus years trying to prove it.

Along the way, there have been some victories. First he fought his way off Death Row. Then he fought a battle to get medical care that he was being denied, a situation that sent his health into a dangerous spiral. Now he and his lawyers are citing new information about possible judicial bias that could have a direct impact on the legitimacy of his murder conviction.

During his decades of imprisonment, Abu-Jamal has continued to practice the art of journalism, crafting well-researched columns on issues of racism, human rights -- and doing it, first, from death row then from maximum security lock-down. Sometimes his columns, as Emily Dickinson used to say about a good poem, can take the top of your head off.

Tens of thousands of his supporters are charmed and moved by his Weekly Radio commentaries from prison. Many of his supporters assert that the former public radio reporter, and Black Panther Minister of Information (at 15), is a political prisoner, the victim of arguably one of the most corrupt police departments in the United States.

I spoke recently with Rachel Wolkenstein, an attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, about the latest development in this decades old case.

Dennis Bernstein: Set this up for us. We are hearing that new information has surfaced. We'd like to get a complete debriefing, but first please remind people briefly who Mumia Abu-Jamal is, in case they haven't heard about this celebrated case.

Rachel Wolkenstein: Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner, a "class-war prisoner," as I consider him. He is a former Black Panther member, a MOVE organization supporter, a radical journalist who was known as "the Voice of the Voiceless." He was an award-winning radio journalist in Philadelphia in the late 1970s until his arrest on December 9, 1981 in connection with the murder of a police officer. This is a crime that Mumia did not commit and he has always maintained his innocence.

His case has always been racially biased and politically motivated. Mumia was framed by the Philadelphia police department and the prosecution, with help from the Attorney General's office and the FBI, because he was so outspoken in his defense of the oppressed, particularly the politically oppressed, such as the MOVE organization at that time in Philadelphia. As a teenager he was communications director and journalist for the Black Panther Party. He was known throughout Philadelphia for his beautiful voice and his passionate social and political commentary.

DB: He was also known throughout Philadelphia by perhaps the most corrupt police department in the nation at that time, a police department and prosecutor's office that were studied for their corruption and under federal investigation.

RW: That is correct. Frank Rizzo had been the police commissioner. Interestingly, many elements of the federal COINTELPRO program were actually based on things that Rizzo had done. He then became the mayor of Philadelphia and organized the raids on the Black Panthers when Mumia was a member and a spokesman for the Party. You are absolutely correct, the efforts to have him exterminated were very clearly orchestrated by the FBI.

One of the early things I worked on with my colleagues from the Partisan Defense Committee at that time was obtaining Mumia's COINTELPRO records, which showed that they had a dossier on him when he was just 15 years old, in the late 'sixties. There they said, in effect, despite his young years, he should be on the ADEX file (a list of who the FBI felt should be rounded up and put into concentration camps if there was any political turmoil in the country). They said Mumia belonged on that list because of his ability to speak out in advocacy.

Mumia went to Chicago to witness the murders that had been committed by the FBI and the Chicago police and to speak about what was happening. He was featured in a front-page story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which described this young man who was speaking out in defense of the Panthers and against police brutality. The cops in Philadelphia knew who he was and they were tracking him.

When the MOVE commune was surrounded and attacked in 1978 and when, in the aftermath, Delbert Africa, a former Panther, was beaten on the street (in the first televised police beating in the country), Mumia again spoke in defense of the MOVE members and against the attack. He was also specifically targeted by Rizzo and by Edward Rendell [former Philadelphia District Attorney who oversaw Mumia's prosecution], who I consider to be directly responsible for the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

So there is a long history there of knowing who Mumia was, targeting him, trying to silence his voice and ultimately to murder him. What happened on the night of December 9, 1981 was that Mumia came across a police altercation in the street. He was driving a cab at that point because he had been drummed out of mainstream news reporting for his defense of the MOVE organization. In the midst of a purported shoot-out, a police officer named Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed. The chief inspector arrived on the scene, a guy named [Alfonzo] Giordano, who had been Rizzo's right-hand man a few years earlier and who was also under investigation for corruption and being on the take.

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From The Nation

John Conyers knows a good deal more than Donald Trump does about the Korea Peninsula -- and a lot more about the Constitution.

So it is worth noting that Conyers has taken a lead in organizing congressional opposition to Trump's bombastic threats about unleashing "fire and fury" on North Korea. He has precisely what our "locked and loaded" president lacks: the wisdom that extends from experience.

As a young volunteer with the Michigan National Guard, Conyers was called up to serve with the 1279th Combat Engineers in the Korean War. He was in the war zone for a year as a lieutenant supervising repairs and replacements of Army aircraft.

When Conyers got home, he went to law school and then, with the encouragement of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., began a political career that would eventually see him chair the House Judiciary Committee. His decades of experience with congressional oversight of successive presidents during the undeclared wars of the 1960s and '70s in Southeast Asia, during Ronald Reagan's illegal interventions in Central America in the 1980s, and during the Bush-Cheney wars in the Persian Gulf have made him an expert on questions about when and how presidents may steer the country into conflict.

Based on his experience, Conyers argues that Trump is getting everything wrong when he answers North Korean saber rattling with American saber rattling.

"As a veteran of the Korean War, I am ashamed that our Commander-in-Chief is conducting himself in a reckless manner that endangers our troops stationed in Korea and our regional allies," explains the Michigan Democrat. "Trump must immediately cease talk of pre-emptive war -- which must be authorized by Congress -- and commit to the diplomatic path advocated by both American experts and the South Korean government."

Conyers is right. And his position has attracted considerable support in Congress. For instance, while Trump claims to be concerned about threats to Guam, the congressional representative from Guam, Madeleine Bordallo, says she agrees with Conyers.

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US president Donald Trump put much of the world atwitter and ajitter Tuesday with his comment to the press: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Trump's certainly proving himself Kim Jong Un's equal at foreign affairs smack talk.

Is he serious? I believe so. I expect some sort of major military confrontation -- possibly even outright war -- between the US and North Korea before August ends. Naturally I hope I'm wrong, but matters do seem to be coming to a head.

With that in mind, it's worth examining some of the US government's claims about North Korea and how they stack up against reality.

First, let's look at what Trump means when he refers to the current set of "threats" from North Korea: On August 7, the Washington Post reports, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho "told diplomats that his country will never negotiate away what he called a rational 'strategic option' against the threat of attack from the United States. ... Ri said Pyongyang will use nuclear weapons only against the United States or any other country that might join it in military action against North Korea."

In other words, North Korea is "threatening" to defend itself if attacked, and reserving the right to use nuclear weapons in its defense. Doesn't sound like much of a "threat," does it?

Next, the current round of mutual saber-rattling coincides with a convenient and likely Trump-approved leak. The Post cites unnamed officials and an alleged Defense Intelligence Agency assessment to the effect that North Korea "has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles" (the claim last month was that the North now has missiles which can reach the US mainland).

This set of claims doesn't pass the smell test.

First of all, so far the North has only proven (with detonations) that it can make large, heavy, old-style fission atomic weapons, not bona fide nuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs). Miniaturization? That sounds a lot like "Saddam is stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction" (he wasn't) or "Iran is six months from having nukes" (the latter claim having been renewed every six months from 1996 to 2015).

Secondly, while the North recently tested a rocket that it claims is an intercontinental ballistic missile, there's reason to be skeptical of that claim and secondarily of the notion that they could reliably produce such rockets in quantity and expect them to work.

Finally, there's the matter of mating those unlikely nukes to those unlikely rockets and getting them to detonate at the impact end of a fall from space. That's rocket science of an order the North hasn't previously displayed a flair for.

Claire Boothe Luce called Franklin Delano Roosevelt "the only American president who ever lied us into a war because he did not have the political courage to lead us into it." If so, Trump seems bent on following in his illustrious predecessor's footsteps.
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It's been six months since Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sworn in as head of the Department of Justice. In that time, Sessions has managed to undo nearly every aspect of Obama's civil rights legacy. We look at how Sessions is using the Justice Department to roll back decades of progress on civil rights, voting rights, LGBT rights and police reform. We speak with Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She is the former head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Wednesday marked six months since Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sworn in as head of the Department of Justice. In the last half-year, Sessions has wasted no time undoing nearly every aspect of Obama's civil rights legacy, from voting rights to affirmative action to police reform and LGBT rights. Under Sessions, the Justice Department has reinstituted the use of private prisons, reignited the so-called war on drugs and indicated it will no longer address systemic police abuses. The department has also obstructed the enforcement of federal voting rights laws and, just this week, sided with Ohio's voter purge program. And it has defended President Trump's Muslim travel ban and supported Trump's attacks on sanctuary cities. Most recently, The New York Times reported the Justice Department is now laying the groundwork to undermine affirmative action policies.

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the Department of Justice, we go to Washington, D.C., to spend the rest of the hour with Vanita Gupta. She was head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice in the Obama administration. She joined the Obama administration's Justice Department in 2014, just over two months after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. As the head of the Civil Rights Division, she led the probe of the Ferguson Police Department. Under her leadership, the Civil Rights Division went on to negotiate 24 agreements with law enforcement agencies to reform their practices. She also emerged as a consistent advocate for transgender and voting rights. Vanita Gupta is now the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

We welcome you to Democracy Now! You know, Vanita Gupta, a lot is made of what has President Trump really accomplished in this six months. But if you look at the Justice Department, under the attorney general, under Jeff Sessions, can you assess what has happened? In fact, a great deal has happened, from just oversight of these police departments around the country, that you negotiated while you were head of the Civil Rights Division, to the whole issue of voter rights, LGBTQ rights, etc. Talk about what's happened in this six months.

VANITA GUPTA: Sure. So, you know, in the last six months, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has certainly implemented an anti-civil rights agenda at the Justice Department, targeting some of the most high-profile areas of work that the Civil Rights Division had been engaged in in years prior. The Civil Rights Division enforces all of our federal civil rights laws. And I think most notably, very early on, the attorney general was cracking away and undercutting long-standing work on LGBT rights and voting rights, indicating, as you said, a pretty serious retreat from police reform work.

And, you know, what's kind of remarkable about the list of things that he has been doing is -- the attorney general knows how the Justice Department works. He was a U.S. attorney in years prior. He knows where the levers are. And he knows how significant it is to change long-standing litigating positions in cases where the Justice Department had been aggressively enforcing civil rights laws. And he hasn't wasted much time in undercutting a lot of the important civil rights enforcement work of the Civil Rights Division in the six months that he's been there.

AMY GOODMAN: [inaudible] of these police departments and what Jeff Sessions said he would turn back. Explain what you negotiated, after Michael Brown was gunned down and the uprising took place, what you negotiated with this police department and others around the country.

VANITA GUPTA: Well, I joined the Justice Department just a couple of weeks after the Justice Department had announced that it was opening a probe of the Ferguson Police Department. And during my initial months, that investigation was kind of front and center for me and the team that was working on that investigation. And we produced a report that ended up really, I think, validating in many ways the lived experiences and realities of African-American residents in Ferguson, really showing how, over years and years, long prior to Michael Brown's death in August of 2014, just long before, how court and police practices had completely kind of degraded and undermined trust in law enforcement and in the courts in Ferguson, really, where African-American residents were being told to pay exorbitant fines and fees for small quality-of-life offenses, for growing high weeds and grass in their lawns and the like.

And we negotiated a consent decree. It became contentious at one point with Ferguson. And on my watch, we had negotiated and announced consent decrees in Cleveland, in Baltimore. We did an investigation into the Chicago Police Department. And one of the first things that Attorney General Jeff Sessions did was really to walk that back, not only through kind of rhetoric, but he issued a memo saying he was going to review all of the existing consent decrees. Now, to be honest with you, what is important to know about that is some of it is not -- is bluster, because there are federal court judges around the country that have the ultimate authority to decide whether a consent decree will be terminated or not. So, while the Justice Department is doing this consent decree review, the actual ultimate fate of these consent decrees lies in the hands of federal judges, who take their responsibility very seriously to ensure that the Constitution is enforced in these -- in these jurisdictions that have had real breakdowns between the police and the communities that they serve.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Vanita, could you talk about what position the Trump administration has taken on civil asset forfeiture? What does that mean, and what are the implications of it?

VANITA GUPTA: Sure. You know, this is an issue, just like the -- Sessions' whole reigniting of the war on drugs and returning us back to 1980s discredited criminal justice policies, that really demonstrate how out of line and how out of sync the attorney general is from his own party. Civil asset forfeiture is an issue that has garnered widespread bipartisan condemnation. It involves giving police the authority or ability to seize assets from people before they've ever been convicted of a crime. And it involves a -- you know, in order to challenge that, that seizure, it involves a very laborious, difficult set of processes. And so there's been a long push, for the last several years, from the right and the left, and I would say the right has -- folks on the right have been very concerned about this really from a libertarian standpoint, and -- around reforming these practices and raising the threshold of proof that's required for the government to seize assets and the like.

And one of the things that the attorney general did in the last couple of months was to do away with that reform and go back to older practices. And again, it's what he's doing right now with federal crime policy. And the concern is that while the federal criminal justice system is about 14 to 15 percent of the country's criminal justice systems -- most, obviously, states are all operating their own criminal justice systems -- he has an enormous bully pulpit. He has funding strings that the Justice Department gives out, a lot of money to every jurisdiction in the country, and can set priorities, can demand things of police departments that they are uncomfortable doing.

And I think an example of that is, you know, prioritizing that local law enforcement should be engaging in federal immigration enforcement. And you're seeing a really strong pushback on the part of police chiefs around the country who know how devastating that kind of thing can be for police departments' ability to have the trust of everyone in their communities. If you've got immigrant women who are refusing to call the police in domestic violence situations, you know, sometimes those become homicides, homicide situations. Police chiefs know how dangerous that is for community safety. And that's why you're hearing them push back. You've even had the Fraternal Order of Police push back on this notion that withholding funds from police departments that are trying to have the trust of everyone in their community, that, that is -- that is not a good thing for policing.

AMY GOODMAN: Vanita Gupta, we wanted to get your response to that moment several weeks ago when President Trump even shocked his own Joint Chiefs of Staff when he issued those three tweets in a row that said he would be banning trans people from serving in the military. It was so broad, including pulling people out of the military. Others couldn't join the military. After the first tweet, that simply had said, "After consultation with my Generals and" -- I think he said, "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government..." And after that first tweet -- dot, dot, dot -- the military apparently thought he might be announcing -- he might be announcing that the U.S. was going to bomb North Korea. But what in fact he did say, "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the [United States] Government" -- and, he went on to say, would be banning people in the military, that transgender people would not be able to serve in the military. He ended by saying, "Thank you." Your response?

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"The most effective ways to create a more inclusive, fair-for-all future will be from the bottom up. Rob Kall's book lays out how that would look with a hopeful, pragmatic vision that will change the way you see the world."



Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, a columnist for The Progressive, and the author of eight books on the politics of sports, including What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States and A People's History of Spo
From Truthdig

Most Americans believe in conspiracy theories. I do. I don't buy a lot of them, but I think that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. In my view, there's credible evidence that Tampa, Fla., Mafia boss Santo Trafficante may have hired Oswald to fire the gun that killed President John F. Kennedy that day. And I think there was probably a conspiracy to kill his brother, Sen. Robert Kennedy, in 1968. Acoustics experts have testified that as many as 13 shots were fired at him, more than the eight rounds Sirhan Sirhan's gun could hold.

Conspiracy theories were not prevalent in American politics until the JFK assassination, and scholars argue that they entered the U.S. cultural mainstream only in the late 20th century. Opinion polls show that conspiracy theories are believed by a wide cross-section of Americans, irrespective of race, age, sex, political affiliation, education or socio-economic status. Many historians believe this is the case because so many actual conspiracies have been uncovered at the highest levels of government since the 1960s -- think MKULTRA, the Gulf of Tonkin and the 1953 Iranian coup, to name just a few.

Project MKULTRA was a CIA program wherein the agency experimented illegally on human beings without their knowledge. The program began in 1953 and was finally curtailed in 1973, according to declassified CIA records. It was concerned with "the research and development of chemical, biological and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." The CIA partnered with 80 institutions and 185 private researchers.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a naval confrontation between the United States and North Vietnam in 1964, whereby the U.S. claimed that North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox. The reports led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in Congress and drew the U.S. most deeply into the war. The problem was that the incident likely never took place, at least not in the way the U.S. said. But public opinion was galvanized against North Vietnam, and the U.S. quickly escalated its involvement in the war.

On Aug. 19, 1953, Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected leader of Iran, was overthrown, ostensibly as part of a "popular uprising" by elements opposed to Mossadegh's purported support for communism. In truth, elements of the CIA and the British Intelligence Service (MI-6) overthrew Mossadegh to protect the economic and business interests of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. It wasn't until the CIA finally declassified documents in August 2013, a half-century after the fact, that the public finally learned definitively that "the coup was carried out under CIA direction," and "as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government."

So what is a conspiracy theory? Simply put, it's an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy without evidence, usually involving an illegal or harmful act carried out by the government or other powerful actors. Conspiracy theories often produce hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of history or simple facts.

I get questions regularly in public forums about conspiracies related to the Sept. 11 attacks. I was at CIA headquarters in the year before 9/11 and was in the building on that morning. I was in a meeting in July 2001 in which the then-director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center told a group of visiting dignitaries I was showing around the building, "Something terrible is going to happen. We don't know exactly what or where. We don't know when. But there's going to be an attack on an unprecedented scale." He briefed the group on what we knew at the time about al-Qaida. "I beg you," he continued, "if you have any sources inside al-Qaida, please help us." I listened intently to that briefing. I had access to the intelligence.

I believed then -- and I still believe -- that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were behind the attacks. It wasn't a "controlled detonation" carried out by the Bush family, the Rothschilds, the "Jews," the Trilateral Commission, the Israeli government, the space aliens or anybody else. It was al-Qaida.

With that said, I would love to get to the bottom of what brought down Building 7. I don't think it's ever been adequately explained. And that has led to even more conspiracy theories. Building 7 was one of the buildings in the World Trade Center complex. It was hit by burning debris on the morning of the attacks, and after its south face was hit by the collapsing North Tower, Building 7 eventually came down, too.

Conspiracy theories were rampant that the CIA, the FBI, the New York Police Department, the New York Fire Department or other entities blew up the building through a "controlled demolition." The National Institute of Standards and Technology, however, found no evidence to support the theory that the building came down as a result of explosives.

Similarly, also on Sept. 11, the Pentagon was hit by American Airlines Flight 77, resulting in the deaths of 64 people on board and 125 in the building. Conspiracy theorists claim that the building was hit by a missile, ostensibly ordered launched by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, ignoring the fact that hundreds of people on the highways around the Pentagon, including one of my best friends, watched the plane fly low over Washington Boulevard in Arlington, Va., and crash into the side of the building, and further ignoring the fact that the families of 59 passengers and crew on the plane (there were also six hijackers) had to bury their loved ones in the following days.

Conspiracy theories are popular for myriad reasons. First, they purport to explain what institutional analysis cannot, what to the rest of the world is too complicated or confusing. Second, they are simplistic and divide the world between light and dark, between good and evil. Third, they are often presented as "secret knowledge" unknown or unappreciated by others.

And that's exactly what we're seeing in politics today. We've gotten to a point where many Americans, as well as elements of the mainstream media (I'm talking about you, Fox News) treat conspiracy theories as legitimate news stories. Look at Benghazi and Pizzagate, to name two recent examples.

And that has led us to Donald Trump, a president who perpetuates conspiracy theories because it serves his purposes. Hillary Clinton ordered multiple murders to protect her official positions and the presidency of her husband, right? She ran a pedophile ring? Don't like a story? Call it "fake news." Don't like the outlet where the story appears? Repeat over and over again that it's fake news. The conspiracy theory just may stick.

Here's a news flash: Some Americans are not very bright. They're easily influenced. They believe that The New York Times and The Washington Post, two eminent newspapers of record, are purveyors of fake news because the president says so. The conversation ought not to be fake news. It ought to be about how we ended up with a fake president.

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From RT

The phalanx of European leaders, ministers, and dignitaries, attending the inauguration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last weekend was a stunning snub to Washington. It was also a clear signal the US is losing its thrall over Europe.

Think about it. According to US President Donald Trump and the American Congress, Iran is the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism. And yet here we saw European leaders respectfully attending the swearing-in of the country's re-elected president. A rather big contradiction, don't you think?

Federica Mogherini, the EU's highest ranking diplomat, was accompanied at the Iranian presidential ceremony by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Germany's Minister of State Michael Roth. Also in attendance were ministers and dignitaries from Austria, Britain, Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, as well as many other non-European countries.

So, what's all this American talk about Iran being a rogue state, a scourge of global terrorism? The presence of European officials -- and the absence of American ones -- during the inauguration of President Rouhani was a spectacular demonstration of dissonance and repudiation of American policy.

Only a few weeks ago, in May, while President Trump was on his first overseas official visit in Saudi Arabia, he called on all nations of the world to boycott Iran. Trump told assembled Arab leaders then: "All nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran," accusing the Islamic Republic of threatening Middle East security.

Evidently, European countries have ignored Trump and his demeaning caricature of Iran.

Indeed, ever since the July 2015 signing of the international nuclear accord between Iran and six other world powers (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany), European governments and businesses have been hot on the trail to Tehran to ink new joint ventures and investment deals.

The nuclear accord -- known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- has lifted international sanctions on Iran in return for it adhering to restrictions on its nuclear program to bar weaponization. Six reviews carried out by the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have verified Iran is in full compliance with its side of the JCPOA bargain.

The Europeans seem more than happy about that. Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, is a formidable advocate of the nuclear deal, proclaiming it a success and a source of regional stability. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was warmly welcomed in Brussels in June when he reported via Twitter: "Excellent meeting with leaders in Berlin, Rome and Paris. Despite reckless US hostility, EU committed to JCPOA and constructive engagement."

European investors have duly piled in to snatch part of the Iranian market of some 80 million people and the world's second and fourth largest source of natural gas and oil, respectively.

This week, two days after Rouhani's inauguration, French automaker Renault signed the "biggest-ever" car deal in Iran, worth 660 million, where it will manufacture 150,000 vehicles a year in partnership with two Iranian firms.

Last year, French company PSA, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen, announced a similar investment in Iran, worth 400 million.

The champion breakthrough for European-Iranian investment came last month when France's Total signed up to a nearly 5 billion 20-year project with Iranian and Chinese firms to develop Iran's South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, reckoned to be the world's biggest reserve.

Both Germany and France have seen exports to Iran soar since the implementation of the nuclear accord. Germany's by some 26 percent and France's by nearly 50 percent, according to trade figures.

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From Consortium News



President Trump delivers his brief speech to the nation explaining his decision to launch a missile strike against Syria on April 6, 2017.

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There was always a logical flaw in pushing Russia-gate as an excuse for Hillary Clinton's defeat -- besides the fact that it was based on a dubious "assessment" by a small team of "hand-picked" U.S. intelligence analysts. The flaw was that it poked the thin-skinned Donald Trump over one of his few inclinations toward diplomacy.

We're now seeing the results play out in a very dangerous way in Trump's bluster about North Korea, which was included in an aggressive economic sanctions bill -- along with Russia and Iran -- that Congress passed nearly unanimously, without a single Democratic no vote.

Democrats and Official Washington's dominant neocons celebrated the bill as a vote of no-confidence in Trump's presidency but it only constrained him in possible peacemaking, not war-making.

The legislation, which Trump signed under protest, escalated tensions with those three countries while limiting Trump's power over lifting sanctions. After signing the bill into law, Trump denounced the bill as "seriouslynh flawed -- particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate."

As his "signing statements" made clear, Trump felt belittled by the congressional action. His response has been to ratchet up bellicose rhetoric about North Korea, bluster appearing to be his natural default position when under pressure.

Remember, in April, as the Russia-gate hysteria mounted, Trump changed the subject, briefly, by rushing to judgment on an alleged chemical-weapons incident in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, and firing off 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military base.

He immediately won acclaim from Official Washington, although Hillary Clinton and other hawks argued that he should have gone further with a much larger U.S. invasion of Syria, i.e., establishing a "no-fly zone" even if that risked nuclear war with Russia.

What Trump learned from that experience is that even when he is going off half-cocked, he is rewarded for taking the military option. (More careful analysis of the Khan Sheikhoun evidence later raised serious doubts that the Syrian military was responsible.)

Schoolyard Taunts

So, we now have President Trump in a bizarre exchange of schoolyard taunts with the leadership of North Korea, with Trump's "fire and fury like the world has never seen" rhetoric possibly plunging the United States into a confrontation that could have devastating consequences for the Korean peninsula, Japan and indeed the whole world.

Given the fact that the world has already seen the U.S. nuclear destruction of two Japanese cities at the end of World War II, Trump's loose phrasing seems to suggest that the United States is prepared to use nuclear weapons against North Korea (although he may be referring to "just" carpet-bombing with conventional ordnance).

If nuclear weapons are brought into play, it is hard to fathom what the long-term consequences might be. It's unlikely that Trump -- not known for his deep thinking -- has even contemplated that future.

However, even a "limited" war with conventional weapons and confined to the Korean peninsula could kill hundreds of thousands of people and severely shake the world's economy. If North Korea manages to deliver retaliatory damage on Japan, a human catastrophe and a financial panic could follow.

Many thoughtful people are now expressing alarm at Trump's erratic behavior, but many of those same people cheered the promotion of Russia-gate as a way to corner Trump politically. They didn't seem to care that the "scandal" was built on a foundation of flimsy or phony evidence and that a key argument -- that "all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies" concurred in the Russian-hacking conclusion -- was false.

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A day after editor of leading Chinese newspaper Global Times said military action was inevitable if Indian troops did not withdraw from China's soil in Doklam, Beijing has issued another threat asking what would India do if China enters Kashmir or the Kalapani region in Uttarakhand.

Wang Wenli, Deputy Director General of the Boundary and Ocean Affairs of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the visiting Indian journalists, "The Indian side has also many tri-junctions. What if we use the same excuse and enter the Kalapani region between China, India and Nepal or the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.

Indian journalists were visiting China at the invitation of All China Journalists Association (ACJA).

India and China have been locked in a face-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector since June 16 after Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area. China said it was constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops from the disputed Doklam plateau.

"Even if there is only one Indian soldier, even for a day it is still a violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wang Wenli said adding: "It is impossible to have a dialogue with India at this time. Our people will think our government is incompetent."

Wang Wenli raised the Kashmir issue and also referred to the Kalapani dispute between India and Nepal. "We think it is not doable for the Indian side to use tri-junction as an excuse," she said, referring to Indian External Affairs Ministry's assertion that the road building at the China, India and Bhutan tri-junction in the strategic narrow Chicken's Neck area changes the status quo.

According to the Indian Express, this is the first time that a Chinese official sought to bring in the Kashmir issue even though such a remark has been made earlier by a scholar in the Global Times.

Chinese threat should not be taken lightly

Indian experts said on Wednesday that India should take the Chinese threat of entering Kalapani in Uttarakhand seriously to keep an eye on "activities across the border".

Kalapani is a region close to Nepal and the Himalayan country has been staking claim over the disputed territory for years now. Kalapani is a 35-square-kilometre area in the hill state's Pithoragarh district under control of Indo Tibetan border police. Uttarakhand shares an 80.5-km-long porous border with Nepal and a 344-km border with China, the Hindustan Times said.

SS Pangti, an expert on India-Nepal border affairs, was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that the 1816 Segauli treaty signed between the British and Nepal locates the Kali River as the western border between the nations.

Kalapani is considered as the origin of Kali River that flows from Nepal and enters Uttarakhand. In fact, both the nations are also working on a joint hydropower project Pancheshwar on the river on the Indian side.

"Above Kalapani there is no demarcation (of the boundary) between Indo-Nepal till China border. This could lead to problems in the coming time. The dragon's threat should not be taken lightly," Pangti told the Hindustan Times.

"It is crucial for India to maintain control at Kalapani in a bid to keep an eye on the activities across the border," he added.

China Daily warns: Countdown to clash between Chinese and Indian forces has begun

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From Truthdig



Students civil action

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The taproots of democracy and its plentiful benefits start with the people, of course, but more specifically with the educational experience the next generation of leaders receives in their schooling.

The corporate power structures know this truism in a perverse way. Through their influence, both inside our schools and beyond, they press for curricula that teach complacency and obedience instead of understanding how the principles of democracy can be utilized to dismantle the power structures serving the few over the many.

From the earliest years of our schooling, we are inundated with a distorted view of history -- though since Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States" and its awakenings, more of the grim realities of the ruling classes' history of plunder have been brought to light. Still, power, law and the workings of democratic institutions past and present are rarely part of schooling in America.

Just ask middle and high school students about their society's basic institutions, courts, trial by jury, the law of wrongful injuries (tort law), or about their civil rights and liberties -- and the duties that accompany these rights -- and you're likely to draw blank gazes. In 2006, a poll revealed that more high school students knew the names of the Three Stooges than the names of the three branches of government. Just last year after my address to the student assembly of a preparatory school, a small gathering of students who wanted to talk could not name their state's governor, senators or representatives to Congress -- notwithstanding the ballyhooed information source that is misnamed the "smartphone" in their hands.

The imbalance between the vocational emphasis in education and the civic experience is vast. Civics, as a topic, is not a standalone subject in most schools anymore. And where it is, the textbooks are so dry, dreary and self-censoring of controversial subjects that reading them is like reading a microwave oven manual.

As some forthright teachers have shown, it need not be this way, and stronger parent associations can provide some protection for teachers who are fearful of bureaucratic restrictions. For example, several years ago, a fifth grade student in Salt Lake City rushed into class excitedly to tell her classmates about discovering a nearby waste dump covered with shrubbery. The teacher took this level of interest and turned it into a class project. The students documented the dump, visited city officials, got it cleaned up and, between press interviews, managed to testify at the state Legislature. The teacher, Barbara Lewis, went on to publish a book, "The Kid's Guide to Social Action," and has been speaking across the country about the incredible motivation of young people when they study realities close to home and are given high expectations to excel, all while learning civic skills and engaging in civic experiences.

High schools have chemistry, physics and biology labs that can study and quantify the physical forces at work in their communities. Imagine how quickly the Flint, Mich., tragedy regarding lead poisons in drinking water could have been discovered were high school students routinely taught to test their local drinking water for heavy metals, while learning about the federal drinking water safety law and how to use its periodic reporting and other tools.

There are over 1,200 community colleges in the United States with overwhelming focus on vocational training -- auto mechanics, nursing, computer science, and so on. Why not also emphasize the "community" in their curriculum by giving students the opportunity to receive course credit for learning civic skills and connecting to community needs and conditions? The real-world applications of student research can serve as a valuable brain trust for the community, as well as an enriching experience for students who, for example, could test water, air and soil for contamination.

Such potential is equally applicable to the social sciences. In courses on government, there could be a class titled Congress 101 that each semester could study and report to the people in the school's congressional district on the activities and records of their senators and representatives. Students would learn about the workings of Congress in a much more dynamic and motivating manner than the usual ways our most powerful branch of government is studied. They also would learn how they can affect, influence and improve Congress during and between elections.

This skill would serve the students long after they graduate. Regularly assembling and distributing to the general public factual reports on their members of Congress, the students probably would be surprised at the attentiveness accorded their studies by congressional staffers, if not the senators or representatives themselves. The class would see how the accumulation of knowledge about important power centers -- in and of itself -- leads to acquiring civic power for both the students and the broader communities. No new, expensive facilities needed.

Civic content in curriculum is available frugally, including the many available free and low-cost guides and manuals (for example, "A Public Citizen's Action Manual," first published in 1973), which are very useful for learning strategies for civic analysis and engagement -- "Learning by doing," as the great educational philosopher John Dewey used to say.

Students at community colleges often do "service" for the needy in their community. That commitment is very commendable and sharpens their sense of empathy and justice. But service -- for example, volunteering at soup kitchens -- is different from advancing justice, which confronts the question of "Why in a rich society are people denied the livelihoods that would render soup kitchens unnecessary?"

The difference between engaging in charity (ministering to immediate human needs) and advocating justice (pressing for prevention of the injustice at its source) needs to be acknowledged in any discussion of how to improve a civic education. All communities are fertile grounds for learning about and participating in civic activities. They are the real-life equivalent of laboratories for civic practice. What's more, they connect individuals with existing or emerging communities bent on improving life where people live, work and raise their families.

Learning civic skills can motivate and inspire students because the application of civic skills to improve communities touches so many lives. The 1970s-era FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson wrote a book titled "How to Talk Back to Your Television Set," which demonstrated the skills needed to implement the duties of broadcasters expressed in the 1934 Communications Act, in addition to developing other critical facilities to upgrade television content from what former FCC Chairman Newton Minow called "a vast wasteland" before a startled convention of broadcasters in 1961.

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From Counterpunch

There is something immoral in Washington D.C., and its consequences can be dire for many people, particularly for the health of US democracy.

The US government is declaring war on the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The fight to defeat BDS has been ongoing for several years, but most notably since 2014.

Since then, 11 US states have passed and enacted legislation to criminalize the movement, backed by civil society, which aims to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine.

Washington is now leading the fight, thus legitimizing the anti-democratic behavior of individual states. If the efforts of the US government are successful, an already struggling US democracy will take yet another step back, and many good people could potentially be punished for behaving in accordance with their political and moral values.

Senate Bill 720 (S.720), also known as the "Anti-Israel Boycott Act," was largely drafted by the notorious and powerful Israel lobby in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

According to its own "2017 Lobbying Agenda," AIPAC has made the passing of the bill its top priority.

The US Congress is beholden by Israel's interests and by the "stranglehold" of AIPAC over the elected representatives of the American people.

Thus, it was no surprise to see 43 senators and 234 House representatives backing the Bill, which was first introduced in March.

Although the Congress has habitually backed Israel and condemned Palestinians -- and any politician or entity that dared recognize Palestinian rights -- this time, the Congress is going too far and is jeopardizing the very basic rights of its own constituencies.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution has been the pillar in defense of people's right to free speech, freedom of the press, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This right, however, has often been curtailed when it applies to Israel. The Center for Constitutional Rights refers to this fact as "The Palestine Exception."

S.720, however, if it passes, will cement the new US status, that of "flawed democracy" as opposed to a full democratic nation that legislates and applies all laws fairly and equally to all of its citizens. The law would make it a "felony" for Americans to support the boycott of Israel.

Punishment of those who violate the proposed law ranges from $250,000 to $1 million, and/or 20 years in prison.

The Bill has already had chilling effects on many groups in the country, especially among African American activists, who are fighting institutionalized racism. If the Bill becomes law, the precedent will become the norm, and dissidents will find themselves standing trial for their mere opinions.

With regard to Israel, the US Congress is united. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers often act in ways contrary to the interests of their own country, just to appease the Israeli government. This is no secret.

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From Truthdig

Ignorance is a terrible wound when it is self-inflicted, but it becomes a dangerous plague when the active refusal to know combines with power. President Trump's lies, lack of credibility, woefully deficient knowledge of the world, and unbridled narcissism have suggested for some time that he lacks the intelligence, judgment and capacity for critical thought necessary to occupy the presidency of the United States. But when coupled with his childish temperament, his volatile impetuousness and his Manichaean conception of a world -- a reductionist binary that only views the world in term of friends and enemies, loyalists and traitors -- his ignorance translates into a confrontational style that puts lives, if not the entire planet, at risk.

Trump's seemingly frozen and dangerous fundamentalism, paired with his damaged ethical sensibility, suggests that we are dealing with a form of nihilistic politics in which the relationship between the search for truth and justice on the one hand and moral responsibility and civic courage on the other has disappeared.

For the past few decades, as historian Richard Hofstadter and others have reminded us, politics has been disconnected not only from reason but also from any viable notion of meaning and civic literacy. Government now runs on willful ignorance as the planet heats up, pollution increases and people die. Evidence is detached from argument. Science is a subspecies of "fake news," and alternative facts are as important as the truth. Violence becomes both the catalyst and the result of the purposeful effort to empty language of any meaning. Under such circumstances, Trump gives credence to the notion that lying is now a central feature of leadership and should be normalized, and this serves as an enabling force for violence.

For Trump, words no longer bind. Moreover, his revolting masculinity now stands in for dialogue and his lack of an ethical imagination. Trump has sucked all of the oxygen out of democracy and has put into play a culture and mode of politics that kill empathy, revel in cruelty and fear and mutilate democratic ideals. Trump's worldview is shaped by Fox News and daily flattering and sycophantic news clips, compiled by his staff, that boost his deranged need for emotional validation.

All of this relieves him of the need to think and empathize with others. He inhabits a privatized and self-indulgent world in which tweets are perfectly suited to colonizing public space and attention with his temper tantrums, ill-timed provocations, and incendiary vocabulary. His call for loyalty is shorthand for developing a following of stooges who offer him a false and egregiously grotesque sense of community -- one defined by a laughable display of ignorance and a willingness to eliminate any vestige of human dignity.

Anyone who communicates intelligently is now part of the "fake news" world that Trump has invented. Language is now forced into the service of violence. Impetuousness and erratic judgment have become central to Trump's leadership, one that is as ill-informed as it is unstable. Trump has ushered in a kind of anti-politics and mode of governance in which any vestige of informed judgment and thought is banished as soon as it appears. His rigid, warlike mentality has created an atmosphere in the United States in which dialogue is viewed as a weakness and compromise understood as personal failing.

As Hofstadter argued more than 50 years ago, fundamentalist thinking is predicated on an anti-intellectualism and the refusal to engage other points of view. The "other" is not confronted as someone worthy of respect but as an enemy, a threatening presence that must be utterly vanquished -- and in Trump's case, humiliated and then destroyed.

Philosopher Michel Foucault elucidated the idea that fundamentalists do not confront the other as "a partner in the search for the truth but an adversary, an enemy who is wrong, who is harmful, and whose very existence constitutes a threat. ... There is something even more serious here: in this comedy, one mimics war, battles, annihilations, or unconditional surrenders, putting forward as much of one's killer instinct as possible."

Trump is missing a necessity in his fundamentalist toolbox: self-reflection coupled with informed judgment. He lacks the ability to think critically about the inevitable limitations of his own arguments, and he is not held morally accountable to the social costs of harboring racist ideologies and pushing policies that serve to deepen racist exclusions, mobilize fear and legitimize a growing government apparatus of punishment and imprisonment. What connects the moral bankruptcy of right-wing ideologues such as Trump and his acolytes -- who embrace violent imagery to mobilize their followers with the mindset of religious and political extremists -- is that they share a deep romanticization of violence that is valorized by old and new fundamentalisms.

The current crisis with North Korea represents not only the possibility of a nuclear war triggered by the irrational outburst of an unhinged leader, but also a death-dealing blow to the welfare state, young people, immigrants, Muslims and others deemed dangerous and therefore "disposable."

Trump has replaced politics with the theater and poison of nihilism. His politics combines spectacle with vengeance, violence and a culture of cruelty. Trump's impetuous and badly informed comments about North Korea represent more than a rash, thoughtless outburst. Rather, they contribute to rising tensions and the increased possibility of a major military conflict.

Trump's dangerous rhetoric is symptomatic of the death of historical consciousness, public memory, critical thinking and political agency itself at the highest levels of governance. Under such circumstances, politics degenerates into dogma coupled with a game-show mentality symptomatic of a perpetual form of political theater that has morphed into a new kind of mass mediated barbarism. This is how democracy ends, with a bang and a whimper.
From WSWS

President Donald Trump told a press briefing Thursday that he was not considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who heads the Justice Department investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion with Moscow by the Trump campaign.

Trump again dismissed the significance of the Russia investigation, declaring, "They're investigating something that never happened. There was no collusion between us and Russia," and adding that he and his staff were cooperating with Mueller. He said questions about firing Mueller were raised only in the media, not in the White House. "I'm not dismissing anybody," he said. "I mean, I want them to get on with the task."

Trump was uncharacteristically restrained in commenting on the extraordinary pre-dawn FBI raid on the home of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, which took place July 26 but was only made public this week. He said the raid was "a very, very strong signal" by prosecutors, adding, "To do that early in the morning, whether or not it was appropriate, you'd have to ask them."

The president appears to be distancing himself from Manafort -- whose spokesman recently denied that he had become a "cooperating witness" in the Mueller probe. Trump gave only a tepid endorsement to his former campaign chairman, saying he "always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man."

The lead counsel for Trump in the Russian investigation, John Dowd, was not nearly so cautious in his language. He gave a statement to the Wall Street Journal Thursday, calling the raid "a gross abuse of the judicial process" and an "extraordinary invasion of privacy."

Saying that the raid had been ordered largely for its "shock value," he continued, "These methods are normally found and employed in Russia not America." Dowd also suggested that attorneys for Manafort were likely to bring a motion to suppress anything seized in the raid.

Also Thursday, Manafort revealed that he was changing lawyers, dropping the firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (where Mueller worked before his appointment as special counsel) and switching to a firm that specialized in criminal defense in complex financial cases.

Press reports suggested that the switch was at least in part because of financial pressures on Manafort created by the special counsel's investigation. Bloomberg reported that special counsel Mueller's office has subpoenaed bank records for both Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates, and that as a result, their business activities were adversely affected.

Politico reported that the FBI has approached Manafort's son-in-law, real estate developer Jeffrey Yohai, to seek his cooperation in the Russia investigation.

According to Bloomberg, "the Manafort inquiry is just one thread of Mueller's multifaceted effort, which includes the purchase of Trump real estate properties by wealthy Russians going back a decade, the foreign ties of Michael Flynn, who was briefly the administration's National Security Adviser, and the dismissal of FBI chief James Comey by the President."

While the legal machinery continues to grind, the political warfare within the ruling class continues unabated, even in the midst of the global alarm created by Trump's bellicose threats to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.

Foreign Policy magazine published Thursday the text of an internal memorandum drafted by a National Security Council staffer, Rich Higgins, before he was fired by his boss, National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster. In the document Higgins, part of the fascist wing of the White House staff headed by Steven Bannon, denounced what he termed a "deep state" conspiracy to undermine Trump, consisting of "globalists, bankers, Islamists, and establishment Republicans."

The memo, written in May 2017 and actually read by Trump, according to the report, claimed that Trump was under attack because he represents "an existential threat to cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative." Higgins used this language to denounce those who asserted rights "based on sex or ethnicity," including transgendered people in the military, against whom he apparently had a special phobia.

After McMaster learned of the memo's existence in July, he forced Higgins to resign and then carried out a purge of other NSC officials brought on by Trump's first national security advisor, retired General Michael Flynn.

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Renowned journalist and board member of the newly constituted National Communication Authority (NCA), Paul Adom-Otchere has been accused of accepting a bribe from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), to ''distort Ghanas history''.



Mr Otchere at a debate recently organized said, Ghana's first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah never won any Presidential election in the country, adding the former leader only participated in a plebiscite and not a presidential election.



He was lambasted by some individuals for distorting Ghanas history but the ace broadcaster on his Good Evening Show some few days ago insisted that, Nkrumah never won a presidential election.



A plebiscite was held in April, and the people were asked, firstly, if they accepted the Constitution contained in the White paper, and, secondly, whether they supported Nkrumah or Danquah for president.



In both votes Nkrumah and the constitution were supported by over one million votes to about 130000, he said.



Meanwhile, Koku Anyidoho is alleging that Paul Adom-Otchere has benefited financially from the ruling party hence the attempt to ''distort Ghanas history''.



He said the first president did not only win a presidential election, he defeated his biggest rival at the time, JB Danquah in the April 27, 1960 Presidential election.



He described the action by Adom-Otchere as an embarrassment and has advised him to desist from repeating such a mistake.



He should remain quiet and spend the money he has received from the ruling government quietly, he said.



The history of Ghanas march to independence is one topic that continues to divide the country especially among members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on one hand and National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on another.



The ruling party holds the view that Ghanas independence history will not be complete without the contributions of Dr J. B. Danquah, Paa Grant and the other members of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).



To supporters of the NPP, which is an offshoot of the UGCC, there is a deliberate plot by supporters of the NDC and CPP to downplay the contributions of founders of the first political party in pre-independent Ghana.



But Koku Anyidoho says no attempt by the NPP to distort Ghanas history in favour of JB Danquah will hold any water.

Source: rainbowradioonline.com









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"That's what this continuous bomber presence does. It assures our allies and deters our adversaries."

- Lt. Col. Chris Occhiuzzo, deputy Operations Group commander, Andersen Air Force Base

The U.S. Air Force has maintained a continuous bomber presence in Guam since 2004, said officials at Guam's air force base, and that presence is a symbol of American military might in the Pacific region.

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Andersen Air Force Base opened its doors to media yesterday for an opportunity to discuss training operations regularly held at the base.

North Korea's threats to Guam and the United States have made headlines in the past week after strong statements from President Donald Trump incited a reaction from the hermit kingdom.

'Aggressors in the region'

The media opportunity yesterday did not address any of the lingering concerns surrounding heightened tensions between the two countries. Officials at Andersen made that clear through ground rules submitted to media outlets beforehand.

"We understand the need to address current narratives regarding aggressors in the region. However, at this time we are not providing statements or comments regarding North Korea," the rules stated.

"All comments are being deferred to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs."

The media opportunity allowed the public to see America's defense capabilities in the region without getting into topics of foreign affairs.

Deputy Operations Group Commander Lt. Col. Chris Occhiuzzo spoke to media about the bombers currently on island. He did not specify how many bombers were deployed to Guam or offer information on the training missions in which they were engaged.

Yesterday, a Guam naval exercise was taking place among the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

"We don't train for a specific threat, we don't train for a specific scenario but we are training always with our allies, with our partners," Occhiuzzo said in front of a backdrop of a B-1 Lancer bomber and a KC-135 Stratotanker.

The B-1 bombers are the only bombers on island at the moment, but Andersen has hosted B-52 and B-2 bombers in the past.

Media also had an opportunity to watch the bombers and tanker take off, positioned close enough to the runway to feel the air itself shake as the supersonic bombers flew off to participate in an undisclosed training mission.

'We feel safe here'

Occhiuzzo said the military is prepared to fight on immediate notice and that at the moment, he and his family feel safe on island.

"The majority of people (at Andersen)  we live here. I live here, my wife lives here, my two daughters live here, my son lives here. We go to Tumon Bay, my son goes to school here ... we obviously have a vested interest in here and we feel safe here right now. That's what this continuous bomber presence does," Occhiuzzo said. "It assures our allies and deters our adversaries."

While North Korea had been off the table for media, Occhiuzzo did hearken back to prior statements made by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a brief pit stop in Guam earlier this week.

"(Tillerson) came the other day, right? And he said right now, there's no imminent threat from North Korea here," Occhiuzzo added.
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Erin Ventures Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Victoria, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Erin Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture:EV). has issued a press release with the following headline:Erin Ventures Announces Shareholders Approval of Share ConsolidationTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Erin Ventures Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Erin Ventures Inc.Source: Erin Ventures Inc. (TSX Venture: EV, WKN: A0CAFT, ISIN: CA29570H1010)Date: August 11, 2017Time: 6:55 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Erin Ventures Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Far Resources Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - Far Resources Ltd. (CSE:FAT). has issued a press release with the following headline:Far Resources Engages Market ConsultantTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Far Resources Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Far Resources Ltd.Source: Far Resources Ltd. (CSE: FAT, FWB: F0R, WKN: A2AH8W, ISIN: CA30734R1001)Date: August 12, 2017Time: 12:05 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Far Resources Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Three places of Nepal  Kathmandu, Chitwan and Pokahra represents the best of nature, culture and scenery of the country. Kathmandu exhibits exquisite art and architecture of the region. Chitwan national park shelters last no of Tigers and Asian Rhinos and Pokhara is a valley of lake with Himalayas in its north. These three places are the most visited tourist destination in Nepal.

Mt Fishtail as seen from Sarangkot hill - Kathmandu Chitwan Pokhara tour

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Nasanh Dyah Marg, ThamelTour Manager977 1 4363643 , 4412011http://www.itournepal.com

The mountainous country Nepal has diverse culture and landscape. There are 125 ethnic groups and distinctly 4 types of landscape from tropical planes to Himalayas. Kathmandu, the capital at present is mantling pot of different culture and ethnic groups with the dominance of Newari art, architecture and culture in the old town. Kathmandu with its documented history from 1st century B.C. has got group of seven monuments listed by UNESCO as world Heritage site. Locals still worship and celebrate their monuments making it a living heritage. It is said that in Kathmandu There are more festivals than the days in the calendar and there are more temple than the houses and more gods than the people.160 km down southwest of Kathmandu, 932 sq km of tropical jungle is protected as Chitwan National Park. This is last vestiges of Terai forest that once spread from foothills of Himalayas to Gigantic planes. Last no of Royal Bengal Tigers and Asian single horned Rhinos and many other endangered species are protected in the park. The park is listed as UNESCO natural heritage sites and is the most successful conservation in South Asia.200 km west of Kathmandu and 160 km north of Chitwtan, Pokhara is a valley known as natural capital of Nepal. The valley possesses three pristine lakes in the amphitheater of mountains with snow peaks in the north. This is base camp city for trekking in Annapurna and Dhaulagiri region. Tourist town spreads along the 4.4 sq. Lake Phewa.7 nights 8 days tour of Kathmandu Chitwan and PokharaThe 7 nights 8 days tour is the most popular way of visiting Kathmandu Chitwan and Pokhara. These three places are connected by major highway and flights. It is worthwhile to drive one way getting the feel of landscape and fly the other way. There are accommodation ranging from budget to luxury at each place. The tour starts and ends in Kathmandu where there is the only international airport of Nepal. The tour could be customized to include more adventure activities like White water rafting, short trek or hiking around Kathmandu or Pokhara and customized jungle activities in Chitwan national park.iTourNepal.com P Ltd have been successfully organizing the 7 nights 8 days tour of Kathmandu Chitwan and Pokhara, since 2008. Our tours follow the norms of sustainable tourism and ensures more cultural and social interactions. Our experts can customize best tours considering your budget, time and interest.http://www.itournepal.com/tour/kathmanduchitwanpokhara.php
Helen Benedict has paused for the weekend in her Upper West Side apartment en route to an eagerly anticipated residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. During the school year, Benedict has a full teaching load as a professor of journalism at Columbia University, so summers provide a cherished opportunity for uninterrupted writing. Summers are precious, she says.

This October, Bellevue Literary Press will publish her seventh novel, Wolf Season, a searing portrait of the lasting impact of the war in Iraq on three women in a small upstate New York community: Naema, an Iraqi refugee; Beth, wife of a Marine; and Rin, an angry American veteran who tends her blind daughter Juney and a trio of wolves on a remote, ramshackle farm. I wanted to represent the different sorts of people who live in these towns, says Benedict of her multiple protagonists. A lot of families go into the military because theres little else to do; the options for employment are prisons and the military. And there are some 400 Iraqi refugees settled around Albany.

Naema also appeared in Sand Queen (Soho Press, 2011), the first in what Benedict later realized was going to be a trilogy of novels about the Iraq War. After I finished Sand Queen, I felt there was a lot more to say, she explains. I wanted to follow the Iraq story, because almost nobody was doing that in this country. But I wasnt quite sure if I wanted to bring all the same characters backand then into my head walked Rin and her wolves and Juney. They were the ones who got me going with this novel, and I very quickly found that Naema too belonged in the story.

Naema is a doctor at the Veterans Affairs clinic to which Rin takes Juney for a checkup as Wolf Season begins. Rins hostile, disbelieving reaction to an Iraqi doctor grew from Benedicts dismayed observation of audience responses while on a book tour for Sand Queen when she read passages about Naema. In the trilogys first volume, which takes place in 2003, Naema is a medical student whose family is ravaged by the American invasion. People were so surprised to hear the voice of an Iraqi woman who was educated, because so many Americans dont know the difference between Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle East countries, Benedict says. They thought that Iraqi women were illiterate, uneducated, all in burkas and kept in their homes. But before the war, 50% of Iraqs students were women, 40% of the work force was female. Muslim women in Iraq had more rights than in any other country outside of Turkeyall of which we undid, in cahoots with the imams.

Benedict, 64, is a soft-spoken woman, but she doesnt mince words. Describing her first job as a journalist on a London tabloid, she says, It was the lowest of the low: a girl in a bikini on page threeshe wasnt topless, however, because it was a family newspaperand almost all of it was made up. There was no integrity, there were no rules; it was misogynist, racistevery -ist you could think of. I wanted to write about politics and social justice.

Female journalists were largely confined to the womens pages in British newspapers of the 1970s, so Benedict, the daughter of American anthropologist parents, headed to journalism school at UC Berkeley. She found her mission as a writer while executing a standard ethics course assignment on whether or not the names of rape victims should be mentioned in press coverage. I decided that instead of interviewing editors and reporters, I should talk to the survivors themselves, she recalls. What did they want? Isnt it really up to them? Doing these interviews, I was incredibly moved by the resilience of these women, the way so many of them had turned their trauma into helping others as counselors at rape crisis centers. In the middle of this terribly dark subject there was something very noble and uplifting, which is the amazing generosity and beauty of the human spirit. Without finding that I dont think I could have spent so many years writing about rape, because it would have been relentlessly horrible.

Rape and violence against women became the focus of Benedicts work as a journalist, as well as the subject of her first three nonfiction books. The novels came later, after she was hired by Columbia in 1986. Fiction was always my first love, she says. Id been writing it all along, but it was hard to squeeze it in while trying to make a living as a freelance journalist. Once I had a full-time job with summers off, I was really able to do it. My earlier novels are about disenfranchised people who are looking for homes, looking for families, looking to belongI stayed away from sexual assault in my fiction until these last two.

Sand Queen and Wolf Season both contain horrific scenes of women in the Army being sexually assaulted by their fellow soldiers. This was also a central topic in Benedicts 2009 book, The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq (Beacon).

I ask the prolific author how she decides what form her writing will take in a given book. Its to do with how deep I want to go and how much effect I want to have politically, she replies. With The Lonely Soldier or my earlier books about rape, I wanted them to be instructive in a very direct way. Also, I was exposing things that society struggles to recognize, so I wanted to do it with the authority of journalism and research. If Im going to get people to believe how frequent sexual assault is, how awful the effects are, and how the whole system is rigged against the victims, Ive got to prove it in a way you cant do with fiction.

Benedict adds: Conversely, if I want people to really feel inside what its like to live a life thats hard or different in some way, fictions better for that. No matter how many military survivors of sexual assault you interview, there are limits to how deep you can go. They may not be able to articulate it, they may not even know how deeply theyve been affected, they may be ashamed and not want to tell you. There are million reasons why there are barriers, and you dont want to traumatize people by pushing into painful territory. With fiction you can get deep inside without exploiting any real person.

Benedict acknowledges matter-of-factly that she reaches fewer people with her literary fiction than with her nonfiction: I dont need to reach tens of thousands or millions of readers just because people on Twitter think they must. The world is constantly telling you that youre nothing if youre not megafamous, and thats a very narrow way of looking at life. If I just move 3,000 people, if I just move 300 people, when you think about that number of people taking the time to read my book and think about it and be moved by itthats amazing, and thank you so much!
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With the e-book market showing no signs of returning to robust growth, two of HarperCollinss main priorities in fiscal 2018 are global expansion and broadening its distribution base in North America, HCs CEO Brian Murray told PW after the release of the publishers financial results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. In the just-concluded year, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was $199 million, 7.5% higher than in fiscal 2016, despite a decline of $10 million in sales. Several factors impacted HCs sales performance: there was one fewer week in the fiscal 2017 than in fiscal 2016, which cost $19 million, and the company suffered from the negative impact of currency fluctuations.

Murray said he was thrilled with fiscal 2017 from both a publishing and financial standpoint and that the continued decline in e-books isnt a major concern at the moment. He noted that, in the North American market, gains in print book sales and digital audio made up for the drop in e-book sales and that HCs print frontlist and backlist sales were almost strong enough to match the revenue generated in fiscal 2016 by Go Set a Watchman. Among the companys top-selling titles in the year were Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines, and Jesus Calling and Jesus Always by Sarah Young.

That several of HCs biggest sellers were books aimed at middle America was no accident, Murray said. With offices in Grand Rapids, Mich. (Zondervan); Nashville (Nelson); and San Francisco (HarperOne), HC has long had lots of editors outside of New York City who have different perspectives about what is of interest to middle America; Murray thinks this strategy is all the more important given the results of the recent presidential election. He pointed out that HarperCollins Christian Publishing had a great year despite the collapse of Family Christian Stores and was able to broaden its distribution into new accounts and expand its business with existing ones, such as Barnes & Noble.

The expansion of HCs global footprint also added to sales last year. Murray said that between now and the end of the calendar year foreign-language sales will represent about 10% of the companys total revenue, up from less than 1% when HC bought Harlequin in 2014. Sales of foreign-language titles rose by double digits last year, and Murray anticipates more of the same in fiscal 2018. Among the tactics that have worked to grow sales are offering foreign-language tie-in editions to popular movies and shows on streaming services such as Netflix and continuing to add more commercial authors in overseas markets. Murray said HC continues to look for strategic acquisitions to give its international businesses more scale.

Sales of digital audio had big gains in fiscal 2017 (up 47%, according to News Corp)), Murray said, helping to offset another year of e-book declines, and total digital revenue was about flat with 2016, accounting for 19% of consumer sales. (In a conference call, News CEO Robert Thomson pointed to the success of Mark Manson, whose The Subtle Art of Not Giving F*ck, has audio sales of over 470,000 and print of over 490,000, as "showing the power of savvy self-help books and of the audios genre.")

Given the soft e-book market and a trade market that is generally flat, Murray said finding new avenues of distribution is a priority. In addition to helping independent bookstores grow, Murray said HC has been working to open accounts with retail chains other than bookstores. And he expressed his desire again to see booksellers experiment with new ways to sell books, indicating HC would support any efforts to introduce more innovation and creativity into bookselling.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include remarks by News CEO Robert Thomson.
The cuisines of the Caucasus, Russia, and Turkey reflect the regions geographic position straddling Europe and Asia. Leyla Moushabeck, associate publisher and cookbook editor at Interlink, and the editor of the publishers forthcoming Oklava, says that such regional cookbooks can do more than deliver recipesthey can also introduce readers to the context out of which those recipes arose.

If you want to really experience other cultures, you read their novels, you read history written by people from those countries, and you cook the food, she says. We try to make sure that all of our cookbooks have photography from the region, [cover] cultural traditions, and [offer] personal anecdotes. Food can unite people in that way.

Amy Marr, associate publisher at Weldon Owen, which will publish Kaukasis this October, adds that, for such cookbooks, authenticity is keyI want to know the recipes are anchored in a specific culture or place. Here, we look at how Kaukasis, Oklava, and other forthcoming books showcase cuisines at a crossroads.

Istanbul and Beyond by Robyn Eckhardt (HMH/Martin, Oct.)

Eckhardt, a journalist who has written for Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure, and her husband, David Hagerman, a photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times and Saveur, chronicle the culinary tradition of Turkey, which incorporates influences from nearby Georgia, Iraq, and Syria, among other countries. The book, which received a starred review from PW, features 150 recipes from Turkeys home cooks, farmers, fishermen, and bakers, including Kurdish-style pot-roasted chicken and fingerprint flatbread.

Kachka by Bonnie Frumkin Morales, with Deena Prichep (Flatiron, Nov.)

This book presents recipes from Moraless Portland, Ore., restaurant of the same name, which has received praise for its contemporary take on Russian cuisine; in 2016 Eater included it among its 38 essential U.S. restaurants. In addition to teaching readers to prepare golubtsi (cabbage rolls), pumpkin dolmas (stuffed vegetable leaves), and sour cherry vareniki (dumplings), the book also discusses the Frumkin familys immigration to the U.S. from Belarus and the ways in which various political and cultural factors influence Russian food.

Kaukasis by Olia Hercules (Weldon Owen, Oct.)

The culinary traditions of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and other countries in the Caucasus inform the recipes in this book by Hercules, a Ukrainian-born chef whose Mamushka (2015) has sold more than 8,000 print copies, per NPD BookScan. The 100-plus dishes include plov (pilaf) with pumpkin, chestnut, and walnut, and Armenian cognac profiteroles.

Oklava by Selin Kiazim (Interlink, Jan. 2018)

Recipes for savories, sweets, and cocktails, such as kofte (Turkish meatballs), spiced rice pudding brulee, and a pomegranate-sumac martini, reflect the authors Turkish-Cypriot heritage. The books title, which is also the name of the London restaurant Kiazim opened in 2015, translates to rolling pin.

Tasting Georgia by Carla Capalbo (Interlink, Oct.)

Food and travel writer Capalbo leads readers around the country in 70 recipes, offering instructions for dishes such as khachapuri, a popular cheese-stuffed bread. The book also looks at Georgias ancient winemaking tradition, which involves burying large clay vessels called qvevri.

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AMC Networks Iberia is readying an over-the-top (OTT) platform to launch in Spains increasingly competitive streaming arena.

The company is still developing the project, so not many details have been unveiled. However, AMC has confirmed to Rapid TV News that the platform wont be launched as a standalone service, such as Netflix or HBO Espana, and will be delivered as an add-on to telecom and pay-TV offerings.Regarding content, the catalogue is not yet completely defined, as some of the companys ongoing productions like The Walking Dead or Better Call Saul are already broadcast by other platforms in the country. However, the company has confirmed the platform will include both video-on-demand (VOD) content and linear TV channels.Currently, AMC Networks Iberia manages 14 pay-TV channels in Spain, namely Canal Hollywood, AMC, Sundance TV, XTRM, Somos, Canal Cocina, Canal Decasa, Sol Musica, Odisea, Historia, A&E, Dark, Canal Panda and Crimen + Investigacion. It also owns the subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) service Machinima , focused on eSports.Still with no release date confirmed, AMCs OTT platform will land on a growing streaming market. Since Netflix launched a Spanish operation less than two years ago, HBO and Amazon Prime Video have arrived to a market in which there are local players as well, like Wuaki.tv (renamed Rakuten TV) and Filmin. Sky has also confirmed its planning to launch an OTT operation in the country before the end of the year.
A mortar shell that landed in a house in Afghanistans northern Faryab Province has killed at least 13 civilians, officials said on August 12.

Ten children and two women died in the incident that took place in the Dawlatabad district in the afternoon of August 11, Abdul Ahad Elbek, a provincial council member, told the dpa news agency.

Naimatullah Tofan, the district police chief, said at least three others were injured in the incident.

It remains unclear whether it was Afghan security forces or Taliban militants who fired the mortar.

There was no immediate statement from the Taliban.

There has been an increase in violence in recent months in Faryab Province and both sides have been accused of targeting civilians.

The United Nations said in July that 1,662 civilians were killed and 3,580 others were injured in the first six months of 2017.

Based on reporting by dpa and AP
Toomaj Salehi's lyrical support for protesters in Iran has landed him behind bars before, but this time the popular rapper's fortune-telling has fans and family members fearing for his life.

Just days before his September 30 arrest, the 32-year-old Salehi released his latest music video, in which he makes foreboding predictions about the future of Iran's clerical regime if it continues its violent crackdown against ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

"I am the predictor, the fortune teller," he raps in the video for Omen, which shows him reading the patterns left in his coffee cup and warning that brute force will not prevail.

"I saw a cage in the coffee grounds -- a lion was hunting a jackal," he explains, alluding to a fairy tale about wisdom defeating physical strength. "We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid."

Salehi goes on to warn that the regime's protectors -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Basij paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the state media -- will all get their day in court.

Salehi followed up on the new video by posting on social media images of him standing alongside protesters and chanting against security forces in his native city in Isfahan Province. The rapper, an ethnic Lur who was arrested last year after releasing other songs critical of the government, offered to turn himself in if protesters detained in his hometown of Shahinshahr were released.

In subsequent posts, he called the provincial authorities "cowardly vermin" and "scum who suppress and arrest [innocent] people."

Shortly afterward, Salehi went missing and has not been heard from since.

State media reported on September 30 that Salehi had been arrested, and a news agency close to the IRGC published a photo of the blindfolded rapper inside a car.

A short video later released by a press club associated with Iran's state broadcaster purports to show the rapper admitting he made a mistake.

But the reports' claims he had been caught while "illegally exiting the western borders of the country" have been fiercely disputed, and the video confession has been labeled a fake by some and a coerced confession by others.

Family members as well as Salehi's official Twitter account have said the rapper was, in fact, arrested in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, hundreds of kilometers from Iran's western border.

In a statement, Salehi's uncle Eghbal Eghbali said his nephew was in the province's city of Borujen on the morning of September 30 when he wrote saying "suspicious things" were happening outside his home. Soon after, Salehi stopped communicating. Eghbali said he learned from Salehi's neighbors and friends that security personnel had arrived to take the rapper away.

Later on September 30, a prosecutor in nearby Isfahan Province was quoted by the Meezan news agency, which is close to Iran's judiciary, as saying Salehi was arrested "in one of the provinces of the country." The prosecutor alleged the rapper had played a key role in "creating disturbances and inviting and encouraging the recent disturbances in Isfahan Province and in Shahinshahr."

The official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted a judiciary official from Isfahan Province as saying Salehi stood accused of "propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and the formation of illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country."

Thousands of Iranians, many of them from the younger generation, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's hijab law requiring that women cover their hair.

As the protests have continued, the authorities have intensified their crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 305 people, including 41 children, according to the latest figures released by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on November 6.

Salehi is among the hundreds of prominent young voices, including activists, artists, and athletes, who have been arrested for speaking out against the states bloody crackdown on the protests. Overall, activists estimate thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities since the rallies erupted.

Faced with a potential existential threat to Iran's clerical rule, 227 of 290 Iranian lawmakers this week called for even greater force by urging the judiciary to "deal decisively" with those behind the protests.

In recent years, Salehi has gained notoriety for his open opposition to the country's leadership, using his music and social media presence to take on issues that resonate with Iranian youths.

In the song Normal, he highlights the effects of poverty, saying "Our children sleep hungry at night" and asking Iran's leaders how their conscience can let them sleep.

The song Rathole, released in 2021, accuses members of the media and art community both inside and outside Iran of being an "ally of the tyrant," a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In another song, he blasts Tehran's close relationships with Moscow and Beijing, asking: "Haven't you robbed us enough? Now, you want to give away half [of our resources] to China and the rest to Russia."

Salehi was detained in September 2021 after security agents raided his home in Isfahan, with Human Rights Watch decrying the detention of the artist for "exercising his right to freedom of expression."

Salehi was charged with "spreading propaganda against the state," but after more than a week was released on bail. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison but was released on a suspended sentence in February.

While out, he continued his work and released Omen amid the states increasingly violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind," he raps. "Someone's crime was that she was brave and criticized."

Listing a litany of violent acts carried out by the authorities against protesters, Salehi asks, "How many young people did you kill building a tower for yourself?" and predicts that next year, the 44th year of the clerical regime's rule, will be its "year of failure."

Salehi's arrest has led to widespread condemnation inside and outside Iran, and his advocates have spread the #FreeToomaj hashtag on Twitter to shed light on his situation.

His family has said they do not know Salehi's whereabouts or health, leaving them wondering if he is even alive.

But the authorities have shed some light on the fate of another Iranian rapper arrested shortly before Salehi. The judiciary announced on November 7 that Saman Yasin, a rapper from Kermanshah Province -- a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and that has been a focus of the government crackdown -- has been accused of waging "warfare" against Iran and acting against the country's security.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, with contributions by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon
North Korean state television announced on August 10 plans will be ready by the middle of the month to launch intermediate-range missiles towards the U.S. territory of Guam, adding that they would land 30-40km from the island. The claim was made two days after U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea that any further threats would result in "fire and fury" from the United States. (Reuters)
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told thousands of supporters at a rally that he will "change the fate of the country" as he arrived in his hometown of Lahore from Islamabad after a three-day protest drive.

Sharif, who was ousted by the country's Supreme Court on July 28, said the court's decision "disrespected the vote" of those who had voted for him in the elections and he "will not sit at home until I change the fate of this country."

The large crowd on August 12 was part of a massive protest that began on August 9 when Sharif launched what he called a caravan of democracy from Islamabad to Lahore.

Sharifs long cavalcade stopped overnight in three different cities since he began the journey.

The group was surrounded by heavy security, with fears lingering after a truck bomb exploded in Lahore earlier this week, killing one person and injuring dozens. Sharif traveled in an armored vehicle.

He has given speeches along the way criticizing a decision by the Supreme Court that disqualified him from public office.

Sharif resigned from his post after the court ruling over an investigation that concluded his family could not account for vast wealth it owns in offshore companies.

The investigation stemmed from the so-called Panama Papers leaks in April 2016, when documents from a Panama-based law firm revealed that three of Sharifs four children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his familys wealth statement.

The July court ruling marked the third time Sharifs government was dismissed.

He previously was dismissed from office in 1993 and in 1999.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and dawn.com
Residents of St. Petersburg have paid homage to sailors from the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea exactly 17 years earlier.



Relatives and friends of crew members gathered for a memorial service and a commemorative meeting on August 12 at St. Petersburgs Serafimovskoye Cemetery.



All 118 crew members aboard the nuclear-powered Kursk submarine died on August 12, 2000, after an explosion occurred as the crew was preparing to fire a practice torpedo.



The Russian Navy's final official report concluded that the explosion was caused by the failure of a torpedo.



The Kursk was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2001.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Ukrainian officials and local residents moved to stabilize conditions in the freshly recaptured southern city of Kherson, as Russian symbols were being torn down and with the restoration of Ukrainian radio and television service and a new police presence.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The action on November 12 came after months of occupation by Russian forces following their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February and as Ukrainian and Western officials hailed Kyivs latest extraordinary battlefield success and Moscows strategic failure.

Separately, Russian occupying forces said late on November 12 that they were preparing to leave the city of Nova Kakhovka, the site of a damaged dam on the Dnieper River, to a safer location, according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

As jubilant Kherson residents awoke the morning following the arrival of the first Ukrainian troops, Ukraines military said it was putting stabilization measures in place to ensure safety.

Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said about 200 officers were at their posts in Kherson and that checkpoints had been set up. Authorities also began seeking out any evidence of possible Russian war crimes, he said in a Facebook post.



The Ukrainian communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed in the strategic southern city and officials said aid supplies had begun to arrive from nearby regions.

Social media postings on November 12 showed local residents removing memorial plaques put up by Kremlin-installed authorities during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials warned that while special forces had entered central Kherson, the full deployment of Ukrainian troops was still under way and that some Russian soldiers could have shed military uniforms for civilian clothing and remained in the city.

Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemys presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

But he said that medicine, communications, social services are returning. Life is returning.

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to world leaders at an ASEAN summit in Cambodia, warned that the celebratory mood could turn grim with the possible discovery of war crimes evidence in Kherson.

Such evidence was discovered after Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions months ago.

Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from the Russian Army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by the Russian Army in the course of the occupation of the territories," he said. "Its not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.

The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said. "In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy.

Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia's announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson," Wallace said in a statement. "Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: 'What was it all for?'"

Meanwhile, Pavel Filipchuk, the head of the occupation government in Nova Kakhovka, told administrators and residents that Russian forces will be pullng back from the city on the right bank of the Dnieper River.

He cited concerns that the key dam could be damaged by missiles, which would result in flooding.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning to blast the dam, which has already been severely damaged.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said he was joking when he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering deep cuts in U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia because it saves the United States money.

"Absolutely," Trump said on August 11 after being asked by reporters whether he was being sarcastic a day earlier when he said that he "greatly" appreciated Putin's help in reducing the State Department's payroll costs.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also said in a Twitter post on August 11 that Trump "was being sarcastic" when he made the remarks.

Putin last month directed the United States to cut 755 out of about 1,200 employees at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia after the U.S. Congress passed a tough new law cementing sanctions against Moscow over its aggression in Ukraine and for allegedly meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Trump, who has proposed slashing the State Department's budget by about a third, said on August 10 that he was "very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll."

Those earlier remarks, coming amid investigations into alleged Russian interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, had revived criticism that Trump is inclined to be soft on Putin.

Current and former diplomats were stunned after Trump seemed to welcome Moscow's massive cut in U.S. diplomatic staff.

"If he was joking, he should know better," Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranking official under Republican President George W. Bush, told the Reuters news agency.

"If he wasn't, it's unprecedented. A president has never defended the expulsion of our diplomats," Burns said.

On August 11 after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other foreign policy advisers, Trump reverted to a more conventional stance on the staff cuts, saying the United States is preparing to respond to Putin's diplomatic slap with reciprocal measures by the end of the month.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
The U.S. military denied reports on August 11 that an air strike in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar killed as many as 16 civilians, saying the operation killed only militant fighters.

"The militants were observed loading weapons into a vehicle and were under surveillance until the vehicle was destroyed by an air strike," Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

"The strike was conducted in the middle of open terrain. There was zero chance of civilian casualties," he said.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry told the AFP news agency that the strike by NATO forces killed five insurgents and wounded two others.

Earlier in the day, officials in the Haska Mena district said that as many as 16 civilians, including women and children, had been killed when a passenger van and a nearby house were hit by a U.S. air strike.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters




U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Litigation Release No. 23905 / August 11, 2017 SEC v. Southridge Capital Management LLC, et al., No. 10-cv-1685 (D. Conn. Filed Oct. 25, 2010) Court Orders Hedge Fund Manager and Firms to Pay Nearly $13 Million in SEC Case A federal court in Connecticut has ordered a hedge fund manager and his investment advisory businesses to pay nearly $13 million in a case where the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged he illegally diverted investor money for use by other hedge funds that were illiquid and in need of cash. The court found Steven Hicks of Ridgefield, Connecticut, liable on the SEC's claim that he misappropriated investor funds. The SEC has been actively litigating the case since filing its complaint in 2010 against Hicks and his firms Southridge Capital Management LLC and Southridge Advisors LLC, arguing that investors were defrauded because they were not told about the transfers of hedge fund assets while they were taking place. According to the SEC's complaint, Hicks later sent a letter to investors admitting that certain legal and administrative expenses had been improperly allocated between funds, but rather than repaying the money, he transferred certain illiquid securities to the funds. The court's order, entered August 2, enjoins the Southridge entities and Hicks from violating Section 206 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and requires them to pay approximately $7.9 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest. Hicks also must pay a $5 million penalty. The ruling is a partial final judgment. The SEC's litigation continues with respect to allegations that Hicks and the Southridge entities also overvalued the largest position in the funds and made misrepresentations regarding the liquidity of funds they managed. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2017/lr23905.htm

Modified: 08/11/2017


U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Litigation Release No. 23906 / August 11, 2017 Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jay Belson, et al., No. 2:17-civ-05953 (C.D. Cal. filed Aug. 10, 2017) Beverly Hills Developer Agrees to Settlement for Property Flipping Investment Scheme The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against the head of five real estate development companies for defrauding investors in purported southern California real estate "flips." The SEC's complaint alleges that Jay Belson and five entities he controlled, Smarte Real Estate Investments, Inc.; Jack Rockman, LLC; John Blackstone, LLC; Residence at St. Ives, LLC; and Bellagio Place Residence, LLC, falsely promised investors that they would earn a minimum rate of return and be able to share in profits generated by successful "flips" of properties. Belson also allegedly falsely assured investors that Belson and his companies would only be paid from the profits generated by the successful property sales or specifically identified development and management fees. Through these false promises, the SEC alleges that Belson and his entities raised approximately $18 million from at least 23 investors. The SEC further alleges that, contrary to those representations, Belson stole more than $1.8 million in investor funds, which he pocketed and used to cover certain operating costs, including, among other things, office rent, utilities and salaries. The alleged theft of investor funds was eventually discovered by the largest investor on one of the projects who confronted Belson and Belson responded "You're 100% right [.] i'm [sic] not sure how I got my attitude so twisted up on this." Belson also allegedly comingled investor funds among the various projects despite a promise to keep them separate. The same investor who discovered the alleged theft of investor funds complained to Belson about his "taking money from one deal to feed another." Belson replied, "You're certainly right about my mixing the project finances with each other..bad choice." The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges Belson and the entities with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, Belson and the entities agreed to the entry of final judgments permanently enjoining them from violating the charged provisions of the federal securities laws, ordering Belson and the entity defendants to pay, jointly and severally, $1.9 million in disgorgement and interest, ordering each of the entity defendants to pay approximately $905,000 in penalties, and ordering Belson to pay a penalty of approximately $1.1 million. Belson also consented to a conduct-based injunction. The settlement is pending court approval. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Matthew Montgomery, Nina Yamamoto, and Kristin Escalante, and supervised by Robert Conrrad of the Los Angeles office. SEC Complaint https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2017/lr23906.htm

Modified: 08/11/2017
The EDGAR database provides free public access to corporate information, allowing you to research a public companys financial information and operations by reviewing the filings the company makes with the SEC. You can also research information provided by mutual funds (including money market funds), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and variable annuities.



Where to begin?



In addition to this link, you have two ways of accessing EDGAR from the SEC.gov home page:

To search for a public company, type the companys name or ticker symbol in the search bar at the top of the home page.

To search for a mutual fund, ETF, or variable annuity, click on Company Filings under the search bar at the top of the home page to get to the EDGAR search page. On the left side, youll find tools optimized to search for Mutual Funds and Variable Annuities. You can use the Mutual Funds tool to also search for ETFs. You can search for other types of funds as you would search for public companies.



Form Types



EDGAR presents search results in chronological order and identifies the filings by form types, shown in the first column of the search results. For example, the form type for the annual report on Form 10-K filed by domestic public companies is 10-K.



Filings with /A appended to the form type code indicate an amendment. For example, the form type 10-K/A would indicate an amendment to a Form 10-K filing.



This guide describes where you can find certain types of information in common filings by public companies, mutual funds, and ETFs. A more comprehensive list of the types of forms filed on EDGAR can be found at this forms list.



Financial Information and Results of Operations



Domestic public companies file annual and quarterly reports, as well as current reports when certain events occur that require prompt disclosure. The annual and quarterly reports include financial statements for the relevant period.

Form Type Description 10-K Annual report  Provides audited annual financial statements, a discussion of material risk factors for the company and its business, and a managements discussion and analysis of the companys results of operations for the prior fiscal year. 10-Q Quarterly report  Provides unaudited quarterly financial statements, updates regarding material risks that the company faces, and managements discussion and analysis of the companys results of operations for the prior fiscal quarter. 8-K Current report  Discloses material events or information that the company chooses or is required to make public prior to its next scheduled quarterly or annual report.



Some companies are currently filing (and soon all companies will have to file) these disclosure reports with financial information in a structured data format referred to as Inline XBRLa format that allows a third-party program to read and parse the information. EDGAR incorporates tools that enable users to take advantage of the information. See Inline XBRL to learn more.



Shareholder Meetings



Public companies, mutual funds, and ETFs that are subject to SEC proxy rules send proxy statements to their shareholders to solicit their votes at shareholder meetings. Proxy statements describe the matters to be voted on at the meeting and may include compensation and other information about the companys or funds board and executive officers. The proxy statements of domestic public companies, mutual funds, and ETFs subject to SEC proxy rules can be found on EDGAR.

Form Type Description PRE 14A Preliminary proxy statement  A preliminary proxy statement subject to review by the SEC staff. DEF 14A Definitive proxy statement  The final proxy statement sent to the companys shareholders in connection with the companys shareholder meeting.



Executive Compensation



Domestic public companies regularly disclose the compensation of their chief executive officer and other highly paid executives, and describe their executive and board compensation policies.

Form Type Description DEF 14A Definitive proxy statement  Companies subject to the proxy rules will typically provide detailed compensation disclosure, including a compensation discussion and analysis section, in their annual proxy statement. 10-K Annual report  If the compensation disclosure isnt found in the proxy statement or the company has not filed a proxy statement, the annual report on Form 10-K should include the disclosure. 8-K Current report  Changes to compensation for certain executive officers requires disclosure under Item 5.02 of this report. EDGAR search results for reports on Form 8-K show the item numbers included in each report.



Insider Transactions



Corporate insidersofficers, directors, and holders of more than 10 percent of a class of the companys registered equity securitiesmust regularly disclose holdings and transactions in all equity securities of that company.

Form Type Description 3 Initial statement of beneficial ownership  An initial statement of holdings in the companys equity securities. 4 Statement of changes in beneficial ownership  Disclosure of transactions in the companys equity securities within two business days of the transaction. 5 Annual statement of beneficial ownership  Annual statement of holdings in the companys equity securities.



Beneficial Ownership Interest



Any person or group of persons that acquires beneficial ownership of more than five percent of a class of a public companys registered voting securities must disclose their holdings. In addition, companies regularly disclose who their significant shareholders are and institutional investment managers, such as managers of mutual funds, hedge funds, or pensions, regularly disclose their holdings.



Business Combinations



Depending on how a merger or acquisition is structured, different types of filings may be required by the companies involved in the transaction. Common form types filed in connection with a business combination include the following.

Form Type Description PREM14A Preliminary proxy statement relating to a merger or acquisition  A preliminary proxy statement, which remains subject to review by the SEC staff, filed in connection with a merger or acquisition. DEFM14A Definitive proxy statement relating to a merger or acquisition  The final proxy statement sent to the companys shareholders in connection with a merger or acquisition, which includes a discussion of the terms of and reasons for the transaction. S-4 Registration statement  Filed when the company is registering securities to be used as consideration in the merger or acquisition. The registration statement often incorporates any proxy statement being sent to shareholders. 425 Prospectuses and communications  Written disclosures and communications in connection with a business combination where securities are part of the consideration. SC TO-T/

SC TO-I Tender offer statement by third party/issuer  Filed by a party that is offering to buy outstanding shares of a public company from its shareholders. Often, the disclosure document sent to shareholders is filed as an exhibit to the filing. SC 14D9 Tender offer solicitation/recommendation statements  A filing required to disclose the target companys recommendation on the tender offer. 8-K Current report  Certain information about business combinations may be disclosed in a Form 8-K filing, such as the initial signing of a merger agreement or, if an acquisition doesnt require shareholder approval, information about the company being acquired.



Public Offerings



In order to register an offer and sale of securities to the public with the SEC, a company must file a registration statement. The first time a company publicly offers and sells its securities is known as its initial public offering. A prospectus, which often is a large part of the registration statement, is the document given to investors that discloses information about the company and the offering.

Form Type Description S-1 Registration statement  Filed to register the offer and sale of securities to the public often in connection with an initial public offering. S-3 Short-form registration statement  An abbreviated registration statement available to certain already-reporting companies to register the offer and sale of securities to the public. 424B[#] Prospectus  A document disclosing information about the company and the offering that typically comprises a large part of the registration statement. UPLOAD SEC correspondence  The publicly released written correspondence from the SEC staff to the company during a review process, including a review of a companys registration statement for its initial public offering. CORRESP Correspondence  Publicly released correspondence from the company and its advisers to the SEC staff typically during a review process.



Securities-based Crowdfunding



Crowdfunding is a way to raise money from small individual investments or contributions from a large number of people. Companies that offer and sell securities to the public in reliance on an exemption from registration for securities-based crowdfunding must make filings on EDGAR.

Form Type Description C Offering statement  Disclosure by the company making a crowdfunding offering that contains information about itself and the offering. C-U Progress updates  Disclosure during the offering about the status of meeting the target offering amount (unless the intermediary provides updates on its online platform) and the final amount of securities sold. C-AR Annual report  An annual report by the company that includes financial statements. C-TR Termination of reporting  If eligible, a filing by the company terminating its obligation to file annual reports.



Regulation A Offering



Regulation A allows eligible companies raising $50 million or less in a 12-month period to offer securities to the public with more limited disclosure than what is required in a registered securities offering. Companies conducting Regulation A offerings are subject to Tier 1 or Tier 2 requirements depending on how much capital they plan to raise in the offering. Companies conducting Tier 1 offerings do not have ongoing reporting requirements other than filing a final report to disclose the termination or completion of the offering while companies conducting Tier 2 offerings do have ongoing reporting requirements.

Form Type Description 1-A Offering statement  This includes the offering circular, the document given to investors that provides important disclosures about the company and the offering. 1-Z Exit report  This details the termination or completion of an offering. Companies conducting Tier 2 offerings can instead disclose this on Form 1-K. Ongoing Reporting for Tier 2 Companies 1-K Annual report  An annual report by the company that includes audited financial statements and a discussion of the companys financial results for the year. 1-SA Semiannual report  This reportincludes unaudited interim financial statements for the first six months of the companys fiscal year and a discussion of the companys financial results for the period. 1-U Current report  Filed to disclose certain events including a fundamental change, bankruptcy, change in accountant, non-reliance on prior financial statements or audit report, change in control, and departure of principal officers.



Foreign Private Issuers



Some public companies that are organized or formed outside of the United States, known under federal securities laws as foreign private issuers, may file reports with the SEC on different forms than those that must be filed by U.S. public companies.

Form Type Description F-1 Registration statement  Foreign private issuers may elect to register a securities offering with this filing. 20-F Annual report or registration statement  This filing includes audited financial statements of the foreign private issuer and a discussion of the companys financial results. A check box on the cover page indicates whether the filing is for an annual report or to register a class of securities. 6-K Report  Filed in connection with press releases, communications to security holders, and any disclosures required to be made to security holders by the laws of the companys home country.



Mutual Funds and ETFs



Mutual funds and ETFs make some of the same or similar filings on EDGAR that public companies do. They also file some different forms, with some filed only by money market funds. Please note funds may have similar names. To help ensure you are looking at the correct fund, double check the ticker symbol on the search results page. In addition to finding these filings on EDGAR, you can typically get them from the funds website or your financial professional.

Form Type Description N-1A/485 Registration statement (including a prospectus)  The prospectus includes information about a fund such as investment objectives/goals; a fee table; investment strategies and risks, and performance; advisers and portfolio managers; purchase and sale of fund shares; and tax information. 497K Summary prospectus  Summary disclosure document includes the same key information required in the beginning of the full prospectus. 497 Periodic update to fund prospectus  Includes periodic updates to the prospectus. N-CSR/

N-CSRS Annual/semi-annual shareholder reports  Describes how the fund has operated and includes the funds holdings and financial statements. The annual report also discusses market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected the funds performance during its last fiscal year. DEF 14A Definitive proxy statement  Proxy statement sent in connection with matters to be voted on by fund shareholders at the funds shareholder meeting. N-PX Proxy voting record  Identifies specific proposals that the fund was entitled to vote on for its underlying portfolio holdings and how the fund voted on each. N-PORT Schedule of portfolio holdings in exhibit to N-PORT Includes a list of the funds portfolio holdings for the first and third fiscal quarters, those not reported on Form N-CSR. N-14 Registration statement for fund mergers  Disclosure document includes information about a fund merger or other similar transaction.

Variable Annuities

Variable Annuities make some of the same or similar filings on EDGAR that mutual funds and ETFs do. For the best results, search by the marketing name of the variable annuity contract. Please note that insurance companies and their contracts may have similar names. To help ensure you are looking at the correct variable annuity, double check the name of the contract and the name of the insurance company. In addition to finding these filings on EDGAR, you can typically get them from the insurance companys website or your financial professional.

Form Type Description N-4/485 Registration statement (including a prospectus)  The prospectus includes information about a variable annuity such as its fees, investment options, and insurance features, like death benefits or income protection. 497 Periodic update to variable annuity prospectus  Includes periodic updates to the prospectus.



Exhibits



Exhibits are often required in filings and can include material agreements, organizational documents such as company bylaws, financial statements and presentations.



A list of exhibits can be found near the end of the filing in the exhibit index, and public companies are now required to include a hyperlink to each exhibit listed. An exhibit may be filed at the same time as the filing or it may have been previously filed. If it was filed with a prior version of the filing, there often is a notation indicating that the exhibit was previously filed. If it was filed with a different filing altogether, the exhibit index often notes the exhibit as being incorporated by reference. The following table illustrates a sample exhibit index.

Form Type Description 3.1 Certificate of Incorporation of the Company (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 of the Companys registration statement on Form S-1 filed January 2, 2012)  This exhibit can be found in the prior filing referenced. 3.2 Amended and Restated Bylaws*  As indicated by the notation, this exhibit was filed in an earlier filed version of the current filing. 10.1 Loan Agreement between the Company and Big Bank, dated January 30, 2018  This exhibit was filed with the current filing.

* Previously filed.
The SECs Office of Investor Education and Advocacy and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) are issuing this Investor Bulletin to inform investors about social sentiment investing tools and highlight their risks. This Bulletin provides tips to consider before using tools that analyze or aggregate information from social media sources to make investment decisions or attempt to predict changes in the stock markets direction or in the price of a security.

Social Sentiment Investing Tools

Investors use a variety of sources to gather information to make investment decisions. These sources can include analyst estimates, news stories, various measures of market volatility, and other tools. Recently, some investors have started using a new source of information to help make investment decisions  social sentiment investing tools offered by financial services firms that seek to aggregate or analyze social media data from various sources (e.g., Twitter or Facebook).

Examples of social sentiment investing tools include:

Social media data analysis. This type of social sentiment investing tool, offered by some financial services firms, uses natural language and other complex computer processing techniques to compile and analyze social media data including tweets, blog posts, and messages. These tools may claim to provide investors with indications of future market and economic performance along with, in some cases, positive/negative ratings of stocks and potential trading and investment strategies.

Social networking platforms. Some financial services firms have their own social networks that offer users access to stock-specific social media sentiment information and allow users to share and discuss investment and trading ideas with other investors.

Direct trading from social media websites or mobile applications. Some financial services firms offer investors the ability to trade in their brokerage accounts directly from social media platforms or mobile applications.

Crowdsourced research and analysis. Some firms have created crowdsourced social media research tools. These tools use a website or mobile application to crowdsource ideas and opinions from the public at large or from institutional investors. One emerging trend is to provide an open platform that allows contributors (such as analysts, investors and academics) to offer crowdsourced earnings estimates.

Potential Risks of Using Social Sentiment Investing Tools

Some investors may find value in using social sentiment investing tools to inform their investment decisions, but every investor should be aware that:

Information you get from social sentiment investing tools may be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading.

Stale social media data may impact the effectiveness of a social sentiment investing toolfor instance, the tool may contain old chatter and retweets, so the information provided by the tool might not be effective for its intended purpose.

Social media posts can have a hidden agenda. Posts can be used to spread false or misleading information to try to manipulate a stocks price (either positively or negatively), resulting in real consequences for companies, particularly small or micro-cap companies, and investors who trade on this information. For example, an SEC complaint charged an individual who sent false tweets to influence stock prices in two companies, using Twitter accounts resembling well-known securities research firms.

Depending on how it is presented, social sentiment informationparticularly real-time discussion platforms and buy/sell indicators driven by social sentimentmay lead you to make emotionally-driven or impulsive investment decisions, which can be a risky way to approach investing.

Investor Tips

If you decide to use social sentiment investing tools as part of your investment research, please remember the following tips:

DO NOT RELY SOLELY on social sentiment investing tools to make investment decisions. Carefully review publicly disclosed company information, and consider reviewing other types of investment analysis, including fundamental value metrics.

Read all the disclosures, disclaimers, and background information provided by a social sentiment investing tool, including how the tool collects and analyzes social media data, and any risks or conflict of interests (for example, incentives from issuers or third-parties to promote a particular security).

Know your time horizon for investing. Information from social sentiment investing tools is generally short-term in nature (i.e., it focuses on events that may have an immediate impact on investments).

Track the performance of any investment decisions made using social sentiment investment tools. If you use information from a social sentiment tool to make decisions about buying or selling individual stocks or funds, remember to monitor their investment performance against major market or sector indices.

Create and follow a long-term financial plan. Do not let short-term emotions about investments disrupt your long-term financial objectives.

To receive the latest Investor Alerts and other important investor information sign up for The Alert Investor newsletter.

Additional Resources:

Call OIEA at 1-800-732-0330, ask a question using this online form, or email us at Help@SEC.gov.

Visit Investor.gov, the SECs website for individual investors and finra.org/investors, FINRAs website for individual investors.

Receive Investor Alerts and Bulletins from the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) by email or RSS feed. Follow OIEA on Twitter @SEC_Investor_Ed. Like OIEA on Facebook at facebook.com/secinvestoreducation.

The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has provided this information as a service to investors. It is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of SEC policy. If you have questions concerning the meaning or application of a particular law or rule, please consult with an attorney who specializes in securities law.
Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI Science Center. Sutter leads science-themed tours around the world at AstroTouring.com. Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Let's say you're not lucky enough to find yourself along the narrow strip of totality during the coming solar eclipse on Aug. 21. Don't feel bad  you still may get a stellar view. Everyone in the continental United States  as well as Canada and Mexico  will get to enjoy seeing a bite taken out of the sun on that afternoon.

Of course, the closer you get to the totality path the better your experience, but a partial solar eclipse is still pretty awesome and something that only comes along every few years. So get out there and enjoy it! [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

If you live in New England or along the Mexican border, you'll get the worst view with only about 65 percent of the sun covered by the moon. The closer you get to the northwest-to-southeast line, though, the more spectacular your show will be, with almost all states enjoying at least an 80 percent coverage.

No matter where you are, the entire eclipse event will last about three hours, from the moment the moon first touches the disk of the sun, to its maximum extent an hour and a half in, to the point where the sun and moon separate and continue on their solitary journeys.

I can't stress this enough: unless you're seeing the brief moments of 100 percent coverage, or totality, it is not safe to look directly at the sun without some serious eyewear. Sunglasses are not nearly enough. Even 400 of your favorite lenses stacked together wouldn't do the trick. The same UV radiation that gives you nasty sunburns after forgetting to reapply at the beach can  and will  damage your retinas, and the sheer volume of visible light will literally cook your rods and cones.

You absolutely need specialized solar viewing glasses that only let through one part in 300,000 of the sun's light. If you can't get ahold of a pair  not for lack of trying on the part of NASA and community organizations  there are still ways to safely view the partial eclipse.

Instead of looking at the sun, if you don't have safe solar filters, you'll need to project an image of it. This can be accomplished with a telescope, though you should only attempt this if you are extremely adept at using one safely, and if it's specially designed or modified for solar observations (check your local astronomy club to see if they'll have any setups).

You can also fashion a simple pinhole camera. Take a page of thick cardstock and cut a square out, tape a piece of aluminum foil over the square, and use a needle or pin to poke a tiny hole in the foil. Voila! Let the sunlight fall onto the page, and you'll see projected onto the ground the partial sunlight in all its partial glory.

Editor's Note: Here are some of the best places to turn your eclipse trip into an outdoor adventure, according to our sister-site, Active Junky. Most campgrounds are booked, but here are great eclipse-viewing spots that are off the grid.
Boumerdes (Algeria), August 12, 2017 (SPS)  Sahrawi Prime Minister, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, said Thursday in Boumerdes, that the status quo "still persists in Western Sahara" due to the "Moroccan regimes political one-upmanship, and the "Sahrawi people cannot remain inactive forever."

In a news conference, hosted at the opening of the 8th Summer University for the executives of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Taleb Omar said that "as long as the Sahrawi people have not recovered the right to independence through peaceful and legal methods, they remain ready to all the options, including resuming the armed struggle.

"However, we currently prefer to favour peaceful solutions and approaches capable of solving the conflict, notably through the UN institutions," he added.

The Sahrawi people, said Taleb Omar stressed, "is still awaiting the new special envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the region, since the promulgation of UN resolution N 23/51 last April.

He thus blamed the Moroccan regime which put obstacles in order to save time".

Those obstacles are a "source of more tension," underlining nevertheless the option taken by the Sahrawi people to privilege the UN approach, calling for "more rigour. (SPS)

062/090/TRA
A model, actress and singer, 25-year-old Cara Delevingne has had a busy few years building her career.

Since making her modelling debut in Italian Vogue at the age of 10 - with no other than legendary fashion photographer Bruce Weber behind the camera - Delevingne is now regularly seen starring in global movies and released her first ever music video this year.

As she celebrates her birthday, we chart the impressive and varied career of the 25-year-old.

2003 - Where it all began

Cara had her first modelling job at the age of 10 for Italian Vogue. She was shot by photographer Bruce Weber and wore a Philip Treacy hat.

2009 - Dropping out

Cara dropped out of Bedales and signed with Storm modelling agency in order to make enough money to put herself through drama school.

2011 - Up-and-coming

Cara became the model of the moment when Burberry's Christopher Bailey hired her for the brand's SS11 campaign and enlisted her to walk his London Fashion Week runway.

Burberry

2012 - Catwalk domination

Cara seemingly became the face of Burberry overnight, starring in the brand's now iconic campaign with Eddie Redmayne.

This year also saw Delevingne walk for the likes of Chanel, Donna Karan, Tory Burch, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Fendi, Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney and Marchesa.

Cara walked the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in November during Justin Bieber's performance, and won 'Model of the Year' at the British Fashion Awards.

Getty Images

Her acting career was also ignited this year, with a minor role in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina.

2013 - A year of Vogue

Cara landed her first British Vogue cover in March which was photographed by Mario Testino.

She also graced the cover of Vogue China and Vogue Portugal in June, Vogue Japan in September and Vogue Australia in October.

While still dominating the global catwalks Cara noticeably became more selective with the shows she appeared in, widely believed to be due to her expanding her acting career.

2014 - Stepping back

Very selective now about her appearances, Cara was entirely absent from New York Fashion Week in February and only appeared in a small few in London, Milan and Paris.

Cara lands the role of Melanie in British psychological thriller The Face of an Angel (below), before starring alongside Pharrell Williams in Reincarnation, a short film by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.

Delevingne won 'Model of the Year' at the British Fashion Awards for the second time and starred on the cover of Vogue in the UK (January and September), Brazil (February), US (September) and Japan (October).

2015 - Lead roles

Stepping away from the world of fashion, Cara's only runway walks this year were for Chanel and her only Vogue covers were for British Vogue (April) and US Vogue (July).

She landed the role of a mermaid in fantasy film Pan and a lead role in teen drama Paper Towns opposite Nat Wolff, before announcing her next starring role in highly-anticipated Suicide Squad.

Cara Delevingne in 60 seconds

Delevingne also starred in Taylor Swift's star-studded Bad Blood music video which broke Vevo's 24-hour viewing record, with 20.1 million views in its day of release.

She debuted her singing talent alongside Pharrell Williams during a performance at the Chanel show in New York.

Cara interviewed Kim Kardashian for Love magazine later in the year.

2016 - Candid admissions

Cara confirmed via Twitter that she never quit modelling and spoke out about her depression and need for a break, before starring on the cover of British Vogue's September issue.

She starred alongside Will Poulter in British drama Kids in Love and opposite Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad.

Rex

2017 - Buzz cuts and beats

Cara visited Uganda on a humanitarian mission in January.

She debuted a buzzcut at the Met Ball in May which she had for the role of a cancer patient in upcoming film Life in a Year.

Getty Images

The promo tour for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets then began, which saw her and Rihanna star on countless red carpets globally.

In July, Cara released the music video for her song - which she revealed she wrote herself - I Feel Everything.
P olice are hunting for a man after a mother and daughter were found stabbed to death in a suspected double murder in north London.

Joshua Cohen, 27, is wanted for questioning in connection with the killings of the two women, aged 33 and 66, at their home in Golders Green.

Police have warned that members of the public should not approach Mr Cohen, who has mental health issues including paranoid schizophrenia.

Manhunt for stabbing at Golders Green

Murder detectives described the stabbing, which happened on Friday night, as a devastating attack on two women in their homes and said they believe the victims knew Cohen.

Manhunt: Police want to speak to Joshua Cohen, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, in connection with the deaths / Metropolitan Police

Detective Inspector Ian Lott added: I would urge anyone who saw anything in the local area at the time of the attack to get in touch with investigators immediately. Likewise, if you spot Joshua Cohen please call police on 999."

Officers have stepped up patrols in the Barnet borough and forensics are scouring the home in Golders Green Crescent.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose from Barnet said: "I would like to reassure local residents that police are doing everything they can to find and apprehend the individual suspected to be involved in this horrific attack. High visibility foot patrols have been stepped up in the area and police will be on hand to listen and respond to community concerns. We will continue to work with the CST and keep them fully updated with significant developments. "

A Met statement said: Police were called to a residential address at Golders Green Crescent, NW11 at 8.o50pm August 11 following reports of two seriously injured women.

"Officers and London Ambulance Service attended and found two women aged 33 and 66 suffering from stab wounds. Both women were pronounced dead at the scene.

"Their next-of-kin have been informed. While we await formal identification, officers are confident that they know the identity of the victims and that they are mother and daughter.

"The suspect was known to the victims and detectives are appealing for information on his whereabouts.

Cohen is described as white male, 5ft 9ins tall, with short cropped hair and short beard.

He is believed to have been wearing a red Nike hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the chest, white trainers and dark grey trousers or tracksuit bottoms. He had recently shaved off his head and eyebrows.
P olice will be taking no further action against a man arrested over the "jogger rage" attack on Putney Bridge, Scotland Yard said today.

Eric Bellquist has been eliminated from police enquiries after being detained by detectives on suspicion of grievous bodily harm earlier this week.

Mr Bellquist, a partner at a Mayfair private equity firm that owns Byron, had denied he was the jogger captured on video pushing a woman in front of a bus and said he was in the United States at the time.

His lawyers, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said: "Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.

Police hunt jogger after woman pushed into path of oncoming bus

Today a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "A man arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after a jogger pushed a woman into the path of an oncoming bus in Putney has been released with no further action.

"The 41-year-old man was arrested on Thursday, 10 August before being released under investigation. Following enquiries, he has now been eliminated from the investigation."

Meanwhile officers have renewed efforts to identify the man seen in the footage.

It shows a 33-year-old woman, who lives in Putney, walking to work at 7.40am on May 5 when a jogger appears to angle his run towards her.

He then collides with her and she falls into oncoming traffic. The bus misses her by inches before stopping, as the jogger runs off.

The police said she suffered bruising and back pain and was left distressed.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
A n elderly man has died after being knocked down by a car in a hit-and-run crash in Tottenham.

Police said they were called in the early hours of Saturday morning to a collision near Seven Sisters London Underground station.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the incident, Scotland Yard said.

A spokeswoman said: "Police were called to High Road, N17 junction with Seven Sisters at 1.35am on Saturday, 12 August to reports of a road traffic collision.

"Police and London Ambulance Service attended.

"A pedestrian, a man in his 70s was found unresponsive following a collision with a vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene."

A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and causing death by dangerous driving, she added.

Another man is also being questioned in connection with the investigation.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's serious collision investigation unit are probing the circumstances of the incident.

Contact police on 0208 911 9555 or via Twitter @MetCC with any information.
A n east London schoolboy who was dubbed the wolf of Walthamstow after making thousands of pounds through a playground tuck shop has urged Londons teens to swap crime for business.

Nathan John-Baptiste, 15, said he would one thousand per cent encourage youngsters tempted to join gangs or deal drugs to instead consider setting up their own legal money-making schemes.

The schoolboy, who started his business aged just 12, employed a dozen sellers working in three different schools at the height of his success - before teachers put a stop to his antics.

He said he was making around 200 a day from both the tuck shop trade and a separate business making soaps and bath bombs.

Now Nathan, who is turning his hand to online business, told the Standard entrepreneurship can offer teenagers an alternative life.

I have seen people end up going down the wrong path and people getting involved in gangs, he said.

Nathan: The young businessman is dubbed the 'wolf of Walthamstow' / ITV

I would say, theres other ways to do things. The amount of work you have got to put into drugs, and you are still working for somebody else.

From what I do now I am making a lot more money. There are lots of opportunities in business.

The teenager first got into business after wanting to earn money but was too young for employers to seriously consider his CV.

Nothing was happening through me sending off CVs, he said. People werent getting back to me.

That made me sort of think I want to start my own business. So I started the sweets.

I started to buy sweets from the penny shop then sell them in school in bulk packaging. It was all going well, in year eight I had two sellers and I started realising the opportunity of making money work for me.

He expanded to three sellers in year nine and by the following year had a total of 12 sellers across another three areas in Chingford, Leytonstone and Wanstead, including working for his soap business.

The sellers would work at market events across east London trading his branded Luxurious Blends soap products.

I was very hungry for money, he added. But I was working hard with school work, I wanted to make money at the same time.

Toilet tuck shop

On top of this, Nathan also ran a small barber shop business called Young Trims and held down a job at a market stall.

I would wake up at 5am  going to bed early is the key  and go down to work before school, he said.

It changed my life massively, the teenager told the Standard. The amount of business opportunities I now know that are out there that so many other people have never heard of.

And at this age is the best time to get into business because if you lose it all youve still got a roof over your head, youve still got food on the table.

Your dreams will not come to you easy, but it is hard work.

He now plans to set up a small foundation with his mentor, businessman and Apprentice star Paul Sullivan, to inspire other youngsters to get into business at a young age.

Mr Sullivan, 39, said the foundation aims to help inspire and develop business skills in young people who are entrepreneurially-minded.

Mentor: Apprentice star Paul Sullivan

The pair project, which is yet to be named, aims to nurture youngsters' business skills through training, with Mr Sullivan hoping it will get more teenagers off the streets.

"People forget peer pressure is a really big thing," he said.

"You can have peer pressure in a positive and negative way. Gang culture is obviously the negative side, but it can also be used to urge people to stay off the streets and progress".

Nathan's mum, Sharon, echoed her sons pledge to encourage more teenagers to take up business as an alternative to joining gangs.

Children want to earn money and thats why children do go on the wrong road and turn to crime, she said.

Its a parents worst nightmare, trying to keep their children from going down that road.

We all need to take more responsibility as a society to make sure this doesnt happen.

"I feel like its a shame, there needs to be more opportunities for children at a younger age.
T his is the moment a double decker bus smashed into a shop in a busy London high street, leaving two passengers trapped.

Video footage, filmed by a camera mounted onto a wall inside the store, showed the bus ploughing into the shop front in south-west London at about 7am on Thursday morning.

Ten people were injured when the bus hit the building in Lavender Hill, near Clapham Junction railway station, during the morning rush hour after witnesses described the driver blacking out at the wheel.

The number 77 bus travelling towards Waterloo crashed into the front of the Poggenpohl Kitchen Design Centre, which was closed at the time.

The bus ploughed into a parade of shops on Lavender Hill / Alex Lentati

A hero nurse told how she desperately tried to help trapped passengers after the double decker crashed.

Amy Mullineux, 40, said: "It was all happening in slow motion, it was very surreal. I braced myself, thinking oh my god, I am going to die.

People were getting off the bus, there was a lot of commotion. My thinking was, I need to get up the stairs. I went on the top of the stairs. There was a lady up there. I have got her blood all over me.

She was bad. She was crushed to about her waist. I couldnt see her legs - the bus was crushed in. I was with her, and she gave me her phone.

Ten people were injured in the crash after the driver 'blacked out'

There was a guy there. He was panicking a little bit. I said, I am a nurse, let me in.

Andrew Matthews, 34, of Wandsworth Town, who was one of around a dozen passengers on board, said: "I was on the top floor at the back, fortunately.

"I noticed the bus drifting. I heard a smash and saw the roof of the shop going through [the bus] from the front left. It went to the fourth or fifth row. I wedged myself in, bracing myself.

"As soon as the bus came to a stop there was yelling, screaming. I noticed a lady wedged in the front right-hand side. She was screaming for help. There was a lot of blood."

Emergency services at the scene / PA

Two passengers trapped on the top deck were rescued by firefighters.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said three people - including the driver - were taken to hospital. Two were described as "priority" cases in a stable condition and one had minor injuries. Seven others were treated at the scene.

Transport for London said a "full investigation is under way".
A medical student lay dead in a Tube tunnel for up to an hour after falling on to the tracks during a night out with friends, it was revealed today.

Sean Sathiyajit, 21, was discovered in the tunnel at Old Street after a Northern line driver alerted station staff just before 1.30am, the Standard understands.

The branch of the line is not part of the Night Tube and the passenger service would have ended almost an hour earlier.

The Imperial College student from Croydon was last seen by his friends heading down the station escalator on May 21.

Medical student Sean Satyajit.

The Standard understands they assumed he had caught a train by the time they arrived at the platform, and continued their own journeys home.

Transport for London refused to comment on the circumstances of his death, including claims that Mr Sathiyajits body was passed by up to three trains before being found.

A friend of Mr Sathiyajit, a former Sutton Grammar School pupil, described him as very thoughtful and attentive to people.

British Transport Police are not treating the death as suspicious. An inquest was opened at St Pancras coroners court and adjourned until September 18.

Nigel Holness, London Undergrounds Director for Network Operations, said: Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Sathiyajit following his death at Old Street Tube station earlier this year.

"The British Transport Police is preparing a file for a Coroners Inquest and we are supporting this.

"TfLs Sarah Hope Line, which is set up to help those affected by incidents on the transport network, is also available to offer support.
T he Perseid meteor shower will light up the sky this weekend giving keen stargazers the chance to see a fantastic display of celestial fireworks.

Astronomers said hundreds of shooting stars will streak across the sky in a display that may be visible around the world.

The Perseid meteor shower, shed by comet Swift-Tuttle, occurs every August and is among the brightest of all shooting stars.

It is estimated that this year, as many as two of the streaking flashes of light could be visible every minute given a good location away from built up areas and clear skies.

Milky Way is seen during the annual Perseid meteor shower above Salime Reservoir, near Grandas de Salime, Spain August 11, 2017 / REUTERS

Where is the best place to watch the Perseid meteor shower?

Experts said the best places to watch are open areas away from street lights.

For Londoners, the best chance of seeing the meteor shower will be from one of the capitals large parks such as Richmond Park or Hampstead Heath.

When is the best time to look for the Perseid meteor shower in the UK?

The peak time for Perseid watching will be Saturday night and before dawn on Sunday.

The BBC Weather centre said it would peak from 11pm on Saturday and could be seen in most parts of the UK.

But it could be slightly harder to see this year as the moon will be three-quarters full.

Tips from the experts

Robin Scagell, vice president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: We can look forward to a decent display, even though they aren't going to be raining down from the sky.

A long exposure photo shows meteor streaks crossing the night sky over the stone dools in Kuklice, near the eastern city of Kratovo,The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, early August 12, 2017 / EPA

"The Perseids can be very bright and often quite spectacular. Some meteor showers are slow, but we are moving into the Perseid stream so they are coming at us quite swiftly.

"I think under good conditions you might see one or two a minute, probably more towards Sunday morning rather than Saturday.

"You could see none at all for a few minutes and then two or three. You might be lucky or unlucky; that's the way with meteors."

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 58 kilometres [36 miles] per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

Perseid meteor shower lights up Spanish sky

Seen from the Earth, the Perseids appear to originate from one place in the north-east known as the "radiant" which happens to be near the constellation Perseus.

A tip from Mr Scagell is not to look towards the radiant, but to direct your gaze in the opposite direction.

The meteors will visible for longer when viewed streaking away from their point of origin.

Because the density of the dust cloud varies, the meteors will not be evenly spaced out. At certain times they could be close together and at others seem to disappear.

History

The Perseids were the first meteor shower to be linked to a comet when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli spotted their association with Swift-Tuttle in 1862.

The comet orbits the sun every 135 years. As the Earth crosses its orbit, it ploughs through some of the debris left by the icy object on previous visits. None of the particles are big enough to avoid destruction and reach the ground.
L arge parts of south London remain without internet after rats chewed through fibre cables two days ago.

Frustrated TalkTalk and Sky customers in areas including Balham, South Clapham and Tooting were today battling to get online, nearly 48 hours after the problem was first reported.

Both firms have apologised for the ongoing disruption. Sky Help Team tweeted on Friday: "South London. Work continues on repairing broken fibre cables. We have identified the cause of the fault, to be the work of rodents."

But many customers complained the fault was taking too long to fix, with the outage disrupting their weekends - including plans to binge-watch Netflix.

TalkTalk said the affected areas were Balham, South Clapham, Streatham, Tooting and Vauxhall and blamed damage to Virgin Media cabling.

In an 11am update online, the provider posted: "We've been working closely with local Virgin Media engineers who've been working through the night to repair the previously damaged cabling.

"Service to some customers has been restored however a total of 96 cables had been damaged and we're continuing to repair the remaining damaged cables as a priority."

Sky Help Team tweeted on Saturday morning: "South London. Engineers have continued to work overnight & will continue through the day. More updates to follow."

TalkTalk and Sky have been contacted for further comment.
A senior Ukip MEP has quit his post as a party whip after a controversial anti-Islam campaigner was cleared to stand in the party's leadership election.

Mike Hookem said he was resigning as deputy whip in the European Parliament after the chief whip, Stuart Agnew, declared his support for Anne Marie Waters.

Ms Waters, who founded the Sharia Watch pressure group and who has called Islam "evil", is one of 11 candidates cleared to run in the leadership contest by the Ukip national executive committee.

In a statement, Mr Hookem said he was not prepared to "turn a blind eye" to extremism.

"I strongly disagree with the views Ms Waters and Mr Agnew promote and I would like to put as much distance between me and them as possible," he said.

Anne-Marie: The leadership candidate said Islam is 'evil'

"If I were to continue in my position of deputy whip, I would be seen as supporting or at the very least turning a blind eye to extreme views and this is not something I am prepared to do.

"I am not a racist and have never campaigned on race issues. While I do believe in controlled immigration, this position is about 'space rather than race'; and I am not prepared to support someone who seeks to single out a section of our society simply due to their religious beliefs."

Mr Hookem's resignation came after Ukip deputy leader Peter Whittle - who is also running for the leadership - defended Ms Waters' right to be a candidate.

"The whole thing was done very rigorously. There was a vetting process. We all had to go through it and if you all get through that then you absolutely have the right to stand. That means Anne Marie should be able to stand," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

However in a letter to interim Ukip Steve Crowther, Mr Hookem said he was not prepared to continue as a whip due to Mr Agnew's support for a candidate who is "not a fit and proper person to carry this party forward as its leader".

Mr Hookem said he was disturbed by comments by Mr Agnew that he "looks forward to telling his grandchildren in the future how he helped in the fight against Muslims," and would keep a scrapbook of communications from those who disagreed.

"Let Agnew add this to his scrapbook!" he said, in reference to his resignation letter.

Controversial: Anne Marie Waters founded the Sharia Watch group

The row suggests that the party, already known for the intensity of the infighting among senior figures is facing another bruising contest as it seeks a successor to Paul Nuttall.

Ms Waters' candidacy has divided the party, with some members threatening to quit, while former leader Nigel Farage has warned Ukip will be "finished" if it goes down the road of becoming an anti-Islam party.

Mr Whittle, however, insisted that Ukip was right to speak out on issues like the rising numbers of Islamic Sharia courts in the UK which other parties avoided.

"There are at least 80 courts that we know about. The problem is that the people who suffer the most in these courts tend to be women because they are often about domestic issues and often women who go before the courts don't actually know their rights as a British woman," he said.

"There has got to be one legal system. Certain things happen in Sharia courts which do go against the spirit of our laws."


D ozens of angry demonstrators today filled the beach in Barcelona in an effort to take back the city from tourists they say are spoiling the Mediterranean destination.

Residents descended on the sands with protest boards reading This is not a beach resort and pitched up amid tourists relaxing by the sea or sleeping off the previous nights excesses.

The protesters claim foreigners are behind a spike in rowdy behaviour in the tourist hotspot while holiday accommodation booked through sites such as Airbnb is driving up rents.

Some boarded rubber dinghies and unfurled banners proclaiming: For the abolition of tourist apartments.

Protest: Demonstrators blocked access to the waves / Reuters

Others formed a human chain on the shoreline, blocking sunbathers view of the ocean and preventing people from reaching the water.

Barcelona, the capital of the Spanish province Catalonia, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, with tourism a huge driver of the city's economy.

But many residents feel the advantages don't outweigh the costs.

One protester told newspaper La Vanguardia: My children had to move away, they can't afford the sky-high rents.
T hree people died and dozens more were injured after violence erupted at a far-right rally in Charlottesville in the US state of Virginia.

A 32-year-old woman was killed and 34 were wounded after a car ploughed into a group of activists who had gathered in the city to stage a counter-protest to a march by white nationalists.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe later confirmed two more people had been killed. It is believed they were two police officers who died when the helicopter they were using to monitor the violence crashed.

Video footage, posted to Periscope, showed the car ploughing through the crowd, who were marching peacefully, and tossing one activist onto the car in front.

The disturbing videos show people screaming and running in terror before the car reverses at speed and drives away.

People receive first-aid after a car accident ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville / AFP/Getty Images

At least one person was witnessed lying on the ground receiving medical treatment, while several others were loaded into ambulances on stretchers.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Singer said on Twitter: "I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here."

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said counter-protesters were marching when "suddenly there was just this tyre-screeching sound".

He said a silver vehicle smashed into another car, then backed up, ploughing through "a sea of people".

A state official later said the male driver of the car was in custody.

Charlottesville car killer man charged with murder

Speaking in New Jersey, US president Donald Trump condemned "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" in Virginia.

He added: "What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives."

And the US leader added that Americans must come together "with love for our nation ... and true affection for each other".

An injured person is taken away on a stretcher by medics after a car ploughed into pedestrians / AP

Earlier on Saturday, violent clashes had erupted between the counter-protesters and far-right groups.

Up to 6,000 people were expected to join the Unite the Right rally against plans to remove a statue of a pro-slavery US Civil War general.

The governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe said on Twitter that a state of emergency had been declared in order "to aid state response to violence" at the rally in the city, about 100 miles outside Washington, DC.

The white nationalists were protesting in Charlottesville after it voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a city centre park.

He commanded the Confederate forces in the US Civil War of 1861-65.

State of emergency: White nationalists clash with a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville / REUTERS

Supporters of the rally were involved in fighting with counter-demonstrators, with water bottles hurled from both sides and chemical sprays being used.

Men dressed in military-style uniforms were also seen carrying rifles and shields in the area.

Charlottesville: A man is pinned to the ground by police at a far-right march / AFP/Getty Images

Officers fired tear gas and pepper spray against activists and said that arrests have been made and eight people were injured in the clashes.

The clashes came after right-wing blogger Jason Kessler planned what he called a "pro-white" rally in protest over Charlottesville's decision to remove the statue.

There were also fights on Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

City officials declared a local emergency shortly after 11am [4pm BST].

White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville / AP

The state of emergency allows local authorities to request additional resources if needed, the police department said.

The clashes mark the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city voted earlier this year to remove the statue of Lee from a park.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a night-time protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group travelled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

March: White nationalists clash with a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville / REUTERS

Mr Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols, but also about free speech and "advocating for white people".

He said in an interview: "This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do."

Among those expected to attend the rally are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and "alt-right" activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Officials have been preparing for the rally for months.

Charlottesville mayor Mr Signer said he was disappointed that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

He said: "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."

After the initial clashes President Trump tweeted: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

"Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!"

The White House was silent for hours about the clashes, except for a solitary tweet from US first lady Melania Trump.

Mrs Trump wrote: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence."
A Danish inventor whose submarine sank near Copenhagen has been arrested by police investigating the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who was last seen on board.

Peter Madsen was arrested on Friday on preliminary manslaughter charges over the disappearance of 30-year-old Kim Wall after his 40-tonne, 60ft-long submarine sank off Denmark's eastern coast.

Madsen has denied responsibility for the fate of Ms Wall, saying she had disembarked before his vessel went down.

But a Danish court ordered that he was detained for 24 days while police investigate her disappearance.

Peter Madsen (R), builder and captain of the private submarine "UC3 Nautilus" which sank / AFP/Getty Images

Judge Kari Soerensen announced the ruling after a two-hour custody hearing held behind closed doors.

Madsen's defence lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains he is innocent.

Ms Hald Engmark said Madsen is "willing to cooperate" and has not decided whether to appeal the detention ruling.

Before the hearing was closed, the courtroom was packed with Danish and Swedish reporters and the 46-year-old Madsen's relatives.

Prosecutor Louise Pedersen said Madsen faces the preliminary manslaughter charge "for having killed in an unknown way and in an unknown place Kim Isabell Frerika Wall, of Sweden, sometime after Thursday, 5pm."

Ms Wall's boyfriend alerted authorities early Friday that the sub had not returned to Copenhagen as expected, prompting a major search involving two helicopters, three ships and several private boats.

The turret of sunken privately built and owned submarine submarine UC3 Nautilus is seen by the side of a salvage vessel / AP

The Navy said the sub, the UC3 Nautilus, was seen sailing, but then sank shortly afterwards.

Kristian Isbak, who had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the ship on Friday, said he first spotted Madsen standing wearing his trademark military fatigues in the submarine's tower while it was still afloat.

"He then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink," Mr Isbak said.

"(He) came up again and stayed in the tower until water came into it", before swimming to a nearby boat as the submarine sank.

Madsen told authorities he had dropped Wall off on an island in Copenhagen's harbour a few hours into their Thursday night trip.

"It is with great dismay that we received the news that Kim went missing during an assignment in Denmark," her family said.

The Sweden-born freelance journalist studied at the Sorbonne university in Paris, the London School of Economics and at Columbia University in New York, where she graduated with a master's degree in journalism in 2013.

She lived in New York and Peking, her family said, and had written for The New York Times, The Guardian, the South China Morning Post and Vice Magazine, among other publications.
C hanning Tatum couldnt resist showing off his best moves as he treated one lucky fan to a dance.

Tatum, 37, made a pit-stop at a petrol station in North Carolina when he cosied up to cashier Beatrice after buying some iced coffee and Reese's.

The actor, who is currently promoting Logan Lucky, enjoyed some back and forth banter with Beatrice, who joked that Tatum is her manager after one customer failed to recognise the actor.

Taking their flirtations up a level, Tatum pulled out his Magic Mike moves.

*Warning strong language*

Beatrice joked: Were gonna party, just me and you.

Keen to take her up on the offer Tatum replied: We can just start the party right now in the store.

Beatrice turned up the music and put on a cap as she enjoyed a private dance party with the actor, who at one point used a chair as a prop.

A video of the spontaneous meeting has amassed 14 million views on Facebook.

Logan Lucky - Trailer 2

Tatum captioned the video: Nothin better than a little dance party. Thank you, Beatrice.

It came hours before Tatum posed for selfies with fans at a special Tennessee benefit screening of Logan Lucky in support of Variety  The Childrens Charity at the Regal Pinnacle Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Speaking at the screening he said: Just giving back I think is just  I mean anything that we can do.

You know theres way harder things to do in life than to come out with some really really sweet people.
In Congo it was recently revealed that Ukraine had delivered 25 refurbished T-64BV1 tanks for a 2104 order that was thought to be cancelled. The tanks apparently arrived, largely unnoticed, in late 2016. They showed up in mid-2017 patrolling rebellious areas in southwest Congo (Kasai province) where a local rebellion threatens the rule of a Congolese president who is attempting to become president-for-life. So far the government has failed to end that rebellion in large part because of popular opposition to the ambitious outlaw president. The T-64BV is known to be an effective modern design. At 39 tons it has good protection and effective weapons. But older and cheaper T-55s (which are still widely used) would have done the job in Kasai just as well.

T-64s showing up in Congo was unexpected on several levels. To appreciate that you have to understand how the T-64 (that entered service in 1966) came to be and why some were still being manufactured when the Cold War was ended.

There was another unexpected aspect to these T-64BV showing up in Congo. Fifty of them were ordered by Congo in early 2014, just as Russia began an effort to seize parts of Ukraine. In short order Russia took possession of Crimea in the south but was stopped by an unexpectedly robust Ukrainian resistance to a similar effort to seize a large part of eastern Ukraine (the Donbas region). It was thought that the Congolese T-64 order was cancelled as Ukraine scrambled to reinforce its army and get forces east to defend the Donbas (where the situation is still stalemated). But Ukraine needs the money and it is still unclear if they are going to deliver the rest of the T-64 order. The Soviet Union never exported the T-64, even though over 12,000 were produced between 1963 and 1987. Congo was paying $230,000 for each of the T-64BV1s. It is unknown if that included shipping costs.

Ukraine has been supplying Congo with hundreds of armored vehicles, plus artillery and other weapons since shortly after the current Congo president, Joseph Kabila, succeeded his assassinated father in 2001. Kabila the elder had been president since 1997 after a civil war that ended the rule of a decades old dictatorship. Congo has been fighting local warlords and various other rebel groups since 1997 and they had been content to buy less sophisticated Cold War era Russian weapons, which Ukraine has been a major supplier of since the 1990s. By 2014 it was believed that fewer than a thousand of the T-64s built were still in service. Most of the 13,000 T-64s built had been scrapped because there were cheaper, more reliable and easier to operate and maintain tanks available. But the price Congo paid was certainly low enough and perhaps the sales negotiations involved some well-placed bribes.

Ukraine has also been upgrading Cold War era Russian tanks a lot since it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Those upgrades became more urgent and imaginative after 2014 when Russia began going after a lot of Ukrainian territory. By the end of 2015 the Ukrainians improvised and stalemated the surprised Russians. Many Russians still believed that Ukraine was an integral part of Russia. But most Ukrainians have never agreed and point out Kiev was the birthplace of Russian nationalism.

Why the T-64 has never been exported before has a lot to do with embarrassment. Russia has been trying to develop a radical new tank design since the 1960s. That resulted in the T-64, T-72 and T-80. The T-64 was innovative (first tank with 125mm smoothbore gun, autoloader and composite armor). But it was too complex to operate reliably and too much work for the three man crew to maintain in the field. The T-64 took over a decade of tinkering before it became reliable enough for regular service and by then (the mid-1970s) the upgraded T-72 was recognized as the best tank available from Russia (in terms of price, reliability and ease of use).

The only design that survived all the hype was the T-72, but it was not radically new, just a refinement of designs (especially the T-34) that appeared early in World War II and quickly replaced all competing designs and became the basis for all modern tanks (T-72, M-1, Leopard and so on). Russia was also embarrassed by the fact that the T-62 (an improvement on the post-World War II T-55) also suffered early problems with new tech. Meanwhile Western tank designs were appearing with even more innovative tech that actually worked. Russia finally made another effort to improve on the T-55/T-62 line with the T-72 in 1971. While successful it was inferior to current Western designs.

When it was clear (by the 1980s) that the T-72 was the best they had, several new versions appeared, not all of them Russian. But it was obvious (especially after several wars) that the T-72 was inferior to Western designs. Russia always wanted to create something radically new that worked. Sort of a T-34 for the 21st century. The T-64 (and a second attempt with the T-80) was a much publicized effort at a breakthrough design that never really lived up to all the hype. With the T-64 most of the breakthroughs broke down with embarrassing results. This was especially the case with the autoloader for the new 125mm gun. That allowed the crew to be reduced to three men. That was not enough to handle the higher maintenance demands of the autoloader and other new tech (engine, suspension system and so on.) Admitting failure was not seen as an option so production continued as did efforts (eventually successful) to get all the new tech working. The Soviets insisted these new technologies were too valuable to export. Meanwhile potential export customers found out about what really happened and there was never much demand anyway. Although both the T-62 and T64 were seen as unsuccessful designs the need to keep the tank factories working meant that about 35,000 of these two tanks were produced and the factories kept going into the 1980s.

That changed after 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved into 14 new states (or restoration of older ones, like Ukraine). The dissolution deal was kept simple and any Soviet military assents ending up in the new nations belonged to them. Ukraine contained many Soviet era armored vehicle plants and inherited them when the Soviet Union dissolved. In addition Ukraine was a major mobilization area for the wartime Soviet army and ended up with thousands of modern tanks, including late model T-64s which, unlike the first models, actually performed quite well.

Meanwhile in 2014 Ukraine needed modern military equipment to fight the Russian-backed rebels in Donbas. Ukraine focused on its local resources to rebuild its armed forces. This was a necessity because most Western countries refused to supply Ukraine with weapons because Western leaders believed it would not help Ukraine on the battlefield and would simply escalate the conflict. Ukraine disagreed and in order to maintain a credible defense against the modern Russian weapons, often used by Russian troops pretending to be local rebels, Ukraine successfully rearmed itself with local resources. Despite the vigorous European and American rhetoric, their support was mostly diplomatic and economic. Foreign attempts to assist in modernizing the Ukrainian armed forces were also largely token gestures.

Ukraine needed new and improved armor vehicles and to obtain them quickly they refurbished existing equipment using their own resources. Emphasis was on armored vehicles, which Ukraine had lots of. Most were elderly but were little used in the past and still effective. The best tanks available to Ukraine in 2014 were 250 T-64BMs and 350 T-64BVs. Ukraine also has 1,000 older T-64B tanks in storage. Only the T-64BM and T-64BM were operational and were in use with the Ukrainian Army. Since 2007 Ukraine has been upgrading about one of the older T-64Bs to the T-64BM standard each month. This cost about $600,000 per T-64B. Ukrainian arms factories are also building the T-84 Oplot-M tank and 55 were in service by the end of 2015 and 120 more in 2016 at a cost of $3.7 million each.

Ukraine also began upgrading about 300 T-72B tanks held in reserve. These will become similar to the Polish PT-91. The official reason for this is that Ukraine wants the T-72Bs to meet NATO requirements but the upgraded tanks would also improve the defensive capabilities of the Ukrainian Army forces fighting in eastern Ukraine. The upgrade idea came as a result of Ukrainian military officials being given an opportunity to test some Polish PT-91s.

Ukraine sought to upgrade late-model T-64s for their own use as well as export. But the bad reputation of the T-64 persisted and in the meantime T-80s (basically a re-branded T-64 that turned out pretty well once it entered service in 1976. But the most attractive export model was the T-72 which was, especially after 1991, available, slightly used and at bargain prices. The reason for the Congolese purchase of the T-64s will eventually come to light and that will add yet another chapter to the sad, often tragic and occasionally comedic history of the T-64, the tank of the future that never quite made there.
The largest volcano in the Bay Of Plenty Whakaari/White Island is being moved on paper into a new jurisdiction on Friday in a special signing ceremony at Tauranga City Council.

The signing over between the Department of Internal Affairs and the Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management Group will took place on Friday.

BOPCDEM Group Joint Committee Chair, Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless said, as is the case of many of the countrys offshore islands, Whakaari did not come under the authority of any city or district council, which would usually have had these responsibilities under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002.

Because of this, the Group has been carrying out this type of work as required and as able on behalf of the Minister of Local Government, however its great for us to day to formalise this agreement and set a clear direction for the future, says Greg.

The Group will continue working with those who visit and use the island, in the same way a local authority would usually meet with its community, to ensure the readiness and response planning they did was adequate for the risks the island presented.

Our staff will be liaising with tour operators to ensure the risks to visitors on the island are managed appropriately, with GNS who regularly communicate to the public about the island and with Police to ensure any Search and Rescue Plans for the island are prepared and current.

Were confident that this work has already been carried out as required, but its great, as the regional organisation tasked with ensuring our communities are prepared, to able to include one of our more active features in our official work streams.

Signatories are Associate Minister of Local Government, Jacqui Dean, and Mayor Greg Brownless, Chair Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee.

The island volcano is within the Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management Group boundary. The Minister of Local Government acts as the territorial authority for the Island.

In the absence of capacity within the Department of Internal Affairs to do so, the Group Emergency Management Office through Emergency Management Bay of Plenty has been delivering some civil defence activities for Whakaari, which has led to the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the national and local arms of government.

The MOU formalises existing arrangements and activities. It covers specific functions in relation to response and readiness functions.

It does not cover risk reduction and recovery functions. The Group will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with the tour operators, Island owners and relevant supporting agencies including New Zealand Police and GNS Science.

Staff will monitor the level of risk presented by the Island and communicate this to the community as appropriate.

The proposed MOU only covers Whakaari/White Island. Due to the more complex nature of the other offshore islands within the Bay of Plenty CDEM Group boundary they have not been considered at this point in time. Whakaari/White Island presented pressing matters that required addressing as a priority at this time.
A new app called Yellow has been under fire with allegations of child exploitation and pedophilia, but Tauranga school principals say their teens seem to be safe so far.

Internet watchdog NetSafe has confirmed three complaints about the social networking app in New Zealand, and that allegedly it is being used by convicted paedophiles in this country, as users can lie about their age and identity.

The Tinder-like app, which was created by a group of French designers, has the motto Friends for Life and is targeted to 13 to 17-year-olds.

Yellow also allows users to do far more on its platform than the popular dating site Tinder, such as, sending live video to strangers.

Tauranga Girls High School and Otumoetai College both say, so far, they havent heard any issues in their school revolving around the app Yellow.

However, Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell says it is just another thing that schools and parents have to worry about.

It worries me that we have yet another thing that our young people dont know how to handle, and theyre making more friends.

As a principal Im thinking Oh no, what poor child is going to be hit by this now and which families are going to go through the anxiety, and do we really need it. Do they [the app creators] really need to put these kids at risk even further?

Dave, who has dealt with a few cases where teenagers have posted rude/explicit images and videos as a joke or to get other peoples attention, says teenagers dont understand what they are getting themselves into, they just think in the moment.

He says they dont understand that what they are putting online may affect future jobs and relationships as well as their own safety.

There is currently no evidence that the Yellow phone app is being used within prisons, however, NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker can confirm that there have been complaints about suspicious behaviour on Yellow.

He says he is concerned about paedophile activity as the app is the perfect platform for that kind of behaviour.

Concerns about Yellow exposing children to online predators have been broadcasted in several countries, such as, UK and the US, where the FBI issued a warning about the app in March.

Parents have no idea about these apps. I mentioned to a few parents about Tinder, and they ask whats that and when I tell them its a dating site, they are shocked, says Dave.

Our young people are getting conned I think.
CASPER, Wyo., Aug. 11, 2017 -- Visitors from across the globe expected to travel to Wyoming for the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21 are being advised by law enforcement officials that the state's marijuana laws will be strictly enforced.

"Traffic laws will be strictly enforced and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs will not be tolerated on Wyoming's roadways," Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police (WASCOP). He added that, while other nearby states including Colorado have legalized marijuana, the drug is illegal in Wyoming.

"Medical marijuana is not legal in Wyoming, and even if you have a card from another state it is still illegal to possess marijuana in Wyoming," he explained. "If you are caught with any controlled substance you will be charged with a misdemeanor or felony drug offense depending upon how much of that substance you have in your possession."

It is estimated that 250,000 visitors will travel to Wyoming to experience the eclipse, according to Oedekoven. Under the leadership of Governor Matt Mead, federal, state, and local agencies are working together to safely accommodate visitors to the state.

From Jackson to Torrington, more than a dozen cities in Wyoming are in the "path of totality," the narrow path across the earth's surface where viewers will experience the total eclipse of the sun when the moon passes in front of its surface. Because of the state's wide-open spaces, clear skies, and spectacular scenery, it is one of the top destinations in the world for people seeking the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the eclipse.

Through its Traffic Safety Project (TSP) WASCOP is working with the Wyoming Office of Highway Safety and the Governor's Commission on Impaired Driving to identify strategies to address traffic and other safety issues.

"We hope people will come to Wyoming to experience the incredible beauty and quality of life in our state," said Oedekoven. "On behalf of the women and men of WASCOP dedicated to serving and protecting residents and visitors in our state, we promise to do everything possible to ensure you will have a safe and enjoyable visit."

WASCOP has established the There is No Debate Marijuana Community Awareness campaign to help educate residents about the harms marijuana causes to people and communities in the state. For more information, visit www.ThereIsNoDebate.org

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wyomings-marijuana-laws-to-be-enforced-during-great-america-solar-eclipse-300503074.html

SOURCE Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police

CONTACT: Rhea Parsons, 307-686-5234, rhea@wascop.com
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes generic medicines, specialty medicines, and biopharmaceutical products in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers sterile products, hormones, high-potency drugs, and cytotoxic substances in various dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, injectables, inhalants, liquids, transdermal patches, ointments, and creams. It also develops, manufactures, and sells active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition, it focuses on the central nervous system, pain, respiratory, and oncology areas. Its products in the central nervous system include Copaxone for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; AJOVY for the preventive treatment of migraine; and AUSTEDO for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington disease. The company's products in the respiratory market comprise ProAir, QVAR, ProAir Digihaler, AirDuo Digihaler, and ArmonAir Digihaler, BRALTUS, CINQAIR/CINQAERO, DuoResp Spiromax, and AirDuo RespiClick/ArmonAir RespiClick for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Its products in the oncology market include Bendeka, Treanda, Granix, Trisenox, Lonquex, and Tevagrastim/Ratiograstim. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited has a collaboration MedinCell for the development and commercialization of multiple long-acting injectable products, a risperidone suspension for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. The company was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
National Retail Properties is a REIT focused on retail-oriented properties across the United States. The company invests in high-quality retail properties subject to long-term leases that generate stable, consistent, predictable income. The company laid claim to 3,305 properties enclosing 33.8 million square feet of space in 48 states leased to 380 tenants engaged in 37 trades as of October 2022.

National Retail Properties was formed in 1984 as Golden Corral Realty Corporation. The company was intended as a means for employees to invest in Golden Corral but it soon took on a life of its own. The company split from its parent in 1993 and then became a REIT in 1998. Since then a number of mergers and acquisitions resulted in the company that is traded today.

National Retail Properties seeks to generate returns for shareholders through capital appreciation and dividends and is one of the most stable dividend payers in the REIT universe. The company made its 33rd consecutive distribution increase in 2022 ranking it 3rd on the list of REITs with sustained annual dividend increases. In regard to all publicly listed companies, there are less than 90 which have increased their payout for as many years or more as National Retail Properties. The compound annual growth rate runs in the range of 4% to 5%.

National Retail Properties is not limited in scope to the type of business it will lease to. The top four sectors occupying its space, however, are convenience stores, automotive-related, full-service, and limited-service restaurants which command a lions share of retail dollars. These segments made up nearly 49% of the portfolio in 2022 with no tenant making up more than 5% of the total income.

The top three tenants at the time are 7-11, Mister Car Wash, and Camping World followed by L.A. Fitness, GPM Investments (convenience), and Dave & Busters. The firm's average lease runs in the range of 10.6 years and occupancy runs high and above 99%. Properties are all single-occupier and leased on a net basis. Most properties are leased on a triple-net basis which means National Retail Properties is insulated from taxes, maintenance, and insurance costs. Other notable tenants include Yum! Brands and Wendys.

National Retail Properties uses leverage to enhance its returns. The companys debt ratio is low however and its debt carries an investment-grade rating from Standard & Poors and Moodys.
STANLEY  Work will begin this year on a new 4.4-mile, fully accessible trail connecting the two biggest destinations in the Sawtooth Valley: the city of Stanley and the Redfish Lake recreation complex.

It has spectacular views of the Sawtooth Range up here on the top that you dont really get anywhere else, the Sawtooth National Recreation Areas project leader, landscape architect Matt Phillips, said last summer, tracing the proposed trails route on a U.S. Forest Service planning map.

The Redfish to Stanley Trail was something envisioned for years. Now, its ready to move ahead, the Sawtooth National Forest announced Thursday.

The forest and the Federal Highway Administration-Western Federal Lands Highway Program signed an agreement July 31 that committed funding for the FHWA to provide design and construction services for building the nonmotorized trail.

We have been working with FHWA on the reconstruction of the Redfish Lake road, and we could not be more pleased to build on that success by executing the agreement for the Redfish to Stanley Trail, Sawtooth Forest Supervisor Kit Mullen said in a release.

The first step was purchase of a trail easement though a private ranch for the north third of the trail  the rest of the trail will be on national forest lands  and project planning began in earnest in 2013. The SNRA moved forward on environmental analysis and public review in 2014, and a decision to construct the trail was made in May.

Field work to support trail design will begin later this year, and the SNRA hopes to award a contract and begin construction next summer.

You can expect a compacted natural surface and a gentle grade meeting Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. The trail will be open to pedestrian, bike and equestrian users.

Users will encounter some gentle climbs, but within accessibility standards; flat resting stretches intersperse the steeper inclines. The designs 6.5-foot width is meant to provide minimal passing space for bicycles but still feel like a trail.

Redfish Lake is a popular day-use destination for travelers staying in Stanley, Mullen said, and having a non-vehicular access route to the complex will add options for travelers between the two destinations.

From Stanleys Pioneer Park, the trail will head south  skirting the Stanley airport and staying west of Idaho 75  and gain unimpeded views from the middle of a sage flat. The route ends on a footbridge at the Redfish Lake entrance station, where it connects with a trail network.

The route has only two road crossings, both near the Stanley Ranger Station, basically the midpoint of the trail. The route never crosses Idaho 75.

The Redfish to Stanley Trail could become a major new recreation destination. But Phillips also sees the trail opening a safer alternative for the families and commuters  including Forest Service employees  who bicycle between the town and the lake on Idaho 75, which has only a narrow shoulder.

I think it would give you pause to go with your family, Phillips said last summer.
Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions for the water and wastewater applications in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, and Measurement & Control Solutions. The Water Infrastructure segment offers various products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment under the Flygt, Godwin, Wedeco, Sanitaire, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brand names for the transportation and treatment of water. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue and Flojet brand names for residential and commercial building services, and industrial water applications. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment provides smart meters, networked communication devices, and measurement and control technologies, as well as critical infrastructure technologies. It also offers software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment and managed services. This segment sells its products under the Pure, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brand names. The company markets and sells its products through a network of direct sales force, resellers, distributors, and value-added solution providers. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. The company. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Rye Brook, New York.
Gov. Brad Little will be re-elected to a second term as governor, with the Associated Press calling the race for Little at 9:05 p.m., moments after polls closed.
The following companies are subsidiares of Sun Life Financial: 0936543 BC Ltd., 10458465 Canada Inc., 10458481 Canada Inc., 3060097 Nova Scotia Company, 6324983 Canada Inc., 6425411 Canada Inc., 6965083 Canada Inc., 7037457 Canada Inc., 7647913 Canada Inc., 7647930 Canada Inc., Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited, Annemasse Boisbriand Holdings L.P., BK Canada Holdings Inc., BK Prime GP Holdco Inc., BKC Capital Inc., BKCB Services Ltd., BKCG Services Ltd., BKCP Residential G.P. LTD., BKCP Residential Limited Partnership Manitoba, BKCP Retail G.P. LTD., BKCP Retail Limited Partnership Manitoba, BKCP SS G.P. LTD., BKCP SS Limited Partnership Manitoba, BKUS Institutional Logistics Coinvestment LLC California, Barnwood Properties Limited, Bentall Kennedy (Canada) G.P. Ltd., Bentall Kennedy (Canada) Limited Partnership, Bentall Kennedy (U.S.) G.P. LLC, Bentall Kennedy (U.S.) Limited Partnership, Bentall Kennedy Holdings LLC, Bentall Kennedy Luxembourg Holdings Ltd., Bentall Property Services (Ontario) Ltd., BestServe Financial Limited, Country Lane Enterprises Ltd., Dental Health Alliance, Denticare of Alabama, Disability Reinsurance Management Services, Independence Life and Annuity Company, Kennedy Management Investors LLC, Landmark Dental Alliance, Laurtrust Limited, MFS Bermuda Holdings Ltd., MFS Development Funds, MFS Exchange LLC, MFS Financial Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co, MFS Fund Distributors, MFS Heritage Trust Company, MFS Institutional Advisors, MFS International (Chile) SpA, MFS International (Hong Kong) Limited, MFS International (U.K.) Limited, MFS International Australia Pty Ltd Victoria, MFS International Holdings Pty Ltd, MFS International Ltd., MFS International Singapore Pte. Ltd., MFS International Switzerland GmbH, MFS Investment Management Canada Limited, MFS Investment Management Company (LUX) S.a.r.l., MFS Investment Management K.K., MFS Service Center, MFS do Brasil Desenvolvimento de Mercado Ltda., Massachusetts Financial Services Company, Maxwell Health, NewTower Management GP LLC, NewTower Management LLC, NewTower Trust Company, PT. Sun Life Financial, PT. Sun Life Indonesia Services, Prime Advisors, Professional Insurance Company Texas, Rushmore Partners LLC, Ryan Labs Asset Management Inc., Ryan Labs Fund Management, Ryan Labs TIPS Partners, SL Finance 2007-1, SL Investment 2007-1 ULC, SL Investment US-RE Holdings 2009-1, SLF of Canada UK Limited, SLFC Services Company (UK) Limited, SLI General Partner Limited, SLI Investments LP Manitoba, Solidify Software, Sun 521, Sun Canada Financial Co., Sun Life (India) AMC Investments Inc., Sun Life (India) Distribution Investments Inc., Sun Life (Luxembourg) Finance No. 1 Sarl, Sun Life (Luxembourg) Finance No. 2 Sarl, Sun Life 2007-1 Financing Corp., Sun Life Administrators (U.S.), Sun Life Asset Management (HK) Limited, Sun Life Asset Management Company, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Barbados) Limited, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.K.) Limited, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada - U.S. Operations Holdings, Sun Life Capital Trust, Sun Life Capital Trust II, Sun Life Everbright Life Insurance Company Limited Tianjin, Sun Life Financial (Bermuda) Reinsurance Ltd., Sun Life Financial (India) Insurance Investments Inc., Sun Life Financial (Japan), Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Finance, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Finance, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Holdings, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Investments LLC, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Reinsurance Company, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Reinsurance Company II, Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Services Company, Sun Life Financial Advisory Inc., Sun Life Financial Asia Services Limited, Sun Life Financial Distributors, Sun Life Financial Distributors (Bermuda) Ltd., Sun Life Financial Distributors (Canada) Inc., Sun Life Financial Holdings (HK) Limited, Sun Life Financial International Holdings (MC), Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc., Sun Life Financial Investments (Bermuda) Ltd., Sun Life Financial Philippine Holding Company, Sun Life Financial Plans, Sun Life Financial Trust Inc., Sun Life Financial of Canada (U.K.) Overseas Investments Limited, Sun Life Global Investments (Canada) Inc., Sun Life Global Investments Inc., Sun Life Grepa Financial, Sun Life Hong Kong Limited, Sun Life Hong Kong Services Limited, Sun Life India Service Centre Private Limited, Sun Life Information Services, Sun Life Information Services Ireland Limited, Sun Life Institutional Distributors (U.S.) LLC, Sun Life Institutional Investments (Canada) Inc., Sun Life Institutional Investments (U.S.) LLC, Sun Life Insurance (Canada) Limited, Sun Life Investment Holdings (HK) Limited, Sun Life Investment Management U.S., Sun Life Investments LLC, Sun Life Malaysia Assurance Berhad, Sun Life Malaysia Takaful Berhad, Sun Life Management Holdings (HK) Limited, Sun Life Pension Trust Limited, Sun Life Trustee Company Limited, Sun Life Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, Sun Life and Health Insurance Company (U.S.), Sun Life of Canada (Netherlands) B.V., Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Sun Life of Canada (U.S.) Financial Services Holdings, Sun Life of Canada (U.S.) Holdings, Sun Life of Canada International Assurance Limited, Sun Life of Canada UK Holdings Limited, SynchroSERV Inc., SynchroSERV Limited Partnership, The Premier Dental Group, UDC Dental, Union Security DentalCare of Georgia, Union Security DentalCare of New Jersey, United Dental Care of Arizona, United Dental Care of Colorado, United Dental Care of Michigan, United Dental Care of Missouri, United Dental Care of New Mexico, United Dental Care of Texas, United Dental Care of Utah, and Vuzion.

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The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. The company also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. It offers its products under the Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports; and duty-free shops. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Cassia County

Felony sentencings

Armando Dominguez Jr.; felony possession of controlled substance, disposition withheld; felony evidence, destruction, alteration or concealment, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor driving under the influence, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; $400 restitution.

Lee Duane Osterhout; felony controlled substancemanufacture or deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver, guilty, $535.50 costs, $100 restitution, nine years determinate time, seven years indeterminate time, 100 days credited, penitentiary suspended; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor, $100 restitution.

Rigoberto Beltran-Rodriguez; felony driving under the influence (third or subsequent offense), guilty, $290.50 costs, one year drivers license suspended, 48 months probation, two years determinate time, eight years indeterminate time, 60 days credited time; misdemeanor fail to purchase or invalid drivers license, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Felony dismissal

Lee Duane Osterhout; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
RUPERT  The Minidoka County commissioners vetted three candidates seeking appointment as county clerk on Friday.

Kay Moore, Tonya Page and Mary Tanner filed applications with the Minidoka County Republican Central Committee and were rated by the committee. The committee voted on ranking with Moore taking the top position, Page second and Tanner third before the names were turned over to the county commissioners.

The commissioners will deliberate on the candidates and make a decision at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

The person appointed by the commissioners will serve in the position until the term is up and then they may run for election.

The commissioners have tentatively approved a salary for the position of $60,000.

I think all three were quality candidates, Kent McClellan, county commissioner said after the interviews.

Sheryl Koyle noted that all three women had operated businesses and two of the candidates, Moore and Page are current county employees.

Board chairman Bob Moore told each candidate that the central committees decision is a political process but the county commissioners will make the appointment as a business decision.

The commissioners asked the applicants how they would handle the situation of the other candidate or candidates working at the courthouse if they are appointed.

Moore said she would not treat the other applicant any differently if she receives the position, Tanner said she would work with the two employees who applied to learn what changes they would have made and Page said she would help the other applicant out as much as she could.

Page will handle interpersonal conflict in the office by talking to both parties separately to find out if something happened on a personal level to spur the conflict, Tanner would work to settle the parties down and then talk to them to find out the real problem and then separate their working quarters if necessary. Moore would meet with the two employees together to get to the core problem because every employee has to be on the same page and work as a team.

Tanner said she wants the job because it is an opportunity to do something for the community.

I am that fresh face if that is what you are looking for, Tanner said.

Tanner is a bookkeeper for Kelly Bean and has experience running her own business. She said she has the skills for the job and her job experience for the past 40 years makes her the best candidate.

Moore has worked for the county for eight years as a deputy auditor. Prior to her employment with the county she was the production manager at the South Idaho Press, where she supervised 18 employees and set budgets.

I believe Im most qualified because of my experience, Moore said. I have dealt with budgets and managed a lot of employees.

Page is the chief deputy clerk for the county, indigent director, deputy court clerk and she assists in the recorder and elections offices. She has worked under two county clerks and has experience working in most of the county departments.

I was going to run for county clerk in 2010, Page said. But my family was not ready for me to run at the time.
Cheer

Twenty-five law enforcement officers helped 20 families with back-to-school shopping this week in the annual Shop with a Cop event in Twin Falls.

The Twin Falls County Sheriffs Employee Association leads the event, which pairs deputies with students who could use a little help getting their pencils, scissors, glue sticks and notebooks.

We want to make sure they get all the school supplies they need, so when they go back to school they dont feel out of place, said Scott Bishop, a sergeant in the sheriffs department.

Helping students get off to the right start in a new school year is a big deal.

The event is also a great reminder that being a deputy involves a lot more than chasing bad guys.

Kudos, too, to Sgt. Bishops daughter, Alyssa, a senior at Zavier Charter School, who helped organize the event as part of her senior project.

Jeer

Were lucky to live in great communities, and that sometimes makes it difficult to find something worth jeering out of a weeks worth of news.

Not this time.

On Wednesday, reporter Mychel Matthews chronicled a bizarre string of animal shootings near Curry. One cattleman lost his prized bull and a heifer. Neighbors found their favorite llamas gunned down.

Look, if you get your kicks from shooting animals, we have hunting seasons for that. Theres nothing sporting about shooting livestock.

Police have few leads and said the cases would be hard to solve unless they catch the shooter in the act.

Cheer

The third and final new Twin Falls school approved by voters through a $74 million bond in 2014 is finally ready to open.

On Thursday, students, parents and community members got the first look at South Hills Middle School, the districts first new middle school in 38 years. The last was OLeary, built in 1979.

The school has a similar look to the other two new schools, Rock Creek and Pillar Falls elementaries, which opened last year. All three feature the latest in school building designs, which aim to provide the best learning environments for the next generations of Twin Falls leaders.

Again, we applaud the voters who supported these new schools. Their vision for growth and commitment that students here study in top-notch schools cant be overstated.
BRUSSELS, BelgiumA scandal involving eggs contaminated with insecticide spread to 15 European Union countries, Switzerland, and as far away as Hong Kong on Friday as the European Commission called for a special meeting on the growing crisis.

Ministers and food safety chiefs from around the EU are set to meet on September 26 in a bid to get countries to stop blaming and shaming each other over the scare involving the chemical fipronil.

Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Europe and dozens of poultry farms closed since the discovery of fipronil, which can harm human health, was made public on August 1.

The issue has sparked a row between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the three countries at the epicenter of the crisis, about how long they knew about the problem.

Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this, Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting.

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We need to work together to draw the necessary lessons and move forward instead.

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that this is not, lets be clear, a crisis meeting and it is being held next month to get distance to the events.

Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks from animals but is banned by the European Union from use in the food industry.

The EU insists there is no threat to human health, but the World Health Organization says that when eaten in large quantities it can harm peoples kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Brussels said the 15 affected EU countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark, along with non-EU Switzerland.

But in a sign the crisis is going global, Brussels also announced that Hong Kong had received some tainted eggs from the Netherlands, with the southern Chinese city becoming the first place in Asia known to be affected.

Hong Kong health minister Sophia Chan said Saturday authorities were strengthening inspections of eggs from Europe.

As well as dealing with the immediate food safety issue, the EU is also seeking to calm tempers over the egg row after a series of divisive crises in the bloc in recent years, from Brexit to migration.

Belgium earlier this week accused the Netherlands of knowing about the fipronil eggs since November 2016 and failing to notify other countries.

On Thursday Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers admitted the government had made errors but denied a cover-up.

We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs, said Schippers.

A Dutch whistleblower separately said he had told the authorities that Chickfriend, the Dutch company at the center of the scandal, was illegally using fipronil in the treatment of lice in chicken pens in The Netherlands.

I am the anonymous whistleblower, Nick Hermens told the NPO public broadcaster.

A Belgian company, Poultry Vision, has said it provided Chickfriend with the chemical.

Dutch and Belgian investigators carried out coordinated raids on several premises on Thursday, arresting two people at Chickfriend.

However, Belgium itself has been forced to admit that it knew about fipronil in eggs back in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

Fresh discoveries of contaminated eggs have continued daily.

Denmark said on Friday it had found two tonnes of fipronil-tainted scrambled eggs, bringing the total of contaminated eggs to 22 tonnes, mainly from Belgium.

Poland said it had discovered about 40,000 eggs imported from Germany.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said that since April the country had sold nearly 250,000 contaminated eggs, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, but the risk for consumers was very low given French eating habits.

The food scare is one of the biggest to hit Europe since the 2013 horsemeat scandal when equine meat was falsely labelled and mis-sold.

Previous food scandals include contamination of chickens and eggs by dioxin in 1999, which began in Belgium, and mad-cow disease  cattle feed contaminated by the ground-up carcasses of animals infected with a deadly brain disorder  which ran from roughly 1986-1998 and started in Britain.

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LOS ANGELESYou will get chipped. Its just a matter of time.

In the aftermath of a Wisconsin firm embedding microchips in employees last week to ditch company badges and corporate log-ons, the internet has entered into full-throated debate.

Religious activists are so appalled, theyve been penning nasty 1-star reviews of the company, Three Square Market, on Google, Glassdoor and social media.

On the flip side, seemingly everyone else wants to know: Is this what real life is going to be like soon at work? Will I be chipped?

It will happen to everybody, says Noelle Chesley, 49, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But not this year, and not in 2018. Maybe not my generation, but certainly that of my kids.

Gene Munster, an investor and analyst at Loup Ventures, is an advocate for augmented reality, virtual reality and other new technologies. He thinks embedded chips in human bodies is 50 years away. In 10 years, Facebook, Google, Apple and Tesla will not have their employees chipped, he says. Youll see some extreme forward-looking tech people adopting it, but not large companies.

Read more:

Employees get microchips in their hands at Wisconsin software company

Swedish tech firm implants chips in employees hands

The idea of being chipped has too much negative connotation today, but by 2067 we will have been desensitized by the social stigma, Munster says.

For now, Three Square Market, or 32M, hasnt offered concrete benefits for getting chipped beyond badge and log-on stats. Munster says it was a PR stunt for the company to get attention to its product and it certainly succeeded, getting the small startup air play on CBS, NBC and ABC, and generating headlines worldwide. The company, which sells corporate cafeteria kiosks designed to replace vending machines, would like the kiosks to handle cashless transactions.

This would go beyond paying with your smartphone. Instead, chipped customers would simply wave their hands in lieu of Apple Pay and other mobile-payment systems.

The benefits dont stop there. In the future, consumers could zip through airport scanners sans passport or drivers licence; open doors; start cars; and operate home automation systems. All of it, if the technology pans out, with the simple wave of a hand.

The embedded chip is not a GPS tracker, which is what many critics initially feared. However, analysts believe future chips will track our every move.

For example, pets for years have been embedded with chips to store their name and owner contact. Indeed, 32M isnt the first company to embed chips in employees. In 2001, Applied Digital Solutions installed the VeriChip to access medical records but the company eventually changed hands and stopped selling the chip in 2010.

In Sweden, BioHax says nearly 3,000 customers have had its chip embedded to do many things, including ride the national rail system without having to show the conductor a ticket.

In the U.S., Dangerous Things, a Seattle-based firm, says it has sold tens of thousands of chips to consumers via its website. The chip and installation cost about $200.

After years of being a subculture, the time is now for chips to be more commonly used, says Amal Graafstra, founder of Dangerous Things. Were going to start to see chip implants get the same realm of acceptance as piercings and tattoos do now.

In other words, theyll be more visible, but not mainstream yet.

It becomes part of you the way a cellphone does, Graafstra says. You can never forget it, and you cant lose it. And you have the capability to communicate with machines in a way you couldnt before.

But after what we saw in Wisconsin last week, whats next for the U.S. workforce? A nation of workers chipping into their pods at Federal Express, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft and other top corporations?

Experts contend consumers will latch onto chips before companies do.

Chesley says corporations are slower to respond to massive change and that there will be an age issue. Younger employees will be more open to it, while older workers will balk. Most employers who have intergenerational workforces might phase it in slowly, she says. I cant imagine people my age and older being enthusiastic about having devices put into their bodies.

Adds Alec Levenson, a researcher at University of Southern Californias Center for Effective Organizations, The vast majority of people will not put up with this.

Three Square Market said the chips are voluntary, but Chesley says that if a company announces a plan to be chipped, the expectation is that you will get chipped  or risk losing out on advancement, raises and being a team player.

Thats what were worried about, says Bryan Allen, chief of staff for state Rep. Tina Davis (D), who is introducing a bill in Pennsylvania to outlaw mandatory chip embedding. If the tech is out there, whats to stop an employer from saying either you do this, or you cant work here anymore.

Several states have passed similar laws, while one state recently saw a similar bill die in committee. I see this as a workers rights issue, says Nevada state Sen. Becky Harris (R), who isnt giving up. This is the wrong place to be moving, she says.

Should future corporations dive in to chipping their employees, they will have huge issues of trust to contend with, says Kent Grayson, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Youve got to have a lot of trust to put one of those in your body, Grayson says. Workers will need assurances the chip is healthy, cant be hacked, and its information is private, he says.

Meanwhile, religious advocates have taken to social media to express their displeasure about chipping, flooding 32Ms Facebook page with comments like boycott, completely unnecessary and deplorable. On 32Ms Google page, Amy Cosari, a minister in Hager City, Wisc., urges employees to remove the chip.

When Jesus was raised, he was raised body and soul, and it was him, not zombie, not a ghost and we are raised up in the same way, Cosari wrote. Employees of 32Market, you are not a walking debit card.

Get used to it, Chesley counsels.

Ten years ago, employees didnt look at corporate email over the weekend. Now they we do, whether we like it or not, he says.

Be it wearable technology or an embedded chip, the always-on always-connected chip is going to be part of our lives, she says.

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SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGANIf your car can hit the brakes in an emergency and check your blind spots, will that make you a worse driver? Increasingly, automakers are worrying it may.

Driver-assist technology that keeps cars in their lanes, maintains a safe distance from other vehicles, warns of unseen traffic and slams the brakes to avoid rear-end crashes are rapidly spreading from luxury cars to everyday Hondas, Nissans and Chevys. But these automated aids aimed at improving safety are having an unintended consequence: Theyre degrading driving skills.

There are lots of concerns about people checking out and we are trying to monitor that now, said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Everything we do that makes the driving task a little easier means that people are going to pay a little bit less attention when theyre driving.

Read more:

Why on-board technology has changed the way we drive

Human distraction biggest problem for self-driving cars

Ottawa to study safety of driverless cars

For carmakers trying to address deteriorating driver skills, the stakes are immense. U.S. roadway deaths jumped 14 per cent over the last two years, with more than 40,000 people dying in crashes in 2016. While speeding and more congested roadways bear some of the blame, distraction is another key culprit. Data released by the federal government shows manipulation of hand-held devices while driving, including texting or surfing the web, has been on the rise.

The semi-autonomous features that are the building blocks of tomorrows driverless cars were designed to compensate for inattentiveness behind the wheel. Instead, they may be enabling drivers to place too much faith in the new technology.

The auto industry is terrified about the unwanted side effects of their popular new features, and companies are scrambling to find ways to keep drivers engaged rather than glued to their smartphones, said Mark Wakefield, managing director and head of the automotive practice at consultant AlixPartners LLP.

General Motors Co. is installing eye-tracking technology on the Super Cruise feature coming to Cadillac models later this year, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel but requires watching the road. Nissan Motor Co.s ProPilot Assist keeps the car centred and brings it to a stop in its lane if the driver goes more than 30 seconds without grabbing the wheel. Tesla Inc. last year implemented limits on drivers ability to go hands-free while using the companys Autopilot system.

You can be conservative in your design and emphasize safety over convenience to protect the consumer from themselves, which clearly is needed, but the whole industry is not going to do that, Wakefield said. So youll be right, but you didnt sell a car.

Toyota Motor Corp. researchers recognize the new technology is changing the way people drive and has initiated studies with major universities to learn how driving habits might evolve.

What are the new risky behaviours going to be? Chuck Gulash, director of Toyotas Collaborative Safety Research Center, said in an interview. Is it going to be people testing their vehicles to the limits? Or showing off to their neighbours?

Consumers recognize the perils of relinquishing control, even if they dont always heed their own advice. Fifty-seven per cent said driver-assist technologies will eventually erode driving skills in an informal survey of 847 visitors to researcher Kelley Blue Books car-shopping website, conducted for Bloomberg in July.

Without question, technology is making drivers lazier and less attentive, said Mike Harley, group managing editor at Kelley Blue Book. Most of todays digital driver assistance features are designed to overlay basic driving skills, which relaxes the drivers sense of responsibility.

A University of Michigan study showed that may already be the case. The school recently conducted research for an automaker concerned with how people are using blind-spot detection systems that alert drivers with chimes and warning lights when another car is in a difficult-to-see area. The study found a significant increase in drivers failing to look over their shoulder to check for themselves when changing lanes.

The more they are exposed to these systems, the more they trust the systems, said Shan Bao, as associate research scientist at the universitys Transportation Research Institute, who conducted the study. In emergency situations, theyll trust the systems more than theyll trust themselves.

Surveys have shown consumers are fond of semi-autonomous features because they take the stress out of stop-and-go traffic and alleviate the monotony of long trips. But the freedom afforded by the new aids has invited abuse by drivers who treat the technology as if its fully capable of taking control, with little or no human input necessary. YouTube videos have emerged showing daredevil drivers hopping in the back seat as they trick the technology to believe they have hands on the wheel.

A federal investigation into the fatality last year in a Tesla Model S travelling in semi-autonomous Autopilot mode showed the driver had his hands on the wheel for just 25 seconds in the final 37 minutes before crashing into a semi. Tesla, which was cleared of responsibility by safety regulators, has modified Autopilot to require more driver input.

At a very basic level, consumers dont have any idea of how these systems work because theyre all named something different and they all function differently, said Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering and industry relations at the American Automobile Association (AAA).

Although AAA is urging automakers and regulators to come up with standard terms and parameters for semi-autonomous features, that conflicts with automakers desire to develop and market unique systems and seek an edge over competitors.

Some manufacturers are pushing the boundaries of safety to make their cars appear more advanced, Wakefield said, by fielding systems that allow drivers to keep their hands off the wheel for too long before a chime and dashboard light remind them to take hold again.

The idea that you can take your hands off the wheel for 15 seconds and the driver is still in control, thats not realistic, said Lund, of Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. If theyre taking their hands off for 15 seconds, then theyre doing some other things.

Its difficult for drivers to understand what driver-assist systems can and cant do because automakers sometimes send mixed signals. The seldom-read owners manual takes a cautious approach to explaining the aids because corporate lawyers water down wording to avoid exposing automakers to legal liability, AAAs Brannon said.

Another risk, Lund warns, is that drivers become so accustomed to the aids that they forget when getting into older vehicles or rental cars that arent equipped with the technology.

Even if a driver hops into an unfamiliar car that is equipped with a system, performance varies widely by brand. Some adaptive cruise controls, for example, can bring a car to a full stop during low-speed driving, but not at highway speeds.

So a driver may become accustomed to it working in town, but not realize that above speeds of 50 miles per hour, its not going to bring the vehicle to a stop, Brannon said. And that could end badly.

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Former Google employee James Damore was supposed to come away enlightened by his diversity training, armed with a newfound sense of empathy for colleagues who did not look like him, a white male.

Instead, the software engineer was so enraged by the experience he decided to write a now-infamous 3,000-word memo on a flight to China railing against Googles ideological echo chamber and arguing that women land fewer tech jobs because of biological differences.

I went to a diversity program at Google and . . . I heard things that I definitely disagreed with, Damore, 28, told Stefan Molyneux, a libertarian podcaster and author. Damore said he had some conversations at the program, but there was a lot of, just, shaming  No, you cant say that, thats sexist; You cant do this.. . . Theres just so much hypocrisy in a lot of the things that theyre saying.

Damores words were disavowed by Google and rejected by those who believe women possess the same qualities as men to succeed in the tech world  an industry that has sparked no shortage of controversy over its treatment of women and minorities.

Read more:

Google memo shows workplace free speech protections are limited

Google manifesto writer should not have been fired: Paradkar

But Damores bitter reaction raises questions about the effectiveness of diversity and bias training, a tool companies and other organizations have adopted to prevent hostility in the workplace, and in Googles case, to promote the hiring and retention of more women and minorities.

Researchers remain divided on its usefulness, but organizations may have no better option to attempt to shift company culture, establish behavioural guidelines and address the legal risk of a hostile work environment.

Google introduced training in 2013 to make employees aware of hidden biases, such as hiring a man over a more qualified woman because of an unconscious assumption the woman will be distracted by child care. The tech giant, which has funneled three-quarters of its more than 70,000 workers through the program, did not respond to questions about its training program.

One employee said the training covered topics such as considering female employees opinions equal to those of male counterparts. The sessions, which were mandatory, included smaller group discussions. Most people who go to the trainings really want to be better, but of course thats not true of everyone who comes to the classes we offer, said the employee, Sarah Adams, a software engineer.

Experts say one of the fundamental challenges of diversity and bias training is this: People dont like to be told what to do and think. Thats why experts say an instructors words can quickly backfire if they put the audience on the defensive.

Its a lot of what not to do: Dont say this, dont do that, said Joelle Emerson, founder and chief executive of Paradigm, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm whose clients include Airbnb, Lyft, Twitter and Spotify. Turns out most people dont engage super well on that type of training on anything. People are more motivated around strategies that focus on what they can do rather than what they cannot do.

That could mean simply providing structure to an interview so that all job candidates are asked the same questions, reducing the chances of unforeseen prejudices influencing an outcome.

Experts say such guidelines are necessary because its difficult to change peoples minds, particularly when it comes to biases. Often, a more realistic goal is to simply try to manage biases so that they dont poison an atmosphere on the job.

If youre offered training that tries to make you less biased, thats probably bad training because you cant eliminate bias, Emerson said. We train employees and managers on the types of behaviour that are designed to reduce the negative consequences of bias.

Damore, who did not respond to requests for an interview, also belongs to a particularly intransigent group when it comes to addressing attitudes and feelings, said Joan C. Williams, professor of law at UC Hastings College of the Law and author of What Works for Women at Work.

What that engineer expressed is an attitude thats common in engineering, which is that engineering is technical and pure, and that anything else that has to do with social issues is unrigorous and doesnt belong in engineering, she said.

Across national studies investigating gender bias, Williams said, this position is a minority attitude, but its much stronger in engineering than it is in the legal profession.

Rather than being prescriptive and tell people what they can or cant say or do, its more effective to play to peoples strengths as problem solvers, according to Williams.

When she has trained people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in the past, she has gotten the best response when she presented the room with a well-documented bias, and asked them how they would interrupt it.

People working in the sciences and technology fields, who are used to and comfortable with finding new solutions to old problems, are typically much more open and engaged when asked to come up with solutions this way, she said.

Frederick R. Lynch, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of The Diversity Machine: The Drive to Change the White Male Workplace, is deeply skeptical of many bias training courses because they inherently strike fear in white audiences who think theyll have to answer for societys inequalities.

The problem with political correctness and the diversity training environment is that it can undermine trust; everyone gets so sensitive they feel like theyre walking on eggshells, Lynch said.

Moreover, Lynch believes the primary goal of such training is often not to change attitudes but to reduce any legal liabilities from workplace incidents.

Most organizations are interested in covering their rear ends, he said.

Damore said he wrote the memo after his bias training to clarify his thoughts.

In the 10-page memo, which he sent to colleagues and which later went public, Damore accused Google of resorting to discriminatory practices in its quest to diversify its workforce.

Damore has granted interviews to Molyneux and to University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson, who have sizable followings on YouTube and track records of criticizing attitudes they describe as politically correct.

Damore told Peterson that he was fired by his human resources representative and his director at Google for perpetuating gender stereotypes and described himself as a victim of PC silencing.

This was a huge PR move, Damore said of his termination. They would have needed approval from higher-ups.

Damore told The Associated Press that he filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board before he was fired and that he is exploring his legal options. A Google spokesperson told The Associated Press that the firing could not have been retaliatory because Google did not learn of the complaint until afterward.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has denounced Damores memo for advancing harmful gender stereotypes and said he was cutting short a vacation.

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Canada, Cuba, sonic attack, u.s. embassy, Global affairs, hearing loss

The Canadian government said Thursday that at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also has been treated for hearing loss following disclosures that a group of American diplomats in Havana suffered severe hearing loss that U.S. officials believe were caused by an advanced sonic device.

Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Brianne Maxwell said Canadian officials are aware of unusual symptoms affecting Canadian and US diplomatic personnel and their families in Havana. The government is actively working  including with U.S. and Cuban authorities  to ascertain the cause.

Maxwell added that officials dont have any reason to believe Canadian tourists and other visitors could be affected.

Canada helped broker talks between Cuba and the United States that led to restored diplomatic relations.

Read more: U.S. expels two Cuban diplomats after American officials in Cuba experienced hearing loss blamed on covert device

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of President Barack Obamas re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Some of the U.S. diplomats symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said. After months of investigation, U.S. officials concluded that the diplomats had been attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound and had been deployed either inside or outside their residences.

It was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.

The U.S. officials werent authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23. She did not say how many U.S. diplomats were affected or confirm they had suffered hearing loss, saying only that they had a variety of physical symptoms.

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement late Wednesday that Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception.

The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on Feb. 17 and had launched an exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government.

It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats was unjustified and baseless.

The ministry said it had created an expert committee to analyze the incidents and had reinforced security around the U.S. embassy and U.S. diplomatic residences.

Cuba is universally considered a safe destination for visitors and foreign diplomats, including U.S. citizens, the statement said.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.

Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and U.S. diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

However, officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cubas formal chain of command.

Nauert said investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them very seriously, as shown by the Cuban diplomats expulsions.

We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some U.S. personnels assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents, she said. Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats.

U.S. diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by U.S. agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington. The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented.

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In the wake of the acquittal of three Toronto cops accused of sexually assaulting a colleague during an alcohol-fuelled outing known as Rookie-Buy Night, police brass are ordering an end to such initiation rituals.

According to a police source, on Friday an internal memo was issued by two staff sergeants in charge of police divisions and sent to unit commanders throughout the city, stating such rites of passage must come to an end, effective immediately.

The memo directed these senior officers to inform their staff that events which may feature both disorderly behaviour, such as the excessive consumption of alcohol, and expectations that new recruits pay for others, are now prohibited.

The memo stated that, even when off duty, officers must adhere to the Toronto Police Services core values, which include having integrity, defined by the force as being honourable, trustworthy, and striving to do what is right.

According to the memo, Chief Mark Saunders has said the initiation rituals described in the recent court ruling by Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy are not consistent with Torontos policing culture.

Read more:

Heres what Chief Saunders should do with the 3 cops acquitted of sex assault: DiManno

This week, a judge acquitted three Toronto police officers in the alleged sexual assault of a parking enforcement officer who said she was too intoxicated to consent. The incident happened in January 2015 after a rookie buy night with officers from 51 division.

Although Molloy said she couldnt find Joshua Cabero, Leslie Nyznik and Sameer Kara guilty, citing contradictory evidence and flawed recollections from the complainant, the officers may still face disciplinary consequences.

All three were suspended with pay after they were charged in Feb. 2015. Although Saunders hadnt changed that status as of Wednesday, he is reviewing their conduct , police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray told the Star earlier this week.

The chief will be directing his senior staff that, as part of our ongoing culture change, there is no longer a place for such rituals, Gray added.

The sexual assault case stemmed from an incident that happened inside a downtown hotel room after a night of heavy drinking. During the trial, the complainant alleged that the officers assaulted her sexually, penetrating her orally and vaginally as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Nyznik, the only of the three officers to testify, said the complainant initiated most of what took place and that the group sex was consensual.

Toxicology results and video of the group shortly before the assault was alleged to have taken place conflicted with the complainants testimony about her level of intoxication. Molloy said some of Nyzniks account did not ring true, but that it was simply not safe to convict.

With files from Alyshah Hasham

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The US embassy in the Iraqi capital has cautioned its employees from moving beyond the security zone pointing out threats of kidnapping after a Shia paramilitary militia accused the US-led coalition of killing dozens of its fighters in airstrikes and ground attacks near border with Syria early this week.

In response, the US Embassy has temporarily restricted movement of its employees outside of the international zone in Baghdad, the embassy said in a statement.

The warning came following deaths of over 40 fighters of Martyrs of Sayyid, a brigade member of Hashed al-Shaabi militia fighting the side of the Iraqi army in its push against the Islamic State group (IS).

The militia Tuesday said the US-led coalition had coordinated attacks against its forces near Mosul, an IS-held town captured by the Iraqi army last month.

Colonel Ryan Dillon of the coalition denied that the international forces targeted the militiamen.

Despite denial by the coalition, the pro-Iran forces vowed to respond to strikes.

We guarantee the attack will not go unpunished, and we call upon all Islamic resistance units in Iraq to consider an appropriate response, the militia said in a statement.

The New Arab reports that a large group of security agents from the Iraqi army, federal police and anti-terrorism group arrived at the embassy on Thursday morning.

This group set up a heavy security perimeter outside the embassy, restricting cars and personnel from reaching near the embassy, the Qatari London-based media further notes.
The young man alleging a Toronto officer punched him then drew his gun during a 2011 police stop in Lawrence Heights said he looked to other cops for help during and after the fateful encounter, but no one stepped up.

On the second day of testimony from the main complainant at the ongoing disciplinary hearing of two Toronto police officers, the young man  15 at the time of the incident, and whose name is protected by a publication ban  was cross-examined on his account of the ordeal.

Const. Adam Lourenco and Const. Scharnil Pais each stand accused under Ontario's Police Services Act of unlawfully arresting the main complainant, his twin brother, and two of their friends, boys all 16 or under at the time. The arrests happened immediately after they left their homes inside a Toronto Community Housing Corp. complex on Neptune Dr. and walked toward an after-school program called Pathways to Education.

Lourenco faces two other charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly using unreasonable force, one for punching the main complainant and another for pointing his gun at three of the boys.

The officers have pleaded not guilty to all charges, and none of the allegations have been proven at the tribunal.

The four teens were criminally charged after the encounter but all charges were later withdrawn. The Star is not identifying any of the teens, now 20 and 21, because of an ongoing publication ban under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The tribunal heard earlier this week that the officers told the group they matched the descriptions of suspects in a recent robbery. When the main complainant asked if he was under arrest and free to go  putting to use knowledge hed recently gained at a seminar on his rights in police encounters  he alleges Lourenco became violent, punching him, knocking him to the ground, then drawing his weapon.

Under cross-examination by Lourencos lawyer, Lawrence Gridin, Friday, the young man went into greater detail about the events that night, and his encounters with other officers.

The witness testified that after Lourenco knocked him to the ground, the officer deliberately cut his own thumb on something sharp on his police belt, showed the young man and said: Look, you just assaulted a police officer.

The young man then said he and his friends looked to Pais, who was standing nearby and who he said was deliberately averting his eyes.

I could tell by looking at him that that he knew this was wrong. Thats why he wasnt looking . . . he didnt do anything, the witness said.

The young man then testified that moments later, after Lourenco handcuffed him and violently placed him into the car of another unit called for backup, he tried to explain what happened to the Black officer driving the cruiser.

He was Black and I was trying to appeal to him . . . (I was saying) I swear to God, I saw him cut his thumb, the witness said.

The officer was respectful, the witness said, but told him to forget about the rights stuff, in reference to defending his constitutional right to walk away from police under certain circumstances and asking questions such as Am I under arrest?

He said . . . basically dont use it. Its not going to work in real life, the witness said.

Gridin, Lourencos lawyer, took the witness through each of his allegations in a highly detailed manner, noting that the young man was alleging a significant amount of mistreatment by his client, Pais and a lot of different officers. Gridin later said there were a number of claims made by the young man that I intend to impeach him on.

The hearing continues next week.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

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Students at the University of Waterloo know Chase Graham took his own life.

They may never have met him. They may not know he was a brilliant student or that he had a sharp sense of humour under a shy, quiet exterior.

But they know he died by suicide at school on March 20.

We hear about the ones like Chase, who die on campus, Grahams mother, Andrea Graham, said.

But he very well could have waited a month and done it when he was in his apartment in Toronto while on his co-op placement and then people wouldnt have associated it with a student death.

The attention Chase Grahams death received is rare, though his story is not. Countless successful, promising young students struggle to adapt to the major change of starting post-secondary school.

But nobody  not the Chief Coroner, nor the Ontario government nor university officials  can say how many university and college student die by suicide each year.

Read more:

Were not a treatment facility: The struggle for campuses to provide students mental health care

What makes a strong campus mental health system? Experts weigh in

The Office of the Chief Coroner should be responsible for tracking student suicides, Andrea Graham said.

We need to start doing some things to stop these (suicides) happening, and part of it is having an accurate view of whats actually going on.

Public health authorities in Canada and around the world have called for comprehensive tracking of suicide deaths, arguing that better, more available statistics make it easier for professionals to prevent suicides.

But Ontario has an inconsistent patchwork of tracking systems which does not come close to being comprehensive.

The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario tracks suicides by age group, but does not keep track of whether people who die by suicide are students or what their profession was.

Steps are being taken to make suicide data more accurate and available, Deputy Chief Coroner Dr. Reuven Jhirad said.

The Chief Coroners office will work to standardize the information collected by each regional coroner during investigations, and to create a database where details about a death, such as whether or not someone was a student, can be easily searched, Jhirad added. There is no specific date for when these measures will be in place.

In a survey of Ontarios 20 universities, the Star found that only about half keep any kind of formal statistics on the number of student suicides. Of those universities, several track only suicides that occur on their campus, meaning that any deaths that occur at a students off-campus residence or their family home does not get included in their tally.

As can be appreciated, we are only aware of the nature of a student death as indicated to us by the family or police, said Brenda Whiteside, Associate VP of Student Affairs at Guelph, one of the schools that tracks on and off-campus suicides. The numbers represent the best information we have.

In February, Whiteside confirmed that four Guelph students had died by suicide in the 2016-17 academic year, after a student petition and social media backlash demanded more attention be paid to mental health.

At the times the deaths occurred, the university did what many schools do  they released a statement saying the student had died, in some cases mentioning the students name, but never mentioning the cause of death.

It is generally agreed upon by experts that suicide data are under-reported due to misclassification issues (including) the stigma associated with suicide, and provincial and territorial differences in the type of information collected by coroners or medical examiners reports, said Rebecca Purdy, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Suicide has long been a taboo topic that, until a couple of decades ago was hardly spoken about at all, even in private, said Robert Whitley, a psychiatry professor at McGill University, who has researched the coverage of suicide in media.

Not even newspapers covered suicides, largely out of fear that the news could inspire copy-cat deaths. But those attitudes are changing.

Recent research has shown that increasing public attention paid to suicide is a positive, if it is handled sensitively. It helps raise awareness and start discussions, Whitley said.

(Now) suicide is something which we can talk about. Its the tragedy which everyones trying to avoid but ... its something people can have empathy and compassion for and respond to, Whitley added. Thats much better than a society where people think its a crime and a sin that you shouldn't even talk about or think about.

The start of university or college can be a particularly difficult time for young peoples mental health.

Beginning post-secondary school often means moving away from home for the first time, and being far from family and friends. The majority of mental health issues begin to surface during a persons teens or 20s. But age restrictions on youth programs force many young people to abandon the mental health services they have accessed for years around the age of 18  leaving them on their own to find new sources of help in the adult health care system.

In 2016, researchers from the Public Health Agency of Canada consulted with over 350 community organizations, government officials and indigenous groups, to identify priorities for suicide prevention in Canada.

One of the key findings from the consultation was that Canadian suicide statistics, including suicide ... data and research results, is fragmented, complex and often difficult to access.

Data and research results provide the basis of evidence needed to define the scope of the problem in Canada... track changes in suicide rates, better understand risk and protective factors, inform policies and programs, and evaluate prevention efforts, the Public Health Agency wrote.

Similarly, in a 2014 report, the World Health Organization, called for improved availability and quality of data on suicides and suicide attempts globally, saying they were required for effective suicide prevention.

In the days after Grahams death, the second on-campus suicide at the University of Waterloo since January, the schools President Feridun Hamdullahpur announced the creation of an advisory committee on mental health, citing the recent suicide of a first-year student as a catalyst.

It was the first time the university had ever publicly acknowledged a specific student suicide, said Walter Mittelstaedt, the universitys director of Campus Wellness.

What we said this time was in response to a growing concern and misinformation, Mittelstaedt said.

(Social media users) were repeatedly saying the University of Waterloo has the worst suicide rate of all campuses, which I mean, we have no way of knowing that.

The Waterloo presidents statement on Chase Grahams suicide makes me feel hopeful that the university will be taking a different approach in terms of communication and public relations on issues like these, Waterloo student and mental health advocate Dia Rahman said.

It was disappointing, however, that the statement only came after a student petition and social media discussion called attention to the suicide, she added.

For the betterment of the community, as well as helping universities... maintain wellbeing, I think student suicides should be better tracked, Rahman said.

How else would you figure out whether theres a dire need for something to be changed in the community?

Asked whether Waterloo will publicly disclose all student suicides in future, Mittelstaedt said it was something for us to think about as the schools mental health advisory progresses.

Each university has to decide how much of a problem mental health and suicide is for them and will have a unique response to it, he added. I dont think (the right approach) is necessarily an overall public response.

Mental health-related data is severely lacking across the board, not just for suicide and not just for university students, said Eric Windeler, whose son Jack died by suicide in 2010 during his first year at Queens University.

Writ large, the system is not tracking that stuff and you cant function in a system properly without data, thats for absolute certain, said Windeler, who sits on the provincial governments Mental Health and Addictions Leadership Advisory Council and co-founded with Jacks mother the youth mental health organization Jack.org.

Focusing on suicide data alone, though, misses the bigger picture of mental health challenges on campus, Windeler added.

You have to look at the whole mental health piece not just suicide to understand the amount of struggle thats going on there, he said.

Suicide is kind of the tip of the iceberg. A school can go a whole year with zero suicides... but that doesnt mean that 20 per cent of the population at that school isnt struggling at a level that is affecting their day-to-day life.

Andrea Graham wants to see universities approach to mental health change. She has called for more convenient and proactive access to mental health services for students who may feel isolated at school. She has expressed great frustration with what she said was Waterloos lack of communication with her family. She wants schools to do a better job of responding after a student has died by suicide, to ensure that other students are coping.

But tracking of student suicides is needed if we want to understand the scope of the problem, Andrea Graham said.

I just hope some things change, she added. I just dread the day that I hear of something else happening.

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A teen who allegedly tried to steal an outfit because he said he needed it for a job interview earlier this week is officially employed  thanks to the help of a Toronto police officer.

Const. Niran Jeyanesan was called to a Walmart store on Sunday, Aug. 6, for a routine shoplifting call: an 18-year-old had reportedly tried to steal a dress shirt, a tie and a pair of socks.

The teenager told Jeyanesan he wanted to work to help his family because his father had fallen ill and lost his job, but didnt have the proper clothes for an interview.

Rather than charging him with theft, Jeyanesan decided to buy the outfit for him instead.

I had spoken to my investigating team and all the investigators were on board with it, our staff sergeant was, Jeyanesan said. I think they all believed that this was the right thing to do for this person.

Read more:

Teen lands job after cop buys him the clothes he allegedly tried to steal for a job interview

Toronto cop buys clothes for alleged shoplifter who needed an outfit for job interview

Jeyanesan gave his cell phone number to the teenager, telling him he wanted to know how the interview went.

On Friday night, he got a call from the teenager who had good news.

He confirmed that he had got the job. Im just happy, Jeyanesan said. Happy that this person actually went and did what he said he was going to do and followed through with it and that he was determined to get that position, and he did. Thats all him. So the second chance truly works.

Jeyanesan said he believes cases like this are a sign of policing changing for the better in Toronto.

Certainly, in terms of taking care (with) every investigation and finding a best case scenario, especially talking to people and hearing their part of the story and so forth, that has for sure improved, at least in the three years Ive been policing.

Paraphrasing Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus often referenced quote from 2015, Const. Niran Jeyanesan said Its 2017.

If you look at it financially, we spend a lot of money incarcerating people and putting them through the court system and so forth, so as police officers, if we can actually divert that process into something positive, why not?

He said the teenager was very excited on the phone, and was looking forward to starting his new job.

We dont usually see the results right off the bat in policing and for this, it (was) different, Jeyanesan said. When . . . he said he got the job, I asked him, Hey, did you wear that shirt and tie? And he said, Yes, I did. And thank you. 

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LUCKNOW, INDIAParents of at least 35 children who have died in a hospital in northern India over the past three days have alleged that the fatalities were due to the lack of oxygen supply in the childrens ward.

District Magistrate Rajiv Rautela said Saturday that the deaths of the children being treated for different ailments at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur city in Uttar Pradesh state were due to natural causes. He denied that a lack of oxygen led to their deaths.

Parents said that the oxygen supply to the ward ran out Thursday night and that patients families were given self-inflating bags to help the children breathe.

Thats the time when the death of the children peaked, said Mritunjaya Singh, whose 7-month-old son was admitted to the hospital and was not among the dead.

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an investigation.

Prashant Trivedi, the states top health official, acknowledged that there was a problem in the pipeline supplying oxygen.

But the situation was managed through oxygen cylinders, Trivedi said. The hospital administration has enough supply of cylinders in its stock. So the report about death of children because of oxygen issue is false.

The parents said the company that supplies oxygen to the hospital had earlier threatened to stop oxygen distribution unless the government paid its long-overdue bills.

Rautela said that the hospital owed $106,000 to the company, but added that it had adequate numbers of oxygen cylinders.

The federal health ministry sent a team of specialists to the hospital to verify what caused the fatalities at the facility, which provides health care to a vast swath of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar state.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders took to social media to blame Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state, for its neglect and indifference to peoples health.

Opposition Congress Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi tweeted: Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP govt. is responsible & should punish the negligent who caused this tragedy.

Some of the children had been treated for encephalitis, a disease that preys on the young and malnourished and is rampant in the state during the monsoon season, which runs from June till September.

The hospital, which has become a major centre for children with encephalitis, has treated nearly 370 cases in the last two months. Of these, 129 children died, said Satish Chandra, a hospital spokesman.

Gorakhpur is located 300 kilometres southeast of the state capital, Lucknow.

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Chanting blood and soil, white lives matter and you will not replace us, scores of white nationalists holding torches marched across the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Friday night.

Scuffles broke out between them and a small group of counter-protesters calling themselves anti-fascists who were surrounded as they demonstrated in advance of Saturdays Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which is expected to be one of the largest far-right gatherings in the U.S. in at least a decade.

Police soon cleared away the demonstrators, according to reporters at the scene.

The fear we instill in them today only fuels our victory tomorrow, one rally supporter wrote on Twitter, in a message retweeted by Richard Spencer, one of the nations most prominent white nationalists, who is attending the weekends events in Virginia.

Spencer also tweeted a selfie, showing him smiling with the marchers tiki torches in the background.

I am safe. I am not fine, one of the counter-protesters, Emily Gorcenski, tweeted, saying that white nationalists had attacked her group. What I just witnessed was the end of America.

Rally participants encircle counter protestors at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., on August 11, 2017.





Pictures and video of the nighttime march spread rapidly across social media, where many black and left-leaning Americans expressed disgust at the imagery, which to them recalled torch-lit Ku Klux Klan rallies of yesteryear.

This is a disgrace, tweeted Martese Johnson, a black University of Virginia alumnus who gained notoriety in 2015 when he was bloodied by police as a student. I do not believe this is happening on my universitys campus. (The university is currently between its summer and fall semesters, when more students would be on campus.)

Charlottesvilles mayor expressed outrage at the gathering of white nationalists, who at one point stopped to pay tribute to a statue of Thomas Jefferson, a founding father who owned slaves.

When I think of candlelight, I want to think of prayer vigils, wrote Mayor Mike Signer in a Facebook post.

Today, in 2017, he continued, we are instead seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march in the hometown of the architect of our Bill of Rights.

Noting that everyone has a First Amendment right of assembly and free speech, he said, Heres mine: Not only as the Mayor of Charlottesville, but as a UVA faculty member and alumnus, I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus.

For weeks, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other far-right figures have been preparing for Saturdays rally, occasionally running into obstacles as the home-rental company Airbnb banned far-right users for violating the companys anti-racism policies.

The city had also objected to the demonstrators hoped-for gathering spot the formerly named Lee Park, where the city has ordered the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The city sought to block the rally at the park now called Emancipation Park.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties and human rights group based in Charlottesville, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city on behalf of the rally organizers. The suit said that the city was unconstitutionally infringing on the demonstrators First Amendment rights by directing them to go to a different park.

The city contended that its request wasnt prompted by the white nationalists political beliefs, but because the one-acre Emancipation Park would be too small for the number of demonstrators expected to arrive in the city on Saturday.

But Friday night, a judge sided with the white nationalists and ordered the city to allow them to gather in Emancipation Park, where local leaders promise to have hundreds of law enforcement officials monitoring events.

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This is it, then.

We can officially drop the pretence of equality after violent protests by white supremacists, heritage groups, neo-Nazis, KKK members and armed white terrorists slammed that charade this weekend.

Their deadly brand of racism was effectively endorsed by the United States president when he failed to call out supremacists, anti-Semites, xenophobes and homophobes and instead rebuked the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.

On many sides. Which sides would those be, Mr. President, when there were just two: white supremacy  and equality.

Donald Trump wants to study it, he said, to see how such things can happen. He might want to start with studying the many sides of injustice at play.

Read more:

Trump breaks silence on Charlottesville: No place for this kind of violence in America

Chanting blood and soil and white lives matter, white supremecists march in Charlottesville

Take a moment to think about what these people were protesting as they marched through the University of Virginia campus Friday night carrying torches and breaking into fisticuffs. And again, whey they showed up Saturday morning, waving Confederate and Nazi flags, carrying semi-automatic weapons, helmets, spears and shields, throwing punches, water bottles and spraying chemicals. A car plowed through counter-protesters flinging bodies in the air, killing one person and injuring dozens.

These savage people were not protesting white lives lost to police brutality. They were not protesting disproportionate incarceration of white people, or stricter sentencing than people of other races, or being denied housing or education for the colour of their skin. They were not protesting any of that because it is not their reality.

They were not protesting. Period.

They were rioting.

Their tempers were inflamed by the possibility of the removal of a statue of Civil War-era Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The city council voted for the removal in April, but it is pending litigation.

Not only was Lee the general who led a war to defend the ownership of Black people as property, he was also one of its more cruel enforcers  breaking up families and hiring them to other plantations, ordering the enslaved to be whipped and brine poured on their backs, as detailed in an eye-opening profile in the Atlantic in June.

The Saturday protesters had gathered at Emancipation Park, the new name of what was once Lee Park, where the statue stands.

Jason Kessler, a right-wing blogger, told media the protests were also about free speech and advocating for white people.

This, they believed, entitled them to chant things such as White power, White Lives Matter, You will not replace us and Jew will not replace us.

It was a mind-boggling show of white fragility, by people threatened not because their rights are being trampled by any measurable means but because a few voices of those they historically oppressed are starting to be heard again.

Where were the police ominously beating back protesters in the numbers they did in Ferguson, in Chicago, in Charlotte, in Baltimore, in Cleveland among other places when Black people protested deaths at the hands of police? Where are the calls for white people to denounce this disgusting display of hate in their name? Why is the driver of the car that plowed into people not being called a terrorist? Will we now ask that white people be the eyes and ears on the front lines of white hatred?

Remember Mark Hughes, the armed Black man called a suspect by Dallas police during protests in July last year? They called him a suspect even as he was helping them evacuate people and they did not take down their tweet with his photo even after it was established he was innocent.

In this gathering, white men armed to the teeth roam freely, with the privilege of knowing their rights will be protected.

The flags they were waving signify death and devastation to significant groups of Americans. Yet, they were allowed because, democracy. Would these democratic rights be granted to anyone wanting to wave the equally reprehensible Daesh (ISIS) flags?

Trump, a normally avid tweeter who releases foreign policy details in 140 characters, was silent until later in the day when he tweeted out a vague denunciation of the events and gave his insipid speech.

In all fairness, his blandness was not a surprise. Why would he disavow his friends?

Former KKK imperial wizard David Duke said, This (protest) represents a turning point. We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfil the promises of Donald Trump. Thats why we voted for Donald Trump.

Over at the Daily Stormer, the white supremacist website, there was jubilation. Trump comments were good. He didnt attack us.... No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.

Not all Trumps buddies were pleased with his speech, though. Richard Spencer, the founder of the Alt-Right hate group, who was not shot at, not beaten, not punched, but maced by police, was miffed.

Trump should not have praised the state and local police, he tweeted. They did the opposite of their job. Total disaster.

Total disaster. Never thought Id agree with anything that revolting man said.

Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

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WASHINGTONDonald Trumps attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell come at the worst possible time, if the presidents goal is actually to accomplish the agenda on health care, infrastructure and taxes hes goading his GOP ally to pass.

Congress, now on its August recess, will return to confront a brutal September workload including two absolute must-do items: funding the government to head off a shutdown, and raising the federal borrowing limit to avert a potentially catastrophic first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Both will require bipartisan co-operation, something thats been in short supply on Capitol Hill this year. And thats all apart from the legislation Trump wants to see, including a rewrite of the tax code to lower rates, a sweeping infrastructure bill, and renewed efforts to repeal Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act after McConnell tried and failed last month  an outcome Trump called a disgrace.

Read the latest on U.S. President Donald Trump

So the presidents rhetoric this past week has fuelled divisions at a moment when his party should be working together toward shared goals, not tearing each other apart. And his agenda only can pass if McConnell navigates it through the Senate, something the veteran lawmaker may not feel more motivated to do with his president working against him instead of for him.

Virtually any substantial goals that the president intends to achieve, whether its tax reform or more infrastructure, requires the active assistance of the Senate majority leader, said Michael Steel, who served as spokesman to John Boehner when the Ohio Republican was House speaker.

Read more: Trump escalates feud with Mitch McConnell, questions Senate leaders future in wake of health-care failure

Let Obamacare fail, Trump says after GOP health care plan collapses

McConnell allies say that Trumps frustration over the failure on health care is shared by the majority leader. And campaign operatives on the political side say its crucial that the next item on the agenda  overhauling the tax code  not collapse in a similar fashion. Otherwise Republicans will have a tough time making the case to voters during next years mid-terms that they should continue to control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Tax reform is a must-do issue in our view, Steven Law, head of the McConnell-aligned super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, said Friday in an interview for C-SPANs Newsmakers program. I think if we fail to get action on that, I think people will start to wonder why Republicans are in charge of everything and what theyre accomplishing.

Yet instead of linking arms with McConnell on the issue and working Capitol Hill, like Republican President George W. Bush did when he got his big tax cuts through in 2001, the White House may already be at cross-purposes with the majority leader.

The presidents team has raised expectations for fast action on taxes, with White House legislative director Marc Short recently suggesting a bill could be completed by the end of the year. Thats a tall order for Republicans who have yet to meet a single major legislative deadline. At the same time, Congress has made virtually no progress on infrastructure or the budget, with the unfinished work piling up.

And unlike health care, the upcoming agenda  outside of tax reform and Trump nominations  requires Democratic votes. Thats sure to be another sore point between Trump and McConnell, since Trump wants the Senate to eliminate the filibuster. McConnell, along with most Senate veterans, are resolutely opposed.

McConnell dinged Trump this week for excessive expectations about what can happen in Congress, which didnt sit well with the president, who lashed out against the majority leader.

Even as Senate Republicans rushed to the majority leaders defence Friday following Trumps attacks, McConnells allies tried to soothe the waters, with some noting that McConnell, while repeatedly expressing his displeasure with Trumps tweeting habits, has nonetheless proceeded forward despite them.

The most important thing Leader McConnell said this week is that this Congress will be judged in its totality, not in a snapshot, which is exactly right, said Brian McGuire, McConnells former chief of staff. He and the president share a common set of legislative goals, and theres no reason whatsoever to believe those shared goals wont continue to be a unifying force in the months and years ahead.

A top priority for Trump is U.S. taxpayer money for a wall along the Mexico border despite his repeated campaign promises that Mexico would finance it. McConnell may be hard-pressed to deliver as funds for the border wall are certain to face strong Democratic opposition and some Republican foes.

We have announced publicly, No wall. Never, said No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois. Dont put that on the table. Its just a non-starter with our caucus.

The administration is signalling that Trump is so determined to win money for the wall that it may be open to a budget deal that would increase defence spending and boost funds for domestic programs favoured by Democrats. Trump reluctantly relented on the wall this spring  only to turn to Twitter to threaten a shutdown if he didnt get a better deal this fall.

But adding the contentious wall issue to the already volatile mix of the September agenda could be too risky.

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NAIROBI, KENYAOne day after President Uhuru Kenyatta was reelected in a fiercely contested and divisive vote, violence erupted across parts of Kenya in clashes between protesters and security forces.

At least 24 people, including a 6-year-old child, have been killed since the election results were announced Friday night, according to the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights.

Deaths can be directly linked to the elections and post-election environment, said Kagwiria Mbogori, chairman of the commission. Family and community members have indicated they were killed during the protests, which broke out in some parts of the country after the polls.

Mbogori said loss of life is attributed to police using live ammunition and that 17 deaths were confirmed in Nairobi alone.

In Kibera, Nairobis largest slum, residents said that at least six people were killed late Friday and early Saturday in clashes with police. Young men in the slum had promised for days to hold demonstrations if Kenyatta defeated their candidate, Raila Odinga, who has not yet conceded or accepted the results, raising concerns of further violence.

Kenyas acting security minister, Fred Matiangi, has disputed accusations that police had shot protesters, telling reporters Saturday that officers did not use live bullets and adding that the country was safe and secure.

But Mbogori said the commission can confirm that there has been excessive use of force and misuse of firearms by security personnel dealing with members of the public who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly in accordance with our constitution.

Although Kenya is considered a pillar of stability in East Africa, it is riven by tribal tensions that rise to the surface during national elections. In 2007, more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence in the wake of that years election.

This year, the response to Kenyattas victory appears more tempered, with security forces more prepared than they were a decade ago. But residents in Nairobi and parts of western Kenya raised allegations of police shooting wildly at protesters.

In Mathare, another Nairobi slum, a 6-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet while on the balcony of her house, according to residents.

The police were shooting in the air to disperse the crowds, said Boniface Okoth, a resident of Mathare. The child came to the balcony to check what was going on. She was shot and died on the spot.

Separately, Reuters reported that nine men in Mathare were killed overnight. A security official told Reuters that they were killed in an anti-looting operation.

There were also protests in the western city of Kisumu, where police used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Reuters reported that one man was killed there.

According to the official results, Kenyatta received 54.2 per cent of the votes to Odingas 44.7 per cent. Odinga has alleged that those results were manipulated, claiming the countrys electoral commission was part of the coverup. But international election observers said they considered the vote to be credible.

In Kibera, Celine Adhiambo said police were marching deep inside the slum on Friday night and Saturday morning.

We do not know where they took the bodies, she said. We are in great danger.

There were also protests in western Nyanza province. The regional co-ordinator there said young men there attempted to attack police with rocks, but that police dealt with the situation and cleared the roads.

Kenyatta has pledged to address the countrys divide in his second term, saying in his acceptance speech Friday, We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic.

Read more: Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta wins second term amid claims vote was rigged

Kenyas opposition leader alleges election hacking, sparking deadly protests

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.Chaos and violence turned to tragedy Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members  planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to take America back  clashed with counterprotesters in the streets and a car plowed into crowds, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured.

Hours later, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed at the outskirts of town. Officials identified them as Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Virginia, who was the pilot, and H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, Virginia, who was a passenger. State police said their Bell 407 helicopter was assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday; Cullen was 48.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who had declared a state of emergency in the morning, said at an evening news conference that he had a message for all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.

Maurice Jones, Charlottesvilles African-American city manager, looked stricken as he spoke. Hate came to our town today in a way that we had feared but we had never really let ourselves imagine would, he said.

State and local officials declined to take reporters questions and abruptly left after making statements.

In an emergency meeting Saturday evening, the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to give police the power to enact a curfew or otherwise restrict assembly as necessary to protect public safety.

Police ordered hundreds of people out of the downtown park after violent clashes  putting an end to the noon "Unite the Right" rally that hadnt even begun.











Read more:

The many sides of injustice in Charlottesville riot: Paradkar

Trump slow to respond to Charlottesville violence

Chanting blood and soil and white lives matter, white nationalists march in Charlottesville

Video recorded at the scene of the car crash shows a 2010 gray Dodge Challenger accelerating into crowds on a pedestrian mall, sending bodies flying  and then reversing at high speed, hitting yet more people. Witnesses said the street was filled with people opposed to the white nationalists who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and anti- Semitic epithets.

A 32-year-old woman was killed, according to police, who said they were investigating the crash as a criminal homicide.

The driver of the Challenger, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said. Police made three other arrests in connection with violence earlier in the day, on charges of assault and battery, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.

Records show Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 24 kilometres southwest of Toledo.

Fieldss father was killed by a drunk driver a few months before the boys birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His father left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him, the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where hed been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as not really friendly, more subdued.

He wouldnt comment on his reaction to the charges against Fields.

I really dont want to get into that, he said. Im not going to slam my nephew or anybody in my family without knowing what the hell happened.

Angela Taylor, a spokesperson for the University of Virginia Medical Center, said 19 others were brought to the hospital in the early afternoon after the car barreled through the pedestrian mall. Five were in critical condition as of Saturday evening. Another 14 people were hurt in street brawls, city officials said.

Earlier, police evacuated a downtown park as rallygoers and counterprotesters traded blows and hurled bottles and chemical irritants at one another, putting an end to the noon rally before it officially began.

Authorities are on the scene after a vehicle plowed into a group of people marching through downtown Charlottesville. White nationalists have been protesting plans by Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. (The Associated Pr

Despite the decision to quash the rally, clashes continued on side streets and throughout downtown, including the pedestrian mall at Water and Fourth streets where the Challenger slammed into counterprotesters and two other cars in the early afternoon, sending bystanders running and screaming.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer (D) said in a tweet. I urge all people of good will  go home.

Elected leaders in Virginia and elsewhere urged peace, blasting the white supremacist views on display in Charlottesville as ugly. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called the display repugnant.

But U.S. President Donald Trump, known for his rapid-fire tweets, remained silent throughout the morning. It was after 1 p.m. when he weighed in, writing on Twitter: We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

In brief remarks at a late afternoon news conference in New Jersey to discuss veterans health care, Trump said he was following the events in Charlottesville closely. The hate and the division must stop and must stop right now, Trump said, without specifically mentioning white nationalists or their views. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a Trump supporter who was in Charlottesville on Saturday, quickly replied. I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists, he wrote.

Dozens of the white nationalists in Charlottesville were wearing red Make America Great Again hats. Asked by a reporter in New Jersey whether he wanted the support of white nationalists, Trump did not respond.

Even as crowds began to thin Saturday afternoon, the town remained unsettled and on edge. Onlookers were deeply shaken at the pedestrian mall, where ambulances had arrived to treat those injured by the car.

Chan Williams, 22, was among the counterprotesters at the pedestrian mall, chanting Black Lives Matter and Whose streets? Our streets! The marchers blocked traffic, but Williams said drivers werent annoyed. Instead, she said, they waved or honked in support.

So when she heard a car engine rev up and saw the people in front of her dodging a moving car, she didnt know what to think.

I saw the car hit bodies, legs in the air, she said. You try to grab the people closest to you and take shelter.

Williams and friend George Halliday ducked into a shop with an open door and called their mothers immediately. An hour later, the two were still visibly upset.

I just saw shoes on the road, Halliday, 20, said. It all happened in two seconds.

Saturdays Unite the Right rally was meant to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The city of Charlottesville voted to remove the statue earlier this year, but it remains in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park, pending a judges ruling expected later this month.

Tensions began to escalate Friday night as hundreds of white nationalists marched through the U-Va.s campus, chanting White lives matter, You will not replace us and Jews will not replace us.

They were met by counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, who founded the university. One counterprotester apparently deployed a chemical spray, which sent about a dozen rallygoers seeking medical assistance.

On Saturday morning, people in combat gear  some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs, sticks and makeshift shields  fought one another on downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants and hurled plastic bottles through the air.

A large contingent of Charlottesville police officers and Virginia State Police troopers in riot gear were stationed on side streets and at nearby barricades but did nothing to break up the melee until about 11:40 a.m. Using megaphones, police then declared an unlawful assembly and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park.

The worst part is that people got hurt and the police stood by and didnt do a g------ thing, said David Copper, 70, of Staunton, Va.

State Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, minority leader of Virginias House, praised the response by Charlottesville and state police.

Asked why police did not act sooner to intervene as violence unfolded, Toscano said he could not comment. But they trained very hard for this, and it might have been that they were waiting for a more effective time to get people out of Emancipation Park, he said.

By early afternoon, hundreds of rallygoers had made their way to a larger park two miles to the north. Duke, speaking to the crowd, said that European Americans are being ethnically cleansed within our own nation and called Saturdays events the first step toward taking America back.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer also addressed the group, urging people to disperse. But he promised they would return for a future demonstration, blaming Saturdays violence on counterprotesters.

In an interview, Spencer said he was beyond outraged the police had declared the planned rally an unlawful assembly.

I never before thought that I would have my country cracking down on me and on free speech, he said. We were lawfully and peacefully assembled. We came in peace, and the state cracked down.

He said that counterprotesters attacked rallygoers but also acknowledged that maybe someone threw a first punch on our side. Maybe that happened. I obviously didnt see everything.

By 11 a.m., several fully armed militias and hundreds of right-wing rallygoers had poured into the small downtown park that was to be the site of the rally.

Counterprotesters held Black Lives Matter signs and placards expressing support for equality and love as they faced rallygoers who waved Confederate flags and posters that said the Goyim know, referring to non-Jewish people, and the Jewish media is going down.

No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA! the counterprotesters chanted.

Too late, f-----s! a man yelled back at them.

Michael Von Kotch, a Pennsylvania resident who called himself a Nazi, said the rally made him proud to be white.

He said that hes long held white supremacist views and that Trumps election has emboldened him and the members of his own Nazi group.

We are assembled to defend our history, our heritage and to protect our race to the last man, Von Kotch said, wearing a protective helmet and sporting a wooden shield and a broken pool cue. We came here to stand up for the white race.

Naundi Cook, 23, who is black, said that she came to Saturdays counterprotests to support my people but that shes never seen something like this before.

When violence broke out, she started shaking and got goose bumps.

Ive seen people walking around with tear gas all over their face, all over their clothes. People getting Maced, fighting, she said. I didnt want to be next.

Cook said she couldnt sit back and watch white nationalists descend on her town. She has a 3-year-old daughter to stand up for, she said.

Right now, Im not sad, she said once the protests dispersed. Im a little more empowered. All these people and support, I feel like were on top right now because of all the support that we have.

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Re: Time to cool the bluster, Editorial, Aug. 10

Time to cool the bluster, Editorial, Aug. 10

The armistice ending the Korean conflict was signed on July 27, 1953. Eleven presidents have tried to placate the regime in the North by buying their compliance. The world knows that appeasement of aggressors simply does not work and never will  just ask Neville Chamberlain.

U.S. President Donald Trump was able to get a unanimous United Nations resolution for sanctions against North Korea. How often has the Security Council issued unanimous resolutions? For 64 years, the world has tried the carrot; it is now time for a real leader to use the stick.

Pat Biondi, Montreal

Loose lips sink ships. This phrase was prevalent during the Second World War when there were fears that foreign spies would glean information from conversations between citizens that would hinder the allies in the war effort.

This phrase could well be applied to the moronic outburst of U.S. President Donald Trump, which, if taken literally, could very well be a declaration of war against North Korea by the unbalanced mind of Chairman Kim Jong Un.

To illustrate just how unbalanced he is, Kim has threatened to attack Guam in retaliation for Trumps remarks.

Trump says North Korean threats will be met with fire and fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before. This is a very brash statement considering the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I hope there is someone, anyone, in Washington who can convince Trump to be more diplomatic before he starts a third world war.

Warren Dalton, Scarborough

When a president of the United States speaks about a crisis, he often reassures us that cooler heads will prevail and that hopefully the crisis can be resolved through diplomatic means.

But on Aug. 8, the opposite happened. President Donald Trump warned North Korea it would face fire and fury like the world has never seen if it threatens the United States.

He sounded more like a hothead rabble-rouser than the president of the greatest democracy on Earth. What Trump did is irresponsible, reckless and dangerous behaviour, as it only escalates tensions and dramatically increases the likelihood of military action and war.

By Trumps threatening language, North Korea may believe the U.S. is on the verge of attacking it, so it may carry out a pre-emptive attack on the U.S. or its allies.

What was said about candidate Trump was right: He just doesnt have the temperament to be president. Can he be trusted with the nuclear button?

Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Now that Donald Trump has had his King Lear fire and fury rant-on-the-heath moment, his tag-team exchange with fellow player Kim Jong Un, we can only hope that hes ready for his I am a very foolish fond old man . . . I fear I am not in my perfect mind followup.

Fat chance of him saying it, but nothing to stop us from doing so.

Geoff Rytell, Toronto

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Re: A DNA test revealed a mystery: Who was she?, Aug. 7

A DNA test revealed a mystery: Who was she?, Aug. 7

I admire Alice Plebuchs persistence in finding her roots. However, I was perplexed as to why she would suddenly think she had lost her identity when finding out that her roots were different than what she had always believed.

We put way too much emphasis on our roots. We are all Earthlings with common origins that date back millions of years. Today, we come in many different packages. The fact that one is of Irish roots or Indigenous roots changes nothing as to what you are.

I would prefer to have my identity defined by what I contribute to those around me and by the kind of person I am. If you look at the obituaries, you rarely see the deceased identified as being of certain roots. Rather they are identified by how they have lived their lives as an individual: mother/father, wife/husband, daughter/son, friend, etc. Their generosity and their accomplishments are what the survivors wish to acknowledge.

I happen to have an Irish father and a mother of Hispanic, French and German descent. I could not care less. More important is how I live my life. I hope that someday my obituary will read that I was a devoted daughter, mother and grandmother, a good wife, a good sister, an artist and a lifetime learner but, above all, that I was a caring individual.

Diane Randall, Markham

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Re: Accessibility: Less secrecy, more action, Editorial, Aug. 7

Accessibility: Less secrecy, more action, Editorial, Aug. 7

Kudos for bringing the publics attention, once again, to the vulnerability of the largest minority group in Canada: those with disabilities.

Premier Kathleen Wynne talks of social justice but that is not good enough. Individuals with disabilities need to see action. Action to enforce the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and Regulation 181 of the Education Act, which is supposed to ensure equity in access to educational services. Neither of these acts are currently being monitored and enforced, although the government receives complaints regarding their inaction on a regular basis.

Equity has been a problem in Ontario for years. Inequities can be seen in education, health services, employment, transportation, housing, etc. We should all be appalled that any government should be permitted to allow this type of discrimination to persist.

Passing a law is not nearly enough. We must have protection of human dignity and worth through enforcement.

Janis Jaffe-White, co-ordinator, and Reva Schafer, resource parent, Toronto Family Network

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Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Nell'Armonia Israel Ltd, Nell'Armonia SAS, Nell'Participation SAS, NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda, New Energy Group, News Imaging LLC, NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage Pte Ltd, Northstream, Novetta Holdings LLC, Novetta LLC, Novetta Solutions LLC, Novetta Topco LLC, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Olikka Pty Ltd, Olympus Systems Corporation, Openmind, Openmind S.r..l., Openminded, Openminded SAS, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium AG, Orbium Consulting Limited, Orbium Inc., Orbium Ltd, Orbium Pte Ltd, Orbium Pty Ltd, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PLM Systems S.r.l, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, PacificLink Group, Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production A/S, Pegasus Production K/S, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pollux Automation Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pollux Canada Inc, Pollux S.A.S., Pollux USA LLC, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Limited, Pramati Technologies Europe Limited, Pramati Technologies Private Limited, Presence of IT Workforce Management North America LLC, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Limited, Procurian Inc., Prof. Homburg GmbH, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co. Ltd., RBCP Fund 1-A Vapor Blocker LLC, RBCP Platform Vapor Blocker I LLC, REPL Consulting LLC, REPL Consulting Limited, REPL Digital Limited, REPL Group K.K., REPL Group Pty Ltd, REPL Group Worldwide Limited, REPL Pte Ltd, REPL Software Limited, REPL Technology Limited, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Root LLC, Rothco, Rothco Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Salt Solutions, Sandbox Studio LLC, Sapling Bidco Limited, Sapling Midco Limited, Sapling Topco Limited, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Search Technologies BPO Inc, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Securiview SAS, Sentelis, Sentor Managed Secuirty Services AB, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Seven Seas Business Ventures LLC, Shackleton, Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton S.L.U., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., SigInt Technologies LLC, Silveo, Silveo Consulting India Private Limited, Simian Pty Ltd, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., Sirvart S.A., Sistemes Consulting S.L., Skylink SAS, Soltians Limited, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Somers Ventures Ireland Limited, Somers Ventures LLC, Spacelink SAS, Storm Digital, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Synership LLC, Systor AG, T.A. Cook, TXF LLC, Tambourine, TargetST8, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Ltd, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Tquila, Trivadis, Trivadis AG, Trivadis Austria GmbH, Trivadis Denmark AS, Trivadis Germany GmbH, Trivadis Holding AG, Trivadis Partner AG, Trivadis Services AG, Trivadis Services SRL, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Vector Acquisition Company LLC, Vector Topco LLC, Verax Solutions, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd, Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, WaveStrike LLC, White Cliffs Consulting LLC, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wise Partners SAS, Wolox, Wolox Colombia S.A.S, Wolox LLC, Wolox Mexico S.R.L de C.V., Wolox S.A., Wolox SpA, Workforce Insight, Workforce Insight LLC, Yesler, Yesler LLC, Yesler Limited, Yesler Singapore Pte Ltd, Zag, Zag Australia Pty Ltd, Zag Limited, Zag USA LLC, Zebra Worldwide Australia Pty Ltd, Zebra Worldwide Group Limited, Zebra Worldwide Media Pty Ltd, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines Inc, Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc, Zestgroup, Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, solid-serVision.com GmbH, and umlaut.

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Trump made the statement during a press conference on the growing concerns of military action in North Korea, immediately raising the specter of United States intervening in two conflicts simultaneously, including one in our own hemisphere.

Venezuela is a mess, Trump said, adding. This is our neighbor. Were all over the world and we have troops all over the world that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering. And theyre dying.

The provocative comments come as Washington has stepped up sanctions against Venezuelan officials in recent weeks and just a day after President Nicolas Maduro said he wanted to talk to Trump to overcome both nations differences.

Trump was surrounded by several members of his cabinet, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and National Security Council Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster.

We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary, Trump said.

They were the strongest words delivered by Trump since the administration called him a dictator and froze his assets following the July 30 vote in Venezuela that will allow a new constituent assembly to change the Venezuelan constitution and strip current lawmakers of power.

More here.

Photo credit: Juan Carlos Hernandez, Associated Press
NextEra Energy, Inc. is the largest electric utility holding company in the US. It operates a network of power generation and distribution facilities that include fossil-fuel-generated and green energy. As of mid-2022, the company was capable of generating 58 GW of electricity with nearly 60% of the load produced by green sources including wind and solar. In their view, going green isnt an option, its the solution. NextEra Energy has been recognized multiple times as a leader in clean energy and ESG practices and was ranked the #1 electric and gas utility on the Forbes list of Most Admired Companies.

The company is the result of several mergers that begin with FPL Group. FPL Group is now a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and the third-largest provider of electricity in the US servicing nearly half of Florida. FPL and its affiliates are the single largest provider of renewable energy generated from wind and sun. The group changed its name in 2010 following a decision to shift focus onto renewable energy sources.

Today, NextEra Energy, Inc through its subsidiary FPL serves about 12 million people in eastern and southwestern Florida. The company employs nearly 14,900 people who service 5.8 million accounts. The company is in business to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to retail and wholesale clients. Electricity is generated through wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, and coal-fired facilities.

The company is also engaged in the construction and operation of new facilities, specifically renewable power generation, storage, and delivery facilities, and can offer custom solutions tailored to any need. Offerings include tailored services to assist businesses with their transition to clean energy.

NextEra Energy also owns and operates 7 nuclear power stations in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin generating power for the wholesale market.

Unlike other companies that are targeting net-zero emissions, NextEra Energy has a plan to reach real zero and is investing heavily to reach that goal by 2045. The company had invested nearly $50 billion in green energy infrastructure and initiatives by mid-2022. The plan is to first work on reducing its own emissions and then take its knowledge and expertise to the world.
The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. 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Duke Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Commercial Renewables. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electricity in the Carolinas, Florida, and the Midwest; and uses coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, oil, renewable generation, and nuclear fuel to generate electricity. It also engages in the wholesale of electricity to municipalities, electric cooperative utilities, and load-serving entities. This segment serves approximately 8.2 million customers in 6 states in the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States covering a service territory of approximately 91,000 square miles; and owns approximately 50,259 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity. The Gas Utilities and Infrastructure segment distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and power generation natural gas customers; and owns, operates, and invests in pipeline transmission and natural gas storage facilities. It has approximately 1.6 million customers, including 1.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as 550,000 customers in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky. The Commercial Renewables segment acquires, owns, develops, builds, and operates wind and solar renewable generation projects, including nonregulated renewable energy and energy storage services to utilities, electric cooperatives, municipalities, and corporate customers. It has 23 wind, 178 solar, and 2 battery storage facilities, as well as 71 fuel cell locations with a capacity of 3,554 MW across 22 states. The company was formerly known as Duke Energy Holding Corp. and changed its name to Duke Energy Corporation in April 2005. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brand names. As of December 31, 2021, it controlled 228,296 lots, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. In addition, the company arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for homebuyers; sells the servicing rights for the originated loans; and provides title insurance policies, and examination and closing services to homebuyers. PulteGroup, Inc. was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. and changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
ESCO Technologies Inc. produces and supplies engineered products and systems for industrial and commercial markets worldwide. It operates through Aerospace & Defense, Utility Solutions Group, and RF Shielding and Test segments. The Aerospace & Defense segment designs and manufactures filtration products, including hydraulic filter elements and fluid control devices used in commercial aerospace applications; filter mechanisms used in micro-propulsion devices for satellites; and custom designed filters for manned aircraft and submarines. It also designs, develops, and manufactures elastomeric-based signature reduction solutions for U.S. naval vessels; and mission-critical bushings, pins, sleeves, and precision-tolerance machined components for landing gear, rotor heads, engine mounts, flight controls, and actuation systems for the aerospace and defense industries. The Utility Solutions Group segment provides diagnostic testing solutions that enable electric power grid operators to assess the integrity of high-voltage power delivery equipment; and decision support tools for the renewable energy industry, primarily wind and solar. The RF Shielding and Test segment designs and manufactures RF test and secure communication facilities, acoustic test enclosures, RF and magnetically shielded rooms, RF measurement systems, and broadcast and recording studios; and RF absorptive materials and filters, active compensation systems, antennas, antenna masts, turntables, electric and magnetic probes, RF test cells, proprietary measurement software, and other test accessories to perform various tests. It also provides services, such as calibration for antennas and field probes, chamber certification, field surveys, customer training, and various product tests. The company distributes its products through a network of distributors, sales representatives, direct sales teams, and in-house sales personnel. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in hip and knee joint replacements, and trauma and extremities surgeries. This segment also offers spinal implant products comprising cervical, thoracolumbar, and interbody systems that are used in spinal injury, deformity, and degenerative therapies. The MedSurg and Neurotechnology segment offers surgical equipment and surgical navigation systems, endoscopic and communications systems, patient handling, emergency medical equipment and intensive care disposable products, reprocessed and remanufactured medical devices, and other medical device products that are used in various medical specialties. This segment also provides neurotechnology products, which include products used for minimally invasive endovascular techniques; products for brain and open skull based surgical procedures; orthobiologic and biosurgery products, such as synthetic bone grafts and vertebral augmentation products; minimally invasive products for the treatment of acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke; and craniomaxillofacial implant products, including cranial, maxillofacial, and chest wall devices, as well as dural substitutes and sealants. The company sells its products to doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities through company-owned subsidiaries and branches, as well as third-party dealers and distributors in approximately 75 countries. Stryker Corporation was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Today, by video conference: 3rd meeting of the CFTA TWGs, dedicated session on Annex A  Trade in Goods

tralac Discussion: The final Trade Remedy arrangement of the Tripartite Free Trade Area

The final legal arrangement for Trade Remedies (TRs) in the Tripartite Free Trade Area has just been concluded. The TR Annex and the Guidelines on TRs were still outstanding when the Agreement was signed. They are now available. We take a look at what is provided for, how the arrangement will function, and to what degree flexibilities have been incorporated. The negotiations for the Continental Free Trade Area are also under way. Provisions on the same disciplines must be adopted. What lessons can be learned from the TFTA? [The author: Gerhard Erasmus] [Note: tralac welcomes comments from readers]

Uganda: Cabinet approves ratification of the TFTA (The Independent)

Cabinet has approved the ratification of the EAC-COMESA-SADC FTA, paving way for the implementation of the Agreement. With Cabinet approval, Government has started the process of drafting the legal instrument that will form the basis of Ugandas implementation of the TFTA Agreement. Now that South Africa has signed the agreement and is in the process of ratifying it, we see no reason not to ratify said Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde. Kyambadde says Uganda stands to benefit greatly from the TFTA given the fact that Ugandas biggest export market is in the region, which accounts for about 56.1%, and is instrumental in the countrys drive for product and market diversification. She allayed fears from the Ministry of Finance that by Uganda opening up her borders in a Free Trade Area arrangement it would affect the revenue collection by Government, now that imports from the three regional economic blocs will be entering Uganda duty free. The focus in regional integration should not be on revenue losses, but on how to maximize the benefits that accrue from bigger market access, explained Kyambadde.

AGOA Forum 2017: selected updates

(i) Report of the African Ministerial Consultative Group (pdf). The AUC Trade and Industry Commissioner mentioned that in order to tackle the under-utilisation issue, the AUC in collaboration with UNECA, has offered to host a workshop on ways and means to maximise AGOA utilisation during the African Economic Platform scheduled for March 2018 in Mauritius. He concluded saying that we need to work on the post-2025 arrangement where we could have a US-Africa agreement rather than bilateral agreements between individual African countries and the US.

(ii) USTR Robert Lighthizer: closing statement. Africa is better positioned than ever before to sell to and buy from the United States. Since AGOA came into effect, regional real GDP has more than doubled and robust economic growth has helped reduce poverty and raise living standards across the continent. Bilateral trade that benefit both US and African exporters and service providers lies at the core of our Africa trade policy. I encourage our AGOA partners to promote fair trade, foster an improved business environment, and create economic opportunity that lays the groundwork for the next stage in the US-Africa trade relationship.

Related, from tralac: Trade in second-hand clothes  the bigger picture. This brief examines the pattern of trade in second-hand clothes using International Trade Centre Trademap, at the highly disaggregated level of HS8. This brief examines trade in this commodity at continental level, reviewing a few country-specific examples, and then concludes by considering some implications of bans on the trade in second-hand clothes. [The author: Brian Mureverwi]

SADC Summit: selected updates

(i) The Standing Committee of Senior Officials began their meetings yesterday in Pretoria. This is the first meeting in a series of proceedings leading to the 37th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government scheduled to take place on 1920 August in Pretoria under the theme: Partnering with the private sector in developing industry and value chains. The Standing Committee of Senior Officials is a technical advisory committee to the SADC Council of Ministers, and meets twice a year. It consists of one Permanent/Principal Secretary, or an official of equivalent rank from each Member State of SADC, preferably from a ministry responsible for economic planning or finance. [Media programme, pdf]

(ii) Zimbabwe and the SADC trade protocol. Addressing journalists yesterday Dr Bimha said Zimbabwe will attend the meeting with the aim to push for the amendment of clauses enshrined in the trade protocol as the country benefits less from it. We would like to see an amendment in the clauses of the protocol which will then enable us to submit our own position as per requirement of the protocol on trade. The protocol itself has certain clauses we are not happy with, for example, they say consideration can only be taken when you want to apply for derogation only when you are talking of nothing more than five products. This is not practical because we have more than five products.

(iii) Seychelles cabinet approves a Citizens Engagement Platform to undertake a national stakeholders consultation in preparation for reporting to SADC on the Regional Initiative Strategic Development Plan.

(iv) DBSA to fund SADC infrastructure. Mr Mohan Vivekanandan, a DBSA group strategy executive: DBSA aims to deliver R100bn for infrastructure development by the 2019 to 2020 period. We are targeting to invest at least 2% out of this amount into SADC infrastructure every year in the medium to long term.

Rwandas new airport to boost EAC economic integration  Kagame (New Times)

The Bugesera International Airport is an important part for Rwandas strategy for socio-economic transformation, it is key to our ambitions to grow tourism and trade, aviation, finance and ICT sector, President Kagame said. Beyond its local impact, Kagame said that the proposed facility will also an important component in boosting intra-Africa trade which currently stands at around 15 per cent, as well as strengthen economic integration in the EAC region. Mota Engil Africa has a majority stake in Bugesera Airport Company with 75% while the government has 25% stake. Bugesera Airport Company will build, own and operate the facility for 25 years before transferring it to the government.

Botswana: Article IV Consultation (IMF)

In 2015, the authorities adopted a roadmap for reforming Botswanas business environment, but progress now needs to be accelerated. For instance, important reforms such as the one government principle, reducing the excessive number of licenses and permits (which are already approved), and establishing creditors databases, still need to be implemented. Insufficient progress with these reforms has highlighted the importance of strengthening capacity, ownership, and accountability of the entities responsible for implementation. In addition, regular updates on the implementation of the reforms could be submitted to Cabinet to increase accountability. Proceeding with pending reforms and investments on the above areas will lower costs and foster private investment and employment. In particular, the following actions will be important in the period ahead:

Mozambique: Public-private pacts in poultry and cotton for economic transformation (IGC)

The two agribusiness value chains that we focused on in Mozambique  poultry and cotton  have demonstrable potential for significant expansion on a competitive basis without artificial barriers. The Mozambican poultry and cotton sectors differ in many important ways  poultry is an import-substitution sector, while cotton is export-oriented, and they have very different capacity utilisation rates. The formal slaughterhouses producing frozen chicken are operating at, or even beyond, their installed capacity. The cotton gins, on the other hand, have been operating at less than 40% capacity utilisation for lack of raw material, which increases their unit cost. Farmers achieve very low yields and are simply not producing enough cotton at the prices that can be paid by the ginning companies, considering international market conditions. The pacts, therefore, would take very different forms and reflect the nature of the specific constraints identified in each sector. [The author: Jorrit Oppewal]

Zimbabwe: Companies dodge standards certification (The Herald)

A majority of Zimbabwean firms products and systems are not certified to national or global quality standards, with only 140 out of a possible 5 000 having taken certification standards, according to the countrys national standards body. Standards Association of Zimbabwe executive director Eve Gadzikwa: We are still a long way out. My appeal is that we do have a very competent, world class standards body, however, the uptake is very slow. We did our research in terms of companies that can take up standards and we realised that there are very few companies that are doing it relative to those with the potential, Dr Gadzikwa said. Factors cited for reluctance or the slow uptake of standards by Zimbabwean companies include capacity to go through the rigorous certification process and to sustain the standards.

Beitbridge-Chirundu highway project delays could cost Zimbabwe millions of dollars (The Chronicle)

Zimbabwe stands to lose business running into millions of dollars if it doesnt quickly move to speed up the completion of the Beitbridge-Chirundu highway, said one industrialist. Shipping and forwarding agents are now relocating to Botswana as cargo movement along the route is building up slowly and steadily. Its competition at play and a healthy one for that matter. Truckers are moving cargo from South Africa to Zambia and DRC in less than four days despite the use of ferries across the Zambezi River. To move cargo across Zimbabwe to DRC for instance may take a week or more. Roadblocks, potholes and the poor state of the highway make Beitbridge-Chirundu trunk road unattractive. More than 6 000 trucks are cleared at the Beitbridge Border Post every month raking in more than $816 000 monthly to the fiscus, according to the Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe.

Trade finance: Afreximbank opens shareholding to investors with launch of depositary receipts

In a deal being arranged by SBM Group, a leader in the financial sector in Mauritius, Afreximbank is launching a $300m equity offering, using Depositary Receipts backed by its Class D shares. This represents the first time a supranational bank is issuing Depositary Receipts through an African stock exchange. For Afreximbank, the rationale for the Depositary Receipts issuance is the need to enhance its capitalization in order to significantly narrow the trade financing gap in Africa, currently estimated at $120bn annually, and to meet its strategic objective of growing intra-African trade in all regions of the continent, including island economies.

WCO supports Sudan to strengthen its Time Release Study capacities

The workshop (30 July - 3 August) brought together nearly 45 managers and executives from different functional areas of customs and related agencies. The main objective of the workshop was to enhance the internal capacity of all stakeholders concerned with import-export from all government agencies, private sector, logistics operators etc. in Sudan so that they can conduct a TRS in the country on their own and prepare a strategically targeted TRS communications product to build consensus for the much-needed coordinated border management reforms.

Ghana: Government to remove all internal customs barriers (GhanaWeb)

From 1 September, we are also removing all domestic internal customs barriers so that goods can move freely, Dr Bawumia said when members of the ECOWAS Parliament paid a courtesy call on him on Wednesday. He said the slow nature of integration is as a result of the lack of political will on the part of respective governments over the years and that is hampering trade within the sub-region. Dr Bawumia explained that the move to remove custom barriers will ensure that goods being carted from one location to another within Ghana can move freely through the country to each of the borders without being stopped at any town for Customs checks. [Ghana-Togo border open 24 hours]

Building fiscal institutions in fragile states (IMF Blog)

For countries just emerging from conflict or disaster, the IMFs technical assistance focuses on ensuring that basic tax revenues are collected, based on easy-to-collect taxes at the border, as well as a few high-yielding excise taxes, and introducing simple organizational structures and basic processes for tax and customs administration. For expenditures, the emphasis is on gaining control over the budget, including preparing and executing the annual budget and consolidating cash resources so the government can meet its immediate payment obligations. Once countries become more stable, the emphasis shifts to medium-term goals, such as improving the design of the major taxes or introducing a value-added tax, establishing large and medium-size taxpayer offices, and introducing medium-term budgeting and IT systems to support public financial management. Experience has taught us a few key lessons for countries and development partnership: [The authors: Katherine Baer, Sanjeev Gupta, Mario Pessoa]
- The NASA team was left a man down at Bomas when their deputy chief agent collapsed

- It is said that he fainted and was rushed to hospital.

- The reason for his sudden illness remains undisclosed

- Uhuru's commanding lead is enough proof the Kenyan presidential race is over even as Raila disputes results

- According to these parallel NASA results, Raila Odinga is the incoming 5th president of Kenya

- 20 Sitting governors who are set to lose their jobs as curtains close on historic election

The National Super Alliance deputy chief agent, Norman Magaya, has been hospitalised.

According to reports reaching TUKO.co.ke on Thursday, August 10, Magaya fainted and was rushed to hospital. The cause for his sudden illness remains unknown.

It is said that he was taken ill at the national tallying center set up at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi county.

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Raila Odinga visits with Norman Magaya after he was taken ill. Photo: Courtesy.

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Raila Odinga later visited Magaya at his hospital bed.

NASA has been camped out at Bomas as they continue to keenly monitor the situation following the co-leaders' claims that the incoming provisional presidential results have been manipulated.

IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati. He and the NASA brigade have been engaged in a tussle over the provisional results as NASA claims they have been manipulated. Photo: Capital FM.

READ ALSO: IEBC official dies while delivering results

NASA demanded that the IEBC stop streaming the results as they all later headed into an urgent meeting with the commission and other presidential candidates to discuss the grave matter.

Later, IEBC confirmed that someone, indeed, had hacked the systems as NASA claimed, but the person(s) was not successful.

Three of the five NASA coleaders Musalia Mudavadi, ,Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka at the last opposition rally before the election. Photo: Facebook, NASA Coalition.

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However, Wafula Chebukati said the results will be compared to those on form 34As and 34Bs from the polling stations and constituency tallying centers.

Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Uhuru Kenyatta was declared president of Kenya by the IEBC even as Raila and his NASA team protested the results on Friday, August 11

- The announcement of his victory led to mixed reactions with supporters from his stronghold in Central and Rift Valley celebrating throughout the night

- In NASA strongholds in Nairobi and Nyanza violent protests led to several people being injured as police used teargas to disperse angry youths

Uhuru finally declared president, as Raila protests vote results

NASA leaders angrily walk out of meeting with IEBC

We will not be party to Chebukati's announcement -NASA speaks ahead of presidential winner announcement

The announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as president of Kenya in the concluded general election by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has had mixed reaction across the country.

Uhuru was declared winner on Friday night, August 11 at Bomas of Kenya with the National Super Alliance (NASA) led by Raila Odinga protesting the results.

READ ALSO: Plain cloth police officers detained at NASA tallying center and TUKO.co.ke has the details

NASA supporters in running battles with police in Kondele, Kisumu. Photo: Yassin Juma Facebook.

READ ALSO: NASA gives condition to be met before conceding defeat

The news of Uhuru's victory was welcomed with joy and celebration in Central, Nairobi and Rift Valley with supporters singing and dancing throughout the night.

In parts of Nairobi and Nyanza, which are regarded as NASA strongholds, the announcement was welcomed with anger and protests.

Nyeri residents celebrate Uhuru Kenyatta's victory. Photo: Daily Nation.

In Kondele, Kisumu five people were shot and injured by the police after protests turned ugly.

Youths in Kisumu engaged police in running battles as some blocked roads with stones and bonfires forcing police to use teargas to disperse them.

In Migori, NASA supporters engaged police in running battles in Shauri Yako slums, Sofia and Makongeni estates.

READ ALSO: Jubilee used the police to rig in singer Jaguar- Steve Mbogo

Anger and joy as Uhuru Kenyatta is declared president

READ ALSO: Big win:List of women who have been elected to various posts

In Nairobi's Mathare slum, several people were reported injured after angry youths battled police though the night.

TUKO.co.ke has learnt that in Kibera protests turned ugly when youths stoned police who responded with teargas which led to screams and shouts from scared residents in the slum.

In Nairobis Buruburu and Kiambiu estates, police lobbed teargas to disperse two rival groups, one celebrating Uhuru's victory and the other protesting the announcement.

Gunshots rent the air as police engaged protesters in Siaya town, Siaya county after announcement of Uhuru's victory.

Kenyans avoid the streets of Nairobi ahead of presidential election results announcement

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Four people have been confirmed dead after President Uhuru Kenyatta's victory celebration turned tragic in Mai Mahiu, Naivasha

- The four were among a crowd of Jubilee Party supporters celebrating when two vehicles run over them

- According to reports, angry residents burnt burnt one of the vehicles after the incident

Night of ugly protests and celebrations as Uhuru Kenyatta is declared president

Uhuru finally declared president, as Raila protests vote results

Kisumu residents pour to the street 'celebrating' a Raila presidency(photos,video)

Four people have been confirmed dead after President Uhuru Kenyatta's victory celebration turned tragic on Friday night, August 11.

The four were among a large crowd of Jubilee Party supporters in Mai Mahiu, Naivasha celebrating the announcement of Uhuru as president by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

READ ALSO: NASA leaders angrily walk out of meeting with IEBC

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy Willam Ruto receive their victory certificates. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta Facebook.

READ ALSO: James Orengo wins senate seat in a landslide without campaigning

TUKO.co.ke has learnt the four died instantly when two vehicles run over them as they were celebrating on the highway.

According to sources, angry residents burnt one of the vehicles after the driver escaped the scene.

READ ALSO: Khalwale rejects results after he was floored by Oparanya

Jubilee Party supporters in Nakuru. Photo: Daily Nation.

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Uhuru was finally declared president elect bringing an end to days of uncertainty following a hotly contested race.

Uhuru was announced winner with 8, 203,290 (54.27%)votes by IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati with his strongest contender Raila Odinga of NASA trailing him with 6, 762, 224(44.74%) votes on Friday August 11,three days after the polls.

"I wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta president elect and William Ruto Deputy President elect,'' said Chebukati to a rapturous cheer by the winner's supporters. Uhuru achieved 25% of votes in 35 counties while Raila did the same in 29 counties.

Chebukati said 15,073,662 Kenyans went to the ballot representing 71.91% of total registered voters.

NASA now claims to have evidence of Raila's victory from IEBC sources

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- A section of leaders elected under NASA was teargassed in Kibra by police

- The leaders had gone to calm down NASA supporters protesting

- The leaders condemned the killing of NASA supporters by police

- They called on their supporters to be calm but be vigilant for justice

A section of leaders elected on a National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition was on Saturday, August 12, forced to flee Kibra after police lobbed teargas canisters at them when they went to speak to protesting NASA supporters.

The MPs hurriedly drove away and later held a press conference at a hotel in Nairobi where they condemned the use of force by police on protesters which has culminated to shooting.

The MPs called on their supporters to stop engaging in running battles with the police but asked them to be vigilant for justice to prevail.

NASA leaders Jonathan Mweke (right) and Otiende Amollo Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: Police shoot dead 10-year-old girl in Mathare

They also displayed spent cartridges which they said were from the shots police fired on demonstrators.

We have information that personnel from the Kenyan military were sent to NASA areas to deal with our supporters because they knew they were going to steal the election results in favour of President Uhuru and they were also fully aware of the response from our people, Oburu Odinga said.

They further condemned the killing of a girl, 10, in Mathare area by police.

As reported by TUKO.co.ke, the girl was shot on the chest while playing at their balcony.

NASA leaders Photo: Twitter/Robert Nagila

READ ALSO: Tension in Mombasa subsides as Joho is declared winner

President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner by IEBC, something that Raila Odinga supporters are not accepting.

Raila has refused to accept the outcome saying results were doctored to favour Uhuru.

He has also indicated he will not go to court to contest the results.

Raila rejects results

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Source: TUKO.co.ke
The Airports Authority has successfully carried out a simulation of a crash landing at Piarco.
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has confirmed the information about the detention of the ship crew, eleven members of which are Ukrainian citizens, by the Spanish law enforcers near the port of Almeria.

This is posted on the Ministrys Facebook page.

"The crew members were detained on the grounds of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and with the consent of the flag state. The reason for detention is the suspicion of transporting prohibited cargo," the statement reads.

As noted, the consul keeps contact with the leadership of the law enforcement agency which investigates the case.

As reported, on August 8, the Spanish authorities detained the Lady Boss, a dry cargo ship with 11 Ukrainians and two Bulgarians on board. A total of 600 bags of hashish with a total weight of 18 tons were found on board the vessel.

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Ukrainian sailors, who were detained in Spain on suspicion of drug smuggling, are being held in a detention facility in Almeria, and are in a satisfactory condition, according to a Ukrainian diplomat.

The head of the office for consular support at the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Vasyl Kyrylych, told Radio Liberty that the Ukrainian consul was in constant contact with a lawyer and Spanish law enforcement officers dealing with the case.

"The detainees have been given with a state attorney, as well as a Ukrainian-language interpreter... The detainees are in a satisfactory condition, and they don't have any complaints about the conditions of detention and sanitary-hygienic conditions. They have an opportunity to communicate with their relatives in Ukraine. According to preliminary information, the case will be transferred to the court of first instance in Madrid," Kyrylych said.

As reported, on August 8, the Spanish authorities detained the Lady Boss, a dry cargo ship with 11 Ukrainians and two Bulgarians on board. A total of 600 bags of hashish with a total weight of 18 tons were found on board the vessel.

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The Association of Women in Law Enforcement Agencies, the first one in Eastern Europe, will be created in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry wrote this on its official Facebook page.

"The Association of Women in Law Enforcement Agencies, the first one in Eastern Europe, will be established in Ukraine. Such an organization will have an impact on strengthening womens voice and providing them with opportunities to change the current system and working methods within law enforcement agencies," reads the report.

The group will operate within the implementation of the three-year Police Training Assistance Project (PTAP), Agriteam Canada Consulting Ltd, with the full support of the Interior Ministry and the participation of European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM), according to the report.

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The evacuation warning along U.S. Highway 12 near the Lolo Peak fire has been expanded to include roughly 60 more residences in the area.

On Friday evening, the Missoula County Sheriffs Office extended the evacuation warning to include homes on the north and south sides of the road from Fort Fizzle west to mile marker 20 at Bear Creek.

A red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service that will last until Sunday evening is expected to impact fires across western Montana. Firefighters expect the Lolo Peak fire will increase in intensity over the weekend with gusty conditions in the forecast.

Primary containment lines along the southwest edge of the fire have been finished, and a night shift has been added to patrol the Highway 12 area. Drivers are asked not to stop along the highway to look at the fire, as it creates a safety hazard.

Air quality should improve on Sunday after increased fire activity Saturday will put out more smoke that will settle in the Bitterroot Valley overnight.

Rice Ridge fire: Firefighters are working to strengthen containment lines, and will have additional overnight staff on hand during the red flag warning. A cold front moving into the area on Sunday will bring gusty winds and a 50 percent chance of rain.

A community meeting for the Rice Ridge fire will be held Monday at 6 p.m. at Seeley Lake Elementary. For anyone not able to attend, the meeting will also be streamed live on the Lolo National Forest Facebook page.

Sunrise fire: Firefighters are continuing burnouts on the north side of the Quartz, Cougar and Trout Creek drainages to reduce available fuel for the blaze. Engine crews are patrolling the area for new spot fires, with other firefighters securing the perimeter around homes in the area. Trout Creek Road from Magone Ranch (near Pellet Mill) southwest through the fire area was placed under a Stage III evacuation order Saturday morning, meaning residents should immediately leave, according to InciWeb. Riverbend, Lozeau, Forest Grove, Quartz Creek, Cougar Gulch, Sunrise Flats and Verde Creek are in Stage II evacuation. Residents along Diamond Match Road from the overpass and junction with Forest Road 7798 to the Magone Ranch are also in Stage II evacuation.

Meyers fire: Crews continue to make process on containment lines around the fire, with helicopters being used to douse hotspots to keep the fire from growing on priority areas near structures. Line construction will be focused on the area south of Georgetown Lake over the weekend.

There were no major developments on the Sapphire Complex or Liberty fire.
Prominent Washington correspondents discuss the back and forth rhetoric between North Korea and the United States, and Secretary of State Rex Tillersons visit to Southeast Asia along with other top stories this week. Join moderator David Rennie of the Economists, and panelists Michael Williams of CBS Radio and Tracy Wilkinson of the L.A. Times for a lively discussion on Issues in the News. Listen this Saturday and Sunday on the Voice of America!
Canada's government has partly filled in a ditch so pedestrians surging through an illegal border crossing from upstate New York into Quebec won't hurt themselves. It has set up processing tents and is hiring people to transport and feed the newcomers.

Despite those welcoming gestures, Haitian asylum-seekers can't get too comfortable, some immigration experts say.

"It's false that Canada will provide asylum for those who have been crossing at the border," said Jean-Ernest Pierre, a Haitian immigration attorney in Montreal. He said some Haitian migrants were misled by social media accounts recommending Canada as a more receptive alternative to the United States, in the midst of an immigration crackdown.

Yet many Haitians would find it difficult to qualify as a refugee in Canada and claim political asylum, Pierre told VOA. Canadian immigration law requires that claimants prove "a well-founded fear of persecution" because of, say, race, religion or political or sexual orientation. Economic hardship isn't enough.

Jean-Sebastien Boudreault, head of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers, expanded on that point.

"Some of them may not be received as refugees, might not meet the requirements of refugee claimant as stated in Canadian law," Boudreault said in an interview with CBC Radio-Canada. "... You have to have personal reasons not to be sent back."

Indeed, Canada last year dropped its ban on deportations to Haiti, Reuters news service reported, citing government data. In 2016, "50.5 percent of Haitian refugee claimants were successful, compared to about 62 percent of all claimants."

Hoping for good luck

Luckson Merilien, 30, is gambling that Canada will grant him refugee status. He and wife Marie Michele Jean, 37, recently arrived in Montreal from New York and have a September 13 hearing on their asylum bid.

"I heard that Canada was open because I got all the news on Facebook," Merilien told VOA.

The couple were among those swarming in recent months to a dead-end road near the town of Champlain in rural upstate New York. There, hundreds of people a day climb out of taxis, lugging baggage and often clutching children, to walk up to one kilometer to the Canadian border near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

"Right now, we're seeing a lot of people with Haitian citizenship who've been coming through at Roxham Road," Brad Brant, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman, told VOA in a phone interview. "On Sunday, 400 people went through." Two days later, "it was 300 and change."

IN PHOTOS: Asylum-seekers Flee US for Canada

If travelers cross the border illegally, Canadian authorities arrest and search them  and shuttle them to a growing tent city to begin processing them.

The surge in illegal border crossings into Canada corresponds with the Department of Homeland Security's announcement in May that it would extend a humanitarian program for Haitians until January, not for a longer period sought by Port-au-Prince. The Obama administration had offered temporary protected status (TPS) to more than 50,000 Haitians displaced by a massive 2010 earthquake, extending it several times. TPS gives registrants the opportunity to obtain work permits.

Haiti's minister of foreign affairs told VOA that "ongoing negotiations between Haitian and U.S. authorities" offered hope of a TPS extension beyond January. "The possibility is still there," Antonio Rodrigue said in a phone call Thursday after traveling to Quebec to meet with Haitians and local government officials.

This week, Canada's military was completing construction of a 500-bed tent camp at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. Montreal's Olympic Stadium already is providing temporary housing for newcomers, and more are coming. As of Friday, roughly 700 people were at the border awaiting processing, which takes up to three days, Haiti's Le National website reported, citing the Canada Border Services Agency.

'In the hands of God'

The Haitian couple, Merilien and Jean, have found temporary housing in a property owned by a Haitian transplant.

They had taken a circuitous route stretching back several years. They first went to Brazil, in 2014. Merilien worked as a construction foreman for two years before jobs dried up. It took the couple four months to reach California. After 12 days at an immigration detention facility, they received temporary status and headed to New York.

Jean, who is trained as a secretary, told VOA she did not get a work permit and so couldn't afford an attorney to help them seek permanent status. "I had a lot of court appointments," Jean said, adding that she also received a paper with the word "deportation" on it.

Merilien said he'd heard of other Haitians who, "when they go to court, immigration officials seize them to deport them ultimately. I would not want that to happen to me."

So they left. His wife, asked whether she would willingly return to the United States or Haiti, said, "I don't know. I can't decide. All that is in the hands of God."

'Not a crime'

The U.S. Border Patrol's Brant points out that "it is not a crime in the U.S. to enter Canada illegally" so his agency doesn't try to stop northbound migrants. But, it "is concerned about securing the U.S. border and preventing people from entering the U.S." without legal documentation and outside legal crossings.

The 300 agents in the Border Patrol's Swanton sector are responsible for 475 kilometers of border, Brant said, "so it's very difficult for us to apply any manpower and look for people that we could remove."

Brant said the Border Patrol and its Canadian counterpart routinely share information, so each can help the other intercept lawbreakers. But, he added, the increase in migrants might be overwhelming the Canadians. "I don't know if it is harming our security, because they can't perform that partnership for us."

VOA's Carol Guensburg, Jacquelin Belizaire, Jean-Pierre Leroy and Serge Rodriguez contributed to this report.
As the White House reviews its policy in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a proposal to privatize a large portion of the U.S. war there. The plan is being pushed by Erik Prince, who founded of the controversial Blackwater private military company. As VOA's Bill Gallo reports, although the plan has been criticized in Kabul and Washington, Prince is optimistic about getting enough support to move forward.
Thunderstorms lashed Beijing on Saturday, disrupting hundreds of flights at one of the worlds largest airports, while authorities warned that rain and wind could cause landslides in the area where a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck this week.

Beijing city authorities issued a weather alert Saturday morning, warning that lightning, hail, wind and as much as 70 mm of rain would hit the city, potentially causing flash floods in mountainous areas.

Beijing Capital International Airport urged travelers, in a statement on its website, to check for updates on their flights into and out of the city.

Almost 500 flights were listed as canceled from 9 a.m. until midnight and 182 were delayed at Chinas busiest airport, the website showed.

Air China Ltd said on its Weibo social media account that 137 of its flights in and out of the capital had been canceled as of 11 a.m. (0300 GMT).

Torrential rainstorms are fairly frequent in Beijing in the summer months, often causing long delays at the airport.

Landslide alert

In a statement, Chinas National Meteorological Center cautioned rescue crews working in Jiuzhaigou, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, to be on alert for landslides and lightning.

Heavy rain was expected across southeastern China Saturday, it said.

The extreme weather came after a tornado struck Inner Mongolia Friday, killing five people, injuring more than 50 and destroying homes in a major city.
An oxygen shortage in a children's ward at a northern Indian hospital is reported to have resulted in the deaths of scores of children in recent days.

The death toll, according to parents and various national and local ministers, ranges from at least 35 children to more than 60 since August 7.

An investigation is underway at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur city in Uttar Pradesh.

District Magistrate Rajiv Rautela said Saturday the deaths were due to natural causes and denied that the hospital was out of oxygen.

Prashant Tivedi, the state's top health minister told the Associated Press there was a problem with the pipeline that supplies oxygen, but the hospital had sufficient oxygen cylinders for its patients.

Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari has called for the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh. There are clearly two dimensions to it, that of criminal culpability of all those who are responsible -- the hospital administration, the oxygen supplier and the district administration which is supposed to exercise superintendence over the hospital and the other is the moral responsibility of the chief minister.

Tiwari said the chief minister and the health minister should resign immediately.
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Vice President Mike Pence will leave Sunday on a six-day trip to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama. Pence's fourth overseas journey comes as many key U.S. diplomatic positions remain unfilled in the Trump administration's State Department, elevating Pence's role as one of the country's key representatives abroad. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince's controversial proposal to privatize a large portion of the U.S. war in Afghanistan is being met with growing opposition in Kabul and Washington.

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering the proposal as part of his monthslong review of the war in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is locked in a stalemate with the Taliban after 16 years of fighting.

Prince touts the plan as a cost-effective way to turn the war around. Under the proposal, about 5,000 contractors would replace U.S. troops currently advising Afghan forces. They'd be backed by a 90-plane private air force. The contractors would operate under Afghan control, Prince said.

"This is very much under the authority of the central government and the control of the chief of staff of the Afghan armed forces. This is not a local militia that's going to be raised," Prince said in an interview with VOA's Afghan service.

Unaccountable

But a growing number of prominent Afghans fear that Prince's for-profit, private military would be unaccountable and say the move risks a repeat of the atrocities carried out by Blackwater guards in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2000s.

Afghanistan's government has not yet officially responded to the proposal. But a senior Afghan defense official told VOA, "The plan has legal problems and raises questions about our mutual security agreements with the U.S."

The Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the proposal, specifically cited the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement, which went into effect in 2012, and the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which the U.S. and Afghanistan signed in 2014 during the first few months of President Ashraf Ghani's tenure as leader of Afghanistan.

His predecessor, President Hamid Karzai, had refused to sign the agreement, even after a traditional Loya Jirga (grand council) approved it.

Any amendment to the BSA in the face of the proposed plan to privatize the war could potentially call for another Loya Jirga, and that could further complicate an already complex situation in the country.

Stalemate

There are about 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Most are in noncombat roles, aimed at training and advising Afghan forces, since U.S.-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in 2014.

But since taking over security control of the country, the Afghan military has been losing ground to the Taliban. The Kabul government now controls just over half of the country. Top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, now concede the U.S. is not winning the war.

The war is also expensive. The U.S. is expected to spend about $45 billion on Afghanistan this year alone.

"The United States, right now, is spending more than the entire U.K. defense budget, just in Afghanistan. And the U.S. can't continue that forever," said Prince, who claims to be able to do the job for less than $10 billion a year.

Prince's plan

Under Prince's proposal, the U.S. war would be coordinated by a "viceroy," who would consolidate what Prince calls Washington's "very chaotic and disorganized" approach to the country.

The 5,000 contractors would attach to Afghan military units and would "live with, train with and fight alongside them, when necessary," Prince said. They would report to Afghanistan's government, he added.

"These would be contracted professionals attached to the Afghan army. So even by United Nations definitions, those are not mercenaries. They would be attached to and serving with the Afghan forces," he said.

Prince also proposes a "big increase" in air support. The 90 planes in his private air force "would be badged as Afghan aircraft, with Afghan call signs, with an Afghan on board, and Afghans making the weapons release decisions," he said.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL, said he also wants to keep about 2,000 U.S. special forces in the country to "maintain a unilateral ability to go after terrorist targets."

Pushback

But Prince's plan faces an uphill battle.

Trump has said he is open to new ideas in Afghanistan. But if he decides to embrace Prince's plan, he may have to override top U.S. military leaders, who are said to dislike the proposal.

A wide range of Afghans are also skeptical. Former Afghan President Karzai said via Twitter he "vehemently" opposed the plan, calling it a "blatant violation" of Afghanistan's national sovereignty.

Rahmatullah Nabil, Afghanistan's former spy chief, said the plan would result in more civilian anger that would only help Taliban recruitment.

Hameem Talwar, a 28-year-old from the northeast province of Kunar, told VOA he feared the move would result in more civilian casualties.

"People will rise up against them, and the war will become longer and will provide an excuse for the Americans to stay even longer," Talwar said.

Thomas Johnson, who specializes in Afghanistan and national security issues at the Naval Postgraduate School, said, "This has to be one of the most insane, dangerous proposals I have ever heard.

"This would basically be a foreign mercenary force that couldn't speak the languages, would wear ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] uniforms, and would basically employ deadly military force outside the standard Law of Armed Conflict controls," Johnson said.

"It would represent one of our greatest abominations of military and international responsibilities in our history," he added.

Legal risks

Handing so many war responsibilities to private contractors could also make the U.S. more vulnerable to lawsuits, said Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University who studies the privatization of foreign affairs.

"If things go wrong, the United States could be on the hook legally for their actions," Dickinson said. "And we know from past experiences that without adequate planning, when you have a massive influx of contractors, things do go wrong."

Dickinson pointed to a 2007 incident in which four Blackwater guards were accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. A similar incident in 2010 in Kabul resulted in the deaths of two Afghan civilians.

Though Prince sold Blackwater in 2010 and now owns a Hong Kong-based company that would carry out the Afghanistan proposal, incidents like that could complicate his proposal.

Decision soon

Trump has indicated he is nearing a decision on Afghanistan. In addition to Prince's proposals, his options include boosting the U.S. troop presence there, or removing them entirely.

"We're getting very close," Trump said Thursday. "It's a very big decision for me. I took over a mess, and we're going to make it a lot less messy."
There's no doubt Antarctica is getting warmer. Not only is the ice melting, but native moss covers more of the frozen continent and it's growing faster, according to British researchers. For people who live on the coasts, it means there will likely be more unwelcome water in their future. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports.
Fighting flared this week in South Sudan's northeastern Upper Nile state despite government forces' capture of a key rebel headquarters.

The clashes indicated there was no end in sight to the four-year civil conflict.

The most recent violence took place over control of the town of Pagak on the Ethiopian border, which had served as the rebels' main base since early 2014.

Government forces captured Pagak last week after launching an offensive in early July, but rebel spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said his side took the town back Friday morning after attacking government troops.

"At about 7, we launched an attack on government in Pagak. We dislodged them from Pagak, so we are in full control of Pagak from 10 a.m.," he told VOA.

The government's original capture of Pagak was a devastating blow for the rebels, who had controlled the border town since South Sudan's civil war started in December 2013.

The loss of Pagak was the latest in a series of defeats for the rebels in the northeast over the past year, yet the fact that they were able to fight back showed the conflict was far from over. Though the government holds major towns in the northeast, the insurgents maintain control of much of the rural areas.

'We are strong'

"This is a clear sign that if we are pushed to a corner, we will also push back," Gabriel said. "They took Pagak from us, and now we took it back. We are saying the same with any other places now. We are strong."

A spokesman for government forces, Dickson Gatluak, confirmed there was fighting in Pagak, but he denied that the rebels took control of the town.

"In the morning our defensive lines came under heavy fire from the anti-peace elements. We actually engaged them, and after a fierce battle our forces managed to strike back in self-defense and we repulsed them," he said.

The government's offensive on Pagak drew criticism from Western nations for breaking a cease-fire declared in May by President Salva Kiir, whose forces are fighting rebels led by former Vice President Riek Machar.

Dozens of foreign aid workers evacuated the Pagak area as government troops closed in.

But Gatluak said the offensive was necessary to bring government services to the people, including health care and education, which had been largely cut off from rebel areas.

He said civilians had welcomed the arrival of government troops, and that some civilians had returned to the town following the government takeover.

"The civilians in Pagak have been held hostage for almost four years since the conflict erupted," Gatluak said. "It was their call for the government to be on the ground to provide the services."

'The sound was terrible'

But South Sudanese aid worker Sarah Nyanath, who was living in Pagak, said she was among tens of thousands of civilians who fled from the government offensive into Ethiopia, rather than welcome the soldiers.

"The government is lying that it is being received [by the people]," she said. "They are not liberating the area. They are terrorizing the area."

Nyanath, speaking from Ethiopia where she is now a refugee, said two children drowned while fleeing across a river to Ethiopia to escape the fighting.

She said "the sound was terrible" as the army shelled the area. "They were doing it in the night. You can see actually when these rockets are opening up. You can see the lights when these things are bursting out. When it hit the ground, it actually shook the ground  you can see the ground vibrating. It is so, so, so scary."

As South Sudan's war churns on, it is likely that even more civilians like Nyanath will be forced to run.
WEST GLACIER  Fire conditions at Glacier National Park improved Friday afternoon.

After a fly-over, the size of the largest fire burning in the park was reduced from an estimated 80 acres to 10 acres.

Helicopters were used to drop water and insert firefighters on the Sprague Fire with the promise of additional resources on the way.

The detection flight confirmed that three fires were started from a thunderstorm that produced about 150 strikes in the McDonald Lake area Thursday night.

The Rogers Fire was estimated at 2 acres, but it wasnt producing much smoke at all when the air crew flew over it at midday. A new start detected near Howe Lake was estimated at about a tenth of an acre.

Fire conditions in the park are rated extreme. Fire managers expect the hot and dry conditions to last at least through the weekend. They could be exacerbated by a red flag warning, which has been issued for western Montana Saturday.

Glacier Park officials closed Sperry Chalet when the Sprague Fire appeared to threaten the main trail into the popular tourist attraction.

Guests were told they would either have to hike out via the Gunsight Pass Trail or remain in place while the Sprague Fire was being assessed. People with reservations for Friday night will not be able to access the chalet. The chalet is not in immediate danger.

Glacier also closed a number of trails, including the Apgar Lookout Trail, Howe Ridge Trail, Camas Trail, Trout Lake Trail, the Sperry Trail from Lake McDonald to Sperry Chalet (including all secondary trails such as the Snyder Trail), Johns Lake Trail, and Lincoln Lake Trail.

Backcountry trails in those areas are closed and users are being escorted out. Backcountry campgrounds affected by the closures include Arrow, Camas, Snyder, Sperry, and Lincoln campgrounds.

All of those closures remained in place late Friday afternoon.

Other backcountry areas in the park are open to day use, but no new overnight backcountry permits were issued Friday as a precaution while the park searches for other new fires potentially started by Thursdays storm.

Most backcountry areas in the park remain open, including areas in the North Fork that had been closed earlier this week after initial attack efforts on about eight fires started by a storm earlier this week were successful in either containing or putting out the blazes.

On Thursday, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group made the decision to place the country on its highest level for preparedness.

Preparedness Level 5 means that nearly all firefighting suppression resources and people are committed.

In an Aug. 16 memo, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said the decision to move to the highest level of preparedness reflects the complexity of fires facing firefighters.

There are currently more than 15,000 interagency firefighting personnel deployed in 10 geographic areas, Zinke wrote. Based on this level of wildfire activity, and to meet existing challenges, I am asking that all DOI supervisors make all qualified personnel immediately available for assignments.

"If your employees are red carded and available to assist in any capacity, their first priority should be response to fire incidents.

For those not qualified for assignments, Zinke said those employees should provide backup for those accepting fire assignments.

Montana is currently in the bulls-eye of fire activity in the country.

There are 12 large fires burning the state. Three Type 1 and six Type 2 teams are assigned to manage many of the nearly 4,000 firefighting personnel working on wildfires in Montana.

The evacuation warning for the Lolo Peak fire was expanded Friday afternoon to include both the north and south sides of Highway 12 near Lolo between mile post 20 at Bear Creek to Fort Fizzle.

The expansion was due to the weekend's impending Red Flag warning. This is not an evacuation order, but a warning that evacuations may be needed.

Glacier National Park visitors should check the parks trail status page for the most current closure information: nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/trailstatusreports.htm.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that U.S. diplomats in Havana had been the victims of "health attacks" that left them with hearing loss  the most definitive U.S. statement yet on a series of mysterious incidents that have puzzled longtime observers of U.S.-Cuban relations.

His comments came two days after the State Department issued a vaguely worded statement saying there had been "incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms." U.S. officials later revealed that American diplomats had suffered unexplained losses of hearing, and on Thursday Canada's government said at least one Canadian diplomat in Cuba also had been treated for hearing loss.

"We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks on not just our diplomats but, as you've seen now, there are other cases with other diplomats involved," Tillerson said in Bedminster, N.J., where President Donald Trump and members of his administration spoke to reporters.

In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the case. Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, the officials said.

The officials told The Associated Press that the hearing loss appeared to have been caused by the deliberate use of some sort of sonic device operating outside the range of audible sound.

Doesn't make sense

Former diplomats and students of U.S.-Cuba relations said they found it inexplicable that Cuba would have tried to harm U.S. and Canadian diplomats, particularly in the fall of 2016 as President Barack Obama was ending a second term marked partly by the reopening of diplomatic relations with the island.

U.S. officials familiar with the incidents said they began to be reported last October, when most domestic and foreign observers expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and continue Obama's policy of normalization with Cuba.

Attacking Canadian diplomats would be an inexplicable assault on one of Cuba's most important trading partners and the largest source of tourists to the island.

"There'd be no logic to the Cubans trying to deliberately harm U.S. or Canadian diplomats," said William LeoGrande, an American University expert on Cuban foreign policy. "It'd really be unprecedented."

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement Wednesday that "Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception."

Former U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they had been targets of low-level harassment and intimidation by Cuban agents in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, incidents that included attacks on diplomats' pets and intimidating maneuvers like tailgating and flashing bright lights into diplomats' cars as they drove with their families late at night.

"There were things like turning off your electricity, turning off your water, entering your home, leaving little reminders that they were there. Things would be out of place," said John Caulfield, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2011 to 2014.

In addition to harassment, Caulfield said, U.S. diplomats in Cuba are under 24-hour surveillance during their assignments.

"Nobody does anything in Cuba without them knowing," Caulfield said.

A U.S. official said some American diplomats in Cuba had come home to find that someone had used their toilet and not flushed it, in what was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to disgust and unnerve. The official served at the then-interests section in Cuba in the 2000s and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because of the possibility of a return to Havana.

Messages from government

The State Department's inspector general wrote in a 2007 report that "life in Havana is life with a government that 'lets you know it's hostile.' Retaliations have ranged from the petty to the poisoning of family pets."

"All employees are fully aware that host government hostility extends to an elaborate, aggressive intelligence apparatus," the report said.

Caulfield said aggressive tactics largely stopped by late 2013 and 2014 as U.S. and Cuban officials secretly negotiated the diplomatic reopening announced in December 2014, after his departure from Havana.

He said he believed the likeliest explanation for the diplomats' mysterious deafness was "a new surveillance technique gone bad that had consequences. I do not believe they would randomly cause harm to this variety of people."

A former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, James Bartleman, said that during his 1981-83 tour in Havana, he and his staff were targets of a string of mysterious attacks.

"One morning in 1982 the butler came to say that our dog had been poisoned and was very sick and dying," Bartleman said. "My deputy ambassador called to say someone had poisoned his dog and his dog was dead. Then the head of the commercial section called to say that 'out of the blue we opened the door and a rat was nailed to it.' "

Bartleman said he complained to the then-head of the Americas section of Cuba's foreign ministry, whom he quoted as saying: "Someone is trying to harm Canada-Cuba relations."

He said the Cuban government sent a veterinarian to his house, but he sent his dog back to Canada, where it died six months later.

"We were their bosom buddies back then," Bartleman said of Canadian-Cuban relations. "We were their largest trading partner and always their largest provider of tourists. Why would they do it? It made no sense then and makes no sense now."
State media in the United Arab Emirates say four UAE soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in Yemen.

WAM news agency reported early Saturday that the soldiers were participating in a Saudi-led campaign targeting Shiite rebels in Yemen.

WAM said the helicopter crash happened in Yemens southern Shabwa province where U.S. airstrikes have targeted Yemens local al-Qaida branch.

The Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from the air and on the ground.

The rebels seized Sanaa in 2015, forcing the internationally recognized Yemeni government into exile to Saudi Arabia before it returned to the Yemeni port of Aden.

U.N. officials said recently 80 percent of Yemens population is in desperate need of food, clean water and medical care. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,700 people since April with more than 320,000 suspected cases.
The United States has asked Iraqs Kurds to postpone a referendum on the independence of their autonomous Kurdish region, planned for Sept. 25, the Kurdish presidency said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the request Friday, during a phone call with the president of Iraqs Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani.

The U.S. State Department said in June it was concerned that the referendum will distract from more urgent priorities such as the defeat of Islamic State militants.

On the issue of the postponement of the referendum, the President (Barzani) stated that the people of the Kurdistan Region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future, said the statement issued by the Kurdish presidency after Tillersons call, giving no further details on the Kurdish leaders reaction to the U.S. request.

The United States and other Western nations are concerned that the vote could turn into another regional flashpoint.

Turkey, Iran and Syria, which together with Iraq have sizable Kurdish populations, all oppose an independent Kurdistan.
News feed

Expanding: Measure, a D.C.-based provider of drone services, has acquired the engineering and equipment sales capabilities of Pilatus Unmanned. Josh Kornoff, chief executive of Pilatus Unmanned, will head Measures engineering team in Huntington Beach, Calif. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Acquisition: The consultancy Accenture has purchased Herndon-based Search Technologies, a company that specializes in designing and managing big data capabilities and search analytics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Teaming up: Bethesda-based Marriott International has formed a joint venture with the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba to make it easier for Chinese travelers to book rooms at Marriott-branded hotels.

the buzz

Our economic crystal ball is that we are not looking at a cliff here. We are not looking at recession.

Ross H. Bierkan, chief executive of Bethesda-based hotel owner RLJ Lodging Trust, offering his outlook for business in the coming year during a recent conference call with analysts.
RETAIL

J.C. Penney same-store sales decline again

Sales at established J.C. Penney stores faded again during its most recent quarter, capping a gloomy week for U.S. retailers.

J.C. Penneys stock sunk below $4 Friday morning, an all-time low for the 115-year-old retailer.

Another quarter of falling same-store sales from J.C. Penney come a day after similar reports from Macys, Kohls and Dillards, as people increasingly avoid malls and shop online or at discount retailers. Nordstrom stood alone, reporting that its same-store sales rose in the most recent quarter, when it held its annual anniversary sale.

At established J.C. Penney stores, sales fell 1.3 percent during the second quarter. It was the fourth straight quarter of declines for the department store, and it was worse than the 1.2 percent drop that Wall Street analysts expected, according to financial analytics providers FactSet.

J.C. Penney said its results were hurt by the closing of about 130 stores during the quarter.

J.C. Penney, which has about 875 stores left, is making a number of moves to try to reverse its fortunes. The company, which started to sell appliances again last year, said it signed a new deal to sell Electrolux and Frigidaire products. Ellison said he wasnt concerned about Amazons plans to sell Kenmore appliances on its site, a deal Sears announced last month.

 Associated Press

FOOD

E.U. to meet on egg contamination

The European Union said Friday that it plans to hold an extraordinary meeting next month over a growing tainted egg scandal as it revealed that products contaminated with an insecticide have now spread to 17 countries.

Millions of eggs have been destroyed or pulled from supermarket shelves since July 20, when it was made public that the pesticide Fipronil, which is dangerous to human health, was found mixed with the treatment Dega 16, which is sprayed on chickens for ticks, fleas and lice.

The scandal has caused major political fallout, with Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany arguing over who is to blame, and who knew what and when. Poultry farmers have been hit the hardest and are blaming the chemical industry for compromising their business.

 Associated Press

Also in Business

Plaintiffs suing General Motors over faulty ignition switches and other alleged vehicle defects have reached a $1 billion settlement requiring the automaker to turn over that amount of stock, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a court hearing on Friday. GM lawyer Richard Godfrey strongly criticized the agreement, saying the company was given no say in the deal negotiated between the plaintiffs and a trust set up for creditors of Old GM.

Netflix is in active discussions with Walt Disney about keeping Marvel and Star Wars films after 2019 when new Disney and Pixar movies will stop appearing on the streaming service, a senior Netflix executive said Thursday. Disney announced Tuesday that it was pulling new films from Netflix starting in 2019 and will put the movies on a Disney-branded online service.

Consumer prices posted a slight gain in July, with higher costs for medical care and clothing offsetting declines for hotel stays and consumer cellphone plans. The Labor Department said Friday that its consumer price index edged up 0.1 percent after no gain in June and a 0.1 percent fall in May.

 From news services
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit last month in Hamburg. (Saul Loeb/AP)

The Trump administration announced Saturday that it is planning to launch an investigation into Chinese intellectual property violations that could result in severe trade penalties, an escalation that presents both opportunities and risks at a time when the United States needs Chinas help to contain the North Korean nuclear threat.

The president plans to sign an executive memorandum Monday afternoon, directing his top trade negotiator to determine whether to investigate China for harming intellectual property, innovation and technology, senior administration officials said in a conference call Saturday morning.

The measure would seek to address what the U.S. business community has described as flagrant trade violations by China, which employs a variety of rules and practices to wall its market off from foreign competition and pressure U.S. companies to part with valuable product designs and trade secrets  or to steal them outright.

The investigation, which one U.S. official said could take as long as a year, may prove to be a source of leverage to push China to do more to help contain a rising security threat from North Korea, which counts Beijing as its only powerful ally.

At the same time, it could alienate Chinas leadership, which is urging the Trump administration to limit its confrontational language as it faces off against the regime in Pyongyang.

The relationship could spiral out of control, particularly if the movement on the trade front is combined with growing tensions over how to respond to North Korea, said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The announcement followed a call Friday night between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. During that call, Trump and Xi agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior and reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, according to a White House statement.

Xi urged President Trump to exercise restraint over tensions with North Korea during a phone call, Chinese state media reported. Xi urged both sides not to do anything that would aggravate tensions. Dialogue, negotiations and a political settlement are the fundamental ways of solving the Korean Peninsulas nuclear issue, Xi said during the call, according to Chinas CGTN state television network.

The Chinese leader expressed Beijings willingness to maintain communication with the U.S. to appropriately resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the network reported. Xi stressed that China and the U.S. share the same interests on the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

On Saturday, administration officials said the new trade measure was totally unrelated to events involving North Korea.

They added that the trade measure would be carried out under the rules of international law and would not trigger greater conflict with China.

But trade and national security experts widely noted that the announcement appeared to have been delayed until after China joined the United States in voting for sanctions against North Korea at a United Nations Security Council session on Aug. 5.

When asked about the delay during the Saturday call, the officials did not address the question directly. They said that U.S. companies had long suffered because of Chinese intellectual property violations, and that they expected Congress and the business community to support the measure.

If Americans continue to have their best technology and intellectual property stolen, or forcibly transferred offshore, the United States will find it difficult to maintain its current technology-leadership position and to remain one of the worlds most innovative economies. This is why the president has chosen to act now and to act boldly, one administration official said.

Michael Wessel, a commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, called the measure a critical action, and long overdue.

Chinas been engaged in the theft and forced transfer of U.S. technologies and intellectual property for years. Those activities havent abated; theyve accelerated as China seeks to become self-sufficient in new technologies and dominate world markets, he said.

If the investigation finds that China is harming U.S. companies, the Trump administration could respond by imposing tariffs, negotiating an agreement with China or other measures, the officials said.

The administration probably is eager to make progress on trade, one of Trumps biggest campaign issues, after a recent series of legislative setbacks, trade experts said. While Trump officially withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Obama-era trade deal, and will begin talks next week to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, other planned trade measures have been slow to materialize.

The results of three separate investigations into trade deficits and the national security threats posed by imports of steel and aluminum, initially expected by the end of June, have yet to appear. Meanwhile, 100 days of trade talks with the Chinese carried out in past months resulted in a few trade gains but not the ambitious changes the administration had hoped for.

Trade experts and business leaders said the new investigation into intellectual property could be a sign that the trade agenda is shifting into the hands of a respected negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, who during the Reagan administration helped implement some of the most protectionist trade policies of recent decades.

Like the president, Lighthizer has criticized multilateral venues such as the World Trade Organization for failing to provide adequate tools to address Chinas economic violations. Instead, he is leading the administration in dusting off a variety of powerful and unilateral measures under U.S. trade law, many of which the United States stopped using after the creation of the WTO, which has its own mechanisms to settle trade disputes.

The United States has previously complained at the WTO about Chinese trade policies, including its Made in China 2025 initiative, which seeks to have Chinese-made materials account for 70 percent of manufacturing inputs within the next eight years. That initiative sets forth a long-term plan for Chinas dominance in a wide variety of high-tech industries, including electric vehicles, advanced medical products and robotics.

Denyer reported from Beijing. Anna Fifeld in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Business

Walt Disney Co. announced a move to bolster its subscription and streaming empire as it plans to end its relationship with Netflix and ramp up its online ESPN offerings. Disney said no new releases will be available on Netflix after 2019. Instead, Disney will launch its own video streaming service for consumers to directly access the companys movies and shows. To help its cause, Disney announced it was buying a majority ownership in BAMTech, a video-streaming company, for more than $1.5 billion.

Netflix said later that it is in active discussions with Walt Disney about keeping Marvel and Star Wars films after 2019.

Googles chief executive, Sundar Pichai, canceled an all-hands meeting after employees expressed concerns about their safety. Google was expected to address the controversy surrounding a divisive memo written by a Google engineer that was made public, in which he suggested that innate, biological factors are part of the reason for the gender gap in the tech industry and that Google should stop alienating conservatives. The engineer, James Damore, was fired for violating Googles code of conduct.

Uber Technologies backer Benchmark Capital filed a lawsuit against the start-ups founder Travis Kalanick for using allegedly fraudulent means to pack the board with his loyalists. At the heart of the Benchmark lawsuit is a provision that venture capitalists say is highly unusual. It allowed the Uber founder to personally appoint three members to Ubers eight-seat board, effectively letting him slant the board his way after he resigned.

Tesla increased its debut bond deal to $1.8 billion as it seeks to finance production of the Model 3 that the electric-car maker has staked its future on. The eight-year bonds reportedly will have a yield of 5.3 percent. The sale is private. General Electric will close its manufacturing facility in Rochester, N.Y., next June, and the work will be moved to China, the company said.

J.C. Penney followed Macys and Kohls in reporting declining sales in the second quarter, sending its shares down 16 percent Friday.

Oprah Winfrey has teamed up with food giant Kraft Heinz to launch a line after creating a joint venture earlier this year. The new brand, called O, Thats Good!, will offer comfort foods with added vegetables, such as mashed potatoes with cauliflower mixed in.

Consumer Reports is withdrawing its recommendation for four new Microsoft laptops and tablets after a survey showed that one-quarter of the companys older Surface devices posed problems for their owners after only two years.
Chaos and violence turned to tragedy Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members  planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to take America back  clashed with counterprotesters in the streets and a car plowed into crowds, leaving one person dead and 19 others injured.

Hours later, two state police officers died when their helicopter crashed at the outskirts of town. Officials identified them as Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va., who was the pilot, and H. Jay Cullen of Midlothian, Va., who was a passenger. State police said their Bell 407 helicopter was assisting with the unrest in Charlottesville. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday; Cullen was 48.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who had declared a state of emergency, said at an evening news conference that he had a message for all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.

Maurice Jones, Charlottesvilles city manager, looked stricken as he spoke. Hate came to our town today in a way that we had feared but we had never really let ourselves imagine would, he said.

State and local officials declined to take reporters questions.

1 of 52 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Tensions rise as white nationalists hold a rally in Charlottesville, Va. View Photos White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a rally after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown. Caption White nationalists, met by counterprotesters, held a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville after torch-bearing protesters marched through the University of Virginia campus the night before. During the rally, a vehicle plowed into a crowd marching peacefully through downtown Charlottesville. Aug. 12, 2017 A white nationalist and a counterprotester face off. Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

In an emergency meeting Saturday evening, the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to give police the power to enact a curfew or otherwise restrict assembly to protect public safety.

Video recorded at the scene of the car crash shows a 2010 gray Dodge Challenger accelerating into crowds on a pedestrian mall, sending bodies flying  and then reversing at high speed, hitting yet more people. Witnesses said the street was filled with people opposed to the white nationalists who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and anti-Semitic epithets.

A 32-year-old woman was killed, according to police, who said they were investigating the crash as a criminal homicide.

The driver of the Challenger, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit-and-run attended failure to stop with injury, police said. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer said. Three other men were arrested in connection with violence earlier in the day.

The FBI field office in Richmond and the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Western District of Virginia said late Saturday they have opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car crash.

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.

Records show Fields last lived in Maumee, Ohio, about 15 miles southwest of Toledo.





Fieldss father was killed by a drunk driver a few months before the boys birth, according to an uncle who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His father left him money that the uncle kept in a trust until Fields reached adulthood.

When he turned 18, he demanded his money, and that was the last I had any contact with him, the uncle said.

Fields, he said, grew up mostly in Northern Kentucky, where hed been raised by a single mother who was a paraplegic. The uncle, who saw Fields mostly at family gatherings, described his nephew as not really friendly, more subdued.

Angela Taylor, a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center, said 19 others were brought to the hospital in the early afternoon after the car barreled through the pedestrian mall. Five were in critical condition as of Saturday evening. Another 14 people were hurt in street brawls, city officials said.

Earlier, police evacuated a downtown park as rallygoers and counterprotesters traded blows and hurled bottles and chemical irritants at one another, putting an end to the noon rally before it officially began.

Despite the decision to quash the rally, clashes continued on side streets and throughout downtown, including the pedestrian mall at Water and Fourth streets where the Challenger slammed into counterprotesters and two other cars in the early afternoon, sending bystanders running and screaming.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer (D) said in a tweet. I urge all people of good will  go home.

Elected leaders in Virginia and elsewhere urged peace, blasting the white supremacist views on display in Charlottesville as ugly.

But President Trump, known for his rapid-fire tweets, remained silent throughout the morning. It was after 1 p.m. when he weighed in, writing on Twitter: We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

In brief remarks at a late-afternoon news conference in New Jersey to discuss veterans health care, Trump said he was following the events in Charlottesville closely. The hate and the division must stop and must stop right now, Trump said, without specifically mentioning white nationalists or their views. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a Trump supporter who was in Charlottesville on Saturday, quickly replied. I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists, he wrote.

Asked by a reporter in New Jersey whether he wanted the support of white nationalists, dozens of whom wore red Make America Great Again hats during the Charlottesville riots, Trump did not respond.

Even as crowds began to thin Saturday afternoon, the town remained unsettled and on edge. Onlookers were deeply shaken at the pedestrian mall, where ambulances had arrived to treat those injured by the car.

Chan Williams, 22, was among the counterprotesters in the street, chanting Black Lives Matter and Whose streets? Our streets! The marchers blocked traffic, but Williams said drivers werent annoyed. Instead, she said, they waved or honked in support.

So when she heard a car engine rev up and saw the people in front of her dodging a moving car, she didnt know what to think.

I saw the car hit bodies, legs in the air, she said. You try to grab the people closest to you and take shelter.

Williams and friend George Halliday ducked into a shop with an open door and called their mothers. An hour later, the two were still visibly upset.

I just saw shoes on the road, Halliday, 20, said. It all happened in two seconds.

Saturdays Unite the Right rally was meant to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The city of Charlottesville voted to remove the statue earlier this year, but it remains in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park, pending a judges ruling expected later this month.

They were met by counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, who founded the university. One counterprotester apparently deployed a chemical spray, which sent about a dozen rallygoers seeking medical assistance.

On Saturday morning, people in combat gear  some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs, sticks and makeshift shields  fought one another on downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants and hurled plastic bottles through the air.

A large contingent of Charlottesville police officers and Virginia State Police troopers in riot gear were stationed on side streets and at nearby barricades but did nothing to break up the melee until about 11:40 a.m. Using megaphones, police then declared an unlawful assembly and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park.

The worst part is that people got hurt and the police stood by and didnt do a g------ thing, said David Copper, 70, of Staunton, Va.

State Del. David Toscano (D-Charlottesville), minority leader of Virginias House, praised the response by Charlottesville and state police.

Asked why police did not act sooner to intervene as violence unfolded, Toscano said he could not comment. But they trained very hard for this, and it might have been that they were waiting for a more effective time to get people out of Emancipation Park, he said.

By early afternoon, hundreds of rallygoers had made their way to a larger park two miles to the north. Duke, speaking to the crowd, said that European Americans are being ethnically cleansed within our own nation and called Saturdays events the first step toward taking America back.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer also addressed the group, urging people to disperse. But he promised they would return for a future demonstration, blaming Saturdays violence on counterprotesters.

In an interview, Spencer said he was beyond outraged that police had declared the planned rally an unlawful assembly.

I never before thought that I would have my country cracking down on me and on free speech, he said. We were lawfully and peacefully assembled. We came in peace, and the state cracked down.

He said that counterprotesters attacked rallygoers but also acknowledged that maybe someone threw a first punch on our side. Maybe that happened. I obviously didnt see everything.

By 11 a.m., several fully armed militias and hundreds of right-wing rallygoers had poured into the small downtown park that was to be the site of the rally.

Counterprotesters held Black Lives Matter signs and placards expressing support for equality and love as they faced rallygoers who waved Confederate flags and posters that said the Goyim know, referring to non-Jewish people, and the Jewish media is going down.

No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA! the counterprotesters chanted.

Too late, f-----s! a man yelled back at them.

Michael Von Kotch, a Pennsylvania resident who called himself a Nazi, said the rally made him proud to be white.

He said that hes long held white supremacist views and that Trumps election has emboldened him and the members of his own Nazi group.

We are assembled to defend our history, our heritage and to protect our race to the last man, Von Kotch said, wearing a protective helmet and sporting a wooden shield and a broken pool cue. We came here to stand up for the white race.

Naundi Cook, 23, who is black, said that she came to Saturdays counterprotests to support my people but that shes never seen something like this before.

When violence broke out, she started shaking and got goose bumps.

Ive seen people walking around with tear gas all over their face, all over their clothes. People getting Maced, fighting, she said. I didnt want to be next.

Cook said she couldnt sit back and watch white nationalists descend on her town. She has a 3-year-old daughter to stand up for, she said.

Right now, Im not sad, she said once the protests dispersed. Im a little more empowered. All these people and support, I feel like were on top right now because of all the support that we have.

Brown reported from Washington. Jack Gillum and Sarah Larimer in Washington contributed to this report.
This is the civil defense identification tag given to Millie Hurlbut  nee Hudnall  when she was an elementary school student in the District in the early 1950s. During the Cold War, Washingtonians were encouraged to buy these tags, which cost 50 cents each. The tags included a personalized family serial number. (Millie Hurlbut)

In July of 1952, a curious experiment took place in the machine shop of The Washington Post. The flame from an acetylene torch was applied to a civil defense identification tag, a piece of metal roughly the size of a business card.

City leaders had approved the tags the previous November, and plans were in place for citizens to procure them on a voluntary basis. Tags would be embossed with the persons name, address and, if known, blood type. They would also include a unique family serial number. Registration files would contain this information along with additional details.

According to the Districts civil defense chief, the use of the tags and coded files would enable families to be reunited in the confusion following a disaster.

[Duck and cover: Did D.C. school students get dog tags during the Cold War?]

Of course, the disaster that was on everyones mind wasnt a tornado or an earthquake. It was more nuclear in nature. As a full-page ad in The Post announcing Civil Defense Week put it: Shutting your eyes to the fact that Russia has the A-bomb  and the means to deliver it  is gambling with your life. Nothing makes better A-bomb prey than a city thats unprepared.

If everyone did his or her part, Washington would be prepared. That included signing up for the dog tags, which cost 50 cents each.

Which brings us to The Posts machine shop. When the flame was applied to one of D.C.s ID tags, it almost immediately began to melt. Tags from other cities withstood the heat longer.

It turned out that the Districts tag was made of malleable brass, not steel. The headline over The Posts July 13, 1952, story read: Civil Defense Dog Tags Here Questioned on Cost, Quality.

The tags obviously wouldnt withstand the hellfire of a nuclear attack. Just as galling was this: Washingtons were the most expensive in the country. The board of education in New York City had paid approximately 10 cents each for the tags it ordered for its 850,000 pupils. The price for a tag in Cleveland was also a dime. Tags in New Orleans cost 15 cents each. Indianapolis was charging citizens 25 cents.

D.C. civil defense officials argued that the higher price reflected the fact that Washingtons program was more than just dog tags. The dog tags were part of a complex system called the McBee KeySort system that was capable of sorting 100 cards a minute.

United Equipment Co., the contractor that manufactured the tags, said steel had not been available when tag production began and only the first batch  estimates ranged from 4,000 to 20,000  was made of brass. The remainder were being made of more durable steel.

But as Post reporter George T. Draper dug deeper, he found other curiosities. Frank E. Armstrong, chief of the disaster information office in D.C.s civil defense headquarters, was a salaried employee of United Equipment Co. Furthermore, United Equipment Co. was working out of a free office in the District Building.

The office, in Room 22, had previously been used by a group of volunteers who answered civil defense queries. But they were kicked out and replaced by the dog-tag people.

Not only was United Equipment Co. receiving office space gratis, it had two telephones at its disposal and free transportation around town for the pretty saleswomen charged with selling the tags.

A Post editorial weighed in: Some very odd circumstances surround the sale of civil defense identification tags to residents of Washington.

John E. Fondahl, chief of civil defense, demanded an accounting, but it was slow in coming. Two months later, a committee was organized to oversee the program. United Equipment Co. was ordered to provide tags for a sliding scale. The city would pay 48.8 cents per tag for monthly orders below 10,000, dropping to 29.9 cents per tag if more than 50,000 were sold.

Answer Man remains skeptical. Though the District would be paying less, citizens still had to pay 50 cents per tag.

Would the tags and the McBee KeySort system have helped reunite families  or identify remains  after a nuclear attack? Well, consider this: In 1958, Langley Park, Md., dropped plans to issue dog tags to elementary school students. Someone realized that kids love to swap things, so if the tags were mixed up, a potentially fatal reaction to the wrong blood type could occur.

That wouldnt have been a problem with an idea that assistant defense secretary Frank B. Berry proposed in 1955: that Americans be tattooed on the waist or under the arm with their blood types in case of nuclear attack.

Tattoo artists became excited at the possible increase in business. Maybe we could enclose the blood type in a few flowers, one D.C. tattoo artist told a reporter.

The idea was shot down by John M. Whitney, health officer of the Civil Defense Administration, who said, In an emergency, we would just use O-type blood, which is universally acceptable, and check up on blood types later.

john.kelly@washpost.com

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.

Do you have a question about the Washington area? Send it to answerman@washpost.com.
Firefighters knocked down a blaze at the 4-H Cafe at the Missoula County Fairgrounds Friday night.

Fair director Emily Bentley said volunteers in the cafe evacuated and everyone was removed from buildings on either side.

The blaze, which started at 7:45 p.m., was quickly put out. Bentley said she didn't know what caused the fire.

Missoula Fire Department Battalion Chief David Wolter said the incident remains under investigation. The department keeps an engine at the fairgrounds during the Western Montana Fair, and Wolter thanked the public for listening to law enforcement that cleared the area.

Bentley said the other buildings that were evacuated will be reopened, and she is looking for a new home for the 4-H Cafe. No injuries were reported.
The District

Two new arrests in dognapping case

The D.C. police, after an apparent display of dogged detective work, have announced two more arrests in the recent case of a purloined poodle.

The dog, named Diva, was grabbed Aug. 3 on Fitch Street SE, police said. The dog was recovered Sunday, and a woman was charged with receiving stolen property, they said.

In the latest development in the pilfered pooch case, police said Friday that Acoyia Williams, 33, and Esther Annette Tyson, 53, both of Southeast, have been charged with robbery by force.

 Martin Weil

MARYLAND

Homicide in Lanham is under investigation

A man was found slain Friday in the Lanham area of Prince Georges County.

He was found with a gunshot wound in the 7000 block of Palamar Turn after police were sent to check on a mans welfare, police said. They have not released his name.

 Lynh Bui

Seat Pleasant chief recovering after crash

Seat Pleasant Police Chief Devan Martin is conscious, alert and talking as he remains in a hospital after a collision with a car while he was riding a city police motorcycle Thursday, officials said. Seat Pleasant has rallied behind Martin, a city spokeswoman said.

 Ellie Silverman

VIRGINIA

Maintenance worker helps save 2 from fire

A maintenance worker helped to save two people from a fire in their Alexandria home Friday morning, firefighters said.

All three were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, Alexandria Fire Department Battalion Chief Chris Kunkle said.

The 11 a.m. fire at 3328 Valley Dr. was brought under control in about an hour, but it took firefighters several more hours to extinguish the blaze.

Authorities said they thought the hospitalized residents include an elderly woman and her son.

 Rachel Weiner

Charlottesville fights precede rally

Brief skirmishes broke out on the University of Virginia campus Friday night after counterprotesters confronted torch-bearing white nationalist marchers.

They apparently began when a chemical spray was directed at the marchers, who rallied in advance of a planned Saturday rally to protest Charlottesvilles plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park. It appeared that the spray incapacitated several in the crowd.

 Joe Heim and Martin Weil
The Districts mayor and the governors of Virginia and Maryland will meet Aug. 28 to discuss Metro amid hopes that they will start to narrow the wide gap that separates them over how to fund the transit system.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and District Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) will hold their first regional summit on Metro in 10 months and may discuss other issues as well, officials said.

The meeting, to take place at Mount Vernon, comes at a critical time for the transit system. The region is struggling to agree on how to handle Metros request to raise at least $500 million a year in additional revenue that the agency says it needs for new equipment and maintenance to restore the system to a state of good repair.

Metros supporters in Virginia and Maryland say they need to reach consensus by the end of the year on a funding plan to win necessary approval when the two states General Assemblies convene in January.

Bowser has repeatedly called for a regionwide, penny-per-dollar sales tax for Metro, but McAuliffe and Hogan have resisted the levy for separate reasons.

[Regions leaders split over 1-cent regional sales tax to pay for Metro.]

Hogan, an outspoken opponent of new taxes, has ruled out raising taxes statewide to obtain extra money for Metro. But he has left open the possibility that the two Maryland counties served by Metro  Montgomery and Prince Georges  might tax themselves to support the transit system.

McAuliffe is willing to consider tax increases but says Metro must first demonstrate progress on safety, reliability and efficiency.

The Virginia governor has little leverage, as he steps down in January. He recruited former U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood to study how best to fund and reform Metro, and LaHood plans to issue a report with recommendations in September.

The two governors and the mayor are expected to hear an update on LaHoods progress at the August summit.

The three have not fixed a specific agenda for the session yet, but Metro will be a main topic, according to officials from all three jurisdictions.

[Virginia Gov. McAuliffe taps Ray LaHood to head panel to study Metro.]

McAuliffe is hoping for a constructive dialogue on Metro to make progress toward an agreement on reforms and funding, spokesman Brian Coy said. That would help persuade the Republican-dominated legislature in Richmond to overcome its skepticism about backing Metro.

Of course he wants us all to be on the same page, Coy said. The issues remain the same, particularly with our General Assembly. Theyre going to need to see further evidence that the money were already spending is being used wisely, with respect to safety and performance.

Bowsers chief of staff, John Falcicchio, said the mayor still supports the regional sales tax but is open to other funding methods as long as they provide a steady, reliable stream of revenue.

The mayor has always said it was important to find dedicated revenue before the end of 2018, to make the critical investments that Metro needs for safety, reliability and capacity, Falcicchio said.

What others put on the table, were open to, as long as its a dedicated stream of revenue, he said.

[N.Va. sharply split over proposed regional sales tax for Metro.]

Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse confirmed the Metro summit would take place and noted that the Maryland governor has advocated for increased federal funding for the transit system.

Metro is the only major transit system in the country that does not obtain a significant amount of funds from a tax or other dedicated source. Potential revenue sources, other than a sales tax, include new property taxes or fees.

Northern Virginia Republicans have also proposed restructuring existing funding sources  such as from property taxes  into dedicated streams that could be used to float bonds and thus increase Metros borrowing capacity.

Bowser recently urged a large gathering of church-based activists who support greater public funding for Metro to lobby legislators in Virginia and Maryland.

We [in the District] dont believe in cutting service and raising fares, but Richmond and Annapolis see things differently, Bowser said July 26 at a meeting of 400 members of the Washington Interfaith Network.

I hope they come along, she said. I need you to go to Richmond, because thats where the decision is being made.

Later she said lobbying was needed in Maryland, as well.
Dr. Ruth Pfau, a German nun who became known as the Mother Teresa of Pakistan for her decades-long ministry to the countrys leprosy patients, a moral and medical campaign that helped curb one of the most stigmatized diseases in human history, died Aug. 10 in Karachi. She was 87.

A spokeswoman, Salwa Zainab, confirmed her death to the Associated Press. The cause was not immediately available.

Dr. Pfau, while not widely covered in the Western media, was renowned in Pakistan for her efforts to stop the spread of leprosy, a bacterial infection also called Hansens disease that when untreated can cause disfigurement and blindness. Around the world, its victims have often been relegated to leper colonies and regarded as outcasts.

The Express Tribune of Pakistan once credited Dr. Pfau with having single-handedly . . . turned the tide of leprosy in Pakistan and won the gratitude and personal attentions of people ranging from military rulers to elected ministers to the general public.

Like Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian nun who became known as the saint of the gutters for her service to the destitute of India, Dr. Pfau lived among the people she cared for and by a vow of poverty.

[Washington Post obituary: Mother Teresa Dies at 87]

As a young physician and nun, she had planned to begin her missionary work not in Pakistan, but in India, in 1960. Waylaid in Karachi with visa difficulties, she visited a leprosy colony and was so distressed by what she saw that she could not bring herself to leave.

The facility was overrun by rats and soiled by sewage. Speaking to the BBC in 2010, she recalled watching a young man as he crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal, as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog.

I could not believe that humans could live in such conditions, she told the Express Tribune in 2014. That one visit, the sights I saw during it, made me make a key life decision.

Under Dr. Pfaus leadership, that facility became the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, the nerve center of a national network of medical professionals who sought to house, treat and, at times, rescue victims of the disease. Dr. Pfau recalled collecting children who had been stowed away in caves or in cattle pens because of their illness.

With support from German donors, Dr. Pfau and her colleagues managed to bring leprosy largely into submission. Since 1996, the World Health Organization has considered the disease controlled in Pakistan. Her organization later worked on the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and blindness, as well as serving victims of drought, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.

Ruth Katharina Martha Pfau was born Sept. 9, 1929, in Leipzig, where her familys home was destroyed in the bombings of World War II. If I give any sense to these years, it is a preparation to be ready to help others, she told the BBC.

After the war, with Leipzig under Soviet occupation, Dr. Pfau fled from East to West Germany to pursue her medical training, according to her biography on the website of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre. She said she nearly married a fellow student before experiencing what she described as a calling from God.

When you receive such a calling, you cannot turn it down, for it is not you who has made the choice, she told the Express Tribune. God has chosen you for Himself.

She studied medicine at universities in Mainz and Marburg before joining the Catholic order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, the organization that sent her abroad as a missionary.

No information on her survivors was immediately available.

For a period, Dr. Pfau served as an adviser to the Pakistani health minister.

We are like a Pakistani marriage,  she remarked. It was an arranged marriage because it was necessary. We always and only fought with each other. But we never could go in for divorce because we had too many children.
A 14-year-old charged as an adult in the fatal stabbing of a homeless man will be transferred to a youth detention facility pending trial.

Prince Georges County District Court Judge Patrice Lewis approved the transfer Friday during a bail review hearing for Elias Portillo, of Adelphi. The judge ordered him held without bond.

Portillo and a 13-year-old boy were arrested Thursday in the slaying of Francisco Sagastizado, 47. Both were charged with first- and second-degree murder. The 13-year-old, who police are not naming because of his age, will be prosecuted as a juvenile, authorities said.

The young teens killed the homeless man in the woods during a robbery gone wrong, according to Prince George's County police. Officers responding to a call for an unresponsive man found Sagastizado suffering from stab wounds in the 7800 block of West Park Drive in Adelphi at about 8 a.m. July 27.

Portillo appeared in court Friday via teleconference. Wearing lime-green scrubs, he stood with his arms crossed throughout the brief hearing as prosecutors and his defense attorney agreed to have him moved to the youth detention facility instead of housing him in the county jail.

Elias Portillo, 14, has been charged as an adult with murder. (Prince George's County Police)

That would be appropriate for him, Assistant Public Defender Kimberly Righter said during the hearing.

Righter declined to comment after Portillos appearance.

The teens are the youngest suspects Prince Georges police have charged in a homicide this year, and the youngest since 2011, authorities said.

Although Portillo will be held in a juvenile facility, he is still charged as an adult, said John Erzen, a spokesman for the Prince Georges County States Attorneys Office. In Maryland, 14 is the minimum age a juvenile can be tried as an adult for a felony, Erzen said.

Our main concern is that the defendant remain in custody, Erzen said.

Police said Thursday that the 13-year-old is being held without bond at a state youth detention facility.

Three weeks after Sagastizados body was found, police happened to be interviewing a witness in the area when the teens walked by, police charging papers said. The witness pointed out the teens and they were detained. The 13-year-old admitted his involvement during an interview with police, but the 14-year-old did not, charging papers state.

At least one of the teens knew Sagastizado, according to police.
A 40-year-old man reported missing earlier this month from Carroll County, Md., was found dead Friday night in a stream in a Montgomery County park in Bethesda, according to police.

A cause of death has not been determined, authorities said Friday. An autopsy is planned in Baltimore.

Police said Daniel Taylor Evans was last seen at his home in Sykesville, west of Baltimore, leaving for work about 6 a.m. Aug. 3. Police said he never showed up at his job in Rockville, about 50 miles away.

Montgomery County police said a person who lives on Heatherhill Court in Bethesda found the body about 7:20 p.m. in a stream in Booze Creek Stream Valley Park, which is in the back of the property owners land.

The sheriffs office in Carroll County said in a bulletin that it was unusual for Evans to be out of contact with his family. They say he had been driving a blue 2008 Mitsubishi Gallant with Maryland registration 2BC8523.

Montgomery County police did not mention finding a vehicle.
U.S. Park Police officers handcuffed a teenager and detained a second youth for attempting to sell bottles of water on the Mall this week, police officials acknowledged Friday.

The incident unfolded about 3 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Ninth Street and Constitution Avenue NW when a uniformed Park Police officer tried to make contact with multiple individuals who were observed illegally selling water on the National Mall, according to a statement released by the Park Police.

As the officer approached to give warnings, the violators fled, the statement said.

More officers joined the chase and soon stopped two people  who stated they were juveniles, police said  near the National Archives. Police said one of the two failed to obey lawful commands and resisted, therefore was placed in handcuffs.

Park Police were roundly criticized by city leaders earlier this summer after plainclothes officers handcuffed and detained two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old for the same violation June 22. Police said the youths were accompanied by an adult who previously had been arrested for illegal vending, leading officers to believe they were dealing with an organized illegal vending ring rather than youths trying to earn a few dollars.

[D.C. Council member condemns Park Police for detaining youths selling water on Mall]

On Friday, Park Police Chief Robert MacLean said in a statement that officials have heard the communitys concerns about enforcement of vending violations and responded.

In this incident, officers responded with a measured approach to ensure the safety of everyone involved. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism and strive to ensure that any contact with the public is tactful and considerate, MacLean said.

On Tuesday, the two people were released shortly after being detained, the Park Police statement said.

They were given a verbal warning about the ban on vending on the Mall and a map showing the Park Service boundaries for the Mall.

D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the public safety committee and criticized the Park Police in a letter to MacLean in June, said Friday that he again spoke to the chief about targeting young people just trying to make some cash.

Im concerned any time I see young people in handcuffs, especially young African Americans just trying to earn some money by selling water, he said in a statement.

He said he had asked MacLean to make every effort to keep our young people out of the justice system. Allen said he wanted the chief to forge stronger ties to the community.

A passerby, Alyce Miller, 63, of Silver Spring, said she came upon the scene as she walked from a nearby Metro station amid passing tourists. In an interview, she said she saw police cars blocking a traffic lane.

As she approached the north corner of Ninth and Constitution, she saw two officers with what appeared to be two teenagers, one sitting on a sidewalk in handcuffs. They were flanked by shopping carts filled with bottled water. It looked like an event, but it was just these two kids, Miller said.

She said she felt growing anger. There are much smarter ways to handle this, she said.I just see these kids as being really entrepreneurial.

What was stunning to me was that people were walking by thinking this is normal, she added.

I just dont know why the cops just dont say, Cmon, guys, move along and let them go.
A man charged with shooting a college-bound teenager in the head and gravely injuring her as she drove down a street in Northeast Washington was ordered detained on Saturday as his lawyer said her client denied direct involvement.

Philip Carlos McDaniel, 21, told police he drove a gold Honda Accord to near the shooting scene in Brentwood on Thursday and that two men got out, then returned a short time later. McDaniel said he did not see either with a gun, nor did he hear any gunshots, according to an affidavit filed in court.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Long pointed to a text message McDaniel sent to one of his friends telling them police had seized the Honda, which she said exhibited evidence of consciousness of guilt, supporting the charges even if he did not fire a gun. Police are still searching for the two other men.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Hiram E. Puig-Lugo said there is ample evidence for probable cause and ordered McDaniel, who lives in the Carver-Langston neighborhood, detained until a preliminary hearing on Aug. 28. He is charged with assault with intent to kill. McDaniel is also facing gun and drug charges stemming from an arrest at his house last month.

The shooting occurred about 3:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Saratoga Avenue NE. An affidavit says two gunmen hid in bushes on one side of the street and then emerged and opened fire at a group across the street with a .40-caliber handgun and a .45-caliber handgun. Twelve bullets were fired in all.

[Teen gravely wounded by stray bullet in Northeast Washington]

Police said one bullet struck a man in the buttocks as he walked out of an apartment building. Another shattered the front passenger window of a white Nissan Versa sedan, sending shards of glass into a passengers eye and striking the 17-year-old driver in the head. The Nissan slammed into a parked car.

The gravely injured teenager was taken to a hospital. Her condition has not changed since Thursday, police said, though one of her close friends, 18-year-old AMee Barnes, said on Saturday that doctors have indicated the victim can hear people and is aware of her surroundings.

Were hopeful, said Barnes, who visited her friend Friday night. She posted an upbeat message on Facebook late Friday night. Shes a fighter and will pull through with us.

The victims relatives have not granted interviews, and The Washington Post did not name the teen because she has not been publicly identified by authorities or family. She graduated this spring from Woodrow Wilson High School in Northwest Washington, where she captained the cheerleading squad and sang in the choir. She was looking forward to starting classes at Florida A&M University at the end of the month. Her mother is a 30-year veteran of D.C. police.

Witnesses at the shooting scene told police they saw a gold-colored Honda with New Jersey license plates driving away moments after the shooting.

Police said they found the vehicle a short time later near McDaniels house. McDaniel was there and told police he had given friends a ride and that he was trying to sell the car. Police said he has no drivers license, the Honda was unregistered and the New Jersey plates had been stolen.

Police initially took McDaniel into custody and said in the affidavit that he initially declined to talk to detectives but later changed his mind. He told them he drove two men close to the shooting scene and waited behind as they left. He said he did not see weapons or hear any shots, saying he was playing music.

McDaniels attorney, Sara E. Kopecki, argued that there was lack of probable cause to sustain a charge of assault with intent to kill, and that her client cannot be charged with aiding or abetting because he did not know the objective of the two alleged gunmen.

But police said in the affidavit that when police first found the car, McDaniel texted a friend and said, They just towed the car Moe. The prosecutor said that text links McDaniel to the conspiracy.
Like a lot of people, when David Loring couldnt find his car in the parking garage, he assumed that he had forgotten where he had parked it. It was Friday morning, beneath a high-rise office building in Rockville.

He walked up a ramp, ascended stairs and started to head down another ramp  when, right in front of him, was his 2016 Mercedes E350.

Why is my car going the wrong way? he remembers thinking. And why is this guy behind the wheel?

Then it hit him: The driver was trying to steal it. But the driver couldnt get out of the garage because he was trying to exit through an entry gate whose arm wouldnt lift.

What are you doing in my car? Loring, 56, recalled shouting.

Security camera image of a suspect sought in the attempted theft of a Mercedes-Benz in a Rockville parking garage. (Surveillance video)

The would-be thief played it cool, according to Loring, acting as if he were having trouble operating the Mercedes.

Let me call my wife. This is her car, he said, raising his cellphone. Honey . . .

Then the man got out, walked off and left Loring next to the car. Loring called 911.

A reporter for The Washington Post, who works in the building connected with the lot, arrived minutes later, unable to drive into the garage because the Mercedes blocked the interior of the entrance.

At the time, Loring was on the phone with his wife, explaining why he was going to be late.

His account was confirmed by the Rockville City Police Department, which as of Friday evening was looking for a suspect. Rockville police Maj. Eric Over said an attempted car theft in a downtown Rockville office garage, at that time of day, with commuters pulling in, is unusual.

This is an anomaly, Over said.

For that reason, he said, the man probably was following through on a crime of opportunity. Perhaps he had gone into the car to steal contents and upgraded his ambitions. His getaway plans, though, seemed flawed.

Loring, the Mercedes owner, had taken the parking ticket with him. So even if the would-be thief had properly headed to an exit, he still would have had trouble getting the gate open.

The behavior was not characteristic of the average car theft suspect, Over said.

The man also did not seem as determined as some car thieves are. Faced with a closed gate, Over said, experienced car thieves may well have chosen to ram it.

Loring said he paid $40,000 for the used car five weeks ago. As he spoke with detectives and police in the lot, he combed through the Mercedess contents, looking for items that might have been taken.He wasnt exactly sure what had been inside his console but believes hes out about seven dollar bills. And two packs of Marlboro Lights.

Rockville police ask anyone with information about the suspect or the incident to call 240-314-8900.
STEVENSVILLE  A new boat launch near the Stevensville bridge moved closer to reality late Friday after the town received a one-year permit to construct the temporary fishing access site.

An elated Mayor Jim Crews said late Friday that he had just received the permit from Brian Wilkinson, the Ravalli County floodplain manager, and that he expects construction of the boat launch to begin on Monday. Its possible the project could be completed by mid-week.

I have to go back and sit down with the (road) supervisor to get it scheduled, but I would like to see the work done by the middle of the week, Crews said. That doesnt mean its going to happen, but I would like to see it happen.

The permit for the new site, about 300 yards downstream from the bridge, comes almost two months after Roy Capp installed barriers on his property adjacent to the bridge on the east river bank. Capp had said he was concerned with liability issues involving people launching boats and removing them from his property, and after years of use it was off-limits to the public.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks proposed a new fishing access site on public lands across the river from Capps property, but that will take at least a year. Meanwhile, boaters were trying to wrestle their vessels up the steep river bank, or floating other stretches and avoiding the popular area completely.

Crews proposed the new site at the towns River Park, but needed to have the floodplain permit from the county. He wants to widen an existing foot path only enough that a vehicle and boat trailer can pull in and back into the water. Parking would be in the existing parking area.

But Capp, who didnt return a phone call late Friday, resisted the new plan, filing objections with Wilkinson over the potential that the dirt work would cause his adjacent property to flood and the river bank to erode. He also was concerned about additional vehicular traffic spreading noxious weeds, and that the site didnt have adequate bathroom facilities.

He added in his written comments that there is pre-existing litigation on another project involving the town of Stevensville and repairs for damage to his property that remain unresolved.

This is a credibility crisis from the town of Stevensville and I do not believe the mayors assertions that the site will be held to rigorous inspections, Capp wrote. The town of Stevensville has failed to enforce even the most basic of violations in the park area.

Crews said he wrote a 10-page dissertation back to try to ease Capps concerns, and the permit includes eight pages of findings and conditions he must comply with to go ahead with the project.

We are working with all of the people who are involved to keep them informed and to answer all of their concerns, Crews said. We have had a lot of people help out on this project, and I really appreciate that.

Im pretty tickled that we have the permit. Now we can move forward.

Wilkinson was out of the office Friday afternoon and couldnt be reached for comment.
A recently unsealed lawsuit alleges that MetroAccess and MetroAccess contractors steered taxpayer-funded paratransit service to favored firms and subcontractors, resulting in longer trips and more expensive rides for the regions most vulnerable commuters.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt by the owner of a Maryland cab company, plaintiff Scott Bretner alleges that Metro and three of its contractors broke the law by shifting MetroAccess dispatch responsibilities from one contractor, MV Transportation, to another, Transdev North America.

The suit alleges that this led to a pattern of self-dealing in which Transdev would assign taxi trips to a service it owns and in other cases direct passengers to MetroAccess vans unnecessarily for its own financial benefit.

Transdev is steering riders to use the vans unnecessarily, presumably to inflate its revenues, notwithstanding that vans often must travel from distant points including Virginia to serve riders in Prince Georges County, the complaint reads.

MetroAccess is the transit agencys door-to-door service for the elderly and people with disabilities. The contract splits dispatch and service delivery responsibilities to prevent the kind of conflict Bretner alleges. Transdev is responsible for providing 50 percent of MetroAccess service, and the remaining share of trips is to be divided between two other firms not named in the suit, according to the contract.

Further, the suit alleges that a third contractor, Medical Transportation Management, the company contracted to oversee MetroAccess, failed to bring the alleged conflict of interest to light.

MV has continued to collect funds provided by the Federal Government and the compact jurisdictions despite knowingly and intentionally surrendering its responsibilities to Transdev, the suit reads. MTM has utterly failed to provide any meaningful quality assurance safeguards or oversight of Transdev and MV, the suit says.

Metro did not respond to questions about the lawsuit. A spokesman said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.

Transdev declined to comment on the lawsuit.

MV Transportation and MTM did not respond to several email requests for comment. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland did not respond to an inquiry as to why it declined to intervene in the suit. The United States is named as a co-plaintiff along with the District.

Bretners attorney said summonses have yet to be served in the suit, so the defendants have not responded in court.

With about 43,000 registered users, MetroAccess is the transit agencys fastest-growing and most expensive service. The agency spends more than $100 million annually to provide the service through five contractors.

MetroAccess performance dropped sharply during a stretch beginning last fall  at one point, on-time performance was down nearly 10 percentage points from target  but has recovered in recent months, according to the latest figures. Pressed to explain the performance drop in a recent report, Metro and its contractors blamed the issues on a driver shortage that left the companies 10 percent short of the 1,000 needed to run at full capacity.

Its unknown, however, whether problems with dispatch factored into the service decline.

[How problems with MetroAccess have left D.C.s most vulnerable commuters stranded]

Bretner, who owns Transportation Maintenance Services, Blue Bird Cab Co., and Prince Georges Yellow Cab Company, said in the lawsuit that he was thwarted in his attempts to become a MetroAccess subcontractor after months of obfuscation and delay as the alleged scheme unfolded. Bretners attorney, Ryan S. Spiegel, said the alleged offenses are particularly egregious, given the vulnerable population MetroAccess serves.

Neither Spiegel nor Bretner could immediately provide evidence directly supporting their claims, which were said to be based upon information and belief, but they said they planned to present evidence in court.

[Metro IG probing agencys handling of alleged harassment]

In this case, the MetroAccess contract at issue was very clear that there were supposed to be different silos of activity that were supposed to be intentionally separate and independent, Spiegel said in an interview. The contract was also clear that the service providers were supposed to use a very specific system to provide a vulnerable population with a necessary service.

We think the evidence is pretty strong that in this case, these defendants knowingly violated those obligations.

In addition to the contractors, the lawsuit filed by Bretner names Metro and MetroAccess chief Christian Kent as bearing responsibility in the alleged arrangement. Metro, on behalf of Kent, declined to comment.

Bretner claims that Transdev, Metro, Kent, MTM and MV Transportation violated the federal and state False Claims Acts by falsely certifying that they would comply with local laws governing taxicab services and then knowingly circumventing those laws. Further, the lawsuit says, Metro and its paratransit contractors knowingly presented or conspired to present false claims to obtain government money under the . . . MetroAccess program.

It goes on to claim that Transdev has been directing customers onto vans unnecessarily, despite the fact that many customers in Prince Georges County  the most popular MetroAccess jurisdiction  can walk and dont require wheelchair-accessible vans.

Now that Transdev is essentially in control of the [call center], it has every incentive to use MetroAccess vans more often than necessary, because its reimbursement rate from [Metro] for those van trips  approximately $65 per ride  is much higher than the rate for subcontractor taxi trips billed at $3.77 per mile, the complaint alleges.

Indeed, [Metro], through Mr. Kent and others, has been knowingly complicit in this unlawful conduct by Transdev, the lawsuit says.

[One of Metros new board members has potential conflicts of interest, echoing problems of previous board]

The suit comes three years after another Maryland cab company, Challenger Transportation, alleged a conflict of interest in the awarding of the MetroAccess contract because then-Metro board chairman Tom Downs also helmed the board of advisers for Veolia Transportation of North America (now Transdev North America) at the time the agreement was reached. That lawsuit, also filed in U.S. District Court, has not been resolved, and Bretners suit renews the conflict-of-interest concerns, alleging that Downss failure to disclose those ties at the time was a violation of the law.

Downs said that while he knew from internal conversations at Veolia that the company was considering bidding for the MetroAccess contract, he recused himself from discussions of any potential contract.

He said he also recused himself from any action, contact or information about the bid. In addition, he physically left Metro headquarters whenever the contract was discussed, he said.

I was physically removing myself from the board meeting and to be extra safe, I said I was leaving the building during this discussion, he said.

A written recusal followed, Downs said.

Asked whether his dual roles as Metro board chairman and chairman of Veolia North Americas board could have contributed in any way to the contracts award: If you doubt [former Metro General Manager] Rich Sarless integrity, Downs said. I asked Rich to make sure that . . . I received no verbal or written information at any time from any staff and that they were not to even accidentally provide me with any information.

The suit also accuses another cab company, Sun Cab, of benefiting from Transdevs arrangement. It says Transdev dispatched taxi trips to companies unlicensed for access services in Prince Georges, with the money going back into the parent corporations pocket.

By controlling the [dispatch services], Transdev has directed a vast majority of the taxi trips in the overall MetroAccess service region to Sun Cab, which Transdev also owns, the suit alleges. Therefore Transdev is able to engage in self-dealing and to double dip and pay itself twice for each such instance of taxi service delivery.

Reached by phone, a person who identified himself as Sun Cabs general manager referred any questions about the lawsuit to Transdev.

The amended complaint was filed in June, but the case was under seal until late that month as the jurisdictions named as co-plaintiffs decided whether to intervene. Maryland and Virginia sought to remove themselves from the case, and late last month, a federal judge asked that any claims filed on their behalf be dismissed.
The violence that occurred after hundreds of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville this weekend came during an election year in Virginia, where voters are electing a new governor in a contest watched as a bellwether for politics in the era of President Trump.

The university towns decision to remove a downtown statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee fueled the white nationalist backlash. The local issue has resonated in campaigns across the state, and it has prompted candidates in the former heart of the Confederacy to grapple with lingering racial tensions and what appears to be a newfound boldness among white nationalists.

The attention to this weekends clashes in Charlottesville, which resulted in at least one fatality and a response from President Trump, also turned a spotlight to how the gubernatorial candidates would respond.

The Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, joined other Virginia Democrats in denouncing white supremacy, and he says he plans to visit Charlottesville on Sunday. He praised Charlottesville for defending its values of openness, diversity and inclusion from numerous protests, including a rally of 30 Klansmen in July.

White supremacists have descended upon Charlottesville again to evoke a reaction as ugly and violent as their beliefs  just as they did before, I am urging Virginians to deny them the satisfaction, Northam said in a statement.

The Charlottesville statue has created an awkward conundrum for GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie, who nearly lost his primary election to a candidate who welcomed the support of white nationalists and made defending Confederate statues a central issue of his campaign. During the primary, Gillespie stressed that he did not support removing the Lee statue (he said he thinks the issue is a local, not state, matter), although his opponent Corey Stewart ran ads claiming otherwise.

Gillespie, a longtime party operative and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, released a statement Saturday condemning the events in Charlottesville.

[Trump blasts violence on many sides, doesnt mention white nationalism]

Having a right to spew vile hate does not make it right, Gillespie said. It is painful to see these ugly events in Charlottesville last night and today. These displays have no place in our Commonwealth, and the mentality on display is rejected by the decent, thoughtful and compassionate fellow Virginians I see every day.

A spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association criticized Gillespies response for not mentioning his support for the Confederate statue at the center of the Charlottesville march.

The other governors race this year is in New Jersey, where Democratic candidate Phil Murphy is expected to win easily. Murphy issued a statement that called the turmoil in Charlottesville a sad result of when hate and bigotry are given a wink and nod by the President and those around him.

Other Republican leaders in Virginia were more direct than Gillespie in labeling the rallies.

Lieutenant governor nominee Jill Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County, called them a vile display of racism, while GOP attorney general nominee John Adams described them as Nazi-ideology on display. In a statement, Republican leaders in the state House called the demonstrators racists, white supremacists and Nazi-ideologues. U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock, seen as the most vulnerable Republican member of Congress in Virginia, described the marchers as neo-Nazis.

In response to a former GOP state lawmaker who called on him to describe the apparent attack as terrorism, Gillespie later suggested on Twitter that the injuries and fatality after a car plowed into a crowd were definitely tragic effect of vile neo Nazi and white supremacist actions.

Stewart, who plans to challenge Sen. Tim Kaine (D) next year after losing to Gillespie in GOP gubernatorial primary, posted a video on Facebook on Saturday evening accusing the media and Democrats of ignoring violence from the left and urged vigilance against attempts to stifle conservative speech in the aftermath of the Charlottesville violence. He did not criticize the white nationalists who rallied, except to say that we must hunt down and find the criminals who perpetrated these horrible crimes.

I dont believe that this is caused by white supremacy. I believe this is caused by two groups duking it out on the streets, Stewart said in an interview, adding that he hasnt wavered in his support for the Lee statue and thinks that the KKK and other racist groups will not heed calls to butt out. They have nothing to do with us, and they are trying to hijack this issue.

(The Washington Post)

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who cannot seek consecutive terms under Virginias constitution, declared a state of emergency over the clashes and told white supremacists they were not welcome in the commonwealth.

Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), who is seeking a second term, had a pointed reaction to Trumps condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.

The violence, chaos, and apparent loss of life in Charlottesville is not the fault of many sides. It is racists and white supremacists, Herring tweeted.

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Justin Fairfax, who would be the first African American elected statewide since L. Douglas Wilder served as governor, issued a statement calling for unity against those who want to divide communities.

This moment is also a reminder of the need to tone down political rhetoric and the negativity we often see in our current politics, Fairfax said.

Rep. Thomas Garrett (R-Va.), who represents Charlottesville in Congress, faced criticism after a months-old photo of him posing with Jason Kessler, the rallys organizer, circulated on Twitter.

A spokesman for Garrett told the Charlottesville newspaper the Daily Progress in May that Garrett had met with Kessler to discuss a town hall and unrelated terrorism bill.

Garrett tweeted Saturday to condemn what he called despicable escalation of racist rhetoric in Charlottesville. Later, in an interview with Fox News, he said, The victims of this racist violence are my constituents. . . . It blows my mind that this many racist bigots actually exist in this country.

David Weigel contributed to this report.
Scientists have concluded that a newly discovered species of mammals used all four limbs to hang from trees. (Courtesy of April I. Neander/University of Chicago/Reuters)

In dense Chinese forests populated by dinosaurs 160 million years ago, two furry critters resembling flying squirrels glided from tree to tree, showing that even in such a perilous neighborhood, early mammals had succeeded in going airborne.

Scientists have announced the discovery of fossils of two Jurassic Period gliding mammals so well preserved and complete that they show the winglike skin membranes the creatures employed while gliding between trees.

The two species, Maiopatagium furculiferum from Liaoning province and Vilevolodon diplomylos in Hebei province, come from an extinct early mammalian side branch.

These two and another apparent glider from about the same time that was described in 2006 were the vanguard of the mammalian air force. It was not until more than 100 million years later that bats, which use powered flight like birds, and more gliding mammals appeared, following the dinosaurs demise.

Mammals first appeared roughly 210 million years ago. These fossils underscore that early mammals were not merely cowering at the feet of dinosaurs but boasted a range of body plans and lifestyles. They included beaver-tailed swimmers, tree climbers, hoppers, burrowers and small carnivores that ate baby dinosaurs.

Maiopatagium furculiferum is one of two newfound fossils from 160 million years ago. (Courtesy of Zhe-Xi Luo/Beijing Museum of Natural History, University of Chicago/Reuters)

Despite living in dinosaur-dominated ecosystems, early mammals diversified into many ecological niches, said University of Chicago paleontologist Zhe-Xi Luo, who led the research, which was published in the journal Nature.

Gliding may have offered Maiopatagium and Vilevolodon advantages in gathering food and avoiding predators. They were unrelated to todays four groups of gliding mammals: flying squirrels in North America and Asia, Africas scaly-tailed gliders, Australias marsupial sugar gliders and Southeast Asias colugos.

Maiopatagium was about nine inches long, similar in size to flying squirrels. Vilevolodon was a bit smaller. Maiopatagiums teeth resembled those of fruit bats, suggesting it ate soft plant parts. Vilevolodons teeth were more like those of squirrels, good for eating seeds.

Judging from hand and foot bones, the scientists concluded that the two roosted, using all four limbs to hang from trees and gripping tree branches with their feet like bats.
All eyes are on President Trump in the showdown with North Korea, but this is very much Chinas moment. How Beijing handles the brinkmanship of Kim Jong Un is the most important test the Chinese have yet faced in their decades-long effort to take a place in the first rank of world powers.

The crisis is first a measure of Chinas reliability. If it is to achieve its goal of becoming a dominant force in the Asian Pacific, other powerful nations in the region must feel a degree of confidence that Beijing can make sound decisions and carry them out wisely. North Koreas existence is the oldest foreign policy decision of the Chinese Communist government. The Red Armys intervention in the Korean War in 1950, which drove back the American-led U.N. forces and compelled a cease-fire, was the birth of a divided Korean Peninsula.

And what is the fruit of that Chinese action after nearly 70 years? A hermit kingdom of wretched poverty, ruled despotically by a thuggish family bent on destabilizing the world. For many decades, China has tolerated this humiliating failure as a way of tweaking the United States at low cost.

But now the audience of greatest concern to China  namely, the other leading countries in the region, including Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam  faces the urgent question of whether they can trust a rising China to share in safeguarding their sphere. If the problem of Kim isnt defused, those nations are sure to seek even deeper alliances with the United States while building their own military capacity. Chinas regional influence will shrink rather than grow.

After all, regardless of what foreign leaders may think about Trump and his reckless rhetoric, the United States has its own track record in the Asian Pacific. While North Korea has necrotized under the Chinese protectorate, South Korea has flourished beyond any reasonable expectation. The contrast between Eastern and Western influence is as stark at the 38th Parallel as it was at the Berlin Wall, and countries pursuing their own interests will have no trouble choosing sides.

The crisis is also a measure of Chinese strength. So far during its rise, Beijing has been graded solely on its economy. That performance has been impressive, but translating economic muscle into hegemony is no easy matter. Germany, Japan and South Korea have all enjoyed periods of explosive growth as low-cost manufacturers, yet none of them has risen above the second tier of global influence.

Kims behavior has clearly become a net negative for China, massively undercutting Beijings efforts to close the American umbrella in the East. If China cannot settle a situation that is so plainly adverse to its interests, it will be revealed as a paper tiger.

And finally, North Korea is a measure of Chinas readiness to lead. The extraordinary power that the United States has accrued and wielded over the world since the 1940s is obviously a source of resentment and envy among Chinese leaders (even as they send their children to American schools and eagerly rip off American technology). But that power has not come without costs. U.S. leaders have been forced into uncomfortable alliances and dragged into unpleasant conflicts. Our foreign policy has often been a bitter business of choosing among unpromising alternatives and taking one step back for every two steps forward. Our people have been asked, time and again, to bear burdens and take risks and suffer embarrassments for uncertain gains in far-off places.

This is what leadership requires. As the saying goes, the higher you climb up the pole, the more your rear end shows. China cannot solve the crisis of North Korea without incurring some costs. Immediate risks include the danger of massive refugee flows from a decapitated North Korea and the possibility of a reunified Korea shaped by the capitalist South. Many commentators are calling these risks intolerable, but what theyre missing is the greater risk to Chinas long-term ambitions posed by a failure to pacify its rogue neighbor.

Trumps bellicose tone in recent days has been regrettable, but the underlying content of his words is entirely true: The United States possesses the power to destroy North Korea many times over, and that power is surely locked and loaded aboard untraceable submarines within easy range of Pyongyang. As guarantor of the nuclear peace, the United States is prepared to punish severely any military use of a nuclear weapon anywhere in the world.

But it is China that stands at the crossroads in this crisis. Beijings willingness to vote for tough sanctions in the United Nations is a sign pointed in the right direction. History will amply reward decisive steps in this direction, as the world sees that China is ready for the leadership role it seeks. Failure in this moment will, on the other hand, set back Chinas rise for decades to come.

Read more from David Von Drehles archive.
SOME OBSERVERS are arguing that we are finally seeing how President Trump behaves in a real global crisis, as opposed to a mess created by his own White House. Thats not entirely true. It is Mr. Trump who has decided to bring the tension with North Korea to a boil at this moment, and then keep turning up the flame.

Thats not to deny the real and vexing challenge posed by North Koreas nuclear weapons capability. Kim Jong Un, third-generation scion of one of the worlds cruelest regimes, is not well known or understood. His rhetoric toward South Korea, Japan and the United States is implacably hostile. His militarys steady advances in missile and warhead technology, year after year, are alarming.

The Obama administrations response to these advances was to do  well, not much of anything, under the euphemism of strategic patience. No one can claim this non-policy was a success. But Mr. Trumps policy of ever-escalating threats and boasts, descending to Mr. Kims level, raises the risk of dangerous miscalculation, which is then exacerbated by mixed messages from his administration.

What might work better? The United States enjoys vast military superiority over North Korea, and the Clinton administration seriously considered a preemptive strike two decades ago. But North Koreas arsenal today is more extensive, dispersed and hidden. And the chief drawback to military action then remains true: Even without nuclear weapons, North Korea could quickly unleash retaliatory strikes that could kill millions of people in Seoul and beyond. War with North Korea would be a horror.

The most merciful option for North Koreas 25 million people would be the end of the hereditary Kim regime, which keeps its population in what is essentially one large prison camp. A U.N. report three years ago found an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In North Koreas gulag, the report found, the inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide. Hundreds of thousands have died as a result. The diversion of massive resources to nuclear and other military programs, given most North Koreans poverty, is just one indication of misrule.

(Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Unfortunately, outside nations dont know how to loosen the grip of a tyrant such as Mr. Kim. For years, U.S. officials have hoped that China, upon which North Koreas economy depends, would help do so. But the Chinese communist regime, while at times annoyed by North Korea, fears the chaos of regime collapse, or the strengthening of a unified Korea, more than a nuclear North Korea, and so U.S. officials invariably end up disappointed.

That leaves two options. One is to live with a nuclear North Korea, as we have long lived with a nuclear China, hoping to deter its use of nuclear weapons by assuring Mr. Kim that his regimes destruction would immediately ensue. The other is to assemble a coalition of nations to impose economic sanctions sufficiently punitive and targeted at the regime that Mr. Kim decides he would be better off making a deal.

Our view remains that it is worth trying the latter before accepting the former. At times, as when it engineered a ratcheting up of U.N. Security Council sanctions not long ago, the Trump administration has seemed to share that view. An optimist might posit that Mr. Trumps bombast could persuade China, Russia and others to join in a sanctions regime because the alternative is so frightening. But to be successful, such a strategy also would require patience, diplomacy, coherence and quiet strength. Just to list those qualities is to acknowledge how unlikely success seems at this moment.
With some apprehension, I agreed to join colleagues from the Maryland General Assembly on a tour of the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to learn about forensic investigations, evidence collection and cause and manner of death, issues relevant to topics debated in the House Judiciary Committee.

They also are relevant to the states opioid epidemic.

Key to our tour was the autopsy room, where about 5,000 autopsies are conducted each year. After covering our street clothes, we entered one of the two refrigerated autopsy rooms. On that morning, the room had fewer than a dozen unclothed corpses, each on a separate stainless-steel operating table, awaiting dissection.

I had been cautioned that I would see dead people but was assured that the handling of the bodies would be professional, clinical and deferential. Still, proximity to dead bodies was unsettling to me, so instead of averting my eyes and covering my nose to avoid the unfamiliar smell, I moved to the observation deck to view the exams.

Deaths from overdoses are not the only casualties of the drug epidemic. The indelible image of a young male body with multiple stab wounds reminded me that our states drug-addiction crisis has deadly and wide-ranging effects.

The forensic medical center is a high-tech facility open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and staffed with more than 80 full-time employees and 120 part-time staff, including investigators and pathologists who perform forensic investigations, the primary tool to determine cause and manner of death. This state-of-the-art facility is reminiscent of a university medical facility, conducive to scientific inquiry. OCME staff are specifically trained to recognize patterns of injury, collect evidence and investigate circumstances surrounding deaths. The OCME is the only place that investigates referred cases (about one-third of all deaths) brought from anywhere in Maryland.

The OCME holds training programs for forensic investigators and law enforcement. The facility has a realistic house in which trainers stage crime scenes for students to hone their skills. At a death scene, after first-responders arrive, forensic investigators are called to record and report observations before the body is transferred to the OCME. Our visit to an exhibit room of dioramas that re-create death scenes illuminated the difficulty in determining cause of death. By Maryland law, the OCME determines the cause of death with a reasonable degree of certainty for deaths from injury, homicide, suicide or unusual or suspicious circumstances in which a person is not under a physicians care.

The OCME identifies mortality trends. A growing mortality trend in Maryland is opioid overdose. But overdose isnt the only cause of death associated with addiction. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug abuse leads to health and public safety risks including addiction-related crimes, drugged driving, infectious disease, low-birth-weight babies and infant deaths.

Last year, Maryland had a 66 percent surge in drug- and alcohol-related intoxication deaths. Many of these deaths were related to synthetic and prescription opioid-related overdoses, and they happen across race, age and economic levels. Understandably, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) declared a state of emergency.

Alcohol- and drug-related addiction can be treated as a public-health or a criminal-justice issue. The latter tactic, the war on drugs, has been tried in a failed, 40-year campaign intended to end the import, manufacture, sale and use of illegal drugs. It has done little to curtail drug addiction, but it has led to greater drug supply, mass incarceration and increased drug violence. Because of the war on drugs, many people view addiction as immoral or a character defect that requires punishment or incarceration.

Maryland is among the states allocating budget dollars to treating drug addiction as a chronic disease and creating policies to help people stop drug use, stay drug-free or delay the start of drug use.

Indeed, understanding the root cause deaths in our state can effect better public policy. I know Marylanders will be best served with an evolved drug policy, focused on addiction treatment, which will lead to fewer corpses at the shiny forensic medical center in Baltimore.

The writer, a Democrat, represents the 14th District in the Maryland House, where she serves on the Judiciary Committee.
As I was running out of space in my column last Sunday, I suggested without elaboration that the Democrats need an honest, hopeful approach to future campaigns. Some readers  quite reasonably  found that glib. But Im the wrong person to sketch a platform for Democrats, because, as an independent, Im not one. (Admittedly, that hasnt stopped Bernie Sanders.)

Will Marshall is a Democrat, well known to insiders for his long, sometimes lonely, battle to save his party from its suicidal left wing. In the 1980s, he joined Al From, Bruce Reed and others in an effort to drag the party toward the center after three epic defeats: Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush won the electoral college by a combined 1,440 to 174.

Their New Democrat movement found its face in Bill Clinton, whose upbeat centrism made him the first member of his party to win multiple terms since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Barack Obama went to school on Clintons rhetoric of optimistic pragmatism.

But memory can be short. The familiar pull from the left, personified by Sanders and his socialist surge, has steered Democrats back into the ditch. Since 2009, when Obama took office amid trumpet blasts of progressive glory, the party has lost the White House, Congress and more than 900 seats in state legislatures.

On Wednesday, Marshall launched his latest rescue project, called New Democracy and aimed at making the party competitive again in the vast countryside between the coasts. Founding members include Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former senator Mary Landrieu (La.), along with mayors of such cities as Tucson, Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh.

(Gillian Brockell,Kate Woodsome,Karen Attiah/The Washington Post)

Recognizing the deep dysfunction in Washington, Marshall aims to build from the grass roots on a foundation of practical problem-solving rather than cultural division. And he seeks to plant his party on choice political turf abandoned by extremes in both parties: the high ground of optimism.

Its shocking, really, how darkly pessimistic our politics have become. From the presidents American carnage inaugural address to the apocalyptic fevers of the alt-right, the Republican Party is captive to the sort of rhetoric that drives people to fill bunkers with freeze-dried goulash and homemade bullets. The Democrats, meanwhile, are in thrall to a fashionable gloom in which Americas past is only a litany of sins, its present a horror of injustices and its future an uninhabitable hothouse.

The deep pessimism that hangs like a pall over America is an anomaly, Marshall reminded me when we spoke about his endeavor. Its not the norm.

Theres no denying that the United States faces challenges, many of them as new and perplexing as the technology that drives them. How do we create broad prosperity in an economy that demands, and enables, relentless efficiency and cost-cutting? How do we meet the needs of longer lifespans in a time of shrinking birthrates? How do we create community and shared values when communication is radically personalized and targeted? These questions, and others like them, are vast and urgent  but are best answered incrementally and experimentally.

But the United States has always faced problems, and the good news is we still have a knack for meeting them. Ill give you an example. On the left were told that only fundamental changes to our lifestyles and economy can prevent an environmental disaster. From the right we hear that cutting greenhouse gas emissions will impose ruinous costs. Neither is necessarily true.

A huge share of greenhouse gas emissions  some 40 percent in the United States  come from buildings: our homes, offices, factories and so on. As recently as 2005, government scientists projected that emissions from this sector would rise more than 50 percent by 2016. Instead, building-sector emissions were 16 percent lower last year than in 2005, even though new construction had added more than 30 billion square feet. These amazing efficiency gains are saving U.S. homeowners and businesses hundreds of billions in lower energy bills.

According to the Climate Trust, Americas state and local governments, along with its world-beating private sector, can meet the goals of the Paris climate accord regardless of what happens in Washington. Indeed, they may well find their progress accelerating. These are the forces, after all, that have brought us energy independence, a widespread drop in crime rates and sharply falling water consumption, to pick just three thorny problems for which Americans are finding solutions.

Marshall is correct when he says, There is a huge vacuum for Democrats to reclaim a language of hope and progress. And Republicans might want to move in the same direction. The Americans I meet are tired of whining and blame games  and itching to tackle the future.

Read more from David Von Drehles archive.
Michael Gerson began his July 28 op-ed, The deliverance of a nation, with the statement that one of the greatest victories of World War II was the mass evacuation of British and French troops from the beach at Dunkirk in 1940. Most historians would disagree. Indeed, Winston Churchill himself said of this episode: We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.

Gail E. Makinen, Arlington

In his Aug. 1 op-ed, The Brits knew their enemy at Dunkirk, Richard Cohen lamented that the movie Dunkirk did not explicitly identify the enemy (Nazi Germany).

Cohen was correct to note the evilness of the Nazi ideology. But it was more: The early years of World War II were an existential struggle of those holding humanistic values treasured by all religions  predominantly Judeo-Christian among the English; Hindu and Islamic among the Indian  against a perverse, exclusionary European ideology that sought to obliterate races and values.

In an online WorldViews post, Ishaan Tharoor pointed out the films myopic exclusion of Indians.

People of many faiths share in the struggle for humanistic values, such as those of the Islamic faith who fight the Islamic State, which shares many of the aspects of Nazi ideology.

To exclude through oversight, as happened with Dunkirk, or through deliberate policy, as with the various immigration policies being instituted by our government, fails a key tenet of humanism: inclusion, which serves to strengthen us all.

Jim Cassedy, Hyattsville

I disagree with the Aug. 8 letter The relevant lesson from Dunkirk. The run-up to World War II featured German remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, in violation of the Versailles Treaty; the return to Germany of the Saar as the result of a free election; the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria in the spring of 1938, with the support of perhaps the majority of Austrians; and the annexation of the Sudetenland, as a result of the Munich Agreement. Only the remilitarization of the Rhineland offered a clear pretext for British and French intervention, and we now know that the token German force in the Rhineland had been ordered to retreat if such intervention occurred.

England and France had no military obligation to protect Poland. After the Germans entered Prague in March 1939, despite Adolf Hitlers having assured British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that he did not want a single Czech, it was obvious that Poland would be Hitlers next target. This led Britain and France to sign a treaty with Poland to come to its aid in the event of German (but not Soviet) intervention, despite the inability of Britain and France to get any sizable military force to Poland prior to the German attack on Sept. 1, 1939. Before that, Germany pressured Poland to return Danzig and the Polish corridor that separated most of Germany from East Prussia. When Poland did not, Hitler opted for war, having been assured by his foreign minister that Britain and France would not come to Polands aid. Also, the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 made it clear that anyone coming to Polands aid would confront Germanys new ally, the Soviet Union.

The defensive walls  i.e., the Maginot Line  werent as bad an idea as commonly thought. The key problem was Belgian neutrality, which prevented the extension of the Maginot Line northward into Belgian territory, through which the German attack had come in 1914 and would come again in the spring of 1940. We will never know what might have happened if the Maginot Line had been completed along the entire Belgian-German border and if the French military hadnt regarded the Ardennes as impenetrable.

Dunkirk happened because the Germans were simultaneously able to smash through Belgian defenses and penetrate the Ardennes . Historians still dispute why the Wehrmacht allowed the Dunkirk pocket to remain open as long as it was, which made the retreat of much of the British army and some French and Belgian forces possible.

Steven Shore, Columbia
ON JULY 19, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure. The group, headed by high-profile real estate developers Richard LeFrak and Steven Roth, is tasked with developing recommendations to overhaul the countrys aging roads, rails and ports. There is just one problem: The council may have been advising the president for months before he signed the order.

Why does this technicality matter? Well, according to a lawsuit by Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit focusing on government accountability relating to food and water resources, this could place the council in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The act requires public notice of an advisory panels members and meetings  information that the Trump administration has not yet released. Of course, there may not be much to disclose. But its not hard to imagine why the appointment of two major developers to an advisory council on infrastructure might raise concerns about conflicts of interest. More transparency about the councils activities could clear up a lot of doubt.

This is not the first time the Trump administration with its many advisory groups has clashed with government-transparency advocates . The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar lawsuit against the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity last month, arguing that the White House was slow to release its meeting schedule and records. Ethics watchdogs have complained that Mr. Trumps CEO advisory council, Superfund task force and committee convened to select Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch may have violated disclosure requirements  or deliberately structured them to avoid being subjected to the law  as well. Most recently, a New York Times investigation revealed that the Trump administration has been opaque about the members of its deregulation task forces.

The Trump administration could chart a better course by releasing more information to the public. We have previously called for the White House to release its visitor records and disclose Mr. Trumps tax returns and more information about his business. With the cloud of the Russia investigation hanging over the White House, these measures are more important than ever. But it is also crucial that the administration extend these transparency standards to its advisory panels, which would otherwise operate with little accountability. Mr. Trump is entitled to his choice of advisers, but the administration should release their names and meeting schedules. The American public has the right to know.
Regarding the Aug. 10 front-page article Personal pain in engaging with former neo-Nazi:



George Mason University instructor Kevin Fornshills assignment to write a letter to a former neo-Nazi is disturbing. I am a Jewish woman whose mother fled Germany in 1939. Mr. Fornshills compassion for former neo-Nazi Sean Gillespie is commendable, but the teachers personal relationship should not extend to requiring his students to write letters to a man who committed a heinous hate crime. Students may be unwilling to object to this, as their grade or college standing may be affected. However intended, this assignment is insensitive to those who have been at the receiving end of prejudice.

Barbara Stanton, Baltimore
Alexis Lacks, 34, left, and Mariah Smith, 20, center, discuss menstrual products dropped of by the non-profit BRAWS at Friends of Guest House in Alexandria on July 11. (Allison Shelley/For The Washington Post)

Regarding the Aug. 8 front-page article Free access to tampons gains political traction:

The rate at which we are discovering new human rights requiring tax subsidy or outright funding by taxpayers has positively Malthusian implications. What is next? Toilet paper? Insect repellent to protect me from the West Nile and Zika viruses? Laundry detergent? Body soap?

Already, our generation has indulged in a public borrowing and spending spree at the expense of our children and grandchildren that has the potential to ruin their futures. When will it stop? The claim that its not very much money accompanies each of these new rights. Meanwhile, the mountain of debt being passed to later generations gets higher and higher.

Robert Tenney, Gaithersburg
As a former Moscow correspondent for The Post, I probably should not admit this, but until this summer I had never read Leo Tolstoys War and Peace.

Now I can report from the far shore:

It is as long as everyone says.

It is as good as everyone says. No, better.

It is about Donald Trump and how we should respond to his presidency.

(Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

You doubt that last one? Then listen to this:

A man of no convictions, no habits, no traditions. . . . The incompetence of his colleagues, the weakness and insignificance of his opponents, the frankness of the deception, and the dazzling and self-confident limitation of the man raise him to the head . . . and without attaching himself to any one of them, advances to a prominent position, Tolstoy writes.

Eerie, right? The dazzling and self-confident limitation of the man.

Okay, I dropped a couple of words from the passage. Tolstoy actually wrote the seething parties of France, and the head of the army. He was in fact describing not our president but Napoleon, for whom the Russian author harbored a magnificent contempt.

But the masterpiece does resonate, not only for that coincidence of description  and not only because, these days, everything seems to be about Donald Trump.

In his novel framed by Napoleons invasion of and retreat from Russia in 1812, Tolstoy asks: What moves events? Is it, as commonly assumed, great men such as Napoleon and Czar Alexander I? Or is it the separate decisions of thousands of individuals: soldiers, peasants, shopkeepers, lords?

(Adriana Usero,Osman Malik/The Washington Post)

It is the latter, Tolstoy says. Their actions flow together into a force that czars and generals can only pretend to control.

Which, if even only partly true, seems to have some lessons for today.

Trump has been posited as a threat in many directions: to the rule of law, to civility and truth, to Americas standing in the world as a beacon of freedom and democracy. But maybe no threat is more serious than his assault on the idea of America as a nation that welcomes newcomers and outsiders and allows them, in their turn, to become American.

From announcing his candidacy with a warning about Mexican rapists pouring across the border to inaugurating his presidency with a ban on immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries, to embracing just a few days ago a proposal to sharply limit immigration of unskilled workers, Trump has exploited fears of non-white, non-Christian, non-English-speaking others.

This is particularly dangerous because it speaks to a sentiment that existed long before Trump came along  that always has existed in American political culture.

Lets pause to stipulate that you can oppose immigration without being racist. Until we fulfill John Lennons vision (Imagine theres no countries . . . ), we are all in one sense arguing about numbers, not principle. I can make a case that the current annual limit of 1 million legal immigrants is better for the economy, and the country, than Trumps proposed 500,000, and that 2 million might be better still. But even my higher cap would leave millions more on the outside wanting to come in.

What is a matter of principle is how you define being an American: Is it a question of blood, of how long you and your ancestors have been here, of whether you accept America as a Christian nation? Or is it based on your devotion to its foundational idea  that all men and women are created equal?

That battle is being fought in the courts, and it will be fought in Congress. But the essential battle for the nations soul will be fought by every one of us, every day.

It is a battle we will win by embracing each others humanity: by welcoming the mosque down the street, helping a dreamer stay in school, translating a form for the parent at the next desk at back-to-school night. It is a battle, as Tolstoy would have understood, that will be won or lost by the nations soldiers, farmers and shopkeepers, and by its nurses and factory workers and teachers and office workers, too; by each of us, day by day, encounter by encounter.

Tolstoy wasnt totally right about history. Even the mountebanks, the leaders of no convictions, can shift the course of events. But the rest of us, impelled by the generosity that has made America a great country, may have more power than we think.

Read more from Fred Hiatts archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
AS SEASONED prosecutors know, juries are generally loath to convict police officers, including in fatal shootings or negligent deaths, especially if there is a remotely plausible case that the officer acted in self-defense. To secure a guilty verdict, a jury would have to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an officer had no cause to fear for his or her life and had intentionally used excessive force  a tall order.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia declined to seek criminal charges against a District police officer, Brian Trainer, who fatally shot an unarmed motorcyclist in September. The motorcyclist, Terrence Sterling, 31, had allegedly led officers on a pre-dawn, high-speed chase in Northwest Washington. His blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit, and tests indicated hed been smoking marijuana. When a police car finally pulled in front of Sterling, in an attempt to apprehend him, he revved his bike and bumped it into the cars door as Mr. Trainer tried to exit the vehicle, denting it. Mr. Trainer then fired two shots through the patrol cars open window, killing Sterling.

As is often the case, the facts are less than clear-cut. Two witnesses who saw the shooting said Sterling seemed intent on evading the police, not hurting them. They said the officer issued no warning before opening fire. Whether Mr. Trainer had a reasonable fear that his life was in jeopardy, and really acted in self-defense, would have been a major point of contention at trial, had there been one. And remember: Juries are generally reluctant to convict police officers who can make a plausible case.

Mr. Trainer, who has been an officer for five years, has been asked to resign by the police force, which is conducting an internal investigation of his actions up to and including the shooting. He is also the subject of a $50 million wrongful-death suit brought by Sterlings family. He may still face consequences, in other words.

Nonetheless, there are legitimate questions about whether the police have been subject to real accountability in Sterlings death, especially given that no District police officer has ever been the subject of criminal charges for a fatal shooting in the line of duty. The fact that Mr. Trainer did not activate his body-worn camera until at least a minute after the shooting only deepens concerns about this incident. And its troubling that it took the U.S. Attorneys Office 11 months to reach its decision not to indict.

A wide-ranging independent report last year on police reforms concluded that intentional shootings by District police officers had decreased sharply since the turn of the century, with officer-involved fatal shootings in the relatively low range of three to eight annually since 2009. Thats encouraging, but it does not justify even one unnecessary  and possibly unwarranted  death.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania and is co-author of The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools.

True or false: In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed colleges to give a leg up in admissions to members of groups that had been kept down by historic discrimination.

If you said true, think again. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke , the court said that colleges could consider race to enhance student diversity but not to compensate for prior discrimination.

Thats how we arrived at our curious cul-de-sac on affirmative action, which has made it harder for Asian Americans to get into elite colleges. At many schools, meanwhile, its also more difficult for women to gain admission than for men.

(Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Thats a travesty. And those of us who believe in affirmative action  for African Americans and for other historically underprivileged groups  should be the first to admit it.

When news broke that the Trump administration was seeking lawyers to investigate and litigate intentional race-based discrimination in higher education, most of my fellow liberals saw it as a sop to President Trumps white base.

But White House officials have since clarified that their intent is to find lawyers inside the Justice Department who could examine a 2015 complaint by a coalition of 64 Asian American associations claiming that Harvard University discriminated in its admission policies. A lawsuit against the school on behalf of Asian American applicants is pending.

Research from Princeton University sociologists shows that Asian Americans need SAT scores 140 points higher than white students  when all other things are equal  to get into elite colleges. Asian American applicants are heavily overrepresented among high-achieving students, so the only way we can create balance on our campuses  or so the argument goes  is by limiting their admissions.

Ditto for teenage girls , who are outpacing boys in our secondary schools. As several recent studies have confirmed, high school girls study more  and, not surprisingly, get better grades  than high school boys do.

So its also harder for them to get into elite colleges, which want to maintain a gender balance as well as a racial one. In 2007, U.S. News and World Report found that the college admission rate for girls was 13 percent lower than that of boys. And in 2014, The Post reported that 64 elite schools  including Brown, Amherst and Wesleyan  made it harder for girls than for boys to get in.

So now men enjoy affirmative action, vis-a-vis women. And most of the recipients of this assistance are whites, who also receive an advantage when competing head-to-head with Asians.

(Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

Affirmative action for white men? Really?

We can debate the degree to which discrimination continues to influence the lives of Asian Americans and women. But we cant deny that they have experienced discrimination for many centuries, which is why so many of us bridle at the higher bars they face in college admissions.

Asians were banned from our shores before any other racial or ethnic group was. They were segregated in urban ghettos and lynched by violent mobs. Women were denied the right to vote, to inherit property and to practice most professions.

Thats obviously different from the experience of white men, who historically have benefited from every advantage that America confers. We can disagree about how much this pattern continues to influence present-day life chances. But the pattern itself is clear.

True, the Bakke decision rejected prior discrimination as a rationale for affirmative action. Compensating minorities for the prejudice they experienced would cause innocent persons . . . to bear the burdens of redressing grievances not of their making, the Supreme Court ruled.

But surely, we can ask our colleges to avoid placing burdens on groups that have already borne them. Im fine with giving an advantage to a black or Latino student over a white man  when all other things are equal  to enhance diversity on our campuses. But benefiting the white male over a superior Asian American or female candidate makes no sense; indeed, it makes a mockery of affirmative action itself.

And, in the end, that benefits Trump and his supporters. The worst thing my fellow liberals could do is to circle the wagons around our present system, which has worked against some of the same groups that we claim to represent. Every college admissions process is a zero-sum game, meaning somebody has to lose. The only way to defend affirmative action is to be much more honest about who wins and why.
President Trumps approval rating is at 38 percent. His base is said to be eroding. Average approval of the Republican-controlled Congress is at 16 percent. And the president is at war with his partys leaders. For Democrats, whats not to like? The answer isnt as obvious as it might sound.

Trump and the Republicans have concluded one of the least productive first six months of a new presidency. No signature piece of legislation has reached the presidents desk, and the notable failure to enact a health-care bill stands as an indictment against both the president and GOP congressional leaders.

Thats not to say Trump hasnt had successes. On some fronts, particularly the regulatory rollback that he and Republicans have promised, the president has made progress. He has followed through on his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration (and now even legal immigration). The toughened policies appease his supporters and alarm his opponents. In other areas, trade for example, his presidency has been more bold talk than vigorous action.

With each presidential stumble or controversy, Democrats look to 2018 and anticipate significant gains. They are virtually guaranteed to pick up seats in the House, given the history of midterm elections. The question is how many. A tidal wave of opposition to a Republican president, like that of 2006, could sweep Republicans out of power in the House. But is that in the offing?

Democrats see evidence in polls and focus groups of an electorate receptive to moving in their direction. They see energy in the number of candidates willing to step forward and run for office. They are confident that the anger that put so many people on the streets early in Trumps presidency will carry forward to the ballot box 15 months from now, although evidence about enthusiasm among Democrats and Republicans offers a mixed picture.

(Gillian Brockell,Kate Woodsome,Karen Attiah/The Washington Post)

But there are other factors that could frustrate the Democrats, from the state of the economy to obstacles created by structural aspects of a polarized electorate to the peculiar ways in which the president defies or at least confounds some traditional measures of public opinion.

[Centrist Democrats push back against Sanders and partys liberal wing]

It is remarkable that the presidents average approval rating is below 40 percent at a time when the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low and the stocks have hit record highs this summer, at least until jittery markets reacted to warnings by the president of possible military conflict with North Korea.

The economy is not soaring, as the president often suggests. But it remains on the path of steady, if slow, growth that marked the Obama years. The benefits of growth remain uneven; many Americans either dont see bigger paychecks or dont feel they are getting ahead. Trump promises even more robust growth, a pledge that could be difficult to fulfill.

Democratic strategists are aware of the mismatch between the presidents approval and the state of the economy and hope that the midterm elections will be simply a referendum on the president, as first midterms often are. But if there is no significant economic retrenchment over the coming year, the head winds buffeting Republicans could be reduced.

The presidents approval is lower than any past president after 200-plus days in office, a few points lower than former president Bill Clintons was at this point in his presidency. Clinton saw his party lose control of the House in 1994.

Democrats hope to see a replay of the 2006 midterm, when they took advantage of dissatisfaction with President George W. Bush to regain control of the House. But between 2006 and today, something important happened. The shape of congressional districts changed and changed in the direction of the Republicans.

Part of this was through redistricting and the success of Republicans in the states to draw lines most favorable to them. Part of it has come through the sorting out of the population. Democrats are now heavily clustered in urban areas; Republicans are spread more evenly elsewhere. That makes it more difficult for Democrats to compete in some congressional districts.

Add to that the reality that in a red-blue nation, red areas have become redder and blue areas bluer. Especially in Senate races, that tilts the field toward the Republicans.

[Republicans feel heat at home over health care]

Democratic strategists with long experience in House races say that the overall environment looks as good or better now than it did at this point in the 2006 cycle, by which they mean the presidents standing, the strength or weakness of Republican incumbents and the quality of Democratic recruits. But the shape of the map is challenging, more so than in 2006.

David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report noted this past week that the pro-Republican bias of the House and Senate puts Democrats at an obvious disadvantage now and possibly well into the future.

Even if Democrats were to win every single 2018 House and Senate race for seats representing places that Hillary Clinton won or that Trump won by less than three percentage points  a pretty good midterm by historical standards  they could still fall short of the House majority and lose five Senate seats, he wrote.

He said that, while Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by 2.1 percentage points, Republicans won the median House seat by 3.4 points and the median Senate seat by 3.6 points, the widest difference for the Senate in history and tied for the widest House difference.

That doesnt mean Democrats cant win the House and Senate back, he added. They won control of both chambers in 2006 despite a Republican bias that year, for example. But theyre starting from a truly historic geographic disadvantage, even with the political wind at their back.

Another difference today compared with 2006 is that partisan lines have hardened even further, meaning the number of swing voters has been reduced. Midterm electorates tend to favor Republicans  the voters are on average older and sometimes include a smaller percentage of minority voters than in presidential years. Democrats must offset that disadvantage by capturing a bigger percentage of independent or swing voters. But fewer voters today are genuinely independent.

John Lapp, a Democratic strategist who was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when the party captured the House in 2006, said, I think the battlefield will increase for Democrats. But there is much more partisanship than in 2006. There were more persuadable voters then. Its much, much tougher to persuade that tinier sliver of persuadable votes.

One other wild card is the relationship between Trumps numbers and the GOPs fate in the fall of 2018. His approval ratings are so low that Republicans should brace for substantial losses, big enough to cost them the House. Also, his current distemper toward his partys leaders could pose turnout issues next year.

But Trumps numbers sometimes defy conventional analysis. On Election Day last November, about 6 in 10 voters said they did not think Trump was qualified to be president. Enough of them cast their votes for him to make him president.

Lastly, but not insignificantly, there are the Democrats internal problems  the divisions between the left wing of the party and more moderate progressives, and the related challenge of developing a message with broader appeal. Democrats could do well in 2018 with nothing more than an anti-Trump message, but that might be shortsighted.

Democrats can win the popular vote for president by rolling up huge margins in California and New York and big cities elsewhere, as they did in 2016. They cant win the House and particularly the Senate that way. They need a message that appeals beyond their base, and they need more candidates who can compete effectively in less friendly territory.
Democrats may have a new opening to set boundaries on President Trumps authority over the investigations into his 2016 presidential campaign.

For the past week, Trump and his allies have been hammering away at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the GOPs failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump has mocked McConnell and his lieutenants on social media for abandoning the health-care effort. Coupled with Trumps recent attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the rift between the president and Senate Republicans is growing.

Now the question is whether Democrats can seize on these moments and extract actual results in putting up barriers between Trump, the Justice Department and special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation.

So far, Democrats have devoted most of their time to forging a new policy agenda to show voters next year what they would do if given power. They want voters to know the party would do more than just investigate Trump and focus on scandals.

Senate Republicans have tolerated Trumps controversies. His treatment of Sessions is different.

President Donald Trump speaks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, right, during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, June 06, 2017. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Post) (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

That focus has left a void in their messaging regarding the Russia investigation. It sometimes leads to a cacophony of voices and ideas shouted into the winds of the Internet every time theres a new revelation about Trumps campaign and ties to Russia.

Some Democrats want to forge a broad bipartisan coalition to put the brakes on Trump, even if it means setting aside policy disputes for the time being.

Were going to need a temporary alliance of progressives and conservatives to save the country, and then we can get back to fighting over the size and scope of the government, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in an interview before Congress left earlier this month for the August recess. This is a national emergency, and were going to have to lay down our arms on some of these public-policy issues long enough to reassert that there are, in fact, three separate, coequal branches of government and we are a country of laws and not men.

But others suggest that investigations by Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are well underway and that Democrats need patience.

Were seriously into it, and I have to say that the Republicans, theyre not obstructing anymore. They are all moving forward and they all understand how serious this is, said Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and serves on the intelligence panel.

This Democratic dilemma was captured the night that Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) posted an excerpt from his new book, Conscience of a Conservative, criticizing congressional Republican leaders for not forcefully confronting Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Three top Democratic strategists reacted completely differently to the Arizona Republicans criticism of his own party. Brave and well argued. I hope both sides have his back, Robby Mook, the 2016 campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, tweeted.

(The Washington Post)

Im much more concerned with his actual voting record. Writing a column is a lot easier than voting against TrumpCare, Guy Cecil, head of the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, tweeted.

Brian Fallon, a top press aide in the Clinton campaign, called the Flake book the equivalent of just a bunch of tweets [u]ntil it is matched by any real action.

For now, there has been little to no effort by Democrats to define any real action. Do they expect Republicans to vote against Trumps policy positions because of the shadow of the Russia investigation? Do they want to push for impeachment proceedings? Do they want Republicans to join Flake in a chorus of Trump criticism?

Senators unveil two proposals to protect Muellers Russia probe

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wants Republicans to start backing up their critiques of Trump with legislative action.

After Trump tried to implement an entry ban affecting several majority-Muslim nations, Murphy introduced legislation to block the executive order and hoped for bipartisan support, given how many Republicans criticized Trumps call for such a ban during the presidential campaign.

I heard a lot of Republicans vigorously complain about the Muslim ban, but none of them were willing to move legislation to stop it, Murphy said.

He applauded Republicans for joining Democrats in approving new sanctions against Russia, overwhelmingly passing legislation that also tied Trumps hands if he tried to waive those penalties.

A good first step for Democrats might be pressuring more Republicans to support proposed legislation that would restrict a presidents ability to fire a special counsel, considering two high-profile Republicans are already supporting such an effort.

Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) have each joined Democrats to offer bills that would require a panel of judges to sign off on the firing of Mueller or any special counsel. This would limit the presidents and the attorney generals ability to shut down the investigation.

Given Senate Republicans current feelings toward Trump, Democrats might be able to get many Republicans to sign on to one or both bills, sending a warning shot at the president.

Schatz said those are the sort of actions that he is looking for in Republicans, hoping that more of them would publicly declare that one of the bright lines that Trump cannot cross would be firing Sessions or Mueller.

Schatz, firmly in his caucuss liberal wing, dismissed his allies who are critical of Republicans for continuing to vote in a conservative direction. He does not expect Republicans to start opposing conservative legislation or nominees such as Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch just because Trump is president.

Thats a misunderstanding of who Jeff Flake is; hes a conservative, Schatz said. We cant expect them to become Democrats, but we want them to be small-R republicans, and we need them to help the president understand what the boundaries are in a republic.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Alexandre Beretta, a 23-year-old French-Irish mural painter and street artist who lives in Lyon, France, plans to bond Butte with Ireland, so to speak.

Creating a 9-foot-by-18-foot acrylic mural painting during An Ri Ra, Alex plans to work in real time as fest-goers train their eyes on him during the 2017 festival at the Original mineyard venue.

Inspired by Michelangelo's "Adam," a world-famous Sistine Chapel fresco illustrating the Biblical moment when God breathes life into Adam, Alex plans to pair a Butte miner with surrounding landmarks to images of Mad4Trad, his younger musician cousins playing the festival.

"It will be a meeting between American culture and Irish culture," said the shy, curly-haired blond with a beard. "I want to present my own vision."

In June he graduated from a rigorous three-year art program, ECohlCite, an international art school for mural painting in France. Previously, he completed one year focused on drawing at Emile Cohl School of Art and a year in a visual communication school in Paris.

Initially, Alex received his 2012 high school diploma in science before focusing on the arts.

His style is a mix of street art and classical art, which he plans to display at An Ri Ra. He likes to mix mediums, using brushes and sprays.

"I am really happy to paint at the Irish festival among my Irish cousins," wrote Alex in an email while en route to Butte with Mad4Trad. "They are really appreciable persons, their music is strong and we are in a same artistic point of view mixing tradition and contemporary in our own way."

He and younger brother Adrien are staying with their uncle, Father Patrick Beretta of Butte, for two weeks while Mad4Trad must return home on Monday due to other commitments.

"We have no plans for the moment, but we're sure it will be an awesome journey with this festival, meeting our family and have some time in the 'wild' USA," said Alex.

The only other time he visited the U.S. was in 2012 in Seattle, where his aunt lives.

"This is my first time in Butte, Montana, and I am really excited about it! As I heard, there's lot of nature around, so that makes me really happy to see the 'wild part' of the U.S.  completely different from what we can see on TV about New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, etc."

Alex said his artistic influences  casual and established  exist everywhere:

"Life in its own inspires me. I can be as inspired by a chocolate cookie as a tree as a sculpture or even as a person I met. I love nature and to travel. I am particularly inspired by Banksy, Shepard Fairey (aka Obey), C215, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Poussin, Caravaggio, Rodin, Bernini, Renzo Piano and many, many, many others."

His murals burst with detailed, everyday street scenes full of life and poster-like pieces that are sometimes whimsical, sometimes political, often thought-provoking. He recently created his own mural painting society called Alex Beretta at www.alex-muralpainter.com.

His posters can be downloaded for free on his Facebook page, Alex Beretta (O'Reilly) Murals. His Instagram handle is @beretta.alex.art.

His calendar teems with bookings, as he will exhibit at a large Lyon street art festival in September to support the firemen's regional professional training center.

In October and November, he will work with children on art projects and murals in the Philippines as part of an international residency program. Next year, he will paint another big mural in his hometown, Lyon.

His Uncle Patrick  Father Beretta  said his nephew will also be part of a Smithers Photography project this fall in Butte.

In 2018, Alex will return to Butte as an artist-in-residence at the Clark Chateau, 321 W. Broadway St., where he will do what he does best  paint a mural.

In his spare time, Alex competes in world-level competition roller blading. It remains to be seen whether Uptown Butte's hills will cast their spell on him, enticing him to blade during breaks from his An Ri Ra mural.

No matter where he lands, his artistic vision is clear:

"Meeting new people and discovering new cultures are my real hobbies," added Alex. "This is why I am planning to explore the world traveling, and painting in each country to bring colors and joy to the whole world."
One by one, the infants and children slipped away Thursday night, their parents watching helplessly as oxygen supplies at the government hospital ran dangerously low.

At least 30 children died Thursday and into Friday at a hospital in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after its supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted over an unpaid bill, officials said. A Home Ministry spokesman told the Press Trust of India, citing police reports, that 21 of the deaths were directly linked to a shortage of oxygen.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. as medical practitioners and relatives  the tanks running dry  handed out manual resuscitator bags to families in a desperate attempt to save the young patients.

We saw children dying around us, said the father of one victim, who gave his name only as Vijay. Obviously, its the hospitals fault. So many children have died because of them. My son was fine until nighttime, then something wrong happened.

Two more children died Saturday at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, an impoverished area in the eastern part of the state, as authorities scrambled to firm up supplementary supplies and investigate the tragedy. The government suspended the medical college principal Saturday.

The states health minister and hospital officials have denied charges that the deaths were caused by the oxygen bill dispute. An estimated 60 children have died at the hospital since Aug. 7 from a variety of causes, officials said.

In a news conference Saturday, the states chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the tragedy despicable and said the state had set up a committee to investigate the role of the oxygen vendor.

The guilty will not be spared, Adityanath said.

Parents of the victims described feelings of anger and bewilderment over the incident, saying they were struggling with guilt over not being able to save their children.

The idea is devastating  that she had to suffer while trying to breathe, said Manger Rajbhar, the father of a 5-day-old girl who died in the chaos.

The deaths provoked widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum and on social media, where a political cartoon spread that showed the babies as little angels hovering in the sky as an Indian government official tries to reach them.

30 kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. Its a massacre, Indian Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, a child advocate, said in a tweet. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children? (The country is set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its independence from Britain on Tuesday.)

The hospital owed $89,750 to a Lucknow-based medical supply company called Pushpa Sales Private Limited, documents obtained by The Washington Post show, and the firm had written letters to the hospital and district magistrate for the past six months demanding payment. The company asserted that the hospital was violating the terms of its contract by running a balance of more than $15,625. The agreement expired July 31, and Pushpa discontinued the oxygen supply Aug. 4.

On Thursday, employees who handled the storage plant that pipes the oxygen wrote to the hospitals chief medical officer to warn him that supplies were low and would last only until Thursday evening, according to a letter obtained by the news channel NDTV. The oxygen supply then dipped to a critical level, the channel said.

State officials claimed they had obtained sufficient backup supplies from nearby nursing homes.

The hospital is in Adityanaths parliamentary constituency. The controversial monk, who was tapped by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party to head Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, is the longtime head of a large temple there.

Adityanath had visited the hospital this week to inaugurate a new critical-care unit. Many of the young patients were suffering from encephalitis, a potentially deadly illness that causes acute swelling of the brain. The disease is often spread by mosquitoes, and infections rise during the monsoon season.

Zahid Ali, the father of a 5-year-old girl suffering from encephalitis, said he and other family members were still in shock after the death of his daughter Khushi on Friday night.

Ali said Khushi, who was running a high fever, had been admitted to the hospitals encephalitis ward Thursday. She was responding to treatment while on oxygen, he said, but her condition deteriorated as the cylinders ran dry that night.

Hospital staff gave the parents a manual resuscitator and asked them to pump it themselves, he said, and he watched in horror as his daughter first became breathless, then turned stiff and cold.

At that time, I understood that my daughter was gone, but doctors kept on telling me that she is still alive, he said. She was pronounced dead several hours later.

Arjumand Bano in Gorakhpur and Farheen Fatima in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Read more

Modis party picks Yogi Adityanath, strident Hindu nationalist priest, as leader of Indias biggest state

The new leader of Indias largest state, Yogi Adityanath, launches anti-Romeo squads to protect women

Deaths shine light on horrible conditions in Indias mass sterilization camps

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
One day after President Uhuru Kenyatta was reelected in a fiercely contested and divisive vote, violence erupted across parts of Kenya in clashes between protesters and security forces.

At least 24 people, including a 6-year-old child, have been killed since the election results were announced Friday night, according to the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights.

Deaths can be directly linked to the elections and post-election environment, said Kagwiria Mbogori, chairman of the commission. Family and community members have indicated they were killed during the protests, which broke out in some parts of the country after the polls.

Mbogori said that loss of life is attributed to police using live ammunition and that 17 deaths were confirmed in Nairobi, the capital, alone.

In Kibera, Nairobis largest slum, residents said that at least six people were killed late Friday and early Saturday in clashes with police. Young men in the slum had promised for days to hold demonstrations if Kenyatta defeated their candidate, Raila Odinga, who has not yet accepted the results or conceded, raising concerns of further violence.

1 of 69 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Violence erupts following the election results in Kenya View Photos Kenya's election commission announced on Aug. 11 that President Uhuru Kenyatta has won a second term as opposition candidate Raila Odinga claimed the vote was rigged. Protests and clashes with police followed voting. Caption Kenya's election commission announced on Aug. 11 that President Uhuru Kenyatta has won a second term as opposition candidate Raila Odinga claimed the vote was rigged. Protests and clashes with police followed voting. Aug. 12, 2017 A supporter of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga stands in front of a burning barricade while engaging in battle with riot police officers during a protest in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. Since the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenyan president on Aug. 11, supporters of Odinga, who reject the official result, started rioting in various areas in and outside of Nairobi. A number of people have been killed in violent protests, the media reports say. Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency Wait 1 second to continue.

Kenyas acting security minister, Fred Matiangi, has disputed accusations that police had shot protesters, telling reporters Saturday that officers did not use live bullets and adding that the country was safe and secure.

But Mbogori said the commission can confirm that there has been excessive use of force and misuse of firearms by security personnel dealing with members of the public who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly in accordance with our constitution.

[Opposition candidate Odinga rejects Kenya vote]

Although Kenya is considered a pillar of stability in East Africa, it is riven by tribal tensions that rise to the surface during national elections. In 2007, more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence in the wake of that years election.

This year, the response to Kenyattas victory appears more tempered, with security forces more prepared than they were a decade ago. But residents in Nairobi and parts of western Kenya raised allegations of police shooting wildly at protesters.

In Mathare, another Nairobi slum, a 6-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet while on the balcony of her house, according to residents.

The police were shooting in the air to disperse the crowds, said Boniface Okoth, a resident of Mathare. The child came to the balcony to check what was going on. She was shot and died on the spot.

Separately, Reuters reported that nine men in Mathare were killed overnight. A security official told Reuters that they were killed in an anti-looting operation.

There were also protests in the western city of Kisumu, where police used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Reuters reported that one man was killed there.

According to the official results, Kenyatta received 54.2 percent of the vote to Odingas 44.7 percent. Odinga has alleged that those results were manipulated, claiming the countrys electoral commission was part of the coverup. But international election observers said they considered the vote to be credible.

In Kibera, Celine Adhiambo said police were marching deep inside the slum on Friday night and Saturday morning.

We do not know where they took the bodies, she said. We are in great danger.

There were also protests in western Nyanza province. The regional coordinator there said that young men attempted to attack police with rocks but that police dealt with the situation and cleared the roads.

Kenyatta has pledged to address the countrys divide in his second term, saying in his acceptance speech Friday: We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic.

Read more

Kenya votes: Economy is in spotlight but tribal rifts are in the wings

Who are the men competing to be president of Kenya?

Kenya elections reveal an electorate divided by tribe

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, seen on July 28 in Beijing, spoke to President Trump via phone on Friday. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged President Trump to exercise restraint over tensions with North Korea during a phone call Friday night, Chinese state media reported.

After a week of threats and counterthreats between Washington and Pyongyang, Xi urged both sides not to do anything that would aggravate tensions, Chinas CGTN state television network reported.

But North Korea continued to fuel tension Saturday, with the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reporting that almost 3.5 million people, including students and retired soldiers, have asked to join or rejoin the North Korean military to fight against the United States over the latest sanctions it encouraged through the U.N. Security Council.

All the people are rising up across the country to retaliate against the U.S. thousands of times, said the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers Party. The report was almost certainly bluster rather than fact, but it showed that the North Korean regime is not backing down in the face of Trumps threats.

Meanwhile, Japan finished installing surface-to-air missile interceptors in the western prefectures that North Korea said would be in the flight path of any missiles launched toward Guam, where North Korea is threatening an enveloping strike.

(Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

In South Korea, the government began the environmental survey needed to complete the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system  a sign that the liberal government is now trying to expedite the deployment.

[ Calls for U.S.-North Korea diplomacy vie with fresh threats ]

In his phone call with Trump, Xi said China hoped the parties concerned would exercise restraint and refrain from taking any action that will aggravate tensions on the peninsula, according to CGTN. Dialogue, negotiations and a political settlement are the fundamental ways of solving the Korean Peninsulas nuclear issue, Xi said during the call, which took place Saturday Beijing time.

The Chinese leader expressed Beijing's willingness to maintain communication with the U.S. to appropriately resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the network reported.

Trump, who is scheduled to visit China later this year, on Tuesday threatened to respond to further threats from North Korea by unleashing fire and fury like the world has never seen.

Pyongyang in turn said it could strike the U.S. territory of Guam in the Western Pacific with ballistic missiles. In his latest salvos in the war of words, Trump said Friday that the U.S. military was locked and loaded and that North Korea would truly regret it if it attacked Guam.

China has viewed the rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang with some alarm and has repeatedly urged dialogue to lower tensions. Although China supported stiffer United Nations sanctions last weekend after repeated North Korean missile tests, Chinese officials also want a restart of six-party talks, which stalled in 2009. Those talks would involve North and South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

(Anna Fifield,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

[ Fight tonight? Explaining Trumps retweet that says U.S. bombers are ready to strike ]

The war of words has given China the chance to project itself as the voice of reason and restraint while others lose their heads. It argues that Washingtons long-standing belligerence toward North Korea helps explain why the regime has chosen to develop a nuclear weapons program  dodging its own responsibility for propping up the North Korean government.

Xi stressed that China and the U.S. share the same interests on the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula, CGTN said.

But China is deeply resistant to doing anything that could destabilize or topple the regime in Pyongyang. The Chinese government has worked to prevent a unified Korean state allied to the United States, going all the way back to the 1950-53 Korean War that saw hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers die. China remains North Koreas major trading partner, providing the regimes economic lifeline.

In an editorial on Friday, Chinas state owned Global Times newspaper warned that China wont come to North Koreas aid if it launches missiles threatening U.S. soil and there is retaliation  but that China would intervene if Washington strikes first.

China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral, the Global Times wrote. If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.

[ How the world is reacting to the war of words between Trump and North Korea ]

As tension mounted this week, Japan prepared for the missile launches, which North Korea indicated could come this month.

Two events could provide triggers. North Korea on Tuesday will celebrate Liberation Day, marking Japan's defeat in World War II and the end of its colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Then the United States and South Korea on Aug. 21 will begin joint military exercises, drills that North Korea considers preparation for an invasion.

In announcing that it might simultaneously fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles over western Japan toward Guam, North Korea listed the prefectures of Hiroshima, Shimane and Kochi as on the flight path.

The Maritime Self Defense Force, as Japans navy is known, already has Aegis destroyers ready to shoot down any missiles flying over, but the Air Self Defense Force on Saturday deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, which have a range of about 12 miles, to the areas Saturday in case the missiles come down over Japan.

North Korea says it will target Guam, but it is possible that the missiles will fail to follow their programmed trajectories due to an error, a government official said, according to the Asahi newspaper.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government on Saturday began a formal environmental survey about the THAAD deployment, which has been controversial in the southern rural area where it is stationed.

Liberal president Moon Jae-in, elected in May, had vowed to conduct an environmental review of the deployment, which he had questioned while on the campaign trail. But the events of the last few weeks, especially North Korea's firing of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, have caused Moon to do an abrupt about-turn and he now appeared to be in a hurry to approve the THAAD system.

Although this battery would not be able to shoot down long-range missiles, it is meant to protect South Korea from North Korean rockets aimed at them.

Fifield reported from Tokyo. Shirley Feng contributed to this report.

Read more:

Beijing warns Pyongyang: Youre on your own if you go after the United States]

Dodging blame, China urges U.S. to stop hurling threats at North Korea]

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President Trumps claim that he is not ruling out military action in Venezuela prompted a fresh wave of anti-American sentiment by government officials here, many of whom appeared to be leveraging the threat to stoke dark memories of U.S. interventionism in the region.

President Nicolas Maduros backers were using Trumps statement from Friday as a tool to unite Venezuelans  and the rest of Latin America  against what they perceive as a common enemy.

Felix Seijas Rodriguez, director of the Delphos polling firm, estimated that less than 10 percent of Venezuelans would support military intervention in the country.

We reject the cowardly, insolent, and vile threats of the President of the United States against the sacred sovereignty of Venezuela, tweeted Delcy Rodriguez, Maduros former foreign minister. She is now president of the new, all-powerful and pro-government Constituent Assembly created by a controversial vote last month that has been decried by opponents and foreign governments as fraudulent.

Trumps is the gravest and most insolent threat ever voiced against the homeland of Bolivar, tweeted Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, and President Trump. (AFP/Getty Images)

On national television, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said: This is an act of craziness; its an act of supreme extremism. Theres an extremist elite governing the United States.

Trump told journalists Friday: We are all over the world, and we have troops all over the world in places that are very far away. Venezuela is not very far away, and the people are suffering and theyre dying. We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.

[Trump: The military option is certainly something we could pursue]

With all branches of Venezuelas government and the armed forces now under his control, Maduros biggest weakness appears to be the nations crumbling economy and growing international isolation.

Yet Trumps threats about a military option appeared to be dividing U.S. allies in the region, risking the unity of Latin American nations that are seeking to pressure Venezuelas authoritarian government to change course. Last week, 12 Latin American countries signed a resolution in Peru condemning the Venezuelan government and backing its suspension from the regions Mercosur trading bloc.

The government of Chile rejects the threat of a military intervention in Venezuela, tweeted Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz. He said that foreign ministers from many Latin American countries had agreed to reject any military steps.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, a Maduro ally, was quick to pounce on Trumps words.

Now the world knows that those who were against Maduro were only looking for a military intervention from the empire, Morales tweeted.

Vicente Fox, a leading Trump critic and the former president of Mexico, said on Twitter: Donald, get it together! Your mouth is quicker than your mind: Venezuela needs a way out, but NOT through violence. Take a dive into history, youre wrecking the U.S. dont wreck the world, just because you tweet faster than Maduro or Kim.

After Trumps remarks, Reuters quoted a Defense Department spokesman as saying that the Pentagon has received no orders on Venezuela. So far, U.S. steps have involved freezing assets and issuing travel bans on a growing number of senior Venezuela officials, including Maduro. Trump administration officials are also still considering other severe actions, including an embargo against Venezuelas vital oil industry.

Rather than applying pressure, observers said, claims such as Trumps largely serve to aid Maduro, allowing him to blame supposed American imperialism for Venezuelas economic decline.

As we have seen with many Trump declarations, theyre said in the heat of the moment with no concrete basis, said Mariano de Alba, a Venezuelan lawyer and international relations expert. The regime will take as much advantage of the juicy declarations as it can, de Alba said. And that wont be hard at all.

Four months of anti-government street protests in Venezuela have left more than 100 people dead and thousands detained.

Most leading opposition leaders in Venezuela have yet to respond to Trumps warning, which appears to put them in a bind. Should they refuse to back a foreign military option, they could lose the support of a small minority within the opposition that favors it. If they back Trumps threat, however, they risk being painted as traitors.

We cant depend on anyone to change our reality, said Samuel Diaz, a Venezuelan student leader and anti-government activist. We have to depend on ourselves. And anyway, I think that anything that ends through military means tends to be replaced with something of the same violent nature. So Im not in favor of it.

The installation of a new special assembly to rewrite Venezuelas constitution came after a vote on July 30 that the opposition and many foreign nations decried as a power grab. In a move opponents fear will lead to more repression, the body has already moved to establish a truth commission to punish those responsible for inciting violence.

As recently as Thursday, Maduro  the anointed successor of leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013  said he wanted to have respectful relations with the United States. Mr. Trump, heres my hand, he said in a meeting with members of the new Constituent Assembly.

After Trumps remarks on Friday, the White House press secretary released a statement saying the president had rejected a request from Maduro for a phone call. Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country, the statement read.

Faiola reported from Miami.

Read more:

New Venezuela assembly declares itself superior government branch

Venezuelas chief prosecutor, a leading critic of Maduro, is ousted

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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It was March 2020, and the world was closing down as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. At first, the news of...
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Two new exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba are giving the public a glimpse into some of the artistic minds behind bars.

The two exhibits  Time Well Wasted by local artist and Brandon Correctional Centre inmate Edward Southwind, and Created with Dignity, a collection of 32 drawings submitted to this years annual inmate art contest sponsored by the Manitoba Multifaith Council and the John Howard Society  will be on display until Sept. 1 in the Community Gallery.

This exhibition with art from (the inmate art contest) has been going on for seven years now, AGSM executive director John Hampton said.

Submitted Edward Southwinds Untitled will be on display in the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitobas Community Gallery as part of his exhibition Time Well Wasted.

This is the only the second time its been exhibited, and the first time its been shown in an art gallery.

Ideas that dance throughout each work circle around personal growth, self-worth and moving forward, but the styles and themes change from piece to piece.

Last years contest saw a lot of tattoo type imagery, but this year theres a lot of images of family, and religious, spiritual and cultural themes  really reflects a lot of positivity and hope, Hampton said.

Edwards also shows a lot of cultural imagery and hope between the two (exhibitions) you can see these representations of traditional Indigenous teachings, as well as Christian iconography that appears quite a bit in both of them.

Theres also a heightened awareness of the creativity behind each work.

They have limited access to materials while incarcerated, so theres a real rawness to some of the work and ingenuity thats required to work with those limited supplies, Hampton said.

Our understanding and relationship to (inmates) is usually thinking of them through the actions that resulted in them being incarcerated. This has been a really interesting way to see these humans, these other fellow community members, in a very different way.

For Southwind, this has been a special experience  after a program officer, Tanis Wilkins, noticed his penchant for drawing, artist and art educator Chris Cooper began providing lessons for him, bringing supplies to BCC and helping him create his work.

Its pretty inspiring to hear  how meaningful an interaction and experience this was for him  to have a positive experience in a space where theres few opportunities for positivity and for someone to feel like they can contribute something of meaning to the world, Hampton said.

I found that very emotional and touching.

As part of this exhibit, the AGSM, in partnership with the John Howard Society of Brandon, will be hosting a roundtable discussion, Restorative Justice and the John Howard Society on Aug. 25 at noon. The discussion is free and open to the public.

 edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @erindebooy
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Some members of 18 families who havent paid rent to live in their Manitoba Housing units for 21 years are also receiving social assistance support from the province.

But Donna Gabriel, spokeswoman for the residents who are being evicted from the Portage la Prairie units Monday at 11 a.m., says that fact is irrelevant.

What does it matter if some of us are on social assistance? Gabriel said Friday. How does that relate? There are people living on income assistance in units, and they still want them out. Those are people who are disabled and unable to work. Look what theyve done to us.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Donna Gabriel, from Portage La Prairie, holds eviction notices for more than 15 families which were received yesterday. It orders them to vacate the Manitoba Housing project by Monday.

Gabriel said theres even one Indigenous elder who has been paying rent: Theyre putting him out.

The 18 families have been living in Manitoba Housing units since they were forcibly removed from Waterhen First Nation in 1996, after protesting against the chief and band council at that time. The community located on the south shore of Waterhen Lake, some 280 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was later renamed Skownan First Nation.

Federal officials suggested Friday the creation of a new band may be a possible long-term solution.

The province says the families owe more than $1.2 million in rent theyve refused to pay. After years of negotiation and hearings, Manitoba Housing obtained a Court of Appeal ruling in late June that has allowed the government agency to have sheriffs officers evict them.

The families have said theyll move Monday afternoon to the lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg.

Families Minister Scott Fielding is out of the city this week and has not had a formal request to meet with the group, said his press secretary, Andrea Slobodian.

Gabriel said shell submit a formal request to meet Fielding, but cant see any point.

Weve been having meeting after meeting, she said. But theyve made their point so clearly already in the news. What is it going to do, anyway?

Gabriel said the families have been taken aback by the social media reaction and online comments to coverage of their rally Thursday on the legislatures steps. Its getting to a point where its racist, she said.

Slobodian pointed out online comments on the Free Press website asked whether the families have received social assistance, which could have covered their rent. Online comments on your article raise some good questions, she said.

Slobodian said the province cannot reveal if someone is on social assistance, but said it could be a question to pose (to) protesters who claim they will be forced to live on the street.

Meanwhile, Ottawa is not involved in the original dispute that forced the families off the First Nation in 1996, said Stephanie Palma, a media spokeswoman for Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett.

However, Bennetts department is helping the families set up meetings with government officials to explore possible options for housing, and discuss the creation of a new and distinct band, Palma said.

We encourage all parties involved to work with Manitoba Housing toward a resolution, she said.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs did not respond to an interview request Friday.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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A southern Manitoba dairy farmer is about to lay claim to having the largest solar-energy system in the province, but his reign as solar champ will be short-lived.

As early as next month, Hans Gorters new 175-kilowatt, solar photovoltaic (PV) system near Otterburne will be surpassed by a 200-kilowatt system being installed at the Tallpine Lodges in West Hawk Lake.

But the president of the Winnipeg-based company which is installing both systems  Sycamore Energy Inc.s Solar Manitoba  said Tallpine Lodges pending record should stand for awhile.

Justin Phillips noted the maximum rebate available to buyers under Manitoba Hydros Power Smart Solar Energy Program is $200,000 for a system that produces 200 kilowatts of power ($1,000 per kilowatt).

You may see some bigger systems in the future, but right now under the (current) rebate program its unlikely youre going to see much more than 200-kilowatt systems (being installed), he added.

He said Gorters new system, which could be feeding power to Manitoba Hydros grid as early as the end of next week, cost about $500,000. A $175,000 rebate from Manitoba Hydro reduced his cost to about $325,000.

The system includes 540 ground-mounted, solar panels arranged in three long rows in a field next to Gorters barn. Phillips estimates the entire installation takes up between 1,486 and 1,579 square metres (16,000 to 17,000 square feet) of space.

Over the course of the year, it will produce enough electricity for Manitoba Hydros grid, and enough credits for Gorter to offset all of his farms hydro bills.

Phillips said one of the advantages farmers have over most urban solar-energy customers is they usually have enough land to accommodate a large installation. Most urban systems have to be mounted on the roof of homes or buildings, which limits how big they can be. Thats why the bulk of Solar Manitobas installations so far have been on farms. Phillips said the company has completed between 20 and 25 new installations since the two-year program was introduced in April of last year, with another 75 to 80 in various stages of development.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Solar Manitoba president Justin Phillips (from left), dairy farmer Hans Gorter and family members Chelsea Enns and Albert Gorter stand by the site where 520 solar panels will be installed.

He admitted that even he is surprised at how strong the demand for solar energy systems has become.

I knew we were going to be busy, but I never thought it was going to be like this. Never in a million years.

He attributed that growing popularity to the attractive rebates Manitoba Hydro offers  he says theyre the most generous in Canada  and the prospect of substantial hydro rate increases in the coming years.

Manitoba Hydro has asked the Public Utilities Board for a 7.9 per cent rate hike in each of the next four years. The board recently approved an interim increase of 3.36 per cent, and is expected to rule on the original application later this year.

Scott Powell, Manitoba Hydros director of corporate communications, said that as of Thursday, 406 applications have been received under the program, and 364 have been approved. Of those, 88 installations have been completed and a total of $1,083,415 in rebates have been paid out thus far.

Powell also confirmed that Gorters system is the largest installation so far in the province. Previously, the largest was a 70-kilowatt system installed earlier this year on a farm near Rivers.

Powell said the solar energy program is set to expire in April of next year, and interested Manitobans have until April 18 to submit their applications. He said the decision on whether to extend the program beyond next April will likely be made by Efficiency Manitoba, the new Crown corporation the provincial government is creating to take over the energy-saving programs now carried out by Hydro.

Gorter admitted the rebate and rising hydro rates were two reasons he decided to install a solar-energy system on his farm. Concern for the environment was another.

Were in the food production business, and sustainability and doing it the right way and reducing our (environmental) footprint is important to us.

Phillips said if hydro rates rise by four per cent a year for the foreseeable future, Gorters new system should pay for itself within 10 to 12 years.

Gorter, who emigrated from the Netherlands in 1987, said he started seriously thinking about going solar after attending a Manitoba Hydro/Syracuse Energy seminar at last winters Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon. A March trip to Europe with his wife further convinced him it was the right thing to do.

We have a lot of family in Europe that switched to solar. So we started talking about it and did the math and it all came together pretty quick.

He and his wife have about 130 dairy cows on their farm, which is called Optimist Holsteins. Theyre the first ones in their area to install a solar-energy system, but he figures they wont be the last.

I have almost every day phone calls from neighbours who would like to have a look (at his system) and are debating it, he said. I think if this system does what it has promised the rest of the world will take notice.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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Well, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has made a proposal to increase taxes for a certain part of the population  specifically those who have corporations with other family members being paid from those corporations.

The minister has referred to this practice as income sprinkling and says he considers it unfair. Lets examine these proposals, on which the minister has asked for comments prior to Oct. 2.

In July, the Department of Finance issued a consultation paper called Tax Planning Using Private Corporations. This requests feedback on three proposed tax increases aimed directly at small businesses and private corporations and poses a series of questions for respondents to answer.

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Files Minister of Finance Bill Morneau holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on July 18.

These three areas are income sprinkling (sharing income among family members), holding passive investments inside a private corporation and converting income to capital gains.

The third measure is one where a strong argument can be made that loopholes are being exploited. The others I find concerning.

The government clearly has its mind made up on moving forward. I admit I was a little put off by their use of value-laden terms such as wealthy, high income and unfair tax advantage, which I know do not apply to many of the people who would be affected  and possibly very few of them.

Small businesses, most of them incorporated, are the engine creating most of the jobs in Canada. The shareholders of these corporations are the people who make it happen.

The latest Key Small Business Statistics released by Statistics Canada in 2016 revealed that small businesses employ 70.5 per cent of the labour force in Canada, were responsible for 87.7 per cent of net employment growth and contributed an average of 30 per cent to the GDP of their respective province.

These are the folks who take the risks, go into debt, work insane hours, have no job security, no pension or benefits (unless they create them and pay for them themselves), but always have to make payroll for their employees.

And yes, some of these business owners achieve success, occasionally creating great wealth.

Many then give back to their communities and you can see their names on hospitals, schools and the lists of people who support things such as disease research and treatment, arts & cultural organizations and charitable foundations.

Is it really a good idea to give these people another incentive to pay their taxes in another country?

The government is proposing to eliminate the ability of business owners to share income with other members of their families, on the basis that some of these other family members may be in lower tax brackets. That would result in a possible decrease in total family taxes.

When an entrepreneur or professional works 12 to 14 hours a day  often seven days a week  the family all pays a price. As well, they usually help with the business in a variety of ways. Shouldnt they be paid and allowed to pay taxes, albeit at a lower rate?

There is already a kiddie tax that prevents splitting business income with minor children. The new proposal would extend this to spouses and grown offspring, making them subject to the governments new reasonableness test. (Yes, they actually are proposing to design a reasonableness test.)

The government also wants to eliminate the ability of a family to share the lifetime capital gains exemption, if they are lucky enough to sell the business at a profit in the future. Both proposals would undo years of planning by people who have organized their affairs properly, to take advantage of laws in place for decades.

If you have an opinion on these changes, or alternative solutions, make your voice heard by emailing the ministry at fin.consultation.fin@canada.ca or participating in the consultation found online at fin.gc.ca.

  

Dollars and Sense is meant as an introduction to this topic and should not in any way be construed as a replacement for personalized professional advice.

David Christianson, BA, CFP, R.F.P., TEP, CIM is recipient of the Fellow of FPSCTM Distinction, a portfolio manager and senior adviser with Christianson Wealth Advisors, a senior vice-president with National Bank Financial Wealth Management, and author of the book Managing the Bull, A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance.
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OTTAWA  Manitobas French community is pushing Ottawa to follow the provinces lead in broadening the definition of who counts as a francophone  and to boost spending on opportunities for people to practise speaking French.

Census data released last week show a slight decline in the number of Manitobans speaking French. The provinces top advocate says the problem is how the government counts francophones.

We werent caught off-guard, said Jacqueline Blay, head of the Winnipeg-based Societe franco-manitobaine. We have work to do.

JASON HALSTEAD / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Jacqueline Blay of the Societe franco-manitobaine encourages francophones to speak French at home.

The 2016 census found francophones accounted for 3.2 per cent of Manitobas population, a drop from 3.5 per cent in 2011. While that means only 500 fewer people, it bucks the trend of the provinces growth.

Blay takes issue with how Statistics Canada defines francophones; the agency counts those whose first official language is French and not English. She says that excludes French-immersion students and thousands of immigrants.

The societys welcoming centre, perched behind Saint Boniface Cathedral, is often visited by people from countries such as Senegal or Mali, whose native tongue is an African language but who mostly communicate in French. Many of them only find work opportunities in English.

In June 2016, Manitobas legislature adopted Bill 5, which expanded the definition of a francophone from those with French as a mother tongue, to include people who have a special affinity for the French language and who use it on a regular basis in their daily life.

The legislation passed with multi-party support, making waves in French-speaking media across Canada while drawing little attention from English-language journalists.

It also started the first review of officially bilingual zones since 1982, where the province is obligated to provide services in French.

In a statement, the province said it has no set timeline for that review, which could take at least another year, though it claims its already boosting French language services in areas where people speak the language.

The review will find French spoken in homes in St. James and Strathcona, and schools in Thompson and Brandon, Blay said.

The readers of the Free Press, for example, might say, Oh well, were spending money for (a small minority). Maybe, but I think the 28,000 students who bring French into public spaces will continue to have a wider vision of Canada.

In February 2015, the society took the federal government to court, asking it to expand the definition of francophone in Statistics Canada data.

Blay said her group is analyzing last weeks census data, and will decide whether to proceed with the case at a Sept. 28 meeting. Theyre also trying to steer French speakers away from using English at home.

Last weeks data showed the proportion of Manitobans identifying as bilingual stayed stable at 8.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016. Like all of Canada, the rate was highest among those aged 10 to 14.

Meanwhile, Manitobans whose mother tongue is French overwhelmingly speak English at home.

Blay said that means Franco-Manitobans send their children to French schools, but dont make an effort to use the language at home, prompting her group to launch an awareness campaign.

Sen. Raymonde Gagne said there must be more opportunities for the increasing number of Manitobans taking up French to practise it with native speakers at work, school and in sports.

You have to make people feel comfortable and normal to speak French in the public sphere, said Gagne, former president of the Universite de Saint-Boniface. Humans are social animals.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 11/08/2017 (1920 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba senators are pushing the Liberal government to find a solution to Omnitraxs refusal to repair the rail line to Churchill while it lobbies for federal cash.

Churchill is really Manitobas northern gateway, said independent Sen. Patricia Bovey, who visited in late July. My question is: is it a gateway now or is it a barrier to the North?

The town lost its rail lifeline 11 weeks ago after heavy flooding washed out rail bridges north of Gillam.

Alex de Vries / The Canadian Press Sen. Patricia Bovey says Churchill is Manitobas northern gateway.

Last month, Denver-based Omnitrax said it would cost $20 million to $60 million to repair the tracks. It said thats not economically viable.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the company is obligated to maintain service along the track, an assessment shared by experts in transportation law.

Yet Bovey said several ministers offices wont give her clear answers on what theyre doing about it.

She said the rail lines importance goes beyond the town of 900  supplies go through the port north to Nunavut  while some argue the town is strategically located for military troops and research on climate change.

Bovey has heard from parents worried about feeding their children amid $21.29 blocks of cheese, and stranded seasonal workers who took their cars up north by train, as well as researchers whose colleagues cant transport equipment.

I cant underline its importance to the nation enough, she said.

Manitoba Conservative Sen. Don Plett said hes regularly phoning the towns business owners. He plans to push Trudeau if the problem isnt solved when the Senate returns from a break Sept. 18.

Trudeau has an obligation to the people Churchill, and the tourism industry for the province of Manitoba, Plett said.

He said Ottawa should move beyond vague legal threats and help First Nations groups who want to take over the line.

Its an absolute crisis up there, that should not be happening in any part of the country, he said.

Independent Sen. Raymond Gagne said its nonsense to allow Churchill to become inaccessible.

Everyones pointing fingers, and I think more than anything the different parties need to sit down together and find a solution, Gagne said.

On Friday, a week after Omnitrax said it received the full engineering report on the line, the company still had no timeline for when it would release an updated cost estimate.

The company has enlisted Maryscott Greenwood, a longtime lobbyist on Canada-U.S. issues, who communicated in June with an official in the Prime Ministers Office, according to disclosures filed with the lobbying commissioner.

Greenwood, who could not be reached Friday, met with Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal and advisers to Winnipeg MP Jim Carr, the natural resources minister who handles Manitoba issues.

Her filings say shes lobbied for emergency relief in light of flooding in northern Manitoba and for the potential transfer of Hudson Bay Railway to a First Nations consortium or other entity if appropriate.

Meanwhile, the Town of Churchill has hired two lobbyists, but the town has not yet asked them to start meeting, because Trudeau phoned Mayor Mike Spence on July 30, and said hes working on a solution.

Theyre just sitting tight now, Spence said. Im really pleased with the PMO being involved in this.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/08/2017 (1919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Motivated by the principle of selflessly serving others, two Winnipeg sisters have combined two aspects of their Sikh faith into a fledgling charity dedicated to helping feed the citys homeless.

Today, the Singh sisters  15-year-old Simryn and 11-year-old Jasmyn  will feed more people than ever before, as they team up with Got Bannock Inc. to serve more than 600 meals at the Rockin the Village free community concert in St. Johns Park in the North End.

It will mark the second time the girls, under the banner of Langar Seva Winnipeg, work with Got Bannock founder Althea Guiboche to offer traditional vegetarian Sikh meals to those in need  regardless of social status, gender, faith or race.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sisters Simryn (left),15, and Jasmyn Singh,11, will fill more than 600 containers and hand out the food at the Rockin the Village concert.

Langar is a Sikh cultural tradition where a community comes together for a meal, while seva (a word derived from Sanskrit) refers to selfless service. Those principles made the sisters want to get involved in trying to make the world a better place through charity.

We noticed how hard it is for youth who dont have everything that we do. We thought the least we could do was try to give back and help others, Simryn said Friday.

Were working in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada. The last time, we were able to see the impact on the people who needed the food and just how they were so grateful. (Saturday) were helping that much more people, which I think is going to make it that much more special.

Established in May, Langar Seva Winnipeg didnt get off the ground until June 18, when they served their first meals alongside Got Bannock at Main Street and Dufferin Avenue.

The youngsters got involved with the organization through a connection forged by their mother, Jyoti Singh, who works with Guiboche. While the sisters want to break out on their own eventually, theyve been soaking up the experience of working with an experienced activist.

We technically havent really become our own charity yet, although were planning to, Simryn said.

We definitely want this to be a youth-led organization. Were the ones who will be living in the future, so we need to start now to make it a better world for us. If we want to stop homelessness and poverty, we need to start now.

When they begin serving their meals at St. Johns Park (starting at 2 p.m.), itll be the culmination of many hours of planning and preparation. Theyll begin cooking at home at 8 a.m. (with the assistance of their mother and some other families), finishing up by 11:30 a.m. and packing up for the park.

The free concert/family fun day runs from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. at St. Johns Park (on Main Street at Mountain Avenue).

Got Bannock received a $5,000 Manitoba Arts Council grant to help fund the event, and will provide a free lunch and dinner. There will also be childrens events such as face painting, games and a bouncy castle, while 15 musical acts and one comedian are slated to take to the stage.

The sisters will contribute a traditional dish of rice and vegetables, and bottled water, for the lunch.

Simryn admitted she was nervous about the huge amount of food theyll prepare and serve.

The first time we served, it felt like a lot (of people to feed) and now this is triple that. But we do have a lot of help and we know, with the community, itll come together.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 12/08/2017 (1919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing labour dispute at the Winnipeg airport, the strikers union is claiming the Winnipeg Airport Authority (WAA) has been sitting on a potential public safety threat for more than a year.

The Public Service Alliance of Canadas (PSAC) Union of Canadian Transportation Employees (which represents the strikers) informed the media and Minister of Transport Marc Garneau about a serious incident that took place on July 20, 2016, that they had recently received information regarding.

They claim strong winds that day lifted portions of a temporary structure at the airport, which was located within 500 metres of a runway and 20 metres of a taxiway. Their concern is it could potentially endanger both employees and people travelling. The temporary structure continues to be used as a vehicle-screening facility.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Although she would not say where this information came from, Marianne Hladun, regional executive vice-president of PSAC, says it was given to us in the interest of passenger safety and denied the allegation had anything to do with the ongoing labour dispute.

Passengers travelling through need to know and should be made aware of it, she said. The information we received in confidence indicates that the WAA has been aware of this urgent public safety concern for more than a year, but has yet to fix the problem.

Tyler MacAfee, director of corporate communications and public affairs for WAA, denies the allegation and says it is obvious it is related to the labour dispute.

He claims a bad storm on the day in question resulted in some fabric on the structure ripping. An engineering assessment of the facility was quickly conducted and it was determined the facility was structurally sound prior to and during repairs.

I can tell you right now that what theyre saying is completely false, MacAfee said. To be blunt: the union is trying to question the safety of the airport to leverage a financial windfall for their members.

He went on to add that as far as he is concerned there is no issue with the structure and that the WAA exceeds safety requirements in one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/08/2017 (1920 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MLA Steven Fletcher may be gone from the Progressive Conservative caucus, but its quite certain he wont allow himself to be forgotten.

The rogue MLA from Assiniboia was punted from the Tory caucus in June after several incidents in which he challenged his own government on legislative or policy matters.

However, expelling Fletcher has not quieted him. On the contrary, it seems Fletcher has the capacity to continue generating headlines even without the resources of a registered party.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Expelled MLA Steven Fletcher says hed consider a return to the PC caucus, but only under certain conditions.

The most recent Fletcher story involved the executive of the Assiniboia PC riding association, which gathered July 19 for a meeting with Keith Stewart, CEO of the PC Party of Manitoba. At this meeting, party sources said, a request was made to have Fletcher readmitted to the party. The same sources said Stewart promised the matter would be duly considered.

Notwithstanding the request that was made, it appears the Assiniboia executive was somewhat split about whether to ask the party to take Fletcher back. Some people thought that Steven was more responsible than the party for what happened, and others thought the party was really responsible, said one source.

Certainly, the loss of status in the party that nominated Fletcher as a candidate was taking its toll on the executive. President Don Cooper resigned shortly after the meeting with Stewart, but would not say if that was because Fletcher was expelled or because some members of the executive were asking that he be readmitted.

Its also unclear whether the Assiniboia executives request made its way up the chain of command at Tory party headquarters. At the legislature, Tory sources said no formal request had been received. Other sources claimed the request was really just the actions of one or two Fletcher loyalists, acting alone and without the authority of the executive.

Not surprisingly, when the Free Press broke the news of the riding associations request a few weeks later, both the party and Fletcher appeared to have little interest in ceasing hostilities.

Tory MLA Sarah Guillemard, speaking on behalf of her caucus, would not comment on the riding associations request but reiterated that there were multiple behaviours, multiple events, that led to the decision to expel Fletcher. Stewart, meanwhile, declined to comment.

In an email statement on the riding associations actions, Fletcher seemed open to the idea of returning to caucus but only under his terms. I think its best that I say no comment, other than, with a simple public apology for their actions we can move forward.

Fletchers response hardly sounds like a man desperate to be welcomed back to caucus. He certainly has some legitimate concerns about the way in which his expulsion was handled  he still claims to have received no formal explanation for the decision  but under the circumstances its going to be difficult to portray himself as the wronged party.

That is not to say Fletcher hasnt exposed some of the toxic culture that has invaded the Pallister government. Backbench MLAs are rarely consulted or  more importantly  warned about government policy and legislation. For example, party sources confirmed that none of the Tory MLAs was warned in advance when an announcement was made in June that 18 emergency medical service stations were going to be closed in rural communities. That decision has been very unpopular and is making for a long, hot summer of angry constituents for those rural MLAs.

Fletchers criticism about not being able to have input on key legislation, or even get questions answered about why his government was doing certain things in certain ways, is valid. Unfortunately, his manner of expressing his frustration was clearly outside the norms and traditions of the party system.

The awful truth for Fletcher is that under the current political system, the premier  who is almost entirely responsible for the present culture  can be dead wrong and still get his way.

All of these details mean the chances of Fletcher being readmitted to the party are pretty slim. And yet, as a loose cannon out on his own with no oversight from his former party, the irrepressible MLA from Assiniboia presents significant problems for the Progressive Conservatives heading into the next election.

If Fletcher cannot be reconciled with his former party, then the Tories will have a big job ahead of them finding a candidate who is able to lock down Assiniboia in the next election. Say what you want about Fletcher, but he is very, very good at getting elected. It is a bad time to try to break in a new candidate in an election where, following one of the largest majorities in Manitoba political history, the Tories are expected to lose a handful of Winnipeg seats.

However, just because Fletcher is not running for the Tories does not mean he wont run. Fletcher has been coy about whether he would consider running as an independent, or perhaps under the banner of a fringe party, such as Manitoba Forward. Fletchers presence on the ballot in Assiniboia as an independent candidate would almost certainly sink the Tories in the riding.

Party sources acknowledge that threat, but suggest that if Fletcher is to run again, it will be in the 2019 federal election. In fact, the sources said they believe Fletcher was only using the Manitoba legislature as a stepping stone to get back into federal politics. This theory is supported by some rather unusual links between Fletcher and the executive of the Conservative party riding association in Charleswood-St.James-Assiniboia-Headingley.

Fletcher was MP for that riding until the 2015 election, when he lost to Liberal Doug Eyolfson. Since that loss, and his subsequent victory in the 2016 provincial election, Fletcher has become the president of the federal riding association. Although it is not unprecedented for a provincial politician to hold an executive position in a federal riding association, it is unusual.

Unusual as well is that Fletchers image appears regularly and prominently in materials issued by the federal riding association. This has rankled other Tory MLAs in surrounding ridings, who believe Fletcher is using his profile and resources as a provincial politician to support his federal aspirations.

Does Fletcher have a preference for where and for whom he will run again? In an interview, he said he will keep all his options open. Why would anyone exclude options?

As for rejoining the Tory caucus, Fletcher said it will only happen if he has the opportunity to give input and the chance to challenge legislation internally. That seems to be a long shot, at best.

Pallister and the Tory caucus may be satisfied they no longer have to work with Fletcher. He is a handful, and a man who clearly does not feel the obligation to be blindly loyal to a leader and party that does not let him fulfil all his aspirations.

But the Tories will have to contend with Fletcher again in the future  either as a repatriated member of their own team or a freelancer who will be highly motivated to bring them down.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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This article was published 12/08/2017 (1919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its been a month now since regular Winnipeg Transit rider Candice Bodnaruk witnessed something so disturbing that she not only reported it to the city, she also contacted the Free Press.

She and her partner had been waiting at the end-of-the-line Unicity transit stop on Portage Avenue near the Perimeter on a late-July Saturday morning when the bus pulled up and passengers began exiting. Thats when she first noticed the grey-haired female operator, standing at the front of the bus, looking towards the back.

She was yelling, Get out!

Bodnaruk was still waiting to get on, so it wasnt until she boarded the bus that she saw who the driver was yelling at; the only passenger who had remained on the bus. The man  who seemed to be sleeping  was seated by a window, slumped down, she wrote in her email to me.

She noticed something else about the passenger.

He appeared to be Indigenous.

Bodnaruk was still standing and watching when the driver grabbed a broom and went directly to the man who still seemed to be sleeping.

Then, to my shock, she jabbed him with the broom.

That woke him. And it outraged Bodnaruk.

At no point was he belligerent or aggressive toward the driver, she wrote. In fact, he seemed confused and apologetic that he had fallen asleep. He did not confront the driver who had jabbed him, but proceeded to stumble off the bus and across the parking lot.

The next day, Sunday, she reported the incident to 311.

Five days later, someone at the city left Bodnaruk a voice mail message saying the driver would be spoken to and reinstructed. By the time I called, the city said it was investigating the report.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Buses in the transit loop near transit stop #20245 in the Unicity Mall parking lot,.

Nevertheless, the message Bodnaruk received from the city left her doubting that Transit was taking the broom incident  and its wider implication about bus-driver training  as a serious concern.

What I really want to stress here, she wrote, is from my perspective, this man was an innocent, sleeping passenger who was harming no one. He was completely helpless when the driver chose to assault him with the broom. And thats what it was, assault. My partner and I couldnt help thinking that this man was someones child, brother, friend, and he was being treated so horribly and was not safe on public transportation.

I also have no doubt that this unprovoked assault was racially motivated As a white woman, I am pretty sure that if that had been myself asleep in my seat, the driver would not have proceeded to assault me. Moreover, we must ask ourselves what would have happened if the passenger had chosen to react violently towards the driver, simply to defend himself. By choosing to assault him she put the entire bus at risk. If the passenger had a knife or other weapon he could have lunged at her or myself and the situation would have been much worse. Luckily, that didnt happen.

But an attack like that did happen just six months ago.

A male bus driver at another end-of-the line stop woke another last-remaining-passenger in the early morning darkness of Valentines Day. The difference was that young man refused to get off the otherwise-empty bus on the University of Manitobas Fort Garry campus and the confrontation turned violent. The 58-year-old driver was fatally stabbed.

The tragic loss of Jubal Fraser has profoundly impacted the transit family and will for many years to come, the acting director of Winnipeg Transit, Greg Ewankiw, said after the alleged assailant, 22-year-old Brian Kyle Thomas, was charged with second-degree murder.

That should put what happened late last month at the Unicity stop in important context. That, plus the everyday stress of driving a bus to a schedule and, of course, interacting with problematic passengers.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

But even Aleem Chaudhary, the acting president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1505  which represents about 1,400 transit employees, including 1,130 drivers  cant condone the drivers use of a broom on a passenger.

Initially, when I forwarded Bodnaruks email about the incident to the union leader, he called it concerning.

The situation that the rider presents does not show the professionalism ATU expects from its members, he said.

The operator should have called control centre to notify of a possible sleeper, Chaudhary added. Although in the past, Transit control personnel have requested operators approach and check passengers/sleepers to assess the passengers well-being.

But in an email sent late this week, Chaudhary reported that according to a union steward who saw the video, the bus driver used the soft end of the broom very lightly.

If youre wondering what the broom is supposed to be used for on the bus, Chaudhary explained the obvious: The broom is there for the purpose of cleaning, as well as removing snow and debris off the back of the bus.

Chaudhary also shared more detail about what the driver told the union about the incident.

When the passenger boarded the bus, he did not have any fare (she let him ride anyway) and told the operator that he wanted off at the end of the line (Unicity terminal). It should also be pointed out that the operator smelled alcohol while talking with this passenger, when he got on the bus.

I dont know what allegedly smelling alcohol has to do with using a broom to wake a sleeping passenger. Unless its to suggest the driver was even more foolish than Bodnaruk knew. Given the horror of what happened in that similar circumstance last February, the driver should have known using a broom to wake the sleeping man posed a potential threat; and poking someone who may have been under the influence of alcohol could have been even more dangerous.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Aleem Chaudhary, acting president of Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1505.

But in a way, the blame for how the driver handled the situation is shared as much  or more  with the City of Winnipeg. It suggests a lack of training, which Chaudhary says the union wants, but isnt getting.

That reminds me of another event that relates to what Bodnaruk witnessed last month. It was back in January 2016, on the first anniversary of Macleans magazine branding Winnipeg Canadas most racist city, that Mayor Brian Bowman announced mandatory diversity training for every civic employee as a kickoff to the citys Year of Reconciliation.

Which brings us back to the bus driver, the broom and the storys bottom line. More than 18 months after Bowmans big announcement, Chaudhary says he is not aware of any bus drivers who have been provided the cultural awareness training, particularly when it comes to our Indigenous community.

The city claims that so far a handful of bus operators have completed the half-day Indigenous Awareness training program. And yet bus drivers are among the front-line civic workers who need it most.

Which in part, at least, may explain why a broom meant to remove debris from the back of the bus was shamelessly used by one driver as if the dozing Indigenous passenger was just that.

Debris at the back of the bus.

So much for reconciliation and diversity training, Mr. Mayor.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/08/2017 (1919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Through the centuries, many things have been accused of killing romance  boredom, familiarity, weight gain, bad breath, knock knock jokes, purchasing a minivan, Vince Vaughn movies, Fran Dreschers voice, video games, Im with Stupid T-shirts, cargo shorts, cellphones, texting, Twitter, having a parent-in-law move into the basement suite, and anything else thats capable of turning hot, heavy breathing into a cold shoulder.

But this week was likely the first time anyone suggested a minuscule decrease in blood-alcohol content might make an entire nation lose that lovin feeling.

It is, of course, a preposterous notion. But that, in a nutshell, was the reaction of a spokesman for Quebecs restaurant association at the news that federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is asking her provincial counterparts to support lowering the blood-alcohol limit for drivers to .05 per cent from .08 per cent in an effort to reduce the number of drunk-driving fatalities that occur in this vast roadway-connected land.

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould

Industry advocate Francois Meunier said such a law change would have disastrous ramifications, for restaurants and for the pursuit of romance that sometimes occurs therein.

Under a lowered blood-alcohol limit, a woman can have one drink and a man, in most cases, two, he offered. Forget about a bottle of wine for two, for Valentines Day dinner  thats over.

Cue the violins  and not in that terribly, sweetly romantic, sashaying-twixt-the-tables-with-a-fiddle-to-create-special-moments-for-dining-couples kind of way.

While the timing of Ms. Wilson-Rayboulds effort  barely a year before the federal government will make recreational marijuana use legal while dumping the sure-to-be-controversial responsibility for enforcing stoned-driving statutes in the provinces laps  is curious, the logic behind her plan is rather sound.

According to the minister, new research shows the government of the day vastly underestimated the drunk-driving toll when it established the current .08 standard in 1969. New research shows a significant reduction in fatalities could be achieved by lowering the limit to .05  something Ireland has done, leading to a 50 per cent reduction in impaired-driving deaths.

The new Irish law also resulted in a 65 per cent decrease in DUI-related criminal charges, which no doubt appeals to the justice minister as she grapples with the issue of courtroom backlogs and Supreme Court-imposed limits on trial delays.

The business case for .05 is sound, despite what some restaurant industry advocates claim. Besides, most jurisdictions  every province but Quebec, actually  already have non-criminal penalties in place for drivers whose blood-alcohol level measures between .05 and the Criminal Code limit of .08.

To recap, then: restaurants were going to expire en masse when smoking was outlawed. They didnt. Bars with patios were going to be devastated when forward-thinking provinces (not this one) extended the smoking ban to outdoor spaces. They werent. The hospitality industry was going to take a hit when licence suspensions were handed out in some provinces to drivers who blew over .05. It didnt.

Humans are incredibly adaptable and eagerly interactive beings. People will adjust their behaviour  except, lamentably, for those less-evolved fools who will continue to drive drunk regardless of blood-alcohol limits  and carry on with their social lives.

Valentines Day will survive .05. Hallmark will continue to thrive at .05. Vineyards, one suspects, will still do a brisk business, in February and beyond. Romance isnt going to die as a result of a lowered blood-alcohol limit.

But perhaps fewer people will.
Seven weeks ahead of Germanys federal election, the Social Democratic-Green coalition government in the state of Lower Saxony is facing collapse. At the end of last week, Green deputy Elke Twesten announced she was switching to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The state government in Hannover led by Minister President Stefan Weil lost its majority of one as a result.

The loss of a majority in Lower Saxony is a serious setback for SPD chairman and chancellor candidate Martin Schulz. Since he assumed leadership of the party, the SPD lost an election in Saarland it believed it was certain to win and also lost votes in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. If the SPD and Greens lose the early election in Lower Saxony, scheduled for October 15, only 2.5 million German citizens, living in Hamburg and Bremen, would be governed by a red-green coalition. At the beginning of last year, it was 40 million people. The SPD is in government in different coalitions in four other states.

It therefore seems increasingly unlikely that Schulz will become chancellor after the federal election on September 24. Even a coalition of three parties, including the SPD, Greens and Left Party, or SPD, Greens and Free Democrats, would be insufficient according to current polls. The latest survey from Infratest Dimap put the CDU/Christian Social Union (CSU) on 40 percent well ahead of the SPD (23 percent). Meanwhile, the Left Party, Greens, FDP and Alternative for Germany (AfD) all secured around 8 percent.

There is much to suggest that Twestens switch to the CDU was brought about by a deliberate plot. Twesten, who secured her seat on the state list, justified her decision by saying that she had not been nominated as the candidate for her constituency, Rotenburg/Wuhme, near Bremen. Many media commentaries spoke of betrayal, injured pride, and the desire for revenge of a political backbencher.

While Twestens decision reportedly took the Green caucus fully by surprise, she had been holding talks with the CDU about it for weeks. She allegedly told two witnesses of an unmoral offer from the CDU. Rumours are circulating that her move was bought with career promises and offers of lucrative posts, which both the CDU and Twesten dispute.

Just a day after Twestens move, the right-wing Bild am Sonntag tabloid intervened. It reported with great fanfare that Minister President Stephan Weil allowed Volkswagen to review a 2015 government statement on the emissions scandal before its release. The CDU and FDP subsequently demanded Weils immediate resignation.

It is undoubtedly objectionable that Weil, who sits on the VW supervisory board (the state of Lower Saxony holds a 20 percent stake in the company), and is actually supposed to hold VW accountable, allowed his government statement to be altered by Volkswagen. It underscores the incestuous relationship between the state government, VW management, and the IG Metall trade union and works council, which has even survived the emissions scandal.

But the CDU and FDP had long been informed of this practice. The state government confidentially informed the state parliamentary economics committee about this in September 2016 without the CDU and FDP representatives raising any objections. When they held power in Hanover, they maintained no less of a close relationship with VW.

The Bild newspapers decision to dig up this scandal now to weaken Schulz shows that powerful political forces are at work. The newspaper, owned by the Springer publishing house, has close ties to leading figures within the CDU and other parties. Five years ago, it played a decisive role in the campaign against then German President Christian Wulff (CDU), who subsequently resigned and cleared the way for Joachim Gauck. Gauck then introduced the foreign policy shift towards the revival of German militarism.

This time around, the goal is also to bring about a further shift to the right in foreign and domestic policy. Although this is barely being discussed in the election campaign, this is because militarism and the strengthening of the state apparatus are deeply unpopular. A shift in policy is therefore being urged all the more determinedly in the relevant committees. For example, the German Society for Foreign Affairs (DGAP) published a 40-page dossier at the end of July on Foreign policy challenges for the next federal government, which reads like an instruction manual for the implementation of German militarisms great power ambitions.

However, the continuation of the grand coalition is seen by many as a barrier to this course. The SPD is fully on board with this agenda. In 1998, together with the Greens, the SPD paved the way for the German army to engage in foreign interventions. In 2014, then foreign minister and current President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took the lead in the foreign policy shift, and his successor at the Foreign Ministry, Sigmar Gabriel, is following suit as a hardliner on foreign policy.

But the grand coalition is too cumbersome and sluggish for the aggressive agenda now being demanded. The same applies to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has spent two-thirds of her 12 years in power in coalitions with the SPD and is increasingly being described in the media, like Helmut Kohl at the end of his period in office, as someone without vision and goals, other than winning the election. Der Spiegel dedicated the entirety of its latest issue to an appeal for the emergence of a strongman.

While the CDU cannot replace Merkel in the short term, after the election the real election campaign, the struggle over the post-Merkel era, will begin, as the Suddeutsche Zeitung predicted. It will certainly be the case that after Merkels election victory, all of the criticisms saved up against her will emerge; the current enthusiasm for Merkels experience will give way to the tiredness of a government lasting forever, the paper wrote.

Within the CDU/CSU, right-wing circles that Merkel side-lined and weakened due to tactical considerations are prepared to make their move. One example of this was the holding of a highly publicised lecture in Munich last month by Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg (CDU) on geopolitical perspectives for Germany, which won strong praise from CDU/CSU circles. Guttenberg was forced to resign his post as defence minister six years ago following accusations of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis and Merkels failure to defend him.

Another CDU/CSU politician making a comeback is Friedrich Merz. The former chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group was removed from his position by Merkel several years ago and has since been serving as chairman of the supervisory board of the German subsidiary of BlackRock, the worlds largest wealth management firm. Handelsblatt published a full-page guest commentary from Merz a few days ago, in which Merz demanded the adoption of a more decisive and hard line towards the United States.

Bitter struggles are raging within the US ruling class, although the big-business parties share broad agreement on the deepening of the assault on social and democratic rights, and the pursuit of an aggressive foreign policy. The same is true in Germany. The political conflicts revolve around the issue of which form of coalition can best impose these policies in the face of growing resistance within the population.

The SPD and Greens also support a political shift to the right. Their declining support is not the result of intrigues by the CDU, but due to widespread opposition to their right-wing policies. The last red-green federal government under Gerhard Schroder enforced the Agenda 2010 social reforms and a comprehensive tax reform, which threw millions into poverty and enriched a tiny minority. The SPD is no less determined than the CDU and even the AfD to strengthen the police, suppress left-wing protests (as at the G-20 in Hamburg) and agitate against refugees.

Twestens switch from the Greens to the CDU shows how similar all of the parties are. Twesten explained that she has always been a declared supporter of a CDU-Green coalition. She defended herself against the accusation of betrayal with the argument: My basic outlook is bourgeois and I wont have to compromise that in the CDU.

This could also be stated emphatically by Winfried Kretschmann, who has led a coalition government with the CDU as minister president in Baden-Wurttemberg for six years. He also has a bourgeois outlook and does not have to compromise it in his cooperation with Thomas Strobl, the son-in-law of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. That is to say nothing of Boris Palmer, the Green mayor of Tubingen, who constantly agitates against refugees in the style of the AfD.

The Greens have always been a party of the privileged middle class. They have moved to the right at the same pace as the social gulf between their base and the working class has deepened.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei is the only party standing in the federal election on a socialist programme and not defending the interests of the major banks and corporations, the military, and intelligence services.
Despite recently-imposed US sanctions on Iran, France is boosting trade ties with Tehran after Irans 2015 nuclear agreement to curb its uranium enrichment program. Since the nuclear deal, the French press has begun to call Iran an El Dorado for French auto, energy, and high-tech firms.

These deals point to sharp objective economic conflicts between the European Union (EU) and the United States, which underlie the growing strategic and military tensions between the two blocs. Washington has threatened to abandon the Iranian nuclear deal, undertaking a 90-day review of its policies toward Tehran. Two weeks ago, the US Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill targeting Russia, North Korea, and Iran, accusing Iran of terrorism and involvement in regional wars.

US sanctions are aimed not only at Iran but at other powers, including China and the EU, who are developing trade ties with Tehran. US sanctions on Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran have been sharply criticised by European powers, and Germany and France have threatened to take retaliatory sanctions against the United States.

As Iran concludes multi-billion-dollar deals with European firms, including Germanys Volkswagen and Italys Ferrovie dello Stato, French capital is moving aggressively into Iran. This includes Frances auto companies, which are desperate to boost sales amid the economic crisis in Europe.

On Monday, Iran and French car manufacturer Renault signed a 660 million deal to produce 150,000 cars a year. Renault aims to double its market share to 20 percent of the Iranian auto market by 2020. Iran produces about 1,350,000 vehicles a year and hopes to produce 3 million a year by 2025. With the new deal, Renault expects to add 150,000 vehicles a year to the Iranian market above its current capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year in Iran.

The Renault deals comes after another French carmaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen, which has 35 percent of the Iranian market, signed a deal last year to open a plant producing 200,000 vehicles annually. Peugeot was a major producer in Iran before sanctions were imposed. PSA only avoided a fall in overall global sales last year due to increased sales in Iran.

Last month, Frances Total and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a 20-year, $4.9 billion contract with Irans Petropars to invest in the South Pars offshore gas field, which is split between Iranian and Qatari waters. With an initial $1 billion investment, Total will have a 50.1 percent stake; CNPC and Petropars will own 30 and 19.9 percent, respectively.

Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne called the occasion historic and encouraged other companies to invest in Iran. We arent a political organisation, but I hope this agreement will encourage other companies to come to Iran because economic development is also a way of building peace, he told AFP. We are here to build bridges, not walls.

Total is working to circumvent US sanctions, appointing a compliance officer to ensure that it is not targeted by Washingtonas in 2014, when the US imposed a $9 billion fine on Frances largest bank, BNP-Paribas, for violating the embargo. Irans oil minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh said Irans oil industry needs some $200 billion in investment over the next five years.

The calculations of Total, the oil company through which French imperialism has long transacted its neo-colonial policies in Africa, speak for those of European capital as a whole. They are not seeking to build peace, but to seize control of profits and markets which Irans theocratic regime prefers to offer to European firms rather than to a hostile American government. In particular, they are anticipating enormous profits to be made from the policies of economic liberalisation, austerity, and job cuts that President Hassan Rouhani is preparing against workers in Iran.

The European powers long enjoyed special access to Iranian markets, as Washington cut ties to the regime that emerged from the 1979 revolution against the CIA-backed Shah of Iran. Particularly after the Stalinist bureaucracys dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, US-EU rivalries surged in the Persian Gulf. Frances companies grabbed Iranian market share in the 1990s, while its diplomats argued that European influence in the Persian Gulf was necessary to build a multi-polar world. These tensions culminated in the illegal and unilateral US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In 2006, however, Washington and the European powers jointly voted to impose sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment program, which Iran insisted was for peaceful purposes. Over the last decade, China has increasingly developed its trade with Iran, which joined the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and became a focus of Chinas plans for a web of transport, energy and trade routes across Eurasia.

The US-backed UN sanctions slashed Franco-Iranian economic ties. Trade in 2014 amounted to only 514 million, compared with 4 billion in 2004. Frances market share in Iran fell from 7 percent to 1 percent.

Since the 2015 nuclear deal, European ruling circles are desperate to re-establish their presence in Iran, which has the worlds second-largest gas reserves and fourth-largest oil reserves, and an internal market of nearly 80 million people. The EU is likely to clash with Washington, should it seek to reimpose sanctions on Iran in the near future. After the nuclear deal was initially ratified, the European Council on Foreign Relations issued an analysis on August 26, 2015, headlined Europe wont bow to an anti-Iran-deal US Congress.

It said, Europeans are now looking beyond a nuclear-centric vision of Iran to focus on how they can use the opening up to engage Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis administration. Both Iran and Europe are eager to reignite their once-prosperous trade relations, and Europeans would also like to work with Iran to more constructively de-escalate conflicts in the Middle East. This kind of progress cant be easily undone, and if it is, European policy makers may blame Washington rather than Tehran for prematurely derailing an agreement that was given virtually global acceptance.

Now, European businesses hope that the re-election of the pro-business Hassan Rouhani as Irans president will help their business interests. Tehran signed multiple contracts, worth up to 30 billion, just during Rouhanis visit to France last year.

As Washington now threatens or actually imposes sanctions against Iran, Russia, China, and North Koreawhich the Pentagon is preparing to target for military actionEuropean corporations are coming into strategic conflict with their allies and rivals in the United States.
A week after low-lying neighborhoods in New Orleans experienced severe flooding following heavy thunderstorms, it is becoming apparent that the citys drainage system is teetering on the edge of collapse.

Workers and residents have been left to cope with the consequences of what is being called a mini-Katrina. Ten inches of rainfall within three hours led to hundreds of homes, businesses and automobiles being flooded out in low-lying neighborhoods. Several schools have been closed. An opioid detox clinic has been forced to shutter indefinitely.

With rain and thunderstorms expected through the rest of the week and a drainage system that is now barely functional, the city is bracing for a potential repeat of last weeks flooding, which itself followed severe flooding in late July. Louisianas Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, has declared a state of emergency for New Orleans lasting through the end of the month and into September.

Saturdays floods were described as a 100 year event, that is, a level of rainfall expected to occur on average once every century. However, it follows by less than a year a 1,000 year flooding event in the nearby state capital of Baton Rouge, where thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes. It also follows floods in late 2015 along the Mississippi River in Missouri which killed 59 people. Such events are expected to become more frequent as a result of man-made climate change.

Because of the citys unusual bowl-like geography, with most of the city lying below sea level, New Orleans relies upon a system of drainage pumps, operated by the citys Sewerage and Water Board (SWB), to push rainwater out of the city. When this pump system fails, the results can be catastrophic because water will accumulate in low-lying, predominantly poorer areas with nowhere to go. One of the major factors behind the widespread flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the loss of power to the citys pumps, leaving the floodwaters which poured through breaches in the citys levee system to sit for weeks before being drained.

This system, which is more than a century old, cannot be operated with electricity provided from the citys power grid, because its pumps operate on an unusual alternating current frequency of 25 hertz, which fell out of widespread use after the end of World War II. Instead, it relies upon its own power source of five turbine generators which power the entire system.

When homes and vehicles were inundated under feet of water last Saturday in the Mid-City, Treme and Lakeview neighborhoods, located towards the bottom of the bowl, SWB officials assured residents that the pump system was operating normally and that the sole reason for the flooding was the unprecedented character of Saturdays storms. We have the largest drainage pumps anywhere. To double them would be billions of dollars, SWB Executive Director Cedric Grant told reporters. We have a fairly significant system, one of the most significant in the world.

While it is true that the system as designed is unable to cope with this level of rainfall, itself an indictment of the inadequate infrastructure planning in one of the wettest and most flood-prone cities in the United States, it quickly became clear that claims that the pumping system was operating normally were complete lies. In fact, as is now acknowledged, at least 16 of the systems 121 pumps were not functioning.

In a performance of government evasion that recalls the attempts by the Obama administration to suppress the full extent of the BP oil spill in 2010, the worst environmental catastrophe in American history which occurred virtually on New Orleans doorstep in the Gulf of Mexico, this figure was upwardly revised from seven, to eight, 14, and finally to 16 pumps over the past few days. It may increase even further after this article is published.

A picture is now emerging of a system that has been in serious disrepair since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. At the time of last weeks floods, three of the SWBs five power-generating turbines were not functioning, including one that has not worked for five years.

A fire which broke out Thursday night knocked out one of the two remaining turbines (it has since been repaired, but has not yet returned to full operational status as of this writing), leaving only a single working turbine. This left enough resources to power only 38 of the 58 operational pumps serving the area of New Orleans on the east bank of the Mississippi River and between the 17th Street and Industrial Canals, where the vast majority of the citys residents live. Twenty-six generators were ordered as an emergency stopgap measure, which will remain in use until the end of hurricane season in November.

Complicating this is the fact that thousands of storm drains throughout the city are choked with leaves, dirt and trash. City efforts to clean these clogged storm drains are woefully inadequate, and City Hall currently has a backlog of 2,500 requests for storm drain cleanings from residents, according to the Times-Picayune.

The real condition of the pump system has been kept hidden from the citys nearly 400,000 residents for years. One possible motivation for this campaign of silence, aside from the politically explosive character that such revelations could and have had, is to avoid dampening the surge in real estate prices the city has experienced in recent years, affecting in particular the neighborhoods hardest hit by last weeks flooding. City-wide, rent in New Orleans increased a staggering 14 percent last year alone, according to the web site Curbed.

Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu responded to the public outrage by demanding the resignation of four high-ranking officials with the SWB, including Executive Director Grant, who will officially retire at the end of the hurricane season and receive a $175,000 per year pension. However, Landrieus attempts to distance himself from the developing scandal over the SWBs cover-up are simply not credible. There is no way that Landrieu, who is in the last year of his second four-year term as mayor, was unaware of the actual state of the citys pumps. Neither he nor anyone in his administration made any attempt to warn residents that there were serious problems with the citys drainage system in advance of Saturdays storms.

Significantly, Landrieu has seized upon the crisis atmosphere created by the floods to rapidly hand off SWB to private operators. This was portrayed by a spokesman for City Hall as a temporary arrangement, for a finite time frame to be determined to allow for the stabilization of the system. Landrieus proposal has received the unanimous endorsement of the citys Democratic Party-dominated political establishment.

Landrieu is following the playbook established by the ruling class in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when another disaster made inevitable by decades of neglect of flood protection infrastructure was seized upon to convert the city into a testbed of privatization and pro-corporate restructuring. This policy of plunder and the callous indifference of the ruling class was summed up several years later by President Barack Obamas first Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who famously declared, Never let a good crisis go to waste.

The most infamous aspect of this was the laying off of all of the citys public school teachers and the conversion of all public schools into privately-run charters. As with Landrieus privatization plan today, the charterization of New Orleans school system was justified at the time by extraordinary circumstances which supposedly required these drastic measures. In fact, this had nothing to do with rebuilding the citys schools, which are as bad as they were before Katrina, if not worse, and everything to do with opening up the city to an emerging charter industry which is estimated by Wall Street to be potentially worth half a trillion dollars nationally.

There is no reason to believe the Landrieu administration that the latest privatization measures would be temporary. In fact, the complete privatization of the SWB has been a goal of the ruling class for 20 years. It was first proposed in 1998, and in 2002 was voted down by the city council in the face of overwhelming popular opposition.

Claims that such measures would be oriented towards stabilizing the situation in the drainage system is belied by the fact that the most likely candidate for the contract, French conglomerate Veolia, which already operates the citys wastewater treatment plants, played a leading role in the Flint water crisis.

Landrieus proposal follows a national policy of deregulation, privatization and budget cuts under successive Democratic and Republican administrations, intensifying under the Obama administration, which bore a major responsibility for the water crisis in Flint and promoted the creation of record numbers of new charter schools throughout the country. It is now being escalated by the administration of Donald Trump, who personifies the domination of finance and criminal speculation over every aspect of American political life.
New Zealand Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei resigned on Wednesday amid a vicious right-wing media campaign over allegations of welfare and voter fraud more than 20 years ago. Turei blamed unbearable pressure on her family for her resignation.

Coming a week after Labour Party leader Andrew Little stepped aside to be replaced by his deputy, Jacinda Ardern, the resignation underlines the crisis wracking the political establishment. Heading into the September 23 election, all the parties are deeply unpopular, with no solution to the social disaster engulfing wide sections of the population or the looming threat of war.

At the Green Party AGM last month, Turei revealed that as a young single mother she had misreported the number of people in her household in order to receive a higher benefit to support her daughter. Like many others, she said, I lied to survive.

Her announcement accompanied the release of the Greens welfare policy, entitled Mending the Safety Net, which promised to increase benefits by 20 percent. Tureis posturing was designed to establish her as the voice of beneficiaries and appeal to the growing numbers of workers and unemployed people who are sinking deeper into poverty.

The social media hashtag #Iammetiria immediately trended, with single mothers and beneficiaries describing the desperate means they used to survive on welfare. Endorsements came from the trade union-funded Daily Blog, extolling Tureis radicalism and courage. Noting she was facing a barrage of bile for speaking truth to the reality of poverty in this country, the pseudo-left International Socialist Organisation (ISO) praised the Greens and called on students to Stand with Metiria.

When the Greens support in the polls rose by three points to 15 percent, there was a swift response from the media and political establishment. On July 26, TV3 political reporter Patrick Gower denounced Turei, saying she was trying to exploit the New Zealand public for political gain. Gower declared: It is all a tacticthe party wants to turn her into Aotearoas [New Zealands] Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn.

Tureis critics branded her a criminal and unfit for public office. The Labour Party, with which the Greens have a formal electoral agreement, quickly moved to distance itself. Ardern, a self-described progressive, said Turei would not be offered a cabinet seat in any Labour-Green coalition government.

Arderns action was a signal to the ruling elite of her own reliability. Whatever Labours paltry election promises, it remains committed to imposing the deepening austerity measures required by big business.

Ardern was rewarded with intensive favourable media coverage. In a week she jumped from 17.6 to 26.3 percent in the medias preferred prime minister stakes. This made her level-pegging with the incumbent prime minister, the National Partys Bill English. Labours figures surged from 23 to 33 percent. Such polls are structured and presented for political purposes.

On August 3, TV3 published further allegations about Tureis living situation. Electoral roll information apparently showed Turei listed at the same address as her estranged partner in 1993 and 1994. Turei said she was enrolled to vote at the address because a friend was running as a candidate and she wished to vote for her friend, despite living in another electorate.

It may be illegal to vote in an electorate outside ones place of residence, but is not an uncommon practice, particularly among young people and students. Police have confirmed they do not pursue such cases.

Following Tureis admissions, two Green MPs, Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, announced on Monday they would resign at the election, declaring they would no longer campaign or work under her. Turei and fellow party co-leader James Shaw said the remaining 12 members of caucus, and the wider party membership, wanted her to remain in her post.

Then came swirling rumours that further questions regarding Tureis private life would be tabled in parliament, and a precipitous drop in the Greens media polling from 15 percent to 8.3 percent, below the right-wing populist NZ First Party on 9.2. Turei announced she would quit parliament after the election, ending her political career.

The assault on Turei is a sharp warning that the capitalist establishment will brook no wavering, by any government, over the ongoing assault on working class living standards. There is real nervousness in ruling circles that alienation and opposition to deepening homelessness, youth suicide rates, the soaring cost of living and a severely underfunded health system will find a political voice.

The Greens posturing over the poor is a complete fraud. The Greens have formally agreed with Labour on Budget Responsibility Rules, aimed at reassuring big business that in office they would intensify austerity measures. Even if the Greens welfare proposals were implemented, they would leave benefits, in real terms, below what they were before Nationals infamous 1991 Mother of all Budgets, which drove thousands of recipients into poverty.

The Greens other pledges include a minimum wage increase of just $2 an hour.

Like their international counterparts, the Greens are a capitalist party representing environmental businesses. Turei herself has been instrumental in the partys turn toward affluent sections of the upper middle class. She entered parliament in 2002, having worked as a commercial lawyer, and was elected Greens co-leader in 2009 by defeating the so-called left candidate Sue Bradford, a former Maoist, who soon quit the party.

Since then the Greens, above all, have established themselves at the forefront of the build-up to war. Repeated nationalist and anti-immigrant outbursts by the Greens and their alliesNZ First, Labour and the Mana Partyhave fed into the countrys incorporation into the US drive to war against China. Last year, the Greens supported a $20 billion increase in military spending to upgrade the armed forces interoperability with the US.

Despite the role played by Ardern in sealing Tureis fate, the pseudo-left groups continue to promote illusions in a Labour-Green government. The ISO criticised Ardern for her attack on Turei, but on August 1 declared: Labours popularity with the electorate matters. The ISO lived in hope that Labour might learn some obvious lessons from Littles failure to lift the partys stocks.

Socialist Aotearoa similarly claimed Arderns elevation to the leadership as definitely an opportunity for Labour to step away from its current conservative incrementalism. It praised Turei for her boldness in championing socially progressive policies, falsely depicting the Greens welfare policy as the first substantive attempt to roll back the social warfare attacks of the 1990s.

In fact, the bitter affair demonstrates the utter subservience of all the establishment parties, including Labor and the Greens, to the demands of big business. Whichever combination of parties takes office after the election, the assault on jobs and living standards will continue unabated.

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New Zealand: Pseudo-left International Socialist Organisation backs Labour, Greens in election

[9 August 2017]
President Donald Trump told a press briefing Thursday that he was not considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who heads the Justice Department investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion with Moscow by the Trump campaign.

Trump again dismissed the significance of the Russia investigation, declaring, Theyre investigating something that never happened. There was no collusion between us and Russia, and adding that he and his staff were cooperating with Mueller. He said questions about firing Mueller were raised only in the media, not in the White House. Im not dismissing anybody, he said. I mean, I want them to get on with the task.

Trump was uncharacteristically restrained in commenting on the extraordinary pre-dawn FBI raid on the home of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, which took place July 26 but was only made public this week. He said the raid was a very, very strong signal by prosecutors, adding, To do that early in the morning, whether or not it was appropriate, youd have to ask them.

The president appears to be distancing himself from Manafortwhose spokesman recently denied that he had become a cooperating witness in the Mueller probe. Trump gave only a tepid endorsement to his former campaign chairman, saying he always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man.

The lead counsel for Trump in the Russian investigation, John Dowd, was not nearly so cautious in his language. He gave a statement to the Wall Street Journal Thursday, calling the raid a gross abuse of the judicial process and an extraordinary invasion of privacy.

Saying that the raid had been ordered largely for its shock value, he continued, These methods are normally found and employed in Russia not America. Dowd also suggested that attorneys for Manafort were likely to bring a motion to suppress anything seized in the raid.

Also Thursday, Manafort revealed that he was changing lawyers, dropping the firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (where Mueller worked before his appointment as special counsel) and switching to a firm that specialized in criminal defense in complex financial cases.

Press reports suggested that the switch was at least in part because of financial pressures on Manafort created by the special counsels investigation. Bloomberg reported that special counsel Muellers office has subpoenaed bank records for both Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates, and that as a result, their business activities were adversely affected.

Politico reported that the FBI has approached Manaforts son-in-law, real estate developer Jeffrey Yohai, to seek his cooperation in the Russia investigation.

According to Bloomberg, the Manafort inquiry is just one thread of Muellers multifaceted effort, which includes the purchase of Trump real estate properties by wealthy Russians going back a decade, the foreign ties of Michael Flynn, who was briefly the administrations National Security Adviser, and the dismissal of FBI chief James Comey by the President.

While the legal machinery continues to grind, the political warfare within the ruling class continues unabated, even in the midst of the global alarm created by Trumps bellicose threats to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.

Foreign Policy magazine published Thursday the text of an internal memorandum drafted by a National Security Council staffer, Rich Higgins, before he was fired by his boss, National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster. In the document Higgins, part of the fascist wing of the White House staff headed by Steven Bannon, denounced what he termed a deep state conspiracy to undermine Trump, consisting of globalists, bankers, Islamists, and establishment Republicans.

The memo, written in May 2017 and actually read by Trump, according to the report, claimed that Trump was under attack because he represents an existential threat to cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative. Higgins used this language to denounce those who asserted rights based on sex or ethnicity, including transgendered people in the military, against whom he apparently had a special phobia.

After McMaster learned of the memos existence in July, he forced Higgins to resign and then carried out a purge of other NSC officials brought on by Trumps first national security advisor, retired General Michael Flynn.

The incendiary language of the Higgins memo was matched by comments from CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd, a Trump critic who served as deputy to Robert Mueller when he was FBI director. During an interview Thursday afternoon with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Mudd declared that the opposition to Trump within the intelligence apparatus, focused on his allegedly pro-Russian policy, was so intense that Government is going to kill this guy.

Mudd pointed to the vicious character of the pre-dawn raid on Manafort, saying this was a demonstration directed at Trump himself.

Meanwhile Trumps political standing among Senate Republicans continues to deteriorate. The Senate adjourned last week for its summer recess, after agreeing by unanimous consent to hold pro-forma sessions during the August break, at which one senator will convene the body and then immediately adjourn.

The purpose of this ritual is to avoid an actual recess of more than ten days, the period required for the president to be able to make a recess appointment. Numerous senators advocated this procedure to prevent Trump from firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and making a recess appointment of a replacement who would, under Supreme Court precedent, be able to serve until the next Congress convenes in January 2019.

The concern is that Trump would fire Sessions and name a replacement who would take control of the Russia investigation, from which Sessions has recused himself, or even fire special counsel Mueller, replace him, or shut down the investigation altogether.

Following the adjournment, Trump has engaged in a series of Twitter attacks on Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, for the collapse of Obamacare repeal legislation and other failings, an extraordinary public conflict between a president and the Senate leader of his own party.
Imagine a fathers distress when his two daughters, ages 11 and 18, found an alligator in their homes backyard all the way in Canada.

Read: Dad Who Keeps Gator at Home Lets His 8-Year-Old Twin Daughters Feed It Pizza, Cookies

Sophie Ertsinian, 11, and Christina Ertsinian, 18, of Hamilton, Ontario, were getting out of the pool on a sunny, humid day when they spotted the 5-foot-long alligator.

They originally thought it was a pool toy their dad had left out as a prank.

As [Sophie] was drying off, she saw it sitting in the sun, their dad Walter Ertsinian told InsideEdition.com. She goes, I think its an alligator. Did dad buy an inflatable alligator to play in the pool, or is it a joke?

Then, Sophie noticed its feet move and screamed for her sister.

Sophie and Christina got closer to the gator to check it out as it stood still, but ran into the home screaming when the reptile turned its head.

Sure enough, there was an alligator, said Walter, who finally came to check the backyard after several moments of hesitation. I didnt know if it was injured or just sleeping, Im not familiar with the animal or how it reacts other than what you see on television.

When he dialed 911 and the operator asked if he needed paramedics, police, or firefighters, he responded, None.

I have an alligator in my backyard, he told the operator. Im not pranking you, Im serious.

As animal services made their way to the home, Walter started fencing the reptile in using a picnic table and other loose furniture around the backyard.

Read: Woman Fights to Keep 6-Foot Alligator That Wears Clothes and Wags Its Tail

It turned around and it was making its way toward us a little bit, Walter explained.

Eventually, an animal control officer arrived and Walter filmed officials taking the animal away.

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If this were in Florida, this would not even be a story but up here, it wouldnt survive the winter exposure, he said, speculating the alligator might have been someones pet. To have one up here is totally odd and rare.

Watch: After Authorities Catch Gator in New York Town, Locals Claim They Captured Wrong One

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Rome (AFP) - Anti-immigration activists whose boat was reported in trouble said Friday they had got their engines going again, after a migrant rescue ship said it had been dispatched to help.

The C-Star, which has vowed to expose what it describes as "collaboration" between privately-funded rescue ships and people traffickers, said earlier on Twitter it had "developed a minor technical problem during the night", leaving it adrift but not in distress.

Germany's Sea-Eye, one of nine NGOs involved in migrant search and rescue (SAR) operations and a target of the C-Star's campaign, said it had been "asked by the MRCC (command centre in Rome) to assist the ship".

But later Friday a spokesman for C-Star told AFP that the boat, which had only just got going against after being blocked for five days off the coast of Tunisia, simply stopped its engines to resolve a technical problem.

This was what set off a signal to other boats in the nearby area, but not asking for help, he said.

The Sea-Eye returned to its previous route and activities once it was told its help was not needed by the C-Star.

The Italian coast guard could not be reached for a comment.

The C-Star has been plagued with problems since its mission began last month. It was initially refused permission to travel through the Suez Canal, before later being blocked over legal questions in Cyprus.

After finally making it to Libya's SAR zone, it needed to refuel but found itself stuck off the coast of Tunisia earlier this week after fishermen and a powerful Tunisian union refused to allow passage.

The 40-metre long ship, which is flying under a Mongolian flag, is leased by the far-right group "Generation Identity".

Funded by Internet-collected donations of more than $212,000 (180,000 euros), the Austrian, French, German and Italian activists on board have vowed to ensure migrants rescued at sea off Libya be returned to Africa.

Two NGO ships were badgered at sea by the C-Star last week with a radio message telling them to "leave the rescue zone" and "stop acting as an incentive for human traffickers".

The message echoed one transmitted Thursday by the Libyan navy, which has banned any unauthorised foreign ships from entering the SAR zone off its coast.
The man behind the infamous Google memo has decided he'd like to further his career in shitty memos by writing an editorial for The Wall Street Journal.

On Friday, James Damore published a "Well, Actually" piece for the Journal, technically titled "Why I Was Fired." In it, Damore claims that he was the innocent victim of the leftwing ideological echo chamber that is Google: a company that, it should be noted, remains 69% male and 56% white.

As a biological woman, I'm too highly neurotic and cooperative to confront Damore directly. I would, however, still like to have a conversation with him that showcases my evolutionary tendency to be agreeable, cooperative and enthusiastic!!!!

SEE ALSO: Google reportedly fires engineer for sexist 'manifesto'

Below are portions of Damore's piece and my far inferior rebuttal (it's not sexism, guys, I'm just genetically not as talented as him).

Damore: I was fired by Google this past Monday for a document that I wrote and circulated internally raising questions about cultural taboos and how they cloud our thinking about gender diversity at the company and in the wider tech sector.

Dockray: Woooow, that's terrible! Small edit: I believe you were technically fired because you don't believe 31% of your coworkers are more than a stereotype.

Damore: I suggested that at least some of the male-female disparity in tech could be attributed to biological differences (and, yes, I said that bias against women was a factor too). Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai declared that portions of my statement violated the companys code of conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.

Dockray: That's awful! As a woman, I really appreciate it when a male engineer suggests I struggle with neuroticism and anxiety because I don't have a penis.

Damore: ... having these views challenged can be painful, so we tend to avoid people with differing values and to associate with those who share our values . . . [Nowadays] we are more mobile and can sort ourselves into different communities; we wait longer to find and choose just the right mate; and we spend much of our time in a digital world personalized to fit our views.

Story continues

Dockray: YES. Though I'm not 100% sure that if I was less "mobile" I would want to become bffs with someone who wants to "demoralize diversity" and "de-emphasize empathy". Please never run for public office.

Damore: Google is a particularly intense echo chamber because it is in the middle of Silicon Valley and is so life-encompassing as a place to work. With free food, internal meme boards and weekly companywide meetings, Google becomes a huge part of its employees lives. Some even live on campus.

Dockray: Sounds like they definitely don't have enough money to fund those diversity programs.

Damore: In my document, I committed heresy against the Google creed by stating that not all disparities between men and women that we see in the world are the result of discriminatory treatment.

Dockray: That is correct, you did.

Damore: When I first circulated the document about a month ago to our diversity groups and individuals at Google, there was no outcry or charge of misogyny. I engaged in reasoned discussion with some of my peers on these issues, but mostly I was ignored.

Dockray: Good job, most of your peers.

Damore: Everything changed when the document went viral within the company and the wider tech world. Those most zealously committed to the diversity creed  that all differences in outcome are due to differential treatment and all people are inherently the same  could not let this public offense go unpunished.

Dockray: Yo liberals: can you please show a little more respect for "de-emphasize empathy" conservatives? #BothSides

Damore: When the whole episode finally became a giant media controversy, thanks to external leaks, Google had to solve the problem caused by my supposedly sexist, anti-diversity manifesto, and the whole company came under heated and sometimes threatening scrutiny.

Dockray: I think you typed "supposedly" when you meant to say "definitely"  but maybe your agreeable woman editor just didn't want to say anything.

Damore: It saddens me to leave Google and to see the company silence open and honest discussion. If Google continues to ignore the very real issues raised by its diversity policies and corporate culture, it will be walking blind into the future  unable to meet the needs of its remarkable employees and sure to disappoint its billions of users.

Dockray: Who the fuck knows what will happen? In the meantime, consider this one user satisfied.
Far-right monitoring groups estimate between 500 and 1,000 people will head to Charlottesville to hear from alt-right ideologues such as Richard Spencer

Members of the KKK are escorted by police past a large group of protesters during a KKK rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in July this year. Photograph: Steve Helber/AP

A white nationalist rally, which some have predicted could be the largest in the US in years, is expected to descend on Saturday on Charlottesville, Virginia, and be met by counter-protests.



Far-right monitoring groups estimate that between 500 and 1,000 people and 30 speakers and groups will descend on the downtown area for the afternoon event, organised by the local rightwing activist and former Daily Caller writer Jason Kessler.

Those attending the Unite the Right event will hear speeches from leading alt-right ideologues including Richard Spencer, the podcaster Mike Peinovich, AKA Mike Enoch, and Matthew Heimbach, leader of the Traditionalist Workers party.

There was a confrontation late Friday ahead of the main rally when protesters and a smaller group of counter protesters came together on the University of Virginia campus. When the marchers reached and surrounded the counter-protesters there was a short verbal confrontation. Counter-protesters said they were then attacked with swung torches, pepper spray and lighter fluid.

Speaking earlier, Spencer Sunshine, who wrote a report for Political Research Associates assessing Saturdays rally, said: This is a national gathering that the far right have been planning for months. Its their big event.

He said far from being a broad slice of the right as planned, with the reluctance of some patriot movement groups to attend, and the commitment of groups such as the National Socialist Movement to the event, its become increasingly Nazified over the last few weeks.

In response, local demonstrators and anti-racist activists from all over the country are coordinating a counter-protest, which they are hoping will dwarf the far-right event.

One group, Congregate Charlottesville, has called for 1,000 faith leaders, and white clergy, especially, to assemble for a nonviolent protest. Among those who have responded is the intellectual and activist Cornel West, who led a prayer vigil on Friday night, ahead of the rally.

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Another group, SolidarityCville, issued a call in late July to all anti-racists to come to Charlottesville to oppose the event, adding that we must outnumber them in order to #DefendCville.

Black Lives Matter and SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice) chapters will also be opposing the rally.



These calls have been amplified on a range of other progressive and antifascist websites.

Far-right activists have raised the prospect that the confrontation could turn violent. Discussing so-called antifa groups on his podcast The Right Stuff this week, Mike Peinovich said: We dont want those people to have the impression that we are going to show up unarmed.

Emily Gorcenski, a local activist who is involved in organizing the #defendcville protests, said in an interview: I dont want violence, we dont want violence, thats not our MO. We want to be able to demonstrate against their message and assert our civil rights.

But she also said that she had had 100 death threats in the last month, and was herself open-carrying a weapon for self-defense. The second amendment is one of the few civil rights I have left as a trans woman.

On Friday afternoon, police reportedly attended the carpark of the citys Walmart, where they spoke with a Unite the Right speaker, Christopher Cantwell, after they received a report of someone brandishing a gun.

At the same time, police were supervising the construction of barricades around a 20ft-statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee, which is the focus of the rally, and has been at the centre of other recent confrontations in Charlottesville.

In February, the city council narrowly voted to remove and sell the statue, and to rename the park in which it stands from Lee Park to Emancipation Park. This was the culmination of a campaign to remove the statue started by a local high school student, Zyahna Bryant.

This is part of a wave of such removals of Confederate monuments across the south, which began after Dylann Roof massacred nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

In response, last May, Richard Spencer led a torchlit white nationalist parade around the park. Then, on 8 July, about 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in the park, and were greeted by around 1,000 counter-protesters. The day ended in turmoil after police used tear gas on some counter-protesters following the Klans departure, and made 23 arrests.

Saturdays rally is expected to go ahead in Emancipation Park despite the citys attempts to relocate it to McIntire Park, which is outside the central downtown area. Organizers and the ACLU were challenging the citys right to relocate the rally, and on Twitter Friday, Jason Kessler was insisting it would go ahead in what he was still calling Lee Park.

The Charlottesville mayor, Michael Signer, and the University of Virginia president, Teresa Sullivan, each issued statements urging people to avoid the rally.

Around the city starting on Thursday evening, flyers appeared bearing the slogan Diversity is a code word for white genocide, a common white nationalist trope.

The governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, in a statement urged residents to stay away. He said: I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans.

Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville tomorrow are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent. As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right. But it is also the right of every American to deny those ideas more attention than they deserve. Men and women from state and local agencies will be in Charlottesville ... to keep the public safe, and their job will be made easier if Virginians, no matter how well-meaning, elect to stay away from the areas where this rally will take place.
Roy Moore, a former Alabama judge and top contender to fill Jeff Sessions vacant seat, said the Russian leader could be more akin to me than I know

Roy Moore, the controversial former judge and a leading contender in Alabamas Senate race, has said maybe Putin is right and more akin to me than I know given the Russian leaders stance on gay marriage.

Moore, who was propelled to fame in 2001 over his refusal to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments that hed installed in state courthouse, is a leading contender to fill the vacancy left by Donald Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions.



Several polls have indicated Moore could have the edge in the Republican primary, which will be held next Tuesday, although the presidents endorsement this week of another candidate, Luther Strange, could change that dynamic.

In an interview with the Guardians Anywhere But Washington series, Moore also said that Ronald Reagans famous declaration about the Soviet Union being the focus of evil in the modern world might today be applied to the US.

You could say that about America, couldnt you? he said. We promote a lot of bad things. Asked for an example, he replied: Same-sex marriage.



When it was pointed out to Moore that his arguments on gay rights and morality were the same as those of the Russian leader, he replied: Well, maybe Putin is right. He added: Maybe hes more akin to me than I know.

There is growing concern among Republican elites about the rising popularity of Putin among some conservatives. The partys leaders remain steadfastly opposed to Putin, and recently forced Trump to reluctantly pass new sanctions against Russia. But the rank-and-files stance appears to be softening; polls suggest that Putins favorability ratings among Republicans have steadily increased in recent years.

Trumps repeated declarations of admiration for Putin provide some explanation for the trend, but others have pointed out that the growing affinity between the evangelical wing of the GOP and Putins Russin has in fact been brewing of several years.

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The Russian leader has rebranded himself a traditionalist during his third term, and his clampdown against what he calls homosexual propaganda in schools has been met with approval among some Christians in the US.



They include the son of the televangelist Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, who delivered a prayer at Trumps inauguration, and has in the past praised Putin for protecting Russian young people against homosexual propaganda.

Moore, who was forced from his job as chief justice after the Ten Commandments controversy in 2003, was later re-elected to serve as chief justice. His second stint as Alabamas most senior judge also ended in controversy, after he was suspended in 2016 for refusing to obey the supreme courts ruling on same sex marriage.

If no candidates gets 50% in next weeks primary, the Republican partys nominee will be decided in a September runoff. In such a conservative state as Alabama, the GOP primary will almost certainly determine who the states eventual senator is, as Democrats have next to no chance of winning the wider vote in December.

In his interview with the Guardian, Moore repeated his belief that Trump was put in the White House by God. Everybody else thinks its the Russians, he said. I think it was the providential hand of God.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Republican primary will be held next Thursday.
After months of political turmoil in the country, Latin Americas once broadly united leftist movement is in disarray

Anti-government activists demonstrate against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on 8 August. Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

In her first international speech as the president of Brazils powerful Workers party, Gleisi Hoffmann waded immediately into controversy when she voiced uncompromising support for Venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro.

Addressing the Sao Paulo Forum  an annual gathering of leftwing parties in Managua in July  Hoffmann said Venezuela faced a violent offensive by the right and endorsed a controversial new constituent assembly  which Maduros critics have described as a bare-faced grab for power.

The new body, which was installed last week amid protests from as many as 40 countries, would contribute to an ever greater consolidation of the Bolivarian revolution, Hoffmann said.

In a continent whose recent history is littered with rightwing coups, military dictatorships and US interference, such reflexive support made sense to many on the left. For them, Venezuela remains a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance  much as Cuba once did.

But to others, Hoffmanns speech was an indefensible endorsement of a government accused of growing authoritarianism and violence against its own people.



This week the United Nations said 5,000 people have been arbitrarily detained in Venezuela since April and outlined credible reports of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by security forces. The countrys economy is in freefall, while shortages of food and medicine have triggered a humanitarian crisis.

And after four months of political turmoil in Venezuela, the steady erosion of human rights has left Latin American leftists  once broadly united behind its charismatic late leader Hugo Chavez  in disarray.

The left is totally divided, said Leonardo Valente, a professor of international relations at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Graffiti in Caracas reads we are hungry. The countrys dire economic situation has caused shortages of food and medicine. Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

Valente described a hardline current which believes Venezuela today is an example of open class war, that there is no more democratic solution. But others are appalled by the violent clampdown on dissent. They are much more focused on the humanitarian, identity issue, he said.

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The chorus of protest has left Maduro increasingly isolated. Venezuela has been suspended from South American trade bloc Mercosur, and on Tuesday 17 American countries  including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia  condemned its breakdown of democratic order.

Even the Vatican has called for the suspension of the new assembly  although Argentinian-born pope Francis has been criticised for not speaking out against the Venezuelan president.

Maduros constituent assembly is the last madness of a regime that has been rotten for a long time Jean Wyllys, Brazilian lawmaker

In Brazil, Hoffmans comments were been seized upon by opponents of the Workers party  but criticism of the Venezuelan government is not restricted to those on the right.

Maduros constituent assembly is the last madness of a regime that has been rotten for a long time, said Jean Wyllys, a lawmaker from Brazils Socialism and Freedom party, in a Facebook post. The situation in Venezuela is catastrophic, a real humanitarian tragedy.

Wyllys said had been attacked online for his comments. There was a whole hate campaign against me on social networks  principally from sectors of the left who still defend the old Stalinism of the last century, he told the Guardian.

Wagner Romao, a professor of political science at the State University of Campinas and a Workers party member, said Venezuela had lost the lustre it once held.

Venezuela was an exemplary case, he said, pointing to Workers party founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who threw his support behind Chavez following an aborted coup attempt in 2003.

Members of the controversial new constituent assembly, criticized as a power grab, hold a picture of Venezuelas late president Hugo Chavez. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Many in the Workers party draw parallels between protests against Maduro and the impeachment of Brazils former president Dilma Rousseff  which they describe as a coup detat engineered by the countrys elite.



Monica Valente, the partys secretary for international relations, accused Venezuelas upper classes of playing against the country and exacerbating the political and economic crisis to force regime change.

She blamed Venezuelas economic collapse on its over-dependence on its vast oil reserves, and compared the tens of thousands Venezuelans who have fled to neighbouring countries to the waves of immigrants entering the US or the European Union. This is not a phenomenon restricted to Venezuelans, she said.

On Tuesday a group of Venezuelas allies  including Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador  declared support for Maduro, and attacked US sanctions as imperialist interference.

Bolivias firebrand president Evo Morales had already defended the new assembly. The aggression to the Venezuelan democracy is aggression to all Latin America, he tweeted. And under new leftist president Lenin Moreno, Ecuadors foreign ministry endorsed Venezuelas new assembly, saying it ratified its support for any process which seeks peace in Venezuela.

During some of the darkest years of the Colombian civil war, Venezuela served as a refuge for the countrys Farc rebels  but it also played an important role in negotiating hostage releases.

And Chavez was fundamental in convincing the Farc to sit down to peace negotiations with the government of Juan Manuel Santos  which eventually led to the demobilization of Latin Americas largest rebel insurgency.

In turn, the Farc have unapologetically stood by Chavezs beleaguered successor.

The rebels top leader, Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, has said that while the Venezuelan government has made mistakes, it is the forces of neoliberalism that are trying to destabilize a democratic government.

We support Nicolas Maduro Moros and the Bolivarian revolution. We denounce the criminal onslaught of which they are victims, he wrote in April.

After the election of the constituent assembly earlier this month, Andres Paris, another member of the Farcs ruling secretariat, said: We are very happy that the people of Venezuela have triumphed, that peace has triumphed and that democracy has won.

The national assembly building in the Venezuelan capital. Venezuela today is an example of open class war, that there is no more democratic solution. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

But Gustavo Petro, a former Bogota mayor for the leftist Progressive Movement  and before that a militant in the now defunct M19 guerrilla group  distanced himself from Maduros policies.



Venezuela, as an oil-exporting country, suffers from problems of income distribution and the crisis of falling oil prices  but they have been amplified by terrible economic policies. Venezuela can either remake itself by starting with a dialogue of its society  or follow the path of Syria or Iraq, he said.

In Argentina, leftists have mixed feelings, feeling little sympathy for either Maduro or his opponents. Maduros government has lost popular support and is leaning on the armed forces with increasingly anti-democratic measures, former vice-presidential candidate Myriam Bregman, whose Leftist Front came in fourth in Argentinas 2015 elections, told the Guardian.

But she also blasted the US, Pope Francis and rightwing Latin American governments for pressuring Maduros government towards a negotiated solution with the right.

With elections looming in Mexico next year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador  the socialist candidate who is currently leading polls  has stayed silent on Venezuela, though some members of this Morena party openly support Maduro.

In contrast, the Venezuelan crisis has been highlighted by Mexicos ruling Institutional Revolutionary party  whose technocratic policies now obscure roots in the populist current of the Mexican revolution. While the PRI has steadfastly supported Cuba, the government of president Enrique Pena Nieto has strongly condemned Maduro, though that may owe more to domestic priorities, said Federico Estevez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

Its about domestic politics in Mexico, setting up the PRI campaign against Lopez Obrador  dovetailed with converging American policy in the region, he said.

Brazils Lula has also remained uncharacteristically quiet as the crisis worsened. He plans to run for a third term in next years presidential elections, if he is not jailed on corruption and money-laundering charges, and declined to comment for this piece.



For Lula there is no point in commenting on it. He wants to see what is going to happen with his own candidacy, said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

As the Venezuelan crisis worsens, more Latin American leftists  especially those facing elections  may adopt a similar stance.

Its kind of that lose-lose situation, Stuenkel said.
A kind beauty school student helped transform a depressed teens hair after she hadnt combed it for months.

Kayley Olsson, who attends Capri College in Iowa, said the 16-year-old walked into the school's salon on Monday with her hair completely matted and tangled.

Read: Actress Who Openly Discussed Depression Battle Takes Own Life Days After Grandpa's Death

The 16-year-old said she had school pictures to take for the upcoming school year and didnt have much confidence that her hair could be salvaged so she asked Olsson and a co-worker to shave it off.

She said its worthless. I knew right then and there we had to make sure we kept her hair for her, Olsson, 20, told InsideEdition.com.

The teen, who Olsson has chosen not to identify, expressed to Olson that shed struggled with depression for some time, but this year she wasnt even able to get out of bed.

I was heartbroken. I know what if feels like to feel worthless and depressed. It was kind of wake up call. We had to help her, Olsson said. It was a extremely hard. She cried the entire time we were combing it out.

Olsson said it took two days and several breaks in between to get the teens hair entirely untangled. Olson did the final cut and style herself.

When I got the last knot out of her hair, I looked at her and said 'its all out' and we cried happy tears, Olsson said. When I showed her the final result in the mirror she said I am going to smile in my school pictures. You made me feel like me again.'"

Olsson shared before and after photos of the teen on her Facebook page and the post has since gone viral.

Read: Dad of Teen Who Jumped Off Bridge Releases Message About Depression and Helping Others

Mental health is a thing, it effects people all around the world and of all ages!, Olsson wrote on the post. Parents take it serious. Don't just push your kids off and tell them to get over something they legitimately can't. A CHILD should NEVER feel so worthless to not even want to brush their hair.

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The post has been shared more than 65,000 times.

"It really truly warmed my heart that I could do that with something as little as a haircut," Olsson said.

Watch: Mom With Postpartum Depression Shows Reality Of Having a Mental Illness

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Amid escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea, President Donald Trump has got support from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after he expressed disappointment with China on several instances for not being able to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The presidents of the two countries discussed Pyongyang over a phone call, and Jinping asserted Beijing was ready to work with the U.S. to resolve the issue, Chinese state-run Global Times reported Saturday. However, he also urged for restraint from the concerned parties.

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A statement was also issued by the White House about the phone call that said the two leaders agreed that "North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior."Jinping's advice to Trump over maintaining restraint comes after the U.S. president threatened North Korea in a tweet Friday where he said the U.S. military was "locked and loaded."

It seems Beijing is trying to stay neutral amid the ongoing tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. On Friday, an editorial was published by the Global Times that said China should clear its stance on the rising U.S.-North Korea tensions.

The war of words has continued between the U.S. and the North over the last week. A day after Trump said North Korea would face fire and fury if it kept threatening the U.S., a warning was issued by North Korea where it threatened to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. Pyongyang's state media also said North Korea may strike Guam by the end of the August.

During the telephonic conversation, Trump and Jinping applauded the recent United Nations Security Council resolution targeting North Korea. They called it an important and necessary step toward achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," according to the White House statement.

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Soon after the U.N. resolution, North Korea accused the U.S. of "trying to drive the situation of the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war," according to reports.

Read: American Airlines Responds After Man Posts Viral Photo Of Gross Lobster Roll

At the ASEAN regional forum held Aug. 7, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing would pay a heavy economic price for the tougher sanctions on North Korea. He added saying China is ready to pay the price, however, the aim of such sanctions should be to bring North Korea to the negotiating table. China has also blamed the U.S. and South Korea of obstructing that goal by insisting on pursuing joint military exercises, according to a report published by the New York.

Trump had called on Beijing in the past to exert its control over North Korea, its trading partner, on several instances. He expressed disappointment over China not doing enough in this regard in July.

"I think China can do a lot more," Trump recently told reporters. He added: "And I think China will do a lot more."

China has been serving as an economic lifeline for the North through decades. Beijing allows fuel and coal to cross the shared border of the two countries and provides large quantities of food aid to its neighbor. The editorial in Global Times also said China should heed its interests by trying to avoid a massive, destabilizing war on the Korean Peninsula, which is its backyard.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson loves all things space related, hes the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and one of Americas most well-known astrophysicists. Tyson is a believer in science. On Thursday he took to Twitter to use his knowledge to advocate for climate change.

He used the upcoming eclipse as a means of putting climate change in perspective for those who may not quite believe in it or its impacts. To his 8.4 million followers, he wrote: Odd. No one is in denial of Americas Aug 21 total solar eclipse. Like Climate Change, methods & tools of science predict it.

Read: Sea Level Rise Accelerating In Southeast US Due To 'Hot Spots'

The Aug. 21 total solar eclipse that is expected to cast a shadow over 14 states across the country throughout the day is going to be quite the show. That eclipse could only be predicted using scientific methods to measure and track the Earth, moon and suns positions in space.

Tysons tweet suggest that if someone believes in the science behind the eclipse and tracking it but they denied that climate change existed they would be contradicting themselves.

This isnt his first time taking to social media to advocate for science. In April, Tyson posted a video to Facebook in which he said he was tired of Americans denying science. I don't remember any time where people were standing in denial of what science was," he said in the video.

Climate change and warming is widely accepted to be related to human activity. Based on studies published in scientific journals, more than 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree on this point, according to NASA. In addition to a widely-held research consensus, organizations worldwide and governments have acknowledged that climate change is a threat that needs addressing.

In opposition to the agreement among experts, President Donald Trump and members of his administration have denied the role of human activity in climate change and any urgency of addressing it. President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement that served as a commitment to lowering emissions and helping mitigate the impact of climate change.

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Read: Eclipse 2017 Eye Health, What Happens If You Look At Sun, Eclipse

To detect the upcoming eclipse researchers use detailed information about the moon lumpy shape as well as the elevation of Earth at different points, which can be detected using satellite instruments. Some of this science, like elevation instruments, are also used to detect symptoms of climate change, like rising sea levels.

Old Eclipse maps used to assume the Earth was the same elevation everywhere, sea level, it also assumed the moon was a perfect sphere, something that has since changed and made the science around eclipse predictions more accurate. So Tyson has a point, relying on information about the eclipse but denying information about climate change is a bit odd.

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School surveillance video released this week shows a 7-year-old Ohio boy with autism being dragged down hallways by two teachers, who have both been placed on administrative leave, authorities said.

Corbin Kemle is seen on the video struggling with the two women after being picked up before one is seen dragging him by his foot as his face slides against the floor.

Read: Partially Blind Teen With Autism Shows Off Incredible Singing Voice: 'It Makes Me Feel Really Happy'

The footage became public this week after the local prosecutor closed the case and decided against pursuing felony charges, the Bucyrus Telegraph reported.

But Corbins mother, Bonnie Kemle McKean, told InsideEdition.com Thursday night that she thinks the teacher and her aide should at least be charged with misdemeanors for endangering her son.

No charges were filed against these women, she said. Its just not good enough.

A phone message left after hours by InsideEdition.com with the Crawford County Prosecutors office was not returned.

McKean posted the video to her Facebook page Wednesday, where it has been viewed more than 63,000 times.

McKean said she had been summoned to the school in May after administrators phoned to tell her Corbin was having a meltdown and was biting and kicking.

When she arrived, Corbin was huddled on the floor, his mother said. He was visibly shaken up. He was hiding under a chair. He said, I hungry, mommy.'"

His doctor had recently told McKean that Corbin was experiencing a growth spurt and needed extra meals, the mom said. She packed his lunch with special snacks.

Corbin gets really mean when he doesnt eat, she said. The teachers were aware of his recent diagnosis, she said.

She was appalled, she said, by the video showing his teacher and an aide physically restraining her son and then dragging him on the floor.

They said he had been climbing up a slide backwards and they removed him from the playground, she said. His teacher has known Corbin since preschool, McKean said.

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Read: School Bus Aide Accused of Beating Man Who Suffers Severe Autism, Spraying Him With Lysol

Trying to restrain while hes having a meltdown is the worst way to handle the situation, she said. If youre calm, hes calm. He mirrors your mood back at you like 10 times more.

McKean said she didnt know what to think at the time. Then about a week later, she was contacted by police, who had reviewed the surveillance after school administrators forwarded the footage.

Theres a fine line between disciplining a child and abusing a child, the mother said. This was child abuse. He could have fallen, or been hurt while being dragged down the hall.

"We do not condone the type of behavior that is seen in the video," the school district superintendent, Noreen Mullens, told the Telegraph.

The state Board of Education is reviewing the case and will move forward with disciplinary action, Mullens said.

Corbins mother said the women should not be allowed in a classroom. I dont want any other persons kid to go through this, she said.

Watch: Mom of Arrested 10-Year-Old With Autism: Nightmare Continued After Video Ended

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An Ohio teen accused of killing her newborn baby remained out on bail Friday after posting a mere $50,000. Brooke Skylar Richardson, 18, was charged with aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse after authorities found the remains of her baby buried in her backyard in July.

Investigators said testing revealed Thursday that the newborn was a girl and would henceforth be called Baby Jane Doe during the trial. The judge in the case also issued a gag order Thursday, ordering both the prosecution and defense to cease talking to the media immediately.

Read: Northwestern Professor Arrested For Murder Blows Kisses At Court Hearing

Richardson, a graduate of Carlisle High School, pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday. The teenager was a cheerleader and member of the track team in high school, as well as a member of the National Honor Society. Richardson was set to attend the University of Cincinnati come fall, her lawyer Charles Rittgers said.

Authorities were tipped off by an unidentified doctor July 14 who told them a baby was born to a teen in the town. They later discovered the remains of a baby in Richardson's backyard. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Richardson had her baby just a few days after her senior prom, around May 6 or 7. He said she then caused the newborns death, burned her and buried her in the backyard.

We may never know the medical cause of the babys death, Fornshell said during a press conference.

It remained unclear at this point who the babys father was, though Fornshell said they would be able to determine it through DNA testing and that authorities had some idea of who it was. The prosecutor said a preoccupation with appearances and how things appear to the outside world may have led Richardson to kill her infant daughter.

You have a situation where shes a cute recent high school graduate, Fornshell said. She was a cheerleader. She was described as a good girl by her attorney, as you heard after the arraignment, and I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate.

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Her defense attorney, however, adamantly denied the teen had anything to do with her daughters death, repeatedly calling her a good girl and citing her volunteer efforts and lack of prior criminal record.

I can tell you Brooke Skylar Richardson did not kill her baby, Rittgers said Monday.

Read: California Father Pleads Guilty To Five-Year-Old Sons Murder

Richardson remained out on bail and under house arrest pending a trial. As per Thursdays gag order, everyone involved in the case would cease speaking to the press.

Judge Don Oda issued a gag order precluding all parties to the State v. Brooke Skylar Richardson case from making any further statements about the case, Fornshell said on Facebook Thursday. The only exception to this order relates to addressing scheduling and other procedural matters pertaining to this case. Accordingly, our office will not be responding to any further media inquiries relating to this matter beyond the issue of scheduling and procedural matters. Nor will there be any additional updates concerning factual aspects of the case.

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Washington (AFP) - US and Canadian officials were investigating Thursday after diplomats posted to Havana fell ill, amid reports that they may have been targeted by a mysterious sonic weapon.

US officials refused to directly blame Cuba itself for the "incidents," which appear to have begun last year, and Havana insisted it is working to protect the US mission.

A State Department spokeswoman would not detail the nature or number of the injuries, but she confirmed that a number of US diplomats had returned home for treatment.

Unidentified officials told CNN and other US media that the staff may have been harmed by a sonic device fired either inside or outside their Havana residences.

Some countries have developed sonic and ultrasonic weapons that can be used for crowd control or, for example, to deter seaborne pirates without resource to lethal force.

But there are no known cases of such a device being deployed by hostile intelligence services or terrorists against a diplomatic mission.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said investigations are ongoing and that Washington is not directly accusing Cuba of being behind the "incidents".

- 'Major concern' -

But -- justifying the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats from Washington -- she insisted that Cuba, as the US mission's host nation, bears responsibility for its security.

Of the reported victims, she said: "What I can tell you is that these were US government personnel who were in Cuba, in Havana, on official duty on behalf of the US government.

"We consider these to be 'incidents', because we still are trying to determine the actual cause of their situation. They have had a variety of physical symptoms," she said.

"This is an active investigation, and that investigation is ongoing at this time," she said, adding: "It is an area that is under investigation that is a major concern of ours."

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Nauert said that US personnel began experiencing ailments in late 2016, but that it was not immediately recognised that it could be anything other than an ordinary health issue.

Cuba's foreign ministry said that US officials had alerted it to "some alleged incidents affecting some officials of that diplomatic mission and their families" on February 17.

Later, after some America staff left, US officials asked two Cuban diplomats to leave Washington in response.

"US government officials have been affected in some way by these incidents -- physically affected by these incidents," she said, explaining the decision.

"It is the Cuban government's obligation under the Vienna Convention to ensure the safety and protection of our diplomats there."

Meanwhile, Canada confirmed that one of its envoys had suffered a similar incident.

"We are aware of unusual symptoms affecting Canadian and US diplomatic personnel and their families in Havana," Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman Brianne Maxwell said.

Cuba said it had objected to the expulsion of its officials, while also urging the United States to work together to shed light on the incidents in Havana.

"Cuba took this issue with the utmost seriousness and acted expeditiously and professionally in order to clarify the facts of this situation," the foreign ministry said.

The communist state stressed the need for US authorities to share information on the probe and promised to reinforce security around the mission.

- Trade embargo -

Relations between the United States and Cuba were restored by then US president Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2015 after a half-century break.

But tensions mounted again alive after the detente was partly rolled back by Obama's successor Donald Trump, who won the votes of many Cuban Americans by promising a tough line.

In June, Trump announced tightened rules for Americans traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing US trade embargo.

The US embassy was closed in 1961 at the height of the Cold War when diplomatic relations broke down between Washington and Fidel Castro's young revolutionary regime.

The mission reopened as a "special interests section" rather than a full embassy under an agreement between Castro and US President Jimmy Carter.

But the US diplomats were hardly made welcome. Anti-American propaganda was displayed around the compound, which Cuba saw as a base for fomenting opposition sedition.

American diplomats in Havana and their Cuban rivals in Washington both regularly complained of harassment or heavy-handed surveillance -- but not of sonic attack.
James Fields, from Ohio, arrested following attack at Unite the Right gathering, and two police officers die in helicopter crash

A man has been arrested and charged with murder after a car rammed into a group of people peacefully protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 19.

Police said a 32-year-old woman had died and that they were attempting to notify her family before releasing more details.

Col Martin Kumer, the superintendent of Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, told the Guardian that 20-year-old James Fields, of Ohio, had been arrested following the attack on Saturday.

James Fields was charged with second-degree murder. Photograph: Albemarle County Jail/AFP/Getty Images

He has been charged with second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death, Kumer said in an email.

Donald Trump condemned the violence on many sides, but faced criticism for failing to directly denounce the far-right demonstrators.

In a separate incident, two police officers died when their helicopter, which was monitoring the far-right rally, crashed outside Charlottesville.

State police said in a statement the helicopter was assisting public safety resources with the ongoing situation when it crashed in a wooded area. The pilot, Lieutenant H Jay Cullen, 48, of Midlothian, Virginia, and Trooper-pilot Berke Bates of Quinton, Virginia, died at the scene.

The deaths came at the end of a day marked by violent clashes between far-right nationalists and people who had come to protest against their occupation of a downtown park containing a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee.

Witnesses said those hit by the car were peacefully protesting the white supremacist rally and footage showed the vehicle crashing into another car, throwing people over the top of it.

The photographer Pat Jarrett, who witnessed the incident, said: A gray Dodge Charger plowed into a sedan and then into a minivan. Bodies flew. People were terrified and screaming. Those closest to it said it was definitely a violent attack. The driver, who people later described as a skinny white guy with a straggly beard, reversed out of there and drove off, the front end of his car all smashed up.

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Charlottesville mayor Mike Signer tweeted: I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will  go home.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday evening, the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, who had earlier declared a state of emergency, told the white supremacists: Go home  Shame on you. You pretend you are patriots, but you are anything but a patriot.

The mother of James Fields, the man arrested for driving the car, told the Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didnt know it was a white supremacist rally.

I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trumps not a white supremacist, Samantha Bloom said, before becoming visibly upset as she learned of the injuries and deaths at the rally He had an African-American friend so ..., she said before her voice trailed off.

Responding to the events in Charlottesville from Bedminster, New Jersey, the US president said: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

But the Republican senator Marco Rubio tweeted that it was important for Trump to describe the events as a terror attack by white supremacists.

The FBI said it was opening a civil rights investigation into the accident along with the Justice Departments civil rights division and the district attorneys office.



The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said: The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.

WATCH: White nationalists and counter-protesters clash at Charlottesville rally https://t.co/4qH1yJjrGy  NBC News (@NBCNews) August 12, 2017

The car attack came about two hours after state police in riot gear had cleared Emancipation Park, the site of the Robert E Lee statue. The citys decision in February to remove the statue drew earlier protests by the alt-right and the Ku Klux Klan.

Riot police cleared the park after almost an hour of clashes. The far-right groups were largely compliant, but had to run the gauntlet of counter-protesters as they walked west along Market Street.

After a brief stalemate, a hard core of about 100 far-right protesters moved to a park two miles away and gathered to hear speakers who had been scheduled for the Unite the Right event.

One of the speakers, the far-right figurehead Richard Spencer, said he had been maced on the way in and lashed out at police and city authorities.

Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group. Photograph: Steve Helber/AP

Never in my life have I felt like the government was cracking down on me until today, said Spencer. We came in peace and we were effectively thrown to the wolves.

He said that they would not back down from protesting against the statue. When he mentioned Mayor Signer by name, the crowd chanted Jew! Jew! Jew!

Around the park, members of the far right were nursing and treating minor wounds. One of them, who declined to give his name, was bleeding from the head, and claimed to have been struck with an iron bar. Another young man, with a swastika tattoo on his chest and blood on his forehead, told photographers: If you take my picture, Ill cut you. Im not even kidding.

Meanwhile, counter-protesters were trying to stop the far right groups from entering the park. Some counter-protesters, including many marching under red and black antifascist banners, tried to block the streets. This led to altercations with far-right groups, who were seen using chemical weapons, sticks and shields on people.

A group of clergy linked arms to block a set of stairs leading into the park. The Rev Seth Wispelwey, of Sojourners United Church of Christ in Charlottesville, said: Were here to counteract white supremacy, and to let people know that it is a system of evil and a system of sin.

Steve Thomas, from Lynchburg, Virginia, who also protested against the far-right groups, said: I think that what we are witnessing here has always been simmering beneath the surface, and now has been emboldened and enabled by the Trump administrations politics and rhetoric.

Statue controversy

In February, the city council narrowly voted to remove and sell the Robert E Lee statue, and to rename the park in which it stands from Lee Park to Emancipation Park. This was the culmination of a campaign to remove the statue started by a local high school student, Zyahna Bryant.



It was part of a wave of such removals of Confederate monuments across the south, which began after Dylann Roof massacred nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

In response, last May, Richard Spencer led a torchlit white nationalist parade around the park. Then, on 8 July, about 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in the park, and were greeted by around 1,000 counter-protesters. The day ended in turmoil after police used tear gas on some counter-protesters following the Klans departure, and made 23 arrests.

Ben Jacobs and the Associated Press contributed to this report
Photo credit: Getty

From Delish

The worst part of dining out with a large group of friends often comes at the very end  when it's time to split the check. No one wants to deal with the hassle of crunching a ton of numbers after eating a full plate of food - or downing a few drinks - which is why many restaurants offer a "suggested gratuity" text at the bottom of their receipts.

But now, a class-action lawsuit first reported by Buzzfeed News accuses The Cheesecake Factory of using the tip suggestion to try to trick their customers into paying a higher tip.

In a complaint provided to Delish by HammondLaw, plantiff Marcel Goldman said the company should be held accountable for the "practices which resulted in the misrepresentations to and fraud against its customers."

In the receipt provided in the claim, Goldman's portion of the bill amounted to $38.50. She then left a $15.40 tip, which was the 20 percent tip suggested on the receipt. Other suggested gratuity listed said $16.94 for 22 percent, $13.86 for 18 percent and $11.55 for 15 percent. Her individual total came out to $53.90 with the mistaken tip.

Photo credit: HammondLaw

So, basically, the suit claims that the restaurant was suggesting that each diner in the party pay a percentage of the total bill - not a percentage of their individual share of the check.

"The TOTAL was based on the mathematical error perpetrated by Defendant [The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated]," the complaint states.

The lawsuit goes on to accuse the popular franchise of carrying on this deception for years.

"The practice has been going on for at least the last four years and at over 200 restaurant locations operated under The Cheesecake Factory mark and at 13 locations operated under the Grand Lux Cafe mark, and customers have complained of the practice on the internet," it states.

In 2015, Twitter user @hbrofman, warned of the restaurant's receipts.

"Watch those #deceptive @Cheesecake factory receipts, their suggested gratuity is based on post tax amount. #Fail," Brofman wrote on Twitter.

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Another customer who uses the Twitter handle @fullglitz said in September of 2016, "@Cheesecake the suggested #gratuity on the bill is incorrect. It should be based on the pre-tax subtotal."

@Cheesecake the suggested #gratuity on the bill is incorrect. It should be based on the pre-tax subtotal. pic.twitter.com/K6oLhPoxrh

- Queen Poker (@fullglitz) September 4, 2016

Alethea Rowe, a spokesperson for The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated, defended the company's tipping policies in an email to Delish on Friday.

"All gratuity amounts listed on our guest checks are suggestions only. Guests are free to tip as they please," Rowe said. "We believe our guests appreciate service provided by our hardworking staff and tip accordingly."

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Donald Trump has been blamed for the violent clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascist groups in Charlottesville by the mayor of the Virginia town.

Michael Signer said he was disappointed the white nationalists had descended on his town and said responsibility lay with Mr Trump for inflaming racial prejudice during his presidential campaign last year.

Mr Signer said: "I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the President."

He was speaking shortly before it emerged one person had been killed and several others injured when a car hit anti-fascist protesters.

The clashes broke out at a "Unite the Right" protest over the decision by the local government to remove a statue of the leading Confederate general, Robert E Lee, during the American Civil War.

Mr Trump has now issued his first tweet condemning the violence, several hours after the violence began.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

He followed this up with another, calling the clashes which were centered around the city's university, "sad".

Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Some on Twitter accused the President of not being specific enough in his tweet as he did not specify that he was referring to white supremacists or far-right groups.

Several members of the Klu Klux Klan joined in with the protests as well as various alt-right activists, militia members and Confederate heritage groups.

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Love how vague you kept this as if to say "both sides are bad!" Nazis are marching in your name. Be a man and take a real stance.  Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) August 12, 2017

Mr Trump has repeatedly been accused of having stirred up racial tensions in the country through his rhetoric on immigrants and his vow to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

That's it? That's you lukewarm response to white supremacist at the back door of the White House wrecking havoc?  Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) August 12, 2017

Officials in Charlottesville declared a state of emergency shortly after 11am local time as the clashes became more violent, with punches thrown between rival groups and pepper spray released in the crowd.

The clashes are the latest since the city, situated around 100 miles from Washington DC, voted to remove the statue from a park.

So-called alt-right journalist Jason Kessler said the protest was partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also involved wider issues around free speech and "advocating for white people".

He said in an interview: "This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do."

More attendees are expected to flock to Charlottesville - normally a quiet, liberal-leaning university city.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on standby.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which track extremist groups, both believe the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.
Donald Trump has condemned violence that broke out as far-right, white nationalists held a rally in Charlottesville, Virgina.

City, county and state authorities declared a state of emergency as clashes broke out between those demonstrating against plans to remove a statue honouring Confederate general Robert E Lee from a Charlottesville park and counter-protesters.



Mr Trump responded to the outbreak of violence ahead of the "Unite The Right" rally through Twitter, saying "we ALL must be united and condemn that hate stands for".

His message was posted shortly before it was confirmed that one person had been killed and several others injured when a car drove into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

He stopped short of condemning the racism issue involved in the removal of the Civil War General's statue. The message was retweeted by the official Presidential Twitter account.

First Lady Melania Trump, who rarely tweets, also responded to condemn the violence in Virginia in a message on her official Twitter account.

Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 12, 2017

Local media reported that riot police and the National Guard were ready to go in, but state police were already on the scene.

There have been reports of pepper spray being used by protesters on both sides as well as bottles being thrown and physical altercations taking place.

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Earlier in the day there was video footage of alleged members of a militia marching through the streets of Charlottesville armed with assault rifles and wearing tactical gear. There have not been any reports of gunshots as yet.

Mr Trump also made a public address several hours after the protests began during a bill signing regarding the Veterans Administration while on his 17-day "working vacation" at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides".

He added, "it's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It's been going on for a long, long time," presumably referring to the issue of racism.

Mr Trump noted that "it has no place in America" and stressed the importance of "law and order and protection of innocent lives".

The President also said that he spoke with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and the two "agreed that the hate and division must stop...right now."

He said he wants Americans to come together with "love for our nation...and true affection for each other".

Mr Trump was known for what many called divisive and hateful rhetoric throughout the 2016 campaign and his first seven months in office.

He ended by saying "no matter our colour, creed, religion, or political party, we are all Americans first," adding that his administration was working to understand the situation in Charlottesville and "restore the sacred bonds of loyalty between the citizens and this nation".
By Subrata Nag Choudhury SAHIBGANJ, India (Reuters) - An elephant blamed for killing more than a dozen people in the eastern Indian states of Jharkhand and Bihar was shot dead on Friday, after an elaborate hunt that involved dozens of forest officials and a sharpshooter. State forest official N. K. Singh said the team was assembled was after the elephant, believed to be 20-25 years old, had killed 11 people in the state since March and had damaged some houses. Singh said the elephant was also believed to have killed four people in the neighboring state of Bihar before that. Sharpshooter Shafath Ali Khan said in an interview that he first came upon the animal on Thursday, and fired a tranquilizer dart into the elephant's neck but did not bring it down. The animal escaped, but Khan later shot and killed the elephant with a .458 calibre magnum rifle. Khan said it was the seventh elephant he had killed, adding that in the past he had also killed five tigers and eight leopards that had threatened people in other parts of the country. Forest officials removed the elephant's tusks and planned to bury the animal in the forest with salt and some flowers. (Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash; Writing by Paritosh Bansal)
By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Los Angeles investment banker imprisoned for 11 years for a stock manipulation scheme was sentenced on Friday to an additional five years for misappropriating proceeds from a bond issue by a Native American tribe.

Jason Galanis, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan, who also ordered him to forfeit more than $43 million.

"There simply aren't enough words to fully express how profoundly sorry and remorseful I am," Galanis, once dubbed "Porn's New King," said before the sentence was imposed. "I stand before you humiliated, utterly humiliated."

Abrams said that while she was pleased to learn that Galanis had been teaching other inmates in prison, his conduct, which prosecutors say harmed both investors and the Oglala Sioux Nation in South Dakota, warranted a substantial punishment.

According to prosecutors, beginning in 2014, Galanis and his father, John, persuaded the Wakpamni Lake Community Corp, an affiliate of the Oglala Sioux Nation, to issue $60 million in municipal bonds.

Together with his father and five associates, Galanis and his co-defendants then misappropriated bond proceeds, prosecutors said. They said he obtained $8.5 million for himself to fund a lavish lifestyle.

The scheme left bond investors holding worthless securities, and the tribal corporation with no way to make interest payments due on the bonds, prosecutors said.

Galanis pleaded guilty to the scheme in January.

He had already pleaded guilty in July 2016 to a separate scheme to manipulate shares of the now defunct reinsurer Gerova Financial Group Ltd.

In February, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel sentenced Galanis to 11 years and three months in prison for the Gerova scheme, also ordering him to forfeit $38 million, a mansion in Bel Air, California, and a $7 million apartment in New York.

Galanis was dubbed "Porn's New King" by Forbes magazine in 2004 after buying the nation's largest processor of credit card payments for internet pornography.

Three years later, the SEC fined him $60,000 after alleging he prepared false accounting information for Penthouse International Inc, in which he held a large stake.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay)
Charlottesville (United States) (AFP) - A picturesque Virginia city erupted in violence Saturday as white nationalist demonstrators and counter-protesters clashed, with a car plowing into a group of people and President Donald Trump urging Americans to "condemn all that hate stands for."

The state's governor had already declared a state of emergency when a vehicle rammed into a crowd in normally tranquil Charlottesville, an incident in which police reported "multiple injuries" and "several pedestrians struck."

Hundreds had descended on the university city either to march in or rail against a "Unite the Right Rally." Unrest quickly flared.

"We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for," Trump tweeted. "There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one!"

Ambulances quickly arrived at the scene of the car crash, which a witness told AFP was "intentional" -- saying one girl got "tore up" after the car "backed up and they hit again."

He said the dark sedan "raced down here, jumped over the speed bumps and it backed up and it hit everyone again."

"There was a girl that was on the ground; she was trying to get up," he added.

Earlier in the day Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, saying he was "disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours."

The previous evening hundreds of torch-bearing marchers demonstrated at the University of Virginia campus.

"It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property," McAuliffe wrote in a statement on his emergency declaration.

- 'No fascist USA' -

Before the collision police began clearing the city's Emancipation Park after declaring those gathered there to be part of an "unlawful assembly."

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By midday local authorities had reported one arrest and said emergency personnel had responded to eight injuries.

An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed demonstrators, some clad in militia uniforms, throwing punches and hurling bottles even before the official 12 pm EST (1600 GMT) rally start time.

State police also tweeted that some crowd members were using pepper spray, and local media footage showed images of riot police, national guard members and an armored vehicle in the city's downtown.

Video footage from the demonstrations showed anti-racism protesters waving flags from the Black Lives Matter movement, as crowds chanted slogans like "We say no to racist fear" and "No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA."

Others brandished Confederate flags, today considered a symbol of racism by many Americans.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler, who had called for the white nationalist demonstration, on Saturday declared it "a monumental event for our movement" even after police started clearing the crowd.

Saturday's far-right rally follows a much smaller demonstration last month that saw a few dozen Ku Klux Klan-linked marchers gather to protest the city's planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate forces in the US Civil War.

Though they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counter-protesters, the extreme right marchers -- some donning the traditional white hood of the notorious white power group -- saw their images spread worldwide on social media.

- 'Vile bigotry' -

This time, the extreme right brought in big names of the "alt-right" movement -- which has been emboldened, critics say, by Donald Trump's ascent to the White House -- in a bid to attract more supporters.

Normally reticent First Lady Melania Trump took to Twitter to respond to the demonstrations, writing, "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville."

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan also weighed in on the social media platform: "The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry."

Friday night's pre-demonstration also turned into a brawl after torch-bearers linked to the white supremacist far right were met by counter-protesters.

Charlottesville's mayor Mike Signer dubbed Friday's march a "cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism and intolerance."

University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan on Saturday condemned that demonstration, saying in a statement that "the intimidating and abhorrent behavior displayed by the alt-right protesters was wrong."

One protester was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct, she said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups, said that Saturday's "Unite the Right Rally" could mark one of the most significant demonstrations of its kind in decades.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Some 180 Ethiopian and Somali migrants were forced into rough seas off Yemen by smugglers early on Thursday and 55 of them are presumed to have drowned, the U.N. migration agency said. It was the second such incident in as many days off Shabwa province in southern Yemen, where 50 teenage African migrants were "deliberately drowned" on Wednesday by a smuggler who forced 120 passengers off his boat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. "We have seen five bodies and can confirm five dead... Fifty are still missing from this incident, so 55 are presumed dead," IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon told Reuters. "It may be the start of a new trend, smugglers know the situation is dangerous for them and they could be shot at, so they drop them near the shore." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by John Stonestreet)
Nairobi (AFP) - Foreign observers deployed to oversee Kenya's general elections called Thursday for patience while votes are counted as accusations by the opposition of rigging sparked angry protests.

Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who is trailing behind incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, on Wednesday claimed massive hacking of an electronic system for sending votes to a national tallying centre in Nairobi.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry, leading an observer team from the Carter Centre, expressed confidence in the integrity of the system, introduced in a bid to avoid fraud in a country prone to post-poll violence.

"We believe the IEBC (election commission) put in place a detailed, transparent process of voting, counting, reporting and securing the vote, all of which lends significant credibility and accountability," Kerry told a press conference.

Polling officers have been sending results electronically to Nairobi, which are showing up in real time on a public website, but these need to be backed up with forms signed by them and party agents in each of the 40,883 polling stations.

Odinga, aside from claiming the electronic results are a "sham", has complained about delays in the sending through of the forms, further fuelling suspicion about manipulation.

Kerry said his observer team had witnessed party agents counting ballots together, and deciding together which were valid or not before signing off on final tallies.

"All of this provides an extensive traceable trail of agreement by many parties on the paper balloting process and therefore on the outcome," he said.

Some 400 international observers were present for Tuesday's vote, and their team leaders from the African Union, Commonwealth and European Union called for calm and restraint.

"They are working around the clock," said the EU's Marietje Schaake.

It's important they have the time to do these procedures well. We continue to urge everyone to be calm, to be resilient and to be peaceful," she added.

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Ghanaian former president John Mahama, who is leading the Commonwealth delegation, also urged Kenyans to give the IEBC "proper time and space to complete the results process with necessary due diligence.

"It is vital that all political leaders maintain peace and calm, exercise patience and not stampede the process," he added.

Mahama noted that the "opening, voting, closing and counting process at polling stations were credible, transparent and inclusive".

South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki, at the head of the African Union mission, agreed. He said the opposition's hacking complaints should be looked into by the IEBC, saying this was not the mandate of observers.
Al Gore is feeling Inconvenient again.

The former vice president of the United States and environmentalist spoke to Newsweek Friday about the sequel to his Academy Awardwinning 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, titled An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.

The filmdirected by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenkfollows Gores continued efforts to raise awareness and provoke action on climate change. It shows Gores direct involvement in persuading world leaders to back the Paris agreement on climate change at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015.

Those efforts were undermined in June when President Donald Trump, a noted climate-change skeptic who has appointed many deniers to his administration, announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement.

I was worried when Donald Trump made that speech [announcing the withdrawal] it would have a negative effect. I was worried that some other countries might pull out and use him as an excuse, Gore tells Newsweek. But that didnt happen. The very next day the entire world redoubled their commitments to the agreement.

The U.S. will not be able to withdraw from the agreement until at least November 2020, when the next presidential election takes place.

It looks like the U.S. will meet its commitments under the Paris agreement regardless of Trump, says Gore. A new president could just give 30 days notice and legally the U.S. would be back in.

Gore also opined on Trumps ongoing war of words with North Korea. On Tuesday the president promised to unleash fire and fury on the country if it continued to threaten the U.S. Trump doubled down on his remarks on Thursday, when he said the military was locked and loaded.

Justin-Trudeau-meets-former-Vice-President-Al-Gore-at-the-Paris-Conference

Paramount Pictures/Participant Media

The former VP says his intemperate comments on North Korea were really unwise, but reasons, I think its only fair to point out he inherited this crisis. The previous three presidents were not able to find an adequate solution [to the North Korea crisis], so he cant be blamed for all this.

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He has a secretary of defense and national security adviser, both of whom are immensely respected. I hope he will listen to them, and I hope their cooler heads will prevail, he adds.

As for Americas neighbor, Canada, Gore says he is conflicted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus decision to back the Keystone XL pipeline, which Trump signed off on in January.

The otherwise people-friendly Trudeau upset environmentalists concerned about the damage the pipeline will do ecologically when he said he was very pleased Trump approved the pipeline because he believes it will boost economic growth.

I dont agree with what some of Justin Trudeau has been doing and proposing, Gore says. But I do think hes an immensely positive force for the environment. He was instrumental in getting the Paris agreement 18 months ago. To me, hes a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power began its global release August 4.

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Bodybuilder Rich Piana was found unresponsive in Florida Monday, TMZ reported. He fell and hit his head, his girlfriend, fitness model Chanel Jansen, told the publication. It was erroneously reported 46-year-old Piana died.

Jansen attempted to give her boyfriend CPR. When medical personnel arrived they rushed him to the hospital. He was placed in a medically induced coma.

Rumors swirled that Piana died from an overdose, but Jansen cleared up the scuttlebutt on Instagram. The posted a picture of them posing next to each other.

READ ALSO: Study: Number Of Opioid, Heroin Overdose Deaths Far Higher Than Recorded

I will not be posting any updates after this until further notice. I just want to be clear [Piana] is STILL ALIVE, she wrote. All myself and his family are asking for is POSITIVE thoughts, prayers, and love. PLEASE Im BEGGING you all to have some respect and realize how EXTREMELY difficult this is for us. Thank you to all of you staying positive and sending well wishes, prayers, and love. We appreciate it more than you will ever know.

While there was no official report Piana overdosed, publications like Terez Owens and The Sun reported that was the cause for his collapse. Neither, however, are considered beacons of truth.

Terez Owens cited a close source from the gym Piana went to in Venice, California, and wrote, Besides steroids, Rich would inject himself with oils to enhance his muscles as it just wasnt steroids. We also are hearing it was Opiates that got the better of him.

Story continues

MORE: Synthetic Marijuana Overdose Of More Than 150 People In A Week Overwhelms Medical Services

Piana is open about his steroid use and once said it was necessary to compete in body building. If you have the choice to stay natural or do steroids, stay natural. Theres no reason to do steroids, youre only hurting your body, youre hurting yourself, he said in an April 2016 YouTube video. If you want to become a professional bodybuilder, guess what  youre probably going to have to f---in do em. Youre not going to have a choice.

Piana, a former Mr. California, is popular on YouTube, with his videos garnering millions of views. Hes also popular on Instagram, where he has 1.2 million followers. His last post was from Thursday, which is odd since reports said he was hospitalized Monday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella

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Sisco (France) (AFP) - Firefighters managed to contain huge wildfires in Portugal and the French island of Corsica on Saturday, though hot weather meant the risk of them spreading again remained high.

Almost 1,000 people were evacuated in Corsica overnight, mostly tourists staying at campsites, as 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of scrubland was destroyed, although no casualties were reported. The evacuees were put up in schools and other temporary shelters.

A man suspected of starting five fires in Bastia, a town with a population of 40,000 in northeast Corsica, was arrested and will remain in detention at least through the weekend, officials said.

At Cap Corse, the most northerly point of the Mediterranean island where the fire had spread, the blaze was "contained but not controlled", according to the local authorities Saturday.

"It's hell," Christian Burchi, a 50-year-old Sisco resident said. "We tried to extinguish the flames with two buckets of water and a ridiculous hose. Everywhere is burning."

Around 180 firefighters, bolstered by reinforcements from the mainland, were battling the flames aided by three fire-bombing aircraft.

Bernard Weber, a 60-year-old Frenchman on holiday in Corsica, spoke of "huge flames everywhere".

"It's a bit scary," said a 36-year-old Czech tourist who gave her name as Monika. She said her relatives would spend the night in a school building in Sisco.

France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb praised the "admirable work" of the hundreds of emergency services workers battling the blazes.

- Freak dry spells -

In Portugal firefighters managed to bring two of the major blazes under control in the centre of the country by Saturday afternoon, the civil protection authority announced, while warning that the heatwave could reignite the fires.

Firefighters have stopped the spreading of the flames from the forest fire that raged in the region of Abrantes since Wednesday, authorities said.

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But more than 500 firefighters, nearly 200 vehicles and three water-bombing helicopters remain on standby should the fires flare up again, they added.

The other huge fire now under control was at Alvaiazere in the central region of Leiria.

Civil protection agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said a record 220 fires had started on Friday alone.

"Despite the relentless fires, the situation is now more stable," said Gaspar in Lisbon.

Emergency workers had nearly gained control of wildfires across Portugal's drought-hit central region on Thursday, but stronger winds fanned flames in several areas.

In the village of Bracal, flames were being blown towards houses as residents grabbed what they could to aid firefighters, an AFP journalist said.

Some residents voiced anger at authorities after a season of repeated wildfires which have stretched resources.

"Firefighters can't perform miracles, they are exhausted," said Lucia Ricardo, who lives in Bracal, close to Abrantes.

Six villages had been evacuated around Abrantes on Thursday as fire-dousing planes flew sorties over the flames.

The fires come after more than 60 people were killed in June, and more than 200 injured, in a giant blaze at Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal that raged for five days.

After an uncommonly dry winter and spring, almost 79 percent of the Portuguese mainland was enduring extreme or severe drought at the end of July, according to the national weather office.

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Japan deployed its Patriot missile defence system on Saturday after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, local officials and reports said.

Regional tensions are mounting as Washington and Pyongyang ratchet up their war of words, with President Donald Trump warning Pyongyang would "truly regret" any hostile action against the US.

Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

The defence ministry deployed the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which North Korea had warned could be along its missiles' flight path, public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said.

It also deployed the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, according to the reports, while the Asahi Shimbun said one maritime Self-Defence Force Aegis destroyer was stationed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to shoot down airborne missiles.

Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japanese base in Kochi before dawn.

Immediate confirmation from the defence ministry was not available but an official at the crisis management office of the Kochi prefectural government said the PAC-3 had been deployed.

"While standing by 24 hours in preparation for a launch, we are calling on our residents to be on alert in case we issue emergency information," Makoto Ebuchi added.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman, said earlier this week that Tokyo "can never tolerate" provocations from North Korea and the country's military, will "take necessary measures" to protect itself.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also renewed his pledge Saturday morning to prevent any accidents related to the North's warned launch.

"I will do my best to secure our people's lives and property," Abe said without elaboration.

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Japan has deployed the missile interceptors in the past ahead of other North Korean launches but has never actually shot anything down.

In 2009, a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident, triggering Japan's immediate denouncement.

At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

On Friday, President Donald Trump urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un not to take any action against the US, its territories including Guam or its allies, warning he would regret such a move -- and "regret it fast."
Supporters of the opposition leader Raila Odinga burn a tire with a message reading 'Keep Peace', chanting 'No Raila (Odinga), No Peace', in Kibera slum, one of Odinga's strongholds in Nairobi, Kenya, 10 August 2017 - EPA

Kenyas disputed election was thrown into further turmoil on Thursday after the losing opposition said the result had been faked and demanded its leader be handed the presidency.

Amid mounting anxiety in a country haunted by its history of post-election violence, Raila Odingas opposition coalition accused the body responsible for conducting the poll of deliberately denying its leader the presidency.

Widening an alleged conspiracy to hand re-election to President Uhuru Kenyatta, the opposition said that a whistleblower at the electoral commission had disclosed the existence of a hidden database showing that Mr Odinga had beaten his rival by 250,000 votes.

Map: Kenya counties

We demand that the IEBC chairperson announce the presidential election results forthwith and declare Raila Amolo Odinga as the duly elected president, Musalia Mudavadi, one of the opposition coalitions leaders, told a press conference.

Provisional results released by the commission, known as the IEBC, on its website indicated that Mr Kenyatta had a lead of more than 1.4m votes  or nearly 10 per cent  after nearly all ballots had been tallied.

President Uhuru Kenyatta celebrates during a campaign rally in Nairobi Credit: EPA

The new allegations, which leave the country in an increasingly perilous and uncertain position, come a day after Mr Odinga rejected the result, claiming that IEBC computer servers had been hacked to alter the result.

Although that allegation was roundly ridiculed, the IEBCs chairman, Wafula Chebukati, admitted that an attempt to hack the database had been made, but insisted that it had been detected and thwarted.

Supporters of Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga wave as he departs in a helicopter after addressing a rally Credit: AFP

Mr Odingas refusal to concede sparked fury among his supporters, many of whom seem convinced that their candidate has again be rigged out of victory. His defeat in an election ten years ago triggered the worst violence in independent Kenyas 54-year history, killing more than 1,300 people and forcing 600,000 more to flee their homes.

Small-scale protests erupted in the slums of Nairobi and elsewhere in the country and police shot dead at least two protesters they accused of looting.

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Most opposition supporters have so far heeded calls from their leaders to remain calm until an official declaration of the winner is made. But now that Mr Odinga has not just rejected the result but also claimed victory, the prospect of an angry backlash by his supporters seem much higher if President Kenyatta is formally given a second and final five-year term.

An official declaration is expected on Friday.

Kenya's electoral commission denied the allegations, with one official telling Reuters that the opposition did not have "any credible data" on the results.

A supporter wears a cloth wrap showing Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, with writing in Swahili reading "President Uhuru, Five More" referring to the wish for another 5-year term Credit: AP

Mr Odinga has long nursed a sense of grievance after being on the losing side of three questionable elections. In 2007, many analysts believe he was cheated out of victory by the presidents predecessor, Mwai Kibaki. Five years ago, he was also denied the chance of a run-off after Mr Kenyatta secured a first round victory by a margin narrow enough to raise suspicions.

But there is much greater scepticism about Mr Odingas claims this time round amid suggestions they smack of desperation. Foreign observers appeared to dismiss the credibility of opposition allegations of a hacking attack, with John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, saying he had seen nothing to make him question the polls integrity.

Mr Kerry pointedly referred to his own defeat in the 2004 American presidential election, while Marietje Schaake, leading the European Unions observer mission was even blunter.

Supporters of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Alliance Credit: AP

Candidates and their supporters must accept that not winning is a natural part of a democratic competition, she said.

While the IEBC has been praised for its conduct of the election, questions are now being raised why the commission, in apparent contravention of a court order, published results that had no supporting documentation.

Returning officers in a quarter of polling stations failed to send scanned copies of handwritten forms, signed by agents for both candidates, alongside results transmitted electronically to the central tallying centre.

Although the IEBC is now uploading the missing forms to its website the opposition says the late forms themselves could since have been doctored.
Supporters of President Uluru Kenyatta celebrate in Kikuyu Town, Kenya - AP

Gunfire echoed through the slums of Nairobi on Friday night after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of a disputed election, triggering a violent outpouring of anger in opposition strongholds.

Screams and gunshots could be heard in several of the capitals poorer districts moments after the electoral commission sought to end a four-day impasse over the outcome of Tuesdays vote by announcing Mr Kenyattas sweeping victory over his rival Raila Odinga.

The president secured a second five-year term after winning 54 per cent of the vote, a 1.4 million vote margin that was larger than opinion polls suggested. The opposition rejected the result even before it was announced, complaining of "systematic" fraud.

Supporters of the opposition leader Raila Odinga burn a tyre Credit: EPA

With violent protests also being reported in Kisumu, Kenyas third city, there were fears that the former British colony could witness a reprise of the violence that claimed 1,300 lives after Mr Odingas defeat in another election ten years ago.

Members of Mr Odingas Luo ethnic group attacked property belonging to members of the presidents tribe in Nairobis Kibera slum as police struggled to control the violence, despite being deployed in record numbers.

They are burning down Kikuyu homes, a resident said.

With 180,000 security personnel drawn from the army, police and even the forestry service on standby, Kenyan authorities will hope to stamp out the violence quickly.

A supporter wears a cloth wrap showing Kenya's incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta Credit: AP

But many worry what the human cost of such a massive show of force might be.

There are gunshots all over, Lucas Odhiambo, a Kisumu resident, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. We dont know how it will end but we are praying for peace.

Mr Kenyatta appealed for calm but there was no word from his vanquished rival, who has hinted that he may take his battle for the presidency, which he claimed to have won, to the streets.

Moments before the official announcement was made, the opposition rejected the result and walked out of the main election centre.

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Kenya police officers stand guard ahead of Friday's announcement Credit: EPA

A police officer stands guard at the national tallying centre as Kenyans await the announcement on Friday Credit: EPA

We are not going to be party to this, Musalia Mudavadi, one of the opposition coalitions five leaders, said. Our issues have not been addressed.

Defying international pressure, the Odinga campaign ruled out a legal challenge.

For us going to court is not an alternative, James Orengo, a manager of the Odinga campaign, said. We have been there before.

The opposition had earlier demanded that Mr Odinga be declared president after claiming an elaborate conspiracy to cheat him of victory.

Supporter of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga have pledged to take to the streets Credit: Reuters

The opposition leader claimed that the electoral system had been hacked to alter the result in favour of his opponent and later accused the electoral commission of deliberately concealing the true result of the vote, which he said he had obtained from a whistleblower.

The electoral commission said it had investigated and refuted Mr Odingas claims, but, in a country with a history of electoral fraud and a reputation for deep-seated corruption, the pronouncement did little to alleviate the suspicion of opposition supporters.

Yet many observers say they hope any violence is likely to be more limited than that which followed 2007 election, which was more antagonising because it appeared more obviously skewed against Mr Odinga.

This time round, there has been greater scepticism about the oppositions rigging claims, although Mr Odinga is now attempting to put together a more coherent, if still unsubstantiated, case by addressing the most serious question hanging over the elections credibility.

A police officer deflects a stone thrown by a supporter of opposition candidate Raila Odinga Credit: AFP

The electoral commission, known as the IEBC, has so far been unable to explain why key documentation that would confirm results submitted by returning officers was apparently missing from a quarter of the countrys 41,000 polling stations.

Mr Odingas campaign yesterday revealed the existence of a parallel tallying centre  kept secret after masked gunmen raided its previous incarnation days before the election  that is attempting to collate results from its agents copies of the missing forms.

David Ndii, who heads the oppositions technical committee, said he was not yet able to provide a full result of the opposition count as not all the forms had been collected. But he said that an early snapshot cast the official result into doubt.

We have been able to do a statistically random sample based on more than 1m votes and there is nothing that gives you the number the IEBC is giving, he said. They are off by far.
Ahead of the Unite the Right rally, scheduled to take place Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, brawls erupted at the University of Virginia campus on Friday night as white nationalists marched through the campus chanting slogans like, You will not replace us," reports said.

"#Charlottesville" soon emerged as one of the top trends on Twitter as social media users shared pictures of the protesters at the campus. Some Twitter users were reminded of Germany under the Nazis.

A Twitter user also shared a picture of the varsity students protesting against the white nationalists.

The Unite the Right rally, set to take place in the Emancipation Park and McIntire Park, will see the participation of Neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and alt-right activists. The rally has been organized against the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the Emancipation Park. The crowd of the protesters and counter protesters was expected to swell up to 6,000 according to CNN.

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A similar rally by Ku Klux Klan that took place in July saw police officers using tear gas shells on protesters.

"Unite the Right was expected to draw a broad spectrum of far-right extremist groups  from immigration foes to anti-Semitic bigots, neo-Confederates, Proud Boys, Patriot and militia types, outlaw bikers, swastika-wearing neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Ku Klux Klan members  all of whom seem emboldened by the Trump presidency," according to the U.S. nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The Saturday rally could become "the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States," the rights group said.

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The City Of Charlottesville earlier approved a permit for the rally at McIntire Park, but there is a possibility that a large crowd of people could gather in the downtown, according to a local news website.

Police were preparing for the possibility of protestors gathering at the McIntire and Emancipation Parks.

Jason Kessler, an alt-right blogger, and organizer of the Unite the Right rally, according to his Twitter bio, originally planned to hold the rally at Emancipation Park but the city announced earlier this week that it should be held at a larger venue because of safety reasons. However, the alt-right blogger objected to the decision in a federal court saying it was a violation of free speech. The federal judge then lifted the emergency injunction Friday.

Anticipating violence in the rally, the city warned the locals about avoiding the area as much as possible.

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Referring to the rally, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) tweeted: "To the white nationalists descending on Charlottesville: go back to where you came from. Hate has no place in Va." The microblogging site remained abuzz with posts about the rally.

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Tripoli (AFP) - The Libyan navy on Thursday ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe, a measure it said targeted NGOs.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Charities have dispatched boats to rescue migrants from drowning, while Libya and Italy -- where the vast majority land -- have worked together to stem the flow.

"We want to send out a clear message to all those who infringe Libyan sovereignty and lack respect for the coastguard and navy," Libyan navy spokesman General Ayoub Qassem told a news conference in Tripoli.

General Abdelhakim Bouhaliya, commander of the Tripoli naval base where the conference was held, said: "No foreign ship has the right to enter" the area without authorisation from the Libyan authorities.

Libya has "officially declared a search and rescue zone", said Bouhaliya, without specifying the scope of the exclusion zone.

Qassem said the measure was aimed against "NGOs which pretend to want to rescue illegal migrants and carry out humanitarian actions".

He urged humanitarian organisations to "respect our will... and obtain authorisation from the Libyan state even for rescue operations".

Italy has also said it wants to keep a tighter rein on NGOs helping the multinational search and rescue operation by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

Italian authorities last week impounded a boat operated by German aid organisation Jugend Rettet on suspicion its crew effectively collaborated with people traffickers in a way that facilitated illegal immigration.

- 'Right to asylum at risk' -

Its crew is suspected of taking on board migrants delivered directly to them by people traffickers, and of allowing the smugglers to make off with their dinghies to be used again.

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The Libyan coastguard has accused NGOs of aiding people traffickers in their lucrative business.

Italy has sent naval vessels at the request of Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord to assist Tripoli in intercepting migrants, on a mission disputed by rival authorities in eastern Libya.

More than 111,000 migrants have reached Europe by sea so far this year, the vast majority of them arriving in Italy, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration.

Over 2,300 have died attempting the crossing.

On Tuesday, the United Nations's new envoy to Libya endorsed Italy's drive to stem the flow of migrants leaving the North African state for Europe, despite misgivings among human rights groups.

Rights campaigners fear Italy's focus on strengthening the Libyan coastguard to ensure boatloads of migrants are intercepted before reaching international waters could place thousands of people with a right to asylum at serious risk.

But Ghassam Salame, a former Lebanese culture minister appointed in June to head UN operations in Libya, described the cooperation between Tripoli and Rome as a "very constructive" way of dealing with an acute problem.

"It would be absolutely unrealistic to ignore the seriousness of the challenge of irregular migration," Salame said after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Angelo Alfano in Rome.

Apart from the Libyan navy providing technical assistance to the coastguard, Rome has also supplied Tripoli with new patrol boats and training.

Alfano said the cooperation was beginning to bear fruit, in a reference to a more than 50-percent fall in the number of migrants rescued at sea during July, compared to the same month in 2016.
The city of Long Beach, California, has reached an $85,000 settlement in a lawsuit initiated by a Muslim woman whose head covering, or hijab, was taken off by police after she was arrested.

The plaintiff, Kirsty Powell, was driving with her husband when police pulled them over, according to a news release from the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Powell, who had an outstanding warrant, was subsequently arrested.

Mrs. Powell is a practicing Muslim American who was denied the right to wear her religion headwear, hijab, by the [Long Beach Police Department] and defendant officers while detained overnight at a police station, said the 2016 complaint filed on behalf of Powell.

The complaint also said Powells headscarf was forcibly removed.

CAIR said in a news release Thursday that the Long Beach City Council had voted in favor of the settlement earlier this week, which encompassed $85,000 in damages.

The Long Beach Police Department have since updated their guidances on head coverings being worn in custody, according to CAIR.

In addition to compensating Kirsty for the humiliation and distress she suffered, this decision also prompted a city-wide policy change by the Long Beach Police Department to ban the practice of forcible removal of the hijab for female arrestees in custody, attorney Marwa Rifahie said in a statement.
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Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading one of the investigations into Russias meddling in last years election and its alleged ties to President Donald Trumps campaign, has been trying to squeeze former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort for information, Bloomberg reported Thursday evening.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, indicates that Manafort has been cooperating with Muellers team and was the one who three months ago disclosed that the now infamous Donald Trump Jr. meeting had taken place. The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York City was set up to gain potentially damaging political opposition research on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

As Muellers team issues subpoenas for a grand jury in Washington, Manafort reportedly has been providing information. Its possible another person in Trumps inner circle could be called upon by congressional investigators: Trumps longtime personal assistant, Rhona Graff.

While working for the Trump campaign last year, Manafort, a 68-year-old longtime political consultant whos faced scrutiny for his ties to oligarchs in Ukraine and Russia, was reportedly also responding to a congressional request for information about Russia. Manafort forked over more than 300 relevant documents to Congress, according to Bloomberg.

Despite such disclosures, FBI agents under orders from Muellers team raided Manaforts Virginia home early July 26, one day removed from his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Tax documents and banking records were reportedly removed from his home.

The probe by Mueller, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May, covers the Trump-Russia scandal and examines the presidents real estate dealings with Russians, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the dismissed National Security Adviser Michael Flynns work in foreign countries.

In addition to Manafort discussing the Trump Jr. meeting months ago, the president's son himself early last month tweeted about it as a New York Times report on the matter was set to be published. Trump Jr. initially had stated that the meeting was solely about adoptions, but the Times report showed he loved the idea of obtaining potentially incriminating information on Clinton to aid his father's campaign.

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The Times also reported that government officials had learned of the meeting from a revised disclosure form from White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, who had previously failed to disclose his meetings with Russias ambassador to the U.S. and the head of a Russian bank during the presidential transition last year.

Its possible that Rhona Graff, Trump's long-serving personal secretary, could also face questioning during the Russia investigations, according to ABC News. Graff has worked for the Trump Organization for almost 30 years and has become a senior vice president whom ABC described as a supposed gatekeeper to Trump. Graff was also mentioned in an email chain regarding the Trump Jr. meeting with the Russian lawyer.

An attorney working as outside counsel for the Trump Organization told ABC that Graff had not yet been contacted by congressional investigators, but Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, indicated Graffs importance.

Since her name is in the email, people will want her to answer questions, King said. If you go into Trump Tower, youre going to mention her name.

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The memo at the heart of the latest blowup at the National Security Council paints a dark picture of media, academics, the deep state, and other enemies allegedly working to subvert U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a copy of the document obtained by Foreign Policy.

The seven-page document, which eventually landed on the presidents desk, precipitated a crisis that led to the departure of several high-level NSC officials tied to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The author of the memo, Rich Higgins, who was in the strategic planning office at the NSC, was among those recently pushed out.

The full memo, dated May 2017, is titled POTUS & Political Warfare. It provides a sweeping, if at times conspiratorial, view of what it describes as a multi-pronged attack on the Trump White House.

Trump is being attacked, the memo says, because he represents an existential threat to cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative. Those threatened by Trump include deep state actors, globalists, bankers, Islamists, and establishment Republicans.

The memo is part of a broader political struggle inside the White House between current National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and alt-right operatives with a nationalist worldview who believe the Army general and his crew are subverting the presidents agenda.

Though not called out by name, McMaster was among those described in the document as working against Trump, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the memo and the events. Higgins, the author, is widely regarded as a Flynn loyalist who dislikes McMaster and his team.

It was about H.R. McMaster, the source said. So, when he starts reading it, he knows its him and he fires [Higgins].

The story of the memos strange journey to the Oval Office captures the zeitgeist of what has become the tragicomedy of the current White House: a son trying to please his father, an isolated general on a mission to find a leaker, a right-wing blogger with a window into the nations security apparatus, and a president whose closest confidante is a TV personality.

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The result is an even wider rift between the president and his national security advisor, marking what may be the beginning of the end of the generals tenure, and a radical shift of power on the NSC.

The controversy over the memo has its origins in a hunt for staffers believed to be providing information to right-wing blogger Mike Cernovich, who seemed to have uncanny insight into the inner workings of the NSC. Cernovich in the past few months has been conducting a wide-ranging campaign against the national security advisor.

McMaster was just very, very obsessed with this, with Cernovich, a senior administration official told FP. He had become this incredible specter.

In July, the memo was discovered in Higginss email during what two sources described to Foreign Policy as a routine security audit of NSC staffers communications. Another source, however, characterized it as a McCarthy-type leak investigation targeting staffers suspected of communicating with Cernovich.

Higgins, who had worked on the Trump campaign and transition before coming to the NSC, drafted the memo in late May and then circulated the memo to friends from the transition, a number of whom are now in the White House.

After the memo was discovered, McMasters deputy, Ricky Waddell, summoned Higgins, who was told he could resign  or be fired, and risk losing his security clearance, according to two sources.

Higgins, who agreed to resign, was escorted out of the building. He later learned from his colleagues still at the NSC that his association to this now-infamous memo was the reason he was removed.

Following Higginss departure, McMaster set out to clean house, a source close the White House said  getting rid of NSC staffers linked to the memo, perceived as loyal to his predecessor, Michael Flynn, or simply those with whom hed butted heads over foreign policy. Among those fired was Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the NSCs top intelligence official, and Derek Harvey, who handled the NSCs Middle East portfolio.

In the meantime, however, the memo had been working its way through the Trump White House. Among those who received the memo, according to two sources, was Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Jr., at that time in the glare of media scrutiny around his meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, gave the memo to his father, who gushed over it, according to sources.

In a comedy of errors, Trump later learned from Sean Hannity, the Fox News host and close friend of the president, that the memos author had been fired. Trump was furious, the senior administration official said. He is still furious.

The memo lays out what it described as a concerted campaign to undermine the president.

The administration has been maneuvered into a constant back-pedal by relentless political warfare attacks structured to force him to assume a reactive posture that assures inadequate responses, it reads. The president can either drive or be driven by events; its time for him to drive them.

The purpose of the memo, said a source familiar with the document, was to educate others in the White House about just what the president is allegedly up against.

The memo maybe reads a little crazy, sure, but its not wrong and Rich isnt crazy, an administration official said.

Many inside the White House had only seen the first page or two of the memo  or had only read the excerpts published in the Atlantic, which first reported the existence of the memo, several sources said.

The memos repeated references to the Muslim Brotherhood  which is grouped among key international players that includes the European Union and the United Nations  surprised few inside the NSC familiar with what had been a Flynn obsession. Oh look, its the newest member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was a common joke among those critical of Flynn loyalists, and what they regarded as a conspiracy theory, a source close to the NSC said.

This 3,500-word memo was written in a personal capacity, according to a source familiar with its drafting. The source described it as a technical assessment of the current political situation, and said it was never disseminated from the NSC in any official manner, but shared with personal contacts from the Trump campaign.

While opposition to President Trump manifests itself through political warfare memes centered on cultural Marxist narratives, this hardly means that opposition is limited to Marxists as conventionally understood, the memo reads. Having become the dominant cultural meme, some benefit from it while others are captured by it; including deep state actors, globalists, bankers, Islamists, and establishment Republicans.

Its not wrong per se, said another official. Actually, its not wrong at all. The not-wrong part is just, well, buried a bit I guess by some of the wackier parts.

The memo calls out those pushing for rights based on sex or ethnicity, which is a direct assault on the very idea of individual human rights and natural law around which the Constitution was framed. It also says that transgender acceptance is denying a person the right to declare the biological fact of ones sex.

Contacted by FP, Higgins declined to comment on the memo or his departure from the NSC.

The recent NSC shake-up appears to go beyond concerns about the memo. The recently ousted NSC staffers had been brought in by Flynn, who resigned for allegedly lying to Vice President Mike Pence about the substance of a December phone call he had with a Russian official.

Flynn is now under investigation for, among other things, failing to report income for lobbying on behalf of Turkey shortly before he became involved in the campaign.

The elimination of Higgins, Cohen-Watnick, and Harvey has helped McMaster assert control of the NSC, which was staffed during the early days of the administration by those loyal to Flynn and Steve Bannon, Trumps chief strategist.

Late last week, McMaster also planned to put at least four other NSC staffers on the chopping block, but was prevented from doing so by newly installed Chief of Staff John Kelly, according to two sources. All but one of those staffers had ties dating back to the campaign or transition.

A source close to McMaster denied those planned firings.

The White House press office did not respond to FPs request for comment. A NSC spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy against speaking about internal personnel issues.

Despite Higginss firing, McMasters difficulties inside the White House arent going away anytime soon  though he might.

McMaster doesnt really have any allies, said a source familiar with the NSC staff. It doesnt seem as though he has the ear of the president, which is obviously essential to his survival.

Kate Brannen and Jenna McLaughlin contributed reporting to this article.

Photo: A viewer walks past a series of images titled Mao Trump by contemporary pop artist Knowledge Bennett on display at the Ren Gallery in Los Angeles in January 2016. MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images.
Apparent militia members carrying assault rifles and other weapons march through Charlottesville, Virginia: Craig Stanley

Heavily-armed men in camouflage clothing and tactical gear have been filmed marching through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, ahead of a planned white nationalist rally.

The militia group was seen carrying military-style assault rifles with telescope sights and spare magazines, protective helmets, radios and knives. One appeared to be wearing a bandolier of shotgun shells and a second had spare handgun magazines; another had a Confederate flag patch on his vest.

Terry McAuliffe, Virginia's Democratic governor, has placed the National Guard on standby for the "unite the right" rally on Saturday.

Unidentified militia has arrived at #EmancipationPark ahead of the #Charlottesville rally with guns in tow. pic.twitter.com/zCLCBU78PF  Craig Stanley (@_CraigStanley) August 12, 2017

The rally, expected to draw thousands of conservative, white nationalist and so-called alt-right activists to the city's Emancipation Park, is being held to protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.

Separate footage showed protesters in a loose uniform of khaki trousers and white shirts carrying flags and chanting the Nazi-linked phrase "blood and soil" as they passed through the streets of Charlottesville.

They're chanting "Blood and Soil" as they approach Lee Park in #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/2hPmJv9sq0  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) August 12, 2017

Mr McAuliffe said on Friday: "Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville tomorrow are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent."

He urged people to stay away and "deny those ideas more attention than they deserve".

On Friday night torch-wielding protesters descended on the University of Virginia's Charlottesville campus, with some seen to throw Nazi salutes.
The explosion at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Centre in Bloomington caused extensive damages to the imam's office: Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via AP

More than $10,000 (77,000) has been raised for a mosque in Minnesota after it was firebombed in what the mayor called "an act of terrorism."

Donald Trump and the White House have so far remained silent about the bombing, despite Muslim leaders urging him to condemn it as a terrorist attack.

The explosion at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Centre in Bloomington happened on Saturday morning just before morning prayers and caused extensive damages to the imam's office, but did not injure anyone.

The FBI said it was an "improved explosive device."

A GoFundMe crowdfunding page raised more than $87,000 (67,000), while a LaunchGood page raised more than $21,000 (16,000).

Well-wishers have also left flowers outside the mosque.

Mohamed Omar, the mosque's director, said his community is grateful for the support it has received from the public.

While the bombing was "horrific and tragic," Mr Omar said, "on the other hand, good people came out, and they outnumber that one bad guy, and we are so pleased and so happy to see this community coming together in our support."

Governor Mark Dayton visited the mosque on Sunday and called the bombing a "wretched" terrorist act. Islamic leaders in Minnesota and nationwide have said they are waiting for the president to say something similar.

But Mr Trump's adviser, Sebastian Gorka, said the White House would withhold comment until the investigation is complete, suggesting it may have been a hoax orchestrated "by the left."

The mosque opened in 2011 at the site of a former elementary school and serves people primarily from the area's large Somali community.

Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the US, roughly 57,000 people, according to the latest census figures.
Rome (AFP) - The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group said Saturday it was halting operations of its largest rescue ship for migrants in the Mediterranean after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

"With NGOs more and more restricted in the Med & the #EU determined to trap people in #Libya, we've put the #Prudence on standby," MSF said on Twitter.

Libya's navy this week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe.

Navy spokesman General Ayoub Qassem said on Thursday that the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations "which pretend to want to rescue illegal migrants and carry out humanitarian actions".

MSF said that while it would continue to provide assistance to other rescue operations, it was suspending the use of the Prudence -- one of the largest NGO vessels in the Mediterranean that rescued 1,500 people in May alone.

"European states and the Libyan authorities are jointly implementing a roadblock for people looking for security," MSF Italy president Loris De Filippi said in a statement.

"It's an unacceptable attack on the lives and dignity of people."

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, warned NGOs earlier this month that they would not be allowed to continue working in the Mediterranean if they did not sign up to new rules governing their operations.

Under a new code of conduct drawn up as a German vessel was impounded for allegedly aiding people smugglers, boats would have to have an Italian police officer on board monitoring activities.

Most aid agencies conducting rescues off the coast of Libya have signed up to the agreement, but not MSF.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014, putting the country's reception facilities under strain and the centre-left government under pressure with elections looming next year.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German trade fair operator Messe Muenchen said it was committed to its operations in Turkey despite having been on a Turkish blacklist of German companies suspected of backing terrorism. "We do not question our engagement there," Klaus Dittrich, chairman and chief executive of Messe Muenchen, told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. "We are not expanding there for the time being but we are not pulling out." Turkey was reported last month to have given Berlin a list of almost 700 German firms it was targeting for suspected links to last year's coup attempt. Turkey denied it had given Germany such a list. Three weeks ago, Germany said Turkey had formally withdrawn the blacklist, blaming it on a "communications problem". Dittrich said Messe Muenchen had "evidently" been on this list. Messe Muenchen currently holds two events in Istanbul: transportation and logistics fair Logitrans and environmental technology fair IFAT Eurasia. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by David Evans)
Danny Tarkanians primary challenge to Dean Heller focuses on loyalty: Theyre all going to know I support President Trump and Dean Heller does not

The Republican senator Dean Heller denounced a Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Photograph: Andy Barron/AP

Weeks into the tortuous debate over how to repeal Barack Obamas healthcare reforms, a frustrated Donald Trump summoned Senate Republicans to the White House for lunch. During the meeting, the president taunted the assembled lawmakers, tasked with helping him achieve his signature campaign promise, and warned that the consequences of failure might be their jobs.

He jabbed a finger at the senator directly to his right, Dean Heller of Nevada, who had helped stall an earlier version of the bill. Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesnt he? Trump said, drawing a surprised laugh.

Heller eventually fell in line, but his party fell one vote short of fulfilling their single biggest promise of the last decade: repealing Obamacare. And now Heller faces a primary challenge anyway.

On Tuesday, Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas businessman with a record of winning GOP primaries in the Silver State, announced that he would challenge Heller for the only Senate seat held by a Republican in a state Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Over the last several weeks Ive been inundated with calls from so many people encouraging me to run in the Senate race, Tarkanian told the Guardian.

The reason  and this really stuck with me  they said theyre so tired of politicians who promise one thing when theyre running for office and do the opposite when theyre elected.

Tarkanians challenge is yet another sign of the deepening faultlines inside a Republican party still grappling with the election of Trump, who continues to flout core pillars of conservative ideology and yet remains fiercely popular among the coalition of working-class voters now crucial to their base.

On Capitol Hill, weeks, then months, passed without their having achieved a major legislative victory despite control of Congress and the White House. As Republicans left Washington for an August recess with little to show, they started to point fingers.

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Danny Tarkanian announced his primary challenge to Dean Heller this week. Photograph: Isaac Brekken/AP

Trump this week sharpened his criticism of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, escalating a feud that could haunt Republicans in races across the country in 2018.

On Thursday, the president suggested that McConnell should consider stepping aside if he is unable to deliver on the presidents ambitious policy agenda. The remark came in response to a suggestion by the Kentucky Republican that the president held excessive expectations of legislative progress.

Asked by reporters at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, if McConnell should resign, Trump replied: If he doesnt get repeal and replace [of Obamacare] done, if he doesnt get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesnt get a very easy one to get done  infrastructure  if he doesnt get that done, then you should ask me that question.

Meanwhile, Robert Mercer, the reclusive hedge-fund billionaire and influential Trump supporter, announced that he would donate $300,000 to a Super Pac backing a primary challenge against the Arizona senator Jeff Flake, according to Politico. The move followed the publication of Flakes new book, Conscience of a Conservative, which argues that Trump has eroded core conservative values and that the party struck a Faustian bargain when it embraced him as its standard-bearer last year.

I think that Senator Flake would serve his constituents much better if he was less focused on writing a book and attacking the president, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a press briefing last week.

As the 2018 midterms approach, the early clashes on the right have given way to a debate over how deeply the Republican party has become the party of Trump. And Heller, like Flake, is being challenged on the grounds that he has undermined Trumps agenda.

It wasnt just the vote against repeal, Tarkanian said, referring to Hellers opposition to the repeal-only bill that would have ended the Affordable Care Act (ACA), widely known as Obamacare, with no immediate replacement. It was also the grandstanding press conference that he had  that killed any momentum that the Senate had to get that bill passed.

Days before a healthcare vote was expected, Heller held a news conference with the Nevada governor, Brian Sandoval, a Republican, to denounce a Republican plan to replace the ACA, a move that infuriated the White House and sparked a backlash among Trumps ardent grassroots supporters in his home state.

Tarkanian, who vowed to enact Trumps America first agenda if elected, called Heller a Never-Trumper and blamed the senators reluctance to embrace Trump during the presidential campaign for helping Democrats sweep the state on election night.

Hellers campaign dismissed the accusation of disloyalty and greeted Tarkanians entry into the race largely with derision.

Dean Heller has always been committed to advancing the conservative agenda and supportive of President Trump when he is right for Nevada, Tommy Ferraro, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement to the Guardian.

Dean and President Trump share a common focus on job creation, tax reform, and smaller government, he continued, while Danny Tarkanian remains a desperate, serial candidate who will say and do anything to get attention.

Despite high-profile clashes with the president, Heller has largely supported Trumps agenda, said Jon Ralston, a political analyst and editor of the Nevada Independent, a not-for-profit news organization. But he cautioned that it is far too early to predict what the landscape would look like and whether healthcare  or Hellers relationship with Trump  will be an issue come June, when the election will be held.

Theres a lot of wildcards out there, Ralston said. The turnout is going to be low enough where someone like Danny Tarkanian will have a chance. But Hellers team is formidable and theyre taking Tarkanian seriously  theyre already going after him and they will give him no quarter.

Liam Donovan, a former operative at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Tarkanian is less a threat to Heller in the primary as he is an urgent distraction from what promises to be a grueling general election race. Donovan noted that the Nevada Republican is already among the only targets that Democrats have and is going to have a lot thrown at him.

How the White House eventually weighs in on the race could also dramatically shift the dynamics. Tarkanian said he had not spoken to the president or his team about his campaign and he was not holding out for an endorsement from Trump (though some observers noted the conspicuous timing of his announcement  during an early morning segment on Fox & Friends, a show Trump frequently watches. It was shortly after 4am in Las Vegas).

Tarkanian acknowledged that his biggest obstacle to taking on an incumbent senator with support from well-financed party-aligned Super Pacs would be fundraising. He said he intended to make the race a national campaign and would look to capitalize on the presidents fervent base for support to get out his message in Nevada.

By the end of the race, theyre all going to know that I support President Trump and Dean Heller does not, Tarkanian said. I dont think it will make much of a difference if he gives me a tweet or not.

Additional reporting by Ben Jacobs
U.S. President Donald Trump and the pariah state of North Korea are locked in a war of words about nuclear capability. The spark for the (so-far) verbal fire was Pyongyangs fresh claim that it is now able to hit the U.S. Pacific island of Guam with a nuclear strike. North Korea aspires to have the entire U.S. mainland within striking range. Here is what you need to know about the real bite of the Norths nuclear bark.

How Powerful Is a North Korean Warhead?

Tests involving nuclear explosions show progress regarding the power of the blast North Korea can cause. A 2006 explosion detonated a plutonium-fueled atomic bomb with a yield equivalent to 2 kilotons of TNT, data from D.C.-based think tank the Nuclear Threat Initiative shows. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. military in 1945 had an estimated yield of about 16 kilotons. North Koreas latest tests have since surpassed that figure more than twofold.

Read More: Putin is urging North Korea against using force before meeting Chinas Xi Jinping

In 2009, a test increased this power four times from the 2006 blast to 8 kilotons; several tests later, a September 2016 blast yielded 35 kilotons. The ability to deliver this blast to the U.S. is the challenge North Korea faces now.

Tests of their missiles range have shown a considerable increase of capabilities, stretching now to potentially 10,400 kilometers (6,500 miles). These test launches have not been carried out with a nuclear warhead, and the calculations of putting the two together is what keeps North Korea from boasting the ability to fire a warhead at massive distances. Targeting the U.S. mainland requires precisely this sort of capability.

The Warhead Takes Flight

Warhead miniaturization is a crucial step in turning a potential nuclear bomb into a nuclear missile. The process of miniaturization consists of finding the most compact design to mount the physics packagethe nuclear payload of a missileon the ICBM without disruting the missile's flight. The way North Korea is likely pursuing this is by using the common so-called implosion design, in which the nuclear fissile material is exploded by a chamber of conventional explosives, Matthew Kroenig, nonproliferation expert at the Atlantic Council, says.

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You have your fissile materialplutonium is preferredin a loosely packed sphere, and you surround it with conventional explosives. You need them to detonate at the same time; otherwise the plutonium blows out the other end.

North Korea missile

Toru Hanai/Reuters

If the detonations are not simultaneous, the best-case scenario is the triggering of a chain reaction that mostly wastes the fissile material. The worst-case scenario is that it does not cause a nuclear chain reaction at all.

This is the design North Korea is probably already using, says Tom Plant, director of the proliferation and nuclear policy program at Londons Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Having an implosion design that does it on the ground is quite different than having one that does it in the air, but again, this is not something North Korea is incapable of addressing.

The Warhead Must Survive Space and Re-entry

Despite a report earlier this week by the The Washington Post that North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, whether the warhead can survive the ICBM flight is another matter. The distinction can be crucial, Plant says.

In relation to that particular U.S. intelligence assessment, the language is always worth paying very close attention to. The assessment states that North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM, he says. Thats subtly different from saying that those weapons fit in a survivable re-entry vehicle.

In casual conversation, it may be natural to make the inference between the two, he continues. In an intelligence assessment, it needs to be absolutely explicit.

Related: Russias Defenses Are on High Alert Near North Korea, Senator Says

Put simply, the warheads may be designed with the intention of taking off inside an ICBM. The full journey of such a missile would traverse extreme cold and scalding heat upon re-entering the Earths atmosphere; that is the biggest test for the segment of the missile to ensure the full nuclear punch is delivered on target. If the re-entry vehicle fails to deliver the fissile material through the atmosphere, the strike is a botch.

Beyond the fissile material, the re-entry vehicle would likely have additional engineering features such as heat shields, an ablative shield, potentially the fusing system, Plant says. All must be accounted for in the weight equation.

Would a Bigger Rocket Help?

Currently, North Koreas prospective intercontinental harbinger of nuclear doom is the Hwasong-14 missile. Video from Japanese public broadcaster NHK last month shows it disintegrating as it re-enters the atmosphere.

That could be a show of the re-entry vehicles problems, says Karl Dewey, CBRN analyst at Janes by IHS Markit, or the result of a lopsided trajectory during the launch. Other problems may have caused missile ignition, such as a deliberate self-destruction to prevent foreign salvage.

If the Hwasong-14 is flawed, North Korea could theoretically opt to make a bigger missile capable of carrying more cargo. Easier said than done, however, especially when one considers operational requirements such as deployability, Dewey says. For example, the Unha/Taepodong is often considered to be for weapons, but the considerable preparation time makes this unlikely.

The missile in question, reported as a possible ICBM during its faltering maiden launches in 2006, has proven physically unsuitable for the job. North Korea expert John Schilling at the University of South Carolina concluded in 2015 that it is too large and cumbersome for warhead delivery. The Hwasong-14 remains Pyongyangs main option at present.

Would Russia and China Step In?

Any foreign help could speed up North Koreas ICBM nuclear program. In the past, the Soviet Union and China aided Pyongyangs nuclear energy and missile programs. Moscow assisted North Korea from the late 1950s to the 1980s, helping build a nuclear research reactor and design missiles, and providing light-water reactors and some nuclear fuel. China joined forces with North Korea in developing and producing ballistic missiles in the 1970s. Pakistan also has been crucial to North Koreas nuclear program, sharing its expertise in the use of gas centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium.

During the Cold War, however, Moscow and Beijing remained wary of sharing militarized nuclear technology with Pyongyang. Both are currently committed to nonproliferation.

China and Russia have a strong interest in nonproliferation, Plant says. I can see a ballistic missile connection from North Korea to Iran, more so than the other way around.

Even that sort of partnership is unsubstantiated in evidence, Plant notes, as the uranium enrichment technology both countries use is different. What I would be worried about is North Korea acting more as a supplier than a recipient, he says, recalling suspicions 10 years ago that Pyongyang was cooperating with the regime in Syria.

In 2007, Israeli air force jets bombed what analysts believe was a Syrian nuclear reactor in the making, modeled on North Korean designs.

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Just hours after a key ally expressed its commitment to backing the U.S. in a potential confrontation with North Korea, President Donald Trump on Friday renewed and ramped up threats against the rogue nation, tweeting that military solutions are locked and loaded should North Korea act unwisely.

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his country would aid America, should North Korea follow through on its threat to launch a missile strike against the U.S. territory of Guam. Following a conversation with Vice President Mike Pence and ahead of a national security briefing, Turnbulls office released a statement on Friday clarifying Australias position on the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Turnbull welcomed the new round of sanctions on North Korea, approved unanimously by the U.N. Security Council, and expressed commitment to U.S. efforts to bring the North Korean regime to its sense through diplomatic and economic means.

The prime minister also mentioned that Australia is ready to support the U.S. in a possible military confrontation, referring to the Australia, New Zealand and United States, or ANZUS, collective security agreement.

We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States. The ANZUS Treaty means that if America is attacked, we will come to their aid. If Australia is attacked, the Americans will come to our aid. We are joined at the hip, he said. The American alliance is the bedrock of our national security.

Trump Turnbull

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Signed in 1951 by Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., the treaty binds the parties to consult in relation to any perceived threats, and to act to meet common dangers.

New Zealand decided it no longer wanted to be subject to the deals obligations when it declared itself a nuclear-free zone in 1984, and while the treaty hasnt been formally abrogated, the U.S. no longer maintains a security relationship with that country. While this would mean that the original agreement among the three nations no longer works in practice, the treaty was invoked for the first time in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

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Turnbulls comments on the military alliance set the hastag #Anzus trending on Twitter, as Australians began commenting on their prime ministers decisionmostly showing opposition to it.

Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens, tweeted: PM Turnbull needs to pick up the phone & urge Trump to de-escalate. Not back an unhinged, paranoid sociopath into a potential nuclear war.

The reference to a phone call between Turnbull and Trump isnt completely coincidental; the two leaders had a difficult conversation at the end of January, shortly after Trumps inauguration, during which the Australian prime minister told the U.S. president he could not back away from a refugee swap deal approved by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

According to transcripts of the phone call published by The Washington Post last week, Trump was furious at the situation.

It is an embarrassment to the United States of America, and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous, Trump said.

Calming Trumps protests, Turnbull promised: You can count on me. I will be there again and again.

That phone call wasnt the only rocky moment in the Trump-Turnbull relationship. In a recording of an off-the-record event that was leaked to the media in June, the Australian prime minister was seen mocking Trumps speaking style and his passion for online polls.

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By Ronnie Cohen (Reuters Health) - At 81, Dr. Frank Stockdale continues to see breast cancer patients and believes he offers them the wisdom and knowledge from his more than 50 years of oncology practice. But a new review of the literature on aging physicians questions the competency to practice of older physicians like Stockdale. The report in JAMA Surgery recommends that healthcare organizations develop protocols for testing doctors of a certain - though undetermined - age for health and competence. This is clearly a discriminatory policy if you pick an age to test, said Stockdale, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, who was not involved in the review. Lead author Dr. E. Patchen Dellinger, professor of surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, does not know what age is the right age to begin testing doctors, he said in a phone interview. But the 73-year-old surgeon believes he and other doctors should willingly submit to physical examinations and cognitive testing. And he has. The point is you need to have good cognitive function to practice, he said. Theres a lot of resistance to being tested. And yet we accept it. Pilots accept it. As pilots control the fates of their passengers, surgeons control the fate of their patients. The medical community has grappled with the question of whether to test aging physicians, particularly surgeons, for two decades, if not longer. But the graying of the nations physicians has energized the debate over their health and competence. During the past four decades, the number of practicing U.S. doctors who were at least 65 years old more than quadrupled. By 2015, nearly one in four physicians were 65 or older, the authors write. Dr. Paul Schenarts, a trauma surgeon and professor at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha, agrees with the authors of the review that a program for testing aging physicians should be implemented. Something new and different should be done, Schenarts, who was not involved with the review, said in an email. It is a well-known paradox that the surgeon with the greatest experience may be the one putting patients at the greatest risk. Though federal law prohibits age discrimination, commercial pilots are required to retire before 65, and starting at 40, they must submit to more-frequent medical examinations than younger pilots. Previous studies of a possible link between doctors ages and clinical performance found mixed results. While some showed patients more likely to die from cardiovascular procedures performed by older surgeons, others showed patients were more vulnerable at the hands of younger surgeons. Using a cognition test called a MicroCog, one prior study examined doctors alongside people outside the profession. Doctors scored better than others, but cognition scores for everyone in the study declined with age. Researchers found significant variability in older physicians scores, with some demonstrating fully intact cognitive ability and others showing dramatic declines. Stockdale discounted the MicroCog as incapable of judging a physicians ability to practice and said he knew of no test that could appropriately examine a doctors cognitive ability to practice medicine. The major problem is what is the test for cognition, he said in a phone interview. You have to have an instrument thats been shown to correlate with our work task. In 2012, Stanford, where Stockdale practices, proposed cognitive testing for doctors 74.5 years and older. Stockdale protested the policy, which was tabled. But that doesnt mean Stanford isnt monitoring its physicians, he said. They, along with physicians in hospitals throughout the nation, are evaluated every six to nine months and constantly subjected to the scrutiny of their coworkers, patients and oversight committees, he said. If I were demented, I can tell you Id last about a week before every nurse and medical student noticed, Stockdale said. Physicians of all ages are injuring patients, he said. We should be testing everybody at all ages for their competence. It shouldnt be because youre 65. Appealing though all-age testing might be, Schenarts called it completely impractical and said he too did not know at what age to start. A 78-year-old doctor might be fully functioning, he said, whereas a 62-year-old might be in decline. Ideally, an independent third party from outside the area would conduct testing and peer review, he said. The difficulty with local peer review is that there is the possibility that a group of young surgeons may have an incentive to declare an older surgeon is no longer capable, Schenarts said. While I personally feel this is unlikely, the potential is a real concern for older surgeons. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2wQb9IA JAMA Surgery, online July 19, 2017.
Nieuwveen (Netherlands) (AFP) - Standing in his rubber boots in his fields surrounded by his beloved Red Holstein cows, Dutch farmer Gerard Hartveld has an air of resignation as he contemplates the future.

Hartveld says he is a dairy farmer in "his heart" and soul. Yet, his heart is heavy knowing that, like many who work the land today in The Netherlands, he has no-one to inherit his family farm.

The figures are staggering. Some 60 percent of those aged over 55 have no-one to whom they can bequeath their land, according to the Dutch central statistics office (CBS).

That means some 15,000 farms could disappear in the next decade, with more than eight out of 10 sheep farmers, who are reaching retirement, having no successors.

Although pig and cow farmers are faring slightly better, most family farms have witnessed an exodus of the younger generation as they desert the fields and barns in their droves lured by the promise of fortunes to be made in the city.

Hartveld's farm in central Nieuwveen has been in his family for more than a century -- since 1913. He knows every inch of the land as well as his cows, including the doyens of the 20-strong dairy herd, Miranda and Greta.

But with no children, the time will come "in 15 years or so, not before", when this reserved 52-year-old man of few words will see the land and his herd "pass out of the family" to be taken over by strangers.

- Save the sheep -

This is where an innovative Dutch scheme seeks to step in, aiming to rescue such farms which make up an integral part of the landscape in the lowlands country.

Thomas Legrand is a 27-year-old Frenchman, who, with his Dutch girlfriend, is looking for a farm to run. But with no contacts in the farming world, the couple are turning to an online service called "Farmer Seeks Farmer."

"It's like a dating site," said Legrand, who "dreams of taking over a small sheep farm on a polder."

Story continues

It is the small holdings which have been most affected by the breakdown of the family chain -- fertile lands in this agriculture-rich nation which used to be passed down from generation to generation; ancestral courtyards which once echoed with the cries of playing children.

Backed by the Young Farmers' Association, pig farmer Sander Thus has been working with the online scheme putting those close to retirement in contact with young would-be farmers seeking their own patch of agricultural land.

Like an internet dating website, users register on the site and wait for their search to throw up a match.

Thus, 28, arranges an initial meeting between the two to see if they click.

The young newcomer then spends a week on the farm so the two sides get to know each other better, before eventually sitting down to business to discuss the terms of any transfer -- which can range from a straightforward sale to a tenancy agreement.

Soon, a new announcement will be posted on the "Farmer Seeks Farmer" site by a cereal producer in the southern Limburg province whose three children all moved to the city.

The 61-year-old farmer, who declined to be named and admitted to AFP that he was "tired", already knows what he's going to write on his profile.

"Cereal producer in the Limburg province is looking for a serious youngster to take over one hundred hectares of ancestral land, which I don't want to see fall into corporate hands."

- Return to the land -

Today's young farmers are often those embracing the profession out of passion, a desire to get their hands dirty or simply to escape the hectic pace of life in the city.

"Today, most of those looking to take over a farm are self-employed between the ages of 20 and 40, who don't come from the farming world at all but have this desire to roll their sleeves up," said Thus.

Since the scheme was launched in 2011, several dozen farms have moved outside of the original family owners to be taken over by a new generation of farmers.

And Thus hopes the numbers will grow, with 135 people searching for land registered on the site, and some 35 existing farmers looking for new blood to farm their lands.

For dairy farmer Hartveld however, he says with a mixture of pride and sorrow that when the time comes he won't need the services of "Farmer Seeks Farmer".

There are already several people from neighbouring villages interested in taking over his farm -- and preserving a small piece of Dutch history.
Karachi (AFP) - Ruth Pfau, a German nun who devoted her life to combatting leprosy in Pakistan, has died at the age of 87.

Pfau, who was known locally as Pakistan's Mother Teresa, came to the southern port city of Karachi in 1960 and spent half a century taking care of some of the country's sickest and poorest people.

She was the founder of Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in Karachi, where she was being cared for at the time of her death after falling ill two weeks ago.

Mervyn Lobo, the chief of the centre, told AFP that she died late Wednesday. She is expected to be given a state funeral.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi expressed his sadness over her death, saying "she may have been born in Germany, but her heart was always in Pakistan".

In collaboration with the government Pfau expanded leprosy treatment centres in more than 150 cities and towns across Pakistan, training doctors, treating thousands of victims and helping establish a national programme to bring the disease under control.

She was honoured by the state with the country's two highest civilian awards, the Hilal-e-Imtiaz and the Hilal-e-Pakistan.

It was after the horrors of World War II in her native Germany that Pfau decided to dedicate her life to serving humanity, becoming a doctor and joining the Daughters of the Heart of Mary order, founded during the French Revolution.

Not required to take the veil or live in seclusion, she ended up in Pakistan by chance. En route to work in India, visa complications forced her to break the journey in Karachi, where she visited a lepers' colony.

"One of the biggest issues of Dr Pfau's spirit was that the religions (worked) together," said Dr Claudia Vilani, an expat colleague of Dr Pfau's.

"She believed the biggest religion is humanity."

Pfau was also praised for her work in helping victims of devastating flooding in 2010, which left millions of people homeless across swathes of the country.
In just two years, the United States will celebrate the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, an event that perhaps more than any other represents the American will and capacity to achieve the seemingly impossible. This year, however, we will celebrate a less auspicious anniversary  in December it will have been 45 years since the last man set foot on the Moon, ushering in a long era of diminished American ambitions in space. In recent years, presidential administrations have debated whether Americans should return to the Moon or set their sights on Mars.

But as President Donald Trump devises his strategy for space exploration  which he has described as essential to our character as a nationour economy, and our great nations security  he should reject this choice as a false one. To sustainably reinvigorate our human spaceflight program, we should use the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond, while spreading costs and spurring innovation by maximizing opportunities for commercial and international involvement.

While most U.S. government activities in space, and the lions share of the space budget, are focused on military programs, human spaceflight remains the programs lodestone. Every president in recent memory has sought to stir the popular imagination and  hoping to channel JFK  associate himself with big, bold thinking by announcing ambitious goals for manned spaceflight.

For President Barack Obama, that goal was sending men to Mars by the 2030s. He dismissed President George W. Bushs goal of returning Americans to the Moon, stating that we had been there (and presumably done that). He cancelled Bushs Constellation spacecraft program, replacing it with the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS would be the United States heaviest-ever rocket, meant to send humans farther than ever before.

Yet the reality of Americas manned space program has been more pedestrian than presidential rhetoric would suggest. NASAs budget has been essentially flat since the 1990s. The United States has lacked the capability of putting an astronaut in orbit since the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011, instead buying seats on Russian Soyuz flights. And while we are quietly living through a golden age of space science  our unmanned probes have returned spectacular images and invaluable data  our manned missions have been limited to flights back and forth to the International Space Station, due to be decommissioned in three years.

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Obama wasnt the first to call for manned flights to Mars. President George H.W. Bush articulated a similar plan, which envisioned placing an American astronaut on the Red Planet by 2019. But Congress blanched at the price tag, and the plan was shelved. Today, just as then, the technical challenges of reaching Mars might be less daunting than the challenge of devising a political and budgetary path for reaching new frontiers in space.

Achieving our next big human spaceflight breakthroughs will require more than a stirring speech; it will require a plan designed to be sustainable over the long term by maximizing public support while minimizing the burden on NASA. Today, funding for NASA represents just 0.5 percent of the federal budget, compared to over 4 percent at the height of the Apollo program; there will be no return to those levels.

A realistic plan would not abandon the idea of a manned mission to Mars, but would aim first to return humans to the Moon for prolonged periods. A return to the Moon offers several advantages. Most obviously, it can be accomplished faster and at less cost than a straight shot to Mars. And while it involves considerable risk, the shorter distance and our own prior experience means that risk will be lower than with a Martian voyage.

Whats more, the costs and risks of a mission to the Moon can be shared with international partners. Even as we have turned our focus to Mars, the European Space Agency, Japan, and others have taken an increased interest in manned lunar missions. A renewed focus on the Moon would significantly enhance our opportunities for international collaboration and burden-sharing, and would also prevent Russia or China  both of which have their own lunar aspirations  from supplanting us.

A shift in NASAs focus to the Moon could also be accompanied by a greater role for private firms in low-earth orbit. The commercial space industry has developed at a rapid pace since the United States last penned a vision for space exploration. Any new space strategy should seek to capitalize on these developments by shifting more routine tasks (a relative term in space operations, to be sure) to private operators while freeing NASA to focus on higher-end activities focused on the Moon and deep space.

If we were successful in returning humans to the Moon, it could serve as a stepping stone for a manned mission to Mars or even more ambitious goals. Practically speaking, lunar missions would provide astronauts with experience in extended habitation of an alien world. The Moon even holds the potential for eventually serving as a staging ground for missions further out. Just as importantly, successful lunar missions would likely invigorate public and political support in the United States and overseas for space exploration, helping to sustain the attention and funding required for future steps into space.

President Trump has promised to restore Americas proud legacy of leadership in space. If he is to make good on that pledge, he must address not only where we are going but map out how, amid declining budgets and competing priorities, we plan to get there.

Photo credit: Getty Images/Foreign Policy illustration
U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller is bearing down on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as he directs a wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in last years presidential election.

Muellers team of investigators has sent subpoenas in recent weeks from a Washington grand jury to global banks for account information and records of transactions involving Manafort and some of his companies, as well as those of a long-time business partner, Rick Gates, according to people familiar with the matter.

The special counsel has also reached out to other business associates, including Manaforts son-in-law and a Ukrainian oligarch, according to one of the people. Those efforts were characterized as an apparent attempt to gain information that could be used to squeeze Manafort, or force him to be more helpful to prosecutors.

Manaforts spokesman confirmed that FBI agents raided the political consultants home in Virginia two weeks ago to secure documents related to the investigation. That raid was initially reported by the Washington Post.

As prosecutors gather many years of information about his financial affairs, Manafort could be dragged deeper into any number of legal disputes. He has a history of doing business with oligarchs and politicians in Ukraine and Russia that predates his political work for Trump, with payments routed through foreign banks and investments in U.S. real estate.

Investigations

Part of the reason Manafort is getting intense early scrutiny is that Mueller is drawing on investigations that were well underway, including one by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, when he was appointed in May.

With prosecutors combing through his financial life, the 68-year-old has been toeing a fine line, cooperating with congressional requests for information about the campaign, and insisting he has nothing to hide from Muellers team of prosecutors who are delving into his past. Privately, his supporters question Muellers work to unearth conduct with no apparent connection to the 2016 election.

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Manaforts spokesman, Jason Maloni, declared last month that Manafort was not a cooperating witness  a legal term for someone who agrees to provide evidence and testimony to prosecutors. When reached Wednesday, he only addressed the revelation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation raid, saying, Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well.

As a practical matter, the blitz of recent subpoenas to global banks poses a challenge to Manaforts ability to continue his day-to-day business activities as a consultant and investor, said one of the people familiar with the matter.

Broad Probe

Of course, the Manafort inquiry is just one thread of Muellers multifaceted effort, which includes the purchase of Trump real estate properties by wealthy Russians going back a decade, the foreign ties of Michael Flynn, who was briefly the administrations National Security Adviser, and the dismissal of FBI chief James Comey by the President.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan were investigating Manafort earlier this year, examining allegations that he laundered money from eastern Europe into New York properties, according to two people familiar with the earlier inquiry. The Southern District of New York handed off their work to the special counsels team once Mueller was appointed, the people said.

Along with the real-estate inquiry, the special counsel has taken over a review of Manaforts late filings to comply with the foreign-agent registration act, known as FARA, according to one of the people.

A spokesman for Muellers office, Joshua Stueve, declined to comment.

The 6 a.m. raid on Manaforts Virginia home last month seemingly caught his legal team by surprise. It came the day after he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, and after he had provided his notes to the committee.

Russian Meeting

In fact, Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trumps son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter. The president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were dragged into the matter as details repeatedly emerged that contradicted the initial accounts of that meeting.

Manaforts business associates also risk being engulfed by the probe.

Jeffrey Yohai, who is the estranged husband of Manaforts daughter, is under investigation by FBI agents working with prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles, according to people familiar with their work.

With cash infusions from Manafort, Yohai formed real-estate partnerships that took in investor money in New York and Los Angeles. Some of the partnerships subsequently declared bankruptcy, court filings show. U.S. authorities are now looking into claims by an investor that Yohai operated a Ponzi scheme, the people explained. Yohai is contesting a civil lawsuit over one of the soured deals, having won an initial round challenging the jurisdiction.

Yohais lawyer, Aaron May, declined to comment.

How a Grand Jury Fits in the Trump-Russia Probe: QuickTake Q&A

Rick Gatess relationship with Manafort dates to at least 2006, when the younger man joined Manafort Davis, a consulting firm that re-packaged a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician as a leader friendly to the West. Eventually, Gates helped manage a Manafort-directed private equity fund called Pericles, which was supposed to invest in Ukraine.

Michael Dry, a lawyer for Gates, also declined to comment.

Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch, invested $25 million in a real-estate venture started by Manafort a decade ago that subsequently attracted the attention of investigators. Now in Austria, Firtash has been charged in an unrelated case with paying bribes in India in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is facing a Justice Department request for extradition to the U.S. in that matter.

Firtashs attorney, Dan Webb, said, My client is not in any way cooperating with the special counsel office on Paul Manafort or any other issue. Because of the indictment pending in Chicago, I will not make any other comment.

$25 Million

The inquiry by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan initially focused on a Manafort-backed business called CMZ Ventures, which sought to develop a luxury skyscraper on Park Avenue in 2008. The partnership received $25 million from Firtash, according to court records filed in a New York federal lawsuit. But the money was never invested in a project, and the firm was shuttered in 2009.

The plaintiffs in that CMZ civil suit, including the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, alleged the real purpose of the firm was to launder money through the U.S. financial system that Firtash had obtained improperly by skimming sales of natural gas to Ukraine.

In court papers, lawyers for CMZ Ventures and fellow defendants argued that U.S. laws didnt apply to gas transactions abroad and that the New York court had no jurisdiction in the matter. A federal judge agreed, dismissing the lawsuit in 2015.

By the time Mueller inherited the New York investigation, it extended well beyond the Manafort-Firtash relationship, according to a person briefed on the special counsels probe.

Those circling Manafort include various congressional committees, the New York Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney. The New York authorities are examining an unusual combination of mortgages and loans assembled by Manafort.

Even the National Enquirer, which veered away from celebrity news to endorse Trump during the campaign, took a swing at Manafort. The tabloid published a story Wednesday with embarrassing details about his personal life.
Scott Peterson, the California man sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and their unborn child in a case that captivated the nation 15 years ago, admitted in a newly revealed conversation that he was stunned by the guilty verdict that led to his incarceration.

"I was staggered by it, he told his sister-in-law Janey of the judgment handed down at the end of his 2005 murder trial. I had no idea it was coming.

Read: Drew Peterson Found Guilty of Murdering His Third Wife

Petersons recorded phone call with his sister has been revealed for the first time in a six-part A&E special, The Murder of Laci Peterson, which premieres Tuesday.

It was just like this amazing, horrible physical reaction, that I had, he continued. I couldnt feel my feet on the floor. I couldnt feel the chair I was sitting in.

My vision was even a little blurry. And I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forward and down and there was going to be no end to this falling forward and down like there was no floor to land on.

Petersons official mugshot is marked "CONDEMNED."

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she vanished around Christmastime in 2002. At the time, Scott Peterson claimed to have been on a fishing trip.

A fetus found to have been Laci's unborn son was found four months later, on April 13, 2003. The next day, her dismembered torso was discovered.

The case was broken wide open when a woman named Amber Frey came forward to reveal she had been having an affair with Peterson.

Frey said she is no longer haunted by the fact that Peterson killed his wife to be with her, telling Inside Edition in 2015, I cant live with what if?

The new A&E series will focus on flaws in the prosecutions case, including 11 witnesses who believe they saw Laci Peterson walking her dog in the neighborhood after her husband had left on his fishing trip.

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I wasnt the last one to see Laci that day, Peterson said in the phone call. There were so many witnesses who saw her walking in the neighborhood after I left.

He also claims her murder may be connected to a mysterious burglary across the street from their home.

The police failed to find my family, he said.

Read: Woman Fatally Shoots Wife in the Face, Gets Charged With Murder: Authorities

But Laci Petersons mother, who attended the murder trial every day, says she has zero doubt that her killer is behind bars.

He murdered my child so as far as Im concerned, [Scotts] where he needs to be, Sharon Rocha said.

Scott Peterson is on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Watch: FBI Says Wife Murdered on Alaskan Cruise Anniversary Trip After Domestic Dispute

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Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
Rex Tillerson - EPA

An adviser to President Donald Trump said it was "simply nonsensical" to think that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should discuss US military decisions in relation on North Korea.

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, made the comments to the BBC amid reports of division within the Trump administration on how to handle North Korea.

Mr Tillerson has appeared to leave open the possibility of dialogue with the rogue regime over its nuclear weapons programme.

But Mr Gorka, a hardliner in the administration, told the BBC: "You should listen to the president. The idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical.

"It is the job of Secretary (James) Mattis as Secretary of Defence to talk about military options, and he has done so unequivocally.

Sebastian Gorka Credit: Getty

"Secretary Tillerson is the chief diplomat of the United States, and it is his portfolio to handle those issues."

Mr Gorka said Washington would use "any appropriate measures" to protect the US from threats from North Korea.

He said: "Donald Trump has been unequivocal. He will use any appropriate measures to protect the United States and her citizens. We do not telegraph our future scenarios and how we are going to react."

In Washington a Sate Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, appeared to hit back at Mr Gorka's comments.

She said: "He (Mr Tillerson) is a Cabinet secretary. Hes the fourth in line to the presidency. He carries a big stick.

"I think that everyone has clearly heard what Secretary Tillersons forceful comments have been and continue to be."

Mr Trump himself said there were "no mixed messages" from his administration.
White supremacists clash with counter protesters in Charlottesville - REUTERS

At least three people have been killed and dozens injured after violence erupted at a far right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One of those killed, a 32-year-old woman, died after a car ploughed into counter protesters as she was crossing the street.

The Telegraph saw injured people lying in the road moments after the silver saloon car sped into the crowd.

Col. Martin Kumer, the superintendent of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, confirmed that an Ohio man, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of an accident that resulted in a death.

However the authorities declined to say publicly that Mr. Fields was the driver of the car the plowed into the crowd

Deepest condolences to the families & fellow officers of the VA State Police who died today. You're all among the best this nation produces.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

The death toll is understood to include two Virginia State Police officers who were killed when their helicopter crashed near Charlottesville.

They were later named as Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper Berke M.M. Bates, who would have turned 41 on Sunday.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, is seen in a mugshot released by Charlottesville, Virginia police department Credit: Police handout/Reuters

Police said 19 people were injured in the car ramming incident and 15 in other violent incidents.

The Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation. In addition to Mr Fields, three other people have been arrested.

The arrests followed a day in which the quiet university town erupted in violence with armed neo-Nazis and white supremacists fighting police and counter-protestors.

Riot police used tear gas and armoured vehicles during what was described by civil rights groups as America's "largest hate gathering in decades".

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The city's mayor Mike Signer said: "I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will - go home.

A car hits protesters in Charlottesville.

"I'm not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you're seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president."

A state of emergency was declared and hundreds of far-right protesters left the city's Emancipation Park as police used megaphones to declare their gathering an "unlawful assembly".

Right wing blogger Jason Kessler, who organised the event, and Richard Spencer, a prominent "alt-right" activist who was due to speak, were evacuated with security and encouraged followers to leave peacefully.

Clashes in Charlottesville during a protest against the removal of the Robert E. Lee monument Credit: Anadolu Agency/ Anadolu

The extremists had descended on the quiet southern city of 47,000 people for a Unite the Right rally but the situation quickly turned violent when they were confronted by activists from the anti-fascist movement known as Antifa.

President Donald Trump denounced the violence, saying on Twitter: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

Speaking to reporters at his New Jersey golf course, Mr Trump condemned "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" which he called "very, very sad".

Charlottesville far-right protest

He said: "It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It's been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.

"We want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville and we want to study it, and we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen."

He added: "We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other. We have to heal the wounds of our country."

Mr Trump declined to answer shouted questions about white nationalists who had supported him.

Far-right activists wore Nazi symbols and shouted blood and soil - a slogan of the Third Reich - as they marched into the city while others carried flags of the Confederacy or imitation viking shields. Other militia members carried assault rifles and wore military-style body armour.

A woman receives first-aid after a car accident ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville Credit: AFP

The white supremacists exchanged blows with Left-wing demonstrators and in several cases people were hit with pepper spray. Police in riot gear were unable to calm the situation as the two sides fought in the streets.

Early in the afternoon a car ploughed into anti-fascist counter-protesters marching downtown at the junction of 4th and Water Streets.

Arriving on the scene shortly afterwards, The Sunday Telegraph saw several people lying in the street injured, including a woman with a bloody head wound, and others screaming or running away. At least five were later placed in ambulances on stretchers, and others were treated for minor injuries.

Unidentified militia has arrived at #EmancipationPark ahead of the #Charlottesville rally with guns in tow. pic.twitter.com/zCLCBU78PF  Craig Stanley (@_CraigStanley) August 12, 2017

Video taken by a demonstrator showed the silver sedan speeding into and hitting two other cars that were waiting for a the march to pass.

Those cars were shunted into the crowd, and the driver of the speeding vehicle then quickly reversed away and fled.

Witness Hunter Harman, 20, told The Telegraph: "I saw the car. We were marching and I heard a bang. Then I saw people flying though the air, then a bunch of injured people on the ground. I tried to help them.

.@Swerdlick on #Charlottesville: "At a minimum the President by now should have been able to come out with a tweet" https://t.co/jSrFFPHob6  CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) August 12, 2017

"He was going so fast, it was 100 per cent deliberate. He banged into the back of two other cars and moved them forward. They accidentally hit people too. Then I didn't see him reverse out."

Another witness said: "It was a grey Ford Challenger, it came speeding down the road where there were lots of people. One person got pinched between the Challenger and an armoured car and others got hit. It must have hit a few dozen people. There were people hurt. Then he reversed out at 40mph."

The Unite the Right rally was organised in protest at plans to remove a statue of Robert E Lee, a Confederate general during the Civil War.

Many southern states have begun removing such statues, saying that leaders who fought for slavery should not be revered in the 21st Century. The demonstrators accuse local governments of trying to erase history by removing the statues and often chant "You will not replace us as they rally around the statues.

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

The city of Charlottesville had tried to get the protest moved to another park but the rally organisers sued and a judge ruled they must be allowed in Emancipation Park, where the Lee statue is.

Shortly after 11am, an hour before the formal rally was due to begin, local authorities declared the state of emergency, saying there was an imminent threat of civil disturbance, unrest, potential injury to persons, and destruction of property.

Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia, said: "The acts and rhetoric in Charlottesville over past 24 hours are unacceptable and must stop. A right to speech is not a right to violence."

He added: Go home, you are not wanted in this great commonwealth, he said. You pretend to be patriots, you are anything but patriots.

You came here to hurt people and they did hurt people. My message is clear, we are stronger than you.

There is no place for you here, there is no place for you in America.

In a statement before her husband condemned the violence First Lady Melania Trump said: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate without hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence.

But David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, hailed the rally as a sign of Mr Trumps success. This represents a turning point for the people of this country.

"We are determined to take our country back. Were going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.

After clashes with anti-fascist protesters and police the rally was declared an unlawful gathering and people were forced out of Lee Park Credit: GETTY

As violence continued in Charlottesville there were ugly scenes in a car park as protesters confronted a white nationalist marcher.

In an extended stand-off the marcher shouted: "This is my country." A dozen nationalists in military fatigues, some heavily armed with AR -15s and carrying a confederate flag, stood nearby as protesters held signs saying "Nazis go home" and yelled at them to "put down the guns."

The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 12, 2017

At Emancipation Park a counter-protester with a bloody face said he had been attacked by a far-right demonstrator.

Caleb, 20, who asked not to give his second name, told the Telegraph: "I was trying to deny them entry to the park and the gentleman decided to hit me in the face with his flagpole."

Anti-fascist counter-protesters wait outside the 'Unite the Right' rally Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Some Republican politicians took to the airwaves to distance themselves from the white supremacists.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador also condemned the violence.

I know all to well the pain hate can cause. The American Spirit that binds us has no place for actions like this. #PrayersForCharlottesville  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) August 12, 2017

House Speaker Paul Ryan said: "The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry."

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate last year added: " We will not step backward. If this is not who we are as Americans, let's prove it."

A White Supremacist open carries a rifle during the clashes in Virginia Credit: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu

Religious leaders of many faiths gathered at the edge of the extremist rally to sing spiritual songs and call for unity.

Neo Nazis, Alt-Right, and White Supremacists encircle and chant at counter protestors at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson Credit: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The chaos on Saturday followed a smaller rally on Friday night, which saw hundreds of mainly white men carrying burning torches marching through the grounds of the University of Virginia.
(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.)  Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. At least one person was arrested.

Small bands of protesters who showed up to express their opposition to the rally were seen marching around the city peacefully by midafternoon, chanting and waving flags. Helicopters circled overhead. As of 12:30 p.m., a city spokeswoman said a single arrest was reported. Emergency medical personnel have responded to eight injuries related to the event.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a pro-white rally to protest the city of Charlottesvilles decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a downtown park.

Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

This isnt how he should have to grow up, she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the counterprotesters are crazier than the alt-right.

Both sides are hoping for a confrontation, he said.

Its the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and advocating for white people.

This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do, he said in an interview.

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Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Among those expected to attend are Confederate heritage groups, KKK members, militia groups and alt-right activists, who generally espouse a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track extremist groups, said the event has the potential to be the largest of its kind in at least a decade.

Officials have been preparing for the rally for months. Virginia State Police will be assisting local authorities, and a spokesman said the Virginia National Guard will closely monitor the situation and will be able to rapidly respond and provide additional assistance if needed.

Police instituted road closures around downtown, and many businesses in the popular open-air shopping mall opted to close for the day.

Both local hospitals said they had taken precautions to prepare for an influx of patients and had extra staff on call.

There were also fights Friday night, when hundreds of white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches.

A university spokesman said one person was arrested and several people were injured.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming racial prejudices with his campaign last year.

Im not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what youre seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city thats home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statues removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesvilles history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Theyre now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks the city from removing the statue for six months.
Using data collected over 20 years, a team of astronomers is testing how physics works in the extreme conditions that make up the surroundings of a supermassive black hole. The study of stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way tests gravitational physics, as well as Einsteins theory of general relativity.

German and Czech astronomers took observation data of the stars that orbit the supermassive black hole at the galactic center, 26,000 light-years away from Earth with a mass of four million suns. They compared that data  collected by European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and other telescopes  with predictions made by both classical Newtonian gravity, as well as by general relativity.

Galactic Center Stars

Photo: ESO/M. Parsa/L. Calcada

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A research paper by the researchers has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. In it, the authors said they found hints that a small change in the motion of one of the stars, called S2, was a deviation from the predictions of Newtonian gravity, and was instead in line with the subtle effects predicted by Einsteins general theory of relativity. The change is only of a few percent in the orbits shape and just one-sixth of a degree in the orbits orientation, but they are there nonetheless.

Marzieh Parsa, a Ph.D. student at the University of Cologne, Germany, who was the lead author of the paper, said in a statement Wednesday: The galactic center really is the best laboratory to study the motion of stars in a relativistic environment. I was amazed how well we could apply the methods we developed with simulated stars to the high-precision data for the innermost high-velocity stars close to the supermassive black hole.

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However, measurement of the very small degree of changes required very precise measurements, and the near-infrared observations made using the VLT made those possible. The telescope, located in the Atacama desert in Chile, was especially important in tracing accurately the shape of S2s orbit, with its observations of the star both when it was close to the black hole and when it was further away.

Andreas Eckart, team leader at the University of Cologne, said in the statement: During the course of our analysis we realized that to determine relativistic effects for S2 one definitely needs to know the full orbit to very high precision.

S2 and a few other stars orbit our galaxys central supermassive black hole at very high speeds in the extremely strong gravitational field of the black hole. In 2018, S2 will make a very close approach to the black hole, and a new instrument is being prepared to measure the stars orbit at that time. Called GRAVITY, the instrument is an interferometer and installed on the VLT, it is designed to study the region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

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Milky Way Supermassive Black Hole

Photo: ESO/MPE/S. Gillessen et al.

Vladimir Karas from the Academy of Sciences in Prague, who was a co-author of the study, said in the statement: This opens up an avenue for more theory and experiments in this sector of science.

The star S2 is about 15 times the suns mass, and its elliptical orbit around the black hole has a period of about 15.6 years. During its orbit, it comes as close as 17 light-hours to the black hole, which is about 120 times the distance between the sun and Earth.

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Donald Trump explains his transgender ban to reporters at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey on, Aug. 10, 2017: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Banning transgender people from serving in the American military would be doing the military a great favour, Donald Trump has said - a statement undercut by resistance to the proposal from current and former servicemembers.

Mr Trump was seeking to defend his controversial prohibition on transgender troops, which he announced on Twitter to the reported surprise of military officials. After claiming to enjoy great support from that community, an apparent reference to transgender Americans, Mr Trump framed the proposal as a gift to the armed forces.

As you know, its been a very complicated issue for the military, its been a very confusing issue for the military, and I think Im doing the military a great favour, Mr Trump said.

In the short term, uncertainty seems to have outweighed gratitude in the official military response. General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded to Mr Trump's initial announcement by saying military policy toward transgender troops would not change until Mr Trump issued a directive through formal channels.

In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, Mr Dunford wrote in a message to military officials.

And Mr Trump's claim of helping the military solve an intractable problem contradicts the message from dozens of former admirals and generals, who said a transgender troop ban would cause significant disruption.

Does respect look like stopping 15,000 trans service members from doing their jobs? https://t.co/FPPAsktaQS  GLAAD (@glaad) August 10, 2017

Mr Trump's tweets have also led five active duty transgender service members to sue the US President and members of his administration, asserting that any ban on transgender military service is unconstitutional.

In a complaint filed in Washington DC federal court, the members say that Mr Trump's directive has already unsettled and destabilised their reasonable expectation of continued service. They added that the White House has turned the President's tweets into official guidance, approved by the White House counsel's office, to be communicated to the Department of Defense.

The five anonymous plaintiffs, named in the case as Jane Does, are identified as service members who collectively have served this nation for decades in various branches of the US military and have informed their chain of command that they are transgender since last year's policy change.
Anti-government protesters in Venezuela's third city, Valencia: AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump has said he is considering a military option over the crisis in Venezuela, punctuating a belligerent week that began with his threat to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Mr Trump said he was "not going to rule out" a military response, adding that it was "certainly something that we could pursue".

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," he told reporters.

Pentagon officials told Reuters that they had not received any orders from the White House relating to a potential strike on Venezuela.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to travel to Latin America on Sunday, according to the Associated Press, where he is to visit four countries - none of them Venezuela - and talk about relations between the US and Latin America.

Mr Trump's remarks came amid a deteriorating political situation that has seen Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, move to consolidate power, prompting the US President to describe him as a "dictator".

Mr Madura and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, regularly sought to rally their people by decrying US "imperialism" in Latin America, and Mr Trump's remarks could give Mr Maduro more ammunition. A former aide to Barack Obama on Latin American issues quickly excoriated Mr Trump's threat.

What a fool. Talks out of his ass & sets back all good work his NSC team has done by undercutting Venezuela opposition and alienating region https://t.co/H0UXmsdwTB  Mark Feierstein (@MarkFeierstein) August 11, 2017

Venezuela's economic crisis has led to shortages of food and medicine and widespread unrest.

The political situation worsened when Mr Maduro, who has faced calls to step down, swore in a new constitutional Assembly that wields broad powers and has declared itself superior to other branches of government. Venezuela has become increasingly alienated in the region, with Peru moving to recall its ambassador in protest.

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The Peruvian Government reaffirms its strong willingness to continue contributing to the restoration of democracy in Venezuela, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement accompanying the move reported by Reuters.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela last month in response to an effort to rewrite the country's constitution.

The new penalties froze the assets of 13 Venezuelan figures and prohibited Americans from doing business with them.

The United States will not ignore the Maduro regimes ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom and the rule of law, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement at the time.
Bedminster (United States) (AFP) - President Donald Trump said Thursday that he did the US military a "great favor" by banning transgender troops from the armed forces.

Trump, speaking to reporters at his New Jersey country club, said the issue of transgender service members had been "complicated" and "confusing" for the military.

"Look, I have great respect for the (transgender) community," Trump said. "I think I have great support -- or I've had -- great support from that community.

"I got a lot of votes."

But Trump said the issue of transgender troops has been a "very difficult situation" for the US armed forces.

"As you know, it's been a very complicated issue for the military," he said. "It's been a very confusing issue for the military.

"I think I'm doing the military a great favor."

In a series of three tweets last month, Trump upended an Obama-era policy of more than a year that allowed transgender troops to serve openly.

His announcement came with little or no coordination with the Pentagon and landed while Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was on vacation, leaving the astonished department scrambling to come up with a coherent response.

Five transgender women in the US military filed suit against Trump and the Pentagon this week over the ban.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, the five plaintiffs from the Air Force, Coast Guard and the Army said they faced uncertainty about their futures, including whether they would be fired or lose post-military and retirement benefits.

The lawsuit was filed against Trump, Mattis and various other senior military officials by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLAAD, a legal advocacy group.

All the unidentified "Jane Doe" plaintiffs were previously men who have transitioned to being female.

The number of transgender troops among America's 1.3 million active duty service members is small, with estimates ranging from between 1,320 and 15,000.

In the two weeks since Trump's tweets, the White House has still not provided the Pentagon with clear directives on how it should implement a transgender ban, so the current policy remains in place for now.
The Trump Administration, insisting that the presidential order limiting entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals from Mideast nations is not a so-called Muslim ban,  urged the Supreme Court on Thursday evening to throw out without a decision two major cases pursued by challengers to the restrictions.

The 84-page brief

was the first document to be filed with the Justices on the major issue the Justices agreed in late June to review at their next term  the legality of President Trumps March 6 executive order suspending entry by foreign nationals and refugees. The Justices have scheduled a hearing on that issue on October 10. The challengers will file their own brief on the legality issue next month.

That review is separate from a continuing controversy about how, in the meantime, the Trump Administration can enforce the provisions of the executive order. The Supreme Court has twice issued temporary orders allowing enforcement of some of the order. That part of the controversy is now awaiting a decision in a federal appeals court in Seattle, and seems likely to return to the Justices in advance of the opening of their new term.

The governments new brief contended that no one among the challengers can show that they are now being harmed or will suffer any harm from the March order by Trump, so lower court decisions against the order should be set aside as lacking any legal basis. Two federal appeals courts have ruled that the executive order either was an unconstitutional form of religious discrimination against Muslims, or went beyond presidential authority under federal immigration laws governing the power to exclude foreign nationals from this country.

In trying to counter the claim that the real purpose of the Trump action was to keep Muslims out of the U.S. because of their faith, the brief argued that it is a serious affront to the presidency to second-guess the motives of a Chief Executive by accusing him of bias against one of the worlds major religions.

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The federal appeals courts ruling against the executive order as a Muslim ban, the new filing asserted, runs directly counter to President Trumps speech in Saudi Arabia in May calling for tolerance and respect for all faiths, and imputes a biased motive to a presidential order that is neutral on its face as to religion and is aimed only at protecting national security.

The appeals courts decision plainly carries the potential to undermine the Executives ability to conduct foreign relations for and protect the security of the Nation, the government lawyers wrote.

The brief also urged the Supreme Court not to allow lower courts, in weighing President Trumps immigration action, to rely upon statements he made while a candidate for the presidency. Those statements, including calling for a complete Muslim ban, did not represent the views that President Trump held after he took the oath of office and assumed major constitutional responsibilities, the brief argued.

Restricting government authority based on political campaign rhetoric not only treats such speechmaking as the equivalent of actual policy, but also will present a threat to free speech for those making campaign orations, according to the brief.

The two main provisions of the Trump order that the Justices will be weighing as valid or invalid are a 90-day suspension of entry from all foreign nationals from six Mideast nations that have Muslim majority populations, and a 120-day suspension of entry from refugees from anywhere in the world.

These entry restrictions were suspended by the presidential order in order to give government officials time to improve the procedures for vetting foreigners seeking to travel to the U.S. As currently written, the 90-day suspension from the Mideast nations will expire in late September, before the Supreme Court even holds its hearing on October 10, and the 120-day suspension of refugees arrival will expire on October 24, just two weeks after that hearing.

Those time factors suggest that the cases could lose their legal significance  in legal terms, become moot  before the Justices have the opportunity to rule on President Trumps order.

The new brief did not discuss the effect of those expirations on the cases. However, in discussing another timing factor that could affect whether the 90-day suspension has already become moot, the new document said that any finding that the controversy has become moot should lead the Justices to simply erase the lower court rulings against the President.

On the validity of the Trump order, the brief made a full defense, both on the question of the presidents power to issue the law under federal immigration laws, and on the question of whether it is an unconstitutional ban on entry based on religious bias.

The brief said clear-cut Supreme Court precedents demonstrate that the courts are ill-equipped to second-guess the Chief Executive in the use of power granted by Congress to decide which classes of foreign nationals can be barred from entering the country. The appeals courts were wrong in finding exceptions that allow them to do just that kind of second-guessing, the filing argued.

Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011 and has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com, where this story first appeared.
US President Donald Trump said the North Korea nuclear crisis would boost tourism to Guam in a phone call meant to offer his support to the governor and the people of the US Pacific territory.

Youve become extremely famous, Trump said to Governor Eddie Baza Calvo in a phone call with Chief of Staff John Kelly. North Koreas state-owned news agency KCNA reported earlier this week that Pyongyang planned to target the waters around Guam in demonstration of its missile technology later in August.

All over the world theyre talking about Guam and theyre talking about you. And your tourism, I can say this, your tourism going to go up like tenfold with the expenditure of no money, so I can congratulate you.

Trump reassured Calvo and the people of Guam that the White House was behind them 1000 per cent and that residents of Guam should not worry about a thing. Credit: Eddie Baza Calvo via Storyful
GENEVA/GAZA (Reuters) - A political crisis in Gaza is depriving two million people of electricity, vital medical care and clean water in sweltering summer temperatures, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday. It appealed to Israel, the State of Palestinian and Hamas authorities in Gaza to resolve their conflicts. "We are deeply concerned about the steady deterioration in the humanitarian conditions and the protection of human rights in Gaza," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing in Geneva. "Israel, the State of Palestine and the authorities in Gaza are not meeting their obligations to promote and protect the rights of the residents of Gaza," she said. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 after Hamas forces seized control of the territory following a brief civil war with security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president based in the West Bank. Egypt, at odds with Hamas, also maintains a blockade. Hoping to pressure Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza, Abbas, who leads the rival Fatah faction that holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has cut payments to Israel for the electricity it supplies to Gaza. Shamdasani said that at the height of summer, with soaring temperatures, electricity has often been provided for less than four hours a day, and never more than six since April. "This has a grave impact on the provision of essential health, water and sanitation services," she added. Families buy only enough supplies for each day as they cannot store goods in refrigerators, especially meat and dairy products. Hospital officials complain of acute shortages of medications. The Gaza health ministry says about 40 percent of essential medicines have run out, especially for patients with cancer, cystic fibrosis and kidney failure. Hamas authorities in Gaza blame the Palestinian Authority for the misery while Abbas blames the Islamist group's refusal to end its control of Gaza. "Fatah does not accept and will not let the Palestinian National Authority become an ATM to finance this coup which destroys the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state," said a Fatah statement issued on Thursday. Abbas has vowed to keep up sanctions against Hamas-run Gaza, saying measures are aimed against Hamas and not ordinary people. In turn, Hamas is trying to make a crack in the wall of sanctions by improving ties with Egypt and other Arab countries. (Reporting and writing by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; editing by Alister Doyle)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - In slapping its seventh set of sanctions on North Korea, the United Nations has adopted its toughest measures yet against the regime -- but how effective they will be in changing Pyongyang's behavior is another matter.

Days after the UN unanimously approved the US-drafted sanctions, aimed at thwarting the North's nuclear weapons programs, Pyongyang railed against the measures as US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-Un traded fiery threats.

Crucial to their success is whether Beijing and Moscow enforce the sanctions -- which could cost North Korea $1 billion a year in revenues.

The sanctions impose a full ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore as well as fish and seafood.

Despite the skepticism of experts, UN diplomats think they will be applied more strictly than in past efforts.

Their fate hinges largely on China, which accounts for 90 percent of trade with North Korea but is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, even after voting in their favor.

Member states are required to regularly report on the implementation of sanctions -- a duty Beijing, the North's sole major ally, has skirted in the past, according to a diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity.

But another diplomat emphasized, "The trend is to implementation."

And Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has vowed that Beijing "will for sure implement the new resolution 100 percent, fully and strictly."

If China follows through on that promise, the North may be tempted to trade through other countries. The United States recently lectured Thailand, for example, about the need to seriously clamp down on North Korean exports.

UN sanctions regimes have sometimes come under fire for harming general populations rather than their targeted leaders. But they worked well in South Africa to build pressure against apartheid, and more recently to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

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But such change takes time: in Iran's case more than a decade.

- Loose enforcement? -

When it comes to North Korea, "so far, the impact of these and other sanctions in order to change the DPRKs actions appears to be limited," said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

"Moscow has an ambiguous position" on economic sanctions against North Korea, he said. Past resolutions "are strangling Russia's economic cooperation" with the North and have hurt the corporate interests of powerful Russian players, he said in a recent analysis.

A top target of the sanctions adopted August 5 is the fish and crustacean industry -- some 29 percent of North Korean exports from that sector are destined for Russia. And according to Chinese customs figures, Beijing imported $50 million in North Korean fish and shellfish in June alone.

Echoing the view of many experts, Thomas H. Lee, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, said enforcement of even preexisting sanctions has been loose.

But the latest set "will really hurt the North Korean leadership," he predicted.

And if sanctions fail to change the regime's behavior, the Security Council still has other options, such as an oil embargo or the return home of North Korean nationals working abroad.

A new report on the implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea is expected in September.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez delivers remarks during the re-opening ceremony for the Cuban embassy July 20, 2015 in Washington, DC: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The freshly friendly relationship between the US and Cuba appears to have soured after officials said that had been secretly made deaf.

The hearing loss has been blamed on a secret sonic weapon and is just one a series of bizarre incidents that have upset US officials working in Cuba. The US has kicked out two Cuban diplomats in an attempt to address the strange incidents.

US investigators have concluded that the country's diplomats were being hit with an advanced device that can send out sound that is inaudible but can cause huge damage to the ears of a person around them, which appears to have been left either inside or near the diplomats' houses. It's not clear whether the device was meant as a weapon or if it also served some other purpose.

Towards the end of last year, US diplomats began to suffer mysterious hearing loss, according to investigators. Many of them had arrived recently at the embassy, which had reopened the year before, as part of Barack Obama's new attempt to reestablish relations with the country.

Some of the diplomats even had to leave their post and come back to the US.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. retaliated by expelling two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington on May 23. She did not say how many US diplomats were affected or confirm they had suffered hearing loss, saying only that they had "a variety of physical symptoms."

The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement late Wednesday that "Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception."

The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on Feb. 17 and had launched an "exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government."

It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats was "unjustified and baseless."

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The ministry said it had created an expert committee to analyze the incidents and had reinforced security around the U.S. embassy and U.S. diplomatic residences.

"Cuba is universally considered a safe destination for visitors and foreign diplomats, including U.S. citizens," the statement said.

US officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.

Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and US diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island. Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

However, officials familiar with the probe said investigators were looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba's formal chain of command.

Nauert said investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them "very seriously," as shown by the Cuban diplomats' expulsions.

"We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some US personnel's assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents," she said. "Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats."

US diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by US agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington. The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented.

Additional reporting by agencies
An opposition activist stands by during a protest against the newly inaugurated Constituent Assembly in Caracas - AFP

The Venezuelan government has warned it will defend itself against any intervention by the "extremist" United States after President Donald Trump raised the prospect of a "military option" in the chaos-ridden South American oil state.

Mr Trump told reporters on Friday that the use of force "was certainly something we could pursue" in Venezuela, which he described as a "dangerous mess".

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Mr Trump said.

His comments drew a furious response in Venezuela, where General Padrino Lopez, the defence minister, vowed that the army would fight against any foreign intervention.

"As a soldier, along with the armed forces, we are in the first line to defend the interests and the sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela," he said, describing the threat as "an act of madness, of supreme extremism".

Jorge Arreaza, the foreign minister, called on all Venezuelans to unite against the "insolent foreign aggression".

"The reckless threats of President Donald Trump aim to drag Latin America and the Caribbean into a conflict which would permanently alter the stability, the peace and the security of our region," he said.

The US has already imposed sanctions on senior government figures, including President Nicolas Maduro himself, in response to the controversial election of a constituent assembly (ANC) empowered to rewrite the constitution in favour of the revolutionary government.

Despite widespread claims of electoral fraud, the powerful assembly has begun to rule over the heads of the opposition-controlled parliament, prompting cries from powers in the region and beyond that Venezuela has stepped into dictatorship.

Amid violence that has left more than 100 dead and claims of systematic abuses by security forces, many fear the country is on the brink of a full-blown civil conflict.

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Anti-government activists build a barricade in Venezuela's third city, Valencia Credit: AFP

Mr Trump's threat of military action, which comes after he declined to take a telephone call from Mr Maduro, would represent a serious escalation.

It sent shockwaves through the region on Saturday, galvanising allies of the Chavista government and even prompting detractors who had been clamouring for change to spring to its defence.

"In Latin America we don't want your war," said Vicente Fox, the former Mexican president who was last month banned from Venezuela over comments interpreted as encouraging regime change.

Only an imbecile would wage war on his neighbours land. Violence is not the answer," he tweeted at the US president.

.@realDonaldTrump in Latinamerica we don't your war, only an imbecile would wage war on his neighbor land. Violence it's not the answer.  Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) August 11, 2017

The prospect was welcomed by some opponents inside Venezuela.

Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations and a prominent government critic, said that for him "all actions which help to rescue liberty" were "valid and indispensable".

But many warned it played into Mr Maduros hands, lending weight to his claim to be under attack from a powerful imperial enemy.

Venezuela's President Maduro Credit: REUTERS

Now the threat of Trump activates Chavismo even more, just when we we have elections in two months, said Carola Chavez, a pro-government writer and commentator, referring to long-delayed regional polls to be held under the auspices of the new assembly.

The US government seemed to be scrambling to repair the damage, with a department of defence spokesperson insisting any insinuations by the Maduro regime that we are planning an invasion are baseless.

There was mixed reaction to Mr Trump's words on the streets of Caracas.

Alberto Matos, a 50-year-old school teacher, told the Telegraph he did not support the government but was concerned about the consequences of intervention.

"Venezuela has many links with the Arab world and with Russia and that could turn into a major problem," he said.

Mauro Cusanno, a 47-year-old waiter, rejected any prospect of military action "from either outside or inside", describing Mr Trump's threat as "serious".

One 30-year-old entrepreneur, who did not wish to be identified, said: "I would not have any problem with an intervention because we need to get out of this problem. But it would depend on how it would be executed, of course."
Violent clashes erupt at Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. Rescue workers move victims on stretchers after car plowed through a crowd of counter-demonstrators marching through the downtown shopping district Aug. 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Va. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

One person was killed in Virginia on Saturday after white nationalists clashed with counter-demonstrators and a car plowed into a crowd near the scene of the earlier melee, the mayor of Charlottesville said.

The clashes on Saturday morning prompted the governor to declare an emergency and halt a rally over removing a Confederate generals statue from a public park.

I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Singer said on his Twitter feed. I urge all people of good will  go home. He did not give details of who died and what caused the death.

I am praying that God help us all, Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy said in an interview with CNN. We are better than this.

Tensions in the city intensified when at least one vehicle plowed into a crowd of people gathered in a street two blocks from the park. Multiple people were injured in the incident, the Charlottesville Police Department said on its Facebook page. (Reuters)

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Washington (AFP) - Virginia's governor on Friday urged people to stay away from a planned weekend rally of far right and white supremacist groups in the university town of Charlottesville.

The National Guard has been put on alert because of the risk of violence during Saturday's "Unite the Right" rally. Counter demonstrators are also expected.

"I want to urge my fellow Virginians who may consider joining either in support or opposition to the planned rally to make alternative plans," Governor Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

Thousands of white nationalists, including supporters of the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group, and anti-fascist activists are expected to turn out in Charlottesville, a sleepy town planning to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate forces in the US Civil War.

"The Charlottesville event could be a potentially historic showcase of hate, bringing together more extremists in one place than we have seen in at least a decade," said Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a group that monitors and combats anti-Semitism.

McAuliffe, a Democrat, said many of the people at the rally will "express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent. As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right."

He said he had given security forces instructions to act quickly and decisively if violence breaks out.

Units of the Virginia National Guard will be placed on stand-by, he added.

On July 8 a few dozen Ku Klux Klan marchers gathered in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove the statue of Lee. But they were outnumbered by hundreds of jeering counter protestors.

This time the extreme right hopes to have a stronger showing thanks to the presence of various leaders of the "alt-right" movement that has been emboldened by Donald Trump's ascent to the White House.
President Trump is most comfortable when hes on the verbal offensive. He loves a good war of words, whether his target is a foreign adversary, a foreign ally, a Republican rival, or Rosie ODonnell. According to a New York Times tally, Trump has attacked 351 separate people, places, and things on Twitter alone since July 2015.

The president has demonstrated that tendency this week, with his escalating, improvised threats against North Korea and his parallel assault on Mitch McConnell, his most important ally in Washington.

Those feuds make Trumps refusal to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin all the more conspicuous.

On July 30, Putin announced that Russia was forcing the U.S. State Department to reduce its staff in Russia by 755 people. (For the most part, those who were laid off were Russians working for the embassy, not American diplomats.) Trump, who often cant let a provocation on cable news go unanswered for more than a few hours, was uncharacteristically quiet.

He finally broke his silence, after a fashion, on August 3, the day he signed a bill increasing sanctions on Russia in retaliation for interfering in the 2016 election. Trump had opposed the legislation, but it passed Congress with veto-proof majorities, leaving him little choice but to sign it. There are many reasons Russo-American relations are strained: Russian anger at expansion of NATO, longstanding global rivalries, the Russian annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine, years of Russian human-rights abuses, and Russian tampering with the election. Trump chose to place blame for the rocky state of the relationship not on any of those issues, and certainly not on Putin, but squarely on Congress. Just for good measure, he tossed in an unrelated jab at the failure of an Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan:

Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2017

There was still not a word about Putins forced cuts at the U.S. embassy. Finally, on Thursday, Trump weighed in. His comments were surprisingnot only did he not criticize Putin, but he thanked him:

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I want to thank him because were trying to cut down our payroll, and as far as Im concerned Im very thankful that he let go a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll. There's no real reason for them to go back. I greatly appreciate the fact that weve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. Were going to save a lot of money.

Was Trump speaking with tongue in cheek? Its possible, but he didnt smile when he said it. (The president has often tried to pass off apparently serious comments as jokes after the fact, in order to defuse situations.) The remark fits with his attempt to cut costs at the State Department and his disdain for traditional diplomacy.

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But even if the whole thing was a joke, its still astonishing that Trumps response to Russian retaliation was to thank the retaliators. This doesnt mean the only option is an eye for an eye; a simple public complaint is standard in cases of diplomatic retaliation like this. (Part of the problem is that Trump seems to have two modes: conciliation and escalation. The idea of criticizing without raising the stakes is foreign to him.)

The strange thing about Trumps comments about Putin is not merely that he wont criticize him, but that he goes out of his way to avoid it. The tweet about Russian relations and his remarks on Thursday were hardly the only times this has happened. And thats even leaving aside Trumps repeated praise for the Russian leader during the campaign, when he praised Putins leadership, suggested hed allow the annexation of Crimea, and publicly called on Russia to hack Hillary Clintons emails.

Lets draw a line between what Trump said on the campaign trail and what hes said since the election. Although he had been briefed before November 8, it was after the election that he began getting full intelligence briefings on Russian interference. Since then, there has also been an increasing focus on interference among members of the public, press, and Congress. In other words, Trump has had many more incentives to distance himself from Russia. Instead, hes continued to hold his fire.

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On February 4, Trump told Bill OReilly, I do respect [Putin]. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesnt mean Ill get along with them. OReilly pressed Trump on Putins murders of dissidents and journalists. Trump wouldnt criticize Putin for those crimes, and suggested the United States was no better. There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers, Trump said. Well, you think our country is so innocent?

He has also repeatedly declined to accept the idea that Russia meddled in the election, even though it is the conclusion of all the major intelligence agencies, and even though many of his top aides have said they blame Russia for hacking attacks. In June, he called the attacks a big Dem HOAX.

In early July, during a trip to Poland, he halfway accepted that Russia might have been behind them, then backed off the statement and worked to muddy the waters.

I think it was Russia, and I think it could have been other people in other countries. It could have been a lot of people. I said it very simply. I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries. I wont be specific. I think a lot of people interfere. I think its been happening for a long time, its been happening for many, many years.

Yet he added: Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.

Later that week, Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Putin, at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. U.S. and Russian accounts of the meeting initially diverged, with the United States saying Trump had pressed Putin forcefully on the hacking, and Russia saying Trump had accepted Putins denials.

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Two days later, Trump cleared things up with a pair of tweets that basically confirmed the Russian account:

I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017

Given that Trump had already said he was dubious of Russian interference, that tweet reads as an acknowledgment that he accepted their denial. But even if that wasnt the case, Trumps next one made clear that he had no interest in holding Russia to account:

...We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017

The question is why Trump has worked so hard to avoid criticizing Putinespecially when theres a clear political downside to appearing cozy with the Russian bear.

There is little obvious foreign-policy advantage. During the campaign and early in his presidency, Trump argued that the United States ought to launch a charm offensive in order to improve relations with Russia. Whether that was right or wrong, and whether Congress or someone else is to blame, that approach is obsolete today. As Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Russia have all admitted, relations are now at a low ebb.

Even if Trump fully believes that Putin is a spotless, admirable leader falsely accused of various crimes, it would be to his benefit to create some separation, and a matter as simple as expulsion of diplomats offers a good chance for Trump to stand up for his country. Putin, like any foreign leader, understands that sometimes a head of state has to shore himself up domestically and would surely interpret a few hostile words from Trump in that light. (Alternatively, even if one believes Trump is a bought-and-paid-for puppet of the Kremlin, why wouldnt he publicly denounce Putin to buy himself some maneuvering room?)

Given Trumps affection for authoritarian leaders and fixation on projecting strength, the simplest explanation for Trumps refusal to criticize Putin might be that he doesnt want to give the impression that he has been cowed into changing his view. Perhaps hes thinking that if he allows his critics to troll him into offering harsh words, it would show that they are stronger than himand if he acknowledges Russian interference in the election, it undermines the legitimacy of his victory in 2016.

In fact, his actions are making him look weak, but not in the way he thinks. His refusal to criticize Putin even in the case of diplomatic retaliation gives the impression that he is intimidated by the Kremlin and doesnt have it in him to be tough. The president has cut off his nose to spite his face, and is now willing to cut off an ear or a lip if he must.

During his only press conference between the election and inauguration, on January 11, Trump fielded questions about his affection for the Russian leader.

If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks, thats called an asset, not a liability, he said. Now, I dont know that Im going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do. But theres a good chance I wont. And if I dont, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me? Does anybody in this room really believe that?

Seven months later, it seems clear that she couldnt have been any less tough.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
On September 15, 1996, 26 North Korean commandoes slipped ashore near the South Korean town of Gangneung after their submarine foundered off the coast. The impromptu mini-invasion made international headlines, and tensions rose sharply for several weeks between the two countries as the South Korean military hunted down the infiltrators. Two dozen were killed.

But in the city of Busan, where Id been teaching English for more than a year, my friends seemed unconcerned; no one I knew was preparing for war. The only person I knew who was truly worried was my mother in Michigan. Was I safe? Wasnt it a good idea to come home and get out of harms way?

I told her the same thing that everyone in South Korea says whenever North Korea threatened to turn the nation into a lake of fire, which was often: Everything was fine.

After two decades, multiple skirmishes, the rapid development of North Koreas nuclear program, and the arrival of a new-generation dictator from the Kim dynasty, the mood in South Korea is much the same. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump alarmed the world when he warned the country that it could face fire and fury like the world has never seen. A day later, the North Korean military threatened to strike Guam (home to important U.S. military bases) with four intermediate-range ballistic missiles fired over Japan. On Friday morning, Trump continued the escalation, via a tweet promising that the U.S. military is locked and loaded.

Recommended: Is the World Slouching Toward a Grave Systemic Crisis?

But as the president trades doomsday threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and American tabloids erupt with mushroom-cloud stock photos, the people of Seoul, just 35 miles from the North Korean border, remain typically blase. On Wednesday, the website of the Chosun Ilbo, South Koreas largest daily newspaper, lead with a story on Samsung microchips.

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The reason? They have heard it all before.

North Korean provocation is always a concern, but it is kind of like background noise, says Abraham Kim, former vice president of the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, D.C., and current director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana. Sometimes it gets very loud, but its always been there. People are kind of numb to it.

Thats particularly the case among younger residents of Seoul. For them, the prospect of conflict feels hypothetical, says Walter Paik, chair of the Department of Military Force at Korea Tourism University in Incheon. They dont know the reality of the North Korean leaders.

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Via email, Christina Lee, who works in Seoul for NK News, a publication that reports on North Korea, also notes this strict generational division. Talking to residents on Wednesday, she found that younger Seoulites seemed detached from the whole issue, she says. Because nothing has come of past North Korean saber rattling, the current threat doesnt seem to register as out of the ordinary. On the other hand, older residents are properly wary. An older South Korean man thought the NK threat is very dangerous, she says. [He] said, The younger generation who hasnt experienced war wouldn't understand.

Its hard to overstate the importance of Seoul to South Korea. More than half of South Koreas 50 million residents live in the Seoul metropolitan areamore than 10 million in the city itselfand approximately 70 percent of the countrys economy is tied to the city. Its also hard to overstate its vulnerability. Decades before North Korea became a nuclear threat to the rest of the world, the city lay in the crosshairs of North Korean conventional artillery, minutes away from its jets.

Recommended: Why Does Trump Still Refuse to Criticize Putin?

Whats new, of course, is that North Korea no longer directly threatens only Seoul or nearby neighbors like Japan. In July, U.S. officials told Reuters that North Koreas latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile shows that it may be able to strike nearly anywhere in the continental United States. That danger is new to U.S. cities and territories, not Seoul. Promises from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that the U.S. would ultimately prevail in any armed exchange arent very reassuring for residents of the South Korean capital: The city suffers catastrophic damage in even the best scenarios of a conflict on the peninsula.

There is another element to this crisis that does feel different, however: the American president. Bong Youngshik, a research fellow at Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies, says that Donald Trump is an untested and new phenomenon in the decades-old conflict. He presents an idiosyncrasy to Koreans ... unpredictability. But that unpredictability could be an asset in pressuring North Korea: That is, he may really put his words into actions, including military actions.

But Bong says rather than stockpiling ramen, the young generation in Seoul is aware of the possibility of the government potentially manipulating the security issues in order to restrain civic liberty, which happened during the era of (South Korean) military dictatorship.

Recommended: How to Deal With North Korea

Unable to predict the potential impact of Trump and Kims fiery rhetoric, many Korea experts pay more attention to financial markets, which, like Seoulites, are expressing little concern. The Korea Stock Exchange Index KOSPI fell .4 percent on Thursday. And although North Korea has fired 18 missiles since February, the South Korean benchmark has not fallen more than 1 percent on any day that a missile was fired, according to Bloomberg.

Now its my turn to worry about friends and family back in South Korea. My wife and I returned to the United States in 2001. In the years since, whenever the threat of war floats to the top of the U.S. media cycle, we discuss my in-laws in Busan. Were the ones who call and quiz them about their safety, and occasionally urge them to prepare. Should we try to get them to Guam and then to the U.S. if the situation escalates?

Today, like most other Koreans, they seem unconcerned. They couldnt leave even if they wanted to, it turns out: They let their passports expire.

This post appears courtesy of Citylab.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
President Donald Trump has said repeatedly he is an admirer of Israels controversial wall building program, and the Middle Eastern country is giving him another structure to envyIsrael's army has announced construction details of a new underground wall to run along the country's border with Gaza.

The $800 million barrier will stretch across the countrys 40-mile frontier with the territory, measuring 19 feet high, but also delving 131 feet underground, principally to counter the threat of attack tunnels dug by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) revealed details of the wall, first announced in 2014, on Wednesday. Work is scheduled to begin on the wall in October and it is expected to take two years to complete. According to The Times, Israel has built factories to produce concrete along its border, and construction workers, who will be part of the round-the-clock effort, will reportedly include east African asylum seekers and others from Spain and Moldova.

Related: Israel tried to derail Syria cease-fire at secret meetings with U.S. and Russia over Iran

The wall will be constructed mainly from concrete, reinforced with iron bars and pipes and covered in sensors. It will also extend into the Mediterranean in an attempt to stop Hamas fighters from swimming ashore.

General Eyal Zamir, the Israeli head of the Southern Command said the army was concerned about Hamas trying to stop construction, and another military official told The Times of Israel that they planned to defend the barrier and that it would be "built at any price."

I think the other side will have to re-evaluate the situation in view of the barrier, Zamir, the Israeli head of the Southern Command said.

The New York Times reported Israeli military officials being tight-lipped about further plans for the wall.

Israel's border with the Gaza strip

REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

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Israel has long had ambitions to close off tunnels Hamas uses to attack it. During the summer-long war of 2014 Hamas used attack tunnels to ambush Israeli military posts and to transport weapons and ammunition across the border. After the 50 days of fighting Israel had put dozens of Hamas tunnels out of action, including a number that led into Israeli territory and threatened civilians.

On Thursday, Israeli military officials distributed aerial photographs and GPS coordinates of two residential buildings in Gaza that they say hid entrances to Hamas tunnel networks. Zamir said that in wartime the buildings would be legitimate targets. One of the two is home to a Hamas member with five children, connecting to a nearby mosque, according to the IDF. These are said to be two in bank of targets.

The IFDs Brig. Gen. Oshri Lugassy said that there were now hundreds of kilometers of tunnels running under the Gaza Strip.

"Our intelligence shows without any doubt that Hamas is building its infrastructure for the next round of fighting in the civilian arena," Zamir added.

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The barbaric practice of sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole remains one of the most radically inhumane aspects of our criminal justice system.

For those of us who work daily to abolish this practice, the good news is that there are several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that deem this brand of sentencing unconstitutional and attempt to limit its use.

The bad news is that despite these decisions and a national trend moving away from this practice, several outlier states and counties refuse to comply with the Supreme Courts most recent mandate, which effectively banned life without parole for all children capable of rehabilitation.

The shameful news is that the United States is the only country in the world that sentences children to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and that children of color  African American children in particular -- and children who have been abused and traumatized are disproportionately handed these sentences.

GettyImages-477588584

Andrew Burton/getty

Taken together, these facts lead to a simple conclusion: The time has come to put an end to life without parole sentencing for children.

Sentencing children to die in prison flies in the face of what we know about child and adolescent development.

Young people are more susceptible to peer pressure than adults, and less capable of thinking through the consequences of their actions and assessing risks. They are also uniquely capable of positive growth and change.

That is why the Supreme Court has stepped in four times since 2005 to declare children constitutionally different than adults, and less deserving of our countrys harshest punishments.

Many states have taken that common sense lesson to heart. Since the Supreme Courts 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama , which barred mandatory life without parole sentences for children, the list of states that banned life without parole for children has nearly quadrupled, with conservative states such as West Virginia, Utah, and Arkansas leading the way.

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In 2011, it was legal to sentence children to life without parole in all but five states. Today, 19 states and the District of Columbia ban the practice.

These reforms are crucial because they bring hope of a second chance to those told as children that their lives were worth so little that they would die in prison. They also speak to the capacity for growth and change that often defines youth.

Take the example of Marshan Allen, who was convicted of murder as a teenager and, because of his role in the tragic loss of another life, a judge was forced to impose two mandatory life without parole sentences. Before he was old enough to vote, he was told he would likely die in a bare, concrete cell.

When Marshan lost his first appeal and could no longer afford an attorney, he did not give up on himself. He frequented the library, learned the law, and fought for his freedom.

While working in many roles at various prisons and earning the respect of prison guards and administrators alike, he also took advantage of every educational and vocational program made available to him. He refused to be defined by his past, but rather remained hopeful for the future.

After serving 25 years in prison, Marshan was resentenced and six months ago he was released. In June he started a job as a Starbucks barista. He is one of a growing number of Americans who were incarcerated as children and are proving themselves to be reformed, hardworking, capable adults.

Unfortunately, so many men and women like Marshan still languish in prison for crimes they committed years, sometimes many decades ago, before they knew how to drive or could vote.

Beyond restoring hope to those sentenced to life in prison as children, and aligning sentencing practices with what we all know about child development, efforts to ban life without parole for children are connected to the larger movement to reform the criminal justice system, end mass incarceration, and advance the cause of racial justice.

Since its inception, Americas criminal justice apparatus has been infected by racial bias and defined by injustice. The advent and proliferation of juvenile life without parole sentences is instructive.

In the early 1990s, academics, politicians, and the media perpetuated a narrative that falsely and perniciously equated a growing number of African American youth and other children of color with hyper-criminality and dangerousness.

Those childrendeemed superpredators were allegedly devoid of empathy and needed to be locked up forever. During a seven year stretch, from 1992 to 1999, 45 states enacted overly punitive measures that erased the differences between children and adults in the eyes of the law, clearing the way for youth to be sentenced to die in prison.

Although the superpredator narrativewhich was unmoored from reality and steeped in stereotypes was wholly debunked, its influence remains. Since 1992, an African American youth arrested for homicide has been twice as likely to be sentenced to life without parole as a white youth. A sentencing practice rooted in racialized fears is unjustifiable and unacceptable.

Nelson Mandela once said, There can be no keener revelation of a societys soul than the way in which it treats its children. We should hold our children accountable in age-appropriate ways that focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

By tackling our most extreme sentences for children, and acknowledging that this harshest of punishments is imposed disproportionately on children of color coming from some of our most vulnerable communities, we must come to terms with the fact that race and socioeconomic status play a huge role in determining how much compassion the justice system will show a young person.

This should not be the case  all children are created equal, and there is no such thing as a throwaway child. Our sentencing policies should reflect those truths.

State lawmakers would be well served to join the national trend abandoning the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without a hope of release.

It is imperative that together we work toward a justice system that offers the mercy that all children deserve.

Vincent M. Southerland is the executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law . Prior to that he served as assistant federal public defender with the Federal Defenders for the Southern District of New York and a senior counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Jody Kent Lavy is the executive director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth , a national non-profit that leads efforts to replace extreme sentences for children with fair and age-appropriate alternatives, with a focus on abolishing life without parole sentences for youth under age eighteen.

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More than 300 people have left comments against the FCC's proposal that mobile internet can be considered a replacement for broadband.

Hundreds of Americans have left comments for the Federal Communications Commission to tell the board mobile broadband should not be considered a full replacement for high speed internet service at home.

The response came after the FCC launched its annual study of broadband deployment and suggested access to a smartphone and mobile broadband networks could be considered a suitable substitute for cable or fiber internet.

Read: FCC Rule Change: Small Carriers Now Exempt From Truth-In-Billing Requirements

More than 300 comments have been filed by Americans who object to the notion that mobile broadband can serve as a replacement to a high-speed connection at home, citing a number of limitations imposed by mobile carriers that make the service less capable of serving the needs of the average broadband user.

First and foremost is the considerable gap in data speeds. The standard for mobile broadband are speeds of 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 1Mbps for uploads. A recent survey from OpenSignal found T-Mobile had the fastest network on average, with a download rate of 16Mbps, while Sprint was the only major carrier to fail to break the 10Mbps threshold.

In the case of most mobile carriers, the average download speed is half of what is required to qualify as broadband for a home network. By the FCCs definition, a broadband connection requires 25Mpbs download speeds and 3Mpbs upload speedsa bar not even the fastest mobile network in the U.S. reaches.

On top of the slower speeds, many mobile connections are limited by restrictions imposed by the carrier. Most mobile network providers implement data caps, meaning users only have a limited amount of online access before they are charged more or have their connection throttled.

Read: Internet Subsidies: Should The Obama Phone Program End? FCC Seeks Public Comment On Broadband Subsidies For Low-Income Households

Home internet connections are not necessarily without data caps, but they are considerably higher. Caps put in place by broadband providers have typically allowed for at least 300GB of data per month, compared to caps of between 2-10GB for most mobile plans.

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It is not uncommon for mobile networks to have other restrictions as well, including limits on tethering that would allow a person to access the internet from another device by using a smartphone as a hotspot. Such a feature would seem to be necessary if one wanted to replace home broadband with a mobile alternative.

Despite the considerable limitations posed by the current state of mobile connections, FCC Chairman Ajit Paiwho was appointed to the position by President Donald Trumpmay conclude that access provided by mobile network is good enough for large chunks of the country that currently have limited broadband access.

Such a conclusion would mark a considerable departure from the position of the FCC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler during the Obama administration. Prior to stepping down from the role, Wheeler said Americans should have access to fast internet connections both at home and from mobile networks.

The FCC is accepting comments on it proposal through September 7, with a period for reply comments open until Sept. 22.

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1. WINNER SELECTION: Winners (individually and collectively, the "Winner") will be selected on or about 11/31/2017 in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received. Each sweepstakes is a different drawing that must be entered separately. All the sweepstakes in these Official Rules are individually and collectively the "Sweepstakes." In the event the Sponsor does not receive any eligible entries, the Sponsor has the right to cancel the Sweepstakes. Drawing will be conducted by Woman's Day, whose decisions are final. Odds of winning will depend upon the total number of eligible entries received. In the event Canadians are eligible to enter as specified in the Eligibility paragraph below, and if there is a Canadian Winner, the Winner will be required to correctly answer a mathematical skill testing question as a condition of receiving the prize. Important Notice: You may be charged for visiting the mobile website in accordance with the terms of your service agreement with your carrier. Please consult your wireless service provider regarding your pricing plan. You must use a Smartphone device to participate via your mobile phone. Not all mobile phone providers carry the necessary service to participate. Check your phone capabilities for specific Internet instructions. If your data usage exceeds what is allotted by your data plan, you could be subject to additional fees by your carrier. Please contact your mobile service provider with any questions regarding your bill.

2. WINNER NOTIFICATION: Winner will be notified within one (1) month of the last day of the Sweepstakes, via e-mail, and/or at Sponsor's discretion, via phone or postal mail. In the event the Winner doesn't respond to Sponsor's notification or does not accept the prize within five (5) business days of notification, the prize will be deemed forfeited and an alternate Winner will be selected. In the event that any one or more potential Winner(s) fails to respond as stated above, declines the prize or fails to provide signed affidavits or releases, such Winner(s) will be deemed to forfeit the prize and Sponsor will select an alternate Winner(s) from the remaining eligible entrants. If any alternate(s) similarly fails to respond or declines the prize, Sponsor will use a reasonable number of attempts, in its discretion, to award the prize(s) to another alternate(s) but if it is unable to do so, the prize(s) will be finally forfeited and Sponsor shall have no further liability in connection with said Sweepstakes. List of Winner(s): For the name(s) of the Winner(s), send a separate self-addressed, stamped envelope to September 2017 Woman's Day 80th Anniversary Sweepstakes Winners' List, Hearst Communications, Inc., 300 West 57th Street NY, NY 10019 within two (2) months from the Winner notification date as specified above.

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Demeter Fragrance Sweepstakes: Enter beginning 12:01 A.M. (ET) on August 12, 2017, through 11:59 P.M. (ET) on October 12, 2017 (the "Entry Period"). Go to womansday.com/giveaways on a computer or wireless device and complete and submit the entry form pursuant to the onscreen instructions. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR ENTRY WILL NOT BE COMPLETED UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM AND ENTERED YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION. Prizes & Approximate Retail Value: 1 (one) winner will receive a 1.0 oz Demeter Fragrance Cologne Spray in Grass (ARV: $20). Total ARV of all prizes awarded: $20. Any difference between the stated ARV and the actual value of the prize will not be awarded in any form.

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US President Donald Trump is sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and negotiator Jason Greenblatt to the Middle East soon to meet with regional leaders and discuss a "path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks," a White House official said on Friday.

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Deputy national security adviser Dina Powell will also be on the trip, which will include meetings with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the official said.

Trump (Photo: AFP)

"While the regional talks will play an important role, the president reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress towards that goal," the official said.

The statement additionally said Trump "believes that the restoration of calm and the stabilized situation in Jerusalem after the recent crisis on the Temple Mount-Haram al Sharif has created an opportunity to continue discussions and the pursuit of peace that began early in his administration."

The three emissaries are to meet leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority "about how best to support the peace effort."

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the impending visit.

"We are committed to peace based on the two state solution." he said. "We informed the American Administration that we are ready for peace on this basis. And we are waiting now for the American delegation to work together toward peace."

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that his country would also be committed to Israel as part of the negotiations with the Palestinians, adding that "in any case of discussing the future of Jerusalem, Russia will take into account Israel's interests."

Kusher had visited Israel back in June, hurrying to pay his condolences to the family of Hadas Malka, who was murdered in a Jerusalem terrorirst attack, before meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas regarding reigniting the peace talks with Israel.

Kushner (L) and Trump (Photo: MCT)

Despite his visit, while speaking to congressional interns earlier this month, Kushner expressed doubt the American administration could find a "unique" solution that would lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to an audio recording leaked to WIRED magazine.

After being asked how he plans to negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians and how he plans to succeed where others have failed, Kushner wondered aloud, "What do we offer that's unique? I dont know.

"I'm sure everyone that's tried this has been unique in some ways, but again we're trying to follow very logically. We're thinking about what the right end state is. And were trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there's a solution."
Argentine-Israeli doctor Alejandro Roisentul, who works at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, was honored by the city of Buenos Aires earlier this week for his humanitarian work with Syrians wounded in the civil war waging across Israel's northern border.

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"My dream is for the children of the Syrian wounded I treat to one day be able to play with my own children in peace," he said.

Dr. Roisentul, a father of three who made aliyah to Israel almost 30 years ago, has personally treated hundreds of the Syrians who made their way across the border into Israel for medical help.

Dr. Alejandro Roisentul, second from the left, receiving the award

The honor was bestowed upon him in an event on Tuesday at the Buenos Aires City Legislature building, with the Argentine Deputy Minister of Justice and Human Rights Claudio Avruj, Israel's Ambassador to Argentina Ilan Sztulman, city council members and other dignitaries in attendance.

During the ceremony, Dr. Roisentul said he does not consider his work to be out of the ordinary. "Only in such a unique situation, the kind of which we deal with in Israel, our work as doctors is considered at times as different, even though we are merely doing our job and duty," he said.

Ambassador Sztulman noted that, "As we see it, Roisentul's work is giving real meaning to the Jewish concept of 'Tikkun Olam.' Roisentul is one of many others who made it their goal to improve the place they live in and help those in need."

Dr. Alejandro Roisentul, left, with Israel's Ambassador to Argentina Ilan Sztulman

The event at the Buenos Aires City Legislature is part of a series of events surrounding Israel's activity on its northern border amid the fighting in Syria, as well as the humanitarian aid given by Israel to some of the wounded in the battles of the civil war.

The Argentine media covered Dr. Roisentul's story, and he was interviewed by a number of media outlets, providing a different perspective on the fighting in Syria from the Israeli point of view.
Did you happen to catch the recent 10-part series, Genius, on the National Geographic channel?

The series spanned the life of Albert Einstein from his early days as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland to his death in Princeton, New Jersey. It focused more on his life, loves, struggles, and theories than math and physics, although, there were a few fascinating animations to help viewers visualize what he was thinking.

At one point, he said, Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I dont remember if he was referring to the Theory of Relativity or the Unified Field Theory  and it doesnt matter. What matters is that it also refers to interior design. In fact, it refers to absolutely everything: Too many ingredients in a recipe dilute the essence of the flavor. Too many words in a column dilute the essence of the message (Im still working on this). Too many lines of computer code slow response time. Too many bells and whistles in a car, a television, or a sewing machine can cause more problems than they solve.

Einstein was not saying to make things simple but to make them as simple as possible. In his world, he stripped down even his most complicated of formulas. There is nothing simple about them but they are as simple as can be and still prove his point.

Ill give you a few examples of how you can simplify your design in a moment, but I first have more groundwork to lay. When I design for clients, whether it be a single vignette, a room, or an entire house, my goal is to make every item and detail count. If it doesnt, I eliminate it.

The idea is that if it doesnt count, then keeping it only blurs the final result.

Thinking back to all the Demystifying Design columns Ive written, how many have advocated that we declutter, establish rhythm and pattern, emphasize one, and only one, focal point? Many. My reasoning has always been that such actions create efficient, functioning and harmonious spaces. They also create stronger and more confident designs.

Youve probably heard, Less is more. Its a phrase adopted by mid-century modern architect and furniture designer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Like Einsteins quote, this guideline really does produce the most successful outcomes.

So, how can you apply it to your home? First, as you might have guessed, edit and declutter. This will instantly give your space more room to breathe. Also, group similar items together. Instead of scattering decorative pottery, beautiful hardback books, framed photos, etc., gather them into a collection. They will make a bigger impact.

On a larger scale, if youre remodeling or building new, think about the architectural details and finishes. In a modern house, for instance, keep millwork simple. In a Victorian house, add just enough detail to acknowledge the architectural style  but dont go overboard. (The Arts and Crafts movement, in fact, was a rejection of the over-the-top embellishments of the Victorian age.)

As you update, upgrade, make over, remodel, or start from scratch, if you design the Einstein way, your result will be purposeful, meaningful, scaled, and proportioned. Everything will relate to everything else, which is actually the essence of the Unified Field Theory.
When long-time Napa resident Scott Espinoza, a 55-year-old California Department of Corrections employee, and his wife Jennifer Leslie bought a 2-acre parcel on North Kelly Road in southern Napa County in May, the couple had in mind a future of raising their chickens, goats and Leslies horse in relative peace.

Then the cannons started.

Residents like Espinoza in the lower reaches of the county are crying foul over a vineyard owners use of bird cannons  propane-powered devices emitting blasts similar to gunshots, sans the bullets.

Grape growers regularly use the cannons this time of the year, particularly in the Carneros region, as a means of keeping the areas abundant birds at bay while their grapes ripen.

But the recurrent blasts have drawn the ire of vineyard neighbors, and in this, the latest chapter of the annual fracas, Espinoza and other residents on North Kelly Road are citing one local vineyard as the source of their disquiet.

Adding a darker side to the episode are neighbors suggestions of a vendetta on the part of the vineyards owner, rendering the blasts more as sonic salvos and less within the bounds of good agricultural practices.

We think that its malicious, said Espinoza, whose new property shares two fence lines with the 8-acre Noemi Vineyard owned by grapegrower Eleodoro Hernandez.

Neighbors say the vineyards cannons have been the source of blasts that, since at least July, have continued throughout the course of each day at varying intervals, from several blasts every hour to every few minutes to every 30 seconds.

Lee Acree, another North Kelly Road resident near the Noemi Vineyard, said he has also been perturbed by the noise. If you were standing on my property, you would be shocked, he said, adding that the blasts are deafening, and thats why we dont go outside very much.

Acree contends that beyond the use of the cannons, Hernandez has a vendetta against the people around him and hes pointing the cannons at our residents.

Espinoza suspects the root of Hernandezs alleged ill will stems from the growers inability to purchase the parcel that Espinoza now owns, due to a supposed dispute with the propertys former owner.

And last year it was for the same reason, said Acree, contending that Hernandez wanted the properties around him including what is now Espinozas parcel, and they were sold to other people, and hes very mad at us.By Tuesday, Hernandez had not responded to repeated attempts to reach him via phone calls and email seeking comment on his use of cannons or any such vendetta. A reporter visited a listed home address and spoke with Noemi Hernandez, who said her husband, Eleodoro, was not home, but that he felt his use of the cannons was in compliance with Napa County ordinances, as county officials had visited the vineyard and had not told him to stop using them.

Neighbors contend that Napas right-to-farm ordinance has enabled Hernandez to carry out the high-volume volleys unchecked.

Intended as an educational tool, the right-to-farm ordinance is used to notify people who are buying property adjacent to agricultural areas that agriculture involves certain kinds of activities, said Napa County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Clark. Protected activities range from the use of tractors to discing, mowing and, in this case, bird control.

And provided that those practices are consistent with good agricultural practices, theyre generally protected, Clark said.

The challenge is trying to balance the need of someone whos farming, trying to bring a crop in to make a living doing what they do, versus the interests of those around them.

Espinoza and Leslie began living on the property full-time two weeks ago and soon learned the bird cannon routine. Beginning as early as 6:30 in the morning (Hernandez) starts setting the cannons off and sometimes theyre going off as late as 8 p.m. or after, Espinoza said.

As the barrage has carried on over the past weeks, residents have taken their concerns to Clark and the county. While bird cannons are also currently being used in other areas of the Carneros region, Clark said he has not received any complaints apart from those of the North Kelly Road residents.

After fielding residents protests, Clark enlisted Jim Lincoln, vineyard manager for the down-county ranches of Beckstoffer Vineyards, and the duo visited Hernandez. Verifying that bird damage was occurring in Hernandezs vineyard, Clark said he and Lincoln talked about things (Hernandez) might want to try and he said he was going to do that.

Lincoln, who tried using the cannons at an employer before working for Beckstoffer, said he does not think they keep birds away.

And if you run them all day long, theyre particularly ineffective, he said. The birds are not dumb. They get wise to the fact that theres really no danger there other than noise  So the grower thats running them like that is just defeating the purpose and annoying the neighbors.

Best practices would entail the cannons being used only for a few hours each day, in the morning and in the evening, the times when birds tend to feed, Lincoln said.

But I find it offensive when a grower will just go out and start a cannon and just let it run all day, he said. Ive even heard them out there running at night. And you know, thats irresponsible.

According to Clark, the countys contact with Hernandez has been ongoing for several weeks. However, neighbors report the cannon blasts have persisted and continue to last throughout each day at the Noemi Vineyard.

During a reporters phone call with Espinoza from his property on Aug. 4, multiple blasts were overheard in succession at about 2:30 p.m. The Register also witnessed repeated blasts upon visiting Espinozas property last Thursday around 10 a.m.

Also enabling the cannons unlimited use, in addition to the right-to-farm ordinance, is the countys lack of a bird cannon ordinance that would curb their usage. Such an ordinance exists in neighboring Solano County, where the number of bird cannons is capped per parcel size and their hours of operation are kept in check.

In Napa, however, Clark said, What were trying to do is involve the industry and have those conversations with individuals as things arise and to try to have people be good neighbors.

As for adopting any changes to the countys regulations, he said, It just doesnt seem like a good use of resources to develop an ordinance because of one person. And I realize that the people who are experiencing this may think otherwise, but we will continue to try and find a way to address this. I understand the frustration of the neighbors out there. I really do.

Now, as the cannons persist, the problem becomes a code enforcement issue with the county and may eventually evolve into a civil matter between Hernandez and his neighbors.

He might have the right to farm, Acree said of Hernandez. But I dont think he has the right to do what hes doing. Hes misusing that device.

Theres no law, he added. Theres no Napa County law against those cannons and people like me and my neighbors might see to it that we do change that law.

Absolutely, he has the right to farm, Espinoza said. We have the right to farm. Everybodys got the right. But weve got to find a way to peacefully coexist.

Its only a few individuals that run these things like this and it gives the whole industry a bad name, Lincoln said. And we get it every year. People start them in July and you think, oh my gosh its going to be a long time til harvest.
Commuter trains, hotels with employee housing, a change of elected leaders  all are ideas voiced by residents to help cure what they think ails the county.

More than 125 people packed the Napa Valley Horsemens Association assembly room on Thursday for a Napa Vision 2050 town hall. The theme was what the grassroots group sees as the shadow side of wine countrys tourism success.

Weve been chipping away at the soul of Napa, Vision 2050 President Dan Mufson said. Thats what I want to talk about.

He mentioned traffic congestion, wineries becoming event centers, hotel proliferation, fewer stores for locals and the lack of affordable housing as among the challenges. The balance that county leaders seek isnt happening, he said.

Our question to them is, what is balance? Is this balance? Mufson said, showing a photograph of a train teetering on a cliff.

The spotlight shifted to the audience for the bulk of the evening. People came to the microphone and voiced their ideas for change.

Sudie Pollock and Yeoryios Apallas both suggested requiring hotels to include quarters for employees. Apallas said the amount could be based on a formula involving habitable space in the building.

Why not make them put affordable studios on one floor? Apallas said.

Mike Hackett came to the microphone to talk about traffic congestion and challenged the audience to come up with ideas. He thought such county ideas as extending Devlin Road in the airport industrial area to create a Highway 29 reliever route will help, but arent enough.

This one scares me the most, Hackett said. Im fairly creative, but I cant really think of a solution, because its gone so far.

Chris Benz said people in the room could try to reduce their solo driving trips by sharing rides and combining errands.

I believe we need to be the solution, Benz said.

Linda Kerr and Michael Setty both talked about using trains to move commuters. Setty said the county could buy the Union Pacific tracks that connect Napa Valley with Solano County and the Vallejo ferry, perhaps using money from a proposed $3 toll increase on regional bridges.

Thats a vital piece of railroad, he said.

Kerr had another suggestion.

Really, the only way to change whats going on is to elect (different) people to office, she said.

Napa City Councilman Scott Sedgley defended the citys trend toward more compact, taller developments which can be controversial. He pointed to city growth boundaries that cannot be expanded into rural areas without voter approval.

When we did it, we knew the chickens would come home to roost, Sedgley said. You have no room to expand  you have to go tighter and higher. Thats the reality, folks.

Former Napa City Councilwoman Cindy Watter lives in Napas Old Town area. She sees more vacation rentals and what she believes to be illegal Airbnb operations.

This removes good housing, places people can live, she said.

A resident suggested exploring a housing land trust similar to OPAL Community Land Trust on Orcas Island, Washington. The nonprofit reduces home prices using grants and donations. It owns the land a house is on, leasing the land to the homeowner.

Harris Nussbaum, moderator of the event, said everyone must work together, rather than have an us-agaist-them situation.

I came in 1955, he said. Needless to say, Napa is a little bit different. Im not saying, Go back to 1955. But we have to work together to make a difference.

Napa Vision 2050 is a coalition of 12 local groups that came together in January 2015. Members include the Sierra Club, Get a Grip on Growth, Save Rural Angwin, Defenders of the East Napa Watersheds and St. Helena Citizens.
Heres the good news about the crisis over North Korea.

We are not going to war. Donald Trump is not going to nuke Pyongyang, reckless, rhetorical threats to the contrary. Nor is North Koreas Kim Jong Un going to nuke Guam.

Yes, I know the president just threatened to meet any more North Korean threats to the United States with fire and fury like the world has never seen. This is the kind of extreme military rhetoric by a U.S. president the world has never seen, except by Harry S. Truman before bombing Nagasaki. Kim responded by threatening a preemptive strike against Guam, a U.S. territory with American military bases.

But a preemptive war is not on the horizon, with one key caveat: My prediction may soon reverse if Trumps team cant muzzle the president. For months, observers have warned that Trumps tweets and careless comments could endanger our country in a crisis. You couldnt find a better example than the presidents fiery war of words with Kim.

The presidents bombast was off the cuff, at a news conference on opioids in New Jersey. No national security adviser was present, nor was anyone warned beforehand, according to news reports.

Trump not only freaked out our Asian allies, he also risked provoking worse behavior by Pyongyang, where a skittish young leader appears convinced that America wants to carry out a regime change. So Kim is willing to raise his threat level to scare off the Americans.

Trumps words were no doubt perceived by Kim as a warning of a likely preemptive attack on North Korea, which led to his dangerous riposte on Guam.

But the president also undercut his own team  who were making some important progress in putting the squeeze on Pyongyang. Only last week, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, pushed through the harshest sanctions yet against North Koreas nuclear program, with China and Russia on board. These sanctions could cut North Koreas foreign earnings, which fund its military, by a third.

Much more needs to be done to ensure enforcement of U.N. sanctions, to curb North Koreas export of workers, and to pursue U.S. secondary sanctions against foreign banks that help the North. The model (despite differences) should be the sanction policy that forced Iran to the nuclear bargaining table.

In tandem with the sanctions push, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had made a key statement aimed at reassuring Kim. He said America does not seek a regime change or collapse, or an accelerated reunification of the two Koreas. Tillerson also said, We do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel.

In other words, despite competing statements from different Trump team officials, the nucleus of a smart North Korea policy was emerging: aggressively pursuing sanctions and compliance from Beijing, moving at a much faster pace than President Barack Obama did with Iran, while trying to reassure Kim of U.S. intent. The goal: to get North Korea to stop testing missiles and nukes and return to the bargaining table.

No guarantee of success, but given the likelihood of hundreds of thousands of Korean and Japanese deaths should a new Korean war break out, a policy worth pursuing.

Then, Trump casually  and without consultation  blew it up.

Tillerson, reportedly blindsided, tried to walk things back, saying nothing had changed and Americans should sleep well at night.

But Americans cant sleep easy if Trump continues to say whatever comes to his mind on North Korea. As CNN pointed out, Trump frequently uses the phrase like the world has never seen to brag about his achievements, but in this case the intended audience is not his fan base and the phraseology implies nuclear war.

Trump clearly misunderstands the presumed target of his rhetoric, whom he thinks he can bully into better behavior. However, Kim, whos mainly concerned with staying in power, already knows that an attack on the U.S. would be suicidal, says Scott Snyder, the Council on Foreign Relations top Korea expert. But the young leader is making a major miscalculation by using threats in a more provocative way than we saw (Soviets) doing in the Cold War.

This escalation of threats could provoke Kim into doing something rash, which might in turn persuade Trump to order military retaliation. From such rhetoric and miscalculations, a war could begin.

Then again, if Trump keeps escalating his threats but does nothing, he will be seen as a paper tiger. Already, the new red line he set in his fire and fury riposte is making Americas allies wonder if U.S. policy on North Korea will ever be coherent or reliable with Trump at the helm.

The best advice Ive heard, from the Atlantic Councils Robert Manning, a veteran of past negotiations with Pyongyang, is: Stop getting hysterical every time they (the North Koreans) do something.

Trump should make clear, as part of an overall policy, that any use of WMD would result in a massive American reaction. But beyond that, his team needs to press behind the scenes for a broader, tougher sanctions regime, involving European and Asian allies. And pressure on Beijing and Moscow to comply with U.N. sanctions should be tough and constant.

The fire and fury episode sends a warning of where Trumps loose tongue could lead. That prospect presents a more immediate danger than does Pyongyang.
Politicians are the biggest problem in America today. The founders understood the beast, the Federal government. They knew the Feds would eventually try and take as much power as it could gain over the people.

In 1912 politicians wanted to reform the corruption and log jams in the Senate. President Wilson was a big proponent of the Seventeenth Amendment which changed the Constitution from Senators being elected by the state legislators to election by the people. He promoted the idea that the people would have a bigger say in government, knowing it would centralize power in Washington, which is what has happened. The states have lost power while Washington has gotten bigger and more powerful and the parties are aligned against each other. When Washington hands out money they want a say in how it is spent. He who has the gold, makes the rules.

Politicians are good about making promises in even years when there is an election, then not delivering in the odd years. They are good at handing out our tax dollars and passing it around. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is crumbling, our inner-cities are in shambles, and education is down the tubes. They are also good at creating crisis then wanting the tax payers to pay for it.

FDR is said to have remarked that welfare "is like a narcotic  it is subtle destroyer of the human spirit." In 1964, President Johnson announced the Great Society which was to help lift millions of poor out of poverty. According to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, in 2014, we had spent about $20 trillion over five decades. Most went to 80 welfare plans  feeding and housing the poor. It did not result in turning tax consumers into tax payers.

The worst results have been higher birth rates for unwed mothers, more fatherless homes, and higher abortion rates particularly in the black communities. Think about it, $20 trillion. Sounds familiar. Had some of this money gone to a better education for the poor, particularly in the inner-cities, a poor kid could then lift him/herself out of poverty- give a fish to a man and feed him for a day  teach him to fish and he can feed himself for life.

When Obama was elected in 2008, the crisis was like the Great Depression. We just had to spend almost a trillion dollars on shovel ready jobs and get the economy going. Only about 48 billion went to infrastructure. There was little gain in the economy and congress continued to raise the debt limit.

Now the politicians have gotten themselves into the health care business. The ACA was designed behind closed doors without Republican input in a 2,700 page bill, that no one seems to have read. Instead of fixing the insurance problem for the 10 to 15 million who reportedly were without insurance- most probably could have gone on Medicaid, the Democrats gave us a mandate that we had to buy insurance based on their plans.

The ACA was designed to fail as the insurance companies cannot compete with the Feds because the Feds do not need to make a profit- they just raise your taxes. Even Obama said in 10 to 15 years, we would have a "single payer" system  read government run- remember the golden rule. They also told us we could keep our doctor, we could keep our health plan, period which was not true for millions of people.

Since this was passed in reconciliation not subject to the 60-vote rule in the Senate, did the Democrats not think the Republicans would want to change it when they returned to power? Government health care means everyone is reduced to the lowest common denominator. Little Charlie in the UK was a perfect example - no chance at a possible treatment, could not even be released to die at home even though the parents had sufficient donations to care for him during his last days. That old golden rule again.

Climate change is the new crisis. When they talk about greenhouse gases, they mean the five main gases resulting from human and animal activity leaving out the larger portion which is water vapor. They never mention the sun, the main driver of climate. No tax money in it. Gov. Brown spouted off recently that if we do not do something right now about climate change, it is the end of the world. He must not have gotten the Chicken Little lesson as a kid.

Governor, if there is any possibility that the end of the world is close due to climate change, then we do not need a high-speed rail system, nor do we need large tunnels under the Delta.

Harry Stover

Napa
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-11 23:52:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VILNIUS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Court of Appeal of Lithuania decided to extradite to the United States Lithuanian suspect Evaldas Rimasauskas, who allegedly conned more than 100 million U.S. dollars out of Facebook and Google by sending fake emails, the court announced on Friday.

"Assumption that the damage was done to the companies registered in the United States became the ground for the extradition of Rimasauskas," the court said in a press release. The decision on Friday is final.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York accused Rimasauskas of wire transfer fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, news agency Elta reported.

It is alleged that Rimasauskas took part in the scam using e-mail correspondence and posed as an Asian computer hardware manufacturer to persuade Google and Facebook to accept fraudulent invoices and transfer funds to the company established under the same name in Latvia. The funds were transferred to the latter company's accounts in banks in Cyprus and Latvia.

The court underlined it has not been assessing the circumstances of the crime and the proof of guilt as it "should trust the information provided by the judicial authority of the country which applied for the extradition."

Rimasauskas is suspected to have conned 23 million US dollars from Google and 100 million US dollars from Facebook.

He was detained in Lithuania on March 16. On April 18, the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania received the US Justice Department's request to extradite the suspect.

Rimasauskas has denied the charges.

Meanwhile, the attorney of Rimasauskas claimed that the investigation of the suspected crime must take place in Lithuania as the allegedly criminal actions were carried out within the country, local website 15min.lt reported.

Lithuania has a bilateral extradition agreement with the United States and this case "meets all the criteria", the chairman of the court underlined.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-11 23:57:51|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- An expert from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) on Friday refuted some online speculation that the Three Gorges Dam could have been related to the 7.0-magnitude quake that hit southwest China's Sichuan Province Tuesday.

The epicenter of the quake was located near three fault zones, where frequent seismic activity makes the area earthquake-prone, according to Chen Houqun, an academician with the CAE.

Chen attributed the quake to the Indochina block's northward movement.

"The Three Gorges Dam and its major reservoirs were built along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which are not in the same geologic structural unit as the fault zones that caused the Jiuzhaigou earthquake," said Chen.

"The dam has no connection with the fault zones that caused the quake in terms of geologic structure," he added.

Chen also refuted the claim that the quake was reservoir-triggered, or a reservoir-induced seismic activity (RIS).

"A lot of research was done before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam to evaluate possibilities of RIS," said Chen. "The dam was built in a geologically stable area."

Of all the existing reservoirs in the world, only four have triggered earthquakes that are above 6.0 in magnitude, according to Chen.

An expert from the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) also clarified matters concerning the frequency of China's earthquakes in an interview with Xinhua.

"It's not rare to see a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in China," said Liu Jie, deputy head of the CENC. "The frequency is twice in three years on average."

It has been 24 months since the last 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck China, and eight months since the last 6.0-magnitude earthquake, according to Liu.

"China is not in a seismically active period currently," Liu told Xinhua.

Two strong earthquakes hit China on Tuesday and Wednesday, with one measuring 7.0 magnitude in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province, and the other measuring 6.6 magnitude in Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang.

The Jiuzhaigou earthquake was fatal, leaving at least 24 people dead and 493 injured.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 00:18:06|Editor: Yurou

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday kept on criticism at his ouster by the country's top court and said he was not allowed to complete his tenure for third time.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Nawaz Sharif for holding any public office on July 28 over corruption charges. However, he dismissed the charges as "politically-motivated" and insisted he had never been involved in corruption.

Nawaz Sharif, who is also chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party, is leading a rally of thousands of supporters up to Lahore, the capital of Punjab, and his party's political base.

He spoke to public gatherings on the main Grand Trunk Road in which he criticized the court verdict to remove him.

"This is very strange that the people elected me for third time as the prime minister but I was removed for the third time last month. This is a joke with the people's mandate," Nawaz Sharif told a big crowd in Gujrat, a main city in Punjab province.

The opposition parties are critical at Sharif's rally and described it as pressure tactics on the courts. They have alleged that government money is being spent on Sharif's political activity, the charges denied by the ruling party.

A five-member bench of the apex court had asked the country's anti-corruption body to initiate cases against Nawaz Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, will contest election on the parliament seat that fell vacant due to the disqualification of her spouse. Kulsoom submitted nomination papers with the officials of the polls body in Lahore on Friday. The election on the National Assembly seat will be held next month.

It was earlier announced that Nawaz Sharif's younger brother Shehbaz Sharif will contest election on Nawaz Sharif's seat to become the next prime minister, however, the PML-N leaders reportedly later changed mind and fielded Kulsoom.

Shehbaz Sharif is the chief minister of Punjab province and the party does not want to disturb the present system in the most populous province, which plays key role in formation of governments in the centre.

Sharif's PML-N party still enjoys support in the parliament and the party senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi replaced Nawaz Sharif after he was elected with a clear majority vote.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 00:23:08|Editor: Yurou

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JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank (NDB) will be launched by the South African President Jacob Zuma on August 17 in Johannesburg.

This was revealed by the National Treasury in a statement on Friday. The African Regional Center will allow countries in the continent to have access to the bank.

"The launch of the African Regional Center will showcase the NDB's service offering, highlighting the Bank's potential role in the area of infrastructure and sustainable development in emerging and developing countries," said the Treasury in the statement.

The NDB is an institution to solve the infrastructural development and funding problems for BRICS and developing countries particularly in Africa. The BRICS Summit in Brazil signed an agreement to establish the bank in 2014.

"Another key resolution taken at the 2014 Summit was to establish regional offices that would perform the important function of identifying and preparing proposals for viable projects that the bank could fund in the respective regions," said the treasury.

The NDB headquarters were officially opened in Shanghai, China in February 2016. The NDB is expected to complement the work done by the Breton Woods institutions but not have strings loans like the latter.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 00:33:15|Editor: Yurou

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LJUBLJANA, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia, Milan Brglez, has set the date of this year's presidential election for Oct. 22.

The five-year term of Slovenia's current President Borut Pahor expires on Dec. 22, according to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA). The next term is for 2017 to 2022.

The parliamentary speaker explained that Oct. 22 was the earliest possible date to hold the election, as that was when procedures related to the Sept. 24 referendum on a rail upgrade project ended.

All presidential candidates must be presented at least 25 days before the election, the STA report quoted Brglez as saying. The new president will be inaugurated on Dec. 22.

Brglez made the official statement at a news conference on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 04:05:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WARSAW, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Eggs potentially contaminated by Fipronil has been detected in Poland, officials said on Friday.

These eggs, which are about 40,000 in total, will be destroyed or returned to a German supplier, said Jan Bondar, a spokesman of Poland's Chief Sanitary Inspectorate.

According to Bondar, the eggs had been detected in three Polish provinces but had not reached customers.

The European Commission said Friday that the Fipronil-contaminated eggs have been found in 15 European Union (EU) countries, including Poland.

Tens of millions of eggs have been withdrawn from shops in several EU countries, and Hundreds of farms have been shut down.

Fipronil is an insecticide, which used to kill ticks and mites, can be used in the European Union for pets but not for food production.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 04:35:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GAZA, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Mahmoud Taha, a man in his mid-20s from the Gaza Strip, is dominated by despair due to the deteriorating conditions in the blockaded territory.

The young man said he would drop out marriage as a life choice given his bad financial situation, adding that he sees no horizon for a better future.

Working 15 hours a day, Taha's daily income is below 20 New Israeli Sheqel (NIS), or about 6 U.S. dollars, which forced him to abandon many aspirations.

He works in a rented small booth selling hot drinks, with the income barely covering his daily needs.

The work is hard and time-consuming, he said, but is the only job available for him, while the minor financial return almost blocks all his ambitions for a good future, as his six-year work has not saved him any money.

"Our good days have passed and the future is dark. I wish I could travel abroad to have a better job and life," he said on the eve of International Youth Day, which falls on Saturday.

Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since Hamas seized the territory by force after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

Poverty has been notably apparent among most of the Palestinians, who have been suffering from the decade-long economic embargo.

In the past eight years, Israel and Hamas rulers of Gaza have been engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis.

The Israeli blockade and wars have forced most of Gaza's populations into poverty, making the resourceless costal enclave one of the poorest areas in the world with an unemployment rate of 42.7 percent.

Official statistics estimate the number of young people in the Gaza Strip at about 542,000 in 2015, among which 275,000 are males and 267,000 females.

Figures also show that 23.6 percent of young Palestinians want to migrate for better living conditions; the figure is 37 percent in the Gaza Strip, and 15.2 percent in the West Bank.

Abdullah Buraidah, a university student from the Gaza Strip, said the idea of migration dominates young people in Gaza, especially college students, who have little hope in finding a job.

Buraidah is in his second year at college, who is supposed to study a summer course. He said he feels "desperate" with no motivation to study, as he is frustrated that there will be no job after graduation.

Figures show that about 18,000 students graduate every year from Gaza universities, more than 100,000 of them jobless.

Moreover, travel is also limited to emergency humanitarian cases, persons over the age of 40, and special coordination procedures, making migration complex and also difficult to the young people.

Israel controls the movement of goods and individuals into and out of the Gaza Strip. The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has been closed most of the time since mid-2013 and operates only in certain times for travel of patients and humanitarian cases.

Mustafa Ibrahim, a Human rights activist, said the situation in Gaza is "catastrophic," and is "affecting the economic, psychological and social conditions of young people who lost hope for better future."
Photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 30, 2017 shows Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), guiding the test fire of a ballistic missile. (Xinhua/KCNA)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, continuing to be concerned over Korean Peninsula rhetoric, said on Friday that it was time to lower tensions after a week of heightening escalation.

"This is clearly a time for all the parties to focus on how to deescalate and lower the tensions," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, told reporters at the UN Headquarters Friday.

Tensions rose quickly over the past week in equally belligerent statements from Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Asked if the secretary-general had spoken "directly to the United States or North Korea," Dujarric only said that "I have no contacts that I am able to share with you at this point."

"I think the secretary-general has spoken out through this podium about his concern about the level of the rhetoric, the escalation of the rhetoric, and the need on how to de-escalate the tension," the spokesman said.

"The roadmap for the role of the United Nations is the Security Council resolution which the secretary-general has welcomed," Dujarric said, referring to the measure unanimously approved last Saturday calling for an end to missile test launches.

"The secretary-general has condemned clearly the various launches of missiles and other things out of the DPRK, but the focus for us needs to be on diplomacy and de-escalation," the spokesman said.
The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft carrying the crew of Paolo Nespoli of Italy, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Randy Bresnik of the U.S. blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan July 28, 2017. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Space Station is expected to get its first supercomputer next week.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) said Friday that it will launch a supercomputer into space on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft next Monday, as part of a joint experiment with the U.S. space agency NASA.

The system, called the Spaceborne Computer, is designed to last for a year, which the company said is roughly the amount of time it will take to travel to Mars.

"A mission to Mars will require sophisticated onboard computing resources that are capable of extended periods of uptime," Alain Andreoil, senior vice president and general manager at HPE's data center infrastructure group, wrote in a blog post.

"To meet these requirements, we need to improve technology's viability in space in order to better ensure mission success. By sending a supercomputer to space, HPE is taking the first step in that direction."

Currently, many of the calculations needed for space research projects are still done on Earth due to the limited computing capabilities in space, according to HPE.

While this approach works for space exploration on the moon or in low Earth orbit, it would take up to 20 minutes for communications to reach Earth and then another 20 minutes for responses to reach astronauts once they travel farther out and closer to Mars, it said.

"Such a long communication lag would make any on-the-ground exploration challenging and potentially dangerous if astronauts are met with any mission critical scenarios that they're not able to solve themselves," Andreoil said.

The HPE Spaceborne Computer is based on the so-called Apollo 40 class systems, running an open-source Linux operating system, with a unique water-cooled enclosure, but has no hardware modifications, according to the company.

Generally, in order for NASA to approve computers for space, the equipment needs to be "ruggedized," or hardened to withstand the conditions in space, Andreoil explained.

"This physical hardening takes time, money and adds weight, so HPE took a different approach to 'harden' the systems with software," Andreoil said.

"HPE's system software will manage real time throttling of the computer systems based on current conditions and can mitigate environmentally induced errors," he said.

"Even without traditional ruggedizing, the system still passed at least 146 safety tests and certifications in order to be NASA-approved for space."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 07:07:40|Editor: Yurou

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Los Angeles-based businessman manufacturing bomb shelters said Friday that the demand keeps growing as fears have intensified amid the exchange of fierce rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s military said in a statement Thursday that it had a plan to strike Guam with intermediate missiles, as a response to U.S. President Donald Trump's stern warning on Tuesday in which he said "North Korea (DPRK) best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

It is not only Guams, a U.S. island territory in the Western Pacific, but also people living in the West Coast of the United States, felt concerned, Ron Hubbard, president of Atlas Survival Shelters, told Xinhua in an interview.

"There is a lot of (people) interest to it because of the threat, this business is wired, if not very good, it will be very bad, usually is very bad, but this week is very good, because of Donald Trump and North Korea (DPRK)," he said.

He said he started the business in 2010 and had seen spikes in business in the past when there were rumours about the world ending in 2012 and when ISIS came to power, but never anything like this period as thousands people showed their interests in the products.

The bankers, sold on price from 10,000 to 100,000 U.S. dollars, are designed to be buried 20 feet underground in backyard, and people can live in them comfortably up to one year with equipped solar power panel after a nuclear bomb attack.

Meanwhile, the company has also produced smaller shelters for tornado, which can be made in 6 to 7 hours but has a much bigger market in U.S.

Hubbard said there are orders from Japan for the bomb banker, but never received any demand from South Korea.

"If there is more threat, more danger of nuclear war, maybe we can find more demands," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 07:35:45|Editor: Yamei

Brothers walk near a rubble of their house destroyed in past airstrikes carried out by the war-planes Saudi-led coalitions in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 11, 2017. The recent United Nations' report said that a total of 200 children in Yemen have been killed in the ongoing civil war since the beginning of 2017. A top United Nations official in Yemen said on Monday that a total of 201 children have been killed including 152 boys and 49 girls, in the Yemeni ongoing civil war since the beginning of 2017. The war started in March 2015, after Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict by launching a large-scale air campaign to back internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces, leaving more than 10,000 people killed, mostly civilians, and also displaced more than 3 million. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 10:53:46|Editor: Mengjie

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HAVANA, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from China and Cuba's silk industry gathered here on Friday to discuss ways to expand silk production in the Caribbean country and explore a new area of bilateral growth.

The seminar sponsored in Havana by the Center for Foreign Economic Cooperation (CCEE) of the Ministry of Agriculture of China offered guidance on improving the production and industrialization of silk in Cuba.

"This is not only a training project, but also contributes to China-Cuba cooperation. We hope this course can become a platform where we can share information, attract business investment and increase exchanges," said Li Bin, representative of the CCEE.

The day included conferences, visits to production sites and workshops where participants learned new techniques in silk development.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Cuba has a five-year sericulture, or silk farming program, and seeks to expand not only its knowledge of the sector but also attract Chinese investment.

Cuba is adopting sericulture as a sustainable alternative to support the development of its biomedical, biotechnological, cosmetic and textile industries, expecting it to increase incomes and jobs.

"Our courses here cover the whole process, from cultivating silkworms to producing silk, to silk cocoon processing, dying, weaving and even include the medical use of silk fiber," Wei Kai, a professor from the Soochow University located in Suzhou City, eastern China.

Wei and three other Chinese experts on the subject will provide training to more than 20 Cuban officials.

"China has been cooperating with Cuba for five years now and there is a small sericulture experimental field in operation. Our courses here are intended to introduce all relevant technology and products in the sericulture downstream industrial chain to Cuban researchers," he told Xinhua.

Luo Zhanyong, chairman of Guangdong SILDA Silk Co., said that this exchange will allow China and Cuba to expand cooperation in this sector.

"We hope to take the technological and industrial system of silk production beyond China. Cuba's silk sector has just started and we hope to have a development opportunity in Cuba via this industry," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 11:33:57|Editor: Yamei

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) will convene an "extraordinary meeting" on Aug. 14 attended by ambassadors of member states due to the situation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the EU's diplomatic service announced Friday.

EU Foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will chair the extraordinary meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC), in a bid to thrash out the bloc's possible next steps on the situation in the DPRK, the European External Action Service said in a brief statement.

Mogherini, after meeting her international counterparts in the margins of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, capital of the Philippines, has decided to call the extraordinary meeting, said the statement.

Mogherini's decision came one day after the Council of the EU broadened a sanction list targeting the DPRK in response to the northeast Asian country's recent test-launch of ballistic missiles.

Following the Council's decision, the blacklist now includes 62 persons and 50 entities subject to an asset freeze and travel restrictions in the EU.

The EU has long trumpeted that its sanctions against the DPRK are "among the most restrictive in operation," nonetheless, the bloc insisted on solving the Korean Peninsula issue through peaceful means.

Mogherini's decision to convene the meeting came amid a scalding war of words between the DPRK and the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

"If North Korea (DPRK) does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us... they should be very nervous," Trump said on Thursday. "Because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."

The DPRK military has said that its plan to strike Guam with intermediate missiles will be ready by mid-August, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

On Tuesday, Trump issued a controversial warning to the DPRK, saying that threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Days before the war of words, the United Nations Security Council, in an exceptional session on Saturday, unanimously adopted the Resolution 2371 to impose new sanctions on the DPRK for ignoring previous resolutions and its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

China on Friday called on the United States and the DPRK to refrain from their tired approach of flaunting power and raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 12:19:14|Editor: Yamei

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Amazon's tiny tax bill in contrast to its huge European revenues sparked outrage among industry peers, who called for an end to the "deeply unfair" tax system.

The online retail giant paid just 16.5 million euros (19.5 million U.S. dollars) in tax on European revenues of 21.6 billion euors (25.5 billion dollars) reported through Luxembourg in 2016, the Guardian reported Thursday, citing the company's latest annual accounts for its European online retail business.

Amazon U.K. services, the company's warehouse and logistics operation, more than halved its U.K. corporation tax bill from 15.8 million British pounds (20.4 million dollars) to 7.4 million pounds (9.6 million dollars) year-on-year in 2016, whereas turnover at the U.K. business rose to almost 1.5 billion pounds (1.9 billion dollars) in 2016, reported the Guardian.

Amazon's controversial tax bill caused a widespread outcry amont local bricks-and-mortar bookstores which found it increasingly hard to compete against the e-commerce giant.

"This deeply unfair system must end," the Booksellers Association's head of corporate affairs Giles Clifton told the Guardian. "It is simply wrong that the current system is so heavily weighted against bricks-and-mortar retailers."

"Despite some action by ministers and companies, widespread corporate tax avoidance continues to cost both rich and poor countries billions every year that could pay for schools and lifesaving healthcare," Ana Arendar, Oxfam's head of inequality, told the Guardian.

Oxfam called for the British government to implement comprehensive reporting for multinationals to ensure they pay a fair share of tax.

In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for Amazon told the Guardian that Amazon pays "all the taxes that are required in every country" where it operates.

"We've invested over 20 billion euros (23.6 billion dollars) in Europe since 2010, and expect to hire 15,000 new employees this year, bringing our total permanent European workforce to over 65,000 people," the spokesperson added.

Amazon runs a very successful business with a market cap of 465 billion dollars, almost double the market value of U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart.

Late last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos claimed the crown of the world's richest man with a net worth of roughly 90 billion dollars, briefly kicking Microsoft founder Bill Gates out of the top spot on the Forbes' Real Time Billionaires List.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 12:39:21|Editor: Yamei

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BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese securities watchdog has announced punishments for a market manipulation case.

Que Wenbin, the controlling shareholder of pharmaceutical firm Hengkang Medical Group Co., Ltd., conspired with an asset management company to drive up Hengkang shares and reduce his holdings at high prices, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement.

The CSRC found Que took advantage of his position to manipulate Hengkang's information disclosure by controlling the timing of good news, exaggerating its R&D capacity and hiding unfavorable messages, which misled investors and affected the prices.

Apart from the illegal gains confiscated, Que was fined another 3 million yuan (more than 400,000 U.S. dollars).

Que's accomplice, Xie Fenghua of Diecai Asset Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. received a lifetime ban in the equity market and was fined 600,000 yuan. Diecai had to forfeit 48.58 million yuan of gains and received a penalty of 97.16 million yuan.

In another case, the CSRC punished individuals involved in insider trading related to Ningbo Orient Wires & Cables Co., Ltd.

The CSRC has been toughening supervision and punishment of illegal market activities this year. In the first half of 2017, the CSRC has given out fines totaling 6.36 billion yuan, up 149 percent year on year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:14:35|Editor: Yurou

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump told the Guam governor that "You are safe. We are with you 1,000 percent" via phone on Friday.

A video clips posted by the Guam News on its official Twitter account showed Governor Eddie Calvo talking with Trump with a cell-phone in his office. He switched the call to speaker phone to enable viewers could hear the conversation clearly.

"I just wanted to pay my respects and we are with you one thousand percent, you are safe. We are with you 1,000 percent. I wanted to call you and say hello, how are you?" Trump said.

"Mr President, as the governor of Guam, representative of Guam's people, and as an American citizen, I felt never more safe and so confident with you at the helm," the governor said with a smile.

"Don't worry about a thing," Trump said. "I have to say, Eddie, you're going to become extremely famous. All over the world they're talking about Guam and they're talking about you."

The clips lasts about 45 seconds.

Tensions between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States escalated this week amid increasingly heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.

DPRK's military said in a statement on Thursday that it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike Guam, a U.S. island territory in the Western Pacific, with intermediate missiles.

It was a response to Trump's unusually stern warning to the DPRK on Tuesday, when he said "North Korea (DPRK) best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Trump furthered the rhetoric on Friday, saying that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:19:40|Editor: Mengjie

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The bilateral trade imbalances between the United States and China can be solved through more trade and investment rather than trade war, said the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in a report released this week.

America's trade deficit is more of a political issue than an economic concern, with the IIF saying the U.S. trade deficit has not deteriorated in the past decade.

From 2006 to 2016, the U.S. deficit of goods trade decreased from 837 billion U.S. dollars to 753 billion a year, or from 6 percent to 4 percent of its GDP. Considering its surplus in service trade, America's total trade deficit was only 2.7 percent of GDP in 2016, according to the report by the Washington D.C.-based think tank.

"The manageable trade deficit and low unemployment rate (4.3 percent) do not support the protectionist inclination of Washington policy," said Gene Ma, chief China economist at IIF.

Although China accounted for about half of America's trade deficit in 2016, the trade picture looked quite different from China's perspective. From 2007 to 2016, China's current account surplus dropped from 10 percent to 1.9 percent of its GDP, and China's trade surplus dropped from 8.7 percent to 2.2 percent.

"China's goods surplus with the U.S., though growing in an absolute level, has become smaller relative to its total surplus and GDP," the report said.

The United States has benefitted a lot from its economic ties with China. From 2001 to 2016, U.S. imports from China increased 3.5 times while U.S. exports to China increased by almost 6 times, according to the report.

In the service sector, America's surplus with China has been ballooning. In the past decade, U.S. service exports to China increased 5 times and the service surplus increased to 57 billion dollars in 2016, 40 times of that in 2006.

"A trade war between U.S. and China will hurt not only Chinese manufacturers, but also upstream suppliers and downstream distributors such as U.S. retailers," warned the report.

The IIF recommended that the two countries further explore their comparative advantages and new opportunities for trade and investment to solve their trade imbalances.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:24:43|Editor: Yurou

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The local government in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh has set up a committee to ascertain the lapses that have caused the deaths of 60 children at a medical college hospital, officials said Saturday.

According to the government, 60 deaths have taken place in the hospital during past five days.

The inquiry was ordered Friday night after local media reports quoting hospital authorities said 30 children died in the hospital due to lack of oxygen cylinders.

Meanwhile, the local government denied deaths of the children due to lack of oxygen cylinders in the hospital.

Health Minister of the local government Sidharth Nath Singh said in a statement that 60 children have died in the hospital since Aug. 7 due to different diseases but not because of lack of oxygen cylinders.

"District magistrate of Gorakhpur has also initiated a magisterial probe to find exact reasons of children death," a government spokesman said. "The district magistrate is camping there to look into the matter."

Opposition leader and former Chief Minister of the state Akhilesh Yadav termed the incident as unfortunate and held the local government responsible for the deaths.

The ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is governing Uttar Pradesh.

India's main opposition Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi have expressed deep shock over the deaths.

"My thoughts are with the families of the victims. The BJP government is responsible and should punish the negligent who caused this tragedy," Rahul Gandhi said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:39:46|Editor: Mengjie

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by Zhang Dailei

EDINBURGH, Aug.12 (Xinhua) -- The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is looking to invite Chinese performers next year, and plans to take its show to China in 2020, its producer David Allfrey has said.

His team is currently in talks to bring some 300 young Chinese performers to the 69th Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo next year, Allfrey said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Allfrey was appointed the chief executive and producer of the event in 2011, which takes place each August as part of the Edinburgh Festival. The 57-year-old producer has delivered seven consecutive Tattoos in Edinburgh and brought the show overseas to Australia and New Zealand.

He said as the theme of 2018 Edinburgh Tattoo is "The Sky is the Limit," with a focus on young people.

"We hope, if all goes well, for a very big act from schools in Beijing," he said, "I have even asked them to call the title Winds and Dragons."

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual event performed by British, Commonwealth and international military bands and artistic performance teams on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the capital of Scotland. The first Edinburgh Tattoo took place in 1950.

Since 1952, military and civil performers from 48 countries and regions have travelled to Edinburgh to join the Tattoo show, which attracts more than 200,000 visitors each year, including from overseas.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) band from China attended the Tattoo in 2004 and 2015, while a show from China's Zhejiang Province was also presented in 2015.

Allfrey said: "I do hope the PLA band could also come next year so we can enjoy both the military band and children's show from China."

He hoped his team, which will travel to China this October for more meetings and discussions on the agenda, could bring to Edinburgh about 300 young Chinese students next year.

He noted if his team could bring the Tattoo to China in 2020, as planned, it will be a great co-production.

"We will work with Chinese producers," he said, "it's not just us doing the event. Because China has the finest producers of large-scale events, anywhere in the world. You are amazing at these events and you are very good at it."

If the co-production is realized, it will be the fifth overseas tour in Edinburgh Tattoo's history.

"If it goes to China, we want to do it in three cities: Beijing , Shanghai and Guangzhou," he told Xinhua.

Military Tattoo takes its name from the cry of inn-keepers in Belgium and the Netherlands over 300 years ago, when they ordered "Doe den tap toe" (turn off the bear taps) as the fifes and drums of the local regiments marched through the streets signalling the soldiers to return to the barracks.

From its early days, the event has been an international favorite and has attracted more than 14 million visitors over 67 years.

The 2017 Tattoo, taking place on Aug. 4-28, is called Splash of Tartan, with performers from India, France, Japan, the United States and Canada.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:49:57|Editor: Yurou

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member states have expressed commitment to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Issuing a Kathmandu declaration after the 15th ministerial meeting in Kathmandu on Friday, the BIMSTEC member states said: "We note with great concern of the increasing threat to our planet and livelihoods of the people from climate change and agree to combat the same at local, national and regional levels. We also commit to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change."

The meeting welcomed the offer of the government of Bangladesh to convene the BIMSTEC experts' workshop on climate change in 2017.

The 15th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting was convened in Kathmandu, Nepal on Aug. 10-11.

BIMSTEC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

"We recall the 1997 Bangkok Declaration establishing BIMSTEC and agree to intensify our collaborative efforts to realize the aims and purposes of BIMSTEC embodied therein and pledge to make BIMSTEC stronger, more effective and result oriented," read the joint declaration.

The BIMSTEC member states have emphasized the need for greater cooperation in trade and investment in order to deepen regional integration in the Bay of Bengal region.

"We recognize the paramount importance of early conclusion of BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and direct the Trade Negotiating Committee and Working Groups to expedite the finalization of its constituent Agreements," the declaration said.

"The meeting stressed on the need to expedite the negotiations on the Agreements on Services and Investment to augment economic cooperation in the BIMSTEC region," Nepali Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who chaired the session, told the media.

The BIMSTEC member states also underscored the importance of trade facilitation in our region and urge authorities for early finalization of the BIMSTEC Trade Facilitation Agreement.

During the meeting, BIMSTEC countries underlined the necessity of early finalization of the BIMSTEC Agreement on Mutual Assistance on Customs Matters.

In the field of energy, the meeting decided to conclude the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Establishment of the BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection at the earliest possible.

"We recognize the high potentials of energy sources in the region, particularly renewable and clean energy sources and agree to expedite our efforts to develop a comprehensive plan for energy cooperation within the region. We agree to explore the possibilities of promoting energy trade in the region," the Nepali foreign minister said.

According to Mahara, the government of Nepal will be hosting the third BIMSTEC Energy Ministers' Meeting in early 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:49:59|Editor: Yurou

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- In the lead-up to International Youth Day on Aug. 12, the United Nations (UN) kicked off a commemorative event at its New York headquarters Friday with a message from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres underscoring his commitment to young people.

"I'm truly happy to address you on International Youth Day," Guterres said in a video message. "As secretary-general of the United Nations, I am committed to the empowerment and inclusion of every young person around the world," he added.

"In this spirit, I have appointed an impressive new Youth Envoy," he said, introducing 26-year-old Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka as the youngest and "one of the most important" members of his team.

"Governments must work with young people to successfully achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Empowered young men and women can play a critical role in preventing conflicts and ensuring sustainable peace," the UN chief added.

After the youth envoy invited everyone to join in mobilizing young people, Guterres said, "Together, we can create a peaceful world for generations to come."

Against the backdrop that many of the world's 1.2 billion young people are affected by the hardship of conflict and war, the 2017 edition of the International Youth Day will be celebrated under the theme "Youth Building Peace."

Considering matters of youth, peace and security from a social developmental perspective, this year the day recognizes that more societies around the world are recognizing the role of youth as agents of change and critical actors in preventing conflict and building peace.

Organized by the UN Division for Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Inter-agency Network on Youth Development, Friday's event drew together experts from youth organizations, government and the UN to explore the various ways in which young people are contributing to building and sustaining peace.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, on her first official trip, the secretary-general's new youth envoy is carrying out dialogue with young people and meeting with UN officials.

In December 1999, the UN General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that Aug. 12 be declared International Youth Day.

International Youth Day 2017 is dedicated to celebrating young people's contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 13:55:02|Editor: Yurou

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VIENTIANE/PHNOM PENH, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced Saturday that the Lao government would withdraw all soldiers from Cambodian territory by Sunday morning.

"Today, we had a frank and friendly discussion... and I have ordered all relevant authorities to withdraw all troops from those areas not later than tomorrow morning," Sisoulith told a joint press conference here after an urgent meeting with Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen.

His announcement of troop pullout was made after Hun Sen said Friday that about 30 Laos soldiers have encroached on Cambodian territory in the areas of O Alay and O Ta Ngav in Stung Treng province bordering Laos' Attapeu province since April and issued a six-day ultimatum to the invading Lao forces to leave Cambodia, or military action will be taken against them.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 14:55:16|Editor: Mengjie

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JIUZHAIGOU, Sichuan, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- In a mountainous village shaken by Tuesday's earthquake, Zhang Chao hands out tents to locals who must camp out on the open ground.

The 7.0-magnitude quake struck Jiuzhaigou County in southwest China's Sichuan Province Tuesday night, leaving 24 dead and hundreds injured.

Zhangzha Village, in the town of the same name, is close to the epicenter. It has about 1,000 residents.

"We purchased a lot of tents overnight following the earthquake and transported them here on Thursday morning," said Zhang, with Amity Foundation, a Jiangsu-based non-government organization.

He joined government relief workers and other volunteers to attend to the needs of the locals.

Zhang said his colleagues will stay on for about a month.

You Zhongta, 40, is a villager in Zhangzha. Before the quake struck, he ran a guest house with 28 rooms, which were full every day since the summer holiday began.

Most of the local residents depend on tourism.

Jiuzhaigou is home to the country's prime national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its spectacular waterfalls, pristine plateau lakes and karst formations.

As accommodation is not allowed within the site, tourists typically choose to stay in nearby villages, creating business opportunities for the locals.

"The quake basically damaged all houses in the village, and we had no choice but to camp outside on the mountains," You said.

While rescue workers evacuated tens of thousands of tourists, the residents who suffered the biggest losses were not forgotten.

The government organized locals to evacuate damaged homes for fear of aftershocks.

Relief materials including tents, quilts, purified water, instant noodles, rice and sausages soon came.

"Electricity has not yet been restored and water is still in short supply," Suo Langman, 35, said. "But I have confidence in the government, and I believe they will get us out of trouble very soon."

In Zhangzha Village, Hu Yushu was busy cooking noodles and giving out free drinks to rescue workers and residents whose houses were damaged in the natural disaster.

Hu, 46, operates a supermarket in the village. The supermarket also suffered damage in the quake.

"I want to do something to help the rescue workers and local villagers," Hu said.

Ge Daofeng's noodle shop was destroyed by the quake too.

"The quake caused me a direct economic loss of about 6 million yuan," he said. Despite the financial losses, he donated 10 boxes of purified water, 30 boxes of rice and 10 boxes of instant noodles to local residents.

"It may take a year or two for the village to recover," Ge said. "But I believe that with the help of the government and the Party, we will make it."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 15:10:24|Editor: ying

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CANBERRA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has discussed national security and drug problem at a Liberal Party forum in Adelaide on Saturday, declaring that keeping Australians safe was the government's No. 1 priority.

Addressing the Liberal Party's Annual General Meeting at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Saturday, Turnbull said that Australia's intelligence agencies were constantly working to improve the safety of public areas in response to the growing threat of global terrorism.

"We have no place for 'set and forget' in national security. No place for complacency. No place for anyone to rest of the laurels of a success," Turnbull said on Saturday.

"Constantly... every day, every hour, we are asking ourselves 'how can we keep Australians safe? How can we do it better, how can we optimize and improve everything we do?'"

The prime minister also touched on the nation's growing drug problem, declaring that methamphetamine, commonly known as "ice," was a "shocking, miserable menace" that his government was doing everything it could to keep it off the streets.

"The scourge of methamphetamine use in Australia is a problem we are determined to eradicate," Turnbull said.

"Proportionally, Australia uses more ice than almost any other country. Conservative estimates suggest that there are well over 200,000 ice users in Australia."

"The drug destroys families, breeds violence and creates a circle of grief that ruins communities and you can rest assured that we are targeting this shocking, miserable menace from every angle," Turnbull added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 15:10:26|Editor: ying

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VIENTIANE/PHNOM PENH, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced on Saturday that the Lao government will withdraw all soldiers from Cambodian territory by Sunday morning.

"Today, we had a frank and friendly discussion... and I have ordered all relevant authorities to withdraw all troops from those areas not later than tomorrow morning," Sisoulith told a joint press conference here after an urgent meeting with Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen.

His announcement of troop pullout was made after Hun Sen said on Friday that about 30 Laos soldiers have encroached on Cambodian territory in the areas of O Alay and O Ta Ngav in Stung Treng province bordering Laos' Attapeu province since April and issued a six-day ultimatum to the invading Laos forces to leave Cambodia, or military action will be taken against them.

Hun Sen said the Laos soldiers had invaded Cambodian territory under the pretext of preventing Cambodia from constructing a road along the border.

Speaking at the joint press conference, Hun Sen praised Sisoulith's decision to pull out troops from Cambodian territory, saying that the decision had eased tensions between troops of the two countries.

"The big success for us - our two nations - is that we don't have any dispute that we cannot settle, this urgent meeting allows us to settle the issue together for the benefits of the people of the two countries," he said.

Hun Sen said that on Friday he ordered Cambodian troops to be sent to the border area in northern Stung Treng province, and after the fruitful talks with Sisoulith, he decided to order all troops to return to their barracks.

The construction of the road has been halted under the order of Hun Sen to maintain niceties with Laos.

"Again, I thank His Excellency Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith for creating a win-win situation for the people of our two countries," he said, adding that the Cambodia-Laos joint border committee would continue to work together to solve remaining issues.

Cambodia shares about 540 km of border with Laos to the north and northeast. To date, the two neighbors have completed 86 percent of the border demarcation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 15:20:30|Editor: ying

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HAVANA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Recent threats made by U.S. President Donald Trump about a "possible military option" in Venezuela constitute a "serious aggression" to Latin America and the Caribbean, a Cuban professor said here on Saturday.

Luis Suarez, a Cuban professor on international relations, reckons this direct threat as an explicit violation of the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a peace zone, signed in Havana in 2014 by all presidents of the region during the annual summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

"Part of the essential content of the declaration is that all countries reject not only military aggression but also any threats to use force as part of the mechanism of relations between nations of the hemisphere," he told Xinhua.

Trump said on Friday, "We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary."

His remarks came amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas over Venezuela's controversial Constituent National Assembly (ANC) formed after an election late last month.

The United States has imposed a series of sanctions on Venezuelan individuals involved in the ANC, including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to support the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), which boycotted the July 30 election as it claimed the ANC would only consolidate the power of the ruling party.

Suarez said the new escalation of Trump's remarks is a "direct aggression" to the peace and independence of Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to Suarez, the U.S. military option in Venezuela could be carried out under the pretext of a "humanitarian intervention."

"What Trump said somehow opens up all the options that have been assessed by Washington regarding Venezuela," Suarez said.

Suarez said Trump's words are part of a "plan" carried out in the last few months to topple the Venezuelan leader and "implode" the nation with severe food and medicine shortages.

The expert said Washington has been trying to "legitimize" its policy of aggression against Caracas in the last few weeks to justify a possible military intervention.

"This U.S. administration has a deep inclination to militarism and that simply has to be denounced," he said.

In this context, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence heads to four Latin American countries, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama in the next few days.

"The U.S. vice president specifically visits four of the governments that have been very active throughout this operation of aggression and pressure against Venezuela," said Suarez.
COLLECTIVE MADNESS



Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 17:36:31|Editor: ZD

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian woman stabbed and slightly injured an Israeli man Saturday near East Jerusalem's Old City before she was caught and arrested by the police.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the assailant arrived at a stop of the light rail outside Damascus Gate and stabbed a person who was standing there.

"A police and the Border Police force that was guarding the area identified the incident, and responded promptly by taking over the terrorist," Samri said.

The suspect was arrested and taken into custody without being shot, Samri added.

Israel's emergency medical service said the man sustained light injuries and needed hospital care.

The incident was the latest in a wave of violence that has claimed the lives of at least 293 Palestinians, 48 Jewish Israelis, two U.S. nationals, a British tourist, and two African asylum seekers since September 2015.

Israel accuses the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest. The Palestinians say it is the result of 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to more than five million Palestinians.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 17:41:32|Editor: An



Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith (R) and his visiting Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen attend a joint press conference in Vientiane, Laos, on Aug. 12, 2017. Thongloun Sisoulith and Hun Sen agreed on Saturday to withdraw their countries' troops from the disputed border area between Attapu of Laos and Stung Treng of Cambodia. (Xinhua/Soukthavy)

VIENTIANE/PHNOM PENH, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and his visiting Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen agreed here on Saturday to withdraw their troops from disputed border area between Attapu of Laos and Stung Treng of Cambodia.

"Today, we had frank talks in a friendly manner," the Lao state-run news agency KPL quoted Prime Minister Thongloun as telling a joint press conference in the Lao capital of Vientiane.

"In order to restrain the situation in that area from being intensified and consequently developing into military confrontations, I and Prime Minister Hun Sen have agreed that the Lao side will withdraw the remaining troops that have been left there since Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the stoppage of building an access road in that area," the Lao prime minister said.

"I have ordered all relevant forces to withdraw not later than tomorrow morning. Secondly, Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the troops that have been built up in that area to make the situation in that area return to normalcy, restoring the belief of the people of our two countries that no undesirable incidents will happen," he added.

Thongloun said that he and Prime Minister Hun Sen also agreed that border committees of the two countries and the Foreign Ministries would continue to have talks to find solutions to issues related to the border, where border markers have yet to be planted, as soon as possible.

Speaking at the joint press conference, Hun Sen praised Sisoulith's decision to pull out troops from Cambodian territory, saying that the decision had eased tensions between troops of the two countries.

"The big success for us - our two nations - is that we don't have any dispute that we cannot settle. This urgent meeting allows us to settle the issue together for the benefits of the people of the two countries," he said.

Hun Sen said that on Friday he ordered Cambodian troops to be sent to the border area in northern Stung Treng province, and after the fruitful talks with Sisoulith, he decided to order all troops to return to their barracks.

The construction of the road has been halted under the order of Hun Sen to maintain niceties with Laos.

"Again, I thank His Excellency Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith for creating a win-win situation for the people of our two countries," he said, adding that the Cambodia--Laos joint border committee would continue to work together to solve remaining issues.

Before kicking off his visit to Vientiane on Saturday, Hun Sen said on Friday that about 30 Laos soldiers have "encroached on Cambodian territory" in the areas of O Alay and O Ta Ngav in Stung Treng province bordering Laos' Attapeu province, 380 km north of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and 570 km southeast of Vientiane, since April and issued a six-day ultimatum to the invading Laos forces to leave Cambodia, or military action will be taken against them.

Hun Sen said the Lao soldiers had "invaded Cambodian territory under the pretext of preventing Cambodia from constructing a road" along the border.

Cambodia shares about 540 km of border with Laos to the north and northeast. To date, the two neighbors have completed 86 percent of the border demarcation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:01:39|Editor: ZD

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's textile and Garment sector export revenue during the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2016/17 that ended on July 8, only achieved a third of planned revenue.

The East African country earned 89.3 million US dollars out of a planned 271 million US dollars during the Fiscal Year.

Speaking to Xinhua on Saturday, Assefa Tesfaye, Corporate Communications Director at Ethiopia Ministry of Industry (MoI) says insufficient supply of manufacturing inputs, delay in commissioning of several industries contributed to the underachievement.

Ethiopia is building or has commissioned more than a dozen industrial parks across the country with a view to become a light manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025 especially in textile and garments.

It in particular had its ambitions set on the Hawassa Industrial Park, 275 kms south of Addis Ababa to revolutionize its budding textile and garment sector.

However, the ministry said a lag in commissioning of some textile and garment plants in the Hawassa Industrial Park contributed to the disappointing export result of the sector.

Built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, Hawassa Industrial park was inaugurated in July 2016, with already 18 companies having started operations inside the industrial park.

Six of them are currently exporting their textile and garment products to the global market.

Once operational at its full potential, the park is expected to generate 1 billion US dollars for Ethiopia mainly from textile and garment products.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:06:42|Editor: ZD

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VANCOUVER, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would be tough and unpredictable, a Canadian senator warned Friday.

"I think we should brace ourselves for a tough negotiation. We should brace ourselves for unforeseen circumstances that could take the negotiations in an unexpected direction, and that's why we have to be as prepared as we possibly can to look out for all of these eventualities." Yuen Pau Woo, who was appointed as an independent to the Canadian Senate last year, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

The NAFTA talks scheduled from Aug. 16 to Aug. 20 takes place in Washington D.C., where the trilateral pact between Canada, Mexico and the United States will be reopened at the demands of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The 1994 agreement created what used to be the world's largest free trade area, removed barriers against the passing of goods and workers throughout the three nations, and set up an independent trade dispute-settlement process.

However, Trump called NAFTA the worst trade deal of all time during his presidential campaign, and blasted it for reducing American productivity and sending away well-paying jobs.

"I don't want to get into the mind of Donald Trump, but his motivation is not dissimilar to the underlying problem that's facing many Western industrialized countries," Woo said.

"There is a large group of citizens in most, if not all, western industrialized countries that have seen their wages and employment and general welfare stagnate over the years, despite economic growth for the economy as a whole." Woo noted.

The Canadian government has been quiet about its objectives and strategies in advance of next week's talks, and observers like Woo can only speculate about what the first round has in store.

"Negotiations involve tradeoffs, so there will have to be some give on the part of Canada, which translates into more barriers ... or concessions that will have ... perhaps negative impacts on the Canadian economy," he said. "But by the same token, we will be asking for concessions from the Americans and from the Mexicans as well."

Woo pointed out that Canadians need to expect the unexpected. Political bluster coming from Trump could impact the talks, depending on how directly involved the president becomes in them.

"If it's left to the negotiators, I think there is a relatively sophisticated understanding of the mutual benefits of trade," he said. "They of course have to answer to the platform and the demands of the president that were articulated during the campaign, so there will be a toughness in the American position."

Trump and his supporters reflect an anger with NAFTA, and that means Canada has to look elsewhere for trading opportunities, Woo noted.

"That surely has to mean more trade, more investment, more economic exchanges with Asian countries," he added.

That said, the United States remain Canada's most important trading partner by far. Bilateral trade in goods between the two countries surpassed 544 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, according to U.S. census figures.

"We shouldn't throw up our hands in despair and give up on the relationship. Nobody is saying that," Woo said. "We should put the utmost attention to negotiating the best possible deal, explaining to the Americans why the NAFTA agreement, and even further opening of markets, is good for them, as well as good for us."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:16:46|Editor: ZD

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BANGKOK, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed in an oil tanker fire in eastern Thailand's Rayong province on Saturday, local media reported.

The accident happened at about 1 p.m. local time (0600 GMT) when an oil tanker crashed into a motorcycle after one of its tyres burst. The tanker then veered off the road and overturned, which resulted in a big explosion, local reports said.

According to a footage posed by Sanook News, the two vehicles were engulfed by the fire, with flames and black smoke billowing from the road.

Police confirmed that two were killed at the scene.

Witnesses saw the oil tanker driver and his helper trying to climb out of a window but the tanker burst into flames before they could escape, according to local media.

A rescue team has rushed to the spot, where there has been a gridlock after the explosion.

Police have not identified the victims. The accident is under investigation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:16:50|Editor: ZD

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MAPUTO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican police confirmed Friday night that seven suspected criminals were killed in a gun-fire exchange in the Maputo suburb of Matola just as they were about to commit crime.

"The criminals were heavily armed. The police was following them and tried to neutralize them when they opened fire against the police. We confirm that seven of them were shot dead at scene," said Police Spokesperson Juarte Martins.

The incident, which took place in one of the busiest roads linking the two cities, paralyzed traffic for hours.

"I saw it happening. I was in my car. On my count I saw six dead bodies, but I am told the other one was in the car," a witness said.

Police are still chasing the remaining gang members involved in criminal operations in Matola, where they were about to start one more operation before police intervened.

"That is a large gang. They are widely known as the cutlass group. They normally move around in groups of eight to nine, some carrying weapons and others carrying knives, cutlass and tools to breakdown doors and attack their victims," said Martins.

The public has been told to inform police of any suspects asking for help to treat wounds likely caused by the Friday gun-fire exchange.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:26:55|Editor: ying

NEW DELHI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah Saturday invited Chief Minister of the eastern state of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, to join the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Shah said that he met the chief minister, also the head of Bihar's regional Janata Dal (United) party, on Friday and extended him the offer in the wake of the two parties' recent alliance government in the state.

"I met JD(U) president Nitish Kumar at my residence yesterday. I invited JD(U) to join the NDA," the BJP chief tweeted.

If Kumar joins the NDA, then some of his party's lawmakers could get cabinet berths in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

"Kumar will take a call on joining the country's ruling alliance this month itself," a senior party leader said.

Kumar pulled out of the opposition Congress-party led United Progressive Alliance and formed a coalition government with the BJP in Bihar, following corruption allegations on his then Deputy Chief Minister, who belonged to former ally Rashtriya Janata Dal.

"NDA will also be stronger with Kumar's party joining it," a BJP leader said.
Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong (fourth from right) attends the Ghana MNSR with Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Full Power Operation Ceremony in Accra, capital of Ghana on Aug. 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Justice Adoboe)

ACCRA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) has completed the conversion of Ghana's Nuclear Reactor from a Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) reactor to a Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) one.

At a ceremony to celebrate the completion of work here Thursday, China's Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong noted that this project had opened a new window in the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

In response to the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) by the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supported the conversion of Ghana's HEU plant installed in 1994.

"This is another achievement we have chalked in our bilateral cooperation," Sun noted during the inspection of the facility.

She added:" It is a good day because it is the start of another opportunity in our cooperation. China and Ghana are longstanding friends and we have carried out a lot of cooperation in all fronts and nuclear energy; we have carried out cooperation for 25 years."

She noted that Ghana was ahead of many other African countries in the field of nuclear energy, adding that the program is very significant in various respects.

"This program is very significant to the global non-proliferation undertaking. It is also significant to enrich our cooperation in science and technology. And it is also very important for the further steps of Ghana to engage in peaceful use of atomic energy and in this context I firmly believe that it has opened a new window for our cooperation," Sun said.

The ambassador pledged the full support of the embassy to the cooperation on nuclear power development between Ghana and China to enable engagement with the Atomic Energy Commission in further exploring the possibilities in cooperation.

The newly converted reactor. (Xinhua/Justice Adoboe)

China was chosen by the IAEA to carry out the more than 20 million U.S. dollars conversion project because the original HEU reactor was of Chinese origin. The process involved replacing the original core of the reactor which has 90.2 percent uranium enrichment with one that is below 20 percent.

"We've been cooperating very closely with China on the technical front and also financial assistance for the whole project. We are appreciative that now the conversion is finished and today we would put power in the thing as a way of beginning the whole process of application of this technology," Kweku Aning, Chairman of the Governing Council of GAEC, said in his brief remarks.

Among the Chinese institutions which have cooperated with the GAEC over the years and on the project are China National Nuclear Corporation(CNCC), China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) and China Atomic Energy Commission (CAEC).

"Our cooperation with China in the area of nuclear has been very beneficial, especially for research, for training and also support for industry, nuclear security and other issues so they have helped us move from Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) to Lower Enriched Uranium (LEU)," Anning added.

He expressed the hope that GAEC and the Chinese institutions would continue to collaborate to make Ghana's dream of becoming a nuclear power a reality.

Director of the Nuclear Research Institute of Ghana, Francis Ofosu, told Xinhua that the nuclear reactor had been very useful for the country as countless number of students had used it over the past two decades for their Masters and Ph.D level research work.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:46:59|Editor: ying

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by Tian Dongdong

BRUSSELS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Shortly after slapping provisional import duties as much as 28.5 percent to Chinese steel, the European Union (EU) on Friday decided to launch an anti-dumping investigation into truck and bus tires imported from China. The decision and the timing of the announcement, together with previous trade remedy measures, picture EU's ratcheted-up protectionism tendency.

If history offers any guide, abusing self-indulgent trade remedy measure has never been a silver bullet for disagreement in bilateral trade. Rather, it has been repeatedly proved to be a double-edged blade.

As of 2016, EU has been China's largest trading partner in succession for 12 years, while China has ranked as EU's second largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years. But their economic relations are sometimes disturbed by EU's shrill announcements of anti-dumping measures against imports from China.

Those increasing trade remedy measures are harmful particularly in three ways.

Take Friday's anti-dumping investigation against China's tires as an example. Those measures often lack sufficient evidence, as the tire industry has been highly-internationalized and similarities among its major markets are quickly growing.

Data from the Chinese side shows that amount of Chinese tires exported to Europe has remained stable in the last two years, and the slightly lower price is mainly attributed to the price decline of global bulk commodity.

Against this backdrop, the possibility for EU to flow Washington's suit and shoot on its own foot is high. In February, the United States terminated its anti-dumping investigation against bus and truck tires from China as no damage to U.S. industry was found.

Meanwhile, abusing anti-dumping measure is a poisoned chalice to EU, as the lingering illness of its steel industry is resulting from high cost in energy, environment and labor, which weakens EU companies' competitiveness in the global steel market.

Besides, over-capacity is a global issue and should be attributed to the downturn of the global economy and the declining demand. In fact, China's effort to cut steel overcapacities at home has been underestimated. China plans to reduce steel capacity by 100 million to 150 million tons in 2016-2020. In 2016, more than 65 million tons of steel production capacity was phased out, beating the annual target. As of the end of May this year, 42.39 million tons of capacity had been slashed, accounting for 84.8 percent of the annual goal.

By slapping anti-dumping duties and launching investigations against Chinese imports, the EU is scapegoating China for its own flaws and the global market.

In addition, very coin has two sides. Chinese and European tire firms have enjoyed close cooperation, and the EU-initiated probe will not only undermine the interests of Chinese enterprises, but also affect the development of the EU tire industry and the benefits of its own consumer.

As the world's two largest economy, China and EU should work together closely to firmly maintain and develop an open global economy, and jointly resist the "anti globalization" trend. That not only conforms to the common interests of both sides, but also to their stabilizer role in the international community.

European politicians know well the fact that the success of China-EU relations lies in building bridges, not walls.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 18:52:01|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese small and medium-sized banks have stepped up their pace in going public to meet growing capital demand from rapid business expansion and tightened regulation.

As of this week, there were 12 banks waiting for IPO approval from the country's securities regulator, the second group to enter the stock market after entry was reopened for banks more than a year ago. Nine were city banks, including Bank of Lanzhou and Bank of Changsha, while three were rural commercial banks.

The banks saw varied performance. Six posted double-digits net profit growth in 2016 despite a lackluster banking sector, while Bank of Chengdu reported a year-on-year decline of 8.48 percent.

But the lenders all face the same situation: limited financing sources.

Unlike bigger, more renowned peers with abundant depositors, small and medium-sized banks, although developing rapidly, often face difficulties in meeting regulatory requirements in capital adequacy, which is a precondition for business expansion. Bank of Xi'an improved its total assets by 3.78 percent from a year ago in 2016, but its capital adequacy ratio dropped 1.2 percent.

Chinese financial regulators have toughened up supervision to defuse accumulated risks in past months, resulting in higher standards on capital.

The IPOs will allow banks to secure more financing channels, including private placement and preferred stocks to replenish capital, analysts said. The Economic Information Daily estimated the total capital raised by them will range from 23.95 billion yuan (around 3.6 billion U.S. dollars) to 61.19 billion yuan.

"Going public is positive for them. It will help improve corporate governance, standardize information disclosure and generate publicity nationwide," said Zeng Gang, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

As new shares usually see price jumps for days, the banks will also enjoy an increase in assets after listing.

However, analysts warned of obstacles in their drive to the capital market, such as bad loans.

More than half of the 12 banks had a higher non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in 2016. Bank of Chengdu and Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank saw their NPL ratios rise to 2.21 percent and 2.01 percent, respectively, much higher than the 1.74 percent in the whole sector.

Besides low asset quality, the banks' widely dispersed ownership structures and concentrated business will also pose challenges.
Photo shows Rwandan presidential candidate and incumbent President Paul Kagame voting in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda, on Aug. 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Gabriel Dusabe)

by Lyu Tianran, Frank Kanyesigye and James Gashumba

KIGALI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan National Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced final results of the presidential elections, declaring the incumbent president Paul Kagame as the winner.

The central African country has been recovering since the 1994 genocide, which was stopped by the then rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front led by Kagame. With many achievements made since then, analysts predict that the government still faces challenges in the next 7-year presidential term.

The main goals should be working on consolidating what has been achieved for the past seven years, said Antastase Shyaka, Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Governance Board.

The CEO also pointed out areas where performance is relatively low and the needs are high, including for instance, infrastructure developments like access electricity, road construction, promotion of made in Rwanda products, among others.

The government led by the elected president should focus on speeding up access to electricity across the country, he told Xinhua in an interview.

Focusing on key drivers of the economy will help the country to reach a middle income status by 2020, he said.

"We also need to focus on higher levels of accountability and institutional development in the next seven years," he said.

Jean de la Croix Nkurayija, a lecturer of political science at the University of Rwanda, believed that challenges will rise.

"For example, youth unemployment still remains as a hindrance, high population growth in relation to available resources, low industries, low productivity in agriculture due to climate change and so on," he said.

He also pointed out that Rwanda is experiencing challenges including shortage of land, brain drain, high rural-urban migration, as well as pollution caused by vehicles.

"Finally, in the absence of anticipation strategies related to some challenges, issues like moral corruption will continue to knock on the door," he said.

President Paul Kagame is needed to stay in office to accomplish what he has started and planned and he is the one that has a big picture of sustainability of this nation, said the expert, adding that the need to work hand in hand with other political parties, private sector and civil society is very important.

According to him, developing a strong and fair partnership locally, regionally and internationally will be the best way to achieve all targets mentioned in vision 2020, and to overcome and prevent all challenges faced by the nation for the next two decades.

A key challenge will be trying to find ways to reduce the country's dependence on aid, said Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, researcher and writer on politics and public affairs.

According to the researcher, Rwanda is a poor country with a small economy and not enough natural resources that means resources will continue to short as they have been over the last 23 years.

Rwanda still faces a challenge by ways of its relations with neighboring countries like Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo especially, and France, he said.

"Another challenge will be sorting out issues related to transitioning from Kagame to a successor," said Golooba-Mutebi.

According to Herman Musahara, Associate Professor of University of Rwanda, Kagame will face challenges of maintaining a high economic rate of growth under sometimes adverse external environment, eradicating extreme poverty and reducing inequality to reasonable levels, establishing a fundamental structural transformation of the economy to promote more industries and reach a middle income status, creating more jobs for the youth and maintaining the peace and security.

"It would be great if in the next 7 years, that government focuses on making the country a truly regional hub for services and conferences by continued investment in infrastructure, strengthening Rwandair, service delivery, security," said Christopher Kayumba, Senior Lecturer, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Rwanda.

The government could create jobs and support small businesses by making the tax code less complex and treating penalties as a tool to help businesses grow, he said.

Kagame has been president since 2000 when he was elected by ministers and members of parliament following the resignation of then President Pasteur Bizimungu. He was re-elected in the 2003 and 2010 presidential elections.
Photo taken on April 20, 2017 shows an aerial view of Johannesburg Town, SouthAfrica. The City of Johannesburg Local Municipality is situated in the northeastern part of South Africa with a population of around 4 million. Being the largest city and economic center of South Africa, it has a reputation for its man-made forest of about 10 million trees. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank (NDB) will be launched by the South African President Jacob Zuma on August 17 in Johannesburg.

This was revealed by the National Treasury in a statement on Friday. The African Regional Center will allow countries in the continent to have access to the bank.

"The launch of the African Regional Center will showcase the NDB's service offering, highlighting the Bank's potential role in the area of infrastructure and sustainable development in emerging and developing countries," said the Treasury in the statement.

The NDB is an institution to solve the infrastructural development and funding problems for BRICS and developing countries particularly in Africa. The BRICS Summit in Brazil signed an agreement to establish the bank in 2014.

"Another key resolution taken at the 2014 Summit was to establish regional offices that would perform the important function of identifying and preparing proposals for viable projects that the bank could fund in the respective regions," said the treasury.
Civilians fleeing Raqqa are seen at a bus station in Aleppo, Syria, on July 27, 2017. Civilians have recently been fleeing Raqqa, as a result of the battles in Raqqa waged by the Russian-backed Syrian army and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to drive IS out of its stronghold in Raqqa. (Xinhua Photo)

DAMASCUS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army said Saturday it had carried out an airdrop of forces in the countryside of Raqqa province, the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group.

The airdrop was carried out overnight 20 km behind the lines of the IS militants south of the Kudair town on the administrative borders of Raqqa.

The airdrop enabled the Syrian army to advance 12 km southeast of Raqqa, during which the army captured the village of Beir Marhoum.

The army said the operation is part of the Syrian army battle against the IS in the Syrian desert.
Photo taken on April 19, 2017 shows a general view of the "Big Ben" in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Tim Ireland)

by Xinhua writers Gu Zhenqiu, Gui Tao

LONDON, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The British government has announced to update and strengthen data protection laws through a new Data Protection Bill, a welcome step in the digital era when the leakage of personal information has become a worrisome problem worldwide.

From Europe to Asia, and to America, almost every country, either developing or developed, has been haunted by such a problem -- millions of Internet users' personal information was hacked, raising concerns about web security and triggering widespread panic.

The new bill, designed to sign European privacy rules into British law, as well as update the existing Data Protection Act which has remained unchanged in the island country since 1998, aims to give the British public greater control over personal data.

The new bill expands the definition of "personal data" to include IP addresses, internet cookies and DNA.

Under the new measures, everyone responsible for using data has to follow even stricter rules called "data protection principles." They must make sure the information is used fairly and lawfully, for limited, specifically stated purposes and in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive.

At the same time, the personal information should be kept for no longer than is absolutely necessary.

In practice, the new requirement will be subject to some exemptions, but may cause a headache for businesses, some of whom may not have data stored in files or on analogue tapes, making it difficult to sort their data.

Worse still, there are many ways data can be put at risk -- software vulnerabilities, lost hard drives and CDs, malicious insiders, poor security.

They can only lead to infamous data breaches. Over the last two years, 22 such most notorious cases were reported in Britain.

Even the United States, the single superpower in today's world, cannot be immuned from these problems in protecting individual information when people are using big data to analyze how to offer better services to target consumers.

For instance, 198 million Americans' personal information was accidentally released, according to reports from the United States in June.

Undoubtedly, larger and more serious breaches lie ahead.

The new British Data Protection Bill is not expected to remove root causes of data leakage.

Many experts have already warned that businesses are totally unprepared for the new rules coming into force in Britain. Given the high fines for offenses, companies may be stung before getting their houses in order.

Furthermore, some argued that the extent of the reforms are unclear -- important personal data such as health records or data of scientific importance may be protected, but at this stage, it is unclear exactly what the exemption may be.

When a lot of questions are raised about web security, it is a desired development to use law as a weapon to keep personal information from being leaked.
| 2017-08-12 19:46:23|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING Aug. 12 (Xinhuanet)  The 2017 Asian Motorboat Open closed Friday in Danjiangkou, central Chinas Hubei Province.

Chinese riders claimed multiple titles in different categories of the competition.

Riders were impressed by the host city for its water quality of competition area and local residents' hospitality.

Wei Xing, Deputy Secretary General of Chinese Motorboat Association, said the Asia Motorboat Open offers an opportunity for riders across the world to exchange and strengthen their friendship.

A total of 20 teams with over 130 riders from countries and regions including China, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, Finland competed in the 3-day event.

Danjiangkou has successfully hosted the Asia Motorboat Open for four consecutive years.

This years event has set a new record in terms of its scale and the number of participants.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 19:57:24|Editor: ZD

Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2017 shows the construction site of a security wall on Turkey's border with Iran in Agri province, Turkey. Turkish government has launched the construction of a security wall on its border with Iran, Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday. (Xinhua)

by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has started work on a huge security wall along its Iranian border in order to halt influx of Kurdish militants and smuggling activities, while a similar and longer barrier with war torn Syria has neared completion.

The information, published this week by the Turkish news agency Dogan quoting local officials, doesn't come much of a surprise, as the country's government took in fact the decision several months earlier as part of moves to bolster national security in the perspective of an Integrated Border Security System.

There are also plans to bolt the third wall along its frontier with Iraq, another problematic neighbor in the south, but planning works are still ongoing on this project, Xinhua learned from government sources.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last January that his country plans to build a wall also with Iraq, without giving a firm date. The work is expected to begin in October or November 2017 in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The two-meter-wide, three-meter-high barrier on the Iranian border is being built out of portable reinforced concrete blocks and is aimed at boosting Turkey's security by keeping out smugglers and stopping infiltration by Kurdish militants.

The 144-km-long wall will cover part of the 450-km-long border between the two countries. Some portions of the border are mined, which will render building efforts difficult and costly.

Turkey claims that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the outlawed Kurdish movement, involved in an ongoing conflict with the government since 1984, has bases and camps in the Iranian side of the border.

The Turkish-Iranian border is also an important route of drug smuggling towards the European continent. Each year, custom officers intercept hundreds of kilograms of cannabis and heroin produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In June, Ankara announced that it was finishing building a 700-km-long wall, costing 400 million U.S dollars, running along most of its 900 km border with Syria, with an "integrated security" system comprising of sophisticated lighting, sensors and security cameras.

According to media reports, the Syrian wall, which is 90 percent complete, has been useful and a deterrent for illegal traffic of goods and arms as well as militants movements, but specialists agree that no barrier can be 100 percent effective against determined armed elements.

"The security paradigm has drastically changed for Turkey with the eruption of the civil war in Syria and it is only natural that she takes appropriate action against it. Radical changes need radical measures," commented for Xinhua Selim Koru, an analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.

"Turkey's border with Syria was always seen as very porous by the international community" for terrorist infiltrations, he pointed out, saying that "non-state actors took benefit of this situation to maneuver" in this volatile region.

The wall erected at the Syrian border makes it the third longest wall in the world, the first being the Great Wall of China. 120 observation towers have been constructed in critical locations and are equipped with land infiltration radars, night vision radars and advanced weapons.

Daily Hurriyet reported that the first stage of the Iranian wall is expected to be completed until October and that security agents will also patrol the border wall which will feature 15 big doors with bulletproof glass.

Contrary to the heatedly debated proposed wall between Mexico and the United States, which has caused an uproar against President Donald Trump, the Turkish-Iranian wall has been met with little disapproval on the other side, at least on the official level. In May, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said that his country welcomed any steps towards increasing border security.

"We welcome all kinds of actions that will increase security and stability at the border. We are in favor of deeper bilateral dialogue to increase coordination in this regard," the Milliyet newspaper quoted Qassemi as saying. "Border security is important for both Iran and Turkey, and the necessary efforts should be made by both countries."

In Ankara, a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua that "as a sovereign country, Turkey has the right to take all necessary steps to ensure its national security. As it is the case for the one on the Syrian side, this barrier will protect not only Turkey but also Iran as well since they have similar concerns."

"The Iranian side has been informed about the developments and we did not hear any negative comments from them. In the future, problems that were affecting our both countries such as drug and arms trafficking and illegal entries from terrorists will be prevented," said the source on condition of anonymity.

Last June, the Kurdistan Free Life Party, an offshoot of PKK in northwestern Iran, attacked Iranian border guards, killing two. It is the last of a series of incidents linked to Kurdistan militants in this region, which prompted reaction from Iranian forces.

Turkish Armed Forces are waging a comprehensive and intense security operation against the PKK, which was listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. The conflict escalated in July 2015 after the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year cease-fire. The ongoing cycle of violence has claimed about 3,000 lives, most of them rebels and affiliates, largely concentrated in mainly Kurdish southeastern region, according to independent sources.

However, violence is unlikely to end in the near future in the absence of a political solution, predict analysts.

Kurdish aspirations of independence are on the rise in Syria, a country hit by the civil war since 2011. Turkey considers also as terrorist organization Syrian offshoots of PKK in Syria, the Democratic union party (PYD) and its armed wing, the People's protection forces (YPG). Ankara is at odds with its NATO ally, the United States, for arming the YGP, which it considers a partner in the war against the Islamic state (IS).

Not only Iran and Turkey, but also Iraq as well, the three neighboring countries that have Kurdish minority, fiercely oppose all independence moves.

Relations between Turkey and Iran have soured since the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011 and the Syrian civil war, when Tehran supported President Bashar Assad while Ankara called for him to resign.

Turkey is also concerned about Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq involved in the fight against IS, while Iran is equally anxious about Turkish military activity there. But in more recent months the two powers have found themselves standing on the same side in the Gulf diplomatic crisis, denouncing the sanctions against Qatar.

"Turkey and Iran are two key actors of the region. We as Turkey are convinced that reinforced bilateral ties will make this zone safer, so this wall should be seen as a medium of cooperation against security threats but not a wall of division," said the Turkish diplomatic source.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 20:02:29|Editor: ying

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DUBAI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The bodies of four Emirati soldiers killed in Yemen belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force and Air Defense Force (ADF) were transferred to the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Saturday, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

The General Command of the Armed Forces in the UAE announced on Friday, "the martyrdom of four of its soldiers... They died while carrying out their normal mission in the Shabwa province of Yemen, where their helicopter was hit by a technical fault, which led to an emergency landing and hitting the ground."

"There was a special military ceremony to receive the bodies of the martyrs on the airport grounds," the official agency WAM said.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab states to support Yemen's internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has been airstriking on a daily basis Shiite Houthi group across Yemen since March 26, 2015, when Hadi fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh to take refuge. The coalition said its intervention aims to restore Hadi's authority in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 20:07:32|Editor: ying

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MANILA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Efforts were underway to contain the spread of bird flu virus in the Philippines after an outbreak on a poultry farm on the main Luzon island was detected, Philippines authorities said on Saturday.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial told local radio DZBB that the Department of Health is on "heightened alert," with health workers on the lookout for possible flu-like symptoms when attending to patients with flu or flu-like illness.

In a statement, the Department of Health (DOH) said it has advised "all health providers" to "observe respiratory precautions" when taking care of patients sick with the flu.

"A team of DOH epidemiologists has been dispatched to assist the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the outbreak investigation. The DOH is now alerting hospitals in the affected areas to report similar cases," the DOH said.

Ubial said that the DOH is closely coordinating with DA in efforts to contain the spread of the virus. "We are giving personal protective equipment to poultry workers and the disinfection of areas with suspected bird flu cases. (The workers) will also be given vaccination for influenza," she said.

The DOH said that it is also coordinating with the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the spread of the virus to humans.

The Philippines reported on Friday its first outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in San Luis town in the Pampanga province, some 75 km north of Manila.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said he has ordered the culling of some 400,000 birds to contain the spread of the poultry disease. Also, he said he has ordered the temporary halt of transport of poultry from Luzon to other parts of the country.

Pinol said at least 38,000 chickens have died of the avian influenza Type A Subtype H5 in San Luis. "We will cull all 400,000 birds within the one-kilometer area. We don't want diseases to spread," Pinol told reporters.

Health Secretary Ubial has also advised Filipinos to seek medical help if they have flu symptoms that last longer than three days or if they experienced flu-like symptoms. She also cautioned people against going near wild birds or to farms with fowls.

President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said "heightened surveillance for flu-like symptoms is now instituted in Pampanga within a 7-kilometer radius of the affected farms."

The government has placed Pampanga province under a state of calamity due to the outbreak in San Luis.

A 7-km quarantine area has been declared, covering seven other towns, including Apalit, Minalin, Sta. Ana, Canada, Mexico, San Simon, San Fernando City and Sto. Tomas.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 21:02:55|Editor: ying

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VALLETTA, Aug.12 (Xinhua) -- Rating agency Fitch has upgraded Malta's sovereign credit rating from A to A+ with a stable outlook, said Malta's government on Saturday.

Fitch defined one of the main contributors to this upgrade as the fast declining gross general government debt, which is expected to decrease to 50 percent of GDP in 2019. The agency also expected government-guaranteed liabilities to decline in the coming years.

Another main reason for this upgrade is the positive turnaround in the fiscal balance. Fitch expected Malta to continue achieving a fiscal surplus in the coming years; reduce unnecessary expenditure on social benefits and ease pension pressures; and support higher robust economic growth.

The agency expected the Maltese economy to continue growing at a faster pace than that of similarly rated countries, fueled by the solid performance of exports, notably in the services sector, a dynamic labour market, and investment.

It forecast Malta's GDP to grow at 4.3 percent this year, 3.7 percent in 2018 and 3.5 percent in 2019.

At the same time, Fitch pointed out that the country's high reliance on imports makes it vulnerable to external developments.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 21:48:01|Editor: ying

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TOKYO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japan deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile interceptors on Saturday in four western prefectures, local media reported.

The surface-to-air missile interceptors were deployed in Shimane, Hiroshima, Ehime and Kochi prefectures, where normally no PAC-3 units are stationed.

The Japanese government said the deployment was aimed at preparing for the possibility that missiles, if they are fired by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), fail as they fly over Japan.

Local media said that Japan has deployed Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan for shooting down airborne missiles, and the PAC-3 systems are used to counter missiles that evade Aegis interceptors.
The toll from the accident on August 11, 2017, when two trains hurtled into each other near Egypt's second-largest city, has risen to 49 dead, said health ministry spokesman Khaled Moujahed, as local media said the number of fatalities was likely to rise. (AFP Photo)

CAIRO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- As Egyptians mourn the victims of a deadly train collision that killed 49, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered state bodies to hold those responsible accountable.

Sisi has ordered an investigation into the cause of the collision, official MENA news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, an Alexandria-bound train coming from Cairo crashed into the rear of another train on its way from Port Said Mediterranean city to Alexandria, killing 49 people and injuring more than 100 others. The accident took place in Kourshid area, east of the coastal city of Alexandria.

Sisi expressed his deepest sorrow and condolences to the families of the victims, stressing that the government will provide full care for the wounded.

Meanwhile, the health ministry announced that a state of emergency has been declared across Alexandria and neighboring Beheira and Gharbiya provinces.

The ministry said some 75 ambulances have been transferring the victims, and the number of casualties may rise due to the seriousness of many injuries.

Egypt's general prosecutor has also ordered an urgent investigation into the accident right after its occurrence, while Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has called for the formation of a specialized committee from the Transport Ministry for the investigation.

Transport Minister Hisham Arafat confirmed that a panel was formed to investigate the deadly accident, adding that the results of the probe will be announced once it is finished.

He also promised that those who are responsible for the crash will be brought to justice.

Egypt has witnessed a number of deadly train accidents in which hundreds died and injured.

In 2013, at least 19 were killed in a train derailment in Giza governorate, while a collision between a train and a school bus in 2012 in Upper Egypt killed 51, mostly children.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 22:53:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by David Musyoka

NAIROBI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- A global conflict resolution think tank on Saturday called on Kenya's political leaders from both sides to demonstrate restraint and responsibility amid political violence in some parts of the East African nation.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) in particular urged opposition leader Raila Odinga who has rejected the presidential results in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner, to take any challenge of the outcome to the courts and not the streets.

The think tank said the 72-year-old Odinga should urge his supporters to remain calm and firmly denounce any violence against security forces.

"For his part, Kenyatta should be magnanimous in victory, reach out to opposition supporters and fulfill his pledge to run an inclusive government in his second term," the policy group said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

It called on security forces to avoid escalating the situation and display conflict-sensitive policing aimed at defusing tensions.

ICG said Kenyan voters displayed remarkable patience and enthusiasm on voting day, a welcome endorsement of democracy at a time of discernible regression in other parts of the continent.

"Yet this election is but one step on Kenya's path to greater stability and democracy. Odinga's rejection of the results, and the backing he received from his supporters, illustrates how deeply skeptical many Kenyans remain toward their public institutions," it said.

The think tank said the electoral commission will need to build confidence in its systems, while ensuring that logistical and technical preparations as well as proper civic education take place well ahead of the next polls.

"The next government must address key drivers of electoral violence, especially the ethnic divisions that continue to bedevil Kenya and its politics," ICG said.

Kenyans went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in a fiercely contested presidential election, which in the last week of campaigning saw the murder of a senior election official and claims of vote rigging.

Odinga has claimed the vote-counting system was hacked and manipulated; the opposition released its own vote tallies claiming Odinga had won by a wide margin.

However, the electoral body has denied these charges. Violent protests erupted in parts of Nairobi and the western town of Kisumu on Friday, resulting in nine deaths in Nairobi alone.

In Kenya in 2007, when the election result was disputed, more than 1,000 people died and about 650,000 people were displaced.

According to ICG, the next government must address key drivers of electoral violence, especially the ethnic divisions that continue to bedevil Kenya and its politics.

The think tank cautioned that threats remain and the road ahead is certain to be bumpy as it remains unclear how Odinga's supporters will react to his rejection of the results. Sustained protests are possible if he refuses to concede.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:23:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ten Nobel laureates have urged Saudi authorities to hold off the execution of 14 Shiites convicted of protest-linked crimes, local sources said Saturday.

Saudi Arabia has ordered mass execution of the 14 Shiites convicted of charges including rioting, theft, armed robbery and armed rebellion, the sources said.

Nobel laureates including anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi and former East Timor president and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta signed the petition letter late Friday.

They urged King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to refrain from ratifying the death sentences.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Saudi authorities of coercing confessions which were later retracted in court and failing to grant fair trials to defendants, including juveniles.

In July, the supreme court upheld the death penalty for the 14 men, all Saudi citizens. The sentences must be ratified by the king or the crown prince for the executions to go ahead.

The 14 are all linked to protests in Qatif, an eastern province home to most of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's Shiite minority, who have long complained of marginalisation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:28:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Saturday killed nine Islamic State (IS) militants in a fierce clash near the border with Syria, the units said in a statement.

The attack occurred in the early morning Saturday when the Hashd Shaabi fighters, backed by artillery, repelled the attack of dozens of IS militants at a military outpost and forced them to retreat to their bases in Syria, the units said in a statement.

The clashes and the artillery shelling killed nine IS militants and wounded four others, destroying three IS vehicles, including two carrying heavy machine guns, the statement said.

In a separate statement, Lt. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, the commander of the federal police forces said that his troops are still in western Mosul to secure the battlefield to help the rescue teams and explosive experts to remove debris and clear hundreds of tons of different projectiles, roadside bombs, booby-trapped vehicles and heavy weapons left by IS militants.

The security forces and the local authorities are exerting every effort to clear the western side of Mosul to pave the way for the displaced people to return to their homes, Jawdat said.

The federal police found a training center in the al-Sa'ah church compound in the old city in the western side of Mosul on Saturday, and seized 10 explosive belts, ammunition, four mortars and dozens of projectiles, Jawdat said.

The troops also shot dead a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest when he tried to attack a checkpoint in Yarmouk neighborhood in west Mosul, locally known as the right bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the city of Mosul, Jawdat added.

On July 10, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared Mosul's liberation from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The Iraqi forces, including the predominantly Shiite Hashd Shaabi units and Sunni tribal fighters, still have to wage more offensives to drive out IS militants from their redoubts in the towns of Tal Afar, Hawijah in Kirkuk, the adjacent sprawling rugged areas in eastern Salahudin province, in addition to the remaining IS strongholds in the border areas with Syria in Anbar province.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:33:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SHANGHAI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- China Eastern Airlines on Saturday denied the alleged insult of an Indian at Shanghai Pudong International Airport reported by an Indian news outlet.

In a statement, the company said that after checking related materials and the airport CCTV footage, it found the news reports did not conform to the fact.

Instead, the airlines employees offered meticulous service, it said.

The company said it is dedicated to providing quality flight service for passengers around the world.

The Times of India reported on Thursday that North American Punjabi Association executive director Satnam Singh Chahal wrote a letter to Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to complain that he had unfair treatment at the Shanghai airport as he took China Eastern Airlines flight MU564.

Chahal was on his way from New Delhi to San Francisco and had a stopover in Shanghai to catch his next flight of the same airlines to his destination, the India newspaper reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:33:40|Editor: An

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TOKYO, Aug.12 (Xinhua) -- As Japan has signaled its willingness to improve its relationship with China on a number of occasions recently, it is hoped that Japan could keep its word and take concrete actions to improve bilateral relations.

During the sixth meeting of the China-Japan ruling party exchange mechanism held here earlier this week, Japanese leaders once again expressed the wish for a better relationship.

China's basic position of being committed to improving bilateral ties with Japan, its close neighbor, has never changed.

Despite bumps and difficulties in bilateral ties in recent years due to the fault of Japan, China has kept the communication channel open with Japan at all levels.

One landmark event this year was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, last month.

Since normalizing ties in 1972, China and Japan have signed four important political documents as well as a four-point principled agreement. These are the political foundation for the bilateral ties and a keystone for bilateral cooperation.

Safeguarding the political foundation is the precondition of developing a healthy relationship between China and Japan.

The current China-Japan ties are still disturbed by various complicated factors. The root cause lies in Japan's unwillingness to truly accept China's development and to treat China as a cooperative partner.

What the Abe administration has said and done in recent years showed Japan's lack of sincerity in improving ties with China.

Moreover, the Abe administration has refused to truly reflect on Japan's invasion of its neighbors before and during World War II, and repeatedly hurt the Chinese people's feelings by visiting the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, meddling in the South China Sea, and continuing with its wrong words and deeds on the Diaoyu Islands and "Comfort Women" issue.

Such "double-facedness" of the Japanese side has made the Chinese people feel confused and regretful.

Japan shall match its words with deeds on historical issues. It shall observe the political documents between China and Japan and honor the promises made by its previous governments including the 1995 statement by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

It shall face up to and fully reflect upon history, instead of denying history and repeatedly hurting the feelings of people of the countries that fell victim to Japan's invasions before and during World War II.

Japan shall also match words with deeds in regional security issues. It shall adopt prudent security policies, and focus more on doing things that are conducive to regional peace and stability.

It shall respect China's normal and justified defense buildup and training activities, fully abide by the one-China policy, stop meddling in the South China Sea as an outside country and dump relentless and senseless attempts to wheedle other countries into containing China by hyping up the so-called "China threat."

Japan shall match words with deeds in enhancing mutual trust with China. It shall work with China to properly deal with sensitive issues, respect each other's justified interests and concerns, get rid of its confrontational mentality, and promote practical cooperation in all areas based on equality and mutual benefits.

With the development of global economic integration, the deterioration of ties between China and Japan, the world's second and third largest economies, would take a toll on global economic and trade exchanges.

There is a common call in the business and industrial circles for the two countries to work together to tackle the slack recovery of the world economy and other challenges.

China and Japan are highly complementary in economy while economic and trade cooperation will bring solid benefits to both sides, which can in turn boost bilateral relations.

China's Belt and Road Initiative eyes win-win cooperation between countries along the route. Japanese economic community has pinned high hopes on the initiative for boosting regional prosperity and sharing fruits of development, and has asked the Japanese government to adopt a positive attitude towards it.

"The Belt and Road Initiative exhibits the grand view of the world on the part of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and based on that initiative, there will be various kinds of construction plans. This is something that should win approval from every side," said Yoshinobu Nisaka, governor of Japan's Wakayama prefecture.

This year marks their 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, and the next year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

In the new historical period, China and Japan shall assess the situation, bear in mind the overall situation and long-term needs and stick to and take concrete actions to enhance the direction of peace, friendship and cooperation.

Cooperation benefits both if Japan can honor its words and meet China halfway in improving bilateral relations, instead of saying one thing while doing another. Being a "double dealer" would only damage Japan's reputation in the international community, and would do no good to Japan's relationship with China.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:38:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PARIS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- France calls on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to comply without delay with its international obligations and to prevent any escalating tensions, according to a statement issued on Saturday by the Elysee.

In the statement, French President Emmanuel Macron "expresses his concern" over the deterioration of the ballistic and nuclear threat from the DPRK, "which undermines the preservation of international peace and security."

Macron's statement came amid a scalding war of words between the DPRK and the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula.

"If North Korea (DPRK) does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us... they should be very nervous," Trump said on Thursday.

The DPRK military has said that its plan to strike Guam with intermediate missiles will be ready by mid-August, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

On Tuesday, Trump issued a controversial warning to the DPRK, saying that threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Days before the war of words, the United Nations Security Council, in an exceptional session on Saturday, unanimously adopted the Resolution 2371 to impose new sanctions on the DPRK for ignoring previous resolutions and its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

The French president also said in the statement that the DPRK "is now engaged in a dangerous escalation, which poses a serious threat to the security of its neighbors, as well as to the continuation of the international non-proliferation regime."

Macron called on the international community to act in "a concerted, firm and effective manner" so as to the DPRK back into unconditional recourse to dialogue, the statement added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:43:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Saturday killed a suicide bomber in the city of Tikrit, the units said in a statement.

Based on intelligence reports, the Hashd Shaabi force spotted a suicide bomber wearing explosive vest at a popular market in central the city if Tikrit, and shot him dead before detonating himself in the crowded market, the units said in a statement.

The paramilitary units intensified security measures in Tikrit and deployed in the main streets for fear of further attacks by the sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants, the statement said.

Also in the province, the paramilitary units in coordination with the army's helicopter gunships pounded IS post in Zuwiyah area, some 250 km north of Baghdad, and destroyed four car bombs, the units said in a separate statement.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units freed Tikrit and other key cities and towns in the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin from the extremist IS group which seized large part of the province in June 2014.

The incidents came as the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Mosul's liberation on July 10 after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-12 23:43:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HONG KONG, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Food safety authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has enhanced checks on eggs imported from Europe after insecticide was found in some eggs from European countries, the HKSAR's secretary for food and health said Saturday.

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of the HKSAR's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is "very concerned about" the matter and has implemented measures to deal with problematic eggs, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan told the media.

Chan said the CFS took action after two egg samples imported from the Netherlands were found to contain excessive insecticide earlier this month.

According to Chan, measures at both import and retail levels have been taken. "(At) the import level, they have increased surveillance and checked all the eggs from the respective countries that have problems, for example, Belgium, also Holland and all the rest."

Egg imports are stringently controlled and only those with recognized health certificates can be imported to Hong Kong, she added.

"As far as the retail level is concerned, they have also retracted the problematic eggs, as well as increased the surveillance on eggs, especially (those) coming from European countries," Chan said.

The CFS is in contact with egg wholesalers and retailers to discuss precaution measures to prevent the inflow of problematic eggs, she added.
| 2017-08-13 06:13:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NEW DELHI -- India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah Saturday invited Chief Minister of the eastern state of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, to join the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Shah said that he met the chief minister, also the head of Bihar's regional Janata Dal (United) party, on Friday and extended him the offer in the wake of the two parties' recent alliance government in the state. (India-BJP-Bihar)

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FAIZABAD, Afghanistan -- The Afghan security forces have regained control of villages from militants in the northern Badakhshan province, leaving at least 8 insurgents dead and 13 others injured, an official said Saturday.

"The strategic areas, including several villages in Tagab district, have been cleared of the Taliban insurgents in a tough cleanup operation, during which eight Taliban rebels have been killed and 13 others injured," Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, press officer of 20-Pamir Division in the northern region, told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Militants-Clean-up)

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TOKYO -- Japan deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile interceptors on Saturday in four western prefectures, local media reported.

The surface-to-air missile interceptors were deployed in Shimane, Hiroshima, Ehime and Kochi prefectures, where normally no PAC-3 units are stationed. (Japan-Missile Interceptors)

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VIENTIANE/PHNOM PENH -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and his visiting Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen agreed here on Saturday to withdraw their troops from disputed border area between Attapu of Laos and Stung Treng of Cambodia.

"Today, we had frank talks in a friendly manner," the Lao state-run news agency KPL quoted Prime Minister Thongloun as telling a joint press conference in the Lao capital of Vientiane. (Laos-Cambodia-Border Dispute)

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan -- A total of 13 civilians were killed and three others injured as two mortar mines fired by militants struck a residential area in Dawlatabad district of the northern Faryab province on Friday night, a local official said on the condition of anonymity on Saturday.

"Two mortar mines fired by militants struck some houses in Tort Atai village in Dawlatabad district Friday night, killing 13 innocent civilians and injuring three others," the official told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Mortar Mines-Civilians) Enditem
| 2017-08-13 06:14:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of migrant arrivals in Italy has dropped precipitously since the beginning of July, but opinions of officials and experts were split over whether the drop-off is temporary or part of a long-term trend.

The numbers tell a stunning tale. Over the first 10 days of August, for example, 1,572 migrants landed on Italy's shores -- most of them from Libya -- a dramatic 76-percent drop compared to the 6,554 in the same period a year ago.

In July, 11,459 arrived, a little less than half the 23,552 migrants who came to Italy in July 2016.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said the drop off is part of a trend as Italy and -- to a lesser extent -- other European Union states, invested cash and manpower in Libya to help stabilize the country that had fallen into chaos since 2011. The money was used to stabilize the country's economy and institutions and, most importantly, to beef up the country's coastguard.

Minniti told Italian journalists,"The idea of reinforcing the Libyan coast guard seemed like a fantasy, but it is already paying dividends."

The Interior Ministry said that during the first weekend in August, Libyan ships rescued 1,180 migrants, compared to just 130 by all non-Libyan vessels.

The move comes after the efforts to better patrol the waters between Turkey and Greece -- which until last year had been the most used entry path into the European Union for migrants -- produced similar results.

In recent weeks, Italian government officials have said there is no reason the number of arrivals will not continue to drop if efforts in Libya and other ports of departure for the migrants continue.

Minniti said that after the August summer break, he plans to lobby the rest of the European Union to funnel more resources into the initiatives like the one that Italy started to reinforce the Libyan coast guard.

But others aren't so sure the plan will have the intended effect."If you close one door, it doesn't take long for someone looking to get in to find another one," Maurizio Ambrosini, a sociologist and commentator on migrant issues in the school of political science at the University of Milan, told Xinhua.

"It's too early to call this a trend. After all, who is to say that the migrants who were stopped won't end up arriving in Spain or elsewhere?" Other commentators echoed that view in the local press.

Ambrosini said that as long as life in the African and Middle Eastern countries providing the bulk of the migrants remains so difficult, there will be those willing to take risks to seek a better life.

"As long as there is war and extreme poverty, there will be people who will want to become migrants," the professor said, "In that context, enforcement efforts can only have a limited success."
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif looks on as he attends the Executive Committee Meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on August 1, 2017 in Istanbul. (AFP Photo)

TEHRAN, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) --- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday that economic diplomacy will top the agenda of his diplomatic team in the next four years.

Zarif said economic diplomacy and the boosting of ties with neighboring countries will be the two priorities for the Foreign Ministry in the next four years, according to Press TV.

"In the foreign policy area, we stress economic diplomacy as we believe that the Foreign Ministry should serve economic progress and people's livelihoods," Zarif was quoted as saying.

He also stressed that comprehensive "relations with neighbors have to be promoted."

Zarif highlighted expanding non-oil exports and attracting capital and technology into Iran.

Zarif further noted that the Foreign Ministry would follow the path of peace, stability, and more cooperation in the region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 01:59:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BELGRADE, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Serbia and the European Parliament disagreed over the immediate priorities to boost Serbia's EU integration, as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic received chief of foreign affairs at the EU parliament.

Reforming justice system and tackling of corruption are Serbia's main obstacles on its path of European integration, Chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister said Saturday after meeting Vucic.

McAllister, also the EU parliament's rapporteur on Serbia since 2014, claimed the implementation of the rule of law is the most important segment to boost Serbia's integration.

Vucic disagreed, arguing that what really matters to the European Union (EU) is Serbia's relations with its southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, and Serbia's traditional partnership with Russia.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which was recognized by most EU countries. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.

According to a statement released by the president's press office, Vucic said the rule of law is not what he is worried about most when it comes to Serbia's EU accession and suggested that EU members see Kosovo as the first, and Serbia's relations with Russia as the second key priority.

Estimating that the rule of law represents the third key priority, Vucic said, "Serbia acknowledges the remarks of the EU in that direction and is making progress to reform its judiciary."

Though so, Vucic and McAllister both agreed that Serbia should continue its EU path. McAllister will visit Serbia again in two weeks in order to meet representatives of the parliament and the Serbian government, according to the statement.

"I would like to see Serbia in the EU rather sooner than later, and many of my colleagues think so too, but there is still work to be done especially when it comes to the rule of law and tackling corruption," McAllister said.

"My opinion is: if Serbia works hard to reach its goals, new chapters should be opened, because each chapter is a signal that the EU is serious in its intention towards the countries of the region," McAllister noted, highlighting Serbia and Montenegro as the nearest to EU accession out of all candidate countries.

McAllister expressed hope that the two countries could become the 28th and 29th member of the EU, once Britain leaves the EU.
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 03:55:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi urged on Saturday the government to accelerate the development of the country's railway network to avoid deadly train crashes, the presidential spokesman said in a statement.

Sisi's remarks came during an evening meeting with Transport Minister Hesham Arafat, a day after a tragic two-train collision killed at least 49 and wounded more than 130 in the seaside northern city of Alexandria.

"The president gave instructions to form technical committees to evaluate the maintenance processes and specify the needed spare parts for the trains and and the railroad infrastructure," said Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef in the statement.

Sisi also ordered expansion of electric signaling systems to reduce reliance on human elements, limit similar accidents and step up measures for the passengers' safety.

For his part, Arafat said his ministry is working hard on railways upgrade, and any recent train delay or disorder would be investigated as soon as it happens.

Earlier on Saturday, Egypt's top prosecutor assigned a military engineering body to perform an on-the-spot technical railway check to examine the soundness of the railroad, the traffic light signals and semaphores and to issue a report on Friday's tragic accident.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Ministry said the two drivers of the twin trains have been held for questioning and four railway officials suspended over the tragedy.

Railway accidents have killed and wounded hundreds in Egypt over the past few years, but the deadliest took place in 2002 when 350 passengers were killed after fire broke out in a train from Upper Egypt.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 04:46:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KHARTOUM, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Sudanese refugee official said on Saturday that a delegation led by UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi will visit Sudan on Tuesday to identify the conditions of refugees in the country.

"The visit of the UN delegation aims at getting acquainted with the conditions of refugees at the refugee camps," Hamad Al-Jizouli, Sudan's commissioner of refugees, said in a statement.

He said Grandi would begin his tour in Sudan with visiting the South Sudanese refugees' camps in the East Darfur State.

According to the statement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is scheduled to meet with Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, Interior Minister Hamid Mannan and a number of officials of Sudanese refugees' commission.

Grandi would conclude his visit by meeting Sudan's First Vice-President and National Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh, the statement added.

Sudan is hosting around 600,000 South Sudanese refugees in camps distributed in four states including the White Nile, South Kordofan, East Darfur and Khartoum.

On Aug. 15, 2016, Sudan decided to consider the South Sudanese fleeing the war in their country as refugees, opening the door for the UN to provide aid to them in the country.

Famine, which has recently been officially declared in South Sudan, was attributed to several reasons including the civil war and the economic collapse in the new-born state.
File photo shows that local Qigong enthusiasts perform during the press conference of the International Health Qigong Tournament and Exchange, in New York University in New York, the United States, Aug. 15, 2013. (Xinhua/Cheng Li)

By Xinhua Writers Xia Lin, Huang Hexun

NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Living and studying in New York, the most diverse city of the United States, college students may have a lot to cope, particularly personal safety. For those at New York University (NYU), it is one of their top priorities aside from finance and accommodation.

"Not long ago, there was a shooting spree at the square in front of our university. Few of us knew about it, because it happened at night. The university sent e-mail to alert us. So, if you go out alone at night, you must ask security staffer to escort you," Chinese student Wang Yun told Xinhua right before a new school year starts in early September.

GENERALLY SAFE AT NYU

NYU is a private non-profit research university. It was founded in 1831, with its main campus centered in Manhattan, the most diverse part of the diverse city.

Its students, especially those from overseas, have reasons to believe that they are mostly safe on campus, where security personnel and facilities are seen around.

"Generally speaking, campus life in the U.S. is very safe, particularly in New York. It is very safe in most colleges like NYU," said Wang Yuan, another Chinese student.

"It is very safe now at NYU. There is one security point for several blocks, where you can stay for safety. Meanwhile, security staffers are all around," Wang Ruixing, a third Chinese student told Xinhua.

"After all, a lot of police are on patrol 24 hours a day. Emergency stands are everywhere. If you make a call, campus security will come to help you," added Wang Yuan.

File photo shows that students celebrate during the 182nd Commencement of the New York University at Yankee Stadium, New York, May 21, 2014.(Xinhua/Cheng Li)

OUTSIDE CAMPUS IS ANOTHER STORY

For NYU students, the campus is almost paradise, but outside, danger lurks.

"One afternoon at the Washington Square when I crossed the park, one black man stopped me for either money or fight. He was finally subdued by the people around."

Except for truculent boors, drug-using tramps and gun-carrying guys are the ones that you have to eschew, added Wang Yuan.

Emergency occurs any time outside campus, then what is the best way to deal with it?

"The university protects us with overall security education. For example, if anything goes wrong around, we will receive from the university e-mail about common knowledge of security," said Wang Yun.

Wang Yuan reminded that either boy or girl staying outside at night in places with few people, he'd better team up with friends, for more confidence and power.

Meanwhile, there are purple lights on roadside for security calling. When you feel unsafe, just push for the lights and NYU security will be here to help you.

LOCALS HAVE CUES FOR STUDENTS

Essentially safe in NYU, student has to be cautious when reaching out. Managing to have your own group and learn to use the emergency utilities, he will have a smooth situation.

However, local student and resident have more elements to hint and share.

"For campus safety, it depends on where you are. In America, people in a lot of states are allowed to have guns. Some lawmakers are fighting to make sure that you can still keep your gun even on the school' s campus, which I think makes the school far less safe. But guns are all over this country. I think that definitely impacts the safety of the campus environment. So public safety is also at risk," NYU Student Jadayah Spencer told Xinhua.

Local resident Craig Jenkins has another cue, saying that "I know when I was younger, they said at night time, originally, you didn't walk close to the building, because somebody could pull you in the building and took your money. So you walked next to the cars. I know a lot of women who wear the ring backwards so that the rock is here to keep it covered."

As the most densely populated city in the U.S., security concerns are also dense in New York.

For NYU in Manhattan where police force is much heavier than other boroughs, security is certainly better guaranteed than elsewhere.

"The main aspect of New York was, the mayor and police achieved many years ago, they took it very seriously to show all the potential robbers that was taken very seriously. So any infringement, anything that you did wrong, they stopped it right there. Now you see very little graffiti. Before the graffiti were everywhere," said Jenkins.

Spencer would rather like to depend on herself. She has been studying martial arts to stay safe. "So if anything happens, I can protect myself," she added.

CITY LESS DANGEROUS

Self-protection and protection from police and facilities combine to make a fine picture. As years went on, the Big Apple has managed to polish its image, from inside out.

"NYU has safe ride. So if you are at campus late, like studying at library, they will take you from where you are to the train station or to your dormitory. The security is 24/7, so they hear with that. If you ever feel unsafe, you can call NYU and report it to them, in addition to calling the police," said Spencer.

"There were always tough, mean-looking people in the subway and street corners. And police don't accept it anymore. So I think that's it. A serious police presents. Yesterday, I came to the park, and there was something happening. Somebody tried to steal the money from musicians. They were tackled. And when I got by it, it was all police. So, very quick you know. We've seen that couple of times now, there are lots of police in regular clothing here. And it's very good," said Jenkins.

Official figures said that crime rate has kept going down in the past two decades in New York.

Though information and comments sound positive, college students are not supposed to loosen their nerves, for they are a fragile and susceptible group.

Anyway, for NYU students, remember to press the purple lights when you have a problem.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 05:46:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LISBON, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Portugal has seen the most of the forest fires in a single day of this year on Saturday with 297 fire breakouts across the country, according to the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC).

More than 70 fires broke out at three o'clock on Saturday in several locations in the north and central part of the country, with the emergency plan activated in Coimbra, some 200 km north of Lisbon.

ANPC spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said that Saturday can beat Friday when 220 forest fires erupted in the country, a record high in a single day of this year.

In the city of Tomar, some 140 km north of Lisbon, more than 200 people in a farm have been evacuated as well as inhabitants in several houses under threat of flames.

According to ANPC, more than 4000 firefighters participated in combating flames across the country. Nearly 600 military personnel and 116 vehicles are also assisting in fighting fires.

High temperatures have brought back forest fires in the north and central party of Portugal since Wednesday.

The country suffered its worst forest fires in four decades on June 17 when the huge fires in Pedrogao Grande, some 200 km north of Lisbon, claimed 64 lives, injuring more than 250 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 06:16:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Activists said on Saturday that 25 rebels were killed by a blast near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The slain rebels were from the Jaish al-Islam militant group and lost their lives when a blast targeted their position near the Nasib border crossing with Jordan a day earlier, according to the London-basded Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Nasib is located in the southern province of Daraa.

No party has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion but the Islamic State (IS) extremists have previously carried out similar bombings in the same area.

The blast came as the Syrian army said it had captured 30 km of the borderline with Jordan in the southern province of Sweida near Daraa.
Bullet-riddled body in drain

According to reports, residents of Cornelius Drive heard gunshots at about 4.30 pm.

Residents made a check a few minutes later and found the mans bullet-riddled body in the drain. His identity was unknown up until press time. Supt David, ASP Mervyn Edwards, Inspector Craig and PC Sutherland visited the scene.

The body was later removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James. Police are appealing to the public for assistance in identifying the body so that an autopsy can be done. Investigations are continuing.
Ish and Steve claim PNM persecution

Ferguson and Galbaransingh along with former United National Congress (UNC) Ministers Brian Kuei Tung and Sadiq Baksh, former Airports Authority Chairmen Tyrone Gopee, Peter Cateau and Ameer Edoo all appeared before Port of Spain Magistrate Ejenny Espinet yesterday.

Temperatures rose when the attorney representing Ferguson and Galbaransingh, Rajiv Persad, was unable to attend and his colleague Christophe Rodriguez stood in his place. Rodriguez said one of the accused Amrith Maharaj, former managing director of Northern Construction Ltd was unable to attend the hearing as he was feeling unwell.

Your worship we have a constraint this morning as Mr Maharaj was up to yesterday (Thursday) complaining of feeling ill.

I feel it may be a better course of action for us to wait until everyone is present to deal with the matter, Rodriguez said.

Magistrate Espinet said while the questions can be posed collectively, there was no need for all of the accused to be present for the initial proceedings.

Espinet later asked the men if they would be presenting evidence under oath during the proceedings, to which Galbaransingh said he would but also wanted the liberty of airing his grievance to the court.

I want to register my strong objection to the continuation of this matter. It is my contention that these proceedings have been instigated by the PNM government, which since its commencement, has caused me great expense and anxiety, Galbaransingh said.

Ferguson also told the court that he too was opposed to the continuation of the inquiry. It is my position that these charges are politically instigated under the control of former prime minister Patrick Manning (now deceased) and former Attorney General John Jeremy. I also object to this hearing until the High Court releases their decision on whether or not the matter is to proceed. Elaine Greene, who held in the absence of special prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC, criticised the remarks of both Galbaransingh and Ferguson saying the statements of two were gratuitous. Galbaransingh and Ferguson are facing a number of charges relating to the construction of the $1.6 billion Piarco Airport Terminal building.

Magistrate Espinet adjourned the matter to August 18.
Accused gets bail after moms tears

Anthony Martin, 23, of Carenage stood before Magistrate Andre Darmanie charged with possession of a pistol and four rounds of ammunition.

He was charged by Cpl Ramdeo.

The charges were read aloud by Magistrate Darmanie and Martin pleaded guilty.

His mother, father, cousin and a neighbour were present at the hearing. Martins attorney pleaded with the court to grant the accused a non-custodial sentence as this was his first offence and he is very remorseful for his actions. The attorney said, Prison will do nothing for my clients rehabilitation and he is also helping his family out financially. Magistrate Darmanie adjourned the case to next Monday for sentencing and remanded Martin into custody for the weekend. On hearing that her son was being taken to prison, Martins mother Helen began crying, causing the magistrate to tell the court police to bring back Martin who was being led out of the courtroom.

Darmanie scolded the young accused for bringing such grief to his mother. Your mother was in here crying for you. How do you feel about that, a stern Darmanie asked.

You realise that your mother is ready to fall down in the court right now? Darmanie called Martins mother to the stand and explained to her that he would grant her son surety bail in the sum of $100,000.

The magistrate warned the woman that if her son did not reappear in court on Monday, he would face the full brunt of the court.

The woman thanked the magistrate and assured her son would be present in court.

Another man, who was jointly charged with Martin, pleaded not guilty and was granted bail and the case adjourned.
Man tells magistrate he had gun for familys protection

Kevon Harry, 32, of Roberston Street, pleaded guilty when he appeared before Magistrate Brambhanan Dubay in the San Fernando Magistrates Court.

The magistrate heard from prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan that at about 7 a.m on Thursday, PC Dhanraj Matloo of the San Fernando CID led other police to Harrys home. They searched for illegal arms and ammunition.

Seedan said Harry was at home but he denied having anything illegal in the house when the police questioned him. Police searched and found the gun and the ammunition in the living room. Police also found on the kitchen table, eight packets of marijuana which, when weighed, amounted to 298 grammes.

Harry was arrested and taken to the Marabella Police Station.

Attorney Chantal Paul in mitigating on Harrys behalf, told Dubay her clients apartment was recently broken into and, as a father of three children, he had the gun and the ammunition for the protection of his family. Paul told the court while Harry had a conviction for trafficking in marijuana, he had no criminal record for any violent crimes.

Dubay, in passing sentence, said it did not seem Harry was an immediate threat to society.

He fined him $12,000 for possession of the firearm. In default of payment he would serve three years in prison with hard labour. Harry was ordered to pay $8,000 for possession of the ammunition, if he fails to do so, he would serve three years in jail. And for the marijuana possession, he was ordered to pay $6,000, failing which he would serve 16 months in prison with hard labour. He was granted 60 days to pay.

The magistrate commended Matloo saying he is one of those police officers who is always equipped with all the documents that are needed to prosecute people he charges. Harrys arrest, Dubay said, meant one less firearm on the streets. He said he hopes his commendation would reach the relevant authorities and Matloo be given $500 as a reward for exceptional police work.
Two denied bail for shooting man in head

Arif Ali, 26, and Moussa Winston Peters, 22, both of Dow Village in California, appeared before Magistrate Alicia Chankar and were not called upon to plead as the charges were laid indictably. It is alleged that on July 30 at Railway Road in California, Ali and Peters and three other men shot Akeem McDonald in the head while in his car.

McDonald managed to exit the car and run away. The men, it is alleged, then set his car ablaze.

McDonald was treated at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Sgt Ken Ali and PC Anil Mohammed of Couva CID charged Ali and Peters with possession of a Taurus gun and 14 rounds of ammunition and possession of the gun and ammunition to endanger lives. The men were also charged with wounding McDonald with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm and malicious damage of the car.

Yesterday court prosecutor Sgt Vicki Ranjitsingh informed the court that a bullet is still lodged in McDonalds head.

Chankar denied bail and remanded the men into police custody to reappear in court on September 8.
Landscaper fined $19,000 for gun, ammunition, ganja

Elijah Holder pleaded guilty before Magistrate Brambhanan Dubay. Prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan said that on July 7 at about 7:50 am, police from the San Fernando station went to a house at Agnes Street, Marabella, where they confronted a man and a woman. They asked about a bedroom that was locked, Dubay heard, and the man and the woman said the person who occupied the room was not at home at the time. Seedan told Dubay the police broke down the door and found a black bag which contained 120 grammes of marijuana, a gun and a magazine which had 17 bullets.

The prosecutor said the items were seized and the man and woman were taken into custody. He upon further investigations police released the couple, however, a warrant was issued for Holders arrest.

Dubay heard from Seedan that on Thursday, police went to Agnes Street, Marabella and arrested Holder.

Attorney Ainsley Lucky in making a plea on Holders behalf, said the defendant is a landscaper and he did not own the gun, ammunition and marijuana, but was keeping them for someone else.

Dubay fined Holder $10,000 for possession of the gun. In default of payment he would serve three years in jail with hard labour.

For the possession of ammunition, Holder was fined $6,000. He would serve 18 months if he fails to pay and for possession of marijuana, he was fined $3,000 or in default of payment would serve nine months in jail.
Garcia: Social Studies text not approved

He said he had not seen the book but spoke with a member of the ministrys Curriculum Division and was informed the book had not been approved. He also said there is an evaluation committee responsible for reviewing textbooks to be used by schools.

Authors of textbooks cannot badger, negotiate or offer any inducements to principals to get their textbooks on the book list, said Garcia. The freedom of choice policy which allowed principals to choose the books to be put on the book lists fostered mismanagement and other problems in the Ministry of Education. As a result, the learning material evaluations committee, chaired by former chief education officer Peter O Neil, was revamped by the ministry. An author would have to provide samples to the committee and, if successful, their books would be placed on a list of approved books for consideration by the principals. However, the editor of the textbook told Newsday he was not aware this process existed.

As far as I know, there is no official approval process for textbooks. He said authors create a book, carry it to schools and if teachers believe it meets the curriculum needs, they put it on the book list.

Newsday, on Wednesday, reported on the social media discussion surrounding the textbook. Two pages from the table of contents were circulated and showed an absence of two major observances (Indian Arrival Day and Emancipation Day) and the inclusion of foreign celebrations including Halloween.

The exclusion incurred the ire of members of the public who shared the pictures on their pages.

Newsday sourced a copy of the book and found a section on Indian Arrival Day was included but Emancipation Day was not. The editor said the omission was unintentional and the holiday would be included in the books second edition. TT Unified Teachers Association president Lynsley Doodhai said as far as he knew, the evaluation committee is non-functional and there is a need for it to be revived.

The holidays absence from the textbook is worrying for some educators. They see it as a larger deficiency in the education system.

It is sad that Emancipation was left out since it is such a critical part of our history, said Dr Agnes Howell-Jack, a local and foreign educator for over 40 years.

The ministry and, of course, teachers must do more and use other resources to ensure this information is taught. Lecturer and the University of the West Indies Rhoda Bharath said she had concerns over the textbook but her main concern was with the ministry.

That book couldnt be in schools if someone at the ministry didnt recommend it as worthwhile. So we need to ask who establishes criteria for these textbooks and selects them.
National quality policy nears completion

The national quality infrastructure relates to all aspects of metrology, standardisation, testing, quality management, certification and accreditation. It includes both public and private institutions and the regulatory framework within which they operate.

The development of this policy will see greater consumer protection in terms of regulations that prevent false and misleading labelling and advertising; increased competitiveness; greater innovation and a higher degree of technology transfer, thereby enhancing the capability of our manufacturers to effectively trade nationally, regionally and internationally, the ministry stated yesterday. In an effort to validate the findings of a series of engagements with stakeholders; with intent of finalising both the policy and an implementation plan, a stakeholder validation workshop was held on Thursday.

It was hosted by the Bureau of Standards; an agency of the ministry, in collaboration with the Mesopartner team of consultants, at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain.

The ministrys acting permanent secretary, Frances Seignoret, assured stakeholders, The national quality policy, which we anticipate will be completed by the end of this month, will impact all sectors of the economy including, but not limited to, the health and safety of consumers, environmental protection, social responsibility, sustainable development and national security. Moreover, the policy will provide exporters with a platform for penetrating markets regionally and globally with high quality, competitive products. Seignoret acknowledged the gaps which exist in this countrys quality infrastructure and said the importance of the development and implementation of an effective national quality system.

Earlier in the proceedings, the executive director at the Bureau of Standards, Theodore Reddock, expressed appreciation for the continued support and participation thus far in the development of the policy.
Moonilal: Ministers obsessed with personal security

Moonilal said the Police Service must heed the recommendation of the Police Social and Welfare Association for an urgent and independent investigation into this matter.

At Thursdays post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Anns and in interviews before that briefing, Rambharat said his wife Camille accompanied him and all protocols were followed.

Moonilal said any enquiry must show, who granted permission for the activity by the minister and his wife at a sensitive and private site, to which civilians are not usually allowed. Moonilal said Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley must indicate whether there is an official policy that permits such shooting practice. He also said new TTDF Chief of Defence Staff Commodore Hayden Pritchard must reveal pertinent details of this service to government ministers.

On Thursday, Rambharat said neither Rowley nor National Security Minister Edmund Dillon raised any concerns with him about his visit to the academy.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams confirmed that historically the Police Service has been providing a service in the form of firearms training for government ministers and public officials. I do not see this as a matter for the public especially which government official has a firearm and where he or she goes to train, Williams said.
Dont blame PP for red sand shortage

Moonilal, who was housing minister under the PP and line minister for the Estate Management Business Development Corporation (EMBD) insisted, When we were in office, we kept the supply flowing. At the post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Anns on Thursday, Rambharat said the EMBD purportedly issued letters of award to six contractors to operate its sand pits on June 10, 2015.

Rambharat said the PP was aware that these sandpits were being operated without a mining license.

He said the EMBDs checks found no evidence of this and asked Moonilal to assist in finding any documentation that would verify or disprove this. Moonilal refused to assist Rambharat and accused him of causing a construction crisis in the country. He should resign, Moonilal said.

He quipped, Minister Rambharat should spend more time doing his ministerial work rather than on the shooting range.

On Thursday, Rambharat said interim measures have been implemented to keep the sand pits in operation.

He said the EMBD will issue a request for proposals that will see the pits being operated in a more efficient manner.

He said instead of sand pit operators being paid a flat fee to operate the pits, the fees paid to them will now be directly linked to the amount of sand mined from the pits.
One year after it lifted visa requirements for Chinese nationals, Morocco is steadily tapping into the Chinese tourist market with arrivals by July 2017 rising to 50,000 compared to 10,000 in the whole year of 2015.

Soon after the visa exemption decision was taken during King Mohammed VIs visit to Beijing, the number of Chinese arrivals in Morocco grew 300% in the last quarter of 2016, standing at 40,000 tourists attracted mainly to the cities of Casablanca, Fez and Ouarzazate.

As it seeks to diversify its tourist emitting markets, Morocco sees enormous opportunities in the Chinese market, which has 130 million tourists traveling abroad annually and spending generously.

Morocco therefore is set to attract more tourists from China to reach 100,000 visitors and one million Chinese tourists in ten years.

Meeting this goal hinges on preparing Moroccan tourist professionals to be up to the expectations of Chinese tourists. In this respect, training tourist guides and tourist professionals at hotels and main attraction facilities to speak Mandarin is a necessary measure.

A direct airlink between Morocco and China would further encourage Chinese tourists to visit the North African country.

So far, Morocco tried to improve its connectivity with China through establishing partnerships with three key international airlines  Etihad Airways, Turkish Airlines and Air France  with a view to increasing the number of regular flights connecting Chinese cities with Moroccos prime tourist destinations.

Last January, Morocco won the prize of Best Potential Destination 2016 awarded by the Global Times Forum, an annual event held in Beijing by the leading English-speaking media outlet in China, the Global Times.

The Prize is awarded every year to the best destination on the basis of three criteria: visa procedure, tourist attraction rate and tourist satisfaction indicators.
Rescue workers move a victim on a stretcher after a car plowed through a crowd of counterdemonstrators, as white nationalists attempted to stage a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Three people are dead and at least 33 injured after a series of violent clashes erupted at a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. In the most extreme incident, 20-year-old white nationalist James Alex Fields plowed his car into a group of counterprotestors, killing one person, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, and injuring 19. Fields has been charged with second-degree murder, and the Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation into the incident.

Two state troopers were also killed when their helicopter, which had been assisting with the police response to the rally, crashed outside the city later in the day.

The violent clashes in Charlottesville injured at least another 14 people beyond the car attack, and led Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency late Saturday morning. President Trump also spoke out against the violence, though not the rally, in a tweet and in an afternoon statement to reporters.

Below is an overview of what we know  and dont know  as of Sunday morning.

People receiving first aid after a car ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA. Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

The Hit-and-Run Attack on Protestors

Graphic videos and images of the horrific car attack and its aftermath were posted on social media. They show a grey Dodge Challenger accelerating into a crowd of protestors near Water and Fourth Streets in Charlottesville, crashing into both people and rear-ending another car, then reversing into more people:

Video of driving through crowd of protesters in #Charlottesville



pic.twitter.com/dckPhX3fxf  Severin Jahn (@severin_jahn) August 12, 2017

Video of car hitting anti-racist protestors. Let there be no confusion: this was deliberate terrorism. My prayers with victims. Stay home. pic.twitter.com/MUOZs71Pf4  Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) August 12, 2017

Insane photos from a @DailyProgress staffer, who was there right as a car struck dozens of protesters: https://t.co/jMGuXcPyVA pic.twitter.com/n1Hg95v9wM  Jake Jarvis (@JakeJarvisWV) August 12, 2017

A 32-year-old woman was killed in the collision and another 19 people were injured  including five critically. Many are already calling the incident an act of domestic terrorism, but it was not originally known if the driver acted out of panic or malice. His motive is still not confirmed, but he has been charged with second-degree murder, among other crimes related to the incident.

The car that allegedly plowed through a crowd of protestors marching through a downtown shopping district is seen after the vehicle was stopped by police several blocks away. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

James Alex Fieldss mugshot. Photo: Handout

The Driver

Authorities say they have arrested a 20-year-old Ohio man James Alex Fields Jr. and charged him with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death. He was arrested after fleeing the scene of the collision with protestors. Authorities have not identified him as the driver of the car used in the attack, but that car was registered to a man of the same name and age. Fields is being held without bail and will be arraigned on Monday.

It is not yet confirmed why Fields crashed into the protestors, but more details emerged about him over the weekend. He apparently lives in Maumee, Ohio, near Toledo, and the Toledo Blade reports that, according to his mother, he was in Charlottesville to attend the white-nationalist rally, though she said she didnt know much about it. She said that she tried to stay out of his political views, but that he had dropped off his cat so he could go to an alt-right rally in Virginia. I thought it had something to do with Trump, she told the Blade. They had moved to Ohio from Kentucky last year, and James had moved out of her apartment five-to-six months ago.

Buzzfeed News additionally reports that a Facebook page that appeared to belong to Fields featured posts showing alt-right memes, making references to Nazism and white supremacy, and indicating support for President Trump. Fields was also photographed holding symbols of the Vanguard America white supremacist group on Saturday, but the group denies they had any ties to him.

James Alex Fields was w/ the Vanguard America folks in #Charlottesville. Learn more about the group > https://t.co/HNloF8Btnf @ADL_National pic.twitter.com/TmJLi0kfZo  Oren Segal (@orensegal) August 13, 2017

Fieldss former high school history teacher told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Fields was very bright but also misguided and disillusioned. According to the teacher, Derek Weimer, Fields took a special interest in Nazi history and ideals:

A lot of boys get interested in the Germans and Nazis because theyre interested in World War II. But James took it to another level. He researched everything and had an intellectual argument for all his points, which is something you just dont see that often.

There are definitely students with these kinds of thoughts and feelings  but normally if you present them with an intellectual argument, they can see both sides. But James was definitely different.

Weimar also lamented, with regards to what happened Saturday, that I feel like I failed and that we all failed.

Fields registered as a Republican last year and voted in both Ohios primary and last years presidential election. It also appears that Fields served in the U.S. Army for about four months in 2015, but left for reasons that are not yet clear.

The FBI announced on Saturday night that they were opening a federal civil-rights investigation into the hit-and-run.

Heather Heyer Photo: Heather Heyer/Facebook

The Victims of the Car Attack and Clashes

A 32-year-old Virginia woman, Heather Heyer, was killed in the hit-and-run. She was struck while crossing the street. She worked as a paralegal in Charlottesville, where she also lived. She came to the rally as a counterprotester on Saturday.

Friends have set up an online fundraiser at GoFundMe for her family. On that page, a statement from Heyers mother reads, She died doing what was right. My heart is broken, but I am forever proud of her.

Heyers mother also gave a heart-wrenching interview to HuffPost about her daughters activism and charity, and expressed her sorrow over whatever led her daughters alleged murderer to do what he did.

Her last public post on Facebook, published a few weeks after last years presidential election, was the quote, If youre not outraged, youre not paying attention.

For more about Heyer and how her friends and family are remembering her, head here.

The University of Virginia Medical Center reports that another 19 people were injured when the car plowed into the crowd, including five people who were admitted to the hospital in critical condition. It is not clear if they were all counterprotestors or not, but it seems likely that most of them were. None of those victims, or any of the other injured, have been officially identified.

A woman receives first aid after being injured in the car attack. Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Fourteen more people were injured in clashes throughout the day, but little is yet known about them except that none experienced life-threatening injuries.

Two state police officers were also killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday afternoon.

These are the victims of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia https://t.co/kyKdGFV65m pic.twitter.com/FPporIFHcY  Michelle Broder Van Dyke (@MBVD) August 13, 2017

The Helicopter Crash

The violent clashes and car-ramming attack were not the only tragedies to strike Charlottesville on Saturday. Late in the afternoon, after the unrest had been quelled, two state troopers were killed when their helicopter crashed near a golf course about seven miles southwest of the city. The helicopter had been conducting surveillance on clashes in Charlottesville. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash, but the men killed in the crash have been identified as 48-year-old H. Jay Cullen and the pilot, Berke M.M. Bates, who was one day shy of his 41st birthday.

The Unite the Right White-Nationalist Rally and Subsequent Violence

A major white-nationalist rally had been planned for Saturday in Charlottesville. Organizers hoped to mount the largest white-nationalist rally in decades, and was focused on the idea that the assembled would take America back and protest the upcoming removal of a statue of Confederate icon Robert E. Lee from Charlottesvilles Emancipation Park (which was formerly known as Lee Park). Hundreds of white nationalists, including neo-Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and other white-supremacist groups, descended on the city on Friday and Saturday, many carrying flags with swastikas and other racist logos and chanting Nazi slogans like Blood and soil! Rally attendees, carrying torches, also marched across the mostly empty campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on Friday night.

The white-nationalist rally also attracted counterprotestors, and when rally attendees attempted to march in Charlottesville on Saturday morning, they were met by those protestors, leading to violent clashes.

As Charlottesvilles The Daily Progress reports in detail, some people on both sides of the conflict came ready to fight, armed with weapons and wearing defensive gear. They hurled rocks and other projectiles at each other, swung clublike weapons, and reportedly released pepper spray and other substances into the air as cops initially stood back.

ProPublica notes that the white supremacists who arrived on Saturday had spent months openly planning for war:

The Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website, encouraged rally attendees to bring shields, pepper spray, and fascist flags and flagpoles. A prominent racist podcast told its listeners to come carrying guns. Bring whatever you need, that you feel you need for your self defense. Do what you need to do for security of your own person, said Mike Enoch Peinovich on The Right Stuff podcast.

And the white supremacists who showed up in Charlottesville did indeed come prepared for violence. Many wore helmets and carried clubs, medieval-looking round wooden shields, and rectangular plexiglass shields, similar to those used by riot police.

The resulting violence was well-documented on social media:

Chris Cantwell, one of the fiery speakers is down, is pepper sprayed and screaming as the Traditonalist Workers are backed into a corner. pic.twitter.com/JO7qz8Zp1c  Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) August 12, 2017

Earlier in a parking garage in #Charlottesville - white supremacists beat this black kid w/poles. [Photo for by @zdroberts @NationofChange] pic.twitter.com/LLPBPjb8si  Zach D Roberts (@zdroberts) August 12, 2017

There they are. All it took was a state of emergency declaration #charlottesville pic.twitter.com/mw8wqlinHT  Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) August 12, 2017

Battle lines form between white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and members of the alt-right, and anti-fascist counterprotestors at the entrance to Emancipation Park during the Unite the Right rally on August 12. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The State of Emergency and (Late) Police Intervention

Because of the escalating violence, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency at about 11 a.m., and police ordered the rally attendees and counterprotestors to disperse or face arrest. They were able to evacuate Emancipation Park, but clashes continued throughout the city during the dispersal.

It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property, Governor McAuliffe explained. The governor, whose order activated the Virginia National Guard, also said that he was disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours.

In all, it appears that at least 14 people were admitted to University of Virginia Medical Center for injuries sustained in the street clashes, in addition to the 19 people who were injured and one person who was killed when a car rammed into counterprotestors, which occurred after the rally was mostly broken up by police.

Charlottesville authorities are already being criticized for their delayed and inadequate response to the rally, their restraint after things starting going haywire, and their general inability to prevent the ensuing violence. ProPublica reports that despite weeks of detailed planning by officials on how to handle the event, [I]t appears that the strategy was to avoid direct confrontations with the protesters, and that didnt work at all.

The Washington Post talked to a former police chief who was puzzled by how police responded to the rally:

The whole point is to have overwhelming force so that people dont get the idea they can do these kinds of things and get away with it, said Charles H. Ramsey, who headed both the District and Philadelphia police departments. Demonstrators and counterdemonstrators need to be in sight and sound of each other, but somebody has to be in between, he said. Thats usually the police.

Complicating the dynamics was the fact that several dozen groups of armed militias  men in full camouflage toting assault-style weapons  were in the middle of the crowds. Some claimed that they were there to keep the peace, although none appeared to try to stop the skirmishes.

Other reports indicate some of the militia-types did more than the police to break up fights, at least in the beginning.

On Saturday night, the Charlottesville City Council issued an emergency ordinance allowing authorities to institute a curfew in an effort to prevent further violence. There were also other arrests made on Saturday in addition to the hit-and-run driver Fields:

UPDATE: 3 arrested in connection with events in Charlottesville today. #cvilleaug12 pic.twitter.com/kGAjfsMFv9  VA State Police (@VSPPIO) August 13, 2017

The Response From Trump and the White House

As news of the clashes spread, U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the aisle quickly condemned the violence, most notable among them President Trump, who initially responded on Twitter:

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security, as well as White House Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert, then offered their assistance to McAuliffe and local authorities.

Am in Bedminster for meetings & press conference on V.A. & all that we have done, and are doing, to make it better-but Charlottesville sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

On Saturday afternoon, before a scheduled event related to veterans health care, President Trump first gave a statement to his press pool about the violence in Charlottesville. In those remarks, he condemned this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, and seemed to try to distance Saturdays events from his presidency.

Trump on #Charlottesville: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" pic.twitter.com/qdvhcnCTpD  NBC News (@NBCNews) August 12, 2017

Trumps oddly worded tweets and statement, which conspicuously didnt mention white nationalism or neo-Nazis, was not surprising given his long history of hesitating to speak out against white-on-minority violence, despite his willingness to condemn a lot of other things. Such an omission also aligned with his administrations apparent priorities: In June, the Trump administration dropped DHS funding for a group dedicated to de-radicalizing white-nationalist extremists.

President Trump also offered his condolences, via Twitter on Saturday night, to the families of the woman who was killed in the car incident, as well as the two state troopers who died in the helicopter crash.

The Response From Other Republicans

Republican leaders quickly spoke out, but did so much like Trump: issuing anodyne (and in Mitch McConnells case, confusing) statements that failed to address why the rally in Charlottesville was taking place, and which seemed to take a both sides approach to the violent rioting.

The hate and bigotry witnessed in #Charlottesville does not reflect American values. I wholeheartedly oppose their actions.  Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 12, 2017

I stand with @POTUS against hate & violence. U.S is greatest when we join together & oppose those seeking to divide us. #Charlottesville https://t.co/p76Y9xQCPL  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) August 12, 2017

House Speaker Paul Ryan went a little farther:

The views fueling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 12, 2017

But later, after President Trump failed to condemn white nationalism in his afternoon remarks, GOP lawmakers were bolder in their denunciations:

Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW  Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) August 12, 2017

Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 12, 2017

What " WhiteNatjonalist" are doing in Charlottesville is homegrown terrorism that can't be tolerated anymore that what Any extremist does  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 12, 2017

We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH  Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 12, 2017

This post has been updated throughout to reflect new details about Saturdays events.
Trump talk. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump  who has spent the past week issuing blustery threats to North Korea, insisting that the U.S. is locked and loaded, and asserting that hes ready to launch a preemptive strike on the country should peace negotiations fail  seems to have also tried some basic diplomacy on Friday with calls to the president of China and the governor of Guam.

North Korea specifically threatened Guam on Wednesday in response to Trumps promise on Tuesday to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen upon the rogue nation should they threaten the U.S. again.

Speaking with Guams governor, Eddie Baza Calvo, on Friday, Trump said that the White House was with the territory 1,000 percent and joked that the crisis was actually good for the island, as it was now making Calvo and Guam famous and would result in a tenfold increase in tourism. The Republican governor released a video of the exchange, in which the pair repeatedly thank and praise each other. (Trump assured Calvo that you are safe, and Calvo responded that, I have never felt more safe or so confident with you at the helm.)

Of course, Guam has also been reminding its 160,000 residents, despite there being no threat to our island, that in the event of a nuclear explosion nearby, they should not risk blindness by looking directly at the flash or fireball, or use hair conditioner afterward, since that would bind radioactive material to their hair. North Korea has not actually threatened to nuke Guam, but has instead threatened to land ballistic missiles  ones that it says could carry a nuclear payload  off the coast of the U.S. territory as a demonstration of its retaliatory capabilities. North Korean state media also dubiously claimed on Saturday that 3.5 million North Koreans have asked to join the military in response to the rising tension with the U.S.

In the call with Calvo, Trump didnt seem impressed with North Korea, and also seemed to think that his own threats were having their desired effect:

You notice [North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] hasnt spoken recently. He doesnt talk so much anymore. And well see how it all works out, but youre not going to have a problem. This is between you and I, but you dont talk like they talk. You cant do that. You cant do that with people like us.

Told how beautiful Guam looked in all the news coverage by Trump, Governor Calvo responded that, Its a paradise  we got 95 percent occupancy and after all this stuff calms down, were going to have 110 percent occupancy.

Also on Friday, President Trump spoke with Chinese president Xi Jinping, who reportedly told Trump that the relevant sides must at present exercise restraint, and avoid words and actions that exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula. Xi also reiterated to Trump, according to media reports in China, that the U.S. and China are aligned in wanting the denuclearization of North Korea and peace. A White House statement on the call said that both Trump and Xi, who have an extremely close relationship, agreed that North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior.

Trump will make an official visit to China later this year. There are also reports that the White House will announce on Monday that its opening an investigation into Chinas treatment of intellectual property, though its not clear what effect this would have on U.S.-China cooperation over the North Korea crisis.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In The Wall Street Journal this afternoon, James Damore, the Google engineer fired for his bad memo, explained why he was fired from Google. Ill save you some time: He was, according to him, fired from Google because the company is a liberal haven whose employees are afraid to leave their comfort zones. It uses the term echo chamber no less than five times.

Damore believes that, I committed heresy against the Google creed by stating that not all disparities between men and women that we see in the world are the result of discriminatory treatment.

He wonders, How did Google, the company that hires the smartest people in the world, become so ideologically driven and intolerant of scientific debate and reasoned argument?

But shockingly, or maybe not shockingly, Damore seems uninterested, or unable, in responding to the scientific debate and reasoned argument his memo engendered. Since his memo was published, plenty of people have responded to it with reasoned arguments that cite scientific and academic findings; he may be annoyed with Google, but surely he has time to participate in the scientific debate he so eagerly seeks?

While James is raging against the dearth of scientific argument on alt-right YouTube and the WSJ op-ed section, here are a few scientists that he hasnt yet found the time to respond to.

Suzanne Sadedin, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist, supplies a point-by-point breakdown on Quora:

His implicit model is that cognitive traits must be either biological (i.e. innate, natural, and unchangeable) or non-biological (i.e., learned by a blank slate). This nature versus nurture dichotomy is completely outdated and nobody in the field takes it seriously. Rather, modern research is based on the much more biologically reasonable view that neurological traits develop over time under the simultaneous influence of epigenetic, genetic and environmental influences. Everything about humans involves both nature and nurture.

Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, who have studied gender and STEM for 25 years, in Recode:

Several major books have debunked the idea of important brain differences between the sexes. Lise Eliot, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School, did an exhaustive review of the scientific literature on human brains from birth to adolescence. She concluded, in her book Pink Brain, Blue Brain, that there is surprisingly little solid evidence of sex differences in childrens brains.

Rebecca Jordan-Young, a sociomedical scientist and professor at Barnard College, also rejects the notion that there are pink and blue brains, and that the differing organization of female and male brains is the key to behavior. In her book Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences, she says that this narrative misunderstands the complexities of biology and the dynamic nature of brain development.

Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychology professor at the University of New Mexico, in Quillette:

American businesses also have to face the fact that the demographic differences that make diversity useful will not lead to equality of outcome in every hire or promotion. Equality or diversity: choose one. In my opinion, given that sex differences are so well-established, and the sexes have such intricately complementary quirks, it may often be sensible, in purely practical business terms, to aim for more equal sex ratios in many corporate teams, projects, and divisions.

David P. Schmitt, whose research Damore cited, in Psychology Today:

Still, it is not clear to me how such sex differences are relevant to the Google workplace. And even if sex differences in negative emotionality were relevant to occupational performance at Google (e.g., not being able to handle stressful assignments), the size of these negative emotion sex differences is not very large (typically, ranging between small to moderate in statistical effect size terminology; accounting for perhaps 10% of the variance). Using someones biological sex to essentialize an entire group of peoples personality is like surgically operating with an axe. Not precise enough to do much good, probably will cause a lot of harm. Moreover, men are more emotional than women in certain ways, too. Sex differences in emotion depend on the type of emotion, how it is measured, where it is expressed, when it is expressed, and lots of other contextual factors. How this all fits into the Google workplace is unclear to me. But perhaps it does.

Cynthia Lee, Ph.D., a computer-science lecturer at Stanford, writing for Vox:

In the end, focusing the conversation on the minutiae of the scientific claims in the manifesto is a red herring. Regardless of whether biological differences exist, there is no shortage of glaring evidence, in individual stories and in scientific studies, that women in tech experience bias and a general lack of a welcoming environment, as do underrepresented minorities. Until these problems are resolved, our focus should be on remedying that injustice. After that work is complete, we can reassess whether small effect size biological components have anything to do with lingering imbalances.

Dan Davies, equity analyst (okay, so not a scientist, but a thoughtful statistical response), writing on Crooked Timber:

The true underlying distributions would be useful if Googles hiring process was to select people at random from the population, put them through a standard test of the single quality variable of interest, then take the ones who passed the test and discard the ones who failed. As a description of how recruitment processes dont work, this is pretty spot on. Google (like any other company  I first started making this argument in the 1990s when McKinsey were publishing their incredibly influential, amazingly wrong and massively destructive War For Talent series) fills jobs by advertising for vacancies or encouraging through word of mouth and recruiters, using interview questions and tests which might have unknown biases, and recruiting people for their suitability for the roles currently vacant (which is not the same thing as quality because companies change all the time but keep the same employees. Each one of these stages is enough of a departure from the random sampling model to mean that the population distributions are not relevant.

Looking forward to Damores rational and thoughtful responses.
To many Ugandan youths, making it in life is when one is fully employed and gets married. But journalist Rose Amutuhaire has a different view.

She is actually quitting her job this month for further studies in the Netherlands. She told Christopher Tusiime about her interests in academia and fighting for the rights of women.

Growing up, Amutuhaire witnessed a lot of injustices being inflicted on girls. Many in her village never stepped in school, besides being forced into early marriages. But all these were just a tip of an iceberg: her eyes would see much more in the subsequent years.

Rose Amutuhaire

She tried to do anything within her means to ensure changes in the lives of the vulnerable girls.

My first job was working as a girl child development officer for two years at Vice Uganda. Here, I tried to advocate for rights of girls in schools, do some empowerment and tell them that they are equally capable and can do what boys do, says Amutuhaire, adding that such work gives her satisfaction.

Vice Uganda is a non-government organization that fights for the rights of vulnerable children. But later, things even got worse. Amutuhaire would later witness incidents where bosses demand for sex from female job seekers.

Although she couldnt give us details, she says she is a victim of sexual harassment at work. This was not only hurting, but also posed a great challenge to her since her childhood dream had always been seeing that girls and women are not mistreated, or forced to do things against their will.

I have worked in many places, but what I see is so disheartening. Some female workers are forced to give in to their bosses so as to secure or maintain jobs, she says. What hurts more is that once you do that, you will have lost value and respect. You will forever keep mentally devastated.

FAMILY, EDUCATION

Amutuhaire was born in 1988 to Claudio Bagyendagye and Constance Korukiiko in Kikondera village, Bubweju district. She completed her P7 from Kampala primary school, attended Kampala secondary school from S1 to S3, and was transferred to Butare secondary school for her S4.

After completing A-level at Sacred Heart secondary school, Amutihaire pursued a diploma in Information Technology at Makerere University, and graduated in 2011.

But then, I felt I was going to lose the battle by failing to help girls facing numerous challenges. Thus, I decided to at least be their mouthpiece by pursuing a diploma in Mass Communication from United Media Consultants and Trainers (UMCAT) in 2011, she says.

The former reporter of Ssuubi FM later went back to Makerere University and attained a bachelors degree in Social Sciences in 2015. Subsequently, Amutuhaire decided to use her diploma in journalism to address some of the issues affecting women in society by choosing to be a parliamentary reporter.

At times, I face off with these female parliamentarians and ask them what they are doing about harassment and segregation of women and girls in society, she says.

I ensure I play their sound bytes during the 11am English news at Mama FM, with hope that I am helping some stranded girl or woman out there.

SCHOLARSHIP

It was a few months ago that an opportunity knocked at her academic door. I applied for a scholarship from the Netherlands Fellowship Program (NFP), and I am so delighted that Im now among the 37 Africans who will, on August 31, go to Erasmus University in Netherlands for a masters degree, Amutuhaire says.

She adds that while applying, she focused on the very course that is in line with her aspirations.

I will be pursuing a masters degree in Human Rights, Gender and Conflict. In brief, it is called Social Justice Perspectives, she says.

After this, I am sure I will be more capable of fighting for womens rights and empowering them because I will have acquired more knowledge and skills. She intimates that it was actually the second time she was applying for the scholarship after the first attempt proved unsuccessful.

They [NFP officials] have since been monitoring me, seeing what my aspirations are, and no doubt this time round I was considered. Its something that will change my whole life for the better, Amutuhaire envisages.

FOCUSING ON ACADEMICS

Amutuhaire is among the few Ugandans thinking of a future centered around impacting on other peoples lives.

I actually dont even plan to have businesses as you may think. I just want to get a PhD in human rights studies and become a lecturer. Lecturing against female sexual harassment in a university will leave me so peaceful, says Amutuhaire, who enjoys reading the Bible and going to church during her free time.

She also looks to becoming a motivational speaker who would traverse the country preaching rights of women and ensuring their fair representation in the media.

Currently, many journalists dont even consider female sources while gathering news. That is very sad. One wonders how these mothers of ours, our daughters, our sisters and children will ever have their issues known if the media never considers hearing from them, she wonders, with a sorrowful facial expression.

Up on return from the Netherlands, Amutuhaire vows to rejoin the Uganda Media Womens Association to ensure women get a better share in media. Well, the Bible says that any mature woman should not keep alone.

Nonetheless, Amutuhaire has given it some more time, and is not searching. Its two years from now that I will get married. For now, I am still on a mission and I have to complete it. I need to see a society where women and girls are living happily, Amutuhaire says.

tusiime.chris20@gmail.com
I love that Mark Hamil's twitter now solely exists to shade the fuck out of Trump

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I love that the cast of Star Wars openly drag Tr*mp, from Mark all the way down to Diego and Felicity (especially the former).

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it's funny because I'm sure Mark's twitter mentions are full of conservatives whining about how he's ruining Star Wars for them or something, but they'll still be there opening weekend in December.

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And they will never, ever be as beloved as Mark, so they can stfu.

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I have no words for that fucking rally. And most of thos epeople knew they were doing something wrong because they were in disguises.

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You're absolutely correct but no one in this administration can even fake it. Idk. I'm just tired of everything. Ignore my comment. lol.

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They also beat up and threw torches at the kids counter-protesting

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Lmaooooooo were you expecting him to speak against them? He's the reason they aren't wearing hoodies anymore. This is what you get when you put a klansmen in the Whitehouse. They know the state backs them, that nothing is going to happen to them.

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This makes me really fucking sad. I hate this man. Genuinely loathe him to the point of hoping and praying for him to be [redacted].



I spent a good amount of time in Charlottesville during school because I had friends at UVA, and this is not the Charlottesville I remember (aside from the anti-KKK protestors). I can't imagine the kind of white trash that will come out of the woodwork when Richmond, VA ultimately tears down their monuments to the Confederacy on Monument Ave. I hope they tear down the Confederate White House, too. Or that someone burns it down. All these men and women are scum and I can't even find the words to express how much I fucking hate the state of things right now.

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I live in Richmond and I'm frankly terrified of what's going to happen when the monuments are taken down.

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I hope he gets [redacted], too. Tbh I'm surprised and disappointed it hasn't happened yet.

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I lived in Charlottesville for a decade (left last August) & seeing the pictures of Neo-Nazis carrying torches at my former university is so horrifying. The stories I'm reading in the news and what I'm seeing on FB (the counter protestors had no police protection & one of the student deans went in with just one other person to protect them) are making me so sad/angry.

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Amen. Listen to Mr. Rogers and look for the helpers, though.

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it's a very white town so they probably dont feel as scared to protest there. we'll see what happens when this debate moves to richmond and those monuments get torn down.

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charlottesville resident here, one of the reasons that cville was picked for all these protest spots is bc we're more liberal. in the past election we voted 80% democrat and jason kessler specifically was upset at the community for "blaming white people for everything" and that's why he organized the rally to stick it to the strong liberal community. spencer and all the other fucks also came in droves to support him since they came last month for the kkk rally and it just blew the fuck up

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How is that town name not horrifying in the extreme?

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They had tiki torches the ones that are 5 bucks at Bed Bath and Beyond. On the bright side, the citronella in there kept the mosquitos away

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lmao their flop asses can't even make a proper torch

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I wish the mosquitos would have taken one for the team and fought through the fog to attack them

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Come throughhhhh west nileeeee

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lmao

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I saw someone on Twitter pointing out that they are Polynesian-style torches and how ironic and indicative of education level it is for these racists to be using them which is a really good point. lmao like I guess they're only invested in tradition if it's easy.

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lmao how... resourceful

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Made in China

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Mueller's probe is moving with unusual speed and assertiveness, per half a dozen legal experts following the case. https://t.co/1iV4Dx6X8f  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 12, 2017

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Can't wait to see in a few weeks what was going on this week that Trump was trying to distract people from.

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That's really what all his North Korea talk was. Distract from what's going on and he's dumb enough to fall for what Kim Jong Un is doing.

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Come through Mueller!

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I'm so worried Swan will take down everyone but Trump himself

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Daddy Mueller, take down this bitch!!

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the videos of them shouting "blood and soil" are disturbing

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what does that even mean

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It's an original Nazi slogan.

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That it's not their soil and that it hasn't been drenched in their ancestor's blood, but they still claim it/use it as an excuse to pull the Real American card.

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It's the english for Blut und Boden which was one of the central NS ideologies and meant to prop up the arian farmers as opposed to us dirty nomadic and/or urban jews. It was also the central term of the NS agriculture policy.

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What itwalksamongus said. It's the idea of the ethnic superiority of people who come from the land, descended by blood from people who've been there for generations and who worked the land, as opposed to the cosmopolitan Jews (who weren't allowed to farmw) and industrialists. It's an explicitly Nazi version of Real Americans, basically. Which is delusional enough in Germany, but REAL fucking dumb in the US, especially in a former slave state.



Thomas Jefferson, who founded UVA, was all about the noble agrarian bullshit, and his white descendants have notoriously denied his black descendants, as has the FFV their black descendants, so this seems like exactly where they would do their dumb citronella goosestepping

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Good God. Apparently they were chanting "they won't replace us" as well

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An actual arrestable offence in Germany, to be chanting something so blatantly Nazi in public

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I really want Maduro out but I swear I'm praying right now US does not intervene. Worst thing is some people actually want that and are like "YES!" reading the news. Even watching a fucking movie you can see the horrors of war? It's not like they'll drop a bomb in miraflores and everything will be magically fixed.



Also, how come no one detained those white "protesters"? The world is fucked man

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I did see some comments on a news story of airbnb banning white supremacists related to this rally, some white people are like same should be done for BLM.

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there was more law enforcement in that pepsi commercial than at this rally

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I don't get how the point of the BLM movement can go over anyone's head

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Out screaming "blue lives matter" tbh

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Because the cops are probably like those protesters  nazis in uniform.



I don't know about the demography of Charlottesville but judging from the name, most people in that place seem white.

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There were ppl on reddit giving out stock tips in the event of war with China or NK. Saying they should invest in arms corporations or whatever. These ppl are so disconnected from humanity.

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Yeah Maduro should be out but if history has taught us something is that US intervention is not the answer, specially in latin-america, they have done enough damage here so gringos should stay in their fucking country and stop with this nonsense, and to the people who are agreeing with US intervention it's like, watch the fucking news and read a history book, not even with better presidents they were a good idea , what do they expect with tramp???





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Mte

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change gif to white ppl

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give me a gif and ill change it

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Op change the fucking title!!! They're NEO-NAZIS stop with this alt-right shit!! What do they have to do to be called what they actually are?

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it was being called an "alt-right" rally. i'm obvs calling them what they are in the summary

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I've seen plenty OPs change or mock the original headlines so that's not an excuse.







Edit: I see you changed it so thank you.



Edited at 2017-08-12 02:03 pm (UTC)

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Thank you OP!

"Alt-right" is more like bullshit term for what they really are Neo-Nazis.



Edited at 2017-08-12 03:46 pm (UTC)

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Yep. I really can't understand why people, especially members of the media, use the term "alt-right" instead of calling them for what they are.

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Petition for alt-Reich

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omg i had completely forgotten my chrome has that word replacer and i've replaced "alt-r*ght" with neo-nazi so some of these comments had me confused



no wonder i had forgotten about that bullshit term

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Idk why that gif is only blaming men when those nazis are the sons,daughters,wives and husbands of both white MEN and WOMEN.

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damn you guys will get mad about anything. it's the only relevant gif i had saved jfc.

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lol icb ppl are so shook up over a gif



classic ontd

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I appreciate you bb <3

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Getting my own pitchfork tiki torch right now to march against you tbh



Edited at 2017-08-12 02:32 pm (UTC)

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and the fact that anyone thinks you of all people capes for white women is ridiculous

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I seriously can't believe this mad man is still in office. Fucking all Republicans should be hanged for treason imo. What a disgusting display of party over country.



Edited at 2017-08-12 01:45 pm (UTC)

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???? why would any of those people know that scumbag had a warrant out for his arrest? i hope her r*pist is jailed and his life is ruined but this lawsuit makes no sense.



edit: went to the source; apparently he worked for the arena, so maybe she's got some ground to stand on there?



Edited at 2017-08-12 04:32 pm (UTC)

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She has a case against the security company that hired him, but not the artists on stage, the touring company or the arena.

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How were they supposed to know the security guy was a rapist??

The company that hired him should be held responsible for this, not the artists.



Edited at 2017-08-12 04:36 pm (UTC)

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It's about indemnification. You don't know which contracts indemnify (promise that they are not responsible for any legal consequences) who against who, so you sue all of them.

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yeah neither the source nor the article on his arrest on The Tennessean say he was working security, just that he was "associated with the arena"

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That's awful. No one in the arena or companies ran a background check on this guy?

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Tens of thousands of people go to these concerts, you can't run background checks on everybody who buys a ticket. And not everybody buys tickets directly from the venue or Ticketmaster

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if you're too lazy to read a summary you should refrain from commenting altogether.

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He worked for the arena, the arena should do background checks on thier employees.

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She may have a case against the security company but not the artists.

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it's all interlinked. their management hired the security company who then hired the said individual without checking his background so technically she has a case against the entire food chain. and i'm sorry but i have a hard time believing the company just slipped up this one time. i'm sure there's all sorts of negligence they're guilty of. the artists' management should have done a better check up and hired someone more reliable.

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It's still not the artists responsibility. They did not hire the guy. That falls on the security company. Im sorry she got raped but atleast he's being charged, this lawsuit seems frivolous though. Although it may just be her lawyers that want to try and see if they can get more money.



Edited at 2017-08-12 05:22 pm (UTC)

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nah, they can suffer too.

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Of course they're not directly linked but when suing you have to sue all of the parts and it's their job to prove they aren't part of the equation here, also so the artists pressure the companies in this case to act and try to solve the issue

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I'm sorry that she was raped and I'm glad that they caught her rapist and are charging him, but this lawsuit is unnecessary, greedy, and dumb



EDIT: Misread, didn't catch he was an employee. Still not Drake, Future, or the touring company's fault, and definitely not a $25m-worthy suit.



Edited at 2017-08-12 05:44 pm (UTC)

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Not their fault, but unfortunately with lawsuits, it's a food chain and everyone involved is liable. See post above.

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The ptsd, physical pain, and other complications associated with rape shouldn't have a price tag, calling her greedy is shitty

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It's terrible yes, but the money isn't going to take away any of those things either. There's really no need to ask for such an exorbitant amount.

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this is a bad writeup. who was the rapist employed by/what was he employed as?



anyway i wish her strength. we all know how rape cases go.



Edited at 2017-08-12 05:13 pm (UTC)

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I am sorry about what she had to go through but this lawsuit is just a cash grab. how does the blame fall on the artists for this?

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because their management hired the said security company who then hired the rapist. like it's really not that hard to figure it out. i can't with all of your asses calling a rape victim greedy. given the fact that her rapist will most likely walk free with a slap on his wrist, i would sue the shit out of whoever put him in a position of power that he so horrifically abused.

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Unless she can prove that they knew about his outstanding warrants she has no case against management or the artists. The security company is the only one that she may have ground to stand on.

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The management likely didn't hire the security company at all. Unless it was drake / future's private personal security person rather than working for the site.

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tell them!

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but the artists didn't hire the security team, so she has no case against them.

the only way the artists are liable if they knew about the rapist's past and didn't care enough to have him removed from the security team.

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I hope that she's ok and apart of me wonders if there might be more victims.  How long was that man working there?

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I work at an arena and unless things are totally different in the USA the security has nothing to do with the artists. They are hired by the venue, and sometimes the touring company, but never for a specific artist / show only. If future/ drake are responsible, so is every artist to go through that venue.

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I hope she's okay! This is so fucked up. Destroy that man

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Yeah i do suspect its mostly her lawyers who are advising she does this just to get as much money as she can. She is never getting the 25m that they're asking for, thats why it sounds ridiculous. She may get small amount from the parties that are found liable.



Edited at 2017-08-12 06:45 pm (UTC)

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Yep. If a pharmacist accidently dispenses the wrong medication or dosage and something happens to a patient and you're the pharmacy manager, you're getting in trouble if not more than the pharmacist



Life is unfair it sucks

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pretty sure background checks don't verify whether you have a warrant out for your arrest, be it probation warrant, alias capias, capias, etc.



also, you're not supposed to tell anyone who is asking the background check whether or not they have a warrant (unless it's just a probation violation warrant then you can just tell them to contact their bondsman, pd, or turn themselves in and sit in jail for a few days till court).





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YASSSS get these two hacks!



Charge Drake for association with human traffickers too!

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What even is white American culture

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ranch

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lots and lots of casseroles and butter

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That half jog ppl make at the traffic lights when the light is about to turn green

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Gun violence.

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racism

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apparently, "blood and soil". but srsly, it seems like it's a mish-mash of watered-down different european cultures and customs. which makes sense i guess

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Entitlement? Nationalism disguised as patriotism? Starting wars?

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idk but the guys in the video where conflating culture with values, using them interchangeably. But even then the question stands, wtf is American values anyway? (and how are they different from the ones of every single immigrant?).



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stealing shit from other cultures and claiming it as their own

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white supremacy, along with nasty junk food

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calling everyone "buddy"

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I came here to ask this question. Tbh i think when people say this they mean learn english without an accent.

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LulaRoe

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Men just need to stop breathing.

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YES! this has my full support!

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At least put me on life support. I support all.

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i never thought i'd sympathise with jim parsons of all people, but mte

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Same, like am I a Jim Parsons fan now?

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what's wrong with jim? i've only seen him be a sweetheart.

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A lot of countries demand that you learn to integrate completely into their laws and culture(s) to be allowed to get a permanent residency. It doesn't mean you need to forget your culture and/or beliefs. If the government doesn't censor or ban your culture and beliefs, then I don't see anything wrong with assimilation, tbh.



I also dislike Bill Maher so while I'm not against integration, I also disagree with him on everything because his opinions are always from the wrong side.



ps: i forgot this is the USA, what culture if the country is a mix of cultures?



Edited at 2017-08-12 10:10 pm (UTC)

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is like we say here "ni lava ni presta la batea" (sort of "S/he neither washes nor lets others use the washing pan.") = they want to force immigrants to integrate while also allowing racism and xenophobia towards them.

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This! So many people go "oh they're not assimilating" and it's like - what the fuck are you doing to help them assimilate?



You can't just expect people to show up to a new country and just figure it out on their own. People need to extend a hand and say, "hey, these are the kinds of things we like to do here, wanna join us?"



Imagine some white guy from Texas being dropped in the middle of Beijing and everyone refusing to speak to him while going "tsk, he's not fucking assimilating - learn Mandarin you dickhead!". Like, it's ridiculous. How hard is it to reach out to a refugee or new immigrant in your neighbourhood and invite them over for a potluck to get to know them or ask them out to a local event? It requires bare minimum effort that people aren't willing to put in because everyone's so fucking lazy and entitled these days.

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In Germany a lot of immigrates don't integrate into the German culture. They get their children married at a young age. They hate Germans and see them all as victims. They don't even have anything to do with other cultures because they only stay in their groups. I do understand that you want to keep your culture but you need to integrate yourself into the foreign country. You decided to come here.

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But isnt the whole point of usa (okay only on paper but still) supposed to be that we are a melting pot of cultures and immigrants?

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lol fuck him



there is no such thing as "American culture", we killed it when we "colonized" (read: stole) the land and nearly wiped out the natives. The beauty of our country today is that we're a melting pot of every race and culture imaginable. It frustrates me so much when white people act like everyone should adapt to their European traditions as if white people were the first ones here. Newsflash: you fucking weren't. And God forbid that people come here without knowing how to speak English. We don't even have an official language for crying out loud



Edited at 2017-08-12 10:07 pm (UTC)

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WHAT ARE the quakers and the original 13 colonies then?

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Small pox infested colonizers

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an oatmeal and colonization, why

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Oatmeal is white culture!

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didn't you just say you were a leftist in another post?

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this is true. a country created after genocide and immigrants from several different countries with different cultures, there's no such thing as one "American culture"



I think they're confusing government rules with culture...

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I don't get when people say that. Yeah, your country is "new" but so is every country in the continent, and I would never say that mine doesn't have a culture just because there's the unfortunate reality that European colonizers came and fucked shit up. That part of the culture is fucked up and whitewashed? Sure, but that doesn't mean that US culture doesn't exist.

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I mean this isnt really shocking, Americans including those "woke" ones pretty much demand that immigrants assimilate to their culture & way of life or leave. People still have such a problem with ESL people and its disgusting to see how little patience or understanding is given to them on a daily basis. Everyone seems to have adopted "if you're gonna come to my country you play by my rules, learn my language only, blah blah" attitude which often erases other cultures entirely.

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Canadians who complain about people not speaking English drive me up the fucking wall. Like bitch, do you speak French? How fluent is your Inuktitut, Cree, Ojicree, etc? Oh you only speak English? Well take a seat then.



K, merci, meegwetch, bye.





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I agree, I live in Canada now and I still see it, it's gross.

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If you go to live to Japan do you think the schools will change their curriculum to accommodate the American culture of your child?? Get a grip, America is the best place for immigrants in the ENTIRE WORLD and you are still complaining. That attitude will only get Trump re-elected, and deservedly so.

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I am honestly shocked that the US and especially Trump has not changed the law on how children born on american soil automatically become citizens yet

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No, because rich Russians and Chinese are taking advantage of that now. They'll keep making noise about anchor babies and shit, but they're not going to actually do anything lest they piss off their overlords.

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White Americans don't have culture.

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I can only imagine being a good christian and believing the earth is flat and only 2000 year old or some shit 

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Except they do?? It's what they established in Virginia and the original 13 colonies. Sorry that makes you seethe but it's the truth.

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What do we even celebrate from the 13th colonies?? What culture is around of theirs? Besides the desire to wipe out the existence of people with skin darker than yours?



We don't even celebrate thanksgiving the way they did.



Like. Deep fried Twinkies, and hot dogs are not culture. Fuck, white people dont even dominate their own fucking sports.





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true, the charlottesville kkk rally and ensuing domestic terrorist attack were the epitome of white american culture and tradition. can't argue with that.

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you're not even American- the fuckkkkkk you would know?!??!



Edited at 2017-08-12 10:19 pm (UTC)

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give it up

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Of course they do.

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They do but most of it sucks. I do love the sweet potato casserole though.

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I loathe Bill Maher with all my self but the Hollywood Left is INSANE. For starters they don't know ANYTHING outside of their circle, and 2) no other country in THE WORLD cares to even acknowledge the culture of their immigrants. They give citizenship and equal rights under the law and THAT'S IT and you know what?? I'm not sure they are wrong on that approach at all.

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Stylometrists and linguists of ONTD, whose sock account do you think this is?

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i can't think of ANYONE who uses CAPS like THIS ONE

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"no other country in THE WORLD cares to even acknowledge the culture of their immigrants"



... what

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Are you quite sure?



None of the 195 countries acknowledge immigrants' cultures?

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I don't think many are anymore. The MSNBC pundits seem to be avoiding it lately.

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Maybe he was promoting the documentary show he's narrating that just premiered? (humble brag: I was a post-PA on it!) 

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Bill is the wooooooorst

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When I think of American culture, I think of the 1950s. So, not exactly progressive. And it's probably mostly based on the Hollywood projection of it. Either way, I wouldn't know what the current identity of American culture is. And even if there was one, no one can be forced to assimilate to anything. There are some values that I think citizens of a country should believe in but those have mostly to do with the constitution and the laws... so those should be taught (to any citizen tbh new or old).

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agreed, it's about abiding by a nation's laws. cultural diversity is the only good thing going for america, and the idea of shedding and replacing one's unique cultural identity rather than adding to the tapestry goes against what i want america to be about.



everyone here could use a good crash course in our laws and history though (including, or maybe especially, white americans).

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cultural diversity is the only good thing going for america, and the idea of shedding and replacing one's unique cultural identity rather than adding to the tapestry goes against what i want america to be about.



Yep, this! I don't think of the US as a melting pot bc that implies that everyone coming there is thrown into the same cauldron and melted into the same mass. I think of it as pizza. You've got a basic selection of dough and layouts that doesn't change and then a theoretically unlimited range of different toppings. Calling for assimilation is like saying that a pizza place ought to only offer pizza margherita when the question that really seems to be on these ppl's minds is whether it should offer burgers or not. And no one's even talking about that.



(ok lol idk about this metaphor but I hope you get my gist)



Edited at 2017-08-13 02:01 pm (UTC)

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There is no American culture, you fools. Unless it's obesity, bad education, and racism (both casual and overt)?



The countries gonna be majority "minority" in like, less than 2 decades. As Symone Sanders says, America is browning. Time to get it together losers

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You sound like a racial supremacist.

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I am. Down with the White People!

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Bet

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Forensic Files, American Justice and City Confidential were my favorite shows as a kid to watch.

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i still watch old american justice on cable and the boston city confidential (stuart case) had david from the rw seattle in it just because he was from there. it was random af.

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I loved the narration on City Confidential. A&E was pretty much my foray into true crime years ago.

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A&E and the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil were most first brushes with true crime

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I still rewatch Medical detectives/Forensic files from time to time.

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I loved City Confidential. RIP Paul Winfield.

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yesssss i wanna marry bill kurtis and peter thomas tbh

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ugh stalked was great- terrifying and informative. I was so mad there were so few episodes

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It's on HLN in the afternoons and late at night. I used to work the night shift and it was the only thing on at 4 a.m., so I watched too much Forensic Files. (And blissfully, they're all solved so I wasn't going to bed, worrying that I was about to be bludgeoned in my sleep by some crazed loose psycho.)

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The longform article on the murder of Joan Rogers and her daughters had me crying. What a horrible way to die.

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That longform is excellent. Michelle fighting to the end broke my heart. Actually she broke my heart full stop.

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Yes and it amazed me how close he came to getting away with it. Seriously, even one bit of evidence that didn't work out would have let that human scum go free.

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i watched that case on id and it was so horrifying, i cant imagine the despair they must have felt on their last moments

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logged in to comment this - so fucking sad. especially as they were getting away because one of the daughters had been sexually abused as a kid and had just come forward about it :(

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One of the worst cases I've ever heard of. Those poor people watching their loved ones die is sicking.

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The last line (or last paragraph) has always stuck with me, how the husband/dad spends time at their graves in the evening because he just wants to talk about his day with his family.

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so I just spent ages reading that and Jesus Christ. white men are the most horrifying thing on this planet.

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It's so horrifying. That episode was one I actually regretted watching, it just wouldn't get out of my head. I haven't read that article before, will definitely check it out.

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Omg nooo my break just ended and here is a post that was made for me.

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I didn't yell OP! I want my money back!!!

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i can't believe they didn't mention the one where a woman and her granddaughter were attacked in their home. the granddaughter ran out of the house for help and their neighbor made her WAIT ON THE PORCH while she got her kids ready for school. the little girl went on to say her uncle did it.



the uncle's wife did not believe it and doggedly did her own goddamn investigation

for YEARS and brought the real killer to justice: THE SHITTY NEIGHBOR'S HUSBAND.



shew that ep will always stick w me

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Damn that is a plot twist

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it's a really good episode. i don't even remember how the wife initially started to suspect the neighbor's husband but she did not let up.

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I remember that! Didn't the neighbor coach the girl into saying it was the uncle, too?

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There's an excellent two-part episode in the Criminal podcast about this case. Lemme find it for you (pretty sure it's about this...I'm drinking lol)

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The Clarence Elkins case! That story is wild from beginning to end. The investigation Melinda did on her own, everything Clarence did to get Earl Mann's DNA when they were at the same prison... just everything. I briefly met Clarence while working for the Innocence Project, and he was so kind. It's awful what that entire family went through.

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Yeah, that guy also raped the little girl. Turns out he was also molesting their daughters and the neighbor woman knew, but was too afraid to do anything about it.



On another true crime show where this case was featured (I want to say it was The New Detectives), one of the investigating officers said that he was sure the neighbor suspected her husband was responsible, but to this day doesn't know whether the neighbor made the girl wait outside to protect the girl or to protect the husband.

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Okay! So the Criminal podcast episodes are called Melinda and Judy & Melinda and Clarence.

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I remember that episode, but I totally didn't realize it was the awful neighbor's husband.

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I remember this case from 'Criminal', the podcast!!

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That episode is CRAZY! That poor little girl, and her poor uncle. Like, even after the wife PROVED that his DNA didn't match, the shitty court refused to do a thing about it. Prosecutors can be so vile. "Winning" is more important than catching the ACTUAL killer. It's so scary to think how many innocent people are in prison right now, because of coerced confessions, lack of DNA, shoddy investigating, etc.

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a father strangled his 11-year-old son and tossed his body in a snowbank miles away from their home then lit the house on fire. he killed him and started the fire for insurance money bc he was in a lot of debt and had a history of theft and fraud as well. the guy killed himself in jail before even going to trial.

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i hate myself for this, but it's called cereal killer right

and the murderer's ex girlfriend's last name was freaking Kellogg.

omg lmao

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This sick ass episode has always stuck with me, too. Evil, evil man. And it's not even the only episode about a parent murdering their child/children (though it might be the only one where they do it for MONEY.)

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bless u



i love this show

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It's awesome. Dude tried to rape his neighbor, she turned him down. Then he took off his shoes and clothes and while she was making food, somehow killed her and his foot stepped on the hamburger bun. He thought that by being buck naked, no one would find out it was him but his footprint on the bun did him in.

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lol that's on the list

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lol

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lol the ep is titled PureBread Murderer

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I made a HUGE mistake of falling into a reddit hole with unsolved mysteries. I wish I could unsee some of the things I read 

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same i will go there twice a week probs...

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still not over seeing that ep where a deaf lesbian murdered her gf and dismembered her w/ a chainsaw bc she was jealous over nothing

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she got a snapped ep too.

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shit i need to start watching snapped again. i used to watch it nonstop on sundays every sunday.

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it wasn't even her gf is was the gf's friend who wasn't even gay and had no interest in her iirc

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k imma need a link for that

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Oh, I remember watching something about that case

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What about the episode where a guy faked his own death and dug up a woman's body from her grave to fool the police?



He got caught because he was walking around town in broad daylight but with his hair dyed black.

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And he and his partner told their kids he was a different person, potentially causing psychological damage for them. Terrible people.

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yeah, man! SMH



no this isnt daddy, its billy wtffffffff

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YES I love that one! Those fucking people. And the woman's sister saw a man sleeping in the bedroom closet, and it was the "dead" hubby, and he hid under the bed.

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"Seven years later, a private investigator takes lip balm from Schneeberger's car, has it DNA-tested and the results were a match to the perpetrator. So, how did Dr. Schneeberger trick earlier investigators?"





Can someone spoil me? Cannot watch the video right now but I wanna know! Or does the episode just leave it unsolved?

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He stole blood from a patient and hid it in a tube inside of his arm to fool the DNA blood tests.

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whaaaat



i feel like i've seen this episode but i had forgotten all about it. which is surprising because that sounds nuts

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I remember there was an svu episode based on this.

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I remember that one. And they made a Lifetime movie about it.

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I was just about to talk about this. That was fucking wild.

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>He implanted a 15 cm Penrose drain filled with another man's blood and anticoagulants in his arm. During tests, he tricked the laboratory technician into taking the blood sample from the place the tube was planted.



Wiki article He rigged up an implant someone else's blood into his arm and made techs take samples from that arm.

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are they still making eps of this? i know the narrator Peter Thomas died recently

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I am SO ready for FF to make a comeback.

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I think knew eps just started airing again on saturdays.

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WAT who narrates them now? Are they any good?

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A true crime post! I'm so excited...

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lmao what is this from?

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Much of my earlier career in intelligence was based on a simple assumption. It was the kind of approach the craft shares with a number of other pursuits.

One expects that the usual usually happens.

You look for outliers, patterns that dont fit the normal profile, or events emerging from unexpected quarters. Everything else is largely ignored, filed away, or filtered out.

Which makes the primary approach energy pundits have to geopolitical elements curious.

Perhaps its because some of them are so young they have no genuine personal experience to fall back on.

Or maybe its a reflection of this crowds pervasive lack of any historical understanding that requires something further back than a 200-day moving average.

Many of these commenters paint the rise of a global flashpoint as an exception to some rule.

The textbook (and largely fictitious) portrayal of a normal market in which supply and demand intersect to create price without any other factors intervening is still regarded as what markets do most of the time.

In other words, the thought is that the usual usually happens, with an event now and then upsetting the natural order of things. Maybe that was the case a century ago.

But its certainly not today, with immediate worldwide news, followed (unfortunately) by half-baked immediate analysis.

The difference here is striking. Crisis is not the exception.

Crisis drives the energy markets because it has been the main ingredient producing swings in prices for some time.

Actually, the connection between international crises and the price of crude oil has been rather direct. The reason is straightforward.

Four Hotspots are Driving Uncertainty

Uncertainty drives the movement of prices.

Price ranges are jarred by any increase in global uncertainty, whether or not there is an immediate translation into a pressure either on the supply or demand side.

Ask any trader.

Without exception, theyll tell you that markets prefer predictability to any other factor.

As a result, current tensions around the world serve to provide a firming price floor. And remember, its the floor, not the ceiling, that really determines the pricing range. Related: Is This $25 Billion Nuclear Project A Go?

Aside from the localized situations that have a direct bearing on energy flows (for example, the ongoing civil war in Libya or the simmering Saudi-Qatari spat), four stand out as driving the energy uncertainty factor.

First, the additional U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia. You can read more about them here.

Second, an acceleration of unrest in Venezuela (with additional American sanctions about to be imposed there as well  click here for more details).

Third, the war of words between the U.S. and North Korea.

And fourth, the conflict over the resources in the South China Sea.

Weve discussed the first two on several occasions here in Oil & Energy Investor. The new Russian sanctions have a rather direct connection to both the finance and flow of Russian natural gas into Western Europe, along with the prospect of making the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a more attractive alternative.



Of course, that dovetails nicely into American plans to export LNG to the continent.

The strong pushback from the Kremlin merely articulates what is already well known. The Russian central budget cannot survive without strong revenue flows from the export of oil and natural gas.

But the Venezuelan crisis has an even more obvious and dramatic impact.

Pundits are Forgetting About This Hotspots Effect on Energy

As a major member of OPEC (as well as possessing the largest crude reserves in the world), the domestic collapse there is prompting a rising concern over OPEC production and export levels.

That Washington, D.C., now has the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in its sights merely accentuates the situation.

But the dueling tweets between Washington and Pyongyang has filled the TV airways without the connection being made to energy flows.

Now the broader stock market ups and downs over the past several days certainly illustrate the pressure that can be applied when the prospects of military confrontation arise.

But the prospect of a nuclear-armed hermit state (North Korea) on energy flows is largely neglected.

Even though it already is affecting oil prices. Not because North Korea is a major producer or customer, but because of the broader uncertainty it generates.

Any military exchange between the U.S. and North Korea will immediately result in massive damage and loss of life in the South Korean capital of Seoul and the area surrounding it.

That will upset the energy trade in the larger region  the one that will drive global energy demand for at least the next three decades.

In turn, the weight any hostilities have on neighboring China would profoundly influence prospects for the super powers clout in energy trade. Any perception of a decline in Chinese energy consumption or, more likely, a rise resulting from the hoarding of energy and minerals occasioned by war on its borders, will have a quick knock-on effect on prices.

And then theres the pressure a conflict on the Korean peninsula would have on some of the most important oil tanker routes in the world

Investments that Bridge Energy and Defense are the Key to Profits

Each of these factors provide a spike in uncertainty.

Remember, its the level commanded by futures contracts (paper barrels) rather than the actual cost of consignments in transit (wet barrels) that sets the price of oil. Those forward-looking paper barrels are very much the creature of what oil looks like months into the future.

And that is driven by traders perceptions.

The Korean crisis also runs the risk of heating up the fourth situation  the South China Sea. This one is another we have discussed at length in previous editions of Oil & Energy Investor.

Heres the short of it: China has laid claim to huge swaths of the waters and resources that several other countries also claim. Related: This $65 Billion Oil Opportunity Will Never Be Tapped

In addition, Beijing has been energetically building artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea to extend its territorial zones and to serve as bases for military action.

What is done by or to North Korea will accelerate Chinese actions in the South China Sea, moves that have already placed it in direct collision with American interests.

Meteorologists will tell you that perfect storms result when insular disturbances combine. Geopolitical storms expand the same way.

Its for all of these reasons that Ive been bringing subscribers of all my services into cross-over investment plays that bridge energy hot spots and military/defense stocks.

The new normal of whats happening worldwide dictates such a strategy.

By Kent Moors via Oil and Energy Investor

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have declared themselves strategic partners as the two sides try to cooperate on shipping energy to Europe while still in conflict over a disputed hydrocarbon deposit.

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to Baku on August 8, where he met with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev. During two days of talks, the presidents discussed several key regional issues including the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, new ports on the Caspian Sea, and joint efforts to develop routes for transporting Caspian gas to European markets.

The two signed a strategic partnership agreement, and Aliyev declared ties between the two states to be at the very highest level" and that they agreed on the need to "turn the Caspian space into a source of long-term stability in Eurasia, an arena for wide international cooperation."

But left unmentioned in the public statements was the as yet unresolved borders in the Caspian Sea, including the status of one hydrocarbon deposit  called Kyapaz in Azerbaijan and Serdar in Turkmenistan  that lies right along the contested border. Related: China Prepares For A Natural Gas Import Boom

Both sides have tried to exploit the deposit for themselves. An abortive 1997 attempt by Azerbaijans National Oil Company and Russias Rosneft and Lukoil companies to develop the deposit delivered a major blow to relations between Baku and Ashgabat. Turkmenistan later attempted to partner with Mobil to develop the deposit, but the American oil company backed out to avoid damaging its ties with Azerbaijan.

In 2008, the two sides reached an agreement not to carry out any hydrocarbon exploration or extraction until the Caspian boundary status was resolved. However, the next year, Ashgabat threatened to take the issue to the International Arbitration Court. And in 2012, the Azerbaijani border service detained a Turkmen ship sent to carry out work on Kyapaz/Serdar.

This weeks summit comes amid geopolitical shifts that could provide a boost to Azeri-Turkmen cooperation, Caucasus expert Sergei Markedonov wrote. With the United States imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan sense an opportunity to become the Wests privileged partners in the Caspian and the oil and gas alternative to Moscow.

Turkmenistan has also faced a series of conflicts with Moscow over natural gas transit to Europe. Ashgabat is dissatisfied with the fact that Gazprom makes a significant profit from reselling Turkmen gas to Europe. Disagreements over gas prices led Gazprom to halt purchases of Turkmen gas in January 2016, leaving Ashgabat in urgent need of new partners.

Nevertheless, plenty of obstacles to Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan energy cooperation remain. Both sides remain wary of angering Russia and Iran, whose economic and political presence in the region is far greater than Europe's. This means their cooperation, for now, is destined to fall short of an energy alliance against Moscow and Tehran, Markedonov writes.

There are also other practical challenges. Turkmenistan wants to be connected to the Southern Gas Corridor from Azerbaijan to Europe. This requires the construction of the long-discussed Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP). Despite first being proposed in the 1990s, the pipeline itself remains a pipe dream.

Baku and Ashgabat insist that TCGPs construction only requires the agreement of the countries on whose territory the pipes will be laid. Russia and Iran sharply disagree, insisting that until all legal questions surrounding the Caspian are resolved, the project requires all five countries support.

Related: Oil Rises, But Saudis Face Daunting Dilemma

The tense situation surrounding the Kyapaz/Serdar deposit could also prove a stumbling block for Azerbaijani-Turkmen energy cooperation. On the eve of the Baku meeting, political scientist and Caucasus specialist Ilgar Velizade predicted that Azerbaijan would propose jointly developing Kyapaz/Serdar with Turkmenistan.

The two countries maritime border will certainly be in the area of of the Kyapaz/Serdar deposit, so this issue must be concluded in order to further energy cooperation, he told EADaily. So far, however, there is no indication whether Azerbaijan made such a proposal and how Turkmenistan responded.

With all these questions still open, Berdymukhamedovs visit to Baku appears less a breakthrough than a first step.

By Eurasianet

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Brazils state-owned Petrobras forecasts $17 billion in investments and $8 billion in asset liquidation over the course of 2017, according to a new corporate financial presentation posted online.

The presentation, which included results for the second quarter of 2017, planned for the refinance of $13 billion in debt, while creating $27 billion in new revenues.

Executives told Reuters that the company would not considering selling its debt in international markets.

Petrobras has been struggling, besides its ballooning debt, with the weak price environment and a corruption scandal involving senior politicians, which led to the removal of President Dilma Rousseff.

The nationalized companys new management has taken a radical approach in cutting costs and boosting revenues over the past few weeks. Bolstered by higher oil prices, which led to Petrobras debt burden easing from $122 billion in 2015 to $116 billion by 2016, the company has slashed capital expenditures, voiced its intent of laying off 20 percent of its workforce and divesting almost $20 billion, concentrating on selling stakes in its Brazilian subsidiaries, as well as assets that are outside Brazil in adjacent countries.

Related: The Oil Market Is At A Major Turning Point

This year could also mark the return of dividend payoutswhich would be the first time since 2014if Petrobras ends 2017 in the black. Chief executive Pedro Parente said, as quoted by Reuters, that We really are keen to start paying dividends as fast as we can.

The troubled company reported a net profit of $1.417 billion for the first quarter of this year, up from a net loss of $318 million for the year-earlier period. The company attributed the positive performance to 72-percent higher exports, at 782,000 bpd, at higher prices, as well as to lower oil and gas import costs. The latter were a result of higher production of oil and gas at home, which led to a 40-percent decline in imports.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Kulsoom Nawaz to fight for his husband seat

LAHORE: The Sharif family has finally decided to field Kulsoom Nawaz in bye-election for the NA-120 seat, which fell vacant after the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Panama Papers case, as her two separate nomination papers were filed before the returning officer (RO) on Friday.



The former prime minister had earlier announced his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif's name as the party candidate. His name was later withdrawn as party members deemed his presence in Punjab more important.



Kulsoom did not appear in person before the returning officer at the Election Commission of Pakistan's office here and Asif Kirmani and Captain (r) Safdar along with their lawyers filed her papers that also include details of assets owned by her and her family members along with other documents required as per rules. According to sources within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the deposed premier, who is on way to Lahore in a rally via Grand Trunk Road, will formally announce the name of Kulsoom Nawaz as party's candidate for NA-120 by-election during his address to workers at Data Darbar today.



The nomination papers of Kulsoom Nawaz were reportedly submitted with four different proposers and seconders after through consultation with legal experts while keeping in view the issue of declaration of assets by her and other family members in the backdrop of ouster of her husband by the Supreme Court over mis-declaration of assets.



In the first nomination paper, Kulsoom Nawaz as candidate has been proposed by Nazir Sawati and seconded by Sohail Iqbal while the second nomination paper has been signed by Malik Furqan as proposer and Syed Muhammad Azmat as seconder.



PML-N officials told Daily reeprters that the party has secured the NA-120 seat by fielding Kulsoom Nawaz in the bye-election as she enjoys good reputation in the constituency and is likely to win the election with huge margin like in 2013 when Nawaz Sharif had defeated his rival candidates with a margin of 40,000 votes.



"Nawaz Sharif's lions have defeated you in the elections in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan besides local government and cantonment board elections in recent years," Kirmani said while speaking to media and party workers after filing the nomination papers. "NA-120 will prove to be Waterloo for Imran Khan and other opponents of Nawaz Sharif," he warned. On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid, who had challenged Nawaz Sharif in last general elections but was defeated, also filed her nomination papers from her party's platform in the ECP office on Friday. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidate Faisal Mir (brother of anchorperson Hamid Mir) also submitted his nomination papers with the ECP.



PTI-backed Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Mehmood ur Rasheed, Ajasam Sharif, Ch Asghar Gujjar, Zubair Khan Niazi, Waleed Iqbal, Tariq Sana Bajwa, Andleeb Abbas, Ghulam Muhayyuddin Dewan, Jamsheed Cheema, Ejaz Chaudhry, MPAs including Dr Nosheen Hamid, Dr Murad Rass, Shanila Ruth, Sadia Sohail Rana and over two dozens workers and lawyers accompanied the PTI candidate.



Dr Yasmin Rashid while talking to media on the occasion confirmed that she had filed her nomination papers. She said their door-to-door campaign to seek support from the voters was continued.



When asked about Kulsoom's candidacy, she said that the difference between them is that she is a 'hardworking middle-class woman' who will represent the ordinary people of the country, whereas Kulsoom comes from what her daughter, Maryam Nawaz, has called the 'ruling family'.



It is pertinent to mention here that Dr Yasmin had secured around 52,000 votes in the last general elections against Nawaz Sharif.



PPP's candidate Faisal Mir, while talking to reporters after filing his nomination papers, expressed the hope that he will win the seat with reasonable margin against his opponents as, according to him, people of the constituency firmly believe in PPP as the real saviour of democracy and progressiveness in the country.



As per schedule announced by the ECP for bye-elections in NA-120, today (August 12) is last day for filing the nomination papers while the polling will be held on September 17.
USA to impose new sanctions if Pakistan continues to provide support to insurgent groups: John McCain

WASHINGTON: US Senator John McCain has unveiled his long-promised strategy for Afghanistan, which threatens imposing graduated diplomatic, military, and economic costs on Pakistan if it continues to provide the alleged support and sanctuary to terrorist and insurgent groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.



The strategy, issued on Thursday afternoon as an amendment to next fiscal years defence bill, includes providing additional US troops for counter-terrorism missions. It also allows US advisers to work closer to the front lines with Afghan officers and giving US commanders a broader authority to target Taliban insurgents, Islamic State militants and other militias.



Senator McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has long threatened to force a strategy on the administration if it doesnt come up with one to win the 16-year-old war. Mr McCain said some of Americas most experienced and respected former military and intelligence officials contributed to this strategy.



Besides threatening Pakistan with new sanctions, the proposed policy also outlines the potential benefits of a long-term US-Pakistan strategic partnership that could result from Pakistans cessation of support for all terrorist and insurgent groups and constructive role in bringing about a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan.



The plan suggests a regional dialogue including Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and other nations to promote Afghan political reconciliation.



It proposes intensifying US regional diplomatic efforts working through flexible frameworks to encourage this dialogue to advance regional cooperation on issues such as border security, intelligence sharing, counter-narcotics, transportation, and trade. Senator McCain hopes that this would reduce mistrust and build confidence among regional states.



Last month, the US Department of Defence also issued a report, Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan, which recognises Pakistan as the most influential external actor affecting Afghan stability and the outcome of both the US and Nato missions and suggests using both carrot and stick to achieve its cooperation.



And last week, US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster indicated that a new US strategy for Afghanistan may include this carrot and stick approach. The White House, which has a team of experts working on the new strategy, had promised to release it by mid-July. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told a news briefing on Thursday that the administration will roll out the plan but did not say when.



Senator McCain visited Pakistan and Afghanistan last month with a team of senior US lawmakers and in an interview to PTV emphasised the importance of Pakistans support for US efforts to end the Afghan war.



While announcing his new strategy, Senator McCain criticised both Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, saying: President Obamas dont lose strategy has put us on a path to achieving the opposite result. Now, nearly seven months into President Trumps administration, weve had no strategy at all as conditions on the ground have steadily worsened.



Mr McCain said the goal of this strategy was to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a sanctuary for terrorists to plot and conduct attacks against America, our allies, or our interests.



His integrated civil-military plan for Afghanistan suggests the following strategic objectives:



Deny, disrupt, degrade, and destroy the ability of terrorist groups to conduct attacks against the United States, its allies, or its core interests.



Prevent the Taliban from using military force to overthrow the government of Afghanistan and reduce the Talibans control of the Afghan population.



Improve the capability and capacity of the Afghan government to the extent of feasible and practicable to defeat terrorist and insurgent groups as well as sustainably and independently provide security throughout Afghanistan.



Establish security conditions in Afghanistan necessary to encourage and facilitate a negotiated peace process that supports Afghan political reconciliation and an eventual diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan.



Forge a regional diplomatic consensus in support of the long-term stabilisation of Afghanistan through integration into regional patterns of political, security, and economic cooperation.



Bolster US counterterrorism efforts by: Increasing the number of US counterterrorism forces in Afghanistan.



Providing the US military with status-based targeting authorities against the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.



Pursuing a joint agreement to secure a long-term, open-ended counterterrorism partnership between the United States and the Afghan government, with an enduring US counterterrorism presence in Afghanistan.



Improving the military capability and capacity of the Afghan national forces against the Taliban and other terrorist groups by:



Establishing US military training and advisory teams and significantly increasing US air power and other critical combat enablers to support Afghan operations.



Providing sustained support to Afghan forces by providing key enabling capabilities, including intelligence, logistics, special forces, air lift, and close air support.
Henrietta Amoah, the lady whose boyfriend doused her with acid, is back in Ghana from New Delhi, India where she underwent the first phase of surgery successfully.



Accompanied by her mother, Henrietta visited Happy FM to express their gratitude to the station for supporting her with an amount of GH 50,000.



The money was raised through the award winning social programme NSEM PII hosted by Pastor Nyansa Boakwa where scores of listeners contributed towards her surgery.



Speaking on NSEM PII after her return, she showed gratitude and revealed that she is feeling better now than before.



I am grateful to all for the support they gave me which enabled me to go through the first phase of the surgery. I am okay now and I feel happy and better than the state I was in previously. She told Happy FM.



Before the surgery, she could not close her eyes because there was no flesh covering her eyes, as the acid took away all flesh on her face including her eyes which hurt her badly when it came into contact with the sun.



I could not close my eyes before because the flesh on my eyes was peeled off by the acid. But thanks be unto God, I can close my eyes now. My mother has to check on me because sometimes I close my eyes very hard and water starts dripping. Henrietta added.



I can also see now, she told Pastor Boakwa.



They had to return to Ghana because of the high cost of hotel bills in India. The doctors are also finding a cell that will suit her eyes to enable her to see properly.



The Ghana Police have offered her another support to go for the completion of the surgery scheduled very soon.



For more information on Henrietta's situation, visit www.happyghana.com.

Source: happyghana.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta, the Minister of Roads and Highway said Ghana, on June 30, ratified the treaty for the implementation of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Programme.



He said government was awaiting parliamentary approval for the one million Euros loan needed as counterpart funding for the project.



He expressed the hope that Parliament would approve the loan upon resumption from recess.

He said the Memorandum of Understanding on the project was at the Cabinet level and indicated that Ghana was on course in ensuring a successful take-off.



Mr Amoako-Atta made the disclosure at the Eighth ECOWAS Ministerial Steering Committee Meeting for Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Programme, in Accra, on Friday.



A total of 1,028 kilometres dual carriage highways would be constructed to link the major commercial cities of five ECOWAS countries including; Ghana, La Cote dIvoire, Togo, Benin and Nigeria to enhance trade facilitation and regional integration.



The Minister said the meeting would deliberate on the progress made so far on the procurement process, consultancy services and detailed engineering studies as well as management organisation on the project.



He said the Ministerial Steering Committee had made a lot of progress in its previous meetings and at the point of taking crucial decisions on the Corridor Management Authority and modalities in ensuring a fair representation and contributions of the countries involved.



Dr Antoinette G. Weeks, the Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure for ECOWAS Commission, said in February 2014, the ECOWAS Head of States tasked the Commission to facilitate the implementation of the Abidjan-Lagos highways infrastructure of six lane dual carriage ways to facilitate regional trade and integration for socio-economic development of the sub-region.



She said the Commission had worked closely with the Ministerial Steering Committee, the Ministers of State in charge of Roads, Infrastructure and Works of the five countries involved, and had made some key recommendations for consideration and approval.



She said the Commission would count on the valuable diligence and guidance of the ministers in considering the recommendations and help to ensure that they collaboratively and jointly craft the most effective way forward.



Dr Weeks noted that key recommendations to be considered by the ministers at the meeting included; draft documentation validated by the technical experts to guide the establishment of the Corridor Management Authority, which was supposed to be created by the ECOWAS Steering Committee.



The Committee would also review the revised and updated project procurement schedule and the project website and information sharing mechanisms, she added.



Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Chairman of the ECOWAS Ministerial Steering Committee for the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Programme, expressed appreciation to the technical committee of experts for the distinctive work they had done so far.



He said the project would present an enormous prosperity for their peoples and improve regional trade and integration.

He said the Steering Committee had made tremendous progress since their last meeting in Lagos culminating in the signing of treaties and agreements by participating countries.



Mr Fashola, also the Minister of Power, Works and Housing for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, said the project would ensure the efficient management of the customs and immigration challenges and improve the travelling time and safety, as well as reduce the cost of goods and services in the sub-region.



The ECOWAS Heads of States in 2014 tasked the Ministerial Steering Committee for the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Management Authority to consider strategies and modalities for the implementation of the project.



The consultant engaged by the ECOWAS Commission for advisory services for early stage preparation for the project has almost completed the assignment on institutional design for the Authority and the Steering Committee would deliberate on it at the meeting.



The institutional design includes the functions and structure of the Abidjan-Lagos Management Authority and comprehensive legal framework covering the intergovernmental agreement with the creation of the Authority, the enabling legislation, the international project agreement, and the rules of procedure to facilitate project implementation.



A final validation workshop was held in July at the ECOWAS Commission in Nigeria, Abuja, by technical experts from the Ministries of Infrastructure, Works, Finance, Transport and Justice of the five corridor countries.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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For Immediate Release

Human rights groups in Kenya today said the death toll has reached 24 in post-election demonstrations since balloting was held on August 8. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which has long worked to ensure justice and accountability for human rights violations in Kenya, has issued the following statement attributable to Christine Alai, head of PHRs Kenya office:

As demonstrations here in Kenya continue, we at Physicians for Human Rights fully support the rights of those who are engaging in peaceful protests. We are alarmed and saddened by reports of multiple deaths and injuries, and we condemn the use of live ammunition or any type of excessive force against unarmed, peaceful protesters. At this volatile time, all Kenyans must respect the rights, dignity, property, and lives of their fellow citizens.

We are particularly concerned by credible reports that police have forcefully entered peoples homes, extorted them, and threatened rape and sexual violence. Such horrendous threats are intolerable and have no place in a rights-abiding society. For ten long years, survivors of sexual violence that took place after the 2007 elections have been fighting for justice and against impunity; the threats we are witnessing this week harken back to that dark chapter in Kenyas recent history that should never be repeated.

We call on the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution to swiftly, justly, and impartially investigate all allegations of crime or misconduct and hold responsible officers and their commanders accountable. At this fragile moment, we must call out human rights violations and demand that the rights of all Kenyans be respected.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.
This is the latest in a series of posts about second quarter campaign contributions in the 21st Congressional District race.

Reclaim America, the political action committee of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a 2016 presidential candidate, contributed $1,000 to the re-election campaign of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, in the second quarter, according to a report Stefanik's campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.
QUEENSBURY  A New York City man was jailed in recent days for a May home invasion and assault that left a local man with serious injuries.

Nakie T. Joye, 36, was arrested in Binghamton on an arrest warrant issued for a May 22 attack on a man in a home in the Forest Park mobile home park.

Joye was accused of going into a home on Briwood Circle and repeatedly punching a man, causing numerous facial injuries that included a broken bone.

He was charged with felony counts of assault and burglary, and a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief for taking a phone from a woman in the home who tried to call 911, court records show.

A motive for the attack was not clear.

He was arraigned and sent to Warren County Jail for lack of bail. The Warren County Sheriff's Office investigated the case.
GLENS FALLS  A woman and her young daughter were brutally killed in their home early Friday, and a former boyfriend of the woman was charged with murder hours later for their deaths.

The mother and child, identified in court papers as Crystal Riley, 33, and Lilly Frasier, 4, were apparently stabbed to death. Authorities said Lilly was attacked after she came to her mothers aid when hearing her screams.

The suspect, Bryan M. Redden, 21, of Glens Falls, was taken into custody around noon when he was spotted driving the victims gold Toyota sport-utility vehicle on Bay Street in Glens Falls, police said.

He was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and was sent to Warren County Jail without bail late Friday after arraignment before Judge Nikki Moreschi. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Redden is due back in City Court on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., but acting Warren County District Attorney Jason Carusone told the judge that the case would be presented to a Warren County grand jury Tuesday morning, which would render that hearing moot if he is indicted.

Carusone would not discuss details of the killings after the hearing, saying the investigation was ongoing.

Any time a child dies, it is a tragedy, Carusone said.

Redden would not comment as he left court. He spoke in court only to say he was homeless.

First-degree murder alleges a person killed multiple victims, and it is punishable by life in prison without parole.

Redden and Riley had a recent relationship, but no possible motive was disclosed as the investigation continued.

Warren County Public Defender Marcy Flores was appointed to represent him, and she said she had no comment on the case Friday night.

Police acknowledged an arrest had been made but said the investigation was continuing late Friday.

Glens Falls Police Chief Tony Lydon said the suspect was located in the victims vehicle, and did not try to flee police when the SUV was spotted.

Lydon would not say if he was cooperative, but law enforcement sources said he consented to being questioned.

Redden listed a Glens Falls address as his last residence, but the chief said police do not believe he is a native of the area. His social media accounts indicate he went to high school in West Virginia.

The arrest came after a massive police investigation that began when Riley and her daughter were found dead Friday morning in an apartment at 148 South St., at the corner of South and Murray streets. Police have not said when they were killed.

Lydon said Rileys mother went to the home to check on her and found both victims deceased around 10:30 a.m.

Lydon said it was unclear how long they had been dead.

A former boyfriend of the woman who police were seeking Friday morning came to the home shortly after noon, and left with investigators. Police said he was initially the focus of the search, but was cleared of any involvement after the SUV was located with Redden in it.

Investigators from Glens Falls Police, State Police and the Warren County Sheriffs Office spent much of the morning going door-to-door in the neighborhood near Glens Falls Hospital, talking to residents about what they may have seen or heard in recent days.

Police put out a radio bulletin alerting other agencies that they were looking for the victims gold Toyota Highlander sport-utility vehicle in connection with a homicide.

Crime scene tape surrounded the apartment building on the corner of South and Murray streets as police investigated the scene, with a block of the busy street closed into the evening.

According to a next-door neighbor, a woman was heard screaming at the home around 9:30 to 9:45 a.m. Friday. She believed that was around the time the victims relative went to the home and found the bodies, with police arriving moments later.

I was sleeping and all of the sudden I could hear a woman screaming, neighbor Kim Harchar said.

The gray two-story duplex is not known as a trouble spot to neighbors, but one neighbor said police were there about two weeks ago to arrest a man. Police said later that the matter was not at that home, and was not related to the homicides.

Neighbors said Riley and her daughter had lived in the front apartment in the building for about eight years. The two apartments in the building both have first-floor and second-floor rooms.

Viola Wells, who had lived in the building for a decade or so before moving out recently, was near tears as she went to the home Friday morning after hearing about the crime. Many other residents of the neighborhood came by the home as well, shocked at the terrible tragedy.

Wells said Riley had two older sons who did not live in the home, but lived with their father. The two boys had lived in the apartment with their mother for years, she said.

Wells said Riley had worked at a local day care center, and was a good mother. She had also worked as a yoga instructor.

She was such a sweetheart. She got along with everyone, Wells said. This is so shocking. Its just so, so sad.

Wells said Lilly frequently came to her apartment for lollipops.

She was such a beautiful child, she said.

Its an awful waste of a wonderful person and a baby, said former neighbor Dick Wells, Violas husband.

Neighbor Cassidy Lewis said the woman and her children were always pleasant and were good neighbors.

She seemed like a really nice person, Lewis said.

Wells said Riley had a boyfriend who stayed there frequently, and she never saw or heard any trouble at their apartment. Wells moved out a few months ago when the building was sold.

Another neighbor, Charity Steans, said she frequently saw the woman and child coming and going from the home. She said she had not seen the gold vehicle that was used by the woman at the home for several days, but hadnt noticed anything unusual otherwise.

Its quiet over there, she said. They (the victims) lived there for a while. Id always see them going in and out.

It has been a deadly week in the region, as this homicide case is the third in a matter of days in Warren and Saratoga counties. A man was killed in Mechanicville on Monday and two men died in a murder-suicide in Johnsburg on Wednesday.
EASTON  Police have turned over to state archaeologists the human remains that were unearthed in a gravel pit off Route 40 last week.

The archaeologists work through the New York State Museum and will analyze the bones to try to determine how old they were, and possibly where they came from.

A spokeswoman for the agency said the skeletal remains were received Tuesday, and they will be dried for two or so weeks before staff can begin examining them.

The remains are in fragile condition and must be allowed to air dry before they are handled and studied, spokeswoman Antonia Giuliano said in an email. Once staff begins to study the remains, it may take several weeks before they can share insight into the bio-archaeology of the remains.

The state museum staff has responded to a number of similar situations over the years, including a large one in southern Albany County known as Schuyler Flatts.

The Easton remains were found Aug. 4 by a contractor who was working in an area formerly known as the Johnson Farm where gravel and topsoil were being mined.

The Washington County Sheriffs Office was called, and officials determined the area was not known to have been a graveyard or cemetery, and there were no markers in the area.

Washington County sheriffs Capt. Tony LeClaire said the Sheriffs Office does not consider the area a potential crime scene under the circumstances, and has closed its investigation.

LeClaire said the initial belief was that there were bones from 10 or so bodies, but when they were inventoried the total was considered more likely four or so.

The area is across the Hudson River from Saratoga Battlefield and other areas in Saratoga County where there was historically Revolutionary War activity.

Because old nails that appeared to have been made by a blacksmith were found around the bones, police believe the bodies had been in caskets that had long disintegrated, so they were likely not from Native Americans who were in the area.
GLENS FALLS  The man accused of killing a woman and her young daughter in their home had not been in her life, or in the Glens Falls region, for very long, according to police and people who know him.

Bryan M. Redden, charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder Friday in the deaths of a young mother and her child, arrived in the Glens Falls area last August, according to his social media accounts. He turned 21 this spring.

He had nothing to say as he was led from Glens Falls City Court on Friday night with what appeared to be a smirk on his face.

Police said he had not known Crystal Riley, the Glens Falls woman who he was accused of killing, for more than a few months.

His Facebook page shows he attended high school in Meadow Bridge, West Virginia, and had worked for a company that provides rides at summer fairs and carnivals.

It was after that company, identified on his Facebook page as Reithoffer Shows, worked at a fair in the region last summer that he decided to stay in upstate New York, officials said.

A former co-worker said he has been homeless for months, staying with friends whenever he could and holding a number of jobs. Local police did not list any recent dealings with him.

He posted in a Facebook online garage sale site on Thursday that he was looking for a room to rent. He said he had one job, and was seeking a second.

Im clean and fairly quite, the post reads, with quiet spelled incorrectly.

Locally, he listed jobs he held at numerous restaurants and an area tree-trimming company in the year or so he had lived in the region. Most recently, he had worked at a Queensbury eatery.

His online history showed he considered himself a food connoisseur, with numerous restaurant reviews posted online. Other posts seem to talk about drug use.

On April 27, he posted on his Facebook page, I just got told I look like the kind of guy to go postal and shoot up the place.

He added below, #neverreallythoughtaboutit.
GLENS FALLS  The Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce is looking for a new leader for the second time in less than two years.

The chamber announced on Thursday that its president and chief executive officer, Tori Riley, has decided to leave on Sept. 5 the position she has held since last June. Riley is returning to her previous job as vice president with the Saratoga Economic Development Corp.

The chambers board will form a committee to search for a new president. Meanwhile, members of its executive committee will work with the staff on a day-to-day basis to run the operation, according to a news release.

Riley was the first female president in the chambers more than 100-year existence. She said that it was not an easy decision to leave, but she is passionate about economic development projects.

Thats when I light up and get excited, she said.

Riley said her old position at SEDC was being filled by a part-timer who had come out of retirement. He wanted to leave and the job became available.

There was just an opportunity, she said. I had worked there before. It wasnt like this was a new position.

Riley reflected on some of her accomplishments during her 16 months at the chamber, including improving the organizations finances. She also did outreach to businesses, informing them about the perquisites of membership, and brought the business directory page back to the main ARCC website, which has increased referrals, she said.

She also increased the educational component of chamber programs. In the past, they had been limited to networking events.

It has to be educational or informational and give employers a reason to send their staff, she said.

Riley said she will be accessible in her new position.

The team here knows Im an unlimited resource for them, she said.

Riley had spent three years at SEDC. Before that, she was president of Washington County Local Development Corp. for five years. She served as the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerces program management director from 2004 to 2008.

Chamber board Chairwoman Dianne Shugrue said the board has regretfully accepted Rileys resignation.

Tori is a tremendous ambassador for our region and a dedicated advocate for ARCC members. We wish her the very best as she continues her good work on behalf of our regional business community, she said in a news release.

Shugrue said in a follow-up phone conversation that the decision to leave was Rileys.

There have been no issues with Toris performance or with Toris ability to do the job. The board is really sad to see her go. We were surprised. We had no idea that she was not going to be in her position long-term, she said.

Riley accomplished a great deal in her short time at the chamber, according to Shugrue.

Tori really did a great job stabilizing the finances of the organization and re-engaging the membership, which I think is probably her greatest accomplishment, she said.

She added that Riley had folks believing in the chamber and wanting to be part of the organization.

One of the ways Riley did that outreach was through educational programs, such as one in cyber security that the chamber hosted, according to Shugrue.

She said Riley will work with the board to ensure a smooth transition. Shugrue could not provide a timetable for finding a permanent replacement since the news is still fresh. The board may pause to evaluate the skills required for a leader going forward and the long-term plan for leadership.

The organization has been going through leadership turnover. Former President and CEO Peter Aust abruptly left in January 2016 during the first meeting of the chambers newly seated board of directors. The only public reason given was that Aust wanted to pursue other career opportunities.

Five months later, Aust got a position as regional business development manager for Barton & Loguidice, an engineering, planning, environmental and landscape architecture firm that has nine offices including ones in Syracuse, Albany and Rochester.

A representative at that firm said Thursday, however, Aust no longer works there.

The Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce is also looking for new leadership, as Executive Director Michael Consuelo is retiring at the end of September after about seven years at the helm.
Senior Resources

Senior Resources is located in the Shepley Building, 1808 Mulberry Ave., Muscatine. Hours are 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays. The agency provides services to Muscatine County residents ages 60 or older and programs and activities each month for all seniors. For more information, call 563-263-7292 or 888-667-2026.

Adult Day Center

Senior Resources Adult Day Center provides loved ones with socialization and programs while caregivers complete errands and appointments. Senior Resources also offers bathing and a low-stimulus room. For more information, call 563-263-7292 or 888-667-2026.

Advance Care Planning

Honoring Your Wishes is a community-wide program that helps people create an advance care plan so people can outline their future health care goals. You will then make a written plan that will describe your wishes to others if you cannot communicate. This service is available at no cost for adults ages 18 years or older. Call Senior Resources for more information.

Chore Program

The Chore Program helps seniors ages 60 or older, in Muscatine County, with lawn mowing, snow shoveling and heavy household cleaning. A sliding fee scale is used to calculate the rate. Please call Senior Resource if you have any questions.

Home Repair Program

The Home Repair Program is offered by Senior Resources and helps seniors ages 60 or older, in Muscatine County, to fix or repair minor household problems. A sliding fee scale is used to calculate reimbursement for labor. Please call Senior Resource if you have any questions 263-7292.

Meals on Wheels

Senior Resources Meals on Wheels program consists of a lunch-time meal delivered by volunteers to area seniors who have trouble cooking for themselves, possibly live alone and have no one in the home to cook for them or for someone who has just gotten out of the hospital and needs help temporarily with meals until they get back on their feet. If you would like more information or to sign up for the program, please call Shannon at 563-263-7292 or email to meals@sr-resources.org.

Medical equipment

Senior Resources and sponsor Trinity Episcopal Church are offering the Durable Medical Equipment Lending Closet. The program, which lends medical items free of charge, is available to residents of Muscatine and the surrounding area, but not limited to seniors. Anyone borrowing equipment is asked to sign it out and agree to bring it back. There is no time limit. Items include: bath benches, canes, commodes, crutches, walkers, walkers with wheels and wheelchairs. Donations for this program can be dropped off at Senior Resources, 1808 Mulberry Ave., or Trinity Episcopal Church, 211 Walnut St. Pickups also can be arranged by calling Senior Resources at 563-263-7292 from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; or Trinity Episcopal Church at 563-263-2177 from 8 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday.

Outreach

The Outreach program helps seniors file paperwork with the state Department of Human Services, gives referrals to other agencies, and makes friendly visits along with other special projects. Available in Spanish. Call Laura at 563-263-7292 for more information.

SHIIP program

Senior Resources offers free and confidential Medicare counseling through its Senior Health Insurance Information Program. This service is offered through the State of Iowa to help people sort through confusing information about Medicare and health insurance. For more information, call Laura at 563-263-7292.

Volunteers needed

Senior Resources is looking for volunteers to deliver Meals On Wheels. We have five routes that go out from Trinity Muscatine hospital Monday-Friday. We have two routes that go out Saturday mornings. The routes take about an hour. For more information call Shannon at 263-7292.
MUSCATINE  Vance Crumly wants to approach his mayoral campaign with "eyes wide open." He has been reviewing the city's budget and expenditures, talking to council members and working to figure out what kind of mayor would best fit Muscatine.

Crumly, a Muscatine native who works at Hy-Vee, is the fourth candidate seeking election this fall, along with Mayor Diana Broderson, former mayor DeWayne Hopkins and business owner Charlie Harper.

If elected, Crumly said it would be important to be a positive spokesperson for the city, plus encourage cooperation between the city council, staff and residents.

"The only people that I would be beholden to is the people of Muscatine," he said. "These are our friends, our neighbors. These are the people we have to live with, so let's all get along."

While he has never held office, Crumly has served as a delegate for candidates at local and state conventions, including Rand Paul in last year's election. He also attended the Iowa State Convention and said he knows several people involved in local elections.

Crumly calls himself the "happy smile behind the meat counter" at Hy-Vee, and he hopes to bring a similar attitude to city council meetings and Muscatine's government.

"From my job in customer service, I know how to relate to anybody and talk to anybody, and I could do that," he said. "When foreign visitors come to town, I could be an ambassador and be gracious."

The candidate said there should be better communication between the city and its residents, and would speak with anyone who has ideas or concerns, and put them in contact with the appropriate city official.

He would hope to act as a positive "PR person" for the city, and has the goal of bringing more arts events to Muscatine. Crumly would like to see a band shell built on the riverfront, where there could be music or events similar to Shakespeare in the Park.

Crumly also supports lifting the ban on pit bulls within Muscatine city limits, saying the city should focus on holding residents accountable and imposing stricter penalties for dog owners with dangerous animals, rather than "vilifying the breed."

After watching city council meetings, he looked into the Muscatine Fire Department's approved purchase of a new fire truck, and wants the city to find a new home for the previous truck. He said housing the truck at one of Muscatine's industrial buildings could help bring quicker assistance to other parts of the city.

The candidate has also spoken with several boat-owners in Muscatine, who complain about the boat launch at Riverside Park, because it is difficult to dock with the strong current in the area. He suggests building a wing dam to help control the current.

A 1988 Muscatine High School graduate, Crumly has lived in Los Angeles and across Virginia, but returned to Muscatine around 2010.

"Most of the nicest people I met in L.A. were from Iowa and the Midwest," said Crumly, who moved back to Muscatine to be near friends and family.

The first day for candidates to file nomination papers to run for mayor or city council member is Aug. 28, and the last day is Sept. 21. The election will be held Nov. 7.
Interviews with Australian and other foreign officials working in Papua New Guinea suggest that it is an open secret that corrupt Papua New Guinean officials hold their illicit wealth in Australia.

Previously it seems that most stolen funds were spent domestically, in cash, on consumer goods, and especially to buy favour before elections. However, as the scale of corruption has increased, the countrys ruling elite has become more inclined to send illicit funds overseas.

CORRUPTION in Papua New Guinea fits many of the patterns of kleptocracy elsewhere. Although there are problems with corruption at all levels of government, including the police force, it is the corruption of senior public officials that poses the greatest threat.

This past week, Australias largest bank, the Commonwealth, has been in the news for not reporting hundreds of instances of money laundering and is in big trouble. In this extract from Chapter 5 (Australia in Denial) of Jason Sharmans book The Despots Guide to Wealth Management the author explains how Papua New Guineas corrupt elite avails itself of a slack Australian attitude to illicit overseas funds. The book is available from The Book Depository (free shipping) which you can link to here

As a result of former colonial ties, Papua New Guinea enjoys close links with Australia. The countrys law is based in part on Australian law, and most air routes from Papua New Guinea to third countries pass through Australia.

Cabinet ministers and other senior officials have often been educated in high schools, universities, or military institutions in Australia, a pattern that is replicated among their children. Many current and former ministers have established second homes in Australia, and indeed their families may spend as much time in Australia as in Papua New Guinea.

Although Australia does not host a global financial hub like London or New York, it is the worlds 14th-largest economy and the largest financial centre in the South Pacific. The nearest rival is Singapore, which has also enjoyed some popularity with Papua New Guinean elites, though it is geographically and culturally more distant.

Unlike the cases of host countries taking the initiative while the victim country remains indifferent (e.g., Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Indonesia), here the dynamic is more akin to Nigerias dogged and unrewarding effort to recover Abacha proceeds from Britain.

In 2011 the head of Papua New Guineas newly-created anti-corruption Task Force Sweep referred to Australia as another Cayman Islands, a haven for dirty money. The same official, Sam Koim, later gave a high-profile controversial speech on the problem to an audience of Australian bankers.

After referring to his own country as a kleptocracy, and noting that Australia had never repatriated so much as a single cent of Papua New Guinean corruption funds, Koim spoke of the activities of corrupt officials from Papua New Guinea in Australia as follows:

They have bought property and other assets, put money in bank accounts and gambled heavily in your casinos and have never been troubled by having their ill-gotten gains taken off them.... Be under no illusion, these people have chosen Australia as their preferred place to launder and house the proceeds of their crimes because it is easy. Cairns is only a short flight and property can be bought off the plan without permission. The financial system is stable and, it has been, up until now, extremely easy to get their money into your system.

This verdict is supported by earlier testimony before the Australian Senate by AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the financial intelligence unit), which stated:

AUSTRAC considers the Pacific a priority region for regulatory engagement and information exchange given the large number of Australian financial institutions operating branches across the Pacific and the level of money laundering, crime and corruption in the Pacific. Australia is a significant destination country for funds derived from corrupt activities within the region.

In May 2013, the Australian Federal Police Senior Liaison Officer in Port Moresby Steve Mullens stated that half a billion kina of corruption funds flows from Papua New Guinea to Australia each year.

This unintended revelation caused great discomfort in the Australian law enforcement and government agencies, contradicting as it did the official line that Australia does not have a problem with foreign corruption proceeds.

Despite these sporadic admissions, senior Australian government officials have consistently maintained that talk of foreign corruption proceeds is mere gossip and innuendo, and that there is no hard evidence of foreign corruption proceeds in Australia. The formulaic response is that:

Australia has a robust anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework, based on international Financial Action Task Force standards, to deter and detect money laundering. Australia is committed to ensuring that Australia is not a safe haven for the proceeds of corruption.

The government maintained this position during a Financial Action Task Force review of the countrys anti-money laundering system in 2014-15 (with officials complaining that questions about Papua New Guinean corruption proceeds in Australia reflected the undue influence of NGOs and academics).

__________

What evidence is there of a general movement of corruption funds into Australia from Papua New Guinea?

Many of its senior officials maintain extensive real estate holdings in the Australian state of Queensland, including those named in connection with corrupt activities in various Papua New Guinea government reports, and even those formally charged with corruption and other criminal offences.

To ascertain the size of the problem, and test the Australian governments official position that there are no significant corruption funds in the country, I took on the services of a private investigator specializing in financial crime.

Queensland property records are available online in two commercial databases, and for a relatively small fee the records can be searched by the owners name. As well as the name of the owner, they provide the last sale date and price. Sometimes they also include pictures of the property, and scans of the original mortgage documents, showing the name of the relevant bank and the lawyer involved, if any.

The first step in tracking suspicious funds in the real estate sector was to draw up a list of names of those individuals charged or convicted of corruption offences in PNG, as well as individuals and companies named in connection with corrupt conduct in official PNG government enquiries (59 from the Department of Finance inquiry, named by Task Force Sweep), and then match these against the databases to determine property ownership.

The second was to search for these individuals on the Australian company registry to see if they featured as directors or owners of companies that in turn held property in Queensland.

The result was that in 2013, $A86 million properties were owned by individuals and companies charged with or named in connection with corrupt activities in Papua New Guinea. Using Google Earth the physical location of these properties could then be mapped, showing that many corruption-tainted senior officials own property in the same neighbourhoods (sometimes directly next door to each other), use the same lawyers, and buy from the same few property developers.

The legal significance is that it is a criminal offence for Australian banks to handle funds where there is a reasonable suspicion that these funds represent the proceeds of corruption.

Yet in practice this did not preclude transactions being processed and mortgages being issued, even when the individual was charged with serious criminal offences in Papua New Guinea, and when this information could be found with a simple Google search.

The list of properties compiled by the private investigator is unlikely to be the complete record for Queensland, and this does not include property data from the other five Australian states, or wealth held in other forms.

In some cases it was possible to spot deliberate attempts to hide ownership. Thus one senior public official sold his property at a loss to a company owned by a trust, which turned out to be controlled by the same official.

The wording of the trust deed seems to have been designed to omit the officials name. It specifies that the beneficiary of the trust is the officials wife, who is named, and the wifes spouse, i.e., the official himself, who is not named.

Given the capital loss on the sale and the transaction fees, this move makes little sense from a commercial point of view, but a great deal of sense if the aim is to hide and protect criminal proceeds.

There is an ironic circularity in the financial flows between Papua New Guinea and Australia: large aid payments of up to A$500 million go north, while large flows of illicit wealth come south.

Up to the present, the Australian financial intelligence unit, AUSTRAC, has consistently refused to share financial intelligence with its Papua New Guinean counterpart in a stark illustration of both the lack of priority accorded this problem, and perverse consequences of the international anti-money laundering regime.

The official grounds for refusing to share information are that the Papua New Guinean agency is not a member of the international club of financial intelligence units, the Egmont Group.

It is not a member of the Egmont Group because Papua New Guinea does not have legislation to counter the financing of terrorism, even though there is no credible evidence to suggest that financial institutions in the country are being misused in this way.

The upshot is that because Papua New Guinea has not legislated against a problem it does not have, Australia refuses to help with the corruption problem it manifestly does have.
As part of its inaugural month, the Bix Beiderbecke Museum and Archive in Davenport will waive admission fees through Friday, Sept. 1. Regular admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3 for students (12-18 years old). For more information, visit www.bixmuseum.org.

The Bix Beiderbecke Museum is in the lower level, referred to as the Root Cellar, of the Redstone building, 129 N. Main St., Davenport. The building is also home to the River Music Experience. The new Bix Beiderbecke Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The new museum honors the life and music of Bix Beiderbecke and features many original artifacts related to Beiderbecke and his colleagues, as well as a life-size figure of the cornetist in a re-creation of the bandstand at Hudson Lake, Indiana. Bix spent the summer there in 1926 playing with the Goldkette Orchestra.
Business and community leaders from the Quad-Cities area are being locked up on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the German American Heritage Center and Museum, 712 W. 2nd St., Davenport, to raise money for bail to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Funds raised will help benefit those with muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases that take away physical strength and mobility. To learn more about the program, contact Geena Staiert at 319-393-8905 or gstaiert@mdausa.org, or visit mdalockup.org/quadcities2017.

More than 190 Quad-City area community and business leaders have volunteered to go behind bars as part of MDAs fundraising program. During the event, participants (jailbirds) will be locked up for one-hour as they attempt to raise bail by calling on their friends, family and colleagues to contribute to MDAs life-saving mission.

Bail money raised will help fund research and life-enhancing programs, such as support groups and clinical care at 150 Care Centers across the country, including the MDA Care Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Money raised also helps send more than 75 local children to MDA summer camp at Camp Courageous at no cost to families.
The Young Emerging Writers (YEW) summer internship program will host a free launch party for the public for their magazine The Atlas on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 6 p.m. in the second floor community room at the Rock Island Public Library, 401 19th St., Rock Island. Readings start at 6:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be available. For more information, contact Ryan Collins at mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org , call 309-732-7330, or at 309-269-6569.

The program is composed of students, ages 15-19, who applied and were interviewed to participate in the selective paid internship program. This summer, 16 interns from around the Quad-City area participated in YEW.

YEW provides writing instruction in a variety of writing styles and processes, and develops professional skills in areas such as editing, collaborative project management, and magazine design. In 50 hours over seven weeks, students went from meet-and-greet to producing a high-quality literary magazine. This summer, the YEW program celebrates the release of the 12th volume of The Atlas. It will be available for $7.50 (usually $10) at the launch, and all back issues cost $5. After the launch, they will be sold at Exotic Imports in Moline, the Midwest Writing Center, and online.
Thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, for demanding answers surrounding the suicide of Army veteran Brandon Ketchum.

A long-awaited Inspector General's report detailing Ketchum's treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City was finally released this month. The IG report largely exonerated individual hospital staff who interacted with Ketchum prior to his suicide in July 2016. It did, however, level broad criticism at VA policies regarding following up for patients that have sought help.

It can never be known for sure if anything more could have been done for Sgt. Ketchum. His is one among an inexcusable number of veterans taking their own lives after deployment.

But, at the very least, a full investigation provides some answers that, hopefully, save a life. And it's on those answers where Ernst wouldn't back down.

Her office dogged the IG as one deadline after another blew by for the report.

Thumbs down to the continued tragic failure that is Iowa's privatized Medicaid system.

Back-door negotiations continue between state health officials and the three providers, reported The Des Moines Register this week. The talks were supposed to end weeks ago. And yet, they drag on and the taxpaying public remains in the dark.

All three firms have decried funding levels and demanded more cash. Lost in all of this are the poor Iowans who rely on Medicaid for access to health care.

Thumbs up to bioreactors, the ag industry's response to demands for limiting nitrates seeping into rivers and streams.

Local farmers, governments and non-profits alike have installed the systems designed to strip nutrients from runoff. Some, no doubt, are looking to dodge regulation. Others are simply concerned about water quality.

Whatever the motive, bioreactors are a step in the right direction.
Wednesday's Quad-City Times contained an opinion from Cal Thomas, Chicago Tribune columnist, Wheres the Common Sense in Washington? Cal defines common sense as sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like.

Cal concludes, Immigration is a perfect example where common sense should be applied, then launches into a common sense defense of a restrictive immigration bill that two Republican senators have introduced to cut future legal immigration by 50 percent.

I disagree entirely. Immigration policy is too complex to apply a common sense approach. Legal immigration affects many facets of the economy, deficit, jobs, wages, social safety nets, education, and more. Immigration policy should be derived from studies by unbiased experts with specialized knowledge.

One major driver of immigration policy is the U.S. fertility rate, which has fallen below the 2.1 replacement level needed to keep the population growing. Economists point out slow economic growth is due in large part to the lack of workers to fill available jobs. Studies support increasing future legal immigration to over 2 million immigrants per year to allow the economy to grow at a higher rate.

Common sense is useful when applied to simple problems. When someone encourages you to apply common sense to any complex issue, they are trying to influence you to adopt their position, rather than determining the best solution.

I urge everyone to recognize this tactic in anyone who might seek to influence you. Demand our legislators rely on unbiased experts and statistics to address our nations complex problems.

Richard Patterson

Hampton
In preparation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations starting Aug. 16, the Trump administration released an official list of objectives for the new agreement that has some senators saying it looks like a "watered down version of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) proposals."

The president even recruited the same corporate trade advisors who developed the failed provisions of the TPP to consult on NAFTA. Instead of committing to crafting a new deal that prioritizes working people and families, Trump has given little indication he will actually fight to improve labor and environmental standards that will boost our needs.

The president talks tough on overhauling trade policy, but its nothing more than leftover campaign rhetoric. We dont want more of his empty promises that lead to the same devastating trade pacts. NAFTA killed jobs in our communities and depressed wages for millions. The agreement also made it easier for corporations to offshore jobs and attack environmental, health, and other safeguards in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

We must press our elected leaders to ensure any update to NAFTA will benefit working people, and provide the freedom for all of us to create better futures for our families.

Heath Hancock

Davenport
Though there's mold growing on the walls, peeling paint on the ceiling and cobwebs dusting the pews, the Mount Zion Baptist Church has what some call a "special feel."

It's inexplicable, but it might have something to do with the beautiful stained glass windows, the rounded pews and the sumptuous oak doors. Or, it could be the history lingering in all of those physical attributes.

"There's just a feel to it that is very special," said Ron Luce, standing in the sanctuary and looking up to the tin ceiling, water damage causing the white paint to peel and fall on the pews below.

Luce is treasurer of the Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society, formed about four years ago in hopes of preserving the Athens building the congregation used for years.

The size and activity of the church's congregation fluctuated over the years, though many remember the popular Gospel Voices of Faith choir that it once formed. The last church activity hosted in the building is believed to have been a funeral in 2004 or 2005, said Ada Woodson Adams, secretary of the society.

The society was awarded the deed to the church, at 32 W. Carpenter St. in Athens, a little over a week ago after a years-long battle to get control of it. During those years, the building was largely abandoned and the more than 100-year-old structure deteriorated.

Now, the church has a deserted look: hymnals are stacked on a front pew; a tray to hold communion cups is on a front table, a few cups still inside; and an organ is randomly placed near a corner. Everything is disheveled, and though it seems the place has potential, it's not a surprise that it's been deemed uninhabitable.

In the basement, the floor has caved in in several places. What was once a kitchen no longer has a floor, and in the corner sits a piano, half-sunken into the ground beneath. In a small room off to the side are large bags of pop cans, beer bottles and other trash, left over from people who used the site as a party venue.

So, though the "feel" may be there, not much else is. At one time, the building was the social center for the African-American population in Athens, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

"This church is a piece of the history of America, of Athens County, of Athens, and I think it tells the story of a people, of a place, of a time," Adams said.

"The history of the black community in Athens County is very rich, and Mount Zion Baptist Church played a key role in that history," Adams said in explaining why it's important to save the church. "It became important to me to save a piece of black history and a historical site because of these pieces of my personal connection."

Adams, originally from Nelsonville, was baptized and married in the church, and her mother knew one of the people who helped establish the building for the church. The church was founded in 1872 and moved into the building in the early 1900s.

Mount Zion was one of the first racially integrated churches, said Athens Mayor Steve Patterson.

"It's just a symbol of what the city of Athens stands for, being open and inclusive," Patterson said. "It's of historical relevance to the city of Athens. ... It's hugely important from a preservation standpoint."

In 2013, a few concerned residents took notice of the empty building and formed the society, which then fought to gain ownership to preserve it.

Cinseree Johnson merged the church out of existence into a limited liability corporation in 2013 and claimed the building as an asset. It was later determined that she had no right to do so, according to records filed in Athens County Common Pleas Court by the state attorney general's office when it sued to gain control of the building in November 2016. Attempts to contact Johnson were not successful.

The Ohio attorney general's office transferred the building's deed to the society at the end of last month.

Now, the society must raise the money to restore the church to its former glory  in hopes of hosting services there again one day. It's also hoping to make the basement into a museum to showcase black history, Adams said.

"It really makes me feel jubilant now to know we are going to be able to save it, preserve it and make it viable in the community again," Adams said. "Hopefully we can restore it to its original beauty."

The society is having a meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Athens Community Center. It is open to the public and will feature pictures of the church. The society members will discuss the work to be done, the cost and what is needed. Donations will be accepted.
An airman was injured Thursday in a grass fire on Ellsworth Air Force Base, according to a spokesman for the base.

The fire started around 12:30 p.m. Thursday on the northern side of the base and damaged about 15 acres, said Sgt. Richard Longoria.

The airman, whose name has not been released, suffered minor injuries and was treated at and released from a hospital Thursday afternoon. Firefighters from the Rapid City Fire Department, Box Elder Fire Department and Ellsworth Air Force Base responded to the fire.
SIOUX FALLS | A Hutterite colony in South Dakota accused of fostering behavior that led to the death of a teenage girl in a motor vehicle accident has settled a lawsuit brought by the girl's family.

The settlement by the Deerfield Hutterian Brethren Colony near Ipswich comes right before an Aug. 14 trial. The colony was accused of negligence and recklessness by ignoring unlicensed youths driving on public roadways outside the colony, while allowing access to alcohol.

Those actions were factors in the death of Vannah Decker, 15. She died in February 2014 after riding in a colony-owned vehicle driven by Janos Stahl, 17. Stahl was charged with second-degree manslaughter and served a year in jail, the Argus Leader reported.

Decker was from the Starland Hutterian Brethren Colony in Minnesota. She had been visiting family on the Plainview Colony about four miles from the Deerfield Colony. Court records show Stahl drank alcohol before and after meeting that night with Decker, whom he had been communicating with online for several months.

Stahl rolled into a ditch after accelerating to nearly 100 mph, ejecting Decker from the vehicle. He testified that he looked for her, but walked home without reporting the accident when he couldn't find her.

Colony members testified in the civil suit that it's common for unlicensed boys to teach themselves to drive and to take colony vehicles on public roads.

Hutterites are an community that lives on colonies throughout the prairies of northwestern North America. The agricultural community of German descent is a denomination of Anabaptists who, like the Amish, trace their roots back to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

"Although my client continues to mourn the tragic and senseless loss of his 15-year-old daughter, he is relieved that the defendants have been held accountable through the civil justice system," said Scott Abdallah, an attorney for Vannah's father. "Vannah's death was preventable. The Decker family hopes this case will help bring needed changes so that the public is protected from unlicensed children driving on the public roadways of South Dakota."

A phone message left by the newspaper seeking comment from the colony's attorney was not immediately returned.
SPEARFISH - Over 100 unique and exciting items will be offered to the highest bidder during the annual Northern Hills Area CASA Program benefit auction, An Evening of Hope in CASAblanca. The auction features a wide selection of intriguing packages for local experiences, special occasions, health and beauty, and the home. Auction items can be view at www.nhcasa.org.

The August 17 event, held at the Spearfish Holiday Inn Conventions Center, begins at 6 p.m., and includes both traditional and silent auctions of items donated by area businesses and individuals.

All proceeds of the evenings activities benefit the Northern Hills Area CASA program. For ticket information, please call CASA at 722-4558 or register online at www.nhcasa.org. Pre-registration recommended for speedy check-in.

CASA serve children in Butte, Lawrence, and Meade Counties.
Note: Mary and John Farrell gave me permission to reprint this story on the history of their barn. I met them at the Cayuga County Historian's Office in 2001, where they were researching local barns. This story was prepared for the bicentennial of the town of Owasco in 2002. Mary confided that she wrote it as if the barn was talking.

My farm was established by warranty deed, dated July 16, 1884, when Daniel McGarr conveyed 115 acres of land to his daughter Margaret McGarr Burke, who was married to Michael Burke. My farm was appropriately named Wheatland because of its fertile soil, which was especially adapted to raising wheat and various kinds of grain.

A barn was needed on my farm and I was born. I was built on the east side of Oakridge Road in the town of Owasco, sometime during the year 1898, which makes me 107 years old this year of 2005. The 1904 New Century Atlas mentions me, the barn, as "one of the largest and best in the town." I measure 105.5 feet in length and 36 feet in width, and have 22 foot posts and a 10-foot basement. I have since been known as the "Burke Farm Barn."

I am a bank-style barn, which is an interesting barn construction technique where a barn is built into the side of a hill. Since no hill was available along the side of Oakridge Road, an earthen ramp was constructed to my upper level. This allowed farm machinery and wagons easy access to this upper level.

My 24-inch-wide foundation walls are made from field stones that were most likely gathered from the surrounding farm fields, as the ground was plowed and fitted for planting. Some of the stones are quite large and extremely heavy. I often wonder how they were lifted, placed and fitted together so nicely.

My exterior is covered with a board and batten siding. Alternating flat, rough-cut vertical boards and thin strips of wood, called battens, cover my exterior. These boards have protected me for all of the 107 years. Most of my siding boards are original and only recently were many of my front battens replaced with new wood strips. I have always worn a coat of barn red paint. I was very lucky to receive a new coat of paint in 2002.

Originally, my roof supported two very large square rooftop ventilators called cupolas. They were built with louvers on all four sides to allow the circulation inside my upper level. They were quite the crowning top to my structure. When the decaying cupolas were removed in 1993, the workmen disturbed a raccoon who had made his home one of them. Boy, did he scamper along the barn rafters when they pulled the cupola off the roof! The cupolas were not replaced when my new roof was added. I miss them. They were a part of me for 97 years.

My lower level of basement traditionally housed farm animals. The rear of the barns lower level was home to the dairy cows. The horses resided in the front section. Most of my lower-level post supports are hand-hewn timbers that were most likely taken from trees growing on the farm. The adze marks are still on these timbers. These post supports are used to divide the lower level into several box stalls for the seven pleasure horses that range in age from 5 to 30 and make their home in the barn today.

My upper level is a handsome example of exposed structural framework. The complex system of beams, braces, posts and rafters create an impressive sight. Still visible today are the scored carpenter's marks, which show where the posts, beams and braces were to be joined together and pegged. It amazes me how the tapered, pointed pieces of wood, called pegs, still hold the massive timbers together today.

During my working years, my upper level served as a grain threshing floor and storage for hay. The bank side entrance and large wagon doors gave easy access to farm wagons loaded with hay and wheat. There remains a granary room in the southeast corner of this level where threshed grain for animal food was stored. It is still equipped with a chute that sent grain to the stabling floor below.

As you drive by me someday, I hope you will stop and admire my beauty. You will see that my current owners, John and Mary Farrell, are still taking good care of me. They have replaced my roof, changing its color from green to black; added a new lightning rod system, electrical panel and wiring; rebuilt my wagon doors; replaced my front battens; and lavished me with two new coats of barn red paint. Most importantly, they left the Burke name, which I proudly wear, as a tribute to my past owner. I must surely be loved!

Ive enjoyed sharing the story of my beginnings and some of my fond memories with you. It is my hope that, after reading my tale, you will have a greater appreciation for the many farm barns still standing today, and for me, the Burke Farm Barn of Oakridge Road, town of Owasco, New York.

Historian's note: Bowers Howe Leonards huge green barn that stood on Gahwailor, up the road from the church, is gone, and the huge Howard family barn on Melrose at Baptist Corners is also gone. The Burke barn, I believe, is the only large remaining barn in Owasco. The two mentioned above were taken down after we moved to Owasco in 1961. Thank you, John and Mary.
SIOUX FALLS  At a public ceremony on the Front Porch of the Sioux Empire Fair, Lyman County producer Reed Petersek signed the contract that put South Dakota farmers and ranchers over seven million acres of land enrolled in USDAs Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

Its a conservation milestone for the states agricultural producers, who lead the country by a healthy marginno other state has even six million acres enrolled in the program. The signing was part of Ag Appreciation Day at the fair, and state and federal officials were on hand to congratulate and thank producers for their conservation accomplishments that covered 1/6 of the working ag land acres across South Dakota.

Our ultimate goal is to improve soil health across the state on croplands, pasturelands and rangelands, and all the positive effects that come downstream with that, said Karl Jensen, president of the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts. The CSP helps with that.

South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Mike Jaspers, who has land enrolled in the program, applauded producers for their efforts. I learned more about how to care for the land with that program, and it incentivizes me to do more, Jaspers said.

Game, Fish and Wildlife Secretary Kelly Hepler cited wildlife benefits from farmer and rancher work, and Nathan Jensen, Senior Vice President of the Agribusiness Division of First Dakota National Bank pointed out the economic benefits from sound conservation practices. Jensen, who has a farm near Beresford, said many farmers are doing some of the practices outlined in CSP, and called it a natural fit.

Were recognizing farmers and ranchers across the statededicated stewards who have already done a very good job of conserving soil, water and other resources, but who are willing to take risks to try new practices that take conservation to another level, said NRCS State Conservationist Jeff Zimprich of Huron. CSP is a program for working landscorn, soybeans, and wheat and other crops as well as grasslands. The farmers and ranchers in the program are making those lands even more sustainable for the future. Its all about making South Dakota better.

According to NRCS records, in the five-year period between 2011 and 2016, South Dakota ranchers and farmers improved grazing management through CSP on more than 1.1 million acres to benefit wildlife. In that same period, they made 132 miles of fence wildlife friendly for deer, antelope or sage grouse, and they began using practices like flush bars in haying operations on 280,000 acres to reduce loss of nests and young birds.

Among the practices applied through CSP leading to improved water quality are reduced pesticide drift on 1.7 million acres, and plant tissue testing, variable rate fertilizing, and conversion to no-till farming on a combined 1.5 million acres. NRCS also cited the use of cover crops on 300,000 acres and grassland monitoring on 3.4 million acres as significant steps towards soil and rangeland health.

Learn more about CSP online at: www.nrcs.usda.gov .
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AFNS) | Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright visited Joint Base San Antonio July 31 to Aug. 4, 2017, during an immersion to view Air Education and Training Commands role forging innovative Airmen to power the worlds greatest Air Force.

Visits with Airmen from several units across JB San Antonio including AETC headquarters, Air Force Recruiting Service, 19th Air Force, the 37th Training Wing, 502nd Air Base Wing, 59th Medical Wing, the Medical and Training Command, the Air Force Personnel Center and the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence marked the five-day immersion.

AETC is the first command; they continue to recruit, train and inspire all Airmen across the globe, said Wright. They have incredible missions here ranging from flying training to technical training and basic training. What I have seen here is the incredible professional Airmen that help us execute all of the missions that ultimately lead to more lethal warfighters across our Air Force.

During his visit, Wright also held several all-calls with Airmen, including a senior NCO call at JB San Antonio-Randolph to discuss the role leadership has in developing new Airmen.

I know for a fact that our recruiters recruit the best and brightest minds that America has to offer and they come out of Basic Military Training fired up, motivated and ready to go, said Wright. Its our job to keep them that way and help them advance in their career.

While at JB San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Wright attended a JB San Antonio Military and Family Readiness Program orientation to discuss better ways to take care of Airmen and their families.

One of our greatest challenges we need to place a greater focus on is identifying young Airmen and families that need the services available and connecting the two, said Wright. Many times our young Airmen wont raise their hand and say they need help. Its the responsibility of supervisors to know what their Airmen need and connect them to those resources. Our airmen and family readiness centers are fantastic, and they really do a great job providing the resources people need. We just need to make the connection.

At JB San Antonio-Lackland, Wright met with military training leaders where the integration of innovative solutions into training through the application of emerging ideas, tools, and technology was discussed, which is a major focus area for AETC.

I think we need to evolve the way we train, and most of that is centered on technology, said Wright. In todays day and age with the tools and technology we have available it is imperative that we evolve our training platforms and systems to make training more efficient and effective for all of our Airmen.

Wright also attended a BMT graduation and welcomed the newest generation of Airmen into the Air Force.

In order to get ready for Airmen of any generation, these new Airmen and the Airmen of tomorrow, its incumbent upon us to maintain the skills necessary to be good supervisors, good mentors and great leaders to help these Airmen thrive and achieve the goals they set out, said Wright. These men and women joined the Air Force to be part of a team, and to be part of something greater than themselves. Its our responsibility to help them realize that dream.

Focus and pride were the main points of the services senior enlisted leaders advice to the new Airmen.

To our newest Airmen, dream big, focus small and continue the level of pride you have in serving and being an Airman, said Wright.

As the CMSAF, Wright represents the highest enlisted level of leadership, and provides direction for the enlisted force and represents their interests, as appropriate, to the American public, and to those in all levels of government. He serves as the personal adviser to the chief of staff and the secretary of the Air Force on all issues regarding the welfare, readiness, morale, and proper utilization and progress of the enlisted force.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | A new pair of hands will be at the helm of the worlds largest B-1 combat wing following a change of command ceremony at 9:28 a.m., Aug. 9 in the Pride Hangar on Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.

Col. John Edwards, a master combat systems officer with more than 2,440 flight hours including 237 combat hours accrued during Operation Allied Force and Operation Enduring Freedom, will take command of the 28th Bomb Wing in a ceremony officiated by Maj. Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of 8th Air Force.

Colonel Edwards was previously the commander of the 479th Flying Training Group at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida. In that capacity, he led four squadrons, 800 personnel and 45 T-6 Texan II and T-1A Jayhawk aircraft that trained combat systems officers for the U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard. The group also trained more than 325 electronic warfare specialists for the Department of Defense and 23 allied countries every year, and supported 1,500 Air Force personnel stationed in the Pensacola area.
Two men pleaded guilty in federal court Friday for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.

James Sides, 22, of Hot Springs, and Nicholaus Tripp, 29, of Spearfish, were caught by undercover police in separate operations.

According to court records, Sides placed two ads on the site Craigslist in March, looking for a father and daughter who would engage in sexual activity with him. An agent with the federal Homeland Security Investigations, pretending to be the father of a 14-year-old girl, set up a meeting with Sides at a Rapid City hotel.

Sides was arrested carrying photo equipment he had suggested be used as props to persuade the girl to show up, according to a six-page statement of facts he submitted to the court. He also had suggested using a sleeping aid to incapacitate the girl but was apparently unable to find any at a drugstore.

Sides fetish developed while he was spending time with a nudist family, the statement reads, and that he had engaged in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.

A couple of hours before he was arrested, Sides met with a 15-year-old girl from Box Elder, court records state. Sides inappropriately touched the girl inside his car before she was able to get away from him.

Investigators found multiple images of child pornography on his phone, including ones involving infants.

In December, Tripp posted an ad on Craiglist also, seeking minors for sexual activity.

A South Dakota law enforcement agent, working undercover as a mother with two underage daughters, offered her 13- and 15-year-old girls in exchange for money. Tripp refused to pay but said he would buy one of the girls a phone, another girl a gift card and the mother credit for her phone, according to his statement of facts in the case.

After Tripps arrest, he admitted chatting online with a 13-year-old girl overseas from whom he solicited images of child pornography, the statement reads.

A search of his home yielded several electronic devices that contained images of child pornography, authorities said.

After Tripp pleaded guilty at the Rapid City federal courthouse just before noon Friday, a woman in the gallery began crying.

Both Tripp and Sides are facing 10 years to life in prison, as well as up to five years of supervised release, on the offense attempted enticement of a minor using the internet. They will also be required to register as sex offenders.

The mens sentencing has not been scheduled. They are detained at the Pennington County Jail.
A man sought for questioning in connection with a shooting last month in Rapid Valley has been arrested in California, thanks to an anonymous tip, the Pennington County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Zachery Moore, 23, was taken into custody Thursday in Modesto, Calif., where he is awaiting extradition to South Dakota, the sheriff's office said in a release.

Local authorities had asked for the public's help in searching for Moore, who is considered a suspect in an attempted murder on July 23. No one was injured in the shooting, which occurred in the area of 5200 Ross Court in Rapid Valley.

Moore was also wanted on a felony bench warrant for charges of possession of meth and marijuana. In addition, Moore, who was on parole for a 2012 burglary, was listed as a parole absconder June 23.

He is also under investigation after a vehicle belonging to him was involved in a pursuit with police June 28. The vehicle was found crashed and abandoned.
PIERRE | South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs is considering a second request from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for South Dakota voter registration data, an aide to Krebs said Friday.

The July 26 request differs from the previous one because it promises voter information wont be released to the public, according to Krebs spokesman Jason Williams.

The commission also stated in the second letter that they were no longer requesting personal identifying information such as Social Security numbers, driver license numbers, and full date of birth, Williams said. This request is currently being reviewed by legal counsel to ensure that South Dakotans' personal information is properly protected according to state law.

Krebs rejected the commissions first attempt. That letter from commission vice chairman Kris Kobach advised Krebs to "please be aware that any documents that are submitted to the full commission will also be made available to the public."

Kobach, a Republican, is Kansas secretary of state. Krebs is a Republican who made the jump in 2014 from a state senator to secretary of state.

She cited two specific South Dakota laws in her reply to Kobach.

Krebs said state laws precluded posting information in a manner that allowed unrestricted access to certain information in the voter registration file, including Social Security numbers, driver's license identification numbers and full dates of birth.

Even without state law not allowing the sharing of such information," Krebs said, "I personally would have concerns with sharing such information.

She urged the national commission to recommend steps that are in place in South Dakota:

 Statewide voter cross-check administered by state election officials. She said full participation by all states in a statewide voter cross-check would improve the integrity of voter registration files for all secretaries of state.

 Encourage citizens to be poll workers, watchers and poll observers. The more citizens who participate in the voting process the more citizens there are to ensure and validate the integrity of the election, she wrote.

 South Dakota requires voters to provide a photo ID, and if a voter forgets or doesnt have an ID, the voter can sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that the voter is who he or she says and then cast a provisional ballot.

 South Dakota verifies voter eligibility by running voter registration information cross-checks, Krebs added.

She said the voter is matched with the Social Security Administration for U.S. citizenship; the South Dakota vital records office for death records; the South Dakota Unified Judicial System for felony convictions; and the state Department of Public Safety for driver's license numbers.

South Dakota has shared voter registration lists with other states for at least the past 10 years, according to Williams.

Chris Nelson, who was South Dakotas secretary of state at the time, confirmed that he entered an agreement in 2007 with Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. He is now an elected member of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

Krebs has continued Nelsons practice. She most recently signed a memorandum of understanding on Aug. 1 to cross-check registration data with 31 other states.

They send voter information to Kobachs office in Kansas and receive it back, using encryption and passwords. The agreement calls for original data to be destroyed afterward.
Since last week, when a sealed fiberglass box dating back to the 1970s was found inside a storage area at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Craig Baltzer has been on a mission to discover its contents.

He's afraid to open the box, because it could be a time capsule. On the other hand, Baltzer, the executive director of the civic center, admits it "could be anything."

"This might be Elvis Presley's wardrobe that never got shipped," he joked.

Presley played at the civic center's grand opening in June 1977.

The mystery began last week when, during a routine cleaning, civic center operations staff stumbled upon an old document commemorating the burial of a 40-year-old time capsule. "Buried 4-27-77," the document said in scrawling, cursive letters.

Baltzer scoured civic center grounds and the southwest corner of Barnett Arena, where it was supposed to have been buried. He found nothing.

Puzzled, he went to the building's operations team, which handles grounds, maintenance and storage. They didn't find a plaque or marker for a buried time capsule but instead came up with a sealed fiberglass box.

The large brown box had been hopping from storage spot to storage spot since 1977, Baltzer discovered. It was unmarked and weighed about 150 pounds. The operations team thought it was garbage; they almost threw it out.

Baltzer began to wonder: Could it contain the 1977 time capsule? Several clues pointed to it. The box was secured with 28 bolts and an epoxy seal, suggesting it was meant to go in the ground.

Baltzer considered opening it, as did the civic center board and Mayor Steve Allender. But they ultimately decided not to, fearing that if it was the time capsule they might be going against the wishes of those who may have intended to bury it.

Baltzer consulted civic center officials from 1977, including Larry Lytle, who had been chairman of the board. Lytle insisted the time capsule had been buried April 27, 1977.

But if it had, then where was it?

The original document says the time capsule contains documents relating to tax structure, the history of the civic center, civic center location decisions and reports on civic center designs.

That information could be helpful, Baltzer said, if the city decides to build a new arena at a different location.

A Journal article published April 28, 1977, thickens the mystery for Baltzer. Staff writer Bob Fell reported that during a ceremonial sealing of the cornerstone for the civic center, one solder-sealed box containing civic center items made it into its burial place. Another, containing chamber bicentennial mementos, didn't fit. It ended up back in chamber offices, to be buried at a later date.

The time capsule they recovered from that spot during an expansion of the civic center is marked as the chamber's time capsule, not the civic center's.

Whether the box in Baltzer's office contains the civic center's time capsule or not, Baltzer just wants to know what's in it. "It would be fantastic to open it during our 40th anniversary he said.

Ultimately, Baltzer said, "what we're looking for is clarification. All I have now is a box that has been floating around since 1977."

The civic center is asking for the public's help to determine the contents of the box without opening it.

Anyone who can identify this box as the one containing the original time capsule is asked to call Baltzer at 394-4115.
Its been a while since weve heard optimism about the economy. The unemployment rate is hovering around 4 percent. The economy is consistently producing more than 200,000 jobs per month. Nearly seven in ten Americans feel good about where the economy is headed  thats up five percentage points since June alone and comparable to what folks felt in the early 2000s, according to a recent CBS News poll. Even the New York Times posted a headline that read: Jobs Roar Back.

While momentum must continue on key growth issues like regulatory relief and tax reform, we must also focus on another area: our workforce. Are young people getting the training and qualifications they need to compete and win in this modernized and growing economy? Too often, the answer I hear is not quite.

In South Dakota, we are blessed to have a network of tech schools that provide training for the most in-demand jobs. Recently, WalletHub ranked us as having the nations best system of community colleges.

At Lake Area Tech in Watertown, 99 percent of graduates are employed after graduation, and theyre often landing good jobs, earning around 25 percent more than other new hires. What makes the difference? For one, South Dakota tech schools are providing quality training and education. But they are also putting in the work necessary to connect those educating our workforce with those hiring our workforce.

This partnership between educators and employers ought to be a model for the nation. Earlier this year, I helped pass the Strengthening Career and Technical Education Act through the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation takes many of the ideas that are working at places like Lake Area Tech and creates an infrastructure for them to work nationwide.

More specifically, the legislation would better align education with in-demand jobs. It does so by lifting some of the barriers that discourage strong partnerships between job creators and educators. It also grants states and local community leaders more flexibility in using federal education dollars, opening opportunities for innovative learning experiences. Finally, the bill would increase transparency to ensure career and technical education programs are delivering real results.

These are reforms that Im hopeful the Senate will take up soon, so we can get them to the presidents desk.

We have a responsibility to pursue workforce development. Americas most valuable asset is our people. We are hardworking and smart. We take pride in a Made in America label. And we live by a set of values that celebrate freedom, liberty and personal responsibility. By continuing to innovate more effective workforce development programs, we can help Americans from all walks of life not only find good-paying jobs, but meaningful careers they can grow in.
WASHINGTON | This is what we dreaded. Some international crisis was bound to flare up, and President Trump would make it worse. Now we can only hope that the mature adults surrounding him are able to cool things down.

Trump probably thought it was oh-so-clever to answer North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear provocations with a taste of the dictator's own apocalyptic language, threatening "fire and fury like the world has never seen." It sounded like a playground taunt, reflecting the president's emotional immaturity. On Thursday, Trump said that maybe those words weren't "tough enough." Soon these two nuclear-armed leaders may be trading insults about the size of each other's hands.

The "fire and fury" line was "improvised," meaning Trump failed to warn anyone about it beforehand  not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not Defense Secretary James Mattis, not chief of staff John Kelly, not national security adviser H.R. McMaster, not U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Wish these five officials well, because they stand between us and unthinkable disaster.

It is possible that "fire and fury" was, in Trump's mind, a bit of strategy. Perhaps he wanted to come across as a dangerous madman. If so, he succeeded in unnerving Americans and our allies  but not, apparently, the North Koreans.

Ironies abound. Before Trump's intervention, his administration was actually doing pretty well in orchestrating a global response to North Korea's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Haley managed to get the U.N. Security Council to approve tough new sanctions, which meant she had to win cooperation from China and Russia  a real diplomatic achievement.

Moreover, Trump's bombast may even have occasioned high-fives in Kim's inner circle. Kim has long sought direct talks with the United States as a way of showing the North Korean people his exalted status among world leaders. A back-and-forth exchange of rhetoric fills the bill.

Dealing with this crisis will require patience and realism, both of which Trump totally lacks.

There is no quick solution. If there were, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama would have implemented it long ago. A U.S. military strike could cost millions of lives in South Korea and perhaps many thousands in Japan. Our nation, under Trump, would become an international pariah. We would have the blood of many innocents on our hands.

The reality is that Kim doesn't want to conquer the world  or provoke a U.S. attack that could end his regime. He wants to remain in power. He also dreams of someday reuniting the Korean Peninsula under his own leadership, but that is a much longer-range goal. Right now, his imperative is survival.

By developing nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology, Kim sought to ensure that he never faces the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Having gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain this insurance policy, he is not likely to give it up. Ever.

The Trump administration believes the Chinese government could do more to pressure Kim. It is true that China has the power to destroy the fragile North Korean economy, but Chinese leaders are not willing to confront the consequences of provoking a collapse of central authority in Pyongyang. And the Kim dynasty has shown a willingness to force the North Korean people to endure unspeakable hardship in the pursuit of national goals.

I see no way that Kim is ever going to be persuaded or coerced into giving up his nukes. Maybe he would do so under imminent threat of being deposed. But in any scenario I can imagine, he has more leverage with nuclear weapons than without them. I don't want to live in a world in which a nuclear-tipped North Korean missile can hit Guam or Hawaii or Los Angeles or Chicago, but we may not have a choice.

Deterrence does work, though. It worked throughout the Cold War. It worked during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when China was at least as unhinged as North Korea is today. It works between India and Pakistan.

Trump once said he would be willing to meet with Kim. If the president can be kept from making further threats and the present crisis allowed to subside, perhaps we can eventually offer direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang  something Kim dearly wants  with the subject being a verifiable freeze on the North Korean nuclear program. After a freeze is in place for a while, it might be possible to negotiate reductions.

As I said, we need to be patient and realistic.
Hamilton resident and new author John P. Wilson is a busy man.

Since leaving Missoula in 1966, he has been a professional musician in Washington, D.C., taught band, became a computer troubleshooter, professional poker player, and this year wrote a book (in five weeks) and got it published.

I feel good about this, Wilson said. So, let the fun begin  I hope.

Last fall he was in a Ravalli Republic article about his adventures as a professional musician. The feedback he received from that article made him decide to write a novel.

He started writing in January.

He wrote a fictional story about places he knew and characters he has met, without using real names. By mid-February, Scott Company Publishing in Kalispell agreed to publish his first novel. His sister did the art work for the cover.

My Oath & My Honor is published and for sale.

Wilson said the story just came to him.

Its a story that has been rolling around in my head for a long time, he said. It seems that when I write, if I lay there and think about it, it goes through my head and just comes to me. Sometimes Ill be writing or typing and I dont know where Im going - it just pops into my head. I have writing talent and didnt realize it.

Wilson credits his solid education from high school in Great Falls.

A lot of things started coming back to me about verbs and nouns - Im a meticulous person, he said. The hardest part was keeping the chronology correct; you really have to keep track of that stuff. That was my first attempt and I learned a few things.

Wilson said My Oath & My Honor was not written to preach politics, religion or morals.

We get enough of that on TV and Im tired of it, he said.

The book begins with a question:

How do you define a hero? ... It is difficult to predict how a person will react when faced with life and death decisions. Here is a story of some who were able to get it done.

Wilson said he wanted to tell a story about guys in Vietnam in the early 1970s.

A lot of it is about me  or the way Id like to be, Wilson said. My main character grew up in Montana, learned how to shoot and how to handle guns at an early age. He was not a fighting soldier when he was in Vietnam, but he was thrust into that position, saved a lot of people, and then retired to Montana.

The plot involves the protagonist going to Sam Billings Campground near Painted Rocks Dam to go fishing when he comes across two men who are terrorizing a mother and daughter. He shoots the men, rescues the girls, and is interviewed on TV.

It turns out that the mother and daughter he rescued is the daughter and granddaughter of one of the Green Berets soldiers whose life he saved in Vietnam 30 years earlier, Wilson said.

They make it their mission to go after these sexploitation guys. Theres more to the story and it does have an unusual ending.

Wilson completed the book in chapters, wrote a book query (a one-page synopsis designed to get the attention of a publisher) and went to Kalispell to visit his son.

Right next to his house was this building that said publisher on it, he said. Scott Graber, at Scott Company Publishing in Kalispell, read the query and jumped out of his chair, saying this is really good. It went from there.

The publisher asked him if he was a patriot.

I said Yeah, I think I am, Wilson said. I do think were patriots, but not everything in the United States is perfect.

Wilson was in the Navy, his dad was in World War II, his oldest brother was a Marine in Korea (killed three days after his 18th birthday), his next oldest brother was in the Air National Guard, his youngest brother was in the Air Force and his son, Mike, was in the Army in Desert Storm.

Wilson dedicated the book to his neighbor, World War II Fighter Ace Frank McCauley, who passed away last month at 100.

He was a really good guy, Wilson said. He had a really positive outlook about everything. His body wore out but his mind didnt.

Wilson said Frank McCauleys widow, Bobbie, read My Oath & My Honor.

Her only criticism was that it is too short, Wilson said. She said, I really loved the story line. I cant stop thinking about it. I cant stop thinking about the characters. I wanted it to go on and on.

The book is brief, 187 pages, chapter 11 is three paragraphs, and chapter 13 is two paragraphs.

I put hash tags there because I didnt think they deserved a separate chapter. But the publisher decided they should be chapter and I figured he knows more about it than I do, Wilson said. Every publisher has a little different way of doing it.

Wilson has just started promoting and selling My Oath & My Honor. He plans to make it available as an audio book and may write a sequel, as well as a fantasy novel about his ancestors coming west on the Oregon Trail in the 1870s.

He isnt in a rush.

My neighbors call me the Grandma Moses of the neighborhood, he said. She didnt start painting until she was 78. George Burns said never retire. Im 73.

Wilson said his next book will be longer and he will take his time to get it right.

Im a guy who needs positive reinforcements, he said. Im happy with what Ive done in my life. I like the story to grab you from the beginning and have it compel you to turn each page.

Order My Oath & My Honor at www.johnpatrickwilson.com.
No one disputes that the death of a woman at the hands of Minneapolis police was a terrible mistake. There was no ill intent.

Nevertheless, Australian Justine Damond, who had been living in Minneapolis, is dead. She leaves behind a grief-stricken fiance and scores of people who remember her as a wonderful woman.

She was shot by a police officer on the night of July 15  after she summoned help when she heard what she thought might have been someone being assaulted.

Already, her death has illustrated shortcomings in how some police officers and departments have responded during the past few years to multiple accidental shootings by officers.

One recommendation stemming from the earlier deaths was that law enforcement personnel wear body cameras to record their interactions with the public. Obviously, the idea there was either to corroborate or refute officers accused of negligence or misconduct.

But both the Minneapolis officers involved in Damond's shooting were wearing body cameras. They were turned off.

Investigators have been told by one of the officers, who was driving the squad car that night, that as they cruised down a dark alley in response to Damond's call, he was startled by a loud noise. Soon after, Damond approached the car  whereupon the other officer shot her through the driver's side window.

It will be some time before the investigation is concluded, of course. But one thing seems likely: After hearing a loud noise and seeing someone approach the squad car, one of the officers fired his weapon instinctively, fearing he and his partner were at risk.

The two lessons, then, are first that officers on duty should have their body cameras turned on at all times, if they are so equipped, and second, that better training to help officers handle stressful situations without, in effect, panicking, is needed in some departments.

 The Post-Journal, Jamestown

While New York continues to pretend that it is succeeding with its approach to providing medical marijuana to those who need it, a slow, costly and bureaucratic exercise even given the state's tendency to make most projects more complex than they need to be, evidence is readily available that we are on not just the wrong track but one that heads toward a messy and costly derailment.

The news last week from Albany was that the state has now licensed five new companies to join the five current ones to grow and sell medical marijuana products.

The five existing suppliers resisted the expansion because they have not been very successful and feared that more competition in such a restrictive environment would make it difficult to survive. One executive said that given the lack of participating physicians and patients, any single supplier could handle present demand, making an expansion from five to 10 even more puzzling.

All of this is happening while many other states continue to offer less restrictive approaches on marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use and some of them are right next door. In a few months marijuana sales will be legal in Massachusetts, where personal possession is already legal. Vermont is working on legislation to allow people to grow their own and several other states are expanding access.

Most states which consider medicinal uses learned a lesson that still has not taken hold in New York. For marijuana to help those who need it, patients need to work with their doctors free of unnecessary bureaucratic interference and doctors need to determine what would help. We see evidence of that unmet need in New York where more than 10,000 patients recently signed up now that the state has allowed doctors to write prescriptions for those with chronic pain, a condition that inexplicably was not included in the original list of allowed maladies. A bill expanding the list to include post-traumatic stress disorder has passed the Legislature but has not yet been signed by the governor.

At this rate, New York will continue to add a few illnesses here and there, will slowly add physicians to the list of those registered to write prescriptions and will hope that the competition among 10 suppliers does not bankrupt more than a few of them.

 Times Herald-Record, Middletown

As words fly fiercely and tensions mount over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, world leaders would do well to remember the singular lesson of this week in history:

Never again. We have seen the devastating consequences of these weapons before. We cannot get this wrong.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States deployed the first nuclear weapon, killing 140,000 people in Hiroshima. Wednesday is the anniversary of the second attack, when 70,000 died in Nagasaki, hastening the end of World War II. Those bombs were not as powerful as the ones that exist today.

Yet the dream of a non-nuclear world remains remote. Last month, the UN announced its first pact to ban nuclear arms. But neither the nine nations with nuclear weapons nor Japan participated in the process. Unpredictable North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to test missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.

The UN Security Council responded by levying its toughest sanctions yet on North Korea, costing the impoverished country up to $1 billion a year. Most encouraging was China's yes vote on the new penalties it drafted with the United States. Kim will not be deterred, if he can be at all, without help from his main benefactor.

Bellicose words and displays of military strength only inflame hostilities. It was good news that North Korea's foreign minister sat down last weekend with colleagues from South Korea, China and Russia, and that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held open the possibility of direct talks with North Korea.

The way to a more peaceful future lies in lessons learned 72 years ago. Never again.

 Newsday, Long Island
Charred husks of resilient ponderosa pines provided the backdrop for a project to restore a trail consumed in the Roaring Lion Fire.

A crew of 15 workers, assisted by a crane operator, began assembling a stock bridge to cross Sawtooth Creek on Friday. The earlier footbridge bridge wasn't wide enough for stock, and it became structurally dangerous for people to use after the fire ran through the area in 2016.

Prior to the fire, Kathy Hundley from the Selway-Pintler Wilderness Backcountry Horsemen wrote the grant that funded the stock bridge project. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks recreation trails program offers federal funds to construct and maintain non-motorized trail systems. The recreation trails program grant provided $17,000 to complete the bridge.

Hundley and the backcountry horsemen worked hard to rescue the Sawtooth Creek trail from disrepair a few years back. They cleared brush, cut and removed blowdowns, and opened the trail to stock, only to see their efforts go up in flame.

I was in tears, Hundley said. I couldnt even come up here last year after losing all that work we put in.

Despite seeing her torched efforts from last summer, Hundley is optimistic. Prior to the fire, horse riders and stock would have to ford the river. Now for the first time, the creek will be passable to horse teams before the water drops to summer levels.

All recreation trails program grants require a 20 percent in-kind contribution, so nearly all workers at the bridge site were volunteering their time. In addition to those from the Selway-Pintler Wilderness Backcountry Horsemen, the Montana Conservation Corps provided help.

Sam Wood is one of the crew leaders for the MCC trail workers in the Bitterroot Valley this summer. So far theyve done cross cutting and brush work up Mill Creek trail, Rock Creek trail, and along the West Fork of the Bitterroot.

Wood has worked on trails for three seasons, but this is the first bridge project shes worked on. After graduating from college in Tennessee she decided to quit working at the UPS and looked into conservation management.

I hated my job. I did customer service for a few years and I think thats harder than this, Wood said. Its good to be outside and working with your body.

Steve Bull, the Forest Services trail crew foreman, oversees the work the MCC crew does. He said they didnt expect to have a crane, and that help was huge.

What took that crane two hours, would have taken this crew four to six weeks, Bull said. Also, that type of work beats the hell out of my guys.

Each of the bridges base supports weighs around 1,700 pounds and costs around $2,000. The stock bridge crossing Sawtooth Creek is the fourth bridge of its kind Bull has worked on.

The Sawtooth Creek bridge is constructed from untreated Alaskan yellow cedar, which is a wood that is known for its longevity, resistance to wood boring insects and strong structural strength.

According to Bull, the bridge is also more environmentally sound. Since the wood isnt treated with chemicals, the Forest Service will not have to remove the structure from the forest after its usable life.

And because the Forest Service wont have to remove the bridge in the future, the cost of building a bridge like this is actually less than building one out of pressure-treated wood that may last a little bit longer, Bull said.

Its not like the yellow cedar will rot away quickly though - the Sawtooth Creek bridge will last around 30 years. Bull said they expect to have the bridge just about done by Tuesday.

This is an important access, Bull said. Without that bridge, nobody is getting back there safely until after high water.
A severe canine respiratory disease that hasnt yet been identified is sickening dogs around Montana and the state is encouraging dog owners to take precautions to protect their pets.

Dr. Tahnee Szymanski, with the Department of Livestock, said the first reported case was in early July, though some veterinarians around the state saw ill dogs earlier. She estimates about 250 dogs have been sickened, with one clinic in Bozeman having seen more than 100 cases.

Bozeman veterinarian Dr. Loni Odenbeck said she knows of three dog deaths speculated to be related to the upper respiratory outbreak, though without knowing exactly what the disease is, its hard to confirm.

Dogs who fell sick around the state appeared initially to have symptoms similar to a severe case of kennel cough, even though they were vaccinated against that disease. Sick dogs had severe coughs, difficulty breathing and fever, and more critical infections turned into pneumonia, which was fatal in a small number of animals.

Dogs with symptoms have been reported in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Livingston, Red Lodge and Roundup with some clinics seeing multiple sick dogs a day. Some clinics in Helena have told owners with sick dogs to not bring their pets into the office because of fear of spreading the disease. A case has not been recognized in Missoula at this time, according to a veterinarian there.

Several veterinarians in the Bozeman area, including Odenbeck, are collecting samples from dogs in an attempt to identify the illness and are working with a couple out-of-state university diagnostic labs. Some dogs have had postmortem exams at a Department of Livestock lab in Bozeman.

Early lab tests indicated the disease could be canine influenza, but a later sample collected from a sick dog brought that into question. The U.S. has seen three past outbreaks of canine influenza, according to the Department of Livestock. Past outbreaks were in Chicago in 2015 and later in California and the southeast U.S.

The department recommends pet owners consider limiting their dogs contact with other pets, as exposure can be traced back to public water bowls or encounters with other dogs and dog parks.

Early cases were associated with boarding dogs, and that may have attributed to the diseases spread statewide. Several years ago another rash of sick dogs around Montana made it clear how much residents travel with their pets and how commonly dogs from one town end up kenneled in another.

I was shocked at how far people will travel with their dogs to put them in a kennel, Szymanski said. We had people from Butte and Anaconda coming up (to Helena) to kennel their dogs. At the end of the day none of us really comprehended how much pets move on a daily basis and that really accounts for how far-reaching this outbreak is.

Szymanski advised dog owners to make smart decisions about their pets. She stopped short of advising people to not travel or kennel their dogs, however.

Theres always some risk any time youre going to take your dog out in public, whether its to a dog park, a trail head or to be boarded. Theres going to be some risk youre exposing them to illness.

Odenbeck, who is co-owner of 360 Pet Medical and Pet Emergency Trauma Services in Bozeman, suggested avoiding areas where dogs gather in high concentration. She said many kennels have reached out to ask how they can minimize the spread of the diseases, such as any special cleaning or considering brief shutdowns.

Kennels dont need to be completely avoided, Odenbeck said. People just need to ask questions. There are still people that need to use those situations and we certainly dont want to shut down any business based on paranoia.

Bozeman saw the disease spread so rapidly because its such a dog-friendly town and people bring their dogs almost everywhere, Odenbeck said.

Veterinarians have reported to the department that dogs in the 2- to 3-year-old range seem to be the most severely affected. Odenbeck encouraged anyone with a dog showing symptoms or that seems ill to contact their veterinarian right away.

Szymanski encouraged dog owners to develop a good relationship with their veterinarian and keep sick dogs away from other canines.

Dont let the disease spread any further than that point, she said. Sometimes that means even after all the clinical signs are gone, keep them home for a period of time after that. Work with your vet to determine when its safe to go back out into public life.

Odenbeck said this is the most severe outbreak of any disease shes seen in her 10 years as a vet in Montana. Shes working with a handful of laboratories, pharmaceutical labs and other industry organizations to help determine what the disease is.

Knowing what is making dog sicks will help veterinarians limit the spread of the illness, treat it better and perhaps be able to recommend vaccinations. If its a new virus, there could be work to develop a new vaccine, Odenbeck said. Many Montana vets don't stock influenza vaccines, but that may change, she said, and some kennels have discussed requiring the vaccine before accepting dogs for boarding.
Today is National Elephant Appreciation Day, so we take a look at the lessons we can learn about relationships from the complex sets of social skills in elephants.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Show your emotions- Elephants show humour, co-operation, self-awareness and playfulness. There is nothing wrong with being emotionally honest with your partner- in fact it brings you closer together as you can be vulnerable together.

People don't say 'laughing is the best medicine' for nothing- it really is the best tonic for any relationship.

Being aware of your own needs and desires is important to communicate to your partner- you may be a couple; however you still bring individual traits to the relationship.

Every couple needs to be playful at times, to alleviate stress and to momentarily forget about their responsibilities. 'All work and no play'- as the saying goes.

Finally, co-operation is essential for a peaceful relationship- to show mutual support for one another to reach the same goal.

Joy- Elephants have no shame in showing when they are happy with their loved ones and greet those most precious to them with expressions of joy. If you are enjoying your time with your partner- tell them- better yet- show them that you value the moments you spend together and that you are happy to be with them. If we are not careful, we can fixate on all the things that go wrong rather than appreciating the small moments of joy in between. It is important to acknowledge them to reinforce why you're together.

The power of touch- Elephants frequently touch and caress one another and make contact by entwining their trunks. Touch is a very powerful force in a relationship. It shows your partner that you want to be physically close to them, communicates protection and safety and that you still find them desirable.

Reassurance- Elephants reassure one another in times of uncertainty and fear. It is important that in a couple- you reassure each other even if you secretly have doubts over the future as it gets you through the tougher times.

Team work- Elephants demonstrate team work with each other all the time. Team work is essential in any relationship. Whether it's pulling together to arrange an event, to decorate your shared living quarters or to simply cook a meal- it's very important that lovers work effectively as a pair to be successful.

Curiosity- Elephants are naturally curious creatures. Curiosity that drives you to start rifling through your partner's stuff may be taking things too far; however a mild curiosity makes you learn things about your partner that you might not have ordinarily discovered.

Creativity- Elephants are imaginative animals- and have been captured working with humans to generate something creative on many an occasion. Even for couples who don't consider themselves creative in their hobbies and interests; a certain amount of creativity is key to the success of relationship. Couples have to come up with new ideas all the time to keep their relationship fresh and interesting. Creativity can be simply thinking of something to do on a free Saturday or on an evening when you are both looking to be entertained.

Compassion- Studies have found that elephants make allowances for those closest to them. Showing your partner compassion demonstrates an ability to see life from their point of view. If your partner is sick- understanding that they might not be able to function at their normal pace means a great deal to them.

Altruism- There have been countless stories of elephants caring for other injured species. We can all take a leaf from their book. Not only should you care for your partner but their family and friends too. If their loved ones are hurt or upset, you should care for them with the same gusto as you would your partner. They are your extended family after all.

Grief- Elephants are renowned for mourning their loved ones. It is important if your partner suffers a loss in their family, that you are there for them- for as long as it takes. Grieving shows that you feel their sense of loss and that you also developed an attachment to their loved one in the time you knew them.

by Lucy Moore for relationships.femalefirst.co.uk

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Kathmandu, Nepal: Its now official that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is going to fly to India on a five-day official visit to India on August 23. As this is Deubas first foreign trip after being elected as the Prime Minister about two months ago, there are widespread concerns over the scheduled visit.

Though PM Deubas state visit to India was already come in light, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has formally announced the visit amid a press conference on Monday. While, so, foreign minister Mahara also tried to brushing aside the speculations surrounded over the PM Deubas scheduled visit to India.

According to Foreign Minister Mahara, the agenda to be discussed with India during PM Deubas visit are still under discussions. The government wants to get some tangible achievements from the visit, minister Mahara said during the conference.

However, he did not elaborate about the basis that the government would achieve tangible achievements from the recent state visit of PM Deuba. As Nepal is planning to push for the implementation of the previous pacts rather than reaching new agreements, it is said that the visit of PM Deuba will remain nothing than formal visit.

It is said that PM Deuba will have bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and top leaders from ruling and opposition parties on August 24. Likewise, he is scheduled to address the intellectual and business community in New Delhi on August 25. Likewise, he is also scheduled to visit Bodh Gaya in Bihar and the Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh during his five day stay in India.

As Prime Minister Deuba is going to visit southern neighbor India in the mean time when the southern neighbor India and the northern neighbor China have engaged in military standoff in Doklam, the bordering point between India, China, Bhuta and Nepal, there is widespread concerns that how Nepal will deal the issue during the visit.

Responding to the concerns raised by the media persons over the issue, foreign minister Mahara said that Nepal will not include any agendas related to the military standoff in Doklam. As Nepal wants a peaceful resolution of the military standoff between India and China and Nepal never wants to be dragged into the boundary dispute between India and China, Nepal will not take any position over the issue, minister Mahara said.

Though, foreign minister Mahara claimed so, Nepal has felt pressure from the neighboring countries to take its position over the Doklam issue. There is a speculation that Indian and Chinese diplomats have regularly been exerting pressure to the Nepali authorities to make Nepals position over the issue. However, Mahara does not agree so but used to claim so that no side had exerted pressure on Nepal on the Doklam standoff and others.

As Nepal does not want to see any incident of confrontation and conflict between our neighboring countries, we have no any pressure from our on the Doklam standoff, Mahara claimed. Nepal will not get influenced either by India or China and get dragged into their border dispute, Mahara reiterated while responding the queries of the media persons.

Despite the clarifications from the foreign minister Mahara, the growing flows of diplomatic visit from neighboring countries before Prime Minster Debas scheduled visit to India is taken cautiously from different sectors.

Chinese vice Premier Wang Yang is arriving in Nepal on a three-day official visit on August 14. Wang is arriving in Nepal just a few days after the visit of foreign ministers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand and Myanmar.

The foreign ministers from the BIMSTEC member countries including Indian are arriving here just to participate in the BIMSTEC meeting, which is scheduled to commence from coming Friday.

It is said that Indian Foreign Minister Susma Swaraj is scheduled to hold high-level meetings with Nepali authorities including Prime Minster Deuba and President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

As the Chinese vice Premier Wangs visit is scheduled just few days after the visit of Indian Foreign Minister Swaraj in the pretext of strengthening bilateral relations and developing cooperation between the two countries, there is a speculation that both the high ranking government authorities from the neighboring countries will try to Influence PM Deuba over Doklam issue.

Chinese vice president Wang is also scheduled to visit Prime Ministr Deuba, President Bhandari, main opposition party CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, CPN Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal during his three days long stay in Kathmandu.

Though none of the sides have announced formally, there is also a speculations that Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar is also arriving in Nepal just after the visit of Chinese vice primer Wang.
Kathmandu, Nepal: The torrential rainfall came from Friday evening claims at least 23 peoples lives across the country.

Hundreds of families have displaced due to floods and landslides. The people from the Terai districts have largely affected from the floods.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that at least six persons have killed in Sunsari due to floods.

According to the Ministry, four persons each were killed in Sindhuli and Banke district and one person each in Morang and Jhapa districts.

It is said that three elderly people have went missing in flood at Sundar Haraincha in Morang district. They have feared dead.
Dawn - August 12, 2017

PAKISTAN and India celebrate their 70th anniversaries next week. Shall they be around for their 100th one too? It depends on how long their luck holds out, and if they can stop their mad rush to increase the chances of disaster.

Whatas new? Two weeks ago, a terrifying report published in the Indian Express should have scared sensible people into asking hard questions. But no one paid much attention to it a jaded publics on both sides would rather tune in to the hottest political intrigue or celebrity gossip than waste time on something that didnat actually happen.

Hereas what was reported: on June 24, 1999, at the height of the Kargil war, an Indian Air Force Jaguar flying close to the Line of Control locked its targeting laser onto a possible base set up by Pakistani infiltrators. The second Jaguar flying close behind was supposed to bomb this chosen target. In fact, the Indian pilot had unknowingly crossed a few miles into Pakistani territory and in his cross hairs was a forward base of the Pakistan Army at Gulteri.

The Indian pilotas mistake could have activated Pakistanas war plans and triggered its nuclear assets.

An Indian air commodore, who was airborne at the same time, recognised that the first pilot had erred. It being a violation of combat rules to fly over the Pakistani side, he denied permission to fire. The bomb was subsequently retargeted to a point on the Indian side of the LoC.

The reported incident does not appear fabricated. First, it was revealed 18 years after the event and so there is no immediate gain. Second, the source was knowledgeable a he is retired Air Marshal Vinod Patney, who was then the head of Indiaas Western Command and directly responsible for air operations in the Kargil war. Third, it does not favour either country, and, in fact, points to a mistake on the Indian side.

Imagine for a moment that permission had been granted. The course of history would have totally changed because, unknown to the Indian pilots, at that very moment prime minister Nawaz Sharif and COAS Gen Pervez Musharraf were addressing troops amassed at Gulteri base. The laser-guided bomb, if released, would have eliminated Pakistanas top leadership.

And then what? Would GHQ have waited for an explanation or accepted an apology for this horrible mistake? Or would Pakistanas war plans have been triggered and nukes operationalised? This would take only a matter of minutes or hours.

Seeing Pakistani nuclear weapons being prepared, what would the Indians have done? Would the IAF have targeted Pakistanas airbases and missile sites? Action and reaction. Fear fuelling misjudgement until nuclear blasts and fireballs destroy cities in both countries. Millions killed and more injured.

South Asia got hugely lucky that day. But as India rushes to put nuclear weapons on submarines a and Pakistan tries to follow suit a a whole new set of dangers has arisen. The chance of a missile being wrongly launched is greater for submarines than for aircraft or other land-based systems.

Hereas why. Submarines try to hide and adversaries try to find them. All submarines forces face this problem of antisubmarine warfare but, in the India-Pakistan case, an undersea competition is highly destabilising because Pakistanas fleet is fairly vulnerable. Its three Agosta-90B type diesel electric submarines (eight Chinese ones are on order) are fairly noisy and trackable. Of the three, only one is actually likely to be on patrol at a given moment because the others would be refuelling or under repair. The submarine on patrol may in time be armed with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

While Indian capability to locate and destroy a diesel-powered submarine is unknown, this will improve with time. India already claims to have tracked the ocean trajectory of a Chinese nuclear submarine that recently docked in Karachi. Pakistanas nervousness will drive it to build more nuclear-armed submarines, maybe even nuclear-propelled ones. Safety margins will shrink further.

To give an example: up to this point, Pakistan and India both claim that for safety reasons their nuclear warheads are kept in disassembled form with key parts kept at different physical locations. This builds in a time delay, making unauthorised use or an accident less likely. In a crisis the National Command Authority (or its Indian equivalent) would give the order to assemble a weapon. But with a submarine, all missiles must be fully ready for use before the ship leaves port.

Thereas an added danger a communicating with a submarine prowling the oceanas depth is hard since radio waves cannot travel long distances through saltwater. Typically, a deeply submerged vessel can only receive simple coded messages, not audio or video. Still worse: there can be only one-way communication a from vessel to base is impossible unless it surfaces and risks detection. Since a technical fault or enemy action can disrupt communications, the submarine commander has to be given the codes and authority to arm and launch nuclear missiles without seeking permission.

So here is a hypothetical question: suppose a Pakistani submarine is, or believes it is, under attack from some surface ship, another submarine, or aircraft. Given the impossibility of communicating with ground-based authorities, would the commander launch a or not launch a the submarineas nuclear missiles? Of course, the attacker cannot know whether a normal sub is in its cross hairs or, instead, a nuclear-armed one.

This is not completely fictitious. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet submarine found itself surrounded by American ships that began using underwater explosive depth charges to force it to surface. The Soviet submarine could not call Moscow for instructions without rising to the surface. The American ships did not know the Soviet submarine was armed with nuclear torpedoes.

Finding itself under attack, and believing that war had broken out, the submarine captain wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo to drive away the American ships by targeting a nearby American aircraft carrier. Other members of his crew did not agree. Eventually, the submarine decided to surface. Had the submarine captain had his way, a nuclear war could have started.

Will South Asia always stay lucky, as in Kargil? Donat count on it.

The writer Pervez Hoodbhoy teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad.
Throughout the history of Hollywood there have been filmmakers who have always relied on the talents of a regular group of performers or in some cases one particular actor. In a number of cases this has resulted in some of the Filmmakers finest work.

There have a memorable amount of famous partnerships between director and actor, with some of the most popular being the work of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro or alternatively John Ford and John Wayne. There are of course many more, some of them more famous and popular than others.

With this article I am going to be looking at one of the less famous collaborations. This isnt to say it is any less worthwhile just because it hasnt had the same level of praise or awards heaped upon it. The DTV market is sometimes looked down upon by certain film critics, but it shouldnt be overlooked as there is some major talent that make their living in this market

Actors like Michael Jai White, Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren have been consistently working in the DTV arena for years. Some may argue that they arent exactly the best actors, but there is a reason why people keep paying to see their movies and most of the time DTV movies give the audience what they want.

Lately audiences have been looking towards the DTV market for their fixture of action; with them featuring proper stunt work and fight choreography instead of the typical staple of CGI assisted action that has become prevalent in Hollywood of later years.

One of the best and brightest of the actors to emerge in the DTV market, and one who really should now be headlining mainstream features is Scott Adkins. Hailing from Sutton Coldfield in England, Adkins has been practicing martial arts since his early teens, although his first foray into acting was in dramatic roles, with no action involved. British viewers would have seen him in a number of television shows such as Dangerfield (1998) or Doctors (2000).

He eventually got to show off his martial arts credentials in the Hong Kong movie Extreme Challenge (2001). Directed by ace action choreographer Tung Wai, the film only gave Adkins the briefest of chances to show off his capabilities but did lead to the actor getting small parts in other Hong Kong movies such as The Accidental Spy (2001) and Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002).

He would still make appearances in the odd television show, such as famous British soap opera Eastenders (2003) or science fiction show Mutant X (2003). It would be in the same year that Adkins would finally get a substantial action role, with military actioner Special Forces (2003).

This would mark the actors first collaboration with director Isaac Florentine, with this partnership continuing throughout both of their careers

Florentine, like Adkins, has a martial arts background with him opening his own Karate school in Tel Aviv. In addition to this he served three years in the Israeli Army. He would go on to obtain a degree in Film and Television at Tel Aviv University, which with the skills he learned went on to direct his first feature, a short movie called Farewell, Terminator (1987).

Farewell Terminator went on to win numerous awards at film festivals, even going on to represent Israel at the Oscars in the short foreign-student film category.

Due to the success of his short movie, Florentine decided to relocate to America, and try his luck in Hollywood.

Initially Florentine worked as a stunt performer and fight choreographer before he would go on to direct his first full length feature film. Desert Kickboxer (1992) would never feature on anyones list of favourite martial arts films, but proved that Florentine could construct a good action scene and work with a limited budget.

It would be a few years before he would direct another feature, Savate (1995), starring DTV star Olivier Gruner. Savate still has some issues but was a major improvement on his first feature, and yet again showed his capabilities and how he could work with limited funds.

In the time between Desert Kickboxer and Savate, Florentine would begin his association with the Childrens television show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993). Originally working as a second unit director, Florentine wound up directing a good deal of episodes throughout the shows various incarnations.

His work on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is evident in a good number of his earlier films such as High Voltage (1997) and Bridge of Dragons (1999), with him using similar camera set ups and sound effects. Even with him making more movies, Florentine still worked on the show until the early 2000s.

Florentine had already been in the movie business for around 16 years before he would work with Scott Adkins. Even then, Special Forces is almost at the halfway point before Adkins finally makes an appearance. After that he is one of the main focuses of the film, with him getting an especially good fight scene during the finale.

The lead actor in the film is actually Marshall Teague, who Florentine had worked with previously on the similar U.S. Forces 2 (2001). Teague is probably best known for his bad guy turn in Road House (1989), where he got his throat ripped out by Patrick Swayze.

Teague carries the film well, but it must be said that if it werent for the appearance of Adkins the film would just be another in a long line of Nu Images military action films. The best action in the film belongs to Adkins, even though Teague is no slouch in this area, with his fight with main villain Eli Danker being memorable.

The fight sequences had the expertise of stunt and fight choreographer Akihiro Noguchi, and make the film stand out from similar DTV films of the time. Noguchi had previously worked on Florentines Savate as a wire co-ordinator and as fight choreographer on the directors science fiction action movie Cold Harvest (1998). Like Florentine, Noguchi worked extensively on the various Power Rangers shows.

Florentine and Adkins next collaboration wouldnt be for another 3 years, but it was worth the Wait. Undisputed 2 (2006) is better than it has any right to be. Originally devised as a proper sequel to Walter Hills Undisputed (2002), with original star Ving Rhames set to reprise his role as George The Iceman Chambers.

This was not to be, with Rhames dropping out of the film and the filmmakers being forced to replace him. Luckily they struck gold with the casting of martial artist Michael Jai White. White makes the character his own, with only certain aspects of the character being kept from the first film. It is clear that Jai White is more of a martial artist than a boxer but this is a non issue in a film of its type.

Like the previous film he made with Florentine, Adkins was again in a supporting role, albeit one that gave the actor a true showcase for his martial arts skills and also the chance to play one of his most memorable and beloved characters, Yuri Boyka.

Adkins is clearly the villain of the film, but Boyka is only truly interested in becoming the most complete fighter in the world. He is a true force to be reckoned with, with Boyka punching, kicking and flipping through-out, even overshadowing the impressive Michael Jai White in the films many fight scenes.

Another carry over from Special Forces is supporting actor Eli Danker, playing a much nicer individual than his previous villain role. Like Florentine, Danker comes from Israel. He is especially good in his role and it is a shame that he always seems to get saddled with typical terrorist role.

The fight scenes are choreographed by another underrated martial artist in the business, JJ Perry. Perrys fight sequences are always energetic, and sometimes the saving grace of an action movie. Perry has consistently jumped between DTV efforts and major Hollywood blockbusters, with him lately being the second unit director on films like The Fate of the Furious (2017) and The Dark Tower (2017).

Personally his best work is through his DTV work, with his fight choreography getting a chance to shine, not being hampered by the use of dodgy CGI or having to heavily stunt double a leading actor.

Perry would go on to work on Adkins and Florentines next collaboration The Shepherd (2008) as well as working with Adkins again on The Tournament (2009) and Jai White on the excellent Blood and Bone (2009). In addition to these, both Perry and Adkins worked on X Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), although this clearly doesnt show them at their best.

Florentine and Adkins third film together would yet again find Adkins in a supporting role. With decent production values and fan favourite Jean Claude Van Damme in the lead role, The Shepherd should have been one of Florentines finest to date. Unfortunately this was not to be.

Whilst still enjoyable, with some well created action scenes, The Shepherd still pales beneath Florentines previous Undisputed 2, being more on par with the likes of Florentines High Voltage.

Van Damme had been on quite a roll at the time, with a number of solid DTV outings like In Hell (2002), Wake of Death (2004), The Hard Corps (2006) and Until Death (2007). The Shepherd may be on par with some of these offerings but considering the talent behind and in front of the camera, it should have overshadowed them all.

Part of the problem is Adkins. Not that he is bad. In fact he is one of the best aspects of the film. It is more to do with him being relegated to playing an underwritten henchman, with only a handful of fight scenes. Well-choreographed, they still pale in comparison to what he had created the year previously. Even his final fight, with Jean Claude Van Damme proved to be a disappointment and surprisingly brief.

Thankfully Adkins next film with Florentine would finally have the actor front and centre, with Adkins playing the main hero of Ninja (2009). an attempt to update the popular Ninja movies of the 1980s, Ninja has a lot recommend even if it is not the best film to come from the Adkins Florentine partnership.

Ninja does play like a 1980s throwback, which does result in the film appearing cheesy and being totally ridiculous. Still this is in fitting with the genre, and Ninja gets the most important of the production right, the action.

Like Undisputed 2, Ninja is a terrific showcase for Adkins physicality, with him performing his fight scenes with considerable skill. Some of the best of these include his fight against a gang that takes place on a train. It is reminiscent of the Hong Kong film God of Gamblers (1989), where actor Charles Heung took on a similar gang.

The most impressive has Adkins taking on a group of cult members, which involves him performing various acrobatic moves. There is also the finale where Adkins takes on Japanese actor Tsuyoshi Ihara. The fight doesnt disappoint.

Ihara is another actor that has a martial arts background, with him being a former member of the Japan Action Club (JAC), which was fronted by Martial Arts superstar Sonny Chiba. Ninja proved to be a good showcase for Iharas skills, with him being impressive in the handful of action scenes he is involved in.

Fight choreographer Akahiro Noguchi returned to work with Florentine on Ninja. Noguchis fight choreography for Florentine had been good in the past, but Ninja is clearly their best work together. Ninja was the first film they worked together on since Special Forces (2003). To date it would also be their last.

Coming of the success of Ninja, both Adkins and Florentine quickly went on to their next feature, Undisputed 3 (2010). Viewed by many as the finest of the series, Undisputed 3 once again stars Adkins as Yuri Boyka, with him now promoted to being lead character.

The plot of the film isnt really important, with Boyka once again trying to prove he is the most complete fighter in the world. This is made more difficult this time round with him trying to recover from having his knee broken in the last film.

As usual he has to contend with the corrupt guards and prison life in general, with Boyka yet again taking part in a prison set fight tournament. His character is softened slightly since part 2, with him striking up somewhat of a friendship with inmate Turbo (Mykel Shannon Jenkins). This friendship goes in some ways as humanising the character but not to the extent that the audience would mistake him for a hero.

By this point audiences know what to expect from Adkins, with his usual gravity defying acrobatics being on full display. The film has another ace up its sleeve, with the introduction of Marko Zaror as the films main antagonist.

Undisputed 3 marked the Chilean born Martial Artists American movie debut. Not as great a showcase for his talent as some of the films he made previous, Zaror still impresses. Zaror would later co-star with Adkins in director Jesse Johnsons Savage Dog (2017).

It is clear that Undisputed 3 was made with a small budget, being shot mainly in Bulgaria and with limited sets. Still Florentine makes sure that Undisputed 3 looks professional, and most importantly fills the film with no shortage of bone crunching fight scenes.

This time Florentine brought in the expertise of fight choreographer Larnell Stovall. His work in Undisputed 3 is outstanding, with him creating possibly the best fight scenes of the series. Interestingly he went on to work with Undisputed 2 star Michael Jai White the following year on Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown (2011), which marked Jai Whites directorial debut.

Jai White retained his services for the excellent Falcon Rising (2014), which was co-produced by Isaac Florentine, and for the third part in the Never Back Down Series, Never Back Down: No Surrender (2016), once again directed by Jai White.

It would be almost 3 years before Florentine would direct Adkins again, but they did work together on Adkins starring vehicle El Gringo (2012) which Florentine executive produced. He also apparently carried out some un-credited second unit work on the films action scenes.

In the time between their next collaboration, Florentine went on to direct the extremely lacklustre Sofia (2012), which surprisingly featured one of the best casts that the director had worked with to date, with the likes of Donald Sutherland, Christian Slater and Timothy Spalll starring. Sadly it featured nothing that made Florentines other work so enjoyable, with the only similarity being that it was shot in Bulgaria.

Adkins in the interim starred with Jean Claude Van Damme in Assassination Games (2011). It would prove to be a lesser film for both stars but still an enjoyable thriller none the less. After this was the previously mentioned El Gringo until he went on to what was his highest profile film at the time.

The Expendables 2 (2012), would turn out to be only a small role for the actor, but it did open the actor up to a wider audience and had him yet again starring alongside Jean Claude Van Damme as well as getting to fight action star Jason Statham in the finale.

Working with Jean Claude Van Damme had seemingly become a habit, with Adkins being cast as the lead in Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) the next entry in the Universal Soldier franchise. The film was once directed by John Hyams, who had directed the previous entry.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning would turn out to be one of Adkins finest action films to date. Perhaps not giving him as great a chance to show his skills as his films with Florentine, it was still a visceral, action packed ride with a better script than most films of its type.

As well as his action movies, Adkins can also be seen in a very brief role in director Kathryn Bigelows acclaimed Zero Dark Thirty (2012).

Adkins eventually would reteam with Florentine to make what was their best film outside of the Undisputed franchise, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013). Adkins returns as main hero Casey, with the sequel improving on almost every aspect of the first film with even more spectacular action scenes.

Along for the ride is martial artist Kane Kosugi, son of famed martial arts actor Sho Kosugi. Kosugi may not have the amount of screen time as desired, but he still handles his action scenes well with Ninja: Shadow of a Tear being a better showcase for his talents than his previous Hollywood output DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) and War (2007).

Fight choreography is taken over by Tim Man this time round, with each of the films fight scenes being excellently choreographed.

In addition to choreographing the action, Man plays one of the films villains, Myat. His fight scene with Adkins is one of the best of the film and it isnt a surprise that he would continue to work with Adkins, with him choreographing the action for Boyka: Undisputed (2016) and Eliminators (2016).

Man is currently working on another two Adkins film, Triple Threat (2017) and Accident Man (2017), both of which are directed by Jesse Johnson. In addition he has teamed with Isaac Florentine for his upcoming Stoic (2017).

After the release of Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, Adkins went on to appear in another high profile film, The Legend of Hercules (2014). Adkins played the films main villain but was underutilised by the films director, Renny Harlin.

Florentine was brought on board The Legend of Hercules to direct the second unit, clearly to give the action an added kick. As accomplished a director Renny Harlin is, it is a wonder why Florentine wasnt given the opportunity to be the main director, especially considering the film was from Millennium Films, a company Florentine has directed multiple films for.

Not surprisingly the film went on to be a financial failure. Being released around the same time as Brett Ratners Hercules (2014), which had the star power of Dwayne Johnson, didnt help the film either.

There was the usual DTV work to Adkins going, as well as his co-starring role in Chinese action movie Wolf Warrior (2015). The whole is less than the sum off its parts, with a surprising lack of martial arts action considering it is headlined by both Wu Jing and Scott Adkins.

Wolf Warrior still went on to become a major financial success, spawning a sequel. As of writing this, Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) has become the highest grossing Chinese film in history.

Adkins and Florentines next film would be on a much smaller scale than previous ventures. Close Range (2015) was clearly made on a much smaller budget, with the majority of the film being limited to the one setting.

The film doesnt exactly stretch the actors, even though the underrated Nick Chinlund is good value as the conflicted villain. Close Range still offers Adkins the usual chance to take part in some well-choreographed action scenes that only slightly pale in comparison to other Adkins and Florentine films.

Florentine has stated in interviews of being a fan of director Sergio Leone. This has been evident in a good deal of his films with him favouring Leone style close ups and quick cuts between the characters eyes to build the tension. He had stepped away from this in his later work but it is back with a vengeance in Close Range, especially in the finale between Adkins and Chinlund.

To date Close Range is the last Scott Adkins feature that Florentine has directed. However he did produce the latest part of the Undisputed franchise, Boyka: Undisputed. The reigns may have been handed over to director Todor Chapkanov, but the overall look and feel of the film emulates the previous entries so much that it is clear that Florentine is a very hands on producer.

Boyka: Undisputed is another excellent martial arts showcase for Adkins, with every one of the films fight scenes being excellent. Slightly falling beneath the superior third entry, Boyka: Undisputed still manages to progress the character of Boyka, with him now becoming an honourable human being instead of the prick we first saw way back in Undisputed 2.

The change of setting manages to keep the film feeling fresh, with Boyka now on the outside world. As well as in the ring action, there are a handful of action scenes that take place outside, with Boyka even using a gun at one point.

As mentioned previously, the action choreography was handled by the terrific Tim Man, with him almost surpassing the excellent work he carried out on Ninja: Shadow of a Tear.

Since making Boyka: Undisputed, Scott Adkins has went on to appear in the high profile Doctor Strange (2016), with him once again being cast as another henchman. At least he gets a memorable but brief action scene with leading man Benedict Cumberbatch. There is also the upcoming American Assassin (2017), which like Doctor Strange will no doubt waste him in a small supporting role.

For a better Adkins fix fans would probably be best looking at the previously mentioned Triple Threat, where he plays the main villain alongside the likes of Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen and Michael Jai White. There is also Accident Man (2017), with him on lead duties and being supported by Ray Stevenson, Ashley Green and Michael Jai White once again.

Florentine has the interesting sounding Stoic, an action thriller starring Antonio Banderas, Karl urban, Paz Vega and Robert Forster. Hopefully this will be better realised than Sofia, the last film he made without Adkins.
Truly great films that exist for the moment tackle relevant and contemporary themes, acting at times as a mirror into our own lives and critically picking apart what makes society function.

It is refreshing, then, that Matt Spicers Ingrid Goes West recalls our current narcissistic obsession with social media and is entertainingly filtered through the view of a completely deranged and desperate dame.

Aubrey Plaza, who also shares producing credit, gives her best performance yet as Ingrid, and the typical dourness we expect from her is elevated to new levels of mania. She is a ghoul, completely neglecting her own life after a hinted-at tragedy and focusing only on who has the best Instagram posts and the most followers.

She clings to these victims, people she assumes are her best friends. The cold open of Ingrid Goes West reveals the painful implication when she feels betrayed, namely, a bride-to-be is maced in the face. Sometime after this, Ingrid wastes away in her gossipy little suburb.

She passes the time subconsciously seeking her next obsession. Flipping through a vapid magazine, she lands on an article all about Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene). One quick check on social media later to confirm the number of followers, and Ingrid is hooked. When Taylor posts her latest lunch conquest, Ingrid hilariously drafts some daft responses before settling on asking her if she has made it. Taylor then inadvertently invites Ingrid to LA and the real stalking begins.

There is a wonderful transition from her dreary hometown to the sun-lit beaches and pretenson of LA, the film also focuses on the screen that Ingrid occupies herself with; filling celluloid with emojis, likes and a maddening, repetitive mantra voice-over from who she follows that usually ends in 'hashtag blessed', as well as quotes from literature that all prove to be skin-deep.

Director Matt Spicer ensures that Ingrid is never an easy target. Although the film is hilarious, breaking social convention constantly, there is a slight pathos and tragedy to the protagonist, as well as her relentlessness that is strangely endearing.

This is accentuated when Ingrid meets Taylor, her artist boyfriend Ezra (Wyatt Russell) and her brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen). Just minutes spent with these people reveal an outpouring of nihilism, selfishness and dishonesty that positions Ingrid as an outsider despite her similar attitude. They are horrible and snake-like, particularly Nicky, who greets people by snapping their photo with his phone. The level of entitlement is worse than the illegal harassment Ingrid plots on everyone else, which enables the satire to really click.

Regardless, Ingrid Goes West is damn funny and the performances serve to highlight the absurdity of how we communicate today, and what we should and should not assume. Case-in-point: when Ingrid plots to get closer to Taylor she uses her chill landlord Dan Pinto (OShea Jackson Jr.) and seduces him using his increasingly hilarious allusions to his Batman fandom against him.

This running joke of the caped crusader is yet another highlight in a clever and controlled screenplay that contains some truly dark moments, yet is funny throughout, as the sharp relatable satire and Aubrey Plazas slapstick social-phobia propel it to cult greatness. Hit Follow, Like, and Share on Ingrid Goes West.
 Lamenting the role of prosecutors in continued pursuit of juve LWOP sentences | Main | "Trump Wants to Get Tough on Crime. Victims Dont Agree." 

August 12, 2017

Interesting and consequential Florida Supreme Court decision on retroactivity of Hurst

As this Death Penalty Information Center posting details, the Florida Supreme Court this past week reiterated that it would not apply retroactively its rulings requiring unanimous jury verdicts for death sentences to cases made final by June 2002 when SCOTUS decided Ring v. Arizona. The Florida court's per curiam opinion in Hitchcock v. Florida, No. SC17-445 (Fla. Aug. 10, 2017) (available here), mostly just restates a prior retroactivity ruling, but concurring and dissenting opinions make for interesting reads on retroactivity doctrines and policies.

As the DPIC posting notes, "Hitchcock's case was closely watched because the Florida courts had frozen the briefing schedules for 77 similarly situated death-row prisoners who also were arguing that Hurst should be enforced in their cases." I suspect most, if not all, of these prisoners will not be seeking certiorari to the US Supreme Court, but I would be surprised if SCOTUS takes up any of their cases.

August 12, 2017 at 02:03 PM | Permalink

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The meme power is strong with Hulus hit streaming series The Handmaids Tale, a big-budget interpretation of the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel portraying a dystopian future in which women have no rights. Following a successful campaign to freak people out at SXSW this year, the cosplay concept of dressing up in the shows trademark scarlet gown and white bonnet has nevertheless (she) persisted its way into protest culture.

Looks like were getting another dose of that here in San Francisco, as womens rights organization Ultraviolet is planning a Handmaids Resistance at the Hall of Justice on August 24, in conjunction with the criminal trial of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Daleiden and Merritt are facing criminal charges for their roles in plotting and recording Planned Parenthood sting videos in 2015.

Join us outside the San Francisco Hall of Justice as we protest anti-abortion advocates David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit, Ultraviolet announced, as picked up by IndyBay. Handmaid costumes can be provided but please make sure to RSVP so that we know how many to provide.

Ominously, the announcement also cautions, Please be advised that anti-choice protesters may also be present and we ask that you not engage with them.

This is not the first time these Planned Parenthood sting video perps have been protested in San Francisco. An NSFW Femen topless protest of Daleidens speech disrupted the 2016 anti-abortion Walk for Life. At this years protest, though, it looks like the pro-choice demonstrators will be dressed in significantly more modest fashion.

Related: Pro-Choice Protesters Far Outnumber 'Defund Planned Parenthood' Camp At Mission Rally
This week marked the debut of our "Still Good" column, which is exactly what it sounds like. This week the still good-y is AL's Place, check it out. We also caught wind of Top Round Roast Beef's move into the Discolandia space, Lucky 13's deathwatch, the dangers of your Moscow Mule mug, The Gangway's disappointing demise, and Ardiana's opening. While we're at it, did you see this robot that charges a healthcare fee, the contents of Alice Waters's fridge, Magnolia Brewing's sale, and these fancy cannabis dinners coming to SF?

We only have one noteworthy closure to report this week: Zapata, the 23-year-old Castro Mexican joint that's had troubles with infamous landlord Les Natali, threw in the towel Friday, Hoodline reports. The announcement was abrupt, so that's about all we know for now.

Onto openings: Former Hog & Rocks chef Robin Song will be opening a live fire-fueled restaurant in the Tenderloin's Hotel Bijou. It's to be called Gibson, Eater reports. The 111 Mason spot is expected to open in "late summer."

Since the ignominious November closure of La Urbana, its 661 Divisadero space has stood empty. But no more, as Adriano Paganini (of A Mano, The Bird, Beretta, Belga, Super Duper, Lolinda, Starbelly, and Flores fame) confirms that he will be opening a restaurant there, concept and name TBA. We first heard that he was eying the space back in January, and now Eater says he's planning a November debut.

Speaking of "concepts," how about some Italian-Japanese Fusion? That's what Pesce E Riso, which just opened at 1224 Grant Avenue in the heart of North Beach, promises Hoodline (and by extension, all of us). Owner Joe Lin once owned a restaurant in Vancouver, and has studied in Tuscany and Shanghai. "I think of SF as a culinary leading city in the US and also worldwide. It's the perfect place for this project," he says.

The Impossible Burger's journey has hit a bit of a speed bump this week, as the FDA said they weren't so sure the meat substitute was safe to eat. In response, their CEO lashed out at media coverage of the issue and told the Chronicle that The rat tests came back clean as a whistle."

This Week In Reviews

When Jay and I ran into SF Weekly's Pete Kane at Outside Lands this week, he reiterated what he said in this week's review, that Robin is "doing everything right." The city's newest omakase gets a glowing report from Kane, with only one bobble with a A5 Wagyu tartare. Read through his whole review for a good overview of the burgeoning omakase scene, of which Kane says Robin perches atop.

We only got a single review from the Chron's Michael Bauer this week, as I am sure he had to conserve his energy for Outside Lands ha ha ha just kidding. Bauer's at the newly-reopened Alfred's Steakhouse. He says prices have shot up, that the Celery Victor gave him blisters, and the fried chicken was served on wet potatoes. The service also bummed Bauer out, as "the waiters lacked table presence and refined skills." The "Rat Pack" interior gets some praise, though, so we're left with two stars.
The delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Vietnam Food Association, along with eight leading rice exporting companies.

They had working sessions with relevant agencies of Singapore such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), the International Enterprise Singapore (IES) and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to learn about the management policy, the export-import situation and the transit mechanism for rice in Singapore.

The Vietnamese delegation also met representatives of local biggest retail chains like NTUC Fair Price, Giant and Sheng Siong to set up relations and learn about ways to directly export Vietnamese goods to these supermarkets, instead of via foreign traders.

Le Xuan Minh, a representative of the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation, said they found that Singapore has great potential and demand for Vietnams high-quality rice products, especially fragrant rice.

Meanwhile, the Singaporean side also highly evaluated the quality of Vietnamese agricultural products, noting that a large number of Vietnamese goods such as rice, aquatic products, fruits and vegetables are being sold at their supermarkets.

[Infographics: Vietnam revises up rice export target in 2017]

Vietnam is currently the third biggest rice exporter to Singapore, after India and Thailand, with 80,000-90,000 tonnes of rice worth nearly 80 million SGD each year, making up 20 percent of the local rice market.

Lim Hock Leng, Managing Director of Sheng Siong Group Ltd, said his firm has imported rice from Vietnam since 2010. Its supermarkets are also selling other Vietnamese products such as groceries, fruits and vegetables.

The Singaporean market relatively prefers Vietnamese rice, he stressed, adding that the sales of Vietnamese rice at the Sheng Siong markets have been on the rise. Vietnamese rice has competitive prices and high quality, he added.

According to Singaporean officials and business leaders, to export more rice to the country, Vietnam needs to build its own rice brands while ensuring quality and competitive prices.

They also affirmed their willingness to cooperate with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and Vietnams trade office in Singapore to organise Vietnamese goods fairs or weeks at their supermarket chains.

VNA
LINCOLN -- Nebraska is one of 17 states willing to make a deal with Amazon sellers on online sales taxes.

The Multistate Tax Commission, an intergovernmental state tax agency, is offering a special limited-time for companies that sell products through Amazon's Marketplace.

The program, which runs from Aug. 17-Oct. 17, aims to get companies to voluntarily start collecting sales taxes going forward by waiving any previous sales tax liability they may have had.

As of Tuesday, Nebraska and 16 other states had agreed to participate in the program.

Nebraska Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton was quick to point out that it is not an "amnesty" program, even though it's been described that way in the media.

An amnesty program provides a blanket exemption or waiver from tax liabilities, Fulton said. In this program, Nebraska will negotiate individual agreements with any company that applies and has the right to reject any applications.

Fulton said a main impetus for joining the program is to get online sellers to collect and remit Nebraska sales taxes that are due without having to pursue costly litigation.

Companies that have a physical presence, or "nexus," in the state, such as an office, warehouse or retail location, already are required by law to collect sales taxes. Those companies are not eligible for the voluntary disclosure program.

Fulton said companies that are likely to apply for the program are those looking for certainty regarding their tax liability or those that are in a gray area regarding whether they have a nexus in the state.

The program allows companies to apply anonymously, with their names only revealed if they decide to enter a voluntary agreement with one or more states.

Fulton said he has no idea how many -- if any -- companies will seek an agreement with Nebraska, but there's definitely potential.

"There are tens of thousands of them out there," he said.

They include everybody from one-person operations to large businesses that do millions of dollars a year selling on Amazon.

Amazon earlier this year agreed to start collecting sales taxes in several states, including Nebraska, for products it sells directly. But that policy does not apply to individual sellers in its marketplace. A bill in the Nebraska Legislature to either force all online sellers to collect sales taxes or inform Nebraska customers of their obligation to pay them, was pulled from this year's session after facing a filibuster.

Though the Multistate Tax Commission program is specifically targeted at companies selling on the Amazon Marketplace, Fulton said he would consider signing agreements with companies that sell through other online outlets -- as long as that company meets the state's criteria.
SIOUX CITY | Camp High Hopes, a Sioux City camp for children and adults with disabilities, has been awarded a grant from the Gilchrist Foundation, which will match donations given to the camp, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000.

The camp also celebrated its fifth year in operation with a free open house on Saturday. The event featured archery, fishing, canoeing, arts and crafts, climbing, free ice cream and kettle corn and visits from the Sioux City Fire Department and Shrine Clowns.

Since its opening in September 2012, Camp High Hopes has served about 500 individuals with disabilities each year. Chris Liberto, executive director of Camp High Hopes, said the camp is "excited to build for our future," with the help of the Gilchrist grant.
Theres no word yet on when or if In-N-Out Burger will break ground in Flagstaff.

In-N-Out Burger Marketing Director Phyllis Cudworth said the Flagstaff location was not on her most recent list of stores that the company plans to break ground on or open. However, that doesnt mean that In-N-Out is or is not planning to build a restaurant in Flagstaff, she said. Its just not on the list to start construction for the next few months, she said.

Former Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours released a letter from In-N-Out Burgers corporate office last summer stating that the company was looking to build a restaurant on Milton Road next to the Pizza Hut.

Flagstaff Mayor Coral Evans said the company submitted a concept plan and asked for a consultation with staff, but they havent submitted an actual site plan or paid any fees to submit a plan yet.

Stuart McDaniel, the government affairs director for the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, said he spoke with a representative from In-N-Out recently and was told that the company was still interested in coming to Flagstaff and was working with city staff on the permitting process.
SIOUX CITY | Three Le Mars, Iowa, residents have been charged with forgery and theft following a counterfeiting investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and local law enforcement.

Kurt Walter Jones, 26, was arrested on those charges Friday, joining Brittany Anne Derby, 29, and Jackelen Danielle Hartsock, 27, who had been charged Tuesday.

According to criminal complaints, the investigation began after the three were seen attempting several cash transactions at the Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City on Aug. 5. The paper cash was found to be counterfeit.

As of Friday evening, Jones was being held in Woodbury County Jail on $5,000 bond.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation worked the case with assistance from the Le Mars Police Department, Sioux City Police Department and Plymouth County Sheriff's Office.
It would seem to be the special election heard round the world.

But as pundits attempt to forecast the next U.S. president and control of Congress based on just more than 7,000 votes cast in three southeast Iowa counties, at least one expert is urging caution.

On Tuesday, Democrat Phil Miller won a special election in the Iowa Houses 82nd District. The seat became vacant with the recent death of state Rep. Curt Hanson.

Miller, a veterinarian, defeated Republican Travis Harris and two other candidates.

The political takes came in hot and heavy, assumedly for one reason: Democrats won a Trump district.

Miller, the Democrat, indeed defeated his Republican opponent by 9 percentage points in Iowa House District 82, which went for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 by 21 percentage points.

Democrats pounced on the result, proclaiming a change in the political headwinds. And not just local Democrats.

Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, issued a statement on the Iowa House special election result.

The tide is turning against Trump and Republican lawmakers, Perez said. Trump won this rural district by more than 20 percent last year, and Miller carried it by about 10 points. Thats a 30-point swing against Republicans since November, and shows that rural Iowans are rejecting an agenda that prioritizes the wealthiest at the expense of hardworking families.

Democrats in Iowa and nationally are recovering from consecutive devastating elections in 2014 and 2016. They are hopeful the 2018 elections will start to reverse that trend.

But there are many reasons to be cautious about declaring Millers special election victory a harbinger of future results.

Iowas 82nd District encompasses all of Davis and Van Buren counties, and the western half of Jefferson County, including the cities of Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City. The districts partisan voter registry is fairly balanced; its active registered voter population is 35 percent Republican, 33 percent Democrat and 31 percent no-party, according to the most recent Iowa Secretary of State data.

While Trump won the district in 2016, so did Hanson, who was unopposed. Hanson also won the seat comfortably in the 2012 presidential election year, and scored a narrow victory, by 3 percentage points, in the 2014 GOP wave year.

The bottom line is Hanson and the Democrats have held the seat since the district was redrawn in 2010.

And projecting future election results based on any statehouse race --- especially a special election --- is dangerous, said University of Northern Iowa political scientist Chris Larimer.

Larimer said there is empirical evidence to support using U.S. House and Senate races to gauge voters feelings about the president.

Using statehouse races, on the other hand ...

Those are local races. Those are a lot more about personal politics and do you know the person running, Larimer told me this week. So I think projecting down to that level, to say that thats an indication that the presidents party is going to have widespread trouble in 2018, I think I would be much more cautious about doing that for that kind of race than for a federal race.

Even to compare Millers margin of victory to Hillary Clintons margin of defeat is not comparing apples to apples. There were 14,498 votes cast for either Trump or Clinton in the 82nd District in 2016; there were just 7,474 votes cast in this weeks special election.

Theres always a danger of overgeneralization beyond what the data tell you. In this case you have to be careful, Larimer cautioned. It almost looks like youre just kind of grabbing for something to support your argument at that point.

Maybe Democrats will be successful in the 2018 election and take back the White House in 2020. Typically, a first-term president loses Congressional seats in the first mid-term election, and Trumps approval ratings are historically low.

But caution should be taken when considering whether this weeks Iowa House special election is any kind of indicator.

Youre getting down to a state legislative race, and not only that but a special election race in an off year, Larimer warned. You just have to be careful.
There was no looking back for Adkins Hanover as he dominated the feature event Friday evening at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park as Old Home Week racing officially kicked off.

Adkins Hanover and Kenny Arsenault were serious from the word 'go,' laying down fractions of :27.2, :55.4 and 1:25.1 before finishing the mile in 1:54.1 for trainer Trevor Hicken and owner Perry Burke of Grosse-Ile, Que. Intended Royalty (driven by Gilles Barrieau) was second with Likely To Win (Adam Merner) completing the triactor.

Stephane Brosseau enjoyed his short stay for Old Home Week 2017 as he was victorious in the Dr. Blair Kelly Memorial, presented by the Charlottetown Veterinary Clinic. The Quebec driver visited the winner's circle with Brussebeach in 1:56.1 for trainer and co-owner Harold Duguay and fellow Quebec resident Dr. John Bradbury. Brosseau returns to Quebec five wins shy of 3,000 lifetime.

Brandon Webster recorded the fastest win of his young driving career with a 1:56.4 score in race seven with Shock The Rock for trainer Blair MacLeod and owner Bethany MacLeod of New Dominion, P.E.I.

Twomacsoneshadow captured the James Aylward Leadership Pace in 1:58.1 with Barrieau in the bike for trainer Earl Watts and owners Wayne MacRae of Fall River, N.S., and Howmacs Farms Ltd., of North Wiltshire, P.E.I. It was one of two wins on the card for Barrieau while driver Marc Campbell extended his Charlottetown driving lead with two more wins for 74 wins so far this season.

Live racing continues at Red Shores with a Saturday doubleheader with cards at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. as Old Home Week racing continues.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Charlottetown Driving Park.

(Red Shores)
Each winner of Friday nights (August 11) three Ohio Sires Stakes was an overwhelming favourite of the Scioto Downs crowd. The trio of $40,000 OHSS Leg 3 divisions for two-year-old pacing fillies were contested at the five-eighths mile oval on an evening plagued by rain and balmy temperatures.

In the first OHSS division, 4-5 Prsntpretynperfect kept her unblemished record intact, as she and driver Ronnie Wrenn Jr. cruised to an easy four-length victory in a new lifetime mark of 1:54. The Big Bad John lass now has four wins in four tries and $83,500 in her coffers for owners Jennifer Brown, Richard Lombardo and Josh Green.

Brian Brown trains the speedy distaff, who simply out-paced rivals 7-1 Ask Me Ifi Care (Mike Micallef) and third-place finisher, 70-1 longshot Pearl Crush (Tyler Smith).

Bred by Carl Howard, Prsntpretynperfect was purchased by Jennifer Brown for just $6,000 at the 2016 Ohio Selected Yearling Sale. She is the third of five foals out of the Towners Big Guy mare Wildfire Princess p,4, 1:52.2z ($30,929) and is a full sister to: Prince Giovanni p,3,1:54.4h ($62,618) and to Banderbear p,3, 1:53.3f ($24,950).

In the second OHSS contest, driver Chris Page, steering 6-5 Baron Remy for trainer Ron Burke, paced under the wire just a nose behind first-place finisher 4-1 Believe In Waco, and after lodging a claim of foul against the latters driver, Art McIlmuray, was moved up a notch for the win by the Scioto judges. Lily Grace, a 17-1 longshot, was third, one and a quarter lengths back, for driver Kayne Kauffman.

The brown filly by Yankee Cruiser is now two-for-two, with $26,250 in career earnings. The winning time of 1:54.4 was a new life mark for Baron Remy, who is owned by Burke Racing, Purnel And Libby Silva, Lawrence Karr, and Weaver Bruscemi. Bred by Baron Racing Stable, she was a $6,500 yearling purchase out of the Standardbred Horse Sale at Harrisburg last fall, and began her career with a 20-length, 1:56.1 winning qualifier at The Meadows on July 28. Her pari-mutuel debut came one week later, with a 1:56.1 triumph at Northfield Park in a $12,500 Buckeye Stallion Series division.

Baron Remy is the third foal out of the Shady Character mare Riley Character p, 5, 1:51.4f ($149,550) and is a half-sister to Gerard N Mo (by Rock N Roll Heave) p, 3, 1:53.1f ($19,395).

Shakewhatmamagaveu, the 4-5 publics choice, stormed her rivals with a 1:55.2 gate-to-wire winning steer by Randy Tharps in the third OHSS contest. The Art Official lass, who is trained by Ron Steck for Don and Marcia Brake of Marysville, Ohio, notched career victory number two and upped her bankroll to $61,750. Cams Candy Girl was second at 7-1 for Jeremy Smith, while 7-2 Thrill Seeker (Chris Page) was third.

The brown filly had finished second in Leg 1 on July 5 at Scioto Downs, then returned on July 17 to post a 1:53.4 clocking, drawing away from her rivals by nearly seven lengths in Leg 2. She then finished a smart second to Bad Girls Rule in a $47,000 Ohio Fair Stakes at Scioto Downs on July 27.

Shakewhatmamagaveu is the eighth foal out of the unraced Cams Card Shark mare Sexy Susan, and is a full sister to Wheres The Boss p, 3, 1:54.4f ($77,510) and to Smokeys Lady p, 3, 1:56.4f ($16,967). She also has half-siblings in: Backtobattle p,4, 1:52 ($55,923) and Youll Like It p,2, 1:57.4h ($36,670)  both by the stallion Grinfromeartoear.

Ohio Sires Stakes continue Saturday, Aug. 12, with three divisions of three-year-old pacing fillies vying at Northfield Park in races seven through nine, just prior to the $300,000 Milstein.

(OSDF)
This week marked the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m. Aug. 9, 1945, a five-ton plutonium bomb exploded a third of a mile above the city. Its blast winds tore through the city at 21/2 times the speed of a Category 5 hurricane.

Two-year-old Masao Tomonaga was asleep in his home while his mother worked in another room. Within seconds of the blast, their house imploded on top of them. Remarkably, both survived. At 1.7 miles from the bombs hypocenter, they were out of reach of its most intense infrared heat rays, which instantly carbonized human and animal flesh and vaporized the internal organs of those directly beneath the bomb.

Tomonagas mother pushed her way through the rubble to find him. They had minutes to escape to a hillside shrine before fires sped through their neighborhood, leaving their flattened home in ashes.

Six weeks ago, 74-year-old Tomonaga, now a leading specialist on long-term radiation effects on the human body, flew to New York as Nagasakis official representative in support of a breakthrough international nuclear weapons ban treaty, adopted at the United Nations on July 7.

Backed by 122 nations and with strong support from civil society organizations across the globe, the accord is the worlds first comprehensive treaty banning the use, threat of use and production of nuclear weapons. It places nuclear weapons on the same legal footing as all other weapons of mass destruction  including chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions, which have long been outlawed.

The treaty was not an act of naivete. Its proponents knew that nuclear-armed and nuclear-defended nations  including Japan  would vehemently reject the ban, defending their position that nuclear weapons prevent nuclear war. The ban was negotiated too with clear understandings of the current heightened tensions between the United States and Russia, because of North Koreas nuclear weapons development and testing, and President Trumps nuclear posturing.

The strategy  as was successfully implemented with landmines  is to delegitimize and ultimately eliminate the most destructive and inhumane weapons made. After treaty ratification in September, the next step is to convince first one, then other nuclear-armed or defended nations to abide by it. Similar treaties banning weapons of mass destruction have resulted in policy changes even by countries that havent signed them  including the United States, which now follows the landmines ban without having signed that treaty.

Testimony like Tomonagas can only help. Using his experience as a survivor, radiation scientist and physician who has treated hibakusha (atomic bomb-affected people) for nearly 50 years, Tomonaga gave a statement before the United Nations that countered vague images of nuclear war with details of its terrifying acute and long-term human consequences.

Within weeks of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, adults and children began experiencing mysterious and excruciating symptoms: vomiting, fever, dizziness, bleeding gums and hair loss. Purple spots began appearing all over their bodies  the effects of high-dose, whole-body radiation exposure. Many died within a week of the first symptoms.

Over the next nine months, pregnant women whose fetuses had been exposed in utero suffered spontaneous abortions, stillbirths and infant deaths. Many newborns developed physical and mental disabilities.

By 1948, childhood and adult leukemia rates began increasing among hibakusha  and these rates remained high for decades. At highest risk were children under 10 within a mile of the bombing, who developed leukemia at a rate 18 times greater than the general population.

By 1955, numerous other cancers also appeared at rates far higher than for non-hibakusha. Even today, the bombs radiation continues to ravage the bodies of aging survivors, now in their 70s and 80s, who are developing a special type of leukemia, MDS (Myelodysplastic syndrome). Scientists are still studying second- and third-generation hibakusha for genetic effects potentially passed down from their parents and grandparents, reminding us how much we still dont understand about the insidious nature of radiation exposure on the human body.

The use of a nuclear weapon, designed to inflict catastrophic harm to vast numbers of people, would violate international law, which prohibits the targeting of civilians during wartime. Yet almost 15,000 nuclear weapons still exist in the world today; more than 4,000 are actively deployed across the globe. Whether by intentional military choice, a nuclear accident or an act of terrorism, we risk far worse humanitarian and environmental disasters than Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

After decades of monumental efforts to champion Tomonagas vision of a world free of nuclear weapons, this treaty fills the legal gap in the prohibition of such weapons and puts us on the path to their total elimination. Perhaps now there is a chance that after a 72-year reign of nuclear terror, the narrative of nuclear war that started in 1945 will come to a close.
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Despite advice from their attorney, Longview City council members Thursday decided to allow citizens to continue using council meetings to voice support for political candidates.

The discussion occurred after Geoffrey Richie, husband and campaign manager for council candidate Megan Richie, spoke during the constituent comments section.

Elections can sometimes get not dirty, not nasty, but sometimes downright mean, he said. Im here tonight to lift up the vision of the founder of our city.  In order to honor that vision, Im going to read a poem into the record tonight.

He then sang an excerpt from Id Like to Teach the World to Sing, with backup vocals from people in the audience. At the end he said, Vote for Megan Richie, Longview City Council.

The last comment prompted City Attorney James McNamara to advise the council that he believes state law prohibits the use of council time to campaign for political office.

McNamara said both the Municipal Research and Services Center, a nonprofit that provides legal advice for local governments, and the Public Disclosure Commission agreed with his interpretation of the law.

This is not a traditional public forum and it is not a facility that can be used for a political candidate, McNamara said.

On June 22, Longview City Council candidate MaryAlice Wallis used the public comment portion of a council meeting to speak about her qualifications for the position. She had asked city staff if it was legal to do so, and was given the green light.

At the council meeting on July 27, however, the council planned to discuss prohibiting the use of city facilities to promote a political candidate.

The agenda item quoted the Revised Code of Washington 42.17A.555, which states, No elective official nor any employee of his or her office nor any person appointed to or employed by any public office or agency may use or authorize the use of any of the facilities of a public office or agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition.

However, at the beginning of that meeting, Councilman Mike Wallin moved to strike the item from the agenda, arguing that it limits the freedom of speech. Only Councilwoman Mary Jane Melink  whose seat Wallis and Richie are running for  voted to keep the item on the agenda.

The council took no action on the matter at the July 27 meeting.

Council was given the option to address that policy, McNamara said Thursday. Council declined and thats councils prerogative. I feel, though, as city attorney, it is my obligation to advise you of my understanding of the law.  My advice is that it is not permissible, and it is not appropriate to use City Council time for advocacy of a campaign.

Councilman Mike Wallin disagreed.

I believe this is the appropriate place to hear from people on all issues that may be coming before the city, whether its how were going to vote, or spend money on their behalf or a ballot measure, Wallin said. City hall is the place where we expect political speech to happen.

Councilmember Chet Makinster said campaign speeches only get out of hand when more members of the public get up to speak than can fit in the allotted 30 minutes.

I dont have a problem with my opponent getting up and talking if she wants to, Makinster said.

He also added that the council was caught off-guard because candidates dont normally advocate for themselves at council meetings.

Councilwoman Mary Jane Melink said that the council should follow McNamaras recommendation.

He is the attorney in the room and he is assigned to represent us, Melink said. The RCW that he recited is an issue that has been reviewed in the courts in the past. I think we need to pay attention to it.

Councilman Steve Moon said that citizens should be allowed to speak about whatever they want.

If the candidates want to use the constituents comments time as their time to speak, thats fine, Moon said. But theyre also taking the opportunity from other citizens that have concerns or issues that may need to be brought up to this council.

McNamara told the council it might be subject to a state Public Disclosure Commission fine if it allows campaign speeches at council meetings,

The council voted on whether to follow the advice of the city attorney, but only Melink and Botero supported it, leaving it defeated on a 4-2 vote.

Jensen said Friday that the council chose freedom of speech over legal advice.

The city council said ... they felt that it was a free speech item and even though we were advised by the city attorney to not allow that, we decided as a council to allow political speeches.
WASHINGTON  White House chief of staff John Kelly needs to draw a red line. Not with North Korea, but with President Trump. For the sake of Kellys own reputation but even more for the sake of the country, there can be no more presidential improv on the subject of North Korea or military threats in general.

This red line should be both invisible and impregnable. Only Kelly and the president should know it exists, but they should also have a clear understanding: If it is crossed, Kelly will leave. This is essential and, more important, achievable.

Drawing this line is essential because Trumps bellicose impetuosity must be contained. Words matter, and the words of a president matter most. Therefore, they must be carefully calibrated and vetted. President Obamas ad-libbed blunder on Syria and chemical weapons taught that red lines once drawn are not easily erased; if they are crossed without consequences, presidential credibility erodes.

Thus the danger of Trumps off-the-cuff warning: North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. Predictably, North Korea responded with escalating threats of its own: on Tuesday that it was carefully examining plans for an enveloping fire around Guam, and on Wednesday that it would turn the U.S. mainland into the theater of a nuclear war at the first hint of an impending U.S. attack.

Administration officials were left scurrying to clean up and reframe language that none had reviewed in advance. The words were his own, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The tone and strength of the message were discussed beforehand. Translation: No one knew precisely what was coming. This is no way for any president to conduct foreign policy, certainly not this president and certainly not in a situation with stakes so high.

Mopping up, Defense Secretary James Mattis approach was to suggest that Trump should be taken seriously but not literally; his retelling moved the red line from threat to action, as in, North Korea should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the tack of advising that Trump should be taken seriously and not seriously, depending on the listener; Tillerson encouraged Americans to sleep well at night and have no concerns about this particular rhetoric even as he asserted that Trump had to employ language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesnt seem to understand diplomatic language.

White House aide Sebastian Gorka met Tillersons call for calm with ominous analogies to the Cuban missile crisis. A senior White House official told The Washington Post, incredibly, that fire and fury doesnt always mean nuclear. It can mean any number of things. It is as if people see him [Trump] as an unhinged madman. At the State Department, spokesman Heather Nauert gamely insisted that we are all singing from the same hymnbook. Uh-huh.

This atonal cacophony is what happens without message control. But is it realistic to speak of controlling Trump? No president likes being told what to do; Trump does not merely chafe at such instruction, he actively rebels against it. So some people look at Kellys thankless task and conclude that he would be lucky to be able to manage down  to contain staff chaos and feuding. In this assessment, managing up is unattainable when up means Trump.

Yes, but, this is a matter of managerial triage. Let Trump be Trump, when it comes to domestic policy and politics. Let him pick Twitter fights galore, whether with fellow Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or with Democrats like Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, just to name this weeks targets. Let him watch Fox & Friends to his hearts content; let him even assail the Russia witch hunt or the Fake News Suppression Polls.

Just cordon off foreign policy, or the parts of foreign policy that could lead to military confrontation. Instruct the president that statements on those subjects must be debated and scripted. Would Trump agree? Would he  could he  comply? The chaotic, risky alternative makes it worth the try. Kellys power is at its apex. Trump cannot afford to lose another chief of staff. So the president needs Kelly more than Kelly needs this headache of a job.

And if the general wants to avoid being treated as just another menial fly-swatter, he will seize this moment to assert control, or leave having at least tried.
Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation: 510 N. Leroux St. "Democracy Through Singing: Co-creating worship." Join with us for the second Music and Worship service this summer. Service will be led by our Music Director Addrianne Anning. office@beaconuu.com. http://www.beaconuu.com/.

Calvary Bible Church: 6555 Townsend-Winona Road. Sunday we welcome Ernie and Roxie Geeting with UIM International. Adult Bible study followed by worship service. Potluck after worship service; no evening service. Today, men's breakfast and book study 7 a.m. at church. AWANA begins Aug. 28. Wednesday night prayer and Bible study is studying Job. calvarybiblechurchflagstaff.com.

Center for Spiritual Living: 2384 N. Steves Blvd. At our Sunday service Deb Haass, RScP, will be our guest speaker. Dorris Muramatsu will play special music. Alex Reegan will lead a meditation time. This week is potluck hospitality so bring a favorite dish or snack to share. 522-9103. cslflagstaff.org.

Christ's Church of Flagstaff: 3475 E. Soliere Ave. Our sermon series "Life's Tough Questions" will dive into the following questions: How will I get through this? How can I be happy? How can I deal with unmet expectations? How do I know God's will? ccof.church/.

Christian Science Society of Flagstaff: 619 W. Birch Ave. The subject of this week's sermon is "Soul." We also have Wednesday testimony meetings each week. Our Christian Science Reading Room, a quiet place for prayer and study, is open from 4-5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays or by appointment. 556-0510.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon): Sunday services held at four Flagstaff locations: 4165 S. Lake Mary Road, 625 E. Cherry Ave., 2401 E. Linda Vista Dr. and, for young single adults, 239 E. Saunders Dr. Meetings are also held in Williams at 1111 Stockmens Road and at the Shrine of the Ages on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Check azdailysun.com or "Locations and Schedules" at LDS.org for meeting times by ward/branch. Sunday services consist of Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and special instruction for various age and interest groups (Priesthood Meeting for men, Relief Society for women, Young Men/Young Women for youth and Primary for children).

Church of the Resurrection: 740 W. University Heights Drive South. Pastor Bob Norton preaches on "Paul's Prayer for the Philippians" based on Philippians 1:1-11. Tomorrow the Full Circle People's Pantry van will be parked at church so we can "stuff the bus" with food items. Bring your donations to church. A new Bethel Bible Study class has started on Thursdays during the lunch hour. Aug. 15 is the next spiritual gifts inventory workshop. Friday, Sept. 25, is Faith & Family Night at Chase Field followed by a concert by the Newsboys. Call the church office to get a ticket for $10. 699-2715. cor-pca.org.

Faith Fellowship: Meeting in Knoles Elementary, 4055 E. Butler Ave. Kids church available for ages 1-12. This Sunday we will be serving communion and be speaking on "Pillars of Our Faith." In our evening service, we are speaking on "The Power of God." pastorfaithfellowshipflagstaff.com.

Flagstaff Christian Fellowship: 123 S. Beaver St. Pastor Steve Cole's message for Sunday will be "Biblical Church Discipline" from Matthew 18:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 followed by communion. Nursery is available for both services. Adult class continues in Proverbs. Thursday: 9-11 a.m., FCF MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) 2017-2018 kickoff with registration and kids clothing exchange (no childcare will be provided for this event); 6:30 p.m., Missions Focus Book Club "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret" by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor (meet at Wildflower again this week). 774-3603. fcfonline.org.

First Congregational Church of Flagstaff, United Church of Christ: 740 N. Turquoise Dr. David Cooper, Pastor Emeritus, will preach on "Living at Risk" based on Matthew 14:22-33. In other church news: On Aug. 16 (Wednesday) Church Women Fellowship will meet for lunch at noon at Cornish Pasty Company on S. San Francisco Street; also on Aug. 16, Spiritual meditation at FCCF for discussion and meditative exercise at 7 p.m., Knit Wits meet at FCCF on Aug. 19 (Saturday) at 1:30 p.m. 774-0890. fccflagstaff.org.

Flagstaff Federated Community Church: 400 W. Aspen Ave. This Sunday is our fall kick-off and Pastor Jessica will begin a new worship series called, "Why Are We Here?" We will explore what it means to be a family of faith living our individual lives with the knowledge that we are interconnected with one another. This Sunday's sermon, titled "A Complex Puzzle," is inspired by Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28. After our regular fellowship time, we will have a barbecue at 11 a.m. where we will share delicious food, play lawn games, learn about all of our fall discipleship opportunities and, of course, enjoy some delicious ice cream. 774-7383. flagstafffederatedchurch.org.

Flagstaff Unity Church: 417 W. Santa Fe Ave. (Tranzend Studio). Sunday service: Dr. Lynnette Brouwer presents a talk titled, "Stepping into a larger life. What can Jesus teach us?" Sunday lessons for teens and children. unityofflagstaff.org.

Greenlaw Baptist Church: 3400 E. Lockett Road. Sunday School classes for all ages. Pastor Barry Hall will bring the message The Itty Bitty Thing. Thursday worship service followed by dinner and breakout groups, including our Celebrate Recovery program. If you have an addiction, we can help you in this program. This is a non-judgmental, caring approach to your problem. 526-4939.

Holy Cross Orthodox Church: 6134 Black Bill Road. Sunday, Divine Liturgy and '9th Hour Morning prayer' with Father Basil. Monday, 6 p.m. 'Vesperal Liturgy for Dormition' with Father Basil. (480) 991-3009. holycrossflagstaff.org/.

Living Christ Lutheran Church: 6401 N. US Highway 89. Music, teaching, prayer and sacraments. Fellowship time after service. Pastor Kurt Fangmeier will be leading worship. 526-8595. livingchristflagstaff.org.

Peace Lutheran Church: 3430 N. Fourth St. Newly installed Rev. Brian Pape will be preaching "Jesus Calling" on Matthew 14:22-23. Holy Communion will be celebrated at the second service. 526-9578. peacelutheranflagstaff.org.

Refuge: A Flagstaff Community Church: 4000 Cummings St. We meet weekly to enjoy God's word, fellowship and worship. Sunday school available for children. 607-5728. facebook.com/refugeinflagstaff/.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quaker): Flagstaff Friends Meeting House, 402 S. Beaver St. At our unprogrammed Quaker meeting we meet in silence of expectant listening. A meeting may be completely silent, or, as more often happens, someone will feel moved to speak, to share something which may be of help or guidance to others. 779-3517. flagstaffquakers.org/.

San Francisco de Asis: 1600 E. Route 66. For Sunday Mass Fr. Dan and Fr. Clement will preach the Gospel of Matthew 14:22-33. Holy Day of Obligation - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mass will be celebrated Tuesday at 8:15 a.m., 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. 779-1341. sfdaparish.org.

Trinity Heights United Methodist Church: 3600 N. Fourth St. We are in week two of a four part series "Four Themes of the Bible: Kings and Kingdoms" and scripture is taken from Luke 4:14-21. Children's Sunday School is offered for kids through 5th grade. Nursery care is available at both services. Adult Sunday School class. Beginning this Sunday at 6:15 p.m. and again on Thursdays at 6 p.m. we will be starting a six week class called The Art of Marriage. Wednesday, Aug. 16, is our adult potluck at 11:45 a.m. in our Fellowship Hall. Bring a side dish to share, the main dish will be provided. 526-1397. thumc.com.
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Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- White nationalists holding Tiki torches marched Friday night through the University of Virginia in Charlottesville ahead of Saturday's far-right "Unite the Right" rally.



Chanting "white lives matter," "you will not replace us" and the Nazi-associated phrase "blood and soil," some of the white nationalists engaged with counterprotesters and scuffles broke out.



Police arrived on campus, declared it an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowds to disperse.



It is unclear if anyone was injured or arrested.

Happening now near UVA pic.twitter.com/IxWOFnUhA2  Tim Dodson (@Tim_Dodson) August 12, 2017

White nationalist alt-right torchlit march going through UVA grounds: "you will not replace us" pic.twitter.com/QS8ebI9XOW  Tim Dodson (@Tim_Dodson) August 12, 2017

Teresa A. Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, said in a statement Friday, "I am deeply saddened and disturbed by the hateful behavior displayed by torch-bearing protestors that marched on our Grounds this evening. I strongly condemn the unprovoked assault on members of our community, including university personnel who were attempting to maintain order."



Sullivan added, "Law enforcement continues to investigate the incident, and it is my hope that any individuals responsible for criminal acts are held accountable. The violence displayed on Grounds is intolerable and is entirely inconsistent with the universitys values."



Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said in a statement of the torch-bearing white nationalists, "I have seen tonight the images of torches on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. When I think of torches, I want to think of the Statue of Liberty. When I think of candlelight, I want to think of prayer vigils. Today, in 2017, we are instead seeing a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights."

My statement in screenshot. pic.twitter.com/BC4BDysxUG  Mike Signer (@MikeSigner) August 12, 2017

"I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus," Signer added.



Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chimed in, on Twitter.

Their tiki torches may be fueled by citronella but their ideas are fueled by hate, & have no place in civil society. https://t.co/himqTMBQnH  Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 12, 2017

The Unite the Right rally, slated to take place in McIntire Park, is in part a response to the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a municipal park. A judge on Friday ruled that the rally could continue at the permitted location, even though the city had asked that it be moved to a larger venue.



Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he finds the rally "abhorrent."

Below is Governor McAuliffe's statement on the planned rally in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, August 12th: pic.twitter.com/0TbGoCEP3w  Terry McAuliffe (@GovernorVA) August 11, 2017

In a statement Friday, he said, "Many of the individuals coming to Charlottesville tomorrow are doing so in order to express viewpoints many people, including me, find abhorrent. As long as that expression is peaceful, that is their right. But it is also the right of every American to deny those ideas more attention than they deserve."

And the Anti-Defamation League said the rally is "the latest indication that the darkest corners of society are emboldened to come forward and openly parade their bigotry on Main Street. Hate has no place in our communities."



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Is there anything more Southern Illinois than a musical about barbecue?

The Stage Company is hosting auditions for its upcoming production of "No Bones About It," a story of "char-crossed lovers" whose families are competing for top prize at the Verona National Ribfest.

Auditions will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, and Tuesday, Aug. 29, in the Arnold Theater at The Varisty Center, at 418 S. Illinois Ave. in Carbondale. Anyone auditioning should prepare 16 to 32 bars of a song (a CD player and pianist will be provided). Cold readings and singing from the musical score will be held at 8 p.m. both nights.

The director is seeking actors to fill four male and three female roles, ages 18 to 60. The show will be performed Oct. 13 through 15 and Oct. 19 through 22.

Brandyn McGhee directs. Rebecca Newburn is the musical director. A copy of the script and show materials is on reserve at the Carbondale Public Library.

 The Southern
CARBONDALE  As Carbondale gears up for the return of Southern Illinois University students, it is not just apartment complexes, retailers and restaurants that look forward to the return of nearly 15,000 young people. All across the community, churches and faith communities are eager to see SIU students return to the city.

Our town just doesnt feel the same without the students, explains Jacob Swain of The View Church. I look forward to the students returning and to having some of them in our church.

Swain says the presence of students benefits both Carbondale and the congregations that many of them choose to attend.

In my experience, they bring a level of energy and creativity to church and they tend to come from a variety of church backgrounds so you get a lot of different ideas on how to do ministry. Often, they are things that maybe we didnt think of before.

Greg Darling, staff pastor at Vine Church, says students are an integral part of his church. In fact, more than one-third of attendees at Vine are college students.

Students are paramount to what Vine church is. This church was established for the sake of SIU and reaching students, he says.

University students not only attend regular worship services on Sunday mornings, but many choose to participate in on-campus ministries designed for students. Swain says he often advises students to get involved in groups such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

We encourage students to plug in to InterVarsity. We believe in what they do. We want the students with us, but we thing InterVarsity does a great job, he says.

Team leader Greg Chimitris of InterVarsity says the organization looks to help student grow in faith.

Were a group of students from all sorts of different faith backgrounds and Christian traditions, he explains. We are a student-led organization that wants to help students take their faith seriously and see it impact not only their studies but the rest of their lives, too.

Both Darling and Swain emphasize that students are important parts of local churches.

We find that university students who are Christians have great servant hearts and so we find a lot of students filling in ministry roles within the church. I think practically every student in our church serves in some capacity. We find that they are eager to help out.

He adds that having the students increases the ability for the church to serve the community and others.

Without the students, there are not as many ministry opportunities, he adds. Additionally, Swain explains that many Christian students are eager to share their faith.

They are like missionaries on campus. If our goal is to take the gospel to the community, a significant part of that community is other students on campus, so we have to empower our students to share and reach out, Swain says.

Chimitris says college is a great time to reach students because many young adults are searching for direction and answers.

College is a critical time in faith journeys no matter what the persons background, he says. Its a time when they are open to new ideas and asking deep questions about life. Some come to college from Christian homes and what they find at college can take them away from faith, but for a lot of students, it is a time where faith really becomes theirs and it thrives.

All of the church leaders say they look forward to the beginning of the fall semester.

The return of the students is a time of momentum and excitement for us, seeing who the new people are that Jesus is going to be bringing and with the hope of what Hes going to be doing in their lives, Darling says.

Chimitris adds that student move-in brings back both leaders and new students to InterVarsity.

Its very exciting for us. Our students are back and its a time where we are meeting new students and where we can begin to get a sense of community  developing a place where people can follow Jesus together, he says. We are excited for our students and for the new students that we will be meeting over the next several weeks.
DU QUOIN  Shirley Smith and family had just moved her 90-something-year-old father into a facility where he could receive help caring for himself and had made him a patriotic display in a corner of his room.

"He said, 'the only thing missing from that is my discharge papers and the medals I got toward the end of the war' and I thought oh, my gosh,'" Smith said of her father, Sgt. Robert Morrow.

She went to the Perry County Courthouse, where she got a copy of her father's charge papers, where it indicated what medals he had received: Good Conduct, an end of WWII medal, service in the European African Middle Eastern Campaign, a medal that will have two little bronze stars on it because Morrow was in an area with actual combat; a gold lapel pin; and a rifle insignia.

She took the information to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Marion, where administrators put in a requisition for the medals.

Bill Enyart, a two-star Major General with the U.S. Air Force and former Illinois Congressman, will pin the medals on Morrow; that comes during a special ceremony honoring him on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the VFW building in Du Quoin.

Morrow was three months shy of 20 when he asked to have his draft number bumped up the ranks, making himself a voluntary draftee into the U.S. Army in March 1943. He served until he was discharged in December 1945, returning home to Southern Illinois.

Shortly after returning home, he married Viola Smith, and the two will celebrate their 75th anniversary on Oct. 3. They have three daughters, eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Smith said her father, who spent the bulk of his life working for coal mines in the Du Quoin and Herrin areas, did not talk much about his wartime experience. He retired from the coal mines around age 62, his daughter said.

He never talked about it, the only thing I knew growing up is that he was in England," Smith said.

At the suggestion of Archie Hampleman, commander of VFW Post 53, she's been interviewing her father to learn more details of his military experience.

She said he's somewhat embarrassed by all the attention about the service medals.

Were excited for him, Smith said. And were just proud to be a part of his family.
CARBONDALE  Milton McDaniel Sr. likes to talk about the trains. After 50 years as a railroad employee, he has some stories to tell. On Aug. 4, he began a new chapter in life  retirement.

When McDaniel was hired to work as a fireman for Illinois Central Rail Road on Aug. 4, 1967, he was the first black fireman hired north of the Ohio River. Harry Koonce, superintendent of railroads in Carbondale office, broke railroad rules to hire him. While there were black firemen south of Cairo, there were none in Illinois.

He was promoted to engineer in 1973 and was the first black engineer on the line.

In 1967, there was still a lot he was not allowed to do because of his race.

I was unable to cross the bridge into Kentucky, McDaniel said.

The first time McDaniel was allowed to take a train across the bridge, which is almost 4 miles in length, was 1978.

I had to take a train from Cairo to Kentucky, and then bring a train back. My first trip was scary, McDaniel said.

A curve on the Kentucky side of the bridge had a speed limit of 15 miles per hour. McDaniel took the train down to about 10 miles per hour and crept across the bridge.

I think I remember them asking, Mac, are you still moving? I told them I was, he said.

Although some days McDaniel was disappointed by the way people treated him, he was surrounded with some good coworkers.

On his first trip as a fireman, McDaniel took a train from East St. Louis to Cairo and was not allowed to stay in a motel with his co-workers. Koonce called the motel the next day to tell them if McDaniel was not welcome there, none of his employees would stay there.

Another disappointment came while he worked out of Benton. When he was not allowed to eat inside a restaurant in Eldorado in the 1980s, his co-workers refused to eat unless he was allowed to eat inside with them.

Before I left Benton, I was eating inside, by 1994 or 1995, McDaniel said.

Still, he said the biggest challenge on the track from Chicago to New Orleans was a hill on the southbound line going into Cobden. It is the steepest hill on the entire route.

McDaniel has had some fun, too. He remembers many good trips to East St. Louis.

Having little kids of my own color wave at me and think maybe someday they could be an engineer made me feel good, he said.

He was teased for years about a report of a black man stealing a train in Tamms. He says the people in Tamms had never seen a black engineer. The erroneous report was an easy fix, and he laughs today telling the story.

McDaniel is proud of never delaying a passenger train or number one train with his freight train. He said passenger trains are delayed for freight trains today.

What will McDaniel do in retirement? Since he has been on sick leave for a while, his activities will not change too much. He and wife, Corene, have two children and four grandchildren.

I have four grandchildren, and they keep me plenty busy, he said.

McDaniel will continue to volunteer at the African American Museum of Southern Illinois, stay active in Boskydell Baptist Church and try to help everywhere he can in the community.

I did what I had to do to measure up to my counterparts, McDaniel said. I had to work twice as hard to be considered half as good as my co-workers.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/merkel-sees-no-military-solution-u-dispute-north-130124529.html

BERLIN (Reuters) - There is no military solution to the United States' dispute with North Korea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday, adding that a war of words between the two countries was the wrong approach.

"I don't see a military solution to this conflict," Merkel told reporters in Berlin. "I see the need for enduring work at the U.N. Security Council ... as well as tight cooperation between the countries involved, especially the U.S. and China".

"Germany will be intensively involved in any non-military solutions," Merkel said. "But an escalation of the rhetoric is the wrong answer."
Two Orangeburg residents are receiving assistance from the American Red Cross after a Tuesday fire at their Slab Landing Road home.

The fire occurred at 3020 Slab Landing Road around 11:30 a.m.

No one was at home at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported.

"We think it was electrical in nature," Bolentown Fire Chief Algie Rutland said. "It is hard to tell exactly where it started from, but the center of an electrical receptacle was where the most damage occurred."

Rutland said the blaze damaged the single-story home to the extent that it is uninhabitable.

The Red Cross is providing financial assistance for food, clothing, other essentials and comfort kits containing personal hygiene items.

The Bolentown Fire Department responded to the blaze, along with the Pine Hill, Edisto, Norway and Caanan fire departments. A member of the Wolfton Fire Department, who was in the area, also assisted.

Visit http://www.redcross.org/local/south-carolina/ways-to-donate to learn more about how to help this family.
Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five trustees will consider a resolution ordering a public referendum in the district in an amount not to exceed $160M, according to the agenda for a Monday special called meeting.

The meeting is to be at 6:30 p.m. at the Clyburn Center behind the Nelson C. Nix school, 770 Stilton Road. It is to include a closed session, with the trustees scheduled to return to open session to consider action on a referendum.

Were having a special called meeting to discuss some projects and (receive) some legal advice, OCSD5 Board Chair Mary Ulmer said.

Of the referendum issue, she said, We havent really discussed it. It was something that we thought about, but right now we dont know where were headed with it.

Ulmer said the money would be used for facilities.

But as of now, that was just an idea up for discussion. And we dont even think we are going forth with that idea, she said.

Under state law, the trustees would be required to hold a referendum to increase taxes in two instances:

 If the levy is to exceed the 15-mill limit.

 If the district plans to issue new bonds for construction or other purposes.

A referendum this year would come as lawmakers are pushing legislation that would dissolve the board as the district is consolidated with Orangeburg County's other two districts.

The merger was approved by the General Assembly but vetoed by Gov. Henry McMaster over governance during the transition period until consolidation in 2019. The veto could be overridden as soon as lawmakers return to Columbia or revised legislation could be considered in January.

OCSD5 spokesman Bill Clark and Superintendent Dr. Jesse Washington could not be reached for comment Friday night.
The implementation of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) project is making good progress in Georgia and remains on track to start up in 2018, Georgias Energy Minister Ilia Eloshvili said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) along with Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) represents the key project of the Southern Gas Corridor in Europe," he said. "Georgias involvement in this project enhances its role as a transit country in the region and the image of a reliable and important transit partner."

The minister pointed out that the SCPX will expand the existing 7 billion cubic meters SCP system to accommodate a further 16 billion cubic meters with a new 48-inch pipeline loop, constructed parallel to the existing SCP.

"The SCPX project also includes construction of a number of facilities. These comprise two new compressor stations in Georgia, two intermediate pigging stations (one each in Azerbaijan and Georgia), six 48-inch block valve stations (one in Georgia and five in Azerbaijan), pressure reduction and metering stations at the international borders, and the interconnection with TANAP at the Georgia-Turkey border," said Eloshvili. "The execution of the SCPX project is based on an overall philosophy of safe design and quality build. SCPX construction is making good progress in Georgia and remains on track to start up in 2018."

The minister pointed out that today, over 2,600 Georgian citizens are employed on SCPX construction work.

"SCPX compressor stations construction is progressing with the first compressor station near Azerbaijan-Georgia border due to start-up in early 2018; and the second compressor station - in late 2018," he added.

Construction works are also near completion at the new pressure reduction and metering station, the connection point between the SCPX and TANAP pipelines near the Georgia-Turkey border, according to Eloshvili.

He pointed out that 62 kilometers of the SCPX pipeline extension have mostly been welded and most of the pipes are now in the ground.

Total planned SCPX investment for Georgia is $2 billion out of which $400 million is being spent on Georgian suppliers and services, added the minister.

The length of the South Caucasus Pipeline exceeds 700 kilometers. It will transport gas produced from the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The shareholders are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPOC (19 percent).
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201708111056395826-india-increases-military-presence-doklam/

No War, No Peace: India Raises Military Alert Level Over China Border Dispute

The standoff between China and India along the Doklam Plateau has shown no signs of de-escalating, as India continues to bolster its strength and increase operational readiness along the border.

New Delhi raised the military alertness level as a "matter of caution," according to anonymous sources speaking to Reuters. The level in question is known as "no war, no peace," and instructs the soldiers to take defensive positions.

India sends its troops onto "operational alert" every year in the fall  but this year the state has been activated early. "It's out of caution. It has been done because of the situation," the anonymous source told Reuters. "The troop level along the border with China in the Sikkim and Arunachal sectors [next to Doklam] has been increased," another anonymous official told the India Times.

 AFP 2017/ Diptendu DUTTA Bhutan Denies Ceded Claim Over Doklam

New Delhi is split over its next course of action. On August 4, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called for a bilateral troop retreat to increase the chances of a peaceful resolution, while Defense Minister Arun Jaitley told the National Parliament on Friday that the military was "prepared to take on any eventuality" in the stand-off.

Jaitley also denied reports of ammunition shortages, after a Comptroller and Auditor General report found that the border forces only had enough to fight for 20 days. "Our defense forces have adequate equipment to face any eventuality," Jaitley said. Since the report, "significant process has been made. It is a continuous process. Therefore, nobody should have any doubt about the availability of equipment or the preparedness of our forces."

For seven weeks now, China and India have faced off over the Doklam plateau, an area disputed by China and India's ally Bhutan. This sequence of events began when China attempted to build a road through remote and rugged Doklam, which they call Donglang and claim is a part of Tibet. Bhutan protested, as they also claim Doklam as part of their territory. Bhutan and India are signatories of a "Friendship Treaty," and so India intervened on their smaller ally's behalf.

The construction of the road screeched to a halt after India dispatched troops to the region, which China claims is a violation of their sovereignty. The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has planted its feet and claimed the Chinese project threatens India's security.

China's demands for India to pull back were ignored, and so Beijing deployed their own forces to the disputed border. Hundreds of soldiers from the two most populous nations in the world stand within view of one another. China continues to warn of "counter-measures" to escalate against India if New Delhi doesn't back down.

Earlier in August, talks to end the stalemate stalled after New Delhi did not respond to Beijing's offer to move their troops back 100 meters (328 feet) if India removed their troops from Doklam.

 AP Photo/ Andy Wong India's Reaction Over Possible Military Operation in Doklam Reflects Lack of Self Confidence - Expert

Doklam has proved the flashpoint to years of simmering tension between the nations. A similar three-week standoff occurred in 2013 over Aksai Chin, another disputed territory between China and India. China has also expanded its economic and military relationship with Pakistan, India's perennial rival.

Meanwhile, India has strengthened its ties with the United States and Japan, geopolitical adversaries of Beijing.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in order to avoid isolation, US President Donald Trump is trying to play blame game on Iran, IRNA reported.

In his Twitter message released on Friday, Zarif said 'POTUS always wanted to kill JCPOA. To avoid isolation, he's trying to blame it on Iran. Bad faith on top of US violating the letter & spirit.'

Meanwhile, during his inauguration ceremony held on August 5 in Tehran, Iran President Hassan Rouhani said that the country will not begin violation of Iran nuclear deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and it would not remain silent against US lack of commitment.

Despite the fact that many sanction-related economic obstacles have been removed, US lack of disloyalty in implementation of JCPOA which is the result of US government addiction to illegal policies of imposing sanctions signal the message that US is not a trustable partner, he said.

Solving nuclear issue, withdrawing nuclear program from UN charter, removing UN Security Council resolutions and removing cruel nuclear sanctions are one of the most important achievements of the 11th government, he added.
At least 40 people were killed and nearly 135 others were injured when two trains collided in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria on Friday, reports said.

The trains slammed into each other outside the Khorshid station in the Mediterranean port city. Bodies were strewn on the ground as rescue teams worked to pull the dead and injured from the wrecked carriages, said a Reuters report.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has ordered an inquiry into the crash. Transport Minister Hisham Arafat said "human error" led to the collision but did not elaborate, the report quoted.

Chief Prosecutor Nabil Ahmed said a seven-member committee had been formed to report on the collision.

The trains, one travelling from the capital Cairo and the other from Port Said, crashed at about 14:15 local time (12:15 GMT). It derailed the engine of one train and two cars of the other, the Egyptian Railway Authority said.

A railroad switching error was the most likely cause, a security source said without giving further details.

"They rose in the air forming a pyramid when they collided. I started to scream from the rooftops for people to grab some sheets and run," BBC quoted a witness as saying.
As the digital revolution unfolds, one industry in particular plays a pivotal role. Telecom companies provide the fundamental building blocksaccess, interconnectivity and applicationsenabling this digital revolution to take place,a report said.



Creating a solid, sound foundation for digitalization is key, with a potential $2 trillion at stake for the industry and society through 2025, said Accenture, a global management consulting company in its new report titled "Telecom companies: Building blocks for the digital revoltion".



Telecom companies need to deliver essential infrastructure, applications and productivity improvements in many areas for global digitalization to realize its full potential. With 44 zettabytes forecast as annual data flow in 2020 (equivalent to 44 trillion gigabytes)and no slowdown in sight the time to begin transformation is now, starting with their own business model.



Four main areas of digital impact for telecom companies



Accenture sees four main areas of digital impact for telecom companies over the next several years:

Networks of the future



Virtualizing the current physical hardware layer promises to fundamentally change the basis of future service, by creating self-optimizing and secure zero-touch networks.



For instance, AT&T has emerged as a leading digital adopter, pioneering Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). The company aims to cover and control up to 75 percent of its network using SDN and NFV technologies by 2020.



Its Domain 2.0 vision for its networks includes rich Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that manage, control and consume services on demand and in real time, and common infrastructure that can be provisioned as data-center pods. This initiative will help create a blueprint for other global carriers to follow.



Beyond the pipe



The increased digital transformation of consumers lives and businesses presents the telecom industry with important opportunities to extend revenue streams beyond connectivity, through integrated internet of things (IoT) solutions, consumer and enterprise digital services, and reimagined models of digital communication leveraging advances in natural human interfaces and augmented reality/virtual reality.



Semiconductor specialist Qualcomm is already building interoperable Internet of Things (IoT) offerings across diverse sectors of its business. By developing advanced chipsets and modules to bring various IoT use cases to life, it is moving towards building a comprehensive, cross-sector suite of IoT solutions that help companies and users overcome some of the largest challenges around interoperability and integration. Qualcomm Life, for instance, is an end-to-end, open and device-agnostic healthcare platform that integrates healthcare devices, stores and communicates health information, and provides remote monitoring.



Redefining customer engagement



To win the race for customer loyalty and mindshare, telecom industry players will need to increasingly deploy features and tools that deliver delightful digital experiences. This goal is especially important as customers now expect the high-quality digital experiences they receive in one industry to be matched by companies in other sectors.



A large UK-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), GiffGaff, has increased customer engagement by doing something that sounds counterintuitive, at first blush. The company completely eliminated its call-center-based customer service model. Instead, it developed an online community where its own members share and resolve queries. In doing so, the company not only saved a massive amount of money, but was also able to significantly drive up customer engagement.



The companys transparency and customer centricity (it sends users a text message every month on how they can save money on their phone plans) has allowed it to surpass more than 160 other MVNOs in the country in size, to become the third largest.



GiffGaffs innovations in this area show that customers are willing to shift to new models of customer service, a traditional pain-point for major operators, and still be delighted.



Bridging the gap on innovation



The need for rapid innovation, greater convergence and new services means that telecoms must fill capability gaps using new innovation models and revamped talent strategies for a digital workforce.



For example, Telecom Italia has launched the Joint Open Labs initiative, which creates collaborative research platforms between itself, academic institutions and external research laboratories. These platforms also incubate start-ups focusing on their areas of interest. Other outside-in models include Nokias Open Innovation Challenge, which combines crowdsourcing and partnerships with digital companies.  TradeArabia News Service
Van Tassell, Wyoming / October 29, 1926August 3, 2017

Walter Babe Schnorenberg was born on October 29, 1926 to Walter Henry and Edna Mary Schnorenberg at Van Tassell, Wyoming and passed away peacefully on August 3, 2017. He lived in Van Tassell until 1940, when the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he lived for a short time. They later moved to Lusk, Wyoming where Babe attended high school until he was drafted into the army. He served two years in the Philippine Islands and was discharged in 1946 after the war ended. Babe worked in the oil fields after leaving the armed services and later as a mechanic at the Ford and Chevrolet garages in Lusk. He met the love of his life Betty Kelly and they were married on September 27, 1953. They had been marreid 63 years at the time of his passing. After leaving Lusk in 1974 he worked as a pipefitter until his retirement in 1988.

Survivors include his wife, Betty; two sons, Steven Michael (Celia) of Corpus Christi, Texas and Kelly James (Nancy) of Lone Tree, Colorado; two granddaughters, Lynn Leslie (Ryan) and Traci Bower (Rick); three great-grandsons, Joshua, Mathew, and James; and many nieces, nephews, and friends as well as his best friend Pixie; and his Yorkshire Terrier.

Babe was mechanically inclined and could fix just about anything. He liked helping others and often helped those he met in his work, his neighbors, and many others. He will continue to help people as he has donated his body for research. Babe never met a stranger and befriended many people throughout his life. He will be missed by many.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at the Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery in Evansville with a reception following the service from 3-5 P.M. at Highland Park Community Church in Casper.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Central Wyoming Hospice or the charity of the donors choice.
Up North Poplar Street, across from a hotel and in the showbiz shadow of the Casper Event Center, is a small, domed building with wood paneling that wants to show you the heavens.

Inside this building is a one-stop eclipse experience. Down a round hallway, past glass cases selling Milky Way and Starburst candy, Earth-colored marbles and lava lamps, there is a row of exhibits.

From behind glass screens the displays tell visitors when the last total eclipse passed over Casper (239 years ago), when the last coast-to-coast solar eclipse occurred (1918), quiz them on soon-to-be-needed vocabulary (a corona isnt beer), and show the band of the country that will briefly darken in eight days.

For the Casper Planetarium, situated in one of the best spots in the nation to view the eclipse, this is its moment.

Ive been planning this since 2011, said supervisor Michele Wistisen. She was sitting in one of the two dozen or so old red reclining seats within the planetarium itself, beneath the white dome that lights up with stars and constellations at the push of a few buttons. I wish it happened all the time.

The planetarium has been owned by the Natrona County School District since 1969, and it functions largely as an extension of it, though its open to the public. Wistisen is a certified teacher, as is Rod Kennedy, the other full-time staffer. They go into classrooms, and classrooms come to them to learn about the sky, from the Little Dipper to the sun.

We are primarily focused on second-, fourth-, fifth- and seventh-graders, she explained.

In a state thats become cash-strapped in recent years, the planetariums resources have taken a hit. In past years, Wistisen had three full-time adults to work the planetarium. Between 2014 and 2016, two have left and not been replaced, said district spokesman Tanya Southerland.

Still, the work has accelerated as the eclipse approaches. Wistisen said that even over the summer, shes meeting with student groups on an almost daily basis. She teaches the students about the science, the mythology and the history, like the five Wyoming eclipses  including the one viewed by Thomas Edison in 1878.

Normally, the planetarium offers several different programs  think of movies that are projected across the dome. But since January, its been almost entirely Eclipse: The Sun Revealed, a 30-minute program that takes reclined viewers through the history of the eclipse  the Chinese thought the moon was actually a dragon coming to eat the sun, so they banged pots and pans to scare it off  to the mechanics of how it actually works.

The show has been available nine times a week. But starting Tuesday through Saturday of this week, the program is available at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. (Its $3 a show, cash or check.)

Wistisen said its been a full-court press: the program  made by a planetarium in Tennessee and purchased through a grant  along with the lobby exhibits, brochures and, of course, eclipse glasses. The planetarium has sold more than 5,000 pairs this summer alone.

The focus became, how can we maximize educating the population? she said.

The city has responded. Wistisen said shes noticed an uptick in both attendance and interest in the skies as the eclipse has approached, a surge in interest that she hopes will continue after the big day passes. Before the recent bump, the planetarium would average around 20 people a day.

There would be dry spells when even fewer would recline in those red seats. Wistisen said that was deflating.

Were a great asset to this community, she said.

But as more people have come through  around 40 a day, she said, double the pre-eclipse daily attendance  many have been surprised the planetarium was there and were impressed with what it had to offer.

Weve had many people come in and say, Wow, Ive never been in here before! she said.
CHEYENNE  A Wyoming superintendent has postponed his district's first day of school because he says he "grossly underestimated" how significant the solar eclipse is going to be.

Laramie County School District 2's first day of classes was scheduled for the same day as the eclipse, Aug. 21, but was changed to Aug. 22.

Superintendent Jon Abrams says he didn't realize the eclipse was going to be a "once-in-a-lifetime thing" and wants students, parents and teachers to be able to witness it.

Abrams says the district is in the area that will have a 98 percent eclipse.

Students will attend school on Friday to make up the hours missed on Monday.

The district still plans to offer an eclipse field trip to all of the district's secondary students.
CARLISLE, Pa.  Remains unearthed at a Pennsylvania Army base dont match the Native American child from Wyoming thought to have been buried there after dying at the government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the 19th century, authorities said Friday.

The U.S. Army said Friday the grave thought to contain 10-year-old Little Plume, also called Hayes Vanderbilt Friday, doesnt match his age, and in fact contains two sets of unidentified remains.

The remains of 15-year-old Little Chief, also known as Dickens Nor, and 14-year-old Horse, also called Horace Washington, do match and will be returned to a Northern Arapaho delegation on Monday. Theyll be reburied on the Wind River Reservation.

The grave with Little Plumes headstone contains remains from a teenage male and another person of undetermined age or sex. They will be reinterred at the site.

The government-run Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded by an Army officer, took drastic steps to separate Native American students from their culture, including cutting their braids, dressing them in military-style uniforms and punishing them for speaking their native languages. They were forced to adopt European names.

More than 10,000 Native American children were taught there and endured harsh conditions that sometimes led to death from such diseases as tuberculosis.

The exhumations began early Tuesday at the post cemetery on the grounds of the Carlisle Barracks, which today houses the U.S. Army War College.

Seventeen members of the Northern Arapaho tribe, including tribal elders and young people, came to Carlisle to take part in the process. In 2016, the tribe had formally requested the bodies be returned to them.

The U.S. Army honored its promise to reunite Native American families with their children who died more than 100 years ago at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Army National Military Cemeteries Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera said in a statement. We are thankful to the Northern Arapaho families for their patience and collaboration during this process.
SALT LAKE CITY  Utah's Salt Lake County is poised to get its first female sheriff.

Salt Lake County Democrats at a special meeting Saturday named Rosie Rivera their pick to fill the remaining term for the sheriff position, through 2018.

Rivera is expected to be approved by the County Council on Tuesday.

She will replace former Sheriff Jim Winder, who earlier this year left his seat to lead the Moab police department.

Rivera beat out four other candidates, with three of them supporting her in the run-off vote against Steve Anjewierden.

She has been serving as Unified Police Chief but says she intends to run in the next election for a full four-year term as county sheriff.
Cautious optimism

Yes, according to a recent report, the state is likely to receive more revenue than it expected, but dont be fooled  its financial problems are far from solved. For example, schools in Wyoming face a $530 million shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget cycle. The surprise boost is welcome, but its a drop in the bucket compared with the massive budget shortfall. As a state, we cant let a splash of good news keep us from doing the hard work that will be necessary to position our economy to thrive in the long term.

Coming home

The bodies of three Northern Arapaho students will be returned to their descendants soon. Their relatives fight has been long and difficult, but it has paid off. The boys  Little Chief, Little Plume and Horse  were taken from their homes and sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, now the Army War College, in Pennsylvania. And about 135 years ago, thats where they died  far from home and forced to use names that werent their own. It was the right thing for the Army to pay for transport and burial costs, and were glad that happened. We wish these families healing and peace.

New leader

Michele Chulick has officially taken the helm at Wyoming Medical Center, central Wyomings largest health care facility. Shes impressed by the hospital and the city of Casper itself and is looking to improve rural health care opportunities for people in Wyoming  something the state needs. Welcome to Casper, and best of luck with pursuing that important goal.

Mobile market

Food for Thought, a nonprofit that addresses hunger in the community, has new efforts in the works  including a mobile market that will help people in Casper gain access to nutritious food. Too many of our neighbors still face obstacles in finding and procuring healthy options, and this 1988 school bus and its team hope to change that.

Missing watercraft

If youre separated from your boat, tube or other flotation device, let authorities know. Thats a request from local emergency agencies, which receive calls from people who see the abandoned flotation devices on the river and worry that someone is in trouble. Call 307-235-8278 to tell emergency workers youre OK so they can judge how to respond to the situation.
Editor:

This month, Wyoming will welcome an influx of visitors for a truly incredible event  the total solar eclipse. For a state that relies on the tourism economy, we could not be more fortunate to have an event of this kind put a spotlight on Wyoming and in turn introduce people from around the world to the Cowboy State. And while we cannot predict how many travelers this will bring, we do know that many of them have been planning for months or years to come to Wyoming for this event. Visitors from around the country and world have chosen to make Wyoming their destination and will be soaking up the best that our state has to offer.

For many of these travelers, this will be their first visit to Wyoming as they watch the eclipse, visit our national parks, shop in our small towns and enjoy our wildlife, as they rub elbows with locals and experience true western hospitality.

For Wyoming and our economy, this means that these travelers have chosen to invest in a vacation to our state, where theyll be staying in our lodging accommodations, shopping in local boutiques, taking guided trail rides and fishing trips, dining in our restaurants and enjoying our Wyoming brews and spirits, which in turn means that we  not only as state but as the proud residents who choose to call Wyoming home  please join me in welcoming them.

The eclipse is providing us with a stellar opportunity  a chance for us to showcase the people, places, destinations and experiences that make Wyoming special. And while travelers may be coming for the two and a half minutes of the total solar eclipse, Im asking you to join me in welcoming these guests into our state  whether they arrive hours, days or weeks before the eclipse. Theyve chosen Wyoming as their destination to view the eclipse, and this is our chance to not only create a lasting memory of that experience but to ensure they have an incredible impression, fondness and love for the place were all lucky enough to call home.
Miss Saigon Bar & Grill Vietnamese restaurant has pulled out of its two Marana locations including one that was in the path of a years-long highway project on West Ina Road and Interstate 10.

But the restaurant at 4650 W. Ina Road, near I-10, could have new life once the road work is finished, Miss Saigon officials said. The owners anticipate reopening once construction wraps up.

The Miss Saigon location at 8225 N. Courtney Paige Way just up I-10 at North Cortaro Road, however, is gone for good, an official said. The restaurants lease was up and the business did not fare well in the area that has four other Asian food options including Sushi Cortaro in the same plaza.

Miss Saigon, which serves Vietnamese and Thai food, was the last restaurant standing in the I-10/Ina Road area once crews came in and tore up Ina as part of the $2.1 billion highway interchange reconstruction project. Miss Saigons neighbors, including a Jack In the Box fast-food outpost, Chuys Mesquite Broiler and Waffle House, called it quits long before the jackhammers and bulldozers started tearing up Ina Road in February. Miss Saigon joined them in late July.

Road work is expected to continue into 2019.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Aug. 12 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
The towering Pinaleno Mountains near Safford were ravaged by fire, then scoured by flooding this summer  and now restoration experts are working to stabilize and restore the tortured landscape.

The Frye Fire, ignited by a lightning strike on June 7, blackened more than 48,400 acres in the popular range surrounding 10,717-foot Mount Graham.

Monsoon rains helped douse the fire, but they also brought flooding that damaged roads and campgrounds and clogged drainage channels with logs and other woody debris. Observatories on the mountain and other structures escaped damage.

Bottom line: The range  from chapparal regions at lower elevations to pine and fir forests on the mountain heights  were left in need of immediate stabilization and long-term restoration.

Members of the Burned Area Emergency Response team (BAER) have been hard at work since the fire was contained in late July. BAER teams are used by the U.S. Forest Service to manage post-fire response actions on public land  and in this case, the teams task is huge.

This is a long-term issue  not something well solve this fall, said Dean McAlister, a member of the BAER team. Restoration work on the mountain will go on for several years to come.

Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said work will run the gamut from protecting and restoring a functioning watershed to making fire-affected trails and campgrounds safe for a resumption of public use.

Its not the end of the story when a wildfire is out, Schewel said. Theres a lot of work to be done up there, and it will take some time.

RESTORATION PRIORITIES

Several key areas of needed work have been identified and some work is underway, McAlister said. They include:

Aerial seeding of high-burn impact sites. The seeding, conducted in the past week by a pilot using a crop-dusting plane, covered 1,023 acres of burned land with barley seeds. They will germinate within a week and put up a vegetative mass to help stabilize the soil, McAlister said. The barley functions for about two years and then we see natural vegetation reestablish itself.

Channel clearing. The intent was to clear designated stream channels of floatable debris to reduce impacts on road drainage structures, McAlister said. It was not completed due to the onset of heavy rains, which moved floatable debris and damaged roads and drainage structures.

Road stabilization and storm proofing. The work includes installing so-called rolling dips on some roads to move water across the travel way rather than under the roads in culverts.

Protection and safety measures. Safety signage is to be installed on major roads leading into fire areas to warn visitors of the hazards of entering a heavily impacted fire area.

PROGRESS SO FAR

Swift Trail, the main road into the Pinalenos, has been cleared and opened to Ladybug Saddle. The saddle is about 25 miles up the road from its starting point along U.S. 191 south of Safford. The road opening allows public access to Arcadia Campground, the Turkey Flat summer home area and other sites, but areas above the saddle remain closed to public access.

On a given day, we have maybe 20 people working up here  some of them operating heavy equipment such as a grader, a loader, an excavator and dump trucks, McAlister said.

In the Wet Canyon area, crews have been working for the past two weeks to clear debris from the area, he said. It was a popular recreation area, but recreational facilities disappeared with the first flood through the canyon. Woody debris formed a logjam in the canyon.

Schewel noted that an area of special concern was a culvert and bridge on the Swift Trail at Wet Canyon. The culvert was built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the 1930s.

Floodwaters and debris exceeded the capacity of the area around and between the existing and old culvert/bridge at Wet Canyon, Schewel noted in a news release.

The flooding debris damaged the highway bridge and threatened one of the foundations, she said.

Loss of a foundation would result in bridge failure and loss of road access to the mountain, Schewel said. The only feasible solution in the short term was removal of all or the vast majority of the Civilian Conservation Corps-era stone masonry culvert/bridge at Wet Canyon.

The removal of the old culvert structure would result in a clear stream channel that could handle the stream flow and debris of boulders, wood and ash without damaging the nearby highway bridge, Schewel said.

Removal of the old structure was completed this week. Schewel noted that Forest and Arizona Department of Transportation officials plan to meet with the public in the near future to discuss possibilities for commemoration of the structure.

Removal of the culvert and continuing work elsewhere along the Swift Trail have increased restoration expenses.

McAlister said approximately $300,000 was allocated for restoration work so far.

We will be making an additional funding request to continue necessary work, he said.

McAlister said the amount of additional funding needed isnt certain but that it could be in the range of $600,000 to $800,000.
PHOENIX  A five-year veteran of the Board of Regents says his colleagues are wrong to keep allowing dreamers to pay the same in-state tuition at state universities as legal Arizona residents.

Jay Heiler said his colleagues, in deciding to keep the tuition policy in place for now, are acting in good faith. But Heiler is distancing himself from a letter sent Thursday to the Attorney Generals Office by board President Eileen Klein on behalf of the other regents, which said the tuition policy for students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is justified and will remain.

Heiler, who is an attorney, said he believes the regents policy clearly violates a 2006 voter-approved state law that prohibits the use of tax dollars to subsidize tuition of students not in this country legally.

Regardless of whether one agrees with the relevant law (which was enacted at the ballot by a large majority of Arizona voters), it could scarcely be more clear that the boards presently established tuition rate violates it, Heiler wrote in a letter Friday to Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

The only lawful course and the only solid ground on which a fiduciary board can stand is to comply with the law and set a tuition rate which does not amount to a subsidy, Heiler wrote.

He said that was underscored by the state Court of Appeals ruling in June voiding a similar policy set by the Maricopa County Community College District for DACA recipients, who are known as dreamers. That case is being appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Heiler said there is a simple  and he believes legal  solution for the regents: Charge DACA recipients a nonsubsidized rate, something that covers the actual costs of their education but is far less than full out-of-state tuition. The regents already have a policy allowing those who graduate from an Arizona high school but dont meet residency requirements to pay 150 percent of in-state tuition.

But former state Senate President Russell Pearce, who is threatening a lawsuit against the regents over their current policy, said he believes even that would be illegal. Pearce said he might sue even if the regents enact that 150 percent fallback position if the in-state tuition policy is ultimately ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.

Klein, in her letter Thursday, said the regents want Brnovich to await the Supreme Court review before bringing a lawsuit himself to void their tuition policy.

But not Heiler. My main concern is that, no matter how you slice it, weve positioned ourselves in contravention of the law, he said in an interview.
WASHINGTON  Families in more than half of Native American homes in Arizona now speak only English at home, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

American Community Survey data covering 2011-2015 showed that 53 percent of people who identified as American Indian in the state said they speak only English at home, up from 49 percent in the previous five-year survey.

The increase comes despite efforts by tribes to keep their cultures and their languages alive, through immersion schools and tribal programs. But people involved in those programs said they were not surprised by the numbers, which follow generations of government antagonism toward native culture and language.

We see students that come in with little or no language skills. So that obviously tells us that there is little or no Navajo spoken in the home, said Audra Platero, principal of Tsehootsooi Dine Bi Olta, a language-immersion school in Fort Defiance.

Navajo Schools Superintendent Tommy Lewis said that while some believe the language should be taught at home, schools have little choice.

The problem is that our parents are young, many of them are young, they themselves dont know the language, Lewis said. It seems that schools are beginning to be the only outlet through which we can assist and revitalize the language.

Lewis said that if something doesnt change, we can lose it (the language) in 25 years and thats a real concern. He blames the media, through music, through many other things that I think has affected our children from not learning Navajo as their primary language.

This goes back to many years of failures though federal policy where the intent of the federal government was to colonize us, to get us away from our language and culture so that we can be a part of the melting pot and theyve done that through many avenues: through funding, through policy, through programs and so forth, Lewis said.

Anthony Gray, a culture coordinator for the Gila River Indian Community Tribal Education Department, agreed that many of the problems can be blamed on what he calls the boarding school effect.

The boarding schools were founded, basically, to assimilate Native Americans, Gray said. We see a lot of cultural loss, we see a lot of pictures of young children with their hair cut, dressed in full clothing and just everything about their tribal culture is basically erased and taken off of them.

That push by the government led, in turn, to Native American parents who didnt want to teach their children the Navajo language because of what they experienced, Platero said.

Gray points to a 19th-century quote, Kill the Indian, save the man, that he said was a reference to the mentality that the American, white society was more important than the tribal society.

Platero said that there is, This whole idea that English is better, the whole concept of Western education provides more opportunities.

For many, it did. And still does. Gray said that in an effort to help communities advance, many tribes will send members off the reservation to live, work and learn in metropolitan areas.

The idea was for them to learn the trades of modern industry  and come back and try to implement them here, he said.

Gray said in the Gila River community that since the 1970s there has been a resurgence to revitalize the language or to re-maintain the language.

That desire for the culture is also seen in parents who were denied the language when they were children.

Parents that enroll their students to our school want their students to learn the Navajo language and they want them to know about Navajo culture, Platero said. Our young parents, our children they do hunger for language and culture, its just a matter of providing opportunity for them to learn.

As a people, we are aware that there is a language shift, Platero said of the Navajo. We understand that measures need to be taken, for there is a state of urgency when it comes to the Navajo language and culture.

Lewis agreed, saying, Schools can only do so much  it is a tribal problem.

If a child is exposed to their language and culture and their identity early on, they have a stronger perseverance in dealing with life situations, they know who they are, they have confidence in themselves, Lewis said. If you take that away, the child is vulnerable.

Lewis lamented that as native languages are lost, the culture can no longer be passed on to future generations.

A lot of tribes, throughout the country, have lost their language and theyre struggling and we know that we see them all the time, Lewis said. They cry and theyre very sorry that theyve lost their language.

We dont want to be faced with that situation. We want to say that we can still be Dine, we can still speak the language, we still know who we are 100 years from now.
A Marana man facing first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of his mother alerted police to the crime after asking a friend to hold onto a rifle for him, according to newly released reports.

Nathan Fouts was arrested Feb. 9 after telling a Pima County sheriffs deputy that he had killed his mother, Debra Fouts, according to a Marana Police Department incident report.

The deputy said Fouts was rambling and not making any sense, but requested a welfare check on Debra at her home in Continental Ranch, the report said.

Marana police went to the home shortly before 9 p.m. and through a window, saw Debra lying on her back on the living room floor. Officers kicked the door in to check for a pulse, but said that it was apparent she had been dead for some time, according to the report.

Debra had two gunshot wounds to the back and officers found three rifles and a handgun in a search of the home, where Nathan Fouts also lived.

A neighbor of Debras told police that shed seen Nathan Fouts praying in front of the home two days before his mothers body was discovered and had spoken to him the day before, when he said God had told him to come to the house.

While police were searching the home, Fouts was taken to a hospital for chest pain, and told paramedics that he was hurting from his sins. He also admitted to smoking methamphetamine a few hours earlier, and possibly also heroin and marijuana.

When Marana police came to the hospital to take blood samples, Fouts told officers he believed they were controlling his brain through their computers and felt as though all of his cells were dying because of what he had done, the report said.

Fouts asked for a lawyer when detectives tried to interview him in jail, then tried to speak to them without an attorney, which they refused to do because of his odd behavior and apparent mental instability, the report said.

Detectives located a friend of Fouts, who said that hed visited the friends house several times the day before Debras body was found and appeared out of it. The friend said that it wasnt unusual for Fouts to just show up unannounced.

The last time he came to the house, Fouts tried to sell the friend a military-style rifle, and when the friend said no, Fouts asked if hed hold onto it for him.

The friend took the rifle because of Fouts odd behavior and gave it to someone else because of how weird Nathan was acting, the report said.

Although the friend had learned of Fouts arrest on the news before police spoke to him, the man claimed he got rid of the rifle because he didnt know if Nathan would go crazy and use it later on.

Police recovered the rifle, but its unclear from the report if it was identified as the gun used to kill Debra Fouts.

Nathan Fouts is scheduled for trial on charges of first-degree murder and being a prohibited possessor in April.

Long criminal history

Records from Pima County Superior Court, Pima County Consolidated Justice Court, Marana Municipal Court, Flagstaff Municipal Court and the Arizona Department of Corrections provide a timeline for Nathan Fouts in the 17 years leading up to Februarys slaying.

In July 2000, Nathan Fouts was arrested for charges of disorderly conduct, marijuana sale, possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful acts involving alcohol. He was found guilty on all charges and ordered to pay fines.

In October 2000, Fouts was charged with domestic violence aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with serious injury for an incident involving his brother.

He pleaded guilty to felony domestic violence aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years of probation, which he violated in May 2001, when he was arrested for felony aggravated robbery.

Fouts pleaded guilty to the charge and was given the mitigated sentence of 2 years in prison, after the judge said that his dysfunctional family and age justified a shorter sentence.

He spent two years in prison where he received violations for forgery, disrespectful behavior, lying to officials and disobeying an order.

In April 2005, Fouts was arrested for assault in Flagstaff and was later found guilty. Details regarding his sentence were unavailable.

In August 2005, a woman Fouts was dating was granted an order of protection against him.

In March 2006, Fouts was being booked into the Pima County jail on DUI charges when he became confrontational with other arrestees in the booking area. An officer stepped in to separate Fouts from the other inmates when Fouts broke free. A struggle ensued and the officer broke his ankle. Fouts was charged with felony aggravated assault on a peace officer resulting in injury.

Fouts was found guilty on the DUI charge but accepted an agreement in the assault case, pleading guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 90 days in the Pima County jail.

In August 2012, Fouts was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. He pleaded guilty and paid a fine.
There are a few drops of fun to be squeezed out of the dwindling days of summer for Beatrice Public Schools students, but the teachers and staff of the district are already at work getting ready for the upcoming school year.

Students in kindergarten through ninth grades will be back in class at Beatrice schools on Tuesday, Aug. 15, with high school sophomores, juniors and seniors following right behind on Aug. 16. Meanwhile, teachers are getting their classrooms ready, maintenance staff are giving everything one last polish and school administration are furiously preparing for the influx of students.

Over at Beatrice High School this week, principal John Jarosh was working with staff to put the finishing touches on the schedule for the eclipse. It needed to be finished by 1 p.m. on Friday, and it was already a quarter to noon. Jarosh had his sleeves rolled up and a cup from Scooters on his desk.

Things are rolling, teachers are excited, things are going smooth, Jarosh said. The only thing that's causing us a little bit of stress is preparing for the eclipse, not knowing what to expect.

The Aug. 21 eclipse will occur just under a week from the time school opens and making sure everyone has a good time while staying safe is a priority.

Over at Lincoln Elementary, after a morning inservice day on evaluation processes, teachers were getting their classrooms ready. Things are looking pretty good, said fifth grade teacher Eric Meyer, but its getting down to the wire.

For me personally, I'm never ready, Meyer said. You could always use another two, three weeks.

Third grade teacher Beth Jurgens agreed, but said making it to the finish line is inevitable.

Once those kids walk through the door, we're ready, Jurgens said.

This is Jurgens first year teaching at Lincoln. Up until the end of last year she taught at Cedar Elementary, but with Cedar becoming the new Beatrice Community Preschool, this will be her first time with a whole new group of kids, families and staff, she said.

It's been a challenge, Jurgens said. Trying to take 29 years worth of teaching materials and move them to another room has not been easy. The staff here has been wonderful, it's just I've got too much stuff.

At the Beatrice Public Schools district office, Pat Nauroth has spent a lot of time in meetings in the days leading up to the start of the new year, but if theres one word to describe how hes feeling about it, it would be excited."

We're excited about this year and all we have going on, he said. The district's excited to get kids back. That's what schools are all about. We've had staff start up and it was great to have them back.

The district has a lot of new programs starting up in the new school year, Nauroth said, which hes very excited about.

Theres the new BLAST after school program the district is collaborating on with the Beatrice Educational Foundation for kids from kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as the transition of Cedar to the new preschool.

At Beatrice Community Preschoolwhich opens a little later on Aug. 22Missy Timmerman, the preschools coordinator, said things are really starting to come together. The huge playground out back is nearly complete, which is great, she said, but one of the things thats amazed her is the collaboration between the nine preschool teachers.

Theyve been in meetings, bouncing ideas off one another, which she said is the preschool program will be growing.

This years preschool class will be 212 kids strong, she said, and success will involve working closely with parents.

Preschool's about getting families involved, Timmerman said. The teachers are doing an amazing job of that and I really can't say enough about the attitudes and the positiveness that everyone has brought into this building.

Nauroth also said hes excited to see the level of enthusiasm from the staff who have put in hours of work over the summer to get everything ready for the year. The dedication and commitment across the board, from custodial maintenance employees, teachers, secretaries and administrators has been exciting to see he said.

As for advice on the upcoming year, he said, savor all of it.

Enjoy the moment, Nauroth said. For adults, it's a great opportunity to enjoy kids, for kids, it's a great opportunity to enjoy learning in that environment. Enjoy it. You don't get these opportunities all the time and it's something you really want to treasure.
Ruth Seawolf had millions in her hands and let it slip away.

It started with a phone call the Silver City, New Mexico, real estate agent received a few months back.

The gentleman on the other end said his aunt  her name has not been disclosed  had died and he wanted to sell her house. But first, it was loaded down with her possessions.

Ruthie, Seawolf recalled him saying to her, go through the house and take what you want.

The first thing she noticed when she opened the door was the artwork.

There were hundreds of paintings in the home, said Seawolf.

One of the paintings she picked up and looked at was Woman-Ochre, a Willem de Kooning piece stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985. The museum wont say what its worth is, but it was valued at $400,000 when it was stolen, and when the UA tried to revive interest on the thefts 30th anniversary, a news release said the piece was worth up to $160 million. A little more than a decade ago, another de Kooning painting in the Woman series sold for $137.5 million.

Seawolf did not know that, of course. And she wasnt interested in taking the piece by one of the giants in the 20th century abstract expressionism movement.

Did I like it? Honestly, no, she said in a phone interview Friday. It was kind of funky.

She connected the seller to David Van Auker, owner of Silver Citys Manzanita Ridge Furniture and Antiques, who arranged to purchase some of the homes contents.

Among those was the de Kooning oil.

And the painting began its journey back to where it belonged.

It really is thanks to a good citizen, David, said Meg Hagyard, the interim director of the UA Museum of Art.

We owe him such a huge debt of gratitude.

A few people pointed out to Van Auker that the painting looked like an original, so he began to research the piece, coming across articles about the theft.

By Thursday, Aug. 3, he was pretty sure he had the real deal and called the UA museum.

It didnt waste any time. Hagyard and a few other museum employees were in Silver City the following Monday.

And they were inclined to agree with him: This was the de Kooning that was stolen the day after Thanksgiving 1985.

Weve done preliminary authentication, but we feel very, very confident, said Hagyard. We are taking further steps to authenticate it, but we are confident.

There is restoration that needs to be done on the painting, as well. Hagyard said they do not know yet when they will be able to put the piece back on display.

Artist Josh Goldberg remembers well the morning the art was stolen.

He was the museums director of education. He had the day off, but the mother of a young student called. She had an art project. Could he help?

Goldberg arranged to meet the two before the museum opened.

As he walked up to the main entrance, he noticed a man and woman sitting on the bench, waiting for the doors to open to the public.

I looked over at them and I thought there was something odd about them, Goldberg recalled.

Something struck me as kind of funny. The man was very slim and had his hair slicked back and a moustache. The guy looked too effeminate, and the woman just the opposite, kind of masculine.

After he helped the student, he stepped into the washroom before he left.

Thats when I heard the guard screaming, said Goldberg. I thought he had fallen down the stairs or had a heart attack.

Goldberg ran out.

Its gone, the paintings gone, said the panicked guard.

They both ran out the front entrance, the guard going one way, Goldberg the other. But it was too late; they, and the de Kooning, were gone.

It was a sickening feeling, he said about looking at the place where the painting once was, sloppily cut away from the frame.

But then it made me really angry. I would often teach from the museums collection, and thats one of the ones I would teach from. It really bothered me that people could no longer learn from it.

Lee Karpisack, the curator of the museum at the time, recalls how devastating the theft was.

It was so difficult to go upstairs and know youd see the painting gone, she said. It was so sad.

UA Chief of Police Brian Seastone was a corporal with the campus police at the time, and was assigned to the case.

It was a Friday morning right after the museum opened up, he recalled.

Two individuals  a man and a woman  walked in right at the opening. The woman was talking to one of the office staff there while the gentleman went upstairs. He came down very quickly and they both left. The staff thought it was strange  why would they come and leave so quickly?

Campus police called the FBI for help, but with no clues to go on, it seemed pretty hopeless. The investigation into the theft continues, and the FBI declined an interview request.

I asked the FBI agent who would do such a thing, said Goldberg. He said something like, Theres always a buyer for art. He said it was probably already out of the country and it would never again see the light of day.

That morning was an emotional one for the staff, Seastone recalled.

Thirty years ago, I saw the tears of disappointment. There was despair from everyone involved.

Monday, when the piece returned to the museum, there were tears again, he said.

A lot of tears of happiness and joy. I felt the same emotion. It was so wonderful to have this home where it should be, Seastone said.

This is one of the most extraordinary pieces in the collection, Karpisack said about the de Kooning. It completes the collection again.

Stolen artwork worth as much as $160 million recovered for University of Arizona Willem de Kooning "Woman-Ochre" Returned to UA Museum of Art Stolen painting Stolen painting Stolen painting Painting recovered Suspects in art theft Missing de Kooning painting
A man accused of killing his cellmate at the Pima County jail is now facing felony charges of sexual assault and kidnapping involving another inmate.

On June 29, a Pima County grand jury indicted King Yates, 23, on the new charges, stemming from an incident that took place at the end of March, according to newly released Pima County Superior Court records.

On April 21, the victim was having a routine check-up with the jail nurse when he asked about having a test for sexually transmitted diseases, according to a sheriff detectives testimony to the grand jury.

He told the nurse that he wanted the STD test done because he had been sexually assaulted by Yates, the detective said.

The victim, who was sharing a cell with Yates from March 31 through April 3, told the detective that during the incident, Yates came up behind him and grabbed his arm around his neck, causing the victim to pass out.

When the victim woke up, his hands were pinned behind his back and Yates was raping him, according to the detectives testimony.

The victim told detectives that he didnt come forward earlier because he was afraid of being labeled as a snitch, according to the document.

On July 31, Yates attorney, Pima County Assistant Legal Defender Vincent Frey, requested the case be returned to the grand jury to determine if there was probable cause for the charges.

Frey said in a court motion that because the victim delayed reporting the assault, there was no forensic evidence and the states case rests entirely on the victims testimony.

During the presentation to the grand jury, the state failed to mention the victim is schizophrenic, with a history of auditory and visual hallucinations, including while he was being housed in the jail, the motion said.

The state would not have been successful in bringing an indictment against Yates if the grand jury had been informed of the victims mental-health history, according Freys motion.

The bare allegation by the state that King Yates sexually assaulted another inmate has put King Yates life in danger, Frey wrote in the motion.

Yates has a status conference on the motion set for Sept. 18.

Yates is also facing first-degree murder charges in the Nov. 20 shooting death of his wife, Cassandra, and the April 19 death of his cellmate.

Brandon Roth, who was in jail for a nonviolent property crime, was found dead in his cell and a battery-filled sock was found in Yates possessions.

The Pima County Medical Examiner ruled that Roths death was the result of asphyxiation, but also noted severe blunt-force trauma to Roths head and face.

Yates is being held in jail on a $3.1 million bond.

Hes being housed separately from general population inmates, said Lt. Elsa Navarro.
Individuals who are blind or visually impaired are normal people who go to work and go to school just like you.

I was born with retinitis pigmentosa or RP. I wasnt diagnosed with RP until I was 7 years old. With RP, I dont have any peripheral vision. My vision is like a tunnel where I only see what is in front of me. I also cant see at night.

Because of my visual impairment, I use my cane when I need it. A big pet peeve of mine is when I am out-and-about and I see people staring and watching me. What they dont know is that I can see them looking at me. My cane helps me not to run into anything and to let people know that I am visually impaired. I think its rude when people feel obligated to stare for long periods of time.

A woman saw me using my cane at a bus stop and asked me where I was heading and if I needed help. I told her I didnt but thank you for asking. I also told her that I was going to the Arizona Daily Star. She asked me if I was a newspaper delivery person and I told her no and that I was an apprentice in the editorial department. She looked surprised and said, Oh! I didnt know the Daily Star hired blind people! I said, Yeah. I wanted to say more, but I was mad in the moment and kept my mouth shut.

Being in the blind/visually impaired community, there is a lot of access to accessibility in technology.

Brittany Honyouti is a 19-year-old cosmetology student who has oculocutaneous albinism. This causes her to not have pigment in her hair, skin and eyes. She is sensitive to light and she has nystagmus, or involuntary eye movements. Due to the nystagmus, Honyouti has a hard time focusing on objects.

When I am at a restaurant and reading a menu, I use assistive technology to help me read. I am given weird looks by others, said Honyouti. She takes pictures of menus in restaurants and fast food places. She uses the zoom feature to help her read what the menus say.

I think its because they think Im taking a picture of other people, Honyouti said. If I cant see something Im going to use the tools to make things accessible to me.

Erin Wilson is a 20-year-old instructional assistant at an elementary school. She was born with microphthalmia, which means that her left eye didnt fully develop and her right eye has a visual acuity of 20/400.

During high school, Wilson was in orchestra and played the violin. She was auditioning to advance to a higher level of orchestra. Because of her visual impairment, she wasnt able to read the sheet music and asked her teacher if he would play it for her once and that shed be able to play it back to him.

His response wasnt the answer I was wanting to hear, Wilson said. He told me that if I wanted to move up to the next level, I needed to have sight to read the notes on the sheet music.

Honyoutis and Wilsons advice to sighted people is to not be so quick to judge.

We are capable of doing anything we want to, we just do things differently to complete our tasks, Wilson said.

There are a lot of misconceptions about blindness, Honyouti said. My advice is to ask questions rather than assuming.
Vietnam's sole refinery operator Binh Son Refining (BSR) plans to sell 4 percent of its shares in an initial public offering in November and to sell another 49 percent of its shares to strategic investors next year, its chairman said on Thursday.

BSR, which runs the Dung Quat oil refinery, Vietnam's only operating refinery, would offer shares at 14,600 dong each in its IPO on November 7, BSR chairman Nguyen Hoai Giang said.

The company expects to raise 1.9 trillion dong ($83.6 million) from selling 4 percent of its shares in the IPO, Giang said, which would value the entire company at around $2.1 billion.

It is uncertain when the company would be listed. In Vietnam, listing and IPO are separate processes.

The refinery operator's IPO is part of Vietnam's wider drive to privatise state-owned enterprises to boost performance. The slow privatisation process has gained more momentum since a new government took office last year.

BSR also plans to sell an additional 49 percent stake to one or more strategic investors next year. Spain's Repsol S.A. and Vietnam National Petroleum Corp, or Petrolimex, are among companies that have expressed interest in BSR's strategic sale, Giang said.

Petrolimex and BSR on Thursday signed an agreement where Petrolimex would prioritise buying Dung Quat's oil products, liquid petroleum gas and petrochemical products and exporting the refined products to Laos and Cambodia, the companies said in a statement.

About 17 investment funds have also expressed interest in BSR's stake sale, Giang added.

The stake sale plan still needs approval from the government, which wholly owns BSR via state oil and gas group PetroVietnam, and Giang expected a decision to be made within the next three weeks.

Dung Quat refinery's full-year production this year is expected to reach 6.1 million tonnes, equivalent to about 122,000 barrels per day (bpd), nearly 20 percent higher than its initial target partly due to a tax cut on sales of gasoline and diesel fuel from the refinery.

The refinery has a total capacity of 6.5 million tonnes per year.
Vietnamese telecoms firm FPT Corp on Friday said it has sold 30 percent of a subsidiary to funds of or associated with funds managers VinaCapital and Dragon Capital.

FPT said in a statement it sold 6 million shares of FPT Digital Retail JSC for an undisclosed amount to investment funds related to the two biggest fund managers in Vietnam, with combined assets under management of US$4 billion.

FPT Digital Retail's profit before tax in the first half of 2017 rose 44 percent from the same period last year to VND141 billion ($6.2 million), FPT said.

"The consumer sector is one of our favourites, and Vietnamese people have shown a huge appetite for mobile phones and accessories, which is their primary tool to communicate and access the internet," said Andy Ho, chief investment officer at VinaCapital.
A major river system in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam is being devastated by hydropower and sand exploitation operations, putting the welfare of local residents in serious jeopardy.

Vu Gia- Thu Bon, one of central Vietnams largest river systems, is being overwhelmed by the 40 hydro-electric dams in its upstream areas. The situation is equally grave downstream, where aggressive sand mining activities are ravaging the rivers ecosystem.

The sand mines dotting the two rivers are surrounded by dozens of barges working endlessly at full capacity.

One of these mines, located near the Ha Nha Bridge in Dai Dong Commune, Dai Loc District, has caused its fair share of devastation to the area.

According to Ho Binh, a local resident, the mine area was established five years ago.

A large section of the riverbank collapsed during last years flood season. Authorities only shut down the activity after local citizens complained about the issue, Binh recalled.

After the incident the burden of preventing future accidents fell on local residents, who now regularly fortify the riverbank with sandbags to prevent future collapses in case an upstream hydropower plant releases water and floods the downstream area.

Fifteen kilometers away, more than 20 barges wait for their turn to load the exploited sand and carry their haul to waiting trucks.

Hundreds of vehicles enter and exit the area each day to pick up sand and transport it towards the central city of Da Nang, Le Binh, a local resident, stated.

In Dai Loc District, each kilometer of embankment along the Vu Gia- Thu Bon river system costs VND25 billion ($1.09 million) to maintain. Meanwhile, the income generated from the 18 sand mines located within the district is a meager VND6 billion ($262,719).

The severity of the situation is so far reaching that it not only affects the nearby environment, but has also spread to Hoi An, a famous tourist city whose famous beach, Cua Dia, is facing serious subsidence issues.

Nguyen The Hung, vice-chairman of the Hoi An Peoples Committee, said that some VND140 billion (US$6.1 million) had been spent on mitigating riverbank subsidence in the locality.

During a recent meeting held to discuss the issue, Vu Thanh Ca, a member of the Scientific Research Institute of Sea and Islands, asserted that the subsidence that has been occurring at Cua Dai Beach since 2014 is due to human activity, rather than climate change.

The Vu Gia- Thu Bon river system is the main source of sand for the coastal area around Hoi An, Ca stated, adding that hydro-electric plants and sand exploitation directly impact the area.

According to Bui Van Ba, an official from the Quang Nam Department of Natural Resources and Environment, about 35 legal sand mines currently operate along the Vu Gia- Thu Bon.

The rampant subsidence along the river banks is most likely being caused by illegal exploitation, Ba added.

In an attempt to manage the issue, local authorities have ceased granting permits to new mining units and have put a pause on extending current licenses.

A careful evaluation of the current situation will be conducted to determine the number of sand mines that can operate in Quang Nam without posing a danger to the people or environment, said Dinh Van Thu, chairman the provincial administration.

The environment department will also be tasked with inspecting existing mines and the Department of Police will be responsible for dealing with illicit exploitation, Thu stated.

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A feud between Casper City Council members escalated Thursday after Councilman Jesse Morgan sent an email to colleagues asking that the mayor and vice mayor issue a formal reprimand to Councilwoman Amanda Huckabay for what he described as inappropriate behavior.

Huckabay has been critical of comments Morgan made at the City Council meeting this week regarding the connection between alcohol consumption and crime. In addition to speaking out at the meeting, Huckabay posted Morgans letter on social media and suggested it may have been politically motivated.

Morgan said that Huckabay has acted unprofessionally by attacking him on social media and misrepresenting his words.

Its blown up online saying I support rape, Morgan said. I can't even try to make sense of it in my head because it doesn't compute.

Dispute over meaning

During the regular open discussion period at the end of Tuesdays meeting, Morgan said he had learned from law enforcement officials at a local sexual assault panel that alcohol consumption was tied to crime in Casper and suggested placing breathalyzers at bars so patrons can gauge how drunk they are. While Morgan did not appear to be focusing on sexual assault when he mentioned alcohol consumption, Huckabay seized on the perceived connection and called his comments ignorant, leading to a tense exchange at the meeting.

After Morgan, Mayor Kenyne Humphrey and Interim Police Chief Steve Schulz had discussed the prospect of having police officers patrol bars and offer patrons voluntary breathalyzers to help prevent, among other things, drunk driving, Huckabay returned to Morgans reference to the sexual assault forum.

Waving off appeals from Humphrey not to attack him, Huckabay claimed that Morgan was attempting to blame alcohol for sexual assaults in the city.

To say that theres so many sexual assaults that are having to do with alcohol and that perhaps education might remedy this -- Huckabay began before Morgan interjected and disputed her characterization.

Rapists rape, alcohol doesnt rape, Huckabay concluded.

Morgan continued to protest, noting that he never said that sexual assaults in Casper were being caused by alcohol. Morgan raised the issue of alcohol consumption following a discussion of bars in Casper and the issuance of liquor licenses. He often presents ideas to Council at the end of meetings that are unrelated to the meeting agenda.

History of advocacy

Huckabay and Morgan were both elected last fall, and much of Huckabays campaign focused largely on advocating for women who have been sexually assaulted. Huckabay said a major impetus in running for office came after women rallied to her side after a man exposed himself to her young daughter a few months before the election.

Since joining the Council, Huckabay has prioritized improving the police departments response to sexual assault and domestic violence. A group of women who had been speaking at Council meetings about being assaulted and what they perceived as a poor response from law enforcement have rallied around Huckabay.

The issue is personal for Huckabay, who has described herself as a survivor of rape, and said on social media that Morgans remarks on Tuesday hurt her.

I try to maintain my composure, Huckabay wrote Thursday on Facebook. However, I do have compound PTSD from numerous rapes, and that comment triggered me deeply.

But Morgan is also not the first person to accuse Huckabay of misrepresenting the facts surrounding her sexual assault-related advocacy.

Huckabay said that after the man exposed himself to her daughter she learned that there had been many similar incidents in the area that police had ignored. Then-police chief Jim Wetzel said that was false and that Huckabay had intentionally misrepresented the facts for political gain.

Wetzel, who was ousted by then-Interim City Manager Liz Becher in May, was another target of Huckabays ire during a City Council meeting. Following the release of a survey conducted by the local lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, Huckabay read out a profane comment targeting Wetzel that was included in the document.

He has made officers more scared of his [expletive] rules... than they are of getting shot, Huckabay read as Wetzel stood in the back of Council chambers. If youre proactive you have a chance of actually fighting crime and then getting [expletive] by Wetzels discipline matrix.

Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco rebuked Huckabay for attacking a city employee at the time. But in an interview Friday, Humphrey said that Huckabay was unlikely to change her style of communication surrounding issues of sexual assault.

She is who she is, and shes not going to change her communication style to fit the political mold, Humphrey said.

Request for reprimand

In his email to Council, Morgan claimed that Huckabay was violating a city ordinance setting conduct standards for elected officials including not bringing embarrassment to the city and also suggested Huckabay may have been involved in leaking emails sent between Council members.

Humphrey said she was looking into the rules governing the behavior of Council members and would consider sanctioning Huckabay. But, Humphrey said, she hoped it would not come to that.

I would prefer that we dont have to take it to that level, she said. My ultimate goal ... would be that these two individuals are able to communicate before it needs to get to that next step.

Your guide to Casper City Council If its happening in the Oil City, chances are Casper City Council has some say in it. From law enforcement to recreation to real estate, Council oversees it all.

Morgan said he called and left a voicemail for Huckabay before sending the letter to Council and called her again Friday morning but had not heard back. Huckabay did not respond to a request for comment but told K2 Radio on Thursday evening that she did not return Morgans call because she had been in a car accident and was also busy with work.

Morgan said in an interview that he did not want Huckabay removed from Council but hoped that a reprimand from Council leadership might change what he viewed as her unprofessional behavior.

I don't believe that members of a board should remove people from office that are elected, he said.

But Morgan was clearly frustrated with Huckabay and the backlash he has received on Facebook, including comments on the initial Star-Tribune story about his and Huckabays disagreement and in closed Facebook groups. Huckabay posted his letter in the Feminists of Casper Facebook group.

She unfriended me and then posted it, Morgan said. That's how shes dealing with it, and she hasn't returned any of my calls.

The spat recalls a more contentious period on City Council, when the city law allowing Council members to be unseated for inappropriate behavior was passed at the urging of then-City Manager John Patterson amid an ongoing dispute with Councilman Craig Hedquist in 2015. Hedquist eventually resigned his seat and sued Patterson and the city of Casper for civil rights violations. A judge dismissed that suit in the spring, but Hedquist is appealing.

While Council has generally moved to more cordial interactions since then, the past few months have seen some heated interactions. Notably, members Dallas Laird and Bob Hopkins have butted heads over various issues, and Laird has clashed with other members over the city's budget.

But Humphrey said she was not worried about the disagreements on Council.

"Weve had a lot of heavy topics with Council that we haven't necessarily had in the past," she acknowledged. "But even though it feels difficult, tiring, long, in the end we will be a stronger city."
Nearly 90 metric tons of farm-raised fish in the southern province of Ba Ria- Vung Tau have been killed once again, leaving local residents with the heavy burden of loss and debt.

Tran Van Cuong, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, convened a meeting with local fish farmers on Thursday afternoon to discuss the incident, the third mass fish deaths to occur in the last 12 months.

Fish raised on 23 farms along the Cha Va River in Long Son Commune, Vung Tau City, began dying en mass at the beginning of this week. By Wednesday night, nearly 250,000 fish weighing a combined 90 metric tons had been killed.

According to Nguyen Cong Bien, one of the affected residents, the water used by the farms had become unusually opaque of over the last few days and began emitting a chemical smell.

We tried pumping oxygen into the water but we didnt have any success, Bien continued.

The farmer demanded that local authorities put mechanisms in place to save their fish and support the affected households.

Speaking at the meeting held to discuss the issue, Cuong stated that the mass fish deaths could have been caused by heavy downpours, which reduced the oxygen content in the water.

Fish farmers react at the meeting on August 10, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Test results showed that the nitrogen and sulfur content in the water was much higher than the normal limits.

Meanwhile, fish samples taken from the affected farms revealed the presence of viruses causing ulcers and hemorrhage, the official elaborated.

Inspectors also discovered that a barrel business had been washing products along the Cha Va River. The barrel company has since ceased operations while authorities examine the substances contained in the barrels.

Cuong suggested that farmers harvest their existing fish and refrain from raising new fish while the situation is evaluated.

Dredging may be carried out along the river section as a long-term solution, he added.

Similar mass fish deaths happened along the Cha Va River in Long Son Commune in August and October last year.

Competent authorities later attributed the incidents to lack of oxygen and sudden change in water content brought about prolonged downpours.

People in Long Son Commune collect dead fish in these photos provided by local farmers.

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Check out the news you should not miss today, August 12

Politics

-- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith on Friday sent sympathies to his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc over the casualties and property losses in the flood-stricken northern Vietnam.

Society

-- The first sod was turned Friday for the Xa Ot bridge at the Lao Bao-Densavan international border gate between the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri and Laos' Savannakhet Province.

-- Many streets in inner Can Tho City were inundated following a heavy rain on Friday.

-- Hanoi will ban taxis from entering certain streets during rush hours, between 6:30 and 8:30 in the morning and 4:00 and 7:00 in the afternoon, from Monday to Friday, starting later this month.

-- A 34-year-old man was found dead in an apparent suicide after fatally shooting his 17-year-old girlfriend and ran away in the southern province of Dong Nai late Friday.

-- A Vietnamese fishing boat, coded B 95948 TS, was operating in Vietnams waters off the south-central city of Quy Nhon on Friday when it was sunk by the Minh Phu 26. Eight crewmembers were rescued but the ship captain remained missing.

Business

-- Vietnam's VPBank said on Friday it will start listing on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on August 17 with an expected market value of $2.3 billion.

-- Vietnamese telecoms firm FPT Corp said it has sold 30 percent of a subsidiary to funds of or associated with funds managers VinaCapital and Dragon Capital, Reuters reported on Friday.

-- Vietjet has been honored as The IPO Deal of the Year 2017 and The Company with Best M&A Information Disclosure at the M&A Awards 2016-2017, held as part of Vietnam M&A Forum 2017.

Lifestyle

-- South Korean guitarist Sungha Jung will return to Vietnam for live concerts at the Vietnam Youth Theatre in Hanoi on August 26, and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music the following day.

-- People in Vietnam can watch the Perseid Meteor Shower, which NASA says will peak this weekend, late Saturday and at first light on Sunday, according to the Vietnam Astronomy and Cosmology Association.

-- A monument to commemorate Vietnam's revered General Vo Nguyen Giap, who passed away in 2013, will be built in his hometown of Quang Binh in north-central Vietnam, the local administration announced on Friday.

Sports

-- Team Vietnam targets to win at least four taekwondo gold medals at the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2017 taking place later this month.

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The Hanoi transport department has published a list of streets and thoroughfares which taxis will be prohibited from entering during rush hours starting this month.

Workers are currently busy placing no-entry signage on the chosen streets, done as part of the municipal authorities bid to reduce traffic congestion in the Vietnamese capital.

The no-taxi ban is applicable to Mai Xuan Thuong and Hoang Hoa Tham Streets, the section from Mai Xuan Thuong to Ngoc Ha, during 6:30 am - 8:30am and 4:00 pm  7:00 pm from Monday to Friday, according to the transport department.

Taxis are also prevented from going through Chuong Duong Bridge from Nguyen Van Cu Street to the citys downtown area between six and nine in the morning on weekdays.

From 6:00 am to 8:00 pm, cabs will be restricted from entering the intersection of Nguyen Co Trach and Ho Tung Mau Streets in Cau Giay District.

Also during this timeframe, both taxis and conventional automobiles are not allowed to go on Xuan Thuy Street, the section from the Xuan Thuy  Pham Hung Intersection to the Xuan Thuy  Tran Thai Tong Intersection.

From 6:00 am to 9:00 am every day, the no-taxi ban applies for the section from Nhon into the citys downtown through Dien Bridge.

Between 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm from Monday to Friday, taxis are banned from entering De La Thanh and Kham Thien Streets.

From December 25, taxis will not be allowed to drive through Giang Vo, Lang Ha, Le Van Luong Streets during the above timeframes. This restriction aims to serve the new bus rapid transit (BRT) route going on these roads.

The Hanoi transport department has previously suggested that the no-taxi ban be applied to ride-hailing services such as GrabCar and Uber.

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A local man was found dead in an apparent suicide after allegedly shooting his 17-year-old girlfriend to death in the southern province of Dong Nai on Friday.

The murder suspect, 34-year-old T.T.T., had run away after fatally shooting the victim, Le Huong T.L., with what believed to be a K59 pistol.

T. had been hiding in a local cassava plantation for around two hours and appeared to have shot himself before police finally found his body at 10:10 pm.

According to initial police report, T. visited his young girlfriend at her house in Binh Son Commune, Long Thanh District at around 6:00 pm, but the two quickly got into a fight.

The man then pulled out his pistol and shot his beloved girl in the head, apparently killing her at the moment.

Hearing the gunshot, the victims grandmother rushed to the scene, prompting the gunman to shoot her as well. However, T. misfired and immediately fled the scene.

The man opened fire two more times when Binh Son police rushed to catch him.

Police have performed an autopsy after finding T. body and are investigating further.

Officers said they have yet to track the origin of the gun.

The victim, who would start her 11th grade next week, helped her family run a drink stall at her house.

T. had asked to place two gambling machines at the establishment, and had developed a romantic relationship with the girl over the last year, having frequented the place to for the machine maintenance.

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Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

New Delhi: Shabir Shah, the Kashmiri separatist leader who was arrested on July 25 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved a bail application through his lawyer, MS Khan, alleging that he was wrongly implicated in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

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On Wednesday, August 9, Shah was sent to a 14-day judicial custody by a court in a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror-financing.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma sent Shah to jail for two weeks after the accused was produced before him on the expiry of his ED custody and after the central probe agencys lawyer, N K Matta, told the court that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.

Advocate MS Khan in the bail application has said that one person namely Mohd Aslam Wani was acquitted by the Delhi court in November 2010.

He was acquitted of offences relating to waging war, Unlawful activities punishable under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Section 17 of the UAPA deals with the offence of raising funds for terrorist activities and the said accused was not convicted or in fact, the prosecution could not prove it against the above accused Aslam Wani. He was convicted only for the offence punishable U/s. 25 Arms Act, the bail application reads.

Importantly, the judgment of acquittal of the Aslam has not been challenged and the same has attained finality.

The effect of an acquittal of the accused Aslam Wani is that there is no material left to connect him with the accused Shabbir Shah as it was not proved that the money was recovered or was meant to be used for any illegal purpose (Hawala).

Advocate MS Khan while speaking to TwoCircles.net said, The ED has misled the Court while concealing the fact that there was no conviction of the accused namely Mohd. Aslam Wani for the offences relating to waging war, Unlawful activities punishable under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and obtained Non-bailable warrants against Shah and on the strength of the same, the applicant was arrested.

Shah was arrested by the ED on July 25, a day after several Hurriyat leaders were taken into custody by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) in a case of alleged terror-funding in the Valley to fuel unrest.

He was taken into custody in relation to the August 2005 case in which the Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer who is currently in ED custody until August 14, claiming that Rs 63 lakh were recovered from Wani, of which Rs 52 lakh were alleged to be delivered to Shah.
Help India!

By Brajendra Nath Singh

Thiruvananthapuram, (IANS): The RSS on Saturday demanded that the Centre depute a fact-finding probe by a statutory body into the killings of its workers in Kerala but is against imposition of Presidents rule in the state.

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The saffron organisation, however, has sought the Centres intervention and action within the Constitutional bounds to bring the situation under control.

We are really against dismissing a government, which is elected by the people. That will not do good, said P. Gopalan Kutty Master, the chief of Kerala RSS (Kerala Pranth Karyavahak), adding that when Article 356 was imposed in Kerala in 1959, RSS founder Guru Golwalkar had opposed it.

Guruji opposed it (Presidents Rule). He then said it was wrong to dislodge a government elected by the people, he said.

The RSS is of the view that political violence in the state can end only through a political change, implying the BJP coming to power, and not through dialogue as all such efforts in the past not only went in vain but worsened the situation, he said.

Master Kutty was talking to a group of journalists from Delhi, who were on a three-day visit to the areas like Kannur which witnessed violence against RSS and CPI(M) workers, organised by Good Governance Cell of BJP.

We want that centre should send some Commission here to enquire the matter or Home Minister can call the Chief Minister and seek report on political killings. It may give good result, he said adding it could be a statutory commission like the Human Rights Commission or the SC/ST Commission.

The RSS leader said, The BJP-RSS needs to be strengthened politically here and a political change can only put a full stop to violence.

He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan feared that the Centre can do something after Governor P.Sathasivam talked to the Chief Minister and the DGP after the murder of RSS worker Rajesh here.

The RSS leader accused the CPI (M) of always violating the dialogue process and alleged that police officials of the state are working as party cadres.

From the top, including the DGP, to the bottom are working for the CPI (M). He is a DGP. Home ministry can do somethingthey can question him and seek report. If this happens things may go smoother, Master Kutty said.

He accepted that on some occasions the BJP-RSS workers also attack CPI (M) workers but all that was in self defence.

A planned retaliation is not good for the organisation. But when some incident takes place, sudden retaliation is necessary. Otherwise, our members will lose their morale. We say to our people,beware of things. Be prepared everytime as there can be attack at any point of time. Dont sit down even if peace talks are going on, Kutty said.

He said that RSS was getting stronger after every attack.

Some six or seven years ago there was some stagnation in our work but after that we organised some programmes in all districts of the state. In Kannur alone, we are running 250 shakhas daily. Still there are some pockets in some areas where we cant go. Things are changing now. There are many in CPI (M) party villages where their mind is with us but due to fear they dont come out in the open, he said.

He said that since 2016 several rounds of dialogue took place between the two sides including between the top leaders of both CPI (M) and BJP-RSS but all of them were in vain because after every dialogue they come up with some bigger attacks.

Spiritual leader Sri M once took initiative to end the political killings. He talked to Sarsanghchalakji (RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat). We were asked by Sarsanghchalakji to hold dialogue. We followed his directions and talks for peace began. Since then several rounds of dialogues have taken place but they did not work, he said.

Kutty said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan looked sincere in every meeting and always promised to control the party cadres and take strong action against the attackers but it never happened in reality.

On being asked about the demands of RSS which can end the political killings, the RSS state unit chief said, Only three. First, we have no freedom for organisational work and we want that. Second, impartial police action and third talks between leaders on both sides. They should sit and communicate together and try to solve the crisis.

He said in principle they agree with all these demands but after every dialogue the attacks continue. Citing an instance a year ago, he said after two sittings 13-year-old Vismayas father Santosh was killed. I called the CM and the party secretary and they said this was not by their party cadres. They said they were people not under their control. They again said they will take some steps and will not help the culprits in police station and in courts. But they did it again, he alleged.

After the killing of Rajesh, again we sat in an all party conference. Some of our mebers were not ready to participate because they (CPI-M) breached the assurances given in talks. But the sarsanghchalak was in favour of talks. Same discussion, same demands and same reply were there. But after that the attacks continued, he said.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Just a few hours after news of the tragic death of children in Gorakhpurs BRD Medical college flashed across the screens in India, the official Twitter handle of Uttar Pradesh government declared that deaths were not because of Oxygen shortage, and constituted an investigation committee to look into the matter.

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But in between all the deaths and governments denial, the truth is that one local journalist named Manoj Kumar Singh had been constantly reporting about the oxygen shortage and ongoing deaths since July.

Manoj works for Gorakhpur News Line, a local news website dedicated to stories from Gorakhpur and adjoining regions. And his stand in covering news events has always been that of an activist.

On July 22, Gorakhpur News Line published a story about the death of four children within 48 hours due to encephalitis in the same BRD medical college of Gorakhpur. These children were from Kushinagar, Deoria and Gorakhpur.

On July 28, Singh wrote for news portal The Wire and talked about the condition of encephalitis rehabilitation ward, also known as Preventive Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) Department of BRD medical college. He reported that 11 health officials appointed in the PMR department had not been paid for the last 27 months.

Singh continued reporting on the matter and on August 8, he shared two stories regarding encephalitis and health conditions in Gorakhpur. In one of them, it was clearly mentioned that the National Human Rights Commission was supposed to meet health officials on August 11.

Singh told TwoCircles.net, I was getting information from hospital staff on the condition of anonymity. They were not actually sharing the information, but they were asking me to spread the news about mismanagement inside the hospital and also about how they had not been paid for more than five months.

It was due to Singhs efforts that soon, news emerged about how RK Mishra, the Principal of BRD medical college, had instructed college staff to not to talk with media regarding any matter related to encephalitis and the measures taken to the hospital to prevent its patients.

Singh again tried to spread the news of the deaths, but despite his best efforts, clearly, no one from the administration was paying any attention. On August 9, Singh again reported about the death of five children in a span of 24 hours. And just a day after this, Manoj reported that Pushpa sales had stopped oxygen supply following the dues amount of Rs 63 lakh.

The letter was written by Pushpa Sales to the district officials dated August 1, also surfaced yesterday in which the supplier had asked for clearance of dues. It is becoming evident that Pushpa Sales had tried a lot before the oxygen supplies were stopped. The report by Singh also mentions that BRD medical college did not have the enough oxygen content in their liquid oxygen plant and it could be used by the night of August 10.

It becomes evident from Singhs timeline that he was continuously reporting and alerting the government about the continuously worsening situation in the hospital.

The claims of the government that it was not aware of the hospital bills is extremely difficult to digest in light of Singhs continuous reports. Also, it is important to point out that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the medical college not only on August 9 but also on July 9. In his July trip, Yogi Adityanath had instructed medical college officials to improve the situation in order to fight the cases of encephalitis.

Patients were already dying during Yogi Adityanaths trip of August 9, but the administration, as well as health officials, refused to acknowledge the situation.

It is also becoming clear that the media, in an attempt to break news as fast as possible, clearly misses the number of adults who died during the same period. It turns out that 18 adults also died during the same period of 48 hours because of oxygen scarcity, but administration embezzled this fact.

District administration has deployed police force outside the BRD medical college to avoid any conflict or protest.

Singh told TwoCircles.net, You can imagine the condition that I was trying calling college principal RK Mishra and chief medical officer Ravindra Kumar from the past one month. But they were too stubborn to respond to calls. CMO even made several excuses for not talking to me.

BRD medical college treats encephalitis patients from nearly 15 neighbouring districts including Gorakhpur itself. Until July this year, 829 children have lost their lives at BRD medical college with the highest haul in the month of March with 141 deaths. What is equally worrying is that despite the death from encephalitis rising every year in BRD, the services are getting poorer every month.

Most of the doctors and the nursing staff in the hospital work on a contractual basis but they get paid rarely. It is a usual job in the college to pay the contractual staff once or twice in a year. One doctor from the college told TwoCircles.net, We do the job for at least 18 hours any day. But you can imagine the situation that we get paid after four or five months. And this happens every time.

Singh continues to fight the irregularities inside the hospital with his little venture Gorakhpur News Line, but he hopes that administration should have taken a note of what he was saying since last three weeks.

On Saturday, the oxygen cylinders were in the hospital once again, as the attention of the social media moved to Dr Qafeel, who was constantly trying to bring oxygen in the hospital. Singh added, I am constantly shouting that medical college needs at least Rs 50 crores to fight and manage encephalitis.
Help India!

By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain, TwoCircles.net

The standoff between students and administration at Aliah University shows no sign of ending, with more than 20 students beaten by Bidhannagar police after students continued their protests demanding the resignation of the current Vice Chancellor. Three of the students beaten by Police are said to be in a critical condition, while nine students were also arrested from the spot. The charges brought against them are unlawful assembly, rioting, and obstructing public servants in discharge of duties.

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The student unrest has engulfed the two campuses of the University for the last month, with student demanding the resignation of Vice Chancellor Dr Abu Taleb Khan, accusing him of nepotism, corruption at the time of recruitment and not fulfilling the requirements that are a damned need in the campuses.

On Saturday, 250-300 protesting students tried to block the meeting of its Executive Council, which was scheduled to be held in the New Town Campus. They were protesting against the formation of new Executive Council as it fails to include students representation that goes against the University Act, which permits representation of Students in any executive activity of the University.

They blocked the main gate of the Newtown Campus from inside at around 1.30 P.M in order to not allow the members of the EC including the V.C for the meeting.

Instead of entering the campus, the VC along with other members of the Council arranged the meeting in the nearby Hajj house, which the students initially were unaware about. But when they came to know about it, they lied down on the floor to stop the EC members leaving after the meeting ended. Soon, police arrived on the spot and severely beat up some of the students protesting along with arresting nine students.

Khairul Haque Chowdhury, a protesting student, said, We were peacefully protesting against the violation of Universitys law for the establishment of Executive Council where it is stated that one student representative should be included in the time of forming any executive body in the university. But after a certain time, police charged us severely with lathis by the consent of our V.C and forced us to leave, injuring many of us. He added that a VC had no right to order police to attack the protesting students when they are doing it peacefully.

When TwoCircles.net approached Dr Nursadh Ali, the registrar of the University, he remarked, The University authority has no role in the arrest of students. It was initiated by the police officials to maintain law and order.

On Saturday evening, 400 students demonstrated in front of the Newtown police station demanding an explanation for the students being beaten by the civic police. the students submitted a memorandum.

Responding to the present situation at this University, Md. Kamruzzaman, the General Secretary of All Bengal Minority Youth Federation and an alumnus, said The act of police beating up students is highly condemnable. I may not agree with all their demands but I cannot accept the attempt to suppress the rights of students to protest.

Sk Abul Kalam Azad, a former General Secretary of this University, said, There are many internal problems in this university that should be dealt with immediately. But while students are protesting by bunking classes for more than one month, the administration is suppressing the rights of the students to protest. This will not lead to any conclusion. There lacks a dialogue between the students and administration in this university.

However, according to an ex-student who refused to be named, the police action might bring some order to the University. Whatever has happened yesterday is good for other students who are not allowed to do their classes. Their silence shows that they do not agree to the fabricated, self-interest demands of the protesting students who hardly attend classes and instead want more focus on regular classes.
Amber Rudd has a headache that is going to last 20 or 30 years more according to an ex-head of MI5. The phantom of Home Grown terrorism either inspired or planned in coordination with terrorists abroad is a clear and present danger.

Lord Evans who retired from MI5 in 2013 said terror attacks like the 7/7 bombings in 2005 or the recent plethora of attacks in the UK and Europe have galvanised Jihadis here. It makes no difference whether the would-be terrorists are operatives on their own or with help from outside the result is the same - carnage.

Their goal is to strike at anything they consider outside their idea of their flawed Islamist beliefs and agenda.

The attacks are getting less sophisticated having gone from assaults with guns to truck attacks or knives. Why this has happened is unclear, however, it appears the Jihadis are happy to use anything that comes to hand as a weapon to strike at the infidel.

It could be many of the attacks using trucks or knives are attacks inspired by IS or AQ rather than planned. It seems those using guns and explosives are probably attacks that have been planned with IS or AQ. As Islamic State weakens in Iraq and Syria we may well see less and less of well planned and well-funded attacks. That doesn't mean the power of IS is broken, it may take some time for the organisation to recover and re-establish itself elsewhere.

Isolated Youth

Why so many young Muslims are turning to extremism is a question with many answers. Certainly, the Prevent scheme so beloved of the government is having mixed results. The scheme was set up to educate and prevent young Muslims from going to the dark side as it were. For every success, there will be those that fall through the net.

Muslim Youth have grown up in this country and gone to school with native Brits yet many of them feel alienated. No doubt racism does play a part but many in the inner cities live in ghettos away from the host communities. Unemployment and poverty lead many to crime and ultimately to extremism.

Of course, it could be argued that non-Muslim youth facing the same things because of austerity are also drawn into far-right or Christian extremist groups.

The difference is they have not carried out any terrorist outrages as yet. Yes, there was the van attack on Muslims in London but that appears so far to be a one-off.

The future

If Lord Evans' assessment is correct and we are facing an Islamist menace for years to come, our security services will be locked in this battle for decades. The Quilliam Foundation an anti-extremist organisation does what it can to prevent young Muslims from going towards extremism but like Prevent it will be mixed results.

Future Home Secretaries after Amber Rudd will have this Jihadist headache for a long time and will have to allocate money and resources to fight this. The IRA was a danger for many years but the Good Friday Peace Agreement brought peace to the UK and Northern Ireland. Will we ever see such a thing with Islamist terrorists and if we did who would you negotiate with?
A left-wing group has accused Sen. President Eli Bebout and other Senate Republicans of using the school funding review process as "political cover" for education cuts while taking aim at the speed and transparency of the process itself.

Better Wyoming, which bills itself as "a communications hub for progressive politics," accused Bebout of preparing to introduce sweeping cuts to public education should the work of the re-calibration committee -- a group of lawmakers charged with overseeing consultants' review of school financing -- not produce significant cost savings.

The state's school system faces a $530 million funding deficit in the coming two-year budget cycle, according to estimates from the Legislative Service Office. Earlier this year, lawmakers from both the House and the Senate called for re-calibration to begin three years ahead of schedule, apparently as a way to look at cutting into the shortfall.

"When (re-calibration) fails to significantly reduce costs, (Bebout's) going to to try his damnedest to push through legislation to increase class sizes and cut school programs," Better Wyoming writes.

On Friday, Bebout denied that he was using re-calibration as political cover. He said that the process will have to play out but added that if re-calibration ends and lawmakers are advised by consultants to spend the same amount -- or even more -- on schools, then he would want to have a serious discussion about the broader funding system itself. That system was forged through years of lawsuits and beneath the watchful eyes of the state Supreme Court.

He reiterated his opposition to any tax increases and said he supported a constitutional amendment that would give the Legislature oversight of education spending, rather than the courts. A bill to bring the issue to Wyoming voters passed the Senate but died in the House earlier this year.

At the core, Bebout said, is his and other Senate Republicans' belief that Wyoming spends too much for the results it's getting.

"I just think we need to have an overall evaluation of how we spend the money and get the results for the money were spending," he said, adding that a $200 million cut -- phased in over time -- could be a solution.

Boyd Brown, the superintendent of Campbell County School District, said that there is concern about the process being "political cover" for cuts. But he added that the Senate doesn't make decisions alone. Indeed, the House last session killed a number of Senate measures that would've rolled out steep cuts or changed the landscape of education funding in Wyoming.

"I'm not quite as skeptical as the authors of the (Better Wyoming) press release," he said.

Still, state educators have long been concerned that the re-calibration process will be used solely to reduce funding. They and some lawmakers -- including committee co-chairman Rep. Albert Sommers -- have maintained that re-calibration is a process to determine what constitutes an adequate education for all of Wyoming's students. After that's established, lawmakers and the consultants they hired will have to determine how to pay for it.

"In the end, are we here to do a comprehensive solution? House Speaker Steve Harshman asked at the beginning of the first re-calibration meeting in May. If we think recalibration is going to somehow find $400 million a year in savings, I think we traveled here for the wrong reason today.

Theoretically, educators and legislators have said, the cost for paying for education in Wyoming could go up after re-calibration.

Based off of the fear that re-calibration will not be used as a good-faith way to look at how Wyoming students should be taught, several large districts have passed resolutions authorizing them to sue the state should they feel cuts have gone too far.

Bebout said he thought lawsuits were the wrong approach, but he appeared unfazed by the possibility.

"Have at it," he said.

Better Wyoming also accused the re-calibration committee of doing its work hastily -- a fact acknowledged by the committee -- and "outside the public's sight." (Lawmakers have met three times since May: twice in Casper, and once in Riverton. That meeting was broadcast by Wyoming PBS.)

The timeline certainly presents complications, as pointed out by both lawmakers and prominent educators. The consultants must review the current funding model and prepare at least three alternative approaches, along with other work, by December or January.

The cause of the time crunch is clear: Re-calibration usually takes place every five years. This time, it's is three years ahead of schedule and occurs in the midst of a funding crisis such as the state has not seen for years.
china talked to trump on the phone about finding a peaceful solution to North Korea on Saturday. The phone call between the two leaders was reported by Xinhua News. Reuters later confirmed the conversation that focussed on finding a peaceful solution to the North Korea nuclear threat.

This came after Trump posted a tweet on Friday where he said that the U.S.

Military was "locked and loaded."

Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017

North Korea has been belligerent about their nuclear missile threat and has threatened to attack countries as diverse as the USA, Australia, Japan and parts of Europe. Nevertheless, Pyongyang seems to be claiming that the threat actually comes from the USA. This claim that Trump is forcing the North to fire nuclear missiles is confusing many people.

I'm sorry, but how is North Korea threatening to attack us Trump's fault???  Hannah Dingus (@HannahDingus97) August 12, 2017

China and their stand on USA first strike

China is asking Trump to take a negotiated and peaceful approach to the North Korean threat, but it might not have stopped there.

A recent editorial in a Chinese State-owned newspaper was picked up by the Washington Post who published what may very well be China's stance on the Korean peninsula and the mounting threat: China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral.



The editorial added. If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so."

The Washingtonton Post did write that the source of this information was probably close to the official policy as, "The Global Times newspaper is not an official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in this case, its editorial probably does reflect government policy, experts said."

North Korea equipping submarines with missiles?

While a war of words heightens tension across the world, The John Hopkins Korea blog 38 North released information that an expert believes that images taken by satellites show North Korea could be planning to put missiles on their submarines.

The 38 North produced an article along with the images of North Korean shipyards which they analyzed with input from Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. an internationally recognized analyst, award winning author and lecturer on Korean defense and intelligence affairs.

The article suggests that North Korea may be "accelerating the development of the sea-based leg of its nuclear forces." To back this assumption up, it was pointed out that netting and some type of camouflage have been erected which makes it hard to see the SINPO-class submarine in the harbor and what might actually be happening on board the vessel.

According to 38 North, "This was last done prior to the July 9, 2016, test of the Pukguksong-1, suggesting that the North may be preparing for a new series of at sea test launches."
The State of Hawaii, which was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 while still a territory of the United States, is preparing for a nuclear attack by North Korea, just in case. The nation's 50th state, which is comprised of numerous islands and has a population of 1.4 million people, was the scene of the notorious Pearl Harbor attack in which American sailors were caught off-guard, aircraft carriers were sunk, and hundreds of defenseless sailors, soldiers, Marines and civilians were killed. On a worldwide scale, fears of an all-out nuclear war have been mounting daily as the world watches and awaits the outcome of this crisis.

Not ever again

Hawaii is determined never to be caught off-guard again. Rhetoric between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the despotic dictator of North Korea, has been escalating and international tensions have been rising steadily. Earlier this week, Pyongyang, North Korea's largest city, promised "thousand-fold" ramifications against the United States in response to severe sanctions that were imposed on the small, rogue nation. The sanctions, which cost North Korea over $1 billion, were imposed on the troubled nation because of its repeated missile tests. Some of the more recent missile tests have indicated that North Korean missiles could reach the continental United States.

A small nuclear warhead

This week it was revealed that North Korea now is capable of affixing small nuclear warheads to the missiles that it launches to points unknown. Since it has been confirmed that Hawaii is a reachable destination for Jong-un's missiles, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been stepping up its readiness program.

In actuality, the agency began its readiness program months before the war of words between Trump and Jong-un began. The program began preparing in January of this year. Then in July of this year, North Korea successfully test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles and the world learned that the rogue nation's missiles could reach the United States and be affixed with small, nuclear warheads.

Mounting threats

In the meantime, tensions between the United States and North Korea have been mounting exponentially, and so has the rhetoric. Trump stated earlier this week that any actions by North Korea against Guam, the United States or America's allies, would result in "fire and fury" unmatched by anything ever seen in the world previously. Then later, Trump told reporters that perhaps his "fire and fury" threat was "not strong enough." Jong-un claimed that he was going to launch multiple missiles in the direction of Guam and that he would reduce American citizens to "jelly."

No diplomatic efforts

In the midst of all the threats, confusion and escalating tensions, there have been few if any attempts to solve our differences with North Korea diplomatically.

Although Trump has stated that he has made some diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, the threatening rhetoric between the two leaders has overshadowed whatever diplomatic efforts that have been made.

Fifteen minutes to get to shelter

In the event that North Korea does fire any missiles towards Hawaii, the State would only have 20 minutes to respond. And the citizens would only have 15 minutes to get to the shelter and take cover. Needless to say, the State of Hawaii is in a rush to readiness and the island state is determined never to be caught off-guard again.
Illegal immigration in Europe, referred to as migration in that open borders region, is a booming business for smugglers. In Spain, there has been a tripling in the number of undocumented migrants entering the country by sea in 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Spain, with 8,385 migrants - largely male Muslims - from West Africa coming ashore, is now giving serious competition to Greece, where another 11,713 migrants have reached Western Europe through its borders so far this year compared to 13,246 in all of last year.

Spain's migrant centers overwhelmed

While migrants often camp in crowded tent ghettos upon arrival, a great many disperse throughout Western Europe over a period of time. Spains increase is in stark contrast to the US where President Trumps administration has slowed illegal border crossings by more than 72 percent compared to 2016, according to a recent Washington Times article. As migration proliferates across Europe, so have the incidents of terrorism, which is creating a backlash against politicians in the euro zone.

Officials with IOM say the increase of migration to Spain has likely associated the safety and ease of making it to shore successfully and penetrating borders with the least resistance.

"We assume that some of the change is due to the fact that the route [to Spain] is considered a safe route up to the coast through Morocco," Joel Millman, a senior IOM spokesman, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Spain slated to overtake Greece

Millman says that it is probable that Spain will take the lead from Greece for having received the most migrants by the end of 2017.

Still, those numbers pale in comparison to Italy which has received more than 96,000 migrants so far this year. The migrants in Spain most often have no identification and are usually young males from Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast and a handful of other West African countries, according to quotes by police. Despite Spain's increase, migration across Europe is down overall when juxtaposed with last years numbers.

Resources insufficient for surge

While some slip away, most migrants are taken to reception centers where they are able to apply for asylum in Spain before being taken to crowded migrant villages or camps. However, according to reports, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says Spain's reception centers are overwhelmed and do not provide minimally adequate shelter, healthcare, clothing, and subsistence for "desperate new arrivals".
"Days Of Our Lives" spoilers reveal that fans are about to see another big character leave Salem in the near future. The latest reports about the NBC soap opera reveal that actor Jordi Vilasuso will be exiting the role of Dario Hernandez very soon. While the exit isn't exactly shocking considering what Dario has been getting himself into as of late, it does look like Rafe and Gabi will go from having their entire family in Salem to being the only members of the Hernandez family left standing in the town.

Goodbye Dario Hernandez

According to Soap Hub, "Days of our Lives" fans will say goodbye to Dario in August, which could lead some "DOOL" viewers to suspect that he is actually the one who killed Deimos Kiriakis.

Dario could be headed to jail or possibly even be killed off when he leaves the show. This week,

This week, Abigail finally found out that her new husband was into some seriously illegal activities such as counterfeiting money. Abby is hot on Dario's trail, and it seems that this storyline will be the thing that sends Dario out of Salem for good, freeing up Abby to finally reunite with the love of her life, Chad DiMera, very soon.

'DOOL' characters are dropping like flies

"Days of our Lives" enthusiasts know that the soap has lost a lot of big characters over the past few years. Characters like Sami Brady, EJ DiMera, Will Horton, Theresa Donovan, and Bo Brady have all left Salem or died. Meanwhile, Arianne Zucker has already filmed her last scenes as Nicole Walker, and "DOOL" fans will see her say her goodbyes in the coming months.

Thankfully, some characters are on their way back to Salem. Will Horton will rise from the dead to return to the soap with fan-favorite actor Chandler Massey in the role. Eileen Davidson is also returning to the show in the role of either Kristen or Susan, and Alison Sweeney recently filmed a 2-month stint as Sami Brady. Some fans even believe that EJ DiMera will be returning from the dead as well.

New head writer means new hot drama?

"Days of our Lives" recently hired a brand new head writer Ron Carlivati, and viewers are more than excited to see what storylines he'll be bringing to Salem as he creates new drama for our favorite characters.

Carlivati has already instituted the return of Will and Sami, and fans are wondering if he'll be able to restore the Soap Opera to its former glory and entice anymore former favorite characters to return to Salem in the near future.
Spoilers on "Game of Thrones" season 7 episode 5: amazing things will happen to Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Be careful: spoilers on the fifth episode of "Game of Thrones" season 7 will follow. Read at your own risk! The next episode of the show will feature an exciting and moving scene with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. The Mother of Dragons will deal with the soldiers she captured and will meet again with a very important character. Jon Snow, on the other hand, will leave the island to fight the White Walkers once again.

The Jonerys scene everybody is talking about

In the picture above you can see the most-awaited scene of Drogon's first encounter with Jon Snow. This moment has been officially teased in the "Eastwatch" trailer:

What will happen to Daenerys

According to what the leakers "awayforthelads" and "Frikidoctor" claim, the fifth episode starts off with the aftermath of the battle between the Dothrakis and the Lannister army. Daenerys must judge her most valuable prisoners: Randyll and Dickon Tarly. The Mothers of Dragons asks them - wait for it - to bend the knee, but both the Tarly refuse to recognize Daenerys as the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. When they decide not to join Daenerys' forces, Dany orders Drogon to burn them alive.

This brutal execution horrifies Tyrion.

Later, Daenerys rides Drogon back to Dragonstone, where Jon Snow is waiting for her return. Daenerys approaches Jon while on Drogon as a show of force. At first, Jon is impressed, but shortly after he pets Drogon and the dragon doesn't kill him, which shocks Daenerys.

"Eastwatch" will also feature the reunion between Dany and Ser Jorah Mormont, so get the tissues ready!

What will happen to Jon

After his first meeting with Drogon, the King in the North receives a raven from Winterfell. Bran, who spied upon the Night's King, informs Jon of the army of the dead's movements. In the hope of using a captured wight as a way to convince all the major Westerosi houses to fight the White Walkers, Jon decides to leave Dragonstone for Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

Before leaving, he meets ser Jorah (who is the son of Jon's mentor, Jeor Mormont). He offers Longclaw back to him but Jorah didn't accept the sword. Jon also meets a long lost character: Gendry, the bastard son of Robert Baratheon.

Jon and Daenerys say goodbye to each other, then the King in the North reaches Eastwatch, where he finds Tormund, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr and the Hound.

Don't forget: the fifth episode of "Game of Thrones" season 7, titled "Eastwatch," airs on August 13, on HBO. Here's the summary of the next episode: "Daenerys demands loyalty from the surviving Lannister soldiers; Jon heeds Brans warning about White Walkers on the move; Cersei vows to vanquish anyone or anything that stands in her way."
asteroid 2012 Tc4 is fasting approaching Earth and will shave past the planet in October this year, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). However, the space rock is not likely to hit the Earth, and will zoom by at a distance of about 44,000 kmabout one eight the distance between the Moon and Earth.

Detlef Koschny of ESAs Near Earth Objects research team says there is no possibility of asteroid 2012 TC4 hitting the Earth.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 was first spotted in 2012

The asteroid 2012 TC4 was first spotted in 2012 by the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii.

At that time, it was travelling at a speed of about 14 km per second, and zoomed by at about double the distance, before disappearing in space. Astronomers were expecting this asteroid to return in 2017, but had no idea about how close it would get to Earth. According to scientists, 2012 TC4 is about 15 to 30 meter long, and the size of a big house. Scientists at Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile gathered more information about the asteroid earlier this year, and also determined the trajectory of the rock. At that time, this rock was about 56 million kilometers away from Earth.

Determining the trajectory of a space rock

Scientists determine the trajectory of a space rock by first observing it movement along a small arc of its orbit.

Then they use this small arc to predict the full orbit of the object. Usually, the prediction is not very precise, and there is always an uncertainty about how the orbit of that space object will evolve over time, but still it gives a rough idea about how close that object might come to Earth.

According to Rolf Densing, the head of European Space Operations Centre in Germany, numerous geostationary satellites are circling the Earth at about 36,000 km, so this is going to be a close miss.

Many scientists view this rock as a chance to test the planetary defense systems on Earth.

In a statement, ESA said that 2012 TC4 presents an excellent opportunity to scientists to assess how they can respond as a single unit to a real asteroid threat.

The planetary defense systems developed so far in the world can give early warnings about such asteroids.

Researchers are now trying to develop innovative asteroid deflection systems that would be able to throw advancing asteroids off course. A 'Kinetic impactor' is one such approach that proposes to send a huge spacecraft towards an approaching asteroid to change its path.
The Associated Press released a news series last week on the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole, shining light on one of the most uncivilized aspects of our criminal justice system. I take notice because of my own experiences as a youth. For 18 years, I served as a U.S. senator from Wyoming, and for 12 years, I served in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Before holding elected office, however, I served a different type of time  as a juvenile offender on probation for a federal offense.

When I was young, I committed serious crimes, risking my own life and the lives of others. With minor changes in the facts of my crimes, I could have spent years  or perhaps my entire life  in prison. Instead, as a result of Gods grace and with the help of others, I have been able to use my experiences to the benefit of my community and our nation. I am living proof that youth possess a unique capacity to grow and change. The child who seems hopeless today could go on to change the world.

Raising hell in Wyoming

My list of childhood offenses is long. My friends and I torched an abandoned, old barracks structure. We stole bullets from a local store and shot .22 shells close to one another with the goal of coming as close as possible to each other without actually striking anyone. We raised hell in our community  from tossing mud on a neighbors laundry line  to firing our rifles at mailboxes, blowing holes in several, and someone killing a cow. Some of these offenses are punishable by years in prison (if no one is injured) and up to life in prison if it causes someones death. I am just damn lucky that no one was killed or seriously injured.

After a while, some of these escapades caught up with me. Federal authorities charged us with destroying government property and I pleaded guilty. I was sentenced to two years of probation and required to make restitution with money we had to earn.

My parole officer believed in my capacity for redemption, even when my actions did not inspire confidence. It was not until my 20s that I began a march toward creeping maturity. I decided I wanted to avoid further tangles with the law and become a productive member of society. I began to realize that my attitude was ignorant, stupefying, arrogant, hostile and cocky and that I no longer wanted to live that way. In short, I had begun to grow up.

I went on to graduate from the University of Wyoming with a bachelors degree, then a law degree. I served in the U.S. Army in Germany and then in various state-level attorney positions, as a U.S. commissioner, and a private attorney. My wife, Ann, and I also raised three wonderful children. Just as redemption was possible for me, so is it also possible for other youth who are convicted of serious crimes.

Redemption is possible

Thats why I encourage the Montana Legislature to ban the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole. By making this change, Montana would join states like mine and many others including Texas, Utah, Nevada and West Virginia in implementing more age-appropriate accountability measures for children. Certainly we can hold children accountable for serious crimes while also allowing opportunities for them to prove that they deserve a second chance.

Nationwide, 19 states and the District of Columbia have banned life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed by people younger than age 18.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also recognized that children are constitutionally different from adults in a series of rulings that have scaled back the use of extreme sentences on children. That court has made clear that because childrens brains are not fully developed, they are just not deserving of the most severe punishments. This includes life without parole, which is defined as cruel and unusual punishment, and is thus essentially a death sentence for a child.

We are all sinners, but salvation and redemption are there for all of Gods children. Forgiveness, tolerance, rehabilitation and restoration are at the core of our beliefs and those of most major religions. We know every human is worth more than the worst thing they have ever done.

Now is the right time for Montana to follow the leadership of other Republican states in making this reform, including my home state of Wyoming and others like Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota. Every single child has the potential for redemption and rehabilitation. We should at least give them the opportunity to demonstrate as much and that they deserve a second chance. There but for the grace of God, go I.
A worker operates a production line at a steel plant in Dalian, Liaoning province. LIU DEBIN / FOR CHINA DAILY

The Commerce Ministry deplores bloc's moves on steels, truck tires

The European Commission or EC must stop using the "surrogate country" method in anti-dumping investigations into imports from China and immediately withdraw wrongly imposed penalties on China's steel, ceramic and photovoltaic industries, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

Its comments follow Wednesday's anti-dumping duties of up to 28.5 percent by the EC on certain corrosion-resistant steels from China.

The EC is the European Union's executive arm. Surrogate country is a term used to describe countries found to have so-called market distortions.

The EC imposed the duties after an eight-month probe, and claimed that Chinese corrosion-resistant steels benefited from unfair government subsidies.

The EC also announced on Friday that it will launch an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese truck tire products.

Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau at the Ministry of Commerce, said China's truck tire prices dropped due to a fall in raw material prices in global markets over the past two years.

So, European truck tire manufacturers' accusations that their Chinese counterparts benefited from State subsidies are unfounded and lack adequate proof, Wang said.

Earlier this year, the United States halted its investigation into China's truck tire product exports as it found they had caused no harm to its domestic manufacturers.

"The EU continued the use of the unfair and unreasonable surrogate country method in the investigation. It has resulted in artificially determined high anti-dumping duties on Chinese products and therefore seriously undermined Chinese companies' interests," said Wang.

The new EU import duties on corrosion-resistant steels will range from 17.2 percent to 28.5 percent, and will affect Shougang Group, Shagang Group, Hesteel Group and a number of Chinese companies.

"It was provisionally concluded that the imposition of measures would contribute to the recovery of the European Union industry by allowing price increases, enabling the sector as a whole to return to a profitable situation," the EC said in a statement.

Chinese manufacturers can challenge the EU decision within 25 days, that is by Sept 3.

Bai Ming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said if the EU fulfills its obligations as per the World Trade Organization's rules and maintains its status as a leading advocate of free trade within the WTO, it would be a win-win for both sides.

He said China and the EU share growth-related goals, such as a bilateral investment treaty and other treaties. They far outweigh the current dispute about anti-dumping cases.

Huo Jianguo, vice-president of the China Institute for WTO Studies, said it is always easy for politicians (in some countries) to blame other countries for their problems, and accuse other trade partners of destroying their industries or stealing jobs.
Workers load steel products at a logistics park in Yichang, Hubei province. [Photo/China Daily]

The China Iron and Steel Association or CISA has sought to calm the market that has been in turmoil of late due to runaway commodity prices.

In a statement on Thursday, CISA said steel products' price surge is not due to strong demand or inadequate supply but speculative trading by some unscrupulous market players.

It also said government policies on steel overcapacity reduction, elimination of inferior steel and environmental protection have been over-interpreted and even misunderstood by the market.

CISA sought to scotch rumors that supply of steel products has reduced sharply causing the prices to soar after the first half of the year. It dismissed talk that environmental protection measures may have led to a supply crunch.

The market has been in a tizzy since the last few weeks over the surge in prices of some steel products.

For instance, deformed steel bars traded at 4,050 yuan per metric ton on Friday, up 31 percent from 3,090 yuan at the beginning of this year.

Similarly, hot-rolled plates traded at 4,100 yuan per ton on Friday, up almost 10 percent from 3,730 yuan at the beginning of this year.

Even futures prices of the black metal have been trending up.

For instance, the Jan 15, 2018 contract for deformed steel bars closed at 3,850 yuan per ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange on Friday. Although down 2.95 percent from Thursday's 4,209 yuan per ton, the trend has been upward.

On June 4, it traded at 2,935 yuan per ton, which means the price has since risen 31 percent.

That is not all. Shares in most listed steel companies have soared of late as well. For instance, Baosteel Co Ltd ended at 7.71 yuan on Friday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, up 26.39 percent from 6.1 yuan on June 1.

To take stock of the alarming situation, CISA held a closed-door meeting of industry players on Wednesday.

Representatives of major steel companies, futures exchanges, futures traders, e-commerce platforms dedicated to steel products, industry information providers and consultants attended the meeting.

They agreed that speculative traders spread rumors about suspension of production and that steel companies were facing trouble due to strict environmental regulations.

They said speculators' witting or unwitting actions are leading to price swings, which could undermine the ongoing efforts to cut excess capacity in the steel industry.

Speculators appear to lack a thorough understanding of the environmental policies, industry people said at Wednesday's meeting, adding that the air pollution control plan is a measure to suspend and limit production of steel companies located in a specific region experiencing haze, and not across the country.

The output of the companies affected does not account for even 50 percent of the overall steel reduction, they said.

In addition, speculators do not appear to be aware of the environmental status of China's steel companies. Nor do they know that local governments implement environmental policies in a scientific manner, industry representatives said at the meeting.

"Actually, most steel enterprises in China, especially the big boys of the industry, are already compliant with the world's top standards for environmental protection," said Huang Dao, director of the technology environmental protection group of CISA. "Some companies such as Hesteel Group and China Baowu Steel Group are, in fact, world-class in this regard."

Environmental policies have only a limited effect on the supply of steel products because local governments do not impose production halts or any other restrictions on environmentally friendly enterprises, CISA said in its statement.

CISA's proactive approach to information sharing would help the market to be more rational than before, said Wang Guoqing, research director at the Lange Steel Information Research Center in Beijing. "Steel product prices rose too fast recently with steel billets gaining an average 100 yuan per day, increasing the risk of a crash later."
ACCRA - The China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) has completed the conversion of Ghana's Nuclear Reactor from a Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) reactor to a Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) one.

At a ceremony to celebrate the completion of work here Thursday, China's Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong noted that this project had opened a new window in the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

In response to the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) by the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supported the conversion of Ghana's HEU plant installed in 1994.

"This is another achievement we have chalked in our bilateral cooperation," Sun noted during the inspection of the facility.

She added:" It is a good day because it is the start of another opportunity in our cooperation. China and Ghana are longstanding friends and we have carried out a lot of cooperation in all fronts and nuclear energy; we have carried out cooperation for 25 years."

She noted that Ghana was ahead of many other African countries in the field of nuclear energy, adding that the program is very significant in various respects.

"This program is very significant to the global non-proliferation undertaking. It is also significant to enrich our cooperation in science and technology. And it is also very important for the further steps of Ghana to engage in peaceful use of atomic energy and in this context I firmly believe that it has opened a new window for our cooperation," Sun said.

The ambassador pledged the full support of the embassy to the cooperation on nuclear power development between Ghana and China to enable engagement with the Atomic Energy Commission in further exploring the possibilities in cooperation.

China was chosen by the IAEA to carry out the more than $20 million conversion project because the original HEU reactor was of Chinese origin. The process involved replacing the original core of the reactor which has 90.2 percent uranium enrichment with one that is below 20 percent.

"We've been cooperating very closely with China on the technical front and also financial assistance for the whole project. We are appreciative that now the conversion is finished and today we would put power in the thing as a way of beginning the whole process of application of this technology," Kweku Aning, Chairman of the Governing Council of GAEC, said in his brief remarks.

Among the Chinese institutions which have cooperated with the GAEC over the years and on the project are China National Nuclear Corporation(CNCC), China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) and China Atomic Energy Commission (CAEC).

"Our cooperation with China in the area of nuclear has been very beneficial, especially for research, for training and also support for industry, nuclear security and other issues so they have helped us move from Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) to Lower Enriched Uranium (LEU)," Anning added.

He expressed the hope that GAEC and the Chinese institutions would continue to collaborate to make Ghana's dream of becoming a nuclear power a reality.

Director of the Nuclear Research Institute of Ghana, Francis Ofosu, told Xinhua that the nuclear reactor had been very useful for the country as countless number of students had used it over the past two decades for their Masters and Ph.D level research work.

"With the completion of the conversion, a major hurdle has been cleared and our research is back into full operation," he added.
Tao Dacheng, director, UBTECH Sydney Articial Intelligence Centre

At the World Economic Forum in Dalian in June it was claimed that in 43 percent of the top academic papers relating to AI, or artificial intelligence, one or more of the publishing researchers were Chinese, regardless of where in the world they were working.

Furthermore, it was said that China is fast becoming a critical global hub for AI development.

China's proud history of mathematics, engineering and science has become the foundation for the country's future in the 21st century as it positions itself to become not only a technology innovator but leader.

Professor Tao Dacheng is a product of that talent pool.

When Tao joined the University of Sydney's faculty of engineering and information technologies in 2016, he was ranked by Thomson Reuters as one of the most cited researchers in his eld  engineering and computer science.

Recently he was named the inaugural director of a new research center the Australian university has set up with UBTECH Robotics  a world leader in humanoid robotics based in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province  to "explore the untapped opportunities articial intelligence will bring to mankind".

But not everyone shares Tao's enthusiasm for AI and where it could take us as human beings.

Professor Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time and one of the greatest scientists of his generation, is on record as saying the development of "full articial intelligence" could spell the end of the human race.

Other luminaries questioning where AI is taking us have included billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, inventor of the Apple computer.

Tao has his own views.

"To understand artificial intelligence is to understand human intelligence," he said. "Human intelligence is about four categories of capabilities  perceiving, learning, reasoning and behavior.

"If we can put such capabilities into machines, those machines will be able to carry out functions like humans. They may even perform better than humans on some specic tasks.

"That is the challenge with articial intelligence  transferring those human capabilities to a machine."

Tao understands the fears many express about AI.

"Earlier this year, the world's best Go player was beaten by Google's AlphaGo," he said, referring to the ancient Chinese board game and the AI developed to tackle it.

"A long time ago, AI researchers thought that computers can play chess but not Go, because Go is more complex. When AlphaGo beat the best player, the community raised more questions about AI."

Tao agrees there is much uncertainty about AI and the impact it will have on humans.

"But we can't deny the benets. We are living in a world where technology is taking over more of what we do. Articial intelligence is simply taking us to the next level.

"As humans we are able to make decisions and react or behave in certain situations," he said.

"I expect sometime in the future we will have machines that will be able to do the same thing. Not only that, they will have the capability to perceive and learn."

Growing up in Northwest China, where his father was an engineer, Tao fell in love with mathematics at an early age. He enjoyed the challenge of tackling tricky mathematical problems.

"Some of my teachers suggested I should go into electrical engineering, but I found myself drawn to technology and computer science.

"I saw this as the future. I could have gone into the commercial world but found university suited me. It gave me freedom to research and pass on knowledge to students lots of students. These students will carry what we are doing today into the future."

Tao said the study of AI is growing as a research subject.

"The application of articial intelligence cuts across all disciplines," he said. "Take medicine: We are seeing students transferring across to study AI when they nish their medical degrees.

"It is very exciting to mix AI with medicine. We cannot ask doctors to fully understand AI. The key is building the bridge so that doctors can see the benets of AI.

"We are already seeing AI being used in surgery with great success. It will not replace surgeons or doctors, but it will enhance their work. You still need a human to monitor the technology."

Tao said access to UBTECH's innovative technology will put his team at the forefront of training, research and innovation in robotics and AI.

"By utilizing UBTECH's state-of-the-art technology and outstanding creativity, we will be able to thoroughly develop, analyze and evaluate AI algorithms and theories for humanoid robots, which will bridge the gap between AI studies in universities and real-world AI utilization.

"We're working toward a future where humanoid robots walk out of our research cen-ter and into ordinary people's households.

"Yes, technology is taking over jobs that humans once did. We saw it in Japan, decades ago in the auto industry, where robots started to do the work," he said.

Tao noted how modern technology and AI now play a role in almost every aspect of our lives.

"Facial recognition can pick individuals out in crowds, we have driverless cars, surgery being performed by robots  this technology is changing the way we work and how we work.

"It is changing the way we learn, discover and communicate."

He added that society should embrace AI, "not be afraid of it".

"This technology holds not only social benefits but economic benets as well. We are only at the beginning of this new revolution," he said.

Tao's AI research focuses on computer vision, deep learning and statistical learning.

Two years ago, when he was at the University of Technology Sydney, he and his research team made a signicant breakthrough in facial recognition technology. Such technology is now being used in many countries around the world. "Artificial intelligence will give us a better understanding of what human intelligence is," he said.

"It is not just about programming information into a computer or robot. It is about other things as well, such as image processing, data mining, cognitive sciences, psychology and mechanical engineering."

Much of Tao's research has been with sight.

"About 80 percent of how we perceive the world comes from sight," he said. "We can recognize objects, but the question is still, why?

"Related to this is our ability to learn things and our ability to reason, and how we behave."

Tao said Australia has made a signicant contribution to AI, machine learning and cognition.

"Our problem is attracting talent," he said. "We nd many of our young, talented people continue to go overseas, usually to the US. In recent years, China is doing very well in attracting overseas talent."

He said Australia has many top-quality universities, but more funding is needed "for us to support our research and attract talented researchers and retain our young graduates".

"Articial intelligence is the future, not only for Australia but for mankind," Tao said. "There is no turning back  it is a fact of life and we have to embrace it."
Michelle Karavias, global head of infrastructure research at BMI Research, says that innovative nancing structures to de-risk projects would help motivate private sector nancing. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

The Belt and Road Initiative calls for innovative nancing methods to unlock private sec-tor capital and enable its long-term sustainable development, according to Michelle Karavias, global head of infrastructure research at BMI Research, a subsidiary of the US rating agency Fitch.

Innovative nancing structures to de-risk projects, such as loan guarantees, would help motivate private sector nancing, says Karavias. Meanwhile, the emerging new multilateral development banks, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, can use their exibility and innovation to con-tribute to tackling global infra-structure nancing challenges, she adds.

Innovative nancing structures can help mitigate the risks that would otherwise be present in countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, and such an inclusive approach to achieving growth through the public and private sectors' concerted efforts is coherent with China's ideology of inclusive growth, she says.

At BMI, Karavias leads a team of researchers conducting analysis of risks in the Belt and Road economies, the results of which are then shared with private sector clients who are keen to understand the risks and plan their business activities accordingly.

Proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative seeks to increase connectivity between China and Europe, Africa and the rest of Asia through infra-structure investment.

Karavias says it is encouraging that Xi emphasized that the Belt and Road is a globally shared initiative, not just built or driven by China.

"China is leading it, but it is not something China alone will have the burden or role in executing," she says.

China's commitment to Belt and Road investment is significant. President Xi also conrmed at the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May that China will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.49 billion) to the Silk Road Fund. The fund, founded in November 2014 with China's initial contribution of $40 billion, aims to boost infrastructure and improve nancial cooperation along the centuries-old Silk Road trading routes.

Yet infrastructure spending potential is far greater. For instance, the McKinsey think tank estimates that the world needs to spend about $57 trillion on infrastructure by 2030, of which two-thirds will be required in developing countries.

Karavias says the large-scale infrastructure needs of the Belt and Road Initiative could change how global capital is mobilized to unlock infrastructure investment, if private sec-tor investors are willing to pro-vide nancing.

Karavias says there are two major ways to motivate private sector financing. The first is the short-term solution of governments and multinational investment banks providing loan guarantees for private sec-tor lenders.

Loan guarantees are structured in such a way that if a big project fails, the governments or multinational investment banks providing the guarantee will absorb the debt obligation.

Hence, the loan from the investors' perspective is the same as one issued to a government.

The second solution, which is more sustainable, is the process of giving technical support to government institutions, which can then help contribute to the success of individual infrastructure projects. Such support could include the process of helping projects gain the necessary planning and environmental permits or working with governments to create multilateral regulatory frame-works.

Karavias says that, so far, much of the financing for Belt and Road infrastructure projects has come from Chinese institutions such as the Silk Road Fund. This is partly because Chinese banking institutions often have higher risk tolerance, which allows them to take on more daring projects in the Belt and Road countries, many of which are located in frontier markets with higher risks.

As well as the massive scale of the Belt and Road Initiative, another reason the concept has gathered so much attention is its birth in an era when infra-structure investment is gathering unprecedented momentum.

"Infrastructure is getting more attention than it had in the last few decades. We are at a point in time where we have more funding available from multilateral development banks and private investors focusing on infrastructure," Karavias says.

Underlying such high infra-structure focus is the global recession that followed the 2008 nancial crisis, and the commodity price decline in more recent years.

"The recession brought people's attention to structural barriers to growth, and the infrastructure gap is one such structural issue," she says.

Within this landscape, she says, one unique advantage of the AIIB as a newer bank is its ability to be nimble and react quicker to nancing conditions, in accordance with its motto of "clean, lean and green". The AIIB's commitment to clean development is also in line with China's focus and dedication to environmental protection, she says.

"China is becoming more prominent in the global renew-able energy space. It is being more vocal about its commitments to the Paris Agreement and its latest five-year plan places emphasis on efficiency and environmental policy," she says.

As well as its commitment to international environmental protection, China's domestic experience in upgrading infra-structure is also key, as it can share its experience of implementing clean energy in China in its process of bringing expertise to Belt and Road countries.

"Emerging markets have the ability to leapfrog developed markets in terms of technology integration, as much of the infrastructure is being built from scratch when it is much cheaper and easier to integrate new technologies, compared to the high cost of retrotting existing infrastructure assets," says Karavias. "Central planning at earlier stages is also key. For instance, rail is more efficient and clean than roads; therefore, there are many opportunities for new projects along the Belt and Road to lead technology."

In addition to green technology, China's leadership in smart city planning and the integration of key technology to address urbanization demands are also important lessons it can share with the Belt and Road countries. Karavias says smart city solutions are very much about integrating technology so that existing infrastructure can be better used by the public.

Over the long term, smart city solutions are also about making cities resilient to global issues such as climate change.

Looking into the future, Karavias is optimistic about the prospects of the Belt and Road Initiative and the role it can play in an era when globalization is considered important.

The protectionist policies in some developed economies, such as the United States, fur-ther highlight the signicance of the Belt and Road Initiative in connecting countries that are open to free trade.

"Trade is going to be driven increasingly by emerging markets. Rising protectionism from some markets is not detrimental, but what we see is other countries guring out how to trade more among themselves," she says.

For example, a market like Mexico would be looking at how to trade with other countries in the Trans-Pacic Partnership following the US withdrawal and a potential disbanding of the North American Free trade Agreement. Mean-while, Russia is looking more toward Asia for how to reorient its trade strategies.

"And within this context, the Belt and Road Initiative will instigate global trade and increase the prominence of China within the global trade environment."
Members of white nationalists clash against a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, US, August 12, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

White nationalists clashed with counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday ahead of a rally to protest the planned removal of a Confederate general's statue that critics say glorifies the era of slavery.

Fighting broke out in the city's downtown before noon when hundreds of people, some wearing white nationalist symbols and carrying Confederate battle flags, were confronted by a nearly equal number of counter-protesters. The clashes began the previous evening, resulting in at least one arrest.

Soon after the melee erupted, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the city, home of the University of Virginia's flagship campus. The gathering was declared an "unlawful assembly," allowing police to disperse the protesters.

Many of the combatants on both sides wore helmets and held shields, and some brandished wooden poles. Militia members in the city openly carried rifles, although no gunfire was reported.

"You will not erase us," chanted a crowd of white nationalists, while counter-protesters carried placards that read: "Nazi go home" and "Smash white supremacy."

After the crowd was dispersed, dozens of law enforcement officers clad in riot gear were seen patrolling the streets, with small clusters of protesters gathered in pockets in the surrounding streets.

Two people were injured in clashes on Saturday, Virginia State Police said on Twitter. Local law enforcement agencies could not be reached immediately for comment.

The clash unfolded ahead of the planned start of a "Unite the Right" rally that was expected to draw thousands of people who are angry at the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a public park.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged restraint on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue in a phone talk with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Friday night local time, calling all sides to avoid rhetoric or action that would inflame tensions.

The phone call was made hours after Trump issued fresh threats of swift and forceful retaliation against Pyongyang, warning that its leader "will regret it fast" if he takes any action against US territories or allies.

Trump announced he would make the phone call earlier on Friday in New Jersey after talks with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and UN ambassador Nikki Haley, saying, "We have been working very closely with China and with other countries."

Xi said China and the United States have common interests in achieving denuclearization and maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and China is ready to work with the US to appropriately resolve the issue, according to a readout released by Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The concerned parities should strive to resolve the issue through "dialogue and negotiation" to reach a political solution, Xi said.

"China is willing to keep close contacts with the United States, on the basis of mutual respect, to seek a sound settlement on the issue," according to the readout.

The Chinese president said that Beijing places high value on Trump's state visit to China later this year, for which he urged both sides to make good preparations. Trump said he is looking forward to this visit.

Trump said the United States fully understands China's efforts in resolving the Korean nuclear issue, and is willing to continue to keep close contacts with Beijing on major international and regional issues of common concern, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

In their phone call, Xi recalled their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit last month in Hamburg, Germany, which Xi said was "productive".

Maintaining close contacts between the two leaders on issues of common concern is "very important for the development of the China-US relations", Xi added.

Trump also stressed the importance of maintaining close contacts between the two leaders on major issues and strengthening exchanges between their countries at all levels as well as in various areas, according to the Xinhua report.

The development of US-China relations enjoys good momentum, he noted, voicing his belief that bilateral ties could be better.
On my last day of ulpan, I got into conversation with a classmate about Birkat hamazon, the blessing we recite after meals. The idea of making birkat hamazon is rooted in a verse from this week's portion: "And you shall eat and you shall be satisfied. And you shall bless Adonai, your God, for the good land he has given you." (That's Deuteronomy 8:10.) Gella and I were talking, and I mentioned one of my favorite versions of the birkat hamazon, a one-liner in Aramaic: brich rachamana malka d'alma ma'arey d'hai pita ("blessed is the merciful one, ruler of the world, creator of this bread.")

The Babylonian Talmud (Brakhot 40b) describes how a shepherd named Benjamin coined the phrase after making a sandwich. It also describes the sages' conversation about that form of the blessing and whether it "counts." Intriguingly, although the Talmud records one opinion which says that anyone who alters the traditional formula of blessings has not fulfilled his obligation to bless the food, it devotes much more space to the opinion that one may make the blessing after food in any form: even if it's said without explicit mention of God's name, and even if it's said in secular language rather than the holy tongue.

The one-liner is often referred to as the minimum one may recite if one is strapped for time. (The example the Talmud gives is, what if one were being pursued by robbers on the highway and didn't have time to pray the whole grace after meals? I'm guessing that experience is a relative rarity for most of us in the modern world, but we can extrapolate.) Anyway, in this conversation about brich rachamana I mentioned that I know two tunes for it and I like both of them a lot. "Hm, I should learn those," Gella said. Oh, I'll record them for you, I promised. And then this week rolled around and I saw that the verse that sparked our practice is in this week's parsha, so I figured it was time to record the tunes.

So I did. And I'm going to append them to this post, in case anyone else wants to learn a couple of nifty melodies for a one-line grace after meals. (Even though there's a part of me that wonders whether making recordings of myself singing birkot hamazon and posting them on the internet is endearingly dorky or incredibly lame.) Okay, enough with the disclaimers; time for the tunes. The melody I first learned at Elat Chayyim was written by Hazzan Jack Kessler and Rabbi Shefa Gold, and it's a round. Here are two recordings: one of the round sung straight through, and another that attempts to show how the parts of the tune interlock:

Download brich.mp3

Download brichround.mp3

In more recent years, the ALEPH community has added another melody to our box of tunes. I've heard it called "the gospel melody," but I don't actually know its provenance. (ETA: And now I do! It's from a Shaker hymn called "Sanctuary," which I've sung before -- in English and Hebrew -- though I didn't realize that "O Lord prepare me / to be a sanctuary" etc. were the hymn's original words.)

Download gospelbrich.mp3

The "Sanctuary" one sounds strange to me solo; I'm so used to hearing it in a medley of voices, usually with multi-part harmony. (I tried singing harmony over the track, but got weird static; apparently my setup isn't quite sophisticated enough to handle that. Sorry, y'all.) I have some sweet memories of singing that one in Jerusalem with my housemates and friends. On my last night in Jerusalem, after dinner at the Village Green a small cluster of us stood outside and sang it quietly together. I suspect I'll always remember that when I sing that tune now.

2012 Edited to add: I've posted sheet music for both of these melodies in my post Brich Rachamana - now with sheet music!
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